Ah yes. Lucky number 47. Wait a minute. It's 49 that's lucky. Guess you guys will have to wait a few more chapters.

[I'm not sorry at all]

In case you haven't already guessed, I've given up on trying to avoid the evil author path.

To Elise: Thank you for your long review! It's totally understandable to be a little confused by gender neutrality, but I think the point you're missing is that how someone acts doesn't affect their gender identity. I don't feel the need to make Michael 'act' gender neutral, just like I don't feel the need to make Hermione or Ginny or Luna 'act' female and go shopping and gossip while they paint each other's nails and talk about boys.

See what I mean?

If you're still confused, I'd suggest looking it up, since I am not actually gender neutral and I don't think I'm the best person to explain it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter

Hel had apparently moved in permanently. Gabriel had come down Christmas morning to see her sitting on the sofa, calm as you please, and with her mask in place instead of a full glamour.

"What are you doing here?" Gabriel had immediately realized how rude that sounded. "Sorry, I just - didn't expect that you hadn't left yet."

"It's fine," Hel replied quickly, sitting up from where she had been leaning against the back of the sofa. "I just thought - well, travel gets a little tiring when you have gotten used to staying in one place for so long."

"It's fine if you stay," Gabriel reassured her quietly. "I just thought you wanted to travel more. But you always had a home here, Hel."

"I know." The thing was, judging by the way she had relaxed, Gabriel didn't think she did.

"I'm surprised Slepnir and the others aren't up yet," Hel commented, breaking the silence which had settled over them. Gabriel joined her on the sofa.

"They planned to get up early, but they stayed up so late last night that I don't think even Fenris will be up for a while."

Hel nodded. "I wasn't sure how long the party went on, but I thought something was odd."

A couple brightly patterned packages had been added to the mess under the tree, but Gabriel didn't bring attention to them. "I could set up a room for you, if you want. Personalized and everything. You can decorate it with whatever souvenirs you got. How was your trip, by the way?"

Hel seemed relieved by the subject change. "That would be nice...I think. And this world is so vibrant." She smiled. "There is so much more going on than there ever was in Helheim! And so much variety. Who would have ever thought that humans could invent so much?"

"Counting my siblings? Probably not a lot."

That made her laugh. "You know that is not what I meant."

"Alright, then, tell me what you did. Where was your favorite?"

"Well, I did like India, but I think..."

Gabriel was confronted with two problems as Christmas vacation drew to a close.

There was the usual mania in which Fenris attempted to insist that the Weasleys having met them meant it was okay for them to go with Gabriel to Hogwarts, which Gabriel refused on the grounds that Fenris didn't have enough proof and then spent a few hours making it up to him.

Which, in this case, meant a few hours playing and badly losing at various games which were picked seemingly at random. Gabriel always made sure not to make it too obvious that he was loosing on purpose, otherwise Fenris would just get even madder.

The other problem was Sigyn.

Gabriel had no idea why she'd even shown up for Christmas, since so far as he'd asked for her help she had mysteriously vanished on personal trips every time he came home, seemingly determined not to spend a minute within fifty miles of Gabriel. He didn't blame her, of course, but it was a little disappointing to know that Sigyn's resolve hadn't softened a bit in the nine or so centuries separating now and when she'd kicked him out.

Despite all this, however, she'd continued to stay in the house after Christmas.

Gabriel had no idea why.

Vali and Narvi might have convinced her, but Sigyn didn't let anyone have that much influence over her, and Gabriel wasn't entirely sure she'd make an exception for her sons. Whatever her [completely mysterious] reasons, it didn't come hand in hand with Sigyn paying any actual attention to Gabriel again.

Which was fine, because this actually made sense.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the other occupants of the house were not nearly as willing to let the matter lie.

"I have no idea," Balthazar began, the usual glass in hand and back from wherever he'd been a few days ago, "Why you would just let a woman like that pretend you don't exist."

"Because she'd probably stab me if I tried to talk to her."

"So? What's she going to do, kill you?" Balthazar drained his glass. "I mean, she's done plenty to me and I'm still kicking."

"That's because you're insane and keep flirting with her." Gabriel didn't look up from the book, but he hadn't read a single word of it since he'd picked it up. It was one of those days.

"Those twins of yours don't seem to mind. 'Course, that could just be that they like seeing me get stabbed with those fancy daggers of hers." Balthazar squinted at Gabriel. "Are you even listening to me, Gabriel?"

"Unfortunately, I've heard every word you just said."

"Shut it. What did you do, anyway? I've never seen a woman so determinedly offended by something."

"I pretended I was Loki and didn't tell her otherwise until after we were married."

Balthazar paused. "...And after the twins were born?"

"Yes. They were about thirty."

Balthazar whistled. "That would do it, I suppose. Sorry, I've got nothing."

"I wasn't asking for reconciliation advice. You were the one who started this conversation in the first place."

"When did you get married, anyway?"

"Why the sudden interest in my love life?" Gabriel closed the book with a snap and chucked it at Balthazar, who dodged with what looked like minimal effort.

"I was just wondering. No need to get so defensive. But I was thinking, since they didn't technically have divorce back then-"

Gabriel told his brother exactly where he could shove that train of thought and then closed the door in his face.

"And for your information, the Vikings had most definitely invented divorce and you don't want to know what it involved!"

Vali came up to Gabriel the night before he left. "Hey."

"Hey. Something on your mind?"

"Well-" Gabriel wasn't even looking at him and he could sense Vali's hesitation. "Not to be rude, but, are you fucking serious?"

Gabriel frowned and turned around. "Excuse me?"

"I mean about mom!" Vali gestured widely. "Because you were an angel? Seriously?"

"What are you talking about?"

"When she kicked you out!"

"Oh." Understanding hit Gabriel in a flash. "Well, since you probably don't remember, I didn't exactly have a choice."

"So you just let her-"

"Vali, no one lets your mother do anything."

Vali crossed his arms stubbornly. "So? You just avoided her for nine hundred years?"

"Do I look like a masochist to you? Sigyn's still mad at me, in case you didn't notice."

"Mom is overreacting too." The firm statement surprised Gabriel. "Honestly - I only found out about all this because Narvi and me caught her trying to leave again and he finally asked her what he problem was staying here!"

"So what?" Gabriel asked sharply.

"So, I'm a little upset finding out that my parents split up because one of them couldn't handle the other's species!"

"I doubt it was just that-"

"If it was just the fact that you didn't tell her mom would have gotten over it by now."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow skeptically. "You seen pretty confident that you've got the measure of your mother."

"I'm confident that this whole mess is stupid."

"Is there a point to this, Vali?" Gabriel leaned back against the wall his trunk was propped on. "What do you want to do, Parent Trap us?"

"I don't know." Vali dropped his hands to his side and suddenly looked much younger. "Just...could you at least make an effort to get along better?"

"I'm not making any promises."

"Dad-"

"I'll try, Vali, but if I know anything about your mother I'll probably get stabbed for it."

Hogwarts was exactly as Gabriel remembered it. Not surprising, considering he'd only been gone a few weeks.

But honestly, it was starting to get a little boring.

Alright, sure, there were Michael and Hermione to keep things lively, and some sort of disaster was bound to happen sooner or later, but the last time Gabriel had spent more than a few years in once place humanity had still been struggling with basic concepts like not dumping their waste in the street.

And then there was the annoyance factor of people continually 'sneaking' up to him to ask when the next DA meeting was.

"Not today, ask someone else." Gabriel went practically on autopilot whenever he heard the question by now, and Michael wasn't much better.

"Honestly," Ne grumbled as Zacharias Smith haughtily stalked away. "You'd think they'd figure out to ask each other instead of coming up to you that obviously."

"Well, you never know. They are wizards."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on Michael, can you point out any wizard-raised person in this school and honestly tell me that they're not even a little bit dense?"

"Well when you put it like that."

Despite the annoyances and the fact that Gabriel had to go to classes again, things were fitting back together neatly and it seemed like for once a year at Hogwarts had arrived that would not be fraught with danger.

Except for the whole Dark Lord on the loose bit, but immediate danger at least seemed to be nowhere near.

Unless, of course, Hermione finally lost it and actually assaulted Fred and George.

"I don't understand what you've got against them," Gabriel said as he watched Fred hex Ernie MacMillian behind his back for the tenth time while George watched, instead of practicing with each other.

"It's not them," Hermione huffed. "Or, well, yes it is them! They've been getting started on this joke shop of theirs."

"So?"

"So," Hermione stressed the word dangerously as she attempted to glare a hole in the back of George's head, "They've been testing their products on people."

"What?"

"I can't even do anything about it, because they're testing it all on themselves-" Well, that made a lot more sense than what Gabriel had thought Hermione had meant. "-And they're not doing anything really danger, it's just this line of sweets they've invented to get out of class-"

"What kind?" Gabriel interrupted.

Hermione switched her glare to him. "You'd probably support them," She muttered darkly. "It's this range of sweets to make you ill, apparently - gives you a headache, fever, makes you throw up, or whatever, and then as soon as you leave the room you eat the second bit and skive."

No wonder it was grating on Hermione so much. She probably considered the candy a personal offense. "I've never heard of this before."

"Well, it's all based in Gryffindor tower, obviously, I don't think they've done much marketing." Hermione's tone changed to one of grudging respect. "Mind you, there was this thing they were demonstrating - a hat that turns your head invisible, and I've no idea how they did it!"

"Just the head?"

"Yes!"

"Seems kind of pointless."

"It's meant to be a joke, but yes, I suppose it is."

"Joke shop, huh?" Gabriel muttered to himself.

This warranted a further look.

Gabriel, from his place at the Ravenclaw table, saw Fred and George look up sharply when the owl landed in between them.

He also saw them exchange a puzzled look, figure out that it was indeed addressed to them, and open it. Their eyes opened wide as something with a gold glint fell onto the table.

Gabriel didn't bother trying not to grin and did so, and so fiercely that he made a couple of nearby Ravenclaws scoot away nervously. Michael didn't react besides trying to follow Gabriel's line of sight.

"What's made you so happy?"

"Nothing in particular."

Michael didn't press the subject, but Gabriel did see nir roll nir eyes.

The twins glanced around the hall from the note they had been huddled over, eyes meeting Gabriel's. Gabriel grinned wider, and put a finger over his lips.

Fred and George cornered him as soon as the period let out, and Gabriel let them yank him behind a pillar without resisting, meeting their incredulous faces with a lazy grin.

"Something I can do for you?"

"What is this?" Fred shoved the key into his face, while George held up the note that had been included.

Have fun. -Gabriel.

"It looks like a key," said Gabriel, keeping a straight face.

"Why," George asked, "Did you send us a key to the Potter vault?"

"Who says it's for the Potter vault?"

The twins exchanged glances. "Is it?"

"Of course it is." Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Did you think that fancy P engraving was just for kicks?"

"But why?"

"Because I felt like it." Gabriel crossed his arms. "Hermione told me about this shop venture of yours."

Slow understanding and something like critical levels of confusion dawned on the twins.

"But-"

"Why would you-"

"Archangel and all-"

"Want to fund us?"

"Because I felt like it," Gabriel repeated. "Besides, what the hell was I going to do with all that money? Might as well hand it over to someone who's going to put it to a good use." He winked. "Careful with that lot, and it could last you quite a while."

Fred seemed to have been rendered speechless.

"Harry," George breathed, "But - this is an entire pureblood fortune."

"Exactly. What the hell am I supposed to do with all that gold? I don't need it." He had plenty in his moneybag in case of emergency, besides, and only the wizarding world used that type of currency, so it would be completely useless as Gabriel intended to avoid the magical districts as much as possible.

Fred looked between the key in his hand and Gabriel. "You're serious."

"Deadly." Gabriel reconsidered. "Well, not deadly, but pretty damn close anyways."

"Because you like the idea of a joke shop?" George asked weakly.

Gabriel shrugged. "Someone's got to be the one who makes fun of everything else. Might as well be you two, I'm busy." He clapped them both on their shoulders. "Have fun with that. Don't waste it."

He wasn't sure whether the twins actually moved or just stood there staring in shock at the key, but Gabriel had a Runes class to get to.

A few days after the incident with the vault key, Gabriel came down to the Great Hall and was immediately pulled over to the Gryffindor table by a shaken-looking Hermione.

"What's happened?" He demanded as she shoved him into a seat next to Michael, who didn't look much better.

"Look at this!" Hermione thrust a newspaper in Gabriel's face, and he leaned back to make out the words.

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN

"What's Azkaban again?"

"It's the wizard prison." Michael answered after a moment, and Gabriel's gaze dropped to the fifty or so pictures below the bold headline.

He recognized almost all of the family names listed - every single one of the escapees had had at least one relative in the graveyard at the end of last year.

"Shit."

"Basically." Hermione didn't even yell at him for swearing - or maybe she'd just given up on getting him to stop.

"I thought it was supposed to be impregnable or something?" Gabriel scanned through the article quickly as he asked.

"Sirius broke out," Hermione pointed out.

"Sirius is an Animagus. I doubt even one of this lot can do that." Gabriel glanced around. "And while we're on this subject, is there a reason no one else seems worried?"

"No one else gets the newspaper," Michael reminded Gabriel. "Besides, look at Dumbledore."

Dumbledore and McGonagall were in deep conversation with frowns set into both their faces. From further down the table, Ackerly would occasionally send glares up at them - no surprise there, since the breakout was a serious hit to the credibility of her boss's claim that Voldemort was dead.

"Oh, I hope she's upset," Hermione said viciously, seeing where Gabriel was looking. "Honestly...at least we know she won't try and get another one of those Decrees passed."

It was true - Ackerly hadn't attempted to pass a single new rule after Gabriel had spent three weeks switching them around and making them say progressively more ridiculous things, completely baffling the teachers when they couldn't detect a single bit of forgery magic on the parchment.

Michael had glanced around the Hall again, and was now staring at the opposite end. "Is it just me," Ne said, tapping Gabriel on the shoulder without looking away, "Or is Malfoy staring at you?"

Gabriel followed nir line of sight and saw that yes, Draco was actually glaring at him rather darkly. Gabriel racked his mind for a reason why the youngest Malfoy would be glaring at him, and with a jolt remembered his promise from earlier in the year to meet Draco at the train station over break.

Whoops.

"One sec," he told Michael, gesturing at Draco with one hand and seeing the surprise on the latter's face when he realized he'd been noticed. Gabriel got up and meandered out of the hall.

He didn't have to wait long for Draco to follow.

"What was the point of all that nonsense if you weren't going to follow through?" Draco sounded angry, too, and he had every right to be.

"It wasn't nonsense. There was the brief issue of my having to go save someone and I couldn't make the train."

There was a brief pause, and Draco looked like he was deciding whether or not he believed Gabriel. "So you just thought I could handle it?"

"I don't know where you live, Draco, what did you expect me to do? Burst through a window and kidnap you to freedom?"

Draco didn't have an answer. He was staring at the ground. "I saw you looking at the news," He said. "I wanted to warn you-"

"Don't go there." The words came out sharper than Gabriel had intended, and he was suddenly inches in front of Draco, who jumped backwards slightly. "I don't care how much you feel live you have to make up, don't put yourself at risk to do that. You're fifteen."

"So are you."

Right. "I know that," Gabriel said. "And do you see me risking my ass?"

"You just said you had to go and save someone."

"Because I reasonably could and it wouldn't have gotten me killed. What would happen if someone found out that you'd tried to warn me?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Judging from what I've seen of Voldemort before, nothing good."

Surprisingly, Draco didn't react that much to the name. Maybe he was desensitized, but Gabriel was fairly sure that Death Eaters called him 'The Dark Lord' or some other ridiculous title. He looked uncomfortable. "Is there somewhere else we can go?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder at the Hall.

Gabriel nodded. "Later." He was struck by a sudden memory from the year before last. "There's this place on the seventh floor - near a tapestry of some idiot with trolls in ballet costumes. There'll be a door there - go in it. Say tonight?"

Draco nodded tersely. "Fine."

"See you then."

Draco was exactly on time, which was odd, because Gabriel had never specified a time.

He opened the door on an astonished Gabriel, who was looking around at the small room with chairs and a fireplace.

"What's got you so shocked?"

"This room," Gabriel said, "Has somehow completely changed its dimensions."

That made Draco look around in surprise. "How do you know?"

"I've been in here before."

"What did it look like then?"

"Much bigger. Also lots more stuff, which would probably be very easy to get lost in now that I think about it. This room is a lot more suitable. I was trying to figure out how it worked."

"What room is this?" Draco poked one of the chairs apprehensively.

"Never mind," Gabriel said, collapsing into one gracelessly, "You wanted to talk about something privately. What?"

Draco's hand tightened on the back of the chair, and he didn't sit down. "When you said you could help," he began, "Did you mean it?"

"Help you not have to get an evil tattoo? 'Course."

"So about the train station-"

"I promise, that was an accident. I didn't mean to leave you high and dry."

Hesitantly, Draco took a seat. He was perched on the edge of the chair, and was leaning slightly forward. "Is-" He cleared his throat and tried again. "Do you think there's really anything you can do, or are you just leading me on?"

"Straight to the point." Gabriel couldn't sense anything other than blunt demand in Draco's question. He wasn't hopeful, not anymore, he just wanted to find a way out he wasn't even sure was there. "Yes, I do mean it."

"How?" Draco almost looked disappointed. "What can you do?"

"Probably a lot more than you think I can." Gabriel grinned. "Let's be honest, Draco, you underestimate me."

"So you're telling me you have a way of - of what, protecting me?"

"What are you asking me to do?"

Draco took a deep breath and took several moments before he answered.

"I don't want to be a death eater."

"Then I can help."

"How?"

"How?" Gabriel snorted. "You expect me to come up with a plan in twelve seconds? I can help, believe me, but I'm gonna need a little more time than that."

Draco's hands twined together and apart again in an unconscious motion. He didn't respond.

"...Something eating at you?"

"I'm supposed to take the dark mark next summer." The words came out so quietly that if Gabriel had been human he doubted he'd have heard them.

"Ah." Gabriel waited.

"I don't-" Draco took a deep breath. "I don't want anything to do with it. I - it doesn't matter who they hate, what they do is-" He broke off, hands clenching at the armrests. Gabriel didn't have to ask who 'they' were.

"I told you you deserved a choice," He told Draco, "And I meant it. I'm sorry about what happened over break, and I swear it won't happen again. Trust me, Draco."

Draco laughed quietly. "Trust you?" He said spitefully. "You have no idea - just because I'm a Slytherin, everyone assumes I'm evil. I can see the looks I get in that club - they all think I'm going to hex them as soon as they turn their backs on me. It doesn't matter if I have a choice or not, neither side is any better than the other!"

Gabriel stayed still and let Draco shout at him. The latter slumped into his seat once he'd finished yelling, energy seemingly used up.

"Sorry," He muttered after a moment.

"No, I get it. Sometimes you just gotta yell a bit." Gabriel stood up. "I'll let you know once I've got something, then. Room's all yours if you'd like to stay. See you, Draco."

It seemed to be just one disaster after another this year.

Nothing more had come up with Draco, luckily, aside from Gabriel paying a bit more attention to him - and more specifically, the people around him - during DA meetings. But that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that something was leeching off of Gabriel's horn.

He put it down for three seconds and this happened. Unbelievable.

Okay, maybe it was closer to say he put it down somewhere safe for about eight months, but still!

Even more unfortunately, Gabriel could tell exactly where it was being leeched off to when he looked closer.

"Great." His siblings just couldn't leave well enough alone, could they?

"What?" Michael had looked up at Gabriel's mutter. "Something the matter?" Ne asked, a little more carefully as ne took in Gabriel's frown.

"Nothing." Gabriel said shortly, standing up and shoving his things into a pile. "Something's just come up."

"What?" Michael stood up too, with a little more difficulty since ne was sitting on nir bed. They were both in Michael's still-private dorm room, working on various assignments and using the other as a sounding board. "Wh - you can't just leave!"

"Relax, Michael, you're acting like you think I'm going to vanish and not be back for three years. I'll be back before you know it." He intended to just leave a double, actually, but that would take to long and he needed to take care of whoever was channeling the Horn of Gabriel pronto.

Michael hesitated visibly. "But what-"

Gabriel flew off before Michael could finish nir question and before he could decide that the pain of using his wings again outweighed the need to go see what the fuck was happening.

Ow.

"Christ-" Gabriel took a deep breath but left his hand on his back in a vain attempt to alleviate the sudden burn where his third pair used to meet his vessel. Fortunately, he'd landed on the right Earth.

"Alright, then." Gabriel glanced down at himself. "Yeah, this has to go."

He stepped onto the busy city street, the appearance of his old vessel melting over him and making him oh-so-slightly taller. Now that it was here, it was blindingly obvious where the signal was coming from, especially if you knew where to look.

But who had managed to engineer this?

Gabriel winced and braced himself, snapping out his wings and arriving in the middle of a bloodbath.

Gabriel almost forgot the ache in his wings as he looked around in horror at the bodies strewn around the room. The floor was covered in ashes and scars from a vicious fire, creating the shapes of bony and tattered wings which Gabriel did his best not to concentrate too hard on. Dropped angel blades lay here and there on the dirty floor of what looked like a factory, but most appeared to have either vanished or been scavenged by others who might have come by.

Gabriel breathed out slowly and rested a hand over his mouth.

This was bad.

Very bad.

The sigil was a stark red on the wall, fading away from the bright bluish-white it had been flashing when he'd arrived, and Gabriel wrenched his attention away from his fallen siblings as he stepped closer [and over someone] to get a closer look.

He touched it, scraping away a small amount and examining it.

"Griffin feathers, fairy bones...phew. Someone went to a lot of trouble." Gabriel very firmly told himself that he was not going to turn back around, and dusted his hand off. "Question is, why bring a bunch of angels here just to kill them?"

Who would be that desperate to kill angels?

Gabriel didn't have time to think of an answer as something tugged sharply at him - not his vessel, him, something he hadn't felt in ages, and Gabriel was being pulled through space with the force of the summoning until he landed awkwardly on a carpet - and ew, who had picked out this thing? - and rolled, bringing himself to his feet at the same moment that holy fire burst up in a circle around him.

There was someone standing just outside the circle.

"Gabriel," Metatron said jovially. "Glad to see you made it."

Ehehehe.

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