Chapter 2: His Killing Hand

At the Great Hall, Henry debated whether he should continue reading his new book Metamorphmagi and its Variants. On one hand, he was determined to get to the bottom of his recent changes but on the other hand, one of these knuckle-draggers could stain the book and get him into trouble with that angry librarian. Fearing her wrath after that previous incident with the potions Henry put the book away but the questions still lingered.

Grasping a spoon Henry parted his hair to check yet again and sure enough, his eyes were still that strange and hideous green. For the entirety of Henry's life, they had been a deep and lovely blue that perfectly complemented his dark, black hair but suddenly, in the last few days, they changed to green. At first, he thought it was another damned prank from those insufferable Weasley twins but this lacked their usual sadism and stupidity. His studies on the possibility of metamorphmagi also proved inconclusive although Henry had no control other his changes which suggested an alternative explanation. The change was driving him mad and worse, things were still changing!

Henry took a breath and tried to calm down. He was surely just paranoid at this point and his hair turning lighter was probably just a trick of the light. He took another breath. Yes, that was it. He was just overlooking something and this was all easily explained away and everything would go back to normal with his eyes no longer looking quite like that bitch professor's.

Oh how he hated that woman. Professor Evans. Uncle Avery told him all about her and he was absolutely right. She was a self righteous jerk and not only that, she bullied his dad when they were in school with her friends, the so-called marauders. The fact that she even had the audacity to lecture him about his father drove him into a fury.

"Hehe… I hear that mudblood has been sobbing all day down at the girl's bathroom."

Henry turned about looking at a possible target for his anger. It was Draco Malfoy and his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle laughing like idiots.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you." Henry spoke, his hand instinctively reaching towards his wand.

The three of them glared at Henry who matched them with equal intensity.

"What'd you say, Snape?" Draco said standing up, scraping the chair against the stone floor.

"I said," Henry said rising up to Draco's level, "You're all just full of hot piss."

Henry lifted his wand as it released dark purple sparks causing Crabbe and Goyle to lean away from him, eyes widening. Meanwhile, the rest of the house stared intently, hoping for something to happen. And it seemed like it would as Malfoy lifted his own wand.

"A troll in the DUNGEON!"

Henry's gaze immediately shifted to the odd and incompetent Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor tumbling into the great hall panting and wheezing like some cloth tumbleweed. Dumbledore immediately stood up, his face hardening before looking to the professors in the room who stood up as well.

Henry however, was not thinking about them. Instead, he thought of the troll. Hulking creatures of monumental strength, their hides were thick and their wrath fierce, they were dangerous to most wizards.

Henry then turned his gaze back to the Gryffindor table. Hermione was indeed still missing. Henry's eyebrows furrowed as the students were steadily moving off. Knowing where she was, she was in pretty serious danger. Henry turned to the prefect before looking about. Finding Hermione wasn't going to be hard. May as well do it himself. Then maybe he'd get some respect around here.

Slowing down, Henry made his way to the back of the group before finding a fork to split off. Today was proving quite interesting.

Or not.

Henry found himself outside of the girl's bathroom, sniffles barely audible when he pressed his ear to the wooden door. Looking around him at the dank, damp stone dungeon hearing nothing but the dripping of water, Henry sighed.

"Hey! Miss! Are you listening?"

Henry debated for a few seconds as he stared at the door. Was opening the door to be heard technically entering the girl's bathroom? Then again, it was an emergency. But what if she was naked or something? But why would a girl be naked? Henry shook these thoughts from his head before trying again.

"HEEEY!" Henry said banging on the door hard enough to hurt his small fists.

"... Go away." She replied in a whisper.

Henry threw his hands in the air. "Are you serious?" He banged once more, "Stop moping and get out! There's a troll somewhere!"

Still more sobbing. Henry groaned as he leaned back. What the hell was this girl's…

Thump.

Henry stiffened as he turned.

Thump.

Henry turned. Trolls were stupid but evidently not deaf. Its shadow slowly appeared around the corner as the creature stepped into view. It was bigger than he expected. Its head nearly reached tall ceiling of the dungeon and its hide was almost stone-like in appearance. Henry grit his teeth.

The creature, seeing fresh meat, salivated a green drool before licking its lips before charging like a rhino, its sheer size causing the ground to quake.

Rictusempra! Henry shouted as magic gathered itself into his arm before shooting out at the creature's large belly impacting with light blue sparks. Henry wobbled back

The troll, feeling the effects of the laughing jinx, stifled a loud chuckle before tripping, tumbling and rolling like a massive boulder down the hallway forcing Henry to hug the wall as it careened past and collapsed in a heap closeby.

Moving closer to the hulking beast, Henry tilted his head to the side. It was ugly up close but not just because it was troll. It looked like the creature had been badly mistreated, with its scars all over the body. Did someone torture this thing?

As Henry was looking at the creature however, the troll stirred and while trolls have limited intelligence, they did have excellent hearing. Bringing its large arm up, the troll made for a swift backhand, sending Henry straight into a wall as it rose up seething. Henry choked a bit on the ground from the pain as his stomach did flips making him throw up a little in his mouth. Thank heavens Henry didn't eat much at supper. Staggering up, Henry found his vision slightly blurry.

Thump… thump…

The troll took lumbering step after lumbering step as it sought to regain momentum forcing Henry to try something else.

Flippendo!

The knockback hex, normally sending people flying barely budged the troll who then grabbed the injured boy with its monstrous immediately putting the boy in a vice grip. It lunged grabbing Henry by the waist squeezing him tightly. Henry could feel his ribs getting crushed and based on the look of the troll, he had only one chance. He had to try that.

The spell he saw his father use that day. One that he had, as of yet, been unable to use. It was now or never.

Henry lifted his wand doing the motion, doing his best to keep his hand steady through the pain.

Sectumsempra!

Lily raced down the halls towards the screaming, heart racing. Soon after another scream pierced the moist, cold air, this one much deeper and more guttural. She was close. Rounding the corner into the hallway, Lily's mouth opened in horror. For there, right in front of her was Henry, standing next to a thoroughly disemboweled troll, its blood spilling and covering almost everything, Henry included. What disturbed her most though was that Henry was laughing. He was soaking in black, troll blood and laughing.

"I… am… amazing…"

As he did so, Henry's knees slowly gave out collapsing with a 'splat' on the viscous black floor causing Lily to rush over to him. Picking him up, Lily gazed at the troll, still twitching before gazing back at the boy.

This child was some kind of monster...