I hope this action goes off believably. A roundup, we have Mrs Graves knocked out cold in the kitchens by an unknown attacker. A group of hostages in the studio with only Madame Picquery left standing. Tina and Graves hurrying back indoors as the cavalry.

Showdown in the Studio

"The kitchens, this way," Graves led Tina not through the maze of galleries but down a flight of stairs through the cellars and up to the kitchen where…

"Mother," Percival choked.

Mrs Graves was sprawled facedown on the kitchen floor. Tina quickly held Percival back before he could charge into danger. There was someone else in the kitchens, perhaps more than one. The kitchen was too dark, the fire in the oven long banked down, but there was enough light from it where Emilia Graves had fallen to show that she was still breathing.

"I'm sorry… no one was supposed to hurt…" a young witch's scared voice. A harsh male growl. Soft sobbing. Tina motioned for Percival they should shield their eyes.

"Lumos!" she cast the spell, lighting up the kitchen as bright as a summer's day. A muffled squeak of alarm and running footsteps. She glimpsed a man dragging a young woman out into the villa's living area. Percival bent over his mother, checking her vitals. Tina paused, torn between remaining to guard the defenceless Graves mother and son or to give chase.

"Goldstein, go now! I have this!" Percival looked up at her with a fierce determination he had not shown for many months. Emilia Graves' eyelids fluttered. She was coming round. Tina nodded and gave chase.

"P-Percy…"

"Yes, mother?"

"Help me sit up. I believe I busted my knee," Emilia Graves gently worked a healing spell. Some spells simply could not be rushed. She could sense her son straining to go after the intruder, but in his current state, he was helpless. Yet to ask him to stand by and watch…

"I left my wand on the coffee table… could you fetch it for me, please? Be careful, will you?"

Percival nodded and kissed her on the cheek before making his way to the sitting room, moving stealthily like he was taught in Auror training. Percival should be familiar with the secret passages of the villa. All the children who played in it learned them during games of hide and seek. She let out a soft sigh. She only hoped to Circe that she had made the correct decision.

"Abernathy, you look utterly ridiculous," Seraphina remarked as she held the disgraced MACUSA employee at wand point. Abernathy was wearing a witch's travelling dress – Eva Prince's, complete with stockings and sensible ladies' shoes. He scowled at the dark-skinned witch. It was a standoff. Abernathy was standing between her and the hostages. There was no sign of the real Miss Prince. Shafiq was still incapacitated. Seraphina dared not take her wand off Abernathy.

A kidnapping? Able Fisher had sold himself on his honesty. If that torrid affair in his past and the resultant lovechild he abandoned were to be made known, there would be no way anyone would vote him in for another term, much less support his bid for Supreme Mugwump in the next ICW election.

"Uncle Percy?" Tina was surprised to see Graves approaching her when she was certain she had left him behind. She lifted her wand, wary of a trap.

"Oh, put that away, it is me. You can read me if in doubt." He had no shields up to impede any legilimency. He offered his mother's wand to Tina, handle-first.

"No need for that, sir," Tina smiled wanly. The tension was getting to her. She had cleared two of the larger rooms and the atrium. She had no idea where the girls and their headmistress were.

"The sitting room is empty, I have checked that wing of the villa," Percival reported.

"Do you know where Shafiq's studio is?" Tina asked. Shafiq had waxed lyrical over his craft over dinner last night. It was likely he would have brought the girls on a tour of his workshop.

"The annex. This way," Percival grunted. His mother should be able to take care of herself, even without her wand. There was always the cellar she could retreat to if it came to the worst.

Eighteen-year-old Eva Prince was barely keeping it together. It would be unladylike to go into hysterics even as one was being dragged through brambles by some lout who was not what she had expected from his letters. Or perhaps the letters were not written by him to start with. She had expected someone more refined, not a gruff fallen Auror. At least he had raised a rain-repelling charm over them as they bashed their way through the garden to studio. Elopement had sounded more romantic on the pages of a novel.

Everything had gone sideways with the storm. She was supposed to leave from the inn, instead of being stranded in a remote villa due to bad weather. The portkey she was to use was still stuck in her room and had since expired. Miss Weiss had warned her of strange wizards who might have designs on her person, but that was before her guardian had that fatal potions accident. It started innocently enough with an anonymous letter seeking a pen pal and snowballed from there.

"Abernathy! Where are you? Quit playing about, you dolt!" Malcolm growled. This assignment was not going remotely to plan at all. It was taking too long. They were not even supposed to encounter anyone, but the Tracking spell they planted on the girl had led them to this villa when the portkey failed to activate as scheduled. The storm was meant to cover their getaway, not impede it. Where was Abernathy?

Tina and Graves arrived to find Seraphina in a standoff. Tina unpetrified Aslan Shafiq first. Aslan gracefully rose into a crouch, his wand at the ready. They dared not fire any spells at Abernathy for fear of hitting any of the still petrified girls.

"Give up, Abernathy," Tina ordered. They had one of the studio doors covered. The second doorway led outside, but Abernathy would have to get past Seraphina and Shafiq first. Abernathy's eyes darted between Tina and Seraphina. Then looking over Seraphina's shoulder, he smiled.

"Bombardo!" someone else shouted from the second doorway.

The studio exploded.

"Sera!" Graves yelled. The air was full of choking dust. He and Tina were on their knees, bruised and battered. The painted ceiling and skylight of the studio was gone. A young woman was screaming.

Assess the situation. Percival glanced about him. Tina was bleeding down her face but still grimly clutching her wand. Seraphina and Shafiq had both been knocked down by the blast. Shafiq was moaning, his leg pinned under a piece of masonry. His wand was nowhere in sight. The blast must have disarmed him. Seraphina was sprawled on the ground, covered in dust. She was not moving. . There was a huge piece of metal from the roof sticking out the small of her back. An ominous dark stain under her that was rapidly growing. Percival's heart sank. Abernathy was still standing. He had cast a protego which shielded both him and his hostages in that hidden alcove.

"MacDuff, you could have killed us!" he snapped at the newcomer. Still, he stepped out of the alcove, purposefully stepping on Shafiq's broken leg as he did so.

MacDuff smirked as he approached. He had his wand pointed at the throat of a terrified young witch. "Wand down, Goldstein. Or else."

Tina cast her wand away from her and out of the nearest window into a rose bush. She glared at the pair in disgust. Smart move. She could call it back to her quickly if the chance arose. The pair would not think of looking for her wand in the thorns to break it. Shafiq was immobilized. No one knew how badly Seraphina was injured.

"Queenie sends her regards, Goldstein. I am sure she will take care of our little miss here. No one else move now…"

Dragging their hostage with them, the pair edged their way over the rubble to the exit. Too slowly. Percival darted forward, pressing his palm against the terrible wound in Seraphina's back. He had to stop the bleeding. Vulnera Sanentur… He murmured the spell, desperately trying to reach for his magic. He could feel her pulse fluttering. Should he risk pulling out the piece of metal impaling her? The blood kept flowing out.

He looked up to find MacDuff pointing his wand at him. It was Abernathy who was now steering the girl out of the building.

"Pathetic. A crippled squib and eunuch still playing at Auror… such a disgrace…" his former colleague sneered. "I suppose it will be a kindness to put her down… Ava…"

No, you don't. Percival felt a burning rage roiling inside him. It was his magic calling out to him. He reached for it. This time he got hold…

"Expelliarmus!" Percival lifted his hand from Seraphina and waved it at MacDuff. He did not have time to reach for his mother's wand. The force of the spell threw MacDuff across the room against the far wall, knocking him out cold.

Seeing her opening, Tina accio-ed her wand back through the window and unpetrified both the headmistress and her charges. Madame LeBlanc and her charges immediately converged on the wounded. Shafiq had recovered his wand and cast an Incarcerous, tying MacDuff to one of the few columns left standing. Tina sprinted out into the rain. There was no sign of Abernathy or his hostage.

Percival staggered to his feet, reluctantly surrendering Seraphina's care to Madame LeBlanc. He had used his magic without a wand. His knees were shaking, no, his entire body was trembling.

"Percy!" His mother came running in the demolished workshop with her house-elves. The blast had been spotted from the town by the elves and they had cut their revels short. Once she had reassured herself her son was not badly hurt, Mrs Graves directed the house-elves to fetch bandages and healing potions.

"Master did it!" Eddie hopped about, wearing a paper cup rakishly on his head.

Seraphina was still out cold from both a wound to the head and blood loss. Emilia conjured her patronus to seek medical aid from the mainland and inform the Italian ministry they had one of Grindelwald's lackeys in custody. Tina limped back into the workshop with a face as dark as a storm cloud. Abernathy had given her the slip and taken Miss Eva Prince with him.

MacDuff was coming to with a soft moan. Percival rose to his feet with Eddie's help and dusted himself off. He returned his mother's wand to her before he strode over to the prisoner.

"You, sir, are a disgrace to MACUSA and the Twelve," Graves spat. MacDuff could only glare back in sullen silence.

The Italian Aurors came, a dozen of them. The destruction of the villa's annex had attracted attention from the No-Majs on the island as well. The mediwizards that accompanied the Aurors set about tending to the injured. Seraphina came to, much to Percival's relief, but she needed to be moved to the hospital on the mainland. Shafiq had his leg set and was allowed on remain on the condition he took it easy for a few days. Tina received a gash on her scalp. Percival little more than bruises and scrapes.

"I should have been quicker," Tina murmured grumpily. MACUSA had been alerted of MacDuff's capture and the kidnapping of an American witch off the island of Capri. It would be a matter of time before Tina was summoned back to the States.

"Stop being so hard on yourself, Tina," Percival admonished. "You did your best."

"It was Abernathy."

"Same Abernathy who colluded with Grindelwald in his escape and made a fool of Spielman and the European taskforce?"

"I think we underestimated him."

"This villa has no Anti-Apparition wards," Emilia Graves admitted. "It never required them." Her cousins and aunts had made full use of that weakness to Apparate themselves and their shopping from an abandoned house in the town straight to the villa or even from the mainland if they missed the ferry.

"The security here is terrible…" Percival flexed his fingers. He wordlessly summoned a teacup over. Though shaken, the girls had rallied and viewed the whole encounter as some adventure. Madame LeBlanc was distraught. It was the first time in her school's history a student had been kidnapped, or worse, eloped. Tina managed to obtain access to the girl's room in the inn. They found several love letters in Miss Prince's valise, signed off by an unknown A. These letters were treated carefully as potential leads to the witch's whereabouts. MacDuff was not talking.

Graves summoned his wand over, running his fingertips over the smooth finish. He carried it with him despite not being able to use it, even on this trip. He gave it a wave as his mother, Tina, and Shafiq watched on. Nothing.

"Percival, was that wand used by another besides you?" Shafiq asked quietly, his dark eyes thoughtful.

"Grindelwald used it when he was impersonating me."

"Did it work for him?" Percival froze. Grindelwald had used it against him. Used it to torture him…

"Grindelwald used it to duel me…" Tina interjected.

"Ah, I see. You will need a new wand then," Shafiq reasoned. "A wand that has lost its loyalty to its master is tainted and will never work for its former master. May I?" the artist held out his hand for the wand. Percival handed it over. Shafiq took the wand and snapped it in two before returning the pieces to Graves.

"Cast them in fire or saltwater. Get a new one that suits your new balance. I will recommend a place in Naples – Vulcan's. They are specialists in more than one field."

Author's Notes:

Percival Graves' magic has returned. Seraphina has been hospitalized and one of Grindelwald's acolytes arrested. We do not see MacDuff or Abernathy after the Paris Rally, so let's assumed they were not involved in the events of 1932, captured, killed or elsewhere.