After feeding his creatures their evening meal, Newt climbed into the bed in the guest room. He sat up in bed, scratching out a few more lines about Ukranian Ironbellies in his manuscript. Working on his book didn't hold his attention for very long.
He put the book aside and set the inkwell on his bedside table. With a flick of his wand, the lamp went out.
He lay in silence for a long while, trying to fall asleep. But as the darkness of the room pervaded his vision, he couldn't help but ask himself the many questions that were swirling through his mind.
How did Graves escape from Prince's captivity? Why was Mr. Grimsditch so uncontrollably mad at Tina? Who was Paladin Prince? Was he really innocent, as he insisted? Or was he faking it so he could get free?
Newt rolled over and covered his head with a corner of his blanket. For now, there was nothing to do but get some sleep and wait until more information surfaced.
The next morning, Newt, Tina, and Queenie headed to the MACUSA building. Once they entered, Queenie took the elevator down to the Wand Permit Office. Newt and Tina walked into the Auror Office and stood with Auror Team A.
Mr. Graves, whose cursed arm had been bandaged and put in a sling, walked wearily towards them
"Mr. Graves, I've been meaning to ask you something. How did you escape?" asked Tina.
"When you captured Grindelwald, Prince transported me to what must have been his own house. He kept me in an impervious, magically locked cupboard. As you may know, I almost registered as an Animagus a number of years ago. After my promotion, I set aside my studies in favor of pursuing my job as an auror. Even though my official attempts at making an Animagus stopped, I to this day retain the ability to turn into a gecko. Using wandless magic, I cut a tiny hole in the magically charmed cupboard and slid out in gecko form. The rest should be self-explanatory.
"Your job today is to search Prince's residence for clues and to keep the No-Majs in line. Some of them might need Obliviating."
"Yes, sir," said the aurors.
"Ms. Goldstein, Mr. Scamander, I believe you two know where to go? Do a chain Apparation to Prince's apartment so they all know where to go."
All the aurors made a chain with their hands and reached out to Newt and Tina.
A second later they were back in Prince's house, wands drawn.
"You lot," said Grimsditch, pointing at Newt, Tina, and another auror, "stay up here and search the room while I take the rest of the aurors down."
"You'll get no complaints from me," said Tina under her breath.
As they moved into the other room, Newt said, "You really dislike him, don't you?"
"It's mutual. But it doesn't matter, anyway," said Tina. "Mr. Graves will be taking over as Department Head as soon as he's well enough."
She moved forward to investigate the new room.
It was very clean and orderly inside, almost immaculate, in fact. Tina pushed open a tall wardrobe and saw an orderly row of robes hanging inside. Lining the floor were several pairs of well-polished dress shoes. Without knowing what she was looking for, Tina checked inside the shoes and pockets of the robes. They were all empty.
Then, she stepped back and looked at the robes themselves. Upon closer scrutiny, she saw that some of the trailing fringes were stained with blood.
"Cruor vestigium," said Tina, pointing her wand at the trace of blood. Newt and the other auror watched as the blood seeped from the fabric and floated into the air. It twirled together like an Obscurus for a few seconds before it formed into the likeness of Mr. Graves.
"It seems as if our friend Paladin Prince knows more about this than he's letting on," said Newt.
Since there was nothing more to be found in the upper room, they headed downstairs to the bedroom and the kitchen alcove.
"We found Mr. Graves' wand," said a young auror. She was holding a silver wand that looked just like a larger version one of those fancy No-Maj fountain pens.
"Good work, Jenkins," said Tina. "What're they doing over there?"
Grimsditch and the other aurors were standing a circle, looking up at a small, silvery image of Graves writhing in pain. Grimsditch held a dark black wand in his hand, presumably Prince's.
"It's confirmed," he said, "Prince used the Cruciatus Curse on Graves."
"Madam Picquery, it is with great satisfaction that I pronounce this man, Paladin Leo Prince, guilty of the following transgressions: That he used an Unforgivable Curse on Mr. Percival Graves; that he did keep Mr. Graves captive; that in full knowledge of the felonious nature of his actions he started a Fiendfyre on the No-Maj ship Plymouth; and that he committed these infractions with the goal of avenging the capture of his master, Gellert Grindelwald."
Mr. Grimsditch looked over at his squad of aurors, then at Madam Picquery. They sat in the chairs in the Wizengamot meeting room, looking down at the cowed prisoner.
"Those in favor of giving him the death sentence," said Picquery.
All of the judges raised their hands.
"Then it's decided. He will be executed at ten o'clock tomorrow."
Suddenly the man in the central chair yelled out. "No! You can't do this to me! I promise, I'm not with Grindelwald! I swear it!"
"Take him away," said Picquery, looking down at Prince imperiously.
Later that evening, Newt, Tina, and Queenie sat at the table after finishing their dinner.
Newt seemed more head-in-the-clouds than usual. He kept staring up at the ceiling.
"What's on your mind, Newt," asked Tina, concerned.
"He's just—"
"I want to hear it from him, Queenie," interrupted Tina. "So what is it, Newt. What's bothering you?"
"It's just that, at the hearing today… at the end, I started to wonder if he really was with Grindelwald."
"What do you mean?" asked Tina.
"What if Prince was wrongly convicted, like we were? What if he is innocent?"
"I don't understand," said Tina. "There was a preponderance of evidence pointing to his guilt."
"That's exactly what I'm trying to get at," said Newt, his tone sharper than Tina had ever heard it. "I don't know much about investigative practices, but it seemed to me that everything was too easy, all the clues were right there. We barely had to scratch the surface to find what we needed to be sure that Mr. Prince was the culprit."
"Listen, if it makes you feel any better, we can go back to the apartment tomorrow and search for more clues."
"I would like that," said Newt.
"Don't you need a permit or something?" asked Queenie. "If so, you won't be able to get one tomorrow; I heard Graves telling Abernathy that he would be questioning Grindelwald at the same time as Prince's execution."
"That's thoughtful of you, Queenie," said Tina, "but there's no need to get an official search warrant as long as the space is still considered a crime scene."
"Well, I'm so glad you two could bring Grindelwald's closest supporter to justice, even if the sentence is a bit harsh," said Queenie sweetly.
"A bit harsh!" exclaimed Newt glumly. "A man is going to be executed tomorrow and we're not even certain he's Grindelwald's follower. I don't understand how MACUSA even functions when people are getting executed left and right."
"Well, that's rich, coming from a man whose country uses Dementors to suck people's happy memories out," said Tina sharply.
"I think," said Queenie loudly, standing up from her chair and putting a warning hand on Tina's shoulder, "that it's time for bed."
A/N: What did you think? Leave your thoughts in the reviews.
