ATLAS || N. SCAMANDER

{thirteen}

MACUSA CELL

Atlas is on the floor, silent tears make their way down her face. The four of them sit in silence, Jacob on the bench, Newt with his head in his hands, and Tina on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry about your creatures, Mr. Scamander. I truly am," Tina breaks the silence. Newt remains silent. A sob escapes Atlas' mouth and the other three turn their attention to her. Atlas clasps her hands over her mouth, but the three have already noticed her. Tears shiny on her face.

Newt scooches over, pulling Atlas into his arms. "Who's Maeve?" Tina asks. Atlas looks up at Tina, fixing her with a haunting look. "Maeve," Atlas' voice breaks and another sob escapes.

"Can someone please tell me what this Obscurial - Obscurius thing is? Please?" Jacob asks, providing a distraction from Atlas. "There hasn't been one for centuries-" Tina starts but is cut off by Newt.

"I met one in Sudan three months ago. There used to be more of them but they still exist. Before wizards went underground, when we were still being hunted by Muggles, young wizards and witches sometimes tried to suppress their magic to avoid persecution. Instead of learning to harness or to control their powers, they developed what was called an Obscurus."

Jacob gives Newt a rather confused look. "It's an unstable, uncontrollable Dark force that busts out and - and attacks," Tina elaborates. "And then vanishes." Tina turns to Newt, who's still holding Atlas, "Obscurials can't survive long, can they?"

"There's no documented case of any Obscurial surviving past the age of ten. The one I met in Africa was eight when she," Newt has to stop for a moment to recollect himself. "She was eight when she died."

"What are you telling me here?" Jacob questions. "That Senator Shaw was killed by a kid?" Newt gives him a look at says it all.

Atlas pulls herself from Newt's grasp, still holding onto his hands, "Maeve is my daughter."

The cell falls silent, they're all staring at her. "Her father died in the war when she was three, she's ten now. I was still in my last year of Hogwarts," she looked to Newt. "I had to drop out of school to work. My parents had fallen ill and there was no one else," her voice started to break.

"There was no one else to take care of Maeve. That's why I have Nixie, she takes care of Maeve in my bag. When my father didn't make it, my mother became emotionally unstable. She's better now, but she has her episodes. So I have Nixie with me and Whisp with my mother."

Atlas buries her face back into Newt's chest. She mumbles to Newt, who's staring down at her,  "There's no one else, Newt. There's no one else."