Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all recognizable items from it belong to J.K. Rowling & Warner Brothers. Supernatural and all recognizable items from the show belong to Eric Kripke and Warner Brothers. Anything else that you don't recognize, and is original material, is all mine. I can only wish I was as creative as to think of these brilliant additions to pop culture first.
Genre: Action/Romance/Drama/Suspense
Rating: MA (for a reason)
Warning: Will contain major SLASH themes. Canon-Compliant up until Book 6 of Harry Potter, and changes Supernatural to include Harry and that J.K. Rowling never published the Harry Potter series LOL. All lyrics at the beginning of chapters, as well as story titles, belong to their respective authors.
Summary: The war against Voldemort ends and Harry is victorious, but at what cost? Harry passes through the veil after Sirius ends up in a world without any Wizarding society. Harry starts his new life and attends university with Sam Winchester. Harry becomes an intricate part of the lives of the Winchester brothers before his secret is revealed.
Author's Note: I lost power thanks to the ridiculous storm a few days ago, which knocked trees into power lines and such. This was ready to post days ago but I just got Internet back. Hope the wait didn't kill anybody. I'm submitting this kind of late tonight so I don't know if it will appear late New Years Eve or on New Year's Day… so I'll just say HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
The episode where Sam figured out that Meg is a demon did not happen in this timeline. Sam just believes she is a kick-ass hitchhiker that he had some special time with. Harry's arrival diverted their paths from crossing as they did in the original timeline of season 1. As suggested by a reviewer, I will try to create a timeline that you can compare with the TV's timeline. I'll try to post it on my author's page before the story has ended.
I know it's been awhile since the prologue, but some of you might want to reread it in case you are confused about what happens with Harry's demonic possession. A lot of reviewers speculated on why the possession might/might not work, but none of you got it exactly right (despite a few close guesses). If anyone is confused, check the prologue again. Just a suggestion.
As usual, don't forget to check out the Author's Note at the end of the chapter :)
You Leave the World Behind
Moriarty's Minion
Chapter 10:
"Bait Is Such A Strong Word"
"I will fight tooth and nail,
Count on me, I will not fail you,
I will fight tooth and nail.
Come on, try me, I won't give in.
They take advantage, but they can't win."
- Foreigner, Tooth and Nail
THEN…
"I'd like you to meet someone, Harry," Meg said excitedly. "This is my brother."
Meg's brother picked up Harry's chin and surveyed him. "I suppose he'll do."
"I'll do for what?" Harry asked warily.
Meg's brother clamped his mouth over Harry's. At first Harry thought the man was brought in to torture Harry with poor kissing, but then he felt the push of something strange at his mouth. Meg clamped a hand over his nose, suffocating Harry until he had no choice but to open his mouth.
It was at that moment, when the demon's dark presence was being forced into his throat, that he realized what was happening to him.
Harry was about to become a meat suit for Meg's brother.
NOW…
A second later and Harry found himself losing control of his body. It was different from the way the Imperious curse had affected him. Then it had been like a fog of indifference washing over him. This demonic possession felt more like a forced invasion of the mind, body and soul.
"All mine…" The voice of Meg's brother whispered to him from the dark recesses in his mind.
Harry fought against the voice, he tried to take his body back, but it was too late. The demon was taking hold of him and he was powerless to stop him. He could still see and feel everything around him; he felt his hand touching his body, testing it's strength and agility. Worse yet, he now found his mind to be as open to the demon as someone flipping casually through a magazine in a waiting room.
"How's he fit?" Meg asked jokingly as she unlocked the metal binding his right wrist.
"Like a charm," Harry heard the demon say in his voice.
Harry continued to shout mentally at the foreign entity inside of him, but he got the distinct impression he was being ignored by Meg's brother. He felt the moment when the demon uncovered his most heavily guarded secret; Harry's magic was now at the command of the demon.
"You're never going to believe what he is," Harry's voice spoke again, lifting his other arm out for Meg to unshackle. "Or what he can do."
As Meg moved to undue the other binding, Harry felt a stirring within him. It was something that Harry had not felt for many years, long before he'd ever arrived in this new world of the supernatural. It was the side of his being that Albus had made him swear to never reveal and, above all else, never unleash. It may not have been pure evil like the demon, but it was a force to be reckoned with.
It was the soul fragment of Tom Riddle.
As soon as the metal binding dropped to the stone floor, Riddle's presence was detected by the demon. Harry felt the surprise of the demon at there being a third presence with them, but then the fear as it sensed the power of the presence.
"Meg!" Harry's voice cried out in shock and warning. Meg turned to face her brother and scooted away when she saw that one of her brother's smoke filled eyes was instead glowing a blood red.
"What in the name of…" Meg trailed off, startled.
Harry felt the two beings battle each other within his consciousness. While the demon was powerful in its possession ability, keeping control of Harry while doing battle with Riddle was weakening its efforts. Tom Riddle's soul fragment was taking full advantage of the divided attention and attacked ruthlessly. If souls could bleed than Harry was sure the demon would be losing a few quarts by the minute.
Meg, unsure of what was happening within her brother's host, moved to place the metal bindings on Harry once more. Harry instinctively kicked out at her and was shocked as his leg complied. Harry realized that the demon could no longer keep up fighting both Riddle and Harry simultaneously and had moved to eliminate the most immediate threat.
Harry left the two evil souls within him to battle each other and moved to deal with Meg. He felt his magic pool into his outstretched hands and unleashed the unshaped force at Meg. The force of the magic pushed Meg deep into the shadows beyond his prison. Harry took advantage of his upper hand and rushed into the darkness.
It wasn't until he was away from the illuminated prison that he heard the growling. Harry had completely forgotten about the "jailors" that Azazel had warned him lived in the shadows beyond his prison. He cried out in pain as something sharp slashed at his arm, tearing through his shirt and skin with ease. Blood spurted forth and into the darkness.
Harry had no idea where the exit was in the darkness and had only one choice. He dashed back to the safety of his light prison. He heard heavy footsteps from his right and saw a faint outline headed towards him. Meg slammed into his form at full speed knocking them both to the ground.
"Didn't think you'd get away that easy did you, Potter?" Meg laughed as she climbed on top of Harry, straddling him into the ground. She began to choke him.
"It's me, you idiot," Harry snapped at her, pretending to be Meg's brother. Meg paused from her efforts just long enough for Harry to land a blow to her jaw.
"Fuck!" she screamed in anger.
"Stupefy!" he yelled in return, sending a bright red stunner at her. Her body went limp and Harry immediately charged her. Another invisible jailor appeared and their razor sharp talons spilt more of Harry's blood onto stones beneath them.
Harry grabbed her arm and began dragging Meg into the safety of the light. As soon as they were near enough Harry grabbed a metal cuff and locked it securely onto the demon. He quickly repeated the action with Meg's other arm.
Harry turned his attention to the inner battle raging. For the first time in his life, Harry was disappointed that Tom Riddle was losing a fight. Without Harry to fight, the demon was quickly gaining ground on Riddle. Obviously the demon was confident that once he had dealt with Riddle, he would have no trouble regaining control of his host body. Sadly, Harry thought this to be likely as well. At least if Riddle won, he'd never been able to take active control as long as Harry was at the steering wheel.
Already regretting his decision, Harry used his Occlumency and Legilimency skills to join Riddle's side of the fight against the demon. If they lost than neither of them would ever have a shot of controlling Harry's body again.
Harry could immediately tell that his efforts were aiding Riddle in his fight. Already he felt like he was no longer just watching the real world through a screen. He'd already been able to use his body freely but it had been strange to still fight Meg through the eyes of someone else.
As soon as the demon realized his battle was ending, and not in his favor, it attempted to flee. Harry felt like he was about to throw up as the demon's essence flowed up his abdomen and released the hold on his soul.
"Hold it in," Riddle mentally ordered Harry, its voice sounding distant. "Don't let it escape."
Harry didn't know why he decided to trust the fragment of Riddle's soul, but if ever there was a time it was now. Harry clamped both his hands over his mouth and nose to prevent it from leaving.
Riddle surged forth and seemed to cover the ever-diminishing presence of the demon with its own. Harry imagined it looked like a red cloud trying to suffocate a black cloud. Harry cried out in surprise as he suddenly found himself alone with Riddle.
The demon had been destroyed.
"Why did you help me?" Harry could help but ask.
The sound of Riddle's reply was even more distant and weak than before. "The body cannot hold more than one soul without deterioration. Eventually it would have consumed me. I must survive."
Harry should have known that Riddle would only act in Riddle's best interest. He tried to imagine what having three souls inside of him would have done to him. He suppressed a shudder at the memory of what Voldemort's possession of Quirrel in his first year had done to the misguided Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
A howl from the darkness reminded Harry that just because the two demons had been neutralized didn't mean he was out of the woods yet. He still had to get past the creatures that circled his prison of light. He wondered why they had yet to attack, when the answer came to him.
"You can't survive in the light," Harry shouted into the dark abyss beyond his cell. Angry growls and snorts were his only response.
Harry pooled as much of his magic between his two hands as he could handle with his blood loss and began to shape it into light. Albus had taught him this trick when they were hunting a Horcrux in one of Voldemort's cavern hideaways. The magic began to glow in pure white light and grew in intensity until it brought the entire room into view. The exit door was at the far end of the room.
Though Harry could not see the creatures, their screams of pain and death brought a grin to his face. He flicked off the room as he walked to the door and into the corridor beyond.
"Now to get the hell out of here."
Harry concentrated on Bobby's junkyard and allowed his body to jump. When he opened his eyes he was still somewhere underground.
"Shit!" Harry swore. He didn't know how or why, but somehow Azazel had the ability to impair apparition. If he ever got out of his lair, Harry was going to quiz Bobby on everything he knew about demonic powers.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Harry ducked into what turned out to be a steam room. He cast a disillusionment charm and a silencing spell on himself to hide from their demonic senses.
While he was waiting for the demons to pass, Harry checked the tracking spell he'd placed on Dean when he'd shown up at Stanford. The spell linked Harry with a mental geographic picture of Dean's location.
If only I'd thought to cast one on Sirius before he went through the Veil, Harry thought to himself.
The footsteps moved away from the door.
Time to go.
Azazel stared down at the prone body of his daughter in disgust. He looked at the two demons that had discovered her shackled in Harry's place.
"How long has she been unconscious?" he demanded. The two demons looked to each other, unsure how to answer without being killed.
"We only discovered her a few moments ago," the demon on the left answered shakily, "we're not sure when she was overcome. It could have been hours."
Azazel sent the demon's body slamming into the concrete wall behind him. The demon that remained standing suddenly looked very worried.
"We'll find him," the demon vowed.
"You'd better."
"Yes, my lord," the demon said, quickly taking the hint and rushed to the exit as fast as he could move without breaking into an all out run. The other demon was left abandoned and unconscious against the far wall.
Azazel knelt beside Meg. He kept his hand a foot away from her body at all times, simply allowing his talents to measure her condition. Satisfied that his daughter remained in control of her host he unshackled the metal chains confining her and her abilities.
Meg's eyes tracked his movements alerting him to the fact that she was still conscious. He tested her reactions ties by smacking at her body and earning a glare from his daughter in response. He brought his own abilities to the surface and smashed against the supernatural force restraining his daughter's body.
"Son of a bitch!" Meg shouted, immediately getting up into a sitting position. "Where the hell is that little shit?"
Azazel arched in eyebrow in question. "I take your reaction to mean you do not know where he went?"
"I'll find him," Meg grunted in response. "Then I'll skin him alive."
"And your brother?" Azazel asked. "I have yet to be able to sense him in the compound."
Meg sent her father a dark look. "I don't know what happened. One minute he had control of the little shit and then… he just lost control."
Azazel released a jet of flames out of anger. Meg jumped back as the battered demon behind her was set ablaze. Azazel paid no attention to the demonic smoke fleeing the human body that was screaming against the pain of the burning flesh.
"So can I go after the kid or what?" Meg asked impatiently.
"No, not yet," Azazel turned to her sharply. "The plan comes first, then we can deal with our enemies. Get the Colt by whatever means necessary."
Meg seemed appeased by the idea of shedding blood…even if it wasn't Harry Potter's. Meg lifted her hunting knife from the sheath under her jacket. "Right, a few dead hunters coming right up."
"Forget killing the hunters," Azazel ordered, a gleam entering his eyes. "I have a better idea. John Winchester has his sons with him, correct?"
Meg nodded.
"So he'll have to cave to them the second those boys realize what's at stake."
"And what are we putting at stake?" Meg asked, trying to follow Azazel's plan.
"The lives they've saved, of course."
Meg grinned.
"Go now before the Potter boy can warn them."
Sam's cell phone rang, jerking him into consciousness.
Dean and his father had been dragging him across the country, hunting everything they could find. Most recently they'd been hunting a cursed painting that had claimed over a dozen murders, each of them the owners of the painting. Sam had been up all night researching the family depicted in the painting when he'd finally passed out just before dawn. Now someone was calling him.
Sam checked the caller ID. Hailey Collins.
It took a few minutes before the name clicked with an identity in Sam's mind. It had been months, maybe even a year, since Dean and Sam had traveled to Black Water Ridge, Colorado. There they had helped Hailey and her younger brother, Ben, find their older brother, Tommy. A Wendigo, who was keeping him for food for the winter, had captured Tommy. Luckily, Dean and Sam had managed to save and reconnect the siblings, plus kill the Wendigo.
Dean stirred from the bed next to his. "Who's calling so early?"
"Hailey Collins," Sam muttered.
"Who?"
"Black Water Ridge," Sam explained.
"Tell her I said hi," Dean replied, before slumping back down onto the bed and burying his head in a pillow.
"Hey, Hailey," Sam greeted sleepily, opening the cell phone and placing it against his ear.
"Hello, Sam," a voice that was distinctly not Hailey Collins returned his greeting. "Guess who?"
Sam rubbed at his eyes, wondering how sleepy he was to have hallucinated Meg's voice as Hailey Collins'. "Hailey?"
"Guess again, Sammy-boy," Meg laughed into the phone. "Think a little harder. It's been awhile but I'm sure you remember a hot blonde in a bus station."
Sam bolted upright. "Meg?"
"Bingo, baby," Meg chuckled.
"How do you know Hailey Collins?" Sam asked, an uncomfortable sensation mounting in his stomach. "Did you hitchhike all the way to Colorado?"
"Sorry to bust your bubble, Winchester," Meg taunted, "but I'm not on the phone for pleasantries."
Sam threw a pillow at Dean before putting Meg on speakerphone. "What are you talking about, Meg?"
"We know you and your father have the Colt, Sam," Meg said darkly. "As far as we're concerned you've just declared open hunting season on the Winchester clan."
"Who's we?" Dean asked angrily, grabbing the phone out of Sam's hand.
"Morning, Dean," Meg chirped. "Sorry to say I haven't had the pleasure, but I know someone who has."
"Get to the point, bitch."
"My point is that we want the gun, or bad things happen. Simple enough for you, Dean?"
"Or what?" Dean asked.
"Or I'm going to track down every person you've helped this year and I'm going to cut them open and play with their insides," Meg stated cheerfully.
"Where's Hailey Collins?" Sam asked, sending a warning glare at Dean.
"Well she and the little one are fine," Meg answered coyly, "but they are a little tied up at the moment."
Dean looked livid at the sound of Meg laughing over the phone. "The older one is all over the living room floor, sadly. He tried to fight me on the way in. Too bad, really, he was pretty cute."
"You're lying," Sam accused.
"Sam? Dean?" Hailey's voice echoed through the speakerphone, clearly sobbing in distress. "Please help us. She killed Tommy, Sam. She just killed him right in front of us."
"Believe me now?"
Dean's grip on the cell phone tightened to the point of breaking. "I'm going to kill you myself."
"Save the oxygen, Dean," Meg shot back. "I don't care about your threats and I know you can't touch a hair on my head."
"The Colt says otherwise, bitch."
Instead of responding herself, the sound of screaming and then gurgling erupted through the listening end of the cell phone. Another voice, this time male, was shouting in the background.
"That was the sound of Hailey Collins getting her throat cut and her blood soaking into the carpet," Meg informed them. "I don't think little Benny liked it very much."
Sam felt like he was going to be sick.
"Just bring me the gun, Dean, and I won't have to kill any other innocent people."
"It's going to take us some time to get to you," Sam said diplomatically.
"That little lie just cost you another innocent life, Sam," Meg said, before letting them hear the sounds of Hailey's little brother, Ben, breathing his last breaths of life.
"Stop!" Sam shouted. "For God's sake, stop."
"Oh, I'm under Daddy's orders, Sam," Meg replied. "I think you know him? I call him Daddy, but you like to call him 'Old-Yellow-Eyes'."
"You're the demon's, daughter?" Sam asked, his head already swimming from the lack of sleep and the quick turn of events.
"You have one hour to call this number back, ready to turn over the Colt," Meg informed them, before letting the line go dead.
"What do we do?" Sam asked Dean.
Dean shrugged but Sam could see that he was just trying to appear unfazed by the deaths of three people they'd personally saved.
"That weapon is the only chip we have in this game," Dean responded. "We can't give it up."
"We can't let them die, Dean."
"And how many more people will die if we don't kill Yellow-Eyes and that bitch?"
Sam shook his head. "It's not right, Dean. That kid wasn't even out of high school."
"We've all lost innocent people, Sam," Dean snapped. "Dad lost Mom, you lost Jess, and I lost Harry. People die and we have to pick up and move on, because no one else can."
They let their argument cool and silence settle between them.
"So what do we do?" Sam repeated his earlier question.
"We go wake Dad up and then we go kill that bitch."
Sam nodded in agreement. "Let's do it then."
By the time Harry had escaped the confines of Azazel's ability to block his apparition powers almost five hours had passed. Azazel had taken up inside of an old mining facility in Nebraska. The tunnels had been a maze of options and unknown destinations. Harry had taken to simply following possessed miners around until one of them led him to the surface.
Harry had tried to apparate again but ended up back in the tunnels. It had taken another hour before finding his own way out. He would have tried simply blasting his way out but he remembered that most gases underground were highly flammable and didn't want to risk blowing himself to hell.
He'd then had to walk almost three miles on foot to ensure he was out of Azazel's power range. Once he was pretty sure he was free he jumped to the motel that his spell had told him Dean was staying at.
Unfortunately Harry had missed the Winchesters by several hours. Instead Harry had apparated into their motel room… that had been in the process of being cleaned. Harry surprised the poor housekeeping lady who was flipping through magazines as the vacuum cleaner ran uselessly against the motel room door.
The woman screamed as Harry appeared next to the left hand bed (Dean's usual favorite) and scared the crap out of her.
"Oh Merlin!" Harry cried out in shock. "I'm so sorry!"
Harry mentally slapped himself in the face. In his desperation to get back to Dean and Sam, he'd forgotten the basic rules of apparition. What the hell had he been thinking? What if Dean had been in the room when he'd apparated in? It was one thing to scare an old cleaning lady, but it was another to suddenly appear in a room with two hunters who were armed to the teeth and overly jumpy.
Harry turned his attention back to the cleaning lady who was trying to run out of the door. Harry silently apologized to the woman before casting a memory modification spell at her back. He levitated her gently onto the bed, allowing her memory to change to one where she simply fell asleep on the job.
He glanced out of the motel window and sighed as he realized that the Impala wasn't parked in the parking lot. The drawers had been emptied and none of the vents had any secret stashes of guns in them.
The only sign that Dean had been there at all was the leather jacket that Dean had cast the spell on all those months ago. Dean had left the jacket in the wastebasket. Harry picked it up and instantly saw why the jacket had been discarded; it had been sliced into pieces and bloodstains marred it.
Harry took the jacket with him when he left the motel room. He could always just mend the jacket magically; it might make a nice reunion gift for Dean.
How else to track Dean down?
Harry eyed the motel phone. His own cell phone had been taken from him when Meg and the Shifter had captured him. Of course, he still had most of the brothers' phone numbers memorized, but he couldn't be sure they hadn't discarded any of them yet.
Harry decided to call Bobby instead. Bobby never changed his numbers.
"Yeah?" Bobby answered the phone.
Harry chuckled to himself, good old Bobby never changed for anybody.
"Hey, Bobby," Harry said, relieved to have finally reached someone. "It's Harry."
There was an awkward pause at the other end. "Harry who?"
Harry frowned. "Harry Potter, Bobby. What other Harry do you know?"
This time Bobby's answer was fast and angry. "Don't call here again."
The line went dead.
Meg's voice suddenly returned to his mind, a conversation he'd hoped had been to demoralize him. Harry felt a cold sense of dread that maybe, for once, the demon within Meg had been telling the truth…
"Sadly, you've been misinformed. The dear Winchester offspring believe you to be dead. My condolences."
"They're smarter than that. They'll see through whatever you've rigged up."
"Even if we left behind a dead shifter that was in your form? You think they'll see through that?"
"Their smart guys, Meg, they'll know it's a possibility."
"Doubtful."
He had to find Dean and Sam sooner rather than later. Harry picked up the motel room phone and dialed Bobby again. One way or another, Bobby Singer was going to tell him where Dean and Sam were.
Sandhills, Nebraska
Sam and Dean walked down the busy street of Sandhills at noon, every step bringing them closer to the designated meeting place Meg had assigned. John, Sam and Dean were supposed to bring the Colt to Meg at Susan's Pie House on Main Street. Even from down the street they could see Meg seated at one of the tables at the outdoor café section.
"Hello, boys," Meg greeted warmly, motioning to the three empty seats at her table. Sam waited for Dean's nod before he took one of the seats. "And where is John this fine afternoon?"
"Close enough to put a bullet through your head if this meeting goes south," Dean replied smartly.
"Wasn't I clear about no tricks?" Meg asked through gritted teeth as she scanned the streets for the eldest Winchester.
"Do we have stupid tattooed on our foreheads?" Sam replied, placing a plastic bottle filled with holy water on the table.
"Break one rule, break them all," Meg said pointedly. "I get it. So give me the gun and let's get this over with."
"You expect us to just turn it over, just like that?"
"Yup, just like that," Meg responded, snapping her fingers on the last word. To emphasize her point she even placed her open purse on the table. "In here, please."
Dean nodded to Sam who slipped the gun into the purse and passed it back to Meg.
"So now what?"
Meg made no move to take the bag back. The waiter appeared and flashed the brothers a pair of black eyes before moving back into the restaurant with the purse. Dean glared at Meg as he reached for the weapon under his coat.
"What?" Meg shrugged innocently, "You're the only ones allowed to break the rules?"
"Where's he going with the Colt?" Sam inquired, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
"To make sure that it really is the Colt, of course. You didn't think we'd just take your word for it and go, did you?"
"And how many more skin jobs you got around here?" Dean asked angrily, eyeing the crowded street uneasily.
"Relax, Dean," Meg said soothingly, patting his hand. "We have so much to talk about while we wait."
"I don't have anything to say to you."
"Dean, you wound me," Meg said, fanning herself dramatically. "You don't even want to talk about Harry?"
Sam put a restraining hand on Dean's arm as he made to jump Meg right over the table. Meg merely smiled in response.
"You'd be smart to not mention Harry to Dean," Sam advised her.
"Especially since it was you and your Daddy that sent that shifter to kill him," Dean snarled at her, spit flying freely.
"Is that what we did?" Meg asked curiously.
"You know it is."
"And, like usual, you humans can't see past what's at the tip of your noses."
Dean growled and pushed Sam's restraining arm away from himself. He was across the table in seconds, grabbing Meg around the throat and hauling her up against the brick wall of the restaurant.
"Dean!" Sam shouted in warning.
Dean turned and saw that every one of the outdoor patrons, almost a dozen, had stood at his attack on Meg. Every single patron had the same black eyes as the waiter had had.
"I'd let me go, Winchester," Meg recommended. "In case you hadn't noticed, I have more friends present than you."
"I bet I can take a whole bunch of them with me before you put me down," Dean ground out.
"Dean."
"Quiet, Sammy."
"I'm disappointed, Dean," Meg teased. "Harry said that you'd break my neck when you saw me. I don't think you're all he thought you were."
Dean's hand tightened around Meg's throat. "You were there? When that fucking freak killed him?"
"Who says it was the shifter that killed him?" Meg asked coyly.
Dean started to choke her when the waiter returned. Meg took her eyes off of Dean and trained them on the possessed waiter.
"Well?"
The waiter shook his head and Meg snapped her attention back to the brothers.
"Now we have a real problem, boys. Where's the real gun?"
The possessed waiter's head ripped open as one of John's bullets, fired from the rooftop across the street, blew it apart.
All hell broke loose.
It had taken apparating directly to Bobby's front door, two bottles of holy water, and several blood tests for the man to believe that Harry was who he claimed he was. Harry had been pleasantly surprised to see how much Bobby had missed him. He'd been far more disturbed to see his own grave.
"So what did you guys bury?" he asked, seeing the simple gravestone that Dean had placed by the tree.
"Some of your stuff," Bobby said in an embarrassed tone while scratching the back of his neck. "Dean found a box of your mementos. No offense, looked like junk to me. Even had a twig in it."
Harry smirked wondering how Bobby would react to knowing they'd buried a magic wand in his backyard. He'd have to be sure and get his stuff unburied once he'd found the boys again.
"So where are they, Bobby?"
Bobby sighed. "You've got to understand, Harry. It was real bad after you… left. Dean was out of control and John, well, John did what John does best: he hunted. Dean was more than happy to join him, and where Dean goes Sam follows."
"Sounds about right."
"Well, damned if they don't find themselves some mystical Colt that can kill anything."
Harry eyes went wide. "They what?"
Bobby nodded. "Then the demon got wind of it and started killing people they'd helped in the past. Told them it would stop if they'd just give up the gun."
"So they went to make a trade?" Harry asked. "I don't imagine that to be John Winchester's style."
"It's not," Bobby agreed. "They made a fake Colt, since no one really knows what a mythical weapon looks like. Smart right? So they make the trade with a fake gun and try to snatch the woman demon working for the Yellow-Eyed Demon."
"Meg?" Harry asked sharply.
Bobby nodded.
"Tell me where they are, Bobby."
"Why? I'm sure the boys can handle one demon chick, Harry."
Harry shook his head. "Meg's not stupid, Bobby. They need me. Trust me on this one."
As soon as Bobby relayed the pertinent details of the exchange to Harry, he excused himself and apparated to Nebraska.
He expected to be able to sneak into the café undetected. He'd expected some small time rendezvous so as not to alert attention to the innocents. What he had not anticipated was apparating into a full out warzone.
Sam and Dean were fighting off demons by the café. The few non-possessed humans were running around trying to take cover in one of the many shops and restaurants that lined the street. John Winchester was firing from a snipers nest on one of the rooftops across from the café. Besides Meg and a few of the demons closest to her, none of the others seemed interested in the Winchesters. The rest of the demons seemed content with going after the other humans.
Harry didn't think twice about jumping into the fray. Harry ran, raising both his hands as he did so. He didn't bother casting any stunning spells as he had done on Meg during his escape. He was sorry for the human hosts but if he didn't put the demons down the first time, they would just escape to kill another day.
He began casting fire and crushing spells. A massive ball of flame burst from his hand and catching a slow moving demon in the shoulders and face. The top half of the demon disappeared in the engulfing flames. The demons suddenly turned their attention to Harry and the new threat that he represented.
A second demon was blown apart by a smashing hex, sending body part flying in different directions. A third demon tried to smash his skull with a baseball bat but Harry banished the weapon away from them. Harry used a blood-freezing spell that killed the demon instantly.
Further up the street Sam was firing his shotgun at every demon that crossed his path, but was quickly being backed into a side street. Dean seemed content to be fighting with Meg and the pair traded blows. Harry decided that Dean would be fine for the time being and focused his efforts on Sam's problems.
As soon as Sam's shotgun was empty Harry pushed a large gust of air at the approaching demons. He thickened the air so that it was hard enough to hurt and strong enough to move. The wave of air propelled most of the demons through the air and into a side building.
Meg managed to get the upper hand in her fight with Dean and threw him through the large window in front of the café. Harry turned to face her and felt a surge of hatred building inside of him. It wasn't just what she'd done to him during his time as a prisoner, though that was a part of it. It was that she'd managed to hurt Dean, his Dean. No one, especially Meg, got away with that.
Meg seemed to spot Harry at the same moment. She waved at him cheerfully before running at him flat out. As he neared her Harry began pooling large amounts of unfocused magic into the space between his palms. It wasn't until she was but a few feet away that he decided on how he would kill her.
Meg charged with abandon, completely unconcerned with what Harry could do to her. He raised his arms and let the magic mold itself to her body. Slowly, white ripples appeared across her skin as ice covered skin. Within seconds Meg's body was covered in ice, her body freezing in place. Harry picked up the baseball bat that he'd banished from earlier and swung with all of his strength. Meg's body shattered into thousands of small pieces, the demon's essence dying along with its host.
At the sight of their leader's demise, the remainder of the demons decided to flee. Smoke filled the sky as the demons left their host bodies for the safety of the horizon.
Harry breathed hard from the amount of energy he had applied to the skirmish. The healing he'd done while hiding in Azazel's mine shafts had only gone so far in recovering the damage Meg had done to him.
"Harry?"
Harry turned to face Dean who had called his name from across the street. Sam was standing next to Dean, and Harry tried to ignore the fact that both of the Winchesters had their weapons aimed at him.
"It's okay, Dean," Harry said softly. "It's me. It's Harry."
Dean kept his gun trained on him. Harry wasn't sure if Dean just didn't believe him or if he didn't trust himself to speak. Whatever the reason, Dean merely continued to give Harry a betrayed look.
"It's me, guys," Harry said, taking a step closer to them. "I can prove it."
Unbeknownst to Harry, John Winchester had noticed his son's dead lover appear out of thin air the moment he'd arrived on the scene. He'd kept one eye on Harry throughout the entire battle. Even after Harry had helped them end the battle, John had turned the rifle's scope to focus on the spot between Harry's eyes.
In John Winchester's mind, no matter how much help the kid gave them against the demon, nothing inhuman was good. Especially nothing that could kill with the ease with which Harry had just done. The moment Harry had taken a step towards his son's had been the last straw.
John Winchester trained his rifle's sight on his target and fired.
Author's Notes: So this was the chapter most of you have been waiting for. The secret is out: Harry isn't human. Now the question becomes how the Winchester family will handle such dangerous information.
Next chapter is far more about the angst and less about the action than this one. Sorry, but that's the way it has to be. I know some of you may not like Dean's behavior at times, hell I don't like it at times, but I'm trying to keep him as true to character as possible. So if he comes off as quite the jerk in the next chapter, recognize that he's going through some shit, too. Everyone needs a break and this is just me asking you to just give him some time to get his act together :)
Also, scarletsptember is coming up with some pretty interesting story ideas lately (beta'd by yours truly) and they involve Harry Potter/Supernatural crossovers. I highly recommend checking out her latest endeavor. Feel free to use the link from my "favorite authors" page to check her out.
Public Service Announcement Time: celebrating responsibly means choosing NOT TO DRIVE DRUNK!!! I lost my cousin three years ago to a drunk driver on New Years (he was also driving drunk). Also, I was hit head on by a drunk driver over the summer and it is not a pleasant experience. My car was totaled, we both got injured, and the drunk driver got some jail time. Don't start your new year off the wrong way.
Might I suggest a New Year's Resolution? REVIEW every time you read something :) Here's something for you to practice on LOL…