"Just a - a t-tad m-more - more of the boswellia, T-Teeny. M-Maybe a - a tiny m-m-more of the g-ginger?" Newt Scamander sat on a stool in the potions room at Fallengunder castle, his knees bent so his feet hung over the top rungs of the stools, rubbing one hand with the other, massaging the muscles of the fingers, which were gnarled and tight.
Tina Scamander looked up, "Mr. Scamander, my dear, how many times have I mixed this very potion for you?"
"C-count-countless," Newt replied. He paused, hit overly large teeth resting on his lower lip as he watched anxiously. She cut the ginger into small slices carefully. "N-n-not too big..."
Tina looked up. "Do you want to do it yourself, Mr. Scamander?"
Newt shook his head and the clump of grey curl at his forehead bobbed with the motion.
Tina fumed quietly, finished cutting the ginger and chucked it into the cauldron she was stirring.
Newt stared down at his knees as she worked. He looked up, about to say something, then paused, returned to kneading his fingers. They were tight with arthritis. "I - I do appre-appreciate y-you d-doing this, Tina." He struggled but he managed to hold her gaze for several long moments before looking back down at his hands.
She sighed, "When did we get to be so old, Mr. Scamander?" she murmured.
"It's - it's been a - a - a bit of time," he answered, nodding. "Eigh-eighty one years isn't s-something to shake a quill at."
"It certainly isn't," Tina replied. "Goodness me, I can't believe..." She shook her head, then smiled and added, "You're just as handsome as you were that first time I saw you." She was putting some of the potion she'd just made and rubbing it on her fingers in goopy orange ooze that looked like some kind of marmalade.
He looked up at her. "You - you had - mustard - on your -your face, I remember. Just there." He reached up and touched her upper lip with his fingertip, then winced at how it hurt his fingers.
Tina took his hand and rubbed the knuckles, rubbing the potion into the skin. "Yes, and I thank you for remembering the mustard." She rolled her eyes.
"It was caught - caught on the - the lovely d-downy hair of your upper - upper lip --"
"Mr. Scamander!" she hissed. She touched her upper lip a moment, halfway between scandalized and complimented and shook her head, "You really know how to make a girl feel beautiful." She rolled her eyes.
"Y-you don't feel beautiful?"
"Not when you're calling my upper lip hairy!"
"It's like - like the fuzz of a - a peach. Your - your cheek, too... Just downy. Not - not like a mustache or - or anything!"
"Mr. Scamander," Tina said, shaking her head.
"I l-love you Teeny," he said, still staring at his hands as she returned to massaging the knuckles carefully, her thumbs pressing against the palms. "V-very much. That's a-all I'm t-trying to say."
Tina smiled at the top of his head, at the grey flecked by some of those auburn streaks that once covered his entire head, and she leaned closer. "I know, Newt." She kissed his forehead and he smiled down at his hand. "I love you too... very, very much."
There was a knock on the door frame of the potions room and they both looked up to see who it was. James Potter looked 'round the frame of the door. "Hullo?"
Tina released Newt's fingers and wiped her hands on a cloth, getting the goop off of her own fingers. She could feel it tingling and burning even what little bit she had left on her hand and she wondered how Newt was managing at keeping calm. She would've been climbing the walls if that stuff was all over her hands like it was on his. "Hi James," she called, "Come in."
"Y-yes c-come in - come in," Newt waved his goopy-covered palms at them. "Don't - don't mind m-me, just a bit of - of arthritis tr-treatment." He waved his fingers.
"Sorry for the smell," Tina added.
It was rather repugnantly strong.
"I didn't know you had arthritis, Mr. Scamander," Lily said gently.
"Old - old men get such - such things," he said unceremoniously.
James and Lily crossed the room and Lily looked into the cauldron, taking a breath of the air. "Boswellia?" she asked.
"Ginger root, capsaician, boswellia, and just a tiny bit of moon calf dew."
"Moon calf dew?" James asked.
"Spit," Newt said.
"Ah." James nodded. He paused, then, "I'm sorry if we're catching you at a poor time... It's just, we've a bit of an emergency."
"What's the matter?" Tina asked, concern on her face.
"It's Remus."
Newt looked up, his face full of concern. "Is he okay?"
Lily looked at James expectantly - she'd been waiting to hear, too, what was going on. James took a deep breath, "Sirius Black did a stupid thing."
Lily closed her eyes in frustration.
"He works for Gomer's Degnoming down in Diagon Alley --"
"Y-yes I kno G-Gomer qu-quite well," Newt nodded. "He - he was an ap-appre-apprentice of mine for a time."
"Well, he worked for Gomer. He doesn't now."
"Uhoh," muttered Tina.
"Yeah. Well. See, he was degnoming a house and the owner - happens to be the administrative advisor at his uni, by the way - was gossiping on about some anti-werewolf sentiments --"
"Oh gods," Lily said, covering her face.
"-- and he's not the best at keeping his temper, see --"
Newt nodded, "I - I recall."
"-- and he sort of screamed at the woman about werewolf rights and that he hoped they all got bit by a werewolf..."
Lily, Tina, and Newt all gasped.
James took a deep breath, and said all in one rush, "And now the Ministry for Magic has sent one of their entrapment specialists to the flat in East London to look for Rey and luckily Sirius had got him out of there by the time they came and Peter thought quickly and said he'd moved away - here, actually, to Iceland, is what he told them - but the Ministry's got a taste for checking on Remus now and we're worried that they'll pick him up and he'll be in trouble for being unregistered all these years and Sirius will be arrested for harboring and Remus will end up in big trouble and --"
Newt was already standing up and wiping his hands with the cloth. "T-Terrible - Terrible news," he said as he grabbed his wand and his briefcase from the floor. "Tina, you stay here. Let's go." He turned toward the door, grabbing up his bright blue coat from where it was folded over a chair by the door.
Tina stared after him, "I'll put the rest of the potion in jars for you."
"Th-thank you Teeny."
She nodded. "Be careful."
He nodded, then waved for James and Lily and trotted down the hallway quickly.
James and Lily rushed to keep up with him.
"Hello!" called Ned Veigler's portrait as they passed by.
"Hi again, Professor," said Lily, waving to the portrait, who smiled that them. He was still learning and becoming more and more like himself each day, but it was a process that would take some time.
"Are we going to the Ministry, Mr. Scamander?"
"Y-yes," Newt nodded. He led the way from the grand staircase to the library, passing a young girl covered with hair - a yeti - who was playing a piano. "V-very good Ara-Arabella," he said as he passed by, "Y-you've im-improved a lot already."
"Thanks Mr. Scamander," the girl said, smiling from under all the hair that covered most of her face.
He took down a box from a high shelf, held it out as James and Lily took handfuls of the green powder, and he put it up after getting his own. Stepping into the hearth, he shouted, "M-ministry for Magic!" and disappeared.
James waved for Lily to go ahead. She did so, and as he turned to step into the hearth himself, his eyes met the young yeti girl's. She parted her hair and smiled at him, her eyes a piercing blue. She waved the tips of her fingers at him and giggled, so he smiled awkwardly and wagged his fingers in return before quickly throwing down his powder and following after Lily.
Gideon and Fabian Prewett were in their office, Gideon's legs up on his desk, leaning far back in his seat, a cigar bit between his teeth, unlit. "We were talking about the name Juniper."
"Like the planet?"
"That's Jupiter, Fabulous," Gideon said. "I think a Juniper is a sort of plant."
Fabian, who also had a cigar in his teeth, was sitting on his desk, criss-cross applesauce, and laughed, "You're not even sure?"
"Dorcas knows what it is. I rather thought it sounded cute."
"And if it's a boy?"
Gideon grinned. "We already know it's a girl."
"Bloody hell."
"My sentiments precisely!"
"Dorkface must be quite excited, then."
"Don't call her Dorkface, and yes, she's very excited. Already been out to Malkin's buying rolls of the most ridiculous fabrics to make ickle bitty clothes when she's off on leave. End of June! Just a month away!"
"Blimey, where does the time fly off to? Seems it was only just February and you'd only just told me --"
"I know!" Gideon nodded, sighing. "Haven't even decorated the nursery yet, we haven't!"
"Blimey, best be getting a motion on that or your ickle daughter will be sleeping on the streets."
"We'd keep her inside with or without the nursery, Fab --"
Just then, the door of their offices burst open and Bilius Weasley came in, breathless and panting loudly, having run all the way up the stairs from the Atrium.
Gideon looked up.
"Cigar?" Fabian asked, holding out the box of them. "Moody says we can't light them inside, but he's given Giddy a whole box as celebration for --"
"Where do reports for the entrapment officers come in to? Is that you two?"
Gideon swiveled his chair to look at Bilius. "The entrapment officers reports go directly to -- get this, now -- the entrapment office."
"Hard to remember, that is," Fabian agreed, nodding.
"Shall we write it down for you, Bil?" Gideon asked.
"I have a red quill about here somewhere, nice and bright so you won't forget." The twins both snickered.
Bilius said, "There's going to be a - a false report coming in and - and you've got to head it off and stop them investigating it."
"Well if it's false, what does it matter if they do?" Gideon asked. He laughed, then, "What happen? One of your ickle pub buddies play a trick-a-roo on you, Bil?"
"Yeah, lose a bet at gobstones or something?"
"No, I'm serious you lot, there's a report that I need you to block off before something bad happens."
"Ohp, must be you who's sent it. Who're you trying to take the mickey out of?" Gideon sat forward and grabbed a memo pad, "You really ought not to be messing around with something so serious as this."
"Yeah, could get someone in a bad reputation starting some rumor like this!" agreed Fabian.
Gideon took up the aforementioned red ink quill. "What's the name?" he asked.
"Remus Lupin."
Gideon stared at Bilius and Fabian's fingers slipped, the lid of the cigar box snapping closed rather loudly. "Remus Lupin?"
"Yeah," Bilius answered.
Fabian looked from Bilius to Gideon. "What'd you do a thing like that to him for, Bil?"
"Aye, you know they'll look into him just because he's got that funny gimpy leg of his."
"How'd he get that, again?"
"Dragon fighting," Bilius answered automatically. Even as he said it, he realized how idiotic it sounded. Why hadn't he ever noticed what an idiot thing that was to have believed in the first place? Bloody hell. He'd really been right blind to it, hadn't he?"
"Dragon flighting?" Fabian chuckled, looking at Bilius like he was mad. He looked at Gideon. "Were his kicks as fast as lightning?"
"'magine it was a little bit frightening," Gideon said, smirking.
Fabian mimed the exaggerated arm motions of a kung-fu movie actor.
"Can you please just stop the report from reaching the entrapment officers?"
Gideon said, "We'll look into it, Bil, alright? Don't worry about it."
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Fabian answered. "They never take those things seriously unless they're submitted by an establishment anyway. Just because of ickle arses like you teasing their pub mates."
"I'm not teasing a pub mate," Bilius said crossly. "I would never do something like that to a pub mate, alright? Bloody hell." He lowered his voice, "Look, it's true, alright? It's true and if they go and investigate Remus Lupin, he'll be in a right big load of trouble - him and Sirius Black both."
Gideon nodded, smirking a bit, "Yeah. Alright Bil. Have a few too many, did you?"
"Yeah, don't worry, we're not going to tell Arty and Molly."
"Cross our hearts," Gideon added.
Bilius hissed, "Why aren't you taking this seriously?"
"Because a few years ago we had a conversation very much like this about a grim you saw in Hogsmade, Bil, it's hard to take you seriously about stuff like this when you've been mental over it in the past!"
"And besides, have you met Remus Lupin? Him, a werewolf?"
"It's true!" Bilius said in a low growl, "Don't say it so flippantly and loudly, please!"
Gideon nodded, "Alright, alright. Quietly, got it. We'll take care of it. Don't you worry."
"Yeah," Fabian said, "We'll see to it they don't trap him for the condition he doesn't have."
Bilius flushed and said, "Thank you. That's all I needed." He stood in the doorway, waiting.
"Yyeeeessss?" asked Fabian, staring at Bilius.
"Aren't you going to - you know - go?"
"Yeah, in a minute," Gideon replied. "Just after we finish off our cigars!"
"Your unlit cigars?"
Fabian grinned. "Have a good day, Bil."
"Yeah have a good day, Bil," Gideon added, swiveling back around and putting his feet back up on his desk.
"I'm not joking about you lot."
"Did you see him turn into a werewolf?" Fabian asked.
"Was it a big black werewolf you mistook for the grim?" teased Gideon.
"No," Bilius answered both questions in one go. Then added, "You lot are arseholes."
"Just had to check."
"I'm not the one who reported it, it was his university!" Bilius snapped.
The twins paused. Both took the cigars out of their mouths. Gideon sat up, feet falling from the desk. "It wasn't you who did it?"
"NO, it wasn't me. If you LISTENED TO ME in the first place --"
Gideon looked at Fabian.
Fabian dropped the box of cigars on the desk and rolled off the desk quickly, grabbing his wand and following Gideon out the door, pushing past Bilius quickly on their way.
Bilius sighed and shook his head. "And I did see the grim, thank you very much," he said to the empty room. "Bloody don't call me mental, I'm not mental, you're mental, the pair of you, sitting here smoking unlit cigars like a couple of idiots..." and he stormed off down the hallway, back toward the atrium.