You cleared your throat and straightened your glasses as you turned to face the lecture hall of waiting students. You smiled at the adults nervously before you began to speak.

"Time travel," you began. "Is a relatively fictional idea."

There was silence.

"But the theory of timelines, and what would happen if we actually travelled in time, is a subject of great fascination for the human mind." You continued, lacing your fingers together on the wood podium you stood at. "It's often the subject of modern media. For example, take the classic British television show, Doctor Who. It combines the theory of time travel with danger and humor to create a storyline. As we all know, it's very popular among many countries... but the science behind things like the 'TARDIS,' a 'sonic screwdriver,' and even an alien species like a 'timelord' are widely unquestioned."

You turned to the vast black chalkboard behind you. You drew a line in yellow chalk. "Now, I'm sure that most of you know that time is commonly represented as a line, a strict progression of events. And that's true, time moves forward." You drew a curving line starting from one end of the timeline to the other. "But imagine you're someone like 'the Doctor,' and you travel back in time. If you were to look at the Doctor's life in terms of this straight timeline-" you drew more curved lines, trying to represent jumps throughout the timeline. "-he'd be all over the place!" You laughed nervously. No one laughed with you.

Again, you cleared your throats and continued your monologue. "But, if you look at the Doctor's life as his own, his life progresses as a straight timeline just like this one." You drew a second straight line below the first one. "It's just made of somewhat... scrambled events from the first timeline."

Someone raised their hand. A young man about your age, with wavy brown hair, crystalline blue eyes, and a splattering of freckles across his face. The crooked smile he had and the lopsided bow tie he wore made you instantly charmed.

"Are you saying that time, in, in a sense, moves forward-"

"-in all aspects, yes." You nodded. You wanted to laugh at the man's stutter (you thought it was cute) but you reminded yourself that you were there to teach, not to flirt. "Time never really moves backwards. It's just... moving forward on a different... perspective."

A hundred students blinked back at you. You sighed and rubbed your forehead.

"F-forgive me," you stuttered. "I'm not using the right words."

You took a shaky breath and looked over your notes. Raising your eyes to the crowd, you wet your lips and opened your mouth to speak again.

"Think of it this way," you spoke. "Time 'travel' does not exist. It's just the creation of separate timelines that move forward, made of events from a different timeline that move forward in a different combination of events."

You drew some arrows from the first timeline to different spots on the second to demonstrate.

"Now, who has questions?"

Half the room's hands shot up.

You raised your eyebrows, adjusted your glasses, and went to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

You stood on the stage after your highly successful lecture, beaming at your own achievement. You shook from nerves and excitement as you erased the chalkboard covered in scientific concepts, and you could barely keep the smile off your face.

"Excuse me," someone asked.

You turned around to see the handsome man from earlier. "Hello!" You greeted. "Can I help you with something?"

"Uh, no, well, uh, yes! Actually, um, I'm not- " he sighed and blushed. "I just wanted to discuss more about y-your theory. I found it fascinating."

You blushed too and suddenly both you and the stranger's faces mirrored each other's: sheepish expressions with identical cherry blushes.

"T-thank you," you stammered.

"Aren't you a little young to be a teacher?" The man blurted out. You blinked.

"I'm a scientist, actually. I graduated early," you stated.

The man smiled, looking quite embarrassed. "That explains it. You look my age, and I w-was just wondering how, or why! You know, since you were speaking and I, was um, in the seats..."

You covered your mouth politely to hide your smile, resting your elbow on your other arm. "Yes, I noticed. What's your name?"

"Newt Scamander," the man replied. You smiled.

"Interesting name. I'm Dr. (Y/N) (L/N)," you introduced yourself.

"What's your degree in?" Newt asked.

"Theoretical science," you beamed. Newt laughed and dipped his head.

"I should've guessed. I'm chasing a degree in mu-" he stopped himself. "Physics. Regular physics."

"What brought you to my lecture?" You asked, gathering your notes.

"I've heard about you. I studied one of your papers for an exam," Mr. Scamander smiled sheepishly.

"Oh," you blushed. You looked admiringly at his face. Your legs turned to jelly as you observed the gentle slope of his lips and the curve of his cheekbones.

"Listen, Dr. (L/N)-"

"Call me (Y/N)." You interrupted. Newt laughed.

"Right, (Y/N). Would... would you like to grab a coffee with me, or something?"

Your face turned scarlet and you clutched your notes to your chest. There was no denying how tempting the offer was to you, after all Newt was handsome, and he seemed so nice. But your previous relationships hadn't ended well and you were scared he wouldn't like you once he'd talked to you.

"I-I don't think that's a good idea," you answered quietly.

"Oh," Newt's face fell.

"I mean, I would love to! B-but I'm not sure you'd like me very much after you talk to me, see some people find me quite annoying-" you rambled.

"I can assure you, (Y/N), that from your lecture I can deduce that you are, quite frankly, a very interesting woman-" Newt interrupted you.

"You've read my papers, Mr. Scamander. I'm a very practical person, and most people don't like that. Now, if you'll excuse me," you started walking around Newt, but he reached out for you, cautiously putting a hand on your shoulder.

"I don't want to pressure you into doing something you don't want to do. And I'm sure you don't need me for validation, but you seem like a wonderful person. A-and something is telling me to get to know you." He peered at you with his blue eyes.

"I'm not looking for compliments," you whispered, mesmerized by the proximity between you and Newt. "I don't say these things because I feel bad about myself, I just-"

"I know," Newt whispered back with a small smile on his face.

There was silence as you two stared at each other, completely captured by the other's face.

You sighed and smiled.

"You win, Scamander. Coffee it is."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone!!! I'd just like to report that we now have 3.44K views!!! And to think that it was YESTERDAY that I posted the 2K chapter!!! That is seriously amazing guys. We went up like a thousand views in a DAY.

I'm really excited because I got super cheap tickets to go see Joshua Bell play Tchaikovsky live with two of my close friends. Did I mention that I'm super freaking excited??? It's gonna be really fun bc both of my friends are guys and it's really difficult to get them to hang out with me (yeah, u know who u are douchecanoe) and it's just gonna be so amazing. We're gonna take this amazing vape nation picture together and I'll put it in the next one shot.

I can write about this here because they will never, ever see this. 😂

For those of you that aren't in orchestra, (#VIOLALIVESMATTER) Joshua Bell is a world famous violinist and Tchaikovsky is a composer who's music is really difficult to play.

Anyways, don't forget to vote and comment!! I love hearing from you guys!!