Chapter One

It was just the beginning of the summer holidays and sixteen-year-old Harry Potter had arrived back at the Dursleys house on that very morning. He wasn't particularly looking forward to spending thee entire summer there as usual.

Jolting awake with a start, he sat up in bed rubbing his sleepy eyes and putting on his glasses he looked at the time. Eleven thirty two in the evening. Great he thought it was going to be a long night. Switching on his lamp, he swung his legs over the side of his bed and stood up. Walking over to his trunk he wanted something to read so he would get tired again as he was wide awake at the moment.

Opening his trunk, he found it in a mess with dirty clothes, pieces of parchment and some other stuff he had collected during his time away at school. Pulling out a book he closed his trunk and turned around. As he looked at his bed he saw there was a thick book lying on the covers that had not been there before.

Walking back to his bed, he cautiously reached out and touched it with the tips of his fingers fearing it may be a portkey. When nothing happened he relaxed wondering how it had managed to get there. Seeing it was covered in a thick layer of dust, he grabbed a sock from the floor and sat down beside the book and began whipping it clean.

When the dust was cleared, Harry saw that it had a dark green cover that looked pretty old with a beautiful trio of red circles in the centre that formed a triangle. Curious, he opened iit slowly and the heavy cover creaked and rustled as he turned it over.

The first page was brown with age and appeared to have been much handled, but was still in good condition. It bore the words The Book Of Shadows and had the same triangle made of circles in the middle, but much smaller. The words made him gasp; he had heard of such books in which witches and witches and wizards used them to keep useful spells, charms, herbs and sometimes kept them as diaries.

Exited and even more curious now, Harry eagerly turned to the next page. Some sort of incantation was neatly written in black ink. Never thinking of the consequences, he began reading it out loud.

'Invoking The Powers Spell

Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night. The oldest of gods are invoked here; in this hour, I call upon the ancient power. Bring your power to me. I want the power; give me the power.'

Hmm, Harry made a thoughtful noise without noticing. He turned page after page, admiring the pictures of scary looking creatures and examining with interesting spells he had never heard of such as an Empath Freeing Spell. He had no idea what that meant. He flicked through more pages and saw a monster with red skin and and black lines all over it, and black eyes. The words below the picture said:

Beware of this demonic soldier of fortune. Both powerful and dangerous, he has the destroyed countless witches and innocents, and deamons. As sinister as he is intelligent, he is not to be trusted. Balthazors known abilities include throwing energy balls and shimmering from place to place, but is doubtful that his powers are limited to these capabilities, because there is no knowing way to defeat him. Balthazor should be avoided at all costs.

Harry shivered slightly as he reread; throwing energy balls and shimmering from place to place. This monster sounds even worse than Voldemort, Harry thought to himself.

He was about to turn to the next page when the pages suddenly started moving by themselves, flipping back rapidly until the book slammed shut. And he found himself staring wide eyed, at the front cover. He tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

Harry sighed with frustration, and then he moved it off his knees and got to his feet when he noticed that the red triangle in the middle was glowing bright red. It was getting brighter and brighter. And it suddenly turned into a bright gold colour.

The book itself turned into a ball of golden light which started to float above his bed. Backing away slightly Harry got scared when the golden light started to move towards him and was even more concerned when the light hovered across from his chest. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror he saw the light seep into his chest.

Gasping with fright Harry touched where the light had disappeared and felt no different. That is until he felt light headed and faint. Within seconds his vision became blurry and blackness took over as he crumpled to the floor in a heap.