13
LUPIN stifled his growl of anger, sighing heavily as he stalked down the hallway to meet Newt at his front door, sensing Jacob Kowalski out of the corner of his peripherals sigh heavily before gingerly closing the bedroom door behind him and trudging along rather haphazardly after Lupin.
His sights remained fixated firmly on the door, not wanting to meet either Newt or Tina's questioning gaze.
Lyall was having immense difficulty coming to terms with the fact that he had lost his temper with her just now.
The moment he stormed out of Hope Howell's room, the man felt a crushing sense of regret and extreme guilt.
He had behaved towards Miss Howell so rudely just a moment ago and seeing the unshed tears in Hope's eyes very nearly crippled the distraught wizard with his newfound feeling of guilt that felt like it was crushing his shoulders with its weighted burden, knowing he needed to find a way to apologize to the young woman and make amends, though not knowing where to begin, if Hope would even want to see him after the little stunt he'd pulled.
Lupin knew he owed an apology to her, and he could only pray and hope that Hope might forgive him his misdeed. It was…utterly nonsensical and unfounded, and the fear, Merlin's Beard, the fear in her eyes!
Surely, Hope hated him by now, and she would be well within her rights to do so.
It was unknown to Lupin how long he stood outside of Hope Howell's room, just across the hallway from the spare bedroom that Tina and Newt had put her up in for the night, assuming she'd be well enough to return to her own home in the morning, alongside Lyall for protection, of course, but now, there was a good chance that part of the plan was muddled, considering what an utter fool he'd made of himself just now.
Lyall growled in frustration, carding his fingers through his brown hair, gnashing his teeth together in annoyance, thinking how he deserved to dig his own grave and bury himself in it for his stupidity.
He did not want to look into either Scamander's eyes and see the shame within his friends' faces.
Lupin could hear Tina hitch in a breath of nervousness, and Lupin fought against the deep, instinctive urge to fling open the door without waiting for Newt to get his bearings, much less his coat, and Disapparate without the older wizard.
The intensity of Jacob's stare burned him, causing him to feel like Jacob was piercing a hole through the back of his skull until Lyall could no longer stand it anymore despite his best efforts to ignore his mentor's friend's stare.
He feared at any moment with the intensity of the Muggle man's staring, he'd be reduced to little more than ashes.
Whirling around on his heels, Lupin struggled within himself as his temper threatened to implode, though it was not coming from a place of anger, but rather, of hot embarrassment and shame at how he'd reacted just now.
"I hope you're pleased with yourself, Mr. Lupin," Jacob grumbled irritably as the pudgy man practically heaved trying to catch his breath, clutching at the stitch in his side.
Lupin stifled a low warning growl that rumbled from deep within his chest as he glanced up sharply to the left to regard Queenie Kowalski's Muggle husband, only to find that the man had opted to stand alongside Newt, almost so close they were practically shoulder-to-shoulder, his expression quite grim and unlike the jovial, cheerful man.
The poor distraught young wizard very nearly jumped out of his own skin when suddenly, Tina's soft, quiet voice rent the air, and she sounded quite melancholic,
"What happened?" she pressed, the innocent question drifting through the air and lingering in front of Lupin.
Tina Scamander sensed her husband's protégé's confusion and after swallowing hard, she spoke once more.
"I take it then, by the look on your face, it didn't go well?" she asked gently, and only when Lyall pointedly ducked his head and allowed a lock of his light brown bangs to tumble in front of his eyes and effectively shield his vision from everyone in the hallway by the front door, did Tina realized that things had, in fact, gone wrong. Horribly wrong.
She could have sworn she'd heard shouting coming from behind the closed spare bedroom door, but Tina knew, just as Newt did, it was not her place to intervene, and whatever issues needing hashing out were strictly between Lyall Lupin and that Muggle girl, and no one else. She and Newt could not interfere with them.
"What?!" came Newt Scamander's quiet voice that held a slight warble to it, laced with a slight twinge of unease, as though he severely regretted asking the question he was about to ask as he curiously looked towards his wife, "Merlin pray tell me, Tina, is that that my protégé appears to have supposedly done to that girl? Did you harm her?" he demanded, swiveling his gaze towards Lyall rather sharply and fixing Lyall with a somewhat pointed glower.
Lyall felt his face drain of shock as his head whiplashed sharply upward and he reluctantly tore his gaze away from shamefacedly looking down at his shoes, at anywhere but at the judgmental stares of Newt, Tina, Jacob, and now Queenie.
Lupin startled at the appearance of the striking blonde witch.
When did she get here?! Lyall thought wildly, biting the wall of his cheek, though he offered no formal greeting to Jacob's wife. He'd not even heard the woman Apparate.
"No, at least not physically if that's what you're asking, Newt," Jacob's wife, Queenie, spoke up in a low, breathy voice.
Lyall did not even have to look into the woman's gaze to know that the natural-Legilimens was dipping into his mind, though it wasn't like the witch could help it.
Lyall felt his blood surge and course within his veins at Queenie Kowalski's words, though he made no effort to confirm or deny her statement, he did flinch as a collective audible gasp of surprise was heard from everyone except for Lyall and Queenie, who knew the full truth.
Though Hope was no longer in the same vicinity as him, he could swear he felt her dark chocolate brown eyes on him.
He wondered as he felt his jaw muscles tense and lock up as his teeth ground together in anger and annoyance at his stupidity, what she was thinking of him right now, if anything at all, or if Hope was struggling to try to forget him.
Just the thought made him want to throw back his head and let out an anguished yell, though Lyall refrained.
Was she thinking of him in awe at what he had done or disgust? Was he a bully or a savior in her eyes? Her hero?
A disgusting bully, no doubt, considering the despicable way he had behaved to Miss Howell not even mere moments ago, still so fresh in his mind, but it was more than easy and a little disconcerting for Lyall to pretend he saw wonderment and awe in those beautiful eyes of hers.
"I…" Lyall began softly, trying to string his words together in a coherent enough explanation that would make sense, as the others had not been there to see her reaction, to dwell on the fear within the woman's chocolate eyes… "I think I hurt her, Mrs. Scamander. Newt," he whispered.
This statement shocked all four individuals who now looked at him with equal looks of confusion, shock, and disbelief on their faces before returning their attention towards Lyall, clearly demanding an explanation for his words, judging by the way they all were looking at Lyall.
"What?!" Jacob spluttered and stammered nervously.
"What do you mean, you 'hurt her?'" challenged Newt, who was merely looking thoughtful and not at all angry like Lyall had expected his mentor and colleague to be, which gave him pause, but left him no time to react or dwell on it.
"Start making sense, Mr. Lupin, if you please," Tina murmured, glancing at her husband out of the corner of her eye with no small measure of concern in her eyes.
Lupin slowly nodded his head, nervously lifting his gaze to meet Queenie's eyes with his own, and tried his best not to shirk away in shame.
Queenie thus far had not reacted at all to his admission, but then she didn't need to, having been the only one with the ability to read the man's mind.
Lyall's first impression of Tina's sister was that her smile was twisted, and it currently looked as though it didn't belong on her pale face.
He felt a negative vibe emanating from the Legilimens as she bore into Lyall's eyes with hers.
As well as her smile, Queenie's breathless voice seemed out of place as well.
It was smooth and sounded as though it belonged to someone half her age, though the witch was still quite strikingly pretty at fifty-three, admittedly still something of what other men called a 'bombshell', her fading blonde hair ending at her chin in loose curls.
It was most unsettling, the way that Queenie was reading Lupin's mind.
Though before Lyall could open his mouth to speak to stammer out a half-hearted brief explanation to everyone else who couldn't read his mind of how he'd made an utter fool of himself, Queenie folded her arms across her chest and gazed across the way at him, her pale green eyes alight with severe disapproval at how Lupin had lost his temper and had flown off the handle at Hope's initial reaction when he had admitted to her the honest truth.
"Hmph. The girl is beside herself with confusion and is in a tremendous amount of fear, which shouldn't be surprising considering the circumstances of the ordeal she's been through tonight," Queenie huffed in annoyance, though not with Hope Howell, but towards Lyall's actions. "She is in no condition to be approached by anyone for a little while. I suggest we let her use this time to cope in whatever way is going to work best for her, Newt, Tina."
After a few failed attempts, the shy, clever young wizard launched into a brief explanation of everything thus far that had transpired between him and Hope in the Scamander's guest bedroom behind closed doors.
Though not without great difficulty, as he felt himself physically recoil as the image of her terrified expression flitted through the front of his mind when he got to the part where he had used his wand in front of Hope to stop her soup cup from falling.
Tina, Newt, Jacob, and Queenie all stood quietly when the wizard and distraught young man had finished his retelling of events.
To be honest, it was nothing short of amazing that Jacob hadn't managed one snarky comment throughout all of Lyall's explanation, as he'd been privy to it and something of a witness in the corner of the room at the time, as the man told the others of the predicament he and his temper had gotten himself into and desperately seeking their solace and advice for how to fix the problem.
With the suspense practically killing him by the time he had finished, rendering his heart pounding against his chest, Lyall painfully wrung his hands together and restlessly began pacing back and forth in a repeated motion by the door.
If everyone here was so intent in thought, then he must have really messed things up for himself and gotten both him and Hope into a fix, and especially if Jacob, Merlin bless his soul, was thinking as hard as he appeared to be.
Finally, it was Queenie who managed to break the silence.
"She's going to be okay, Mr. Lupin," Queenie offered softly, though offered up no other explanation than that, which did not exactly set poor Lupin's mind at ease.
Newt and Tina Scamander took a moment to shoot equally disturbed and concerning expressions at one another.
Obviously wary of the impending temper within Lyall threatening to implode if the situation could not be de-escalated and relatively soon, at that, despite this, the married couple chose to remain silent.
It appeared, in their minds, according to Lyall's silently pensive observation that they believed him to butt heads with Queenie, not wanting to give in and admit that he had wronged Hope just now.
Newt Scamander narrowed his eyes at his fellow wizard before turning his gaze downward, a glimpse of resigned frustration and just a twinge of guilt in Lyall's pale features.
The Magizoologist's sharp eyes noticed the somewhat subtle change in his protégé and surprisingly enough, Newt found that he could not help but feel just the slightest twinge of pity for Lyall.
He knew speaking from his own experience what it was like to be so affected by a woman, and for the said woman in question not to even realize the profound effect she would have on you until it's too late.
It did not appear to the Ministry worker that Lupin had gone out of his way to frighten the poor thing, and yet Lyall had done just that, nonetheless, unintentionally.
And while Newt was not at all comfortable with yet again the idea of the distraught young Muggle woman staying the night in his home, if Queenie's words were true, and the blonde witch had given him no reason to doubt his sister-in-law's words, the skilled Legilimens that she was, then that meant that poor Miss Howell was beside herself upon learning the truth that her saviors were both wizards.
It was then that an idea began to take root in Newt's mind. He wasn't exactly sure what was possessing him to do this.
For all he knew the young Muggle woman was extremely dangerous, in her own way, in her present physical and mental state of mind. The harm she could do unto herself and others was rather frightening in his mind.
Yet, his sense of pride and moral compass, despite his initial hesitance to believe the young woman's words when she told him earlier that her bag was not made of dragonhide, he wanted someone to look after this stranger that had so mysteriously managed to captivate Lyall in the span of a few short hours over the course of a single eve.
Besides, what sort of host would he and Tina be to their guest if someone in their household did not offer the poor dear a proper welcome?
Not a very good one, Newt knew. Miss Hope Howell in her current state could probably do with a new cup of hot cocoa and perhaps a light little something to settle her stomach, assuming she'd managed to eat the soup and the bread Tina had made for her earlier.
"Jacob," he began cautiously, choosing his words carefully as he struggled to formulate the nature of his unusual request to his dear friend in words, breaking the silence and swiveling his head to look towards the only other Muggle standing under his roof alongside Miss Howell.
Jacob blinked owlishly at Newt addressing him, but his friend quickly nodded and returned to attention.
"I don't suppose while Lyall and I are away, you could see to it she gets a cup of tea and maybe the two of you could sit and chat, Jacob?"
Whatever Jacob had been expecting Newt to say, this was…not it.
He spluttered and stammered to think of a retort as the tips of his mustache twitched, but when the man opened his mouth to speak, nothing coherent left his lips, though, by some miracle of Merlin, he found his voice.
"M—me?" Jacob stammered, staring at Newt incredulously as though he could not quite believe what he was hearing. "Wh—wouldn't Tina be better suited for this? I—I mean, no offense, Tina, but you're a woman, a—and isn't this kind of thing better suited for a woman's touch?"
Newt merely shrugged his shoulders by way of response, indicating to everyone standing by the front door that he had no idea of his impromptu plan would work.
"Perhaps, but you're the only other Muggle inside this house. Miss Howell needs someone that she will be able to open up to and relate to, and considering you were once in a similar position, I think you're the best one suited for this, Jacob. I fear that Hope seeing any one of us given her current emotionally vulnerable state would only be a danger to her."
Here, he glanced towards Lyall, and it did not escape Scamander's attention how quickly Lyall had become pale. It was evident by the stricken forlorn look on the thirty-year-old wizard's face that Lupin was hoping he hadn't hurt Hope Howell too badly when he had yelled at her a moment ago.
Both Newt and Tina had heard Lyall's voice carry well through the closed door as he had raised his voice and shouted at Miss Howell in his growing anger, his temper threatening to boil over.
Lyall had quite an intimidating presence and his voice commanded authority and respect…when the man so wished it, of course, that was.
While Miss Howell certainly did not owe the wizard any semblance of forgiveness for the way he'd behaved towards her just now, it quickly became clear to Newt that Lyall was still hoping that he could somehow earn it from her, and it was this thought that prompted him to continue.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about, Jacob," Newt pressed onward in what he hoped was a calm, resolute voice. "Might I suggest talking with the young woman over a nice cup of hot cocoa? It does wonders to soothe the soul when upset. Queenie can get you some."
Jacob still looked shocked, but less than he had expected to be, and upon receiving a particularly dazzling white smile from his wife that, even after all these years of marriage, still sent his heart careening against its cage of bone and cartilage, never failing to make him weak at the knees, gave him the newfound resolve to want to do this for the girl.
Tina smiled, relieved, Lyall thought, that her husband had come up with such a thoughtful and insightful plan and gave him an affectionate pat on the arm before turning towards Lupin, wanting to chime in with her two cents before the men Disapparated, offering her sister a curt nod as Queenie intertwined her arm with Jacob and began chatting away animatedly about something or other as she led her husband off to Newt and Tina's kitchen to prepare that cup of cocoa for the poor young Muggle who they guessed was probably crying her eyes out into her pillow.
She pursed her lips into a thin, unmovable line before speaking in a calm and collected tone, the hint of the former Auror that she was seeping its way to the surface.
"Mr. Lupin, forcing that young woman to talk to you will only drive a wedge between the two of you in your new acquaintance. I can tell that you care about her, we all can see it," she added, the edges of her lips turning upwards at the faint blush speckling its way along Lyall Lupin's cheeks.
He cringed, shooting Tina and Newt a furtive, guilty look as he awkwardly shifted his weight from one foot to the next and shoved his trembling fists inside his coat pockets.
Had he really been that obvious to everyone here?
Tina chuckled softly at the bewildered expression that was no doubt evident on Lyall's face, though he could not see it as they'd hung no mirror on the wall in the front entryway near the front door of their simple little cottage.
Not because it was funny to her, but because of her husband's protégé at the Ministry of Magic, this man, this lover of non-corporeal entities and all manner of Dark creatures that were Non-Spirituous Apparitions, was perhaps for the first time in his life, affected by a woman.
But rather, because Tina was filled to the brim with an unbelievable feeling of happiness that the lonesome, clever, and shy young man, still quite young in his early thirties, had a real chance at finding his own measure of happiness for a change, rather than burying himself in his work as Lupin was prone to do simply to avoid social interactions.
He was so like Newt in that regard, it almost wasn't funny, how eerily similar, and alike they were in many ways.
Tina's smile faltered slightly as Lyall lifted his gaze and she could see in the dim yellow light from the lamp fixture overheard in their front entryway's hallway just how much color the poor man had lost.
This little incident, perhaps even the night as a whole, had affected him and rocked the man to his core and had shaken Lyall Lupin quite badly.
"I don't know what was said between the two of you back there," Tina said with a little sigh as she jerked her head in the direction of the hall that led to their spare bedroom, "but whatever is going through her mind right now, considering the shock and severity of what you just revealed to her, after the night she's had, it's enough to make the poor woman feel extremely uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that she doesn't want to face it, but she has to. Allow the poor thing a moment to grieve after the night she's had. Her mind will process it in its own time, Lupin. I advise for now leaving the matter alone and speaking to her upon your return. Since she will be staying with us until the morning, perhaps this would be a conversation better suited until the morning, perhaps over a good cup of tea or coffee, but you can see if she's awake when the two of you return. You have to be patient on this, Mr. Lupin. Let the Muggle woman come to you, and she will. I guarantee it."
Lupin let out a haggard sigh, feeling a vein twitch in his brow as the young wizard's eyes grew painfully sad as he raised his right hand to allow it to pass over the features of his ashen and exhausted face, growing more and more fatigued and on the brink of collapse the longer he stood here like this.
He knew the sooner he and Newt traveled back to the Welsh forest and rounded up that stranger in the woods that attacked Hope Howell, he could be brought into the Ministry for questioning and then perhaps convicted.
Perhaps even they would learn the truth, if that brutish-looking hulking monster of a man was the one behind the awful murders that had been plaguing Cardiff for the better part of eight months, the murders unsolved.
When the appendage ghosted over the bridge of his slender nose, Lyall stopped and gave it a rather sharp pinch in slight self-frustration, silently still berating himself in his mind for how he had treated Hope when she had initially reacted so poorly towards his secret that he was a wizard.
Lupin knew Newt's wife was right. While it was not at all the answer that he wanted to hear, it was the correct one. He knew that Tina Scamander was right in this regard.
The retired Auror was scarcely ever wrong when it came to more delicate and sensitive matters such as this one, he knew, and he was grateful he had opened up to her tonight.
"You're right, Mrs. Scamander," he murmured, merely looking thoughtful as he lowered his hand and wearily rubbed one of his arms rather nervously as he looked towards Newt, who offered a slight nod of his head in response.
He too, it seemed, was eager to get on with it.
"Miss Howell will talk to me when she feels she is ready. I already saw what happened when I pressed her for an explanation and for her to say something to me when she clearly wasn't ready. I won't do that again, Tina, I swear it."
"Good!" Newt piped up cheerfully, beginning to sound like his old self again now that the topic of dragonhide and animal-skin products were behind him as he clapped Lyall on the shoulder and twisted open the doorknob, flinging it wide open.
Lyall shivered as a gust of cold wind heralded its way through the door, and if nothing else, he thought, as he reluctantly allowed Mr. Scamander to lead him out onto the front porch of his cottage so the two men could Disapparate again to the Welsh forest in search of that man who'd attacked Hope, he was grateful he'd managed to locate Hope and bring her back here when they had.
If they were still out in those woods in this weather, Hope surely would have caught a cold, and Lyall did not think his conscience could handle it if he allowed the beautiful young Muggle to get sick because of his carelessness.
And yet, Lyall could not quite shake the sense of dread from his spine as Newt, without so much as a word to the younger man, took his hand and Disapparated with him side-by-side, that something was horribly wrong.
Lyall closed his strained eyes, forcing such an unhelpful and negative thought from his mind, thinking it would do his already troubled conscience no good to dwell on it.
He was so horribly confused and still utterly lost for as to what to do in order to make amends with Hope, but something good had come out of it, he thought, as the pair of men's feet touched the solid hard barren forest floor for the second time in one night.
Tina was right, Merlin blesses her soul forever. He just needed to let her come to him when he was ready, Lyall tried to tell himself as the men regained their equilibrium now that they were standing on solid ground again and began to walk in the direction they'd last seen the man where Newt had left him sprawled unconscious on the ground. He did not want to push Hope even further away.
It was this thought that propelled his feet forward as he had to practically jog to keep up with Scamander's lengthy strides, that gave him the newfound resolve to find the brute that had viciously attacked and threatened to torture Miss Howell for information.
To put an end to this before he could get it in his thick skull to come after her again.
That he was doing this for her, so that hopefully, by the time he returned, she would be ready to talk to him again.
And Lyall knew he'd be there for her when she did.
Glad Lupin was able to get some advice from his friends. Coming up, Hope has a chat with Jacob over tea, Muggle-to-Muggle as Jacob attempts to calm Hope down from her shock.