Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them...Continued.

1:Sailing Away

NEWT
     As the ship was slowly moving away from the dock, a tall, wiry wizard in a blue overcoat leaned across the rails of the ship. A little green head poked out of his breast pocket, and he patted it gently. He had set a worn leather suitcase at his feet, which shook almost imperceptibly, but Newt ignored it. He was distracted, looking for a single figure that he hoped against odds he could find...There! She may have been walking across the dock a hundred feet away, but he knew it was her. Tina Goldstein, the woman who he wouldn't see for who knew how long. He observed her walking; he didn't know why, he didn't care why. Just because. He noticed she had a little skip in her step, and every time she took a step her hair swayed a little.
     When she reached the end of the dock, she turned for one last look at the ship, and he raised his arm without thinking, which in hindsight was a little stupid of him. Oh, well. He thought. Too late now. He waved at her. A smile broke across her face and she waved back. They didn't stop until a cloud of steam obscured Tina from his vision; when it disapated, she was gone.
      A bit disappointed (but still satisfied) Newt Scamander took his case from his feet and started to mutter to it.
"Just a moment, I need to find my room..." he walked down the stairs and down the halls, trying to find his cramped, third-class room. Finally, on one of the lowest levels of the ship, he found the room. It was tiny and claustrophobic and the sheets smelled like cigar smoke. Newt didn't mind; he had a camp bed in his case.
   "All right," Newt said soothingly, walking down the stairs. Taking a quill and his book manuscript, he documented a few extra things about the swooping evil and tucked it away, then busied himself with his beasts. He fed the graphorns and checked their baby for any signs of illness (they have weak immune systems when they're young); he fed Dougal the demiguise; he checked on his little niffler, for whom he had found an American Muggle penny; he made sure the erumpet wasn't trying to mate with any other creatures; he tried to put Pickett back on the tree with the other bowtruckles, but Pickett refused; he administered a vaccine to a sick mooncalf. All in a day's wonderful work.
    As he was about to leave he risked a glance into Frank's habitat. Empty, which was strange and a little saddening. Would he be in Arizona by now? How was he? Had he possibly met another Thunderbird? Newt would've liked to meet the children.
    While he was changing into his pajamas, his eyes found his desk, where the picture of Leta stood. One of his only friends in school, his only sweetheart; Leta had hurt Newt more than he cared to admit. He could still remember the day....
    ***Years ago, Hogwarts library, early on a Saturday morning. Early light filtered through the windows, washing over two teenagers. Leta and Newt were poring over a large book, and without a word, Leta's face brightened and she snapped it shut in Newt's face.
"Hey! I was still reading that," Newt protested.
"Sorry," she said distractedly."It's just--I realized something!" Newt looked intrigued.
"And?"
"The squid is all right in the couldron," she said excitedly. "But it eats fish and it's fresh-water variety. We need to set it free in the lake, and monitor it! We can still feed it and everything, and watch it grow and--"
"Won't that be dangerous?" Newt interrupted.
"What do you mean?" Leta's face fell.
"Well, it says here that this breed of giant squid is choronaptyxic, so if it grows to fill the available space and there is so much space for it to expand in..."
"You worry too much, Newt," Leta chided."It'll be fine. Look, if it grows, so what? It can only get to a certain size in any case. We should do this. It would be best for it."
"But...I worry. What if someone gets hurt or something happens? We can't fix everything with magic, Leta. You should know that. In fact, you're lucky I agreed to come and help you."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" She asked in a dangerous voice, much too loud for a library.
"You know what I mean," Newt said. "And now that I have helped you, I think I'll go back to the common room. I don't want to be involved in case something goes wrong."
"But you were involved in the first place," Leta protested.
"I'm only saying," Newt went on cautiously. "That if someone gets hurt, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Fine!" Leta yelled. It was lucky the librarian hadn't gotten there for the day, or they'd be tossed out the door. "I'll do it myself! But you can't come to me expecting information on the squid anymore, or any of the other animals you claim to care about."
"Leta, please reconsider..." Newt pleaded warily. It was no use. Her mind was set; she grabbed her things and hurried from the library.
     Later that day, Newt watched her from the branches of a beech tree. He had climbed the tree, and a few Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor were sitting below, chatting and laughing. He focused on Leta, his expression grim. She didn't know he was there.
     From a couldron, Leta carefully pulled a slimy...something and placed it in the water. She watched, her expression triumphant as it swam away. Then, suddenly, everything went wrong. The squid went from th size of a Quaffle to the size of one of the Great Hall tables in .2 seconds; his tenticles came flying out of the water and hit the beech tree so hard that Newt fell out of it. He hit the ground hard, but he had it better than one of the Ravenclaws. As his friends were running away, they screamed for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, Newt spotted his limp hand sticking out from under a tentacle in the sand. Newt stumbled toward it as quickly as possible, flicking his wand upward. The tenticle flipped up, and the rest squid slipped out of the sand and off into the water. The Ravenclaw was unconscious, but breathing--barely. Newt ran to him, panicking.
"Um, hold on a moment," he muttered, frantically trying to remember a reviving spell.
"Newt..."Leta said from behind him quietly. He looked at her; her face was full of regret and sadness. "I'm so sorry."
"Leta, don't worry," he said calmy. "He'll be fine. Renervate."
    Suddenly, the Ravenclaw gave a great shuddering gasp, then winced in pain.
"My...ribs..." he breathed, barely audible.
"It's okay, Isaac," the Gryffindor girl stepped up. "We'll get you to the hospital wing." She raised her wand and Isaac levitated, still wincing.
"We'll get him to the castle," the other Ravenclaw said, gaining his composure. "You should come with us; we'll need all the witnesses we can get."
Newt nodded grimly, and took Leta by her robes, pulling her along. She seemed to be in shock.
    Later, as they all stood in Proffessor Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked at them with disbelief, an expression Newt did not often see on his professor's face.
"I am quite sure that there has never been a squid in the Black Lake." He said quietly, stroking his cleanly-shaven chin. The gamekeeper, Pennyworth, came running into the classroom.
"I swear Professor, it wasn't me!" He said.
"Well, whoever it was, I'm sure it was an accident. But--to endanger human life with a beast such as this...the penalties will be severe, I'm sad to say. It's up to the Headmaster to decide what happens to them, whether it be expulsion or--"
"Well, of course it will be expulsion!" Headmaster Dippet came bursting in, his face red with rage. Normally, Dippet was a calm man, but when his students were endangered he seemed close to explosion point. "Never in my years as a professor or Headmaster, has anyone ever came as close to dying as this poor yound man did! An accident, yes, but that cannot reverse the damage done. Whoever did it is lucky that Mr. Riser will make a full recovery!"
   Newt glanced at Leta, whose eyes were filled with tears. A few fell straight from her eyes to the ground, where she was staring. No one seemed to notice but Newt; but it was enough for him to make up his mind.
"It was me," he said quietly.
"What?" Dumbledore looked at him incredulously with everyone else. "Mr. Scamander, surely not."
"Yes," he said firmly. "It was my fault."
"Don't be stupid, Scamander!" The Ravenclaw said."You were in the tree above us. I saw you fall out when the tentacles hit the trunk."
"It couldn't possibly have been you, Newt," the Gryffindor said, more kindly.
"It wasn't me who put it in the water, it was Leta. But don't blame her! Please, don't! I forced her. She told me we shouldn't put it in the lake, but I wouldn't listen. I forced her to put it in the water while I watched from above in the tree," he invented. Leta looked at him in shock, but she gained her composure quickly.
"Yes, Professor. That's what happened. I wouldn't have done had Newt not made me," she lied.
"It's true, Professors. It was my fault. I'm sorry about your friend," he turned to his fellow students. "I truly am. I only wanted the squid to be free. But I can understand if I'm expelled."
"Yes, Mr. Scamander, you are," Professor Dippet said firmly. "I'm sorry, but that was extremely dangerous and reckless. I would've expected more from you, Mr. Scamander..."he sounded dissapointed rather than mad, now.
"Headmaster," Dumbledore said calmly. "Perhaps we should give Mr. Scamander a second chance. It was an accident, after all, and if--"
"I'm sorry, Dumbledore, but I can't allow an exception. If the students hadn't gotten Mr. Riser to the hospital wing in time, he might've very well died," Dippet said.
"But if he was doing it for acidemical reasons, I'm sure you can understand why I argue against his expulsion," Dumbledore said.
"Dumbledore, I've said my piece. I will not change my mind, and that's that. You leave Monday, Mr. Scamander. I suggest you all go back to your dormitories," Dippet said, spinning around and leaving the room. Newt's heart felt like a ton of bricks. Leta left without a glance in his direction, which didn't help. As he was leaving, head hung, however, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Newt," Professor Dumbledore said. "I know what happened. It wasn't your fault."
"Y-yes, it was, Professor," Newt faltered, his composition melting under the peircing blue gaze of his Transfiguratiom teacher.
"I may not look like it, Newt, but I have a small talent in Legillimency. Now, tell me--why did you take the blame for Miss Lestrange?"
"Because she's my friend. She didn't mean for it to hurt anyone; she only wanted it to have a better life. Please understand, Professor. I don't--"
"Want Miss Lestrange to be expelled?" Dumbledore finished. Newt nodded, miserable. "Very well," Dumbledore said."I'll let it go, but not without strong arguments against your expulsion. I won't bring Leta into the conversation unless to deflect blame. Do you understand?"
"Y-yes, sir," Newt mumbled."I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Dumbledore said airily. "Most of us will sacrifice something for the ones we care about at some time in our lives."
"But Professor..." Newt didn't know why, but Dumbledore seemed like a safe person to confide in. He could keep secrets and give him answers, or even consolation. "I can't shake that feeling that...she wouldn't....do the same. For me, I mean."
"Maybe she wouldn't," Dumbledore shrugged, looking deep in thought. "But that doesn't change the kind of person you are, does it?"
"I suppose not, sir."
"You are quite right, it doesn't. You are a good person, Newt. A very good person. You want to help your friend for going too far in her expiriment, and I want to help you because of that. For you it is not tolerable to stand by while your friends are in trouble, no matter what they might have done to you in the past."
"Thank you, sir," Newt said quietly, staring at the floor. He found it hard to maintain eye contact with people in general, even Leta, so Dumbledore's peircing gaze didn't make it any easier for Newt to look at him directly.
"Now, get some sleep. Pack your things in case I can't convince Professor Dippet," Dumbledore added grimly. Newt nodded and left the room gloomily.
     Two days later, his heart felt heavier than lead. Leta hadn't talked to him, she hadn't thanked him. It was Monday and his trunk was packed. Dumbledore had failed, but Newt didn't blame him. He didn't blame anyone but himself; he should've tried harder to convince Leta not to let the squid loose. As he was about to leave the Great Hall for the last time, he stopped by the Slytherin table.
"Leta."
   She turned, her face impassive. Their eyes met for a split second. Then, wordlessly, she turned back to her plate and kept eating. Newt blinked away tears of frustration and dragged his trunk out of the Great Hall one last time. He decided not to blame himself. Or anyone. Not even the squid. It was pointless, anyway....***
"She's a taker, you need a giver."
   Newt jumped out of the camp bed in such alarm that sparks shot out the end of his wand.
"Queenie!?" He looked around. Sure enough, there she was, smiling grandly.
"Of course. I came here. Sometimes, I get bored in my own dreams and I wander into other people's. It helps if ya know the person long, but I've been in Tina's dreams so many times I get just as bored there as I do in my own," she said casually, sitting on one of the steps leading into the case. "And yes, it's a dream."
"Really?" He rubbed his eyes, trying to ignore her laughs. "But...hm. Anyway, forget about that. How did your mind reach this far?"
"Well, I'm not really sure. I guess you intrigued me and I didn't really notice 'til now," Queenie shrugged, getting up and searching through his vials and trinkets.
"Um, I'd prefer if you didn't--"
"Oh, don't worry," she said, examining Billywig stingers. "It won't affect it in real life. You'll wake up and everything will be in it's place. I could slaughter your beasts and they would all be alive when you woke up."
"Please don't," Newt said, running a hand warily through his hair.
"I won't. I promise," she sat down right on the floor of the shed, and studied him. He tried hard not to notice.
"What did you mean, 'I need a giver?'" He asked her.
"Do you have a thing for Tina?" She asked, ignoring his question.
"What?" Newt looked at her, taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"Are you attracted to her?" Queenie asked.
"Um..."Newt focused on the quill on his desk. "Well," he began cautiously. "I don't suppose I can lie?"
"No."
"That's what I thought. Well, to answer your question, slightly. I don't know her well, but I find her intriguing. I hope that doesn't upset you."
"Well, I already had suspicions," Queenie admitted."And, Deliverance Dane, no! It doesn't upset me. You're a good man. Don't worry, I won't tell her."
"Thank you. Um, but...do you know if she--"
"I won't tell her what you was thinking and I won't tell you what she was thinking," Queenie answered slyly.
"So this knowledge is only for you, then?" Newt asked, annoyed.
"Yes," Queenie said simply. "You sleep soundly, now."
And she faded from the spot gently, leaving Newt on his bed, still wondering about Queenie's unanswered question.