A Sentimental Journey

I Don't Mean to Break Your Heart by Leaving (But This Breaks Mine Too)

The group had finally gotten a solid lead on Grindelwald’s location midsummer in 1930, and everyone was getting ready to leave for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Newt had just finished settling down his creatures for the night and was looking for Tina, interested in spending their last night at Hogwarts showing her his favorite areas to hang out in — well, hide away, he reckoned was more accurate.

Traveling swiftly downstairs from the room he, Jacob, Yusuf, and Theseus were sharing, the Magizoologist ended up in the Hufflepuff common room. Jacob was sitting in a squishy armchair reading a wizarding newspaper when Newt entered.

“Do you know where Tina is?” the Magizoologist immediately asked, trying not to sound like he’d just run down the stairs.

“No, but she just left. Said she was going for a walk,” the No-Maj replied casually.

“Oh. I finished my rounds in the case early so I could... She said she…” Newt trailed off, disappointed and confused.

“Hey, buddy,” Jacob started comfortingly, standing up. “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding between the two of ya. If you’re quick you could catch up to her.”

“Right.”

With that, Newt exited the common room, set on finding Tina. After a few minutes, he found her heading towards the courtyard near the bridge out of Hogwarts at a brisk pace.

“Tina!” he yelled, and she abruptly stopped walking and turned around.

“Newt!” she exclaimed, looking slightly shocked.

“Jacob told me you went on a walk. Did you forget that I agreed to go with you? I was going to show you all of my favorite places to hide away. There's this island with a tree on it that bowtruckles live in…”

“Newt.” Her voice was thick with emotion and he immediately looked towards the ground, too nervous to maintain eye contact. She cleared her throat. “I would love to go on a walk with you, but I — I have some things that I need to buy in Hogsmeade before we leave.”

“I could help you if you’d like. I know which are the good shops to go to and which you should avoid,” Newt offered half-heartedly, looking back and forth between Tina and her shoulder. “We could grab a butterbeer afterward…”

“Um…” she looked around awkwardly, looking anywhere except at Newt.

“Tina? What’s wrong? You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?”

“Yeah…” she said, but her voice was too high pitched to be the truth.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Newt observed softly, disappointed in Tina for not trusting him as much as he trusted her. He was trustworthy, right?

Tina shifted on her feet nervously, as if internally debating something.

“Always have been,” the Auror murmured in response.

Newt studied her in the silence that ensued and noticed that she kept toying the strap of her travel bag. Why did she have it with her if she was simply going to Hogsmeade?

And then he realized that he was an absolute idiot.

“You’re not going to Hogsmeade, are you?” Newt asked, pitching his voice low, unable to mask his disappointment. “You’re leaving to go after Queenie.”