Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction / Other Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Fusion of Destinies ❯ Secrets Revealed ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Fusion of Destinies
a Harry Potter/Metroid crossover
Chapter 8: Secrets Revealed
11-7-2005
by Grey

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all of its characters are the creation and property of J. K. Rowling. Samus Aran and the Metroid series are the creation and property of Nintendo, and was originally masterminded by Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997) .

This fic is dedicated to Razor Knight and CubedCinder128, whose support gave me the confidence I needed to write this thing.

---

"As the veil of lunacy descends, as past and future blend and shuffle, one image appears and flickers through the landscape, wraithlike. It is the Hatchling, the Newborn, walking the path of corruption, a lone figure shining in the toxic shadows. She comes dressed for war, and her wrath is terrible." - taken from the Chozo lore titled 'Newborn', Metroid Prime

---

Samus Aran continued to roll down the enormous tube in morph ball mode, anxiously awaiting when she would reach the end. She could tell that there were smaller tubes branching out from the main pipe, but her instincts told her that her quarry was in the main area of the Chamber of Secrets. So she ignored them and let herself continue to roll down the slimy pipe.

After about two minutes, Samus noticed that the pipe was levelling out, and shortly afterward, she barreled out of the exit like a cannonball. She rolled along the slimy stone floor until coming to a stop, then came out of her morph ball mode. She brought up her arm cannon and warily looked around the wide tunnel she found herself in, looking for any signs of movement. She also decided to run a quick systems check. After a brief glance at her readouts, she noticed that only 14 of her 20 energy tanks were operational, and out of the 250 missiles pods she had before, only 200 were still working. Thankfully, all her other weapons and upgrades were in perfect working order.

Samus continued surveying the tunnel while standing in place, still expecting an attack. However, it was soon evident that no X-hosts were in there with her. Samus had half-expected to be ambushed as soon as she entered the Chamber of Secrets, but there was nothing. She let out a sigh of disappointment and peered down the long, rocky tunnel. Just as Harry had said, it was extremely dark and she couldn't see more than a few meters ahead.

But the darkness didn't concern Samus, or disturb her the least bit. The fact that she was venturing into unfamiliar territory - that was possibly teeming with hostiles - didn't unsettle her, as it would most other humans. She was more than human; she was a child of the Chozo, and the Chozo had taught her not to fear the unknown and the unfamiliar, but to embrace and explore it. And she had learned those lessons well, and upheld that philosophy on all of her past missions. Besides, the prospect of fighting a few hundred X-hosts didn't frighten her. There was only one thing she truly feared, and that was failure, something she had tasted only twice before....

A sudden, echoing, sliding sound from behind her snapped Samus to attention. She whirled around, arm cannon at the ready. Samus then realized where the sound was coming from: the Chamber's entrance. Oh no, you aren't, she thought bitterly, feeling a sudden jolt of worry. Please tell me that you're not....

Her suspicions were confirmed, however, when Harry Potter shot out of the end of the pipe and landed a few meters away from her.

Harry slowly got to his feet as Samus walked up to him. He took out his wand and said, "Lumos," and bright light suddenly erupted from the tip of his wand. He began to look around again, and the first thing he saw was Samus standing over him. She sent a scything glance down at him, knowing that he could see her eyes through her visor. "I told you not to come down here, Harry," Samus hissed. "There's no telling how many X are down here, and you could get yourself killed fighting them."

Harry looked up her and adjusted his glasses. "Well, they might also take the form of creatures that you've never seen, but I have," he offered half-heartedly. "And there's at least one spot down here only a Parselmouth can get past."

Samus hesitated a moment before speaking again. "OK, I hadn't considered that. But I'm still concerned for your safety. I'm not trying to mollycoddle you or anything, but the fact remains that this time, you could be in over your head."

Harry grimaced at her. If I had a Knut every time I heard that over the last four years....

But his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden chill running down his spine, followed by a prickly feeling all over his skin, which made him quiver. He had never felt anything like this before. It was as if his entire body was warning him of something dangerous approaching, and it reminded him of how his scar burned whenever Voldemort was close.

Samus seemed to catch on immediately. "Now you can feel it too," she stated. "Your body can now sense whenever your natural prey is nearby and unhosted."

Harry's eyes widened. "Then, you mean...."

"Yes," said Samus. "They're here."

Harry looked down the long tunnel again, and in the reflected light from his wand, he saw something approaching. Several things, in fact. Soon, they were close enough for Harry to get a good look, and the shock of what he saw made him gasp and almost lose his concentration, making the light of his wand flicker.

Two types of creatures were advancing, both of which he had never seen before. The first was a large beast, roughly the height of a grown man, which had no arms but stood on two legs, vaguely shaped like a velociraptor's. And it had a large, roundish head with no eyes and a long, protruding jaw lined with spiky teeth, and had two large saber-like teeth jutting out from its bottom jaw. Harry couldn't quite make out its main body, but saw that it glistened with a crystalline, sky-blue veneer, like thick crystals of ice. The other breed of monster had a head like an insect's, with two blue, bulbous eyes and three short fangs at the bottom around its mouth. And from either side of that head, out came a small appendage that was attached to a long and thin, yet powerful-looking leg. These creatures moved by jumping forward, but to the side.

"Baby sheegoths and side-hoppers," Harry heard Samus say, which snapped him to attention. It was obvious now that these were creatures Samus had faced before; they were too bizarre-looking to have come from Earth.

Harry looked at the icy-blue beasts again. If those are the 'babies', I don't want to know what their mother is like, he thought fearfully.

"The sheegoths are only vulnerable from the back, but I can take out the side-hoppers with a few charged beam shots," said Samus, and she raised her arm cannon to fire.

But a sudden explosion to their left caught both Harry and Samus by surprise. However, Samus recovered from the shock quickly, and moved with the speed of thought. She pulled Harry toward her and hopped to the right, just as energy blasts shot out of a newly-formed hole in the tunnel wall. She winced as the blasts struck her back and drained some of her suit's power, but felt relieved that she had shielded Harry from the attack.

Harry wrested free of Samus's hold and looked behind them. A gaping hole had been created in the wall, and now, Space Pirates were moving in through the hole. In addition, Harry saw that several hippogriphs were with the Pirates, and were glaring at the two of them mercilessly. And soon, two dementors flew into the tunnel through the hole.

"I knew it. They were ready in case someone tried to come down here," said Samus flatly as she raised her arm cannon and looked from X-host to X-host, unsure of what to fire upon first. Now that Harry was with her, they had to be taken out quickly. But the baby sheegoths and side-hoppers were getting dangerously near, and the Space Pirates looked like they were ready to fire again. They were closing in, surrounding them....

"Please tell me you've got some sort of plan," muttered Harry weakly, trying to resist the dementors' noxious power. He stared at all the approaching X-hosts, almost paralyzed with cold fear.

"I sure do," said Samus, her tone filled with a confidence Harry didn't share. "We kill them all."

Harry was about to ask "How!?" But then, Samus unleashed a missile, sending it toward one of the Space Pirates. Then she sent one at another Pirate, and then another missile homed in on a side-hopper. The crowd of X-hosts started to disperse and back off. "Keep your distance, Harry!" ordered Samus as she continued to fire missiles. "Do whatever you can, but attack from a distance!"

As she said that, a dementor swooped toward her, reaching out with both of its filthy, scabby hands. But Samus merely jumped to the side to evade it, then unleashed her beam weapon on it. Three bright bursts of crackling, purplish-red energy shot toward the dementor; two of the blasts rotated around a central one, forming a double-helix of sparks in their wake. The dementor barely glided away in time, but then a hippogriph moved in in its stead. Samus hopped backward to avoid its talons, then fired a missile. The hippogriph was temporarily encased in ice, but it soon broke free.

Harry watched Samus cut loose, awed by the power of her weapons. But he soon leanred how fatal being distracted like that could be. He heard loud footfalls getting closer, and turned to see a baby sheegoth advancing. It opened its mouth, and suddenly frigid gas shot out at him. Harry ducked and rolled to the side, but when he stood up again, a Space Pirate was almost upon him, ready to club him.

But another missile streaked through the tunnel and impacted the Pirate, causing it to explode in a shower of frozen chitinous armor. Two floating, glowing X parasites were now exposed, and seeing them almost made Harry panic. Out of desperation, he cried out "Incendio!"

Swirling flames licked at tbe viral blobs, and within seconds, they blackened and began to shrivel up until nothing was left. Wait a minute, they're vulnerable to magical flame? thought Harry, elated that he had discovered a new weakness.

"That's good Harry!" he heard Samus call out; she sounded as pleased as Harry. "But don't bother frying them. Bring them toward you and absorb them. Trust me!"

If he knew where Samus was at the moment, he would have glared at her disbelievingly. But at that instant, a new threat made itself known. A swarm of doxies flew in out of nowhere, ready to spew venom at Harry. But before they could, Harry raised his wand and yelled "Stupefy!" His aim was perfect, and one of the doxies fluttered in midair while the others dispersed. Encouraged by this, Harry fired off more Stunners at the swarm, hitting a doxy each and every time.

One by one, the hovering fairies began to lose their form and reverted to unhosted X parasites. For a moment, Harry stared at them, unsure of what to do. However, he realized that he should trust Samus. He raised his wand and shouted "Accio X!"

The viral blobs shot toward Harry as if magnetically drawn to him. They seeped through his clothes and were absorbed into his skin. This time, however, it was a different matter. He felt exhilerating energy flow through him, and felt more alert and ready for more action. He realized that, like Samus, he could no longer be infected by X. Thanks to the Metroid DNA, he too could absorb them and harness their power.

Grinning broadly, Harry returned his attention to the raging battle, and saw that the number of X-hosts had greatly diminished thanks to Samus. But she was still surrounded; she was focused on a baby sheegoth and a hippogriph, and didn't seem to notice a Space Pirate sneaking up on her. Before he knew what he was doing, Harry aimed and yelled "Aguamenti!" A blast of water moving at super-high speed shot out of his wand, knocking the Pirate off its feet and slamming it into a wall. Harry ran toward it and used the charm again, this time blowing off the Pirate's head with water. He then noticed a dementor closing in on Samus. He quickly recalled the joy he felt after winning the Quidditch Cup in his third year and yelled "Expecto Patronum!" The galloping, sliver stag headbutted the dementor, which exploded. "Accio X!" he cried out, drawing four exposed parasites to him.

And so, the battle raged on, and Harry and Samus slowly whittled down the enemy's ranks, watching each other's backs all the while. Harry noticed that a baby sheegoth was sneaking up on Samus as she was punching through a Pirate's chest. He saw the reflective, icy dorsal plate, and deduced that was what Samus meant by a baby sheegoth only being vulnerable from the back. "Incendio!" he cried, and the dorsal plate flew apart and flames roared around the alien beast as it let out a sonorous howl. After Harry Summoned the X, he looked around and saw no other hosts were around. He breathed a sigh of relief, but then felt icy dread claw at his heart. Looking up, he saw more dementors gliding at him.

"Don't bother, Harry," came Samus's echoing voice. "I'll handle them this time." With that, Samus made yet another inhumanly high spinning jump, nearly touching the rocky ceiling. This time, her body glowed with a fierce brilliance, energy crackled all around her, and she spun so fast, Harry could see the energy swirling around her. Her body shot toward a dementor and went right through it, slicing it apart. And then, to Harry's utter astonishment, Samus's spinning body bounded again in midair, changing direction and slicing through another dementor. Samus repeated this process again and again until all the dementors in the tunnel were destroyed and the X parasites they hosted were absorbed.

Samus landed near Harry, and he saw a look of satisfaction in her eyes. Harry's expression, however, was one of awe. She.... she can fly! No broom required! he thought. Out loud, he asked, "H-how did you do that!?"

"Oh, it's a combination of the space jump and screw attack," said Samus offhandedly, as if it were nothing. "With those, I can jump as many times as I want in midair, and my body demolishes anything I touch."

Harry let out a whistle, but it was drowned out by a loud squawk directly behind him; he guessed that they had missed a hippogriph. "Harry, I'll get this one too!" cried Samus, and she made another spinning jump and soared over Harry. Harry turned around to see Samus come down on a hippogriph with the screw attack, causing it to fly apart.

"Err, thanks," offered Harry, not knowing what else to say.

"Don't mention it. I know there were plenty of times you kept the enemy off of my back, saving me the trouble of dealing with them myself," said Samus.

"You knew?" asked Harry. "H-how did...."

Samus merely tapped the left side of her visor. "Radar," was all she said.

"Oh," was all Harry said.

"You put up a good fight just now, considering it was your first time fighting some of those creatures," said Samus. "I was right about you before; for you, this sort of thing must come naturally."

"So are you convinced I can handle myself down here?" asked Harry, his voice sounding shorter than he intended it to be.

"Let's just say I'm convinced that you're not exactly a liability," Samus replied. Harry had the funny notion that, underneath that helmet, Samus was flashing a coy smile. "Let's get moving. I have a feeling that wasn't the whole lot. Dumbledore said that he's set up protective barriers around every possible entrance point to this area as well as around that bathroom. As long as they're bottled up down here, we've got a chance to wipe them out."

"Alright then," said Harry, nodding. Samus nodded as well, then headed for the gaping hole in the tunnel wall. Harry ran up to her and stayed at her side, wand at the ready.

For several minutes, the pair ventured through parts of the Chamber of Secrets that Harry hadn't been through the last time. This made Harry a bit uneasy, but Samus didn't seem to be the least bit nervous. He guessed that this sort of thing was a normal day's work for her.

This place is just as creepy as last time, thought Harry. And last time, at least there was only ONE monster to deal with, and of course, one teenage Voldemort. Now, there's no telling how many of these X are hidden here. Harry shook his head, still quite unable to believe what was going on. The other day, the worst things on my mind were Snape's Potions essays and the fact that everyone thinks I'm an attention-seeking liar. Oh, what I wouldn't give for that to still be the case. Now, the Order's in for a tough fight, and they have to find out who brought these dreadful things to the present, and I've got the DNA of an alien spliced into me....

Harry looked up at Samus, realizing something. During the briefing, Samus had said that she had run into these 'Metroids' several times, but she hadn't elaborated further, and they hadn't come up when she told him of her tragic origins. "Uh, Samus, I was wondering.... what exactly are these Metroids?" he asked nervously. "You haven't talked much about them, and...."

His voice trailed off when Samus stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned her head to look down at him, her eyes showing a sense of reluctance, as if the subject was something even more painful than seeing her parents murdered. But after a moment, she said, "Alright, I'll tell you. You deserve to know about that, too."

The pair started walking through the tunnels again, and Samus began to explain. "The best way to describe Metroids.... is that they look like what you would call 'jellyfish'. Except instead of tentacles, they have fangs. They're airborne organisms, and latch onto victims and drain away life energy."

Harry nodded, trying to seem nonchalant, but inwardly, he still felt queasy about having the genetic material of such a parasite fused with his own, even it if had been his only means of recovery. "The Galactice Federation first discovered them - or from your perspective, WILL discover - the Metroids on planet SR388. There had once been a prosperous civilization there, but its inhabitants were there no longer. The scientists took a specimen and put it in suspended animation, and shortly after that.... the Space Pirates raided their vessel and took the Metroid."

Harry looked up at Samus, shocked. "They.... they planned to use them as a weapon, didn't they?" he asked.

Samus nodded. "Yes. There was a desperate search to find their base of operations, and soon it was found: Zebes."

"Zebes?" repeated Harry. "Isn't that...."

"The planet I was raised on," Samus finished for him. "By that time, the Chozo there.... were gone. And the Space Pirates had moved in and retrofitted it into a base. GF troopers were unable to take the planet, so they eventually decide on this strategy: send a single bounty hunter to infiltrate Zebes and wipe out the Pirate forces."

"Let me guess. They sent you," said Harry.

"I gladly volunteered," said Samus. "And so, I went in alone, searching through unfamiliar areas of Brinstar, and a new ultra-hot area I never knew about called Norfair. I found technological upgrades for my suit left behind by the Chozo, which proved crucial to my mission. Eventually, I tracked down the leaders of the Space Pirate forces, Kraid and Ridley, and utterly decimated them. Then I found their main base, Tourian. There, I wiped out each and every Metroid that I encountered, then went on to destroy the biomechanical unit that served as their leader: Mother Brain. After that, it was a race against the clock to make it out before Tourian self-destructed, and I barely managed to escape."

Harry was silent for a moment, taking it all in. "So, it sounds like you easily solved the Metroid problem then and there, not to mention you dealt the Pirates a crippling blow."

"Yes, you would think so," said Samus bitterly. "But I ran into the Space Pirates and Metroids plenty of times after that. Soon after my victory on Zebes, there was that incident on Tallon IV, and then I got caught up in that civil war on Aether, and then...."

But Harry didn't hear about what came next, because at that moment, something came bursting through the rocky wall to their left. It wasn't an explosion like before; something tremendous had physically smashed through solid rock. In this part of the Chamber, some wall sconces provided some light, and he could easily see what was upon them. It looked like a grotesquely fat lizard that stood on its hind legs and over eight feet tall. Three sharp spikes, aligned in a verical row, protruded from its belly, and curved horns lined its back. The fat lizard glared down at them with three blood-red eyes and let out an ear-piercing screech.

"Why am I not surprised?" Samus snarled as he raised her arm cannon. "Harry, let me handle this one too." With that, she unleashed her beam weapon, firing triple blasts of energy at a furiously rapid rate. Harry could hear electricity crackling around their attacker and saw the flesh around its belly char. The lizard fired spikes from its belly in retaliation, but Samus and Harry easily avoided them.

Samus continued firing at the lizard, but Harry then heard something else besides her plangent weapons fire. What now? he thought nervously. It sounds like something.... galloping. Harry turned to look back down the way they'd come, and saw three centaurs speedily galloping toward them. He also noticed something peculiar about the centaurs: they all had the same long, gaunt face.

But that didn't matter to Harry. All that mattered to him was that they were obviously X-hosts and had to be taken down. "Incarcerous!" he bellowed, and thin ropes wrapped around the centaur leading the charge. He then began firing Stunners at the other two, hoping to knock them out or at least slow them down. It worked in keeping them at bay and halting their charge.

Harry risked a glance behind him, and saw that Samus was turning away from the lizard to offer him some help. There was a whirring, sucking sound, and then a ball of energy seemed to build up at the tip of Samus's arm cannon. Then, she released another triple blast of power at the bound centaur, but this time, the size and intensity were much greater. Her blast ripped through the centaur, causing it to revert into two unhosted parasites. Harry kept firing his Stunners at the other two, giving Samus a chance to wipe them out as well.

"Harry, you can absorb them. My suit's got enough power, and I need to finish dealing with our friend here," said Samus. And so, Harry Summoned the freed X to him as Samus returned her attention to the giant lizard; it had been stunned by Samus's relentless assault, but was just now starting to recover. Not wanting to give it the chance, Samus fired a few missiles at it. The lizard then began to lose its cohesion, and melted away into three X parasites, which Samus quickly ran into and absorbed.

"We really do make a good team," said Harry happily. At this rate, it looked like they could wipe out any number of X-hosts that were thrown at them.

"I guess we do," said Samus, but Harry caught a hint of reluctance in her voice. Harry had thought she understood him, so why did she still seem uneasy about him helping her? Hadn't she already agreed to let him accompany her, and didn't she say he was a natural fighter?

Harry put those questions in the back of his mind, though, and asked, "Was what that thing anyway?"

"Oh, that was a mini-version of Kraid," replied Samus as if it were nothing.

Harry's jaw dropped. "You mean, the actual Kraid is a lot bigger!?"

"Well, not initially. The last time I fought him, though, he stood about twenty meters tall," said Samus.

Harry shook his head. And here I thought I was hot stuff just for getting past that Hungarian Horntail, he thought. Out loud, he said, "But, I thought you said you killed him on Zebes? Or did you end up fighting him again.... on what planets did you say? Something about Talos IV and Ether and...."

"Tallon IV and Aether," corrected Samus. "But those incidents weren't very significant, not when it comes to my struggle against the Metroids anyway. The next time I encountered the Metroids in full force, it was on their homeworld."

The two continued their trek through the Chamber of Secrets, carefully checking for any signs of the enemy. "The Metroid's home planet.... SR388, right?" asked Harry. Samus merely nodded, and Harry went on, saying, "This is when you went and exterminated all the Metroids, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right," said Samus, a hint of sadness in her voice. "After a while, the Galactic Federation decided to return and make sure that no more Metroids were left on SR388. Research teams and commando units were dispatched, but they were never heard from again. By then it was obvious some had survived, and it was decided to give me the order to go and wipe them out."

"You went along with an order to make an entire species extinct?" asked Harry, a little horrified.

Samus paused before going on. "At the time, I too was afraid that the Space Pirates would go to SR388 and capture Metroids for themselves, and I was convinced that their eradication was necessary to safeguard life in the galaxy." She was trying to sound confident, but the traces of regret in her voice were not lost on Harry. "And it was more difficult then I could have possibly imagined. The Metroids on SR388.... they could molt and mutate into bigger, deadlier forms. Thankfully, it turned out that it was the Chozo who had lived there, and I found plenty of upgrades to use.

"There were over forty Metroids, but I slowly worked my way into their lair. In the end, it all came down to a battle against the Queen Metroid, and I came out on top, but barely. But immediately after that, something extraordinary happened."

"What?" asked Harry.

"In the room directly behind the Queen Metroid, there was a single egg," said Samus. "As I walked up to it, it hatched in front of me, and out came a tiny larval Metroid. But it didn't try to suck away my energy; instead, it started circling around me, hovering around me with the demanor of a confused child. I realized that it had imprinted on me."

"Imprinted? What does that mean?"

"Some animals become emotionally attached to the first thing they see after hatching. In this case, it was me. It thought I was its mother," explained Samus. "I could have ended it all right then and there, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was as if I could sense how much it trusted me to protect it, and I couldn't bring myself to finish it off. So I decided to take it with me.

"I brought it to the space colony Ceres, where the scientists there could study it closely. I was satisfied, thinking everything was alright, so I left the Metroid Hatchling in their care and left the colony. But a few minutes later, I received a distress call from the station."

"Uh-oh. I don't like where this is going," muttered Harry.

"No you won't," said Samus. "I flew back and returned to the lab, and found the container with the Hatchling in the back room. But someone else was there, holding it in his grimy talons: Ridley."

"One of the Space Pirate leaders?" breathed Harry. "But I thought you killed him?"

"Well, it wasn't the first time he was resuscitated," growled Samus. "But yes, he was back, and after a brief fight, he took off with the Hatchling. And as I fled the self-destructing colony, I vowed to follow him and liberate the creature that trusted me to protect it.

"I followed him back to Zebes, where they had marshalled their forces, and immediately got to work. Within about two hours, I took out Kraid and Ridley yet again, along with two new additions to their elite forces, Phantoon and Draygon. After that, I found the new Tourian, which was crawling with Metroids cloned from the Hatchling's DNA. And soon, I came upon this HUGE Metroid, against which all my weapons were useless. It almost drained me of all my power and life energy, but at the last instant, it backed off. It then floated idly and chirped, and then it flew away."

"What made it fly off?" asked Harry.

"It was the Hatchling, Harry. Probably exposed to massive amounts of beta radiation to augment its growth," explained Samus. Harry looked into her visor, and was stunned by the sad look in her eyes. "Shortly afterwards, I found out who was behind everything: Mother Brain had been resurrected too. But this time, she revealed her true form, along with a deadly new arsenal. I did all I could, but she unleashed a new weapon that rendered me helpless. My suit's power was almost gone, my weapons were depleted, and Mother Brain was about to deliver the final blow....

"But then, out of nowhere, the Hatchling swooped in and began feeding on Mother Brain, saving me. Eventually, she was rendered helpless. After that, it went over to me and - to my utter astonishment - began transferring Mother Brain's power into my suit's systems."

At this point, Harry was totally enthralled by her life story, and didn't know what to say next. "So, that was it, right? You saved the Hatchling, and...."

But Samus shook her head furiously. "No, the Mother Brain reactivated herself and began attacking the Hatchling as it was transferring energy. After it was done, it released me and tried going after her again, but Mother Brain delivered its death blow. I saw this innocent creature who trusted me completely die right in front of me, after bravely coming to my rescue."

Harry looked into her visor again, and this time, it looked like she was on the verge of tears. "But thankfully, the Hatchling's dying act transferred Mother Brain's weapon power to my suit. Not only that, seeing it die right above me filled me with a rage I'd never known before. I turned her own power against her and finally destroyed her completely."

Now Harry was in complete shock. "So.... so you've also seen your enemies kill right in front of you," he muttered breathlessly. He also felt a twinge of shame. After Voldemort had ordered Wormtail to murder Cedric Diggory, he had almost been paralyzed by fear and merely blundered through the encounter until he escaped. But Samus had focused her rage and obliterated her worst enemy. He tried to force those thoughts to the back of his mind, and said, "So, after that, it was over. The Metroids were gone forever."

"Well, there was the small matter of returning to my ship before Zebes self-destructed. But after that, it was over for the time being," muttered Samus.

"But.... but how did your scientists have Metroid DNA?" asked Harry, looking up at her again. "If they were all gone, then how did...." His words trailed off when he noticed Samus had stopped. Looking ahead, he saw that the tunnel was blocked off by rocks.

"Don't worry, Harry, I can clear all this. You'll want to back up, though," said Samus, nudging Harry back with her arm cannon. Then, she went into morph ball mode and rolled up to the rock slide. Harry saw something appear near her rolled-up form; a sort of glowing, pulsating ball of energy. Then, a sort of explosive wave erupted from it, vaporizing the rocks blocking their way and filling the tunnel with intense heat.

Samus walked up to Harry as the bright light faded and the heat died away. "What.... was that?" he asked nervously, once again put off by Samus's bizarre weaponry.

"Power bomb," said Samus simply. "I deploy them in morph ball mode, and they release a wave of thermonulcear energy. I also have smaller bombs I can deploy, up to four at a time."

"Ah," was all Harry said. *How many other weird weapons has she got!?* he silently wondered.

The two of them continued on, but no other groups of X-hosts appeared to ambush them. Furthermore, neither of them couls sense any unhosted X lurking within the walls and pipes. But Samus knew that there had to be more X in the Chamber of Secrets. In her past encounters, she learned that within every major area, there was always at least one extremely powerful X around which the other X parasites gathered....

As for Harry, he didn't ask Samus to continue her story, even though there was undoubtedly more. For the moment, he had heard enough. Enough to make his head spin and his heart grieve for Samus. He felt the utmost sympathy for Samus and what she had gone through in her life. Just like him, she had been orphaned, had been forced to battle unspeakably horrific monsters and warmongering maniacs, and even saw someone (or in her case, something) she cared for slaughtered before her eyes. At that moment, he felt closer to Samus than anyone else; even closer than to Ron, Hermione and Sirius.

Eventually, the pair reached another obstruction, but this was one only Harry could clear for them. It was the solid wall that had two entwined serpents engraved into it. "I think it's better if I let you deal with this," Samus correctly guessed.

Harry nodded to her, then turned back to the wall. This was where his final two enemies were the last time, and he suspected that even more powerful X-hosts were now within the main chamber. Harry could feel himself shaking and his throat felt dry, but he screwed up his courage and stared at the engraved serpents. "Open up," he said in Parseltongue, and just like last time, the wall split open as the stone snakes parted, opening the way for the two of them. They ran inside, Samus with her arm cannon held out in front of her and Harry with his wand out. Harry realized that he was gripping his wand very tightly, and that his palm was sweaty.

"So, this is where you fought the basilisk and the teenage version of Voldemort," said Samus as they cautiously ran between the two rows of serpent pillars. She glanced about wildly for any sign of X-hosts, and noticed how dark, gloomy and foreboding the chamber was. It must be hard on Harry, having to come back here, she thought. I remember how eerie it was when I re-entered where I had fought Mother Brain the first time.

Indeed, Harry did have an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu as he gazed into the enveloping darkness of the main chamber, running alongside Samus. "Yeah, this is where it all happened," replied Harry in a shaky voice. "I finished off both of them somewhere over...."

He had turned toward the area by the wall where he had skewered the basilisk's brain and ran Riddle's diary through with its fang. It was then that he realized something unusual.

The basilisk's body was gone.

"Samus, it's gone!" yelled Harry, now alarmed. "The basilisk's body isn't over there anymore! It can't have decomposed that quickly, even with all the rodents down here; it's barely been over two years!"

For a few moments, Samus didn't reply, letting a deafening silence linger in the main chamber. When Samus spoke at last, it was in a grave, serious voice. "Harry, would you possibly have any idea how long the organic material in a basilisk's bone marrow can last after its death?"

Harry thought about it, and he supposed that it could be preserved for a long time since basilisks can survive for centuries. He didn't know why Samus had asked that, but after giving it some thought, he understood what she was getting at.

And then, he heard a faint and all-too familiar scraping, slithering sound from behind them. Harry stood there, rooted to the spot, and he heard that eerily familiar hissing voice again: "Die, Metroids!"

Harry heard a great rush of air behind him, as if a giant snake were readying itself to strike. But then, he felt Samus's arm wrap around his torso, and suddenly he was soaring off the ground. He looked underneath him, and saw the head of a basilisk lunge forward, but strike nothing but thin air. Samus fired a missile at the apex of her jump, which dazed the basilisk.

Samus turned around in midair before she touched down again, then made another huge leap toward the rows of serpent pillars, rising to a height of no less than twenty feet. After landing again, she quickly ran behind one of the pillars, then let go of Harry. "Harry, stay here while I go fight it," she commanded harshly. "You can help me finish it off, but for now, stay behind cover."

"Samus, no!" cried Harry, fearing for her life. "You can't fight a basilisk. If you...."

"I know. One look into its eyes means instant death," said Samus, cutting him off. "Don't worry about it. I think I've got a way around it."

"But how!? You can't possibly...." Harry began, but Samus shoved him against the pillar.

"Stay behind cover," Samus repeated sternly, and then she ran out from behind the pillar. As she did so, she willed her visor to switch to its x-ray mode, allowing her to see in the x-ray spectrum. Solid objects all looked slightly transparent and were a ghastly, pearly shade of white, and the rest of the world looked like a empty expanse of noxious purplish-black.

By now, the basilisk had recovered and had turned around. She could clearly see its skeleton, and its insides registered as a mass of bright violet matter, varying in degrees of transparency. It glared down at Samus, and she stared right back into its eye sockets....

And she didn't feel a thing.

Samus smirked as she raised her arm cannon. She also willed her visor's targeting systems to lock onto the basilisk's head, forming a targeting reticule around it on her heads-up display. This allowed her missiles to home in on whatever she targeted, and she began firing them at the basilisk's head. It tried to avoid the missiles by swerving about wildly, but it was no use. Each missile always found its mark, eliciting hisses of pain from the basilisk. Samus kept strafing around as she continued firing, making sure she'd be a moving target if the basilisk counterattacked.

Soon, it did. The basilisk made another absurdly swift lunge, but despite its speed, Samus was still quicker. She jumped up to avoid it, and its head painfully slammed into one of the pillars instead. But by the time Samus had landed, the basilisk had recovered and was facing her again. Before it could strike again, though, Samus jumped at it while spinning, soaring straight for its head. However, her body merely rebounded off of its snout, and all the basilisk did was shake its head, as if to ward off dizziness.

Alright, so its hide is too thick for the screw attack, thought Samus as she touched down again. Guess I'll just stick with missiles and charged beams. Or maybe....

Samus continued firing missiles at its head, all the while avoiding its deadly lunges. However, at one point, the basilisk managed to lash out at Samus with its tail, sending her skidding across the stone floor. The basilisk took off after her, but as it was nearing, Samus went into morph ball mode and deployed a power bomb. As her momentum let her roll away, the basilisk lunged at her again and couldn't change its direction in time, and its head got caught in the bomb's blast radius. Soon, its entire head was enveloped in billowing flames. My ice missiles weakened the scales around its head just enough so that a power bomb would affect it, she realized as she fired charged blasts at its head to finish it off. "Harry, you can come out from behind cover! But keep your guard up!" Samus called out, her voice echoing loudly in the chamber.

Harry had obeyed Samus and stayed safely behind the pillar. He didn't like how Samus had went out to fight the basilisk alone, yet at the same time, he felt grateful that he didn't have to fight the monster a second time. He knew it was cowardly to think that way, but the basilisk still haunted his nightmares from time to time, and facing it again wasn't something he looked forward to. But Samus sounded like she needed his help to finish it off, so....

Harry jumped out from behind the pillar, and through squinted eyes, he saw that the basilisk's head was on fire. And after a few seconds, it looked as if its body was slowly turning to liquid, and reforming itself like clay. Soon, most of its body had reverted to stray X parasites, but its head was forming into something else; it looked like a large sphere made of glass, lined with small spikes.

"Harry, gather up the stray parasites!" came Samus's commanding voice. Having been snapped to attention, Harry obeyed and Summoned many of the parasites to him. Samus followed suit by charging her beam and drawing in the rest. Then, she turned her attention to the floating, glassy sphere and fired a missile at it. When it hit, there was a loud cracking sound and the sphere was forced backward.

Just what is that? Harry thought as he ran closer. Soon, he could make out something INSIDE the spiky sphere: a large X parasite, which glowed with a fierce, poisonous-looking, green radiance.

"Crack the membrane open to expose it!" ordered Samus as she fired another missile. Harry took another look at it, and figured that a high-speed blast of water might cut through it. "Aguamenti!" he shouted, and a jet of water shot out from his wand. Unfortunately, the stream of water merely splashed off its surface, and he only succeeded in knocking it back. Then, the sphere shot forward, as if to ram him. But Harry flattened himself against the floor, and it passed over him.

He got up and looked behind him, and saw another missile streak by him and smack into the sphere. Harry raised his wand again, this time ready with a different strategy. "Reducto!" he cried out. His curse smashed into the spiky membrane, finally causing it to shatter. Now, a huge X parasite, roughly the size of his body, was idly floating with the main chamber.

"Good work Harry," said Samus praisingly as she walked up to Harry's side. "Now, go ahead and use that fire magic of yours. Finish it off."

Harry stared at Samus for a second, wondering why she didn't want one of them to absorb it. But he decided that following Samus's advice was probably a good idea. Turning back to the huge X, he aimed and said, "Incendio." Bright, violent flames roared around it, and within seconds, it dissolved into nothingness. "Why didn't you want to absorb it?" asked Harry querulously.

"What, and gain the ability to kill people just by looking at them? No thank you," replied Samus sharply.

"'Gain the ability?'" repeated Harry. "You mean.... we'll get the powers of X-hosts from the parasites we take in!?" asked Harry, suddenly nervous.

"Only if we absorb one of these extremely powerful X parasites, called X-Cores," answered Samus. "That's how I recovered most of my abilities the first time I encountered the X."

"Recovered? Wait a minute, I thought most of those abilities you have come from machinery. How can your suit 'recover' them by absorbing X-Cores?"

Samus let out a small chuckle. "A common misconception about my suit. You see, my suit is actually biomechanical, meaning that much of the technology is actually organic-based. That's how my suit can absorb X parasites to replenish weapons and energy; when I received the Metroid vaccine, the organic parts of my suit were altered along with my own body."

Harry looked at her suit again, and realized for the first time how organic and lifelike it looked. Not only that, he realized he never really thought about how her suit absorbed the X like her body did. "I see," he muttered, feeling stupid. "That reminds me, you never answered me earlier. How come there was still Metroid DNA around to cure you with when the last one was killed by Mother Brain?"

"Alright, I might as well tell you the rest," said Samus, still sounding sullen. "I was lending my support when a research company called Biologic was conducting studies on SR388. Since I had been to the planet before, the governor of the region asked me to offer my support. I was still reeling from my failure on Zebes, so I was grateful for something to do to keep my mind busy.

"But at one point during Biologic's surveys, I ended up killing a native creature, which reverted to an X parasite, which then infested my suit. At the time, we didn't know what we were up against, so I returned to my ship and travelled alongside Biologic's vessel. Then, my nervous system was infested just as yours was. I lost control of my ship and it drifted into an asteroid field. It was destroyed, but an escape pod automatcially ejected me before that.

"I was taken to Federation HQ, but they had no idea how to fend off the infection. Also, the X had infected almost all areas of my suit, and while I'm unconscious, it can't be removed. Much of my old suit was removed surgically, but there was no way to get rid of the X in my body.

"And then, that's when the GF biochemists came up with a solution. Somehow, a cell culture from the Hatchling had been preserved, and they proposed using the cells as part of a treatment. It was administered, and the Metroid's DNA was fused with my own, granting me their resistance. My suit was completely altered as well."

"It was?" asked Harry.

Samus nodded. "It didn't always look like this. Now, the Metroid Hatchling's genetic material was part of both me and my suit. It saved my life once again." Harry couldn't help but notice the guilt-ridden, sorrowful undertones in her voice.

"But my troubles were far from over. While I was undergoing treatment, contact with the B.S.L. station orbiting SR388 was lost, and all the evidence pointed to an onboard explosion. I was sent to investigate, and I was given a new ship with an computer that would serve as a commanding officer." There was a hint of irritation in that last sentence, and Harry guessed it was because she probably didn't like to take orders from anyone. "The station was in the process of being overrun by the X, and it was my duty to try and stop them. Soon, my computerized CO pieced together how the X were the natural prey of the Metroids, and found out what had caused the disaster in the first place: an X parasite mimicking me at the height of my power, which we called the SA-X."

"Mimicking YOU!?" Harry cried out in disbelief. "How's that...."

"Infected parts of my suit were surgically removed, remember?" Samus interrupted. "They were sent to the station for study, and eventually formed into the SA-X. I fought many dangerous lifeforms on the B.S.L, but she was the worst, because there wasn't much I could do against her for a while, and she was constantly hunting me.

"I did all I could, but it was a losing struggle. Then, to make matters worse, the Galactic Federation decided they wanted to try and capture some of the X and study them, thinking they could be harnessed. I knew it couldn't be allowed. They were far too dangerous. Luckily, someone else saw it my way: the onboard computer of my new ship. It was then that the truth about my computerized CO was revealed."

"The truth about your computerized CO?" repeated Harry. "What do you mean?"

"It wasn't just a computer program, it was the preserved memory of an outstanding military leader named Adam Malkovich. A leader I knew very, very well."

"But.... I thought you didn't get along with other humans," said Harry.

"You're right, I don't," said Samus. "But Adam was different. While most other GF officers I had to work with over the years resented me, or obviously thought I was some sort of abhorrent freak, he trusted and respected me. And I much as I hate taking orders from someone else, there was enough of a mutual understanding between us that I didn't mind working under him. In a way, he was the only real friend I had outside the Chozo."

"But what happened to him?" asked Harry.

Samus then turned away, overcome by shame. "Dead," she finally said at length. "He sacrificed himself to save me, just like the Hatchling did."

Harry immediately realized it was mistake to ask about Adam, if his memory could affect someone as regal and rock-hard as Samus like this. "Samus.... I'm sorry," said Harry.

"It's alright, Harry," replied Samus in a reassuring tone. "I guess what matters now is that we were reunited, and he came up with a plan: rig the station's propulsion systems so it'd crash into SR388, and simulanteously have the station self-destruct. After a brief fight with the SA-X, I did just that. Of course, now I know that the war against the X is far from over...."

"Don't worry, Samus. We're going to find out who's responsible for all this," said Harry, trying to lift Samus's spirits. "Even if it's Voldemort, we'll find a way. You can rely on the Order, Samus. They won't stop until the X are destroyed."

Samus said nothing for a moment, but when she spoke again, her tone was much less sullen. "If you say so, Harry. Hopefully, the Order members here will have that immunizing potion ready by the time we're done down here."

"I'm sure they will," said Harry. "Insufferable as Snape is, he's a great potion-brewer."

"Very well. Let's get back to work," said Samus, then she turned to leave the main chamber and motioned for Harry to follow. "I suggest we keep checking the tunnels, in case there are any more X." Harry took one last look at the main chamber, then ran after Samus.

---

Madam Pomfrey hastily rushed into her office, looking all over the tables and her desk. "Oh, I know it's in here somewhere," she muttered. "Snape will need a sample of this thing to complete his potion, and.... AH!!"

She finally found what she was looking for on her desk: a jar that contained a writhing, gelatanous X parasite. At first, the sample taken had been very minute, but over the past few hours it had expanded to the point where it filled the jar. Promfrey snatched it up and turned to leave her office, but stopped suddenly and looked back. Wait a minute, wasn't there TWO jars with samples? Pomfrey wondered. With everything that's been going on, I can't quite remember....

But the Healer shrugged her shoulders and left, confident that it wasn't a big deal. Even if there was another jar with an X parasite, she was confident that the Quarantine Charms and Unbreakable Charm put upon it would ensure it would stay trapped. Even after seeing how there was a parasite that was only slowed down by all the curative potions and spells she knew of, she was certain that such charms were still foolproof.

Perhaps that faith was justified, but Madam Pomfrey had overlooked one important detail: the X can take on the traits of any organism they infect.

And these X had been taken from an infected wizard.

On the office floor was where the second jar was, having rolled off of the desk for some reason. And shortly after she left, the X within began to glow with an even fiercer brilliance. A horrible shrilling sound filled the hospital wing; it was as if something, somewhere, was struggling for its freedom.

And then, there was a flash of bright light from within Pomfrey's office, as well as a sound like an explosion and the sound of wooden furniture being smashed into splinters. Sparks of magical energy lingered in the office for a while, along with a thick cloud of smoke. When the smoke and sparks cleared away.... if anyone had been in there at the time.... one would have seen what looked like the naked body of a skinny teenage boy with messy black hair, squatting on the floor and hunched over.

Slowly, gingerly, the new being that looked human stood up and lifted his head up, revealing a face familair to witches and wizards everywhere, and a scar shaped like a lightning bolt that adorned his forehead. His eyelids suddenly snapped open, revealing eyes that glowed with a sinister, yellow-green light.

The HP-X was born.

---

And so, there you have it. I've revealed just about everything you need to know about the Metroid series. Of course, those of you who weren't in the know took my advice and actually played the games, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU!? Or at the very least, you used a search engine to search for sites that deal with the games, right? RIGHT!?

And sorry about this chapter being so long. But I wanted to squeeze the whole thing about the Chamber of Secrets, along with Samus's retelling of the four 2D Metroid games, all into one chapter.

So long,
Grey