Chapter Text
“Is there a problem, Miss Goldstein?” President Picquery’s voice held its usual tone of leadership. Tina Goldstein stood before her, clutching a small sheet of paper with instructions written in the clear quilled handwriting of Madam Picquery. The office she stood in the center of was quite ordinary looking, what with the dark colored furniture and stacks of books along the walls, but Tina’s reaction to this assignment was anything but ordinary.
Madame Picquery had summoned her to her office earlier in the day, knowing full well that it was one of Tina’s days off. In the increasing Grindelwald investigation, Aurors rarely had days off. Picquery, however, was not one to coddle her employees when there was a job that needed doing. Tina, being the faithful auror that she was, had Disapparated at once, arriving outside of the MACUSA building with a loud CRACK. Tina Goldstein didn’t like to assume, but sometimes earlier conclusions crept their way into her thinking. She assumed she’d be given an assignment that would most likely bring her close to danger and require disguises, as well as leaving her beloved sister for a great length of time. Although this was the norm with her job, she was full of dread as she entered Picquery’s office. As expected, Madame Picquery was gracefully pacing (Tina didn’t think such a motion was possible) the length of her office while a quill scratched on a piece of paper. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Picquery had Tina stand as she put the final touches on the list of instructions and began informing Tina of the situation. Tina listened with keen ears and a heavy heart as Picquery rattled off various instructions. Yes, everything was ordinary—until Picquery mentioned British aurors.
“Three M.O.M aurors were declared missing after a week of no contact—” to these words, Tina looked sharply upwards. Ministry of Magic aurors? What could Tina possibly do for Britain’s magical Ministry?
“Is there a problem, Miss Goldstein?” Tina’s eyes fell to the piece of paper in her hand. No, there was no problem. In stark, black letters was her answer. She’d be traveling to Britain. With disdain, Tina quickly realized her hand was beginning to tremble with excitement. Oh, for Pete’s sake… Tina folded the paper neatly, so as to give her hands something to do.
“No problem, Madam President.” Tina finally met Picquery’s gaze and immediately squirmed below its intuitiveness. Her slight hiccup had not gone unnoticed. At last, however, Picquery dismissed Tina and allowed her to Disapparate back to her apartment. Once safely within the walls of her own home, Tina breathed her first breath since receiving the assignment.
England! Despite her six months of vowing and swearing that she would not—would NOT—allow herself to be controlled by a magical 3-day escapade, Tina couldn’t help but feel absolutely thrilled at the prospect of traveling across the Atlantic. It wasn’t the prospect of seeing Big Ben, nor the adrenaline of sleuthing in a new country, but the realization that maybe—just maybe—Tina Goldstein would be reunited with Newt Scamander.
Damn him, thought Tina comically. She threw herself into the nearest chair and began to stew, twiddling her thumbs absentmindedly. She had to level-headed about this. She was an auror embarking on a potentially dangerous mission in which she will be working closely with other aurors and three precious lives will be at stake. She will not be frilling around in a magical suitcase—Newtcase, as Queenie fondly called it—and would not be thinking about Newt the entire time she was there. Still, it couldn’t hurt to visit him…
“Teenie, I’m home!” Queenie’s dreamy voice rang throughout the apartment as Queenie entered with a bag of groceries in one arm. Tina stared at her in utter alarm before quickly attempting to flood her brain with something else. Anything else. Weather… weather… Newt—NO, weather! A bit chilly, although it’s still April, very rainy… Does Newt seem like the type of person who would like rain? At this point, it was no use, for a gasp escaped the kitchen and it certainly didn’t come from the silverware. Queenie was kneeling in front of Tina in a heartbeat.
“England?” she gawked, her natural Legillimency obviously functioning perfectly. Tina glared at her before turning her gaze away.
“It’s for an assignment.” Tina insisted, waving her hand airily. Queenie, however, was not fooled. Tina grew sick of this, sometimes. She could never keep a secret to herself, nor could she ever think a single thought without knowing that Queenie could easy pounce upon it. Newt was something—someone—that Tina tried very hard not to dwell on. Their parting at the docks at made it nearly impossible for his smiling face to part from her mind. She did a good job of getting her work done, but he always lurking in the corner, coming into focus at the strangest of times. This job would become infinitely more difficult if she was on the same continent as he.
“Oooh Tina, this is so exciting! You’ll have to letter him, of course! You have been lettering, haven’t you?” Queenie scooted closer to Tina, her bright eyes glittering with interest. Tina bit her nail nervously while meeting Queenie’s eye. She had been lettering Newt, yes, but not as much as she would have hoped or liked to do. Truth be told, she made numerous rough drafts of each letter, shaving down any detail that might be taken the wrong way. She was left sending letters that would put any stranger to sleep.
“Tina!” Queenie cried upon reading Tina’s thought. Tina, in an effort to retaliate, swiveled around to bury her face in the back of the chair. In this momentary pause, Tina’s insecurities saw a ripe time to kick in. They flooded through her, causing her hands to tense on the armrest. What if… what if Newt didn’t want to see her? She hated even thinking it, as the realization made her want to cry (she didn’t), but it was a logical thing to think. Her letters had been dull for six months straight. Back and forth the owl flew, across the ocean, diving inland for London and New York. In that moment, Tina became very frustrated.
“Tina, you mustn’t think like that! Of course he’ll want to see you.” Queenie reasoned, but her words merely bounced off of Tina’s stony exterior. Any sane, normal man would be completely disinterested at that point. She was definitely crossing the ocean to join the search for the 3 missing aurors, but would she visit Newt? She felt inclined to refuse her own invitation.
“Tina! Now come on, stop this nonsense. Newt isn’t a normal man, is he? And he certainly isn’t sane.” Queenie got to her feet and held out a hand to Tina, who was becoming aware that Queenie was merely trying to help. Her younger sister fetched her a parchment piece, a quill and some ink and plopped it down in front of her with very specific instructions. Tina looked helplessly at Queenie’s pale face, feeling outmatched by her sister’s defiant gaze. She could do anything she set her mind and her heart to, but rejecting the opportunity to see Newt again was splitting her in half. At last, her heart won out. She began to scrawl with no intention of proofreading, closely watched by Queenie. Little did Tina know was that, across the ocean, Newt was struggling with a similar obstacle.