Prologue
Hermione Granger awoke with a start, trying to determine whether the noise she had just heard was real or dreamed. She had been dreaming of Draco Malfoy... and all of a sudden there had been a loud creak, as of floorboards.
Standing up, she turned on the light and peered around the room. There was nothing there. Nothing was out of place, and although it was a bit chilly for summer, everything else was just as it should be on a quiet evening in a Muggle suburb just south of London. Shaking her head at her nervous behavior, Hermione lay back down, and immediately fell asleep again.
A shadow materialized, a tall, thin shadow, and pointed its wand at her. If there had been anyone around, they might have heard it whisper a word that could be recognized as that of the Imperius Curse, that illegal spell that was cast to put a person completely under another's control.
Hermione shifted in her sleep, and murmured something. The shadow crept away, leaving the house to its quiet, ordinary rest.