#rppnet

The Aquavirius Maggot had made the day start out as interesting.

How could it not when the discovery was indeed strange as they were previously believed to be imaginary; instead it turned out that they were in fact, just rare. It led for a bump within the community as many magizoologists that still hadn’t given Lovegood and Scamander much credit to squirm in a hurry to apologize. Tom could see why; Rolf Scamander was the grandson of the world-famous Newton Scamander, the man that had changed the whole world and how classes were taught since his debut of his book. While Luna Lovegood, her own baffling entrance into the world had made many disciplined magizoologists  bewildered when they couldn’t fathom how she worked and made sense of the world. (Not that Tom was any closer into figuring her out too when their acquaintanceship began.)

Both Scamander and Lovegood reshaped the community since they started going on various expeditions throughout the globe as well, when they strolled into lectures to speak about their experiences and discoveries. Tom had heard of the commotion they began, and had been invested into the combination of enthusiasm they both had when he was added into their group as a bodyguard.  

(Again, he didn’t know how his skills in the defense against the dark arts came up as a means of working with the two of them. However, that didn't mean that he would complain since they all had such colorful and odd conversations he never had with the rest of the population. It had been an addicting connection he shared with them.  

And he would never cut himself from them if he could help it.)

Anyways, the new traction of finding them had most people to linger around what it meant underneath. About what it could say about any other supposedly made-believe creatures that could be wandering amongst them. And what it would mean about Lovegood’s insight as she was sensitive to the universe’s fabric as it was woven with magic. It had the same kind of attraction as seers were anchored with time and space. Always mysterious as it was dangerous at how complex it all worked but it still compelled many minds and personalities alike to solve the many riddles that the universe provided since life began its origin story. Since the introduction flocks of people came over to check them out. Instantly, the queasy and sensitive folks couldn’t stomach the vivid image of the Aquavirius Maggot, not that Tom had been surprised about it. Those creatures were hideous as they were disturbing. Morbid really that Luna Lovegood had been the type to coo at them as she had been the first person to record their sightings during her tour in America (of all places really, Tom couldn't say that he had been shocked that it had been the Americans, who were already known to be eccentric people, would be the ones to have such creatures reflecting them); either way her discovery had led him to accompany her to the states.

Business partners and friendly faces were all in his life now as Tom looked at the notes they've accumulated since her first sketches. The doodles have all been colored in and added with some anatomy notes that they had been able to properly label. Truly fascinating how one's perspective could dissolve and reattach itself when given the opportunity to do so.

Yet, he couldn’t help but feel so overwhelmed with the sudden thought of Scamander hearing about it— (seeing that he had been visiting some family at the time) because, if he did then that could only mean one thing.

The pinning and overall sighing of Lovegood and Scamander would share with the new materials for the new edition of the Creatures book that they were working on. Knowing those two well, he would have to pull in more knuts for fresh coffee and hot chocolate. He could already feel his back aching for the long nights of not getting his six-hour nap. Goodbye to his free hours of combing through his ever-growing letters and trying to be a normal functioning person.

Lovegood noticed his bent shoulders. “Oh Tom! Your aura suddenly spiked.” Her cold palms somewhat soothed his anxieties when he smelled ink, loose parchment and honey as she petted him. “Do you still have that charm I gave you last week? It should help ward off the nargles.”

(He didn't tell her that the one day he didn’t have the charm near him he had misplaced one of his journal logs and two pairs of socks that Scamander gave him from last Christmas.)

Not that he could comment about it when, said charm, that he left by his desk had been recently used as a bookmark for one of his journal logs he'd kept since they started studying the Aquavirius Maggot. He pulled it out from his satchel and saw how Lovegood smiled at him before grabbing it and tying it as a bracelet on his wrist. She mumbled an old prayer that had been coated with an older magic he used to study in uni, instantly his own magic picked up on her own and it sang happily as they mingled. His muscles loosened and he let out a long breath he didn’t know he was keeping.  

“There.” She whispered. Her loose hair still messy and wild shined when she peered at the window display where the Aquavirius Maggot were stored. The glow made her skin seem like porcelain.  

He had half listened to her assessments when she edited some of her first entries. It had been a strange road since he had met Lovegood and Scamander respectively, but when he gathered their belongings and walked over to their temporary office that the MACUSA branch provided during their studying, Tom was just happy to have met them.