Chapter 1 - Changes

Harry James Potter was lying on his bed in his bedroom at nr 4 Private Drive and lazily staring at the ceiling. Today was the 31st of July, his 16th birthday, but he didn't feel remotely happy about it. He never really got to celebrate his birthday anyway. His relatives, the Dursleys, his aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley, had never cared or even acknowledged that he even had a birthday. They disliked him thoroughly, and the feeling was mutual. He always celebrated it like this, in his room alone, counting down the minutes until midnight. He glanced at the old alarm clock on his bedside table. It was 11.45; he would be 16 very soon. Another year in what was his miserable life.

Harry wished that he could celebrate his birthday with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They were probably together right now at Ron's house, the Burrow, while he was stuck in this place that he was supposed to call "home". It had never been a home. He hated it here. His headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had insisted that he come back, like every other summer, for his own protection. All because of the blood wards that were surrounding the house from his mother's sacrifice and because his aunt was his last and blood relative. What a load of bull-crap!

Harry wished even more that he could have celebrated his birthday with his godfather, Sirius Black. That, however, was also impossible, Sirius was dead. He had fallen through the veil, a week ago at the fiasco in the Department of Mysteries. Harry knows it was his entire fault. If he hadn't been so stupid, so naive, Sirius would be alive today and he could, maybe just maybe, had been living with Sirius at Grimmauld Place. But Harry had rushed in, blindly, and not thinking of the possible consequences when he thought that his godfather was in danger. Stupid hero complex. If only he had listened to Hermione.

Harry sighed. The clock kept ticking down to midnight, 10 minutes left, then 5. He started to sing softly under his breath. "Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me…"

2 minutes

1 minute.

30 seconds

At least he knew that any moment now, a couple of owls would deliver some presents and maybe a cake to eat, as his friends always sent him something on his birthday. Ron's mum, Mrs. Weasley, who was always fussing over how thin he was, usually sent care-packages with food, ever since Dudley, Harry's overweight cousin, started on the stupid diet. Even though Harry was probably too skinny for his age, his aunt Petunia had insisted that the diet was for the whole family, including Harry. He never really got much to eat in the first place so the diet, consisting of mostly boiled, vegetables and some small portions of boiled equally tasteless meat, was for Harry, a disaster. But he suspected that aunt Petunia thought that it somehow would be unfair if he got more or something tastier to eat than her beloved son, and insisting on everyone in the family eating according to the diet.

Tick, Tick, Tick. There was a fly buzzing in the ceiling and Harry followed it with his eyes. Time seemed to move painfully slowly.

Everything was quiet, except for the booming snores that came through the wall from his cousin bedroom. He could hear his heart steadily beating in his chest. He glanced at the clock again.

3…

2…

1…

Harry gasped as pain shot through his whole body. It felt like fire was slowly creeping up underneath his skin, from his lower calves up to his chest. All of his bones felt like they were twisting and shattering. He wanted to scream, but all came out was silence and his throughout felt very dry and soar. He was writhing in pain and all of his limbs started to shake violently. Then everything when black and nothing.

Blinking, he woke up and wondered how long he had been out. He reached over to his bedside table, trying to find his glasses but realized that they must have fallen and landed somewhere on the floor. Then, blinking again and looking around, he realized that he could see perfectly without them. He stared out of the window, perplexed. He could see far away across the street, something he never could before. His eyesight had always been awful and had had difficulty seeing more than a couple of inches without them, let alone all the way across the street. Weird, he thought as he sat up on the side of his bed, rubbing his eyes. By the pale light outside, it looked like it was in the earliest hours of the morning and he had been unconscious for at least a couple of hours. He stretches his still painful muscles and then looked down at his legs and feet.

"What the…"

His pajama-pants, an old pair of Dudley's, that had been several sizes too big for him, now seemed to be several inches too short. He stood up. His t-shirt had also been several sized to large and extremely baggy on his unnaturally thin frame, but now it to was to short and showed parts of the lower stomach.

Harry rushed over to his wardrobe and ripped the door opened to look into the mirror on the inside of the door. What met his eyes almost made his faint again. Where there used to be a short, scrawny boy that was too skinny for his age, because of all the lack of food, with short and unruly black hair that stood up in all directions, there know stood a completely different person. He looks to have had grown at least 6 and his clothes looked several sizes too small. His shoulders vas very broad and muscular, in fact, his whole body now seemed to consist of lean muscle. His hair, though it was still black, it was no longer short and unkempt, but instead fell down his face in soft black curls around his face, down to his shoulders. His face looked mostly the same; exempt it seemed to be sharper somehow. His jaw and cheekbones were more defined and angular and his eyes greener and clear. His lightning bolt scar was still there on his forehead, but it didn't seem as visible as before. He actually thought that he looked like a younger Sirius Black somehow.

He stood there with his mouth slightly opened, just staring at himself. Then he noticed something else that made him yelp and jump in surprise. His teeth, were pointy, like animal fangs. He had a whole mouth full of sharp pointed teeth. What the hell is this? What happened to me?

A noise from behind made him sharply turn around. In the chair at his desk that stood by the window sat a man, comfortably leaning back with his legs crossed. But Harry could see that this was not an ordinary man. He was oddly strange looking, even for the wizarding world.

He was tall and thin, with black hair that was tightly slicked back on his head. He was wearing what looked like a black muggle business suit, with black trousers and a black shirt that was slightly opened to reveal a ghostly white chest underneath. Something black was poking out from underneath, contrasting the white skin, it looked like a tattoo. The man was grinning at him. He gracefully held a cigarette in his long slender fingers that were ended in long black nails. Harry looked closer and realized that his teeth, like his own, were pointy and fang-like. The strangest thing about that man, however, was that he had a tail, a long black tail that was slowly swishing back and forth, and at the end was a tuft of hair that to was engulfed in black, flickering flames. Not a muggle then. A wizard? A death eater? No, that couldn't be right, then he would probably be dead already, Harry thought.

"Who the hell are you?" Harry asked alarmed. "And what are you doing in my room?"

"Well…hello to you to", the strange man said. He seemed to be highly amused by Harry's alarm. He took a drag from the cigarette and let out a puff of smoke.

"My name is Azoth. But you can call me Az if you like. Why am I in your room? Well…I am…what should we call it? Your…guide."

"Guide? What do you mean guide? Guide for what?"

"Well, didn't you notice anything…different?" the man drawled. Harry nodded slowly.

"You, my young friend, have come into your inheritance"

"In-Inheritance? I thought that wizards come of age at 17?

"Not of age, stupid. Inheritance, there is a difference. Young wizards and witches come of age at 17, that is indeed correct. And in doing so, they usually have a little bit of power boost at the same time. This is also because of the severing of the binds of the magical trace that every person has put upon them, because of the restrictions of underage magic. However, we come into our inheritance at the age of 16. You, my friend, is of my inheritance." He took another drag on the cigarette. "Demon inheritance".

"I- I'm WHAT?" Harry said. This made Azoth smile even brother and all of his pointy teeth showed and gleamed white in the gloomy room.

"Yes", Azoth said calmly.

"But how could I be? There is no such thing as demons? My parents…"

"No such thing, huh? There are werewolf's and vampires in the wizarding world are there not? So why couldn't there be such a thing as demons? But your parents were not of this inheritance, no, they where normal people, or a normal witch and wizard. We tend to skip over a couple of generations. You, actually, is the first of this inheritance that we have seen in a couple of millennia, very rare, you are". Azoth smiled and took another long drag on the cigarette.

"But…why? Why me?" Harry groaned.

"Why? Because it is your birthright", Azoth said. "And, I mean, look at you! You look much better if I am allowed to say so."

"Shit", Harry swore. "Why can't I just be normal?"

"Really?" Azoth said, raising an eyebrow. "Is that really what you want? You have never been normal and honesty normal is very boring".

Harry glared at him. This was just his usual luck. There were a couple moments of silence.

"So what does this mean? You are going to guide me in…this?"

"Yes, if you like. I have been assigned to be your guide and open your eyes to the possibilities, so to speak. And train you, of course".

"Oh. Ok…"

They stood there again in silence, while Azoth smokes his cigarette and Harry just stared at him. He didn't understand how this could happen to him, him a demon? It seemed ridiculous but yet, weird stuff seemed to always happen to him. An uncomfortable feeling was starting to creep up his neck. He couldn't think of anything to say to break the awkward silence, except;

"You…you've got a tail", he blurted out.

"Well…" Azoth said chuckling. "So do you". He pointed with a chirp black nail at somewhere behind Harry.

Harry quickly tried to turn around to look and to his horror, he saw that he did indeed have a tail. It was long, sleek, and black with a big tuft of hair at the end. It looked a like a cows tail, except it had the same weird, flickering black flames at the end as Azoth.

"Shit", he swore again. He took a staggering few steeps and then sat again on his bed, burrowing his face in his hands, leaning forward and trying to breathe. Without looking up he said; "So we are the same then?"

"Yes, well kind of. I am a whole demon and you are only half, but you should possess the same powers as I have. Your demon side will always be more dominating and superior to your human side", Azoth explained.

"So…what now then?" Harry rubbed the back of his neck, trying to wrap his head around all this.

"Oh yes. Well…first, I suggest that we get out of this dump". Azoth took the cigarette and put out on top of the desk and stood up.

"I would gladly leave this place, but why should I come with you? Harry asked suspiciously. "How do I know I can trust you and that you won't just kill me?"

"Well…you don't have to come if you do not wish to do so, but I guess you will just have to have a little faith. And it doesn't look like you have anything else important to do. I would think that anywhere would be better in your current situation and than this place with these…people", Azoth gave a small wave of his hand to indicate the room, with a face of disgust.

Harry couldn't see that he really had any choice. How would he be able to explain his odd new look to the Dursleys? Uncle Vernon would probably take out his rifle and try to shoot him and the wizarding world wasn't really that forgiving either to half-humans. Harry knows how bad it had been for professor Lupin as a werewolf, so he would probably be feared and treated even worse as a demon. Everything seemed to be spinning, but he knew that he had to get out of there, and before the Dursleys woke up.

"Where are we going then?" he said

"Somewhere safe and somewhere we can talk and not be overheard by unworthy ears. I have a lot of things to tell you. I suggest that you gather your things".

Harry quickly stuffed his most treasured and important things in an old backpack. His father's invisibility cloak, the photo album he got from Hagrid, the Marauders map of Hogwarts and some other small things. He also grabbed his wand and shoes.

"Ready?" Azoth asked. Harry only gave a short nod. "Very well then".

Azoth took hold of Harry's elbow and without a sound, they vanished from the room.

Hundreds of miles from Privet drive, somewhere in the Scottish Highlands, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, Albus Dumbledore, was sitting in a big, slightly squishy old armchair in front of a fire and in deep thought. A cup of tea stood on a table, long forgotten and cold. He was contemplating his plans and what seemed to be the grim future. His recent and discoveries needed a lot of thought. On his left hand, there sat an old and ugly golden ring, with a big black stone that had a large crack in the middle. His other hand was black and looked shriveled and dead. He had been highly foolish, but sadly there was nothing he could do about it now. He sighed. His thoughts were on what had happened in the department of mysteries at the ministry of magic, just a week ago, and you Harry Potter. It was a tragedy that had happened there and the loss of Sirius Black. He wished it hadn't happened and that Harry still had the father figure in his life, but alas. He was worried about the boy and was hoping that he was coping with his aunt and uncle, where he was safe, with his loss.

Suddenly there was a lot of noise coming from different small objects that he kept on a collection of tables, it was all-together almighty noise. This could only mean one thing, trouble. Worse, it had something to do with the wards that were put around Harry. Dumbledore rushed forward and examined one of the small objects. Fear gripped him. There wasn't just something wrong with the wards, they had been totally obliterated and was now none existent. But how?

Dumbledore quickly strode back to the fireplace and threw some green powder into the flames that quickly turned green. "Minerva, Severus", he shouted into the flames. Two seconds later two people stepped out of the fire, one after another. A tall and slender, stern-looking woman with glasses and her hair pulled back in a tight bun and a tall man, in all black, with long black, slightly greasy hair, a hooked nose, and a sour expression.

"What is it, Albus", the woman, Minerva, asked. "Is there something wrong?"

"I fear that there is", answered Albus. "The wards around Harry's relative's house is gone"

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" the other man asked frowning.

"Just what I said. They seemed to be somehow obliterated. We need to go there and investigate as soon as possible. We need to contact the order, at once."

"But how could this happened, Albus?" Minerva said now looking very worried.

"This I do not know. We will just have to go there to be able to get answers. Hopefully, Harry is alright and unharmed", Albus said sadly. "Send a message to the others in the Order, we need to leave as soon as possible", he then added

The others nodded stiffly and then turned around to the fire, threw some of the same powder in it, stepped into the flames, and disappeared.