Chapter 12:

Harry was intensely glad that his gentle giant friend did not pursue the matter of his Swarm and had taken that message. He would watch to see how he would handle the information, and if he liked it, he would perhaps properly introduce him to his familiar. Maybe he would even let him join when he perfected the zergification of humans - or what the zerg called "Terrans". Harry supposed it was a less sexist way of referring to the species as another word for Earth was Terra.

Speaking of the zergification process, the founders had offered up their bodies as cadavers seeing as they did not need them anymore. Harry was very surprised to learn that preservation charms worked wonders on more than just food. So with some actual cadavers to test what Harry learned from Snape's "implant", he thought that the terran zergification process would speed up nicely.

Harry reflected on how well his attempts at re-creating the acromantula were after he had fully tested the dead bodies of the two that attacked his drones so long ago. Eventually, he had been able to fully integrate the acromantula genome into a functioning zerg unit. Now, Harry was able to evolve larvae into an acromantula via a modified version of what was known as a hydralisk den. The hydralisks needed vespene gas, though, which Harry didn't know how to get or substitute for so he just thought he would use the acromantula in its stead. The sole function of the den for the acromantula was to manufacture the specialised spider web silk that the newly dubbed acrozergs could not create on their own. They could create normal acromantula webbing like that which could be made into acromantula silk material; it was a highly sought after clothing material based on its natural spell resistance. From biomass, the acrozergs created the natural silks, but they needed a larger "factory" in order to create the more complex silks Harry had thought up.

One string was a red colour that would slowly stun the victim that was caught within its webs for the zerg to collect at a later date. Unfortunately, this effect only lasted for as long as the webbing touched the victim without a time delay for when they woke after it was removed, and the effect took time in subduing the victim. Thus, the red web could not be used for combat with an enemy, but for non-lethal traps, it was fine.

Another was a striking green, meant to be strung up in little trip-wires or shot out at things that had an imbued curse in it that would kill anything that touched it save for a simple friend-foe registry that the "spiderden" set based on the Swarm's pre-existing friend-foe registry of a whitelist type system. It was based on one of Harry's nightmares in that he heard screaming, before a bright green flash, and then an abrupt silence to the screams.

The last silk Harry had engineered for the acrozerg to carry was clear and thus invisible. It was charmed to act as something not dissimilar to razor-wire in function. It was not nearly as strong as the normal acromantula webbing, none were, but what it lacked in strength it made up for in its ability to seamlessly slice through anything it touched with seemingly no friction so long as the enchantment was active, which was toggleable as per the zerg's discretion. Harry thought it insanely creepy and cool to see something strung up and restrained by invisible tethers only to suddenly become millions of itty-bitty pieces.

He was also fairly happy with himself that the acrozergs were fairly close in stats to what they were loosely based off of, the acrozergs' stats were as follows:

Acrozerg:
Minerals = 75
Biomass = 375 Kilogrammes
Water = 7 500 mL
Time = 28 minutes
HEALTH = 80 Points
Psi Supply = 1
Ground Attack = See acrozerg silk
Air Attack = See acrozerg silk
No Armor
Total Volume Storage = 500 mL
Special = Uses manufactured, specialised acromantula silk, in order to set traps or fire as a projectile. Can hold a volume storage.

However, that did not specify the stats of the acrozerg silk itself, it only stated that the ground and air attack were the same. Thus, the acrozerg silk was as follows:

Red Acrozerg Silk (per litre):
Biomass = 1 Kg
Water = 100 mL
Time = 5 minutes
HEALTH = 0.5 Points
Psi Supply = 0
Attack = 0
Special = Stuns victims caught in its hold, but because of the half point of health, it needs regular maintenance.

Active Green Acrozerg Silk (per litre):
Biomass = 30 Kg
Water = 1 L
Time = 20 minutes
HEALTH = 1 Point
Psi Supply = 0.5
Attack = 5 000 000 HP
Armor = Ignores Magical Attacks.
Special = Has a friend/foe registry maintained by the hivemind, hence the Psi requirement. All of its attacks are wasted if it is destroyed before something touches it. Fired as a projectile with 10 mL volleys for 50 000 critical damage. Ignores magical armour, but is blocked by physical items.

Active Invisible Acrozerg Silk (per litre):
Biomass = 10 Kg
Water = 300 mL
Time = 8 minutes
Health = 5 Points
Psi Supply = 1
Armor = 2 Points Magical.
Attack = 1000 Piercing
Special = This silk ignores most armour and is resistant to being destroyed while its attack is "active". Requires 1 Psi supply per litre of silk to monitor its state and its friend/foe registry. It is fired at 10 mL volleys for 10 Piercing damage likened to an arrow that ignores armour and shielding of any kind other than magical.

Harry loved magic, and he loved his Swarm, so it only made sense to him to mix the two together. He had no way of knowing that what he was doing was utterly terrifying to "normal people"; he only thought he was playing with a cute pet of his.

While on the topic of pets, Harry thought it prudent to visit Hedwig at some point as it had been a while since he greeted her. With that mental notion firmly planted in his mind, Harry let his collective foci drift to other, more important topics. One such topic being the dilemma of whether or not to bring Hedwig into the Swarm; he solved it by thinking he could probably just ask her. He supposed the same could be said for others, too.

Another topic of general constant interest to Harry was how he could possibly make his familiar more safe than it already was. At that time, the time he received the founder's cadavers, he had wisely decided to set up a subdermal based within the main chamber. He had a hatchery with a spawning pool and an evolution chamber so that even if his main bases had capitulated, he would be able to continue to produce the basic warriors, the drones, and continue his research.

Salazar Slytherin had taken some convincing before he had agreed to give Harry a map of the infamous Chamber and all of its connections. There were a few entrances/exits that reached outside of the castle, as well as within it. Essentially, so long as someone knew the parseltongue passwords, they could get nearly anywhere in the castle from the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, within the castle, and a select few other locations far away from the school itself.

Harry did a mental happy dance at the fact that his deductions about there being more entrances than just Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Harry had been harshly reminded of the basilisk's corpse within the chamber when he prepared to grow a new base in the foundations of Hogwarts, as it was very close to where he wanted it to be set up. He had his drones move the beast out-of-the-way before he had the drones begin to set up the hatchery et al. Harry and Luna had been taught how to enchant something to be bigger on the inside and add a featherweight effect to it, so it was filled with the necessary startup biomass. Harry and Luna merely added the necessary water. At the time they used the bag, Harry's celebrate, specifically designed to aid in the Swarm's evolution research, had looked upon the idea of bigger spaced than it should be physically possible and was attempting to include it within the Swarm. Both the cerebrate and Harry knew that there would be many failed attempts before anything good came of it.

After the base had been fully setup, during which the founders had been present the entire time in spectral form, Harry started in on an analysis of "Daisy's" body; he had asked for Salazar's permission first, of course, what with her having been his creation.

What Harry found excited him greatly. He had found, failure after failure as Daisy's body was simply too destructively intense that he was unable to discern anything from the she-beast, that it was almost as if she did not have DNA. He would need more subjects.

After Harry had added the zenozerg to his Professor's brain stem, he had been very careful to not change anything about the man's environment, as that would have defeated the whole purpose of the experiment as the results would have been different than normal. People didn't tend to act the same way alone rather than when they knew they were being watched, no matter how much integrity they had, and that same analogy could be applied to how people acted in similarly differing environments.

The best outcome of what Harry had decided on his method and later standard procedure was that he had been able to gain a nice, supple control test before he introduced any variables. He had determined the amount of time he had allotted enough time to have collected enough data before he tried anything, so Harry had ordered for the copying of all of the man's long-term memories to the hivememory. Before that point, Harry had been hesitant because of the previously-stated reasons.

However, Harry had ordered for the man's privacy to be respected, so he had everything that could be defined as personal or confidential information "deleted" from the hivememory databanks as soon as it was found. Only when the information was censored and vetted did Harry allow himself to sync with the hivememory once again to receive the information. It wouldn't do for Harry to know personal things about his professor; it would make it incredibly awkward, after all.

To guarantee that the sync for such a large amount of data, Harry had decided that it would be best if he were to do the transfer in his Amon form, as it was always more efficient in its connectivity to his Swarm than his modified human brain. He had gone to his local Chamber of Secrets to guarantee his privacy as he did not yet wish to out himself as an animagus, let alone a magical creature.

He transformed amongst his Swarm.

What Harry did not realise was the fact that the act of changing into his alternate form would alert anyone in the castle, despite his private location, simply because people were able to feel the sudden change in power level in the area, much like how a person would perceive temperature. He did not know of this, of course, so Harry had simply synced with the hivememory databanks. All-in-all the entire process took a meagre five minutes.

While he was there, though, Harry decided to visit his subterranean base seeing as it was his lunch period, so he wasn't expected anywhere. Thus, Harry stalked around the underground base in his Amon form, enjoying how surreal the experience of becoming something else entirely, as well as walking amongst his people like an adored God or Emperor, but not to forget the immersive feeling of the experience as a sum of both of the previously stated experiences.

Harry could most certainly get used to it, and he decided he should change into his Amon form more often.

Dumbledore started, though one would have to be fairly familiar with the man to notice it, and a quick cursory inspection of the rest of the occupants of the Great Hall showed most everyone was in a similar state of discomfort, even many of the students.

Dumbledore had been surprised because according to his senses, everything was fine, but then there was a sudden spike in power level had his senses reeling in surprise and thus Dumbledore as well. It was an unexpected, and very drastic difference. It was as if someone had taken the comfortable room temperature of twenty degrees celsius and multiplied it by two to reach a hot forty-six degrees celsius. If it were temperature, the populace of Hogwarts would have been sweating.

In fact, the students and staff of Hogwarts might as well have been sweating with the way their magical senses and cores were reacting. There was a powerful magical source nearby, and it was overbearingly so. It was trying to dominate everyone there, and Dumbledore could tell that the source wasn't even actively attempting to do so. From what he could see of the student body and most of his staff, it was working, too. Absently Dumbledore noted the quiet, distinctly canine whine that poor Remus Lupin, the defence professor, released.

Albus could only imagine what it must have been like, as the poor man was fighting with his inner wolf trying to dominate him so close to the full moon, only to have a third party add even more stress as he had to fight it off, too. Dumbledore could only imagine the three-way mental war of the wills.

In contrast to Lupin, however, Severus Snape had noticeable, to Dumbledore, relaxed upon feeling the powerful presence. From further scrutiny of the normally dour man, he noted an almost imperceptible smile on the normally sour face.

It made Dumbledore think that the source of the power was tainted with Dark Energies seeing as Severus was rather submerged in the Dark way of life and would appreciate the darker persuasion.

Almost as soon as Dumbledore entertained the thought, he dismissed it when he realised the power itself did not feel Dark to him, but worryingly it did not feel particularly Light either.

Albus Dumbledore spent the majority of that lunch period considering then dismissing possibilities of what the power source could be. Nearing the end, Dumbledore resolved to have a chat with both Severus Snape and Rubeus Hagrid for their council. At least, from what he could tell, the power source didn't appear to be malicious in nature, despite the danger it represented.

Suddenly the power was absent, and Dumbledore was honest with himself enough to admit that he was left cold, and… wanting.

All that was on Dumbledore's mind after that fateful midday meal was, "What in the name of Merlin is in my school?"

A/N: I thought it was a while since I had updated, so I decided to add one. I hope you all like it, and please do Review, as it is like chapter fuel. Until next time, take care!