Break Out

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/54633583.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural (TV 2005)
Relationship: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
Character: Dean Winchester
Additional Tags: Season/Series 01, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Desi James
Potter, Age Regression/De-Aging, Physical Deaging Only,
Imprisonment, Not Albus Dumbledore Friendly
Language: English
Series: Part 10 of Hogwarts Assignments (Assorted)
Collections: Monthly Challenges for All (Year 7)
Stats: Published: 2024-03-21 Words: 1,617 Chapters: 1/1
 Break Out
by wintergreen825

Summary

Dean and Sam find the boy in a secret room behind a bookshelf in the library of the
seemingly abandoned house they had been checking out.

Notes

Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to
whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said
whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't
going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also referenced imprisonment
& nonconsensual body modification (deaged). Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: So this is just a random idea that will probably go nowhere else.

See the end of the work for more notes

 (^^)
Break Out
(^^)

Dean and Sam find the boy in a secret room behind a bookshelf in the library of the
seemingly abandoned house they had been checking out. There had been rumors of strange
sounds from the house, things that had led them to believe that it was probably nothing more
than a generic ghost or maybe even a poltergeist. They probably would have skipped over it,
onward to bigger and more demonic issues, except that Sam had collapsed with a blinding
migraine as soon as they had crossed the county line.

The desert certainly hadn't left a lot of options about where they could pull in to wait out the
pain left behind by the vision. Even with their father being MIA, Dean didn't know how
much longer he could safely keep Sam's growing abilities under wraps. The pain associated
with them just seemed to be getting more debilitating with each incident.

The locals at the only diner in town were eager to share gossip as Dean drank a cup of coffee
and waited for his food to be ready. A pair of old ladies knitting at a table near the counter
had readily shared how strange sounds always happened at this one particular place, and that
may or may not be related to all of the violent deaths that also seemed to happen in the small
town. (Dean distractedly wondered just how that worked in a small town. It was eerily like
the small towns in serial mysteries. He would have asked Sam, if he thought he would have
gotten an actual answer rather than a lecture about how stupid he was, like he didn't already
know that Sam was the smart one.)

After some food and a nap in an actual bed, Sam had been ready to tackle checking out the
house with Dean. Both brothers had almost written it off as a bust when Dean had seen a
book that had a strange symbol carved into the pumpkin-orange leather of its spine. It looked
like one of the symbols used in demon traps but slightly off. So he had tried to pull the book
off the shelf.

The shelf that had opened like it was a door instead, revealing a set of steep stairs made of
stone.

"You are way too excited about this," Sam scolded as they were walking down the hallway
they had discovered at the bottom of the stairs. Dean had his EMF reader out, a weather eye
on the row of lights that kept growing the farther they go, especially since he has turned the
sound off to avoid drawing Sam's attention more than necessary. "You're like a kid in a candy
store. I've only ever seen you this excited about pie."

"Dude," Dean stated as seriously as possible, "it's a secret passage! Behind a bookshelf! It's
awesome! The only thing that could make it better is if—"

And that was when the hallway they had been following widened into a round room. Along
the walls of the room were multiple sliding glass doors. Most of the rooms beyond the doors
were dark. Only one of them had any light.
It was currently dimmed to something resembling twilight, the dozens of tiny votive candles
floating in the air just below the ceiling unable to do more even in large quantity like that.
The light was enough that they could see what looked like a small studio apartment. There
was a kitchenette on one side of the space and a bed on the other. A single doorway on the
back wall looked into a space that looked like a bathroom with a shower instead of a tub.

And sitting in the only wooden chair at the little table was the boy.

He was looking back at them with hazel eyes that were wide behind his gold rim glasses. His
dark curls were messy atop of his head. He had tan skin that looked like it had only gotten
that light because he had been inside for a long, long time. His clothes were oddly expensive
looking (he even had on a slate gray bow tie) but also worn as if they were old.

He didn't look like he could be older than eight or nine.

He was also dropping a long-handled spoon back into the parfait he had been about to bite
into (pale yogurt layered with plump blackberries and dark brown granola). With a grace that
Sammy had never demonstrated when he was the same age, the kid darted to one of the
kitchen cabinets. From it, he pulled a cast iron frying pan that he started brandishing like it
was a club.

"I'm warning you now," the boy threatened, each British syllable dripping with venom, "that
you aren't going to knock me out again. I will knock your heads in before I let you move me
again!"

"Whoa, man," Dean said as he slipped his reader back into his pocket of his leather jacket (it
was the closest to armor that he often had on hunts) and held up his hands. "Let's take a
breath for a moment here. We're not with whoever is responsible for you being in that fish
tank. My name's Dean, and this giant here is my brother Sam."

"He's a little short to be a giant," the kid countered after a sharp snort. His frying pan was
slowly getting lower. His golden hazel eyes were visibly weighing them in a way that was too
familiar for Dean's comfort. Dean could see the exact moment when the kid decided that they
were worth at least an ounce of trust. "I'm James."

"Do you know who is holding you?" Sam asked, completely ignoring how James was still
threatening them with the frying pan. Even the kid was looking at him like he had a few
screws loose.

To be fair, Dean wasn't completely certain that Sam had even the slippery hold on things that
Dean himself did, especially after losing Jess the way that he had. Growing up the way that
they had didn't create the best array of options for healthy coping methods. Dean wouldn't
blame Sam for finally cracking under the weight of everything.

"Yeah," James said with only the tiniest bit of hesitance. Then he shrugged as if to say 'what
the hell'. "I don't know who all have been on my guard detail, because they haven't exactly
been so kind to give their names or not change up their appearances at random. Most of them
have solid black or red eyes, except for the one that met with Albus when he sold me and my
family out."
"No offense," Dean said, "but you don't exactly… You sound a lot older than you look."

"That's because I am," the kid replied. He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "I don't know
what they did, but I woke up like this the first time they made me sleep. I've been like this
ever since then. It's hard to tell how long it's been, but I've definitely shouldn't still look a
little kid if I had been aging normally after they shrunk me. I'm not looking forward to going
through puberty again, but it would be nice to, you know, reach the top shelves without
needing to climb."

"Wait," Sam interjected, "do you mean that you're supposed to be an adult?"

"I was twenty-one when all the human-sized fishbowl stuff started," James answered. "I may
not know how long ago that was, but it feels like at least a few years." His expression
darkened with a mixture of anger and sadness. "I've missed so much of my son's life. Lily is
going to be livid."

"Ah, man," Dean groaned, "you've got a kid? That's gotta suck." He approached the sliding
glass door. There wasn't any visible lock, but then again, Dean didn't think it would be a very
effective cage if it relied on mundane things. The door wasn't any different from the kind
found going to patios across suburbia.

There was some kind of symbols scratched into the handle. He rubbed his thumb over them
like he does with Bobby's ancient books. The symbols reminded him of the ones for a demon
trap, just a tiny step to the side. Did that mean that James was some kind of supernatural
creature?

"Careful—"

Even as James spoke, something sharp bit into the pad of Dean's thumb. He instinctively
yanked his hand away. A tiny dot of ruby blood seeped from where the pain was. He could
feel his mental wheels spinning through all the things he had learned over a lifetime as he
stared at the blood. He ran his tongue against the inside of his teeth.

What did he have to lose?

Dean ran his bleeding thumb over the handle. No alarm sounded. The lighting around them
stayed the same. However, there was a distinctive sound of lock tumblers moving before the
door swung inwards.

For a moment, none of them moved, not even to breathe. Then James dropped the frying pan
and bolted towards the open door. Dean barely managed to get out of the way before he was
shoving his tiny body through the opening.

Not a moment too soon either, because the door snapped shut again right behind him.

"Anyone else down here?" Dean asked as James caught his breath. James shook his head.
Dean glanced over the other darken doors. He nodded to himself before he gestured towards
the secret stairs. "Let's blow this popsicle stand before we all get trapped down here. We can
figure out everything else later."
Neither Sam nor James disagreed with that plan.
End Notes

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (S11); Hogwarts 2.0 (T02); Ministry (Mar Yr2); RAVEN
(2024); MC4A (Sp-Yr7)
Individual Challenges: Associates (Y); Hogwarts MC; Magical MC; Hunter MC [x2]; Old
Shoes; Sandbox (Y); Crossing Over; Animated; Binger; Cinematic; Reader; Dreamers;
Tossed Chum [x2]; Criminal MC [x2]; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent [x2]; Rian-Russo
Inversion; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Eating Cake; Exchange; Greatest Gift; Green
Ribbon; Outer Limit; Two Cakes (Y); Crack Addict; Booger Breath; Desert; Zed Era; Hold
the Mayo; Young Again; Rainbow Connection
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
Assignment: Term 02-05
Subject [Task (Prompt)]: Magical Literature [Task#2 (someone difficult to get close to)]
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Gather [Paladin 12 (Watchers)](James Potter); Case [Doxy]
(James Potter/Bowtie); Library [The Outsiders - SE Hinton](Leather Jacket)
QL Round: Season 11 - Round 04
QL Team (Position): CAT-1 RESERVE
QL Prompt(s): n/a
Other QL Challenges: PAW [10: Travel the World] (Traveling Somewhere)
RAVEN Challenges: A&B [89](Traveling); Traits [33](Impulsive); Colors [88](Slate); Items
[11](Bowtie/Tie); Settings [04](Basement)
Other MC4A Challenges: Chim [Onyx](Pumpkin; "Bonfire Hearts" - James Blunt; Race
Bent; Protection; Turned Left Instead AU; Mother); Hunt [Sp Set (Hot); Sp Con (Berries;
Yogurt); Sp Items (Ceramic Mug; Table)]
Representation(s): AuADHD Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester; Mother Hen Dean;
Deaged & Desi James Potter; Sold to Demons AU; Chim Song Prompt
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Persistence Still; Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets;
Wabi Sabi; Demo 1 (Unwanted Advice; Lovely Coconuts; Grease Monkey; Where Angels
Fear; Muck & Slime); Demo 2 (Fire Song; Unicorn; Soul-Like; Misshapen Pods; Machismo;
Tomorrow's Shade; Hot Stuff); Demo 1p [x2] (Younger You; Fruit Fly); Demo 2p [x5] (Bee
Haven; Seven Gates; Getting On; Land of Enchantment; Yarnspinner)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe)
Space Address (Prompt): SpB [3D (Fruit)]; TrB [2E (Presumed Dead)]
Word Count: 1617 words

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