CHAPTER 17:

CONSEQUENCES AND SECRETS

It was after the match, and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were in Hagrid's hut, having a nice cup of tea. Harry managed to reverse his transformation, and was told by Hooch that if he used it to his advantage in anything but surviving a fall, it would count as a foul. As it turned out, Harry did manage to get the Snitch, much to Malfoy's annoyance. But now, the four Gryffindor students, plus Hagrid, were debating what happened.

"I still reckon Snape was the one doing the curse," Ron muttered darkly, scowling. "I mean, can you see Quirrell doing anything nasty? He had nasty things done to him."

"Ron…" Harry said, "All I will say on the matter is that I know Snape would rather save my life. Besides, he's a Potions master, right? If he really wanted me dead, there's all sorts of untraceable stuff he could slip in my food in the Great Hall." He was a bit torn on whether to discuss Snape's vow to protect Harry, or the debts the Potions Master owed his birth parents, but decided not to. Snape was a private person.

Ron shrugged. Harry's logic was decent enough. "I'm just saying, why would Quirrell do such a thing?"

"I dunno. I saw the way he looked at my Materia," Harry said quietly.

"Well, I agree with Harry and Hermione," Hagrid said. "Snape has Dumbledore's complete trust! So he has mine. As fer Quirrell, well…" Hagrid looked pensive. "He's changed since that whole sabbatical thing he went on. I dunno. Still, if he were the one doin' the cursin'…" Hagrid shook his shaggy head. He then peered at Harry. "By the way, Harry, I wanted ter ask you, what happened out there? Why did you grow a wing and get silver hair?"

Harry looked at those gathered, before he said, "Special transfiguration. Jenova taught it to me." He trusted his friends, true, but Hagrid might be another matter. "It was caused by some accidental magic from the stress of the fall." This was what Jenova coached him to say after the event.

He tried to look for a means to change the subject, and thought of one quickly, remembering something Cait Sith told him. "Hey, by the way, Hagrid, I heard from Cait Sith there's a Cerberus in the castle."

"What? That toy cat told you about Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?!" Harry and his friends chorused in disbelief.

"Yeah, that's right. Bought him off a Greek chappie at the pub last year. Lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…" Hagrid scowled. "Never mind that. That's top secret, that is."

"Was that to do with that Gringotts thing? The thing that nearly got stolen?" Harry asked.

"Listen to me, you lot. Yer meddlin' in things that don't concern yer. It's dangerous."

"So's my life, it seems," Harry remarked archly, referring to the Quidditch match.

"But this is even more so. You forget the dog, forget what it's guardin', because that's between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel."

In the silence that followed, Hagrid winced, annoyed at letting things slip.

As they returned to the castle, they were intercepted by Jenova. "You four, with me. Now," she said, in a tone that brooked no argument.

They dutifully followed her into an empty classroom, and she had them sit down. Standing, she looked at them all. "Okay, now, officially, what Harry did was some Transfiguration that I taught him. The silver hair and his eyes changing were a side effect, though I doubt you noticed the eyes."

"What about them?" Ron asked.

Jenova gestured to Harry, who stood, and walked over next to her. "Try and do it again, Harry," she said quietly.

Harry shot her a questioning look, before trying to think of what it had felt like. Almost involuntarily, he felt the wing form. And when he opened his eyes again…the others gasped.

"They're like cat's eyes," Hermione murmured.

Jenova nodded, before relaxing her own transformation, her skin turning blue, her hair turning silver, her eyes turning orange and glowing, and two wings spreading from her own back. "The mark of Jenova. Ron knows something of my past, and how I came to be involved with Harry. This is not to leave this room. Out of the staff, only Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape know it. Harry didn't learn his transformation from me. He acquired it from me."

"Acquired?" Neville asked as Harry reverted back to normal, and sat down.

"Yes. Hermione would probably understand it best. I am an alien being, even to Gaia, the Planet where Harry lived."

"An alien?" Hermione breathed. "But…"

"I know you have many questions. Save them for later, I might consider answering any you have left after this," Jenova interjected.

"What's an alien?" Neville asked.

"As I explained to Ron, I am a being that didn't come from your world, or from the Planet. I came from a world far, far into the stars." Jenova crossed her arms. "Did you ever learn of the legends of the Cetra Heritage, Neville?"

"No. Why?"

Jenova sighed, pursing her lips, before saying, "Many of the ancestors of your people actually came from the Planet. The Cetra who fled to this world were fleeing a powerful monster, a Calamity from the Skies, which, in the tongue of the Cetra, was called Jeh-Nohva. Jen Calamitas is my assumed name. The name I normally go by is Jenova, though I don't remember my original, true name. That's a long story, and I have a lot to tell. I was sealed by the Cetra because, frankly, I was a monster who would have made Voldemort look like an infant."

"How is that possible?" Neville asked. "You can't be worse than You-Know-Who, you're…too nice."

Jenova smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment. But…I am different now than what I used to be. In a way, it was Harry who changed me, though it was many things that changed me. However, after we first met, he was infected with cells from me. I was trying to survive and conceal myself, you see."

"So, you're like a sentient disease?" Hermione asked.

"Rather unflattering way to put it, but yes. Of course, Jenova cells have varying effects." She went over to a blackboard, and drew a crude pyramid, which she separated into sections. At the bottom, she put 'NORMAL'. Above it, she put 'SOLDIER'. Above that, she put 'SEPHIROTH CLONE'. Above that, she put 'PROJECT G'. Above that, she put 'SEPHIROTH'. And finally, above that, she put down 'JENOVA'. "Okay, lecture time. You'll love this, Hermione. At the bottom, we have normal people, who have no or little infection with my cells. Then, you have members of SOLDIER, a sort of elite military unit Shinra had. They were infused with my cells, along with Mako Energy, a concentrated life-force. Above SOLDIER, you have 'Sephiroth clones', which aren't actually clones, but rather, unfortunates put through a similar process to members of SOLDIER, but with a higher concentration of Jenova cells, to try and create another Sephiroth. Above those, you have Project G, a project that created supersoldiers, including Genesis Rhapsodos, and Angeal Hewley. That Loveless play was Genesis' favourite, Hermione. The problem with those created by Project G is that their bodies began to degenerate."

Harry felt a little thrill of fear. "Will that happen to me?"

"I don't think so. You're somewhere here," Jenova said, tapping between 'PROJECT G' and 'SEPHIROTH'. "Your body is heavily hybridised, but it's stable, in that your body is not rejecting my cells, nor do they show any inclination to. That being said, I'm pretty sure that the amount of Jenova cells in your body is increasing, gradually replacing your normal cells. A few months ago, you wouldn't have been able to pull off a transformation like that." Jenova sighed in irritation. "Of course, this is only going to make you even more infamous."

"Snape'd love that," Harry muttered. "But you said that the cells in my body are being replaced. What will happen to me?"

"Physically? You'll get stronger, faster, more powerful. Mentally? Well, I'm almost certain you'll be fine. You've met Genesis in the Lifestream, remember? After Minerva purged the corruption from his body and soul, he's recovered his sanity. And Cloud, of course, is still sane, despite having a lot of Jenova cells in his body. Now, you three," she said, turning her attention to Ron, Hermione, and Neville. "I know you're friends with Harry, or at least his best acquaintances. The reason why I have told you three is that so you will understand what is happening to him. Harry is no longer completely human, and I know that Magical Britain looks down upon half-breeds and 'dark creatures'. But remember, Harry has a moral centre far stronger than I ever remember having myself. He is not the next coming of Voldemort, or Sephiroth."

"Never thought he was," Ron remarked. And the other two agreed.

As Harry, Ron and Neville went back to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione, predictably, stayed behind to question Jenova. "You said you were an alien," Hermione said. "Do you remember your own homeworld?"

Jenova shook her head. "I have scraps of memory, that's all. I do remember enough now. During my adventures with Harry, we were attacked by a powerful monster called Ultima Weapon. It was like the immune system for the Planet, trying to kill me. Harry, Aerith, myself, along with some others, fell into the Lifestream."

"That's that subterranean life-force region you and Aerith told me about," Hermione said, frowning.

"Yes. It's filled with Mako Energy, concentrated life-force. To be immersed in it is dangerous, as your mind would be flooded with the memories of people who have died and returned to it. Mako Energy, once crystallised, can become Materia. When we fell into the Lifestream, we experienced our worst memories. One of them, I didn't even remember until I saw it. You see, I wasn't just an alien. The Planet has a sort of overarching consciousness, a goddess or a deity if you will, named Minerva."

"After the Roman goddess of war and wisdom?" Hermione asked.

Jenova shrugged. "Anyway, I learned, to my shock, that once, I was like Minerva, the consciousness of another world. But disaster struck my world, and I was forced to gather the last specks of life from my world, and set off to colonise another one. But when I arrived, I was driven mad by isolation of millennia. In addition, the Planet already had life. But I was determined that the life I had carried with me would continue. So I began infecting the life nearby. I acted as a monster. The Cetra, a magic-using group of humans on that world, called me the Calamity from the Skies, as I had arrived in a meteorite."

"Panspermia(1)," Hermione murmured in realisation.

"Indeed," Jenova nodded. "My cells have special properties. I mentioned Hojo in my first lesson, didn't I?"

Hermione nodded. "Aerith said he was a scientist, and an evil one at that."

"That he was. That monster I showed was actually what he transformed into after a lifetime of experimenting on his own body with my cells. Anyway, he had a theory, which was true, that if my physical form was dismembered, the disparate parts would be drawn together. That's part of the reason he created the so-called 'Sephiroth clones': he wanted to test his theory, called the Reunion Theory. So a dominant Jenova creature will be able to call its disparate parts back together. In addition, it can divide its consciousness between multiple bodies: I did it, and so too did Sephiroth. Even now, one of my bodies is back on the Planet. We are also capable of swift transfiguration, shape-shifting, if you will, and we cling tenaciously to life."

"But how exactly did Harry end up infected?"

Jenova chuckled ruefully. "At the time, I was but a small part of the Jenova overmind, with Sephiroth dominating most of it, and part of me that kowtowed to him making up most of the rest. He placed my rebellious consciousness within a mass of Jenova cells that got shaped into a monster. I was swiftly vanquished by Harry and Aerith, along with three others, Cloud, Tifa, and Barrett. But in desperation, and in my dying moments, I transferred as many of my cells and my consciousness with them into Harry's body. I planned to stay in there until I could take him over, or at least influence his decisions, but they fought another Jenova creature and killed it. It had enough cells that I could actually form myself a new body, free from Sephiroth's control. But I left my cells in Harry, just in case. It seems that they saved his life today, or at least from injury."

Hermione pursed her lips. "I wish I'd gotten there sooner. I should have gotten Quirrell sooner."

Jenova walked over to the girl, and put a hand on her shoulders. "I was able to act sooner, but that stuttering bastard tripped me up. I tried to block his line of sight, albeit pretending it was an accident, but he worked it out too quickly. Hermione, that you took action as soon as you could was great. It speaks a lot about your character. Better than mine, anyway. It'll take a long time before I divest myself of my sins. Anyway, regarding Quirrell…well, I'm telling Harry by mental link, and he'll have to tell the other two, but try and treat him no differently as to how you did before. We think he might've been the one to release the troll on Halloween."

"But why hasn't he been arrested?"

"A number of reasons, many of which I am not at liberty to tell you, but I will tell you some. Firstly, there is no direct evidence. There's eyewitness testimony, sure, and the Magical World like eyewitnesses rather than forensics. But they'd want more proof. Secondly, if he's cornered…well, let's just say that Quirrell may have no compunctions about holding the students hostage to get his way. Or killing them. As long as he isn't feeling cornered, well…let me put it this way: Snape will be keeping a closer eye on Harry. And I will be keeping a closer eye on Quirrell. He'll get his, don't worry about that."

Hermione would have considered this an adult reassuring a child with hollow platitudes, except Jenova was grinning in a fashion a shark would have been proud of. Hermione, for a moment, felt sorry for Quirrell, for all of a few seconds. Then, she remembered what the DADA teacher had tried to do, and stopped pitying him…

CHAPTER 17 ANNOTATIONS:

Well, several secrets are out, Jenova explains her history to the Golden Quartet, and Hagrid has a loose tongue.

1. Panspermia is the theory that life on Earth started elsewhere, and came here from a meteorite.

No soundtrack suggestions this chapter. Sorry.