A/N: Hello all. Thank you everyone for the reviews! I am sorry for the delay in postings but I have not had much chance to just sit down and write. I hope that you like this new chapter.
Happy Reading
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Supernatural.
Harry called out that dinner was ready as he started placing the bowls of pasta and salad onto the table. He had listened to John asking Bobby about him while he was cooking, and was thankful that it did not take him that long to make some Chicken Alfrado and a side salad. The less the older man knew about him the better.
As Sam helped Dean to the table-he must still be sore from the bone mending potion-Harry wished that Bobby would just keep his mouth shut. Even though he had not yet said anything that would make John think he was his son, he seemed to be happy enough to talk about him. Unfortunately, it looked like John was a nosy bastard.
Harry ignored the others as they sat at the table and said nothing as he loaded up his own plate with pasta after drizzling some dressing on his bowl of salad. Taking a big bite, he looked up at the table and saw that the three Winchesters were poking around their plates like the pasta was going to jump up and bite their faces off while Bobby was already digging in, used to Harry's cooking.
"I didn't poison it and I doubt that the pasta will attack you." Harry rolled his eyes as he took another bite.
Sam smiled sheepishly as he took a tentative bite before widening his eyes. "Hey, this is pretty good." He exclaimed while Harry snorted. Dean and John eventually took small bites of the pasta, and though they did not make any exclamations on how good his cooking was, they both started eating instead of poking their food.
"So, Harry." Harry looked up when Dean started talking. "How come I was told that you could heal me instead of being reaped by the reaper that came after me." Dean shoveled another bite of pasta into his mouth while staring at Harry along with his brother and dad. Bobby looked up from his plate to eye the younger man at the other end of the table at the question.
"That is a good question. That is not normal behavior for a reaper." John was back to looking at Harry like he was a bug. One that needed a good stomping on.
Harry finished chewing before he wiped his mouth. "That is a good question, but I just don't know. It is not like I have ever met one before." Harry thought about it for a moment before looking up at Dean. "Do you remember anything from while you were in limbo?"
"I was in limbo?" Dean asked incredulously.
Harry blinked at his older brother slowly. "I guess so. You were not dead but you were out of your body. Would you rather I asked if you remembered anything from your out of body experience? I just thought calling it limbo was nicer. Out of body experience makes you sound a bit like a nutter, but whatever you are comfortable with."
Dean, John and Sam just stared at Harry for a moment while Bobby continued to eat and pretend that he was ignoring them.
"No, I don't remember anything, but Sam here used a Ouija Board and said that I told him what the reaper said. Apparently, the reaper told me to tell him that you could heal me and that he could find you through Bobby."
Harry hummed for a minute as he looked at his plate thoughtfully. "That sounds really specific. It is odd that the reaper knew that I could be found through Bobby." Harry went back to eating which caused the other Winchesters to twitch.
"Yeah, so why was having you heal me even an option? And why did it know where you were?" Dean asked while clinching his fork so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"I still don't know. I would have to ask one to find out, and…" Harry looked around the room before turning his attention back to his brother. "I don't see any standing around here."
"Balls."
Everyone turned to look at a disgruntled Bobby who was staring at Harry with a look on his face that three of the Winchesters did not recognize. Harry did though. Bobby almost always had that look on his face when around Harry. Both he and Caleb looked at him quite often.
"You're going to summon one when you get home, aren't ya?"
Harry slowly finished chewing as he watched Bobby from across the table. "Maybe?"
"I am calling Caleb. You are to wait until he gets there before doing anything stupid."
Bobby had already gotten up and taken the phone into the living room by the time John reacted.
"Caleb? Did he mean Caleb Mockery?" John barely waited until Harry had nodded before asking his next question. "How on Earth do you know Caleb?"
"He found me on my first hunt and followed me home. He lives there now." Harry shrugged as though it was no big deal. He was kind of having fun making his dad sputter at him in outrage. Sure he looked about as mad as Vernon and was a lot more dangerous than the fat man he had left behind in England, but Harry was a lot more capable of taking care of himself now, which made all the difference.
"He lives with you?" John asked as his eye twitched.
"Dude, you let a strange guy follow you home?" Dean asked while his brother looked at him with the same 'are you stupid' look on his face.
"Yeah…that is how I met Bobby too. Caleb messed with my car to give him time to get to my house. They haven't left me alone since." Harry got up and washed his dishes before starting on the pots and pans he had used while cooking. Working on the washing helped him ignore the others for at least a few moments. Winchesters were nosey and stubborn apparently.
"Dude." Dean said as though that said everything he wanted to say about the subject. Which to be fair, his tone expressed his feelings very well. That one word conveyed quite a bit of emotion.
Bobby stomped back to his chair and pointed his fork at Harry before taking another bite. "You are to wait until Caleb gets there before you do anything stupid. He should be done with his hunt in a few days anyway."
"Fine. I have other stuff to do first anyway." Harry muttered as he took a few plates off the table.
No one said anything else as they finished up eating with Harry cleaning up behind them as they finished though it was obvious that the Winchesters wanted more information. Dean shot Harry an irritated look as Harry swiped his plate as he was trying to lick the sauce off the plate. He had never seen someone so intent on cleaning that they barely waited for you to finish completely first.
Soon they were all back in the living room with the three Winchesters staring at Harry as he started to go through another very old and rare book while making notations in the margins. Sam still looked like he wanted to rip the book out of his hand.
"What are you writing in there now?" His voice might have been a bit high, but Sam was too focused on the marks appearing in the margin of the book to care that he sounded a bit like a pissed off girl.
"This author sucked. Apparently didn't know about anything before writing down his thoughts, so I am just adding a bit of information."
"Right." Dean did not care about the book at all or what Harry was doing to it, so he changed the subject in the hopes of distracting Sam. "So Harry. You were born with magic…that means your mom and dad had magic, right?"
"Yeah, I got my magic from my mum, but my adopted father had magic too. He was actually from a long line of wizards while my mum was the first of her family to be born with magic."
"Hn." John sniffed as he looked at Harry. "What about your birth father? Did he have magic too, or do you not know?"
John never noticed when Bobby stiffened in his chair and started glaring at him as he was so focused on sneering at Harry. Sam and Dean noticed though and exchanged identical looks of confusion.
"Actually. My birth father is a no-maj…as in he has no magic." Harry ignored the looks Bobby was now shooting him when he answered. Merlin save him from over protective hunters. They were worse than women sometimes.
"And what does he think about you using magic?" John was still sneering at Harry, unable to look at him with anything other than disgust or mistrust even though Harry had said he would look into getting the tainted blood out of one son while having healed the other of fatal injuries. That right there was some dedicated hatred to all things not normal…the Dursleys would have loved John.
"He has no idea. You see…John, I have daddy issues…and when I moved to America I decided that I would try and find out about him. Turns out that he is an Arsehole and a bit of a berk. After figuring out that he was a lot like my uncle, I decided to steer clear of him." Harry smirked at his father. "He is the kind of man that would sneer at his own son if he was faced with a son who was a bit different than the norm…might even try to kill him." Harry pretended not to see the exasperated look that Bobby shot him.
"Oh come on, how would you know he would react that way if you have never talked to him?" Sam asked while looking at Harry as though he could mentally send him positive thoughts through puppy eyes. Even Dean was looking at him like he was over reacting about his father.
"Alright, lets try this then." Bobby put a hand on his face to cover his eyes as Harry slowly drawled out his question to John. "John, what would you say if I turned up on your doorstep…or you know…at your hotel or whatever, and told you 'hey there, I am your son and look what I can do…magic." Harry wiggled his fingers in a exaggerated way as he spoke. "Come on now, John…honest answer. What would you say to your magical son?"
Harry was looking at John as though he could care less what the man would say, but Bobby knew that Harry had asked this question on purpose. Not only did he want to verify that he had been right about what John would say if he had told him, but he wanted Bobby to witness it so that he would quit trying to get Harry to get in touch with the others and tell them about their connection. Harry had absolutely no desire to deal with more family that hated him because he was not what they wanted.
John sneered at him before spitting out his answer. "I would tell you to get lost, unless I could reach my gun."
Harry waved his hand in John's direction pointedly as he looked at his brothers before he turned towards the front of the house with a blank expression on his face. He stared intently at the door for a moment before bursting out in excitement.
"Yes!" Dean jerked in his chair while Sam managed to drop the book he was holding at Harry shout. "Martin is finally here." Harry was out the door before anyone could process anything.
"Who is Martin?" Dean asked the room, not caring who answered. He was having trouble adjusting to the abrupt change in subjects…again. He kind of had a headache and he didn't know if it was Harry's fault or his dad's.
"Balls. Harry!" Bobby got out of his chair as quickly as he could, which caused the three Winchesters to scramble out of their chairs and follow the man as he muttered on his way out the front door, only having paused long enough to grab his knife and bottle of holy water.
They caught up with Harry and Bobby just as Bobby was nicking the thumb of the wet faced man standing beside a red truck.
"Harry, I have told you that you gotta check people. What if he had been something other than human?" Bobby was glaring up at Harry as he stood in the back of the red truck looking over something that was hidden from the Winchester's view by a blue tarp.
Harry didn't even look up as he answered. "You would have shot him and then I would not have to give him three hundred dollars." Harry stood and walked over to the edge of the truck bed before digging into his pocket and extracted his wallet. Pulling out three crisp hundred dollar bills, he handed them over to Martin with a smile. "Thanks for this Martin. I am glad that you didn't get killed."
Martin and the three Winchester's brows rose as Harry practically bounced over to the tarp and pulled it off with look of glee on his face that looked a bit…well demented was the word most were thinking about.
"What are those?" Sam asked, leaning forward despite the arm that his father had thrown in front of him at the sight of the three bodies in the truck.
"Those are Djinn. What the hell is he buying Djinn bodies for Bobby?" John bit out while glaring at Harry. Harry decided that it was probably just his default expression.
"Research." Harry called before Bobby could answer. He was pulling one of the bodies over to the tailgate as he spoke. He was glad that he had been able to get Martin to park so close to his own car. Harry had already opened his trunk and the back seat of his car and had already placed tarps down so that he could place the bodies inside without running anything.
"What kind of research could you possibly need Djinn bodies for?" John asked incredulously as he watched Bobby help Harry maneuver the bodies into the little green Pontiac. Bobby was not even acting like this was at all odd in anyway.
Harry looked over his shoulder as he answered. "Mostly medical, but there could be other applications. We do the research so that we know more about them, what affects them, and sometimes what they can do for us."
Things were quiet for a little bit as Harry and Bobby moved the other two bodies into Harry's car. Dean leaned over to Sam and whispered. "This is the weirdest shit I have ever seen man." Sam had just nodded. Normally they just burned or buried the things that they killed, and this short little dude was going to research it.
"Thanks again Martin, give me a call the next time you come across something that doesn't automatically melt or whatever and I will let you know if I can buy it off you."
Martin just shrugged his shoulders at the odd hunter in front of him and climbed back in his truck. He normally tried to stay away from the crazies, but the kid had good information on how to kill Djinn and he had paid him three hundred dollars for the bodies. That was the kind of crazy he could deal with. "Sure kid. See you around." Martin pulled his door closed and took off down the driveway with a wave to the other hunters.
Harry waited until the truck was out of sight before whipping out his wand and casting preservation and notice me not spells on the bodies in his car.
"What are you doing?" John yelled as soon as he noticed the presence of the wand...never mind that Harry was not casting anywhere near him. John acted like Harry was cursing them all with horrible death curses or something.
Harry rolled his eyes at his father as he tried to back his sons away. "I am making sure that I don't get into trouble with the police if they pull me over on my way home while keeping the bodies from decaying anymore."
He put his wand away before turning to face his family. While he regretted that his family was so close physically but so far away in the ways that really mattered, he was glad that he had not sought them out now. Any doubts that John was better than the Dursleys had disappeared with the looks and comments the man had shot his way only two days after bringing his eldest out of his coma. This was not a man that would love him without something big happening, and even then, Harry doubted the man had it in him to love something he considered freaky.
Feeling more than a little bit disgusted with the bigotry his father had been showing all night, Harry decided to vent a little before he left.
"You need to calm the hell down, it is not like I was trying to curse your cock off or anything, my wand wasn't even pointed at you. You know, It is people like you that caused magical people to go into hiding in the first place. Merlin, you would probably think a child with magic needed the magic beaten out of them. I can't tell you how thankful I am that you have not been exposed to a magical child. You are no better than the things you think you hunt. With as bigoted as you are I highly doubt that everything that goes down under your trigger-happy finger is as dangerous as you."
Turning to Sam, Harry smiled. "I will look into the blood thing in a few days and give you a call or send you an email. Just leave your contact information with Bobby. He ignored the breath that John sucked in through his teeth at the reminder that Harry would be helping Sam with his problem before Harry turned to Bobby. "See you in a week or two Bobby." Harry slid into the driver's seat and cranked his car without glancing at Dean or John again.
Bobby nodded and shut Harry's door for him after reminding him to go straight home and to let him know when he arrived. Harry had just nodded through the instructions as though he heard them many times before, which he had before putting his car in gear and pulling out.
Once Harry had disappeared around the corner, Bobby turned towards John and snarled at the man. "Idjit!" Without another word, Bobby stomped back into his house, allowing the door to slam behind him.
Dean just closed his eyes and rubbed at the lingering ache where his arm had been broken a few days ago. While they were mending great according to the x-rays, they still ached a lot. "Great. Let's go see if Bobby will even let us stay here while we work on fixing the car." He started limping after Bobby while ignoring the sputtering that was still coming from his dad.
Other than Bobby getting a call from what they all assumed was Harry considering the admonishments to not do anything stupid until Caleb showed up, the Winchesters didn't hear anything from Harry for a while.
Dean spent most of his time working on the car while John looked for jobs for them to do. Both brothers had thought that their dad would take off on them again, but it seemed that John was sticking around for the moment.
They had dealt with a killer clown…not fun at all. A crazy hunter that really wanted to decimate the vampire population. Considering that the man had tried to use Sam as bait…it was also not fun. They had found someone else that had been targeted by Azazel, which had Sam asking Bobby if Harry had found anything yet.
John had ranted at his youngest son for over an hour about the dangers of using magic and associating with people that messed with 'that crap.' Sam had just waited until his dad was out of earshot before asking Bobby again.
Sam and Dean hunted what ended up being America's first known serial killer, which was creepy as hell, with Jo who had followed them on their hunt. While they had been able to stop the ghost from killing again…hopefully forever…Jo's mom had showed up and that had been the very definition of not fun. After she laid into each of them, she called John up and yelled at him for a good long while. That conversation had ended with Ellen making some pretty inventive threats against John if he or his sons ever did anything else to put her family in danger.
The Winchesters found themselves trapped in a town with a demon virus and then had to deal with an inn that was haunted by the ghost of a little girl that was apparently lonely and willing to kill. They had ended leaving the Connecticut inn without getting rid of the ghost, which made them all a little bit irritated. They had thought that the ghost of Maggie had gone on or whatever ghosts did, but they had seen the two girl's sprits in the windows just as they had been about to leave.
John had been ready to burn the place down, claiming that it was the only way now that it was haunted by not just one but two little girl ghosts thanks to the grandmother and sister to the first ghost dying and agreeing to stay with her sister. He claimed that it was too dangerous for them to leave the building intact for others to stumble upon the haunting.
A call to Bobby had delayed the burning of the inn and the Winchesters had grabbed some rooms at a local inn to wait for the backup that Bobby was sending their way.
When Harry showed up with Caleb…John was not at all happy.
As the Winchesters piled out of the Impala in front of the Pierpont Inn, John stalked up to Caleb and pointed at Harry. "Why is he here."
Harry rolled his eyes and gave a little wave to his brothers who just nodded back.
"Harry is here to take care of your ghosts."
"And just how is he going to do that? He going to wave his wand around and make them go away?" John snarked even as Harry started grabbing things from the trunk of his car. He paid no attention at all as he handed his container of salt to Sam while grabbing his bag with the other hand.
Pulling his younger brother behind him, Harry walked past his father who was still arguing with Caleb and made his way into the front room of the inn. He ignored Dean when he followed and stood looking around the inn like someone was going pop out and attack him…which was complete possible.
Harry had already set up his incomplete salt circle and was putting the Dittany in the bowl in the center of the circle before John and Caleb joined them. John stared at Harry and his preparations with distain after moving over to stand next to Dean.
"Whenever you are ready Harry." Caleb said while leaning up against the wall by the door. He looked like he was getting comfortable which had the Winchesters looking at him like he was nuts. You did not let your guard down around spirits.
After Harry set a match to the Dittany and sat back like he was waiting for something, Sam finally asked what was going on.
"So what are you trying to do, Harry?" He actually looked interested while his brother and dad looked like they thought this was all a waste of time.
"I plan on getting rid of the ghost. The Dittany will draw the spirts into the circle and then they will be trapped within the salt while I try to get them to cross over."
"You don't actually believe this crap?" Dean looked like he agreed with his dad when John shot his question at Caleb.
Caleb just kept an eye on Harry as he sat and waited for the Dittany smoke to draw out their ghosts. "I have seen it work before. A few times now in fact. The boy is summoning the spirits to the circle so that he can try to get rid of them without us being in danger."
"Wait. You have seen this crap work?" Dean asked before his dad had a chance to say anything. John just looked angry.
Before Caleb could say anything, Dean, John and Sam were distracted by the two spirits of Maggie and Rose Thompson floated into the room and into the salt circle without a fight. The Winchesters watched incredulously as Harry simply closed the salt circle and sat back down on the floor.
After looking between Caleb and Harry while waiting on them to do something, Sam finally broke the silence. "What now?"
Harry spoke without lifting his gaze from the book he was looking over. "Now we wait for the Dittany to burn out so that they can talk to us. I will toss some sage in at that point to calm them down and give them a bit of clarity. We will talk to them and try to get them to agree to cross over."
"And that works?" Sam asked quickly which prevented his dad and brother from saying something.
"Yep. Though, from what Bobby told me about your case, Maggie has been exposed to magic which was keeping her contained to some point. She sounded a lot more coherent than the other spirits I have done this with. It is possible that she won't want to leave."
As it turned out, Harry was right. Maggie didn't want to cross over at all and had no plans on letting her sister do so. She probably would have if she had been presented with a choice like this after she had died, but the binding magic that had been used on her had made her very vengeful, much more so than most children that die in accidents.
Ignoring the looks from his father that all but screamed 'I told you so' at him, Harry finally stopped trying to get Maggie to agree to cross over on her own. He gave his father an irritated look as he started pulling more items out of his bag.
He had known that it was possible that not every ghost would want to cross over, and he had a backup plan. He had no intention of leaving a murderous ghost around to kill anyone that pissed it off later. While it was not something he really wanted to do, he had found a spell that he needed to try at some point for his research.
It was a ritual banishment that he had found in the Black library…one of the nicer ones as it did not just banish the spirit in question to Hell but actually was supposed to send them on to their final rest. He had needed a spirit to try it on though and all the ones he had seen himself (A grand total of three) had passed on after being exposed to the sage and gaining some clarity.
Caleb and the Winchesters watched as Harry placed five black candles around the salt circle and lit them with a match before sprinkling a mixture of herbs into the flame of each candle. Using the book as a guide, Harry then used a piece of chalk to draw symbols on the floor between each candle.
Even the ghosts were watching with interest as they as much idea of what Harry was doing as the living in the room. Maggie would gloat every once and a while that Harry would not be able to get rid of her as her nanny had not been able to and she was well versed in magics. Harry just ignored her as he continued to draw the symbols in the book.
Once he was satisfied, Harry stood before the circles of candles and salt and began to chant from the book.
mortem non abscondam a vobis
et finalem requiem tuam tu effugere non
Plus tua quam voluntatis meae est manere
Volo vos ire
Nunc transimus fretum
invenietis requiem tuam
The Winchesters straightened from their slouched positions as a wind picked up around the room. Caleb stood so that he was standing behind Harry.
mortem non abscondam a vobis
et finalem requiem tuam tu effugere non
Plus tua quam voluntatis meae est manere
Volo vos ire
Nunc transimus fretum
invenietis requiem tuam
The second round of chanting, had Maggie screaming at Harry that she would not leave and that he could not make her. Rose was just standing by her side with a peaceful smile that had been strained before. She never took her gaze from Harry as he chanted.
mortem non abscondam a vobis
et finalem requiem tuam tu effugere non
Plus tua quam voluntatis meae est manere
Volo vos ire
Nunc transimus fretum
invenietis requiem tuam
As Harry finished the third round of chanting, the room went absolutely still. Even Maggie stopped screaming at Harry as she looked around with an expression of fear on her face.
Before anyone could say anything or ask any questions, the flames on the black candles shot up about a foot and a figure appeared behind the girls in the circle of salt.
The woman that had appeared in the circle had fair skin and black that fell to her shoulders and an expression that was calm and peaceful. Laying on hand on the shoulder of a squirming Maggie, she offered her hand to Rose with a smile. Rose simply beamed at the woman as she took her hand before turning her smile on Harry.
The woman in the circle looked up at Harry and nodded her head towards him before she closed her eyes and disappeared with the two girls.
Another wind swept through the room with the exit of the woman and the two spirts, extinguishing the candles and scattering the herbs and salt.
Harry simply nodded his head and began the process of cleaning up with Caleb's help while the Winchesters gathered themselves.
"What the hell was that?" John broke the silence first. He was still staring at the spot that had contained the spirits and the mystery figure. "What spell was that?"
"It was actually a ritual for banishment, though banishment is kind of wrong. When a spirit stays behind, they refuse to leave with their reapers and can hide themselves…sorta. The ritual revokes that and allows that reapers to come to their charges and take them on to wherever they are supposed to go. The chant basically said, you can not hide from death, and a final resting place you can not escape. More than your desire to stay, I want you to go. Now go across the strait, you shall find your rest. It basically ensures that their reapers can find them and take them away, even if they don't really want to go."
"That was a reaper?" Dean asked curiously.
"Yep, that was Tess. She was the reaper you saw when you were in limbo actually." Harry looked over at Dean with a smile. Dean just stared at him in shock. "She was also the one that came to me when I summoned one. She's nice."
"She's nice?" John's eye twitched. "What did she say about letting you heal Dean instead of reaping him?" He obviously wanted to say something else by the way he was glaring at Harry and clenching his fists, but he at least made an effort to get some answers.
"Apparently she wanted to speak to me and thought that Dean being in Limbo was a way to get my attention. She knew I would not summon a reaper on my own, and figured that Dean was her way to get my attention."
"Why would she want to speak with you that bad?" Sam interrupted his dad before he could fire off questions in a much more harsh and irritating tone of voice. Sam shook his head as he watched his dad take a few deep breaths as he tried to control his temper. Dealing with Harry made him even more of a jerk than when Sam had decided to go to Sandford.
Harry paused as he placed his book back into his bag and looked at Sam for a moment while deciding how much he wanted to say.
"I died a while ago for a bit, but came back before my reaper had a chance to talk with me…they just needed to chat about some personal stuff. They really didn't need to know what they had talked about.
"You died?" Dean spit out in shock while Sam looked at him in disbelief.
"What kind of deal did you have to make to come back? John sneered.
"No deals of any kind. It just didn't stick." Harry rolled his eyes as Caleb glared at him. They had already talked about this subject multiple times by this point. Caleb and Bobby both made a bigger deal about his momentary death than Harry thought necessary.
Caleb pulled John away while they continued to clean up the mess and pack away their things. Sam and Dean asked a few questions about the ritual, but really didn't seem to know what to say to the man that openly used magic.
Harry watched Sam and Dean pull out in the Impala after saying his goodbyes before he remembered something.
"Hey John, hold up a second." Harry jogged over to his car to dig around in his bag while John waited impatiently by his beat up old truck. Had Caleb not given him a look from the other side of the boy's car, John probably would have just left without waiting.
Harry, having not seen the looks passing between Caleb and John, pulled a folder out of his bag and approached John.
"I found a cleansing ritual that should work for Sam. It has been adjusted and modified so that instead of cleansing dark potions from the blood it will cleanse and foreign substance which should include the blood of a fallen. My research shows that the blood of demons, and angels, both fallen or not, should not bond with the blood and can be removed. Sam will probably have a headache and possibly vomit or have diarrhea after words as he expels whatever is in his body that should not be there, but that should be about it. If you have questions about the ritual you can give me call."
John looked down at the folder for a few minutes before turning his gaze to Harry's.
"Thanks."
Harry watched as John climbed into his truck and tossed the folder onto the seat beside him before driving off without another word or look towards Harry.
Caleb walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder as they watched the truck disappear around the bend. "Don't worry Harry. You gave him everything he needs. Sam will be okay. John will look over everything once he is alone."
Harry just nodded and made his way over to his own car.
Caleb could not help but look back down the drive and wish that he could punch John Winchester in the face…something he thought about quite often now.