A/N: Yay! A new chapter. Have fun!

"normal speech"

-mental speech-

Chapter 13: The Magical Equivalent of C4

Distracted by Harry's show, Lucifer hadn't seen how the resident Dean had pulled out a colt and aimed it straight at the angel's head. It was only when Lucifer turned around again, that he saw it, but by then it was too late.

Dean pulled the trigger.

"NO!" Harry shouted while he launched himself at Dean in rage, his wings flaring dangerously behind him.

Harry knew very well that Lucifer wasn't dead as it was nearly impossible to kill an archangel and that Gabriel would take care of the injury. That was why he let his rage take over to take out the potential threat. However, he didn't want to kill Dean – yet – hence why he was currently just beating the crap out of him for daring to hurt Lucifer.

That was until he was grabbed at each side by a pair of strong arms.

"Harry. Harry! Calm down," one of the twins said to him in a soothing tone.

"Let go of me!" Harry raged, struggling against their hold to get free. "He dared to shoot Lucifer!"

"We know, and he certainly will pay for it," the other twin said.

"But you're already exhausted. I doubt that Lucifer will be pleased should you harm yourself because of it," the first continued.

"So, let us deal with him, will you?"

Harry glared at them, but finally, he relented. The initial rage he felt when he saw Lucifer's head snapping back due to the impact, a large hole in his forehead and an even larger one in the back where the bullet exited, slowly left him. They were right, he was exhausted. It was a wonder that he was still standing. The rage initially pumped so much adrenalin through his body that he could overcome his fatigue, but it was now catching up with him and fast.

"They're right," Lucifer slurred, sitting but leaning against Gabriel.

His brother was leaning over him, and Harry could see how the hole was slowly closing up while Gabriel's hands, which he placed in front and behind Lucifer's head, were glowing dimly.

In an instant, Harry was by his side and took Lucifer's hand.

"I'm sorry…I should…are you alright?" he asked, not knowing where to start.

Lucifer chuckled but winced when it sent a new wave of pain through his head.

"You did well, taking out the danger first," he said in a low tone. "However, we'll have to talk about your modus operandi. What if he shot you too? A bullet cannot harm me, but what about you?"

Harry repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say to that. Lucifer was right. He was vulnerable. A simple bullet, an illness…an accident could kill him. He was Lucifer's soulmate, the only thing standing between the archangel and the utter destruction of the world…and he was a liability, the weakest link in the chain.

Lucifer must have seen what Harry was thinking on his face because he smiled at him and placed a hand on his cheek.

"Don't worry about it too much. I somehow doubt that you're as easy to kill as you might think," he said while stroking a strand of hair out of Harry's face. "Besides, it seems that the resident Gabriel is already highly protective of you."

"So that is what Castiel meant when he spoke of two Gabriels," their Gabriel spoke up, taking down his hands revealing that Lucifer was fully healed.

"He pinged Lucifer. When we went to investigate, we found him. When I saw what the resident Lucifer did to him…," Harry explained. "I…I just couldn't leave him there to die."

Gabriel looked at him for a long time before he pulled Harry into a hug and gave him a kiss on his head.

"Thank you," he muttered before turning to Lucifer. "You too, brother."

He knew that had Lucifer objected to Harry taking in his residents' self, the other Gabriel would have died. Sure, from the sound of it, he would have had a massive fight with Harry on his hand because Harry wouldn't have relented easily. But in the end, Harry would have bowed to Lucifer's wish because what was some hurting angel compared to his soul mate's wishes? So, for Lucifer to agree to this, knowing what could have happened in the worst-case…it was incomprehensible. Gabriel was reasonably, no…absolutely sure that he would have fought tooth and nail had his twins suggested something like this.

"You really think that I could have stopped him? Not that I wanted to," Lucifer replied with a chuckle. "Besides, when Death agreed to it, I was fairly sure that Harry wouldn't come to harm."

"Death?" Gabriel questioned. Had he missed something?

"Yes, but we'll talk about it later. Harry's already asleep, and I have a massive headache. Blasted idiot," Lucifer growled while standing up and picking up Harry bridal style. "I'll retreat with Harry now! Don't anyone dare to interrupt us."

"I'll show you a place where you can rest," Sam spoke up and walked around the main tent, leading Lucifer to a small tent at the edge of the camp.

Inside Lucifer carefully placed Harry on the cot before lying down next to him

"I'll place a few wards on the tent so that you can rest undisturbed," Gabriel said from the entrance of the tent and promptly went to work.

It took a few minutes, but soon the tent was safe from any idiot coming in and doing something stupid while Lucifer and Harry were sleeping. Gabriel was about to leave when Lucifer called after him.

"Gabriel," Lucifer said loud enough for the other angel to hear him but not loud enough to wake Harry. "Thank you…for everything."

His brother smiled brightly at him. "Always," he answered. "Now sleep."

With that, he left to take care of that idiot Dean, the resident one. Their own luckily saw reason when he explained everything.

Severus and Alastair sat down in front of the fireplace, both of them nursing a glass whiskey. Castiel was bustling away in the kitchen, trying to make some dinner. It had taken surprisingly few to convince the former angel who was the boss and set him to the task. Not that they expected any edible results, but at least it kept the man busy until they knew what to do with him.

"You wanted to tell me what is going on between Lucifer and my son," Severus stated, sipping his whiskey.

"Ah, yes," Alastair began. "It is quite obvious, actually. They are soul mates."

Severus suddenly began to cough heavily because he got liquid in his windpipe.

"You have me on!" he accused the other demon as soon as he could speak normally again.

Alastair though gave him a glare that clearly told the other demon that he would never joke about something like this. He might be a demon, but even for demons, soul bonds were sacrosanct.

"Are you sure?" Castiel's voice drifted over to them, who obviously listened in to their conversation.

The former angel walked over to where they were sitting all the while begging the demon with his eyes to tell him that he was wrong.

"Is it finally sinking in what you nearly did?" Alastair demanded to know from the man who now collapsed into the empty armchair with a low whimper. "You think a Lucifer whose only aim is to destroy everything his father built is bad? Imagine a Lucifer whose soul mate – the only person to give him peace and keeps him grounded – got ripped away from him because of some off-hand comment! Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing would survive the fallout. Not your universe, not our universe, not anything. Especially should a completely livid Death back him up. So, do us all a favour and think about the consequences of your actions first."

Castiel let out a faint voice while he seemed to have entered a state of utter shock. They all sat there in silence, letting him process the information. The former angel stared at nothing for over half an hour before his gaze came into focus again and he looked at Alastair.

"Death?" he asked with a thin voice.

However, instead of giving him a verbal answer, Alastair held his hand out with the palm upwards. A moment later, a symbol flickered into existence, hovering a few inches over his palm. The symbol was an equilateral triangle standing on one side with a circle in it and a line going down from the top corner to the middle of the bottom line. It was the sign of the Deathly Hallows.

When Castiel saw the symbol, he fainted.

Harry walked through what seemed to be an endless hall filled with large wooden bookcases. Though instead of them being filled with books, the shelves contained hundreds of thousands of orbs of different sizes. He let his fingers glide along a shelf board, smiling at what he knew were his memories since this was his mindscape.

It was already far tidier from the first time he entered it – when pure chaos was the predominant setting. With Alastair's help, he already came a long way but was still far away from the mindscape of a master.

However, currently he wasn't interested in his past but the present and the archangel he could see lying curled up on the floor near his magical core a few feet away. The man, as well as his magical core, were surrounded by a dimly glowing golden dome. Gabriel already looked far better, but his wings were still in a state of disrepair and Harry didn't doubt that the angel would need a long time to get over the mental trauma inflicted by his brothers.

"Hey there," he greeted him once he reached him, though he didn't walk too close, giving the angel some space. "How are you? Isn't the floor uncomfortable?"

"Nah, I'm just glad that I still can lie on a floor," the man replied. "Compared to the alternative, it is quite comfy."

Harry frowned while Gabriel got up to greet him properly while phasing out his wings for convenience sake. He regarded him with narrowed eyes before he turned around and concentrated.

Suddenly the shelves began to shift and line up much to Gabriel's shock, who yelped in surprise. Not soon later, walls began to rise from the floor, surrounding the shelves and them with a wall separating the two rooms which had a door connecting both. The protecting dome fusing with the walls surrounding them. Behind Harry the wall was wholly made of glass, a door leading outside and overseeing a vast field of poppies, cornflowers and other flowers giving it a serene feeling.

The visual representation of Harry's magical core though shrunk and now hang from the ceiling like a lamp bathing the room in soft, warm light.

Gabriel stared at the boy in front of him in disbelief.

"What?" Harry questioned when he became aware of the staring. "I wanted to build a proper mindscape for quite some time now but never had the time nor the incentive. These rooms you can furnish as you like, but I would ask you not to change anything in the library."

"You put a lot of trust in me for never having met me before," the angel finally replied while waving his hand.

Chairs, shelves, a couch and everything else that you would find in a living room popped up out of nowhere changing the empty room in a cosy place one could call home. Once Gabriel was done, he carefully sat down in an armchair with a pained groan.

"It is more that I have trust in your intelligence," Harry said with a laugh and sat down opposite of Gabriel. "Should you be anything like my Gabriel, you have realised by now that hurting me would be very detrimental to your own health, especially since you've nowhere else to go."

Silence descended and Gabriel watched Harry for a few minutes.

"You know what surprises me most is how close you and your Lucifer are. I would never have thought that he would willingly come close to a human, not to mention, behave towards one like he does," he finally wondered.

"Well…," Harry began, not knowing how much to tell but in the end, shrugged. Gabriel was bound to find out anyway. "He is my soul mate. So, yeah I think we're quite close."

Harry amusedly observed how the archangel chocked on some air, looking at him in utter shock, disbelief and not a small amount of fear.

"He…WHAT?" Gabriel chocked out. "How…WHY?"

It seemed to Harry that the angel was well on his way to a full-blown panic attack, so he stood up, walked over to him, sat down on his armrest and pulled him into a sideways hug.

"Calm down," he said in a soothing tone. "Everything is alright. There is nothing to worry about."

It took him quite some time to calm the panicky angel, but in the end, he succeeded. He should really be more careful not to just spring such news on the angel.

"I don't understand. My Lucifer wouldn't have given it a second thought before ripping me apart had I so much as looked at his soul mate the wrong way. Not that he has one," Gabriel muttered.

Harry hummed a bit. "Maybe mine is different because of what happened in my universe. I for starters keep him grounded pretty well," he explained. "Not that he cannot be a royal bastard if he wants to be, but he certainly doesn't go nuclear on every little offence. And I showed him a better way of dealing with humanity than eradicating them.

"Another thing is that our Gabriel told us why he left heaven and what Michael did. I think he at least partly blames himself for not having seen it and now wants to make up for it by not abandoning him again even if it isn't his Gabriel."

"So…," Gabriel began, but words failed him. After a moment of organising his thoughts, he continued. "So, you say that in your universe there is no apocalypse? No big fight between Michael and Lucifer?"

Harry shook his head.

"Nope! No fight," he piped. "Lucy is of the firm opinion that as long as heaven and especially Michael stay out of our way, he could care less about what they're doing. He certainly won't start the fight or go looking for it."

"And you're the one keeping him from it…," the angel muttered to himself.

Harry stayed quiet as it was evident that Gabriel wasn't expecting an answer. Though he was wondering what the angel was thinking about when said angel stood up from the armchair so that he slipped into it instead.

Without hesitation, Gabriel turned around to Harry and went down on one knee looking up to the boy.

"Take me with you," he requested in a firm voice.

"Of course," Harry replied as if there hadn't been any doubt about that, puzzled what this was all about. "As if I would have left you here."

A small smile formed on the angel's face.

"Then I, Gabriel – archangel of the Lord – swear my loyalty to you, Harry James Potter. I swear that I will do everything in my power to protect you from harm, defeat your foes and assist you with every problem you seek my counsel for to the best of my abilities until the day I take my dying breath, or you have no longer need of my aid," he said in a solemn voice, holding out his right hand that was glowing in a low golden hue.

Harry was stunned speechless, gaping at Gabriel like a fish out of water. Did the angel really want to do what Harry was thinking he was doing? Pledging himself to Harry?

"Harry, I fully made peace with the fact that I wouldn't live to see the next day. That was until you stepped into that motel and offered me a way out. Not only that, but you also want to take me with you. Take me away from this world that holds nothing but pain and death for me. This…," he said when he saw Harry hesitating, holding his still glowing hand up. "This is the least I can do to repay you for everything you did and are still doing for me, ensuring that your universe doesn't share the same fate as mine."

Harry stared at the archangel for a long time. Oh, how he wanted to ask Lucifer for his opinion right now. Though he somehow doubted that the other angel would object to this, it meant more protection for him after all and since Gabriel currently resided within his body…. Let's just say that killing him would be a lot harder.

With a broad smile, he grabbed Gabriel's hand and firmly shook it.

"Okay."

As soon as the confirmation came over Harry's lips, they were both enveloped in the golden glow. However, what neither of them anticipated was what happened next.

A few moments after they shook hands, Gabriel suddenly grunted in pain. His wings appeared behind him vibrating with tenseness. Harry watched how they mended all the while dulling down from a bright, pure ethereal white to a solid bone white. To top it off the last joints of the wings were now protected by silver plating that smoothly moved with the wing and was kept together by a more significant round piece depicting a shield and a sword. On the shield was yet another symbol. An equilateral triangle with a circle in it and a line going down from the topmost corner to the middle of the bottom line.

"Ooookay," Harry drawled. "What did just happen?"

Gabriel though ignored him for the moment in favour of carefully moving his wings, which was surprisingly pain-free. That was when his eyes fell on the symbol on the shield, and he blanched.

"You…you're Death's master," he stammered more panicky than he had been after the revelation about Lucifer's soul mate if that was even possible.

"I'm what?" Harry asked, confused. What was the angel on about now?

However, it was apparent that the angel was beyond listening. He looked like his worst fears had come true.

"Gabriel, calm down!" Harry snapped, his patience running thin.

It was as if a switch was flipped. Gabriel suddenly stood straighter, and it was as if his panic attack never happened.

"Of course. I'm sorry, my Lord," he said in a calm tone while bowing before Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, pinched the bridge of his nose. All he had wanted was to check in on Gabriel. Not this! He could only assume that his snapped command was the reason for the angel's sudden shift in behaviour.

"First, none of that my Lord nonsense," he growled.

Who was he? Riddle? Definitely not!

He just wanted to think about what he should do next when he heard a sigh coming from behind Gabriel. Said angel whipped around, about to deal with the threat to Harry when he saw just who was sitting in the armchair, Death.

"I…I'm sorry. Had…had I known…," he stammered evidently thinking that the entity was here because of him.

"It would have changed absolutely nothing," Death finished. "As you might remember, I agreed – even if reluctantly – to you taking Harry as your host. Though I have to admit that my reluctance became near non-existent with your oath towards Harry."

Gabriel relaxed slightly upon hearing this but was wary, nonetheless. Harry, on the other hand, became even more confused.

"So, what did happen and what has Gabriel's oath to do with your reluctance?" he wanted to know.

"It is something I had hoped that it would take some more time before it would come up, but it seems that I have to explain this now," Death said with another sigh. "You see Gabriel here was right when he said that you're my Master or more like will be in the future.

"This is also the reason why I was so reluctant for you to take him in. Even with you not being my Master yet, you hold powers far greater than most beings and anyone possessing you – be it angel, demon or anything else – would have access to those powers. Add to this the fact that you already hold one of my hallows and it becomes even dire. However, ever since Gabriel swore his loyalty to you, he is – under the threat of death – unable to abuse your powers and therefore betrays you."

"But I don't want to be your Master," Harry replied with a frown. "Not now, not ever. I won't enslave anyone."

Death chuckled.

"It seems that you're under misconception what the title Master of Death truly means," he amusedly told Harry. "Admittedly the title Master is a bit misleading in this. It is meant as a mastery of death than being my Master. What it stands for is a working partnership with me.

"The thing is that I have only very little power in the plane of the living but, as it is with everything, from time to time, people are trying to defy me or do something that severely threatens the balance. Most of the time, things resolve themselves with time, but it sometimes is too close for comfort.

"That is where you come into play. You can fully interact not only with the plane of the living but also the dead. With that, you can take care of things when I cannot."

"And what do I get out of that deal?" Harry questioned.

This didn't sound too bad, helping Death from time to time wouldn't be a hardship at all. He didn't want someone blowing up the planet after all, but it seemed as if Death got all the benefits out of this and he nothing. Harry was a Slytherin, and he wouldn't do anything without getting anything back.

Gabriel though looked at him as if he lost it. You didn't just demand things from Death, but the entity merely chuckled.

"I must say that I find it quite refreshing that you don't defer to me as everyone else would upon meeting me. For now, you only gain limited benefits. For one, you won't die that easily, but you're not unkillable. It is also a lot harder to contain you or keep you from teleporting away once you learned how to that.

"Once you collect all three hallows and take up the title of Master of Death, you become nigh immortal. Yes, you can still die, but only when you truly want to. Containing you would also become completely impossible."

"Huh," Harry muttered, leaning back in the chair while letting that sink in.

Those were some damned good benefits he got out of this, the best of it that it solved his little mortality problem. Sure, he would have to find the other two hallows that could be hidden anywhere, not to mention that he would have to help Death whenever the need arose but that was a comparatively small price to pay. Did he care that he wanted this for some selfish reason? Not one bit! Though he would have to talk with Lucifer about all this, that was for sure.

Nonetheless, there was one thing that still confused him.

"Why now? Why me? And if you have someone who could stop everything from going to hell, then why did this universe?"

Death sighed again.

"This is far more complicated than it might seem. I have absolutely no idea what is going on in his head, but God…he is behaving completely irrational for quite some time now," he began.

Next to Harry, Gabriel tensed. This was his father, the entity talked about after all.

"I don't know when exactly it started. You see each universe begins at some point, is filled with life, runs its course and dies. That is the natural order of things for everything from the smallest lifeforms over planets to galaxies and universes.

"However, as of lately – in my timeframe at least," he added with a chuckle. "God deliberately sabotages this cycle by creating the same scenario over and over again."

"Lucifer fighting Michael," Gabriel breathed out because what else could the entity mean.

Death nodded solemnly.

"Okay, I understand that their fight fucks up things here on Earth, but if I understand you correctly, there are other planets out there with life on them. Why would an entire universe end just because one planet blows up?"

"Because their fight happens on a different plane than the one humans live on, one that holds everything else up," Gabriel explained. "Think of it as a card house standing on the table. Their fight would not just destroy one card but blow up the entire table. It just so happens that earth is their stage."

"Blow up the foundation, and everything else collapses."

"Correct. To make matters worse, Fate disappeared a few…attempts ago. No one has any idea where she is," Death took over again. "During God's last attempt I decided that I had to do something, so I asked my sister Destiny to find me the best-suited candidate to work with me and to help me put a stopper into this. This person is you, Harry.

"Though what I didn't anticipate was that she'd use the opportunity to put her own twist to the story and make you and Lucifer soul mates."

"What better way to keep two parties from fighting than by keeping one occupied with something else," Gabriel threw in amusedly, but it was evident that he was deeply troubled by what Death just told them.

"Who knows, maybe I'm so well suited because Lucifer is my soul mate? I certainly do not want to imagine how my life would have been had he not saved me," Harry mused. "Anyway, nothing of this explains what happened with Gabriel."

Said angel looked at him with a frown but kept his quiet for now. But he swore to himself that he would get to the bottom of this statement. For now, they had more important things to discuss.

"Ah, yes. When I decided that I needed help to deal with things I cannot resolve myself, I knew that whoever would become Master of Death would need help himself," Death told them. "I mean, I have my Reapers; God has his angels, and even Destiny and Fate have their helpers. So, I created a whole new group for you, the Angels of Death. Whoever you recruit and pledges his or her loyalty to you undergoes the same transformation as Gabriel here."

"Wait!" Gabriel exclaimed. "I thought that only God can create new lifeforms and races?!"

"And that is certainly true, but Fate, Destiny and I can recruit from any lifeform if the need arises and change them the way it suits us best. It is more changing an existing lifeform than creating a new one. For that is also the reason that an angel you recruit still keeps his angel powers as a demon would keep its demon powers."

"So, they're still the same just with a bit extra and that they belong to me?" Harry asked for clarification.

"Correct. For now, – unless they decide otherwise, or their natural lifespan is longer – they'll just share your lifespan. Once you're Master of Death, they'll also share some of your abilities like getting around any security measures as well as certain other things, but that is irrelevant for now."

"Wow, that's a lot to take in."

"I suggest that you let everything sink in and talk to Lucifer about it. Should you have more questions later you can always…," Death told him but suddenly stopped mid-sentence, his face one of complete concentration. "You have to wake up! NOW!"

Shocked into wakefulness thanks to Death's sudden exclamation, Harry sat bolt upright. However, when he realised that he wasn't in the camp anymore and worse, some unknown angel was standing a few feet away from him, his instincts took over. In an instant, his wand was in his hand, and he shot a wave of raw magic with pure intent at said angel.

Once Harry saw that the attack had the desired result, and the angel was stunned and hogtied, he slowly got up. The problem though was that it seemed that something akin to a Petrificus Totalus must have slipped into the mixture as the angel's body was currently warring with the hands and feet being bound behind its back and the straightening of the limbs. It became quickly evident that the arms of the angel were losing said war as the shoulders already popped out of their sockets.

However, before Harry could do anything to prevent any more damage, the muscle tissue couldn't hold anymore under the strain, and both arms ripped off the body at the shoulders, spraying blood all over Harry in the process.

Harry stared at the body in shock of the result but quickly sprang into action and cauterised the wounds as he didn't want the angel to bleed out if that was even possible. He needed answers, after all.

-Zachariah?- Gabriel asked in disbelief when he got a good look at the angel.

-So, you know him?- Harry asked right back.

-Well, it isn't my Zachariah so no not really. All I know is that should he be anything like mine, he belongs to Raphael's garrison and is a right dick.-

-How could he abduct me without alerting Lucifer?!- Harry demanded to know.

-I have no idea, but he must have extremely powerful help. Not even Death could sense him until after he snatched you,- Gabriel said in a grim voice.

Harry hummed at that and looked at the unconscious angel in contemplation when he had an idea.

-Say is there a way to seal an angel in a body?- he asked Gabriel.

-Sure, there are Enochian glyphs that would achieve that, but he would break them as soon as you revive him, and he's able to reach them,- the archangel replied a bit confused.

-And what if he lacks the body to do so?- Harry questioned with vindictive amusement.

Okay, now Gabriel was confused. How wanted Harry to seal an angel within a body without a body to do so? His confusion only lasted until Harry explained to him fully what he had in mind. Once he realised what the boy was up to, his smirk matched Harry's.

-You'll have to let me take over to etch the needed runes into that idiot,- he said with glee.

-With pleasure!-

With a mental bow, Harry retreated and let Gabriel take over, who instantly went to work. It was a good thing that the transformation healed the angel at least bodily. His mental health was a completely different thing, but Harry had a feeling that it would help Gabriel immensely when the inevitably kicked both his Michael and Lucifer in the ass.

Harry watched how Gabriel first etched the sealing rune into the skull of the other angel together with several others Harry couldn't even begin to identify. Afterwards, he painted a rune with the angel's blood on each foot before continuing with the knees and hip. He painted the same rune every few inches on the torso until he reached the neck.

-Your part,- Gabriel piped while letting Harry take over again. -I also made sure that he cannot use his powers or call for help. Have fun!-

-Diffindo,- Harry chanted while making a slashing motion with his wand over Zachariah's neck right beneath the topmost rune, effectively severing the head from the rest of the body.

It was good that the runes Gabriel painted all over the other angel's body pushed the angel part of Zachariah into the body's head or otherwise this would have killed the angel considering what Harry's wand was made of.

"One angel to go!~" Harry chirped after cauterising the wound and holding the head so that he was facing him. "Eneverate!"

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Zachariah demanded to know when he became aware of the situation he was in. "What did you do?"

He went from enraged to panicked within a split-second.

"Ah yes, you see abducting me was a bad idea. A horrible idea," Harry said with a smirk. "So, I got a bit creative. Now, why did you think it a good idea to abduct me?"

"These runes! They are made by an archangel! Who are you?" Zachariah ranted.

"Let's see. You have no idea that Lucifer and I are good friends, or you wouldn't have been so stupid," Harry mused. "No, wait! You did know and thought that you could use me to get Lucifer to do what you want, completely ignoring that this would mean war."

In his mind, Gabriel snorted.

-That is precisely what he aimed for- the archangel growled.

"Or you want the war and know that as long as Lucifer is more interested in me, he could care less what heaven or Michael do," Harry continued, completely ignoring Zachariah's ranting. "How am I doing? Did I get something correctly? Come on, you have to give me some pointers."

"As if I would tell a mud-monkey like you anything!" Zachariah spat back.

"Very well, I wanted to play nice and allow you to give me some answers, but if you don't want to," Harry said with a shrug. "I hope you like the alternative."

With that, he shrunk the head down to fist size and place a silencing charm on it before he conjured some rope. Quickly wrapping the string around the head, he securely bound it to his belt.

"I think I'll place him on the mantlepiece back at Hogwarts," Harry muttered. "But with the face towards the wall, of course. Wouldn't want him to see something he isn't supposed to."

Once he was done, he stood up and looked around. He was in a rectangular room that wouldn't look out of place in some palace and had no windows. The only visible exit was an ornate golden door to his right to which he promptly walked only to find it locked.

"Great, I'm trapped," he growled.

-You know that I could just teleport us out?- Gabriel asked as if it was the most obvious.

Harry briefly thought about it but in the end, dismissed the idea.

-Nah, it seems that heaven hasn't cottoned on to the fact that I have you with me and I want to keep it this way for as long as possible. Besides, it is better that I learn how to get out of situations like this without your or any other help. You won't be with me forever after all.-

-So, what is your great escape plan then oh master jailbreaker?-

-If nothing else helps, hit the C4. Or at least the magical equivalent,- Harry chirped while digging into his bag that he always carried on his belt and that contained everything he might need for school and therefore also his potions equipment.

-You do realise that a simple Alohomora would do the trick?- Gabriel deadpanned.

-Again, I want them to be unaware of my real power for as long as possible,- Harry retorted while setting up a brewing station.

-And a big ass explosion would keep them ignorant for sure,- the archangel said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Harry laughed at that.

-No, but I don't want to bring out the big guns right from the start.-

-The big guns?- Gabriel questioned, wondering whether he missed something.

-Alohomora,- he replied with another laugh.

While Harry began to brew a potion, Gabriel seriously began to question the boy's sanity.

-I never said that I'm sane, and by the way, sanity is highly overrated,- he laughed. -What I mean ist that I want to keep my magical powers hidden from them. I blow up their stuff, and they'll think that I need blunt force to get out of anything and won't protect any possible future jail against magic.-

-Giving you the advantage to escape,- Gabriel conceded. -But I think we should think about teaching you how to teleport.-

-Once we're back at Hogwarts. I don't doubt that Draco would want to join in. HA! Done.-

-What is this?-

-It's a potion that once it cooled down to under 50°C, explodes quite spectacularly when it comes in contact with air,- Harry explained while carefully filling the potion into several smaller and larger vials.

-Magical hand grenades,- Gabriel cackled.

-Yup!-

When he was done filling the bottles and even a few jars before spelling them close airtight, Harry quickly cleaned up everything. The spare vials – who knew when he might need some more – he spelt unbreakable and placed them in his bag before shrinking it and fixing it to his belt again. Picking up the large vial he had left out, he walked to the wall opposite of the door. Making sure that the potion was cooled down enough, he took aim and hurled it at the door.

The vial shattered upon impact and not only blew the door to kingdom come but also took most of the wall with it. Gabriel had to quickly erect a shield around them, or the debris that flew around would have hurt Harry.

"Okay, that stuff is far more volatile than I anticipated," Harry said out loud. "I wonder what an entire cauldron of this stuff can do."

-Planning on levelling an entire city?- Gabriel drily asked.

Harry contemplated it for a moment but then remembered a part of Lucifer's deal with Death about the death toll and winced. Yep, that surely would piss off Death.

Now that the dust slowly began to settle, he walked towards the opening to see where he was. That was until a new voice echoed over to him and instantly made him defensive.

"Did you really have to blow up the door?" the voice, whose owner he couldn't see due to the still lingering dust in the air, said in a stern but not unfriendly tone. "You could have knocked. I would have let you out, you know? Now, look at the state this poor garden is in."

A/N: 'til next chapter!