Always

Meeting

"-We cannot remain ignorant any longer. This is a fight we are all involved with, a fight fought for centuries of good versus evil. He's getting closer and feeds on the flaws of our society to pull followers into his arms. We are the arrowhead of society and we cannot be what he says we are. No matter how much we stumble we must-" there was a sharp knock at the door and Tina jumped out of her skin, knocking the bar of soap into the sink. Her hair was immaculately combed and her fringe was sharp once again after a hasty haircut yesterday.
"Tina, are you alright?" Newt called through the door and taking one last look at her one set of dress robes in the mirror she moved to unlock the door. Standing directly outside the door was a curious-looking Newt with intrigue written on his features. He was dressed in dress robes as well but carrying them off infinitely better. In America, dress robes were never used due to the obvious contrast between the No Majs but in England, they seemed to be mandatory for any event worth noting. He was wearing the blue bow tie she bought him for his birthday and a crisp white shirt. It was always strange for her to see him in anything other than the mustard waistcoat.
"Were you talking to yourself?" The amusement in his tone was apparent and she narrowed her eyes, initially at his comment then at the smudge of mud on his cheek smothering several freckles.
"Perhaps-" She settled on as a response before licking her thumb and moving to wipe the mud from his cheek "-What on earth were you doing?"
"Feeding the creatures, playing with the graphorns-"
"The usual?" She remarked and his answering grin said it all. He gestured for them to move downstairs and then said
"Tina Love you are going to be fantastic"
"How do you know for sure?" She asked slightly desperately and he, to her surprise, let out a laugh.
"Because you have presented to the high ups before, because you have been working on it for the past five days endlessly and most of all because you're wonderful anyway"
"I believe you may be slightly biased Mr Scamander" She chuckled as he handed over her coat and he let out an echoing laugh, pulling on his own and plucking Pickett from his nest in his hair to rest in the pocket.
"Just a smidge. But I still know I'm right"
"Little smug today are we?"
He gave her a broad grin then said as he opened the door for her
"Only because I'm going to watch my beautiful future wife actually talk some sense into the most annoying Ministry Officials I have ever met"
She swallowed audibly and twisted the ring on her finger with a sharp nod.
"Tina- to use the American term of phrase- you're going to smash it"
"Okay," She agreed, reaching for his hand and holding it tightly in her own. They then disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Only to appear in an inordinately busy atrium with people from all corners of the ministry flooding in ordered rows towards the elevators which were shooting away towards the events room.
"Mercy Lewis! No wonder we had to have all Aurors on deck"
"This is the biggest event on the calendar and it shouldn't be necessary. The mere fact we have to remind the country and global representatives that now is not a time to be splitting hairs is utterly ridiculous" She heard him mutter beside her which in response prompted her to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. They walked in silence to the overfilled lift then took the final space, grasping hold of his arm even further as the lift shot away.
"Hello Goldstein" A voice came from her side and she jumped at the sight of Percival Graves looking at her in amusement.
"Hello sir" She replied, trying not to let the surprise in her voice show as she realised they were in an elevator full of American Aurors
"-and hello to Mr Scamander as well"
"Um yes uh hello sir" Newt stumbled
"Congratulations on the engagement yous twos" Hicklen called from the back and she involuntarily blushed as she murmured a hasty "thank you"
"Yeah, I don't think many Aurors can say they met their husband by arresting them"
"I'd assume not," Tina muttered as the lift suddenly shot backwards, away from the diversion loop to the main channel.
"What is wrong with these Elevators Goldstein?" Graves exclaimed loudly to a murmur of smashed together Aurors. She barely noticed the strange jolts and cranking of the British elevator shafts but she could remember the first time she had travelled this way and been thrown forward before Theseus had chuckled out a warning.
"The Elevators move sideways and they divert when there are lots of people all travelling to one area" She looked at Newt for approval who despite looking effortlessly uncomfortable offered her a small smile.
"So are we gonna ignore the fact that guy was arrested then?" A new auror from the back spoke up and she rolled her eyes
"He gets arrested a lot- It's one of those things"
"I do not get arrested a lot! I haven't been arrested since you did actually" Newt protested
"Yeah" Tina conceded. "Only 'cause you didn't get caught"
He made a motion very reminiscent of a fish while he clearly tried to think of how she knew while trying to formulate a response. Thankfully, before he could get his tongue around his response the elevator shuddered to a stop and the doors dinged open to the now-familiar twinkling voice
"International Defence Summit"
Being at the front of the elevator she and Newt strode out to where wands were being taken and stored by her two desk mates, Ree and Abi. The heavy wooden doors were open and on either side of the door, a desk was lined up with an auror each. The Aurors were taking wands off of the attendees then putting them into individually numbered boxes that were in the wall, something she did not remember being there last time she was there, then a ticket was handed over with the number emblazoned
"Hey, Tina," Ree called with a sort of hollowness as he more flung than placed a wand in the box causing it to issue a spark.
"That is a fine Daiyu Tāng wand I'll have you know" A quite pretentious English sounding wizard exclaimed and Ree rolled his eyes as he slammed the box shut and handed over the ticket
"It's not because a. The Chinese wandmaker is Lin Gū and b. This is made of birch, not bamboo. it's Ollivanders like everyone else's from this country" the wizard huffed and strode off as if they had emitted a terrible smell. She looked between the both of them replied
"Hey. How'd you guys get desk duty?" Abi heaved a momentous sigh then murmured
"Got a bit distracted interrogating-"
"We were making faces at each other through the one-way glass-"
"Apparently we need to work on our professionalism"
Ree seemed most bored by the prospect as he offered his hand for Newt's wand. Newt seemed momentarily flustered but then seemed to realise what was expected and he pulled the wand from a surprisingly ornate wand holster.
"Merlin's Beard what's happened to this?" Ree exclaimed running it through his fingers as he felt the bite marks and indents
"All the ones we've done tonight have been polished with an inch of their life"
"A rather unfortunate side effect of working with creatures-"
"Yeah but... these ones are human-" Ree pointed out with his finger as he placed it in the box
"He also has a habit of holding it in his mouth when his hands are full," Tina remarked and the male auror let out a laugh as he handed over the number ticket
"Come get it when you leave, I'm assuming you can't do wandless magic so I don't have to do that talk-" Newt did an odd squirm in response to the comment which made her narrow her eyes dangerously.
"Hey- um Theseus is here!-" he suddenly blurted "You're going to be busy now, instructions and what not so I'm just going to um-" Pickett chirped a teasing tune from his pocket and he shushed him "-get us a table" he then loped off in a random direction as Theseus passed him.
"What's wrong with him now?"
"No idea but I'm gonna find out by the end of the night"
"Great. Keep going troops" Theseus exclaimed to two loud groans and then he dragged her out of the way.
"You are to be surveying the tables okay? You and Newton are sitting at the speaker's table which is in prime position. The only ones armed are Aurors and any foreign Aurors have had to provide a valid ID with at least two others to vouch for them so anyone with a wand who can't get produce anything eject immediately. You know the usual profiles and obviously, anyone you know or Queenie points out" He pointed to vaguely to her sister who was sat uncomfortably beside some of the American Aurors as she sipped a glass of elf wine, pulling slight faces of disgust at the crude jokes that appeared to be exchanged. Theseus followed her line of sight
"Now you should get into the position I need to go talk to some more of our colleagues about the fact this is an international event and also the fact the entire image of the British Ministry rests on this"