Debriel_Mini Fic: Don't Ever Look Back [Part 1/3]
Don't Ever Look Back, Part One (PG-13), Dean/Gabriel
The first time Gabriel sees Dean Winchester, really sees him, it’s at the Yule Ball. He was scanning the room when a bright yellow flash caught his eyes, and it seems to have somehow come out of the guy. Dean looks sharp and smart in his black dress robes, with a jade green tie that really brings out his eyes and a bronze amulet with horns that doesn’t really match the outfit but was probably where the flash came from. He has Katie Bell on his arm, and is smiling sweetly at the girl. That was when Gabriel decided that maybe this whole ball thing isn’t too bad after all. Gabriel never liked the formality of it, but if Dean is uncomfortable, he doesn’t show it.
Dean Winchester, he knows, is a Gryffindor. He’s in sixth year, just like Gabriel, and he has a little brother in Ravenclaw, second year. A half-blood, his mother, Mary Winchester (nee Campbell, of Samuel Campbell, the former Head Auror) died when he was four. It was apparently a Death Eater attack, but oddly his Muggle father escaped unscathed. Gabriel’s pretty sure he was lying about the circumstances of his mother’s death.
It was rumoured that after his mother’s death, his father went off the deep end and started training Dean and his brother like Muggle soldiers. Apparently, when Dean got his letter, he almost didn’t accept.
Dean Winchester’s also American, and to this day no one knows why Dumbledore was so desperate for Dean Winchester to go to Hogwarts that he sent an intercontinental letter, and McGonagall, and a portkey, and gave him free money. They did the same for Sam Winchester.
Many have asked Winchester of the rumours, and he has neither supported nor denied any of it.
It was all very mysterious, and because of it he is very popular. Well, that and his looks and his charm. Not to be confused with Charms work: this, also according to rumour, isn’t the best.
Dean Winchester sees Gabriel’s stare, and in turn gives him a brilliant, if a little confused, smile.
Gabriel’s brain goes on autopilot, and he smirks in return. He thinks he even may have winked.
Oops.
The pretty redheaded girl on his arm (Kristy? Kelly? Krista?) turns and glares frostily at him. “Why are you looking at Winchester that way?” she demands.
“What way?” Gabriel deflects, and grins arrogantly at her, “Don’t worry, Kristy. Just baiting him.”
“Crystal,” she snarls at him, and stomps off, too-short white dress riding up so it just barely covers her butt.
So, apparently, Gabriel is a sleaze and an arsehole. He can live with that. Hell, he already knows he’s an arsehole.
For weeks afterwards, he stares at Dean Winchester. He figures out that Winchester’s best friend is some socially awkward guy named Castiel Milton, and he’s apparently close friends with the Weasley twins. Also, and Gabriel can’t believe he forgot it; he’s the chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Everyone thinks he’s a shoo-in for captain, but they can’t know until next year. After all, Quidditch is cancelled because of the Triwizard Tournament being in Hogwarts this year.
The hall suddenly becomes silent and low whispers spreads through it. It sounds like the forest during strong winds. Gabriel looks up, and sees Dean Winchester walking towards the Slytherin table.
Milton is looking at Dean Winchester like he’s crazy (and Gabriel realises that he’s seen that look a lot from him), but Dean Winchester doesn’t see it.
“Hey,” Dean says. Gabriel’s mind once again goes into autopilot, and he looks up, and smiles.
“Hey. What brings you over to this table?”
Dean smiles back. He has an amazing smile, “I figured I should dabble in the Dark Side for a change.”
Gabriel looks back blankly. Dark side? What the hell’s a dark side? I know Slytherins aren’t all that nice, he thinks, but we aren’t dark. Well, not all of us. He amends, not me. Does Dean mean the Dark Lord’s side? Why would Dean want to go there? He’s a Gryffindor through and through. Gabriel’s proud of being a Slytherin, his entire family are Slytherins, but he’ll never be a Death Eater and he despises the people who say that they will. The view from the common room is amazing, though.
“Freaking wizards,” Dean Winchester mumbles under his breath, and oh! It’s a reference to something Muggle.
“Come on, you should have known by now that referencing Muggle stuff is not going to work here.”
Dean grimaces, "Yeah, I got that after a minute with Cas."
Cas? Dean Winchester calls Milton Cas?
Nicknames are normal, right?
There’s a lull in the pitiful kind-of conversation they started, and Gabriel’s just about to say something smart when-
“Hey, Yank!” Draco Malfoy shouts, “Go back to your own table. I can feel your filth on me already.”
Dean snarls at the blond, “I’m pretty sure that’s just self-realisation.” He turns back to Gabriel and nods. “I’ll see you later.”
Gabriel nods, and when Dean’s far away, smashes Malfoy’s head into his cheesecake.
Snape shouts at him for it, but it was so worth the look on the arrogant little snob’s face.
The next day, Dean slides next to him in potions, and if looks can kill, then Gabriel would be a smear of ash on the ground thanks to the glare Milton is sending him.
Milton ends up sitting next to Balthazar, a cousin of Gabriel’s, and Snape eyeballs them suspiciously. Gabriel guesses that two Gryffindors sitting with two Slytherins voluntarily happens never in a blue moon, until now.
When the lesson starts, Dean flips open his textbook and starts to doodle on the margins. Gabriel nods; he does that too.
Dean stares at the board blankly, and then hurries to the drawer of ingredients. Snape’s lip curls with thinly veiled contempt.
“So,” Dean starts, as he lights a fire under his cauldron. “What’s up with your life?”
“I slammed Malfoy’s face into cake.”
Dean barks a laugh, “Good, he deserves it.”
“I thought so,” Gabriel agrees, and they share a smile.
From across the room, Milton’s glare heats up. Dean continues, oblivious, and dumps Whatsit Bean juice into his caldron.
In the end, Snape pronounces Dean’s potion ‘acceptable’ and Gabriel’s ‘excellent’. He smiles boastfully, and Dean raises an eyebrow in an are you kidding me look, because his potion is just as good as Gabriel’s; Gabriel knows, but he’s also smiling, so it’s okay. Plus, Gabriel knows Snape can be biased. Okay, so he’s always biased.
When they leave, Dean smiles and tells Gabriel that he’ll see him later. Then Milton stomps up and whisks Dean away, acting rather alarmingly like Snape’s bat out of hell impression, whispering to him frantically. Dean frowns, hissing something back.
Gabriel wants to hear more, but they’ve already left the potions room, and soon he realises that he’s sitting alone in the empty room like an idiot, and even Snape has left.
He gathers up his stuff and tears, godspeed, towards the Charm’s classroom.
But not before he leaves a little present for Draco Malfoy to find.
By dinner, it had travelled all over the school. Someone had sabotaged Draco Malfoy’s seat, so every time he shifted, even a little, it would squawk out something demeaning about Malfoy. But only about Malfoy, of course, even though countless other students had sat in it later on.
Gabriel is prankster-in-chief to the Weasley twins (simply because his are more ‘just desserts’ while the Weasley’s are aimed at the general public for no apparent reasons other than their own enjoyment. Gabriel finds that annoying, because pulling pranks are an art form, thank you very much), who themselves are prankster-in-chief to Peeves, so people were already suspecting him. After Gabriel’s little display yesterday, the students are convinced it was him. As he walks the esteemed halls of Hogwarts, head held high, students would smile at him, praise him, or even thank him for the laugh. Even the Weasley twins came up to him, grudging respect in their eyes, and congratulated him. The great Harry Potter himself smiled gratefully at him, and if that wasn’t weird then Gabriel doesn’t know what is.
What’s amazing about this is that the teachers have absolutely no proof it was him, so he basically committed a perfect crime.
It’s bloody awesome.
“You wanna go to Hogsmeade with me?” Gabriel asks mindlessly one wet and muddy April day.
Dean blinks his bright green eyes, green as the baby grass outside. Gabriel needs to stop eating those Every-Flavour Beans, they turn him into a freaking poet. “Okay.”
Gabriel nods numbly. “Okay.”
“So I’ll see you there.”
“At Honeydukes.” Honeydukes is amazing. Honeydukes is like the heaven above and paradise and the Garden of Eden and pure, undiluted happiness in a diamond jar poured over the entire store infused with rainbows and lollipops and unicorns and seeing Merlin in Camelot. Merlin, no more Every-Flavour Beans.
But seriously, Honeydukes rocks.
Dean raises an eyebrow at Gabriel’s look of absolute, blissful delight.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” Gabriel nods. He’s completely normal. Yup.
They exchange a smile, and head off to different directions.
Dean heads to Hogsmeade with Castiel by his side. Gabriel watches their descent to Hogsmead in Honeydukes, his attention torn between Dean and candy.
Gabriel sees Dean wave good-bye to a reluctant, rather angry looking Castiel, and walk into Honeydukes. The Slytherin is currently stuffing his pockets with sweets, and he looks up when he hears a bell ring.
Dean’s cheeks and ears are flushed red from the cold, and the black cloak he’s wearing set off his… everything.
“You like your sweets, don’t you?” Dean gestures to Gabriel’s bulging pockets.
“Yeah,” Gabriel says frankly. Dean nods, pursing his lips. He has nice lips. Full, pouty ones.
Dean nods, “Personally, I like the Frizzing Whizbees.” He takes a few of the Whizbees from the box.
“Frizzing Whizbees are cool,” Gabriel agrees. A slightly uncomfortable silence descends on them.
Dean gets a thinking look, “You’re a prankster, right?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel smiles; it’s one of the things he’s proud of.
“We should go to Zonko’s.”
Gabriel nods happily. Oh yeah, Dean gets him.
At Zonko’s, Dean and Gabriel laugh and joke around, thinking of all the pranks they’ve pulled.
“You know, I’ve always liked your style,” Dean laughs. “That slow-dancing alien? Priceless.”
“Ah, yeah, that,” Gabriel remembers that occasion fondly, “That was one of my best works.”
“How did you even know what an alien is? I mean, wizards don’t know any of that-”
“I watched alien movies before, with Lucifer. My brother,” Gabriel adds, seeing Dean’s blank look.
“Oh. Wow,” he smiles, “Your parents must’ve hated him, huh?”
“Actually, he was their favourite.” Gabriel remembers how much they loved Lucifer - still love him, in fact.
“I’m sorry,” Dean’s bright smile has dimmed, his light expression pensive.
“No, he didn’t die,” Gabriel corrects hastily, remembering the past tense, “He just… ran away.”
“Oh,” Dean repeats.
They drop it.
In the end, Dean buys a nose-biting teacup and Gabriel some sugar quills, a dungbomb, two hiccough sweets, and a frog-spawning soap.
The cashier casts an incredulous look towards Gabriel, who grins maniacally. Dean just smiles sweetly, all sun-streaked blond hair and clear green anime eyes, like some sweet, innocent, angelic seventeen-year-old (and wasn’t that an oxymoron).
At dinner that day, instead of Cas, it’s a short Ravenclaw boy with floppy brown hair beside Dean. Gabriel remembers seeing that boy with Dean thousands of times before. Dean looks down at the small boy with a look of pure love and adoration, and Gabriel can’t help but be jealous of the small boy, whom Gabriel now guesses is Sam. Not only because he wants Dean to look at him that way, even though he knows it won’t happen, but because in all sixteen years of his life, no one has ever looked at him that way.
Sam is talking to Dean, or rather scolding. The older Winchester is frowning, arguing back. Sam shakes his head frantically and emphasises his words with rough gestures.
Then Gabriel sees the dark brown mop of Castiel’s hair as he heads towards Dean. He and Sam exchange a mutual glare, and Dean hunches back, looking defeated.
The next things he knows, Dean is being led back to the Gryffindor table by Castiel.
Gabriel blinks. What the fuck had just happened?
“Where’re your bodyguards?”
Dean smiles wanly and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Sam’s too small to be my bodyguard. And Cas has to study.”
Ah. Right. It is, after all, June. They have finals coming up.
“You want to study together?”
Dean’s smile becomes ironic now, and he shrugs, “Sure.”
So they head to the library.
“Okay, so incantation for, um, water?”
“A stream of water. Aguamenti.”
Gabriel nods, “Right. Birds?”
“Avis. Are we doing this in alphabetical order?”
Gabriel nods again, to both of the questions.
Dean sighs.
“What are you doing with Winchester all the time?” Raphael asks, and Gabriel ignores him. He’s had a bad day already, what with the transfiguration exam kicking his arse and all, he doesn’t need his arsehole brother to make it worse.
“I asked you a question.” Low and threatening, Raphael stands in front of him, a hulking mass of pretentiousness.
“I am talking to Dean because he’s my friend,” Gabriel enunciates the words heavily, dragging them out as if he’s speaking to someone especially slow.
“He’s more than that,” Gabriel’s brother sneers, all self-righteous and with that I’m-better-than-you attitude Gabriel hates so much, only he’s pretty sure he’s also like that in a way. “I see the way you look at him.”
“What way?” Gabriel challenges.
“Like you have a crush on him.”
“I don’t.”
“You better not, because our family don’t like people like that.” He smirks, “Although given what Winchester looks like, it makes sense that you might like him. Coulda mistaken him for a pretty girl.”
And with that, Raphael ambles out; sneer to rival a Malfoy’s best planted firmly on his face. Gabriel snarls, ready to freaking kill the arsehole.
Again: Huge. Fucking. Dick.
So Gabriel decides to completely forget Raphael’s words because he doesn’t like Raphael all that much. He also jinxes him so he would make out with every person of the same sex he sees for every two minutes, House-Elves and professors included, so that was pretty entertaining.
As the school year reaches an end, Dean and Gabriel become closer, Castiel tenser, Sam bitchier, and Raphael even more of a dick. However, nothing happens.
And then school ends, and they promise they will write to each other.
So they do.
July 8th, 1995
Dean,
How’s life in Muggleland? Fun? Boring? Because I’m bored - the stick up Michael’s arse has only grown larger and longer as Lucifer’s not talking, and Raphael is a tremendous dick. Is it the same in America? Because I think you should have some better weather, or something. I don’t know, we don’t have one of your Muggle televisions, and our radio just stays in Britain.
I pulled another prank on Raphael - it was amazing! You should have seen it, the look on his face? Priceless.
Oh, right. I put sugar in his salt shaker, like you did to your brother. I thought it was pretty smart, and I’ve never done anything like it.
So, how is Muggle America doing?
-Gabriel
July 18th, 1995
Gabriel,
You know owls aren’t equipped to fly overseas, right? Your owl looked ready to die of exhaustion. I’ve sent something else with your poor idiot owl, and trust me, it’s gonna make everything easier. Well, no, I’ve sent your poor idiot owl with that something, to be precise. I don’t even know how he made the trip in ten days. He must be able to teleport.
Anyway, Muggleland is fine. I’m currently in Colorado (that’s a state in the good old US of A), and Dad, Sammy and I are having some quality bonding time. And yeah, we do have better weather over here. Raining? Again? Seriously? Yeah, no wonder I like America more.
Switching salt & sugar? Gabe, that is old school. I can’t believe you would find something like that funny. Then again, I never had the pleasure of jinxing someone so they’d make out with random males before I was accepted. So.
-Dean
July 20th, 1995
Dean,
The owl’s name is Loki, jackarse, and he may be an idiot, but he’s still prettier than yours. And he still has a better name. Also, the thingy you sent me helps - did Dumbledore give it to you? What the hell is it?
Raphael has attempted to have his revenge. He told Michael that I liked you - how weird is that? Anyway, it blew up in his face. Michael didn’t give a shit. Then again, Michael doesn’t give a shit about much these days.
-Gabriel
July 21st, 1995
Gabe,
What? You mean you don’t like me? I thought we had a beautiful friendship!
Nah, I’m kidding. I know what you mean. And it’s a good thing Michael didn’t care - and he was probably just trying to do work: you know, support the family, ‘cos your Dad’s gone? And yeah, Dumbledore gave it to me. Said it’ll come in handy when his owls don’t die of exhaustion attempting to give me my book list. I don’t really know what it is. It seems like a weird-ass portkey.
-Dean
P.S: The name is Clyde. Clyde is an amazing name. What kind of name is Loki?
July 23rd, 1995
Loki is a famous trickster from Norse Mythology. He’s also half-giant. You don’t mess with Loki. Clyde is stupid. And according to you, Clyde was a monkey. You named your owl after a monkey.
Yeah, yeah, Michael’s trying to support us - We’re loaded. He doesn’t even need to work. I have no idea why you’re always defending him. He doesn’t need to take care of us, or try to support us. We can take care of ourselves.
-Gabriel
July 25th, 1995
Dean? Are you there? Did the thingy malfunction or are you just ignoring me?
-Gabriel
July 29th, 1995
Look, if it’s about the Michael thing, forget I said anything, alright?
-Gabriel
August 2nd, 1995
Dean? You okay?
-Gabriel
August 5th, 1995
Gabe,
I’m fine. Just, something happened and I had to visit a hospital for a while. I’m fine now, I swear. And I wasn’t pissed at what you said about Michael, either. I just thought you could have been more grateful. But it’s okay. Just forget I said anything.
-Dean
August 5th, 1995
HOLY SHIT.
I’M FUCKING HEAD BOY.
-Dean
August 6th, 1995
You have failed me greatly, Head Boy. What’s going to happen to the late night pranks? The bets? The jokes? The promises? How can all that happen now that you’re an enforcer of the law? Even worse, the big head honcho enforcer of the law?
-Gabriel
P.S: You’d better be fine
P.P.S: congrats
August 7th, 1995
I’m also Quidditch Captain.
-Dean
P.S: Thanks
August 9th, 1995
Apology accepted.
And so am I.
I look forward to beating you, kitty.
-Gabriel
August 11th, 1995
Bring it on, worm.
And you know both Cas and Sam were inappropriately ecstatic. You have no idea how happy I was to see someone disapproving. Felt like things were back to the natural order.
My Dad just seemed confused.
-Dean
August 13th, 1995
He was probably wondering where he went wrong. And Castiel and Sam are nerds - they’re not like us. You know that.
-Gabriel
August 15th, 1995
Yeah, but Sam’s still my baby brother and Cas’ still my best friend, even though they don’t seem to like each other much. And neither of them like you. And Sam doesn’t like Dad. And Cas wants to, but I know he doesn’t exactly like Dad either. When Sam and Cas agree, that’s when horrible things start happening.
-Dean
August 20th, 1995
Sorry, teensy vacation. And I had to start up on my summer homework.
Anyway. Wow, I feel like a therapist. But, uh, I know what that’s like, and it sucks. But it’ll resolve. Or you can escape to Hogwarts and then, I dunno, lock those two in a closet somewhere. I’ll help you.
-Gabriel
Aug 23rd
There was SUMMER HOMEWORK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Shit fuck shit shit shit fuck shit sonovabitch shit.
August 24th, 1995
Uh, yeah, Head Boy. There was, in fact, summer homework, Mr. Head Boy. There was summer homework every year, Sir Head Boy.
So if you weren’t doing homework, what were you doing during those silent 5 days, Lord Head Boy of Hogwarts?
-Gabriel
August 25th, 1995
Shut up, Gabriel. I was looking after Sammy. It’s a time-consuming task.
-Dean
August 26th, 1995
What? Your Dad can’t do it?
-Gabriel
August 27th, 1995
No.
He’s busy.
-Dean
August 28th, 1995
Wow. Okay.
-Gabriel
August 29th, 1995
Sorry, I was just stressed out. So, me and Sammy are packing right now, and I guess I’ll meet you in Hogwarts.
You know what? I think the next year is when everything’s gonna change.
Wow, that sounded epically cheesy. I don’t know why I put it there. Not sure why I’m not crossing it out, either.
-Dean
Go To Part Two Masterpost
The first time Gabriel sees Dean Winchester, really sees him, it’s at the Yule Ball. He was scanning the room when a bright yellow flash caught his eyes, and it seems to have somehow come out of the guy. Dean looks sharp and smart in his black dress robes, with a jade green tie that really brings out his eyes and a bronze amulet with horns that doesn’t really match the outfit but was probably where the flash came from. He has Katie Bell on his arm, and is smiling sweetly at the girl. That was when Gabriel decided that maybe this whole ball thing isn’t too bad after all. Gabriel never liked the formality of it, but if Dean is uncomfortable, he doesn’t show it.
Dean Winchester, he knows, is a Gryffindor. He’s in sixth year, just like Gabriel, and he has a little brother in Ravenclaw, second year. A half-blood, his mother, Mary Winchester (nee Campbell, of Samuel Campbell, the former Head Auror) died when he was four. It was apparently a Death Eater attack, but oddly his Muggle father escaped unscathed. Gabriel’s pretty sure he was lying about the circumstances of his mother’s death.
It was rumoured that after his mother’s death, his father went off the deep end and started training Dean and his brother like Muggle soldiers. Apparently, when Dean got his letter, he almost didn’t accept.
Dean Winchester’s also American, and to this day no one knows why Dumbledore was so desperate for Dean Winchester to go to Hogwarts that he sent an intercontinental letter, and McGonagall, and a portkey, and gave him free money. They did the same for Sam Winchester.
Many have asked Winchester of the rumours, and he has neither supported nor denied any of it.
It was all very mysterious, and because of it he is very popular. Well, that and his looks and his charm. Not to be confused with Charms work: this, also according to rumour, isn’t the best.
Dean Winchester sees Gabriel’s stare, and in turn gives him a brilliant, if a little confused, smile.
Gabriel’s brain goes on autopilot, and he smirks in return. He thinks he even may have winked.
Oops.
The pretty redheaded girl on his arm (Kristy? Kelly? Krista?) turns and glares frostily at him. “Why are you looking at Winchester that way?” she demands.
“What way?” Gabriel deflects, and grins arrogantly at her, “Don’t worry, Kristy. Just baiting him.”
“Crystal,” she snarls at him, and stomps off, too-short white dress riding up so it just barely covers her butt.
So, apparently, Gabriel is a sleaze and an arsehole. He can live with that. Hell, he already knows he’s an arsehole.
For weeks afterwards, he stares at Dean Winchester. He figures out that Winchester’s best friend is some socially awkward guy named Castiel Milton, and he’s apparently close friends with the Weasley twins. Also, and Gabriel can’t believe he forgot it; he’s the chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Everyone thinks he’s a shoo-in for captain, but they can’t know until next year. After all, Quidditch is cancelled because of the Triwizard Tournament being in Hogwarts this year.
The hall suddenly becomes silent and low whispers spreads through it. It sounds like the forest during strong winds. Gabriel looks up, and sees Dean Winchester walking towards the Slytherin table.
Milton is looking at Dean Winchester like he’s crazy (and Gabriel realises that he’s seen that look a lot from him), but Dean Winchester doesn’t see it.
“Hey,” Dean says. Gabriel’s mind once again goes into autopilot, and he looks up, and smiles.
“Hey. What brings you over to this table?”
Dean smiles back. He has an amazing smile, “I figured I should dabble in the Dark Side for a change.”
Gabriel looks back blankly. Dark side? What the hell’s a dark side? I know Slytherins aren’t all that nice, he thinks, but we aren’t dark. Well, not all of us. He amends, not me. Does Dean mean the Dark Lord’s side? Why would Dean want to go there? He’s a Gryffindor through and through. Gabriel’s proud of being a Slytherin, his entire family are Slytherins, but he’ll never be a Death Eater and he despises the people who say that they will. The view from the common room is amazing, though.
“Freaking wizards,” Dean Winchester mumbles under his breath, and oh! It’s a reference to something Muggle.
“Come on, you should have known by now that referencing Muggle stuff is not going to work here.”
Dean grimaces, "Yeah, I got that after a minute with Cas."
Cas? Dean Winchester calls Milton Cas?
Nicknames are normal, right?
There’s a lull in the pitiful kind-of conversation they started, and Gabriel’s just about to say something smart when-
“Hey, Yank!” Draco Malfoy shouts, “Go back to your own table. I can feel your filth on me already.”
Dean snarls at the blond, “I’m pretty sure that’s just self-realisation.” He turns back to Gabriel and nods. “I’ll see you later.”
Gabriel nods, and when Dean’s far away, smashes Malfoy’s head into his cheesecake.
Snape shouts at him for it, but it was so worth the look on the arrogant little snob’s face.
The next day, Dean slides next to him in potions, and if looks can kill, then Gabriel would be a smear of ash on the ground thanks to the glare Milton is sending him.
Milton ends up sitting next to Balthazar, a cousin of Gabriel’s, and Snape eyeballs them suspiciously. Gabriel guesses that two Gryffindors sitting with two Slytherins voluntarily happens never in a blue moon, until now.
When the lesson starts, Dean flips open his textbook and starts to doodle on the margins. Gabriel nods; he does that too.
Dean stares at the board blankly, and then hurries to the drawer of ingredients. Snape’s lip curls with thinly veiled contempt.
“So,” Dean starts, as he lights a fire under his cauldron. “What’s up with your life?”
“I slammed Malfoy’s face into cake.”
Dean barks a laugh, “Good, he deserves it.”
“I thought so,” Gabriel agrees, and they share a smile.
From across the room, Milton’s glare heats up. Dean continues, oblivious, and dumps Whatsit Bean juice into his caldron.
In the end, Snape pronounces Dean’s potion ‘acceptable’ and Gabriel’s ‘excellent’. He smiles boastfully, and Dean raises an eyebrow in an are you kidding me look, because his potion is just as good as Gabriel’s; Gabriel knows, but he’s also smiling, so it’s okay. Plus, Gabriel knows Snape can be biased. Okay, so he’s always biased.
When they leave, Dean smiles and tells Gabriel that he’ll see him later. Then Milton stomps up and whisks Dean away, acting rather alarmingly like Snape’s bat out of hell impression, whispering to him frantically. Dean frowns, hissing something back.
Gabriel wants to hear more, but they’ve already left the potions room, and soon he realises that he’s sitting alone in the empty room like an idiot, and even Snape has left.
He gathers up his stuff and tears, godspeed, towards the Charm’s classroom.
But not before he leaves a little present for Draco Malfoy to find.
By dinner, it had travelled all over the school. Someone had sabotaged Draco Malfoy’s seat, so every time he shifted, even a little, it would squawk out something demeaning about Malfoy. But only about Malfoy, of course, even though countless other students had sat in it later on.
Gabriel is prankster-in-chief to the Weasley twins (simply because his are more ‘just desserts’ while the Weasley’s are aimed at the general public for no apparent reasons other than their own enjoyment. Gabriel finds that annoying, because pulling pranks are an art form, thank you very much), who themselves are prankster-in-chief to Peeves, so people were already suspecting him. After Gabriel’s little display yesterday, the students are convinced it was him. As he walks the esteemed halls of Hogwarts, head held high, students would smile at him, praise him, or even thank him for the laugh. Even the Weasley twins came up to him, grudging respect in their eyes, and congratulated him. The great Harry Potter himself smiled gratefully at him, and if that wasn’t weird then Gabriel doesn’t know what is.
What’s amazing about this is that the teachers have absolutely no proof it was him, so he basically committed a perfect crime.
It’s bloody awesome.
“You wanna go to Hogsmeade with me?” Gabriel asks mindlessly one wet and muddy April day.
Dean blinks his bright green eyes, green as the baby grass outside. Gabriel needs to stop eating those Every-Flavour Beans, they turn him into a freaking poet. “Okay.”
Gabriel nods numbly. “Okay.”
“So I’ll see you there.”
“At Honeydukes.” Honeydukes is amazing. Honeydukes is like the heaven above and paradise and the Garden of Eden and pure, undiluted happiness in a diamond jar poured over the entire store infused with rainbows and lollipops and unicorns and seeing Merlin in Camelot. Merlin, no more Every-Flavour Beans.
But seriously, Honeydukes rocks.
Dean raises an eyebrow at Gabriel’s look of absolute, blissful delight.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” Gabriel nods. He’s completely normal. Yup.
They exchange a smile, and head off to different directions.
Dean heads to Hogsmeade with Castiel by his side. Gabriel watches their descent to Hogsmead in Honeydukes, his attention torn between Dean and candy.
Gabriel sees Dean wave good-bye to a reluctant, rather angry looking Castiel, and walk into Honeydukes. The Slytherin is currently stuffing his pockets with sweets, and he looks up when he hears a bell ring.
Dean’s cheeks and ears are flushed red from the cold, and the black cloak he’s wearing set off his… everything.
“You like your sweets, don’t you?” Dean gestures to Gabriel’s bulging pockets.
“Yeah,” Gabriel says frankly. Dean nods, pursing his lips. He has nice lips. Full, pouty ones.
Dean nods, “Personally, I like the Frizzing Whizbees.” He takes a few of the Whizbees from the box.
“Frizzing Whizbees are cool,” Gabriel agrees. A slightly uncomfortable silence descends on them.
Dean gets a thinking look, “You’re a prankster, right?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel smiles; it’s one of the things he’s proud of.
“We should go to Zonko’s.”
Gabriel nods happily. Oh yeah, Dean gets him.
At Zonko’s, Dean and Gabriel laugh and joke around, thinking of all the pranks they’ve pulled.
“You know, I’ve always liked your style,” Dean laughs. “That slow-dancing alien? Priceless.”
“Ah, yeah, that,” Gabriel remembers that occasion fondly, “That was one of my best works.”
“How did you even know what an alien is? I mean, wizards don’t know any of that-”
“I watched alien movies before, with Lucifer. My brother,” Gabriel adds, seeing Dean’s blank look.
“Oh. Wow,” he smiles, “Your parents must’ve hated him, huh?”
“Actually, he was their favourite.” Gabriel remembers how much they loved Lucifer - still love him, in fact.
“I’m sorry,” Dean’s bright smile has dimmed, his light expression pensive.
“No, he didn’t die,” Gabriel corrects hastily, remembering the past tense, “He just… ran away.”
“Oh,” Dean repeats.
They drop it.
In the end, Dean buys a nose-biting teacup and Gabriel some sugar quills, a dungbomb, two hiccough sweets, and a frog-spawning soap.
The cashier casts an incredulous look towards Gabriel, who grins maniacally. Dean just smiles sweetly, all sun-streaked blond hair and clear green anime eyes, like some sweet, innocent, angelic seventeen-year-old (and wasn’t that an oxymoron).
At dinner that day, instead of Cas, it’s a short Ravenclaw boy with floppy brown hair beside Dean. Gabriel remembers seeing that boy with Dean thousands of times before. Dean looks down at the small boy with a look of pure love and adoration, and Gabriel can’t help but be jealous of the small boy, whom Gabriel now guesses is Sam. Not only because he wants Dean to look at him that way, even though he knows it won’t happen, but because in all sixteen years of his life, no one has ever looked at him that way.
Sam is talking to Dean, or rather scolding. The older Winchester is frowning, arguing back. Sam shakes his head frantically and emphasises his words with rough gestures.
Then Gabriel sees the dark brown mop of Castiel’s hair as he heads towards Dean. He and Sam exchange a mutual glare, and Dean hunches back, looking defeated.
The next things he knows, Dean is being led back to the Gryffindor table by Castiel.
Gabriel blinks. What the fuck had just happened?
“Where’re your bodyguards?”
Dean smiles wanly and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Sam’s too small to be my bodyguard. And Cas has to study.”
Ah. Right. It is, after all, June. They have finals coming up.
“You want to study together?”
Dean’s smile becomes ironic now, and he shrugs, “Sure.”
So they head to the library.
“Okay, so incantation for, um, water?”
“A stream of water. Aguamenti.”
Gabriel nods, “Right. Birds?”
“Avis. Are we doing this in alphabetical order?”
Gabriel nods again, to both of the questions.
Dean sighs.
“What are you doing with Winchester all the time?” Raphael asks, and Gabriel ignores him. He’s had a bad day already, what with the transfiguration exam kicking his arse and all, he doesn’t need his arsehole brother to make it worse.
“I asked you a question.” Low and threatening, Raphael stands in front of him, a hulking mass of pretentiousness.
“I am talking to Dean because he’s my friend,” Gabriel enunciates the words heavily, dragging them out as if he’s speaking to someone especially slow.
“He’s more than that,” Gabriel’s brother sneers, all self-righteous and with that I’m-better-than-you attitude Gabriel hates so much, only he’s pretty sure he’s also like that in a way. “I see the way you look at him.”
“What way?” Gabriel challenges.
“Like you have a crush on him.”
“I don’t.”
“You better not, because our family don’t like people like that.” He smirks, “Although given what Winchester looks like, it makes sense that you might like him. Coulda mistaken him for a pretty girl.”
And with that, Raphael ambles out; sneer to rival a Malfoy’s best planted firmly on his face. Gabriel snarls, ready to freaking kill the arsehole.
Again: Huge. Fucking. Dick.
So Gabriel decides to completely forget Raphael’s words because he doesn’t like Raphael all that much. He also jinxes him so he would make out with every person of the same sex he sees for every two minutes, House-Elves and professors included, so that was pretty entertaining.
As the school year reaches an end, Dean and Gabriel become closer, Castiel tenser, Sam bitchier, and Raphael even more of a dick. However, nothing happens.
And then school ends, and they promise they will write to each other.
So they do.
July 8th, 1995
Dean,
How’s life in Muggleland? Fun? Boring? Because I’m bored - the stick up Michael’s arse has only grown larger and longer as Lucifer’s not talking, and Raphael is a tremendous dick. Is it the same in America? Because I think you should have some better weather, or something. I don’t know, we don’t have one of your Muggle televisions, and our radio just stays in Britain.
I pulled another prank on Raphael - it was amazing! You should have seen it, the look on his face? Priceless.
Oh, right. I put sugar in his salt shaker, like you did to your brother. I thought it was pretty smart, and I’ve never done anything like it.
So, how is Muggle America doing?
-Gabriel
July 18th, 1995
Gabriel,
You know owls aren’t equipped to fly overseas, right? Your owl looked ready to die of exhaustion. I’ve sent something else with your poor idiot owl, and trust me, it’s gonna make everything easier. Well, no, I’ve sent your poor idiot owl with that something, to be precise. I don’t even know how he made the trip in ten days. He must be able to teleport.
Anyway, Muggleland is fine. I’m currently in Colorado (that’s a state in the good old US of A), and Dad, Sammy and I are having some quality bonding time. And yeah, we do have better weather over here. Raining? Again? Seriously? Yeah, no wonder I like America more.
Switching salt & sugar? Gabe, that is old school. I can’t believe you would find something like that funny. Then again, I never had the pleasure of jinxing someone so they’d make out with random males before I was accepted. So.
-Dean
July 20th, 1995
Dean,
The owl’s name is Loki, jackarse, and he may be an idiot, but he’s still prettier than yours. And he still has a better name. Also, the thingy you sent me helps - did Dumbledore give it to you? What the hell is it?
Raphael has attempted to have his revenge. He told Michael that I liked you - how weird is that? Anyway, it blew up in his face. Michael didn’t give a shit. Then again, Michael doesn’t give a shit about much these days.
-Gabriel
July 21st, 1995
Gabe,
What? You mean you don’t like me? I thought we had a beautiful friendship!
Nah, I’m kidding. I know what you mean. And it’s a good thing Michael didn’t care - and he was probably just trying to do work: you know, support the family, ‘cos your Dad’s gone? And yeah, Dumbledore gave it to me. Said it’ll come in handy when his owls don’t die of exhaustion attempting to give me my book list. I don’t really know what it is. It seems like a weird-ass portkey.
-Dean
P.S: The name is Clyde. Clyde is an amazing name. What kind of name is Loki?
July 23rd, 1995
Loki is a famous trickster from Norse Mythology. He’s also half-giant. You don’t mess with Loki. Clyde is stupid. And according to you, Clyde was a monkey. You named your owl after a monkey.
Yeah, yeah, Michael’s trying to support us - We’re loaded. He doesn’t even need to work. I have no idea why you’re always defending him. He doesn’t need to take care of us, or try to support us. We can take care of ourselves.
-Gabriel
July 25th, 1995
Dean? Are you there? Did the thingy malfunction or are you just ignoring me?
-Gabriel
July 29th, 1995
Look, if it’s about the Michael thing, forget I said anything, alright?
-Gabriel
August 2nd, 1995
Dean? You okay?
-Gabriel
August 5th, 1995
Gabe,
I’m fine. Just, something happened and I had to visit a hospital for a while. I’m fine now, I swear. And I wasn’t pissed at what you said about Michael, either. I just thought you could have been more grateful. But it’s okay. Just forget I said anything.
-Dean
August 5th, 1995
HOLY SHIT.
I’M FUCKING HEAD BOY.
-Dean
August 6th, 1995
You have failed me greatly, Head Boy. What’s going to happen to the late night pranks? The bets? The jokes? The promises? How can all that happen now that you’re an enforcer of the law? Even worse, the big head honcho enforcer of the law?
-Gabriel
P.S: You’d better be fine
P.P.S: congrats
August 7th, 1995
I’m also Quidditch Captain.
-Dean
P.S: Thanks
August 9th, 1995
Apology accepted.
And so am I.
I look forward to beating you, kitty.
-Gabriel
August 11th, 1995
Bring it on, worm.
And you know both Cas and Sam were inappropriately ecstatic. You have no idea how happy I was to see someone disapproving. Felt like things were back to the natural order.
My Dad just seemed confused.
-Dean
August 13th, 1995
He was probably wondering where he went wrong. And Castiel and Sam are nerds - they’re not like us. You know that.
-Gabriel
August 15th, 1995
Yeah, but Sam’s still my baby brother and Cas’ still my best friend, even though they don’t seem to like each other much. And neither of them like you. And Sam doesn’t like Dad. And Cas wants to, but I know he doesn’t exactly like Dad either. When Sam and Cas agree, that’s when horrible things start happening.
-Dean
August 20th, 1995
Sorry, teensy vacation. And I had to start up on my summer homework.
Anyway. Wow, I feel like a therapist. But, uh, I know what that’s like, and it sucks. But it’ll resolve. Or you can escape to Hogwarts and then, I dunno, lock those two in a closet somewhere. I’ll help you.
-Gabriel
Aug 23rd
There was SUMMER HOMEWORK?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Shit fuck shit shit shit fuck shit sonovabitch shit.
August 24th, 1995
Uh, yeah, Head Boy. There was, in fact, summer homework, Mr. Head Boy. There was summer homework every year, Sir Head Boy.
So if you weren’t doing homework, what were you doing during those silent 5 days, Lord Head Boy of Hogwarts?
-Gabriel
August 25th, 1995
Shut up, Gabriel. I was looking after Sammy. It’s a time-consuming task.
-Dean
August 26th, 1995
What? Your Dad can’t do it?
-Gabriel
August 27th, 1995
No.
He’s busy.
-Dean
August 28th, 1995
Wow. Okay.
-Gabriel
August 29th, 1995
Sorry, I was just stressed out. So, me and Sammy are packing right now, and I guess I’ll meet you in Hogwarts.
You know what? I think the next year is when everything’s gonna change.
Wow, that sounded epically cheesy. I don’t know why I put it there. Not sure why I’m not crossing it out, either.
-Dean
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