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A/N: Sorry, sorry and sorry for the delay! This was supposed to be out a day or two ago but I ended up rewriting a whole bunch of stuff.

Harry Potter and the Breath of Life

"The second order of business will dive into the uncharted realm of oaths. We know of the existence of things such as Unbreakable Vows and Magical Oaths but far too many witches and wizards will accept the explanation of: it works. But why? Our magic is used to heal, build, torture and kill with nothing but our ability stopping us. Then why are we allowed to do anything we wish, as if morality didn't exist, but not contradict ourselves? If I say, I swear on my magic, what is enforcing the oath? Surely my magic wouldn't take itself away and indeed, afterwards, where does it go?" - Thaddeus Burwright, Unspeakable Traitor


Hermione had lost count of how many books this one made which was an embarrassment. Not for her, she had somehow outgrown the obsessive attitude towards books but for the Hogwarts Library. For a place of such high renown, it was already gaining the reputation of having exactly what she didn't need in her mind. So far she had gone through vampires and their cousin, the half vampyre, werewolves, naiads, nymphs, fairies, dryads, succubi (when no one was looking), and the vague mention of Inferi in one Restricted book.

None of them came close to what she was looking for and she was looking for a soulless human.

"You should look up fire-proofing," a distant and slightly mysterious voice said. "You never know when a stray spark might ruin your day." The muggleborn pureblood girl glanced up and her eyes met with empty, vacant grey-blue.

"Hello to you too, Luna," she said with a small smile and bookmarked the page she was on. Luna Lovegood, Ravenclaw, made for some strange company. She made the weirdest comments sometimes, talked about fictional creatures as if they not only existed but were right in front of her and wore a butterbeer cap necklace and radish earrings. But to Hermione, that wasn't the worst of it. Luna felt strange. Maybe it was all those movies she shouldn't have seen over the summer but she half expected the girl to pop tentacles and call down a space ship. If she had to compare it to anything, Luna felt like...like...

Like that mirror.

Unconsciously, Hermione straightened. Still with that dreamy smile on her face, Luna reached out and plucked something from behind Hermione's ear.

"Wha-" her hand flew up, trying in vain to guess at what might have been there but the blonde's hand was empty. The Gryffindor watched blankly as Luna seemed to mime cuddling something small and then letting it go onto the table.

"You had an Ausprite tangled in your hair, I think they like you."

Sighing at the matter-of-fact tone, Hermione opened her mouth. "What's an Ausprite..."

Luna gave her a conscending look. "Wisps of decay. They like to nest in castles like this but I imagine there's a lot more than usual this year." The blonde glanced down and gracefully took a seat, randomly flipping through a book. "What were you looking for?"

"Nothing too important," Hermione said smoothly, keeping her voice even and steady as she had been taught. "A curiosity really, about mythical creatures." The strange girl's face brightened and she began to fiddle with her bottlecap necklace.

"I have a book on mythical creatures written by my great-grandmother, if you would like?" she asked shyly and Hermione let out a breath she didn't even realize she had been holding.

"That would be great," she said honestly. With all of the creatures the girl came up with, the book would either be complete rubbish or a scholar's gold mine. There would be no harm in taking a peek either way and Hermione was at the very least, thorough. She watched as Luna slid out of the wooden chair bonelessly, making her wonder and not for the first time what the blonde's lineage was, and stretch a little.

"The dueling club will start soon," Luna looked over her shoulder to state and Hermione jerked in slight surprise. She had forgotten all about Lockhart's attempt to seem like a real teacher. It was beyond stupid with the strange non-healing going on but since both Snape and Professor McGonnagall was going to be there overseeing the large Second and First Year class, it shouldn't be lethal.

Emphasis on shouldn't.

"I'll be there in a minute." Hermione turned back to her book but a detailed black-and-white picture in another caught her attention. It was the book Luna had been messing around with and the image was of this grostesque statue of clay with eyes covering every inch. She almost put it back down but the first line under Weaknesses stopped her.

'Much like its kin the vampire and the Inferi abomination, the surface covering is in a perpetual state of decay which makes it exceptionally vulnerable to open flame.'

Hermione's mind began to whirl into a surreal blend of Luna's voice and of her own reading phrases from the book.

"Ausprites...I think they like you..." ...Perpetual state of decay...

"...Wisps of decay..." ...Exceptionally vulnerable...

"You should look up fire-proofing...You never know..." ...To open flame...

"...When a stray spark might ruin your day..."

So Luna knew. The Second Year Gryffindor rolled her eyes in exasperation and slammed the book shut much to Madame Pince's dismay. For some reason, the revelation didn't surprise her one bit. She would read the rest of the chapter later, around less people and perhaps with Harry nearby but at the moment she had a class to get to. Hermione Granger, golem, she thought bizarrely as she flounced out of the Library. It has a nice ring to it. Much better than 'thrall' at any rate.


"Your school feels like Tartarus, Potter," Thana was saying as she walked beside the immortal boy down the halls, trailing a hand along on the stone. "What the hell happened to it?"

"I dunno," Harry muttered back, clutching his bag tighter to him. "It was like this since school started."

To the boy, the castle was cold and unforgiving, mechanical and completely uninterested in those roaming its halls. To Thana, everytime she touched the wall, the place was thrumming. There were lingering touches of her own influence leaking from the stone, reaching out to greet her. Every so often she came across something deeper, a hidden room or a pipe maybe, that held lingering traces of both Life and Death in it. Hogwarts had been the mortal equivalent of a Claimed Realm and now it was suddenly adrift.

She could feel the vestiges of a room that reeked of Desire's meddling, stretching itself out in the power vacuum. Thana's own Dead Zone underneath the school was shifting upwards when it shouldn't. She gave Harry a sideways glance but kept her mouth shut about it. If people started getting fatally sick, it wasn't her problem.

Partially to distract herself and partially to distract him, Thana reached out to mess with his top tuft of hair. It was wonderfully fuzzy, sticking out even more despite the irritated glare of wounded dignity that Harry was giving her. He was taller, she realized suddenly and then wondered why the hell did that matter!? So he would soon be taller than her...

Shaking off the odd shiver that went down her back, she caught up to boy she was lagging behind only to groan out loud a second later. " Always Ever Changing," she swore under her breath. "A Spawn." And Harry was walking right towards IT.

"Lovegood, did you see Hermione?" Harry was asking IT, unaware of exactly what he was talking to. Then again, if he knew, he might not care. He was strange like that.

The blonde IT smiled wider. "Harry." The boy scowled. "She was in the library but I passed a nest of Glucite bugs so it might take her a couple of minutes to get here," IT informed him seriously and Harry blinked in confusion.

"O...kay..." Shaking his head he briskly walked into the classroom. IT stood there in the vacant hallways with grey-blue eyes that seemed to look right through the walls. Thana said nothing, did nothing but stare back. IT was familiar and that feeling had deposited a small lump of cold lead in her stomach.

"You should ask him about Mrs. Norris ," IT said airily as a small, dark smile crossed IT's face. "You should have been there." Thana held in her temper with some effort. No Incarnate could imagine anything lower than a Spawn, not even a single celled organism could be as disdainful. As far as the universe was concerned, Spawns had no name and even their thread in the Weave was a uniform grey colour of no importance. Spawns were the only true abomination and for an IT to presume to talk to an Incarnate-

Unthinkable.

Thana reached out and ripped the motive from IT's mind.

"I didn't hate your mother, you know," Thana said slowly as a sharp spark of annoyance shot through her. It was just one thing after another wasn't it? Perhaps the universe was out to get her.

IT's hand flew up to the strange necklace barely hidden behind the collar of IT's school robes, face twisting. "You killed her!"

"I'm Death," she answered in tones nonchalant enough to compete with IT's usual dreamy voice. "I'm always killing somebody." The hateful snarl vanished as if it had been slapped off. IT kept trying to bring it back but couldn't seem to muster the emotion necessary to do so, leaving behind what looked remarkably like a timid and sad little blond girl.

"Did I have to see...?" IT asked. Thana could have said a lot of things to this question, ranging from yes, to maybe, to no, to 'I don't know' or even 'Take that up with Fate' but she found herself momentarily tongue tied. None of those answers would come out, the words content to stay stuck in her head. Perhaps she just remembered that it was a Spawn she was talking to, maybe it was the feel of Harry's confused presence approaching the scene, Fate's manipulations or she plain just got bored and uncomfortable with the topic.

Whatever the reason, the end result was of Thana inclining her head, spinning on her heel, and abruptly being replaced by empty space.


Harry Potter's first dueling experience sucked so badly the boy didn't think there was a word to describe how bad it was.

There had been nothing wrong with the room. It was one of the many empty classrooms in the castle that was so heavily fortified with cushioning charms, the very walls rippled with each step. The desks had all been vanished and the chairs were arranged in an oval, all facing the center where a raised platform rested. McGonnagall was rather close to it, watching everything in a feline manner behind her horned rim glasses. Lockhart in the center as if he was at a podium and Snape was scowling over in a dark corner. No, the room had been fine.

The company had been ok. Malfoy had snuck out of the Hospital Wing with a bandage the size of a golf ball wrapped around his middle finger parchment cut, proclaiming the unfairness of almost not being able to see Snape make Lockhart look like the fool he really was. Lovegood was staring off into space somewhere to the left, practically invisible with how quiet and withdrawn she suddenly was. She didn't fall into the 'friend' category so Harry mostly ignored her. Hermione had straggled in a little late but was now in the seat just in front of him. There was one unwelcome: the creepy red headed girl, still with that damn book, directly behind him.

His 'other' was chatting happily away in his head about everything and nothing of importance. There was a glaringly empty space though, and he had caught himself glancing over about six times now. You'd think he'd be used to it by now.

The beginning of the "lesson" on dueling was predicatable. On McGonnagall's "Start!" Snape blasted Lockhart into the cushioned wall with a simple expelliarmus. As the blond ponce tried to justify himself, the entire room laughed at him. Malfoy, Harry thought, laughed the loudest. It wasn't until volunteers were drafted to demonstrate did things go to hell.

Maybe he was trying to redeem himself, but Lockhart's eyes had lit up with a feverish glow. "Come on up here, Harry!"

Groaning, he stood up and walked to the center with every eye on him. --Give them the ol' two fingered salute!-- the chatty whisper in his head crowed.

Um, how about no? As Harry thought to himself, Snape chose the next 'volunteer.' "Zabini!" Grinning widely, the olive-skinned Slytherin pranced over under their Head of House's foul stare. Zabini seemed to have made it his personal mission to make sure that Harry didn't get too big of a head in Slytherin and that included beating the Boy-Who-Defeated-Voldemort-Before-His-Teeth-Came-In down in a duel apparently.

The other boy got into this straight backed and bended knee stance with his wand pointing at the ground. "Ready for humiliation, Potter?" he taunted. Harry nodded stiffly, belatedly realizing that his Crucio might not be the best thing to cast in front of the professors. Far too many questions.

And that left what? Expelliarmus, Incendio, Wingardium Leviosa, a shaky Protego and an unpracticed Stupefy?

Wow. He was screwed.

Harry didn't even bother taking a stance but lifted his wand with a grimace. Snape looked half pleased and half disgusted as he stalked off the stage, dragging Lockhart behind him who was shouting encouragement to his "fellow celebrity." McGonnagall looked between both boys and raised her wand.

The whisper in Harry's head suddenly fell silent.

"Start!"

"Expelliarmus!" was the first spell that came rocketing out of the wand. Harry watched it streak towards him in an oddly detached way. The spell couldn't even hurt him, maybe he should throw the fight and get on with it? A second later, he could have punched himself in the head. Throw the fight and he would get the wrath of Zabini, Malfoy would never shut up about it and neither would Hermione.

Harry sidestepped quickly and snapped his own wand. "Expelliarmus!" As soon as the bolt of energy ended, he flicked the tip of his wand. "Protego!" The shimmering half dome that repelled Zabini's Stupefy was a relief to see and Harry must have over-powered it or something, because it held up against three more stunning spells without wavering. Annoyed, Zabini moved his wand.

"Serpensortia!" The cobra that appeared drained the blood out of Harry's face. Protego didn't do much against solid objects and if he cancelled the shield to cast the slow Incendio, he was done for.

Shit. Oh well, I tried.

--Here, let me help us--

It was like a switch had been turned on in his mind. One moment, the ominous hissing of the snake was something to fear. The next, it warped into some garbled "food, food, food, food, food" chanting that sounded like it was being sung under water. He wanted to say something along the lines of "what the bleeding hell?" but his mouth seized up.

"Bite the nest-traitor!" His mouth said and the cobra stopped.

"Food?" Harry pointed at Zabini hopefully and the snake turned around. "Food!" It made it to about a foot to Zabini before McGonnagall banished it.

"Winner, Potter." The woman said shakily. She opened her mouth again with a stern set to her jaw, as if about to reprimand someone for something but snapped it shut with an audible click!

Zabini was looking at Harry and instead of being mad or nonchalant about losing, he looked like he was in awe. "I knew it," he whispered and that's when Harry noticed. The room was silent and it wasn't a good silence. He turned this way and that but everywhere was expressions of fear, disgust or a terrified awe. Snape had swallowed something exceptionally nasty and Lockhart's smile was severly strained. And with the Transfiguration professor, it was as if Harry had betrayed her.

"I KNEW IT!" A red headed boy near the back suddenly yelled. Weasley. "I knew you were Dark, Potter. Admit it!"

The immortal boy's lip curled but he didn't dignify that with a response. He marched out the door and no one stopped him.

He didn't get very far though.


A feeling of elation...darkness moving...a wetness, damp? It was rearing its head in annoyance...it wanted to KILL!


Harry blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision from the mass amount of white dots that had over taken it. He had a headache and was generally NOT HAPPY at the moment.

--Um, don't look now-- There was a scream and when he finally got his eyesight under control, he found himself staring at the greyed and slackened face of one Marcus Flint, still with his hand raised and mouth opened. And in front of Marcus was an unmoving Peeves, the only ghost left in Hogwarts.

Harry didn't even have the time to step away before the hallway became filled with students and he realized what this must have looked like: Potter gives proof of "Darkness," exits in a hissy fit and is then found with a petrified student. Lovely.

Oh, bugger.

Snape stalked forward from among the throng of whispering students. "Potter, Headmaster's office. Now!" Harry didn't want to go back up there to Dumbledore, not after what happened last time. He tried searching for his friends to defend him but they were no where to be found. Someone, probably Snape, grabbed his shoulder tightly and began to lead him away from the scene but Harry could feel the eyes boring into his back.

He clenched his fists and wanted to kill something. And in his mind, in a different place than where his whisper lay, two words echoed.

"Draw me..."


She watched the basalisk retreat into its small den within the statue and heard the sound of the stone door closing the entranceway once more. She relaxed her hold on it once she felt it go to sleep and a sudden chill made her tremble.

A cough. And then another one.

Turning her head, Palquenta vomited blood onto the stone floor.

"There is a reason why the Incarnates were made," Mystery intoned from where he was squatting over the animal bones. "To keep the forces of the universe seperate from the others. You know this." Dry heaving, the Incarnate of Life couldn't say anything. "The boy is a grey area but not one to mess with so foolishly."

"You won't ask me to stop?" she rasped, arms wrapped around her stomach and red flecking her lips. "I can't..." Her words were cut off as more red poured out.

Gilgamesh and Mystery inside him watched her without pity. "Can you not hear Life screaming?" he asked dully. "You degrade yourselves this way."

"Life? I can't hear it." Pal laughed bitterly. "I can't hear it! Never could."

Gil hummed, twisting a ring around in his fingers and said nothing.


Yeah, past couple of days have not been good for my writing muscles. Not only did it take me half of forever to figure out what I wanted in this chapter, but writing it along with Olympus and Inevitable was a nightmare. I am never doing that again. And I can't write duels. I tried, didn't work. Anyhow, Harry Potter is not a parselmouth! Luna's...something else and we'll cover the details of a golem next chap! I hope no one is too mad or annoyed at me...