the inventor ➝ fantastic beasts

FOUR - THE REUNION

APRIL, 1927
NEW YORK CITY

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Tina Goldstein was reinstating her position as an Auror at MACUSA. Piquery had given her her job back after she had helped to arrest Grindelwald, and Tina wasn't aiming to lose it again. She did her best to stay out of trouble and avoid the Salem Society, even though it was difficult. But knowing it would held her keep her job made it worthwhile.

It had taken her a while to realise she missed Newt. She now longed for that awkwardness that had once irritated her, coming to accept that she had actually found it amusing and - dare she say it - comforting.

She just hoped he was alright - that madwoman Erin he had smuggled into England with him was dangerous. Merlin knows what possessed him to want to help her.

What a coincidence that the moment that Tina was thinking about Erin Crowley that night, just minutes later she would be interrogated about the same woman.

It was a mild April evening, and she was making her way home. It was Queenie's turn to cook tonight, and Tina was grateful - it had been a gruelling day at MACUSA, and the last thing she wanted to do was cook. She hadn't been able to go for a minute without hearing the name 'Grindelwald', and all of the Aurors were panicking about him, no matter how well they thought they hid it - because never before had MACUSA contained a criminal as dangerous, as notorious. Tina was quite on edge herself. 

She was mere blocks away from her apartment, the thought of the possibility of Erin Crowley's threat to Newt's wellbeing just crossing her mind, when she felt a sturdy hand seize her by the arm and haul her down the alleyway she was just passing. 

Tina barely had time to scream, to turn her head to see her captor, before they thrust her to the cold, damp brick wall, their hand gripping the side of her face, and her head hit the wall hard.

 A rough groan of pain tore from her throat, and she squeezed her eyes shut, doing everything in her power to stop herself from crying. But when she felt the warm damp of blood on the back of her head, the pain pulsing and relentless, she felt a single tear escape from the corner of her eye.

"Good to see you again, Miss Goldstein."

Tina froze. That voice...

Her eyes flickered, and looked down at her captor as best as she could from the angle he held her head at, all the while panting in terror.

"How did you escape?" She demanded, forcing her voice to stay as stoic as possible.

"By nothing you could possibly comprehend," Gellart Grindelwald muttered. 

He stood a good few inches away from her, and if it wasn't for the wand he had under her chin, his grip on her face, or the terror paralysing her body, Tina could have had enough room to escape.

"Now, you can give me what I want by your own free will, or I can find other ways." The notorious, deadly, psychotic wizard pressed his wand a little harder into her skin, and Tina flinched.

"You remember your English friend, yes?" He asked, his voice lethally soft. He was looking down his nose at her, his head angled straight forward. The dark of the night obscured his face. Tina made an attempt to shove him off, but the man barely shifted. As a response, he merely tightened his grip on her, his fingers digging into her skin. He carried on as if nothing had happened. "He had a companion - a woman. Short, dark skin, lots of long braids falling down her back. Erin Crowley. Where is she?"

Tina never would have thought she would be defending that madwoman. But there was no way she was going to just hand her over to Gellart Grindelwald, no matter what he wanted with her.