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Chapter 16

"It's good to see you all. I knew you would come, I knew some of you would understand what we together can do, if one alone can move so much", Grindelwald began to speak. Tina was still surprised that from all places in Paris, Leta wanted to come to one of Grindelwalds meetings.

Tina did not trust Leta Lestrange. Newt loved her more than anyone and because of that, he didn't notice all the strange things did. She did not believe her, as she said that she would return to London. Tina asked Newt to tell her everything that Dumbledore would say and left, after the whole hugging the cursed teenagers' ceremony had been ended.

Tina was afraid and surprised, as she found Leta in an old quarter of the city. There weren't many people living here, it was all quiet and abandoned. A ghost town, like she always imagined.
She carefully followed Leta, on her way somewhere.
And now she had arrived here, surrounded by humans who no one wanted to listen to except Grindelwald. He listened to all, because no one had listened to him before. There was no one Tina hated more than him. He manipulated the hopes and fears of this crowd, of every one of his followers and bent them to his will, all under the name of the greater good. But it wasn't good in Tinas world to use people for your own sake. She knew that she was not as a good human as Newt or Jacob or her sister, but she still didn't understand what on earth had brought Leta Lestrange here. Sure, she didn't like here, but no one deserved to be manipulated. Not even her, her who she had done too much to hurt Newt to ever be liked by Tina. And still, she did not deserve this. Grindelwald slowly went through the lines of his followers. She looked down, tried to hide under her large black coat. Of course, he saw her. He became slower and stopped when he stood next to her. Sometimes, Tina asked herself how someone could speak so quietly but still be one of the greatest and most evil wizards in history. "It's good to see you too, Tina", he whispered. It was nothing more than a quiet whisper and no one else except her could hear it, but still how he said her name, made the alarm bells in her head ring. She was over this. She couldn't be controlled by this man, Grindelwald had no right to say anything to her. Tina was her own person, she was better than she could ever be with him. Tina had better friends, she had her sister, she had Jacob. And she had Newt. Tina would never be lonely enough to come back to him, at least she tried to persuade herself to believe that. But Grindelwalds way of saying things made her think about every time she cried and there had just been him, who had been there for her. You didn't know, for you he was Graves. That was no apology. She had to be strong. Not just her mind, not her body, her soul. She was so much better than this. Tina could control herself better than anyone. Tina did not need to have someone control her, not Grindelwald. She was her own human and no one would take that away from her. "I'm not "Tina" for you. Go find another victim for your club of lost souls. I have better things to do" "Then why are you here?" "I'm here to save human life if necessary"

Leta would have screamed, if this strange woman hadn't put her hand on her mouth. "Shut up, if you scream now, the only person who will come is Grindelwald. And before you try to make a scene or something, you'll explain this situation to me. But not here", she whispered. The woman quickly tried to rearrange her short dark brown hair, before she gave it up and trailed Leta after her. "Who do you think you are? If you don't let me go immediately, I will..." "You will wait for your beautiful auror husband to save you? Or your former the best friend who is completely broken because of you? I can promise you, honey, there is no one except me here, no one will hear you" Leta did not try to pull herself away from this woman, she did not want to meet her wand. They were walking down the streets of Paris and as they were far away enough from Grindelwalds secret meeting, the woman apparated with her. She hated being kidnapped, why did it always had to be her?

"What did you want there?", Tina whispered. Although they were at the other end of Paris and Grindelwald wouldn't find them, she still did not dare to challenge her luck. "There? It's not your business to follow me around, I can do whatever I want. And I have never seen you before. So, who are you, if I may ask?", she said, the sarcasm in her voice louder than anything else around Tina. They were sitting in a pretty cafe, with red stone walls and neat black wooden tables. No one else was there, but that was normal, because it was evening and most Parisians now moved to a restaurant or went home to eat their three course dinner. Still, everything around them was bright, and Tina assumed that most Parisians were afraid of the dark. Too many lights, not as much as in New York, but somehow warmer.
"I'm Tina Goldstein, auror and working for the magical congress of the United States of America. I have every right in the world to follow you, when I have the suspicion that you are going to commit a crime, and attending a meeting of Grindelwalds followers definitely counts for that. And, I know, a as smart person as you are, you will be asking yourself: why am I here? I am here because of Grindelwald. I have permission by our magical president to try to catch Grindelwald. The U.S. Are of course trying to make up for their, how do you call that in France?, their faux-pas of letting Grindelwald escape. And I know that your dear Theseus fiancé or whatever was responsible for taking him to London, but did not attend, which is the reason for his escape, so you better be quiet", Tina stared at Leta, trying to intimidate her. Okay, maybe she did not have permission to search for Grindelwald, maybe that was a lie. But there were some things an auror had to do to succeed. And breaking the law was one of them.

"I... I did not plan to be one of Grindelwalds people. I... I'm sorry. I just thought that it was... Okay, it is a long story. But why do you know so much about me, why do you follow me and not Theseus?" "It's a long story" Leta rolled her eyes hardly and Tina did not want to allow her to use the same gesture as she did, but sadly she couldn't do anything against that. "Wait a second. I know you from somewhere..." "Good job, Sherlock. But I would at least expect a: I will be your servant forever, master Tina, thank you more than anything that you saved me from safe death and had the grace to not let me die there, after I ignored you and just talked to Credence and Newt, even though you and your sister did the real work" Leta frowned and her beautiful forehead creased. Tina smiled. Not so beautiful anymore. "Well, my brother and my best friend were more important to me in that situation. I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings, but you have to have priorities in your life"
Tina almost wanted to laugh. Leta had left Newt years ago, years without any sign of her. Of course, he was her priority, of course, after this long time, he was still her best friend. Of course, she still liked him as if she had never left. Surely, it did not matter that she had broke Newts heart. It made Tina angry, to know that the most important person in his life could gloss over everything so quickly. "I am sorry, really, Tina. I just... Okay, I will tell you the truth. I wanted to be free. My whole family wanted me to be a great person, ambitious and the perfect daughter. My mother left because of that and my father still held on to the old rules. And... I love Theseus. I got engaged to him, not just because of our love, but because marrying him would mean that I no longer belong to the Lestranges, to the person that left Credence on the stairs of a New Yorker orphanage in our vacation. And then there was Grindelwald. He... He told me things. Parts of his life. And it all sounded so relatable. He said that the only way for me to really forget my past and everything I did wrong and what my family did wrong, was building a new world with him. I believed him, because I wanted a way out. I wanted to escape, because I was scared. Scared that Theseus wouldn't understand. His family is wonderful. I should have never thought about doing this, Tina" Tina heard the tears in Letas words, before Leta really began to cry. She didn't know how to comfort other people than her sister, but she tried to hug her. Why was she here? The sun went down and for a second, they were both lost in the tears. The sun lighted up everything around them and Tina understood that there were more important things than hating Leta because of what she had done. She could still change and this was her new beginning. The sun was gone now and with it the bad thoughts about Leta. She was only human and somehow, Tina could relate to her now. "Don't cry, Leta. I won't tell anyone. It will be just like a new beginning. We can be friends" Leta looked up, her hair drenched in her own tears. "If?" "No if. Just promise me that you won't hurt Newt again. I understand you too good in some things, I know what Grindelwald does to you, he did the same to me, so why shouldn't we share friendship?" A spark appeared in Letas eyes. The sun was gone, it had to be something else than light. Maybe it was magic. "Newt? You and Newt?", she slowly smiled, still crying a bit, "I'm happy for him. And I'm happy that you found me, before I could have gone back" And it really was a new beginning.

"I picked her up at the old disapparation office. She was quite scared. We should care for her, until she feels better", Tina explained to them. They were all sitting in Nicholas Flamels cosy living room and tried to make a plan, which didn't really work. "I mean... Shouldn't we wait until you cured Credence? Then Grindelwald wouldn't try to get him anymore, and we just had to deal with him", that was Jacobs opinion. "You're right, but we can't wait now. Grindelwald has been quiet for the last ten hours, but we still can't rely on him being friendly. It's just his strategy. He will attack when we least expect it", Dumbledore said. "Hello?! I am sorry, but we almost died an hour ago and you sit here, drink tea and talk about Grindelwald as if he was a big puppet", Leta almost shouted, to interrupt the other talks in the room. Everybody turned around and Tina would forever be envious that Leta could get their attention in about two seconds. "Leta is totally right. She wouldn't be here, when I would not have found here in the right time", Tina said, almost as loud as Leta. "What happened to you?", Newt asked. They both ignored him. He couldn't just interrupt their performance right now. "As I was saying, Grindelwald was meeting his followers and Leta was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She went to the old disapparation office, you know the one, that they had to shut because they had too less money to have two of them? I found her, just as Grindelwald noticed her. He would have killed her, or worse", Tina tried to convince them. She hoped that they would believe their story. The worry about Letas life should keep Newt from thinking too much. She would not be able to hide it in front of Queenie, but Newt did not deserve to find out that his best friend almost betrayed him. Dumbledore lifted one eyebrow, but did not say anything, the same as Nicholas and Perenelle. Credence tried to hug Leta, but couldn't because of the huge table full of tea between them. Malena knew it, Tina was sure. "Sit down, and then we can talk about it over some tea or coffee or whatever you want to drink. This is what people do when they talk about things, don't they? Sorry, I don't really meet people to drink tea with them. But one thing's for sure: Grindelwald wants something and this is why he keeps attacking Leta and Credence. I mean Credence because he is an obscurial, but why Leta?". Mal asked the question, which the others did not want to ask. Tina exchanged a look with Leta, she was about to talk, but it was Queenie who anwsered her question. "Because of Newt. And don't look at me like this, we all know that it is the truth" Newt was seemingly confused. "I don't think he has to attack Leta to get me. If he wants to fight against me, then he should say it. If he wants to attack me with that, it's his problem, but I believe the kidnapping her joke gets old. We shouldn't protect Leta", he whisperred the last sentence. "Why? Because he expects us to do that. And if getting the cure takes so long, I can try to learn from Credence, and he can help us fight against Grindelwald. It is the only possibility we have. It's Credences decision. I won't force him to do anything. Just know that we want to help him", he looked at Malena. "I will help you, you are my friends. And you should always help your friends. And if Grindelwald tries to destroy that, he can try as much as he wants to. The prince of darkness won't give up", he smiled. Malena whispered something in his ear, and he smiled even brighter. "It's master of the darkness, sorry" After his words, everyone was silent. "He isn't attacking Leta just because of Newt. He is attacking Leta, so Newt follows. And if Newt follows you, dear Miss Lestrange, then I will have to follow you too. Newt is the only one able to fight against him, but he isn't interested in fighting. Grindelwald doesn't fight, he is no fighter. He is just manipulating us all, until we are too broken, and that is the moment when he will attack. He doesn't do it because of you, Newt. It's not your fault, nor Credences or Letas. He just wants me to come. He wants me to acknowledge that he is better than I am, he wants me on his side. But obviously I won't ever do that. He will try or have tried to recruit every one of you. He needs people like you are. You are willing to fight for what is right, and that is the best motivation an old man like me could get. You are the people born to prevent Grindelwald from rising to power."