Good thing we got all that out there, huh? I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter. I was looking for a way to get Michael to get nir side of everything out there without having Gabriel eavesdrop on a conversation or something. You guys left a ton of reviews on that chapter - my God, I've got a lot to live up to, what with your expectations for this story!
And this is the part where I admit that I know what happens with the Knights, but I have less of a solid idea on how I'm going to get from here to where I know the story goes after that. The in-between part is a little tenuous, but I've been pulling off trickier writing situations than that for this entire story to be completely honest. So don't worry. :)
This chapter's a little later than the last few have been, mainly because of the above, but also because I've been trying to work on some other stuff. And I've been watching Gravity Falls. Or trying to, at least, but finding the episodes is tough.
Also I have discovered that rainbows can look like some crazy stuff because science. This is what happens when you show your physics major friend a picture of a double rainbow.
But to be serious again for a minute...guys, I really don't see more than a few more chapters for this story. We are very seriously coming up on the final arc. Maybe three more chapters before the epilogue? That could change, but...I doubt it.
Since there is so little left, I'm gonna try and finish this before school starts - I don't want to leave you hanging. Except that I do. But last time school started it was like a month before I could update again, and I'm not that mean.
Anyway. I have a couple weeks, so let's hope that's enough.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.
Neither of them went straight back to Grimmauld Place; even the Order was wary about staying there too long. Narcissa and Draco had been given the secret, and no one was sure whether or not they'd give it away.
Hogwarts didn't feel much better, though.
Most of the students were either in shock or mourning over Dumbledore's death. The castle might as well have been draped in black everywhere. The upside, in Gabriel's opinion, was that classes had been cancelled while McGonagall helped organize the funeral and all other matters.
Parents had shown up and tried to take their kids home with them. Some went, some refused to leave until after the funeral. Hogsmeade was crammed with people traveling in to attend.
"I'm wondering if you're actually going to show up for it."
Gabriel shrugged. He was perched in a window seat that was really just the stone ledge on the inside of the pane, looking out over the grounds. "Maybe."
"People are going to expect you to," Michael reminded him.
"They're still expecting an explanation for what I did that night," Gabriel said. "They can stand to be disappointed."
There was a flash of a grin on Michael's face. Ne changed the subject, flipping a page in the book ne was reading. "What are you looking at?"
"I thought there might be something more interesting outside." The other Ravenclaws were either in the dorms or elsewhere in the castle and Gabriel had never been so bored. "All that's happened is the squid showing up for a minute. Why is there even a giant squid in this lake in the first place?"
"No idea," Michael said. "Hagrid, probably."
Ne had a point.
"What about afterwards?"
"What?"
"Afterwards," Michael repeated. "After the funeral. Voldemort's still alive, even if the Horcruxes are gone."
"He just lost half his forces," Gabriel pointed out. "I doubt he'll be trying anything soon."
"Dumbledore's dead," Michael countered. "That's going to make him more confident. If he manages to recruit enough people, then he'll start attacking again. And if the Knights are providing demons, he'll have a lot of volunteers."
"Alright, I get your point." Gabriel swing his legs off the ledge of the seat, dropping down to the floor. "What are you suggesting?"
"We could just track him down to wherever he's hiding." Michael closed the book, putting it to the side.
"Take the fight to him?"
"Basically. But wherever he's hiding is his territory, and I'd like to give him as few advantages as possible, so let's call that Plan B."
"Normally I'd come up with Plan A first." Gabriel draped himself over a chair. "Got one of those?"
"You can't think of anything?" It was a lighthearted jab.
"You're the general here." Gabriel threaded his hands together behind his head. "If we had a way of luring him out...it would have to be something pretty big to get him into the open.
"Regular demons won't be an issue, at least."
"The Knights will, if they show up."
"I doubt they will. To protect him?" Michael's skepticism was clear. "They're not going to be that invested in keeping him safe."
"I don't get why magic's that interesting to them," Gabriel complained. "It's just magic. It might be a different kind, but there's plenty of it back where they can get to it more easily."
"Greed?" Michael suggested. "It's different. That's probably a good enough justification for them. That, and it reacts weirdly with Grace."
Gabriel looked over at nem. "What do you mean?"
"Didn't you notice?" Michael looked surprised. "For me, magic's been more difficult ever since I got my Grace back. Like they're opposites repelling each other."
That would explain a lot, actually. Gabriel had never been one to use magic when he could use Grace, but the difficulty he'd had in earlier years suddenly made a startling amount of sense.
"They don't know that," he said eventually. There was an idea pulling itself together in his head, but he didn't want to mention it right then. If he could manage it, though...
Michael shrugged. "Let's hope they don't find out, then."
The funeral was a grand affair that Gabriel did not attend, probably to the delight of the myriad journalists there.
He did discover that there was nothing on Grace or magic or how they interacted in Muriel's secret Founder room [and he hadn't asked her about it, since she had been down at the funeral]. There wasn't anything she'd written down about it, much less in the books lining the shelves.
The only interesting thing that happened all day was Fawkes showing up.
Gabriel had retreated to the Astronomy tower, leaning over the railing, when there was a crackle of flames and Fawkes settled onto the railing next to him.
"Why aren't you down there?" Honestly, he'd seen too much to be weirded out by a bird visiting him.
Fawkes made a high, sad sound and scooted closer to Gabriel, claws scratching the railing. Gabriel raised one hand to scratch at the longer feathers onto his head, which Fawkes seemed to like.
"I would've thought you'd like Michael better," Gabriel muttered. "Seeing as you're both winged beings with a thing for fire."
Fawkes keened and pressed his head into Gabriel's hand. "Alright, I get it. Less talking, more petting."
Gabriel stopped for a minute to hoist himself up to sit on the railing. He leaned against the wall where the railing ended, twining his feet between the bars. Just because the fall wouldn't kill him didn't mean he wanted to fall.
Fawkes scooted closer again, trilling insistently. His eyes fell shut when Gabriel started scratching again, and if birds could smile Fawkes was doing it.
Eventually Fawkes shifted away, ruffling his wings. Gabriel ran a few fingers absentmindedly over the phoenix's primaries. They did look a bit like Michael's, if a little more feathery and grounded in physical form.
From here, Gabriel could see a few people drifting across the lawn - probably students returning to the school. He couldn't see the ceremony from where he sat, but Gabriel didn't particularly want to. He was content with avoiding the mass of humans who wanted answers he didn't want to give and invasive journalists who would want a piece on why he hadn't come and what had happened the night Dumbledore died.
No, thanks.
Fawkes made another keening noise, resting his head on Gabriel's knee. If he had been bird-smiling before, now he looked distinctly sad.
"What, are you sad about Dumbledore?" That got another sad cree in reply. "I don't see why."
Fawkes poked his beak sharply into Gabriel's knee. "Fine, fine. No bad-mouthing the dead."
He seemed to have offended the phoenix. Fawkes hopped away, ducking his head under his wing like he was trying to groom himself.
"Oh, I see how it is." Fawkes didn't react. Gabriel was getting snubbed by a bird.
Gabriel huffed and looked away. The view was kind of impressive, even for someone who'd been on top of mountains it usually took months to climb - if you got too far up, though, the clouds covered most of the view. But the vista of mountains didn't make him feel any better about what he knew was looming in the proverbial distance.
"Why do I get the feeling this is a calm before the storm?" He murmured.
The metaphorical storm hovered in the wings while Michael unveiled nir idea.
"I thought all the Horcruxes were destroyed," Hermione said.
"Voldemort doesn't know that," Michael pointed out. There was a map of Diagon Alley spread over a table that had been, apparently, left behind in the abandoned classroom they were avoiding other people's attention in. "If he thinks one of them is at risk, he'll come and try to protect it."
"He's lost half his forces," Luna said, surprisingly lucid. "I don't think he'd risk it."
"It's a part of his soul," Gabriel said. "Or at least he thinks it is. I'm still not sure how it works. Point is, Voldemort's desperate for immortality. Desperation makes people idiots." Even if they were already idiots. "And Dumbledore's death is going to make him more confident."
Hermione nodded, looking thoughtful. "So what are you planning?"
"The one Gabriel found was hidden in Gringotts." Michael tapped where the building was marked on the map. "With the dragon gone, a lot of the old vaults are already in danger."
"How do we get a Death Eater to realize that without exposing the plan?" Hermione questioned.
"The vaults are at risk," Michael repeated. "There's probably at least one in Gringotts keeping an eye on things. You can't go into someone else's vault without a Ministry order, so Voldemort will probably have someone watching in case a team from the Ministry does show up to try and grab the Horcrux."
"Which isn't there," Hermione said, nodding again. "And then?"
"Then we wait for him to show up and kill him," Gabriel said bluntly.
"In the middle of Diagon Alley?"
"We'll think of something to deal with that," Michael said. "Obviously we're not going to have people caught in the crossfire if we can help it."
"We can't exactly issue a warning." Hermione was frowning at the map.
"The Death Eaters would notice if we did," Luna said. "If he's got them in or around the bank there will definitely be more in the Alley itself."
"You think so?" Michael sounded surprised, probably that Luna had thought of it.
"It's what I'd do," Luna said dreamily.
"What about Fred and George?" Hermione asked suddenly.
"What about them?" Gabriel asked, wondering if he was missing something.
"They've got an entire joke store full of their inventions," Hermione said. "Maybe they could invent - I don't know, some sort of delayed mechanism that we can trigger that won't go off in the presence of Death Eaters."
"They're only wizards," Michael said.
"Nah, she's got a point." Gabriel countered. "Only problem is, didn't they spend a year inventing all that? We're kind of short on time."
"That's only because they made so much of it," Hermione said. "I mean I'm sure they could think up something quickly-"
"Even if it turns out they can't, we might as well ask," Luna said.
"And what do we do if they don't have a solution?" Michael asked.
"We could at least ask before we start thinking up Plan B's," Hermione told nem.
"I'll go and ask," Gabriel interrupted. "It'll be better than standing here listening to you argue about it."
"Hm."
"Well-"
"It may be tricky..."
"Say if we used whatever magic those dark marks have as a trigger," Fred mused. "If this thing detects that, it goes off."
"What about not going off in the presence of a Death Eater, though?" George reminded him. "We don't want them knowing about this."
"Well, maybe it doesn't go off if it detects it within a few feet of itself-"
"How's that help whoever's holding it?"
"Hear me out, maybe if it's not an actual alarm, more like it prints out some sort of warning-"
"Can you do it or not?" Gabriel interrupted the back-and-forth conversation. Both twins looked so offended that he knew it was fake.
"Of course!"
"The Ministry already loves the shield hats and such," George told him. "We're not just in the line of joke stuff anymore. We can put something together, easy."
"Easy-ish."
"It'll take a while-"
"Well, not a while-"
"A month?"
"Nah, not a month."
"We'll get back to you," they said in unison.
Gabriel decided to leave it at that.
"Assuming we have Fred and George's thing or whatever it ends up being-"
"We can't assume," Michael said sharply. "This is serious, Gabriel."
"I'm being serious!" Gabriel spread his hands. "Assuming we have the magic Death Eater warning thing, we won't have to worry about random people getting in the way. But I'm guessing you weren't planning on some Western-style showdown with the two of us against a crowd of enemies."
"Of course not. This is the Order's fight, too," Michael pointed out.
"How are they not in the way?" Gabriel scoffed.
"We're just there to take care of the demons," Michael said. "It's more their fight than ours, really."
"Because we're cooler than them?"
Michael made a face that told Gabriel ne was probably holding back an exasperated sigh. "Because they're wizards, and Voldemort is a wizard. And we're not."
"You used to be."
Michael made another exasperated face. "Let's stick to the plan, please?" Ne pulled the map of Diagon Alley towards nemself. "If there's someone in the bank, then once they run off to warn Voldemort we can trigger the alarm. As long as we're sure no others are in the area. They won't be able to leave directly from the bank."
"Why not?"
"They've always had anti-Apparition wards," Michael told him. "To protect against thieves and such. Of course now that the dragon destroyed half the bank I'm sure security's gotten even crazier." Ne eyed Gabriel. "Weren't you in the bank around then?"
"I plead the fifth," Gabriel said.
"I don't even want to know."
Gringotts, several weeks later, had managed to fix the gaping hole in the lobby. Gabriel hadn't gone further in to see how much they had managed to repair, but he guessed that they had gotten a fair amount done.
It was almost disappointing, but whatever.
He managed to pick out the Death Eater immediately. Black robes? Lurking in a corner 'subtly'? Occasionally looking around pointedly, checking a pocketwatch, and pretending to be waiting for someone?
Check, check, check.
Gabriel, looking nothing like himself, casually strolled up to the teller right next to the Death Eater. "Excuse me?"
The teller ignored him for a few minutes in favor of finishing whatever he was scribbling in his book. Eventually, he looked up, managing to make putting his quill aside into a disdainful move. Gabriel was impressed. "Yes?"
"I need to take out an artifact." He could see the Death Eater's attention sharpen - Gabriel was counting on the fact that he'd been informed - no doubt vaguely - as to what to look for.
The goblin sighed, flipping a page and presumably moving to a ledger. "And your vault number?"
"It's not from my vault."
The Death Eater was failing horribly at discreetly keeping an eye on him. The goblin just looked annoyed. "And do you have a Ministry warrant?"
"Er..." Gabriel did his best [which if he said so himself was pretty damn good] to act like someone caught completely off-guard. "I wasn't aware-"
"I can't help you."
"Look, this is important-"
"If I gave access to every customer who said that, Gringotts would hardly be secure, would it?" The goblin gave him a steely look. "Go, or I will have security escort you out."
Gabriel frowned, turned on his heel like a man rebuffed, and left.
He'd done what he needed to do.
The Death Eater followed him out - the taint of the dark mark was enough that Gabriel was able to tell without looking behind him or even searching for the man's soul in his awareness. As he exited through the doors into the Alley, he heard a crack of Apparition from behind him.
Gabriel allowed himself a grin, and slipped into an alleyway between two buildings where Hermione was waiting, his disguise slipping off him.
"How'd it go?" Hermione asked. She was poring over a smaller map of the Alley, pen in one hand. Gabriel wondered where she'd gotten it. There were several red X's marked in various places.
"That was the easiest con I've ever done," Gabriel said. "I can't believe he actually fell for that. Does the wizarding world even have con men?"
"Don't ask me." Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Who have you conned before?"
"They deserved it, trust me." Gabriel leaned over the map. "Whatcha got?"
"We found a couple other Death Eaters in the Alley," Hermione said. "Or Michael did, at least. They don't seem to move around."
Three more. They could deal with that. "And?"
"I think Michael was planning on knocking them out and dumping them somewhere, honestly." Hermione sounded faintly exasperated. "I supposed that's better than killing them."
Gabriel thought that with Michael, it was probably a fifty-fifty chance of the latter. "Let's hope they do it fast," was what he said. "We've got a twenty-minute window, far as I can figure, 'till this place gets full of nasties."
"We're ready," Hermione said. "And we've got what Fred and George managed to whip up to warn anyone else."
"What else?"
"The Order's ready with Anti-Apparition wards as soon as they start coming in," Hermione rattled off. "Plus we're set up at points in the Alley so we can jump out and surprise them. And we've got you three to deal with any demons."
"Lucky you." Gabriel, personally, planned to stick to Hermione like glue. He wasn't risking some demon coming up on her unexpectedly. "Where's Luna?"
"Down by Flourish and Blotts, with Muriel. I don't know where Aziraphale is, though."
"Ah, that's fine. He can take care of himself." Gabriel leaned out of the Alley, glancing over the crowd of people. There wasn't as much of a shopping rush, which meant less people to get out of the way, which was why they'd chosen today to go for it. Fred and George had been surprisingly quick with their invention.
People were already retreating into shops, a faint warning making its way around. The trigger had been sent already, probably by one of the Order - shopkeepers were pulling people out of the main Alley, closing their doors and locking them. The street was emptying fast, and Gabriel saw a few suspicious heads poke out of Knockturn.
"How much time do we have again?" Hermione had lowered her voice, as if scared to break the silence.
"Ten minutes." As far as he and Michael had been able to guess. "You still have that blade, right?"
"Yeah."
"Good."
There was a deafening, layered crack of air displacement, and Gabriel threw himself out of the Alley.
His blade flashed silver in the sunlight. Spells shot past him from both sides. Gabriel ducked and weaved and the first demon fell without even seeing him. He and Hermione fell into a pattern.
Duck. Wait for her spell to finish. Stand. Find the nearest demon. Kill them. Move forward. Avoid another spell. Let Hermione aim. Stab demon sneaking up on her.
They twisted and turned and the Death Eaters dissolved into chaos around them with the realization that they'd been lead into a trap.
A demon near them ignited. Michael didn't even pause. Ne moved past it and onto the next one in a flash, wings brushing against Gabriel's. Gabriel turned to move out of nir way and brought his blade up in time to block another's.
The demon hissed, eyes black. They reared back and struck again. The shot was aimed at Gabriel's neck. Gabriel blocked it again. He swung back. The blade came up and under the demon's guard.
The demon grabbed his wrist and then screamed at the touch of Grace. They stumbled back, hand smoking, and Gabriel snapped his fingers.
He was already turning to the next one.
Not all of them had dark marks. The demons were so black it was hard to tell. Their clothes and the fact that they looked nothing like wizards helped.
"How many of them are there?" Hermione shouted as she aimed a curse at a Death Eater. Gabriel blocked the one he sent in return.
"No idea." He was already looking. There were too many - they'd given Voldemort too much time to prepare. None of them had thought he'd been able to muster this many.
Gabriel flung his hands out, spreading his Grace. Five demons who had been sneaking up to ambush him crumpled. Two more tried to take their place. Three others ran.
Straight into Michael, that was. Spells were flying and his Grace burned at his vessel, magic and pure power itching to be let loose and Gabriel was in his element.
Of course, that just meant that it was over all too soon.
"Enough!" The scream was desperate and accompanied by another crack of Apparition. Voldemort's robes whirled around him, settling into a dramatically windswept position. "What is the meaning of this?"
The Order members were backing away, wands held up defensively in front of them. Really?
"It means," Gabriel said, strolling into the middle of the street, "that you're out of your league."
Voldemort's eyes widened in outrage. "You dare?" He hissed.
Gabriel made a finger gun with his hands, pointing it at Voldemort's forehead. "The thing about Horcruxes," he said, "is that they're not much use when they don't exist."
Gabriel flicked his hand up.
Voldemort crumpled to the ground.
Everyone else froze.
Gabriel didn't stick around to see what happened next - he didn't feel like participating in the Order's wild celebration, or possibly existential crisis now that their enemy was gone. He decided to go see what had happened to Michael.
Michael was holding the last demon down against the cobbled street, blade held to its neck.
"You're not making a strong case."
The demon's lip curled. "I was told to give a message," he spat.
"What message?" Gabriel asked, sidling up.
The demon's eyes moved to him for a second, then back to Michael. "Nothing big." The grin suddenly twisting his lips said otherwise. "The Knights want to meet." The harsh rasp of Enochian made Gabriel stiffen. "One-on-one...two of them, two of you. Or else."
"Or else what?" Michael challenged.
"Skimp on the meeting and find out," the demon laughed, and then choked when Michael's blade dug under his ribs.
Michael's expression was grim as ne let the body drop.
"Well, that's ominous," Gabriel said. "Let's go somewhere else." People were exuberantly shouting, the noise echoing from inside the shops as well as from the Order [despite the bodies littering the Alley].
His wings took him to the Astronomy tower - why Hogwarts, Gabriel didn't know. Maybe because he'd spent the last few years there, for the most part. It was gratifying, though, to have Michael follow for once.
"There's no way he knew what that message meant," Michael said. "Demons don't speak Enochian."
And Knights did? Gabriel kept the comment to himself - he could guess where the Enochian had come from, and he was sure Michael did, too. "It was pretty clear," he said. "They want to get us out in the open."
"They want to separate us," Michael said. "Same as your plan. Together we're better-"
"And if we go together, guess how long the Knights are going to stay separate?" Gabriel interrupted nem. "If we go for one Knight, the other's going to show up in about three seconds. The only way we can get them alone is if we go alone-"
"Which is exactly what they want."
"They underestimate us."
"I don't think they do."
"Then what?" Gabriel settled on the edge of the stone wall, nothing against his back but air. "Wait until we see what 'or else' is? Not the best option."
Michael was frowning at the ground. Gabriel could see the gears moving in nir head. "They didn't say they wanted a fight."
"They hardly sent it under a white flag," Gabriel scoffed. "What else would they want?"
"We wait," Michael said with a certain sort of finality that mean ne'd made up nir mind. "They didn't set a time limit; we'll see how desperate they are for this."
"And if this goes sideways?"
Michael's mouth flattened. "We'll see if it does."
Oh boy do I have a plot twist about the Knights for you guys [evil laughter in the background].
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