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Chapter Eight
Harry waited patiently for Newt to come to and when his eyes slowly blinked open, she let out a breath of relief that she hadn't realised that she had been holding in. Marcy hovered over him, casting charms to make sure that he hadn't hurt his head when he'd hit the ground. "Harry? What…what happened?" he stuttered with confusion, clearly not remembering the last five minutes or so before he'd blanked out. She exchanged a concerned look with Marcy before turning her gaze back on him.
"Do you not remember? Marcy was checking me over remember? She did the paternity charm and-"
"I remember now, I fainted didn't I?" Newt questioned and flushed when Harry nodded in confirmation. "Bugger, that's rather embarrassing. How…how did this happen?"
"I imagine it was the shock", Marcy explained gently but the former Hufflepuff shook his head.
"I mean how did the spell claim me as the father?"
"Because it detected a combination of you and Harry", the medi-witch answered plainly. "That's how the charm works and it's never wrong. If you're asking me how you came to be a father of a child you didn't play….excuse me for saying, an active part in creating then my best theory is that her magic latched onto the closest available match which happened to be you as the only male in the room".
"That does make sense", he nodded, even though this all seemed like an insane dream to Harry. Maybe she would wake up and she would still be in 2001 and all of this was because she drank too much fire whiskey before bed. Hermione would come in and wake her up when she ignored all owls and attempts at contacting her before giving her the biggest lecture of her life for drinking herself into such a state.
"Now I'm afraid that I must be off, Newt. I do need to pack for my trip to Massachusetts and it will require as many hours as possible to make vital decisions on what clothes I am going to need to take. Harry, please don't be afraid to send me an owl if you have any questions or concerns and I'll be back to check on you as soon as my visit to America comes to an end. I hope that will work for you?"
Harry gave the woman a grateful smile for her kindness. "That'd be great, thank you so much".
"Newt, you daft man, you better take better care of yourself if you're going to be taking care of a human being", Marcy scolded him as he sheepishly pulled himself up off the floor.
"Thank you, Marcia", he hugged her before she made her way to the fireplace and disappeared from the flat in a flash of green flames. When she was gone, Newt turned back to see Harry looking anywhere but at him. "Harry I think we need to talk about this…new development. Obviously there's no going back now and the future is irrevocably changed. You have no reason to keep avoiding…this", he made an awkward hand gesture at the space between the two of them but Harry knew what he was referring to.
"Newt I-"
Whatever she was about to say was cut off when his fireplace flamed up again and they both glanced towards it sharply. The flames disappeared and a young, handsome auburn haired man that looked a little like Newt stepped out of the fireplace with a roguish smile on his face. "Little brother!" he held out his arms expectantly and Harry watched as Newt approached the man and allowed him to embrace him.
"Theseus, what in the blazes are you doing here? You should have sent an owl first".
"I need permission to come visit my kid brother?" Theseus pulled away and gave Newt a clearly fake hurt look. "Mum was telling me all about that little book you wrote and how proud she is of her genius son".
The belittling way he spoke of Newt's book and all of the years of research that had gone into it made Harry's blood boil. He reminded her of every pureblood snot at Hogwarts who thought they were so much better than her. She stood up from the sofa and cleared her throat in an attempt to make her presence known and it worked. Theseus pulled away from Newt to look over at her and she did not appreciate the lecherous look that appeared on his face.
"Well hello there and who do we have here? Why Newt, you randy little git, have you been keeping a girl here all this time and you're not even married?! Here I was thinking you were a goody little two shoes and you've been acting more of a scoundrel than I ever have".
"Excuse me?" Harry huffed, disliking the way that he was speaking to Newt and about her. "If you would like to know who I am, have you ever thought of asking instead of jumping to stupid and incorrect conclusions? Obviously Newt was the one who got all the brains in the family".
The infuriating prick had the audacity to smirk at her. "You're a fiery one aren't you? I can see who the man is in this relationship", he play punched his brother, almost knocking him off his feet. "Newt always was the fair little damsel, weren't you little brother?"
Looking at Newt's face she could see that he didn't enjoy the 'banter' anywhere near as much as his brother did. She couldn't believe their important conversation had been interrupted because of this jerk. Her hormones were already all over the place and seeing the man that she was beginning to fall for get belittled and bullied by his arrogant older brother tested her frayed nerves further.
"Theseus, why are you really here? We both know you only ever come here for a reason", Newt sighed, running a hand through his hair after he managed to straighten himself up. "Did mother and father kick you out again?"
"Now brother you know I've been living on my own for well over a year since I got made Head Auror", he grinned and winked deliberately at Harry who glared at him, not at all impressed by his boosting. "I was just hoping you could perhaps lend me some money".
"What happened to yours? Don't you make enough as Head Auror?" the younger Scamander narrowed his eyes at his eldest sibling suspiciously.
Harry studied Theseus closely and could see that his jaw was clenched, meaning that it actually hurt his pride to be asking for money from his younger brother but obviously had no other choice. It made her wonder if he was lying about his job. "Can you please just lend me some?"
"Theseus, if you tell me what you need the money for and how much then I will consider lending you some".
"I need ten thousand galleons. My job as an Auror pays well but not well enough", he huffed, his cocky demeanour fading slightly and Harry realised immediately that his entire attitude was just a mask. She looked at Newt who did not seem to have noticed the slight difference with his brother and perhaps he didn't realise that Theseus Scamander was not how he appeared to be...at least not completely but then again, Harry did not know him well enough to be able to make that judgement call about him.
"What on earth do you need ten thousand galleons for?!"
"Why can't you just loan me the money, Newt? I haven't demanded you tell me why you have some woman living in your apartment with you!"
Newt paused and stared at his brother suspiciously. "How do you know she's living here?"
"Because I'm an Auror, little brother", he retorted. "I'm also not as stupid as you and our parents clearly think I am"
"She's living here because…it's complicated", Newt clearly just realised that he really had no way of explaining Harry's presence here and Harry didn't think that telling his brother that she was seventy odd years from the future was going to go down well somehow. "Just tell me why you need so much money. You're not in trouble are you? Please tell me that you're not gambling again".
"It's for a ring, okay!" Theseus spat out, apparently giving in to his brother's inquisition. "I want to ask this girl I've been seeing to marry me. I think she's the one and I'll be damned if I let anyone else get in there first".
The flat was so quiet for a moment that you could probably hear cricket's chirping outside until all of a sudden Newt barked out a disbelieving laugh. "You expect me to believe that you are suddenly interested in settling down after eight years of mum badgering you?"
"It's bloody well true", he exclaimed. "It happened while I was working with the Auror department down in the US. I met the most amazing woman and well, I do believe that she cares for me too. She's different to all the ones that mum tried to set me up with. I can actually see myself married to this one".
Newt's amusement faded as he finally realised that his brother was serious. "What's her name?"
"Porpentina Goldstein but she prefers Tina".
Harry choked on air while Newt's mouth dropped open in stunned surprise. "I know Tina. We met when I was in New York".
"I'm aware. She told me all about your adventure which was why I was hesitant in telling you about her in case…you know…"
"In case of what?"
Theseus rolled his eyes, clearly wondering how his brother was so smart and so dense at the same time. "In case you were in love with her!"
"Tina is a good friend but I'm not in love with her, Theseus. In fact I'm happy that you found someone that can make you stop roaming about like a vagabond", he replied, shooting Harry a look as if to say 'I told you so' about the clear changes to the timeline. "I hope you make each other very happy and I will loan you the money, brother. I'll have the money transferred to your account tomorrow".
"Thanks Newt".
Harry observed as the brothers hugged before Theseus left the apartment with a quick goodbye to Harry who rolled her eyes in response. Once he had gotten his way with Newt he had immediately left which stunk of someone who took advantage of other people's generosity on a regular bases. She didn't think she'd ever like the man but would never say that to Newt as he clearly loved his brother even if they weren't close.
Newt turned to her as soon as they were alone again, though she half wondered if anyone else was about to come flaming in. "So Tina…"
"I get it. The future's changed and there's no point in pretending otherwise now". Harry couldn't help it, her legs seemed to take on a mind of their own as they walked her over to the magizoologist until she was completely invading his personal space. The man gulped as she came close despite this being exactly what he had been hoping for. "I still don't know if this is a good idea, Newt. And I'm not marrying you!"
"I understand. I was too hasty", he conceded, though he had a speculative look in his eyes that she didn't like…it made her feel as though she was one of his wilder beasts that he was observing so that he could learn how to tame her. "You would like to be courted properly before agreeing to accept my hand, that's it isn't it?" Harry flushed as this time he was the one who got closer. "Well I suppose I'm going to have my work cut out for me, aren't I? Good thing that I have plenty of patience", he smiled as she was forced to lean her neck back slightly just to meet his gaze as he was a good few inches taller than her It'd never felt like that significant of a height difference until right now.
"Newt…"
He leaned in as though he was going to kiss her and she shut her eyes in anticipation. When nothing happened, she looked up and saw him stepping back to her disappointment. "I mean to court you properly, Harriet and when I do, then I'll kiss you like a lady like you deserves".
She glared at him as he opened his trunk and disappeared inside, leaving her alone and frustrated in more ways than one.
