Distortion (Book 2 of The Corruption Sequence)

Chapter 3 - Questioning

Lunch arrived shortly after Snape left and a house elf walked in carrying a large tray. Harry really was not very hungry, even in the human sense, but he accepted the offering from the eager to please elf and placed it on the bed beside him. Uncovering it, he found a veritable feast of delights, although nothing really appealed to him.

Eventually he picked up a fork and tentatively poked at a moist-looking portion of steak and kidney pie. Putting a small piece of the suet pastry into his mouth he chewed hesitantly, remembering his last encounter with food. He almost managed to swallow it, but in the end, he spat it out, unable to stop the nausea that threatened as he tried to eat it.

It took him a few more seconds to pluck up the courage to try again. His stomach was not happy about the idea of real food for some reason, even though he knew for a fact that some of the dark creatures forced upon him had no problem with playing at being human. This time he tried the meat rather than the casing and this worked a little better. The flavour was definitely inviting, and he found that after chewing it into a complete pulp he could actually swallow it. When it hit his stomach there was a moment he thought it might come back again, but it stayed down.

It was a ridiculously small victory, but he found himself smiling anyway and set about eating what he could. In the end it was quite a bizarre divide of things he could manage to swallow and those that he couldn't. He had thought at first that he might now be an exclusive carnivore, but some of the vegetables had been fine, as had part of the dessert. By the time he pushed the tray away he was pretty sure that he was going to have to learn all over again what he liked and disliked.

====

The reprieve from having to talk to the Ministry representatives could not last forever. His time ran out an hour or so after lunch. He had no idea what time it was exactly, since no one had seen fit to tell him what time he had actually woken up, but the sun was still in the sky if the light coming through the curtains was anything to go by. He had been afraid that light would bother him since he clearly had vampire tendencies, but although it was more comfortable without bright sunlight streaming into the room, it was not too much of a problem.

He was once again attempting to practise his Occlumency, this time sitting in the centre of the bed with his legs crossed, when the door opened once again. Caveo walked in with his wand in hand, followed by Tonks. Harry gave both Aurors a quick glance and then focused on the one he did not know. He was not inclined to like Caveo after their previous meeting and, since his instincts were telling him the man had removed what was his as well, he was not in the best of moods.

"You could have knocked," he said icily.

The Auror was somewhat taken aback by that—it had obviously never occurred to him.

"They don't teach politeness in Auror training," Tonks said brightly and sat down in a chair as she fell over her own feet next to it.

Somehow, she almost made it look like she meant to do it. Having had his attention caught, Harry could not help looking at Tonks, who had become a good friend since Sirius' death. It was not the way she appeared that had his interest, it was the way she felt. His magical sense did not seem to know how to classify her, and it was trying really hard.

"We need to take a statement," Caveo interrupted his musing, which earned the man a black look from Harry.

He growled low in his throat for good measure and looked back at Tonks again.

"What happened after you were captured?" the Auror continued anyway.

The dark part of Harry suggested some interesting ways to eviscerate the annoying official, and he dug his fingers into his leg to prevent himself doing anything he might regret.