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Published:
2022-09-03
Completed:
2022-11-02
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51,075
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24/24
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Uncle Percy

Chapter 2: The Two Sisters

Summary:

A time skip to the Percival Graves meeting the sisters as adults. Percival looking at the two sisters and probably remembering them as a pair of mischievous little girls.

Notes:

Not sure how much the No-Maj society attitudes and prejudices would leach over into wizardkind in the States. Seraphina Picquery is a coloured witch holding the top post in MACUSA. Did the States have their own version of the Sacred 28?

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Porpertina Esther Goldstein.

The name leapt out at him. Swearing under his breath, Percival Graves flipped through the Auror test scores. Impeccable. Top of her cohort of recruits. The candidate’s file was also in order – a set of glowing referral letters from Ilvermorny’s headmaster, Defense Against the Dark Arts tutor, and the head of the Thunderbird House. Near to top of her class for her year in DADA. Her academic results were flawless. No major disciplinary issues on record. There was no reason why Sam Goldstein’s daughter should not follow in her father’s footsteps as an Auror.

“Problem, Percival?” Franklin Matthews asked. He was the Director of Magical Law Enforcement, a solidly built, grizzled wizard who was already planning retirement within the next few years.

“No, I was just surprised to see Samuel Goldstein’s girl in this year’s recruits …”

“Ah, you were not involved in the Ilvermorny recruitment drive in 1917 because of the War,” Franklin gave a low whistle. “Made quite an impression. Sharp as a tack and tough as nails, so I hear from the instructors. I doubt this one will be pouring any coffee for your boys. A word of advice – treat her like any of your guys.”

“But she’s Sam’s daughter.”

“So? Problem here is that we wizards here have picked up some flawed ideas from the No-Majs about females, but times have changed. While the soldiers were off fighting in the trenches, the women back home were tilling the fields and manning the factories, among other things, and a damn good show they did. If you ask Miss Goldstein to pour your morning coffee, you might not like where it ends up. Trust her, Percival. This one can definitely hold her own.”  

Old Franklin Matthews was right.

Tina Goldstein was a talented duellist. She could hold her own against three rogue wizards and cover a wounded comrade until rescue came. She would not give up. He had witnessed her taking a beating during the course of her work, getting hit with a Crucio once even, and then pick herself up once the curse wore off to continue fighting. She had fought off an attempt at Imperius once, cast by rogue witch. She proved her smarts following unexpected leads during investigations that often yielded results – like that smuggling of runespoors disguised as a shipment of ladies’ leather goods. Or that time she spotted a trap and called out a warning before the team ran headlong into an ambush.

Tina could also hold her own among the guys. Old Matthews was right about some aspects of wizarding society in the States. Even with the indomitable Madame Picquery looking set to be in the running for President in the next election, any female Auror in MACUSA was often subject to locker-room humour and needed to constantly prove herself to her colleagues to be treated as an equal. There were few witches who made Auror and lasted long. Maggie Proudfoot lasted three years in the field before she got married. There was the scandal back in 1910 of the young Auror and her older, married partner being caught in the act in one of the interview rooms. More simply transferred out to another department, like Executions or Wand Permits.

Tina was not pretty in the traditional sense, but she was not exempt from male attention. Things reached a head at the MACUSA Yule party. A wizarding duel broke out in fifth floor corridor. Tina’s then-partner could not accept no for an answer when the younger witch rebuffed his advances repeatedly. Tina was scrappy as they came. Former Auror Donald Leech ended up in St Kitts' with a concussion. They could have blamed the drinks, but an enquiry had to be called in. The wizard who instigated the duel was demoted and transferred to a backwater, apparently Tina was not the first witch to lodge a complaint against him for harassment. Tina was assigned a new partner, a reliable Auror who was happily married and would never dream of cheating on his little wife.

It was a year after Tina Goldstein joined MACUSA that another Miss Goldstein entered the MACUSA fold.

That same day, no less than seven male employees were admitted to St Kitts' for various injuries caused by walking into streetlamps, walls, and doors or tumbling down a flight of stairs because they were distracted by the gorgeous Queenie Goldstein. If her mother had been considered beautiful, the daughter took it to the level of a silver screen goddess with her spun-gold curls, pouty lips, and bombshell curves. And those emerald-green eyes framed by long lashes… that seem to look deep into a man’s soul. Given her born legilimency, there was little doubt for Graves that she was.

She was working in Wand Permits, under Abernathy, who had a reputation for liking the ladies a bit too much. That got Percival a little concerned. Even he was not immune to Queenie’s beauty. He had to keep reminding himself that she was the same cheeky little girl who had climbed onto his lap at her Papa’s dinner party and made off with his ice-cream when she was around. He certainly did not want Queenie to know that he was imagining her posing in one of those naughty French postcards so common among soldiers returning from Europe after the War. Captain Theseus Scamander sent him a pair as a joke. Magical ones with the cancan dancers flipping their skirts and a curvaceous blond lady taking her bath.  

“Oh, we can take care of ourselves, Mister Graves,” Queenie reassured him when he tried as nonchalantly as possible when she came with the coffee cart to ask how she was doing in her new job.

He wondered if either sister recalled him as Uncle Percy or if they had an unspoken agreement to be professional about Head Auror Graves. If Abernathy puts one foot out of line with Queenie, he swore he would have the little weasel gelded. The Director be damned. Perhaps Old Franklin might even look the other way.

The sisters graduated from Ilvermorny, Tina from Thunderbird house and Queenie from Pukwudgie. Most of Sam Goldstein’s folks never accepted his marriage with Elsa. His mother had given the union her blessings but passed before the girls were born. No one from the Goldstein clan kept in touch with the sisters once they were residents of Mercy Brown’s. Elsa’s parents were both No-Maj born and died long before the Dragon Pox epidemic in a potions accident. There was a squib brother, but as with many squibs in the States, he chose to live as a No-Maj and had not been in touch with his sister since their parents’ funeral. Moreover, the law made it impossible for magical children to be given to the guardianship of a squib.

The Graves’ family fortunes had changed over the years. His sister Ethel was thriving in Britain, producing a succession of nephews and nieces whom he had never met. His parents’ marriage had always been rocky. An amiable separation had been reached. His mother flitted off to Italy to live with a gentleman friend while his father continued living up in their Connecticut manor, growing increasingly bitter and isolated. Percival tried to visit but the visits tend to end in fights and with him storming back to the city.

Harold Graves never let up on his only son and heir never getting married to any of the young society witches his parents sent his way – witches whose only redeeming quality was their family reputations and good looks. Often Percival would feign an urgent call from MACUSA to have a tedious dinner date with some featherbrained witch cut short. He used to have Eddie the elf on standby for that. He preferred women whose conversation topics extended beyond weather, gossip and fashion. He dated Seraphina for a bit when both were fresh out of Ilvermorny. It never went further than a few stolen kisses and cuddles in the theatre when the lights went down. His folks did not approve of her. They grew apart when she went into politics. They were still friends though.

The sisters were close. Queenie would often meet up with Tina for lunch or coax her out to the bar for a drink or two after work. They lived in a modest rented apartment, a women-only establishment for single working women. Coincidentally, it was only about two blocks west of Percival’s own rented bachelor apartment.

He watched the pair from an arm’s length. He had to be fair about them. If Tina were to be promoted up the ranks in Auror, she would have to earn it the same way as her male colleagues, with blood and sweat. Queenie was not in his department, but he still refrained from being overly friendly with her. Franklin Matthews retired in time. No one was surprised when Head Auror Graves was promoted to Director of Magical Law Enforcement.

In 1926, Tina Goldstein got into trouble, big trouble. As Director, he had to act in a manner that was impartial and just. A demotion to Wand Permits was the furthest in leniency he could go, and he hated it. Tina was one of the best Aurors out there and being an Auror was everything to her. And he had to take that from her.

Tina stood before the disciplinary committee in her blue-grey dress, matching cloche hat and that locket about her neck – her late mother’s. Percival recalled Elsa Goldstein wearing it at the dinners. Stubborn to a fault. It did not matter to the committee if some No-Maj mother had been beating her child bloody. All that mattered was Tina wilfully using magic in front of No-Majs.

“Sorry, Director Graves, I did what I had to.”  

A promising career clipped short. She would not seek help from Uncle Percy. Queenie tried. She cornered him in the office, begging him not to destroy her sister’s dreams. There was nothing he could do. It could have been worse. Tina could have had her wand taken from her and be expelled from MACUSA entirely.

The same night the committee reached their decision on Tina Goldstein’s future, he ran into Gellert Grindelwald. What followed seemed an endless nightmare that he did not expect to survive. But survive he did.

Notes:

I may skip over the details of Graves’ captivity at Grindelwald’s hands or revisit them later as part of his rehab. They will not be pretty. I would expect a red-blooded heterosexual male like Graves to be affected by Queenie’s stunning beauty to some extent, then he reminds himself that she is like a niece to him.