"Leave him alone! He hasn't done anything wrong!" Porpentina Goldstein yelled as she stood in front of the bleeding demiguise. She was shaking from head to toe, covered in dust from the shattered walls and her cheek was bleeding from a hex that had hit her earlier.
"Move over now missy, before you get hurt." the brown haired wizard chuckled. Tina didn't know his name, only that he was looking to catch the demiguise. He was very tall, had a scar on his crooked nose and one of his front teeth was missing. All of his clothes were also dirty, ragged and torn, and looked foreign to their style. The man also smelled like canned meat, which in this scenario made Tina sure of the fact that the man was up to no good.
Porpentina peeked at the animal behind her. Dougal had a gaping wound on his right hind leg bleeding profusely, the wound seemingly also making him unable to properly turn invisible. The animal was whimpering in pain as it looked at Tina with its pleading eyes. That was the moment when Tina decided that she was going to save the creature no matter what, not only for the poor beast's own sake, but also for Newt.
How the wizard who was now wreaking havoc in their living room had found out about the demiguise, she didn't know. Newt had gone out to an event for his book a few hours ago. He had left Tina in charge of protecting the suitcase, even if he did so unwillingly. Tina insisted on it, explaining that there was no way anything could happen to the beasts. Never could she had imagined what would await her when she came out of the bathroom.
"Just put your wand down mister, there's no need for any bloodshed." Tina told the wizard in a calm and authoritative manner. The man just started laughing.
"Sure honey, whatever you say." he snickered and cast another hex at Tina who quickly deflected it. The wizard snarled and stroke his fingers through his greasy hair.
"I ain't got time for this. Do you even know how valuable that thing is? They make invisibility cloaks out of them. I can give you a cut of the price if you just hand him over."
"No. You will not touch him." Tina answered sternly. This was not up for negotiation.
Tina looked around the room, desperately trying to come up with a plan. She had been hit with a hex as soon as she had stepped out of the bathroom, and the spot on her leg had really started to ache. She wouldn't be able to stand up for much longer. She decided that attacking the man was the only option and that she would have to think about the consequences later.
The witch lifted her wand and shot out hex after hex, driving the man into a corner. He was furious now, swearing as he tried to protect himself from her attacks. Tina definitely had the upper hand when it came to dueling. Her wand work had always been deemed excellent, which she even got credit for at work. Now she would only have to wear the man out and it would be over.
Just as Tina was raising her wand to finally disarm the wizard, she heard Dougal cry out in pain. The sound made her flinch and that was when the stranger saw his opportunity. He jumped up and attacked Tina using his physical overhand and making Tina loose her wand. The man pushed her so that she fell flat on the ground, crying out in pain as her leg hit the floor. She knew that she was done for now, there was nothing she could do without her wand. She didn't really care what happened to her at this point, but she had to save the demiguise. It was so precious to Newt that he would never forgive her if worse came to worst.
Tina crawled backwards on the floor, looking at the man who slowly walked towards her, laughing menacingly.
"Oh it's over now, sugar." he said as he spun his wand in his hand.
Tina tried to put up a brave face, but she could feel her look falter when her back reached the bleeding demiguise. It was barely breathing and bleeding so profusely that the back of her clothes were already soaked through with blood.
Not knowing what else to do, Tina curled herself around the creature with her back against the malicious stranger.
"You will not touch him!" she growled as she held the bleeding creature in her arms, begging for some kind of miracle.
The man simply huffed and started to throw jinxes and hexes on Tina's back. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much pain she was in, but it turned out to be nearly impossible to not cry out. She looked down at the little beast in her arms, lying there with its eyes open and nuzzling against her chest. Dougal lifted its head up, looking at her like it was telling her everything was going to be fine. The sweet gesture was Tina's undoing, as she let out a horrible scream of pain as she was hit with another powerful hex. Everything that happened after that was a blur for her.
Tina could have sworn she saw some of her fellow aurors storm into the apartment, with Newt and Queenie in their lead. She could hear her sister screaming and her heels thumping against the floor as she ran towards her. She could hear Newt roaring in the background and within a fraction of a second there was bright light reflecting from the windows and mirrors on the walls. About a second after that there was a loud thud and she could hear a lot of people running in the direction of the sound. After that Tina only saw something pink and blue running towards her, trying to make her let go of the demiguise. She wouldn't let it go, she was going to protect the creature no matter what.
"Shh, honey, it's okay. We're here. Oh god Newt, she's in so much pain…" Queenie said, trying to stifle the sobs already escaping her lips.
Newt leaned down to look at Tina and clenched his jaw together as he saw how much blood there was.
"It's not all hers." Queenie sobbed as she sunk down to her knees.
Newt looked down at Dougal in Tina's arms and tried to pick it up. Tina pulled the creature gently closer to her body, wrapping the animal in her cardigan.
"Don't!" she whispered, and nuzzled her nose in the creature's fur.
"It's okay, Tina. You can let him go. I'm here now, he's safe. You're safe." Newt answered in a shaky voice. As soon as Tina heard him she relaxed herself a little and after that, everything went dark.
When Tina woke up she felt very confused. She wasn't in her bed, that she could tell by the feeling of the mattress. It wasn't as hard as hers, so she felt like she could almost sink in to it. She tried to open her eyes, but the bright light coming in from the windows made it very hard for her to do that. She instinctively reached out her hand to her left where her nightstand should've been placed with her wand on top of it, but instead she hit someone. She carefully let her eyes get used to the light and noticed that she was actually in Queenie's bedroom and that the person she had hit was Newt Scamander, or his left hand that was on the bed. The wizard himself was sleeping, leaning towards the backrest of his chair. His head was tilted backwards, so that his open mouth was directed towards the ceiling. In his lap was the demiguise with its hind leg wrapped in a tiny bandage, but otherwise it looked just fine.
The memories of the evening before came flowing back to Tina's mind and made her shudder. She looked at her arms that had been hurt, but they looked mostly okay now. A few bruises and a tiny scar could be seen from the struggle, but nothing more extreme. She touched her injured leg under the covers and felt it had also been bandaged. Well, at least she matched Dougal now. What a pair, she thought. Otherwise she felt okay, or as okay as anyone who had been attacked could feel.
Dougal noticed Tina being awake and looked at her expectantly. It crawled off Newt's lap and over to her bed, carefully nestling close to the woman's neck. Tina chuckled and leaned her head against the creature.
"Me too." she whispered and slowly raised her hand to pet the beast. As she did so she was sure it started purring. Did demiguises purr? Tina had no idea, she should ask Newt about that later.
Tina couldn't help but to giggle as Dougal stroke its head against her cheek.
"Yes, yes, I get it!" she playfully called out to the animal, just then remembering that Newt was fast asleep beside her. It was all a little too late, because the sound of her voice woke Newt up instantly.
"Wha-what's going on, what…" the half-asleep wizard mumbled before the sight in front of him truly set in.
"You're awake." he whispered, wiping away a small trail of drool from the corner of his mouth. Newt leaned in closer and carefully examined Tina's face with his eyes.
"Yes, I am awake." Tina answered, smiling at the man.
Newt smiled back at her ever so fondly. He took a long breath and closed his eyes before looking at her again.
"Hello." he greeted, like he hadn't seen her for years.
"Hi." Tina said, positioning herself upright and leaning her head back against the headboard of the bed.
"How are you feeling?" Newt asked, his brows furrowing and his jaw clenching tightly.
"I'm doing okay. You?"
"I'm not the one who was…who was…"
"But you're the one that found me. How did you even know what was going on?"
"Queenie came to my book signing. She was just about to get her book signed when she… when she felt something was off. She sensed that you were in danger. At first it was nothing, just a hunch. After a little while she was screaming off the top of her lungs for someone to help you. We apparated out of there immediately, managing to get some of you co-workers that were attending the event with us." Newt answered, looking at his fists clenching and unclenching on the side of the bed.
"Where is she now?"
"I sent her out on some errands, she should be back soon. She hasn't left your side once after what happened."
"And what about you?" Tina asked, eyeing Newt's messy apparel.
"I had to take care of Dougal, so I've been back and forth between here and the suitcase. He didn't want to leave your side either." Newt answered, trying to evade Tina's accusatory gaze. She knew it was no use fighting him on this, though.
"Sometimes it's hard to decide whether Queenie's ability is a gift or a curse. She shouldn't have had to experience that…"
"Queenie shouldn't… What about you? You shouldn't have had to experience that!" Newt suddenly shouted out, looking very angry and shaken. He stood up from his chair and started pacing around the small bedroom.
"Would you please just stop worrying about others for once in your life? This shouldn't have happened in the first place. It wasn't-, It was my responsibility, you had nothing to do with-, I just- You could've…" Newt stopped dead in his tracks and covered his face with his hands. He took a deep breath and pulled his hands down along his face.
Tina didn't say anything and decided to let the wizard calm himself down first. Newt was clearly too upset right now to have any rational conversations.
After a moment of standing in place, the man returned to his chair and reached out to pet Dougal. The demiguise had just shifted himself so that he was lying closer to Porpentina again.
"He wouldn't be alive if it weren't for you."
"Who was that man?" Tina asked carefully, trying not to upset the wizard again.
Newt dropped his hand from the beast, crossing his arms in front of his chest instead.
"He is an old acquaintance from Africa. He is a notorious hunter, selling beasts or parts of them to the highest bidder. He has had a go at capturing Dougal before, but we managed to escape from him. I just never thought he would actually follow us here…" the wizard trailed off shaking his head.
"What's going to happen to him?"
"He's still being treated for his broken bones and a few other things, but as soon as he gets well enough he will be put in prison. Apparently they don't take attacking aurors too lightly here in America." Newt added with a hint of a chuckle before he looked back up at Tina.
"You didn't have to do this, you know." Newt stated looking at her, tears starting to well up in his eyes.
"But I wanted to. Besides, I sort of understand what you see in these beasts." Tina added with a smile, looking down at Dougal on her pillow. The demiguise looked back at the witch and then quickly decided to climb off the bed. He nudged Newt on his way down and tried to gesture that he wanted to go back in the suitcase. Slightly taken aback, the wizard opened the case and carefully helped the wounded animal inside before closing it again. Newt thought it was rather odd considering the beast rarely wanted to go back there, but perhaps he was just too tired after everything that had happened.
Newt walked once again back and sat down in the chair, but this time he looked straight at the pale woman in front of him. He wasn't good with words, but he needed to get this right, just this once.
"Thank you. For everything. I owe you a debt of gratitude. Just, promise me you won't go risking your life like that again, please." the wizard said, gently tucking a strand of the witch's hair behind her ear.
"No need to thank me. I just did what felt like the right thing to do. Those beasts are so precious to you…I just couldn't see you or any of them get hurt, that's all." Tina answered plainly.
Not knowing whether it was the innocent look on Newt's face right then or the fact that she was so anemic that her brain lacked the needed blood supply, Tina took a deep breath and continued.
"I just wanted to protect you, because… I really like you, Mr Scamander."
Newt raised his eyebrows in disbelief as he stared at the witch in front of him. She liked him? This was the very first time anyone had ever told him something like that. Usually people avoided his company, thinking that he was weird or unnatural, but now this person was saying she felt something quite opposite. Newt didn't really know how to handle this information, but he knew that he really enjoyed being with Tina, too. He loved the way she always tried to be in control of every situation, but at the same time she was being open to everything new. She was so smart, funny and beautiful, and just thinking about her made him aware of his own pulse quickening.
Shakily and against all better judgement, Newt slid his hand to the side of Tina's face and he could feel her tense up under his touch. He tried to analyse the look on her face, but somehow he just forgot what he was doing altogether when he saw her biting her lower lip nervously. Newt decided for once not to think too much, so he awkwardly leaned in instead and closed the gap between their lips.
His lips were feather light on hers, barely even touching them at first. The both of them stayed completely still, neither one of them courageous enough to do anything drastic. It was a short and sweet kiss, loaded with thousands of overwhelming feelings and thoughts. The kiss expressed a lot more than either one of them would ever had dared to say. Slowly, Newt leaned back and let go of Tina's cheek and stared down at the bed cover. Tina leaned her back against the headboard and decided to focus on her fingernails instead.
"Umm, that was nice." Newt said, blushing furiously and also feeling like a complete idiot for breaking the almost magical silence. "I'm sorry. I should've asked you before I-, I mean it would have been proper to ask whether you wanted to…"
"What? No, Newt, I…Of course I wanted it, too. It was nice. It was like… It was…wow." the witch said, burying her face in her hands.
"I mean… Can we just, try again?" Tina whispered from between her fingers, slowly raising her eyes back to Newt.
Newt decided it was better for him to not talk anymore, since he had no idea what proper protocol was for a situation like this. Even if he was feeling like an idiot, he just nodded and slowly leaned back towards Tina again. This time he wasn't quite as shaky as before, so he put in a little more force behind his lips, as did she. The kiss was still a very short one, but just as exciting as the one before. Newt had just started to lean away from her again when Tina's hands came up to his face and stopped him from moving.
"Again." she said, looking him straight in the eye and carefully pulling him back to her.
Newt obliged and kissed her once more. This time he opted to move his lips ever so slightly, just to see what would happen. Porpentina mirrored his movements and slowly both of them seemed to relax and give in to the kiss and each other.
After what felt like a lovely eternity, the couple needed to come up for some air. Reluctantly they pulled apart from one another, both of them too flustered to say anything. Newt looked over at Tina, her lips as red and swollen as his probably were. She was blushing furiously as she tried to calm her ragged breathing.
Newt leaned back in his chair and tried to steady his beating heart by placing his hand on his chest. It didn't really help in any way, but as he looked up at Tina he could see her doing the same thing. That was when Newt knew this thing between them whatever it was, was something special and he couldn't stop a smile from spreading across his face. Tina returned the smile with one of her own, slowly letting it turn into bubbling laughter as she tried to hide her blushing cheeks with her hands.
Yes, this was definitely something special.