《 Skip a Beat 》

A shred of hope

That's exactly what happened the next day.

Theseus hovered uncertainly in the doorway, Tina standing right behind him in case he decided that they were all nuts and tried to make a run for it.

Fortunately, he only looked sceptical for a moment, then sighed, rolled his eyes and muttered "Well, why not?" before kneeling in front of the bed and drawing a rough sketch of something down the side of his cast.

He worked for a couple minutes before lifting the marker and handing it back to Pickett. Tina angled her head to see what he'd drawn and Newt leaned forward.

Theseus coughed.

"It's a badger. For Hufflepuff."

Newt broke into a smile.

"It's a fantastic badger."

Theseus gave a tight smile in return. Tina deemed it safe enough to move from her position by the door and knelt down by Theseus' side.

That was when the letter arrived.

A gorgeous owl, with sleek feathers as black as pitch, swooped gracefully into the room and landed on the little wooden bedside table.

All three of them turned to face it, but the owl was only watching Newt, through intense grey eyes. He let the owl perch on his right arm, and caught Tina watching the grey door out of the corner of his eye.

"Odd..." she murmured, eyes still fixed on the doorway. "It didn't come through the window. Must be a hospital owl."

The owl hooted softly at Newt, as to gain his attention again, and readjusted its stance on his arm. That's when he realised there was a letter tied to its claw. Theseus noticed too.

Newt leaned forward to untie it. It was rather small, but then again, it was folded up into a neat square, with a piece of cotton twine wrapped around it and a cerulean blue seal. The blue wax caught his eye.

"This is definitely from the hospital."

The owl ruffled its feathers, tucked its wings neatly behind it, and hooted at him again. Newt hovered his fingers above the seal.

Do I want to open it?

What if it's bad news?

If it was good news, he'd regret not opening the envelope. If it was bad news, he'd just have to live with it. Newt shook his head, clearing the thoughts.

"Do you want to open it?" asked his older brother gently. Newt hesitated, then nodded. He picked at the wax until he could peel it off, then unfolded the letter.

Newt read silently to himself for about a minute before lifting his eyes to meet theirs.

Their expressions remained unreadable.

He wordlessly handed the letter to Theseus, who scanned it curiously. He looked up from the letter with shining eyes and a huge grin.

"Is it good?" asked Tina nervously. She was switching her gaze between the brothers, but he could tell the question was for Newt. Theseus stayed silent, deciding that it was best to let his brother answer.

Newt opened, then closed his mouth.

"Yes," he said finally. "It said that it's been five months since I was um- admitted, and they said that if things are still looking up in a few weeks' time..." he trailed off, still watching the letter held loosely in Theseus' hands. His older brother decided to chip in. "They want to know if Newt wants to walk again." he finished.

Tina's jaw dropped.

"Yes!" she squealed. "That's fantastic!"

Her face fell suddenly. "But... didn't Mallord say that you'd probably never... walk again...?"

Newt reached for the letter again. "Yes. There's a bit here that says so..." he scanned a couple more paragraphs. "A few bits... there's a lot of bits... okay, so there's a lot of that, yes." He frowned and re-read it. "There's something here that says that if I want to walk again, they'll let me go with crutches," he scowled. "In two months' time," he finished, and frowned at the letter.

"Bleugh. Crutches," muttered Theseus. Newt looked up at him. "Yeah," he sighed.

Newt wanted to walk. He really did. He wanted more than anything to be able to stroll around inside his suitcase, or help with dinner... he even missed chasing his Niffler whenever it pilfered something shiny. But he wouldn't be able to walk again if he refused to try, to bite the bullet, and to endure the embarrassment of... crutches. Newt scowled again.

Silence reverberated around the room for a couple minutes, all three of them thinking about the letter. About what could or couldn't happen. About what this meant- not just for Newt, but for all six of them.

Tina and Theseus watched him, waiting for his decision. Newt glanced up at them through his auburn fringe.

"Let's do it."

Ooooh dRamAtiC!!!

Sorry, I know this is the shortest chapter so far, but I don't have anything else to write.

Here's Theseus' badger:

yey :3

I'm writing this half-hidden underneath my Hufflepuff scarf. It's so warm. I love it owo

Also, it's raining here lol.

I'm home alone for literally the whole day and I have serious writer's block. I'm writing the next few chapter for this fanfiction, but I'm trying to fill in a huge time skip without writing 'three months later'. Basically, all the characters are wasting time.

So I hope you don't mind me turning to my fellow fangirls for advice?

Should I just make it clear that there's been a massive time skip and that a lot has changed, or should I try and stretch a few months out into a few chapters? I don't want it to be boring, but I don't want it to feel like something new is happening every chapter.

Thanks guys- I feel really lucky to have people who love to write and fangirl like me <33

Prepare yourself for nice brotherly FLUFF next chapter...

Cateye992, out!