The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

The Time Thief

The Time Thief

Newt Scamander leaned against the gates of Hogwarts, staring up at the castle. He'd sent a patronus to Dumbledore ten minutes prior and he was just standing and waiting for the Headmaster to come for them. Tina stood beside him, rubbing her arms against the cold as they waited, the air chill enough that their breath came out in tendrils of smoke before their faces. Newt clutched the handle of his briefcase and pressed his face to the gate, his eyes fixed on the castle. "Hurry up," he whispered. "Hurry up."

Tina watched the clouds pass overhead in the bright blue sky.

"Mr. Scamander, sir! Never 'magined it was you I was comin' down ter get!" It was Hagrid, the groundskeeper of the school. "Dumbledore sent me, o'course, ter unlock the gates, but I never would have thought it'd be you I was lettin' in!" he smiled about at Newt and Tina both. From behind him came Fluffy, barking with all three of his heads.

Tina's eyes widened and she looked at Newt, "You said you brought that Cerberus back to Greece."

"Yes, well. Yes, I was - uh, I mean to say that, honestly, I meant to, but -- things... things came up, darling," Newt stammered, his face going red - tips of his ears as scarlet as could be and he smiled sideways at her timidly.

Hagrid caught Fluffy up before the dog could slam into the wrought iron gates - though Fluffy was quite large, he looked like a small lap dog in Hagrid's very large arms.

Tina raised an eyebrow.

Newt looked at Tina, then back to the ground, flushed even more.

"Merlin's beard," she muttered. "A cerberus at Hogwarts! What's next, you're unleashing a erumpent on the first years?"

"Heavens, no. That would just be savage," Newt said, as though it were a true possibility. "They may enjoy the moon calves though... oh ... oh uh, no," he'd just realized she'd been being sarcastic, and he added, "Not, uh, unleashing anything else, no."

Hagrid meanwhile had gotten the keys off his belt loop and undone the gates of the school, stepping back to allow the pair of them onto the grounds and closing the gate again, clicking the lock. "Do yeh have some moon calves?" Hagrid asked eagerly, "I wouldn't mind ter see'em, like."

"Oh I have loads of creatures," Newt offered up, "Just loads! I can uh show - show you sometime, in my case - I - I most appreciated the meeting with Aragog two years ago, Mr. Hagrid, so, I - I reckon I do, uh, owe you one, if you wanted to come in my laboratory, we could -" He was quite excited at Hagrid's interest and then Tina cleared her throat, and Newt said, "After - after the meeting with Albus, of course - and uh, you know, we've taken care of the - the situation at hand."

"O'course," Hagrid said, but he was filled with so much excitement at the idea of going into Mr. Scamander's laboratory and seeing all the creatures that he had a bit of a skip to his step as he waved for them to follow as the hiss of the shield charms resuming echoed behind them.

Tina looked up at the school in awe - despite having come here many times in the last fifty years with Newt, she just wasn't quite used to the scale and beauty of Hogwarts with it's high towers and spires and the sloping grounds, all reflecting in the Black Lake...

They followed Hagrid across the grounds. "So what brights yeh back ter the school, Mr. Scamander, sir?" Hagrid questioned.

"Important uh Ministry business," Newt replied. "Top secret, you understand."

"I hear yeh, I hear yeh, very good." Hagrid nodded.

They reached the castle and Hagrid walked with them all the way up to Dumbledore's office, where he told the gargoyles about some pepper imps and they leaped aside. He watched as Newt and Tina climbed aboard that magical rotating staircase and waved.