Chapter 4: Soulmate? Nope never heard of it.

Summary:

In which Percival does his best to deny everything and Newt does his best to carry on.

Chapter Text

Newt let out a rather hysterical giggle as he viewed the lonely words on his arm. The one thing in his life that was supposed to be certain, the one thing he couldn't stop himself hoping for and of course it wasn't going to happen because that's how everything always turned out for him.

When he thought he'd finally found a place at Hogwarts, the school just as weird and wonderful as he'd always imagined, he'd been kicked out. When he thought he'd finally found a true friend she'd said nothing when he'd taken the fall for her. And now, the moment destiny was supposed to finally come through for him, nothing.

Absolutely nothing had happened.

Percival really couldn't afford to be put off right now, not by the still surprising throbbing on his arm or the words that had burned themselves into his mind. He was of course far too professional to let himself be distracted by such trivial things, especially when he was in the middle of a rather difficult duel.

The smugglers were surprisingly proficient at duelling for people stupid enough to be caught because they didn't notice the No-Maj gang taking items from their warehouse. Percival scoffed at the very idea, managing to disarm one of the idiots while the other Aurors who'd been called out were struggling to bind the final three.

With a quick flick of his wand Percival confiscated the illegal materials and nodded to the rest before apparating back to MACUSA. While perhaps a strange move they didn't know exactly what was being smuggled and it was better he put the oddly shaped cases somewhere they could be checked out before returning to aid his fellow Aurors. Upon doing so however he found it to be futile as the fight was clearly over and five of the Aurors were preparing to disapparate.

It turned out though that his partner had helpfully volunteered him for the boring mess of clean-up work that was obliviating the No-Majs and making sure no others had noticed anything untoward about the warehouse. As his adrenaline rush faded Percival determinedly continued to ignore the itching on his arm and prepared himself for the long night ahead.

Several hours later after what had indeed been a long night Percival was changing into his sleeping garments, still determinedly denying the burn of the writing on his arm, when he made the mistake of actually looking down and discovering that whoever his soulmate this person was, they were clearly desperate.

Hello?

Please?

There's got to be someone there, there has to be. Please.

Just give me this, for once just give me this.

'Sorry' Percival thought 'but this isn't how it goes'. With this in mind he forced down the guilt that was beginning to claw its way up his throat and flipped on to his side in bed, preparing to sleep.

With the recent and rather hectic events of the night it seemed his career was finally beginning to take off and he wasn't going to allow a soulmate stranger to ruin that for him.

Becoming an Auror, protecting the magic populace and fighting for a better future was always how his life was supposed to go, that was how he had planned it to be and Percival always was far too stubborn to let anything change his plans.

Arriving at work the next day Percival was both inwardly and outwardly confident, he'd proven himself to the higher ups as a good duellist during his first raid, he'd found a solution to his 'problem' and he was ready to push ahead with his life. Bolstering his mood was the fact that soon enough he'd be rid of Joe as a 'mentor' and he'd be able to prove himself further as the leader he knew he could be.

He was also intelligent enough to know that not everyone appreciated the confidence he was prone to showing as many mistook it for arrogance and stupidity. Percival however was confident in his abilities as a highly intelligent and adept wizard and yet self aware enough to know his limits and what was best for himself.

No matter what his mother, or even Seraphina at times, said about companionship he'd always known he'd get further in life then the rest of his classmates because he always had been and always would be completely career focussed.

A slight grin overtook his face, causing another Junior Auror to actually do a double-take at the sight, as he strode through the MACUSA building towards the Auror offices and towards what he was certain would be a shining future.

Unbeknownst to Percival though, on the other side of the world Newt was feeling rather less secure about his future. His pleas had clearly gone unanswered and as of now he was a destined-to-be-lonely wizard with zero qualifications.

However as shy and anxious he seemed Newt never had been one to give up and he'd always been rather more fond of animal companionship then human companionship- certainly that couldn't change now.

Pushing himself off the floor Newt grabbed the second-hand suitcase with its simple expansion charms (it had been a birthday gift from his brother) and resolved that even if he couldn't have a soulmate he would still do the best he could with his life.

Newt may have been 16 but he was a Hufflepuff, hardworking in his own eccentric way and highly intelligent, he was going to learn as much as he could about magical creatures, study them, help them and be a magizooloogist as he'd always wanted.

War may still be in the future but Newt knew where his talents lay and subconsciously he'd been preparing himself for a life of travel for a while now.

He'd been expelled but he'd kept his wand, he knew how to apparate and he was sure his father kept a wizarding tent somewhere. The Scamander family weren't exactly poor, surprisingly even with his often clumsy nature he'd always been good on a broomstick and he'd quite literally been brought up alongside hippogriffs so he had a few travel methods available (if he could do the disillusionment charm).

He'd never been the type to plan or think things through completely but he knew his goal and clearly he had enough options. With what felt like his last hope at happiness sparking inside him he gathered his favourite books and disapparated to the Leaky Cauldron in London, eager to avoid his family's questions.

Upon arrival, exhausted by the days emotions but slowly gaining confidence in his new life path the young boy man paid for the night and settled down to sleep, rousing only once to write a quick reminder to owl his family lest they worry.

He now knew he didn't have a soulmate so who would care what strange things he scribbled on his arm in the dead of night.

Buy paper- tell Father about tent-tell Mother took Ben-hills or forest next