The Possession

A/N: Usual disclaimers... nothing here belongs to me.

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The Possession
Ch 1: Don't Panic

A great ruckus made its way to the classroom in which Minerva McGonagall was teaching her afternoon Advanced Complex Transfigurations class. It was a very annoying disturbance as the class was in the middle of attempting to transfigure themselves into animals which was a very difficult task indeed.

"What on earth is going on out there?" Minerva huffed and walked decidedly towards the door as she straightened her pointy purple cap.

She opened the great oak door to the classroom and peered into the hallway. There, she saw Professor Trelawney scrambling about and waving her hands in the air. Her frizzy, light brown hair held back with one of her gaudy, multi-colored headbands was flying around behind her as she moved. Trelawney looked even more desperately confounded than usual.

"Don't panic children! Don't come out of your classrooms," the Divination teacher called out. "All is well! No problems at all,"

Unfortunately, her alerts were causing precisely the actions she was trying to dissuade. Students were coming out into the hallway trying to find out what the commotion was about.

"Oh no, children! There's no danger here. Back to class," Trelawney tried to assure the curious students. She tried to keep a happy smile but her eyes belied her expression. Her eyes, magnified by her thick round glasses, even wider than usual were blinking nervously.

"Sybill?" Minerva walked towards her. "What are you doing?"

"Ah, Minerva," Trelawney giggled nervously for several annoying moments before continuing. "Transfigurations, yes. You have Miss Hermione Granger in your class now?"

"Yes, I do. Why?" the elder Professor asked.

"Ah, alright. Well then," Trelawney pushed past McGonagall and went to the classroom door. She waved to the students inside momentarily, then slammed the door shut and posed herself in front of the door as if to block anyone from entering the room.

"What are you--" Minerva frowned, but a roar came from down the hall which caused her to clutch her robes around her heart. "What was that?"

"A little mishap in class today. Dumbledore knows," Trelawney giggled nervously once again as she shrugged her shoulders.

-

Suddenly, the students in the hallway were shrieking and either running back into their classrooms or further down the hall.

"Run!" someone shouted.

"He's gone crazy!" another person screamed.

Minerva watched as the crowd tried to disperse as well as it could. Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter made their ways towards her.

"Professor!" Harry shouted through labored breaths. "Where's Hermione?"

"Mr. Potter," she said putting her hands on his shoulders to calm him down. "What is the matter? Will someone please explain what is going on here?"

"It's Malfoy!" Ron shouted. "He's possessed or something! I think he wants to kill Hermione!"

"What?" Minerva spun around to question Professor Trelawney, but the roaring was getting louder by the second.

"Let us inside!" Harry bellowed at Trelawney who was still blocking the door to the classroom. She moved aside and let Harry and Ron through.

But, no sooner had door closed, then a great growl came from just meters away.

"Mr. Malfoy?" Minerva looked upon him with shock.

The blond Slytherin was stalking towards them not quite on all fours, but he was hunched over to almost make it seem that way. His blond hair was wild and partially covering his face, but everyone could see the unnatural glow in his feral, black eyes. Draco Malfoy was nearly unrecognizable- he looked more like a dangerous animal than a person.

Minerva drew out her wand and pointed it at Draco. "Halt, Mr. Malfoy! Don't come any nearer,"

"Er..Minerva. We've tried some spells, but it's too strong," Sybill tried to tell her. "We can't seem to stop it,"

"What's too strong? What do you mean 'it'?" she asked.

"The manticore," Sybill told her nervously. "A manticore spirit has inhabited his body,"

Sniffing the air, Draco drew closer to the classroom. "Where is she?" the thing growled with rage. The frightening voice that emerged from Draco's body seemed like a combination of his human one and another disembodied, but ferocious creature.

"Minerva," Dumbledore rushed over to the two cowering professors as he silently instructed the rest of the students in the hallway to run. "Step away from Mr. Malfoy as quietly as you can. Sybill, please remain calm,"

The creature took several heaving breaths and let out an enraged howl. Sybill shrank to the floor as Draco hovered menacingly over her and then began banging on the door.

---

Inside, the seventh years quickly moved away from the door as far as they could. It was all a big jumble, but it seemed from what Harry and Ron were telling everyone the Slytherin had gone crazy and was intended to hurt someone- namely, Hermione.

"Ouch! You're both crushing me," Hermione cried as Ron and Harry flattened her again the stone brick wall.

"Spells won't work against him," Harry ignored her protests of being sandwiched between them and the wall.

"I've tried everything I know and it didn't slow him down one bit," Ron told him. "The damn git's indestructible,"

"Dumbledore couldn't do anything either. Well, not without killing him I suppose," Harry added.

"He's strong too. They had to take Justin and Ernie to the hospital,"

"And, why exactly, is he coming after me?" Hermione asked as she tried to catch her breath.

"I guess he's on about the whole muggle-born thing. He must know that no one can stop him now," Harry grimaced.

"Great. Just great," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Another barrage of slams against the door and loud growls echoed through the classroom. Lavender Brown was crying as were several of the other girls. The students had distanced themselves from the trio as they heard that only Hermione appeared to be the target of the thing's anger.

Suddenly, heavy oak door splintered, broke off from its hinges and landed with a deafening crash onto the stone floor. Several people screamed as they saw the possessed form of Draco creeping into the room. It did not help that by this year, Draco had grown much taller and was also now quite a bit larger and stronger from his Quidditch training.

Draco snarled at huddled group of students showing his teeth that almost seemed like they had grown and sharpened themselves.

"Get out!" the thing roared. It was plainly obvious that there was something terrifying inhabiting or at least sharing Malfoy's body. It was creature out of a nightmare.

The students nearly knocked each other over trying to get out of the room as quickly as they could. The Draco-Manticore leaped on to a desk and glared at the remaining Gryffindors.

"Any bright ideas, Hermione? Now would be a great time for one," Harry whispered.

"I don't suppose we could reason with him?" she tried.

"Reason with him?! Malfoy isn't reasonable when he's in his right mind!" Ron spluttered. "Just, look at him now!"

Before they realized what was happening, Draco was falling to the ground. Ropes flew through the air in succession and snaked themselves around him tightly. He roared and growled fiercely as he tried to free himself.

"Now!" Dumbledore motioned towards the door. "Hurry!"

But, it was too late. Although the ropes were strong, Draco was ripping through them easily with his new found abilities.

"Draco," the Headmaster called out in a commanding tone. "Listen to the sound of my voice. Concentrate on my voice,"

Draco turned to look at the old wizard. His head cocked from side to side as he studied him.

"I need you to--," Dumbledore was cut off.

"No!" Draco shouted as he sprung over the desks to land in front of Harry and Ron.

Suddenly, Ron was thrown into the air but luckily Dumbledore was able to catch him. Draco reached for Harry and tossed him like a rag doll over his shoulder. He landed onto Ron and the old wizard causing them to all go crashing to the floor.

The creature grinned as it made it way, without obstacles, towards Hermione. She backed into the corner and braced herself for whatever was coming next. The thing that was and wasn't Draco crept as close as it could to the diminutive Gryffindor. It was smelling her.

Calm down. The small of fear is strong. Or worse… blood. Is he smelling what courses through my veins? Purity…pure… impure…

Rising to his feet, Ron rushed to a desk and picked up a textbook. He threw it as hard as he could at Draco and clipped him in the shoulder.

"Get away from her, Malfoy!" he shouted.

Harry came to help and collected as many books as he could. They both began hurling as many books as they could at the Draco-Manticore creature. It howled in anger and stumbled off to the side.

"It's working!" Harry exclaimed. He ran to the shelf behind McGonagall's desk to grab more books.

"OH NO!" Ron screamed causing Harry to turn just in time to see a large hardcover text hitting Hermione square on the head.

Hermione let out a surprised little cry and crumpled onto the floor. Two dark rivers began to flow from somewhere past her hairline. She closed her eyes and slumped down a little further.

The creature roared with a terrible rage so loud that people in other parts of the castle had to cover their ears. Draco picked up several desks and easily threw them at Ron and Harry who had no choice but to flee the room. The desks crashed into the opposite wall splintering and breaking on contact. Draco continued to roar and throw desks at the wall until a mound of debris nearly blocked the entire doorway.

Then, it was quiet.

---

"What's goin' on?" a voice called from down the hall.

"Hagrid!" Harry said with relief as the half-giant made his way through the crowd.

"Hagrid," Dumbledore smiled "We need your expertise. What can you tell us about manticores?"

"Oh, manticores. Nasty business, they are. The Ministry has 'em as class five wizard-killers. But, why'd ya want ter know anyway?" the Care of Magical Creatures professor asked.

"Can you control them?" McGonagall asked.

"No, not really. Why? S'there one in ‘ere?" Hagrid asked curiously not understanding the situation.

In a flurry of sentences without any punctuation at all, Harry explained how Draco had been possessed by the spirit of a manticore while in Divinations. Then, they had followed him into the tower as Draco had single-mindedly gone after Hermione.

"...so she's still in there and she's hurt really bad and in danger too. I think Malfoy's going to kill her or eat her or something!" he finished and finally took a deep breath.

Hagrid rushed to the door and went in as far as he could with the wreckage being in the way. He looked around for moment and then went back into the hallway, "Nah, she's doin' alright,"

"What?! You're not going to do anything at all?" Ron screamed.

"Nah, Draco's healing 'er head right now. She looks okay ter me," Hagrid shrugged.

Harry and Ron frowned and went with the professors to the door. They peered inside and sure enough, Malfoy had his hand over Hermione's head. There was a soft glow emulating from him and Hermione's cheeks were beginning to fill with color once again.

"What's this?" Ron asked as he watched the creature pull Hermione into it arms and begin to gently rock her back and forth. Then, it began to howl very softly as though it was pain.

Sensing that he was being watched, Draco shot his eyes towards the door and growled at the group of witches and wizards until they ducked away from the opening.

"What's he doing, Hagrid?" Harry asked.

"Oh, well.... manticores are really protective of their mates. They're monogamous, ya know. Gentle, really, but only with their mates. Terrible tempers otherwise. I thinks I read somewhere that---" Hagrid was beginning to ramble.

"Wait," Ron shook himself. "Mates? What on earth are you going on about?"

"Malfoy hates Hermione! Why would he think that she's his mate?" Harry questioned.

"Dunno, maybe it's partly tha manticore an' maybe it's Malfoy," the giant shrugged.

"So then Mr. Malfoy will not harm Miss Granger for the time being?" McGonagall asked.

"Oh no, not if he thinks of her as his mate," Hagrid told her. "He's healed her. They can do that ya know. Manticores are killers and they're immune to most kinds of magic. But, they're real good to their mates and children... well, until they get older and then they'll try ta kill 'em too,"

"How nice," Ron frowned.

"Well, he does seem like he's calmed down now," Dumbledore said. "Hagrid, can you look for some way to capture Mr. Malfoy without injuring him too unnecessarily?"

"Of course, Sir," Hagrid said as he ran off. "Strong, big cage..."

"Professors Trelawney and McGonagall, would you please start looking for a way to extract the manticore spirit from our young Slytherin?" Dumbledore continued. "And, the rest of you and prefects- return to your houses. Meals will not be served in the Great Hall this evening. I must ask you to remain in your dormitories until we have captured the manticore,"

The crowd dispersed and left only a few individuals behind. Dumbledore was off to one side speaking with Professors Snape and Flitwick.

-

"So, what happens when Hermione wakes up?" Ron quietly asked Harry.

"I dunno," Harry winced. "But, 'Mione's going to be real cross with you for smashing her on the head with that book,"

"Yeah, I know," Ron swallowed thickly.

"You know, she can probably take on Draco and that manticore on her own," Harry said quietly as he stole another glance inside the room and saw that Malfoy was still rocking her in his arms waiting for her to wake up. If it hadn't been for the odd circumstances, he would have said that Hermione actually looked quite pretty. Almost like Sleeping Beauty at that moment.

"Yeah, she's scary when she’s angry. Malfoy and that manticore are going to need all the help they can get when she wakes up," Ron agreed whole-heartedly.

-End of Ch. 1-


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