Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them left Harry Potter fans with quite a few unanswered questions. Fortunately, there are four more movies to fill in the blanks. One questions fans are asking after the first film is what exactly did Newt Scamander do to get expelled from Hogwarts? And how come he didn't have his wand confiscated, as Hagrid did when he was kicked out of the wizarding school. (Fantastic Beasts spoilers ahead!)
A fan asked J.K. Rowling why Newt was allowed to keep his wand, do magic and work for the ministry after he was expelled from Hogwarts. Here's J.K. Rowling's rather concise but promising response...
All will become clear. Trust her.
Well, J.K. Rowling isn't typically one to leave questions unanswered forever. And given that Newt is a central character in this magical new franchise, we have no doubt that Fantastic Beasts will fill us in on what exactly happened to Newt Scamander at Hogwarts.
The first film doesn't give us a lot of information on Newt's expulsion, but the subject does come up when Graves is interrogating Newt. He notes that Newt was thrown out of Hogwarts for endangering human life with a beast. Newt assures him that it was an accident. And Graves adds that Dumbledore argued strongly against Newt's expulsion.
So, we know Newt had Dumbledore's support, and that whatever happened may not have been his fault, which very well could have factored into him being allowed to keep his wand, and even go on to work for the Ministry of Magic. But there's clearly more to the story, and from what J.K. Rowling says, it sounds like we're going to get it.
There's one other major clue in Fantastic Beasts about Newt's Hogwarts days, and that's in the form of the photo of Leta Lestrange, which sparks Queenie's curiosity. She pries into Newt's mind to see whatever memories he's carrying of his relationship with Leta. Whatever she sees embarrasses Newt, and Queenie notes that minds are easiest to read when the person is hurting. Newt denies that he's still hurt over the situation, but it seems like maybe Queenie is on to something there. Queenie acknowledges that they had "a real close friendship," to which Newt says:
Yes, well, neither of us really fitted in at school.
Newt and Leta were very close friends for years. But according to Queenie, Leta LeStrange was a taker. (I think the implication there is that maybe, at least on some level, Leta took advantage of Newt, but that's just my interpretation of the taker/giver comment.)
We don't know for sure if Leta LeStrange played a big role in Newt's expulsion, but it seems fair enough to assume she was involved in some way.
What we do know is that Newt was in love with her, and according to David Yates, he's still in love with her. So there's undoubtedly some unfinished business between those two. Yates also confirmed that we'll see Leta Lestrange in the second film. He goes on to describe her as "damaged and confused" and very much having a power over Newt. The fact that he calls her a "tragic figure," added to what Newt says about her not fitting in at school makes me think it would be too big an assumption to paint Leta as an all-out villain, or even assume she's to blame for Newt's expulsion in some way. If anything, it sounds like she has her own troubled background, which may have proven to be toxic for Newt in some way, but we'll have to wait and see what the real story is there.
Either way, Leta Lestrange will definitely be in the next Fantastic Beasts 2. As to whether or not we'll get the full story of Newt's expulsion in the second movie remains to be seen. Rowling doesn't promise that the explanation is coming in the sequel, just that it'll be revealed at some point, presumably in the coming films. Fantastic Beasts 2 is expected to be set mostly in Paris, as well as the U.K., and though there's a chance we'll see Hogwarts in the sequel, based on what David Yates says, that part is still up in the air.
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