Newt has never been very good with people

Summary:

Newt's life wasn't brilliant but he's always had his creatures. Maybe he'll never have more then that but his brother has always said to never give up hope.

Chapter Text

Throughout Newt's life the possibility of there being someone out there who was fated to be with him was both an exciting prospect and a terrifying one. His parents were both in the same year at Hogwarts and so had met before their sixteenth birthdays. Though they weren't originally close it had taken mere hours after their bond had formed for them to find one another and realise the truth. From then on it had been the typical soulmate whirlwind romance and they married less than a year later. His parents loving relationship however, wasn't quite enough to disprove the lesson that life was gradually teaching him.

Newt was an excitable child with a strange passion for magical creatures and what his brother, Theseus, liked to call a few 'odd eccentricities'. As he grew though he soon realised that, in comparison, his people skills were greatly lacking. He lived in an area that was largely inhabited by wizarding families but the other children were less than friendly towards him.

Long before his arrival at Hogwarts the other children's bullying ways had transformed him from an almost outgoing child into a shy awkward soul, with only his creatures for comfort as Theseus, being older, had already gone.

Newt wished desperately for many years that someone would be able to see past his rather odd ways and like him for who he was. His hope of being granted a soulmate ran alongside this wish and for a long while, during the worst moments of bullying he clung to the idea that someone someday would be his friend.

However children are cruel and as Newt got older (and perhaps stranger in the eyes of others) the taunts became crueller still. The thing that hurt the most, the phrase repeatedly drilled into his mind again and again squashed his hope so very well. 'You're a freak' they used to say 'and no one will ever love a freak like you'. If he tried to argue that his family loved him they always replied 'yeah but you'll never have a soulmate, never because you're such a freak!'. While the claim wasn't particularly inventive it was exceedingly hurtful and so when Newt did depart to Hogwarts the sense of relief at escaping the taunts was overshadowed by his aching loneliness.

Then came Leta Lestrange. She had found him funny when he had bumped into her while reading and knocked them both over as they were boarding the Hogwarts express. She was talkative enough to fill in any gaps in conversation and by the time the train reached the castle the two were fast friends.

Hogwarts was better for Newt in many ways but worse in others. His brother was here and Leta was kind to him but the bullies were older, crueller and far more talented at causing pain. Newt found that he didn't care quite as much now though; he finally had someone who liked him and sometimes even tried to defend him. It was for this reason that his first four years at Hogwarts were some of the best he had ever had. Leta usually didn't mind the injured creatures he kept in his pockets, she didn't really notice his more awkward mannerisms and she often didn't care about his habit of ignoring her in order to focus more intensely on his creatures. Though Leta did sometimes get him into trouble, dragging him out after curfew and tricking him into annoying teachers it was all in good fun.

Newt found that life with Leta was simpler, easier to bear and gradually his belief that he one day could have a soulmate grew back. If Leta liked him then maybe there was someone else out there who could, someone who would be tolerant of his obsession with magical beasts, who would even enjoy his passion for studying them and understand his need to care for them.

As Newt grew this fascination with magical creatures only increased. Creatures were so simple in their needs but often so intelligent and far easier to form relationships with then humans, something Newt had always had trouble with.

However this all changed when his blindness towards others when his creatures were involved eventually caused the trouble his father had always warned it would. Young Newt had never seen a Unicorn but had always wanted to and because of this, when he was older, Leta had convinced him the easiest way to find one would be to sneak into the forbidden forest. He entered the forest periodically throughout his fourth and fifth years in search of his dream find until eventually he found something drastically different.

It wasn't a full moon so Newt had known at once that it wasn't a werewolf but the beauty of the creature and the pained whimpers it had released had drawn him to its side before he had even realised. Later he would curse himself for his stupidity in not thinking through his actions but even then he would not regret healing the creature. He would however regret the fact he brought the wolf into the castle.

Strangely it wasn't until weeks later that anything went wrong. After he had healed her to the best of his abilities the white wolf had merely regarded him in a slightly suspicious way before falling sleep upon the cushion in the Room of Requirement where he had placed her. He left her in the room and went to fetch her supplies of food and water, planning to release her when she was fully healed.

In hindsight, after Newt had been cast from Hogwarts with his wand only whole due to pleading words from Dumbledore, he would realise he had placed too much trust in her. But she was his first friend, his only friend and when he told her it had been in excitement at the beauty of the wolf. He could never have imagined that she would take it upon herself to release the wolf inside the castle and guide the animal to his bullies, enticing her to deliberately harm them. When the wolf had very nearly killed them, despite Leta's betrayal he understood that she thought she was helping him and so he had taken the blame, knowing her dark family would punish her far worse than his own consequent expulsion.

It was this way at the age of fifteen that Newt once again given up in his belief, with no OWLs he had no future and with no Hogwarts he had lost his friend and most of his creatures. His parents persuaded him to take odd jobs within the muggle community to save up for a future of travel, so maybe one day he would have the chance to help magical creatures globally. He focused himself as much as possible and pushed to do his best for the beings that had always been a comfort for him. His heart still wasn't quite in it though as there was no way anyone would want him anymore. He had been strange enough to begin with and now with the possibility of an upcoming war, what kind of wizard would want a disgraced soulmate who could barely do magic?

A few months later it was his sixteenth birthday and while his magical talent had improved due to Theseus' teachings and his income was actually quite positive his hope was still long gone. With no wish to further disappoint his parents he had decided to do the usual soulmate ceremony in private, so for the customary twenty-four hours he could sit there preparing himself to break the news gently to his parents.

With a sigh, Newt picked up his quill and scrawled a quick message upon his arm, perhaps subconsciously pushed by a small spark of hope.

Hello? Is anyone there?