The Blind Eye
1914
1 After a while, Leta stopped touching on the subject of her ill-fated revenge plans. Instead, she and Newt spent most of their time together in perfect harmony, studying for their exams. That wasn’t all of the time, though. Sometimes, they’d just walk around outside, enjoying the wild nature and each other’s company. It was enough for him to forget all about the unpleasant interlude at Malfoy Manor. What he’d told Leta was true: everyone but her apparently forgot all about it as soon as school started again, and the Slytherins did act much friendlier – or at least less hostile – than before.
Now, it seemed that Leta’s temper had cooled down, as well, which was wonderful.
They were outside again, on the first warm afternoon of the year, walking by the lake, relishing the sunlight on their faces.
At some point, she stopped walking and pulled him to a halt, too. She faced the lake, squinting due to the light reflecting off the water surface. “Can I ask you something personal?”
A little awkward, he shifted his weight from one foot to the next. Personal questions weren't exactly his forte – not because he minded answering them, but because he never knew when his candour was deemed too much by protocols of politeness. With a little effort, he said, “Yes.” Well, he was never going to be handed any awards for being eloquent. Over the years, he’d made his peace with that.
She gave his hand a squeeze. “Have you been neglecting your exploring activities because of me?”
That, he had not expected. He blinked at her in mild surprise. “You mean in the forest?” When she only nodded, he laughed lowly and scratched his neck with his free hand. “It’s not a sacrifice. I love…I love to spend time with you.” Oh, wow. That had nearly got out of hand. He cleared his throat, feeling silly.
The smile she gave him was sweet and lovely. “I know that that’s something you love. Therefore, I want to share it with you.”
Again, he looked at her in surprise and a small amount of confusion. “You want to go into the Forbidden Forest with me?”
“Is that so astonishing?”
He hurried to shake his head, lest she change her mind again. “No, no. It’s just that I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me. It is called the Forbidden Forest for a reason, and I’ve had more than my share of detentions.”
Gently, she took his other hand and tugged on it, so that he’d turn to face her properly. “I don’t care about that. What I do care about is that you always bend over backwards to accommodate me. I want to share in something that you like to do for once.”
That was…oh, he didn’t even know what to call it. Sweet? Beautiful? Perfect? He couldn’t stop smiling. His face was warm. “Are you sure? As much as I’m glad to hear it, I wouldn’t want you to do something just because I think it’s fun.”
Slowly, she shook her head. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I really want to join you next time you go into the forest.” Then, she raised her face and kissed him.
This just had to be the best year of his life.
2 As members of Slytherin House, Celestia and her friends of course had high ambitions for themselves, but the ambitions their families had for them were even higher. Therefore, they all spent basically their entire time studying. Failing the O.W.L.s was not even on anyone’s radar. No, what they wanted was to excel. It was no less than their names, their House, their parents demanded. Celestia preferred to study in the library, with Alastair as her only companion, but sometimes, the whole affair turned into a group effort down in the Slytherin common room.
One rainy afternoon, after four hours of studying, Celestia, Alastair, their friend Aceso Carrow, and Apollo Malfoy put their books aside because they were physically incapable of assimilating any more information.
Aceso ran her fingers through her shoulder-length, dark-blonde hair and blew out a heavy breath. She leaned back in her black leather armchair and closed her eyes. Her angular face was pale, except for reddish blotches high up on her cheeks. “If I have to read another text about whatever goblin war in never again, it’ll still be too soon.”
“Agreed,” Apollo said, pressed his knuckles to his lips, and almost succeeded in suppressing a yawn. “Ares didn’t have any trouble scoring all the points and even some that don’t exist, but his assessment on the difficulty of the exams cannot be taken at face value. Ares has no life outside of being a brilliant snob.”
Alastair, who was sharing one of the smaller sofas with Celestia, laughed throatily. “Ah, to be able to recognise the subtle differences from snob to brilliant snob. To be a Malfoy!” Dramatically, he shook his fist at the metaphorical heavens.
“Self-awareness is not your forte, is it, Fawley?” Apollo shot back, not even trying to hide his good humour. He yawned again, this time more heartily.
“Nope,” was Alastair’s cheery reply. He put an arm around Celestia. “Not that the lovely Miss Prewett cares. Oh no, she’s been absent all afternoon. You may ask yourselves, ‘what foolishness doth he speak of’? ‘Tis the truth, though, I say! One look into her entrancing countenance will tell you so!”
That was when Celestia blinked and looked about, as if waking up from a deep sleep. “Are you talking about me?”
“See what I mean?” Alastair jabbed a thumb in her direction, before pulling her closer to himself. “What has been going on with you?”
Smiling faintly, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve been mulling over a letter I got today from my mother: she writes that my uncle Baldur was sentenced to three years in Azkaban.”
All eyes were on her.
Even Aceso was sitting straight again. “What? Why?”
Celestia rubbed at her forehead with one hand. Her fingers were cold. “He broke the Statute of Secrecy by hexing a bunch of Muggle boys for teasing his son.”
She was not clear on the details, but knew that the Wizengamot had determined that Baldur’s reaction had been exaggerated and completely uncalled for. Apparently, his son had only been called names after he’d tripped one of the Muggle boys into a puddle of mud with ‘accidental magic’. The family, however, cared nothing for any of this. The Muggle boys, in their opinion, had no business, let alone the right to get even near a wizard – a Pureblood, no less. Celestia herself didn’t want to get involved, but she was fond of her mother’s little brother, and he’d always treated her nicely.
Well, all right, perhaps she did have an opinion and simply didn’t want to think about it too much for fear of creating a rift between herself and her relatives.
“Ridiculous,” Apollo said, sneering. “Those damn lowlifes should be glad they’re still breathing. They attack one of us, they have to expect dire retribution. It’s as simple as that.”
Was it, though? If life had taught her anything, it was that things were never quite as simple as one wished. She couldn’t quite bring herself to oppose him, though, or any of them. After all, they had immediately been outraged on her behalf, immediately been on her side. The Slytherins were a family, after all, and talking back to them when they only wanted what was best seemed ungrateful. Those were her mother’s words. She herself couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a coward for not even questioning her demeanour.
Aceso looked about herself, made sure that no-one was listening in on them, leaned forward, and said, in hushed tones, “This whole Statute of Secrecy thing is completely ridiculous, not to mention foolish. We’re naturally superior to Muggles because we can use magic, and they can’t. Why should we bow to them? I don’t see the sense.”
“Since we’re playing ‘whose idea was this, anyway’,” Alastair said, equally quiet, mimicking his friend’s posture, “I really have to wonder what the deal is with the unchecked Mudblood favouritism going on in this school.”
Celestia stared at him, wide-eyed. “Alastair!”
He shrugged. “What? You don’t approve of how those people are handled, either.”
“That may be so, but I do oppose to racial slurs.”
“Apologies, then,” he said, and placed a kiss on her cheek.
“Oh, don’t be so squeamish, Celestia,” Apollo said, after exchanging a knowing look with Aceso. “Honestly, we all know that Muggle-borns are at least twice as likely to produce squibs if they procreate with pure-blooded folk. They kill entire magical lines just by being there. That’s a fact.”
“Evidence for that is very iffy.”
“Besides,” Alastair said quickly, before the feeling of camaraderie could make way for a full-fledged argument about blood status rights, “I know that I’m the one who derailed the conversation, but remember: the subject at hand is the Statute of Secrecy, and on that, we can all agree. Can’t we?”
A tense little silence ensued.
Finally, Apollo nodded and offered Celestia a thin smile. “Of course we can. I just have to remind myself that our Celestia has different sensibilities than I do.”
She nodded back, wondering if it wouldn’t be more courageous, more right to risk a fight over something she felt deeply uncomfortable with. It was easy to tell herself that she was doing right by her peers, by her family, by her people, but in the back of her mind, doubt lingered. Maybe she was a productive part of the whole and kept quiet for the greater good. Then again, maybe she was just being a coward. In any case, this was a thought that would eat at her for years to come.
Trampling all those uncomfortable ruminations down, she took Alastair’s hand and leaned her head against his bony shoulder. As long as they were together, nothing else mattered much: not politics, not prejudices, not conflict or war.
3 “I should’ve brought something to take notes,” Leta told Newt, as they trekked along the fringes of the Forbidden Forest – somewhere between being hidden from prying eyes and not too deep inside.
Newt was accustomed to being here, rules or no rules. The last thing he wanted, however, was to get Leta into trouble. “That’s not necessary. Should you have questions later, you can always ask me. I’ll be happy to explain.” As he led her through a patch of tall oaks that grew closely together and allowed for little space to manoeuvre, he snickered. “As you know, of course. If you don’t stop me, I’ll talk about the subject forever.”
“Well, it is interesting, and there isn't any definitive guide on magical beasts.”
He cast a look at her over his shoulder. “People don’t care enough, I think – save a few exceptions, of course. There is literature available, but a guide would be helpful, yes.”
“Maybe you can compile one someday.” The tone she said this in was playful. What she couldn’t know was that he’d already thought about something like this a good long while ago.
In fact, it was one of the reasons he’d been gathering so much information about all kinds of magical creatures. “Maybe.”
It was hard to say why he was at all squeamish about sharing this plan – more like dream – with her, but somehow, he couldn’t quite bring himself to. To be fair, he hadn't even talked to his mum about this, because there wasn’t much to talk about. He’d one day had the idea whilst trying to find any literature on thestrals, and since then, it hadn't left him alone. It was probably a pipe dream, anyway, a project too huge and complex for one single person to complete. Nevertheless, he had to admit that he was quite passionate about it. He just wanted to be better prepared and actually have something to show for before he entrusted anyone with this. It wouldn’t be the first time people made fun of him for what they called his weird obsession with magical beasts.
The thing was, magical creatures were often easier to get along with than people, and therefore, he trusted them more.
But Leta? He trusted her. His hesitation wasn’t about that, at least not exactly. In the past, she had teased him sometimes about his most cherished hobby, but it had never been mean. Still, he wanted her to be proud of his achievements, and there couldn’t be any pride if he hadn't achieved anything. Right now, all he could hope for was that Leta would enjoy spending some time in the Forbidden Forest with him. Just to make sure that she’d have the best experience possible, he had a very specific plan. It had taken some logistic trickery, but finally, he had the perfect gift for her.
The closer they got to the place he was leading her to, the faster his heart beat. Even his stomach was cramping a bit. It was amusing, to certain degree, that he never got nervous when dealing with any fantastic beasts, from bowtruckles to hippogriffs. Taking Leta with him into the forest, though…well, that was a different matter entirely.
“Are we there, yet?” she said, mirth in her musical voice.
“Almost. Just over there.” He squeezed through a wall of ash trees, onto a clearing. Thankfully, both he and Leta were slight of build.
When she managed to follow, she tugged down on her uniform skirt, smoothed out her grey jumper, and plucked some leaves out of her pinned-up hair. Then, she took her time to look around, whilst he watched her. It only took a couple of seconds before her face lit up in a brilliant smile. “Oh, it’s beautiful!”
It, was, too. This was a large clearing so perfectly round, it looked artificial. It was circled by tall ash trees. Through its midst bubbled a lively stream. Sunlight shone down on it in thick, greenish beams. The air smelled green and fragrant and alive. There was something else, too, a feeling of static and elation that could only be described as magical. Yes, this was a place of pure magic, and there was a reason for this.
“What are we looking for?” she said.
He gave her a subtle smile. “Wait for it. You’ll see.”
Then, as if on cue, they came into the clearing, wading through the chattering brook: three snow-white unicorns, whose long and silvery manes caught the sun and reflected it, shimmering radiance all about them.
Leta’s eyes grew wide. As if unaware of it, she grabbed Newt’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “Wow.”
“Do you like them? I wasn’t sure I’d managed to convince them to come here today, but here they are.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and slowly shook her head. “Amazing. I’ve never seen one before in real life – only in books.”
“There’s good reason for it. They’re quite shy.” After a little pause, he added, “Would you like to get closer?”
“Won’t they run?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Not if you are very, very careful. Come on. Follow my lead.”
With great care, they approached the three beasts, who’d stepped out of the creek and were now patiently waiting for the two humans. All the effort Newt had poured into finding them, getting them to trust him, befriending them had not been in vain. Just being close to a unicorn lifted anyone’s spirit, and now, he was sharing this experience with one of the most precious people in his life. What could be better than that?
Leta stopped in front of the tallest one, a mare. She exhaled a short, high-pitched, incredulous little giggle. The mare whinnied softly. Exceedingly slowly, Leta raised her free hand. “May I?”
“If she doesn’t shy away, yes.”
“All right.” Carefully, she placed her hand on the side of the mare’s muzzle, barely touching the soft white hair. A thoroughly entranced smile spread across her features. She moved her hand, ran it to the unicorn’s neck, back and up, over the mare’s crest, poll, and to the forehead, to the long and twisted horn. “Amazing. Amazing.” It was as if she could hardly believe any of this was even happening. “It’s like being inside a dream.”
“It does feel this way, yes.”
She let her hand sink, turned to Newt, and hugged him closely around the neck, whilst he put his arms around her slender waist. “Thank you. This is beautiful.”
“Thank you for sharing it with me,” he said, leaned his cheek against her hair, closed his eyes, and just allowed himself to feel contented.
4 About an hour later, they were trekking back toward non-prohibited grounds. The whole time, Leta was somewhat stunned and quiet. They were almost out of the forest when she stopped walking.
He only noticed this after a moment and turned around. “Is everything all right?”
It took her a few seconds to snap out of it. Snickering, presumably at herself, she nodded. “Yes, everything is great. You know, this was so not what I was expecting.”
His brows furrowed somewhat. “What were you expecting?”
“I don’t know, but it involved digging in the mud and shaking insects out of my sleeves.”
“Oh.” He stuffed his hands in his trouser pockets. “Well, I do, that, too.”
The corners of her mouth twitched a little. “That doesn’t exactly surprise me.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but then, she crinkled her nose and grimaced. “Ugh. What is this ungodly stench?”
“I don’t…” Then, the slight breeze that had suddenly come up and that was ruffling the foliage above carried it to him, too: the foul smell of decaying organic matter. “Ah. That’s a bundimun.”
“A what?”
“Let’s find it. It’s probably right behind you, on the thicker branches of that oak.” Gingerly, he stepped past her, to the tree in question, squinted, searched, and then found the flat, many-eyed, greenish pests clinging onto the tree bark. There was a whole bunch of them. He motioned to Leta to approach.
With obvious hesitation, she did. “What are those things?”
“They feed on dirt and dead matter. If you don’t take care, they can demolish your entire home around you.” He chewed on his lower lip. “I should take them deeper into the forest. If the groundskeeper finds them here, he’ll kill them.”
“But aren’t they pests?”
Somehow, he wished she hadn't said that. Trying not to sound reproachful, he replied, “They’re not dangerous and have as much of a right to live as you and I.” It took a giant leap of faith, but he managed to add, “Would you help me carry them deeper inside the forest? It won’t take too long.” That, of course, he couldn’t guarantee, but it was better not to mention it to her. “It’ll go quicker if you help me.”
She gave him a doubtful look. “First the unicorns, and now these things? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“This is what I do, Leta. It’s not always pleasant, but I do think it’s necessary.” He looked down at his muddy shoes. “I couldn’t possibly sleep, thinking these poor creatures might be killed just for the crime of existing.”
For a moment, she mulled it over, but finally, to his great relief, she nodded grimly. “All right. Let’s get this show on the road.”
“Great! You take these four, I take the rest.”
It was obvious that she was repulsed, but still, she took the small creatures into her bare hands and followed him. “So, uh…they eat dirt, you say?”
“M-hm. They like to burrow into nooks and crannies and are pretty hard to find. Their secretions can be used in cleaning solutions and some potions, but most wizards and witches find them too hard to cultivate, too unpleasant to have around. Still, they can be a helpful asset to any household if treated with the necessary care and respect.”
“With that smell? Unlikely. And how do they even get to break down houses, stinking up the place like that? People would notice.”
“The smell builds up over time but is difficult to locate if you don’t know where to look.”
“Ah. Interesting.”
He hadn't expected this, but she really did sound interested, didn’t she? That was good. It was great, in fact. After about half an hour of walking, they gently placed the creatures on an old, gnarled oak: their new home. Newt wiped his hands on his trousers and counted the creatures. Then, he counted again. Frowning, he said, “Leta, there’s only seven of them, but I had four, and so did you. Did you drop one?”
“No,” she was quick to reply. “I only had three the whole time. You must have miscounted.”
“I didn’t. There were eight of them. Are you sure you didn’t drop one?”
She glared at him. “Newt, if I tell you that I only had three, then I only had three. Knock it off!”
Taken aback, he raised his hands defensively. Then, he motioned to place them on her shoulders, hesitated, and dropped them again. “I’m sorry.”
As soon as it had popped up, her anger evaporated. She smiled. “We shouldn’t let a silly misunderstanding ruin our perfect afternoon, should we?”
“That’s the last thing I want.”
“Same.” Sunlight was breaking through the crowns of the trees, making her eyes look like they were shining. She stood on the tip of her toes and put her arms around his neck. “This afternoon really is perfect in so many ways…many more than I expected.”
That might be a cryptic thing to say, but he’d not question it. They were together, they were happy, and nothing else mattered right now.