Title: Interacting with Unusual Creatures

Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Summary : Graves keeps encountering Newt's creatures. He's not sure what to make of it.

Pairings: Original Percival Graves/Newt Scamander

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Notes: A 5 + 1 fic.

Chapter One: The Pocket Watch

"Though the Niffler is gentle and even affectionate, it can be destructive to belongings and should never be kept in a house."

Percival Graves was subjected to many torturous months of recovery and rest, which made the two and a half months spent under Grindelwald's 'care' seemed like a vacation. He knew pain. He knew his purpose hidden away in the cell: protect MACUSA and protect New York, his health and mentality be damned.

But nothing could be done with the amount of well-wishers visiting him during his recovery. Yes, he got it. Grindelwald was very good in keeping his impersonation a secret. No need for his family, his 'friends', and his co-workers to parade in and out of his apartment to 'see' how he was doing. Even Madame President visited him occasionally, her guilt for not spotting the fake. Graves was her right hand man and she didn't even batted her eyelashes with his sudden change in behavior.

Though, as Graves pondered over the months he was forced on bed rest and hours of therapy, Grindelwald didn't really acted out of the ordinary when he was impersonating Graves. The director was already hard to work with and kept to himself. He did let himself get too absorbed in his work and made sure his aurors were actually decent at their jobs.

Sure, Graves could admit that he was an hard-ass. He was working on it, okay?

The Goldstein sisters took it upon themselves to visit him once every couple of days. Tina gotten into the habit of sneaking some documents away from the office and having Graves look them over during his recovery, her stumbling over during her first visit and trying to right a wrong with a ruling Grindelwald passed a few weeks before he was revealed to be a fraud.

(He got to know what Grindelwald did in his absence. How many people he sent away and how many he sentenced to death. Again, how did no one know that it wasn't him? Graves might had been hard to work with, but he valued human life, any life really. The war taught him that and Tina, blessed her soul, felt the same way.

"Sir, you need to show your compassion more often at the office! I know you're the director and all that, but see how Newt get along with everyone, even with his aversion to social interactions? People see that he cares and regard him with respect.

Well, most of them does.")

Queenie, being a little bit of a mother hen, brought around pastries and actual food to make sure Graves was being well-nourished. She knew all of his favorites and he took advantage of her visits by working on his mental shield. His time with Grindelwald had greatly strained his mentality and he knew Queenie will not let his secret slip.

(Her visits, Graves thought, might had to deal with the fact that he caught her in a certain no-maj's bakery early on during his recovery. Graves might had gave her a few tips on avoiding certain non-opened minded employees of MACUSA. He also reinstated Tina's standing as an auror, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with the no-maj.

The pastries were delicious and heavenly, after all.

"I'm glad you love them, Mr. Graves. I'll be sure to come by often and bring you some more of the cherry-filled ones. Don't you find them utterly fascinating? I wonder how Jacob is able to replicate Newt's creatures like this. You should hear Newt go on and on about Jacob's bakery. It's cute, really.")

But what Graves really wanted to do the minute he was back at his office was meet the one and only Newt Scamander, the one who helped capture one of the most notorious criminal in the magical community.

To say 'thank you,' of course.

For everything.

Graves wasn't sure how much longer he'll last being Grindelwald's prisoner. He could only hold out for so long. (Graves thought of no less than eleven different ways he could end his life and he was oh so very close in acting on one. Very close.)

Also….how did a British wizard come in and disrupt everything that led to Grindelwald's capture?

From what Graves gathered, Newt only had concerns about his creatures and keeping them safe. It just so happened that Grindelwald got unmasked in the process. It was pure luck and Graves didn't believe in luck.

Oh, well. Other than the time he briefly met Newt when he accompanied the aurors that came barging into his prison, he hadn't seen the magizoologist since Graves heard he boarded a ship to England to finish his book, a copy of which resided on his desk at MACUSA. Tina made sure to get a signed copy for him. She even got Newt's to write a little inscription, though God knows why.

In fact, Newt was far from his mind the day he bumped into the magizoologist in the lobby of MACUSA. Graves knew that Newt had accepted the position of consultant and was working with the president on a more refined policy in dealing with magical creatures that occasionally pops up on the job from time to time. (It didn't help that the Goldstein sisters constantly bring Newt into their conversations. Something about how the British wizard wanting to meet him officially and see how Graves was doing. Maybe Graves shouldn't use the term 'mother hen' on Queenie.)

The day was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, Graves was forcing himself out of his office and trying to talk to several of his aurors and be more interested in their lives outside of work which was a hard task to take on. He didn't care for small talks. He rather use his time to get some work done, but Tina suggested to be more open and receptive with his co-workers. Make them see that he was human after all, and not the director who could make their lives miserable. (He really did like making their lives miserable, but Grindelwald put a stop to that.)

He was actually looking for Tina when something fast, small and black was hurrying across the way out of the corner of Graves' eyes. He quickly spelled the creature frozen and levitated to eye-level to see what he had caught.

Huh.

It was a niffler. He had the fortune to have never encountered one before.

Graves quickly checked his pockets for any missing items. Feeling air in his left breast pocket, Graves eyed the creature in front of him. "Having a productive day, aren't you?"

The niffler eyes were darting back and forth trying to escape his frozen prison.

"I don't really care what you had stolen from my lot of aurors, but I really do need my pocket watch back. It was a gift from my grandmother and she's coming over tonight and I really do not need another lecture."

Graves sighed. He was waiting for a response from the poor thing. His sanity must be going out the window.

The wizard slowly turned the creature upside down with his magic and thought back to what he read in Newt's book. There weren't really a step-by-step instructions on how to get his belonging back from the niffler's pouch. Just to keep his belongings safe, which did not happen in this case.

Graves lessen the spell a bit, which allowed the niffler to move about more freely, his front legs waving about and his body twisting trying to get away. Only his small hindlegs were kept frozen.

How to get about in getting his watch back?

Graves took a second before reaching out to the niffler and slightly ruffled the pouch. The niffler gave a small squeak. The man smiled at the reaction and continued tickling the creature before him. All of the sudden, amidst the squeaking and shaking, a pile of jewelry and assorted gold items came falling out.

Finding what he was missing, Graves said another spell and slowly replaced the stolen goods back into the niffler's pouch. He then slowly lowered the creature back down and was about to set it loose when he noticed that he had an audience.

"Were you just about to let the niffler off with other people's belongings?" asked Newt, his eyes wide with disbelief. He was standing off to the side and trying to catch his breath. It seemed that Newt was running around looking for his niffler again.

"It's their fault for not noticing their belongings were missing," replied Graves as he shrugged his shoulders. "And I really do not want to take the time to find the rightful owners."

Newt quickly came over and picked up his beloved niffler. "I never thought of tickling him to letting go of his loot. This will be a great addition to my book. I was in a rush in getting the book published, after the whole incident with Grindelwald, you see, that I wasn't able to amend my draft before the publishers whisked it away to get it printed." Realizing that he was babbling, Newt's face and neck turned a slight shade of red in embarrassment, which Graves found a little enduring. "Sorry. Didn't mean to go on like that."

"There's no need to be sorry," said Graves, as he noticed Newt hugging the niffler close to his chest.

Newt finally looked at Graves as the director noticed him looking up and down. "Have you been sleeping well? Of course, you're not. Not after what you been through. Hold on." Newt dumped the niffler in Graves' arms as he began looking for something in his pocket.

Graves eyed the creature wearily. Yes, he had bags underneath his eyes and his skin might be a bit too pale, but he did not look that bad, did he?

"Here, take this." Newt suddenly handed over a vial of blue liquid.

"What is it?" asked Graves.

"Don't worry about it. Just take a drop or two before you go to sleep. It will help with the dreams."

How did Newt know about his nightmares? Graves only mentioned it once to Tina and that was awhile ago. "Is it legal?"

"It's not necessary illegal." Newt kneeled down and opened up his suitcase. He made a motion for Graves to hand the niffler over before closing the case shut after dumping the creature inside.

"I think you need a new case," stated Graves, eyeing the whole ordeal.

"I need a better lock," said Newt. "Dougal been taking after Pickett, you see." The magizoologist looked up briefly before looking back down. "Of course, you don't know whom I'm talking about. Not everyone had met your creatures, Newt, but it does make things a lot easier if they did." Graves wondered if Newt muttered to himself often. It would explained a lot with why people tend to find Newt hard to talk to. Let's just say that Graves had never met anyone quite like him.

The magizoologist murmured a few spells and checked his case over before continuing, this time directly at Graves, "Do you also get muscle spasms from time to time? My brother told me stories from his time during the war about prisoners being subjected to curses for prolong periods. I wanted to help the poor souls, so one summer I locked myself away at Albus' winter home and worked day in and out on mixing various potions and using my creatures to create something that paralyzed the muscle a bit while simultaneous healing the body. It's not a permanent fix but it'll do for now."

Graves had to suppressed a smile. Newt could really get ahead of himself, did he? "My therapy is helping me cope with getting back to my job."

"Yes, therapy. Good thing you're not the sort that looks down on that. My brother could be a real handful and subscribed to the notion that men must take care of themselves. It's silly really." Suddenly the magizoologist stood straight up and looked at Graves as if he was seeing him for the first time. "Oh. I think I forgot to introduce myself."

"I know who you are, Newt," said Graves.

"Yes, but we never officially met, did we? And I don't want us starting off on the wrong foot. Queenie been trying to help me interact better socially and I don't think I'm doing this right."

"You're doing perfect," said Graves. He was actually finding this whole encounter a bit sweet. And apparently he was going a bit soft.

"Are you sure? Because she said that I need to introduce myself properly and then ask about my creatures afterwards or I might be giving the wrong impression. Tina said I shouldn't worry too much about this, but I want to try, you see. It's not so hard to figure out what my creatures want because there's no subtext, but human interactions are so complicated and overwhelming and I try to do too much that in the end I can't look someone in the eyes."

Newt pouted a bit at the end of his babbling. Graves did not find that adorable. (He did.)

"I'm Percival Graves," Graves said as he held out his hand and gave Newt a reprieve.

Newt smiled, which seemed never ending to Graves. "I'm Newt Scamander. It's nice to meet you." He shook Graves' hand.

"Likewise."

All of the sudden, Queenie magically appeared out of thin air and stood right next to Newt, a little bit too close for Graves' taste.

No, that couldn't be right. Graves must had not seen her coming from the long walkway over there.

That was currently empty and devoid of people.

He shook his head. What kind of auror was he if he couldn't be on alert with his surroundings? A dead auror, that's what. How did he missed a single witch coming up to him and Newt?

Queenie had a overly surprised look on her face as she took in the scene before her and their linked hands. "Oh, I didn't realized that I was interrupting a moment."

Newt's face flushed red, making his freckles stand out a bit more on his cheeks. He quickly took his hand back.

"You didn't," replied Graves, his tone cold.

Queenie just smiled, as if she knew a secret that he didn't know about which unsettled Graves. "Well, how unfortunate." She glanced at the Graves before directing her attention at Newt. "Darling, Tina's looking for you. Something about a surprise at a certain bakery later on today."

Newt gasped. "You weren't suppose to know about that."

Queenie smiled widely. "Honey, barely anything can get past me." She glanced back at Graves. "If it's alright with you, I'm going to steal MACUSA's magizoologist and be on our way."

"I don't care what Mr. Scamander does," replied Graves, trying to sound uninterested with their plans. "As long as it's not illegal."

"Hmm hmm," Queenie hummed. She grabbed Newt by the arm and pulled him along with her as they made their way across the lobby.

"Mr. Graves," began Newt, his eyes darting around before settling at the space next to Graves' ears, "It was really nice to meet you again." He paused. "Under better circumstances." Another pause. "And thank you for taking care of my niffler. He doesn't take too kindly to strangers." Newt even waved good-bye as Queenie dragged him around a corner.

Graves stared at empty corner as he rubbed his pocket watch absentmindedly.

It was a strange day. Definitely a strange day. But Newt did have a nice smile about him. Graves wasn't sure why, but he wanted to see that smile again on the magizoologist.

And damn. He did not thank Newt for unmasking Grindelwald. (And to a lesser extend, saving him from his prison. He owed Newt a great deal on that one.)

Well, it was an excuse to talk to Newt again in the near future now that Graves know he was in the city.

And it was not because Graves found it easy to talk to him. Not at all.