Disclaimer: I do not own "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in any way, shape, or form! I only own my OC, "Sophie Millicent Kingston" and the plot of this story!

Author's Note: Sorry for not updating, but this story barely gets reviews, which causes me to be unmotivated when it comes to updates. So if you review I'll be more excited to update!

Also CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD. I'M SHOOK'D.

Also... lemme know if you guys would be interested in seeing Sophie and Newt's story continue into the movies. This story is supposed to be a prequel to the first movie, and I was actually originally planning to be done with Fanfiction soon, but because movies are a lot less high maintenance then say a TV show... I could hypothetically be able to do it. But then the problem becomes one movie is released every two years-5 movies across 10 years. Two have come out so far, and I don't know if I'll still be writing Fanfiction by then. I don't know, we'll see. If I don't end up doing the movies I still think this story is good enough to stand on its own.

Enjoy!

Sophie's fingers ached, but she finally dropped the pen onto her book. All of her notes on Haldra were officially finished. She felt really bad for Haldra's main caretakers. Despite what had happened earlier in the day, she really lucked out with Felix.

She leaned her head back and felt a small crack in her neck, but the relief that washed over her was so sweet she didn't care. There was a knock at her door, and Sophie turned her head and called out, "Enter!"

The door opened, and two heads-one blonde one brunette-poked into the door. "Hey!" Penelope greeted excitedly, while Astra simply offered a warm smile.

Sophie laughed and waved them both in. "What are you doing here?" she wondered. She snuck a peek at the clock. "And how did you get in? Doors closed half an hour ago."

"The security goblin let us in," Astra answered as she sat down in the chair across from Sophie's desk. Penelope chose to stand and poke around her office. "And by 'let us in', I mean that Penelope tricked him while we came in through the Hungarian Horntail wing."

Sophie sharply turned her head to look at her youngest sister. "You didn't use magic, did you? Because you don't lose the Trace until-"

"I'm not stupid, sister," Penelope reminded her with a cross look on her face. "I know that the Ministry would have my head if I used magic outside of school. I simply used a trick that one of my Muggle-born friends taught me. I tossed a rock across the hall, and when he went to go investigate it, Astra and I walked right in."

Sophie looked at her other younger sister. "And you condoned this behaviour?"

Astra lifted her hands in surrender. "More like supervised her behaviour. Besides, she had gone ahead and done it before I even realized it."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "You never said why you were here," she said. "Is something wrong?"

Astra cocked a brow. "We're going to the cinema, remember? That romantic movie arrived last week and you said we'd all go, as a 'sisters' night."

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut. "Right. That was tonight." She opened her eyes again. "Okay, we can still go, but I have just a couple of things to do before-"

Penelope suddenly shrieked, and Sophie and Astra both were instantly on their feet, wands drawn in the direction where Penelope had been standing. She stumbled backwards until Astra was able to grab her sister's arm and pull her back. "What? What is it?" she demanded.

"I saw something move," she whispered. She pointed to the small stand with framed pictures of Sophie and their family. "Behind there."

Astra rolled her eyes and pocketed her wand. "You probably just imagined it."

"I saw something!" she insisted. She looked over to Sophie. "Soph, I really did!"

Despite thinking that Astra was right, Sophie decided to humour her sister. She kept her wand firmly trained on the table and took small, careful steps forward. Reaching her hand out, she grabbed the picture frame of Sophie and her dad in one fluid motion and lifted it up.

Well, it turned out Penelope was right for once. There was something hiding behind the picture frames. But Sophie wasn't entirely sure what this something was.

It was an incredibly small green creature. Its entire body resembled a twig, with a small leaf protruding from the head and tiny twig-like fingers to match. Its tiny black beady eyes looked up at Sophie, and a sound that resembled a whimper came out of it.

Penelope's eyes glowed. "A Bowtruckle!"

Sophie turned her head. "A what?"

"It's a Bowtruckle!" she repeated, giddiness heavily laced in her voice. "Kettleburn taught us about them in fourth-year. It was the highest mark I got on an assignment in that class. Don't you remember learning about them?"

Now that she mentioned it, the longer that Sophie looked at the Bowtruckle, the more the memory of Sophie standing in her fourth-year Care of Magical Creatures tugged at the back of her brain. "Bowtruckle," she repeated softly. She bent down at the knees and slowly reached her hand out. Not in a claw-like way, but hand completely flat and palm facing up, as if telling the Bowtruckle she meant no harm.

"I'm not sure what one is doing in Romania, though," Penelope mused, tilting her head to the side. "They're native to Southern Germany."

"Perhaps that means he's domesticated?" Astra offered, taking a small step towards the Bowtruckle. "I mean, he hasn't run away at the sight of humans. Perhaps someone owns it."

Sophie's hand was now right in front of the Bowtruckle. She kept her hand completely still, so as to not frighten the creature. After a few seconds, the Bowtruckle took the tiniest step towards Sophie's hand, before sniffing her fingers.

Sophie knew what she would smell if she sniffed her own fingers-lavender hand cream, metal, and the faintest trace of dirt. But when the Bowtruckle sniffed her fingers, she knew he was trying to determine if she was trustworthy or not.

After what felt like ages, the Bowtruckle finally lifted its tiny legs and shuffled so that he crawled on top of Sophie's hand. The spider-like legs almost instinctively made her drop him, but she kept her hand firmly still as she stood up completely. The Bowtruckle sat down in her hand and stared up at her in wonder.

"How did you get here, little one?" Sophie thought aloud as she looked down at him. "I know you're not going to answer, but it's still a thought. Did you come here with someone?"

More whimpering noises. She pouted and looked up at her sister. "Perhaps I should've specialized in Bowtruckles instead of dragons."

"Well, are you going to take him to the Ministry?" Astra wondered. "The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures should be able to take care of him, if they can't track down an owner or something."

As if he understood Astra's words, the Bowtruckle immediately wrapped his arms around Sophie's thumb and clung onto it. More tiny whimpering came out of him, and he shook his small head, the little leaf at the top swaying.

One look at the poor creature's despair and Sophie made up her mind. "I can't. If I drop him off at the Ministry, who knows what they'll do with him. The last thing they'll do is spent time and resources trying to track down his owner. They'll probably end up sending him to Durmstrang or Hogwarts to be used in Care of Magical Creatures classes, and then he'll never be reunited with his owner."

The Bowtruckle visibly relaxed against Sophie's fingers, and the sensation tickled her hand. She smiled down at him. "I'll take care of him until I can find his owner."

"How?" Penelope asked. "You've literally never seen him around before."

"Exactly!" Sophie gushed. "He's only shown up now, which means he came with someone who's been here recently. I think Adrian just returned from a visit to Germany-perhaps this little fella tagged along. I'll ask around, see what I can find. At the very least I can't leave the poor thing here by himself. Who knows what'll happen to him."

"So you're just going to bring him home?" Penelope wondered, looking down at him with a bit of skepticism.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Relax Pen, he's not going to steal your bedroom. He'll stay with me until I can figure something out."

"Alright, if that's what you think," she said, holding her hands up. "Can we please go to the cinema now? The film should be starting soon."

Sophie rolled her eyes but nodded. "Let me gather my things. At the very least I can get some work down at home after the film." She gently lowered her hand onto the desk so the Bowtruckle could jump off and wait while she collected her things (she couldn't very well do it with one hand), but he refused to budge. She held her hand out for about ten seconds, but when he turned his head and looked up at Sophie, it became very clear that he wasn't going to let her go. With a small smile, Sophie raised her hand to her shoulder. "Alright, then. If you insist on staying close to me, at least stay somewhere where I can have access to both hands."

The Bowtruckle happily jumped from Sophie's hand to her shoulder, grabbing onto her earlobe. It tickled her and sent a shiver down her spine, but she recovered quickly and put some folders into her bag. The last thing she did was grab her engagement ring from her drawer and slip it back on, earning her a strange look from her sisters, but they were wise enough to keep their mouths shut and turn the other way.

Sophie swung the strap over her other shoulder and with that, the three Kingston sisters left the office, one companion heavier.

Sophie was utterly exhausted after the film (which she had to admit was rather good, for a film that Penelope had chosen) but she still had a lot of work to do, so when they got home and her sisters both started to fight for the bathroom to get ready for bed, Sophie went straight to her bedroom and shut the door behind her.

The Bowtruckle had stayed faithfully quiet during the entire film, only making whimpering noises every now and then. However, when they left the theatre and prepared to Apparate home, he started to get more and more whiny and irritable, and Sophie didn't know why.

She shrugged her blazer off and draped it over the back of her desk chair. She put her hand next to her shoulder, and the Bowtruckle grumpily moved from her shoulder to her hand. She put her hand down onto her desk, and he crawled off. She sat down in the chair and stared at him. "Alright. What is it you want?"

He stared back up at her, making more grumpy faces. "I'm a dragonologist, not a Bowtruckle specialist. I can't help you unless you can indicate what I can do for you."

He blew a raspberry at her, and Sophie couldn't help but drop her jaw in confusion. She had no idea Bowtruckles could have such a temper! Perhaps she should've paid more attention during the lesson in Kettleburn's class.

The Bowtruckle stood up and looked around his surroundings. He froze, and a tiny squeak emitted from his body. Before she knew it, the Bowtruckle was running towards the vase with the roses she had received from John she had on her desk. He climbed the glass vase with ease and swung himself forward until he grabbed onto the leaf. Once he sat on top properly, he opened his little mouth and chomped down. What looked like relief flooded his face as he chewed, and he gulped noisily before tearing off another chunk.

Sophie tilted her head to the side as she watched him eat. "Well, I suppose that makes sense. Appropriate too, though it does feel a little bit like cannibalism." She shook her head and stood up. She changed into a pair of pajamas before bringing her bag over to her desk and settling in for the night.

The Bowtruckle, at this point, he finished his meal (consisting of the leaves of two roses), and he sat on the desk with an enlarged belly. Sophie could just picture him rubbing his stomach with relish. She couldn't help but smile at the image.

Okay. Time to get some work done.

Getting work done didn't seem like it was going to happen because the Bowtruckle climbed on top of the back of Sophie's hand and tickled it. Sophie tilted her hand to the side so that the Bowtruckle would know to get off, and he made a face before sliding off with another whine. "I'm sorry," Sophie said to him. "But I have to get this done. Once I do that I can start thinking about how to track down your owner." She rested her chin in her hand. "Where did you come from, I wonder?"

The Bowtruckle didn't answer. Instead, he began to carve into Sophie's wooden desk with his tiny twig fingers. Sophie wanted to chastise him and tell him to stop, but the grooves weren't that deep, and she felt bad for the poor thing for being separated from his family, and if itmeant he wasn't bothering her anymore, she let him carve away.

She glanced over at him a little while later to see him lying on his side. Without her even realizing it, the Bowtruckle had fallen asleep. It made a small noise that filled the air. It was like a snore, but more high pitched. Sophie smiled at him. He had to be tired from the exhausting day he'd had.

She looked down at the file in front of her that had Magnus' name scrawled at the top. She looked back over to the Bowtruckle. "I wonder if you have a name," she whispered mostly to herself. She didn't want to wake him up, but if he really was a domesticated creature, he had to have had a name. If not, perhaps Sophie should give him one.

She shut the thought down right away. Naming him would create an attachment, which would make it a hundred times harder when she found his owner and had to hand him over. Once, when she was a girl, a rabbit had wandered into their yard. Sophie immediately formed a bond with him and named him Harry, because he was a hairy creature. She spent the whole day with him, feeding him pieces of bread and playing with him. It amazed her how connected she felt to the creature, and she was ready for him to be her lifelong friend.

But then her parents came home from work, and while Matthew was willing to let Sophie keep the rabbit, her mother forced her to go to the park and let the thing go free. It broke Sophie's heart and so cried so earnestly that her father took pity on her and offered to take the creature to the park himself to spare Sophie the pain. She cried and hugged him, promising never to forget him, and then she handed Harry over to her dad. She immediately locked herself in her room and cried for hours. She refused to speak to her mother for two weeks because of it.

The painful memory tugged on her heart, and she decided then and there that she couldn't name the Bowtruckle. She already felt a tiny thread of attachment to him, and that was bad enough. Naming him would just make it even worse.

But even after she made that decision and after Sophie had packed her things away to have them ready for work the next morning, she pulled out a handkerchief from her sidetable drawer and draped it over him. She crawled into bed herself and closed her eyes, sleep coming much easier.

Sophie accidentally slept in the next morning, so she frantically ran around her bedroom like a tornado getting ready for work. At the last second she remembered the Bowtruckle, and while it was probably a better idea for him to stay home (the less time spent with him, the less attachment she'd make to him) it was probably an even worse idea to leave him at home to the mercy of her mother in case she found out. Thea Kingston wasn't one for magical creatures, which was another reason why she wasn't all that pleased with Sophie's decision to work with some of the most dangerous creatures in the world.

The Bowtruckle was awake at that point, so she held out her hand for him to crawl up her sleeve. She expected him to sit on her shoulder like he had done the day before, but instead he hopped into her coat breast pocket, settling in nicely and disappearing under it. Sophie thought it was a bit strange, but she just shook her head and walked out her bedroom door.

She barreled down the stairs and into the kitchen where Astra was just finishing putting fried eggs on the table. She frowned at Sophie's ruggedness. "You're running late," she said, though not like a question.

Sophie gave her sister a look. "Yes, I'm aware. I stayed up late and ending up oversleeping. It happens sometimes." She glanced down at the mouthwatering display, but shook her head. "I haven't the time to eat."

"Will you at least take some for the road?" Astra asked, but even before Sophie could answer she had already started making a breakfast sandwich consisting of a fried egg, two slices of tomato, and ketchup. She wrapped it up into plastic wrap and handed it to Sophie. "Here."

"Thanks," Sophie said as she took the sandwich. She pecked Astra's cheek and was about to run out the door when she realized something. She paused and spun on her heel. "Where's Mum? And Penelope, for that matter? They should both be awake and shopping for Penelope's school supplies."

"Oh, Mum went to buy Penelope's supplies on her own," Astra replied. She carried the dirty dishes over to the sink. "Penelope wasn't feeling well this morning."

Sophie made a face. "Not even good enough to get out of bed? That's not like Pen."

"She's sick, Soph," Astra reasoned. She turned on the tap. "Maybe she was just feeling poorly."

"When has feeling poorly ever stopped Penelope from doing anything?" Sophie asked. "Remember when she was in third-year? The Quidditch final between Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

The corner of Astra's lips perked up. "She had the flu, but she didn't want to miss it. She held it in for an hour before puking all over the Seeker when he flew past her." She shook her head and turned around to face Sophie. "She's a true Gryffindor, all right."

Sophie looked over her shoulder at the stairs. "What kind of illness is it? Does she just have a stomachache or something?"

"I don't know; it's strange," Astra responded. She wiped her hands on a towel. "She was awfully pale, but she had a hint of orange around her lips."

Sophie froze, and she looked over her shoulder at her sister. "Was her face green and grey?"

Astra nodded. "Yes. How did you know?"

Sophie just set her bag down and went up the stairs. She cautiously walked over to Penelope and Astra's bedroom. Could it be?

Her pocket shifted, and the Bowtruckle peeked his head over the pocket. He looked up at her, and Sophie swore she saw him give her a worrying look. She softly patted her breast pocket in an attempt to calm him and turned her attention back to Penelope's bedroom.

She was about to grab the doorknob when her hand froze, hovering above the handle. She pulled her sleeve over her hand and balled the material into a fist so it covered her whole land. Then she rested her hand on the knob and slowly turned it.

She carefully opened the door, making as little noise as possible. Penelope's bed was right beside the door, so Sophie just had to turn her head to the right to see her sister in bed.

And her suspicions were confirmed at the sweaty green and grey complexion on Penelope's face. Her back was to Sophie, but Sophie could still see the colouring on her face. Penelope lifted her head a bit, and then slowly turned her body so that she faced Sophie, and the telltale orange colouring circled her lips. "Sophie?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

"Penelope," Sophie said, and she resisted the urge to sit on her bed for fear of whatever she had to be contagious. It had to be, if initially Alexandra had it and now Penelope. "What's happened?"

"I don't know," Penelope responded. She swallowed thickly. "I just woke up this morning and couldn't move. Mum said she'd bring home a Mediwizard when she returned from shopping."

Sophie wanted to feel Penelope's forehead for a temperature, but again, she didn't want to catch what Penelope had. And just judging by the sweat that pooled on her forehead and slipped down her temples, she knew her body was overheating. "Well, I'll come home a bit early," she promised. "I can help take care of you."

Penelope nodded weakly before turning her head and resting it on her pillow. Sophie almost had a heart attack at the action, but when she saw Penelope's chest rising and falling, she knew she had just fallen asleep.

Despite not wanting to leave her sister, Sophie forced herself to step out of the room. She shut the door tightly behind her and walked back down the stairs.

Astra held out Sophie's bag to her, along with a smaller bag that probably contained a delicious lunch. "Don't worry; I'm staying home to look after her. I sent Daniela an owl earlier this morning to let her know, and she agreed to take over the manager duties for today. I might have to pop in closer to the end of the afternoon, though."

"That's fine," Sophie said. "Mum should be home by then, and I'll try to come home early tonight as well."

"All right," Astra replied with a smile. "Go on. You'll be late."

Sophie said a quick goodbye to her sister before speeding out the door. She ran to an alley at the end of the street and ducked into it, immediately Apparating as soon as she did so.

She appeared in the front of the Sanctuary within seconds, but Sophie knew as soon as she stepped through the doors that there would only be one thing on her mind today, and it was not going to be dragons.

TBC...

Sooooooo here's where the mystery starts! I know Newt wasn't in this chapter, but we get Pickett! And Newt will be back next chapter and it's gonna be gooooood (*insert shifty eye emoji here*).

Please leave reviews, they motivate me!

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