18/7/23

Note: Baby Tooth is back at Hogwarts.

In Jack's opinion, playing Padfoot as Bunny's sniffer/therapy dog was the right choice seeing how scared stiff he was at the end of the journey after one hell of a ride on the Knight Bus.

Slowly Jack and Padfoot helped him ungrip the seat in front of him, and helped him off where he gave a glare towards Driver Ernie and Stan Shunpike the conductor.

"You alright there mate?" Hagrid asked carefully placing a hand on Bunny's shoulder to steady him, his other hand holding onto Buckbeak's reigns.

"F-Fine..." Bunny said stumbling forward a little and tripping over, being caught by the big black dog who whined a little as if to say sorry.

"Wow, and I thought North's driving was the only thing that made you like this," Jack said leading his 'big brother' over to a bench so he could calm down.

"No. That is because he has a 2000lb sleigh – not counting all the gifts - pulled by 8 tiny reindeer that shouldn't be able to fly in the first place." Bunny said petting Padfoot to help him calm down. "This is because of that maniac that needed buildings and lamp posts to jump out of the way so he didn't bash into them. Once this is over I'm taking my tunnels back to Hogwarts. You hear me?"

"Alright, alight," Jack said, calmly, holding up his hands and trying to get him to calm down.

After a few minutes, Bunny was feeling better and they pressed on to the entrance of the Ministry of Magic which on the outside seemed to be an abandoned DIY shop which had a large sign in the window saying:

This building is unsafe and therefore has been closed to the public.

The demolition date for this building has yet to be decided.

"I'm guessing that's a front to keep the Muggles way..." Jack said looking to Hagrid who nodded before leading everyone up the path to the doors.

They were almost there when Padfoot paused and looked to the side and barked towards a tree in the car park.

All of them looked in that direction to see a middle-aged man, in a long blue coat, curly dirty-blonde hair and a suitcase in his hand.

"Newt?" Hagrid said smiling recognizing one of his best friends.

"Hello Hagrid," Newt said smiling and then bowed deeply to Buckbeak "And hello to you to great Hippogriff."

After a few seconds Buckbeak bowed back and then went up to meet this stranger crying out happily.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Bunny asked raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yes sorry," the man said turning to them. "I am Newt Scamander; I got a letter from someone called Elisa Dale who I believe is a Hogwarts student to inform me that one of my Hippogriffs was sentence to a trial today because of an incident in one of Hagrid's lessons, because a boy wasn't listening to safety instructions. Am I right?"

"Well if you think it's me who wasn't listening, you're wrong," Jack said making a note to get something nice for Elisa as a thank you – now they may have a chance of winning. "But I was the one who got hurt."

"What do you mean by: One of your Hippogriffs?" Bunny asked.

"My wife and I run a magical creatures sanctuary," Newt explained. "And one of the more popular creatures we have there are Hippogriffs. I remember helping this one's mother when he came into this world; he was a fighter even back then."

"Then where were you, when Hagrid was showing off these dangerous creatures to first day teenagers?" Bunny asked a little mad.

"Bunny, it's ok, I'm alive, I'm here, everyone else was alright. Besides its Dumbledore who is meant to approve of the order of subjects the teachers teach us. He should have been the one to say we weren't ready and Hagrid should start smaller."

Grumbling to himself, and crossing his arms in a huff, Bunny looked to Newt for an answer.

"I was on a mission in Egypt trying to rescue a captured Sphinx and her cubs from money making entertainers." Newt said gripping his case's handle a little more.

"Wait, Sphinx's are real?" Jack asked surprised.

"Of course they are," Newt said smiling now he was back to talking about magical creatures "They just tend to avoid humans and live out in the Sahara Desert. Ancient wizards made deals with them to guard their treasures."

"Well, as nice as it is to see you Newt and hear these stories, shouldn't we be heading inside?" Hagrid said bringing everyone back to here and now.

"What? Oh yes of course," Newt said, looking over everyone his eyes focusing on Padfoot a little longer than Bunny.

Together they went inside the 'To be demolished' building and came out into a vast building that looked nothing like one would expect from looking from the outside.

The main colour here was black marble, there was lines of walk-in fireplaces down the walls, and a fountain which had larger-than-life golden figures of a Wizard on the tallest podium, a Witch, a Centaur, a Goblin, and a House Elf, the last three looking up at the first two with awe and admiration, each figure on a lower platform than the last, with water shooting out of the wizards and the witch's wands, the centaur's arrow, the goblin's hat, and the house elf's ears.

They were positioned in the middle of a large fountain with a golden plaque saying all donations of money thrown into the fountain got to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

As Hagrid and Bunny were at the 'Welcome Desk' checking in, Jack went over to have a better look.

"The Fountain of Magical Brethren" Jack read out the name of the fountain seeing all kinds of wizard coins in the water.

"It's meant to represent harmony in the wizarding world," Newt said looking up sadly at the figures. "That all magical beings great and small are on equal grounds with each other and should be treated as one would like to be treated themselves."

Frowning, Jack looked up at the statues again himself.

"Then... why are they not all at the same level?" he asked pointing this out "I mean I guess it could have been how the designer wanted it sure, but then there's also the looks of admiration the Centaur and the Goblin are giving the Witch and Wizard, almost as if they are of higher power than them even though they are the ones who have more power."

"It's the way it is, because humans, magic or not, are - shall I say - dumb, and think because they have lived on the planet the longest and have more control than the others because the Muggles wont question us as much, that they should be number one and everyone else is under them, no matter how powerful they are. See how even the Witch is lower them the Wizard."

"The money still goes to St Mungo's though right?" Jack asked turning his eyes back to the money in the water.

"Oh yes." Newt said pulling out a coin and flicking it into the water.

Jack was wondering how much he should put in when they heard Bunny call them back.

"The trial rooms are a few floors below this one," he explained as they passed the gateway "But the elevators don't go down that far so we will need to take the stairs once the doors open. Amelia Bones is said to be waiting to meet us outside the trial room.

Nodding, Jack looked to Padfoot who whined a little, but shook it off. They were here, they got past security, they were about to enter the elevator to take them down to the Department of Mysteries where they would swap to stairs, and then they would need to sit through Buckbeak's trial and hopefully after all that... he could walk out a free man.

'Ding'

The elevator opened and a woman's voice was speaking out what this level was and what was on it.

All together they went inside and Newt pressed the down button.

Jack looked out to the fountain until the doors finished closing; sure he saw the eyes of the Centaur, and the Goblin on him with pleased 'Thank you for your kind words' smiles on their faces.