Unfound
Chapter Forty-Four
When Sirius tried to apparate into the Bunker, he found himself a good three miles away from his intended destination.
That was weird.
He tried again – same thing.
Alright, he thought. On foot it is.
He started to walk in the general direction of the Bunker. Or, at least the direction he was assuming it was in because the magic in the air got thicker. He had never actually spent much time exploring the area that his godson's home was in. He was regretting that now.
He got maybe a mile through the first wards when he hit another set.
These were considerably more complicated. Sirius briefly debated hiking back to town and calling Harry. He knew that he should have taken a mobile when offered one. But he'd been holed up with Crowley for longer than anyone ever have to spend with the demon, and he could use the exercise, both mental and physical. He was never one to back down from a challenge.
First, there was a strong dissuasion ward which seemed, in structure, similar to a Muggle repelling ward, but it was meant for anyone. Mentally, he was strong enough to ignore the urges to make sure that he had turned off his stovetop. Sirius would bet his wand arm that it would work on any kind of humanoid (namely, demons) who tried to enter.
Which gave him a thought.
He transformed into Padfoot.
It had been a minute and he shook himself off and did some circles around the perimeter of the ward to see if he could detect anything with his doggy senses that he missed as a human.
Wards were something that Sirius had always been particularly talented at. Not because it was a class at Hogwarts, but because his parents, and family in general, had been obsessed with being able to protect themselves. At his mother's elbow, he had learned the Black family secrets on how to keep out undesirables. It had been his father's greatest ambition to uncover ancient wards that could detect a person's blood status.
Sirius expected that those wards were just pureblood myths. But his father had been obsessed and had high hopes that Sirius would continue his work after he had passed. Of course, that never came to be, but that knowledge saved his life in Purgatory and Limbo. And the lives of many others.
But he had never seen wards like these and he was delighted. He wondered if Harry had taken up the art and he couldn't wait to talk to him about it.
He went maybe another hundred yards, trotting along happily.
Which, of course, was a mistake, he had stopped paying attention.
From one of the trees, a cage made from something that he had never seen before dropped on him. He tried to shift back and found that he could not. Interesting, he thought.
Sirius tried to fight it and found that the more he did the more tired he got. And just as he thought he could put a paw just under the cage, he passed out.
III
"It's alright," Luna said. "Look, it's only Padfoot."
The wards had pinged that there was an animagus trying to breach the wards of the Bunker.
Luna, Charlie, and Bill had gone out to investigate, leaving the youngest two Weasleys with Castiel and Jack to hold down the fort in case of a bigger attack.
"Padfoot?" Charlie asked. "Like…"
"Sirius Black," Bill said.
"Wizards are amazing," Charlie said. And then she pouted. "I wish I could turn into a cute puppy."
"That's hardly a puppy, Charlie," Bill said with laughter in his voice. "That's the bloody grim."
"Grim? No, look at him! I just want to take him home and cuddle him and give him treats all day long."
Bill cast a quick spell that allowed Sirius to wake up in the cage, but not transform back.
The dog woke up and was quickly on his feet, snapping and snarling at the group of them.
Charlie ran behind Luna. "Bad dog!" She reprimanded.
The reaction was immediate and hilarious. He seemed to realize who he was there and stopped his aggression immediately and whined.
"I think it's safe to remove the cage, now," Luna said.
With a couple of flicks of his wand, Bill did just that, resetting the ward as he did it.
Sirius immediately changed back into himself.
"Those are some impressive wards," he said. "Bill, it's great to see you again," he held his hand out. "Is Molly still after you to cut your hair?
Bill gladly took it and clapped the older man on the back. "You too. You know, I heard you were back, but we haven't had the chance to catch up yet. And yes, of course, I think she'll have, 'But are you sure I can't cut your hair for you, Bill, dear,'' etched on her gravestone someday." His impression of Molly was spot on and Sirius couldn't help but laugh.
"Could you turn back into a dog?" Charlie asked. "That was so cool."
With a grin, Sirius turned into a dog and rolled over on his belly, before turning back into himself.
"Wow," she said. "Why can't you do that, Luna?"
Luna looked on with amusement. "Not all witches and wizards can become animagi," she said. "I've told you that before. It's not where my talents lie."
"But it would be soooo cool," Charlie whined. "It'd be like having a familiar. What do you think you'd be able to turn into?"
Bill cleared his throat to cut off this conversation. "I think we should get back to the Bunker. It might take us a little bit of time to Sirius through the rest of the wards."
"There are more?" Sirius asked.
"Of course. This is now probably the best-warded place in all of the US," Bill said.
"I'd like to be the judge of that," Sirius said. "You know, I did a little study of wards myself and these are incredible, but I know a few ones that may help."
That peaked Bill's interest. "I've heard that the Blacks had a couple of secrets is it true that…"
The two of them continued an intense and esoteric conversation about warding in general with occasion questions and contributions by Charlie.
Luna was happy to watch the wildlife and leave the others to their talk. She did lodge one protest when they talked about keeping out all creatures – including bugs and small woodland creatures. "But the flowers!"
When they got to the door, Charlie pulled out the key, of which there were only two, to get them into the door. Hers was a special one. Only a completely nonmagical person could only use it. No angel, demon, witch, wizard, or creature possessing any sort of supernatural ability could use it to enter. It was quite clever and she wore it around her neck.
They hadn't decided yet if the key would ultimately go to Dean, who was the only other person who fit the bill, or if she would keep it as a safeguard.
As they entered, they saw Ron and Ginny in deep conversation over the map table.
Charlie could feel their relief when they looked up and saw who had come through.
"Thank Merlin," Ron said. "I told you that it was probably Sirius," he bragged to his sister.
"It's never a bad idea to be careful," she shot back. "We didn't know it was him, did we?"
Ron ignored her.
"Where are Castiel and Jack?" Luna asked, not seeing either of the angels.
"Settling back in," Ron said dismissively. "Or, at least, that's what Castiel said. I think he was actually just trying to get some peace and quiet from Ginny's questions."
"Hey – it's not every day that you have an actual angel around!" Ginny defended herself.
"Trust me, you never get used to it. And Castiel is particularly dreamy, I understand why you'd want to get to know him better," Charlie said.
Ginny blushed. "That's not – "
"Well, Mum'll be pleased," Bill teased as they all went down the stairs. "She's been on you to settle down for… how long now?"
"Ooooh, if I had known that was why you were asking all the questions, I would have left the two of you alone," Ron continued the joke, although, in reality, he'd kill Ginny if she tried to date the angel that had killed Harry. But the look on her face was too much fun.
"I do not have a crush on Castiel!" Ginny protested.
"Well, that's good to know," Dean said, coming in from the garage, Sam and Harry in tow. "You've already had a thing with both my brothers. Really, you owe me at least one date. I am the best-looking of the three of us."
"Shut up, Dean," Sam hissed at his brother, blushing red.
Ron was glaring daggers at both of them. He was about to say something, but Harry quickly walked into the room.
"Sirius!" Harry interrupted wanting to bring an end to this whole conversation. "I thought you were with Andy in England."
"We caught him trying to sneak into the Bunker," Bill said, "as Padfoot."
"I wasn't sneaking," Sirius argued. "The last time I was here it wasn't so difficult to get in."
"The last time you were here, Jack pulled you through the wards," Harry said. "That was cheating." He turned away from his godfather – he'd figure out what the man was up to after they got through more important matters. "Charlie, Luna, it's good to see you," he went over to the two women and hugged them. He had been seeing plenty of the Weasleys but the couple had been staying mostly in North America for the last couple of months.
"We missed you, Harry," Luna said, quietly in Harry's ear so that only he could hear. "I'm glad to see that you're alright. If you need to talk about it later, you know where to find me."
Harry nodded at her with appreciation as they pulled apart. A lot was swirling around in his brain and he wasn't sure that any of it would settle anytime soon.
"Ron – we need to get Hermione on the phone, as soon as possible, or you need to return to England and tell her what's going on."
"You said you killed Asmodeus," Ron said.
"Yeah, but there's something way worse than him out there," Harry said.
That got everyone's attention.
"What is it?" Ginny asked in horror. She knew what Asmodeus had done to Harry and she couldn't imagine anything worse than that.
Harry sighed. "It's a long story. Uh – maybe, we should get Cas to help explain."
"And some beers," Dean added. Once again, there were ten million people in his home and he didn't like it one bit. Hopefully, Harry would share all this information and they would all disperse to deal with it in places far away from here.
"I'll get both," Sam volunteered before Dean could. Dean shot him a glare and he responded with a slight smile. It was his revenge for Dean mentioning anything about him and Ginny in front of Ron. Something that he had explicitly asked his brother not to do.
III
When Mary came to, she realized that she wasn't in her tent. She immediately sat up, ready to fight, remembering the explosions.
"Woah, woah, take it easy," a voice came from over her shoulder.
When Gabriel came into her line of sight, she was disappointed. She had so hoped that it was Henry.
"Hey, try not to look so disappointed. I may not be any of your sons, but I am your future son-in-law, so, I'm like the next best thing."
Mary frowned. "And which one of my sons are you planning on marrying?" Her head was still a little fuzzy, although she could feel that it was at least partially healed. She wondered why Gabriel hadn't healed it the whole way.
"The most handsome one, of course."
"All three of them are pretty handsome," she muttered. It's not that she and John weren't attractive people, but she wasn't quite sure how her sons had turned out to be as good-looking as they were.
"Ah. I only have eyes for Harry," Gabriel said.
Mary remembered that now. "Right."
As the cobwebs in her brain cleared, she looked up at Gabriel sharply. "The camp!"
"What about it?"
"We've got to go save it. They got in – Pettigrew betrayed us. Come on Gabriel, we've got to see if any of them are left alive and help them fight."
"Sorry, Mary, no can do," he said with a sigh. "I used up the majority of what was left of my grace to rescue and heal you. I'm afraid the camp is lost. In good news, however, I did manage to stop more witches and wizards from coming over from Purgatory before my powers were drained to almost nothing."
"… your powers are drained?"
"Yep." He said, popping the "p" obnoxiously.
"How is that even possible?"
"The atmosphere here. Surely the wizards told you…"
"Yeah, but they're wizards. You're an archangel."
"I think that actually made it worse," Gabriel said. "The atmosphere here – Asmodeus did something to manipulate it and it affects us worse than other magical beings. The good news here is that Lucy is in the same boat as me."
"He can do that?"
Gabriel shrugged. "Evidently."
"So, all those witches and wizards they're…"
"Oh, I'm sure they're not dead," Gabriel said darkly. "They needed them too much. And if Lucy pulled the trigger, which I believe he did, that means that he is trying to amass an army to take back to Earth with him."
"Back to…I thought we were stuck here."
"We are. Or were. We've found some evidence that the gates have been reopened. This means that either your sons are on their way or Asmodeus figured it out. I don't know who I'd place my bets on. But it hardly matters."
"Then – why did you pull me out?" Mary asked, mourning her friends. Or, if not friends, fellow combatants. "And what are they going to do to them?"
"I think you know the answer to that question," Gabriel said pointedly.
"Demonizing their souls," she said grimly. "Gabriel – we've got to…"
"Nuh uh, we don't got to do anything. Nor is it worth risking your pretty little neck over it."
"My neck?"
"Yeah. Whoever controls you, controls the Winchesters," Gabriel said. "Thankfully, I got to you before Lucy or Asmodeus did."
"You don't control me," Mary said with horror.
"Wellll…."
"Gabriel," she admonished.
"Have possession of you? Look, I'm not gonna use you as a bargaining chip, I think that's what really matters here. That's all you'd be to Asmodeus or Lucifer. I'll protect you."
Mary felt this was all very undignified. She didn't belong to anyone.
"Ah, there's that trademark Winchester stubbornness," Gabriel said. "Look, I'm not holding you hostage, but I'm letting you know, it's not safe out there."
"And without your grace, how are you going to protect me? I may be better off on my own."
Gabriel chuckled. "Temporarily without my grace. You and I – we're gonna fix that."
Mary looked at him with surprise. "How?"
The smile Gabriel gave her was not comforting.
III
"…but what does it mean?" Ron asked, looking a little green. Harry and Castiel what they had found in Asmodeus' lair.
On one side of the map table was the wizarding contingent – Ron, Bill, Ginny, Luna, and Charlie. On the other Sam, Dean, Harry, and Castiel. Sirius had chosen to be in between the two groups, at the head of the table.
The mood was grim and tense. Harry was beginning to feel the weight of and weariness of the day. This was important – otherwise, he thought that maybe he'd be asleep in his bed.
He had been surprised at how much the Bunker felt like home now. Sure, it wasn't Hogwarts, but, in some ways, it was better. This wasn't a home that he shared with hundreds of other students. This was a home that he shared with his brothers.
However, there was no missing the dirty looks that Sam and Dean were shooting Sirius and vice versa.
"We're not sure," Castiel answered Ron's question when Harry didn't jump in right away.
"But it's not good," Harry finished for him.
Dean moved his angry gaze from Sirius to Harry and Castiel. Now they're finishing each other's sentences?
"This must be why Asmodeus was stealing witches and wizards in Limbo," Sirius said. He felt pretty sick himself.
"You never thought to mention that before?" Dean said dangerously, anger just simmering below the surface, threatening to spill over.
"Why would I?" Sirius snapped. "I thought the gates between the two worlds were closed forever. I didn't think it would matter anymore."
"I dunno, because demons doing crazy shit is usually headline news?" Dean asked sarcastically.
"And you knew that wizards were being taken here too," Sam pointed out. He was also very displeased to once again have this particular wizard in his home. "Did it never occur to you that the two things were connected? Or were you just hiding that from us?"
"Just what are you accusing me of?" Sirius asked, raising his voice and standing up, ready to get in Sam's face – although he'd have to do so by looking up.
"I don't know," Dean said, standing as well, putting himself between Sam and Sirius, hand halfway to his gun, "what are you guilty of? How do we really know you're even Harry's godfather? For all we know, you could be one of these…"
Sirius punched Dean in the nose.
There was a roar as Sam came to Dean's defense – he easily moved in front of and pulled his wand out, ready to curse him to oblivion.
Everyone else immediately jumped into action. Castiel moved to hold Dean back while Bill and Ron took Sirius' arms. Harry just stood there, completely frozen.
"Oh," Sirius said with a nasty smile, even though he was now immobilized. "You think you can take me, little boy?"
"Yeah," Sam said. "Why don't you try me?" He looked like he was about to try and power past Cas.
"ENOUGH!" Harry shouted. He hated this. All of it. They were facing an end-of-the-world kind of threat and his family was arguing with each other like children.
All three arguing men stopped trying to get at each other. With relief, and trepidation, Castiel stepped out of the way, and Bill and Ron let Sirius go. Of course, Dean was never one to back down from a fight. He didn't understand why Harry put up with him. He was shady as fuck and Dean didn't trust him for one second. He just needed to get Harry to see that.
"Harry – you can't trust him!" Dean argued, pointing a finger at Sirius. "You said yourself, you thought he was in England this whole time and then he just turns up here, trying to break in and…"
"Harry!" Sirius barked, puffing up in anger at the accusation. "I'm not the one you can't trust. What do you think they're keeping from you now? You don't need them. We should just…"
"Is now really the time?" It was Ron that spoke up, surprising everyone. "I think we've got bigger problems. If any of you really cared about Harry, you'd bury the damn hatchet and learn to get along! Merlin knows I've been dealing with these two wankers for years. If I can do it, so can you Sirius," he said specifically to Harry's godfather, who had the good grace to look a little ashamed of himself. "And you two," Ron said to Sam and Dean. "We get it. You hate Sirius. But he's the closest thing Harry ever had to a father growing up. How would you act if he treated your Bobby like you're treating Sirius?"
"Bobby wasn't an asshat," Dean muttered.
"And Harry had an actual father," Sam said, although his face had gone a little red from losing his temper.
"Yeah! And this jackass took him away from his real family," Dean said, not looking like he was ready to back down in the least.
"Your father would have killed him," Sirius hissed.
Shouts erupted again.
Ron gave Harry a look that said, I tried with a shrug.
Even with his superior angelic hearing, Harry was having a hard time making out who was saying what and exactly what words were being said.
It looked like things might go to blows again, when Jack came barreling into the room. "STOP IT!" with his words, it was as if time stopped still. Waves of power flowed off him, throwing everyone, except Harry, to walls on opposite sides of the Bunker. "STOP FIGHTING!" Jack yelled again for good measure.
"It's alright, Jack," Harry said quietly. "You're safe."
Jack turned to him, eyes glowing gold with worry and fear.
"Breathing exercises!" Castiel called from the floor. Being made of sterner stuff than most of the others, he was already beginning to stumble to his feet, although he looked like it wouldn't take much to knock him back down again.
"Right, breath with me, Jack," Harry said. He led Jack through some exercises until the Nephilim's eyes stopped glowing.
Castiel was up and helping everyone up off the floor. No one looked hurt. But, at the same time, no one was saying anything.
Harry kept his attention on Jack, who looked miserable and upset, and like he was about to bolt out of the room.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I just…"
"It was a lot," Harry said. "And if you hadn't, honestly, I might've."
Jack shook his head. "I thought I was getting better," he said quietly.
"You are," Harry said. "I promise."
"I just – I could feel…everything. And you – they were hurting you."
Harry was a little concerned at how much Jack was picking up on his emotions. "It's alright, Jack. They didn't mean it."
"That doesn't make it ok," he said, a hard edge to his voice.
"Maybe not. But I think I'd rather deal with an excess amount of people loving me in ways that are not entirely helpful than having no one."
"Oh," Jack said.
"Why don't you go back to your room? Maybe give Teddy a ring? I'll deal with this lot."
Jack nodded but looked reluctant.
Harry gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and he glanced one last time at the now-standing group of people and left.
"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Harry said. "Could you all behave yourselves for long enough for us to come up with a plan of action, or do I need to send you to separate corners?" He used his best Head Auror dealing with an unruly recruit's voice.
"I think separate corners may be best," Ron said, rubbing his head where it had hit the wall. Thankfully, not all that hard. "My head would sure appreciate it."
Harry looked at the group appraisingly. Sam and Dean did not seem calmed down and Sirius looked ready to go to blows again. And Ron was a master strategist.
"Alright," he said. "Americans to the kitchen. Brits and Castiel stay here."
Dean looked like he was going to argue, but Harry shot him the bitch face to end all bitch faces and he backed down and went to the kitchen, trailing slightly behind Sam. "You shouldn't've taught him that, Sammy," he muttered.
Sam snorted.
"Um – " Charlie raised her hand like she was in class. "Can I stay here?" She asked pointing down to where she was standing.
Harry sighed. "Yes, of course."
She smiled.
"Harry, I was just trying…"
"Sirius, not now," he said tiredly. "We can talk later. But, for now, Ron, we need to figure out how to disseminate this information as widely as possible."
III
"Who the hell does he think he is?" Dean grumbled and he and Sam went into the kitchen.
"He was probably thinking it was best for us not to be in the same room as his godfather for any longer than we needed to be," Sam spat.
Dean was surprised to hear the anger coming out of his youngest brother.
"I hate him," Sam said, surprising himself with how deeply he felt that.
"Yeah, join the club," Dean agreed. "What're we gonna do about it?"
"I don't know that there's anything we can do," Sam said, clenching his fists.
"Yeah? You think we should just let him keep tryin' to drive a wedge between us and Harry?"
"You think that's what he's trying to do?" Sam asked. He wasn't quite so sure. He didn't know what the man wanted, but he was sick of it, whatever it was. "You don't think that it's just because he doesn't like us?"
"He has no reason to not like us," Dean said.
"We did help get Harry killed," Sam offered.
Dean rolled his eyes. "At least we didn't offer him up as a child soldier against an evil wizard," he said. "If he thinks we're bad, then…"
"I'm not arguing with you Dean. I mean it, what do you think we can do?" Sincerity came through and Dean realized that his youngest brother was consulting him.
"We probably can't kill him, can we?"
Sam shook his head. "No. That wouldn't go over well," he said. "Although, I don't doubt that if Mom ever came face-to-face with him, she'd at least take a shot. And she might not miss."
"You know, he was the one who met with Mom and Dad, right? Like, that son-of-a-bitch came over and had dinner with them and then turned his back and kidnapped Harry as soon as he was born."
Sam clenched his jaw and Dean half expected to have to stop him from going into the other room and punching the man.
"Wait a second…" Dean said, an idea coming to him. "Mom," he said.
"What about her?"
"She's stuck in Limbo, right? And we know there's a way to get back in there and get her now, right?"
Sam shot Dean a questioning look. "I thought you thought Mom was dead."
"Yeah. And I thought Cas was dead too. And Harry. Maybe we'll catch a break."
That was the most optimistic Sam had heard Dean be in ages.
"Alright, what does that have to do with Black?"
"We obviously don't want to bring Lucifer back here," Dean said. "We're gonna need that spell that Crowley used to close the gate."
"You want to kill Sirius to close the gate?"
Dean shook his head. "No. I just want to…lose him there. He should come with us, after all, he knows the terrain. Maybe we can talk Harry into staying here with Jack and we can go on our mission and say, we just happen to get separated…"
"Harry won't like it," Sam said.
"He doesn't have to."
Sam didn't want to think that he had it in him to do it but…sometimes those who died deserved to stay dead. "I'll think about it."
Dean smiled, knowing he had won. "You do that."
III
"Do we know how to defend against them?" Ron asked Castiel and Harry.
"No," Castiel said. "They have to be immensely powerful though."
"How do you know?" Bill asked.
Castiel gave him a sweeping glance. "Because both the crosses between human and demon and human and angel are extremely powerful. I can only imagine how much power a being with all three in them must have."
"More powerful than Harry?" Ron asked.
"I think there's a strong possibility."
Ron went gray. He sucked in a breath. "And how many are there?"
"In this dimension?" Harry asked. "We know there is at least one. There, Asmodeus' notes seem to indicate at least a dozen. Sirius – how many witches and wizards went missed while you were in Limbo?"
Sirius had to think about it for a second. He had left that world behind so completely that his memories were beginning to fade. "Twenty to thirty."
"So, we have to assume two dozen exist," Harry said gravely. "How many came over from Purgatory?"
"No – they were well protected," Sirius said, shaking his head. "There's no way…"
Harry gave him a look.
"Around fifty, when I left," Sirius said. "Although we were working to get another group across when all Hell broke loose."
"Fifty wizard demons," Ginny said, feeling the gravity of it. "And we have no idea how to fight them."
"We have some," Castiel said, giving Harry a side-long glance. Harry raised an eyebrow.
I think we should tell them, Castiel said to him over angel radio.
Really? I thought it was the secret to end all secrets? Harry responded.
That was before. He stopped for a second. Maybe not the whole truth.
"Well, what is it?" Charlie asked, impatient. Harry looked away from Castiel.
"Cas and I found a stash of ancient wizarding texts at Hogwarts."
"Really?" Bill asked. "How old?"
"As old as they get," Castiel said. "The very first spells – many created by Gabriel himself for humans to be able to perform."
"Cool!" Charlie said.
"But those were all lost," Bill said. "I spent years in Egypt searching for the lost library. We had several possible locations and none of them – " He stopped when he realized the gravity of it all. "That knowledge it must be…"
"Kept secret," Castiel finished for him. "It cannot fall into the wrong hands," he looked specifically at Sirius.
Sirius looked offended. "Who would I tell?"
If Dean and Sam didn't trust this wizard, neither did Castiel. He had learned, over the years, that they had better instincts than him on these things.
"Wait, wait," Charlie said. "Are you saying that you've found scrolls from the Library at Alexandria?" Her eyes were huge.
"Yes," Castiel confirmed.
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Luna – those…what they must have…that's like the treasure find to end all treasure finds…"
"You've got to calm down," Harry said.
"No one can know," Castiel reiterated.
"Right, right, it's just…"
"Hermione's going to bust a nut," Ron said.
Harry winced. "Yeah. I know. And she'll tear me a new one for not telling her immediately. And I might've if I wasn't sure that she'd immediately resign her post to come and explore the collection."
"Good call," Ron said.
"Wait – is this how you were able to kill Asmodeus?" Ginny asked, putting the pieces together faster than anyone else. "Using one of those spells?"
Castiel looked impressed. Harry was almost always impressed with Ginny, but he felt a little bad for not assuming that she'd figure it out.
"So…research?" Charlie asked, a little too eagerly.
"That's certainly got to be a part of it," Harry said, looking at Ron. There was no one he trusted more to help them figure out what the best course of action would be.
"It's going to be hard to get prepared if no one has seen one of these things in action," he said. "But if we frame it as new ways to protect against the demon attacks that have been happening, we may be able to get the Wizengamot to fall in line."
"I hope we don't have to see them in action," Harry said with a shudder.
"We're not that lucky," Ron quipped. "Or, rather, you're not."
Harry nodded, unable to disagree.
"Castiel – " Luna said, surprising everyone. "Is there any way that you can get in contact with the angels?"
Castiel gave her an appraising look. "I am not – uh, very welcome with the angels," he said. "Especially given my involvement with Jack."
"Angels have long memories," Luna said. "They've followed you before. They may do the same again."
Castiel looked like he very much doubted it but he also knew Luna to be wise. "Perhaps if I bring you with me," he said with a smile at the idea.
"Me?"
"Yes. Your family is well respected," Castiel said. "And you are known to the angels."
"If you think I could help…"
"I do," Castiel said.
"Ok," Ron said. "Castiel and Luna will go talk to the angels to see if they can learn anything. Charlie – are you going to go with them?"
Charlie looked torn. Angels were dicks, sure, but still, it'd be cool to meet more of them. On the other hand – the Library at Alexandria.
"I think you should go to Hogwarts," Luna encouragingly.
She very much liked the sound of that. "Ok. Yeah. I'll go to Hogwarts for research."
"We'll have to clear that with McGonagall," Ron said.
"I'm sure it'll be fine," Harry said without a care.
Ron rolled his eyes. Of all the things that he had missed about his best friend, his penchant for believing that the rules never applied to him, wasn't one of them. "Charlie will go to Hogwarts. Bill? Ginny?"
"Oh, you couldn't keep me away from that," Bill said. He hadn't gotten into curse-breaking for the glamour of it all, but that didn't mean that he didn't love a good treasure find.
Ginny was less sure. "I think I'll help you and Hermione," she said to Ron. "I was thinking – Harry, you're going to be busy. People will expect that we're back together. Maybe we can take advantage of that and let people think that I have a special connection to you so that I can speak for you when you can't be there?"
Harry squeezed her hand to reassure her that, even though they weren't together, they still did have a close friendship. He also suspected that she, as his kind-of widow, had been speaking for him for years, and he trusted her. "Sounds good."
"What about me?" Sirius asked.
Harry had honestly forgotten that he was there, he had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout this whole conversation.
"What would you like to do?" Harry asked warily. It's not like he could do anything public – officially, he was still dead and they didn't plan on doing anything about that.
"I was thinking I could seek out Crowley," he said, a little too casually.
"Like – the King of Hell? That Crowley?" Harry asked. "The one who held you prisoner?"
Sirius shrugged. "I don't know that I would call it that."
"What would you call it then?" Castiel asked, confused.
"He said that he was keeping me safe," Sirius said. "From Sam and Dean."
"But you had to escape," Harry said.
"Yeah. But I'm not sure that he didn't just let me go."
"When were you going to tell me that?" Harry asked, frustrated. Sirius didn't look too concerned. Harry wondered if his godfather was just trying to stay close to him.
Before Sirius could answer, Ron jumped back in, wanting to stop the argument that he could see brewing. And based on Harry's reaction already, he didn't want Sirius to slip that going to Crowley had been his idea in the first place. "Why don't you stay here for now then, Sirius? The rest of us know what we need to do. I suggest we get to it."
"I'll need to go with whoever is going to Hogwarts," Castiel said. "And I think I should take Jack with me and leave him there. He'll be safe there."
"He'll be safe, sure, but when the students come back…" Harry didn't want to say it, but Jack being at Hogwarts could very well endanger the students. And they were only a couple of days away from September 1st.
Castiel frowned.
"We can decide later," Harry said, not wanting to make any decisions about Jack without Sam and Dean. "Why don't you all go? Castiel, I'll fly out and get you in a couple of hours, after I've talked to Sam and Dean."
"I think I should be there for that conversation too," Castiel disagreed with him.
"It could be a long one."
"We've got portkeys," Ron offered. "We'll have to leave the wards to use them, but we could get back to England that way. You can come later."
"You can't get into the library without us," Harry said.
"That's fine," Ron said. "I'm sure that Hermione'll will want to talk with all of us. Plus, as I said, I'd really prefer to talk with McGonagall before we bring a Muggle to Hogwarts."
"That's going to take some explanation," Bill agreed.
Harry looked torn. He was worried about their safety, but he knew that he couldn't be with them all the time. "Ok," he agreed. "You take off. Castiel and I will join you as soon as we can."
Ron nodded. They all exchanged hugs and pats on the back and the wizarding contingent, plus Charlie, left. Leaving Sirius behind.
"Castiel – why don't you go tell Sam and Dean everyone has left," Harry said, not looking forward to this conversation with Sirius. But he knew that it was important and should happen sooner rather than later.
Castiel didn't argue he left immediately, happy not to spend any excess time in the presence of the man who had literally stabbed him in the back.
"You're an amazing leader," Sirius said as soon as Castiel left. "I can see how you became the youngest Head Auror. The way everyone listened to you…"
Harry wasn't flattered. "Sirius, you know that I've missed you. And I'm so happy to have you back but…"
Sirius was hurt. "What?"
"You have to accept that Sam and Dean are my brothers," he said. "They're my family – which doesn't mean you aren't, but I belong here, with them. We – we missed out on so much. And they've had hard lives. I actually think that if it weren't for the situation, you'd get along great with them. They're good blokes."
Sirius huffed. "That hate me."
"You did kill their best friend and steal me as a baby," Harry said warily. "And you just punched Dean in the nose. I think they're entitled."
"We were going to return you!" Sirius argued.
Harry fixed him with a stare. "You know, Sirius, I haven't spoken much to you about it, but I did get to spend a lot of time with Mum and Dad in heaven. Really got to know them."
Sirius couldn't help but feel a little jealous. He wasn't sure if it was of Harry getting to be with them or them getting to be with Harry when his time had been cut so short.
Harry kept going. "And I've never said this to Sam and Dean – because I don't think it would help, but I don't think that any of you had any real intention of returning me."
"That's – why…no, we…"
"It's ok," Harry said. "I get it. They really, truly believed that I was in danger. And no matter what Sam and Dean say or think, Lily and James were just as much my real parents as Mary and John. But Sirius, you met them. You had dinner with them – you played with Dean. Mom told me. I just – I don't understand why you didn't speak up against taking me." There was real hurt there. Sirius wasn't sure what to do with it.
"They were nice," Sirius said slowly. "But…"
"But what?" Harry asked, pleadingly.
Sirius shook his head and straightened his back. Now was really not the time to have this conversation. "I think we've got bigger worries right now." He tried to ignore how Harry's face collapsed with disappointment.
"You're right, of course," Harry said. "I'm going to go talk to Sam and Dean." He hesitated for a second. He couldn't believe that he was about to say this, but it needed to be said. "I think – I think it would be best if you didn't stay here," he said. "At least until all of this has blown over."
Sirius looked at Harry with disbelief. But he didn't have a chance to say anything, because Harry quickly fled the room.
He just stood there in stunned silence for a couple of minutes. How had it come to this? How did his relationship with Harry deteriorate so quickly?
There was really only one answer.
Sam and Dean Winchester.
Sirius took a deep breath. This was his chance to get what Crowley wanted.
Harry didn't know what he was talking about, he concluded. But this changed things. He wasn't stupid. He had done some reading over Crowley's shoulder and he knew something that would probably come in useful to him. Because maybe Crowley did have the right idea.
He knew he wouldn't have much time. But it's not like he didn't know where Jack's room was.
III
"Hey Cas, Harry coming back with you?"
"In a second, yes," Castiel answered Dean's question. "He wanted to talk to Sirius privately first."
"What about?" Sam asked.
Castiel shrugged.
"I thought the two of you were bff's now," Dean said, with no small amount of sneer in his voice.
"We – have a mutual understanding," Castiel said, missing the tone entirely. "But I wanted to warn you both – he is still willing to sacrifice his life if he thinks that it will save you. Or others he loved."
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
"This doesn't surprise you?"
Sam sighed. "It's not like we expected him to change overnight," he said.
"But we'll keep an eye out on him," Dean said gruffly, offended that the angel was telling them what to do when it came to their own brother.
"Thank you," Castiel said, not realizing that he was saying the exact wrong thing.
III
Harry couldn't wait for this day to be over. He was exhausted, down to his very bones. But it didn't look like it was going to be ending anytime soon. At least he didn't need sleep anymore. Although he sure felt like he could use some.
He allowed himself a couple of seconds to gather himself before he went into the kitchen to face his brothers.
Dean and Sam had beers and were leaning against the counter and Castiel was sitting at the table.
"Howdy," Harry said with a bad American accent, trying to lighten the mood. Not that there was a whole lot to be light about.
Dean raised his eyebrows.
Sam snorted into his beer.
"Did Cas fill you in?" He asked, summoning a beer for himself.
Sam and Dean gave each other one of their infuriating looks that Harry knew to mean they were having their own, private, conversation.
"Uh, yeah," Sam said. He looked at Harry carefully. "Why don't you sit down, man?"
Harry shook his head. "I don't think I have the time," he said.
"You've got the time," Dean said with a hard edge to his voice. "Sit," he commanded in the way that only an older brother could.
Harry sat.
"You look like you got run over by a forklift," Dean said.
"I – "
"There were no forklifts," Castiel said. "But he did use some very ancient and powerful magic that is probably draining his resources a bit." He didn't mention that Harry had also drained some of his grace to give to Asmodeus.
"So, you're not completely back?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, and thanks for all the updates about your magic while you were gone," Dean added. "They were illuminating."
"A lot was going on," Harry defended, clenching his jaw.
"Oh yeah, like what?" Sam pushed.
Harry sighed. "Could we – could we not fight? There's so much to do and I just told Sirius that I don't want him here anymore and I would really just like to get through the rest of this terrible day as quickly as possible."
Sam and Dean looked at him, stunned.
"What?" Sam asked. "You told him – "
"I did. I can't have him here if he's gonna physically assault anyone here. I'm just grateful he didn't try to use magic – that could have ended much worse. I always knew he was a bit of a loose cannon but I thought maybe that was Azkaban. I thought he had changed," Harry said glumly.
No one knew what to say to that.
"So, you know what is happening with the wizarding side of things," Harry said, pressing on, through his tiredness.
"Yeah. Cas said something about a secret stash of nerd magic books at Hogwarts and we had to practically hold Sam from leaving right away. Well, he was either going to leave or go spend some special alone time thinking about those books," Dean said.
Sam glared at him. "The Library at Alexandria, Dean! That's not nothing."
"Yeah. I know. I watched The Mummy. And National Treasure."
"Dean – that's hardly…"
"Whatever. And Ron is off trying to sound the alarm. Everyone else is starting research on how to beat these things."
"That about covers it, yeah," Harry said. "Except – Sirius wants to try and get Crowley to help."
"That might not be a terrible idea," Sam said.
"What?" Dean and Harry said at the same time.
"Look – I don't like the guy. I like him even less than you, Dean, but he's knowledgeable."
"Crowley absolutely cannot know about the library," Castiel said, in a little bit of a panic. "That would be – that would be a disaster."
"No kidding," Harry said. "I'll swear Sirius to secrecy."
"Like magic swear?" Dean asked darkly. He didn't trust Sirius or Crowley.
"I don't think that will be necessary," Harry said. "But we can cross that bridge when we get to it. We know we can get to Limbo now. I assume that you two want to go rescue Mom?"
"Don't you?" Sam asked.
"Of course. And Gabriel. If he's alive."
Dean didn't care about Gabriel. But he did care about Harry. And he could see how his brother was beginning to fade under the pressure.
"Yeah. But what if we talked about that in the morning," Dean suggested. "I think you could use some sleep."
"I don't need to sleep," Harry snapped.
"Then why are you reacting like an over-tired toddler? You can't fool me – you're just like Sam was when he was little."
"Hey!" Sam protested.
"Harry – I think a rest may be in your best interest," Castiel spoke up. Harry shot him a betrayed look.
"Jack can take me to Hogwarts to get Luna," he said. "It's the early morning hours in Britain, your friends there won't be able to do anything for a couple of hours, at least."
"I – "
Castiel looked at him.
Harry deflated. "Alright, fine. I'll take a nap. Unless you two think we have more to discuss?"
"No, I think you should get some sleep, too," Sam said, amused at this new dynamic between Harry and Castiel. He never would have guessed.
"Yeah, yeah, ok," he said. "Should I talk to Jack before…"
"No!" Dean said. "Go to bed."
Harry didn't see the point in fighting it anymore. It was three against one. And he did feel like he was about to pass out. "Fine. But – we'll talk about the rescue mission in the morning."
"Sure thing," Sam said.
Harry nodded and left the room without saying much else. Castiel followed close behind him, claiming that he needed to get Jack and go to England, promising to be back before they were all awake.
"I'm gonna hit the hay too," Dean said. "You know me – I need at least four hours. And I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a long day."
Sam agreed. "We should all get some sleep."
"But quick – before you go to bed, what the hell is happening between Harry and Cas?" Dean asked, wondering if Sam had picked up on it too.
"No clue, but it's weird," Sam said.
"Right? They went from mortal enemies to bffs in just a matter of a couple of weeks?"
"They're both weird," Sam shrugged. "Who knows what happened?"
"I don't know if I like it," Dean said grumpily.
Sam laughed. "It's fine. I'm sure Cas still loves you the most."
"Shut up."
"I think he would still say that you two have a "more profound bond,"" Sam continued, air quotes and all.
Dean didn't dignify that with a response, just huffed as he left the room.
Sam headed to his room. He briefly wondered if Black had already left or if he had decided to stay the night. Tomorrow's problem, he thought.
III
Sirius watched carefully. He had just left Jack's room when Castiel came to talk to the Nephilim. He was pretty confident that the young man understood the need for secrecy. He felt a little bad manipulating the kid, but this was for the best.
He grabbed the books that Crowley requested – impressed that the demon had known so well what had been in this library. And a little perturbed. He took a couple extra. Both because he thought they would be useful and because maybe it would slow them down a little. Even a slight time advantage could make a big difference.
Harry and the Winchesters all went to bed and Sirius wanted to be sure that he got out of there before anyone of them could realize what he had done.
He left with a heavy heart. He hoped that, in the end, Harry would understand. He had to believe that he would.
AN – And the plot thickens.
We're getting real close, folks. This is 44 of 50 (the numbering is one off because of the prologue). There will be an epilogue as well, so that is why it says 52 chapters total. (I hate uneven numbers – I couldn't let this end on 51.)
I hit a milestone this week – this fic is officially (including unpublished chapters) 1000 pages long in Word. Calibri, type 11 font, single spaced, normal margins. Longer than Love, Fate and Prophecy and I'm not quite done writing yet. (I'm about half way through Chapter 49, in case you were wondering.)
As always, thank you to you, my readers. I wouldn't be here without you! I will see you next week.