Their Life

The Auror and the Author Part 1

Tina was in charge of a group of six Aurors who had been sent to London to help with the problem with Grindelwald. He had escaped about a month before and had surfaced in Britain a few weeks later. President Piquery had offered to send some of MACUSA's best Aurors to help recapture him. As the Director of Magical Security, Tina had chosen to lead the group.

She knew this was important and that she needed to stay focused but, as she followed their guide through the halls of the Ministry of Magic, her mind kept wandering. This was her first time out of the states and she was in London -- in England -- and England was Newt's home. Tina didn't actually know if he was in the country. His last letter had come a month ago. In it, he had said that he had published his book and was going to go on a short trip out of the country after his book signing before going to New York. She didn't know when that would be.

Tina reached into her pocket and felt for the letter. It was still there, next to her wand, just like it had been since she got it.

They had reached their destination: a large, open space with desks along the walls. Tina tried to focus on what their guide was saying. He was talking about what they did there. He looked at something behind them.

"Ah, Scamander. You're here."

Tina started and turned to see who was behind them. It was a tall, young man with neat, dark hair. She heard several of her Aurors chuckle. Turning to face them, she gave them a look that clearly meant "cut it out." She knew they were all aware of what had happened the December before. A few of them, those she was closer to, had even teased her about it.

The man moved to stand in front of them. "I'm Theseus Scamander," he said, extending his hand. "I'm the Head of the Auror Office here."

Tina shook his hand. "I'm Tina Goldstein. I'm the Director of Magical Security at MACUSA. President Piqurey sent us to help recapture Grindelwald."

"Ah, yes." Theseus called to one of the people working at one of the desks around the room. When the man reached them, Theseus instructed him to take the Aurors and tell them everything they knew about Grindelwald's location.

"As for you, Miss Goldstein, you'll be coming to my office."

Tina followed Theseus to his office. It was much neater than hers. There were a few loose papers stacked neatly on the desk. Her desk, on the other hand, was usually covered in papers, randomly piled all over.

Theseus sat behind his desk and motioned for Tina to sit across from him.

"When exactly did Grindelwald escape?"

Tina frowned slightly. "It was the beginning of March." She tried to remember the date. It was the same day as Newt's look signing. "It was March 19."

Theseus raised his eyebrows. "And what exactly happened?"

Tina opened her mouth to reply then hesitated. "I'm not really sure. You see, I had been assigned to a mission in Massachusetts shortly before he escaped. What I was told was --"

Theseus interrupted her. "Wait, assigned? I thought you were in charge. How were you assigned?"

"Oh. I, uh--" Tina smiled sheepishly. "Let me start from the beginning. For a long time, the Director of Magical Security was Percival Graves. I had become an Auror under him but after an . . . accident . . . I lost my job. That was the beginning of last year.

"Sometime after that, Graves vanished for a few days. When he reappeared, he claimed he had been on a secret mission. He had always kept to himself and Grindelwald's transformation spells were so perfect that nobody noticed that Graves had been replaced.