Greetings readers,

Happy 2018. I have been working on this story during Nanowrimo, and I have finally started my editing. My goal is this whole story will be completed before The Crimes of Grindelwald will be released in November 2018. There are at least six more chapters to come.

March 11th, 1927

My dearest, Tina.

First, I must say that I love the pen you gave me. It is amazing, and I think it actually makes my handwriting more steady and legible, which just proves that it must be magic. My editors wished I had this pen months ago. This is the best valentine's gift anyone could receive, it makes me feel sheepish for sending you just a stuff animal, when you got me a stunning, custom-made, and well thought out gift. Is there anything I could send you in return? Is there anything you might want from England? Tea? Biscuits? A fully indexed series of magical history encyclopedias? I am joking about the last one. No one wants a fully indexed series of magical history encyclopedias.

However, I am serious about suggestions on things to send you. Everything you have sent during our correspondence has been thoughtful. Gifts for my creatures, socks, and a pen. I feel like I send you Juvenal gifts. A feather for your hat, or my old school pin, a stuffed animal. These aren't the sort of things most young women hope, or even wish, to receive from a man. So, if anything crosses your mind, please let me know. I would be happy to oblige you.

Second, I am going to address that things at the end of your letter first, simply because it will be easiest to start there. I have written you several drafts of this letter and each time, I start at the very beginning and… well, I get stuck. I get chocked up, frustrated and so very upset. It's strange how since knowing you, I feel so many more feelings than I ever did before. Almost as if I am seeing the world from a different angle.

So, I am going to write this letter from a different angle too, and I hope this approach will allow me to write you a long wonderful letter, like the one you wrote me.

I am so very happy to hear that you have gone back to work. I know that by the time I received this letter you have already been back to work for at least three days, since international owls roughly take the long. I can only imagine how impatient you were to get back to work, knowing your dedication for your job. If the Ministry of Magic had employee's even a quarter as dedicated as you, we might have international magical cooperation.

While I know you were probably cursing Merlin's beard to get back to work, but I am so happy to hear that you took the time to heal properly. I cannot imagine what you have gone through or what it must have felt like. Actually, I try not to think about what you must have felt, because it hurts my chest.

After fighting Grindelwald in the subway, I was sore for weeks. I would wake up in the night with any aching back and cramps in my legs. I knew it was the magical after effects from the curses. It helped that I came out of the fight, overall, unscathed. However, when I think about you, and what you must have suffered, it hurts. I'm sorry I have to change the subject.

I also not surprised that Billy Bricks might have something to do with your attack. He has always given me an uneasy feeling, however, I think it was originally because I was jealous of him.

He got to spend so much time with you. He got to have lunch with you, walk around New York with you, and solve cases with you. All the things that, while I sit at my desk here in London, I wish I could do with you. When I met him, he didn't give me a good feeling. I hated leaving you, and knowing that he would come sit beside you in my place.

I feel justified in knowing that even the Kneazels don't like him. Really, they truly are excellent judges of character. While in Egypt, I watched a kneazel stare a grown wizard into submission. He street vendor who was trying to sell overpriced "magical" scarab beetles to wizarding tourists. It was very impressive to see.

However, I know it's going to be tiresome hearing it from me again, but please be careful. If Billy did have anything to do with your attack, it could be dangerous poking around into his background. If you get attacked or hurt again, and I can't help, it will drive me barmy. So, please take care at work, you being safe means the world to me.

As for your care packages, no, it is not common for the Minister of Magic's wife to send care packages to international aurors after they are attacked. However, Minster Tolipan came to me the day I returned from New York. I had only been back a few hours, and I was practically falling asleep at my desk. I was exhausted. It was 6am your time when I left New York, but 12pm in London. I still had a half day of work to complete.

Then suddenly, the Minster of Magic is standing in my office, apologizing to me. At first, I thought it was a dream and I had dozed off at my desk again. He told me how remorseful he felt about not telling me about of attack when he first learned about it. Minster Tolipan had no idea that I was clueless. It seems that after he secured me my Portkey, that he went home and discussed our situation with his wife, and that is why you got the care package you did.

I will say, I've never had a strong opposition to the Minster of Magic. Nor I was ever major supporter either. He was just a man doing his job, just as I am a person doing mine. However, I am feeling so optimistic towards him, that I might even send him a Christmas card.

The other big news the Minster brought me that day was that he had assigned my office a new part-time worker.

I am not sure if you remember several letters ago, but I believe I wrote to you about how backed up my office had been for the last several months. That I had been requesting a part-time worker but that all my requests had been denied. Well, I guess you just need to have someone very near and dear to you almost die, for the Minster to approve your request.

To be frank, you being injured isn't work a million part-time workers. I would have rather nothing happen to you at all and I would just continue to be overworked.

The new employee, Miss Easton, she seems to be a decent sort of person. It has been nice to just deposit the simpler creature cases on her desk, since most of the cases that come in are simple but time consuming, while the difficult ones can takes weeks to clear up.

Having a new person in the office has highlighted to me a fact about myself, I don't make friends quickly. I would prefer to take my time and assess the situation and environment before making friends. Maybe I am too much the magizoologists, because I feel like even human interactions are predictable to an extent. Most people meet and work together for a few months before knowing much about each other outside work. Unless, that is only how it happens with me. Do you make friends with your co-workers quickly?

Despite my feelings on the matter, Miss. Easton seems to think we are fast friends. Which surprises me because we would never be friends outside of work. She is only a few years out of Hogwarts and seems to run in a very fashionable crowd. While I spend hours in a suitcase mucking out magical beast habitats. (However, the dung of many of my magical creatures is quite profitable, and that is how I offset the cost of their maintenance and food.)

Miss. Easton, or Viv, as she would like me to call her, only works about 20 hours a week. Yet when she is in the office, I find myself becoming significantly less productive. Often, she comes into my office to just "chat" as she calls it, when I am researching something. Just yesterday I was looking up some articles about the properties of dragon's blood for Albus, (since he is currently researching the different uses of dragon's blood), and she just came in, sat on the edge of my desk and started talking.

My desk is covered in files, so the fact that she found a place to sit was a surprise in its self, but then she just talked to me while ignoring the fact that I was in the middle of reading.

I will say she is rather… well, I guess there is no polite way of putting this, but she is nosy. She asks a lot of questions about things not related to work. What was like to fight Grindelwald? Do I have any wounds from the battle? What is my favorite type of magical beast? What do I think of her new sweater? How do I like the tea she brought in? Do my parents host parties very often?

I mean, what kind of questions are those?

How can I explain to anyone but you, what it was like to fight Grindelwald? Only you would understand, since you have been there. It's inappropriate to ask someone about their "battle wounds", as she calls them. Of course the fight with Grindelwald left me wounded. However, she is very presumptuous to assume that I would tell her about them. It's a private matter.

As for my scars, most come from beasts, not humans. Not that I would tell Miss. Easton that anyways. I also don't think that she, or anyone would be impressed by them or find them interesting. My scars are all a part of learning more about magical creatures. Part of the reason I know so much about Murtlap bites is because I was bit by one too. It's about learning, not bragging.

Also she asked me to pick a favorite beast! How could I pick a favorite beast? That is like asking a mother to pick her favorite child.

Additionally, all her sweaters look exactly the same. They are just different colors of pink and red. She also insists on making my tea for me in the afternoon and she always brings biscuits. I have asked her to stop and reminded her time and time again that serving tea is NOT in her job description and she is belittling herself acting like a house elf. She just waves me off and keeps saying its practice for the future, whatever that means.

Also, she has this strange obsession with my parents. My mother has come into the office once since I came back from seeing you, and Miss Easton practically held her hostage asking her all kinds of questions about my childhood and whatnot. It was embarrassing, since my mother holds the Ministry to higher standard than Miss. Easton's behavior. (Of course, my mother has no idea what any Ministry standards actually are, so there is that.)

But speaking of my mother, I am so embarrassed to find out that she sent you that interview. It was not my best moment. Being called a "Scruffy looking Niffler Herder" who is "uncomfortable and anti-social" and "fanatical and obsessed with his area of research" is not how I would like you, or anyone, to think of me.

That interview took place within the week I had come back from New York. I was exhausted, and for a while, stopped shaving in the morning to get a bit more time sleeping. I will say, I had a nice beard going too, if a bit unkempt, however, nothing compared to our friend Albus.

The interviewer was rather pushy and I did my best to keep my temper. However when they asked me the best way to exterminate gnomes, I had had enough. My publishers weren't too happy with the interview, however it has helped publicity for the book. Now people think I am a moody and standoffish adventurer with a chip on my shoulder, or whatever my editor said.

My mother asked about you when I got back from New York. She caught me when I was weak and before I knew it, I had told her all about seeing you in New York and how worried and scared I was. She never told me she was sending you something in the mail. Since my trip to New York in November my mother has been a more attentive to me than she ever has before.

I don't mean to say that in a rude way. She just never seemed very interested in my life before. My parents really aspired for my brother and I to have important careers in the Ministry. Of course Thesises becomes a famous war hero, and I get thrown out of Hogwarts. I think my mother is more interested in my life now that I am making a name for myself. It feels wrong to write that, it feels ungenerous. We have just never been close.

So it has been a surprise that my mother has taken such an interest in you. However, I am pleased that she wrote to you. Did you write her back?

As for the countess, I did write to her recently. She sent me a letter several days before I got the letter from Queenie, and I was too out of sorts to write her back. However, a few day after I got back, I felt prepared to write her back. She was writing to invite me to a party she was hosting, I told her that I wasn't feeling well enough to attend at the moment, but that I would be happy to attend the next event she was planning on hosting. I told her that I had been traveling and I my creatures needed me for the next few days.

Her letter back was kind and of course, she was looking forward to meeting me in person. I think that when she does invite me to her next event, I shall ask Albus to go with me. I think he is more likely to be of the type of person the countess is interested in becoming friends with.

Tina, I think I am ready to talk about the first part of your letter.

The last few weeks have been torture. That is the only way to describe it.

At first, when I did not hear from you, I thought that I had crossed a line. I didn't know if sending you a stuffed animal was foolish or immature. Then I didn't know if I over-stepped or misread our relationship when I asked you to be my valentine. I did think you were mad at me.

Then I had a moment of joy, a brief relief, when I saw the international delivery owl at my window. However that joy was short-lived. It was devastating to read Queenie's letter. I felt stupid, useless, and petty, all at once.

A side of me was upset that I was ever foolish enough to think you were actually mad at me about a stuff animal. There you were in the United States struggling to stay alive and I was pouting about a toy. At the same time I was distraught that I could do nothing. I wasn't there to help or assist. This terrible thing had happen, and I was completely and utterly useless. I also was deeply ashamed at the petty thoughts I had before I knew you were hurt. They were stupid thoughts, about how we weren't really friends and maybe our relationship was one-sided. It was childish of me to have such paltry thoughts, and I think it was a way of attempting to lick my own wounds.

Yet as I said, everything changed with Queenie's letter. I won't bore you with the details, but once that letter was in my hands, I knew I had to get to you. There was a new panic in me. What if you had passed away without me seeing you ever again? What if I could help? What if, with my knowledge of beasts, I could help and I didn't?

I asked Minster Tolipan for a portkey, which to my surprised, I was given. It was an exchange, a portkey for me attending publicity events for the Ministry. However, I'd wear my dress robes every day for the rest of my life if it meant that I got to see you one last time. With the portkey secured, I started to research what might have been effecting you, if it was a beast. I had a pretty good short list of creatures before I was told my portkey would activate at midnight.

Now I just needed someone to watch my new mooncalf pups. (There have been four born since my last letter to you.)Thankfully my friend, Professor Dumbledore stepped in to watch everyone for me. This is how he knew of your accident and why he sent you a care package.

Then I was off to America.

My visit was short. As you know. I dearly wish I could have stayed until you woke up, and I guess in a way, you did wake up while I was there. However, you thought I was Queenie. Which, of course, makes perfect sense given your state of delirium and her being your caretaker. I was so relieved that you spoke to me at all while I was there. Hearing your voice, seeing you talk, it was a great pressure off my mind.

I was so pleased that Queenie got some rest while I was there because, she looked… ah, how can I say this politely, unlike herself? She and I talked a bit while eating dinner. I told her about my theory about the dementor's breath. It was far-fetched, and it could have been completely off-base. The hot cocoa was a shot in the dark, and while I am glad it hit the mark, I can safely say I never want to play that odds game again. Especially if your life is on the table.

Dementors are known for sucking the happiness out of wherever they are. It's their kiss that is most dangerous as it will remove the soul from a person's body. Dementor's breath is, well, really impractical. It's a vapor that has to be bottled, heated and then distilled to get a minuscule amount of toxic liquid, which is a labor intensive process to be sure. Then the sheer amount of breath that has to be distilled to get any reasonable amount of fluid is astronomical. Especially when you think about the fact someone has to be close enough to a dementor to collect and bottle the breath.

Dementors are no treat to be around, trust me. In Britain, they are only found at Azkaban, the wizarding prison. However, that might be different in the Americas. Either way, it is safe to assume that dementor's breath isn't cheap and only found in black market trading rings. There really isn't a magical purpose to the solution. I am sure that it is used in a few very dark and very rare potions. I could ask Albus, I mean, Professor Dumbledore to do some research on it, if it would help you. He is currently doing some impressive work with dragon's blood. He has asked me for some assistance in his research, so I am sure he would be willing to repay the favor.

I have thought about this a lot. The dementor's breath, the killing curse, the whole attack is just so complicated. I think you and Mrs. Hendricks have probably come to a similar conclusion as I have, which is that, the dagger was never meant for you in the first place.

Why would someone cast a killing curse and expect it not to work? So they make sure to carry a dagger covered with a rare and expensive toxin around with them just in case? Obviously, when your shield charm activated (which I thank Merlin for everyday)and blocked most of the killing curse's impact, they had to scramble to come up with whatever plan they could to get you out of the way. I think it is likely that either your attacker knew the dagger was covered in toxin but it was meant for someone else and used it against you in desperation. Or they had no idea the dagger they were carrying around was coated in the distilled dementor's breath because they had no intention of using it. It is also possible they knew the dagger was cursed or had some type of dark magic on it, but had no idea what it was.

I have pondering this since I learned of your attacked. Why would someone use dementor's breath? What would the benefit be? In my last discussion with Albus he stated that dementor's breath doesn't have a very long shelf life. It is good for a week, maybe two at the most. So it must have been applied to the blade not too long before it was given to your attackers. Maybe several days or so at most. So it was also produced and sold not long before your attack either.

Then after I received your detailed letter, I am more and more positive that the knife was never meant for you. It was such a well-executed attack, and while I know you belittled yourself for not being more focused, it seems like even a completely focused, highly-skilled auror would have had issues discerning that the passage behind them was being blocked. Especially after seeing how hectic those muggle streets can be. Using a muggle firetruck to block a road, would take planning. How would someone guarantee a firetruck would be there? Of course, a stalled motor vehicle would not seem out of place to any New Yorker.

So who was the knife meant for? I have a feeling you will come to that conclusion much faster than I will.

As for your letter, I swear I will keep the contents to myself. If you consent to me asking for Albus Dumbledore's help, I might read to him the side effect of your letter. However, what you told me, is in my confidence. The fact that you trust me enough with this information is an honor. I am so thankful to have you in my life, and to have you healthy again. But that you also trust me and confide in me, is really more than I could expect. I have never really been close with many people. Which, you probably don't find too hard to believe. My only really close friend at Hogwarts ended up using my trust and friendship against me. Then with my quirky personality and my distaste for most human beings, I honestly never believed I would meet with someone to have such a relationship with. It warms my soul, knowing you are a part of my life.

Yet, back to the point, I have invested in a small lockbox which I keep all your letters in. I was inspire to get this box after I saw how you kept all my letters to you bundled together in your room. I have kept all your letter thus far in a, rather un-ceremonial pile on my desk.

I hope you don't find it too invasive that I sat in your bedroom with you, unaccompanied, while you were healing. I passed most of the evening reading to you from a draft of my book. I wonder if that is why you had that dream about the mooncalfs and niffler? Since I was reading those sections of the book to you while you slept. I read all the sections I wrote with you in mind. How I structured my information, how I phrased certain passages, were because of you, and your feedback.

I did drift off to sleep at one point, for which I am deeply ashamed. I could have caused you serious injury if I had still been asleep when my portkey activated. I knew it would be a long day traveling to see you from England and back in 12 hours but, it was careless. When I think about what I could have accidentally done to you, it gives me the collywobbles.

You were the reason I woke up. I am not sure how long you had been awake before you woke me. But, you were, indeed, petting my hair. I'm not sure how much you remember of our conversation, or any of it. However, I told you than, as I will tell you now, I am not and have not been mad at you for not writing me back. Worried? Yes. Concerned? Yes. Scared? Of course. However, anger is not a feeling I felt towards you. I was angry at other people. I was angry that I was the last to find out about your attack. I was upset that Billy intentionally delayed me from seeing you. I was devastate to know your progress had stopped. But angry at you? Never, not about this.

Another thing I said to you that night was that I will always come back to you, and that still holds true. Tina, I will always be there and come back for you. Even if you move on in your life, and you find yourself no longer needing or wanting me around. If you called, I would come.

Also, please do not burden yourself with trying to thank me or repay me for my kindness to you and Queenie. Please, in all honestly, do not thank me again. I would have done whatever I could to have helped. The portkey cost me nothing but a few ministry appearance that I would have to preform anyways. The money I left with your sister was from my early book sales and honestly, I feel like you earned that with how you helped me in November. As for taking the time to come and see you, that was honestly a relief for me.

There is another think I need to say, you are not a burden to me Tina. In you last letter you wrote " I don't want to become a hassle in your life. I wanted to be a person you could count on to make your life better, instead I made your life harder."

I need you to know how far from the truth what you wrote is. You are not a hassle and you do make my life better. You have given me so much, words care barely express it.

That is why leaving you was so hard. I was concerned I'd never see you, who means so much to me, alive again. Then Pickett wanted to stay. It was hard to leave you both, but I felt better knowing I was leaving my friend with you. I hope that he hasn't caused you too much trouble. I know you are not allowed to have "pets" in your apartment, even though you know I think Pickett is much more than a mere pet.

I am sure he will want to ride around in your coat once you start back at work, and I sincerely hope the two of you find each other's company rewarding.

Once I arrived back in England, I finished out my workday, which was the longest day of my life. I had already written about my meeting with the Minister, so I won't trouble you with that again. Then I went to Hogwarts to collected my case from Dumbledore. However, I feel asleep after supper at Hogwarts, and thankfully Albus took care of my creatures for one more night. I really truly needed the sleep.

Tina, my dearest friend, please know how grateful I am that you are better. I am looking forward to your next letter with such pleasure.

Now that the book is ready for publishing, it is a reminder that I shall get to see you again soon. On March 19th there is a going to be a party hosted a one of the book stores in Diagon Alley, which is London's magical community. It is party to publicize my book, and I do wish you could be there. My parents will be there, and of course, I invited my brother and Albus. However, if you were going to be there, that would make it all better.

I am planning to set sail in late May and arrive in early June to come see you. It takes about six days to cross the Atlantic on a steamer, and I should easily have enough money to buy a solo berth. It's important for me to have a solo room, since in many 3rd class breths, you share a room with several other people. It would be almost impossible to go take care of my creatures in a situation like that. Is there anything I should do with customs in regards to my case this time? I want my visit to New York to be as peaceful as possible. If you would send me a wand registration permit, I would happily fill it out in advance this time.

As for your invitation to stay with you and Queenie, I would be delighted too. If it isn't too forward. I would sleep in my case, which as you know, has a very comfortable place for me. I cannot think about turning down the offer of an American breakfast.

However, I hope you wouldn't find it too rude if I also stayed a night with Jacob. It is very forward of me to just invite myself to stay with him, when right now he doesn't even know I exist, however, if you and Queenie are getting closer to finding him every day than I have no doubt he'll be with us in June.

It might seem silly, but I might be more nervous about seeing you in June, than my book officially being released at the start of May. Acutally, I haven't told you this yet but, May 3rd is when my book will be in stores.

However, please don't buy a copy, I'll have a special one to give you.

My warmest affections and regards.

Always yours,

Newt

"Always Yours" Tina read aloud.

Queenie looked up from her own book, to watch her sister. Tina was rereading her letter from Newt. It was the third time she read it since she got it today.

Tina had been back to work for a full week now, and Queenie had noticed how quickly her sister tired. She was worried about her. Queenie wondered if she had gone back to work too early. Tina's body was still fighting off the dementor's breath.

It was only a slight reassurance that Tina spent most of her day sitting behind a desk, pretending to track magical trading post addresses, or something like that. However, she knew Tina was actually working a mission regarding Billy.

"Everything okay Teenie?" She asked innocently. She didn't want to probe her sister's mind when it came to Newt's letters. After she had spoken with Newt during his visit, she knew he was slowly working his way to tell her that he loved her.

When Newt did tell Tina, she didn't want to invade that privacy. Jacob had first told her that he loved her through the privacy of their minds. It was beautiful moment for Queenie and when Tina and Newt had that moment, she didn't want to tarnish it. It was meant to be between the two of them. While she enjoyed snooping in her sister's life, she could respect the need for privacy.

Tina looked up at Queenie and smiled softly, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I'm okay, and everything is fine." Tina stated sadly. "I just… I have so many mixed feelings about Newt's letter."

Queenie set down her book and moved to sit next to her sister. Tina's eyes watered a little bit.

"Queenie, I'm in love with Newt. I really, truly, am." Tears sprang to her eyes as she said this.

"Tina, that is wonderful. Newt is a great guy."

"It's just, this is my first time ever saying it out loud. It feels so much more real now. I love him."

Queenie smile at her sister, and Tina smiled back through the tears.

"He wrote me a long letter, about how worried and nervous he was about me being injured. He has been thinking about the case, and gave some really amazing insights. He wrote that he was jealous of Billy, and the time that he and I spent together." Tina pointed to parts of the letter to show Queenie.

Queenie read those bits quickly.

"That makes me think that he must like me too, even if he doesn't love me. He even wrote that he trusts no one else like he does me. That last person he was close to was at Hogwarts. Do you think that might have been Leta LaStrange? He has never really mentioned her before."

Queenie paused thoughtfully, before asking "Do you mind if I read the whole letter?"

Tina handed it over, and watched her sister's face as she read Newt's latest missive.

She was surprised to see that as Queenie read, her smile became wider and brighter. When she finished she raised her eyebrows in an excited expression.

"Teenie, I think he really likes you." A giggle burst out of her.

"Look, he doesn't even notice that his Miss. Easton is trying to flirt with him. He really was a nervous wreck when he got here, sweetie. I saw him, he looked terrible."

"Also he wrote" Queenie deepened her voice and read "'Another thing I said to you that night was that I will always come back to you, and that still holds true. Tina, I will always be there and come back for you. Even if you move on in your life, and you find yourself no longer needing or wanting me around. If you called, I would come.' That is pretty romantic coming from Newt Scamander."

Tina's face flushed and the two women tucked their heads together and poured over the letter.

Queenie was relieved that Tina's stress over the letter was so simple and pure. She was happy to be sharing this moment with her sister. The fact that Tina trusted her with her feelings was heartwarming. She knew that they would find Jacob soon, and now with Newt coming in June, she couldn't help but feel happiness for both herself and she sister.