The Halfwolf (Year 1)

I'm Sorry, what?

The boys spent the remainder of the evening with Gretchen and Tyson getting their robes ready for the ball the next evening. Zach had brought his copy of Fantastic Beasts downstairs from the dorm to give Gretchen and Tyson something to work with for the Occamy and Werewolf. Tyson managed to transfigure one of Teddy's ties into a tail for him to wear pinned to the back of his robes, as well as turn a hat into the crest for Matt's Occamy. Zach was sitting across the coffee table from his sister, mask up on his head out of the way, while he scoured through a muggle birds book looking for an eagle that looked like his mask.

"Why am I the only one who has a normal animal for a mask?" Zach flipped another page in the book and scowled at the normal looking hawk. He glanced up to see why his sister hadn't answered him. When he did, he happened to look up just as Tyson was kissing the top of Gretchen's head. He kept quiet, but a small bit of anger bubbled in his chest. He curled his hand into a fist under the table, carefully trying to keep his temper in check. Matt happened to look up just after Zach and caught the reaction, but not the one on his face.

"Whoa wait a minute." Matt scrambled from his seat in one of the armchairs and slid to the floor next to Zach, who now looked questioningly at him. Matt reached up and pulled Zach's mask down onto his face slowly.

"Matt, what are you do..."

"Shh. Tyson, do that again." Matt pointed backward at Tyson, careful to keep his eyes on Zach's mask. Tyson's eye's darted around the room.

"Um, not sure what you mean there, mate." Tyson stammered. Matt rolled his eyes and looked back over his shoulder at the older boy.

"You know exactly what. Don't play stupid." He turned his attention back to Zach, who was glaring at him from under his mask.

"Is there a reason you need me to see that again?"

"Yes, actually. Tyson, Merlin's beard, just do it." Tyson shrugged his shoulders and this time kissed Gretchen gently on the side of her head, causing her to smile and lean back into him. The agitation bubbled in Zach's chest again as he watched, but it was short-lived as his sister's eyes widened at the same instant Matt's did.

"Bloody hell how did you do that?!" Gretchen was up off the couch in an instant, much to the displeasure of Tyson. She climbed up over the coffee tabled and dropped down right in front of her very startled brother. She ran her finger along the mask on his face, just under his left eye, then jerked her head around to look at Matt. "Do you have any idea what this is?" Matt snatched the Fantastic Beasts copy from the table and started flicking through the pages, trying to find what he thought it was. Zach cleared his throat.

"Someone mind telling me what's going on?" Gretchen and Matt both looked over at Zach at the same time, almost as if they had forgotten he was there. Matt laid the book on the tabletop and turned his body to face Zach. Moony, who up until this point had been snoozing on top of Teddy's bag on the end of the table, padded over to the open book.

"You see, when you got mad just then," Matt started. Zach made a face.

"I wasn't mad." Matt deadpanned at Zach, unconvinced.

"When you got mad just then," he threw a hand up to stop Zach from interrupting again, "your mask did something funny. Almost like the gold edges on your feathers changed colors. They went from the gold they are now, to an almost blue-white. Kind of like,"

"Lightning." Matt, Gretchen, and Zach all turned towards Teddy's voice. He was now sitting at the end of the table, leaning across towards the copy of Fantastic Beasts that Moony was sitting on. Moony patted the page she was on with her claw. Matt leaned forward to get a look at the page, a grin spreading across his face as he caught a glimpse of the picture of the creature it was on.