Traces

Percival Graves

Percival’s house was just about the same as he had left it. 

It was neat and luxurious with his overly expensive furniture. Albeit a bit dusty since it had been a while since anyone had been there, and of course it was empty.

Perfect.

“The coast is clear,” he whispered as he passed through the door and flew down to the potted plant which Newt was currently hiding behind.

“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at the red haired magizoologist with a bit of an amused expression.

“Uhm, hiding?” Newt looked a bit unsure of himself and Percival could only snort back in answer. 

“You only look even more suspicious, dear,” he teased back, watching in delight as the other man flushed.

He laughed. He did a lot of that whenever he was with Newt.

“Come now. Let’s get some of that hair now.” he gestured towards the house as Newt fished up the spare key to his house which luckily had still been in his office.

It was a relief to see that his house had been left untouched. That meant Grindelwald or his followers hadn’t been in there.

Still, it was a good thing though that the aurors had combed through his house prior to their visit.

They had only meant to retrieve some of Percival’s hair by Tina’s request since something sudden had come up in her schedule, but the case was standing quite still so Percival had jumped on the task with mostly the intention of also getting to show Newt his house and to goof around a little.

Percival wanted to be realistic. 

He was fading. It was better than turning into a wraith, he guessed, but it still sucked. 

His arm had turned transparent for two whole minutes that morning and he knew that he was running out of time.

He hadn’t told Newt though. 

Not yet. 

He didn’t want to worry him.

Besides, he was selfish. 

He wanted to spend his remaining time on earth laughing and joking around with Newt. 

Hence, why he had jumped in at the opportunity to try to find some hair of his with Newt when Goldstein had mentioned it.

Originally, Tina was supposed to come with them, but she had gotten a last minute firecall from one of the aurors, and judging by the expression it was something serious.

“You two go ahead without me. I’ll catch up,” she had said, refusing to elaborate as Percival had forwarded his question through Newt.

Usually Percival would have been more bothered. 

Ghost or not, he was still the director for goodness sake. 

But Tina had seemed to be in a rush so he assumed it was a situation that could be too straining for him.

Not that mattered now, because Percival much rather wanted to spend what could possibly be his last day with Newt instead of running around on a hopeless goose chase.

“Accio, Percival’s hairbrush!” Newt chanted, holding his hand out while waiting for the item to come. When it didn’t he let out a sigh. 

“Figured. The aurors must have taken it, but how about just trying hair?”

Newt nodded shortly.

“Accio Percival’s fallen hair strands,” he tried, once again sticking his hand out, but this time more confidently. 

He was rewarded with his actions when a couple of fine dark hair strands landed in his hand.

Newt grinned. “Good thing you’re so hairy, almost like a niffler- no, wait. That sounded wrong, didn’t it?” And Percival could only try his best to not choke on laughter as Newt flushed a deep red color.

His laughter still hadn’t subsided even after Newt had owled the hairstrands to Auror Oleander, and even then Newt was still very much red.

“That’s what I love about you the most, Newt,” He had grinned, his smile fading a little as he once again was reminded of what he would never have. 

“But then again I do love all of you, so..”

“Wait, you love me?” Newt turned a bright red color again as he turned a bit shy, averting his eyes a little.

“Of course,” Percival smiled softly as he walked closer to the other man. 

“But I didn’t want to act on it seeing how my situation was so… unsure,” he eventually decided on saying, his hand reaching forwards to cup Newt’s cheek.

“But then I went on to kiss you, which we still haven’t talked about and I guess that despite the circumstances I don’t want to die with more regret than what I already have.” 

Newt smiled radiantly as Percival eventually placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

They stood there for a while, basking in each other's presence before Newt’s expression eventually turned a bit sad.

“Don’t give up, Percy..” He mumbled, tears glistening in his eyes and Percival had to look away for a moment so that he could collect himself a little.

“I love you too.”

“I know, doll,” he smiled sadly, before letting his hand go, only for Newt to grab onto it, before intertwining their hands quietly, his hand feeling warm and soft against Percival’s.

“Now that we’re done with what we came here for; how about you meet my family?”

Percival chuckled a little when seeing Newt’s expression turn a bit confused.

“Uhm..” Newt looked around himself a bit puzzled, taking in his house as Percival started leading him through one of the halls.

“The portrait of my grandmother, of course,” he grinned as they stopped in front of an empty portrait, with a floral landscape as a background.

“What if she thinks I am an intruder?” Newt starting to stress a little as he tugged a bit urgently at Percival’s sleeve, making the director’s heart surge a little in love at witnessing Newt’s awkwardness which he had grown to love so much.

“That’s okay. You just need to mention that you’re a friend of Cador.”

“Cador?” Newt recited back at him, looking a bit confused.

“I’m named after one of the knights of the roundtable, one of King Arthur’s knight.”

“Oh, Emerys’s friend!” Newt exclaimed in realization. 

“Correct,” Percival smiled softly at him before squeezing his hand a little.

“Athough, my grandmother wanted my first name to be Cador which was another one of the knights belonging to the fellowship. In the end it became my unofficial nickname instead.”

“Ahhh, I see,” Newt said before turning his expression into a bit of an amused one. 

“Does that mean that you’re my knight in shining armor?” 

Percival raised an interested eyebrow at that, “Isn’t it more right to say you’re the knight in the shining armor here, Newt?” 

Newt let out a snort of laughter, “Hardly, I’d say I’m more of a dragon. Did you know that an Ukrainian ironbelly is the largest species of dragon ever recorded to roam the earth?” 

Percival laughed before planting another kiss on Newt’s cheek, making the other man giggle a little.

“Say what now? What’s this all about dragons and most importantly of all who are you, and what are you doing in my grandson’s house?” An old and shrill voice interrupted their banter, Percival smiling a little as he gently bumped Newt’s shoulder a little in reassurance.

“Hello, madam. I’m a friend of Cador,” Newt said charmingly, making the sour expression of the woman disappear straight away.

She grinned at him, “You’re Percival’s lover?! You should have told me so, my boy,” The frail, but stern looking lady leaned closer to the edge of the portrait to peer at Newt better.

In many ways she looked like Percival with her dark soft hair littered with tiny streaks of white here and there. 

She was visibly much older, but had the same dark brown eyes as him as well as the small dimples he also had been blessed with on his cheek.

“Don’t just stand there, son. Come closer so that I can have a better look at you. You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this day,” She beckoned the embarrassed and frozen Newt closer to her to which he obligingly answered. 

Newt sent a bit of an exasperated glare to Percival while sending a bit of a helpless look to him to which Percival only reassuringly placed a soft kiss on his cheek in answer to.

“She’s just excited. Cador is the name only my family can use and that includes my intended.” He sent Newt a bit of a sheepish smile at that before continuing to speak.

“We can leave if it’s too much. I just wanted her to meet you for a bit.”

“No, that’s okay. I just got a bit surprised,” Newt murmured as Percival’s grandmother made him twirl around a bit on the spot, ignoring the way he was seemingly talking to himself.

“Excellent. You’d look wonderful in the silvergray wedding robes I have hidden away. Some dark blue embroidery would go well with that too. You’re joining the Graves family after all so it’s only natural you get to wear our colors,” Percival’s grandmother started ranting off, and boy wasn’t she painting a beautiful picture in Percival’s head.

Newt standing in a meadow of flowers, walking up to Percival with his impossible radiant smile and soft curls, just moments before they swore themselves to each other.

Beautiful indeed.

Percival let out a sigh again.

If only…

----------

Seraphina Piqquery

Seraphina eyed her girlfriend seriously as she laid out her concerns. 

She had been sharing them a lot with her lately. 

Usually that was something to be expected given that she was not only in a relationship with her, but also because she was one of their best rising aurors working in the same department as her.

“So, after Abernathy failed to show up again,” she stressed the word again, stopping her pacing to look at Seraphina a bit exasperatedly. 

“I asked Auror Goldstein to fetch me some new hairstrands just because why not. I had no reason at all to suspect at that point that the whole hairbrush Abernathy had given us was contaminated.” 

Olga rolled her eyes a little, looking a bit irritated all of a sudden.

“Sure, his methods were a bit.. inefficient but for him to be somehow connected to Grindelwald?! I never imagined that..” 

Seraphina nodded to her words, already moving to grab a piece of parchment paper. 

She could understand her girlfriend’s disbelief and feeling of betrayal.

Although, it made sense that Grindelwald still could have some allies within the ministry. 

And the fact that the lead auror of the investigation was missing almost all the time and had failed to make consistent reports was more than enough for her to place an arrest warrant on him. 

She hadn’t expected her girlfriend to come forward with more to the story though.

“Ugh.. I think he was messing with us all along, because as soon as I used the hair Scamander had fetched then everything turned clearer. I mean it’s still not perfect because the hair is a bit too old by now, but..”

Piqquery placed a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, squeezing it a little reassuringly.

“It’s not your fault. Aurors should usually be able to put their whole trust in their superiors after all,” She said bitterly, finally making sense of why things hadn’t really been going their direction in the investigation.

“Yes, but..,” Olga sighed, biting her lip a little before slumping down on the couch in Seraphina’s office.

At least they had narrowed the places where Percival could be a little by now, but time was running out now that Abernathy knew that they were on to them and that probably did not mean anything good for both Percival and Mr. Otton.

Seraphina just hoped that the aurors working the case would be able to find them fast, but the map hadn’t been clear on where exactly Percival and hopefully with him Mr Otton was.

“Oh, well,” Seraphina thought to herself. At least they had gotten an area, albeit a bit big, to work with.

They sat there in silence for a while, until an urgent knock was placed on Piqquery’s door.

“Come in.”

Auror Goldstein’s head peaked around the corner.

“Madam president,” she said, skipping any other formalities before getting to the point. 

“We finally found out where the bell was bought from. It’s from the port area close to Manhattan bridge.” Piqquery perked up at that, and from what she saw in the corner of her eyes so did her girlfriend.

“That’s in the same area as the tracing map narrowed the director to be,” She said, jumping up from the couch and drawing her wand out from her holster.

She quickly sent a patronus with the information to the new lead auror, Yowie, leading the case before turning back towards Goldstein again.

“If only we could narrow it down..” The dark haired auror muttered before shaking her head, clenching and unclenching her hands a couple of times.

Seraphina heard a rustling motion behind her and turned around to see her girlfriend levitating a couple of books onto her desks, her expression looking a bit ecstatic.

“But, we can!” Seraphina sent her a confused look and she didn’t need to turn around to see that Goldstein was probably doing the same.

“Think about it. Abernathy doesn’t come from a rich background and with Grindelwald incarcerated it must make things difficult for his followers to work together as one,” She rambled off as the books opened up and started to flip through pages of themselves quickly.

“So..” Seraphina prompted Olga to continue with wherever she was going.

“I mean it’s worth a shot isn’t it?” She continued to ramble off, her eyes starting to look a bit wild.

“Olga.” Her girlfriend stilled as Seraphina cupped her cheeks, “What is worth a shot?”

Her girlfriend shook herself out from the stupor she had found herself in before focusing her eyes on Seraphina.

“To see if there are any ministry owned warehouses by the Manhattan bridge port area.”

Seraphina stilled.

Her girlfriend was right. It was absolutely worth a try.

She grinned before giving her a nod of approval.

In the background the books had stopped flipping through themselves.

Her girlfriend sent her a brilliant smile as golden letters suddenly floated above one of the books.

“Jackpot.”