January 30th, 1927

Dearest Newt,

Thank you for the newspaper clipping with your last letter. I have to agree with your mother, I think you look quite handsome. It was nice to see you in your dress robes but I think I prefer your standard attire better. I don't think dress robes would be very good for field work. I can't imagine that Pickett would like it as much either. For some reason, I was surprised when I saw your picture. It was like I was expecting you to be different, but you were just the same, and I was very pleased to see that. It's also funny how we can start to forget things too. I had forgotten just what you hair looked like and how you wear it. I had forgotten what you looked like in different ways and it was a bit upsetting. It's only been a few months since I have seen you, and here I am already forgetting.

I am also very happy to hear that you are still enjoying the socks I made you.

I do not envy that situation you have been put in with the Ministry and these "events" you have to go to. I wish I had some words of wisdom for you. However, I have never been in that situation before. Any fancy government events in the US are for the wealthy and the higher ups in MACUSA. A lowly auror/ once-wand-permit-official, would never be invited. So I can't really offer advice, but I can offer my sympathies especially if you would have rather spent another night in jail then attending that party.

I will say, comparing it to a night in jail does not entice me to want to attend these kind of event, even if you said you wished I was there. I am kidding, for you I would go. I am strangely flattered that you think I would do well with the seedy upper-crust of British wizarding society. I would probably only feel confident enough to step foot in there if you were with me. Even the Bling Pig situation was a bit nerve wreaking. Everyone had their eyes on us, and it was 3 wizards and a no-maj against a den of people who hated me. Honestly, I think Jacob did the best out of all of us. I'll tell you a secret, when I am having a bad day, I just think about Jacob punching Gnarlak. There was something really beautiful about that to me. Here, the whole time I was worried about bring a no-maj into a magical crime den, and he is the one who actually inflicted some damage.

Maybe you have to see going to these events like Jacob at the Blind Pig. No one there has any expectation of you coming out alive. Well, don't you think you should pull a Kowalski and come out victorious?

I would also like to point out that while the event was just tolerable, good things came out of it. Now you have had a first-hand experience eating shrake roe, how often would you get to eat that? Also you spent some quality time with your brother. It really does seem like he might be interested in being your friend, as well as your brother.

We have been writing about our changing futures, our jobs, where we might live, and well maybe this is your chance to change your future with your brother. Maybe this is your time to become friends. Even if you don't become best friends, it seems like you bit be going to these events for a bit, so might as well make the best out of them.

However, you wrote that one of the mooncalfs was going to have a pup, or would it be a calf? Would it be called a mooncalf calf? Either way, how was the birth? Do mooncalfs have single off-spring or litters? I have heard so little about your creatures lately, is everything okay? How has work been other than your events?

As for your book, I am sorry to hear that your editor is being hard on you. However, I have to agree with him. You are very smart, and it can be a bit hard to follow sometimes. That doesn't mean it's a bad thing thought, it's the opposite. It's a great thing you are so knowledgeable, but just write like you are writing to me. You explained so well about runespoors and clabberts in your previous letters. Just imagine you are writing every section of your book to explain something to me. I'm smart, but I'm not an expert. The goal should be after reading your book people should become closer to being an expert.

Have I told you how excited I am for your book to be published? If not, let me tell you, I am very excited. Years of hard work will soon be paid off. I am also looking forward to seeing you. Maybe that is my selfish moment for the day. I am excited for you to finish your book so you can come back to New York and you can see the city properly, with me.

Do you have plans for Valentine's day? I know it is a few weeks off, but I was just curious. I will probably be working. Will you be out with someone?

Queenie hopes to have found Jacob by Valentine's, and I think we are getting closer. We have narrowed our search to the lower east side. That is where Jacob was living when we first met. We started there a few weeks ago, but we found nothing. However, it turns out that Jacob had been approved for a loan through the Steen National Bank, even though it took a bit longer then we expect. The only information Queenie could get was that it's going to be on the lower east side.

Since we started working together Queenie and I aren't closer than we were before, but it's a different kind of closeness. I think for the first time we are together as equals. This might sound strange but sometimes I felt like we were trying to be the protectors for each other. It was as if we had a symbiotic relationship, and one couldn't survive without the other. We needed each other. Now, we don't need each other and it is allowing us a different level of closeness. It is very nice.

I have been meaning to tell you! I did it. I adopted two kneazles from an old informant I met through Gnarlak. This guy adopts and houses abandoned creatures. MACUSA tends to turn a blind eye to him since he is just an old man with a house full of kneazles, crups, puffskein and the occasional augurey. Really, he is doing MACUSA a favor by keeping them off the streets. Every few months I swing by his place to make sure he is doing okay and to help him reinforce the wards on this house. However, this time I asked him if I could adopt two kneazles and bring them to work for me at MACUSA.

He thought about it and said he had two kneazles he thought would be prefect for the job. Both are very mangy gents. One is gray with a white spot under his chin that looks like a bow tie and the other is striped gray and white. At first I doubted if they would be good creatures to bring into the ministry. However, when I explained to them what I was looking for (do Kneazles understand English?) they looked very determined to come with me. I said clearly that I was looking for covert creatures who were smart enough to sniff out questionable people. They needed to be sly, and quick-witted. They could have free reign over MACUSA as long as they worked to stay out of sight. I also told them there would always be food if they were interested. The both seemed very interested, or at least that is what I assumed from the swish of their tails.

I did get the appropriate licenses for owning kneazles in New York, too. Of course it was very easy to get those licenses since there is a witch in that department that owes me a favor. I took them into the lower levels of MACUSA and had small ID badgers made for their collars. Gatsby and Boots are now official members of the MACUSA investigative department. Before you ask, no I did not get permission to implement this change. I saw a need and addressed it. It has been a week since they have been on staff and amazingly enough, they seem to go unnoticed. Does kneazles have the ability to disillusion themselves? If people do notice them, they seem to assume they have been here the whole time.

Just yesterday in the elevator Gatsby got in with me, Red and a whole group of permit witches. Only Red noticed. He asked me what was up with the kneazles, he has seen two and felt like they had something to do with me. Red and I don't typically get along. I find him to be abrasive at times. However, I told him the truth. That I got those kneazles to find rats in MACUSA and not just the four legged kind. He stood there watching Gatsby walk out of his elevator towards the obliviation bureau. It was a surprise when he told me he thought it was a great idea, and that if this was a secret then he would keep it. If anyone asked him, he'd say we had kneazles for years. He told me that he didn't feel that MACUSA was taking our security seriously. Queenie wasn't the only employee to quit since November and that the Goblins community is concerned.

That hasn't been the only strange thing about work lately. The creature cases have temporarily stopped but I think that is because the Body for the Protection of Magical Species complained to Madam President that they did not like being cut out of their own cases. I just happened to let it slip to the head of their department that so many creature cases have come my way. I had been down to their floor to consult with them about the clabberts and fire crabs situations.

I might be paranoid by I feel like Madam Picquary might intentionally be pushing me to the edge. She has assigned an auror-in-training to me. She said that since I was one of the most 'famous' aurors in the department right now, that I shouldn't have any problems with him tagging along. This young man, William Bricks, or Billy as he likes to be called, is nice enough. He comes from the Detroit MACUSA branch. That branch does a fair bit of black market, underground investigations too. It's easy to smuggle magical good from Canada into the USA from there. It makes sense that he is assigned to me, even if I don't like it.

I know his job is to follow me around, but he asks a lot of questions. Which, I realize in retrospect is his job, but I guess I am just used to staking out and investigating things alone. You know, here we are staking out apothecaries, trying to crack down on this runespoor egg case and he just keeps asking why I am doing what I am doing.

Why am I sitting down watching instead of standing? Why did I choose this spot over another? Why do I wear pants? Do I have a preferred lunch spot? Do all aurors take notes with pen? What are my leads? Why do I think this apothecary is different from the one down the street? How do I know that this place has black market affiliations?

As I took the time to explain to him why I was doing the things I was doing, our lead got away. It was very annoying. The kid is also clumsy, when I went into the apothecary to see if I could gather some information, he knocked over a container of pig eyes. It was not a good day.

It looks like I am going to be stuck with Billy for a while. I understand that most satellite branches send their aurors here to train but I wish I would have been left out of it. I think I would rather go to your charity events then spend another day minding Billy Bricks. I feel terrible even saying, he isn't a bad kid, just bothersome. He bought me a hot dog to make up for the pig eye incident, as we are calling it. I tried to take the time and explain everything to him in detail. Why I choose the places I choose. Why I wear the clothing I wear. How I got the information I had. Why I used a pen instead of a quill. He took it all in stride and I told him that I would be happy to answer questions but just not in the middle of a situation.

He isn't a bad kid. I guess, it's just the last time I worked with someone it was you. I guess in a way, being around him makes me miss you.

Affectionately Yours,

Tina.

Newt smiled a deep smile as he finished Tina's letter. He leaned back in his chair feeling better. He didn't understand why but he knew getting letters from Tina made him feel better. For the first time, in a very long time, Newt had a friend that was a human. Not since Hogwarts did he feel like he had a friend and when he recalled how that turned out, he didn't like to think of it.

He knew he was past the Leta Lestrange part of his life. He rarely ever thought of her. Her picture which was once in his shack had been replaced with a muggle picture instead. Honestly, in his daily life, she didn't exist. However, when he was the Wizengamot party with his brother, he was afraid to that she would be there. A side of him wondered how he would respond to seeing her. Would they carry on as if nothing had happened between them? Would she ignore him and pretend he was never there? He didn't know which option would hurt him more. All he did know was that if Tina was with him, he'd be fine.

Newt paused, and searched for the phrase that gave him a feeling of light-headedness.

There is was. Tina had written "We have been writing about our changing futures, our jobs, where we might live…" He reread it again, and again. He knew that she meant "we" as in "you and I", however the first time his eyes came across it he thought she meant it in the sense of their mutual plans together. 'We' he thought. He had never been part of a 'we', only an I. Only as himself. Even with Leta he was always himself. However with Tina, could they be more?

Where would they live? Would they get married? Newt had never thought of himself as the type of person to get married. However the prospect didn't seem so bad if it was with Tina. Tina, who would go to terrible charity events with him, just because he asked. Tina, who thought carefully about everything Newt said. At the Wizengamot charity event, so many people asked him about his book, about his work, but no one really listened. Tina, she always listened. She asked questions. She was wonderful.

He shook himself. It was stupid to waste time fumbling over the different interpretations of the words "we" and "our". He would literally be sitting here all night contemplating what she meant if he let himself. I side of him liked the possibility of contemplating a future with Tina with all night, but he needed to focus.

He reread the section on Billy Bricks, feeling concerned. A clumsy, barely trained auror would be following Tina around New York for an indefinite amount of time. 'Well, that can't be safe' he thought. Tina need someone teamed up with her, who could keep up. Otherwise they would both be in danger. Tina needed someone like him, he thought, blushing madly. Something else turned in his stomach about the idea of Billy Bricks following Tina around and buying her hot dogs. He couldn't place it, but he really didn't like it.

Shifting his focus to more pleasant topics Newt started to re-scan the letter. "So, Tina adopted kneazles." He said aloud to himself. Pickett squeaked back from him pocket, where he had been resting most of the day. However, Pickett liked Tina, and pestered Newt to know what her letters said.

As the Bowtruckle hoisted himself on Newt's shoulder, Newt noticed Dougal had come into his shack to see him. He also seemed interested in the fact the Newt had a letter. Smiling he read it out loud to them.

On this reread, he notices a change. He had become "Dearest Newt" while before he was just "Dear Newt." He flushed but read on.

He could feel his face grow warmer as he continued to read. By the time he had read the last line "…being around him makes me miss you", he felt like he had run a marathon. His face was flush and his heart was beating hard. Something about reading her letter out loud to others made it even more personal, and it made him want to protect the content of the letter more. Even if they were just magical creatures, he knew they understood him and he didn't want to seem weak in front of them.

Dougal's hand found its way into Newt's. The demiguise squeezed his human friend's hand in a comforting and understanding way. He looked up at Newt with big doe eyes, and Newt knew that everything was going to be okay.