Soul Of The Matter

Etsi never really liked her form, it’s size meaning she couldn’t go out in wizard society and unusualness meaning she couldn’t go out in muggle society. Newt made sure to visit her everyday and sometimes she could leave the suitcase but it was never really enough.

‘So, what kind of creature is that?’

Etsi tried not to freeze at the new voice. Well, not completely new, she had heard it through Newt’s ears. She turned to look across at Newt, walking towards her with Tina at his side. She tilted her head, and he shrugged back at her.

‘That is a hippogriff.’ He said, not looking Tina in the eye. ‘I’m afraid you can’t touch her though.’

‘Why’s that?’ Tina’s dæmon said. He was a cat but his ears were more pointed, tail larger. A kneazle cross?

Etsi bent her head down, looking him in the eye. ‘Because hippogriffs are guarded and will attack quickly.’

The cat jumped back, into Tina’s arms. Tina herself glanced at Newt, who smiled awkwardly and ran a hand along her neck.

‘This is my dæmon, Etsi.’

Etsi bowed low, though she doubted Tina would think anything of it. To her surprise, Tina bowed back, rising up with a smile.

‘A please to meet you, I’m Tina and this is Barat.’

A shout from the hut made her turn and she walked off. Etsi brushed her beak against Newt’s face and he smiled, pushing her away.

‘Come on, I want you to meet my friends.’

‘Well, this went well.’

Tina glared at her dæmon, who was staring out of the bars and at Kama. The man didn’t even look at them as he walked out of the door, leaving them in this strange cell alone. Barat looked around, trying to figure out a way to escape but Tina was fixated on the writings all over the walls.

‘Maybe it did.’ She said, running a finger along the family tree. ‘Kama seems to have a lot of the information we need.’

The kneazle cross jumped to her side and followed her eye line. ‘That’s great but it’s worth nothing if we can’t get up. Maybe I could break the lock.’

‘You’re neither big or small enough to wreck the lock.’ Tina said absentmindedly, still looking over Kama’s notes. ‘If you were a rhino you could crash through or if you were a bowtruckle…’

She trailed off and took a deep breath. Barat shuffled closer to her, his lion like tail stroking along her leg.

‘You don’t have to think about him.’ He said, purring slightly as she fussed with his ears. ‘I doubt he’s thinking about us.’

Tina chuckled sadly, sitting back and lifting Barat only her lap. ‘Even if he is, he’s not here to help us out of this mess.’

‘Do we need him to?’

Tina glanced at the writing again. They could probably pool their ideas with Kama’s, maybe get him on side.

‘No, we don’t need him. It would be nice though.’ 

Khusus stared at Jacob, trying to clear a fog from her brain. She didn’t know what was wrong but looking at his face was difficult. It was like she was expecting something else to be there, a mark on his neck, a smile when instead he was frowning, someone to stand at his side and hold his hand. But none of those ever appeared.

‘You alright, Khu?’ Jacob said, smiling at her. There was something sad about his smile, even though there was nothing to be sad about. They were designing the cakes to go in their new bakery.

The armadillo shook her head. ‘I’m fine, just distracted. What you got there?’

He looked down at the sketch he’d done, smiling faintly. It was an animal made of pastry, some sort of monkey with long hair about his face made from icing. Jacob had made a few notes along the side, about lemon icing and raspberry filling and it all looked very fun. However, it also made her head hurt to look at, made her sad for no reason she could fathom.

‘I dunno, I just saw it in a dream.’

Khusus tilted her head, trying to remember the dream. Trying to remember exactly where she had seen the monkey before, because she knew she had.

‘Hey, hey.’ Jacob said, turning her head up to look at him. ‘You’re alright, yeah?’

‘Yeah, yeah.’ She said, curling into his arms to try and ignore the fog. ‘I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

Queenie curled around Pikiran, trying to shield him from all the thoughts around them. It was overwhelming and loud and far, far too much. She couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except hold onto her dæmon and hope it all went away. Which it wouldn’t, it never did.

The monkey’s fingers gripped her shirt, bunching it up and almost ripping it. Dæmons always held their thoughts at the very front of their minds and so he always heard more than her, spending most of his days just curled up in her arms, unable to focus on anything.

Things had been easier when they’d had Jacob and Khusus. Khusus knew how to make him focus, how to think just the right things to let him shut out everything else. But then her thoughts started turning sour and they had to do something, or they’d leave and he’d be broken again.

Queenie sobbed as more people walked past her, their thoughts telling of judgement and pity and not a single one wanting to help them. Pikiran let out a screech, trying to drown out the thoughts in the only way left to him but the sound just hurt Queenie more and they both cried together, clinging to one another.

Pikiran’s sobs slowed slightly as he felt thoughts directed at them. No, not at them, about them. It didn’t matter though, someone was coming and they were magic. They would help Queenie and all would be well. Pikiran just wanted something to focus on.

Credence looked down at Fiden, sadly noting how angry she was. Ever since they got to the circus, she’d been angry all the time. No, before that, since Graves. Since Graves had come into, ruined, and left their life, the wolf pup lashed out at anyone who got too close, even Credence.

Of course, Fiden lashing out used to mean that she bit people or scratched at their ankles. She was small, always smaller than other dæmons but she had fight in her. Now, whenever she got angry, there was a risk she would burst into a storm of dark magic and destroy whatever had upset her. It scared Credence. It scared Fiden too, when she wasn’t being angry.

‘Hey, hey, it’s alright.’ Credence said slowly, sinking down to the ground. He held a hand out towards her, fingers curled so she could sniff his knuckles. ‘It’ll be okay, Fi.’

Fiden sniffed at him, a low whine coming from the back of her throat. Calming slightly, she rubbed her head under his fingers. He stayed still, letting her calm herself, a tiny smiled spreading across his face. Fiden curled up next to him, anger fading away. They would be okay. 

‘You need to stop worrying.’

Theseus looked up from his papers, eyebrow furrowing. Veli had curled herself up on his desk, head reared up and tilting at him. She was just like any other snake, though her grey colouring and red glowing eyes always made people pause. Newt called her an Ashwinder but Theseus had always preferred to just say snake, less chance of people judging him.

‘How exactly do I stop worrying about the Ministry watching our little brother?’

Veli’s head tilted down at his harsh tone and she slowly lowered herself down, slithering along the desk towards him. He sighed and held his arm out, letting her wrap around his fingers.

‘| don’t know how to stop worrying, Thes. I just need you to stop worrying so that I can.’

Theseus sighed, running his free hand through his hair. ‘It’ll be fine, Vel, I won’t let anything happen to you.’

‘It’s not me. I just can’t let Newt and Etsi be hurt.’

He pulled his hand up, so he could kiss her head. ‘They won’t be. I promise.’

They drifted back into silence, neither wanting to say anything more. Eventually, Theseus turned back to his papers and kept working.

Leta ran her hand over the desk, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. It was good to think of simpler times, when Newt was her friend and she didn’t have to worry about anything but grades.

‘You seem to be forgetting a few things.’

Leta looked up to the ceiling, where Ystava was hanging upside down. The bat tilted her head slightly.

‘Well, yes, but that’s the point of reminiscing, isn’t it?’

Ystava chuckled softly, flying down to the desk. ‘I’d rather focus on now. Why don’t we go and find Theseus?’

Leta smiled at the mention of her fiance. Theseus always made her happy. ‘He’s working, Ystie. He doesn’t have time to look after us.’

‘He always finds time, though.’ Ystava said, smiling widely. ‘That’s why we love him.’

Leta smiled, scooping up her dæmon and heading out of the room. They could at least have a wander, try to find him. As they did, they could look around the different places she and Newt had spent their time, where he’d shown her the bowtruckles, where…

‘Newt left, you know.’

Leta looked down at Ystava, frowning. ‘That was our fault.’

Ystava went silent. ‘Let’s find Theseus.’

Bijaksanus flew down from the rafters, landing on Albus’ shoulder. His man smiled softly, raising a hand to scratch the dark feathers on his chest.

‘Are they gone?’

Albus nodded and Bijaksanus burst into flame on his shoulder. The phoenix didn’t like being seen alight by just anyone, in fact the last person to see him that way had been-

‘Don’t.’ Albus muttered. ‘He’s gone, he’s killing people. Just don’t.’

Sanus sighed, looking down at the cuffs on Albus’ wrists. Binding their magic, making them completely useless. ‘It’s all our fault, we’ve got nothing to complain about.’

‘Nothing to complain about?’ Albus scoffed, moving and dislodging his dæmon. Sanus squawked and flew around the room, landing back on the desk and glaring at Albus. ‘Sanus, he’s murdering his way through Europe and we’ve done nothing to stop him!’

‘What would we do?’ Sanus said, eyes sad. ‘You make that pact, made it impossible to for us to stop him!’

Albus flinched and stepped away, running a hand down his face. ‘I know, I know. You have no idea how sorry I am.’

‘I know exactly how sorry you are Albie. Doesn’t make a difference now.’

Albus sighed and fell silent.

Buona stalked around the edge of the fire, watching the people outside with a smug smirk. They were clearly terrified and terrified was so much fun, much more fun than the excited sycophants who had previously been in the mausoleum. Many had tried to join them on the dais and burnt up, making the wolf howl with laughter each time.

Gellert held a hand out and Buona walked towards him, pressing herself against his side. She looked up at him, smiling as he scratched her neck. The flames increased in heat and she didn’t need to look to know someone else was burning, her tail thumping at the sound of the woman’s screams and the two men yelling after her.

Gellert stepped away from her and Buona sunk down into a crouch, snarling at the people outside of the flames. She moved after Gellert and growled at them all, watching their dæmons’ looks of fear. The ashwinder was curled around her man’s neck and the hippogriff had lifted hers onto her back. They were terrified, absolutely dripping with fear and Buona loved it.

She looked at her man and smiled. ‘I’ve always hated Paris.’

Grindelwald laughed and the fires spread.