Chapter Twenty-Four
When they landed in the infirmary of the Bunker, Harry was screaming bloody murder.
"What did you do?" Dean demanded at Gabriel, eyes widening.
"I don't know," Gabriel said with panic in his voice. "When I just flew in with him – the damage that's been done… it's…" He had gently placed Harry on the floor before holding out his hand to heal his friend.
Harry scrambled back quicker than anyone in his condition ought to have been able to do.
"No, no, no," he said as he slid back. His voice was hoarse from screaming and barely audible.
Sam moved quickly and crouched down to where Harry had backed himself into a corner.
"Harry?" He asked gently, unsure if Harry was really seeing him.
"No grace," Harry muttered. With utter desperation, he whispered, "please, Sam, please."
"Of course not," he said, taken aback by his older brother's pleading. He didn't think he had ever heard Harry sound so desperate before. He glanced back at Dean, who was just staring at Harry with wide-eyed horror.
Dean was seeing Harry for the first time. He had been so desperate to get his brother out that he hadn't spent time assessing his injuries. Harry wasn't wearing a shirt, probably because of the large, bloody wings that were currently protruding out of his back. But now that he had a chance to look, he could see the damage to his brother's torso.
Harry was emaciated. His skin was covered in blisters, burns, and bruises. The chains that they had removed from his wrists, ankles, and neck had left large, ugly purple marks that hurt to even look at.
Dean joined Sam where he was crouched on the floor. "Why won't you let Gabriel heal you?" He asked carefully.
"Hurts," Harry said. "Poison," he tried to explain further, but he just ended up in a coughing fit.
Dean looked up at Gabriel. "Do you have any idea what he's talking about?"
Gabriel gave him a sharp nod but didn't elaborate. Dean decided it was more important to get Harry someplace they could treat him than it was to interrogate the archangel.
"I've got him," Dean said. "Harry, I'm going to pick you up now," he explained. "We're going to get you into a bed."
Harry flinched as Dean reached his arms out but he allowed his older brother to pick him up. It was awkward, on account of his wings, but with great care, Dean moved him to one of the nearby beds. He couldn't help but notice how light Harry was. Dean didn't know that angels could lose weight.
While he had been transporting Harry, Sam had slipped out of the room to get a glass of water. He sat down on the bed next to Harry and held it out to him.
Harry's breath got a little harsher.
"It's ok," Sam said. "It's just water."
Harry gulped. "Of course," he said in barely a whisper, shaking his head a little at his own reticence. He took the water and slowly drank.
Gabriel turned to leave the room.
"Where are you going?" Dean barked.
"I'm going to go kill the motherfucker who did this to Harry," Gabriel said, his face enraged beyond anything either Sam or Dean had ever seen and before anyone could stop him, he flew off.
"Fuck," Dean swore.
Sam reached out to take the empty glass of water from Harry's hands and Harry flinched again at the touch.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"No, don't say that," Sam said. It was breaking his heart to see Harry like this. "It's alright. Do you need anything else?"
"Food?" Harry asked. He didn't remember the last time that Asmodeus had fed him. It could have been a couple of hours ago or three days. But he was always hungry.
"Of course," Sam said, biting back his question about his angel brother's need to eat. He had seen Harry eat from time to time, but he had been under the impression that he didn't really need to. But, of course, he had never bothered to ask. "Dean – uh, do we have anything?"
"Any what?" Dean asked. He had been lost in his own thoughts, mentally categorizing all of Harry's injuries and figuring out what supplies he would need to start the healing process if his brother wasn't going to allow Gabriel to heal him. The first-aid kit would help with the cuts and welts but it also looked like his arm was possibly broken, which would require a cast. It seemed very likely that several of his ribs were broken, which made Dean wince. He knew from personal experience how painful it could be while they were healing on their own.
"Food," Sam said.
"Oh. Uh – yeah, I'm sure. Why don't you go see?" He asked Sam.
Sam didn't want to leave Harry, but he could see from the glint in Dean's eyes that his eldest brother wouldn't be leaving this room anytime soon.
"Sure," he said. He magically refilled the glass of water and handed it back to Harry, who took it gratefully, taking much bigger gulps this time.
Dean slid into the chair next to the bed. Harry watched him warily.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Dean said with a little more resentment than he wanted to have.
"I know," Harry said back, his voice a little stronger than before. "I'm sorry, it's just…"
Dean shook his head. "No. Don't apologize," he sighed heavily. "We thought we'd lost you again," Dean said, resisting the urge to pat Harry on the shoulder. "It's good to see you, man."
Harry managed a thin smile. "You too. Right on time too."
Dean quirked an eyebrow. "I think right on time would have been right after you were taken. What happened?"
"He pretended to be Teddy. Ambushed me."
"Yeah, we got that. But why won't you let…" Dean heard a commotion coming from outside the infirmary. "Stay here," he ordered Harry as he pulled out his gun and ran to find out what was happening.
III
The anger that boiled under Gabriel's skin fueled him to fly back to the warehouse where that asshat had been keeping and torturing Harry.
The scene he came across was horrific.
The demon was standing over Luna Lovegood, green light shooting out of his hands while the woman writhed on the floor.
"You will tell me…" Asmodeus' eyes snapped up to the Archangel. With a cruel grin and a quick flick of his hand, he snapped the witches' neck.
"NO!" A redhead called out, running forward, only to be pushed back by magic.
"I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to come back here," the demon said to Gabriel, a hint of amusement and pleasure in his voice.
"Yeah, well, I didn't think that you were stupid to think that you could take what was mine and get away with it," Gabriel returned, beginning to circle him.
"You never had a problem with my experiments before," he taunted. "My, how your…what did you call them? Your creations, at any rate, how they called out for you. While we slaughtered them on the battlefield. And yet, you never came."
Gabriel blasted magic at Asmodeus, causing the white-clad demon to be pushed back, but not off his feet.
"And then, when I finally got a hold of some of their souls – your foolish creations stumbled into our domain, and let me tell you, the screams, well I never thought I'd hear such a sweet sound. That is until I had the pleasure of your Mr. Potter's company for the last couple of weeks. Oh, you'd be proud, how he held out, but when I finally got tears out of that boy…"
Another blast of magic as Gabriel got closer, ready to smite the demon out of existence. Asmodeus was knocked to the ground that time – hard.
But the demon just started laughing.
"Do you want to hear, Gabriel, how your boy broke? How I finally tamed him? Now, I'm no angel, but even I could practically hear as he cried out to you in prayer. Even though it must have hurt him something awful to do so, he never stopped." He stood up and dusted off his suit. It was as if Gabriel's grace was doing nothing to him.
With a ray of green magic, Gabriel flew across the room, into a wall, and slid down with a sickening crunch.
"No…" Gabriel said.
"Yes. You understand now?" Asmodeus asked as he approached the slumped-down Archangel. "Now, for years you were my target, but I just don't think that you'll do it for me anymore. Now that I've got a taste of real power," he said, his eyes glowing green, just like Harry's did. With another blow of green magic, Gabriel slumped over, completely.
Asmodeus laughed with glee.
Or, at least, he did, until he felt the sharp tinge of a blade entering him from behind. The little slip of a girl – the redhead that had cried when he had killed the witch was there, eyes blazing, even through tears, as she stabbed him with an angel blade.
He was tempted to backhand her, but instead, chose to look into his eyes. She screamed in pain as he tore through her head.
"Thank you for the information, young lady," he said, as he vanished into thin air.
Charlie collapsed on the ground, grief and pain taking her over. Luna was dead. Gabriel was dead. And soon, she had the feeling, that Sam, Dean, and Harry would be as well. Or they would wish they were. Just like she wished that for herself.
"Shh," came a voice to her left. She looked up. It was Gabriel.
"But you…"
"Takes more than some stolen grace to kill me," he said. He came over to Luna, and with a touch to her forehead, the blonde woman gasped. "Now, we've got to get going. We can't let him get his hands on Harry again."
III
The wards hadn't gone off, but that didn't stop Dean from keeping his gun trained straight in front of him as he rounded the corner into the war room of the Bunker.
He found Sam standing between Luna and Charlie on one side of the table and Gabriel on the other side. Charlie was yelling and Luna was trying to hold her back while Sam looked as though he was protecting Gabriel from their friend. He quickly trained his gun on the archangel.
"What's going on here?" He demanded.
"Great, another blockhead," Gabriel said. "Would you all just – " With a quick wave of magic, all the humans in the room found themselves slammed down into chairs.
He turned away from them and began chanting and waving his hands around, desperately.
"What's happening?" Dean asked when squirming around in his seat was yielding nothing and his gun had been thrown from his hands while he had been transported to this chair. "I thought he had gone to kill Asmodeus?"
"Who is that?" Charlie responded. "He just – Luna was on the ground, looked like…it looked like…" she was nearly in tears.
"He was helping me," Luna said quickly from her own chair. "Shh, Charlie, it's ok."
"You were DEAD!" Charlie responded, not sounding soothed in the least.
"Would you just shut up already?" Gabriel snapped. "If you want to live through the next ten minutes, I suggest that you shut the fuck up and let me work."
There was a great shuddering thud that shook the entire Bunker. The emergency lights went on, casting them all in red light.
"Oh no you don't," Gabriel growled before he started casting more spells.
Dean looked to Sam who shook his head a little, indicating that he had no idea what was happening. And while neither one of them trusted the archangel, they didn't doubt that he would do whatever he needed to do to protect Harry.
More hits came and Gabriel's eyes glowed gold and it looked like he was actively sweating from the effort.
Eventually, whatever he was doing worked, and the bunker stopped shaking and the lights returned to normal.
"That should work. For now," Gabriel said, relaxing his posture.
"What'd'you do?" Sam asked.
"I kept what is currently one of the most powerful beings on Earth out of this Bunker," Gabriel said. "Although taking me on had to have burned a lot of Harry's grace out of him."
"Harry's what?" Dean asked.
"My grace," came a shaky voice from the doorway. Harry was standing there, only able to keep himself upright by leaning heavily on the door frame. "He – he's been taking it this whole time, but today…" Harry started to fall.
Dean was on him in a second, catching his brother before he could completely collapse on the ground. "Hey, hey, hey," he said as Harry coughed and then gasped in pain. "I've got you."
Sam also quickly crossed the room. "You shouldn't have gotten out of bed," he said with no heat or surprise in his voice. He went to the other side of Harry and helped Dean lift him to his feet.
"Yeah. Was probably a mistake," Harry admitted.
The brothers guided Harry into the closest armchair. Which was no easy feat, because while Harry weighed next to nothing, his wings were still fully prominent and difficult to manage.
"He's not going to give up," Harry rasped out when he was sitting. "You – you should hand me over."
Dean snorted. "No chance in hell."
"Dean…"
"No, Harry," Sam said sternly.
"Yeah, add me in on that," Gabriel said, looking unimpressed. "Over my dead body am I going to let you sacrifice yourself for these two halfwits again."
"You don't understand. What he's capable of… what he's planning. We need to get him under control and the only way to do that might be..."
"Don't you dare finish that thought Harry," Luna said, surprising everyone into looking at her. "We just got you back and we're not giving you up again."
"Yeah, Luna died saving you!" Charlie said fiercely.
"What?" Harry asked.
"We don't have time for this," Gabriel snapped before any explanation could be given. "We've to get you someplace safer. This means, first, I'm going to have to heal you. And then – I don't know, I'll take you to the moon if I've got to."
"NO!" Harry yelled out, he tried to get up from the chair to run away, or to stand to fight, no one was really sure, but both Sam and Dean quickly prevented him from doing so.
"Why?" Sam asked. "Why won't you let Gabriel heal you?"
"And don't try to tell me this is some sort of heroic sacrifice you're trying to make," Dean growled.
"No, no, it's not that. Please, please, just don't. Don't touch me with grace. Please." He looked like he wanted to run again, but knew that his brothers wouldn't let him. And to everyone's horror, Harry started to tear up. "Please," he said again, "I can't take it."
"We won't let him hurt you," Sam said, trying to soothe his brother.
"What happened, Harry?" Luna asked carefully.
"He – Asmodeus…he gave me this… I don't know if it was a potion or a poison, but…whenever I tried to, whenever I try to use my grace, it's like – it's like getting burned alive from the inside."
"What?" Dean asked.
"It's – I don't know what it was, I really don't. But it's how he kept me there. Even using magic hurts but not as much. I almost got away one time, but then…" He looked up, pleading with his eyes as words started to fail him. "Please. Please don't use grace or magic to heal me."
"We won't," Sam said fiercely.
"But…" Gabriel started.
"No," Dean said. "If Harry says no, then he's just going to have to heal the regular way."
"He might not be able to heal the regular way!" Gabriel yelled. "Look at him!"
Admittedly, Harry did look like he was moments away from death. It didn't help that he was having a difficult time both keeping himself upright and awake.
"It'll wear off," Harry wheezed. "He – he had to give me the…whatever it was, every couple of days."
"Well, we'll watch out for you until then," Sam said, fiercely, as if daring anyone in the room to disagree with him. Of course, no one did.
"Yeah, and it looks like we need to get you back to bed," Dean said.
Harry winced. "My room? I hate hospitals."
"Sure thing," Dean said.
Harry started to try and stand again.
"Na-uh, don't think so, Har-Bear," Gabriel said, pushing Sam and Dean aside. "I'll get you tucked in."
"Gabriel…" Sam said, not trusting anyone but Dean and himself with his brother.
"You think you can handle those wings, big boy?" Gabriel challenged, as he gathered Harry up in his arms.
Harry's face burnt red in embarrassment for having to be picked up like a toddler but he was too exhausted to say anything.
Sam went to follow the two of them as the archangel took Harry to his room, only to be held back by a hand on his shoulder.
"He needs to rest," Dean said.
"Yeah, and I'm going to make sure he does," Sam said, not dissuaded in the least.
Dean snorted. "Yeah, that sounds real restful. A Sammy guard dog. We've got him back. Now, we have other things to focus on. Have you heard from Mom?" Now that they had Harry back, it was time to try and bring the whole family back together. It had been bothering him that they hadn't been able to get ahold of her this entire time.
Sam's eyes widened. He hadn't even thought of Mary since they had discovered Harry's location. He shook his head.
"Mary's missing?" Luna asked.
"She does this sometimes," Dean admitted, "but not like this. I've left her messages and texted her and nothing."
Sam's phone rang.
Everyone looked at him with hope. He shook his head. "It's Jody," he said looking down at his caller ID. "Jody, hey. No, what? No. We hadn't heard." Sam looked devastated.
"Mom?" Dean asked, panicking.
Sam shook his head again. "Um, when?" He asked Jody. "What the hell happened? Oh, no. No, I-I yeah, thanks for letting me know. Bye." He hung up.
"Who?" Dean asked.
"Eileen."
"How?"
"She was, uh, mauled by a wild animal in a wooded area that doesn't have animals that do that, in South Carolina."
"But I thought she was in Ireland. Sam…"
"Dean, that's the second Hunter death we've heard about in two weeks."
Dean couldn't believe that they had finally found Harry only to, once again, have everything start falling apart all around them again. "I know. But two doesn't mean a pattern," Dean said, more to convince himself than anyone else.
"Three would," Sam said.
"Meaning?"
"Mom's a Hunter, and no one knows where she is." He turned to Luna and Charlie. "I know you two are beyond spent. But – uh, would you be willing to go look into Eileen's death? We would, but with Harry…"
Charlie patted him on the arm. She wasn't over what had just happened but she knew how important this was to Sam and Dean.
"We'll apparate, it won't take as long that way," Luna said. "I'll also call Ron and Hermione. Let them know that we found Harry."
She tugged Charlie's arm and the two of them went down to the parking garage, which was still within the wards, but outside the anti-apparition zone. They didn't want to risk running into Asmodeus if he was still out there.
Dean sat down hard in one of the chairs at the table.
Sam followed suit.
"What's happening?" Dean asked.
"I don't know. But we'll get to the bottom of it. And we've got Harry back now, so…"
Dean sighed deeply. They had Harry back – but only his physical being. He wasn't going to be ready for a fight for quite some time. But he wasn't going to say that out loud.
"Yeah. We'll figure it out. We'll heal him, find Mom, and then figure out what the hell is happening with these missing Hunters."
III
Gabriel didn't have any false ideas about who or what he was. He understood that he was inherently selfish. He had always been more interested in his own self-preservation than any idea of greater good or purpose. It made him a coward in every sense of the term.
That had never really bothered him. After all, he had seen what bravery had wrought his brothers. His fallen battalion. As far as he could see it no matter what one's intentions might be the outcome would be terrible, so he might as well do what suited him best.
Running and hiding were preferable to dying bloody.
His entire existence had been guided by a desire to stay alive.
Then he had met Harry.
Of course, he had always been interested in the kid. Gabriel kept one eye on the wizarding world at all times and particularly on his line of vessels. Harry was different from the beginning, of course. Or, rather, his family was. Never before this generation had all four archangels had four brothers who were all their perfect vessels in one family. Sure, Raphael ultimately had preferred a different off-shoot of the bloodline, but if Michael hadn't claimed Adam, he could have.
But it was more than Harry's family. The kid himself had been exceptional. He had suffered in his early life but he, unlike Gabriel, had taken that suffering and used it for good. Looking at Harry and his actions was like looking at a reflection of what he himself could have been. When faced between saving himself or saving those he loved, Harry always picked his family. What would Gabriel's life have been (other than perhaps short) if he had done the same?
Harry's walk in the woods to his certain death was the first time that Gabriel really considered that question.
Not too deeply, of course, at the time, but from then on out he had kept a closer eye. For years he thought that Harry was a sentimental fool. His sentimental fool, perhaps, but he was someone who needed to be protected from his self-destructive tendencies.
It wasn't until he really spent time with the young wizard that he realized that Dumbledore had been right about Harry all along. While self-loathing was certainly deep in the boy, his greatest victories didn't come from acting on that hate. His greatest victories came from acting out of the love he had for, well, everyone.
And from watching those acts of love, Gabriel was changed.
He didn't even resent Harry for it, even though he felt like he ought to.
Not only was he changed but he understood. That sort of love – the love he felt for Harry, made everything clear. The clarity didn't take away the pain but it made doing what he needed to do next easier.
For once, self-preservation was the last thing he was worried about. He knew exactly what he was willing to sacrifice so that Harry wouldn't have to. How he might have to betray him friend to keep him safe. As he sat quietly at Harry's bedside, he reflected on what he had already put into motion and what else he could do. He would lose some battles but he had no doubt that Harry would win the war.
III
"No way," Dean said stubbornly. Harry had only been back for around twenty-four hours. During that time he had not been left alone any longer than a couple of minutes it took him to use the restroom. Neither Sam nor Dean were willing to let him out of their sight. Dean also didn't trust that Gabriel would listen to Harry and respect his wishes about being healed.
"Not a chance in Hell," Sam agreed, crossing his arms and setting his jaw.
"One of us is going to be with you at all times," Dean said. "To make sure you stay in the bed until you're better, you hear?"
If it wouldn't have taken so much energy, Harry would have rolled his eyes.
"Gabe's not going to hurt me," he said, his voice already sounding a little better than it had when he was first rescued. Still not great, though.
"We don't trust him," Sam insisted.
"I know. But do you trust me?"
"Of course," Dean said.
"Then that should be enough."
"Harry, you're hurt so…"
"You know I can just force you to leave, right?" Gabriel said, finally having had enough and raising his hand to snap the annoying Winchesters away so that he could speak with Harry privately.
"Gabe, don't do that," Harry said. He started to cough. And then cough harder.
Sam swopped in with a glass of water. Harry took it and gratefully downed the whole thing.
"I think you need rest," Sam said.
"Yeah, I know," Harry said. "But…"
Sam's phone rang. He looked down at it. "It's Luna," he said, he glanced at Dean. He didn't really want to have this conversation in front of Harry.
"Fine," Dean said. He pointed his finger at Gabriel. "But if you do a thing to hurt him…"
"Yeah, yeah, you'll murder me. Nothing new, now, shoo fly."
Dean glared and he and Sam left, each throwing a quick, concerned, glance at Harry.
"Finally," Gabriel said.
"You shouldn't rile them up like that," Harry frowned.
"Yeah, whatever."
There was a moment of awkward silence.
"We got Kelly back," Gabriel said. "She and Castiel are holed up in your safehouse in Washington."
"You lost Kelly?"
"Oh, yeah, I guess we have a lot to catch you up on. Kelly got away from me at about the same time that you were taken by Asmodeus."
Harry scowled.
"Yeah. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"What's there to say?"
Gabriel gave Harry a look. "Uh, I don't know. You were tortured for weeks – your wings look terrible and you're not only terrified to use grace, but also to have it used on you, and you flinch whenever anyone comes at you too quickly."
Harry didn't try to deny it but his face did warm to red. Which was, honestly, an improvement to how pale he had been before.
"Yeah. And?"
"And wouldn't it be better for me to take you someplace that's actually, you know, safe from that psychopath? The wards were able to keep him out – for now. Only because I made him burn out so much of what he took from you in a fight. He'll be back. Honestly, I'm surprised that he hasn't been already."
Harry hung his head. "Yeah. I know. Which is why I think, if it comes back to it, you'll have to hand me back to him. He – what he…"
"No. Never. Not only will those two dingbats you call brothers not allow it, neither will I."
"Yeah. You've all said. But – Gabe, he…I gave in."
"Gave in to what?" He asked sharply.
Harry looked like he was confessing to murder. "I – I let him take my grace. Just that last time, when I thought… I gave in. And I don't even know what it means."
"What what means?"
"What it means to have given him my grace freely. He'd been taking it the whole time, but he wanted…"
Gabriel sucked in a breath. "That explains a lot."
"Explains what?"
"How powerful he was. You know – with angels, we can't take a vessel without permission. Demons can just take what they want but it's unholy, impure, and, ultimately, it limits their abilities."
"And by giving him permission…"
"It changes things. I'm not exactly sure how. But, at the end of the day, it'll only last for so long, as it doesn't belong to him. Asmodeus was always the weakest of the Princes. But none of that matters. I can protect you. If you'll just let me…"
"The wards of the Bunker stood up to him once, didn't they?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. But it was a short assault. This place is well protected – especially with your modifications, but it won't last forever. Look, kiddo, I know you're in rough shape still, but I can get us to safety."
Harry shook his head almost involuntarily, fear coursing through him in a way that threatened to take his breath away. He had survived the pain with Asmodeus because he had had no other choice. But he wasn't sure that he could do it again. "No," he barely whispered. "Gabe, I can't…"
"You could, I know it."
"No. Please – Gabriel." He hated that he was begging. That he was so weak. It wasn't even just that the pain might consume him, but Asmodeus already knew where he was and he knew that the demon wouldn't hesitate to go after Sam and Dean if it meant that he got Harry back. If Harry stayed with them then there would always be a way to keep them safe. "Please."
Gabriel had a choice. Harry was weak – it was one of the rare times that he had enough of an upper hand that he could force protection on the young man in front of him. But at what cost? The archangel was used to getting his way, but Harry might never trust him again if he forced the issue. As he had too often found himself doing when it came to the dark-haired angel, he caved. Or, at least, that's how it would appear to Harry. It looked like he was going to have to go with Plan B and no one would be happy about that.
"Alright," he said. "We can stay."
He would probably live to regret it, but the relief that had flooded Harry's features made it all worth it. The relief was swiftly followed by the man's eyes beginning to close with exhaustion.
"You need rest," Gabriel pointed out.
Harry sighed, sick of hearing that over and over again. "Yeah. I think so."
"Rest then," Gabriel said. "I'll watch over you."
Harry smiled a little. "I know you will. Thanks, Gabe." He was out like a light about three seconds later.
III
Teddy was all but cured of his soul bond. Ignoring orders barely felt like more than a stinging hex cast by a second year. Rowena told him that he needed just one act of defiance – one bigger than just ignoring the orders he was given, which would free him from the bond once and for all.
This is why, when he swore that he saw a flash of blonde hair in the hall and Ketch exiting a room, he decided to act. He had been on his way to try and steal as many weapons as possible from the Men of Letters and take them to his Aunt Hermione as proof of the organization's bad deeds. There was no way the Wizangamot would allow them any more power once they had this hard evidence.
In a split-second decision and with a flash of worry for Harry's mom, he changed his appearance to look like Ketch. He had spent enough time with the man that he felt like he could copy his mannerisms and ridiculously posh accent. Of course, he didn't have a three-piece suit, but he was able to transfigure his clothes to at least appear to be similar enough.
Transforming into any of the Men of Letters had been strictly forbidden but he just let the pain wash over him for a second before confidently striding to the door, putting his thumb on the lock, and walking in.
He gasped at what he saw when he walked in.
Mary Winchester was on her knees on the floor, sobbing, and looking more miserable than he had ever seen her look before.
"Mary!" He couldn't help himself from calling out.
She looked up at him, blurry-eyed.
"Change your mind, Ketch?" She asked bitterly.
"Are you ok?" Teddy hurried forward and dropped to his knees in front of her, trying to see how she was hurt.
She flinched away from him.
"Just get it over with," she said, not looking him in the eyes.
"Oh, no, Mary…" with a quick, what he was hoping to be subtle, flick of his wand, he moved the security cameras so they weren't aimed directly at him. Then he changed back into himself.
Mary stared.
"Ted?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's me," he said, in his own voice. "What did they do to you?"
"I – I don't know. They've – they've done something to my mind. Teddy, please, you have to – you have to warn my boys. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be…me." She shook her head a little.
"What'd'you mean?" Teddy asked.
"I – it's all a blur. But I think…" she whispered, "I think they've been sending me to kill Hunters," she started to cry softly. "We've got to – we've got to be sure that Sam, Dean, and Henry know." She grasped his arms.
"I'm going to get you out of here," Teddy said with certainty. "We can tell them together."
"Ted – your contract."
"Blast my contract. This is more important."
"No – no, Henry – he would never forgive me if something happened to him. You – you go. You tell them. I – I might not make it. But that's ok. As long as…"
The lock on the door turned from red to green.
"Fuck!" Ted said as they both turned to the door. He needed to act quickly. Without thinking about how he would escape later, he pulled out the DA coin that Harry had given him as an emergency portkey, pressed it into Mary's hands, stood in front to protect her from any attack that may be coming, and said, "Marauder."
Mary vanished.
The door slammed open.
Standing there was Ketch. He didn't hesitate either – he pulled a weapon out and before Teddy could react, he was out cold.
Ketch moved to stand above him and sighed. "Mr. Lupin. What are we going to do with you?"
III
Sam had Luna and Charlie on speakerphone. They had just left the morgue where Eileen's body had been taken.
"I think it was a hellhound," Luna said gravely.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Dean exclaimed. "Why would a – why would a demon sic a hellhound on her?"
"I don't know, Dean," Sam said tiredly, devastated that Eileen was gone.
"There's more," Charlie's voice came through.
"What else could there possibly be?" Dean asked.
"I did some digging while Luna went to the morgue. Counting Eileen, that's seven Hunters in three weeks."
"Seven?" Dean felt sick.
"And those are just the ones I was able to find out about," Charlie said grimly.
"All monster related?" Sam asked.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"Seven monster-related deaths. I mean, what, did all the things out there suddenly start working together?" Dean worried.
"Dean, monsters and demons don't team-up. Seven Hunters are gone. We can't grab a signal from Mom's phone. Teddy is not answering his. Cas has Kelly Kline and Gabriel won't tell us where. Harry's out-of-commission for the foreseeable future. And Lucifer is out of his cage. I just – I want to punch something in the face."
"Luna?" Dean said into the phone.
"Yes, Dean?"
"Can you keep looking into it? And warn as many people as possible. I'll send our contacts over to Charlie, we need to…"
Mary dropped into the foyer of the Bunker.
"Mom!" Both boys shouted out. Sam clicked the hang-up button as he rushed to her side, Dean hot on his heels.
She didn't look great. A large, gold coin dropped out of her hand and onto the floor. Dean only spared it a passing glance.
The bunker lights also started flickering – but not in a way that they had ever seen before. It wasn't the red of lockdown nor any regular sign of the lights flickering as they did occasionally. There was a pulse and a flash of green before everything returned to normal.
"What was that?" Dean asked from his position kneeling next to their mother on the ground.
"I don't know," Sam said, but he didn't really care, he was too busy noticing the scrapes and bruises on their mother. "Are you ok, Mom?"
Mary shook her head. "No. The British Men of Letter's – they've done something to my head. I – I'm…" she started crying.
"Let's get you into a chair," Dean said, moving to help her up off the ground. She was much easier to maneuver than Harry. "We haven't heard from you in weeks and Hunters are being killed all over the country. We were worried that…"
"They're the ones killing Hunters," Mary interrupted.
"Why?" Sam asked.
Mary shook her head. "I'm not sure. But they brought in that evil bitch that tortured you, Sam, and they are determined to kill every last American Hunter. They were using me to…"
"They were using you for what?" Dean asked.
Mary shook her head. All of a sudden, her whole body seemed to still and the expression on her face went blank.
She looked up at her sons calmly all trace of the tears that she had been crying just moments ago, vanishing.
"Mom?" Sam asked.
"Yes, Sam?" She said her expression vague.
"What…"
She got to her feet, pulled out a gun, and shot Sam at point-blank range.
III
Neville was enjoying a weekend off.
It was an uncommon thing for him, as Head of Gryffindor House. But the end of term was approaching and this was a rare time that came at the end of term when he had completed all his marking and there were no new assignments to allow students to study for their end-of-term exams. Even the Weasley cousins weren't up to their usual mischief as they all crammed in as much knowledge as possible.
Wandering Diagon Alley by himself brought him great joy. He had no schedule and no chance of running into an errant student. As much as he loved his life at Hogwarts, and he truly did, it was nice to get out. Looking back on it, he had no idea how the professors had survived his years at Hogwarts – the normal term's ups and downs were enough to drive someone mad. Add having the The-Boy-Who-Attracted-Trouble to the mix and he was amazed that any of them stuck around for more than a year.
Neville completed everything he needed to so he made his way down to the Room-of-Requirement (Hannah and he had actually passed ownership of the Leaky Cauldron to Lee Jordan, but the man had kept the DA's favorite gathering spot open). This would be the last time that the group would gather before everyone's children came home for the summer and Neville was very much looking forward to it.
After a couple of security breaches over the years, the entrance had changed slightly. Now each member had to place their DA coin into a secret slot in a room on the ground floor of the Leaky Cauldron, which gave them access to the staircase leading to their little bar.
Neville quickly went through the motions and headed upstairs.
"Ginny!" He greeted as he entered. The redhead smiled and came over to hug him.
"Good to see you, Professor," she said with a smile. "You keeping those nieces and nephews of mine in line?"
Neville huffed. "As if that would even be possible."
Ginny laughed. "What're you drinking? I feel like, on behalf of the entire Weasley family, we owe you one. Or ten."
Neville smiled and told her and she went to go fetch him a Butterbeer – he was starting the evening off easy tonight.
Slowly, the group began to gather. And it didn't take long for the jovial atmosphere to surface with each arrival of a member of the DA. Stories and jokes were traded and the room steadily filled up with all the usual suspects.
With a noticeable absence.
"George, where's Ron?" Neville asked.
George exchanged a quick glance with Ginny before putting his beer down. "He's with Hermione, of course, fighting that new legislation that was proposed in the Wizengamot."
Immediately, the warmth was sucked out of the room.
"Why's Hermione so against it?" Parvati asked. "I would have thought that she would have been in favor of the Muggle government taking more control over the creatures that plague them. Free up some time for our Aurors to fight wizarding crimes."
The question came from an honest place of curiosity. No one in the room questioned that, as strongly as Hermione had come out against it, there wasn't a good reason for her fight. They just didn't know what it was.
"Those Men of Letters are a problem, that's why she's so against it," Justin said from a back corner. Everyone turned to look at him.
"You worked with them, didn't you, Justin?" Seamus asked.
"I did," he said, taking a sip of his drink. "And Hermione's making sure that they aren't amassing any more power. You know, Harry wanted to shut them down entirely."
It was possible that he was a little tipsy. It was still a little early in the evening for Harry's name to be invoked. That usually came later when everyone was feeling numbed by their drinks.
"But why?" Seamus repeated the question that Parvati had asked earlier.
"They're just bad news," Ginny said, not wanting to give up more than that. Soon, Hermione would be sure that the crimes of the group were well known, but until then, it was all a very carefully guarded secret. Even from the DA.
No one asked more questions and the evening continued, a little more somber than before.
"Hey, this is weird," Ernie said to those immediately around him.
"What's that?" Seamus asked.
Ernie held out his DA coin. "It's warm," he said.
"That shouldn't happen," Terry frowned, coming over from where he had been talking with Susan. He looked at the coin closely.
"Mine's warm too," Padma said.
"The only coin that can set ours off is…"
"Harry's," Ginny breathed.
"Don't you have Harry's?"
"I did," she replied, pulling her own out. "Everyone!" She shouted. Everyone gave her their attention. "Get your coins out!"
Everyone did. They were all warm.
"There are numbers!" Angelina said. Hers wasn't an original coin, of course, but it had been linked to Harry's just like everyone else's shortly after the war.
George and Ginny once again looked at each other before looking down at their own coins, which were also warm to the touch.
"Those are Muggle coordinates," Justin said. At the blank looks he got, he said, "They're a way of giving a location. Based on longitude and latitude."
That didn't mean anything to most of the purebloods in the room but the Muggleborns understood immediately.
"These seem to be in America if I'm remembering correctly," Justin said. "But why? Ginny, who has Harry's coin now? Why would they send this to us?"
Ginny's stomach sank.
"Teddy has it," George answered for her, as she seemed to be having a minor panic attack. "And this means that he's in trouble."
The kind of trouble where he was unable to contact Harry directly.
"We've got to go," she said quickly.
George nodded. "Yeah. I'll send a Patronus to Ron and Hermione."
"Wait, where are you going? If Teddy's in trouble…" Neville said trying to decipher the looks between the siblings.
"How does everyone feel like a trip to the US?" George asked, looking around. "I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get."
III
It was as if time stood still. Dean watched in shock and horror as the bullet hit his youngest brother. In slow motion, Sam fell, and all of sudden everything sped up as he ran to Mary.
With quick, practiced movements, Dean disarmed Mary with a swift elbow to her stomach and an even quicker blow to the head that knocked her out.
"Sam!" He yelled out. He moved to cradle Sam's head in his arms, trying to get him up.
There was a fluttering of wings.
Dean looked up, expecting to see Gabriel, relieved for the first time that the archangel was in residence.
But it wasn't him – it was Harry, his wings still visible. His face was almost colorless and he struggled to stay on his feet.
"What happened?" He croaked out.
"Mom – she…"
"Harry!" Gabriel arrived just as Harry was collapsing to the ground. He caught him before he could hit the floor.
"Gabriel – please, she shot Sam," Dean said, still holding Sam and feeling like he was watching his entire life collapse in front of his eyes.
Harry was still conscious and he whispered, "Sam, Gabe. Gotta heal 'im." It was quite the impassioned speech for a man that looked like he was half dead.
Gabriel snorted. "That would kill you." He gently placed Harry on the floor and went over to Sam. With a quick touch to the forehead, he healed the youngest Winchester who gasped for breath as his eyes opened.
"Sam," Dean said, relief flooding his voice. He scrambled off the ground so he could help Sam get up as well.
"Wha?" Sam asked, still not quite with it yet. He saw both Mary and Harry on the floor. "What happened?"
"Mom shot you," Dean said. "I don't know why, but it was almost as if…"
"She's not possessed," Gabriel said, at Mary's side, a hand on her temple. "Her mind's been tampered with."
"Fix her!" Dean demanded.
Gabriel gave him a cutting look. "Kinda have to focus on Harry here, for now, Dean-o."
"Gabe –" Harry panted.
"Oh God, Harry!" Sam said, running over to his fallen brother. "What did you do?"
"He flew," Dean said, torn between going to his mother and following Sam to check on Harry.
"Yeah, and damn near killed himself in the meantime," Gabriel said, leaving Mary and going to place himself between Sam and Harry. "That was stupid, Harry."
Harry laughed and then coughed. He kept coughing until blood came out of his mouth. "Had to save Sam," he said.
"You're a regular hero, yeah," Gabriel said. "We all already knew that. I'm going to take you back to your room."
"Don't – " Harry started before coughing again.
"I wouldn't," Gabriel said gently as he eased Harry into his arms to pick him up. "I don't think you'd survive the trip. Can you two chuckleheads manage to stay out of trouble long enough for me to get Harry back to bed?"
He didn't wait for an answer, he just swiftly moved past them.
Sam and Dean watched still whip-lashed from everything that just happened.
The two of them went over to Mary, who was laying on the floor, passed out.
"What just happened?" Sam asked as he gently lifted her. "She's was talking to us like normal – but she said something about the Men of Letters having done something to her head."
"And Gabriel confirmed it."
Sam started walking towards Mary's room, still holding her very carefully. Once they got there, he laid her down on the bed.
Dean ran a hand through his hair and sat down heavily next to the bed.
Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
"How's Harry?" Sam asked, not taking his eyes off of his mother.
"He'll live. No thanks to you," the archangel said harshly.
"You were the one watching him – why'd you let him fly?" Dean countered.
"You think I could I stopped him? He was gone in a second!"
"Yeah – so how could you expect Sam to be able to stop him then?"
"Gabriel, Dean, stop. Really, Gabriel – what kind of damage did that do to him? He's been back for a full day now – when is that…whatever Asmodeus gave him…going to wear off?"
"I don't know," Gabriel said. "He's not been the chattiest. But I think the only way we'll know if it completely wears off is when his wings are no longer on the physical plane."
Sam looked up at Gabriel sharply. "Did Harry tell you that?" He couldn't imagine that he had – they had really only given the two of them a very short period of time to talk when neither Sam nor Dean had been present.
"No."
"They how the hell do you know?" Dean asked.
"It doesn't matter."
The way he said that made both Sam and Dean think that it mattered very much.
"If it doesn't matter, why you can't tell us?" Sam challenged.
"Fine. Lucifer told me. Happy now?"
The twin looks of horror would have amused Gabriel under any circumstances that were not these.
"You know where Lucifer is?" Dean practically hissed.
"Obviously. Do try to keep up. He told me that Asmodeus had created a potion that would make Harry's wings appear on the physical plane and make using his grace more painful than death."
"Why would he use it then?" Sam asked, feeling terrible.
Gabriel glared. "I don't need to tell you. He heard the gunshot and thought the worst. And for Dad-knows-what-reason, he still believes that your lives are more valuable than his."
"We didn't want him to do that!" Dean protested. "We never would have asked him to do that. In fact, I can't wait for him to feel better so that I can kick his ass for risking his life. Again."
"I get dibs," Sam said darkly, "since it was me that he risked his life to save."
"Where's Lucifer?" Dean asked, not forgetting that particular detail. "And why is he still alive if you know where he is?"
"I know that I seem all-powerful in comparison to you, bucko," Gabriel said fiercely, "but believe it or not, I don't have the ability to kill my brother. Don't remember the last time that I went mano-e-mano with him?"
"You survived."
"Barely. In any case, he's under control, for now."
"What does that mean?" Sam asked.
"Hey – do you want me to see if I can cure Mama Winchester, or not?" Gabriel asked, changing the topic.
Which, of course, worked. Both Sam and Dean nodded in unison.
"On it. Give me a sec," he reached over. It took all of Dean's willpower not to block the archangel from touching his mother, but he let him place fingers on Mary's head. "That's some advanced mental magic they performed," he said, concentrating.
After a couple of minutes of utter silence.
Gabriel drew back. "I think I got it all."
"Got all of what?"
"The rewiring that they tried to do. Your mother's mind was hijacked."
"Yeah, we got that, from the you know, shooting Sam of it all," Dean said dryly.
"Do you know how they did it?" Sam asked.
"A complex combination of science and earth magic. It may be some time before she wakes. And, you're welcome, by the way."
"Thank you, Gabriel," Sam said, actually sounding sincere. Dean didn't look quite as convinced.
"I do have a small teensy-weensy favor to ask of you both," Gabriel said.
"There it is," Dean said.
"What do you want, Gabriel?" Sam asked, tired.
"Your help," he responded, too simply.
"Alright," Dean said tiredly. "What kind of help?"
"Since Harry wouldn't let me move him someplace safer and now I couldn't even if I wanted to because it would kill him, I have to other steps to keep him safe. This means I'm going to have to trust the two of you to be hyper-vigilant with him," Gabriel said. "But more than that – I'm going to have to do something drastic to be sure that Harry doesn't hurt himself more than he already has."
"What?"
"Well…the potion that he forced Harry to drink was really more of a poison. It warped his grace – a gift from Heaven, into an instrument of torture."
"You already told us that. Get the point, Gabriel," Dean said, impatient.
"I am getting there, meathead," he snapped back. "Any grace that enters Harry – for healing or anything else, will have the same effect. Case and point, when I flew him here. However, I think that wizarding magic may be weak enough to get the job done."
"The job of…"
"Making sure that he can't hurt himself in the same way again. I need, you, Sam to do some spell work for me."
"He said that even magic hurt him!" Sam protested. "I promised him I wouldn't use magic to heal him."
"And I'm not asking you to heal him," Gabriel said.
"You're not?"
"No. I'm asking you to bind his grace. Temporarily. Until the poison wears off. Right now, even the residual grace that naturally lives in him is causing him pain, which will prevent him from healing. By both Magical and Muggle means. If we bind it away, it will still be a source of pain, but we can contain it and make sure that he can't access it to cause even further harm."
"You want to make him human again," Sam summarized. "And do you really think that he'll survive his injuries if he's human?"
Gabriel winced. "It'll be difficult. But not as difficult as if he uses his grace or I use mine to heal him. One more blow to his system and that may be the end of him. He's not Master of Death anymore, he wouldn't have the choice to come back. That would be the end. For good."
"You don't trust him to not use his grace? Even if it will kill him?" Sam could hear the flaw in his own logic as he spoke and so did Dean, who made a face. "Alright. Yeah."
"We could just watch him like a hawk," Dean suggested, not liking this idea at all.
Gabriel scoffed. "I was watching him like a hawk when this happened."
"He almost killed himself at the possibility that one of us was hurt," Sam said. "What do you think he'd do if we were in actual danger?"
Dean especially didn't like how easily Sam was swayed by Gabriel.
"Nothing good. But at least it would be his choice. Come on, Sam, I can't believe that you, of all people, are the one arguing for keeping him controlled. How many times have you railed against me for trying to do the same to you?"
"Yeah. Sure. But you always ignored me if I was risking my own safety. Why aren't you doing the same to him?"
"Because…" Dean realized that there was no winning this argument. It was because, somehow, he actually trusted Harry a little more than Sam when it came to making adult decisions. But his middle brother's track record was honestly not great in that department. "Fine," he finally conceded. "But how much will this hurt him?"
"I don't know," Gabriel said honestly. "It won't be anywhere near the damage that grace would cause. And it might not hurt him at all – he hasn't had anyone else use magic on him. I am not capable of doing magic on as minor of a scale as what is needed."
"Shouldn't we get one of his friends to do it instead? Luna, maybe?" Sam asked, worried that he would botch the spell in some way. He wasn't a fully trained wizard, after all.
Gabriel shook his head. "No. Luna's too powerful. Hermione is certainly too powerful as well. Any adult wizard, really, has had too much time to grow and develop their magic their entire lives. In a weird twist of fate, Sam's only have just gained his abilities in the last couple of years makes him perfect for this procedure. It's delicate, but he is honestly not powerful enough to put Harry in any sort of serious danger."
Sam was pretty sure that was an insult but he chose to ignore it. "Alright," he finally agreed.
Dean whistled. He was on board, but still… "He's gonna be pissed."
"It'll be temporary," Gabriel said. "But until this potion has cycled out of his system, I don't trust that he won't go all hero-complex on us again."
Neither Sam nor Dean disagreed with the archangel.
After Gabriel healed the outside bruises and cuts on Mary's body and assured the brothers that she would keep sleeping for at least another couple of hours, if not for a couple of days, the three of them headed to Harry's room.
The middle Winchester still looked terrible. His wings were skeletal and he still looked like he had been in a fight with a semi-truck and lost.
"Ok, Sam, you got your wand?"
Sam nodded.
"We're going to practice first. I just designed this spell, and it should be low enough power, but I want you to repeat after me."
"You can just invent spells?"
Gabriel snorted. "Yeah. Of course, I created magic, remember?"
He hadn't. But he supposed it made sense.
"Ligare donum caelorum," he said.
Sam repeated it back.
"You're Latin is decent," Gabriel said. "I guess it's good that you're the one with magic. Dean's useless."
"Hey! I get by."
Gabriel snorted. "Now, the wand movement." With his finger, he did a complex configuration that Sam had to watch several times before getting it down. Gabriel nodded. "Good. Well, let's get this done."
Sam suddenly felt all the nerves.
"Calm yourself," Gabriel barked. "You need to concentrate. Remember intention is important. You have to really want this."
Sam knew that, of course, he'd gone through the basics at Hogwarts, but this was the first time that he was using a spell that was brand new. He breathed deeply.
Deliberately and purposefully, he spoke, "Ligare donum caelorum," while performing the wand movements that Gabriel had just taught him.
A bright blue light came from his wand and, in his sleep, Harry groaned and seized.
"Harry!" Sam called out, distraught. But as quickly as it had come, it was over, and Harry was calm. His wings disappeared.
"Oh, thank God," Gabriel said, letting a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad that didn't kill him."
"Kill him?!" Sam asked.
"Yeah, you know, you never know…"
Dean punched Gabriel in the face, cutting him off, only to let out a grunt of pain. "You didn't say that it might kill him!"
"I was pretty sure that it wouldn't. And it didn't. He's safe now," Gabriel said, trying not to grin at how he had hurt Dean without even trying.
"How long will this last?" Sam asked, also furious, but needing to know the practical details.
Infuriatingly, Gabriel shrugged. "Should wear off when the poison leaves his system, as I said earlier, or, at least, by then, he'll be powerful enough to break the spell himself."
"You're not going to break it?" Dean asked.
"Nope," Gabriel responded. "Actually, I gotta jet. I'd love to stay here and make sure that the two of you don't kill Harry, you know, again, but between Asmodeus, Lucifer, and Lucifer Jr., I got bigger fish to fry."
"What?"
"You heard me. He can't kill himself by playing an angelic hero now, so it's up to the two of you to make sure that he doesn't do it by doing something equally stupid like standing in front of a bullet. I don't really trust you, but you're the best I've got."
Sam and Dean had no idea what to say to that.
"Alright then," Gabriel said, taking advantage of the silence. "I'm off to tackle the big bads. I'll be in touch." With that, he flew off, leaving Sam and Dean alone with Harry.
"What the actual fuck?" Dean asked.
"You got me," Sam said, looking at Harry, concerned.
"Did that…did that sound a little too easy to you?" Sam asked.
Dean snorted. "Yeah. No way that it goes that smoothly. Gabriel does love to forget that he's a Winchester."
They were silent for a moment, both contemplating everything that had just happened. The last twenty-four hours felt more like a week.
"What're we going to do?" Sam asked. "The Men of Letters are still out there, killing Hunters."
"And Cas and Kelly are still in the wind," Dean added.
"I think we should – "
There was a ringing that sounded all over the Bunker. It was like a doorbell – but they didn't have one of those.
"What now?" Dean asked, heading out of the room as the sound continued.
"Sam, Dean?" Came a voice from the war room.
Sam and Dean both pulled out their guns. With a hand gesture, Dean directed Sam as they moved towards the voice.
Quietly and carefully, they crept to the war room, ready for a fight.
They burst into the room.
"Woah! Hey!" The same voice said as they rounded the corner. The room was filled – there were approximately a dozen people standing there. All of them dressed in robes with wands out.
"Neville?" Sam asked, lowering his gun. "What are you doing here?"
AN – I did warn that a lot was going to happen this chapter. And, after this, only two chapters left of this story arc! As a heads up, I'm going to be taking a hiatus between Parts 1 and 2. I will mark this fic complete but then start updating again. I'm shooting for September 1st at the latest.
I'd really love to hear what all of y'all think. Harry has been too powerful for too long so I'm looking forward to having him powered down for a bit (I won't say for how long). But it will really give me a chance to change the relationship dynamic he has with Sam and Dean and explore some interesting storylines, so I hope that you are looking forward to it. Also, if you have predictions, lay them on me. Some of you are very clever at figuring out where I'm going with things.
Lastly, and I know this might sound trite at this point, but, I really do appreciate all of you readers, whether you comment or not. (But special heart points to those who do.) Thank you so much for taking the time to read my ridiculously long story.