America hated MACUSA.
He hated that they kept bugging him to meet their new President whenever one was elected for the first time, hated they kept sending him requests to go to their headquarters, hated that him telling them he didn't want to be involves, hated that he couldn't ignore them…
But most of all, at this very moment, he hated that a scrawny house elf in a newsboy cap and a grumpy, "I could be doing better things than this" attitude appeared in his apartment in Brooklyn and immediately dashed any hopes of him going to the speakeasy on Lenox Avenue to unwind after a day of dealing with Senator Shaw. Shaw had been going on and on and on about a party tonight for his presidential campaign and apparently someone let it slip to the man that "Alfred F. Jones", the young blond who tended to hang around the White House and was in kahoots with President Coolidge, was worth befriending and impressing. The guy was charismatic, he wouldn't have been elected as Senator otherwise, but man was the guy arrogant! He was almost worse than France or England when either one upped the other! You couldn't blame the nation for wanting a couple rounds of the good stuff, even with prohibition being a thing, and it's not like he could keep any liquor in his apartment or even the plantation England had built for him when he was a kid with government employees visiting regularly.
Speaking of government employees, the house elf had used some of his magic to get to the MACUSA HQ, not so much as acknowledging the protests coming from the blond. America quieted down when he pulled him into an audience chamber where President Seraphina Picquery and, from what he could tell, many other high-ranking MACUSA employees and delegates were. In the middle of the room was a woman and two men standing over an open suitcase that looked like it had an endless inside.
"Ah, glad to see you could convince Alfred to join us, Blink."
"He didn't." America glared at his "boss". He didn't know if he should even refer to her as one of his bosses, given his aversion to the magical world and the fact he generally ignored their summons on the regular.
"Every time you send for him, he refuses and runs off. So, I figured, 'I gots better things to do, just yank him here', and here we are."
Rather than reprimanding the elf, the President gave a sigh and said, "Well, I can't argue with the results." This earned Seraphina a few snickers of laughter from the crowds. "You're free to do and continue your work, Blink." The house elf tipped his hat, probably the only gentlemanly thing he's done in the time Alfred's known the grumpy little elf, and vanished with a snap of his fingers.
"All right, all right, so you got me here. What do ya want?" America grossed his arms. "If it's to get me more involved, I can't exactly do that due to my busy schedule at the moment-"
"Your usual excuse." Seraphina commented.
"-not to mention the fact that, oh yeah, I don't like magic and you keep bugging me." At this point, murmurs of those who didn't know him arose in the stands. The magical President looked like she was holding back the urge to face palm.
"Alfred, a man died earlier tonight, a muggle man in the USA no-maj government." This caught his attention. Seraphina pointed upwards to a magic-made image of the crime scene.
America gazed at it and felt his blood run cold. Senator Henry Shaw Jr. was the man in the image, dead with a wound America had hoped- prayed to any and every deity that might exist, that he would never see again.
"As the only known and trusted person on US soil who might have seen something like this, I need you to verify if you know what caused it." Seraphina said as he walked further into the room to get a better look at it.
"An Obscurus." America stated, grimly, then he turned his head back toward her. "Do you know who's it was?"
"No. But Detective Graves will find out." A man with slicked back black hair nodded before he and a few others took the men, woman, and suitcase away. After, the crowd began to file out and soon it was just himself and the President.
"Can I go now?" America asked, after a minute of awkwardly staring at each other.
"Actually," America groaned inwardly and vocally at this, "I would like you to stay. The man Graves took away, Newt Scamander, is a suspect for the murder. His suitcase contains magical creatures, some of which have escaped. If we manage to find any evidence of an Obscurus being in his possession, I'd like you to look at it."
"Do I have to?"
"America," she approached him, her voice gentler now rather than authoritative, "I've read your files. I know you had an Obscurus in the 1600s, and I know that someone, England I presume, managed to free you from it. No one has seen an Obscurus in the United States for years, now, we thought they were wiped out, what with regulations on relations between no-majs and those with magic allowing children to be able to feel accepted and not like they've had to hide."
"You've been doing a shitty job of it. Have you seen those New Salem guys? I see them everywhere in the whole city, spouting the same crud that was shouted in the 1600s. The same crud that made kids including myself fear the things that we could do- that made us afraid of what others could do if they knew what we could do. It wouldn't surprise me if some kid who was born to or adopted by parents that were no-majs heard it and immediately realized they had powers that could get them persecuted. The only reason I survived was because of what I am and because another wizard was powerful enough to get it off of me and I decided to ignore magic every opportunity I had. But the stupid system you all set up, separating your community from those that can't use magic is stopping whatever kid is unlucky enough to have that parasite stuck to them from finding anyone who would accept them and want to save them badly enough."
Okay, maybe he was being a little harsh, but he figured he'd had a good reason to. A series of unfortunate and traumatic events had cause America to attract an Obscurus, and it was only when England realized it that he managed to get it off. The process was painful, and America doubted a human could withstand it, but it was possible. But it also made America discover a way to not have to face magic without attracting another one: willingly becoming oblivious every moment he could to the point where, tapping into the no-maj side of himself, even the creatures became invisible. It drove England nuts, which became a bonus as the centuries went on, but it also allowed him to be able to ignore everything that made him afraid.
"We can't change how things are, now more than ever, especially with the New Salem Society. But we can try to save this child. But, also, we need you, America. No one in MACUSA knows what these things look like in their most natural forms besides you and your kind."
"I'll do it for the kid and to protect my citizens. But after, I want no part in the magical community, and that includes MACUSA." America said, as serious as a heart attack. "I mean it, after this, I'm done with magic."
Seraphina looked like she was about to object when a Graves walked in. "Madam, we found this in Mr. Scamander's briefcase." A bubble was with him, holding a swirling black cloud of energy, twisting in a way that almost looked like it was writhing in everlasting pain and misery.
"That's definitely an Obscurus. It looks like the one Arthur pulled out of me when I was little." America grimaced at the memory.
"You… survived from it?" Graves raised an eyebrow.
"Mr. Jones is one of the only people to have an Obscurus successfully removed from him and lived. Although, no one is sure how his caretaker at the time managed to do so." Seraphina stated for him. America, for the first time ever, was thankful for the MACUSA President.
"Well, all right. With that confirmation, we can move ahead with the executions." Graves stated.
"Excuse me?" America raised an eyebrow.
"Mr. Scamander has committed a serious crime; putting at risk the Statute of Secrecy as well as this evidence of killing a no-maj, and a Senator no less, he's too big of a risk to just give him a slap on the wrist and jail time. The same goes for Tina Goldstein, who let him run free in New York City." Graves said as if executing someone was an average Tuesday. "Sam!" Graves called and a man walked into the room. "Please escort Mr. Jones and Mr. Kawalsky out, and don't forget to obliviate the no-maj."
A/N: Just gonna drop this here and go. A small mini series, as well as me exploring America's aversion to magic. I honestly just feel like he's pretending magic doesn't exist willingly to the point where even magical creatures become invisible to him. He still has to acknowledge it exists when MACUSA comes calling, but he'll still try to ignore it to the point where he has to be dragged by someone. With the way things were in the 1600s, especially in Boston, as well as another headcanon for this crossover series as far as America is involved, I think America would have tons of trauma and bad memories as far as magic is concerned. I'll reveal more as time goes on, but for now, see ya.