08 | it's the end of an era (and life)!

IT WAS ONLY a few minutes later when the three realized they were trapped inside Newt's magical case. They had given some more care to the creatures and then decided to leave, only to find that the latch had been sealed and they couldn't escape.

"Newt!" Dorothy called, "How could someone catch us? No one knew where we went except...oh no!"

"What? Except who?" Jacob asked, looking at Dorothy's guilt-ridden expression.

"Except for Diana," she whispered, "I wrote a little note for her before we left. So that she would know where I was...she worries a lot. But she wouldn't have done this - she couldn't have!"

She looked at Newt, who didn't look at her, "I'm sorry."

He simply shook his head, "You're correct. I don't think Diana would have done this...but Miss Goldstein would."

"Tina?" Dorothy gaped as Newt nodded, "No! She - she couldn't have!"

But they didn't have anyone time to argue as there was a knock at the top of the case. Newt looked back at them, going to the latter and climbing up, opening the case, Dorothy following shortly after.

"Scamander?" the British envoy gasped, looking at the man.

Newt closed the case slowly, looking nervously at the crowd, "Oh - er - hello, Minister."

"Theseus Scamander?" another envoy asked, surprised to see who they thought in front of them, "The war hero?"

"No, this is his little brother," the British envoy answered before turning to Newt, "And what in the name of Merlin are you doing in New York?"

Newt answered him smoothly with a lie, "I came to buy an Appaloosa Puffskein, sir."

The British envoy raised his eyebrow in suspicion, "Right. What are you really doing here?"

And then the case opened again, revealing Jacob, smiling obliviously at the people before frowning.

"Goldstein - and who is this?" Madam Picquery asked her worker.

Tina looked at Dorothy before answering, "This is Jacob Kowalski, Madam President, he's a No-Maj who got bitten by one of Mr. Scamander's creatures."

There were many reactions from the employees. They were furious that a creature hurt a No-Maj. How could the man let it happen? How could Dorothy help him?

And then, a body floated around the room. Dorothy gasped, stepping back slightly. "No," she whispered.

"Merlin's beard," Newt breathed, looking at the image, scanning and calculating it.

"You know which of your creatures was responsible, Mr. Scamander?" Madam Ya Zhou asked the man.

"No creature did this...don't pretend!" he told them all in slight anger, "You must know what that was: look at the marks..."

The next words that came from him made everyone gasp, "That was an Obscurus."

Everyone muttered amongst themselves, and Grave began to look alert at the situation.

"You go too far, Mr. Scamander. There is no Obscurial in America," Madam President played ignorance, "Impound that case, Graves!"

Graves took the case with magic, and Newt helplessly began to take a step forward, "No...give that b -!"

"Arrest them!" Madam President cut him off, and a dazzling spell hit the four of them. All of them immediately got knocked to their knees and Newt's wand flies to Graves.

Newt tried to restrain against the magic, "No - no - don't hurt those creatures - please, you don't understand - nothing is dangerous, nothing!"

"We'll be the judges of that," Madam President said finally, turning to the Aurors standing behind her, "Take them to the cells!"

They began to be pulled away, but Newt continued to yell, "Don't hurt those creatures - there is nothing in there that is dangerous. Please don't hurt my creatures - they are not dangerous...please, they are not dangerous!"

But it didn't work. They were still brought to a single cell, and the four of them remained silent. Jacob took a seat on the bed, Newt and Tina went to different corners, and Dorothy slid down against the wall.

That was it. They were going to die. Dorothy was going to die so young, and she hadn't fully lived. She hadn't traveled anywhere, written a book, fallen in love...at least, not yet. She would always be remembered as the lonely woman who worked at a bookstore.

A single tear slid down her face as she continued to think. No one would remember her - at least, not really. Diana would remember her best friend, Margaret was too young, Queenie would think of her as a sad girl. And Richard...who cared about him! He wouldn't think anything about her, she was just something of the past. She was trash that he had thrown away.

"I am so sorry about your creatures, Mr. Scamander. I truly am," Tina broke the silence, tears brimming, "And Dorothy...I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"Well it did," Dorothy snapped, looking up at her, "This happened and it's all your fault, Porpentina!"

Dorothy let another tear slide, calming herself down, "Look, I know you just wanted your job back - I understand that. But there were other ways..."

"Excuse me, I hate to break up all of this," Jacob said, "But could someone please tell me what this Obscurial - Obscurius thing is? Please?"

"There hasn't been one for centuries -" Tina tried to explain, only to be cut off my Newt.

"I met one in Sudan three months ago. There used to be more of them but they still exist. Before wizards went underground, when we were still being hunted by muggles, young wizards and witches sometimes tried to suppress their magic to avoid persecution. Instead of learning to harness or to control their powers, they developed what was called an Obscurus."

Tina saw Jacob's confusion and continued, "It's an unstable, uncontrollable Dark force that busts out and - and attacks...and then vanishes..."

She then stopped talking, her mind thinking about all of the unwarranted attacks that had recently plagued New York. "Obscurials can't survive long, can they?" she asked Newt.

"There's no documented case of any Obscurial surviving past the age of ten. The one I met in Africa was eight when she - she was eight when she died," Newt answered.

"What are you telling me here - that Senator Shaw was killed by a - by a kid?" Jacob asked them.

Newt looked at him, his expression answering the question. There was no talking after that, only silence. No one wanted to talk, say their last words, because that meant they were actually going to die.

But then three executioners in white coats lead a shackled Newt, Tina, and Dorothy away. Newt looked back, "It was good to make your acquaintance, Jacob, and I hope you get your bakery."

"Yeah...have a good, long life," Dorothy smiled at him, not looking at Tina, who was staring at her with sadness.

They were brought into a small, bare room. Graves sat at one end with Newt at the other. The Auror looked at him with a stoic expression, ready to interrogate him. Dorothy and Tina stood behind Newt.

"You're an interesting man, Mr. Scamander," Graves said to him without emotion.

"Mr. Graves -" Tina stepped forward, but Graves put his finger out for her to be quiet. She bowed her head and went back to her original position.

Graves flipped through the file, "You were thrown out of Hogwarts for endangering human life -"

"That was an accident!" Newt protested, but Graves continued as if it never happened.

"- with a beast Yet one of your teachers argued strongly against your expulsion," Graves then leaned forward, "Now, what makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you?"

"I really couldn't say," Newt told him.

"So setting a pack of dangerous creatures loose here was just another accident, is that right?" Graves asked him.

"Why would I do it deliberately?" Newt answered the question at hand, giving another for the other man to answer.

"To expose wizardkind. To provoke war between the magical and non-magical worlds," Graves answered him.

"Mass slaughter for the greater good, you mean?" Newt said in simpler words, and Dorothy help but internally shudder.

Grindelwald. While he was missing, unseen and planning his next big stunt, he still struck terror in every wizard in the world. He aimed to expose wizards, wanting to make No-Majs their servants. And he would kill anyone who got in his way.

"Yes. Quite."

"I'm not one of Grindelwald's fanatics, Mr. Graves," Newt told him truthfully.

Graves didn't like that, turning into an even more menacing man. "I wonder what you can tell me about this, Mr. Scamander?"

He waved his hand in the area with ease, pulling the Obscurus from Newt's case with magic. Graves brought it to the desk, watching it and the man's expression.

Newt looked back at Dorothy and Tina, "It's an Obscurus - but it's not what you think. I managed to separate it from the Sudanese girl as I tried to save her - I wanted to take it home, to study it - but it cannot survive outside that box, it could not hurt anyone, Tina!"

"So it's useless without the host?" Graves concluded, his stoic expression never fading as he stared at Newt.

"'Useless'? 'Useless'? That is a parasitical magical force that killed a child," Newt told him in slight anger, "What on earth would you use it for?"

Graves faltered for only a moment before brushing it off, turning the blame back to Newt. "You fool nobody, Mr. Scamander. You brought this Obscurus into the city of New York in the hope of causing mass disruption - breaking the Statute of Secrecy and revealing the magical world -"

"You know that can't hurt anyone, you know that!" Newt tried to protest, but it was lost to him.

"- you are therefore guilty of a treasonous betrayal of your fellow wizards and are sentenced to death. Miss Goldstein and Miss James, who both aided and abetted you -"

"No, they've done nothing of the kind -" Newt tried again.

"- they receive the same sentence," Graves finished watching as the executioners step forward. They calmly pressed their wands to each other heads to make sure they wouldn't run.

Graves turned to the executioners, "Just do it immediately. I will inform Resident Picquery myself."

"Dorothy," Newt looked at her, but Graves placed a finger to his lips to quiet him.

The three wizards were led to a pure white cell, with one chair in the middle of a square. Tina looked at in fear, while Dorothy stood there in sadness.

Her life was nearly over.

"Don't do this - Bernadette - please -" Tina tried to plead with the one holding her, making it obvious that she knew the executioner.

"It doesn't hurt," Bernadette told her with a sad smile, remembering all of the times she had seen Tina before. How great of a person she was.

Dorothy is pulled front first as Tina tried to argue, wanting to go first, but they wouldn't hear it. Dorothy's executioner brought their wand to her head, extracting happy memories from the strawberry blonde, and she had a whimsical expression on her face, as they she didn't know how to feel.

The executioner casted the memories into the potion of the pool, watching as it rippled, playing scene from Dorothy's life.

She saw Diana and Richard with herself when they were eleven, starting out at Ilvermorny. They were sitting at one of the small tables, eating dinner together, laughing about something she couldn't remember.

A young Dorothy smiled up at her best friend, Diana. "Dorothy...Dory...come on. You know what Ruby will do if she sees us out of bed again, we have to go to bed. Come on."

"Diana..." Dorothy breathed up, smiling a little as she recalled her best friend.

The young figment called Diana appeared in the pool, a kind, gently expression on her face. Dorothy, the woman, watched, smiling down at her.

"Don't that look good," her executioner said, "You wanna get in? Huh?"

Dorothy nodded vacantly.

They lead Dorothy the chair in the middle of the pool, and the woman watched old memories - happy memories.

She saw her first maid who cared for her. The woman was so kind to her, bringing food up to her room and sitting with her while she ate - because she wanted to. The maid even snuck Dorothy out of the house once, bringing her to the zoo, where she first saw monkeys. It was magical.

Then, they returned home, and her parents found out about the little adventure, and the maid was dismissed.

The water rippled, showing a memory of the first time she stepped foot into Les Livres de Belle. The cranky old man that became her boss snapped her the young woman, asking what the hell she wanted, and Dorothy responded with a kind smile. How Dorothy would miss that place when she was dead.

She couldn't even comprehend that the executioners were being knocked out by the other wizards as she continued to relive the past, that was before she heard Tina scream. Suddenly, she snapped out of the trance that had been placed on her.

"Newt!" she screamed as the liquid from the pool turned black, bubbling, and turning into a death potion. It rose up, surrounding Dorothy who stood in the chair.

"Don't panic!" Newt yelled back at her, trying to find a solution to their problem.

"What do you suggest I do instead?" she screamed back at him, fear running through her veins as her heartbeat continued to increase.

Newt made a noise, commanding the Swooping Evil to circle the pool. "Jump..." he commanded the strawberry blonde.

Dorothy looked at the creature with wide eyes, "Are you crazy?"

Still, the British man remained calm, "Jump on him. Dorothy, listen to me. I'll catch you. Dorothy!"

The two looked each other in the eyes, and Dorothy could see out of the corner that the liquid had amassed to her full height, ready to take her down.

"I'll catch you. I've got you, Dorothy..." Newt insisted, remaining calm. Then he cried out, "Go!"

And Dorothy found herself jumping out of the seat, landing onto the back of the Swooping Evil. Quickly, she leaps off of it and straight into Newt's open arms. The two just gazed at each other as it happened before Newt raised his hand, calling the Swooping Evil back to its cocoon once more.

Newt took Dorothy's hand, turning to Tina and saying to them, "Come on!"

The three of them charged through the basement chambers. A group of Aurors mustered from the shadows, chasing after them while shooting spells.

The two continued to hold hands as Tina ran in front of them. Newt sent out the Swooping Evil as they continued to run.

"Leave his brains, come on! Come on!" he commanded the creature, letting go of Dorothy.

"What is that thing?" Tina asked them, out of breath from all of the running she had done.

"Swooping Evil," Newt answered her without hesitance.

"Well, I love it!" she declared.

The three of them continued to sprint through the basement, colliding with three other bodies. Dorothy looked up in fear, only to see Queenie, Diana, and Jacob. They all stared at each other in panic.

Then, Queenie looked at the magical case that belonged to Newt Scamander, "Get in!"

dedicated to -avalanches for all of your amazing stories. love you!