Strings Attached

Chapter 15

"As if he would. Come on Mr. Fawley, what's your obsession with Credence? I haven't seen a single proof of his living status. You want me attack blindly?" Celeste scoffed, as she crossed her arms.

"He will. He is too ambitious in search of the creatures to stay at one place. The success of his recent book is the sign of that. It's just the extermination of an obscurus. He can handle that, he has more knowledge about that than the whole ministry combined." Fawley said, raising his brow.

"Let's say he accepts the offer- which he won't- but where is the proof that he is alive?" Celeste asked, her voice was strained.

Fawley pulled some documents out of thin air and passed them to Celeste. Her heart sank more. Crap. She looked at the photo of Credence in Paris with a scared look on his face.

"What is this?" Celeste asked, lifting the documents and photos. "I sent an auror to investigate this as you wouldn't do it. He is with circus arcanus right at this moment. But only Newt knows how to exterminate it." Fawley said, looking at the documents.

"You possibly can't think that Newt will actually do this! This is barbaric! He is just trying to live, let him be." Celeste exclaimed, her anger bubbling hot inside her.

"You don't want your husband to end up jobless, do you? And I think you don't want to lose your job either, do you?" Fawley asked, his expression stern.

Celeste groaned and closed her eyes. Say no to exterminate Credence. Why are you thinking about this? She internally debated with herself and absolutely hated herself with the words that left her mouth.

"I will see what I can do." Celeste said, her eyes darting away in guilt. "Thank you. You are dismissed as well." Fawley said, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

Celeste stood up tersely, and turned around. She walked out of the room, fuming with anger and guilt. I can't make Newt do this. He needs to know. Celeste said to herself but her 24 hours duty had begun, making it impossible to go to Newt's department and pull him aside to say that.

The tension increased frantically as the time of Grindelwald to come back to Europe was getting nearer. Celeste was doing her rounds in Azkaban, amongst the dementors which was absolutely horrendous.

She was with a team of fifteen aurors and five hitwizards. She was feeling a dread settle as she tried to fight back the dementors, and with equal to zero happy thoughts, a patronus didn't last long, leaving the aurors and hitwizards at the mercy of dementors.

Cold was unbearable and the thoughts of facing Grindelwald all those months ago kept playing like a stuck CD. Celeste wrapped her traveling coat around her body tightly as she tried to keep herself warm.

"You holding up right, Scamander?" Charlus asked, as he stopped walking and faced the ocean. "I don't know. This cold is bitch." Celeste said, her wand tightly clutched in her hands.

"How does it feel? To face him again?" Charlus asked, he looked at the woman. "I am dreading it. Last time I barely made it. He gives me a creep." Celeste said, a fog leaving her mouth.

"What is taking them so long? They should be here." Someone spoke up, making Celeste look at the man. "What time is it?" Celeste asked, her eyebrows furrowed in question.

"12 am." The man said, making Celeste realize something was extremely wrong. "Something is wrong." Celeste said, a sinking feeling started to feel her stomach.

And as if on cue, an owl flew into her, almost knocking her off her feet. "Hey hey, you are good buddy." Celeste soothed the freaked out owl.

Celeste untied the small paper from the owl's leg before the owl took off into the night again. Everyone there waited for Celeste to read out the letter.