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[credere]

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[poetontheinside]

"Why'd you destroy it?" His eyes linger on it, now-- the title, the rough leather. He bets there's a story there that isn't just I fixed this.

[credere]

"I found a photograph inside. Of him. My brother."

He frowns.

"I'd never seen him before."

[poetontheinside]

He straightens up at that, slowly.

"You fix that, too?" He doesn't exactly need to ask what seeing him had made him feel like, considering the, well, destruction.

[credere]

"Yes. Do you want to see?"

He's looked at it again, since, without having the same reaction.

[poetontheinside]

He nods, stepping forward after holstering the gun again. No sense having it just lying around like this.

"Yeah, lemme see."

[credere]

Credence opens the book - carefully, it still feels a little more fragile than it had before - and turns to the right page.

Albus is a little wary, now, standing in the back of the photo's frame, peering out at Credence and Ray.

"It was taken not long ago, so - I guess this is how he would have looked if I'd ever met him."

[poetontheinside]

He stands next to Credence, their shoulders almost pressed together in the small booth as they bend over the book. He stiffens in surprise when Albus looks up at them, tilting his head a little, eyes flickin between the two of them.

That's new. He's going to chalk it up to magic, considering how old the book feels, but it's still weird to see. "Moving pictures," he mutters, to himself, as he looks at him.

"He looks-- regular. Don't he?" Handsome, sure, but normal. He doesn't know what he expected.

[credere]

"Yes. He does."

Just a man. Credence doesn't really know what he expected. Ultimately, though, if this was all there was? He wouldn't have bothered.

"...He wasn't the only person in the book."

He turns a few more pages to show Ray a photograph of a man who definitely does not look regular. Caption: Gellert Grindelwald, circa late 1920s.

[poetontheinside]

Now he hisses in a breath through his teeth, bending over further. The way the man carries himself, the way he looks out at them from the photograph-- he knows the actual man isn't in the damn book, but it feels like he's trying to see right through him.

"That's him? The guy who--"

Who, everything. Who tricked him, who used him, who had him in his grasp for far too long. He feels strange, looking at him like this. A little nauseous.

He looks up at Credence, to see what it's like for him, now.

[credere]

Credence stares at Grindelwald for a long time, and remembers. How good it felt to be picked out from the crowd, to be promised justice and greatness and glory. How good it felt to hold a wand in his hand for the first time. How good it had felt to be held and healed and told he was special.

How easily, Grindelwald had swept in to fill every empty space in Credence's heart.

"Your friend found it. It was exactly what I was looking for. A book about my future. His future."

[poetontheinside]

Ray isn't looking at the book anymore. He's looking at Credence, at the emotions flickering over his usually stoic face. It's not much, but Ray is good at reading people. He knows doubt and pain when he sees it.

He feels a quick stab of gratefulness to Fraser, for helping him find this. He isn't sure what this will mean to Credence, in the long run, but it means something. Finding what he was looking for.

"What's it say?"

[credere]

"He's a monster," Credence says, quietly, blankly. "He's going to do terrible things. He doesn't stop the No-Majs going to war. I don't know that he ever really wanted to try."

He closes the book.

"...I wonder if he wanted a wizard from a powerful bloodline to be adopted by my Ma," he goes on.

He'd aimed for the Lestranges, got a Dumbledore instead. Same difference.

"The Barebone family used to hunt witches and wizards. They hated magic. He would have known that a wizard in that family would have been treated badly. Become an Obscurial. A weapon for him to use."

[poetontheinside]

It sits heavy in his stomach. For a moment he has a flash of thought, how the hell am I supposed to help with somethin this big, before he stomps that down. It isn't useful. It doesn't help Credence, it doesn't help himself. Believe that you can help and maybe you actually will.

Something good had come out of the chase for Bill, at least. And maybe something good had come out of the rest of the situation as well. Something has changed, Credence no longer talks about Grindelwald like he might have been his saviour, someday.

"He manipulated you your entire life. Took you away from your family, to make you a weapon."

The stone in his stomach is slowly incinerating, turning into anger. Not that that'll do Credence any good, but he feels it.

[credere]

"And then he told me that the person he fears most is the man who betrayed me."

He shuts his eyes tightly.

"I've been so stupid."

[poetontheinside]

"You haven't been stupid," he says, firmly. Jesus, the furthest from it, as far as Ray is concerned-- he figured this all out, from a book, from a world away.

"You were just trying to live your life. Do what's right."

[credere]

"I didn't care about right," Credence says, a quiet, steady correction. "I wanted to escape, and I wanted to know who I was. That was all. And then Grindelwald took me away and gave me a name."

He stares at the book.

"I don't even know who Aurelius Dumbledore is."

It's not him. How could it be?

[poetontheinside]

"Because Grindelwald took away your chance to find out on your own. He just tried to put his own ideas on you."

He knocks his hand into the book, raps his knuckles on it. "He ain't here now, though."

[credere]

"No, he's not."

Rune swoops over, lands close by, leaning in to croon worriedly at Credence.

"I...I think I need to be by myself for a while."

[poetontheinside]

He swallows and nods, reaching out to squeeze his arm briefly.

"You want me to make the Enclosure into something else on my way out?"

[credere]

"No, it's fine. I think I'll just go for a walk."

Heading towards the mountains, maybe.

"Thank you."

[poetontheinside]

"No problem, buddy," he says, softly enough.

He'll check in on him that evening, though. To see if he's alright.

[credere]

He'll probably have to. Because Credence falls off Ray's item altogether, just a few hours later.

[poetontheinside]

Now, Ray has no magic, no superpowers, nothing much. But he does get hunches, and he'd gotten one at that shooting range.

The item, his police badge with Credence's name on it, suddenly feels heavy and cold where it hangs around his neck. He takes it out, and for some reason doesn't find himself all that surprised when he sees R. Vecchio, Detective 1st Grade on it.

His old badge. The one he'd taken to the Barge, before he had an inmate. He doesn't think that he's died, because that wouldn't make sense- he would still have been his inmate.

He could have disappeared. He could be gone. But he goes with his gut, and stomps down on the tendril of fear and insecurity as he practically runs over to Credence's cabin and knocks, hard, urgent.

Still his door. It's still his door.

[credere]

It's still his door. And the cabin beyond has changed, but Credence hasn't noticed. The door at the other side of the room, the one that's led to nowhere for the past few months, it opens onto some other rooms now. But he never has any reason to check.

He opens his cabin door, one arm cradling Goldstein against his body, and blinks at Ray.

"What's wrong? Has something happened?"

The force of the knocking suggested that.

[poetontheinside]

He yanks off his badge and dangles it in his face. He did show him, before, but it probably isn't enough for him to draw the conclusion:

"This had your name on it. I think you just graduated, C."

He's practically vibrating with excitement, the fingers of his free hand tapping on the doorpost.