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The Caterwauling Charm


NEWT'S STORY CONTINUES...


Newt regretted having left his suitcase in it’s hiding place in by the lake. How much safer it would have been to have it with him! He could have put Tina and Bradley into the case and had only one thing to protect instead of two - and already he was trying to figure out the logistics of getting thirty-seven children out of a thick wood while trying to outrun more werewolves than he dared think about. On a full moon night. He trembled at the thought of it. There was no way that everyone in the equation could make it out alive. No way. It was statistically impossible.

But he didn’t want to think about who could die.

“Worrying means you suffer twice,” murmured Tina, nudging him.

Newt looked over at her and nodded.

“A wise wizard once told me that,” Tina said. “And has repeated it over and over since.” She was holding Bradley Baker’s hand in hers as they walked, sort of half crouched down so the boy would feel included.

“With - with such intelligent things to, uh, to say, he - he must be very wise,” Newt murmured.

Tina nodded, “And quite modest, too.”

Newt smiled a crooked little grin that trembled it’s way across his lips and he turned back to the trees. “Tina, ought we go - go back for the case? To - to carry the children out with?”

“I was thinking that, too,” she said. “But we don’t have time.”

Newt nodded. Then, “What if… what if we had Ned…?”

“Ned?”

“I could send… send a patronus… and… and Ned can pop out and bring it in… then we… we re-secure him before the moon rise.”

Tina’s brow furrowed in concern. “And what if Greyback gets too close and Ned loses himself to the Alpha wolf?”

Newt looked uncomfortable.

“But it would be a great deal of help to have the case.” Tina sighed.

Newt looked at her expectantly, his teeth rested on his lower lip as he stared at her expectantly.

“I think it is the only answer, though,” she said, “Having Ned bring the case.”

Newt nodded and they stopped walking for him to wave his wand and his patronus emerged… great white and shining bright and Bradley stared up at it as it burst forth from Newt Scamander’s wand…

“What… what is that?” whimpered Bradley, staring up at the ghostly creature before him.

“A patronus,” Newt said, “Sort of… of a protective force…” He paused, then stared up at the patronus. “It’s - it’s also a hippogriff.”

Bradley stared. “A - a hippo? Hippos don’t look like that, hippos a fat and grey and --”

“Not a hippopotamus!” exclaimed Newt, “Merlin’s beard. A hippogriff is a very different creature indeed!” The boy looked upset at the tone Newt had taken with him and Tina glared at him meaningfully. Newt looked at the ground, “So sorry,” he muttered.

Bradley pushed himself against Tina’s legs, clutching onto her coat.

Newt looked back up, at his hippogriff patronus, and he said, “You - you know the briefcase - go to Ned Veigler, and - and tell him to come quickly with the case. Lead him. H-Hurry.” The hippogriff shimmered away and Bradley looked after it in fear.

Tina knelt before the boy. “Are you okay, little one?”

“How did he do that?” Bradley asked, “How did he make the hippo come?”

“Magic,” Tina answered.

“Teeny,” Newt whispered gently, “Maybe… perhaps we oughtn’t… oughtn’t be telling the boy too much? He’s… he’s a muggle.”

She looked up at Newt. “Well, he needs to understand, doesn’t he? He’s terrified.”

Newt shuffled his feet, “But… but you know we have to obliviate him after…”

Tina’s face went grim. “I know. But...”

“They aren’t all Jacobs,” Newt muttered.

Tina sighed.

“What’s… what’s a-bivvy-ate?” asked Bradley nervously.

Tina whispered, “It means we’ll help you forget all the bad memories, that’s all.” She smiled warmly but Bradley could see the sadness in her eyes even as she said it and he shivered and wasn’t sure if being obliviated was something he wanted.

Newt had begun pacing nervously, glancing at his watch again, and he looked up at the tree tops over their heads, “We need to - to keep going if we’re going to, uh, to find the children.”

Tina nodded.

She stood up and Bradley continued walking along the path with them, through the trees, still clutching Tina’s hand desperately.

Bradley had decided that he really liked Tina, she sort of reminded him of his mum. But Newt… Bradley glanced nervously up at the tall, narrow frame of Newt Scamander, with his unruly hair and nervous eyes casting about… Bradley looked at Newt’s hand, with the overlarge knuckles and long fingers that were otherwise quite skinny and a funny scar by his thumb where something (a murtlap) had once bit him. Bradley’s eyes took in the sloping, funny gait Newt walked with, too, his feet sort of angled a bit to one side. There was something fascinating about him, about the way the man twitched and moved sort of unpredictably like a melodic musical composition… Bradley reached up a hand and grasped onto Newt’s.

Newt looked down in surprise. Nobody but Tina held his hand. Their son had once, many, many years ago, but not since he was tiny - the size that Bradley was now - and Landon Scamander was now in his twenties - away at University in the States - and even for Landon it had been quite awkward to hold onto his father’s hand. For Newt Scamander was very a very anxious man. He stared at the little boy’s dirty fingernails and tiny thumb clutching onto three of his fingers, too small to wrap around the whole of his hand.

Tina’s eyes travelled down to their hands, too, and then up to look into Newt’s nervous face.

Her eyes seemed to ask him, and now what do you do, Mr. Scamander? He swallowed nervously, looking down at the boy again.

Bradley looked up.

Newt looked away.

But the boy kept his hand wrapped around Newt’s fingers and Newt Scamander did not let him go.

They reached a clearing after a bit and Bradley pointed through the trees, “It’s that way,” he said quietly. Newt nodded and they ducked through the trees carefully, picking their way along through the brush and bracken. Overhead, the very last rays of sunlight were breaking through the sky - turning it deep orange - and Newt worried whether Ned Veigler would have the time to get the briefcase to them before the moon…

Suddenly, there was a great shouting cry that went through the trees, seeming to surround them and Tina let out a shriek of surprise as Bradley grabbed onto Newt Scamander’s leg, wrapping himself about his shin and knee and Newt spun so that he and Tina were back to back, each with their wands raised at the ready, and staring into the dark. “It’s a caterwauling charm!” he yelled over the noise, “Hear how it sounds like a Crup?”

“What’s a crup?” cried Bradley.

“Imagine! Setting a caterwauling charm on the forest! This was set by someone who would rather us not be here!” exclaimed Newt, ignoring Bradley’s question for now.

Tina looked over her shoulder and said, sarcastically, “No, you think? Newt, I would’ve expected it to be a bloody welcome committee would set this up!”

Sarcasm was always wasted on Newt Scamander, though.

“Not usually!” he cried.

“Oh Newt!” cried Tina, annoyed, “Why do you -- nevermind.”

For suddenly there had come sweeping black figures through the trees. Dementors.

Tina thought of Newt in his blue coat against a backdrop of the terrible grey of mid-Depression New York City. A burst of white light came from her wand - a strong corporeal patronus, though it moved too quickly for Bradley to see the shape of it. And Newt Scamander waved his wand, thinking of Tina’s face the first time she’d seen Frank, the rescued Thunderbird, and he waved his wand and there came the Hippogriff… and the bright white light fended off the swooping, gliding black figures of the dementors, even as they descended upon them. Bradley wailed, his face pressed into Newt’s pant leg in fear and Newt instinctively reached his free hand down to put it on Bradley’s head in the closest semblance of comfort he could possibly give the boy.

The dementors swept away at last and they lowered their wand arms, both of them having exerted quite a lot of energy, Tina panting and doubling over to grab her knees as Newt pushed his coat back to look at Bradley tangled ‘round his leg. This was certainly more touching and closeness than Newt Scamander was particularly comfortable with or use to and he twitched at the sight of the boy clinging onto him.

Tina Scamander suddenly grabbed Newt’s elbow. “Newt.”

He turned.

And there before them stood Fenrir Greyback.