disclaimer: I own nothing

Author's Note: Still no beta. Anyone who read before, thank you!

Enjoy!


Almost a week later, not much had changed for Newt and Tina. They still spent time with Queenie and Jacob, though perhaps not as much as before. They hadn't seen Theseus or Leta again, though Newt would be the first to admit he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not.

Tina was sitting in the living room, working on the blanket, as had become usual. She was actually making good progress on it, though she still ended up unraveling quite a bit. Newt was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a letter he'd received by owl, from Theseus of all people.

"I need to go out for a while." he told Tina.

"Why?" Tina asked, looking up at him.

"There's a creature that needs my help."

The expression on Tina's face completely changed.

"What kind of creature?"

Newt laughed slightly.

"Would you like to come along and see?" he asked.

"Would it involve Apparating?" Tina asked, a wary look on her face.

"I think we could walk to the Ministry."

Tina agreed to this and they made it to the Ministry in good time, heading straight to the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The wizards and witches there were quite friendly, to Newt's surprise and took them to see what they had contacted Newt about in the first place.

In an empty room, a clear sac was floating in a gently swirling orb of water. Tina breathed in when they approached it.

"What is that?" she asked, stopping beside Newt.

"A Tadfoal." Newt answered, glancing at her.

Tina smiled slightly.

"Tadfoal?"

"I didn't come up with word."

Newt circled the orb containing the foal. It wasn't fully developed yet, but its coloring was clear. Strawberry roan with a dappled pink and grayish tail. He looked back at the Department wizard.

"Where was this found?"

"Washed up on a beach. No adults in the water. We didn't know what to do it. Your brother recommended we contact you, Mr. Scamander."

"Thank you for doing so." Newt stopped as Tina moved closer to the Tadfoal, peering at it with fascination. "This is very unusual." he said to the room in general.

"Why?" Tina asked, glancing at him.

"Hippocampus are usually only found in the Mediterranean. I've never heard of one around England, let alone an egg washed up on a beach."

Newt reached out and gently touched the orb of water. As he had thought, his hand couldn't penetrate it. He rotated it slightly. In the egg, the Tadfoal moved slightly, curling and uncurling its undeveloped tail. He looked at the Ministry wizard.

"May I take this?"

"What for?" The man seemed confused.

"To care for it, of course. What do you plan on doing with it?"

The wizard frowned, giving Newt his answer. He couldn't think that many people were equipped to handle caring for a hippocampus, let alone tending to an unhatched egg that would normally be in the care of the parents. Newt's request took hours to sort out. The general idea of simply handing over anything to a wizard, let alone to Newt in particular, was something the Ministry was not in the habit of considering. But it was also acknowledged that no one but Newt could care for the Tadfoal.

This led to hours of paperwork and such that Newt had to read and sign. After this, they also stopped to get Tina a kneazle license. Newt had one, but with Minty transferring her affection to Tina, she really needed one. Newt wouldn't put it past the Ministry to give them difficulties over such a trivial thing. Eventually, however, they got everything sorted out.

Tina was holding the orb of water, staring at the foal.

"What are you going to do with it, exactly?" she asked as they started to walk out of the department.

"Care for it as best I can. Hope that it even hatches."

Tina's eyes widened.

"It's alive right now." she protested.

"It may not stay that way. No one knows how long it was out of the ocean. Or if the Ministry cared for it properly."

Tina looked troubled at the thought, looking down at the water and egg. They reached the Atrium and Newt turned to Tina.

"Unfortunately, we are going to have to Apparate with that." he said, nodding at the orb and egg.

Tina looked a little queasy at the sentence, but she nodded. Newt took her arm and Apparated into the living room of their house. Tina staggered slightly on the arrival. Newt took the Tadfoal and Tina's hand went to the side of her swollen belly as she let out a slow breath. This concerned Newt.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Tina nodded. Newt wasn't entirely certain he believed her, but Tina said nothing. They headed downstairs to the basement.

"Are you putting it in with the kelpie?" Tina asked.

"No." Newt said.

"I think the kelpie is a little to wild to share water with this."

Newt found a spare section of water that the Tadfoal could be in and leaned forward after stripping his jacket off, sinking the orb of water into it. The water came up past Newt's elbows and he gently released the orb, the magic breaking as he did so. Tina knelt beside him as he sat back and drew his wand.

"What are you doing?" Tina asked as Newt swirled his wand over the surface of the water.

"Changing the water to match a hippocampus's natural habitat." he answered.

The water warmed and changed color slightly. The Tadfoal stirred as if it could sense the change.

"Now what?"

"There's not much we can do." Newt admitted.

"It's unborn. Monitoring it and making sure the habitat is appropriate."

Newt shifted his position so it was slightly more comfortable and kept his gaze trained on the egg as it gently drifted through the water's small, manufactured current. Tina stayed beside Newt, watching the egg as well. She seemed to be worried about it.

"I think it'll be fine." he told her.

"Why? Because Newt Scamander has never met a creature he couldn't help?" The humor in Tina's voice took any possible sting out of the words.

"Because I think it's a fighter." Newt answered.

"Why?"

Newt couldn't answer this question.

"I don't know." he admitted. "But it seems to be."

Tina nodded, looking thoughtful as she turned her attention back to the water.

"I'm going to stay down here for a while." Newt told her a minute or so later.

"So am I."

They remained watching the Tadfoal for what ended up being several hours. To Newt's relief, the foal inside, while still a while from hatching, was moving a good deal more than it had been in the ministry. Eventually, Newt got up, helped Tina up, and tended to the other creatures with her help.

Dinner was a solitary affair that night. Newt wasn't entirely certain where Queenie and Jacob were, but that didn't matter. He and Tina checked on the Tadfoal again before going to bed that night.

Later, Newt woke up to the sound of Tina throwing up. Confused and concerned, Newt got out of bed and walked to the bathroom door, which was halfway open.

"Tina?" Newt asked, knocking on the door and peering in.

Tina was leaning back, breathing shakily, face pale.

"Are you all right?"

Throwing up was uncommon at this stage of a pregnancy, but not unheard of. Tina looked up at him.

"No more Apparating." she said raggedly.

"That was hours ago." Newt said, coming into the room all the way.

"I haven't felt good since we did it." Tina said, shaking her head.

Newt knelt beside her.

"Do I need to hold your hair?" he asked.

"I think it's passed." Tina said.

Her face was exhausted and drawn.

"Are you sure it was Apparating?" Newt asked, brushing a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"It's the only thing I can think of." Tina said dully.

They sat there for a few more minutes.

"Do you think you can get back to sleep?" Newt asked.

"Might as well try." Tina responded.

Newt helped her up and they went back to bed.

When Newt woke up in the morning, Tina was sleeping deeply, so he crept out of bed, got dressed, and headed downstairs to check on the Tadfoal. He hadn't had firsthand experience with a Tadfoal, but he knew about hippocampus, so he sat at the edge of the water for a while, watching it. It seemed no different than the day before, which Newt supposed was a good thing. Pickett climbed out his pocket and perched at the edge of the water to get a good look at the egg beneath the surface before scurrying back up Newt to sit on his shoulder. Newt smiled at this and remained sitting there for a while.

He must have been sitting there longer than he'd thought, because Tina came downstairs.

"How is it doing?" she asked, stopping behind him and wrapping her arms around him, chin on top of his head.

"No different than before. I think that's a good thing." Newt said, placing his hand on hers.

"Mmm." They stayed that way for a few minutes until Tina rocked him gently. "What do you say about coming upstairs and getting something to eat? You've probably been up a while." she said into his hair.

"That may be a good idea."

They went upstairs and made breakfast together. Newt noticed Tina wasn't eating much and her eyes appeared glassy.

"Are you all right?" Newt asked.

"Tired. Why?" Newt stood and touched Tina's forehead with the back of his hand.

"You're warm." he said.

"I feel fine." Tina said.

Newt knew she wouldn't lie to him over such a trivial thing, but being sick was never good and even less so when Tina was pregnant. He gave her a potion that he made -the most popular potion for fevers and colds wasn't safe for pregnant women to take- which seemed to halt the fever almost at once, but had the side effect of making Tina incredibly drowsy. Newt also did not realize this at first, not until Tina nodded off over her knitting and jerked awake with a start several times. Finally, Newt had seen enough.

"Go back to bed, Tina." he said.

"That might be a good idea."

Tina looked so out of it, Newt insisted on helping her upstairs. Once she was sleeping, Newt went back downstairs and picked up the blanket. It was really coming along, even if Tina had complained about not being a very good knitter. The colors, sapphire and silver, were pretty and the yarn was very soft. It would be perfect for a baby of either gender. Newt carefully folded it and tucked it into a drawer before Minty could realize it had been left unattended.

About half an hour later, Queenie showed up without Jacob.

"I'm afraid now isn't a good time, Queenie." Newt said as he let his sister-in-law in the door. "Tina's in bed."

"Is she okay?" Queenie asked, her immediate concern obvious.

"She had a bit of a fever. The potion made her drowsy." Newt explained.

"Oh." Queenie frowned slightly.

Newt wondered where Jacob was and what exactly Queenie had been planning to do with Tina. Instead, he asked her something else he had been wondering.

"Queenie, do you know why pregnant women shouldn't Apparate?" he asked.

"Oh. Well, I don't know much about pregnancies to begin with. Why?"

"Tina's been getting nauseous after Apparating for a few months now."

Queenie tilted her head thoughtfully and Newt had a feeling she was looking in his mind at what he was refering to. Newt did find the mind reading a little odd, but he was becoming much more comfortable with it. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Tina would know more about it than either of us." Queenie finally said.

"Would you like to see the Tadfoal we brought home from the Ministry?" Newt asked. He didn't want to drive Queenie off.

Queenie blinked.

"What's a Tadfoal?"

Newt smiled. "I'll show you."

They went down to the basement together and Newt led Queenie over to the pool the egg was in. Queenie was fascinated by it and Newt explained about hippocampus. He found it almost odd that Jacob wasn't with Queenie, but supposed that it wasn't unusual. Even married couples needed time apart every now and then. Though he and Tina hadn't exactly put that into practice yet.

Newt actually had quite an enjoyable morning with Queenie and around lunch time he went to check on Tina. She was sleeping when he walked into the bedroom, but woke up when Newt felt her forehead to see if the fever was still gone.

"Newt?" Tina seemed groggy and Newt felt guilty for waking her up. Despite the potion, sleeping would benefit her after having a bit of a fever and it was clear she hadn't been having a nightmare.

"Go back to sleep." Newt said, frozen over her.

Tina blinked several times, still looking partially asleep.

"What time is it?"

"Nearly lunch." Tina sat up at this, not looking happy.

"You needed to sleep." Newt pointed out.

Tina stood, straightening her clothes.

"Your sister is here."

This seemed to wake Tina up more.

"Why?" she asked.

Newt shrugged. "She's been here for a while. I showed her the Tadfoal and she helped me with the creatures."

Newt and Tina went downstairs. Queenie hugged Tina almost as soon as she saw her, which seemed to startle her. Newt didn't think that Queenie had hugged Tina quite so often in the past. Newt found a reason to excuse himself after lunch. He thought it would be best to give Tina and Queenie some time together without him or Jacob in company. Newt said goodbye to them, kissed Tina on the cheek, and slipped out the door.


XXXXXXX


The next day it became apparent that Tina had passed her fever on to Newt. He woke up with a headache and a temperature. Newt groaned and fell back on to his pillow, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Tina asked, propping herself up on her elbow beside him.

"You've given me your fever." Newt said.

Tina laughed slightly as Newt lowered his hands and she leaned over, kissing his forehead.

"So I did. Stay here."

Tina got up and Newt heard her go down the hallway. She came back with a potion bottle.

"Here."

Newt took it and looked at the label. It wasn't the same one he'd given Tina the day before. This one was Pepperup potion. Newt sighed and took a dose. The nature of the potion made it work instantly, but Tina snorted slightly in amusement at the unfortunate side effect of smoke pouring out of Newt's ears. Newt, who had taken the potion in the past, did his best to ignore it. He probably could have made a potion that lacked the side effect, but brewing wasn't exactly easy when you were the one that was sick.

Tina made breakfast as Newt tended to the creatures. The kelpie did not like the smoke at all and eyed Newt warily when he went to feed it. Newt sighed.

"Tina!" he shouted up the stairs. "Tina!"

"What?" Tina appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Would you feed the kelpie, please?"

Tina came down the stairs and joined him by the kelpie's pool.

"Why?"

"He doesn't like the smoke."

Tina laughed and fed the kelpie before disappearing up the stairs again. She had breakfast ready by the time Newt made it back upstairs.

"What did Queenie want yesterday?"

"Just to spend some time together. I think she and Jacob are planning on leaving soon."

"Did she say that?" Newt inquired.

"No. But I have a feeling about it."

The conversation turned lighter from here. After breakfast, they stayed in because, as Tina pointed out, they couldn't very well go anywhere in Muggle London when Newt had smoke coming out his ears. Tina returned to her knitting. Newt noticed the fabric she'd had had disappeared and he asked here what had happened to it.

"I gave it back to Queenie. She wanted to do something with it." Tina answered.

Minty had brought her kittens out to play and they were determined to explore the living room, though still a little wobbly and not really able to climb things. Tina was curled up by the fireplace and Minty jumped up to join her, settling herself in the crook of Tina's knees. It was a cozy scene and Newt went hunting for a camera. He had one, though he usually only used it where creatures were concerned, though he'd taken a picture or two of Tina since they'd been married. Tina looked up when he took the picture.

"What are you doing?" she asked, though she didn't seem annoyed.

Newt simply smiled. When he sat back down, making notes about the Tadfoal in a journal, two of Minty's kittens decided to attack his shoelaces. Newt smiled, but gently pushed them away. It wasn't a behavior that should be encouraged. One of the kittens stared at him and mewed.

"How many are there?" Tina said.

"Eight, I believe."

"No. Males. Females."

"I don't know. I haven't looked. You need to look under their tails."

Tina eyed the kittens, but made no move to do anything with them.

"They're really too young to tell right now." Newt said.

Some of the kittens were trying to get at Minty, but the kneazle queen stoicly ignored them. Tina laughed and rubbed the kneazle behind the ears.

"Your babies want you, Minty."

"If you had eight demanding to nurse at all times, I think you would get out of reach every now and then." Newt said, glancing up from the Tadfoal he was carefuly drawing with a quill.

"Probably." Tina said.

Eventualy, the smoke stopped pouring out of Newt's ears. Newt needed to head and replenish some of the creatures' food and asked Tina if she wanted to come with him.

"No." Tina shook her head.

"All right. I'll be back in a little while." Newt kissed Tina goodbye and pulled his coat on as he headed out the door.

The trouble was when he opened the door, some of Minty's kittens tried to make a break for it and actually made it down the stairs. Newt scrambled after them, leaving the door open enough for the rest to get out. Another one of the kittens shot past him as he tried to grabbed the initial first three.

"Tina!" Newt called over his shoulder, trying to keep a grip of the kittens and gather more of them.

Minty popped out and grabbed the one closest to the door by the scruff and took it inside. A passing Muggle couple stopped to watch Newt struggling with the remaining seven, but not help. Tina came out and Newt dumped the three into her arms and had to run after one that made it to the street. He managed to grab it around the middle and hurried back out of the way of a car. Tina was standing on the top step, hand on the knob of the door. It seemed she'd managed to wrangle the others inside with no help from Minty.

"Here we go."

Newt handed her the kitten, which was trembling, seeming traumatized by its first experience outside. Tina took it and cuddled it to her chest. The kitten mewed pathetically and nuzzled into her chest. Tina smiled and stroked it.

"I'll keep them inside." she promised Newt.

"Thank you." Newt kissed her goodbye again and set off, this time with no kneazle kittens in tow.

For some of the food that multiple creatures ate, Newt had to arrange for it to be delivered by wizard to the house. Luckily, it was something that didn't happen that often and wasn't all that complicated. When Newt did bring home what he could without attracting attention, he refused to let Tina help him when she tried to pick up one of the sacks that he nearly dropped.

"I am perfectly capable." Tina said, seeming annoyed.

"And nearly eight months pregnant. I'm not going to have you lugging things down the stairs."

"I'm not made of glass."

"You could hurt yourself." Newt said gently, shifting what he was holding.

The sack Tina had been trying to take fell and hit the floor, but luckily didn't explode. The one beneath it -none of them were large- started to float slightly due to the abundance of mooncalf food within.

"I'll tell you what. If you can pick that up, you can help me." Newt said, nudging the fallen one with his toe.

Tina eyed it, then gave Newt a small smile. "Have fun."

Newt laughed. He took the food downstairs and came back for the sack. He peeked in on Minty and her kittens before he headed back downstairs. The kittens appeared to be worn out from their small adventure and Minty was curled around them, lapping at their coats with drowsy purrs. Newt smiled and turned away. Queenie and Jacob didn't stop by that evening either, leaving Tian and Newt on their own again.

After dinner, they retired to the living room, where the fire was giving off comfortable heat. The days were slowly getting chillier. Tina was knitting. She had gotten much faster and she seemed determined to be finished with the blanket before the baby was born. Newt turned on the radio, wincing at the crackling of static. He bypassed the news and settled on music. The song that was on ended as Newt stood, changing to one with a nicer rhythm. He walked over to Tina and held out his hand. Tina looked up at him, staring for a moment, then set her knitting aside and took his hand.

They began to dance. It wasn't very elegant or graceful -it was obvious that neither of them were very good at dancing- but it was nice. They were slow dancing by the end, Tina's chin resting on Newt's shoulder. The song turned to one that was completely inappropriate for dancing, but they just remained holding each other. A part of Newt briefly realized it was the first time he and Tina had ever danced together, so far into their relationship, three months into their marriage. The rest of him just enjoyed the moment, holding Tina close.

"I love you." Newt whispered in her ear.

"I love you too."


Author's Note: Had to add the Tadfoal. I mean, doesn't that just sound adorable?

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