Fanfic / Demented Verse

The Demented ‘Verse is a crossover between Harry Potter and Supernatural, starting when Dean and Sam meet Harry while he’s assisting the American magical government in investigating a recent upsurge in dementor activity during the demons’ attempts to break the Seals. This starts a series of meetings between the two groups, initially written as though just taking place ‘off-screen’ between the Winchesters’ hunts, but culminating in a significant change of events as Harry helps Castiel and Gadreel stop Metatron and the wizarding world are able to find another way to save Dean from the Mark of Cain.

Demented ‘Verse contains examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Dean in particular is angry when he hears about Harry’s childhood with the Dursleys.
• Adaptational Heroism: In a sense; Gadreel is spared what would have been his death and becomes an ally as Castiel and Hannah start to rebuild Heaven.
• Applied Phlebotinum: In a religious sense; his memories of translating the Angel Tablet allow Kevin to recall a passage that suggests that the fallen angels can reclaim their wings if they are thanked for their good deeds for humans while the human rings a bell, which is proven to be true when the Winchesters and their wizard allies do this after saving Dean and Castiel starts teleporting again.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Kevin Tran becomes the Men of Letters’ representative to the wizarding world after he is saved from his death, with his mother encouraging him to think of this as him being elected to the role of ‘president’ of the Men of Letters now that his old ambitions are impossible.
  • Charlie Bradbury becomes an official representative of the Men of Letters when characters are attempting to translate the Book of the Damned, Charlie retaining custody of the Codex needed to translate the Book while the Ministry are represented by Malfoy.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Considering that Alecto Carrow is able to escape Azkaban by making a deal with a demon and uses his freedom to go after various pure-blood ‘traitors’ and then attack Hogwarts itself, it’s hard to feel sorry for him even knowing he will inevitably go to Hell.
  • Invoked when Dean is talking with Teddy about werewolves; when Teddy asks if Dean would kill werewolves, Dean assures Teddy that he would only kill werewolves like the one that attacked Teddy's father or his 'Uncle Bill' rather than Teddy's father, Dean affirming that he would have killed Greyback when he learns that the same werewolf attacked Remus and Bill.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Winchesters, their wizarding friends, and some of Dean and Sam’s key allies all come together to form this.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Learning of Sam’s ties to Azazel, Harry muses that he can understand Sam’s issues as so many people linked him to Voldemort for reasons beyond his own control.
  • George visits Dean after Sam falls into the Cage so that they can commiserate on how hard it is to deal with losing someone who meant as much to a person as Fred and Sam meant to them.
  • Later on, Sam muses that he, Dean and Castiel are very like Harry, Ron and Hermione, although he admits in a moment of heightened emotion that he’s probably the Hermione equivalent of the group.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Suggested for the Dementors, when Harry’s discussion with the Winchesters features him speculating that they are drawn to those who have bad experiences because they find the briefer moments of happiness those people have experienced more potent than the memories of otherwise happy children.
• Book Ends: In a sense for Gadreel’s role in the Season Nine equivalent; just as he entered events on Earth hiding in the body of another to save a life, after the final confrontation with Metatron, Gadreel takes a soul into himself to save a life, absorbing Harry’s soul into himself so that he can take Harry back to his body after Metatron cut the connection.
• Canon Welding: It is all but explicitly stated that the wizarding world essentially takes the place of the British Men of Letters that appeared in the twelfth season of Supernatural, although the American Men of Letters still exist as they were.
• Closest Thing We Got: In Vile Violent Locations, the supernatural attacks are determined to be the result of a demonic curse provoking spirits into unrest; most of the time this just provokes muggle spirits to rise up and attack the residents, but in the case of the Burrow and Malfoy Manor, no muggles had ever died on those properties, so the powerful intent behind the curse instead drove the Weasleys’ ghoul hostile and manifested the death echo of Charity Burbage.
• Cool Car: The Impala, as always; even Ginny expresses some surprise at how the Impala has been basically a home for the Winchesters for the better part of thirty years and still seem so solid without possessing any magic in itself.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Not directly, but after the Winchesters learn that the wizards learned about Dean breaking the First Seal during their first meeting, Sam observes that they should have told Dean at the time rather than leave him to learn that fact from the demon who broke him, Sam reflecting that Dean might have taken that news better from an ally.
• Demoted to Extra: In-story, anyway; after helping Metatron, on top of his prior crimes, Gadreel is demoted to the rank of Seraph and will only be allowed out of Heaven in the company of another angel. However, from Gadreel's perspective, this is a lighter sentence than his earlier time trapped in Heaven’s dungeon, as he is now permitted to wander around and can occasionally talk with humans in their personal heavens, as well as being able to actually leave Heaven if accompanied by another angel.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: In a sense; when working with the Winchesters, the Winchesters have to try and exorcise the demons they’re fighting rather than simply stab the demons with the knife because the wizards refuse to kill hosts.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: Basically applies to the Book of the Damned; as the only way to read it is Nadya’s Codex, the Men of Letters and the Ministry of Magic agree to split up the two, with the Ministry taking custody of the Book while the Men of Letters hold on to the Codex.
• The Dreaded: Even a decade after Voldemort’s death, learning that demon deals can bring people back from the dead briefly makes Harry panic that one of the Dark Lord’s followers might use a deal to bring him back, but he assures himself upon learning of the accompanying conditions that none of the surviving Death Eaters are selfless enough to go to Hell for Voldemort.
• Exact Words:
  • When Ron overhears some of the aurors doubting Dean and Sam’s abilities (believing them to just be American aurors without knowing their true history), Ron observes that he has seen Dean drop a Dementor without magic and Sam harness more raw magic than he should be capable of; each statement is true, but phrased in a manner that avoids revealing that Dean and Sam aren’t actually wizards.
  • When Malfoy informs Jody Mills that he and Harry are ‘the opposite of hunters’, Harry berates Malfoy for responding like that as the opposite of hunters would be automatically interpreted as demons rather than wizards.
• Failed a Spot Check: Basically the reason Harry didn’t realise that every wizard being plagued by unusual ghosts in Vile Violent Vacations, such as the Weasleys, would have been considered a ‘blood traitor’ during Voldemort’s reign of terror; Natasha Jones appeared to be an exception, until Malfoy clarifies that Natasha Jones managed to hide her true identity as Igor Karkaroff’s sister so well that Voldemort only found her a few weeks before the war ended and never had the time to go after her
• Find the Cure!: The final story in the series sees all characters working to find a cure for the Mark of Cain that doesn’t involve killing Dean. They succeed.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Applies when Harry helps Castiel and Gadreel confront Metatron; at one point, while from his perspective he’s just being given a piggyback by Castiel, from the perspective of the angels this essentially ‘hides’ Harry in Castiel’s shadow, as their casual glances would cause most angels to assume that Harry’s soul is the soul of Castiel’s vessel.
• Gender Flip: Kevin is surprised when he is visited by Gadreel and Hannah after Hannah has taken the body of a male vessel.
• Gentle Giant: Sam swiftly identifies Hagrid as this when he and Dean first meet Hagrid, Sam musing that Harry would have never been scared of Hagrid despite his size because Hagrid was probably the first adult Harry ever met who was genuinely kind to him.
• Heaven: Harry joins Gadreel and Castiel in confronting Metatron in Heaven via his own door to the afterlife, although we never see Harry's unique Heaven itself.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Not shown directly in the series itself, but the fact that the Winchesters have died for each other and others on several occasions helps Malfoy cast an important ritual.
• Idiot Ball: Arguably applies to whatever wizard thought it was a good idea to leave books on demonic rituals available in the Azkaban library.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Harry never makes the threat himself, but Dean and Sam both agree that they can trust him after they spend a few hours officially in his ‘custody’ while staying in a motel, and the only magic Harry uses is the Patronus charm and making more comfortable beds for himself and Sam.
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Harry discovers that the wizarding world is relatively unfamiliar with demonic possession as demons can’t use magic properly when possessing wizards, prompting most wizards to conclude that they don’t need to worry about it.
• In Spite of a Nail: Even with the Winchesters’ new allies in the wizarding world, Sam still ends up in the Cage with Lucifer, Castiel still releases the Leviathans, Bobby still dies, and the angels still fall from Heaven, although things start to change after that.
• Insistent Terminology: When Harry and Malfoy introduce themselves to Jody and her girls as wizards, Claire tries to do this when she calls them witches, but Harry affirms that they're not the same as the witches the Winchesters hunt.
• Internal Reveal: Harry and Hermione realise that Dean broke the First Seal while he was in Hell, a few months before Alastair would reveal that fact to Dean himself.
• Invisible to Normals: Due to Sam’s demon blood, he has a degree of immunity to anti-muggle wards to the point that he can see dementors, although this ability is less potent when he’s not drinking demon blood on a regular basis.
• Like Brother and Sister: Castiel, Kevin and Charlie acknowledge that they all see the Winchesters as family (Jodie Mills does the same, but her role is more ‘maternal’ than the aforementioned three).
• Loophole Abuse:
  • In the final confrontation with Metatron, Sam and Harry are able to infiltrate Heaven by contacting Tessa so that she can take them to Heaven through Harry’s ‘door’ to Heaven after his temporary death, as that door is still ‘valid’ even if Heaven itself is on lockdown. Later, Harry is able to hide from other angels in Heaven by essentially piggy-backing on Castiel (from Harry's perspective); as Castiel is the only entity within his body after Jimmy Novak’s ‘death’, by staying close to Castiel Harry can fool casual observers in Heaven into assuming that he is the soul of Castiel’s Vessel.
  • Part of the spell used to save Dean from the Mark relied on the same act of sacrifice Lily used to save Harry; while the Winchesters aren’t permanently dead, they have died for each other often enough that it qualifies even if they always came back.
• Mood Dissonance: In Vile Violent Vacations, after Ron has discussed his mother killing the ghoul in the Burrow's attic and how they considered it funny, Dean and Sam reveal that a pair of ghouls nearly killed Sam and ate their brother; the awkward silence after this revelation is sharply contrasted by the sound of James and Albus playing with their trains across the room.
• Mundane Solution: Magic has never been able to do more than keep the Dementors at bay, but Dean is able to drop one by using tasers, albeit tasers amped up to deal with supernatural creatures such as Rawhides.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The demons used their control of Dementors to lure Harry to America based on his experience with them, but their plans result in Harry making contact with the Winchesters and learning more about the current situation before the demons are ready for him.
• Noodle Incident: While visiting the Tower of London, the Winchesters compare the Tower to their three past visits to Albuquerque when assessing it for ghosts, with the third visit apparently having been fairly tame and the second a particularly bad one.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Harry notes a range of similarities between himself and the Winchesters, such as his and Sam’s unwanted ties to Voldemort and Azazel and them both being subject to prophecies.
  • Sam finds himself bonding with Bill regarding Bill’s private concerns that Bill's children or Teddy may in some way be ‘tainted’ by their werewolf heritage, despite Teddy showing no signs of it and Bill only being a partial werewolf at best.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Evoked, although never seen; Hermione reveals in the final confrontation in the first fic that the Seal of the Saviour's Sacrifice did not call for the demons to sacrifice a saviour, but for the Saviour (in this case, Harry) to sacrifice someone else to save his own life.
• Oh, Crap!: Sam and Harry have this after Harry’s finished explaining what the Dementors do to people, as Sam realises that Dean’s current catatonic state is because he’s trapped in his memories of his time in Hell.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Hermione serves as the magical equivalent of this, able to quickly learn how to perform a mass exorcism in her first meeting with the Winchesters.
• Opponent Switch: In a sense, as Castiel and Gadreel catch Metatron off-guard by working with Harry rather than the Winchesters, although they weren’t expecting Harry to be present.
• Orcus on His Throne: Metatron takes on this role as in canon after he expelled the angels from Heaven.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: It is explicitly stated that wizard ghosts aren’t automatically dangerous, unlike muggle ghosts, although Sam and Dean still take precautions when going around Hogwarts. Malfoy also observes that it is impossible for wizard ghosts to be death echoes, which affirms that something unconventional is going on when the death echo of Charity Burbage appears in Malfoy Manor.
• Outside-Context Problem: Essentially, as the wizarding world has very little experience of angels and demons, to the point that Dean and Sam are hired as temporary Defence instructors to help teach both students and aurors how to deal with demons during the Apocalypse.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Dean in particular is more ‘additional parental figure’ to the Potter children than a substitute, but he and Sam still makes an impression on them and Scorpius in their first visit.
  • As an extension of Dean’s complex role in Sam’s life, Dean recalls how Sam used to give Dean Mother’s Day cards in the absence of a ‘Dean-day’, but stopped when other kids made fun of him (Dean’s birthday not counting as a ‘Dean-day’ as it was hard to keep track of birthdays in their line of work).
  • Later Jody Mills realises that she’s formed a similar bond to the Winchesters as well as her current ‘charges’ when she’s called in to help with the ritual to cure Dean of the Mark.
• Put on the Bus: In a sense; after Gadreel nearly kills Kevin and he is portkeyed to Britain for treatment, Kevin stays with the Ministry of Magic even after Gadreel defects from Metatron, assisting the Winchesters with cases at a greater distance.
• Refuge in Audacity: Dean and Sam manage to pass themselves off as wizards without ever doing a single spell and only Harry's closest friends knowing the truth, starting with Harry claiming he met them while he was hunting for horcruxes, relying on Harry’s reputation to deter too many intimate questions and just give enough generic details to satisfy casual inquiries.
• Ret-Gone: From all available evidence, the British Men of Letters do not exist.
• Riddle for the Ages: After the Winchesters learn about Hagrid’s half-giant parentage, Harry privately informs them that he’s never had the nerve to ask how Hagrid’s parents could do anything together either.
• Secret Test of Character: The best description of how Jody confirms that Harry and Malfoy aren't demons; Malfoy's genuine surprise at the idea that the King of Hell is British assures her that he's never met Crowley.
• Social Climber: A positive example of this, as Astoria is shown trying to improve Draco’s post-war standing in society, such as subtly encouraging him to mend bridges with Harry and his associates; at least part of the reason she wanted the Winchesters over for tea was because it helps improve the Malfoys’ position to be actively socialising with muggles after trying to kill them during the War.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Kevin Tran, Gadreel, Tessa, Hannah and Charlie survive past the time that would have been their deaths in canon, as Dean and Sam’s wizarding allies change events to give the relevant parties new opportunities.
• Status Quo Is God: For the first few stories, Harry and his allies are unable to make any impact on the Winchesters’ efforts against Lucifer and the Leviathans, but they are more help when the Winchesters are dealing with Metatron and the Mark of Cain, including Hermione healing Kevin of his injuries and Harry stopping Gadreel from killing himself.
• Understatement: Draco observes that he doubts they want to know what the Mark is keeping locked up.
• Underestimating Badassery: The wizards underestimate the demons and vice-versa, allowing the demons to infiltrate the American Ministry of Magic while the Winchesters drive them out afterwards after Harry brought them in.
• Van Helsing Hate Crime: Dean initially wonders if they have to kill Harry because he’s a wizard, but Sam’s research confirms that the wizarding world does not rely on the same ‘rules’ of magic as the witches that the Winchesters have dealt with in the past who got their powers through making deals with demons. Aside from a close call when a couple of other hunters target Teddy in the belief he’s a shapeshifter, in general the Winchesters and their allies all accept the good members of the wizarding world with no doubts that they are on the same side, barring a few minor moments such as the Winchesters’ discomfort at the news that the Weasleys had a ghoul in the attic.
• Your Magic's No Good Here:
  • Sam can see Dementors due to the demon blood in him, and has a degree of immunity to anti-muggle wards while he is receiving ‘donations’ from Ruby, although this is less significant after he stops drinking it.
  • Harry states that muggle and wizard werewolves are different and there is no ‘cure’ for the condition for muggle werewolves, indirectly assuring Sam and Dean that they could have done nothing for Madison.
  • Harry and Malfoy are able to use a complex charm and a special room in the American Department of Mysteries to imbue objects personal to Sam and Dean with magic equivalent to the Patronus Charm, which will allow them to be protected from Dementors on their own.
  • Dean determines that dementors can be defeated by using super-charged tasers.
  • Wizard healing cannot restore Bobby’s ability to walk after he was paralysed while possessed, as healing magic that complex relies on the subject having magic themselves.
  • The Enochian sigils Castiel carved into Sam and Dean's ribs to hide them from angels also prevent tracking charms finding them.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: To a point; while the Winchesters soon accept that the wizarding world and the magic involved in it isn’t the same as the monsters they’re used to hunting, such as shapeshifters not being killers and werewolves being treatable, the revelation that the Weasleys had a ‘pet’ ghoul in their attic doesn’t go down well with the Winchesters after their last experience with ghouls.