She giggled.
She stared up at Klaus Reiner with Grindelwald's come still between her legs, and she giggled. She nodded and laughed at something Reiner said, and Grindelwald scowled. His heart drummed in his chest. He'd sent her off to dance with the boy because he'd realised in the parlour that things were spiraling out of control. He was losing himself to her. So he'd told her to dance with someone else, and he'd socialise with followers. But now she was dancing with the young German boy, and he was talking animatedly to her, and she was giggling. Beautifully. Grindelwald felt queasy where he stood near a wall sconce.
"Monsieur?"
"Vinda." He turned his face to see her looking stronger and prettier than she'd looked recently. Her burns were healing nicely. He nodded down to her and told her, "The party is quite nice. Well done, then."
"I aim to please," Vinda said seriously. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Monsieur?"
"As a matter of fact, there is," Grindelwald nodded. He glanced around the room at the revelers and then back down at Vinda. "I need a new skull. My Seeing-Skull was destroyed in Paris by Leta Lestrange, and I mean to replace it. Procure for me a new skull so I can make a new device."
"Your will be done," Vinda confirmed. "Tomorrow you will have a fresh, clean skull, Monsieur. I will see to it at once."
"Carrow looks to have found herself a good dance partner in Abernathy," Grindelwald smirked, and he held out his hand. "Dance with me, Vinda."
Vinda demurely took Grindelwald's hand and let him lead her out to the dance floor, but she kept her distance in the stance. They moved tightly, neatly, and Grindelwald stared over Vinda's shoulder at Queenie, who was telling her own story full of laughter now to Klaus Reiner. His stomach turned, and Vinda noted,
"She does not realise the power of her own beauty, I don't think."
Grindelwald frowned down at Vinda. "What do you mean?"
Vinda stared up at Grindelwald, seeming a little sad, and she scoffed quietly. "She does not see the power she wields. She is still so oblivious to the strength of her… I am not blind."
"Am I that obvious?" Grindelwald whispered, and he pinched his lips as Vinda sighed.
"I can scarcely blame you, Monsieur."
He glared over Vinda's shoulder as Queenie tossed her golden curls and laughed like a madwoman. He scowled, and as the song ended, he said distractedly,
"Thank you for the dance, Vinda. You should dance with Larsen. He itches for you."
"I've been dancing with him all night," Vinda said, "but I'll dance with him again. Thank you, Monsieur. You will have your skull tomorrow."
She walked off with quick steps, and Grindelwald watched in horror as Queenie walked off toward the Champagne table with Klaus Reiner. They were still talking, still laughing, and she let him hand her a flute of Champagne and touch the glasses together. She grinned broadly - beautifully - and Grindelwald felt his anger and jealousy boil up inside of him like a volcano about to erupt. He stalked briskly across the marble floor, arms swinging beside him, and he made a beeline for where Queenie stood with Klaus Reiner. He walked right up to her, plucked her Champagne out of her hand, set it on the table, and commanded,
"Come with me."
"Oh! Of course, sir. Excuse me, Mr Reiner," said Queenie helplessly. Grindelwald took Queenie's elbow in his hand and guided her away from the Champagne table without sparing a glance to Klaus Reiner. He took her to a quieter spot, and then he released her arm and hissed angrily,
"All right; enough!"
Queenie's eyes went round. "You're angry with me."
He scoffed loudly, his breath coming hard and fast through his nostrils and his heard beating a war tattoo in beneath his tuxedo robes. He whispered,
"I told you to dance with that boy, not to start undressing while you giggled like a fool for him."
Queenie frowned in confusion and shook her head. "I'm so sorry. I was just trying to be friendly. I was just trying to do what you said."
Grindelwald shut his eyes and shook his head. "I want you to go back to Nurmengard and wait for me in my quarters, Queenie."
"I can't do that," she said, and he remembered that his quarters were the only locked ones in the castle. He huffed and threw his hands up.
"Your quarters, then."
"Yes, sir." Queenie turned and started to walk away. He reached for her wrist, and she whirled around. She stared up at him, obviously frightened, and he took her face in his hands. It took everything he hand not to kiss her on the mouth right there in front of everyone. Instead he cradled her cheeks and touched his lips to her forehead, and he murmured,
"Go."
Queenie waited on the edge of her bed, wearing a black satin nightgown and her plum-coloured velvet dressing-gown. She folded her hands on her lap and stared at the wall. She had obviously made him angry. But what could she have done differently? He'd taken her into a parlour for sex and then ordered her to dance with Klaus Reiner. She'd done just that. What could she have done differently?
"Queenie."
She rose from her bed and walked out of her bedroom into the sitting room to find Grindelwald standing in there in his tuxedo robes, looking tired.
"You are mine," he said very simply, and she nodded.
"Of course I am," she affirmed, but he he shook his head.
"I am not speaking about you being a servant, nor about what I did to you on that sofa, Queenie. I… I brought you into that party on my arm for a reason. You are mine, and I do not want you dancing with anyone else anymore."
Queenie wanted to remind him that he'd ordered her to dance with Klaus Reiner, but instead she just stared at his uneven eyes and studied them in the dim light of her wall sconces. She murmured quietly,
"I'd burn a thousand times for you."
"I'd prefer if you never burned at all," he replied, and he stepped up to her, sliding his arms around her. "I'm going to kiss you until your lips bruise."
Queenie's breath quivered between her lips. "Okay," she whispered, and he began to back her up toward her bedroom.
"I'm going to take your body until you're shaking and weak," he vowed, and Queenie flushed warm with want. She nodded as he tightened his grip on her.
"Okay."
He bent and touched his lips to hers and whispered,
"You are mine."
Two days later, Grindelwald had finished work on his Seeing Skull, and he proudly studied the hookah mechanism and the inscription - For the Greater Good - that he'd put into his device. He heard laughter from outside, and he turned his office chair to see two small female figures out in the snow, using their wands to whip snowballs at each other as they laughed. Vinda and Queenie. He smirked a little and turned back to his Skull. He cradled it in his right hand and shut his eyes, sucking in hard from the mouthpiece. He blew the smoke that filled his lungs in a mighty blow, and it filled his office. He tipped his head back and watched the vision that materialised in the air.
'Nagini, is that you?'
'Credence. Everyone is looking for you. Everyone.' Nagini cradled Credence, who seemed injured or ill and was huddled in an attic or squalid flat somewhere.
'I failed. I wasn't ready. I got hurt.' Credence mumbled. 'I just want to go back to him. To Grindelwald. But I'm ashamed.'
'Don't go back to him,' Nagini pleaded, shaking her head. 'We'll keep you safe.'
'We,' Credence scoffed. 'You don't even know who I am.'
The vision dissolved, and Grindelwald set down his Skull on his desk. He sat there in silence for a long moment, listening to the sound of laughter from outside, and after a long while, he summoned Larsen.
"Put together a team," he ordered Larsen. "A team to go to England. I can't go, and neither can Queenie; the Aurors will capture us at once. But I need this team to find Credence Barebone. Aurelius Dumbledore. He is in grave danger."
"Danger?" asked Larsen, and Grindelwald nodded.
"If the boy is left alone to try and kill Dumbledore himself, he will become injured and may turn to the opposition. I need him found before he attempts anything. Find him, tell him I want nothing but his safety and his friendship, and see if you can bring him back to me."
"Yes, sir. We will find him." Larsen nodded crisply, but he hesitated. Grindelwald raised his eyebrows.
"Is there something else?"
Larsen licked his lip and said, "In the interest of… Magical purity, sir… I have intentions of asking… I would like your blessing, of course, but…"
"You mean to ask Vinda to marry you," Grindelwald said with a small smile, and Larsen nodded nervously. Grindelwald drummed his fingers on his desk.
"I think they're just coming in from hucking snow at one another," he said. "You have my blessing, of course. There is nothing more wondrous than two of my soldiers joining together in a union of Magic. Congratulations."
"Thank you, sir. We will find the boy," Larsen vowed.
"When you go see Vinda," Grindelwald said to Larsen, "send Queenie Goldstein in here, will you? Thank you. Dismissed."
Larsen left the office, and a few moments later, there was a knock on the office door. Grindelwald wandlessly opened the door, and Queenie came in in her winter gear, red cheeked and pink nosed and looking happy as a clam as she declared,
"Vinda and I had a snowball fight. I'm not sure who won."
"I need to show you something," said Grindelwald, and Queenie's grin vanished. She pulled off her mittens as Grindelwald showed her the vision of Credence and Nagini using the Skull. Queenie seemed shocked by what she'd seen, and she stood opposite his desk and muttered,
"He still isn't sure about his decisions. Even after learning his real identity."
"I'm sending a team after him," Grindelwald informed her, "to try and protect him from getting hurt and to bring him back to me."
Queenie nodded. "What can I do?"
"You and I wait," he said. "There is nothing to do but wait. We are too high-profile to chase him ourselves in England. I may hold a rally in Vienna while they're searching for him - another amphitheatre speech. But really, we just wait. So will you keep me company, Queenie, whilst I anxiously await news of my acolyte? Hmm?"
She curled up half her lip, looking awfully pretty with her woolen hat perched on her curls. She nodded and walked around his desk.
"Yes. Of course."
"Larsen is proposing to Vinda," he told her, and Queenie grinned broadly.
"Oh. Oh, that makes me happy."
"Yes, well. I like to see you happy." Grindelwald felt a strange feeling in his stomach, felt an odd flutter in his chest, and he shut his eyes as he demanded, "If the No-Maj Jacob were available to you today… if you could marry him legally in London and -"
"What?"
He opened his eyes and pinched his lips, and Queenie shook her head and slid her hands onto Grindelwald's head. She scratched at his scalp a little, just the way he liked. She'd done it this morning in bed, and it had aroused him upon waking to the point that he'd wound up cradling her against him and pumping into her. He stared up at her, and she informed him,
"Jacob made his choice, and I made mine. You are my choice. I chose your flames. I chose… you."
Grindelwald reached for Queenie's hand and pulled it from his head, squeezing at her fingers and nodding.
"And now you are mine."
Author's Note: Okay, so he's definitely in deep. And for those who wanted better for Vinda, put your hand up if you're glad to see her finally get some happiness! Haha. Now, will his team find Credence? And what do Queenie and Grindelwald do while they… just wait? Thanks as always for reading and PLEASE REVIEW if you get a moment!
