The Giants Rage, Prologue

Late at night on October 31st, Hagrid, following orders from Albus Dumbledore, took baby Harry Potter from Sirius Black and, using the motorbike Sirius lent him, delivered him to the doorstep of Number 4 Privet Drive. Hours after the fact we find him back at the grounds of Hogwarts, in his hut, with his face in his hands, a bottle of firewhiskey empty on the table in front of him, and a picture book of James and Lily laying next to the bottle.

This was only to be expected, as many other wizards had found themselves in a similar state, either mourning their lost loved ones or celebrating the victory over the dark lord Voldemort. Tonight wasn't going to get any better for Hagrid though, as demonstrated by the knocking on the door. "I'm coming!" He yelled out, getting to his feet and wiping his face off with a nearby cloth. As he opened the door, expecting to find a professor from the school or some other friend, he was instead faced with the tall, pale and incredibly dangerous image of something imitating a man. Before he could so much as move a muscle, Hagrid found himself frozen stiff by a mere look from the visitor, and then he knew no more.

At 53 years of age, Hagrid liked to believe that he could handle unexpected situations. Rescue a baby from a collapsing building? He could do that, easy. Find and raise some dangerous and equally cute/handsome creature? You didn't even have to pay him! Finding himself in an unfamiliar room where the air was damp and heavy with the smell of decay and no discernible way out, with no clothes covering him? Given time, he was sure he could work something out. Maybe. Unfortunately, time was the one thing he didn't have, as barely ten seconds after he had awoken and looked around, a door opened from the wall, and the same visitor who hoodwinked him walked out of it and towards him.

Now that he got a proper look, Hagrid was unsure what to make of him. He was tall, that was the first thing that came to mind- It had to, he was about a foot taller than him- But thin, pale, and with sharp features. "What- Who are you?!" Hagrid demanded, beginning to raise from the ground. "Eldest Vampire. You don't deserve my name." He then stopped in front of him, hands clasped behind his back. "Stay. Sit." Hagrid's body did as it was told, without listening to his mental protests. "Rubeus Hagrid." He began, looking into his eyes and smirking, then continued. "Born on the 6th of December, 1928. Attended Hogwarts in 1940. Fought in the war for the last ten years." Having said that, the vampire then turned around and stayed silent for half a minute, before facing him again. "Something awoke me from my slumber, Halfling." Again, he smirked, but this time it seemed different. More full of mirth than malice. That changed quickly though, going back to presenting facts. "From your memories, and the memories of five now-dead Magi, I have deduced that to be from the boy. Harry Potter." He walked forwards, until he was barely two steps away from him.

"Magic awoke me for a singular purpose, Halfling. In time, I may deign to inform you of what it is. Until then, you shall have to remain ignorant. You're good at that, I believe. Regardless, barely three hours after waking I have sensed that something is wrong with the world, and you are part of fixing it. But not like you are now." He turned around, and the door he came from appeared again, growing wider and wider until there wasn't even a wall remaining, revealing a large hall in the shape of a dome, bereft of anything save a handful of tools off to the side. "No matter, it's an easy fix. For me, that is. For you, Halfling, it's going to be very painful."

Hagrid was levitated into the middle of the dome-like room, still silenced and unable to utter a peep. He was lowered to the floor, where he was forced to stand ramrod straight, while animated razors and shears began removing all of the hair on his body. "Your thoughts betray you, Halfling. You are fearful and curious as to what I mean to do with you, are you not? No matter, there is no point in keeping it from you." He smiled wide, revealing his fangs. "I'm going to break you, Halfling. I am going to work ritual after ritual upon your body until you are acceptable. Your hair will get in the way."

While the work was underway, the vampire began explaining, in detail, everything he was going to do to him. "I am going to remove your personality, Halfling. Only your memories and knowledge will remain, without the emotional inflection they used to carry. This is important, you see, as I plan to make sure you are as blank a slate as possible for the rituals to have the most effect. I estimate this will take a week. I will allow you to scream."

Over the course of two months, the Eldest Vampire held Hagrid in his hideout, working on a rotating basis of inflicting a ritual designed to enhance him, marking them upon his very bones, and then giving him just three days to recover before moving onto the next ritual and repeating the process. After reducing him to a shell of his former self, The Eldest Vampire started the first ritual to grant him enhanced strength, allowing him to permanently exert 80 percent more power in everything he did. As a half-giant with already considerable strength, this brought him closer to the strength of an actual giant, to the point where he would win against his cousin Grawp when it came to pure strength. Next, enhanced control, as the newfound power was all but meaningless if he had no proper control over it. Then followed the enhancement of his vitality and reaction, allowing his skin to function like that of lesser armor, absorbing both magical and mundane damage done to him by a small percentage that would increase over time, starting at 10 percent. His mind was enhanced next via ritually marking his skull, letting him form five thoughts in a second and to keep track of them flawlessly, so that he had no chance of being outsmarted by eleven year olds. Next, came rituals to increase his aggression and satisfaction when dealing out violence, as the Eldest Vampire wanted him to, as he put it, 'become immune to the dumbledorian weakness of sparing your enemies'. Nearing the end of the rituals, he was given a ritual to greatly increase his healing, to the point where cuts and scrape would heal within seconds. A ritual worked over his entire body allowed him to absorb and redirect a portion of the power from spells, such that any within twelve meters of his large frame would find a part of them fizzle away from the main spell and towards him, and for any that hit him, absorb their energy to a maximum of 30 percent of their power. The last two were embedded into a single core within his body, placed directly behind his heart, as both a core of growth and a battery to fuel all other enchantments on him.

When all of the rituals had finally been completed, Hagrid was left as a mess on the cold stone floor of the Eldest Vampires hideout, no thoughts or feelings passing through him except a vague sense of acceptance and defeat, mixed in with a cynical realization that no matter what he did, he would be able to do nothing at all to stop what came next.

Hey guys and gals, this will be my first attempt at writing and uploading fanfiction. Any comments, ideas and suggestions to help me improve would be greatly welcome. With that said, please enjoy.