Special love and cuddles to my beta babes

CHAPTER TWO

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Newt Scamander straightened his lapels and emerged from the alley with an address in hand. With relief, Newt spots a house elf and headed straight for the creature, hoping they could answer his question.

"Hello," Newt gave the elf a polite bow, "could you point me in the direction of this address?"

"Boggy is pleased to help the kind sir" the elf responded and took the bit of parchment from Newt. "This is on the mountain, it is. Carriages at the edge of town can take kind sir there." and the elf pointed towards the carriage stop.

"Thank you. You have been a most gracious help." With with a final bow, Newt set off towards the carriages. The town had a handful of straightforward shops; one for potions ingredients, a small bookstore and coffee shop, an owlery, and a pub called The Stag's Saloon. Newt appreciated the small town feel and smiled when he thought of it's resemblance to Hogsmeade. Newt shuffled a bit faster once he spotted the carriage stop.

A gruff man sat reading a newspaper, the front page rife with fear of Grindelwald and muggle oppression.

"Ahem," Newt cleared his throat, "how much to take me here?"

The man folded his newspaper setting it to the side and took the parchment from Newt. "A handful of sickles will set you on your way."

"Excellent." Newt smiled as he handed over the coins, a slight knocking and scratching from within his case .

The carriage driver raised an eyebrow at the noise but shook his head deciding not to question it and pocketed the coins. The man hoisted himself up to the driver's seat as Newt settled into the carriage and, with a flick of the reins, they began the journey to the mountain cottage. Newt's mind swam with curiosity as he wondered what awaited him.

"What do you think we'll run into this time?" Newt whispered to his case on his lap. The clasp flipped open in response. "Not now, Dougal. Wait until we figure out what this is all about" Newt clipped the clasp closed and placed the case on the bench beside him. Leaning his chin into his hand, Newt let his eyes wander out the window and he drank in the landscape. Lush forest blanketed the hills that crept up to the horizon. Pine trees stood tall guarding a lake in the valley below them. Newt lazily dreamt of the adventure he was sure to find here in this impressive scenery as he snacked on the toast and jam provided in the carriage. Every so often, a thump would come from his case and Newt would slip a piece of toast into a happy little grumble in thanks. It was an uneventful and comfortable ride up to mountain roads.

Upon reaching their destination, Newt stretched his legs out of the carriage and hopped down with his case in hand. He tipped the driver with another grumble from his case and Newt walked up the path towards the cottage. At the front door, Newt reached his hand forward to knock but the door swung open to reveal the exact person he had hoped to see.

"Mr. Scamander" Tina politely greeted the man with a nod meeting his eyes for the first time since she watched him board the ship back to England. She felt a flutter begin in her stomach.

"I had hoped we left on good enough terms for you to call me Newt, Ms. Goldstein." Newt smiled as he peered through his brow.

"Well in that case, you have to call me Tina," she said with a smirk, as she hurriedly gave him a hug.

He was mildly surprised by the contact, but awkwardly embraced her back noting the subtle smell of freesia as her short chocolate brown hair brushed against his cheek. She pulled away, and Newt dropped his hands to his side, swallowing discreetly.

"I'm glad you can still think of me favorably after what happened in New York." Newt smiled as Tina walked him into the cottage. It was a small one roomed space with everything covered in different animal pelts.

"What? The part where creatures escaped from your case and caused thousands of galleons of property damage, or the part where you saved the city and helped to capture the darkest wizard alive?" Tina said with a teasing lilt to her voice.

"Um, well both, I guess." Newt blushed. "Now can I finally find out why Queenie woke me up from a farmhouse in France to bring me to America?"

"She found you in France?" Tina raised her brows in surprise. "Wow she's good. Well, I had become an apprentice for a wandmaker and we were here collecting American Chestnut to bring to his shop back in Sweden. We were out pretty late looking for good sturdy trees so we decided to camp out in a cave for the night. Well-"

Tina woke by the edge of the cave and struggled to bring herself upright. Her vision was blurred and the back of her head was throbbing. Tina reached a hand up to touch the source of the pain to discover blood on her fingertips."Elias?" Tina called out to silence answering back. She staggered to her feet and drew out her wand."Lumos" Tina spelled to bring some light into the cave.Nothing was as it should be. The cots were ripped and bloodied, her transfigured items were returned to their original state and thrown about the space, and hoof prints littered the floor along with splashes of blood and torn clothing. Tina almost dropped her wand when the light fell on the opposite wall. There was a word in a language she had never seen before written on the rock in blood. Tina almost tripped over the log behind her but caught her balance, ran out of the cave, and apparated immediately.

"So that's when I floo called Queenie to see if she could find you. It had to have been a creature because of the hoof prints and you have literally written the book on creatures. I figured if anyone could track it down and find Elias it would be you. One of Queenie's old boyfriends works in the Department of Magical Transportation and she always had him wrapped around her finger. I didn't think she'd be able to track you down this fast though. This just happened two nights ago. So," Tina finally took a breath, "can you help me?"

"Well, of course, I just- can you take me to the cave? I need to see the tracks and the markings to determine if it is really language used on the wall." Newt fell quickly into discovery mode, his brain whirling with the possibilities of creatures. "Let me grab some supplies. Is it alright to leave my case over here?"

"Yes that's-" Tina was cut off as Newt disappeared into the leather case. She glanced around the room then followed in after him.

Newt was already quick at work, bouncing back and forth from drawer to shelf and shoving supplies into a satchel. Newt was muttering a list to himself while Tina watched on in amusement. An almost invisible hand crept on to her shoulder as the creature slowly began to appear.

"Dougal!" Tina turned and swept the demiguise up in a hug. She relished that her greeter was one of Newt's friendlier creatures. "We'll visit later once we come back, okay?" Tina asked as she set Dougal down on the counter. The demiguise hopped off and turned invisible again as he ran out of the room.

"Ready?" Newt asked from the bottom of the ladder and with a nod Tina followed him up out of his case. Once they were out in the yard, Tina held out her arm. Newt looped his arm around hers and Tina apparated the pair to the entrance of the cave. Newt immediately stepped forward anxious for what he would discover inside but Tina hesitated and looked toward the cave with wide eyes.

"I could go in first-make sure it's clear." Newt offered, noticing Tina's apprehension.

"No," Tina asserted and stood a bit straighter. "I need to show you everything I saw." She entered the cave first with her wand lit out in front of her.

The scene had been untouched and looked perfectly preserved though the blood had turned a dark shade of brown in the passage of time."There's a lot of blood, Tina, I don't know if-"

"Elias is fine, just collect the prints," Tina snapped. Her head had been swimming with the thought of his safety since she had woken up alone.

Newt had begun mixing plaster for the molds and Tina brought her wand light over to the unfamiliar script once more. The blood had turned dark and had begun to dry up but there the word stayed. Kotuhpu. Tina wrote the word in Newt's notebook and copied the strange symbols carved in the cave's entrance. Huh, I didn't notice these before, thought Tina. Newt dusted off the molds, deposited them into his satchel, then noticed he was alone in the cave. He left the room to find Tina sitting on a rock outside of the cave with her face buried in her hands. He was unaccustomed to comforting people, but sat delicately next to her, tentatively placing his arm around her shoulder, and patting her lightly..

"I wish there was something I could have done," Tina sobbed into her hands. "Better wards I could have put up or anything! Elias didn't deserve this. He's just so nice and always willing to help."

"We'll find out what happened. But first we need to translate that word and those symbols you wrote down." Newt said as he stood up. "Come on now," and he offered his hand to help Tina to her feet. Newt brushed a tear off her cheek with his thumb and brought his hand under her chin to lift Tina's gaze to meet his. "I think I know just where to start." With a twinkle in his eyes, he apparated them back to the town.