[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 290 - What Else Can We Do? Break Them Out

They appeared in a deserted alleyway.

"Bwaaah—!"

Jacob's legs buckled. He grabbed the wall and retched, his face turning a sickly shade of yellow.

The look he gave Hermione was pure, undiluted terror. Everything he thought he knew about the world, about Hermione, was being dismantled in the most painful way imaginable.

Th-this... this was actually magic!

Tina paid Jacob's misery no attention. She fixed her eyes on Hermione, her tone sharp. "You actually used magic in the No-Maj world, and you robbed a bank. You could expose the Wizarding World!"

Hermione shrugged. "That's why I used a gun, isn't it?"

Tina stared at her. "..."

She looked at Jacob, shell-shocked, worldview in ruins, and decided something had to be done.

She drew her wand and aimed it at him. "I need to Obliviate him. He's seen far too much."

"Wait!" Hermione stepped in front of her. "Don't be boring. He's entertaining."

"No-Maj," Tina corrected, her tone firm.

"Ugh." Hermione wrinkled her nose. "That sounds terrible."

Tina exhaled. She knew she was no match for Hermione, the memory of being trussed up like a Christmas turkey was still very fresh, so she sighed and put her wand away.

She looked at Hermione, then at Newt. A bank-robbing lunatic. A dangerous individual smuggling magical creatures across international borders. And one very confused Muggle who had somehow ended up caught in the middle of all of it.

She needed to keep these unstable elements where she could watch them.

"Fine." Tina took a deep breath. "But nobody goes wandering off. New York is dangerous right now, and your little stunt has already drawn attention. We're going to my place. You'll lay low, and I'll be keeping an eye on all of you."

She led the group to an apartment building.

Inside, a beautiful woman in a pink nightgown sat on the sofa reading a newspaper, her hair a cloud of fluffy blonde. She looked up at the sound of the door.

"Queenie, this is Newt, this is Jacob, and this is Miss Hermione Granger." Tina kept the introductions brief.

Queenie flashed a warm, bright smile.

"Hi, everyone! Mr. Jacob, you don't look so great — did that cold-hearted old bank manager reject your bakery application again? Don't you worry. You'll get there."

Jacob froze. A complete stranger had just said out loud the exact thought sitting at the back of his mind. He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.

Queenie turned to Hermione, and the warmth in her eyes went still. What replaced it was something between confusion and surprise.

She blinked, reaching for Hermione's thoughts the way she always did, and felt nothing. A void. As if Hermione's head were completely empty, or as if something impenetrable was sitting between Queenie's perception and everything behind it.

What incredible Occlumency.

Hermione gave her a friendly smile.

Queenie recovered, a slightly stiff smile on her face, and looked back at Jacob. Her eyes softened immediately.

Jacob, staring at Queenie's smile and those eyes that seemed to see straight through him, felt his heart miss a beat.

Hermione watched him with that dopey expression and couldn't help herself. "Anyone would think you'd been hit with the Imperius Curse."

Everyone: "..."

Once they'd settled in, Tina explained the situation. Unexplained magical phenomena had been breaking out across the city. The risk of exposure was at an all-time high, and the Magical Congress had everyone on edge.

Hermione already knew exactly what was behind it, Credence, the suppressed Obscurial, Dumbledore's nephew. But she had no intention of sharing that.

When it was time to sleep, Hermione reached into her backpack and pulled out a small, completely unremarkable tent. She gave it a casual toss. It landed upright in the middle of the living room and stayed there.

"You two can sleep in here." She pointed at it, looking at Newt and Jacob, and then ducked inside first.

Newt followed, and stopped.

It was not a tent. It was a villa. A spacious, fully furnished villa with a living room, bedrooms, a study, and a small swimming pool.

He recognized the magic immediately. The same Undetectable Extension Charm used on his own case, but on a completely different scale. Containing a space this large within something this small, and keeping it perfectly stable, the level of skill required was almost beyond imagining.

"That's extraordinary Undetectable Extension Charm work," Newt said, genuine awe in his voice.

Hermione settled onto a comfortable sofa and smiled. "Thank you. Actually, Senior Newt, may I take a look inside your case? I'm quite curious about the creatures in there."

Senior?

Newt's eyes flickered at the word. Then he nodded.

They all climbed into the case.

Jacob's jaw dropped even further.

Vast open grasslands. A stretch of coastline. Magical creatures of every conceivable shape and size moving freely across their own habitats, unhurried and completely unbothered by the small group of humans now standing in their world.

Some were enormous. Some were bizarre. Jacob was terrified by all of them and fascinated by every single one.

Hermione paused here and there, naming each creature without hesitation, rattling off habits and behaviors like she was reading from a textbook.

Newt's expression kept shifting, surprise layering on top of surprise, brightness building in his face with every species she correctly identified.

He thought he'd finally found a kindred spirit.

"You're — you actually know magical creatures!" he said, the excitement spilling out of him.

Hermione smiled, but instead of answering, she turned her gaze to his case and said, almost idly, "Your case is impressive. A stable space this size isn't something most wizards could manage. Dumbledore made it for you, didn't he? At your current level, you'd have struggled to pull this off."

A flicker of embarrassment crossed Newt's face. He scratched the back of his head and gave a slightly sheepish smile, which said everything.

The next morning, Hermione left them with a single sentence.

"I haven't seen New York in this era yet. I'm going to look around."

Then she was gone. One moment she was there; the next she wasn't.

Newt had his own agenda, he'd come to New York specifically to find an Appaloosa Puffskein, so the others had no choice but to follow him out.

When Hermione got back, the apartment was quiet. Only Queenie was there.

"Where is everyone?" Hermione asked.

Queenie's face was tight with worry. "The Magical Congress took them."

She pressed her foot against the floor, too anxious to stay still. "What do we do? Getting arrested by the Magical Congress is serious. They could face a tribunal. They could even be, "

Hermione's lips curved into a slow smirk.

"What else would we do?" she said. "We break them out."

➤ Next: Farewell, Grindelwald