Crescendo: A Fantastic Beasts Newtina Fanfiction

Chapter 25

       "Mind if I get the fire started?" she asked, pointing at the empty grate.

       "Yes, please," Newt said.

       Tina went to retrieve her wand, which she had left on her bedside table, and returned to the living room with it. She prodded the fireplace with it, and a burst of flames roared forth, magically flooding the room with some much needed heat. 

       She sensed Newt coming up behind her, and she turned around. He handed her back the gloves that she had given to him. "These really were quite useful, seeing as I didn't die of hypothermia out there from all that snow," he said, grinning. 

       Tina laughed, and she was about to take back her mittens when a second voice in her mind came to life. She paused, unsure for a moment, then said decisively, "You keep them, Newt. I already have a pair."

       Newt was silent for a while, glancing from her to the mittens, uncertainty written across his features. 

       "Really," Tina insisted. "I don't need them."

       Newt hesitated, then withdrew his hand that held the gloves. "Thanks," he said quietly.

       Tina flashed him a swift smile, then faced the fire, and gave it another prod with her wand. The flames leaped higher, warming up the room nicely. She turned back around to see Newt stowing the gloves safely away into his pocket, and as he gave them a soft pat, Tina felt a warm and fuzzy feeling inside her that had nothing to do with the fire. 

       "Let's go to the kitchen," Tina said, her voice smiling. "We'll be able to see Queenie and Jacob from there."

       Newt grinned at her. "Still keeping the investigative business up, then?"

       Tina let out a noise halfway between a snort and a chuckle. "Well, you said yourself that you couldn't think of anyone else you'd rather have than me to investigate you," she told him before she had really thought about what she was saying. 

       Newt and Tina both blushed simultaneously, and Tina inwardly scolded herself again. Tina, be sensible, will you?

       "That's true," Newt conceded. "You're quite the capable investigator."

       Tina felt her face heat up even further. "And you're quite the capable criminal," she retorted teasingly.

       Newt laughed, and they made their way into the kitchen, both taking a seat by the window. Queenie and Jacob were visible beneath them, and the younger Goldstein was just putting the finishing touches on their snowman, using her wand.

       "She should know better than to do magic when anyone could be watching!" Tina hissed, annoyed. She had half a mind to march right back down the stairs and snatch her sister's wand away.

       "It's all right, no one will notice," Newt assured.

       Tina cast him a disbelieving look. "And just how do you know that?"

       Newt paused. "I don't," he admitted. "I'm just trying to reassure you, I suppose..."

       For some reason, this made Tina laugh. "Well, you're not doing a very good job," she remarked.

       "I try."

       The brunette looked down at her sister and her friend again. Queenie was now tracing the tip of her wand over the surface of the snowman, creating intricate swirls of design on it. Suddenly, she saw her sister's eyes fly wide open, staring at something in front of her. Apparently, Tina judged from Jacob's expression, Mrs. Esposito had just poked her head out of her first floor window, and was now talking to Queenie about the designs on her snowman. Tina stiffened, and her breath momentarily stopped. Had Queenie been caught for using magic? Mrs. Esposito was a No-Maj, after all. Tina heard Queenie's loud voice even through the glass of the window.