Her Dark Heart

Chapter 1.

Kayla Potter was a girl who lived in absolute misery. Ever since she was placed with the Dursleys after her parents were murdered, she had been scorned, reviled, ostracized, defamed, and abused by both Muggles and Mages alike. The Dursleys were Muggles who absolutely hated her for being a witch, and did everything they could to "beat the freakishness out of her" as Vernon loved to say.

When Kayla started attending Hogwarts, she tried to tell Dumbledore about the abuse, but the bastard looked down at her with a condescending smile and told her that she had to live with her relatives because of the Blood Wards. For the Greater Good, of course. God forbid that she have any real love in her life, because Albus Too-Many-Damn-Names Dumbledore couldn't allow that. The bastard.

Over the years, Kayla had been placed in danger time and time again. First year was Trolls, three-headed dogs, and Quirrell who was trying to obtain the Philosopher's Stone for his master, whom, as it turned out, was hitchhiking on the back of his head. Second year, it was an incompetent DADA teacher who liked to Obliviate others and take credit for others stories, students being petrified, giant spiders, and a 70ft Basilisk that could kill you with just its gaze alone, and the soul of Voldemort possessing Ginny Weasley. Third year it was Dementors, a supposed mass murderer who had escaped from Azkaban just to hunt her down, which turned out to be her godfather who was framed (and wasn't that the biggest mindfuck?), and the true culprit turned out to be very much alive... oh, and, the DADA teacher turned out to be a Werewolf who had forgotten to take his Wolfsbane potion before confronting Sirius and Pettigrew.

Fourth year, it was the fucking Triwizard Tournament where she had become the very much unwilling fourth champion. She had to deal with being ostracized yet again (Second year, she was treated as a Dark Lady due to being a Parselmouth), raging mother Dragons (more specifically, the most vicious of the lot), making a bloody fool of herself at the Yule Ball (she had profusely apologized to her best friend, Daphne Greengrass for repeatedly stepping on her shoes, and ran away in embarrassment), rescuing Daphne from the bottom of the lake, going through that bloody maze where Hagrid used a good amount of deadly creatures as obstacles, and finally facing off against a newly resurrected Voldemort.

Kayla had dueled Voldemort to a stalemate before escaping with Cedric Diggory's corpse. She tried telling the Minister that Voldemort had returned, only for the incompetent fool to vehemently deny her warning and started slandering her throughout the year, which brings us to this past year.

Fifth year, Kayla had to defend herself and her Muggle cousin from a pair of Dementors and was put on a sham trial for underage magic and performing magic in front of a Muggle... even if said Muggle was her cousin. She managed to get off, of course, if only just. However, once she got to Hogwarts, her problems didn't stop as the Minister had put a foul, loathsome toad by the name of Dolores Umbridge as DADA professor. Umbridge had terrorized the school by making students write with Blood Quills during detentions, and eventually usurped Dumbledore. Throughout the year, Kayla had been receiving visions from Voldemort about a door and a room full of orbs which she managed to deduce were prophecies.

It wasn't until she received a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort himself in said room that Kayla finally took action. She, along with Daphne, Tracey, Blaise, Theo, Luna, and Neville had taken Thestrals to the Ministry where a fight broke out among them and the Death Eaters. The fight eventually broke out into the chamber that contained the Veil of Death, and not much later, the Order of the Phoenix had come to their rescue.

She and Sirius had stood side-by-side, killing the Lestrange brothers, MacNair, Nott Sr, Crabbe and Goyle Sr, and Lucius Malfoy. Unfortunately, their luck finally ran out when Bellatrix Lestrange double-killed Sirius by striking him with the Killing Curse which resulted in Sirius falling through the Veil. In her rage, Kayla chased down the last Lestrange and cursed her with the Cruciatus Curse, but before she could get revenge, Voldemort and Dumbledore showed up and started dueling in the main Atrium. Lestrange had managed to escape in the conflict, but at least, now everyone believed her about Voldemort's return... not that it mattered.

Once they had gotten back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore finally decided to come clean about the prophecy dictating that either she or Voldemort would have to kill the other, and that she had a "power he knows not", which Dumbledore was convinced was love of all things! Sure, why don't she just stroll up to Voldemort and give him a big ol hug and tell him that she forgives him for everything he's done? Kayla had thrown one hell of a bitch fit in Dumbledore's office and absolutely trashed it.

To add insult to injury, she had to return to the Dursleys, and Moody and Arthur had threatened Vernon... which, in hindsight, was not the brightest idea they ever had. As soon as they got home, Vernon had turned purple with rage and started beating the shit out of her before dragging her back up and throwing her into her room and locked the door.

That had been last month after she had gotten home, and she hadn't been allowed out since. She had to conjure a bucket to shit and piss in, then vanished it. She had been forced to live in squalor for the better half of June and the rest of July. Without being able to at least shower once in a while, she became filthy, and her already malnourished appearance had only worsened over time. Her already chaotic mane of ebony hair became more disheveled, and her eyes sunk into her sockets as a result of her face becoming gaunt. Her clothes, which were already far too big for her, hung off her skeleton-thin frame.

She was furious with how she was treated! She was filled bitterness, rage, resentfulness, and righteous indignation. If there was a way for her to escape this misery then she'd take it in a heartbeat! Ironically, she didn't know how literal that last thought would be as Morpheus claimed her.

Her body then started spasming and changing. Tiger-patterned fur started sprouting out of her body, her face morphed into a feline's muzzle, her ears changed into cat ears that poke out from the top of her ebony mane, a slender tail grew from the base of her Lumbar vertebrae, her nails grew out into deadly claws, and her teeth sharpened into fangs. And the last thing that had happened was that an ear-piercing scream erupted from her infamous lightning bolt scar before a black mist was painfully torn from said scar before the wound fully healed.

Once the transformation was over, her magic subconsciously Apparated her to a place of safety... that being the harsh, deserts of Northern Elsweyr. As a result of the transformation, all charms and potions in her system had been completely purged from her, finally allowing her to live her life freely from the manipulations of arrogant old men with delusions of grandeur. And it would be some time before Dumbledore became aware that his pawn had been liberated by Magic itself.

(A/N: And cut! That's chapter 1. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry for the lack of dialogue or action, but it took me forever to figure out how to start this fanfiction. Originally, I had planned on Kayla meeting Namira in this chapter after her transformation, but that route ended up being longer than I had anticipated. I will have her meet Namira in a future update. As this is a Skyrim fanfiction, Kayla is the Dragonborn, but will be a reluctant hero for Nirn, having become cynical and untrusting towards mortals.

As a result of giving into the darkness of her heart and giving her soul to Namira, Kayla will become a dro-m'Athra, or a Bent Cat, Lost Cat, or Dark Spirit which are typically Daedric servants of the Khajiiti version Namiira, for those who don't know. The process involves dancing to the beat of the Heart of Lorkhaj. I'd suggest looking up the lore page for them to get a better understanding.

Anyways, I've had this idea in mind for awhile now, but I couldn't figure out how to put into words until now. Again, I hope you guys enjoyed this first part, despite anything really exciting. I had made Kayla into a Khajiit because they're my favorite race in Elder Scrolls lore next to the Dark Elves, and I had wanted to make a fanfiction where Harry becomes a Khajiit for awhile, so with the lore behind the dro-m'Athra, I figured this would be a good starting point. Anyways, I'll get to work on the next chapter. Let me know what you thought in the comments, and I'll see you later. See ya!)