Disclaimer: I don't own Fantastic Beasts. This is not for money.

"You can tell me to mind my own business," said Newt quietly, "but I saw something in that death potion back there. I saw you hugging that Second Salem boy."

"His name's Credence," responded Tina. "His mother beats him. She beats all those kids she's adopted, but she seems to hate him the most."

Newt appeared deep in thought. "She was the No-Maj you attacked?" he asked.

"That's how I lost my job," Tina admitted. "I went for her in front of a meeting of her crazy followers. They all had to be Obliviated. It was a big scandal."

"What happened?" asked Newt. "What made you go for her?"

Tina saw the the Second Salemers regularly, as they usually had their meetings outside a bank near the MACUSA building, masked beneath the No-Maj Woolworth Building. Whenever she walked past Mary Lou and her shapeless felt hat, Tina wanted to rip her own hat, which was of a similar design, into shreds. She didn't know much about Mary Lou, but she had heard from her coworkers in the No-Maj Threat Office that she was a very nasty person, even for a No-Maj.

On the fifteenth of December, during Hanukkah, Tina was reassigned to the No-Maj Threat Office of the Auror Bureau. One of her new duties was to keep up a reconnaissance on the Second Salemers.

She was not very eager for this job, but she left the MACUSA building anyway. Tina flipped up the lapels of her long coat to try to block the bitter wind which was biting at her ears.

The MACUSA Aurors always kept a close eye on Mary Lou Barebone, and justly so; she was the reason that the magical clock in the MACUSA headquarters now read Moderate Threat.

Tina's stomach growled and she edged over to a hot dog stand by the side of the street. As she took a ravenous bite out of the warm hot dog, Tina felt a small pang of guilt; she and Queenie were Jewish and the hot dog she was eating was definitely not Kosher. Tina shrugged. She needed a hot dog today.

Tina inched closer to the meeting, which was taking place outside of the Second Salemers' run-down church.

Tina hopped up, trying to get a closer look at the Barebones. She took another bite of the hot dog, trying to look inconspicuous. Mercy Lewis, this hot dog is the bee's knees, thought Tina. Oh, don't you make plans for another one, you know they aren't Kosher.

The crowd shifted in front of her and Tina was forced to stop her mental debate about the morality of eating hot dogs. She moved forward, and was finally able to see Mary Lou Barebone.

"Something's out there, prowling the streets and causing disruption everywhere. It's powerful, destructive, and out to kill every last one of us," spat Mary Lou Barebone, her sparkling eyes roving the small crowd in front of her. "I know what it is. Witches live among us!"

Tina barely stifled her double take, almost coughing up a bit of hot dog. She knows about us! thought Tina panickedly. Why didn't the other Aurors let me know?

"You!" cried Mary Lou Barebone, pointing at her. "You don't believe me, do you?"

Tina thought of how she must look. The witch hunter probably thought that Tina's response was a derisive snort, not a start of surprise.

The other crowd members looked at her expectantly.

"Erm…"

"I can't hear you, dear. Please come up."

Tina prickled like a porcupine at being called "dear," but she heeded Mary Lou Barebone's words anyway.

The crowd pushed her forward to the front.

Now that she was right in front of Mary Lou, Tina could see a tall banner depicting a witch burning. She also spotted three children, two of whom were passing out leaflets and the other holding the banner.

"What do you say, dear?" asked Mary Lou again, her beady eyes feigning interest. "Do you believe that witches exist?"

Tina stared into Mary Lou's calculating eyes.

"No," said Tina defiantly, without breaking eye contact.

Finally, Mary Lou's gaze broke away. "Credence, hand her a leaflet," she said strictly. "Maybe it will help her see the truth."

A lanky, underfed boy with hunched shoulders walked over to Tina. He spoke no words as he passed her the pamphlet, but his bearing was enough to tell Tina that he was a beaten, abused child. He kept his gaze lowered, as if he expected a beating if he dared make eye contact. The boy—Credence was his name, Tina resolved to remember—outstretched his thin, shivering arm from his turtle shell of a body. Tina saw that his palm was red and chafed from the beatings he had undoubtedly received from his adoptive mother.

Tina looked over at the older of the two girls, who was passing out leaflets, and the younger girl, who held up the sign. All three of the children looked as if they were deeply tortured, their eyes perpetually watery. Tina directed her gaze at Credence again, and it was evident that he was the worst off of the whole group.

Tina wanted to do something about them then and there, but the deep discipline she had gained in Auror training stayed her hand.

"Thank you," Tina muttered to Credence as she slinked back into the crowd.

"I hope you learn, my child," Mary Lou called after her, "that witches are everywhere."

Ignore her, ignore her. Tina's hands clenched so tightly that she crumpled the leaflet into a ball and broke the half-eaten hot dog in two.

"You can't walk away from the truth. Isn't that right, Credence?" she added sharply.

Credence nodded slowly, his muscles working jerkily, as if they had been rendered unable of working properly. Tina was filled with rage as she saw Credence's forced movements.

"Yes'm," muttered Credence, his voice patchy and broken.

"That's when it dawned on me," said Tina. "That terrible woman was destroying him, this poor, innocent boy. I couldn't stop myself."

Newt shook his head. "I'm sure that's what I would have done in your place."

"But I don't regret it," said Tina. "I know I should, but I don't regret a single spell that I cast on her. They held me in the cells for three days before they let me out. They took my job and they made me promise to never go near the Second Salemers again."

Tina drifted off into silence, watching the giant in the corner booth sip from his relatively tiny glass.

"Erm…," started Newt.

"I'm not looking for sympathy, Newt," said Tina wearily. "I stand by my actions."

"No, Tina," said Newt kindly. "I just meant to say that that Barebone woman deserved what you gave her."

They exchanged a short smile before Tina cleared her throat and said, "Here comes Gnarlak."

A/N: Let me know if you like it!