TUESDAY JULY 26, 1994
A young man walked briskly out of the Vatican library, carrying a stack of books for the bishop he attended. He walked by a shadowed archway, only to be grabbed and pulled into the darkness. There, he came face to face with three intimidating armored figures: a blonde girl with a silver staff, and two men with swords, one of which had a two-headed serpent coiled around his body.
"Where do the hunters stay?" the younger serpentine-themed man asked.
The young man pointed towards the entrance to the subterranean levels.
"Thank you." The three walked in the indicated direction while the young man ran towards the nearest post of the Swiss Guard. Looking back, he could see no sign of the three.
Harry, Luna and Sirius were traveling under a muggle-specific version of the notice-me-not charm. It caused muggles to fail to notice their existence unless they made physical contact, but would naturally detour around them if possible.
They followed the rather generic direction of the young aide, entering a bunker-like structure. A severe elder woman sat at a security desk behind a thick plate of bulletproof glass, obviously the only controller of the large steel door with no external controls.
"Finite." Harry canceled the notice-me-not charm on himself and approached the woman.
"Identification, please." A slot opened up.
"I do not work here. I would like to have a meeting with the head of the Vatican's hunters in regards to certain policies."
"Do you have an appointment?" the woman asked.
"No," Harry answered.
"No meetings without an appointment," the woman stated, "Please leave the area or I will be forced to call security."
"How do I make an appointment?" Harry asked.
"If you had the authority to meet, you would already have access to the correct channels."
"Confundo!" Sirius cast, making the woman shudder. "The head of the hunters is expecting unscheduled visitors."
"Oh, sorry. I see here that he is expecting unscheduled visitors. Please proceed to the bottom level." The massive steel door slid open.
Harry and his compatriots entered the door and immediately pressed the button to descend for the elevator. They boarded and Harry pressed the button for the seventy-seventh subterranean level. His stomach suddenly leapt to his throat, Sirius grabbed onto a waist-high railing, and Luna squealed in delight.
A minute later, the elevator chimed and the door opened to a large room filled with men pointing cross bows at them.
"Well, I certainly feel welcome," Harry joked.
"Yes, it is a pleasure to see you again monster-lover. It is so nice of you to come here to let me finish what I started." Adrian van Helsing greeted.
"Well, the Romanian authorities are more efficient than I thought. You are back early. I was hoping to speak with your boss to issue a complaint about your conduct. After all, your actions led to the deaths of hundreds of humans."
"And because of you, most of my men are still detained by the Romanian government." Adrian growled.
"Me? Was I really the one responsible for leading your men to war against a sovereign nation?" Harry asked, "That is quite an accusation considering I'd never met you before."
"Enough!" A gravelly voice interrupted the bickering. The men parted to reveal a scarred elderly man with a cane. "You came to speak with me, right? Follow me to my office. The rest of you back to work."
The group dispersed, Adrian sending Harry a dirty look on the way. Harry followed the man's slow, limping gait all the way across the large chamber. At the back was a door with a gold plaque that read 'Director for the Department of Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, Ludger van Helsing'.
While the outside of the office was rough stonework, the inside was completely different. The walls were paneled with polished wood. The floor was tiled with marble. The furniture was carved hardwood stained dark with plush red seating. Ludger took his seat behind the desk, and gestured for Harry to sit across from him.
They looked across the desk at each other silently for a minute, sizing each other up. Then, Ludger broke the silence, "You are the one who confronted my aunt and uncle in Holland as well as interfering with Adrian's operation?"
"Yes," Harry answered, actually slightly intimidated by this man.
"And you are aware that the creature you wear about you is a class two deadly creature. By the laws of this organization I should kill you just for having such a creature."
"And, that is precisely the attitude that I came to complain about. Vindex here is perfectly harmless as long as you don't attack him, or me. Your groups desire to kill anything different from you puts us at odds. You see, I represent equal rights for all intelligent creatures and sufficient government oversight, both of which I fear your organization lacks."
"And you believe you know better then two-thousand years of history?"
"I will admit, there there are certain cases where your kind would be beneficial, but this unrestrained killing must be stopped. Simply put, this is an ultimatum. If your group does not start restricting itself to killing only those creatures that personally commit evil acts, I will not be as kind as I was with Adrian. Next time I find your organization causing the deaths of innocents, I will retaliate with deadly force and then return here and make sure that it never happens again." Harry threatened.
"You've failed to consider one thing. You will not be leaving this place alive. Did you think we were not aware of your kind?" Ludger chuckled, "After all, we are a Christian organization, and the Bible is quite clear. You shall not suffer a witch to live. This place is built in such a way that it renders your wands useless."
"And you have failed to consider another possibility. What if we don't need wands?" Harry asked, flicking his hand to push Ludger's desk so that it pinned him against the wall. Ludger looked shocked at the casual display of power. "I assume you captured a witch or wizard and they told you all about how they needed a wand to use their powers and you experimented until you found a way to disrupt wands before killing him."
"You may kill me, but you can not kill us all!"
"Can't?" Harry asked, "You don't understand. Killing is easy. I could have killed everyone in this city with little effort, but I choose to give people a chance. You've had yours." Ludger's eyes widened for a fraction of a second as Harry's eyes flashed. Then, Ludger was still, never to move again.
"I need physical shields," Harry said.
"Are you sure about this, pup," Sirius asked, "This is not something you can come back from."
"They kill innocent people and are proud of it. They are no more than the muggle version of Death Eaters. The world needs to learn that this kind of behavior can not and will not be tolerated. They need to straighten up their acts or they will suffer the same way they make others suffer," Harry argued.
Sirius recast Harry's notice-me-not charm the moment they stepped out of the office door. The three walked to the elevators, none of the fighters noticing them. The hunters turned as the doors to the elevator opened.
"Sirius, do you know any spells that could kill everyone on this floor?" Harry asked.
"...Fiendfyre," Sirius suggested sadly, "But, I don't know how to cast it."
"I'll have to improvise then." Harry drew his sword, using it as a focus. He slashed high, then low. Then the pillars of stone supporting the roof tumbled. With another wave of his sword, he converted all the water vapor in the room into hydrogen and oxygen. Then, he closed the door as the explosions began. "Dobby!" The elf appeared at his call, "Take us back to our hotel room."
"Luna, are you awake?" Harry asked.
"Mmmh," Luna answered, blinking open her eyes in the dark.
"Am I some sort of monster? I killed all those people so easily. It just keeps getting easier."
"Does it matter?" Luna asked.
"Would you hate me if I became a monster?" Harry responded.
"I think... I would be disappointed. I feel like you don't have it in you to be a monster. Just remember to always do what is right. Sometimes, the right thing is the most monstrous of all, but it doesn't make you a monster."
"Did I do the right thing today?"
"All seven-hundred-seventy-seven floors of the building collapsed. You killed over ten thousand people. You caused hundreds of millions of dollars in structural damage. You damaged a historical location, possibly beyond repair." Luna placed her hand over his heart. "Could you have lived with yourself if you hadn't?"
"I could. Screw the world. We could just run off and live as hermits together and I'd be happy."
"Liar," Luna accused. Harry's arms pulled her tightly to his chest.
"I'd be happy enough," Harry amended.
"And you'd always hate yourself for being unable to change anything, unable to help. You, Harry Potter, have a saving people thing, and even if you need to raze the world in the process, you will save all the people who need you."