Matt's POV
Matt sat in the middle of his bed, knees pulled against his chest, waiting to hear to soft snores of his dormmates. His eyes traced the cover of the book in front of him as he waited. He had been waiting what felt like ages until he finally heard Teddy's soft breathing in the next bed. Zach was always the first asleep, and his snoring was so obnoxious that he wasn't sure how anyone in the entire Hufflepuff house could sleep. He slowly leaned towards the side of his bed and peeked out the gap in the curtains. Sure enough, he saw just the top of Teddy's purple hair puffed over the top edge of his duvet and Zach was in his typical ball at the end of his bed. Matt swung his feet off the far side of his bed, the side closest to Moony's dorm, and eased out onto his feet as quietly as he could. This wasn't the first time he'd done this. Many nights had gone by that he'd waited for his friends to fall asleep and leave on his own. He padded softly over to Moony's door, where she sat in front of her dish expectantly. Matt crouched down and lifted her snack dish into his palm, and a peanut butter cookie popped into it. He had discovered about a week ago that the dish would conjure snacks on demand if it was held flat in the palm of your hand just as if it were Moony herself touching it with her paws. He set the dish back down in front of her.
"There. Enjoy your snack, girl." He whispered to the Niffler. He'd done this the last few times he'd left the dorms, giving Moony a special snack before he left so she wouldn't try and go with him. Too many trinkets for her to try and pilfer where he was heading. He eased up from his crouch and softly walked to the door, easing it open soundlessly. No one had seemed to notice when the squeak in the door had suddenly disappeared, thanks to Matt's impressive ability to memorize spells and the location of a nifty oiling spell he found in an old charms book.
Matt slowly made his way out of Hufflepuff house and out into the main corridor. He glanced around, careful to stick close to the wall to help him avoid being seen. He knew he didn't need to worry much. He'd never seen a teacher down in this part of the castle at any point since he'd started wandering on his own. He clutched the book he'd had on his bed to his chest and quickly started down the corridor in the opposite direction of the main staircase, deeper into the labyrinth of passageways that cut from the kitchen to the dungeon side of the lower levels. He took the first left he came to, then went to the third door on the right side of the hallway and gently pushed it open. It was a large storage room, full of books and goblets and desks jammed together against one wall. The middle of the room was fairly clear, save for a rolled-up rug that lay across the far end of the room. Against that same wall stood a large mirror, which Matt hurried across the room towards. He stopped right in front of the mirror and smiled sadly up at it.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you." A boy with chestnut colored hair and sparkling brown eyes stepped up behind him in the mirror and smiled back at him. "I know you can't hear me, but you were a real git today without even knowing it, you know that?" Matt said to the reflection in the mirror. The reflection, in fact, couldn't hear him and instead just twined its fingers together with those of Matt's reflection. "Still being a git." Matt sighed. "Enough of that" he shook his hand, causing the reflections to let go and it to just be the other boy looking back at him. Matt nodded his head and proceeded to sit on the floor in front of the mirror with his legs crossed in front of him, settling the book he carried down in his lap. The boy in the reflection sat exactly the same facing him. "So, let's talk about you and this Thunderbird mask, eh?"
That's exactly how McGonagall found him. Sitting in front of the Mirror or Erised, copy of Fantastic Beasts in his lap, talking away to who she could only guess was in the mirror. She couldn't decide at that moment if she was stunned to silence by the fact of which of the three Hufflepuffs she had found here, or by the similarities to a situation with another boy so many years ago. She took a steadying breath and quietly walked towards the far wall of the room where the boy sat.
YOU ARE READING
The Halfwolf (Year 1)
FanfictionTeddy Lupin is left in the care of his grandmother after the death of both his parents during the Battle of Hogwarts. He's finally starting his first year at Hogwarts. What sort of surprises await him as he starts his own marauding adventures?
