IWSC S3 R6 Writing School - School: Mahoutokoro, Year: 1, Themes: kinship names and compound words

Word count: 488

"James, look at this!" Albus exclaimed, grabbing his older brother by the shoulder, shaking it until the other boy turned to face him.

"What?" he said, raising an eyebrow. He looked positively unamused, having been disturbed in his very important sandcastle-building task.

"This!" Albus beamed, holding up… some sort of creature. It was unlike anything James had ever seen. The thing had a shell of sorts, but on the front, it had two protruding eyes and several tentacle-like appendages. James figured it was some sort of sea creature.

Well, duh, he thought. Of course it was a sea creature. They were on the seashore, after all.

James blinked. Then, he blinked once again, for good measure.

"Do you know what it is?" his little brother asked, holding the creature up even higher, his eyes shining.

James furrowed his eyebrows. He had no idea whatsoever what the creature was, but it was his brotherly duty to give appropriate tutelage to Albus, and he would be damned before he admitted to lacking in the knowledge necessary to identify whatever animal his brother approached him with. So, he began wracking his brain for… something, anything that would come up. He thought back to that one time his mum and dad had taken him to the Natural History Museum, trying to remember at least one of the wacky creatures he had learned about.

Before long, his eyes lit up and he raised an index finger. Had there been a lightbulb above his head, it would surely have shone with the brightness of an industrial-grade strobe light. He cleared his throat stoically, doing his best to imitate what could only be described as a Malfoy voice as he spoke.

"My dearest little brother," he began, lowering his voice to emphasise the importance of what he was about to say. "That's a humphead wrasse. It's a super rare animal, almost extinct. Finding one is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Albus' eyes lit up even brighter and he jumped a little in excitement.

"Wow, that's super cool!" he exclaimed, tightening his hold on the poor creature. "I'm gonna go show Mummy!"

And with that, he was off. James, satisfied with a job well done, returned to his carefully-constructed sandcastle. It was coming together rather nicely, if he said so himself. Just a few more towers, and it would be indistinguishable from the Hogwarts Castle itself.

His proud moment wouldn't last for long, though. As he began digging up some more sand, he heard Albus call for their mother.

"Mummy!" he said. "Look what I've got! James said it's a… hambread weasel, or something like that. It's super rare, and you only get to see it once in your life!"

James snuck a glance at his mother, who, sighing, shook her head and gently took the creature from Albus before laying it down on the sand.

"Albus, my dear," she said. "This is just a hermit crab."