The Care of Magical Creatures Professor

Chapter 19

Newt got up, dusting himself off and clearing his throat in an attempt to salvage his professionalism. "Good... er, Good afternoon, Headmaster Dippett."
Roger spoke up from behind him, "You haven't seen a-"
Newt laughed awkwardly, his eyes bugging out slightly, "Nothing. He's seen nothing. Winters."
"... Seen a what?" Dippett looked around his room cautiously.
"Nothing. Not important. We'll be leaving now," Newt tried to turn around, but he was stopped by an unexplainable force, which oddly enough, he explained to himself in seconds. Dippett had frozen them both with magic.
"Please tell me your reasons for being here. Both of you. Before I'm forced to do some reports on you about suspicious activity..." Dippet sighed, ending the spell and taking them into his office. Newt realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to get a better look around for his niffler. If only he could communicate that with Roger...
Dippett sat them down in the two chairs before his desk usually reserved for a student in trouble and someone to accompany them such as a teacher or parent, and before Newt had a chance to look around the room, he felt his heart start fluttering with nervousness. He had sat in this very chair before, years ago as a mere 16-year-old. But in that case, he was getting expelled. He remembered the feeling of frustration deep within him that he had felt that day, being expelled for something he didn't even do (even if he had taken the blame for Leta's actions, he would forever regret his decision a little), but he would always be grateful for Dumbledore who had let him at least keep his wand and take his NEWTs. Funny name for a test he took, honestly. Of course, now, he wasn't being expelled, but there was a good chance that if he couldn't explain himself he'd be fired. In his last stretch of teaching too, what a shame.
Newt took a deep breath and decided it would be best to be looking around while this was going on. He noted that Roger wasn't really catching on, and tried to kick his ankle as a signal, only to be met with an annoyed glare.
"So. What's going on?" Dippett started, sitting down at his desk.
"You're treating me like a student in trouble," Roger rolled his eyes. Newt was glad he was taking charge of the situation for him, he really didn't like confrontational speaking. He tuned out most of the rest of the conversation, it was merely mumbling background noise for him as he craned his neck to look at anything shiny in the room. And then he saw it. A black furry thing, moving amongst the gilded picture frames and various magical instruments of uses quite unknown to him. It attempted to stuff one of the shiny silver instruments into its pouch (which seemed entirely too small for it to fit), and Newt couldn't resist his compulsion to get up and dive for it.
It was all a blur. He caught the little devil, but not without consequences. He grabbed it and held tight to it so it wouldn't escape, shaking it so it would dump out all of the shiny items it had been collecting on its little thieving rampage. He heard Roger's voice in the background as he had dove down telling him to calm down, but he couldn't listen with the adrenaline rush. The human body truly was an interesting thing to study when it gets into tricky situations.
When his body stopped pumping the adrenaline, he started being able to comprehend what the other two men were saying.
"What was that????" Dippett asked.
"Ah- that was a niffler..." Newt chuckled awkwardly, feeling the stare from the other two.
"Why was it in my office?"
"... it... erm... escaped.."
"From where??"
"... Long story..."
"I have time."
".... You see, my suitcase has a sanctuary for magical creatures in it and usually it's secure but this time they got out and I couldn't do anything-"
"Newt..."
"I-It won't happen again... Sir..."
"... I'll keep this quiet for now. As long as it doesn't happen again. You're leaving soon anyway, right..."
"Y-Yes, sir."
"Then be out of here. I don't want to see that rat thing again."
Newt nodded quickly, slightly offended for the niffler's sake at the rat comment, but not wanting to get into more trouble than he was already in. Roger followed him, looking like he just wanted to be done with the whole situation. They'd have to find Sam and Rose in the trophy room after putting the niffler back.