Newt's Assistant: A Newt Scamander FanFic

Chapter Sixteen

Newt took his jacket off and handed it to Eleanor. He also took off his vest and rolled up his sleeves. He just had on his shirt with his suspenders, but still kept his bowtie on. He turned to face Eleanor, grinned at her, and jumped backwards into the lake. 

"What the..." Eleanor began and gasped as she tried looking into the water. She couldn't make out what was going on down there when suddenly something huge shot out from the waters and began coming towards her. Naturally, Eleanor was drawn to this huge, magical beast. It was a huge water dragon. Kelpie's, also known as the Loch Ness Monster among muggles, was something Eleanor had never thought she'd get to meet face to face.

"You have a kelpie?!" Eleanor yelled to Newt who was riding on the Kelpie's back like a horse. Newt laughed, nodded, and hopped off the Kelpie to grab his bucket of food. 

"Here," He handed the bucket to Eleanor and she held it towards the kelpie. It scarfed down it's food and nudged Eleanor with it's head for some love. 

"I don't know too much about this one Newt. " Eleanor said while letting the Kelpie nuzzle against her side. She scratched it's forehead and rubbed its cheek while it groaned for more.

"Kelpies typically lurk in rivers and streams and will kneel in invitation for anyone to ride it across. If this is attempted, the Kelpie will drag the rider underwater and attempt to eat them." He said while rubbing some ointment onto it.

"Lovely," Eleanor said continuing the love for this beast.

"Come on let's go see the occamies." Newt said and brought her over to two nests of occamies.

"This nest has healthy occamies and the other has occamies that are sick or have broken bones." Newt said pointing to the different nests. The nest with the broken occamies had three babies in it with casts on them or cones around their necks. "Can you feed them?"

"Of course," Eleanor said and she grabbed their feed and Newt went to give the mooncalves their pellets. She fed the hurt ones first one by one with roaches and moved onto the healthier ones in the other nest. While she was feeding them, she noticed one of the wings on the smallest one was bent the wrong way. She fed them all and went back to the one with the broken wing.

"Hey there baby, what's going on with your wing there?" She cooed to it. 

"Newt?" She yelled for him.

"What?" He yelled back.

"Can you come here?" She asked.

"You gotta give me a minute, I'm in the middle of something." He yelled back.

Eleanor turned back to the injured occamy and noticed the others were nipping at him and pulling out some if its feathers. She scooped it up into her hands and it cried out as she moved over to a work table Newt had towards the stairs. While she was walking over, she brushed against the baby's wing with her thumb and it squawked and bit her in the arm. It was only a small bite, but it did start bleeding a bit. 

"Oh baby, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it," Eleanor said while placing it on the table in front of her. She checked out it's wing and saw that it was definitely broken in 2 different spots and possibly dislocated. Newt came around the corner and his eyes went wide.

"Eleanor what happened?" He said rushing over to her and grabbing her arm seeing that blood was running down.

"You got bit?!" He exclaimed and started freaking out.

"Yeah I mean I just-" But you were cut off. Newt looked... angry. She had never seen that look in his eyes before.

"You just what? El?" He started raising his voice at her. Eleanor knew at this point he was mad at her. "Clearly I can't trust you to be with my creatures if this is how you're going to act around them! It took me weeks to get this guy warmed up to me and now I'm going to have to start all over again! Merlin! You ruined this whole thing!"

"Newt! Please just let me explain-" You were cut off again.

"Explain what Eleanor?! Just give him to me." He said while trying to reach out to grab the occamy. It screeched at him and tried biting him too.

"Great, look at what you did! He won't even let me pick him up now! Are you happy now?" He yelled at Eleanor.

"Newton! Will you stop talking for one fucking minute! Please!" Eleanor yelled back at him with tears in her eyes. She was so angry with him and would never have thought about using that type of language with anybody, but she didn't know how else to get his attention. She tried her best not to let her tears spill out, but when she got upset over things all she wanted to do was cry. She looked up to the ceiling to try and make them go away and looked back at Newt.

"I picked the occamy up and brought it over here because its wing is broken dammit! My thumb brushed against it's wing which obviously hurt so its instinct was to bite me! I'm sorry if I screwed up, but I am healing this baby's wing and then I'll be on my way and out of yours for good." She said while turning her back to him and the tears started falling. She grabbed her wand out of it's holster and also had some extra treats in her hand because she knew this wasn't going to feel good for the occamy. There's also a small chance she could get bit again... Or worse have to deal with it growing five times its size and eating her.

"Cornu Emendo," Eleanor muttered with her wand pointing toward the occamy's wing and simultaneously feeding it a cockroach. It didn't even pay attention to what Eleanor had just done to its wing. It was all healed up and ready to go back to see his friends.

"Good job baby! You did so good," Eleanor whispered to the baby and it nuzzled into her hands,  slithered up her arm, around her neck, and back down the other arm into her hands. Newt was watching her in awe, but was also extremely guilty for lashing out at Eleanor before. He really didn't mean anything he said to her, but he was just so frustrated at the moment he lost his temper for a split second. He began to walk towards her and she turned away from him immediately and began walking up the stairs so he wouldn't see the tears streaming down her face. She was about to sob her heart out and go pack her things when he heard him say her name.

"El! Please wait-" He began, but she apparated when he said her name not wanting to hear another word from him again. He ran his hand through his hair and buried his head in his hands. What had he done, he thought. He ran back up the stairs and through the door to his home. He had just pushed away a girl that he's learned to care so much for. A girl he... loved. He realized it back in Antarctica, but he now knew he was irrevocably in love with her. He needed her to know this before she left him.

"El? Are you here? Hey listen I'm sorry! I'm so stupid and I should've listened to what you had to say before lashing out like that! El?" He called out to her again. He walked up the stairs to the bedroom quietly so he wouldn't spook her if she was up there. Getting closer to the bedroom he heard sobs coming from inside and it absolutely broke his heart. He knocked on the door.

"El?" He asked.

"Go away Newt!" She yelled at him. He didn't open the door, but he slumped down in front of it to sit on the floor. 

"I'm sorry El. I'm so sorry I yelled at you like that and told you I couldn't trust you. I do trust you. I would trust you with my life because you've literally saved my life before. I didn't mean it El. I didn't mean any of it. You are the only person I feel like I can be myself around and I would never be able to live my life knowing you hate my guts. I love spending time with you and hanging out, I love hearing you laugh and giggle, I love how well you work with my creatures. I was absolutely amazed with how you handled the occamy before. I know you really do care for them," He continued on.

"I love how your eyes sparkle when you smile; you have the most show stopping smile I have ever seen before. I love dancing with you to almost any song that's playing and I love that you care so much about me, I love..." He trailed off. He felt the door creak open and immediately stood up to face Eleanor. She was all puffy eyed and had tear stains down her cheeks.

"You love what?" She questioned.

"I... I love you. Eleanor Baker I am in love with you." He whispered to her and reached for her hands. She smiled through her tears and wiped them away on her sleeve. Newt stepped into the bedroom with her and embraced her tightly in a hug. "I am so so sorry. I never want you to leave"

"I know," She said while still in his arms. "Newt?"

"Yes love," He said.

"I love you too."