Free as a Bird

Affy

The following evening, Newt and Jacob decided to sneak away from the household to get the ring. Newt had made up his mind.

"Care to tell me where you're going, dear?" Tina caught the both of them slowly retreating down the hallway of the apartment.

"Oh, sweetheart, dear" Newt sweated profusely.

"Honey-pie, little munchkin" Tina played along.

"Munchkin?" Newt gasped.

"Never you mind. Where are you rushing off to?" Tina asked, "And that too, with Jacob? Quite an odd time to be waltzing off".

"We're going to . . "

". . the new bakery that opened across the street. Jason's Café" Jacob finished his sentence.

"Oh" Tina believed them, "Jacob? While you're still out there, can you get some chocolate fudges for Queenie? Pregnancy cravings".

"Of course" Newt said, pushing Jacob away, "Come on! Let's go!"

"Hmm" Tina muttered to herself before turning a blind eye.

"Holy moley" Newt noticed the price of the ring. He didn't have a lot of Muggle cash and he necessarily couldn't hand over a bunch of Galleons to pay for it.

"A hundred pounds?" Jacob observed, "That's ridiculous!"

"That is the price for love" Sienna, the store manager proclaimed.

Newt spoke in a whisper, "I don't have that kind of cash! Plus, how much is a pound equivalent to, in wizarding currency?"

"Even I don't have that! I can't necessarily give them a heap sum of dollars" Jacob complained, "They'd look at me like I'm some sort of fool".

"Perhaps we should go to a wizarding shop" Newt suggested, "But it is hard to part away with a ring as beautiful as this".

"I have an idea. Watch" Jacob went to Sienna, "Hi, uh, we recently came to London. We don't have the currency, if you know what I mean".

"Don't care" Sienna stated.

"Perhaps we could do some sort of a modest trade?" Jacob suggested.

Sienna's eyes brightened up, "A trade?"

"Yes. Like bartering" Jacob said, "I'm sure we have something valuable".

"What do you have?" Sienna asked.

Jacob emptied his pockets. Nothing but hard candy, a bunch of dollars, a fidget ring and a piece of paper.

Newt pulled out his pocket watch. It was his heirloom, something his grandfather had given it to him. He hadn't shown his watch to anyone. He had intended to keep it a secret.

Not anymore.

"Here" Newt placed his pocket watch, "You could sell this pocket watch for a lot more".

"Newt, what. . ?" Jacob was confused.

"Deal" Sienna agreed, almost instantly, "Take the ring. Make her happy".

"Thanks" Newt pocketed the ring, keeping it safe.

A few hours earlier in the depths of the dungeons, Theseus and Darla had a full conversation. The Fernsby sisters decided to give them some space and perhaps, later bombard him with questions.

"So you escaped prison and came here?" Theseus asked, "Some of your werewolf friends helped you to get out of prison, is that right?"

"I can't tell you everything, Theseus" Darla said, "All I can say is, we wanted to get our revenge on the Minister. He was the one who made our lives, the werewolves , miserable".