'Why do you wear those clothes?' Venom complained once Harry had finished getting changed.
"If you really have access to my memories then you know why," Harry grumbled, not really that fond
of his clothes either. His beige-coloured trousers needed an extremely strong belt to be held up, his blue shirt was a checkered one that Dudley had worn once before never wearing again, the bottom of his shirt reaching just above his knees.
'Because of the Dursley's, I know,' Venom growled. 'but they're not here now! Are you really going to let them decide what you wear? You're rich! Buy some new clothes!"
"I can't, if I go back and they find out that I have new clothes then...'
'You won't go back,' Venom cut in with a firm voice. 'and even if some disaster forces you to temporarily go back there then they won't take away your clothes. I won't let them! Now, when we go out, you need to buy new clothes.'
"Hmm, fine," Harry said after a few moments, realising that Venom had a point. He was rich enough, why couldn't he buy some clothes for himself. If things got really bad then he could find a way to just hide them in his school trunk, something that should be possible given that he had access to magic.
"though I have yet to see anything impressive about you so I hope you understand if I have my doubts."
'Hmm, how about this?' Venom asked.
"How about...what the..
" Harry trailed off as he felt his trousers and shirt get ripped into pieces and
fall of his body, he had barely had a second to register what had happened when suddenly his body was covered in new clothes. His beige trousers had been replaced with black jeans, his checkered shirt was replaced with a black t-shirt and a black hooded jacket. "...whoa!" Harry couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face. "That's cool!"
'I know,' Venom replied, sounding quite proud.
"Um...does it have to be all black?" Harry asked, looking down at his new clothes.
'I don't know, do you have to be all fussy?' Venom retorted. Harry flushed slightly, realising that he might have sounded ungrateful. He opened his mouth to apologize when suddenly his shirt changed into a white colour. 'Better?' Venom asked.
"Much," Harry nodded appreciatively. "sorry if I sounded ungrateful." He added apologetically.
'Make it up to me with food,' Venom replied.
'Fine, the only problem I see right now is that I don't think it's wise to order more food from Tom, with how much I'm eating he might get worried and call a healer. I also can't go out, I'm not technically supposed to leave this place." Harry remembered.
'Yes, you can, the Minister just said that you should stay in Diagon Alley and not leave this place at night, not that we have to listen to him. Don't you remember what I said? We can do whatever we want, if we want to go out then we'll do so.' Venom told him just before Harry's hood went up over his head. 'Watch.' Harry looked down and couldn't help but gape when he saw himself turn invisible.
"You can turn me invisible?!" Harry blurted out, an invisibility cloak was one thing, but being able to turn invisible by yourself (even if it was through an alien being that had latched onto you) was an entirely different situation.
'Impressed yet?' Venom asked in a smug voice.
"Yeah," Harry chuckled. "I'm impressed." He admitted. "So, now what? We just sneak out the door?"
'No, the window.'
"The window?" Harry blinked. "Can you fly?"
'I can make wings to glide, but we won't need to fly. Open the window then jump out.'
"I'm sorry, but did you just say 'jump out'?" Harry asked with a hint of disbelief.
'Yes, jump, now.'
"Do you know how big a drop that is?! I'll end up snapping my ankles!"
'You won't snap your ankles while I'm here, trust me. Now move.' Venom impatiently ordered.
"This is madness," Harry whispered to himself before he moved to the window. He opened it and gulped as he looked down at the three-storey drop.
'Jump, trust me.' Venom's voice echoed in Harry's head.
"If I end up in the hospital then I'm never going to let you live this down." Harry gulped as he climbed onto the window ledge, and closed his eyes while taking a moment to curse his Gryffindor nature before allowing himself to drop and fall towards the ground. For a few seconds, he felt the wind being pushed aside by his body as gravity pulled him straight to the ground. Harry grunted as he felt his feet impact against the stoned floor beneath him. "Bloody hell!" Harry's eyes snapped open and widened as he stared between his unharmed self, the ground and the window he had just jumped off of. "Wow, you really did make me stronger."
'Yep, now do I have to tell you to go again or should I just take control of your body and get the food myself?' Venom growled
"I would have thought than an alien as smart and strong as you could handle being patient," Harry commented before deciding to start walking down the alley he was in since he didn't want to make Venom hungry and angry enough to follow through with his threat. 'Can you hear me if I talk to you like this?' Harry thought.
'Yes, why?' Venom asked.
'So I don't have to keep speaking out loud,' Harry explained. 'I'll get weird looks if I speak out loud, besides it kind of negates the whole invisibility thing. Why do you ask? Don't you know my every thought or something like that?'
'I asked because I wasn't actively looking through your mind,' Venom explained. 'when I am, then I can know your every thought.'
'Oh, fair enough.' Harry said just before stopping once they neared the end of the alley. 'You need to turn me visible again, I can't buy anything if I'm invisible.'
'Fine.' A second later Harry found himself visible once again.
"Thanks," Harry whispered before walking out into Diagon Alley, he did his best to keep his head down and made sure to leave his hood up, hoping to not have anyone recognise him. A minute or so later he had neared a cafe, he was ready to go in and try sampling foods, hopefully, he would be able to find something that Venom approved of in there.
"Excuse me, young man," A female voice said. Harry stopped and turned around and saw a brown-haired woman in muggle clothes staring at him. "sorry to bother you, but can you please show me where the wizard's bank is?" She asked. "My daughter rushed off to the bank and I don't think she noticed that I was busy and hadn't followed her."
"Oh, um...sure." Harry nodded, barely a second later he winced as he heard Venom yell 'NO!' from inside his head.
"Are you alright?" The woman asked, noticing his expression.
"Yeah, sorry, just a headache. Follow me." Harry turned and began walking. 'What the hell, Venom?'
He mentalv asked
'Don't help her!'
'Oh for Merlin's sake,' Harry mentally groaned. 'I'll find some damn food for you, okay? It'll take me about a minute to get her to the bank, then we can try out some new food and..
'That's not what I meant!' Venom cut him off. 'Her emotions feel all wrong!'
'What? Her emotions?'
'I can detect emotions and her emotions are telling me that the best thing to do is let me eat her head before she hurt us!'
'You're not eating her or anyone else!' Was the first thought that came into Harry's head, it was only a second later before he registered the rest. 'Wait, what do you mean that she'll hurt us?' A second later Harry got his answer when he suddenly felt something poke him in his back, causing him to stop. He felt a body move behind him, stopping at only the barest distance needed to prevent it from touching him.
"Stay very still," He heard the woman he was helping whisper, her voice was suddenly a lot more menacing and far less friendly. "there's an alley to our right. Slowly walk into it, don't draw attention.
If you try anything then I'll turn your spine into dust and escape before anyone can even call for help. Now, move." She ordered, pushing the tip of her wand deeper into his back, causing him to wince slightly.
'Well, if I die here then at least Voldemort won't get the satisfaction.' Harry thought as he obeyed the witch, reluctantly walking into the alley with her following behind him.
'You are not going to die,' Venom told him. 'we must simply wait until we're far enough away.'
'Far enough away from what?'
'Witnesses.' Venom's voice purred in his head, causing Harry's eyes to widen slightly at the obvious anticipation he could hear.
'Venom, you're not going to kill them!'
'Why not?' Venom asked, sounding genuinely curious.
'It isn't right!' Harry protested.
'Neither is letting this woman stay healthy enough to attack other people, it would be just the same as you stopping Quirrell and the basilisk.'
'That was different,' Harry argued. 'what happened to Quirrell was an accident and I had no choice
with the basilisk.
'Perhaps, but think about it this way, would you rather know for sure that this woman wouldn't hurt anyone ever again or risk her escaping justice as Lucius Malfoy did? Because calling him innocent is the same as calling Voldemort kind.'
Harry wasn't able to respond as a moment later his attention was brought back to the present when he found himself at the end of an alleyway, surrounded by the witch and a trio of wizards that had their wands pointed at him.
"The kid's a bit small, isn't he?" One of the men asked.
"Hardly matters," Another man replied. "he's sellable."
"Sellable?" Harry dumbly repeated before glancing around. Behind him was a wall, there was a building on his left and right side. In front of him, just after the four kidnappers, was a long stretch of an alley. There was no sign of anyone else nearby and he doubted that he would even be able to scream before they silenced and gagged him.
"Yep," The third man grinned. "there's quite a market for it." He raised his wand, the tip of it glowing. Harry instinctively took a step back but stopped when he felt something moving up his arm.
His right arm raised itself without Harry even wanting it to, Harry watched as a black goo covered his hand and wrist, a goo that he could feel all the way up to his elbow. A black tendril shot out from his hand and tackled the man, slamming into him and sending him crashing into the wall behind him.
The tendril released him and allowed him to slide bonelessly to the ground, the tendril then changed targets and grabbed the first of the men by the neck before smashing him into the other man, hard, taking them out of the fight.
"What the fuck?!" The witch cursed before firing a cutting curse right at Harry's neck. Harry's eyes widened in fear, thankfully he was saved when the tendril retracted and the goo disappeared from his right arm and appeared on his left, covering it from elbow to fingertips. The goo extended out of his hand and formed a human-sized shield which took the curse for him.
"What is that?!" Harry blurted out from behind the shield.
'Not what, who.' Venom corrected as the witch continued to fire spell after spell at them.
"This black stuff is you?!" Harry asked, forgetting to speak in his head.
'Part of me, here's the rest.' Venom had barely let Harry hear those words before Harry transformed.
Harry ended up being covered from head to toe in black goo, once he was fully covered his body grew. He grew taller, his muscles got bigger, going well past regular bodybuilder sizes. By the time he had stopped growing, he stood over seven feet tall with massive muscles beyond anything that Harry felt would be possible to achieve. His fingertips and toe sharpened, his mouth stretched from ear to ear, giving him a permanent grin. His teeth were long, pointy and snowy white and matched perfectly with the long tongue that was sticking out of his mouth. The only other bits of him that weren't black were the two white and teardrop-shaped eyes.
"W…. what are you?" The witch gasped fearfully.
"We...are Venom." The creature said with a disturbing grin before it opened its jaw so wide that a snake would be impressed, revealing a set of horrifying teeth. The witch let out a terrified scream before firing another curse at Venom. With a speed that didn't match his size, Venom dodged it and leapt forwards, one hand grabbing the witch's wand hand. A crunching sound was barely heard before the woman's screams of pain filled up the alley. Venom purred as he shook the woman's broken hand, allowing her wand to drop harmlessly to the floor, his long tongue reached forwards and the tip touched the woman's forehead while she protested in pain, disgust and no small amount of fear. "Hmm," Venom pulled his tongue away and stared at her. "eyes, lungs, pancreas, so many snacks but so little time." Venom cooed, he was sure that even in this alley the woman's screams would have attracted attention.
"Leave me alone!" The woman cried before pulling out a knife and jamming it in Venom's shoulder, unfortunately for her, it might as well have been a toothpick given how effective it was.
"That tickles." Venom chuckled as the woman let go of the knife, her eyes widening in horror as the knife sunk into Venom's body, disappearing from view. "That was the sort of thing a brainless idiot would do, and if you're not using your brain, I'll have it."
'No! No eating heads!' Harry's voice echoed in Venom's head
"Fine." Venom growled before his mouth snapped open and bit down on the hand that the woman had used to stab him. The woman shrieked in pain as Venom dropped her, leaving her alive but with
one less hand. venom turned and leapt upwards.
After travelling a fairly long distance away from the scene, Venom landed on top of a decently tall building. He was pretty sure that there was nobody else around so was fine with transforming back into Harry.
"What the fuck was that?!" Harry gasped, his hands moving up to feel his body, he breathed a small sigh of relief upon realising that he was back to normal. Harry spotted a few pieces of broken glass nearby, he quickly rushed forwards and picked up the biggest piece he could find. He stared at his reflection, glad to see his regular old face with his black hair and green eyes, even his glasses. His free hand rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to stave away the headache he was feeling, though it wasn't doing as good of a job as he would like. Harry removed his hand and damn near jumped out of his skin when he saw that his reflection in the glass had changed. "Bloody hell! V...Venom, is that you?" Harry asked, staring at the white-eyed and large-toothed being that had replaced his reflection.
"Correct," Venom said, nodding even though Harry hadn't. "impressive, right?"
"That's.. that's one word for it." Harry agreed even though the first word that jumped into his head was 'terrifying'. He didn't really blame that witch for being so scared, he was sure that seeing Venom in person would be an even more overwhelming experience. "I. you bit that woman's hand off?"
Harry remembered as he continue to goggle at Venom. Harry's right shoulder twitched, he glanced at it and saw a black tendril shoot out from it and move until it was in front of his face, the tip of the tendril changed and suddenly Venom's face was staring at him.
"You wouldn't let me eat her head," Venom said in a voice that was a cross between amusement and annoyance. Harry gulped, barely noticing that he had dropped the glass that he had been holding.
"The. this is what you look like?" Harry asked softly, still staring at Venom. Once he got past how scary the alien was, he could admit that Venom looked fairly impressive. His eyes, teeth, and even his tongue just screamed out 'apex predator'.
"Is that a problem?" Venom asked, sounding offended.
"No! No," Harry quickly replied. "it's just.. well...a bit overwhelming. I...honestly, you're very...
"Impressive?" Venom guessed, purring out the word. "Intimidating? Handsome?"
"Uh...yeah, all of the above." Harry nodded, he couldn't help but think that the Venom was having a bit of an ego. "But...back to that woman...'
"Yes, I don't know why you're complaining," Venom responded. "I didn't even enjoy the taste of her."
"You ate her hand, I.
"She stabbed me." Venom interrupted.
"It didn't even hurt you." Harry pointed out with a frown.
"Doesn't mean that I have to like it," Venom growled. "besides, what I did was a public service."
"A public service?" Harry repeated with disbelief, goggling at Venom. "How was that a public service?"
"Think about it, Harry," Venom's tongue licked his lips. "that woman was a very bad person."
"Well, yeah," Harry conceded. "she was. But she..."
"Has probably done horrible things to many others, the same horrible things she tried to do to you," Venom spoke, his voice sounding softer than before. "if I stopped her permanently then there would have been far fewer victims in the future."
"But..but the aurors can catch her, right?" Harry asked.
"Perhaps," Venom nodded. "but we made it much easier for them, besides, it's not entirely guaranteed that they would punish them properly. We made it so that those criminals will think twice before doing anything like that again.
"We?" Harry echoed. "Why do you say 'we'? You did that, not me."
"Wrong," Venom spoke up, his mouth widening into a full-sized grin. "I couldn't have done that without you, Harry. It is 'we', Harry. Now, if you don't want me to go back and finish the job then you need to find me some more food. I'm willing to listen to you, but not if it means dying of hunger." Harry's emerald green eyes locked with Venom's milky white ones, the two simply stared at each other for several long moments before Harry let out a small huff.
"Fine, there should be a few food shops nearby, we'll experiment and see what you like."
"Excellent," Venom said in a happy voice before pulling back and disappearing back into Harry's body. 'Let's get going.' Venom's voice echoed in Harry's head.
"My life was a lot more normal before I met you." Harry groaned, but stood up anyway and decided to get moving. As far as he was concerned, it was better to just hurry up and get the alien his food.