Disclaimer: I tend to find that it's much easier to enjoy online media when you don't have to swallow the person's political opinion along with it, regardless of what side it leans to. As such, I tend to lean towards avoiding any political commentary in these sections. But recently, there's been such a momentous event, with such importance that I can't help but comment on it. Canada legalized weed. I don't actually have an opinion to discuss, I just wanted to point it out. Also, don't own it.

(Fucks sake. Nobody told me I'd have to write 46 separate jokes about transitions, about what is quite possibly the most egregiously BEST WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE! If I'd known this is what writing fanfic was about, I'd have started years ago.)

The "most egregiously best word…"

Now I know he's hit rock bottom. ~f

Catalyst

Dumbledore motionlessly stared at the cooling corpse. Thenabar had just...killed himself. There had been hesitation, no regret, not even a hint of fear. This just wasn't human. It wasn't behavior he would expect out of any intelligent being, to throw away it's own life as if it meant nothing. He had talked with it, spent time with it, and now it was gone. Unless...

'All you've cost me is a couple hours.'

It claimed the day it killed Severus was the same day it had been born. Abathur couldn't have known he would have needed a proxy, how could he? That meant he had made the creature, nurtured it and grown it in hours. Its mind had been connected to others, Dumbledore could assume that much from the brief glimpse of it he had managed. In fact, there had barely been any distinction at all between them. It had been just as connected to beings on another world as he had been to his own flesh and blood. If his mind was so loosely connected to his body, then who was to say it couldn't be moved to another?

Thenabar wasn't dead. He would be up and about, wreaking havoc in a matter of hours. Dear Merlin, were all of them like this? Were they all immortal, able to cast off their flesh and grow it anew, rid of any scars or pestilence it accumulated? The concept was terrifyingly plausible.

"Albus, there's been an-" Minerva visibly recoiled at the sight of the alien corpse, hand still stuck in it's own chest. Her eyes locked onto its face, then back to his own. "What happened? What is this...thing?"

"Later, Minerva," Dumbledore said, moving to the doorway, blocking her view. "What happened?"

"The Ministry, Albus, it's under attack! You-Know-Who is there! He's trying to get into the Department of Mysteries!"

(Transition)

"Insanity inc., here to deliver the Minister's prescription," Luna said to the voice in the phone booth, to the nervous snickers of those around her. It was a pleasant thing to hear, like bubbles in her stomach. Well, bubbles that weren't caused by the various gases trapped in the acid. She didn't usually feel those. Granted, she usually didn't sneak into the Ministry under the cover of night with a bunch of humans all crammed into a single phone booth either. There was something remarkably exciting about it, a tingling rush washing over her. She wanted to keep it going as long as possible.

The elevator doors opened, revealing an empty hall dominated by a ridiculous stone statue. Without a word, the group began moving through the hall towards the row of elevators along one of the back walls. The thrilling sensation Luna had come to associate with humans working together had stretched taut, giving the impression it could snap at any moment. Luna wasn't sure what would happen if it did.

They piled into the elevator, pushing each other to the edges. The doors closed, trapping them inside. The metal frame pulled back into the wall, then began to descend, momentarily cutting off all light. After a number of minutes, the doors opened once more, revealing the sterile walls of the DMLE. There was a suspicious lack of personnel present, almost a total absence. This was what happened when you had to sleep for 8 hours a day. It was almost trivial to march through the department, straight to the holding cells. The doors barely even tried to resist exploding. Perhaps it was simple negligence. Then again, perhaps it was the two masked Death Eaters behind the demolished door, closing in on the comatose form of Harry, curled in a corner of his cell. Despite herself, Luna felt a tug of emotion at the sight, barely identifiable before it was quashed.

"Harry!" Ron shouted, pulling out his wand, and motioning for the rest of the students to follow him. The stretched feeling was temporarily replaced with excitement, a call to arms. Luna reached for her own weapon, followed by the other humans.

Almost immediately, the walls of the department began to glow with the light of spellfire. Luna was with Ginny, facing off against a much taller masked human. One moment, their wands lay still in their hands. The next, they whipped around like maddened branches, flinging spells. Luna decided to go with Defodio; Abathur was still curious about its properties.

The yellow beam arced out towards the enemy human, who dodged it. His wand turned towards Luna. He began to swing it around, beginning to say the first few syllables of a spell. He was interrupted by a purple beam from Ginny's wand. His stick fell out of his hands as his nostrils became host to a swarm of bats. Taking advantage, Luna let loose a quick stunner, bringing the Death Eater out of the fray. Ginny turned towards Luna and the two girls exchanged a grin, revelling in the moment, before they both turned to the next threat.

There had only been a few Death Eaters in the DMLE, obviously not expecting their reinforcements. With the element of surprise on their side, the DA cleared through them in a matter of minutes and managed to make their way towards Harry to let him out of his cell.

"What are you doing here?" Harry shouted in shock.

"We've come to get you, you bloody idiot," Ron replied. "Alohomora." The lock clicked. Ron pulled the door open, letting Harry out.

"You shouldn't have come. This is my problem, not yours," Harry said.

"Your problem?" Ron raised an eyebrow. "Mate, Umbridge was after all of us. I'd say that's a pretty shared problem."

"I meant Voldemort! He's here, trying to get the weapon!"

"Oh," Ron said. He paused. "Well, same thing. We faced him first year, what's one more time?" The rest of the DA nodded with him.

"Honestly Harry, do you think we would just step aside and let Vol-Voldemort get his hands on whatever he wanted, just because you said you would do it alone?" Hermione said.

"You sacrifice yourself for me, I help you. It's squid pro quo!" Luna chimed in.

"It's quid pro quo, Luna," said Hermione.

"That's not what the aliens told me."

"I...fine. The point is Harry, we're with you," Hermione said. "Besides, we managed to face down Voldemort in first year. How hard could it be now?"

(Transition)

This was the hardest thing Luna had done in her life. From the instant they descended into the Department of Mysteries, she had been forced to fight for her life, evading spells and casting back her own almost constantly, all without the aid of the Swarm. It was the most fun she'd had in months. Without her enhancements, this would be terrifying. It still was, a bit. She had started peeking at the minds of everyone around her about halfway through and was picking up everyone else's stress. Of course, she also was picking up all of their attacks several seconds in advance, so it was still more than worth it.

Reinforcements for both sides had shown up recently, including a human she could only assume was Voldemort. His essence was almost painful to look out if only because of how bizarrely it was put together.

If it wasn't for the extrasensory mess of an archway in the center of the battlefield, she might even say she was enjoying herself. And to some degree, the other humans on her side were as well. There was excitement in the air, a feeling of invincibility even through the trepidation. Whatever came next they could handle it.

"Sirius!"

The world froze. The thrill of adrenaline drained away.

Luna could only watch Harry's face as the man was thrown through the archway, see the emotions tearing through him. In morbid curiosity, she stretched her consciousness out, reaching behind his eyes.

She found disbelief. Desperation. Pain.

Anger.

Rage, how dare she kill Sirius, how dare she take another thing from him. How dare she hurt Harry like that, how dare she hurt one of the few humans to let Luna into their brood, how dare she hurt one of these precious humans, precious psionics, precious being who was almost as much zerg as human. She would pay. Luna would make her pay. The Swarm would make her pay.

Almost without her consent, the feeble skin covering her scales rotted away, breaking down into motes of dust. Her many tentacles, hidden for so long, stretched out from her back, the spines on their tips stretching out like fingers, before snapping shut into a spike of a fist. Her hair fell out of her skull, replaced by long segmented carapace.

With a dual toned scream, Luna flung herself towards the laughing human. In magic combat, she might be in trouble. Luna might have zerg enhancements, but she had seen the witch throw out spells at a speed and strength greater than any other human she knew of. But Luna wasn't limited to just magical combat, not anymore. Before the witch could react, Luna's zerg limbs impaled her several times over. The human had just enough time to look at Luna's face before her heart tore itself to shreds, trying to beat with the sharp limb stuck through it. Luna had just enough time to snarl at her, before the human collapsed on the ground.

Luna extracted her tentacles.

"Luna, what..." Harry's voice came from beside her, faint and hesitant. The human was looking pale, shaken. She reached into his mind again. Shock, disbelief, and not a small amount of fear. She should have expected it. Abathur had warned her plenty of times. He wasn't part of the Swarm.

He could be. But he wasn't.

"Sorry, Harry. I can't tell you. Abathur probably wouldn't have wanted me to show you either, but you have very strong emotions. I couldn't quite control myself." Luna flicked the blood off her tentacles.

"What? What does Abathur...what are you?" Harry asked, rambled really. Luna could imagine his confusion. This was a much more abrupt introduction than she had gotten. Unfortunately, she probably wouldn't have the chance to elucidate. Her spike of emotion hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Luna. Exposed?" came the voice of Abathur.

"It was a life or death battle, and I might have gone a bit overboard." Luna replied. "Sorry. I told you, I can't explain."

"Unfortunate, but acceptable. Retreat. Capture undesirable."

"See you later," Luna ran. The sudden shift in battle had thrown the room into chaos. Nobody stopped her escape, some because of shock. Some tried to stop her, but failed. Abathur's improvements afforded her greater mobility than any human, magical or otherwise. But she began to notice, as she ran, that fewer and fewer Death Eaters tried to hamper her escape. It was odd, but she didn't have time to think about it. All that mattered was escape.

(Transition)

When all the dust had settled, Dumbledore found that, surprisingly, not everything had yet gone wrong. Voldemort hadn't learned the prophecy and now couldn't unless someone told him. The wizarding world was now irrevocably aware of Voldemort's return. Many of Voldemort's inner circle were dead or imprisoned, and with the unfortunate exception of Sirius, the Order had taken no losses. The Order dealt a great blow to Voldemort's cause.

On the Zerg front, however, Dumbledore had little choice but to count this as an utter failure. There were now one, possibly two agents of the bizarre creatures roaming around, capable of disguising themselves at will. He had never imagined how much the Lovegood girl had been altered physically, and likely mentally as well.

But if the zerg were willing to move this openly, then the situation was escalating far beyond his control. He needed help.

(Transition)

Deep beneath the soil, nydus worms tunneled through the rock and stone. Each contained nothing more than a few drones, but that was all they would need to seed the Zerg Swarm across the planet.

(Transition)

(Because someone refuses to put a transition after the end of the chapter)

(I'll put one there when it's actually necessary)

Infestation: Have you ever lived in a house with a whole bunch of termites? It's basically just that.

I mean, that's literally a termite infestation, so I guess that even counts as an 'infestation' just by definition.

~f

Infestation: The Zerg Modus Operandi is quite simple: find new species, consume their essence, and evolve. The vast majority of species the Swarm encounters die in the process, devoured by the Swarm. However, occasionally the Swarm finds a species with traits that are especially useful. These species, rather than being absorbed into the existing strains, are delicately crafted into new, entirely unique creations. The zontar slug, for example, was noted by the Queen of Blades for its extreme ability to regenerate and it's potent acid. Within a matter of days, first roaches already rampaged across the planet. Whatever the Swarm infests, whether it be pungent moss or giant herbivores, the end result is guaranteed to be devastating.