There.
There it was again.
Tina had spotted it countless times now... ever since Newt had returned home a few days ago. Now she noticed it again, as he threw more pellets to his mooncalves and watched them float along with a phantom wind.
That glimmer of joy in his eyes. It was there again.
Just as it had always been, before he broke his leg.
That little gleaming spark that made him hope again, that made him himself, that made him purely Newt. It was back, and it was the most beautiful thing Tina had ever seen when she looked into those eyes.
They sat next to each other, under the moonlight of the mooncalves' rocky highland terrain in his suitcase.
Tina was stroking a young mooncalf resting its head in her lap. Newt was feeding the rest of them, his crutches discarded unceremoniously in the grass.
All of the creatures had been fed, and both of them had made a joint decision in not researching any more that day for no reason other than because it was boring. So, ultimately, they had nothing to do.
"Who's Kerry?" Tina asked him casually, breaking the silence first.
Newt had begun crumbling the pellets into little crumbs, small enough for the younger beasts to digest. He wordlessly offered her some, and Tina scooped them into her palm with a soft, "Thank you."
"You met her earlier," he answered eventually, watching her hold out her palm to the mooncalf baby sitting in her lap. It nibbled daintily at the crumbs, letting out a contented squeak.
"I know, but what else do you know about her?" she mumbled back, eyes still on the youngling, now gambolling around Tina's feet. It was so tiny that the grass easily covered its legs, causing it to plough through thick clumps of foliage like a bulldozer.
"Not a lot. I don't like her much, if I'm being honest," Newt admitted. Tina shook her head.
"Me neither. She wasn't very nice to Queenie and Leta. And Jacob."
"Hm?"
"Oh, well..." Tina looked back to face him- Newt was offering her some more crumbled pellets. Tina took them with a small smile. "... Turns out, she wouldn't allow them to view your second operation. Even though it was much shorter and we were allowed to come in last time."
As a test of sorts, she tossed the crumbs lightly into the air to see if they'd float like the full pellets. They did.
Tina's baby mooncalf bounded through the grass again, leaping up to catch the crumbs wafting in the air.
"Queen told me earlier," Tina finished.
Newt was watching her. No, not her... the mooncalf. Was he? Maybe it was her. Tina couldn't tell.
"I can't imagine why Kerry would do that..." He shook his head, stroking a fully grown mooncalf behind one ear.
Tina shrugged.
Ultimately it didn't matter, she supposed. It had been about a week, give or take, since Newt had left hospital. They weren't planning on seeing Kerry anytime soon. Perhaps never again, if it was possible. None of them were particularly fond of her.
"Occlumency?" he suggested out of the blue, handing her a full pellet this time.
Newt surveyed her as she tried her best to crush it with two fingers like he did, letting the coarse brown particles crumble into her hand. Some fell in the grass, but she had most of it.
Tina threw them into the air again, and they both watched as the baby in her lap sprang through the foliage to catch particles in its mouth, eyes shining like two gigantic moons.
"Sure."
Tina drew her wand, which she'd become fiercely fond of over the past few days, almost as much as her old one. A smile quirked on the side of her mouth.
It was powerful, too. She could feel it in the wand's core- it was honed purely for skilled use, and Tina felt right at home with it.
"Legilimens."
And the mooncalves around them blew away like mist. They were replaced with a new image, a new surrounding...
A ship's horn blew somewhere in the distance.
"I'll send you a copy of my book, if I may," offered Newt, eyes flickering between her and the ground, as if afraid of hearing her response.
"I'd like that."
Tina watched, from a third-person point of view, as Newt- Newt from almost exactly a year ago- lifted his hand and tenderly tucked back a stray curl of her hair.
From her strange position looking on over at the scene, Tina could feel herself blushing, even after a year.
As the images of them a year ago began to fade away, Tina was reminded that she was using the legilimency spell to read his mind. All his memories.
He thinks about it too?
The rest of New York Harbour slowly faded out, only to be replaced by another image... a newer one.
Tina knew this one all too well. Thought about it almost every day.
"I can't leave you- leave you to die," she heard herself choke out, her raw voice echoing all around her.
The image swam into vision- like ink tumbling through water. But Tina didn't need to see it to know what it was.
"Yeah. Yeah, you can. There's only one thing I regret anyway."
Oh gods. Gods, she could see everything now. Just the same way it was.
His leg, a mangled, bloody mess... the bone twisted up halfway... Tina couldn't look. Not again. Not again.
"What?"
Her own figure leaned over Newt, crying silent tears that dripped over his broken body. She remembered all too well.
Not again.
She couldn't even watch when he leaned up and kissed her on the cheek for the first time.
Not again.
It must've hurt him so much just to move that far-
"Sorry, the spell was so strong. I suspect it's the new wand, it's unbelievably powerful. It took me a while to-"
"Can I hold your hand?"
And there it was. Laid plain and simple before the two of them, the words spiralling out of her mouth before she processed what she was saying.
Newt paused his rattling on, daring to meet her gaze with a look of surprise. Or maybe he just did it by accident.
"Of course."
He took her hand in his first, before she intertwined their fingers, resting them in the soft grass of the mooncalf habitat.
Neither of them spoke. Just sat, side by side, holding hands under the moonlight.
Tina stole a glance at his leg. It looked fine now. Normal. There was a brace, yes, but he'd slid his pants over the top, and it looked absolutely normal now.
He'd come so far from all those months ago, when he was convinced that he'd die, convinced that there was nothing left for her in him. But he was wrong.
No, she'd saved him. She'd found life in him worth living. She found something more in him, and they'd kept fighting. They'd come so far since that heart-shredding moment in time. From all of it. Now he was almost ready to walk unaided again, and she vividly remembered every small kiss he'd given her... and vice-versa, she added to her thoughts sheepishly.
"You saw- everything."
Tina reeled herself back out of her thoughts, back to the present. Newt wasn't looking at her, his gaze trained on the grass. Avoiding her stare.
"Yes." There was no point in denying it.
A moment elapsed- where she thought she'd said the wrong thing, maybe made him uncomfortable...
"We've come so far, haven't we?" he mused in admiration, that invaluable spark of hope once again shining in his eyes.
Tina huffed a laugh, squeezing his hand.
"I thought the same damn thing."
HAPPY NEWT YEAR, EVERYONE!! I've been wanting to use this picture for ages... :D It's not mine, by the way. I found it on the internet, but I don't know who made it. Credit to whoever the author is..
I hope that, for you, 2020 is filled with peace, joy and newtina. Lots of it. <33
Fluff! Fluff for you, fluff for you, everyone gets some fluff!
I hope you enjoyed. This is the second-to-last chapter, and I'm writing an epilogue for it too. Because I have no self-control, the last chapter and epilogue will probably come out mid-week. I might even just knock it off and publish the last of it now ;)... I'm pretty sure that most of y'all are on holidays now anyway, so hopefully you can find time to read it.
Unless you're not enjoying the book, then you don't have to.
I mentioned Kerry Mason again in this chapter (the nasty healer, remember?), because she comes back into the play in the sequel. And maybe Nick as well. Yes, those were hints.
Just wanna give a shoutout to mah bois Jellybeansixthsense and Newtinalover245... look at this...
SWEET MOTHER OF NIFFLER. MY AVERAGE IS FIVE, SOMETIMES SEVEN. TWENTY IF I JUST PUBLISHED A CHAPTER.
You guys should know that I absolutely adore receiving comments. I just love it. I like comments more than votes, because it feels like there are real people reading my story and they enjoy it and react to it and it makes an impact with them. To me, there's no better feeling than knowing that people actually enjoy my stuff.
Also, does anyone get anxiety when people vote but don't comment? Just me? Okay.
Yeah, I have a meme. Last meme for this book. This one is actually based off of this fanfiction...
I hope you enjoyed! Have a fantastic day/night!
Cateye992, out!