AN: Sadly, I'm not J.K. Rowling. The characters aren't mine, they are her masterpieces and I'm just playing with them.

(Originally this story was going to be a bit longer, but unfortunately life happened. So it's only 2 chapters now. )

Porpentina Goldstein rubbed her eyes and tried to cover her mouth with the back of her hand as she yawned. It was still dark outside and she felt like she hadn't slept at all, which considering the time was probably the truth. The clock placed on her left showed that it was only half past two in the night. She groaned and grudgingly dragged her feet as she headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Tina had no idea what had woken her up, but whatever it was she hated it already. She slowly lifted her wand in front of her and whispered lumos in a groggy voice as she finally reached the counter-top. She had to squint her eyes as she poured herself the drink and mumbled to herself about how she hated being awake at this hour. She quickly downed the glass and feeling a bit more accustomed to the bright light from her wand now, she decided to take a quick look around the flat. It was actually a habit of hers that had come to her through her work as an auror. Everything seemed to be the way it should in her small apartment, except that the other bedroom door was left ajar. Tina carefully peeked in through the open door and expected to see a certain red-haired wizard sleeping, but to her surprise the bed he was supposed to sleep in was still untouched and a suitcase lay open in the middle of the room. A dim light was emitted from inside the case and Tina could hear some noise from within it. Sighing, she walked over to the bedside table and lit a candle that stood there. Looking down on the suitcase she shook her head before putting her wand in her mouth and holding it between her teeth. After that she calmly approached the suitcase before reluctantly stepping inside it and climbing down the steps.

Tina looked at one of the walls in the small shed she had just entered, and saw that a blue coat was hanging there. The noise that she had heard earlier was a lot louder where she was now and sighing again, she headed towards the sound and stepped out from the shed into the now dim surroundings. Tina could hear angry yelling a few feet away and headed towards the noise with her wand raised in front of her. It was very damp and eerie down in the case during the night, with all the creatures and beasts making funny noises as they slept. She shuddered and quickly wrapped her free arm around her upper body as she hurried forward. She was only wearing her old and sleeveless nightgown, which barely reached down to her calves. On her feet she was wearing a pair of old blue-grey slippers that made a clomping sound that seemed unbearably loud in the dark.

"… and I have told you a thousand times how dangerous it is to climb on my shoulder without telling me first, Picket! You cannot swim, nor are you allowed to disturb the others- You, are you even listening to me?"

Tina walked in on what seemed to be a heated argument between Newt Scamander and Picket, the overly curious bowtruckle. They both looked furious, Newt screaming and pointing at the creature that was standing on a tree branch at his eye level. The man was soaking wet, with his hair and clothes clinging to his body and his shoes making a splashing sound whenever he moved. The smaller green creature looked equally wet and aggravated when he stuck his tongue out at Newt. He did it before turning to sit with his back against the man. Newt's face was steadily turning red and he looked as though he would be ready to attack Picket at any minute.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me, mister-"

"Newt, what on earth are you doing?" Tina interrupted the man incredulously. "It's half past two in the night!"

Newt visibly jumped at Tina's words, not having noticed that she had joined their company.

"Tina! Oh, I'm so sorry, we didn't wake you, did we? I guess we were being rather loud." the man mumbled with an embarrassed look on his face.

"What's going on Newt? Why are you wet, what have the two of you done now?" Tina asked gesturing to both Newt and Picket with her wand.

"Well, Picket here thought that it would be fun to touch one of the water containing spheres that I have surrounding some of the creatures. He climbed in to one, well aware that he then would enter the sphere, only to almost drown and be eaten up by some grindylows!" Newt responded with frustration, only glancing sideways at the now moping bowtruckle.

"Oh jeez, Newt… Just come up to bed. You can continue this fight in the morning after you've both calmed down a little."

"I am calm. He just ought to know-"

"Not calm enough, Newt!" Tina snapped and grabbed Newt's hand. "We're going up right now. Good night, Picket!" the witch shouted to the tiny creature as she dragged Newt along, not turning her head to see the creature give Newt one last stink-eye.

As Newt and Tina had entered the bedroom Tina slammed the suitcase shut, pushed it under Newt's bed and turned to the dresser on her left. She pulled out a towel from it and threw it at the soaking man.

"Dry yourself up before you get a cold. I'll make us some hot cocoa."

Newt a little taken aback by Tina's behavior, sat down on the bed and slowly started drying his hair. He took off his wet shoes and placed them to dry, as he also did with his waistcoat and bow-tie. He sat down on the bed again, only to be joined by the dark-haired woman.

Tina handed Newt a cup of cocoa and sat down beside him. She didn't say anything, just sipped on her drink slowly and smacked her lips contently. They finished their drinks in silence.

"Thank you for the cocoa. It was delicious." Newt said as he put his cup on the night stand.

"Nothing beats a nice cup of cocoa." Tina mused and looked over at Newt. "Your hair is still dripping wet, give me the towel."

Newt handed the towel from his lap to Tina, who quickly ordered him to sit down on the floor. The wizard did as he was told and Tina positioned him so that he was sitting with his back resting against her legs. Carefully she started drying his hair with the towel.

"Your hair is really long. When was the last time you cut it?"

"Umm, just a few weeks ago, I think. I use a simple cutting charm every once in a while."

"That figures." Tina chuckled as she carefully stroked her fingers through the man's hair in order to straighten out any tangles. "You know; you really should be used to Picket's tricks by now. It's not his fault that things sometimes don't go the way he has planned."

Newt sighed. "I know, he just… He could've died and he almost did. Grindylows eat small creatures like him, in some rare cases even humans! If I hadn't been there-"

"You can't protect all the creatures in the world and not even the ones in your case all the time. He needs to learn how to behave on his own and some people or beasts, just need to learn things the hard way."

Newt bit down on his lower lip and nodded. He knew all this, but he had gotten so scared when he had noticed what was happening. He had barely made it in time to stop any damage from happening.

The wizard sniffled loudly and pulled out a soaking wet tissue from his pocket. "I guess this won't do me much good?" he said, hanging the wet tissue up to dry next to his bow-tie.

"Not really. Now we really need to get you out of those clothes before you catch a cold." Tina said standing up and soon she gestured Newt to get up on his feet, too. "Hurry up!"

Newt grabbed Tina's outstretched hand and clumsily steadied himself against her as he got up. As soon as he was standing straight, he sneezed loudly.

"How on earth have you managed to survive this long on your own…" Tina mumbled and started unbuttoning Newt's drenched white shirt. Her fingers were fast and quickly she moved on to unbuttoning Newt's cuffs.

Newt didn't do anything, he just stared at the fervently working woman in front of him. Her hair was messy, all ruffled from her sleep. The white nightgown she was wearing was almost see-through and her pale skin looked flawless in the dim candlelight. Newt studied Tina's features closely, only now noticing how dark her eyelashes really were when they shadowed her focused eyes.

"There, all done. Now get it off, quickly." the witch ordered and pulled on one of Newt's sleeves. Newt obliged and hurriedly wriggled out of the wet fabric. Tina swiftly grabbed the shirt and threw it on the floor.

"Here!" Tina exclaimed as she threw the towel around Newt's shoulders and started wiping him dry. Only then did she seem to notice what she actually was doing. She was drying the half-naked (and surprisingly muscular) man that was staying at her place when her sister was visiting one of her old co-workers. This wasn't exactly what one would call proper. Tina's hands slowed down and she could feel the blood rushing up to her cheeks. She peeked up at Newt and saw that he was blushing too, even if he was looking straight at her.

"Umm, maybe you should take over." she said, grabbing Newt's hand and placing it on the towel before she retracted her own hands. Feeling oddly restless, Tina decided to walk back over to Newt's bed and sit down on it once again. Newt looked at her as she started studying the fabric of the pillowcase next to her and traced it with her fingers. Not really knowing what to say or do, he decided to follow her suit and sit back down again. Tina gave Newt a quick look and a small smile, noticing just how baffled the man looked. That was when she noticed something stuck in his hair. Out of habit, she raised her hand towards him and reached out to pick a small leaf from his fringe. She showed it to him and he smiled as he took it from her.

"It's from Picket's tree." he said with a chuckle and put it in his pocket.

Tina giggled and quickly she could feel herself relaxing again. She picked up the pillow on her left and placed it in her lap, again tracing the pattern on it. She could feel Newt's eyes on her, but somehow she didn't quite dare to look back just yet. She did however dare to sneak a peek at him sideways, only to notice all of the scars on his right arm. She hadn't really payed any attention to them before. Tina let her curiosity take over and being fascinated by the marks, she turned to look at them a bit closer. There were more of them than she could count and they seemed to cover the wizard's entire upper body. There were old ones, new ones, big ones, dark ones, small ones…

Tentatively, Tina traced the ridge of a long and dark scar running all the way from Newt's right elbow to his wrist.

"Are all of these from you work?" she asked carefully, not lifting her eyes from the old wound.

"Most of them, yes. That one is actually from a meeting with a wounded griffin. I was thirteen when that happened." Newt explained.

"A griffin, of course." Tina stated and continued her exploration. She turned to look at some other scars, noticing a few deep and wide ones located parallel to one another, spreading across Newt's abdomen.

"What about these?" she asked, pointing at the marks.

"Ahh, those are from a completely non-magical creature, a grizzly bear. It is a long story, but basically I mistook him for a boggart and as it turns out shouting riddiculus at the top of your lungs isn't of much help in that case." the wizard chuckled. Tina couldn't help but to smile with him, even if the thought of Newt being attacked by a bear frightened her.

The scars on his body were like a map of all his adventures, Tina thought to herself. She pointed at a few other places on Newts arms and before she even had a chance to speak, Newt was already telling her about what he had been through to get them.

"And what about this one?" Tina finally asked, settling her hand on a very dark scar on Newt's chest. It was quite big, almost as big as the palm of Tina's hand. It was stellate in its form, dark branches reaching out like tentacles from the middle.

Newt tensed and carefully removed Tina's hand from the mark. "That one wasn't caused by a beast." he answered her, pressing his lips into a thin line as he tried to repress something in his voice.

Tina could see that this was something that Newt really didn't want to talk about, but she still wanted to find out more about the wound.

"Was it an enemy?" she asked carefully.

"A friend." Newt answered in a hushed voice and turned his eyes on his hands in his lap.

Porpentina had never felt so powerless or useless as she did at that moment. She knew Newt well enough to not ask any more questions, but he looked so incredibly hurt sitting there in front of her. What could possibly have happened between Newt and the person that had given him the scar? Tina could barely manage to stay quiet as she experienced a whole range of different emotions surge through her; anger, sadness, compassion, even protectiveness. Tina was feeling so discomposed that she wasn't even really aware of what she was doing before it had already happened. Somehow she had unknowingly leaned forward and lightly kissed the scar on Newt's chest.

Tina leaned back feeling Newt's eyes on her. He was looking very tense and he was also holding his breath, resembling some scared creature with his shocked bearing. Tina had never really felt jealous about her sister's talents, but this was one of the few situations where she desperately also wanted to be a legilimense. She had no idea how to read Newt right now and it scared her more than anything she had ever experienced.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Must be the lack of sleep." Tina mumbled and turned away from the man. Feeling utterly embarrassed she turned her attention to her feet hanging over the edge of the bed and the pillow next to them on the floor. She must've dropped it when she leaned over to kiss him.

She only looked up when she felt Newt move, now being sure that she had just managed to ruin everything that had ever happened between her and him. To her surprise, Newt wasn't moving to get away from the bed at all, but to get his legs up on the bed. He had pulled his feet up under him so that he was sitting on his knees, now facing her. Instinctively Tina mirrored his actions, not really knowing what the wizard planned on doing. She braced herself, almost anticipating a rejection until she saw the look in the man's eyes. Before Tina had any chance to gather her thoughts though, Newt had already leaned in to her and his lips had found hers.