The Marauders: Year Three | #Wattys2016

Newt Scamander and the Terrible Werewolf

Newt Scamander and The Terrible Werewolf

Newt rapped on the frame of the Defense Against the Dark Arts room door. The door was open, the students having just left their class, so Newt stepped inside without waiting for an invitation. He glanced around the room at all the charts and diagrams that Ned Veigler had posted about on the walls. The teacher wasn't anywhere to be seen in the room, but Newt was already inside, so he wandered slowly about the room, looking and observing, his teeth ever so slightly pinching his lower lip, feeling a bit as though he were entering a lair rather than a classroom.

Suddenly, Professor Veigler came in from a small office up a short flight of stairs that wrapped the wall in the front of the classroom, "Mr. Scamander," he said in a friendly tone, "I didn't know you were coming to see me today."

Newt turned to look at the younger man, surprised, his fingers tight 'round the handle of his briefcase. "I uh, uh didn't particularly plan on it," Newt answered, and he put the case on one of the empty student desks. "I was just happening through and I - I ended up here."

"Well, welcome. I'd offer you a tour, but you probably know the halls here better than I do." Ned smiled. "You went to Hogwarts back in the day, yeah?"

"Before I was expelled," Newt nodded, "Then I went to New York. And everywhere else in the world. Searching for Fantastic Beasts." He was squinting at a set of brass sneakoscopes, which laid on their sides quite still. "Seems I didn't really need to go looking much further than my backyard here at Hogwarts if I wanted to find fantastic beasts, though. At least not these days. With all of the - uh, uh - samples of them... right - right here."

Ned rubbed the back of his neck with his good arm - the other still held fast by the sling. Newt was staring at him quite meaningfully. Ned took a deep breath, "Look, we both know you know, so let's cut to the point here... I know you don't approve of a werewolf being here, teaching... you think it's dangerous for the children..."

Newt nodded. "Who wouldn't?"

"Well, apparently headmaster Dumbledore, for one - and he's possibly the only one," Ned said. Then he sighed and sank into a seat, rubbing his eyes with his hands, "Honestly, to do it over again, I'd agree with you and I - I'd turn down the appointment. I didn't know when I agreed to come on that... that things would go like they are."

"With Greyback haunting the forest surrounding the castle?" Newt asked. "I was talking with the centaurs," he explained when Ned gave him a curious expression.

Veigler's eyes downcast slightly.

"You've really got them all jolly for you, haven't you?" chuckled Newt.

"I s'pose that's one word to use."

Newt had been walking as they talked and now he was standing at the window and staring out and Veigler came to his side. "Here's the rub, Ned... the- the centaurs were talking with me, like I said before - and they were mentioning to me your -uh, er- they've told you how they've seen things in the stars and you've stayed just the same."

Professor Veigler nodded slowly.

Newt Scamander turned and looked at Ned Veigler with curious, searching eyes. "Why have you stayed? Why have you not run?"

Ned inhaled very deeply and held it a moment, as though the oxygen in his lungs was strengthening him, preparing him for the words that he was about to have to say. At long last, he released the air and said, "I've always run away. I can't anymore. I was running when Greyback caught me the first time - running from a family whose affection I'd never have, then Greyback and the pack... I thought at first that they cared for me, I was young and naive and I misunderstood their abusive attacks as affection because... well it was all I knew. And I ran from them the moment I was old enough. I've run from Greyback for years, fending for myself. Professor Dumbledore found me and recognized a fight in me and he offered me a place of solace and safety. This castle." Ned laughed, eyes sparkling with affection for the memory, "Dumbledore said people have been running away to Hogwarts castle for centuries; it is amongst its walls that the truly homeless have found their place; you are welcome there, always."