Chapter Text
Roxanne hoped that whatever the encounter she had last night with the Tool was only a dream. She dresses in the school uniform using colored contact lenses to not only see in her day-to-day encounters. The contacts used to hide the uncanny divine eyes that she now possesses in the breed of Grim Reapers.
That was not what she encountered when she walked down to breakfast.
“ You are going to take time to talk.” The Tool tells her.
His saying just confirmed the conversation she had last night, was not a dream. Conjured up by stress and exhaustion.
The Malfoy gang goes about the school day without anything distracting them. That is until lunch rolls around. The group starts to head towards the great hall for the buffet of lunch meals when the tool grabs hold of her arm.
‘Crab, Goyal you go on ahead. I have something to discuss with Roxanne.” Malfoy said.
“Sure,” Goyal said
“What are -” Crab starts to ask but Goyal elbows the other boy and shoulders him into place, while Draco pulls Roxanne away from the corridor where there was less foot traffic going on.
"I know you're not human, Roxanne. You confirmed it last night." Draco said he looked determined as they stepped into the classroom. Roxanne shrugged Draco's hand off.
Roxanne cursed. It was undeniable she practically handed him the keys to open the line of inquiry for Death Gods. No, she had to keep this knowledge from him for as long as possible.
"Draco" Roxanne starts once Roxanne felt comfortable enough that they probably weren't going to be overhead " Let me start by saying; nothing good will come of pursuing the inquiry of the Roxanne Mbarim enigma." Roxanne decided to leave it at that and walked away the tool gave the sound of protest as she walked away. Him trailing behind her to the great hall. She hoped the warning was enough to put off his questions.
Her warning wasn't. Over the week Draco approached her asking questions and giving theories. They were all ridiculous. Somewhere she was from a different planet, others where she was a wizard's experiment that can't age. Each of his theories sounded like he read any form of fiction he could get his hand on and see if it applied to the notes he had.
"Fine, I'll tell you" Roxanne finally relented. Draco was persistent she could give him that and crafty she wondered what it would take to do for him in other situations.
She set aside a study room for them.
The room felt stifling with how intense the Tool was staring at her. They finished their work over an hour ago. Now the persistent blond was just looking at her.
“I will remind you that I will still conceal fundamental information, as there is only so much you can know.”
“What is with the shoes?”
That was the first question the brat asked first. “ I’m short” Roxanne grunted, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. Kicking up her dress shoes on the desk.
“Well, how short?”
“Child short,” Roxanne scoffed. “The man that you saw me spar with was the closest in age to me. but our choices left us with different outcomes.”
“How old are you?”
Roxanne waved her hand in the air tilting like it was a see-saw. “Rather young and accomplished in my field.”
“You were hired to be here?” Draco asked
“Yes. I was taking leave from my job due to wizard magical interference.”
“Have you always been a witch?” was the next question. That was difficult to answer as far as she knew she did have magic and was possibly squib-like. However she never had difficulty with magic until Voldemort’s wand landed in her shoulder. Pumping her full of a combination of ancient spellbinding Hemocraft and soul-shattering.
“Sort of my whole living life with higher potency as a recent development?“ Roxanne squeaked unconfident if it was a good answer.
“Why the Forbidden forest?” Draco asked.
Roxanne fell on her back startled at the question. How long had Draco been tailing her and how often.
“Ow.” she groaned.“How long have you been tailing?” she righted herself. Glaring at the boy that there was a mutual interest in social conformity acceptance.
Draco looked abashed “ Since the new year but you didn’t go out as much because you were injured.”
“So three months,” Roxanne said. She placed her hands on her face silently screaming to herself.
“I was hired, to remove something for Albus Dumbledor that had concerned him, on behalf of the student population.'' The explanation that Roxanne gave was the simplest and left out the most dangerous information and the type of creature she is.
“You are special because?” the hanging question irritated her as due to the code of conduct she couldn’t outright say grim reaper or death god. The Tool’s face was starting to look punchable. It had always been but at that moment Roxanne felt her hand twitch she could very well punch him in the current circumstance.
“What have you seen?” She hoped returning the question would give her an idea of how much Draco Malfoy had observed.
“You are fast and resilient,” Draco began. “Stronger than you should be. I now know that even if you look my age you are not. You recover practically instantaneously. Your eyes are strange. You have glasses and that does something for you. You must have cut yourself on something different as I remember you had to cover your ear for a time. The same for your injury. You also don’t breathe in your sleep. So I think you’re dead like a ghost but more material.”
Draco had described everything that separated the classification of the grim reapers from Humans. “There is also the book you have when you're in uniform” far too observant.
“ Fine, I’m a Death goddess or Grim Reaper.” Draco looked shaken at her declaration. He seemed to begin to understand what she was.“ I collect the souls of the dead.”
“ Are you here...” Draco asked. His face was getting paler as the reality was setting in.
“No, it’s far too soon for you.” Roxanne snapped at him. She mumbled her sentiment, “You Wizards are agonizingly difficult to predict the death days.”
“So you're Like the Grim Reaper from the story of the three brothers,” Draco said
“What's that one?” So wizards did have a story about the grim reaper in their fables. Roxanne didn't know everything about Wizards, even of the wizards she did collect.
“It's the story about the deathly hallows.”
The moment Draco Malfoy said the phrase Roxanne understood. It was one of the many stories Roxanne was told; before the fateful day of her first interaction with Wizards.
The story went like this: the Grim Reaper on duty was in an area where there were many souls to collect due to the flood there: of these souls were to be collected and three brothers. The moment the youngest was to be swept away in the river. He was caught in magic.
The brothers then crossed over on a bridge they crafted. The Grim Reaper was tempted to force them to fall in; however, he appeared instead and crafted three items for them to prompt their death. The first was a wand infused with divine magic, the second was A stone infused with blank cinematic records. The third was the Reaper's cloak. The officer was fine with it. The officer collected all three of them. After that point, wizards started to show up as black pages. Reapers with experience were assigned to collect them.
So this humiliation was told to children. “Well then,” Roxanne said. “ Good for you. ”
She left immediately after that.
Roxanne made it out to the demon prison in the front; the blue shield was up but Roxanne didn’t see the body of Sebastien wandering around.
It was different, how was she supposed to act upon the information that she had gathered? Roxanne held her scythe in hand as she approached the barrier. She stepped over the threshold and was suddenly thrown out of the clearing as the body of Sebastien snapped up.
It was different. The shove felt different from the presence of Sebastien. But the other thing definitely acted like a demon but also a boy. Sebastian seemed to hiss in agitation.
You should leave. There was a voice echoing in her head. There was no doubt that it was Earl Ceil Phantomhimet. The thought entered her mind.
“So you could communicate with me Ceil," Roxanne spoke aloud. Roxanne tapped into the Reaper magic, isolating the soul of Ciel from Sebastian. But the older Demon soul drowned out the subtlety of Ciel's.
"You need to leave," Ciel said again.
Roxanne sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Sorry to disappoint but the Wizards nearby need to ensure that you are neutralized. Whether that be removing the contract between you. Make you human again that method is improbable. Or kill you both." Roxanne said locking eyes with the two sets of eyes. "I can not leave until you do."