𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐨𝐧 𝐝é𝐚𝐠 // 𝟏𝟏
After returning to work, Tara had spent the entire first day waiting to be summoned to the Minister’s office. Surely she was to be fired on the spot if they knew just how far she had gone off the rails.
But a call never came.
When she held her scheduled training session at the end of the day, she had offered the Auror’s a half-hearted excuse that she had been sick before ordering them into dueling partners to begin their drills.
Theseus violently tumbled to the ground, a result of the well-aimed stunning curse Tara had sent to his chest. Her victory signaled the end of the final sparring match of the evening.
Dropping her wand back down to her side, Tara blew a strand of hair out of her face.
“Alright. That’s it for today.” she said, addressing the room. “We’ll have another battle-readiness session at the same time next week. Conditioning will take place every other afternoon so make sure to be there.”
Her words were met with tired nods of heads and a few waves of goodbye as the Auror’s began to file out of the training room.
Tara then turned towards he who always seemed to be the last one to leave. He was still sitting on the floor where he had fallen, his elbows resting on his knees as he worked to slow down his breathing.
Quickly walking over to him, she stopped just shy of where he sat. And when he saw her boots enter his vision, he picked his head up.
Tara let out a short breath before offering a hand down to him.
He had eyed it for a singular moment before ultimately allowing her to pull him to his feet.
Now standing at eye-level, which technically wasn’t a thing considering that Theseus had nearly half a foot on her, Tara gnawed at the inside of her cheek.
“Can I buy you a drink?” she suddenly asked.
“What?” Theseus replied, letting out a short laugh in surprise. “Whatever for?”
Tara pressed her lips into a thin line.
“For saving my life.” she admitted. “And for not ratting me out to the Ministry.”
Theseus slowly but surely began to smile.
“Sure.” he said, nodding. “I’d like that.”
Tara shouldered the door of the speakeasy open, ushering Theseus inside. It wasn’t terribly busy for the time of night that it was, only loosely populated by a few of their regulars.
The two wizards walked over to the bar, Theseus taking off his blazer as they arrived and laying it against the back of the seat he chose. His hands had rested on the one to its right, about to pull it back, when Tara suddenly placed her hands on the surface of the bar itself, cleanly vaulting over it and landing on the opposite side.
Theseus scoffed in disbelief as he watched her greet the older man who was also working the bar, who regarded her as if this was nothing out of the ordinary. With a shake of his head, the Auror sat down in his chair, and Tara deposited herself in front of him, quickly pulling her hair up into a high ponytail.
“So, what's your nectar of choice?” she asked casually.
Theseus let out a small laugh, folding his hands together on the top of the bar.
“I’m partial to Fire Whiskey, but I can handle anything.”
Tara raised an eyebrow.
“Your hubris is unrelenting, Scamander.” she mumbled, already grabbing bottles from behind the counter. She used her wand to line up a few shot glasses in front of him before swiftly pouring the golden liquid into each one.
When she was done, she tucked her wand back behind her ear, pushing the glasses towards him.
As he picked the first one up, his attention slid from the drink to the witch standing behind the bar.
“You know, I don’t really think it counts as ‘taking someone out for drinks’ if you’re working the whole time.” he noted before smoothly downing the first shot.
Tara placed a hand on her hip.
“I said I would buy you a drink, Scamander. Not take you out.” she corrected as he polished off the second.
“Pity.” the Auror said bluntly before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
Tara felt the tips of her ears beginning to grow hot, so she quickly rushed for some sort of diversion.
“Plus, you wouldn’t be able to keep up with me if I was drinking.”
As Theseus cleared the third shot, he raised an eyebrow.
“Is that a challenge?”
Tara shrugged her shoulders.
“I mean, I never called it that, but if that’s what you needed to hear for the sake of your pride-” she mocked. “Sure. A challenge.”
Theseus narrowed his eyes.
“You’re insufferable.” he mumbled as she levitated more shot glasses onto the counter in between them.
Tara only smirked in response as she began to pour again.
Stumbling up the staircase, Tara let out a string of curses as Theseus’ weight nearly knocked her over for the fifth time.
“Come on, you big oaf! Work with me here!” she grunted.
Theseus only groaned in response. One of his arms was slung over her shoulders and she was forced to support pretty much all his weight as she continued her attempt to pull him towards her apartment door.
“Howareyousofucking good at everythingggg?” he whined like a child. “Ican’tevenbeat- can’tevenbeat you at drinkinggg.” he slurred.
“Shut up.” Tara groaned, finally bringing them to a stumbling halt after the last stair.
Quickly unlocking the door, she all but dragged the Auror inside.
“What the hell?” Leta immediately exclaimed upon their entrance, standing up from where she had been sitting at the kitchen table, whatever she had been reading falling down onto the surface.
Theseus lurched forward, causing Tara to curse again. Leta had been quick to run over and help prop him back up.
“What in the blazes happened?” Leta asked as each witch slung the Head Auror’s arms over their respective shoulders.
“We went for drinks. Took him to the bar downstairs. Then he started getting all high-and-mighty about himself so-”
“Oh Merlin, Tara, you didn’t challenge him to a drinking contest, did you?”
“Technically he challenged me-”
“You know you can't do that.” Leta scolded. “Not everyone has your weird metabolism.”
“Yeah that’s not exactly helping right now, Leta.” Tara grunted. “What do we do with him?”
“I don’t know- uhh- put him down on the couch.”
The two of them stumbled out into their living room, all but throwing the much larger wizard down onto the old, beat-up piece of furniture. He landed on the cushions like a rock, his head slumping to the side.
Tara and Leta stood back up in unison, the latter letting out a quiet scoff.
“The Head Auror of the British Ministry of Magic is passed out on our couch right now.”
“Don’t give him that much credit.” Tara muttered. “Newt’s older brother is passed out on our couch right now.”
Leta immediately let out a soft giggle at that, and somehow, even Tara managed a small smile of her own.
Not long after that, her roommate had decided to turn in for the night, and Tara had just been about to follow suit, when she looked back over her shoulder, catching a passing glance of the man slumped over on their couch.
Sighing heavily, Tara briefly looked up at the ceiling before turning back around and stomping into the kitchen. Quickly, she poured out a glass of water, heading into the living room next in order to all but slam it down on the coffee table that was positioned in front of the couch.
There was a moment where she caught herself staring down at him. The great, decorated war hero. She couldn’t help but think about just how absolutely ridiculous he looked like this.
She almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
“Oi, big shot. I don’t know if you can hear me, but if you’re alive, drink some water.” she instructed semi-quietly.
Theseus made a grumbling sound in response, rolling over to make a grab at the water. But he missed it by a mile, and ended up falling completely off of the couch and onto the ground below in a heap.
“For fucks sake.” Tara said, immediately moving to try and lift him back up.
Hooking her arms underneath his, she eventually managed to push his torso back onto the couch, moving to the opposite end to do the same with his legs.
With another annoyed sigh, she went to walk past the couch again and out of the room for good, when suddenly a lazy hand had reached out and grabbed a hold of her wrist, yanking her downwards. She fell down onto the space of the couch closest to Theseus’ stomach, a surprised yelp escaping her throat as she did so.
She looked down at the Auror’s face accusingly, watching as it took him a few more seconds to peel his eyes open even a centimeter.
“I lost…” he mumbled quietly.
“Oh yeah.” she replied with a nod of her head. “Big time. Now how's about you drink some water?”
Theseus groaned, shutting his eyes again.
With a roll of her own, Tara reached over to grab the glass herself.
“Hey, big, bag, Auror-man-” she taunted, using her free hand to tug at the curls on the top of his head, forcing his attention back forward.
He had let a curse slip out of his mouth, and Tara used that moment to shove the glass in between his parted lips. He had grunted in surprise, but slowly allowed the water to enter his gullet.
When all the water was gone, Tara placed the cup back down on the coffee table. Turning her attention back to Theseus, only to see that he had once more slipped into unconsciousness.
She found herself sitting there for much longer than she had intended to, and it took even longer still to realize that her fingers were still tangled slightly in his hair. As she continued to observe his sleepy expression, an odd sense of warmth began to travel across her chest.
Eventually, she drew her hand away, rising from the couch and all but sprinting back to the safety of her own bedroom.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───
When the witches woke up the following morning, they found their living room empty.
“Looks like he wasn’t dead after all.” Tara remarked as she moved to begin making breakfast.
Leta had simply shaken her head before following.
The two of them walked into work together a few hours later, bidding silent goodbyes before heading to their respective departments.
When Tara sat down behind her desk, she found a letter informing her of a meeting that she was required to attend that morning. One that was to include all the other Directors in Magical Law Enforcement.
She let out a groan, kicking her feet a bit like a child throwing a tantrum.
She hated debriefs, as they were impossibly boring. And on a much further end of the spectrum, she wasn’t exactly jumping at the chance to see Theseus again so soon.
Tara all but pried herself up and out of her chair, tucking her wand back behind her ear before slowly trudging out of the office.
She had ultimately been the last one to arrive at the meeting, as all the other older men were already sitting around the large, circular table.
And much to her dismay, the only empty chair left was the one directly to the right of none other than the Head Auror himself.
She didn’t spare him a glance as she quickly sat down.
The meeting itself was just as tedious as she thought it would be. There weren’t many new leads those days, only a growing list of unanswered attacks. And the conversation lulled after Theseus had asked the head of the Research Department if they had gotten any more information surrounding the communications that they had intercepted a while back. Their answer had been no, that the research on that front had stalled almost completely.
As he said that, Tara and Theseus had momentarily caught each other’s gaze.
But they both chose to remain silent.
Once dismissed for the morning, they filed out of the conference room and back into the halls of the Ministry to go about their daily business.
Tara wasn’t in much of a rush, making her way back to her office at a rather leisurely pace. She flipped through the debrief file itself, but there wasn’t much in there that she didn’t already know.
Her shoulder was suddenly nudged forward as the space directly to her right became occupied.
Glancing up, she found that Theseus had matched her pace, also absentmindedly thumbing through the folder in his hands.
She felt her face flush slightly as she turned her attention back forward.
In response, she heard the low rumble of a soft, classically Theseus, laugh. He let a single beat of silence pass between them before he dared to speak.
“You know-” he began, “That should be illegal. Getting your superior drunk like that.”
Tara immediately screeched to a halt, whirling around to face him.
“First of all, Scamander, you are not my superior.” she spat.
Theseus looked back down at her with a boyishly smug grin.
“Right.” he cooed. “Well then…”
Tara had to quite literally force down the heat that she could feel climbing up her neck at an alarming pace. And it was only then that she realized just how close he had decided to stand to her, the front of his loafers just about brushing up against the scuffed tips of her black boots.
She met his smirk with a steady glare.
“You just lost.” she finally whispered in retaliation before hurrying down the hallway, back to the safety of her own office.
Theseus watched her go the entire way.
“Yeah.” he mumbled, his hand absentmindedly reaching up to run through his curls. “Yeah. I did.”
When the five o’clock hour hit, Tara sighed in relief. She really didn’t understand why she was expected to come in on the days that she wasn’t running a training session. All she ended up doing was lounging around and reading through stolen reports all day. And even that only kept her mind occupied for so long.
She flung open the door of her office, more than ready to head home, only to leap backwards in surprise. As there was a large body filling damn near her entire door frame.
“The hell, Scamander?!” she shouted.
“Protective detail, remember?”
Tara immediately scowled, pushing past him and into the hallway.
“And I told you I can take care of myself, remember?” she fired back over her shoulder, waving her hand back at him dismissively.
“You promised Leta.”
Tara stopped walking.
Pressing her eyes together in annoyance, her shoulders rose and fell a few times in line with her breathing. Slowly, she turned back to look over her shoulder, her jaw locked in place.
“Fine.” she grumbled. “But I still don’t agree with this.”
“Oh I’m well aware.” Theseus said as he walked down the hallway to meet her. “C’mon.”
Tara let out another quiet groan before begrudgingly following him down the hall and out of the Ministry.
And as they climbed the stairs up to her floor, Theseus was eventually overcome with the desire to break the silence that had followed them like a ghost from the Ministry.
“Ah. Feels like ages since I’ve been here.”
“Hilarious.” Tara mumbled in response as she pushed open the door.
Leta poked her head out from around a distant corner as the wizards shuffled inside.
“Oh good, you’re both still alive.” she noted with a small, pointed hum.
Both Tara and Theseus rolled their eyes.
Leta walked out into the living room to meet Tara as she lazily dropped her bag and coat onto their couch.
“Would you like to stay for dinner, Theseus?” Leta suddenly asked the wizard who was still loitering in their doorway.
“Actually, that would be-”
“No, he wouldn’t.” Tara interjected.
Leta shot her a bewildered look, as did the Head Auror. The former was quick to shake her head disapprovingly, walking over to grab Tara’s arm and drag her back towards their front door.
“It’s the least we could do, especially after my trouble-making friend here got you in such a toss-up last night.” she said. “Isn’t that right, Tara?” Leta urged.
The Irish witch did not answer, and refused to look at either of them.
Theseus suppressed his smirk, accepting the invitation gratefully.
Most of the small talk over the meal was done by Theseus and Leta, while Tara sat stewing across the table. The food was nice enough, as Leta was a notably fantastic cook, but paperwork was certainly not a stirring enough topic of conversation. At least for Tara. And hearing them laugh and make jokes about silly little Ministry things made no sense to her. She didn’t find it funny. She hated paperwork. And she was not itching to talk more about that place.
When she eventually cleaned off her plate, she pushed up from her chair, tossed her utensils into the sink and announced to her company that she was going to get some fresh air.
Theseus had nearly risen from his seat in protest, but by then she had already disappeared out the front door, leaving the Auror staring at the space she had once occupied.
Leta let out a quiet, interested hum in the silence that followed. The taller wizard turned towards her for an explanation, but she was still staring at the doorway.
“Odd.” she mused, rising to dump her plate into the sink as well. “I never took her for the jealous type.”
Theseus furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but Leta didn’t elaborate.
“She’ll be on the roof.” she said, answering a question that he hadn’t asked. “But don’t expect her to be happy to see you.”
Theseus couldn’t help but let out a scoff at that.
“I am well acquainted with that feeling at this point, thank you.” he grumbled, making for the front door himself.
The moment that it shut behind him, Leta let out a quiet giggle to herself.
Peering over the top of the ladder, Theseus found Tara standing close to the far edge of the roof. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest as she stared out at the darkened silhouette of the London cityscape that splayed out before her.
Hearing his footsteps, Tara glanced over her shoulder, only to immediately huff in annoyance.
“You can’t let me have one moment of peace, can you Scamander?” she asked as he arrived at her side.
“Certainly not.”
With a roll of her eyes, Tara returned her attention to the rooftops. But when the now shared silence inevitably grew too much for her to bear, that’s when she decided to speak again.
“I never wanted to live in London.” she admitted randomly.
Theseus glanced over at her with an eyebrow raised.
“Why did you stay then?”
Tara sighed, her hands tracking up and down her arms a few, repetitive times.
“For Leta.” she said. “And for your brother.”
Theseus was surprised but silently prompted her to continue. Which she did after letting out a small breath of air.
“Back home, I was always just- pretending to fight off bad guys.” she explained. “But at Hogwarts, that’s when I was introduced to the real thing. And every person that I helped there made me feel like I was actually doing something good. It was the same way later on with the IRA…all I’ve ever wanted to do is help the people the rest of the world pushes aside.”
Once she had finished speaking, she dared to glance over at Theseus, only to find his expression glazed-over and unreadable in the shadows of the evening. Regret was quick to wash over her body.
“Sorry. That probably doesn’t make any sense.”
“No. No it does.” Theseus was all too quick to reassure her, but by then Tara had already turned away from him again. The Auror bit at the inside of his cheek as he took a few moments to think. “That’s the real reason you stay at the Ministry, isn’t it? It was never about the money. You want to help…even though you hate Aurors.”
Tara slowly tilted her head back over to him.
“Even though you hate me,” he added.
“I don’t-” Tara quickly clamped her mouth shut, her cheeks aflame. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. I hate you.” she spat, turning back around.
Theseus sighed.
“So close.” he mumbled.
The quiet sound of their muffled laughter dissipated up into the starry sky above their heads.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───
The ravens and letters stopped for good about four months after her escape from Grindelwald. There had been a time where they had still attempted to send her threatening messages, reminding her that they knew where she was at all times, but Tara eventually casted a spell on her office window to prevent anything from actually getting inside.
And then one day, they were gone.
She was grateful to be sure, finally awarded some small semblance of peace. But at the same time, there was an overwhelming sense of dread that just wouldn’t leave her alone.
Especially when she had told Theseus the news, and caught the way that his jaw had twitched before ultimately saying that it was good news.
“Maybe he finally got the hint.” the Auror had added.
But his eyes were far away, already beginning to sift through a million different possibilities.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───