Prologue
The darkened sky gave no hint of the events to come. The evening birds sung their mournful ballads in the stiffened twilight air. The monolithic castle, known as Hogwarts, had begun to sparkle beneath the evening sky, thousands of candles glimmering from the many windows. The heady scent of ripened pumpkins clung to the cool night time air. The crisp breeze rolled in from the North, bringing with it a wintry promise. Dampened roots and the deadfall leaves of Halloween crunched beneath the boots of the approaching party. A long, haunting howl pierced the otherwise ordinary evening. This was not the howl of a werewolf; the cry belonged to a direwolf.