With the D.A, Occlumency lessons, the impending O.W.L's, and coming up with new and clever ways to avoid an increasingly suspicious, ruthless, and powerful Umbridge March flew by in a rush for Harry. When he was not up late doing school work he had not been able to complete during normal hours due to the D.A, Quidditch, Occlumency lessons, and avoiding an increasingly frightening Hermione he was plagued by harrowing nightmares. He barely functioned through days too full for him to handle as he was completely exhausted. On top of all of that he had been caught trying to steal a potion to end his horrid nightmares from Snape's private stores and had, had to spend three weeks in detention cleaning cauldrons by hand.

It was during a potion's lesson during the last days of March when he was shaken awake for the first time in nearly a month. He had been sleeping through the lesson as Ron failed miserably at brewing some ghastly concoction. It smelled of rotting flesh and began to bubble ominously as Ron frantically stirred it. For the first time in his life Ron found himself wishing that Snape would look his way, see Harry blatantly sleeping, and wake him up as Ron could not bring himself to awaken his exhausted friend himself.

Wait a minute. Snape is always looking for a chance to scream at Harry. Why the fuck hasn't the stupid git realized that he's sleeping? Ron looked as discretely (which in fact was not very discrete) as he could at Snape and followed his gaze to see that it fell on Hermione.

Just as the rumors stopped too. I hope no one else notices. Ron thought as he looked at Hermione only to realize that the girl he had secretly pined over for years now looked like a corpse. She had never been the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts, but Ron thought she was just fine. The fiery young Gryffindor had always held some sort of appeal for him, but it had long since vanished.

The Hermione he was stealing glances at as his botched potion continued to seethe menacingly was frail and sickeningly pallid. Dark circles framed her eyes and black ink stained her lips. As he watched her hands indecisively chop at something root like he noticed that the skin was translucent and the nearly visible bones made sharp inhuman edges in her delicate fingers.

He then looked back up to Snape and swore he found the smallest bit of sympathy in that gaze. He gasped and in his shock tapped the steaming cauldron with his elbow. He howled as the offending object burnt his skin. Not a second after two more cries were heard as his ruined potion spilled from the cauldron and landed squarely on two Slytherin girls sitting at the table next to his. The girls screamed wildly as they broke out in hives which seemed determined to break free of their skin. Harry remained asleep through all of this.

Snape had risen from his desk and rushed over to the frantic girls. He screamed at Ron, giving him a month's detention and taking fifty points from Gryffindor, as he dragged the screaming girls and their baying puss-filled hives to the infirmary. Ron only stood there dumbly as all of the Slytherins glared at him. Half of the Gryffindors in the room glared at him for losing so many house points, while the other half looked as if they could have clapped or kissed him for simultaneously taking out two snakes. In the midst of this stood an addled-beyond-repair Ron, a sleeping Harry, and Hermione who seemed blissfully unaware as she absently continued to cut at the root on her table, narrowly missing one of her skeletal fingers.

Ron finally gracelessly collapsed into his seat beside Harry. After several minutes of all of the eyes in the classroom focused on him (with the exception of Hermione's) he became restless and jabbed Harry in the side.

Harry hissed so loudly at the contact that nearly half of the room jumped. He then let out another furious serpentine hiss as he drove his fist into Ron's nose with preternatural strength. Ron crumpled to the floor in a pile and Harry stalked out of the room.

Minutes later Snape returned to find the atmosphere in his classroom so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Ron was lying on the floor holding his bleeding nose, the entire classroom was gawking at him, Hermione seemed to be in her own world as she languidly cut at the air before her fingers (the knife emitting earsplitting shrieks as it scraped against the table), and Potter was conspicuously absent. He Looked at the pathetic Weasley and then over to Draco Malfoy.

"Mr. Malfoy," The potion's master droned. "While I sympathize with you completely it is still most regrettably against the rules to bludgeon your fellow students, regardless of how deserving they are. Ten points from Slytherin and a weeks worth of detention."

"But Professor, I didn't-" Malfoy began but was quickly interrupted by Snape.

"I find that hard to believe Mr. Malfoy."

"No really! It was Potter! Ron elbowed him awake. Potter went all Parseltongue at him, punched him in the face, and stormed out." All of the other Slytherins nodded in agreement and Snape sighed tepidly.

Every student in the classroom nearly jumped out of their skin as a loud clang reverberated off of the floor and walls. A lightly bloodstained knife fell to the floor beside Hermione. The class watched as she bent sideways to gather it, several cuts from clumsy handling marred her hands.

"Let us just hope he's not headed for the astronomy tower again." Hermione said airily as she picked up the thankfully dull knife by the blade, paying it no mind as it cut shallowly into her palm.

"Again!?" Snape hissed but Hermione did not respond. She returned to obliviously cutting the nearly pulverized root like matter on her desk. Snape winced visibly as the edge of the knife lightly nicked her thumb and blood dripped from it. Ron let out an unintelligible cry as he sprung up off of the floor and fled from the room.

Snape stood in the aisle in between occupied desks looking completely torn. He gazed from the door which Mr. Weasley had just run out of in pursuit of a most likely suicidal Mr. Potter to a clearly unstable Hermione. While Snape was certain of where his duties lay he could not find himself to abandon the teenage girl without his conscience screaming at him.

And scream it did as he fled the room in pursuit of Harry Potter.

Ten minutes later as professor Snape passed a castle window in his mad pursuit he noticed Harry stalking toward the lake and Ron running after him haphazardly. Snape's first instinct was to apparate out to the boys when suddenly he recalled that such a feat was impossible within Hogwarts. He cursed as he ran as fast as he could toward the castle entrance, his robes billowing behind him.

"Harry!" Ron screamed as his friend stood on the edge of the lake, staring into it longingly. Suddenly he spun angrily, his wand pointed menacingly into Ron's exposed throat.

"H-Harry." Ron whimpered. Cold crimson eyes glared back at him from behind those garish glasses. Ron knew that he was lost. Harry was gone. "Mate it's me." He babbled. "It's me. It's Ron, your Ron, your best mate-"

His frightened babbling was ended by an unnatural hiss from Harry. Ron let out a cry as Harry's lips twisted into a cruel smirk. A voice that was not his own poured from his lips which seemed to twitch in indignation at the unintelligible statement; for a split second Ron saw Harry. His rubescent eyes flashed their natural haunting emerald as his body quaked. A frustrated anguish-filled cry was ripped from him as every muscle in his body was pulled taut. Harry collapsed to the ground. His wand landed feet away in the grass leaving a petrified Ron to witness his inner turmoil as he lay quivering in the grass, powerless to help.

"Stop!" Harry cried weakly. He looked up at Ron from his crouching position on the grass. His expression was pained as his eyes flashed madly between terrified jade and a wrathful preternatural blood red. "Ron," He muttered, what voice he could muster full of determination. Tears and sweat poured down his face. "I have to make it stop."

Concentration overcame Harry's quivering body and determination blazed in the depths of his eyes as he bit clear through his bottom lip and let out a sharp cry. Blood mingled with the salt of tears and perspiration on his chin. His eyes turned as red as his ensanguined chin as he lunged forward toward Ron, hissing things the other boy could not understand in Parseltongue. Harry collapsed for the final time mere inches from Ron, lying motionless in the grass.

Author's Note/ Review Reply:

moony-is-a-werewolf: Yay! And thanks for the review. You've been my most loyal reviewer thus far.

AN: If I wrote a batman fic would anyone read it? And before you ask; yes, I am a loser. But seriously, I have this idea and it won't leave me alone.