"You've grown into such a beautiful young woman, Alaris." Anna stared at the man, terror filled her as he drew his wand, circling her like a vulture who'd found it's prey.
"He was certainly thorough in his efforts to conceal you, and in plain sight as well."
"Wh-what are you talking about, Mr. Graves? I don't have any siblings." Her voice shook as he continued to eye her.
"On the contrary, you do have one sibling. But when he took you, he placed you with a non-magical family so I was unable to track you. He took your memories of me. Gave you a new name, a new identity. He took you from me!" She flinched back, but he made it a show to hold her in place, running his thumb over her cheek.
"But after 25 years, I've finally found you, little dove." She watched him fish something out of one of his desk drawers, a ratty looking cloth.
"Bite down on this, it will lessen the pain."
"You're insa—" he shoved the fabric into her mouth, securing it tightly behind her head, "Shh, this will only hurt a little, and try not to scream too much…" Her eyes glittered with fear as the pain began.
the struggle to stay awake grew taxing on her body, He had left her, shackled, in the cupboard in his office to go see to other matters, the sound of voices outside filled her with fear, who were they and what did they want?
the sound of the door blasting open made her shrink back, rocking the wooden structure in her haste. Bright light blinded her as the door swung open, a pair of concerned, yet angry eyes looked down at her.
"Anna?" the cloth in her mouth was removed and the shackled magically undone as Queenie helped her out of her claustrophobic prison.
"sweetheart, who did this?" her brown and green eyes swept back and forth between the friendly faces.
"That man…is by the far…the most psychotic…"
"We ain't really got time for this…" She snapped back to reality, ignoring her pain as they made for the door, something caught her attention.
"My wand…" there, in a secure glass case against the wall, was her wand.
"Queenie, can I borrow your wand for a moment?"
"Yeah sure…" the blonde bombshell handed over her wand, curious as to what Anna was going to do.
"Finestra!" she watched the glass turn to dust, quickly grabbing her wand and giving Queenie back her own.
"Wonderful, now let's go."
Hurrying through the underground corridors Queenie, Jacob and Anna kept their eyes peeled for any signs of Newt and Tina.
"You don't think they actually killed them…do you?" Heavy foot fall could be heard throughout the space, likely Auror's, this meant good news, at least for them.
"Look!" from around one of the pillars came Newt and Tina.
"Oh thank Merlin…" they all shared a frantic, terrified looks.
"What happened to you?" Newt and Tina both gave her a concerned look,
"Newt, as charming as your concern is, now really isn't the time. But Look." She flashed her wand.
"I knicked it from that lunatics office, I wonder how long MACUSA's had it." Queenie held the case forward.
"Get in."
"I've never been able to see the sun set in New York. It's truly beautiful."
"You never watched the sunset, even as a girl?"
"Well, there were these days, back when Newt and I were younger. I'd go for visits over the summer months and it was an annual tradition to watch the sunrise together. He'd wake me up while his mother and Theseus were still asleep, and we'd climb up onto the roof to catch the first rays of light for the day. But no, I've never seen a sunset, not like this."
"It always made you smile." Anna and Tina both looked at him as he climbed up onto the ledge of the building.
"It made me smile because I was spending time with the only person in my life who was ever consistent." Tina watched the two interact, the hopeless romantic in her taking over, if only for a moment.
"Graves always insisted that the disturbances were caused by a beast. We need to catch all your creatures so he can't keep using them as a scapegoat."
"There's only one still missing. Dougal, my Demiguise."
"Dougal?"
"The only problem is that um…he's invisible."
"You would rescue an invisible beast…" Newt turned, flashing Anna a look of playful annoyance before turning back to Tina.
"Invisible?"
"Yes."
"Most of the time. He does, um…"
"How do you catch something that's—"
"With immense difficulty."
"Gnarlack." Tina stepped closer to the two, Anna looked at her confused.
"Excuse me?"
"Gnarlack, he was an informant of mine when I was an Auror."
"And he'll be helpful…how?" Neither Newt nor Anna knew where she was going with this information
"He used to trade in magical creatures, on the side."
"He wouldn't happen to have an interest in paw prints, would he?"
"He's interested in anything he can sell."
Tina led them down the alleyway and down into an alcove with a poster of a woman looking into a mirror.
"The blind pig?" Queenie and Tina transfigured their clothes into flapper dresses, Anna frowned.
"Absolutely not…"
"Oh, come on. Have a little fun, Anna." She glared at Queenie, "No. No, not happening." The blonde woman smiled at her, giving a simple swish of her wand, her three-day old outfit of a simple dress blouse and black, knee length skirt quickly changed into a beige a-line flapper dress with plenty of gold embellishments. Her hair quickly re-curled itself, resting gently at her shoulders, replacing the formerly matted down hair she'd had since her swim at the zoo.
"I loathe you…" Newt eyes trailed over her figure, he thought she was quite stunning, Queenie who'd caught him looking, winked at him as he fixed his Bow-tie.
"Do you remember back in Diagon Alley?" Newt, Anna and Tina all found a seat while Jacob and Queenie went to get drinks. The elf carried on with her song as images floated about the room.
"I'll never forgive Theseus for that stunt." Tina looked interested.
"We went to get our books for 5th year, at Hogwarts and Newt's mum couldn't make it, so his older brother brought us. Anyways, we went to this place…" She tried to think of the name, "Oh what was it?"
"The Amber Badger." Newt filled in the blank for her.
"Right! And I may have let it slip that I enjoyed singing, so Theseus gets up and he calls everyone's attention to us."
"It wasn't that Bad, Anna."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Shy and reserved. Were you the one in the spotlight?" Tina's smile grew, "I could feel my heart in my feet."
"Yes, but you sang beautifully."
"And this is why he gets all the ladies." Newts face flushed bright red, "You two sound like you were really close."
"We were, we even went steady during our school years. We really went through a lot."
"Well, I'd love to hear you sing sometime." Anna smiled, looking down at the table.
"Why not now?" Anna flashed Newt a dark look, "Newton Scamander, I swear to god, if you pull the same stunt he did, I'll end you myself." He rose his hands up in defense, quickly changing the topic.
"Forgive me, but I saw something…in that death potion back there, you were hugging that second Salemer boy."
"His name is credence." Tina informed, Anna's mind wandered to the darkly dressed boy from the bank.
"His mother beats him… She beats all those kids she's adopted, but she seems to hate him the most."
"She was the No-Maj that you attacked?"
"That's how I lost my job. I went for her in front of a meeting of her crazy followers. They all had to be obliviated. It was a big scandal." Anna's eyes darted to the goblin who sat down at their table.
"So, you're the guy with the case full of monsters, yeah?"
"News travels fast. I was hoping you'd be able to tell me if there've been any sightings, tracks, that sort of thing."
"You got a pretty big price on your head, Mr. Scamander. Why should I help ya, instead of turning ya in?"
"I take it I'll have to make it worth your while."
"Yeah, just consider it a cover charge." Newt slid a few coins across the table, "Ha, MACUSA is offering more than that." He set a moonscope on the table next,
"Lunascope? I got five." Next was a frozen ashwinder egg, The goblin looked at it with interest.
"you see, now we're—wait a minute, that's a bow—that's a Bowtruckle, right?"
"No."
"Aw, come on. They pick lock's, right?"
"You're not having him." As the negotiation carried on Anna got an idea, she could finally put her metamorphmagus abilities to use.
"Well, Good luck getting back alive, Mr. Scamander, what with the whole of MACUSA on your back."
"Mr. Gnarlack, are you educated about Metamorphmagi?" Newt and Tina cast their gazes to her, "What about 'em?"
"and how about magical poisons? You see, I may or may not, who's to say? have slipped something into your drink while your attentions were elsewhere."
"What are you getting at, Lady?" he put a chewed up cigar to his mouth
"You see, I'm a metamorphamgus, and quite adept at brewing potions, poisons specifically. I could easily slip something into your drink and sneak out of here with no one noticing."
"You're bluffing."
"Am I? Fire whiskey is usually more golden brown in color, isn't it?" The goblin looked at the drink in his hand, "If you notice, your drink is slightly inkier in color." Tina looked at the drink, she was right, but how had Anna possibly slipped a poison in when they'd been watching her the whole time?
"A sure-fire sign that it's been tampered with." He sat back down at the table, "What do you want?"
"You give my friend the information he wants, and I'll consider giving you the antidote to the Arnica syrup I put in your drink." Her smile was sweet, yet somehow vicious.
"Consider?"
"You heard me, Mr. Gnarlack. Information, then an antidote." The Goblin scowled at being beaten at his own game.
"Somethin' invisible's been wreaking havoc around fifth avenue. You may want to check out Macy's department store, might have what you're looking for."
"Dougal. One last thing. There's a Mr. Graves, who works at MACUSA, I was wondering what you knew of his background."
"You ask a lot of questions, Mr. Scamander. That can get you killed."
"MACUSA are coming."
"You tipped them off?!" the posters on the wall changed, revealing wanted posters of the four magical people.
"I hope you enjoy your slow death, Mr. Gnarlack." They made quick work of disapparating from the shabby speakeasy after Jacob knocked the Goblin unconscious.