One Honest Heart

18. Lappertapper

There are creatures known to witches and
wizards, written about in works on magical beasts, sold in the quaint shops of
Diagon Alley and its darker sibling, that can be thought of as magical only by
association with this hidden world that Muggles know so little about. While
they are used in intricate magic or occult rituals, the creatures themselves
are merely unusual, lacking any innate magic. They are listed in magical texts
but have thus far eluded the thorough cataloguing of Muggle biologists. It has
been said that any sufficiently advanced form of technology is
indistinguishable from magic. The same could be said for these queer creatures,
known only to such a very small subsection of humanity.

One
such creature is the Lappertapper. Miniscule enough to remain invisible to any
eye that does not seek its presence, the Lappertapper exists only in colonies
of thousands, each of them working as a synaptic node so that the colony can
function as one creature.

Parasitic by nature, these weird creatures invade the oral cavity of their
host. They prefer placement on the tongue, but once it is claimed, they will
spread beyond its borders, sticking to any soft surface available.

Once
established inside a host, the Lappertappers tap energy from the host’s food,
sucking vitamins, minerals, fat, and even magic from any organic material
coming into contact with them. There are variants that tap till the food loses
all its nourishing power but these are aberrations. Such mutations never survive
to increase their numbers since their hosts die much too quickly. The common
Lappertapper, however, weakens its host over a long period of time, thus having
ample chances to migrate to a new host – during a failed act of mouth-to-mouth
resuscitation if not sooner.

Lappertappers
are only – illegally – sold in Knockturn Alley.

—from
Essays
on the Dark Side by Charles Wist, 1987