Forever Forgotten [Book Two]

Chapter 3

"Can someone please tell me what happened last night?" Credence cried out the following morning as they were all sat around the table pretending to eat breakfast. He had grown sick of the worried glances from Graves and the sympathetic looks he received from the other four.

No one had really slept that night, and the little amount time they did manage to sleep had been plagued with terrible dreams. Queenie had told Jacob about everything he had missed the previous night, so even he joined in with pushing the food on his plate around while deep in thought rather than actually eating it.

"Credence, please..." Graves started, but Newt cut him off.

"He has a right to know, Percival."

Graves sighed and placed his fork down onto his untouched plate of food before turning to face his boyfriend. "Things will have to change around here slightly."

"In what ways?"

"You will not be allowed to be by yourself. You will be accompanied by me, or one of the others if I am otherwise engaged, at all times. You will only leave this house for necessary reasons and only during the hours of sunlight. Do you understand?"

Credence sat in a state of shock for  second, and could feel the anger burning within him. "That's ridiculous! You can't treat me like that, I'm not a child! I'm almost thirty for God's sake! But more to the point: what happened last night to make you suddenly act like this?"

"Grindelwald has escaped." Queenie stated, wanting to get the information known quickly.

There was a short pause. "But what has that got to do with me?"

Graves shuffled around slightly, feeling uncomfortable. "He's after you, Credence."

"What... Why?" He looked around at his friends sat before him and saw the way that they were awkwardly avoiding his gaze. "Because I'm the Obscurial?"

"Yes."

"Tell him the rest, Graves." Newt said softly.

"There's more?" Credence asked.

"Well, yes." Graves said uncertainly. "The President has almost... Given the sentence in advance, so that it can be carried out if certain things occur."

"What sort of sentence?"

There was a long pause in which Graves had to yet again swallow back tears. "The death penalty." He chocked out. "For the both of us."

"... And under what circumstances is it supposed to be carried out?"

"For you? If Grindelwald gets anywhere close enough to you to use you again. For me? If I fail at my duties of protecting you and making sure another No-Maj doesn't get hurt."

"But that's not fair." Credence whimpered.

"There's nothing we can do about it, except to follow orders and keep you safe. This will only be until they catch Grindelwald again."

"Will we never be free of that monster?"

- - - - -

"Now Newt's going to look after you for the next few hours, alright?" Graves asked Credence later, when they were alone in their bedroom.

"Why?"

"Well Queenie and Jacob have begun to plan their wedding. Life still needs to carry on, after all."

"But why not you?" Credence balled his hands into fists and stared at the ground.

Graves moved to stand in front of him. "Me and Tina have been called into the office. All Aurors are on high alert. There's a lot of work to be done." He tilted Credence's chin up, forcing him to look him in the eye. "Hey," he said gently, "we'll get through this, I promise."

"I thought that we would be alright. He was supposed to be gone."

"I know that he hurt you, Credence-"

"- He used me. I thought he was you and he-"

"Played with your emotions. I know." He kissed him gently. "Don't worry... I'd rather die than let him hurt you again."

"He hurt you too." Credence said gently.

"I know, but that hardly matters."

"You've been through so much because of me. You're facing the death sentence too. And it's my fault."

"Shh... Don't talk like that. Neither of us are going to be killed. Not by MACUSA, and certainly not by Grindelwald." He turned to open the bottom drawer in Credence's bedside table and rummaged through its contents before taking something out.

"But that's-" Credence began, startled.

"It's the necklace that Grindelwald gave you, I know. But," he said securing it around Credence's neck. "I can charm it so that it summons the real me when you touch it." He placed a hand over the symbol and it glowed for a few seconds. "There. Did I actually ever explain to you what that symbol is?"

"No?"

"It's the symbol of the Deathly Hallows."

Credence sighed. "That makes sense, seeing as it's coming from a man obsessed by them."

"Yes, I guess so. But look," Graves said, tracing his finger over the lines formed by the metal. "The triangle represents the cloak of invisibility, the circle is the resurrection stone and the line going through the middle is the elder wand."

"He already has that, doesn't he?"

"Yes, we were unable to retrieve it when he was captured last time; he had hidden it too well."

- - - - -

"So, Mr Graves, can you report anything regarding Mr Barebone?" Picquery asked Graves when he arrived at the Woolworths building.

"He has been made aware of the standards put in place, and is happy to comply." He paused for a second, registering the way that she was glaring at him. "That is, of course, in a similar way to how I, too, am happy to comply with the standards put in place."

"Well have you just left him by himself?"

"No Madam President. He is currently being watched by Mr Scamander."

"Good. I have high standards for you Graves." She walked off with her head held high.

"Well of course you do." Graves hissed under his breath, glaring at the back of her head as it purposefully moved further away from him. "After all, the consequences of failing to meet those high standards are the loss of both my life and my boyfriend's life."

Tina nudged him with her shoulder. "Come on. The sooner we get to looking for Grindelwald, the sooner we can find him."

- - - - -

I do realise that I've been posting these really close to each other, and I apologise for that because I'm pretty sure it's annoying.

But I'm proud of my work and can't help but publish it when I've written some more and because I'm ill I have more time to write.

Anyway please comment and give me feedback for this story. I know it's kinda different from the other so I don't know whether it's any good or not.