7 The Expert

After waking up, I was left confused, upon not finding the bowtruckle on my shoulder. I honestly thought that I had dreamt about it all, but one look at the glass cage affirmed my mind that, no, it was all real. I patted myself all over my body, but still didn't find it anywhere, when I felt something moving atop my head.

It seems like it thought of the hairs on my head as some sort of grass. After carefully and gently removing him from my head, I put him on top of a table. It seems like he wasn't happy about having to part with my head, since it was making some truly weird noises. In order to appease it I quickly took the bonsai tree out the glass cage, and put it near the bowtruckle. I didn't want to make it angry, since bowtruckles can leave an adult wizard badly bruised when angry. It seemed my gesture calmed it down, since it slowly made its way to the bonsai tree, and climbed on top of it. Since, the bowtruckle was basically made of wood, it was very hard to see that it was there.

As it looked like it wasn't going to move anytime soon, I decided to look through the books I had collected about magical creatures. I looked through more than a dozen books, but still couldn't find anything that would explain their strange behaviour towards me.

As it was pointless to look through the books, I decided to just share this problem with the leading expert for magical creatures, Newt Scamander. Since, it was already evening, I decided to just go over there and be done with it.

Carrying the pot containing the bonsai tree in my hand, I apparated near his house, and quickly went up to ring the doorbell. I had to wait for a minute before the door opened to reveal Newt with another person, whom I didn't recognise. The other person had white hair, and could be anywhere, from his sixties to his seventies.

"Ah, Jerry, what are you doing here ?" asked Newt with a smile on his face. I quickly tried to think of any excuse I could tell here, since I didn't want to tell just anyone about my situation.

"Ah, Jerry be here to be delivering this tree from Jerry's master, dear Mr. Scamander." I just blurted out whatever came to my mind. I realised that I seriously suck at making excuses, if the expression on the other person's face was anything to go by.

"Hahahah. You don't need to worry about my friend here Jerry. I would trust him with my life. You can just be yourself, and say what you want to say. But first, please do come in" Wow, he really seemed to be enjoying my plight right now. He gestured for me to come inside his home, and I quickly went inside with him. The other person was walking right behind me, and I couldn't help but feel nervous about him. It did not help, that Newt hadn't introduced to me who he was. Sitting on a chair which Newt kindly offered, I waited for him and his friend to settle themselves down.

"So, what brings you here at this time, Jerry ? I assume it has something to do with that bowtruckle in your hands ? And, as I said previously, you can talk normally and openly here." Seeing the tension in my body, Newt tried to reassure me, and it did help. Newt was someone, who I would sacrifice a lot for. He had done so much for me, that I didn't even know what I could do to return the favour. Thus, even though I was apprehensive about the other person, I started to speak, since Newt had earned my confidence.

"Okay.... Well, I was looking through the different creatures in the Magical Menagerie, when I accidentally hit my head on a glass cage in which there was a bowtruckle. At first the bowtruckle was very angry at being knocked out of its tree, but as soon as it saw me, it immediately calmed down and put its hand on the glass cage. Not, only that, when I turned to look at the other cages, all the bowtruckles had climbed down from their trees, and had put their hands on their glass cage, as if asking me to take them with me. They didn't show even a hint of aggression towards me. So, do you have any idea what exactly happened here ?" I told him the whole story in a single breath, as I was a little bit excited.

"Hmm, Well, that's certainly quite peculiar. It might be possible that they were under some sort of spell, to act like that to attract customers, but that is highly unlikely, since it would need a wizard of great calibre like Dumbledore or my friend here, as they are generally unaffected by magic." Ok, now I knew he was trying to mess with me by telling me that, his friend was as strong as Dumbledore, or at least he considered him to be as strong as him.

Seeing my discomfort though, he seemed to smile slightly and once again said, "I am sure that you must be dying to know the identity of my friend here, but it's not my place to introduce him to you. It is entirely up to him, if he wants to introduce himself. Anyways, I doubt that there was any spell cast on those bowtruckles, but did you see any other creature behaving strangely around you ?" He asked, but I think he already knew the answer, and just asked me to confirm it.

"No, not that I can remember." I replied, and couldn't help but glance at the other person in the room who had been silent till now. He had been staring at me since we sat down, and I was starting to get a bit nervous.

"Hmm, have you ever had any encounter with another bowtruckle before this ? If you did, then how did it behave ?" He had his eyes closed and seemed like he was thinking really hard.

"You don't have any master, do you ?" a strange but quite soothing voice suddenly interrupted both of our thoughts. It was the only other person in this room who said that. I turned around and looked at him for a few seconds and then once again turned around to stare at Newt's face.

"Don't look at me like that. I didn't tell him anything at all. Ask him how he knows." Newt immediately defended himself against my accusatory glare.

"Ok, I will bite. How do you know about it ?" I asked with tense shoulders, ready to bolt out of here.

"The bowtruckles, are very aggressive, but there are two other creatures that they don't attack, as long as they don't directly harm them. One of them are the muggles, and the other are or were the elves." The white haired old man said with a simple expression on his face, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Oh, you knew about the elves ?" Even though Newt asked this question, his tone and expression told me that he wasn't that surprised. Okay, Now I needed to know who he was.

"Okay. Who the fuck are you, and how do you know so much about these things ?" Ah, I probably shouldn't have cursed....