Animal I've Become

Chapter 2

First Transformation

Two days had passed since Harry sold his soul to the old man in order to keep Sirius safe. The strangest thing was that his scar was no longer hurting. He was also able to have a good night's sleep since the end of the previous year. Harry of course was not complaining. It was nice being able to sleep peacefully without worrying if he was going to see into Voldemort's mind or feel his emotions.

Even though the end of the year exams were over, Harry and his friends still had a week before they would take the train back to London. Harry knew Hermione would want to spend as much time as she could in the library, While Ron would most likely spend the last week in the dormitory sleeping. Sighing to himself, Harry got out of his bed and quickly dressed before heading to the owlery for a visit with Hedwig. As he did, he passed Umbridge's office and he could hear her talking with someone. It sounded like Filch, but Harry wasn't positive, nor did he care. Pushing the toad bitch out of his mind, Harry continued on his path to the owlery.

Once in the owlery, Harry immediately glanced up and automatically saw his snowy owl Hedwig. Calling her name, Hedwig peeked open an amber eye and gave a small hoot of annoyance, having been woken up before. With a flutter of wings, the snowy owl flew down and landed on Harry's outstretched arm.

"Hey girl" Harry muttered as he stroked Hedwig's feathers.

Hedwig nipped Harry's earlobe in appreciation as he stroked her feathers. After spending a few hours with Hedwig, Harry returned to the castle, intent on spending the last week at Hogwarts in peace, without worrying about anything.

Knowing that Ron was probably still out like a light, Harry headed up to the library to see how Hermione was doing. As he walked past Umbridge's office, Harry saw out of the corner of his eye, the door opening and Colin and Denis Creevey walking out, both rubbing their hands. Glancing back, Harry slowed down so Colin and Denis could catch up with him.

"Hey guys what did Umbridge give you detention for this time?" Harry asked when the two Creevey brothers caught up with their fellow Gryffindor. As Harry was preoccupied with glancing at the marauder's map, he missed the look of dread pass between the two brothers.

"Um nothing really just forgot to turn in our homework" Colin says when Harry put the map away and turned to face him and his younger brother.

Harry was about to let the subject drop when he noticed that the brothers kept on rubbing their right hands as if to rub something off of them.

"Colin, Denis what did she do?" Harry asked. His voice stern yet gentle. He might have been annoyed sometimes by the Creevey brothers' antics about getting him to sign shit but he still cared for them.

Casting a quick glance around the corridor, Colin and Denis lifted their hands up and by the light of the nearest lit blazer, Harry saw the words "I will not marry a pure-blood and taint the pure magical line".

Harry felt his head start to pound as he looked down at the words etched on the Creevey's hands. His own hands were shaking and he could feel a cold sweat start to coat his forehead.

"Harry? are you alright? Do you need to go see Madam Promfrey?" Colin asked. Looking at his friend and fellow Gryffindor with concern.

"Y..Yeah I'm fine guys, I..I'm just going to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face" Harry muttered before taking off to the nearest boy's restroom.

Throwing himself into the bathroom, Harry stumbled up to one of the sinks and began to splash cold water on his face. For some reason the water wasn't working. Instead of cooling him down, Harry felt his body start to get hotter. At first it didn't particularly bother him, Harry just found it annoying. However, the heat started to burn and Harry started clawing at his robes trying to get them off. Instead, his robes just tightened around him preventing Harry from getting them off. As Harry's head pounded and throbbed, all he could see was what Umbridge had forced the Creevey brothers to carve into their hands. A flickering of light caught Harry's attention. Looking down Harry couldn't help but gasp as he saw his hands. Both of his hands no longer had skin on them, instead all Harry saw were the bones of his hands. Harry was also shocked to see that there were also golden flames flickering against the bones.

What struck Harry as odd, was that he could feel the flames but it didn't feel super hot nor did it hurt like he imagined it would feel if he ever were set on fire. Closing his eyes, Harry felt his entire body become swathed in the golden flames. Opening his eyes, Harry stepped back with a start. There, staring back at him in the mirror was someone, something he had never seen before in his life. Harry saw himself but it wasn't really him. For one thing his hair was all burned off as well as his face leaving just his skull which was surrounded by the golden flames. The only indication that it was him standing there, was that there was a small lightning bolt shape on his forehead, right where his scar was.

Harry was about to set out and head to the library, to find Hermione and hope that she was able to help him. Instead, his mind was drawn to what happened with the Creevey brothers. Ever since arriving at Hogwarts, Umbridge had become a blight on the whole school. This never did set right with Harry as Hogwarts was his real home.

Making up his mind, Harry exited the bathroom and made his way to Umbridge's office.

...

Umbridge sat in her overly pink colored office sipping her tea. She was wearing her usual pink cardigan as she graded homework. Umbridge felt at peace in her office as she graded her students work. However this peace wouldn't last for she was just about to move onto the next essay to grade when her office door slammed opened and Harry slowly walked in, surrounded by golden flames with his skull literally on fire with the golden flames. To say that Umbridge was scared out of her mind was an understatement. Umbridge went to grab her wand but when Harry waved his hand, her wand was lit ablaze and disintegrated before her eyes.

"Please don't hurt me I didn't do anything wrong!" Umbridge half squeaked half croaked, her pudgy face trembling as her eyes were wide in fear.

Harry just growled as he walked over and grabbed Umbridge by her throat and slamming her up against the back wall of her office.

"You are Guilty Dolores" Harry growled in a voice that clearly wasn't his own.

"I...I haven't done anything! I'm just a teacher! I teach Defense Against The Dark Arts and all the students love me!" Umbridge exclaimed as she fought against Harry's grip.

"Now now Professor you know you shouldn't tell lies" Harry growled his grip tightening around Umbridge's throat.

Umbridge's eyes widen as she coughed out "Potter? Le..Let go of me this instant!"

"Look into my eyes Umbridge. Your soul is stained with the blood of the innocents. Feel their pain!" Harry growled.

Automatically, Umbridge began to scream in terror as in her mind she saw all the evil and nasty things that she had done while taking up the post at Hogwarts. She saw herself forcing Harry to use the blood quill in her detentions. Then her using veritaserum on the student body in an effort to find out what Harry was doing. The pain was incredible as Umbridge was forced to relive all the things she had done.

When it was finally over, Umbridge sank to the floor of her office comatose. Her eyes a charcoal black. She would never wake up. Harry just used his most powerful weapon since transforming into the Rider for the first time. He used the penance stare.

Taking a step back, Harry placed his hands on Umbridge's desk burning it slightly as the golden flames slowly extinguished themselves and as they did, Harry's skin and hair reappeared unmarked as if nothing had happened. Catching his breath, Harry opened his eyes and he gasped as he saw the wreck that was Umbridge's office. Seeing that Umbridge was slumped to the floor, Harry knelt down and gently shook her shoulder.

"Professor Umbridge? Are you alright?" Harry asked.

With no answer, Harry got up and took off for the hospital wing, unaware that he had been the one who had done the damage and taken out Umbridge.

Within the hour of Harry getting to the hospital wing and telling Madam Promfrey what he found, Dumbledore was reinstated as Headmaster of Hogwarts and Defense Against The Dark Arts had been canceled the rest of the week.

...

The rest of the week went by with students speculating what sort of dark creature or which student if any had attacked Umbridge. It was common knowledge that every student hated her, save for the students of Slytherin house.

Finally the school year ended and it was time to go home for the summer holidays. Umbridge had been taken to St. Mungos where she would stay for the rest of her life. Harry was going to do his best to forget about what happened, and to also try to find out more information about the stranger and the power that was added to his magical core. Unbeknownst to Harry however, the answer to his questions were already on their way to London; in the form of Johnny Blaze.

A/N: End of Chapter 2! Please Read and Review! Next chapter will be the arrival of Johnny Blaze who will become a sort of mentor to Harry and help him focus and master his Rider powers. Also I'm still debating on who Harry will end up with. Thanks for reading.