The Tribrid and Her Prison {COMPLETE}

Blood Lust

Pain thundered through Hope's head. The room spun as her vision blurred. She clambered off the bed, panting heavily as if she'd run a mile in a minute. Hungry, so hungry.

Starving.

Hope crossed the room length and rifled through all the food available in the infirmary, the pain progressively becoming more severe.

Ignoring the warnings she'd been given, Hope left the hospital wing, walking with clumsy steps. Far too past her pain to recognize she was even being loud. The world was like a fun-house mirror, making it blurry yet painfully too detailed. She could feel each creak and shuffle of the castle, the paintings breathing far too loud.

"Shut up!" Hope shouted into nothing, holding her head as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Shut up. Just shut up," she said more quietly as she walked. She followed the same path they'd taken to the Great Hall the last few days.

When she entered the Great Hall, it was completely empty. The moon casts what would be a comforting glow if not for the circumstances on the vacant tables. Hope looked around desperately. Where would the kitchens be?

She continued to wander, letting her instincts guide her by smell, but the longer she walked halls and climbed stairs, the more irritable she became.

It took what felt like ages before she caught the scent of something that made her stop in her tracks. Looking around herself but saw nothing. Snarling in irritation, she stalked further along the halls, glowering at the paintings where the subjects cowered away from her.

Hope burst into a room and peered around, but nothing could be there for her to eat. It was another classroom; from its appearance, it was the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The chalkboard at the front of the room had those words written in white chalk.

Turning around to go back the way she'd come, Hope jumped back with a snarled hiss. Her eyes glowed amber as she faced Albus Dumbledore, whom she'd never heard enter behind her.

"Hope," he started, blue eyes guarded as he held his wand firmly at this side but ready to lift all the same, "I'm under the impression you've been out of sorts."

Her hands quickly covered her ears, his voice like nails on a chalkboard inside her head.

"Stop. Talking." She hissed as something sharp threatened to rip through her sensitive gum tissue.

Albus was silent, though his eyes never broke from her. She hadn't even realized he'd closed and locked the door until there was a bang against it.

"What's going on?" Newt shouted in a panic.

Hope instinctually ran for the door, but Albus stepped to the side. Blocking her path, he raised his wand.

They stared at each other for what seemed the longest minute in history.

"Are you going to kill me?" She finally asked, voice small. Afraid.

Albus slowly shook his head. "Certainly not, but I cannot help you if you do not tell me the problem."

"I..." she started, tears rolling down her cheeks again. I'm so...hungry," she finally managed to say through a thick voice, "It...hurts."

"What hurts?"

"Everything!"

Hope held her jaw and pinched her eyes closed. It wasn't like when she was shifting into a wolf. This... somehow was worse. At least when she was turning into a wolf, it was a continued action, knowing where it led. This was not like that. She felt her control slipping through the cracks and didn't know what would happen if she lost all of it.