Alright, so two fun facts, actually just one! I do enjoy the movie, and I will be finishing the where to find them, though I haven't seen the new Fantastic beasts so there may be a wait for that! And, Guest, the previous chapter was a continuation of chapter 18 as I didn't continue Newt's point of view.
Secondly I've been slowly starting to feel like maybe Newt would be a little more confident and intense if he were to date someone? By intense I mean a little kinky ;) I'm just not sure as to how he'd be if I were to write that though?
"Right so..." Graves raised a brow, glancing between the Niffler and the open case, "I'm not sure why you were so worried, Tina." He almost sighed at her and I watched curiously as her shoulders sagged a touch. Her face was already beet red and I could spot two tiny scratches against her cheek when she turned her eyes towards the floor.
"Sorry, sir." She was silent for a beat and I shifted onto a different foot, hoping this would be over until her head perked up. "Bu-but this can't be the only one! Right?" She leaned across her desk towards us with a wild look in her eye that I raised a brow at. No, it wasn't the only creature we had but I wasn't telling her that.
"I'm assuming you've not come across a Niffler before." Newt spoke up, softly at first but grew a little louder when we all looked at him. "Just one of these little buggers can cause all sorts of mayhem," his declaration forced me to swallow an imaginary lump while he motioned at the Niffler on my shoulder. "Especially in a bank." He's not wrong, per say-but it made me nervous that he'd single out the Niffler.
"Yeah, I can imagine," Graves sighed, turning to me with his hand raised. "Sorry, Miss?" He raised a brow as I gawked at him and his hand, momentarily forgetting that I should probably put my hand in his...I didn't really want too. But I had too, it'd be weird if I didn't.
"Maximae." I slipped my hand into his delicately and bowed my head in greeting to which he did the same with a smile, "Percival Graves, Miss Maximae."
"I apologise for any inconvenience and ask that you don't leave your uh-pet alone any more." In the back of my mind I equated this ritual to the same that Phoenixes did upon meeting a potential mate. Though after they'd bowed their heads, the males often performed a show of sorts to assure the females that they were healthy, strong, and brilliantly endowed with large shiny feathers.
"Of course! Sorry." I attempted to retract my hand but found that his grip had tightened and I found myself feeling a little more uncomfortable.
"If you run into any more trouble, well." He smirked, releasing my hand finally, "you know where to find me."
I think Newt and I spent maybe an hour more inside MACUSA before we were finally released. It was all fine and good after the awkward little moment where Graves held my hand hostage and Goldstein elected to follow us down the street for a few blocks. We'd ducked into an alleyway so I could finally scold the Niffler as well as get all the jam and powdered sugar out of his fur.
He was decently clean-well as clean as one could get their irritable Niffler to be in one of New York's alleys. He was fussy, and rather startled I'd decided, so it made sense for me to just pop open the case and slip him inside it. He could relax, and not be overstimulated by the bright lights or loud sounds of this city.
Yes, I thought, this was a good idea.
I am a blithering idiot, and my companion's insistence to find the Muggle suddenly made more sense now.
"Ara? Uhm." He cleared his throat as I sucked in my lips to keep from screeching at what greeted me from the case.
"I know you're mad but..." I think I might be having a stroke, right now as I curled my fist and pressed it against my mouth with my eyes narrowing. I'd thrown open the case to find nibbled and half eaten pastries in it, instead of a ladder.
"Mad?" I breathed, uncurling my fist to lean against my hand balanced atop my knee with my pointer and middle fingers pressed against the side of my temple. "I'm not mad." I glanced up at him, feeling my lips twist into a leery smile in which I ran my tongue along the bottom of my canines as I considered what to do now.
"You..." His brow furrowed as his gaze followed my tongue, "you're not mad?" I shook my head after slamming the lid shut again and yanking out my wand from it's place against my upper thigh.
If I was about to go running down a Muggle, I wouldn't be doing it in a bloody dress. I sat the Niffler down atop the case and stood again, electing to change now without a care in the world as to who saw me.
"I'm not mad!" I chuckled, waving the larch in a fluid motion up my person, "nope. Not mad at all." I pursed my lips, realising that my voice had hit an unnaturally high octave as the heels and beaded dress replaced themselves with boots, trousers, and a vest over a button up. I eyed the muted greys and black, electing that a simple black coat would due fine in this climate.
I leaned back down, offering my hand to the Niffler, "in you go." I clenched my jaw, sliding him carefully into my jacket's pocket once it'd seemed steady enough for me to rely on. I'd been alright with transfiguration and clothing wasn't that difficult, despite my silent audience at the moment.
"Sure, Ara." Newt's voice was heavier as each piece of clothing disappeared only to reappear, forming themselves to my body at once. I didn't enjoy using magic in the process of getting dressed-not because I felt it should be done manually but because my wand was temperamental and I'd find myself missing a sock or a bra hours later, or a shirt that had reverted back to it's original colour.
I let out a long sigh before I stared back at my oddly endearing companion as he watched me with the look of a man that didn't believe me for a second. I'd slowly noticed that Newt had the most fascinating way of accepting all of my quirks and abrasiveness; still somehow peeking behind the curtain's I needed in place to deal with my emotions daily and not look like a loon.
"Now then, where is the bloody Muggle that's got the case?"
At first we'd wandered but eventually we came upon a building that appeared to be on the edge of collapsing with a large crowd gathered in front of it. Muggles were shouting and panicked, talking about a gas explosion and I actually almost continued on my stampede of New York up until Newt pulled me back by one of my trouser's belt loops.
"What now?" Okay so I was still a little mad, but I think he'd accepted it, despite the raised brow when I'd hissed at him over my shoulder. I was more or less wondering how he'd managed to slip his hand all the way up my jacket and vaguely wondering where else his hands could slip into. A wave of blood rushed up towards my face as I swallowed and focused on my ears picking up a man's voice.
"It was a hippopotamus! I saw it-" I blinked, feeling my mouth drop open as the man stopped, looking confused, "the hippo-gas...leak. It was another damn gas-leak!" My stare drifted back to Newt who carefully slid his wand back out of sight, I don't always approve of messing with people's minds but-this was necessary.
It took him a total of maybe 30 seconds to start off towards the building, running up the stairs like a madman. Generally, I felt I was rather fit, I could run and jump as well as the next girl but its times like these that I felt just how small I was in comparison to him.
"Wait for me!" I gasped, pushing off of each stair and attempting to fix all the damage behind us at the same time. He stood at a whooping 190 cms while I was a mere 160, I'd realised the actual differences when his legs were able to take the stairs three at a time and I struggled to keep up.
I almost fell onto my face at the top step when I realised that he'd stopped abruptly, "careful." I blinked as I realised that he'd apparently already expected my clumsiness as his arm snaked around my torso before I tumbled.
"Thanks." I nodded at him with my heart thundering after the hike from hell. I felt a blush slowly sneak it's way up my neck and cheeks when we held eye contact, feeling my body decide to extend itself as I got closer to his face without my permission. The feeling of Aurelius' little hands scraping across the fabric against my breast forced a wave of cold realisation across my frame, this fancy of mine was becoming a problem.
"So, this is the guy?" I cleared my throat, roughly pushing myself away from his reach in order to stride towards where I spotted a pair of men's feet and motioned to them.
His throat cleared as well after a moment, "looks like it." I smelled hints of clean laundry, mooncalf pellets, and parchment as he went past me, nodding.
I was struggling with getting a hold of myself, mentally forbidding my girly feelings to just take off without my brain functioning. I'd developed a habit of getting far too close to Newt and I didn't exactly know whether or not he was even interested.
"Hes got a bit of a bite but..." Newt sighed, leaning over the man's tired body, "should be fine." Newt nodded to himself while the man groaned and swatted Newt's hands away from his face drowsily.
I studied him as he dropped the Muggle's case by his feet and snatched up his own, sitting on the bed. "Everyone there?" I raised a brow, not entirely focused on the scene in front of me. This wasn't very fair to him, if anything it was downright awful and with that thought, I promised myself that I wouldn't just suddenly bloody kiss him or grab him any more.
"You two!" I jumped, letting out a short squeak at the sound of an feminine accusation while Newt snapped his case shut. "Cripes, woman! How do you just appear like that?" I groaned, stopping my hand from jerking my wand to jinx the bloody MACUSA agent. She wasn't even an agent any more but they should seriously consider taking her back, like a bloodhound that one.
"What happened?" She was pointing a finger between both of us as I raised a brow, how would her finger make us talk any faster?
"Was that case open? Did the Niffler get out again?" At the mention of the Niffler her head began to swivel while she crouched and pulled her hat farther down on her head, as though she was waiting for it to come sailing for her face from the ceiling.
"No, no. He's in here." I pointed to my breast pocket, at which point Aurelius popped his head out and seemed to give her a beady glare.
He was obviously still rather upset about the whole incident in her office as a series of low clicks sounded off and I chuckled lightly, "he's actually harmless, I swear." She scoffed at that, so obviously having a Niffler basically snarl at her wasn't the best thing if I didn't want her trying to execute him.
"Bada...canning..." I heard groans and mumbled nonsense coming from the collapsed Muggle, and bit my lip when Goldstein dropped to her knees.
"His neck's bleeding, he's hurt! What happened?" She was worried, glancing between us before she turned back to him. "Wake up, Mr. No-Maj..." She tried softly poking his face then his side when he simply moaned again and rolled from her hands.
He didn't answer her at first, sharing a muted look of worry with me before turning his gaze to Goldstein. "Newt." I breathed lowly, taking a step forwards while he stood and attempted to pull me towards the door. We'd gotten an entire step away when Goldstein let out a guttural scream. I spun back around and spotted a fleshy creature with gelatinous quills hanging off it's back before Newt jumped into action.
"No worries!" Newt's grunting and the Murtlap's snarling didn't give his statement the feeling of nothing actually being wrong while he grabbed it by the tail and slid it into the case.
"Mercy Lewis, what is that?" Goldstein gasped, laying against a wall with a hand over her heart and wide eyes.
I cut a look at Newt that screamed we were officially in trouble while he tried to brush off the incident."Nothing to worry about. That is a Murtlap."
My anxiety seemed to jump into over drive as I attempted to map out the case in my head, placing each creature in their habitats up until I found the Murtlap's. He was much farther back from everyone else due to his lack of a mate, it'd made him quite irritable unfortunately. If he was out then that meant several others-particularly the aerial creatures- could be out as well.
*SPOILER ALERT*
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I just found out that Credence's name might actually be Aurelius Dumbledore, are you kidding me right now?