Their Life

Pain

Newt stood with his wand raised defensively. He didn't want to hurt the witch in front of him, but he doubted she would have the same hesitation.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I know you're engaged to the American Auror."

"It's not like I've kept it a secret. Why do you care? We haven't seen each other in years."

The dark-haired witch scowled. "I just don't understand why you chose to marry someone so plain when you could have married someone beautiful."

"There are more important things than beauty. Tina has many of those things. And she is beautiful. She's the most beautiful person I know, but that's not why I'm marrying her. I'm marrying her because I love her."

Leta let out a frustrated cry and shot a spell at Newt. It was weak, and he deflected it easily.

"You love her!" she exclaimed. "You loved me! You said you loved me! I thought you loved me!"

"Yes, I loved you. I fell in love with you while we were still in school. I took the blame for your mistake because I loved you. I was expelled but you never thanked me for taking your place, you never even apologized, but I still loved you. I didn't hear from you for years but I still loved you when I met Tina.  I fell in love with her but I still loved you. I didn't even stop loving you when I learned you were following Grindelwald. Then we ran into you a few weeks ago and I saw what you had done to those innocent Muggles. That's when I stopped loving you. I couldn't love you anymore."

Leta began casting spell after spell in Newt's direction. The first few were weak but they were gradually getting stronger. Newt deflected all of them without casting any of his own.

Leta's spells started coming faster Newt was forced to dodge a few instead of deflecting them. He blocked one but the next caught him in the shoulder, sending him staggering backward. As he tried to regain his footing, another spell knocked his wand out of his hand. He looked up just in time to see a fourth spell coming towards him.

____

Tina pushed the door to her sister's house open and stepped inside. She could hear Queenie's giggle coming from the direction of the kitchen. Sighing quietly, she tossed her stack of files onto the coffee table and sank into the couch.

Queenie came out of the kitchen, followed closely by Jacob. They were both covered in a light dusting of flour that went from the top of their heads to their shoulders. Tina smiled, she didn't need to ask what had happened. Queenie was an excellent cook, even without magic, but when she was cooking without magic she was rather clumsy. She had probably tripped and spilled flour on Jacob, then laughed at him, earning herself a face full of flour.

Jacob picked up one of the files. "What's this?"

"Information on Grindelwald. The Ministry has nearly all the Aurors trying to track him down."

"But I thought you aren't working for the Ministry yet."

"I'm not, but the only reason I'm not is that we're waiting for MACUSA to send me one document so I'm starting work anyway."

"Teen," Queenie cut in. "Why don't you go find Newt and tell him that supper's in an hour."

"You think he doesn't know that?"

"I'm sure he does, but you should tell him anyway." Queenie grinned. "He'd like that."

Tina got to her feet and started towards the door. As soon as she was outside, she Disapparated, appearing in front of Newt's door. She went into the house and made her way to the room that served as Newt's office. He wasn't in the room. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned and saw Newt coming down the hall. He pushed past her and started going through a stack of papers on his desk.