Theseus made a new sock puppet, yes, but suddenly an idea struck him like a lightning. His puppet needed mates. The more, the better.

That was how half of MACUSA's DMLE workers were left without socks on their legs without them even noticing. Theseus was a powerful wizard, don't underestimate him.

As soon as his army was ready to fight the darkest wizard of their time, Theseus packed up all of his subordinates into an extended pocket and called up for another interrogation with Grindelwald. He did it subtly, so only the guards personally knew. He didn't want want anyone else to interrupt such a serious business as interrogating- scratch that - torturing Grindelwald to get answers out of him. But he didn't know that once Newt was aware of his presence in MACUSA headquarters, he will be closely observed by his younger brother and his lover, director of Magical Security, Percival Graves.

Newt did it only for safety purposes, he told Graves, but Graves didn't really get whose safety he talked about: their and MACUSA's, Theseus' or Grindelwald's? Graves didn't really care for the last one, for reasons.

Theseus made his way down the hall and slipped into another interrogation room than before, but not without glancing both ways. Of course, Newt and Graves were following him, closely but not enough for him to observe. They entered the room next to the one used for interrogations and gladly, it was one of those new ones with a mirror thing. They could both see and hear what was happening during the interrogation and not be spotted by anyone. Great.

The older Scamander sat on one of the chairs and sighed deeply, folding his hands in front of him on the table.

After five long minutes, the door to the room creaked open revealing a familiar mop of white hair and disgustingly smug smirk. Graves scrunched his nose and Newt rubbed a soothing hand over his shoulder. That made Graves' tension go away and he focused his attention back to the room on the opposite side of glass.

The guards pushed Grindelwald into the other chair, checking on his shackles for security purposes. With a short nod towards Theseus, they were out of the room, settling at the door.

Grindelwald's smug expression was wiped away again when he saw Theseus reaching for his pocket. It was replaced by annoyance and it made Graves smirk. Newt, however, covered his eyes with a hand, sighing and shaking his head in defeat. Theseus, for once, didn't smile as he pulled out his new sock puppet.

"So," the older Scamander grunted and placed the sock puppet on his hand "did you get your answers prepared, Grindelwald?"

Grindelwald just snorted in response, which was alarming, because Newt saw Theseus this serious during an interrogation with the sock puppet only once and the outcome of that interrogation nearly costed Theseus his job as an Auror.

"Mr. Graves." Newt said cautiously and Graves raised a questioning eyebrow at him "I want you to be ready to jump into action."

"Why is that?" Graves asked, confused.

"I've got a feeling that this won't end well."

Graves wanted to ask Newt why he thought so, but judging by the tension in Newt's hand which grabbed at his wand, he opted for trusting his lover's words without further prying. He withdrew his own wand and waited with Newt for the things to happen.

"Why did you need the obscurus? What are your dark plans, Grindelwald?" Theseus said, narrowing his eyes at the dark wizard in front of him, sock puppet dangerously close to Grindelwald's face. The only reaction he got out of the man was a light quirk of those thin lips.

"Why do you ask, Scamander? Want to join me?"

Newt didn't need to see his brother's face to know that he was boiling with anger. However, Theseus was good enough to hide his true emotions under that creepily wide smile of his.

"Oh, no, Mr. Grindelwald." Theseus replied and stood up, going to Grindelwald's side and leaning to whisper just above his ear "I'm afraid our preferences differ."

Before they actually could perceive, the room was full of sock puppets, twirling and dancing around Grindelwald. Graves sputtered and Newt, well, Newt covered his eyes again.

"Mr. Graves," Newt told him "I suggest you to not look at those. Or everything you'll see for the next month, will take a sock puppet's shape."

Graves didn't get what he meant, but did as Newt said though.

"They're charmed." Newt explained and instead of focusing on the puppets, both of them looked intensely at Theseus and Grindelwald.

Theseus smiled wickedly while shoving the puppet in Grindelwald's face. "Why. You. Need. The. Obscurus." Each word was emphasized by a shove of the sock puppet in Grindelwald's nose.

The dark wizard, on the other hand, had the funniest face Graves could imagine him having. It was something bordering with disbelief at the way he's treated, scandalizing even, and anger. He couldn't perform magic, because the manacles on his wrists were charmed to not allow the prisoner to use magic, wandless or otherwise. But if he could, Graves was sure that the entire MACUSA building would be wiped from this world by now, along with all of the wizards and witches in there.

Instead of replying to Theseus' question, Grindelwald went red as he snarled at the older Scamander

"GET THIS SMELLY SOCK OUT OF MY FACE, YOU DICK!"

Theseus' eyebrow shot up at that. He brought carefully the sock puppet to his nose and sniffled. The sock was definitely smelling awful, so he distanced the biological weapon from himself, but not from Grindelwald. He wondered whose this one was, and he had no idea that a guy named Abernathy sneezed in the distance.

He kept shoving the smelly sock in Grindelwald's nose until that couldn't breathe properly through it, so naturally, he opened his mouth to take a gulp of air. It was a very wrong move, if Newt judged correctly. He was doing that again. Merlin's beard!

Before Newt and Graves could react properly, Theseus already was shoving the puppet down Grindelwald's throat. Newt jumped out of the room in an instant and Graves followed him at the same speed, his brain not catching up with the situation at hand.

When they entered the interrogation room, Gridnelwald's eyes rolled in his head and he lost his consciousness. Theseus stopped only when Newt grabbed his hand and yanked him away from his victim.

"Why did you stop me, Newt?" Theseus mumbled, pouting. Unbelievable.

"Yeah, Newt, why did you stop him?" Graves repeated with a pout of his own. Fucking unbelievable.

Newt sighed, long and desperate. Why did he have to deal with these two idiots again? Yeah, right. One of them was his older brother, and the other one was the man he loved. Great, simply wonderful.

"Why?" Newt threw his hands up "You have the nerve to ask? He could choke on that sock puppet and die here on us."

Both Theseus and Graves raised an eyebrow each and said monotonously in unison "And?"

"Who will fight Dumbledore in '45?" Newt said as if scolding them "I don't want to be a bleached pineapple while being a dark wizard, thank you very much. And I doubt any of you want to take up on his role."

Theseus and Graves looked at Newt, at the unconscious figure of Grindelwald and then, at each other. Their noses scrunched in disgust.

"That's what I'm saying." Newt added, when seeing that his point was understood.

"And what are we going to do with him now?" Theseus asked, nudging Grindelwald's foot with his own.

Graves rubbed his chin thoughtfully "Obliviation I suppose?"

Newt's eyes sparkled and he leaned to peck him on the cheek. "Obliviation, it is!"

This was how Gellert Grindelwald ended up with a sore throat and with a whole day wiped off his memory. And the guards looked suspiciously like sock puppets.