The Darkness Within

•Chapter 24 - Obscurial•

Newt opened the case and climbed off, pulling Lily up with him. As soon as people saw her face, there were whispers and mumbling all around.

Lily looked around. They were in the conference room of MACUSA, where the intentional buisness took place. And apparently, they had been brought in by Tina.

Tina looked extremely sorry to have put them into this situation, but Lily's face didnt wjos any forgiveness. How could she sell Newt out like that? Newt had his brows furrowed. He also didnt understand why Tina was betraying them in such way.

And then Jacob came out. Lily was thankful he was able to get through the case's opening without getting stuck. As soon as Jacob's face appeared, the mumbling got louder. It was like they knew he was a muggle.

Newt quickly crouched down and locked his case. He couldn't afford any more incidents, and even less in a room full of ministers.

"Scamander?" A voice said. Both Newt and Lily recognized the voice. It was a British minister for the magical government.

"Oh," Newt said when he finally recognized the face of the man. "Hello, minister."

"Theseus Scamander?" Said a voice from the crowd. "The war hero?"

"No," realised another man. "This is his little brother."

"Is that Lilian Baker?"

"The head of care for Magical Creatures?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I was called here, sir," she answered nervously. It was the truth.

"And what are you doing here, Scamander?" Asked a British man. Lily didn't know who that was.

"I came to buy an appaloosa puffskein, sir," Newt said. Lily mentally and interiourly frowned. When did he get so good at lying?

"Right," the man doubted. Not so good after all. "What are you really doing here?" Newt was silent.

"Goldstien," the President spoke up. "Who is this," she gestured Jacob.

"Uh, this is Jacob Kowalski, Madam President," Tina said. "He's a no-maj who got bitten by one of Mr. Scamander's creatures," she exposed, her voice quivering and shaking.

And with that, the whispering began again.

"No maj?"

"Obliviate him."

"Obliviate him!"

It was only then that Newt noticed the image that was being shown above their heads. It was a dead man. More specifically, it was Mr. Shaw, one of the men running for Senator of New York, and both Newt and Lily knew exactly what had killed him.

Lily's body went cold. It was the first casualty. The Obscurial had never killed anyone before. Not until now.

"Merlin's beard," Newt exclaimed softly. He had seen an Obscurial killing before, but it was nothing like this. This Obscurus was so much stronger and more powerful than the one he had encountered before, meaning the Obscurial was older.

And just like that, it was getting harder and harder to believe that Lily wasn't behind all this.