All of MACUSA has heard the stories of Director Graves’ husband. That he’s never home, never been seen with the Director. There are no photos of the two of them and their wedding announcement in the paper, or at least the ones people have been able to find, are careful not to give any personal details about the man at all.
The only thing people know is that he comes from a family with ties in magical law enforcement, his job keeps him away from home for long stretches of time, and that when he is home, Graves’ mood drastically improves.
The problem is, even the President herself hasn’t seen nor met the man that Percival Graves married. And she’s known him since school. Apparently the wedding was so quiet only the husband’s family attended.
So, what are a bunch of bored Aurors supposed to do when they have down time?
They try to figure out who he married.
At first they thought that Graves and Picquery were married. But she likes women and he made it very clear that he was very committed to his husband.
So they scrapped their ideas because they hadn’t known he was married to a man.
That’s when they found the news articles about the wedding, and that’s all they were able to find out.
Then, Theseus Scamander, war hero, army friend of Graves, and Head Auror of the Ministry of Magic was scheduled to visit and the investigation had a new focus. Could the Director of the DLE and the Head of the Auror Department be married in secret?
Perhaps they met on the battlefield, thinking their affections were a bond of brothers only for them to realize it went far deeper than that.
Or perhaps they met at one of those boring conferences, their eyes met across the room and things spiraled from there.
It would explain the secrecy for sure. Two very powerful men dating would be a threat to security if one of them were to reveal state secrets to the other.
But then he actually arrives and even though the two men greet each other warmly, there’s a burning in Theseus’ eyes that show anger and mistrust, not love or romance.
It is definitely not Scamander.
Then Graves gets kidnapped by Grindelwald and none of them noticed. The man was too surprised at the mentions of him being married. That should have been their big clue. Even Grindelwald was unable to crack the identity of the mysterious other Mr. Graves.
It took a magizoologist, brother of one of the once possible husbands to discover this and help him. They watch this shy twig of a thing command beasts 4 times his size with grace and confidence. Newt just seems to know things that other people don’t, purely because they forget he’s there and then start talking. But he’s also competent. Able to discern creatures apart from the smallest clue.
So, of course they ask him.
He laughs at the idea of Graves dating his brother. Revealing that Theseus is engaged to one of Newt’s childhood friends.
Which, great for Theseus, but now their best guess is down.
But they are able to gather more data. The husband seems to be back more now. Graves always walks into the office with a soft smile on his face, and home made lunches that he eats, instead of downing a coffee and going back to work.
Every time, they ask Newt to have Dougal follow him. It always ends in disappointment. They learn nothing.
Then they ask Newt to just ask Graves who his husband is. Graves seems to like the younger Scamander. Maybe it has to do with the fact that he is friends with Theseus, no one knows but the two are close.
Newt declines, and just like that they are out of avenues to try. Graves will likely take the secret to the grave.
And Newt won’t help them.
They’ll never know who Director Graves’ husband is.”
Meanwhile…
“Percy, is this all really necessary? This has been going on for years,” Newt says, from where he is sitting at the kitchen table in Graves manor. He’s drinking one of the teas Percy bought for him.
“Newt, they are supposed to be Aurors. They need to learn to look and analyze or they will die. They have all the clues they need,” Percival says.
“I know. You know what else I know?”
“What?”
“That I’m in love with you,” Newt says leaning up to give him a kiss.
“Perhaps we should mess with them a bit more,” Newt says.
“I love you so much,” Percival says, as they start planning.