"What are you doing?"
Tina peered up.
Her younger sister stood over her, hands braced on hips and head tilted to the side in question.
"Eating chocolate..." replied Tina guiltily, dropping her gaze back to the half-empty box on her lap.
Queenie smacked her lips in disapproval, watching her sister gobble down a little vanilla nougat. Adjacent to her, Nick gave a toothy grin, already munching on a peppermint.
"How many did you eat?" she asked disbelievingly, eyes popping at the small selection of chocolates left.
"It was a team effort," contributed Newt, reaching over Tina's shoulder to nick a caramel-filled swirl.
He popped it in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then leaned over to swipe another caramel from the box. Unfortunately for him, Tina realised what he was doing and slapped his hand away. She then proceeded to take the last caramel swirl and snarf it down.
"No..." moaned Newt dejectedly, eyes full of longing for his precious chocolate. Tina smiled sweetly at him, smirking at his loss.
"Why do you even eat them like that?" chided Newt instead, gesturing towards her. "You're meant to enjoy chocolate, not scarf it down like a pack of wolves!"
Queenie sliced through before she could respond (which was lucky, because Tina looked like she'd be more than happy to square up for a fight on the proper tactics of consuming chocolate).
"Did you hear about J.D.V?" she asked Newt hurriedly.
"First thing I told them," answered Tina for him, waving a lazy hand towards Nick and Newt, the latter of which looked reproachfully back.
"Right," continued Queenie hastily, trying to hold their attention. "And how are the crutches going?"
"Great, thanks." Newt offered her a wonky smile, seconded by Tina.
Indeed, it had gone great. About a week ago, Nick had allowed Newt to make gentle progress onto one crutch at times. He still used both- of course, but he was almost capable of walking unaided with just one of the crutches to lean on.
"That's awesome!" chorused Queenie. "And..." she paused mid-sentence, eyeing Tina, who was scoffing another chocolate. "... Can I have one?"
This seemed to catch all three by mild surprise. They looked towards each other, then back at Queenie, then Tina spoke up.
"Sure." She held the box up to her sister, who rummaged through before selecting a chocolate.
"You wanna practise occlumency?" Queenie asked Newt, popping a hazelnut crunch into her mouth.
"Okay."
"We don't have to," the blonde witch shrugged and planted herself in the chair next to Tina's, daintily sucking the chocolate off her pointer.
"No, let's do it." He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and Nick scooted over to give him some more room, while Tina vacated the hospital floor altogether, and planted herself in an empty cushioned chair.
"Ready?"
Newt gave a single nod, inhaling sharply before bracing himself for the plunge that would drag him deep, deep into his mind... through memories so frayed he'd forgotten they ever existed.
Newt opened his eyes, puzzled. No memories cascaded before his eyes, nothing replayed before him...
With a shuddering dawning sense, he remembered that Queenie wouldn't use a spell to sift through his thoughts. She was a natural-born legilimens. Of course!
Newt strained his occlumency shields into place, attempting to block out something he couldn't feel. A sudden rush of respect for Tina coursed through him as he realised that she effortlessly closed off her mind to a legilimens almost every day.
Suddenly growing consciously aware that he hadn't closed his eyes again, his gaze settled on Tina and Nick, staring avidly back at him.
Newt's occlumency shields flickered.
Tina blinked again him- only once.
Was she trying to tell him something? What did a blink mean? Did it mean anything? No, obviously not! She was blinking! Secret sign language indeed- people blinked all the time.
Newt inwardly cuffed himself over the head for conjuring up such a miscellaneous thought.
"Newt!"
With a jolt, he glanced up to see Queenie's worry-lined face hovering above his. No, not worry... something else.
"I'm sorry?" he blurted lamely.
"You zoned out, Newt. You lost control."
"Oh." A wave of guilt washed over him. Had he broken off his concentration with just one thought?
Occlumency was a lot more difficult when facing a legilimens instead of a spell.
"Yeah, I know. But Grindelwald ain't gonna use a legilimency spell, Newt." She gave a sympathetic shrug. "Sorry."
"No. S- no, it's fine. You mean perfectly well, Queenie," he replied, sotto-voced and embarrassed at his lack of concentration.
The blonde witch gave him a reassuring smile. "Maybe Tina can help with keeping the shields intact. And, Nick...?"
At the mention of his name, Nick jumped up, eyes scanning her up and down as if attempting to guess what his task was.
"Oh, it's fine. I wanted to ask if you learned occlumency," she asked him, no doubt reading his mind, but trying simultaneously to keep him in the conversation loop.
Nick huffed a laugh, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Never bothered. Charlotte may be a legilimens, but it's never done anything to hurt me," he defended. Queenie gave a nod, a tiny flicker of emotion flashing in her eyes just for a moment.
Tina plonked down next to Newt and offered him a dorky grin, which he returned after a moment.
"Hi," he began awkwardly, suddenly aware of Queenie turning Nick away from them to quietly engage him in some sort of small talk.
"Hi," echoed Tina, also trying to ignore her sister's oh-so-obvious attempt at getting them to properly talk to each other.
A few seconds of discomfort passed between them, with Nick and Queenie's soft chatting in the background doing little to ease the tension.
Finally, Queenie turned around.
"Are you going to teach him occlumency or not?!"
Nick let slip a chuckle, but unfazed, Tina retaliated and defended, "Well, I can't if you're going to make it this awkward for us!"
At this, Nick burst into laughter, until he wheezed and dropped himself into a seat, doubling over in a giggling mess.
"Come on, Teen." She gestured exasperatedly towards Newt and Tina, still perched opposite each other. "Just do it. I'll sit right here if that's what you want."
With that, Queenie plonked down into the chair closest to them, neatly arranged her pleated pink skirt, and folded her hands in her lap, watching them with a complacent expression.
"Uh... right." Tina cleared her throat, beginning to wish that the other two had kept talking as oppose to goggling at them as if they were watching a drama film.
"So... uh, Newt... the best way to block legilimency, whether it be by- uh, a natural legilimens-" Tina vaguely gestured in Queenie's direction. "- Or a spell, is to block out all emotion. I told you this earlier. Imagine a mental barrier between your mind and the person."
Newt gave a small nod, then realised that Tina was waiting for him to do so. Newt closed his eyes.
He visualised a wall.
Not good enough.
A huge, steel wall, with multiple bolts and barred entrances.
Now, that's better.
No thoughts could get out. No nosy legilimens' could get in.
Perfect!
As a test of sorts, he kept an ear open for Queenie's snapping about how legilimens' weren't nosy, and that they couldn't always control what they read. It never came.
He closed off all emotion, mentally pushing away every little niggling thought and feeling until all that remained was nothing. Nothing, except the huge steel wall.
Newt opened his eyes.
All three of them were staring at him expectantly. A smile began to drift across Queenie's face.
"Newt... I think you did it! I can read your emotions now, but I couldn't just then!" she cheered. Nick and Tina were now sharing the same smile as Queenie, looking back at him with bright eyes.
"Wow, that was quick!" exclaimed Nick, shaking his head.
"I still need to be able to block legilimens' out without having to concentrate that hard," Newt reminded himself out loud. Still, he silently prided himself on being able to successfully shield his thoughts against a natural legilimens on his second try.
"That will come with time. And practice," Tina assured him, moving to place a hand on his arm- then faltering. Giving in, she ultimately decided to rest it lightly on his arm- an invitation, of sorts. Nobody missed the movement, but they didn't see any reason to pay heed to it.
"Aw, my break's almost over," murmured Nick, gaze flickering down to his wristwatch. Smiles from the others' faces gradually drifted away as he scrambled to his feet.
Nick nabbed another chocolate from the box, then gave a forlorn wave, turning away towards the door. A chorus of goodbyes began to follow him before he paused, as if remembering something, and whipped around again.
"And- uh, Newt. I saw Mallord's medical file on you... don't worry, nothing bad in there," he assured quickly upon seeing Newt's tense expression. "He wrote that if you keep up the steady progress, you should be able to go home in a few days."
He paused to let the news sink in, then winked, nonchalantly spun round again, and ambled down the corridor.
Before Newt had a chance to process that he could potentially be returning home in a couple days, a pair of arms snatched around him and squeezed him into a hug.
Queenie gave an excited squeal and squashed him further in her arms. On his right, Tina reciprocated- hesitant at first, then wrapping her arms around him nevertheless and laughing.
Newt beamed, hugging them both back as images of him returning home washed through his mind, one after another.
Yayyy!
Hey guys, I'm back :)
Hope you enjoyed this chapter (my statistics have been dropping a little recently, so I hope that this makes up for it).
Guess what? (I'm not going to let you answer lol) I've been writing a few chapters in advance, and I've finally begun writing the last chapter of this fanfiction! Yee I'm excited to share it with you all :>
In other news, I'm not really too fond of this chapter. It doesn't really flow and it's a bit boring. I made another meme that I feel is perfect to use here:
Whoop there you go.
And just to confirm the timeline- it's November 1927, but sort of like an alternate universe, where Newt hasn't published his book yet (it's not completely finished yet uwu (sorry, I should have made that clear)). I'm telling you this because there may or may not a chapter set in Diagon Alley in the near future, and I don't want people confused as to why there are no fans anywhere recognising Newt like :0
Big shoutout to Niffleroccamy, Ravenclaw_geekgirl, VioletFandomer and newtina_gacha for constantly being amongst the first to vote and comment- I really appreciate it!
Love you all! <333 Look out for the next chapter, featuring Newt finally leaving hospital :D
Cateye992, out!