Before I get on with the story, I'd like to say to one of the guest reviewers, TJG...Please pay more attention next time. I explicitly said in the preamble to the first chapter that one of my inspirations for this story was Ow! My Sanity. In fact, we'll be seeing a Shub-Niggurath who was inspired by Ow! My Sanity in the next chapter, if and when this comes to be published as a full story.

Anyway, here comes the next chapter. I'm gratified the first chapter got good reviews, and hopefully, if my muse allows me, I might just write enough chapters for this story to be uploaded as part of the Christmas update. No promises, though.

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

CHAPTER 2:

MY MOTHER CAN'T POSSIBLY BE THE CRAWLING CHAOS!

Harry woke up to the smell of cooking, his nostrils twitching. He found himself, much to his confusion, on the lounge. And he could hear merry whistling from the kitchen. With some trepidation, wondering whether this was a dream or a nightmare, he walked into the kitchen.

"Well, this isn't a dream or a nightmare," the voice of his mother said, wearing an apron as she fried bacon and eggs in the frying pan on the stove. The apron had, on the front, what looked to be the Sign of Hastur. "Believe me, I know. I've done my share of trekking through them, even if Lovecraft got that crap with Carter wrong. Sorry, I was feeling a mite peckish. I mean, technically, I don't need to eat, but when you've been cooped up for almost fifteen years in a coffin, you get the oddest cravings. And I want cholesterol and protein. Pregnancy's worse, though. Have you ever wanted Shoggoth soup? That's not as easy as going down to Tesco's or Marks and Spencer for it. Anyway, you want any? I mean, I was going to have it all, but I can share."

Harry looked at the veritable mountain of bacon and eggs she had cooked already, sitting in a veritable mountain on a platter. It was almost as big as a Dalek, and probably just as deadly, even if only in the long term. "Uhhh…I won't say no to a little?"

"Sure. Anything for my son. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why, oh why, aren't I appearing as some sinister-looking Egyptian? Well, I can shapeshift, I get bored. I like a bit of variety. And having breasts. Plus, Lovecraft pretty much ground that whole evil Pharaoh thing into the dust, and I wanted to experience a human life, more or less. Like I said, I get bored. I mean, I'm so old, if I had an affair with Nicholas Flamel, I'd be seen as cradle snatching." She pursed her lips. "Now there's a thought. Maybe I should look the Flamels up, see if they're still open to having a threesome."

In an attempt not to think of his mother as being involved in a threesome with the Flamels, Harry said, "…Actually, they're dead."

"No, they're not. I saw your memories, but Dumbledore probably fed you BS. Or, more likely, they fed him BS. The Flamels aren't likely to have given him a real Philosopher's Stone. Considering I was the one who gave it to them in the first place, I'd be really annoyed if they did."

Harry shook his head. "And how the hell could you be the Crawling Chaos? There's no way you can be! I mean, always assuming that this isn't some Death Eater trick!"

"If it was a Death Eater trick, you'd probably be in Voldemort's hands, under the Cruciatus by now. Incidentally, I'm proud of you with what you did during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Facing off against a dragon is no mean feat when you have only the power of a human mage," Lily said. "And what you did when fighting Voldemort. Of course, if you had full access to your power, well, you would have squashed him like a cockroach beneath your foot. Squish."

Harry didn't know what to say to that, sitting down shakily at the dining room table. Lily finished her cooking, and brought over the platter. She gave Harry a serving, and then brought the platter over to herself. "Sorry, this is going to be more than a little disturbing," she confessed, before her mouth distended in an OH THAT'S SO VERY WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS way, and the bacon and eggs began going into her OH GOD WHAT IS THAT THING IS THAT EVEN A MOUTH?! at high speed. Accompanied by a noise that sounded like the organic version of a WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS THAT NOISE?! vacuum cleaner. Then, it was over, and she was belching softly, her mouth back to normal. "Excuse me," she said.

Harry looked down at his plate, and then gingerly cut up his meal. Oddly enough, what he just saw didn't affect his appetite. Well, not enough to deter him from eating it, anyway. Actually, he was quite ravenous.

"Sorry about that," Lily said, patting her HOW IN THE WORLD IS IT NOT DISTENDED?! belly. "I was just so hungry, and, well, I didn't have the patience to do it any other way. I'm sure this is a shock, that learning that Lovecraft was…somewhat right, in broad strokes…and that your mother is Nyarlathotep."

"I can believe you're…something," Harry said.

"Hmm, maybe I shouldn't tell you about your father yet," Lily mused. "That's only going to make things worse. Long story short, James Potter isn't your father, partly because James was shooting blanks. He didn't know it, and I didn't see fit to enlighten him. I just put a special glamour onto you so you'd look like him. I'll have to wait until you are used to things before I tell you who daddy really is."

Harry nodded, only for the door to open in the distance. "BOY! YOU'D BETTER NOT BE STEALING ANY OF OUR FOOD!" bellowed Vernon after a brief pause.

"You haven't been stealing enough," Lily muttered darkly. And as the Dursleys entered, and saw Lily, her eyes FLASHED WARPED SCINTILLATED GLOWED PULSED strobed all the colours of the WHAT WAS THAT COLOUR?! rainbow. They instantly collapsed, convulsing briefly, before subsiding.

"…Why did everything taste purple just then?" Harry asked.

"Oh, it was basically the mental equivalent of a stun grenade," Lily said. "I think I overdid it with my brother-in-law and my nephew. I knew my sister would probably have just enough intelligence and willpower to overwhelm a more casual attack, but…" She sniffed the air, and scowled. "Hmm. Vernon and Dudley have shit themselves. Maybe I've given them a stroke."

With that rather dark pronouncement, Lily strutted over, and pulled Petunia off the floor by the throat with one hand, and her scowl deepened. "Oh, so you did it too? This is not the time to join the Brown Trousers Club, my dear sister. That comes later." She gestured, and the dark stain on Petunia's dress disappeared. She then pulled Petunia over to another chair at the dining room table, and snapped her fingers twice. The first time, ropes secured Petunia to the chair. The second time, Petunia woke up. Her eyes narrowed upon seeing Lily, only for her eyes to bulge, and she vomited onto the table.

"Side effects of having your mind flayed may include nausea, myalgia, neuralgia, nostalgia, general delirium, incontinence, constipation, gastric reflux, and halitosis. If symptoms persist, see your doctor," Lily said cheerfully. "Hello, Tuney. I thought we'd have a talk."

Petunia glared at Harry. "You…you ungrateful little idiot! You went into the attic! You don't know what you've unleashed upon the world!"

"My mother," Harry said coldly. While part of him felt uneasy at this, another part of him remembered that this was the woman who starved him, hit him, looked on smugly as Vernon and Dudley beat the shit out of him.

"T-T-T-T-T," Lily said, tutting to get Petunia's attention. "Eyes on me, Tuney. Well, unless you'd like to look my son in the eyes and apologise for what you did to him."

"I will never apologise. It's not a crime to imprison a monster," Petunia sneered. "And what you and the boy are…you're even worse than monsters."

"Oh? I thought you'd be grateful, given the fact that it's only thanks to me that you had a baby sister."

"You are not my sister! My sister was miscarried, and my parents turned to the likes of you in their desperation! They sacrificed their magic, MY magic, in exchange for bringing you back to life!"

"See, Harry?" Lily asked. "This is why Tuney hates us both. Not because Howard gave me a bad write-up, but because she lost her magic…and I still had some. All because our parents wanted me to live."

"You are NOT Lily! You're just a devil my parents were tricked into giving a body!" Petunia screeched.

"I'm partly Lily. You can't wear the flesh of a human without taking on some of it. Not that you'd know. You're barely even human. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am a cruel bitch. The things I've done for the hell of it…well, Howard got some things right. But really, Tuney? You weren't so smart, coming to my coffin and gloating like you did."

"The old goat said you'd be imprisoned in there forever!" Petunia sneered. "Dumbledore promised! He promised you'd be there forever and ever and EVER!" She then turned to Harry, and her sneer worsened. "Well, until you died. Then, the prison would become permanent. Goes to show I shouldn't have trusted the old goat!"

Harry stared at Petunia. "What," he said flatly.

"Oh yes," Petunia sneered. She was all but foaming at the mouth. "The old goat left you here, as the bars to this monster's prison! Obviously, he didn't do a good enough job if you managed to get out!"

"You're showing a lot of bravado for a woman who's dead, even if she hasn't stopped breathing yet," Lily said.

"Oh, Dumbledore will have all sorts of alarms and things! And he'll be here to put you back where you belong!"

"If he was going to come here, he'd have been here long ago. And there's a distinct lack of goats, I think. Speaking of which, I really DO need to give Shubby a call. She's probably worried." She sighed quietly. "Well, given that I have probably been crueller than you overall over my eons of existence, I'd be hypocritical if I chided you for your cruelty…but I never said I wasn't a hypocrite. Anyway, imprisoning me cannot go unpunished, Tuney. I'm an Outer God, not a bloody djinn in a bottle. Then I'd be a djinn and tonic." There was no laughter at the bad pun, albeit from an audience of two. "No? Tough crowd. You're worse than when I tried to make Howard laugh. It took me slipping on a dog crap in a park for him to even smirk. And by Azathoth, that was horrifying. Seriously, normally he can't smile, and when he does, you know why that is. That smile could make Hastur pee himself, so it's a good thing he's the King in Yellow. Anyway, my point is, Tuney, I actually tried to be a good sister to you. I wanted to make you happy. And while I can't please everyone…you showed a remarkable lack of gratitude in keeping me prisoner and treating my son, a prince amongst the Outer Gods, like a slave."

"And? You are a monster. No, worse than that," Petunia sneered. She opened her mouth to continue, only to be unable to talk.

"Bored now," Lily said in a singsong tone. "You know, I've had plenty of time to think about what sort of punishment you deserve, Tuney, you and your family. After all, one should repay hospitality in kind. I had plenty of time to think in that coffin. One thing you should remember is that I get bored easily, and when you spend over a decade in a coffin, unable to do pretty much anything about that boredom, it's rather unpleasant, to say the least. So, here's what I'm going to do. You and your family are going to be found dead some time tomorrow, going out on an outing. Maybe a picnic or something, I'll figure it out. Someone killed you, maybe I could fake a Death Eater attack. But the thing is, while your bodies will be dead…your souls will be bound to your dead bodies. You'll be able to feel them decaying as you rot within your coffins. You can't move, you can't do anything but wait until your souls are released from your bodies, which they won't do until your bones are dust. And that can take a very long time. Decades, centuries…well, it may not be proportionate, but damn if it won't satisfy me."

Harry saw that Petunia's eyes flickered over to him, wide with fear, pleading with him. For a moment, he was moved, and he very nearly asked this…thing that claimed to be his mother to stop this. But then, he remembered the pitiless, merciless beatings, the abuse, the claims that his parents were drunkards and as worthless as he was. And the fact that she had imprisoned his mother, though he was trying not to think about how Petunia claimed that Dumbledore was involved. He was too overwhelmed by this whole situation, that his mother was the Crawling Chaos, to even think of protesting.

"You might want to look away, sweetie," Lily said. "I'm going to use my powers again, and you might be a bit disturbed."

Harry looked away, and so only saw a brief strobe of what looked like something from a black light, like those used to make certain paints glow in the dark. Then, he looked back, and Petunia was no longer tied up, though she was staring rather vacantly at nothing.

"Okay. Now that I've set the garbage out for collection, it's about time we went home," Lily said. Her tone then became more solemn, more gentle. More caring. "Come on, Harry. Let's go home…"

CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Lily's revenge has just started. But will Harry be a willing participant? And will he be willing to come into his own with his powers?

No numbered annotations this time.