Burned Into Glory

Change of Plans

Queenie dragged her foot up and down in the water. She poked her toes out of the bath and slid them up the white porcelain, and she tried her best not to imagine Theseus Scamander being killed.

"They are secured," said a voice from the bathroom doorway, "and comfortable. I had them put into a suite with four guards outside the the door; sealed up the window with powerful wards. But they've got a comfortable bed for the night, and a bathroom, and... you seem upset."

Queenie blinked a few times and stared at the taps on the bath.

"Thank you for keeping my sister safe," she mumbled, but Grindelwald stalked slowly into the bathroom in response. His leather boots creaked on the black and white tile floor, and Queenie watched them move, watched the leather bend and crease. She raised her eyes to him, gripping the sides of the bath tub, and she admitted, "I wish Newt's brother didn't have to die."

Grindelwald huffed. "Theseus Scamander represents an existential threat to my movement, Queenie. He and the other Aurors of the British Ministry have already tried once to break up a rally, and -"

"You trapped them in Paris," Queenie argued, and Grindelwald seethed,

"They murdered one of my followers in cold blood, or have you forgotten that red-haired girl falling down dead."

"That wasn't Theseus!" Queenie asserted shrilly, sitting up straighter in the tub. She glared up at him and insisted, "Newt Scamander, for all his faults, is one of the most innocent human beings I have ever met, Gellert, and he doesn't deserve to lose his brother. If someone killed Tina, I'd be furious! I'd be... I'd be broken! And do I know Theseus? No. I don't. But Newt knows him, and Newt loves him, and he is going to be absolutely destroyed by this."

Grindelwald stared down at Queenie, his face unmoving and completely illegible. He was like a stone statue, white and solemn. He was holding his thin, knobby wand, and he dragged his thumb over one of its knots as he sighed. He finally tipped his head and murmured,

"My retrieval squad leaves here in ten minutes for Paris, and then for London. They have orders to kill both Sieg Larsen and Theseus Scamander. But I can sense from you that if I have Scamander killed, it will chip away at your soul a bit. It will break you a little. And I do not wish to break you, not even a little. I must weigh the merits of keeping Scamander alive against how his death will impact you."

He narrowed his eyes, his pale eye and his darker one, and he shook his head a little. He let out a long breath and mumbled,

"Queenie, the horrid, beautiful things you do to me. I'll be right back."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the bathroom then, and Queenie gasped. She drained the bath and got out, drying herself off with a towel. It seemed to take an eternity to get herself into a short black nightgown and black knickers, and as she sat on the edge of her bed, her heart pounding, time crawled. She thought of Tina, thought of Newt, and she shut her eyes. They would be Imperiused, used as tools, Grindelwald had said. She couldn't fight him on that. He was already showing them enormous mercy by not killing them. Actually, the mercy was toward Queenie. Grindelwald knew that killing her sister would destroy Queenie, and so instead he was having them utilised as Imperius victims. That thought still made Queenie's stomach ache, still made her feel like vomiting, but it was better than her sister being murdered. She wondered, briefly, if she had done the wrong thing in running onto the field at the rally. But Grindelwald had assured her multiple times that her actions had been a demonstration of supreme loyalty, and that he was very proud of her. He loved her, he kept saying, kissing her hair and her forehead and her lips. He adored her for what she'd done.

Eventually, the door to her quarters opened and shut, and Grindelwald came stalking slowly inside. He aimed his wand at the door and murmured a quick Colloportus. He strode through the sitting room and into the bedroom, and Queenie's breath quickened as she rose off the bed and bowed her head to him.