Rain pattered on banana leaves... uh, were there banana plants in London?
Douglas sat in the study. Dobby had tidied the guest room and prepared everything, waiting for tonight's guest to arrive.
He twirled a pen while looking over the material in his hand.
The flames in the fireplace suddenly leaped higher, and with a faint pop, an old man in a dark blue coat stumbled out of the fire.
Dobby got up and hurried to steady him.
"Oh, thank you, Dobby." Newt patted down his clothes, but never set down the suitcase in his hand.
No sooner had he spoken than a blur shot out of the Fortune Basin on the table and made straight for Newt.
Douglas's Niffler, Wangcai, climbed up Newt's boots onto his coat, seized an orange-yellow brass button, and squeaked greedily, desperately trying to stuff it into the pouch on his belly.
"Wangcai! Get down!" Douglas laughed and stopped Dobby, who was about to give Wangcai a Galleon. "That's Mr. Scamander's coat, not your personal cash machine."
"It's all right, Douglas, it's all right. A very healthy Niffler."
Newt's gaze immediately softened. Rather than roughly pulling Wangcai off, he slowly extended his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers precisely against the third joint of Wangcai's jaw, and began gently rubbing counterclockwise circles.
"Squeak... gurrr..." Wangcai's tense body instantly relaxed. His little black eyes narrowed comfortably into slits, and his two little paws involuntarily released the brass button, though habit still made him instinctively cover his belly.
Douglas glanced over his clothes. He clearly had not come straight from Egypt, so Douglas asked in puzzlement, "You didn't come straight from Egypt?"
Newt let go, and Wangcai reluctantly took a Galleon from Dobby before running back to his Fortune Basin.
Newt smiled at the sight