Little Badger
t's her 16th birthday, and her dark eyes sparkle that mischievous sparkle as she dives around the corner towards him, where he waits with his palms clasped tightly. She pushes her index finger to her lips as she grasps his hand and pulls him down a corridor he has never seen before, into the bowels of the castle, dark and endless.
She presses herself into an alcove, lit poorly by a dying oil lamp, so he can see the shimmer from her dark skin, the shine of her thick, dark curls framing her face. She is wearing her favourite emerald earrings, always present no matter how many times she is told to remove them, and they tinkle in that familiar sound of Leta.
She raises a thick brow and and grins.
"Well, what have you got me little badger?"
Newt grins shyly, that furious blush that seems ever present on his face when he is around Leta crawling up his cheeks and rendering speech almost impossible. He glances at her, meeting those dark eyes for a moment before lifting his hand from the depths of his robes and grinning sheepishly.
"Do you remember Selphie the augurey? Well… she found me not so long ago when I was wandering down by the lake. She let me pluck a feather… she was moulting… so I made this…"
He opens his hand to reveal a delicate bronze hair slide, intricate and curling like a Celtic knot. An augurey plumage feather is magicked to it, just large enough to sit in the side of her hair beside her ear. Her eyes widen in delight, and she attempts to conceal her squeal of joy.
"Oh Newt, it's beautiful! Is it really Selphie's? How can you be sure? Oh of course you can, you're such a strange little thing! Here, put it in my hair!"
Leta sweeps her cascade of hair over her right shoulder, and turns, so Newt can see where she has drawn it back from her face and clasped it with a hair tie. He lifts the feather barette and slides it in to cover this tie, so it looks like the emerald feather and shining clasp are holding her hair back. She turns back round to him and beams her brilliant toothy smile.
"Thank you very much Newt," she says, her eyes reverent and he can't look at her for a moment longer, the proximity of their bodies making his heart race alarmingly.
He coughs, embarrassed and shakes off her compliment. He bites his lip before finally gaining the courage to blurt out the words resting on his lips.
"Leta, I have something to show you. Tonight. If you could meet me just beyond the path leading down to the groundskeeper's cottage, in the thicket of bushes on the right, I think – I mean – you would –"
Leta giggles and presses a finger to his lips, earning a small noise of surprise from the babbling boy and a glance in her direction.
"Hush Newt, don't panic yourself. Alright, you're on. 8 o'clock, exactly where you said – I can't wait to see what you've got for me."
With that, Leta pulls away from him and flounces off down the hall away from him, humming some strange tune and patting her hair where her new feather sat. Newt was left to wander his way back to the Hufflepuff common room, his step a little lighter and his heart swelling up in excitement.
8 o'clock comes and goes, and the sun sets upon the castle grounds. As the moon moves through the sky, Newt knows Leta is not coming.
She often does this. Forgets about him, or simply gets caught up doing something else. She's very forgetful, her mind is always going a mile a minute. Still, he had planned something special for her, and his heart feels as though it has sunk to the pit of his stomach in disappointment.
The stars light the path back to the castle, where he will undoubtedly be caught for being out too late and chastised. Leta never seems to be there when they sneak back into the castle – she has a strange way of fading into the shadows, allowing him to be dragged off by the scruff of the neck.
Still the shine of her smile and dark eyes from those very shadows are enough to make him slack jawed, and remind him how much he cherishes his only friend.
As he moves to return to the castle, he hears laughter. An unmistakable laugh.
It filters through the air, and Newt's eyes meet Leta's dead on amidst a cluster of Slytherins, rushing back to the castle in a flurry of robes and giggles. As her eyes land on him, so do the eyes of her fellow classmates, and a large boy beside her immediately sneers.
"It's that little freak, Scamander!"
Newt pales and attempts to shrink back to the thicket of hedges he was waiting for Leta in, but the large boy takes a step towards him. As he does a smaller, more pointed young man on the other side of Leta curls his lip contempt.
"Where are you going you little freak? Off to play with your poison pets? I wonder what he gets up to out here in the dark with them?!"
The Slytherins laugh, all brittle and cruel, and Newt's stomach twists, a sick taste rising to his tongue as he sees Leta is laughing too.
Deciding he would rather be remembered as a coward who ran to protect himself, than a hero who allowed himself to be beaten half to death for no reason, he dives back into the thicket, rolling away and crouching down low so they can't see him. He raises his wand and mutters, pulling the foliage in closer around him, obscuring his form from their view. He hears them jeering and calling out for him, but he shuts his eyes and wraps his arms around his folded knees, biting his lip and refusing to cry.
He won't cry anymore, not because of their taunts or their horrible names, not because of their beatings, not because of how they make him feel worthless, because he has his creatures and –
"Newt?"
His eyes shoot open and he can see the shiny patent leather shoes of Leta Lestrange. He remains crouched, just in case she's not alone. Her shoes walk away for a moment and he hears her voice again.
"Oh come on Newt, they're not here anymore. They've gone inside, like we should. I won't stand here all night!"
At that moment he feels the sweep of a spell and Leta uncovers him folded into the undergrowth. He doesn't look up to her face, instead straightens and dusts himself down. He feels rare anger bubble up in his throat, making his skin prickle and his cheeks flush with red blotches. He goes to walk away from her, but she catches his hand.
He wrenches it away from her.
Leta half laughs and stands back, but her words are brittle and empty.
"Oh come on Newt, don't be like that. I'm sorry, alright? I forgot we were supposed to meet – the others just wanted to celebrate my birthday, and I went along with it. I hope you're not angry with me."
Newt turns to her, still refusing to meet those large dark eyes, venom filling his mouth with poison words he should spit at her. He should tell her she's awful, storm back to the castle, refuse to speak to her until she's properly apologised –
Instead, he feels her hand slip into his own, and he cannot help himself but sneak a glance at those wholesome, deep eyes.
Her smile is soft and gentle, and Newt can feel his anger slipping away as the seconds pass.
"What did you want to show me?" she asks gently, her voice barely carrying through the darkness. Newt gulps and draws his wand from his robes, eyes still somehow dancing over her face and hairline. He raises his wand into the air and shoots glittering golden sparks up to the sky. As they fall to the earth, and across the leaves of the thicket, tiny lights begin to lift from the foliage and rise into the air, illuminating their clearing in a soft, ethereal light.
Newt has to look away from Leta as she lights up too.
"Fairies…"
Her voice is breathless, and she is gazing up at the sky in wonderment as the tiny creatures dance through the air, lighter than it, lifting her hair about her shoulders and making her giggle in delight. Newt chances a look as he knows she is lost in the creatures surrounding her. The last semblance of anger towards her melts away as she looks down from the sky and straight at him.
Before he knows what she's doing, she has closed the distance between them, so he can count the eyelashes which cast gentle shadows on her cheeks.
"This is the best birthday present I've ever been given little badger," she murmurs, before she leans forward and presses her full lips to his own.
Newt is unsure how long they kiss, but when she pulls away his body feels weightless and his head is so light he thinks the fairies may have bewitched him just like the muggles claim they can. He barely feels his legs move as Leta leads him back through the cover of darkness to the castle, and through the shadows of the expansive corridors.
He doesn't even realise when she disappears from his side, into the darkness of the dungeons and he is met by Professor Dumbledore's accusatory look and immediate removal of 20 points from Hufflepuff.
He still feels the burn of Leta's lips as he closes his eyes to finally surrender to sleep.
Thanks for reading~
