Disclaimer: School. Schooling, education. Fuuuuunnnn, as long as you ignore the n's. I'm so happy to be back into it, sitting in tiny desks for ~75 minutes straight. I absolutely love it. Or loathe it. Depends on the day of the week. It does have a lot of science though, unlike this fic. Also, don't own it.

(Living to dead is a very fun transition, speaking from an authorial perspective.)

Our author is a psychopath. |~f

(Never denied it)

Our author is a psychopath and he doesn't see a problem with that. God help us all. ~f

Catalyst

The next meeting of the DA, Luna made a point of paying close attention to how Potter and his friends acted towards the others there. Aside from a few humans he was especially close to, he treated all of the attending members with the same courtesy he had been showing her. He spread his attention evenly, helping each member equally. Including Luna. It was odd, to say the least. Odd to be a part of a group, to not be singled out and isolated. She couldn't say she didn't like it. She couldn't say she liked it either. All she could say was that it was...different.

It wasn't even just Potter anymore. The others were following his example. They were including Luna, asking her questions, listening to her. It was a very different experience to feel as much a part of the room as the scent of sweat that accompanied it. Among the Swarm, the connection to those around was natural, a default state of being. To be treated like this among humans felt more like an aberration, a blight against the world's natural order. Every action, every word she had to say felt forced and awkward, as though there was a set of rules about conversation that she didn't know. Luna had no idea how to deal with it. So in lieu of finding an actual answer she settled for attacking her partner in particularly creative ways.

Hannah Abbott had started off with a simple tactic; throwing up a shield, and firing a few stunners at Luna, which were easily dodged. She counterattacked with a blasting charm at the floor, throwing up a cloud of dust that she banished towards her opponent. While Abbott was temporarily blinded, Luna circled around her, casting levitation charms repeatedly. She felt one connect, right as a gust of wind blew away the dust. Abbott turned towards Luna victoriously, a spell on her lips, right as Luna moved her wand tip up, causing to Abbott follow suit.

Taking advantages of Abbott's startlement, Luna began casting another spell, moving her wand through the motions of a stunner. Interestingly, this also forced Abbott to fly around, crashing her into the ground and disorienting her even more. By the time she was done casting, the Hufflepuff wasn't in any condition to maintain a shield, leaving Luna's free to disarm her and bring an end to their bout.

"Nice job, Luna," said Weasley, the one closest to Potter. The compliment confused Luna. Not so much because of the content, but because she didn't know how she was supposed to respond to it.

"Thank you," she said, forcing on a small smile.

"You're welcome. I haven't seen anyone use spells like that since..." Weasley grimaced. "Well, since Abathur. But you probably picked it up from him, right?"

How much could she tell him? He already knew part of it so Luna decided to present a simple truth. "Yes, a bit. Although he didn't have much time before..."

"Yeah. He stopped hanging out with us a lot before that though. It seems like such a stupid thing now," Weasley commented. What was she supposed to say here? She wished Thenabar were here. In the absence of anything more obvious to do, Luna stayed silent. "He probably saved my life first year too. "Say, I don't suppose you know any more details about what happened to him?"

"It's...not my place to say," Luna said hesitantly.

"Fair enough. I'm sorry to bother you about him," Weasley said. He turned to walk away. "Anyway, keep up the good work."

"Why do you think you and Abathur never made up?" The words escaped Luna's mouth before she realized she had said them, causing her jerk back in shock.

Weasley looked puzzled for a second. "Well, we didn't have much time before whatever happened happened. Maybe he just felt awkward about the whole thing. He wanted to make up and didn't know how, and didn't have time to figure it out. I mean, we all want to have friends, but a lot of us don't really know how to make them," Weasley said. "Sorry to vent at you again."

"It's fine," Luna amended. "It was interesting to listen to."

Weasley raised an eyebrow, then lowered it and nodded. "Alright then. I'd better head back to the rest of the DA, then. Keep doing what you're doing." With that, he turned his face and his attention elsewhere. Luna began her second round against Abbott, but she couldn't keep her mind focused on her opponent. This twisted reflection of companionship...was this all the humans could aspire to? This false comradery, where everyone was too wrapped up in their own heads to think about the people around them? To think that humans were fumbling in the dark for this, simply boggled the mind. Luna had never before realized just how lucky she was that Abathur had brought her into the Swarm's fold. It was a pity that the rest of the humans couldn't join it like she did.

(Transition)

From above, the Forbidden Forest looked like a mottled sea of green. Through the dragon's eyes, Abathur could see trees stretching for miles in every direction. It was a standard mission, and since dragons were faster and less conspicuous than overlords, they were ideal for scouting work. And when they did find something, they were more than equipped to deal with it. So when the dragon heard the distinct sound of cracking wood and saw a birds scattering out of the trees, Abathur directed the gargantuan reptile straight towards it.

Once overhead, Abathur could see the cause. A titanic humanoid, grasping a tree like a twig and dragging it through the dirt. It wasn't something Abathur had seen before. He would have assumed something that large would die without the cardial adaptations he put into his own strains. Even through the dragon's comparatively limited senses, he could detect the potency of the oversized humanoid's essence. He wanted it, but perhaps more importantly he wanted to test his new strains.

Abathur directed the dragon low over the woods, instructing it to spew flames to the side of the giant humanoid, burning apart the ropes tying it down. Irritating. The dragon had just enough time to hear its fearful roar before it ascended back into the sky, tracking the giant's path away from the flames. Abathur moved some zerglings and banelings off the creep and ran them into the giant's path. The dragon flew overhead, following the trail of uprooted trees and panicked yelps. Occasionally, it let loose a blast of fire to keep the giant on the right track.

The giant had ran for a good mile or so before it the Evolution Master sprung his trap. Giant splashes of green and orange acid leapt out from the ground below its foot, destroying the limb up to the joint. The giant tumbled to the ground, screaming in pain. A flood of zerglings spilled out from the surrounding woods and charged the downed behemoth. The first wave barely managed to sink their scythes into its flesh before the giant's remaining fist smashed them away, snapping more than a few spines. From the dragon's point of view, Abathur could see that the scythes had only just penetrated the humanoid's thick hide. Good. That made this specimen even more useful. The second wave of chittering zerglings threw themselves towards the giant, while Abathur gathered his own strength to heal the damaged zerglings. As he released his mending energy the first wave of zerglings was pulled back together, bones and muscles sliding back into place with a satisfying crack.

The giant, now visibly flowing with invigorating adrenaline, had already swatted away more of the other zerglings. Again, it had taken minimal damage. How irritating. Several mutalisks stretched out their wings and lifted themselves from their perch on the spawning spire. With a horrific screech, they flew off to assist their gravity-bound brethren. In the meantime, Abathur ordered several zerglings to pull back and mutate. Armored carapaces consumed them and dissolved the flesh within, reshaping them into another wave of banelings.

"Where are ye Grawp?" came a somewhat panicked voice, drifting into the ears of the zerglings. Abathur shifted the dragon's gaze towards the source. Involuntarily, a low growl escaped his throat. The hybrid, followed closely by his former camouflage, was approaching his hunting expedition. That was...irritating. He couldn't have them interfere, but killing them would cause...complications. Humans had given this forest a reputation for menacing creatures, a couple more wouldn't be all that noticeable. Not when there were no humans who could recognize the zerg for what they were. But when humans were killed the survivors took notice, and that lead to a harsh response.

He would just have to ward them off. The reinforcing mutalisks swooped lower to the ground, firing their explosive glaive wurms into the trunks of the trees around the interlopers. The wurms dug into the wood, before launching off into another and another tree. With a series of sharp cracks, the towering pines fell into the human's path. From what little of his knowledge of human expressions he could recall, Abathur believed they appeared shocked. All except for the hybrid, who was simply enraged. Was it related to the prey? Entirely possible, as that would explain the more extravagant physical features. Whatever the case may be, as soon as it caught site of the Swarm's hunt, it lost all sense of reason, shoving aside the fallen trunks like they were mere twigs and marching towards the Swarm, shouting loudly. Abathur ordered the mutalisks to keep delaying the hybrid.

Meanwhile, the giant continued to swat at the zerglings, seemingly emboldened by the presence of its lesser kin. It didn't matter, of course, because Abathur continued to heal his minions. But the fight was still taking too long, and he needed to finish this quickly. Abathur directed the newly morphed banelings to the giants extremities. They detonated, leaving the troublesome essence immobile and defenseless. Hmm. Abathur probably didn't even need to finish it off now.

The dragon swooped down with a boom, crashing itself onto the crippled torso. It snapped open its mouth and latched it onto the neck, while the claws attached themselves to the sides. With ponderous flaps of the dragon's wings, Abathur claimed his essence. The dragon ascended into the sky and rocketed towards the hive cluster, causing loud screams from the humans, mostly incoherent but for one "Grawp!". Right. They were still there. The heads of the zerglings turned towards the interference in unison. Well, he did need to scare them off. Abathur set the zerglings off to pursue them, and turned his own eyes towards his new collection of interesting essence. He was sure he would find plenty of uses for it.

(Transition)

"Hagrid, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter. What seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore greeted his visitors, noting their haggard and panicky appearance. He would have preferred to keep his distance from Harry until he was certain of the nature of the boy's scar, but this seemed to be an exceptional circumstance, if Hagrid's blubbering tears were any indication.

"Well...we're not quite sure Professor," Hermione began hesitantly, "Hagrid was just taking us out to show us something in the Forbidden Forest, but then we ran across a giant! And the giant was being attacked by these weird creatures, I've never seen anything like them in my books!"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "Hagrid? Why were you taking students into the Forest?"

"I was jus'...I was jus' worried 'bout Grawp. With Umbridge lookin' to get me fired, and what happened with Aragog..." Hagrid choked out another sob. "Someone needed teh look after 'im."

"And who, exactly is Grawp?" Dumbledore asked.

"Me 'alf-brother. My big little brother." A full giant? He hadn't been aware that Hagrid had family on his mother's side. "Or he was," Hagrid broke down into tears again.

"Oh, I'm sorry Hagrid, I had no idea," Hermione said, leaning over to Hagrid. It did Dumbledore's heart good to see the compassion of the younger generation. If only the circumstances could have permitted more of it.

"Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, would you mind explaining exactly what happened? From the beginning, if you would be so kind."

Harry glared at the headmaster. Oh dear. "Why should I tell you anything?" This was not a confrontation he wanted to have right now.

"Mate, come on," Mr. Weasley interjected, jerking his head towards Hagrid. "Time and place."

Harry followed Ron's gaze and, after a moment of indecision, released his tension. "Fine," he eventually consented. There was a period of awkward silence before Ron eventually decided to start. The youngest Weasley boy described how the trio had followed Hagrid quite a ways into the woods, only to find signs of a dragon attack. They'd followed the trail of burning trees and seen the giant besieged by vicious insect-like creatures. How Hagrid had rushed ahead but not gotten there in time. How a dragon had landed and pulled the giant away, and how the creatures had chased them out of the woods.

"And what, precisely were these creatures?"

"We aren't sure Professor, we were hoping you would know," Hermione returned to the conversation.

"Describe them, if you would," Dumbledore asked, leaning forward and steepling his hands.

"Well, I didn't get a very good view of them, but I think they had tusks and extra legs with claws on top of their backs. Oh, and they definitely had wings. They had very big wings too, kind of like a wasp's or a dragonfly's."

Dumbledore's blood grew cold. His muscles tensed up, causing every ache and pain he had accumulated with age reared their ugly heads with a vengeance. With an errant flick of his wand, his pensieve lifted itself onto his desk. Dumbledore put the Elder Wand to his own head and pulled out his memories of the failed legilimency attempt on Thenabar. He grimaced. They were clearly corrupted, dark and mottled, with a purple barbed spiral prominently displayed in the center of the pool. The memory itself would almost certainly be distorted, but Dumbledore had little choice. He tapped the wand to the rim of the bowl, causing a static image to project above the muddied liquid. "By any chance, did it look anything like this?"

"Yeah, it looked...exactly like that. How did you know?" Harry looked at the headmaster accusingly.

"Let's just say I have some recent experience with them," Dumbledore said. To an outsider, he probably sounded perfectly calm. At least he hoped he did. With luck, the mad panic rushing through his mind wasn't breaking out into his words. "They are quite dangerous. You would do well to stay far away from them in the future, if at all possible." He had thought those creatures were constructs, interpretations his own mind created! Not true beings of flesh and blood!

"You know, now that I can see them clearly, they kinda look like the winged ants in Mum's garden," Ron added.

Oh Merlin. Dumbledore quickly clamped down on the growing worry resulting from Ron's statement. "Interesting observation Mr. Weasley. I will keep it in mind. Now, if that's all, I'm quite sure that you have plenty of schoolwork to be doing." The recruiter ants. How long had Abathur been active? How long had his influence been spreading? Just how long had this terror been growing under his nose?

"Are you kidding me? You're shutting us out again?" Harry yelled. "Hagrid just watched his brother die, and you're not going to tell us a thing?"

"Mr. Potter, I barely know more about these creatures than you do. Regardless of what I told you, you could do nothing about it."

"That's bullshite, and you know it!"

"Harry!" Granger scolded her enraged friend.

"What? It's true!"

"Mr. Potter, your frustration is entirely reasonable. But I don't have any answers that could satisfy your questions." And it was true. Dumbledore was only just beginning to understand the horrors that seemed to have taken root in the Forbidden Forest, only just beginning to understand how they may relate to previous events.

"Mate, do you really want to do this right here?" Ron said, gesturing at Hagrid's blubbering form. That seemed enough to defuse Harry's anger.

"No," the boy said. "Not here. Not now." But the look he gave Dumbledore made it clear that this wasn't a discussion that could be put off forever. But Dumbledore had other things on his mind. He barely even noticed when the visitors filed out of his office, too busy trying to stay upright. The second they were out of sight, he plunged his hand into the pensieve.

The first few seconds of the memory contained nothing but darkness. Then came the familiar rush of creatures and names. This time, with the benefit of all his facilities, and the knowledge that everything he saw could very well come to Hogwarts, the horror was all but overwhelming. The three titanic beasts he had seen...these leviathans...had him scrambling back in sheer terror. The monsters had to be the size of London, each, and that wasn't even including the massive fleet of smaller beings escorting them. Each image only made him worse. With the benefit of a clear mind, he was free to shrivel back at the millions of creatures that crawled on the surface of every world he saw. The names swam through his mind, but too quickly for him to really register. And there seemed to be different worlds. Whenever Dumbledore managed to pull his head out of his hands to look up, he saw no recognizable constellations or familiar planets. And there seemed to be more than just one sky...oh sweet Merlin, had this demonic swarm had crossed the stars themselves?

The memory had played itself to the end, ejecting Dumbledore back to a reality that was somehow worse than the visions he had just subjected himself to. Those creatures were coming, had already came, to his front door, to Hogwarts itself. He could already smell the sickly sweet scent present everywhere in the memory, already see the doors cut apart and torn off the wall, already see the students being covered by the tides of blades.

Morgana's wand, they had already gotten one of his students, right under his nose. This was Gellert and Tom all over again, this was worse than both of them put together. And he had been teaching them! He had taught them how to use runes, how to cast spells, how to do everything a wizard could! Dumbledore lay, almost comatose in his chair for a few minutes, utterly unresponsive, before Fawkes' song pulled him back to a coherent state. Only then did he begin to think.

They hadn't killed the witnesses. From what Dumbledore had seen, they easily could have. That meant they were either unwilling to kill them, or... the beasts here were weaker than the ones on other planets. And if they were weaker, then perhaps he could deal with them.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would assemble the Order and head into the forest. He would exterminate these creatures. He would use every spell at his disposal, even Fiendfyre if the situation called for it. Two dark lords may have slipped past him, but this...this, he would not let continue.

Dragon: Protip: do not attempt to train one unless you're a viking named Hiccup.

Dragon: There is very little left to say about the flying fire breathing tanks that are dragons. They are creatures of terror and wonder, omnipresent in stories across the world. Each is a fearsome predator that can turn nearly any part of its body into a deadly weapon that can crush, burn, or tear at its prey. They are fearsome. They are deadly. And now, they are Zerg.