The Plan
Tina was in the kitchen with a Dougal when the post arrived. The demiguise had become her ever-constant shadow since the move, his big eyes gazing up at her and providing silent and gentle companionship while Newt was feeding the 5X creatures he kept down in his case. Dougal was the only one Tina willingly let into the house when not sick, he wasn’t likely to go trampling the house as the nifflers were wont to do.
“Hey Dougal,” Tina called softly, up to her elbows in soap suds. “Can you pay the owl and get the paper?”
She wondered absently if this was what it felt like to have a child, watching as Dougal carefully climbed up to the window to take the paper, and the letter, from the completely unfazed delivery owl, slipping coins into the pouch from the pile she left by the door. Dougal swung down, padding silently to put the paper on the table, before turning to watch her again.
Tina was worried about him. Dougal had never been this clingy before. Usually he was happy to confine his trailing to helping in the case. But he had taken to sitting by the gate, waiting for them to get home. She knew Newt was just as worried. He worried that he had done the wrong thing in rescuing an abandoned infant demiguise all those years ago, raising him in the case. He worried that he had ruined Dougal.
Not that there had been another option. Dougal had been an abandoned and sickly infant, and demiguises were private creatures. Their invisibility made them hard to find, even if you knew where to look. Dougal had been too young to be able to hide effectively, and he had been too ill to maintain it when Newt had found him.
Tina glanced over to Dougal again, a furrow between her eye. She wondered sometimes if Dougal thought he was their child. He was a wild creature, but so was Newt. They had found each other and while Dougal had the permanent look of an old man, he was very young for a demiguise. An adolescent. He had bought rocks in from the garden, and was arranging them in patterns on the table.
“Dougal,” Tina called out, “Can you go and tell Newt dinner will be ready soon?”
She knew the majestic creature couldn’t actually speak, or form words, but Dougal and Newt had their own way of communicating. Silently, Dougal slipped off the chair, and through the propped open door as if he were a part of the wind.
Drying her hands off, Tina cleared the table with an absentminded sweep of her wand, flicking at the counter for the plates and the dish of stew to move to the table. She glanced over the paper, but nothing immediate jumped out at her from the first page. She planned to read it after supper, sat in the case with the gentle hum of creatures she had grown so accustomed to.
The letter was addressed to Newt in an unfamiliar hand. She set it by his plate, curiosity already gnawing away.
A moment later, and Newt was letting himself in through the back door, shucking his jacket off to reveal a tear in the light brown cotton shirt. Tina raised an eyebrow at him in amusement. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
“The nundu didn’t want me to leave,” he admitted, “but her claws were mostly sheathed. She didn’t break the skin underneath. I’ll have it fixed in a jiffy.”
Tina chuckled, wondering how her life had become this: making dinner with a demiguise for company while her husband returned with a gash in his shirt and mud from his cheekbone to his neck.
“You might want to wash your face as well,” she huffed good-naturedly, trailing her finger along her own jaw in the path his streak of dirt took. Newt looked surprised, turning to the mirror to examine his cheek.
“I wonder how that got here,” he mused in surprise, before crossing the kitchen to the sink, rolling his sleeves up as he went.
“I’m worried about Dougal,” Tina sighed, dishing Newt up some of the stew and flicking her wand to slice the bread. “Have you noticed he’s taken to following me recently?”
“Yes,” Newt agreed, slipping into his seat and accepting the bowl with a kiss to Tina’s cheek. “He does seem a little attached to you at present. I imagine it’s just that we’re in a new place. Remember, in New York he went off for an adventure and ended up looking after occamy.”
“I suppose,” Tina trailed off with a frown. “The others have all settled in well enough. I mean, I think we’re going to need to give the nifflers a bigger nest now Laurel and Hardy are the same size as Bennie.”
“I think we will just need to give Hardy a new nest,” Newt chuckled. “I think he’s getting annoyed with having to share with the other two.”
“The last thing we need is baby nifflers,” Tina shook her head, smiling softly. “Have you thought about rehabilitating them? I mean, didn’t you set up a sanctuary in the Lakes?”
“I tried with Bennie, and despite how much the little bugger hates that I curtail his freedom, he isn’t that enthusiastic about being sent away,” Newt admitted round a mouth of potato. Tina frowned at him pointedly. He quickly finished his mouthful before continuing, “And I doubt Laurel will leave him. She’s grown rather attached and nifflers mate for life. But we could try again. Hardy, I imagine, will take quite well to the reserve. And Laurel may persuade Ben to. Who knows.”
“We should probably do that sooner rather than later,” Tina mused. “we’ve already had them for what… six months? They’re both healthy now. Shiny fur, shiny attraction, bright eyes. Any longer and we may have the same problem we have with Dougal.”
“You’re right,” Newt nodded a little dejectedly. Tina rested her hand on his and smiled sympathetically at him. He always had trouble releasing his creatures, even if he knew it was for the best.
“Oh, you’ve got a letter,” Tina remembered suddenly, lifting his hand to look for it. “I think you put your bowl on it.”
Newt pulled the parchment out from underneath, settling back, chewing on a crust of bread, to read the letter. Tina watched as his face lit up with the excitement she had come to associate with new places, new skies and new creatures.
“Where we going?” She asked, already excited about the trip, even if she hadn’t a clue where they were going to be traipsing to.
“This is from a friend in east Asia,” He sat forward, almost quivering with excitement, laying the parchment on the table between them. While one piece featured a slanting hand, the other page was a handdrawn map, little lines and arrows squiggling and shifting. “She thinks she’s found a demiguise nest. We might be able to help Dougal after all!”
Tina glanced over the paper, biting down on her lower lip as she smiled widely.
“When do we leave?” She asked Newt, glancing up at him.
“Friday,” he decided. “I estimate we will be gone for… two or three weeks?”
“I’ll have to contact a ministry,” Tina reminded him. “I don’t get to leave just because you’ve found a creature to investigate. So, if I send off a letter now… I’ll be able to justify it.”
“Of course,” Newt glanced back at the letter. “Sofie is a part of the expidicary team out of the Taiwan ministry. I’m sure she will be happy to talk to the aurors there.”
“Fantastic,” Tina grinned in excitement. “I can’t tell you how much I have missed this.”
“Me too,” Newt agreed, leaning forward to kiss her. “Our first trip as a married couple!”
“How exciting!” Tina beamed.
………………………………………………………………………..
“How long will you be gone for?” Theseus looked drawn, harried, drained. Tina worried that her leaving would put unnecessary stress on her brother-in-law.
“Three weeks, tops,” she offered, glancing over him with the practiced eye of someone who cared for creatures and the man who cared for them at the expense of his own health. “But, Theseus, if you need me to stay, Newt can go on his own. I mean, he won’t like it… but he’ll manage. We’ll manage.”
“No,” Theseus replied firmly, giving up all pretence of hiding his exhaustion and sitting back to massage his temples. “I know how much you and Newt are struggling with having staid in one place for months. It’s just three weeks. But… I have to warn you. And Tina, you can’t tell anyone else about this, we need to join the action over in Europe.”
“Oh,” Tina said faintly. She shook herself slightly and nodded firmly. “I can stay.”
“Go,” Theseus insisted, signing a form and slotting it into her file. “I’ve already approved it. And its two less family members to worry about. I know that you and Newt will … how do you Americans put it? Have each others backs?”
“Yeah,” Tina huffed a laugh softly. “That’s what partners do.”
“Then, Auror Scamander,” Theseus said overly-formally, “Your mission is to keep one Newton Scamander safe, and to report back on the… Taiwan? Ministry.”
“Yes Sir,” Tina inclined her head to hide the smile on her face. “Hey, you’ll keep safe too, right? Not sure Hippolyta needs the added stress. Not in her condition.”
The merry look on Theseus’s face faded, to be replaced by the deep scores of the battle-weary soldier. Tina almost felt guilty for bringing it up.
“I’m trying,” was his quiet admission. “You’re the only one who might understand Tina.”
“You want to stay safe for the person you love,” Tina answered for him, eyes averted, “but you feel helpless because the fight isn’t here, we can’t take part in it and you want to go. Because, goddammit, our job is to protect people. But we can’t. We’re trying our best, and our country may not be a target of Grindelwald for some reason, but others are. And others are suffering. And… I don’t know about you but I became an auror to protect everyone, regardless of where they live.”
“Exactly,” Theseus sighed, “And Hippolyta being pregnant… it’s one more thing to lose.”
“You won’t lose,” Tina replied firmly. “You have to believe you will make it home. Every time. Otherwise, how will you fight your best? You say the baby is something more to lose. You’ve got it wrong. It’s someone more to fight for.”
Theseus took a deep breath, turning tear filled eyes to his earnest sister-in-law. He knew she was still young, still relatively new to being an auror in a world at war. He hoped that her belief never faded, even as his was.
“Thank you Tina,” he smiled sadly. She patted his hand awkwardly, before adjusting her jacket and standing up to leave. “Have a good trip, if I don’t see you before you leave on Friday.”
“Tell Hippolyta we say hi,” Tina replied in lieu of a “stay safe” of her own. “Bye.”
She slipped out of the door, leaving Theseus alone in his office. He glanced up to check the door was firmly closed, before he slid Tina’s file over to reveal the letter underneath. From his counterpart at the French ministry. The parchment next to it had a list of names.
With a sigh of relief, Theseus lifted his quill to scratch Tina Scamander off the list of aurors he would send to the front. He tried to stop the guilt that seeped into his heart, but he couldn’t. He did feel guilty. He felt guilty that he was sending these aurors, all highly capable, off to fight. And not only was he not joining them, he had sent Tina away so he didn’t have to send her either.
Removing his glasses from his nose, Theseus rested his head in his hands, shoulders shaking as he tried to supress the exhaustion and the guilt and the fear.
……………………………………………………….
“Suitcase with all manner of magical creatures in,” Tina called over her shoulder, fixing the strap on her satchel. She was already dressed in her favourite grey coat, with a sensible pantsuit underneath. As they were travelling directly to the other ministry, her comfier, multipocketed jacket and trousers were in her satchel alongside all the notebooks, quills, ink and pencils they would need for the trip.
“Yes,” Newt called back, shrugging his blue coat on and checking the strap on the case. “And I have all our potion making and food in the potting shed with extra spells to stop anyone from getting ideas. The tent is in your satchel, as are our changes of clothes.”
“Do we need anything else?” Tina glanced around their bedroom, wrinkling her nose a little at the haphazard bedspread. Newt chuckled beside her, flicking his wand at the bed. Tina lifted her satchel to allow the patchwork quilt to right itself. “I think that’s it… what times our floo?”
“3:40am,” Newt answered promptly, pulling their travel approval out of his pocket. The spread of Grindlewald’s power had made getting travel documentation absolutely necessary. No longer were passports all that was required, but approval from the ministry being travelled to, and the one being left behind. He held up their passports and travel approval for her to see, before slipping them back into his pocket. “I put Picket and Charlie in the case. They weren’t too happy, but I didn’t want to have to explain when we got there.”
“Does our case have clearance?” Tina asked dubiously. Newt shuffled awkwardly. “Newt,” she warned.
“Yes,” he said firmly, digging deep into his pockets. He pulled a piece of paper out, glanced at it, shook his head and then put it back. “Somewhere…”
Tina rolled her eyes, reaching into her own coat to pull out the special accommodation they had for the case. Since the first time Newt took his case to New York, he had been ordered to carry around special permission for the case, and seek it anew for every ministry they passed through. Having Tina along had meant he actually abided by that particular rule, even if it was just because she didn’t want him to be blamed for dark magic again.
“Ah,” he said, seeing the paperwork in her hand. “If you had it, why did you ask?”
“Because you’re supposed to carry it with the case,” She informed him, tucking the envelope into his breast pocket. “I found it down the side of the dresser when I was trying to get Charlie yesterday.”
“Ready?” Newt picked up the case. Tina nodded, looping the strap of the satchel over the shoulder. She preceded him from the room, down the stairs and opened the front door. After locking the door, they stood on the step, Tina eyeing the persistent drizzle with a look of distaste.
Newt snorted, pulling his want up and conjuring an umbrella. He crooked his elbow, offering it to Tina.
“Shall we, Mrs Scamander?” He asked brightly, grinning over to her.
Tina laughed, looping her arm through his. She was excited, and she knew he was. This was their first proper expedition in a good few months.
“We shall, Mr Scamander!”