This is set a year after the ending of the last book, and I really hope you all enjoy it.

Prologue

It was dark, but there was definitely something in the garden. Dudley could see its eyes gleaming in the yellow light of the streetlamp. A long, lupine shadow draped its onyx form on the front lawn, and he knew that his mother, Petunia, would have thrown a fit if she'd known there was something in her flowers. The sight unsettled Dudley, and he knew he had to wake up Harry. The two cousins had grown closer since they'd been forced into hiding, and now they were both home again, he'd tried being a better family member to Harry, much to his parents' disapproval.

Carefully, he slipped out of his room and into Harry's room. The floor was littered with cardboard boxes that were half full, but Dudley managed to pick his way around them without making too much noise.

"Harry!" he hissed, shaking his sleeping cousin's shoulder. "Wake up!"

"Hmm?" Harry mumbled quietly as he woke up. "What is it, Dudley?"

"There's something in the front garden."

Harry grumbled in annoyance as he reached out to the bedside table for his glasses. Once they were perched firmly on the bridge of his nose, he propped himself up onto his elbow to look at Dudley.

"It's probably a cat or something, just go back to bed, you're paranoid," he mumbled, getting ready to fall asleep again. He'd snatched a look at his clock and the time had read half past two in the morning. That was enough of an excuse to be as grouchy as possible with his cousin, despite the hostility between them having disappeared in the past year.

But Dudley was insistent. "It's big, though. Looks more like a dog than a cat."

"Go back to sleep!"

"Just look!" Dudley said persistently. When he glanced out of the window, he could see that the shadow was still there, along with the gleaming eyes. "See, it's right there!"

Harry more or less snarled in anger, but did as he was asked. He hauled himself out of bed and looked out of the window, where he too saw the large shadow that was made all too clear from the street light. Without another word, he grabbed his wand and made his way downstairs to the front door.

"What is it, Harry?" Dudley – who had followed Harry downstairs – asked fearfully. "Is it dangerous?"

"I don't know, but if it is, then it's picked the wrong house to lurk in front of," Harry growled angrily as he pointed his wand at the keyhole. He muttered the spell, alohamora, under his breath and the door clicked open. His uncle's old habits of locking him in hadn't left.

Dudley suddenly felt somewhat useless. Harry had magic, he had fists. What sort of a weapon was that against what could very well be a magical creature that could easily rip him open? It didn't feel fair, but in an effort to feel like he was helping, he grabbed a cricket bat from the cupboard under the stairs.

Out in the garden, the shadow was just touching the tips of Harry's toes. Harry brandished his wand at the creature in the flower bushes. There was no movement save for the wind rushing through the leaves.

"I don't know what you are, but I suggest you either leave or show yourself before I blast you to bits!" Harry threatened.

The creature didn't react for a few minutes, but then it slowly crept out of the bushes towards the two cousins. Dudley gasped at what it was.

It was a massive wolf, with shoulders that reached higher than Harry's waist. Thin and malnourished, its long legs looked more like sticks of skin and bones, and the ribs were showing painfully through its mangy, tatted fur. The street lights above gave the thick clumps of scruffy hair on the wolf's body an orange tint, but Harry thought it was almost a yellowy-gold colour. Its left front leg was bleeding profusely, like the two savage wounds that ran along its shoulders and met the bone. A long, scraggy blonde mane hung over its eyes, which were a pale blue colour and looked fearfully at Harry and Dudley with an almost… human intelligence.

"Wh-where do you think it's come from?" Dudley asked quietly, hefting the cricket bat in his meaty hands.

"I don't know," Harry replied, keeping his eyes on the wolf. "Who are you?" he asked it.

The wolf opened its mouth, as if to reply, but then the air was suddenly torn apart with an ear-splitting "crack!" and the wolf was suddenly on the floor, howling in pain as blood gushed from a wound in its right shoulder. Looking up, Harry saw his uncle looking down at him from Dudley's bedroom window, a gun in his hands.

"Get that mangy beast out of here!" Vernon Dursley roared, spittle flying from his mouth. "Better yet, kill it before I do so myself!"

The wolf hauled itself from the blood-stained grass and ran down the street. Harry charged after it, but when he turned into the next road, it had disappeared.

"Wait!" he yelled, as if the injured animal could hear him, but nothing happened.

Harry's shoulders fell as he accepted defeat. Tired and angry, he walked back to Number Four, Privet Drive, intent on giving his uncle an earful on how the animal hadn't intended to harm him and his cousin, but even at the end of the street, he could tell that his cousin had beaten him to it, judging by the sounds of intense yelling coming from the house. But thoughts of the wolf still bothered Harry. Its eyes, they'd been familiar. Where had he seen them before..?