Chapter Text
Almost everyone would agree, that whilst Mister A.Z Fell was a perfectly nice man, he was a very odd one. He ran a bookshop and never seemed to want to sell a single book, and in fact, actively discouraging it.
And then there was the giant snake that could be occasionally making its’ way through the aisles.
On the other hand, Mister A.J. Crowley, was not normal in the slightest and was clearly proud of that.
They were clearly married, with three gorgeous babies.
Therefore, people were used to seeing odd things happening around the shop, ergo, no-one blinked an eye when a large, tawny owl flew past.
Inside the home, Aziraphale took the copy of the Daily Prophet from the owl, paying for it and allowing the owl to be on its way. He might not interact with the wizarding world anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to keep up with the news, especially with the war going on.
The headline was bold and caused him to freeze in his tracks.
YOU-KNOW-WHO VANQUISHED BY BABY!
“Goodness me!” he exclaimed, rushing into the living room, “Riddle is dead!”
Crowley took a moment to react, burping Adam over his shoulder, before he quickly shot to his feet (which startled the burp out of the one-year-old). “What?!”
Taking Adam out of his arms and placing him next to Warlock and BB, “Aziraphale handed the newspaper over, watching as Crowley scanned over it.
“A baby?” Crowley hissed, “Impossssible!”
“Hmmm, apparently the fatal curse... bounced right off him.”
“Again, impossssible!”
“Not necessarily.” Aziraphale summoned a book to his hand, smiling fondly when the three babies clapped happily at the action, “Some forms of magical protection do stem from strong feelings... such as a mother’s love.” He gave Crowley a knowing look, even as the demon made a vague noise of disgust.
Honestly, who was he trying to fool?
“If Lily Potter defied him to protect her son, that could have quite easily saved him... even if it didn’t save her.”
Crowley incinerated the paper with a flick of his hands, sticking out his tongue in disgust, “The wizards are going to be unbearable after this.” He muttered, heading over to the window, “Look, there’s one now.”
Peering out of the same window, Aziraphale winced at the sight of a wizard in a violet cloak hugging a nearby non-magical person. “Have they all forgotten that…. Statute of Secrecy thing?”
“Over ten years of war can do funny things to people angel.” Shaking his head, Crowley headed back over to the babies, taking the seat on the floor beside them, “Come on. Keep the shop closed for the door, I don’t think I could deal with all that happiness today. It’s like they’d forgotten that a kid had to lose his parents for this to happen.”
“Yes…. You have a point there.”
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The day passed, and Crowley just found it easier to put the babies by the window so that they could see all the owls flying past, each one making him more and more annoyed.
“Jusssst one angel.” He hissed, “All it will take… issss one.”
“And then I would never get the newspaper or letters again. No.”
“There’ssss been a downpour of ssshooting ssstarsss in the North.” Crowley was still incensed, “If Heaven doesn’t notice, then Hell definitely will.”
“They are just as aware of the wizarding world… if to a slightly lesser extent than myself.” Aziraphale waved his concerns off, “They will put it down to mortals being mortals.”
“I don’t like it Angel.”
“I know.” Aziraphale moved closer, pressing a kiss to the top of Crowley’s cheek, “Their war is over though. This is the last we’ll hear of them.”
“Until another Dark Wizard popsss up.”
“Try not to think about it too much love.”
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Now, you may be wondering how an angel and a demon came to be raising three children.
Well, it all came down to poor planning and bad luck.
You see, on the night that Crowley was supposed to bring the Antichrist to the Satanic nunnery, so that he could be swapped out with a Senator’s child, there were not one, but two couples giving birth there… and one of them had twins.
The Antichrist was supposed to go to the American diplomat family and the other babies were to be left with their parents as the real diplomat baby was quietly disposed of. Except, the second couple didn’t want twins, and so, one child was quietly given up for adoption as well.
Honestly, there were so many baskets and so many babies being shuffled around, Crowley amazed they didn’t mess anything up.
Of course, when the nuns went to dispose of the two spare babies, Crowley thought about that egg he’d left back in his heated tank in the bookshop… and had a moment of weakness.
He was lucky that Aziraphale was so understanding
And so, Adam (Aziraphale) and Warlock (Crowley) were adopted into the fold. Less than a month later, and B.B joined the group
Biology really.
Biology and bad luck.
Parenting in a nutshell.
……………………………………………………..
So annoyed with the wizarding world and knowing that this was all going to backfire on them somehow, Crowley removed himself from the bookshop, not wanting to upset the babies.
How he ended up in Little Whinging, he’d never know, but chose not to question it, striding down the picturesque streets in the middle of the night, taking deep breaths and letting out the occasional hissed curse, which sent no small number of garden snakes scurrying for their lives.
‘Creator!’
He turned, seeing a small snake quickly making its way over to him.
‘There’sssss a hatchling!’
‘A hatchling?’
It was too cold out here for hatchlings…and the wrong time of the year for it.
‘A human hatchling!’
Crowley froze. It was definitely not the temperature for a baby. ‘Take me there’ He ordered, following on behind the snake, until he arrived outside Number 4, Privet Drive. There, on the doorstep, was a little baby, wrapped up in a blanket, a letter placed carefully on top of them as they wriggled.
“Shit.” Crowley hissed, quickly picking him up, frowning at how cold he was, “Shit.”
And then he saw the red, swollen looking scar on the child’s forehead.
“Shit.”
……………………………….
“Left on a doorstep?” Aziraphale frowned, looking down at the baby in his arms, the bookshop quiet as the rest of the world slumbered on, “The so-called Boy-Who-Lived… abandoned on a doorstep?!”
“That’sss not the worssse part about thisss sssstory!” Crowley hissed, brushing the dark hair to one side, to reveal the lightening scar, “That’sss got part of a ssssoul in that!”
Aziraphale felt a shiver run down his spine
The art of splitting your soul and keeping part of it contained in another object or living thing wasn’t new, but it was one of the darkest things a mortal could do.
“H-How?”
Crowley visibly forced himself to calm down, “The mother’ssss sssacrifice probably had sssomething to do with it.” Another deep breath, “I don’t think it wass intentional, but it sshould have been sspotted.”
This was a good point.
Aziraphale had followed the wizarding news for as long as he could remember, and he remembered reading about the great fight between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. Surely, someone as powerful as he, would have seen that there was something wrong with this child?
“What do you want to do?”
Crowley looked a little taken aback by the question, yellow, serpentine eyes glancing towards the door where the other three shared a nursery, before sighing, “I’ll get another cot set up… what’s the kid called again?”
“Hari. Hari Potter.”
…………………………………………………………………..
Almost everyone would agree, that whilst Mister A.Z Fell was a perfectly nice man, he was a very odd one. He ran a bookshop and never seemed to want to sell a single book, and in fact, actively discouraging it.
And then there was the giant snake that could be occasionally making its’ way through the aisles.
On the other hand, Mister A.J. Crowley, was not normal in the slightest and was clearly proud of that.
They were clearly married, with four gorgeous babies.
And that was just how they wanted the world to see them.