"Isn't this wonderful?" Cora called to them as she shed her coat, warm from the amount of mooncalves surrounding her. "Merlin, Newt! I wish I could spend my days travelling the world and mucking around with creatures like these!"
He smiled as she moved towards one of the habitats, a desert.
"What's in here?" She asked.
"Er- that'll be Frank," Newt said, squinting his eyes as he moved from the dark area of the mooncalves to the bright, sunny desert. "Careful now," he added on when Cora walked into the centre of the area.
"What's Frank? Where is he?" She questioned, shielding her eyes as she look upward. A dark shadow came over her head and she hoped backward as the magnificent thunderbird landed before her.
"There he is."
She looked over at him with a sarcastic smile. "Thanks, I wouldn't have seen him with you. Hello," she turned to the creature, who had tilted it's head sideways in an analytical stare. "Does he like me?" She whispered to Newt, not daring to take her eyes away from the shining gold feathers of the bird-like beast.
"He isn't fond of strangers."
"Oh," she said, crestfallen. She waved the bird goodbye and left the area. "This place really is incredible, Newt."
Newt opened his mouth to reply but Jacob interrupted.
"Hey, guys?" They both turned to look at him. "I think we're being moved."
The ladder leaded to the exit was bouncing slightly, and Cora suddenly got the sensation of being at sea. The ground swayed gently beneath them, barely enough to notice.
"Are we being stolen?" Cora asked, reaching up to hold onto the necklace. Newt had noticed she'd done this, both when he and Tina discovered she was a witch and when the erumpent had charged Jacob.
"Why do you hold your necklace?"
She avoided his eyes when she replied, "It's just... It's a source of comfort when I'm scared. Grounds me."
A knocking sound came from the shed, so the trio moved towards it. The case had been opened and Newt climbed out first, then Jacob, then Cora. They were in a large room filled with official-looking witches and wizards. Tina was standing beside them, giving a sheepish look. Cora frowned and went to say something, but was interrupted.
"Scamander?" A voice asked. He wore a pin of the British flag on his lapel, and had a weathered face.
"Oh," Newt mumbled softly, "Hello, Minister."
"That's Theseus Scamander? The war hero?" Another voice asked. Cora was confused but was relieved to see Jacob looked as she felt.
The British Minister replied, "No, that's his little brother. What in the name of Merlin are you doing in New York?"
"I- I came to buy an Appaloosa Puffskein, sir."
The British Minister didn't believe a word of it. "Yes, and what are you really doing here?"
A woman Cora recognised as Madam Picquery, the president of MACUSA asked, "Goldstein, who are the other two?"
"This is Jacob Kowalski, Madam President," Tina said. "He's a No-Maj who got bitten by one of Mr Scamander's creatures. And this is-"
"Cora Ketterstone, Ma'am," Cora introduced with a smile. "Pleasure to meet you."
Nobody seemed to care, as they all began shouting about Jacob's lack of magic. Cora became lost in the scenery of the room, from the decorative tiling of the floor to the strange mist hanging above the room. It was there that she saw the body of a Senator floating among the mist.
"Merlin's beard," she murmured, tugging on Newt's sleeve. "Look at that."
"Mr Scamander, which one of your creatures was responsible for this?" A woman called. He turned to them, his expression stony.
"No creature did this, don't pretend. You must know what that was, look at the marks! That was an Obscurus."
Madam Picquery's response was cold. "There is no Obscurial in America. Impound them and that case, Graves."
A man with a haircut Cora found awful summoned Newt's case. Both the English witch and wizard drew their wands.
"Give that back-" Newt cried. Spells hit all four of them, restraining their hands and forcing them to their knees. "No- please don't hurt those creatures," he said. The tone of heartbreak in his voice brought tears to Cora's eyes. "Nothing in there is dangerous, I promise- please don't hurt them- none of them are dangerous!"
"We'll be the judges of that," Madam Picquery replied sternly. "Take them to the cells."
Cora wanted to pull Newt in for a hug, grip his hand tightly, give him any form of reassurance as they were forcibly removed from the room by several aurors.
"Don't hurt those creatures- please don't hurt my creatures- they aren't dangerous- please-"
"Newt," Cora spoke softly. He looked at her with manic eyes, gasping for breath because of his shouting and the effort of keeping in tears. "Newt, you're going to make yourself sick."
Both Jacob and Tina watched their interaction, the latter not realising that what she had done would cause so much heartache for Newt. Cora stood close to him, giving what little comfort she could with her hands restrained and aurors surrounding them. Newt took shaking, shuddering breaths; he was angry with himself and Tina and MACUSA for bringing harm to the creatures he'd vowed to protect.
They eventually reached a large area filled with metal-barred cells, not unlike animal cages. The four of them were placed in one, their restraints removed. Cora threw her arms around Newt, who was too emotional to get flustered.
"We'll get them back, I promise," Cora vowed, her mouth so close to his ear she barely had to whisper for him to hear her. His coat hid the goosebumps on his arms but nothing could hide the blush that arose on his cheeks.
"They'll try us in the morning," Tina said. Cora didn't even want to hear her voice, she was so incredibly angry with the woman. "Then they'll decide what to do."
As Cora pulled away from Newt, she felt a weight on her collar. Something small and green was holding onto the fabric and Cora thought a twig had something become attached to her shirt.
"Pickett, what on Earth are you doing?" Newt asked, his voice strained with emotion. "Get off of Cora."
The twig looked up, tiny black eyes staring at Cora's face.
"Is that- is he a bowtruckle?" Cora asked. The anger towards Tina was replaced by awe of the tiny creature. "Good evening," she told Pickett, who responded with a cheery chirp. "Have you been on Newt this whole time?"
"He had a cold-"
"Mr Scamander, I believe I was talking to Pickett," she said with a slight smile. The bowtruckle turned to Newt and stuck out it's tongue. She sat down cross-legged on the floor of the cell, and slowly, the other three did the same. Cora replaced the creature on Newt's shoulder with a smile.
"Frank may not like you, but Pickett certainly does," Newt chuckled. As Cora and Newt spoke, Tina had drawn her knees into her chest and looked as though she was on the verge of tears, and Cora suddenly lost all of the anger she held towards the woman. They were all as frightened and nervous as the others, and Cora had no right to dislike somebody for doing what they thought was the right thing.
"Tina?" Cora asked, shuffling over to Tina to sit beside her. "Are you okay?"
"I just- I didn't mean for any of this to happen," Tina mumbled. "I just wanted my job back."
"We all do silly things for silly reasons when things we love are in the balance," Cora said.
Tina sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "Those are the words you live by?"
"No," Cora laughed. "The words I live by are only complain when things couldn't be worse. My mother used to say it when I was younger and I think it's quite a good philosophy. Better than Newt's, anyway. His was something about worrying twice."
"Watch it, Ketterstone," Newt warned jokingly. She stuck her tongue out in response.
"You two are so cute," Jacob commented with a sigh. "You're so British and awkward and... cute."
Cora didn't visibly blush, but she felt heat rising in her cheeks all the same. "All Americans call me that. I think you all just have a thing for the English."
"I think we should all try and rest for tomorrow," Tina suggested. "It's not easy being questioned, and if Graves is doing the questioning it'll be even harder. He likes to make things personal."
Cora reached for her necklace. "Brilliant." She leant back to rest her head on the bars, then decided against it when her bare neck came into contact with the metal. Instead, she tried to curl up on the floor with her arms acting as a pillow, but the cool concrete below her sent shivers through her body. "Merlin, I've only gone and left my coat in Newt's case," she murmured, furious with herself for making such a mistake.
Newt noticed this and, as both Jacob and Tina seemed to be asleep, shuffled over silently and lay a hand on her arm to get her attention.
"I couldn't help but notice- are you cold?" He asked timidly.
"I'm fine, I've slept through worse," she said, pulling herself into a sitting position and offering him a smile. "We're all in the same boat."
"Are you sure? You can have my jacket if you'd like?" He said, but she shook her head.
"Then you would be cold. I'll be okay, Newt. I wouldn't say that if it wasn't true."
He had a feeling she would turn down his jacket even if they were at the North Pole. She seemed to be the type of person who would bend over backwards to make other people happy, and worry about herself second.
"Newt?" She broke the silence, her voice soft so she wouldn't wake the others.
"Yes?"
She couldn't think of anything to say but she didn't want to sit in silence. "I- um-"
He looked at her expectantly and waited for her to finish her sentence.
"I don't want to sit in the quiet. Not in a place like this," she whispered, curling her knees into her chest and looking at the empty cells around them. Newt saw how agitated she was, how she held the pendant in her fist tightly to reassure herself, and began to talk to fill the silence.
"Before I came here, I was in Equatorial Guinea," he said. She curled up beside him so he didn't have to speak loudly and disturb the others. "I found my fwooper there, they're poached for their feathers. Anyway, she was terrorising her captors by singing as loud as she could, and they were terrorising her by putting her in smaller and smaller cages. It wasn't fun for any of them, so I..."
"Took her?" Cora's head had drifted onto his lap. "I understand. Do carry on."
There was no more to the story of the fwooper, so he talked about something else. "I actually came to America for Frank, who I found chained up by poachers in Egypt. He belongs in Arizona, Merlin knows how they got a thunderbird to Africa. I was planning to take him there and let him back into the wild-"
She'd fallen asleep, her head on his lap and her necklace in her open palm. He drifted to sleep wondering who O.M was and why their initials were engraved on her locket.