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"Queenie, where are we going?" Tina asked, her eyes squeezed shut as her sister insisted.
"Almost there, Teenie!" her sister informed her, "Open your eyes!"
Tina's eyes blinked open, and she almost started to cry when she saw the hidden structure in the back of the alley.
"Now we have a place to go. Just for us." Queenie said, "Grandmother won't bother you here."
Tina's lip quivered and she wrapped Queenie in a tight embrace. Queenie hugged her back and the girls stood in the alley for a long time before they ducked into their hiding place at the sound of their grandmother's voice.
three years later....
Tina returned to the alley where she found her sister setting up a crate, they turned into a picnic table. She knocked four times against the trash can lid next to her; her and Queenie's secret knock. Queenie smiled and ran over to her.
"You're back!" Queenie said, "I've got tea set up for us!" Tina tilted her head and stared at Queenie. She giggled, "It's cocoa, Teen! You know I know you don't like tea!"
Tina smiled and sat down at the crate and caught Queenie up on what Ilvermorny was like and how amazing the classes were.
sixteen years later....
Tina walked slowly back into the alley her and Queenie'd built up as a lovely, quaint play area; hidden from their grandmother's prizing eyes. She felt a hand over her shoulder, and she looked over her shoulder at Newt. He looked at her and smiled, then looked around the alley.
"What's special about here?" he asked, genuinely curious.
Tina swallowed around a lump in her throat, "Queenie and I used to play in this very alley. She made it for us."
Tina retold her story. Every little detail down to when her mother gave her her locket to going to love with her grandparents and her grandmother abusing her for defending her mother. Tina wiped at the tears that rolled down her cheeks, which was useless as more formed in their place. Newt wrapped Tina in a comforting embrace, and she finally let lose all the feelings she was forced to bottle up many years ago.
"This was somewhere only we knew." Tina said, in regard to Queenie.
