Chapter 35: Connecting

Kiba rode Buckbeak safely, and out if sight from the muggles to the house of his grandfather. He hadn't gone to visit before but he did announce that he would be coming beforehand. The house was a lovely building surrounded by nothing but a small road through the many fields. Kiba landed and checked the address to make sure he was at the right place and then knocked on the door. A woman with shorter brown hair opened the door and gasped when she opened it, before Kiba knew what had happened she lunged forward and pulled the boy into a great hug. "Hello," Kiba said uncertainly

"Sorry, it's.. um, Hi, I'm Porpuntina. You can call me Tina. I'm your grandmother"

"Kiba?" Newt's head poked around the corner "you came"

"and i brought someone" The Hippogriff landed next to Kiba and Newt immediately bowed his head "this is Buckbeak, he's on the run and needs a place to stay"

"i thought he was.." Newt stammered "come in, please" Kiba lead Buckbeak into the home and took a quick look around. There wasn't much. A couch and an arm chair on each sides of a coffee table. A dinner table with four matching chairs. "this way Kiba"

"I'll make some tea" Tina called after them as she headed to the kitchen. Kiba followed Newt down the steps into a basement that was much to large to fit beneath their house and to Kiba, it resembled paradise. Left and right, above him and further down another set of stairs were magical creatures from all over. Different sorts of phoenixes, horse-like creatures, feline creatures, murtlaps, chicken like creatures, different water creatures. Kiba was perplexed, he had never seen so many vast species living together harmoniously. Newt hadn't even reached the bottom of the stairs when a large cat like creature came to him.

"I can't believe it," Kiba whispered "it's a Zouwu"

"quite right," Newt said "if i recall correctly i saved this one in 1926. I was in Paris"

"She's beautiful" Kiba said extending a hand to touch the large creatures mane.

"i usually try to set my creatures free once they're healthy again," Newt said walking onward to an empty grassy clearing "some just don't want to go" he stepped over to Buckbeak and undid his chains "there you go friend, this is for you" he looked back to Kiba who had found his way to Newt's desk. He had opened a few of his journals and skimmed through the pages.

"You had a Kelpie here?" he asked

"i did," Newt said "had an infection in his eye" he explained pointing to a paragraph "set him free in Scottland"

"How did you get it down here?" Newt pointed to a old leather suitcase. "Let me guess, extension charm?"

"Yes. And the Kelpie seems to be doing fine, muggles spotted a creature in the water. They call it the Loch Ness Monster, or nessy"

"Isn't it dangerous? You could get in trouble"

"For jeopardizeing the statute of secrecy? I was expelled from Hogwarts and had no interest in working with the ministry any longer than i already have, what can they do to me?"

"Prison?"

"how are they going to find out? Unlikely that any of them have your rare gift" Newt said "let's head back upstairs, Teenie must have the tea ready by now" Kiba followed Newt upstairs but Hung back when he discovered a shelf filled with photographs.

"Ahh yes," Newt said returning to his side. "the whole family right here. This is Tina and I at our wedding. Tina's sister Queenie and her husband Jacob"

"I have a picture of them in my album" he whispered

"quite the woman, Queenie. A legilimens, quite a good one. Maybe that's where you got your ability from. Her husband Jacob, he's a Muggle, that's why they never had children. You see, back then marrige between muggles and wizards wasn't allowed in america. Here's your mother, little Amelia, and Theseus my brother with his fiance Leta LaStrange"

"Newt?" Tina called from the kitchen

"Coming, Teenie"

Kiba continued scanning the photos and made duplicates for himself until he got to someone he didn't recognize. Beside the one picture of his mother with Sirius there was his mother with another man, a man that looked like Newt, only with brown hair. He picked up the photo and checked the backside where a message had been written. 'to Dad, greetings from New York. Love, A T' he looked back at the man and still failed to recognize him. He saw a picture of the man alone without any text and duplicated it and hiding it among the others which he stored in his bag.

"Kiba? Tea is ready" Tina called back to him once more

"on my way" Kiba spent several hours with his grandparents listening to their stories. On his way out with a small box filled with cookies and little homemade tarts he turned to Newt again "Newt, you said that you were expelled?"

"yes, i was once in love with the girl that later became my brothers fiance. During our time in school we had experiments with many different creatures, some strictly illegal. One day, Leta, the girl, had an accident that nearly killed another student involving one of those creatures."

"So she was expelled?"

"no, i took the blame. I was expelled, Dumbledore was very much against it, but he wasn't headmaster then but he still argued strongly against my expulsiom, so while i was expelled, i was allowed to keep my wand. Something similar happened with your mother aswell"

"what do you mean?"

"well, Amelia never took her N. E. W. T. Exams" Tina chimed in "she left school after her fifth year, was it?"

"she left early on in her sixth" Newt corrected his wife. "You'd better hurry, the portkey will activate soon"

"Thank you," Kiba said quickly "for letting me stop by and for taking care of Buckbeak" he gave both his grandparents a hug goodbye and ran off towards the small train station near the village where a grizzly old man stood holding a staff. Kiba handed the man the galleon that Tina had given him and the man gave the boy the staff and after just a few moments the staff took the boy along with it's apparation. Kiba found himself outside kings Cross station feeling slightly nauseous like he did every time he apparated. He let go of the staff and it disappeared apparating back to its owner. Kiba made his way back to Grimmauld place from there and revealed the hidden house that had slowly become his new home. He was greeted gently by the house elf Kreacher that had warmed up to the boy ever since he moved in and he handed him an envelope.

"your owl brought this for you" he said "would you like me to read it to you?"

"No, that's alright Kreacher," Kiba replied hanging his jacket away and taking the envelope "thank you"

He headed up to Regulus' room which had been his room for the holiday and plopped down onto the King size bed. He ripped open the top of the envelope and began reading.

'Hey Kiba,

I think we're past starting our letters with "dear", don't you think?

I wanted to show you something, my getaway spot, so to speak. Meet me down at the south side of the Westminster palace at the shore of the river. Don't tell anyone where you're going.

Friday night, around 10 o'clock. See you there.

Faye' a smile made it's way across Kiba's face. He placed the letter on his nightstand and laid back on his bed. He closed his eyes and felt Hotaru land on his chest. He carefully patted her with his finger and sighed.

"Looks like everything is finally getting better again Hotaru. I had a school year where i didn't almost kill anyone, I've reconnected with Faye, i know more about my mother then ever before. Let's hope next year is even better"

Friday evening came just two days later and Kiba packed his camera into his backpack along with the remainder of the cookies he had from Tina and left the house. "I'll be back late Kreacher, don't wait up for me" he closed the door behind him and got on his way. He walked along the street past the Victoria gardens approaching the Palace yard when he was pulled into the nearby bushes. Before he knew what happened he found himself in the tight embraced if Faye's arms. "Faye what are w-" Faye placed her hand over his mouth and pointed to the guard.

"Final sweep" she whispered. They waited in the bushes for the guard to leave and then snuck to the edge of the water making their way towards the palace. "just follow me" Faye got to the castle wall and scanned to the left before climbing over the wall. She hung herself from it and found her footing on a small wooden plank sticking from the wall keeping Faye from falling into the water. She pointed towards the pillar on the corner of the tower where Kiba spotted a small window under which was a stone window sill. Faye jumped towards it and landed safely looking back at Kiba with a smile. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a thin object which she pushed between the window and the stone wall before it swung inward. "Come on, before you're seen"

"alright" he said mimicking her actions unsteadily almost falling into the River below but he too managed to slip into the pillar of the tower. "Faye what are we doing?"

"we're going to my secret spot," she replied "you'll love it"

"but, we're breaking into the palace of Westminster" Kiba protested

"awesome right?"

"Would it be bad if i agreed?" Faye smiled at the boy and grabbed him by the hand

"Come on," she pulled him after her up the stairs "long ago the towers of those palace were used by scouts and archers to make sure that they weren't to be attacked. One day, much later. The doors to the stairways within the tower pillars were barricaded"

"So these stairs go.."

"straight to the roof" Faye interrupted the boy "and since they're barricaded, there's no danger of getting caught"

"People will see us" Kiba replied

"Not if it's dark" Faye pushed open the door and indeed, the roof was pitch Black. And the lights that shun down onto the water below would blind anyone trying to look up at them. "welcome to my hideout" Faye sat down on a large blanket that was laid out on the floor and opened her backpack. She pulled out a candle and lit it and afterwards two glasses and a bottle.

Kiba sat down across from her and got out his cookies and camera. He held the camera to his face and focused it in Faye. She looked at him, first confused then happy. She smiled brightly and tilted her head to her right and placed her hands on her ankles which were crossed infront if her.

The flash lit up the roof momentarily. Kiba waited for the photograph to print before he stored it in his backpack. He placed the camera down and took a closer look at the bottle that Faye had brought. "is that..?"

"Bourbon" she replied casually causing Kiba to look at her with concern "oh come on. You drank before, remember that twenty-two year old that helped out at the Orphanage for a month?"

"I do, we drank with her almost every other night. Didn't Helaway catch her one time? god sakes we were only ten" Kiba asked, Faye nodded with a chuckle "but that must be Kenway's then"

"he's got a basement full with wines and what not, he won't notice. He hasn't yet anyway" she said pouring one if the classes full "one for you.." she handed him the glass and poured herself one aswell "one for me. Cheers Kiba Scamander!" they both took a healthy chug from their glasses and Kiba had to clear his throat a little due to the strength of the beverage.

"Cheers" Kiba replied "so, you didn't just meet me here to show me this"

"no, but can't i just meet when my friend?" she asked

"really? I know you, there always something happening in that twisted head of yours"

"Okay, you got me. So, at school, there is this girl, she's my friend" she explained "i told her allot about you and she thinks in crazy"

"Crazy? Why?" Kiba replied almost sarcastically

"She thinks i made you up,"

"Made me up? Like, an imaginary friend?"

"yes. So i want you to meet her" She said excitedly

"well, I'm leaving in two days" Kiba replied

"really? I thought your term doesn't start until I'm a month"

"It does, I'm going over to one of my friends. They've invited me to a.. um.. festival. and then I'm staying for the remainder of the holidays" Kiba lied quickly

"really? I can't stand another year of her parading me" Faye admitted

"what if i might make it back for Christmas? We could spend a day with your friends"

"That would be great!"

"and until then" Kiba said handing Faye his camera "you can show her a picture" Faye raised the camera to her face whilest Kiba raised his glass towards her with a smile. Once again the flash from the camera illuminated the roof. The two remained on the roof sharing stories of their shared past and their experiences outside of the Orphanage. Faye admitted that she hadn't confided in anyone as much as she did in Kiba. Telling him how she felt about the Kenways and her new way it life. The two switched from their glasses to sharing from the bottle of liquor. The candle died slowly and the Faye had leaned into Kiba's side for warmth and he held her tightly.

They sat in silence and their eyes met. Kiba looked into the shining emerald that reflected the dieing flame of the candle. She looked back into his hazal irises receiving every bit of warmth they released. Kiba didn't think anymore, he leaned down and closed his eyes as Faye stretched upward a little as she too closed her eyes. The flame of the candle extinguished and their lips connected in a fit of passion. Kiba's hand moved to the side of Faye's face as the taste of strawberries from her lips entranced him, Faye's hand traveled to Kiba's neck as she fully pushed against him. Their tongues moved against each other in a tangle and danced to the songs of their mind. They didn't stop to breathe, or to talk. They kissed for what felt like an eternity and finally pulled apart to catch their breath.

They held eachother in a tight embraced stareing up at the nights sky sitting in the now completely pitch black roof of the palace of Westminster.

Kiba returned to Grimmauld place very late trying to be as quiet as possible in case Sirius was sleeping in his room. He quickly headed back up to the room with Regulus' name on the door and unpacked his backpack. The empty box if cookies, the camera and then the picture of Faye. He watched her look up and smile before tilting her head and moving her hands. She broke into a light laugh before repeating the action similarly. He felt the memory of the kiss fill his mind as he smiled foolishly. And then he felt a conflict within him. He liked Faye allot, she had been with him for so long but there was Hermione too and he had gotten similar feelings for her too. He had kissed Faye, and that confirms it for him but, given the chance, would he kiss Hermione just as passionately or even more?

He sighed and took another look at the picture when a bolt of lightning shot through his body. The picture was moving, Faye was moving! "my camera.." He whispered in a panic "she took a picture with it, of me.. and she, has it!"

An:

okay, i know the alcohol thing is kind of fuck'd up. but i have a plan with that particular part of Faye and Kiba so deal with it. and i know, breaking into the palace is weird, and chilling on the roof without being discovered and such is a bit stupid but it's a world full of magic and weirdness.

next chapter is the beginning of Goblet of fire. the story will change drastically and I'm looking for cameo characters since this book will expand drastically on the wizarding world. if i don't get any I'll create them myself. I'm not saying "do my work for me" it would simply be a way for you the reader to insert yourself into the story!

so check the AN on the first chapter to see what you need to do!