Tina sits dinner out while two war veterans have a lot of catching up to do.

After Dinner

It was strange being treated as an invalid when one was clearly well. A bit annoying too. Tina poked at the limp vegetables and lacklustre chicken. The mashed potato looked equally unappetizing. Either that or the house-elves were protesting having to make up a tray or a house party with thirteen guests. The mushroom soup was cold, but she could heat it up with a heating charm. Perhaps a heating charm could make the food taste better. How she missed Queenie's cooking.

Dessert was fruit flan, brought over by Eddie instead of a grouchy Plummy's elf. The house-elf must have caught onto Tina's reasons for forgoing the dinner downstairs. The upside was that she need not fuss about her hair or dressing. She had caught a glimpse of Lucy in a navy-blue gown and pearls. Madame Picquery had a style all her own with a forest green gown and matching turban. Millie had to drop by to ask for help transfiguring one of her day-clothes into a suitable dinner gown. Tina was not sure if the flapper had made it up to the upper classes, but Millie insisted. She was not going to dress up as if she were going to the opera.

Tina just conjured a shawl over her shoulders before settling in for her dinner at the writing desk. She was not an invalid to have her meals off a tray in bed. Her position gave her a magnificent view of the dining room's French windows across the courtyard. Eddie explained that she would tune into the radio or change the scenery outside the window, but Tina liked the quiet and the view as it was. The house-elf also informed her that she might ring for a mug of hot cocoa later in the night or a nightcap.

Did Graves feel the same about being treated as an invalid? Having his family and everyone tiptoeing about him. After his initial shock, Theseus and Graves had exchanged news of old friends. When Tina excused herself just before dinner, she had encountered the pair standing before a portrait of one of Graves' ancestors and discussing how related or not related their families were. Perhaps the Scamanders, being of landed gentry, had married spouses from descendants of the Original Twelve. Some of the Twelve had come over from the Old World. Abraham Potter's family had fled back to the Old World after his demise fearing retribution from the Scourers. They were not the only ones. In more recent times, it was common for wixen to marry across the ocean as Graves' sister had done.

Would she end up marrying across an ocean too?

Newt Scamander had been horribly embarrassed when they made a stop at his parents' place on their way to London. Perhaps his mother had been too blatant in her desire for her younger son to settle down. Theseus had gone on ahead of them with the rest of the Ministry people while they lingered behind in Hogsmeade. His father was out but Mrs Scamander wasted no time in making Tina feel welcome. Newt went all red when his mother asked him to show her the long gallery and the grand ballroom. Thankfully, a young Hippogriff foal tottered by and that got both mother and son's attention. Tina and Newt spent the remaining hours in the Hippogriff paddock until it was time for them to resume their journey. The last postcard Newt sent was from Siam. That was three weeks ago. Merlin knew if he were now in Africa or Asia. Would she end up travelling from place to place with Newt someday? Paris had seemed exotic enough for her. She put down her fork.

Queenie liked traveling, meeting new people, going new places. Queenie had applied to participate in an exchange programme at Beauxbatons in 1919 but had failed to make the grade for French. She had scrimped and saved for a trip to Mexico with some friends once. A trip Tina had to forgo due to her work. Now Queenie was goodness knew where. Credence too. Grindelwald was rumoured to have a stronghold in the Alps. No one knew where. Yet his organization had supporters and safehouses globally. MACUSA was still uncovering his supporters in the States even a year after his arrest and escape. Would Grindelwald want to keep the pair close to him? Grindelwald was a charmer. Part of her was mad at Queenie for falling for those lies. Poor Jacob did not deserve that. Hopefully her sister would come to her senses soon and be able to leave the organization.

Her appetite quenched. Tina pushed aside her half-eaten dessert. The thought of that dark wizard hurting Graves… Men do not like to share their feelings. The one who could closest understand him was probably Theseus the war hero, who had also gone through the trenches with Graves when he was sent to Europe in 1917 as an observer. Tina had still been in school then, but she knew of wixen who ended up fighting on either side or both, caught up in the madness of the war.

The gaiety was too forced for a house still in mourning. The widow cast concerned looks at her son between the courses. Percival had not touched any alcohol, but his eye was a little too bright as he related the Angel of Mons incident – a case of intervention by a wizard in the battle that needed extensive covering up. She was not the only one concerned. Theseus and Madame Picquery seemed equally perturbed. Lucy Wilkinson, seated on his left, even reached out to touch him lightly on the arm. He flinched at her gentle touch as if startled. For a moment, the dowager feared her son might just leap out of his chair and do something rash, but he seemed to regain control of himself.

The Grimsditches were sniping at their former daughter-in-law's unseemly show of concern for Master Graves, much to everyone's discomfort. The dowager decided that the pair would not be welcome at any of her future parties. This weekend was not going at all to plan. She had hoped Picquery might find an excuse to leave early given the Grimsditches had gone out of their way to make her unwelcome just short of lobbing a jinx her way. The doctor left his seat twice to escape the increasingly poisonous atmosphere around the pair. The dinner finally plodded to its end. Everyone went their separate ways.

Percival looked exhausted when dessert was cleared.

"How's Tina feeling? Those wards can really take a lot of work… Perhaps she was the smart one sitting this out."

"I suppose we can have Eddie check on her," his mother replied. "Oh, I only wish… well, Tina would have made a fine wife and mother…"

"Not for me, mum. Perhaps for some other lucky man." Possibly that redhead magizoologist she kept talking about. He never thought of her more than a niece or a protegee. Moreover, it would be grossly unfair to any young woman to be bound to him in his current state.

"Would you like Eddie to help you upstairs for bed?"

"No, I would like to sit and chat with Theseus where we left off before dinner. Perhaps in the library," Percival smiled wanly as the Brit approached, having shaken off the company of the MACUSA Aurors in the games room he just left. Lopez was laughing at some joke Tolliver was making, probably choking on his port in the process. He could also hear Dr Fontaine's clipped tones droning on about magical core injuries and rehabilitation. Sound tended to travel in the manor in the oddest way. He was not sure who the good doctor was conversing with.

In the games room, Seraphina listened as Dr Fontaine, perhaps having one too many glasses of wine, was discussing the extent of Graves' magical core injuries and the likelihood of recovering.

"Doctor, was there a method employed between wedded wixen for treating such injuries?" asked.

"True, but that would require physical intercourse between willing partners of a compatible power range, but Mister Graves is sadly incapable of in his current state. Not even Wizard's Staff could fix that. Oh, did you not know he was sterilized?" the doctor turned red in the face and clammed up, looking about to see if anyone else heard his slip.

Bobby Chang was choking on his port. He had overheard the doctor. As did Alfie Lopez and Tolliver. The trio were staring in horror at the extent of their former Director's disability, Oh dear, Seraphina reached for the wand she always carried up her voluminous sleeves. She had worked as an Oblivator before her move into politics after all. And she still had the knack.

The trio outside the room heard everything. Trembling, Graves shook off Theseus' concerned hand and pushed past his mother. Seraphina was coming out of the games room.

"Percy…"

"Don't…"

He climbed up the stairs, tears burning in his eyes. He stumbled near the top and would have tumbled down were it not for Theseus.

"Leave me be, Tadpole."

"Not on your life, Pug. Madame Picquery oblivated everyone in the games room who heard your doctor. Shall we have her oblivate us and have us oblivate her?"

"You know that is not the point…"

"Is your family requiring you produce an heir, or did you promise marriage to some young lady recently? No? Or is it because Picquery knows?" Theseus steered Percival into his own room instead and conjured up two mugs of warm cocoa from the kitchens. Percival had mentioned his past relationship with Picquery to Scamander while they were back in the trenches. How he had returned from Auror training to find her wed to another. In 1918, Picquery had just gone through her last divorce and Percival had been considering whether to rekindle the relationship. Apparently, he settled for pursuing career instead. There was no whiff of any romance between the President and her right-hand man.

"Cocoa. I understand you are forbidden wine," Theseus poured out a cup. It was his mother's recipe for a soothing night's sleep. Mrs Graves had kindly sent Eddie to fetch his belongings from the small inn he had taken rooms in.

Theseus had been there before, counselling men under his command who had lost limbs, blinded, or been disfigured. He was normally there to catch them early, just after they wake up to find their leg gone. There were a few he caught up with later in the rest homes after the war. Some were reduced to former shells of themselves. Others were able to overcome their disabilities to continue living the best they could. Engagements were broken, families thrown into turmoil. Theseus considered himself fortunate to have emerged relatively unscathed.

Their earlier conversations had been reminiscences of happier times in the States or London and news of mutual acquaintances. Percival was not ready to talk or share yet, just as Theseus was not quite ready to address his own more recent losses – the Aurors who defected or perished in Paris. And Leta…

"Tadpole, you are crying."

Theseus rubbed at his eyes.

"N-need to talk?" Percival asked, his eye met Theseus'. Let me help, please.

"I miss her…" Theseus blurted out. All the grief he had been keeping bottled up exploded into tears. Percival leaned forward and wrapped his arm around his friend as he wept.

Tadpole and Pug were two of the many incongruous nicknames to be spawned in the mud of the trenches. Theseus earned the nickname tadpole for his youthful looks and naivety when he first signed up as a junior officer in the early days of the war. The naivety and innocence were left behind soon enough though the nickname stuck. Percival Graves initially came into the war as an observer from MACUSA in 1917. He was not thrilled by the assignment and showed by constantly scowling. They would have nicknamed him the Bulldog, but that title was already taken by a gruff Yorkshire sergeant.

Now, Percival simply listened as his friend poured out his grief at the loss of not only his fellow Aurors, but the witch he was going to marry. They had already bought a little apartment in London and the furnishings they ordered from Italy before Leta's death had just arrived. That was when it hit home for Theseus. He could not bear to be in that apartment with the artisanal Italian dining set Leta had chosen, or the marble vases.

He felt guilty over the deaths of his colleagues – having to help Auror Forrest's widow with his funeral and pensionr, writing to Auror Williams' aged parents, passing the hat around to scrounge funds for Auror Morris' youthful brood of seven, now all orphaned since their mother perished from a werewolf attack a year ago. Leta was never supposed to be there. Would it have changed anything if he had not asked her to check her family's records in Paris? Would she still have gone to the mausoleum, to her death?

He had spoken briefly with Yusuf Kama, Leta's half-brother, during that short visit to Hogwarts. The dark-skinned wizard was as stoic as any Englishman. A strong woman, he had said of his sister, while blinking away tears. Our mother would be proud. The grief had not hit Theseus fully yet. It had not hit him when Newt tried to speak with him before leaving London.

"I got you, Tadpole," Percival patted him on the shoulder as the war hero purged all the hurts he had been holding back for so long.

Author's Notes:

Okay, I did a bit of a flip there. I originally wanted to have Percival cry it out on Theseus' shoulder, but I guess Graves is a better listener and Theseus does need that purge. Picquery and Theseus now know poor Graves is no longer able to have children thanks to a careless doctor. This is going to be very awkward for Graves. His family already knows about that.

I think I might have Theseus stay a bit with the Graves while everyone else returns to work. Not sure if the pair would be the best therapy for each other, though. There are things Graves would never share with Tina (or any witch) and Tina is too polite to use legilimency on him. It was already bad enough for him Queenie saw how badly he was hurt and was still hurting.