New story! Touching the harry potter universe again with more enthusiasm. We're in 1921, London, summertime.
This Newton Artemis Fido Scamander that I'd been hunting for the last year or so was almost in my grasp. The man was hard to find and many simply pointed me towards his brother, Theseus. What use could I possibly have for a war hero when I was on a search for studying the Billywig among other things? I needed a partner of some kind, someone who had the ability and the means to teach me.
He was always so quiet in school. Concerned for all that were too little to fight or take care of themselves. The concern. Thats what I wanted in my teacher and I had him this time. I know I do! I just nee-
"Sorry, sorry." A younger man mumbled his apologies as his suit case hit my shin. I nodded to him, eyeing him briefly before my eyes sunk in on the sandy blonde hair that I'd been searching for.
"Mr- Wait! Sir!" I began my run, pushing people out of the way on the busy Railway platform. Muggles looked rather grumpy with me as I shoved my way past them. I'd traveled for so long, just to lose him at the entrance Waterloo station...no. That simply will not do.
"MR SCAMANDER!" I screamed his name this time, searching for his head as I tried to jump above the heads of so many others. This was an oddly warm day for an English summer so I'd worked up quite a sweat. All in all, I may have looked a tensy bit like a lunatic, running up and down the stairs while screaming a name that didn't mean much of anything to anyone else.
"MR SCAMANDER!" I shouted it again, spying a shaggy blonde head of hair turn.
It disappeared, leaving me in a brief bit of confusion until I felt something climbing over my shoulder. My head spun to find a niffler, attempting to undo an earring. Black fur glinted back at me making me move before a Muggle spotted it and thought him to be a large rat.
"Hi there." I mumbled half to me and half to him as I pulled the little thing off my shoulder. I watched him eye me with a touch of amusement at this little guy's confidence.
"May I have that little bugger back?" An accented voice asked softly next to me, making me jump and hug the niffler to my chest.
"Mr Scamander!" I felt relief take me, a year of tracking this man down hadn't been wasted.
"Oh my goodness, you have no idea how hard I've searched to find you." I breathed with a smile.
"So I've heard. May I know why, Miss...Maximae was it?" He didn't look me in the eyes for very long, switching between my face and my chest.
"How...how did you hear?" I paused a second until I remembered I'd been holding his pet to my chest.
"My brother's last letter found me before you did." He shrugged robotically, moving to take the niffler out of my hands.
"Well...I just wanted to ask...to see if well. If by any chance you'd be willing to take another on your discoveries." I rephrased my question several different times before I really got it right. I was suddenly feeling nervous watching this man as he slipped the little thing out of my hands and into his suitcase.
"Is that a Bowtruckle?" My eyes strayed from his to the green speck that had peeked out of his jacket pocket and popped back in as soon as we made eye contact.
"Yes." He looked a touch surprised as he nodded, snapping his suitcase shut.
"Oh wow. Do you have a whole branch or only this wee fellow?" A grin erupted over my face as I leaned into his personal bubble to peek at the lanky looking stick figure.
"I do but...he likes to hang on. Pickett is his name." Scamander responded slowly.
"Thats so sweet." I sighed as I noticed his taut shoulder and decided to lean back. I needed to be a little more aware of my surroundings, I'd say.
"As for the trip, Uh. I don't know if you'd really want too. I don't sleep in the finest of places for a lady like you." He murmured wearily as he took in my outfit.
"Oh nonsense!" I waved away his notion of me being unable to sleep in the dirt.
"I just enjoy dressing well when I go about shouting random men's names in the railway station." I giggled nervously, hoping this wouldn't be his reason to say no. Just because I dressed well, didn't mean I wasn't okay with getting dirty. My parents had simply left me quite a bit when they'd passed. Thats all.
"Then...what are you looking to find? And can you pay your own?" He raised a brow, glancing at me again before looking right beside my face.
"Knowledge. I've found my calling in Magizoology and I need a teacher, now as you can imagine. Not many of those so I thought I'd look around and see if I could find a good one. Theres quite a couple of fakes out there, well fakes and flakes, and I'm not either of those!" I took in a breath, realizing I was rambling now.
"And, I can pay my own. No worries there!" I gasped out, trying to keep from panicking this badly in front of the man I was supposed to somehow impress with my knowledge into getting him to teach me. Now I just seemed desperate.
"Um. I really do want to say no-" He started as I held up a hand.
"I don't think I can take no as an answer, with all due respect, Mr Scamander. " I pursed my lips, hoping that wasn't too bold.
"Why not?" He tilted his head, watching my face as I came up with an answer that didn't scream 'crazy animal lady' too loudly.
"I uh...I just really love these creatures." I mumbled, feeling a little inept at phrasing things well. He seemed to think for a second, scanning me once more before he looked away but this time it was to the other side, where his bowtruckle, Pickett, sat.
"Are you quite sure?" He raised a brow, eyeing the creature with disbelief. I felt more anxiety set in as a creaky smile became plastered to my face, I did this when I was really nervous. Awful rambler and an awful faker of confidence. Ara, why can't you just be calm? Who grins like this? Not normal wizards or witches, thats who.
"Well, Miss Maximae, you're welcome to try and keep up." Mr Scamander looked back to me quickly as he started to hurry towards the train compartment he seemed to belong in. Excitement tingled at my very finger tips until I couldn't feel them any more and set about getting a ticket as quickly as possible. I don't even know where this train was going but I would surely be on it.
I sped towards the cabin I'd seen him go into and found him talking to his suitcase. It was almost comical to see him mumbling threats into the leather and fabric bag, I was curious still though.
"What's in there?" I tilted my head, pondering if he possibly had all his animals in it. I watched him quickly shut it, locking it at the top with speed.
"It's just a suitcase." He replied quickly, noticing I was in the cabin now as well.
"Doubtful." I disagreed, raising a brow at his attempt to cover what just happened.
"Fine, you got me. It's my workspace, I house my creatures there for safekeeping." He admitted in a soft voice. I nodded in understanding as the silence drained on between us, covered by the sounds of the train's wheels pumping away under us.
"You don't remember me, do you?" I tilted my head, watching him for any sort of reaction.
"I do." He nodded. I'd been in Ravenclaw, a bookworm at heart, while he'd sat alone in Hufflepuff. Well, alone until he was expelled for his little Jarvey incident with Leta Lestrange. I was always interested in his comings and goings simply because that while he'd been officially expelled...I still saw him in some classes and on school grounds.
"What do you remember then?" My head tilted the other way, this time from curiousity.
"I know you were a Ravenclaw, in my year, and you had the most peculiar habit of constantly separating all your foods on your plate at mealtimes." He listed off facts about me in a random fashion, as though those were just the first he could recall about me.
"How did you see me doing it?" I furrowed my brow with my mouth half open in disbelief.
"I watched when I sat next to you once in our sixth year, I think. You did it every time afterwards though, you'd stop contributing to conversation. Separate everything into piles, and then resume conversation." He shrugged awkwardly, still glancing between me and the space to the right of my head.
"Huh. I forgot I'd invited you to sit with me then." I leaned back and looked out the window as I tried to remember that. I think it was when I'd first started getting interested in Magical Creatures, hoped to learn something from the boy. I suppose now, I had the chance and the will to do so. This would prove to be an interesting trip...wait.
"Where are we going?" I broke out of my thoughts to ask him.
"Oh. Right, we're going to Switzerland. Quick trip down the Withered Arm and out to sail to the mainland." He nodded, a small and excited smile cropped up as he recounted where we'd be going.