Tides of Turmoil (NEWTINA)

Chapter 23 - The Monster

'We meet again, Mister Scamander,' said the mellow voice of this man. Grindelwald...

I barely heard him, his voice more as a blurry and distant whisper. Instead of focusing on his words or who he was, my focus was put in his arms: his left one encircled Tina's waist while the other was tightly and possessively wrapped around her and rested on her right shoulder, her face buried in his chest as he embraced her. 

I had heard of people experiencing rage in its raw, pure form, expecting it to arrive like a burning force inside of me, eating its way from my skin's flesh to the depths of my heart. At that moment, however, I felt as if I was suddenly drowning, the air around me extinguished at lighting speed, cold against my skin. A sudden creature had awakened inside of me, crawling, swinging, and gripping its way around every limb and nerve in my body, its touch separately yet intensely glacial. Whatever feeling was making room inside of me, I couldn't say it was anger. It was something beyond imagining. Something that at that moment seemed so foreign yet familiar in a frightening way. Something that made me wish that Tina was more to the right so I could hit this man and turn his face inside out.

Without even knowing, without even questioning it, I had my wand in my hand, and I pointed it at his face. The inner creature in my guts hissed menacingly as he smirked, its claws digging deeper into my bone and soul as he held Tina closer to his body. I glanced at her quickly, and my jaw cracked as my eyes rested on her. She had this vacant expression on her face, her eyes unfocused, her lips unparted. It was like seeing the face of life's experiences on human features; so many things hidden behind an impenetrable veil. As the image of her face sunk in, the same thought repeated itself in a loop inside my mind: What did he do to her?  

'Well, well... now, this is a sight. But, where are your manners?' he said sinuously, 'what would Dumbledore say?'

'Let her go,' I said in a low voice, a ring in my ears preventing me from hearing beyond it. Even in that confident face, I could satisfactorily see that my tone had made his eyes quiver. 

He took his eyes off me to look at Tina, who looked up to him with absent eyes. He gazed at me for a long time, his eyes never leaving mine before I looked away to his shoulder instead. I saw his lip curl up in a sneer. Taking his arms slowly from her shoulder, he took a loose strand of her hair that lingered on her cheek and brushed it back, his thumb caressing her skin. 

In that instant, I felt a sudden discharge of pure anger, come and gone like a poisonous bite, I felt my stomach turn on its own, a flow of icy nausea tingling inside me. My grip on my wand got tighter, knuckles purple, and held my arm straighter, some red sparks escaping the tip of my wand. 

'I would put that down,' he said in a serious yet supercilious tone, 'you wouldn't want to hurt your beloved friend here. Oh yes, you wouldn't want another painful memory in that little head of yours.'

'I said,' my wand was still as the sky, 'let her go.'

'I need you to do something for me first - well, for us,' he said as he lowered his face and touched Tina's cheek with his. By then, my inner creature had returned with a more vital force and more welcome than ever. Grindelwald continued though, undisturbed. 'You need you to go back to Flamel's home - yes, I know you've been there. As I said, I need you to bring me something from there. It's in a small black velvet box in one of his bookshelves. That old man thought he could fool me, make me think that the box was far from reach. So, how fortunate for us to have met - it's like fate was telling us that we belong together.'

'Never.'

He laughed humourlessly. 'I would be not too hasty to make a decision. Your time to choose is near, but it's not now.'