hells_half_acre (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hells_half_acre) wrote2009-06-04 08:18 pm
hells_half_acre) wrote2009-06-04 08:18 pm
Entry tags:
Fic: Damned Demented Demons 14/32 (SPN/HP)
Title: Damned Demented Demons 14/32
Author: ME!
Fandoms: Supernatural/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 (for swearing)
Warnings: Spoilers for all Harry Potter books, Spoilers up to 4x17 for Supernatural.
Disclaimer: Sam and Dean belong to Kripke, Harry Potter belongs to Rowling.
A/N: I thought that the Battle of Hogwarts took place in Spring 1997...so that's what I based my timeline on. Since then I've seen that most sources have it in 1998. Ah well. In this story it's 1997.
A/N to chap 14: I had a horrible week. Thank goodness for buffers. Bonus laughs for Avatar fans in the summary line.
Summary: In which Malfoy saves Harry and then they go TO THE LIBRARY!
Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Dean was up and running to the door before Sam had even unfolded his legs. He ran over to Harry, figuring it was safe to move around now that Harry didn't seem to be channeling any of the power in the room. Come to think of it, although the room was still bathed in light, Sam didn't feel the same power in it as he had felt before. The light was just white moonlight now, without the bluish tinge that Sam had assumed the strange crystals had given off.
"Harry?" Sam said, "What's wrong? What's happened?"
Suddenly the light in the room seemed to shift, the power returning briskly. Sam heard the door swing shut, and the light in the room increased. The blue tinge was back. The power was back, but it felt slightly different.
"Move back," Malfoy's voice said from behind Sam, "I don't have much time"
Sam scrambled out of the way. He stood a short distance away, surprised to find Dean right beside him. He watched as Malfoy knelt in front of Harry and picked up Harry's limp and shaking hands, holding them in his own hands together with their wands.
"I'm sorry, I have to do this quickly," Malfoy murmured.
Suddenly the invisible wind picked up again, this time swirling around the blond wizard. There was a muttering of vaguely Latin-sounding words and then many things happened at once: Malfoy closed his eyes and suddenly the wind was rushing at Harry, swirling around both wizards. The light in the room seemed to intensify. Harry's body went rigid and he threw his head back, eyes-wide, in a loud gasp, as though he had been deprived of oxygen his whole life and could only now breathe. Harry would have collapse all the way onto his back, if Malfoy's grip on his hands hadn't been keeping him in the sitting position.
Malfoy kept up the slow muttering, and Harry's eyes slid closed as he seemed to need to concentrate on breathing. Sam's adrenaline was so high, it was hard to tell time, but it must have been after only a minute that the light started to disappear from the room. The moon was setting, it's light no longer reaching the opening in the chamber ceiling. Malfoy slowly lowered Harry down until he was lying on the stone floor. He gently folded Harry's right hand around Harry's wand, and pocketed his own wand. Sam actually thought it looked quite touching, until Malfoy spoke.
"You tell anyone about this, Potter, I'll kill you, I swear," Malfoy threatened lowly.
"Same goes for you, you stupid git," Harry muttered from the floor, running a hand over his face and grimacing.
"You're welcome, you ungrateful sod," Malfoy shot back. "Now if you're done killing yourself in order to save total strangers - Gryffindor idiot - I believe you dragged me here to be your personal librarian, not your medi-wizard."
"Yeah, yeah," Harry grumbled from the floor, "just give me one bloody minute, impatient prick."
"Fine," Malfoy ground out. "I'll wait in the hall while you...collect yourself."
Malfoy rose off the stone ground and turned to face Sam and Dean.
"You Muggles didn't see anything, got it!" He sneered, "or I'll obliviate you myself."
Both Sam and Dean held up their hands in surrender until Malfoy had left the room. Sam smiled as Dean gave an exaggerated eye-roll. Sam immediately strode back over to Harry, kneeling down beside him. He felt Dean stand behind him to peer down at Harry over his shoulder. Harry, for his part, had flung an arm over his face and seemed content to continue to lie there, eyes buried in the crook of his elbow.
"Harry?" Sam tried again.
"That was, quite possibly, the most humiliating thing that's ever happened to me," Harry said with a groan.
"Uh, we don't even know what happened, so umm..." Dean mumbled, "...don't worry about it?"
Harry raised his arm at that, and blinked up at them in thought.
"Oh, right," Harry replied, "well then...uh, everything's fine. Nothing happened at all." Sam smiled reassuringly. Then Harry blinked again and smiled, "So? Did it work? Let's have a look!"
At first Sam had forgotten what it was they were talking about, and then the whole reason they were in this chamber to begin with came rushing back to him. He reached for his bracelet and twisted it around so that he could see the underside. Meanwhile, Dean - with much pulling - took off his ring and held it up in the dim light.
There, flying around the inside of his bracelet in lazy loops, was the silvery-blue raven. Sam smiled at Harry, who sat up slowly and peered at Sam's wrist himself.
"Brilliant!" Harry said.
Dean dropped into a crouch beside Sam and held his ring out for them to see. There, glinting in the faint light, blue against the silver of the ring, was Dean's wolf - just sitting there, gazing back at them.
"Excellent," Harry smiled. "Now, I've hopefully made them permanent, but it's experimental magic, so I can't be sure. In any case, they should hold until we get this Dementor business cleared up, and then it doesn't matter as much if they fade."
Sam didn't really like the idea of losing the raven, whether or not he needed him and, judging by the look on his face, Dean felt the same way about his wolf.
"It would still help," Harry continued, "if you thought of happy memories when you see or think that there are Dementors around. It will strengthen the charm, as it was impossible for me to make your Patronus completely independent from your thoughts."
Sam and Dean nodded, and Dean slid his ring back on. They both stood, waiting to move onto the next thing. Harry lifted a hand towards them from his position on the ground.
"Give a fellow a hand, would you?" Harry said. Sam watched Dean's brow furrow slightly, but he dutifully grasped Harry's hand and pulled him to standing. Sam watched as Harry swayed on his feet for a second, before finding his footing. Sam wasn't surprised when instead of letting go of Harry's hand, Dean simply moved his grasp to Harry's elbow and began walking them both slowly to the door. Sam slipped into step on Harry's other side, throwing a concerned look over Harry's head towards Dean.
"Are you sure you're alright, man?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I'm fine really," Harry replied, but he didn't shake off Dean's offer of support. "That was just a little bit harder than I expected." Harry smiled at Sam, then held his gaze a fraction longer than necessary, and Sam understood. It was because of...him, what was in him. Sam broke eye contact.
"Though, I wouldn't have died, like Malfoy implied," Harry continued. "He's always been a bit melodramatic."
"So, what would have happened if he hadn't done whatever the hell he did?" Sam asked.
Harry sighed, "I just...exhausted myself. It happened to me a few times in school - I didn't know what it was at the time though. Basically, I would have fallen into a coma for a day or two."
Sam arched an eyebrow and flung open the wide door and stepped into the hallway, Dean and Harry following close behind. He was surprised to see Malfoy sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, head tipped back and staring blankly at the ceiling.
"You alright, man?" Sam asked, because although Sam had only known Malfoy for a half an hour or so, he didn't seem to be the type to sit on the floor. Malfoy glanced briefly up at Sam.
"Do you ever wonder if you've been cursed?" Malfoy muttered. Sam blood froze. He really hoped that the question was rhetorical.
"I thought you were going to abandon me if anything went wrong, Malfoy," Harry's voice spoke up from behind Sam. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Malfoy rolled onto his feet and stood up.
"Yes, well, the two Muggles were still alive, weren't they," Malfoy shot back haughtily. "They could have identified me in court, and I don't fancy watching my son grow up from behind the bars of Azkaban."
"Aw, you really do care," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. He shrugged off Dean's assistance and motioned down the hall. "Shall we try to find that file now?"
Malfoy just nodded and led the way back towards the foyer.
*
Harry's thoughts were storming through his head like a whirlwind, now that he had enough strength to actually think. The wolf - the wolf he understood. The raven....he had hoped that Sam's Patronus would shed some light on who Sam was, and Harry had to resign himself to the fact that it had. It just wasn't the kind of light he wanted. The raven was as ambiguous as it was intelligent.
What really had Harry's mind working was what had happened on his first attempt to make Sam's Patronus. He had done everything the same as he had for Dean, everything. Yet, Sam had sensed him immediately, where as Dean had not, and then there was what happened the first time Sam had tried to form a corporeal Patronus. The magic had felt unstable, but Harry had not been prepared for how badly it reacted to Sam speaking the incantation. Harry had never seen anything like it. It was as though the Patronus had been trying to form inside of Dean or...
"Wait, what do you mean he could see?" Dean's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife from behind him. Harry tensed, realizing the Winchesters had been talking in low tones for sometime now.
"You didn't feel him?" Sam responded. "He was watching everything in my head, man...I thought...I thought you knew..."
Suddenly there was a hand curled around his arm, and Harry was spun around and pinned to the nearest wall.
"You were in my head?" Dean was furious.
"I had to," Harry said, trying desperately to remain calm. He glanced over at Sam in the hopes of some sort of rescue, but apparently luck wasn't on his side. It was clear that Sam had only been alright with Harry viewing his memories, if he thought Dean had been alright with it. Harry was glad this hadn't occurred in the Chamber, or they'd most likely all be dead.
"Those were my memories," Dean said fiercely, slamming Harry against the wall again to bring his attention away from Sam.
"I had to in order for the spell to work, I'm sorry. I'll..."
"Drop it!" Sam interrupted him, and Harry looked at him in confusion, only to discover that Sam was glaring at Draco. Sam hadn't moved. He had no weapon, yet the threat was still there. Harry glanced over at Draco to see him with his wand at the ready, looking cautiously at Sam.
"It's alright Malfoy, put it away," Harry said. Thankfully, Malfoy actually chose to obey him, and Harry saw Sam relax slightly.
"How much did you see?" Dean asked.
"Every memory you tried, nothing more," Harry explained, voice falsely calm. "I didn't go looking at anything else. I know your angry, but it was the only way. I swear it was the only way." Dean's grip lessened.
"What if I make it up to you?" Harry said. "I had this teacher once...taught me the whole mind-reading thing. He was a bastard though..." Harry heard Draco huff a laugh, but ignored it, making sure his attention was focused solely on Dean "...every session he would get in my head and look at whatever the hell he wanted, I could never stop him...then one day...one day, I saw his memories, and well, it was bloody horrible, but at least after that I felt like things were a little even between us."
"The difference is that you're offering," Dean said.
"I know," Harry winced, "but if I had told you beforehand...you would have chosen differently. You would have just stuck with the naked girls or something macho like that...you wouldn't have..."
"Ok, ok!" Dean interrupted, finally letting Harry go, "I see your point. But you owe me."
"Understood," Harry said, then turned to Sam. "Are we alright too?"
Sam seemed to be staring at Harry like he was reassessing him, but he nodded absently, as though his thoughts were really elsewhere. Harry gave him a smile, and then motioned to Draco to keep walking. He was worried for a second that Malfoy would refuse to turn his back on the Winchesters again, and he supposed it must have reached his eyes, because Malfoy gave him a glare and then turned abruptly on his heel and strode ahead as if he hadn't a care in the world. It reminded Harry eerily of Snape.
The memories...on top of the oddity of how the magic had reacted to Sam, there were the memories that he had seen. The brief ones they hadn't used, the ones that had accidentally bled into bad memories. Sam alive in front of a blood stained mattress, and a flash of him dead and lying still. The boys singing along to some song in the car, and a flash of Dean getting ripped apart by hell-hounds, and Sam's overwhelming guilt...and Harry understood now. He couldn't believe he had forgotten. It had been one of the first things that Sam had said to him when they met - 'He sold his soul for me...' - Dean had made a deal. Harry felt like a fool for having pressed the issue in the alleyway, now that he knew the source of Dean's sudden anger at his questions. He had just been so caught up in worry over Riddle cheating death somehow, visiting horror upon his children....
Suddenly, Sam's other words from the walk floated through his brain - "standard is ten years, but sometimes you just get one...sometimes you just get a few minutes." - Harry thought of what little was written in the Winchester file he did have access to. He thought of the entry for the summer of 2006: John Winchester dies; Muggle Doctors confused by Dean Winchester's sudden recovery.
The pieces were falling into place, and it all revolved around deals. The Winchesters, it seemed, never got passed the bargaining stage of grief. Their dad had made a deal for Dean, and Dean had made one for Sam...and Sam had tried - tried, but no demon would deal...and Harry understood now why Sam had delighted in killing the crossroads demon slowly, because in the end he was left with nothing, not even the power to sacrifice himself as his father and brother had before him.
"Potter?" Malfoy clamped a hand down his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. "You are about to walk down a staircase that isn't there."
Harry blinked into the huge circular cavern and realized that the stairs had shifted back into their random locations, and indeed, the staircase that had brought them up to the fourth floor was no longer waiting at the edge of the hallway.
"Oh, right," Harry said rather pathetically.
"Honestly, I'm beginning to think all the accolades for defeating the Dark Lord should have gone to Granger. You'd have gotten yourself killed a hundred times over on your own," Draco responded, taking out his wand and muttering things into the room.
"Careful, Malfoy," Harry replied smirking, "or I'll tell her you said that."
"Do and die, Potter," Draco warned as the stairs fitted themselves into another pattern. This time leading them from the fourth level to a doorway on the second level. Harry laughed and followed Draco down the stairs.
The door led, not into a hallway, but into a vast room, with shelves upon shelves of scrolls and filing cabinets. It seemed to stretch on forever. Malfoy immediately moved to a small table near the door. On the table sat a blank piece of parchment, a feathered quill, and an inkwell.
"Do you, by any chance, know what division of the Department is keeping the file on your friends?" Draco asked.
"Umm..." Harry didn't actually know what divisions there were in the Department of Mysteries. The people who worked there were called Unspeakables for a reason - the whole thing was shrouded in mystery. "Do you have a division that investigates Hunters?" Harry asked, taking a wild stab in the dark.
"No, that's an Auror's job," Malfoy answered as through Harry was an idiot, and then, Harry watched as realization slowly dawned across Draco's pale face. Malfoy's eyes swung back to take in Dean and Sam again, just as when he had learned they were Muggles, it was as though he were seeing them for the very first time.
Harry had to bite back his smile as Dean smirked wickedly and waved at Malfoy yet again. Sam simply gave Malfoy a small nod of confirmation.
"Hunters?" Malfoy all but squeaked. "Oh merlin...I'm going to faint"
And maybe, Harry thought afterward, it would have been better if Sam hadn't darted forward in a concerned attempt to make sure Malfoy didn't fall and hurt himself. Because Harry really couldn't blame Malfoy for reacting on instinct and hitting Sam with a defensive spell, and neither could he blame Dean for not reacting well to seeing his brother flying backwards...and in the end, Harry had to wonder whether he should get his reflexes checked, because that had all happened far too fast for him to prevent any part of it.
Chapter 15
Masterpost
Author: ME!
Fandoms: Supernatural/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 (for swearing)
Warnings: Spoilers for all Harry Potter books, Spoilers up to 4x17 for Supernatural.
Disclaimer: Sam and Dean belong to Kripke, Harry Potter belongs to Rowling.
A/N: I thought that the Battle of Hogwarts took place in Spring 1997...so that's what I based my timeline on. Since then I've seen that most sources have it in 1998. Ah well. In this story it's 1997.
A/N to chap 14: I had a horrible week. Thank goodness for buffers. Bonus laughs for Avatar fans in the summary line.
Summary: In which Malfoy saves Harry and then they go TO THE LIBRARY!
Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Dean was up and running to the door before Sam had even unfolded his legs. He ran over to Harry, figuring it was safe to move around now that Harry didn't seem to be channeling any of the power in the room. Come to think of it, although the room was still bathed in light, Sam didn't feel the same power in it as he had felt before. The light was just white moonlight now, without the bluish tinge that Sam had assumed the strange crystals had given off.
"Harry?" Sam said, "What's wrong? What's happened?"
Suddenly the light in the room seemed to shift, the power returning briskly. Sam heard the door swing shut, and the light in the room increased. The blue tinge was back. The power was back, but it felt slightly different.
"Move back," Malfoy's voice said from behind Sam, "I don't have much time"
Sam scrambled out of the way. He stood a short distance away, surprised to find Dean right beside him. He watched as Malfoy knelt in front of Harry and picked up Harry's limp and shaking hands, holding them in his own hands together with their wands.
"I'm sorry, I have to do this quickly," Malfoy murmured.
Suddenly the invisible wind picked up again, this time swirling around the blond wizard. There was a muttering of vaguely Latin-sounding words and then many things happened at once: Malfoy closed his eyes and suddenly the wind was rushing at Harry, swirling around both wizards. The light in the room seemed to intensify. Harry's body went rigid and he threw his head back, eyes-wide, in a loud gasp, as though he had been deprived of oxygen his whole life and could only now breathe. Harry would have collapse all the way onto his back, if Malfoy's grip on his hands hadn't been keeping him in the sitting position.
Malfoy kept up the slow muttering, and Harry's eyes slid closed as he seemed to need to concentrate on breathing. Sam's adrenaline was so high, it was hard to tell time, but it must have been after only a minute that the light started to disappear from the room. The moon was setting, it's light no longer reaching the opening in the chamber ceiling. Malfoy slowly lowered Harry down until he was lying on the stone floor. He gently folded Harry's right hand around Harry's wand, and pocketed his own wand. Sam actually thought it looked quite touching, until Malfoy spoke.
"You tell anyone about this, Potter, I'll kill you, I swear," Malfoy threatened lowly.
"Same goes for you, you stupid git," Harry muttered from the floor, running a hand over his face and grimacing.
"You're welcome, you ungrateful sod," Malfoy shot back. "Now if you're done killing yourself in order to save total strangers - Gryffindor idiot - I believe you dragged me here to be your personal librarian, not your medi-wizard."
"Yeah, yeah," Harry grumbled from the floor, "just give me one bloody minute, impatient prick."
"Fine," Malfoy ground out. "I'll wait in the hall while you...collect yourself."
Malfoy rose off the stone ground and turned to face Sam and Dean.
"You Muggles didn't see anything, got it!" He sneered, "or I'll obliviate you myself."
Both Sam and Dean held up their hands in surrender until Malfoy had left the room. Sam smiled as Dean gave an exaggerated eye-roll. Sam immediately strode back over to Harry, kneeling down beside him. He felt Dean stand behind him to peer down at Harry over his shoulder. Harry, for his part, had flung an arm over his face and seemed content to continue to lie there, eyes buried in the crook of his elbow.
"Harry?" Sam tried again.
"That was, quite possibly, the most humiliating thing that's ever happened to me," Harry said with a groan.
"Uh, we don't even know what happened, so umm..." Dean mumbled, "...don't worry about it?"
Harry raised his arm at that, and blinked up at them in thought.
"Oh, right," Harry replied, "well then...uh, everything's fine. Nothing happened at all." Sam smiled reassuringly. Then Harry blinked again and smiled, "So? Did it work? Let's have a look!"
At first Sam had forgotten what it was they were talking about, and then the whole reason they were in this chamber to begin with came rushing back to him. He reached for his bracelet and twisted it around so that he could see the underside. Meanwhile, Dean - with much pulling - took off his ring and held it up in the dim light.
There, flying around the inside of his bracelet in lazy loops, was the silvery-blue raven. Sam smiled at Harry, who sat up slowly and peered at Sam's wrist himself.
"Brilliant!" Harry said.
Dean dropped into a crouch beside Sam and held his ring out for them to see. There, glinting in the faint light, blue against the silver of the ring, was Dean's wolf - just sitting there, gazing back at them.
"Excellent," Harry smiled. "Now, I've hopefully made them permanent, but it's experimental magic, so I can't be sure. In any case, they should hold until we get this Dementor business cleared up, and then it doesn't matter as much if they fade."
Sam didn't really like the idea of losing the raven, whether or not he needed him and, judging by the look on his face, Dean felt the same way about his wolf.
"It would still help," Harry continued, "if you thought of happy memories when you see or think that there are Dementors around. It will strengthen the charm, as it was impossible for me to make your Patronus completely independent from your thoughts."
Sam and Dean nodded, and Dean slid his ring back on. They both stood, waiting to move onto the next thing. Harry lifted a hand towards them from his position on the ground.
"Give a fellow a hand, would you?" Harry said. Sam watched Dean's brow furrow slightly, but he dutifully grasped Harry's hand and pulled him to standing. Sam watched as Harry swayed on his feet for a second, before finding his footing. Sam wasn't surprised when instead of letting go of Harry's hand, Dean simply moved his grasp to Harry's elbow and began walking them both slowly to the door. Sam slipped into step on Harry's other side, throwing a concerned look over Harry's head towards Dean.
"Are you sure you're alright, man?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I'm fine really," Harry replied, but he didn't shake off Dean's offer of support. "That was just a little bit harder than I expected." Harry smiled at Sam, then held his gaze a fraction longer than necessary, and Sam understood. It was because of...him, what was in him. Sam broke eye contact.
"Though, I wouldn't have died, like Malfoy implied," Harry continued. "He's always been a bit melodramatic."
"So, what would have happened if he hadn't done whatever the hell he did?" Sam asked.
Harry sighed, "I just...exhausted myself. It happened to me a few times in school - I didn't know what it was at the time though. Basically, I would have fallen into a coma for a day or two."
Sam arched an eyebrow and flung open the wide door and stepped into the hallway, Dean and Harry following close behind. He was surprised to see Malfoy sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, head tipped back and staring blankly at the ceiling.
"You alright, man?" Sam asked, because although Sam had only known Malfoy for a half an hour or so, he didn't seem to be the type to sit on the floor. Malfoy glanced briefly up at Sam.
"Do you ever wonder if you've been cursed?" Malfoy muttered. Sam blood froze. He really hoped that the question was rhetorical.
"I thought you were going to abandon me if anything went wrong, Malfoy," Harry's voice spoke up from behind Sam. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Malfoy rolled onto his feet and stood up.
"Yes, well, the two Muggles were still alive, weren't they," Malfoy shot back haughtily. "They could have identified me in court, and I don't fancy watching my son grow up from behind the bars of Azkaban."
"Aw, you really do care," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. He shrugged off Dean's assistance and motioned down the hall. "Shall we try to find that file now?"
Malfoy just nodded and led the way back towards the foyer.
*
Harry's thoughts were storming through his head like a whirlwind, now that he had enough strength to actually think. The wolf - the wolf he understood. The raven....he had hoped that Sam's Patronus would shed some light on who Sam was, and Harry had to resign himself to the fact that it had. It just wasn't the kind of light he wanted. The raven was as ambiguous as it was intelligent.
What really had Harry's mind working was what had happened on his first attempt to make Sam's Patronus. He had done everything the same as he had for Dean, everything. Yet, Sam had sensed him immediately, where as Dean had not, and then there was what happened the first time Sam had tried to form a corporeal Patronus. The magic had felt unstable, but Harry had not been prepared for how badly it reacted to Sam speaking the incantation. Harry had never seen anything like it. It was as though the Patronus had been trying to form inside of Dean or...
"Wait, what do you mean he could see?" Dean's voice cut through his thoughts like a knife from behind him. Harry tensed, realizing the Winchesters had been talking in low tones for sometime now.
"You didn't feel him?" Sam responded. "He was watching everything in my head, man...I thought...I thought you knew..."
Suddenly there was a hand curled around his arm, and Harry was spun around and pinned to the nearest wall.
"You were in my head?" Dean was furious.
"I had to," Harry said, trying desperately to remain calm. He glanced over at Sam in the hopes of some sort of rescue, but apparently luck wasn't on his side. It was clear that Sam had only been alright with Harry viewing his memories, if he thought Dean had been alright with it. Harry was glad this hadn't occurred in the Chamber, or they'd most likely all be dead.
"Those were my memories," Dean said fiercely, slamming Harry against the wall again to bring his attention away from Sam.
"I had to in order for the spell to work, I'm sorry. I'll..."
"Drop it!" Sam interrupted him, and Harry looked at him in confusion, only to discover that Sam was glaring at Draco. Sam hadn't moved. He had no weapon, yet the threat was still there. Harry glanced over at Draco to see him with his wand at the ready, looking cautiously at Sam.
"It's alright Malfoy, put it away," Harry said. Thankfully, Malfoy actually chose to obey him, and Harry saw Sam relax slightly.
"How much did you see?" Dean asked.
"Every memory you tried, nothing more," Harry explained, voice falsely calm. "I didn't go looking at anything else. I know your angry, but it was the only way. I swear it was the only way." Dean's grip lessened.
"What if I make it up to you?" Harry said. "I had this teacher once...taught me the whole mind-reading thing. He was a bastard though..." Harry heard Draco huff a laugh, but ignored it, making sure his attention was focused solely on Dean "...every session he would get in my head and look at whatever the hell he wanted, I could never stop him...then one day...one day, I saw his memories, and well, it was bloody horrible, but at least after that I felt like things were a little even between us."
"The difference is that you're offering," Dean said.
"I know," Harry winced, "but if I had told you beforehand...you would have chosen differently. You would have just stuck with the naked girls or something macho like that...you wouldn't have..."
"Ok, ok!" Dean interrupted, finally letting Harry go, "I see your point. But you owe me."
"Understood," Harry said, then turned to Sam. "Are we alright too?"
Sam seemed to be staring at Harry like he was reassessing him, but he nodded absently, as though his thoughts were really elsewhere. Harry gave him a smile, and then motioned to Draco to keep walking. He was worried for a second that Malfoy would refuse to turn his back on the Winchesters again, and he supposed it must have reached his eyes, because Malfoy gave him a glare and then turned abruptly on his heel and strode ahead as if he hadn't a care in the world. It reminded Harry eerily of Snape.
The memories...on top of the oddity of how the magic had reacted to Sam, there were the memories that he had seen. The brief ones they hadn't used, the ones that had accidentally bled into bad memories. Sam alive in front of a blood stained mattress, and a flash of him dead and lying still. The boys singing along to some song in the car, and a flash of Dean getting ripped apart by hell-hounds, and Sam's overwhelming guilt...and Harry understood now. He couldn't believe he had forgotten. It had been one of the first things that Sam had said to him when they met - 'He sold his soul for me...' - Dean had made a deal. Harry felt like a fool for having pressed the issue in the alleyway, now that he knew the source of Dean's sudden anger at his questions. He had just been so caught up in worry over Riddle cheating death somehow, visiting horror upon his children....
Suddenly, Sam's other words from the walk floated through his brain - "standard is ten years, but sometimes you just get one...sometimes you just get a few minutes." - Harry thought of what little was written in the Winchester file he did have access to. He thought of the entry for the summer of 2006: John Winchester dies; Muggle Doctors confused by Dean Winchester's sudden recovery.
The pieces were falling into place, and it all revolved around deals. The Winchesters, it seemed, never got passed the bargaining stage of grief. Their dad had made a deal for Dean, and Dean had made one for Sam...and Sam had tried - tried, but no demon would deal...and Harry understood now why Sam had delighted in killing the crossroads demon slowly, because in the end he was left with nothing, not even the power to sacrifice himself as his father and brother had before him.
"Potter?" Malfoy clamped a hand down his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. "You are about to walk down a staircase that isn't there."
Harry blinked into the huge circular cavern and realized that the stairs had shifted back into their random locations, and indeed, the staircase that had brought them up to the fourth floor was no longer waiting at the edge of the hallway.
"Oh, right," Harry said rather pathetically.
"Honestly, I'm beginning to think all the accolades for defeating the Dark Lord should have gone to Granger. You'd have gotten yourself killed a hundred times over on your own," Draco responded, taking out his wand and muttering things into the room.
"Careful, Malfoy," Harry replied smirking, "or I'll tell her you said that."
"Do and die, Potter," Draco warned as the stairs fitted themselves into another pattern. This time leading them from the fourth level to a doorway on the second level. Harry laughed and followed Draco down the stairs.
The door led, not into a hallway, but into a vast room, with shelves upon shelves of scrolls and filing cabinets. It seemed to stretch on forever. Malfoy immediately moved to a small table near the door. On the table sat a blank piece of parchment, a feathered quill, and an inkwell.
"Do you, by any chance, know what division of the Department is keeping the file on your friends?" Draco asked.
"Umm..." Harry didn't actually know what divisions there were in the Department of Mysteries. The people who worked there were called Unspeakables for a reason - the whole thing was shrouded in mystery. "Do you have a division that investigates Hunters?" Harry asked, taking a wild stab in the dark.
"No, that's an Auror's job," Malfoy answered as through Harry was an idiot, and then, Harry watched as realization slowly dawned across Draco's pale face. Malfoy's eyes swung back to take in Dean and Sam again, just as when he had learned they were Muggles, it was as though he were seeing them for the very first time.
Harry had to bite back his smile as Dean smirked wickedly and waved at Malfoy yet again. Sam simply gave Malfoy a small nod of confirmation.
"Hunters?" Malfoy all but squeaked. "Oh merlin...I'm going to faint"
And maybe, Harry thought afterward, it would have been better if Sam hadn't darted forward in a concerned attempt to make sure Malfoy didn't fall and hurt himself. Because Harry really couldn't blame Malfoy for reacting on instinct and hitting Sam with a defensive spell, and neither could he blame Dean for not reacting well to seeing his brother flying backwards...and in the end, Harry had to wonder whether he should get his reflexes checked, because that had all happened far too fast for him to prevent any part of it.
Chapter 15
Masterpost
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Ooh, that's fun!
Can't wait to see what you've got in store for us next!
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Glad you liked it!
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Usually you are my last commenter! This is quite the change of events. Haha
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Lovely piece, glad to see Harry's picking up the clues as to why the Wizarding World is so interested in the Winchesters.
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More, more, more!
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The Winchesters, it seemed, never got passed the bargaining stage of grief.
I loved that line!
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Someone else already loved that line, but damn, that's a nice profound insight. It isn't quite right because I think they've moved on nicely to anger, but Harry doesn't really have a way of knowing that.
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Thanks for reading! :)
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Oh, and I didn't get a chance to come back to post comment on the last chapter, but fwiw I would love to see Ron & Hermione up in this joint!
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I'm thinking that Ron will definitely be in it. Hermione I'm still a little undecided on, but we'll see.
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But, well, at least this way I get two at the same time. :D
Oh man, I love Malfoy so much! :D Him attacking Sam, though... I'm almost afraid to go to the next chapter.... LOL
Loving this~!
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I'm glad I did. He's turned out to be one of my favorite people to write.
You'll get a partial answer to Sam's Patronus, at least. I kept it deliberately ambiguous.