Juliet

Newt Scamander was a fascinating old man, and in the few days he spent recuperating with us in Seahouses, we became great friends.

"Snap – crackling Chimaeras, that was a big 'un!"

Lorcan and Lysander's mum, Luna, had left us with a pack of Exploding Snap cards before she and Rolf Disapparated back home. Newt loved this game, chuckling every time the pile exploded. His wife – seeing how much he enjoyed our company – left us to it, and spent her time tending Aunt Ada's garden of magical plants. Mum and Dad were kept busy tying up various matters with Aunt Ada's solicitor, Theodore Hindmarsh.

Newt was comfortably installed in an old rocking chair in the conservatory, with Patty, Apollo and Artemis, all squabbling to sit on his shoulders and lap and rummage through his shirt pockets for owl treats.

"Have you ever kept a Chimaera, Mr Scamander?"

Newt looked wistful.

"Ah, sadly not. Marvellous beasts, Chimaeras! But I never met one which needed my help. Chimaeras generally do well enough without wizarding intervention. They are a thriving species."

"Why don't Muggles see them, then?" Jennifer asked, curiously.

Newt looked uncomfortable. "Well, I think perhaps they do, my dear. The trouble is, Chimaeras have a bit of an unfortunate reputation. But they would never go looking to attack people, you know. Wizards know to stay well away, but Muggles – mountain hikers, usually – do stumble across them. Their disappearances are usually assumed to be down to bad weather, or rockfalls...or getting lost in caves."

I found this quite interesting, but Jennifer looked appalled, so I put a card on the pile and changed the subject.

"Why d'you reckon Aunt Ada never told us about her travels with you and Mrs Scamander? Didn't she want us to know?"

"Oh, well now," Newt said, gently. "Ada never minding people knowing. She just couldn't bear the telling. Her past was so painful...full of regret. Her time exploring the world with me and my wife – well, she was very good at what she did, but it was all simply an escape. The only way to forget was to look forwards. Snap!"

For all his frailty, there was nothing wrong with his mind. He beat us at Exploding Snap nearly every time. Jennifer and I were down to our last few cards.

"It's not a bad idea," Jennifer said, as Newt gathered up the cards he'd won. "Always looking forwards. It's what I reckon we need to do, especially now."

I looked at her, annoyed. "What d'you mean?"

"Oh, you know. Your go, Juliet."

I didn't move. "I do look forwards. I just look differently to you."

Jennifer shrugged, and didn't reply. I couldn't help but be angry with her, although a tiny part of me admitted she was just being sensible. My hand moved automatically to my pocket, where I could feel the folds of a letter. It was only parchment, but it weighed on my mind like lead. It was Ali Bashir's reply, recently received – his stone cold fury at the loss of his magic carpet leapt off the page, and he expected to be compensated in full. Five thousand Galleons he wanted, plus interest for late payment. His threats hung over us like a grim black cloud.

Newt cleared his throat softly. "You see different futures for yourselves?" he asked quietly, bringing our thoughts back to the subject at hand.

If it had been anyone else, I would have changed the subject. But I'd grown to like the gentle old man. I couldn't see any harm in telling him, and, after a moment, I did.

"Jennifer reckons she's happy to be a Muggle, now. But – well, think of Lorcander and Lysander. They're at Hogwarts together, and having the time of their lives, I bet. Can you imagine if one of them was a Squib? I want Jennifer to have magic, too."

Newt took a while to answer, and when he did, it wasn't what I expected. "Magic can be over-rated, you know. Spells and wand-waving. Oh, it's useful, don't get me wrong. But I could live without. In fact I do, nowadays, really."

I thought of his failed attempt at a flower-growing charm in the churchyard, and Luna stepping in to do it for him.

"Does magic – you know – get weaker, as you get older?" I asked. "I'd never heard that before."

Newt hesitated, and I wondered if I'd been rude.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I didn't mean –"

"No, no..." Newt said, not meeting our eyes. "I just find it a bit of a struggle nowadays...but as long as I have certain things, I'm content..."

"Your creatures?" Jennifer guessed, beside me.

"Exactly," he said, smiling at her, the tension broken. "And Muggles and Squibs – well, they could look after many magical creatures just as well as a wizard could – if they opened their minds, that is. Many Squibs can live interesting and varied lives within the wizarding community, as assistant Herbologists and Magizoologists, if they can find a witch or wizard willing to take them under their wing."

This was definitely interesting, but still felt unsatisfactory to me. "But – what about the rest of it?" I said. "I love spells and wand-waving! It's fun! I hate that I inherited all the magic – I'd gladly give Jen half my magic, but I've been through every relevant book in the school library, and that's not possible."

"It's beside the point," Jennifer said, clearly getting irritated. "I'm going to be a scientist, anyway."

"Are you now?" said Newt. "Well, there you go..."

And he gave a long sigh, looking troubled, and tired. His attention, usually so focused and direct, seemed to be wandering.

"Are you okay, Mr Scamander?" I asked, slightly alarmed. Had we exhausted him, with our chatter and games? "If you want to have a bit of a sleep or anything, we can leave you alone."

"Oh, I'm all right," Newt replied, looking back to us with a bit of an effort. "You've just – given me a lot to think about. And – well, I am starting to wish I were home. I have many creatures there, you see, and Rolf and Luna, and the two boys, they're very good at looking after them...but there are a few which I am happier taking care of myself..."

I reached over and patted the old wizard's arm. "Don't you worry, Mr Scamander. You'll be back soon."

At that moment, Jennifer's mobile started ringing, which made us all jump. She scrabbled for it in her pocket and pulled it out. Newt looked from the phone to Jennifer, bewildered.

"It's Dad..." Jennifer tapped the screen and answered. "Hi, Dad?"

"It's a Muggle method of communication," I whispered to Newt, who looked intrigued.

"How peculiar...your father is speaking through that – that little box?"

Jennifer was listening intently. "Yes, we're at the cottage...oh, right... okay...yes, sure, we'll see you there."

She stood up, tucking the phone back into her pocket.

"Dad's at Aunt Ada's place, they've found the will. It was in the garden shed, of all places, under a flowerpot! Mrs Scamander found it when she was re-potting something. We've got to come over, Mr Hindmarsh wants us both there. We'll see you later, Mr Scamander..."

"Goodbye, girls...you know, maybe I will have that little sleep..." Newt smiled at us, sinking back into the comfortable chair.

"You should, Mr Scamander! Bye!"

We blew him affectionate kisses and hurried out.

That night, when everyone else had gone to bed and Jennifer and I were huddled together under a spare duvet on the living room sofa, I relaxed and let the relief wash over me in waves.

Relief mingled with shock and also with guilt – but relief nonetheless. I knew Jennifer was feeling just the same.

"She's saved our skins, hasn't she?"

"Yeah, she has," Jennifer replied, in the dark. "She really has. We don't deserve it one bit. And I feel terrible."

"I know. I know... it wasn't what she'd have planned. She would've wanted it to help with our futures – but if she knew what we'd got ourselves into, she'd understand."

"Well, it can't be helped, anyway. Juliet, d'you want to write to Ali now? I'll feel better when I know he won't come bursting into our home demanding Mum and Dad pay him off, or anything."

"Yeah, let's do it now."

We slipped off the sofa, turned one of the little table lamps on, and as quietly as we could, found a pen and a piece of paper. Artemis and Apollo flew over and jostled my hand as I wrote, both eager to be the one to take it.

"Hey, you two – get out of the way. She can't write with you doing that." Jennifer reached out and gathered them both into her lap, where they hooted softly in protest.

I wrote the letter quickly.

Dear Mr Bashir,

Just to let you know that we will be able to pay you what we owe. We've recently learned that we are going to inherit some money, and luckily it will just cover this amount. We'll pay you as soon as the funds are transferred into our bank accounts, which will probably be a month or two, so please await a postal order by owl.

Sincerely,

Juliet and Jennifer Belstone

I chewed the end of the biro. "I still don't trust him, you know. What if he takes the money and still rats us out to someone, out of spite?"

Jennifer shook her head. "He wouldn't dare. We could rat him out too. We probably couldn't prove anything, he's too slippery for that, but he won't want anyone from the Ministry poking their nose any further than they already are into his business."

"Yeah...I guess. I feel awful, though." I stared down at the letter. "Aunt Ada's life savings...thrown away on that despicable man! And what precious little is left, we're probably going to have to offer to Hugo's family, for the tent, somehow."

"And we have to try to make sure Mum and Dad never find out your Gringotts vault and my new bank account are both empty...can you imagine..."

In the dim half-light, my sister's face looked drawn and tired. I punched her gently on the arm. "As least we're not going to get thrown into Azkaban, and Ali will be off our backs. Let's get some sleep. Don't worry about it – look forward, like Aunt Ada did."

I rolled up the letter and offered it to both owls – Artemis was quicker, she grabbed it in her beak with a muffled hoot, and rubbed her head affectionately against Apollo's before taking off from Jennifer's lap and soaring through the window I pulled open for her.

After a few days of rest, Newt looked much better and it was decided that he was well enough for the long car journey.

Tina Scamander had enlarged the inside of our Ford Focus so that it looked just the same from the outside, but had room for all of us and more inside. Dad couldn't help himself. At least three times he stuck his head through the door to look inside, then stood back to squint at the ordinary-looking exterior.

"Bloomin' marvellous," he muttered admiringly. Tina chuckled.

Newt was delighted at the prospect of spending the journey together.

"Now then," he said. "I brought a big tray with me, so if we put this on my lap, I'm sure we can manage a few games of Exploding Snap..."

"Oh no, not in the Belstone's car!" Tina told him firmly, taking the pack of cards (which was smoking slightly) away from her husband. "You can play Muggle Snap, or word games. Neither of those will set fire to the upholstery..."

"Ah, my dear...you always were the sensible one..."

Newt looked so disappointed I couldn't help it, I broke out in giggles and so did Jennifer.

With Newt for company, the long journey back down south-west was much more fun than the way up. We stopped a few times at service stations, which were a source of great interest to the Scamanders. Newt – tottering back to the car from the bathroom, leaning on Dad's arm – spotted a vending machine and stopped, intrigued.

"Goodness me. A glass cabinet full of Muggle snacks! But there's no key, or handle?"

Dad grinned at me, and fished out a pound coin from his trouser pocket.

"Here, Mr Scamander...pop this in the slot and punch in the number of something you'd like to try, in this key pad."

"Keep-add..." Newt mumbled, peering through the glass. He pushed the pound coin into the machine and – with encouragement – pressed a couple of buttons. Immediately, the row of Mars bars slid smoothly forward, and one dropped into the tray.

Jennifer bent down, stuck her hand through the flap, and retrieved it. "Here you go, Mr Scamander. One Muggle chocolate bar!"

"Jumping Jackalopes," Newt said, amazed. "That's ingenious!"

Back in the car, despite Tina's stern warning not to drop crumbs on our seats, he broke the Mars bar messily into three and shared it with us.

As dusk drew in and we got closer, Tina began to direct Dad. Ottery St Catchpole wasn't signposted anywhere – although, once we entered the boundaries of the town and read the Muggle welcome sign, we realised that it was simply an ordinary Devon village known by a different Muggle name – one we had heard of, even. No one entering it by road would have known it was half full of witches and wizards.

"And now you know how to get here, you'll be able to visit your friends Lorcan and Lysander and Hugo more often," Newt said with a smile.

I smiled back, awkwardly. Newt had assumed I was friends with the twins, and I hadn't told him otherwise. In fact, my enmity was starting to seem incredibly silly and embarrassing. However rude I was to them, Lorcan and Lysander had only ever been friendly towards me. It was such a one-sided feud, and now that I'd made such good friends with his great-granddad, I knew that I didn't really feel hostile towards them anymore. But would they feel the same to me, after I'd snubbed them for a whole year?

"Here, this is us," Tina Scamander said, after directing us around the edge of the town and over a hill. "We keep ourselves to ourselves."

They certainly did – from where they were, we couldn't see any other houses, shielded by the hill we'd come over, and the little woods around. It was very secluded.

"My husband has too many unusual creatures in his possession for us to live conspicuously," Tina said, with a smile. "You never know when one might accidentally be let loose in the garden..."

Newt was stiff and tired after the long journey, and Jennifer and I helped him to the door while Mum and Dad started getting their coats and bags from the car.

"Thank you, my dears," he gasped. "Well, blessed Bowtruckles, I rather enjoyed that. Muggle travel is terribly relaxing."

I laughed. "And I can't wait to learn how to Apparate. Pop! Just like that, and you're somewhere else."

"Well now, I'm rarely in such a hurry, nowadays..."

He fumbled for his key, and unlocked the door with trembling fingers.

"Ah, I can't wait to see them all..."

Jennifer and I grinned at each other. We had a funny feeling he didn't mean his family, though we were sure he would be happy to see them too.

When the door swung open, the rest of us took an involuntarily step back.

"Wow!"

"Crikey..."

"My darlings!"

There was a cacophony of hoots, trumpets and squawks and Newt was engulfed in a jumble of fur and feathers. I didn't know where to look first – what an array of weird and wonderful creatures crowding around, clearly loving Newt to bits! Birds, crawling things, scampering things, large and small, too strange to name. And more ordinary animals, too – several intelligent-looking cats prowled around the room, watching with interest.

"Why, you've come to meet me, my lovelies!"

"Oh, Newton," said Tina crossly as she came up behind us. "What are they all doing out? Why aren't they in the basement? You know I hate droppings on the carpets..."

"Not my fault," Newt's voice emerged, muffled, from the middle of the mêlée. "The boys must have let them out...you know how they like to play..."

"Hullo, great-Grandpa Newt! Hullo great-Grandma Tina!"

Lorcan and Lysander appeared, grinning. They looked surprised to see me – and then, even more to see Jennifer – but had no time to say more than a brief "Oh – hullo?" before Tina erupted.

"RIGHT, boys, you let them out, now you get them back in, all of them – except the Kneazles – back in the basement right now! We have GUESTS!"

"Okay, right away, Grandma," said one of the twins, scooping up a large hare-like creature with horns like an antelope. He grasped one of the horns firmly so it couldn't twist out of his arms and it blinked up at him with large brown eyes. "Sorry. We didn't let them all out. Only the friendly ones, which wouldn't eat each other. We knew you'd be back today. Reckoned Grandpa would be pleased to see 'em."

"Droppings are droppings, friendly or not! And you can sweep up the feathers and anything else they've left from the carpet! Where's your mother and father? You wouldn't have dared, if they were here..."

"Gone for dinner with the Weasleys," said the other twin, deftly catching a bright blue insect which was hovering nearby. He held it carefully, its long sting quivering.

"I'll help you get them back in, boys," Newt said. "And I am pleased..."

We watched, bemused, as the twins and Newt – and Tina, after shaking her head and sighing a bit more – dropped, cajoled, tricked and nudged all the various magical creatures down a trapdoor in the otherwise ordinary living room. They clearly knew exactly what they were doing, as it took a surprisingly short time. At last, all that was left was an over-excited creature like a cross between a platypus and a mole, dashing around our legs with surprising agility. Chuckling, Newt took a gold coin from his pocket and tossed it through the trapdoor. The creature instantly changed course and dived through the hole. Tina closed the trapdoor with a firm thud.

After the cacophony of animal noises, the silence now rang in our ears. A lone feather fluttered to the carpet, which was covered in a variety of trampled animal droppings. Excitement over, the rank smell became painfully obvious. The three Kneazles, clearly sensing trouble, crept quietly out of the room. Tina's lips tightened.

"Er," said one of the twins, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Anyone fancy a cup of tea?"

"It's like having double vision," Newt said, chuckling, as we gathered in the kitchen. Jennifer and I were sat next to Lorcan and Lysander at the kitchen table, all of us drinking tea. It was pretty weird. We'd never both spent any time with other identical twins, before.

"Something to eat with your tea?" Tina asked, offering us a tin of wizarding sweets.

"Oh, yes please!"

Jennifer's face lit up – she always loved the sweets I'd brought her from the Hogwarts Express trolley. Eagerly, she dipped into the tin and found a Chocolate Frog her favourite. I took the same.

Newt, Tina and my parents all chuckled after Lorcan and Lysander also picked out Chocolate Frogs, unwrapping them enthusiastically and showing each other the wizard cards that came inside.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Newt said to my parents.

"Please do," Dad said, as he bit into a liquorice wand.

"Well – now that the girls are here – perhaps they would like to stay for a couple of days? As you can see, Juliet is friends with my great-grandsons, and Hugo Granger-Weasley lives just over the hill. I would be delighted to have them to stay, after all you've done for me over the last few days..."

Lorcan and Lysander looked taken aback to be described as my friends. I felt myself blush, glancing at them apologetically, and Jennifer – who had never seen any reason to hate them – gave them a wide, genuine grin which they couldn't help returning.

"Yeah, that'd be really nice, wouldn't it, Lor?" Lysander said to his brother, after a moment. "I dunno why we didn't ask Juliet here before..."

I was blushing furiously now, and their brown eyes laughed at me, but their faces gave nothing away otherwise. Tina was watching with a slightly raised eyebrow, but Newt simply beamed and waited for an answer.

"We'd love to," Jennifer answered, as I was too embarrassed to speak. I felt too silly for words.

Mum and Dad looked at each other, and shrugged and nodded their assent.

"If it's not an imposition," Mum said. "That would be lovely for them...we can pick them up in a couple of days?"

We brought in our bags while they were discussing the arrangements, and it was settled. Tina went to make us up some beds, and Mum and Dad hugged us goodbye then drove off. It felt very strange, being left so suddenly in the friendly, but admittedly eccentric, company of the Scamander family – but somehow, I knew we would have a good time here.

"Well, now, twins, show – er, the twins – where they can sleep. Off you go now. Have fun!"

We nodded and smiled at him, and followed Lorcan and Lysander out of the room. But as I left, Jennifer a little way ahead of me, Newt grabbed my arm with his frail and trembling hand.

"Juliet – you are Juliet, aren't you?"

"Yes?"

"Come see me sometime tomorrow – just you alone – won't you? I have something to show you..."

"I – um –"

"Juliet?"

Jennifer popped her head back into the room just as Newt let go of my arm.

"Yeah – uh – I'm coming."

I glanced back at Newt as I closed the door behind me, and he smiled secretively, raising a shaking finger to his lips.

A/N: Reviews would be awesome! Thanks very much for reading!