She looked around the unfamiliar landscape and felt not the slightest stab of fear. The moon was so bright and cast everything in a shade of purest silver. Everything looked so magical and perfect in the silent shades of night. The stars glittered like diamonds and she felt like she could watch them forever.

There was something different about her, she could feel it, and when she looked down at herself she almost laughed in joy. Ivory coloured fur covered her belly, shading to reddish brown and she could just see a cape of white, grey and black with deep red streaks like flames intersecting the pattern. Her hands were covered with the same reddish fur with small pointed claws instead of nails at their tips.

Running over to a pool she gazed at the reflection that should have been strange, but it was not. The same fiery splashes worked their way over a long muzzled face with stiff whiskers and erect, rounded ears. But it was her eyes that made her gasp. Deep yellow, almost orange at their edges, and set deep in finely chiselled features they sparkled at her in the moonlight.

'You are a very beautiful wolf, my dear.'

She startled at the voice and turned to face the origins. Sitting watching her was a white wolf, the same white wolf that had haunted her dreams for so long. The wolf was smiling at her and she felt comfortable within this wolfs' gaze.

'I think you are ready to understand what you are, Firethorn.'

'How did you know...?'

'I know all of my own. Come, my dear, follow old Lupus and I will answer all the questions your heart has longed to know.'

She suddenly found herself standing in a very familiar place, 'But this is...'

'Sssh. Look.'

She looked at the figures on the Wolven Door and saw them moving.

'My family, my pack. Lupus watches over all. Come.'

Lupus disappeared into the wall, and Firethorn followed.

'Welcome to the Hall of Dreams, my dear.'

'Shut up, Aisling!'

One of the girls in the Ravenclaw dormitory threw a pillow at the drapes surrounding Aisling's bed. She awoke immediately.'

'Wha... what?'

'What are you, some sort of freak?'

'Huh?'

'Who howls in their sleep?'

'What's going on here?'

All those awake looked at the door where the eldest Ravenclaw prefect stood.

'Aisling was howling in her sleep, Lucy.'

'Really? Can I have a word with you, Aisling?'

'Okay.'

Lucy led the way to the common room and sat down on one of the leather sofas there. Aisling flopped down and sighed heavily thinking she was about to get a telling off, but the question she was asked surprised her and made her sit bolt upright.

'Aisling, do you know who Lupus is?' Lucy could tell from the girls wide eyes and flabbergasted expression that she did. 'I thought so. Have you told anyone else about this?'

'Only Madam Hooch at Christmas.'

'Ah, I thought Raq would be the first to find out.'

'Then you don't think I'm a freak?'

'If you're one then I'm one too.' Bracken pointed her wand at her face and her eyes turned yellow. Aisling threw herself on the girl and hugged her tightly, not having words to express the joy she felt at being understood.

Lucy just hugged her right back.

The day dawned that most fifth years had been dreading – OWLs exams started at ten thirty that morning, starting with Transfiguration. Half the students skipped breakfast in order to catch up on some last minute cramming. Some were stomach-churningly nervous whilst others took it in their stride.

Snape looked vindictively over his uneaten meal at the blankness of the table. He'd already had a meeting with Dumbledore that morning, and he hadn't liked the outcome of it. His rith had returned the previous morning seeming little the worse for wear, but the headmaster had apparently figured out the cause of Snape's injury and had brought him up to the study.

The damned creature had come up to him apparently apologetically, and Dumbledore had bought the whole act hook, line and sinker. There was something in the animal's eyes, a smug challenge, as if daring him to make a scene, that he'd never seen in an animal before. He'd felt almost forced to accept the sham gesture. The rith was too cunning and devious for its own good, and what's worse only he saw it. Everyone else was enamoured with the vicious brute. It seemed to cast a protective veil over its transgressions that made everyone else except him blind to its faults, much like Potter.

He jumped out of his skin when something gaudily coloured landed on his untouched meal. With blazing anger he read the title of this one: "The Housewitch" and was enraged to read that it boasted "101 popular knitting patterns". But, like the other, this was addressed to "Prof. Severus Snape, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" so there was no mistaken identity. With a hiss of rage the magazine burst into flames and he departed from the Hall before he thought anyone noticed.

However, he was wrong.

'Where do you keep getting all these from?'

'Back of the Prophet. Free trial subscriptions. Don't worry he's got plenty of others coming, including a lonely hearts specialist magazine. He doesn't get away with insulting us that easily. You know what you've got to do?'

'On it, don't worry.'

'Oh, I won't, but he might.'

Harry sat gazing nervously at his Transfiguration textbook but not taking in a word of it along with about half of the other fifth years outside the classroom, which had become an exam room. Ron was sitting beside him looking rather pale and playing with the frayed sleeve of his robes.

Everyone turned expectantly when the door opened and Professor McGonagall walked out, 'Harry Potter.'

Harry swallowed the bile that had welled up in his throat and walked shakily behind the teacher. Most of the tables had been cleared out of the room leaving only three where the examiners were sitting and the larger of the cages which could not be easily moved. Parvati seemed to be just finishing.

'You can leave your things at the back of the room, Potter, and collect them at the end of the exam.'

Harry nodded and dumped his book on a table at the back. He looked at one of the cages and was shocked to see Storm inhabiting the largest one, but not quite the Storm he knew. Sprouting from her shoulders were two extremely large wings. The unusual appendages were edged in black, mediating to white feathers and then to long blue flight feathers. Storm herself did not seem unduly worried, in fact she looked rather pleased with herself, her arms crossed and a smug expression on her wolfish face. She winked at him and flapped her new wings, hitting him with a powerful gust of wind that hid her whisper of 'Good luck' from everyone but for who it was meant.

Professor McGonagall noticed him staring and came over. 'Just an accident this morning, I'll put her right. Come on, Harry, you're keeping the examiner waiting.'

Harry sat at the table opposite a kindly looking old wizard. He stretched out his hand, 'Harry Potter I presume? My name is Magnus Lesath and I'll be your examiner. Don't worry, I doubt I'll ask you anything you don't know so just relax.'

The exam didn't turn out to be as hard as Harry thought it would be. Lesath was right, he'd learnt everything he needed to know from Professor McGonagall and so it didn't turn out to be that bad. He transfigured everything successfully and answered all questions with only a few hesitations. He even amazed himself as to how much he had learned.

'Thank you, Mr Potter. You can leave now.'

Harry collected his books and left through another door and went out into the open air where he was immediately pounced on by Hermione.

'How did you do?'

'It wasn't that bad after all. He didn't ask me anything I didn't know.'

They lay in the summer sunshine for a while, after Harry had managed to dissuade Hermione from dissecting her performance as it made him feel considerably less confident.

'Ron, over here!' Hermione waved to the still pale Ron. 'How did you do?'

'Okay.' He squeaked, belying the accurateness of his statement. They asked no more questions.

Most of the exams went well. Harry found the Potions one not as bad as he thought it was going to be, and considerably easier when he didn't have Snape breathing down his neck and threatening him constantly. Divination was a joke and the backup plan of make something up held both him and Ron in good stead. Almost everyone breezed DADA thanks to Lupin's guidance.

Storm's wings finally disappeared after McGonagall found what had happened, but the rith seemed to miss them quite a bit.

High spirits reigned supreme once the exams were over, except in the seventh years whose NEWTs started at the beginning of the next week. Harry was surprised to see yellow eyes constantly appearing in various classes, although especially Snape's and for this he got the blame. Irritated as he was, he was surprised when the culprit of these outbreaks took him to one side.

'I'm sorry about you getting the flak for this, Harry, I'll own up if you want me to, but I'd appreciate it if you'd help me instead.' Justin Finch- Fletchley, the previously uptight Eton boy, held out his hand in a gesture of truce. 'They're aimed at Snape, you know, he's really annoyed me and did something that I can't talk about to one of my friends. Would you like to get some of your own back on him?'

Harry took his hand, 'Sure. By the way, how are you doing that yellow eye thing?'

Justin grinned and held out a bag of innocent looking sweets, Harry remember eating some but had never put Justin and the prank together, 'Goldeneye gum. A joint development of Weasleys Wizard Wheezes and some friends of mine. Very effective, don't you think?'

'Pretty good. What do you want me to do?'

'Come with me, my friend.'