Chapter 8
Apparently, the strange girl named Luna Lovegood had been fine with the fact that Harry had just done something very suspicious to their teacher. In fact, she hadn't even asked what he had been doing, and instead she had been more curious about the Swarm than worrying over what Harry had been doing with it. She had only asked if she could see the swarm base, as if she knew what was there. Of course, she had said it in a very roundabout way and with different words for most of them.
When Harry had asked her to keep what she had seen to herself, he had been rather blase about her reassurance. Harry was quite glad that he had gotten her promise of secrecy. He would rather not go to Azkaban at thirteen.
Now Harry was getting ready for bed after the stressful situation he was in. He knew that Severus had been woken up the moment that Harry had entered into the Gryffindor common room by way of an update from the Xeno Zerg within the man's brain itself. The man had apparently waved his wand over himself, and had done nothing else. Then he had gone to his "lair" to make some potions. It appeared as though he was satisfied with his spells not finding anything wrong with him, but he was a potions master, and knew that some poisons could not be detected by spells. Harry assumed correctly that the man was brewing something to diagnose himself.
When Harry had laid his head down again to rest physically, he again connected to the Hivemind. This time, however, he merged his mind with that of the prototype. He was curious as to how it worked on the mental plane. He knew how it worked on the physical side, but he didn't have the foggiest as to the mental experiences of the organism he had created.
The experience was disorienting, as Harry was assaulted by not only what the Xeno Zerg was experiencing, but also what the infested man was experiencing as though Harry was him. He could see through the man's eyes, hear the man's thoughts, another half a stir clockwise…, and feel as though his fingers were around the crystalline stirring rod. He could smell the nasty odor that made him want to make sick on the floor, and feel the slight ache of the older man's feet from standing all day.
It was almost like he were to be possessing one of his drones, but only passively.
But more than that was how he could feel being a part of the worm within the man's brain. He could feel the body heat from within the man's skull and neck, the wetness against his, no, the worm's soft carapace. He could feel through the feelers, as they reposition themselves, and monitor the electrical impulses of the brain they were imbedded inside of. He could almost 'taste' - as much as a being that had no taste buds could taste - the plaque-like substance that the worm fed off of, the result of early-onset alzheimer's, though Harry knew not what either was.
It was a surreal experience, a truly different feeling that Harry would swear he had not been able to have experienced in his wildest of dreams, this coming from a child training to become a full fledged wizard.
He was perfectly content to sit back and experience Severus Snape's night, for the entire time. He was particularly interested in letting the Xeno do its job. It was a very interesting thing when Harry had experienced Severus Snape's dream when the man had finally gone to sleep. He had given the man his privacy, of course, as he was not interested in whatever it was that the man did before his sleep. He had stopped his spying during that time, and had ordered for the Xeno not to commit anything to memory either. He knew that when the time came that he was fully integrated with the Swarm, his memory and the Swarm's memory would be one and the same, and perfect. He did not want that memory to be crystal clear in his mind, ever.
Did he mention that he didn't want that experience yet?
When he had returned, the man had been in a dreamland, and Harry knew that the man was sleeping by some strange sense of his. The same strange sense that Harry had when he was urged down to the chamber of secrets again.
Speaking of the Chamber, he supposed that he needed to visit his ancient friends. He figured the old mind of an ancient castle would be lonely by now, and wondering if he would ever keep his promise to return again.
He resolved to do it on the weekend. Perhaps Sunday, as he had promised Luna to show her the base on Saturday. Harry knew to wake up that morning when Snape had woken to his alarm spell signaling the morning.
Harry subsequently retracted his mind from that of his Xeno Zerg, and to his own body. He then let his own eyes pop open, and his body awaken from its sleep. He got up, made his morning ablutions, and then noticed the time. It was well into the morning, early enough that breakfast was not yet served. It appeared as though his teacher was a morning person, then. Not that he would expect such a thing, as the man was quite dour in the mornings. Then again, he was always dour.
He made his way down to the Great Hall anyway, curious as to what happens when someone makes it there early. He was happy to note that he was not the only one in the Hall, with some of his fellow students - five at most - sitting at one lone table with their own breakfasts. They were accompanied by a few teachers, one he knew to be Professor Bathsheda Babbling, and surprisingly another was Professor Minerva McGonagall. The students themselves were mostly older, with the only exception being Luna Lovegood.
Luna was the first to notice him, having been the one seated opposite the Great Hall's main door, and she smiled dreamily at him. She had then given a nod, and gestured to an unoccupied seat that had appeared magically beside her, pulled out for him. The quiet conversation stopped momentarily, as each one of the table had turned their heads to look at Harry.
To Harry's utter shock, McGonagall had given his a slight nod and a smile, as well as Professor Babbling before the two had returned to their conversation of what Harry assumed to be the relationship between Runes and Transfiguration. The other, older students gave similar friendly motions before they returned their attentions to what they were doing before.
Having felt accepted, Harry finally moved onward to the seat beside Luna at the round breakfast table. As soon as he settled into the seat and up to the table, before him appeared his favourite breakfast - apparently, the house elves of Hogwarts had taken note of what he liked. He felt pride that the humble, powerful elves had gone through the effort to take note of what he liked to have every Wednesday morning.
Noticing his curious looks around the table, Luna had said to him, "We're the people that like to get up early in the morning, us seven, so we make it a point to meet here every morning. It's quite relaxing, to have this moment of the early morning to ourselves and let go."
"Let go?" Harry asked back, in the same low voice that everyone silently agreed to use so early in the morning.
That time it was his Professor McGonagall that answered, "Relaxed, no school talk, and a time when students can be more informal with your teachers, Harry." Harry was slightly shocked that Professor McGonagall was talking more like a friend to him, than a Professor, of all the teachers to do so. And she had called him Harry instead of the ever-present Mr. Potter.
"We are human, though students often forget that fact. It would be best if you didn't look at us as your teachers here; here, we are just eight people having breakfast together as equals." This time it was from the Runes professor, having said it after recognising the look of slight shock on Harry's face. Eventually Harry nodded, and the breakfast continued on.
Small talk sparked up between the others again, and he was able to place names for the unfamiliar faces before him. A proper introduction was made between them all, and Harry had placed the names of Wilda Nursing-Tad, James Gilbert, Seth Minadra, and Hillary Mildred to the other four faces of the students.
Harry was perfectly content to remain silent and listen to the quiet conversations of the people around him. He was happy to feel like an equal at the breakfast setting for once. It was nice to not have the feeling of being placed on a pedestal of what others thought him to be like, looked at with concern for being just a kid with a certain killer out for his blood again, and to be able to be treated like a responsible person.
When everyone's chosen breakfast and morning tea had been finished, the there was a seamless transition between the relaxed and informal atmosphere back to the boarding school standards the Harry was so used to. The people of the Breakfast Club had then left to do whatever it was they had planned that morning, and Harry was headed back to the Gryffindor commons, to work more with his familiar, to review the data he had gotten from the Xeno.
From the data collected from the Xeno, a successful organism made specifically to - although invasively - harmlessly research a species that had yet to be researched, Harry had gotten a few ideas of what to make with that data in mind. Harry had come up with the idea of a MediZerg, an organism that would live in a symbiotic relationship with its host, providing it with benefits that the zerg itself has, while bringing the benefits that Harry had wanted in the first place. It would also have the added benefit of being able to consume its host if that host was a threat to the Swarm in any way. After the consummation of the host, the MediZerg could morph into - depending on how much biomass was consumed - a Zergling or a similar small unit; preferably a Larvae if close enough to the creep.
He was 'woken' by the hivemind, by which he had ordered to monitor his senses for that very reason, so that he didn't have another hospital trip, and miss another month or so of schooling. He then had another few uneventful few days spent in routine, with significant progress towards his MediZerg idea during the nights, and schooling during the days.
Then came the time for him to introduce Luna to the Swarm on Saturday.
