Harry and Vampire
Chapter 7: Meet the reaper.
A short while before.
Thana was pissed, not that her mood was anything new for nearly a decade. She was a reaper, a subspecies of fae chosen by death to help collect souls that refuse to move on or help those that want to but can't.
They have great power over death, and can even return to life those that have been recently dead if their boy is in good enough condition to do so.
Recently dead as in if they stumble across them within ten minutes of their death, and they haven't been discovered as dead yet.
They could also return those who are simply having an out-of-body experience back to their body.
One thing that they do not have the power or ability to do is force a soul to move on when there is something actively tethering the soul to the mortal plane.
Unfortunately, the Fairy Queen of the Unseelie either didn't understand this or chose not to care, as she had banished Thana from the Fairy realms when she had failed to help a soul move on near the end of Halloween nineteen eighty-one.
She couldn't perform her preferred punishment on her, since she was basically employed by death, and nobody wants to piss off that aspect of existence, so she punished her under her authority as a queen of the Fairies, and limited the punishment to those aspects of Thana.
It wasn't her fault the scumbag shattered his soul and scattered them to the four winds.
To make matters worse, her Fae abilities have been severely bound, leaving her with only a fraction of her natural abilities. She could fulfill her abilities as a reaper since those were granted by death, but her effectiveness was slashed brutally without her other abilities.
She was now enrolled in this school to see if she could learn mortal magics to help bridge the gap in her abilities.
And so it was that a fuming fae was stalking down an abandoned corridor, swinging her scythe wildly to vent her frustration when her scythe slashed through the wooden support holding up an old cold iron suit of armor, a suit of armor that hadn't been maintained for nearly a century, and whose legs were rusted straight through. The sudden lack of a wooden stand caused the rusted parts to crumble, dropping the armor directly on the small young woman.
She knew, from the moment that the armor touched her bare skin that she was in trouble. To make matters worse her shirt had gotten pulled up and it was lying on a significant portion of her back.
Then she felt relief, as somebody moved the armor, and then the person hoisted her on his back.
Opening her eyes through the residual pain before passing out she thought, "Fuck."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Days later she was up and about again, and she had a dilemma.
She was indebted to a mortal and hadn't really been told what to do about it, and she couldn't return to the Fairy Realm until the English dark lord was permanently dead, which would happen as soon as he got himself resurrected ad then killed again. She wasn't able to fore the soul to move on, but she was able to mark it, so that if the person dies again, it would alert Death if he died again, that the soul requires his personal attention.
It was the best she could do at the time.
Her kind hates being indebted to a mortal, for the simple fact that due to the laws and rules set down by the first queen of the fae, the debt must be paid in equal or greater measure.
Unfortunately, this was a life debt, not just some minor favor. That armor could have killed her more assuredly than a knife to the heart.
This wasn't a favor that could be repaid easily, especially since she technically was still a member of the higher courts, and now she owed her life to a mortal.
She had no choice but to ask her mother for advice.
She would later curse the results for some time.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
The Fairy known as the Winter Lady looked at the letter her daughter had written, a daughter that had been unjustly cast out of the realm due to her not having the authority to do something.
With a sigh, she realized that she needed a ruling, as the situation was complicated.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
The queen looked at the letter in distaste as her chief enforcer knelt before her. Her daughter has so far been such a disappointment, she had failed in her job to collect souls and made some lame excuse about not having the authority or power to do something about the failure.
Now she had proven to be incompetent enough to need to be saved by a human.
She was ignoring how the lion's share of Thana's power had been sealed by her, not that she would have considered it an excuse anyway.
So... how should she have the girl pay the mortal back, preferably in a way that would be unpleasant for her.
With a smirk, she signaled a servitor to bring her a quill and parchment.
After receiving it, she killed the servant because he spilled a drop of ink from the ink pot that she purposely keeps topped off to give her an excuse to take her frustrations out on, she wrote a short missive, paused, then in the interest in seeming fair, added a few more lines, as she hadn't been told the age of the mortal, and her orders would be impossible before a certain age, sealed it, then wrapped it in a ribbon, and finally placed a wax seal on the ribbon to hold it closed.
Tossing it to her enforcer she stated, "send that to the useless wretch. Should she fail to accomplish that in good time, she can consider herself banished from the realm forever, instead of until her failure is corrected."
The Winter Lady gritted her teeth at the insult to her daughter, but held her tongue and kept her face neutral beyond a slight tightening of her jaw. "At once your majesty," she replied.
Walking away the Winter Lady looked at the scroll in her hands, she just knew that it would screw up her daughter's life even more, but not delivering it would mean her death.
It probably said to be the boy's slave or something.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
A shriek tore through the school as a reaper read her letter.
To: The failure of a reaper Thana.
I have been informed about your incompetence in needed to be saved by a mortal. I have declared that you will be the mortal's wife, until the day he dies. He will be the head of the family, and your authority over the family will be what he gives you.
Failure to do so will in good time result in the seal on your abilities, and your banishment to remain... forever.
With contempt:
Queen Medb.
PS: In the interest of fairness, if the mortal is currently underage, the timer on getting married is paused.
It was a fuming reaper that collapsed in a chair. She felt she might as well resign herself to relatively powerless forever. The banishment really didn't bother her that much, the mortal realm was interesting enough, and changes so often that she doesn't think she'll ever see everything, not to mention she didn't have to deal with the queen.
Her powers, on the other hand, she missed dearly, and these mortal magics were doing a poor job of filling in the gap.
The reason she has already given up, is the group of girls Harry has surrounded himself with, a group she had already taken note of. A Brood, a succubus/angel hybrid, and a vampire. All of which had greater natural power than she does in her current state, and all of which were cute and/or beautiful in their own way. What did she have to offer?
She stood in front of her full-length mirror, not something she does often. Her pale, almost bone-white skin, stood out starkly against her black nail polish and very dark purple calf-length hair. Her slightly glowing yellow eyes were a contrast to her black sclera. Her figure, despite being fully grown made her look younger than she was, and was almost completely lacking in curves, and topped out at approximately four and a half feet tall. Her body looked delicate without any real visible muscle, even though she could bench press over three hundred pounds, which was nearly three times her weight.
She was wearing a concealing black cloak, clasped with a silver skull over a modest black school uniform.
Looking at herself she didn't see anything about her that the boy would not get something better by the time he reached full maturity.
Looking at the letter again, she snatched it up and went to find the headmaster, perhaps he would have some idea what to do.
Her eyes were filled with tears of mixed sorrow and fury as she went to find the vampire.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Harry was knocked down by a short girl in a black cloak. He was currently spending the day with his friend that he had the most emotional distance to, Ethra.
Picking himself off he muttered, "that was rude."
Picking up the picnic basket from where it had fallen, grateful that magical ones have charms preventing spillage, the two continued to their destination, a Gazebo on the grounds.
"You're not happy with my request for the debt, are you," he asked calmly, hiding his depression over the fact.
"Not, well... it's complicated," the dragon replied. "You three aren't normally the type of people I would be around. At first, I was rather resentful, although at the same time grateful that you didn't ask for more." she then sighed her proud face falling for a moment, and a wistful one appearing, before reverting. "Then I noticed how the sense of friendship you were emitting seemed more... genuine than the friends I had before. It feels odd to me how I've started to feel comfortable around you three.
So no, I am no longer resentful of your request, I wish to thank you for it."
She used her rarely used tact to not mention that her assailant was her previous best friend, or that most of her other friends started to avoid her after she started hanging around Harry. Her last Pre-Harry friend had suddenly started to refuse to be around her a few days ago, after her trip to the hospital wing.
In fact... wasn't that her that just bowled over Harry?
That was odd, she normally wouldn't do that.
Shaking her head she also recalled how Harry, unlike her previous friends didn't avoid her when she was in one of her... moods.
Although he DID make sure to point her at someone he wouldn't miss when she was in one.
Sure he gave such an obvious lie to set her off on the person, but considering the type of person they tend to, she didn't care that much, and she felt much better after the tussle.
She had no idea why the moods were suddenly getting worse, they only started intensifying a month or so after meeting Harry.
She also half a year ago, felt like something was trying to tear itself out of her chest when she saw him being physically close to Lilly and/or Rose.
She had no idea why and was too proud to ask her mother.
Shaking her head to clear it, she saw his face and made a decision.
Standing up she moved from across the picnic table to beside him, and lifted the smaller boy onto her lap, and hugged him.
It felt... nice, and the beast that she could feel trying to get out when she thought, or saw, of him in the arms of another calmed down.
Then it hit her... she was jealous.
She had apparently been wanting to do this for a while now, and most of her former friends were male, all of whom seemed to leave her half a year ago.
She was thankful that she was holding Harry from behind, as she didn't want him to see her atomic blush.
"Harry, I mean this, thank you."
"Your welcome, Ethra."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
End chapter.
EN: Some background on a new character, and some fluffy dragoness.