Chapter 37 Soul Eaters
Don't tell them.
The power was tremendous: the baby dragon's inspection, his censorship prevented Harry from revealing their secret, their nature. Evan's will was strong. Harry was afraid of losing his voice. He said nothing. Ginny came closer and touched his arms,
'Harry, are you okay? Your old scar?' Her hand moved to his heart.
Being thankful for her care, he tried to talk with Evan in his mind, while Malfoy went out of the classroom.
ーYou will break the spell and eat their souls.
—Shut up, the future dragon lord.
—Me? The future dragon lord?
ーI talked too much again. Remember you won't reveal the truth.
'Harry?' Ginny called once more.
'All...' he gave a sigh of relief, his voice came back, 'you need is care for the poor creatures controlled by the evil things.' And he dismissed the class.
Hermione stepped closer, 'Harry, I'm sure you were going to explain the system, the four elements,'
'Not now. Evan is listening to us.' He flinched at the thought, his mind was under surveillance.
'Harry, you'd better guard your thought from him. Occlumence.'
Hermione was always right. She could predict what was coming. She had already known or guessed what their true nature was, sucking human's soul after her research , when Harry just followed his instinct.
'I couldn't. He was angry.' Was Evan really angry? No. He was afraid of. What? Or they must have been under invisible power's control. Both of them, Hermione and him. And this castle might be under their influence. Then uncertainty about his best friend came up.
'You have already known they sucked human's soul. How did you know?'
'You talked about your dream,Harry. You don't remember?'
'Did I?'
'Oh...I'm not sure. Maybe after Ron told me about the article, the poor girl's ghost.'
No. She knew the truth before that.
The next day, Harry made up his mind to practice his first intention, having a dueling lesson dividing the students into two groups, the flying dragon team and the others on the ground. He tried not to let Evan feel a suspicion. He chanted Occlumence in his mind, his eyes traced Ginny's curve.
'Today, you will develop your skill using three dimensions. Dragons,' he broke off his Occlumence for a while, emphasized the part for Evan who might have been reading his mind, 'they are not your enemy. You can't kill the innocent.'
There was a clapping sound: Luna was smiling. She didn't wear the odd earings, to his surprise, she emanated glamour. He imagined Scamander explored the shadows of the wood last night. It was apparent they had been together. He cleared his throat.
'The eighth years will play as dragons,' he swished his wand and then ten broomsticks darted towards him from the broomshed and dropped on the ground. Luna was the first who mounted it. Pansy glared at Harry and she rode it on. He noticed Malfoy wasn't there. Zabini insisted he would be a defender, he looked itchy, Harry guessed he would try what Harry showed the previous day. Hermione asked,
'Where is Daphne?'
'She is with her sister. Astoria is sick.' Pansy answered from above, she had already been hovering in the air.
'We'll be defenders.' Smith declared from backward. Ernie and Justin were with him.
Seamus and Dean tried persuading Ginny to mount the broom, she said,
'No. It's not Quidditch. I'll be a defender.' Susan and Hermione stood by her. They preferred a land battle. Patil twins ran up to them.
'Harry, we need more dragons.' Seamus shrugged on the broom.
Harry reluctantly put five seventh years in the air as the offense. Then he transformed the grass into harmless torches and made the dragon team members grab them and he mounted his broom himself.
'Don't bump each other during your flight. Remember what Charlie told you, their flight pattern. Follow me!' Harry climbed straight to 200 meters and descended at a high speed and threw a fake light serving as dragon's fire, to Justin on the ground.
Justin held up his wand and shouted, 'Protego!' His transparent shield was strong enough to shrug it off.
'Great, Justin.' Praising the DA member, Harry pulled a weed and made another torch and hurled it to Zabini.
Zabini was stronger now, his water wall grew taller than the one he created the other day, Harry barely managed to dodge it, skimmed the surface of it.
A cry of excitement here and there, some of the students struggled to transform the grass to the torch, Harry had to teach them how to. At the end of the class, they were sweat-drenched. Slytherins walked away before Harry finished praising them, Hermione complained of them,
'How rude of them, not even to return their feedback for your lesson.'
'They want to occupy the prefect's bathroom.' Harry answered with wry smiles. To avoid Slytherins, they chose to use the common bathroom. When he entered Gryffindor common room, younger lions surrounded him as if he were a superstar. One of the boy students said,
'I wanted to join your DA lesson, but MacGonagall didn't allow us.
'After you master transfiguration, you can participate in the class.'
'But, dragons are coming. I want to learn how to defend myself.'
'Well,' Harry wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve, 'what's your name?'
'Mulligan, James Mulligan.' He looked somehow like young Sirius, reckless.
'Oh, you have a nice name, James. You can help people by...' Harry thought of a plan. Closing his mind channel, though he was not sure he could do Occlumence, he asked James, 'Visit Hagrid and do research for me.'
James looked happy to help him, 'What research?'
'Ask Hagrid what the baby dragon likes or not.'
'You suspect the creature of causing troubles, don't you, Mr. Potter?' He got excited.
Harry nodded, 'Our secret. See you later at the Great Hall, lunch time. Go now. I need a shower.'
It was easy to continue Occlumence while washing over the dirt and sweats. Closing his eyes, he concluded that distraction would help him to master Occlumence. His hand went south and he fantasied Ginny together. Her hands wrapped the most sensitive spot...he opened his eyes. It was real.
'How did you come in, Gin?'
She answered by kissing him. Water drops were running down her silky skin. Did she want to be explored here? Too risky. The other lions might hear the sound. As if she heard his thought, she slipped from his embrace. She opened the door and vanished to the next cubicle.
'George wrought this mask?' Hermione gingerly held a strange beaked mask in her hands. 'It looks like a Muggle one in the 17th century.
'Yep. I didn't need it though, they had gone.' Ron sank into the sofa. He repeated the same report about Australia to the Headquarter, but he seemed to like it. Ron was simply proud of his mission. 'We couldn't find the corpses in the village near the sacred rock. The team are still searching for them.'
It had been three weeks since Harry began the duel lesson at the Quidditch pitch. The monster dragon corps were forgotten in the magical world just like the other incidents.
There was also a progress. James brought Harry useful information after a few meetings in the Great Hall. Evan didn't eat small animals, but they were all dead after Hagrid tried to feed him. It was obvious he sucked their souls, not their meat. He pretended drinking goat milk in front of Hagrid, but James found him throw up the white liquid.
'It was disgusting, Mr. Potter.' James crammed his mouth with a chocolate frog Harry gave him as a reward. Licking his lips, he continued, 'his eyes changed from brown to purple.'
'To purple?' Harry glanced back to Hermione and Ron.
Ron shrugged, 'No idea.'
Hermione furrowed her brow in thought. 'Harry, you should...' she got alert, 'you mastered the skill, Harry?'
Harry let James leave and nodded, 'I think so.' He was remembering the shower, Ginny's milky skin and their intimate night wrestling.
'Good. Constant vigilance, Harry. They will come back to Britain. Her majesty used to rule the magical world and she is now a monster.' She stood up overwhelmed by her own emotion. 'We must restore her knowlege.'
Ron stared at her throwing a questionable look, 'Hermione? You sound like you worship her, the fake professor.'
Harry felt the same. He observed his best friend. Hermione fretted,
'I don't, Ron. You don't understand metaphor. I'll go to the library. Have a good rest.' She was leaving.
Harry grabbed his Invisibility Cloak and exchanged glances with his best mate. Ron mouthed the word,
'Go.'
Wearing the Cloak, he followed her. She hurried to the restricted section after free pass through Madam Pince who seemed to have trust in her. She stood in front of the case in which the thick old books were stored. Some of them were familiar to him. She took one out of there, held it in her hands and carried it to a desk at the corner. It was a narrow space, Harry couldn't look at her face. She sounded like she had a whispering conversation with someone. He was sure she was not reading. She was talking with someone over the book. She sometimes sounded sobbing. He waited for about an hour until she finished the weird communication. Finally, she stood up and returned the book. Harry didn't leave after she greeted the librarian.
He pulled the book and carried it carefully into his room. He read the title, 'The Soul Maker'. Then he heard a tapping sound. An eagle owl carried a package. He opened the window and let him in. He remembered the owl was owned by Malfoy. He loosened the knot and set the object next to the old book. Feeding the owl nuts from the jar, his left hand searched for his wand. He wondered if Malfoy might have avoided seeing him those weeks and felt responsible for his wrongdoing. He should have faced Malfoy honestly. He chanted the unwrapping spell. Malfoy sent him the two books as he promised. One was a picture book, Soul Eaters, whose cover was full of Dementors-like creatures. The other was thicker, the title was A Legendary Dragon Lord, to his astonisment, Harry saw a stag man on the cover.
He chose to read the book Hermione consulted, as he couldn't forget her sobbing sound. It had been a long time since she showed her weakness when Ron left them while their hunting for horcruxes. Why was she crying? He flipped the first page. He read:
We fought MENTAL FIGHT against King Uther.
If you feel for our magical kind, talk to me.
I understand your pain forever.
Discrimination had already started, it was he
Slaughtered magical people.
I predict you are called by the disgraceful name,
I know your agony, you are not understood, your fame
will enlighten the world where
Unbearable mistreatment should be ended.
It was a preface. Harry continued reading.
I was burnt just because I tried protecting magical creatures and magical people.
I shall return because I predict humans will never change,
They repeat discrimination and killing the innocent,
Their greed not know the bottom.
Now you understand the truth.
Injustice, man's domination.
They created false reason.
Change
Change the world.
I need YOUR HELP.
The next page stunned him.
Harry James Potter.
Finally we meet you.
Talk to me.
I know your mother.
I am SOUL MAKER.
Harry was precautious remembering Tom Riddle's diary. Hermione must be trapped. He wanted to believe she was sensible enough to find the book evil. He didn't want to, but he guessed she was taken advantage of her weakness, the memory, Bellatrix's torturing her.
He ignored the page opened, and he picked the latter pages roughly and observed them. No letters appeared. He fathomed they would show themselves once he talked to the pages. He said,
'Show yourself, Queen Morgana. I am Harry James Potrer. You are not Soul Maker, but Soul Eater.' He waited for her answer.