hollow // credence barebone

18. the warning

———

the letter from newt found her early in the morning.

credence was kneeling nearby a small table, feeding a tiny bird with the grains he found earlier. nagini stayed curled up on a make-shift bed, her eyes stuck on elise's back.

"elise,

several things happened in the past few days. for starters, theseus organised me a little meeting with the ministry so i could lift my ban on international travels. let's just say it didn't go well. what did i expect from the ministry, anyway? whatever. it's not like they can stop me from travelling whatsoever.

then, albus dumbledore happened. i will spare you all the gruesome details of this man's constant blabbing. he did encourage me to break law, though.

and then, would you guess? you wouldn't. i came back home and met queenie and jacob. queenie had charmed jacob into proposing to her, and the romance quickly ended when i removed the charm. queenie left in tears and jacob doesn't have any idea what to do, so he made a great decision to join me in breaking law. and elise, i hope you know that i love you and i trust you, and i never suspected you of being a part of some very random and very dangerous adventure that could or could not be connected to a certain american boy with a certain condition that makes him turn into a raging beast. regardless, i'm coming to paris soon. and i don't want to hear any explanations.

i suppose i just want to say: please be careful. i don't understand why you'd choose to play this game alone when you know there's a lot of danger looming from every corner. i could help you. i WILL help you. for now, try not to do something stupid while i figure out how to order an illegal international portkey.

newt

ps. tina is in paris, too. be quiet, elise, this is not what you think this is. but i may need to apologise to her."

elise put the letter down, furrowing her eyebrows. she supposed it could have been worse. on one hand, she was half-responsible for releasing a bunch of dangerous magical creatures from circus arcanus, which was the opposite of newt's 'try not to do something stupid.' on the other hand, she did cast a barrier that would close the creatures in a dome over the magical part of the plaza. that was a controlled risk she was willing to take.

but maybe the reality of her actions began returning to her. that is, until she heard credence's voice, "are you alright?"

elise looked up at him, "peachy."

"what is that supposed to mean?"

"i don't even know."

the little feather-less bird nuzzled itself into credence's palm and fell into a slumber. credence stroke its little head and looked back at elise, "come on. let's talk about this."

elise looked over where nagini was still laying curled up on the mattress. the girl had yet to speak a single word to any of them. she seemed scared and distrustful, not responding to any attempts at conversation. she either slept or laid and stared, twisting a dozen knives in elise's back. and while elise didn't do anything to have the girl so clearly unhappy, a part of her made a wild guess. especially when nagini's eyes lingered on credence's figure and her eyes softened for a fraction of second.