Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (19 page)

My father was Mustafa Kama, a pureblood of Sénégalese descent and most accomplished.

SCENE 100

EXT. PARK—1896—DAY

We see a beautiful woman, LAURENA, dressed in an exquisite gown, walking through a park with her husband, MUSTAFA—clearly in love. A YOUNG YUSUF by their
side.

KAMA (V.O.)

My mother, Laurena, was equally high-bred—a noted beauty. They were deeply in love. They knew a man of great influence, from a famous French pureblood family. He desired
her.

Watching from a distance, an intense wizard, CORVUS LESTRANGE SR., studies her beauty.

SCENE 101

INT. KAMA MANSION—1896—NIGHT

LAURENA’S gown changes to a nightdress. She is walking slowly downstairs, a supernatural wind blowing.

KAMA (V.O.)

Lestrange used the Imperius Curse to seduce and abduct her . . .

The twelve-year-old KAMA runs after his mother, tugs at her hand, and tries to pull her back upstairs. She throws him off. The front door flies open. LESTRANGE SR. stands
at the foot of the garden path. LAURENA walks toward him. KAMA chases after her. LESTRANGE SR. points his wand at KAMA and sends him sprawling.

LAURENA lies on the bed as IRMA carries a newborn swaddled in a blanket to LESTRANGE SR.

SCENE 102

INT. LESTRANGE MAUSOLEUM—NIGHT

KAMA

. . . that was the last time I ever saw her. She died, giving birth to a little girl.

(to LETA)

You.

Tears start in LETA’S eyes, reliving the guilt she holds.

KAMA

The news of her death drove my father insane. With his dying breath, my father charged me to seek revenge.

(determined)

Kill the person Lestrange loves best in the world . . . I thought at first it would be easy . . . he had only one close
relative . . . you. But—

LETA

Say it . . .

KAMA

. . . he never loved you.

SCENE 103

INT. LESTRANGE MANOR, BEDROOM—1901—DAY

We reenter the story to find LESTRANGE SR. with a new, blond wife.

KAMA (V.O.)

He remarried not three months after her death. He loved her no more than he had loved you . . . But then . . .

IRMA takes the BABY BOY who has just been born, and passes him to LESTRANGE SR., who is delighted.

KAMA (V.O.)

. . . his son, Corvus, was born at last. And that man who had never known love was filled with it . . .

SCENE 104

INT. LESTRANGE MAUSOLEUM—NIGHT

CREDENCE looks on, rapt—is this who he is? He’s hungry to know more.

KAMA

All he cared about was little Corvus.

A beat.

CREDENCE

So. . . this is the truth? I am Corvus Lestrange?

KAMA

Yes.

LETA

No.

CREDENCE stares from one to the other.

KAMA turns and looks at LETA. Her eyes are unfocused. These memories have haunted her nightmares for years.

KAMA

(to LETA)

Realizing that Mustafa Kama’s son had sworn revenge, your father sought to hide you where I couldn’t find you. So he confided you to his servant, who boarded a ship
for America.

LETA

He did send Corvus to America, but—

KAMA

His servant, Irma Dugard, was a half-elf. Her magic was weak and therefore left no trace I could follow. I had only just discovered how you had escaped when I received news I
never expected . . . The ship had gone down at sea . . . But you survived, didn’t you?

(to CREDENCE)

Somehow, someone had pulled you from the water!

“A son cruelly banished

Despair of the daughter

Return, great avenger

With wings from the water.”

There—

(points at LETA)

—stands the despairing daughter. You are the winged raven returned from the sea, but I—I am the avenger of my family’s ruin.

KAMA raises his wand.

KAMA

I pity you, Corvus, but you must die.

LETA

Corvus Lestrange is already dead. I killed him.

LETA raises her wand.

LETA

Accio!

A heavy box, hidden in the corner of the mausoleum, comes crashing to her through the dust. A series of clicks as cogs whirr . . . Puzzle-like, it falls
apart.

LETA

My father owned a very strange family tree. It only recorded the men . . .

We glimpse a tree with an orchid-like flower twisting around it.

LETA

. . . the women in my family were recorded as flowers. Beautiful. Separate.

SCENE 105

INT. LESTRANGE MANOR, NURSERY—1901—NIGHT

IRMA lifts a baby from a crib and departs, watched by a desolate LESTRANGE SR.

LETA (V.O.)

My father sent me to America, along with Corvus.

SCENE 106

INT. SHIP’S CABIN—1901—NIGHT

IRMA is asleep, CHILD LETA awake on a lower bunk, and BABY CORVUS screaming in his crib.