The moonlight shone down on the flowers covering Henry Shaw Jr's grave. He hadn't been a particularly good man, but he'd apparently been a particularly loved senator. That, or the family was paying a fortune in flowers and fake mourners to make him look good even after death. Tina wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

"Was he the victim?" Newt asked quietly. Tina nodded.

"The Obscurial collapsed the whole hall, but it looks like he was the target," she said. "Now, of course, as far as No-Majs are concerned the hall never existed."

"Of course," Newt echoed, a bit of a snarky tone in his voice. Tina narrowed her eyes, prepared to (verbally) skewer him for laughing at her but he'd already occupied himself with levitating clods of dirt out of the grave. She raised her wand and joined in. For a few minutes they cast silently, carefully depositing the dirt to the side until the gleam of gold from the coffin appeared. Newt took a step towards it, twirling his wand and slowly descended through the air next to the coffin. Tina let herself free fall into the grave as well, slowing her descent with a cushioning charm. Another quick spark of magic and the coffin lid opened.

"Revelio," Tina whispered and the perfect visage of Shaw's body disappeared to reveal a face covered with black burns in a crisscross problem. Newt leaned in, closer and closer, and… took a sniff? "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing what you asked me to," he whispered back. "I need to concentrate." Newt cast a silent summoning charm to bring his case down into the grave. It landed with a thump and shook. Newt popped it open and with a swift motion hopped into it, his body sucked into the tiny space of the opening.

"What," Tina said. The briefcase didn't answer. "I don't know why I'm surprised." She tapped her fingers against her leg - one two, one two - until Newt's hand emerged from the case. With a pop he shot out of the case, a glass vial in one hand, and landed on top of the coffin.

"Mind closing that for me?" he asked. Tina carefully latched the briefcase. It trembled under her touch.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing to the vial.

"Nundu blood," he said absentmindedly, pouring a few drops on Shaw's face. "Good for discerning spell intensity."

"That's a Class 3 banned substance!"

Newt turned and grinned at her.

"Is it?" With a hiss black steam began to rise from Shaw's face and he turned his attention back to the body. "Oh splendid, it's working." The black steam curled up towards the sky, twisting and turning in a rather menacing way. As it passed by Newt he stuck his finger out towards it. With a hiss the steam lunged at him. Tina flinched. Newt just raised his wand, unperturbed, and made a clockwise circle, muttering under his breath. With another hiss the steam curled into a small ball with a white light at the center.

"What does that mean?" Tina asked. Newt continued gazing at the ball, eyes narrowing. With a wave the steam erupted into the sky with a bang. "New- Mr. Scamander!" Newt picked up his briefcase and jumped up, flying out of the grave. Tina huffed and followed him up into the air. With careful waves they deposited the dirt back into the grave. A few more spells and it looked untouched.

"What was that all about?" she asked as she grabbed his arm to Apparate back. When Newt didn't answer she mentally sighed in exasperation and Apparated him to outside a dinghy old cafe. The battered sign outside announced that it was called "The 24-hour Stewhouse." She pushed him in through the door and sat them both down in a dimly lit booth. Across the room a waitress sucked on her cigarette and didn't move to take their orders.

"You have exactly thirty seconds to answer me or I'm marching you to MACUSA and revoking your wand permit," she announced. Newt looked up at here, finally meeting her eyes. He looked worried- maybe more than worried. He looked scared and a chill shot down her spine.

"I've never seen that much power in my life," he said. It wasn't a chill shooting down her spine anymore, it was an icy river.

"Are you saying-"

"I'm saying that there's never been a known case of an Obscurial living past ten." A shadow passed through his eyes- there was some trauma there he wasn't telling her. Her Auror instincts wanted her to pick at it, but she ignored them. "Their power grows with every year until it tears them apart. But this… this is something new."

"An adult?"

"No, I don't think so. But not a child." He looked at her, eyes locking. "Very few young witches or wizards become an Obscurial. It doesn't just require a non-acceptance of magic; it requires an active deep loathing of it. It requires being brought up with the knowledge of magic and a deep rooted hatred of it. A hatred reinforced with abuse, both psychological and physical."

No. The word echoed through Tina. Because she knew three children like that. She'd saved them. But they couldn't- but they-

"That's horrible," she said, breaking eye contact. "Would you be able to find them?"

Newt gestured helplessly.

"I might be able to, with enough time-"

"All right. We'll try tomorrow. I trust you can find your way to your lodgings from here?"

Newt nodded. Tina stood up and made her way out quickly, trying to conceal her hands shaking. It couldn't be. They couldn't be. Still, if she went and checked-

Preoccupied in her own thoughts, Tina didn't see Newt's eyes narrow as he watched her leave. Nor did she see him watch her carefully as she Apparated away. Why would she? She was too busy breaking inside with the knowledge she'd just discovered.

Chastity. Modesty. Credence.

18 years ago.

The girl stood there. Blank faced. Blank eyed. Tina watched her mother tip a potion into the girl's mouth. The potion smoked as it went in, the girl collapsed as it went in. The girl lay there on the bed, long black hair neatly braided back, smooth brown skin warming by the minute.

"Who is she?" Tina asked.

"Your new sister," her mother said. "Her name is Ruth." A cry echoed from downstairs- Queenie was awake, and like most newborn babies, not happy about it. "Watch her for a moment, Tina?" Before Tina could answer her mother darted back downstairs.

"Hello Ruth," she said, not expecting an answer. "Welcome to the family."

The girl's eyes opened and she screamed.

17 years ago.

After Mother went to sleep Tina crept into Ruth's room. Ruth lay there on the bed, rubbing the side of her arm. There were red marks on it.

"Are you all right?" Tina whispered. Ruth nodded.

"I'm alright," she said. "She used some spell that filled my mouth and throat with soap. I thought I was going to drown for a bit."

"You shouldn't be speaking it. You know you're not supposed to even know it. She's trying to help."

"I know."

They sat there in the quiet of night for a long moment.

16 years ago.

"She was supposed to be Obliviated," her mother hisses in sharp tones to the man downstairs. "You said I'd be getting a new child, not this, this menace."

"Obliviation is tricky on small children," the man says in a reassuring tone. "By the time she gets to Illvermorny she'll have fallen in line."

"And if she doesn't? I hear her speaking it in her sleep. That horrible savage gibberish."

"We'll deal with it."

From her hidden perch on the stairs, Tina shivered.

15 years ago.

"Mother!" Tina screamed from downstairs. She'd heard the crash, seen Ruth go upstairs. "Mother!" She ran upstairs, feet pummeling every step. Another crash and she burst through the door.

Ruth stood there over the motionless body of her mother. In her hand she held her mother's wand. It pointed straight at Tina's heart.

"Don't make me do this Tina," she said. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Ruth, please. Please."

"My name is Yanaha."

With a flash of light everything went dark.

Newt had been kicked out of Hogwarts. He could not deny that. But it wasn't a lack of aptitude that had gotten him kicked out. And when it came to tracking spells- well, there was a reason he was a respected expert on magical zoology at the age of 28. In the lab inside his briefcase he carefully held the strand of hair he'd plucked from Auror Goldstein in one of his many "clumsy" moments. In the other he held a potion made with the blood of one of the most dangerous magical creatures in the world- an Erumpent. With a quick gulp he swallowed the potion and levitated out of the briefcase. The buckles took a moment to cooperate; Newt frowned, but considering how specialized a piece of equipment it was, it wasn't like he could just go buy a replacement. He'd have to go back to the woman who made it and that wasn't really an option. Not anymore at least.

Newt turned his head from side to side and with a ghost-like air Tina's trail lit up in front of him. Or rather, he saw Tina's trail lit up in him. Anyone who came near him would see his eyes rolled back into his head leaving only white behind. Another flick of the wand and he rose into the air. The problem with this tracking spell was it insisted on taking the most direct route. From inside his collar Picket the bowtruckle chirped in encouragement. This wasn't the first hunt they'd been on together.

Newt bounded down streets and across the tops of buildings, (disillusioned) feet flying, hair whipping back in the wind. Picket hummed next to his ear. This was the life, this was the truest feeling in the world, the hunt, the-

The trail ended at a battered two-story building. In the small window at the top he could see Tina's silhouette. She seemed to be arguing with someone. A whispered "Alohomora" and a quick climb up a flight of stairs and Newt was outside the door. He whispered a silencing spell and with a push opened the door a crack to see inside.

"Please," Tina said. Her hands were outstretched, pleading. A boy in a severe dark suit stared back at her, awkwardly cut black hair askew. "Just listen to me."

"You're the one who left us," he said. "You abandoned us."

"For your safety!"

In the corner a young woman held the hand of a small girl with a long blond braid. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in.

"Safety from what?" the boy hissed. "All you do is deflect and lie! Tell me the truth!" His hand clenched and unclenched. The edge of his mouth curled down, the veins on his neck stood out. Tina closed her eyes and took a deep breath in.

"Magic is real," she said, and the boy closed his eyes, still as a statue. She tilted her head at him. In the corner the woman clutched the girl to her. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

The boy's eyes snapped open, blazing black. He reached out a hand and screamed. Black smoke poured out of his mouth, out of his nose, out of every pore in his body. Tina stood there, hands outstretched, motionless. With a curse Newt slammed open the door.

"Protego!" he screamed, leaping in front of Tina. A bright silver shield appeared in front of them but as the black smoke hurtled towards them cracks appeared.

"Oh Newt," Tina whispered as the shield started to break. She raised her hand and suddenly her wand appeared. "You shouldn't have followed me."

Next chapter: A battle commences and Leta returns for a visit.