Jacob hadn't liked the Portkey in the slightest. He liked Apparating even less.

Queenie rubbed his back soothingly as he threw up in Flamel's kitchen sink. She vanished the mess and helped Jacob into a chair.

Jacob opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't find the words. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, that he was sorry they'd fought, that he wished he could do more to fight Grindelwald, that he hoped with all his might that veryone was okay, that he was so so grateful she'd come back to him. That he could just about faint with relief that she was safe.

'I love you,' he said instead.

It didn't matter though, because she'd heard it all anyway, and her eyes were filling up with tears again as she kissed him gently on the lips and pushed his hair away from his eyes.

For the love of donuts, was he doomed to always make this woman cry?

Queenie gave a watery chuckle as she caught his last thought, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She took a deep breath before she spoke. 'Jacob, sweetie, I have to go back there. They're all in danger and I can help, you understand? I love you.'

'Wait, no, Queenie -'

But she had already Disapparated.

Jacob slumped back in his chair. 'I want to be a wizard,' he muttered out loud.

Someone was screaming. Loud, desperate screams that almost repelled the flames out of sheer force. They tore at his throat as if he'd swallowed a Hippogriff and it was clawing its way back out of his mouth.

Oh.

He was the one screaming.

But Theseus couldn't stop himself. Leta was fighting Grindelwald, brave, determined and perfectly calm, but she was losing, which meant she was dying.

'Leta!' He cried again, but the flames were almost upon him and it was all he could do to fend them off from. Beside him, Newt was putting all his strength into fighting the flames, but he could barely hold his ground against their unyielding fury.

Across the flames, Theseus could just glimpse Leta and Grindelwald, their wands locked. Leta was going to die, and he was helpless to stop it. 'LETA!'

Something pink and yellow suddenly appeared beside Leta. Theseus was so surprised, that he stopped fighting the flames for a brief moment, before his Auror training caught on and he quickly beat back the new fiery fingers that stretched towards himself and his brother.

Grindelwald was also taken aback for a brief moment, and Leta seemed to recover somewhat. But even though she was not the slightest bit distracted by the blonde-haired witch that had just appeared behind her, she was still terribly outmatched against Grindelwald.

That is, until she disappeared with a loud 'CRACK'.

Grindelwald stopped in his tracks for a moment, utterly bemused. But then he gave a cry of white-hot fury and the flames turned into monsters, plummeting towards them all like battering rams, glowing and blazing, utterly merciless.

Newt grabbed his shocked brother and Apparated them out of the amphitheatre into the cemetery outside. Tina joined them a moment later, and they fought off the flames side by side.

'It's going to destroy Paris!' Tina cried.

They continued the fend off the flames, retreating as they went. Somewhere along the way, they found Yusuf, also fending off the flames, keeping a terrified Nagini protected behind him.

Their retreat took them to a stone circle on a hill, where they found none other than Nicholas Flamel, directly Queenie and Leta to positions several metres away.

'Leta!'

'Queenie!'

But there was no time for sighs of relief. 'Quickly, in a circle around me, wands in the earth!' The old alchemist had a surprisingly loud command voice that rung out clear into the night, above the roar of the angry flames down below.

Those with wands hurried into position. Nagini found refuge at the base of stone pillar and watched, helpless.

'FINITE!' Newt and Theseus raised their wands high into the air and struck them into the earth, mustering their energy to produce the strongest enchantments they had ever cast.

Not far from them, Leta raised her wand to. Her incantation was delivered in a whisper, but the spell was as strong as the Scamander brothers' combined.

Elsewhere in the circle, the Goldstein sister did the same, side by side, casting the spell with a rare power that they could not have achieved alone.

Yusuf and Nicholas Flamel completed the circle, their voices adding to the collective cry of 'Finite!', their wands united in the mission to protect Paris.

And then, all of a sudden, it was over, and everyone was crying.

Theseus held out his two arms, grabbing his brother in one and his fiancee in the other. He held them tightly, never wanting to let go again.

Tina wrapped her arms tightly around her little sister. Both of them were shaking form a mix of exertion and sheer relief.

You were right in front of him, you could have been killed! Never do that to me again.

'I'm fine, Tina,' Queenie replied into Tina's shoulder. 'We're both all right.'

Tina finally released her sister and held her at arms length, as if inspecting for injuries. Seemingly satisfied, she finally let go.

Newt came up behind her, having wriggled out of his brother's embrace and leaving Theseus and Leta still entangled in each other's arms. He touched Tina gently on the shoulder to turn her around. His eyes darted over her carefully, checking for injuries just as she'd done with Queenie.

'Thank Merlin,' he said, his voice so soft it was barely more than a whisper.

Tina's throat was constricted; she couldn't speak. She let Newt pull her towards his chest and sank blissfully into his arms.

They soon pulled apart, however, because a tiny black creature was limping towards them. Tina spotted him first, over Newt's shoulder. She gently extricated herself from his grip and turned his attention to the Niffler.

Bending down, Newt quickly lifted the tiny creature into his arms. He was injured and would need tending as soon as he could get into his case.

A small vial on a chain fell into Newt's palm. Inside, two red beads of liquid encircled each other as if dancing. Newt shrugged. 'Dumbledore will know what to do,' he mumbled, more to himself than anyone else.

Newt tucked the object and the Niffler into his coat, and turned his attention back to the gathering of humans. While he was preoccupied with the Niffler, Queenie had begged Nicholas Flamel to let them all seek shelter at his place. Jacob would be worried sick, she insisted, all alone in an alchemist's lair. She needn't have begged - Flamel was going to insist anyway. Besides, they would have to figure out what to do with Nagini, who had been crying quietly from her perch near the stone pillar, Yusuf sitting beside her awkwardly, not knowing how to comfort her.

'Okay then,' Newt agreed when he heard the plan. 'Let's go.'