A/N: This is a plot idea I've had for a while. The prologue is short and pathetic, so you cannot judge my writing, but please review and tell me – do you think this is a good idea? I love constructive criticism. Also, I'll definitely take suggestions for future chapters. I plan on writing Darren's entire 7 years in Hogwarts.

Prologue

I suppose my story could start with my birth. But telling you too much about my birth might ruin the story for you. The best beginning for this story would be the night of the Cirque du Freak, a terrifying show I saw with my best friend Steve Leonard. Except that most of what I know about the freak show that night, I only know because of everything that happened afterward. So telling you too much about the Cirque du Freak would involve going out of chronological order. I don't want to go out of order or ruin the story; I want to present the story as it happened to me. So I suppose I could talk about the freak show, and how amazing it was, but the freak show doesn't really play a big role in my life until later. Considering all of this, I've decided the most logical place to begin my story would be the party.

Over the summer vacation before I turned twelve, the most popular girl in school threw a huge party. This was the biggest party of the year. Only the cool people were invited, and that somehow included me and Steve. This girl, Claire, had the perfect body because she was on the school soccer team (just like me!) and she got a lot of exercise. She had long red hair and lots of freckles, and I suppose I had a crush on her. The thing was, she must have liked me, too, or else she never would have invited me to her party. I never got much of a chance to ask her out or anything after the party, so I guess I'll never know what would have happened if we had dated. Anyway…

Claire lived in this massive house in a neighborhood bordered by a forest. It seemed like half of the school was there. I only saw Claire twice during her whole party, that's how many people were there. Parties back then were lighthearted fun. A group of people was playing spin the bottle in one corner, but most were dancing around the house or just talking. The music was so loud that I could barely hear Steve talking to me at my side. But no one did anything illegal. There was no alcohol or anything. Steve tried to convince me to let him bring some of his mom's liquor, but I absolutely refused. If there was alcohol, Steve would drink it, and when Steve was drunk he got really angry. Normally, Steve wouldn't have listened to me, but I guess something that night convinced him go with the flow. I wouldn't even taste alcohol until I was a lot older, but Steve, at 11 ½ was already abusing the stuff. Sometimes I wonder if the only reason I was friends with Steve was to make sure he didn't get himself killed.

Steve and I spent most of the party sitting on one of the couches, nibbling on snacks and talking. Neither of us really liked big parties like this, so we both felt uncomfortable. I had only gone because of my crush on Claire, I suppose. And I guess Steve only went because we were best friends. But we weren't having a lot of fun, and we were just about to call my parents to pick us up with the phone rang and the house turned into chaos. Apparently, Claire's older brother wrecked his car or something and her parents had to go pick him up. So Claire's parents kicked us all out of the house and it was pretty much like fifty people standing around in the near dark with nothing to do. Most people left, but Steve and I didn't have a ride until later, so we hung around.

Eventually someone suggested we go into the woods. The woods behind Claire's neighborhood was a place that kids would go into a lot of times just for dares and stuff. Kids joked around about club initiations, but seriously, staying any amount of time in those woods this late took a lot of guts. I had never been in there without Steve before. Steve was recklessly brave when it came to things like that. I think he was always trying to prove himself. And that night was no different. He was one of the first people to agree.

The party got a lot more fun once we went into the woods. We sat around using cell phones for lights and we told ghost stories. One girl had a flashlight in her purse, and the person holding the flashlight would tell a scary story and pass the flashlight on to the next person. This was definitely my kind of party game. I always got so into this stuff. It was a lot better than dancing. The only problem was that most of the stories were so predictable, and Steve would often call out the ending before the storyteller even got there. Others started getting pretty mad at him, and I was counseling the arguing and doing a poor job of it, when suddenly there was a noise.

Several people screamed. I think I might have, too.

"Cut it out!" someone yelled, assuming one of the group was trying to scare everyone else.

Steve had completely forgotten about the conflict. He ripped the flashlight out of some girl's hands and turned in circles, using the flashlight to search through the trees.

"I think we should go back to Claire's," someone said.

The noise happened again. It was the snapping of twigs mixed with the rustling of leaves. It was such a clichéd horror movie moment that I almost laughed, until Steve spotted the shadow in the darkness.

"Are there wolves in here?" Steve asked the group.

"I doubt it. The last time there was a wolf warning was over a year ago."

"Well, they did find that one lady's dog torn to shreds, didn't they?"

"That's just a rumor!"

"Wolves travel in packs."

"Yeah, we'd definitely know if a bunch of wolves was in here."

I could tell from the dark look on Steve's face that he didn't believe them. He watched the bushes carefully, until the shadows disappeared. I was relieved, thinking it was just some trick with the flashlight, but I knew immediately that I shouldn't feel so easy. The frown on Steve's face was definitely unmistakable – he was afraid. I was about to open my mouth and say something when a shape leaped from the trees.

To this day, I still don't know what the animal was. Perhaps it was some stray dog. It looked like a wolf to me, although, as someone pointed out, wolves travel in packs. But the creature looked so starved that I wouldn't be surprised if it had been a wolf rejected from its pack. Regardless, this thing jumped out of the woods and launched itself into the shrieking group.

"Stop!" I yelled, not realizing at the time how stupid it was for me to be giving commands to a wild animal.

But the weirdest thing happened… The animal did stop.

There was a sort of shimmering light around the animal, so that it glowed momentarily in the dark. The light froze the animal in mid-pounce. When the light disappeared, the animal fell into the leaves and sprawled there for a moment, as if trying to work out what had just happened to it. Then it got back to its feet and glared at me. I took a step backwards, and it took two steps forward. Its lips curled up into a snarl. I was so startled by whatever had just happened that I could not think of what to do next, but I was preparing to run.

"No!" several people cried, or "Stop!" but it had no affect.

The thing pounced again, and Steve yelled at the top of his lungs, "NO!"

The animal collapsed for a second time. I looked at Steve and just stared at him, horrified. I wanted to run away. I didn't want to know what was happening, and why it was happening. I was more scared about my power over the animal then the animal itself. Nothing like this had ever happened to me. But I didn't have much time to cry or worry, because then the animal was standing again, and advancing towards me.

"No! Stop! Sit! Down, boy! Don't come any closer!" I screamed, while Steve repeatedly commanded, "No!" The animal fell down, as though it was dead, but we kept yelling.

More of the kids around us scattered in the direction of the neighborhood. Eventually it was just me, Steve, and a small handful of people too hypnotized by the magic to move. Almost an hour later, animal control showed up and took the creature into their van, asking no questions. My voice was so hoarse that I could barely scream any longer. I was so afraid of myself and of what had just happened, that instead of talking to Steve about it, I walked home by myself, crying.