02 | and so the adventure begins

THE PLAN TO pick up Newt Scamander wasn't hard. Diana and Margaret stayed at 237 Grive Street while Dorothy walked to the pier to greet the British man. At first, Diana was against their weekend being ruined by him, wanting to spend every moment she had with her best friend, but after one or two glasses of champagne she was all more willing to spend time alone with her daughter.

It was very weird for her to be waiting. Most times when Diana visited her, she would just sit around her house until there was a knock at the door, except for the time they planned to meet up at the zoo. Her leg was bobbing up and down in anticipation and her nerves were having a field day. Dorothy wasn't the only lady waiting for someone, no, there were many there sharing tells about their beloveds and how they missed them so much. Telling the others about the treacherous time it had been without a man in the house to all the heavy lifting and other petty stuff like that. It disgusted her to no end.

Seeing as Dorothy had only had three boyfriends in her thirty years, she couldn't understand a woman's want to parade around their relationship. Her first was a man named Gregory Chester, a wizard who worked at the bank. He was an acceptable man, of course, spoke highly of MACUSA and the government here, thought that their policies about how wizards shouldn't mingle with no-mags was the greatest thing ever. Dorothy knew that prejudice people still existed in the world, but she didn't think she would find one attractive enough to date or actually let herself finish a date with one. Of course, they didn't go on a second date, much to his dismay.

The second was Keith Samuel. He was much more shy than Gregory and didn't like to share things about himself, but did let slip that he was dating a no-mag and he wasn't interested in her, just needed a cover in case someone asked. Needless to say, their fake relationship lasted about three months before Dorothy couldn't handle it anymore. She was all for helping people, but the fact that whenever they were together he would only talk about his actual girlfriend drove her mad.

She let out a breath, "Just breathe, Dorothy, there's nothing to worry about. It's not like he's Grindelwald in disguise or one of his supporters who are going to reign terror on New York."

It was an unintentional lie. Of course, many things could go wrong, like maybe he was a master criminal who just wanted to unleash madness. There was also the fact that he could very well be a serial killer who just wanted to expand his art to America. A lot of bad things could happen with him there, but she had to tell herself that he was a kind man who wanted nothing like that.

Her eyes went to the photograph that Albus Dumbledore gave her. It was of a man with curly hair who didn't look to take the picture, and Dorothy was sure she could find him. And, she found herself wanting to after spending a whole night after receiving the picture just staring at it and hoping that he would be just as cute in person.

Waiting some time longer, she found herself looking at a man in a blue coat (the actual shade she didn't know) with a bow tie and curly hair. Looking down at the photograph once more, she decided that he must be the infamous Newt Scamander.

She raced to catch up with him, walking in pace before introducing herself, "I'm Dorothy James...and you must be Newt Scamander, right?"

"Yes," the man muttered, but Dorothy caught it.

Dorothy smiled before saying, "What are you doing here in America? Most British wizards avoid this place."

"There's something I want to find here," he answered quickly, "that can only be found here."

Dorothy only nodded. There were a lot of things in America that other places didn't have, like laws that banned mingling with no-mags. But she didn't pry any further, already sensing that he wasn't one for conversations.

"I'm sorry," stopped Newt, "What exactly are you doing here?"

It wasn't rude in any way. He wasn't particularly annoyed that she was there, he just didn't know the reason. Dorothy sent him a kind smile, "Didn't Dumbledore tell you? He paid me to watch over you, make sure you don't get into trouble."

"I don't need a babysitter," he mumbled annoyed before continuing to talk.

"Yes, yes," she dismayed, "I know. But I'm not convinced that you've read over the wizard laws here."

That made Newt come a complete halt. He looked at her wide-eyed as she continued to fiddle with the hem of her dress. "Wait," he drew out slowly, avoiding her eyes and focusing on her hands, "you're a witch?"

"Don't be surprised, Mr. Scamander," she chuckled nervously. "Why else would he choose me to show you around?"

Newt shrugged but said nothing more, moving along as if he knew exactly where he was going. Dorothy laughed at him, which caused him to turn and them to lock eyes for a split second before he returned to looking at the ground.

"Where exactly are you going?" Dorothy finally decided to question, seeing as she didn't exactly find getting lost in New York city a good thing.

"Uh, the bank...I guess," he answered. And behold, before them stood the bank with a crowd of people and a no-mag telling them all about the horrid witches that lived there. Dorothy simply rolled her eyes and lead them to the back of the group, because he might as well learn a little while he visited.

The woman - Mary Lou Barebone as Dorothy knew from Tina - held a broken wand in her hand as she yelled to the assembled crowd, "...this great city sparkles with the jewels of man's invention! Movie theaters, automobiles, the wireless, electric lights - all dazzle and bewitch us!"

The pair, Dorothy and Newt, stopped to look at the foolish woman (or at least, in Dorothy's opinion.) Newt went to up to the front of the rally when he bumped into a woman, who turned to him, causing Dorothy eyes to widen once she realized who it was.

"Tina!" she yelled in a whisper, gaining the attention of the woman, "You know you're not to supposed to be here!"

Tina rolled her eyes at the scolding, "I know, but I can't help myself, you know that."

The strawberry blonde frowned, "They won't like it."

"I know," the Goldstein girl sighed, agreeing with her before they returned their attention to Mary Lou, and that was when Dorothy realized that she had lost Newt.

"But where there is light there is shadow, my friend," they heard Mary Lou continue, "Something is stalking our city, wreaking destruction and then disappearing without a trace..."

Dorothy snorted. Why would a wizard want to cause harm to no-majs? Well, beside Grindelwald and nobody knew where he was, plus, he was British. Why would he come to America?

"We have to fight - join us, the Second Salemers, in our fight!" Mary Lou cheered, but all Dorothy did was roll her eyes.

Just then, a short, chubby man maneuvered past them, "Excuse me, doll, just trying to get to the bank - excuse me - just trying..."

Dorothy paid no mind to him, it was New York after all, what could she expect?

She saw the man trip over a case, then saw the British man she was supposed to be watching helping him up. He was kind, maybe, she would give him that.

Everything that had just happened between Newt and the other man drew the attention of Mary Lou (much to Dorothy's displeasure), "You, friend! What drew you to our meeting today?"

At the mention of friend, Dorothy snorted again. They won't be buddy-buddy once she finds out that he's a wizard - not that she ever would since wizards could not be known to no-majs.

"Oh...I was just - passing..." Newt struggled to respond, sending a smile to Dorothy's face. She found it a little cute, maybe.

"Are you a seeker?" Mary Lou pestered on, "A seeker after the truth?"

"I'm more of a chaser, really," Newt responded.

"If he is a chaser then he can chase after me any day," Dorothy slyly whispered to her friend, who elbowed her, causing the strawberry blonde to whimper.

"Hear my words and heed my warning, and laugh if you dare: Witches live among us!" Mary Lou gave her big finish.

"Of course they do, Mary, and they're right here," the strawberry blonde said discretely, making sure that only she and Tina could hear it, since it would be bad if anyone else did.

There was moment to reel in the response of the crowd before she saw Newt jolt forward up the stairs and into the bank. Sending Tina an apologetic smile, Dorothy went after him, "I'll explain later!"

She almost missed the look on Mary Lou's face when she saw two people from her crowd run away, disinterested in her cause. Upon entering the bank, Dorothy looked around before finding Newt talking to a bank worker.

"There you are!" she smiled, looking at Newt and then the worker, "He likes to explore. Come on Newt, I told you we would meet over there."

She led the two of them to a bench which held the chubby man from before, who was sweating nervously as he apparently waited for something. "Don't run off like that," Dorothy scolded Newt, who seemed to have his attention somewhere else.

"Hi. What brings you here?" the man asked nervously, looking at the two of them.

"Nothing," Dorothy said at the same time Newt said, "Same as you..."

"You're here to get a loan to open up a bakery?" the man asked in disbelief, and Dorothy rolled her eyes at Newt's bad lying.

"Yes," Newt answered, his eyes scanning somewhere, seeming to be somewhere other than the conversation.

"What are the odds of that?" the man asked, and Dorothy mumbled something under her breath, "Well, may the best man win, I guess."

Then, his eyes snapped to something, training on them as he stood up to go after it, mumbling a, "excuse me," as he stood up. Dorothy, started by Newt's actions, sent the man beside her a kind smile before going after him.

"I swear," Dorothy mumbled to herself as she went after the British man, "he will be the death of me."

"Hey, mister...Hey, miss!" Dorothy turned around to see the man holding an egg. She furrowed her eyes, that couldn't be right, not an egg. But she didn't have time to go to him before she went, again, chasing after Newt.

Newt seemed to have found what he was looking for, and then he didn't see it. Dorothy, who was confused about what was happening, seemed to have landed her eyes on a creature. Blinking, she looked again, and saw that it was still there. No creatures were allowed to be breed in America, it was against the wizard law.

But, of course, he was British and didn't go over the rules. If she were a good citizen, Dorothy would have reported him to MACUSA, but maybe he had a good explanation to everything.

Finally, Newt seemed to stop, letting Dorothy rest as well, putting her hands on her knees since she wasn't the most athletic person in the world. Really, she wasn't even close.

"Hey, Mr. English Guy!" the attention of both Dorothy and Newt went to the man from before who held an egg in his hand (an egg!), "I think your egg is hatching!"

Bringing out his wand, which shocked Dorothy greatly, he accio-ed the egg and the man to him before disapparating the three of them to another location - which she definitely didn't agree to.

They returned to a narrow stairwell that led to the bank's vaults, past all of the tellers and security. Newt gently took the egg from the bewildered man, whose eyes were widened in shock. The egg then hatched, showing a creature that Dorothy didn't know of, seeing as magical creatures weren't tolerated in America and they were never taught about at Ilvermorny.

Dorothy looked at the baby in wonder, as did Newt while the man was still confused.

"Excuse me..." the man's voice was shaky, "I was - over there. I was - over there?"

Newt went down near a vault, opening his leather case before whispering, "In you hop..."

Dorothy stared in wonder still, thinking that this British was highly attractive at the moment and heavily doomed if he continued with those antics. But maybe jail wouldn't be bad, and maybe she could visit him. Dorothy shook her head, those were foolish thoughts that she shouldn't have thought - like they would ever come true.

"No. Everyone settle down - stay. Dougal, don't make me come in..." Newt said in a stern voice to the inside of his case.

The talking led Dorothy to believe that more creatures were inside there, which was not something she wanted to encounter. It was bad enough that one had hatched and another had gotten lose, but it didn't need to happen again.

"Don't make me come down there," Newt said again before he looked up and his attention was brought to the creature that Dorothy had seen in the bank earlier, "Absolutely not!"

Newt got out his wand, once again (which Dorothy had to think was highly dangerous since it was a public, no-maj place). "Alohomora," Newt casted and the locks of the vault opened.

Just then, a no-maj walked down the stairs and stared angrily at the non-magical man that they had (kind of) captured, "Oh, so you're gonna steal the money, huh?"

The man who had just walked down pressed the red button on the wall - the alarm, which caused panic to be unleashed in Dorothy's brain. It would not be good to have to explain this to MACUSA. Not good at all.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Newt casted again and the bank worker stiffened and fell to the ground.

"Mr. Bingley!" the other no-maj cried in horror as he looked at the state of the bank worker. Dorothy went to look at Newt, who hurried into the now opened vault.

"Really?" Newt asked the creature incredulously before grabbing it by to leg and shaking it so that many gold possessions fell out of its pouch. "No..."

Newt starts to tickle the thing with a small smile, which would have made Dorothy to smile as well if she wasn't about to be arrested and spend the rest of her life in prison. But, she had to admit in the subconscious of her brain, he did look fairly cute as he tickled the creature.

Dorothy was reeled back into reality as she heard footsteps down the stairs and the man who they had accidently kidnapped yell, "Oh no...no...don't shoot! Don't shoot!"

Newt grabbed onto the man, Dorothy, his case and creature before disapparating them outside. Once they had arrived outside of the building, she put her hand onto the column and let herself be reeled back into her normalness, getting over the slight nauseous and light-headiness of the experience.

The man yelled while Newt went to the scold the creature in his hand, "For the last time, you pilfering pest - paws off what doesn't belong to you!"

Newt placed the creature in his case before closing it and then looking at the man. "I'm awfully sorry about all that -" he went to apologize before he was cut off.

"What the hell was that?" he asked incredibly.

"Nothing that need concern you. Now unfortunately you have seen far too much, so if you wouldn't mind - if you just stand there - this will be over in a jiffy."

Dorothy almost giggled at Newt's choice of using 'jiffy'. She had always found it a funny word for some reason.

Newt turned around, trying to find his wand and Dorothy closed her eyes for a split second when the no-maj took the chance to seize his case before violently hitting Newt, which caused him to fall to the ground.

"Sorry -" the man called before running away from the two for his life, which Dorothy couldn't blame him for.

"Newt!" Dorothy brought herself into a crouching position to see after him, "Are you alright?"

All Newt did was say, "Bugger," as he looked at the retreating figure of the no-maj, which caused Dorothy to roll her eyes.

Really, she thought, he will to be death of me.

•••

dedicated to dumblewhores for your wide selection of harry potter based fanfics!

question of the day,
favorite creature?

answer of the day,
either the bowtruckle or the niffler