Harry held his locket and the wall of the abandoned classroom shifted and opened into a black stone tunnel. It had been a few days and things had calmed down a little at the castle. Enough that Harry finally owed Hermione some real answers on what had happened. Harry unconsciously put his hand on his chest where he could feel the raised scars on the skin beneath. He had felt almost invincible in his other form before, but clearly that wasn’t the case.

Even if Madame Pomfrey could have removed them, Harry thought it might be a good idea to keep them. A continual reminder to never get overconfident with his capabilities. If he had just been a little weaker he could have died, or even worse Hermione.

He couldn’t let that happen, not now when things had started going well in his life. Even after Hermione got a somewhat splintered view of the truth of what he was she hadn’t instinctively recoiled from him. Harry was sure he could get her to understand.

He walked forward into the tunnel and a slightly nervous Hermione followed behind him. He had brought her down into the chamber briefly after her petrification was cured, but the outer chamber was damp and not a pleasant place to hang out. And Salazar’s painting had reiterated many times that anyone that didn’t have Slytherins blood who entered the inner Sanctum would regret doing so. So Hermione hadn’t been down there in a long time.

After a minute or two the tunnel ended and they ended up in the outer section of the chamber. Harry looked around and Nidhogg appeared to be resting in his cave at the moment.

Hermione was also glancing around nervously, likely thinking about the same thing. It had taken some doing, but Harry had also proved to her that Nidhogg followed his orders and wouldn’t hurt or petrify anyone anymore.

Harry cast a scourgify charm to clean the floor and a general heating charm to keep the temperature pleasant. Then he sat down cross legged on the floor. Hermione soon mimicked him and sat across from him.

“We should be safe to talk in here,” Harry said to her, “Sorry it took so long. What I tell you is something I don’t want anyone else to hear if I can help it.”

“Why are you being so secretive about it, Harry?” Hermione asked, “I understand you are some sort of animagus. I’ve never heard of the creature you turn into, and I get why you would hide it. But why do you think I would hate you because of it?”

“I’m… I’m not an animagus,” Harry said reluctantly, “It’s a rather complicated story. Just promise me that… you’ll listen to the whole thing at least? You might not like me very much after I finish…”

Hermione shook her head, “Like I’m just going to hate you after everything we’ve been through together? No way. If you aren’t an animagus, then what are you?”

“I… It is rather involved. I only have hints and pieces. All I know is that I am not fully human. Have you ever heard of a wizard called James Kensit?”

“James Kensit?” Hermione said scrunching her brow, “That does sound familiar… actually I… Oh, yeah I read one of his books, ‘Ascension Beyond the Flesh’ in the Hogwarts library! Parts of it were some very strange philosophical rambling, but his actual explanations on the spell diagrams were amazing. Why do you ask?”

Harry blinked, “I… What? You have? Are you sure? They just have books by him in Hogwarts Library? You didn’t have to go into the restricted section at least to get it?”

Hermione blinked, “Oh, well no. It just appeared one day and after a while vanished again. But the spells weren’t so horrible, I’ve seen worse in some other books I’ve read since then.”

“That’s… that’s good,” Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief. It seems that the book hadn’t been harmful at least.

“But why are you asking about him?” Hermione asked, “What does this have to do with your transformation?”

Harry took in a deep breath, “Well, I suppose I better start from the beginning. It all started right after I woke up from my coma. A man calling himself James Kensit froze all the doctors with a single spell and entered my hospital room. He wanted to hear about everything that I had experienced during my coma and offered to answer one of my questions in exchange. As we spoke he revealed that he was the one that… put the curse on me.”

Hermione gasped and her eyes widened, “James Kensit placed the curse? He’s still alive?” She said.

Harry nodded and continued forward not wanting to stop now, “He told me that… the night that Voldemort came to my house he was there for me. There was a prophecy that I would be the one to defeat him. He wanted to kill me while I was at my weakest. People say that I was the boy who lived… but according to James Kensit, I… didn’t. He told me that Voldemort succeeded in killing the baby Harry.”

“I… but, you’re right here!” Hermione said in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“He said that even while Harry was dead, the prophecy still needed me alive to defeat Voldemort. So it gave him 'inspiration' as he put it to help Kensit in bringing me back to life. He had a mad glint in his eye when he said that. I think he’s a very bad person.”

“Eventually he succeeded and created… me,” Harry continued, “The soul in this body is not the one the baby had when it died. Harry Potter technically revived from the dead. Instead I’m… whatever I am. With me successfully revived, James Kensit dropped me back at the Dursleys to let me grow with them.”

“Are you sure you can believe him, Harry?” Hermione said hesitantly, “I mean bringing you back to life, doesn’t that seem far-fetched? What if he’s lying to you?”

“I don’t think he is,” Harry replied, “And he didn’t bring me back. I replaced the original owner. Now I know why my memories don’t start until I am three years old. That’s when I first came into existence. And there are other things that let me believe that my body is… modified or altered somehow.”

Seeing that Hermione was more confused than horrified at the moment, Harry began laying out all of the little details. His experience while he was in his coma following the soul tether back to his body as a soul. His consumption of the other souls and fight to reclaim his body and revive himself.

The soul language, Ascendant. His journey of mastering his transformation while he was trapped back at the Dursleys, his meeting with the friendly Dementors. His realization that his other form was a soul eater. He held nothing back, filling Hermione in on all the little details that he had left out over the course of their last year of friendship to keep his secrets. All of his conversations with James Kensit and the man’s strange interest and seemingly emotional investment in Harry. Everything.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Harry watched Hermione’s face closely as he spoke. And while she was frequently shocked or curious about something he mentioned, she was never disgusted. Her face never flickered with hatred, and she didn’t view him as some kind of dangerous monster. He finally finished his story and forced himself to close his mouth as Hermione didn’t respond. She looked thoughtful, would she change her mind about him…

She looked up, “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Harry,” she said, “On top of everything else, just when I thought you didn’t have any more to reveal… But I’m still your friend, no matter what. I mean, you literally saved my life from a werewolf with your so-called ‘soul eater’ form. You aren’t some rampaging beast, I can trust you. Right?”

“I… Right. You really don’t hate me?” Harry asked, “You’re not going to call the ministry on me?”

“No!” Hermione said, “Stop that Harry, you always think so little of yourself. Have you ever even hurt another person in your other form? Besides those wizards that were already attacking you? Even then you used the minimum force before trying to run away from what you said. You could have killed them easily, but you didn’t. Why are you beating yourself up over things you haven’t even…

Hermione’s eyes widened in realization and she let out a sharp breath, “Ohhhhhhh. The Boggart. The orbs, they were our souls weren’t they? Your fear was that you would lose control and hurt one of us.”

“I… Yes, what if I do?” Harry said, “Imagine everyone around you smelled like a juicy steak. I don’t want to hurt anyone but what if I lose control or get distracted or too hungry or…”

“But you haven’t done anything!” Hermione said a little frustrated at him now, “Nothing! You’re a wizard Harry, you have a thousand ways to seriously hurt or kill someone at the tip of your wand. But do we say you’re a murderer because you carry one around? It's the same with your other form. You just have to control yourself. Objectively, you’ve been an utter saint in your other form.”

“I…” Harry struggled to argue but couldn’t think of anything. Why was this so easy, had it just not sunk in for her yet? But she was right, he hadn’t done anything bad yet. Was she right? He looked down at the ground into his lap. How could he be sure, she was so calm and understanding. This wasn’t how he had imagined it would go.

“Harry…” Hermione said softly and he looked up. She… she was concerned. For him. After everything he had told her.

“Transform right now,” she said, “Prove to yourself that you won’t hurt me. That I can trust you.”

“Okay,” Harry replied woodenly. He stood and started pulling off his robe barely even registering Hermione’s quick look to the floor as he managed to slip off his robe and put it on the floor. He took a few steps back and began the process and the room rapidly shrunk around him. Every little twist and change in his body was like in slow motion as Harry waited for Hermione’s scream of fear. Harry finished and she was still staring at the floor.

“Hermione?” Harry asked, moving his jaws open and closed slightly. She looked up and up until her head was tilted way back to stare up at his towering figure.

“Wow,” she said, “You are big, I don’t think I really appreciated it in the chaos of everything happening when I first saw it.”

Harry carefully opened his jaws to their full extension while keeping a close eye on Hermione. She flinched a little and her eyes widened as Harry’s jaw fully extended, but after a few seconds and a few deep breaths she returned back to normal.

“That looks so strange, like a snake's jaw,” she said, “Those teeth are very sharp. And so many…”

Harry sat down with his legs crossed in front of him and shut his jaws, “I thought that too, that it was like a snake's jaw, I mean, when I first opened it,” he answered. He started to calm down a little. She was calm. She didn’t seem to view him any differently. Maybe things would be okay.

“But your hands look so human,” she said, “Can I see?”

Harry cautiously extended his hand forward palm upwards and Hermione grabbed it and felt the joints and poked and prodded at Harry’s gray skin. After a minute or two she glanced up and her gaze caught on Harry’s chest.

“The scars…” she said and he looked down. He had the same sets of scars across his chest and sides as he did in his human form. Only these wounds were big enough to match the claws of the full sized alpha variant werewolf.

Harry felt the raised flesh. It felt the same as it had when he was a human. Everything was proportionally the same on his body. Bigger hands, bigger scars. Harry idly ran his hands over them for a few seconds as Hermione watched silently.

“So you’re really not scared of me?” Harry eventually asked as he looked up, “Even when I look like this?”

“A little,” she admitted, “But I can get over it. You are still Harry.”

Harry stood, reversing the transformation even as he did so. He shrunk back down into his human form and stepped forward even as Hermione quickly averted her eyes.

Harry stepped right up to Hermione and wrapped his arms around her in a deep hug.

“Thank you, Hermione,” Harry said, “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

Hermione was flushed a deep crimson and stood as stiff as a board in Harry’s embrace. Harry gripped her tighter. That was what Alice did when a hug wasn’t working enough, right?

“H… Harry. Naked,” Hermione squeaked in a strained voice. Harry looked down and realized that he indeed was completely naked. He released her and stepped back,

Hermione looked away again at the floor, seeming extremely embarrassed about something. What had she done wrong? It was Harry that had made the mistake hadn’t he? Right when everything had been going right with the world too…

“Sorry, Hermione,” Harry said, “I got swept up in the moment. I shouldn’t have just hugged you out of nowhere. Especially when I was naked, that was very rude of me. Didn’t you already see everything when I transformed last time though? I was naked that time too.”

“I… I was too busy with other things to think about it,” Hermione squeaked again, still pointedly staring at the floor. Harry shrugged as he put his robes back on. That made sense.

“Okay, I’m back in my robes,” Harry said and Hermione looked up after letting out a sigh of relief.

“Can we hug again? It felt nice,” Harry said.

“I…” Hermione hesitated for a moment before shaking her head and suddenly letting out a burst of giggling laughter, “Oh, well alright. Let's hug some more. It did feel nice I suppose,” she said.

“Okay,” Harry said and this time when he hugged her she returned his grip and hugged him back. They just stood like that for a few seconds before they both released and stepped back. Hermione was still very red in the face but didn’t look as embarrassed as she had been before.

“That did feel nice,” Hermione stated, “Even if it was a little embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?” Harry asked, “What do you mean?”

“You… you really…” Hermione stared at him for a second before she seemed to just internally shrug.

“Nevermind, Harry. It just… it felt nice. You’re right, that’s what matters.”

“Okay. Just let me know if you want to hug again, we should do it more often,” Harry said, a little confused but happy that Hermione had solved whatever issue she had just had. The conversation had taken a very confusing turn for him ever since he turned back into a human.

“You want to go study some anti-gravity spells at the library?” he asked as it became apparent that Hermione wasn’t going to say anything else in response to his statement, “We might be advanced enough to actually learn one by now,” He said.

“What?” Hermione responded, “I mean… sure. That does sound fun. Let’s do it.”

Harry put his hand on the locket and the tunnel out of the chamber opened in the wall. Harry felt light on his feet as he entered it, Hermione following close behind.

The future was looking bright.