danyellaskyler

Well this is the beginning of part two. It's about a month after the end of part one. I'll be doing this in parts as they occur to me, until I feel it's reached the proper chapter length, then I'll post it on FF.N.

Chapter Two: Letters from Everywhere

Harry sat cross-legged on his current bed and carefully sorted through the collection of assorted rocks Dean had given him that morning.

He had been surprised to find out that his dad and both brothers were wizards. In spite of how big of a role the supernatural played in their lives, they seemed very muggle. He was still waiting to hear back from Binns on the educational quagmire the US had for its magical population.

But as things stood, Harry was learning, or at least beginning to learn, the family's particular magic. For the fact that they're originally from Kansas, it made a strange sort of sense for them to be stone shapers. Which led to his first lesson of sorting the rocks by magical resonance, or trying to anyway. After an hour he had a discouragingly small amount sorted.

Harry looked up tensely with his hand on his wand when the hotel door suddenly opened.

"Hey, runt," Dean greeted, as he set a bag of take out on the room table.

Harry shook his head in exasperation, "Sam's right, you are a jerk."

"Yeah, well, at least I'm still pretty." Dean gave him an amused smirk. "What's with the rocks?"

"Magic lesson. Dad's having me sort them." Harry frowned down at the piece of quartz before putting it into one of the jars.

"Ah, that. Well hang in there. You're starting a lot later than me or Sammy did." Dean handed Harry a bottle of orange juice before sitting down at the table to sort through the food.

"You any good at this?" Harry asked curiously.

"Better than Sammy anyway. Remind me to show you my familiar sometime."

"You have a familiar?" Harry was surprised. He had never seen Dean with anything remotely familiar-like in the months he had known him, except maybe his car.

"Yeah, kinda." Dean took a bite from one of the containers. "Anyway, looks like the place is really haunted, so we're going to have to be a bit more careful."

"Maybe we should make some healing potions, or at least salves," Harry suggested. "It'll also count for some credit."

Dean chewed thoughtfully for a minute before nodding. "Good thinking. Get me a list of what we'll need."

"We?"

"I figure one of us should learn your style."

Harry eyed the three pond hunk of granite doubtfully. "This is your familiar?"

"Yup."

"It's a rock."

"Yup."

"How can a rock be a familiar?"

"Easy. Loan me your wand for a minute."

"What?"

"Your wand. Give it."

"Alright..." Harry doubtfully muttered.

Taking the wand, Dean said an unfamiliar incantation that made the rock transform from just a hunk of granite, into a small wolf, though still with the color, and texture of the rock.

"Did you mess up?" Harry asked eyeing the miniature wolf Dean was petting.

"Nope. That's how she's supposed to look. Eventually we'll get you up to this level. It's not changing the rock from one thing into another, it's giving the rock live and mobility," Dean explained.

"A combined transfiguration and charm spell," Sam explained, from where he sat on the bed. "Pretty much gargoyles."

"Among other things," Dean reminded his taller brother.

"And you're from Kansas?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Weird, huh?" Dean answered with a shit-eating grin.

Set during Ep. Skin of SPN

Harry blinked and pulled his hand back to stare at it then at the book that he swore just made his hand tingle. Looking around quickly, checking that no one was around before pulling out his wand and doing a quick magic detection spell. All the spell was good for was seeing whether or not an object was magical, so it wasn't used much, though Harry was, oddly, using it more than anyone he had ever heard of.

Sighing as the book did the obliging shimmer, that over the last months he had become so familiar with, that he was beginning to pick up the subtle nuances of the shimmer. And judging by that knowledge, it was some sort of nature magic. Pulling down the book Harry eyed the price sticker as he pulled out his cell.

"Hi, Dad?"

John sighed tiredly, "Something happen?"

"Just found a book that I wanted permission to get."

"Put it in a pile with anything else that catches your eye."

"How's it going?"

"Sam was right. It is something up our alley."

Harry snorted in amusement. "Sam's always right."

"Just don't tell him that."

"Yeah, we don't want him turning into Dean."

John laughed. "I'll pick you up in an hour. Stay out of trouble."

"I'll try." Putting away his cell, Harry went back to browsing the used book store.

Harry looked over the wrecked room and winced. This was bad especially for Dean.

Acting quickly he used a quick charm that Fred and George had taught him the year before. What it did was cause the skin on the tips of the fingers to grow and shed quickly so you ended up with something like when you let glue dry on your fingers. They claimed they had needed it for getting away with pranking certain smarter muggleborns who check for prints when pranked.

Another quick charm that he had learned in the same lesson changed the fingerprints under the shed skin. Luckily Harry could just use the crazy skinshifters original prints rather than someone else's in the room.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked from where he sat next to his doppelganger.

"Giving you a plausible alibi, jerk," Harry frantically thought if there was anything else he could think of to do. "I changed his fingerprints, but made it look like he did the fake fingerprint thing from Gone in 60 Seconds. When the cops get here just stick to the truth as much as possible and let them draw the conclusions okay?"

"I get it," Sam said. "Dean, try not to be such a wiseass with the cops, okay?"

Dean glared at Sam briefly before nodding, giving into the inevitable.