Of Blessings and Curses

Chapter 10

A/N: Once again, bits in bold are JKR / Warner Bros's words, not mine. Also, hooray, my writer's block is gone! 

This great city sparkles with the jewel's of man's invent - , I think as I follow Newt in a sort of dream-like state, until I am interrupted by a rather annoying, eager sounding woman standing on the steps of a bank. She continues my thought as if she has read my mind. Merlin, I hope she hasn't. Is it possible for a Muggle to read minds? Is that a thing they can do? Then again, American Muggles could be different, I suppose. A fresh wave of nausea crashes over me. 

"-ions! Movie theaters, automobiles, the wireless, electric lights - all dazzle and bewitch us!" the woman shouts at the mildly intrigued but also mildly bored crowd. Newt stops shortly after realizing that I am no longer beside him and have also snapped out my of stupor to give my attention to the small crowd of people and the woman speaking to them. As I look around behind her, I throw up a little in my mouth. Behind her a banner stands menacingly still with the image of a broken wand being held cruelly in someone's fist surrounded by flames with yellow letters at the top - N.S.P.S.. I dash into the crowd, unaware of the slight feeling of someone watching me with intrigue. Newt follows swiftly behind me. 

"But where there is light there is shadow, friend. Something is stalking our city, wreaking destruction and then disappearing without a trace..." she pauses as people begin to take leaflets from an exceedingly pale and skinny boy that almost resembled a crow in the way his dark clothes settled on a small frame and how his shoulders hunched a bit more that what could be described as purely bad posture, "We have to fight - join us the Second Salemers, in our fight!" I clap my hand against my mouth to keep from throwing up when I tear my eyes away from the crow boy. Something about these Second Salemers is not right. My sudden stomach bug couldn't possibly still be the remnants of seasickness. Something about New York is wrong. Some sort of presence is upsetting something primal and deep and old in the pit of my stomach. Yes, something is wrong.

Terribly wrong. 

Scrambling for a distraction, my eyes settle on a slightly (ok, maybe slightly more than slightly) overweight man with an average head of brown, wavy hair and an average mustache and an average pair of pants and jacket with a briefcase quite similar to Newt's. Speaking of briefcases... 

I watch as the average man falls to the ground, clearly not amused by the crowd, the Second Salemers, or the fact that he has just faceplanted in front of said crowd. His nonchalance towards the Second Salemers eases some of my fears. Maybe this group is nothing more than a crazy old lady wanting money from frightening people. 

"I'm so sorry - my case -" Newt says, helping the man off the ground and helping me out of my racing mind. 

The man signed sharply, "No harm done. Excuse me!" And that is the biggest lie since Uric the Oddball told someone that he was completely sane. 

"You, friend!" Nice job, average lying man. You got the crazy lady obsessed with my best friend, "What drew you to our meeting today?" 

I did... Chills run down my spine. 

"Oh... I was just passing..." Newt says, which is completely true. 

"Are you a seeker? A seeker after truth?" She asks as creepily as possible while also seeming eager. It's been confirmed - this woman is insane and just looking for money or something. No need to worry. 

"I'm more of a chaser really." Newt says with a slight smile. Good one. Crazy lady turn away 

"Hear my words and heed my warning, and laugh if your dare: Witches live among us!" crazy lady shouts. I simply can't help the lingering unease I feel about these people. And the constant swirling of my stomach does not help, "We have to fight together for the sake of our children - for the sake of tomorrow! What do you say to that, friend?" She asks Newt. He does not respond, but jerks his eyebrows together momentarily as he focuses on the entrance to the bank. I look over just in time to see a furry black tail vanish behind a marble column.