Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Imagines

15. Hippogriff

"And here are the stables where we keep the hippogriffs. It's quaint, but they're allowed to roam free whenever they please. As long as they come back home, that is," Mrs. Scamander explained, walking past an enclosure where a few hippogriffs lay on the ground, a covered roof above them to keep the blazing sun from overheating them. She pointed toward the largest hippogriff, brown and boisterous. "This one gave Newt quite a fright ten years ago, around this time. He had come out to feed him, and the hippogriff was gone. It came back though, like they always do. Unlike my son..."

"Mother," Newt interjected, shooting Tina an apologetic look. "You know I'm busy with my manuscript and all, I rarely see Tina as it is. And we're married!" He explained, though Mrs. Scamander merely pursed her lips in response. Newt had meant what he said; it was extremely difficult to travel all the way to London from New York, especially with his book needing even more revisions, and Tina's recent promotion to second in command. Plus the rising travel fare and their applications being denied. The last time the couple had been, as Mrs. Scamander put it, blessed with her presence, was in June when they'd married. It was September, and due to a high increase in demand for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt had been forced to finish writing revisions as quickly as he could so the schools were providing the pupils with the most accurate information as possible. And with Grindelwald's rising power, Tina was swamped at work trying to assign aurors from both America and England to work as security at Hogwarts and Ilvermorny. Theseus, Newt's brother, had personally asked her to perform the task (more to alleviate his workload, but Tina accepted without hesitation anyway. She was always willing to help out with her job, and especially with her new family members. It provided a chance to bond, though Theseus rarely had to approve of her work. He usually just signed the papers stating his consent and the aurors were sent off).

Mrs. Scamander sighed. "Oh, I know, I just miss my two boys dearly. Theseus won't even write to me anymore... I'm sure he's spoken to you, Tina, more than he's spoken to me in a long while. I suppose he's much too important to speak with his poor, old mother anymore," She scoffed, watching as two hippogriffs nipped at each other playfully. It was true, Theseus just hadn't found the time to write to his mother, even though she only lived a few blocks away. He was much too busy caring for his wife Leta and their two sons, Nicholas and Joseph. "I remember Newt and Theseus would always fight about whose turn it was to ride the hippogriffs... I could never allow them to ride together, one of the two would push the other off and I wouldn't've appreciated a trip to St. Mungo's... oh, Newt, you should take Tina on a ride! I'm sure you'd love to remember your days as a boy..."

Tina turned to face Newt curiously, wondering what he would say about his mother's suggestion. She, personally, wanted to go for a ride, but had never done so. She'd tried out the Quodpot team in her sixth year at Ilvermorny but didn't return to play the in her final year due to too many incidents where the Quod was thrown at her and had exploded in her face. Her flight experience was limited to just that, and a semester of lessons in her first year. Tina smiled fondly at the memory, remembering walking around the grand hallways of Ilvermorny, how the tall and dark walkways had intimidated her at first but had grown to be her second home. Newt looked at Tina, and he sighed inwardly. She had that wild gleam in her eye that she always got when she was up to do something adventurous and dangerous. Tina smiled at him wildly, and Newt turned to face his mother, a slight objection at the tip of his tongue, but his mother had already run off, freeing a hippogriff from the stable. "On you go now, yes, come on Rushhook, I know you've missed Newt..." Mrs. Scamander led the giant creature toward them, stopping about ten feet away. Newt looked at his old friend, trying to keep himself from grinning. As much as he hated to admit it, he had missed the hippogriffs that resided at his mother's small cottage. And his mother, of course. But there was a certain nostalgia to revisiting places that vivid memories of your childhood stood out in, Newt couldn't deny that. He'd spent a good chunk of his pre-Hogwarts years sitting in the stables, looking over the hippogriffs while reading textbook after textbook about magical creatures. Newt glanced back at Tina, and her face shone with a familiar sense of excitement and wonder. He'd seen that look once before, the first time she'd visited his case, after they'd finally caught the last creature that had escaped his enclosure. She'd been so gentle with the baby occamys, placing their mother in the nest with the utmost gentleness. It was a side of her only Newt understood."Now, Tina, I'm going to assume you don't have much experience with hippogriffs. They're very proud of themselves, and you mustn't disrespect them; they hold themselves to the highest levels of authority. You have to walk to them slowly, then bow. If it bows back you're allowed to pet it, and perhaps ride it... since you'll be with Newt, Rushhook will allow you to. If he doesn't bow back, which I doubt, you must walk away. They do not like to be bothered. Now go on, Tina, introduce yourself."