Written for the Slytherin Cabal's FB group Death By Quill 2019 Round 3 writing challenge. I love this challenge and participate every year! My pairing was Leta Lestrange/Newt Scamander and the prompt was Ink Magic!

Thank you to AlexandraO for her hard beta work and brownlark42 for being the alpha with the mostest!. And finally thanks to the modmins of Slytherin Cabal for running this fest!

If you liked this or hated it, drop me a line in a review! Find me on Tumblr at crochetawayhpff.

Pairing: Leta Lestrange/Newt Scamander

Rating: T

Summary: Leta Lestrange makes a discovery and incidentally sets in motion events beyond her control.

The Tattoo

Leta Lestrange did not smile as a child. She couldn't think of a single time that a smile had crossed her lips. Not until she'd met Newt Scamander in their third year, at least. That was the year she had found a small unused broom cupboard that was inexplicably in front of a window with a gorgeous view of the grounds at Hogwarts. It had become her hiding place, and over the course of the year, she spent more and more time in it.

By chance, Newt had found the same one, and one day when Leta had already been occupying the broom cupboard, Newt had barrelled through the door. At first, Leta had been angry. It seemed like she was always angry. But then Newt had grinned at her lopsidedly, sheepishly, his head tilted down and toward the side, and Leta felt herself softening. The rigid composure she held herself in at all times seemed to melt in the presence of this boy. She felt the corners of her mouth quirk up, just slightly and marvelled at the fact that she was actually smiling. It had only taken her thirteen years to do so.

In her fifth year, Leta had found an old tome that probably should have been in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library but had somehow evaded notice. It was all about using magic and imbuing it into various materials. It was a small, side-branch of Alchemy, a subject that wasn't very popular in these modern times at Hogwarts. Leta became fascinated. When she reached the latter half of the book and discovered how to combine magic and ink. The possibilities were endless, and Leta's mind raced as she began working out a way to combine ink and magic so that only Newt could see letters she wrote to him.

It was in her sixth year that she saw an article in the Daily Prophet about how common the practice of tattooing was in the upper classes of the Muggles that an idea began to form in Leta's head.

Tattoos weren't uncommon in the wizarding world, but Leta had never heard for anyone imbuing tattoo ink with magic. And the ideas began to spin out in her head.

Newt had been her constant companion since third year. They were very nearly inseparable, so when she brought up creating a magical tattoo, he was very interested.

"How would it work?" Newt asked.

"Well, I think it would depend on the magic we combine with the ink," Leta pushed a book toward him and tapped the passage she wanted him to read. "Wouldn't some sort of way to communicate over long distances be a handy thing to have?"

"What, instead of an owl?" Newt grinned.

"Yes." Leta gave him her small smile in return. "Instead of an owl, imagine the ink on your skin appearing in whatever message you want? I imagine there would be a character limit, but wouldn't that be a much faster way to correspond with your friends?"

"Perhaps," Newt replied. "But would you need a different tattoo for each friend? Or could multiple people be linked together?"

It hadn't occurred to Leta in that very moment, as her only friend was Newt, but it was a rather brilliant idea. But would it work? And would there need to be a central hub? It was an interesting proposition. She would have to think on it more and maybe do some more research.

Leta had always liked the library at Hogwarts. It was like a Muggle church, large vaulted ceilings with high windows that let in the light. It was always quiet, people spoke in hushed tones as if they were revering the books and the knowledge they held within their spines. Leta took a deep breath every time she walked into the library, savouring the scent of parchment, ink, and book bindings.

Since starting her tattoo project, she had begun spending even more time than usual in the library. It's where Newt found her one day midway through their seventh year. There were four books open on the table before her, and she was scribbling fiercely on a scroll of parchment.

"That doesn't look like our Transfiguration essay," Newt said lightly as he slipped into the chair beside her.

"It's not," Leta hummed quietly. She stopped writing for a moment to consult one of the books.

"Your tattoo project again?"

"I'm really close," Leta said. "What do you think of this?" She slid a piece of parchment over to him. She'd been experimenting with what the tattoo would actually be of. She didn't think she'd want words tattooed into her skin for the rest of her life, but perhaps an animal of some sort.

"Is that a Jarvey?" Newt asked, cocking his head to the side. It was his most endearing quirk. One that always made Leta smile.

She nodded and ducked her own head in a blush. The Jarvey was in direct inspiration from Newt, and she wasn't stupid, she was sure he caught on to that.

"It's brilliant." Newt grinned. "When will you be ready to tattoo me?"

Leta looked up startled. "I didn't know you were offering."

"Who else were you going to test it with?" Newt asked.

Leta frowned. "Fine. Let's meet at the broom cupboard tomorrow. I think I'll have it all figured out by then."

"How do they work?" Newt asked, reading over her shoulder.

Leta laughed under her breath. "The tattoos? The magic? The ink? Which part do you need explained?"

"Well, mostly how you plan to tattoo us, really."

"Oh, that's the easy part. There's a spell for that."

"Really? There's a spell for everything apparently." Newt stood and stretched. Leta did everything she could to not look at the lithe lines of his body.

"Alright, see you there after dinner then?"

Newt nodded and ambled away toward the Magizoology section of the library.

Leta entered the broom cupboard armed with a single scroll, the scrap of parchment with the drawing of the Jarvey, and her wand. She was ready to do this and couldn't wait to begin sending messages to Newt. She could just imagine his face when his tattoo began to prickle in class the next day. Newt was waiting for her and had a slightly queasy look on his face.

"Don't tell me you're nervous." Leta set the scroll and the Jarvey drawing onto a small table they had nicked a few years ago for the space.

"Not nervous, exactly," Newt replied. "I don't like pain much, and well, everything I've ever heard about tattoos is that they are rather painful."

"It'll only be a moment's sting, don't worry. I've practised already."

"On yourself? Can I see?"

Leta rolled up the sleeve of her left arm and showed him the small Jarvey on the inside of her wrist. It wriggled and jumped around when Newt put his finger out to touch it.

"Wow," Newt breathed.

"Neat, huh?" Leta couldn't help but grin at him.

"So how does the communication part work?" Newt asked.

"The only way I could make it work was to have a parent or hub, that would communicate with its children, or spokes, and vice versa. I tried to have it a more open system, but the messages would just garble themselves. This was the only way that seemed to work."

"So yours is the parent?"

Leta nodded. "Yours will be a spoke, but you can still communicate with me. And if we added anyone to the network, then I think you'd also be able to communicate with them too, but that was something else that was difficult to test for." Newt had been rolling up the sleeve of his left arm as she spoke.

"You ready?" Leta asked. Newt nodded, so she picked up the picture of the drawing and arranged it on the inside of Newt's left wrist. She tapped it three times with her wand, then circled it, chanting all the while under her breath. After a moment, the magic that she had put into the ink on the parchment sunk through and into Newt's skin. Newt grunted, and his jaw clenched at the contact, but after a moment it was over, and his body relaxed.

"Wasn't so bad, was it?" Leta asked as she removed the parchment and looked at the matching Jarvey on Newt's wrist.

"Not at all," Newt breathed and pulled his wrist closer to his face. A soft smile bloomed on his lips as he watched the Jarvey gambol around.

"So how does the message part work?"

"Easy, just tap the Jarvey with your wand, thinking of what you want to convey."

Newt pulled his wand out and tapped the Jarvey. Leta's wrist pinched, and she held it up to see the message. The Jarvey was speaking, and above it, a conversation bubble appeared, like from a Muggle comic book.

Leta Lestrange is utterly brilliant.

Leta grinned at the message and then back up at Newt. "Thank you."

"No, thank you! Really, this is amazing. Send me one now."

Leta tapped her Jarvey and thought her message. Newt hissed and peered at his wrist, his lips twisting into a quick smile at her message.

If Leta had known that this was the last time she and Newt would be together and happy she would have savoured it more. It was only a week after that Newt was expelled from Hogwarts. Had she known what heartache her research into imbuing ink with magic and tattooing it onto people, she never would have left the scroll containing her research in the Hogwarts library for a young Tom Riddle to find. As it was, Leta was dead before Tom Riddle was a year old.

~Fin~