disclaimer: I own nothing
Getting a room ready for a baby presented more challenges than Newt had thought about -namely the fact that neither he nor Tina possessed a cradle, which was -to his mind- the most important part.
The did clean out the room, though it had practically been bare anyway and Tina had charmed the wallpaper into a deep emerald green after making a face at the orange it had been originally. The color ended up making the room feel cozy and it made the pattern of the original paper-which had come with the house-look a lot nicer.
"Maybe you should change careers." Newt suggested from the doorway where he had been watching.
Tina smiled and shook her head. She seemed almost cheerful today.
Newt wondered if one of the things that was causing her to retreat behind her walls again was the simple fact that she had far too much time to think about the rape. Being unable to work had left Tina with long, unfilled days, as much as she did help him with the creatures.
Minty was sitting at Tina's feet, affectionately rubbed her head against Tina's legs. Newt smiled. It was good to see the little kneazle opening up again.
Minty's flanks were positively bulging by now -it would not be long before she had her kittens. In anticipation of this, Newt had prepared a nesting box for Minty in one corner of the living room, out of the way of most of the other creatures. As far as he could tell, though he had filled it with old copies of the Daily Prophet to make it comfortable for birthing, the kneazle hadn't touched it since he'd originally set her inside. If he judged off of Minty's preferred spots, the kneazle was going to end up having her litter in the middle of his and Tina's bed.
"I don't think there's much else to do in here." Tina said, glancing around the room.
"Not unless you count furniture." Newt said.
"Except that."
Tina joined him in the doorway, Minty padding along behind her. Tina surprised him by kissing him. He kissed her back. When Tina pulled away by a few inches, they simply looked at each other for a few moments.
"Newt?"
"Yes?"
"The niffler just went into our bedroom."
Newt sighed in mild exasperation and opened the closed door to find the niffler riffling through what little jewelry Tina owned.
"What did I tell you?" Newt asked it, not moving.
The niffler stared at him defiantly, then shoved the necklace it was holding in its pouch and made a break for it. In such a small room, catching it truly wouldn't have been that hard, but recalling the incident in New York, Newt chose to pull out his wand.
"Accio!"
The niffler flew through the air and landed in Newt's outstretched hands. It struggled for a moment before it gave up and gave Newt a pathetically sad look.
"Oh no." he told it, keeping a firm grip on it. "I'm not falling for that. Now give it back."
The niffler made no move to remove its pilfered items from its pouch.
Newt sighed, flipped the niffler upside down, and shook it. The jewelry spilled to the ground, along with several small things that Newt recognized from the house. He sighed and took it over to the staircase.
"Get downstairs, mister. And if you take anything else along the way, you'll be in trouble."
The niffle sulked down the stairs and watched it go. When he turned back, Tina had collected what the niffler had stolen anda was placing it back where it belonged.
"Sorry about that." he said to her.
"I've gotten used to it by now." Tina said.
Newt nodded.
Not having anything else to do regarding the baby's room at the moment, they retreated downstairs. Tina's mood seemed to be lasting and Newt was glad to see that. Other than starting with the room, Tina seemed to still want to avoid talking about the baby. Newt respected that, for the moment. If she needed to take it a little slow, then fine. At least she was starting towards them actually talking about it.
When Bunty came back later that evening, the three of them tended to the creatures. The rest of the right was not very exciting and Newt and Tina went to bed after actually having a conversation. It was comfortable, but Newt couldn't help but wonder if it would last.
"Newt!"
Tina voice woke him later that night.
"What?"
Newt sat up, instantly alert.
Tina's wand was already lit and it took Newt's eyes a moment to adjust to the sudden brightness. Tina's face was pale and she was clutching her belly. The blanket and sheet were shoved back.
"What's wrong?" Newt said.
"I'm bleeding."
Tina looked petrified.
"Where?" Newt asked, but Tina didn't ned to answer when he saw the blood on the sheet. "How badly?"
Seeing Tina looked so scared was scaring Newt more than the blood.
"Not badly, I don't think, but, Newt." Tina seemed to take a moment to collect herself. "This isn't supposed to be happening. Not now."
"I know, Tina. I know."
Newt got up and quickly dressed in the clothes he'd tossed aside when they'd gone to bed. Once he had, he grabbed his wand and helped Tina up.
"We're going to the hospital." he told her, holding tightly on to her arm and Apparating to St. Mungo's.
The Healers there quickly took charge of the situation. Newt paced the corridor, anxiety running through him. He wasn't usually one to worry, but seeing Tina like that had scared him more than a lot of things had. Newt nearly jumped out of his skin when a Healer came into the hallway.
"Mr. Scamander?" the Healer said.
"Yes. H-How is she?" Newt asked, moving forward.
"Your wife is fine, Mr. Scamander. Nothing more than some heavy spotting. A little heavier than normal, but she and the baby are not in danger. It happend in a lot of pregnancies. We gave her a potion to stop it."
Newt let out a deep breath of relief, laughing a little from the sheer force of the emotion. The Healer smiled kindly at him.
"She'll be fine, Mr. Scamander. This must have scared you both, but it shouldn't happen again. You can see her now. Once we're sure the potion has kicked in, we'll let you take her home."
"Thank you."
Newt moved past the Healer and entered the room.
The room was empty, except for Tina. Not a lot of people came to St. Mungo's for non-magical ailments. Or for pregnancy related things, as far as Newt was aware.
When he reached her, Tina hugged him tightly.
"I'm sorry for scaring you." she whispered in is ear.
"It's not your fault." Newt said, lowering himself to the edge of the bed.
"I know."
Tina pulled back, staring at him for a moment. She let out a deep breath. She seemed to take a moment to go over something in her mind.
"Tina?" Netw said gently.
"I know it wasn't anything serious, but for a moment I really thought I was going to lose the baby."
Tina's hand rested on her swollen belly protectively.
"And that really scared me." she whispered, shaking her head a little. "It scared me more than having it."
Newt said nothing. He wasn't sure, not even after the rape, if he had ever seen Tina look so vulnerable. It was something he'd seen so rarely that it struck deep into his heart.
"I really want this baby, Newt." Tina whispered, taking his hand squeezing it hard. "It just took me a long time to untangle all those. . . . . .emotions and everything else and realize it."
She looked almost relieved by her own words and Newt realized that there was probably more that she hadn't said to him than he'd thought.
"I want it, Newt." she repeated, letting out a breath.
Newt placed his hand beside hers and kissed Tina's forehead.
"I do too, Tina."
XXXXXX
If there was one good thing about the terrifying night in the hospital, it was that Tina had started talking to Newt again. Not about the rape -that was a point she had refused to talk about no matter what- but she was more open than she had been since it had happened.
They hadn't gotten around to doing anything else with the baby's room, but they still had time. One rainy afternoon Newt came home after an annoying, mandatory meeting with his publisher and struggled to close his umbrella in the front hallway.
"Tina, I'm home!" he called, finally closing it. If he hadn't been in Muggle London for a portion of his day, he wouldn't have even bothered with it. He got no response. "Tina?"
He went looking for her and found her kneeling in the doorway of the small closet that held their coats. She looked up at him and smiled. Newt heard tiny squeaking and knelt beside her, smiling. Minty was laying on the floor of the closet, on top of a coat, with eight tiny speckled, spotted, and dappled kittens nursing at her belly.
"Well done, Minty." Newt said to the kneazle, still smiling.
He looked at Tina. She was smiling gently at Minty and her litter.
"She was a natural." Tina told him.
"You watched?" Newt asked, genuinely surprised.
"I noticed she was acting strange. And when I realized what was happening..." Tina shrugged. "I'll be doing it soon enough."
"A little differently." Newt said with a small laugh.
Tina nodded.
"I don't think I'd be able to handle eight."
Tina leaned against Newt and rested her head on his shoulder as they just watched Minty with her babies, who were kneading her belly with soft pink paws.
"I don't know why I thought she'd use the box." Newt told Tina.
Tina said nothing, letting out a soft, contented sigh as Minty licked the kittens between their sealed ears. It was a wonderful sight, the newborn kittens and their mother.
"I think we should leave them alone now." he told Tina.
"Yeah."
Newt helped Tina to her feet and gently closed the closet door most of the way to give Minty privacy. Tina looked happy as they retreated to the kitchen. Newt was glad to see that.
"How were things with your publisher?" Tina asked as Newt put the kettle on the stove.
"No worse than usual. They're reprinting and wanted to know if I had anything to add before they did. Updated information, that sort of thing."
"Do you?" Tina asked.
"Not at the moment, no. I haven't had the chance to look for anything." Newt paused here, realizing how this might have sounded to Tina.
"That nice quiet life you wanted." Tina said.
Newt honestly could not tell if she was joking or not and didn't want to ask.
Over tea -which Tina didn't seem enjoy as much as Newt did- they talked, not about anything specific, but Newt could see that Minty and her kittens had cheered her up immensely. It was a good thing to see.
"How are you feeling?" Newt asked during a lull in their conversation.
Tina laughed a little.
"You don't need to fuss, Newt. I'm fine. The Healers said that the potion would stop any further bleeding. My biggest complaint is backache right now."
"I can make you something that should help with that." Newt offered.
Tina eyed him over the rim of her cup as she took a sip of tea.
"Is it something you use for creatures?" she asked.
"Sometimes." Newt admitted. "But it is easily adapted for human use."
This made Tina smile and shake her head.
"I think I'm fine for the moment, Newt. I might take you up on it in a month or two."
"Then I could teach you how to make it for yourself." Newt paused for a moment, realizing he had never seen Tina brew a potion.
"How good are you at potion making?" he inquired.
"Good enough. You have to be able to make potions pretty well to qualify for Auror training."
Newt had the vague sense of having heard this before, probably from Theseus. He honestly hadn't payed much attention to what was needed to qualify for Auror training, since he had never had a desire to become one himself.
"Why?" he asked Tina.
"Antidotes, things like that. Although I'm not entirely certain why. It's not like we have time to whip up a potion when we're on the streets chasing Dark wizards."
Newt thought this view point made sense. They spent some time talking about Auror training, which Newt knew next to nothing about. From the way she was talking, Newt could tell that Tina missed it. He knew she did. He knew that if she had been going to turn her back on being an Auror, she would have done it after she was raped. The only thing preventing her at the moment was the Ministry not wanting to take her on until she had given birth. Newt suspected now that part of that reason was because Tina had not yet been interrogated by the Ministry. He knew it would happen. Both he and Tina did, especially with Dumbledore's warning.
Once they had finished their tea, Newt and Tina ended up having a conversation about their childhoods before their respective schooling, down in the basement.
The kelpie immediately came to Tina and allowed her to scratch the ridges above its eyes.
"That is the friendliest I've ever known a kelpie to be with a human." Newt commented as she did.
"He likes you too." Tina pointed out.
Newt couldn't argue with that, and sat beside Tina, telling her about a kelpie he'd once dealt with that had been in a well. Tina seemed startled by the idea of it, but laughed when he described the things he had done before finally getting it out.
"How old were you?" Tina asked.
"Twelve. It was the first time I'd ever seen a kelpie. And I couldn't use any magic to assist it without the entire Ministry swooping down on me." Newt answered.
"What was twelve year old Newt doing out in the middle of no where by himself?"
"Exploring. I was visiting a hippogriff breeder with my mother." Newt said.
Tina nodded, not asking about that. She knew that Newt's mother was a breeder of hippogriffs.
Newt took the task of making dinner that night and watched as Tina poured cream into a saucer and put some fresh meat into Minty's bowl. Newt smiled to himself as she went to the closet to give both dishes to the kneazle. He wasn't entirely sure she would ever admit it, but Tina had a large soft spot when it came to the kneazle. He couldn't blame her. Minty had obviously chosen Tina as her witch and kneazles were very loyal to their chosen people. And having some relationship other than him right now was probably beneficial to Tina, even if it was with a creature and not a person.
Tina came back a few moments later.
"How is she?" Newt asked, glancing away from what he was cooking for a moment.
"Sleeping. All of them." Tina said, flicking her wand and causing plates to float out of a cabinent and on to the table.
"I thought we were trying to do this the Muggle way." Newt teased.
Cooking with magic was useful and sometimes made more sense that doing it the Muggle way, it just wasn't practical when both he and Tina were home when it was time to start making the meal. And Newt's theory was that doing certain things the Muggle way was a good thing. While he was a wizard, he knew it was all to easy to become overly dependant on magic. There were situations when wands could not be reached, for whatever reason. Newt winced as he remembered Tina losing her wand when she had been attacked by the Dark wizard. She had blamed herself for what had happened because she had lost her wand. Newt wondered if she still did.
"Newt!" Tina's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and Newt realized that due to his inattention the food was now on fire.
"Merlin's beard."
He jerked away from it as Tina pointed her wand at the flames.
"Aquamenti."
A jet of water hit the flames in the pan and exstinguished them, vanishing as quickly as they had come.
"Maybe the Muggle way wasn't the best." Newt said, looking at the charred and soaked remains in the pan.
"What were you thinking about so hard?" Tina asked, Vanishing the mess.
"Nothing." Newt said, not wanting to tell her the truth.
"Wands."
"Ah."
Tina gave him a lingering look that suggested she didn't entirely believe him, but she didn't ask. Instead, she made a replacement meal with magic.
"Thank you." Newt said once they were washing the dishes.
This was another thing they were doing the Muggle way.
"You're welcome." Tina said, drying the dishes with a towel.
"This seems like something your parents tell you before you come of age." she said a few moments later.
"What, exactly?" Newt asked.
"Doing things the Muggle way is very character building or something like that."
Newt laughed a little at this.
"I'm not sure I ever heard that one."
"Then you must have been the most patient underaged wizard ever."
Tina said, closing the cabinent as Newt dried his hands with the towel she had been using.
"Taking care of creatures doesn't always require magic. It just makes things easier, most of the time." Newt said.
Tina said nothing to this, just gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Pickett popped out of Newt's vest pocket and stuck his tongue out at Tina. Tina looked startled by this.
"Pickett." Newt said.
The bowtruckle looked at him sulkily.
"I think he might be jealous." Tina said.
Newt smiled at this and let Pickett climb on to his hand, holding him up to eye level.
"Is that it, Pickett? Do you want to be kissed as well?" he said, teasing the bowtruckle a little bit. Pickett's tongue emerged again.
"That is beneath you, Pickett. We've talked about it before, haven't we?" Newt said, looking Pickett in the eye.
"Maybe he's feeling neglected."
"I don't see how he could be, considering he's with me practically all day." Newt said as Pickett scuttled back into his pocket.
"He'll get over it. He's not used to having to share so much."
Newt glanced down at this pocket and patted it gently.
"Isn't that right, Pickett?"
Pickett didn't dignify this question with any sort of response. Tina smiled in amusement.
Tina went to bed before Newt did. She seemed tired and Newt could only suppose that the pregnancy was the reason for this.
When he was finally ready to join her, he peeked in at Minty and her kittens. She had emptied the saucer and dish a few hours before. The kneazle queen mewed at his wandlight, flicking her tufted tail unhappily. Her eight kittens were cuddled in a heap against the curve of her still swollen belly.
"Goodnight, Minty." Newt said, closing the door most of the way, leaving a big enough gap for Minty to slip out if she wanted to.
After that, Newt climbed the stairs and quietly entered his and Tina's room.
Tina was sleeping curled up on her side, the blanket thrown off her on to his side of the bed, though it still covered her legs. As had become her habit, she had left her wand on his side of the bed. Newt didn't see why she still did this. She hadn't hurt him since she'd struck him in the eye, though this was due in part to him taking a hold of her arms.
Newt lingered beside the bed, just watching Tina for a few moments, taking in the peacefulness that evaded her during the day. He walked around the bed and drew the blanket back over Tina, brushing some of her hair behind her ear and kissing her forehead as he did. Tina stirred and let out a sleepy murmur, but didn't wake. After this, Newt undressed, extinguished his wand, and slid into bed beside her.
Author's Note: Sadly, due to either lack of imagination or just pure laziness, Minty's kittens do not have mentioned names or genders. Open to suggestions for follow up stories. :) (Minty is also intended to be the ancestor of Newt and Tina's three kneazles that were mentioned in the back of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
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