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Newt Scamander was happily walking down the road.
The British Ministry of Magic had decided to not to place him under a travel ban for the incident in Italy.
Now, he was on his way home, to pick up his suitcase, which he’d left with Bunty. After retrieving it, he would board the first boat to the United States, a thing he would have done a while ago, had the Ministry not held him up with negotiations.
He turned down an alley and as he’d almost passed it, something very inconvenient happened.
Several people apparated, wands were drawn, spells were fired and the people disapparated again.
Newt Scamander was no longer happily walking down the road.
Instead, he was lying in a cellar, still dizzy from the forced side-to-side apparition.
As he pushed himself onto his feet, he noticed two things.
First of all, he no longer had his wand. This was bad.
Second of all, Gellert Grindelwald was standing across the tiny room, smiling. This was very bad.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Scamander.”
“Good afternoon.”
“How are you? I hope you didn’t get hurt?”
Newt stared for a moment. This behavior didn’t at all fit the image the Newspapers and the Ministry had painted. What game was Grindelwald playing?
“I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” Newt had decided that he would play polite as long as possible. It’s always good to appease your captor.
“I’m feeling quite wonderfully today, also due to your presence here.” Grindelwald’s smile became a full-toothed grin at that point.
Newt had the feeling he was in deep shit.
Grindelwald took a step forward, away from the door and into the ray of light streaming in from the tiny cellar-window at the top of the wall.
This made him look even more creepy, so Newt decided to take a step back.
“You see, I have been planning something for a while now. Something big. But the problem was that I didn’t have the means to accomplish it. And that’s the point where you come in.”
Newt’s mind was running wild. What could that mean?
But all plans Newt could come up with, Grindelwald could do on his own. No reason specifically for his presence.
No matter what Grindelwald planned, it couldn’t be good. But Newt would be damned if he said a word in that direction. He’d let the man finish talking, making offers and threats, whatever. After he had a clearer picture in mind of his possibilities, Newt would decide on a course of action.
Grindelwald took another step closer. “Have you heard the rumors?” he whispered, as if it was only a thing between him and Newt.
Newt took another step back and hit the wall. “What rumors?”
“Not only rumors. There’s evidence for those who are open minded enough to see it.”
Grindelwald stared at Newt, waiting for him to ask further.
Newt, because he wasn’t stupid and didn’t want to anger a powerful wizard, did just that. “Evidence for what?”
“An Obscurus in New York.”
Newt’s eyes widened. That was bad. America already was a difficult place to be as a normal wizard or witch… what if the muggles caught sight of an Obscurus? And even worse, now Grindelwald had his sights set on the poor kid.
“An Obscurus.” Newt repeated. Grindelwald needed to tell him more, so he could form a proper plan.
“Indeed. And who would be better to capture an Obscurus than the great Magizoologist Newt Scamander.”
Alright, alright. He could do that. And at some point, he would be able to slip away with the kid and bring them to safety.
„Is that hope I see in your eyes? I’m sorry, but I’ll have to destroy it.”
Before Newt could really understand what was happening, he was already tilting sideward, his body stiff from the ‘Petrificus Totalus’.
Grindelwald caught him by his arm before he hit the floor and dragged him towards a mattress lying in the corner.
As Newt stared up at the ceiling and at spikes of Grindelwald hair, he felt a tug on his scalp and heard the clipping of scissors.
That was the plan then; Polyjuice potion.
This was bad. If Grindelwald would replace him, then nobody would notice his disappearance. And worse, he’d be able to take the case from an unsuspecting Bunty. Newt set his hopes on his beasts, they just had to notice something was up with the person that cared for them daily.
The cutting stopped and Grindelwald moved more into his line of vision again.
“I’m deeply sorry for what is about to happen next, Mr. Scamander”
Newt had the time to think something along the lines of “Like hell you are!” before Grindelwald placed his wand on his temple, uttered a quiet ‘Legilimens’ and Newt fainted.
.
.
.
Gellert, now that he had the looks and the memories to back them up, could move his plan into action. He already had a portkey to New York on standby, so the only thing left to do was to tidy up Scamander’s affairs, so his presence wouldn’t be missed.
It was a very lucky coincident indeed, that the travel ban was off the table. Now he had a good excuse to leave for New York and not be suspicious about it.
From what he gathered from the man’s memories, it would be enough to send a letter to his brother.
What he would have to take care of in person was Bunty and the suitcase. He was very much tempted to take it along with him, spend some time in it, learn if he could use any of the beasts. In the end though, he had to admit that he had no idea how to care for them and they would probably kill him if he made one wrong move.
Bunty was hard to convince, much to Gellert’s annoyance. She kept insisting she couldn’t do it on her own, that it was so unlike him to leave his case behind. In the end, after a lot of I-am-a-supportive-trusting-shy-friend acting on his part, she finally let him go and promised to look after the suitcase for the next two weeks. His excuse had been a secret mission for the Ministry. He’d told her it was one of the conditions for no travel ban being placed on him and that it would be too dangerous to take the suitcase along.
In the end she’d finally believed him and now he had to hope she didn’t have any contact to the ministry, that could prove her wrong.
.
.
.
Newt was surprised how well he was treated.
Three days had passed and no harm had come to him except a lack of showers.
Pickett had not been taken from him. The Bowtruckle had managed to hide in his coat pocket and even though he’d come out and run around the entire room, nobody had taken him from Newt.
Sadly, both of them could open neither the door, nor the window, not that Newt had expected anything less.
Aside from that, he wasn’t treated like an enemy prisoner at all. He received three meals a day and there was always suitable food for Pickett on an extra plate. He had enough blankets. He got a new clean set of clothing every day, and his original clothes had not been taken.
The fact that he was treated so well made him both hope and dread the situation all the more. Maybe, if Grindelwald treated him well, he’d also show the same courtesy to his beasts. By now, he’d surely obtained the case and made himself at home in it.
Newt feared however, that his wellbeing was only a political move of Grindelwald. So that he could prove that he was not the violent Dark Lord the Ministry made him out to be.
Newt didn’t think his beasts would be treated as kindly as him. He’d already learned that fellow wizards and witches rarely considered them of any worth, so Grindelwald had no reason to play nice with them. He could use them for his own purpose and nobody would bat an eyelash.
Well, there wasn’t for him to do against it in this cell, except maybe count the passage of days with the help of his little window.
.
.
.
Now, what Gellert had to do was find the boy from his visions, who would help him find the Obscurus. He’d decided to only watch today, look for times in which the boy was alone.
He stood in front of the Second Salem Church, listening to the Barebone woman rant.
As he stood there and cheered along with the crowd, somebody squeezed past him.
A young woman, her brown hair fashioned in a bob haircut. “I’m sorry,” the corners of her mouth lifted a bit as she apologized and the she was gone again.
Gellert wouldn’t have thought much of it, if it weren’t for that fact, that he saw her again later that day, as she went to speak to the boy.
With rising suspicion, Gellert followed her that evening and was alarmed to find her entering MACUSA only to return a few minutes later with a blond witch at her side.
He would have to be extremely careful in his plans if MACUSA had their sights also set on the young man. Though he couldn’t imagine how they had found out his ties to the Obscurus.
.
.
.
Gellert established contact with Credence.
He grabbed him while he was distributing pamphlets. The boy was easy to convince for his cause. Promised to tell him everything and nobody else anything he knew in exchange for an empty reassurance.
Gellert would have this Obscurus found in no time at all.
.
.
.
Newt had grown quite bored. He had received some books, some paper and a pen, but he was still bored. He took up the habits of singing, dancing and physical activities like push-ups and sit-ups. But he was still bored. Nothing could really change the fact that he had been staring at the same wall for the last two weeks.
He wondered what Grindelwald had done in that time. Surely, he would have been told – or killed – if Grindelwald had already found the Obscurus and therefore no longer had need of him.
But: nothing.
He hadn’t even seen the man in those two weeks, except for three instances where Grindelwald had come in, cut off a bit of hair and read his mind again.
Oftentimes, he’d think about his creatures. The thought of them used, hurt or killed had him crying and sobbing in the corner.
Pickett usually tried to comfort him, with minimal success. The thought that Pickett was only locked in here because of Newt, made him cry even more.
But, he tried to tell himself, it could always be worse.
.
.
.
Two weeks had passed, and the Obscurus had not been found. This was especially annoying because there had been more sightings of it and more Muggles began to suspect something was wrong. This led to more of them listening to the preaching of Barebone, which lead to more children being in her close vicinity, which made the Obscurus even harder to find.
Even more annoying was the fact that his disguise had been found out. Abernathy had told him of it.
The Obscurus incidents had been taken for some other magical beast, so MACUSA had inquired after the infamous Magizoologist, that was known to carry around dangerous creatures of any kind. Theseus had affirmed that he was, indeed, supposed to be in the USA, but that the suitcase had stayed in England with the assistant Bunty. Bunty was found and questioned, and she told them of the mission for the Ministry Newt was supposed to be on. Theseus had remembered Gellert’s letter, that he’d found weird because Newt had already told him that very afternoon of his destination.
How hadn’t he been able to read that in Scamander’s mind? Well, trying to read thirty years of memories in a few minutes must leave gaps at somewhere.
What vexed him particularly was that apparently, he hadn’t been as sneaky as he thought. The witch he’d seen talking to Credence had been Auror Goldstein, who, upon noticing the interest everybody suddenly seemed to have in Scamander, told her superiors where she had repeatedly seen him.
Since his disguise was blown anyway, Gellert decided to have some fun.
.
.
.
Theseus Scamander was this close to resigning from his job.
He was even closer to murdering his little brother.
Trust the idiot to get himself kidnapped and let his impersonators fuel international chaos.
Alright, maybe the inevitable hug upon his rescue would be a bit suffocating, but no more than that. The thought of Newt lying somewhere half-dead and tortured made him forget any annoyances he had faced since the discovery ten days ago.
The worldwide horrors had lasted just as long and Theseus was exhausted.
They’d had everything. The worst were the beasts of all kind let loose on cities all around the world, threatening to reveal wizard-kind. What also cost many nerves were the less dangerous deeds, like one Newt turning gully covers pink and another one making the chairs in the Ministry of Magic run away from whoever tried to sit on them.
It was unclear how many Newts were running around. Guesses went anywhere from five to twenty, but since they hadn’t been able to catch even a single Newt, they really couldn’t know.
Chasing after a swarm of pixies who had stolen his paperwork, Theseus sprinted around a corner and was met with the most relieving sight. Two aurors had a handcuffed Newt between them. His men seemed just as relieved as he was. “Theseus! We found him at the reception desk, he was asking to see you.”
“What? Nothing else? Just asking to see me?” Theseus was puzzled. Could this be the real Newt then?
“Apparently not.”
However, they could not take any risks. “Put him in one of the holding cells.”
The men went to do just that and Theseus felt the tiniest bit of hope. If they already had one, the others would soon follow.
And that was how the day proceeded. Aurors from a dozen countries came with Newts in tow, who were then brought to the holding cells. Warnings were given to Theseus; “They are letting themselves get caught! They are planning something!” but he couldn’t bring himself to care, as long as the fake Newts were secured.
Remarkable incidents included a team from Egypt, who had found a levitating suitcase along with Newt, and, even though it was bound, it kept trying to fly away, pulling the aurors several meters up into the air before it could be pulled down again.
Another Newt almost managed to escape by using his Animagus abilities. The bird led them in a chase around the entire Ministry, which lead to many broken windows, toppled desks and knocked-over people.
Very confusing, though also a bit funny, was the appearance of the delegation MACUSA had sent.
Two aurors had a Newt between them, who was grinning like a madman, even though blood was trickling out of his nose. Upon closer inspection, the aurors seemed to suppress smiles as well, to not piss off Director Graves, who was walking behind them. He was evidently already pissed off enough as it was, with a look on his face that made clear he would do very illegal things if one more bad thing happened today.
While bringing the Newt to the holding cells, one of the aurors leaned in towards Theseus. “We found him hanging up posters saying ‘Graves likes feet’.”
“Tolliver, if you say one more word, I’ll kill you!”
No people were killed that day though, even when the Newts Polyjuice potions ran out or when their Transfiguration was revealed through counter spells.
It was a close call however, when the Newt in Cell 16 transformed into Grindelwald.
Though Theseus was prepared to torture his brother’s location out of Grindelwald, he didn’t have to, because the criminal forestalled all of their threats by smiling and telling them an address.
Not even the warnings of “It could be a trap!” could hold Theseus then. He grabbed the many present aurors form every corner of the earth, and stormed the building.
To anybody who could have seen it, it must have been a funny sight indeed.
A swarm of aurors barged in by the door, and declared the rooms void of any threat. Then, they divided forces. Half of them crowded the kitchen and threatened the house elf, while the other half tried to open the cellar door.