A/N: I suppose one of the good things about this Coronavirus isolation is that I have a smidge more time to write now that my school has gone online only. Although, I'm an art major so I'm not sure how that's going to work, haha.

Stay healthy! And enjoy this update!

Hermione stepped out of the case and had to fight the urge to turn around and go back in.

The hall reminded her of the Wizengamot chamber or the muggle parliament courtroom. The large collection of older, judgmental delegations further cemented this fact.

Hermione stood tall, her back straight and chin held high. This was a posture she was familiar with from all her time battling the Wizengamot on reforms and regulations. It showed that she had a backbone and wouldn't be so easily cowed. She made eye contact with every representative she looked at.

She noticed Tina Goldstein standing in the center of the room with them but off to the side. She was back to being the submissive subordinate. Her eyes shined with feint hope and desperation. And Hermione realized it. She was the one who brought them there.

Newt and Jacob seemed sheepish. Their nervous energy was palpable. Jacob was overwhelmed to be surrounded by so many powerful figures from a world he only just learned of. Newt knew he was in trouble.

"Scamander? Lawson?" A British voice asked.

"Oh, er, hello, Minister."

Hermione nodded her head in greeting.

"Theseus Scamander? The war hero?" A man asked.

"No, this is his little brother. And what in the name of Merlin are you doing in New York?"

Newt opened his mouth to reply and Hermione knew whatever he was about to say would be a lie. She thought fast.

"He's working with me, Minister." All eyes snapped in her direction. "I needed a consultant."

Newt's eyes snapped to her in surprise. His brow furrowed in unanswered question. She avoided his gaze.

"Yes, and who are you?" The man from earlier spoke, his tone dripping with condescension.

"Auror Hermione Lawson of the British International Investigation Team." Hermione said in a strong voice and held up her badge.

Whispers broke out around the room. Hermione didn't let it bother her.

"Goldstein." Madame Picquery began. "Who is this?" She gestured to Jacob.

Hermione knew that the revelation that Jacob was a muggle would spark unrest throughout the chamber. They were already in a meeting about the threat to the International Statute of Secrecy. She had to think fast so Jacob could leave with his memories intact.

She began looking around the room trying to find anyone with the potential to be sympathetic to the cause. But it's not likely in this time period. She looked up in frustration and her breath caught.

"This is Jacob Kowalski, Madame President. He's a No-Maj who was bitten by one of Mr. Scamander's creatures."

Furious murmurings filled the chamber once more. Questions of "obliviation" and "Statute" rang through. Had Hermione been paying attention, she would have defended Jacob and torn down every leg Tina had to stand on. But Hermione was too focused on the hologram above them and the guilt she felt for not preventing it. For the first time since she left the case, she let her shoulders slump.

Newt looked up at what she was staring at. "Merlin's beard." He whispered from beside her.

"You know which of your creatures was responsible, Mr. Scamander?" A woman asked.

Hermione felt the indignation rise up in her. The utter incompetence of wizards. Her need to correct the misinformed witch rose up in her and she burned with it.

"What could they possibly be teaching in schools these days?" She began, scathingly. "You all sit here debating the protection of the Statute of Secrecy but forget why it had to be implemented in the first place."

"We remember just fine." A man cut her off. Hermione clenched her jaw. "No-Majs hunting us for performing magic, causing us to suppress what we're born with-"

"Yes. And what happens when young witches and wizards suppress their magic?" Hermione asked as if talking to a class of children.

She caught Tina looking at her aghast at the way she spoke to such powerful figures. Jacob was looking around confused and worried. Newt's eyes never left the hologram.

"A No-Maj has been killed by a beast and we're sitting here receiving a history lesson from some witch?" A delegate behind Hermione sneered.

Hermione placed a hand on her hip and pinched the bridge of her nose with the other. She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly trying to calm herself before she drew her wand on this delegation of idiots.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Newt who was still looking at the body above them. She knew he knew what had done this and she felt a little better knowing someone at least knew.

"No creature did this." Newt began, quieting the chamber. "Don't pretend. You must know what that was, look at the marks…" He trailed off, eyes pinched in sadness.

"This was an obscurus."

The chamber was alive again with furious mutterings. Hermione saw Graves look up, alert.

"This is what you needed a consultant for, Miss Lawson?" Minister Fawley sneered at her.

Hermione wasn't surprised in the least. Fawley was fickle at the best of times, it was no wonder he caved to the opinions around him rather than trusting the time traveler he brought here.

"You go too far, Mr. Scamander, Miss Lawson. There is no obscurial in America. Impound that case, Graves."

Hermione watched in horror as the case was summoned across the room.

She wasn't surprised when she saw Newt draw his wand. He protested and it made Hermione's heart hurt in her chest. Her own wand was in her hand and she burned from how angry she was.

She held up her wand to summon the case back, but suddenly it was ripped away from her and flying into Graves's hand along with Newt's. Without warning, a volley of spells hit them forcing all of them to their knees restraining their hands behind their back. Hermione held her head up high, not letting fear show on her face.

She had a brief thought of another time where she was restrained and wandless where she couldn't contain her fear. The eight letter scar on her arm burned at the memory.

Newt frantically tried to explain that none of the creatures were dangerous. He begged them not to hurt them.

"We'll be the judges of that." Madame Picquery said. "Take them to the cells."

She went to turn away, but Hermione's voice stopped her.

"So even when faced with clear evidence to the contrary, you'll still condemn innocents? Creatures and wizards alike?" Her voice was steady, despite being dragged against her will. "Careful. You might not get a reelection." Hermione's eyes flickered to Ministery Fawley's. Her message was clear. She knew something they didn't.

Even if it was half of a lie. But she had to try something.

The door shut after them and she finally let her mask fall. A dead man. Newt's cries. Jacob's confusion. Even Tina's horrified expression.

Hermione had failed.

The cell was silent.

Not that Hermione expected any different. She paced from one end of the cell to the other with quick strides. Five steps one way, six from the other.

They'd taken Newt's case. All those innocent creatures. They could be executed. Or worse. She didn't want to think about it. And her leather bag. It was in Newt's case sitting on one of the tables in the shack. If the wrong people went through that bag, it would only take on look at the book she kept for them to know.

Newt had his head in his hands and it made her chest ache. Hermione tried not to look at him too long otherwise she would succumb to her own despair at his loss. Jacob was still confused and afraid. Hermione couldn't fault him. He was likely to be obliviated soon. Tina was almost in tears. Hermione couldn't tell if she was remorseful for what she did or regretting getting put in the cell with them. Hermione avoided looking at her as well. Too angry to deal with her.

Unfortunately, Tina felt the need to break the silence.

"I am so sorry about your creatures, Mr. Scamander. I truly am."

Newt doesn't respond.

Hermione lets a bitter laugh ring through the air drawing everyone's attention. A false smile settles on her face as she stops pacing and spins to face Tina.

"What did you think was going to happen?" She shakes her head slowly. "You brought a case full of creatures in front of a panicking government in the middle of a crisis. Did you think they were just going to let them go?"

Tina let a few tears fall. She kept opening and closing her mouth trying to find an answer.

"Please tell me," Hermione begged. "What was going through your mind when you were using us to get your job back."

Tina looked down and wiped her eyes.

"Didn't quite work out, did it?" Hermione gave her a flat look, cocking her head to the side.

Hermione turned and went to go sit beside Newt. After a moment's hesitation, she placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn't react.

"Can someone please tell me what this obscurial, obscurius thing is?" Jacob asked, breaking some of the lingering tension.

"There hasn't been one for centuries-"

"I met one in Sudan three months ago." Newt interrupted Tina. "There used to be more of them, but they still exist." He fiddled with his hands. "Hermione mentioned this earlier but before wizards went underground, when we were still being hunted by muggles, young witches and wizards sometimes tried to suppress their magic to avoid persecution. Instead of learning to harness or control their powers, they developed what was called and obscurus."

Newt looked pained. Hermione wondered about what happened to the girl from Sudan, if the obscurus in his case was from the girl. She didn't think she wanted to know. She let out a breath thinking about her first and only experience with an obscurus. She rubbed her thumb back and forth over Newt's coat.

Jacob's brow was furrowed as he tried to process what Newt told them.

"It's an unstable, uncontrollable, dark force that busts out and attacks… and then vanishes." Tina explained, her brows furrowed in thought. She turned to Newt. "Obscurials can't survive long can they?"

"There's no documented case of any obscurial surviving past the age of ten. The one I met in Sudan was eight when she- she was eight when she died." He answered. Hermione's hand gripped his shoulder tighter and continued to rub her thumb back and forth over his coat.

She thought for a moment. Dumbledore's sister was an obscurial. Her brows furrowed and her thumb stopped moving causing Newt to look at her. Ariana was never reported. Hermione wondered how many others have gone unreported. Accidents written off in the muggle world. Old families that didn't want to ruin their reputation.

She felt a finger tap her hand and noticed Newt looking at her, head cocked to the side in question.

"What are you telling me here? That Senator Shaw was killed by a- by a kid?" Jacob drew their attention.

No one said anything, but the look Newt gave him said enough.

Black walled room, windowless, door behind them. Tina was standing, Hermione and Newt were sitting bound with hands behind their backs. None of them had their wands. Three execution wizards behind them and one head auror across from them.

Hermione realized there was no way out.

She now regrets not putting up more of a fight earlier. She was under the impression that less resistance could get them a lesser punishment. One look at the execution wizards changed that.

Hermione wondered how they would get out of this. All of her logic on time travel points to the fact that Newt Scamander is still alive in her time. Not executed in 1926. For a brief moment she panicked thinking her presence actually did change something. It would be her fault they were going to die.

She figured, at the very least, Jacob would be alright. He would just be missing some memories rather than dead.

"You're an interesting man, Mr. Scamander." Graves said looking down at the files before him. "And you, Miss Lawson…" He trailed off.

"Mr. Graves-" Tina started

Graves just held a finger to his lips, patronizing her. She stepped back, obeying. Hermione's lip curled.

"Miss Lawson," Graves began, flipping through her file. "Recent transfer to the auror program with no prior experience and given international jurisdiction. Born in 1901 making you twenty-five years old. Born to Edwin and Margaret Lawson twenty-five and twenty-four respectfully. Highest NEWT and OWL scores since Albus Dumbledore himself."

He looked up then.

"And all of this filed two days ago. But," His eyebrows rose and he looked down flipping the file closed. "We'll come back to you."

Hermione sat with her back straight and chin held high. She could feel Tina and Newt looking at her with suspicion. She tried not to let it bother her. She knew there were holes in her paperwork, she just didn't think it would come up before she could get it fixed.

"Newt Scamander, you were thrown out of Hogwarts for endangering human life-"

"That was an accident!" Newt protested, eyes cutting to Hermione. Hermione knew this already, it was common knowledge in her time. Any book that mentioned the magizoologist also mentioned the incident.

"-with a beast. Yet one of your teachers argued strongly against your expulsion. Now, what makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you?" He looked up, brows furrowed.

Hermione noted that this was the second time the American head auror mentioned the British wizard. Dumbledore was a great wizard, and everyone knew his scores were high but not many knew them well enough to draw comparisons.

"I really couldn't say." Newt said.

"So setting a pack of dangerous creatures loose here was just another accident, is that right?"

"Why would I do it deliberately?"

"To expose wizardkind. To provoke war between the magical and non-magical worlds."

Hermione could see it clear as day. They were going to use Newt as a scapegoat to appease the public. Calm down the suspicions of Grindelwald and provide an answer to the threat of the Statute.

"Mass slaughter for the greater good, you mean?"

Hermione stiffened. Greater good. Newt and Graves looked at her for a moment.

"Yes, Quite." Graves said, still looking at Hermione. "And Miss Lawson is your accomplice. Infiltrating two separate ministries with false paperwork, aiding your crimes."

"I'm not one of Grindelwald's fanatics, Mr. Graves." Newt protested lowly.

"And I'm not one of his spies." Hermione declared.

Hermione noticed his expression change. At the mention of Grindelwald, ever so slightly, he looked more menacing than he did a moment ago.

"I wonder what you can tell me about this, Mr. Scamander?"

With a display of wandless magic, Graves brought the obscurus from Newt's case into view. The swirling mass of dark matter continued to pulse and thrash within the bubble. Hermione noticed it shrink back from Graves trying to stay away. Tina gasped.

"It's an obscurus-" Newt turned to Hermione trying to convince her, forgetting that she'd already seen it in his case. "But it's not what you think. I managed to separate it from the Sudanese girl as I tried to save her." He looked anguished and frantic.

"Newt." She whispered.

"I wanted to take it home, to study it."

"Newt." She spoke a little louder.

"But it cannot survive outside that box, it could not hurt anyone-"

"Newt!"

He stopped, eyes flickering from meeting her eyes and looking down.

"I know." She told him. His shoulders seemed to slump in relief.

"So it's useless without the host?" Graves brought their attention back to him.

Newt turned to him, frowning. "'Useless?' 'Useless?' That is a parasitical magical force that killed a child. What on earth would you use it for?"

Hermione's brows pinched together. She wondered why Graves was so interested in obscurials.

The answer slammed into her. She knew Gellert Grindelwald was in New York at this time. She knew Newt had to be near him at some point in order to capture him. Percival Graves should not be interested about Albus Dumbledore. Percival Graves should not inquire about obscurials. Grindelwald had history with Dumbledore and an obscurus was killed in their fight.

It was that revelation that sent her next thought tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop it.

"Ariana." She whispered, looking for a reaction on Grave's face.

She wasn't disappointed. He looked at her with fire in his eyes before his mask slid back into place. After that she carefully avoided eye contact in case he had an affinity for mind reading. The corner of her mouth ticked up. She knew exactly who was sitting across from her. The thought sent a chill down her spine, but the pride she felt at figuring out his deception overshadowed it for the moment.

"You fool nobody, Mr. Scamander." Graves said looking away from her finally. "You brought this Obscurus into the city of New York in the hope of causing mass disruption, breaking the Statute of Secrecy and revealing the magical world-"

"You know that can't hurt anyone, you know that!" Newt exclaimed.

"You are therefore guilty of a treasonous betrayal of your fellow wizards and are sentenced to death. Miss Lawson and Miss Goldstein, who have aided and abetted you..."

"No, they've done nothing of the kind!" Newt was frantic. Hermione kept smirking. Tina was too shocked to do anything.

"They receive the same sentence."

The executioners stepped forward pressing their wands into their necks.

"Just do it immediately. I will inform President Picquery myself."

"Hermione-" Newt pleaded.

Graves brought his finger to his mouth again shushing him. For a moment, he flicked his eyes to Hermione.

"Well met." She whispered.

Graves's eyes flashed before he turned away.

They were pulled from the room, door swinging shut with a loud click. Newt pulled against his executioner making the wand dig further into his neck. Tina was too shocked to do anything other than follow along. Hermione walked calmly with her head held high. It wouldn't be the first time she's escaped imminent death. She just needed to think a moment.

Hermione had to wonder how humane this form of execution was.

She watched the executioner, Bernadette, pull memories from Tina and throw them into the pool of bubbling potion before them. She scowled in disgust at the vacant calm that immediately overtook Tina's features. Hermione might not particularly like the witch at the moment, but she didn't deserve this.

They helped Tina into the chair and Hermione frantically thought for a way out. The cuffs they were wearing were barely magical. Enchanted just enough to resist unlocking charms but weak enough to not be able to take on much more. There's a distinct reason handcuffs went out of style for detaining wizards and Hermione was about to exploit that.

It felt intrusive to watch Tina's happiest memories, especially knowing what was going to happen if she didn't get them out of this. She started feeding her magic into the cuffs attempting to overload them.

Curiously, she watched a memory of an older woman holding a belt and standing over a teenage boy. She watched Tina send a spell at the woman and then comfort the boy. Hermione's brow furrowed.

Movement out of the corner of her eye drew her attention, and she looked to find Newt looking down at his arm. Her eyes follow his gaze and she has to hold back a smile. Bowtruckles pick locks. Her eyes met Newts, amusement sparkling despite the situation. Newt turned away and Hermione frowned. She kept feeding magic into the handcuffs. They were getting warm.

Another executioner turned to Newt, raising her wand. "Okay, let's get the good stuff out of you-"

Newt jumped out of the way, careful not to run into Hermione, and threw the Swooping Evil toward the pool. He punch the executioner. Hermione sent a burst of magic into the cuffs and pulled her wrists apart in the same move. The cuffs disintegrated in a small burst of heat burning Hermione's wrists.

Newt grabbed his executioner's arms using their wand to send a stuptify toward Bernadette. Hermione turned and was about to kick her own executioner when the swooping evil flew over and knocked them to the ground. Behind her, Tina was getting more and more terrified. Hermione picked up the executioner's wand and sent a stunner toward Newt's ensuring they were incapacitated.

"Mr. Scamander!" Tina screamed.

She was now standing, desperately trying to keep her balance on the chair as the death potion surrounded her. Hermione couldn't do anything. Any kind of magic she might use to help Tina would agitate the potion.

"Don't panic!" Newt told her.

"What do you suggest I do instead?" She panicked.

Newt made a clicking noise and the swooping evil started to circle the pool around Tina.

"Jump."

"Are you crazy?"

"Jump on him."

Hermione turned around seeing that Newt had this handled. She quickly walked over to the door placing her ear against it to see if she could hear anything that might have alerted MACUSA to their escape.

"Tina, listen to me. I'll catch you."

Hermione looked over her shoulder watching with curiosity. The potion had now reached Tina's full height. Hermione's hand hovered over the door handle, unwilling to leave without the two of them.

"I'll catch you. I've got you, Tina."

There was no more time for convincing, the potion was getting too high, curling over the top of her.

"Go!"

Tina jumped across and landed safely in Newt's arms. Hermione let out a breath of relief. Newt called the swooping evil back to him. Hermione opened the door.

"Come on!" She called to them.

The alarms rang through the building as the three of them raced through the basement. Hermione's lungs burned and her skin felt hot under her overcoat. Her wrists stung from the burns from earlier.

A group of aurors turned the corner in front of them and let out a multitude of spells. Tina and Newt quickly dodged and hid behind pillars while Hermione used her stolen wand to instinctively throw up a shield. Newt sent out his creature while Hermione sent out a string of spells of her own incapacitating as many as she could. One of their spells caught her arm by surprise making her let go of her wand.

The swooping evil with its skeletal, butterfly-like wings quickly took care of the remaining aurors and shielded Hermione from any more attacks. It was hovering over one of the downed aurors probing the man's ear.

"Thank you, darling, but I really don't think now is the time for brains." Hermione told it.

Newt caught up and made a clicking noise directing the swooping evil to fly with them. They began running again.

"What is that thing?" Tina asked.

"Swooping Evil."

"Well, I love it!"

They rounded a corner and almost collided with Jacob and Queenie. They all stared at one another, panic on their faces despite the relief of being together.

"Get in!" Queenie gestured to the case.

A/N: So there it is. I'm thinking some Newt POV next time would be pretty good.

Let me know your thoughts! I love hearing from you!