Here's the next chapter. Sorry for the delay, had a lot to take care of. It's a bit of a filler, and I hope a glimpse to another side of Harry. Anyway, enjoy and review.
Chapter 8
Harry found himself in a vaguely familiar corridor. He had dreamt of this place several times before, and realized that they somehow came from Voldemort. His body felt different, and it took him a moment to realize he was a snake. Feeling that he might get some info out of this, Harry did nothing to reveal his presence to Voldemort, content only to observe.
After a few minutes, the snake reached a door and noticed that it was guarded by a sleeping man.
The snake's instinct was to bite the man, but Voldemort pressed for secrecy. The snake reached the man just as he began to stir. He woke up, shocked at the sight of the serpent before him.
He reached for his wand just as the snake reared back and struck its fangs into his side again and again.
The sensation of the bite washed over Harry like a tide. The feeling of flesh tearing and bones cracking as warm, sweet blood gushed down his throat was intoxicating.
His instincts overwhelmed him, and he pushed all of his mental force into the serpent, forcing it to bite again. The sudden intrusion, however, had the completely opposite effect, and Harry found himself sitting upright in his bed, panting heavily.
He rushed to the adjoining bathroom and stared in shock at the mirror. His fangs stood out at full length, preventing him from closing his mouth, and his eyes were completely red, shining brightly on his pale face.
"Blood Rage." He cursed. He was better than this, damn it. He was not some damn animal that lived only to feed.
Remembering the face of the man that was attacked, he changed his clothes quickly and rushed out of the room towards the Headmaster's office.
Halfway there, he was intercepted by Snape.
"Potter, don't you know it's after curfew? What are you doing running around the castle like that?"
"I need to speak with the Headmaster right away. It's urgent." Harry said quickly.
"Follow me, then." Snape said after a moment of contemplation.
"Severus, Harry, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dumbledore was fortunately still awake.
"You need to send someone to check on Mr. Weasley right away. He was just attacked by a large snake." Harry's words shocked them.
"You saw it happen?" Dumbledore whispered.
"Yes. I told you about the connection. It was as if I was really there. I could see and feel everything." Harry replied, his eyes glinting at the memory. Fortunately, the two men missed this.
"Everard, and you too, Dilys." Dumbledore turned towards two portraits who nodded and walked out of their frames.
It was only a minute before the man called Everard returned, panting lightly. "I yelled until someone came running, told them I heard something move downstairs. I wasn't sure they believed me, but they sent someone to check anyway, they carried him up a minute later, he didn't look good, and he was covered in blood."
"Good. I think Dilys would have seen him arrive then…" The old man turned to the portrait of the witch, and she arrived mere moments afterwards.
"Yes, he's at St. Mungo's, they carried him passed my portrait, and he was a mess."
"What do you suggest we do about this Headmaster?" Snape asked silently.
"No one knows about Harry's involvement in this, and I'd like to keep it that way. Perhaps it would be best if you went to HQ for the holidays, Harry…"
"No. I'm staying right here. I have too much work to do to abandon it like that." Harry cut him off.
"Very well. One other thing. After the holidays, I'd like you to have Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape. Occlumency is…"
"I know what Occlumency is, professor, and I don't think it will be necessary. I could have broken the vision at any time tonight, I just wanted to see if I might learn something useful from it." Harry replied calmly.
"Very well. You are free to leave." Dumbledore nodded.
It was the day after Christmas and McGonagall was walking through the castle, heading back to her quarters after a visit to Hogsmeade when she heard a choked cough behind her.
She turned around and froze in place at the sight before her. Harry was leaning on the wall, hand reaching for her and fangs barred. A stream of blood flowed from his mouth and several wounds on his head. There were large gashes all over his torso and legs, and his left arm was held to his body by a small strip of skin and sinew. He coughed out a large glob of blood, and she noticed that several of his ribs were sticking in his right lung.
"Room… need…" He wheezed between coughs and made a weak attempt to reach for her. From the look in his one remaining eye, she didn't need to be a Seer to guess what he was trying to do.
"Mobilicorpus." She waved her wand and Harry started floating a foot above the floor.
"No. Room…" He gasped when he noticed that they were heading towards the hospital wing.
McGonagall paused for a moment, then remembered that Harry was not someone the school nurse could treat.
"Akr'itor." Harry growled and McGonagall froze as Harry's equipment shimmered into sight.
"Vial…" Harry pointed weakly at a rack of a dozen feeding units. McGonagall quickly handed him a pair, and Harry opened the first and started pouring fresh blood on the open wound on his chest and stomach. After the wounds started healing, he moved it to his lips and started drinking, pausing only to switch to the second unit.
Once that was empty as well, his internal injuries were mostly healed, with only the lung damage and a few gashes here and there.
He stood up, shakily at first, but managed to recover his balance after a few moments.
With little ceremony, he plunged his hand in the wound on his chest and started pulling out the ribs lodged in his lung, pausing only to drink more blood or cough out the fluid that had gathered from the wound.
Meanwhile, McGonagall watched in morbid curiosity as he brought himself from the brink of death in the span of thirty minutes.
"Man, I'll have trouble breathing for a week." Harry finally spoke after coughing out a large wad of blood and lung.
"Mr. Potter, I demand to know how you ended up in such a sorry state." McGonagall finally snapped out of her daze.
"I'll tell you, professor, but could you do me a favor and clean up the blood I spilt and inform the Headmaster as well? This would give me some more time to recover." Harry sat down on his bed, breathing heavily. He cursed himself for forgetting the feeding units.
Twenty minutes later, McGonagall returned, followed by Dumbledore.
"I'd like to apologize for scaring you like that professor. I should have remembered the feeding units." Harry sighed.
"What were you doing, Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he sat down on one of the chairs in the room.
"That was therapy. I noticed I was developing the symptoms of Blood Rage and I decided to undergo the treatment before I entered the advanced stage and succumbed to the madness." Harry sighed. Admitting a weakness was not something any Lantrisi enjoyed.
"What exactly is this Blood Rage?" McGonagall asked.
"It's a rare psychological disorder that sometimes affects Lantrisi. The afflicted are consumed with bloodlust. They live to fight, feed and kill. Furthermore, the affected produce insane amounts of the Haze, a very potent mix of hormones and stimulants that our bodies can produce naturally, increasing their strength and speed several fold.
The only cure is to beat the affected to the brink of death, where the survival instincts kick in and stop the rage." Harry replied.
"Why didn't you tell us this? Didn't you think we had the right to know that it was possible for you to lose control like that?" McGonagall snapped.
"Blood Rage is not something we talk about openly. Such loss of control…" Harry said absently.
"I understand this is difficult for you. Will this happen again in the future?" Dumbledore asked him.
"No. You can't be affected again. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it, but like I said, it's not something I'm willing to talk about." He sighed and waved his wand, hiding his equipment again.
"Professor." He called out as McGonagall was just leaving the room. "Thank you." He gave her a small smile.
"You're welcome, Daroth." She smiled back and walked out.
A small surprise to Harry was the return of Hagrid to Hogwarts. Harry was starting to get worried about the half-giant since he was supposed to get back several months ago.
"Harry, good to see you. Those lessons you gave me were a lifesaver, literally." Hagrid said jovially as Harry sat down across him in the man's hut.
"So, you got into a fight with a giant?" Harry asked curiously as he bit into a rock cake. Aptly named, they were hard enough to crack teeth, and Harry guessed that the only reason he could eat them was because his teeth were a crystalline composite that was almost as hard as diamond. Still, once you got past the hardness, they were surprisingly good.
"Yeah, which reminds me, here's your sword back." Harry quickly stashed the blade in his watch and took a sip of tea.
"Well, me and Olympe found the giants alright, and met with the gurg without trouble, along with the gifts we brought for him. First gave him a branch of Gubraithian fire. After some of the other giants translated for the gurg, we told him we would come again with another gift." Hagrid began.
"So, we went back the next day and gave him a goblin made battle helmet and talked to him. He seemed impressed, and again, we promised to return with another gift. That night though, things went wrong. There was a fight, and the next day, we learned that there was a new gurg in power." Hagrid sighed, remembering the day clearly.
"That would cause some trouble for the negotiations." Harry commented.
"Well, we hadn't gone all that way to give up so easily, so we went to meet with the new gurg. I noticed he didn't seem to like us, so I kept my eyes open. When I offered him a roll of dragon hide as a present, two of his mates tried to grab me, but I managed to avoid them. The gurg didn't like that and attacked me. I pulled the sword and stood my ground as you taught me. When he tried to smash me with his fist, I moved out of the way and slashed at his arm. You know, I didn't even feel it when it cut right through. He was really surprised when his forearm just fell off." Hagrid grinned savagely.
"So, did you kill him?" Harry asked, imagining the fight.
"Had to. Giants fight to the death. If I had left, he would have attacked me. I rushed him and cut off his leg at the knee, and when he collapsed, I jumped on his back and stabbed the sword in the back of his neck." Hagrid concluded the tale of his fight.
"So, I assume you became the new gurg, then?" Harry grinned, remembering what he had read about giants.
"That's the law, isn't it? Well, once the whole confusion cleared up, I found out there were a pair of Death Eaters also talking with the giants. They weren't happy when they realized I was the new gurg. I told the tribe to stomp them flat if they saw them poking around. The lot seemed very eager to obey." He laughed.
"I can imagine. So, why have you been delayed so much? I was told Madam Maxime returned months ago." Harry asked.
"Well, I had to find a new gurg, someone that wouldn't listen to Death Eaters, and had to lead a bunch of them back here." Hagrid replied.
"You brought giants back with you?" Harry gasped.
"Bout a dozen or so. They are what's left of the British tribes, and they were eager to get back to their old land. Dumbledore has a nice place for them up in the mountains. One of them is my brother. Well, half-brother, actually." Hagrid grinned.
"Your mother is dead, then?" Harry asked, expecting that to be the case. Hagrid was over fifty years old, after all, and giants didn't live any longer then most humans.
"Yeah, died years ago. I told them I would visit from time to time, teach them some things. Good thing I showed them I can fight, they don't respect half breeds a lot." Hagrid replied.
It was then that the hut's door opened and Umbridge walked in.
"Mr. Potter, what are you doing here?" She was surprised to see him in the hut this late, but since they were on holiday at the moment, she couldn't reprimand him from breaking curfew.
"Just visiting Hagrid. We became friends over the summer, and we were catching up. Well, catch you later." Harry stood up, glad that one of the few friends he had made in this world was safe and sound, and furthermore, it seemed Dumbledore got himself some really big help thanks to him.
Humming a tune, he headed back to the castle, feeling a bit better.