unspoken war-t.scamander ✔️

02 x 21

THE NEXT MORNING, THE GROUP ARE SEATED IN THE HOG'S HEAD, perched on chairs — or in Madeleine's case, a table.

Theseus stands nearby, cradling the Qilin like a baby and glancing every so often to the blonde Auror who was playing with Stan.

Newt was inside his case.

The magizooligist pops his head up and Theseus walks over to him. He gently hands the Qilin to his brother and Newt carefully lowers himself and the magical creature into the case, as Theseus, Bunty and now Madeleine, watch on.

A few minutes later, the five witches and wizards are all ready to go up to the castle ( Bunty has already left ).

Madeleine says goodbye to Aberforth, and whistles to Stan, who has fallen into a nearby plant pot.

She turns to follow Newt out of the pub door but a gently grab of her wrist stops her.

She turns to see Theseus stood over her and rolls back her lips before locking eyes with him and giving a bright, soft smile.

"Hey. What?" She asks.

"Are we going to talk? About last night?" He asks, not looking he in the eye.

"What do you mean?" She replies, smirking slightly.

"We..." he lowers his voice, glancing around, "we kissed, Mads!"

"Yeah. And? What's the big deal?" She says. The blonde turns her head to look at him more directly and raises an eyebrow with a smirk, "did you not like it, Mr Scamander?"

"Oh no, I very much liked it, Miss Sinclair." He replies, matching her smirk.

"Then there's nothing to talk about," she says and winks at him before departing. He stares after her, a smile toying on his lips.

Theseus let's out a breathless chuckle and shakes his head before following after her.

LALLY, NEWT, THESEUS, MADELEINE AND JACOB WALK THROUGH the 7th floor corridor in Hogwarts, towards an ornate door emerging from the wall at the far end.

Madeleine smiles fondly at the familiar sight.

Moments later, they appear in a sparsely, appointed room. To the far end of the room, six cases — all identical to Newt's — stand in a circle in front of a huge, ornate Bhutanese prayer wheel. Bunty standing beside him.

"Hey, Newt," Jacob asks in clear confusion, "what is this place?"

"The room we require."

Dumbledore walks into view and immediately gets everyone's attention ( except Madeleine's, who's wandering over to the Bhutanese prayer wheel and staring at it in the uttermost satisfaction and curiosity ).

"I trust all of you have the tickets that Bunty gave you?"

Everyone nods and Theseus watches Madeleine do so absentmindedly as he le fingers trace the patterns of the wheel.

"You'll need them to gain access to the ceremony," Albus continues. The man's eyes shift to Newt who was staring at the circle of cases, "what do you think, Newt? Can you tell which one is yours?"

Newt shakes his head, "no."

"Good. I'd been worried if you could."

"I assume the Qilin's in one of these cases?" Lally questions.

"Yes."

"Well, which one is it?"

"Which one indeed."

Jacob speaks up, "oh it's like a three-card monte thing," the others eye him, "like a shell game thing. Like a short con," he shrugs, "never mind, it's a muggle thing!"

"Grindelwald will do anything with his power to get his hands on our rare friend, therefore it's essential we keep whoever he dispatched on his behalf guessing so the Qilin gets to the ceremony safely. If by teatime, the Qilin — not to mention all of us — are still alive, we should consider our efforts a success!" Dumbledore tells them and puts his head and scarf on.

He clocks Madeleine and whistles two quick notes, saying her name, and getting her attention.

"Hmm? Oh, right."

    She takes a step back, taking one last look at the wheel before turning and joining Theseus and Newt.

    "For the record, no one ever died playing three-card monte." Jacob says.

    "An important distinction," Albus replies, "all right, everyone choose a case and we'll be on our way. Mr Kowalski, you and I will proceed first."

    "Me? Okay..."

    Jacob steps forward and picks a case, then stops as Albus clears his throat and shakes his head at him. Jacob selects another and points at it, picking it up after Dumbledore nods and turns away.

    The muggle nods before glancing around with a frown, as if looking for an exit.

    The prayer wheel glitters and Madeleine's eyes widen. Dumbledore reaches out and touches it, a beautiful glow filling the room.

    "I'm looking forward to you educating me a little further on the finer points of three-card monte."

    He looks over at Jacob and holds out his hand.

    "My pleasure."

    The muggles takes his hand and together they disappear into the wheel as it spins, rapidly.

    "Bloody hell," Madeleine murmurs in awe.

    The rest consider the cases.

    "Well, good luck everybody," Bunty says, kindly.

    Madeleine smiles and salutes her, "right. Tally-ho!"

    She turns to Theseus and quickly presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth before winking at Lally and Newt and walking quickly forward.

    She grabs a random case from the circle and vanishes into the wheel, Stan flying closely behind.

————— NOTE FROM POPS!!

    Theseus is already whipped lmao. And I love how fascinated Maddy was with the prayer wheel. She's so cute.

   And they're now at the election. Maddy scene with Grindelwald's people is going to be great, she's going to be so sarcastic!!