1.

He stepped out into the hustle and bustle of a normal weekday in the underground British Ministry of Magic. He slung his faded leather satchel across his shoulder and smoothed his robes that he had loosely draped over his arm, letting the rush of people take him towards the lifts. He only had a short length to travel before getting to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He struggled out of the lift once it had reached the second level. This was one of the few departments that never slept. Hit wizards stood by the break room shooting the breeze before it was their turn to relieve the night crew. A line of drunk goblins were being booked at the front end where two officers were trying to get their charges to stop climbing on top of the chairs and desks. A couple of Aurors walked out of the interrogation room, deep in conversation. Wizengamot employees were heatedly arguing and storming towards the long corridors where rickety cubicles housed administrators and clerks.

His office was near the back of the level, nested against a corner.

He almost never got there until after lunch.

"What's taken you so long? Come here."

He was grabbed by the elbow and jerked to the right towards one of the conference rooms. He didn't even think to complain. The person who was dragging him along was the head of Being Division from the fourth floor, Marv Poole. The heavyset man often reminded him of Dudley. He was bald, had small eyes, a squished nose, and a neck the size of a small tree trunk. His green robe was always undone to reveal his choice of Quidditch jersey of the week. He had stubby fingers, thin lips that were perpetually drawn into a grimace, and a sauntering gait that emanated intimidation. He could care less about how he was handling the Head Auror, much less Harry Potter.

He shoved Harry into the empty and dimly lit conference room, shutting the door firmly behind him. "We've got a situation," he said.

"Good morning to you too," Harry muttered as he accepted the file that was thrust towards him. He set his robe and bag on a chair before leaning against the table while flipping through the report in his hand. "What's this about?"

"Vampires," Marv huffed. "Vampires making vampires. Vampires killing vampires. You won't believe the stuff in there."

Harry was puzzled. He narrowed his eyes and looked up at the agitated man in front of him. "We've never had trouble with vampires before," he remarked.

"You don't understand." Marv shook his head as he moved over to stand by the Auror. He shuffled through some of the parchment in the folder before coming upon the right one. "Here. Read this." He gestured at a highlighted paragraph from what looked to be a copy of a page out of an old book. "Cold devils with hearts of stone/ Blind beauty, never to mourn/ Blood red eyes and gleaming skin/ Undead, invisible, powers within."

Harry tsked. "It's a child's rhyme, Poole."

"Is it?" Marv pulled up another parchment, this one written by hand. "A statement from a witness. A Muggle witness."

Harry read the date. "From eighteen twelve?" he scoffed.

"Just read it, Potter."

"Fine, fine." He scanned the document.

March 2, 1812

I must write this down before dawn breaks, before it is simply a dream. A nightmare. At sunset, I saw the pale devil with my own eyes. She stood by the sickly tree in the courtyard, her sweet face hidden behind a sheer black veil. She was dressed in black. She was in mourning. But her eyes… She has evil in her. Her eyes were gleaming and red, from hell itself. She watched the children. How she watched them play in the grass. I saw the lust with my own eyes. I saw her with my own eyes. Her skin shone in the sun when her hand escaped the shade of the tree. Jewels. Such beauty. No one dared go near her. Many noticed her, but no one spoke to her. And she spoke to no one. She stood as still as marble. The rumors are true. The pale devil has come to take the children. God help us. She is such a terrible beauty.

"Alright." Harry glanced at Marv again. "What else?"

"The photographs."

That piqued his interest. He shuffled past more documents until he felt the thicker photo paper against his fingertips. He pulled the snapshots out from under the other papers.

He paled when he saw the faded pictures of charred remains, brutally segmented and burned in an unmarked forest. "What is this?" he breathed.

"The only way to kill these cold devils is to separate them limb by limb and burn them," Marv murmured. "This is… It's murder, Harry."

"When were these taken?"

"Nineteen twenty."

"I see…"

"You don't," Marv sighed. He massaged his forehead to get rid of the persisting ache behind his eyes. "It is happening again. We received intel that this would happen again. I have done enough research so far. This particular species… They are impossibly strong. They are highly evolved in combat, camouflage, predation, and evasion. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Harry did. "What you said earlier," he realized. "Vampires killing vampires."

"Yes."

He set the folder down and pushed off the table so he could start pacing. Walking helped him think. "Okay. Tell me what you know," he urged Marv.

"The earliest accounts are incredibly vague. There were no methods of recording observations, at least not as easily as it is nowadays. These species live in secret all over the world. They obey laws set by a coven residing in Tuscany, Italy – the Volutri. It is a primitive government. They believe in absolute punishment."

Harry paused. "Absolute punishment?" he echoed.

"It is my belief," Marv continued carefully, "that the Volutri is behind these killings."

"Do they at least hold trials?" Harry exclaimed in disbelief.

"That I have no way to knowing. All I know is that it is brutal and painful and it needs to stop."

"But… we have no jurisdiction in Italy," he mumbled.

"These deaths aren't happening in Volterra. The Volutri moves around the globe when they are summoned. Crimes are rarely committed in Volterra due to the Volturi's strong reach."

"Hmm."

Marv perched on the edge of the table, causing it to creak under his weight. "You also need to understand that these are magical beings who are unregulated by any Ministry anywhere in the world. They must believe themselves to be above the law." He shuddered unconsciously. "I cannot imagine what these vampires have done over millennia. They survive on blood. Imagine the number of people who could have been turned by them. Imagine all the people who died. I just… I don't understand how they have stayed hidden for this long."

"Do you know when and where the punishment will happen?" Harry pressed on.

"My team is compiling the data as we speak. I wanted to keep you in the loop. I want you to be prepared as soon as we have a location. I also wanted to give you what little information we have on these creatures."

"Go on."

"As I have already said, fire is their enemy. Using any fire-based spell should affect them adversely, enough to immobilize them. They supposedly cannot feel any other pain, only heat. You may be able to block their attacks, but stopping them completely with shields is questionable."

"Perhaps heat-laced bindings?" Harry offered.

Marv shrugged helplessly. "I couldn't tell you, Harry. I know next to nothing about these beings. All I know is that they have evolved to look as human as possible and have mechanisms that draw prey to them. Their beauty is described in many texts, as is their scent. They may have the ability to hypnotize other beings. You must refrain from making prolonged eye contact, just in case. And you must stay away from their venom. A bite can either kill or turn you. They will not exercise self-restraint if threatened."

"How many?"

Marv simply shook his head.


Bella gripped the jagged piece of shale in her newly mended fist, her unblinking eyes flicking between the two battles in front of her – Seth nearly losing to Riley and Edward caught up in a deadly dance with Victoria. They were fighting to protect her. They could die protecting her. She had to do something. Anything.

She fumbled with the sleeve of her thick sweater, jerking it up past her elbow. The scar from the summer before still showed faintly against her stark, pale skin. She had to distract the vampires. How deep did she have to go? She gritted her teeth and pressed the tip of the stone shard against the crease of her elbow. She would worry about the pain later. Now she had to act.

She inhaled sharply to steel herself.

Victoria's concentration slipped upon hearing the human's breath. Her eyes trained on Bella and her lips curled up into a dangerous sneer. Blood would fall.

A single moment of distraction was all Edward had needed.

The dance broke violently as he managed to get a grip on Victoria and swung her outwards against a spruce tree. She struck it with a hard crunch. He blurred towards Seth and Riley, gripping the haggard vampire by the arm and driving a foot into his back. The newborn let out a terrible scream as his back broke. Seth sprang across Bella towards Victoria who had recovered from her blow. The woman with the fiery hair had eyes for Bella and no one else. Her eyes glinted with thirst and rage. Blood would fall. Before Seth could reach her, she coiled and sprang.

Bella was grabbed by the waist and forcibly tugged to the side. The shale slipped from her hand as she was sent sprawling across the ground, away from the fight.

"Flagrate," Harry chanted as he pointed his wand at Victoria.

The frightful woman seemed to stop in midair, curling into herself fluidly. Then, with an angry shriek, she fell to the ground, skidding past Harry and Bella while writhing when fire slashed her skin, cutting through her marble exterior. She clawed at her clothes as she tried to push the burning agony away to no avail.

The Auror did not pause. He whipped around to the young girl behind him. "Stay hidden," he rushed. "Don't make a sound. You'll be fine."

"O-okay," Bella gasped out.

He scrambled back, slipping on the pebbles as he struggled to get up to his feet and grip his wand tighter. The wolves… No one had told him about the wolves. His team was struggling. He had to get back to them as soon as-

He froze when he clapped eyes on Edward.

And he was struck without warning.

Edward watched on in horror as Riley threw Harry against the rocks with a hard crunch. "Seth," he breathed out in a panic. "SETH!"

Seth was already leaping at Riley who was screeching from both his pain and Victoria's. The wolf sent the vampire reeling. Sharp teeth snapped at Riley's shoulder and ripped his arm off. He choked on his voice, his fury turning into fear in an instant.

Edward raced to Harry, falling to his knees beside him. There was blood. So much blood. His hands stopped short of the young man's face.


"Give me some warning next time. It bloody hurts when you do that."


He moved his hands away, digging them into the rocky ground instead.

Harry came to with a pained groan. Everything felt broken. He fluttered his eyes open blearily to stare up at the blurry figure before him. He tried to remember what had happened. He had apparated into a forest. He had immobilized one vampire. And then there was a lot of commotion. And now… He tried to lift his arm to point. "That girl," he slurred. "You've got to-"

"Don't die," Edward begged. "Please don't die."

Harry trailed off. "Die?" he echoed. He tried to blink the blood away from his eyes. "I'm… I… It's okay."

"What?"

"Nothing's going to happen. But that girl, she's about to do something stupid and you've got to stop her. I need to call for backup before my team…" He trailed off again, his forehead creasing as his addled brain started to right itself. "You…" He was finally able to lift his arm. He brought his hand up, reaching forward. "Edward? What are you-"

Edward pulled away. "I have to go," he said distantly. He had to get Bella. He got up and disappeared from Harry's field of vision.

The Auror closed his eyes as he rode on a wave of pain. He could hardly breathe, his right arm killed and he couldn't move his legs. Harsh stone dug into his back, adding to the mounting discomfort. He felt wetness against the side of head. At first he thought it was blood. But then the wetness worked its way down to his cheek and then his chin. With some effort, he moved his neck only to find himself looking straight into a wolf's face. "Ah, shit…"

Seth nudged the wounded man with his nose, trying to make sure he was going to get better. Riley was lying off to the side, stunned from the pain of his first battle. Victoria's screams had died down as well. Upon watching this man and Edward interact, Seth had understood that they knew each other. He felt that Edward would want him to look after this man. So he kept nudging and prodding.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," the man managed to say. "Please stop doing that."

Seth stopped quickly, his spine curving downwards and tail tucking itself between his legs, making him appear chastened. He hadn't meant to hurt the man. He watched the man close his eyes once again. But after a minute of patient waiting, it became apparent to him that the man had fainted. So he started nudging and prodding him once again to revive him.