Hiya!
Heres the next chapter! As there were several questions/comments I wanted to address in this by various guests and peoples, I'm hoping you'll know who you are. I feel like I've been slacking on responding to these as you guys typically do read through the chapter before you give me your honest thoughts and it was rather rude on my behalf to not address them! I've underlined key components to your questions in hopes that you'll know which one is for you. :)
Bored411: They are adorable! I had fun with their little arguments simply because Newt gets shoved into a cinnamon roll box that doesn't allow him to get mad or if he does its just adorable somehow. I'm thinking when things get more serious that he'll be less...cinnamoney and more 'holy crap, stand back, hes mad.'
Guest 1: I'm not the biggest fan of Tina either but I do have to admit she's got some spunk. I'm not sure that Tina's controlling them but that may be because I'm the writer, I figured she'd just analyse the risk-benefit ratio of following Tina's orders up until the second that she's not got the upper-hand legally speaking.
Guest 2: I saw you posted two reviews and was minor confused for a moment until I realised they were just a touch different. Your review actually gave me a way to tie in what I'd been planning in the next chapters, so thank you! After a bunch of research on Legilimency and Occlumency, it turns out that JK Rowling sort of destroyed everything Snape said about both of them by having Queenie being a natural Legilimens since birth. Your question will be expanded on in writing next chapter, and thank you again for thinking about all this, it was very helpful! :)
AcaciaDawn105: I'm attempting to figure out how to pull off a kinky Newt as he's characterised as this awkward, shy, stuttering mess that basically stares at his crush from afar and cries when she walks out of his view in most fics. Canon Newt seems to be a bit more confident and reckless but he is also incredibly anti-social and unsympathetic to human plights. He knows people think he's weird, he just doesn't care unless its a loved one/friend.
Guest 3: Thank you for giving this a try if you're generally not into FB fics! I've had fun with their growing chemistry, which is sort of funny as I generally get frustrated with fics that draw out two character's romance over more than five chapters (and I've officially done it for 22).
To the Guest that Reviewed Chapter 21: Sorry for not addressing your comment on the last chapter! I meant to do so but then promptly forgot, Grindelwald is a character whose traits are things that I connect to someone like BBC's Jim Moriarty. In layman's terms, a special kind of psychopath that can acknowledge someone who might be his equal (like Dumbledore) and enjoys a bit of chaos. He's incredibly charming when he wants to be, smart, and focused on a larger picture. As for a Grindelwald/Tina or a Grindelwald/Ara, I think that Tina admires Percival Graves as a superior who listens to her and Ara is merely interesting considering she corrals an enraged Niffler. But their interactions will be developed when she gets interrogated (a scene I'm currently writing).
Guest 4, .2018, and Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967: Thank you for the reviews (they are my fuel for writing this stuff), and I hope you like this chapter!
If you haven't reviewed, please do skip this portion and enjoy the chapter! :)
Through our running between the streets and avoiding loud awful smelling cars with Kowalski half awake, we'd stopped to allow the muggle to retch. I'd lost count of the number of times we'd stopped but eventually we came up to a house where Goldstein yanked Newt and me round a truck.
At first, I was worried she'd spotted another Billywig or some other creature considering one nearly flew into her mouth a few minutes ago. But right after that thought, I found myself annoyed.
We'd somehow managed to avoid detection for the most part, though I imagined that was due more so to my intention to remain undetected and my wand reciprocating with a lovely invisibility charm on the Muggle's body. If we just started darting round trucks, it'd begin to get a little odd for anyone else on the street and then all this work would be for nothing.
"What's the matter now?" I almost tsked at her but kept my frustration and impatience to a modest groan while she peeked at the building across the street.
"Okay—before we go in—I'm not supposed to have men on the premises." Goldstein nodded, appearing to consider the risks and benefits of sneaking a muggle and a wizard into her house.
Newt apparently picked up on this as well, "we can easily seek other accommodations." He stood and attempted to usher me away from the truck, "off we go, Ar-."
"Oh no, you don't!" She had a steely look in her eyes before her hand darted out and grabbed a hold of Newt's forearm after he'd began ushering me. "You two are going inside." Eyeing her hand sliding to his wrist when he tugged a little, I attempted to ignore the uneasy feeling the sight left me with and followed it up to his face.
Newt spared a hopeful look in my direction, I raised a brow. "Uh, " mumbling before I pursed my lips at his look. I realised that he thought I was could say something to change her mind. Just because I could be charming in most social circles, didn't mean I could charm a bloody Clabbert to tap-dance.
"Alright?" I turned my gaze back to Goldstein for a second to see that her brow had furrowed with her eyes on me. I stared at her while she scowled, realising she was waiting on me specifically to speak at this point.
Her eyes were hard-rimmed and fixed on my face, so strongly so that it was as if she suddenly lacked the ability to move her eyes, like they'd rusted into place. I had to admit she had a mighty glare, one which gave me the impression that any second now, she'd start spewing fire from her ears.
I glanced back at Newt for some help here and swallowed after seeing the expectancy in his eyes. He hadn't changed his mind. Terrific. I began nodding, making a quick decision that she was the larger threat here.
"Alright, Goldstein." I nodded, despite his expectancy turning annoyed expression at my agreement. I was not even going to try and persuade her right now, what was the point? We wasted even more time dawdling out here?
She didn't let go of him as we crossed the street, which I couldn't decide was a good or bad thing. I did my best to guide the muggle I was hoping we still had following behind us with as little injuries as possible.
It's true that my companion was fit, in fact, I knew that a little too well after sleeping in the same vicinity as Newt for months. I was also well aware of his ability to come out relatively unscathed in most situations, but I doubted his talents would stop her from snapping his wrist if she were antagonised. I supposed that Newt had never really dealt with an enraged witch before and why would he have? It wasn't as though he went around breaking hearts...at least not intentionally.
After scuttling up the apartment stairs and making sure that the Muggle didn't bash his head on the stairs as we went, Newt sulked off to peek out a window while I scanned the so-called apartment that Goldstein lived in. I was looking for clues as to her personality-no. Actually I just looking for anything at all that might help us appeal to her and maybe even get her to let us leave.
Although impoverished looking on the outside, it seemed that the apartment was warm inside the door way and well-lit by workaday magic. An iron is working away on its own in a corner, and a clotheshorse revolved with rickety grating sounds in front of the fire as its wooden legs dealt with the weight of the American's smalls.
If I had to guess, I'd say that the frilly pink ones weren't Goldstein's. If anything they likely belonged to the blond who was currently standing in front of dummy in a silk slip. She appeared to be deeply concentrated on the dress worn by her dummy but glanced away from it to see the sad mess we were while I finally dropped Kowalski.
"Oof," Kowalski heaved and huffed, leaning on a nearby table while he gawked at the blond. To his credit, he landed on his feet better than I'd expected him to considering how pale and sweaty he looked.
The blond began to grin in a manner that would have made King George blush, "Teenie-you brought men home?"
Teenie, eh? A small smile fought its way across my lips, and I averted my gaze to study the number of magazines that were strewn across the room. I figured it'd be simpler than me outright snickering and I'd get to snoop a little, I mean I'd already seen what her unders looked like, who knows what else I might find in their sitting room?
"Gentlemen, this is my sister." I glanced up to see her snatching all the non-pink ones off the racks and smirked to myself. "You want to put something on, Queenie?" Goldstein's tone made her sound more insistent than simply giving her sister advice.
"Oh, sure-" Queenie agreed softly, though not particularly embarrassed. After seeing the third Transfiguration Today in a row, I glanced across at Newt.
I was expecting him to be staring at her with the same bewitched look that Kowalski had, but he seemed more concerned with attempting to open the window so he could stick his head out of it. I focused back on the magazine in my hand with a small smile. Oddly, his lack of interest made me feel a little better about this situation.
"So, who are they?" I decided that it might be best if I actually paid attention to the conversation and looked up to see she was now wearing the dress she'd been so focused on originally.
"That's Mr. Scamander. He's committed a serious infraction of the National Statute of Secrecy-" Goldstein began as Queenie grinned, "He's a criminal?" Goldstein nodded at her sister, waving her hand at me now, "-Uh-huh, this is Miss Maximae," I gave Queenie a small smile, despite the odd intrusive feeling I got when I looked into her eyes.
"And this is Mr. Kowalski, he's a No-Maj-" Queenie's grin quickly fell away to a softer look of worry, "A No-Maj? Teen-What are you up to?" She took a few steps closer to us, eyeing the muggle as though she was trying to find any possible weapons on his person.
"He's sick-it's a long story-They've lost something, and I'm going to help them find it." Goldstein waved off her sister's concerning before she began to straighten up their sitting room with a touch of frustration as she banged the magazines on an end-table.
"We don't need your help finding anything." I frowned, immediately trying to get this woman off of our trail. Merlin, she was a persistent little bugger.
She stopped her banging for a moment to stare at me with disbelief, "I almost ate one of your creatures." My lips pursed at that, she wasn't wrong but we didn't need her meddling with creatures she didn't understand.
"So? I'm sure everyone accidentally swallows a fly here and there." I shrugged, hoping I looked less intense and maybe more apathetic. Maybe apathy was how I'd get her to leave well enough alone. She'd only upset the beasts and then we'd have to deal with her moaning at being bitten by a distressed Occamy or even Bowtruckle.
Goldstein rolled her eyes at me, setting the magazines down to actually face me with a hand on her hip. "If you don't want any of your little creatures getting blamed for all the issues we've been having, you'll let me hel-" A clatter grabbed our attention, as Kowalski staggered and knocked into the edge of a coffee table before he fell back onto their sofa.
"You need to sit down, honey." Queenie and her sister were quick to hover over Kowalski as he seemed to get reacquainted with the world once more. I turned my head towards Newt and the door, considering the possibility of them being distracted long enough for Newt and I to slip out.
"Hey-" Queenie paused as I glanced at the door, not listening intently, "-He hasn't eaten all day. And-"
I looked back at her when she paused for the second time, "-aw, that's rough." She nodded understandingly, placing a hand on his arm as she crouched to look at him eye to eye. What exactly was happening here? He hadn't said anything at all.
"-He didn't get the money he wanted for his bakery." Queenie appeared to be reporting the Muggle's thoughts back to her sister who nodded, looking a little worried still while she hovered.
"You bake, honey? I love to cook." I raised a brow as a cold wave of realisation splashed my face, he hadn't said anything outside of a few affirmative grunts. She was a Legilimens, I surmised while the two of them seemed to have a silent conversation where she smiled and nodded.
The last interaction I'd had with one ended rather terribly-Well horrifically is a better adjective. A gigantic fight that left neither of us interested in continuing the relationship. He'd been ex-boyfriend in fact, and at first he was mysterious and ever so perceptive with all of my likes and dislikes that it was exciting.
Unfortunately, he'd picked up on my interest in fighting in The Great War in a moment of vulnerability and forbade me to go. To which, of course, I responded with promptly signing up in a Muggle's recruitment centre. I hated Legilimens though not as a general group, just the annoyingly intrusive ones. It might also have something to do with the fact that I'd never been any good at Legilimency.
He'd always stressed me out. I could never confidently tell if my thoughts were mine or if they'd been fussed with and capitalised on. Especially when I had random intrusive ones like, hey we should jump off that edge-or what if we don't tell the bobby that we saw that kid steal some chips?
"You're a Legilimens?" I blinked as I realised that Newt's attention had finally been drawn from the window as he edged closer to the couch. His eyes almost sparkled with the possibility of a new ability to study and note, ever the odd scholar.
She nodded, smiling softly as she turned her attention towards him, "uh-huh, yeah." She frowned, "but I always have trouble with your kind. Brits. It's the accent."
I raised another brow as I considered the possibility of me thinking with the thickest Irish accent I could possibly muster. She glanced in my direction and alarm bells began to ring, so I did exactly what I did in the past: I focused on funnelling all emotions and thoughts out of my head until the bells stopped ringing.
"You're quite skilled." I noted, pursing my lips as I tried to force her out and schooled my expression. "You'd have to be, to do it even when you're not using a wand."
"Oh, I don't know. I was just born like this, you're much better than I am." She waved me off with a flattered smile, despite the confusion in her eyes when she scanned my face. I wasn't sure if she knew just how terrible I was at Legilimency from peeking into my mind and was trying to butter me up for something right now.
"Uh huh." I almost scoffed at her sudden modesty as she focused back on Kowalski when he tried to sit up properly amongst the velvet pillows.
I peeked in my breast pocket, checking in, and saw that Aurelius was snoozing away still. Little shite could sleep through just about anything if he wasn't picked up, a trait that he shared with Newt. I envied them on more than one occasion for that.
"You know how to read minds?" Kowalski sounded entirely appalled and for a moment, I wasn't sure why outside of a masculine embarrassment. I'd noticed something like that with men who weren't completely smooth in their approach to me, their cheeks would turn red and they'd shout if I snickered a little at it.
"Aw, don't worry, honey. Most guys think what you was thinking, first time they see me." Queenie's tone was just as soft and had the same lilt as it'd had when she was nearly naked.
"Now," she leaned down to him, grinning before she nibbled her lip. "You need food!"
I stared at her back with unabashed disbelief as she nearly skipped towards the kitchen. I was lightly bothered by how cheerful she was-No, that's a lie. Quite honestly, I was impressed. Not only had she heard the man's licentious thoughts when he'd been dropped on his arse, but she was also kind enough to dismiss it.
When I felt like the sisters were focused entirely on conversing while they prepared dinner, I edged towards Newt who'd gone back to staring out the window. He didn't appear to feel like acknowledging me despite the fact that I knew he saw I was there, his eyes had darted towards me before continuing to pointedly stare out at the dark city.
"Newt," I finally mumbled to him after a minute ticked by of him ignoring me. "We need to talk." I almost groaned when he just spared me a short glance before continuing to gaze out the window.
If we didn't chat, we couldn't come up with a strategy for evading Goldstein and possibly healing the Muggle's ailment. I mean we could still technically just seize the moment if an opportunity presented itself but if we didn't plan it together, we'd end up acting more like a pair of newborn giraffes trying to take their first steps.
"Please." I pursed my lips while briefly considering what he'd do if I smacked his shoulder with one of the dozens of magazines in the sister's sitting room.
I didn't need to grab one though, as he turned his body slightly towards me. To someone else, it might have looked like he was just shifting in his stance but I knew most of Newt's social interactions were guided by his knowledge of Magizoology. If he was willing to have his body facing mine, he was paying attention to what I said and acknowledged it.
"I was thinking, maybe we saw to the Muggle after dinner." I continued, hopeful of his body language.
He gave me a small nod and I let myself smile a little at that. "Good, we can talk more about getting out of here after dinner." I nodded at him before turning away to focus on assessing the Niffler and what to do about his situation as I imagined Goldstein wouldn't like him being free to roam her flat.
"So as I don't know if you can control yourself properly," I sighed at the little guy in my breast pocket, he clicked at me twice as if he disagreed. I gave him my best don't-even-try look, to which he clicked once at before shifting in my pocket.
I imagined that was his version of a petulant 'fine!'. "That's what I thought, now I know you've eaten twice your fill in sweets and since you won't get hungry for a while, it might be best that you have a bit of kip."
I waited until he seemed to nod before I continued, "yeah, so-" I was cut off by the soft poking of Newt's case against my side and glanced at him. He wasn't looking at me but the fact that he could obviously hear me and was offering his case told me that he'd agreed with my assessment.
I turned my gaze back to Aurelius who was still watching me with haughty eyes, "so I was thinking you might enjoy resting amongst all of your treasures." I raised a brow, awaiting his response which was him attempting to crawl out of my pocket.
"Hang on," I snorted as he failed to climb out of my pocket, his body was too short to be able to hoist himself over the edge. Before helping him out, I grabbed the case Newt had offered out of his hands and turned, setting it down on the back of the Goldstein's sofa.
I opened it and slid my hand into my pocket, waiting until he'd grabbed a hold of my fingers before gently pulling him out. "Off you go." I lowered him down to the case and waited until he'd clambered off my hand and disappeared down the ladder.
"Thanks." I nodded at Newt while focusing on closing the case and snapping it firmly shut. He didn't say anything in return but took the case off of their sofa before continuing to stare out the window.
Newt was essentially sulking but he appeared to be getting over it. I wasn't sure as to what part of today he was sulking about specifically, or if it was everything, I didn't particularly care to ask why. Feelings were tricky as a whole, but dealing with hurt feelings in someone I cared a good deal about was even more tricky and I just didn't have the energy to do so right now.