The alarms were still blaring in the corridor, but Gavin's words suddenly chilled the air.
Newt froze, stunned. It took him a moment to react.
"Sorry, I may have misheard you. Did you just say—"
"Kill them all," Gavin repeated.
"...Absolutely not." Newt refused outright, his brow furrowed. "Even if I could take on more than a hundred people upstairs at once—and I don't know that I can—killing them all would be too cruel."
Gavin did not budge. His dark eyes met Newt's.
"Mr. Scamander, this isn't about cruelty. Haven't they been cruel? Think of all the Fantastic Beasts we rescued on the way here."
"Even so, we can't. Whatever crimes they've committed, it's for the Ministry of Magic or the International Confederation of Wizards to judge them, not—"
"Let me stop you there." Gavin smiled. "For the sake of so-called due process, are you going to make two children and all these animals die here with you?"
Newt stared at him. "That's not what I mean. You could—"
"How far could the two of us get?" Gavin played dumb. "Once they've dealt with you, sooner or later they'll catch us, torture us beyond recognition, and leave us to die here."
Cordelia fought to keep her mouth from twitching. She lowered her head and began carefully straightening cuffs that were already perfectly neat.
Newt fell silent.
After a while, his lips moved. "I'll hold them off as long as I can—"
"And saying you couldn't take them on was just an excuse, wasn't it?" Gavin cut straight through the pretense. "What you really wanted was to stay behind and die buying time so we could get the animals out safely. Right?"
"How did you know? Can you use Legilimency?"
The old man jolted and stared at the boy in astonishment.