The unintentional Crimes of Grindelwald

Chapter 3 - the brother I never had

There will be a fiew jumps between all the chapters. Hope that it isn't too confusing and you still now out of which Point of view it is written. (For example some parts are written out of Leta Lestranges Point of view, some out of Newt, Grindelwald, Dumbledore etc.) Everything will now take part after Fantastic Beasts 1, except the Flashbacks (mostly Grindledore).

Hope you like it,

xoxo Leviosa

Chapter 3

"Leta! How could you? After all we have done for you? We gave you everything Leta and what do you do for us? Befriend bloodtraitors, almost getting expelled because of a beast and now this: How could you dare wanting to marry that...", her father was terribly angry at her. But she didn't care anymore. It wasn't her business. She had chosen to marry Theseus Scamander, and she didn't need the advice of her so-great father. "What do you know? You let your own wife die and gave your son to adoption after she had died, because you did not want your family to know that your new wife had born a (or so it seemed) squib. You don't have any right to tell me anything about marriage. Go ahead, burn me out of the family tree so your name does not get dirty, like you always do", and she ran away. But before she slammed the door, she shouted something in her fathers direction. "He is a war hero and an auror! And just because you don't have the same opinion about Grindelwald doesn't that mean that he is a bad human" And she was gone, gone as if she had never been there. As if she had not dreamed about leaving this place, since she had been a little girl.

Why did she marry Theseus? Because she loved him? Only one of the long list of reasons. She did it because of her egoistic family, she assumed that they would finally be satisfied. But they weren't. Her father was about to join Grindelwalds army, when she arrived back home. The old wizarding families seemed to share his opinion. But Leta didn't think that anyone had the right to rule over muggles. One of the many things she had learned from Newt.

Her brother died.  And it was all because of her family. Blood fanatics. Leta never had a brother, not really. First, her parents separated and her father married another woman. And then she died, and left a baby. The baby was, after generations and generations of Lestranges, named after his father. Corvus Lestrange the fifth. Leta didn't like the name, but she loved her brother. She was singing him to sleep, when her father came home late. She was reading fairytales to him. Leta was the only kind of mother he had. She was there for him, because no one else was. One day, her father told her that he would give Corvus into adoption, because they could no longer care for him, and he needed a mother. 

Leta would have accepted the explanation, although she tried to save him from adoption, if she hadn't heard her father talking to Vinda Rosier about the magical status of his son. The words had burned themselves into her head. 

"He doesn't show any magic, Vinda. There is no way I can keep him. Our family history would be ruined. It took too long to save our reputation, and I am not going to sacrifice it for my squib son. Leta has already made too many mistakes, I can't allow anything more harm to the Lestrange family" at that time, she had thought about running away. She wanted to flee to her mothers home in Paris, where she lived with her brother, Letas uncle, far away from the pure blood fanatics. The obsession with blood was the reason why they had separated. Leta visited them every vacation, but her father would not allow her to live at her mothers place. Mostly because a runaway in the family would destroy their reputation.

Leta had to read the Daily Prophet to find out. "Obscurial killed by American government, Grindelwald arrested, Newt Scamander saves the day"

 Why did almost everything in her life had to have something to do with Newt Scamander? The press talked about the abused adopted child, who was thought to be a squib and was forced to suppress his magic in fear of punishment. There were pictures of the boy, who they called Credence Barebone. Credence who had wished nothing more than having magical abilities, who begged Grindelwald for magic, for control. The pictures all didn't move, pictures the muggles made. She didn't realize it was him at first. Muggles looked all the same, her father would say. But the person on the pictures looked like an average muggle, too normal, as if he was hiding something. Dark brown hair, black clothes, looking constantly to his toes. The last picture was made with him and a girl with blonde hair, probably his adopted sister. The girl laughed, while Credence just looked into the camera, as if he had done something forbidden. An article below the picture said that they had found the camera, which a muggle had lost a month before the events happened. Slowly she realized something: he had the same eyes as his father. The surrounding air turned cold. Her brother had been killed by the American government, for being an obscurial. Her own brother, the brother she had lost once before. If her heart wasn't already broken, it would have been broken by now.

"So, what do you see?", Albus asked him. They were sitting in Albus room, surrounded by books, far away from the rest of the universe or so it seemed. Grindelwald closed his eyes and tried to reach out. The past, the future, the world was open to him. He could already feel the cold, massive walls around him, he could read the letter that were carved into the grey stone. He didn't even have to, to realize what the meaning of these words was. History was cruel. Was this irony or was it just one of these wrong messages, these dreams his mind made up and mistake it for the future. But if this was a dream, why did it feel so real? He knew, lots of seers went mad, because they could not accept their own death. The pictures inside his head, the world around him, changed. Like a waterfall made of pictures, it all passed him. So many people, so many timelines. He could only hear a sentence until a new scene appeared. 

"Ariana!" "Expulsion will be your punishment" "It is all your fault! Leave, leave I don't want to see you again!" „I'll die for you. I'll live for you. It's your decision" "I hate you more than I hate myself" "Always" "I choose you over everyone, my lord" "Don't leave me, don't..." "She can't be dead"

And suddenly it all stopped. It stopped, because he saw Albus. An older version of Albus, Albus who was falling down a tower. That couldn't be possible. Albus couldn't just... die.

As he opened his eyes, he saw Albus standing around him, next to him mountains out of books. Grindelwald slowly realized that it was over. The fear should stop. It wasn't real, he whispered again and again. Maybe it was not real vision, maybe it was a fake one. That was the problem with being not a true seer, he had the talent but not the fate. Grindelwald thought about what he had seen. What had been real and what was another version of the future? But the fear took the control. He could only hear his heart beating faster and faster. He had seen too much. Albus took his hands and looked him in the eyes. 

"Calm down. Everything is okay. Just breathe" After a second he removed his hands, as if he now realized what he was doing. Grindelwald remembered: it was the same way that Aberforth calmed down their sister, Ariana. He followed Albus advice. And slowly, the fear faded. 

"I saw the elder wand and I saw myself... it was a bit too much, I would say" Albus knew that he was keeping a secret. "You are the greatest wizard of all time, Gellert. Not even your visions can change that. But you now know where the elder wand is. I would call that victory"