3- The Bludgeonings of Chance

As excited as he'd been for it, being in a circus wasn't exactly a new experience for Harry, and it would certainly get boring if he'd planned to stay there for a year or two. But it was only going to be for a week- and being in a circus with a Grim Reaper was totally new and it was hilarious.

He understood now why his "integration" classes had only really focused on telling him not to resurrect people. Reapers may have started out human, but dying and being separated from their cultures and eras made them… not so good at understanding the living. But they still thought they did.

William walked around investigating the souls on his List, muttering under his breath about what he was putting in his report, and literally everyone in the whole circus thought he was either completely nuts, or so dedicated to some kind of performance role that it was admirable. The debate between which one was made all the more heated by the fact that Harry was often following right behind him and giggling like a maniac the whole time.

Together, the two of them fit in rather well with the circus.

After a couple days, Harry had also noticed at least one pattern to figuring out how the two hundred or so souls would be dying. There were eight headliners and seven of them were set to die at the end of the week- they were all on William's List.

First, there was Joker, the juggler and apparent head of the troop, then there were the two childlike adults, Peter and Wendy, who were the circus' trapeze artists. The next List souls they met were the strongman, Jumbo, and the knife thrower, Dagger. Last were the wild cat tamer, Beast, and the tightrope walker, Doll.

Except…the circus Doctor was also on the List, and he was the seventh soul William was investigating. Doll hardly got a glance from William, even when she was with one of the others.

"Hey," Harry finally asked on the third night. "Why are we only investigating seven people?"

William didn't look up from his notebook as he wrote down his findings for the day before going to sleep. Harry reached over the side of the bunk and plucked at the Reaper's hair. That got him a glare.

"There's eight people here on the List," Harry said, continuing to play with William's hair. He was safe enough on the top bunk out of reach of a slap- not out of reach of William's clippers, but the Reaper would never use those against him anyway. "So how come we're only investigating seven of them?"

William sighed and snapped the notebook closed with a snap. "One of them will die several minutes after all the rest, and so is not included in the mass assignment." He took his glasses off and moved back, away from Harry's fingers, to lay down for sleep. "Yet we will still be expected to collect her at the appropriate time- no matter the overtime put in for all the rest."

"Oh?" Harry let his arm hang down for a minute, then lay back himself.

That was sad, wasn't it? One person left to survive long enough to know everyone else was dead, only to die before she could even do anything? And from what he could tell, the headliners were as close as family, and the circus doctor on the List had made their prosthetics, so he'd been with them for a long time too.

The circus was less fun after that.

After the first couple days, William had gained a reputation in the circus for being a strange mix of straight-laced seriousness and occult obsession, while Harry gained a reputation for being just a tad mental. It started innocently enough- no one really thought it was weird to laugh at William muttering about souls and judgment and reports after all. Everyone thought that was sort of funny after a while too.

But then Harry had his first episode in this world, and that was when the rest of the circus realized that Harry followed William around because he was being minded. They just misunderstood the reason why.

It happened on the fourth day after joining the circus. Harry had already made friends, or at least pleasant acquaintances with pretty much everyone, and was chatting about nothing in particular with some of the second tier acrobats while they all made breakfast together. Harry was stirring a large porridge pot while the other two fried up some sausages and eggs in a couple of pans.

Joker and Dagger came up to bid them good morning as they grabbed some food and there were children all around them. Dead children.

It was something that happened sometimes, and Harry had no control over it. He would just suddenly see the dead souls who were following the living around. It was another reason Harry tried to hang around the Reapers so much- the dead didn't like them, and never seemed to show up if a Reaper was around.

But that morning William had been pulled to the other side of the circus, to help to check all the ropes and ladders and trapeze before practice started.

There were so, so many. Dozens and dozens of children following the two unknowing headliners, so many of them that there simply wasn't room for anyone else in the narrow aisle between tents. Their washed out forms overlapped each other and everything else, until even the living people they followed were lost in the crowd of tiny bodies.

Why were there so many?

There were more dead around him now than living, and then he couldn't even see the few living people beside him, because the dead children had realized he could see them. They eagerly crowded around him, reaching for him, opening their mouths to speak, and Harry froze.

The circus folk didn't know what was wrong with him, just that he'd stopped talking and was staring into empty space with the blankest face they'd seen on him. Joker tried to talk to him, tried shaking him, waved a hand in front of his eyes. No one really knew what to make of him until Dagger realized his hand was resting on the edge of the porridge pot, turning red, and he wasn't reacting to it at all. They dragged him away and made him sit down, and when he still didn't react, Joker started shouting.

Someone was sent to fetch the Doctor, and another person was sent to find William.

The Grim Reaper, when he saw Harry, simply adjusted his glasses and went to stand in front of Harry, blocking his view of everything. After a few minutes, Harry looked up and just stared at him. The ghosts were gone, the Doctor was talking to him as he wrapped wet cloth around his hand, and almost everyone in the whole circus were standing around staring at him worriedly.

Harry blinked, then looked at his bandaged hand and flexed his fingers in it. "Ouch," he said.

William sighed and turned to Joker and the rest of the troop. "He's fine. You'll have to excuse him, this rarely happens."

Joker let out a relieved sigh of his own and stepped forward to pat Harry on the head. When Harry only looked up at him blankly, then went back to regarding his injured hand, the man turned to William. "What exactly happened ta him?"

"I suppose you could say he gets lost," William said shortly. "He starts seeing ghosts and can't figure out who's alive and who's dead."

"What?" Dagger yelped. "Why the hell does that happen?!"

William turned to look at him and adjusted his glasses. "Well, everyone he knows is dead, so when he starts seeing ghosts, he just forgets everything else."

The troop all stared at him, then Harry, most looking worried but some were clearly disturbed. Joker pet Harry's head like he was a small child, and just watched him sadly.

"It's good a'ya ta stay with him then," he said, and looked up at William with a soft smile. "Yer a good friend ta have."

William- boring, expressionless, unflappable William- looked vaguely affronted and started sputtering, and that, more than anything else, finally helped Harry focus.

"Oh my god," he giggled, and he pointed at the Reaper. "Your face! Hahaha! That's great, if I'd known compliments were how to get you flustered I'd have done it earlier!"

William immediately straightened and adjusted his glasses again, but Harry could see this time he was doing so to hide his face, which was tinged the very slightest of pinks. Joker snorted and gave Harry one last pat.

"Well, it's good ta see yer spirit's lifted," Joker said. He gave Harry a gentle grin. "It's past time fer breakfast ya know?"

Harry smiled back, and together with William, they all pretended everything was normal. Except it wasn't.

For the rest of the day, the troop treated Harry either like he was made of glass, or like he had the plague. Both were exceptionally annoying, and Harry dealt with it by ignoring them all, just as William did.

Harry could understand how Reapers became so indifferent to life and death. He gave up on living himself after all, that was why he was staying with the Reaper Dispatch in this reality. He shouldn't have thought going to the living world with a Reaper escort would change anything.

He should have stayed at the Reaper Headquarters and resigned himself to boredom.

In any case, no one seemed to think it was odd that Harry kept a step behind William after that morning, and by nightfall, even the headliners had shrugged it off and decided to let him be. Possibly, they would have tried to get him to open up again later- but there were only three days left, and the next morning, there was a new, exciting distraction for everyone to focus on instead.

"You've got to be kidding me," Harry muttered next to William as they watched Joker start another audition for a kid. A very familiar kid, with a very familiar man who'd accompanied him.

"No, it is still there," William said as he pushed his glasses up. "You can clean your glasses off all you like, but that smudge will still be there."

"What do you suppose they're doing here?" Harry asked as he picked up the pan of eggs he was making and wandered a little closer, trying to see while he stirred the scramble.

The kid was trying to throw knives, very badly and falling meters short of the target, yet Harry could hear the thunk of each knife hitting the target anyway. Harry suspected the demon was doing something, but with the crowd in the way, and being much farther back near the tents, he couldn't see how.

"Hopefully, it is not here to feed." William turned back to the potatoes and carrots he was boiling.

"Yikes." A hungry demon was something Harry had encountered only a few times in his existence, and he was always lucky enough to either not be too close, or to die before the demon reached him. He didn't particularly want to be around if this demon really was looking for food.

"Why would they need to join the circus before eating though?" Harry wondered as they watched Joker lead the kid and demon into the big tent. They must have passed the knife throwing test, but Harry had learned that everyone was expected to pass some kind of height or balance test before admission. If he'd picked anything other than the high wire, he and William would have had to do it anyway.

"Who knows how a demon's mind works," William said with a derisive sneer. He turned and began setting out the day's breakfast bread as troop members came up for their food. "Perhaps this is some game to him. We shall have to be careful, and keep an eye on it regardless."

Harry nodded slowly, still watching the entrance to the big tent where the kid and demon had disappeared. He finally turned to dish the eggs out on plates and figured they would find out soon enough.

Later that day, Harry and William were in the main tent "practicing" on the high wire when the kid and demon were led in by Joker. Their clothes had been changed to circus wear- sort of. The demon was still all in black, but the boy was dressed more colorfully. It seemed they had finished the tour and were now third tier members as well.

William seemed to be pretending they didn't exist, though Harry was sure he was actually focused quite intensely on the demon, given the way he slowed down and had his head cocked as if listening to something just out of range. Harry, however, decided to just go ahead and stare.

When the demon started messing around, jumping from trampolines to juggling to poles to contortions, and doing everything perfectly, Harry rolled his eyes and lay down on the rope. Honestly, when they weren't being terrifying, demons were so boring. He would just take a nap until William decided how to handle this.

Of course, that had to be when Dagger finally pointed them out. William was still walking calmly along the high wire, and stepped carefully past Harry's lounging form as he did. The Reaper may have been avoiding confrontation by pretending to ignore the demon, but with everyone's attention on him, he leapt quite eagerly down to challenge the creature.

Harry watched from his perch as the Reaper loudly declared the man before him was a demon and closed his eyes with a wince. Seriously, why did Reapers even pretend to have "human integration" classes if they were going to completely ignore normal behavior? He supposed that this was just a sign of how despised demons were, that even by-the-book William would lose his cool.

He sat up on the rope, balanced so his legs dangled off one side as if he was sitting on a ledge, and watched as William got laughed at and everyone went back to practice. The demon glanced up at him briefly before turning to listen to the kid beside him. Then Dagger suddenly dragged the boy off to the side for knife practice, and the demon went to drag William outside.

Harry bounced back to his feet with a worried frown and headed for the ladder. As much as he didn't want to fight a demon, he couldn't leave his poor Reaper babysitter to face it alone.

He found them out the back of the tent and behind the carriages, chatting about the List event coming up being the reason for William investigating.

"Well, if it's alright to just tell people what we're doing," Harry said as he stopped nearby and crossed his arms, "how come I got lectured by three different Administrative Officers on the importance of secrecy and blending in?"

William glanced at him and sniffed. "This is a special circumstance."

"Oh, so demons are special now?"

William looked disgusted, but the demon laughed.

"It would appear I am," he gave William a sly look. "Since being collared makes me so much more bearable as to warrant special treatment."

"Collared dogs are usually better behaved if their masters know to stay safely out of the way," William said darkly. "I expect you to inform your master not to interfere with my business."

"I expect you can tell me yourself," a cold voice snapped behind Harry.

He turned to find the boy stalking toward them all with a glower. Or, no, the boy was heading directly for him, and stopped before him with a furious glare.

"You," he snarled.

Harry blinked and pointed at his face. "Me?" He looked worriedly from the kid, to the demon, to William. "What did I do?"

"You-!" The boy visibly reigned himself in, bit his lip and turned his glare to the ground. When he looked up again, his gaze was cool. "You brought Aunt An back to life. How?"

"Uh, no." Harry frowned down at the kid. He should have expected this kind of interest from a demon summoner, even if he was a child. "I absolutely did not."

The boy bared his teeth in a silent snarl, and even William let out a disbelieving snort. Harry glared at them both, as well as the demon who chuckled quietly into a gloved fist.

"She. Was. Dead!" the boy bit out slowly.

Harry held up a finger and leaned toward the kid with a serious face. "She. Was. Dying!" He stood straight while the boy's face flushed with rage at being mocked, and shook his head sadly. "There is a whole world of difference between those. No one can bring the dead back to life, kid."

"I think you are splitting hairs rather fine there," the demon said. When Harry turned to look at him, he smirked and his eyes almost seemed to glow. "Her Cinematic Reel was already playing, and isn't that a sign that a life is at its end?"

"Only because Reapers are too afraid to judge anyone as worthy of continuing to live," Harry said.

William snapped his clippers closed and frowned severely at him. "No one is worthy of having a second chance at life," he said.

"See?" Harry said with a shrug.

The boy merely gave him another nasty look, then apparently decided to ignore him for the time being, and turned to William.

"I do hope you will refrain from drawing attention to us in the future," he said as he crossed his arms and glared up at the Reaper. "It was lucky everyone decided to take your words for a joke, but your inability to blend in with normal people is shamefully sub-par when compared to certain ginger members of your group."

The only sign William was in any way offended was his twitching eyebrow. Although, in Harry's experience, that eyebrow signaled all manner of negative emotions, so who knew if the boy's words actually had any effect.

"Indeed," the demon said as he gave William a sly look from under his long lashes. "How about we simply agree to stay out of each other's way? We won't interfere with your business, and you won't interfere with ours?"

William gave him an icy look. "Excellent, considering I cannot stand the sight of you," he said flatly.

"Then we're agreed," the boy said, and placed a hand on his waist before eyeing William like he was slime caught on the bottom of his shoe. "We'll each stay out of the other's way."

The boy, the Reaper, and the demon glared at whoever they seemed to dislike most. William and the demon stared daggers into each other, and the boy glared angrily at William, although, his gaze drifted resentfully toward Harry as well.

"Wow," Harry said under his breath. "It's like going through primary all over again…."

The boy turned to him, teeth clenched so hard the sound of his anger couldn't come out as more than a hiss. Before he could lash out though, William stepped forward.

"In that case, Smile, please do keep your dog on a tight leash. I won't abide any overtime."

"I don't need to hear any more from two four-eyes who can't even disguise themselves in a freak show," the boy said with a mean smirk. Clearly he thought trading insults was enough to give him the upper hand.

"I am not Four-eyes," William said seriously. He pushed his glasses up and proudly declared, "I am Suit!"

Harry burst out laughing. "You sure are! Haha, Joker's pretty good at picking names to suit people, isn't he?"

"That was pathetic," the boy said with a sneer. He looked incredibly annoyed at their responses. "I suppose then you're called Dunce or some such?"

Harry gave the boy a sad smile. He was quite naive for a demon summoner, to think schoolyard names could do any damage to him, but then, it seemed he was very uncomfortable with the name 'Smile' so maybe he couldn't help projecting. Certainly, smiling at the boy upset him far more than anything else Harry had said or done so far.

"Nope! I am called-" Harry twirled around on one foot, then hopped to balance on the other. He raised both hands up with his fingers curled and held them out playfully. "-Cat!"

The dramatic proclamation was met with silence. Both boy and demon were looking at him, mildly shocked.

"Meow!" Harry added, waving one 'paw' at them.

Poor Smile… he looked like he regretted everything that had led to this conversation, and the demon…he looked like he was going to choke trying so hard not to laugh.

"Enough of this! Just stay out of our way," the boy said angrily and turned away. "Let's go Sebastian!"

The demon snickered, and gave Harry one last amused look before turning to follow his master.

William watched them both walk off blankly. Harry let his hands fall to his sides. This was going to be a long three days.

That night seemed to fly by with how distracted Harry was while he worked backstage. He stayed close to William as they moved stage props, brought water, fetched costumes, and ran for whatever other errands suddenly came up during the show. It was all pretty typical, and easy to follow after the fourth day of doing it all, but now there was a demon and contractor in the mix of people. Harry didn't know what to make of them anymore.

He hadn't really thought much about them after that night when he met them and Grell Sutcliff for the first time, hadn't considered that he might ever run into them again. But now he could feel the tension running through his Reaper babysitter. William was worried the demon would steal the souls he was investigating.

Harry had never fought a demon before. He had more experience with demons than most humans could boast, and he'd even been killed by one once. He'd seen some enter a feeding frenzy from afar too, and even at a distance the evil aura of a rampaging demon was smothering.

But fighting demons? Somehow he'd never actually done that before. He had no idea how his powers as Master of Death, or as a wizard really, compared to a demon's.

While he was distractedly sorting knives pulled out from Dagger's target, Joker came up to him, breathless from running off stage after announcing the next act.

"Ah! Cat~" Joker tapped Harry carefully on the shoulder. "Quick question for ya, m'dearie!"

Harry turned to him quizzically. "What is it?"

"Would ya and Suit mind terribly sharing yer tent wit' a new border?" Joker asked with a wide grin.

Harry blinked and tilted his head. "Does one of us have to share a bed?"

"No, no, no!" Joker laughed and waved his bone hand wildly. "We'll move a new bed in too! Just need ta shift some stuff around an' yer tent'll house three instead a' two!" He smiled gently at Harry. "Is that alright w'ya?"

"Sure," Harry shrugged. "I don't mind. I don't think William will either."

"Perfect!" Joker clapped him on the shoulder with a grin, then ran off.

It was only when Harry turned back to sorting the knives that he ran over the conversation and realized what he'd just agreed to.

"Oh shit," he said his eyes wide in horror.

Well, Joker said just one new border would join them, and there were two of them, so it was a fifty-fifty chance they'd get the kid. Right?

After the show and clean-up for the night was finally done, Harry joined William and Joker who waved for them to follow him. They met up with Smile and his demon, then after Joker made sure they were all introduced- the demon was called Black apparently- they were joined by Dagger and Doll, who was dressed like a new member for some reason.

When Joker assigned Smile to "Freckle's" tent, Harry let his head fall into his hands with a silent groan. Oh, Merlin. William would never forgive him!

Indeed, the moment Joker happily assigned Black to Harry and William's tent, both Reaper and demon froze in absolute horror, unable to do more than stare at one another in hateful shock. Even Smile, who'd been trying to argue against his assignment, fell silent at the sudden tension in the air.

Somehow, Joker and Dagger both managed to laugh it off. Harry wasn't sure if they were truly oblivious to the danger buzzing around the inhuman beings, or if they simply didn't care. They did wander off faster than usual though, leaving the various newbies (and Doll) standing around awkwardly.

Harry decided the best thing to do was to just go to bed, so that's what he did. It seemed to be enough of a signal to get everyone else moving at least. The tent he and William shared was near the end of the row of shared tents, and Smile and Doll- still going by Freckles- were right across from them.

As soon as Harry entered their tent, he saw what Joker had meant by adding a bed. The ladder to get to the top bunk where Harry slept had been moved from the end of the beds over to the side. At the foot of the bunk was a new mattress and wood frame set on the ground. The chest and boxes once stored there had been shoved to the opposite side of the tent entrance, making a narrower path in.

Harry sighed and climbed up to his bunk to lay down until he fell asleep. But, just as he'd thought, William and Sebastian started sniping at each other before doing the same.

"This," William said with a sniff, "is my side." The sound of something dragging through the dirt went along with his tirade. "You will stay out of my territory, agreed?"

"Understood," the demon said simply. His disinterested tone had a dark edge to it though, so Harry assumed he was glaring.

William muttered complaints to himself in response, and it sounded like he was retracing whatever line he'd made in the dirt.

"I hope you realize that Reapers require sleep," William said suddenly. "Just because demons do not, you had better not disturb my rest."

Black huffed and turned to sit on the extra bed. "Demons do enjoy sleeping once in a while as a luxury," he admitted, though he didn't sound terribly enthusiastic about it.

"I hope both of you will be quiet at some point," Harry said under his breath. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

Naturally, with Harry's luck, both of them heard him and did in fact fall silent. He imagined that, for one brief moment, they were united in their shared annoyance with him, then rustling started up as William changed for bed, and the demon took off his coat and lay down.

Harry wrapped the thin blanket around himself and huddled in the middle of his mattress. Yeah, it was going to be a long three days.

Soft talking and the harsh click of metal striking metal woke Harry from a dreamless sleep. He considered just turning over and trying to fall back asleep, but now that he was awake his bladder felt full to bursting. He groaned and got up, swung himself over the side of the bed and staggered out of the tent for the loo.

"I see you are completely impartial in who you discipline for disturbing your rest by wandering around," the demon said as Harry left.

He was outside before he could hear William's response.

When he came back, Harry was so groggy he forgot the arrangement of the tent had been changed, and rather than going to the side of the bunk beds to climb up, he went to where the ladder used to be at the end. Not being able to see in the dark and still half asleep, he walked right into the bed shoved into the corner, banging into it with his shins and falling face first onto the damn thing.

Harry's head smacked almost perfectly on the far edge of the wood frame, and his stomach landed on the demon's head, who immediately twisted and jabbed his shoulder up into him, knocking his breath out. He ended up on his side, clutching his forehead and curled around his sore middle as he cursed under his breath.

Black rolled Harry off his chest as he sat up, grabbed his hair and yanked hard. Harry yelped but before he could do anything else, William's clippers shot out and nicked the edge of the demon's sleeve as it jerked quickly out of the way. Harry, no longer being held up by his hair, fell back down, half in Black's lap and half on the mattress.

"You utter, utter shoelace," Harry mumbled darkly into the blanket.

"Blaming me for your mistake?" the demon said. The only part of him Harry could see when he turned to look over his shoulder at the creature, were a pair of softly glowing eyes, narrowed to angry slits as they stared at him. "How typical of a creature like you."

"Please do cease your antagonistic ramblings," William said as he retracted his clippers with a snap. "I have yet to get an adequate amount of sleep due to your constant disturbances."

"Your fellow here was the one causing a disturbance," the demon said flatly, his glowing eyes turned their glare onto the Reaper. "You allowed him to clumsily wander about until he fell on me."

"You two idiots arguing woke me up in the first place," Harry said. His head still throbbed some, but most of the pain had faded, even his stomach was feeling better. "Of course I'm gonna forget where the damn ladder is when I'm this exhausted."

"I was simply stopping that beast from wandering around unescorted," William said as he returned the demon's glare evenly. "If he were not such a danger to the souls around us, there would have been no need to."

"So it is still my fault again?" Black said.

"How about it's everyone's fault, and you're a damned spoon," Harry said. He pushed himself up, carefully rubbing his stomach. William snorted and sat back down on his bed, though he kept his glasses on and his clipper staff across his knees.

Red eyes turned back to him, and Harry realized the demon was still laying down, only propped up on his elbows and Harry was straddling his hips. Black regarded him coolly, eyes still glowing red and frightful in the dark, but slowly Harry's own eyes adjusted to their light enough to see.

"I'll accept the damned part, but I find I must question the spoon," the demon said seriously.

Harry looked at him, uncertain if he was being mocked or not. "You're pretty weird for a demon."

"You meet many demons, then?" Black asked, an eyebrow raised doubtfully.

"Not exactly." And not in this world, Harry didn't say. It occurred to him that he may be wrong- Black could be a completely average demon for this reality, and it was only Harry's perspective that was off.

"Then why would I be in any way peculiar for my kind?" Black smirked suddenly. "Perhaps, like your friend, you thought I would be uncontrollably tearing into every soul within reach?" The smirk turned a little sharper. "I have high standards for my meal- giving into hunger for any average soul would be boring."

"Then," Harry frowned in thought, "this isn't boring?"

The demon blinked, then gestured toward him with an arrogant sneer. "This?" he repeated questioningly.

Harry jerked back, face turning red, and sat back on Black's thighs. "No! I meant- this," he waved at the tent around them. "Joining the circus, pretending to have fun jumping around and making people smile." Harry looked back at the demon, confused. "Is that really not boring?"

The demon looked surprised for a moment. Then he smiled and slowly sat up.

"Certainly, entertaining humans is not something I particularly enjoy doing," he said. "But tricking so many, and following my master's ridiculous orders to the extent it even shocks him-" he gave a careless shrug, "I would hardly call it boring."

"I... really don't understand demons," Harry said quietly. "You can live so long, and don't care about anyone. How can you not possibly be bored by everything?"

Now the demon was truly surprised, and stared at him as if he didn't understand Harry either. He recovered quickly though, and leaned forward, eyes curved with a dark pleasure and shining evilly.

"Does this world bore you, little one?" The demon wrapped his long arms around Harry before he had a chance to pull back, and held him tight. "Do the living bore you, so much you look for your entertainment at the side of Reapers bringing those pitiful lives to an end?"

"What?" Harry tried to lean away but the demon's arms were like iron bands.

"What other reason would a creature like you have for playing around with Grim Reapers?" the demon said, smirking smugly.

"I… a creature like me?" Harry went still in confusion.

"No need to play coy," the demon chuckled. "But, unlike you, I've no interest in playing guessing games. I do wonder though what sort of being would spend their time with Reapers of all things- particularly if humanity bores you so."

"I- what, I am a-" Harry tried to say, but without warning he was suddenly bent backward, Black bent over on top of him and glaring over his shoulder.

"I am still waiting for you to be quiet so I might go to sleep," William said coldly. His clippers retracted back to him from the space just above where Black's head had been. "If you have any questions, you can wait to ask them in the morning."

"Ah, sorry, William," Harry said. He tried to pry Black's hands off him and wiggled to the edge of the bed.

The demon sneered, but let him go. Harry felt those red eyes follow him up to his bunk and even after his lay down and wrapped himself up in the blanket again. It was foolish, letting himself get drawn in by anything a demon said, yet Harry couldn't help but think on his words.

First, that Black really wasn't bored, when Harry had only been on this world for four days before he got tired of everything. Was it because of the creature's inherent cruelty, his ability to find amusement in manipulating people who didn't know better, or was there something else? Something that didn't come from evil intentions?

Second…the demon thought he wasn't human. Harry knew he had powers thanks to the Hallows, powers that allowed him to move like Reapers and hide away in their spaces between death and the living world, but…. Could that really have made him into something not human?

It was a long time before Harry was able to fall asleep again.

A.N. - Hey guys! Sorry it took so long, but longer chapters take longer to write and edit. Next chapter is coming slowly as well, I'm debating cutting it in half once I get a certain scene done. We'll see. Anyway, leave a comment and let me know what you think! ^_~