The Farland Files

Scamander Family Manor, New York

A/N: I'm sorry :}

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"Have you had other visitors?" It was one of the days that Credence had met her in the kitchen instead of by her bed, Newt humming from the other room as he worked on sketching the creatures that he loved so much in his office.

Humming, Credence moved one of the chess pieces on the board that was set on the small table between them. "Some. We used to have many once upon a time." He met her eyes with his own dark ones, a small smile curling on his lips. "None have lasted as long as you- this house is not a place for people who are used to the ordinary."

Lena nodded, moving one of her pawns before putting her chin in her hand and giving in to her curiosity. "The wind. The shutters bang and clatter, the howls of the wind sounding like screams."

Raising his eyes slowly from where he'd just moved his rook, Credence stared at her, the newly-maroon eyes holding something dark and almost warning in them. "Oh, darling... The wards keep out the wind."

Her hand that had been reaching for her Queen stilled, looking at the man calmly even if something prickled with unease at the look in the other's eyes. She almost stopped herself from asking out of self-preservation, but the curiosity was all too strong. "Newt. I asked him what he was watching one time when I saw him up during the night staring out the window and-... he said that he was watching the decay of life. It was very... very windy that night, I remember."

They stared at each other.

His eyes seemed to leach of color, back to being dark and unreadable.

"What would you want for lunch?" Standing, Credence tucked his hands into his pockets calmly as he started from the room. "I was planning to make a bigger dinner, but-"

"Credence."

The man stilled with his hand on the door.

It was silent- eerily so, as the humming from the other room had stopped.

Turning to look at her with black eyes, deep and bottomless, the man gave her an unreadable look. "I will go check the wards- that's strange, your hearing wind, though they are quite old and have holes sometimes."

He left, steps silent, and a moment later the humming started up again.

Lena looked back at where the black king was laying on its side and felt something akin to dread pool in her stomach though she could do nothing but sit in her chair and listen to Newt hum 'London Bridge Is Falling Down'.

Now...

Now it felt wrong.

It had been a bad day, Credence there and yet not as if she could feel him close by but no matter how hard she looked she couldn't find him, and Newt had been in one of his episodes where he'd thought she'd just shown up- the episodes in which he'd usually ask her about her family and wanting to hear her whole story about Voldemort and why she was here alone for the millionth time.

Only this time he'd looked at her with that kind smile of his and asked if she was in pain.

Lena, only pausing for a moment to think, spoke truthfully. "All life is pain and all love is suffering, but that is what makes us human, is it not? Dealing with that every day and finding a reason to continue until fate decides that we have suffered enough and takes us to a place beyond such pain?"

Newt's eyes were strangely serious, nodding at her words slowly. "Yes, but if a bird was laying in your path with its wings broken and its feathers slicked with oil... wouldn't you wish to give it peace?"