There once lived a beautiful and lonely maiden. She lived by herself on the edge of a great kingdom. She lost her parents at a young age and had no other living family. Yet that didn't stop her from living life. She lived her dream of a dressmaker, but part of her missed having a family. The maiden, Queenie, however, couldn't bear children. Like everything else in her life, that barrier didn't stop her from doing every possible thing to have child. She went to every medic for advice and midwife for any possible adoptions. And as a last resort, she prayed to any and every higher entity that could hear her.


A fairy, at last, heard her wish.

One night, the fairy came to her window and said, "I have heard your wish for a child. Will you accept my assistance?"

"Yes," Queenie said. "What do I need to do?"

"It's simple, here is a barleycorn seed of a unique variety. Plant it in a garden and see what happens."

"Thank you so much," Queenie took the seed and gave the fairy a modest payment in return.

She spent the next morning planting the barleycorn seed and rearranging her other spice plants.

A month later, a large flower grew and casted a shadow over the rest of the garden. The flower looked like a poppy in color and smelled like one, but the petals were still closed as if it was a bud.

"It's a beautiful flower," Queenie cooed and kissed the budding flower. When she did, the flower bloomed at last. It was indeed a poppy. Within the poppy, right in the middle, slept a little maiden.

She had brown hair with a mix of white strands. Her hair was short enough that it stuck out in all kinds of directions. Her nose was cute as a button, Queenie thought. She reminded Queenie of a baby porcupine. So she aptly named the flower maiden Porpentina, Tina for short. But Queenie loved to call her Teenie for her small size. She made Teenie a bed out of a polished walnut shell with small fabric scraps stitched together as a blanket and some left over cotton stuffing as a pillow.

The two maidens lived happily together. Despite, originally wanting a child, Queenie soon understood that Teenie isn't going to be a maiden that needed to be taken care of. Rather, Queenie spent her days dressmaking while Teenie kept her workspace organized or perched on her shoulder to read. Every once in while, she disappeared for a few hours, but always returned with materials for the next dress, without Queenie saying anything. But most of all, she made sure Queenie always had someone to talk. They talked about the latest dress, Teenie's observations of the greater world, or anything else that happened during their day.

In the end, Queenie was being taken care of more than she took care of Teenie. But she wouldn't have anyone else be her family. The little flower maiden was the most precious person in her life.


Queenie, however, wasn't the only one to note Tina's independent and helpful nature. A mother toad watched Tina and Queenie for many months and concluded that Tina would make the perfect bride her to her eldest son, Mr. Abernathy. After days of planning, the mother toad broke a window in the night. She sneakily hopped to the table where Tina's walnut bed lied. The toad hugged the small bed with her front feet and hopped back outside to her home.

In the swamp, beyond Queenie's house, lived the mother toad and her unpleasant son. When her son first saw Tina, he could only say, "Croak, croak, croak."

"Don't speak too loudly," chided his mother, "or she'll wake up and run away from us. We need to place her on a waterlily in the stream. She'll be on an island and won't be able to escape. And while she's there, we'll prepare the state-room under the marsh for you two to live during your marriage."

The conspiring toads enacted their plans flawlessly. They swam to the farthest waterlily with Tina still asleep in the walnut.

Tina didn't wake up until dawn the next day. When she didn't see Queenie anywhere nearby, she let out a bitter cry. There was nothing but water around her. There wasn't any way to get back to land for she didn't know how to swim.

In the meantime, the mother toad was busy under the marsh cleaning the room for her new daughter-in-law. She decorated the room with yellow poppies to best show off her son's green skin. Then she and her son swam out to fetch Tina's bed to place in the bridal chamber. She bowed to Tina and introduced herself, "You may call me Mrs. Esposito and this is my son Mr. Abernathy. He will be fine husband for you and you shall live happily with him."

"Croak, croak, croak," was all Mr. Abernathy said.

While Tina was focused on her son, Mrs. Esposito took the opportunity to steal the walnut bed and swam away. Her son quickly followed.

Tina was left alone on the waterlily. Her last reminder of Queenie was gone. So she wept because of the separation from Queenie, the idea of living with an overbearing toad, and the idea of a toad for a husband. During her crying, she realized that she has never met another person her size. And she's never desired to do so as much as she did at that moment.

Once she finished weeping, she started to plan an escape. She cautiously stood up on the waterlily to test its movement. It swayed a bit, but didn't reach land. Tina, however, envisioned paddling as far as the waterlily will allow with the flower's petals. Then pluck the flower and float on it to land.

Tina's paddling was successful, but when she moved to float on the flower, the water was rushing downstream too fast and away from land. It wasn't what she intended, but it got her away from the toads.


The stream flowed past many towns. She wasn't lonely, however, while floating downstream. A small thunderbird flew around her and often gave her flower a gust of wind whenever the water stilled. But to move faster, she ripped the hem of her dress and tied one end around the thunderbird and the other around her flower.

Throughout the days, she and thunderbird, who called himself Frank, shared seeds for meals. It was during one of these meals that a beetle, called Gnarlak, flew down and wrapped his first two legs around Tina's waist. He tried to reach for Frank by the ribbon around his neck, but Frank's wings were too strong to be held back by a beetle and escaped. Tina struggled during Frank's escape, but it was futile in the end. Gnarlak flew them to a high tree nearby and gave her a honeysuckle flower. She accepted, but didn't eat. He spent the afternoon talking Tina's ear off with questions about why a thunderbird was with her and pestered her to tell him how to capture one. When she refused to answer anything Gnarlak asked, he flew her back to his clan hoping to put pressure on her.

At first, the other beetles were excited to see a new informant. But when it became apparent that Tina wasn't going to share any knowledge, they turned on her.

"She's as dense as a brick!" the head of the clan, Henry, shouted at her. "She's worthless!"

"And she's incompetent!" a female beetle, Mary Lou, shouted. "She can't even gather berries!"

Never mind Tina used to get all kinds of material for Queenie from all over the place and had to gather seeds and berries to survive. When Gnarlak heard those comments, he refused to talk her and swiftly dismissed her, which she wasn't going to argue against.


She traveled to a field of daisies, where she collapsed. The beetles comments stayed in her mind and made her despondent. Was she truly as useless and stupid as the beetles said she was? Did Queenie think it too and was better off without her?

But the thoughts didn't stop her from surviving. She spent the summer existing quietly. She made herself a bed of grass blades and hung it in tree to block the summer rain. She picked honeysuckles for food and drank river water.


Soon, the summer heat and autumn wind faded away. And Tina was out of resources. The trees and plants were all shrived and the water was frozen. Her clothes were torn from climbing and crafting. When the first winter snow fell, she almost froze to death. She traveled to a corn field during autumn, but now it was harvested and dried up. She struggled to find materials for a new thicker blankets, but hollow logs provided a good alternate shelter. Although, she knew she couldn't survive the whole winter living in a log.


She was looking for a better log with less holes, when she came across a door in the ground of the cornfield. A warm glow escaped from the door, which drew Tina towards it. She knocked and waited while looking like a beggar. When a field mouse door opened, she simply asked for some corn. But when he saw her, he felt pity for her and invited her in for a meal. She was elated by the invitation, but she wasn't one to let a good deed go unpaid. She offered and insisted to help prepare the meal. The field mouse, named Percival Graves, relented and let her dice and slice the ingredients.

After seeing Tina's skills and finished eating dinner, he gave her another invitation, "You may stay with me for the winter, if you help me with organizing and bookkeeping my papers," he waved over to piles of papers that aligned two whole walls.

"Bookkeeping?" she asked.

"I work for the mole down the lane. During the summer and autumn, I'm away doing field work. The winter and spring is the only time I can put everything away properly."

After Mr. Graves explained more about the job, Tina readily agreed.


She and Mr. Graves cohabited comfortably and pleasantly. They switched who made meals everyday and spent the mornings and afternoon filing piles and piles of papers. In the evening and night, Mr. Graves whittled various sculptures while Tina read Mr. Graves' library.


One day, Mr. Graves said, "My boss is coming over soon to hand over more documents. I think you will get along with him well. But he's blind, so his favorite pastime is talking, which gets in the way of work. Would you keep him busy with conversation for while?"

Tina wasn't partially interested, but she agreed to help out Mr. Graves. The mole soon came dressed in a black velvet coat. When she met the mole for herself, she wasn't too impressed. To be sure, Mr. Grindelwald the mole was quite learned and wealthy, but he spoke lowly of everything and everyone, including Mr. Graves. And he expected everyone to agree with him. There were a few times during his visit when Mr. Graves' facial expression said the opposite of his verbal words.


More days passed with Tina helping Mr. Graves and distracting Mr. Grindelwald with conversations. At some point, Mr. Grindelwald wanted Tina to come live with him permanently. He was drawn by her smart conversation and survival skills. But he didn't want to propose too soon, he was still a bit cautious.

After walking through the snow one too many times to visit Mr. Graves and Tina, Mr. Grindelwald dug a passage under the earth to connect the two homes. He gave Tina permission to walk wherever she wanted in the tunnel and throughout his home. But he warned her about a dead bird in the passage that fell while he dug a hole to the surface.

Tina didn't use the passage until one day Mr. Graves needed her to deliver a note to Mr. Grindelwald. That was the first time she saw the dead bird. It was a handsome black swallow that wasn't dead for long. The swallow's beautiful wings were folded close to his body, his feet were hidden by his body feathers, and his head was tucked in his neck. A snow trail told Tina that Mr. Grindelwald must've shoved it aside while digging.

"What a miserable creature," he said when he first told her about the dead bird, "with a pitiful existence to always die in the winter."

Tina and Mr. Graves said nothing.

On a day when Mr. Grindelwald wanted to talk to Mr. Graves alone for once, she snuck down to visit the swallow. She kneeled down and stroked the feathers. She felt a pang of sympathy for the swallow's family who must miss it, but didn't know what happened to it.

Later that night, when Tina couldn't sleep, she started weaving a hay blanket. She finished it before anyone woke up. She had just the right amount of time to tuck the bird in without anyone walking through the passage. On her way to the passage, she spotted some flowers Mr. Graves picked the previous day.

She tucked in the swallow with her blanket and placed a few flowers around in hopes to warm it up. As she set the last flower down near the swallow's heart, she heard "thump, thump" coming from the swallow. She jumped back when she realized that it wasn't dead, the bird was merely numbed! The blanket must've already started to warm it up.

In autumn, birds fly away to warmer places. If one happened to linger, the cold seizes and freezes it. Then the bird falls, as if it were dead, to be left covered in the falling snow.


The swallow woke up after a few days, and Tina was scared for the first time since separating from Queenie. The bird was much taller than her one inch height, but she mustered all of her courage together and put the leaves from her bed on the bird's head to warm it up faster. Mr. Graves and Mr. Grindelwald were busy without her, so she stayed with the swallow until it woke up completely. He opened his eyes just a bit and looked at Tina. He understood that she must be his savior.

"I'm truly in your debt, maiden," the swallow said. "May I know your name?"

"My name is Porpentina, but you may call me Tina. What is yours?"

"I am Credence. Thank you so much, Tina. Soon I'll regain my strength and I'll be able to fly next to the sun again."

"Wait!" she, surprisingly loud, said. "You can't! It's still winter and if you go out now, you'll freeze again. Stay here in the blankets for a while. I'll take care of you."

She then left Credence to fetch some food and water. After eating he thanked her again and admitted that one of his wings were injured by a thorn, which is why he was left behind by his family. He couldn't fly fast enough to make it to a warmer place, so he sent his sisters ahead of him to give them the best chance to survive. But he didn't remember much else up until meeting Tina.


She spent whatever time she could with Credence for the rest of the winter. Mr. Grindelwald had no idea, but Tina suspected Mr. Graves knew and kept a blind eye.


Spring came too fast for Tina's liking. The earth warmed up and Credence had to say farewell. Before Credence left, however, he asked her if she wanted to go with him. She could sit on his back and see the world from above. Tina was drawn to accept, but she knew Mr. Graves would miss her and be disappointed in her manner of leaving. So Tina said, "I can't."

"Farewell, Tina," Credence said and flew towards the sunshine.

Tina watched him until he disappeared from her view. She teared up seeing a dear friend leave.

She knew she wouldn't be able leave Mr. Graves' soon. The corn stalks around the home grew into the air and created a forest for Tina to get lost.

Moments after Credence's departure, she noted Mr. Graves quietly coming up to her. When she turned to him, his face was long while he spoke, "Mr. Grindelwald is proposing marriage to you, Tina. He told me non stop all winter of his intention, but I couldn't stop him. And I can't prolong him any longer. I'm so sorry I couldn't do more."

"Have you accepted on my behalf?" she worriedly asked.

"No, I could never do that, but he asked me to start wedding preparation."

Part of Tina wanted to yell at Mr. Graves for not telling her about Mr. Grindelwald's intentions, but she knew how timidly Mr. Graves acted around Mr. Grindelwald. And he looked sincerely apologetic for not preventing the proposal.

"It's a good thing," Mr. Graves tried to comfort her. "You'll want for nothing as his wife."

And so, Tina reluctantly agreed to the marriage.

Spring and summer went on with Tina, Mr. Graves, and four hired spiders weaving, spindling, and knitting for the impeding wedding. Every evening, Mr. Grindelwald visited Tina and spoke of nothing but the wedding.

Once again, Tina felt despondent. She missed Queenie and Credence's company more than ever. During her free time, she crept outside to see the sun rise or set. She felt the breeze on her cheeks and for a small moment, she was happy. The beautiful and bright scenes reminded her of Queenie, which made Tina miss her even more.

Sometimes she wished Credence would return, but she knew he had family to take care first before he even thought about coming back for her. He probably met up with his sisters far, far away from here.


When autumn arrived, Tina's dress was finished and Mr. Graves told her the wedding date was in four weeks. On the inside, Tina wept. On the outside, she simply asked if there was anything they could do to stop it.

"I'm afraid not," Mr. Graves avoided her eyes, "but it's truly a good thing. He's well off and you couldn't be luckier with this good fortune."

Tina wasn't sure if he trying to convince her or himself.

So the wedding day was set. Tina, however, only saw it as the day she gets locked away from the sun, Credence, Mr. Graves, and the chance of seeing Queenie.


She visited the passage where Credence once laid. She started to apologize for disappearing from Queenie and said farewell. Once she finished, a "tweet, tweet" came from above. She looked up and saw Credence flying nearby. As soon as he saw her, he eagerly flew down to meet her.

She listened to his stories about his sisters, and she in turn told him her grievance about her impeding marriage.

"Winter is coming soon," he said after she finished, "and I'm flying home far, far away from here. Will you come with me? You can sit on my back and I'll fly you wherever you want in the spring. Over the mountains, fields with blooming flowers with greater beauty, or where it's summer always. You saved my life when I laid frozen in this dark passage, it's only fair I save you from this passage in return."

"Yes, I'll come with you," Tina said. Before she left with Credence, she wrote a note to Mr. Graves explaining how she was going to make her way back to Queenie. She hoped he understood and wouldn't be in too much trouble with Mr. Grindelwald.

She walked back to Credence and tied herself to his strongest feather. He flew over the forest and sea. They visited mountain tops where Tina almost froze if it weren't for her hiding in his feathers. But she kept her head uncovered throughout it all to admire the wonderful land.


Right as winter arrived, Credence landed in front of a blue lake. The lake was surrounded with trees and on one edge was a white marble palace. Vines wrapped around the pillars and on top were many swallow nests.

"This is my home," Credence explained. "We'll stay here for the winter before going to Queenie. You may choose a flower for yourself now. You'll have almost everything you wish to make you happy," he flew over all the flowers hidden on the pillars for Tina to view.

In the end, she picked a great large beautiful white flower. All she was expecting was a comfortable bed, but to her shock, sitting in the middle of the flower was a man. And he was just as small as she was! He had reddish brown hair with blue eyes. He had a modest golden crown on his head and wings on his back.

All the flowers within the marble palace hosted a tiny man or woman. And this man was the king of them all.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Tina whispered to Credence. She never expected to meet this many people her size.

The flower king was nervous at the sight of Credence, but ultimately he approached the giant out of curiosity. When Tina landed on the flower, he moved away from her. He watched her as if she was about to attack him, which she almost did with a hug.


Tina spent the rest of her second winter away from Queenie getting to know the flower king, Newt. Although initially uneasy, they bonded over their friendships with creatures and critters. Tina formally introduced Credence to Newt and told him of Mr. Graves. In turn, Newt introduced her to Pickett and Dougal, a bowtruckle and demiguise respectively. They also met Credence's younger sisters, Modesty and Chasity, both of whom were very nice if a bit shy.


Their friendships blossomed and when spring arrived, Tina was sad to say farewell to her new friends, but Queenie must be completely heartbroken after two years of separation.

Tina and Newt said farewell on the first day of spring. Before she and Credence departed, the other fairies came out and gifted Tina a pair of wings of her own. It was a thank you gift from everyone for making their King smile and happy. Newt blushed when he understood how transparent everyone saw him.

Right as they were about to leave, she and Newt promised to see each other again soon.

Tina and Credence flew for a few days with as little stops as possible before she spotted Queenie's home. She landed on the windowsill and saw Queenie melancholily sewing a small dress that was her size. She flew in through an open window and cried, "Queenie!"

"Teenie?" she turned around with tears in her eyes.

"Queenie!" Tina flew right into Queenie's neck and wrapped her arms around her. And Queenie let out a loud cry of relief while patting Teenie on the back. Finally after two years of searching and struggling to keep hope, her Teenie finally returned home!

Credence sat on the windowsill and was happy that his friend had returned home. When Queenie saw him, she invited him inside to stay for a while. He didn't want to interfere with their reunion, but both maidens insisted.

The three spent the rest of the day telling their story of the last two years. Tina was relieved, and surprised, that Queenie wasn't as lonely as she believed. Somehow, Queenie got mixed up with a frog, who was really a prince. They met a year and half ago and were engaged. But Queenie made her prince Jacob promise to not have the wedding until Teenie came home. While Tina was honored by Queenie's promise, she berated her for holding back on her happiness on the small hope that she'd return.

Queenie laughed and said, "My happiness isn't complete without you Teenie!"

For the second time in a day, Tina openly wept of happiness.

The two ended their day with promises to invite all of their new friends for a meal. But for now, the two were happy to be together once again and looked forward to a bright future.


A/N: I'm not sure why, but I have two more ideas for fairytale AU with FBAWTFT characters. One is Queenie's side of the story mentioned at the end with Jacob. The other is a Twelve Dancing Princesses AU with the Goldstein sisters and other female Harry Potter characters as the focus. If people want them, please tell me and I'll write them as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading!