"Dean? Dean! You listen to a word I said?"
Harry sighs into his mediocre American tea as he sits at the kitchen table with Lea and Adam. Bobby and Dean's voices are easily heard from the living room. Harry had been trying to ignore them in favor of his homework (homework that Lea was adamant he shouldn't do since they were returning to Hogwarts over her 'cold dead corpse,' and maybe not even then), but he's beginning to think it was a lost cause.
"Yeah, I heard you. I'm not calling him."
"Don't make me get my gun, boy."
Harry winces at the older man's words, squeezing the quill in his hand. His thoughts trail back to a few weeks prior when Lea accidentally shot him. His leg twitches in phantom pain.
Dean's voice echoes into the room once again. "We are damn near kickoff for Armageddon, don't you think we got bigger fish at the moment?"
"I know you're pissed. And I'm not making apologies for what he's done, but he's your-"
"Blood? He's my blood, is that what you were gonna say?"
Bobby sounds tired as he sighs. "He's your brother. And he's drowning."
"Bobby, I tried to help him, I did. Look what happened."
"So try again."
There's a pause. Harry takes a quiet moment to glance around the room. Adam has gotten up to check on his pie that's in the oven. Lea is leant back in her chair,only two legs touching the floor, sipping the disgusting coffee that she's come to like. She doesn't even bother to pretend not to listen to their brother and Bobby argue.
"It's too late." Harry almost doesn't catch Dean's words from the next room.
"There's no such thing."
"No, damnit! No. I gotta face the facts. Sam never wanted part of this family. He hated this life growing up. Ran away to Stanford first chance he got. Now it's like déjà vu all over again." Harry can practically see Dean scrubbing his face in his mind. "Well, I am sick and tired of chasing him. Screw him, he can do what he wants."
"You don't mean that."
"Yes I do, Bobby. Sam's gone. He's gone. I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore. If he ever was." Harry's stomach twists at the words. Lea's chair makes a thud as the legs hit the ground once more. He's vaguely aware of a clanging behind him, which must be Adam at the oven, but his attention is suddenly solely focused on the empty doorway as he continues to listen to the conversation.
Suddenly, there's a large clatter from the living room. "You stupid, stupid son of a bitch! Well, boo hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good?! Make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family!"
"I told him, 'you walk out that door, don't come back' and he walked out anyway! That was his choice!"
"You sound like a whiny brat. No, you sound like your dad. Well, let me tell you something. Your dad was a coward."
"My dad was a lot of things, Bobby, but a coward?" Harry glances at Lea, meeting her eyes. She shrugs, which Harry takes to mean that she's also gotten the impression over the last several weeks that John had not been the best father to their brothers. Harry doesn't know enough about the man to call him a coward, but from what he's read in those 'Supernatural' books, John Winchester's priorities were not what they should have been.
"He'd rather push Sam away than reach out to him. Well, that don't strike me as brave. You are a better man than your daddy ever was. So you do both of us a favor. Don't be him."
Bobby's words are first met by silence and then by the old man himself cursing up a storm. The three siblings share a look before Lea takes the brave steps out of the kitchen.
"Bobby?"
Adam and Harry stand behind their sister as she walks into the living room. Bobby is looking around in bewilderment. Dean is nowhere to be seen.
"Not now, girl. You damn brother just disappeared!"
"He left again?" Adam sighs from beside Harry, leaning on the doorframe with crossed arms. Even before Bobby answers the question, Harry pulls his wand. The hair on the back on his neck stands on end as a horrible feeling settles in his chest.
"Did I say he left? No! The damn boy just disappeared into thin air." Bobby swipes his hat off of his head, tossing it on the desk beside him. Harry couldn't be certain, but he's fairly sure that the papers and books all over the floor had once been stacked on the desk.
"Disappeared how?" Lea glances over her shoulder at Harry as she asks the question. Harry can see the tension in the stance and the thoughts in her eyes. "Like his angel friend? Or like…"
Like a wizard. Lea thinks wizards may have taken their brother. The thought makes Harry feel sick. Have No Nose and his lackeys finally found them?
"'Course like his damn angel, how else would someone poof away like a damn magician?" The old man stomps through the room before snatching his cell off a side table. Harry can only assume that he's attempting to call their brother.
Three voicemails later and they're no closer to contacting Dean. Harry and his siblings try as well, but it all just ends with them all standing awkwardly in the living room. Adam is the one to finally speak up.
"Maybe we should call Sam?"
Harry nods at the same time that Lea shakes her head. His twin scoffs.
"Dean said that Sam went off with a demon. Aren't those the exact opposite things we are supposed to ask for help?" The red head scowls, tugging at the braid her hair is pulled back in.
"Sam should still know that his, our , brother is missing?" Harry matches her expression. "Wouldn't you want Sam to call you if I disappeared?"
"You did disappear." It's not words that she seems to have meant to say out loud. Lea looks shocked with herself before blinking rapidly for a moment. "Call Sam. I'm going outside to yell at Dean's angel."
Lea shoves past Harry and Adam, stomping out the back door and into the salvage yard. Adam glances between the twins but Harry shakes his head. Now is not the time to relive the graveyard. He turns back to Bobby. "So, Sam?"
"I'll try and call 'im." He nods, moving to leave the room as well. Before he makes it out, he stops and sniffs the air. "Something burnin'?"
"My pie!" Adam rushes back to the kitchen, leaving Harry and Bobby to stare after him. They look at each other. Bobby opens his mouth as if to speak, then snaps in shut and shakes his head. He leaves Harry alone in the living room.
Harry always thought that he and Lea had chaotic lives, but he's beginning to think that he would have been no better off as a Winchester than he was a Potter.
Harry waits an hour before he ventures outside to speak with his sister. He hates to see his sister cry and he's pretty sure that's what she had gone outside to do. She wouldn't have appreciated him watching her cry either, so Harry thinks it was a decision made for the benefit of both of them.
When he does finally gather the courage to go after her, he finds her in the exact spot Dean had been a few nights before, screaming at the sky.
"One of you fuckers better use your wings and get your bleeding ass down here!"
Sometimes, it startles Harry how alike Lea and Dean are to have lived completely separate lives. Though, their friends used to say the exact opposite about the twins when at Hogwarts. No one could understand how they could be siblings, twins, and be so different from one another. Lea always says that 'you can't have night without having day.' If that's the analogy that describes them best, then his sister was the night. She is the comfort of a sky full of stars and the soft light of the moon. Lea is his favorite person in the world. He can remember her gentle hands and soft words in the quiet of their cupboard as children. The tears she shed over his abduction and return back in June. Azalea Potter is the only thing that would keep him from returning to the Wizarding World, but his brothers are becoming close seconds.
"Castiel! God! Whoever up there is bothering to listen to me!"
Lea might have a hard exterior, but Harry knows that she cares deeper than anyone he knows. He knows that her favorite person in the world is Harry. He knows that their brothers have wormed their way into her distrustful heart, just as Ron and Hermione once had. He knows that she would burn down the world for him. He's pretty sure that she would light the same match for Dean, Sam, and Adam, too. He's almost positive that Lea is going to sucker punch an angel if he ever actually appears.
"Oh, Castiel the mighty angel. Know that I am calling you to return my brother, Dean. If you don't listen to me, I'm climbing up to heaven to shoot you in your angelic face!"
When her voice cracks, Harry decides that it's time to interrupt.
"Azalea."
Lea freezes at her place a few feet from him, facing the opposite direction. There's a quiet sniffle before she pushes back her shoulders and turns to face him. There's a brittle smile on his sister's face as she speaks. "Any luck with Sam?"
Harry shakes his head, rock on the heels of his trainers as he shoves his hands into his jean pockets. "Nah, won't answer his mobile. Any luck with Bird Man?"
The knot of anxiety in his chest loosens some hearing his twin chuckle. "No. Just me screaming like a lunatic." Lea rolls her eyes before glaring up at the sky. "You really think it was angels?"
Her question is so quiet that Harry almost misses it. He takes a moment to answer, using the silence to shuffle across the space between them and join her in looking at the afternoon sky. "Do you think Voldemort would know where to find us? Or that Dean is our brother?"
Lea sniffles, causing Harry to keep his gaze steadfastly on the clouds rather than glance over at her. "I just know that if he's kidnapped another one of my brothers, I'm going to make his demise slow and painful." There's an edge to her voice, one that reminds Harry of her choice words to the Headmaster in the infirmary at the beginning of the summer.
"I'll be glad to help." He finally turns his back on her as he speaks, offering a small grin. Lea returns it with a tiny smile of her own.
Before either of them can continue the conversation, two loud cracks, almost reminiscent of firecrackers, echo through the salvage yard. The twins glance at each other with raised brows before simultaneously drawing their wands. Harry holds a finger to his lips, causing Lea to nod in acknowledgement. The two, moving as quietly as possible, creep to the back door of Bobby's house. Lea stops Harry from opening, casting a muffling charm on the squeaky hinges. Once she's sure they won't be heard, she gestures for him to proceed. Harry eases the door open with caution, wishing for their invisibility cloak that is tucked in his trunk upstairs.
Lea shoves him out of the way, moving into the house first. Voices are immediately heard from the front door. Harry shuffles silent behind his sister as she slips quietly through the kitchen and to the doorway leading to the hall. She stops just before it, keeping the twins out of sight. Harry strains his ears to listen to the conversation.
"You are Mr. Singer, correct?"
It feels as if a bucket of ice water pours over his head as he recognizes the voice. Lea jerks her wand up. Harry grasps her shoulder before she does something stupid like burst into the hallway.
"What's it to you?" Bobby's gruff voice offers Harry a modicum of comfort. Bobby wouldn't sell them out. Or, at least, he wouldn't purposely do something that would upset their brothers.
"We have reason to believe that you are housing my two young charges, Mister Singer."
Harry barely stops Lea from lunging out of the kitchen as the second mystery person speaks. He has half a mind to drag her back out of the back door before she exposes them.
"Only kid here is Adam."
"Hi." In any other circumstance, Harry might have snorted at his brother's innocent greeting. Not many people would speak to Albus Dumbledore or Severus Snape with such casualty.
"I'd appreciate your honesty, Mr. Singer."
"You coming into my house and calling me a liar?" Harry's pretty sure he hears the click of a gun's safety switch.
"Where are the Potter brats?" Snape's slimy voice is much more confrontational than Dumbledore's.
"I've already told you two that there's no other kids here." That's definitely the sound of a gun cocking.
"I'd understand why kids would run away from you, though. The whole Batman custom isn't really working for you." Harry wishes he had the time to relish the fact that his brother is insulting Severus Snape to his face .
"If you'd allow us to have a look in your home and confirm that my charges aren't here, we'd gladly leave you be." That's the second time Dumbledore has referred to them in such a way. His 'charges.' Why would the headmaster of their school have any claim to them?
"Hell no. Now, you've got three seconds to get off my porch before I pump you full of lead." Harry is so frying extra bacon for Bobby tomorrow at breakfast.
"Very well. My apologies in advance, Mr. Singer. Stup-"
Harry didn't even attempt to stop his sister this time, instead following Lea out of the kitchen. He barely registers the curses that Bobby mutters at their appearance.
"Protego!"
"Bombarda!"
For Lea to be developing an aversion to guns, she doesn't seem to mind attacking the headmaster. Harry's actually rather impressed (and jealous that he hadn't thought to do the same).
"Ah. Mr. and Miss Potter. A pleasure to see you again." Dumbledore smiles genially at them from his spot on the front porch. Snape glares from the headmaster's side.
"It's Winchester actually." Lea glares right back at the potions master and his raised wand pointing at their muggle brother.
"I'd appreciate you lowering your wands, Headmaster, Professor." Harry practically spits their titles as he glares and shortens the distance between them, Bobby, and Adam. The foyer is filled with so much static that he can't tell if the ambient magic is his or Lea's. Probably both.
"Of course, my boy." Blue eyes twinkle at him mockingly as Dumbledore lowers his wand. Snape doesn't move until the headmaster casts him an expectantly look. "Now, why don't you and Azalea gather your things and we will get going."
"Harry and I aren't going anywhere with you." As Lea speaks, Adam shifts to put himself between the twins and the strange wizards.
"The Dursley's signed their rights away, you can't make us go back to them." He'd give up his magic before willing entering that hell hole again.
"A mistake that they deeply regret. Your family misses you."
"Miss the free labor, more like." Lea scoffs from beside him.
"I won't let you take them." Adam surprises Harry by pulling a handgun from his waistband and pointing at the elderly man. Dumbledore merely raises his brows in amusement.
"Living with your mother's family is for your own safety, Harry." The headmaster's tone seems more condescending that Harry has noticed it to me in the past.
A gunshot rings through the house, surprising them all. Harry's gaze flicks down to the new hole in the floor by the door. Bobby lifts his shotgun once more. "That's the only warning you're gettin'. Now get out of my house."
Dumbledore sighs, shaking his head with a mournful expression. "I was hoping we could do this peacefully."
More swift that anyone of his age has the right to be, Dumbledore flicks his wand, not uttering a word. In tandem, Bobby, Adam, and Lea all collapse to the floor of the entryway. Before he can think, Harry sends Lea's earlier spell directly at the wizards in the doorway. Anger like he has never experienced fills him from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. How dare they attack his family? How dare they attack Lea ? Harry always thought the expression 'seeing red' was an exaggeration. Now he knows it to be true as he's blinded by rage. He can feel a more deadly curse on the tip of his tongue, ready for him to cross the line of morality he has always held tight to. Before he can get the beginning of the spell out, his vision goes from red to black.
-
Lea's head is pounding when she wakes. She can feel the pain radiating from the back of her head and down her neck. She stretches with a sigh that turns into a groan as she blinks at the sunlight seeping in through their bedroom window. The sun's rays are broken up by the bars outside the window.
…
…
"WHAT THE FUCK ?"
She scrambles to her feet, rolling off of the mattress that lays on the floor of Dudley's second bedroom. Her gaze flits about the room, taking into the three legged chair sitting in front of a scratched up desk, the broken wardrobe door, her twin brother lying unconscious on the stained mattress, the bars on the window. She spins once, twice, three times as her mind whirs, trying to come to terms with what she's seeing.
A groan almost identical to the one she released almost moments before brings her attention back to her brother. Seeing Harry blinking blearily at their surroundings somehow gives her the strength to take several deep breaths in an attempt to stave off her growing panic attack. She almost collapses into the broken desk chair as her twin seems to come to his senses.
"Shite."
Lea barely manages to hum her agreement, focusing on breathing through her nose.
"Holy fuck, Lea I almost Avada'd Dumbledore." That finally snaps her out of her panic.
"W-What?"
"He stupefied you and I started to cast an unforgivable curse on him." Harry sits on the edge of the mattress as he speaks, looking down at his hands in a mixture of amazement and fear.
"If he had hexed you, I would have snagged Adam's gun and shot him and Snape both." She doesn't even have to give thought to the statement. If someone attacked Harry, she would attack them, plain and simple.
"Lea?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you feel your magic?"
The question gives her pause. She takes a moment to look within her, to reach for the wild energy that usually sits behind her sternum. She comes in contact with a solid barrier instead. Closing her eyes, she tries to feel outside of herself instead. After a moment, she realizes exactly what the blanket around her magic is.
"He's warded the house against us." Another second and another realization. Lea looks around the room once more to confirm her thoughts. "He's taken our wands."
"Bobby shouldn't have given him the courtesy of a warning shot." Harry mutters the words from where he sits, glaring at the floorboards.
Lea stands once more and makes her way to the bedroom door. She's not even surprised to find it locked. Leaning her forehead against the frame, she releases a sigh that she can feel in her bones.
"Sam's off with a demon. Dean has been taken by angels. We're trapped in Durzkaban. That leaves Bobby and Adam to prevent the apocalypse."
The twins are silent in the wake of her statement, both thinking of what could possibly be done to help their situation. Harry clears his throat behind her.
"Maybe the apocalypse will be nice and hold off for two weeks until we can get our wands and escape from Hogwarts."
The sheer contradiction of her brother's hopes for the world ending causes a giggle to escape her. A few moments later she and Harry both are on the floor gasping for breath in between rib cracking laughter.