Chapter 2

Ethan woke to the familiar ache in his bones, a dull reminder of what was coming. The Hufflepuff dormitory was still dim, the morning light barely filtering through the thick curtains. His roommates stirred around him, the sound of blankets shifting and sleepy murmurs filling the room. He sat up slowly, wincing as a sharp pain shot down his spine. Only a few days left.

The full moon was getting closer, and he could feel it—deep in his body, like a pressure building beneath his skin. It was always like this in the days leading up to it. Everything felt off. Sounds were louder, smells sharper, and it made him jumpy, and irritable. As much as he tried to hide it, the strain of keeping the wolf at bay was starting to take its toll.

“Mate, you all right?” came a voice from the other side of the room.

Ethan turned his head to see Daniel, one of his dorm mates, blinking groggily at him. He hadn’t even realised how stiffly he’d been moving. Ethan forced a smile, trying to ignore the throbbing in his limbs.

“Yeah,” he lied, swinging his legs out of bed. “Just didn’t sleep well.”

Daniel nodded, not pressing further. “Happens. The first week back always feels a bit off.”

Ethan muttered something in agreement and got to his feet, grateful that Daniel hadn’t asked more. The last thing he needed was more questions. He moved slowly to the bathroom, each step sending a twinge of discomfort through his body. The hot water loosened the stiffness in his muscles, but the ache in his bones remained—a constant reminder of what was coming.

He wiped his face with the towel and stared into the mirror. The reflection staring back at him was gaunt and tired, with dark circles under his eyes. He barely recognised himself. Just a few more days. Just a few more days until the full moon, then the cycle would start all over again.

What he needed to focus on right now were the first lessons of the new year. In a short while, he’d be collecting his timetable from Professor Sprout and finding out what was in store for him this term. He’d hoped his O.W.L. exams would be his only worry this year, but clearly, life had other plans.

Normally, Ethan would be supplied with Wolfsbane Potion a week before the transformation, but there had been problems with procuring the necessary ingredients this time. Aconite, the key component, hadn’t arrived, or so Madam Pomfrey and Professor Slughorn had explained in a letter to his family. They’d promised the next batch would be ready in time for the following month. But that did nothing to help him now.

Without the potion, the wolf was already pushing closer to the surface, sharpening his senses and making him feel like his body was betraying him. The potion usually dulled his heightened awareness—the overwhelming smells, sounds, and tastes that plagued him in the days before the full moon. Now, the wolf was crying out for freedom, and Ethan was finding it harder and harder to keep control.

As he stepped out of the bathroom and made his way towards the common room, he pushed the thoughts down. He just needed to get through the day. Making sure his wand was tucked into his pocket, Ethan went to meet Isla on their way up to the Great Hall.

“You look terrible,” Isla said as he walked over. “Sorry, that came out wrong. Are you sure you should be here? Can’t we ask Professor McGonagall to let you stay home for the next few days?”

“I can’t. It would raise too many questions,” Ethan muttered under his breath, glancing around to ensure no one was listening.

Isla frowned but kept pace with him. She had grown up so much since the bite, stepping into a role that should never have been hers. Sometimes it felt like she was the one inflicted with the curse, with how fiercely she protected him. She always seemed to know when something was wrong, and it was impossible to hide anything from her for long.

“We need to go to the Great Hall and get you some breakfast,” she said firmly. “If you don’t say something to one of the teachers today, I will.”

Her words snapped him back to the present. Isla wasn’t one to make empty threats.

Normally, he’d brush her concern off with a joke, but not this time. There had been moments in the last year when Ethan had wondered if the wolf could break free even before the full moon. What if his body couldn’t hold it back any longer? Would it tear itself out and go on a bloody rampage? The thought clawed at him, and he pushed it down hard, refusing to let it take root.

“Ethan!” Isla’s sharp voice cut through his thoughts.

“Ugh, yeah?” He blinked, realising she’d been talking to him, but he hadn’t heard a word.

“We need to go to the Great Hall and get you some breakfast. Seriously, you look like you’re about to collapse.” She gave him a stern look. “If you don’t tell a teacher about how you’re feeling, I will.”

Ethan sighed. Isla was like a force of nature when she wanted to be, and her fierce protectiveness reminded him of a wolf in her way. “I’m fine,” he mumbled. But even he didn’t believe it.

The two of them left the common room and headed up to breakfast. On their way past the kitchens, they saw the portrait door open and a group of Hufflepuffs talking to the House Elves. One of the great perks of being in Hufflepuff was their good relationship with the House Elves. Over the last few years, they had been able to sneak food back to the dormitory—a perk that had been especially useful for Ethan after a transformation, giving him the energy boost he needed.

Emerging into the Great Hall, Ethan and Isla parted ways, with her giving him another warning about speaking to one of the teachers. Ethan spotted Zach and Lena sitting at the Ravenclaw table. It was their thing to take turns sitting at each other’s house tables for breakfast and lunch. The rules were a bit stricter around dinner, but mornings were the perfect time to catch up. He went and sat down heavily on the bench, pulling a plate toward himself and loading it with a few items from the central platters. He needed food but didn’t quite have a full appetite.

“How are you doing today?” Lena asked with concern.

“Mmm, not great,” Ethan replied, rubbing his eyes. “I must have caught a bug or something. I feel like I should be in bed.”

“It’s probably something from all that outdoor stuff you do with your dad,” Zach chimed in. “There might be some new Kneazle flu going around. You want to be careful.”

“Don’t be so stupid, Zach,” Lena said, rolling her eyes. “There’s no such thing. Seriously though, you might want to go and see Madam Pomfrey. Get her to look you over.”

“You sound just like my sister,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “I’ll be fine. Once we get to class, I’ll be distracted. The work’ll take my mind off it.”

As he spoke, his gaze wandered absently toward the staff table. Most of the teachers were busy with their own breakfasts, chatting or reading the Daily Prophet, but someone else stood out—someone he didn’t recognise.

The man wasn’t dressed like a professor. For one thing, he wasn’t wearing the typical robes. Instead, he had on a long, brown coat that hung almost to his knees, over a dark pinstriped suit. His hair was wild, sticking up in all directions like he’d just walked through a storm. He wasn’t sitting either—he was standing near the end of the table, hands in his pockets, surveying the room with an energy that seemed out of place amid the usual morning routine.

Ethan frowned slightly, his fork pausing halfway to his mouth. There was something odd about him. The way he was scanning the hall, his eyes darting from student to student, like he was expecting something—or someone. His fingers drummed against his thigh in a restless rhythm, and every so often, his foot tapped impatiently on the floor.

Ethan stared for a moment longer, feeling the man’s strange energy tugging at his thoughts. But then, as if sensing the attention, the man turned his head, and their eyes met.

His gaze was intense—too intense. Bright, sharp, and curious, as though he could see right through Ethan.

Ethan quickly looked away, a chill running down his spine. Hogwarts was no stranger to strange visitors, but something about this one unsettled him. Maybe he was just a Ministry official or one of those quirky magical researchers that came and went through the castle every now and then.

Still, for a brief moment, Ethan felt like the man knew something about him. Something important.

“What is it?” Lena asked, noticing his distracted expression.

“Nothing. Just… thought I saw someone I recognised.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’m sure it’s nothing.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that something about the man was wrong. Not dangerous, exactly, but… out of place, like he didn’t belong in this time and space. The thought made him uneasy, but he pushed it aside and tried to refocus on his breakfast. Yet a nagging sense of unease lingered at the back of his mind. As if, just for a second, the whole room had shifted—and only he had noticed.

Finally, it had come time to receive their new timetables for the year. Professor Sprout came down from the teacher’s table and presented each year group with their parchments. This was going to be a busy and challenging year, preparing for those O.W.Ls.

Ethan glanced down at his parchment and saw that today, his first lesson would be Care of Magical Creatures. His heart sank slightly. This meant having his first class of the year with that new professor, who had been giving him those strange looks at the feast last night. Fortunately, after a quick glance at the other two’s schedules, they were all in the same classes. That would be a relief.

Breakfast was coming to an end, so they got up and left the Great Hall, heading back to their dormitories to grab the equipment they needed for the subject. The weather outside was looking okay, if not a little chilly, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

The trio headed outside and down towards the Care of Magical Creatures classroom. This was a relatively new classroom, installed after the last Wizarding War while Hagrid’s hut was being repaired from all the damage. There used to be a classroom inside the castle itself, but it was taken over by other classes after the reconstruction. Some of the hexes and jinxes cast that day prevented normal magical means of repair. It was decided that an outdoor classroom would allow better proximity to the creatures the students would be studying.

The three of them joined up with the rest of their class outside the large oak door, which was presently shut.

“Do we go in?” one student asked.

“I dunno, should we just wait?” another replied.

“I don’t know what Professor Alden would want,” chimed in another.

They didn’t have to wait long, as the heavy oak door creaked open and there stood Professor Alden, dressed in slightly tattered and mud-covered robes that complemented his salt-and-pepper hair.

“Ah, my fifth years, come on in.”

Professor Alden spoke with a stern and commanding tone. He had an enigmatic smile that sent a shiver down Ethan’s spine. As he passed by the professor, the chill deepened, and Ethan noticed Alden’s dark eyes lingering on him again. Ethan tried to ignore the unsettling gaze and focus on the lesson ahead.

Once everyone was inside, Alden shut the door and moved to the front of the class. The wall opposite the door was missing, replaced only by a fence, allowing them to see out into the grounds and a small paddock on the other side. This would be where they’d conduct their practical lessons.

“Right, everyone here?” Alden asked. The class nodded in unison. “Good, let’s crack on then. I don’t expect interruptions or silly behaviour in my class. The beasts we will be studying are among some of the most dangerous in the world. One wrong move could end in serious injury… or death. Do I have your attention?”

The class nodded silently, holding a collective breath. Alden’s eyes swept the room, pausing longer when they reached Ethan.

“Mr Hawkehurst,” Alden said, his tone pointed, “what would you regard as the most dangerous creature in the world?”

Ethan blinked in surprise, caught off guard by the sudden question. His mind raced. What was Alden getting at? Was he trying to force Ethan to say werewolf? His heart pounded as he scrambled for another answer.

“Human!” Ethan blurted out. He didn’t know where the answer had come from, but it tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop it.

“A good response, Mr Hawkehurst. Many witches and wizards have debated that very point. My job is to introduce you to these creatures in a controlled environment and teach you how we can live in harmony with them.”

There was something in Alden’s tone that made Ethan uneasy, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“Now, today we won’t start with anything too taxing. Can anyone tell me what we have here?” Alden gestured to a long oak table covered in what looked like twigs. As he spoke, the twigs twitched, revealing beetle-brown eyes and knobbly fingers as the creatures began to unfurl themselves. Bowtruckles.

Lena’s hand shot into the air. “They’re Bowtruckles, also known as tree guardians. They usually live in wand-quality trees.”

“Excellent knowledge, Miss Winslow. Clearly, you’ve done the reading. Now, can someone tell me what Bowtruckles eat? Someone besides Miss Winslow?”

To Ethan’s surprise, Zach raised his hand.

“They eat Woodlice, but if they can find any, they’ll eat fairy eggs too.”

“Well done, Mr Halloway. Five points to you both. Yes, Bowtruckles may look cute and harmless, but if angered, they can be quite vicious. Their fingers are sharp enough to gouge out human eyes, so I suggest you handle them with care. I don’t want to send anyone to the hospital wing today.”

Alden walked over to the table and carefully picked up one of the Bowtruckles.

“I want you to sketch a Bowtruckle, labelling all its body parts. Come up, get some Woodlice to feed them, and choose one to sketch. I’ll be coming around to check your work.”

The students got to their feet and gathered their supplies. Ethan, Lena, and Zach claimed a spot in the corner of the room, setting up their sketchbooks and Bowtruckles. Ethan tried to focus on his drawing, but his mind kept drifting back to Alden’s unsettling gaze.

The three of them were well underway with their sketches when Ethan felt a shadow fall over his back. Glancing up, there was Professor Alden, staring down intently at the image Ethan had produced. He had always had a knack for artistic creations and, if he could say it without sounding too big-headed, this drawing was one of his best. He had captured the cheekiness of his Bowtruckle, as well as the immense amount of detail present on the creature.

“That’s a reasonable sketch, Mr Hawkehurst. You clearly have good skills passed down to you. I remember working with your father once at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I was there assisting my father, who was one of the higher-ups in that particular part of the Ministry. I was struck by his attention to detail and knowledge. I can see that he has passed that down to his son. You look remarkably like him, though you have a much paler complexion. Are you ill?”

Was that why the professor had been staring at him? Was he just trying to see if Ethan looked like his father? Was Ethan just being paranoid, with the transformation so close now?

“I think I caught something over the holiday and haven’t shaken it off. I’m trying not to think about it too much, sir. Just focusing on my work,” Ethan replied.

Alden pursed his lips and let out a sound that suggested he didn’t quite believe what Ethan was saying. He turned to walk away, then doubled back.

“If there’s something you ever need to tell me, Hawkehurst, come and find me. My door is always open.”

With that, Alden walked away to inspect another group’s work.

“What was that about?” Zach asked. “Creepy much?”

“I don’t know,” Ethan said, rubbing his temples. “I just don’t want to think about it.”

“Class is almost over, and we have fifteen minutes to get you up to the Hospital Wing before Transfiguration,” Lena said firmly.

“No, I don’t need to go to the Hospital Wing. I’ll be fine. I just need to focus on my work and not how I’m feeling.” Ethan’s protests fell on deaf ears.

A few minutes later, Professor Alden collected their sketches and the Bowtruckles—despite Verity Lambert’s failed attempt to sneak one under her robes—and dismissed the class. Zach and Lena took an arm each and frog-marched Ethan up to Madam Pomfrey.

“Ah, Mr Hawkehurst, how are you doing?” she asked, her tone changing when she really saw him. “Oh dear, come this way.”

She led him over to a bed and made him sit down.

“I’m going to need you two to leave,” Madam Pomfrey said to Zach and Lena. “I need to have a private chat with Mr Hawkehurst. Off you go, please.”

Zach and Lena exchanged looks of disbelief but waved goodbye to Ethan as they walked out of the Hospital Wing. As they turned back, they saw Madam Pomfrey flick her wand, and the sound at that end of the room vanished as the curtains closed around Ethan’s bed.

“That was weird,” Lena said. “Something’s definitely going on with Ethan.”

“He’s been acting strange since last year,” Zach replied with a shrug. “We can check on him later. We don’t want to be late for Professor McGonagall.”

McGonagall, despite being Headmistress, had kept her position as Transfiguration teacher—no one could quite fill her shoes in that role.

“I’m telling you, something’s happening,” Lena said, determined. “And I’m going to find out what it is.”

They hurried off towards their next class, hoping to make it before the bell rang.

Previous - Chapter 2 - Next