Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Chapter 3

A Sirius Situation

Harry was pulled awake suddenly, and spent several long seconds wondering what it was that had awakened him so abruptly, before realising it was his connection to the swarm – the synapse node was live! He could sense distant digestion pool at the back of his mind, waiting for instructions. He ordered it to spawn a dozen Reapers, just in case, and then went back to sleep, satisfied that he would be alerted if anything happened.

The next day, Harry couldn't shake the smile from his face as he walked down to breakfast. His swarm was growing! He planned to spend the rest of the day directing his Reapers to gather more biomatter. The synapse node gave him a long enough range to cover a good chunk of the forest, which meant he could harvest trees without risking detection.

So, Harry coasted through class, paying very little attention to what was happening around him, despite Hermione's best efforts. As a champion, he was exempt from the end of year exams, and the staff were largely leaving him to his own devices. Except of course for Snape, who gleefully assigned him a weeks detention when he was the first to blow up his cauldron, beating Neville by a solid five minutes.

Harry didn't care. He had produced a second digestion pool at the edge of his current range, and added a synapse node and a guardian to protect it. This let him send his Reapers out through nearly the whole forest, and he was doing his best to explore it. He also grew a spawning chamber near his original digestion pool, and was disappointed to discover that he would need a genetic integration chamber before he could start producing other kinds of creatures.

By the end of the week, Harry had expanded his swarm to include two more synapse nodes and a genetic integration chamber, as well as another spawning chamber and a veritable army of reapers. Not wanting to overextend himself, he had the synapse nodes laid out in a grid pattern rather than a line, so that if one was destroyed the others wouldn't be cut off.

This brought more than a hundred acres of the forest into range of his synapse connection, allowing him to sense and direct his reapers over what seemed like uncounted miles, but was really only a fraction of the total (magical) forest area. He now had dozens of digestion pools and hundreds of reapers spread throughout that space, burrowed beneath the ground or hidden in the trees, keeping a watchful eye on every part of his domain.

His domain.

The thought of it filled him with pride. This was really his, not some cast off old clothing, not even cheerless metal left behind by his parents. These creatures were, in a very real sense, a part of him; He felt what they did, saw what they saw, and directed them as if they were his own limbs.

He could even hear them, chittering and clicking in the back of his mind, like the roiling surface of a storm tossed sea, filling his thoughts with whispers. Or maybe his thoughts were the whispers, and the ocean was him...

"Harry!"

And beyond even that, he could not just feel his swarm, he could also feel what each end every one of them thought – and felt – about him: Nothing. They didn't feel anything at all about him. They didn't love him. They didn't hate him. They didn't feel anything, and it was glorious! For once in his life, Harry didn't need to conform to anyone else's opinions or desires. His swarm did not accept him, because acceptance implies a choice, implies it was possible that they might not. His swarm was him, and it was inconceivable that they would ever reject him.

*snap* *snap* "Harry, hello? Anybody home? Harry, please, you're scaring me..."

For a young boy raised knowing nothing but hatred and judgement, the knowledge that he was completely welcome, freakishness, scar, and all, was the most extraordinary sensation he had ever experienced, and Harry found himself spawning more and more reapers just to bask in their acceptance of him. Harry opened himself fully to his creations, feeling all their knowledge and awareness rushing through him, before he noticed a niggling annoyance from one corner of his swarm.

"HARRY!"

Harry shook himself; he had a moment of panic when he strained to concentrate on his human body, and had to struggle to escape the streaming forest scenes. With great effort, he managed to narrow his concentration down enough to look through the two small eyes of the human body. My body Harry thought furiously to himself, I am human.

He opened his eyes, to meet the half frightened, half furious gaze of a bushy haired girl, who was alternately shaking him and screaming in his face.

"What? I'm fine!" Harry said, raising his hands in a vague wave. "What is it?"

Looking around, Harry noticed that he was standing in an abandoned corridor, only dimly lit by the dull glow of ancient, faded torches. The dust lay thickly on the ground, their footprints the only disturbance amongst the debris of centuries.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione cried, throwing her arms around him. "I was getting so worried! We were supposed to be going to lunch, but you missed the turn, and you just kept walking..."

Harry drifted through the forest, watching a blood sucking bugbear creep slowly through the trees. No doubt it thought it was moving stealthily, it's dappled coat making it all but invisible amidst the leaves. Harry stretched chitinous lips tight against his razor sharp teeth. This is MY territory! He thought. Just a little closer, and you'll learn what that means. In moments, the bugbear had moved under the tree he was crouched in. With a near silent hiss, he dropped from the tree – two reapers landing on the bugbear's back, and immediately digging into its flesh. The beast roared in fury, flailing wildly, but even the sharp claws of the bugbear were no match for his armoured skin, and in seconds he had it reduced to a pile of flesh that was rapidly being consumed.

Harry's hand was touching something warm and soft, something that felt similar to the coat of the now consumed bugbear. He absently moved his hand, stroking it, and felt whatever he was touching shift away from him. With a start, he identified it – hair. He was touching Hermione's head, her bushy hair beneath his hand as he focussed on her face. Her worried face.

"Please Harry, please don't leave me, you're my only friend!"

Harry thought; but thinking was hard. He was so many, and his mind could only go so far. Slowly, so slowly, he concentrated. I need.. more.. to think.. to concentrate...

As the thought, and more importantly the desire, formed in his mind, an idea appeared. It looked at first like an enormous spike, sticking straight up a hundred meters in the air, but only a few meters across. The spire was curved slightly, and pulsed softly with faint veins of blue and green. He recognized it at once, as if it was something he had always known.

Neural Spire

Cost: 840 bio-energy

Generates synaptic link: 10m

Overmind cognition +50

Overmind tactical synapse +5%

Allows production of Tactical Nodes

Warning: Destruction of the Neural Spire may cause irreparable damage to Overmind

Selecting one of his synapse nodes, Harry pulled a dozen of his reapers into place near it to begin spawning the spire, as well as a dozen guardians surrounding it. This was going to be a part of his mind, and he instinctively recognized that allowing it to be harmed could very well destroy him – or at least, whatever memories he might have, that were stored within its neural matrix.

"It's ok Hermione," Harry said to the air in front of him, his eyes flickering back and forth across sights only he could see. The spire was growing rapidly; the forest was filled with life, and he was pumping vast quantities of bio-energy in the swiftly rising spire, far more than it needed, to ensure it was built quickly.

Harry focussed. He fancied he could already feel he was more concentrated, more aware. Although he knew it would still take almost twenty hours before it was fully grown, the spire would begin working immediately, helping to shoulder the heavy burden of thought.

Harry smiled at his friend. She was almost as tall as him, and was still standing so close to him, that when he looked her in the eyes their noses almost touched. Abruptly, she took a step backwards, the dim torchlight lending a rosy glow to her cheeks as she crossed her arms and awkwardly cleared her throat.

"Really, I'm fine now." Harry said, "I guess we should get to lunch then?" Hermione nodded quickly, and together they walked down to the great hall.

The rest of the day was uneventful, although with every hour that passed, Harry would swear he could feel himself becoming smarter. Deep in the forbidden forest, the neural spire grew, and as it did his consciousness expanded. He was able to keep a closer track of his swarm, and follow them in more detail, while still being completely present and aware in class. It was the the most peculiar feeling, being able to focus on more than one thing at once, but as he now effectively had a second brain, it quickly became second nature to think two thoughts at once. It wasn't until that night, however, that he discovered it's strangest effect.

Harry drifted. Asleep and yet awake, he felt his mind wander, shifting slowly from reaper to reaper throughout his territory. His ears were filled with the click of claws and the rustle of leaves, while a strange lassitude pervaded his limbs. Experimentally, Harry tried to move an arm, only to discover that he was unable to muster the will to do so. He felt disconnected, somehow, from his body, and he felt a jolt of panic at the realisation. It quickly faded, however, as he found himself unable to hold on to the emotion.

Instead, he let his mind expand, stretching it out – out – to the very edges of his reach. He could feel the life squirming within his domain, sense the deep, slow thrum of the trees, and the more rapid pulses that signalled animal life. Time passed; his consciousness continued to drift aimlessly, the hours passing unnoticed as he watched, and waited, though for what he could not say. There was an urge within him: To expand. To grow. He felt ponderous with the heavy weight of potential, and his thoughts began to quicken, as his mind filled with images. The genetic integration chamber carried the gene-seed for thousands of different life forms, any of which he could call into being. The swarm wanted to grow. It wanted to absorb the life around it, to spread and stretch until it filled the earth from horizon to horizon, and then to grow some more.

Harry felt this, but also felt uncertain. The swarm was there, it was hidden, but if it grew it would inevitably come into conflict with humanity. Harry knew that his creatures were fearsome, and he worried that if he allowed them to become public knowledge, people would try to kill them. So he held the swarm back, and waited, and watched with infinite patience as the moon crept across the sky, until the dim light of dawn drowned the stars in scarlet. He hoped that wasn't an omen.

Harry opened his eyes, and came effortlessly awake. He took a deep breath, feeling the warm air fill his lungs, and tried to shake off the memory of the strange aimless floating in which he had spent the night. He glanced around, and saw that the rest of his roommates had yet to wake up, Ron's thunderous snores muffled slightly by a pillow pulled over his head.

Getting dressed slowly, Harry pondered the meaning of his strange dream. He quickly came to the conclusion that while his neural spire gave him additional ability to think, it didn't contain any of his memories or even personality, and so when his human mind shut down for the night, he was left without all the things that made him, him. Harry shuddered at the thought. The idea that he could exist like that, just drifting, without any true purpose or even the knowledge of what he had lost, was absolutely terrifying. Luckily, there was a solution. If he could get into physical contact with the neural spire, he could copy his memories into it, so that even if his human body should be somehow destroyed, he wouldn't lose anything.

Harry determined to do so immediately. The second task was only two months away, and he would rather die a final death than become that drifting ghost for eternity. Intellectually, he knew that wasn't quite accurate, he would still be able to learn and grow, but the knowledge did nothing to quell the chill horror he felt at the thought of losing – literally – his mind.

Looking down, Harry discovered an empty plate sitting in front of him. Apparently he had been so distracted by his thoughts, that he hadn't noticed he had walked all the way to the great hall, which was, as usual for nine am on a weekend, sparsely populated. He had gotten used to it – the students form the other schools rarely ate breakfast at Hogwarts on a weekend, while most of the Hogwarts students themselves preferred to sleep in.

"Morning Harry!" Hermione chirped, sitting down opposite him. She frowned slightly, and asked him, "You're not still, you know, spacey, are you?"

Harry shook his head, shooting her a quick smile. "Nope. The neural spire is fully grown now, and this gives me plenty of extra brainpower to handle the swarm."

"Neural spire?" Hermione asked, and he realised that he had never really explained what he was planning yesterday.

"Yeah, see, it's like this extra brain." Harry started, before remembering where he was and glancing rapidly around the table. Seeing no one near enough to overhear, he lowered his voice and continued. "the swarm's gotten so big, I can't control them all without it, but the neural spire gives me a boost so that-"

His explanation was interrupted by a flurry of wings, as the post owls zoomed into the hall, and one of them settled down directly in front of him. He took the envelope – stamped "Hogsmeade Owl Rental – You Write It, We Wing It" - and opened it.

The letter was from Sirius, and Harry felt a stab of guilt when he realized that the first task had been almost two weeks ago, and he still hadn't written to Sirius about it. Harry turned the letter over in his hands, frowning as he thought. It was obviously sent from Hogsmeade, which mean that Sirius was nearby – but why? As a hunted man, it would be too dangerous for him to just stroll into the village. Was he that worried about him?

"Well?" Hermione asked, "Are you going to open it?"

With firm strokes, Harry ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter.

Harry!

What happened? How are you? Are you OK? The Daily Prophet doesn't say anything useful, and I wouldn't believe it if it did. Are you injured? What happened in the task?

Listen, I'm in hiding in a cave near the caste. If you need me, send me a letter with Hedwig, and I'll be there within the hour. If I don't hear from you by tomorrow, I'm assuming something is wrong, and I'll be coming in anyway to break you out.

Padfoot

Caves near the castle? That didn't sound safe. Although, Harry thought, the safest place for me would be... Of course! Quickly, Harry whipped out a piece of parchment form his bag and scribbled a reply, letting Hermione read the original as he wrote.

Padfoot, I'm fine, the task went well, I wasn't hurt, something incredible happened! But I can't give you details in a letter. Meet me in the forbidden forest at midnight tonight, I have somewhere safer for you to stay than a cave.

Finishing the letter, Harry looked around, expecting to find Hedwig waiting to take it. It always amazed him how she seemed to know when he needed her. This time though, he found her sitting several feet away from him, shifting nervously. He reached out to her, saying "come on Hedwig, I need you to take this", but she barked roughly at him and jumped out of reach. Harry stood up, and walked over to where she was sitting, but as soon as he got closer she sprang into the air, flapping around him twice before settling down at the table where he was initially sitting. Harry frowned and walked back. Again, as soon as he got close, Hedwig hopped to the other side of the table and began preening, apparently ignoring him.

Hermione looked between him and his owl, suppressing a smile before she tutted at him. "Honestly Harry, just give it to me." Harry handed her the letter and Hedwig allowed her to attach it without complaint, and fluttered off through the owl entrance as soon as she released her.

"I wonder what that was about?" Harry thought out loud. "Who knows, she's an owl." Hermione answered, unconcerned. "Now, tell me more about this neural spire..."

oOoOoOo

The moon that night was only half full, but the sky was clear. Harry's breath hung like a cloud in the still air, while his boots crunched on frosted ground. "At least it's not raining" Harry muttered to himself as he crept through the shadows. He was trying to keep out of sight of the castle by taking the long way around, although he wouldn't expect anyone to be staring out the windows at this time of night. It hadn't been hard to sneak out. The attitude of the other Gryffindors had softened somewhat towards him, both in shock at the danger he had to face, and his new found nonchalance towards their antipathy. They seemed to have reached something of a détente, both sides content to ignore each other, and so no-one would have bothered him, even if they had noticed him sneaking out. Hermione had point blank refused to accompany him. "You may be a champion", she had said, "But the rest of us can still lose points!"

As Harry reached the forest, he relaxed. His swarm could not easily approach when he was crossing the open ground, but once within the shelter of the trees, they were there for him. He felt at home, surrounded by monsters. For the first time in as long as he could remember, Harry was safe.

Sirius found no such comfort amongst the trees. He skulked through the same starlit night Harry did, but for him the looming bulk of the forest was not a sign of safety, but a symbol of danger. He was not at home in the forest, and every rustle in the undergrowth had him jumping with nerves. Nevertheless, he kept going. He would live in a cave for his godson. He would eat rats for his godson. He would risk his very soul to sneak past dementors for his godson. What were a few dark trees and shadows compared to that?

So a shaggy black dog crawled through the night, his every muscle tensed, ready to bolt at each flicker of sound. Suddenly, he heard a whirring and clicking in the trees in front of him. Something huge was approaching, either that or he was facing a veritable horde of vermin. Not wanting to stay around to see what it was, he turned to escape – and found himself staring at dozens of glowing eyes! There was squealing and chattering all around him, as he spun frantically in circles, searching for a way out. They were everywhere! And they were getting closer. Now he could see them – dark shapes, small but fast, shifting and flowing, squirming through the undergrowth and branches around him. Flashes of fang in the darkness, glowing eyes catching the light. Sirius took a deep breath. He felt a great calm settling on him, as he realized they were toying with him. He was not going to escape. He decided to make a break for it, and crouched to leap. His lips curled into a vicious grin. He always knew he would go down fighting. His only regret, as he prepared to sell his life dearly, was that Harry would be left alone. To hell with me then! Sirius thought, and thrust himself forward.

Harry was strolling through the forest, when his swarm alerted him to an incursion. A big black dog was try to sneak through his forest. Harry laughed happily, feeling his spirits lift. Sirius was here! He started running through the forest to meet him, while his reapers gathered nearby, sharing his joy. Despite keeping an eye on padfoot as he approached, he was surprised to see him crouch down, and suddenly leap forward just as he got there.

Harry was almost bowled over by the big dog, having just enough warning to jump out of the way. "Sirius"! Harry called. "Hey there, it's me!"

Sirius caught sight of Harry, and shifted back to human form at once. "Harry!" he called, panicked arms waving. "You've got to run! There's something – look out!" he yelled, rushing forward to put himself between Harry and the swarm.

"It's ok! It's ok, relaxed, they're not going to hurt us." Harry said, putting his hand on his godfathers shoulder. "look," he gestured towards them, "they're going away now. We're fine." Harry commanded the swarm to pull back, and had the surrounding reapers disperse back into the forest until they were all out of sight.

Sirius stared after them, squinting to try and pierce the darkness. "What's going on Harry? What were they?"

"I told you, I've got somewhere safe for you to stay. That was the swarm. I control them."

"You – what? Control them? How – what are they?" Sirius asked, bewildered, but relaxing now that the danger seemed to have passed.

Harry smiled. "Yep. I was worried about the first task, and I thought I needed an edge, so I used an old ritual to summon a familiar. What I got, was the swarm. It started as just one, but it's been growing ever since – now I control hundreds of those little things, as well as even more!"

Sirius shook his head vaguely. "If you say so. Merlin knows strange things are always happening around you." He took another deep breath. "Ok then. Ok. Why don't you lead the way, and you can tell me all about it."

Harry smiled again. It was good to have his godfather back! Harry hesitated, wanting to hug the man, but still not being comfortable with that level of contact. Deciding against it, he instead started leading the way through the forest, Sirius stumbling after him. Noticing that he was having trouble walking in the dark, Harry realized that he wasn't. Somehow, he was instinctively filling in his perception with the sight from the Reapers lurking in the trees above him. He turned, drawing his wand, and handed it to his godfather. "Here. I don't need it, but you can use it to make light."

Sirius wordlessly took the wand, instinctively muttering lumos as he did so. The tip of the wand lit with a dim glow, barely enough to see by, and he felt a chill crawl up his back at the flickering shadows of the leaves. This forest had always had a disturbing aura, and it had only gotten worse in the years he had been away. Or maybe it was the tatters his mind had been left in by the dementors. Either way, the darkness was haunting.

The pair made their way slowly through the forest, Harry explaining the swarm as best he was able as they went. Sirius was at first reluctant to accept it, but after Harry called up a Reaper and had it dance in front of them, he decided that the horrible things were probably not dangerous, at least to Harry, and anything that could help protect him was worth having. Even if they did seem a little, well, dark.

After a good half hour of walking, they caught sight of a faint glow in front of them. It seemed to pulse different colours, first blue, then green, then blue again, all the time backed by a faint tint of gold. Sirius raised his arm to push a branch out of his way, and abruptly stepped from tangled roots onto flat, beaten earth. In front of him was a deep pool, a dozen feet across, and filled with a viscous liquid that was the source of the faint golden glow. Behind it was a large... object... of some sort. Roughly box shaped, and a good eight feet tall, it looked like a tree stump covered in chitinous flesh. Dull grey in colour, it was covered in heavy plates that continuously seemed to shift and move, with stiff rods protruding randomly from the surface. Next to that whatever it was, Sirius saw a tall spine, a towering pillar reaching for the sky like great fang burst from the earth. This one was the source of the blue-green glowing, being ribbed with thick veins, that pulsed like the beating of a hideous heart. Surrounding them were several other things, unnatural monstrosities all, but they weren't nearly so horrifying as the glowing pillar that captured his gaze.

Sirius felt weak. Whatever these things were, they were horrible beyond belief, and he shuddered. The gross monstrosities before him held his attention, unable to pull away, and filled his soul with fear. They were alien, corrupt and perverse. The spire pulsed, and as the sickly colours washed over him, Sirius felt his stomach revolt and his eyes water. The world around him twisted and distorted, spinning, spinning, as he felt his balance shift, like the world he was standing on was whirling beneath him. Harry's wand dropped from nerveless fingers, and the light from it faded, leaving nothing in the world beyond himself and the ever-increasing horror of the thing in front of him.

Harry, on the other hand, felt warm and comfortable. The synapse node humming in front of him radiated a sense of peace and tranquillity. He felt a smile settle on his face, as he let the faint glow of his neural spire wash over him, filling him with a sense of rightness. The spire pulsed, blue and green in turn, singing with joy in time with his own heart, and making the rest of the world seem strange and alien by comparison. That was where he was meant to be. This was... Wait. Where was Sirius? Glancing around, Harry saw that Sirius had fallen to his knees at the edge of the glade, his expression twisted in fear.

"D'oh!" Harry exclaimed, clapping his hand to his forehead. "I forgot the toxic aura!"

It was a defence mechanism, that all buildings with a high synapse aura produced. Any creatures not of the swarm that tried to approach would be filled with fear. It was basically the swarms version of the muggle-repelling wards that wizards use. Feeling rather silly, Harry ordered the swarm to exclude Sirius from the aura. It was strange, he had had no knowledge, or at least no conscious knowledge, of this power until now, but as soon as he considered it, it felt like he had always been aware of it.

Sirius gasped, falling to all fours as the fear fell away form him. "Harry!" he gasped, panting for breath. "We've... we've got to... got to go. It's evil, Harry, don't let it get you!" Sirius forced himself to his feet. Sweat pouring from his face, he forced himself forward, the only thought on his mind to get Harry, and get out!

Harry was impressed with Sirius's determination. Stepping forward he took his arm, and gently guided him to sit down. "It's ok Sirius, really. It was just a, a, just a spell. A repelling ward. These are part of the swarm. You're safe."

Sirius put his head in his hands, his heart pounding in his chest. "I've faced dementors, Harry. Lived with them for years. And I've never felt anything as terrifying as that." Looking back up, a serious expression on his face, he continued. "Whatever those things are, they are not your friends." Sirius felt torn.

"Look around" Harry said, gesturing at the Guardians that surrounded the clearing. They were tall, heavily built, and clearly just as heavily armed. They towered above the two wizards, looking something like a giant centaur wrapped in heavy plate. One of them had four limbs instead of two, each arm ending in a four foot long, razor sharp scythe. Another had thick fists, each of its six fingers ending in a vicious looking serrated claw. Each was slightly different form the other, but the one thing they all had in common, was that they looked like the could go toe to toe – or rather, hoof to talon – with a Hungarian Horntail and come out on top. "They are called guardians, and their job is to protect me."

Sirius looked around at them, and then back to Harry, who was staring at him hopefully. He could sense this was a critical juncture, and that Harry really needed him to believe in him. Against his better judgement, Sirius sighed and nodded. Deep in his heart, he know that these creatures, these alien beasts, were nothing good, but at the same time he couldn't let Harry down. Sirius felt his heart twist. "Alright Harry" he said, "If you say they are safe, that's good enough for me." Quietly, in the silence of his mind, Sirius resolved to do anything he could to break Harry away from their influence. Now, however, was not the time – Harry clearly needed his support, so support him he would.

Harry relaxed and smiled. "Good! You can stay here. The guardians will protect you, and I can have the reapers bring you food. I've seen some wild deer in the forest, shouldn't be too hard to catch. How do you feel about venison for breakfast?"

Sirius smiled back, reaching for something normal to say, and falling back on his old standbys: pranks and girls. "Pretty good. So, why don't you tell me what else is new? Any pretty girls I should know about? Pull any fun pranks?"

Harry grinned and relaxed beside his godfather, prepared to spend the night trading jokes by the warm glow of the digestion pool. For once, everything was going well. No life threatening emergencies weighing on his mind, and he was happy to take an evening off to just be a kid. Even if he was a kid in charge of a swarm of creatures, the likes of which the earth has never known before.

End Chapter

A/N: So, there you have it – a bit of a departure from the usual Zerg-Kill-World stories. Please, tell me what you think! My main focus in this story is going to be Harry's struggle to maintain his humanity, both in the face of the ever-growing power of his swarm, and in the other humans reaction to it, something you've just seen a taste of here. If you want to skip the fluffy-soul-character stuff and get to some hard core world-conquering action, I suggest you skip to one of the sequels. You don't need to have read this story to understand them. (At time of posting this chapter, sequels are not yet available – but I am planning on releasing them in parallel with this story, so they will be coming soon).

I've also been working on making my sentences shorter, and paragraphs longer. I'm also pushing for 5000 word chapters instead of the 3000 I've been doing previously – what do you think? A better length?