Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, those rights belong to J.K. Rowling, scholastic, Warner Brothers. I only came up with some story line and a few characters that will be introduced in the story.

This is my first story, please be gentle on me.

Summary: Harry is having a horrid summer and misses Sirius something terrible. A creature appears in his dreams --- many things happen. Sorry about the horrible summary, it's my first.

Strange Happenings Chapter 1: The Dream

Harry Potter awoke with a start. He sat up in bed trying to remember the dream that had caused him to awaken. He vaguely remembered that there had been shadows, blood, and screaming; but as of late these things had not been unusually and had in fact frequented his dreams. Tonights had been the worst by far, but had not been the full reason for him waking up. This dream had differed in the fact that there had been a large, white cat with black paws and mesmerizing eyes which had approached him. Despite its coloring it resembled a cougar; he had seen one at the zoo before his first year. He had been quite surprised when he had heard a voice and found out that it was the cougar communicating telepathically with him. Judging by the voice the cougar was female, *Relax youngling,* she had said (or rather thought) * I mean no harm to you, rather I am here to help for your dreams are getting out of control, are they not? When you wake remember and write down all that you can about this dream, yet for now tell no one about them and leave me out for I am not a part of the dream. I know it is hard but I am asking you to try and trust me. Things will work out.* Then she turned and walked away fading into the shadows. The boy was greatly puzzled by this, firstly he had never spoken to a cougar before then again there was a time when he could say that about snakes and he was not sure by what she had meant when she said that she wasn't part of the dream. She had also refused to reveal her name or anything else about herself to him. Sighing Harry got out of bed, got a piece of parchment, a quill and an ink pot, then he wrote down all he could remember about the dream --- which wasn't a lot. When he was done he looked at his watch and upon seeing that it was 3:30 in the morning he decided that he would try to get a few more hours of sleep.
~

Not far away in a cavern set in a small forest there lay a rather large, white cougar that happened to have black paws and mesmerizing eyes. She rolled over in her sleep, seemingly content to anyone who may have seen her, but she was actually agitated about something – and only she knew what that might be.

~ The next time that Harry woke up it was to hear his Aunt Petunia yelling at him to get up. It was now 9 am and as he sleepily got up he winced in pain remembering all that had happened the day before. As he got dressed he thought "this is going to be the worst summer ever." He had been home for a week and had been on edge almost since arriving there. The threats that had been given by Moody, Lupin, and Arthur Weasley had done little to change the Dursley's attitude; on top of that he was on the verge of depression over Sirius and the guilt he felt was tearing him up. Upon arriving downstairs he was once again treated like he wasn't there, so he quietly ate his piece of toast remembering to save a portion for Hedwig, and his half a grapefruit (still suffering due to Dudley's diet). Then he went upstairs to ponder of his most recent dream before he would get the chores that he had to do that day. It still bothered him; he wanted to find out about the cougar that had been in his dream. She had seemed kind and yet there was something about her that powerful and dangerous at the same time. And yet he half hoped that he would see her again --- somehow he had felt safe when she had visited his and he wasn't sure why.