Tina Scamander looked up from the parchment she'd just finished reading with a sigh. Beside her, Queenie was giggling and kissing baby Rolf's face. "Such a funny lit'le thing," she cooed, "Such a funny boy already, yes." She paused and looked up at Tina then, one eyebrow raised. "Of course he wants to come home, Teeny, he loves you loads and no giraffes would make up for you and Newt!"

Bradley Scamander had written a long and excited letter, complete with drawn pictures illustrating the words he wrote, telling Newt and Tina all about the summer he was having with Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. The letter had talked about the comic book he was writing and pick-up quidditch at the Potter house, how he'd made friends with Nate and Michael - the boys the Odairs had adopted (just like he was adopted!). He'd spent nearly six inches of parchment talking about Nymphadora Tonks, too, who Tina had the sinking suspicion may just be Bradley's first crush for the way he talked about her. Then he'd launched into a story about Mike the Giraffe Keeper at the London Zoo and how Lily Evans had brought him there three times since and how he'd gotten to feed the giraffe twice now. He asked if Newt and Tina would consider going to Africa, to the Serengeti, and collecting a giraffe for Bradley to keep in the suitcase ("I swear I'll take good care of it and take it for walks!"). He talked about dance parties listening to Sirius's record player, hot chocolate, bacon, and his adoration for James Potter's mum and how she'd taught him how to knit and he'd knit a scarf for Newt, which was included.

Tina unrolled the scarf. It was wonky, several stitches missed and very uneven in parts, but it was knitted from mustard-yellow yarn and had fringe, and she was certain that Mr. Scamander was sure to adore that scarf and count it as one of his most precious possessions. 

"He certainly will," Queenie agreed outloud to Tina's silent thought. "If it's one thing Newt loves, it's something wonky."

Never had a truer statement ever been told about Mr. Scamander.

"I know, right?" Queenie laughed. Then, "But don't worry, I'm sure Bradley misses you, too, Teeny."

Newt came into the room, then, ducking in through the door, the tiny red heart dragon, Pox, curled on his shoulder, long tail wrapped about Newt's beck. Pickett, the bowtruckle, peered out of Newt's pocket at the dragon on his opposite shoulder. Behind him came Jacob, limping slightly, his hips bothering him quite a deal these days. Jacob lowered himself onto the couch beside Queenie and smiled, leaning over to tickle Rolf's belly. The baby squealed and kicked.

"'ey there, Little Feller," Jacob said, voice croaky and thick with accent. He smiled, then, tired, leaned back into the couch cushions with a sigh of relief.

"We - we w-went for a w-walk," Newt said, "L-Lovely day - l-lovely d-day out there." He spotted the parchment in Tina's hand as he sat in one of the chairs. "Wh-what's th-that?"

"A letter from Bradley," Tina answered.

Newt took the letter and read it through.

"You need to lay off the sweets, darling," Queenie said, looking at Jacob. "It's darling you went for a walk but it only half counts if it's a walk to fetch jelly doughnuts for yourselves!"

Jacob flushed.

"A-a g-gir-giraffe!" Newt exclaimed, looking at Tina. "The b-boy wants a g-gir-giraffe?!" He was looking at the illustration of how Bradley pictured a giraffe's habitat to look, which was very similar to the towers in the London Zoo and included a high overlook to feed the giraffe's from. He'd even drawn a detailed picture of a giraffe, labelling all the various parts of the creature, just the way Mr. Scamander did in the graphs of creatures in Fantastic Beasts, which included showing that he even knew the word for the horns at the top of a giraffe's head: ossicones. 

"His birthday is coming up..." Tina weedled.

"A g-giraffe for his - his birthday?" Newt laughed.

"And you're feeling a good deal better, it's really time we ought to go and fetch him back, I think we've fulfilled the doctors request and honestly, they're muggle creatures, it can't be that hard to tend one, could it? And you always say you want him to take on more responsibility for the creatures - but then you're so particular about how they're taken care of, it's hard for him to do it... Perhaps if he had his own creatures..."

"Why - why d-don't we - we give him a - a c-couple of the moon calves?" Newt suggested. "M-more of th-those than I know wh-what to do with most of the t-times!"

"Mr. Scamander, really, you above all people know how important certain creatures can become to a person!" Tina argued, shaking her head.

Newt sighed and ran his fingers over the top of Pox's head as the dragon ducked and rubbed his face against Newt's fingers.

Bradley was kneeling at the table in the flat in East London, eating toast, and using finger paints to paint a giraffe - it was blue with green spots. "It's a magical giraffe," he answered when Sirius asked why the color scheme.

"Well isn't he dandy," Sirius said, watching Bradley's fingers drag the paint across the paper.

Remus was painting, too, though his painting was not of a blue-and-green giraffe, but rather a still life. He'd set up a stack of books and a vase of flowers on the counter so the sun was hitting them through the window. He was staring at the books with squinted eyes as he created shadows on the canvas he was using, his tongue bit between his teeth, brush working, daubbing brownish-maroon paint along the seam of his painted books. 

From the living room, music was playing - Sirius was allowed to borrow records from the shop and the result was new music nearly every day, of all sorts, and today it was a record from a traditional Hawiian folk group so that the whole apartment rang with the open notes of the kî hô 'alu - a slack-key guitar. The song was called Hi'ilawe by a man named Gabby Pahinui. Sirius hummed along, even though he didn't know the lyrics - they were all in the native tongue. The gave the kitchen a light, airy feeling, though, and Remus rather liked the happy feeling of the plunky music compared to the usual hard edge of Sirius's records. It felt calming and relaxing and reminded him a bit of the time they'd spent in Costa Rica for their anniversary, making him smile.

"Did you know that 94% of giraffes are gay?" Bradley suddenly asked.

Sirius spit pumpkin juice in shock, choking loudly as Remus rounded on Bradley. "What?"

"It said in the book I got about giraffes that 94% of mounting observed by researchers was performed between two male giraffes and --"

"What the hell kind of book have you got?" Remus demanded.

Sirius, still coughing, wheezed out, "Yeah, who bought you giraffe smut?"

"What's smut?" Bradley asked.

"NOTHING," Remus said, cutting across whatever Sirius was about to say that had started well smut is -- before he'd stopped at Remus's sharp tone. Bradley looked between Remus and Sirius with wide, innocent eyes. 

"Lily bought me a book about giraffes that Mike the Giraffe Keeper suggested," Bradley explained. "It's from the zoo. It's a science book. It has loads of pictures and all the information about the classifications of the giraffe - giraffa camelopardalis." He beamed with delight. Then, "It was in there."

"Science is dirty," Sirius exclaimed. Then, grinning, "Huh. Gay giraffes. I suppose we ought to have known."

"Newt and Tina are going to bloody bludgeon us when we send you back," Remus said, shaking his head, "Rock music and giraffe sexual orientations... Merlin's beard."

Sirius grinned wickedly.

Remus paused, then looked at Sirius. "Why should we ought to have known giraffes were gay?" he asked.

Sirius's eyes twinkled.

"You know what? Never mind, I don't want to know." Remus raised an eyebrow, then shook his head and turned back to his painting as Sirius cackled evilly.

"You ought to put a bowtie on your magical giraffe there, kid," Sirius said, leaning forward and tapping the table next to Bradley's painting. "A nice hot pink one that'll stand off from his spots."

Bradley stared at the giraffe for a long moment, then, "Where d'you reckon he'd wear a bowtie? Up here or down here?" he pointed at the top and bottom of the neck and Sirius stared at the painting, brow furrowed.

"Moony?"

Remus looked over, "What?"

"Where the fuck do giraffes wear their bowties?"

"To dinner parties, I expect," he answered dryly. 

Bradley burst out laughing at this.

"I mean at the top or the bottom?!"

Remus looked over, "Well the top, obviously, just under his chin - the bottom would just look stupid." 

"But wouldn't it just slide down his neck if he did that? He'd be constantly fixing it," Sirius argued.

"Fixing it?" Remus thought for a moment. Then, "How did he do the die up in the first place?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Don't ask stupid questions, Moony."

"Stupid ques--" Remus interrupted himself, staring at Sirius for a long moment. Sirius stared back. Remus shook his head again and turned back to the painting once more.

"I should think it would go on the bottom," Sirius mused. "But you're right it would look rather stupid there... but then again it would look sort of stupid at the top, too..."

"Maybe in the middle?" suggested Bradley.

"But what about how it's suspended?"

"Maybe they use double-sided tape?"

"That wouldn't be very comfortable," Sirius said.

"Well they aren't very comfortable anyways," Bradley said.

Sirius nodded, "Well argued. Double sided tape in the middle. What do you think Remus?"

"I think you're mental," Remus mumbled from behind his canvas.

Sirius said, "Put the bowtie in the middle."

"Alright." Bradley bent over his paper, grabbing for the tray of paints he was using and mixing the red and white together to make the pink color Sirius had requested.

Sirius leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the edge of the table, sipping a glass of orange juice and looking out the window. He suddenly sat up, the chair hitting the floor with a loud THUNK as he went to the window quickly, accidentally knocking the vase that Remus was painting.

"Sirius!" Remus came 'round the table to fix the vase. "Don't tell me you're looking at those bleeding pigeons again."

"No - look at that - look at that, will you? I reckon he's seeing her." Sirius was pointing, jabbing his finger at the window.

Peter Pettigrew and Oni Lamm were walking in the park across the way.

Remus paused, forgetting the vase for a moment, peering out the window at them. Sirius was right, they did look rather chummy, walking along the path toward the flat and the curry shop, talking away, Peter's face flushed and Oni nodding excitedly. 

"You know he had her over? At night." Sirius hissed, glancing over his shoulder at Bradley, making sure he was engrossed in his giraffe painting.

Remus's eyes widened, "Excuse me? When?"

"The other night!" Sirius said.

Remus looked at Sirius, incredulous, "You reckon they --" Remus looked at Bradley, too, then whispered, "You know?"

"I mean, why else does a boy sneak a girl into his bedroom at night? They certainly weren't playing with gobstones." Sirius snickered, "Well she might've played a bit with his gobstones but --"

"Sirius!" Remus hissed.

Sirius guffawed.

"When did this start I wonder?"

"Dunno," Sirius said.

Remus stared out the window at Peter and wondered why he hadn't told his mates about his new girlfriend. Had they really all been so horrid about it when Peter was seeing girls in the past that he hadn't felt comfortable talking about it? The thought upset Remus and he wondered - not for the first time, mind - why Peter continued on considering them all his friends if he wasn't going to talk with them about things like this?

As he watched, Oni Lamm and Peter crossed the road and disappeared from view, likely going into the curry shop below. Remus shook his head and fixed the vase, returning to his canvas. "We ought to ask him about it later," he said to Sirius. "And we ought to be supportive of him for once," he added pointedly.

"I congratulated him in that letter I wrote him for his birthday and give him a few pointers, actually," Sirius said, smirking.

"You what now?"

Sirius grinned.

"Gods, no wonder he hasn't mentioned anything. Sirius - you probably traumatized him!"

"They were good pointers."

"Gods."

"Done it," Bradley announced and Sirius and Remus both turned to look at him, confused expressions on their faces. Bradley held up the paper with his painted giraffe - complete with a hot pink bowtie. "Tada," he announced.

Sirius laughed so hard there were tears in his eyes.

"That's an excellent magical giraffe, Bradley," Remus said. "Very dapper."

For some reason, the word dapper set Sirius laughing all the harder and he sank into his chair.

"Is he alright?" Bradley asked.

Remus took the painting from Bradley and hung it up on the fridge using a big magnet Sirius had gotten in Costa Rica that was shaped like a large tropical bird. "Yeah," Remus said, "He's just mad."