Three Days Earlier...

Although the room Newt and ______ stayed in a room that had two beds, just like the boat, they slept in separate beds. The beds Tina and Queenie had in that room were far too small to share, they were one-person beds. So instead, they ended up both facing each other, talking for a while before they both went to sleep.

Newt was concerned for ______. There was something about this case that brought back bad memories, and they had hoped to come here to sightsee. To walk around the town, travel a little. Newt didn't want to get involved in another situation.

But he couldn't control everything in his life. He could only hope that they could solve this quickly. But knowing Lethifolds, this wasn't going to be an easy task.

Or a very safe one.

Getting up before the sun was out wasn't a fun thing to do, but it's what they had to do. They had to get an early start on leads to where to look for it, because when nighttime came, it was time to find it. Newt had only ever written about these Lethifolds before, making sure to always keep his distance. It was too dangerous to look for one intentionally, but here he was, doing exactly that.

He woke up slowly, sitting up on his bed. Across the room, ______ was still sleeping in her usual way, no sign of waking up anytime soon. He just smiled before calling out to her. "______," he began. "Wake up, love. We have to go Lethifold-searching."

______ let out a small grunt, and Newt just shook his head, the smile still on his face. That was what she always did when she didn't want to get up. They both hadn't gone to sleep early that night - ______ was worried about what would happen. After all, Newt said Lethifold's attack at night, and ______ knew they were targeting Muggles, so she was terrified. Newt told her to go to sleep and he'd watch over her, but neither of them ended up getting much sleep.

______ turned around in the bed, opening her eyes slowly and looking at Newt. "Just a few more minutes?" she asked, giving him the sweetest expression and eyes she could manage. "Then I'll get up and we'll go searching for the Lethifold."

Newt took one look in her eyes and knew he couldn't say no. Even after all this time, every time ______ asked him a question with that look in her eyes, he could never bring himself to say no. It was his weakness, and by this point, ______ figured it out. "Okay," he told her. "I'm going to go get changed then. Just five minutes, you got it?"

"Mhm," she hummed, already snuggling herself back into bed. Newt leaned down, kissing her temple gently.

"Love you," he whispered, getting his case out and pulling clean clothes out. He changed into a nearly identical outfit, the only change being his pants, going from dark-blue to light-brown. Newt looked over at the clock they had in the room and checked the time. Maybe I'll make sure Tina and Queenie are awake before I wake her, he thought, heading out of the room.

As soon as he walked out the doors, he heard Tina and Queenie's voices, both coming from the kitchen. He didn't really like to eavesdrop before he heard something that caught his attention: ______'s name.

"Queenie, I just don't think bringing ______ is a good idea," Newt heard Tina's voice. "You heard the reports as well as I did. They're targeting no-majs and anything relating to them, and I don't think it would be very safe to bring her with us."

"Well, we can't really leave her here, can we?" Queenie responded, speaking in the sweet tone she always used with her sister. "Wouldn't that be even more dangerous? We shouldn't leave her alone at a time like this."

"You heard Newt, these things only attack at night. She'd be fine staying here during the day, and we'd be home before nightfall anyways."

Newt walked into the kitchen, interceding in the conversation. "I don't think leaving ______ is a good idea at all," he told them, catching both of their attentions. "It's not just that she's at a higher risk for being a Muggle. Trust me – I know ______. She wouldn't just sit around and do nothing while we're out there. She could go looking for us, which is even more dangerous. Plus, it's not just that..." Newt trailed off. "She's pretty scared of being targeted. I don't want to leave her alone at a time like this."

Tina kept eye contact with Newt for a few seconds before he looked away, his eyes going towards the walls. He'd gotten better with speaking up and eye contact, but mostly it was just with ______. With other people, he was still the exact way he had been months before.

"I'm just trying to look out for her safety, Newt. I don't think these things are acting of their own accordance: beasts don't target no-majs. This thing is, it's not acting normally. I don't want to risk someone targeting her specifically."

"One more reason she shouldn't be alone," Newt told them. "I'm not going to leave her here alone, Tina. I'm sorry. I'm going to go wake her up."

As Newt walked away, he left the two girls speechless, exchanging looks with each other he was sure said something, but he didn't stick around to find out. When he walked into the room again, he caught ______ just as she was finishing putting on her top. "Good morning Newton," she said with a smile, kissing him on the cheek when he was close enough. "You didn't wake me up after five minutes."

"I was just talking to Tina and Queenie, guess I lost track of the time," he told her. "I was just about to wake you."

"Beat you to it." She teased him. "Where are we going to go today to look for this Lethifold?"

"I think that's something we should all discuss, come on," Newt told her, reaching his hand out to her. She took it, immediately intertwining her fingers with his. They walked out of the shared room and back into the kitchen where the two sisters had begun to talk normally again.

As soon as Tina saw the two of them walk into the room, she stood a little straighter. "I think I know who we should go to first for information," Tina began. Newt could tell by her tone that it wasn't somewhere that he was going to like. His fears were confirmed when she continued. "The Blind Pig."

"Are you sure?" Newt asked, his tone suspicious. "Last time I was there, they tipped off MACUSA and nearly got us all arrested."

______ remembered Newt telling her that story. The man running the bar (or, rather goblin she believed) had tried buying Pickett off of Newt and then gotten them all chased down.

"It's where we need to go for information," Tina told him. "And this time, we can just use money. No offering any of your beasts. We'll play it safe."

Newt hesitated. The information they got was good – the situation was not. His other worries were for ______, but last time when they went, they didn't catch Jacob. So ______ should be safe there too, right?

He just wanted this all to get over with so he could have a nice vacation.

"Alright, we should go then," Newt muttered, then turned to ______. "Do you want to change? They dress pretty high-end in that place."

______ smiled, squeezing his hand. "I have one of my self-ironing robes you bought me," ______ told him, her tone elated. "I'll go put it on."

As she disappeared down the hall, Queenie couldn't help but smile at how happy she seemed to be. "You got her a self-ironing robe?" she asked, looking at Newt. "That's sweet."

"I got one for her during Christmas," he began, beginning to scratch the back of his head as a faint hue of red crept onto his face. "And then I may have gotten her one or two more here and there."

______ came back into the kitchen minutes later, wearing the one that Newt got her in her favorite color. "Sorry for the hold up," she told them. "I'm ready when everyone else is."

"Remember where it is?" Tina asked Newt. "We'll get there quicker if we apparate."

Newt only nodded, and ______ took his hand, embracing herself. She'd gotten better at it, you'd never be able to tell she used to get sick seconds after apparating. With a swish of everyone's wand, they were thrown into the familiar sensation of feeling on a high-speed roller-coaster without any safety precautions, what used to be the worst feeling for ______.

Now she was used to this kind of thing. It was nice to think about, that she had gotten so close to Newt and so used to the magic in her life that this was no problem. This was life for her now, and she couldn't be happier about it.

The sensation ceased as the feeling of spinning went away, and ______ looked at what just looked like an ordinary wall. As Tina knocked on the brick, the eyes of the woman painted on it moved, and there was a confirming look on her face. The next second, the brick was moving out of the way and they all began to go through as if it was nothing. ______ smiled at the small example of magic, it reminded her of where Newt took her a while back, Diagon Alley.

Getting inside, ______ couldn't help but look around at the magical bar. There was someone singing a jazzy tune, and drinks flying around to people. Newt looked over at her, then took her hand. "Stay by me, okay? I don't want anyone suspecting you of anything."

"Alright," ______ nodded, and they headed over to a boot, the four of them squeezing into one end. Soon after they sat, a goblin came over to them, sitting across from the group. "Miss Goldstein, I didn't think I'd see you back here after what happened."

"I'm here for information," she told him in a business tone. "Tell me, what do you know about the incidents that have been happening?"

"The no-maj slaughtering that's been going on?" he asked with a smug smile. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. What do you have to offer?"

Tine, Queenie and Newt exchanged looks, and they each pulled out something different. Tina and Queenie offered up American currency as Newt pulled out what ______ recognized to be sickles by the dozen, scooting it across the table towards him. The goblin looked from the money to them. "This is all you have to offer?" he asked, trying to get more.

"It's that or no deal," Queenie told him flatly. "There's plenty of people we could go to who would offer us information for a lower price, we didn't have to come here. It's this or no deal."

The goblin pondered his options for a moment, seeing if Queenie was bluffing. He looked at the groups faces, and his eyes stopped as they hit ______. "You're a new face," he said matter-of-factly, then narrowed his eyes. There was something off about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. ______ just sat there as he studied her, too worried to say anything, and Newt put his free hand over the pocket he had that concealed his wand. He hated the way he was looking at ______, as if he could see right through her.

Little did he know, he could see right through her.

"You're not magic," he said, his eyes widening. He pushed the money away from him and back towards them, the first time Tina has seen fear stricken on the hustler's face. "Get out of here! We don't want you here, we don't want you attracting the..." he trailed off, shaking his head. "Leave, or I'll contact MACUSA."

Newt didn't need him to say anything more, and pulled out his wand at the speed of light. "Sorry Tina," he turned his face towards her. "I'll be back at your place." Still holding ______'s hand, he flicked his wand and disappeared.

Tina just stared at where he once was for a moment before turning back to the goblin. "You were genuinely scared. What do you know?"

"I'm not telling you anything now, Goldstein. You're too close to the situation. Good luck finding someone else with information like mine," he got up and walked away, and Tina just shook her head before taking their money back and looking at Queenie. "Let's get out of here."

Back at the Goldstein's, Newt and ______ were sitting on the couch. "I didn't even get a chance to speak," she told him. "Not a single opportunity to defend myself. I just ruined it for us, didn't I?"

Before Newt could reply, Tina and Queenie appeared in the room. "Yes, in fact, you did. He won't give us anything now."

"He was bluffing anyways, Tina. I don't think he has anything we don't know, you're getting your information right from MACUSA. He shouldn't know anything they don't," Newt defended her.

Tina just corssed her arms, looking at the pair of them. "Fine, okay. I thought that we could get a little more done today, but apparently we can't."

"It's still early, we can go somewhere else for information. We can look for clues ourselves," ______ propsed, trying to lighten the mood.

"I don't want to, I'm not in an investigating mood anymore. Let's call it a day, we'll create a new plan and head out tomorrow," Tina told them in a cold voice. "You two can do what you want. I have things I need to start reading." She turned her heel and walked out of the room, leaving them alone with Queenie.

"She's just a little upset about what happened, that's all," Queenie told them. "It's just hard when we don't know what we're dealing with well, and the circumstances are already real. She doesn't mean anything about it, don't worry."

"It's fine Queenie, maybe you guys were right this morning," ______ sighed.

"Don't say that. You're safer near us, and you can help us, even if you don't realize it yet," Newt reassured her, leaning towards her and kissing her forehead. "We'll start again tomorrow, and everything will be fine."

I hope that's really the case, ______ thought. Something just doesn't seen right.