The Underground

Chapter 3 - Going Against

Newt walked quickly down the stairs, avoiding everybody's gaze. As soon as Dumbledore had left the room, he knew he had to go. He wasn't ready to discuss his feelings with Dumbledore, and he must be needed at the Kowalski's with Elizabeth anyway. 

He felt guilty for not leaving a note, but it had completely slipped his mind in his hurry to leave. He rounded the corner leading to the entrance, and stopped dead. Dumbledore was in the doorway, talking to a man who could only be the headmaster, Dippit. To his great dismay, Dumbledore called out to him, "Newt! Why are you leaving?" 

Just ask, he told himself, ask, and then you can leave. 

"I know what you came to ask me for," Dumbledore said matter-of-factly, "and it's a no, you need to learn to live without Tina, not hide from your feelings. I know because your brother asked for the same thing after Leta died." 

He nodded, he hadn't asked exactly, but he had got an answer all the same. "Y-yes Dumbledore, Thank you for your time." Then he fled from the room, reaching the edge of the grounds in a matter of moments, and apperated to the Kowaski's doorstep. 

He knocked and heard Jacob's "Come in!" from somewhere inside. He entered and was met by Queenie in the living room. She looked tired as she handed Elizabeth to him, the tiny baby snuggling against her father almost instantly. Carefully, he sat down on the sofa, hoping not to disturb her sleep. He needn't have worried, she was too far gone to be woken by jostling. 

After a while, the sofa started to get very comfortable. Elizabeth was warm and comforting and Newt felt his eyelids droop. He jerked awake, he couldn't go to sleep, what if he dropped Elizabeth?! Also, if he went to sleep, he would be plagued by dreams of Tina, nightmares of her death, and the terrible sadness of being with her while knowing she was gone...forever. Looking around he spotted a cradle near the window. He got up, and walked over to it. Then, careful to support Elizabeth's head, he lay her down on the firm mattress inside and covered her with a colorful blanket. She twitched in her sleep, but didn't wake. Hungry now, he noticed the smells coming from the kitchen. Supper was ready. He had survived fatherhood another day.

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When Elizabeth was three months old, she could almost support her head on her own. Her eyes had changed from deep deep blue, to a lighter brown, her mother's eyes. But she looked more like her father than Tina, with light auburn hair beginning to grow in. She had also grown a lot, causing Newt to magically expand her clothes several times to keep up with her. She was also letting Newt sleep more at night, only needing to be fed once or twice. In the mornings she was very awake, and looked around her at everything, the furniture, walls, her cousins (who were absolutely infatuated with her), her aunt and uncle, but mostly, her father. She smiled a lot when he was in the same room as her, and giggled when he picked her up. 

Newt had also changed, he was happier then he had been, and played with his nephews daily, in the mornings anyway. At night he was still a wreck, tossing and turning while he pondered what sort of cruel world it was to take Tina from him. He spent hours pouring over books, searching, searching, but what he looked for, he didn't know. 

One day, he opened his old brown suitcase, the one that had held his beasts, and stayed in it all day. He claimed he had been working that night to Queenie and Jacob, but they weren't convinced. He had come out of the case a different person, and they wanted to know why. 

The next day, Queenie went into the case. She found a mess in the little room at the base of the ladder, papers and other paraphinalia were strewn about the desk and a collection of odd little glass bottles were sitting in a cabinet. She looked for anything out of place or locked away, but found nothing. She reported this to Jacob, who said he would look. But he also found nothing unusual, and they had to be content with badgering Newt with questions when he wasn't expecting them. They got no results from this either, and only succeeded in making Newt annoyed. However, when Queenie went into the case again, she found the bottles filling up with pearly-white liquid. Memories.