Chapter 1

Harry could not believe his life since he had started school at Hogwarts. In a few short days he went from having no money, name, ownership, or anything really. To having money, a very famous name, and a pet to which he was growing very attached to. On top of it he was now going to an amazing school; it was considered one of the top schools in the world, only outranked by a school in Japan, from what he had heard. He looked around the common room where he and the rest of his house mates stayed when they were not in classes, eating, studying, or sleeping. And found that for the style it was five stars. He was in his first year here and he could already tell this was his home, in more than one way. For some reason as soon as he entered into the school all the pain and fear he had felt in himself left.

He was now also slowly making friends, the first was Ron and the second, though he had not been able to talk to her much, was a girl named Hermione. Ron, like him, was a first year. He was tall and lankly with flaming red hair, he had a great interest in chess and Quidditch. Hermione, on the other hand, Harry had barely been able to talk to, she hid behind her books and knowledge. This made it hard to make friends with her, but Harry could tell they were alike by her eyes. Meaning she was only just shy, really which he was thanks to being again a first year in this new world.

Hermione and Ron were both in the same house as him, Gryffindor, there were three other houses, but Harry did not really care much about them at the moment since he was not in them. Though he did know the names and what each house stood for Gryffindor, the house for the brave; Ravenclaw, the house of knowledge; Hufflepuff, the house of loyalty; and Slytherin, the house for the cunning. Each named after one of the four great Witches and Wizards that had built and make Hogwarts School.

Putting up one of his school books he noticed he had an hour till curfew. Deciding that, since he had nothing better to do, he figured he would explore the castle some more. He let both Hermione and Ron know he was leaving, though Hermione did not really show any sign of noticing this. Leaving the room he proceeded to grand stair case. Now normally most students would have problems getting around the school since the staircase that made up the grand staircase would shift leaving people to find another route. First years had an even harder time dealing with this since they did not know all the other routes and passages.

But for some reason, Harry could always find his way around the school with unreal ease. He could find anything and any room. Though that did not mean he was not late once or twice as while he knew which floor the class was on he did not know for sure which room it was in. But still once he found a room he could find it again and knew the way to it, and any and all short cuts on the way to it. So far he had used this knowledge to explore the entire Seventh, Sixth, Fifth, Fourth, and Third floor as well all the classrooms on those floors. He had not seen the other dorms though, since he was not part of those houses and the forbidden corridor on the third floor since it was off limits to everyone in the school.

And so he started from where he left off and went down to the Second floor and proceed to look all over wanting to know what it looked like. As time passed, it soon was time that he should be heading to back to his dorm or risk being caught out of bed after hours. When without warning he came upon a painting that was very different from all the others in the school. First of all unlike all the others in this school, it was not like a normal photo or magical painting in which the occupants could move about in. Also, though not as weird, since they were in a magical world it had painted on it a very weird looking creature. Looking down at his watch he could tell he had a few more minutes before he would be late to getting back to his dorm.

He decided to risk it and looked at the creature more carefully as it was unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was pure black with a tube shape head that had a slight curve to it as it move out over its back, it body was very skeletal looking with four horn like spikes on it back and a tail three times the length of its body with a evil looking blade on the end. It had two arms with four fingers on each hand, and two legs though its feet were hidden. The creature over all seemed to be built to kill and even as a painting the air that seemed to come from it held fear. Making Harry wonder what the painter had been thinking about when he had designed such a creature.

Then checking his senses again he realized there was a path behind the painting, but for some reason he couldn't tell where it led, unlike any other passage he had come across so far. And also unlike the other ones he could not tell how to enter it. Wanting to get inside he started to look over it more carefully, but could not see anything that would hint at a way in. Next he tried feeling around the frame for something that might let him but still nothing. Lastly he touched what he could reach of the painting itself for any clues. At first nothing happened, until his hand passed over the tail blade which was near the lower right corner. The blade, it seemed, was real and cut his hand spilling a little blood onto the paint itself. Pulling his hand back in pain he looked and noticed a slight cut in it, but this was quickly forgotten as the painting moved up and out of the way revealing a large set of spiral stairs. Smiling at this, since he figured out how to open up the door, he decided to proceed down the stairs.

Sucking on his finger as the cut slowly healed up and the bleeding stopped he made his way down the stairs. Though there was not much light at all to see as he continued deeper down into passage the only actual light coming from a small line on the wall that seem to radiate pure magic. As he went down deeper he realized he was going deeper than even the dungeons. After a full three minutes going down the stairs he finally came to the end of it, at the bottom the area opened into a large hallway at the end he could see a large door. He traveled down the corridor noticing it was lit by large crystals on the ceiling that were glowing bright yellow, filling the entire place with light so no corner was in shadow. Quickly he came to the door that was at the end of the passage. It was large and had images of the creatures he saw in the paint carved into it seeming to form a large circle. And in the middle of this circle was another one of these creatures but it was different from all the others. It was at least almost three times the size of the smaller ones and hand a crown like shape on it head. Its fore arms were much larger while the second set it had were a lot smaller. He also noticed this time that he did not notice on the paint that none of the creatures had any eyes at all.

Harry could only stare in awe of the door and look at it, taking in all the details. He moved towards it to get a better look at it, but as he moved within a few feet of the door, it opened up of its own free will. Then out of the room flowed a wall of heat as a strong mist followed the heat carrying an unknown fear with it, causing him to shiver with the fear of the monster he had seen on the door. He was not completely sure why he felt this fear though, and it bugged him. Why was he so fearful just because some mist like fog was coming out of the door? Deciding quickly that he would not let the mist stop him at all, he continued into the door that now stood wide.

At first the entire room was pitch black, since the light from the crystals outside did not seem to reach the inside past the door. But then as he moved deeper, 10 crystal pillars lit around the room filling it with a bluish light. He jumped slightly as nearly the entire room except the crystal pillars were covered in a black resin, forming strange rib like shapes except for a few areas. He noticed these spots were similar to what the creatures he had seen on the door but curled up as if to sleep. As he moved deeper into the room he could almost not believe what he was seeing. It was as if he had stepped into a strangely alien world and he found he was growing to love it. But as he got to the end of the room he saw a something that stood out from all the rest of the room and had four crystal lights shining on just it.

It took only a few seconds, but he figured out what he was looking at. It was the huge creature that he had seen on the door but it was bigger than he had ever thought possible and, more importantly, much more real. Then from behind him he heard something moving as stone ground very likely against stone. Turning around quickly he saw the door he had come through just a few moments ago slam shut. Then another sound drew his attention to the walls to the spots where those creatures looked to be sleeping or at least had been sleeping. One of the creatures in it had just awakened, and had moved in front of him in a second with its tail blade held to his neck and a glow forming in one of its hands. Then yet another sound made him spin around again as he forgot about the creature in front of him. This time it made his heart almost stopped at what he saw, the massive creature was moving. A hiss escaped its mouth before a shriek was heard and Harry blacked out and fainted in fear.