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hells_half_acreTitle: Vile Violent Vacations 10/30
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hells_half_acre
Fandoms: Harry Potter, Supernatural
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Genre: Gen
Warnings: Spoilers for all Harry Potter books, spoilers for Supernatural until 5x10.
Disclaimer: This is a transformative work of fiction for entertainment purposes only.
AN: Sequel to Damned Demented Demons and Bobby and Hermione - An Epistolary Fic . Updates every Wednesday (PST).
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Summary: In which Teddy causes some discussions and Dean's research methods are accidentally creepy.
Additional AN: Hallo from Germany. I've managed to remember to post! Now, the trick will be next week - I'll be flying back to Canada on Wednesday, so the chapter will probably either be posted Tuesday (Germany time) or sometime on Thursday (EST). Thanks for understanding!
Harry had barely had time to react to the realization that Sam had obviously confided in Bill while Harry and Andromeda had been outside, when Dean was excitedly pulling Teddy into the room. Only Teddy had changed – and he was getting good – if it hadn’t been for the fact that Teddy usually forgot to change his eyes along with his disguises, Harry probably wouldn’t have recognized the boy standing in his kitchen as Teddy.
Before Harry could put two and two together and realize who Teddy was impersonating, Sam’s chair crashed backwards against the kitchen floor as Sam stood quickly and took a step backwards with an expression on his face that Harry had rarely seen on a Winchester – fear.
“Whoa,” Dean said. He pulled Teddy back towards him gently by the shoulders, “better change back kid.”
Harry watched as Teddy’s concerned face morphed back into its usual features. His hair even reverted to a mousy-brown colour instead of the multi-coloured streaks he had been wearing earlier. No one really knew what Teddy’s natural eye or hair colour was, but whenever Teddy wanted to look as normal as possible, he always chose brown hair and brown eyes.
“Sam?” Dean said, taking a step in front of Teddy towards Sam. Sam’s eyes slid shut as he took a deep breath, and rubbed a hand down his face.
“Sorry,” Sam muttered. “Sorry – I just...” Sam’s voice grew stronger, and he smiled at Teddy, “that was so good you really surprised me, that’s all. Really cool, man.”
Teddy seemed to consider this answer, and by his facial expressions, Harry could tell that he didn’t quite believe that Sam had just been surprised either.
“Don’t worry,” Teddy said, “I’m not allowed to look like Uncle George either. I won’t do it again”
“Sorry Teddy,” Dean said, “um...do the other one maybe?”
Teddy gave Dean a measuring look, then shrugged and screwed up his face in concentration. Harry watched as his hair grew shorter and became dirty blond – while his face changed to resemble...
“Freckles,” Sam instructed with a small smile, “and his eyes are green, not brown.”
Teddy made the necessary adjustments, giving a glance up at Dean’s face to create a similar spattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. Then Harry had two Dean’s standing in front of him. It shouldn’t have been surprising to see proof that the Winchesters had once been children, but for some reason it was.
“Really awesome, man,” Sam said, his smile more sincere. Teddy smiled back, and Harry nearly laughed at seeing Dean’s grin on his godson’s face.
“Ok, Teddy,” Andromeda said with a smile, “give me a familiar face that I can kiss goodbye, I’ve got to head home.”
Teddy’s face morphed back into his own – the hair lengthening to its usual shag, and the streaks of colour returning to it. He walked over to his grandmother and reluctantly accepted a kiss.
“Bye Gran,” Teddy said.
“You be good for Harry, and have a safe trip back to school. Write me when you get there,” Andromeda instructed.
“Yes, Gran,” Teddy said long and suffering.
“Love you,” Andromeda carried on, ignoring Teddy’s tone. Teddy blushed.
“Love you too,” he muttered, then hugged her.
As soon as Teddy had moved over to speak to Andromeda, Dean had made his way over to Sam. Harry was close enough to lend half an ear to their conversation as well.
“You want to tell me why that freaked you out so much?” Dean asked, voice low.
“Detox,” Sam said. “It was a hallucination. I sort of...had it on my mind, so when he walked in, I...”
“Why would that be on your mind, Sam?” Dean asked, and now Harry could hear an edge to his voice.
“Nothing to worry about, Dean,” Sam replied in a sigh. “I’m going to go out back and research.”
Harry turned to see Sam slam back the remainder of his whiskey.
“It was nice to meet y’all,” Sam said pleasantly, then turned to Harry. “I’m going to head back to the research, man. You know where to find me.”
“Certainly, Sam,” Harry replied, and Sam left for the back garden.
*
Dean watched his brother stalk off, and cursed himself for the joke gone wrong. He supposed he should have asked Sam who it was he had been talking to – or yelling at – when he was in the panic room, but it wasn’t exactly something either one of them wanted to discuss. Hell, they hadn’t even really talked about what they had done during the summer apart. Sam had told Dean immediately about being Lucifer’s vessel – and Dean had told him about tracking down Raphael with Cas, and about Zach tripping him into the future – but other than that, Dean hadn’t told Sam about any of his other hunts.
Bill and Victoire left right after Andromeda. Hermione and Ron re-emerged from the living room carrying two sleeping kids, and said quiet goodbyes. Then Harry took off to help Ginny put their kids to bed, and Dean was once again alone with Teddy.
The kid wasn’t so bad – Dean had had fun showing him the car, and then dragging out his meagre stack of family photos when Teddy offered to demonstrate how his abilities worked. When Dean had outright asked him if he had to shed skin like a regular Shifter, Teddy had been pretty grossed out at the idea. Apparently, Metamorph-whatevers didn’t know much about the way normal Shifters worked.
“So, kid, looking forward to school?” Dean asked.
“Yeah,” Teddy replied. “Harry said I could tell my ‘trust-worthy’ friends about you and Sam. They’re going to flip.”
“What about us?” Dean asked.
Teddy shrugged, “just that you’re Hunters. Wizards usually stay away from Hunters – they don’t normally let them stay at their house.”
“Well, you should remind your friends that just because you have Hunters at your house, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still stay away from Hunters, alright?” Dean said.
“I know,” Teddy rolled his eyes. “Harry’s told me a hundred times!”
Dean laughed, and then snagged Sam’s empty glass from the table and the whiskey bottle from the counter.
“Hey, don’t tell Harry, ok?” Dean said with a wink as he poured himself a drink.
“I won’t if you give me some,” Teddy sing-songed back to him.
“Nice try, kid,” Dean shook his head.
“Hey, Dean?” Teddy asked, after Dean had taken a good gulp – and wow, that went down with a kick. “Have you and Sam ever...hunted werewolves?”
“Yeah, of course,” Dean said. “Though not for a while – there aren’t that many of them. There were a couple when we were young – the first one I took out myself was when I was sixteen or so. There were a couple more since...“
Dean trailed off as he realized that Teddy’s face was changing. His colourful streaked hair morphing into a mousy-brown, his face was becoming a little gaunt, and most disturbingly, there were suddenly faint scars across his face. The scars were similar to the ones on Bill’s face, but made to look even older. Teddy still looked like himself though – not like when he was pretending to be someone else. Then Dean remembered when he had first begun to learn the difference between Wizards and regular humans, one of the first things Harry had told him was that the werewolves were different, that he knew one that had managed it...
“Not werewolves like your Dad, though,” Dean said quickly. “Just bad ones...like maybe the one that bit your Dad...or the one that hurt your Uncle Bill. Those guys probably weren’t good like your Dad.”
That seemed to calm Teddy down, and the scars slowly disappeared. Dean had a feeling that he had just been given a glimpse into what Teddy’s Dad must have looked like. Teddy’s hair remained brown, but Dean thought that maybe it was more by choice now.
“It was the same one,” Teddy said. “Fenrir Greyback hurt both my Dad and Bill. He turned my Dad when my Dad was only a kid. Harry says that Greyback liked to go after children – Bill was hurt trying to protect some children. Also, Greyback might have killed my Granddad.”
“Well,” Dean said, tightening the grip on his glass but keeping his voice level. “Sam and I would have definitely killed him then.”
Teddy gave Dean a huge smile, and Dean would have returned it if he wasn’t too busy wishing that he had been the one that killed the thing.
“My Dad was really good though,” Teddy continued. “He never hurt anyone. He was really smart – he was the best Professor Harry ever had – but they made him quit when they found out he was a werewolf. Aunt Hermione made laws since then, but back then things were different. So, he only taught Harry for one year, then he had to fight in the war anyway, with my mum and Harry’s godfather, and the Weasleys and ...a lot of other people. But he was still good - even during the war. And he and Mum got married, and they had me, and Harry says they loved me very much and they didn’t mean to get killed, but they were just trying to make the world a better place for me – to protect me. I still miss them though. Are your parents alive?”
“No,” Dean said, swallowing the lump in his throat. Teddy had been chatting all night, but it was about cars, or his friends at school, or how annoying his Gran got sometimes. It had reminded Dean of Sammy, always talking about what he learned at school or whatever book he was reading. Dean wasn’t prepared to talk about dead parents though. “Uh, my parents...they also died trying to protect me and Sam.”
Teddy nodded like he had suspected as much.
“Well, I better go to bed,” Teddy said, then grinned broadly. “Tomorrow we’ll show you the train!”
“Oh... good. Can’t wait,” Dean smiled back.
“Goodnight, Dean,” Teddy said, as he left the room.
“’Night, kid,” Dean replied.
Just as the door had swung shut after Teddy, it reopened as Harry walked into the room. Dean took another gulp of whiskey.
“Should I ask what he said?” Harry broke the silence, studying Dean critically from the doorway. Dean shook his head.
“Wondered if I had killed any werewolves,” Dean said. “Shifted into his Dad – subconsciously, I think – told me a bit about his parents. They sound like good people.”
“They were,” Harry says. “Teddy takes after both of them – smart like his father, outgoing like his mum.”
“It’s one hell of a combination,” Dean said. “He’s a good kid, Harry – you’ve done good.”
“It wasn’t me,” Harry said. “I was only seventeen when his parents were killed. It’s all Andromeda, I just babysit occasionally and keep a room.”
Dean laughed, thinking back on his evening with Teddy talking his ear off.
“Well, that’s not how he tells it,” Dean told Harry.
“Really?” Harry asked, looking at the closed door in confusion.
“Yeah, the kid adores you,” Dean said. “Told me all about how you used to put spells on him, so you could take him to the zoo, or museums, or playgrounds and he could play with normal kids.”
“Oh, well yes, of course,” Harry replied, “like I said – I’m the fun babysitter.”
“Also, he refers to your boys as his brothers,” Dean continued as if Harry hadn’t spoken. “I’m sure he’d call you Dad, if he wasn’t worried about insulting the memory of his real father.”
Dean pretended that the next sip of whiskey needed all his focus, to give Harry time to control the extremely sappy expression on his face.
“When he was a kid, he used to refer to me as ‘my Harry’, like it was some official position in everyone’s family,” Harry said.
“Sam used to give me mother’s day cards, because he didn’t understand why there wasn’t a Dean-day.” Dean shook his head. “He stopped when the other kids made fun of him though.”
“Didn’t your birthday count as a Dean-day?” Harry asked.
Dean shrugged, “We didn’t have the best track record with remembering birthdays. If it wasn’t some stupid nationally recognized event, complete with ridiculous arts & crafts school projects, it was pretty easy to forget.” Dean suddenly realized his birthday was in a couple of weeks – he couldn’t remember how old he was turning. He felt old. Sam would know, though, he kept track of stupid things like that.
“Speaking of the kid,” Dean said changing topics, “I need to get something from the car and then go check on him.”
“Teddy?” Harry asked confused. Dean laughed.
“No, the other kid – Sam,” Dean clarified.
“Only to you, Dean,” Harry laughed. “Just remember to lock everything up afterwards. Tomorrow we’re dropping Teddy at the train and then I’ll show you two around Diagon Alley. Sound alright?”
“Sure thing,” Dean said. Then left to fetch his video camera and some other supplies from the car – Sam and he had a long night of research ahead of them.
*
Sam was nearly finished researching the list of ghosts, when the shed door creaked open with a gust of frigid air and Dean slipped quickly into the small room.
“Hey man,” Sam said, “pattern checks out. They’ve all been isolated incidents. Harry only assumed it was due to an increase, but Supernatural incidences are actually at a fairly normal level for the size of the country and the amount of history. This isn’t a widespread problem, it’s Wizard specific. I haven’t checked out the ghoul, poltergeists, or werewolf yet, ‘cause you said you’d handle those-”
“Yeah, just give me a turn on the computer later,” Dean cut in. Sam looked over to realize that Dean was setting up his shaving kit in the corner, and was fiddling with an adapter plug...also, for some reason he had a video camera.
“I wasn’t complaining,” Sam stated. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Thought you might want to shave,” Dean said. “Or did you not notice that Harry doesn’t have any fuckin’ electric outlets in the house.”
“I used the straight razor,” Sam said.
“Oh, well, just for me then,” Dean shrugged.
“What’s with the video camera?” Sam tried again. “Have you decided to record your shaves for posterity, ‘cause that’s pretty weird.”
“Ha ha,” Dean said rolling his eyes, “no, I wanted to show you something.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. Dean wanted to show him something on video - the question was did Sam want to see it. Judging by the way Dean glared at him and shook his head, he guessed that maybe he did.
“Alright...” Sam said.
“Ok, check it out,” Dean said, after fiddling with some buttons. He knelt on the floor next to Sam’s chair, and shoved the digital display between them so that they could both watch at once.
Sam looked down and saw the familiar hood of the Impala. The view was fixed, which meant that Dean had set up the camera to record secretly. Then Sam watched as Dean entered the video frame, followed closely by Teddy. The sound was muffled, but Sam could hear Dean telling Teddy about the car, and Teddy enthusiastically asking questions.
“Dean, what-” Sam started to ask, confused as to what the point of this was.
“I set up the video camera so that I could record Teddy,” Dean explained. Sam stared dumbfounded at his brother.
“You set up a video camera...so that you could secretly record a twelve year-old boy...” Sam stated slowly. “That is by far the creepiest thing you’ve ever done.”
Dean seemed to clue in as soon as he glanced at Sam.
“Ugh! No, Sam!” Dean all but shouted. Sam held up his hands placating, and Dean softened his look of disgusted outrage to a look of annoyance. “I set up a video camera, so that I could secretly record a Wizard-Shifter,” Dean explained. “Check it out, his eyes don’t flash or anything. There’s nothing that gives him away.”
“That’s great, Dean,” Sam said sarcastically.
“Hey, Sam, ever hear of the power of knowledge or whatever?” Dean replied. “You know, so in the future we don’t accidentally kill a wizard or something.”
“I don’t think we have to worry anyway, Dean,” Sam said. “Bill says wizards like Teddy are rare, and even then, they’d have to do something bad enough to hit our radar.”
Dean shrugged, which meant that Sam was right.
“Teddy does have one tell though,” Dean said. “If he gets emotional, he changes subconsciously.”
Sam glanced down at the video screen, and could just make out Teddy telling Dean about a time when Harry took him to a car museum. While he talked, his streaked hair slowly started turning black.
“Then check out what happens when his grandmother gives him a hard time about leaving without saying anything,” Dean said, as he fast forwarded through a good chunk of the video. Dean and Teddy disappeared and reappeared in the video-frame at high speeds, and Sam recognized the shift of the car as they got inside and then got out again. Finally, Dean’s thumb slid off the controls and the video returned to normal.
Teddy was talking animatedly to Dean about something, his hair back to being streaked, but the colours shifting a little as he talked. Sam couldn’t make out what he was saying really, but he could tell from Dean’s smile in the video that Dean got a kick out of the kid. Then he watched as Dean and Teddy’s attention was grabbed by something off screen – and Sam heard the equally muffled voice of Andromeda. Teddy’s hair immediately flashed to red, as a stormy expression came over his face. Almost immediately, the colour faded to the mousy brown that Sam had seen in the kitchen not that long ago, as Teddy’s expression shifted from angry to obviously chastised. Dean’s hand then rested on Teddy’s shoulder and Sam could just make out Dean’s “Sorry, Ma’am, I should’ve made sure he told you.” Then Dean said something else that Sam didn’t catch, and he watched as Teddy smiled again and his hair slowly returned to being streaked – though now there was a distinctive dirty-blonde mixed in as well.
“She thought you had taken him out back to shoot him or something, you know?” Sam said, when Dean stopped the video.
“What?” Dean asked. Sam just turned back to the computer, so that he wouldn’t have to look at Dean’s expression. “She thought I-”
“I got mad at her,” Sam stated.
“Not too mad, though, right?” Dean asked, looking at the video display as though he was re-evaluating the scene.
“Dean-”
“I mean, I did videotape the poor kid for research purposes,” Dean said. “And she doesn’t know us...and Teddy said that they’re taught in school about why there are secrecy laws and how to recognize and avoid Hunters-”
“Dean-” Sam tried again, not wanting to hear his brother basically say that he didn’t mind if someone thought he was a child-murdering monster.
“I’m just saying,” Dean continued, “Her husband and daughter are both dead. Teddy’s all she has and-”
“For fuck’s sake, I know!” Sam said. “I already apologized, ok?”
“Ok, ok,” Dean said.
“You better erase that video,” Sam said. “She’ll go from thinking you’re a murderer to thinking you’re a creepy pedo.”
“Yeah,” Dean said, already hitting the delete button.
They lapsed into silence and Sam started on the research Dean was supposed to do while Dean shaved. Even when Dean was finished shaving, he just came and knelt beside Sam, taking down notes in the margins of the incident reports and their notebooks, and occasionally telling Sam to change the research scope.
They worked long into the night, and only talked about the case, but Sam’s mind wandered to the video of Teddy and Dean by the car – how Dean had smiled at Teddy, explained about the car, offered him support when he got in trouble with his grandmother, and took full responsibility for his part in getting the kid in trouble – and Sam couldn’t help but think that Dean would make a great father, if he were ever given the chance.
Chapter 11
Author:
hells_half_acre Fandoms: Harry Potter, Supernatural
Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Genre: Gen
Warnings: Spoilers for all Harry Potter books, spoilers for Supernatural until 5x10.
Disclaimer: This is a transformative work of fiction for entertainment purposes only.
AN: Sequel to Damned Demented Demons and Bobby and Hermione - An Epistolary Fic . Updates every Wednesday (PST).
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Summary: In which Teddy causes some discussions and Dean's research methods are accidentally creepy.
Additional AN: Hallo from Germany. I've managed to remember to post! Now, the trick will be next week - I'll be flying back to Canada on Wednesday, so the chapter will probably either be posted Tuesday (Germany time) or sometime on Thursday (EST). Thanks for understanding!
Harry had barely had time to react to the realization that Sam had obviously confided in Bill while Harry and Andromeda had been outside, when Dean was excitedly pulling Teddy into the room. Only Teddy had changed – and he was getting good – if it hadn’t been for the fact that Teddy usually forgot to change his eyes along with his disguises, Harry probably wouldn’t have recognized the boy standing in his kitchen as Teddy.
Before Harry could put two and two together and realize who Teddy was impersonating, Sam’s chair crashed backwards against the kitchen floor as Sam stood quickly and took a step backwards with an expression on his face that Harry had rarely seen on a Winchester – fear.
“Whoa,” Dean said. He pulled Teddy back towards him gently by the shoulders, “better change back kid.”
Harry watched as Teddy’s concerned face morphed back into its usual features. His hair even reverted to a mousy-brown colour instead of the multi-coloured streaks he had been wearing earlier. No one really knew what Teddy’s natural eye or hair colour was, but whenever Teddy wanted to look as normal as possible, he always chose brown hair and brown eyes.
“Sam?” Dean said, taking a step in front of Teddy towards Sam. Sam’s eyes slid shut as he took a deep breath, and rubbed a hand down his face.
“Sorry,” Sam muttered. “Sorry – I just...” Sam’s voice grew stronger, and he smiled at Teddy, “that was so good you really surprised me, that’s all. Really cool, man.”
Teddy seemed to consider this answer, and by his facial expressions, Harry could tell that he didn’t quite believe that Sam had just been surprised either.
“Don’t worry,” Teddy said, “I’m not allowed to look like Uncle George either. I won’t do it again”
“Sorry Teddy,” Dean said, “um...do the other one maybe?”
Teddy gave Dean a measuring look, then shrugged and screwed up his face in concentration. Harry watched as his hair grew shorter and became dirty blond – while his face changed to resemble...
“Freckles,” Sam instructed with a small smile, “and his eyes are green, not brown.”
Teddy made the necessary adjustments, giving a glance up at Dean’s face to create a similar spattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. Then Harry had two Dean’s standing in front of him. It shouldn’t have been surprising to see proof that the Winchesters had once been children, but for some reason it was.
“Really awesome, man,” Sam said, his smile more sincere. Teddy smiled back, and Harry nearly laughed at seeing Dean’s grin on his godson’s face.
“Ok, Teddy,” Andromeda said with a smile, “give me a familiar face that I can kiss goodbye, I’ve got to head home.”
Teddy’s face morphed back into his own – the hair lengthening to its usual shag, and the streaks of colour returning to it. He walked over to his grandmother and reluctantly accepted a kiss.
“Bye Gran,” Teddy said.
“You be good for Harry, and have a safe trip back to school. Write me when you get there,” Andromeda instructed.
“Yes, Gran,” Teddy said long and suffering.
“Love you,” Andromeda carried on, ignoring Teddy’s tone. Teddy blushed.
“Love you too,” he muttered, then hugged her.
As soon as Teddy had moved over to speak to Andromeda, Dean had made his way over to Sam. Harry was close enough to lend half an ear to their conversation as well.
“You want to tell me why that freaked you out so much?” Dean asked, voice low.
“Detox,” Sam said. “It was a hallucination. I sort of...had it on my mind, so when he walked in, I...”
“Why would that be on your mind, Sam?” Dean asked, and now Harry could hear an edge to his voice.
“Nothing to worry about, Dean,” Sam replied in a sigh. “I’m going to go out back and research.”
Harry turned to see Sam slam back the remainder of his whiskey.
“It was nice to meet y’all,” Sam said pleasantly, then turned to Harry. “I’m going to head back to the research, man. You know where to find me.”
“Certainly, Sam,” Harry replied, and Sam left for the back garden.
*
Dean watched his brother stalk off, and cursed himself for the joke gone wrong. He supposed he should have asked Sam who it was he had been talking to – or yelling at – when he was in the panic room, but it wasn’t exactly something either one of them wanted to discuss. Hell, they hadn’t even really talked about what they had done during the summer apart. Sam had told Dean immediately about being Lucifer’s vessel – and Dean had told him about tracking down Raphael with Cas, and about Zach tripping him into the future – but other than that, Dean hadn’t told Sam about any of his other hunts.
Bill and Victoire left right after Andromeda. Hermione and Ron re-emerged from the living room carrying two sleeping kids, and said quiet goodbyes. Then Harry took off to help Ginny put their kids to bed, and Dean was once again alone with Teddy.
The kid wasn’t so bad – Dean had had fun showing him the car, and then dragging out his meagre stack of family photos when Teddy offered to demonstrate how his abilities worked. When Dean had outright asked him if he had to shed skin like a regular Shifter, Teddy had been pretty grossed out at the idea. Apparently, Metamorph-whatevers didn’t know much about the way normal Shifters worked.
“So, kid, looking forward to school?” Dean asked.
“Yeah,” Teddy replied. “Harry said I could tell my ‘trust-worthy’ friends about you and Sam. They’re going to flip.”
“What about us?” Dean asked.
Teddy shrugged, “just that you’re Hunters. Wizards usually stay away from Hunters – they don’t normally let them stay at their house.”
“Well, you should remind your friends that just because you have Hunters at your house, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still stay away from Hunters, alright?” Dean said.
“I know,” Teddy rolled his eyes. “Harry’s told me a hundred times!”
Dean laughed, and then snagged Sam’s empty glass from the table and the whiskey bottle from the counter.
“Hey, don’t tell Harry, ok?” Dean said with a wink as he poured himself a drink.
“I won’t if you give me some,” Teddy sing-songed back to him.
“Nice try, kid,” Dean shook his head.
“Hey, Dean?” Teddy asked, after Dean had taken a good gulp – and wow, that went down with a kick. “Have you and Sam ever...hunted werewolves?”
“Yeah, of course,” Dean said. “Though not for a while – there aren’t that many of them. There were a couple when we were young – the first one I took out myself was when I was sixteen or so. There were a couple more since...“
Dean trailed off as he realized that Teddy’s face was changing. His colourful streaked hair morphing into a mousy-brown, his face was becoming a little gaunt, and most disturbingly, there were suddenly faint scars across his face. The scars were similar to the ones on Bill’s face, but made to look even older. Teddy still looked like himself though – not like when he was pretending to be someone else. Then Dean remembered when he had first begun to learn the difference between Wizards and regular humans, one of the first things Harry had told him was that the werewolves were different, that he knew one that had managed it...
“Not werewolves like your Dad, though,” Dean said quickly. “Just bad ones...like maybe the one that bit your Dad...or the one that hurt your Uncle Bill. Those guys probably weren’t good like your Dad.”
That seemed to calm Teddy down, and the scars slowly disappeared. Dean had a feeling that he had just been given a glimpse into what Teddy’s Dad must have looked like. Teddy’s hair remained brown, but Dean thought that maybe it was more by choice now.
“It was the same one,” Teddy said. “Fenrir Greyback hurt both my Dad and Bill. He turned my Dad when my Dad was only a kid. Harry says that Greyback liked to go after children – Bill was hurt trying to protect some children. Also, Greyback might have killed my Granddad.”
“Well,” Dean said, tightening the grip on his glass but keeping his voice level. “Sam and I would have definitely killed him then.”
Teddy gave Dean a huge smile, and Dean would have returned it if he wasn’t too busy wishing that he had been the one that killed the thing.
“My Dad was really good though,” Teddy continued. “He never hurt anyone. He was really smart – he was the best Professor Harry ever had – but they made him quit when they found out he was a werewolf. Aunt Hermione made laws since then, but back then things were different. So, he only taught Harry for one year, then he had to fight in the war anyway, with my mum and Harry’s godfather, and the Weasleys and ...a lot of other people. But he was still good - even during the war. And he and Mum got married, and they had me, and Harry says they loved me very much and they didn’t mean to get killed, but they were just trying to make the world a better place for me – to protect me. I still miss them though. Are your parents alive?”
“No,” Dean said, swallowing the lump in his throat. Teddy had been chatting all night, but it was about cars, or his friends at school, or how annoying his Gran got sometimes. It had reminded Dean of Sammy, always talking about what he learned at school or whatever book he was reading. Dean wasn’t prepared to talk about dead parents though. “Uh, my parents...they also died trying to protect me and Sam.”
Teddy nodded like he had suspected as much.
“Well, I better go to bed,” Teddy said, then grinned broadly. “Tomorrow we’ll show you the train!”
“Oh... good. Can’t wait,” Dean smiled back.
“Goodnight, Dean,” Teddy said, as he left the room.
“’Night, kid,” Dean replied.
Just as the door had swung shut after Teddy, it reopened as Harry walked into the room. Dean took another gulp of whiskey.
“Should I ask what he said?” Harry broke the silence, studying Dean critically from the doorway. Dean shook his head.
“Wondered if I had killed any werewolves,” Dean said. “Shifted into his Dad – subconsciously, I think – told me a bit about his parents. They sound like good people.”
“They were,” Harry says. “Teddy takes after both of them – smart like his father, outgoing like his mum.”
“It’s one hell of a combination,” Dean said. “He’s a good kid, Harry – you’ve done good.”
“It wasn’t me,” Harry said. “I was only seventeen when his parents were killed. It’s all Andromeda, I just babysit occasionally and keep a room.”
Dean laughed, thinking back on his evening with Teddy talking his ear off.
“Well, that’s not how he tells it,” Dean told Harry.
“Really?” Harry asked, looking at the closed door in confusion.
“Yeah, the kid adores you,” Dean said. “Told me all about how you used to put spells on him, so you could take him to the zoo, or museums, or playgrounds and he could play with normal kids.”
“Oh, well yes, of course,” Harry replied, “like I said – I’m the fun babysitter.”
“Also, he refers to your boys as his brothers,” Dean continued as if Harry hadn’t spoken. “I’m sure he’d call you Dad, if he wasn’t worried about insulting the memory of his real father.”
Dean pretended that the next sip of whiskey needed all his focus, to give Harry time to control the extremely sappy expression on his face.
“When he was a kid, he used to refer to me as ‘my Harry’, like it was some official position in everyone’s family,” Harry said.
“Sam used to give me mother’s day cards, because he didn’t understand why there wasn’t a Dean-day.” Dean shook his head. “He stopped when the other kids made fun of him though.”
“Didn’t your birthday count as a Dean-day?” Harry asked.
Dean shrugged, “We didn’t have the best track record with remembering birthdays. If it wasn’t some stupid nationally recognized event, complete with ridiculous arts & crafts school projects, it was pretty easy to forget.” Dean suddenly realized his birthday was in a couple of weeks – he couldn’t remember how old he was turning. He felt old. Sam would know, though, he kept track of stupid things like that.
“Speaking of the kid,” Dean said changing topics, “I need to get something from the car and then go check on him.”
“Teddy?” Harry asked confused. Dean laughed.
“No, the other kid – Sam,” Dean clarified.
“Only to you, Dean,” Harry laughed. “Just remember to lock everything up afterwards. Tomorrow we’re dropping Teddy at the train and then I’ll show you two around Diagon Alley. Sound alright?”
“Sure thing,” Dean said. Then left to fetch his video camera and some other supplies from the car – Sam and he had a long night of research ahead of them.
*
Sam was nearly finished researching the list of ghosts, when the shed door creaked open with a gust of frigid air and Dean slipped quickly into the small room.
“Hey man,” Sam said, “pattern checks out. They’ve all been isolated incidents. Harry only assumed it was due to an increase, but Supernatural incidences are actually at a fairly normal level for the size of the country and the amount of history. This isn’t a widespread problem, it’s Wizard specific. I haven’t checked out the ghoul, poltergeists, or werewolf yet, ‘cause you said you’d handle those-”
“Yeah, just give me a turn on the computer later,” Dean cut in. Sam looked over to realize that Dean was setting up his shaving kit in the corner, and was fiddling with an adapter plug...also, for some reason he had a video camera.
“I wasn’t complaining,” Sam stated. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Thought you might want to shave,” Dean said. “Or did you not notice that Harry doesn’t have any fuckin’ electric outlets in the house.”
“I used the straight razor,” Sam said.
“Oh, well, just for me then,” Dean shrugged.
“What’s with the video camera?” Sam tried again. “Have you decided to record your shaves for posterity, ‘cause that’s pretty weird.”
“Ha ha,” Dean said rolling his eyes, “no, I wanted to show you something.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. Dean wanted to show him something on video - the question was did Sam want to see it. Judging by the way Dean glared at him and shook his head, he guessed that maybe he did.
“Alright...” Sam said.
“Ok, check it out,” Dean said, after fiddling with some buttons. He knelt on the floor next to Sam’s chair, and shoved the digital display between them so that they could both watch at once.
Sam looked down and saw the familiar hood of the Impala. The view was fixed, which meant that Dean had set up the camera to record secretly. Then Sam watched as Dean entered the video frame, followed closely by Teddy. The sound was muffled, but Sam could hear Dean telling Teddy about the car, and Teddy enthusiastically asking questions.
“Dean, what-” Sam started to ask, confused as to what the point of this was.
“I set up the video camera so that I could record Teddy,” Dean explained. Sam stared dumbfounded at his brother.
“You set up a video camera...so that you could secretly record a twelve year-old boy...” Sam stated slowly. “That is by far the creepiest thing you’ve ever done.”
Dean seemed to clue in as soon as he glanced at Sam.
“Ugh! No, Sam!” Dean all but shouted. Sam held up his hands placating, and Dean softened his look of disgusted outrage to a look of annoyance. “I set up a video camera, so that I could secretly record a Wizard-Shifter,” Dean explained. “Check it out, his eyes don’t flash or anything. There’s nothing that gives him away.”
“That’s great, Dean,” Sam said sarcastically.
“Hey, Sam, ever hear of the power of knowledge or whatever?” Dean replied. “You know, so in the future we don’t accidentally kill a wizard or something.”
“I don’t think we have to worry anyway, Dean,” Sam said. “Bill says wizards like Teddy are rare, and even then, they’d have to do something bad enough to hit our radar.”
Dean shrugged, which meant that Sam was right.
“Teddy does have one tell though,” Dean said. “If he gets emotional, he changes subconsciously.”
Sam glanced down at the video screen, and could just make out Teddy telling Dean about a time when Harry took him to a car museum. While he talked, his streaked hair slowly started turning black.
“Then check out what happens when his grandmother gives him a hard time about leaving without saying anything,” Dean said, as he fast forwarded through a good chunk of the video. Dean and Teddy disappeared and reappeared in the video-frame at high speeds, and Sam recognized the shift of the car as they got inside and then got out again. Finally, Dean’s thumb slid off the controls and the video returned to normal.
Teddy was talking animatedly to Dean about something, his hair back to being streaked, but the colours shifting a little as he talked. Sam couldn’t make out what he was saying really, but he could tell from Dean’s smile in the video that Dean got a kick out of the kid. Then he watched as Dean and Teddy’s attention was grabbed by something off screen – and Sam heard the equally muffled voice of Andromeda. Teddy’s hair immediately flashed to red, as a stormy expression came over his face. Almost immediately, the colour faded to the mousy brown that Sam had seen in the kitchen not that long ago, as Teddy’s expression shifted from angry to obviously chastised. Dean’s hand then rested on Teddy’s shoulder and Sam could just make out Dean’s “Sorry, Ma’am, I should’ve made sure he told you.” Then Dean said something else that Sam didn’t catch, and he watched as Teddy smiled again and his hair slowly returned to being streaked – though now there was a distinctive dirty-blonde mixed in as well.
“She thought you had taken him out back to shoot him or something, you know?” Sam said, when Dean stopped the video.
“What?” Dean asked. Sam just turned back to the computer, so that he wouldn’t have to look at Dean’s expression. “She thought I-”
“I got mad at her,” Sam stated.
“Not too mad, though, right?” Dean asked, looking at the video display as though he was re-evaluating the scene.
“Dean-”
“I mean, I did videotape the poor kid for research purposes,” Dean said. “And she doesn’t know us...and Teddy said that they’re taught in school about why there are secrecy laws and how to recognize and avoid Hunters-”
“Dean-” Sam tried again, not wanting to hear his brother basically say that he didn’t mind if someone thought he was a child-murdering monster.
“I’m just saying,” Dean continued, “Her husband and daughter are both dead. Teddy’s all she has and-”
“For fuck’s sake, I know!” Sam said. “I already apologized, ok?”
“Ok, ok,” Dean said.
“You better erase that video,” Sam said. “She’ll go from thinking you’re a murderer to thinking you’re a creepy pedo.”
“Yeah,” Dean said, already hitting the delete button.
They lapsed into silence and Sam started on the research Dean was supposed to do while Dean shaved. Even when Dean was finished shaving, he just came and knelt beside Sam, taking down notes in the margins of the incident reports and their notebooks, and occasionally telling Sam to change the research scope.
They worked long into the night, and only talked about the case, but Sam’s mind wandered to the video of Teddy and Dean by the car – how Dean had smiled at Teddy, explained about the car, offered him support when he got in trouble with his grandmother, and took full responsibility for his part in getting the kid in trouble – and Sam couldn’t help but think that Dean would make a great father, if he were ever given the chance.
Chapter 11
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Date: 2010-07-21 10:17 pm (UTC)Thanks a bunch!