So this might take a little longer to get up, since I was going back through the old chapters I wrote and editing a bit. Mostly minor stuff, typos and the like. Don't worry, there haven't been any major changes!

Little bit of foreshadowing in this chapter! There's some stuff that won't come in until a lot later, but I put a tiny hint in the chapter, if you think you can find it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter

Patronus lessons were, as Lupin promised, before the end of break. Gabriel showed up at his office a couple days later after receiving a note saying to come over.

"Ah, Harry." Lupin was standing in center of the room. "Please, come in."

Gabriel did so, kicking the door closed behind him. "So we're just practicing the spell?"

"Exactly. I doubt you'd want to go outside and practice on a real dementor..." Lupin cleared his throat. "Anyway. This is very advanced magic, Harry, beyond a lot of adult wizards-"

"You mentioned that yesterday."

"Right. The Patronus Charm acts as a sort of shield between you and the dementors, protecting you from their influence." Gabriel felt a pang of disappointment that it wasn't an offensive spell. " It usually takes the shape of an animal."

"What kind of animal?"

"That depends on the caster. The Patronus is also similar to Riddikulus - it is based on positive emotions, which the dementor cannot feed upon. In this case, the caster focuses on a happy memory, which powers the spell."

"Ah." That might be a bit difficult.

Lupin didn't seem to notice. "The incantation is this - expecto patronum. Got that?"

"Yeah - expecto patronum."

"Try it. Find a happy memory, something that could power a Patronus, a really happy one." Tall order, considering Gabriel's past.

"Alright, give me a minute." Gabriel frowned, casting his mind back for anything that could power this spell. Something really happy.

The Norse Pantheon was immediately discarded, as even though there were some moments that might have worked they would immediately be overrun with sadder memories. There were some moments farther back, but they weren't enough to power a spell like this. Gabriel needed something big.

Something had to work.

"Okay," Gabriel said after several more moments. "I've got one."

"Good," said Lupin, who looked slightly relieved. Gabriel must have taken longer than he'd thought finding a good memory. "Now - keep that feeling very firmly in your mind, and cast the spell whenever you're ready."

Cementing the memory in his mind and batting away any other thoughts that tried to nose in, Gabriel pointed his wand forward. "Expecto patronum!"

Something vaguely silver shot out out of the end. It was a very small wisp. Gabriel frowned at it.

"It's not going to work if you're scowling like that," Lupin said gently. "Try again - maybe try a different memory? The one you're using might not be strong enough."

Not strong enough? Gabriel racked his mind for something else he might be able to use.

Maybe...going farther back would work.

Way back.

When there were four archangels, and not just three.

"Expecto patronum!"

The wisp was larger this time, but it still had no definite shape. It was a bright silver, gleaming in the dim room.

"Excellent!" said Lupin. He seemed surprised. "Well, I have to say, I didn't expect you to get it on the first try...this is certainly excellent progress." He peered at Gabriel. "You're sure your magic is alright? A spell like this might take a little much out of you."

"I feel fine." It was getting very irritating that this year had brought up so many times where Gabriel had to reassure others of how he felt.

"If you're sure..." Lupin paused. "Even so, I'd like you to hold off on practicing it on your own."

"Sure." Yeah, right.

"You've made wonderful progress, though...give it one more try."

Gabriel came back to the common room half an hour later. He hadn't managed to get the animal part of his patronus quite yet, but he was sure he had made out a wing. Figured that it would be some sort of bird.

But he was distracted almost immediately by something that had been nagging at him for ages. There had been a very faint trace of Grace lingering around in the back of his mind ever since shortly after his last conversation with Balthazar, and it had been growing steadily stronger. Gabriel was determined to figure out what it was, but the fact that it was getting stronger practically did the work for him, and the result hit him as he entered the common room.

Gabriel nearly staggered under the huge energy signal. It washed over him quickly, leaving only a trace behind, and Gabriel felt slightly sick as he realized what it meant.

It had been getting stronger because it was coming from somewhere - one of the other Earths. And Gabriel knew it only all too well.

Only one thing put out an flare that passed so quickly like that. If it had been a regular angel, maybe the flare wouldn't have reached quite this far. But if it had-

That meant Raphael was dead.

And Gabriel was the last living archangel.

The end of break came quickly, and with it the return of all his classmates. Gabriel put on his usual cheerful demeanor, telling himself that he didn't care if Raphael was dead and technically Michael was still alive..

Just locked up in Hell with Lucifer.

But no one saw into his internal debate, and besides, the air was thick with excitement for another Quidditch game. Ravenclaw was playing, which meant that the entire House was looking forward to it and yes, Gabriel did have to come because he'd refused to go to all the other games and the dementors weren't going to come to this one because now the headmaster knew to forbid them.

"What, and they listen to him?"

Either way, Gabriel somehow found himself sitting in the Ravenclaw stands the day of the game. He couldn't even use the excuse of weather, because it was sunny [if a bit chilly] out.

Hermione had been rather subdued as they walked down to the pitch. Apparently, she and Ron had gotten into a huge fight after Crookshanks had, supposedly, killed Ron's rat - or at least that was what Ron was saying. Hermione was insisting that Crookshanks hadn't done anything.

Honestly, Gabriel didn't care about the pets, but Ron was now being so nasty to Hermione that he wondered whether he shouldn't give the boy another nightmare. Honestly, all this over a rat?

A whistle blew shrilly and fifteen people rose into the air, Hooch staying right in front of the tower which held the teacher's seats. There was a boy with dreadlocks sitting next to McGonagall, and he was speaking into a large megaphone.

"And they're off, lots of tension this match, next one versus Hufflepuff will be the match for the cup! The Quaffle is being tossed around fairly fast but Spinnet of Gryffindor gains possession, what an excellent Chaser that girl is-"

"Jordan!"

"Sorry, Professor."

"Is he always like that?" Gabriel asked Michael, who was grinning.

"Yeah, Lee Jordan always commentates. Professor McGonagall's constantly yelling at him to get back on task."

"Katie Bell speeding towards the Ravenclaw goalposts - she shoots - YES!"

There was a groan from the Ravenclaws around them that was nearly drowned in cheering from the Gryffindor end.

"What?"

"They scored."

"I can't see anything, we're too low down," Gabriel grumbled. The players were scarlet and blue figures, constantly moving around the pitch so it was difficult to tell who was who.

"Harry..."

"Fine. I'm watching the game. I also have no idea what's going on."

"You could have asked me to explain." Michael descended into a mess of talking, pointing out positions and players and balls as Gryffindor scored several more times. Ravenclaw got a couple of shots in as far as Gabriel could tell, but he wasn't listening to the commentary and instead just watched the players fly around. Broomsticks went fairly fast, it seemed.

The game ended when two of the players, a Ravenclaw with jet-black hair and a Gryffindor, both went shooting after a tiny gold ball which had been flitting around the pitch the entire time. One of them managed to catch it and the entire Gryffindor side exploded, while the people around Gabriel slumped in their seats.

"What?"

"Gryffindor just won," Michael said moodily.

"What, because they caught that ball?"

"You could see the snitch?"

"I don't understand this game at all."

"What's going on?"

"No idea."

Gabriel sat up irritably. "Do you mind? It's three am!"

The other boys in the dorm looked over at him all at the same time. "Something's happened," Anthony said. "The prefects all went downstairs just now and Flitwick's down there too, listen."

Faint voices were drifting up the staircase from the common room. Curious, Gabriel swung out of bed and went over to the door.

"What are you doing?" hissed someone else, but Gabriel crept out of the doorway and to a point on the stairs where he could hear what was going on.

"...in again?!"

"I'm afraid so. We're searching the castle, but you must make sure that no one leaves the tower."

"Yes, sir."

"How did Black get in?"

"We don't know. If you'll excuse me, I have to go help the rest of the professors. Davies, make sure everyone's here."

"Of course, sir."

Gabriel hurried backwards as footsteps came up the stairs.

"What is it?" asked Anthony as he came back in.

"Sirius Black again."

"He broke in again?"

"Must have."

The door creaked open and one of the prefects poked his head in, relaxing slightly when he saw all four of them. "Get to bed," he whispered. "You've got classes tomorrow."

No one made a move to go to their beds until well after the prefect had left.

It turned out that Sirius Black had broken in again, and once again gone to Gryffindor tower. But more than that - this time, he'd gotten in and [according to the story going around] nearly killed Ron Weasley before Ron woke up and alerted everyone else.

Evidence of tighter security could be seen everywhere. Flitwick was spotted teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Black, and everything from cracks in the walls to mouse holes was being boarded up. According to Hermione, the guardian portrait had been sacked, and the Fat Lady returned to her place with a couple of security trolls.

Fortunately, the statue of the witch remained unguarded and totally free of any hindrance, which meant that Gabriel's path to Hogsmeade was clear.

Ron had become something of a celebrity, since it was he who had been attacked. He was perfectly willing to tell the story to anyone who wanted to hear it, and plenty of people did.

"I dunno why he just left, though," he remarked to Gabriel as they were partnered for a Transfiguration project. "I mean, if he'd got the wrong bed, why not just - you know-" Ron made a slicing motion across his throat, apparently unwilling to say it. "-And move on?"

"Well, you'd already woken your dormmates up, right?" Gabriel asked. "They'd start yelling and he'd have to kill the whole House to get out."

"I suppose," said Ron. "Poor Neville, though."

"What about him?"

Neville Longbottom, who was apparently notorious for forgetting the password into the tower, had written them all down to remember them, and Sirius Black had somehow gotten ahold of the list. Thus, Neville was in disgrace, and Gryffindor had been docked hundreds of points. He'd even gotten a screaming letter in the mail which was called a Howler.

"We'll never make the cup now," Ron had complained about the point loss. "Not even with the points we won from the game."

"I suppose you'd like me to be regretful about that," Gabriel said dryly.

Gabriel bumped into someone as he left the library. It was Hermione.

"Oh - sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going-"

"Hermione, what the hell happened to you?" Her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying.

"Nothing, Harry, now can you-"

"No." Gabriel stretched out an arm to stop her getting in the library. "What on earth is going on? You look horrible."

"Harry, let me through, I've got stuff to look up-"

"Homework can wait-"

"No it can't!" Hermione shrieked at him.

"Hermione, you look like you've had a breakdown!"

She looked on the verge of tears, and Gabriel felt a stab of slight guilt. "Harry, please, I'm just trying to get everything done..."

"What's so important? Hermione, if you're crying over homework-"

"My classes are fine!" Hermione shoved past him and Gabriel let his arm fall because if he really tried to stop her then something was going to get broken. Instead, he followed her into the library.

"Hermione-"

"Leave me alone!"

"What is so important that you're sacrificing your health?"

Hermione almost slammer her books onto the table. "Harry, I can handle it! I've just got a lot of homework and then I was going to help Hagrid with his case-"

"How much-"

"I'm fine!"

"No, Hermione, you're obviously not!"

Hermione stared at him for a moment and then broke down.

Gabriel stared, slightly panicked, as Hermione started sniffling. "I'm sorry," she said. "I've just got so much to do..."

"Er-" Gabriel tried patting her shoulder. It didn't seem to help. "D'you want help?"

"I can do it," Hermione said tearfully. "I just need to calm down and do it."

"Hermione, you're going to drive yourself crazy." Gabriel looked properly at her bag, which was packed so full of books that it barely closed. "You're taking every single class they offer, you just don't have enough time!"

"I do," Hermione sniffed. "I just can't-"

"Everyone's got a limit! You're doing all this and, what, helping Hagrid with some sort of mystery?"

"It's his Hippogriff," Hermione informed him miserably. "It attacked one of the Slytherins on the first day and now they're trying to get it executed-"

"And all this on top of Ron refusing to speak to you?" Over a rat, really. Gabriel was definitely going to do something. "You should have asked Michael or me for help!"

"I can do it-'

"Hermione, you're sitting here with eleven classes' worth of homework plus a bunch of extra crap. That's too much for one person."

"I've been getting through it all year," Hermione said. "I can do it now-"

"Hermione," Gabriel said firmly. "Listen to me. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how much of this homework gets done. You are trying to do too much. And your schoolwork is not more important than making sure you're okay."

"I'm fine-"

"Says the girl crying in front of me."

Hermione sniffed loudly. "I'll be okay, I just need to calm down-"

"You need to rest."

"No, I've got to finish this-"

"Hermione. You're going to end up exhausted if you try to keep doing this."

"Harry-"

"No." Gabriel moved in between Hermione and the table. "None of this is getting touched until you're okay."

Hermione stared at him incredulously. "Harry-"

"I will bring Madam Pomfrey into this if I have to."

"Harry, I'm not ill! Let me do my homework!"

"Hermione-"

In the end, Gabriel did bring Madam Pomfrey into it.

Michael sat down at lunch that day. "Where's Hermione?" ne asked. "I didn't see her yesterday."

"She's in the hospital wing," Gabriel told him. "She was freaking out because of all the homework she had so I dragged her up there."

"What?" Michael looked astonished. "But - she seemed alright-"

"I don't think either of us have been paying very good attention this year." Gabriel might have been distracted with a multitude of things, but that didn't mean that he was allowed to ignore his friends.

Michael was frowning at nir plate. "Should we go visit?"

"If I visit she's going to try and curse me. So I'm not. But feel free."

The next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend, but Gabriel didn't go down to the village. Instead, he stayed inside and practiced the Patronus charm. He still couldn't get it to form a shape, even though it was forming a very solid and bright silver smoke-shield-thing.

Hermione had finally left the hospital wing and she still wasn't speaking to Gabriel. Evidently, she still thought he had been unreasonable. Gabriel started feeling a sort of itch everywhere, something that would fade over time and wasn't really an itch but just more of a sense of wrongness that would usually pop up around passing periods and he still couldn't figure out what was causing it when he ran into Lupin in the hallways.

Per Gabriel's usual luck, he had the Marauder's Map open when they did.

Both parties stumbled backwards slightly and Lupin's eyes widened as he noticed the map. "Harry, what - where did you get that?"

"Nowhere," said Gabriel, hurriedly folding it up, but too late, Lupin had recognized it. Somehow.

"Harry, that's very dangerous-"

"It's a map!"

"Yes, I know." Lupin snatched it out of his hands and Gabriel was tempted to summon it back and run. To Gabriel's surprise, Lupin muttered an tapped on the map, making the ink fade away.

"You know how to work it?"

"I knew the people who made it. We were in Hogwarts around the same time."

"Then-"

"Harry," Lupin said sternly. "Tell me you haven't been to Hogsmeade."

Gabriel acted so shocked and offended at the accusation [even though he had] that Lupin actually backed up a little.

"Alright," Lupin put his hands up, map still held in one. "I'm sorry. I was just making sure."

"Can I have the map back, then?"

Lupin glanced down at it. "No," he decided. "I'm afraid that, as a teacher, it's something I can't let you have. Sorry, Harry."

He walked off down the hall.

Gabriel looked after him. He had really hoped that it wouldn't come to breaking into his office.

In the end, Gabriel decided that Lupin was still a decent teacher and the map really wasn't worth breaking into his office for, if he even kept it in there. Gabriel let it be and figured that if he really needed to he'd make his own map of Hogwarts.

He hadn't seen Hermione in ages, though according to Ron they had finally made up, of sorts, and stopped cold-shouldering each other.

"It was because of Hagrid," Ron told him. "He lost his case, you know, with Buckbeak-"

"The Hippogriff?"

"Yeah, 'cause there was this whole mess with the Slytherins - anyway he lost the case, and so we've only got the appeal to stop them executing Buckbeak."

"And you're helping her?"

"Yeah, only it's not going so well. We haven't found a lot of evidence to help, and there's only been one recorded case so far where a creature got off, and that was because it was a Manticore mauling and everyone was too scared to go near it."

The only time Gabriel saw her anymore was in their shared classes, and she never partnered up with him or Michael. It was in Divination that her temper seemed to get the better of her.

Trelawney had just finished predicting that Gabriel would die by the hand of a large dog [which she called a Grim] when Hermione spoke up.

"Not the Grim again," she said loudly, closing her book with a thump. Everyone in the class looked at her.

This was, perhaps, understandable. Trelawney had predicted Gabriel's death by Grim at least twelve times since Christmas break, and during their palmistry unit kept flinching whenever she looked at his hand. It was getting very irritating.

Trelawney surveyed Hermione with a distant look. "My dear, if I may say so...I perceive very little of the Sight about you...perhaps you do not think widely enough for future-telling..."

There was a moment's silence.

"Fine!" Hermione said suddenly, shoving her book into her bag. "Fine! You know what? I don't care!" She swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm leaving!"

And to the astonishment of everyone in the classroom, she did exactly that, striding over to the trapdoor, kicking it open, and climbing down.

"Ooooh!" said another Gryffindor suddenly. "Professor! You said it ages ago, I just remembered! 'Around Easter, one of our number will leave us forever'!"

Trelawney gave the girl a sad smile. "I did indeed forsee that Miss Granger would leave us...however, I had hoped that I was wrong...the Inner Eye is often misled..."

Even having dropped Divination, Hermione appeared in classes even more tired-looking than Lupin. The Easter holidays were hardly relaxing, and even though exams were months away work was piled on. Gabriel bought a dictation quill off one of the upper years while they were too distracted to really realize what they were doing and used that to get his work done faster so he had time to think of ideas to keep Hermione from keeling over in the middle of something, while also not letting her know that he was doing anything.

It was more difficult than he anticipated, mostly because he kept forgetting that he'd used so much of his Grace saving Balthazar's life. But Gabriel managed little things.

Hermione probably got suspicious, but even so she never asked Gabriel about it.

The last game of the Quidditch season was approaching in higher stakes than ever before. Gabriel did his best to remove himself from the fervor, and counted himself lucky that Ravenclaw hadn't won the last game or it would have been even worse.

The Cup Final was so popular that nearly everyone turned out to watch it - even Hermione was going, but Gabriel [through liberal use of what he remembered of the map and his invisibility cloak] managed to stay out of the way and avoid being dragged along to watch the game.

He had no idea what happened but he assumed that Gryffindor won, from the way all the red-wearing supporters were cheering when they got back to the castle.

The upcoming exams distracted most from the victory over Hufflepuff. Though the weather outside was warm and inviting, they were all sitting inside frantically revising and making sure they'd got the right notes.

Gabriel thought he did fairly well - he didn't have to make up his History of Magic bit, at any point. Defense was the most interesting exam - Lupin had set up a sort of obstacle course where they had to get past several of the creatures they had learned about over the course of the year. Lupin watched him as Gabriel climbed back out of the trunk with the Boggart, but Gabriel didn't look back - Not-Lucifer had appeared again and he was trying to get back to a state he could reasonably produce a Patronus in.

There was someone in a pinstriped cloak standing on the steps of the school when Gabriel came up after the exam. Gabriel ignored him, but he was sure the man was watching him - not such an uncommon occurrence, due to his vessel's fame.

Divination was the last one they had, and definitely the weirdest.

The exam itself was fine. Gabriel pretended to see a load of stuff in the crystal ball. Trelawney wrote a lot on the parchment perched in her lap. The weird bit came when Gabriel had turned around and was heading towards the door.

"It will happen tonight," said a deep, hoarse voice. Gabriel whirled around.

Trelawney had gone all stiff in her chair and was staring at nothing, a few feet to the left of Gabriel's head. She spoke again, in the same hoarse voice.

"The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight...before midnight...the servant will set out...to rejoin his master..."

Trelawney gave a gasp and a start like a person suddenly waking up.

"Dear me...I must have dozed off..." she muttered, then noticed Gabriel still standing there with an open mouth. "Is there something wrong?"

"No," Gabriel said eventually. "No, I don't think so." He descended the silver ladder, mind whirling. What the hell had that been?

Ooooooooooooh, we approach the climax! I had to cut it off here because it made the most sense and this chapter was long enough without adding the big finale to it. Hermione's going through a rough time, and Ron's just kind of rude I guess. Scabbers wasn't that great, come on.

Read and review!