Chapter Text
Damn technology” muttered Crowley. The GPS had died and they were left to navigate in the dark. They had finally decided to take a trip to the states again- having not been for awhile. They were now driving along the countryside where they had set up base.
“Do you still have the map?” Aziraphale asked.
“The map? The paper one?”
“Yes, where is it?”
“I’m not sure.” Aziraphale sighed and started rummaging through the glove compartment.
“Not gonna be in there,” Crowley said.
“Why?”
“Think I might’ve accidentally thrown it out.”
“Crowley!”
“Do you want to ask for directions?” Crowley Asked, not fond of the idea.
“Well it’s the sensible option,” argued Aziraphale.
“Sensible option? It’s nearly midnight! Most mortals will be in bed-“
Aziraphale slammed the glove compartment shut.
“Well we can’t keep driving around in the dark”.
“It’s not so bad-“ Crowley argued.
“Pull over.”
“But- arg fine. But I am not getting out of the car unless necessary.” Crowley then pulled the car onto the side of the road, and stopped. Aziraphale then stepped out of the car, looking around. They were on a dark road with few houses on it, and had passed only a small church on the way.
Aziraphale made his way over to the house, which looked completely normal on the outside. He was about to walk up to the door, when he noticed something in the distance. Was that smoke? The angel frowned. Why would anyone be out this far when it was so dark?
“Crowley” he called.
“Aye?” The demon said from the car window.
“I think there’s a fire back there.”
“Psh, probably a bonfire or-“
“No Crowley, I don’t think it’s that. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Crowley sighed dramatically.
“Do I have to get out of the car?”
Aziraphale has already started walking around the house.
“Bloody-“ Crowley murmured as he got out of the car, slamming the door shut and pocketing the keys.
“Wait up!” He called.
“Shhh!” Aziraphale said, as Crowley ran up. Crowley now was the smoke rising, and could now see some light. There was definitely a fire.
“I don’t like this,” he said.
“Neither do I, but I have a feeling something very bad is about to happen.”
“Then shouldn’t we get out of here?” Crowley Asked, slightly confused.
But Aziraphale has started walking again. They were speed walking towards the fire now. Something about this was bothering Crowley very much. Something bad was definitely about to happen, unless they stopped it. Finally they came to a clearing, where two men and a woman were. The one man Crowley saw was a priest. The other man and woman were dressed like it was the sixteen hundredths. Very modestly. And then Crowley could see one last figure backed up against a tree. A boy, no older than eleven. His face was pure terror. The man grabbed him roughly, a rope in the other hand. The boy started to struggle.
Both immediately recognized what was happening. It was a witch trial.
“Oh de- Crowley!” Aziraphale hissed as Crowley stormed into the clearing.
“Don’t take a step closer to the boy” Crowley demanded.
“And what business do you have here?” The man challenged. Instead of responding, Crowley promptly struck him in the jaw. The man cried out and stumbled, holding his head.
“Who else wants to fight?” Crowley demanded, looking at the women and priest. Aziraphale ran over to the boy, his white wings out. The boy jerked back as Azirpahale approached.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.” Azirpahale said calmly. The boy looked petrified , tears in his yellow eyes. But he mostly stood still while Aziraphale untied the rope.
“Begone demon!” He heard the priest say, he had backed away and was cowering against the trees.
“Oh ho ho, I don’t take people like you kindly-“ Crowley said, winding up for another punch. Instead Aziraphale made both the women and priest fall asleep.
“What was that for?!” Crowley cried.
“You can’t just beat up mortals!”
“Blasted, They were gonna hang the poor boy!” Cried Crowley.
“Doesn’t mean you can beat them to a pulp!”
They then noticed the boy had backed away, still trembling and terrified.
“Wh- who are you?” He Asked, his voice shaky. A Israeli accent.
“Ah, I suppose introductions should be made. I’m Crowley and this is Aziraphale. Now what’s your name, boy?”
“Ha- Harrison.”
“Nice to meet you, Harrison.” Crowley said, offering out his hand. Harrison hesitantly took it. Crowley noticed the boy glancing fearfully at Aziraphale.
“Ahem, Zira, maybe you should put your wings away.”
“Ah yes, right. Sorry,” the angel apologized, his wings disappearing.
“Come now, you must be tired,” Crowley said.
“Are they dead?” Harrison asked, glancing at the people on the ground.
“No, just asleep. Which is why we should get out of here.”
They started walking back towards where Crowley had parked the car earlier. Harrison fell asleep as soon as they were in the car. The poor boy was exhausted, no one could blame him.
Crowley gripped the steering wheel tightly as the car started. Although he very much believed in gods plan. He hated many people who believed in god. Specifically the type of people who held god so high, that they were willing to kill their own child.
“Crowley?” Aziraphale Asked.
“Hm?”
“You look very mad.”
“Well of course I’m mad. How did these mortals think it was a good idea to restart the Spanish Inquisition?”
“...”
“I mean the bastards tried to hang their own son.”
“I agree wholly that-“
“And they did it all in the name of god-“
“Crowley-“
“Those f*cking Bastards!”
“Shh, don’t be so loud.” Aziraphale said.
Crowley murmured something as he started the car. They drove through the woods and out back onto the main road. After years in England they had decided to visit America for a bit. The drive back to the house they had rented wasn’t far from where they had been. The drive was mostly silent. Crowley stewing in his angry thoughts, and Azirpahale letting him be, not wanting to wake the boy. Finally they pulled into the house's driveway.
“Do you want to wake h-?” Aziraphale started to ask as Crowley got out of the car. He opened the back door and carefully picked Harrison out of the car. The boy was still fast asleep, as Crowley draped him over his shoulder. Azirpahale pulled out his set of keys and unlocked the front door. Inside was a Normal house they had just taken base in during their trip. Crowley couldn’t help but have a sense of deja vu. (During the witch trials in the seventeenth century, he had saved a few witches here or there)
Crowley carried the boy into the guest bedroom and gently laid him down, and threw a blanket onto him. He stood at the door for a second thinking over the night. He then shut the door quietly, and went out to find Azirpahale sitting in the kitchen with two cups of tea out.
“Well?” He asked.
“Well what?” Crowley said, taking a seat.
“What’s the plan now?”
“The plan? I’m not sure, I honestly didn’t think that far. But we had to save him, Zira. We had to.”
“Yes I know...but what about the mortals?”
“They’ll be taken care of.”
“Crowley,”
“Oh come on! It was an attempted murder on their own son! How could someone possibly do something like that?”
“I don’t know, Crowley. So are you saying you want to take him in?”
The two looked at each other. Crowley was actually fond of children, and had kinda enjoyed watching Warlock. Aziraphale had no problem with children, as long as they behaved of course.
“Well I mean, we can’t exactly turn him out on the streets.”
“I mean...I don’t have a problem with it. If you want to, then-“
“Great! Then it’s settled.”
“But Crowley we will need to sort this out with the mortals-“
“Pshh, no they should be in jail by now.”
“No i mean we there are rules and laws, we can’t just take in a kid without-“
“Oh right. Well then just miracle up a few legal things and we’re good. Now I think I’m gonna go get some sleep.” Crowley pushed back his chair from the table and stood up, turned to leave the room, then stopped. He turned around and walked around the table, bent down, and pecked Aziraphale on this cheek.
“Goodnight Angel.”
Fire. Fear. Screaming. Harrison awoke with a start, throwing the blankets away and grabbing off his top hat. He fixed the hat on his head and looked wildly around the unfamiliar room. It was a small guest room, there was a drawer and a closet. Blue curtains hung in front of the window, and a painting of the ocean on a wall. This was certainly not his room. His room was plain, Grey walls, white carpet, and his bed covered by a singed blanket that had been burned time and time again by accident. Where was he? The last thing he remembered was...his parents… and there were two men, one with sunglasses who started beating up his parents, another who...had wings like an angel. They had saved him, and he had fallen asleep in the car. He jumped out of the bed and opened the door quietly, peeking out into a short hallway. He could hear voices and smelled something from the kitchen. Harrison hesitantly stepped out into the hallway, shutting the bedroom door gently, and headed towards the kitchen. He froze when he spotted the two men at the table.
“Oh good morning,” the white haired man said kindly. Aziraphale, yes that was his name.
“How did you sleep?” Aziraphale asked. The one with the sunglasses- Crowley, got up from the table and pulled out another chair.
“Why don’t you take a seat?” He offered, smiling.
“I…”
“No ones going to hurt you, you can trust us. I promise.” His voice was sincere, and he seemed genuinely nice. But the other bothered Harrison. He glanced sideways at Aziraphale, as if expecting him to smite him down at any second. The angel seemed to notice this stood up from the table, quickly excusing himself. Harrison sat down at the table across from Crowley.
“Rough night, aye?” He said, his accent thick.
“Are you really a demon?” Harrison blurted out. He wasn’t sure what to say. The night before was a blur. And-
Crowley chuckled and lowered his glasses for a second. His eyes were yellow, and shaped like snakes.
“So tell me, what happened last night?” Crowley asked.
“...my parents...they never liked my magic…”
“Magic? As in card tricks? Or-“ Harrison was already shuffling a deck of cards and held the deck out to Crowley. The demon sighed and picked a card, seeming to have seen this before.
Harrison then reshuffled the cards and put them back in his pocket. He then snapped his fingers and suddenly Crowley’s card disappeared.
“So did it go up your sleeve or?-“ but before he could finish the card reappeared in Harrison’s gloved hand.
“I can also do this,” Harrison said standing up, turning himself invisible. Crowley stood up, shocked.
“How did you-“
“Magic” Harrison said reappearing.
“Magic. You have real magic.”
“Yes?” Crowley seemed shocked, which confused Harrison. He was a demon after all, why was he so shocked?
“Just not what I was expecting.” He then regained his composure.
“I’m sorry I just haven’t seen- are you related to any witches?”
“No. I don't have much extended family, and my parents thought witches were evil and worshipped the devil.”
“Well I got that much. Didn’t think there were still people like that to be honest.”
“They never liked it much, but after what happened… They got worse.”
“I know some things are hard to talk about. Believe me, but what happened?” Crowley asked, seriously. Harrison looked down at the wooden table, picking his gloves under the table.
“Harrison, this is important-“
“I made my brother disappear…” He muttered. Stay calm. Stay calm. Don’t cry….
“I- i didn’t mean to! It was an accident I- I just wanted to put on a good show- and he was so excited…” he could feel tears in his eyes. Don’t cry.
“I thought I could do it- and I wanted to make them proud… but he never came back-“ he was crying now. Uncontrollably Flickering in and out of visibility. Suddenly, for the first time In a very long time, he was being hugged.
Most mortals think that demons don’t have feelings. Then they certainly haven’t met Crowley. Crowley May try to be tough, but he was soft. Especially when it came to children. The moment Harrison started breaking down, the demon could feel his heart shatter. (Not literally, metaphorically) he rushed over and hugged the poor boy. Crowley had seen a lot in his over 6000 years on earth. He had seen great wars and tragedies (most of which humans brought in themselves) but he hadn’t seen a child so tortured in a long time. He held onto the boy as he cried.
“I…”
“Shh, it’s ok…” the demon said quietly, trying to comfort the crying child. He could feel his eyes burning behind his sunglasses. Harrison then quieted down.
“I didn’t mean it…”
“Of course you didn’t.”
“Is everything okay?” Aziraphale asked Crowley, who had just come into the bedroom. He had seen the scene in the kitchen earlier, and had stayed back, not wanting to make it worse. He could see that he made Harrison uncomfortable. Which was entirely understandable.
“Well the boys clearly traumatized, for multiple different reasons.”
“Oh no..”
“He has a brother, who he made disappear,” Crowley said, a little more quietly.
“What? What do you mean disappear?” Azirpahale asked, suddenly confused.
“What do you think I mean?”
“Like he made him go missing, you mean?”
The demon shook his head, and crossed his arms.
“I don’t follow.”
Crowley sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
“Magic Angel! He made his brother disappear with magic!”
Aziraphale stood shocked, he hadn’t heard Crowley this distressed in awhile.
“What?”
“He- he has magic- like,” Crowley was throwing his hands around, as If illustrating something.
“He has magic? Like a witch?“
“No. Like- like one of those silly magicians you try to copy, but real. He can turn invisible and-“
“He can turn invisible?”
“Yes! What don’t you understand?”
“Well then, last night makes a lot more sense now,”
“Excuse me?”
“No I mean- Not that it justifies it. But that-“
“Yes, yes, I get it.” Crowley said dismissively.
“Oh…”
”I say we stick with our plan of heading back to England soon, get him away from things.”
“Ok, yes that’s a really good idea.”
“So we’re all set? We don’t have to go through some messy mortal law thing?”
“We’re all set, so when do you think you want to head back?”
“Oh I dunno, maybe the day after tomorrow? What is that? Tuesday?”
“It’s Thursday Crowley.”
“Oh? It is. Alright then, Saturday we’ll head back.”
“Crowley?”
“Do you think we were meant to find him last night?”
“I dunno Angel, what do you think?”