Work Text:
“Hush, Pickett, we’re almost there.” He told his trusted bowtruckle as the train’s steam whistle went off once more.
They’d been travelling by train for weeks now, stopping for a day or two in different dusty towns across America, looking for different magical creatures. Jakob had joined them for a couple states, but couldn’t leave his bakery alone for too long, even under the careful guidance of Queenie.
And so Newt was on his own. Or, as on his own as he’d ever been with thousands of creatures within his suitcase, and Pickett as his trusted companion.
Things had gone pretty well since the Obscurial in New York. He’d gone back to Britain, obviously, he’d finished his book. It was on its way to a best-seller, which was better for everyone, really. He kept getting owls sent to him from younger students, gushing about this creature or that. And on the whole, the wizarding world was better with a greater understanding of the fantastical creatures that surrounded them.
When Newt had come back to New York to see Tina again, he’d found her in a happy relationship with a witch from a different department in the MACUSA. And that was for the better, really, because Newt wasn’t really… overly attached to the concept of a relationship. He just… didn’t get it. He didn’t generally understand people, their remarks, their habits, and there was no bestiary to teach him how to behave properly around humans.
So, really, he was thrilled to see Tina happy. What he hadn’t expected was marrying her as soon as he got off the boat. They’d married almost immediately, with little explanation. After the ceremony, once Newt got a word in edgewise, Tina’d explained that it was easier to find a flat as a married woman and that living with her lover was less suspicious if there were a man in the house, even if the man was oftentimes away.
Newt stayed with them in New York for just over a month, and it had probably been one of the more uncomfortable months in his life. He’d lived in his suitcase the entire time, so living space was never an issue, but it was more… the romance that he’d had to face every morning when they’d all eat breakfast together. It made him uncomfortable to say the least. He had no issue in the slightest that both members of the relationship were women, it was just romance and relationships in general were… icky.
Then came the time when the women had sat him on a sofa and explained that they wanted him to be a donor so they could have a child. Definitely not a memory he enjoyed thinking about. He’d er, helped them, of course, and technically he’d be having a child with Tina in several months, which was a strange thought indeed. He supposed his mother would be delighted.
Newt looked out the train window and thought, not for the first time, of what his life would’ve been like had he stayed at Hogwarts. He was quite thrilled to be travelling alone and getting to go on all these wonderful adventures and writing about them, but at the same time, what would’ve happened if he had continued his education? Would he be working in the ministry now, seeing Leta Lestrange every once in a while at the Hog’s Head?
He shook his head and smiled. There was no use thinking about what could have been. And besides, in less than a week he’d hit Arizona, and perhaps he’d see his trusted Thunderbird there.