𝐭𝐫í𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐚 // 𝟑𝟎
Early the following morning, the group had gathered at the Hogwarts train station, ready to make the journey back to Kings Cross. And from there; Germany.
Dumbledore had come to see them off, standing on the platform with them as other people from Hogsmeade, and even the occasional Hogwarts staff member or student, loaded themselves and their luggage onto the steaming locomotive.
“You have everything you need?” Dumbledore asked Newt.
The Magizoologist nodded, patting both his pockets and holding on a bit tighter to the handle of his case.
Tara was standing a few paces to the right of the Scamander brothers, her arms tightly crossed over her chest. Her eyes had been stuck to the side of the train car in front of her from the moment it had pulled into the station. And her mind was thousands and thousands of kilometers away.
Dumbledore excused himself from Newt and Theseus, making his way over to the third member of the party. The latter’s eyes followed him carefully as he went.
In the reflection of the train car window, Tara watched the professor appear at her side. Her shoulders tensed up immediately upon his arrival.
After a moment of suffocating silence, she finally released the breath she had been holding.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
In the reflection, she saw Dumbledore smile sadly.
“Would it truly have made a difference?”
Tara scoffed, looking down at the ground before squeezing her eyes shut tight.
“He has tak- he’s tried to take everything away from me.” she said in a gruff whisper.
“I know,” he replied immediately. “And I am truly sorry for all of it.”
In a flash, Tara turned to look over at the professor for the first time since back in the tavern. She found his eyes already on her face, and in them she easily felt the comforting wisdom of the man who had been one of the only adults in her younger years to ever encourage her rebellious nature.
“And if I kill him myself?” she said, her voice low and dark. “Are you going to be able to forgive me?”
Dumbledore’s smile didn’t falter as she spoke, not even for a second. Instead, he reached forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“All I have ever wanted, was for you to do what you believe is right. Not what other people tell you is.”
Tara took a shaky breath in, another one of those pesky tears escaping her eyes as she did so. She quickly reached up to swipe it away, feeling Dumbledore gently squeeze her shoulder.
It was at that moment that Theseus appeared next to Dumbledore.
“We’re ready to go.”
Tara nodded her head and the professor's hand fell back down to his side.
“Be careful.” the older wizard reiterated. “All of you.”
Theseus assured him that they would, and Tara promptly walked away from them both, following closely behind Newt as he climbed onto the train.
Once inside, and as they made their way down the aisles in search of an empty collection of seats, Theseus reappeared at Tara’s flank.
“What was that about?” he asked her just before they finally slumped down into the first open carriage that they found.
Tara didn’t respond at first, her attention instead outside the window now to her left. Across from them, Newt was attempting to fit his case underneath his seat before eventually giving it up, and placing it onto the empty space at his side. His palm instinctively reached over to lay flat against its leather surface.
And it wasn’t until the train itself began moving that Tara finally tilted her head back toward Theseus.
“I told him that I was going to kill Grindelwald.” she told him, not an ounce of a joking tone in her voice.
A small smile twitched at the edges of Theseus’ expression as he reached forward, wordlessly taking hold of one of her hands, and tucking it securely into the space between their two bodies.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───
Once they had changed trains at Kings Cross, picking up a handful of their other co-conspirators, the group of wizards found themselves lounging around and waiting in the rented-out bar car at the tail end of the locomotive that was taking them to Germany.
The snowy Brandeburg countryside was speeding past the windows of the car at a considerable speed now that they were about halfway through the trip.
Yusuf Kama, a man that Newt had met during his adventure in Paris, and half-brother to Leta Lestrange as Tara had come to find out, had joined them in London. Alongside Newt’s assistant Bunty Broadacre.
Kama specifically had been given a mission by Dumbledore directly; to attempt to infiltrate Grindelwald’s inner circle.
Tara was wildly unsure as to how that was supposed to work, considering that they now had a Legilimens at their disposal, but she also hadn’t the ability or foresight to question Dumbledore’s decisions.
At the farthest end of the cart, was a small fireplace. Theseus, Newt, and Bunty were all standing in front of it, talking quietly amongst themselves. Kama was standing silently in front of a nearby window, across from which was a fully stocked bar. Which Tara wouldn’t lie, she had been eyeing for the past ten minutes or so as she leaned her elbows up against its counter.
Sometime during the trio’s conversation, Theseus had begun to flip through the newspaper that he had picked up back at Kings Cross. On its cover, was an article covering the upcoming election. And on the back page, was yet another one of Grindelwald’s wanted posters.
“What are they saying at the Ministry?” Newt asked, breaking the now prolonged silence, gesturing towards the paper. “Liu or Santos?”
Tara glanced up from where she had been absentmindedly tracing the shapes in the marble countertop of the bar.
“Officially, the Ministry takes no position.” Theseus replied before looking up over the page. “Unofficially? The smart money’s on Santos. But anyone would be better than Vogel.”
“Anyone?” Kama piped up from over by the window.
Turning their attention towards him, they all easily clocked the way that his gaze had landed on the back page of the newspaper, eyeing the wanted poster printed there warily.
“I don’t believe he’s on the ballot, Kama.” Theseus said dismissively. “He also happens to be a fugitive.”
“Is there a difference?” Kama muttered in turn.
Immediately after he had spoken, the fireplace behind the two Scamander brothers sputtered to life, beginning to glow a bright green color. Then, stumbling out from in between the growing flames, came a man. And he was gripping a cast iron frying pan tightly in his hands.
“Spinning.” the man muttered with what was clearly an American accent. “Always with the spinning.”
As Tara picked her head up from where it had been momentarily resting against one of her hands, she realized that she had seen this man before. If only for a brief moment, back in the catacombs under a Parisian cemetery.
“Jacob! Welcome!” Newt greeted happily. “You brilliant man. I was absolutely sure Professor Hicks would convince you!”
Once the man had finally appeared to get his bearings, he turned back towards the Magizoologist with a kind smile.
“You know me, pal. Can’t pass up a good Portkey.”
The fire behind the group began to glow again, and soon a tall woman was striding into the bar carriage, with a noticeable difference in grace than the man Jacob had done. She was dressed in a long, light brown coat, and her dark hair was pulled tightly towards the back of her head, with only a few stray curls hanging down on either side of her face. In her hands, she was clutching onto a thick, leather-bound book.
She glanced around the room for a moment before her attention eventually landed on Newt.
“Mr. Scamander?”
“Professor Hicks?”
“At long last.” They both spoke at the same time.
Newt quickly turned to address the other members of the train car.
“Professor Hicks and I have corresponded for many years, but we’ve never actually met.” he explained. “Her book on Advanced Charm Casting is a must-read.”
The professor let out a good-natured laugh.
“Newt is far too kind. Fantastic Beasts is required reading for all my fifth years.”
Newt did his best to hide a bashful smile.
“Now- well- let me make introductions.” he stumbled quickly, gesturing first to the woman behind him, who was sitting comfortably in a chair with two Nifflers perched on either one of her shoulders. “This is Bunty Broadacre, my indispensable assistant for the past seven years-”
“Eight-” Bunty immediately corrected. “-years. And a hundred and sixty-four days.”
In the brief silence that followed her words, Tara fought hard to hold back the smirk that was attempting to crawl its way up and onto her face.
“As you can see; indispensable.” Newt reiterated. He then gestured across the car towards Kama. “And this is-”
“Yusuf Kama. Pleasure.” the man replied a bit dismissively.
“And you’ve obviously already made Jacob’s acquaintance-”
Theseus suddenly interrupted his brother by loudly clearing his throat. Newt turned to look over at him, confused, only for the Auror to raise a pointed eyebrow.
“Newt-”
“Oh, yes. Sorry.” the younger Scamander scrambled to amend. “This is my brother, Theseus. And he works for the Ministry.”
“Actually, Head of the British Auror Office.”
There had been a unique inflection in the man’s voice that for some reason or another made Tara stand up a bit straighter, coming out of the semi-slouched position she had adopted against the side of the bar.
Professor Hicks let out a good-natured laugh.
“Ah. Well, I’ll have to ensure my wand registration is up to date.” she joked.
Tara instantly clocked the way that Theseus’ neck had flushed in what appeared to be mild embarrassment.
“Yes. Although, strictly speaking, that doesn’t fall within my purview-”
His words trailed off as his eyes had absentmindedly flickered towards the witch at the far end of the bar. There he found that her expression had fallen into a subtle half-glare, with a singular eyebrow raised, and tongue gently poking at the inside of her cheek.
Theseus instantly clammed up under her gaze.
Newt, somehow not clocking any of this, simply gestured to Tara next.
“And this is Tara Kelly. Director of Lawman Training for the British Auror Office.”
The professor turned towards where he had pointed, and upon seeing that she was fairly close to her position, extended out a hand in greeting.
“Very nice to meet you.” she said. “Lally Hicks. It’s refreshing to work alongside another witch, to be sure.”
Despite everything, Tara had managed to smile. She shook her hand with a nod, even going so far as to whisper her own greeting in return.
After introductions were finally completed, Newt then shuffled back to stand in front of the fireplace once more. The others watched him move with interest, those who were now standing further away from him shifted positions slightly, ultimately culminating in them forming a haphazard semi-circle around the Magizoologist.
“All right, then. I imagine you’re all wondering why you find yourselves here.” Newt said, causing all of them to nod in the affirmative, some even letting out scoffs of disbelief. “And in anticipation of that, Dumbledore asked that I convey a message.” Newt continued, wringing his hands out anxiously in front of his stomach. “Grindelwald has the ability to see snatches of the future. So, we have to assume that he’ll be able to anticipate what we do before we do it. So if we hope to defeat him, and to save our world…to save your world, Jacob…then our best hope is to confuse him.”
Tara tilted her head to the side. Now this was interesting.
The entire car had fallen silent as they all mulled his words over.
“Excuse me?” Jacob piped up, raising his hand like a child in a classroom. “I’m sorry, how do you confuse a guy who can see the future?”
“Countersight.” Kama answered, seemingly impressed.
“Exactly. The best plan being no plan.” Newt concurred brightly.
“Or many overlapping plans.” Lally added.
“Thus confusion.”
“It’s working on me right now.” Jacob mumbled.
Newt’s eyes suddenly widened, clearly remembering something at that exact moment.
“In fact, Dumbledore asked that I give you something, Jacob.” the wizard said, reaching into one of the large pockets of his blue trench coat. He then swiftly produced a short wooden wand. It was rather simple in design, but a wand nonetheless. “It’s snakewood. It’s somewhat rare-”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Jacob exclaimed. “Is this thing real?”
Newt visibly fought back a smile.
“Yes, well, it doesn’t have a core, so sort of- but yes.”
“Sort of real?”
“More importantly, where we’re going, you’ll need it.” Newt concluded.
Jacob eventually took the wand into his hands, staring down at it as if it were some sort of glittering, golden treasure.
Newt on the other hand, went back to furiously fishing around inside of the many pockets of his coat.
“Now there’s something for you too, I think, Theseus.” he muttered, eventually tugging at something deep within his coat. But as he did, he appeared to be fighting against something. “Teddy, please let go. Teddy. Will you behave? This is Theseus’s…”
With one final tug, a small creature suddenly came flying out from inside the folds of Newt’s jacket. It hit Jacob in the middle of his chest, a surprised “oof” escaping the Muggle’s mouth as he instinctively reached up to catch it. The dark-coated Niffler stared back up at him innocently.
The object that Newt had evidently been fighting the Niffler for had fallen to the floor by his feet, and quickly he reached down to scoop it back up. It was a bright red neck tie, complete with a golden emblem of a Phoenix stitched into the bottom of the fabric.
Newt quickly passed the tie to his brother.
“Well, of course, now everything makes sense.” the Auror mumbled.
“Lally-” Newt continued on. “Lally, I believe you were given some reading material…”
The professor simply held up the book she had in her hands.
“You know what they say, a book can take you around the world and back. All you have to do is open it.”
Jacob gently placed the Niffler down onto the bar’s countertop, which he was now standing at the edge of.
“She ain’t kidding.” he muttered under his breath.
Next, Newt grabbed a small, folded piece of parchment out of his front-most coat pocket and passed it to his assistant.
“Bunty. That’s for you. I’m told it’s for your eyes only.”
The small woman unfolded the paper, her eyes immediately widening at whatever it was she was reading there. But seemingly just as quickly as she managed to scan the words, the parchment suddenly incinerated in her hands in a bright flash of orange fire, causing her to yelp in surprise.
“Kama-”
“I have what I need.” the man interrupted.
“What about Tina?” Jacob suddenly piped up. “Is Tina coming?”
There was a brief beat of silence.
“Tina’s…not available.” Newt finally replied. “Tina’s been promoted. She’s…very, very busy from what I understand.”
“Tina’s been made Head of the American Auror Office.” Lally chimed in happily. “We know each other well, she’s quite a remarkable woman.”
Another quiet befell the cabin as Newt slowly nodded his head.
“She is.” he confirmed in a small voice.
Tara felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards.
“So-” Theseus coughed, cutting through the awkward moment with a purpose. “This is the team that’s going to stop the most dangerous wizard we’ve faced in over a century? A Magizoologist, his indispensable assistant, a schoolteacher, an infantry trainer, a wizard descended from a very old French family, and a Muggle. A baker. With his fake wand.”
“Hey. We got you too pal.” Jacob interjected, holding up the drink that he had poured for himself while no one was looking. “And his wand works.”
“True.” Theseus said, the smallest of smiles on his face. “Who wouldn’t like our chances?”
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* : ｡☆ﾟ.･ ───