Hello again, here is another chapter of Feral. Quite the intense chapter, too.

Okay, I imagine that some of you will not like this chapter, but through it, or the end part of it, I have shownthat Harry is not normal. That's been pretty damn clear throughout, but this is the first time we see his savagery come out in public, and his self restraint nearly snap out in the open, where he is unable to get himself away and into the woods where he can shed his humanity. It'll certainly have ramifications, of course, but what some people might think is the direction indicated isn't. That's all I can say.

Oh, and this is not going to turn into a bashing story (I think that, since it is Harry's hate that we see, and is not always justified, that this doesn't count as a bashing story) but Harry's anger towards certain people will be an undertone for the foreseeable future, I'm afraid.

I hope that you like the chapter, or can forgive me if you do not, and that you are enjoying Feral.

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Harry felt something inside him, or would that be things, craving Ludo Bagman's blood as he stood on the pontoon in the middle of the black lake and, to show this fact, had a glare locked on the pot-bellied ex-beater. Not that the commentator noticed this fact, as he rambled on about the task. Harry had a good idea what the challenge was, ever since he listened to the clue underwater, but had not realised until now that they were going to take people to be that which the Champions would recover.

Harry's anger was so focused on the segment that contained teachers and officials that he, for once, ignored the looks he got from those watching; the looks that originated from the fact that he was without any clothing on his upper body. He even ignored the jealous, self conscious look from his brother stood on the other side of Krum, a look that would ordinarily have inspired mirth in the emerald-eyed teen.

Next to him, Fleur had a somewhat similar reaction, though she was less likely to act on it, to Harry. She had noticed the absence of her sister, as Harry had, and was panicking over her ability to rescue Gabrielle. She was not good in water. No Veela was, and so Fleur felt sick as she contemplated not being able to rescue her baby sister. The judges wouldn't really leave her down there, would they?

Harry fumed, both because Gabrielle had been taken, and because they had kidnapped Astoria. He could not say for sure why they had chosen Astoria as the thing he would miss most in the world but, based on the anger it inspired, they had been pretty damn accurate in the assumption. Not that that was a good thing, as Harry desperately wanted to take the knife sat on his forearm in an ornate holder and throw it at one of the judges. What was wrong with them? That they would send two girls that had no connection to the contest other than that the champions cared about them down into the depths of the Black lake? Some of the creatures down there were bloody dangerous.

Harry glanced down at the pair of matching holsters strapped to each forearm, in a moment of forced calm. The two were fancier than Harry would generally choose; he tended to prefer functionality over looks, after al, but they served the purpose as well as he could hope. They were locked onto his arms, and could not be used by someone that was not a recognised part of the Peverell family and, since he was head of the family, that meant that it was entirely in his control who could, or could not, remove the knife and wand from their place. The crest of his primary family sat on the back of his forearms, embroidered in gold into the black leather, and the holsters had silver vine patterns wrapping around them.

And why the fuck was Dumbledore staring at him like that? The old man was just asking to be cursed.

Harry growled ever so slightly as Bagman finished his speech.

"... within the space of an hour! The task will begin in 10! 9!"

Harry flicked his wrist, and his wand was in his right hand in a moment.

"8! 7!"

He rolled his shoulders, and glanced over where the girls were in the crowd; Daphne was glaring at the judges with a gaze that could freeze Hell over, and the others were shooting venom-filled looks between glances at Harry and Fleur.

"6! 5!"

Harry glanced over at Fleur, on his right, and the girl gave a shaky smile in return. Harry wondered why she was so nervous about the coming challenge.

"4! 3!"

He moved his gaze, briefly, over to the other champions, one of whom stared ahead with a stony gaze and the other looked very pale.

"2! 1!"

Harry pressed the tip of his wand against his throat, and cast the pre-prepared spell to transfigure gills onto the sides of his neck.

"BEGIN!" Bagman announced, and Harry lunged forwards into a dive as the others entered the water. He gasped, and inhaled a breath, as he felt the cold. Shrugging it off, Harry flicked his wand at his feet, and they extended and joined with webbing to allow him to swim faster than he'd otherwise be capable.

He began to swim into the darkness, and waited for his cat-eyes to adapt to the lack of light. Harry descended, assuming that the captives would be at the bottom, as the champions needed somewhere that could be found by each of them, and a random spot in the centre of the lake would be impossible to be found by each of them respectively, ad his eyes followed a rainbow-coloured fish that, bravely, floated past his face.

At this point, he began to feel somewhat irritated by the nature of this task. While he was not particularly adverse to water, he was far more suited to the ground and the air simply because of the animal forms he held. None of them were particularly agile in the water. If he had had a fish, Harry would probably have found no use at all for it in every other situation, but in this one, it would be useful to have. Maybe a shark, or something. But, alas, that was not feasible and so he pressed on with his wand in hand ready to defend himself.

Evidently the lake was deeper than Harry expected, as he was swimming for over 10 minutes before he finally hit the muddy bottom. Pausing briefly to get his bearings, Harry used a point me spell to find North, and found that it was pointing to his right. He had started in the southern quarter of the lake, and so assumed that he needed to head in that direction, though he would have to also keep an eye out to check he did not pass by Astoria, and Gabrielle for that matter, on accident.

Harry proceeded North, with his wand in hand and his eyes darting left and right, and easily propelled himself forwards with his webbed, elongated feet. Other than schools of fish that, mostly, scampered upon sight of him, Harry did not see any creatures, and none of note especially. His eyes narrowed as this remained true after another fifteen minutes, as he understood that the lake was populated by Merfolk, hence the clue, and that he most likely would have caught a glimpse of one of the humanoids by this point. Maybe they were guarding the captives? That would make sense with the clue; it almost sounded like the Mermen and maids had taken that which the champions would sorely miss. Or, more worryingly, they might be focused on one of the other champions. He hoped that it would not be Fleur, if that was the case.

The black haired teen then had his foolish prayers answered as he saw a flicker of movement off to his side. Harry spun, raised his wand, and shot a jet of red light in the direction of the shadow. It missed whatever was near him, as the flicker of movement suddenly above him informed the Hogwarts' champion. Harry flipped to that he was facing upwards, and shot another beam of light, this one blue, in the general direction. This time, his spell splashed against the creature's scaled underbelly, and lit it up as the thing recoiled from the sudden impact. Harry saw some kind of... cat-fish hybrid above him and shivered at the purple scales, and the deadly-sharp teeth that were lit by the blue spell.

Mildly panicked, Harry followed the blue jet with a reducto, and caught the attacker in its front fore-paw, breaking the limb, and the hybrid flinched away, only to reappear with a vengeance. It went for his throat, and Harry snarled in return to the wicked hiss as his hand shot to the back of its head. He flung it away, and brought up his wand again. A red jet of light struck it in the face, and then another hit it in the mouth as it attempted to roar at Harry, though based on its stature this would have been closer to a meow anyway. This, apparently, was a weak-point, and the cat-fish drifted to the lake-bed unconscious.

Harry frowned at the thing, and wondered just what it was. He did not know that there were creatures like that in the Great Lake, and was baffled by that fact, given that he had been preparing for the past few weeks for the challenge.

Then, his concerns were pushed aside as the shadow of the giant squid fell over him, and Harry darted out of the way in time for the squid to scoop up an easy snack in the fish-cat hybrid. Harry felt some small remorse for the thing, but wasn't going to try to save it from something that may well have been inevitable, if the squid liked eating them, and swam away from the scene with another point me to tell him he was headed in the right direction.

It was a few minutes more before he encountered his next obstacle, and Harry was willing to bet that that meant he was drawing near his destination, as the defences would be kicked into high gear near the captives to try to test the champions.

A Grindylow launched itself at Harry from the cover of some weeds, telling the Hogwarts champion that others would soon come find him as well. As the demon-looking creature neared Harry; its hands outstretched to strangle him, Harry's wand flashed, and it ran away in a panicked fashion as it was banished a metre away from the black-haired teen with a single thought. Following up on the chance, Harry stunned his attacker and swam up a few feet in case there were others waiting to ambush him. To check, Harry sent a stream of super-heated water into the weeds, and was rewarded with a series of shrieks, and a group of the water-creatures fleeing the scene.

Harry continued on his way, keeping an eye out for Astoria, and encountered no more difficulties. All in all, it'd been a pretty easy task. The attackers hadn't been formidable, after all; compared to a dragon they were nothing. Although, he did wonder what the judges would have done if one of the champions managed to get themselves strangled in this tournament that, supposedly, was the safest there had ever been.

Harry soon found the merpeople, and froze in the water with his wand raised at the sight of so many. Harry hoped they would not attack and, if they did, that Dumbledore did not expect them to survive the encounter. Stunning them might work, but it would be far too easy for one of the humanoids to play possum and attack him when he passed them. A hole through the chest, on the other hand, would be extremely difficult to fake. If Harry was lucky, they might flee once a few of their number had met that fate, and Harry shook his head free of the thoughts on whether mermaids believed in an afterlife. That was irrelevant at the moment.

They did not make any move to attack, and so Harry cautiously swam forwards at a creeping pace. Then, he spotted the captives and all thoughts of caution abandoned him. They looked dead, and Harry needed to check they were not.

He swam to Astoria first, both because she was his captive and because she was nearer than the tiny, blonde girl that was tied to a statue, without any defining features, next to her. With his free hand, Harry placed two fingers to the Greengrass girl's neck, and found her pulse.

He let out a sigh of relief after doing the same to Gabrielle, and drew the knife from his forearm holster. He began to cut the ropes of Astoria, and took her in his arms once the girl was free, before raising the knife to do the same for the others.

"No!" A voice hissed to his right, as a skinny hand took hold of his forearm. Harry turned a scowl on the merman, but was ignored as he continued. "Only your own!"

Harry shrugged it off, and moved to cut the rope tying Gabrielle to the statue. He heard an angered growl from behind him, an odd noise to hear in water, and turned to find a trident pointed at his throat. After several minutes of staring back at the merman, Harry's knife was replaced with his wand, and he prepared to cast on the fish-man that was threatening him. He would have done, as well, had a distraction in the form of Viktor Krum appeared.

Krum, half-way transfigured into a shark, tore past the merfolk, and then past Harry, not sparing even a glance at the fact that a trident was pointed at his fellow champion's throat. Harry scowled at that, and decided to assume his mind was more primitive in that form. He scratched at the ropes tying a brunette, who Harry then realised was Hermione Granger, and gradually got more and more annoyed that he could not cut them. Eventually, the Bulgarian teen began looking around for a solution, and Harry held up his knife in offer. Krum gratefully snatched it from the other male, and promptly cut Hermione free before passing it back to Harry. He vanished again, and rocketed upward.

Harry turned back to the Merman, and emerald eyes met dark grey. Harry raised his wand, and pointed the tip at the merfolk behind his would-be-opponent. It lit up in a brilliant glow, and the threat was clear. He would attack them, if he was not allowed to take all of the captives. Harry watched the Merman contemplate it, and realise that he did not care anywhere near enough to risk the lives of his fellows. The merman backed away, and waved a hand at the hostages in a gesture of permission. Harry nodded, and cut Gabrielle free before turning to the final captive.

Ginny Weasley looked lifeless in the depths, and Harry had a quick mental debate on whether he should take the girl.

On the one hand, he hated his brother, and his captive not being rescued would reflect badly on the boy.

But the same would be true if another champion rescued the girl, and Ginny did not deserve to be left in the gentle care of the merfolk. The girl was wholly innocent of Thomas Potter's sins, even if Harry did not know what the girl's character was. The few times that he had met her eye, and they were few, Ginny had simply turned bright red, stammered something out, and fled the scene. The time she dropped her broomstick when Harry encountered the youngest Weasley on his way back from practise, the girl had panicked so much that she forgot her broomstick. Harry had no use for another broomstick, and so he found one of the Weasley twins and gave the broomstick to him.

With her innocence in mind, Harry cut the girl free and awkwardly took her into his arms as well as the other two. It was difficult to hold all three, but Harry made do and pushed himself up towards the surface. Then, he began to pump his legs in a barely-effective imitation of swimming.

It was past the 50 minute mark when Harry caught sight of the surface light, and he redoubled his efforts with an annoyed whine. It would be just his luck if he was to encounter another threat here, but apparently someone was looking out for him as nothing appeared.

That meant it was before the time limit when Harry broke through the surface, and the teen held his breath as the girls woke; his gills still being present. Understandably, they panicked as Harry released Ginny and Astoria, both of whom he was certain would be able to swim for the few seconds he needed, and slung Gabrielle onto his back as he freed his wand once again; Harry was not as confident in the French Girl's abilities to swim and so chose to err on the side of caution. The champion pressed the tip of his wand against his throat, and removed the spell that was stopping him from breathing. He, with some great strength, kept his tone calm and reassuring as he spoke; ignoring the anger that rose inside him now that he had gotten all of the hostages to safety.

"Are you okay?" He asked, in French, of the girl on his back.

"Y-Yes... where am I?" Gabrielle asked, her tone fearful.

"You were in the Great Lake. You're safe, though, so there's no need to worry. See, your sister and parents are over there." He pointed still-webbed fingers over towards the nearest platform.

"Your fingers look strange." Gabrielle commented all of a sudden.

"Yes, they're transfigured." Harry explained. "Come, let's get you back to your parents. Madame Pomphrey'll get you warm." Her teeth were chattering. "You okay, Tori?" He asked. "Ginerva?" He added. The girls, blonde and redhead respectively, spun around and looked at Harry.

"Harry?" Astoria wondered. "Why are these two here? You didn't take the song seriously, did you?"

"No, but it's idiotic to leave anyone down there longer than necessary. I'm winning anyway, no need to go overboard tryin' to win a contest I only sort of care about." Harry shrugged, and then stopped with an apology as Gabrielle complained.

"Th-Thank you." Ginny commented, with red cheeks that Harry supposed could be blamed on the cold.

"You're welcome." Harry returned, with a smile that apparently was convincing as the colour deepened. "But I believe we should head to the platform." He reminded, and the girls suddenly realised they had just been hovering, treading water, and ignoring the yelling crowd. Both nodded, water splashing their chins, and began to swim away with Harry easily keeping pace.

They reached the side of the platform, and Harry smoothly passed Gabrielle to Madame Pomphrey, who began to fuss over her as Fleur shoved her way through the others towards her shivering sister. Then, Harry gave Astoria, and after her Ginny, a hand out of the cold water before looking around at the people that were watching him, and easily climbing out of the water himself.

Harry's eyes drifted, with some concern that was muted due to the anger that was bubbling inside him, over Fleur and he found that she seemed to be fine, if you did not count the fact that she looked ready to strangle someone from worry, and then to Thomas, who's left arm was wrapped in bandages, indicating that he had not escaped unscathed. The boy, reluctantly, gave Harry a look of thanks, for saving Ginny, but Harry ignored it in favour of looking for the adult he placed blame on for the entire situation. His eyes found their target, as most of the judges had moved over to this pontoon to check on the champions and their hostages, and Harry lunged forwards.

His hands bunched in the front of Bagman's robes as Harry, partially in control of his temper after having roughly an hour to calm down, threw him off the platform and into the Black lake, as opposed to tearing his throat out as he so wished, where Ludo surfaced, spluttering, about the same time as a merman that Harry recognised. The screeches that Dumbledore exchanged with the new arrival were paid less attention than the furious Harry Potter screaming at one of the judges.

Fleur Delacour was prevented from thanking her Fiance, as one aspect of Harry's nature revealed itself to both her and those around. No matter what she had heard, the French champion had never truly believed Harry's friends about the anger he kept in check. Not that they often spoke of it, other than as a part of his animalistic nature.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Harry roared at the man, expressing his anger in a more advisable way than his instincts craved, white teeth seeming to sharpen in the sunlight as he did. "You leave them down there, defenceless, to be guarded by MERMEN?! What if they'd died?! They aren't involved in this contest, and you had no right to put them in DANGER!" Harry's green eyes blazed, as he seriously contemplated drowning the blustering fool.

"M-Mr Potter!" Minerva Mcgonogall was the one to speak up, horrified at one of their students behaving like this. "Mr Bagman is an adult, and deserves re-"

"Respect?!" Harry rounded on the woman, with a snarl. "I will not give my respect to a man that endangers children for the sake of a GAME!" He yelled at the woman, who unwillingly backed away a few steps, as did the majority of the people sharing the platform with Harry. "And I will not give any respect to anybody that knew about this! You are lucky that they are uninjured, if they had not been..." Harry trailed off, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Mr Potter!" Dumbledore stepped in, with his own dangerous glint. "You will not threaten anybody in my presence!" He demanded of the boy who he believed to have a dark nature. This was not helping his opinion, and that fact would not change until Albus was alone in his study later, and contemplating Harry's reasons for such anger. "Do I make myself clear?!"

Harry's response was a low growl, as the teen took a step towards the old man, and his fists clenched.

"Potter!" Severus Snape intervened, before one of his snakes, one of the those he preferred, in fact, punched out the Headmaster. Harry's attention turned to him, and Severus spoke again. "The Headmaster asked you a question. Answer him." He demanded, and ignored the fury that was now burning a hole in his own charcoal eyes.

"Yes." Harry spoke in a low tone. "He makes himself clear." The teen turned to stare at the drowned-rat looking form of Ludo Bagman who was climbing out of the water with a wary glance at Harry, and then at Albus Dumbledore himself. "And I will not apologise. If you ever endanger someone I care about for the sake of your fucking contest, you and I will have words. And you will not like what I have to say." Harry promised, and bared his teeth in what, to humans, would seem to be a savage grin. Albus was fairly certain that, from the Potter boy who was often more beast than man, it was a threat.

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