Chapter 2 – The good and the bad

Before he could finish his thought he stumbled out of a fireplace and was about to fall over when two strong arms stopped him from falling over.

Harry didn't have much time to react to what was going on around him. He felt rather grateful that someone had caught him because if he had fell the wolf had have gone flying through the air.

Harry looked around him to find that it was Sirius who had stopped him from falling over and that he still had his arm around Harry's shoulders.

"You ok?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Yeah." Harry said quickly shrugging off Sirius's arm and missing the look of utter surprise on he's face when Harry did that.

Harry slowly looked around the room wary of all the reactions from the people there. Sirius had not seen the bruise on Harry's face but Remus and Dumbledore had and they were looking at him with pity and sadness.

Great. Just great. More sympathy and fake understanding. Just what I need.

Harry kept his emotions on his face blank and walked across the room to sit down on a chair in front of the Headmaster with the wolf cradled in his lap.

"Ah Harry nice to see." Dumbledore said cheerfully.

Harry nodded in reply and looked closely at the Headmaster. He looked tired and worn, far more older than he'd ever seemed and his eyes had lost their merry twinkle as soon as Harry had nodded.

Sirius was still standing at the fireplace looking rather stunned. Where did the Harry go he saw before? Idiot of course he wasn't going to stay the same. After all he'd seen last year. Did you really expect him to stay the same carefree child.

"Now Harry I realize things are happening rather for you at the moment and …" Dumbledore was interrupted when a slight pop and a lot of coughing came from the fireplace.

"Sorry about that but I was went to go repair the damage that happened to the Dursley's house." Arabella explained while brushing some soot of her robes.

"Damage?" Dumbledore asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes well something attacked Harry while we were at the Dursleys but that wolf," Arabella said pointing to the creature, "saved Harry's life."

"Harry? Where did you find this wolf?" Remus said looking at the creature with an odd look on his face.

"I didn't find it. It was bought as pet for Dudley and he didn't like it so I got stuck with it." Harry said running his hand through the wolfs coat.

"Very well then. Now as I was saying things have taken a rather good turn. Pettigrew has been caught, well more like he surrendered to the Ministry of Magic after a failed attack on Hogsmeade thanks to the dream you had." Dumbledore said continuing what he had been trying to say before Arabella arrived.

"You're serious? So that means that Sirius is free? Harry said feeling happier than he'd been in a while.

"Yup." Sirius said finally speaking.

"So that means that the invitation you gave to me in my third still stands?" Harry asked, hating himself for the begging tone he was using.

Just think. No more abusive family members who never cared. No one to beat up on you for simply breathing and living.

"Definitely, but we first need to put some protection charms around the house before we can move in so we'll be staying here for a day or two. Is that ok?" Sirius replied.

Harry nodded trying not to look to excited. He was ready to jump with joy but something held him back in an odd way. A tiny nagging feeling that this all couldn't be real. Since when did things ever go my way or in my favour? Hardly never. I mean I thought brilliant I'm a wizard but what happened? I find out that some mad psychopath evil wizard killed my parents and is now trying to kill me. The joy of being me.

A whimper and what almost sounded like a human moan shook Harry out of his thoughts. Looking down he saw that the wolf was slowly stirring. It slowly opened it's eyes but when it saw all the people in the room it blinked really quickly and tensed in Harry's lap. Before Harry could do anything the wolf sprung of his lap and was walking away from all the people in the room. In actual fact, there weren't that many people. Sirius, Remus, Arabella Dumbledore and of course Harry. The group of adults never noticed that the wolf had stirred and was now awake because they were all talking about what charms and measures could be taken to ensure Harry's safety. The wolf quickly moved to the corner of the room and looked at all the people with a wary look in it's eyes. When the wolfs fell on Harry, he could have sworn it looked relieved to see him. Harry stood and moved to the corner where the wolf was standing.

"They won't hurt you. See the guy there with the long hair who's really thin? That Sirius and the guy on his right is Remus. And the old guy behind the desk is Prof. Dumbledore. None of them would hurt. I wouldn't let them hurt you." Harry whispered to the wolf.

The wolfed seemed to relax and with a quick movement licked nudged Harry with a paw.

"What?" Harry asked.

The wolf whimpered and made a begging sound.

"Ohhh you haven't eaten anything have you?" Harry said standing and looking at the adults noticed that Remus was looking at him.

"Prof…Remus could I get something to eat and something for the wolf as well?"

"Sure." With that he went to the fire and threw in some powder off the mantel piece and said some food names into the fire. A few seconds later a two plates could be seen being held through the fire by small non human hands. Remus took the plates and passed them to Harry with out saying another word and went back to the discussion.

"See here you go." Harry said putting the plate in front of the wolf.

Harry swore he saw the wolf grin at him but that was silly. It was just a normal wolf wasn't it? The wolf slowly ate the food that was on the plate and when it was finished it moved the plate away from it with a tap of it's nose. Harry finished as well as was looking at the wolf carefully when he noticed that it looked a bit better than it had but it still looked tired. Harry was startled out of his silent checking over of the wolf when something landed on his shoulder. Seeing a claw on his shoulder Harry was relieved to see that it was only Fawkes who had landed on his shoulder. As suddenly as Fawkes landed on Harry's shoulder it flew to the wolf and laid it's head on the wolf's head and pearly tears could be seen running down the phoenixes face.

The wolf seemed totally shocked at what Fawkes was doing and simply lay there with a guarded look in it's eyes., or so it looked like to Harry. Fawkes stopped crying pearly tears and flew back to his perch leaving a rather shocked Harry sitting in front of the wolf. Phoenixes rarely just healed people/animals randomly or when people/animals have minor injuries. The wolf must have been hurt more than I thought.

A movement to his side took his eyes off the phoenix. He'd followed Fawkes flight to his perch and had been staring at the creature since he'd become lost in thought.

I seem to be doing that a lot. Tuning out everything and just listening to my own thoughts. Harry looked at the wolf and what he saw shocked him.

The wolf was slowly changing, into what he could see far it looked like it's paws were turning into hands and it's muzzle had shrunk into a normal human nose. The change had completed and in it's place sat a thin, pale girl about Harry's age with long brown-black hair and the same strange eyes it had had as a wolf.