"Miss Goldstein. Mr Scamander. Welcome to our humble abode," said Grindelwald, staring across the table in the Nurmengard parlour. Beside him sat Queenie, and he said gratefully to her, "Thank you for alerting me to the presence of the Bowtruckle on Mr Scamander's person, or else we might have been dealing with some problems later on, hmm?"

Tina Goldstein opened her mouth and started to speak, but Grindelwald held up a finger to silence her, and he shook his head.

"Ah, ah, ah, Miss Goldstein. We shall speak when asked to do so. You see, the wonderful thing about an interrogation with a Legilimens present is that the guests need hardly speak at all."

"Guests," scoffed Newt Scamander quietly, and Grindelwald scowled.

"We could make you significantly more uncomfortable than we are choosing to do, Mr Scamander," he noted. "It is only due to my great affection for Queenie that you are being treated as well as you are."

"Thank you, Gellert," said Queenie softly from beside her, and he covered her hand with his on the table, watching Tina's eyes go wide with shock. Grindelwald brought Queenie's knuckles to his lips and kissed them, breathing in the warm vanilla scent of her, and he shut his eyes for a moment before putting her hand back down. Newt Scamander, who, like Tina, now looked like himself, stared away awkwardly. Tina, though, glared at her younger sister, and Grindelwald realised he needed to make quite a point of just how close he and Queenie were. He held onto Queenie's hand on the table and asked her in a soft, easy voice,

"Where did they encounter Larsen? How did they hear about the rally?"

Queenie stared from Newt to Tina and back again, and then she seemed to really be focusing on pulling out thoughts, memories, from Newt's mind. She nodded at last and said,

"Larsen found Newt in London; Tina was with him. Larsen told them about the rally in Vienna. Tina and Newt couldn't convince Theseus Scamander or the other Aurors to mount a raid on such short notice, but Tina wanted to come alone and try and get me back."

"Where is Larsen now?" asked Grindelwald, and again Tina began searching the minds of her sister and of Newt. Both of them looked very uncomfortable, with Tina even touching at her forehead, and then Queenie turned Grindelwald and said desperately,

"What the Ministry was willing to do was to grant Larsen asylum in exchange for information about you. He's being held in protective custody by British Aurors and is singing like a songbird."

Grindelwald felt a spike of concern for a moment, but he hid it. He shook his head.

"This is of little concern," he insisted. "Larsen knew hardly anything confidential. Still, I'd like to get a team to London to retrieve him as quickly as possible. Excuse me for just one moment, and we shall resume our talks."

He rose from his chair, and Queenie stood out of respect. He held her face in his hands, stared down into her wide eyes, and then bent to give her a long, slow, deep kiss. Her knees buckled a little, and she pressed her palms to his chest. She moaned softly when he searched her mouth with his tongue, and when at last he pulled away, he murmured,

"I'll be right back."

"What on Earth was that?" snapped Tina as Queenie sank back into her chair and the parlour door shut. Queenie shrugged and said very lightly,

"I am in love with him, Teenie."

Tina scoffed and spluttered a little. "Sorry; did you just try and tell me that you're in love with Gellert Grindelwald?"

Queenie felt red-hot anger flush through her, and she scowled. "And he's in love with me."

"I don't suppose that man can feel love, Queenie," protested Newt, staring at the table, and Queenie angrily demanded,

"Oh, what would you know about human emotion, Newton Scamander?"

Tina gasped, offended, and Newt insisted softly, "More than you think."

"Well, you shouldn't have come to the rally," Queenie said sharply, folding her arms over her chest. "Newt was right about one thing he was thinking. You would have just been capturing me as a prisoner, not rescuing me from anything. I didn't want to come with you; I didn't want to be saved. I'm tired of you trying to move me away from this life, Tina. I'm happy here. Happy at long last."

"Where's Pickett?" Newt asked, seemingly out of nowhere, and Queenie said distractedly,

"He's perfectly safe, Newt. I wouldn't let Gellert kill him. Now, listen to me, Tina. I don't want to leave this place, because this is the first time in my life that my Legilimency's been recognised as a gift, that I've been told I'm special and not crazy, and that a man has fallen in love with me for the right reasons."

"The right reasons?" Tina shook her head in disbelief, her eyes watering. "Queenie, how could you say that? How could this terrible man love you for any reason other than manipulating you and getting what he wants out of you?"
"It isn't like that!" Queenie insisted, but Newt said softly,

"Jacob would take you back in a heartbeat."

"Maybe I don't want Jacob anymore!" Queenie shrieked, and the door to the parlour opened again. Grindelwald came walking inside, and Queenie flew to her feet. Grindelwald walked up to her, wrapped one arm slowly around her waist, and said in a smooth voice,

"How do you manage to make me miss you in five minutes, hm?"

Tina was shaking with anger at the sight of Queenie wrapped up in Grindelwald's arms, but Queenie relished the feel of it. She touched at his chest and stared up into his eyes, and she decided to make a move.

"They think you're just manipulating me. Remember what you saw Jacob saying? In the prophecy? That you were playing me like a fiddle? Tina and Newt seem to think that's true, Gellert."

He tipped his head and turned toward the seated prisoners. "Well, I must say I'm offended. Our love is real."

He rubbed at Queenie's back and kissed her forehead. They both sat, slowly, and he took hold of Queenie's hand again. He said in an almost reassuring voice,

"A retrieval squad is moving on the British Ministry tonight. Sieg Larsen will be executed the moment he's seen."

"Monster," said Tina, but Grindelwald continued,

"So, too, will be Theseus Scamander."

Queenie's stomach sank. She turned her face to Grindelwald and gasped a little, but he stared stoically at Newt, who stammered,

"N-No. What's he done? What's he… what's he done to deserve death, Grindelwald?"

"He is a danger to my movement," Grindelwald said simply. "His demise is for the greater good."

"For the greater good!" shrieked Tina, and she held out her shackled hands and demanded, "You're gonna sit here and let this happen, Queenie? Do something!"

Queenie let out a shaking breath and tried to ask Grindelwald not to kill Theseus. But then she realised she didn't actually know Theseus Scamander. She only knew that he was Newt's brother. And she knew that he was the enemy. He was an Auror, and Auror for a hostile Ministry that wanted to see Grindelwald's undoing. And if Gellert Grindelwald believed truly that Theseus needed to go, he probably did need to go. She shook her head at Tina and insisted softly,

"I trust his judgment."

"You… you bitch." Tina's tears boiled over then, spilling down her cheeks, and her voice shook like mad as she shook her head wildly. "You're lost. You're gone. My sister is dead."

Queenie felt sick. She squeezed at Grindelwald's hand, and he continued on,

"As for the two of you?"
"What, shall you execute us, as well?" Newt was shakily angry now, too, and he demanded, "Where is Pickett? My Bowtruckle?"

"The creature is fine," Grindelwald assured Newt slyly. "As for executing you… well, I would, you see, except… Tina, I happen to be rather madly in love with your sister, and I fear it might destroy her to see you killed."

Queenie shut her eyes and squeezed at his hand again, and she whispered, "Thank you."

"Instead," said Grindelwald, with a hint of relish in his voice, "the two of you will return to England under the supervision of Vinda Rosier and her associate, Abernathy. You will go once Larsen and Theseus Scamander have been executed. And you will go under the influence of twin Imperius Curses, prepared to unwittingly serve me from afar."

Queenie jolted, staring at him. "Can you control an Imperius Curse from that far away?" she asked. "From Austria to England."

"I have done that and more," he assured her. "If the Curse is strong enough, and the caster powerful enough, one can be Imperiused across enormous distance."

"What are you going to make us do?" Tina asked anxiously, and Grindelwald smirked.

"Why, it's very simple, my dear," he said. "Together, the two of you will destroy the Auror force of the British Ministry of Magic so they aren't such a thorn in my side anymore."

"You are a complete beast," Tina snarled, but Newt cut in softly,

"I think that rather an offense to the actual Beasts in the world, Tina. He's an awful villain is what he is."

"And you." Tina turned to her sister, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "How could you let this happen to yourself?"

"I fell in love with a man and a cause, and I fell in love with the greater good." Queenie sat up a bit straighter in her chair, and Tina scoffed and shook her head again.

"I don't suppose there is anything left to say," said Grindelwald, rising and gently pulling Queenie with him. There were guards outside the door, Queenie knew, to keep Newt and Tina from escaping. They'd probably be kept in this parlour overnight, until the recovery squad in England was finished and Grindelwald was ready to Imperius Newt and Tina and send them with Vinda back to Britain. As Grindelwald guided her away, Queenie glanced over her shoulder, wondering if she'd ever see her sister again. Newt spoke up then, rising slowly to his feet with his hands shackled.

"Jacob loves you," he said in a shaking voice, "because he is a genuinely good man who cares for all of the many parts of you, Queenie. And he would still take you back in a moment, even after everything you've done. It isn't too late; you could still have your happily-ever-after with Jacob."

But Queenie felt Grindelwald's hand on the small of her back, felt his fingers laced with hers, and suddenly Jacob Kowalski seemed like a silly, childish memory. She shook her head vehemently and looked from Tina to Newt, then up to Grindelwald.

"I don't want Jacob anymore," she said, and Grindelwald smirked and nodded as he led her out of the room.

Author's Note: So at least Grindelwald didn't kill Pickett (Antonio, anybody?) and he isn't killing Newt and Tina (because he loves Queenie) but he's going to Imperius them into committing horrible acts for them. Is that worse? Queenie's clearly all in on Grindelwald. Will Tina and Newt accept that she's really and truly "gone" and won't come back to them? Fair warning that the next chapter has some pretty juicy, detailed lemons. Mwah hahaha. Thanks for reading and a thousand hundred million gazillion thanks for reviewing!