Harry Potter: Lethal Injection

Chapter 1: A Poisonous Partnership (Part 2)

Harry awoke to a surprising lack of pain in his head, and a gnawing pain in his stomach so great he found he had curled up while unconscious, his hands cradling his aching stomach as if trying to ward off the pain. Reaching up, he found his head completely unmarred, despite the fact that his last memory was a resounding crack as it impacted with the bathroom wall after he had seen his monstrous reflection and heard the voice.

HUNGRY! The voice was louder than ever before, and it startled Harry so much he jumped even while laying down, his legs kicking out and impacting with the locked door of his cupboard. Rather than merely hurting his legs, Harry was shocked when the door burst open, the bolt breaking with a dull crack which seemed almost painfully loud in the silent house.

The Dursleys are heavy sleepers, but even they must have heard that, right? From the darkness of the hall Harry could tell it had to be well into the night, he listened, barely daring even to breathe as he waited to see if any of the Dursleys had been awoken by his impromptu escape attempt. After several moments, Harry released his breath in a sigh before responding to whatever entity insisted on startling him.

"Would you stop doing that!?" He hissed, hoping that whatever it was that kept speaking to him would hear and obey, not that he really believed it would do any such thing, if there even was anything there. Maybe I'm just going crazy? Harry wondered to himself, The Dursleys have certainly been treating me like I'm liable to snap at any moment. As concerning as the possible deterioration of his sanity was, at that moment Harry was far too hungry to give it much thought. With a slight shrug, Harry slowly crept out of his cupboard and toward the kitchen, hoping to quell the burning hunger that still gnawed away inside of him. Harry finally allowed himself to resume breathing normally as he opened and closed the door to the kitchen as silently as possible. Uncle Vernon is probably going to lock me in my cupboard forever when he finds out what I did to the lock, might as well make sure I have a full stomach when it happens.

Once inside, Harry made a beeline for the fridge desperate to fill his aching stomach with something before the Dursleys discovered him and locked him away once more. Meat, Harry decided, I need meat. So focused was he on his self-imposed mission, Harry never noticed that, despite the absence of his glasses, his vision was better than it had ever been before, everything seemed brighter and clearer.

Opening the fridge, he found an assortment of frozen sausages, bacon, and a set of steaks Aunt Petunia was saving for Dudley's birthday dinner, for a moment, Harry considered simply tearing open the packaging and gorging himself on the raw meat, his hunger was so great. He stopped himself with difficulty, remembering when Dudley had tried to eat his food before it was cooked and hadn't been able to leave the toilet for the next three days. It would-be no-good eating if he only ended up throwing up what he consumed. Crossing to the kitchen fan, Harry turned it on in the hopes of masking the smell of cooking food from the Dursleys; Vernon and Dudley were both like bloodhounds when it came to roasting meat. That done, Harry set to preparing the sausages, he only barely knew how from when Aunt Petunia had made him help with Dudley's birthday breakfast the previous year, but he did his best.

Despite his efforts, the first few sausages came out heavily blackened, but the smell wafting from them had Harry salivating and nothing had caught fire, so he considered it a victory. Without pausing more than a moment for the sausages to cool down, he began shovelling handful after handful of food into his mouth, chewing as quickly as possible and swallowing in great gulps. Desperately trying to eat his fill before his inevitable discovery, Harry could feel the yawning pit of emptiness in his stomach beginning to fill, but still, something felt wrong with the food. Dead, this is dead. Why wouldn't they have anything living for me to eat? He thought exasperatedly, before pausing in realisation; Why would I want to eat something that was still alive?