The Scamander Zoo
“Anne sweetheart, have you got absolutely everything?” asked Remus as he helped her finish packing her trunk.
Anne was going to visit the Scamander’s for a few weeks before the start of school and was going straight to Hogwarts from the Scamander’s.
“Yes uncle Remus,” muttered Anne as she folded one of her jumpers.
“You’ve got your wand?”
“Yes, uncle Remus.”
“Emergency money?”
“Yes, uncle Remus”
“You’ve got all your books?” he checked. Seeing as they had just put at least fifty books into Anne’s trunk that seemed a slightly silly question, but Anne nodded.
“Yes, even the Lockhart’s,” said Anne.
“Don’t remind me!” groaned Remus, “If you get any trouble from him just call us and let us know!”
“That reminds me, you got the mirror?”
“Of course, I don’t go anywhere without it!” Anne replied.
“Right, right” Remus muttered as he folded her quilt and placed it in the trunk on top of her school robes. “Well then I think that’s everything, come on darling let’s go get you some breakfast before they arrive!”
Remus placed a feather-light charm on the trunk, and they lifted it down the stairs.
Sirius had prepared Anne a bowl of raspberries and grapes for breakfast whilst Remus and Anne had finished the packing.
“Come on kid eat up!” prompted Sirius “and I don’t want to hear anything about you forgetting to eat this year!”
“It’s alright Sirius after last year Rolfs got Irwin on to her!” Harry laughed.
“Yes well,” muttered Sirius.
Remus checked the time and saw it was a few minutes to ten. “they’ll be here in a minute!” panicked Remus.
Sirius ran over to start the fire for the Scamander’s and Remus fetched Anne’s cloak of the coat rack.
Suddenly the fire in the grate turned bright green and a witch with dark hair appeared in the living room.
“Hello there Remus!” called Mrs. Scamander.
“Hello, Gwendoline! Thank you for inviting Anne to stay!” greeted Remus.
“That’s alright, the boys can’t wait to see her!” said Mrs. Scamander as she helped Remus pull Anne’s trunk over to the fire.
“Now Anne,” said Remus taking Anne by the shoulders. “If you need anything don’t hesitate to ask either Mr or Mrs. Scamander.”
“Remus….” called Sirius.
Remus held Anne a little tighter and then looked at Mrs. Scamander. “Um, she’s being having a few nightmares for the last month or so,” Remus told her as he did up Anne’s cloak.
“Remus she’ll be fine!” said Sirius. “Have a good year kiddo, knock their socks off!” said Sirius giving Anne a brief hug and ruffling her hair
“Of course, right! Well be safe dear and don’t forget to call!” said Remus as he pulled Anne into a tight hug and kissed on the top of her head.
“Bye Sirius, Remus!” called Anne as she headed to the fire with Mrs. Scamander.
They both walked into the fire carrying the trunk. “Scamander Hollow!” called Mrs. Scamander as she dropped a handful of flu powder into the fire.
After spinning for a few minutes with Anne holding on desperately to the trunk they arrived at the Scamander’s.
“Anne!” screamed Irwin as Anne stepped out of the fire. Anne had arrived in a large kitchen with a scrubbed wooden table with mismatched chairs. Irwin had been sitting at one of the chairs and came charging over when Anne arrived. Irwin had grown quite a bit so now was very tall and lanky. He had curly dark red hair and his face was covered in freckles.
Irwin crushed Anne into a huge hug. “Careful son! Give your friend some space to breathe!” laughed Mrs. Scamander.
Irwin helped his mother with Anne’s trunk, and they started towards the sitting room. At this moment two small children with dark hair came rushing into the sitting room. “Anne! Anne!!!” screamed Averett and Aislynn Irwin’s twin brother and sister who were four years old.
“Um hello,” said Anne nervously as the twins hugged her around the legs.
“Averett Aislynn I thought you two were drawing nicely?” asked their mother.
“We were” started Averett.
“But we got bored!” finished Aislynn.
“Yes well,” muttered Mrs. Scamander as she pulled twins off of Anne’s legs. “Sorry about my children they can sometimes be a bit overly friendly!” she said smiling at Anne as she sent the twins off to go play.
“That’s ok,” Anne shrugged.
“Irwin, why don’t you show Anne up to her room?”
“Ok mum!” said Irwin beaming. “Come on Anne you’re up here!” Irwin led Anne up a staircase and towards an open door.
It was a large room with lots of windows looking out over the grounds. There was a double bed with light pink bedsheets and plenty of bookcases and a floor-length mirror.
Irwin placed the trunk at the end of the bed before flopping onto the bed. “Mum put you here so that you could be close to my room, my rooms next door,” Irwin explained.
“Do you want to do the unpacking before lunch?” Irwin asked.
Anne nodded.
“Recte!” said Irwin as he opened the trunk.
They placed away Annes folded clothes in the chest of drawers and put away the books.
“Hi guys!” called Irwin’s brother Rolf standing in the doorway. Rolf had red hair like his brothers but had fewer freckles. “Mums sent me up to tell you two that you need to come down for lunch.”
Rolf looked over to the huge stacks of books they were halfway through unpacking. “I’m sure you two Ravenclaws will have plenty of time to go through the books later!” he chuckled heading down the stairs to the kitchen.
Irwin and Anne followed Rolf down to the kitchen. The family was already gathered around the kitchen table which was full of sandwiches and a fresh salad. There was a middle-aged man who was tall and lanky like his son Irwin and was dressed in a pair of jeans and a green jumper. The twins who were sitting next to each other who looked as if they couldn’t wait to get down from the table to get into more mischief. Rolf was sat next to an elderly couple. One had silvery hair which would have originally been red and was dressed in a button-up shirt with his sleeves rolled up. There was a woman with grey hair sitting next to him who was chatting animatedly to the twins, she had a slight American twang to her accent. Mrs. Scamander was wearing an apron and rushing around putting dishes on the table.
“Um well,” began Irwin, “you already know Rolf, and you’ve met Mum and the twins.” The twins showed mischievous grins on their faces at being mentioned. “Then there’s Dad,” said Irwin pointing towards his father.
“Hello dear, the boys have told us so much about you, I hope you have a nice time here!” greeted Mr. Scamander warmly.
“And then there’s just Grandma and Grandpa, of course, Newt and Tina Scamander,” Irwin added indicating the older couple.
“Um hello,” muttered Anne shyly. There were so many people and they all seemed to be staring at her.
“It’s alright dear” supplied Newt. “We can be a bit much at first!”
“We’re a very close family” continued Tina. “That’s why we all live together.”
“Don’t worry you’ll get used to us!” laughed Mrs. Scamander. “Come on sit down,” she said gently.
Anne sat down between Irwin and Rolf and Mrs. Scamander placed a large plate of quiche, sandwiches, and some salad in front of her.
The family started jabbering away about what they had been up to that day. Landon was talking to his father Newt about the paper he had been writing that day. Tina was listening to the twins explain how they were going to go exploring the grounds with their big brother Rolf that afternoon.
“We’re going to climb trees,” enthused Averett.
“And collect flowers,” added Aislynn.
“I promised that if they left me alone this morning, so I could get some homework done, we would go exploring this afternoon,” Rolf explained to his grandmother chuckling.
“Sounds amazing! Can I come with you!” asked Tina her face lighting up.
“Of course, the more the merrier!!” Rolf laughed.
“Irwin,” asked Newt, “do you think your friend might like to meet some of my creatures this afternoon?”
“Sure!” replied Irwin.
Anne had been confused by all of these conversations and the noise. She was staring down at her plate pushing her salad around her plate, she had already eaten a few sandwiches, but she didn’t feel particularly hungry.
“Gwen, can you help me with starting the edits for my paper this afternoon? Its due in a few days?” asked Mr. Scamander.
“Of course dear!” said Mrs. Scamander as she started to clear the plates from the table. “Rolf don’t forget to put on sun protection potion, you burn so easily!”
“Alright Mum,” answered Rolf as he helped Averett down from the table.
“Oh and Mum!” Mr. Scamander said to Tina, “make sure Aislynn doesn’t climb too high, she can’t always get back down again!”
“Alright Landon!” said Tina getting up from the table. “See you at dinner honey,” Tina kissed Newt on the top of his head before going outside with Rolf and the twins.
“You two will be alright on your own this afternoon?” asked Gwendoline as she washed the dishes by magic.
“Yeah, we are going to help Grandpa with his creatures!” Irwin answered enthusiastically.
Mr. and Mrs. Scamander went off to the study to get to work on the editing.
“I know my family can be a bit much,” said Newt who had noticed that Anne had not said a word since sitting down. “I’m afraid this is about as normal as it gets everyone talking over each other, four conversations going on at once.”
Anne nodded anxiously. She could not believe that Newt Scamander was talking to her! And he was being so nice!
“The chaos gets a bit much for me as well sometimes, that’s when I go talk to my creatures,” Newt told her. “I love my family to pieces, and the fact that they talk so much means that if you are shy or quiet it doesn’t matter so much!”
Anne smiled; Newt was right. It didn’t matter that she hardly talked because the twins talked enough for four people on their own.
“Come on Anne! Do you want to see the kelpie?” said Irwin who was bouncing around the room, excited to show Anne all the creatures.
Anne nodded and got up from the table.
The three of them headed towards a door leading off from the kitchen.
“Alohomora!” called Newt and the door unlocked. “There’s nothing dangerous through here if you know how to deal with them,” Newt explained, “I only keep the door locked so the twins don’t run amuck in here unsupervised!” he chuckled.
They had arrived in a workroom where there were several tables and lots of buckets full of food.
“Lunchtime at the Scamander Zoo,” laughed Irwin as he picked up a couple of buckets.
“If you take those buckets dear you can help,” said Newt as he passed Anne two buckets. One was full of raw meat and the other leaves woodlice and insects.
“If we feed the creatures first you can get to know them whilst we do that!” Newt said leading them down a staircase.
Where in a usual house there would have been a basement there was instead a magical paradise. There were different habitats for all the different creatures. One area had a large number of tall trees where there was even a small cave. There was a huge lake on the edge of the room that was where she supposed they kept the kelpie.
“Shall we feed the bowtruckles first?” asked Irwin as they approached the trees.
Anne noticed that there were several small stick-like creatures coming out of the trees. Newt started to feed the bowtruckles out of one buckets Anne was carrying. Once the bowtruckles had eaten their fill of the woodlice and leaves one of them started climbing around on Anne before settling down on one of Anne’s shoulders.
“Miranda! Get down from there!” said Newt as he carefully picked the bowtruckle off of Anne’s shoulder and returned her to the tree.
They then approached several paddocks. “Ok hippogriffs first, then thestrals, then unicorns,” muttered Newt as they came towards the paddocks.
The first paddock had several hippogriffs in, Anne had seen pictures, but she had never seen one in real life. There was a chestnut, one with dark feathers and one was almost white. Anne, Irwin, and Newt all bowed to hippogriffs who bowed back, before giving them handfuls of raw meat from one of the buckets. One of the hippogriffs allowed Anne to pet her.
They then came to a paddock which appeared to be empty. “This paddock contains Thestrals” explained Newt when he saw Anne’s look at confusion. “I presume that you can’t see them?”
“No sir,” muttered Anne. Anne remembered reading that you could only see Thestrals if you had witnessed death.
Newt threw some chunks of meat into the paddock which started being eaten by things that Anne couldn’t see. It was slightly creepy the meat being torn apart by something she couldn’t see.
Then she was introduced to the unicorns, they were beautiful! There were about six in the paddock and most of them were silver but there was tiny little foal which was pure gold. As Anne was a girl and not a boy, the unicorns let Anne pet them and stroke them. The little golden foal kept nuzzling Anne whilst Irwin and Newt fed them.
They then went over to a large cave. It was full of a family of nifflers and their trinkets that they had collected. “The parents are called Helga and Godric,” said Newt pointing towards the two largest nifflers.
There were also five or six much smaller nifflers who were tiny and adorable. They were like tiny little balls of fluff. Anne was just thinking how cute they were when one of the baby nifflers tried to steal her wristwatch.
“Morgana no! That’s not yours!” scolded Newt as he took the watch back from the baby niffler and placed it back on Anne’s wrist.
They then fed the rest of the creatures and soon only the kelpie was left. They walked over to the lake on the edge of the enclosure and found a huge creature waiting for them. It was like a massive water horse. Newt fed it and then went for a ride across the lake, after which Irwin went for a ride.
“Do you want a turn?” asked Irwin as he dismounted. Both Irwin and Newt were soaking wet but beaming.
“No thanks,” replied Anne.
“Well I think that’s everyone!” said Newt. “So what do you think?”
“I think it's amazing!” exclaimed Anne, “there are so many creatures!”
Newt merely shrugged.
“Hey, Anne, can we have a look through your books now?” asked Irwin suddenly remembering the stacks of books in Anne’s room.
“Ok!” replied Anne.
Irwin and Anne rushed up to her room to go through her books. Newt beamed as he watched the children run off.
“Anne these books are fascinating!” said Irwin as he flicked through a book on non-verbal magic.
“Honestly Irwin! You’d say that about any book!” she laughed.
“So, would you!” he replied. “so how is your wandless and non-verbal training going?”
“I haven’t been to practice much, were not allowed to do magic outside of school. I’ve been doing a lot of research though, so I think I understand the theory!”
“Fair enough” muttered Irwin as he began to peruse a book on advanced charms.
Anne and Irwin spent the afternoon flicking through her new books and before they knew it, it was time for dinner.
“Irwin son, as much as I appreciate you sharing my love of books, your mother says you two have got to come to have some dinner!” Mr. Scamander laughed as he came into the room.
Irwin got up from the bed and went down to the kitchen still carrying the book on advanced charms and started to head downstairs. Mr. Scamander took the book from his son.
“Dad!” Irwin protested.
“Irwin, you know the rules! No books at the table during mealtimes!” Mr. Scamander said as he placed the book on top of the dresser. “You can have it back after dinner,” he chuckled as he saw the look of outrage on his son’s face.
Dinner was a beef casserole with boiled potatoes and green vegetables. If possible, dinner was even more chaotic than lunch. Irwin was trying to eat his dinner as quickly as possible so that he could get back to his book. Averett and Aislynn were enthusiastically telling their parents about their adventure that afternoon.
“We found a bird nest in a tree!” said Averett.
“I fell in the brook and I got wet!” said Aislynn.
“Sounds exciting darlings,” said Mrs. Scamander, “slow down Irwin, if you eat that quickly you’ll make yourself sick!”
“Sorry, mum!” called Irwin through a mouthful of casserole.
Pudding that evening was summer fruits and vanilla ice cream which Anne loved.
At the end of dinner, Irwin began to drag Anne back upstairs to get back to reading.
“Irwin Son, are you forgetting something?” asked Mr. Scamander smiling.
“Oh yeah!” exclaimed Irwin as he took her through to the sitting room.
“What's up?” asked Anne confused.
When Anne and Irwin reached the sitting room everyone was sitting on the sofa beaming and there was a small pile of presents.
“Happy Birthday!!!” screamed the twins.
“My birthday was two weeks ago!” stuttered Anne still confused.
“We know that but we wanted to get you stuff anyway!” laughed Rolf.
Anne sat down on the sofa embarrassed at all the attention.
“Open this one first its form me!” said Irwin as he passed her a present.
Irwin had given Anne a book on different creatures from Classical Mythology.
“There’s even a Cerberus in there!” laughed Irwin.
“Thanks, Irwin!” she said hugging her best friend.
‘I think you’ll find there’s a theme to these gifts!” laughed Tina.
“We noticed that you and Irwin seem to have a keen interest in the Classical World, you both enjoyed the Iliad and the Odyssey so much!” explained Mr. Scamander.
Anne received several more books. A book called the Theogony from Rolf
“It's about the birth of the Greek Gods, it could be quite interesting!”
As well as several books on Greek Mythology in general from Mr. and Mrs. Scamander.
Newt and Tina had got Anne several books by Ovid the Heroides and the Metamorphoses.
“I have always enjoyed reading Ovid, he’s a wonderful poet,” explained Newt. “I think you’ll like the Heroides it is a collection of love letters written from the heroines in classical mythology to their lovers.”
“Thank you so much! They look wonderful!” said Anne.
There was now one more box left to be unwrapped.
“Have you ever heard of the Greek Gods Apollo and Artemis?” asked Mr. Scamander.
“Um, I don’t think so….”
“Well, there’s probably quite a lot about them in your new books,” he chuckled. “They were a pair of twin gods Apollo was a god and Artemis was a goddess. Apollo was the god of the sun and Artemis was the goddess of the moon,” he explained.
“As you have a twin brother, and a certain connection to the moon because of your Uncle Remus, I and Landon thought you might like this,” said Mrs. Scamander passing the last box to Anne.
Anne carefully unwrapped the box and opened it. Inside the box was a silver chain necklace with a charm of a silver moon on it.
“It's beautiful! Thank you!” she stammered as Mrs. Scamander helped her on with her necklace.
After that Anne and Irwin carried her new books up to her room. They read for a while longer before going to bed.
It had been a long day, and even though the Scamander family were a bit full on sometimes, she had a feeling it was going to be a very exciting fortnight.