Those who devour a dragon’s heart gain access to the dragon’s power, pure and overwhelming power. Yet they desire more, and as they devoured, so they are devoured by the lust for more, until they abandon humanity, becoming the very beasts they had devoured.
This folk wisdom kept repeating itself in Harry’s mind, as he sat there, listening to his mentor’s rough voice, doing his best to ignore the man’s slitted yellow eyes that were observing him with unnerving focus.
“You feel it, don’t you? That call, wild, even seductive. It bubbles beneath the surface, and in the darkest corners of your mind, you want to feel your blood boil, to pound in your temples.” The man’s scarred face bloomed into the most terrifying smile Harry had ever seen. “You want to unleash that power within you. Burn, incinerate any who stand against you. To show everyone what you can do. Free.”
The man’s eyes burned with a feverish gleam, a suggestion of inhuman intellect behind them. “That’s the dragon blood you invited into yourself when you ate that dragon heart. And don’t pretend, I’ve seen what remained of that field and the people that thought they had caught you.”
Harry shivered. Was it in remembrance? The nightmarish smell of burnt human flesh? The memory of the strangely sweet taste of dragon heart? Or the spark of excitement when he remembered their screams as they burned? Maybe because he couldn’t be sure.
“Does it ever go away?”
“Go away?” His teacher, Knight Moody, barked a harsh laugh. “You wish, lad. No. That will always stay with you.” At Harry’s pale face, the man’s parody of a smile grew even wider, resembling a gaping wound. “You’ve seen some of us here, right? Claws instead of nails. Scales growing. Each of those is the mark of a failure. Of a loss of control. The dragonblood wants more. Always. And when that voice wins out. A new dragon is born. A beast to be hunted down.”
“But how do we control it?”
“Control it? Lad, each and everyone of us here chose to take that power for ourselves, you included. You were strong enough to slay a dragon. So keep proving your strength by wrestling the beast within you, every day. Until you die. Or until you force us to hunt you down.”