Fantastic Beasts And The Trials of Scamander

Darkest before Dawn

The small group creaked into Theseus' flat using the gold of the rising sun to guide them. Lally hadn't really thought much of the summons but now Theseus had shared his concerns a rolling sense of fear engulfed her senses. She didn't like the idea of it at all but for some reason, it ebbed a little as they stood in the living room.

Theseus' flat was easily twice the size and twice as expensive with even his own bathroom that was warmed with heating charms. The living room had several leather seats in the most fashionable style and while everything Newt owned had a sort of aged and battered charm, Theseus' was filled with elaborate patterned rugs and a large fireplace sparsely decorated.

It also had the very heavy undertones of a grieving bachelor, there were a few pictures dotted around but they were mostly of Leta and several of them were face down. There were a couple from when he and Newt were children but as Lally walked into the dining room and kitchen where the room that was intended to be a tiny dining room was filled with auror case files and a desk. Something which seemed a lot more natural than the rest of his home as they entered.

Albus lurked in the living room, looking at the few sparse photos, while she stood in the doorway watching Theseus pick up a large folder with MACUSA written neatly across the top. It landed with a thud on his desk and he beckoned her over so she could see what he was flicking through. The moment he opened it she could see most of it was official correspondence between Tina and Theseus about 'enforced task manoeuvres' and 'European defence belts'.
"Don't you people have storage places at the Ministry"
"Yes but if I spend too many hours at work my bosses get twitchy"
"Why, surely that's a good thing?"
Theseus suddenly ducked his head as he flicked rapidly through the letters mumbling to the bottom of the folder
"I've been forced to take leave a few times after a few incidents after Paris. They say it's because they care about me but in reality, the place is such a mess they can't have their Head Auror going mad-" he then paused on a simple inquiry of when he would be attending some sort of summit and Theseus exclaimed "Ah- this is Bove-"
However, his face suddenly fell as he held the letters side by side.

They both had the same swooping letters but while Boves was a little uneven the letter they received had longer and more regular swoops.
"They don't match."
Lally stated bluntly and Theseus shook his head
"No."
"Maybe it was his secretary?"
He hummed in response, sounding unconvinced, as he picked up the folder only for something to slip out of the back. It fell daintily to the floor and Lally stopped to grab it. She studied the letter momentarily then looked at the letter on the desk before shoving it under Theseus' nose.
"That's the match!"
Lally exclaimed, looking at the date 26th November 1926. The bottom was signed by Percival Graves. She expected Theseus to be pleased but instead his eyes had filled with terror, voice choked on nothing as he stated.
"Yes, but Percival died over two years ago"
"He was rescued-"
Lally began and Theseus let out a hollow laugh
"No one could save Percival in the end. We may have gotten him out of that cell but three months later he took too much dreamless sleep and never woke up"
"Mercy Lewis, how does no one..."
"MACUSA all but covered it up. As I said, a mental head auror doesn't look good and well- so many people see it as the easy way out but this- This is when he was Grindelwald"
Her heart fell through her feet
"Grindelwald sent that letter?"
This seemed to shake Theseus out of his stupor a little and he stated
"It was a trap. He's infiltrated again and I- I don't think he's going to let my brother and Tina go this time"
"We need to get over there"
"We need backup" Theseus declared before muttering under his breath "There's going to be pushback on running into a foreign ministry's issue again"
"This isn't Britain's problem. This is the worlds. They're going to have to play their bureaucratic games another time. Aurors help people, don't you?"
"Of course."
"So let's try and get Bunty and Kama and then an entire auror department then we're gonna go save all of them"
He rose with a sudden sense of power and Lally was momentarily caught off guard by the sudden switch into a man of strategy, straightening his tie as he replied.
"Quite right"