Fantastic Beasts: Storm of the Thunderbird

Chapter 3

Tina hated traveling by portkey. The spinning sensation made her nauseous and dizzy in a way that apparition didn't. Once she shook off the lightheadedness, she was met by the sight of the beautiful Scottish highlands surrounding Hogwarts. The castle itself sat next to a beautiful lake. She had only been here once before, right after Grindelwald's rally. She remembered how much pain she had been in at the time. She had just witnessed her baby sister willingly join Grindelwald, after not speaking since their huge fight back in New York. Losing Queenie was one of the most heartbreaking things Tina had ever been through aside from the death of their parents. The only sure thing in life was that they would have each other, and they had been torn apart. Tina was surprised to feel a surge of anger at Queenie. After all they had been through, she had abandoned her without a second thought. She had been so selfish, she didn't care what it would do to Tina, or even to Jacob, the newfound love of her life. She left, and she didn't return for over a year. She knew Queenie couldn't hear her unless Tina wanted her to. After Queenie left, Tina began practicing occlumency out of anger. They began the walk down the hill toward Hogwarts, and Tina moved to walk closer to Newt. Every time she thought about why they were here, she felt like claws of fear were squeezing her throat. She hated feeling this helpless. She wanted to do something about it. Talking to Dumbledore was probably her best chance of that. Once they reached the absurdly long bridge to the gates of the school, Bunty approached her.

"Are you all right?" Bunty asked. Tina felt immensely uncomfortable having the source of her recent, and now secondary, stress ask her about her feelings. "I know it must be-"

"I'm fine!" Tina snapped. She quickly tried to cover her mistake. "Sorry. I'm fine." She sped up to walk toward the front of the group, and thankfully, Bunty took the hint and didn't follow her. They found Dumbledore at the top of the astronomy tower, just as he had specified to Lally. He turned, looking as calm as ever. Tina couldn't imagine looking that composed all the time. She thought she did a fairly good job of keeping her emotions in check, but sometimes it got too exhausting to keep up. Dumbledore seemed to be waiting for someone else to speak first. Newt was the first to step forward.

"Hello, Albus." He said. "I presume you know why we're here."

"That I do." Dumbledore responded. He turned to Tina. " Miss Goldstein, I'm going to be straight to the point. I believe I know why Grindelwald is after you." Tina felt sick all over again at the words, but she was also curious.

"Why? How do you know?" She asked.

"Have you ever heard the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Dumbledore asked instead of responding.

"Of course. That's the legend of the Deathly Hallows." Tina said. Where was he going with this?

"Well, I can assure you that, although they likely weren't made by Death himself, the Deathly Hallows are very real. For years now, Grindelwald has been in possession of the Elder Wand. But after my duel with him at the election, I could tell from the power of the wand that Grindelwald is no longer the true master of the Elder Wand. The allegiance has been won from him. The Elder Wand is notorious for being rather unreliable in it's trading of mastery, lingering longer with those it trusts and separating more easily from those with ill intent. One does not even need to relieve the master of the Elder Wand itself often times." Now Tina knew where this was going. "I'm not sure how or when, but I believe you may have won the allegiance of the Elder Wand from Grindelwald." Tina shook her head.

"But that's not possible! I haven't ever dueled..." But she had. Oh, she had. So long ago, she had dueled with Grindelwald, while he was disguised is Percival Graves. And not long after...

"At the train station." She said, not wanting the words to come out, but they did. "After Newt detained him, I... I summoned his wand from him. Is that really all it takes?"

"I believe so." Dumbledore sighed.

"But if it's that easy, why doesn't he just find me and disarm me? The wand would be his again!"

"Like I said, the wand knows who it wants as it's master. Besides his flare for dramatics, the only way to guarantee the wand changes allegiance would be to kill-" Dumbledore seemed to rethink his blunt words just a second too late. Tina was not about to fall apart again, especially in front of Dumbledore. She focused her mind entirely on the logistics, how the wand had been won from Grindelwald, and how they were going to stop him. She was so concentrated, she didn't even notice when she grasped Newt's hand next to her, but she did notice that she felt a little more comforted.

"So what can we do?" Newt asked. "How can we keep Tina safe?" Newt's voice brought Tina back to reality, and she realized she was holding Newt's hand. She let go, hoping it hadn't made her seem too nervous and desperate.

"Fortunately that is very possible. I have set up a series of safe houses all over the world, protected with the most powerful enchantments known to wizards. You will travel from location to location by portkey, and for extra security, no one will know when you are leaving a safe house, not even you, until the day of your departure. I hope you packed well enough, because the first portkey leaves in thirty minutes." Sudden sadness broke through the constant fear in Tina's mind.

"That's fine. I'm ready." She turned to the others. "Thank you all so much for coming with me. I hope you get back to New York safely."

"Are you out of your mind?" Queenie's exclamation surprised Tina. "You really think we're going to let you go into hiding alone?" Any anger she had felt toward her sister evaporated. As she scanned everyone's faces, the answer was clear. A warm delight swept over her, something she hadn't felt in a while. But she had to push it away. She couldn't be selfish.

"I can't let you put yourself in danger for me. Even with protection spells, there's no guarantee that Grindelwald won't still find me eventually." Tina said, looking at the floor. Queenie stepped forward and firmly grasped Tina's shoulder with one hand, placing the other under her chin and raising her gaze from the floor.

"Teenie, I can't even count the amount of times you've put yourself in danger to protect me, and countless others as well." Queenie said. "It's time to let us return the favor."

"I'll never forget the time we were in our second year of school and you dueled a seventeen year old who tried to jinx me with dark magic so I'd have time to get to the principal's office." Lally added. "This is the least we could do after everything you've done." Tina was beginning to feel choked up.

"I guess I'm not going to change your minds." All heads in the room shook no, except, Tina noticed, Bunty, who had retreated away from the conversation. " This truly means the world to me that you're willing to come with me." Queenie pulled her into a hug, which Lally was quick to join, and before she knew it, she was surrounded in a group hug. Even Newt had joined, who was so notoriously unsure when it came to physical touch. Tina hadn't thought it was possible to feel so happy in the midst of such an awful situation. But at least now it wasn't a situation she had to face alone.