The gift Tom had brought along was a German newspaper, the World Today.
Mindful that Uncle Newt's German was shaky at best, and that his eyes weren't what they used to be, Tom thoughtfully read the article aloud in full:
"Grindelwald states that seventy years ago, he and Dumbledore forged a blood pact meant to safeguard the future of the wizarding world, only for the shameless Newt Scamander to steal that very pact away in Paris and break it through underhanded means."
"Every conflict and war the wizarding world has since suffered traces back, at its root, to that reckless and disrespectful act. Scamander bears responsibility for the consequences, Mr. Grindelwald states. He finds it difficult to believe that the honest, good-natured House of Hufflepuff could have produced a man capable of such shamelessness..."
"This time, the pact's vessel remains firmly in Mr. Grindelwald's own hands, and he wishes to extend a message to Mr. Scamander through this paper: he can be found at Durmstrang, waiting patiently for another attempt at theft."
Tom nearly doubled over laughing by the time he finished reading. That old troublemaker of a teacher never missed a chance.
Newt's face burned red. Tina's chest heaved with indignation.
"That wretched excuse for a Dark Lord, what is he even talking about!"
"If Newt hadn't stolen that pact when he did, Dumbledore would probably still be stuck at Hogwarts to this day, and he has the nerve to call it a crime against world peace?"
"Honestly, it's understandable." Tom waved a hand. "You did steal their marriage certificate, Uncle Newt. Holding a grudge over that seems fair enough."
Marriage certificate?
Everyone in the room understood, in some vague way, the tangled history between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, but hearing Tom's oddly fitting comparison put to words like that, they all froze for a moment before bursting into laughter together.
"Marriage certificate... well, honestly, that's not far off. That's exactly what it was."
The anger in Tina's chest eased considerably. Putting herself in that position, if someone had ever stolen a token as meaningful as that between her and Newt, she'd probably hold the grudge even longer than Grindelwald had.
Which raised a question. What exactly was the token that had sealed things between her and Newt?
Her laughter faded as she turned the thought over more seriously.
Because the longer she thought about it, the more she realized that in all their years together, Newt had never once given her anything particularly memorable. The only thing that came close was the time he'd told her her eyes were as lovely as a salamander's, and even that had since been eclipsed by Grindelwald's sapphire-blue gaze, of all things.
Tina fixed Newt, still smiling that same bashful smile of his, with a look that boded nothing good.
Danger.
Years of finely honed survival instinct made Newt flinch. He turned, and sure enough met Tina's darkening stare head-on.
He had no idea what he'd done to earn it this time, but every instinct he'd built over a lifetime screamed at him to change the subject, and fast.
"Tom, you're here today about the Inferi lake, aren't you."
"Not really." Tom shook his head. "I mostly just came to read you the newspaper."
Newt:
This little terror!
"Well, let's not waste any more time. Since you're here, let's get down to business."
Newt stood and went to fetch his case from the other room. "First we'll draw the lake into the pocket world. I still need time to finish the ecosystem, and Nicolas needs to line up the bondservants. We can't keep dragging our feet on this forever."
"That's the golden apple we're talking about. Your Aunt Tina and Perenelle are both waiting to get their youth back thanks to it."
For once Newt showed a flash of real cunning, invoking Tina and Perenelle to make his case.
A woman might not care much about how long she lived, but she would never stop caring about how she looked while living it.
Once word of the golden apple's effects had spread, Tina and Perenelle had both fixed their attention squarely on the eternal-youth part of the promise, badgering Nicolas and Newt daily to get moving, eager to see the growing ground finished and the seed finally sprout.
True to form, Tina forgot her earlier anger entirely and joined in urging Tom not to dawdle any longer.
Tom rubbed his stomach with a sigh. "I haven't even had lunch yet, and you're already putting me to work?"
Once lunch was finished, the three men were promptly shooed out the door.
They made their way to the familiar cliffside, and by now entering the cave felt like second nature. Newt drew out a vial of fresh dragon's blood he'd prepared in advance to open the passage, and the three of them arrived at the edge of the Inferi lake.
Nearly all the Inferi themselves had already been cleared out, and the array that had once gathered magic into the lake had long since been dismantled, but the lake's essential nature had settled in over the years, unchanged from the last time they'd come.
"Uncle Newt, how exactly are you planning to move the whole lake?" Tom asked, watching Newt's placid expression with genuine curiosity.
One of the fundamental laws governing enchantment held that the more powerful a magical object, the harder it was for other spells to influence it.
Take Hogwarts castle, for instance. Even Tom, as he stood now, couldn't cast anything powerful enough to affect the entire structure at once. Any spell he managed would only take hold locally, and fade far faster than it normally would elsewhere.
The Inferi lake, in its own right, had effectively become a powerful magical object in its own right by now. Moving that much water with something as simple as a Levitation Charm or an Aguamenti spell was no small task at all.