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merrinpippy · 8 years ago

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Everything’s Fine in the Beast Division

Written for the Tomarry Valentine Exchange. I will publish the five chapters throughout the next three days, this of course being the first. Happy Valentine's Day @clarisselwyn (or @voldemortsheart)! I hope you like it! :)

Also on archive, with the second chapter too: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9697649/chapters/21888392

It was raining outside when Harry took the lift up to Level 4 of the Ministry of Magic, except it wasn’t technically actually raining and ‘outside’ meant in the fake windows of each of the ministry’s department levels.

The ministry employees in the lift with him were staring, but Harry was used to that after eighteen years of being publically known as the only person to ever have survived the killing curse as a child. He had already been sent multiple letters from the Department of Mysteries inquiring if he might allow them to run some invasive tests for an undetermined amount of time. Harry had ignored these letters, but the presence of the strange Unspeakables might be one of a few downsides predicted by the Weasley twins to his time here at the ministry. However, the strange fluttering in his chest wasn't nerves, but the snitch he made a habit of keeping on his person.

It had been (whether he knew it or not) an aspiration of his ever since he was young, to be an auror. The idea had been planted when he’d learned of his parents’ murders, and nothing had replaced it since. It was the only thing he could think of that offered meaning to his life as he’d never really felt a calling from anything other than Defence Against the Dark Arts, except perhaps Quidditch. But as well as he’d done in Concealment and Disguise, Stealth and Tracking, and Magical Jurisprudence, his knowledge of Dangerous Beasts had been mysteriously lacking (Harry loved Hagrid dearly but flobberworms were unlikely to come up in auror training).

So Luna had spoken to a close friend of hers that happened to be the leading authority on magical creatures and now Harry was here, stepping out of the lift in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, on his way to begin an apprenticeship with Newt Scamander.

Harry was the only one getting out of the lift on this floor, so he couldn’t ask any of them where the Beast Division was. The first thing he noticed as he looked around was a litter of kneazles being cooed at by what seemed like half of the department and certainly everyone in the room, on the couch in the corner of the room.

The room itself looked quite like the auror office except much more relaxed and more spacious, a quality Harry much preferred. There were plaques on each of the doorways branching off, and Harry made it halfway to the one that read ‘Beast Division’ before anyone noticed him.

Though quite a few members of the crowd seemed like they wanted to talk to him, a red-haired woman dressed in clothes that looked more muggle than magical thrust a kneazle into one of their arms and forbade them from following her. Harry watched on with some trepidation as she jogged over to him and shook his hand.

“Mathilda Grimblehawk, investigator, good to meet you. Of course I know who you are, the famous Harry Potter in our department! If you’ll just follow me I can take you to Newt’s office straight away.”

Bemused, Harry did follow Mathilda into the Beast Division, another large room with more branches off of it. This room was even more relaxed, with a multitude of couches, coffee tables, stacks of books and strange ornaments placed haphazardly around. If Harry’d had to guess what the place would look like, he wouldn’t have guessed this- he could barely reconcile this image with that of the dull, stern Ministry he knew. But, he supposed that if Newt Scamander worked here, he shouldn’t be too surprised...

“We do take our work seriously, I swear,” Mathilda was saying. “But when you bring in a particularly vicious kneazle who turns out to be a new mother of five, there’s no passing up the opportunity. Except for Newt and Mr Barebone, but they practically live inside that suitcase anyway- here we are!”

The door that Mathilda knocked on read: ‘ Newton Scamander and Credence Barebone | Investigators and consultants in various sub-departments of the Beast Division ’. Harry didn’t think this really clarified what they did, but he supposed he’d find out soon enough.

When the door opened, it was decidedly not Newt that answered. A pale-skinned man with black hair and a shy demeanor opened the door- Credence, Harry assumed.

“Hi, I’m Harry Potter-?”

Credence nodded slightly. “Newt’s waiting for you,” he said quietly, and opened the door further to invite him in.

“I’ll see you later Harry!” Mathilda said as the door closed, but Harry did not get a chance to answer her.

The office was rather plain, the seat, desk, and few sets of drawers not doing much to fill the space. The only notable object was a suitcase on the floor which Harry immediately recognised in its infamy. Without preamble, Credence opened the suitcase and disappeared inside, however a second later he resurfaced and said, “There’s a ladder.”

There was indeed.

It was like Harry had apparated into a cottage somewhere far away- the space was massive, reminiscent of (but infinitely more impressive than) Mr Weasley’s tent that they’d stayed in at the Quidditch World Cup.

Shelves were filled to the brim with tools and odd devices, items of clothing were scattered around, and plants made their homes in the most impulsive of places. There was a desk here too, covered in papers with scribbles and sketches. It gave the impression of being heavily lived in, and Harry could only describe it as cosy.

“It used to be more of a shed,” Newt said, bringing Harry’s attention to the kindly freckled wizard in one of three doorways. “But when Credence came to stay I thought I’d enlarge it a little. Though Credence has disappeared for the moment- he’s not particularly comfortable around strangers.”

“It can’t help that his name has barely left the papers even after all this time,” Harry said, having seen many times the Prophet’s articles about the ‘extremely dangerous Obscurial let loose on Britain’. He could say from experience that it was not at all fun being pestered by the wizarding media, and he couldn’t imagine how bad Credence had it.

Newt smiled, though, seemingly appreciating Harry’s sympathy. “Quite,” he replied, and stepped forward to shake Harry’s hand. “How about I show you to your room?”

“Room?” Harry said, confused.

Newt only smiled again, a twinkle in his eye as he led Harry out of the room. Down a short hallway were doorways to four rooms. Newt turned to face Harry, tapping one of the doors with his wand and leaning against the doorway as it opened.

“Credence and I sleep here more often than not, just for convenience. You can go home if you want of course, but you have a place here too for as long as you want to stay.”

Harry couldn’t bring his eyebrows down from the top of his forehead. “Wow, Mr Scamand-”

“Please, call me Newt.”

“Newt. This is very generous of you, thank you so much,” Harry said earnestly.

“Oh, it’s nothing really. I’d like to show you around a bit if you’re amenable, so you can leave your rucksack in here for the time being.”

Harry, who’d all but forgotten he was even carrying a rucksack at this point, did just that.

“Are you a herbologist as well as a magizoologist?” Harry asked as they returned to the main room, eyeing the various species of plant hanging or lying around the place.

“It’s just a hobby, really,” Newt dismissed. “Well, that and some of the plants made good feed. While we’re on the topic- how much do you know about beasts?”

Harry grimaced. “I’ve read the most recent edition of Fantastic Beasts, but other than that my knowledge is mostly limited to hippogriffs, flobberworms, and blast-ended screwts.”

“All fine creatures in their own way,” Newt said lightly. “How about I show you some of mine?”

The outside of the cottage-area was even more magnificent than the inside. It was like they’d entered another dimension completely, so different was the change. He was sure that there wouldn’t even be enough space in an entire level of the ministry to hold the many vast habitats that Harry could see, from desert to rainforest to glade.

“You’ll recognise these,” Newt commented, pointing to a couple of screwts. Harry wrinkled his nose. He could go the rest of his life never seeing one of them again and not lose any sleep over it, but he took care not to say this aloud.

Newt took him for a tour around the habitats pointing out creatures, most of which Harry recognised in some way but some of which he did not.

“Are those hives? Do you have magical bees?” Harry asked, intrigued at a pair of normal-seeming beehives but keeping his distance.

“Oh no, these are just normal bees,” Newt assured, coming to stand next to Harry. “They’re endangered, don’t you know?”

Harry turned to grin at Newt only to catch sight of something dark in a secured area behind him. “That one I recognise too. Creepiest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen dementors in person.” Harry pointed and Newt followed his line of sight.

“Ah, the lethifold? Maybe I did make it seem a bit ominous. There’s no need to worry, though- it’s contained and even if it wasn’t it only attacks people when they’re asleep.”

“In a really horrifying way.”

“Well, yes. But I imagine it would be very friendly if we got to know it better,” Newt said. Harry was quickly seeing the Hufflepuff in this man.

He decided to let it go.

“You know, I actually remember reading about the dementors at Hogwarts in the Prophet,” Newt said as they moved on once again. “Weren’t they there for reasons involving you?”

Harry grunted noncommittally, and he thought Newt would have left the subject alone if Credence hadn’t come out to meet them, having heard part of their conversation.

“Dementors at a school for him?” Credence asked. “Why would you think that?”

“Harry’s something of a celebrity,” Newt said, grinning good-naturedly at Harry. “He’s always in the Prophet for the most minor of reasons, which you’d know if you read it ever.”

Credence frowned. “I don’t like the Prophet,” he replied, and Harry couldn’t have agreed more with Credence if he tried.

“The Prophet’s been hassling me ever since I came to Hogwarts,” he said with a note of bitterness. “Doesn’t want to leave me alone because of a stupid scar on my head. Can't go one week without five reports on what I happened to have for lunch yesterday. Rita Skeeter especially.”

Credence was looking at Harry as if reevaluating him, while Newt wore an approving smile. Harry felt his face redden at his own outburst and he said no more.

What he didn't feel, however, was the snitch in his breast pocket. Frowning, he patted at it. The snitch was gone.

“Something wrong?” Credence asked.

“Something missing,” Harry replied, trying to remember if he’d left the snitch with his rucksack.

“Something shiny?” Newt asked, his eyes fixed on something by the cottage.

Harry and Credence both followed his gaze to something small, dark and moving. Even from this distance, though, Harry could make out his snitch’s feeble attempts to escape the creature's grasp.

“Honestly, niffler,” Newt groaned. He jogged back towards the cottage, trailing Credence and Harry behind him.

The niffler, likely having spotted them, disappeared inside the cottage. Newt didn’t miss a beat following him in and then locking the door behind them when Harry and Credence joined him.

And then there was chaos.

Harry didn’t know so many things could be uprooted by one spell, but Newt managed to both find and cast said spell in an attempt to catch the niffler. What resulted, however, was the contents of the living room minus the niffler being flung and suspended in the air. The firewood narrowly dodged Harry’s head and dashed the three of them in soot.

“Why do you even own a snitch in the first place?” Credence asked offhandedly, as if this was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was.

“First snitch I ever caught in a game. Dumbledore gave it to me as a birthday present a few years back.”

Newt had located the niffler. He dove left to cut it off while Credence dove right. Harry braced himself to catch the niffler if it slipped between the two. It did. Harry did not catch it.

“Was that the one you caught in your mouth?” Newt asked, slightly out of breath.

“Don’t- don’t tell me you read that in the Prophet too!” Harry yelped as a flower pot previously suspended in midair fell. Harry caught it right before it hit the floor and set it down, while Newt and Credence were surrounding the bookcase the niffler was hiding in.

“No, this time Luna told me,” Newt answered over his shoulder.

Harry frowned, joining them and trying to figure out which cranny the niffler had stuffed itself in. “But she wasn’t even at the school when it happened, why would she know about that?”

Newt paused and turned to look him in the eye. “Harry Potter plays his first ever game of Quidditch and catches the snitch in his mouth?! In Hogwarts, it would be stranger if she didn’t know.”

Of course, the niffler chose that moment to make a mad dash for freedom, slipping between them once again and scurrying underneath the table. Other objects were falling now too; Harry juggled what he could catch in his hands, tossing them haphazardly onto the table that Newt and Credence were attempting to cover. An unfortunate few of them were potions, hopefully harmless, which sprayed them in strange colours as they smashed.

“Accio niffler,” Harry tried, and then “Accio snitch,” but neither actually worked. He almost suggested that they leave the niffler alone (at least for now) but felt that it would be somewhat rude.

“Watch the ladder!” Newt yelled- the niffler was climbing it to escape to the room above, and for once Harry was faster, climbing after it and leaping to block the door.

This room, being smaller and far less cluttered, was not the escape the niffler was hoping for. Newt and Credence, having climbed out of the suitcase after Harry, lunged at the niffler at the same time as Harry did, the result being the three of them lying in a heap, the niffler somewhere between them.

Feeling the brush of tiny wings, Harry grasped at the snitch and pulled it out of the tangle of bodies, thrusting his arm into the air. The snitch, for its part, immediately stopped struggling.

“I’ve got it!” Harry yelled triumphantly; Newt and Credence cheered; the door to the office swung open.

The three looked up from the floor in unison at the newcomers. The first Harry recognised as a very unimpressed Percival Graves, head of the DMLE. Harry’s face flamed as he realised exactly how stupid they looked, covered in plant dirt and other questionable substances in a pile on the floor. Harry’s hand was still in the air, clutching the snitch… he lowered it sheepishly.

The second man Harry had never seen in person, though he knew at once who it must be. Black wavy hair, perfectly styled. Porcelain skin. Limber and tall. Sharp, angled features, and handsome, oh so handsome… this had to be Tom Riddle, Permanent Secretary to the DMLE and Minister Picquery’s (unofficial) first advisor. If Harry wasn’t already bright red, he would blush again.

Riddle’s eyes met his and Harry looked back to Graves quickly, not wanting to be caught staring (though he was sure Riddle must have known).

“What on earth…” Graves started, but then shook his head and bent down to help Credence to his feet, shifting Harry and Newt around in the process.

A hand appeared next to Harry’s face and he looked up, wondering if Riddle meant the hand for Newt instead, but Riddle’s eyes were locked on Harry and he had no choice but to take the (soft! Firm! Warm!) hand and let himself be pulled effortlessly to his feet.

“Thanks,” Harry said quietly, unsure where he stood.

“Please don’t tell me that you three were playing some bastardised version of Quidditch when we came in,” Riddle said, and Harry looked down to the snitch and then at Newt.

Newt had pulled himself to his feet, taking the niffler with him and grinning. “Got him,” he said to Harry, who had to stifle a laugh. “Scourgify,” he added, cleaning himself and Harry.

Credence, on the other hand, had already been dusted off by a suspiciously personal Graves.

“So this is the new apprentice to the disastrous duo,” Graves commented at Harry wryly, the insult mollified somewhat by an affectionate hand on Credence’s shoulder.

“I had hoped that whoever it was would be a good influence on the pair, but I see I have misjudged,” Riddle replied.

Harry crossed his arms, indignant. “I’ve only been here for half an hour!” he said.

Riddle looked amused. “I’m not sure whether that speaks for you or against,” he remarked.

Graves cleared his throat. “As much as I’d like to hear the whole story- and I will be hearing it, by the way- there is actually a reason Tom and I dropped in.” He sighed. “There’s been a report of a large creature attacking a witch and a couple of muggles. We need you to identify it and tell us how to neutralise it, fast.”

“What about the other investigators? Grimblehawk, for example?” Newt asked, though it was clear his interest was piqued.

“All busy, but when we go into the field it’ll be with a bunch of my aurors to make up for it. Do you know of any creatures that are, and I quote, like a ‘giant red spidery thing’?”

The first thing to come to Harry’s mind was aromantacula, but that couldn’t be right because to his knowledge they weren’t red.

“You want to know how to neutralise it?” Newt asked. Graves nodded. “Alright. I might know what it is, but to be certain- and to trap it- I’ll need a moleskin pouch filled with three decoy detonators, a probity probe, spellotape, and a rubber duck.”

Riddle and Graves exchanged a look.

“Don’t you trust him?” Credence asked, but quickly amended this when he realised this was perhaps the wrong question to ask. “He’s the best magizoologist in the world, he knows what he’s doing.”

Riddle looked unconvinced, but Graves shrugged. “You boys wait here. We’ll get you your items, and then we’ll come up with a plan, get the aurors, and go.”

Riddle’s eyes met Harry’s one more time before he and Graves left the room, leaving Harry feeling a little flustered. A few seconds passed before he turned to Newt, who was returning niffler to the suitcase.

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

Newt beamed. “Absolutely.”

“And what’s that?”

“Breaking the rules. Look, I think I know what this creature is and I don’t want it neutralised! It needs to be studied. Objectively. By us.” Newt locked the suitcase and picked it up without a care. It was surprisingly trippy to witness. “The things I asked for were, naturally, pointless. But it will buy us some time so that we can get to it first without the aurors barging in and making a mess of things- no offence, Credence.”

“None taken,” Credence said with a smile. At Harry’s questioning look, he clarified. “Me and Mr Graves, we’re uh, dating.”

“Okay, but there’s a problem with that plan,” Harry said. “We don’t know where the creature is.”

Newt nodded. “I suspect Percival left that particular detail out on purpose. But it’s no matter, Queenie should be on her shift now, we’ll pay her a visit.”

Harry had no idea who this Queenie was, but he followed Newt and Credence from the office anyway. He slipped the snitch into his pocket where it was content to stay, safe from any wandering paws.

It had only been forty minutes.

#happy valentine's day!#tomarry #hp #harry potter #tom riddle #tomarrytine #my writing

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