Dark Rage
~Rage vs. Earth~
***
Harry had not been this at peace for a long time. He was currently walking through the park with Hermione. The air was warm, and the world was still. The sky was a light blue, with a few scattered clouds throughout the atmosphere. He relished in the calm and comfort of his surroundings. There was no threat here; all that mattered was Hermione and himself.
"It's been a long time since I've had such peace," Harry sighed.
"You deserve it," said Hermione, leaning into Harry.
There was a comfortable silence between the two as they continued on their path.
"This doesn't seem real," Harry spoke suddenly. "This feels more like a dream."
"I can assure you it is not," said Hermione with a smile towards Harry.
"Every day should be more like this," Harry said while he closed his eyes, savoring the moment.
Hermione just nodded. She too, was savoring the pleasure of the moment. This free time they had together, where there was no threat of anything. No Voldemort, no Death Eaters, nothing.
They began to head towards home.
It was dark by the time they got onto the street that lead to Hermione's house. The full moon was shining brightly, its soft glow illuminating their view. It was a beautiful sight. Hermione felt Harry suddenly stop. She turned and looked at him questioningly. He was gazing at a spot about one hundred yards away. She strained her eyes, trying to see what he could see, but it evaded her grasp.
"Harry, what's wrong?" she asked with concern. She didn't like the look on his face. He was dead serious, and his eyes held a dangerous glint to them.
"Hermione, when I tell you to, I want you to run as fast as you can into your house."
"But Harry, what's wr-"
"Go. NOW!"
Hermione did as she was told. She took off and sprinted as fast as she could towards her house. Just as her hand touched the doorknob, she heard it. A howl. She spun around. The werewolf was running straight towards Harry. She screamed his name.
"Hermione!" she heard him call. "Get in the house!"
"No! Harry! I'm coming to help you!"
"NO! GET IN THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW! IT CAN'T TOUCH YOU THERE!"
No, she thought, I'm going to help him. She started running back towards him.
She screamed as she saw him get tackled by the werewolf. It was mauling him, slashing at him with its razor-sharp claws. She saw blood spray into the air. She was crying his name, not believing what she saw.
But then, all of the sudden, the werewolf was tossed from Harry. She watched in amazement as Harry stood up. His eyes were shimmering that strange red color again. The wind was picking up, and the temperature was beginning to fluctuate. She could feel Harry's fury.
***
Only moments before Harry had thought he was going to die. The werewolf had him pinned and was clawing him to death. But then a voice spoke up.
Come on Harry, you can do better than this!
The Dark, yet again, was speaking to him.
Get out of my mind NOW!
Whoa, whoa I'm just trying to help Harry. I can get you out of this. Just follow my instructions.
NO! GET-OUT-OF-MY-HEAD!
Fine, if you want to die I'll leave. But you do realize, if you die, who will protect your friend? The werewolf will surely get her. I can see it now, the werewolf's claws ripping into her flesh, its fangs, slowly immersing themselves into vital points of her body. The screaming, oh how delicious does that screaming sound! Now, would you want that Harry?
She will not be touched!
So how are you going to tell the werewolf that? You need to show him! Show him that you are superior-that you are the Alpha!
How?
Are you that stupid? You are the most powerful wizard I have ever entered. Use your power, destroy the werewolf!
But how?
Use your anger! Do you remember how much magical energy you channeled when you were angry? Go back to the scene at the Department of Mysteries, where you killed Antonin Dolohov. You were furious, and you placed fear in your enemy's eyes. You were then omnipotent! You were capable of all power! Just think about when I told you your friend would die. I could feel the fury swell inside you. Unleash it! Use that anger! If you don't, SHE WILL DIE!
The werewolf was then thrown back from Harry. He was full of magical energy now. Instead of waiting for the werewolf to come back and attack him, Harry ran after it and wrestled it to the ground. His strength was increased by his abilities, so the super-human strength of the werewolf was no big deal.
The werewolf tried to slash at his face, but Harry caught it with his left hand. Using his right hand, he popped the elbow joint up and relished in joy as the werewolf cried out in pain.
With one quick swipe that Harry didn't have time to block, the werewolf sliced Harry across the right side of his face with its claws. He let go of the werewolf and it bounded away.
Harry recovered quickly from the shock, and then, with an expression of twisted rage, chased after the retreating werewolf. He was running extremely fast, faster than a normal human would have been able to. Seeing that the werewolf was in range, he jumped and landed on top of it, smashing it to the ground. It struggled fiercely to get up, but Harry was able to make it stay down.
He savagely began beating it, siphoning his anger out on the creature. His eyes began to grow brighter, and with each beat of his fists, flashed out in a furious explosion. Soon, his anger began to dissipate, and he stood over the creature, looking down upon it. It was not moving. As the cloud of anger hovering over his mind disappeared, his sense returned. Horrified now of what he had done, he collapsed onto his knees in front of the werewolf, hating himself for killing yet another being. Although the werewolf at this time savage hunter, there was still a human trapped in the form.
Without warning however, the werewolf lashed out again and bit down hard on Harry's shoulder, injecting its venom into Harry's bloodstream. Harry howled in agony and the werewolf was jettisoned away in a gust of wind. It died shortly after.
The venom was soon traversing its way throughout Harry's body. Thin black lines began to appear on his skin, crisscrossing around in a vast system of complex designs. They were signs of arteries being altered. Harry was trying to find some way to fight the mutating poison.
Fool! Don't fight it! That's what converts you! Embrace the venom of the werewolf, and you control it, not the other way around!
Harry did as he was told, and embraced the venom he could feel running through his veins. He could feel the venom bending to his will. It was no longer a curse, it was a blessing. There was an empowering feeling. He was becoming a werewolf without the side effects of the curse. A pure werewolf.
***
Hermione was frantic. So much had just happened so fast, she could not calm down. First, Harry had been mangled, and then all of the sudden the tables had turned. Harry soon was the hunter, and he was dominating the werewolf. Then they had disappeared out of her view as the werewolf fled and Harry chased after it. She could hear grunts and growls and whimpers, and did not know from where they came. She worried about Harry. What if the werewolf killed him?
I would know. Hermione told herself. I would know if Harry died.
There was a rustle of leaves to her right. She quickly looked to where she thought it came from, but there was nothing there. She was trembling with fear. There was a rustle behind her this time, and she spun to face it. Yet again, nothing was there. After glancing around fearfully, she turned back around, and screamed. A tall man was standing not four inches from her, looking down at her disgustingly. She could see there was brown ring on his finger.
She backed away, but before she could move any more, the earth seemed to come alive around her and rooted her to the spot. She screamed for Harry to come help her, but was soon silenced. She no longer could produce any sounds. She watched helplessly as the events unfolded before her.
***
Harry could feel Hermione's cry for help. The needing tone in her voice made him realize just how much trouble she was in. He needed to get to her-and FAST.
And fast he did get to her. Instantaneously he appeared in front of her, ready to protect his best friend.
"Ah, the great Harry Potter," said the man with the brown ring in mock admiration.
"And your name would be?"
"Terr, Lord of the Earth," said the newly introduced Terr as he bowed in tradition.
"Oh stop with the formalities," said a voice from behind Terr. The owner of the voice stepped into the light, and soon nine others stepped in after him. Cloaked in black and masked in white, the Death Eaters stood in an arc shaped pattern behind Terr. Terr seemed to be the leader and coordinator of this raid.
"Fine MacNair, I was just introducing myself to young Potter," Terr spoke to MacNair as if MacNair was inferior.
"Shut up and get the hell out of here!" Harry snarled, his anger rising again.
"Why of course Mr. Potter," Terr was staring straight at Harry, and Harry was glaring maliciously back. "But first, I have business to attend to, and that business-is you. My father wishes for me to bring you to him, and I must obey. So, come along now before things have to get messy."
Harry just laughed. "What? Me? Come along quietly? Are you insane?" The Dark's influence was heavy on him.
"Yes you, yes, and of course," said Terr, answering all of Harry's rhetorical questions in order.
Harry sighed. "Wow, you are an idiot."
"You do realize, however, that I have your little girlfriend here trapped," Terr smiled as he saw Harry's expression change rapidly.
"Don't you even think of hurting her!" Harry barked, the rage building inside him again.
"But you see, I am in control of this situation, not you. You are in no position to command me to do anything."
The earth surrounding Hermione's legs began to spiral up towards her neck. It turned to stone and was constricting her. Four, sharp little points of rock jutted out towards her neck.
"Stop this right now!" commanded Harry. His eyes began to glow for the umpteenth time.
"Oh no, I don't think so. I am enjoying this a lot. Let's see what happens when the earth pierces her neck," Terr was maniacal with joy. The ground began to shake as the Earth Elemental began to issue commands to the earth.
The rock slowly began to close in towards her neck. Soon, it was touching her vulnerable skin, and then, it began to draw blood. Hermione bit her lip to keep from crying out.
At seeing the pain she was suffering, Harry lost it. He let out a guttural howl of rage, and became supercharged once again with magic. His eyes were blazing brighter than the sun during the day. Enormous gusts of wind came alive and circled around Harry, making a mini cyclone. The moon's light was shut out as dark masses of clouds covered the sky. Electricity crackled around Harry as his ire was set loose. A magical shockwave knocked the ten Death Eaters and one Elemental off the ground.
And, as he unleashed himself, time stopped. Perhaps it was because of the speed at which Harry was traveling, or maybe Harry had in fact, stopped time. Harry neither knew nor cared because he wanted to kill the man who had hurt his best friend. With no conscious thought whatsoever, Harry's fist soon pierced through Terr's chest and lodged itself into the ground. With this, time came back into play, and all the Death Eater's watched as their leader was easily destroyed by this monster that was Harry.
Harry glared at the Death Eaters, and it was at this time that they realized it was futile. They were all going to die.
"Harry! Don't do it! Don't kill them! That will only put you at their level!" Hermione tried to talk sense into Harry. But it was too late, Harry was too far lost in his rage.
Once again, time stopped, and Harry made quick work of the remaining Death Eaters. Some he ripped apart with his bare hands. Some he just tossed into the air with his increased strength. But always, they died. Their mangled remains littered the ground, staining it with blood.
His rage was gone again. He was sickened with himself. Looking upon his blood-covered clothes, he became nauseous. He vomited the contents of his stomach.
He heard Hermione shouting for him to look out, and he looked at her questioningly. He then heard someone chuckling. He spun around and found himself looking at Terr, who was now standing up, brushing some dirt off his cloak. The hole in his chest was being patched up by earth that was twisting up from the ground.
"You can move quite fast. I must admit, you certainly surprised me," Terr smiled. He reached down towards the ground, and picked up a rock. Showing it to Harry, he closed his fingers over it, and then opened them. The pebble hovered about an inch over his hand, and then became elongated. It began to take the shape of a blade, and then silver blotches appeared as the material transformed into steel. The edges sharpened themselves, and soon, Terr held a well crafted sword in his hand.
Two things happened in quick succession. First, Terr lashed out, without warning, towards Harry, his blade slashing through the air in a curved arc. Harry felt a burning on his right palm and brought it out towards the incoming blade. There was a CLANG! of metal on metal, and Terr stopped in surprise at the magnificent sword that had appeared in Harry's grasp. Harry looked at the blade gleaming brightly in his hand, and marveled at its magnificence. The Sword of Godric Gryffindor had saved him again.
Terr, having recovered from the initial shock, spun his conjured sword around in a quick, graceful arc that demanded expertise. Harry instinctively blocked the attack again. He felt as if he had been wielding this blade all his life. And that was when he remembered the dream he had had. As the lessons came back to him, he fiercely took the offensive slashing his blade around in deadly accurate strikes that Terr had difficulty blocking. He then, following pure instinct, leaped into the air and brought his blade down like missile. Terr, reacting just in time, was able to push off the majority of the attack by angling his blade to push Harry's out of the way. However, the tip of Harry's sword ripped the black cloak's fabric covering Terr's left shoulder. Terr looked down at the newly made slice in his cloak, ashamed at letting Harry get so close to hurting him. He began to get angry that this inexperienced boy was beating him in a swordfight, and he had the studied the ways of the sword all his life.
The ground began to shake as Terr's anger built. "Foolish boy, you cannot beat me in a duel with swords. I have been wielding a sword since I was but a little child." Little crevices began appearing in the ground as Terr's natural Earth Elemental ability caused disruptions in the ground.
"And I have learned from the greatest," said Harry as he recalled the teachings of Godric's master.
With strength and speed that defied physics, they both charged at each other, making an outward eruption of air as their blades clashed.
***
Hermione was watching the intense battle with wide, fearful eyes. Harry was moving so fast, so…inhumanly fast. This was not the Harry she knew. This was the Harry that scared her.
But even though Harry was winning, she could not help but think, what if Harry dies?
Filled with frantic worry, she watched as the fight unfolded before her eyes. Then another thought hit her right in the face, if I can get out I can help him!
So she began her struggle with her earthen prison. The solid rock had her bound, and she could not reach the wand that was in her pocket. Her head's movement was also restricted, as the deadly spikes of stone were still shallowly piercing her skin. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and tried to think of a way to get out of this. She searched through her mind, trying to find some plan that she had subconsciously formulated.
While traveling through the internal maze of her mind, she came upon a hidden passageway. Curious, she began to walk down it. It was then that she came upon a huge reservoir of energy. Slowly, gently, she reached out towards it….
It was expelled outward from her, shattering the rock enclosed around her, pushing it away from her body. She fell to the ground in a heap, having not had the time to properly brace herself. She did not realize that someone else stumbled as well.
***
Harry had been busily trying to counter Terr's expert assault when he suddenly felt drained. Something had caused some of his energy to leak away. He stumbled, and was thankful for his luck as Terr's weapon sliced not a centimeter above him. Recovering from that strange incident, Harry jumped back onto his feet and parried Terr's next hit.
He could tell Terr was getting frustrated. The earth was beginning to rumble, and tall pillars of stone began to jut out of the ground.
Harry was also getting irritated. His body was getting weary from battle, and Terr just could not be stopped. The winds roared as Harry's irritation escalated.
***
Where is the Order? Isn't there supposed to be some sort of guard around my house?
Hermione looked carefully around her, trying to find some evidence of a guard supposed to be watching her home. She saw none.
She was stealthily approaching the battlegrounds, where Harry was fighting his never ending feud with Terr. She was hoping that she might somehow be able to sneak up on them and try to neutralize Terr. As she approached, she noticed the temperature was hotter, much hotter than it had been before, and that there was a strong wind coming from all directions. The ground was shaking, and she yelped in surprise as the earth opened up beside her. She quickly covered her mouth, hoping that the two had not noticed she was there.
They seemed not to have heard her, so she cautiously moved towards her target. With her wand in her hand, she quickly ran through all the spells she knew, and decided upon the Stunning Spell. It was the only spell she knew of that would render the target unconscious. The only problem was that she was not sure if worked on Elementals. Elementals were extremely rare and extremely dangerous. Most magic did not affect them if they had delved far enough into their powers. And Terr seemed to be a most powerful Elemental. How Harry had survived so far, she did not know.
Moving in between two of the newly placed pillars, she began to take aim. It was going to be difficult; the two of them moved so fast it was hard for her to see them.
Before she could fire off her spell, she let out a gasp of horror as Terr commanded a large boulder he conjured to fling Harry into the nearest house.
***
Harry had to admit, he had not expected that. His sword had flown out of his grasp, and he had no idea where it was. Harry moved to get up, but recoiled in pain from the aftermaths of the brutal assailment. He turned on his side, only to find a dead muggle woman staring blankly back at him. He quickly backed away, forgetting all about his pain. Turning to his left, he saw the kitchen. Inside, a man was slumped in his chair, dead. His eyes gleamed in the dark and forever etched themselves onto the walls of his mind. Seeing their eyes, Harry remembered those dreams he had during the summer, the dreams about all of his friend's deaths, and how he had seen all of their lifeless eyes. He closed his eyes so that he did not have to see the woman or the man; it brought back too many horrifying memories.
There were footsteps to his left. Terr was walking towards him, kicking rubble out of his way.
He killed these people! Harry screamed to himself. They were innocent! I'll kill him!
The rage built up inside him again, and he forgot his fatigue and pain. Launching himself at Terr like a bullet, Harry was able to knock him down. Closing his hands around Terr's throat, Harry began to constrict Terr like a boa to its prey. Terr's face began to turn blue from lack of oxygen, and in a desperate move, Terr knocked Harry in the side of the temple with the hilt of his weapon. Harry let go of Terr to cover the new wound on his head with his hands. The metal had most likely cracked his skull, and blood was pouring freely, dripping down through his fingers. Terr laughed at what he had done.
Harry's face contorted with a mixture of pain and rage. He took his hands away from his face, and stood. He called out to the sword, and it came at his bidding. Flying through the air and landing in Harry's outstretched hand, the sword brought a feeling of unity and hope.
Terr observed Harry closely. Never had he encountered someone so tough and persistent. And never had he encountered somebody so terrifyingly powerful yet so inexperienced with combat magic. Harry Potter was a worthy opponent.
***
There was a feeling of trepidation in Hermione. After all the violent clashing, Harry and Terr now stood across from each other, both examining their opponent, trying to find that weakness that would bring the other down.
Something was not right. She could feel it. Where was everyone? They had been making so much noise, why weren't the muggles coming outside? And how come her parent's didn't notice anything going on? Harry and Terr were battling only about fifty yards from her house.
Pushing those matters out of her mind, she once again concentrated on taking Terr down. She took aim, again, with her wand.
Harry and Terr lunged at each other again, and caught themselves in a sword lock. Each kept trying to push their weapon towards their opponent. Beads of sweat began to form on their foreheads.
Realizing that this was her chance, Hermione fired her most powerful Stunner.
***
Harry felt the Stunner approach. He glanced in the direction it was coming, and waited for it to impact.
Terr noticed Harry's eyes dart to his right. Glancing at it himself, he erected an earthen shield just in time to block the powerful Stunner. Bits of stone, rock, and dirt flew in all directions from the force of the impact.
Using this as his chance, Harry plunged the Sword of Gryffindor into Terr. Terr let out a shriek, and swiped his sword around at Harry. Harry tried to dodge it, but his sword arm did not get out in time. It fell to the ground as Terr's Elemental sword cut right through it like a knife to hot butter.
Harry fell to his knees and let out a large cry. His right arm was now but a stump, the blade had taken off everything from an inch below his shoulder. It was bleeding madly, and Harry was quickly turning white from a traumatizing amount of blood loss.
Terr, with a hole in his chest from Harry's sword, also fell to the ground. The magic in Gryffindor's Blade countered his Elemental magic, so that Terr could not use the earth to patch his wounds. He died, asking his brothers and father for forgiveness.
Harry's vision was swirling. He dry vomited, and collapsed to his back.
***
So sorry for the long wait between the updates, but I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I wanted to begin expanding on the whole point of this story, which is about a Harry who falls into the Darkness because he has no choice, so I decided to skip things like the O.W.L. results and Sirius' will for now. I hope that you are enjoying this story, because this is the best plot of come up with for a story so far. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
The Dark Sorceror
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