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memories-are-mine · 5 years

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A Thousand Promises

I was just gonna post this on AO3 so if you wanna read it there go for it, but I've decided to post it here too, just out of habit.

TWs: Implied child abuse, attempted kidnapping (because this is me here)

Minor spoilers for crimes of Grindelwald but who am I kidding you’ve probably seen it already,,, and tbh its barely spoilers.

Summary: Corvus Lestrange catches Theseus and Leta together, and things gradually get worse, but, it ends with a happily ever after.

Alternate Title: Theseus is a self-sacrificing idiot and Leta isn’t taking any of her dad’s shit, then a bunch of cute promises are made.

Anyway, enjoy my kittens!! <3

Leta had just finished topping off the champagne into two glasses sitting on the coffee table at the apartment she had moved into just a few days prior. Theseus had helped her find it, helped her move in, even offered to help with rent if she needed it until he could secure her a higher ranking job at the Ministry, instead of the glorified secretary position she had now. The moment she had confided to him how scared she was of her father, and what he would do if he found out about Theseus and Leta seeing each other, Theseus, ever the storybook hero, immediately began seeking other arrangements for her. Now that she was away from her father and her family home, Leta had felt a thousand pounds of fear lift from her shoulders, and she felt so light that it was almost like walking on air

It was only a few months into their courtship, and in all of Leta’s years, she never imagined she’d be in a relationship with Theseus Scamander, but when the doorbell rang, Leta’s heart did a little happy dance in her chest. As it always did when Theseus was around. He was later than he had said he would be, as he often was, but Leta knew firsthand that his job wasn’t an easy one.

She tried to retain her composure as she set down the half-full bottle of champagne on the table between the two glasses but ended up practically skipping to the door like some lovestruck schoolgirl ready for a date, part of her felt ridiculous, but she couldn’t help it. It had been a long time since she had allowed herself to be close with anyone, to care about anyone even just a little bit, that she was almost drowning in the feeling of it.

The door swung open at Leta’s touch, and Theseus came strolling into the room, still in his work clothes, but with his suit jacket folded over his arm and his tie loosened. Leta couldn’t help noticing how tired he looked, the bags under his eyes, the slight hunch of his shoulders like someone had tied a hundred pounds to his back. He was still a knockout despite that, and Leta almost lamented how unfair it was, how he could look so good while obviously being so exhausted, while when Leta didn’t get enough sleep, she looked like she was emerging from a tornado.

When he smiled at her, Leta’s heart soared, though she tried not to show it. But with the soar, there was that leftover apprehension, the leftover fear that had kept Leta Lestrange from being with Newt. The fear that had kept her from being with Theseus for quite some time, however desperately she had wanted to pin him against a corridor wall and kiss him senseless (A hobby she now very much enjoyed). That fear that washed over Leta every time she had broken her family’s strict rules in secret, and she wondered if her father would find out, and she would have to taste his violent wrath.

Leta rose to her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek hello as she took the coat off his arm. “You’re late, again,” she teased with a smile. “Is seeing me really so dreadful?”

“Leta, I’m so sorry,” Theseus said, and he sounded truly guilty. “I was about to leave to actually get ready and be on time for once, then Travers pulled me into this bloody meeting about magical tax evasion…”

Leta let out a little laugh. “Theseus, I’m only teasing you.” She dumped his coat on the chair as she turned from him. “Though I’m sure Travers droning on about taxes was quite riveting. Must’ve been awfully hard to tear yourself away.”

“Truly, it was the most exciting hour and a half of my life,” Theseus said sardonically as he let out a small laugh, pulling his tie off his neck and tossing it on top of his coat, on the back of one of the three dining room chairs, leaving him only in a white button-down and navy slacks. “I really am sorry I’m late.”

Leta shushed him as she turned back to face him. “None of that. I know how important your work is. I don’t mind waiting half an hour if it means your helping to keep people safe, however much I enjoy your company.”

“The problem is, I wasn’t keeping anybody safe unless what seems to be Travers’ greatest fear comes true and turning into an angry badger to avoid paying taxes suddenly becomes the new trend. He talked on for quite a while about that.”

“Has that ever happened before?” Leta laughed.

“Apparently, once, about twenty years ago.” Theseus let out a mirthless laugh as he sank down on Leta’s new sofa, suddenly sounding frustrated. “We have Grindelwald on the loose, and he’s gaining followers every day, and instead of trying to apprehend him, Travers just wants to just pretend he doesn’t exist. Sometimes I’m tempted to just go after Grindelwald myself, no matter how risky.”

Of course, Leta would never betray the Ministry, but punching Torquil Travers in the face became more and more tempting by the minute. But the declaration about Grindelwald, a statement Theseus made sometimes, shook her no less than it had the dozen other instances in which he’d confided it to her.

“Travers can be so stupid,” she muttered, shaking her head as she sat beside Theseus, who already was halfway through his glass of champagne.“But you can’t go hunting for Grindelwald yourself, Theseus, if he were to get his hands on you…”

“I know, Leta,” Theseus replied, looking thoughtful. “Enough about me.” He looked around the small apartment, slowly taking in a breath. “I haven’t gotten to talk to you as much as I would’ve liked to these past few days. How are you? Your father hasn’t bothered you has he? Is he angry you’ve left?”

“He doesn’t know, actually,” Leta said, involuntarily tensing at the mention of Corvus LeStrange. “He’s been traveling for the past two weeks, coming back tonight, though I suspect that my father’s servants have informed him already. I don’t think he’ll have anything to say about it.” She hoped not, anyway.

Theseus must have seen the look in her eyes, and leaned toward her on the couch, holding her hand in his. “However he may feel about your leaving, I can promise you that he won’t be taking it out on you. I swear to you I’m going to make sure that he never harms you again.”

Leta wondered what she’d done to deserve Theseus. A man so heroic, so ready to save the world, and so willing to protect Leta. She wasn’t used to having people look out for her. It felt good to be looked out for. She wished she could repay his kindness.

She figured a passionate kiss on the lips was a good place to start.

Theseus returned it eagerly, his hands finding their way to her waist as Leta ran her tongue over his lips, taking pleasure in the gasp that involuntarily formed in the back of his throat. Experimentally, she pressed on his shoulders and he leaned back obediently, his head landing on the decorative pillows of Leta’s sofa.

When Leta broke the kiss, she was practically on top of him, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt as they gazed at one another, Leta was so caught up in the ecstasy of romance that she almost didn’t hear the soft thump that came outside the door. But Theseus heard it too, which meant she wasn’t going crazy.

“What was that?” Leta climbed off of Theseus immediately as he grabbed his wand, which sat on the coffee table next to the champagne. He rose to his feet as the door swung open.

Theseus and Leta looked at each other fearfully, as together they edged toward the door. Theseus’s wand still pointed at the opening. There didn’t appear to be anything or anyone in the doorway, but Leta knew that the door hadn’t opened just because of the wind.

Theseus turned his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow. “What do you think - “

“EXPELLIARMUS!”

Theseus’s wand immediately flew across the room, unattainable as Corvus LeStrange barrelled into Leta’s apartment, the tip of his wand leveled right at them.

Immediately all the thousand pounds of terror came rushing back, making Leta so dizzy that she sank back down on the couch. Theseus went with her, pressing her into his arms.

“LETA LAURENA LESTRANGE!” Her father bellowed, and Leta flinched violently, all thoughts of self-defense suddenly gone. She was unable to think, move for her wand, unable to even scream. “How dare you disobey the rules of my house and my family?” He started toward them and Theseus stood, glaring, ignoring Leta’s grip on his arm. “First, you leave my house without my permission after refusing to join our family in Grindelwald’s cause. Then… then I find you here… consorting with….with him?” He gestured wildly at Theseus as if he were some kind of disgusting snake. “Theseus Scamander. The enemy, no less! You are a disgrace, Leta, you -”

Theseus started to go for his wand, but Corvus pointed it at Leta. “Try it, Mr. Scamander, and you won’t like the consequences.” Theseus stopped, cut him off, standing protectively in front of her. “You will not speak to her like that, leave her alone!” he snarled. Leta had seen him angry before, but this was different. There was a desperation behind it, like he was ready to try anything to keep her safe.

“Mr. Scamander,” Corvus LeStrange stopped shouting at Leta, moved his wand away from her, which he never would have done under any other circumstance, but this time there was someone else to point it at. Leta choked back a scream as Corvus leveled his wand at Theseus’s heart. “When I first saw you with my daughter I wanted to kill you there and then.” He took a step towards Theseus. “But now that I’ve collected myself a bit, and I recognize you now, I’ve realized that this is a bit of a blessing in disguise. But make no mistake, child.” He whipped back to Leta, careful to keep his wand at Theseus’s heart. “After I deliver your beloved Mr. Scamander you and I will talk.”

“What do you mean?” Leta burst out. “What do you want with him?”

“Shut up!” Corvus shouted at her, and Leta sank back into her silence, her childhood instinct to obey her father and avoid punishment washing over her. “You should be happy, Leta. I recognized him from the photograph I saw at Nurmengard. If I bring Theseus Scamander, the war hero, the Auror, to Grindelwald, he will reward us bounteously. The LeStrange family name will live on forever in legend, among the greatest heroes.”

“You’re not taking him!” Leta gasped. “I - I won’t let you!”

“Hush, Leta, it’s alright,” Theseus said gently, turning away from Corvus for a moment. His gaze lingered on her for a heartbeat, then two. Then, lifting his head and straightening his back, he turned back to her father. Taking another few steps closer, he took a breath and said, “I’ll go without a fight, but you have to swear on your life that you’ll leave her be, or I swear to Merlin that I will -”

“Theseus!” Leta shrieked as her father grabbed his arm roughly, still pointing his wand at his throat.

“SILENCE!!” Corvus Lestrange yelled so loudly that that it shook the walls of the house. “I promised to leave you be, Leta, but do not test my patience.”

“Leta, it’ll be okay,” Theseus promised, though he didn’t sound so sure. “I promise.”

Leta didn’t know at what point during these past four months that she’d fallen in love with him, but through the mix of terror and childhood instinct that was swallowing Leta up, a clear thought burned through her mind. Father is not taking Theseus anywhere.

Leta knew that her father should have left by now, but he was making a show of his control of the whole situation. He made sure she was watching before he muttered a spell, conjuring silvery chains that latched themselves around Theseus’s wrists. Theseus hated being restrained, and he visibly stiffened as the chains bound his hands. That just made her angrier.

While he was distracted, Leta slid a hand behind the bottle of champagne that concealed her own wand, and hid it in her sleeve before she stood to face her father.

“If you’re going to take him.” It wasn’t hard for Leta to sound broken, defeated. Just the way her father wanted it. “At least let me say goodbye.” She lowered her head, trying to look like the obedient daughter that her father had expected of her. Obedience and submission were rewarded. Defiance was punished severely.

She kept her eyes down as her father considered her request. She felt Theseus’s eyes on her. She prayed to every entity she could think of that Corvus wouldn’t see through her facade.

“Very well,” her father decided. “Say your goodbyes, then.”

Impulsively, Leta moved close to Theseus, making sure that he was between her and her father, though every instinct in her body screamed to shove him behind her and throttle her father with her bare hands. She had to conceal her movements, though.

“Leta,” Theseus began, reaching with his shackled hands to touch her face. “I wish-” he paused, seeing her pull her wand. “Leta?”

With her free hand, Leta pulled him down for a kiss, all the while desperately running through her mental list of spells that might be useful in this situation. The first ones that came to her mind were incredibly violent and very much illegal. And however tempting they were, Leta would not use them. She wouldn’t stoop to her father’s level.

Her hand thought for her, and before she knew what she was doing, she raised her wand, she pointed it at her father, shoved Theseus out of harm’s way, and screamed with all the force she could muster:

“FLIPENDO!”

Corvus Lestrange wasn’t expecting it, so he didn’t have time to counter her spell, and Leta couldn’t help but feel a rush of satisfaction as he flew backward across the room, landing hard on the floor. His wand skittered out of his hand, and Leta summoned it into her grip. Using both hands, she grabbed his wand on either end and snapped it in half over her knee, and tossed the pieces on the ground at her feet.

Unfortunately, he recovered quickly, and got to his feet, scowling at them, his eyes holding such fury that it was hard for Leta not to shut down again. But this time, a look to Theseus was all that was required to clear her head.

“Get out,” she snarled. “Never come back or next time I will throw you in Azkaban myself.”

Still glaring at her, her father snatched the pieces of the wand from the floor and started to march out of the room.

“Oh, something else,” Leta said. “If you ever put another finger on Theseus, I swear to Merlin that you won’t like the consequences.”

With that, Leta’s father left, and Leta turned to Theseus and tapped his chains with her wand, muttering the spell that would free him. The restraints vanished immediately and Theseus wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close.

Leta didn’t trust herself not to start sobbing with relief.

“Are you alright?” He asked her, burying his face in her long brown curls.

“Am I alright?” Leta pulled away from him, looking him in the eye. “Of course I’m not alright! What were you thinking? Do you know what Grindelwald would have done to you if my father had brought you to him?” Even she was surprised by her anger, but Theseus didn’t seem hurt by it. “Don’t you understand?” She said, her voice breaking. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t afford to lose you, Theseus.”

Then, Leta really did start crying. Crying was not something that she did often, and never around anyone but Theseus, but she had seen how Grindelwald tortured his prisoners. Her father had shown her, once, when he had taken them to Nurmengard, acting like it was some grand family vacation. The thought of Theseus in the same pain that those poor people had been through was too much to bear. And the torture that Grindelwald would inflict on Theseus would likely be worse since he was so high-ranking in the Ministry.

“Shh,” Theseus pulled her back into his warm embrace, and Leta could have melted into him. “I’m alright, Leta. We’re alright.”

“What were you thinking?” She sobbed again, her voice muffled slightly by his shirt.

“I promised I would protect you from your father,” Theseus replied, stroking her hair. “And I did what I had to in order to keep my promise.”

“Never do that again,” Leta scolded. “Because I would rather die myself than let you sacrifice yourself for me.”

Before Theseus could come up with some heroic response that would likely make Leta keel over on the spot, she pressed her lips to his, guiding him back so he was sitting on the sofa once again. He pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her, and they kissed until she almost felt okay again.

“So,” she said when they finally broke apart. “Are all Scamanders self-sacrificing, heroic bloody idiots or is it just you and Newt?”

Theseus smiled. “I suppose that’s up for debate.” Then he studied her, and his smile faded a little. “Leta, I -”

“Hush,” Leta placed a finger to his lips. “You’re not going to say anything about sacrificing yourself for me, or protecting me because you care about me. Or any of that noble heroic garbage that I know you want to say. Because I’m making a promise to you, right here, right now. Nobody in Grindelwald’s Army is putting a finger on you if I have anything to say about it, least of all my father, and if I have to give my life to make that happen, I will. Because I love you, Theseus. I really, really do.”

Leta hadn’t meant to make that last declaration, but her head was spinning so fast, and she’d wanted to say those words for so long, that they had just slipped out. Besides, Theseus had spent so much of his life protecting other people, Leta figured it was his turn to be the one protected for once.

Theseus looked taken aback, and for a moment looked like he didn’t know what to say. “I love you too, Leta,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers. “And that’s why I did what I did just then, and why I’d do it again in a minute if it meant protecting you from your father.”

Leta didn’t know what to say to that. She wasn’t used to having this. Having someone like him. “Stay?” Was what she blurted out. Nice one, Lestrange.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“So many promises tonight.”

“I’m going to keep every one of them.” Theseus laid down on the couch, his head on the pillows, just the way they had been earlier. Leta, strangely, had no strong impulse to kiss him just then. She just wanted to hold him, bask in the glory of them just being together. And safe.

So she just pulled him into her arms and laid his head on his chest and not long after, she heard his deep, steady breathing, telling her he had fallen asleep. She followed him not long after, and for a little while, all the evil in the world was lost to dreams.

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