I hope you all liked the dementor scene! I had a bit of fun writing it and trying to figure out how Gabriel might react.

A bit of clarification about his fear; it's not Lucifer. Rather, he's terrified of dying for good, and so the fear of that time in the Elysian [what if the blade hadn't worked, or if Lucifer had realized it was a fake] affected him and Lucifer got mixed into that. Death [the horseman] might not be that intimidating but I think personally Gabriel would be really afraid of actually dying, considering that it's unsure if angels have an afterlife. The bit with the Dementor is his worst memory, not exactly his fear. And another note about the boggart, he can't think of anything he's afraid of because really, Gabriel's a bit arrogant and wouldn't be the type of person to admit their fears.

Also, to that one reviewer, J. Palmgren? Yeah, I'm trying to keep it along the path of the original plot. It's called 'it's my story'. If you don't like my story, please don't leave a review with no actual suggestion as to how you think I could make it better.

And yeah, Gabriel doesn't feel threatened. Archangel, anyone? He's not motivated because he spent millenia not interfering and even human friends can't change that in only a couple years. He bungles stuff because he's running on very little Grace and is used to using that all the time to get things to work out his way. I'm sorry you feel like it's 'meh', but I write the way I want it to happen.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter

When timetables were passed around at breakfast the next day, Gabriel barely spared a glance at it. The charm on his bag had persisted, which meant he still carried all his books around with him, and so whichever class he had first he'd probably have the supplies for it.

"New classes today," Michael observed. "We've got Divination first - you signed up for that, right?"

"Yeah," Gabriel agreed absentmindedly.

"Hey." Michael snapped nir fingers in front of Gabriel's face. "Wake up! You've been half asleep all morning."

Gabriel shoved Michael's hand away. "I'm just thinking."

"About what? The meaning of life?"

"Very funny." Gabriel had been successfully distracted by the idea of classes, as he wondered again how Hermione was going to get to all of hers. She'd signed up for all of them, after all.

Divination took ages to get to, mainly because it was in the North Tower, where neither Gabriel nor Michael had been before.

"There's... got to... be a... short cut," Michael panted as they climbed the seventh flight of stairs, emerging onto a landing which was empty save for an uninhabited painting of a stretch of grass.

"Maybe we go right?" Gabriel suggested.

"No, look, you can see a bit of the lake, that's south."

Something ambled into the painting. It was a fat little grey pony, which set itself to eating the painted grass. A short, stout knight in armor came chasing after it soon enough.

"Aha!" he yelled as he saw Gabriel and Michael. "And what villains are you that come before me? Come to mock my fall, perhaps?" He drew a sword which looked much too long for him and waved it around. "Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"

Gabriel was staring at the picture in some disbelief as a particularly wild swing sent the knight toppling over and buried his sword in the dirt.

"We're looking for the North Tower, actually," Michael said as the knight righted himself. The painted figure's anger vanished.

"A quest!" he shouted. "Come follow then, dear friends, and we shall go and complete our quest or perish bravely trying!" He tugged uselessly on the sword, failed to mount the pony, and then yelled "On foot then, dear comrades! Follow me!"

He set off at quite a fast pace through the paintings and the two raced after him. The knight burst through a painting of a group of women in crinolines and led them to a tightly spiralling staricase which seemed to go on forever. In a painting near the top he finally slowed, stopping his shouts of "On! On!" and waiting for Gabriel and Michael to catch up.

"I have taken you as far as I can go," he announced. "Fare thee well, brave fellows, and if you are ever in need of aid hesitate not to call upon Sir Cadogan!" He turned again and raced back the way they had come.

"That is the most mental painting I have ever met," Michael muttered as they took the last couple of steps and found the rest of the class milling around on the landing. Hermione was there as well.

There were no doors leading away. "Where's the classroom?" Michael asked blankly. Hermione pointed upwards, where on the ceiling there was a circular trapdoor which read 'Sybil Trelawney, Divination teacher'.

As the class whispered about how they were supposed to get up, the trapdoor was abruptly opened. A silvery ladder descended and Gabriel, glancing around, went first climbing up it.

He emerged into a very strange room. It looked like an old-fashioned, eccentric aunt's attic, an attic which at some point someone had tried to turn into a tea shop. There were a lot of little tables crammed into the room, with armchairs and stuffed pouffes clustered around them. Every source of light was draped in some sort of dark cloth, making the room very dim, and the fireplace not only made it ridiculously hot, but let off some sort of incense.

They all entered one by one, forming a small group around the trapdoor which the last person closed after themselves. Trelawney emerged from a shadowed portion of the room, startling all those near her. "Welcome," she said mistily. "How nice to see you all in the physical world at last. Sit, my children, sit."

Gabriel, Hermione, and Michael claimed a table together, Gabriel hurriedly taking one of the armchairs in an effort to avoid the stuffed stools. Trelawney swept to the front of the class, proceeding into a spiel about divination in the same misty voice. Gabriel glanced around the classroom - there was a shelf he hadn't noticed earlier in the corner, absolutely stuffed full of what looked like china teacups. Gabriel wondered what they were supposed to be for.

He was, of course, curious about telling the future - that was why he had signed up for this class in the first place. Sure, he'd seen prophets [of which this Trelawney was definitely not one, or he'd have known of her before] and psychics of all sorts, though those very rarely dealt in visions of the future. Gabriel was broken off from musing about Azazel's children when the class all rose to go towards the shelf and grab a teacup.

Gabriel fetched one of his own and sat back down, wondering what they were supposed to be doing since he'd paid absolutely no attention to the introductory speech.

"What are we doing?" he hissed to Michael.

"Don't tell me you weren't paying attention."

They were doing tea leaf reading, as it turned out, and it was the weirdest method of telling the future that Gabriel had ever come across. What were a bunch of leaves supposed to tell you?

He tried to drink the scalding tea quickly, pondering the benefits of just vanishing the mess - he'd never liked tea, even after thirteen years in England. The accent had stuck, much to the chagrin of Gabriel, whose vessel had had an American one for the last half millenia, at least. He glanced over at Michael, who had turned nir cup over and was letting the last bits of tea drip out of the bottom.

Ne turned it back over and peered into the cup before glancing at Gabriel. "We're supposed to switch," ne said. "Have you done yours yet?"

Gabriel quickly swilled the dregs around a bit. "Yeah." Michael took Gabriel's cup and handed over nirs.

There was a load of soggy brown stuff in the bottom, but apparently they were supposed to try and make out shapes. Maybe the bit to the left looked sort of like...Gabriel leaned over Michael's shoulder to read nir book.

"Don't you have your own?"

"Yours is already out."

Michael had something that might have been a cross, except it looked more like a plus sign or an inverted one, or perhaps an X. Gabriel dug into his bag after Michael held up nir book so that Gabriel couldn't read it.

"Alright," he muttered. "You've got something that might be a couple things so I'll just look up all of them. So a plus sign means that you'll get something, no specifics listed...or if it's an X you'll get more of something you already have?"

Michael snorted. "Let's hope I get more money, then."

"Alright, what have you got then?" Gabriel turned the tables on Michael and looked over at nir expectantly.

"Er...you've got something that looks like a hawk, based on the picture they've got here...that's 'unexpected occurrence'...and this bit I think is another sort of bird, but I can't tell specifically which one."

"So I'm going to be surprised at some point?"

"Don't act like yours was any better, I think you need Inner Eye testing."

"My eyes are fine."

"Not-"

Trelawney came swooping by their table. "Is something the matter, dears?"

"No," Gabriel and Michael said at the exact same time, glancing at each other in surprise.

"Let me see that, my dear," Trelawney said, taking Gabriel's cup. She stared into it, turning it anticlockwise. "The falcon...my dear, you have an enemy."

"I thought that was a hawk," Michael muttered.

"Everyone knows that," Hermione said, nearly interrupting Michael, but Trelawney didn't seem to notice and kept looking into the cup.

"The skull...danger in your path. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup..."

Gabriel, personally, was wondering about the authenticity of this method.

"The flag...a secret revealed..." There was no way this actually worked.

Trelawney turned the cup one final time and stared into it. She didn't say anything.

"Professor?" Michael spoke up when the silence began to stretch on. People were now peering over to their table, wondering what was going on.

"I have never seen a symbol like this before." That was enough to draw several people out of their seats to come over and look. Michael looked in as well.

"I thought it was some sort of bird," ne said.

"This is no bird that I can recognize," said Trelawney. "See here...the lines around the center, extending out...this figure has six wings." Gabriel looked up sharply at that. Six wings?

"What's got six wings?" One of the Gryffindors asked, and as if in response Gabriel's six still not flightworthy wings rustled ever so slightly. Trelawney glanced around, as if she'd noticed the nearly-silent noise.

"I do not know," Trelawney answered. "Perhaps...yes, let us end the class here...this omen may be ominous, a warning..."

In a strange mood, the class packed up their things. People were giving Gabriel strange looks the entire time and he quickly descended the ladder, tired of being the center of attention.

As early as they had left Divination, it took ages for Gabriel and Michael to get to their next class, Herbology. Sprout set them all immediately to pruning some shrubs that had gotten wild over the summer. Everyone got so tired and sweaty that by the time they left the greenhouses Divination had been all but forgotten.

After lunch was Ancient Runes, which turned out to be much better than Divination had been. Vector was an older woman who seemed very enthusiastic about the subject, and very knowledgeable about runes. She passed out a syllabus at the beginning of class and went on to talk about all the different runes they'd be learning about that year, and their various applications in magic. She drew several on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom and gave points to anyone who could name the language they were from.

Gabriel knew them all of course, but what was the point of showing off when he was here to 'learn' about them?

Hermione was in that class as well. She paid rapt attention to the board and flipped rapidly through her course book when she didn't recognize whatever was on the board, which was often. The first time everyone [well, almost everyone] in the class was stumped was when Vector wrote Norse on the board.

"I didn't expect you to know this one," she said cheerfully while Gabriel was wondering why she'd written 'dragon'. "It's Ancient Norse, not been spoken for ages, ever since the late 14th century when they developed into the more common Germanic languages." She erased the rune. "It was spoken primarily by the Scandanavian peoples, or more commonly known as the Vikings, and of course the language spread to all the areas they conquered. Yes, Miss Granger?"

"But what about the British?"

"Ah! Well, that's an interesting tale! We'll get more into that later. For now, I think your period is almost up!"

Leaving the classroom, something made Gabriel look around. It wasn't a noise, or even seeing something out of place, but a trail of a feeling of something being a little bit...off. It dissipated before Gabriel could properly figure out where it was coming from, and it was with this particular mystery in his mind that Gabriel left for his next class.

The rain from yesterday had let up, but Gabriel had no intention of going out onto the grounds like he might have after classes, due to the dementors. Instead, he went towards Muriel's room - maybe there was something about dementors in there and how to get rid of them. As he passed through a relatively empty hallway, someone caught his arm.

"Do you have a moment?" It was Lupin.

"Yeah? Why?" Gabriel hadn't even had a class with the man yet, he doubted that he was already in trouble.

"It's nothing," said Lupin. "Just - the class I had planned for tomorrow - I was going to have a practical, and I thought I might ask you to sit it out."

"Sit it out?" Gabriel stared at the man. "What for?"

"Well-" Lupin seemed unwilling to give Gabriel a heads-up on what they would be facing. "The creature we'll be facing is a very certain kind, and if you were to face it I believe that the rest of the class might be a bit-"

"I'm sure it'll be fine," said Gabriel. "What sort of creature is it?"

"A Boggart," Lupin admitted. "It's supposed to take the shape of a fear you might have."

Oh. "And...you're worried mine might turn into something freaky?"

Lupin looked at him, surprised. "I thought it might turn into Voldemort."

He was the first person Gabriel had met who actually called Voldemort by his name. "I can think of a lot of things more frightening than someone I barely remember," said Gabriel, remembering that he was only supposed to have faced Voldemort when he was 'one'.

"If you're sure-"

"I think I'll be fine against this creature as long as you teach us how to defend ourselves." Gabriel continued along the hallway, waving behind himself. Lupin didn't follow him as Gabriel turned a corner, his easy demeanor slipping away.

Another worst-fear creature?

How many of them even existed? And the previous question notwithstanding, why was Gabriel being confronted with so many of them?

Muriel's room offered no answers as to Boggarts [Gabriel thought he might have mispronounced it] but it did have one book on dementors, which was very old based on the spelling [or 'spellinge'].

It didn't list any spells to use against them, but then again the book did call dementors 'demons from the fiery pit of Helle' so even if there had been any their accuracy probably would have been debatable. Besides, demons were much nastier. And dementors were not even close to the things that came from the Pit.

Dementors, creatures, and nonexistent spells aside, the Boggart lesson turned out to be very interesting.

They had all sat down in the Defense classroom and gotten out their things when Lupin showed up. "You can put all that away," he said. "Wands out, please. We'll be having a practical lesson. Bring your things with you, I don't have what I need in this room."

Muttering, the class got up with their wands out and books back in their bags. Lupin led them out of the classroom and through several halls to a door where Peeves was stuffing gum in the keyhole.

"Peeves, clear off," said Lupin. The poltergeist stuck out his tongue at the professor.

"Watch closely," Lupin whispered to the class, drawing his wand. He flicked it at the keyhole. "Waddiwasi!"

The gum flew out of the keyhole and stuffed itself up Peeves' nose. Cursing, the poltergeist fled, zooming off down the hallway as Lupin opened the door.

"That was awesome," said someone at the back of the crowd.

"Thank you," said Lupin, ushering in the class. It was the staff room, and there was already someone in it.

As Lupin made to close the door, Snape turned around. "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not stay for this disaster." He strode out, robes billowing, and not for the first time Gabriel wondered whether he used a charm to get them to do that. The door slammed, as though Snape had given up on any sort of subtlety in conveying his dislike for Lupin.

The wardrobe at the other end of the room rattled, causing several people to jump.

"No need to worry," Lupin said reassuringly. "That's just a Boggart in there."

Many people seemed to think that this was a reason to worry, and considering the brief explanation Gabriel had gotten yesterday he didn't blame them. Most of the class were now eyeing the wardrobe warily, and seemed disinclined to go any farther towards it.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces," said Lupin. "Wardrobes, under beds, the space under the sink - I found one once that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This particular one moved in yesterday, and I asked Dumbledore to hold off on getting rid of it so I could borrow it for today's lesson. The first question we must ask is, what is a Boggart?"

Someone raised their hand. "Yes, Miss Fawcett?"

"It's a shape-shifter," the girl said. "It takes the shape of whatever will scare us the most."

"Excellent. So," Lupin said, striding in front of the class, "The Boggart in this wardrobe does not yet have a form. He does not know yet what will frighten the person who opens the wardrobe. Nobody knows what one looks like when they're alone, but the minute I let the Boggart out he will choose one fitting whoever is in front of him. This means," he said, ignoring the shifting of the class as they all tried not to be the one in front of the wardrobe, "That we have a large advantage. Has anyone spotted it yet? Harry?"

Gabriel glanced at the class. "There are too many people," he answered, "So it might get confused."

"Couldn't have said it better," Lupin said. "It's always best to have company when facing a Boggart, since then it will get confused between the two of you. Should it become a flesh-eating slug, or a headless corpse? I once saw a Boggart make that exact mistake and become half a slug. Not remotely terrifying."

There was a small titter of laughter. The wardrobe shook again, a little harder.

"Now, the charm that repels them is simple," Lupin said raising his own wand. "It only requires a bit of force. You see, what really finishes a Boggart is laughter. You must force it to assume a form that you find funny. We'll practice without wands first. After me, please...Riddikulus!"

"Riddikulus!" The class repeated, slightly discordant.

"Good, very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid." Lupin smiled reassuringly. "The word is not enough alone. You must get a good picture of what you want it to turn into, something that will take away the terror and make you laugh. Now, I want you all to take a moment and try and think of something the Boggart might turn into, and how you might make that funny."

Gabriel pondered the idea. What might his Boggart turn into? The thought of dementors entered his mind, but he shook it away - he wasn't scared of them, he just hated them. So what else was he afraid of?

"Everyone ready?" Lupin called. "Now, Anthony-" the boy jerked - Gabriel recognized him as one of his roommates. "-How about you go first?"

The rest of the class pulled away to line the walls, leaving Anthony facing the wardrobe on his own. He fidgeted nervously, looking anywhere but at the wardrobe.

"Ready?" Lupin asked him. Anthony took a deep breath and nodded. Lupin aimed his wand at the wardrobe and, in a shower of sparks, the wardrobe burst open.

Something came lurching out that was wrapped in bandages. It was a mummy, and it was a bit spooky, but Anthony hollered "Riddikulus!" and it tripped over its own feet, turning into nothing but bandages as it fell with a noise like a whip crack.

"Excellent!" Lupin said as there was a smattering of laughter. "Padma, you next!"

Padma stepped up and the bandages reformed into a large snake, at least ten feet long and writhing. Padma stepped back at first, but then steeled herself and shouted "Riddikulus!"

Crack! The snake was now a rubber toy.

"Good, Michael!" Michael darted in front of Padma, who was returning to the side. Crack! The Boggart was now a troll, lumbering forwards and swinging its club off its shoulder.

"Riddikulus!" Crack! The troll missed and hit itself with the club, which was dropped. It rolled towards Gabriel, who leaped forward.

Crack! Several people screamed. Gabriel didn't blame them. The man the Boggart had turned into would have scared anyone, as he looked to be terminally ill, skin peeling away at his temples and revealing large red sores, but Gabriel knew better.

Maybe that was why he froze at first.

It smirked, the face twisting into a grin, and Not-Lucifer let a silver blade fall into his hand as he rushed towards Gabriel. The spell was on Gabriel's lips but it didn't seem to want to come out, and he dodged out of reflex as the Boggart swung at him.

Gabriel whirled around with his wand raised and already saying the spell but Lupin was darting in front of the Boggart already.

Crack! A silver orb was hanging in the air in front of Lupin. "Riddikulus!" he said, almost lazily, and the orb was punctured and went whizzing around the room before a great shout of laughter at the squeaking sound it made caused the Boggart to explode into silver wisps.

"Very good!" Lupin shouted, but he was looking at Gabriel. "Five points to Ravenclaw for everyone who faced the Boggart, and ten to Miss Fawcett and Mister Potter, for answering my questions correctly at the beginning of class!"

Talking excitedly, the class left the room. They seemed to have forgotten about Gabriel's Boggart, and several of them were saying that they hoped Lupin would last through the next year.

Seeing Michael open nir mouth, Gabriel held up a hand. "Don't you dare ask me if I'm alright."

This chapter is over 4,000 words so I'm going to leave the other stuff for other chapters.

Read and review as always!