Church Grim

(Harry Potter, Katekyo Hitman Reborn)

(Grim!Harry)

(Master of Death Harry)

disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter or Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Harry figured out that he had become the Master of Death after he comes back when Voldemort had killed him.

When he was bought back to Hogwarts and revealed that he wasn't dead he tries to call upon Death itself so he finally can kill Voldemort once and for all. Death appears and listen to his request and is willing to help but it will have something in return for its cooperation. Harry smiled sadly but didn't wait for a second to give in his own life as repayment. Death accepted.

"You know about the prophecy right, Tom? The one that started all of this between us. One sentence was 'And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.' I finally figured it out what the power is. It is something you can give to others, but can't share with others. something that can happen naturally but most doesn't want it to happen to oneself."

"Stop speaking in riddles Potter! You will be dead before you can do anything against me!" Voldemort hissed at him.

"Well you are almost right in that statement except it's a little different. You see Riddle, yes I will die but it will be after I have used my attack first," someone in the audience that had gathered gasped (-"no, Harry"-) "But I will take you down with me." Harry finished with a smirk.

"See the power you know not is Death itself."

A dark shadow appeared between Harry and Voldemort and Death stepped through it.

"For you who have tried to defy me this is the time to meet your end." Deaths voice was rough as it stated its judgment.

Death loomed over Voldemort who was frozen in place and with a quick motion of its hand made of bone it dragged a dull looking light out of Voldemort's chest. As Death turned towards Harry, Voldemort fell to the ground without anyone trying to catch him, and landed on the floor in the great hall with a hollow thud.

Death looked at Harry from under its hood, "The price." It stated.

When Harry made his way towards Death, the voices that had been silent during it all began to voice their disagreement.

("Harry, Harry please don't-" "Harry don't do it-" "you can't just leave use-" "Potter don't you dare-")

When Harry stopped in front of Death his skin was glowing a soft light color. He offered his hand, "Let's go" his tune sounding entirely too happy for the situation.

Death nodded before a shadow sprang from the floor and swallowed both of them and the dim light of Voldemort's soul and only left behind Voldemort's cold corpse.

~—~—~—~

Year ?

The last shovel of dirt was shoveled down the hole before a stone slab was thrown over it.

And with that, the præst* could finally begin his duty whit the death of the animal and the protection of Dødens Herre** finally was called.

O~—~—~—~O

Church Grim

Scandinavian Folk-Lore

The Scandinavian church Grim is also known as the Kyrkegrim (Swedish) and Kirkegrim (Danish) and likewise defined as the protective revenant of an animal buried alive in the church foundation.

It dwells in the church tower or some other place of concealment, or wanders the grounds at night, and is tasked with protecting the sacred building.

It keeps order in the church and punishes those who perpetrate scandals.

It is said that the first founder of Christian churches would bury a lamb ("church-lamb") under the altar.

When a person enters the church when services are not being held, he may see the lamb, and if it appears in the graveyard (especially to the gravedigger) then it portends the death of a child.

The lamb is meant to represent Christ (the Lamb of God) as the sacred cornerstone of the church, imparting security and long livity to the physical edifice and congregation.

Other animals used to create the church Grim included a boar, pig, and horse. A grave-sow (or"graysow") the ghost of a sow that was buried alive, was often seen in the streets of Kroskjoberg where it was regarded as an omen of death.

There are tales of the Danish Kirkegrim and its battles with the strand-varsler that tried to enter the churchyard.

Strand-varsler is the spirits of those who die at sea, and are washed up on the shore, and remain unburied.

O~—~—~—~O

Year ?

A shadow lurked in the dark just out of the light of the torch burning in front of a tombstone. The woman noticed and turned to the two children beside her.

"I think it's time for you to hear the story of the Church Grim." She said with a smile graced on her lips gaining the attention of the two boys.

"The church Grim? Haven't we already heard it? The big black dog that protects the church right?" One of the asked. The woman looked down at them and smiled again.

"Well yes you have heard the legend of a church Grim, but this time it's about the Church Grim. He is the one who comes and takes the job of church Grim every time an animal is sacrificed for it." The woman pulled the two children up in her lap before continuing.

"He takes the form of the animal that was buried and leads it to the afterlife. He then proceeds to protect the churchyard from people who wish to harm or destroy it." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shadow shift again but then was still waiting for her to continue.

"But aren't there multiple Grim's at different places? How does he protect them all?" The child's eyes reflecting the light from the torch when he looked up at her.

"Well, when he first took up the title of the Grim he was granted the power to be at different places at once so that he could do his job better. And he has these bright green eyes that glove in the dark so that people know that's he's there."

The shadow blinked its green eyes at her but then moved its head in what resembled a nod before it disappeared deeper into the shadows and out of her sight.

"You must know that not all people believe in him and not many believe he is friendly but no matter what you must know that he will protect you if you are inside the border of the graveyard." She said seriously.

"But why would he protect us, mama? We haven't done anything for him." The woman's smile turned sad as she replied.

"He does all of this for us mainly for two reasons. Number one is because Death gave him this assignment after he had used its help. And the second reason is that before all of this he used to be human like us but then he had gathered three objects and he became the Master of Death."

O~—~—~—~O

Years later two teenagers ran into the graveyard and hide behind the tombstones in the hope of losing the person that had just killed their mother, to the sound of the church bell ringing loud and clear through the silence of the night.

A shout could be heard from the man chasing the and the boys hunched down further when the steps became louder.

A loud growl ripped through the night and a thud was heard that had them look out from their hiding place to see a large black dog attacking the murder.

One of the gasped and the dog lifted its head from its prey and looked at them with glowing bright green eyes and blood dripping from its fur down in a pool between its legs.

O~—~—~—~O

Church Grim

English Folk-Lore

The English church grim usually takes the form of a large Black dog and guards churchyards from those who would profane them including thieves, vandals, witches, warlocks and the Devil himself.

For this purpose, it was the custom to bury a dog alive under the cornerstone of a church as a foundation sacrifice so that its ghost might serve as a guardian.

Like many spectral black dogs the grim, according to Yorkshire traditions, is also an ominous portent and is known to toll the church bell at midnight before a death takes place.

During funerals, the presiding clergyman may see the grim looking out from the church tower and determine from its aspect whether the soul of the deceased is destined for Heaven or Hell.

The grim inhabits the churchyard day and night and is associated with dark stormy weather.

When a new churchyard was opened it was believed that the first person buried there had to guard it against the Devil.

In order to prevent a human soul from having to perform such a duty, a black dog was buried in the north part of the churchyard as a substitute.

O~—~—~—~O

Year ?

A small girl dressed in a small white dress and a light emitting from her skin floated over her real body that was slowly being sunken down in the ground below when the soft bleating of a lamb could be heard. She looked around and saw a lamb standing a little away from the gathering of people.

"Are you the church Grim?" The lamb nodded, "so are you taking me away?" The lamb nodded again but its eyes never left her floating form.

"I don't think I can." She whispered afraid of the consequences of staying but couldn't leave her family.

The lamb slowly made its way towards her dodging the people clad in black in small graceful steps. When it was in front of her it changed form.

Instead of a lamb standing in front of her, was there now a young man with the same green green eyes but clad in black. His pitch dark hair a birds nest spread over his head.

"I could carry you on the way. Would that be okay?" His voice was light and soothing, and she nodded her head without thinking.

He came closer and slowly lifted her airy form into his arms and placed her on his shoulders.

He turned towards the gathering of people and looked up at the girl.

"Anyone, you want to say goodbye to before we leave?"

The girl nodded and looked over the people and the began to wave her hand. "Bye-bye Nirnasha." Her brother's head shot up and looked straight at her. He stilled before he began to wave back. "Bye-bye Thana'." He whispered back.

The man smiled at the boy before turning his attention to the girl again. "Come on Thana' I'll tell you the story of the 'Babbity Rabbitty And Her Cackling Stump' on the way."

O~—~—~—~O

Tsuna was having a bad day. Like a really bad day. It all started with his mother forgetting to wake him up in time to get ready for school so he had to run out of the house without breakfast. And then he ran into Hibari-san at the front gates of the school and nearly got bitten to death. The later in class he had forgotten his homework and got humiliated because he had forgotten it so many times the teacher pointed it out for everybody to hear.

And then finally school was done, he got chased by his bully's because they thought it would be fun to beat him up.

So here he was hiding in the graveyard close to the border of the town in the opposite direction of his house.

"Whatcha doing behind this tombstone kid?" A voice suddenly said next to him.

"Heeiii, where the heck did you come from!" Tsuna shouted in shock and nearly jumped out from his hiding place when he remembered the bully's and sat back down again but stared at the man.

"Wow, rude kid. Didn't you're mom teach you not to shout at people?" The stranger asked, "You should at least introduce yourself."

"Ah sorry! I-I'm Sa-Sawada Tsunayoshi" Tsuna said, "But you can call me Tsuna."

"Good, you call me Harry. Now I ask again what are you doing behind this tombstone Tsuna." 'Harry' asked.

Tsuna looked the man over trying to calculate how big of a chance he was to rat him out.

The man- no scratch that, the teenager only looked to be a couple years older than himself. He had pitch black hair that almost looked like it had no reflection of the light in it, was like a birds nest falling messily down to his shoulders. He was obviously foreign with pale skin and striking green eyes. He was clad in a leather jacket over a dark blue shirt and jeans. He was combat boots on too.

All in all everything about him practically screamed delinquent but the smile he was wearing and a feeling the back of his head told him he could be trusted.

"I was running away from some bully's," Tsuna said quietly.

Harry looked at him before turning his head away to look out over the churchyard.

"You choose a pretty good place to hide if you ask me." He said nonchalantly with a shrug before continuing. "Did you know that this churchyard has a grim?"

"A grim?" Tsuna asked and leaned his back up against the tombstone. "What's a grim Harri-san?"

Harry looked at him oddly. "It's Harry. Haarryy. And no san if you please. Just Harry is fine."

"Well, a grim -or a church Grim if you want its original name- is said to be an animal that leads the people that had been buried in its churchyard to the afterlife or judge if the soul is going to Heaven or Hell. They aren't as common anymore and especially not in Japan of all places. It a little bit too far from where they used to come from." Harry said it in a lazy way with a shrug of his shoulders.

Tsuna was absolutely hooked. "So where do Church Grims originally come from Harri- Harry?"

Harry nodded satisfied with the pronunciation of his name. "The Church Grim comes from old folklore on the other side of the globe. Some of the stories come from England and other comes from the country's under the banner of Scandinavia..." When Harry told the story he began to make small hand movements and Tsuna almost felt himself beginning to get dragged into the story.

Tsuna used the rest of the day just sitting up against a tombstone listening to stories of old folklore from centuries in the past, countries away about mythical creatures from a stranger he had just met.

"Then there are 'nisser'. They are most common in Denmark. They are about the size of an-" Harry was cut off from his story by a high pitch screech coming from Tsuna that shot up in the air.

"I'm sorry Harry-sa- Harry but I need to go home now. The sun is about to go down and I should have been home a long time ago. My mom is probably worried." Tsuna paused thinking about what he was going to say next. "Can we meet again tomorrow and then you can finish the story?"

Harry stood up and laid a hand on Tsuna's back to give him a push toward the gates. "Sure that's fine Tsuna. I'm going to be waiting," Harry said with a laugh. "But first you need to get home to your mom." Harry gave him one more push and walked up to the gate with him.

Tsuna gave him a long look before he turned and ran out of the gates towards his house with a "see You tomorrow" thrown over his shoulder.

Harry stood at the gate until Tsuna was completely out of sight before he turned and walked back into to graveyard and let himself shift into a smaller form. The dog walked between the tombstones on small trails before he came to a stop in front of an old grave in the back and curled up on a stone slab in front of the tombstone.

"He's a good kid Giotto, I'll give you that."

O~—~—~O

The church grim is a guardian spirit in English and Scandinavian folklore that oversees the welfare of a particular Christian church and protects the churchyard from those who would profane and commit sacrilege against it. It often appears as a black dog but is known to take the form of other animals.

O~—~—~—~—~—~—~—~—~O

*Præst, priest in Danish

**Dødens Herre, the Master of death in Danish