It has been a few days since Harry was assigned as Ciel's guardian angel and honestly, Harry felt very troubled with his first assignment. To Harry, Ciel seemed like a very lost child who had to grow up faster than he should have just so he could survive. It seemed like fate had it in for Ciel the same way fate had it in for Harry when he was alive. Unfortunately what Ciel seemed to lack that Harry did have is a stable and reliable adult support system. Harry noticed that despite the presence of adults in the Phantomhive mansion, most (if not all of them) act more childish than the twelve year old Ciel. There was the cook who had a dangerous fascination on blowing things up, the maid who could not clean, and the gardener who sometimes showed signs that he can feel it when Harry was near. The old butler Tanaka would have been a good mentor but his times of lucidity was rarer than Dumbledore wearing normal clothes. Then there was the apparently other butler Sebastian that was always beside Ciel. Harry already knew he was not human and possibly a dark creature, but Harry is yet to determine exactly what the butler is. Harry had witnessed Sebastian kill for Ciel without remorse and despite this, he also seemed to be the best companion Ciel had at the moment.
From what little Harry could gather so far from being an observer at the sidelines, it seemed like Ciel is acting like a sort of agent for the queen. A position that the late Earl Phantomhive held and Ciel took in the position after his father's death. But Harry could not help question if the late Earl would have wanted his young son to take on the position so early on his life on top of maintaining the family name of being an Earl in a harsh upper-class society. Having verbal battles with adults in positions of authority, seeing censored information, and having that much responsibility, for Harry it all seemed too much for any twelve year old. Nonetheless, the angel had to hand it in to his assignment; Ciel can hold his own if the need arises with his sharp wit and no-nonsense view in life. Maybe that's why Ciel had that aura of being aloft and an outright brat from time to time, because he needs those personas to survive the circles he moves in.
Currently, Ciel was busy with the mass murder case of the so-called 'Jack the Ripper.' If Harry had any say on the matter Ciel would be running as far as possible from the case of a psychotic killer, unfortunately no one listens to guardian angels anymore. At this particularly rare moment of peace in the mansion, Sebastian is away from his master's side and Harry opted to take the opportunity to stay close to the sleeping Ciel. A few nights ago he noticed that Ciel could not sleep through a night without nightmares and ends up screaming for Sebastian. It was when the angel tried to comfort Ciel after the nightmare that Harry noticed the calming effect he had on the twelve year old. Apparently so did Sebastian. Hence the unspoken agreement between the angel and the butler that Sebastian would leave after dressing Ciel for the night, leaving Harry to guard Ciel and keep the nightmares at bay. Ciel's nightmares reminded Harry of his own nightmares when he was alive so technically even if he was uncomfortable with the butler's presence he would have endured it for the child. Harry has taken on humming Ciel to sleep then playing with the child's hair when he was already asleep.
Ciel was such a pretty child that it would be easy to mistake him for a girl as Harry had witnessed the first time around. No doubt he would be a looker when he grew up. But asleep, he looked so innocent, so pure, and so defenceless that it made Harry want to protect Ciel. More than being his assignment, Ciel deserves to have someone protect him just because he's Ciel, the child who had to grow-up to survive. No matter his position and responsibilities sometimes it's better to just have someone fight the battles for you just because someone cares for you. For the past few days Harry had grown to care for the child. He no longer saw Ciel just as an assignment but as a wounded soul that deserved salvation more than most people. Harry vowed Ciel would get that salvation no matter what.
The angel was still humming when he felt Sebastian's presence inside the room. He backed away from the bed giving the butler space and minimizing the butler's effect on him. Harry gave Sebastian a glare when he made the motion to wake the sleeping child. For Merlin's sake he just got the boy to sleep! But his glare was ignored and Ciel was woken from his slumber. "Young master, there was a new development on the Jack the Ripper case that you might want to attend to."
If it were any other child, they would have thrown a tantrum for being disturbed in the middle of the night or at least felt mildly irritated, but Ciel was unlike any other child. He simply sat up, rubbed his obviously tired eyes, and asked Sebastian to dress him in appropriate clothing. All the while Harry sent Sebastian a dark look. Children should not be involved in such cases especially in the middle of the night! This is regardless of the fact that the said child has two very capable defenders at his side. Surprisingly instead of the usual amused smile Sebastian sometimes sends the angel, he simply shook his head as if saying it was out of his control and Harry relented.
In moments the trio was ready to go and boarded inside the carriage that should take them to Jack the Ripper himself.
Their little group had been waiting in an alley when they heard a terrified scream. On instinct Harry brought out his wand, Sebastian tensed, and Ciel, well he headed straight towards the sound. "Idiot! When you hear a scream in a murder scene you run away from it not towards it you stupid child! A child with no sense of self preservation!" Harry was ranting as he ran after the child with Sebastian hoping they could prevent the child from endangering himself because of his stupidity. "Hermione, Ron, Sirius, I hope you can hear me. If this was how you felt whenever I acted without thinking, please know I am sincerely sorry and am now paying for it."
They noticed Ciel stop in front of the door and saw the bloody corpse that had caused him to stand frozen. Immediately Sebastian motioned to cover Ciel's eyes and took a step back. Harry had never been as grateful for the butler who could cover the child's eyes for he could not have done the same as much as he would have wanted to. The angel took a protective stance in front of Ciel and Sebastian when a bloody figure emerged from the dark room. He tried to act innocent but his eyes widened in surprise when he saw Harry.
"What is a pure angel doing in a place as tainted as this?" His tone was condescending and he started growing sharp fangs and red hair.
"What are you?" Harry took a step back.
"The grim reaper" The smile he sent Harry sent him shivers.
From behind him, Harry heard Ciel order his butler again. "Sebastian in the name of the contract, I order you to kill this vampire-like monstrosity immediately." The grim reaper gave an indignant sound obviously taking offense at the insult. Harry has got to admit, the child knew how to insult people.
Sebastian covered Ciel with his coat and bowed his head as he always did after receiving an order from Ciel. "Yes my lord." As soon as Sebastian left Ciel's side, Harry replaced his position beside the child ready to defend. The angel was just in time seeing as a woman in red suddenly went to attack Ciel with a knife. Harry parried the knife with a spell. To those who could not see the angel it seemed like the woman simply lost her grip on the knife.
"No, my sister's baby..." The woman dropped to her knees. Recognition showed in Harry's eyes, it was the same woman in red he saw at the ball a few days ago.
Ciel simply stared at the woman crying in front of him. "Aunt Angelina, why?..."
The woman's persona changed in an instant her eyes cold with fury. "Because they deserved it! Those ungrateful whores! They had me abort their children!" Harry almost thought the woman would try to harm Ciel but her aura changed again upon seeing Ciel's pained mismatched eyes. "But you, I could never hurt my sister's most precious boy. My most precious nephew. His son." By then she was a crying mess and Ciel made a move to hug her. Harry let Ciel continue, he thought that both of them could use the close contact given all that has happened.
"Aunt Angel" Ciel sounded like the little boy he was supposed to be at that moment and Harry thought of the irony of it all. A woman named after angels and a boy named sky, both named after heavenly beings and both living hells on earth.
"My precious little boy. Aunt Angel is here now, no one is going to hurt you." For Harry it was as if Ciel has finally found the much needed adult in his life when the scene was ruined by the grim reaper.
"You! Your job was to kill him you little bitch!" Sebastian still held onto the grim reaper's chainsaw preventing him from going for the Ciel's aunt. An aunt that Harry believed was starting to lose her sanity.
She hugged Ciel while she moved back and forth. Harry did not know if it was to comfort herself or the child in her arms. "No. Not Ciel. Never Ciel. Will protect Ciel." It was almost too late when Harry noticed the grim reaper heading towards the hugging pair, his chainsaw forgotten with Sebastian, a knife in hand. Immediately Harry got into his way and shouted.
"ENOUGH! You will not harm either of them or so help me I will bring you straight to hell!" Harry was unaware, but at that moment his eyes shone in anger, it was eyes that Harry had only used once, and the last person he looked at with those eyes was now burning in hell. The grim reaper took a step back, afraid. He'd never heard of an angel threatening any creature with hell. Angels are creatures intended to bring their assignments to heaven afterall.
"Better listen to him Grell Sutcliff, he's pulling rank." Harry's eyes immediately went back to normal and looked at the source of the voice from the roof. It was another man in black with garden trimmers of all things. "You may never listen to me Grell Sutcliff but listen to him. I heard death himself was his reaper and when he died he brought down a high level dark lord with him. Death and heaven favours him, you would not want him angry." The newcomer adjusted his glasses with his garden trimmers, Harry internally applauded him for not cutting his own face.
The annoying grim reaper, newly named Grell Sutcliff, took another step back from Harry. "So-so-sorry, I promise to behave. Just please do not send me to hell."
Harry gave him a dark look. "Stay away from my assignment and do your job properly. Then I'll think about it. Else, I would haunt you." Grell took a clumsy bow in front of Harry before hurrying away. Sebastian threw him his forgotten chainsaw, it hit Grell in the head. Harry, Sebastian, and the new arrival all gave the terrified grim reaper a satisfied smirk.
"In all my centuries, this is the first time I saw Grell Sutcliff afraid. Thank you guardian angel Harry James Potter." The newcomer went down from the roof to stand before Harry. Sebastian went towards the by now sleeping Ciel and his vacant aunt.
"Just Harry, please." Harry gave the newcomer a smile. "Who are you, another grim reaper?" The angel was heading towards Sebastian with the newcomer following him. Harry saw Ciel sleeping in Sebastian's arms and Ms. Angelina staring in space. With a sad smile, Harry opted to send her a sleeping charm, it would be easier.
"In a sense I am also a grim reaper. I am called William T. Spears, feel free to call me Will." He gave the angel a rare smile, not that Harry knew the grim reaper was normally not so friendly.
"So Will, I had a friend named Will once, as you probably know I'm new in the business. Anything I should know." Harry liked this Will. He felt that this Will was all about being fair, Harry liked fair.
Will gave Harry a slight frown. "I really can't tell you much. But what I told Grell Sutcliff earlier was true, you outrank us grim reapers. As grim reapers we are only here to get the soul for judgement. We are not supposed to interfere with how things turn out. But angels like you and demons like Sebastian Michaelis can influence events and how things will end up for the soul."
Harry's head sharply turned towards Sebastian. "You're a demon?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Sebastian merely smiled in return.
"You never asked little angel." Harry game him an annoyed look, he gave Sebastian a lot of those since he met the apparent demon.
"Unfortunately unlike demons, angels are rarely seen by humans. In rare occasions though, angels can be seen by those they guard if the person they guard know and believe his or her guardian angel exists." Will continued on as if the encounter between the angel and demon never happened. "Angels are created to help certain humans gain salvation. No one knows how angel assignment happens only the top knows." He pointed towards the dark heavens. "Demons on the other hand are supposedly housing evil and needs souls to survive. Lower levelled demons can be satisfied by the souls that reach hell, higher levelled demons like Sebastian Michaelis need whole souls from their personal preys they mark with their contracts." At this Harry released a full rant.
"YOU ARE NOT GETTING CIEL'S SOUL DEMON! Ciel is a child he will get salvation and get to meet the guard of those pearly gates in his pale-yellow-shirted-glory! Dammit! And I thought Ciel was safe with you all this time! Give me Ciel right this instant!" Harry looked like a proper guardian angel then with his wings spread wide as if preparing to take flight and brought out his arms to receive the sleeping Ciel. Without comment Sebastian deposited Ciel on his guardian angel's arms and Harry took flight with his first assignment.
"Did you have to tell him you demented grim reaper?" Sebastian gave Will an annoyed look and picked up the sleeping Ms. Angeline. Will simply gave him a triumphant smile before disappearing in the air leaving Sebastian alone in the alley.