Lost and Found [Newt Scamander]

Interlude

Ravenclaw's had to answer a riddle to be allowed entrance into the common room so it was uncommon to hear such tumultuous dissonance of hurried knocking at the entrance.

It woke Kel sometime in the middle of the night, when dawn was just creeping past the horizon and battling with the dark hues of the previous night's absence of light. 

He sat, bleary-eyed as he felt blindly for the lamp beside his four poster, trying not to wake the rest of his dorm mates who miraculously still hadn't awoken.

He always knew he'd been a light sleeper and tonight was only a reassurance. The knocking was coming from the door to the entrance of the common room.

A moment later, someone was swinging the door open to Kel's dorm and sticking their head in.

"Kel. Someone's here for you. He claims it's urgent." Faisal Hall, a Ravenclaw prefect hissed, long hair still wrapped in whatever she used for curls in the mornings. She also did not look happy and Kel found the liberty within him to look guilty as he passed her form to the door and common room at the bottom of the tower.

Newt looked very much out of place as he stood in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room, arms crossed as he protected himself from the cold. He had a yellow jumper on and stuck out like a sore thumb amidst all the blues.

"Newt? What's wrong?" Kel voiced, rushing down the last set of spiral-bound steps. He held Newt's arms, one at each side to calm the shaking boy.

"I couldn't sleep," Newt said, slowly breaking himself from his daze. He took Kel's hand without thinking about it and started leading him out of the common room. "I went to check on Frank. I think every day he's going to leave me, go back to America, and find his family. He needs to eat too, so when he wasn't there I thought he'd just gone hunting or left London but then I saw a carcass. A wolf I think it was. B-but this wolf had blood crusted on its mouth and a feather lodged in its teeth. I-I didn't get too close. I didn't know what to do." He rambled words so crisp and clear and fast spoken all at the same time.

Kel listened intently as he let Newt drag him through the corridors and outside toward the forest.

"He's alright, Newt," Kel said when Newt finally unclasped his arm. He massaged it gently, subtly.

"How do you know?" Newt asked.

"Because I just do," Kel said adamantly, freeing his wand from the robe he had haphazardly thrown overtop his sleeping garments. "You know what to do, Newt. Clear your head. You aren't one of the top students in charms for nothing."

"Tracking charm," Newt said dazedly.

Kel nodded. "Lead the way."

The Dark Forest was, true to its name, dark. The trunks of them looked together and far apart in a mist of eerie fog. Twigs snapped in the distance and birds crowed in the canopy above their heads. Kel had never been in the forest so late—or early in the day and he forced his gaze to remain on Newt as the boy guided him forward because he of all people knew this forest inside and out.

They found the Thunderbird in a small section of trees toward the outer edge of the forest, curled beside a bush and hiding behind it. Kel almost didn't see the thing despite its massive size for even a baby until Newt slowed his steps, cautiously approaching the animal with a raised hand that showed he was safe.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep checking on him like this," Newt muttered when the Thunderbird ducked its head forward to close the gap between Newt's hand and the creature's head.

The animal had indeed had its feast and was most likely not prepared to face retaliation from the wolf. The injuries were minimal, Kel knew. A simple brew in his cauldron and Frank would be good as new. A potion for Newt, however, would prove to be more difficult. Kel worried his lip as he watched Newt worry. A calming draught would help but that wouldn't stop the chances of something like this happening again. Not if he kept picking up new animals and taking them under his own wing.