Home (For Me)

by Megz2

When Harry, post the second Battle of Hogwarts, finds himself looking for purpose once again, Gabriel is there to help him find it. This story cannot stand alone - Part 7 of 7.

1. Chapter 1

Alright, y'all win! The requests keep coming in so here is the Harry/Gabriel fic that I never thought I'd write.

If you haven't read the first six fics in this series...uh, this cannot stand alone.

Warnings: Unhealthy attitudes about therapy. Please note that these are the character's feelings about it. Me? I'm in therapy twice a month and 10/10 do recommend.

Home (For Me)

Harry knew that the argument was his fault. He had picked yet another fight with his older brother and he wasn't even sure what it had been about, but he knew that he had to get the hell out of the Bunker.

Only, he didn't like driving, and now that he was a normal wizard, he could no longer just fly across the Atlantic and drown his sorrows away in the Room of Requirement. He actually had to plan his trips home to the UK now, and it was a real pain in the arse.

It had been four years since the Second Battle of Hogwarts. Harry had thought, since it was all over, and the major threats had all but passed, that he would no longer feel this way. The last time that he had bothered to go to the mind healer (which was way longer ago than he would admit when Sam asked him about it) the arsehole had the bollocks to suggest that the solution may come with examining and processing his childhood trauma.

Bloody quack.

He hadn't been back since.

He was only about two whiskeys in when he felt someone slide in next to him at the bar.

"Of all the gin joints in all the world, he walks into mine," the familiar man said.

Harry chuckled without humor. "You don't own this place. And it's not a gin joint – Merlin knows I wouldn't drink the shite they serve here."

"It's from Casablanca, dumbass."

"I know, wanker. For someone who claims to hate chick flicks, Dean's made me watch it three times."

"And here I was hoping to sweep you away with a rooftop viewing. You know, twinkling lights, rickety lawn chairs, a sheet set up as the screen on an early summer's night. It would have been just cool enough that as we got toward the end of the movie, you'd have to snuggle close to me for warmth. Woulda been a great first date. That brother of yours is the ultimate cock block."

Harry snorted. "You wouldn't've made it past the opening credits without copping a feel."

"Hey! I can be romantic, you know."

Harry didn't have it in him to continue the banter. "I'm really not in the mood, Gabriel. I haven't seen you in months, in any case."

"Restructuring all of Heaven is a full-time job, Hare-bear," Gabriel said, turning to look Harry in the eyes. "One I didn't want but someone convinced me that I needed to take responsibility for once in my extremely long life."

"Fat lot of good that will do – too little too late, I'd imagine," he replied. Not that he would ever say it but he missed Gabriel. He had thought that maybe they would…he cut the thought off before he could complete it.

"Woah, you are in a dark mood," Gabriel replied, not looking at him, but rather using his hand to signal the bartender that he would like one of whatever Harry was drinking.

Harry deflated. That had come out…actually, no it had come out just as harshly as he meant, but he immediately regretted his tone. "I'm sorry, Gabe," he said, feeling even worse than before, when he had been drinking alone.

"Forgiven. Harry – what is going on? You may not have expressly prayed for me but I could feel your depression from Heaven. Have your brothers done something to you?"

"No, Gabriel," Harry said, again, with an edge of sharpness that he didn't quite recognize in his own voice. "Sam and Dean are great. Ron and Hermione are great. Jack is thriving under Cas and Mom's care. Everyone is happy and still…"

"Something is off?"

Harry nodded, feeling like an idiot. They had saved the world. And they managed to do so without the usual carnage created by the Winchesters interfering with threats of epic and cosmic consequences.

No one else knew it yet, but Dean had applied to several community colleges and universities with online programs. Sam, through talks with the newly retired, yet endlessly energetic Hermione, had discovered the world of Creature Right's Law and was currently studying for the magical equivalent of the bar exam. Mary was traveling the country during the week with Jody, teaching law enforcement in the know how to handle Supernatural threats. Castiel had thrown himself headfirst into all things Jack – proving to be a better father than any of them had ever had.

This meant that Harry spent tons of "quality time" by himself in the Bunker while the rest of his friends and family moved on with their lives.

Everyone had a purpose.

Except him.

No one needed him. The thought made tears prick in the corner of his eyes, but he'd be damned before he let them spill.

"Come on, tell me what's going on in that noggin of yours," Gabriel said in a gentle voice that Harry thought he might hate more than the question itself.

"What am I supposed to do now, Gabe?" He finally asked, trying to keep his emotions at bay, but he didn't have the alcohol tolerance he once had and he could feel them bubbling up to the surface. "And if you say you, I'm never talking to you again," he added, trying to add levity to the situation, because this was, quite frankly, pathetic.

Gabriel blinked at him. "Who says you have to do anything at all? Don't you think that you've earned some peace and quiet? You know, I know this great little place in Tahiti where you can just forget all the world's troubles. There is a masseuse there who…"

"I don't want a vacation, Gabriel," Harry cut him off. "I spend enough time on my bloody arse as it is. I've almost always had a purpose, you know? But Voldemort has been defeated, his followers rounded up, and there is no more real threat of demons or wizard demons or the fucking Devil. It's just like after the war. Everyone else has moved on and has something to focus on. And I have nothing." He felt like he was almost where he had been right before he came back to the United States.

They sat together in miserable silence for a couple of minutes. Harry assumed it was because Gabe agreed with him. The bartender refilled both their drinks before busing himself elsewhere.

"Well, we're just gonna have to find you one then, aren't we?"

Harry looked up from his drink for the first time, surprised. "What?"

"We'll have to find you something. I can't be that difficult – you are a very talented man."

He sat there, slack-jawed, for a moment. "What, no speech about how I don't need a purpose? That I'm enough, or some other rubbish?"

"You don't and you are, but I think we've all given up on trying to convince you." The din of sound in the bar seemed to disappear into the background as Gabriel spoke. It was as though the archangel was the only person who existed. But Gabriel continued as if everything hadn't just shifted. "This world is a hot mess and there are plenty of causes that you could…mmph."

Before either of them knew what was happening, Harry was kissing Gabriel.

He had never kissed a man before.

Although, in fairness, he had only kissed two women.

For that matter, he could count on one hand the number of people he'd even wanted to kiss. He'd never had time to really think about it before.

Gabriel's tongue darting into his mouth distracted him from that line of thought. It felt so good that he deepened the kiss, pulling Gabriel by the front of his shirt so that they could be closer together.

But then, as suddenly as the kiss had begun, Gabriel was pushing him away.

"Huh?" Harry complained, missing the warmth that he had just been experiencing. He moved to close the gap that Gabriel had created to return to the embrace, practically sitting in his lap, but he was stopped by a firm hand on his chest.

"Harry, stop," Gabriel said, pulling back to further the space between them. It didn't make any sense.

"Don't want to," Harry said.

"Harry."

With a groan, he allowed Gabriel to push him firmly, but carefully, fully back on his own bar stool.

"I think we need to talk about this." Gabriel's golden eyes looked as serious as Harry had ever seen them. It was really rather attractive.

"Really?" It came out as more of a whine than anything.

"Yeah, I can't believe that I have to be the mature one here. What the hell have you done to me? Don't get me wrong, that was one damn fine kiss, but you haven't so much as given me a second glance since we held hands on the roof of Hogwarts after the battle."

"That's not true!" Harry lied. But he knew that it was. Not because he had lost interest but because he didn't quite know how to handle his feelings for Gabriel. He couldn't even quite pinpoint when they had started. So, he did what a Winchester did best, and buried those feelings deep.

"No? You don't think I would have noticed?"

Harry didn't respond to that. "Come on Gabe, I know what you want…" he leaned back in, just to get pushed back.

"Harry, no. You're drunk. And depressed. And if there is even a hint of impropriety between the two of us you, your brothers will kill me dead."

"You're an archangel, Gabriel, they could hardly…"

Gabriel gave him a look.

"Alright, fine," Harry admitted. Sam and Dean were damn near impossible to stop when they put their minds to something. Hell, they would have taken God himself down if they had needed to. He pulled out his wallet and slapped some money down – more than enough to cover their drinks. "Where are we going?" He saw a look in Gabriel's eyes. "Not Tahiti!"

Before Harry could stop him, the angel reached out his hand and flew the two of them out of the bar.

III

The second they landed Harry knew where Gabriel had taken him.

"I thought I told you to sell this place," he groused, realizing that they were in his condo in Florida.

"Are you kidding? This is prime real estate, baby. Plus, the deed is technically in your brothers' names, so, legally, I couldn't."

Harry snorted. As if something as small as human laws could stop Gabriel was doing whatever he wanted to do.

"Why don't we sit on the sofa and have a little chat."

Harry didn't want to talk. He wanted to kiss Gabriel again. It was the best that he had felt in months and he was about to say so when he was magically set into a sitting position.

"Down boy."

"Isn't that usually my line?"

"Yeah, it is, and I gotta tell you, I'm not a big fan of this whole role reversal. I'd offer to sober you up, but I have a feeling if I did that, not only would this talk not happen, but I'd have no chance of getting lucky tonight, and that's just not something I'm comfortable with."

"There you are," Harry snarked.

Gabriel shrugged. "Can't teach an old dog new tricks. And I'm a very old dog. That's probably something we should discuss too."

"A very old horndog, maybe," Harry muttered.

"You've been spending too much time with your brothers," Gabriel said. "You're beginning to sound like an American."

"I beg your pardon, sir," Harry said, sounding scandalized but smiling with his eyes.

"There you are," Gabriel repeated his words back to him, only far more fondly. "This conversation is gonna be awkward, but I've never let that stop me. Harry – you want this, right?"

Harry frowned. "I kissed you."

"You're also drunk."

"You think I kissed you because I'm drunk? Gabriel, I've been a raging alcoholic the entire time I've known you. If a couple of drinks and a buzz was all it was going to take, you and I would have been sleeping together for years."

"You want to sleep with me?" Gabe basically squeaked.

It was so adorable that Harry didn't even have the heart to roll his eyes. Instead, he closed the gap between the two of them and started kissing the archangel again. This time, Gabe didn't push him away.

III

Gabriel watched as Harry slowly started to blink awake the next morning.

"Morning, Gabe," he said sleepily. Gabriel felt his heart flutter. He could spend the rest of his existence watching Harry sleep but hearing his voice gave his heart a little bit of a skip. "Nice talk," Harry teased as he leaned forward for a kiss, which Gabriel happily leaned into.

Gabriel groaned when they came up for air. "Sam and Dean are going to kill me."

"Nah, I'll protect you."

"Oh yeah, you my big strong defender now?"

"Always," Harry said with a laugh, as he began to get out of bed.

"Hey – where are you going?" Gabriel was hoping that they might go another round this morning. Last night had been amazing and he couldn't wait for a repeat.

"Shower, I'm human, I need to clean up," Harry responded on his way to the bathroom.

"You're a wizard! Just use a spell."

He wrinkled his nose, so was unfairly adorable. "No, I never feel properly clean with those. It won't take but ten minutes."

"I could just use my tongue."

Harry hit him with a stinking hex.

"Ouch," he said out of courtesy. He had barely even felt it.

"Gross, Gabe," he closed the door to the bathroom before Gabriel had the chance to suggest that he join him in the shower. Oh well, next time.

He laid back in the bed thinking about everything he wanted to do and say when Harry came back out here.

Harry's phone rang. Gabriel didn't even hesitate to pick up when he saw who it was, grinning mischievously.

"'Yello, Sammy," he said cheerfully.

"Gabriel," the surprised voice came from the other end. "Why are you answering Harry's phone? Is he ok? What have you gotten him involved in?" As an afterthought, he added, "It's Sam."

The immediate suspicion would have annoyed Gabriel if he was so damn happy. "Relax. He's in the shower washing off a magical night of lovemaking."

"Ugh. Stop it. Look – could you just put him on the line? If he's going to be gone overnight, he really needs to tell someone. We were worried."

"I already told you, he's in the shower," Gabriel said, "although I'm sure that he wouldn't mind if I just joined him, so one sec…"

"No, don't do that! Jeez, it's like you can only think of one thing. Could you just tell him to call me back? It's Jack's first day of kindergarten tomorrow and the kid is going to be heartbroken if Harry misses it." Sam hung up.

Harry came out of the bathroom, fully dressed, except for toweling off his hair, a couple of minutes later. "Much better," he said.

"I dunno, I think it'd be better if you weren't wearing anything."

Harry did roll his eyes at him. "I need to get back to the Bunker soon. It's Jack's first day of school tomorrow and I can't miss it. We're all going, which I'm sure is completely normal."

"Yeah, Sam mentioned that to me." He said casually.

"Sam is the one who convinced Cas to send him to school at all. Cas wanted to homeschool him but…" Harry frowned and took in what Gabriel had just said to him, "When did you talk to Sam?" He demanded.

"Just now, told him that you were too busy cleaning up after our night together, but he wants you to…"

"GABRIEL!" Harry turned bright red and he looked completely mortified.

Normally, that look would have made Gabriel cackle, but, instead, he felt his stomach drop. Not that he was going to let Harry see that; instead, he shrugged as if that would make the feelings disappear. "Don't you worry your sexy little head about it – he thought it was just me being me."

"Gabe…" this time a lot softer, sitting down next to him on the bed.

Gabriel didn't have the courage to look Harry in the eyes as he spoke. "No, it's fine. I get it. I'm not exactly the introduce him to the fam sort of guy."

"First, you already know my family. But this – it's new, right?"

Gabriel waved him off. "New for you, maybe."

Harry leaned in and kissed him. "Not that new."

"Then why can't we tell everyone then?" he pushed, pulling away from the kiss. He wanted nothing more than to shout on the rooftops that he loved this man. The archangel wanted to yell it loud enough that his father could hear it, wherever the bastard was now.

Harry looked like he was struggling to form words. "We can, but just…"

"What you don't want everyone to know that you're into dudes?"

"I'm not really into anyone," Harry responded.

Gabriel raised his eyebrow.

"Alright fine. Sometimes I am. But that's not why…mostly I'm into you."

"Yeah, you were," he leered.

It was just too easy to make the man in front of him turn that adorable shade of pink.

Harry heaved a sigh. "Gabe – I don't want to mess this up but…"

Here it comes, he thought. He hadn't really thought about what consequences Harry would face for being in a relationship with him until just now. Gabriel was relatively sure that the Winchesters wouldn't reject Harry outright, but things had been (mostly) peaceful between the brothers and this might endanger that. Wizards didn't have the same hangups about sexuality as Muggles did, but announcing their relationship would finally signal to the Weasleys that Harry would not be joining their family through marriage. Would they stop visiting? That would hurt Harry so much so maybe he was right, "Maybe it's not worth it," he finished Harry's sentence.

"What?" Harry asked, looking shocked.

"That's what you were about to say, right? Gee, Gabe, this has been fun, but let's keep it on the DL. Maybe this was a one time thing. Look, I get that…"

"I don't think you understand a Merlin-damned thing," Harry hissed, standing up from the bed. "You think I'm ashamed of you?"

"Aren't you?"

"NO!"

"Then why were you so horrified that I told Sam about our incredible night of kinky monkey sex?"

"It was not… what… I don't discuss my… you know…. sex life with my brothers." He whispered sex as if it was the most offensive and dirty word he could have used.

"Don't you? I love telling my brothers – and sisters all about my sexy times."

"Gabriel, you love telling random strangers on the street about it," Harry deadpanned.

He couldn't help but grin.

"Yeah? What can I say? Who wouldn't want to brag about banging Harry Potter? Have the people seen your ass? Perfection."

"Believe it or not, plenty of people would like to brag about being with me," Harry said bitterly. "And many people have."

"But you said…"

"Yeah. Just Ginny. But that doesn't mean that rumors didn't spread. I've been a topic of great interest and fodder for the tabloids for almost my entire life. People love to make up stories about me. The sheer number of paternity claims that have turned up over the years would be enough to make people believe I shagged every fertile witch in the United Kingdom."

Gabriel knew all of this. He also may have been the source of a couple of those paternity claims, but he didn't think now would be a good time to bring that up.

"Do you understand now?" Harry asked him.

No. "Yeah, you're famous and you don't want to leak this one. Can't say that I think that Sam has Rita Skeeter on speed dial, I think our secret is safe with him."

"No!" Harry protested, looking frustrated. "No. It's not – I have endured years of rumors and false accounts and, quite frankly, attacks on my character, and I've always managed to keep my cool. You know why that is?"

Gabriel thought that was a bald-faced lie if he ever heard one. But he kept his mouth shut on that topic and took the bait. "Why?"

"Because I know the truth. And the person I lov – the person I'm with knows the truth and that is all that matters. In fact, it makes the rumors funny. The more outlandish the funnier because if people really knew just how boring I am then they would be so disappointed."

"Oh, so now I'm boring?" Gabriel teased, hiding how touched he was by how close Harry got to using the "l" word.

"Gabriel…"

"Fine, fine. We can keep it to ourselves for now. But you know this means that I'm still gonna have to keep making the jokes. It would look very suspicious and might blow our cover if I didn't go into great detail about what…"

Harry cut off his diatribe with a kiss, pushing him back in bed, and effectively shutting him up for the morning.

III

"Uh oh, is that a Jack I see?" Harry teased when he got to the bottom of the Bunker's entrance stairs.

The five-year-old beamed at him. He had been seated at the map table, paper and crayons out drawing what looked like it may be a dragon. "No, no Jacks here!" He said with a grin.

"Oh, are you sure?" Harry asked. "Well, that's too bad because I came all the way here to see a Jack. If there's no one here by that name, I guess I'll just…"

"No!" Jack shouted, apparating himself onto Harry's back and throwing his small arms around his neck. "I'm Jack!"

"How'd you get back there?" Harry said in a voice of mock outrage. "You know what happens to little kids who jump on old men's backs?"

"No, what?" Jack asked.

"They get…" he moved so that Jack was now in front of him, "SQUISHED!" He hugged the kid tightly.

Jack was all giggles and laughter.

"You're in a good mood," Sam said, entering the room. "At least a way better one than you were in when you left here."

"How could I not be when I have the cutest kid in the world?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off his surrogate son as he tipped back and hung upside down in his arms.

Sam gave him a bitch face and crossed his arms.

Harry did his best to not react. He gently placed Jack down on the ground.

"No! More!" Jack complained.

"Mom and Cas have lunch ready for you in the kitchen, Jack," Sam said, "I was just coming to get you."

"Is it grilled cheese?"

It was Jack's latest food obsession.

"I think it just might be – why don't you go and see?" Sam said with a wink.

Jack didn't need any more encouragement than that as he trotted off.

"Gabriel, Harry, really? I thought that he was too busy in Heaven to come by. You can't just run off to Florida every time you and Dean get in a fight."

Well, there goes my good mood, Harry thought.

"Who says I was in Florida?"

"Both your cell phone and the point me I cast when Jack was crying himself to sleep last night because you weren't here to tuck him in."

That was playing dirty and Sam knew it. "I didn't mean to go for the night. Gabriel caught up with me at the bar and…"

"The bar. Right." Sam looked supremely unimpressed.

"Yeah. Look – you know how it is. We're all cooped up here all the time. Dean was getting on my nerves. And now you're getting on them," he went to push past his younger brother, hoping for a friendlier reception in the kitchen.

Sam stood in his way.

And it wasn't that Harry couldn't have magicked his way around his behemoth of a brother but Sam was getting better at magic every day and, someday soon, may even be able to put up a fight against Harry. Maybe. Harry wasn't eager to test it.

"I really wish you would both take my suggestion. I think we could all benefit from…"

"I'm not going to see a bloody family therapist, Sam," Harry said for what felt like the millionth time.

"Damn right," Dean came into the room. "We don't need our heads shrunk. Looks like the smartass is back."

"Prat," Harry responded on reflex.

"We good, Harry?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Great. See Sammy, that's how men resolve things. What did Gabriel want?"

Harry swiveled his gaze to his younger brother. "Did you tell everyone?"

Sam didn't look even a little repentant. "'Course, we were worried. It's not normal for you to not come back by midnight. He didn't sound like he was in crisis when he answered your phone."

"He wasn't," Harry said.

"Then why did you need to sneak off to the other side of the country in the middle of the night?"

Harry chose to ignore the question and just leave the room. He hadn't thought of a decent excuse for what he and Gabriel had been up to and Sam confirmed everything he needed to know about whether or not it was a good idea to tell his brothers.

"Harry!" His mother greeted, coming in to give him a quick hug. It was something new. Mary Winchester, much like her boys, was not "touchy-feely." Something about growing up a hunter did that to a person. But Jack was very reassured by physical touch, so she had been trying to give more hugs. Harry still appreciated it every time.

"Mom, I heard that there was grilled cheese in here. I'm afraid to ask which of the two of you cooked, but I see that you haven't burned the Bunker down, so I'll take that as a good sign," he teased.

"I've been experimenting with different cheeses," Castiel said from behind the stove, proudly wearing an apron that Harry had bought him as a joke. The bottom was covered in yellow flowers and on top there was a large cartoon bee. Underneath the bee was the word, "happy." Harry had thought that the angel would be offended by it but he had been oddly touched. "Dean prefers this American melty cheese, but I'm not sure that it has the structural integrity to be called that."

"You don't have structural integrity," Dean said as he followed Harry into the kitchen. Cas tilted his head trying to figure out the joke. This is why he had left the other night. There was just no escaping anyone while they were all stuck in this Bunker together.

"Structural integrity helps ensure that either a structure or structural component is fit for purpose under normal operational conditions and is safe even should conditions exceed that of the original design," Jack explained in reaction to Cas's confusion all while playing with a plastic soldier at the table as if that was a perfectly normal thing for a five-year-old to spout out.

He did that from time to time. They weren't sure if it was him remembering facts from when he had been "older" or if he was just unnaturally smart. It really could be either or a combination of the two.

"Right," Dean said, rolling with it, "and Kraft singles perform perfectly under both normal conditions and when Mom is at the stove."

Mary swatted Dean upside the head.

"How was Gabriel?" Mary asked, turning her attention back to Harry.

If anyone other than his mother had asked him that question, he would have scowled and walked away, but he still couldn't bring himself to do that to her.

"Fine," he said instead.

"Is everything alright in Heaven?" Cas asked, looking concerned.

"No idea," Harry answered, without really thinking about it.

"Then what did Gabriel need?" his mother wanted to know.

"He didn't need anything. He was just visiting. I don't know why everyone is making such a big deal about this," Harry huffed, not caring that he sounded like a child. He went to leave the room again, but Sam was standing in the way. And he wasn't petty enough to just go through the other door out of the kitchen.

Sam crossed his arms.

"Ugh, fine, I didn't want to worry all of you, but some of the angels are giving him a tough time. It's not a big deal."

"Which angels?" Cas asked, standing up straighter.

"He didn't say," Harry shot back.

"What have they done?" Sam asked.

"Just – I dunno, questioned him or something. He wasn't asking me to help him he just needed a friendly ear. And to get away from his annoying family for a little bit." He said the last part very pointedly.

"You think we're annoying?" Jack asked in a quiet voice.

Harry's heart dropped as tears started rolling out of Jack's eyes. Merlin, I'm a terrible person, he thought.

"No, no, no, of course not Jack," he tried to reassure the child, going over to him and bending down to his level. "I love you."

"But if you think that we're annoying then you're going to leave and I'm going to be all alone." He broke down into sobs unable to get any other words out.

Harry's attention was focused solely on Jack but he could practically feel the glares from the other members of his family.

"Oh no, Jack, I'm not leaving," he pulled the boy into a hug, "I'll never leave you, I promise."

"But if you don't like us anymore then…then…" Jack hiccoughed.

"I love all of you."

Even soothing circles and whispered assurances didn't seem to be enough to calm Jack down so Harry just kept going, being completely unsure as to what to do.

After some time, Mary put her hand on Harry's back. "I think it may be best to put him to bed for a little, let him calm down." She reached to take him out of Harry's arms.

"NO!" Jack wailed. "No!"

Harry sighed. "You know, I'm a little tired too. How about I read you Harold and the Purple Crayon and we can have a kip in your room. I know that it would make me feel better."

Jack's cries calmed down, but he clung tightly to Harry's shirt. "You won't leave while I sleep?" He whispered.

"No, I won't, I promise."

Jack nodded in agreement. Without looking at his family, Harry carried Jack off. He really hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and maybe he could handle the tension of the Bunker a little better with some rest.

III

Dean watched as Cas slipped Claire a twenty and a wink. They hadn't had a lot of time to plan while Harry took a nap with Jack (and he really must have been up all night because the middle Winchester had been out for the count). Thankfully, Claire had already been on her way to the Bunker to look after Jack when they thought Harry had been missing.

Harry hadn't pulled a disappearing act like that since they had moved into the Bunker with baby Jack and Dean figured he was probably owed one every while and he hadn't been too concerned until Gabriel had answered Sam's phone call.

The world had been mostly quiet for the last couple of years. With demons being locked in Hell and angels occupied in Heaven, hunting had returned to what it had been in their earlier years. A few errant vampires, a haunting or two, an occasional wendigo.

No pending apocalypses. No earth-shattering events or invasions. Even the wizarding world seemed to be in a lull.

It was to the point that Dean was seriously considering what he should do with his life now.

Although he could live off of Harry's money for the rest of his life, he was not the type of man to sit still. He needed to be doing something. Currently, between hunts, he was fixing up the remaining cars in the Men of Letters garage to prepare them to sell, sending out college applications (in secret), and working on finding a (above-ground) home for his family. There were a lot of factors to keep in mind and, as it turned out, there was a lot of red tape to create a "mixed" community for their family. Harry was determined that they stay on the up and up claiming that his law-breaking days were over.

Dean would believe it when he saw it.

That is what he and Harry had been arguing about before he had taken off for the night. Dean wanted to just bulldoze through the process, insisting that Harry could get whatever the hell he wanted out of the wizarding government, and his middle brother stubbornly refused to use his fortune, fame, or power to get what they wanted.

Of course, he couldn't tell Sam that because the kid was already suspicious and they were trying to keep it a surprise.

But when they found out that Harry was with Gabriel – alarm bells were blaring. He didn't trust that son-of-a-bitch to involve Harry in another larger-than-life problem. And Harry didn't need that kind of stress. Not anymore – he had already given too much.

Sam and Cas had been in complete agreement with him.

So, they had planned an intervention.

With Jack safely whisked away by Claire and Mary out shopping for some last-minute school supplies (their mother refused to take part in this conversation, saying that they all needed to give Harry space – like that was going to happen) the three of them sat in the map room, waiting for Harry to come out.

It didn't take long.

He came strolling in just a couple of minutes after Claire and Jack left.

"Oh, hi," he said, seeing them. "Did we have plans?"

"No," Dean said.

Sam pulled a chair out, "Have a seat."

Harry eyed the chair warily but still sat.

This was honestly as far into the intervention plan as they had gotten and so they all sort of stared awkwardly at each other for a couple of moments.

"Harry, we think that Gabriel is bad for you and that you should stay away," Castiel said with his usual tack.

Dean groaned. Harry bristled.

"Not this rubbish again," he said through gritted teeth. "Mates – Gabriel is my friend. Yeah, he's been busy recently but last night wasn't any different from when Ron pops around and visits. We had some drinks, we talked, and he went home."

"That was only mostly true," Cas said. It was normally annoying that he was a walking, talking, lie detector but it was sure nice now.

"Which part wasn't true?" Sam blurted out.

Dean shook his head. The fact that Harry was lying at all spelled nothing but bad news. Why did he insist on protecting that asshat of an angel?

Cas simply tilted his head in response.

"Look, it don't matter," Dean said, "Gabriel has his head…"

"What Dean is trying to say," Sam cut him off, which, rude, but probably needed, "is that we are worried. Things have been so…peaceful. I think we're all waiting for the other shoe to fall and some other apocalypse to fall into our laps."

Dean swore by the magic of Sam's puppy eyes because all the aggression seemed to drain out of Harry.

"Yeah, man, we just don't want you to think that you've gotta keep stuff from us," Dean conceded at Sammy's "be nice" glare at him. It was something that his youngest brother had been trying to train him on since the Second Battle of Hogwarts. At least, when it came to Harry and Jack.

"I also don't have to report everything to you," Harry pointed out, "you're not my keepers."

"No, we're your family," Sam said, looking at him with a very serious expression. "And if there is danger out there…"

"Especially if it's going to affect Jack," Cas added.

"This has nothing to do with Jack!"

"Then what does it have to do with?" Cas asked in a way that somehow didn't come out as aggressive as it would have if Dean had asked it.

Maybe he did need his head shrunk.

He quickly pushed that thought aside. I'm way too awesome to need therapy.

Shifting his body in a way that Dean knew to mean that he was uncomfortable, Harry hesitated for a second. As if he were carefully considering the words that came out of his mouth.

"I'm not going to tell you…" there were several sounds of protest but Harry was able to speak before anyone could properly get any words out, "…I promise you that no one, including myself is in danger from what Gabriel and I were talking about."

"Cas?" Dean asked.

"He's telling the truth."

"Do you promise to tell us the second that it does concern us?" Sam asked.

Dean didn't like that Harry hesitated.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Alright, man. Just – be careful. I know that you trust him, but a leopard never really changes its spots, you know?" Dean said, definitely not believing a word coming out of Harry's mouth.

Harry inclined his head in annoyance. "Really? You're literally best mates with a Muggle werewolf. And don't pretend that we don't know about your little get-togethers with Rowena, Sam…"

"Hey, that's not…"

"You better hope that Teddy never hears you talking about werewolves that way," Dean interrupted a spluttering Sam. "And he wishes we were best friends." Garth had convinced him to go out drinking a couple of times since the latest apocalypse. It was always fun. But as a werewolf, his tolerance was far beyond even Dean's capabilities. Since he wasn't 20 anymore and sometimes the hangovers just made it not worth it.

"I'm Dean's best friend," Cas asserted with a frown.

Harry stood up, looking smug. He clapped Cas on the shoulder. "I think Sam's got that sown up. I'm going to find Jack and Claire. If that's alright with you," he said, pointedly looking at his brothers.

Dean rolled his eyes. Without waiting for a response, Harry walked out of the Bunker, probably to where he could apparate just beyond the wards.

They waited in silence for a couple minutes, to ensure that Harry had actually left.

"What do we think?" Sam asked, looking around at them uneasily.

Dean shook his head, "I think he's hidin' something. Nothing new 'bout that though."

"He said that it was no danger," Sam pointed out, "and he's got the right to not tell us if doesn't to."

"Since when?" Dean snapped.

Sam gave him a bitch face. "Since always. We don't ask about your little nights out with Garth. Or where the hell you and Cas disappear to every couple of weeks. And don't think I haven't noticed the little secret club you and Harry have formed. Have I ever bothered you about that?"

And here, he had thought that Sam had lost his edge.

Ducking his head "I…uh, hey, I have to…I think I hear…" he left the war room as quickly as he could. He could practically feel Sam's glare following him out of the room, but he didn't care. If Cas and Sam weren't going to take this whole Harry and Gabriel thing seriously, he'd just have to be extra vigilant.

III

Seeing how well Jack and Claire were getting along, Harry decided not to disturb them. Plus, that's not really the reason he had left the Bunker. Settling on jogging around a nearby park (Sam had convinced him to start), he sat and contemplated the position he found himself in.

All of the glow that Harry had from his night with Gabriel had completely melted away after that conversation with Sam and Dean.

Somehow, in it all, he had forgotten that his brothers hated the archangel. And it wasn't as if it was baseless. He could even understand their point of view – he would have a problem if Sam, for example, started dating Castiel. Despite the fact that he had long ago forgiven the angel, he still wouldn't trust him with the feelings of his younger brother. He was pretty damn sure that Sam and Dean hadn't gotten past a grudging tolerance of Gabriel. And only for very short periods of time.

He blew out a breath and decided to stop on a nearby bench.

It was ridiculous that he even had to worry, as a grown man, about the reactions of his also fully grown brothers to his romantic relationships.

Harry had no experience with this sort of rubbish.

But he did know someone who had.

He checked the time, and after doing a quick calculation, he decided that it wasn't too late to call.

"Harry!" His best friend answered on the second ring. He was very grateful that his best mate had figured out how to use a phone after a lot of guidance from both Hermione and Charlie Bradbury.

"Hey, Ron," he said, "how are you?"

Ron launched into a couple-minute story about his kids that Harry only half paid attention to. He must have eventually noticed the heavy silence on the other end of the line.

"Everything alright with you, mate?"

"Yeah," Harry said too quickly.

"Uh huh, is this something I should pull Hermione into? 'Cause…"

"No!" Harry said, "No. No need for Hermione, she's an only child she would not…"

"Ah, this is about the wankers, then." Ron was also getting along better with Sam and Dean but the redhead knew how to hold a grudge with the best of them.

"Kind of. Look – if Ginny were dating say…Malfoy…"

"What? What are you talking about? Is she dating Malfoy? That arse – his wife has only been dead for a year and he's already moving in on Ginny? I knew that he hadn't turned the leaf. How could Ginny have fallen…"

"Ron," Harry interrupted.

"…for any of his crap," Ron continued as if he hadn't heard Harry. The sinking feeling that he had in his stomach got even worse. What was he thinking, calling Ron? "I'm gonna have to call everyone together. I know you're taking Jack to school for the first time soon, but do you think you could take some time next week to…"

"RON!" Harry yelled.

Finally, his friend heard him.

"Ginny is not dating Malfoy." At least, he hoped not.

He and Ginny had really worked on their friendship since the end of the Second Battle of Hogwarts. She had dragged him back to mind healing a couple of times, but he could admit that it had been worth it. Even though there were no more romantic feelings between the two of them, he had missed her friendship, and she his. They spoke on the phone or visited a couple of times a month as her schedule allowed. He was pretty sure that dating Malfoy would have been headline news.

"Oh," Ron said, sounding very relieved. "Why'd you say that then?"

"It was an example, Ron," he said, "and you know, it doesn't matter. I just…" He realized that he had called the wrong Weasley. "You know, I think that I've got this sorted. I'll call at my usual time next week." He hung up the phone before Ron could probe him even further.

III

Gabe 11:04
get the little devil off to school?

Harry 11:05
don't call him that. yeah.

Gabe 11:06
you cry?

Harry 11:08
no.

Harry 11:08
cas did. sam too.

Harry 11:09
dean had an "allergy attack"

Gabe 11:09
my brave man. u'll not let him live that down, right?

Harry 11:10
never.

Gabe 11:10
i want to take you out.

…

…

…

Gabe 11:15
u r killin me

…

Harry 11:17
when?

Gabe 11:17
tomorrow. i'll pick u up. 10 am.

Harry 11:18
I'll meet you. where?

Gabe 11:18
that'd be telling. meet me at our place 😉

Harry 11:20
*my* place and sure. gotta be back by 3:00, though.

Gabe 11:20
aren't you a little old for a curfew?

III

Nervousness was not an emotion that Gabriel thought he was capable of feeling. At least, not before he met Harry Potter. But now, he was as anxious as a virgin on his wedding night. It made him uncomfortable. Because that ship had sailed long before there had been ships.

If he were the sort of being that required sleep, he wouldn't have been able to the night before. Thankfully, he wasn't human enough to require something so basic. But it did mean that he had a full 24 hours to obsess over the details and to make sure that every last thing was perfect.

And it still felt like not enough.

Of course, what he landed on was actually about his fifteenth idea of what to do. He would have thought that, after years of hitting on Harry, both when it was sincere and when it wasn't, he would have been better prepared.

The thing was, that it wasn't like he had ever had to try before. He had always taken his good looks and charming personality for granted. Gabriel knew that he exuded sex appeal. It wasn't just anyone who could get Salazar Slytherin into bed. The man had practically invented playing "hard to get."

And that wasn't to even mention the eldest of the Fates and Kali.

But he realized now that all those people were only ever conquests for him. Sure, he may have felt some feelings but nothing like what he felt for Harry Potter. He had never felt both so unworthy and so determined to be everything the man needed him to be at the same time. How did you plan a date with a man who was not only one of the richest men on Earth but also, upon discovering it, loved nothing more than to buy his entire wardrobe at Costco.

Romantic dinner on top of the Eiffel Tower? Scrapped – with a nose winkle…too French.

A private tour of Kyoto? If it had been cherry blossom season, maybe that would have worked.

A night at his favorite pub? Too many nosy friends. And it's not like Gabriel could make them anonymous there – they'd never get in.

A private overwater cabana in the Maldives and a night of unbelievable sex? Maybe after the date. If it went well – but going straight to bed probably wasn't the answer. Unless it was? No. Plus, if he remembered correctly Harry was banned from most of Southwest Asia. Not that it would stop them, but it could ruin the sexy times.

It wasn't until about the eleventh hour that he came up with the answer. He checked the time – damn, only two hours.

III

Harry didn't know what to feel.

Or even what he was feeling.

In some ways, being with Gabe was as natural as breathing. He wasn't sure how it had crept up on him, but his annoyance had turned exasperated fondness and the comfort of being with him had turned into love.

When he was with the archangel, he never felt any pressure to be anyone other than himself.

Harry could count on one hand the number of people who made him feel that ease – and none of his blood family made that list.

He felt like he was almost there with Mary. He figured it was just a matter of time with Sam and Dean. But they had a lifetime of being brothers when he had only about a decade on and off with either of them.

As he took a deep breath to apparate to Florida, he decided to leave his worries about his family in the same place where he had left his cell phone and the three trackers Dean had placed on him – in his room at the Bunker.

Standing outside the main entrance to the condo The Man Who Conquered had no idea what was awaiting him inside. He summoned his Gryffindor courage and walked in.

It looked…ordinary.

Somehow that made alarm bells go off in his head.

He really didn't know what he was expecting. Something cliche from one of Dean's chick flicks - roses and candles leading to the bed, maybe. Gabriel sprawled out of the bed with a rose in his mouth. The thought made him smile.

"I like my chances if you're already that happy," Gabriel said, leaning against the doorframe, lolly in his mouth, where Harry swore he hadn't been before.

"Chances of what, exactly?" Harry asked, warily.

Instead of answering, Gabe waggled his eyebrows, crossed over to him, and pulled him into a kiss. Harry didn't resist and leaned into it appreciating the cherry flavor of the candy that had been in the archangel's mouth.

It was Gabe that pulled back from him, in the end.

Harry tried to go back in, but he was stopped.

"Naw, I'm not that kinda girl, and if we keep going we're not going to fully enjoy the extraordinarily romantic afternoon that I've planned for you. I pulled out all the stops."

With a skeptical eyebrow, Harry looked around them.

"Not here. This is not a very romantic place."

"That's not what you thought the other night," Harry teased.

"No that's not what you thought. You're the one who jumped my bones and deflowered me. Before I met you I was a perfectly innocent…"

Just to shut him up, Harry began to kiss him again.

"…archangel. Virginal and perfect and now…" Gabe said in his head.

"Hey!" He protested, pulling away of his own free will this time. "That's not fair. You can't just keep talking to me in my head. I didn't think you could do that anymore now that I'm not an angel."

"What's not fair is you using your lips to distract me," Gabe said smirking, "and you think that, in all my powers, that I can't still pray to whomever I want?"

Harry frowned. He was positive that it wasn't possible anymore. Plus, Gabe had never done that before, and he was pretty sure that the archangel would have abused that power years before Harry became the Angel of Death.

He'd have to ask Cas.

"Nuh uh, no thinking about other angels on our special night," Gabe scolded him.

Physically pushing Gabe away from him he scowled, "Get out of my head!" He was going to have to get back into practicing occlumency if his thoughts were that easily accessible to the archangel.

Gabe grinned in a way that confirmed that he had no intention of doing any such thing. "You ready to go?"

"We're going somewhere?" Harry had thought that they would stay here.

"Of course. Not that I don't love a date night in, I'm dating someone rich and famous now. There are standards that I need to hold myself to if I ever hope of keeping you."

All the nerves that had been erased by the kissing ran like a current of electricity up his arms. He thought that they had an understanding. "Gabe…you know we can't go out out, right? Not where I might be recognized. If…" And sure, there may be plenty of places where he could be anonymous or use magic to hide himself, but it wasn't foolproof. Especially now that wizards had access to phones with cameras, he never felt truly safe from prying eyes. He may not want to tell Sam and Dean about this relationship, but it would be even worse if they found out from The Daily Prophet.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a closet case, I know, but don't worry, your little secret will be safe with me."

That wasn't what he meant at all. Other than a few, highly planned, public appearances, Harry did whatever he could to stay away from people. Around the Bunker, it wasn't much of an issue but he had an occasional run-in with a reporter or the wizarding public when he had gone out on hunts with his brothers in the last couple of years. Fearing for the safety of his family, especially Jack, now that the kid was an actual child, he had become a bit of a recluse since the Second Battle of Hogwarts.

But before he could voice any of this to Gabriel, the archangel snapped his fingers and flew them out of Miami.

It took him a second to comprehend where they were.

"You can't apparate onto the Hogwarts grounds," was the first, dumb thought that passed through his mind and out of his mouth.

They were standing just outside the broom shed at the Quidditch Pitch. Even though it had been years since he had been here last, he knew this place like the back of his hand. And even with the anxiety of going out with Gabriel, part of him relaxed as he breathed in the fresh Scottish air and felt the relief of home as he exhaled.

"No shit," Gabe said, shaking his head. "You can't fly here either. But there are some serious perks to being the archangel that built the wards."

Somehow, he still couldn't comprehend where they were. "Why?"

The look of worry on Gabriel's face was not only a surprise but also a little touching.

"I – uh, I thought about what you like best and you've always felt at home in the air. So, I thought we'd have a flying date. I booked the pitch with McGonagall and everything. She said that you owe her a cup of tea, but no students should bother us. If you'd prefer…"

"No, this is perfect," Harry said, grinning. "We going to borrow the school brooms?" He asked, heading towards the shed.

"No, I thought I'd do you one better," out of thin air, Gabe produced a broom that Harry would recognize anywhere.

"Is that…"

"Yeah."

"But Ginny said that…"

"Do you think I'm incapable of breaking into a museum? Really, it wouldn't be a good romantic gesture if I didn't break some laws. Don't worry, I put a very convincing replica in its place."

Reverently, Harry took the Firebolt into his hands. It looked almost the same as the day he had opened it in the Great Hall. Not at nearly as battle-worn as it had been. There were still faint etchings of scratches and dents over the years so he knew it was his but still…

"Oh yeah," Gabriel said, watching him closely enough to see the question in his eyes, "I used a little grace to restore its former glory. I didn't think you'd mind."

He didn't. He continued to stare and run his fingers over the surface of the broom. Until this moment, he had no idea how much he had missed it.

Gabe cleared his throat. Harry looked up and the archangel had an eyebrow raised, "Do you need me to give you a moment?" He gestured backward with his thumb, "'Cause you know, I could take a quick walk or see what the local troublemakers are up to, maybe cause a little chaos, you know, for old time's sake…"

"Gabe," Harry said, to stop the talking.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," he said with a smile, and embarrassingly, a couple of tears in the corner of his eyes. "Come here," he commanded.

Gabe shuffled forward into his space, "Ooooh, bossy. You know I like it when…"

Harry didn't let him finish. He kissed him – but just as it was deepening, he pulled back, straddled the broom, and shot away. "First one to the goalposts decides the next date," he called.

Gabe's face turned from surprised that the kiss had been so abruptly ended to one of fierce determination. Harry didn't stop to see what happened next, just started flying as quickly as he could. The fresh air whooshing all around him as he felt happier than he had in…well, way too long.

They spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between racing and chasing each other (Gabe chose to fly on a broom instead of with his wings) and moments of breathless making out. It was as if all the stress from living in an underground Bunker with his family and the weight of all his worries and concerns just melted away.

As their time came to an end, Harry landed, Gabe just moments behind him.

"Thank you," Harry said with clear eyes. "That was…thank you."

Gabe grinned. "Guess it's time for you to get back though, huh?"

Reluctantly, Harry nodded. "Yeah, I promised."

"But I haven't scared you off?" Gabe asked the slightest bit of concern in his eyes.

"Not even a little bit. Fly me home?" Harry offered out his hand. Of course, Gabe didn't need that to fly them both, but it was still nice. Grasping his hand tightly, they returned to the United States.

III

Sam didn't know where Harry had disappeared off to for most of the day but if his middle brother thought that he had missed his absence, he was delusional. Especially since it the Bunker was unusually quiet without a little boy running around all day to distract the adults.

He decided against saying anything about it, though, because Harry's demeanor was as carefree and relaxed as Sam may have ever seen him. Whatever was happening – like whatever he and Dean were up to – was a good thing. Harry wasn't a good enough actor to hide his happiness, so Sam decided to let it drop. For now.

"…and then Lonnie and I got our turn on the swings and we swung soooo high…." Jack was happily detailing his entire day while Harry strapped him into the car seat that Cas had somehow convinced Dean to install in the Impala.

"You felt like you were flying?" Harry finished for their surrogate son.

"I did!" Jack beamed and then his face fell. "But Ms. Perry said that we won't have our flying classes until the end of next week! Can you believe that? She said that it was too scary but Harry, I've been flying with you since…"

"Jack – I'm sure that your teacher has very good reasons for not starting you on brooms on your first day," Harry interrupted him, glancing quickly at Dean to see if the eldest Winchester was in earshot or if he was still getting hit on by a pretty witch that had zeroed in on him as soon as he had stepped out of the car. (This was a wizarding elementary school – so driving to it at all had created a bit of a stir.)

Sam craned his neck as well and silently shook his head at Harry, seeing that Dean was trying to politely get out of the conversation. Dean had still not forgiven Harry for when he had taken Sam flying in Bobby's junkyard all those years before and had insisted that Jack not be allowed on a broom until it was time for him to go off to Hogwarts.

Of course, that just meant that Harry had secretly bought Jack a baby broom and he had been more than proficient on it for years. Sam had caught them at it one time and been sworn to secrecy.

"Alright ramblers, let's get ramblin'," Dean said as he finally made his way back to the Impala. "You get all the learnin' you needed today, Jack? We don't need to bring you back for another couple of years, right?" He teased.

Jack looked up with wide eyes.

"He's kidding, Jack," Sam said, with a bitch face aimed at Dean, who just grinned in the rearview mirror.

Jack looked relieved and took up the entire car ride back to the Bunker with stories of his first day and all the people he had met.

"And did you all know that Harry is famous?" Jack asked as if it were the most innocent question in the world as Harry unbuckled him from his seat in the garage.

"Who told you that?" Harry asked, carefully schooling his face in a way that wasn't fooling Sam for one minute.

"Uh – no one. But at story time today, Ms. Perry read us a book about you!"

Both Sam and Dean snickered and Sam expected an epic show of embarrassment from Harry, but, to his eternal disappointment, his middle brother didn't so much as blush.

"Oh yeah, which one?" He asked, shooting a look at both his brothers clearly telling them to shut up.

"I dunno what it was called but you were a kid like us and…" Carrying Jack on his hip as he continued to talk, Harry disappeared out of the garage while Jack told him the entire story.

"What the hell has gotten into him?" Dean asked Sam before he could leave.

"What do you mean?"

Dean folded his arms. "Don't play dumb. What's with the good mood? If you had asked me this morning, I would have bet you ten bucks that finding out that Jack read a book about him would have had him hiding for the rest of the night."

Sam shrugged. "Guess he's just happy."

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Do you think it's because of the thing with Gabriel?"

"I have no clue. Can't see how. Maybe he'll share whatever it is with us soon."

His eldest brother looked utterly unconvinced. "I'm gonna ask," as he strode determinately towards the inside of the Bunker.

"Your funeral," Sam muttered, following behind. He just hoped that Dean didn't cause a huge argument again.

III

It took Dean until after dinner to be able to get Harry alone. He knocked on Harry's half-open door as the others went through Jack's elaborate bedtime routine.

"Come in," Harry said absent mindfully, going through some papers on his desk. "Hey, Dean," he said without looking up.

"That's creepy how you do that, man," Dean groused. Somehow, without looking Harry always knew who was in the room with him.

"You've mentioned," Harry said with a bright smile that put Dean on edge.

"What the hell is going on with you?" He demanded. Harry looked at him, confused. Dean gestured wildly up and down, "You seem so goddamned happy. And you wouldn't stop smiling at your crouch all afternoon. Who were you texting with?"

"Luna," his brother responded, too quickly. Dean didn't believe him for one second. "She's hilarious."

"Luna doesn't text," Dean wasn't going to let this go. He had a terrible feeling in his gut and he didn't like it one bit.

"How would you know? Luna texts me."

"'Cause Charlie complains about how medieval the wizarding world, and, by extension, Luna is all the time. Because she does text. Like a lot."

In truth, he didn't know. But from the expression on Harry's face, he could tell that he had caught him in a lie.

"Fine, you caught me," Harry said, putting his hands up. "I was gonna wait to tell you later but… I don't like the property. I called Philomena and called it all off. She was sending me new places and I think that some of them have some real promise."

"Son of a bitch!" Dean yelled. This was the sixth time that Harry had decided that the property that they were just about to purchase wasn't what "they were looking for" he was pretty sure that their real estate agent, Philomena, was going to quit on them. "Haven't we seen every friggin' house within a sixty-mile radius of this place? What was it this time?"

"Well, you know with the zoning…"

"And I told you that you could literally get the zoning changed. Friggin' hell, Harry. At this rate we're gonna live in this Bunker until Jack goes off to college."

"Wizards don't go to college," Harry frowned.

"Have you told Sam that?" Dean was pretty sure that Sam would resurrect Lucifer before he would let anyone tell him that his kid didn't get to go to college. Wizard or not.

That seemed to completely distract Harry. "But Jack is going to go to Hogwarts. I promised him that – there aren't any wizarding universities, plus how would he even get in without a Muggle education?"

"Harry, Sam is still trying to convince me to go to college. And I'm a high school dropout with a GED." Honestly, with the crusade that his youngest brother was on about it, he was a little surprised that he hadn't tried to get Harry to go.

"I'm even less qualified than you – don't forget, I also quit school and never took my exams."

"Huh," Dean had never considered that. Then he realized that Harry had managed one of his little tricks and completely distracted him from the topic at hand. He narrowed his eyes, embarrassed that he almost let his middle brother get away from it. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing," he growled.

"What's that?" Harry asked, far too innocently.

"Trying to distract me. You know what – you're no longer allowed to call Philomena. Or talk to Philomena. I'll handle all of it."

"Don't you at least want to hear my idea?"

"I've heard all of your ideas. You know where you can stick your…"

"Wait, wait," Harry said, "look, I think that we've been thinking too small. Some neighborhoods would be impossible to ward the way we would need them. Others didn't have enough houses, and you nixed us all living in a big house together…"

"Because that's basically what we've got now! And I want to kill you almost every day. Sometimes, when you pull crap like this, multiple times a day." Dean loved his family. Really, truly, loved them. But it was untenable. He had shared a motel room with Sam for years, so he thought he had endured the worst of the worst – clogged drains and night farts that took opening a window to clear to smell out. None of that compared to the first time that their mom had brought a man home and…nope, he wouldn't even let himself think that. He'd need to bleach his eyes out at the thought.

"…and I need a safe space for wizards to come. I think the problem is that we were trying to make it work with houses that are already built. Where there are neighbors. Muggle or wizard, it'd be a problem."

"I told you that you're… I don't know, you. You can get anything rezoned however the hell you'd like."

"But we're still working with what someone else was a good design. Look – we want to be close to here, right? The Bunker will become our "office," and we will have our homes somewhere else. But other than Sam, I really don't think that we're in-town types. What if, instead of buying houses with neighbors where we have to pretend to be something we're not, we just bought land and everyone can decide what they want in a house."

Dean's eyes narrowed. It wasn't a bad idea. Of all the properties they had considered there was always an element of wondering if Mom would want to live in the same house as someone or having to decide who would get the place with the best kitchen. Still, there was something off.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Harry rolled his eyes and practically stamped his foot like a toddler. "Nothing I…"

Dean continued to stare him down.

"Fine! I want a Quidditch pitch. You know, Jack is gonna start learning soon and…."

"Ha!" Dean said, triumphant. "I knew it. You want to introduce to a kid that's going to get his neck broken or injure his arm so badly that some idiot has to regrow his bones. And I…"

"I won't let Jack get hurt," Harry vehemently disagreed, "and as long as no one removes the bones from his arm because of something as small as a break, there is no danger that they will be removed entirely."

"Not helping, Harry."

"Look – wizards, we're made of sterner stuff than Muggles. I think I had a skull fracture at one point and…" wisely, Harry realized what he was saying and stopped talking. "The point is that it's not like we'd let Jack fly unsupervised. And Cas sure as hell won't let him fall."

Dean had gotten mostly on board with the wizard stuff. He really had – he had accepted that almost everyone around him was magical. But he'd never forget the sheer panic of seeing Harry dive with Sam on his broom, sure that his youngest brother would tumble to his death. He knew that he wouldn't be able to keep Jack off a broom forever, but damn it…

"Would you at least come see what I've got in mind? We can take Jack to school tomorrow and go from there."

The look of pleading that Harry gave him still held far more power than Dean would have liked. How did I get cursed with two brothers with puppy eyes?

"Fine. But I swear this is the last time, Harry. If this doesn't work, you're gonna let me pick and I won't hear one goddamn thing about it – capiche?"

Harry just grinned like he had won. And he probably had.

Son of a bitch.

III

Ginny had thought that she had already suffered through all the surprises that life could throw at her and that nothing could phase her anymore.

After all, her formally dead boyfriend had come back to life. Twice. That she knew of.

But she never thought she'd see the day that an angel would knock on her door.

Especially not this one.

"Gins!" He greeted her like they were old friends. "Long time, no see."

She narrowed her eyes. "Is Harry alright?" Her mind immediately racing with worry. Surely, if something had been wrong Sam would have told her about it when they had talked on the phone the night before.

"Oh, yeah, he's great."

Ginny just stared at him both of them standing in uncomfortable silence for about a minute.

"You gonna invite me in?"

That brought her out of her shock and she shook her head, the hospitality drummed into her by her taking over her body. "Yeah – shall I put the kettle on?" she asked, moving out of the way to invite him in.

She was still living at Grimmauld Place in London. Harry had tried to give it to her when he came back to life and all of a sudden, her ownership was in question, but her pride hadn't allowed for that and she had simply bought it off him.

"No, that's alright," he responded.

Did he look nervous?

Surely that wasn't possible.

"Oh. Alright – we can just sit then?" She indicated to the sitting room.

"Yeah," he said, "yeah, that'd be good."

Still completely puzzled and debating about whether she should send out an SOS to Ron and Hermione or Sam and Dean, she led him into the other room.

They sat on chairs opposite each other and once again sat in awkward silence.

"What – " She started at the same time that he started talking, "Here's the deal…"

They both stopped talking.

"Go ahead," she encouraged.

Gabriel shook his head. "No, you can…"

"Gabriel," she said severely. "If Harry is just fine then why the hell are you here?" She wasn't in the mood to be mucked with.

"I think I'm dating Harry," he blurted out.

Again, she thought that the surprises in her life were over.

She looked at him.

He looked back at her – straight in the eyes.

She kept looking.

"I'm sorry…what?" She asked, surely she had heard that wrong. And that was another development that she was 100 percent sure that Sam would have mentioned.

As if he was reading her mind (and maybe he was, for all she knew), "No one knows. Please don't tell the Winchesters. Or anyone else. Shit, I should wipe your memories of this conversation. Really, I shouldn't've come here at all, I just…" He got up, ready to leave.

"No, wait," she said, "just give me a second to wrap my mind around it."

It wasn't as if she had missed the looks between the two of them. She, better than anyone, knew what Harry looked like when he loved someone. But she never thought that he'd have the courage to act on it.

Merlin knew that she was the one who had driven their relationship.

She also expected to feel jealous and somehow…especially with how miserable Gabriel looked, she did not.

Ginny thought back to what he had actually said.

"You think you're dating Harry?" She asked. "Wouldn't you know?"

He sighed and sat back down heavily.

"Did you always know?"

Touché, she thought. She had usually known when they were together, of course, but sometimes, after a fight where she thought they had broken up, he would return the next day as if nothing had ever happened.

She really didn't miss that at all.

"Tell me what's happened," she demanded, even though she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"I don't know if…"

"You came all the way here. You clearly want to discuss this, so discuss."

That opened the floodgates. He told her everything – about how he had found Harry in a bar, how he had been drunk and depressed and then he had kissed him and they had spent the night together.

Thankfully, he had skipped the sordid details. Which was quite unlike him.

"What's the issue? That sounds like dating to me," she said. She was still confused as to why he had come to confide in her. Surely, he had friends that he could talk to about this. Other angels. Castiel. She didn't know, but someone other than her.

"He wants to keep it a secret," he confessed.

Ah.

"And you are wondering if that means that he isn't taking it seriously?" She guessed.

"No," he said too quickly. "Yes. But not just that. Isn't it strange? I don't think that he's ashamed of me. Or of being with a man – although I could certainly change that if it would make him more comfortable. And I don't think the Winchesters are homophobic, because even though I've never caught them doing anything more than eye fucking, I'm pretty sure that there is something there between Castiel and Dean but if he thinks that…"

"You're rambling," she pointed out.

He shut up.

Ginny sighed. "Look – you know Harry."

"I do. Biblically." He winked.

She shook her head, not really wanting to picture that. "He – " she formed her words carefully because even if they were dating, there were some things that Harry had told her that were private and not hers to share. "He's not one for flings. Or one-night stands. I don't think that it would even occur to him to date someone unless he was head over heels. I think that whatever you have…it's got to be real."

Ok, maybe that one stung a little more than she had thought it would.

Gabriel deflated. "Then why doesn't he want to tell anyone?"

"Because – " There was a time that she would have said to protect his partner, but, in this case, she couldn't imagine that was the case. "I don't know. He's very private, Harry. He plays everything close to the chest. If I were to guess, he doesn't want to risk anyone tearing you apart."

"Do you think that Sam and Dean would try to? If they knew?"

Yes, but she didn't say that out loud.

"I think that if you make Harry happy – truly happy, and they can see that, they'll come around. But Ron doesn't call them the Wankers for nothing. They're more stubborn than a pair of hippogriffs."

Gabriel looked troubled. "That's your advice? Make him happy?"

"I think you probably already do. In time, it will be obvious to everyone because as secretive as Harry is he cannot hide how he feels."

He snorted. "That's alright. Fine, I guess I'll get out of your hair, then." He stood again to leave.

"Gabriel, wait," she said, making him hesitate before flying away.

"What?"

She sat up straight and tried to look straight into his soul. "If you don't make him happy. If you hurt him, Sam and Dean Winchester will be the last of your worries."

Ginny was pretty sure that she saw the archangel wince before he saluted her and left.

III

Harry had hoped that keeping secrets from his brothers would be a thing of the past. But it seemed that they already suspected something with Gabriel. And he just wasn't sure, especially in the beginning stages of this relationship, that they would be able to last through the scrutiny of Sam and Dean. Even more than that, he didn't particularly want to hear their mom's or Cas's opinions on the topic either.

He understood why they would be concerned. But he was a big boy. He could take care of himself and it was, quite frankly, none of their business.

And was it too much to ask that he have one nice thing to himself?

Harry didn't really like to think about his relationship with Ginny and where he had cocked it up. It was too painful. But he did know that things were always at their best when it was just the two of them and there was no interference from the outside world. The press or their wizarding family.

If he was going to make this work with Gabriel, he was going to do everything he could to keep it just between the two of them.

Not acknowledging that there could be any other reason for his reluctance to tell Sam and Dean, Harry started to make plans on how he could continue with his relationship and not alienate his family.

He knew where he had to start. And it was perfect because it was already in the works. First, a phone call or two.

III

It had all started with a strange phone call with Ginny.

The two of them stayed in touch – she kept him in the loop on what was going on the wizarding world so that he could use that information to protect Harry from whatever nonsense was happening there. Every once in a while, the tabloids would go nuts on his middle brother and he was determined that Harry never find out.

Or, at least that's how their conversations had started. These days they tended to just talk about everything and nothing. Honestly, Harry rarely came up.

Until he did.

"Have you noticed anything…different…about Harry recently?" Ginny had asked him.

He had been confused. "Do you mean the Gabriel situation? Because I'm pretty sure that's all over – it seemed touch and go for a moment, but now Harry seems really happy, like all the time, so I don't think that he actually pulled him into anything too stressful."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"He seems…happy?" Ginny asked, carefully.

"Yeah. Happier than I've seen him in a while, you know how worried I was about him like a month ago. I was ready to drag him off to his mind healer – he was picking fights all the time and drinking like a fish and then…well, something happened and now he's happy." He hesitated for a second. "Do you know something?"

"No," she answered, too quickly.

"Ginny…"

"No, really, Sam, don't worry about it. I'm glad he's doing better, is all. Will you tell me if that changes?"

"You know I will but…"

"Thanks, Sam. I really appreciate it. I've got to go, I promised Lucy that I'd take her flying today. Talk to you later."

She hung up, leaving Sam even more suspicious than he had been before. As well as annoyed that Ginny also was keeping secrets.

That conversation was the reason that he was currently crouching in some tall grasses watching his brothers.

Sam parked his car a little way down the road from where the GPS on Harry and Dean's cell phones said they were.

For their part in his suspicion they had both been acting strangely for weeks and whenever he had tried to get an answer out of them, they both evaded him. They thought that they had gotten him off their scent, but he wasn't stupid.

In fact, he was a little insulted that they thought that he could be so easily fooled.

He was certain that the two of them were up to something.

Not wanting to worry their mom with whatever nonsense was happening, so he went to Cas to see if the angel had any intel. After all, the angel spent more time with Dean than just about anyone else.

But he had claimed that he didn't know anything.

Sam wasn't sure if he was lying or not – it always seemed impossible to tell with him. He knew that the angel had an amazing capacity for deceit, but had mostly seemed disinclined to act that way since he became the only angel left on Earth.

Well, almost the only angel. Gabriel could flit back and forth as he pleased.

And he had no doubt now that the archangel was doing just that.

But he didn't think that was what was going on here.

It didn't take him long to find his brothers, but when he did, he had to duck down quickly so that they wouldn't see him.

He was too far away to hear what they were saying, but they were standing out in a field with an attractive woman in a red power suit and all three of them were looking around as the woman pointed things out.

Do they have a case that they didn't bring me in on? He wondered. That would be strange.

Thankfully, George had taught him a little spell to help him listen in from a far distance. He quickly pulled out his wand and cast it, silently praying that he wasn't in an area where a little bit of magic would be registered.

"Alright, I'll admit it," Dean said, sounding grudging. "This is a pretty bomb-ass plan."

Harry tilted his head enough towards Sam that he knew that the middle Winchester was grinning.

"I told you. I don't know why we didn't think of this earlier."

"Because we wanted something normal for Jack. But the kid's still the son of… I mean, he's used to being a little different."

So, the woman with them didn't know about Jack.

That wasn't so surprising, Sam supposed, it was a pretty tight-knit circle that did know.

"Am I hearing a "yes?"" the woman asked, looking pleased.

Harry and Dean looked at each other.

"Yeah," they said at the same time.

"Excellent," she clapped her hands. "I'm sure you'll be very happy here. Let's go back to my office to start the offer paperwork. Oh, I always love it when married couples like yourself find…"

"What?" Dean practically shouted.

"No! Bleh!" Harry said at the same time, turning bright red.

Sam took a little pleasure out of the exclamations. It had happened enough times to him and Dean that he felt like it was a right of passage.

"We're brothers," Harry said quickly.

She looked surprised. "Oh. My apologies. I did think that you two looked similar but you know how sometimes that happens with couples. How sweet that you're doing this together. Now, as I was saying, this land has been on the market for quite some time, so I think that we'll be able to get the seller…"

Sam canceled the spell as the three of them headed to their cars (Harry and Dean in the Impala and the…relator, he realized, got in her own.).

They were buying property.

Of all the things that he had been worried about this was as outlandish as it was relieving. He had to laugh at himself.

It all made sense now. All the time they'd been spending together. How happy Harry seemed – because he knew that being cooped up in the Bunker had to be getting on his nerves. And if there was one thing that they had in common, Harry and Dean both loved doing kind things for their family.

And Harry must have dropped a hint to Ginny and Dean to Cas – which is why neither of them would talk to him about it. It seemed silly, but Sam was too relieved to be upset. He glanced at where they were. It was pretty great – not far from the Bunker or town, but far enough away that they could probably do magic and not have to worry about Muggles.

Shaking his head at his own anxiety, Sam took the scenic route back to his car, examining the place, and feeling about ten pounds lighter.

III

Harry and Gabriel had been meeting up for weeks. And between that and finally getting a deal on a place to live, he was feeling happier than he had in ages.

The only problem was that it was getting more and more difficult for him to sneak out of the Bunker to see Gabe.

The archangel had hinted that maybe since it had been almost two months at this point, it was time to tell his family.

Harry wasn't ready for that.

Thankfully, he hadn't been bringing it up as often and continued to surprise Harry with fun outings all over the world. It was still a wonder to him that Gabriel – the ultimate playboy, could be this romantic.

And he was beginning to feel a little bad that not only was he insisting that they keep this all a secret – like Gabriel was something to be ashamed of, but he hadn't done anything to reciprocate the romantic gestures.

But now he had a solution that was going to be perfect. They could spend all their nights together without his brothers being any the wiser.

Harry couldn't believe how well his plan had worked. Dean was none-the-wiser on why he wanted so much space and was completely on board. Soon, the two of them would tell the rest of the family, and engage them in the blueprints.

But he wanted to tell Gabe first. He could hardly wait.

III

Hare-Bear 4:15
this time, it's my turn

Gabriel 4:15
oh yeah? u think u can rise to the occasion?

Gabriel 4:17
…

Gabriel 4:18
waiting…

Hare-Bear 4:20

Gabriel 4:22
fine. I know you have no trouble rising.
just give me a time and place
and make it sooner rather than later

Hare-Bear 4:25
or what?

Gabriel 4:25
i'll leave that to ur imagination

Hare-Bear 4:30
tomorrow night.

III

III

"…this is an empty field," Gabriel said, not looking terribly impressed. He hadn't really thought about what kind of date Harry would plan, but whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't this.

"Yes, it is," Harry agreed, looking around with a smug look on his face.

"It's an empty field in Kansas. Hare-Bear, not to try and set the bar too high, but I was expecting something just a little more romantic. I dunno, a romantic dinner. A trip to the beach. At very least a bed and some sweets that I could eat off of you. Whipped cream and chocolate sauce are the classic choices, but I wouldn't say no to peanut butter or…"

Harry wrinkled his nose. "That sounds terribly sticky," he said.

"It won't be when I'm done with you," Gabriel said suggestively. "I'll lick every last square inch of your skin until I'm sure that there's nothing left and that would be just the start…"

To Gabriel's great pleasure, Harry shivered and looked like he was about to agree to apparate them to a more intimate location. He was disappointed, though, when he instead shook his impossibly handsome head as if clearing away a mental image.

"This is much more than an empty field," Harry said, looking around proudly.

"Yeah?"

"It's my empty field."

Gabriel looked around trying to figure out if that changed anything. It didn't. It was still an empty field with a dirt road running along the edges and some trees scattered about here and there. Kansas wasn't exactly what he would call picturesque, either. Flat. Dull. Not a den of sin like Vegas or Reno anywhere close. "Ok."

"This is it, Gabe," Harry said with shining eyes. "This is my purpose."

He knew that he must be missing something. For a second, he was tempted to try and see into Harry's mind but decided against it. "Well, I support you, Harry. Even if you that means standing here and staring at…your field." It also stung a little. He was hoping that whatever the two of them had just started could be part of Harry's purpose. He should've known better. Brave face, Gabriel, he thought. He had made a promise to himself – Harry first. Always.

"I'm not going to stare at it, Gabe, I'm going to build on it. Dean and I, you see, we've been trying to figure out a way to keep our family together but out of that Bunker. No place has felt right to me. Until I found this one. Let me show you," Harry took Gabe's hand in his and started walking, wand out. He started waving it around. "First, we're going to have to pave this road – Dean hates taking the Impala on dirt roads…" he created an illusion that turned the dusty, dirty path into a smooth surface.

Gabriel felt a stab of pride. He had shown Harry how to do that magic.

"But it's going to be so much more than that, look." More wand movements. A spectral house appeared. "This one will be Sam's," Harry said. "It'll be the closest to the property edge so that it gets the best WIFI reception because Merlin knows he can't survive without it. He'll get to decide all the details, of course, but he likes to exercise the most, so he won't mind the walk to the other houses."

They walked a little further along and small details started appearing all around – glowing and translucent, but enough for Gabe to understand how much time Harry had put into thinking about this. A mailbox. Trees lining the road. A tire swing hanging from one of them.

"Then Mom, I think," Harry continued. "So she doesn't think that we're watching her too much. She likes hunting, but we're hoping that maybe we can help her find something else that she's amazing at and never got the chance to explore before."

They continued to walk slowly and Gabriel marveled at the level of the magic that Harry was doing. The wizard wasn't prone to displays of power – especially since he became human again, but this was so carefree it was like he didn't even realize what he was doing. And even though he was still confused as to why Harry chose this to be a date, he couldn't help but be fond of all the small details that Harry was putting into this. For a man who seemed to spend much of his life acting first and asking questions later, this was very thoughtful.

A garden for Castiel, a playground for Jack, a garage for Dean, and a building in the center with a large kitchen, plenty of couches in front of what would be a large TV, and guest rooms for visitors.

"And this – this will be for us," Harry said when they reached what was the back of the lot. It was a modest house, located closest to the planned Quidditch pitch. But as he described what the house would have, in much more detail than any of the others, Gabriel barely heard a word of it.

For us, he had said.

Us.

"You and me?" Gabriel blurted out, needing clarification and cutting Harry off midsentence. "Not you and your brothers. Or you and your wizarding family. You and me. Me."

Harry smiled shyly. "Yes. Us." He looked concerned for a moment. "No pressure, of course," he said hurriedly, "if it's too soon or too much, but I wanted to show you that I mean this. The other night you seemed to think that…"

This time, it was Gabriel who felt the desperate need to have his face attached to Harry's as soon as possible. Quieting him with a deep, passionate kiss was the best way he knew how to answer.

Too soon, Harry pulled back. Gabriel groaned. "I have to breathe, Gabriel. Human. You…er, you like it?"

"I love it. And you."

Harry flushed bright red.

"And I thought we could work on this together. I want to feel safe here and the only place in the world that I truly feel that is…"

"Hogwarts," Gabriel finished for him. It was pretty incredible that Harry still felt that way about the castle, seeing as he had fought two full-scale battles there.

"Yeah. Even though the Bunker is home now, Hogwarts was my original safe haven. I think…" he stopped.

"You think what?" Gabe asked, curious.

Harry's blush deepened in a highly satisfying way. "It's sappy."

The wizard rarely expressed anything that he would consider "sappy," or overly romantic. Gabriel tried not to let it bother him – he understood that, as a Winchester and a Brit, Harry was basically allergic to expressing deep emotions. "I like sappy," he said, trying to sound encouraging. He loved sappy.

"I – well, it wasn't until we rebuilt it that I noticed, and my magic was, you know, normal wizard magic again, that I realized that I could… I can feel your grace there. And I can't help but wonder if that's because, all along, you've been… home for me."

For once, Gabriel had no smart response. He was taken aback and touched and…damn it…tears started to form in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Harry muttered, looking alarmed at the waterworks. "Er, I take it back."

"Don't take it back," Gabriel managed to get out, although the waterworks were still coming. Especially as he realized that this was the most loving thing that had ever been said to him. And he'd been alive for a very, very long time. "That – that was the most…the most…"

Before he could get it out, he found Harry's arms wrapped around him.

A hug.

Gabriel wasn't sure that he could even remember the last time he had been hugged. Not like this - innocently and lovingly and not as foreplay to some kind of immediate sexual gratification. He returned it, pressing his body close to Harry's. They stood, for a long time, just holding each other, until Gabriel was finally able to compose himself.

He pulled back, wiping his face.

"You alright?" Harry asked.

"Never better," he hiccoughed. "I just – damn, I don't think that I'm ever going to be able to top this."

Harry patted him lightly on the shoulder. "You can leave the topping to me," he said with a wicked grin and a wink that did Gabriel proud. "Meet me back at the condo?" He didn't wait for a response, just apparated away.

Speechless for the second time that evening, Gabriel just stood there for a moment before mentally slapping himself and flying faster than he ever had before.

---

AN - I have to admit – I'm a little nervous posting this. I know how many people wanted it and I hope I did it justice - romance is legitimately difficult for me to write. I got a couple of Destiel fics under my belt, though, so I decided to give this a shot.

For now, this is a one-shot. I have started writing a part where Sam and Dean find out that I was going to do a then/now thing within this fic, but I realized that I just wanted to focus on the romance. So it may turn into a two-shot.

I have a couple more story ideas in this universe – I'd love to do something with Dudley and I think I might tackle the 300th episode.

Thank you to everyone who continues to comment/review. It means the world to me.

In the meantime, if you like my writing – check out my new story that I think will also end up being quite the longfic. Stranger Than Your Sympathy is a HP/SPN fusion that I'm having so much time writing (or I was until I got distracted by this little story.) Also, feel free to find me on tumblr – sneak peaks occasionally pop up there.

Until next time, thank you again.