Hello, my lovely readers.
I saw that there was love for my little one-shot drabble from before so I have decided to do something similar again. However, this will be a two-shot instead and will be post - Cimes of Grindelwald, with a bit of creative liberty taken.
SPOILERS. You have been warned. Though, to be frank (not the Thunderbird), if you haven't seen the second movie, this doesn't really spill anything about what happens. It's going to perhaps reference things without talking about them, but that's it.
Also, I don't own FB. JK Rowling appears to.
I merely own nonexistent substances.
So, with no more preamble, read on and enjoy.
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Newt Scamander is a brave man, let no one deny that.
He has befriended dragons, learned the human version of many a mating dance for far too large of creature, wrestled with a swooping evil's tantrums on a regular basis, avoided being smothered by Frank that one time he came back from a rescue mission a little worse for wear, and, of course, compared Tina Goldstein to salamander.
As has already been established, he's stupidly brave.
However, he is also distinctly afraid of what trouble that blasted niffler can cause when he manages to slip form the case, sometimes against all odds.
Odds in this instance equating to a fixed lock, a long rope (from Jacob), and even a chain (that had been from Madam Picquery upon his arrival back to MACUSA).
His arrival on request of a certain director within MACUSA.
Another thing that has his stomach clenching painfully with dread.
Percival Graves was apparently not a character made up for Grindelwald's purposes and had, in fact, been a real man stashed in a dark corner of the American Ministry while the dark lord paraded around with his face due to polyjuice potion.
It had admittedly been a pure accident and chance of fate the found the real Percival Graves shortly after the incident with Credence and before the poor man starved to death. One of the newbies had been sent to clean the dark and decrepit corners of the building as a sort of right of passage. However, Newt isn't to mention that he knows all that. It is a rather touchy subject and if the looming man found out Tina spoken of it . . . well, lets just say she'd wish she would have just stuck with wand permits.
But back to that niffler.
Who was currently somewhere in MACUSA, just not in Newt's case where he should be.
So far the magizoologist had caught sight of his haphazard trail of destruction (the little thing had looted every possible thing he could so far), but he had yet to spot his blasted creature. .
"Mister Scamander."
His eyes are wide in what he hopes is a decidedly innocent way as he turns around, shoulder taught. "Yes, Madam President?"
The chains are mostly for the niffler anyway, considering his atrocious level of damage last time. She hasn't even complained about the larger creatures he has with him, despite having stopped in to eyeball the damage at the zoo before it was repaired.
"I seem to be be missing my favorite pocket watch, Mister Scamander. If it does not reappear within the next hour, you may also find yourself missing something, something smaller and platypus-like I would assume if I were you," her voice is smooth like heavy silk, disapproval dripping from it in a way that makes him feel as if he's being scolded by his mother.
He drops his head further, his bangs completely covering his eyes. "Yes, Madam President."
The scrawny man doesn't bother to breathe again until she's well out of hearing range.
Oh dear, he had better find Tina. This is much worse than he thought.
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Tina is just as terrifying as the president but also highly effective at locating his niffler. She seems to know this place better than anyone else and within minutes after her long lecture has ended leads him to vaults.
It's a small matter of collecting the annoying critter, emptying his pouch of the looted treasure, and stuffing him back in the case with a quick call for Dougle to keep an eye on him.
"Do you think that will be enough?" Tina asks, sorting Picquery's watched from the pile before levitating the remainder into a small crate.
Newt smiles at her sheepishly, "At least for a few days, maybe longer if Dougle listens to me this time. Sh-should we return all this stuff, do you think?"
The witch shakes her head. "Just this will do. I'll leave the rest in the lost and found. There are a few jinxes in places that do well in warding off thieves until the rightful owners come to collect. Get that to the President and then you have your meeting Director Graves later, don't forget. He's strict about that sort of thing."
They begin to make their back to the main hallways, side by side in a somewhat comfortable silence. That is if Newt is ever comfortable in another human's presence. Miss Goldstein does come close to lowering his socially awkward walls, though.
"W-why does he want see me anyway? Director Graves, I mean," Newt finally asks, just before they enter a slightly busier hallway.
Tina looks at him sideways, but does not slow her steps. People are walking around them again. "He wants to see you, Mister Scamander, because you're the one who revealed and bound Grindelwald. He wanted to see you awhile ago, but he was still recovering and the mediwithces wouldn't let him back to work. After … " Here she pauses, swallowing past a lump in throat. "After our own failure to hold Grindelwald and Paris, he is even more keen on your meeting."
"Oh," Newt responds, drilling holes so deeply into his shoes that Tina is the only reason he doesn't become overly familiar with more than one post as they enter the main atrium.
It's shortly after that they part and he heads off to return the pocket watch and apologize profusely. As long as he gets the slobber off the thing, then all should soon be resolved shortly.
He'll only after to face Percival Graves. No big deal.