CW: The last scene of this chapter is part of the reason I have the Graphic Descriptions of Violence tag on this fic. It starts from Angelina's point of view. I'll put a quick, non-graphic description of what happens in the AN at the end, for those who don't want to read it.
Unfound
Chapter Forty-Seven
Gabriel was torn. Mary had given him everything he needed to know about Asmodeus' camp. That meant that he'd soon be at full powers. Right now, he should be leaving the woman behind, under heavy protection, to finish this all on his own. But he couldn't get it out of his head how strong she was. The next part of the plan would involve putting Mary at more at risk than he (or more importantly – Harry) would have liked.
At the same time, he would be a fool not to use every tool in his box, and she was a valuable one. Not just as a bargaining chip, which is all Lucifer saw when he looked at the woman, but also as a warrior. It was really too bad that the Winchester boys hadn't grown up more around her than John. She had something in her – a spark, that somehow Harry had inherited and Sam and Dean had not. Maybe this was a nature versus nature situation and Harry's nature was more like Mary's. The more time he spent with the woman, the more he respected her. The exact opposite of the way he felt about Sam and Dean.
He also did not expect to survive the upcoming fight. Hell, he hadn't expected to live through closing the rift to this place after he had sent Harry back to safety.
Although he knew better, he wondered if Harry had somehow cast a spell on him to completely change his nature. Before getting to know him, Gabriel had always been just fine acting as he always had, in his own best interests.
Learning to love someone was a bitch.
Gabriel of ten years ago would have had no problem using Mary as a pawn. If she had died – eh, it was for the greater good, and, if it got him what he wanted, all the better.
And he had always thought that a conscience would be a little voice in his head. But this one wasn't. It was an image. The look on Harry's face when he realized that he had been disappointed yet again and he was going to have to go it alone. For the millionth time. When Gabriel contemplated doing what he needed to do to defeat Lucifer, which would very likely lead to both his and Mary's deaths, he saw that face and knew that he couldn't.
So, he was stuck.
"My hearing is mostly back now," Mary said, snapping Gabriel out of his thoughts. "I was worried that I was going to have to spend the rest of our time here half-deaf."
The hope in that statement damn near killed him. She was trusting him. Still. That was probably foolish.
"Good, we'll need sharp ears if we're going to get this done," is what he said.
"You know, you still haven't told me exactly what that is," she pushed.
He sighed and decided to come clean. "Yeah, 'cause, honestly, I'm not sure that we can do it without both of us dying in the process. Possibly for nothing, in the end."
She gave him an appraising look. "Why don't you tell me what you were thinking?"
"Mary, I can't," he said. "I don't know how, but Harry would find out, even if we're both dead, he'll find some way to bring me back just to kill me again."
"You said yourself that killing people isn't in Henry's nature," she pointed out. "I know you're an ancient archangel but if you tell me the plan, maybe I can figure out a way to do it that doesn't end with both of us dead."
"Or, you'll just agree to go along because you know it's the right thing."
"I think you're underestimating my sense of self-preservation."
Gabriel let out a humorless laugh. "Lady, I've met your entire family, you can't fool me."
"You met John?" She asked, sharply.
He nodded. It wasn't something that he had shared. With anyone, Harry included. And if it were up to him, he never would. "Briefly."
"Hmm," she responded. "Maybe I'll surprise you. And we're between a rock and a hard place here."
"You ain't kidding," he muttered. "Alright. Look – the problem is these demon wizards, right? Lucifer is trying to get them onto Earth. If he manages that, it's game over."
"You're acting like we haven't faced game over before. How many apocalypses have my sons prevented at this point?"
"Right. When their lives were at stake. Their plans, or, rather, their desperate attempts that somehow seem to succeed, manage to save most of the world before too many people are killed. Lucifer is going to attack my world. I don't know that any of us will be able to work quickly enough to prevent him from destroying all of wizardkind."
Mary took a sharp breath. Gabriel ignored her and continued.
"So, my plan would involve cutting them off at the source. I believe that they are about to set up camp at the source – the part of this world that admits wizards from Purgatory into Limbo, where they plan to convert them as quickly as possible. These wizard demons are flaming out fast. But if they can create a mass of them, and get the rift open to Earth, they can start sending an army that could not be defeated. An army that would have only one purpose at first – to create as many more demon wizards as possible."
"You want to destroy the connection between Purgatory and Limbo."
"Close. I want to send all the wizards back to Purgatory and then destroy this dimension entirely."
"What stops them from getting out of Purgatory, then?"
"Protections created by my father," he explained. "Which are far greater than the protections here. Lucifer created this dimension – I'm beginning to think with the express purpose of making those monsters. He isn't as clever as our father, no matter what he thinks."
"Why would God allow this place to exist at all?" Mary couldn't help but wonder.
"I'm sure that, if you asked him, he'd say because he values free will."
"And if I asked you?"
"Because it makes the story interesting," Gabriel said, bitterly. "At the end of the day, we're all just toys for him to play with. This is quite the plot twist for Sam and Dean. I'm sure he's delighted to watch all of this."
"Is it a plot twist for Sam and Dean or one for you and Lucifer?"
He looked up at her, shocked by the insight.
"He's not gonna interfere, in either case, is he?" She pushed further.
"Probably not."
"So, what makes you think that he doesn't want to keep you alive?"
"He never cared before."
Mary didn't have anything to say to that. She wasn't a big fan of this God – although she wondered if he would smite her on the spot for thinking that not only was he a shitty ruler of the world, but also the worst parent ever.
"I guess that's neither here nor there," she said finally. "If it was interesting enough to exist, it has to be interesting enough to destroy. Doesn't sound like he'll stand in our way. Or help. Two of my sons are wizards. I have just as much of a vested interest in stopping this as you do. I'll do whatever it takes."
"That was what I was afraid of."
"I've already died for my sons. Now I'd like to live for them. I'd take either before letting them die but, I repeat, do not underestimate my sense of self-preservation, because it's not just for me that I am trying to stay alive for."
Gabriel was convinced. And impressed. "You'll have to share that perspective with Harry when this is all over."
"I will," she promised.
"Good. Now, I told you it would be dangerous, but this is a three-step process. First, we have to destroy everything they have to create more of these things."
"Got it. How do we do that?" There was no hesitation at all in her voice.
"It has to do with that iron ore you so cleverly had our guys dig up…"
III
Harry checked his phone for the time. Shit, he thought. He had twenty minutes. He did not doubt that Dean would leave without him if he didn't make the deadline.
He didn't have time to think – he flew to where his godfather was. He was surprised at where he found himself. It was some sort of back alley by some trash bins. It smelled like trash bins too. And stale urine. After checking to make sure he wouldn't surprise any passerby he made himself visible. "Sirius?" He called out, not seeing him anywhere.
"Shh," he heard from behind one of the bins. "Come on Do-Right, we're trying to be inconspicuous here."
"Crowley?" He supposed that he should have expected to find Sirius with him. He moved slightly so he could see behind the bin. Sure enough, crouched there was Crowley, King of Hell, in his tailored suit looking a little worse-for-wear. Next to him was Sirius, who looked ill. "What are you doing back there?"
"Awaiting an audience with the Queen," Crowley responded sarcastically. "What do you think? We're hiding."
"From who?" Harry still couldn't square the image of Crowley in rubbish and filth. There was something…different about him, but Harry didn't have time to contemplate what, before the answer became obvious.
Entering from the front of the alley were four demons, eyes showing black, angel blades in their hands. Harry wondered where they had gotten those.
They started to advance on them, menace on their faces.
We don't have time for this, Harry thought. Without really thinking about it, he held out his hand and smote the demons with a bright light.
"Are there any more coming?" He asked quickly. He was mostly better but he didn't want to waste his resources on fighting the everyday demon that seemed to be attacking them at the moment. "And I thought you had better control over your people than that."
Crowley was now standing upright and he brushed off his suit. "Not my people anymore, are they?"
Beside him, Sirius stood. It looked difficult.
"What do you mean…" Harry really looked at Crowley for the first time. "You're not a demon anymore," he said. "Why aren't you a demon anymore?"
"Cured myself. Looking good, aren't I?"
"What? Why?"
"Doesn't matter, Harry. Your powers are back!" Sirius threw his arms around his godson in a huge hug.
"I think it does bloody matter. What's wrong with you? You look terrible." His godfather more closely resembled the man that he had seen on wanted posters twenty years ago than the man he had seen just a couple of weeks ago.
"Thanks," Sirius said dryly, "you always were a charmer, weren't you?"
"Sirius, what did he do to you?"
"Is now really the time?" Crowley asked, nervously, looking over Harry's shoulders to see if any more demons were coming.
"Yeah, I think so. You look like you just had the best rest of your life, are no longer a demon, and…Sirius…did he do something to your magic?" Harry could now recognize the signs easier than before the most recent spree of demon attacks.
"Yeah, but…"
Harry got his wandblade out in a flash, ready to finally kill this son-of-a-bitch.
"Harry, no, it's not what you think," Sirius said quickly. "Why are you here, anyway?" He asked with a frown. He had been hoping to keep Harry out of all of this until it was over.
"I'm here to get you, shit," he cursed. "No time. Let's go."
"Go where?"
Harry didn't justify that with a response, seeing that there was another wave of demons on their way, he put one hand on Sirius, and after a brief moment of consideration, the other on Crowley, and flew them all to the Bunker.
They crash-landed in the map room. Harry had forgotten about the wards.
"Ow," Sirius said.
"Harry!" Sam called from the other room.
"Yeah, it's me," he called back.
"About fucking time," Dean said as he walked into the room, Sam closely on his heels. "We're about to open this damn rift."
"I still have time!"
Sam looked down at his watch. "Six minutes," he said.
"Well, we ran into trouble."
That made his brothers focus on just who he had with him.
"You brought Crowley here?" Dean asked, incredulously. "I was sure you'd kill him before bringing him here."
"I would have liked to," Harry muttered. "But I do try my best not to kill humans, and Sirius…"
"Humans?" Sam asked, not missing a beat. He looked more closely at Crowley. "No," he said. Since he had become a full wizard, he could more easily recognize demons and felt the instinctual hate of them that came with angelic grace.
"That's right, Moose," Crowley said with pride. "I cured myself."
"You – why?"
"Because…"
"Sam, Dean, we've got the rift open, we have to get through now and close it before anything comes here." Cas poked his head back into the room.
"You coming with us, Crowley?"
"Don't think there's any choice now," Harry responded for the former demon. "You don't want to leave him alone in the Bunker, do you? Demon or not."
"He won't be alone," Dean said. "Cas and the kid are staying behind."
"Right, because leaving Castiel and Crowley alone has worked wonders for us – or more specifically, me in the past."
"Hey! I risked my neck for you," Crowley objected. "Don't you forget that."
Harry turned and glared at him.
"And in any case, I think I'd prefer to stay behind."
Sirius looked at Crowley sharply. Crowley raised an eyebrow at him. Sirius didn't like it.
"Whatever," Dean said. "Stay, come, it makes no difference to me. Black, Harry, let's go. Jack thinks he's good for about three minutes."
There wasn't time to argue. All of them moved to the room where Jack was standing, concentrating on the line, hand splayed.
"Sam has already gone through," Castiel reported to them. "If you're not back in 24 hours, we will have Jack open the rift again."
"Damn it," Dean swore, before practically diving through the portal. Harry followed with Sirius on his heels.
III
"Sam!" Dean called out as soon as they arrived in Limbo since he didn't see him immediately.
"Shut up," Sam hissed from a line of trees, just ahead.
Dean, Harry, and Sirius made their way over to them.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Dean demanded, in a quieter voice than before.
"I was thinking we needed to get a move on if we were going to get over here before the rift closed again," Sam whispered back. "And I was right. Look – " he pointed, and all three men turned to watch as the portal fizzled out.
"Fine, but that was stupid," Dean grumbled.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Do you know where we are?" he asked Sirius, ignoring his eldest brother.
Sirius looked around. "In Limbo," he responded unhelpfully.
"Sirius…" Harry said.
"Fine. No, I don't know. We've been here for two seconds, give a bloke a chance to adjust."
They all watched as Sirius looked straight ahead. And did nothing else.
"Uh – Sirius?" Harry asked.
"Shh," his godfather shushed him.
Harry raised his eyebrows but otherwise was quiet. He watched carefully as Sirius' facial expressions changed. It was quick. Determination to puzzled to frustrated to panicked.
"I can't do it," he said.
"Can't do what?" Sam asked.
"I can't – I can't transform into Padfoot. I can't even feel him."
Harry looked up in alarm. He quickly cast a spell – levitating a rock a little distance away from him. No problem.
"Sam?"
Sam took out his wand and cast, "Lumos," with instantaneous effect.
"What did Crowley do to you? Did he drain you of your grace?" Harry insisted on knowing. Sirius hadn't seemed like other wizards that had been done to, even though he had looked…ill.
"My blood," Sirius said.
"Maybe it's the atmosphere here," Sam suggested, at a complete loss. "It messed with your magic before, right?"
"Not like this," Sirius said. "And your magic is just fine!"
Harry reached out in the air with his grace to see if he could sense what was causing the problem. He wasn't sure if he or his brothers had spent enough time here to know the difference, but he spent a moment concentrating. "I can feel that something's off," he confirmed. "It's…heavier?"
"More concentrated," Sam corrected with a pensive look on his face.
"Fine, all you magical asshats can tell there's a difference. What does it mean?"
"Don't know," Sirius said.
"Beats me," Sam agreed.
"I don't know what it means, but I don't like it," Harry said.
"Well then, let's find mom and get the hell out of here," Dean said. "Can you at least do that?"
"Wait," Sirius said. "We have to figure out what is wrong with me!"
Everyone turned to look at him.
"We're here to find our mother," Sam said, his tone a little hard. "Whatever is wrong with you can wait."
"Not if I'm bloody useless to help!"
Dean snorted. "You were always useless…"
"Dean!" Harry admonished.
"Fine," Dean said grudgingly. "You're here because you know this place as don't. Your magical ability has nothing to do with that."
"It doesn't," Sirius huffed.
Harry concentrated on Sirius for a second. He realized that he didn't need to touch his godfather to see his health. He frowned a little. "I don't know what Crowley did to you – but it's like you're a Muggle. It's not like your magic has been drained – it's as if it never existed."
"Fine, we have two Muggles. Dude still has a left hook and I threw in a couple of extra guns. Can we just get going now?"
Sirius was fighting down panic. He wanted to scream and try and figure this out, but, unfortunately, Dean was right. (That hurt to even admit to himself.) The sooner they got out of here the sooner he could kick Crowley's ass. He sighed.
"We have to be careful," Sirius started. "There were probably around fifty witches and wizards here before I left. If they've all been turned into wizard demons, we may be facing more than you realize."
"That's why I brought the guns," Dean said, annoyed. "Harry – do your voodoo, where is she?"
Mentally, Harry did a point-me spell. "Due North," he said. "I can just fly and go get her and bring her straight back here. Just give me, like, five minutes."
"No!" Sam and Dean said at the same time.
"Not without us," Sam said quickly. "Just take us with you."
"I mean, I can, but it'd be quicker if…"
"No," Sirius agreed with Sam and Dean, for one of the first times ever. "No going off by yourself," he said.
"Fine," Harry said even though it grated on his nerves. "Does that mean we've got to walk? I gotta tell you – it's going to be a couple of kilometers."
"She's that close?" Sam asked.
"She's alive?" Dean asked, not having truly believed that before.
"Yeah," Harry said with a small smile. "I don't know what state she is in, but she's alive."
"Let's go," Dean commanded, his heart beating faster than it had in a long while.
They started the trek through the woods, in silence.
But it was too much for Harry's liking. As much as he wanted to get to their mom as quickly as possible, he couldn't stop thinking about what they had just discovered.
"Sirius - what happened with Crowley?" He asked out of the quiet, pulling everyone from their thoughts.
"What do you mean?" Sirius hedged.
"What do you think I mean? Why, for the love of Merlin, did you let him take your blood? It doesn't seem like he took it by force."
Sirius scowled. "No, he didn't take it by force. He said that he needed it for a ritual."
Sam and Dean stayed quiet but shared a look that confirmed that neither of them was going to interrupt. They knew that they were more likely to get information that way.
"A ritual," Harry deadpanned. "And you believed him?"
"He had already completed the first two steps! Why wouldn't I believe him? He said that he used something called the Demon Tablet and…"
Sam and Dean stopped walking.
"Did you just say demon tablet?" Sam asked, breaking the silent agreement he had made with Dean.
"Yeah. Have you heard of it? It's useful…"
"Crowley has the demon tablet?" Dean asked. "And you let us leave him alone in the Bunker with Cas and the kid. Shit. Harry – you've got to reopen that portal now. We have to get back."
Harry was about to protest, but Sirius kept talking. "He doesn't have it. He used it, for this ritual or whatever. Said that he needed my blood – human and wizard pureblood – to cure himself so that he could complete the last trial."
"The last…was Crowley trying to close the Gates of Hell?" Sam was about to agree with Dean. Rescuing Mary was important, but…
He didn't have a chance to complete that thought. The loudest sound that any of them had ever heard erupted from the direction they were heading. It shook the ground so hard that everyone except for Harry was thrown. Harry fought to keep his balance – having to use his wings to stabilize himself. Sam and Sirius were pushed back, away from Harry and Dean, hitting trees a few feet away with sickening crunches before falling to the ground. Dean was thrown in the opposite direction, but he was thrown to the ground, crumpling into an unconscious heap.
III
Ron slipped back into the secret library. He had been away longer than he had intended.
"I come bearing gifts," he said to those gathered in there, showing them the large tray of food that he had carried in there with him.
"Food!" Charlie exclaimed. "Thank Merlin," she said. Everyone kind of stared at her. "Oh, come on, I'm around witches and wizards all the time, what do you expect?"
"How's it going out there?" Bill asked.
"It's mostly barely contained chaos," Ron told him. "People started complaining about the 'zones,' they've been put in and trying to move around when all Hermione wants is an honest count of how many people we have here."
"How many do you think it is?" Luna chimed in, coming from deep within the room to join Charlie in grabbing some food.
"Too many," Ron sighed. "I don't know how long we're going to be able to keep people here."
"Harry's left for Limbo already?" she asked.
"As far as we know, yeah," Ron said. "They aren't exactly the best at keeping us in the loop."
Luna hummed in agreement.
"Have you found anything yet?
"No," Bill said.
"Are you kidding? These scrolls are incredible – it's adding so much to my knowledge of magical theory. I had guessed that there was a structure of some sort, like at a subatomic level, but I couldn't quite unlock it, but looking through these I'm really beginning to understand just how spells are crafted, and boy…"
"Anything to help with our current situation?" Ron clarified when Charlie broke off her rant as she noticed Ron and Bill were staring at her strangely.
"Oh. Maybe," Charlie finished before taking a large bite of a sandwich and blushing.
"Care to share with the class?"
"She already did," Luna said, slight frustration coming through her voice. "It's more than a maybe. Charlie is beginning to understand how magic is built into spells. She already had some basis when dealing with potions and wards, but with what she's learning, what we're learning, her work could lead to us being able to develop a spell that could destroy magic."
Ron's eyes went wide. "Like the Men of Letters did? Why would we want to do that?"
"Because, Ronald," Luna said, definitely annoyed now, "magic is just watered-down angelic grace. Which is what the wizard demons have that makes them so powerful. And this is different from what those aresholes did. They didn't have the understanding that Charlie does. If we have a spell that can destroy the grace, then all we'll be left with will be…"
"A demon," Ron finished for her.
"Yes," she concluded. "And we already have spells for destroying those."
Ron cleared his throat. "My apologies, Charlie."
"Accepted," Charlie said through a bite of her sandwich. "Of course, there is still the problem of the testing phase for anything we manage to come up with."
Ron looked at her blankly.
"Who are we going to test this on, Ronald?" Luna asked.
"Oh," he said. Horror started growing in his stomach. "Oh."
"Exactly. So, we may not know if it will work or not until someone casts it on a wizard demon themselves."
An uncomfortable silence fell in the room, everyone considering the implications of such a spell.
III
"I'm Jack," Jack introduced himself to Crowley.
"Don't talk to him, Jack," Castiel said, standing between the former demon and his surrogate son. "He's not to be trusted."
The glowing gold rift that had taken the Winchesters and Sirius Black to Limbo had faded, leaving Castiel and Jack alone with Crowley.
"Oh, come on Feathers," Crowley said. "You love me."
Castiel glared at him. "We are not romantically involved," he told Jack.
"Way to build a guy up," Crowley responded. "You know, Castiel, you'd think, after all this time that…" he didn't finish the sentence. All of a sudden, his face turned ashen and he gripped the back of a chair to stop himself from falling.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked, running to the man's side and helping him into a chair.
"Jack…"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Crowley said. "These trials though, they are no joke…"
That caught Castiel's attention. "Trials?"
"You know," Crowley said, waving him off, "the ones written on the Demon Tablet?"
"The Demon Tablet is missing," Castiel hedged.
"Yes, it is," Crowley said. "I'm not convinced that you don't know exactly where it is. But that's alright, I went straight to the source to find out what I needed to know."
"The source?"
"Kevin Tran. Do try and keep up, Feathers, I'm already exhausted enough."
"Kevin Tran is dead."
"Yes, and I found him hiding, annoyingly well, in the deepest bowels of Hell. Don't worry, I've set him free now. But that's neither here nor there. The point is that the second those wankers return from Limbo, I'm going to say the magic words and close the Gates of Hell forever."
"That'll kill you," Castiel said.
"And I'm sure you'd be heartbroken," Crowley bit back.
"I don't understand."
"I'm shocked."
"Crowley…"
"I hate Hell. I hate Demons. And now, I'm no longer one, I don't need them either. Just a couple words from me not only will Hell close forever, if I've done things right, and I always do, I will also close all the connections between any dimensions and Earth."
"What?"
"You heard me. Not just Hell. Purgatory. Limbo. And, of course, Heaven. The only way to travel between them will be to die."
"You can't do that!" Castiel blurted.
"Can't I?" Crowley was tempted to tell Castiel why he was so certain that his plan would work. But he had been sworn to secrecy, and he didn't have a death wish.
"That would mean…"
"It would mean all of us humans would be stuck here as long as we're alive," Crowley said. "And any demons, angels, or other monsters that seem to crawl out of the woodwork whenever the Winchesters are around, will be stuck here with us. No more demon deals. No more demonic witches. No more cupids. Or divine intervention. Sounds perfect, doesn't it?"
There weren't any words for what Castiel was feeling at the moment. Heaven – closed? What would that even mean? And how had Crowley mutated the spell to do that? It shouldn't be possible. But neither should the fact that the man that had once been the King of Hell was now just a regular human.
"What's the catch?"
"Catch?" Crowley asked innocently.
"There's always a catch with you," Castiel insisted.
"I'm hurt."
Castiel rolled his eyes. "What will this require of the Winchesters to complete? What will they have to sacrifice for your 'good deed?'" He used air quotes.
"Not a thing that they will miss," Crowley said ominously. "Now – I'm famished. You know, Black told me that Harry was a great cook. Do you have any leftovers?"
III
Jack knew that Crowley would distract Cas from noticing him slinking out of the room.
There was just too much for him to handle.
He was worried about Harry, Sam, and Dean in Limbo.
He was worried about what Crowley was planning.
But most of all, he was worried about Lucifer.
He used to think that the Winchesters and Castiel would protect him from his father. But, from what he had seen in his short life, they may not be capable of it.
And he had lied. His father had talked to him. Not very often – and not recently. For a while, the archangel had approached him in his dreams.
Jack had mostly just listened, which didn't faze Lucifer. His father was more than happy to talk at him.
He had told him about his life. About the family he had had in Heaven with his father. How he and Michael got rises out of each other. How he and Gabriel had banded together for shenanigans. And the philosophical talks he had with Raphael about the world their father created. Sure, he had said, it wasn't perfect, but they had been a family.
To Jack, it hadn't sounded all that different from the Winchesters and Castiel. Sam and Dean argued like an old married couple. Dean and Harry got into mischief that made him laugh. Castiel and Dean talked to each other seriously about the problems they were facing and how they were going to solve them.
The only difference was that there was no father or God getting between the four of them. He wondered what they would all be like if they were also competing for John Winchester's affection.
Probably just the same.
The problem was that he wanted to get to know his father. He felt it was important, even though he knew what each of his father figures would have to say about that.
And what would they say when they found out he had been talking to him?
Jack had seen how their plans went. There was no way that there wouldn't at least be a discussion with Lucifer.
What would they do when they got back?
He paced his room. He had so many questions and worries.
Then his phone rang.
He looked down to see who was calling and he almost sighed in relief.
"Ted!" He answered.
"Jack – it's been a mo. How are you doing, mate?"
"I've been better," there is no one else other than Ted in the world that he would say that to.
Ted chuckled darkly. "I bet. Things aren't so great on this side of the pond either. I'm currently trapped at Hogwarts with everyone. I mean – everyone. Being stuck with both my family and all my old classmates is a level of Hell that I think might compete with Purgatory."
Jack didn't have any frame of reference for that. So, he moved straight to the point. "Ted, do you ever think about your father? Not Harry – I mean your real father."
There was silence on the other end of the line and Jack wondered if he had missed another social cue. He started to apologize but Ted started to speak before he could.
"Of course, I do," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"It's just – you're the only other person I know that grew up with a surrogate father. I – I want to know about mine. I just don't know how to ask."
"I think that's natural," Ted said. "And, honestly, I only know my father – my birth father through other people's eyes. Literally, in some cases."
"Doesn't that frustrate you?" Jack could feel that down to his bones. He'd read about Lucifer. He had heard snippets of the Winchesters and Castiel talking about him. But all those things contrasted so greatly with what the angel himself had said. "What do you think it'd be like if you had actually gotten to get to know him? Just as he was, as a father?"
"I think I'd love him even more than I already do," Ted said, almost as if it was a confession. "And I think I'd resent him less."
"You resent him?"
"Yes. He died a hero – there is no doubt about that. He died because he was trying to create a better world. Not just for me, but also for everyone else. But I wish that he had lived for me. So, if I had been able to grow up with him, I'm sure I would have had my share of complaints. Merlin knows I do with Harry. But I don't get to love him despite his faults. I don't get to have a complicated, messy yet meaningful, relationship with him. And yeah, I resent him for that. I love him for that too. Do you understand?"
No, Jack thought. But also, kind of. He sighed. "Thank you," he said.
"What's this about, Jack?"
"Nothing. It's nothing. I want to hear more about what's happening at Hogwarts. How are you fitting all those people onto the grounds?"
"It's a madhouse. Complete and utter madhouse. I've got to tell you…"
Jack stopped listening. He was deep in thought and he realized, from this conversation, that he couldn't deny himself meeting his father. It wasn't fair to ask that of him. He knew well enough now what was good and what was evil, but he couldn't accept that there was nothing good in his father without meeting him for himself.
He prayed.
III
In horror, Harry watched as the ground itself began to split and a chasm formed – with him and Dean on one side and Sirius and Sam on the other.
The ground shook again with a second explosion. Dean was close to where the ground was opening up, so thinking quickly, Harry grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back just in time as the ground the eldest Winchester had been pushed into cracked and fell into the large divide that had formed. It was a good five feet across and was so deep that Harry couldn't see to the bottom.
There was dust in the air making it difficult to see.
Scared of aftershocks, Harry dragged Dean further away. He crouched to check on him, grabbing his wrists to feel for a pulse. To his relief, he felt a strong one. He coughed and tried to look to see the others.
"Sam!" He croaked, dust clogging his throat. "Sirius!"
There was no response.
He was completely torn on what do to. He checked Dean's pulse again to assure himself that his older brother was alive before going to fly to the other side of the chasm. Only to find that he could not. He coughed some more dust out of his lungs.
He summoned his wandblade into his hand to apparate to the other side. The dust was beginning to clear a little bit – but the air was still hazy. And he couldn't apparate either.
Using his angelic senses, Harry realized that there was somehow an anti-apparation ward surrounding the great hole in the ground.
"SIRIUS! SAM!" He yelled again because the air hadn't cleared enough for him to see them yet. Still no response. He was panicking a little bit.
He went back over to Dean and decided to check to see if he had somehow once again lost his powers again. Two fingers to the forehead, and Dean gasped as he woke up.
"Thank Merlin," he muttered.
"Harry?" Dean squinted up at him. "Wha' happened?"
"Dunno," Harry responded. "How are you feeling?"
"Like…" Dean went into a coughing fit, caused by the dust that he had managed to inhale. "…someone shoved saw dust down my throat."
"Good," Harry sighed with relief.
"Good?"
"Not good," Harry backtracked. "I was worried I had lost my powers again. Does anything else hurt? You hit your head pretty hard."
Dean sat up slowly and groaned. "No. But I ain't twenty anymore, help me up."
Harry gladly moved from his concerned crouch to upright and he offered his hand to help Dean up off the ground.
"Sam?" Dean immediately asked, not seeing his brother anywhere.
"On the other side," Harry said, inclining his head towards where he assumed Sam and Sirius were. "I can't fly or apparate."
Whatever haziness was in Dean's brain cleared right up and he ran to the edge of the giant hole in the ground.
"SAM!" He yelled.
"I tried that, you know," Harry said.
Dean turned and glared at him. "We have to figure out how to get across this thing."
"I'm taking any suggestions you've got, Dean," Harry said.
"Why can't you fly or apparate?"
"There are anti-apparation wards up," he explained. "I don't know why I can't fly. It might be something in the atmosphere here. Something's going on – Sam felt it as soon as we arrived."
"Dean?!" They heard from the other side.
"Harry!"
"Over here!" Harry yelled back, relieved to hear both Sam and Sirius. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Sam called back. "You?"
"We're fine," Dean took over. "Can you apparate over here?" This would actually be perfect. They didn't need Black to be physically present with them to doom him to life here.
There were a couple of seconds of silence.
"No!" Sam finally called back.
"There are anti-apparation wards up," Sirius added.
Dean cursed.
Harry may not be able to fly or apparate, but he cast a couple of spells to completely clear the air so that they could see the two on the other side.
Sam appeared to have a large bruise on his forehead and Sirius had a hand on his back. Both were covered in dust.
"What happened?" Sam repeated Dean's question.
"We've no idea," Harry responded. "There were just those large – booms, and next thing I know you are all being thrown in different directions and there is a large hole in the ground."
"How are we going to get across?" Was the next question, from Sirius.
Harry looked down. It was too far for anyone to jump, even Sam with his freakishly long legs.
"What do you think?" He asked Dean, not speaking up enough for Sam and Sirius to hear them from the other side of the gap.
Dean looked around him. "Can you conjure a rope or something?"
"And do what with it, exactly?" Harry asked, not that this was outside of his abilities.
"I don't know, we could anchor it to a tree and have them swing across."
"You've watched too many movies, mate," Harry said.
"You could throw us a rope!" Sirius yelled from the other side of the chasm. Dean scowled. And, despite the seriousness of the situation, Harry couldn't help but smirk a little.
He couldn't hear what Sam was saying, but he could tell from his younger brother's expression that he was not impressed and was saying as much to his godfather.
"But the trees aren't a bad idea," Harry said, assessing the tall trees that stretched up into the sky. They weren't a kind that he was familiar with, but cutting one through with magic shouldn't be that difficult.
Dean followed Harry's eyes and nodded.
"STAND BACK!" He yelled over to Sam and Sirius who were now engaged in an argument.
"You too, Dean," Harry said. Dean didn't need to be told twice. He moved back a couple of hundred feet.
With a quick swish of his wandblade, Harry cut down two trees with one stroke.
They all watched as the trees rumbled and started to fall toward the gap.
"TIMBER!" Dean couldn't help himself from yelling.
The trees fell, and for a second, Harry thought that it might work. They were certainly tall enough to reach the other side.
But as they crossed the huge chasm, the logs broke and shattered into a million little pieces and fell into the hole.
"What the actual fuck?" Dean asked.
"What happened?" Sam called from the other side, once the noise had died down.
"No idea," Harry said, hating that he had said that so many times.
"Do you think that you could summon them?" Dean asked.
"Try summoning us!" Sirius shouted half a second later.
"Aw, you two share a brain cell," Harry said.
"HARRY DO NOT SUMMON US!" Sam yelled.
"I wasn't going to!"
"I think there might be something weird with this hole," Sam explained.
"That's what … he said!" Dean muttered under his breath with childish mirth.
Harry glared at him. Now was really not the time.
"Let me show you," Sam said. He picked a stick up from the ground and proceeded to try and throw it over to Dean and Harry.
Only a foot or so over the gap in the ground, the stick stopped moving forward and, instead, was sucked down.
"Don't try to summon them," Dean said, eyes wide.
"No kidding," Harry said. He approached the side of the chasm to try and get a closer look. He could feel and hear air whooshing from below. Even standing where he was, he could feel a slight pull down. "This isn't just a hole in the ground," he said, backing up a couple of inches.
"What do you think it is?" Sam asked, having approached in the same way.
"A portal, maybe?" Harry guessed.
Sam looked again. "To where?"
"No place good," Dean concluded.
There was another loud boom – this one tiny in comparison to the others, and a plume of smoke formed in the distance.
Due north.
"Mom!" Sam yelled.
"We have no idea if she's anywhere near that," Harry said, somewhat desperately. They hadn't come this far just to lose their mother now.
"You said she was north," Sam pointed out. "That's north, right?"
Dean took out the compass he had packed. "Yeah," he said.
"You two have to go," Sam said.
"No! They can't do that," Sirius protested, speaking for the first time in a while.
Everyone looked at him.
"It's dangerous," he finished, somewhat lamely.
"Yeah, no shit," Harry said.
"If someone is going to do something dangerous, it probably should be Harry," Sam said, somewhat reluctantly. "He's the sturdiest of us all."
"Of course, you're happy to sacrifice him," Sirius said. "Never mind that there are people who depend on him. Who love him back home and want him back."
"I depend on him," Sam argued back. "And we love him and want him back on Earth too. Don't you dare…"
"Sam, Sirius, I don't know if we have time for this," Harry said. "If Mom's in danger, we should get there as quickly as possible. You can all stay here and…"
"Woah, woah," Dean said. "I'm not staying here, I'm going with you."
"Dean, it could be dangerous…"
"Yeah, it could be. Probably is. No way in hell am I letting you leave me behind."
"But Sam…"
"Sam's a big boy, he can handle himself."
"We don't know what he could be facing!"
"We don't know what you could be facing. I'm coming."
The plume of smoke had somewhat dissipated in the distance when Harry looked off that way. He was worried about the timing too. "Alright," he agreed.
"Harry, no!" Sirius shouted. "No, you can't…"
"Sirius, I'll be fine. I'll have Dean with me. We've got to get to Mom. Before it's too late – if it isn't already."
"Be careful!" Sam yelled. "We'll try to figure out a way across. Maybe it's a smaller gap somewhere down the way."
Dean nodded. "You too," he said, meaningfully looking over at Sirius. "Ready?" He asked Harry.
"Yeah. Let's go," Harry couldn't make himself look back at Sirius' face, not wanting to see the disappointment there. He hoped it wasn't the last he saw of his godfather.
III
Angelina couldn't quite believe it, but the line was finally getting shorter. She cast a quick time spell to see that they were approaching dinner time. She hoped that either she was done checking in the stragglers or someone came to relieve her so that she could check in with her husband and children. Little Roxie was only in her first year and she couldn't imagine what kind of effect all this was having on her.
"Is Harry Potter here?" a little boy asked as he approached her with his mother.
She smiled at him. "He was not an hour or so ago."
"Mum – we're going to get to live with Harry Potter."
The mother did not look as impressed as the little boy sounded.
"Where are you from?" Angelina asked him, wanting to get this moving. There were only about five people in line behind them.
"Walsingham," he responded promptly.
"That'll be the Quidditch Pitch for you – lucky boy."
"The Quidditch Pitch?" His mother asked, sounding less-than-pleased.
"Yeah – we've run out of room in the castle. I assure you that the tents we have set up will be perfectly comfortable."
"Oh, and I suppose Harry Potter will also be living in a tent? No, that is unacceptable, we should…"
She didn't have a chance to finish speaking before she was grabbed from behind and a wand was held to her throat.
Angelina had her wand at the ready in almost the same moment, and, not missing a beat, took the little boy's hand and pulled him behind her.
"I wouldn't if I were you," the witch holding the mother at wand point said. No, not a witch, Angelina realized a second too late. Her eyes flashed purple. Her insides froze.
Angelina didn't want to take her eyes off the demon for a second, but she knew she needed to get to her DA coin. At the same time, she saw the families behind this one start to move into action at the danger as well. One of them was gathering up the children and shepherding them in one place to try and keep them safe, while a couple of others also drew their wands.
"What do you want?" Angelina asked, hoping to get the witch demon talking in time for someone to call for help.
"Oh, did your champion not tell you?" She cocked her head. "I was sure that he would have shared."
"Haven't had the chance to talk to Harry, actually," Angelina said as she slowly reached for her pocket.
"Don't move," the demon commanded. Angelina flinched and stopped moving.
"MUMMY!" the little boy yelled.
"It's ok, Nathan," the woman said, tears in her eyes as she looked at her son. "Mummy's ok."
"Is that so?" With a swift, violent movement, the demon twisted the neck of the witch and tossed her to the ground, dead.
The little boy started trying to rush forward toward his mother, but Angelina moved quickly and stopped him from getting any closer.
"You tell Harry Potter that this was just the first of many," the demon said, "and those wards won't protect you forever." There wasn't even a second for Angelina to react before chaos reigned.
With one flick of her wrist, the demon witch did something to the eight witches and wizards huddled together, wands drawn. Almost quicker than a blink of an eye, all their heads were pulled painfully far back as they screamed in pain, their veins briefly glowing purple under their skin before they fell in heaps on the pathway. The demon disapperated with a loud crack.
Aurors came streaming past her on either side but it was all like it was in slow motion. There were voices everywhere but she couldn't focus on any single one of them.
All Angelina could do was stare at the body of the mother on the ground.
George rushed in behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "We came as fast we could," he told her. She looked up and saw, behind her, George, Hermione, and Ron.
"How – how did you know…"
"Alarm system went off," Ron said, also coming to her side.
"That woman…she…the demon…she didn't even..."
"Let's get you back up to the castle," George said.
"The little boy…Nathan," Angelina said. "And there are others – their parents sent them off when the danger started."
The small boy had sat straight on the ground beneath where Angelina had been holding him back, just staring at his mother's body.
"Harry Potter can bring her back, right?" He hiccoughed through some silent tears.
"Oh, sweetie, that's not how it works," Hermione said, bending down to him, as her Aurors went to investigate the body on the ground. "Where's your Dad?" She asked him, gently.
He shook his head. "Don't have one," he said. "Only Mum."
Hermione's heart broke. There had been too many children orphaned. "Let's get you up to the castle too."
"No!" He screamed, breaking away and going to his mother. "MUMMY!" He desperately tried to break through the people now surrounding her. "MOVE!" he yelled. "We'll go home. She didn't even want to come here…"
He was fighting enough that the Aurors moved aside and let him get to his mother. "Mum, mummy," he sobbed.
AN – And things get a bit darker.
If you skipped the last scene, Gormlaith attacks the last families that are taking shelter at Hogwarts. She brutally murders a mother in front of her child and then about eight other witches and wizards before leaving. No children die in the scene.
As some of you may have noticed, the chapter count has gone up for the fic – it will be 54 chapters long, not 52. I needed a little extra breathing room to do the story justice. Which means that it won't be symmetrical to Love, Fate and Prophecy, but each PART of this fic will be 27 chapters long, so I'm alright with that. The last chapter will be a short epilogue.
I think I'm going to actually finish writing the whole thing this weekend! Which is nuts.
The next couple of chapters will be dark BUT I promise you a happy ending. Much happier than the end of the first fic in this series. There might even be a moment or two where, when I was writing, I thought, people are going to be crazy happy when they read this. So, hold tight. Practice self-care as needed and thank you all, again, for being on this journey with me.