Because We Are Snakes

Because We Are Snakes – The Hellish Summer

Summer so far had been one clusterfuck after the other. He was still having nightmares and his relatives were getting absolutely annoying… more than usual if he dared say so.

The unquenchable hunger inside him was going to drive him insane and he found he could no longer eat fresh vegetables. Fruits, seeds, grains, and pretty much just about anything as fair game and meat was tasting as good as he imagined heaven would feel lately but vegetables sent him into a pucking fit filled with cramps that were as horrible as detention with Snape or the idea if kissing said man.

Dudley was on a diet again, which meant he too was on a diet as ‘moral support’, the main menu… lettuce.

‘Yippie.’

That brought him back to Dudley, one of Harry’s biggest concerns at the moment.

Dudley kept taunting him about Cedric and Harry was just about ready to kick him in the balls, regardless of the beating he would get after it from Uncle Vernon. It would all be so, so, worth it in the end. To hear Dudley scream and feel his balls crunch under his foot. But he had already gotten several beatings in the three weeks he had been at Number Four because he kept waking everyone up in the middle of the night with his screams, so he thought he might want to curve his urges to prevent any more.

It would not be good to provoke Vernon to beat him; the fat bastard seemed to be going for the record as it was... so he might as well do his best to not give him the satisfaction.

His beloved cousin had been yapping non-stop for ten minutes not as Harry knelt on the ground as he played with his gardening tools. Finally, Dudley decided to leave him be and go after some other poor soul in the neighborhood for him and his cronies to torment, it left Harry to finally being able to go back to tending his garden. This was his garden, not Petunia’s as she claimed every summer before the judges of the neighborhood counsil, because he was the one who took care of it since he was six and every single one of those first place ribbons on Aunt Petunia’s mantle from the Best Garden Award belonged to him and him alone.

One of these days he would leave this place, he knew, and he would burn the whole bloody garden out of spite and take every single one of those ribbons with him. He would love to see Petunia’s face when he did it, it would be positively amusing.

‘Huh… Funny how picturing Aunt Petunia’s face in different situations has become a bit of a pastime these days.’

As Dudley walked away he made it a point to not look in his cousin’s direction, not because he was afraid of Dudley, being poisonous kind of cured him of that particular ailment, but because every time he looked at the bigger boy he could not help but think that his whale of a cousin looked like a pig ready to slaughter and he was so very hungry.

‘He might even taste like pork.’

‘Gods my life is so weirds… I’m so weird.’

He should find some fresh meat to eat soon or he would end up sinking his teeth into Dudley, he was sure of it, and it would not bode well for his reputation if people found out he ate his cousin.

He had already found himself staring intently at Dudley in several occasions, his thoughts going from ‘Here piggy, piggy.’ to ‘Die, let me rip you, let me kill you… kill, kill, kill.’ And most distressingly ‘Tear you to pieces… eat your heart raw.’ Sometimes he was sure the only reason he hadn’t eaten his cousin yet was because the guy was so positively big he would in no way be able to hide the rest of the body…

‘although, maybe burying him in the garden?’

Nah, there was no way he was going to uproot his roses to hide Dudley’s mutilated corpse. Besides, questions would be asked and the last thing he needed was people looking at him too closely. Was it awful of him that he was currently more concerned about uprooting his roses than the possibility of killing his cousin and having to find a place to hide the body? Maybe, but his morals had been going through a very thorough remaking since the end of second year and currently hung very loosely.

‘Hah! A man of loose morals… funny.’

He needed meat.

This whole situation reminded him of the basilisk in the chamber, how hungry it must have been, and how hungry he was. It was driving him barmy… or barmier than he already suspected he was.

‘Snakes eat meat, you are a snake, and he is nothing but a pig.’ A voice said in his head, oldly enough it sounded like Snape of all people. ‘Great, just what I need, voices in my head. Because my mind was not screwed up enough already. But I guess I should have expected it, my life is not even close to normal and Ron did say second year that hearing voices in your head was not considered normal even in the Wizarding world.’

What was his obsession with Snape anyways? It wasn’t like he could even stand he man.

‘Whatever…’

Things wouldn’t be so bad if the Dursleys actually fed him, but his portions were none existent at worse and meager at best, and he was never allowed meat. Thankfully, one of his traps was able to capture that rabbit which had been digging holes between his roses. He would enjoy digging into it and would place the fur along with the other two he had collected so far this summer, though he still didn’t know why the hell he was collecting fur of all things but somehow could not get himself to get rid of them.

It was yet another of those weird things going on with him that he had no idea how to explain, like his newfound inability to regulate his own temperature, his edginess and pointed propensity for violent reactions –not that that was anything new but it was more obvious now-, then it was the hunger he could never quite satiate and that constant pulsing and warmth in his stomach. That last one particularly he had no idea what it was about and it was most curious. Harry found his resent increase in hunger very annoying, usually he could eat a rabbit and it would satisfy his need for meat for a couple days over a week or close to two depending on the amount of work his family had him doing, it was not ideal and his hunger wasn’t quite gone but at least he wasn’t starving. Now he was always hungry and ever since Vernon and Petunia realized he could no longer stand the taste of fresh vegetables they had taken away the stale piece of bread that accompanied his vegetables and only provided and leaves of lettuce for his meals.

He was sure they enjoyed hearing him retch his guts out after they ordered him not to waste the generous meal they provided for him and to make sure not to leave a single speck on his plate.

How he hated them all.

Harry sunk his fingers into the wet soil and for some reason wanted to roll on it and burry himself underneath it for a long nap, Merlin he was getting weird lately. Not that he cared really, but this sudden want to start bringing moist dirt into the house was where he drew the line. There was just no way he was bringing dirt into Petunia’s house… besides, his strange want to pile it in his room was just so weird.

Later that day he got another beating, he still had no idea why but he clearly remembered that he made himself into a tight ball on the floor as Vernon kicked him in the kidneys. This wouldn’t have been so strange if it had not been accompanied with the strange certainty that he needed to protect his stomach. Another thing he had no idea what the hell that was about, he just filed it in his head under some kind of self preservation instinct and moved on.

He still lay curled up bleeding from his mouth and nose on the kitchen floor when the Dursleys made their theatrics about going out on their family outing and that he was not to leave the house, touch anything, or do anything freaky in their absence or else.

He was thankful when he heard the car go down the driveway. He could finally eat.

With trembling legs he gathered the rabbit from the trap and brought it to the kitchen to skin and clean, there was blood all over Petunia’s white marble counters and he amused himself as he pictured what her face would look like if she witnessed such a ghastly scene.

Then as he stared at the naked flesh of his meal, the pan over the stove waiting for him to season and cook his meal, his mind was assaulted by one thought.

Hungry

So hungry

So, so, hungry

Around and around those words went inside his head and before he knew it he was tearing flesh from the rabbit with his teeth and swallowing as he moaned during and after every single bite. He had eaten the whole thing by the time he came back to awareness of his actions and realized what he had just done.

He was horrified.

It was the first time he ate meat completely raw and straight from the animal. Harry tried to console himself with the fact that at least the rabbit had been dead and that if he thought about it, for weeks, he had steadily been moving from fully cooked meat to more and more raw.

It was still a hard thing to make peace with but he kept repeating over and over that it was okay, because he was a basilisk, because he wasn’t fully human, because he was a snake.

He cleaned the mess in the kitchen and by the time he was done he was really tired, even though he had only worked in the garden today and that had only been in the morning. Maybe it was the beatings? Or because his body had to adjust to digesting raw meat now? He had never been this tired after eating before. He was cold too, way too cold, he did not like being unable to regulate his temperature anymore. Somehow Harry knew that letting himself get too cold was not a good thing though, so he went to the bathroom and took his clothes off. He was alone so he might as well let loose a bit and get comfortable.

Harry shed his human appearance and looked at himself in the mirror, he had changed again. There were more glistening emerald scales trailing in a small line starting between his nipples and going down from his sternum to a heavily packed patch that covered his lower ribs, stomach and the base of his genitals and even a few small ones went an inch or so down his cock. He shrugged and directed himself to the bathtub.

Seriously, every day something different… at least his life wasn’t boring, though if the ‘excitement’ would ease off a bit that would be really nice.

He lay in the bathtub and filled it with scalding hot water; it was still not hot enough. Harry rested his head on the back of the tub and closed his eyes calling onto that song deep inside him, swimming in his blood, and the water began boiling around and over him. The room filled with the song and his wounds began to heal slowly, his hands clasped over his pelvis unconsciously as he enjoyed the heat of the bubbling boiling water. He remained in the tub until the phone extracted him from his peaceful rest.

Briefly as he walked to the phone he thought that he still had to sit down and sort through the events of the night at the cemetery, he was still not sure how to feel about that whole business, but he sure as hell wished that whatever Dumbledore and Voldemort were playing at they would just leave him out of it. He still had no idea why the both thought he was the key to it all but he sure as hell would figure it out, and once he did, he would take the course of action that best suited his odds at surviving the shit he knew was coming.

He reached the phone and picked it up.

It was time to see what Hermione had to say about the state of affairs in the Wizarding World.

It had been positively irksome the things the Ministry was saying about him –by way of the Prophet of course- and he blamed Dumbledore for it all. Because the man had to go and open his mouth to the minister without having solid proof to back him up knowing full well how much of a weaseling coward Fudge was, how much he liked to look good and appear to be right… like he did when Sirius was captured.

One of these days Fudge would find his comeuppance.

So would everyone else who made his life impossible.

The summer from hell ended with a bang. Because no summer from hell would be complete without a full trial before the Wizengamot as if he was some sort of dangerous criminal –or an adult- for a matter of underage magic in front of someone who he did it in self defense to save his and his cousin’s lives from a Dementor.

Never mind that his cousin was already aware of the Wizarding World and under the International Statute of Secrecy like the families of muggle born’s, half-blood’s, and any muggle raised wizards and witches in the muggle world.

For that matter, now he knew for certain that Dumbledore had spies watching his every move, though he did not expect Ms. Figg… but then again that is what made her an effective spy.

Good thing he had taken to using his cloak when he needed to meet Hermione or when he needed to check the traps he had set under the bushes at the park.

To top it all off, he was getting fat, and it wasn’t even properly fat either it was just a slight bulging in his lower abdomen that could easily be hidden under his much too baggy clothes. He still could not begin to imagine how that happened since he had barely eaten his fill all summer.

At least he would be able to spend a few days at Number 12 before having to go back to Hogwarts.