via
https://ift.tt/2EsklpNgudegudeland:
hamelin-born:
gudegudeland:
I lost the source post that inspired this, has to do with playing off the stereotype of America being the sort of black sheep child of the world and being the one country not under the International Statute of Secrecy
No-majes freely co-existing with full awareness of magicfolk so please consider:
After the big witch hunt, somehow they decided to educate one another and work towards a harmonious society, and so already this removes the biggest cause and motivation for Second Salemers who’d be more of an underground radical hate group rather than the hidden-in-plain-sight operation trying to maliciously expose magicfolk like in canon
This already changes Credence’s role and character since with MACUSA at full liberty to keep a closer eye on the Salemers as they please, he would’ve been rescued much earlier and his magic healed and cultivated before he became an obscurial (yeah, I still orphaned the poor thing)
Percival adopts him, raises him as a protégé of sorts and Seraphina becomes his godmother/Aunt Phina
Legislation-wise, a completely different set of laws that require a little more finesse and cooperation in terms of both political powers deciding limitations as to how involved magic can be and what applies to both or one of them
Taking the Unforgivable Curses for example—would the punishment of getting caught for using them depend on whether the target is no-maj or not? Is it harsher if casted on a no-maj because they are more vulnerable by default of having no magic and would squibs fall under that category as well?
Is Beatrice’s dead mother allowed to live with/haunt her no-maj daughter?
To prevent unfortunate accidents, they enforce a no-magic policy outside of school like Hogwarts to protect minors
With law enforcement, they generally keep their issues separate and deal with them respectively but there exists a special council consisting of both no-maj and wizardfolk to act like judges and juries to handle overlapping cases or particularly heinous crimes
Anyway lots of grey areas, moving on
So, the war—they fight together but discreetly since the other countries aren’t ‘out’ so to speak and wizards/witches don’t explicitly help the no-maj side of the battles but they’d occasionally check up on them to see how they’re doing. When they’re spotted together, the others shrug it off, operating under the collective unspoken agreement not to expose one another (also it’s the middle war, things hardly make sense anymore)
Percival especially does so Jacob, one of his best friends whose bakery he frequents back at home, who joins him for drinks after work, who he introduced to a Miss Queenie Goldstein under his employment. Percival is determined to bring him back to her, alive if not well
Grindelwald can happen or not and if yes, he’d have to come for a different reason since an obscurial no longer exists. Or it does, but as another child. Maybe Modesty can actually be one, slipping under the radar of MACUSA and an unexpected success for the Salemers
Fun part of this would be that thanks to their collaborative newspapers (New York Ghostly Times or whatever), the no-maj would know when he lands on American soil and he’d be too flabbergasted to put up a fight when actual muggles give him wide-eyed looks of recognition before ringing a charmed bell that works sort of like a 911-call to summon aurors
So how about Newt Scamander? Seeing as we already have a canon divergence since even before Grindelwald, he’d honestly just visit to find the puffskein breeder (magical beasts laws may differ in this AU as well)
Cue the introduction scene with a creature causing suspicious unlatching of the suitcase, security guy eyeing it as Newt hands over his passport
But then he reads the ID and face lights up much to Newt’s confusion, only increasing when the man jovially says, “‘Scamander’, is it? Related to War Hero Scamander by any chance?”
“Oh, um, he’s. He’s my brother,” Newt stutters out in shock before he can think then bites his cheek as his mind starts racing Merlin’s beard, I need to obliviate him—
“Great, nice to meet you! Welcome to America, sir. Alright then, you’re good to go. Just head on over to MACUSA and they’ll give you proper accommodations as an honoured guest,” the man says, handing back his passport after making some kind of note. Newt’s mind completely blanks. “Make sure you keep that thing locked up, though; wouldn’t want to be causing trouble your first visit here, right?”
“Right,” he mutters absently, snaps the latch back on his case, realizes as he’s walking away that he even forgot to flick on the muggle switch for it
He tries to remember that he should let MACUSA know they have an unobliviated muggle handling their security at the ports, but his brain is too scrambled by the time he arrives due to too many ‘what did I just see’ moments on the way there
@gudegudeland @auroargraves @fantastikobskurials @thegaypumpingthroughyourveins @funkzpiel
This is AWESOME. Newt’s brain is going to be broken so hard until he gets an explanation - and then he’ll be over the moon. This is everything he never even dreamed of! Magicals and non-magicals living together peacefully; no hiding, no lies, no one lording anything over another, it’s - everything he never knew he could have.
And just think of the American Magical Creatures.
Newt would almost - no, scratch that. Newt literally would cry at the thought of it. His creatures, in nature preserves. With no need to hide. With everyone loving them for the miracles that they are, with laws protecting them, with children growing up dreaming of seeing unicorns and dragons and - Thunderbirds flying freely above cities, feathered serpents coiling peacefully in major rivers, merfolk coming to barter over the morning’s catch with fishermen, this is a beautiful dream and he never never wants to wake up.
Newt has - something like culture shock, at least at first, with everyone treating him as a ‘country cousin’ - understanding that he’s from a different culture, but so damn baffled at why the British Magicals enforce such a ridiculous separation. Newt would be offended, but he’s too flabberghasted and - I think that Graves might fall in love when he watches Newt dare to cast his first tentative spells in public, and sees the smile growing like the rising dawn on the magizoologist’s face.
(On a side note, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a best-seller in the USA. Pretty much every household - no-maj and wizard and any permutation thereof - has a copy.)
WOW THIS IS SUPER CUTE this movie would basically be Newt Scamander in wonderland and it’d be one feel-good scene after another and the audience learns with him how this whole co-existence thing works and it’s just massive world-building while introducing the various creatures as Newt imparts his wisdom and knowledge about them.
And yeah, maybe Percival Graves is his tour guide because he remembers Theseus and the stories about his amazing, creature-loving brother the man told to him who served in the dragon corps. And he tries to be a proper host but every other word that comes out of Newt’s mouth is about how amazing everything is accompanied by the brightest smiles and Percival catches himself smiling back. Newt’s enthusiasm is more contagious than he wants to admit.
The day is long yet short and they need to eat so, Percival also introduces good food as well and it’s just him being nice. But then they talk as they eat and Percival is helplessly drawn by this man’s liveliness and passion, and if his eyes shine that much more, it’s the lighting inside the restaurant. As for Newt, he needs to see more so please, if it’s alright, can Percival spare some more hours in the next week to guide him?
No, Percival should say, because he’s a busy man and he can spare an auror to do that, someone who’d be better at it than him.
“Of course,” he says instead, hiding his own smile behind a cough when Newt beams at him.
@auroargraves @elenothar @gudegudeland @coffeesugarcream
In this scenario, it’s a reciprocal introduction to entirely new aspects of existence - Graves is introducing Newt into a world where he can stand and work magic in the open sun, with no thought or care to whomever might be watching. And Newt - Newt is hesitant at first, caught by the habits of a lifetime.
But then a flock of no-maj children playing nearby recognize him as a wizard (or, at the very least, recognize Director Graves and come running over to say hello) and, upon learning that this man with the funny accent is a foreign wizard, they beg him to do ‘something magical!’. …Newt is helpless to their big, wide eyes and pleading expressions, and - slowly, hesitantly, he gingerly conjures a swarm of glimmering bubbles -
And Newt’s disbelieving smile lights up his face like the sunrise as the children laugh and scatter, trying to catch the bobbing constructs, and Graves can’t tear his gaze away from that smile.
But Newt - Newt, in turn, helps Graves see - not only the beauty of his creatures, but the beauty of his country all over again. Percival has been - inured, over the years, to a world where the wizards and the non-magicals stride side by side; it’s not a perfect world, but when you tend to see six impossible things before breakfast each day, it’s easy to - to overlook the sheer wonder of it all. And - it’s in Newt’s disbelieving joy that Percival once again realizes how amazing, how incredible his home is.
Newt would have so many questions. And Graves would be happy to answer each and every one of them in turn. And arrange a trip for Newt to visit the dragon reserves with him, he thinks that Newt might like to see them…?
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