So far, Harry had thought the most humbling day of his looooong life had been the day he had thought it would be a good idea to not only take his own kids, but his nieces and nephews out for a walk through the woods and ice cream after. Baaaad move. The walk to the shop had been fine. The kids were running around the footpath, excited to be out and eager to behave for the promised ice cream.

Then they had to order what kind they wanted, and all hell broke loose. He had to read the offered flavors several times for the younger ones, the older ones were shuffling to take a look. Everyone was eager to be the first to get their ice cream, someone stepped on Rose's foot, everyone shouted their choice at the poor salesperson, the people in line behind them hated them with a passion and Harry somehow needed to pay before all of them ran out of the shop and into the street. Then someone was unhappy with their flavor, ice cream started to melt, children screamed bloody murder and Harry was ready to bang his head against every available hard surface. Finally, everyone had eaten at least SOME ice cream, and he had cleaned hands, mouths and clothes where necessary, when they had to go back into the shop, because three kids needed to pee.

He had to leave Teddy in charge, who admittedly did a great job, but it caused a massive fight between the kids, about who should be his second in command. And then his third. And so on. And on the way back he had a horde of kids high on sugar and jumping in muddy puddles, small streams, hitting each other with sticks and screaming like banshees.

Once they had all made it back to the house, he must have looked so pathetic, no one even made fun of him. And to top it all off: two days later Harry found out he had left his purse whilst paying. Which was GREAT fun and almost caused an incident, because he not only had Muggle money in there, but wizarding coins and his Auror-ID. Which the muggles of course looked at to return his damn purse. So yeah, that had been Harry's most humbling day. Until he met the damn Winchesters.

He had let the Darkness escape, failed to notice the infected nurse in an upstairs closet that could have killed the two men he'd saved (He saved her, too, later. But that was beside the point) and he hadn't been able to locate Jenna or the potential worlds ending mega bomb in her possession, because he was thrown off by all the mayhem going on in town, where they were making their way now.

Even Dean seemed to have realized that Harry was really not in the mood, and hadn't even made ONE comment about his fuck-ups. Apparently, even he didn't kick a man down.

When they reached the first outskirts of town, their hope to find the infected, heal them and leave got dashed spectacularly. There were crashed cars, signs of obvious destruction and bodies everywhere. Dean swore loudly and turned towards Harry.

"Where to, Magical compass?"

But Harry wasn't really listening. The pain in his chest and head was growing worse with every breath he took. It had reached the point where he felt like the pulsating pain was actually beating in the rhythm of his heart. The blood was throbbing through his ears so loudly, he had trouble understanding the brothers, who looked at him with thinly veiled concern. Dean stopped in the middle of the road and got out of the car, while Sam turned around in his seat and said something Harry couldn't understand.

He opened his own car door and nearly fell to the pavement in his rush to get out. The pounding grew louder and louder, his whole body now shaking.

There was a stroller laying overturned.

Babies. God-damned babies. He HATED it when babies were involved. Next to the stroller, a young woman had had her throat cut down to the bone, her eyes wide in horror.

Boom. All those dead. Boom. And nothing he could do. Boom. Master of Death. Boom. My ass. Boom. What. Boom. Good. Boom. Was. Boom. All THIS?!

Harry fell to his knees next to the woman. Around him, the world seemed to lose all color. The pounding drowned out everything else. Boom. Boom. Boom. There were people infected by the Darkness around him, but somehow he couldn't get up to find them. So many dead. So many souls... destroyed. So Harry pulled. And pulled. And PULLED. The pounding grew even louder, until it felt like he himself would burst any second. But Harry kept on pulling, putting all his anger, all his grief into it.

Death was inevitable. Yes. Death wasn't to be feared. But this wasn't natural. It wasn't how this was supposed to be.

What was the point?!

His vision started to blur in and out of focus with the rhythm of his heart.

What. Was. The. Point?!

With one last, unbearable BOOM Harry hit the pavement in front of him and felt it break under his fists as all pressure left his body. It was gone. No pounding. No pain. He felt tired, so tired. The whole town was silent, he saw the brothers stand about 20 feet from him, looking shocked. Then a scream shattered through the silence, followed by another and then another. The woman in front of him took a shaky breath through her newly healed throat and stared at him in horror, before crawling over to clasp her crying baby to her chest.

People were waking up all around them. Shocked. Terrified. Confused. But healed and alive. Harry could no longer feel even a trace of the Darkness around them.

"Harry?", Sam took a couple of careful steps towards him, "Are you... okay?"

"What. The. Heck, man?", Dean ground out at the same time.

"I have no idea.", Harry admitted.

"Didn't you say the whole Master of Death thing was kinda... not a thing?", Dean asked.

"Well, yes. I can't... this can't have been me.", Harry protested weakly, as Sam pulled him to his feet, keeping a steadying hand around his shoulder.

"Oh sure. The whole light show and pavement cracking was probably a coincidence."

"Dean. Not helping.", Sam chastised.

He was tired. So tired. Every muscle in his body felt sore, like he had been running for hours. His vision blurred a little. Harry felt himself stumble, as Sam tried to lead him back to the car, but the much taller man held him steadily upright.

"Harry, what's the situation here?", Dean asked, looking around them wearily, as people kept running around, hugging each other, shouting, crying.

"Everybody is healed.", Harry replied. "I can feel it. The sickness is gone."

"Of course. The Winchesters. Should have known.", a female voice called out behind them, just as Sam deposited Harry back into the Impala. Immediately the two brothers stepped in front of the door and Harry couldn't really see anything besides the brothers' backsides.

"Who's asking?", Dean called out, gripping his gun harder.

"The whole of existence is shaken to its core, thousands of souls that were already reaped are pulled back to Earth and into their formerly dead vessels, and who do I find in the middle of all of it? You two."

"Who are you?", Sam asked.

"Don't you mean what? I'll give you a hint. You just undid a whole day's work for me. Now, how did you do it?"

"Oh great, another Reaper. Exactly what we needed today.", Dean groaned.

"You mean, because you killed my boss?"

"He had it coming."

"Dean.", Sam told his brother quietly, "I don't think we need another showdown today."

"Oh please, she won't do a thing. She needs to know what happened here and if it'll happen again. So all she can do is threaten us."

"I am not here to threaten you, Dean, I am here to deliver a message."

"Then spit it out. It has been a long day and I need a beer."

"It's over.", the Reaper said, and Harry actually snorted, which caused the brothers to inch a little closer together to hide him.

"Who's that?"

"Another hunter working the same job today. No need to get him involved in all of this.", Sam hurried to explain, and Harry felt a sudden surge of warmth for the two Winchesters. They had just met him, he was obviously not exactly human, but they were still trying to shield him, while he was vulnerable, "Now what is over?"

"You and Dean... Dying and coming back again and again."

Harry raised an eyebrow. He hadn't known that, but it didn't exactly surprise him, either. Those two just seemed like the type.

"The old Death thought it was funny, but now there is one hard, fast rule in the universe: What lives... dies. So the next time you or your brother bite it, well, you're not going to Heaven . . . Or Hell. One of us... and, Lord, I hope it's me... we're gonna make a mistake and toss you out into the Empty. And nothing comes back from that."

"So because you aren't high enough on the cosmic ladder to get asked for your opinion, you are going to do a shoddy job? Now THAT'S how you get a promotion.", Harry snarked, a new bout of anger helping him back on his feet and pushing the brothers aside to stand between them.

Sam actually stepped on his foot. On his bloody foot. What was he? 12?!

The reaper didn't even give him a second glance. He was only human, after all. And the Winchesters were the big, scary ones, not him. That worked out just..

"Wow, that was one impressive speech. Really, I feel properly chastised. How about you, Sammy?"

"Very much. I am terrified by unnamed reaper number 836."

"Cute. But give it a little time to sink in. I'm sure we'll talk again then. And maybe, just maybe, we can work something out."

"Like what? Empty with benefits?", Dean rolled his eyes.

"Like, tell me what happened here, and I might have a better day at work, when you die. Without silly mistakes."

"What happened here? I have no idea what you're talking about. How about you, Sam?"

"Here? Seems pretty normal to me."

"Exactly."

"As you wish. Be seeing you boys soon, though."

And with that she vanished.

Harry let himself stumble backwards into the car, and the brothers turned towards him.

"Well, she was fun.", Dean sighed and opened the driver's side door.

"What do we do now?", Sam took his seat next to his brother, and they closed their doors in sync.

"Oh, I meant it: I want a beer."

"Do you guys have a couch for me to crash on?", Harry yawned, finally closed his own door and let his head rest against the window.

"You can even have a bed.", Dean grunted, and Harry was surprised he didn't have to put up a fight to be allowed to stay with them.

They could have told the reaper about him. They could have left him behind, and he couldn't actually do much about it in his current state. Instead, they were ready to face the empty and take him with them. And as Harry drifted off to sleep, he vowed to himself that he would never let any Reaper hurt Sam and Dean Winchester. He would stay with them, get rid of the Darkness and however long he might stay in this world or whatever else was going on with him, he would protect them with everything he had. And apparently that had just become a whole lot more.