When Gabriel sees Severus Snape the next morning after his visit to Harry, he immediately snatches him away, the younger man clearly baffled by his sudden seriousness.

"This is the year that Harry Potter will enter the school," he starts, shooting the potions master a careful look from where he's standing next to the fireplace and frowning when he sees the younger man scowl.

"I'm aware," Severus says, throwing him a sullen glance.

"I've noticed you seem to harbor a certain disdain towards the boy. Why?", Gabriel continues, ignoring Severus' remark.

The potions teacher stiffens and looks away from him. Gabriel fetches a glass of apple juice for himself and offers Snape Whisky, which he declines with a small twitch of his lips.

"Lily Evans and I used to be good friends when I was young," Severus starts haltingly, still not looking at him.

Gabriel says nothing, and after a few more stutters, the potions teacher tells him everything.

When Severus finishes, his throat is slightly sore, and he takes the water Gabriel gives him thankfully. Gabriel suspects he also wants to hide his suspiciously red-rimmed eyes.

Still taking in the bulk of information, Gabriel leans back against the comfortable chair.

"Well," he says after a while, making Severus look up from where he'd been staring into his glass sullenly, "Dumbledore sure is a massive dick."

Severus' eyebrows shoot upwards towards his hairline and he chokes slightly on his water. Gabriel allows himself a tiny smirk.

"Don't get me wrong, you're also a dick," he continues, and he smiles when Severus nods glumly. During the potion masters retelling of the last two decades Gabriel had thrown in his opinion here and there, letting Severus know exactly what he thought of his past exploits.

Gabriel thinks that Severus looks like a dog who's getting chastised for eating all the cookies, and sighs.

"In fact, I would even go as far as calling you a hypocrite," he says, holding up a hand when Severus bristles and opens his mouth to justify himself.

"Don't you think you're dishonoring Lily's legacy?"

Severus flinches, the hand holding his glass trembling slightly.

"Don't you think Lily would be sad, disappointed even, when she knew you met her child with such contempt and unjust hate?"

Gabriel turns away from the younger man in order to slowly make his way to the fireplace next to Severus. The Archangel stares into the fire for a few seconds, saying nothing and letting Severus stew in his self-hatred.

"Resentment and anger lead nowhere but towards more resentment and anger, Severus," he mutters, and pictures of Michael and Lucifer ghost through his head. Gabriel sighs heavily once more and slumps down into his armchair again.

"Are you familiar with Norse mythology?", he asks after another short pause and Severus musters up a quiet, unenthusiastic snort.

"Got to keep everything on brand, do you?"

Even as he's speaking, he's shaking his head.

Gabriel leans back and crosses his legs, thinking on how to explain this in the best way.

"There once was a god named Odin. He was a wise, old man and the ruler of Asgard. When he was younger and still a prince, he liked to travel. On one of these travels, he met Loki. They really hit it off, and after long years of friendship they became brothers in blood."

Slightly uncomfortable, Gabriel shifts in his seat. He notes with a slight smile that Severus is listening intently if a bit confused.

"After even longer years of brotherhood, during which Loki saved Odin and his kin multiple times with his wit, the Norn, the three sisters of destiny, prophesized the end of the world, Ragnarok, and that it would happen at the hand of Loki's children."

Severus' hand stutters slightly in his path to set down his glass on the table. Gabriel doesn't comment on it.

"And so, even though Odin gave one of his eyes to achieve wisdom, he was overcome by irrationality and fear. He ordered that the children of Loki were to be locked away, treating mere kids who weren't even in their teens yet as only potential threats. Of course, this enraged Loki greatly. In his anger, Loki vowed to take revenge on Odin and make him experience how it felt to lose a child. So, Loki tricked the blind god Hodr into killing Odin's son Baldur, who was said to be the gentlest of all gods."

By now, Severus is looking at him intently, eyebrows drawn together in concentration. Gabriel is staring into the fire unblinkingly, avoiding eye-contact.

"You see where I'm coming from?", he asks after a few seconds of silence where he can't decide how to properly convey his message. Dad-dammit, he's the messenger! Where did his way with words go?

Luckily, it seems like Severus kind of understood where he was going with this, as he's nodding slowly.

"Great, then we can stop the moping now and collectively decide to be a more decent human, right?", Gabriel waltzes on quickly, suddenly remembering all the crying first years with a start. Right, he'd forgotten about them completely.

Severus sighs and puts down his glass of water in order to clasp his hands in his lap.

"Gabriel, I really don't like this job. Nor do I have a particular fondness for children. I'm only here at this school, teaching, because Albus tells me to. I'm in his debt and therefore in no position to deny him," he mutters sullenly, his face clouded in disdain.

Gabriel shrugs.

"Well, I'm sorry for you, but I can't do anything about that. At least right now. You might have to give me about a year," he muses half to himself, pausing when he sees Severus' incredulous face. An enormous grin forces itself onto his face.

"What? I don't particularly like Dumbledore, and this just sounds like a major opportunity to piss him off."

Severus lets out an incredulous snort, but nonetheless shifts forward in his seat, looking slightly hopeful.

Gabriel gets up in order to pace animatedly in front of the younger man.

"So, I'll need you to just listen to me, okay? No interruptions."

Severus nods cautiously.

"You mentioned you knew Lily's sister as a kid, right? Then you might also remember that she wasn't all that fond of magic and that she married an apoplectic, egregious man, whom she has a child with who's the same age as Harry."

Gabriel takes a particularly sharp turn in his rounds and holds up a hand to stall Severus' questions. Severus closes his mouth with an audible click.

"Six years ago, I was in London, and a small boy bumped into me. Almost immediately after, he was dragged away by his uncle, basically being thrown around like a ragdoll. Naturally, I got curious and followed them. At their home I discovered that said boy was named Harry and that he lived under the stairs in a cupboard."

"What," says Severus flatly.

"Yep, you heard me right, he was living in a cupboard. Naturally, I had to investigate. I dabbled a bit in warding, you see, so I recognized the numerous wards around the house as various forms of tracking or monitoring wards. So, I disabled them, just to see what would happen," Gabriel continues, deciding not to mention the blood ward issue for now.

By now, Severus is looking half constipated and half furious, his hands clenched into fists.

Turning towards the bookshelf next to the fireplace to hide his small smirk, Gabriel carries on.

"Imagine my surprise when shortly after, Dumbledore showed up. He blabbed on about wards for a minute before disappearing again. I made my own conclusions from that and decided to interfere. I took on the disguise of a muggle children's' care official and visited the Dursleys over the last years in order to look over Harry a bit."

Gabriel sits down again, smiling pleasantly, proud of himself when he's able to completely suppress his flinch when he suddenly feels a third presence in his living room.

"Bloody hell," Severus says, his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. His face is even paler than usual, and he methodically clenches and unclenches his hands.

"I-," he starts, but Gabriel stops him.

"I'm sure you're going to have to take all that in, so maybe come back in the evening? We'll revise our masterplan then."

Without much protest, Severus lets himself be ushered out of the door, and Gabriel groans when he's finally able to close the door behind his kind-of-friend.

"By everything that's holy! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Stop whining, it's not like you can have any."

This time, Loki has sleek, black hair and high cheekbones that frame a very aristocratic face. He's still wearing that weird tunic.

Gabriel slumps down into his chair again and runs his fingers through his hair.

"Did what I just did make any sense? Probably not," mutters Gabriel, more to himself than to Loki. Still, the Norse god visibly perks up.

"What you did was remarkably imaginative. Turning Severus against Dumbledore? Nice."

Gabriel grins.

"Aw, thanks. I came up with it on the spot."

"Yes, that much was obvious," Loki retorts, suddenly holding a tumbler of Whisky in his hand. He waves his free hand lazily and another one appears in front of Gabriel.

"Why are you here?", Gabriel asks, trying to sound annoyed even as he picks up the tumbler.

"Can't I visit an old friend?"

Gabriel snorts.

"Sure. Suit yourself. Must have gotten the wrong door, then," he says, grinning when Loki places a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"You wound me," he whines, draping himself over his chair dramatically.

"Oh, shut up you big whiney kid."

Gabriel sniggers, his laugh echoing through his living space as he goes to the kitchen in order to raid the cabinets there for wizards' alcohol.

Hi. An update? In my story? Yup, it's happening. I hope what I tried to do in this chapter makes sense at least a little bit? Also, I'm sorry that the only thing that happens in this chapter is the conversation between Snape and Gabriel, but I do think that this is quite an important moment for Severus, soo...

I also finally went back and fixed a bit of the older chapters, so at least now the tenses should be somewhat consistent.

Alas, have a good day, stay healthy, and until next time.

Magnus out.