"Don't be so violent," Newt said to Nagini. "Be gentle. Now, swish and flick."
"Wingardium Leviosa," Nagini said. The piece of parchment in front of her quivered slightly but didn't leave the table.
"No," Newt sighed. "You've got to be even more gentle. Watch the movement carefully." Newt performed the spell, making his movements deliberate so that Nagini could see them. "Now you try. Not the words, just the movement."
Nagini raised her wand again and performed the movement. Newt stepped closer to her and grabbed onto her hand. He guided it slowly through the air. "Like this."
She tried again.
"Good," Newt said. "Now try the spell."
Nagini nodded and pointed her wand at the piece of parchment. "Wingardium Leviosa," she said again. This time the parchment floated up a few inches above the table.
"Well done," Newt congratulated. "Keep practicing." He stepped back and took a seat on the couch next to Tina. She was reading a book. He watched as Nagini practiced the spell. Soon she was able to keep the parchment hovering for a long period of time.
Jacob came into the room and took a seat. "She's really learning a lot," he said.
"She is," Newt and Tina said at once. They glanced at each other and smiled slightly. Then they both blushed and looked away. Jacob chuckled.
There was a knock on the door. Nagini turned, the piece of parchment fluttering to the floor. Everyone in the room glanced at each other. Newt got to his feet.
"I guess I should . . ." he started uncertainly. He slowly pulled out his wand and made his way towards the door. He could hear Tina following behind him. He pulled open the door.
A tall man with dark hair and a neat beard, who seemed to stand a little taller than Newt, stood in the doorway. Newt had never seen him before in his life but he heard Tina gasp and the sound of her wand clattering to the floor. He turned to see a shocked expression on her face.
"Achilles!" she breathed.
"Hello, Tina," the Achilles said. He took a step into the hall, his arms outstretched. Tina was still frozen but she recovered quickly and ran forward, jumping into her boyfriend's arms. Newt closed the door and slipped past them. He leaned over to pick up Tina's wand. When he looked up he saw Tina and Achilles still in each other's arms, their lips pressed together in a kiss. Newt was about to turn when Tina broke the kiss and took a step back.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I came to see you, baby," he said. "We haven't seen each other in three months."
"True," Tina said. Achilles leaned forward and kissed her again. She took a step back. "Don't kiss me in front of people," Newt heard her hiss.
"You've never had a problem with it before," Achilles said, trying to pull her closer. She just shook her head and fended him off.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" she demanded.
"I wanted to surprise you."
Newt heard Jacob and Nagini come up behind him. Achilles finally looked past Tina at the other people in the room.
"Who are they?" he asked. "Is that Mr. Kowalski?"
Jacob stepped forward and held out his hand. Achilles shook it.
"Uh -- yeah," Tina said. "He's our friend. He's the Muggle -- I mean No-Maj that was in Paris. He's staying here because he can't really protect himself from a magical attack. That's why Nagini's staying here too. She didn't get to go to school so she didn't learn magic and can't protect herself but we're teaching her."
Achilles gaze fell on Newt. "And who is he?"
Newt glanced at Tina. She was blushing slightly so he decided to answer. He stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "Newt Scamander," he said as Achilles shook his hand. "The author of the weird book about magical creatures." He bit back a laugh at the look on Achilles's face. His gaze slid to Tina. The shocked look on her face was quickly dissolving into a look of annoyance.
"Achilles Tolliver," Achilles said. He turned back to Tina. "So who's house is this? You didn't really buy a house in London, did you?"
Tina shook her head. "No, this is Newt's house. He offered us all a place to stay since Nagini doesn't have a home and Jacob and I couldn't go back to New York."
Achilles didn't look very happy but he didn't say anything about the house. "Why can't you go back to New York?"
"It's complicated," Tina shrugged. "I'll explain later." She paused. "Where are you staying?"
"I don't know yet. I decided to come find you first. I guess I'm going to go find a place to stay now."
Newt decided to speak up. "Tina," he said. "He could stay here."
Tina looked apprehensive. "Are you sure? You already have three of us here."
"It's fine. There's plenty of room in this house and we can always make it bigger." Newt didn't know why he was making this offer. He wasn't particularly happy about it. He had already decided he didn't like Achilles Tolliver. However, the look on Tina's face assured him it was the right decision. She looked happy and that was all that mattered to him. Besides, part of him wanted to keep an eye on Tolliver. He didn't trust him.
Tolliver had turned back to Tina. "I guess that's settled then." He took a step towards her. "Come on, baby. We haven't seen each other in months. You should at least give me one kiss."
Tina consented, seemingly reluctantly. She let Tolliver pull her back into his arms and returned the kiss he gave her. Newt turned and motioned for Jacob to follow him. He set Tina's wand down on the table as he went passed and made his way up the stairs to where the bedrooms were.
"You okay?" Jacob asked.
Newt looked up. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"I don't know. You looked kinda upset when you realized who Tolliver was and you asked me to come up here so I kinda thought something might be wrong."
"Nothing's wrong. I just thought you might not want to stay in the same room as Tolliver so I thought you might want to move your stuff into my room and stay with me. I mean, you said he was insensitive and since he's American he might have certain prejudices against Muggles that the rest of us don't. I could be wrong but I thought it would be best."
Jacob nodded. "Sure. You might be right. I'll go get my things." He vanished into his room. Newt went into his own room and pulled out his wand. He waved it, casting a spell to make the room bigger. Then he created a bed and a dresser on the opposite side of the room from his. Eventually, Jacob came in with his things and began arranging them.
Newt back down to the sitting room. Tina and Tolliver were both sitting on the couch. They were very close to each other and were talking and laughing together. Nagini was on the other side of the room, quietly practicing the spells she knew.
"Tina," he said quietly. Tina looked up. "Tolliver will be staying in Jacob's room. Jacob will be staying with me. You can show him up there when you're ready."
Tina nodded and Tolliver quickly regained her attention.
Newt didn't see either Tina or Tolliver again until supper time. He hadn't wanted to. He had gone down into his basement and disappeared into his office, working on the second manuscript of his book. The publishing company had been so impressed with how well his book had done that they had asked him to create a second edition with even more creatures.
When it was nearly supper time, he went back up and he and Jacob began making supper. Nagini helped them set the table using a few of the spells she had learned. Once she dropped a plate and Newt took the opportunity to teach her the mending spell. She learned it quickly and the plate was left looking as if nothing had ever happened to it.
Tolliver came into the room. "Where's Tina?" he said.
"She's not with you?" Jacob asked.
"No, she said it was almost supper time so she took me up to the room and let me get settled."
Jacob glanced at Newt.
"I think I know where she might be," Newt said softly. "I'll go see if I can find her. I'll let her know it's supper time."
He quickly left the room, hurrying down the stairs to his basement. He glanced up to the landing before the Augerey nest where Tina had spent a lot of time there. She hadn't been up there recently and she wasn't up there now.
Maybe she's in her room, he thought but before he went back up he decided to check one more place. He went further into the basement until he reached the Zouwu's enclosure. He looked inside. The Zouwu was curled up along the opposite wall. Tina was sitting on the floor beside it, her face buried in its mane.
A/N: OK, so I finished this chapter even though I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope you enjoyed it. Please vote and comment.
I have a ton of homework, all of which is due tomorrow, and I should have been working on it but oh well. Tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break. After tomorrow we have exams on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and then we're done. Anyway, I knew I wasn't going to start working on my homework without getting this done so I gave myself until 8:00 and it's not 8:00 yet so that's OK.
Yesterday I realized that Nick, the character I made up to be Newt and Tina's son, has the same name as Nicholas Flamel. That was completely unintentional. I came up with the character before anyone even knew that Flamel was in the new movie. However, I really like Nick and I'm not going to just drop him or change his name so I'm going to embrace that fact. It seems that now Nicholas Scamander will be named after Nicholas Flamel.
Anyway, I need to get to work. Have a good day!
Bye!