As Newt came home from work that night he was utterly exhausted.
The Ministry of Magic had yet again sent him via portkey to one of the most remote places of Britain to have a look at a "highly suspicious, probably dangerous" creature, which in fact had turned out to be a quite adorable, yet horribly frightened Murtlap.
He closed the door behind him and sighted. Everything would be so much easier, if the Ministry people actually read his book.. (he was quite fond of his drawings of the beasts and proudly insisted one could easily recognize the beasts by comparing them to the pictures in his book, so anybody not knowing what type of beast was in front of them was to him like a personal insult.)
A look through the mostly empty apartment however immediately pulled him out of his grumpy thoughts again and a warm feeling began to flicker inside his chest. Love.
He really couldn't help himself. Ever since his wife Tina had moved in into his suitcase with him two years ago, he was everyday anew overwhelmed by the happiness that flooded him when he came home. Because now he really had a home to come home to. She was his home. He was at home in her presence.
He quickly crossed the living room to his suitcase and climbed down the stairs into their "real house" located inside the case, eager to see his beloved wife again.
Carelessly tossing his coat in a corner of their bedroom, he swiftly exited the wooden hut, just to fall over Dougal, the Demiguise.
"Hey, buddy! I'm sorry, I didn't see you! Are you ok? Come up here, how are you, hm?", he murmured as he picked up the furry creature and hugged him tight, just to say sorry for nearly having trampled him. "Have you had a good day with Mommy?"
A memory crossed his mind, making him smile. He remembered the first time Tina had referred to herself as his beasts' 'mommy': The mooncalves had cried and protested, because Newt and Tina were late with their feeding schedule, so she hurried over to them, soothingly sing-saying: "Don't worry, sweethearts, Mommy didn't forget you, I'm right here. Everything's all right, my sweetlings!"
Newt had stopped in the middle of feeding the Graphorns, tears in his eyes.
He had run over to where she was standing, hugging and holding her tight.
On her confused question on what had happened, he only managed to answer: "You're the best Mommy I could possibly ever wish for them".
Mommy. It was only a small word. But for him it had meant the world.
It meant that ever since that day they were a real family.
Newt shook his head to get back into the presence, looking at the Demiguise in his arms again. "Got lost in thoughts again.."
Setting him down, he nudged Dougal: "Come on, let's go find Tina!"
Dougal excitedly grabbed his hand with his paw and tried to march forward, leading the way, but Newt had already stopped dead in his tracks again, a puzzled look on his face.
He tilted his head.
"Are those.. shoes you're wearing, buddy?!", he wondered out loud, looking at the baby blue shoe like socks that were covering the beast's feet.
He shook his head. "What on earth is she up to again..", he grinned and continued following his Demiguise.
Tina hadn't been feeling too well the last few days, so she took a day off work today to fully recover and meanwhile spoil their 'children' a little.
She had built a more comfortable nest for the Occamies, helped their Niffler rearrange his treasures and even helped Pickett get along with the other Bowtruckles again!
But these socks for the Demiguise were really were.. odd. Even for their standards.
Why in Merlin's name would Dougal need socks..?
Still thoughts a million miles away, Newt continued walking, until he tripped over Dougal again, who had suddenly come to a halt in front of him, looking up to him expectantly.
"Uh, ouch. Sorry again, bud.. Today's obviously not our… " The last part of the sentence got lost somewhere between Newt's brain and mouth, as he took in the scene in front of him.
Tina sat in the middle of a glade, surrounded by their creatures, an Occamy around her neck, absentmindedly humming a song, knitting, smiling happily. Carefree.
A loving grin spread across his face. After all this time he was still not able to believe his luck that this beautiful, gentle, lovely, kind woman was indeed his wife.
For a second he stood there, not moving, not even daring to breath, just absorbing the atmosphere. But then his eyes widened, as he began to look around closely. He gasped.
Their Nudu, commonly known for their detached, non-cuddling way of living, had curled up around Tina, had on her lap, constantly purring, his cub playing somewhere nearby with a tiny ball he had never seen before.
His look wandered over to the Erumpent, that lay on his wife's other side, whose back was covered by a large, handwoven blanket decorated with tiny thunderbirds and badgers.
A blanket, that, judging by the fur that lay around on the floor, was made out of mooncalf-wool and unicorn hair. Both said creatures standing at the edge of the glade, puffing proudly. The mooncalf must have for whatever reasons shed some of his fur for the blanket as did the unicorn.. ?
Newt blinked a couple of times heavily and continued to look around.
The Bowtruckles clacked excitedly, as they danced around a crib mobile, which consisted of a herd of pastel colored hippogriffs galloping in circles, playing a song as it spun. Their song. The song, that played through the speakers when Newt was forced to say goodbye to Tina at the harbor shortly after the Credence-incident.
Fairies fluttered through the air, totally agitated, throwing back and forth an old looking, worn teddy bear he had once seen on one of Tina's childhood pictures, sprinkling it with fairy dust, 'healing' some old scratches and patches as they went.
Lastly, his eyes landed on Bennie, his Niffler, who excitedly ran back and forth from his nest to a crib located next to Tina and back again.
Only this time, the Niffler didn't steel anything shiny, no, quite contrary, he tried to 'decorated' the crib, hanging his shiny necklaces and coins wherever he thought it would look nice, making the simple white wood sparkle brightly in the sun.
Tears began forming in Newt's eyes as he raised a shaking hand to comb through his hair.
Dougal's baby-socks? A baby-blanket? A baby-mobile? Tina's teddy bear? The crib?
He now fully started crying, tears kept flooding his face, his exhaling disrupted by his uncontrollable sobbing.
Startled by the sudden, unexpected sound, Tina worriedly whirled around, ready to protect herself from whoever had entered the case, but instead she saw her husband standing a couple of feet away from her, looking as he was close to a mental breakdown.
Her eyes widened in shock, tears beginning to form as well, she started to panic.
They had never really talked about children, what if he didn't want a kid?
What if he didn't want a child with her?
What if.. he didn't want their child?
She had never planned on getting pregnant, not now, not in the middle of a war, not without carefully planning and talking about this with her husband, so she had been equally surprised by the message of her pregnancy
Three days ago should have been the first day of her menses, but she had been late. Even though she was basically never late, she thought this was due to her stomach bug, which had started right around that time with a heavy nausea.
Since nothing seemed to help against her 'bug', she went to a healer today, expecting to leave with some sort of medicine and instead left with the knowledge of a second heartbeat inside of her.
After the first wave of shock had settled, however, she was over the moon! A child, a baby-Newt would soon grace this world! She had been so happy and instinctively had expected Newt would feel the same way - happy, not.. crying his eyes out.
Carefully she stepped a few feet towards him, one arm outstretched, reaching for his hand: "Newt..? Newt.. What's going on inside your head? Newt.. Talk to me, please!", her voice cracked at the last please, disappointment and hurt sounding through every word she said. Her arm fell to her side again, her shoulders slumped down, as she continued to stare at him.
His brain felt like cotton, he was unable to think, words kept buzzing around, thoughts ran chaotically through his head, sentences formed and dissolved right afterwards again, however, he couldn't grasp of them.
Nothing made sense anymore, his mind sounded as if a herd of centaurs trampled through.
All of a sudden, the tumult quieted down, like a silence after the storm.
He now only had one word on his mind that kept growing stronger and stronger.
Baby.
The Baby.
Tina is pregnant.
We're expecting a baby.
We're about to become parents!
The Baby!
Our Baby!
Newt jerked out of his trance again and flew towards his wife, picking her up and whirling her around, again crying out of pure joy.
As he sat her down again, he kissed her fiercely, pulling away after a few seconds again and dropping to his knees to press an ear against her stomach.
"He or She is really in there? Our child?", he whispered in awe, as he softly stroke with still shaking hands over her skin.
They stayed like this for what felt like an eternity, both fully enjoying the moment, the pain from a few minutes ago long forgotten.
As Newt got up again, he clumsily cupped her face with his hands, kissed her on the nose and then leaned his forehead against her's.
"I love you so much!", he whispered, his voice still filled with his tears. "We're about to become parents! I.. - thank you so much! I love you"
With that, he threw his strong arms around her and carefully pulled her into a hug,
both crying on each other's shoulder.
Slowly but steady, the beasts around them, who of course had watched the interaction of their 'parents', came closer again.
Dougal was the first to reach out for them, gently hugging Newt's and Tina's leg.
Nug, the Nudu, came next, lovingly rubbing his head against their hands, closely followed by Tina's favorite Occamy, who curled itself around their necks like a colorful scarf.
Soon, everyone was gathered around the couple, joining the group hug, welcoming the little bundle of joy that was soon to grace their world.
Hey guys :)
just a short little Oneshot I wrote for the holidays :)
Hope you enjoyed it..
Reviews greatly appreciated ;D :P
Thank you all for reading this, happy holidays!
Love, Bandit 3