hollow // credence barebone

03. the trouble

...

"and so," porpentina goldstein concluded, putting a slice of apple strudel on her plate, "i will take him back there tomorrow morning to try and get his ass arrested properly once more."

the plate in front of elizabeth remained untouched as she listened to the re-telling of recent occurences, looking back and forth everybody gathered at the table. to her left, tina goldstein looked serious even in her home attire. her eyes pierced newt with a million nails. her sister sat on the opposite side of the table, not the slightest bit intrested in their conversation. she was wearing a navy silky robe that accentuated her bright face and blonde hair. from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, nothing suggested that her and tina were related. especially the look on queenie's face made her different, for she was looking all sweet and lovely as she fed the muggle man by hand. the man, jacob, was short and puffy but his laugh was genuine and only tidbit nervous. he looked like a polite man who certainly didn't deserve the kind of situation newt had put him into.

and of course, newt scamander. he was playing with his food, scared to look at tina and even more scared to look at elise. and he was right to do so, because elizabeth was positively furious but wouldn't let it show.

"mr. scamander," she finally said. "can you, for once in your life, live a single day without doing something downright idiotic?"

he looked up at her and failed to coax her with his smile, "that would've been boring, no?"

she liked tina instantly. she was the only one in the room who seemed to have her shit together. so instead of newt, she turned to her instead, "please make sure he ends up in jail for at least twenty years."

tina smiled at her, "i will do my best."

"she will not, don't worry." queenie goldstein wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. "she sounds scary, but she's a real sweetheard at soul. so are you, mr. scamander's sister."

queenie might have made it look as if she was harmless, but if you looked in her eyes deep enough you would've known you made a fairly big mistake. under the ethereal charm of her beauty, she was a skilled legilimens, which meant that she could detect and read the thoughts of everybody in the room. she could extract more than just that; she could look into your mind and find memories and words you wanted to say years ago. for this very talent, she was the most dangerous person in the room, if not in the entire country.

elizabeth had to admit that they made an intresting group.

"and," she nodded towards jacob. "what are you going to do about the exposure of magic to a non-magical citizen?"

"wow," jacob chuckled. "i gained a new job title!"

"he has to heal," tina sighed. "and then serve as a witness to the case. after that we will obliviate him."

"you'll do what?"

"don't worry about that, honey," queenie put another slice of cake on his plate and gave him a charming smile.

elizabeth's eyebrows rose so high that her thoughts must have been yelling loudly, for queenie looked at her and the shimmer in her eye made elise's heart struggle for a beat. but really, she couldn't help it. queenie's attitude towards the man was not what the american congress allowed. wizards were not supposed to as much as strike a conversation with a muggle person, not to mention overstepping past the conversation. it was a tough rule that elise got hurt by personally on many occasions. her thoughts drifted back to the handome bartender she rejected a few days ago. queenie's gaze softened.

"oh, you poor thing," she said to elizabeth. "you see what i mean? it's such a stupid little rule. why can't we live a little?"

"because it's dangerous," tina cut short. "and illegal. and stupid. and name all the other adjectives, queenie, because we talked about this half a million times already."