Little Badger

He feels the piercing burn of dark eyes in the back of his head before he even hears her breathe. She is silent, glued to the corner behind him, peeking out to watch. She's been doing this for a little while now, maybe for fifteen minutes a time when he comes down here, just beyond the greenhouses, and he's been doing it for around a month.

Try as he might, he cannot bring himself to turn. He has talked himself into it countless times, reasoned out that he should be more cautious, fretted over the fact that she could see what he's doing and tell someone, a teacher or worse - other students.

At the thought of other students finding his sanctuary, his heart begins to race once more and he rubs the back of his neck in anxious thought.

No, Newt thinks. No that wouldn't be good at all.

He hears a tinkle from behind him, and he draws a deep breath, setting his wand down on the bench he is standing at and biting his lip so hard, he is sure he will draw blood. The breath sits at the top of his chest, and he holds it there before he hears the tinkle once more.

Newt cannot bring himself to turn.

His face burns red and he clasps the work bench before clearing his throat.

"P- … please leave me… alone," his voice peters off, and he curses himself for how weak he sounds. He draws breath again and spits out his next words in a rush. "I'm not doing anything wrong, I promise, so please if you could just go… that would be… quite…"

No more words come and he rubs his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling the faintest touch of perspiration.

He truly loathes talking to people.

"Quite lonely, I should think."

The voice is coming from directly behind his own head, and he starts, leaping round and almost completely out of his skin.

The girl laughs, her dark eyes twinkling softly and brings her hand up to cover her mouth as she does. The same tinkling sound rings as she does, from the long earrings she wears, silver inset with emeralds. Her skin is unlike any Newt has ever properly seen, like mahogany wood, radiant like there is some fire alight below it. Her long dark curls are swept back from her high cheek bones in a thick braid, which she has slung over her shoulder so it hangs down to her waist. She stops laughing, her eyes still filled with glee and Newt gulps, truly lost for words.

She is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen.

She eyes him carefully as his eyes flicker from her face downwards, to her neck and slightly further. She snorts as he stares, an almost fear painting his features.

"Are you staring at my chest? Because you won't see much through the robes, I promise. Not that there's much there anyway. Or -?" The girl stops her fast speech and follows his eyes to her tie, flickering to the crest on her robes. She rolls her eyes and grins, his eyes moving back to her face, careful to stray around the edge of her hairline and never fall into those dark pits. She deliberately tries to make eye contact with him to which he recoils and looks away from her face altogether.

"Is it the Slytherin tie that's got you so worried? Poor little badger," she smiles softly, angelically, her teeth smooth and pearly. "I promise I don't bite."

His lips twist into a pained little smile and he turns away from her again. She reaches out and grabs his arm, yanking him back round to his surprise. He dislodges his arm from her grip, uncomfortable with the grasp of human fingers.

"I must confess; I've never seen you before… what's your name?"

She seems to teeter on the balls of her feet, full of energy and awaiting his answer with excitement. His lips can't seem to force out the syllables which form his name and his eyes flicker back to her again, causing a nervous little laugh to escape instead. He clears his throat and scratches the back of his head once more.

"I'm Newton… Scamander. Nice to meet you," he manages to blurt out to which the girl raises a thick but well-kept brow in reply.

"Scamander… I've heard of Theseus Scamander. Not a Newton though. Is someone overshadowed a smidge?" her smile has a small edge to it, and Newt frowns, going to turn away before she tilts her head to one side and laughs again. "Newton seems awfully serious though. Don't your friends call you Newt?"

Newt is unsure if the twist of his lips is a smile or a grimace, but the words that leave his them are quiet and uncomfortable.

"My mother."

The girl makes a small 'o' shape with her mouth, perhaps understanding his implication.

"I'm Leta Lestrange. It's a pleasure Newt!"

Her smile seems to light up the small area around them and Newt must swallow back his bewilderment at her. People never voluntarily converse with him, unless it is to ask for a spare quill, or to throw vicious insults at him. Her eyes flicker behind his head and she lifts a hand tentatively to point.

"What are you hiding out here, Newt? I've been careful to pop off before you've gone to feed whatever it is you're dismembering those flubberworms for, because I knew you would see me. I thought today though, you might let me come with you. Is it an animal?"

Her excitement seems to bubble up and out of her every orifice, and Newt's heart leaps with the same maddening joy he feels every time he so much as thinks of one of the magical beasts who dwell within the Forbidden Forest. He swallows this excitement and tries to be rational.

You don't know this girl, Newt, you don't know what she's like or capable of – she's a Lestrange too, and that doesn't bode well for being overly trustworthy…

"My goodness Newt, I can practically see the gears churning in your mind. Don't you trust me? If I had wanted to tell on you, I would have by now," she reasons, her eyes twinkling - something dark in their depths perhaps? Her smile is sly then. "I was telling a little fib earlier when I said I hadn't heard of you. Those Gryffindors I have Potions with can be awfully cruel can't they?" She juts out her bottom lip, and Newt glances at Leta, beautiful and soft and capable of making him wary without even meaning to. "They say you're a little freak. That you don't talk to anyone, that you spend all your waking hours down on the forest edge with Care for Magical Creatures… it does seem like awfully odd behaviour."

Leta pauses for an instant, tilting her head and watching him like a cat.

"But I don't think you're a freak Newt. My grandmother kept a Fwooper when I was younger – it's plumes were the brightest emerald I've ever laid eyes on. I adored that creature. It was frightfully annoying when the Silencing Charm wore off every month or so and it would start sqwauking, but we trained it eventually to stay silent all on its own. I haven't seen a creature like it since she died, and they took it away."

Newt watched Leta, his heart swelling with joy over hearing another person speak so vibrantly about magical beasts – his joy pounded so loudly through his veins that he neglected to pay much attention to the actual content of her speech, rather the reverence with which she spoke of the bird.

"You'll show me your pet, won't you little badger?"

He grins with delight and hands her a small bucket of flubberworms before meeting her dark eyes briefly and inclining his head towards the edge of the forest.

"Come on then," he says, smile bright and feeling only as he did when he was in the company of kneazles and bowtruckles.

Leta Lestrange follows the strange little Newt, eyes trained on the back of his curly head.

I have to make clear for my own sanity that I do not ship Leta with Newt in the slightest. I see Newt as an autistic young man, something not addressed within the magical community, rather laughed at and goaded for being strange and reclusive. I see Leta as an impulsive, fickle young woman, an outsider by her own choosing unlike Newt. I am fascinated to explore the relationship they had at Hogwarts, and Newt's obvious misplaced feelings for her, possibly as the only girl he has ever loved. I believe this relationship is key in delving deeper in my preferred ship of the series, Newt x Tina, because they are simply PERFECTION, but I think until Newt can deal with demons left flitting around his mind by Miss Lestrange and finally chuck out that old picture, it can't happen.

There will be a shout out for any reviewer who can spot all the subtle overbearing, manipulative and possibly cruel qualities running through Leta, in the next chapter, where we will meet Newt's creature, and hopefully progress through a few of their years and subsequent adventures before Newt's expulsion. Thanks for reading, a review would be delightful.