Chapter Published: 22.02.2013 Updated: 23.02.2013

Disclaimer: Elements of this story are copyrighted by other parties. My wallet complains, but I own neither StarCraft nor the Harry Potter franchise.

If you thought I did, I'd love to know where you got that idea. Everything not owned by J. K. Rowling and Blizzard Entertainment (or whatever their name is right now) is owned by me.

Thanks to Janet for betaing this story. Thanks to Richard for catching the other mistakes.

XXXHPASXXX

Part 11:

The next evening, Harry's friends met in the all house common room once again.

"Muffliato!" Ron cried as soon as they'd gathered in a free corner. "You let us stew all day! Now tell, what happened yesterday?"

"Um... it's kinda hard to describe," Harry said reluctantly. Seeing his friend's expression he relented, raising his hands. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you."

"Yes. The only thing we know so far, is that you've won," Neville said, adding his own thoughts.

Luna grinned. "I'd also like to know something. I've been stewing over it since yesterday... What was it that couldn't be true?"

Hermione only nodded, looking eagerly at her best friend.

"Alright," Harry sighed. "After an acromantula attacked a drone during McGonagall's class, I prepared my swarm for an attack. It came last night just as we wanted to leave here." Harry took a short dramatic pause, only to receive a glare from Ron. "Well, seventy acromantula..." shocked gasps interrupted the story.

"Seriously?!" Ron yelled. "Seventy of those monsters?!"

"Yeah, seventy and I only had fifty drones myself," Harry said. "Forty were hidden in the pathway of the acromantula army, - thank you for that suggestion Ron - and totally surprised them when they suddenly appeared in their center."

"Are you serious?" Ron asked wide eyed. "You really attacked the center, how is your swarm still alive?" He hadn't recommended such idiocy to his friend.

"Well, there was a snowstorm, and the fact that my drones actually managed to destroy the center of their army. It was also a nice surprise that acromantula love to eat creep. I only had to fight forty spiders after the first attack."

"That's interesting, I guess it works with the surprise," Ron admitted. "However it doesn't explain how you defeated the rest. They should have enveloped your drones and finished them off."

"Well, that's where the snowstorm helped. The spiders also didn't really understand what was going on. I first attacked the right wing and by the time the left attacked they were mostly defeated. I kind of had a stalemate then, so I used my reserve to defeat the other wing," Harry quickly explained. "I had 28 operable drones left."

"Ok, but that result doesn't sound so impressive," Hermione interjected. "I mean isn't your swarm supposed to be kind of a super weapon?"

Ron shook his head over his girlfriend. "Hermione, he was attacked by an overwhelming force and managed to defeat it without even losing half his army. If that's not impressive, I don't know what is."

"Yeah, I was kinda lucky, by all rights I should have lost," Harry admitted. "Hermione is right though. It's not all that impressive, but then I fought with my worker ants so to speak. My warrior ants weren't ready yet."

"Warrior ants, what are those?" Neville inquired, curious as ants were one of his continuous enemies.

"Well, not really ants of course," Harry said, elaborating to his friends. "They're Zerglings and they're..."

Yes, what were they actually, Harry wondered. He'd just built them on good luck. The hivemind could help though.

/Zergling:
/Function: Basic Swarm ground attack unit
/Hit points: 35
/Armor: 1
/Speed: 3
/Attack: 5
/Attack Speed: 0,7s/a

"They're faster than drones," Harry continued after his short break. "Sorry, I didn't exactly know myself. They can take less damage, but they attack twice as fast as drones and are way more agile."

"That's all?" Neville inquired, obviously not impressed.

"Well, two hatch from one larvae. And they can climb trees, I think."

"So they are cheaply produced basic fighters who are actually bred only for that job." Ron said. "That's actually quite good, especially if they can attack from a distance."

Harry shook his head. "No, unfortunately they don't. I guess I need to find a solution for that problem."

"Um, Harry that's interesting, but why didn't you build them right away?" Neville said, raising his eyebrows.

The last Potter sighed. "I obviously don't need fifty workers. The reason is I couldn't. I needed a spawning pool first and that wasn't finished until the middle of the battle."

"Right," Hermione said, obviously not caring to hear more about Zerglings anymore. "You mentioned an overlord, what is it?"

"Ugh... an overlord is sort of a living airship," Harry said, showing its form with his hands. "They also help me with controlling the swarm. They're intelligent."

"If they're intelligent, why didn't you use them for attack?" Ron asked.

"They can't really attack. Would you fly a giant sentient flesh bag into a horde of acromantula?"

"Well, you could have used them as bombers," Hermione said.

Harry shook his head. "I could, I guess, if I had bombs that is."

"Harry?" Luna said, changing the topic. "Did the Wrackspurts infest you yesterday, or why were you convinced something couldn't be true."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you'd been eerily silent, just sitting there in your armchair, you know," the eccentric Ravenclaw said. "And then suddenly, from one moment to the next you cried out: 'Merlin, it can't be true.' You scared the Intumpflers out of my mind!"

"Oh... that... yes," Harry said. He really didn't know how he felt about IT. "Um... I'm not sure how to put it, but I learned the swarm is essentially immortal. As long as I live no Zerg really dies. Their soul or psionic spirit just gets reborn in another Zerg."

"And if you die?" Neville asked. "What happens then?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know." Then he grinned. "I haven't tried it yet."

"And I hope you won't!" Hermione quickly interjected.

Luna and Ron laughed. Harry wouldn't try something like that... would he?

"Whatever," Neville said. "You were complaining about your overlords yesterday..."

"Yeah, although they're supposed to be intelligent they always ask me for permission," the last Potter sighed. "I mean seriously, why don't they just take the drones and bring some acromantula corpses to the evolution chamber? Why do they need to ask me if they want to capture an acromantula alive to infest it when I'm so tired I can barely stand?"

"Infest?" Luna echoed. "Your swarm gives acromantula Flubberwunks and Wrackspurts?"

"No, but they give them a bug, virus, whatever," Harry said. "And that somehow makes them member of the swarm... Improves them, the overlord says."

"You aren't serious are you?" Ron said, his eyes widening, "Instead of horrible monster spiders you create horrible super monster spiders?"

"Um... yeah... but unlike a certain person I can make sure they really don't eat my friends."

"How does that work?" Hermione asked, ignoring her boyfriend and the implied danger. "You can't just make a creature yours. I mean they have an immune system which should anything foreign."

That was a good point, how did infestation actually work. Viruses were either defeated by your immune system or killed you sooner or later. That was Harry's state of knowledge. He'd never heard of anything that could actually take over a body and change it.

"I mean," Harry's bushy haired friend continued, "mom and dad explained that a virus enters your cells and rewrites the DNA so that the cells produce more of the virus. It causes a chain reaction until it either destroys the body or is stopped by the immune system. What you describe, Harry..."

"Um... Hermione," Ron said as his girlfriend took a break, "what is a cell and what is DNA." Seeing the strange looks on the others faces he elaborated. "Sorry, mom homeschooled us and she never mentioned something like cells and this DNA stuff."

"Well, I don't know this DNA stuff either," Neville said," but I know what a cell is. You remember when we were working with the Maxacellara plant? That thing that was made up from large round blobs that somehow stuck together?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, it looked really strange, but what does it have to do with cells?"

"That's pretty simple," Neville stated. "Each of those large blobs was a cell. Every larger being has those. Typically they are much much smaller though. I mean each of us is made up from billions of them and each of them has to work right so that you can live."

"Not every cell has to function for you to survive," Hermione interjected. "They die pretty regularly, but you'd have to overwrite the majority of them to take over an organism. And you'd somehow need to do it without killing it."

"I'm built from billions of small blobs... I can't believe it," Ron said, looking down at his arm, shaking it.

"Yes you are," Hermione smiled, her boyfriends antics could always brighten her day. "And each of those cells contains your code of life, or DNA. It's really Demoribo...nucleid...acid or something. Even I can't really remember the name."

"Why is the code of life an acid?" Luna asked, looking at Hermione's hair.

"I don't know. I know it exists, I have an idea what it does. Merlin's Beard, I'm learning wizardry not biology or medicine," Hermione sighed, but seeing Luna's disappointed expression she relented. "I can write my parents to send me a book, if you really want to know."

"I don't really understand how it works either," Harry said, remembering Hermione's original question, "but I know the evolution chamber produces a virus, that virus is injected into the organism, then the organism is dumped into the spawning pool, and then stuff hopefully works and the organism becomes part of the swarm."

It hadn't worked so far. The overlords had sacrificed five acromantula already, yet the results weren't all that spectacular. The first three had just died, and the last two had some wild growing of Zerg flesh until it ripped and destroyed their bodies. Well, at least they had some progress. They still had four acromantula left and the overlords were optimistic they only needed two further tries to get it right.

"Hopefully? That doesn't sound like it worked," Hermione shook her head. "Not that I care for acromantula..."

Harry shook his head. "It didn't."

"Whatever.." Hermione shrugged.. "You mentioned an evolution chamber?"

"Yeah, um... did we miss everything that happened since last Sunday?" Neville asked.

"I morphed the first overlord and drones on Sunday," Harry said. "I morphed more of them Monday evening. Tuesday I started to morph both evolution chamber and spawning pool. The evolution chamber was finished on Wednesday and yesterday I had the acromantula battle and finished the spawning pool."

{Overmind, the evolution chamber has finished its research into creep adaptation,} the hivemind suddenly interrupted, reminding Harry of his ongoing project.

"Well, that was convenient," Harry said, thinking loudly.

"Mate, what do you mean?" Ron asked. "You kinda spaced out for a moment again."

"Oh, I also ordered a research project in the evolution chamber," Harry said. "I just learned it was finished."

"Research?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, that sounds interesting," Luna added.

"Alright, I'll explain," Harry said, raising his hands. "Ron suggested to adapt the creep and the look of my buildings to the environment and I ordered the chamber to do that to the creep. Actually that remind me..."

{Did you already implement the creep change?} Harry asked the swarm's subconscious.

{No, the Hivemind is waiting for the Overmind's command.}

{Just do it,} Harry sent, sighing as he returned his attention to his friends. "Sorry, I just had to order the exchange done."

"The Wrackspurts again," Luna said, laughing at Harry.

"No, the hiveminds," Harry groaned looking desperately at his friends. "Does anyone know how to get a hivemind to anticipate your wishes?"

"I don't know... maybe you should just try to teach it or something," Neville suggested. "Anyway, what do the Zurgs... Zergs eat?"

"Yeah, Zergs," Harry said. "I think they eat creep... Yeah, they do. Man, this swarm memory is really confusing."

"Thanks, I just wanted to know if I needed to fear for my plants," Neville said, taking out his homework. "Um... does anyone else have questions or can we begin with the work?"

"Yes, me," Harry grinned, just remembering something he wanted to know weeks ago. "Hermione, remember when I asked Flitwick about the magical core stuff?"

The bushy haired Gryffindor nodded, while the rest were also clearing their bags. Only Luna was looking interested at them.

"Alright... When I started the swarm - you know, built the hatchery, it needed something called psionic energy to begin," Harry said. "I'm pretty sure it is the same thing as magic since the hivemind measured the power of my spells in psionic energy units."

"That certainly reminds me of what Silious the Smart wrote," Hermione said scratching her head. "How they measured spells in magical core units."

Now the others were also listening. Magical theory wasn't something well taught at Hogwarts. They mostly learned spell casting.

"Well... the swarm can give me or other members the psionic energy it creates, yet apparently wands use the magic in the air," Harry continued his problem. "It does somehow understand how to use psionic energy for specific purposes, I think, although it has no idea how magic works..."

"So you want to know if I know how magic works?" Hermione inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah... I kinda hoped you might know something," Harry nodded. "I tested this a bit and if I use Accio like this," Ron's essay flew into Harry's hand, "then I use two psionic energy units and somehow will the magic around the object to gather it and bring it to me."

Hermione slowly nodded in agreement. "Right, that's how it's supposed to work."

"Yeah, that's how magic works," Harry stated. "However, psionic energy is different. If I really used psionics instead of wandless magic I should emit the psionic energy encasing the essay myself and then move it towards myself."

"Um... Harry, would you mind giving my essay back," Ron interrupted their discussion. "I find this very interesting, but I have to finish the work for Sluggy, you know."

Hermione, totally ignoring her boyfriend, said: "You mean magic is some sort of automatic psionic? And I should be able to do the psionics myself?"

"I think so," Harry replied nodding. "Yes to both of it. Apparently, we never really train our psionic talent. I mean I just tested stuff out a bit and my 'psionic energy' rose by five points. Magic just lets things happen without us understanding what we actually do. I mean I'm waving a wand around and say stupor and someone at the other end of the wand drops unconscious..."

Another short nod came from Hermione. "I understand what you mean, but I don't really have an answer, either... Well, I guess I know what to do during my library time tomorrow."

"Thank you, I wouldn't have any idea where to begin searching," Harry said, smiling at his female best friend. "We need to do homework though... do you know why Atalparter's law is important for the memory potion?"

XXXHPASXXX

Just moments ago, Harry had been in Morpheus' sweet embrace, yet now he was awake.

"Enervate... Enervate!" he heard Hermione casting as he slowly pulled his blanket away. What the hell was going on, he wondered.

"Harry, Neville, Ron!" their bushy haired friend yelled silently, obviously not wanting to wake everyone up. "Luna's being distressed, the alarm went off!"

"Fuck!" Harry cussed. Their alarm and tracking spells had been a last measure, he certainly didn't expect them to go off in the middle of the night.

"Are you sure she's not just having a nightmare?" Ron tiredly inquired as Harry pulled the marauders map out of his bag.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Harry recited tapping the map with his wand. "Merlin's pants! She's not in the Ravenclaw dorms!"

Neville bowed over the map, looking for himself. "Yeah, she wouldn't sleep in the astronomy tower. She didn't even have astronomy tonight!"

"Okay, lets go!" Harry said, jumping up, running towards the dormitory's exit.

His friends followed, rushing down the stairs and through the common room.

"Do you know what Edgecombe, Chang and Desford were doing, running away from the tower?" Neville asked as I they ran through the empty nightly corridors.

"Pha," Ron snorted. "What do you think? I'd bet my ass they're the reason for Luna's distress." What else would they want there, wasn't it obvious?

"Less talking, more running," Harry ordered as they sprinted down the stairs to the corridor that led towards the astronomy tower.

"I really hope they haven't done anything dangerous to her," Hermione worried.

"It doesn't matter," Neville decided as they reached the long staircase that led towards the Hogwarts observatory. "They really went over the line now."

"Yeah, I don't care for their reasons anymore," Harry panted, as they reached the first floor. "I can't believe I taught two of them in the DA. Maybe they were looking for Luna? Hermione, say when we're in the right floor."

"As if... Cho Chang didn't give a shit for Luna..." Hermione wheezed, running past the second floor corridor. "We still need to go up, by the way."

"Fucking bastards!" Ron shouted, correcting himself, "Um... bitches..."

"Fuck them, for all I care they can die," Hermione stated angrily, gasping, as she pointed towards the astronomy classroom. "We need to go there."

Afterwards she shot a quick Alohomora at the door and ran into the room behind, instantly veering towards a large cupboard in the right corner of the classroom. Harry panted behind her, only barely able to hold his fury. This reminded him too much of his own experiences at the hands of the Dursleys. Once that had been normal, yet now he knew better.

Another Alohomora spell went towards the cupboard, and left Hermione stunned in front of it.

"Specialis Revelio!" Harry's best female friend shouted, just as Harry saw Luna hanging seemingly crucified at the back of the cabinet. There was no sound at all even though her mouth was opened wide, obviously crying with terror. Luna wasn't even wearing a pajama, just dressed in her underwear.

"Fuck, a timed sticking charm as well as a silencio," Hermione swore while otherwise seemingly calm. "She's not good enough to cast spells wandless and silent. The fact she'd need to do it undirected makes escape an impossibility."

"Finite Incantatem!" Harry bellowed, not caring for the details. He just wanted to help his friend.

Stepping forward, Harry caught Luna as the sticking charms stopped working. Her legs were collapsing as she fell towards the ground, she obviously couldn't hold herself anymore.

"Harry," she said, tears were welling from her eyes. "The nargles got me again."

"We know," Harry said, enveloping the drained, hysterical girl in his arms, lifting her out of the cupboard.

"Is she hurt?" Ron asked worried if somewhat insensitive.

"What do you think?" Hermione retorted, but missing any venom. She knew her boyfriend well enough.

"Assholes, bitches!" Neville cussed. "Fuck, what are we going to do now?"

"Take her to Gryffindor tower," Hermione decided, throwing a quick glance at Harry and the girl in his arms. "She isn't physically hurt and I won't let her back to Ravenclaw tonight... Harry, I think you can let her down now."

"Okay," Harry said loosening his embrace. "But I won't ever let her down again."

"Yeah we really need to do something," Ron agreed. "Although... let's go, this room is cool."

"Luna, are you okay?" Hermione asked absently as she transfigured a vase on the window sill into a jacket.

"No... yes..." Luna sobbed.

This time it was Hermione's turn to embrace the distressed girl. "It'll be alright. Just come with us."

The return to Gryffindor tower was a rather solemn affair. Sweating in their pajamas the four Gryffindors tried to soothe their Ravenclaw friend. Harry was glad she wasn't hysterical, considering her situation was almost as bad as when he woke up bound to a cross and got to watch Voldemort's resurrection. At least he'd known what was going on then. Luna probably just woke up in the darkness.

Still, none of them were happy. They'd hoped to prevent something like this, yet the only thing they managed to do was to shorten Luna's suffering. They couldn't let it continue like this, that much was for sure. The big question was what to do now. Whatever he planned next, punishing the assholes would play a big part in Harry's plans and considering the expressions on his friends' faces they were probably thinking along the same lines.

"Fortuna draconis est," Harry shouted the new password, waking up the fat lady.

"She's no Gryffindor," the picture replied grumpy as she swung aside.

"I don't bloody care," Harry snarled, unleashing his anger at the portrait. "If you have complaints then bring them to McGonagall."

"I will."

"Whatever," Hermione sighed. "Harry you go first and the rest of us will follow you, okay?"

Harry only nodded, quickly climbing through the portrait hole and into the common room.

"What now?" Ron asked, completing their group as he jumped out of the portrait hole.

"I guess I can sleep on a couch," Luna whispered.

"No," Hermione shook her head. "You'll come with me. I won't let you be alone after an event like this."

"Good idea," Harry said, then continued looking at Luna: "You really shouldn't be alone tonight."

"Uaaaaaaaah," Ron yawned. "I agree, let's just go to bed. Good thing tomorrow is a Saturday."

"Good night, everyone," Luna said, being pulled towards the girls' dormitory by Hermione.

XXXHPASXXX

Authors Note: I hope I didn't offend anyone with my choice of bullies, but I figured they'd just start picking on Luna again as soon as she lost the support of her friends. Considering how Harry abandoned Luna in Canon after the end of the DA, it wouldn't be a big surprise if the bullies decided to come back from the woodwork. About my choice: Well, I never liked Cho very much, Edgecombe snitch is an obvious choice and Desford is a Ravenclaw I pulled from the Wiki. Apparently she appeared in Playstation games or something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the story. Thank you for reading.

Edit: Sorry for the multiple mistakes. I guess my beta was tired… Anyway, I hope this version fixed it.