Thanx for the reviews!

DaveNew: Actually I own 5. Haha. They cute tho. Yap a lot, but cute and can't jump on beds. Haha. But we had a black lab, but he had to be put to sleep. R.I.P. Fred. Oh, and, when you can drive right under an 18-wheeler, say that is really dirty, and drive back out, that is just too damn small. Haha. Jeff Dunham is my 2nd-favorite comedian, right behind Wanda Sykes. He's so funny. I love Walter and Achmed. But his stand-up is the best. "We named him Bill because as a puppy, he was humping EVERYTHING." Haha. Love Jeff-fa-fa. And my dog did not drown, it was an attempt murder. If he was human, he would be autistic. There was a lot of drama and incest going on in his family when he was born. He's had a hard life, so I love him. Haha. Btw, I know there's a period after Dave, but when I would save it, it wouldn't show ur name, so I just left it like that. Oh, and my other nephew (not the attempted murderer) is 6 months old and he says "mama". Dead serious. Witnessed it. So, Annabella CAN be advanced for her age.

Jackdaw King Azrael: Yea, Luna's my 2nd fav female character behind Hermione. I added her in the last chapter to the party, but she doesn't really do anything. Ima try to make her more in this one.

cah11: He's four and a terror. Haha. He's cute and adorable, but sometimes, the devil releases himself on him and he is unstoppable. He's like the spawn of the devil, except I love my sister and my brother-in-law, so they not the devil. Haha.

So, I recently bought Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, you know, the one with Hayden Christensen (at his HOTTEST!) and it gave me an idea for this chapter. It was between Padme and Anakin. You'll see, if you've seen the movie.

Disclaimer: I keep forgetting this! Haha. If I owned Harry Potter, there would be a VERY different epilogue in the back of that book. It belongs to JKR. Also, Doomsday belongs to DC Comics. Davis Bloome/Smallville belongs to the CW. And the Hulk belongs to Marvel Comics. I own nothing but the plot.

Here's chapter six!

Chapter Six

Caged

"I need your help, Hermione," he said. He could not believe he was asking her this. She would never go for it.

"Sure, anything, Harry."

"I need...I need you to help me die."

Hermione stared at him in horror, trying to grasp just exactly what he said. "Wh-what? Did you just ask me to help you die?" She shook her head vigorously. "N-no! Absolutely not, Harry! I will not kill you!" Harry rose up from her lap and stood. She stood up with him.

"Hermione, the Beast is becoming uncontrollable now! Yes, it saves people, but what if it decides it doesn't want to save people anymore? What if all it wants to do is kill? Kill anything and everything! Destroy! I'm almost invulnerable! I can't be taken down, Hermione! I am the world's greatest and deadliest predator! Even more powerful than a vampire. I could rip it to shreds. I am the world's ultimate destroyer," he told her.

"If you're invulnerable, Harry, then how do you suppose you want to kill yourself?" she challenged.

That stumped him. He had never thought about how he would do it. "The Beast has no weakness. Neither do I. Then, there is no way for me to die." He paused and continued, "But everything has a weakness. Nothing is invulnerable. Everything can be taken down by something. Please, Hermione, you have to help me end this." He walked toward her, strongly. "Please, Hermione...help me."

"No, Harry. No. You're my best friend. As you said so yourself, I care about you too much to let you die."

"If you care about me, then help me," he seethed. "I'm afraid of what it might do to me. If you won't help me die, then cage me. Put me in an indestructible cage and keep me there."

"Harry, you can get through this. We don't have to kill you or cage you. We can find a way around this. Besides, you are forgetting what you are supposed to do. You are to kill Voldemort. You destroy him and you save billions, Harry," she said. "I am not saying that the Beast can be used as a weapon, but you can save people, Harry. Isn't that what you have always wanted to do?"

"I've always wanted a family," he spat back in her face. "I've been deprived of a family for sixteen years! My parents and Sirius were all killed! My relatives hated me for who I was! The Weaselys are just liars! I've dealt with Voldemort's shit for all these years! He deprived me of a family!"

"And what about me?" she asked softly. Their mouths mere inches apart. "Am I not your family?"

"No, you are not my family," he said which made her frown and turn away from him. "You are my life," he said to stop her from walking away from him. "You. Are. My. Life. You are everything I live by. The reason I live. The reason I breathe. You're the last major, good thing in my life. I have some friends, like Neville and Luna and the rest, but you..." He shook his head. "You are the reason I get up every day."

Hermione turned around and looked at him. "Then, why don't you? Live. Live for me. I can help you live. Not die. Live. I can help you, Harry." She kissed his cheek and his forehead tenderly.

Harry gave into that. He closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay. Fine. I'll kill Voldemort, but I choose what I want to do after."

Hermione hesitated, but nodded, and then gathered her best friend in her arms in a fierce hug. "Okay, but please, Harry, choose the right choice. I would be devastated if you took your own life. I wouldn't go on."

Harry didn't know what to say to that. He just let a lone tear roll down his cheek. "Happy Birthday, Hermione."

"Where have you two been?" Annabella asked when they got back. "You missed the cake."

Harry was fully dressed in the same clothes he had on. Hermione mended them for him, making him look presentable. Everyone rushed to Hermione, asking her if she was okay and if the Beast harmed her in any way. She reassured them that she was fine and that the Beast did not lay a finger on her.

Ron was pampering her up. He would not leave her alone or stop asking questions, so Harry pushed him away from her and they walked off with Annabella in their wake.

A few nights and a few transformations later, after they put Annabella down to sleep, they went to their respected rooms and fell asleep themselves.

Harry, once again, did not have good dreams. He tried to fight them off and out of his mind, trying to place soothing and calming images in their place. However, they did not ward them off. They only plagued his mind even more, because he thought of his friends. When he thought of his friends in a nightmare, they were harmed. He watched as he hurt and harmed his close friends. Blood was everywhere. He watched as he eventually got to Hermione and eventually murdered her.

He sat up like a bolt in bed and screamed. He was sweating and panting like a dog. He stood up and ran out of his room to the Common Room. He walked to the balcony and opened the French doors. The hot, yet cool, summer wind hit his sweaty, bare chest and blew through his hair. He closed his eyes as he felt the pain rushing to him. The pain of loss. The nightmare did not feel like a nightmare at all. It felt too real.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he did not hear a noise behind him until it spoke. "Harry..."

He spun around, startled. He sighed with relief seeing Hermione standing there. She was in a pair of pink and lime-green striped, petite girls' boxer shorts and a plain, grey girls' t-shirt that hugged her torso perfectly. Her legs looked amazing and long and smooth. Harry just wanted to rub his hands down them. He mentally shook his head of these thoughts and turned back around toward the Hogwarts grounds, closing his eyes again. He could not look at her. If he did, he would see her covered in blood and pale. Dying.

Harry felt her stand slightly behind him. He knew she would not let this go.

"Harry..." She placed a soothing hand on his bare shoulder. Harry tensed, but she did not seem to notice. "You had a nightmare, didn't you?"

He didn't answer; maybe she would just leave him alone if he kept silent.

"I heard you scream."

"I'm sorry I woke you," he apologized to her, deciding to speak.

"It's okay, really," she paused before continuing. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He inhaled deeply and let it out heavily. "I'm not sure it was a nightmare."

"What did you mean?" He could hear the confusion in her voice.

"It was more like when I had that vision of Mr. Weasely in Fifth Year, when I attacked him. But I attacked all my friends...as the Beast. I think it's a vision," he explained sadly.

"Harry, you could never hurt us," she told him.

He spun around quickly, startling her. "Hermione, it's becoming darker now. It doesn't want justice anymore. It wants pain and suffering. Hopelessness. Death. I think as I am becoming more drawn in, it becomes more violent and murdering. Yesterday, when I transformed, I saw a woman and her child walking down the streets of Hogsmeade...and I wanted to kill them. I don't want to be like this. Why can't you understand that?"

"I do understand that, Harry. I just think that killing yourself is not the answer. You need to trust me and learn to control it to an extent that you can will yourself not to transform," she told him.

He let out an exasperated groan. "I don't have time for that, Hermione! You don't know when this vision will come true!"

"You don't know if this vision will come true!" she shot back at him. "I'm sick and tired of you acting like a martyr! To me, the Beast is a gift. A gift given to mankind to save the world! This world is falling to pieces! And I think that the Beast is exactly the kind of savior this world needs! You can do great things, Harry. You can save billions of people." He looked away from her, trying to grasp what she was saying.

"What if it does?" he asked quietly. "What if it is a vision and I will attack you?"

"Just...don't worry about it, okay?" she told him. "I'll be more alert from now on, okay?"

He nodded slowly and she kissed his cheek. "Okay, now get some sleep. Goodnight, Harry."

He watched her walk away with a sad look on his face.

"I love you," he whispered a few minutes later and then went up to bed.

Ron Weasely sat in his room, unable to sleep. Something was bothering him. He could not stop thinking about the Beast and how it took Hermione and she came back unscathed. The thing was a monster, a behemoth, a freak! He was angry Hermione stuck up for that thing. It killed people. It tried to kill Hermione. His girl. But something in his mind was itching about Harry, too. Where was in during the party? And why did he come back with her? Did he save her?

Then Ron began to think about how Harry was never around when the Beast attacked. Where was he? Where did he go? He remembered when Harry tried to attack Hermione and he pulled him away from her, protecting her, but something knocked him out.

Ron gasped as he came to a conclusion.

Harry was the Beast.

He shot out of his bed to write a letter.

Harry sat with Hermione and Annabella in the Great Hall the next morning for breakfast. He kept getting glares from his former best friend. It wasn't unusual, but they were more angry-looking, like he was about to jump and kill him. Harry just ignored him and ate his breakfast in silence.

"Did you go back to sleep last night, Harry?" Hermione asked him after a while.

He nodded.

"Did you sleep well?"

He nodded once again. "Yeah, no nightmares."

"Good," she smiled.

He gave her a small one back as he finished his breakfast.

Suddenly, the big, oak doors burst open and several Ministry officials and Aurors rushed in. They looked around; searching for the face they wanted. Their eyes trained on Harry, who gazed up at them with confusion. The leader pointed to the seventeen year old and yelled to his fellow official members, "Arrest him!"

Hermione gasped as they grabbed Harry and pulled him out from his seat next to her. She stood as well. "Harry!"

"Harry Potter, you are placed under arrest for the murders of thirty-two wizards and twelve Muggles," the Ministry official exclaimed. "And as a threat to the world."

"A threat? You can't possibly-" Hermione protested but was cut off.

"Miss Granger, I would prefer if you did not interfere," the head Auror said.

"Let Harry go. He did not do anything wrong," she said firmly.

"He killed forty-four people, including his own family. That's a crime."

Hermione continued to follow them, protesting as she walked. "Please! Let him go! You're hurting him!" They did not listen to her. "Harry!"

Harry looked at her with sad eyes, the same ones he looked at her with the night before. He shook his head at her. Hermione stopped as she was shocked at the look on his face. 'Let them take me, Hermione' it said. 'I must suffer the consequences for my actions.'

"No..." she shook her head. 'Harry, it was not your fault. You could not control it,' she wanted to tell him, but the words would not come out.

She watched them take Harry, her beloved, away without a struggle. A lone tear rolled down her face as she watched them roughly handle him. He looked scared, yet willing to be put away. She felt something warm in her hand. She looked down and saw Annabella had slipped her small, petite hand in hers. She gave her a comforting smile. "What are they going to do with him, 'Mione?"

Hermione shook her head. "I don't know."

"Hopefully they'll destroy him before he destroys anything else," came a cold, yet happy voice. Hermione looked around and saw Ron Weasely grinning from ear to ear at the sight of Harry Potter being pulled away in handcuffs.

"You!" Hermione yelled at him. "You turned him in! How could you, Ron?" SMACK! came her hand across his face. "He's a good person! He's a better man than you will ever be!"

"He's the Beast!" Ron yelled making the other people in the Great Hall gasp. "Isn't that right, Hermione? Yeah, I figured it out...all by myself. It was weird that Harry had never been around when the Beast was. Those blackouts. Waking up in random places naked. Shredded clothes. Guilt. Yeah, he's the Beast, alright. I can't believe you're defending him! He's a monster! He's ugly! And murderous! He killed people!"

"He's more human and more beautiful than you'll ever be, Ronald Weasely!" she seethed and tugged Annabella along as she fled the Great Hall.

"Ugh!" she yelled as she hit a desk when they got to the Heads' Common Room.

"That was not very nice of Ron," Annabella said very softly.

"No, it was not!" she cried agreeing with her.

Annabella sat down on the couch and looked at her guardian. "What do you think is going to happen to Harry?" she asked.

Hermione turned to look at her and began to breathe normally, calming down. She walked over to her charge and sat down next to her. She tucked a stray strand of the little girl's brown hair behind her ear. "I'm not sure. They said that Harry was a threat to the world. We both know what that means."

"The Beast," Annabella stated for her.

"Right. I don't know what they are going to do to him...but it scares me," she said as another tear fell down. "They think he killed innocent people. You and I both know that he killed criminals, right?"

Annabella nodded sadly, hoping her other guardian was okay.

Harry was scared as he was shoved into a glass box. He fell to the ground in a heap. He squinted when bright lights were cast upon him, blinding him. They had taken his clothes before so that he couldn't use them to escape with wandless magic. He curled into a ball and hunched over like a backwards "c". He put his hand on the glass as the Auror walked away without even a mere glance at him.

He sat back on his bottom and drew his knees to his chest, looking around his box. There was nothing else in there with him. He closed his eyes and thought of how he had gotten his wish.

He was arrested and caged, just like he wanted. He could no longer hurt anyone. He could no longer hurt the ones he loved. They were no longer in danger from him.

Over the next few days, he was questioned. He answered all of them truthfully. He told them he inherited the Beast gene from his father's side. He told them he killed forty-four people. He told them how he changed randomly and there was no telling when he would change.

Of course, the Aurors were indifferent on what to do with him. He was the famous "Boy-Who-Lived", but he was the Beast, as well. He was a threat to the world and to humanity.

Harry went along with what they said, not even defending himself.

Soon, his trial came and he was put in another cage, just like the one he was in before, made of glass, in the middle of the courtroom. He looked around the room and saw many members of the Wizengamot with their strange hats and cloaks. He saw the Minister of Magic, Scrimageour, in the big seat. He looked to the other side and saw the audience. His emerald-green eyes spied McGonagall, Neville, and Luna sitting on one side. On the other side were the Weaselys-Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Ginny. Ron looked glum as usual. Ginny looked a little afraid to be there.

Just as Harry was going to ask where Hermione when she and Annabella walked in through the doors. He smiled and crawled over to the glass wall where she was closest to and placed his hand on it.

"Harry…" he heard her say and rushed up to the cage. Before the Aurors could react, Hermione put her hand "on his" over the glass. But it only lasted a second before the Aurors pulled her away from him and into the stands with Annabella. "NO!" the teen cried as they pulled her away. They ended up next to Luna, who held Hermione as she began to cry.

"It's okay, Hermione…" she said. "Their heads are full of Nargles anyway."

Annabella took her other hand and held it. Harry looked up at her with sad eyes and a sad smile as the trial started.

"Harry James Potter, you are charged with the deaths of forty-four people. How do you plead?" Scrimageour said.

Harry sighed and without hesitation said, "Guilty."

Hermione gasped and began to cry harder. "No."

"We will examine the evidence and testimonies of eyewitnesses." He paused and looked at a sheet of paper in front of him. "The Wizengamot calls Professor Minerva McGonagall to the stand, please."

McGonagall stood and walked over to the seat in the middle of the room, next to the cage. "Professor, how long have you known Mr. Potter?" one member of the Wizengamot asked. He was interrogating her.

"Since he was a baby. I was very close with his parents, but after they died, he was sent to live with his relatives-"

"The same relatives Mr. Potter murdered?"

McGonagall gulped, but answered, "Yes."

"So, now how would you describe Mr. Potter infancy?"

"He was...a happy little baby. Loved to play with his father's Golden Snitch. Loved his mother. Loved his father. A happy child."

"So, there were no tantrums?"

"No..." Now she was confused. What were they getting at?

"We questioned Mr. Potter and he told me that the Beast gene is hereditary. Surely, he would have had it when he was a baby," the Auror reasoned.

"He didn't get the gene until he turned seventeen."

"Ahh, so it is an adulthood thing, is it?" He paused before asking, "Have you ever seen the Beast?"

"I watched him turn into the Beast."

"So, you are confirming that Mr. Potter is in fact the Beast?"

"Yes."

"Okay, thank you, Professor," the Auror said dismissing her.

Professor McGonagall left her seat and went sit down back in her original spot.

"The Wizengamot calls Ronald Weasely to the stand, please."

Hermione, Annabella, and Harry glared as Ron sat down next to the cage. "Mr. Weasely, how long have you known Mr. Potter?"

"About seven years."

"Okay, has Mr. Potter shown any sign of anger?"

"Well, lately he has," he smirked at Harry in the cage, who growled at him. "I saw him try to assault Hermione Granger. He seemed to be really mad at her for something. Then, he had stormed into a birthday party as the Beast and took Hermione away."

"After seeing Mr. Potter in his Beast form, what would you sum him up to be?"

"He's a dangerous monster."

"That will be all."

Ron gave Harry one last glare before he resumed his seat.

"Would Miss Hermione Granger please come to the stand?"

Hermione stood up and walked over to the chair in the middle of the room. She gave Harry a soft smile, which he returned with a small one of his own. She sat down and waited for the interrogation to start.

"So, Miss Granger, you have seen Mr. Potter in his Beast form, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, I have."

"Would you agree with Mr. Weasely that he is a 'dangerous monster'?"

"No," she said immediately. "He's not a monster."

"Explain that, please."

"He saved me and Annabella from being killed. He only kills bad people. He had the chance of killing me, but he didn't. Harry Potter is not a monster!" she said firmly.

Harry smiled at her, glad that someone, besides McGonagall, didn't believe he was a murderous killer. Even he thought himself of a killer. He thought himself of a murderer. A monster! He watched as his best friend was interrogated even more.

"So, Mr. Potter saved you? How?"

"Well, I was in Hogsmeade, looking for him. I wanted to make sure he was okay. But then I heard a scream, so I ran to an alley where I saw a man trying to kill Annabella. I saved her, but then he shot the Cruciatus Curse at me a couple of times, but then Harry-the Beast-came and saved us. He killed him, yes, but he was protecting us. He's anything but a monster! The real monster was what tried to kill us!" she said strongly.

"Has there been any sign of anything that can calm him?"

"Me. He seems to be calm around me," she answered truthfully.

"Okay, thank you, Miss Granger. You may step down."

Hermione stood from the chair and gave Harry one last smile before going to sit down next to Annabella and Luna. The Wizengamot interrogated Luna, Neville, and even little Annabella, asking them the same questions. Each of them concluded that Harry Potter was not a monster.

"The Wizengamot would like to call Mr. Harry Potter to the stand, but since he is being caged, we will just have to interrogate him in there," Minister Scrimageour said.

A member of the Wizengamot stood and walked over to Harry's cage. "Mr. Potter, how long have you been the Beast?"

"Since midnight on my seventeenth birthday. That's when it started."

"And it says here that your relatives, the Durselys, were killed on your birthday and you were missing..."

"Yes," Harry hung his head in shame. "I k-killed them. They locked me in my room all the time. They beat me. Abuse me. They're Muggles, you see, and do not like our kind. Something in me just compelled me to kill them for all of the torture I've endured in my life that they caused."

"Where did you go after that?"

"I woke up at Hermione's house. My instincts just told me to go there. Although, I don't remember deciding to go there or going there, just waking up."

They continued to ask more questions. Soon, the big one came. "Do you think, Mr. Potter, that you are a monster?"

Harry inhaled deeply and let it out heavily. "Yes, yes, I do. I am a monster. I don't like killing people, whether they are good or bad."

"But Miss Granger said that you are doing it because you have a desire to protect people."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, but it still doesn't give me the right to kill. I feel its becoming darker. It wants to kill even more. Its becoming uncontrollable. Please, I don't want to be this way."

"That will be all, Mr. Potter. The Wizengamot will take thirty minutes to talk this over," the Wizengamt member said. He walked with the rest of his fellow staff members and the Minister of Magic to a silent-proof room in the back.

Harry sat back down in his cage and waited, not looking at anything or anyone. Hermione just watched her best friend. He looked so lonely and scared. She wished she could comfort him. He didn't need this. She knew she could calm him. Why couldn't they just let him go and the two could run away together to the countryside and nothing could anger him or make him change? He wouldn't have to be afraid of harming her. He wouldn't have to kill. They would be at peace.

Thirty minutes later, the Wizengamot and the Minister of Magic came back. They got right to the point. "We have decided. Mr. Harry James Potter is found guilty of killing forty-four people. He is a threat to the world. He will be caged as his sentence. However...Mr. Potter can also be used as a weapon. We believe Mr. Potter, the Chosen One, was chosen to be this Beast to defeat our long-time enemy, Lord Voldemort. Therefore, we will keep Mr. Potter caged until You-Know-Who comes and then we'll release him."

An uproar broke out in the courtroom. "You can't do that!" Hermione shouted, but no one heard her.

Harry became angry and felt himself beginning to change. "NO!" he bellowed. He stood up and put his hands on the glass, leaning on it as he forced himself not to change. Everyone watched in silence as he forced it back. Two Aurors opened the cage and grabbed his arms, containing him. Hermione watched as they hurt him. A tear rolled down her cheek as they knocked him out. "Harry..." she breathed out.

Harry fell on his stomach with his head turned toward his supporters. The ones that believed him. The ones that believed in him. The last thing he saw before he black out was Hermione's Beautiful face with a lone tear rolling down her left cheek.

TBC...

Well, there's chapter 6! Hope you liked it.

Pleez review!

DREWHHR