The tone of the study room could be described in one word; studious. That is until a horrified exclamation broke the silence- causing every student in the room to snap their heads around to where a group of six sat- to see Garfield Logan standing, palms flat on the table and mouth agape.
"What do you mean you're not coming to the quidditch game this weekend, Rae?"
At least a few people glared and Robin looked around at the faces, trying to nudge Garfield back down to his seat to continue his History of Magic paper. It wasn't until the study hall proctor- Flitwick- gave a disapproving 'ah-hem' that the Hufflepuff boy seemed to notice he'd gathered the attention of everyone and sank back down into his seat.
Raven, the object of his horrified expression, had hardly glanced up from her textbook.
"Exactly what it sounds like it means, Gar." She said in her usual monotone.
"But why?" Garfield pushed himself across the table, arms splaying over her parchment and making it impossible to continue her studies, "You know you're my good luck charm, right?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Starfire gave a quiet 'aww', much to Raven's annoyance. She tried not to show it, however.
"Because," Raven sighed, finally looking up, "I have so many assignments this weekend, it would be irresponsible for me to go. Besides, you shouldn't either. You shouldn't even be playing." She said pointedly.
"Ah, c'mon," Garfield pouted, leaning back in his chair, using a charm so he could balance it nearly all the way back without toppling, "Hootch already banned me from transforming during the game. I think that it's just smarts to turn into a monkey or a frog to grab the snitch, but no-,"
Raven scowled at him. Vincent smirked, recalling the incident that had gotten his powers banned. Raven hadn't been to that game (and, Garfield claimed this is why this game had gotten them banned because obviously if Raven had been in attendance, he wouldn't have gotten in trouble), and all the stories she heard were very different, but it involved something with a frog or a howler monkey.
It was hardly surprising he wasn't allowed to use his metamorphmagus powers on the field, since he was such a specific case. While most metamorphmagus changed into humans, Garfield changed into animals at will. At first, the ministry thought he'd been just a plain old Animaguis until he showed that he could turn into multiple animals during a very long Wizengamot hearing during his second year.
As the story went, when his mother- also a metamorphmagus- had begun training herself to become an Animagus and gotten pretty far until she realized she was pregnant. Obviously, she'd stopped immediately for her unborn child's safety, but somewhere some wires had gotten crossed. Garfield could change into any animal, but he didn't have the traditional power to change his face into different people. When he'd morphed for his future Hogwarts classmates on the train his first year, he'd gained the nickname 'Beast Boy' by most of the school.
"It's not about that and you know it," Raven continued. Without thinking about it, Garfield's fingers traced a bite mark on his shoulder blade, under his robes.
Robin groaned, "Yes, please forfeit! You're nearly unstoppable per usual." As the captain of the Gryffindor team, it would obviously benefit him to get the star Hufflepuff seeker to bow out. Wally, the team's seeker, nodded in firm agreement.
Garfield just grinned, "Look; one good thing obviously came out of it. Can't I enjoy it?" He said, referring to what they usually called his 'furry problem'. Most people didn't think twice of that, since he could turn into a great many things, most of them furry or fuzzy, but this one was...specific.
"It's dangerous!" Raven argued.
"Rae, I'm still five days out from the full moon. I'm fine." Garfield lowered his voice.
After being bitten his third year during an illegal romp in the Forbidden Forest, Garfield had obviously gone through a rough time. However, one part of the wolf that helped him, was his reflexes. Within a year, he'd gotten off of the backup roster of the house team and became the star of the Hufflepuff team. Slowly, the most-forgotten house was rising through the ranks to quickly and possibly gaining the House Cup this year, if they could eke out the Quidditch Cup. Garfield tried to explain to his group of friends that becoming a werewolf just made him more aware of everything. While he wasn't the fastest flyer, like Wally was, he had the best reflexes. Then again, he'd never played so close to a full moon...games had often just fallen on weeks surrounding it, or he'd found excuses to bow out. But, being a sixth-year now, there wasn't a seeker to fill in, only the benched third-year who was fumbling, at best.
"So you say." Raven looked back to her studies, "Also, me being a Ravenclaw and being your good luck charm is hardly appropriate."
Vincent snorted, "Ravenclaw's been out of the running for House Cup or the Quidditch Cup for weeks now. Everyone's choosing between yellow or red." He said, motioning between their friends.
"And since I like both of you, it would be mean of me to choose one over the other," Raven skillfully argued to that point.
Garfield pouted, resting on his arms, mumbling something under his breath. "Fine. But when I win the game, you'll be sorry you missed it."
Raven almost smiled, an occurrence that only happened among friends, "I'm sure Starfire will drag me to the afterparty." She pointed out. Starfire, who had been previously distracted- or more aptly, distracting half the boys in the study hall- looked up.
"What? Oh yes! I will be glad to bring to you the Hufflepuff common room." She said, shooting a wide smile. It made half the hearts of the men, and a few girls, flutter. Raven sighed. She knew Starfire was a Veela and couldn't help it, but Raven did think that maybe if she tried to be more reserved with her emotions, she wouldn't be getting chocolate poisoned with love potions nearly every weekend. Starfire was just far too nice; smiling innocently at every boy who looked her way, never denying them a conversation. It's probably why she was placed in Hufflepuff.
Raven gathered her things, pulling on her best friend's robes and encouraging Starfire to come with her to the library, making sure that Clint Barton didn't have the chance to propose to Starfire...again. She'd seen the look in his eye he'd gotten when Starfire had swept her gaze across the room and knew it would only end at the Infirmary if she didn't intervene. Starfire waved goodbye to her study partner and let Raven tug her away.
"I wish you would come to the game," Starfire pouted, "Gar's going to be so disappointed."
"There's no such thing as 'lucky charms'. Well, not without magic, and as far as I know, no one's cursed me yet." Raven said, a smidge annoyed.
Starfire stopped dead in the middle of the halls, hoisting her books onto her hips. She opened her mouth, "But what if I asked you."
Raven shook her head.
"What if I made you?" Starfire asked, twirling a piece of her hair.
"If you say 'it will be good for you', you'll regret it." Raven snapped, now altogether done with this topic. As it had happened, it wasn't as much of Starfire and Raven both agreeing together that they would be friends, as it was Starfire adopting Raven as her little introvert. Oftentimes, being friends with Starfire was good; it got Raven out of her comfort zone. Today, however, Raven was going to drag her feet into the ground and not budge an inch.
"You really don't know, huh?" Starfire bit her lip, causing Raven confusion, "About why Gar wants you there…?" She trailed off. Raven blinked at her blankly.
"Other than I'm a good luck charm?"
Starfire huffed, "Yes! Rae, it's so clear!" Starfire threw up her free hand, "He likes you!"
"I like him too." Raven frowned.
"No, Raven," Starfire rubbed her forehead as though her best friend was giving her a headache, "I mean, he like-likes you."
They were nearly to the Hufflepuff common room, "Don't be stupid." Raven said, laughing it off, "We're just friends, no more than Vincent likes me."
"No! No," Starfire was positively inflamed, "Gar has been like in love with you for years, Raven! I can't believe you don't see it. He-,"
Raven's wand vibrated. She flicked it up to see her alarm going off.
"Star, as much as I'd love to tell you all the reasons that ridiculous claim is wrong, I have Ancient Runes in ten minutes."
She spun, glad to be away from that conversation.
"You know if you think about it, it's true!" Starfire called after her, causing Raven's stomach to churn for an unexplained reason.
XXX
On the day of the match, Raven had the library nearly all to herself. It was the last game of the season, meaning that one of the two teams- Gryffindor or Hufflepuff- would be winning the Quidditch Cup. She even tried to work through her homework at a leisurely pace, but still found herself done much quicker than expected. Even after proofreading it twice and making sure her magically appearing footnotes were in place, the game still hadn't finished.
Raven had been ruminating hard on what Starfire had said. It was hard not to.
She admitted that there was perhaps a small chance that, on occasion, Garfield has found her attractive. She refused to believe, however, that Garfield was harboring a crush on her for apparently years and had never given her a singular indication.
Or had she, and Raven just didn't know the signs? And, really, if it was true...would she mind?
If Raven had any sense that it might be true, she likely wouldn't have gone to the game for she'd be too embarrassed to face him. As it was, she convinced herself she was his friend and, since her homework was finished, she owed it to Garfield (and her other friends on the teams too) to show up.
She wrapped herself in her house scarf, unwilling to pick a side, and hastened down to the pitch.
XXX
The game was going awful for Garfield.
It had started out fine, but as the hours wore on, it was just getting more and more shitty. His headaches were near unbearable this close to the full moon, but he'd taken a tonic for that and so that shouldn't matter. It was a bunch of other things he didn't know would happen.
"What happened to those great instincts? That bludger nearly killed you!" His teammate Darcy Lewis said, staring at him with a mixture of worry for her team and for their championship.
Garfield rubbed his head, shaking it in response. It wasn't that his instincts had vanished, but quite, the opposite. They were completely overwhelming him. He heard all of the cheering like it was being fed through speakers turned up all the way. He could hear all the conversations of teachers when he didn't want to hear them. He could see everything before it happened. He smelled all of it- blood, sweat, sand, grass, and pitch food. He could even taste the air and all the particles that were riding on it, all the way from the lake. It was too much and his brain simply couldn't keep up with the inpouring information that was flooding his brain.
Yeah; Raven was right. This had been a mistake.
Robin was on his broom, cautiously watching Gar out of the corner of his eye. While he didn't want to give the Hufflepuffs the game, he was very concerned about one of his best friends who was looking a little green. He called a timeout, much to Garfield's relief.
Gar wasn't entirely sure how to tell his team captain that he had to be excused because he was a bloody werewolf and the moon was two days away.
Just as the teams were touching down on the grass for a two-minute time-out, all of Garfield's problems seemed to just wash away. It was replaced by something else, something all-consuming.
Faintly, Garfield heard Darcy calling his name and touching his shoulder. He was preoccupied with figuring out what had just happened. It wasn't a smell, but the mixture of incense and parchment was at the forefront. It wasn't a color in his mind, but he saw navy blue and gray. It was a feeling if he had to identify it, but even that seemed to pale.
It was, he realized, an instinct.
His gaze flickered up to the stand and he saw Rave had joined Vincent and everything seemed to just click into place.
"Gar!" Darcy spun him around, "Woah, your eyes!"
Garfield blinked at her, frowning, "What about them?" Everything, the senses that had made him unable to focus, were gone. Even the feeling he'd just gotten, the one that had quite almost bowled him over, had settled back to just an itch on the back of his thoughts. Maybe 'itch' wasn't right, because it was a most wonderful feeling. It was more like a, ah, reminder. A pull.
"They're gold," Darcy was looking a little wary.
"Oh, I took a potion today. Headache, nothing illegal. Must be a side-effect. So, what's the plan?" Garfield said, sharpening his senses. From the way Darcy was blinking, his eyes must have returned to their normal green hue.
His teammates paused, only for a second, before starting to lay out the last half of the most important game of the year.
XXX
"I still cannot believe it," Robin muttered sourly, "And I was worried about you, Beast Boy! Was that just a trick? Arg, if I hadn't called that time-out…"
"Not a trick. I dunno, my mind just needed a second to acclimate. I probably would have won anyway." Garfield smirked, remembering the feeling of the snitch closing between his fingers, beating out Kid Flash (who, Gar thought, might want to re-think his nickname) by just an inch.
The teams were heading back to the castle for their victory parties. The losing team was invited, of course. Hufflepuffs were nothing if not courteous winners.
"I think I need a big shot of Firewhisky after that win," Kid Flash ran his fingers through his hair.
"Ask and you shall receive!" Garfield said, knowing his older housemates would have no trouble raiding the kitchen for alcohol or getting it smuggled in from Hogsmeade.
The back of his mind tickled and Garfield missed what Kid Flash had said to him in reply.
"You guys all go...I'll, uh, catch up…" He murmured.
"You sure?"
"Uh-huh. I just realized I forgot something in the locker room." Garfield said, putting forth his best effort to his friends to be present with them, despite the tiny voice in his head very frantically pulling him down the hall.
Ten seconds! That's all I need!
Somewhere, a second voice that was more Garfield than the other one snapped, and for a moment, the urge vanished. But, it was still there, lurking.
"Okay. I mean, you're the MPV. Being fashionably late is only fair." Kid Flash patted his shoulder, and the pair of Gryffindors left him alone.
As soon as they had turned the hall, Garfield took off running toward where something was pulling him. He saw Raven in the halls, alone.
"Garfield. Good save at the end. I promise I'm coming to the party, I just thought I'd chan-," She never got her hurried explanation out because Garfield had thrown himself at her, shoving her up against the stone wall of the castle, kissing her.
When Raven squeaked in surprise, Garfield took the opportunity to slip past her lips, biting her lower lip softly. A growl vibrated low in his throat. One hand gripped her thigh under her heavy outdoor robes, helping to shove her up on the wall, encouraging her to wrap her leg around him. The other hand was at her jaw, holding her head.
Raven's fingers hesitantly knotted in his hair, and when her left hand pulled at the roots, it was one of the most glorious feelings. Garfield let her play with his dark, curly locks as he dragged his lips down her throat. His hand followed, unbuttoning the top button of her oxford, un-doing her pristinely knotted tie, and reveled the swath of milky shoulder that was hiding beneath.
Raven whimpered as he gripped her tightly between his body and the wall. Garfield kissed her neck carefully and before he knew what he was doing, he'd begun to bite down and-
A hex came right at him, sending him smashing against the other side of the corridor. Raven was panting hard, eyes wild and wand pointed at him. She looked down to her shoulder and hastily re-covered it. The pain of the stinging hex gradually brought Garfield back.
"What was that?" She demanded in a low whisper.
"I'm...not sure," Garfield was there to kiss her, but as soon as his fingers had begun to curve around that first button, it was just a blur. It was in his mind, but it was as though he was watching it through frosted glass.
"Not sure? You were nearly biting me!" Raven stalked up to him, "Oh...oh no." She said, her eyes locking with his.
"What? Rae?" He said, reaching toward her.
Raven wordlessly conjured a mirror in front of him. Staring back at Garfield was himself, but his eyes were more gloriously a golden color than he'd ever seen them. His wolf side.
Raven was watching him carefully. She bit the inside of her cheek. She crossed her arms and Garfield recognized this as her 'thinking look'.
"Well, no harm done," She replied airily, "I think I need to get back to the common rooms. Arthur is waiting for me."
"Arthur Curry?" Garfield scratched his head, "Why would he-,"
"Oh, you haven't heard? We're together now."
Before Raven could even move, Garfield had jumped in front of her. He tried to kiss her again, but she dodged him.
"No!" He snapped and Raven did a wandless charm, shoving him back. His back hit the wall and he stumbled to the ground. When he looked up, Raven's face was unreadable and Garfield was sure he'd just blow any chance he had with the sorceress.
"Oh, Merlin, Rae. I'm not sure what's going on! I'm so sorry!" Garfield said, head hanging and looking totally confused and guilty.
"I do." Raven pinched her nose, "That was a lie. I'm not dating Curry." She mumbled.
"Huh?" Garfield said. Instantly, his churning stomach and the yelling in his head quieted.
"Yes. I was just proving a theory. It's not you that's doing this."
"Whaaa? Oh, c'mon, Rae. It's me. Who else would it be?" Garfield said.
Raven met his gaze, unblinking, "Your wolf, of course. And, I think, it wants me."
