[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 288 - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Hermione rubbed the back of her head, which ached fiercely from the impact, and a name instantly surfaced:

"Niffler?"

She looked again at the man sprawled on the ground, blue coat, groaning in pain, and Hermione's pupils contracted slightly.

This suitcase. This gold-obsessed Niffler. And that face.

"Newt Scamander?"

Where on earth had she landed this time?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?

Hermione did a quick scan of the vintage surroundings.

It really did look like 1926 New York.

"My back..." Newt peeled himself off the ground, grimacing, one hand pressed to his lower back, his eyes finding Hermione with visible confusion. "Miss, where exactly did you fall from?"

She'd recognized the Niffler. That meant she was one of them, a witch.

"Apparition went a little wrong."

Hermione lied without blinking, dusting herself off and quietly thanking her lucky stars she'd had a human cushion to land on. Two rough arrivals back to back, and without that she'd have been in pieces.

"An Apparition mishap?" Newt's eyes went wide. "And you didn't Splinch yourself?"

He looked her up and down, openly astonished.

"Who are you? How do you know me?" Something seemed to click. He asked both questions at once.

"Hermione Granger."

She offered her name. "As for you — you're something of a minor celebrity. More or less."

Before the words were fully out, the Niffler's eyes lit up like lanterns. It dropped the Galleon it had been clutching, launched itself at her in one clean bound, snatched up the Time-Turner fragments, and scurried up onto Hermione's shoulder in a flash. Then it buried its nose in her hair and sniffed her all over, letting out a low, satisfied churr.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!"

Newt's cheeks went pink. He looked away, fidgeting. "It... it must have sensed something extraordinarily valuable on you. You'd best be careful — try not to draw attention to what you're carrying."

He studied Hermione's face. Sixteen, seventeen at most. Probably some young witch from one school or another, out seeing the world, magical ability clearly on the weaker side, otherwise her Apparition wouldn't have gone this badly wrong.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I've got plenty of treasures. Hard to say which one caught its attention."

She retrieved the fragments from the Niffler's grip and added, "This one isn't for you. Take something else."

With that, she produced a small heap of glittering trinkets as though pulling them out of thin air, smooth polished dragon scales, fragments of goblin metal with a cold metallic gleam, and several gemstones engraved with intricate runes.

She held the pile out to the Niffler without ceremony. "Here. Play with these."

The Niffler snatched the new toys with both paws and immediately started rolling around on her shoulder, delighted.

Newt stared.

Any single item in that pile would fetch serious money. Some of them were rare alchemical materials he'd only ever read about in books.

This girl, barely past sixteen by the look of her, had just casually handed over a small fortune.

He racked his brain. Which ancient pure-blood family had this kind of wealth and went by the name Granger?

He caught the trace of a British accent and asked, hesitantly, "Are you a student at Hogwarts?"

Hermione didn't answer. Her gaze sharpened, fixed on a point somewhere behind him, and then she smiled.

"Newt — we've been so busy chatting you haven't even noticed you're being followed."

Newt went still.

Before he could react, Hermione's wrist turned and her wand was already in hand.

She didn't bother with an incantation. She flicked the tip toward the shadows of the alley beside them, and an invisible force yanked a woman in a dark trench coat clean out of her hiding spot.

The woman's wand flew from her grip. Hermione plucked it out of the air without looking.

The whole thing took about two seconds.

Newt's jaw went slack.

That was nothing like average magical ability. A seasoned Auror would have been hard-pressed to make it look that effortless.

He turned to the woman now standing exposed in the open and frowned. "Who are you? Why are you following me?"

The woman pressed her lips together. Her eyes were defiant. She said nothing.

Hermione looked her over. She already knew exactly who this was, but she let her expression go deliberately inscrutable, narrowing her eyes as if reading something invisible.

"Let me see... Former Auror of the Magical Congress of the United States of America. Tina Goldstein, correct?" She tilted her head. "You've been tailing Mr. Scamander because his Niffler slipped out of hiding outside the bank just now, and you caught the whole thing."

Tina's face drained of color. She stared.

"You're a natural Legilimens?"

Then Auror instinct took over. She drew herself up. "You illegally brought magical creatures into the United States. I'm placing you under arrest."

Hermione scoffed and tapped her wand. "Incarcerous!"

Ropes materialized from nothing and coiled around Tina in an instant, pulling tight, locking her in place.

"There." Hermione dusted her hands off with quiet satisfaction and turned to Newt, who was still staring. "Do you know Nicolas Flamel?"

The Time-Turner was a total loss. She could synthesize a new one from scratch, but that would only produce the most basic version, good enough to send her somewhere backwards, not forward. To modify one capable of safely working forward through time, back to her own era, that would take a master alchemist. One who had been practicing his craft for over 600 years.

"Nicolas Flamel?" Newt looked genuinely startled. "He's one of Professor Dumbledore's closest friends. But only Dumbledore knows where he is. And the professor isn't at Hogwarts at the moment, no one knows where he's gone."

"That does make things complicated." Hermione rubbed her chin. "It seems I'll have to stick with you for a while. At least until Dumbledore reaches out."

"Stick with me?" Newt's expression fell. He already had more than enough complications in his life. He didn't need another one.

Hermione said nothing. She simply lifted her chin and let her wand drift, almost idly, toward the woman trussed up on the ground like a dumpling.

"You could always keep her company instead," she said pleasantly. "I imagine MACUSA's holding cells are quite roomy."

Newt's throat moved.

He looked at the former Auror, furious, helpless, radiating impotent outrage. He looked at Hermione, hand on her hip, expression broadcasting don't try me in every direction. His mind ran back through those three flawless moves she'd pulled in the span of a breath.

He made his choice.

"Ahem. Delighted, Miss Granger." He gave a small, dignified nod. "My pleasure entirely."

A beat of silence.

He glanced carefully at the Niffler, which was still perched on Hermione's shoulder, happily sorting through its new alchemical treasures, and cleared his throat.

"So... my Niffler. Might I have it back?"

➤ Next: Freeze! This Is a Robbery!