Hope

Slow

The auror office was entirely sluggish and half empty as the day shift for the first of January took place. As they had done last year, Theseus and Tina had taken the festive week off in exchange for having to work on New Year's Day. Last year it had been like trying to swim through custard the entire day but by some miracle, Tina was the only one with energy as she flitted through the stack of drunken misdemeanours recorded by yesterday's workers. This she mostly owed to her mother-in-law who had been on high alert and at her first yawn had bundled her up on the sofa, Cepheus on top of her as well as several Nifflers and Pepper. Somehow sleeping through the fireworks that Jacob and Theseus had been in charge of which according to Newt "Rocked the house". However, she did accept Newt was more sensitive to noise than most people.

Being in bed by ten meant she was precisely on time for her morning meeting with the toilet bowl so as she hummed along to the radio, nausea waning, everyone else remained hungover and stoic. Theseus especially wasn't very perky as she watched him slam his head into the map that he was studying, desperately trying to link the animal attacks but seemingly coming up dry. Watching him nearly concuss himself for the third time she got up from her desk, the scrape of her chair causing her fellow colleagues to wince, and summoned a cup of tea. Then she walked over and rather unceremoniously shoved it into his hand.
"No luck then?"
All she received was a groan before he finally removed his forehead from the map and looked over at her, chalk marks staining his face.
"I don't understand. There are zero relationships between the sites chosen despite the fact they're busy areas. Some of them are capital cities, some of them are just towns but- I mean this one here in Kathmandu, we weren't even aware Grindelwald had followers there! It's a Buddhist and very Muggle community, I just- Ugh- I don't understand"
He then took a long sip of tea with a scowl, landing heavily in the seat he'd positioned in front of the dusty blackboard.
"Well, it's clear he's targeting Muggle communities. Could it be as simple as just increasing fear?"
"Why use creatures then when he could just terrorise normally? Most muggles won't recognise creatures as magical. It creates panic but if he wants the war still then why do it?"
"I think we both know but don't want to say it" Tina mumbled, hand instinctively going to rest on her middle as her mind flitted to the man who was probably now knees deep in mud pointedly ignoring the amendments to his book. 'The boring part' in his words.
"Newt." He supplied, glancing back at her as she nodded briskly. He grimaced as he continued "I have a feeling he's got it into his head that Newt's to blame for everything and is trying to get Newt to back down. Which in turn gets Grindelwald to back down" his voice dropped "Which makes it even more important we keep your little secret quiet for as long as we can. The Aurors can be trusted but you have to keep it as limited as possible"

She looked at him with eyebrows furrowed before gesturing to his office, refusing to say any more until they were behind the safety of the carved oak door.
"Theseus I'm only gonna have another month or so before it's pretty damn obvious why I'm suddenly confined to desk duty"
"I was thinking Tina that perhaps-" He hesitated and swallowed audibly "That perhaps you use a cloaking charm"
"You've gotta be kidding me"
Theseus seemed almost surprised by her protests, eyebrows raised as he sat in his elaborate seat. Pointing to the seat in front of him with an elaborate gesture.
"Tina, it would keep you and the baby much safer. If they knew you weren't at your usual level-"
He was clearly trying to keep his voice level and free of condescension but in Tina's ears, she felt like some silly teenager, pregnant due to a fling in the back of a truck.
"You think I don't know that?"
Despite the fierceness of her response, her insides felt as if they were flooded by acid. She hardly wanted the attention of an expectant mother, especially when the press got their teeth into the story, but for once she wanted to go about something in the regular means. Show the world that just because she was a married woman, a mother, she wasn't suddenly a spare part. She wouldn't change the way her and Newt's relationship had been for the world but she knew logically that most people were together longer than a year before marriage had even come up but here she was pregnant with a ring firmly on her finger. Another part of her longed to just be a normal expectant mother. wandering through the overly colourful shop on Diagon Alley. Surrounded by self-rocking cribs and baby toys that alerted the parents when they detected crying. It had always seemed horribly intimidating, even when they had snuck in to buy presents for Cepheus but now the excitement that was gradually overtaking the fear longed to be immersed in the chaos. She also knew Newt was in a similar mind. Already she had a feeling he was hiding a project to do with the baby, his nights seemingly growing later. She knew he would get excited about the tiny stuffed animals and wooden dragons, he had previously when they had bought presents for a newborn Cepheus hence rather a few creature-themed toys. She would just be a mother, not a soldier, her husband would be the doting and mildly panicking new father and for once they could just be a young couple thoroughly in love anticipating their first child.