If anyone had told Newt when he was expelled from Hogwarts that he would one day have a dragon in his case that permitted him to ride it while it was flying and was generally very tame so long as wands were not involved, he would have dropped all his manners to laugh at you silly.
As it was, Newt almost wished he could bring Melody home with him to prank his family with, especially his brother Theseus who was quite strict. The expressions on their faces seeing him flying on a dragon would be quite hilarious to watch, he was certain of it.
Unfortunately Melody's aversion to wizards made that impossible. He had no doubt the Ministry would attempt to force her into a reserve and breed her in the hopes of 'docile' dragons, and considering she was very agitated around wands and magic use in general, that could only end badly.
A simple prank was not worth losing her, or making her suffer through something that would only cause pain.
After she took him flying, Newt found Melody far more relaxed around him. She would permit him to climb onto her forelimb and to use her as a backrest while he worked on his book and wrote down his observations. Sometimes he would even take a little nap, even if the angle he woke up in was sometimes very awkward indeed.
Melody's mood always improved after a flying session. Any fears he had of her flying off disappeared after the first time she took off without him while he cooked his dinner outside the case. After a few hours, she returned vibrating with happiness and being very pushy indeed.
He still had no idea who took care of his creatures whenever he crashed for several hours. All he knew was that occasionally he would wake up and find all his self-appointed chores when it came to feeding, cleaning and general maintenance of his creatures already taken care of. Which left him with time to relax and finish his book a little faster, while resting against Melody.
It was...nice.
Newt splashed his face. He had been having dreams lately that he simply couldn't explain. He didn't really put much stock in Divination... he highly doubted he had the knack for it.
However he couldn't find a feasible explanation for what was going on.
The thing was that he kept getting caught every time he saw hauntingly familiar green eyes, except human-shaped. He couldn't remember the face, and he could only make out a few details, but the eyes stayed with him.
The eyes belonged to a woman with shoulder-length hair that was almost black in darker settings, but when she was under the sun revealed to be a deep red instead. Her skin was pale, and she wore familiar robes (except with Gryffindor trim) and was the proper sort of brave. She held a quiet strength that was forged through adversity and trials that would leave lesser witches and wizards broken. But she did not broadcast her accomplishments...he could tell from the way she acted all she wanted was someone to love and care for her the way a woman should be, not treated as a prized bird one brought out in a gilded cage.
Most of the details about her escaped him, such as the faces and events, but the eyes...the eyes haunted him in his waking hours.
It wasn't until he happened to catch Melody's gaze when after a flight when the sun hit her scales just right that he realized why the eyes bothered him so much.
After Newt let Melody back into the case, he sat down and thought hard about what he knew of the dragoness.
She was far too tame compared to normal dragons. She understood English enough to follow polite requests and was far too calm around him even when she was in pain and needed simple medical aid. She displayed a degree of intelligence that was astounding in a creature, and a sense of mischief that he could find humor in once he had gotten over the shock. Her face was expressive, and the number of times he had woken up or come into the case only to find his creatures already taken care of.
There was only one conclusion he could come up with.
Melody wasn't a dragon at all. She was a dragon animagus.
Newt couldn't believe it never occurred to him sooner. It explained everything, like who had taken care of his creatures for him, and why the dragoness was so calm around him so long as he never brought out his wand.
He wanted desperately to ask, to find out what had happened to Melody that she would retreat into her dragon form to hide away from the magical enclaves. What could drive a witch into staying in their creature for for months on end without trying to initiate human contact?
However long experience with injured and abused creatures stayed his hand. Whatever had driven Melody to fly away all the way to Africa in her dragon form and stay in dragon form was obviously traumatic. The fact she trusted him enough to let him close was a miracle, in his opinion.
When he walked into his case later that day to feed his creatures, his eyes met her own.
Melody paused and seemed to shrink in herself. She knew that he had figured it out.
Newt sighed, and finished what he was doing first.
He calmly, but with telegraphed movements, walked towards Melody. He gently put his hand on her long nose, and felt his heart break when he realized she was close to crying because she was afraid he would throw her out. That he would abandon her.
"I will not force you to leave. I also won't demand that you turn back to your true form. When you're ready to talk... I will be here to listen," said Newt gently, leaning his head against her snout.
Melody's eyes widened slightly, before she let out a sort of whine, and bumped her head towards his. Her eyes closed in pleasure when Newt slowly began to stroke her scales, especially down her spine.
He found himself with his lap occupied by Melody's head as she was disinclined to let him get up. He smiled slightly, and decided to clean out the spikes on the back of her head as he rarely had a chance to do so.
He could see from the slight furrows on the ground that she definitely enjoyed it...much like a large cat would 'paw' at their owner when they were happy and were being stroked in just the right manner while purring.
Except Melody was a massive dragon and the furrows she was leaving in the ground would have left a very dead wizard if they had been anywhere near him. If she could have, she would have purred, he was certain of it.
Later that night...
Newt found an odd weight on his chest, and upon using a little bit of magic to produce light, was very startled to find a smaller version of Melody sleeping on him like a cat.
A cat the size of a lynx, but still a cat. She was snoozing contently on top of the covers without a second thought.
Newt had to blink and wonder if he had eaten something strange, because he had never seen a dragon that tiny before. At least not one he knew was fully grown. Baby dragons were roughly that size, after all.
It didn't change the fact that Melody was still quite heavy and he would have trouble breathing if she remained where she was.
Cautiously, so as not to wake her, Newt picked her up and carefully placed her against his side, still on top of the covers. She stretched out slightly, her nose nudging his arm while her tail was against his leg...as a result she had grown slightly and was about the same size as a medium sized dog.
Newt quietly expanded the bed, which gave him a bit more room to move. He took it as a good sign that she slept through the discreet magic use, as she had always seemed nervous whenever any active magic was around her.
Considering the situation, he curled against Melody and found himself with one arm wrapped around her middle, breathing in the unique mixture of smoke, cinnamon, and the scent that he had come to associate with Melody in particular. Waking up with her head against his chest and her tail wrapped around the lone leg that was exposed from the covers was a rather...interesting... predicament.
Newt had to wonder if this was going to become a regular thing, because if that was the case he was going to forgo sleeping under his blanket. It was uncomfortably warm with the addition of a shrunken dragon in his bed. Not that he was complaining. He would happily cuddle with any one of his creatures if he could get away with it.
Coming into the case that day to care for his creatures, Newt was entirely unprepared for the sight that greeted him.
Inside the case, he saw Melody levitating food for the animals with a flick of her tail, directing them to where they needed to go while perched on a rather high rock to observe the surroundings. It was all very neat and orderly, and took far less time than it would have for him because she was levitating several things at once and directly them with admirable efficiency.
When she spotted him, she had a sheepish expression on her face. However it didn't stop her from refilling the water and levitating it next.
"How are you doing that? I thought it was impossible to cast magic while in your animal form!" he asked astonished.
Melody blinked at the question, before a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. With a flick of her tail, words made of fire spelled out in the air.
Newt was amazed.
I just can? It's not that hard really, you just have to be really, really in tune with your magic. I mean the only thing different is the form, not the magic within.
"What do you mean the only thing different is the form?" he asked, openly interested.
Think about this for a moment. When you turn into a creature or an animal via magic, does the mind within change, or is it just the physical body that shifts into a new form? There's no reason why your magic should be inaccessible while in your animal form, so long as the mind within is the same. After all, all you're really doing is coating your body with the physical characteristics of an animal that suits your true self.
Newt was fascinated.
"Is that how you're able to change your size?"
It's a matter of perspective, really. For example...
To Newt's surprise, she went from a massive beast that dwarfed over all the creatures in his case...to the size of a large cat that easily wrapped itself around his neck with a smug expression.
He found it fascinating that she barely weighed any more than an owl, despite weighing several hundred tons when full sized.
As if the day couldn't get any stranger, Newt heard her voice past his mental defenses. Which was a little less awkward than reading it in the air from her position. It would be very distracting after all.
This is much more comfortable than that rock.
Newt blinked, but went to check on his creatures, for his own piece of mind. Much to his amusement, Melody stayed around his neck like an odd scarf.
He quickly grew used to the weight and the decidedly female voice in his head. He didn't mind it, as he could tell she wasn't inclined to go through his memories and was mostly using it as a way to communicate more effectively.
It was almost like owning a very scaly owl, to be honest. Except this one could talk back and could hold some very intelligent and well reasoned arguments about magic that had him actually stop and think why things had to be a certain way.
The best part was that she had a very reasonable policy regarding magical creatures he approved of. Even if she mentioned that her policy also extended to werewolves, since she once had an uncle who had been bitten quite young but was a perfectly nice man outside of the full moons that she was quite fond of.
So long as it wasn't trying to maim, eat or otherwise kill her, she was willing to treat it the same as any wizard, just in a slightly different form.
Newt found it quite relaxing to have Melody around his neck, mostly because she had a rather odd habit of 'humming'. He didn't know what she was humming to as she didn't say the lyrics in his mind, but it was still quite pleasant.
However he did encounter a slight...issue...when he took her out of the case and went through populated areas. Everyone wanted to know where the 'unique' breed of lizard could be found...mostly because they wanted one as a pet.
Melody was taking far too much amusement at his predicament.
Just tell them I'm a fire lizard, and that you found me in a rather isolated area that you couldn't locate afterwards once you rescued me from a particularly large reptile that tried to make me a snack, she suggested with far too much amusement.
Newt was still baffled as to how she knew exactly what to tell the muggles in order for them to accept her as an unusual breed of lizard around his neck.
Honestly Newt, do you really think it's that unusual for muggles to have reptiles as pets? I know for a fact that it's common for some people to own snakes, both constrictors and the venomous kinds that could kill them if bitten. Besides, being a parselmouth is only considered evil in the UK. In India, China and Australia they're honored because they can talk the deadly serpents down from biting someone and are able to safely milk them for their venom, said Melody with a laugh.
Seeing the fascination in Newt's eyes, Melody began to complain about how unfair it was that England and a good chunk of Europe were so against parselmouths and snakes in general all because of a few bad apples and the perception that Salazar Slytherin hated those of mundane origin in the first place.
If that were true, then why did he agree to start a school to educate them in the proper way of things and assist in HIDING said children from their families during the religious uproar? Children who later became peers of the English enclaves who 'conviently' forgot their origins and the fact they were once mudbloods themselves.
Considering Melody could cheerfully track back how far the 'magical' lineage of her own family went, right down to when they stopped being muggleborns and half-bloods and started qualifying for 'pure bloods' as according to ministry standards, Newt had to admit he was highly impressed.
Even he, a pure blood, couldn't name when his family became "pure bloods" and gained their relatively minor titles.
It was strangely humbling.
Though Newt had to admit, he found her 'reasoning' to explain her presence away to the magicals he came across relatively amusing.
All he had to do was state the truth. That she was a lazy animagus who didn't feel like changing back and that she looked like a relatively boring breed of lizard to the 'muggles'. Anyone who cast the spell on her would come up with that result, which meant she didn't have to change back at all and still got to enjoy the outside of the case without worry.
So long as she didn't start breathing fire or grow to her proper proportions, no one could complain in the least.
Newt was thoroughly enjoy their talks about anything and everything they could, from magical theory to interesting creatures he had never seen, but had heard of.
It was nice to have a conversation with another human and not get looked down upon for his 'soft' approach to magical creatures.