Otherworldly ❦ Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them [hiatus]

Chapter Nine: Domicile

"This isn't good, this isn't good..." Tina cried, beginning to pace with her hands in her hair. Rosier had disappeared the moment Newt locked eyes with her, leaving without a trace. Newt stammered and Queenie gasped, bringing a hand to her face. Lucy was the only one of the group that kept her composure.

"Guys, guys," she said, arms outstretched. "Take a deep breath. We don't know that for sure. Plus, she..." Lucy couldn't think of the words to say. No matter how she put it, this situation was dire. The trio looked at her expectantly. "We can only accept what we know. I say we go back to the apartment and discuss it there. If anything, it's not safe here."

Newt shuffled, then nodded in agreement. "You are... wise beyond your years, Lucy. I agree. I say we should go back to the apartment."

"Alright," Tina said, her hands still in her hair. She looked positively stressed. The group walked back to the apartment without any other encounters, just a near miss with Mrs. Esposito.

Almost immediately upon entering the apartment, everyone began scrambling. Tina grabbed a pen and paper, Newt held his case close, and Queenie stood nervously at the kitchen counter, biting her perfectly manicured nails. Lucy stood patiently, unsure of her place in the moment.

"Alright, so," Tina began, leaning on the counter with pen and paper in hand. "We saw Rosier..." she began to draw a map of New York haphazardly. It wasn't perfect, but it did the job. She sketched the portion of the city they'd just been in. "Here." She placed her hand and drew a circle where Rosier had been. "And this is the first known sighting of her?"

Newt stammered, "Actually, no. Lucy said she saw her yesterday, here at the door. That's why I was so frightened when I realized why I recognized her."

Tina slowly looked up at Newt with fire in her eyes. "What?" She said darkly, looking between Newt and Lucy. "You saw her here? At this apartment?" She was staring directly at Newt now, anger filling her face.

"Y-yes," Newt stammered, fiddling with his fingers. He took a step closer to Tina, whose rage was quickly taking over. "She knocked on the door and Lucy answered. We thought maybe it was Mrs. Esposito..."

"You saw her here? Why in deliverance dane didn't you tell me?!"

"You see, we didn't find it important..."

"-didn't find it important?!"

"...she looked like an ordinary person..."

"You saw her and you didn't tell us? Newt, you can't do that!" Tina cried, her voice a loud shout now. The pair continued to argue, and Lucy began to feel very small. It reminded her of her time at the orphanage, with fights constantly breaking out between the nuns and children.

She felt as if she was on fire. Something was building inside her. Suddenly, Lucy felt very, very large. As if what was growing inside her was encapsulating her body. When she'd heard enough of the pair's arguing, she yelled, "ENOUGH!"

At that moment, the same vase from the day before exploded, shattering into many pieces out of thin air.

The two stopped arguing immediately, and Queenie looked to the shattered vase from across the room. "Oh..." she said softly, looking at Lucy. Tina and Newt turned to face each other.

"What?" They said in unison, looking at each other and then at Lucy. A vase may have been broken, but at least their arguing had stopped.

"What?" Lucy asked. She figured they may be upset at her for yelling, but she was only returning the energy they were putting out.

"Did you make that happen?" Newt asked Tina. She shook her head promptly.

"No, I thought you did," she answered, looking at the carpet where shattered pieces of glass lay.

"If it wasn't me, and it wasn't you, then that means..." Newt trailed off, looking at Lucy.

"No, no way," Tina began, holding her hands up in the air before placing them on her hips. "She's a no-maj. If she wasn't, Ilvermorny would've sent for her by now."

Queenie butt in, "No. Not entirely. Sometimes there's a certain disconnect, especially with kiddos in orphanages. And if Lucy was traveling alone for a long time..."

Everyone turned to look at the girl, who had begun to feel very small. The buzzing feeling in her body was still there. "What are you talking about?" She asked quietly. "Do you think that I broke the vase?"

Newt went to Lucy, who perched by the couch, and stooped to her level. "Lucy," he began, his voice gentle with the young girl. "Have weird things ever happened to you? Things you can't explain, like lights, or bangs, the like?"

Lucy recounted the day before when she'd been reading the charms book and the white light appeared after she spoke the Patronus charm. And how the vase had exploded when she'd said the reductor curse. "Y-yes," she stammered. "Yesterday the vase exploded after I read a curse from the charms book. And a white light appeared when I spoke the patronus charm."

Newt looked to Tina, who was staring at the girl, bewildered. "Then this means..."

"Lucy's a witch," Newt finished, and a smile appeared on his face.

Queenie squealed and began to clap her hands. "Yay! I always knew she was something special!"

"Hold on," Tina began. "We don't know for certain. We can take her to MACUSA and have them figure it out. If she is, we have a lot more on our hands than we thought."

Lucy was hardly listening, though. Her thoughts began to spiral the moment Newt concluded she may be a witch. Her, magical? She could hardly believe it. She began to recount all of the strange things that had happened to her in the past. Items disappearing out of thin air, her awakening in places she hadn't been before... everything started to connect. And she had to admit, the buzzing feeling had awoken once she was introduced to the magical world.

"Lucy has to stay with us. Permanently," Tina said, looking at the young girl. "Especially if Rosier saw her. She's not safe anywhere else."

Lucy was elated at that. Her, staying permanently with the Goldsteins? And her possibly being a witch? She felt as if she was dreaming.

"Well, I think it's up to Lucy to decide what our next course of action is," Newt said, turning to face the young girl. Lucy looked between Queenie, Newt, and Tina.

She took a deep breath and said, "Take me to MACUSA."