Harry the reaper re-edit ch.3
Everybody was getting ready for the start of the new school year. Grell and the gang were also preparing for the school term to start in their own way.
Grell and Undertaker were planning for their classes; the butlers and William went around mapping the castle for hidden passageways or shortcuts as well as collecting any information they heard about the current status of the wizarding world.
When Grell wasn't preparing for his first class, he went to visit Gringgotts. Apparently, he had more than one vault that he had inherited, they hadn't closed any of his accounts as they knew he was still alive as they had a way for keeping track of when their customers moved on and when they had simply moved dimensions, which he also found out that although it wasn't very common he wasn't the first to leave or arrive in different worlds. For Harry Potter, they knew that he had simply moved into another dimension, but did not pass on to the afterlife.
Of course no one had to know that they were simply afraid to close his vaults after a personal visit from death, just to make sure that he had something to come back to when he was forcibly dragged back.
From what infromation Grell had gotten so far on his 'dates' with Kingsley, which were more like he popped up at his office till he gave in to have lunch together, was that not much had changed in the wizarding world, with the death eaters raiding and killing along with the usual ministry incompetence. Undertaker, for some reason whenever he heard Grell was going out to meet up the auror, always left the room in a sulk and would stay that way till he came back and made him extra clingy to the redheaded reaper for a couple of hours.
He didn't understand what was going on through that man's head.
Currently Grell was in the dining hall, eating breakfast while reading the newspaper that had been printed after his death. The goblins always kept copies of them in their office for some strange reason, perhaps to laugh over the stupidity of wizards.
Boy-who-lived Dies!
I have to tragically report that our beloved savior has died. After the third task, everyone gathered around the waiting area to see who had won the title 'Champion of the Tri-wizard tournament.' Much time has passed before finally Hufflepuff Cedric Diggory, Hogwarts Champion, had arrived. Everyone cheered as the celebratory music played but this joyful event turned horrifying. Mr. Diggory had started screaming frantically that He-who-must-not-be-Named' was back while sobbing hysterically. Recounting the whole event that lead to the heroic event where the boy-who-lived sacrificed himself so that Diggory would be able to escape. Aurors were immediately called to the scene following the trace of the portkey magic to an abandoned graveyard where there had been evidence of a battle. There, they found traces of dark magic and the body of Harry Potter. Aurors investigated everything that happened and when interrogating Professor Moody, found out that it was actually Barty Crouch Jr., son of Barty Crouch, who had polyjuiced as the retired auora when the man started sprouting how his dark lord would be back and finish off those of impure blood. This brings the question, is You-know-who really back? What is the ministry going to do about the new problems? And what is going to happen now that the boy-who-lived is no more? What is Dumbledore going to do now? I will be back with more news in the next issue.
Grell put the newspaper down on his lap, deep in thought.
'This is actually one of the more tame reports from Skeeter. Seems that the ministry wrote the next newspapers: Cedric was being labeled too grief ridden to make sense of what he had been saying over watching their "precious savior's" death. Dumbledore has officially gone senile; or the power from all the positions is going to his head and will soon turn on them in order to gain more power, along with good ol' ministry propaganda in here as well' how they were working hard to make sure that those death eaters were put away for good. A bunch of carefully written lies like always.
Undertaker glomped the reaper from behind him, interrupting Grell's thoughts. "What are you doing Grell," he asked curiously as he leaned over his shoulder to look at the paper on his lap.
"I was simply inquiring over what happened since my untimely demise. Not much of a difference this world has gone through, the only thing that had changed is that I'm dead and they no longer have a scape goat when things don't go the way they want or a 'hero' to hide behind."
."Bah! ~That's boring~! Instead, help me find ways to traumatize the brats when our classes start." He whined snatching the paper from Grell's hands and pulled by the wrist to their shared living area. Grell sighed, more in amusement than annoyance at his friend's actions. Letting Undertaker drag him to their common room. Walking in, he realized that everyone else was also there. Both boys were finishing their last lesson of French and geography. William sat at his desk organizing the information that they had gotten on Voldemort's group, along with books on a variety of subjects covering the expanse of his desk, Undertaker had gotten distracted by the Chinese finger trap that he gotten from Grell.
'Guess we're not planning today, knowing Undertaker, he'll be on the thing for another couple hours. Might as well find something else to do.' Making his decision, Grell walked over to William's work area and grabbed a pile of the paper work.
"What are you doing, Sutcliff? Those are very important documents that I have a very meticulous ordering system that only I understand, therefore I have no need of outside help."
"William." Grell cut out, glaring at the head reaper.
"I may act like a fool but it doesn't mean that I am as useless as my fake persona suggests. Everyone needs help now and then as I have come to learn. Besides I've memorized your system ages ago." Waving off his protests.
William stared for a moment, seemingly in shock, before nodding and going back to work. Together, with a few interruptions here and there over some bits of confusing information, they managed to finish the piles of paperwork sooner than if William had worked alone.
Grell stood stretching the muscles in his back from his stiff posture of bending over a desk. Standing, he turned around to leave but stopped as he heard something whispered behind him.
"Thank you, Grell." As hurried footsteps grew fainter in the opposite direction, Grell froze wide-eyed before shaking his head in amusement. A soft smile lit his face up. 'Heh, he actually said my name.' He noticed that the boys, and their respective servants, were staring at him in wonder. Grell raised an eyebrow questionably. Seeing the still stupefied looks, he asked, "What?"
Ciel was the first to snap out of it and answered the reaper. "Nothing, it's just that your smile earlier seemed… genuine."
"I like your smile. You should do it more often." Alois commented bluntly.
Grell had an almost unnoticeable blush on his face. The butlers leered at the blush on his face. Even though he had changed from the weak ignorant little boy he had been in his first life, he still got flustered receiving compliments that weren't from his fighting skills.
Clearing his throat, he directed the conversation away from the embarrassing moment. Bring attention to their main objective.
"Ciel, Alois, did you two find anything interesting?"
Both boys focused on the reaper, saving the smile Grell had to the back of their minds. "Sebastian found that Voldemort has acquired a body through a different ritual and that he currently has plans to overtake the ministry at a later date with the help of his inside moles. Along with the information of upcoming raids that he had gotten from some of the middle circle of deatheaters, though the 'inner circle' are hiding in high security wards so Sebastian cannot receive any useful information from them."
Grell was impressed at the demon's info gathering skills. This caused Sebastian to unconsciously preen while smirking smugly at Claude. Alois then included his butler's find.
"Claude managed to find most of the death eaters in Voldemort's outer circle and three of the inner circle. Seems like they're smarter than to go bragging out in the open unlike the grunts."
Grell smirked at the information. "It may be useful for going on secret raids or forcing a spy into the group if we decide to have someone disguised as them. Well done, Mr. Faustus." Grell thanked the glasses wearing demon.
Claude sent a subtle smirk back at Sebastian's scowling face.
William then strode into the room, "Ah, it seems that everyone is here already. Good I have some news to share about my findings with this 'dark lord'."
He paused to make sure that everyone was paying attention before he relayed his findings.
"I have managed to find that 'Voldemort' as those pathetic wizards call him is gathering many of the magical creatures to fight for his side of the war. He makes promises that they will have high positions when they take over along with all the gold they could ever want or to take the revenge they are due for what the wizards have done to them. If they chose to fight for his side he also promised that there will be equality for all when he reformed the wizarding world. As incompetent as the 'light' wizards are now, there won't be much of a battle to fight. Not to mention that the wizards now aren't making it much better with all the restricting laws they are passing causing the opposing side to despise them even more and driving them right into Voldemort's hands."
Grell hummed, "Thank you William. That was most insightful and sure to help us in the future." Both demons glared at the head reaper. William shot a sly smile back, having won the silent competition.
"If they even have a shred of intelligence in their heads, then they should realize that even if Voldemort wins, they will still be treated the same. Then again, most might do it in a way to get revenge."
William got Grell's attention, wanting to ask a question that had been on his mind for some time now.
"Grell, why do you insist on assisting them when you made it clear that you despise it?"
Grell's eyes widened slightly again at hearing his name. 'Is this going to be a common thing now?' But still proceeded to answer his question.
Sitting down on a chair, he began. "The reason why I am helping this pathetic world is because I have no other choice."
"And what exactly does that mean?" Claude inquired. Grell signaled them to sit down.
"What it means is that when I was summoned here, one of the clauses was that the person being summoned is to do the summoner's bidding until their one wish is up."
The small group accepted it; overall, it didn't sound that different from a demon's contract except that the one being summoned was forced into it instead of them choosing whether to take the agreement or not. At least that was the thought they had until they heard the last part.
"The ritual itself is tied to my core being so if I refuse then it will cause my magic to rebel against me and make me go through an unbearable amount of agony that will make me wish I was dead, or so I've been told, unless I give in."
He casually stated as if it wasn't his life hanging in the balance between a slow death or having him become a slave to what they know as a very not all there wizard. It took a while for the information to sink in before Undertaker calmly strode toward the wall, punching a hole right through it.
Undertaker wasn't the only one who was showing his anger at the situation. Both demon butler's eyes were subtly glowing bright red. William had a glacier look on his face as Ciel kept a blank look on his face though you could see the hidden fury in his eyes. Alois was thinking of ways to make the wizards' lives miserable.
All of them were quickly becoming attached to the real Grell they were getting to know. They did not want to see him become a slave against his will for a manipulative old man. His situation seemed to ring to close to home for some of them.
"I don't see why you all are over reacting about this. It's not like I will actually die, only Death can do that besides dying in battle against another reaper or a demon."
William cut in. "Yes, although you can't necessarily die, you will still be in a vast amount of pain that it will cripple you, not to mention that you could go insane." He hissed out. Just the thought of hearing Grell's agonizing screams without being able to do anything about it again made him feel ill.
Grell still didn't understand what the big deal was, it's not like they were the ones being chained down. And there really was no big deal if he did die, he would just be brought back by Death anyway. Though he guess he could understand about him losing it if he was under that amount of pain, but that would probably take a lot considering he knew hoe stubborn he could be.
"It's not like I haven't been used like a puppet before, just have to get used to it again when Dumbledore finds out," he mumbled to himself.
Unfortunately, the rest of the group had heard him. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Undertaker shook him hard as if trying to put some sense into his thick skull.
"Grell, you imbecile! Do you really think I'm going to let that happen?! That I'm just going to sit back and watch as one of my closest friends lets himself become a puppet for some senile old man, you self-sacrificing idiot!" Undertaker panted, trying to catch his breath. His green eyes narrowed from what Grell could see through his bangs.
"That as your friend, I wouldn't protect you like you would for me?" he whispered quietly, resting his head on Grell's shoulder.
Grell's eyes stayed wide in shock before lightly chuckling to himself. "No. I don't. Sorry, old friend. Looks like old habits die hard."
A fond look was on his face that made him seem almost ethereal. They all stared before Ciel cleared his throat in slight embarrassment and brought the conversation back to topic. Undertaker took the chance to slide off Grell's lap.
"As we were discussing earlier before we were sidetracked, you said that Dumbledore hasn't found out that you were previously Harry Potter."
"Correct."
"Then as long as you act like the fake Grell, they won't figure out a thing." They all shivered at the fake Grell; an image of him posing with his signature wink and hand gesture flashing briefly in their minds. "But how will he find out it is you out of all of us?"
"Hmm. Good question. I haven't thought about how he would go about finding out which one of us was Harry Potter. He will probably make some tracking devices that would be tied to my magic cause he'd probably think my magical signature hasn't changed but my magic is no longer that of a wizard and that of a reaper, so it would be pretty pointless. Instead he would probably try to get to one of the little lords. But I know that they will never be left alone by their loyal butlers. Other than that, there isn't really much I can think of right now."
Sebastian brought out his pocket watch. "Young master, we must move along now. It is almost time now for the students to arrive."
"Is it already that late," Grell asked surprised.
"Yes, time does seem to fly by," William said.
Nodding, the rest of them made their way to the dining hall. Once arriving, the others made to take their seats at the end of the teachers table as the waited for the children to arrive.
Students' pov
The older students arrived first, immediately sitting down and gossiping about the new people sitting at the staff table. The red head had their hair tied up into a high ponytail with a few strands framing their face, also having a hard time deciding if they were male or female, was filing away at their nails. A creepy looking guy clad in black with silver hair was chewing away at something bone shaped while giggling from time to time.
One man in a suit, carrying around a long pair of shears, would look up from his notebook every once in a while before going back to scribbling on paper.
Two other men, dressed in butler uniforms, were each standing beside a child. The first child had blue black hair and an eye patch over one sapphire eye with a cold look on his face, his butler had a cat like smile and reddish brown eyes.
The other one had blonde hair with dark blue eyes, he seemed to have an arrogant and cruel amusement on his face. His butler had a blank look on his face along with spikey side swept hair and a pair of silver frames, covering his golden eyes.
Most girls swooned at the professional looking men already.
The professors would glance at the group from time to time as if making sure they were all behaving properly. McGonagall finally got up from her seat when the time arrived for her to greet the first years.
Black butler pov
Undertaker leaned toward Grell and asked, "This should be interesting, don't you think so, Grell?"
He paused in filing his nails before aiming a shark like grin at him. "It will indeed. I can't wait to see their faces."
"I, for one, most certainly can't wait to mess with some of them. Especially those snooty looking ones with the green accented robes." Alois commented, chuckling to himself. Some students felt a shiver of dread going down their spines while the slytherins felt their self-preservation instincts go haywire.
"Hope you don't mind when we join in." Undertaker said. Ciel snorted listening in on their conversation.
"Now, don't think we won't join in on the fun as well. Though I will be going for some of the older ones." Claude said smirking.
"Ah, yes it will be fun causing so much chaos." Sebastian sighed in thoughtful bliss. William let out a sly smile as well.
They were interrupted from their conversation as the tiny first years walked in. Each one looked so small and had an awe filled expression on their face. McGonagall called the students up one by one as they were sorted into their houses.
After all firsties were sorted, Dumbledore stood up, spreading his arms up.
Grell's group rolled their eyes, some more subtle than others.
After greeting the new students and speaking of school announcements, though the students were confused that they weren't introduced to their guests, they proceeded to eat. Demons and reapers, though, didn't need to eat but went to grab food to eat as they didn't want others to become suspicious over their lack of appetite. They stopped before they plated any of it, disgusted at how greasy and oily the food was.
Luckily, the butlers had prepared food beforehand and started serving everyone. Two different plates landed in front of Grell. Time seemed to stop as both butlers glared at each other at who would serve Grell their dish.
Grell, not noticing the glaring contest they were having behind him, simply grabbed a bit from each plate and started eating. This seemed to appease both demons as they walked back to their charges, though they still did sneak glares at each other now and then. Said charges merely snorted at their butlers' pettiness.
That was the deal until Undertaker one upped the demons with something only he knew Grell wouldn't be able to resist.
"Oh Grell~. Guess what I have~," Undertaker sang. Grell turned back to his friend questionably until his eyes widened in surprise.
"Is that-"
"It is. Your favorite, treacle tart." Waving said dessert under his nose.
"I forgot we could get them here." Grell replied absent-mindedly. His eyes following the scrumptious dessert.
"Good thing then that I brought you a plateful of them," presenting the plate to Grell.
Grell squealed and glomped his friend, "Thank you so much, Undertaker!" Taking the plate and immediately started eating them, he moaned at the taste after going so long without.
The others had watched the exchange, leaving Undertaker to have three glacier glares aimed at his back.
Undertaker turned toward the three and sent a mocking smile back at them as if rubbing in the fact that he knew Grell better than they did.
William, Sebastian and Claude fumed at the ex-reaper, they made it their secret mission to find out more about the red headed reaper.
Dumbledore then took the moment to stand up again. "That was a satisfying dinner. Now before making some last announcements for the night, everyone please join me in singing the Hogwarts song. Just pick your favorite tune and start singing."
Next came a loud mixture of voices singing horribly off-key, it was even more painful when you had better hearing than the average human.
At last, they all stopped singing. Grell groaned, "Finally, the torture is over. Oh my poor bleeding ears!" as he rubbed his sore ears. The rest agreed with his statement. Ciel was glad that he never sounded that bad during his singing lessons. Alois cursed the horrible song, rubbing his aching ears.
The butlers looked unfazed though they could still here a faint ringing in their ears.
Dumbledore gestured toward the end of the staff table, "Now I'm sure that you all have been wondering about our new guests." The students leaned forward, focusing their attention on the mysterious group.
"First, I will introduce Mr. Undertaker and Mr. Sutcliff for they will be your new Defense Against the Dark Arts professors this year. Along with their assistant, Mr. William T. Spears." The three men stood up toward the audience. Undertaker gave a supposed friendly smile though it mostly came out as creepy. Grell flipped his ponytail over his shoulder and winked while blowing a kiss toward the male crowd; William merely gave a shallow bow before they sat down again.
The students paled at the thought of those two being their professors this year and started questioning their headmaster's sanity.
"I would also like to introduce our temporary transfer students, Mr. Ciel Phantomhive and his butler Sebastian Michaelis." The teen girls either cooed at the 'adorable' Ciel or swooned over his handsome butler. "Along with Alois Trancy and his butler Claude Faustus." The girls had the same reaction over the next pair. Alois enjoyed the attention he got from the females and was already thinking up ways he could use them to his advantage.
"Please make sure to let them feel welcome and, now, I believe it is time for bed. First years please follow your prefect. Everyone, have a nice rest for classes start tomorrow."
Grell's group made it to their common room after the feast was over.
"Well, that was entertaining." Grell said sarcastically. "Though," now smirking, "I'm pretty sure we all know who will be getting fan clubs before the week is up."
The troublesome trio, mainly Undertaker, Grell and Alois, cracked up at the faces the rest of the males made.
"If you are done mocking us, do you even have a plan of what we are supposed to do while we are here," Claude asked.
"Pfft. Of course we know what we're doing." Undertaker waved him off.
"And when exactly did you plan on letting us in on this scheme of yours?" William asked menacingly.
"Well, we were going to let you in on it tomorrow but since you asked, I guess we could discuss this now," Grell said smoothly.
"Awww. And I wanted it to be a surprise," Undertaker pouted.
"There, there. You can still do your surprise in the morning, just think of a different distraction," patting Undertaker on his face gently.
He turned in his chair toward the group on the couches.
"Basically, it is very simple. When you gentlemen don't have your daily lessons or aren't working, you will be our assistants like William over here. The title will basically give you free reign around the school so you will not be questioned by the school staff when you are snooping around. I will also point out that the both of you," pointing to Ciel and Alois, "Are purebloods. It will help you from becoming targets from the more… prejudiced students. Not that I doubt the ability of your pets to protect you but it is better that you are aware of this problem."
The demons scowled at being called 'pets.'
"Not a bad idea for the start but of course more will be added on once the year progresses and we start hearing from Voldemort again."
Most of them nodded their heads, seeing there really wasn't much to do since there was nothing that needed their attention at the moment.
"Now then," standing up and stretching, "I don't know about you but I'm going to head off to bed since it really has gotten late and we will have to wake up early in the morning."
Reaching for his hair tie, he let his hair flow loose. He didn't notice the effect it had on the males in the room, as his scarlet locks flowed around him, making him seem ethereal.
"Good night." He said before the door closed to his room, snapping the others out of their daze. Undertaker chuckled before following his friend's lead into his own room.
'Hogwarts better be prepared for the chaos that will ensue. The wizards won't know what hit them.'
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