December 15th, 1926
Greetings Mr. Newt Scamander,
Thank you for your recent letter. It was good to hear that both you, and your suitcase of beasts, have settled comfortable back in England. I want to strongly suggest putting a locking spell on your attic door so your landlord doesn't accidently let a wild Murtlap loose. The side effects looked terrible and sounded worse.
I hope you don't mind that I shared the content of your letter with Queenie, as she was also very happy to hear that things were going well for you.
Things in New York have become very hectic. At this time of year there always seems to be some kind of magical item ending up in the hands of a no-maj. This week we discovered that a magical soup ladle, of all things, ended up in a no-maj boarding house. This particular ladle would rap you on the back of the hands if you slurped your soup or made any impolite noises. Suffice it to say, it was a messy clean up. However, it does feel good to be back on the magical investigations team again. Again, I cannot thank you enough, Mr. Scamander, for the good word with Madam Picquery.
Other than the standard work about MACUSA, we are also working on holding Grindelwald in a secure enclosure. I am sure you will understand if I cannot say more on that subject.
Outside of work, life hasn't been the same at home since everything in November. Queenie is devastated about Jacob. I was hoping that she would get over him in a few weeks, however that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe I underestimated Queenie, I thought her interest in Jacob was solely due to him being a no-maj. However, that doesn't seem to have been the case. I foolishly dismissed her true feelings, and it regret it deeply. She would probably curse me if she knew I was telling you this, but she didn't even bother to set her hair one day last week. I am deeply concerned.
As for Jacob, I don't know what he is up too. I know Madam Picquery originally wanted Jacob followed, however, I convinced her that we don't have the man-power right now to have someone trailing a no-maj whose memory was wiped. I think, after things slowdown in the New Year, that I will go out and try to find him myself. Just to see how he is doing, no contact, of course.
However it seems that the Swooping Evil venom has worked. I know a large scale test of New York City probably was not the way you wanted to test your hypothesis about its oblivation qualities. We occasionally have one or two reports of things that have cause a bit of confusion, people missing chucks of their day, or people placing items somewhere before the rain and then not being able to remember where they were after. I will keep you updated on this, if you would like me too, in future letters.
Also, I am honored that you asked for my input on how to structure your book. While I do not know much about the amount of content or the type of content you have, I think it would be wise to write your book more like an encyclopedia then a chapter book. I think the advantage of this approach is that it will make sorting the content easier, but it will also making adding new beasts to the books in the future easier. I think we both know you are not done finding and researching all the amazing creatures on this planet of ours. I think an additional benefit of the encyclopedia style is that it will make it more accessible for the standard witch or wizard. Someone might run across an Occamy but not have the time to read a whole chapter about, what was it you said they were? Choranaptyxic beast? So reading a section over a chapter would drastically help in time, or space, sensitive situations. Hopefully you will find my input is useful.
I hope that things are going well for you. Are you in good health? Do you have plans for the holiday season? How are all your fantastic creatures doing? I must admit I think of Dougal often. Of course, please let Pickett know how much I appreciated his regards.
Warm Regards,
Tina Goldstein.
p.s. Please give your Niffler the earring I included with this letter. I lost the other one on assignment several weeks ago. I rarely wear earrings, especially at work, for this very reason. It's just costume jewelry and not something valuable, but I figured, maybe he would like it. I am not sure what to send for anyone else in your magical zoo and I would hate to let them think I am playing favorites. Suggestions?
Newt lifted the small flower shaped, golden earring up to the light. It was delicate, not the dangle sort of earring he had seen other women wearing. This type of earring suited Tina, he thought to himself. It matched her practical side, which is something he liked about Tina. She didn't seem to judge books, people or beasts based on their covers. She appreciated the Swooping Evil for all it could do, she didn't shun it because of its appearance, or it's craving for brains.
He turned his eyes back to the letter. He was surprised and pleased at the length of the letter he had received from Tina. Newt knew he didn't deserve such a long and lovely letter in return to his own short letter. It had taken him over three weeks to finally write his first letter to her. Even while he was on his ship sailing back to England he had started to draft a letter in his head. He went through a least a dozen sheets of paper trying to write that first letter. In the end, he barely ended up with a whole page, while Tina had sent back a full two and a half pages of writing. However, he knew that once he finally sent that first letter out to her, she would make writing back so much easier.
On closer inspection Newt even thought that Tina's handwriting fit her. It was neat, orderly and surprisingly small. Not overly loopy, but not too stilted either. This must be because of the taking notes she does while on the job, Newt thought to himself. His own handwriting was, less delicate, to say the least. He had a bad habit of pausing his quill while writing and leaving ink blots over all his correspondences. His letter to Tina was one of his cleanest, because he didn't want her to think he was scatterbrained.
He had never been curious before what other people did at the Ministry of Magic. He was interested in magical creatures and the other departments that dealt with magical creatures. Yet, since Tina had been re-instated as an Auror he was curious about what specifically they did. In the few weeks he had been back he learned the Ministry's aurors had extensive training and that it could take several years to complete and that witch or wizard could still not being accepted by the Ministry. While he doubted the MACUSA auror training was that long, especially with how quickly Graves had become ingrained in MACUSA. He didn't doubt it for a moment that MACUSA's aurors weren't also very skilled witch or wizard. Tina had single handedly fought Grindelwald and held her own. Many have faced Grindelwald and not survived. The very thought made him uncomfortable. Secretly he would rather have her fighting ladles, but he knew that he could never say that to her.
Newt fidgeted with the earring in his hand while he reviewed the contents on the letter. He is discouraged to hear about Queenie, and curious about Jacob. So neither of the girls knew that he had interfered with the Occamy eggs. Technically he didn't know how much MACUSA might punish him for interfering, but he knew that they probably wouldn't take kindly to his actions. Actually, he was more worried how Tina might react if she knew he interfered in Jacob's life. He wished that MACUSA had better muggle relations. He sighed to himself, re-skimming the letter.
Tina's suggestion to make the book an encyclopedia was just what he needed to hear. He had been thinking about that himself, however, he didn't have the confidence to continue on that path after his publishers suggested a chapter style book. However, somehow knowing that Tina agreed with him gave in confidence. In the long run it was his book and what his publishers thought didn't matter.
He felt himself flush when he reread her comments on choranaptyxic. As silly as it might be for someone else, he was flattered the she had listened to and remember what he had said about Occamys. He was so used to people ignoring him or politely listening, but not ever really hearing him when he talked about his creatures.
He sighed holding up the earring again to the light. Funny how such a small item could cause him to pause. He knew it was for niffler however, maybe he would just hold on it for a bit longer. Newt dropped the earring into his vest breast pocket. Tonight he would find a safer place to keep it. He looked a Pickett, who had watched him pocket the earring curiously.
"That will be our little secret, my friend" Newt whispered to Pickett.
He was answered with a series of squeaks.
"Yes, she did send you her regards, Pickett. She said that appreciate your thoughts and was curious what kind of gift she could send you." He responded.
The Bowtruckle continued to squeak as Newt stood up for his desk. He set Tina's letter on his bedside table, looking at while Pickett continued to make noise. He sighed to himself, regretting ever mentioning Tina's letter to his little friend. With one last look at the letter he went up to the attic to check on his friends.
