But I Have Promises To Keep
But I Have Promises To Keep
1925
1 Goldstein came back into the little grey room with a young woman in tow – the sister, presumably. This sister was a slender person of average height with a very beautiful, likeable face, and fashionably coiffed, strawberry blonde hair. Judging by the navy blue dress she was wearing and her somewhat abashed demeanour, she probably was not an auror.
Graves briefly stood up and nodded at her. “Miss Goldstein – Queenie. I’m loath to ask you this favour, but it really is vital that we find out whether Miss Prewett is being completely candid with us.”
Queenie, who had her hands clasped before herself and seemed just a tad out of her comfort zone, nodded gravely and ventured a shy little smile after exchanging a quick look with her frowning sister. “Of course I’ll help.”
Celestia decided to ignore Goldstein’s frown – most likely a consequence of the handcuffs being gone – and tried to relax and clear her mind. Legilimency was not exactly pleasant if one was at the receiving end. She kept her expression as level as she was able to when she looked up at Queenie Goldstein’s face. The young woman stood before her and looked her in the eye, seeming unhappy about the turn of events, but doing her duty nonetheless. Those were always the best ones, weren't they? The reluctant people who pulled through despite their obvious trepidations? This kind of attitude required bravery, and bravery was hard to come by anywhere.
Unbidden, all the memories and feelings Celestia did not want anyone to see shot through her head. First, she thought of her first day at Hogwarts, when she’d for a brief moment feared she might get sorted into a different House than her mum and her friends had. That was when she’d silently begged the Sorting Hat to please please please place her in Slytherin. The Hat nearly hadn't. She’d almost made Hufflepuff. How would she have been able to continue being friends with Alastair and the others as a Hufflepuff? Just as bad had been this question: how hurt would her father be if he found out that she’d refused to join his House?
No-one knew about this – well, until now.
Then, she thought about Leta Lestrange and the mean stunt the lads had pulled on her during that Yule Ball at Malfoy Manor. She thought about how cowardly she had been, doing nothing more than warning Newt and mildly admonishing Alastair. What had followed in the wake of that incident had been both awful and entirely preventable. Celestia knew that she too was to blame for it, as was anyone even slightly involved. Yet, she’d kept quiet out of fear, like a right coward. Not a day went by when she didn’t have to force herself to not think about that ill-fated winter and the consequences of the boys’ action and her inaction.
She thought about her sister, how close they’d been as children, and how hard it had been to see her leave for Romania. Not much later, Nana had found a new home in the Grindelwald movement, and hell would freeze over before she abandoned her cause. Nana was an ideologist, through and through, and would not stop at anything to defend what she believed was right.
Celestia thought about Newt, who’d travelled with her to help her save her family, when he’d had no reason to. She’d double-crossed him because he was a goodie-two-shoes who was enamoured of all strange and horrendous magical creatures crawling about the planet. He simply didn’t understand that she’d burn the whole world down to save the people she loved, especially after all that she’d left behind when she’d walked away from her marriage. Still, as much as she might talk herself into believing that she’d done what she had to when she’d lied to Newt and bolted, she couldn’t quiet the horrible sting of guilt nagging at her thoughts all the time, even in her dreams.
She thought about Alastair, about how they’d met as children during one summer at Malfoy Manor. From the first moment, they’d connected and had been nigh-on inseparable. How she loved his silly sense of humour. How she loved his passionate nature. How she loved his shrewd cleverness. How she loved his devotion to her and to their relationship. How she loved to just sit with him in comfortable silence, enjoying his company.
How she loved him.
Now, he was frozen and dying, slowly dying, almost gone, and with him, the entire reason for her resolving to make the hardest decision of her life.
She thought about her daughter.
In front of her, Queenie Goldstein took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry,” she said, and the honest sympathy in her voice was so disarming, it was almost enough to break Celestia’s tenuous control on herself.
“Thank you.” Celestia looked down at her hands, folded neatly on her lap. She felt a little ill and very, very tired.
“And?” Graves said, giving Queenie an expectant look.
Queenie, looking even unhappier than just a moment ago, shook her head at him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t hear anything about Grindelwald. All she does is think about her loved ones and how much she misses them.”
A small, but very heavy silence ensued.
Finally, Graves faced Celestia, and said, “It seems like you were telling the truth, after all. We were mistaken. You can leave.”
To Celestia’s right, Goldstein the Elder bristled. “But sir-”
“Don’t argue with me,” Graves cut in, and she pressed her lips together at once. He gave Queenie an acknowledging nod. “Miss Goldstein, would you escort Miss Prewett outside?”
Elder Goldstein’s eyes grew wide. “But she has information about those Grindelwald supporters!”
Graves pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Goldstein, for once, would you just do as you’re told without protest? That would be lovely.”
Of course the older Goldstein couldn’t know that Graves already had talked Celestia into helping him, but she really did seem a little too overeager, didn’t she? Well, better overeager than the opposite. An auror’s job wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, especially not in their day and age.
Celestia cautiously rose to her feet and straightened her poor, battered dress. She really needed a shower and a change. “Am I really free to leave?”
“You are.” Graves turned to Queenie again. “If you’d be so kind…”
“Of course.” Queenie gave Celestia an encouraging smile and led her outside the little grey room toward the nearest lift. They were already well on their way through the big entrance hall toward the doors when she said, “I really am sorry I pried like that. It’s never my intention to make people uncomfortable.”
“It’s not your fault,” Celestia said, glancing at her. “I’ve never met a Legilimens quite as powerful as you, Miss Goldstein.”
“Call me Queenie.”
“I’m Celestia.”
They started heading down the stairs that led to the glass doors. A few people looked at the rather dishevelled foreign witch walking past them, but clearly didn’t find the sight all that riveting and quickly went about their own business again.
Sounding a little wretched and very sympathetic, Queenie said, “I’m sorry about what happened to you. Nobody should go through something awful like that.”
“We all have our crosses to bear, as the saying goes,” Celestia replied levelly, sounding much calmer than she felt. She pushed the door open and smiled at Queenie. “Thank you for being nice. That’s a rarity these days.”
Queenie smiled back. Her whole face lit up. She wasn’t just objectively beautiful, but emanated warmth and honesty and gentleness in a way that made her mere looks completely irrelevant. This seemed to simply be a nice person who harboured no ill will toward anyone. It was probably very easy to fall in love with her. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
“So do I,” Celestia said, braced herself against the cold, and went outside.
2 It didn’t take long until Celestia was reunited with Nocturna and the others in the crummy brownstone. They all occupied their previous positions, as if there were some unspoken yet weirdly official seating arrangement compelling them to do so. It was pretty standard behaviour, actually. Some things never changed.
Everyone listened to Celestia as she recounted her brief meeting with Percival Graves and the Goldstein sisters. “She didn’t see anything suspicious in my mind, and now he thinks that I’m spying on you for him,” she concluded, looking each and every one of them in the eye.
To her left sat Nocturna, who took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Did he say anything else?”
Celestia shifted her weight in order to look at her sister properly. “No. He told me to keep an eye on you, involve you in my search, and keep him informed. He’ll probably send the Goldstein woman after us as insurance, but I’m not sure.”
“Porpentina Goldstein,” Ethel, lounging in her armchair, said with unmasked contempt. She snorted. “Thinks she’s on a crusade to rid the world of all evil witches and wizards threatening the holy order of the noble MACUSA!” Her pleasant, youthful, thin and sharp-angled face twisted in disgust. There was no need to ask if she had an axe to grind with the authorities in general and Goldstein in particular.
“Don’t worry about Goldstein,” Apollo said, briefly glancing at Ethel before focussing on Celestia. “What we need to do is continue the search for the frozen heart. Your contact didn’t show up because the aurors were onto you. Was there a contingency plan?”
Despite herself, Celestia tensed up. It was so strange to be in the same room as Apollo again, after the ugliness of their separation, as if nothing bad had ever happened. She tried to relax, to little avail. “Certainly. He said that he’d leave me a clue, which would then lead me to the next and the next, until finally, I’d reach him.”
“Like a scavenger hunt,” Leta offered, from Celestia’s right.
“Precisely,” Celestia said, nodding once. “It won’t be easy, though, and it might get dangerous, especially if we have aurors on our backs.”
Everyone exchanged knowing little looks. That was odd, wasn’t it? Why did everyone seem so utterly unfazed by the fact that the Director of Magical Security and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement thought that Celestia was his agent? Why did they care so little about aurors being on their backs? This made no sense. It made absolutely…
…unless…
Celestia’s heart started beating faster. A cold chill crept down her spine. Could it be? Could he be the insider working for Grindelwald at the heart of the American wizarding authority? Telling herself once again to stop projecting her fears and insecurities on everyone around her, she decided to keep this suspicion on the back burner. It certainly was a thought worth exploring, but it did not seem prudent to just blurt it out as it came into her head. No, she needed to sort out her own priorities and keep her ultimate goal in mind. Nothing else mattered. Politics didn’t matter. The wizarding war didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was saving Alastair and his family – her family. There was no failing this mission. When she’d left her life behind to be with Alastair, they’d promised each other that they would be together until the day they died.
She would burn the whole world down to save him.
3 “So you do understand what I want you to do, don’t you, Goldstein?” Graves was watching her from across the table. They’d been inside the interrogation chamber for what felt like an eternity now, as he explained to her how he’d recruited that dodgy Prewett woman to be an agent for the MACUSA on the hunt for Gellert Grindelwald.
“I’m to stay put and not get involved without a direct order. I understand perfectly, sir,” she said, her voice sounding mechanical and weird in her own ears. That was what she always sounded like when she forced herself to say something, and she was forcing herself to say something because she did not agree with Graves one single bit. How could he ask this of her? She couldn’t just let that woman re-join her delinquent sister and the other Grindelwald cronies! Something in his weary expression told her that she wasn’t as good at keeping her thoughts to herself as she’d hoped.
Looking as if he were suppressing a sigh, he said, “Spit it out already.”
She braced herself for resistance. “Sir, I don’t think that it’s smart to let Prewett prance about unsupervised. She’s not trustworthy.”
He arched his expressive eyebrows. “Your sister read her thoughts and came to a completely different conclusion.”
It was her turn to suppress a sigh. After rummaging in her mind for the right words, she finally said, “That’s…that’s not exactly how it works. Legilimency isn't fool proof, which is why evidence gleaned via a Legilimens wouldn’t hold up in a court of-”
“Goldstein.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “Sorry. My point is, thoughts can be manipulated. Prewett may have not blocked the reading because she knew how to play the game.”
His brow furrowed. “I know it’s strange to hear this from me, of all people, but maybe you shouldn’t be this paranoid. Celestia Prewett is not our enemy. She’s an ally. I trust that she won’t disappoint my expectations.”
Exasperated, willing him to just understand, she leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table top. “Sir, what if that was all an act and she was planning-”
“Goldstein.”
“But what about her older sister? Nocturna Prewett is a notoriously fanatic Grindelwald supporter, and she and her sister were always close. There’s also the issue of Celestia Prewett’s family situation! Of course we should assume that-”
“Goldstein!”
She leaned back, closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, and drew a deep breath. “Sorry, sir.”
The look he gave her was not unkind. “I realise that this must seem unorthodox to you and that you must have many questions, but you have to trust me.” He waited, but she was too busy biting her tongue and organising all the thoughts rattling around in her brain. That was when he gave her a little smile. “To paraphrase our public enemy number one, it’s all for the greater good.”