Harry and Merope and the Mystery of Forks
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own any of these characters, only the plots and situations that you do not recognize.
Chapter 18
Harry made sure he had what he needed in the backpack that he had made himself before he time traveled for that very first time so long ago. There wasn't much that it didn't contain, considering he rarely took stuff out of it for very long, but he realized over the years that he did on occasion need to sort through the stuff that had accumulated inside of it over the course of the years. He even made sure he had a sufficient supply of the vampire meals, as he was fairly certain that he was going to be introducing them to any survivors by the time he was done with the Volturi.
He had doubted that he would need it, but he decided to dress in his dragonhide armor before he left. With his quick healing abilities, he rarely wore them, but considering he was planning to confront a coven of probably hostile and ancient vampires, he thought a little extra protection would go a long way. He might be Master of Death, but it was still a little painful and a bit of an inconvenience whenever he did get hurt.
Admittedly, his usual M.O. was to try to handle dangerous situations with as little bloodshed as possible, because he had the unfair advantage of being so super powered, but something told him that the Volturi probably wouldn't agree to a peaceful solution until after Harry was forced to kill a few of them to get his point across.
At first, Harry's plan was going to be to apparate in stealth mode to Volterra, Italy and then act as a tourist interested in the structure of the building where their headquarters were supposed to be located underground. Carlisle had warned him of how the Volturi collected their prey, so once he got there, he was going to figure out how to blend in with one of the tourist groups, but also divert the actual group to a safe place while tricking the called Heidi into believing that she was still leading a group of helpless humans into their midst.
Now, though, he realized that he was going to need to go straight into the throne room in stealth mode to observe what they had planned, so there likely wouldn't be any time to try to go with his first plan unless he was lucky enough to land himself with a tourist group the moment he arrived. He wasn't sure how frequently the Volturi lured in the tourist groups for their feeding. He doubted they did it every day.
Finally, Harry felt himself prepared enough and said, "All right. I doubt I'll be gone all that long, but give me at least a week or two before you begin to panic, though I promise there will be absolutely no need for panicking. I want to have the time to observe, but I also intend to lay out some wards, while I'm waiting for their spies to show back up and inform them of whatever their findings were."
"What type of wards do you plan to lay?" Merope asked curiously.
Harry shook his head as he looked at his watch, "I'll just have to tell you about it all when I get back, the clock is ticking and if I stay around here too much longer, those two will return to Volterra before I can get there."
Merope signed and said, "All right. I'll be patient and wait." Then she gave him a passionate kiss goodbye and whispered, "Good luck."
Harry gave her another quick kiss and said, "I love you, my sweet."
"I love you, too," Merope said with a smile.
Harry gave a nod to the Cullens and the Pack before he winked out of sight and was gone.
Harry arrived in Volterra in silence and walked through the crowds to observe the happenings of the city. The city seemed to be in the middle of some sort of preparation for a festival or something. There were red flags being hung up everywhere and whole blocks of streets seemed to be getting blocked off where street vendors were setting up their booths.
After continuing to walk around under stealth mode, with judicious use of translation charms, Harry was able to determine that they were setting up for a festival called Saint Marcus Day, which ironically celebrated the day that Marcus, presumably of the Volturi, rid the city of all vampires.
Merlin, Harry thought to himself, I wonder why these people even celebrate the disappearance of vampires when I doubt any of them even believed they ever existed, which is a little amusing considering the fact that there is a whole coven of vampires living under the streets of the city.
After walking around the city for about an hour, he finally found himself standing in front of one of the entrances to the Volturi's headquarters, so he backtracked outward about a block in each direction and threw out muggle-repelling charms all over, surrounding all of entrances into their headquarters that he was able to locate. Now, anytime Heidi tried to bring in groups of tourists, they would suddenly find themselves realizing they had somewhere else to be and the vampires would be unable to do anything about it, if they didn't want to draw attention to themselves.
After getting the muggle-repelling charms set, he dropped down into the underground and made his way down, weaving wards as he went along. This second set of wards would make it so that none of the vampires that entered their lair would be able to leave again. He didn't know at this point whether or not he would leave these wards in place when all was said and done, but at least this way he would at least be sure that none of them would be able to head back to Forks right away and become a bigger threat to the Pack.
As he walked around the vampires' lair, he continued weaving his wards up and down the tunnels, as he walked around and learned his way around. He wanted to make sure he covered every exit, weaving the unbreakable charm in with the vampire-containing wards on the wall, ceiling, and ground, so that the vampires were unable to just tunnel through and create a new exit when they realized they were unable to leave by the regular exits.
Lastly, he included monitoring charms so that when he found the perfect place to set up his tent, he would be able to listen in on what vampires were up to as he waited, ate, and rested.
While he was setting the wards, he thought about how funny it would be to transfigure some rats or cockroaches into humans, giving them a false human smell, and making them take the place of the tour groups. He chuckled to himself when he imagined how the vampires would react to the taste of the blood. He decided that if the Volturi were to annoy him enough, he might just do it.
After what felt like hours, he finally completed all the wards and charms he was setting throughout all of the underground tunnels surrounding the city. Making his way to the throne room, Harry decided this would be the best place for him to set up his tent, so he warded off what appeared to be the least used corner of the room and then set up his tent, and set himself up inside to finally eat something while he tuned into the monitoring charms.
It wasn't until the next morning that the monitoring charms started to pick up anything interesting. Harry had just sat down in his living room with a cup of tea and breakfast when he heard what sounded like a gathering in the throne room, so he turned on the monitoring screens so he could see and hear.
"Felix, Demetri, what news do you have for us?" Aro inquired.
"The rumors of werewolves in Forks, Washington seems to have merit, except there is something different about the ones we saw. These wolves appear to be able to change at will." Demetri replied informatively.
"Hmm. I wonder why Carlisle never informed us about the presence of werewolves in that area; it is one of his coven's territories, is it not?" Caius asked with a frown.
"We found no scent of the Cullens there, nor did we actually catch sight of them, but when we walked out amongst the town to gather information, we heard the townsfolk mention a Dr. Cullen, who works at the local hospital. He and his wife apparently have big hearts for adopting a lot of teenagers even though they are still so young themselves." Felix said with a smirk.
"Show me," Aro ordered, as he held out his hand.
After that, it was silent for a bit while Aro reviewed Felix's and Demetri's memory of their trip in Washington.
"How interesting," Aro said after a few minutes.
"What is it, brother?" Caius asked curiously.
"Well, brother. They are definitely not the typical type of werewolves, they can change in the middle of the day and it doesn't even have to be the day of the full moon." Aro said.
"Impossible!" Caius exclaimed.
"Indeed," Aro responded. "And they appear to have some type of magical capabilities, quite possibly from their Native American ancestry, because neither Felix nor Demetri were able to cross the boundary where their land was said to be. It was as if there was something there that prevented their entry, even though there was nothing preventing the humans from traveling back and forth over the boundary line. How curious."
"Jane, Alec," Aro called.
"Yes, Aro?" Jane answered, with her brother, Alec, standing quietly beside her.
"I want you and Alec to accompany Felix and Demetri to Forks, Washington to subdue these werewolves and bring them to Caius," Aro said.
"Consider it done," said Jane.
Caius gave a feral grin and added to the instructions, "Be sure to pass on a message to the Cullens about what should befall them should they not inform us of something as important as a pack of werewolves again. Feel free to be as creative with your message as you wish."
Jane responded with a feral grin of her own and said, "Of course, Caius."
"You will of course need to wait until nightfall to leave," Aro said, "which will allow you time to wait for Heidi to come back with our meal, so that you all can feed before you travel."
Jane nodded in acquiesce and returned to her previous position, with Alec following close behind.
While the coven went on to discuss news of new and upcoming talents that their recruiters had discovered during their travels, Harry stood up and cleaned up his breakfast mess and decided to sit down to read while he waited for the vampires to figure out something was wrong with their lair.
Harry next tuned in when Heidi came running in, "Aro, Caius, Marcus! I don't understand, I had a very large tour group ready to come with me and suddenly they all remembered they had something else they had to do before we arrived and I was prevented from being able to lead them here.
"The same thing happened with the next group that I collected to bring, and again with the third group. I don't understand what is happening."
Aro frowned, "Come. Let me see." Heidi came forward and offered her hand. After a moment Aro said with wide eyes, "How astonishing."
"What did you see?" Caius asked.
"It was as she said, before they could get close to the entrance, the humans all suddenly had somewhere else to be. It's most intriguing." Aro responded.
"Santiago," called Caius.
Santiago stepped forward.
"Go with Heidi and help her carry out her fishing expedition," ordered Caius.
"Yes, Caius," responded Santiago, who followed Heidi back out.
Harry chuckled to himself as he waited. He didn't have to wait long because Heidi and Santiago came running back. "We are trapped!" Heidi exclaimed, "We are unable to get out. We have tried every tunnel and exit and we cannot get out!"
Santiago added, "We even tried to dig a new tunnel, but were unable to even make a dent in any direction we tried to dig."
A/N: I've got too many distractions going on to be able to make this chapter any longer, hopefully I can make up for it when I write the next chapter.