A/N: Thank you everyone for the reviews. More than a few of you have had me in stitches when I get my emails. I love getting your reactions to the new chapters. I hope you guys like this one as well. I am having a lot of fun with these guys.
Happy Reading
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Supernatural.
Harry stretched as he got out of his car beside the gas pump, giving a little sigh of happiness when his back popped. He didn't even think about the fact he would need gas when they had left his hotel. If he had not charmed the little indicator lever thing that showed how much gas he had on the dashboard to make a dinging sound at him when it got to a certain level, he would constantly be running out of gas.
Harry walked over to Caleb as he unfolded himself out of his car. "Hey, do you mind watching the pump while I run in to use the restroom?" As soon as Caleb gave a nod of agreement, Harry spun around and made his way into the little store. He never noticed Caleb shaking his head at his back, nor did he see Caleb pop his hood as soon as he disappeared into the bathroom.
Soon Harry was walking out of the store with a little brown bag full of candy and soda in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. He smiled as he handed the coffee over to the older man. "Thanks mate. Do you want some candy? I got some mr. Goodbars."
Caleb just looked at him like he was nuts for a moment before taking the offered cup of coffee. "No, this is more than enough for me." He took a sip of the coffee while looking at Harry over the rim of the cup. The boy looked wide awake. "Thanks for the coffee. You ready to head out?" He handed over the receipt that printed out when he had put the pump back into the machine.
"Sure." Harry hopped back into his car as Caleb started walking back towards his own. Putting his key in the ignition, Harry prepared to head off towards home…only to stare down at the hand holding his car key when his car made an odd clicking sound. He just sat there and blinked down at the key until he was startled out of his stupor with a knock on his window. He jumped and looked out at Caleb who was looking at him with one brow raised. When he didn't say or do anything, Caleb gave a big sigh and pulled the door open.
"What's wrong son?"
"It clicked." Harry stated with an earnest expression on his face that hid the turbulent emotions and thoughts running around his mind.
"It clicked?" Caleb deadpanned.
Harry nodded. "It clicked."
"Okay, well, try to start it again, then." He was just standing there waiting for Harry to follow his directions. Harry slowly turned his attention back to his key and gave it another turn.
"It clicked again."
"Yeah, I can hear that. Let's pop the hood and I will see if I can find out what is going on. You just sit there and try and start it when I tell you to, alright?"
"Okay." Harry blinked as Caleb disappeared behind the hood of his car, waiting until the man was out of his line of sight before narrowing his eyes and opening his bottle of soda. Right then, that's not suspicious at all.
It was a full two hours later that Caleb once again told Harry to try and start his car. This time, of course, the engine turned over with no problems, leaving Harry sitting in his happily purring car while Caleb wiped his hands on a rag he had pulled from somewhere.
"There we go. All fixed." Caleb came back towards Harry's door and leaned on the hood so that he could make eye contact with Harry. "It looks like it was a loose connection. It looked alright, but that was the last thing I checked. We can give it a more thorough going over when we get to your place and make sure that there is not something more serious going on."
"Okay." Harry nodded with a relived smile. "I don't know much about car's so I would have been dead in the water if you hadn't been here."
"I guess you were just lucky then." Caleb smiled as he headed off to his own car.
As he watched Caleb getting into his car, Harry muttered to himself. "I am a lucky guy."
Now, he may know absolutely nothing about cars, that much was true, but he did find it more than a little bit off that his car just happened to stop working while he was in the bathroom. Call him paranoid, but he was fairly sure that Caleb had been delaying their trip. Constant Vigilance and all that. He fingered the wand in the invisible holster on his arm as he watched the tail lights in his rear view mirror.
"This is probably not going to turn out well." He muttered as he reached over and turned on the radio. Two more hours until he got home and he could find out if Caleb was going to be keeping his memories of night.
It was just two hours later that Harry was pulling up to his bunker and fighting the urge to scream in frustration. He knew…he knew…that there was just no way could this have gone smoothly. No, as he watched Caleb get out of his car and greet a guy in a battered cap with a beard, Harry was sitting completely still while clenching his fist and fighting the urge to draw his wand.
It took a few moments for him to get himself mostly under enough control before he opened the door to get out of his car and question the hunter that had followed him home.
"What the hell, Caleb? You told someone where I live? Why would you do…" Harry sputtered as cap guy tossed a cup of water in his face without warning. Blinking and wishing for the first time that he still needed his glasses, he tried to think of a logical reason for someone to just toss water into someone's face. He was coming up with nothing. "What?"
He cut off his question as he caught a flash of silver right before his arm was grabbed and he felt the familiar pain of a knife cutting into his arm.
There was no warning for the two hunters. One moment Harry was standing in front of two hunters as one of them cut his arm, and the next there was a wave of red light that seemed to emanate from Harry and the two hunters were on the ground before they knew that cutting Harry had been a bad idea.
Harry looked down at the two hunters that were lying stunned in his yard while he held a hand to the bleeding cut on his arm. "Well crap."
Harry cast a quick spell on his arm to bandage it temporarily before he levitated the two hunters into the bunker. Already knowing that they were going to be pissed off and gun happy when they woke up…not to mention that Harry himself was feeling a bit curse happy at the moment, Harry got the two men settled into chairs that he pulled back from the table in the middle of the room and then conjured some ropes to keep them in place when they woke up.
Plopping himself down into a chair Harry pulled his cell phone out and called Darla while glaring down at his bandages. He had to make sure that no Aurors were dispatched thanks to his burst of accidental magic. He was still on the phone with Darla when the two hunters came too a little bit latter.
"Yeah, I promise I will call the Obliviators if I need to. No…I don't think I will need any contracts. I don't really like magical contracts…yes because of the tournament." Harry sighed.
Both of the hunters had immediately started trying to get free of the ropes, even before they had opened their eyes, Both already working on getting out of the situation they were all too familiar with. As they tugged at the ropes, which apparently were tied pretty well, they were keeping an ear on Harry's conversation. Both men stilled as Harry continued to talk after sending a short look their way and then ignoring their presence all together.
"Oh, really? Someone reported a Rougarou? Well, I guess they are native to Louisiana, so it is not that big of a surprise that someone found one. No. I don't think I will have time to get down there…I guess just send whoever you normally would and if it turns out to be something else I will see if I can find some information. I doubt someone reporting something with the head of a dog and body of a man will be anything else though…Yeah, the wand makers will be happy for sure."
Both hunters were staring at Harry with identical expressions of incredulity. Their eyes widened when Harry tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder and pulled a stick from…somewhere, before flicking it absently towards the door. He placed the stick on the table and grabbed the phone while agreeing with whoever he was talking to.
"Yeah…yeah…un hum…right…no I wont forget. Yes, Darla. If I don't call the Obliviators I will give them the little buttons that you sent with the contracts…yes…no, can't think of anything I need right now…wait. I would appreciate it if you sent me some more Dittany. Thank you. Yes, I will send the report. Okay…Okay...right…Yep. Alright, you have a good night too. Bye bye."
Harry hung the phone up right as a bag came soaring though the room. He ignored the sputtering that was coming from the hunters as he plucked the bag from the air and started pulling items from it. He placed a bowl on the table before him before he started digging though the bag and pulling out different jars and vials and placing them beside the bowl.
He looked up when it seemed that the hunter with the cap finally found his voice.
"What in the hell are you?" The man was pulling at his ropes again when the question burst out.
Harry just narrowed his eyes at the man while picking up his wand. Caleb was watching him carefully as Harry flicked the wand again and whispered. "Aguamenti." Water flowed out the end of his wand and into the bowl, which caused both hunters' eyes to widen. Once he deemed it filled enough, Harry poured the liquid from two of his vials into the bowl.
"Harry, what are you doing?" Caleb sounded a lot calmer than the other guy, even though Harry could see that he was also tugging at the ropes.
"You can pull at those all you want. They won't be going anywhere until I cancel the spell."
"You're a witch?" Cap guy asked loudly.
Harry snorted as started to unwrap the bandages from his arm, wincing as the cut came into view. "I am not a girl." He muttered. The guy probably didn't mean to cut him so deep, but the knife went deeper when the stupefy had hit him and he had fallen. Harry noticed that Caleb cut a quick glare at the other guy at the sight of the cut before turning his attention back to Harry.
Harry took a piece of cloth and dunked it into his bowl before dabbing it at his arm, hissing through his teeth as the potions started working. While Harry closed his eyes and tried to ignore the stinging in his arm, both hunters were watching as the edges of the cut slowly closed together.
"Interesting." Cap guy muttered as he watched the cut, finally giving up at getting out of the ropes for the moment.
"Harry?" Caleb sounded like he was being careful as he called out to the boy at the table. "Everything, alright? He finally asked, at a loss as to what to say now that he was not in control. He had been unable to think of any way the boy would be able to get the drop on him, and so was dealing with a large amount of surprise at that moment. It was possible that the kid was not as defenseless as he had thought.
"No." Harry said as he shot a glare towards the older man. "No everything is not alright. The guy that just insisted he be invited into my home for my own safety or whatever apparently called up his buddy and had him ambush me with a knife. Right now I am trying to decide if it is even worth it to have any type of conversation with you or if I just want to send for the Obliviators and have your memories of tonight wiped, before dropping you both back in Red Oak. I am sure your subconscious mind could come up with a reason for your knife happy friend to be there." Harry was slathering an orange paste over the pink strip of flesh where the cut had healed.
Cap guy went completely still in his chair while looking as though he could not decide if he wanted to shout curses at Harry or threats.
Caleb jerked his head back in surprised. "Wipe our memories? Harry, just calm down and we can talk about this."
"Calm down?" Harry asked lowly. "You want me to calm down? Would you just calm down if you were me? What kind of nut job just goes around cutting people, Caleb? I will tell you who does crap like that…crazy people that like to make people soup. You calm down!" Harry finished at a near yell while huffing at Caleb.
"What is with you and this fascination with people soup?" Caleb muttered while ignoring the looks Bobby was shooting his way. "No one is going to hurt you, son. Let's just have that conversation and we can go from there. Alright?" Caleb looked like he was waiting for Harry to agree, but Harry was still busy glaring at him. "Alright, let's start with my friend. Harry, this is a longtime friend of mine who is also a hunter. His name is Bobby Singer, and I called him so that he could bring me some books; books that I will need so that I could train you about hunting."
"That is just great. Nice to meet you Mr. Singer. Do I get to cut you on your arm now?" Harry snarked while pulling the cork out of another vial with a thick brown liquid in it, after taking a deep breath, Harry tossed back the vial and swallowed it all in one gulp while trying to ignore the taste. A few moments later, Harry was sinking down in his chair while the tension just melted off of his face.
Bobby shifted in his chair while shooting glances between Harry and Caleb. He had picked up on how careful Caleb was being with the boy and even though they were tied to the chairs, he didn't seem to be panicking. Deciding to trust the other hunter and his instincts, Bobby addressed the boy much calmer than before. He wanted to know what the boy had just drank…it looked like it tasted like piss, but it seemed to calm the boy down quite a bit.
"Ahem. I would prefer that you didn't. I guess I am…sorry…for how deep the cut was. Was only trying to verify that you were human, not try to take your arm off." It was obvious that the man hardly ever said the word sorry with as much effort as it took to get it out this time. "What was that stuff you just drank?"
"Calming Draught. Oh, and I suppose a nick on the thumb isn't manly enough? How is trying to drown me and cut me up supposed to check me for humanity anyway?"
Bobby and Caleb both rolled their eyes at Harry and his dramatic question. None of the hunters would ever make such a big deal about using a silver blade or a little bit of holy water to show that they were human…of course, that cut had been fairly deep…
"The blade is silver. There are a lot of creatures that don't react to it well. The fact that your blood was red also helped…can't say that red light that knocks people out is all that normal, but at least you can say that the silver didn't burn you." Bobby's voice deepened to almost a growl when he talked about the stunner.
Harry winced and rubbed the back of his neck. Even with the Calming Drought in his system he was still angry, he had never liked hurting people and there no way he would have been able to talk to either of these men without the potion without risking losing control of his anger. He was well aware that he had a tendency to curse first and think later, but it was a hard habit to break. "Yeah…I don't really react well to knives coming at me." He muttered. He looked up when Caleb called his name.
"Harry? What was the red light that knocked us out, son?" He could see the confusion and the fear that barely showed in the other man's eyes when he asked the question. If Harry hadn't had so much experience with the expression he would have missed the fear completely.
Harry sighed. "I guess I can go ahead and tell you. I was planning on it anyway." Harry muttered before leaning forward so that his chest was resting on the table. "That red light was magic, a stunning spell to be specific." He quickly held up a hand when he saw Bobby opening his mouth, probably ready to start accusing him of being a witch again. "I did not get my magic from a demon, I was born with it."
"You have magic?" Caleb asked right when Bobby declared, "That's not possible!"
Harry rolled his eyes in irritation. "You keep on thinking that." He had no intention of arguing about the existence and possibility of magic when both men had seen him casting spells earlier.
"And that stick you used earlier?" Caleb was putting all of his attention on Harry.
"That would be my wand." He picked it up so that Caleb could get a better look. He saw that Bobby was looking just as closely as Caleb. "I am what is called a Wizard. Women with natural magic would be called Witches, but they are nothing like those that deal with Demons. We know that there are No-Majs that make deals for power, but they are completely different." Harry paused before offering some extra information in the interest of good relations and such. "Your friend is right about the magic they get from demons corrupting their souls by the way." He nodded towards Caleb.
"How do you know?" Caleb asked immediately. "No, wait…what is a No-Maj?" He looked like he didn't know what he wanted to know first. There were just too many questions popping into his mind.
"You are a No-Maj as you have no magic. And I guess I know a bit more than most about how magic relates to the soul. I am going to try and explain our magic to you, but understand that people have been trying to explain and describe this since forever, and this is not a subject that people really study or know a lot about. Most magical people are content to say it is just magic and leave it at that."
He waited until both men nodded before he began. If they could not accept that he had magic, he would have to have them Obliviated, and he really could use the help with shooting and stuff…if they could refrain from trying to drown him and cut off his arms, of course.
"Alright. Magic is…" Harry pursed his lips as he tried to think of something to use as an example. ""Um…okay…a lot of people with natural magic refer to their cores a lot. Whenever someone with magic meditates, they can sometimes visualize their magic and most describe it as a colored ball of energy that they see near their heart. Keep in mind that this is not actually an organ or anything and that they are seeing this while meditating. It is purely a visual representation they create in the process of meditation."
"Because each person is different, each person sees their core a little bit differently. Different colors, shapes, sizes and such. I don't think very many people actually realize that they are not looking at their magic when they meditate…but it is how most people think of their magic."
Both older men had thoughtful looks on their faces as Harry explained.
"Now, imagine that core filling up with energy or magic. Each time some of that magic is used and the level drops, it is refilled. This normally is a slow process and it doesn't make that much of a difference in the core itself. Using magic during daily life is a slow and mostly steady drain on the core. If you expend too much too fast though, then more energy than was lost is absorbed back into the core, which makes it bigger or able to hold more magic. This is kind of a defensive mechanism, I guess."
"When someone with magic is growing up, this is how their core grows enough that they are able to use a wand. Times of emotional distress or fear will cause a burst of accidental magic as the core contracts and expels the magic within in a response to whatever is going on. This is kind of like a squid inking when startled or something similar. The core contracts and all magic is expelled with the intent to protect the child or to fix whatever is causing the distress. When very young, the core is really small so things would happen like summoning a bottle out of reach or a toy, turning someone's hair blue if they are being mean, bouncing if you fell…things like that; and each time the core grows."
Harry checked to see if the guys were still with him. They looked absolutely fascinated.
"Generally speaking, accidental magic stops when the child gets a wand. The wand focuses the magic and once they start learning how to control it there are less instinctive reactions as the core becomes accustomed to them using their magic more steadily."
Caleb narrowed his eyes at Harry. "You knocking us out, that was accidental, wasn't it?"
Harry winced. "It was. It is rare for an adult to still have accidental magic, but it is not unheard of."
Bobby was looking at Harry now with a calculating look. "Just why do you still have accidental magic if it is so rare."
Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Magic can act like a muscle in a lot of ways. Just like I am sure you have muscle memory when messing with your guns, my core will still contract and expel a lot of magic all at once in some situations because my core has reacted like that enough that it is a natural reaction."
Both Bobby and Caleb noticed that Harry was avoiding looking right at them as he talked about his accidental magic but both were wondering just why a knife coming at him was something that caused his magic to react in something like muscle memory.
"Well, is there a way to stop it? If you stop using magic, wont that eventually stop the accidental magic?" Bobby asked in his gruff voice. Harry noticed absently that he wasn't pulling at the ropes at all anymore before wincing at the question.
"No, that is not a good idea. I said before that the core is the most common way that people think of their magic, but that is just a mental representation. Yes, it is fairly accurate in how magic reacts, but there is not actually a physical core that holds our magic. Our magic exists within our souls. My entire soul has magic, and to try and separate the magic from the soul would actually tear it apart."
Harry could feel the doubt rolling off the old man.
"If someone were to stop using their magic, just stop…not reject it, the magic would just overflow and they would start having accidental magic again, but it would probably be small things until their magic has retrained itself to lash out during tense situations. To reject your magic, well...a person would have to start trying to push the magic away from their soul, and since it is a part of the soul they just tear their soul apart."
"It is possible, but isn't something that has been seen much since the wizarding world went into hiding during the witch burnings. Mostly it has only been seen in very young children who try and suppress their magic due to psychological or physical abuse. They start to reject their magic as their hatred for it grows. Because the magic is a part of the soul and the souls natural state is to be together, once the child has torn their soul apart, the separated magic forms a type of parasitical magical being that attaches itself to the child, it known as an Obscurus. The Obscurus part of the soul still has the instincts to protect the rest of it, and so it will start to attack anything around the child, it doesn't matter if it is a actual threat or not. It is not capable of rational thought due to the damage its soul has taken, nor would the witch or wizard be able to be completely rational. It is almost, but not quite like having a split personality, but the soul has completely split into two." Harry took a deep breath. "There have been only two Obscurials to live past the age of ten that I know of."
Harry looked up and locked his gaze with Caleb. "Magicals do not study the soul or what they think is soul magic. To experiment or mess with a soul in that way is simply too dangerous…for everyone. A soul can only take so much damage and it is not easily repaired."
"Balls!" Harry jumped a little and snapped his eyes over to Bobby when he heard the exclamation. He looked over at Harry with a disturbing look in his eyes that reminded Harry of Hermione. "You got books on this shit?"
"Um. On magic sure, but not a lot on Obscurials or soul magic. There is not all that much on where magic comes from or how it works since they can't research it without messing with the soul."
Bobby looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "If there is so little known about magic and how it relates to the soul, how do you know so much about it?" Caleb's eyes sharpened at the question.
"I probably know more than most on 'soul magic.' I had the pleasure of knowing someone who messed around with it." Harry didn't bother hiding his disgust as he explained. "Look, it's getting late…well later…and I really need to know if you two are going to have a problem with my magic. I already know most hunters like John would rather just shoot anything that doesn't fit in to their personal view of normal, and I have no desire to experience being shot or whatever."
"That is why you don't want to meet John." Caleb had this dawning look of realization on his face that made Harry snicker.
"Yep." He popped the 'p' with a tired smile. "I had just registered for my wand at the ministry and was on my way to the hotel when I got pulled to the side because Winchester has been flagged by the ministry. I decided fairly quick to stay out of the man's way if at all possible."
"Ministry?" Caleb asked with one brow raised.
"Yes. I had to check in with the Ministry here in America when I moved. The Magical Congress of the United States of America, or MACUSA is the governing body of the magicals. Darla, my contact at the Ministry works in the Department of Magical Creatures. She was put in charge of finding out as much as she could about the supernatural creatures you guys hunt, and so she offered me a job to do the research."
"You are getting paid to be a hunter?" Bobby asked incredulously while Caleb just closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. If he wasn't still tied to it he would be pinching the bridge of his nose. Honestly, if her name wasn't Darla, he would probably want to smack whoever thought it would be a good idea to pay the boy to go off messing with the supernatural. At least he knew now what the boy was doing with the research.
"Yeah. It is kind of dangerous to have creatures running around that people don't know how to deal with. The supernatural creatures are different than the magical ones, so they want to make sure that there is information out there to educate people if they happen to run into one. It would be disastrous for a wizard or witch to run into a supernatural werewolf and think that it was a magical one."
"Why is that?" Caleb asked before Bobby had the chance.
"Well, from what I have read, the supernatural kind eats people's hearts and actually seek out prey. Most magical werewolves will kill if cornered, but wont eat anyone. They normally just run around out in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention that most magical werewolves are responsible and drink their potion so that they don't loose their minds to the wolf.
"There is a potion for that?"
"Sure, it lets them keep their minds and lessens some of the pain from the transformation. I am hoping to find one of the supernatural kind before they go through their first transformation and see if it affects them the same way."
"You plan on experimenting with a werewolf?" Caleb looked like he wanted to smack Harry on the back of the head.
"Um…eventually?" It was more a question than a statement. "So, we got off track there…you guys capable of dealing with someone with magic or not?" Harry shot them a serious look before adding on to the question. "And keep in mind that you can't tell John. I really don't want to get shot anytime soon."
Caleb and Bobby looked at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation using their eyebrows for a moment.
"Right, I will just leave you two to think about it while I take a shower and get this paste off my arm, I will be back in about fifteen minutes." Harry rolled his eyes as he headed through the door.
The two men waited until they were sure he was out of the room before talking amongst themselves in low tones.