In all honesty, he was amazed that Ron and Hermione hadn't discovered Grelle in the five years since the man had started practically living with him. They had always seemed to time their visits for whenever the reaper had been out working. All good things, however, must come to an end, and Harry was extremely lucky to have made it this far. He knew it was only a matter of time before his luck ended though, and was dreading the day it would.
The day came sooner than he had hoped. The other three, as it was pointless to leave Ginny out of the group now since she would tag along whether they wanted to or not, had noticed his prolonged absences. Lately, he had been spending more and more time in the other dimension, helping the London Branch with whatever mission they had, which meant that he had not spent as much time in the modern time. Hell, he had missed a Sunday dinner, of course, they noticed. But when you have an impromptu movie night with William freaking Spears, nothing less than the apocalypse would have moved him.
So Harry had ended up inviting them to Grimmauld for dinner. Which, considering Grelle was currently napping on his bed, was not one of his better ideas. It was the only thing he could think of to get them to stop badgering him. Sure he could have taken them to a restaurant, but he had decided against it, deciding it would be better to kill two birds with one stone. They had been worried about him spending all his time in Grimmauld, assuming that he had left it the way it was, dark, gloomy, and dusty, and insisting it wasn't good to stay there all the time.
After him blowing up at her, Hermione had been dying to see the library, though he wasn't sure she would appreciate it like he did. She was still convinced that Light Magic was the only way, and believed the lies of the Ministry, thinking that Dark Magic and those who practiced it were evil. For all her reading, she really didn't grasp the finer details, her views were black and white, not understanding that nothing was as simple as that.
There was gray mixed in with the black and white, and not everything was in aesthetically pleasing boxes. The blacks, and whites, and greys were all swirled together, bleeding across the hypothetical paper, like the art project from eighth grade that had you up all night pulling your hair out, trying desperately to make the watercolour work with matter what anyone said, no one except the angels were fully Light, and no one except the Demons were fully Dark. Even then, either one could still be infected by the other.
Soft knocking at the door brought him out of his thoughts. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was already 5:30. He pulled himself out of the chair he was in and made his way to the door, hoping against hope that Grelle would stay asleep, or at least stay out of sight. When the knocking got a little louder, he called out, 'Just a minute', and sped up a bit.
Reaching the door he quickly unlocked it, and pulled it open, revealing the figures of his friends, inwardly groaning at the sight of Ginny's outfit. She had donned a tight black dress, which was both low cut and short. She had put on ample amounts of makeup and perfume, and Harry was trying his best not to gag. Hermione looked nice, wearing a green sweater, and black skinny jeans, while Ron wore a simple white t-shirt and jeans.
"Hey you guys, glad you could come," no he wasn't.
"Of course, Harry," responded Hermione, smiling at him. He moved to the side, opening the door a little wider to allow them entry. Since he had moved Mrs. Black's painted to the attic with the elf heads, they didn't have to worry about being quiet anymore, which was nice.
Soon they were all in the kitchen, chatting about work and hobbies and whatever, while Harry made dinner. Once he had finished, they sat down to eat, laughing and just talking, while Harry tried to ignore Ginny glances toward him, and how she was slowing shifting her chair closer. He had also notice Hermione glancing at him oddly a couple times, and wondered what that was about. About halfway through dinner, he got his answer.
"So, Harry," started Hermione. " What have you been up to? We hardly ever see you any more."
"Nothing much really, I guess," he replied, unsure of what exactly he should tell her. "I've been working with a few friends lately, that's been nice."
"Oh? Who are they? Do we know them?" Harry felt his cheeks heat up slightly, uncomfortable with Hermione's scrutiny of him.
"Um, no, you wouldn't," He coughed out. Hermione hummed thoughtfully, still watching Harry with a piercing gaze.
"I was wondering, Harry," cut in Ginny, her tone honeyed, and smile looking a little strained. " where you got that jewelry? You never seemed like the type to buy those things."
"I was thinking about that too, mate." agreed Ron. Harry looked down at his hands, realizing he had forgotten to take off the many rings he had been given by some of the men he had to either kill or get info out of. Apparently, they had liked him a little too much, and instead of simply trying to get under his skirt, they had decided they wanted to try and win his heart. Although there were many that were gifted to him by Ronald, a young reaper from the retrieval division, taken from some dead noble woman's collection, or sometimes even her corpse.
Every one of his fingers was adorned, in his ears were simple gold studs, and it wasn't even close to the amount he had collected over the years. Upstairs there were boxes of bracelets, necklaces, earrings, more rings, and even a few headpieces.
"They, uh," pausing, Harry continued to look at his hands, desperately trying to think of a way to explain as Ginny's eyes narrowed. " they were gifts." he finished lamely, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort, cheeks reddening as Hermione and Ginny looked at him skeptically, and Ron simply looked confused.
"From who though?" he asked. " Some of those look really expensive, Harry."
"Yeah, Harry, I want to know too. Maybe they can hook me up with some as well," chimed in Hermione, winking. She then giggled, and a sly smile worked its way onto her face. Realizing what she was about to imply, his eyes widened. He tried to stop her, but it was too late. " Those aren't really something a friend would give, Harry. Is there something you aren't telling us?"
And then, at quite possibly the worst possible moment in all of existence, Grelle walked in. It wouldn't have been too terribly big of a deal, if he wasn't wearing some of the tightest leather pants Harry had ever seen, and one of Harry's old Gryffindor Quidditch jerseys. Harry let his head fall into his hands with a groan. The tension was building as the other three stared at the redhead, and Grelle took in what was happening.
"Oh, sorry, Harry dear, I didn't realize you had guests over."
And just like that, the dam burst. Ginny jumped up.
"You're gay?! What the hell, Harry?! You dated me for six months, dump me without fulfilling any of your promises, and go running off to this slutty guy?" she shouted, looking furious, and for some reason beyond Harry's comprehension, betrayed. She glanced at him and saw him peeking out at her through his fingers. Then she focused on the rings, looking back and forth between them and Grelle. " Oh my gosh. Is, is he paying you?!"
There was a moment of silence, where the others looked between the rings and Grelle, eyes widening slowly. Then Grelle burst out laughing, which led Harry to start giggling incredulously.
"You, you thought," choked out Grelle, still laughing. " that, Harry and I, were dating? And that I was his sugar daddy or something? Have you even met him?"
Ginny stared wide eyed at the flamboyant man who was bent over laughing near the doorway. After a moment he straightened up, now only chuckling, and looked back at Ginny.
"I don't even make anything close to that kind of money anyway, so it's not like I actually could, even if I wanted to."
"Grelle you don't even get paid."
"Touché."
Alright ya'll first author's note I suppose. It was bound to happen eventually.
To Elfin69 : you are amazing and I'm glad someone adores Death as much as I do. And yes, I was very much debating having them together, so I just might write that spinoff you're dying for. I hope this answers your question about Ginny, and yes indeed, she'll keep at it. I aspire to make people hate her with the same burning passion I do.
I hope you guys know that everything just gets worse from there, so prepare for sadness next chapter.
