Second chapter and we get to meet some of the Volturi who by the way are very out-of-character but they were funner to write this way. I have mixed up timelines a bit, this is before the events of Twilight. On a side note, I have decided to go with two types of vampires, it will all be explained later in the chapter.

Perhaps in our discovery of events leading up to the Dursley's trip to Italy we have neglected to describe in detail the protagonist of the story. Harriet Lily Dorea Potter was a rather typical seven year old that is at least at first glance, although she looked much younger than she actually was. She was small and slight with dark hair that curled untamed to the small of her back as her aunt could never be bothered to take her to the hair dressers, not that they would be able to do much as her hair seemed to be perpetually messy with random flicks and tangles. She wore thick glasses that came from a charity box and clothes passed down from her cousin who by this point had about as much blubber as a seal (and was still gaining). The only strange thing that one could say about her outward appearance was her scar, however this was nearly always hidden behind her fringe so only few perhaps outside of her family knew it was even there.

However, she certainly did not lack academically, despite what her report card may say. Lesson one at school had been that if she wished to avoid her odious cousin she should simply visit the library there, the only place Dudley and his 'gang' were more likely to avoid was the sports hall. As with many lonely children, books became a refuge and whilst she was certainly not reading books years ahead of her she read rather expansively. Lesson two at school had been that she had to do worse at school than Dudley, her first report card that placed her at the top of the class and well above her cousin had done nothing but earn her a beating. So she learned to hide her intelligence, manipulating her grades to place below her cousin.

Life with the Dursley's was difficult, without the love and devotion of anyone it may be possible to assume that Harriet would turn out a damaged child, however that was not the case. Partly because Harriet believed that things could only get better. Childish naivety it may have been but it sustained and supported her well.

However, we must now return to the trip to Italy with the Dursley's. The flight to Marco Polo Airport Venice from Heathrow had proved tiresome for everyone. As could only be expected Vernon complained, Petunia judged others and Dudley threw a tantrum, (several in fact) meanwhile Harriet stayed as quiet as possible, avoiding attention and her cousin's fists. Needless to say the Dursley family were not very popular on the flight. Upon reaching the airport in Venice the Dursley's and Harriet then took their hire care out to the town of Bassano del Grappa in the area outside of Venice where the villa was. Already by this point, Harriet had realised that this holiday was likely to end in a disaster, even supper didn't go very well, Harriet had been locked in an empty pool house on the grounds of the villa so she didn't 'cause trouble' by which Aunt Petunia probably meant eat any food or watch any television. From what Harriet could discern later when she was let out, Vernon had decided that the authentic Italian pizza was not as good as the ones Petunia had gotten from the supermarket in England. Apparently Vernon hadn't been quiet in voicing this opinion.

The following day, Harriet was once again left in the pool house whilst the Dursley's traipsed off to Vicenza to see the sites, or in Dudley's case, the ice cream shops. When they returned with Dudley and Vernon looking like some sort of pig with the amount of sweat pouring off them, Harriet was once more let out to cook for her 'family'.

"Get out here, Freak, start cooking" Vernon snarled, really despite the fact he looked like some sort of misshapen walrus he could snarl as effectively as Aunt Marge's dogs. As she was apt to do, Harriet did not even deign to reply and instead started to prepare the meat for the evening.

However, later when Harriet removed the roast from the grill to place on the table, it just had to go wrong. As she caught the roasting tin on the edge of the oven the meat fell, plummeting to the floor, although never hitting it as it remain suspended in the air by some unknown force. Meanwhile, the boiling gravy ended up on Harriet's hands and arms, crying out in pain and trying to sort the dish and the meat she failed to see her 'dear' Uncle enter behind her.

The yell that he gave returned Harriet to her senses and the meat fell to the floor. Grabbing his niece by the hair, Vernon marched her out of the kitchen and out of the villa towards to the pool house, intent on punishing her for her 'freakishness'.

It is easy to imagine that being affiliated with the Volturi was all about the dismemberments and punishments associated with existence as part of the main coven of vampires. This was not necessarily true, indeed if one lived an immortal life it was a struggle to cope without either finding an interest or having a rather robust sense of humour. Many of the Volturi guards existed due to both of these, with masks that would make a certain head of Slytherin House rather proud, when confronted with other vampires. None of the vampires of the Volturi were younger than eight hundred years, the youngest being the 'Witch Twins', Alec and Jane who were turned during the 13th century. Indeed, the three Kings of the Volturi were all born before Christ and before the Roman Empire in Ancient Greece. Marcus escaped the destruction of Troy and later turned Caius who was originally from Sparta and Aro from had been part of Alexander the Great's army.

Boredom was a rather routine part of life in the castle at Volterra, after all life was monotonous. Seriously repetitive most of the time, gone were the times in the dark ages when vampire covens ran amok and needed to be culled, gone too were the days when the werewolves tore wild through Europe. Whilst there were still rumblings of the Southern Wars in America and Mexico they only ever needed managed every couple decades. Indeed even the Romanians who for so long had tried to subvert the authority of the Volturi had rather gone to ground and whilst this may be seen as suspicious few could bring themselves to care. For the past century things had been dull, too dull.

"66705… 66706…66707…66708…66709…66710…66711…"

"Alec, what the hell are you doing?" Jane exclaimed as she rounded the corner to see her brother sitting on the floor with a tennis ball.

"66712… I am trying to see how many times I can bounce this ball against the wall and catch it… 66713…66714"

Silence followed for a moment as Jane tried to process this, "You are a vampire, you aren't going to drop it, why bother?"

"66715… I am bored, bored, bored, bored. There is no one visiting, Felix and Demetri are out…66716… and the Kings have told me that if I continue annoying them they dismember me…66717"

At this point, Jane rather decided that she had been irritated enough by her brother and stole the ball.

"JANE, no, why? What am I going to do now?"
"Get a life?"
"Oh good joke, go tell the vampire to get a life"
"Oh for the love of God Alec, come on, we are going out, you have vexed me enough"
"Where are we going?"
"OUT"
"Okay, okay, I thought vampires couldn't get hormonal"

At this point Alec received a cloak thrown in his face and a glare full of malice. After getting to leave the castle, the twins left running from the city into Tuscany. It was only then that Alec decided to try again to get an answer from his sister:

"So where are we going?"

"We are going to find you a hobby or anything to stop you irritating everyone. Come on, let's go east."

So together the Witch Twins of the Volturi ran east towards Venice. However, their journey was halted when they heard the cries of pain and smell of blood from a villa nearby. Running to check they saw an obese man kicking a child who lay cowering on the floor covered with blood. In an instant both Alec and Jane recognised the smell of magic. Magic has a distinctive smell, like lightning or a storm, the more powerful, the stronger the smell. For the Twins it was easy to recognise the blood split as that of a witch and a powerful one at that.

After 'removing' the detritus that was Vernon Dursley, Alec and Jane looked at each other, the girl lying on the floor between them and each other again.

"Well that went well"

"Jane, what do we do with the girl?"

"Hang on, let me speak to her…. Hello?"

The expression on Harriet's face was a mixture of shock, awe and terror but she still replied: "Hello, ma'am"

"What is your name?"

"Hawwiet Potter, ma'am"

"Jane, I swear I have heard that name before somewhere, but for the life of me I can't remember where, anyway, was that your father? And can I just say you speak adorably?"

"No sir that was my uncle, my no-good dwunk parents died and so I live with Aunt 'Tunia and Uncle Vernon and Dudley"

"Where is your Aunt?"

"In the kitchen ma'am, I was a fweak and so had to be punished"

At this Alec and Jane gaped slightly, the only explanation they could think of was that the girl had performed accidental magic and for it been punished, that did not sit well with them. They had been around long enough to know about the magic world and so understood that these things were accidental, they could not be controlled.

"Jaaaane?"

"What Alec?"

"I always wanted a little sister."

"Yes, that would be a wonderful idea, let's bring an abused child back to the home of the rulers of the vampire world. That is a wonderful idea"

"I know right… oh, that was sarcasm. Still though, we can at least ask?"

All this time, Harriet was sitting on the floor watching with wide eyes and mouth agape.

"Excuse me, sir and ma'am, what is going to happen to me?"

"We are just going to sort that out now, by the way I am Alec and this is my sister Jane, we are vampires"

"Way to break it to her gently"

"Well I read somewhere you should just rip a Band-Aid off in one, it is easier"

"Oh shut up you moron, now I am going to go sort the other members of the family. You can call, Aro and tell him the good news, having a child before you are married, what would he say Alec?"

"I feel that I should take the role of big brother, you can play mother if you want but I am definitely the cool brother."

"Speaking from experience, I don't agree with that"

"What's a vampiwe?"

"Well this is going to go well then." With that Jane handed Alec a phone and left the pool house heading towards the house. She smirked slightly as she imagined how Alec was going to explain to Harriet what a vampire was and to Aro that they were trying to pick up a stray.

"Please, please, please, ple…"

Aro interrupted, "let me get the facts straight and do shut up Alec, let Jane speak! You want to bring a witch child back to live with a group of vampires after you killed her last remaining family and then set their villa on fire?"

"Yes, well when you put it like that it makes us sound bad and her sound like a pet but she is cute,"

Alec decided to chime in again at this point: "Everyone will love her, Heidi and Chelsea will have someone to shop for, Demetri and Felix will love the whole idea, Retena and Marcus just won't care, Athenedora and Sulpica will get to be mothers (of a kind). There is no downside… and I won't be bored anymore."

"I think that you may have missed one person in your oh, so helpful list, Caius?" Jane's sarcasm was obvious, even to Alec.

"Oh, he may strop for a bit but he will get over it when he meets Harriet… do you think I can call her Hattie or Harry?"

Over the phone Aro could hear Jane sigh and exclaim, "I have neither the time nor the crayons to explain this to you. Caius will kill her, then you would be rather sad wouldn't you?"

The bickering continued but by this point Aro wasn't sure what was more irritating, the fact that two of his most feared guards were trying to start a mini family or the fact that he was considering it. Ahh, boredom, the curse of any immortal.

The Volturi had known about the magical world for millennia, how could they not? Indeed many of their original governing systems were based on the vampire community. Britain for example was ruled by the Sacred Twenty Eight families in a manner not too far from the Volturi's rule. Centuries ago the Volturi were good friends and advisors to the magical world, however the centuries had led this relationship to falter and a presumption had arisen on the part of the magical world, that the Volturi and (what they termed 'muggle vampires') were ignorant of their little set up. The main problem was that there were magical vampires and there were muggle or mundane vampires and though both lived as long as each other and had their own governments, mundane vampires were more enduring and hardy but could not use magic at all. Magical vampires could use a little magic but not nearly as much as they could before they were changed. This is not to say that the two groups of vampires didn't interact after all Sanguini, the Prince of the European vampire clans often came to visit, but the Volturi did not make their knowledge of the magical world once again known.

Keeping a child at Volterra would prove to be difficult, there were so many problems that could arise and if it was a normal child then Aro would have never agreed. However, a magical child, well that was different... and interesting, Aro liked experiments.

"Fine, take her to the hospital to get her checked up and then bring her here." With that Aro hung up, unwilling to hear Alec's reaction.