Disclaimer: I don't own Rose Granger-Weasley, Newt Scamander or any other character created by J.K. Rowling. My aim is merely to entertain and play around with them a little.

Chapter thirty: In which Paris is saved and a family mourns

Rose stumbled a few paces, trying to catch her breath as a huge weight settled on her chest and tears started falling down her cheeks.

Knowing someone had died was something. Being there to accompany patients when they drew their last breath was something too. But witnessing someone in the prime of their years being murdered, someone she cared about, no less? Rose felt like she'd been split in two.

Grindelwald's curse didn't let her properly mourn Leta, though, at least not so soon. The blue flames followed them as she and her friends Apparated outside at various points around the mausoleum, and they had to move out of the way several times. This time, no Shield was truly effective.

She spotted Queenie pulling Jacob into an alcove, and Yusuf protecting Credence's lady friend nearby. Tina was standing flush against a wall, and the Scamander brothers-

Theseus had just managed to pull Newt to safety when a gush of blue flames passed right where the magizoologist had been a second prior. A strong wave of protectiveness took over Rose at that, and she felt her guts tell her to stand straight and to go to them. To protect them. Her family.

The thought would make her pause any other time. But not then.

She had not walked two paces when an arm pulled her to the side, saving her from another gush of bright flames. She looked to the side, meeting Tina's gaze, and nodded her thanks.

"It won't stop!" the Auror called, pointing at the skies, where Grindelwald's spell had now swirled and formed the silhouette of a dragon. It swooped down again, but Tina cast a Shield that repelled it long enough for her to pull Rose to safety once more.

Yusuf yelled "We have to get out of here!" and all of them gravitated towards a flight of stairs leading out of the Lestranges' vault and back into the cemetery.

Behind them, the flames grew stronger still, destroying graves and pillars and statues on their way.

In front of them, the frail figure of a man clad in beige robes appeared. Rose stared at him blankly. She knew she had never seen this man before, nor could she put a name to his face, but his presence made her suddenly feel very safe…

He stood, staring in horror at the blue flames that ravaged the Père Lachaise, and looked around at the witches and wizards that had come up to surround him.

"Together, in a circle, your wand into the earth! Or all Paris will be destroyed!"

Queenie shared a glance with her sister, and both Disapparated to somewhere in the vicinity. Rose looked worriedly at Theseus, but he followed Newt, leaving her with Yusuf.

"Now, Miss Scamander!" the mysterious old sorcerer said, and she whirled around, Disapparating as well.

As soon as she'd reappeared alongside Kama, they raised their wand and shouted in unison. "Finite!" before plunging it into the ground below. A strong pulse of golden magic erupted from their wands and into the earth, forming a barrier against which the blue dragon crashed again, and again.

To their left, Rose heard Newt and Theseus doing the same. Her eyes tried to catch sight of them, but she couldn't see them in the darkness that illuminated only the curse that was still trying to destroy everything in its path.

Contained by the barrier, the flames broke into three smaller dragon-like silhouettes, and each magical being had to pull their wand free to force it back. Rose used her pain and focused it on the curse, imagining it was Grindelwald himself.

Finally, when one last barrier was erected, the dragon receded, roaring as if in pain until it was sucked back from whence it had come, the Lestranges' vault.

A deafening silence fell above the place, and Rose stood straighter, feeling exhausted in ways she hadn't believed possible before.

Ignoring Yusuf altogether, she caught sight of Newt's bright yellow scarf, and Disapparated to him.

Newt had brought Theseus into a hug, and was holding him tighter than Rose had ever seen him hold someone since she'd met him. Even without seeing his face, she knew Theseus was crying. His shoulders shook, and she felt her heart break for him once again.

Leta…

As her two brothers embraced and exchanged words she couldn't hear, Rose fell to her knees, the tension from the day proving too much for her at long last. She started weeping uncontrollably, her hands trembling. Grindelwald and his proposition. The images of the Muggle War. Leta's death. The Fiendfyre.

"Rose…" a soft voice called her after a moment. She was still weeping, but she felt someone drew her into their arms. The scent of fresh straw and Niffler caught her nose, and she understood it was Newt. She held him tight, still crying, as he said "I thought I'd lost you. I'm sorry."

She shook her head, trying to rein in her emotions and slowly standing, still holding him fast. "He…he could have killed you too…"

Newt sighed, but didn't answer.

When she felt strong enough, she let him go, and turned to Theseus. He was watching them, eyes still puffy, tear-tracks on his cheeks. She took a few paces forward, but didn't dare hugging him too: her heart was not to be trusted, and he had just lost the woman he loved. Instead, she outstretched a hand and he took it gingerly. "I'm so sorry, Theo."

His eyes twitched when she used the nickname usually reserved to Newt, but he nodded without a word.

A moment later, Tina and Queenie had joined them, Jacob on tow, and both witches engulfed Rose in a hug that lasted a long long while… One that was only interrupted by Kit the Niffler's appearance. He was injured, but had managed something quite extraordinary.

All those in attendance made noises of surprise when they saw the tiny pendant that the creature held in its grasp. Grindelwald and Dumbledore's blood-pact, Rose would learn soon after. And something that would definitely tilt the balance in favour of the Dark Wizard's fall…

All of them, Credence's friend and Kama in tow, reported to the French Ministry soon after. Although it was still technically the middle of the night, there were quite the numbers of Aurors in the Atrium when they arrived. Nobody cared to look around to gawk at the architecture, and waited until the old wizard – who Rose had been astonished to learn was the famed alchemist Nicolas Flamel – had explained, in French and in substance, what had just occurred.

Theseus' boss, Mr Travers, appeared soon after with a dozen of men, a dark look on his face as he hurried to his subordinate's side.

"Is it true?" he asked in his Scottish lilt. "Is Miss Lestrange-?" He didn't finish, and Theseus could only nod, nothing more. Travers sighed. "My condolences. She was a remarkable witch." He looked back at Flamel. "What happened? Who are you?"

Rose didn't pay much attention as their 'saviour' recounted what he'd just told the Ministry's secretary, and reached for Queenie's hand. The blonde, who was holding fast to Jacob on her other side, looked at her, and seemed to understand what she was asking.

"I want him dead, Queenie. I want him dead sooner than he is supposed to be."

Queenie squeezed her hand, signifying she'd heard her thoughts, but didn't answer. Close by, they saw Tina gingerly reaching for Newt's hand herself. To Rose's surprise, he flinched away, but Tina didn't seem offended by it.

At long last, Travers turned from Flamel back to the rest of the group. With a deep sigh, he said "I apologize for what you have had to go through tonight. None of us would have imagined Grindelwald would have gone this far. I would tell you to try and get some rest, but I know all-too-well that it would be wishful thinking." He glanced at Theseus as he said that, clocking the tense and pained posture of his Auror. "I'll arrange Portkeys to take us to Hogwarts tomorrow morning. We need to see Dumbledore." He nodded at his men, who walked away in various directions.

Travers looked at each member of the group individually, stopping on Yusuf, then on Credence's friend, whose name they still didn't know. He walked to her. She was hugging herself, although in shock or cold, no one could have guessed. With a wave of his wand, she had a jacket on her shoulders, and her dark eyes rose to the man in surprise.

"I cannot force you to come with us," he said to her and to Yusuf, "but we will need your statements."

Yusuf nodded immediately, hovering nearby as if protective of the young woman – was she a witch? She stared at Travers still, then found her voice. "Thank you."

He nodded back, and turned to Newt. "Mr Scamander," the magizoologist didn't look up and plastered his usual 'scolded pupil' look on his face, "once again, you are where you are not supposed to be. And once again," another sigh, "we owe you a great debt. Thank you."

Newt kept his eyes down, petting injured Kit with his thumb. "Don't thank me. I didn't do much."

"I was led to believe that the…creature you're holding-" it was obvious he didn't know what it was called "-has retrieved an item that could help us win this oncoming war. So, indeed, thank you."

Newt didn't answer this time.

Travers turned around again, stopping one second too long on Jacob, but surprisingly, he didn't do as Madame Picquery had done and demand his Obliviation. Instead, he said "Come now, I'll show you to a sitting-room. You'll be given blankets and something warm to drink."

Rose let go of Queenie's hand, and surprised herself when she grabbed Theseus' arm instead. In his catatonic state, he let her lead him away.

They'd been given coffee and tea, after several offers of Calming Draughts were vehemently refused. Nicolas bid them goodbye after they thanked him profusely for his help; and Rose asked for a Healer's supplies to she could take care of the scraps she and her friends had suffered through the night.

She'd tended to a nasty cut on Newt's forearm; one bad bump on the back of Tina's head, and a couple of superficial but easily infected scratches on Jacob's hand and knees.

When she moved to Theseus, she was reminded of the men and women she and her fellow apprentice-Healers had studied about; those who had survived a war and had had to build themselves back up from the ashes of their psyche.

She knew he'd already suffered PTSD after the First World War, he'd told her as much. But she knew that the loss of someone he'd loved so much as Leta was something entirely different than coping with memories of the trenches. She suspected he'd dream of both mixed together, now, and promised herself to keep a close eye on him, even if he didn't want her to.

She gently took his hand. He flinched, eyes blurry as he was obviously lost in painful thought. She as gently dabbed a bit of dittany on the cuts he had there, and moved to his wrist where a bad bruise had started forming.

After a while, and after she saw that he was not responding to anything surrounding him, she started whispering "You're in a forest. You are walking among the ferns and fallen leaves that crack underfoot. Sunrays are passing through the canopy, and a soft wind is making the trees sing. You breathe in and out, smelling the damp earth after the rain. Birds are chirping, a squirrel is shuffling in the leaves." She repeated those words once, twice, thrice, while tending to his wounds, and noticed Jacob was listening and dozing off, Queenie gently placing his head on her shoulder as he did.

Finally, Theseus' hand closed around hers, and she glanced up, meeting his focused grey-green eyes. "Thank you," he whispered, and she smiled sadly before turning to Yusuf.

Morning rose, and none had managed to sleep a wink. Some, Jacob and Queenie included, had kept dozing off but never fully fallen asleep; while others, such as Yusuf and Theseus, had kept their eyes wide opened through the night.

Sometime after Rose had tended to them, Newt and Tina disappeared inside the former's case to check on Kit's own injuries and no doubt enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. Rose knew it was not the time to talk about romance, but she knew that they needed each other's company all the same.

She herself had needed more than a dose of coffee to remain fully aware of her surroundings, and had hovered around Theseus all night, to his obvious annoyance.

"Sit down, Rose, I'm fine," he'd hissed after about an hour of her shifting incessantly to stare at him every minute or so. She'd made a noise to signify she didn't believe him, and kept monitoring him all the same.

The clock ran seven o'clock when Travers reappeared at the door. Jacob offered to go down into Newt's case to fetch him and Tina, and the group followed the Head-Auror back to the Atrium then down a number of stairs to a cosy meeting-room.

A witch and a wizard were waiting, looking grim, with two boxes in front of them. Portkeys, Rose understood.

Travers looked at them, and pointedly at Jacob and Credence's friend. "If you've never travelled by Portkey before, hold on to someone who has."

Tina offered her arm to Credence's companion with a small smile, and the girl took it, albeit a bit mistrustfully.

Rose kept close to Theseus still, and held his wrist with her free hand even as the chipped tea-cup took them back to England…

They appeared in the middle of Hogsmeade, next to the fountain. With the time difference, it was a bit after six, and there wasn't a single soul outside yet. The village was silent, eerily so, and Rose shivered before casting a warming Charm on herself. Many of her friends did the same, including Tina who cast it on the girl still holding her arm.

Travers ushered them forward and towards the castle. Rose's insides twisted as she remembered the last time she'd been there, and the panic attack that had ensued. Her breathing quickened, and Newt, with one glance towards her, hurried to her side and snatched her hand in his.

She looked up at him, sadly. "Thank you. I'm sorry. I wished I didn't."

"No no," he said, looking up at the morning sky, "I'm doing it for me, not for you."

She shook her head, not believing a word he said, but grateful for his help nonetheless. His hand in hers did help her this time too, and if the weight didn't leave her chest, she knew it had little to do with Hogwarts and more to do with the loss they'd suffered a few hours prior…

They reached the gate without issue. A couple more Aurors had been waiting there, and opened the access for them. No Mr Reuel this time, not that Rose minded terribly.

When they reached the long bridge that separated the grounds and the castle, they paused, before Mr Travers said "Go on, Mr Scamander," and Newt carried on, placing Rose's hand in Tina's and telling her to hold her tight. Rose smiled gratefully at him again, and watched as Albus Dumbledore appeared on the other side of the bridge.

Tina squeezed her hand. "Alright, Rose?"

"Don't let me go," she whispered, and Theseus, next to her, looked at her curiously. On impulse, she reached for his hand too. "Don't let us go," she said this time. Tina nodded solemnly, as if getting the message.

A bit to the right, Jacob was looking around, confused, and Rose wondered for a second if he saw the castle as they did or if the Muggle-Repellent spell still worked and he saw only a ruin. She'd have to ask later, though.

Dumbledore reached Newt at long last, and they appeared to converse for a long time before Newt handed him the pendant. Dumbledore looked beyond shocked, then raised his hands above his head. Rose didn't understand until Theseus, next to her, waved his wand with her hand still in his, and cuffs fell from the teacher's wrists. He looked at her for a second before focussing back on his brother. She forced herself to do the same.

A moment later, Newt and Dumbledore were both walking away towards the castle, leaving the others behind.

Tina chuckled in surprise, looking at Rose. "Are they leaving us here?"

Rose chuckled back. "No, they're not. Jacob?" she called, drawing the Muggle's attention to her. "Care to see where wizards and witches are made?"

"Miss Scamander," Mr Travers warned, "you know the rules."

"Remind me of them later, Mr Travers. Right now, my friends and I need to visit the Hospital Wing and to rest. Healer's orders." She smiled mischievously at him, and pulled Theseus forwards despite his apparent rebuttal.

Tina let go of her in favour of pulling Credence's friend forward with them. The girl looked grateful, if still fearful.

Rose felt like holding on to Theseus' hand now would be considered weird, so she released it and linked their arms instead. When he looked down at her, a question in his eyes, she simply said "I can't lose myself in memories." He nodded, and they followed the retreating forms of Newt and the future Headmaster.

"Good Lord, I love magic!" said Jacob when the castle apparently showed itself to him. And despite everything, all the others laughed at that…