The unintentional Crimes of Grindelwald

Chapter 13 - A love to change the world

Thanks for reading, hope you like it and enjoy!

xoxo Leviosa

Chapter 13

"What exactly happened?", Tina asked. The usual concentration came back, everything was the normal worst-case-scenario. "I don't know. The only thing Dumbledore was willing to tell Newt was that Grindelwalds plan was getting to Paris. I don't know why and I don't know why Leta is now gone" "Okay, what do we know so far? Why would anyone travel to Paris? Is there anyone famous or useful for Grindelwald? Yes, Nicholas Flamel. Inventor of the philosopherer's stone. Why would he need it? I don't think he needs it. He doesn't need immortality. We can think about Flamel later. Where was Leta, when she was kidnapped?", Tina focused. Queenie, Jacob and her were walking through the streets. Silence, Jacob looked around, amazed by the magic as always and Queenie searched for a solution for their problems. "Newt was gone, he left in the middle of the night. The only thing in his brain was saving Leta, like every time, you felt that, right, Queenie. Fortunately, I was able to talk to Letas mother. She is convinced that Leta wanted to visit a circus before leaving. Se didn't want to say more. So why would Leta rather visit a circus than saving herself? Because it was important to her. So many things we don't know anything about. But what we know for a fact is that Leta was kidnapped by Grindelwald. And why? So Newt would come and Grindelwald could catch him too. The only one that can defeat him, Dumbledore said. Without him, it will be quite difficult to fight against Grindelwald. The first thing to do will be searching for Newt...", Tina thought again. Where should they look first? "We'll go to the circus. It is where everything began", Queenie decided. And after her words, they went to the Circus. They were a strange trio, but convinced to do everything to save Newt. Even the impossible.

She was gone. Leta went and took everything around him. He didn't need her anymore, he didn't need any of them. Except Malena. He was cowering in his own tent, his hands on his ears and his eyes closed. He couldn't feel anything but Malenas hand in his hand. The only one who had been there for him. Everybody else had left him, everybody who he had thought to be true. But he didn't need them. He didn't need any of them to live his life. Before being an obscurial, he was himself, Credence. They all thought that he was their slave, didn't they? The ministry, Grindelwald and the people that stared at him in the circus. But he wasn't. He didn't need them to tell that he had to control the obscurus. He could control it without their help, he could control it because he was Credence. As if the whole torture and everything else he went through, was just a way to work for his true nature. Grindelwald had chosen himself, Newt had been chosen and Dumbledore had been forced by his heart to do something. They all thought they were the heroes of their own story, and they all were in their own kind. Credence didn't deserve any of the cruel things he went through, he never wanted to be an obscurial. But it was his faith and tried to control it, tried to change the bad into good, the light into darkness. He never wanted this life, he had never chosen anything nor was he chosen for anything. Credence disease was born by his willingness to survive, to suppress his magic. And was that choosing? He chose to give up his magic, because he didn't want to feel the pain. Was there even a decision when you were forced to do something? But this time he had the opportunity to choose. And he chose to save Leta. He didn't realize how quick the obscurus reacted. A second later, only Malena and Credence stood outside. Credence tent was lying destroyed on the side. It felt so good to let go and follow the right way.

She slowly realized that she did not care anymore. The tears on her face were dry now and Leta was sure that she had calmed down a bit. She was constantly thinking. She was either really calm or mad. Maybe she was just hallucinating, she should be screaming right now. She had lost her voice hours ago, and she couldn't do anything against it. How come that she didn't care? Leta was lost, somewhere in the darkness and Grindelwald probably stood next to her. Her eyes didn't get used to the dark, and she couldn't imagine where she was. At least she had not been tortured. It was a strange state of nothing. How could she feel nothing? Shouldn't she be terrified? But she wasn't and that scared her more than Grindelwald could. Maybe her voice had retired a bit. She should be able to whisper, if she wasn't. She had lost her hope. Newt wouldn't come nor would anyone else. She would have to stay here in this emptiness forever. "Newt isn't going to come", she whispered. A second later, a wand lightened up her prison. She almost screamed, as she saw the water, a few feet away from her. They were in the catacombs of Paris. And she exactly knew the drawing on the wall behind her. "Why are we sitting next to my family tree? Please don't sacrifice me to the crocodiles so my fathers sins will be forgotten", she whispered, still. "I don't want to sacrifice you. At least for now", Grindelwald smiled sarcastically. "I am sorry, it was a joke. I have sacrificed too much to sacrifice you", he said. Leta wasn't sure, but she heard regret in his voice. Why did she have to believe him? "I understand you too good, Leta. You believe you are egoistic, that everybody else is sacrificing everything for you and that you don't deserve any of it. I do too. Every day of my life, I rethink all my decisions and regret what I've done. Sometimes... Sometimes I believe that I would be so much happier when I would have lived my life differently. That I, from all of these people around me, I don't have the right to tell them the truth. I have seen some things in my visions. Some might be true, other aren't. And even if I fail, I will have failed, after I told them truth, after they have seen that their way of living the world is wrong. You know what, sometimes the target isn't important. It isn't important getting everything you want, but what you do to achieve it and that you believe in the things you do", he stopped for a minute and looked at her. Leta listened to him. She saw herself in his words. She doubted her decision to marry Theseus, and she doubted doubting him even more. After a moment of silence, he began to speak again. "And I believe that our world can only be a better place if people aren't forced to suppress their magic because of the ignorance of others. I don't want to change everything. I never wanted to kill half of the population, so I can rule. It isn't about me, it is about seeing that they did something wrong and that they have to change their way of ruling. It was never about me. I am not a hero, I can't save them. But I can change things. I may have made mistakes. I may be alone in believing in my cause. If I die one day, if I fail, if everything I try to achieve is never going to happen, even then: they will realize that I did it for a greater cause. Maybe I dream too much, and I am too willing to believe in fairy tales. And maybe I sound like these cheesy books. But I truly believe in two things. If you never stop believing, you will be able to get what you want. And that love can be great and mad enough to change the world", he kept quiet after his last words, as if he was listening to memories in his head. And Leta strangely trusted him. He had told her so much about himself. Leta would never tell anyone that much about herself, explicitly no stranger. A moment later, Grindelwald was smiling just like before. "You know what, I am not going to hold you here. You can go if you want to, I am not going to force you to do anything", with only one move of his hand, the ropes around her body were loosened. A love great enough to change the world.

"Everything's okay. I'm here now, I'm here, Leta", he said. Newt had searched all of Paris, and he had been about to write a letter to either Theseus or Dumbledore, as he found Leta in the catacombs down under Paris. He didn't know how long she had stayed there, her skin was too cool, maybe she was ill. Leta did not say anything, she didn't have enough voice to talk. He couldn't do anything but hug her. None of his beasts could help her right now, and he wasn't good with healing spells. But she seemed to understand him, as she smiled back at him.

Leta hadn't thought a lot about her decisions. Why did it feel so right? How could something so wrong feel so right? She should not believe Grindelwald. But he was right, everything he said was the way how she felt and what she didn't want to say, he said. It felt like betrayal, it felt like heartbreak, sitting here, silent and letting Newt believe that she was the same person she had been on the wedding. But she wasn't. She couldn't do anything against it. And then Leta realized that she had to do something. "You know, Newt. I have to tell you something" "Er.. Go on", he said. She couldn't keep secrets good, and she knew that the stress would be worse, there would be a point where she couldn't stand the pressure of it anymore. This point was now.

She told him everything. About her family, Credence being alive, Grindelwalds words and that she was truly sorry for everything she had done to Newt. And she told him how she fell in love with Theseus.

She couldn't remember the time after Newt had left clearly. She had finished hogwarts and as she finished, she tried to get a job in the ministry, something with creatures or muggle rights. Something where she didn't have to think about her father who had no problem with sending his own son away because he was a squib. And as she tried to get that job, she met Theseus. He didn't seem like other aurors, he was nice to her and didn't judge her because of her family. She had known him before, she had celebrated every Christmas in her school years with Newts family. And they had liked each other, because she was his brothers best friend. As she met him this time, he had realized that he had feelings for had been a hard day for Leta, she had been bossed around by almost everybody at the ministry, and she was so tired of it. Why did they all have to think that Leta was not as good as them just because she didn't work there or because she was younger or a woman? Why were they all against her? She had been told that she had to talk to the head of the auror department, because nobody else had the nerves nor the time to talk to an applicant like her. And so she walked into Theseus office, convinced to meet another arrogant ministry official. But instead Theseus was there. "Nice to meet you, Leta. How's life going?", he said. "It's okay. I haven't seen you in a long time" After talking about work, Theseus asked her out. And she said yes.

"Credence...", he tried to calm him down. "Credence, I don't want to harm you. I never wanted you to suffer, no one deserves to go through what you had to go through", Grindelwald whispered. But Credence didn't believe him anymore. He knew that he was lying to him, that he was trying to manipulate him into his cause. Credence had learned to never trust him again but still he remembered everything Grindelwald had ever done to him. It had been as much good as bad, still he wasn't a good human. Some things couldn't be forgiven and manipulating someone was one of these things to Credence. Even though he had just used the true powers of his obscurus again and that was why Grindelwald was here now, he had no right to use him. He was his own person, not Grindelwalds puppet. "I don't need you anymore. I don't want to be on your side. I only want to be cured", after he said that sentence, he quickly regretted it. Grindelwald shouldn't know his dreams nor his fears. But suddenly, Malena interrupted him. "And you can't help him with anything. Every time you show up, you destroy things. It's your nature, you can't do anything against it and it's secretly devouring you that everybody else except you has these powers and every time you try to help, you destroy. You want to help, you believe in your cause and in some things you are right. Totally right. But some things aren't meant to be. You weren't chosen and that is what tears you apart the most. Except loving someone who should be your enemy", she said. She didn't shout nor did she speak really loud, but her voice seemed to fill every room around her. Slowly, Credence understood what it really meant to be a maledictus. She was a snake, she didn't even have to transform, to be. He knew the tropes: the silver tongue of a snake, cunning as a snake. And he had a strange respect of her, now, because she could fight against Grindelwald, not with weapons but with words. "You are right. I never wanted any of this. But I promise, I will help to find a cure for Credence, I always wanted to. If you give me something in return: help me convince the people that my cause is the right way. And...", he became silent. "Whatever you want to do, Grindelwald, you can't do it. It is the wrong way. There is always bad in the world and if you try to cure it, you just make it worse." "Sometimes it has to get worse first, so it can get better", he said.