Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Queenie produces the case and innocently trots up the steps toward Abernathy.

QUEENIE

You wanna take a look? I don’t mind.

Abernathy is overcome with embarrassment.

ABERNATHY

(swallowing hard)

Oh! Good gravy, no! I—you get well now!

QUEENIE

(smiling sweetly and arranging his tie)

Thanks!

Queenie immediately turns and hurries down the stairs, leaving Abernathy—heart racing—staring after her.

SCENE 79

EXT. STREETS OF NEW YORK—LATE AFTERNOON

HIGH WIDE ABOVE NEW YORK. We zoom over rooftops before diving down through streets and alleyways, past speeding cars and cackling children.

We come to rest in an alleyway at the Second Salem Church, where Credence is pasting up posters advertising Mary Lou’s next meeting.

Graves Apparates into the alleyway. Credence, startled, backs away, but Graves makes straight for him, his tone and manner urgent, forceful.

GRAVES

Credence. Have you found the child?

CREDENCE

I can’t.

Graves, impatient but feigning calm, holds out his hand—suddenly seeming caring, affectionate:

GRAVES

Show me.

Credence whimpers and cowers, almost backing farther away. Graves gently takes Credence’s hand in his own and examines it—the hand is covered in deep red cuts, sore and bleeding.

GRAVES

Shhhh. My boy, the sooner we find this child, the sooner you can put that pain in the past where it belongs.

Graves gently, almost seductively, moves his thumb across the cuts, healing them instantly. Credence stares.

Graves seems to make a decision. He puts on an earnest, trustworthy expression as, from his pocket, he produces a chain bearing the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

GRAVES

I want you to have this, Credence. I would trust very few with it—

Graves moves close, placing the chain around Credence’s neck as he whispers:

GRAVES

Very few.

Graves places his hands on either side of Credence’s neck, drawing him in, his speech quiet, intimate:

GRAVES

. . . But you—you’re different.

Credence is unsure, both nervous of and attracted by Graves’s behavior.

Graves rests his hand on Credence’s heart, covering the pendant.

GRAVES

Now, when you find the child, touch this symbol and I will know, and I will come to you.

Graves moves even closer to Credence, his face inches from the boy’s neck—the effect is both alluring and threatening—as he whispers:

GRAVES

Do this and you will be honored among wizards. Forever.

Graves pulls Credence into a hug, which, with his hand on Credence’s neck, seems more controlling than affectionate. Credence, overwhelmed by the seeming affection, closes his eyes and relaxes slightly.

Graves slowly backs away, stroking Credence’s neck. Credence keeps his eyes closed, longing for the human contact to continue.

GRAVES

(whispers)

The child is dying, Credence. Time is running out.

Abruptly, Graves strides back down the alleyway and Disapparates.

SCENE 80