Bobby looked at Dean. Dean was carefully holding a kid who looked somewhat malnourish and in obvious second-hand clothing with eyes almost the same shade as his own.

"If this is your way of telling me you got a girl knocked up and only found out about the kid now..." started Bobby dangerously.

"No!" said Dean quickly. "The kid climbed into the Impala when a shifter wiped out his family, and from what I can tell they were the only family he had left. Besides, he looked a lot worse when I found him in the car."

"What's your name son?" he asked the kid.

The kid held onto Dean's pants a little tighter, obviously shy. Dean winced.

"From what I can tell, he's not exactly social. Poor kid hid every time I left the hotel room to get food or pack up the car and I had to coax him out," said Dean unhappily.

Considering the kid looked way too skinny and small for his age and was so skittish, Dean couldn't just leave him with the cops or a church. There was no telling where he would end up and from what he could tell, the kid's passport was a fake. He'd either be extradited back to England or end up in an overcrowded orphanage that wouldn't care for him at all.

Dean wasn't going to abuse the limited trust he had built up over the past week just to dump him on a system that might not care for him properly.

"I hope you know what you're doing," said Bobby, letting them in.

Whatever doubt he had about Dean keeping the kid, it died the next morning when he discovered the boy making breakfast of all things. It was barely six in the morning, and most children he knew would rather sleep in than get up to make breakfast.

"...How old are you son?"

The boy flinched, as if expecting to get hit. Bobby waited patiently and didn't try to comfort him. He looked at Bobby with a skittish expression as he quietly said "Seven."

The kid looked barely five, at the most.

"Why are you making breakfast?" asked Bobby carefully. More importantly how the hell did a kid under ten know how to make actual bacon, eggs and toast to the point that it looked edible? He was barely big enough to reach the older model stove Bobby had.

"I always have to make the breakfast," said the kid quietly.

Dean came down around that time, saw what was going on and hid his frown rather well.

"Hey kiddo, I thought I said you could sleep in if you wanted?" he said gently. He made slow movements that gave the kid every opportunity to avoid his gentle ruffle of the hair.

"I always make the breakfast," he said quietly, confused why the two men were unhappy.

Dean carefully made his way to where the kid was and scooped him up. He curled into the older man while Bobby plated the food. It bothered him that the kid seemed to think it was normal to cook for the adults, rather than sleep in.

If that bothered him, it was nothing compared to learning that the kid knew a little too well how to handle several dangerous cleaning products without the proper safety items like gloves and was a bit too neat for a child.

Bobby shared a look with Dean. This was worse than he thought, and any complaints he had about the younger man bringing the child to his house died realizing that Dean had likely saved the kid from a rather abusive home.

They didn't have anything the kid could wear, and the boy seemed genuinely surprised that he was allowed to eat what he cooked instead of scraps.

Bobby could definitively state he did not like the kid's family and that it was probably a good thing a shifter killed them before he did.

The next morning

Bobby, in an effort to gently convince the kid he didn't need to cook breakfast every morning, woke up a little early and started the coffee. As he predicted, the kid was up not fifteen minutes after and would have likely started making breakfast if Bobby hadn't stopped him.

"No one in this house generally eats breakfast this early," he said gently. "Dean in particular likes to sleep in until at least ten if he can get away with it and I tend to wake up around eight at the most. While we appreciated the fact you made it yesterday, you aren't...required...to make it once you're up. If you want to sleep in, that's fine. If we're hungry we're more likely to pull down some cereal or make some toast."

He looked a little confused at that. Vernon always wanted his breakfast by no later than seven sharp and Aunt Petunia always made him wake up extra early to insure he got it. Only Dudley was allowed to sleep in, and he still woke up around seven thirty at the latest.

Bobby coaxed the skinny kid to the table, where he pulled down some cereal. It was a pretty basic box of honey-nut cheerios, or at least the generic brand. The kid was openly in shock that Bobby made the bowl just for him and that he was allowed to drink something as simple as orange juice.

Once the kid finished the bowl, even drinking up the milk, Bobby put it in the dishes and coaxed the kid back to sleep. He didn't wake up until nine, and looked rather startled that he was once again allowed to eat with everyone else.

A week later...

Bobby watched with a small measure of pride as Dean carefully coaxed Harry (it had taken them three days to find out his name) into playing a simple game of catch. It was pretty clear Dean had taken a real shine to the boy and was unlikely to give him up.

Which was why he had a plan on how to deal with that. From what he could tell, Dean had no intention of following in his father's footsteps. He would want the kid to have a stable home and not being trained as a soldier like he had been.

Harry's presence was already good for Dean. He was acting more mature, drinking less and was showing some responsibility for a kid that wasn't even his own blood. And it was pretty clear Dean was good for Harry, if only because Dean wasn't anything like his previous guardians.

Bobby's plan was to bring the Sheriff in so she could see how Dean interacted with Harry and explain the situation to her. Considering he had a semi-good relationship with her, he had high hopes she would agree to stream-line the adoption process.

But first...he had a bit of cleaning up to do.

Dean, when he walked in with Harry, looked at tad defensive when he found the sheriff there. However he relaxed a tad when he realized she wasn't there to take Harry away or send him to England.

Sheriff Mills looked at the scrawny kid. She could see what Bobby meant about the abuse...it was pretty clear that Dean, for all his faults, was good for the small child. That being said there were laws she had to follow if they wanted to make this as legal as possible so no one took Harry away.

"Hello Harry. I'm Sheriff Mills. I'm going to ask you a few questions, is that okay?"

Harry clutched to Dean's leg, but he slowly nodded. He knew Dean wouldn't hurt him but he was still very skittish around strangers.

Sheriff Mills had to fight to keep her temper, mostly because she didn't want to scare the kid. She made a few notes in her little book, mostly about the limited information the seven year old boy could reliably tell her, before giving Bobby a look.

Dean had Harry watching some kid friendly movies...he often teased Sam for being a bit of a Disney fan, but Bobby had kept the videos and they were coming in handy now. Harry was soon engrossed in the Sword and the Stone.

"Okay boys, I can confidently say the kid's situation is going to be a bit tricky. Depending on how this Marge Dursley reacts to the news that her nephew is an orphan again, there's a high chance that your bid for adoption might be heard," said Jodie.

Dean made a face.

"From what Harry told me when I asked him why he had a bite mark on his ankle, I doubt she'll want him. Apparently she let her dog chase him up a tree for several hours before his uncle dragged them to America. Considering all the evidence there's a chance they were planning to dump him here anyway, but got killed by the bear before they could," said Dean.

"About that, why did you take him with you?" asked Mills.

"I didn't. I was doing some hunting in another state and found three dead bodies and a rabid bear near by. I killed the bear and I was halfway down the interstate when I heard some weird noise behind my seat. It wasn't until I reached a gas station that I found him shivering in the floorboard," said Dean. "Poor kid looked thin as a scarecrow and it took me an hour to coax him out of the car and into a proper hotel."

Mills looked grim hearing that, but considering how skittish the kid was around other adults she could hardly fault Dean for bringing him to Bobby. Obviously the child had grown on Dean on the way and he decided to keep him for however long he could.

"Well it looks like a pretty open and shut case to me, but it's better to be safe with these kinds of things. At the very least Social Services will want to make a few sporadic visits to make sure he's settling in if the adoption goes through," said Mills. She gave Bobby a look. "You might want to hide some of your more esoteric books and get a good gun safe that you can hide all your weapons in. The people who usually handle this sort of thing take ill if they find out there's weapons around with a kid in the house. Especially a traumatized one like Harry is."

"I can put them in the attic, or maybe get a separate bookshelf that it too high up for him to reach," said Bobby.

"I'd also recommend having a stable job. Hunter is an acceptable occupation, but they won't like the fact you travel a lot," said Mills to Dean. "The last thing you would need is to have them show up and find out you're gone with no one watching him."

"I was planning on giving Bobby shared custody in the event I'm not around. That way he could handle any legal stuff if I'm not in the state," said Dean.

"That might work, so long as there is an adult presence with the ability to take care of any legal issues," said Mills. It was a stretch, but so long as Harry had a trusted guardian who could act as a parent around for the adults to interact with, Social Services was unlikely to bother them too much.

Mills left and made a few calls, one of which was to the British Embassy explaining the situation. That had taken her an hour to look up their number.

A few days later...

Mills came back. Harry looked up and immediately went to find Dean.

"Well boys, I got good news and a bit of bad news."

"What's the bad news?" asked Bobby.

"There's going to be a bit more legal tape than normal for Dean to adopt Harry, especially if you want him to keep his status as a British national. Apparently his previous...guardians...didn't bother to get him a legal passport before they transported him across international borders," said Mills.

"So technically he's here illegally," sighed Dean. That was irritating.

"Fortunately he's a minor and his guardians are already dead. Which means we have a bit of leeway on how to handle this," said Mills.

"What's the good news then?" asked Dean.

"I contacted Marge Dursley. She made it clear in no uncertain terms she wanted nothing to do with Harry. Apparently she's not even his real aunt...she's related to his uncle and the only connection to him that she has is that Harry is the wife's nephew, not the husband."

Dean perked up at that.

"And according to everything I can find, he has no other relatives to contact in England. Which means there is a high chance you might be able to adopt him here since it means they have one less displaced child to deal with," said Mills semi-cheerfully.

In any country, orphanages were full of children who didn't have parents or were left behind. So the fact there was someone already willing to adopt Harry meant there was one less child in the system. And the less said about how overworked Social Services was on regular basis, the better.

So long as Dean kept within the basic guidelines and made sure Harry was happy, healthy and in school, there was a good chance this would work out.

"Now I brought the first set of paperwork you need to fill out to start the adoption process. There's a few others since Harry is British, but so long as everything is done correctly I don't see any problems."

Dean took one look at the paperwork and grimaced. Then he looked at where Harry was watching cartoons and went to get a pen. The kid was worth the headache, and if he had a chance to make it official he would go through whatever legal hoops he had to.

Fifteen months. That was how long it took for the paperwork to go through and for Dean to deal with basic visits from Social Services. It was a pain and it cut into his job as a Hunter, but it was worth it when Harry realized what was going on. The expression on his face when he found out Dean wanted to adopt him and make him his son made the entire thing worth every headache.

Sure the fact he was often out of state made the two social workers frown a bit, but the fact he had another trustworthy adult to act in his stead if he was unavailable seemed to soothe their worries.

Bobby had already locked up all the weapons and most of the less savory books in his collection in the panic room down stairs. The door was far too heavy for a child to open, especially one as small as Harry which satisfied the adults inspecting the place. The house was cleaner than normal and Bobby kept all the "kid-friendly" movies within easy reach of Harry who knew how to work the tape player.

Since Harry was in legal limbo, Dean opted to home-school him until the paperwork went through.

He really wanted to frame the documents that proudly declared "Harry Potter" was now "Hadrian Robert Winchester".

(Bobby did it anyway and left it in Harry's new room. He already saw the kid like a grandson and was rather surprised Dean hadn't used John's name instead on the official paperwork.)