Author's Note: This is the new version of my fanfic entitled Beyond Good and Evil. There are about 20 extra chapters, but I've removed the original epilogue because I'm turning this story into a trilogy. If you've already read Beyond Good and Evil, please note that I've edited every single chapter and added information and character development from the beginning, but the first entirely new chapter is the 16th.

[Full list of new chapters: 16, 24, 55, 58, 61 to 65, 69 to 72, 74, 75, 77, 80, 82 to 84, 89 and 90. Some of the old chapters have new paragraphs, though, and the Battle of Hogwarts has been heavily reworked (chapters 86 to 89).]

Stay tuned for Part II of this planned trilogy!

Matt was still playing on the Mega Drive when he became aware of footsteps in the hall. Normally, it wouldn't make him pause, but he couldn't recognise whom the footsteps belonged to. He knew his parents' footsteps as well as his sister's, and those didn't belong to them. They were heavier, somehow.

He glanced at the alarm clock and saw that it was almost three in the morning. He placed the controller on the game console and turned off the television. He sat still for a moment, straining his ears, and the footsteps came again – near his parents' bedroom, as far as he could make out. There was the sound of an object crashing to the floor. That decided him.

Grabbing his bat, he opened the door to his sister's room. They rarely used the door that separated their two bedrooms, now that they weren't kids anymore, but it wasn't sealed off, either. Matt made his way to the bed as quietly as he could. His sister always slept with the curtains open, for some reason, and thanks to the moonlight – the full moon had occurred just a few days ago – he could see as well as if he'd switched the light on.

"Evey," he whispered, "wake up."

She stirred drowsily. "Wuzzgoinon?"

"I think there's someone in the house," he explained in hushed tones.

She was much more awake, all of a sudden. Her eyes flew open, and she sat up in the bed. "Are you sure?" Matt nodded. "Downstairs?" she asked. She trusted him without hesitation. Matt had been afraid that they would grow apart, after Evey received her Hogwarts letter completely out of the blue, all those years ago, but they'd remained close despite this life-changing event. Witch or not, she was his sister. In seven years, rarely a week had gone by when she didn't send a letter to her family – and often to him in particular. He'd always loved to hear about her classes, about magic, about that hidden world that lay just beyond what his Muggle eyes could see. Who wouldn't? It was all of his favourite fantasy books come to life. All the fairy tales were true.

"No, here in the corridor, I think."

"That's weird. What sort of stupid thief would come upstairs and risk getting caught?" Evey shook her head in puzzlement, then seemed to notice his bat. "What are you doing with that? Matt, it's a person, not a zombie. You're not supposed to bash people's head in, even if they're breaking and entering. With a father who works in law enforcement, you ought to know that, and also that legitimate defence is not as easy to prove as people think."

Even in the middle of the night, barely awake, she could be annoying. Witch or not, that had never changed. "What do you propose, then? And what if he has a gun, huh?"

"I'm not sure what good the bat will do if he has a gun, you twit." She discarded her bed sheets and stood up. "I'll get my wand, just in case, but most likely he'll run off when we open the door. They usually do," she said matter-of-factly.

"I thought you weren't supposed to use it when there are Muggles around."

"I can use magic to defend myself. That's why I said 'just in case'." Matt rolled his eyes at her but said nothing as she opened the drawer where she kept her wand when she was home for the holidays.

He saw her frown. "What?"

"It's gone," she murmured.

"Gone? Your wand is gone?" he repeated numbly. "Bloody hell!"

"As you say." She turned around. She had gone very pale. "Matt, we need to get out of here."

"Well, you probably put it somewhere else, that's all. You're not particularly orderly," he pointed out, indicating the clothes scattered around the room.

She shook her head. "No, I always put it there. You don't understand, Matt. There's no time. We're in danger. We need to leave, and fast." She walked toward the window and glanced outside. "If the intruder's upstairs, we'll need to jump, but it's not that high."

"Out the window? Are you crazy?" Matt asked her incredulously. The fall would certainly not kill them, but they would break some bones for sure.

"Just do as I say!" She was starting to panic, he could tell. Hell, she looked ready to cry. Why was she so scared, all of a sudden? She was the one who'd told him he was overreacting!

Before he could try to reason with her, the door that led to the corridor banged open.

The man who stepped in was at least 6'8'' and built like a heavyweight boxer. His long grey hair matted his face and he was grinning in a disturbing manner. His teeth were stained and looked oddly sharp, as if they'd been filed. He seemed to be covered in mud, but in the moonlight, it was hard to tell… Surely it couldn't be blood? The man had a wand in each hand, and Matt recognised Evey's as one of them – maple wood, 10 and a half inch, with a unicorn hair core. Wandlore was one of the most fascinating thing about the wizarding world, in Matt's opinion. It was a pity that the wand had never responded to him, and never would.

His sister was gaping in horror, not at the sight of her wand in a stranger's hand, but as though she'd recognised the man.

He didn't look familiar to Matt, but he certainly didn't look like a common thief. Matt put himself in front of his sister, who stood frozen near the window, and he raised the bat protectively. "Don't come any closer!" His voice shook a little. "My father is armed, so you'd better get out of here while you can, you creep."

The man let out a barking laugh. "How adorable," he said in a rasping voice. He had a faint accent, possibly German, or Eastern European. "The foolish knight in shining pyjamas steps in to defend the princess." He laughed again. "Lad, your daddy ain't coming to save you, not tonight. Or any other night," he added with a feral grin. He started to walk toward them at a leisurely pace. "You should have listened to your sister and run while you could, boy. You might even have made it out alive. It's not you I'm after."

"Who the hell are you?" Matt demanded. The terror was clear in his voice now, but that was the last thing on his mind. At this distance, he could tell that the man was indeed covered in blood. "What do you want?" The intruder stopped in front of them, towering over them both. His eyes were an odd honey colour and they seemed to reflect the moonlight that filtered through the window. "Step back! Last warning!" Matt raised the bat higher and prepared to swing it with all his might.

"What a pity. You would have made a decent cub," the man said cryptically as he picked Matt up and threw him across the room as if he weighed nothing. He heard Evey scream, but then he landed against the wall, head first, and the world faded out of focus.