The Witch
L4DXHP, Fem-Harry
Takes place before 1st year and during 'The Parish'
Partially inspired by this one page comic on deviant art
http colon /accelagirl dot deviantart dot com/gallery/8647650#/d1spuw0
despite what the femHarry's name might imply, this is not a femHarry is femEllis fic. Will add to the characterisations as I write.
Characterisation: Fem!Harry, Proffessional!NotJerkass!Snape, Progressive!Order
The first thing that Rubeus Hagrid and Minerva McGonagall heard upon entering number 4, Privet Drive was the sound of a child crying. Not the loud, screaming wail that a spoilt child would use when they didn't have their way. But a high, drawn, wail that seemed almost melodic in its softness. It was the sound of a child crying silently, and it was coming from the cupboard under the stairs. The transfiguration professor knew that crying. It was how children cried when they can't stop. Slowly, she motioned for her large companion to open the quadrilateral door to the cupboard.
Inside of the cupboard was a young girl wearing rags.
Eleanor Potter had always thought of herself as skinny and fast for her age, especially when her only longstanding comparison was her cousin (and he was quite large only at ten years old).
She could easily outrun him and his gang when they decided to have a game of 'Eleanor elimination'. Although she had to run for her life during it on many occasions she was actually impressed that he had come up with the name himself. He may have asked his uncle if there was a word that meant 'kill' that started with 'E', but even so…
Speaking of her uncle; he was currently investigating the merits of forehand vs backhand blows when applied to a prepubescent girl, being closely observed by her aunt and cousin.
You might ask: why?
FOR THE GLORY OF SATAN OF COURSE!
No, the real reason he was investigating forehand vs backhand blows was to see which was better at hurting her. Why a little girl like his niece, Eleanor Potter? Well, it was more of just the fact that it was Eleanor Potter.
Ellie (she much preferred to shorten her name) Potter was different, she could do incredible things, like making her teacher's wig turn blue, making glass vanish (that one was just today!) or duplicating some bacon after she burned her hand on the frying pan so that she wouldn't have to continue cooking until dinner that night came. She couldn't really control these things, they usually happened when she was angry, scared, or in a lot of pain; like now.
She felt a strange tug, and then a sensation that felt like she was being forced through a tight rubber tube. The sensation seemed to go on for hours until suddenly…
She came crashing down into a large pipe half full of sewerage. Ellie sat up quickly, the undoubtedly septic water slowly draining off the rags she wore, she noticed two mounds of fat that were her uncle and cousin nearby and the fading white of flashlights in the distance.
"What do you think you're playing at girlie!?" Screeched Aunt Petunia, who was already up and brushing herself off.
This, as it turned out, was a mistake.
There was a distant roar, splashing and scrambling then out of the darkness hundreds of people charged. Aunt Petunia and Ellie instinctively started running away from the hoard, Vernon and Dudley completely forgotten about as they tried to sit up. The two mounds of flesh were instantly set upon by the monsters. Petunia and Ellie exited the sewer pipe and emerged into a large room full of water. The hoard had faded into blackness, but the sound of sloshing water was getting louder again. Ellie spotted a light in what she reasoned was the centre of the room and ran towards it, her raggedy clothes weighing her down. Ellie reached the light patch and saw a rusted ladder leading up and out the water and into the light. She grasped the first rung and started climbing. She was halfway up before she realised that her Aunt Petunia had followed her.
Then, the hoard emerged into the room, Ellie started to climb faster, with Petunia also accelerating. Ellie could only guess what had happened to her uncle and cousin, but she had no intention of finding out first hand. She was almost there at the top, when those things began to climb the ladder. Ellie emerged, blinking, into daylight as the hoard caught up with her Aunt, she fell screaming, and many of the monsters dropped recklessly back into the sludge to have at her.
A large number of cars were dotted around the area that Ellie had emerged up into; she swiftly ducked around one to see the entrance to an auto repair shop. She crawled past the red metal towards the storefront. Ellie reached the door, yanked it open, and ducked hurriedly inside.
From what the young girl could see of the room, there were a few shelves with what looked like miscellaneous car memorabilia (fluffy dice and the like), car tools and bottles of what she guessed was headlight fluid. Some chocolate bars, glossy packets of microwave popcorn and packets of gum adorned the front counter. A car was off to the side in a sort of the garage covered in an oily sheet. Did she mention the man in the middle of the room? He was rather large, with a similar build to uncle Vernon, but with more muscle in his upper body, and was currently going through a cupboard on the other side of the room.
He didn't appear to have noticed her yet, was he one of them? Ellie quickly ducked underneath the car, pulling the sheet right as she covered her mouth to stifle her breathing. The stranger mucked about the workshop for a few minutes before he seemed to head towards the door. It opened and shut with a crash and a clunk came soon after that sounded suspiciously like a deadbolt locking into place. No windows, a locked door, no exit, minimal food. Ellie coughed.
Three days later, Ellie had made up some bedding in the cupboard out of the sheet from the car and a pillow from a towel she found. She had shed some of her clothes, shredding the sleeves and midriff of her shirt, this place was obviously not England. Aside from that, she had eaten the gum from the counter.
Four days after that, the chocolate bars were gone. Heat seemed to permeate the room and Ellie felt light headed. She tried to cook the microwavable popcorn, but that was to be a onetime only occurrence. The popping was loud and drew them to the doors. They beat at the corrugated metal of the garage door and Ellie didn't get a wink of sleep.
During the next three days Ellie had given up looking for alternate food than the popcorn and in trying to find a way to shield the microwave from making too much noise. She ended up just eating the raw kernels after picking them out of the buttery mixture. She had ripped her pant legs so that they ended in the middle of her thighs. At first she had thought that the heat was due to the change in location, but she soon realised, through exhaustion induced afternoon naps that she was sick.
Five, no, six days later.
Fading.
¿̟͚͚̭̺̗̯͙̄̓̔ɹ͚̪̮̘͌̎ͩ̋͑ǝ̲͎ͦ̔͐ͭʇ̩̜͙̙̼̫͗̿̌̑ɐ̦̰̞̖̤͊ͮ̆̔ן̲̞͌ͥͩ̄͒ ̤̹͒̋̄̂̊͆͒͗s̭̝̣̗̩̲͇̦ͬͣͨ̌ʎ̟͍̫̭͉͗̂͌͗̐̆ɐ̮͉̐̎p̖͙͔ͫ̃͗ͭ ̭̯̭̲͔͚̞̳ͮͯ̐̅u̠̫ͭ̓̑ͩ̎ͣͥ͒ǝ̤̫̗͚͌̎ͪ̽͆ͯ̇ͥʌ͇̥̥͕ͯ̑ǝ͓̪̯͖͔̐̉̉̐ͧͭ͌s̥̟̺̜̝͉ͥ̍̂͒̈́ͅ
'Need. Safe. Cupboard.' Ellie's mind seemed to say in her numbed state. How much time had passed? 'away.'
She once again felt the passage through the tight rubber tube.
The girl was thin. Skeletal thin. Pale sweat covered skin was stretched over her exposed ribs, and her hair was the colour of plaque covered teeth. Her laboured breathing, combined with the sweat, seemed to indicate a sickness of some kind, perhaps a fever? What seemed to have been a very loose brownish-crème shirt was now ripped into a ragged poncho.
As light shone from the windows in the sitting room across the hallway and into the cupboard under the stairs the weeping stopped, and the figure slowly turned. Razor sharp, foot long, blood red claws adorned the young girl's hands and her eyes glowed with a poisonous yellow glow. A vicious growl exited the creature's lips and it lunged with those claws…
Only to be caught in a levitation charm by Minerva. It hung in the air, still trying to claw its way through the atmosphere to the one who had startled it.
"Wha' is I'?" asked the giant of a man off to her side. "Where's li'l Eleanor?"
The transfiguration professor slowly levitated the being back into the cupboard, and then, half a second after she cancelled the charm she sent a stunning spell at the thing.
"I think, Rubeus, that this might BE Eleanor." She said.
"She will live, Albus." Said Severus Snape as he removed the beak shaped mask. "I identified her condition of one infected with a mutant strain of the 'Green Flu', I had some vaccines in my store just in case. She is not able to infect other humans and her appearance may eventually return to what it was. However, when she experiences powerful emotions the symptoms will return."
"I've ne'er heard o' the green flu." Said Hagrid. "wha' is I'?"
"Could you explain to them, Albus?" Snape said, stifling a yawn behind his hand. "I did work for nearly 20 hours straight to bring her to her current stable condition."
"Very well, Severus" The old wizard said. "We will wake you if there is any change in her condition." The black cloaked potions master swept from the room, leaving the elderly witch, half giant, and merlin-like figure in the room, occasionally peering through a porthole in a door at a young girl secured onto an operating table.
The three settled in chairs and two looked expectantly towards the old man.
"Approximately eighteen years ago that a virus being studied by muggles in the United States of America broke containment. We, meaning myself, and certain sections of the British and American Governments to name a few managed to… ahh… Retcon the event." Albus said. "Severus, several other potion masters and muggle scientists across the world were granted access to the flu to study it, we managed to cure it and were able to manufacture a preventative in case we are unable to use our former method again if the virus broke out."
"So the virus, this 'Green Flu' did this to people?" Professor McGonagall asked in horror. "It turned people into… whatever it is Eleanor Potter is now?"
"I believe the colloquial term is 'Zombie', however, no, this is not the result of common Green Flu, but rather a mutant effect." Dumbledore said. "This particular effect is only seen in adolescent girls, and the infected people have come to be known as 'Witches'. Unlike other strains of the virus they were not aggressive unless provoked or approached but were EXTREMELY strong despite their size due to an increased metabolism."
"So wha's gonna happ'n to Eleanor?" Asked Hagrid.
"As Severus said, she is in a stable condition, I am not sure how long she has been exposed to the virus but it has permanently altered her body and mind beyond what the vaccine can restore entirely."
"You said that it was Retconned. Albus, how did she become infected?" McGonagall asked.
"I am not sure, Minerva." Albus said as he lowered his eyes. "We can only hope that it poses less threat than I fear."
When Ellie Potter woke the first thing she saw was white sheets, those are new. The second thing she felt was an overwhelming sense of tiredness, like she had had a pulled an all-nighter and caught a nap at 3.30pm then woke up at 6pm thinking it was a new day then you realise you have to go back to sleep in three hours. She then realised that the white sheets were rather blurry, so, guessing that's where someone would put them, she reached over to where a bedside table would be for her glasses.
And that was when her hand impaled the table.
The resulting scream drew the matron out of her office.
I might continue this if I feel like it.
If anyone would like to adopt this just PM me.