To any French readers that might be reading this right now, I wasn't attempting to besmirch France as a whole in chapter 2 when Ara mentioned she really only liked the wine (I promise.)I was more or less trying to give you (the reader) a grasp of her personality, wherein she's unashamedly her: a 23 year old woman who fought during WWI and is attempting to find her place in the world.

So, to address this comment explicitly: "Wow thx for this nice comment on France... Nice to know we don't have culture."

Quite honestly, I don't care for France, but that's because I don't like Paris as its one gigantic/expensive tourist trap that's based entirely on French culture. Ironically I adore dead French artists, specifically those in the 16-17th century and I've studied them with extensive enthusiasm.

As for cities? Well, Strasbourg is alright, though somehow the streets still smelled like a public restroom and, God the French don't like it when you speak German to them. So, I suppose if I were to give a similar comment as the one made by Ara in Chapter 2, I'd say I'd miss only for the art and wine if France fell off the face of the earth. Otherwise, sorry for offending you Conifre and I hope you'll give this a chance despite her dismissal of French culture.

Enjoy the chapter, and thank you so very very much for reading and reviewing this, guys!

"What else have you got in there?" Goldstein attempted to glare us into answering but I found it difficult to care much after I'd just seen her dismissed by her superiors as well as the shriek she'd just let out.

"Nothing interesting." I shrugged quickly, careful to not jostle the Niffler any more than I had already throughout this endeavour.

"You!" I gawked at the Muggle who was still on the floor, if anything I was astounded he'd been able to recognise us considering that his apartment building had been in absolute shambles before we got here. Though, I supposed, he didn't know about him most definitely having lost the security deposit.

He sounded far more threatening than he looked, he'd woken up in the middle of all this and was currently brandishing an accusatory finger at Newt who simply nodded. "Hello."

My eye twitched without my permission when Goldstein's attention immediately went towards the muggle, "Easy, Mr.—uh" She looked back at us as though we'd know his name, I raised a brow and turned my gaze to Newt. I'd expected him to be near the bed and was momentarily confused when my eyes darted back to the blue coat near me, he'd apparently edged closer to my side in the middle of this mess. Is it terribly awful I liked that he had?

"Kowalski." The muggle sat up slowly, groaning and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, "Jacob."

Very Polish if I do say so myself, but I didn't say so because sometimes your thoughts are better left unsaid if they might cause you to linger when you were busy. Instead, I just watched as Goldstein picked up his limp and slightly swollen hand to shake it. "Very nice to meet 'cha Mister Kowalski."

My eyes lingered on Newt's before I tried to subtly nod towards the muggle with the hope he'd get my hint. I was hoping he'd just Oblivate the bloke now and we could get on our way. I mean, I had a terrific brain but it wasn't terrific enough to know if every single creature we'd had was still in his case. I don't think anyone could do such a thing.

I was also hoping that, maybe, because we'd spent so much of our time being constantly around each other for several months...well I was hoping that he'd have figured out most of my expressions by now. I'm difficult to really know, I knew that. Honestly, I rather liked it that way; how could one figure out my next move if I was sometimes reckless and unpredictable? I'd been chastised over the years by peers, co-workers, and friends for keeping them at arms lengt-

Newt gave me a small nod back, interrupting my rambling train of thought and relief flooded through me when he slowly slipped his wand out his sleeve. Every second that ticked by meant that any one of the creatures could be getting closer to their doom, especially if we just continued to dawdle here. Bless Newt for his interesting little quirks and ability to read my difficult face.

I took a large step back towards the door to give him some room, didn't exactly want my own memory of magic to go up in flames, now did I? Newt had raised his wand to do exactly what I'd hoped right as Kowalski looked up and promptly recoiled from us in fear. My head tilted at the Muggle, I was fascinated as he began emitting a sound similar to the kind made by a Nundu cub when searching for it's mother.

Ironically, it seemed Goldstein had answered the call. "You can't Obliviate him!" She moved to cover his body with her own in a protective stance on her knees with her arms spread wide. You know, I don't think I compared humans to animals nearly as often before I'd been around Newt for a while.

"Why not?" I was scoffing, raising a brow at her response before I glanced between Newt and her, "she did just stalk us all the way from MACUSA, right?" I checked, he nodded at me seemingly quite happy with my attitude.

With his support though, I continued on my miniature rant unflinchingly strident, "and scolded you for not doing that in the first place?" I pointed between him and her as he nodded, the smallest of smiles graced his lips in the form a nearly imperceptible twitch in the corners. He found this funny?

"We need him as a witness." I scoffed as this was apparently her grand explanation as to why the Muggle couldn't just forget about all of this. After I'd verbally snubbed her, her dismay became twice as overtly incredulous with our lack of compassion for hers and the Muggles current predicament.

"He's hurt! He looks ill!" She moved back a little and motioned to his general person. I scanned him for a moment, giving her benefit of the doubt and found she might be right on the ill front. He did look a bit pale right now so instead of scoffing once more, I settled for sighing and turning back to Newt in hopes he had a better plan than I did.

"He'll be fine. Murtlap bites aren't serious." Newt actually rolled his eyes at her, surprising me while also amusing me. I'm sure it's just the fact that I hadn't eaten today but somehow the look translated as him shouting: 'Ugh. These people and their bleeding. So dramatic' in his head.

He shared another look with me that seemed to sigh, as if he wanted to say he could care less about the Muggle or Goldstein's current prerogative and I had to concur. We were wasting time here but we'd have to play nice if Aurelius was going to make it to Peru in one piece with us. Unfortunately, he'd attacked an American witch, and their laws here were closer to exterminate on sight as opposed to observe and contain.

I watched with pursed lips as Newt put his wand away before I heard the tell-tale sounds of a man puking in the corner of his own flat. My lips curled back out of disgust by their own volition as I pointedly looked anywhere but Kowalski, and I attempted to scream all the fact's I knew about Murtlaps in my head as a distraction while he'd vomited. It was only after the wet sound had stopped, that I turned back to face the MASCUA employee and her male charge.

"Seriously? He'll be fine?" Goldstein stared up at us with absolute disbelief and at first, I thought it was silly that she wouldn't believe Newt considering that he was the only expert in his field. But...her expression began making me feel a little uneasy after Kowalski stood back up and fell into his dresser. I observed as he almost knocked it over before his hands gripped it for dear life.

He might actually be very sick, and if he were-well there was no 'were' in this situation, as he was rather ill, we'd likely be held responsible. If he died, I'm about 70% sure that we'd get charged with his death and all of our creatures would be exterminated accordingly.

I looked back at Newt with a hint of panic, "I admit that is a slightly more severe reaction than I've seen," Newt got the panicked message and attempted to down play this fiasco.

"But if it was really serious he'd have..." It'd worked for me until he'd trailed off halfway through his bloody sentence. I didn't know much about muggles and Murtlap bites, to be fair they were incredibly rare. You know how they say ignorance is bliss? I'm sure it is usually, but right now ignorance was only making me feel more het up. We weren't in a place of power here, if anything we were at a severe disadvantage.

"He'd have what?" Goldstein probed, glancing between us. I furrowed my brow, turning to urge my companion until I realised that Newt was staring steadily at me as though I was supposed to know what came after a severe reaction. Unfortunately, I had no clue so I raised a brow at his silence and motioned with my hand for him to continue.

Newt seemed surprised, furrowing his brow at me before he turned back to address the MASCUSA agent. "Well, the first symptom would be flames out of his anus—" I paled at that, and cut in, "seriously?" I gasped, my mouth dropping open when he nodded at me.

After gawking at my companion for a second, I swivelled back to figure out where the Muggle was in this chain of events. Newt appeared to be very serious indeed, and I was edging ever closer to panicking.

Kowalski's hands came up to feel his arse, possibly terrified as well, while I attempted to guesstimate whether or not I was in the line of fire. I eyed his arse and what it was facing before I began shuffling backwards. The amount I moved back was dependent on how hot the flames might be and how much distance they'd cover. Heh, line of 'fire'. I know I'm a child, don't judge me.

"This is balled up!" Goldstein stood up quickly after a moment, appearing rather frustrated but also a touch terrified. She had to be considering she'd eyed his arse and shuffled back from him a little herself.

"It'll last forty-eight hours at most! We can keep him if you want us to—" Newt began as I cut him off quickly with a huff, "we're not keeping him." He paused a moment, allowing my words to digest, before turning to face me.

"What else are we supposed to do here?" Newt gestured to the Muggle with despair and confusion clearly in his eyes.

"I don't know but we're not taking him in!" I snorted at him before I rattled off my retort, gesturing to the Muggle in question as well. I don't think Newt and I'd ever really gotten into a major disagreement before, typically we both did the most logical thing to keep the creatures safe. So...this was a new territory for us, the novelty was evident in how unsure we both were as we faced each other.

I didn't understand how taking Kowalski with us was logical right now. Since I didn't understand it and Newt hadn't explained the benefits, there was no feckin' way we were doing that. It'd be absolutely mental to keep a muggle locked up in the case for two days, he was obviously talented at injuring himself and who knew how much damage he could do if he were left alone with a Nundu or a Graphorn.

I mean, he just-Newt would have to be bloody insane to think we actually could! We obviously lacked the physical capability to keep an eye on him as well as take care of every living thing in there at the same time.

"What do you suggest then?" He scoffed, sounding frustrated now as his voice got a touch louder during our little tiff and I didn't stop to consider his volume before I retorted.

"Again, I don't know! But, we're no-" I'd stopped trying to hide the anger and frustration with this situation in my voice, stopping only one octave below shouting.

"Hello!" Goldstein waved her hand between us, "what?" I snapped at her. The intrusion forced my head to slowly turn towards the sound, just so I could glower at her. She'd have obviously began to lose her mind in front of us, why else would she just yell hello at us in the middle of our discussion?

"Keep him?! We don't keep them!" Goldstein practically shouted at us and I pursed my lips in an attempt to not snap at her again as she ended our disagreement with a scolding finger tutting between Newt and I.

"Really? And here, I thought they were pets." I carped, glowering at her still. "Silly me." I was hoping to piss her off a little and it seemed I'd done just that.

"Agh!" I watched with some sense of morbid gratification as she actually stamped her foot, mumbling under her breath.

I didn't mind if Newt raised his voice; he was more than allowed to in my book, I couldn't even begin to count the number of times he'd had to deal with my screeching. However, she did not, she was just nosy and an annoyingly self-righteous outsider in this equation.

"Look, Mr. Scamander, Miss Maximate-" I held up a hand and corrected her with a tired sigh, "Maximae." I had a feeling I'd be correcting the Americans a lot in the next few days.

She didn't pay me much attention, ""whatever!" Her eyes rolled at me before she continued on her rant, "do you two know anything about the wizarding community in America?"

"Yeah, ton of issues getting wand permits and weird marriage laws, and oh-" I clapped excitedly, getting to my favourite bit about America's personal brand of stupidity, "clothing laws!"

"Clothing laws?" She repeated my words with a raised brow.

I'd actually discussed these with Newt before we'd left for New York nearly three days ago, I'd been attempting to figure out the best clothing to wear while travelling. He'd suggested trousers and a thicker vest in case it got windy while I reminded him that American's were odd about women wearing men's clothes.

"Yes. Clothing laws." I intoned, staring at her for a beat. "As in I could be arrested right this second for wearing these trousers." I nodded, speaking slowly as though she had suddenly suffered a massive blow to the head.

It was possible she'd suffered one. She'd been following us for however long and we hadn't noticed her, I'd been focused on any possible signs of magical creatures. Who knows what sort of trouble she might have ran into between now and then?

"That's not what I meant!" Goldstein stamped her foot, apparently I'd totally exasperated her with my detailing of their laws here.

"She's talking about the marriage laws." Newt declared, attempting to read the room in his own way and inform me of what the witch was so upset about.

"Ah, I get it now. Sorry, Goldstein." I nodded at him while apologising to her. He nodded back at me and for once it felt like we'd actually connected on the same plain. I was happy enough to understand what her issue was after he'd explained it to me. Unfortunately, I often failed to pick up on subtle clues with people I didn't know that well, (mainly because I didn't bother acknowledging them), but I was trying to improve.

"What?" She didn't sound as though she understood what he'd meant by marriage laws.

"We already know you have rather backwards laws about relations with non-magic people. That you're not meant to befriend them, that you can't marry them, which seems mildly absurd." He expanded on his knowledge of their laws involving Muggles, "right?" I realised he'd turned me, so I nodded my agreement.

I'm sure he didn't realise it but he'd actually known more about them than I did. I'd stopped my studying at the whole no fraternising part before we got on the boat and left it at that. Of course, I hadn't intended on marrying or becoming friends with any of the Muggles in New York.

"Who's going to marry him?" Goldstein scoffed, shaking her head before she moved to grip one of Kowalski's arms.

What was she on about then? We knew we weren't supposed to be friendly with him and yes, if we took him with us it might bend that law a bit. But Newt was likely the best candidate to heal the muggle, and it wasn't as though we were actually going to take him. Though, if we did, the experience might give us some new scholarly insights as Murtlap bites and Muggles weren't a well-documented subject.

"You're both coming with me—" Her eyes narrowed at us with the promise that she'd deal out quick justice if we didn't comply.

Unfortunately for her, I didn't often give much of a shite about threats so I just scoffed at her and considered the risks of ignoring her while she finagled his the Muggle's limps. I suppose we could just incapacitate her, maybe treat the Muggle if he looked like he was on death's doorstep before leaving to search for any other creatures.

I pursed my lips as my rational side informed me that it wasn't a fool-proof plan, and the consequences could be fatal. She'd inevitably find us again, she'd found us here. When she did find us, we'd definitely get arrested, wasting even more time, and there was distinct possibility that she'd kill my Niffler out of spite by that point.

"Do we really have too?" I almost groaned when she'd grunted at me and nodded. My body physically deflated at that, and I sighed.

"I'm...I'm dreaming, right?" Kowalski blinked at us with glassy eyes when Goldstein slung his arm around her shoulders, attempting to pull him away from his stance by the dresser.

"Yeah..." He nodded. "I'm tired, I never went to the bank. This is all just some big nightmare, right?" Kowalski continued to mutter to himself and everyone else in the room seemed to ignore him while Goldstein struggled with the full weight of his body.

"Oh, Gods," I mumbled out of horror as Goldstein actually grunted, attempting to stand him upright. I pursed my lips, watching her fall to the side before just catching herself before looking at us for help when the Muggle's head smacked against his flat's wall.

I cringed at the thud his head elicited when it'd bounced off the wall again as she almost fell over with him the second time. It was like watching a bloody ship sink...well, if the ship were a dazed muggle and she was water that kept freaking out while she tried to keep him afloat, so sort of like watching a ship sink.

I flinched at another thud that sounded off when Goldstein finally lost her balance entirely and fell to the ground. Kowalski staggered momentarily before landing atop of her frame and blinking at the ceiling. "Fine! Just give me your hand," I squeaked in response to her pitiful looks for help from the floor and stretched down to grab her hand.

"Just drop him why don't you," I was grumbling to myself, upset with my idiotic sense of morality as well as the fact that we had to deal with this right now. There were so many other important things we should be doing right now, fumbling about with a bloody muggle that thought he was dreaming wasn't one of them!

"Whasat?" Kowalski sat up with his arse firmly on top of Goldstein's back, forcibly pushing another gush of air out of her. I doubted that he actually knew where he was right now or what was going on considering that his eyes were glassy and his breath came in pants. Alright, she'd made a good point earlier; the man was incredibly ill.

"Bloody Hippogriff of a lad, isn't he?" I'd grunted while yanking on her hand as hard as I possibly could to drag her out from under him.

"Oh, he is." I groaned as my back seemed to cry out. It sent alarming zings of pain down my legs, forcing my face to contort while I continued to try and pull her towards me.

Suddenly, I found Newt had rushed forwards, "let me do it." He'd attempted to wrap his hand over mine and for some reason my brain though the best reaction was to just drop the witch's hand on the floor.

"I've got it." I dumbly shook my head at my companion after I realised I'd just dropped her hand. He seemed a touch upset with whatever he had running through his head, but thankfully backed away nonetheless. I'd figured out that I wasn't the strongest of the lot but that's fine, magic was still my friend...as was gravity for Mr Kowalski.

"Sorry." I smiled with a smug sense of gratification at said Muggle before raising my boot and pushing it off against his chest. "Oompf," went the air out of Kowalski's lungs as he haphazardly fell onto his back, just barely missing the bed-frame.

It apparently didn't take much for him to tumble over again and after he had, I grabbed Goldstein's hand once again to jerk her towards me. She slid across the wood floor much easier this time, which my back was incredibly thankful for.

Once she was out from under him, I ignored the sweat that had begun to gather on my forehead in lieu of grabbing my wand and figuring out how to transport him. I wasn't entirely sure as to what I'd do with it right now but I was damned if I would try to physically jerk him around.

Despite my stubbornness, I did realise that I'd wind up in bed for days if I continued to act like I was 16 again. Old quidditch and war injuries were fine when you were younger, but age had a way of pointing out all of your past mistakes. Especially when you didn't fully prepare yourself for any erroneous exercises such as pushing and pulling on a bloke that dwarfed you in size.

"Mercy lewis," Goldstein's face was red now and she took in a great breath of air that I imagined she'd begun to miss while having Mr Kowalski sitting on her. Relief and victory flowed through me while I attempted to stretch out the pains in my back with some hope that I wouldn't feel the consequences of this in the morning.

"You should have just let me help." Newt's tone was verging on petulant child with a touch of a scolding for me as he muttered. I cut my companion a look that told him to hush, and he pointedly ignored it. "We're going to have to straighten your back out later at this rate, anyway." Newt's incessant mumbling irked me.

I glowered at him as I realised he was ignoring me. "I'll figure it out myself," I hissed at him as though doing so meant that Goldstein couldn't hear us from less than a meter away.

He shrugged my annoyance off, as he continued to ignore me. I knew he was attempting to irritate me by staring just to the side of my face with a pinched expression that included his brows slightly furrowed and his lips in a thin line.

Alright, fine! So I should have asked for help, but I was tired of having to constantly depend on him to come in and save the day when I'd made a not so great decision.

I was clever, right? Well, I mean I thought I was rather clever half the time...though the other half included me stumbling to get my body in motion and often failing. The phrase 'too clever by half' sometimes rang through my mind in my mother's voice, much to my chagrin.

Another mumble sounded off right as a solid ding shook Kowalski's bed and reminded me that he was still somewhat conscious and banging into everything. It was a vaguely amazing talent, I considered, he could somehow continuously injure himself without our help. Lovely. How did I get myself into these sorts of situations?

A wave of my wand and some careful focus charmed Kowalski's body to carefully float away from his sparse bed-frame and off the floor. Goldstein let out a short yet dramatic gasp as she stared between me and the body with a look that said I'd just sacrificed a few virgins in from of her Madame President.

I raised a brow in return and glanced at Newt to see if he knew what I'd done wrong this time. He was still pointedly ignoring me, rolling my eyes at his sulking I glanced back at Goldstein. "What now?" Genuine curiosity prompted my words, I was wondering what I'd done now to provoke this sort of reaction from her.

"You did it without a wand," she gestured with a nod towards Kowalski as I slowly nodded. "Yes?" I stared at her for a while longer, unsure and vaguely confused as to what was happening here. Had I broken another one of their silly laws, was there one against wordless magic?

"Didn't know the Brits were that talented is all." She grinned as I narrowed my eyes, realising that she'd just chaffed me.

"Here we go," Newt mumbled before I spared a glare in his general direction before eyeing Goldstein's slowly disappearing grin with ire.

I could take a bit of teasing! I wasn't that tetchy when someone called me English...okay so maybe I was. I couldn't help it! When I was little, people seemed to either just dismiss me due to my lineage or physically turn me away from pubs and shops.

"I was just saying, good job. Jeeze, didn't know the English couldn't take a joke." She sounded a touch more muted after I continued to glower at her with Newt's comment ringing through my mind. I was genuinely trying to bite my tongue right now, and I'd found it increasingly difficult to do so around Newt.

In the past, I'd prided myself on my ability to compartmentalise my roaring thoughts and emotions as well as my ability to control myself. I snapped after a moment of silence on Goldstein's behalf and her bewildered though mildly offended expression lingering. It was as though she couldn't figure out why I'd get so huffy, but what did she know?

"I'm not a bloody Brit!"

EDIT AS OF DEC. 1st, 2018: Hiya guys, sorry, I read through this chapter and my brain decided that it needed to be edited. No major changes, but I think her personality shines through more this way.