Sitting on her bed, Annie was trying to get her head out of Sleepland. Rubbing her eyes with her hands, she sighed with despair. Yes. Trying.
A little while earlier, Mr. Kowalski had woken her up and told her that Newt needed her help with the wounded Hungarian Horntail.
Apparently, while she was recovering from the attack, Newt had gone out on a little adventure God knows where to pick up the last ingredient of the antidote for the Horntail.
She did not know whether to fall in awe of his courage as she had been before coming here or to allow herself to be a bit more skeptical towards Newt's constant outings.
She wondered how his wife Tina felt about that. She imagined shy Newt trying to explain to a serious Tina how his new adventure is "totally safe".
She laughed and forced herself out of bed. Thankfully, her legs seemed perfectly fine now.
She opened the closet to look at potential options for an outfit while thinking, 'Newt's about to give the antidote to the Horntail. Probably, he wants me there because the magical beasts become timid around me.'
After looking at the clothes in her closet for some time, she finally settled on a black pair of trousers, a white buttoned-up shirt, and a lavender cardigan and thought, 'Looks cute.'
Nodding in satisfaction, she started changing. After she was done, she looked at the mirror and smiled as she pulled out the necklace from her mom on top of her shirt.
It had become a habit. All of this. Spending most of her time with Teddy in bed, discovering her special capabilities, and meeting people like Dumbledore daily. It had somehow become her life and she had come to live with it. She knew her parents were watching her, but that didn't make her cry anymore, it only brought a small sting in her heart. If only they were here with her.
She shook her head, thinking, 'No! Not again! I can't be sad again. I have to smile and think positively.'
She touched her necklace and closed her eyes, imagining that she was smiling at her mom with her smiling back at her. That was all she needed for her day to become good.
She opened her eyes, put her shoes on, and shouted, "Teddy!"
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SQUEAWK SQUEAWK
Teddy came out running from under the covers and jumped in her arms. He put his paws around her neck and sighed in contentment.
Annie laughed and said, "Come on, Teddy! Let's go! Newt's waiting for us."
Teddy's ears perked up at the mention of Newt's name and he looked at her as if saying "I miss my home. I want to see my house of gold. It's been so long."
"Okay, okay!", Annie tickled him and started walking towards the exit of the bakery.
Looking around, she noticed that everybody was caught up already in what seemed to be early in the morning.
Lucky her and… not so lucky them.
Excluding Kowalski, who was casually sitting behind the counter with his legs touching the edge of the table and eating a pastry or two slowly. He looked up at her and as if he was reading her mind, he winked and whispered with a naughty smile on his face, "You only get to be a boss once in a lifetime…. Or never."
Annie laughed while accepting a pastry from him and opened the door.
Amidst the crowds of people running on different businesses, Newt stood with his usual attire: a sweater and pants, slightly dirty from cleaning magical beasts, and holding the most famous suitcase I'm the world.
"Hello, you!", He greeted her with an awkward smile.
Annie smiled back and greeted, "Hello, you!"
Without saying anything, Newt opened the suitcase, pointed his hand toward the pitch-black darkness coming from below, and said, "You know what to do."
After already knowing what lay beneath, Annie did not hesitate and jumped inside it.
After a few moments with the wind blowing in her hair, she found herself on the ground of the suitcase. Unfortunately, she wasn't prepared to feel the pain in her butt again.
"Aaah!", She let out a small scream of frustration. She didn't think she would ever be prepared.
'Stupid butt! Stupid ground!', Annie thought in frustration.
She was just about to start kicking her feet in the air when she heard Newt falling right next to her with Teddy falling on her other side. He momentarily stood up and climbed into her lap.
"At least you don't fall on your butt," Annie murmured to him as she touched his head gently and stood up.
With one swirl of Newt's wand, the landscape changed from the familiar desert to a humid jungle.
"We need to be quiet.", Newt whispered to her, "Excluding the Horntail, there are other dragons here who are not very… used to strangers. Hell, they're not even used to me and I basically raised them up. We don't want a second attack in three days timing, do we?"
Even with the whispering, Annie could feel the shift in Newt's tone. As if he was becoming a different person when talking about magical creatures. Annie thought that because of the shock from recent events she did not pay attention to it.
After a couple of minutes of tiptoeing across the jungle, they arrived at the Horntail's territory.
Sitting behind a palm tree, the Horntail was staring at them with his yellow eyes that seemed too big for her.
Stepping carefully, Newt came next to the pained creature and took a flask out of his pocket. While looking at the Horntail's leg, Newt looked up at Annie and said, "Come here, he won't make this hard if you're next to him. Your calming presence is going to be very helpful."
Annie stared at the big yellow eyes that were staring back at her and thought, 'Well.. time to get shit done!'