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 the mini-hiatus, school caught up with me and then I had exams, but here's your next update! Please leave reviews, they motivate me!

Enjoy!

The place was pretty crowded for a Thursday night. Newt and Sophie chose a spot in the back so that they could hear each other. It was actually a bit awkward; they both ordered their drinks and ended up sitting in silence for a few minutes. Newt stared right down at the table, and Sophie tapped her fingernails against the wooden table.

After a few more seconds of them not talking, Sophie finally spoke up. "If you're not comfortable being here, Newt, we can leave-"

"No," he cut in with a shake of his head. "No," he said a little calmer this time. "We're already here, and the place is..." He looked around them at the giggling women and the guffawing men. "Nice."

Sophie laughed. "It's really not, but it was the first thing that popped into my mind." That was partly true. It was the first place that popped in her mind where she knew she wouldn't be seen by anyone that she knew with another man, thus saving her from having to potentially explain herself to her mother.

They hadn't spoken about Sophie's engagement, or about John, or about anything that had happened earlier in the day since they had left the alley. Sophie was glad for it, too. Being with Newt almost felt like an escape from her real life, and with John meeting Newt, the two worlds were getting uncomfortably close to merging.

"Have you been here often?" he wondered.

She shook her head. "Just a few times with Alexandra. This is actually the place that she brought me after the first time we worked together, and where we found that we had a lot more in common than we thought."

Newt nodded thoughtfully and looked down to his fingers. Sophie leaned back in her seat a bit. "So, how come I don't remember you from school?"

He looked up and stared at her. "What?"

"I mean, we were in school together at the same time," she reminded him. "And I do remember you getting expelled in third year." She said that last part hastily, in case it was a subject that Newt didn't want to talk about, and judging by the suddenly reserved look on his face, Sophie was right. "But you were there the first three years. I was just wondering why I didn't see much of you. I mean, the Ravenclaws did have most of our classes with the Hufflepuffs."

"Well, to be perfectly honest with you, Sophie, I usually prefer being by myself with-" He suddenly cut himself off, biting his lower lip as if he was physically keeping the rest of his sentence inside.

Usually Sophie let it go, but today she wanted to know. "With who?" she pressed.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times before settling on, "Pickett." He looked down at his pocket where the Bowtruckle was currently snoozing. He gently patted his breast pocket. "Pickett and I enjoy being by ourselves together, though I try not to keep him in my pocket too much. The others accuse me of favouritism, but I'm letting him stay close to me just for today, because he got lost."

Others? Sophie thought to herself, and she almost posed it as a question, but she supposed that what Newt had told her before was probably going to be all that she would get out of him today. For a seemingly simple man, Newt Scamander held a lot of secrets. Sophie had no idea if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but she was willing-and eager, if she was being honest with herself-to find out.

"You'd think that we would've interacted more in Care of Magical Creatures," Sophie said instead. "It's clear that we both love magical creatures, even if Kettleburn wasn't the most cautious professor. He was always good to me, though. He's the reason that I ended up at the Sanctuary. He wrote to them and got me an internship. I've been here ever since."

"I still kept mostly to myself in school," Newt revealed. "People don't really like me. I annoy people."

"I'm sure that's not true," Sophie insisted. She almost said, "I like you!" but it didn't seem... appropriate, not after what had happened earlier. Instead she racked her brain for something else to say. "I remember seeing one girl with you at school," Sophie said out loud. "She must've liked you. I know a lot of people didn't like her because of her family. I think her last name was Lestrange, but I cannot remember what her first name was." She tapped her chin. "Leslie? Leandra?"

"Leta," Newt said quietly, the word barely a whisper.

It was as if that single word was enough to cast a large shadow of silence over the two of them. Newt's hands were clamped together, and he stared down at them. He didn't even look up at Sophie.

"Leta," she repeatedly, just as softly. "I remember her more than you, admittedly," she said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "It was a shame that people judged her based solely on her family. Mind you, I didn't know her very well. Do you still keep in touch?"

"No," he said, the word short and quick. "I don't know what she's up to these days."

"Oh," Sophie said. "I'm... I'm sorry," she added, for lack of a better thing to say.

The mood had dropped significantly since the mention of Leta Lestrange, so Sophie decided to change the subject to hopefully lighter themes. "So, how's your book coming along?" she asked. "I'm excited to read it myself, when it's ready."

Newt's face immediately glowed up, and he sat up straight. "Better than before, with the information that you've been providing me. I'm very lucky to be doing what I'm doing."

"I would hope so," Sophie commented. She rested her elbow against the table and put her chin in her hand. "I think I actually remember the day we learned about Boggarts in Professor Dumbledore's Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Yours was an..."

"Office job," they said at the same time, bringing a smile to their faces. Sophie still didn't remember Newt Scamander all that much when they were in school together, but his Boggart was something that stood out to her because it seemed like such a trivial thing to be afraid of. Many people worked office jobs; what was there to be afraid of?

Of course, now that Sophie was getting to actually know Newt, she could definitely see how an office job wasn't enough for him.

"I think I remember yours as well," Newt piped up, bringing Sophie's attention back to him. "It was a stern looking man, but you wouldn't say who it was, not even to Dumbledore."

Sophie's breath hitched, and Newt could immediately sense the tension in her. "I'm sorry, did I say something to upset you?"

"No," she instantly said. "It's just... it was a bit of an embarrassing fear, especially at thirteen. I didn't want people to think that I was weird for it." She shook her head. "Anyways, the stern looking man was my father."

"You were afraid of your father?" Newt asked, his brows raised to his hairline.

Sophie shook her head again. "No, not in that way," she assured him. "He was a very good man. The Boggart looked stern because...well, my greatest fear was disappointing him. My father was my very favourite person, and I hated doing anything to make him disappointed in me." She sat up a bit. "He's actually the reason why I'm a dragonologist in the first place. My mother's always hated the fact that this was the career I decided to go in; she always wanted me to become a Care of Magical Creatures professor if I insisted on working with magical creatures. But my father knew how much it meant to me. I didn't want to teach and work with all different kinds of magical creatures; I just wanted to work with dragons." She sighed wistfully, tracing a line in her hand. "I'll never forget what he said to me. 'Sophie Millicent Kingston, you only get one chance on this earth, and you can't waste it doing something that doesn't make you happy'."

Newt had been silent throughout Sophie's speech, staring at her as if he was hanging on to every single word that came out of her mouth. When she was done, he said, "He sounds like a philosopher, your father."

Sophie giggled. "He'd be very happy to hear you say that, if he was still alive." Her smile faltered a bit. "He died during the Great War."

"Oh," Newt said quietly. "I'm very sorry to hear that."

"Thank you," she said. "Goodness, it feels good to talk about him. I feel like I can't at home. Anything that reminds my mother of my father makes her upset, so my sister Astra insists that we don't talk about him at all." Sophie could feel a tear poke at the corner of her eye. "But I don't think that's fair. It's not fair to his memory that we don't talk about him, because then one day he'll just have disappeared and we won't even have realized it."

Sophie felt a hand on top of hers, and she looked up to see Newt giving her a sympathetic look. "There, there," he said, dipping his head and still not quite looking Sophie in the eye. "It's alright. You are doing the best that you can."

She smiled despite her tears and squeezed Newt's hand. "Thank you," she said sincerely. She swiped at the corner of her eye. So much for trying to lighten the mood. "That's enough of that. I didn't bring you here so I could cry."

"Maybe that's what you needed," Newt suggested. "To cry. There's nothing embarrassing about crying."

"You know what?" Sophie said. "You're right. Thank you, Newt."

The tips of his ears reddened, and he pulled his hand away from Sophie. "It's nothing," he insisted.

"It's not nothing," she told him, a kind smile on her face. "It means something to me. Thank you," she said again.

A hint of a smile appeared on Newt's face, which was enough for Sophie to smile bigger as well. She noticed she smiled a lot around Newt. It made her wonder how much she used to smile before she met him. The only times she really remembered smiling was before her father died, and then afterward she only ever smiled with her sisters or with her dragons.

The smell of food hit her nose, and Sophie looked over her shoulder to see their server placing two bowls of food in front of them.

After the food arrived, there were no more deep conversation, but something inside of Sophie felt very warm. Like someone was filling her with honey that sweetened every part of her body. She wanted to feel like this all the time.

It wasn't until she was Apparating home did she realize that she only ever felt that honey feeling when she was around Newt, and while that was extremely dangerous, she couldn't stop herself from wanting more of that feeling.

And that was probably the most dangerous thing of all.

TBC...

Not very long but I hope you enjoyed it! Even though it's a bit on the shorter side I think it's important for the development of their relationship. Next chapter soon!

REVIEW RESPONSES:

Phoenixwriters101: Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this update!

AmericanNidiot: Thank you! Keeping Newt in character is something that is very very important to me. I want the romance to be believable and in character for him. Sophie's definitely a lot more open than he is, which is actually one of the things that I think works well for them. It balances them out ha ha. Hope you enjoyed this update!

INeedSleep: For me, I've always thought that John's more in love with the idea of being in love and having a wife. It hadn't been very long since the war ended when he met Sophie, so I think the war was really something that kick started this carpe diem like thinking that he might not be around forever, and because their mothers are friends, it seemed like the fastest and most convenient way to get married and have a family. He's definitely someone who lives in his own world, and as we'll see, this won't work for Sophie.

Crystal-Wolf-Guardian-967: Here's an update! Hope you enjoyed!

Smuzzie: DUDE ME TOO.

.2018: ME TOO.

Kawaiibirdie24: Thank you!

Delightfully Tacky: First of all, thank you for the review! They do really mean so much to me and lets me know that there are people who are appreciating what I'm writing and putting out in the world. And yes to the Titanic reference! It's not something that I'd thought of before but now that I AM thinking about it Cal was probably an influence on me ha ha. I am also trying to make him seem like a man of his time because this story DOES take place in the 1920s, and while Sophie seems a bit ahead of her time, that doesn't mean everyone else around her isn't, which is definitely something that is dragging her down and part of why she's unhappy in her home life. The short chapters are actually a combined result of not enough time to write and because I'm trying to stretch out the story so that it doesn't end too soon. And it's funny that you mention wanting more dragons because after this chapter it's all dragons all the time haha. Thank you SO much for the review and I hope you liked this chapter!

Guest: Thank you so much! Here's an update!

WriteToEscapeReality1309: Thank you so much for your kind words! You know I always love ya :) But yeah, life really sucks for Sophie. I'm really trying to show how the lives of women were like at the time the story takes place (she's basically become the man of the family because her mother is still the matriarch and they no longer have a patriarch and because she's the eldest the responsibility has fallen to her) which again, really sucks but it's all a part of her character arc and trying to find out who she is and what she wants and what she's willing to give for it. She's definitely been one of my favourite characters to write because of it. I hope you liked this chapter!

FaithfulReader92: Thank you! Hope you liked this update!

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