Gabriel slept deeply and woke up to find his boyfriend staring at him with open concern. The last thing he remembered was...

"I had a relapse didn't I?" he said tiredly.

"Dean said you went totally postal on them. They were left in chunks," said Loki.

"Is he alright?"

"I'm fine, and why the hell didn't you warn us that might happen?" asked Dean in concern.

"I told you about my past. You never thought I might have PTSD if exposed to torture?" said Gabriel annoyed.

"You going to be okay?" asked Sam. He had coffee, and Gabriel gulped it down without hesitation.

"Gah! I will be in a few days. Anyone got any ice?" said Gabriel wincing. That coffee had been HOT. Loki chuckled and got rid of the pain as well as the migraine Gabriel had.

"Which reminds me, you better be ready in an hour or two," said Dean cryptically.

"Why?"

"Loki shifted us to Bobby's. We were just waiting for you to wake up," said Dean.

"Trust me, you'll like it," chuckled Sam.

"I trust you a hell of a lot more than I do Dean or Loki. They would fuck with me just because they could," said Gabriel. He needed a shower, NOW.

What Gabriel found in Bobby's house had him stop in shock.

It was an honest-to-god Christmas tree with all the trimmings. The entire house had been hit by some sort of Christmas nut. Gabriel looked at Dean, who nodded to Loki. It made sense in a twisted sort of way.

Unfortunately, as the one person in the house who could cook anything from scratch and still be edible, Gabriel was the designated cook. He didn't mind though...cooking tended to calm his nerves down.

He did have to laugh when he saw the 'presents' everyone got.

For Sam, it was a set of books on positions, lube, Norse mythology and a few games for his laptop along with a terabyte hard drive.

For Dean, it was a catalog of the older car parts and a card saying that he could have up to three parts for his baby, several girl-on-girl tapes (an apology from Fen and Jor), and a few guns. He wasn't much for books.

Bobby got several enchanted guns, a full set of some books he had great trouble tracking down, and a new ball cap from Gabriel. He had noticed Bobby's hat was getting old and frayed, so he had gotten one he knew the man would like.

Fen and Jor got several gag gifts from everyone.

Loki got two cards with the notice that he could get out of being shot from Bobby and Dean, several super sour candies from Sam (seeing Loki's face pucker up from the Warheads had been hilarious for them to watch) and a few gag gifts from Fen, Jor and Gabriel.

But it was Gabriel that everyone was watching. After that relapse they didn't need him to be in any more trauma than he already was.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Dean's gift.

"The Greatest Hits of AC/DC? Dean, what part of 'I am not into mullet rock as you are' do you not get?"

He went to Sam's next. It had him snorting in amusement. It was a depiction of 'Gabriel' the arch angel...one of those made by people who had trouble understanding Gabriel was a guy's name. Loki took one look at it and shot Sam a Look. One that promised retribution for that...he hated it when people thought he was a girl!

Angels might be sexless, but he was a guy! He had been a man for most of history for crying out loud! And why did people think he had a 'horn' to blow when the end came? Who came up with that one?

Gabriel openly snorted in amusement at the blackmail pictures he got of Sam and Dean as kids. He had removed most of the photos in his album, but now he had something to put into it again.

Hermione and Ron had been a bitch and a half to cut out of his pictures, but totally worth it. Seeing the looks on the faces of his brothers, he was definitely glad to have these.

Fen, Jor and Hel all gave Gabriel prank potions to hit their father with, and Loki had a 'coupon' for a full body massage. Gabriel usually had to bribe Loki for one of those after a bad day.

But it was Gabriel's gift to his small family that really cheered him up.

Seeing them drool over his cooking just brightened his mood right up. He didn't often go all out, but when he did there was rarely anything left to eat later.

All in all, it was a good Christmas...right up until the point Loki brought out the mead.

Fen, Jor and Loki drank most of it, but what little they gave the humans (and one almost angel) had the men groaning from the worst damn hangover they had ever had.

It was pure boredom that started a series of events that could possibly heal Gabriel from the trauma he suffered in England. It started out simply enough... a college professor was killed rather mysteriously and he had decided to take the case instead of Bobby.

Like an idiot, he foolishly accepted a beer from one of the 'test subjects' of the professor's research.

Sam and Dean would be called a few days later by a rather panicked Loki who had been the first called by the hospital.

"What happened?" demanded Dean.

"Dream root. Some asshole has Gabe trapped in his own memories with the dream root, and since I'm not human I can't exactly use it to go get him. The only ones who can save Gabe from his memories are you two idiots, particularly Sam."

"Where are we going to get dream root?"

Loki handed them ten gold coins.

"Go five miles down the road, and look for an alley that shouldn't exist with a roaring dragon on the signpost. That leads to the magical alley where the professor got the dream root. Ask for Paul, he runs the apothecary and tell him Loki sent you."

Sam left with a nod and returned two hours later with the troublesome ingredient. Loki made a brew of the root and put a piece of Gabriel's hair in each cup.

It took mere minutes for it to kick in.

Sam was in a castle. The pictures moved as if they were still alive, the armor nodded in passing, and there were ghosts floating around the halls looking more stable than any he had ever seen.

He knew there was only one place he could be.

Hogwarts. And passing by a window, he found himself in a rather odd uniform. He had a blue and bronze tie on with a raven on the crest. He was also wearing what appeared to be robes.

"Hey, did you hear? Potter's adopted!" came the whispers.

Sam honed in on the whispering. He followed them as they grew louder, barely paying any mind to what they were actually saying.

Finally he found the source.

"I'm... I'm sorry Harry. If that really is your name. But this is huge...the prophecy clearly stated that only someone born at the end of July could kill Voldemort..." said a girl.

She had bushy hair and a bossy demeanor. He could see Gabriel standing there with messy raven black hair and the familiar green eyes. He looked both betrayed and filled with pain.

"Hermione please! You've never held stock in Divination before, so why are you believing something that drunken crackpot claims to have Seen now?" cried Gabriel. He sounded so unhappy.

"Harry, listen to yourself! Just because we might have had feelings for each other at one point doesn't mean you have to lower yourself now that you're not the hero we all thought you were," said Hermione scathingly.

Sam had heard enough when Gabriel started crying like his heart was broken. Before Hermione could do any more damage, he took seven long strides towards his twin brother and slapped her.

"...Sam? What..."

"Gabriel, look at yourself. Do you really want to marry someone as shallow as this bitch or would you rather be with someone who genuinely loves you? You have no idea how terrified Loki was when he found out you wouldn't wake up," said Sam.

Sam watched as his words took effect. Gabriel's hair was lighter now, and was starting to turn brown at the edges.

"Besides, what makes you think we care if you were once British? Dean and I may not have been able to protect you growing up, but we're here now and we plan to stay," said Sam.

"Where... where is Dean?"

"Think. What is the most likely place for Dean to end up in this place?"

Gabriel thought long and hard, before he suddenly snorted.

"Follow me," he said.

The went down a few floors until they reached a portrait of a bowl of fruit, and Gabriel promptly...

"Are you tickling that pear?" asked Sam bewildered.

"It's how you get in," explained Gabriel. The 'pear' turned into a doorknob and inside were a bunch of gremlin looking creatures along with...

"Dean!?"

"Sammy! Don't know where this is but I am loving these guys!" said Dean grinning with a pie in each hand.

Inside was a buffet of pies.

Sam and Gabriel shared a look, before they burst out laughing.

"So where is the one who trapped you?"

Gabriel snorted.

"I trapped his sorry ass in the Chamber of Secrets with the basilisk. He couldn't send my own enemies after me, so he decided breaking me with my more traumatizing moments was the next best thing. Hope he enjoys that giant ass snake to play with. That thing was vicious."

"How did you trap him instead?" asked Dean.

"Occulmency. Loki showed me how to shield my mind properly, then added a few extra surprises. Then again, I did add a few extras if that idiot manages to make it out of the main chamber."

"Like what?"

"Fluffy, mostly."

"Fluffy?"

"A Cerberus I had to get around when I was eleven. There's also the Hungarian Horntail I faced when I was fourteen. And the basilisk is from when I was twelve. As a matter of fact, since we're here..." said Gabriel grinning.

Suddenly the pies were replaced with other sweets. Gabriel grabbed some form of tart and dug into it with obvious relish.

"Not as good as the real thing, but I'll take it until I can bribe Lo' to get me some when I finally wake up," said Gabriel.

"What is that?"

"Treacle tart. One of the few guilty pleasures that damn near impossible to get here in the States. Mostly because I just can't get the main ingredient without going to Europe, and there's no way in the pit I'm stopping by England just to fill my addiction to the treat."

Once Dean had filled himself (not) they finally went to the second floor.

"Dude, why are we going into a bathroom?" asked Dean.

A ghostly fourteen-year-old floated by.

"Hello Harry. That rather rude young man is still in there... and he's run into Fluffy twice," said Myrtle.

"Hello Myrtle. Thanks for keeping him in there for me."

"If you die, you and your friends can always share my stall," she giggled.

Gabriel laughed hard at the shudder Dean and Sam gave at that declaration.

"Is she for real?" asked Dean horrified. He drew the line at jail bait, thank you.

"Actually she said something to the same affect when I went to face the snake the first time. And I was twelve at the time," said Gabriel. He went to the stall and hissed ~Open~, and got Dean to shudder again.

~Stairs.~

Gabriel lead them past the snake skin, which had his brothers giving him a horrified look when they saw how big that damn thing had been. Dean stopped and stared when he saw the three headed dog in front of a door with multiple snakes around it.

Sam had another reaction. He went right up to it and cooed.

"That does it... I'm getting Sam a miniature Cerberus if it kills me," said Gabriel laughing.

"Do and I'll kill you!" said Dean. He didn't want a three headed dog in his car!

They found the student who had killed his teacher trying to hide from the eighty-foot snake. It was definitely playing with him, because it kept coming close but just barely holding back.

Gabriel glared at the bastard.

"How did you..."

"You son-of-a-bitch. Consider the games you played with my own monsters child's play to what I'm about to do to you!" snarled Gabriel.

Sam and Dean winced at the way Gabriel absolutely lit into the idiot before he violently threw the kid out of his mind. If that kid's mind stayed intact after what Gabriel had put him through while trapped, Sam would be very surprised.

"Gabe!" yelped Loki when he woke up.

"OW! Lo, get off!"

"Do you have any idea how worried I was?" said Loki.

"I know you sent Sam and Dean. Did you know that idiot was actually in the kitchens when we found him?"

"Figures Dean would land there," snorted Loki.

"He had a buffet of pie when we found him."

Loki couldn't help his amused laugh at that. It did sound like something Dean would do.

"Coincidentally..."

"You got a request?"

"Treacle tart. Real treacle tart, not that fake crap in New York," said Gabriel.

"Get checked out and I'll get you some. I'm glad you're alright Gabe," said Loki, kissing him on the cheek.

Gabriel finished the last of the paperwork in time for Sam and Dean to come pick him up. His motorcycle had been put inside his 'house' once Loki realized he wasn't waking up, so he would need a ride home.

Once they were back at Bobby's house, they found a large box with Gabriel's name on it. He dove into it with the same glee Dean usually had on his face whenever Gabriel made fresh pie.