Chapter 16: Tina Goldstein

After a long day at work, Tina Goldstein finally made it out of her office and massaged her tired shoulders.

She sighed in relief while thinking, 'Finally!!! I am done for the day! Being stuck in the office all day long is exhausting.'

After all, being the Head of The Auror Office at MACUSA was one of the hardest jobs of all.

Nevertheless, she was grateful for the promotion by Madam President Picquery.

Before she was promoted, she was basically jobless and was only investigating in the hope of impressing her former boss enough to take her back to work as an Auror.

That didn't happen until after she met her now husband, Newt Scamander.

Thinking of Newt brought a smile to her face despite the tiredness that was quite visible.

'The first time I met him, I would've never even considered him to be my future husband. I wouldn't have even thought about it. I was too desperate to get back to my previous job. But.. he was just something else. One of many yet one of a kind.'

Thinking about her husband, she walked to a more secluded place from where she could disapparate to Newt's house in London.

'He's probably back home and waiting for me to have dinner together.'

Gazing at the sky, she thought, 'It's also getting dark. I have to hurry up. I mustn't keep him waiting.'

Also, no place was completely safe with Grindelwald on the loose, even the crowded streets of New York. So, she walked her way until…

She noticed three men in front of her who had the exact same hairstyle as Grindelwald and were walking as far away from the crowds as possible.

With a single glance, Tina recognized the men to be dark wizards.

She knew she had to go back to their house, but the curious, uncontrollable, reckless part of her was pushing her to find out what these people were on about and where were they headed. She could learn some valuable information that she could carry back to Mr. Dumbledore and the Order.

'Sorry, my cute Newty. I will be late for dinner.', She apologized to Newt in her head and decided to follow the dark wizards.

She slowed down her pace and kept her head bowed down in such a position so that she would be equally able to see the dark wizards up front and keep an eye on her feet.

Tonight was not the night she could afford to break them.

They walked so much that the crowds were gone. After quite some time, the dark wizards took a right turn onto a strange street. There were a lot of trees here, unlike the district where the MAUSA building was.

Tina would've been delighted hadn't she had to come here in such circumstances. She liked peace and quiet. What she was doing brought quiet and an effort not to panic. Her job was to catch dark wizards and she would've normally said that she had been used to them. Non-Aurors could look at her as if she was crazy sometimes.

What she had with Grindelwald was more… personal. A couple of years back, he had gathered a rally in Paris where he trapped her sister and made her his puppet. Queenie came back to reality and escaped from his wrath, but barely.

Sometimes Tina would still imagine her and Grindelwald having a conversation… with wands.

Her blood started boiling…

However, she shook her head and cleared those thoughts away. She was here for a different purpose and she needed to concentrate fully on that.

The dark wizards stopped in front of a seemingly abandoned warehouse. They looked at each other and entered through the wall.

Tina waited for half a minute before she entered after them.

She stood in a hallway and was able to see a green light coming on the right. Now tiptoeing, she approached what used to be a door holder and hid behind a crate.

Peeking above the crate, she made out five wizards, two of whom Tina couldn't recognize. Four of them were standing in a circle with one wizard at the center who Tina assumed to be the leader who exclaimed:

"The One Who Brings Change has issued a new order!"

"Oooh!"

"The Lord has a new order for us?"

"We will follow whatever order he has for us!"

"Yeah!"

"Shush! Everybody! Calm down! I have received a much more important piece of information!", The leader said and everybody instantly quieted down, and looked at him with eager expressions.

Tina narrowed her eyes and focused on the conversation while thinking, 'An extremely important piece of information?! This would be very useful.'

The leader cleared his throat and said with a serious expression while lowering his voice,

"The One Who Was Born In Darkness has arrived..."

"What?!", Tina exclaimed out loud what she thought in her mind. Instantly, she covered her mouth with her hand and thought, 'That was a bad mistake.'

The dark wizards turned their heads in her direction.

The leader's eyes widened at the sight of her and he shouted with a fearful voice, "I-It's Tina Goldstein! C-Catch her! W-We mustn't let her escape!"

 "Escape?", Tina Goldstein scoffed and jumped above the crate.

Landing on her feet, she looked at the five dark wizards pointing their wands at her as if they and said confidently, "Aurors are predators. We never run away but scum like you are our prey who run away at the slightest chance."

"Well said. Tina Goldstein. Wait, Scamander", The leader of the group laughed and said, "The pet of our FAVOURITE Dumbledore. Who would've thought one of them would be brave enough to come here…Or should I say stupid?"

Slightly distracted, his companions lowered their wands a bit.

"Come and find out.", Tinnie provoked him with a challenging grin. Glancing at them, she realized that they seemed to have underestimated her… what a pity.

Pointing her wand towards the leader of the group, she exclaimed:

"Expeliarmus!"