The next day, at supper, Felicity walked down the long Hufflepuff table looking for an empty spot. She'd been a little late so it was a bit packed. She spotted Newt, reading a book at the table on the other side, plenty of empty space beside him. He was so absorbed in his reading, that he'd raised a forkful of food to his mouth, but had left it just in front with his mouth hanging open, as if he'd suddenly been frozen with interest in the text. She suppressed the urge to laugh out loud and simply walked around the table and sat down in the space beside him. He didn't seem to notice her and not wanting to tear him away from something obviously so terribly interesting, she waited, nibbling on a fruit tart, till he finished the page he was on and was forced to put the fork in his mouth in order to turn the page.
"Whatcha reading?" Felicity asked, leaning over to see the illustration on the page. It was a picture of a strange animal, obviously magical in nature.
The boy jumped and seemed to almost choke on the food he just took in. Felicity had always been scolded for accidentally sneaking up on people, as she had an abnormally quiet disposition since a young age. But this particular young wizard seemed easier to surprise than most.
"Felicity!" He breathed when he saw it was her.
She beamed, "You remembered my name." She wasn't sure why, but she'd felt quite certain in the last day that Newt had forgotten all about her. She on the other hand, hadn't been able to stop thinking about the speckled boy the whole time for a reason she also wasn't aware of.
He seemed puzzled by her surprise however, which pleased her a little.
"Is this the Care of Magical Creatures textbook? Which sort of creature is that one?" She pointed to the illustration. The creature resembled a monkey with large, dark, round eyes.
Newt bit his lip. "Uh...well this is a demiguise. It's a marvellous creature from the East. It's born with the ability to see the future and it's fur turns it completely invisible. That makes them pretty hard to catch but the species is still dying because humans hunt them so that they can turn their pelts into invisibility cloaks." As he spoke, the slight nervousness faded. Instead he just looked sad. "The ministry has them classified as a quadruple X, so most people assume they're dangerous. But they're herbivores and actually quite peaceful."
Felicity frowned. "But that's terrible. Such an amazing creature and people would rather kill it for some temporary magic?" She studied the picture again with more care, reading the caption aloud."The Demiguise has been known to attack if it is feeling threatened" Her face screwed up in disgust. "I would give you a pretty nasty nip if you wanted to skin me alive. What are they thinking?" She shook her head and looked up to see Newt looking at her in a strange way.
"What? Is there something on my face?" She smiled at him. To her surprise, he smiled back.
"Yeah, just there." He pointed to a spot on his chin. She gaped at him, then swiped the back of her hand along her chin. Undoubtedly, a bit of custard from the fruit tart came off. She laughed out loud and proceeded to lick it off her hand before wiping it with a napkin. This seemed to tickle him and he laughed as well.
There is a moment sometimes, when you laugh at something ridiculous and then remember it happened a couple seconds later, and then you can't seem to stop laughing at this one absurd thing that happened now a long time ago and you really ought to have stopped laughing about it by now because it wasn't actually that funny. But nevertheless, the giggles continue. This is what happened to Newt and Felicity just then. Soon enough the two were both crying, attracting a few weird looks from the rest of House Hufflepuff. Although knowing Hufflepuffs, they probably only wanted to hear such a funny joke for themselves, thought Felicity.
As they tried to catch their breath, Felicity noticed a boy in Gryffindor robes come up to stand behind them.
"Something funny?" He asked.
Newt stiffened and stopped laughing, turning to face the boy.
"Just something Newt said is all." Said Felicity, wiping her eyes and still trying to breathe normally.
"Newton Artemis Fido Scamander said something funnier than his name? That is a surprise."
"Theseus…" Newt started softly, but was interrupted by the older boy.
"You courting the American girl now, Newton? She's a bit out of your league ain't she?"
"Theseus please…"
"Excuse me?" Felicity glared at the boy. "Who are you to talk to him that way?"
"It's okay Felicity…" Newt whispered.
"Oh I'm Newton's older brother, unfortunately. I like her Newton. Mind if I borrow her one of these weekends?"
"Theseus stop this."
"It's just one weekend Newton. I won't hurt her or anything."
Felicity's blood boiled. All of the humor of the previous conversation had dissipated and instead she was left with anger. Before she knew it, she'd stood and wiped the smug smile off of Theseus' face with a slap.
"How dare you." She glared at his shocked face.
"You bitch." Theseus' red face screwed up in rage and he started to take his wand out of his robes when Professor Dumbledore seemed to materialize.
"What seems to be the problem here?" Dumbledore's eyes studied Theseus (whose pale face had reproduced the shape of Felicity's hand on his cheek perfectly) then Felicity's still angry expression and Newt's shocked, seated position.
"Professor Dumbledore sir, I was just trying to have a friendly conversation with my brother when the American girl just stood and slapped me for no reason! Honestly sir, I don't understand." Theseus started, having put his wand back in his robes inconspicuously.
"You liar!" Felicity glared daggers into the boy.
Newt stayed silent.
Dumbledore stroked his furry chin. "Hm… I apologize Theseus but I seriously doubt your allegation that Miss Franklin would slap anyone without cause. 10 points will be taken from Gryffindor House for such false accusations. Nevertheless Felicity, I'm sorry but we do not under any circumstances tolerate any sort of violence against peers and I must ask you to join Mr. Scamander on Saturday evening for detention."
"What? Ten points and detention? That's hardly fair professor!" Theseus took two steps towards Dumbledore, arms raised in protest.
Dumbledore raised his hands as well, defensively. "I apologize for the misunderstanding but I was talking about young Newton." He gestured to Newt who was grimacing.
Felicity flamed. "But Newt didn't do anything professor. He was more polite than any of us sir."
Newt placed a hand on her arm and she turned to look at him. "Don't be angry with Dumbledore. I actually already had detention on Saturday."
Dumbledore seemed to share a small smile to himself. "well, since I wasn't present, I feel my say in this is over. I'll be on my way. I'll see you both on Saturday." And he walked away.
As soon as he was gone, Theseus crossed his arms. "Detention again Newt? Mum'll for sure be hearing about this. What was it for this time?"
"I'll take worse than detention if it means getting you to walk away." Felicity warned, her hand just inside her robe, gripping her wand.
Theseus seemed to get the message and sneered at them before sulking back to Gryffindor table. She didn't blame him. Her slaps were known to sting quite painfully for over an hour after it was delivered.
She sat down on the bench. "What's his problem?" Newt's hand was still on her arm and she looked at him.
He gave a small smile "Ah… Theseus has always been a little aggressive." He shook his head. "You didn't have to do that you know."
"Well, it seemed like he deserved it." She put her hand on his arm as well. "Besides, we're Hufflepuff's yeah? We watch out for each other."
Newt really smiled at that. "Well, I guess I'll be glad of the company in the Forbidden Forest."
Felicity's eyes widened. "What?"
*You go Felicity! Theseus really did deserve that slap. Anyways, I wanted to point out that while I tried to be as Canon as possible (according to the Harry Potter Wikia) there are obviously going to be some discrepancies where I had to improvise a bit due to a lack of knowledge about the characters lives in 1913. Please forgive me if new information happens to be released either by Jo or whomever and my story doesn't happen to fall in line with that.
That being said, I do want your reviews! They help let me know people care about my story and suggestions may occasionally be taken up. Thanks for taking the time to read at all :)
Love Weeooweeoo*