Honoria Lockhart continued on as if reality had not just imploded and rapidly rearranged itself into a surreal reimagining of itself.
"She's eleven and a half weeks on," she said seriously. "What was the date of her attack?"
Tina sobbed on the table. Newt blinked rapidly and tried to make sense of what he was being asked. It clicked, and he sighed, shaking his head.
"No. No, that was only two months ago. So if you're certain about how far gone—"
"Quite certain," Honoria Lockhart said with a relieved smile.
"The healers at MACUSA assured us that there was only the blunt force trauma and a memory wipe. There was no evidence of further damage." Newt felt the relief wash through him as well. At least that was one thing they did not have to worry about.
"It's times like this that make me want to start reading the case files first, objective impressions be damned. I apologize," Lockhart said.
"Not at all, it's an unusual case," Newt said.
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" screamed Tina. "I can't understand any of this stuff!"
Newt and Healer Lockhart turned to the table. Newt glanced at Tina and swallowed. His throat had gone dry again. Healer Lockhart took pity on him.
"I didn't have the date of your attack, Mrs. Scamander, so I was concerned—" she cut off and hesitated. Newt hoped she wouldn't alarm Tina with possibilities that had not occurred. "I wanted to be certain that conception had occurred before your attack."
Somehow the word conception, which Newt regularly discussed in a casual tone with rare animal breeders, had made his cheeks go beetroot.
Healer Lockhart glanced at him and had to look away to hide her amused smile.
"And it had?" Tina was just barely able to get this question out from behind the hands she had clapped over her face.
" And it most definitely had. You have nothing to worry about on that count."
Newt leaned forward, forcing himself to be calm, and to ignore the discomfort that came from discussing such intensely personal matters with another person in the room.
"We were married, Tina, on September the 8th. And then there were 24 days between that day and the day of your injury. You were beaten and had your memory forcefully and inexpertly wiped, but mercifully I found you in time for your bodily wounds to be healed."
He frowned and turned back to the healer.
"So Tina would have been in the very early stages of pregnancy," Newt managed. "Can you be certain that nothing went wrong? Is—is the—is everything alright?"
"I have seen nothing to indicate otherwise. However, I think it would be best for you both to speak with a midwife immediately. I know of an excellent witch who is highly sought after. Usually it would take weeks to get an initial meeting with her. She does supervise extremely complex cases here at St. Mungo's on occaasion though, so let me see if I can't interest her enough to swing by and see you."
Healer Lockhart turned to where Tina was still cowering on the table.
"Tina," she said, her voice returned to its usual business-like cadence. "I will leave for a few moments to contact the midwife. Her name is Jane Moon-Lanfear, and she'll set you to rights immediately. My sister-in-law, the flightiest witch you'd ever see, just had a baby with Jane. Everything went beautifully. It's the calmest I'd ever seen Kate, really.
"So take a moment to confer with your husband. I know you don't remember him very well, but we are planning to do everything possible to stabilize your mind so that you can maintain new pathways to your memories. It won't help you to assume that you'll forget the present moment. Instead, act as if the present will be with you forever. Talk to Mr. Scamander. It will help."
She nodded and walked out.
There was a long pause. Newt was unsure whether to break it or to wait for Tina. His thoughts traveled to the time he'd been in Egypt and had come across an injured sphinx. The creature hadn't been capable of human speech at first, instead having to resort to yowls and growls to make herself understood. She had been hurt and afraid, yes, but also embarrassed at her circumstances. Sphinxes were as well known for their intelligence as their ferocity, so it made sense that frustration at being a slave to her lesser nature would bother her. Newt remembered that he had been able to remain very calm, and he had made a point to communicate verbally with the sphinx as if she had been a particularly scholarly human, but he had used the firm and confident body language that he would have used to approach a lion or a nudu.
He looked up at Tina, who had moved her hands down over her mouth so that she could more easily stare at him. Newt forced himself to straighten his posture. He took a deep breath, and smiled sadly at Tina.
"This isn't how you'd envisioned this going, even before your attack. There was a time, a few weeks before we were married, when we passed a shop display of baby things on a street corner. I hadn't even noticed it, but I did notice that something had agitated you. Your cheeks were pink, and at first I thought it was the wind, but when I asked you about it you squirmed and blurted out a question about whether or not I wanted to have children. I have to confess, I hadn't even thought about it. The reproductive urge is at the heart of behavior and biology in the animal kingdom. It informs every area of my study, but I somehow had never even considered for myself…well, it goes to show how distant we witches and wizards hold ourselves.
"Stalling, I asked you what you thought, and even though you seemed embarrassed at first, once I finally got you to talk you were quite definite on the subject. You wanted at least two children, a boy and a girl, and not so far apart in age that they couldn't be companions. I told you that being close in age was no guarantee—that I'm only three years younger than my brother while I'm nine years older than my sister, but I'd prefer to spend an afternoon with her every time."
He took a breath, and glanced at Tina. She had moved her hands back down to her knees, and her legs were back to swinging off the end of the examination table. She was still leaning back, away from him.
"What did I say about that?" she asked.
Newt held her gaze as long as he could, then looked off to where the aereospore's green fronds were gently swaying in the corner.
"You said we'd have time to figure it out, because it would be best to wait until all this business with Grindelwald was over for good. I thought—I thought that meant you would have, well, that you would have used a spell to prevent pregnancy or seen a witch-midwife about it. But again, I'm sorry to say, I just didn't think about it. And now—now things are as they are. I'm so, so sorry that it hasn't gone how you wanted."
He looked back to Tina and she nodded, accepting his apology apparently. She looked down at her knees and leaned slightly forward.
"I don't remember wanting kids," she admitted. "I can remember Mom and Pop dying, and after that, I never wanted to have kids—I'd never want to leave someone alone like that. Things must have gotten better in there, huh, for me to ever want to…"
She looked up at Newt with a longing expression. She wanted to believe, to trust him, but she'd been hurt so many times. Why should she be left with those memories of being abandoned and thrust into this confusing and terrifying reality? Newt swallowed. He should try—it would be his duty to try to remind her that there had been good times, and that she had grown and flourished despite all of the adversity she'd encountered. Tina was still Tina.
"It did." He blushed. "I mean, it did—for both of us. I had thought that my work was all there was ever going to be for me. Instead, I found you, and our friends, and I realized that there could be so much more. That was something that you gave me. And I hope that being together gave you the same hope."
Tina blinked at him. She was definitely leaning forward now. She moistened her lips with her tongue. She looked at him through lowered lashes.
A knock came at the door, followed by incessant hammering and a final loud thump. Newt and Tina looked at each other, and Newt sprang up to see what all the commotion was about. Tina hopped off the table and looked over his shoulder as he opened the door.
Jacob was on the other side. "Heyyy guys," he said. "Sorry to bother you…"
"What? What's happened?" Newt asked. Tina reached around him to point to his case, sitting on its side against the far wall.
"Yeahhh," said Jacob. "About that. You know how you told us never to open it without you there?"
"Oh no. Who's got out this time?" Newt sighed. He'd developed several ingenious mechanisms to keep his creatures inside the case, but it seemed that every time he made an advance they would suddenly devise a way to get around it.
"It was…" Jacob sighed. He looked extremely disappointed in himself. "It was the niffler. I know you said to keep a special eye out for that little guy, but he's so darned sneaky."
Newt looked back and forth down the empty hallway.
"Oh damn."
Tina kicked out at the back of his leg.
"Watch it!" she said. Newt almost smiled. This Tina was in some ways even more proper about certain things than she'd later become. And he thought she'd been a touch over the top then.
"I need to go catch it before it gets into more trouble. Honestly, getting loose in a hospital? What on earth is he thinking?"
"I'll come too—" said Tina.
"But the healer—"
"This guy can wait for her!"
Tina stepped around Newt and hauled Jacob back into the examination room. Newt picked up his case and started to walk off when Jacob called—"Hey, Queenie's still in there!"
Newt, looking very harried, thrust the case at him.
"Did you see which way—?"
There was a loud crash from somewhere down the corridor. Newt and Tina looked at each other, and took off in that direction.
-o-o-o-
When Newt and Tina stumbled back into the examination room, breathless but triumphant, they did not at first notice that it was considerably fuller than they had left it.
"Queenie, you'll never guess what we just did!" Tina said happily upon seeing her sister's golden curls. When her Queenie turned, however, her expression was so uncharacteristically serious that all the good feelings generated by the past half hour of action seemed to flow right out of Tina. It was then that Newt and Tina realized that while Jacob and Queenie were in the room, there was also another person. One with gray hair pulled back tightly from her face the better to showcase a severe expression. She wore voluminous black robes and a tall peaked hat in the old fashion and sat furthest into the room on the stool. A single dark brow was raised.
Tina muttered, "Uh-oh."
Newt, standing behind her, put a careful hand to the pocket of his coat where the niffler rode and prayed that he hadn't missed any of the medical instruments the creature had been interrupted while stockpiling. It would not do to get stabbed with a stray syringe now. His eyes caught his case, behind Jacob's knees where he leaned against the wall on the far side of the examination table.
"And are you Mr. And Mrs. Scamander? Or is this another misunderstanding?" The witch with the iron gray hair did not look amused.
Jacob cringed, and Queenie looked near tears. She reached out to Tina.
"Tina, is it true? Are you pregnant? Did you really not know?" She look a step toward her sister. Tina took a step back, her back brushing against the front of Newt's coat.
Tina pressed back further, and though Newt didn't want to stop her, he put a hand on her elbow and stepped to the side, shutting the door. Under normal circumstances he would have been pleased and relieved that Tina had become so much more comfortable with him, but at the moment there was the niffler to contend with. If he could just get a moment alone with the case he could send the niffler back home and this would all be considerably less tense. While it wasn't illegal to own a Niffler in Great Britain, it was certainly still frowned upon to bring animals, whether pets or livestock, into a hospital.
"I am—I mean, we are—" Newt tried to answer the first question first.
"In that case I will need Mr. And Mrs. Kowalski to leave, immediately." Was it just Newt's imagination, or was there a little undue stress on the "Mrs"? It would be very inconvenient indeed if that came out.
Newt grabbed his case from Jacob as he went by.
"Sorry," Jacob muttered, and Newt nodded. For a moment it looked like Queenie wasn't going to leave without and answer from Tina, but finally Jacob was able to lead her out by the arm. Once Jacob and Queenie were out of the room, Newt considered kneeling in the far corner and putting the niffler back in, but the witch on the stool coughed and he whipped around. She indicated that he sit in the chair, and he did so, one hand over where the niffler was concealed in the inner breast pocket of his coat. Tina reluctantly took her seat back on the table.
"I am Midwife Jane Moon-Leanfear. Honoria Lockhart asked me to come by as a special favor since I have been lead to believe that you were here for another matter when it was discovered that you were in need of my services."
She paused and Newt hurried to respond.
"Yes, yes that is correct. Thank you for coming so quickly. I'm Newt Scamander, and this is my wife Tina." He hurried to give a history this time. "We've been married for a little over three months. Twenty-four days after we were married, Tina returned to her work as an Auror for MACUSA and suffered a severe injury while on a case. Several injuries, actually. I've been most concerned about her memory loss, brought about by an blunted obliviate charm, but now come to find out she was— that there were—well, the cuts and scrapes that she suffered seem of more importance now than they did at the time."
Newt riffled around in his pocket, careful not to dislodge the niffler, and sorted through the papers he'd brought with him until he found the medical report the healers at MACUSA had done up for Tina. It included photographs of her injuries, and it made him feel sick to see Tina grimacing in pain inside them. But it might be very important indeed, so he handed them to the midwife.
The witch took them in one strong, lined hand. She remained expressionless as she looked over the papers, handing them back to Newt as soon as she'd finished. She turned to where Tina was sitting on the table.
"And you, Mrs. Scamander. What can you tell me of your situation?"
"Me? I don't…I can't remember a thing about the attack."
"What about your pregnancy? Did you have any suspicions? Maybe now, in hindsight, something is clearer?"
Tina frowned. Newt cut in,
"Midwife Moon-Leanfear, Tina's memories are spotty even concerning events after the attack. She may truly be unable to recall anything. Her sister Queenie was caring for her most closely though, perhaps if we asked—"
"I asked Mrs. Scamander a question, sir."
This was delivered in a calm but authoritative manner. Newt gulped and left it to Tina. She frowned again, but started talking.
"I didn't even remember I was married. You'd think, wouldn't you, that I'd remember something about such a big deal. I can remember my parents dying. I can remember my grandparents' funeral. I remember school at Ilvermorny. Sometimes I think I remember parts of my job. But I don't remember him," she admitted. "It wasn't til we were on a ship, and I got to see all those amazing animals—I think that's the first time I really remember him. And I guess I had just been sick. Was I sick a lot?"
She looked at Newt. Realization dawned. He turned to the midwife.
"She was! Her sister had thought it was a reaction to a calming potion that the healers in New York had prescribed. But now, perhaps it was actually morning sickness?"
The midwife nodded. "Possible. I want a copy of the receipt for that potion. But I'd like to return to the part about…animals?" The raised eyebrow was back.
Newt squirmed, and he placed his hand on the niffler through his coat again. He coughed.
"I am a magizoologist. I work for the Ministry in the Magical Creatures division and I've also authored a textbook—"
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Tina finished automatically. They looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Did you just—" Newt began.
"I don't know! Maybe! But maybe Queenie said something. Maybe I saw it somewhere—"
"Or maybe you remembered something!" Newt said, a smile breaking over his face in excitement.
Tina smiled back.
Jane Moon-Leanfear cleared her throat. Newt continued.
"Sorry. I also care for injured or endangered animals," he continued. "Tina used to assist me. She became particularly good at wrangling bowtruckles. They can be so tetchy, you know."
"Be that as it may," the midwife said, somewhat bemused by Newt's enthusiasm, "I want you both to think carefully about whether or not this is a safe occupation for Mrs. Scamander at present. However skilled she was in the past, if she's lost her memories of how to handle magical creatures it could be extremely dangerous to have her around them."
Newt thought of Ethel the erumpent and shifted guiltily.
The midwife rose from her seat.
"I'd now like to conduct an examination. It should be similar to what Healer Lockhart did earlier."
She took up a large carpetbag that had been hidden behind her voluminous black robes and set it on the stool. From within its brocade depths she took out several sensor-devices and set them in midair where they hovered against the far wall of the room. One of them was a silver spinner which looked much like a standard spell-detector but was likely calibrated to find certain health conditions. Another was a modified wooden and brass metronome whose pendulum started ticking quite rapidly as soon as Jane Moon-Leanfear flicked her wand between it and Tina. Midwife Moon-Leanfear took out a very impressive set of glasses with many lenses which could be raised or lowered. She put it on, and looked Tina over very carefully, using rose colored, black, and scintillating lenses one after the other. Then she moved on to blue and black at once. Newt and Tina both sat at attention while the midwife worked.
After a moment she straightened and removed the glasses.
"So far so good, dear," she said to Tina.
"What's that?" Tina gestured to the ticking metronome by the back wall.
"That's keyed to the heartbeat."
Tina's eyes went wide. "So fast?"
The midwife cocked her head for a moment. "One hundred fifty-four beats per minute is just fine for how far along you are."
"And how far is that? Healer Lockhart said eleven and a half weeks," Tina sounded like she would like to be told once more that the date of conception fell within the appropriate window.
The midwife bustled back to her bag, pulling out a small beaker into which she dripped four drops of cobalt liquid from a pipette that she had summoned.
"Spit," she commanded Tina.
Tina did, and the midwife went on to add a few more droplets, swirling the beaker by hand at the end until it let out a little puff of purple smoke.
"Eleven weeks, five days, eight hours and twenty-three minutes, give or take three minutes for potion preparation," she announced.
"Does that seem right?" Tina asked Newt intently.
Newt resorted to counting on his fingers, the tips of his ears getting more and more red as he neared the end of his mental journey through time. He was trying to simultaneously remember and not remember the event itself. He nodded.
Jane Moon-Leanfear let out a brief hoot of a laugh that Newt wouldn't have expected of her.
"It's good to find that one of you at least has a solid memory of the incident." She used a cleaning spell on her potions equipment and directed her sensors back into her carpetbag. She removed it from the stool and settled herself there instead.
"Mr. Scamander, do you know if Mrs. Scamander had an anticonception charm placed on her or was taking a precautionary potion?"
"Um, no."
Midwife Moon-Leanfear looked very unimpressed with his answer.
"Hmph. Well, there's clearly no such charm on her now, and there's no way to know whether or not she'd been consuming such a potion, unless you remember something. Ah well, there's nothing to be done about it now. In the future, however, it will likely be useful for the two of you to know if there's a standard potion which is ineffective for Mrs. Scamander."
Tina giggled. The midwife raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry. It's just—it's nice to see somebody else get in trouble for not remembering somethin'."
"Tina, you're not in trouble. Never that. We just—"
Jane Moon-Leanfear cut Newt right off with a hand gesture. She turned and spoke to Tina very seriously.
"Normally I would ask your husband to leave for the next part, but Healer Lockhart has informed me that due to your unstable memory he is your legal proxy. Be that as it may, I'd still like to give you the opportunity for a private consultation. Would you like me to ask Mr. Scamander to leave?"
Tina chewed her lip, her eyes darting between Jane Moon-Leanfear and Newt. Finally she shook her head.
"It's true—I haven't been doing real well. I could forget, and I'd like somebody to know what you said in case I need to know later. He's been…pretty helpful so far," she admitted. Behind the pocket where the niffler lay mercifully still, Newt felt his heart swell.
Jane Moon-Leanfear gave him an appraising look. "Be that as it may, I'd still like to ask him to keep his thoughts to himself through the next part of the interview.
"I can tell you that your pregnancy is progressing with absolutely no signs of distress, Mrs. Scamander." Her voice was calm, and her face gave away nothing of what she was thinking. "This is an unusual case, and it is my duty to apprise you of your options. You may, of course, continue with the pregnancy. If you so choose, we can discuss options for your care. However, if you do not wish to continue with the pregnancy, you also have the option of termination. In light of your recent injury, such a choice would be completely understandable. There may be legal complications, but my duty is toward the woman first. A witch-midwife stands on the line between this world and the other, and it is my sworn duty to do whatever you decide in this regard."
Tina looked shocked, and her eyes immediately flew to Newt. The bottom had dropped out of his stomach for the second (or third?) time that day, but he put all his effort into remaining calm and nonjudgmental. Much as he might grieve the loss of a potential child with Tina, it was absolutely her choice. Hadn't she just said that as far as she could remember, she hadn't wanted children? It was completely unfair to ask her to share her body with a new life when even her mind wasn't reliably her own. Tina looked back to the midwife, but remained silent. Jane Moon-Leanfear spoke again.
"I would like you to remember that any termination procedures would be completely safe, and you should have no more trouble conceiving again than you did this time if you choose to do so in the future. If you would like some time to think this over, that can also be arranged. However, I do want you to know that your choice may have repercussions for your memory treatment. Certain potions are not advisable during pregnancy."
Newt almost had to stuff his fist into his mouth at this. Would Tina be unable to take any potion that Slughorn came up with using the mbwo? Was it all for naught?
"Can I ask a question?" Tina's voice was small
"Certainly, my dear," said the midwife. "What is it?"
"No. I want to ask him a question," Tina said, pointing at Newt.
Newt coughed. "Of course," he said.
"What did you say to me? Did you ever answer when I asked you if you wanted children?"
Newt blinked, then remembered what he had related to Tina earlier. In all the commotion with the niffler he had forgotten. With an uneasy glance at the midwife, he prepared to speak. He hoped she wouldn't think he was trying to influence Tina's decision.
"Oh. Well, I have to confess that I sort of slithered out of answering that day. As I told you, I quite honestly hadn't given the matter even a moment's thought. I've nursed countless creatures, and have acted as a midwife in my own way for them. Mother and father too. But there has always been this gap, you know, between me the magizooligist, and me, the social and biological human being. It wasn't until I met you and Jacob, and Queenie too, that I began to think it could be bridged.
"So I thought about it for a week or two, and then I told you that if it was with you, I would be honored to have children."
Both Tina and the midwife were perfectly quiet after this disclosure. Newt, feeling nervous, hurried to fill the silence.
"But that does not mean that you should continue with this pregnancy. It's unfair to expect you to deal with so many things at once. And if it might delay treatment for your memory damage, I can't condone…That is, I would be honored to have children with you whenever you think it best to do so. Whether that's now, or in a few years, or after Grindelwald is successfully defeated as you wanted, or even never, I'll accept your decision."
Tina looked away from Newt, back toward the midwife.
"I'm gonna keep this baby," she said.
Jane Moon-Leanfear clapped her hands together.
"Excellent. Then, we have a few things to go over today and then we'll arrange for a home visit for our next appointment."
Newt blinked.
"Wait, that was it? Are you sure? What about Slughorn—?"
The midwife looked at him.
"It's been decided, Mr. Scamander. Please keep up."
She turned back to Tina.
"How has your diet been? If you can't remember the past few months then please relate what you've eaten in the past two days."
Tina's brow furrowed. "I remember eating a bun?" She sounded unsure.
Midwife Moon-Leanfear turned to Newt.
"Since your wife may not be able to keep track of her dietary intake, it will fall to you to help her. Please let me know at our home visit whether or not she has any troubles following the program."
She waved her wand, and a heavy sheaf of parchment landed on Newt's lap with a thud.
"H—home visit?" Newt asked. He felt as if the slight stutter he'd suffered from as a child were coming back. This really was a trying situation. He couldn't even begin to make out what he felt about it at the moment. But this was rather important.
"Of course. I'll need to see the environment where Mrs. Scamander plans to give birth."
"But—but that will be ages from now," Newt started.
"Sooner than you likely expect. Were you planning to return to the States? I understood that you work for the Ministry of Magic. Mrs. Scamander cannot be expected to return to a dangerous job as an active duty Auror while dealing with memory loss and pregnancy."
"No—of course not. Home visit. Right. It's just that, our schedule is very much up in the air at the moment until we discuss the situation with Professor Slughorn again. I had thought that Tina might be staying here for observation while she underwent treatment."
"Here as in St. Mungo's?" The midwife looked extremely disapproving. "Long term hospital care is not in the least the healthy sort of environment that a pregnant mother needs. She'd be best in a place where she could get plenty of fresh air and do a lot of walking. She's strong, and it'll do her good to stay that way for what's to come."
Newt sunk down. "I'm afraid my lodgings are in London—"
"Well perhaps you ought to make other arrangements. Send me an owl in two days and I'll be able to give you a time for our appointment."
She turned her attention from Newt to Tina. "If you have any difficulties, my dear, please to not hesitate to send me an owl. I understand that you may have trouble remembering directions, or even possibly this meeting. I will do my best to look in on you regularly to be certain that everything is progressing well."
She gathered her belongings, stepped up to Tina on the table, and touched her briefly on the forehead with her fingertips.
"Goodbye dear. Mr. Scamander—don't forget. An owl within two days."
She opened the door, and it revealed a surprised-looking Horace Slughorn.
"Where are Queenie and Jacob?" Newt asked, craning his neck to see if they were in the corridor.
"I sent them to find the dining hall. They both looked as if they could do with something," he said. He looked at Jane Moon-Leanfear in what almost seemed like fear. Newt was a little relieved to find he wasn't the only one.
"So it's true then."
Instead of responding to Slughorn's question, the midwife just quirked a brow and swept off to the side. "See you Monday, Mr. Slughorn," she said as she strode down the white corridor.
Newt and Tina both stared at him. He seemed to have been put completely off-balance. He reluctantly explained, "My wife Prudence is expecting."
"Congratulations," said Tina, looking bemused that they would be sharing a midwife with Mr. And Mrs. Slughorn. Or perhaps she was stuck on the shock that Slughorn was married at all. Newt certainly wouldn't have expected it of him. And he hadn't seemed eager to share that information with them.
"So she makes home visits even in the far north?" Newt asked. He tried not to sound depressed.
"Yes, I believe she considers the whole island her territory. She has assistants though. And there are others. But for a difficult case, there's really no one better," Slughorn admitted.
So there would be no escaping Midwife Moon-Leanfear unless he actually did return with Tina to the States. And honestly, Newt wasn't sure what standard of care they had there. He'd been given to understand that the Healers in New York actually referred patients to muggle doctors for issues they deemed not magical enough to warrant their expertise.
Slughorn turned to more cheerful subjects. "I have taken a look at the plant, Scamander, and I have to say, it's incredible! There are twenty potential uses I'd like to try it for, and who knows what else may be discovered accidentally. There will certainly be a memory component. It shares some unexpected properties with Rosemary, but of course it's not closely related botanically speaking. This may be an independent mutation to fill a similar need and enhanced by its proximity to that creature."
He paused. "I should like to get some of that venom you used in New York, you know. I heard about it from the Minister himself. It might prove very helpful."
Newt tried not to let his eyes stray to where his case was propped against the far wall. It certainly wouldn't do to let Slughorn get an eyeful of what he had in there. Magical beasts were considered most valuable dried and in pieces by wizards such as Slughorn. And yet, those with research on their minds were much easier to persuade about conservation efforts—they at least didn't want to see shortages of ingredients. It was the Aurors whose first concern was always the Statute of Secrecy that were the real sticklers. A dead magical beast to them was first in their minds one that could not expose the wizarding world to the muggles. They generally viewed rare beast protection preserves as a preventable accident waiting happen.
His father had spoked strongly in favor of conservation when he'd held the family post. Now that it had passed to Theseus, Newt felt much less certain that his work would be well received. And as he had been interested in other matters such as international security and Tina for most of the time since his father's retirement Newt had never bothered to have a conversation and find out.
"Scamander?" Slughorn said. He had moved further into the room and seated himself on the stool. Tina stretched her long leg out from where it dangled from the table and nudged his knee with her boot.
"Um, yes? Sorry," he returned to the present moment.
"Could I get some of that venom?" he prodded.
"I'm not sure what use it could have in helping to return Tina's memories. The two substances seem to work as a counter-balance. But see here, this may all need to be postponed."
Newt glanced up at Tina's confused face. He looked down at his hands in his lap.
"The midwife said that Tina may not be able to take a potion while she's pregnant."
"Piffle. If I'm mixing, there's no question of side effects." Slughorn's voice changed from arrogant to extremely serious. "There is a reason I am regarded as Britain's foremost potions expert, and this is it: my potions work as intended or not at all. I take safety very seriously. It will be a challenge, but I will not give anything to Mrs. Scamander that I would not feel safe giving to my own wife. I give you my word."
Relief coursed through Newt. There was hope. Tina could be back to her old self before the baby was born. Newt finally began to relax from where he'd been sitting stiffly. The niffler seemed to take this as a cue to wake, since he began wriggling around rapidly. Newt put a hand on him and said hopefully to Slughorn,
"So, when shall we get started?"
"Oh, I may be able to make it down here with a first try in a fortnight."
Newt frowned. He'd been hoping to hear something more like "right away" instead.
"So long?"
"I am engaged at Hogwarts, you know," Slughorn said testily. "Some of us are aware of the honor of the post."
So Slughorn knew that he'd turned down the Care of Magical Creatures position. Newt had thought that the whole thing was confidential. He wondered who else might have that information.
"Of course," said Newt shortly. "So in the meantime, what are we to do?"
Slughorn looked at him blankly.
Newt sighed, feeling very lost. "If there's nothing further I can give you—and the venom will take some time to collect—might we see Healer Lockhart one more time?"
Slughorn rose. "Of course, of course. And let me say once more how sorry I am that this tragedy has befallen your family at what would otherwise be such a happy time of celebration. A son married and about to carry on the line should still be considered a net gain though, even with the memory trouble, eh?"
If Slughorn was trying to look on the bright side, Newt was not able to appreciate his attempt.
"Look," Newt said desperately. "This needs to remain confidential. We don't know who attacked Tina or why they left her alive with such dreadful memory damage. It can't get out that she's being treated, or even that she's going to have a baby. I'd like to keep it quiet that she's even in England."
Slughorn looked at him pityingly. "I should think that ship has sailed. I nipped over to the Leaky Cauldron for a bite of lunch earlier, and Tillie Armentrout was in, and telling anybody who looked at her that she'd seen you and your new wife this morning."
As the small man rose from his seat, he added, "She also had some very interesting speculation about exactly what's inside that case of yours."
Newt scrambled from his seat, seized the case and stood beside the table where Tina was sitting. He held out his hand and shook Slughorn's.
"We'll see you in two weeks, Professor."
Slughorn looked at the case, as if he might say something more, but then nodded and opened the door. "I'll send Honoria back in to see you."
As the door shut behind him, Tina spoke.
"Is that how long a fortnight is?"
"Yes." Newt ran his hands through his hair. He wasn't sure if the question indicated memory loss or merely being American.
"Then what are we going to do til then?" she asked, looking up at him while biting slightly on her lower lip.
Newt tried to smile reassuringly.
"We'll think of something," he said. He was glad Queenie was out of the room for a few moments, because there was no way he would have been able to effectively hide all the rapid and disparate thoughts that were darting around in his head. He took the niffler out of his pocket, and Tina took the little creature from his hands. Newt watched her pet the niffler for a few moments, glad that he could offer her at least that small comfort amidst the chaos of the day.
A/N: Thanks so much for reading and especially for commenting. Comments are how I learn what's working in my writing and what's not. I'm here to learn as well as tell stories, so I'd really appreciate your feedback. Please review!
Thanks!