______ backed away from Newt as he let go of her, confused. What happened? He thought to himself.

He should've trusted his first instinct: something had been wrong.

"I am so sorry," ______ whispered, her hands over her mouth. She could remember everything, and right now, there were so many thoughts and questions flowing through her mind: did I really just do that? Why did I do that? How could I have done that? "I, I didn't mean to, it was that drink,"

"Drink?" Newt asked, more confused than ever. He didn't know what to think right now, he just wanted to know what was going on.

"Yes, there was a drink..." she trailed off, trying to remember the name of it. So many things were going through her head, she had no idea which ones to lace. Getting off that potion felt like she just woke up from a falling dream, the one where you wake up right before you hit the pavement. She was sweating, and it was hard to focus on any thoughts. "I think it was called amore? Amor... amour... am..."

As she trailed off, a name popped into Newt's head. One he remembered learning in Potions class. "Amortentia?" he asked, and ______ nodded. Newt put his head in his hands. Of course it would be, he thought. You were foolish to think she would-

"Newt, what does amortentia do really? Because that was nothing like Maverick explained to me," ______ asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Newt couldn't look at ______ right now, not even at her lips. He was too embarrassed, too humiliated. He slowly began to speak, having trouble finding his words at first. "It's the world's most powerful love potion," he told her. "It can't replicate real love, but it makes the drinker obsessed with the inflictor."

______ put her head in her hands, sighed. "I'm so sorry," she told him again. "I am so, so sorry. He made you give it to me when he put you under that curse. I didn't mean to act that way." She shook her head, wanting to forget about what she just said. What she just did. Besides, there were more pressing matters at hand. "Newt, he was trying to distract us. He's still got your creatures, we need to find him."

Newt nodded, still in a daze. You're a fool to believe that kiss, Newt thought to himself. It was just a potion. He knew she was acting funny, and he was happy, he really was, that now she was out of it. Now it didn't have a claim on her. That didn't mean he wasn't allowed to feel a little down about it, right?

It had felt so right, it had felt so nice. It was as if finally all his feelings had just been realized. Everything made sense, why he connected with her so fast, why he went to such lengths to keep her safe from obliviation... why he trusted her so much. He didn't realize it until after, too much after.

He wanted to say something in that moment. He should've said something in that moment, back after he kissed her. But he was so confused, so happy, still trying to sort things out on his face, he had just stayed silent. He regretted it. He should've said something, anything...

Yet if he had, maybe it wouldn't have turned out well. After all, it was the amortentia talking to him, not her. Not really.

"Where do you think he'd go?" Newt asked her. He didn't think he might still be in the castle, but if he wasn't, he didn't know what else he would do. Where else could they look?

"Maybe the basement, or maybe..." she began, tailing off. "Maybe the roof. I remember seeing a passage way to the roof when I was in the basement."

"The roof?" Newt asked. "Why the roof?"

"I'm thinking he wants something out of your case. Whatever that might be, it might be too large to fit into a room in here."

"Too large?" Newt thought. "I can't think of anything that would be too large..." he trailed off. "Anyways, roof you said? Let's go."

He ran off, ______ following behind him. Neither of them were really making eye contact with each other, too embarrassed to think of what just happened. To even mention it.

They ran to the basement, and ______ hesitated for a moment. She hated being in here, just seeing the place made her want to turn around and run away. Never look back, never remember what happened here. Just looking at the room almost brought back all the pain that she had to go through in this room. Newt noticed this, stopping and turning around to face her.

No matter how humiliated he still felt, he was more concerned for her than how he was feeling.

"______, are you alright?" he asked, looking at her and going near her. She had just stopped in her tracks, looking frozen. When she didn't answer, he just kept talking. "Listen. As soon as we get my creatures back, we'll leave here and never come back. You'll never have to see this place again, we'll never have to speak about it."

"I won't forget it," she told him. "Not ever."

"You don't have to forget it. We just have to get pass it, and I promise, I'll do all I can to help with that. ______, we just need to get that case and get out of here. I don't want to do this without you." He reached a hand out to her, not forcing her to take it. He wouldn't make her come with him if she couldn't, but he didn't want to go up there alone. He really didn't. Just having her by his side made him feel like he had something to fight for, something else besides his case to get that wizard back for.

She met eyes with Newt. She could tell he wasn't lying, and she wanted more than anything to say yes to him. She could tell in his eyes there were no bad intentions, and he meant it. He meant it when he made that promise to her. She took a deep breath and took his hand.

"Let's do this," she told him, and he smiled. That's all he wanted to hear.

He ran over to the door she was talking about. "This is the one that leads to the roof?" he asked her, making sure.

"That's what he was saying, yes," she told him. Newt put his free hand on the knob, pulling it. No luck.

"It's locked," he whispered. He didn't have his wand, but that didn't mean he couldn't try a spell. He was never too good at spells without his wand, that's why he always preferred using his wand, even when apparating. Couldn't hurt to try though, could it? He put his hand over the knob again. "Alohomora," he said, but the spell just seemed to refract off the door. Newt sighed. "He used another spell to keep us out. Unlocking charm isn't working."

"Do you think we can just knock it down?" ______ asked.

"Can't hurt to try," Newt shrugged. He let go of ______'s hand and stood back, looking at the door. "Here goes nothing."

As he ran at the door in full force, he got a very good lesson on why he should just stick to unlocking charms.

The door refused to break down completely, and Newt fell back. "Newt!" ______ exclaimed, running up to him and helping him regain his balance.

"I think I'll just stick to an unlocking charm next time," Newt told her as he steadied herself. "Fat lot of good that did."

"What should we do?" ______ asked, looking at the door. "He's got to be up there."

Newt thought for a moment. He had an idea, but he wasn't sure how much she was going to like it. He didn't like thinking he had to do it, but there really wasn't any other way. "There is one way," Newt began, looking at her.

"What is it?" she asked, looking away from the door and into Newt's eyes. Just one look and it was like she could read her mind. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you sure?" asked in a small voice.

"You don't have to come, ______. You don't need to push yourself." Newt told her. He wanted to put her health before anything else, and knowing how well she reacted to apparating, this wasn't the way to go about keeping her in good shape.

"No, I'm coming with you," she told him, assuring herself. "I can take it, I promise. Come on, let's not waste anymore time." She wrapped her arms around his, like usual when they were apparating.

Newt took a deep breath in. "Alright," he told her, hesitating for a moment. "I should probably mention, I've never done this without a wand before, so I don't know how stable it'll be compared to the times before."

She hesitated for a moment. "Well... um... do you mind then?" she asked, letting go of his arm for a moment. She moved closer to his, wrapping her arms around him, embracing him closely. Newt looked down at her, a small blush creeping onto his cheeks before she explained, "I'd prefer to have a steadier place to hold on then."

"Right," he told her, pausing before they apparated. He wrapped his arms around her too, even resting his head on top of hers for a brief moment. "I should probably do the same. Here goes nothing."

With that, they were thrown into the familiar frenzy. ______ squeezed Newt tighter, closing her eyes and concentrating. She thought that maybe if she concentrated in on one thing, it would help the dizziness. It would help distract her from the spinning world around her, so she picked the closest thing to focus on: Newt. Specifically, how he smelt. He always managed to smell nice, but it was a hard scent to place. He smelt like the outdoors, an old spice, light sweat, a lit fire. He always managed to smell so nice, and it was something you couldn't shake from him. She always liked the way he smelt, even if she hadn't been conscious of it until now.

Suddenly, the spinning stopped, and ______ felt her feet on solid ground again. She stopped squeezing Newt so tightly, but the two still standing there hugging each other, she looked around. "Are you alright?" Newt asked, half out of habit. She always seemed to be sick after apparating, and now doing it without a wand, he hoped it wasn't worse.

"Fine," she told him, still looking around. At first glance, the roof seemed empty, but it couldn't be. She could feel it. That's when she looked down.

Newt's case was lying wide open.

"That can't be good," Newt muttered, following her gaze. He let go of her and took her hand again, running towards the case. He jumped into the case, ignoring the ladder, and reaching the bottom with a loud thud. She followed behind him, sliding down the ladder.

The first room was empty, but messy. You could tell someone had been in there. "That definitely can't be good," ______ spoke aloud.

"Let's go find everyone," Newt said, taking her hand and running. After all, she would get lost in there without him. They ran as fast as they could out of the room, going to check who was missing.

They looked and looked, but Newt couldn't tell who was missing. Everyone seemed to be there, but he knew that couldn't be true. There had to be someone missing, someone he miscounted, someone he missed...

The thought hit him like a train.

"No," he thought as soon as he remembered. "No, no, no, no..." he barraged, not knowing what else to say. That was the only word he could think of, the only emotion to match his situation.

"What is it?" ______ asked. "Newt, who's missing?"

"Swooping evil," he whispered. "He took swooping evil."

"Swooping evil?" ______ asked. "I don't remember you telling me about them."

"I didn't, I feed them separately from everyone else. They're nice and loyal once you tame them, but they do have their name for a reason. In the wrong hands..." he thought back to the mess in his main room, where he kept all his notes.

Where he wrote down every purpose and use for the venom of swooping evil.

"We have to go," Newt said, and just like that, they were running again. ______ had so any questions, but so much seemed to be happening at once, she didn't know what to think. They got back to his main room and climbed the main ladder, getting back onto the roof.

Newt picked up his case, closing it. "We can't have missed him," he spoke. "We can't have, he said before, he said he might need me, he wouldn't just leave..."

"You're right," they heard a voice from behind them, and the two spun around to see Maverick standing maybe ten feet in front of them. "I do need you. I have just one question..."

He pulled something out of his pocket, and Newt recognized it immediately. It was just as he suspected, just as he feared. Maverick was holding swooping evil in its cocoon form.

"How do you get this guy to come out?"