This was extremely hard to do: I already had drafts of this, but it took far too long so I had to cut it. Still, I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, but if you wish to find out what Aro and Caius have been up to and how Twilight connects to Harry Potter- read on.
Word of warning: this is in Bella's past tense First Person POV. And I don't own any of the canon and semi-canon stuff from Twilight and Harry Potter. Besides, this will be painful for Bella to remember as well, even though the Volturi are her greatest enemies or have been for a very long time (or so she thought). Now as it turns out, many of them are victims too.
"There really can be no peace without justice. There can be no justice without truth. And there can be no truth unless someone rises up to tell you the truth."
Louis Farrakhan
Bella
As predicted, Caius started out haughty and defiant.
"On whose authority do you presume to try us?" He sneered. Lady Laima looked at him with a cool and calm expression, regardless of the fact that many vampires behind her had stiffened.
Aro, on the other hand, did see this and tried to salvage things. "Surely," he attempted a smile. "This… this is a misunderstanding."
"I fear not." Elijah Mikaelson said, dryly. Otherwise, he remained calm and collected. "You see, the ancient treaty was documented and signed long before your species even emerged. However, it specifically refers to all vampires. And that now includes you."
"Every single one of you," the other male with the flowing red hair and pointed ears grinned, showcasing very sharp, needle-like teeth. Elijah seemed to be the closest to us in terms of his appearance. I shuddered, involuntarily.
"Yes." Elijah agreed. "Hence the reason for you being tried by a court sanctioned by the Vampire High Council. In any case, you may view it as similar to the trials of Nuremberg, held for the surviving leaders of the Nazi party in 1945 to 1946. There were no such things as War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity, nor even the term 'genocide'. Yet this did not make their actions any less… reprehensible, nor any more ethically correct. Nor did it undermine the urgency and necessity to try the Nazi leaders, as opposed to inflicting mere 'victor's vengeance' as you may call it." Elijah shrugged, calm in the midst of Caius' outrage and glare which held the promise of murder.
I was beginning to fall under the suspicion that Caius was not going to be immune from whatever was going to be handed out. And I could see on the witness stands that the other members of our species, especially the vampires who had arrived as witnesses for us on the New Year, looked especially gleeful.
Caius blond locks were mussed and barely presentable. His fine and expensive-looking tailored robe had been replaced, as had all cloaks and robes of the guard which stood in chains with Magical Inhibitors around their necks.
Many of them bore expressions of fear and complete confusion more than anything. At once I understood why Selene and the others could believe that they had been under some kind of spell- I did now. I could see Eleazar peering curiously at the whole group. We were both wondering the same thing: just how strong was Chelsea's power?
I easily spotted the figure of Renata, wide-eyed and horrified, pale in terror and shock, eyes darting to and fro. Another witness in the audience on our level gazed at her in concern. He was a male with an olive-tint on his complexion and dark eyes. His brow was furrowed and pinched in worry. Another couple sat beside him. I started in shock. I recognised Charles and Mackenna from New Year's. Although they never came to testify for us, when the Volturi had arrived with their own witnesses, they'd testified for us all the same, claiming our innocence. I saw them watching Renata with wide and worried eyes, wondering just what she meant to them.
The other members of the guard included Demetri whom I also saw was staring agape at everything. His green eyes were wide, massive in fact, as he looked around, incredulous not only at his surroundings and the state they were all in, but I watched as he looked at every member of the guard himself, like he'd never seen them before. He looked aghast and horrified. My eyes bugged. Was Demetri one of those under Chelsea's spell?
It stunned me to the core. I never thought he would be. Of course, I knew the Volturi Guard had about nine permanent members and other more 'transitory' members who came and went, but I never thought that someone as important as Demetri to them would have to be placed under a spell in order to gain his power. In hindsight, I should've known. They'd done the same to Marcus, after all.
Sickened, I turned my head to the next figure down the line: Heidi. I recognised her, alright: it was hard not to. Her eyes, a violet-blue similar to Rosalie's- and Gabrielle's- probably the only thing she had in common with Rosalie, apart from her beauty- darted, wide-eyed in shock and horror as much as Demetri.
Speaking of Marcus, where was he? I spotted him on a balcony, just above the ground level, almost at the same height as the judges' stand. He was there, but he looked… different to say the least. His eyes were dark and his face expressionless but I could see a focus on them that I had never seen before; not on Marcus.
So it was true, I realised. Chelsea had put Marcus under her spell. My eyes turned towards the other figures, the two wives. I remembered their names now: Sulpicia and Athenodora, Aro and Caius'.
A chill spread throughout my body. Did Aro really have Marcus' wife killed and then forced him and his own wife and Caius' under a spell so that the three of them could never leave? I froze as I remembered what Aro said, that Didyme, Marcus' wife, had been Aro's sister as a human…
Sulpicia had tousled dark curls and was slightly taller than Athenodora. Athenodora ash-blonde hair and a slender, willowy figure; both looked remarkably ethereal, hauntingly so. I could see why Aro and even Caius would be drawn. I wondered if they'd met them as humans.
The wives were staring at their respective husbands, their eyes brimming with pain… and betrayal. But they held their poise, as if not to cave. I could see they were both torn. On the one hand, they loved them: Aro and Caius each. They didn't want them to suffer.
On the other hand… they'd been held prisoner against their will, their right to live as they willed it and their emotions mostly taken out of them by Chelsea and Corin- all under the orders of their husbands. The ones they loved the most.
I closed my eyes, squeezing them shut, momentarily. I tried to ignore the screams, the rage…
Now was not the time. I opened them again.
But what startled me most about the guard were Jane and Alec.
They were staring and blinking with blue eyes darting to and fro. They looked more like frightened children than anything. I couldn't stop staring.
Just children... How old were Alec and Jane when they were transformed? Ten? Eleven? Twelve? I didn't dare think.
A thought struck me, like lightning: "Are they Immortal Children?" I blurted, staring at Carlisle.
Carlisle's brow furrowed. "They weren't toddlers when they transformed, Bella."
Anything I was about to say was interrupted by Elijah Mikaelson: "Regardless of your prior authority, it has now been rendered null and void, due to evidence of your corruption and incompetence among other things. Therefore, the Vampire High Council has summoned members of your species here to the Old-World Coven in order to arrange a new government and laws. That shall be done as soon as testimonies are given and the trials concluded."
Caius' eyes bugged and his jaw dropped. Even Aro was stunned speechless. His eyes wide, panicked and horrified, he was beginning to realise that he wasn't likely to get out of this alive, and even if he did, he would lose his power and standing- forever.
This was the Volturi's worst nightmare come to pass.
Perhaps I should have been celebrating, and maybe I would once this was all over, but instead I sat, stunned into silence. I had never seen the Volturi like this; it wasn't anything like I'd imagined.
"Hundreds of years," Carlisle breathed. We all understood: it would all come to an end, if not tonight, then soon enough.
Caius bared his teeth. It didn't seem to faze any of the judges. "And you?" He demanded, eyes boring at Lady Laima. "You claim authority, right and precendece to try us? Who are you?" He demanded. "Vampire Queen! Ha! The mother of our kind?" He sneered, in obvious challenge and defiance.
I could see just about every vampire in the court room stiffen, but Lady Laima held out a delicate hand. Instead she waved it and a candle appeared, seemingly folding itself into the light.
"Brace yourselves." Her voice rang throughout the auditorium. Then she placed her finger on the flame and held it there.
Instantly, I cried out; I wasn't the only one: I could hear Tanya jump and cry out and Kate and Garrett hiss simultaneously. Then the lady lifted her finger from the flame.
Caius cringed, his eyes wild with shock and horror. Aro's was the same. Lady Laima held out her burned finger. I looked at the two Volturi leaders: Caius and Aro both looked down. I was both stunned and horrified to see burns on their individual index fingers, even though their skin was crystalline like mine.
My eyes flew to my own finger. There, on it was a burn, exactly the same as the ones the Volturi and Lady Laima had. The skin appeared to have crumbled, like charcoal. It looked worse than Lady Laima's own wound. For some reason I didn't feel pain; but somehow, I knew she'd been using magic to shield the rest of us from the sensation, though not from the reality.
Lady Laima waited, while Caius and Aro both turned horrified eyes towards her. The aura of power seemed to radiate from her very being, and it made me freeze. Now, they could have no doubt.
I stared at the others. She was hurt... and so were we? The rest of us?! I stared at Carlisle's finger, and the others. And sure enough, each vampire of our species sported burns on their index finger.
I stared back at the judges. Elijah was obviously grimacing, then he sighed audibly (well, audibly for a vampire) as he looked at his burned finger. The other vampire judge had the same wound but seemed amused, grinning and showcasing his pointed fangs at the Volturi.
"My apologies," Lady Laima said quietly. Instantly I felt the pain vanish. My eyes flew back to my burned finger. There was nothing; no sign of any injury, as if nothing had happened- which it hadn't, not to me anyway. My jaw dropped.
Carlisle and Alice were staring at their index fingers in awe. Jasper hissed in a breath. Emmett's eyes were wide and frightened and so were Rosalie's and Esme's.
"Does that count as sufficient proof?" the Lady Progenitor asked quietly. "Or do you require more?"
The Volturi did not dare answer. No one breathed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Gabrielle appear shocked and stunned. Even she didn't know about this. Aro's eyes were wide in horror, and Caius' in fear. Although their burns had healed, they apparently got the message. I remembered what Gabrielle had said, that every vampire on earth, no matter the species, each shared a portion of Lady Laima's DNA, and that it was magical before she even became a vampire. Markus had fed her some of his blood and he had drunk some of hers in return, creating some sort of connection between the two; so everyone they bit and transformed, and everyone that was transformed by their personal creations and so forth down the generations, still had a piece of the two inside of them.
She truly was the Great Mother.
The Vampire Queen.
"If I had truly wanted to harm you, I would have burned my entire hand and left it for some time before allowing myself to heal as I normally would," the Vampire Queen pointed out to Caius. "But, yes. My husband and I were the beginning... and we could very well be the end... if possible."
Ice filled me from head to toe. I got the message- we all did. If anything happened to Lady Laima...
That was it. That could potentially be the end of us, if not for certain.
"That ancient treaty was signed in my blood and venom," Lady Laima said quietly. "Long before your species emerged, nor any other. Long before even the first pure-born, vampires born via the union of two vampire parents, instead of turned, emerged. Yet despite all this, the treaty's terms still stand. A curse over our heads should we allow injustice to continue, including against wizard-kind. And you have forfeited your own authority."
Her eyes glowed a rich, deep gold, then reverted back to its usual dark blue colour.
"The charges against you include that of corruption, false imprisonment, enslavement and recruitment via enchantment-" at this, Lady Laima's eyes suddenly turned to Chelsea who paled considerably "-obstruction of justice, miscarriage of justice, falsifying and creating false charges for your own benefit- thereby abuse of authority- murder of your own coven-members and also kinslaying regarding to the death of your sister Didyme." Lady Laima murmured softly. The audience erupted in whispers.
Aro paled considerably. In all my life as a vampire- which was admittedly not that long- I had never seen him look so frightened. Caius too was frozen in shock. My eyes flew towards Marcus, Sulpicia and Athenodora on the balcony behind the judges. They had their eyes fixed on the duo, Marcus' eyes were boring into them, as if forcing them to tell the truth. The other members of the guard, Jane and Alec, Demetri, Chelsea, Heidi, Felix, Afton, Renata and the others all looked bewildered at the last claim.
"As for your corruption and incompetence charges, which led to the suspension if not outright annulment of your authority, our own evidence points that on March nineteenth 2006, a certain male vampire named Edward Cullen, born Edward Anthony Masen Junior, appeared on your doorstep admitting to a relationship with a non-magical human and requesting your assistance in suicide. When you refused, he attempted to expose himself to the people gathered in Volterra square for the festival celebrations. He was seen by a young girl aged two years old, named Vittoria Della Rosa who pointed him out to her parents, and whom you then murdered alongside her father- without even bothering to find out that the girl and her family are all part of the supernatural." Lady Laima's eyes glowed gold. "Magical humans: witches and wizards. And you murdered them."
Silence reigned throughout the auditorium. Aro and Caius were very still as they absorbed what had been said. I wondered if they ever found out that the little girl had been magic before now. "In addition to this, you allowed the transgressor of the law to walk free, despite his attempt at exposure, thereby endangering your entire species- and the supernatural world as a whole. After that, on December thirty-first 2006, you came to Forks, Washington State, the United States of America, under the pretense of justice, after someone reported that a human child had been bitten and turned by the residing coven. However, upon discovering that the child was, in fact, a Dhampir- a half-vampire and half-human hybrid- you executed the one who reported the crime, for no crime whatsoever apart from doing what was technically her duty by reporting an act of transgression, even if she made a mistake and was unwilling to risk her own life in coming closer in case they murdered her." More murmurs and whispers broke out in the auditorium. Caius paled.
"The other charges include recruitment and enslavement via enchantment, robbing your fellow vampires- and humans whom you have turned- of their own free will to serve you as members of your guard, due to the power of your guard-member Chelsea." I could see Chelsea pale even further. "And her coven-mate Corin. These include the various permanent members of your guard including Heidi who was part of a coven of six in Germany, consisting of Hilda, Mary, Noela, Anne, Victoria-" I saw the Volturi guard look troubled. Some of their eyes darted over to where we were and I stilled in shock. Victoria? "-and Heidi herself. You accused the coven-unit quite falsely of charges of endangerment of your kind via exposure and executed them with little pretense of a trial and certainly few witnesses if any, that were not brought, threatened or blackmailed. Whereupon you executed Hilda, Noela, Mary and Anne. Anne's younger sister Victoria escaped due to her natural talent at evasion-" my eyes bugged. Carlisle and the others were the same. "- but spared Heidi after you decimated her family. You were drawn by her talent and used Chelsea to bind her in loyalty towards yourself and your coven, whereupon you recruited her and she has served you ever since." My eyes shot towards Heidi. Heidi looked pale, stunned and horrified. Sickened in fact. Her eyes held some kind of anguish, as if just realising precisely what she had done.
Heidi and Victoria were coven-mates. Before I could absorb the fact and what the lady progenitor had said about them, she continued:
"The same can be said for many of your coven-members, including that of your tracker Demetri. He was created by Amun of Egypt and turned only to be enchanted by Chelsea at your behest." Demetri flinched violently. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amun looked bewildered, even befuddled. He blinked and turned wide eyes towards Demetri, as if seeing him for the first time. This was new to me: Amun created Demetri?
Aro and Chelsea must've gotten to him, I realised. It would explain why Amun was so desperate to keep Benjamin away from the Volturi. I watched Demetri blink repeatedly, as if coming out of a haze and he couldn't believe what was in front of his eyes. An awful, horrifying realisation sank into me: just how strong was Chelsea's power that they could be enchanted to be loyal for centuries, if not millennia? Even to be faithful to the ones who murdered your family? I was aghast. Heidi was in the same state of shock as Demetri, and looking absolutely horrified. Aro was really willing to go that far? To enslave them? Rob them of free will and force them to abandon their families? All the ones they had loved before?
Another horrifying thought struck me: would Edward be willing to do the same if it suited him?
He certainly proved that he couldn't care less about Charlie, despite the fact that he was my father. But maybe that was my fault: I didn't show much attachment to Charlie throughout the two years I was in Forks. My lips twisted into a bitter smile at the memory of how short our relationship was before we got married. How much of an idiot had I been?
Besides, Edward didn't do anything to me that I didn't allow. I was a pushover; no point denying it.
But there were times when he kept me in one place against my will...
"In addition," Lady Laima continued while they absorbed this new information, "you stand accused by the international Wizarding community of transforming members of their kind without their explicit consent, as well as recruiting and enslaving members of their kind via enchantment, along with the transformation of underage children." The audience collectively reeled in shock and began to whisper excitedly. "As it was in the case for the twins." Lady Laima gave a pointed look in the direction of Jane and Alec.
"Jane and Alec, formerly Jehanne and Alexander of Wessex." Lady Laima stated calmly.
At this, the audience, or rather specifically the members of our species, collectively inhaled a deep gasp of shock.
There were no words to describe the stunned, astonished and completely overwhelmed feeling that I felt during the trial.
As Lady Laima read out the list of crimes the Volturi had committed, I realised a great deal of them included crimes committed against their own coven-members. They included scouting and transforming a pair of adolescent children, and bringing the attention of local witch-hunters to those young children and their mother, during the ninth century A.D. I could feel my own eyes widening at the details: they were horrifying.
Gabrielle had been called to the witness stand after Lady Laima elaborated upon the charge against Alec and Jane; they'd started with that first.
Jane and Alec, born Jehanne and Alexander, were the twin adolescent daughter and son of an Anglo-Saxon woman and a Frankish farmer and apparently, according to Gabrielle's own testimony. They were magical humans, witches and wizards like her and the ones from MACUSA. This caused Lady Laima's brow to furrow in disapproval, and the witches and wizards who were called to witness and record the trial reeled back in horror. My eyes were on the twins. Jane's eyes had popped in astonishment and disbelief at the revelation, Alec's jaw had dropped. This was apparently news to them, not that they weren't ordinary humans as they knew they were gifted as children, as the testimony from Gabrielle and various Volturi guards had claimed, but that they were part of a separate branch of humanity that split apart from the main branch to form their own civilisation, their own governments, their own laws and countries within countries. That they had schools, an economy and police force and even businesses of their own. According to the testimonies from various guards, the two wives and Marcus, and Gabrielle's own expertise about witches and wizards, and magical children, Alec and Jane were definitely witches and wizards in their human life.
According to Gabrielle, while magic is passed down the line via offspring, things weren't so clean-cut. Only recently had she discovered how completely ordinary human parents, with no magic, were able to produce children who were witches or wizards. Everyone sat baffled, including me.
Gabrielle claimed that magical parents sometimes produced a child with apparently no magical ability. The usual treatment of said-children- the ones that weren't inhumane, anyway- particularly in the past, would be to send them to non-magical schools and encourage them to integrate and live inside the non-magical world. They would have grown up, married non-magical humans, and had children with no magical ability. Only somewhere down the line, at some point in time, the magic would then resurface, resulting in what seemed to be children having magic although their parents were completely non-magical.
There were whispers and murmurs at this revelation. Even among other witches and wizards. I saw a few of them look sheepish, some of them clapped themselves on the forehead, as if they'd missed out an incredibly important but rather obvious explanation. I was baffled. Was this discovery recent? Although Gabrielle's science and logic did, the fact that no one had known about this until now did not make sense.
Gabrielle asked Jane and Alec what kind of powers they had as children. Alec claimed that when they were young, he saw his sister catch a butterfly and it froze on her hand before flying away. Jane claimed she saw her brother fall from a tree only to float back up again. The other members of the guard and the wives claimed that the twins had met many people and the ones who were kind and helpful to them often found they had a trail of good fortune follow in their wake. They also claimed that the ones who were rude or in any way cruel to the twins or their parents had bad luck instead.
Gabrielle deduced that indeed, Jane and Alec had been a witch and a wizard during their human lives. What they displayed, she claimed, was Accidental Magic, also known as Underage Magic.
Accidental Magic is displayed whenever a child felt strong emotions, such as fear, in which case it would trigger their magic to defend itself. Or even when they were happy, such as the case with the twins wanting to bring good luck to anyone who had been kind to them. I blinked. I'd never thought Alec or Jane to be capable to kindness or gratitude.
The other vampires of our species seemed to be looking at the twins in a new light, myself included. The witches and wizards too looked horrified and astonished- and sympathetic towards the children whom they realised, could have been their own had they lived during a different, much harsher time.
Caius scoffed that this was absurd. But even from up here, we could see his shifting eyes. Aro claimed- loudly- that the twins' powers weren't abnormal in many a gifted human that vampires tended to transform. I could see Maggie narrowing her eyes. They were just so young, Aro claimed, that their powers hadn't settled into a definitive ability. He soon realised the implications of what he had just said and snapped his mouth shut. The witches and wizards present hissed in outrage, and I could see many of their hands twitched towards their wands as the two males paled even further than their chalky complexion. If they were to attack using magic, I wondered, could vampires survive?
Lady Laima stood and assured them, asking them to wait while the evidence was being presented.
Lady Laima icily told Aro that his transformation of the twins was illegal, and that in doing so, they risked war with witches and wizards for transforming members of their race, especially children, against their will. In addition, it was highly dangerous and damaging to their minds since they were so young. Many a vampire, she claimed, no matter the species, would never transform children. Caius scornfully remarked, "As if we ourselves did not know of this: it was we who implemented such laws and hunted down the Immortal Children."
"Define the ages of human childhood to us," Lady Laima said, a tone of scorn now entering her voice for the first time. "Well?"
Maggie told her that Immortal Children, by our species' standards, were usually between the ages of infancy and three years when they were transformed. Anyone older were still rare, even if they were considered a child by human standards, but Maggie herself had never met a vampire who had transformed so young until she saw Alec and Jane. Lady Laima looked upwards to each of us to verify this.
We all nodded. I admitted it was true. Alec and Jane seemed to physically be the youngest vampires I had ever seen. Alec and Jane looked confused, like they'd never imagined that no one else had ever transformed anyone as young as them.
Lady Laima regarded the twins in silence. "Tell us of your human lives and transformation," she said slowly.
Alec and Jane told everyone about how they lived with their mother as farmers in the English countryside, long before the Norman Conquest. I was stunned. The twins' physical youth and their ages during transformation contrasted greatly with how long they'd been alive. I shuddered. That somehow didn't seem normal or right to me in any way. Why couldn't Aro have waited until they reached my age at least, before he transformed them? Or better yet, older?
I pondered at the consequences of creating such young vampires: I knew from Carlisle that the Immortal Children were frozen at the level of development they were turned in and could not be taught. Even twelve or thirteen, as Jane and Alec had been when they transformed, seemed far too young to handle such a transformation. I shuddered in horror when I remembered my own transformation: how it burned so much that I wished I was dead- for three days. To go through that at such a young age...
"Do you think they're insane?" I whispered. I was sure that my face was pale as I glanced at Carlisle and Esme, their faces equally pallid with shock and horror. "The transformation, their young ages... you mentioned that the Immortal Children were frozen at the level of development they were in... do you think they could've gone insane from the transformation?" A chilling thought occurred to me. "And from being frozen in time forever?"
"It's possible," Carlisle breathed. He too was frozen in horror.
I saw Gabrielle's brow furrowing. As the story unfolded, she looked grim. So did everyone else and I felt ice spread throughout my entire body as they told their tale.
Aro had come to see them: they remembered a dark, brooding stranger who had been scouting for new talent to add to his coven. He met with the twins, acted polite and friendly and greeted their mother who was normally wary and protective of strangers around her children, but he was charming and the more they saw him, the more at ease they felt. My gut twisted. Bile- or venom- rose up my throat. I imagined someone, another stranger, as dark and brooding, getting close and paying attention to Renesmee, taking an interest in her powers, seeking to take her away from me and our family, deceiving them and putting us at ease just so we could drop our guard, as Aro had deceived the children and their mother.
I saw Alec blinking hard, as if he was struggling to remember- or maybe he remembered and was confused- unable to reconcile the child he had once been with the monster he became.
The monster that Aro had created.
Jane sat stunned, her eyes far away, as if she too suddenly remembered her childhood in the sun and the English countryside. Her eyes misted at the mention of her mother, as if the memory could bring tears to her eyes, the way they once had cried. She was breathing hard, her baby-blue eyes glazed over with pain, horror and fear. I imagined a woman that looked like them, wiping away her tears with a warm brush of her hand and a handkerchief, kissing the children on their foreheads.
I was gob-smacked.
At that moment, I saw them for who they truly were: children ripped apart from their childhood, their homes, their mother's warm embrace and forced into a cruel and monstrous world. A world where you had to drink human blood in order to live. Where you had to kill or be killed. My stomach churned. Aro had been scouting them that young?
As it turned out Aro had been scouting them for years before they were turned. Jane remembered seeing Aro for the first time. They might have been six or seven, playing in the garden of their house. Aro had introduced himself to the twins and their mother, but vanished mysteriously soon afterwards, frightening their mother.
Years later, the twins were twelve, almost thirteen. They were peasants who didn't know how to read or write, and their births were never recorded, so they didn't know their actual age. But their strange abilities, which they also didn't understand, had frightened the townspeople. One day, Jane and Alec were walking home after playing in the fields, when Jane decided to wander off on her own, to pick wildflowers for their mother. A gang of local boys brutalised her, beating, kicking and scratching. She'd screamed and hunched on the ground, curling up into a ball to protect herself and lost consciousness. When she woke up, the boys had disappeared and she was somehow covered in blood. She didn't know how.
Even Maggie looked disturbed- and confused. There was a crease between her brows. We knew she was telling the truth, but something just didn't add up. While Gabrielle admitted that it was a possibility that Jane's powers had instinctively triggered in her fear and panic to protect herself, she had never heard of such extreme cases of Accidental Magic which had potentially killed any aggressors.
During the trial, Jane stood still, seemingly mesmerised by the trance of the memories of her childhood. Something was wrong, we knew it. I held my breath.
"A stranger," Jane said, seemingly from a distance. "There was a strange man in a dark robe or a cloak, but he vanished so fast when I blinked."
Lady Laima's eyes looked grim. As did everyone else. Jane slowly turned towards Aro, her master and creator.
"Was it you?" She asked.
Aro sat silent for a moment, before he nodded.
Jane was stunned. "You said that you were only planning to turn us when we were older," she said slowly, astonished. I flinched. With her big blue eyes, she'd looked and sounded more like a child than she ever had. It wasn't hard to imagine her as one.
"I did," Aro eagerly replied. "But I needed to keep an eye on you."
"In person?" Lady Laima said sharply. "You couldn't have sent a member of your guard?"
"They were too valuable to be wasted, such special talent deserves my special attention," Aro insisted. But I could see the desperation in his eyes. I could hear the quaver in his voice. With a sinking feeling I remembered why Aro had allowed Edward, Alice and I to go free, even though I was a human and they didn't know that some of the Cullens, namely Edward and Rosalie, were then still resistant in transforming me.
I hadn't thought about a lot of things. Meanwhile, Alec and Jane were looking at Aro as if they had never seen him before. I saw the hurt in Jane's eyes, mirroring her twin's, at Aro's admission that they had only ever been 'special talent' to him, and that was solely why he had given them any preferential treatment among his guard.
It struck me that the twins looked upon Aro as a father. That they saw him the way the Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper, Alice and I saw Carlisle, and the Denali sisters saw their mother before she'd died.
But Aro wasn't Carlisle. He didn't care to love or keep them safe- unless he wanted to use them. He had no such qualms about using them as offence and defence, the way Edward had described.
"What happened after that incident?" Lady Laima turned back to Jane and Alec, her eyes noticeably kinder.
Jane and Alec almost stumbled back at her response. "The villagers gathered," Jane said slowly, understanding dawning in her eyes. "They accused us of murdering the boys. They came to our house…" she sucked in a breath. Alec drew in a sharp breath not long afterwards.
"Your mother?" Lady Laima asked, softly. Jane flinched. If she could cry, I was certain that she would. She drew in a sharp breath that sounded too much like a sob. Her blue eyes shone, and in that moment, despite her preternatural beauty, she looked too much like a human. Involuntarily, my heartstrings twisted. I couldn't bear it. I looked away. Alec stood frozen beside her.
"They killed her," Jane's voice was barely a whisper, but it was heard throughout the room. Involuntarily, my eyes shot back at her. "She tried to stop them. When she tried to save us."
Lady Laima nodded understanding in her eyes. She turned back to the crowd. "According to the testimonies of various members of the Volturi coven, including Marcus, Sulpicia and Athenodora, and members of the guard, such as their tracker Demetri; the adolescents Alexander and Jehanne were imprisoned by the non-magical humans, interrogated through the use of torture and burned alive at the stake." I flinched back in my seat. I felt like I'd been stabbed. Alec and Jane also flinched. Venom rose up my throat. I wanted to vomit. Beside me, Esme gasped sharply and Rosalie hissed through her teeth. Carlisle reeled as if he had been stabbed in the gut.
"Mademoiselle Delacour," Gabrielle turned towards her. "You are the expert in this regard. Was it normal for underage children of the wizarding community to trigger such a display of Accidental Magic that would kill or cause their assailants to vanish when afraid, such as what Jane supposedly did to that group of boys that assaulted her?"
Gabrielle shook her head. "No, I have never heard of it. While Accidental Magic is triggered, largely involuntarily, although some children have better control of it as they grow older, even when such children are seriously afraid I have never heard of much less witnessed a case where a child has actually killed the ones who assaulted them. They are simply not that powerful, certainly not while still in the adolescent stage. Yes, they may exert more and more control as they grow older, but that comes at a cost of controlling one's magical ability via training, such as in one of our schools, and such children are less likely to accidentally unleash their magic, especially as they grow older. It would take quite a feat of magic for her to have killed every single one of those boys as a child, far more than even for one as gifted as she testified as being. The only time any child has proved capable of such feats is if they have developed an Obscurus."
"An Obscurus?" Alec blurted, his blue eyes wide, as if he was unable to help the question that was bursting out of him.
"During the days when witches and wizards lived alongside non-magical humans," Gabrielle explained, turning towards them. "Especially for magical children living with non-magical parents or guardians, it wasn't uncommon for such children to be abused by the adults. Of course, it was done through fear, but the children themselves were afraid and therefore the inborn magic inside of them instinctively, against all control, lashed out in order to protect the child in question whenever they were attacked. However, this brought an even harsher cycle of punishment and retribution. It wasn't unknown for them to suffer increasingly harsh and brutal punishments for their lack of control and involuntary displays of magic. So the children learned that the more they showed they still possessed magic, the more likely they would be to suffer reprisals. So instead of learning to control them, instead of harnessing their powers, they tried to suppress them instead. Make it go away. To be accepted. To be normal."
A chill spread down my spine. I shivered.
"But the magic is a part of them, ingrained within their very DNA. It cannot go away. So instead it developed into an Obscurus: a dark, parasitic force that lashed out whenever the host felt threatened before vanishing. However, it is a parasite. And it slowly, inevitably consumed the child, eating them from the inside and that was how such children died."
Silence struck the room, louder than thunder.
"I do not believe that was the problem with Jehanne," Gabrielle mused. "Or Alexander. What was the date of their births again? And their transformations?"
The Volturi members furrowed their brows. Caius' eyes narrowed. "Answer the questions," the judge on the right boomed.
"Around 800 Anno Domini," Aro intoned.
Gabrielle closed her eyes. "I see," she said. When she opened them to look at the twins, her eyes were grave.
"The British school of Magic, called Hogwarts, was founded in 990 A.D by four of the greatest sorcerers of the age." She murmured. "Around a hundred-and-ninety years after your births. Hogwarts-" the gravity of the situation was as such that even Emmett didn't dare crack jokes about the name. "uses a special method in tracking down every child with magical ability all throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland: the Quill of Acceptance and the Book of Admission, which is placed in one of the school's towers. They were invented by the school's Founders with the purpose of tracking down all children of magical ability, including those who lived amongst non-magical families. The Quill was enchanted so that it needed no ink and that every time a child displayed signs of Accidental Magic, the Quill would be compelled to automatically write the name of the child on the Book of Admittance, and the school staff had the means of determining of tracking them down. Hogwarts takes students between the ages of eleven to However, it requires sure proof of significant magical ability, strong enough for them to be accepted, as squib children- squibs of course being children of at least one magical parent who inherited the magical gene in latent form- often inherit traces of their parents' magic.
"Of course, this is all moot, since Alexander and Jehanne were born well before the Four Founders established the school and witches and wizards worldwide established the separation of both our worlds and the International Statute of Magical Secrecy." Gabrielle shook her head. "But the reason I mention this is because I have no doubt that, had Jane and Alec been born around a later date, or if Hogwarts' Founders had lived over a century earlier, then the twins would have been spirited to safety alongside their mother, educated and trained to use and control their magic, before being considered full citizens and active members of Magical Britain." Murmurs and whispers rang throughout the auditorium. I flinched, as did Alec and Jane. The knowledge that these two could have had normal lives, could have been children with their mother, and then grew up to be regular adults, well as regular as you can be with magical powers, had families of their own and be members of a society, even upstanding citizens, anything other than the sadistic thugs the Volturi moulded them to be was... disconcerting.
"And therefore, the tragedy is that they were never found in time. Back before the founding of Hogwarts or any other school of magic across the globe, few wizards and witches dared to show their faces amongst non-magicals and openly risk scouting magical children to find and train them. The difficulties of keeping such children hidden and safe from non-magical humans- known as Muggles within Britain and as No-Majs within the United States- whilst training them cannot be underestimated. It wasn't uncommon for Muggles in Britain, and No-Majs- particularly around the time of the Great European Witch Hunt and the Salem Witch Trials-" Carlisle flinched. "To find and track down such pockets of student-apprentices and teachers. It was too risky."
Gabrielle took a deep breath and looked Alec and Jane in the eye. "I say this because I am sorry. Sorrier than I can ever express that you and your mother had to suffer what you had suffered. I am sorry that you had your mother and your childhoods ripped as violently from you as possible in the most brutal and cruel ways imaginable. And I am sorry that none of our people had found you, and taken the two of you and your mother to safety, where you could have grown up and been happy, perhaps had families, homes and professions of your own, and become full citizens and contributing members- part of our society, instead of the feared and hated outcasts those monsters made you out to be." Alec's eyes slowly dawned in the realisation of what she was saying, as the truth of her words sunk into both Alec and Jane. Jane's face was pinched, paler than it had ever been, as her eyes burned with the agony and the weight of what might have once been. I swallowed. Even though I'd hated the twins, it was hard not to think about how much better, how much happier they would have been had they been allowed to grow up in peace and live freely with their mother. In the wizards' box, I saw the witch, Hermione Granger, look like she was in tears. Her red-haired husband Ron comforted her. Harry Potter, their brother-in-law, visibly swallowed.
"And more than anything, I am sorry that none of our people had found you and brought you home into our world, before the witch-hunters and Aro did." She turned her gaze towards Aro and Caius, suddenly steely, as she beheld the two fallen leaders. The kings of our world. "And I am sorry that my apology has come over a thousand years too late." I flinched, just thinking at the amount of time...
"Aro," Lady Laima spoke up. "Do you deny that you scouted Alec and Jane, formerly known as Alexander and Jehanne of Wessex, as small children when they lived with their mother?"
"I would never have turned them at that stage." Aro said, offended. Lady Laima nodded, nonchalantly.
"And can you claim that you were not there when Jehanne was in the fields picking wildflowers, and when she was being brutalised by those boys?" Maggie raised an eyebrow.
I waited with baited breath. "I was there," Aro admitted. My breath hitched. The twins' eyes widened.
"For what purpose?" Lady Laima questioned. "The Volturi, from what I have been told, first came together in Greece before relocating to Volterra, Italy."
"She would have died were it not for me," Aro insisted. "That does not answer the question." Lady Laima retorted firmly.
Aro took several deep breaths to calm himself. I could see him fraying at the edges, losing his grip on control as he had never done. "Yes." He said quietly. "I killed those hu- those Muggle boys."
Nobody looked surprised. But Jane's eyes widened, aghast. I knew she had suspected. But she hadn't wanted to believe it. Neither of them did. Anymore than I would that Carlisle would do something like this. Nearby, Tanya and Kate's eyes were the size of saucers as they took in this new piece of information. Garrett and Eleazar's jaws had dropped and Carmen also looked completely aghast.
"So you killed a group of non-magical children when you had no purpose in being there?" Lady Laima asked, frostily. "Did you often come back to visit or spy on the twins and their mother, or did you reside nearby at the time? What purpose, apart from conveniently being there where and when Jane needed help the most, did you serve at the field where she was at that point in time?"
Aro was silent for a long time. "I wanted to see, to check on the twins to know that they were safe," he insisted. "If I hadn't, those boys would have caused serious injury, if not death, to Jane."
"So why not simply scare them away?" Lady Laima questioned. "I doubt that a group of young peasant boys would not be intimidated by a tall stranger in a dark cloak, particularly if he exudes a strange and otherworldly aura. Especially if his appearance was that of a powerful and wealthy nobleman. I do not believe the children would have wanted to get into trouble."
The silence was so profound that you could hear a pin drop.
Aro's eye twitched. "I reacted upon instinct. I was not thinking clearly at that time."
"So you wished to save her?" Lady Laima's eyebrows went up.
"Yes," Aro answered without hesitation.
"Yet not long afterwards, the twins were accused of murdering those boys, their mother was murdered trying to defend them and these children-" she nodded towards Alec and Jane. "were tortured then burned at the stake.
"You rescued the twins upon their execution, yes? If you were already at the fields watching over them to prevent any harm from coming their way, why did you wait until after they were tied to the stake and burned before rescuing them?" Whispers and mutterings perpetuated the air as the audience reeled back in horror. I shuddered and winced. I felt Carlisle flinch beside me. I'd remembered he had once been a witch-hunter. And Edward had tried to expose himself to a crowd of humans and then brought me, an ordinary, non-magical human, to the very heart of vampire power in Volterra. I'd remembered how Carlisle said that Tanya, Kate and Irina were left with a healthy respect for the law after they saw their mother burned alongside the Immortal Child she'd created. As I looked at Tanya's white face, looking horror-struck at the twins, I was struck by the realisation that Alec and Jane would still be considered children by anyone's standards, and that they were, in fact, Immortal Children.
Aro had broken his own law. I let out a breath. That explained why they were so sadistic, so fanatically loyal to him: the twins sought in and looked up to him as a father, after their mother died. He took them in, seemingly out of love, sheltered them, and trained them. He used them as weapons to unleash against his enemies- and the humans who burned them and murdered their mother for no other crime than for her protecting and giving birth to children who were different and had special abilities.
"Preposterous." Caius scoffed. "Just like this trial. If Alec and Jane were truly witches, then why have they shown no other abilities in all the years we've known them? We went to war not long after the twins were transformed."
Hisses were heard from the stands as, yet again, I reeled back in horror at his words. Caius ignored the crowd's reaction. "If Alec and Jane were capable of a myriad of powers as these witches claim," he said spitting the word. "Then why can they only torture and take pain away? They've never been seen to do anything else, as vampires."
"If I may answer the question, my lady," Gabrielle spoke. Lady Laima nodded. "I studied the DNA of multiple vampires of their species ahead of this trial. Some of them were gifted, others were not. Some had gifts with physical abilities," she looked up and nodded towards Benjamin. "and a few actively displayed them throughout their human years. Whereas others possessed an innate talent that were only unleashed after their transformations." She looked at me and many others.
Lady Laima regarded Gabrielle thoughtfully. "I found differences between a vampire's DNA and a human's, including a magical human's, yes," Gabrielle continued. "But I also noticed enough similarities to spot the differences between a vampire who- on their own account of their personal histories, and through my own observations and close studies of their genetic material- was most certainly a non-magical human prior to their transformations. I also observed that some bore similarities to non-magical parents of magical children, to descendants of squibs and to squibs themselves, who carry the magical gene, but in dormant form. I also noted that a few-" she nodded to Alec and Jane. "were certainly witches and wizards prior to transformation."
Gasps and murmurs broke out of the crowd. "There can be no doubt that Alec and Jane were and should have been a part of our world and our history," Gabrielle said, mournful and with regret. "We can only imagine what if things had been so different. But my conclusion is that, among their species of vampire, the magical gene is awakened, as it had proven for many who displayed only innate talents before transformation, but only partially. This was certainly the case with Edward and the members of his coven-group, including his wife Bella. Like magical children born to non-magical parents, they were descended from squibs born to at least one magical parent."
My eyes bugged. I gasped. So did Rosalie, Esme, Alice and Jasper. I was too shocked to speak. Me? Descended from wizards? Many of the vampires looked floored. The witches looked disturbed. Lady Laima looked troubled. Caius and Aro, I'd noticed, looked afraid.
"Legilimency, for example, is the ability to penetrate another's mind. Among many other things, they may hear surface thoughts, as well as sift through a person's innermost thoughts and memories, cast illusions, show their own thoughts, and so much more." Gabrielle clarified. "While for many of our kind, it is an ability that must be taught and learned, for some, they are born with a natural ability for it. In Edward's case, when we first met I'd noticed a physical similarity between him and a wizard I once encountered in childhood, in the British Isles, in Hogwarts itself." She winced. "I took the liberty of questioning Mr. Cullen on his human background in private and I discovered a connection- indeed, it was a connection between Edward Cullen or, as he was then known, Edward Anthony Masen Junior, and the wizard who resembled him. It was easy for me to remember, even though I had been a girl of eight when I first met the wizard because Edward is frozen at the same age as the boy I'd met in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: seventeen. The boy's hair was dark and his eyes were grey, but the resemblance cannot be denied. With Dr. Cullen's help, I looked into their family backgrounds, records and so forth, with MACUSA's assistance and that of the British Ministry of Magic, of course. They were indeed related. And there were legilimenses within the family tree."
More whispers and murmurs of shock and amazement. "Edward's powers had awoken upon transformation," Gabrielle clarified. "But only partially. He does not have the extensive skills of a true legilimens, such as his ancestors." I gaped. "But he is able to hear and see the immediate thoughts of all individuals around him, although not in great detail and only on the surface of their minds."
"Damn," Emmett muttered. I couldn't help but agree. A thought struck me: if Edward's telepathy came from wizards, did mine as well? If these people could read other people's thoughts, surely they had ways to block them?
It must have been. My ancestors were magical. But which ones? Who were they? How far apart were they from my generation? And Renesmee? She'd inherited my powers and Edward's, only she'd flipped it around. What does this mean?
"Alec and Jane were not wizards," Caius insisted. "Their powers came into being after they were burned on the stake." Carlisle flinched at the reminder. I swallowed. Esme, in comfort, took her husband's hand and squeezed it. Rosalie laid her hand on his arm. "The smoke knocked Alec unconscious so that he was unable to feel a thing. Therefore, he was only able to take the senses of anyone he wielded his power against. Jane was was still conscious when she burned. She is therefore only able to make others feel the exact same pain she felt while she was burned at the stake." My eyes widened in horror. Esme's too. Everyone's eyes were the same.
We'd never known this.
"Yes, but the fact remains, prior to their transformations, the twins were capable of a myriad of other powers as they so attested." Lady Laima looked at Maggie. Aro's eye twitched. I remembered he'd wanted to recruit Maggie. "Were they lying?"
Maggie shook her head. "No."
"And you have sufficient evidence that this species' venom awakens the human gene for magical ability, but only to an extent?" Gabrielle nodded. "I do, my lady."
'Well, in that case, I would request you to please present your evidence."
I sat rooted, frozen to my seat as Gabrielle presented the evidence and it was generally accepted that Alec and Jane were a wizard and witch when they were human. Well, everyone except Caius accepted it. He kept hissing and denying it was true, until Aro glared and hissed at him to shut up.
But it appeared that vampire venom stunted their powers, making them unable to access them unless they were angry enough to make someone feel pain, the way Jane could, or numb, like Alec. I swallowed.
It was too horrifying to contemplate.
Next, Lady Laima brought in scores of witnesses from our species who had seen and interacted with Immortal Children, describing their various behaviours. She brought witches and wizards to the stand as well, many of them had children to showcase what kind of behaviour any kid might have at twelve or thirteen- and if they still could be called children by that stage. I wanted to vomit. For anyone to be frozen in time at such a young age, and through go to torture, their mother's murder, and being burned alive...
It was almost too much to bear. And when I'd remembered my own transformation: the agonising three-day ordeal turning into a vampire, and wondered what it would be like to go through it so young... and after I'd lost my mother in front of my own eyes, before being tortured and burned alive.
I shuddered. I wasn't the only one. Everyone looked sick at the mentions... everyone, that is, except Aro and Caius.
Caius remained haughty, smug and defiant. But I'd quickly noticed that he grew increasingly scared as time went on. Aro, of course, tried to weasel and charm his way out of it, but I'd noticed the panicked look in his eyes. And then I'd remembered that Aro had been there to kill the boys who had attacked Jane but did nothing while the villagers captured them... Not until after they were being burned alive.
He'd essentially framed the twins for murder and allowed, if not orchestrated, their execution... and their mother's demise... so that he could present himself as their father-figure, as well as their saviour and creator of a new life.
They'd slaughtered the villagers afterwards. Aro had trained and honed the twins, unleashing them in a fury of vengeance upon the entire settlement.
Over the next few centuries, Aro trained and prepared them. They became his personal weapons. He used them to unleash havoc against his greatest enemies, the Romanian coven, in order to seize control of the vampire world- well, just our species. He'd moulded, groomed and brainwashed them into becoming his perfect torture and killing machines before unleashing them upon everyone he deemed enemies of not only their coven, but our species.
I watched as Alec and Jane's eyes grew wide as their very lives were deconstructed over the centuries; as the motives and manipulative schemes of their surrogate father were unravelled before their eyes. I couldn't imagine how they felt, knowing, realising, that they'd been tortured, witnessed their mother's murder, burned, transformed against their will, manipulated and brainwashed by the man they considered their father. A man who was only ever using them for his own personal gain. Not for a noble cause, or because anyone was in danger. Not as guardians of their species, but as no more than weapons, tools, thugs and heavies for Aro.
Just twelve or thirteen. Two young children who had just recently lost their mother in a brutal way and been tortured then burned alive. It was too horrifying to contemplate what they had gone through. Was it any wonder, I thought, they had become cold-hearted and insane? How Aro had manipulated and groomed them, brainwashing and moulding them to his benefit? For his own personal ends.
The Volturi's trial went on, and along with the rest of us, the twins bore witness to every scheme the Volturi had ever done. Marcus, Sulpicia and Athenodora too, as Chelsea, protected by several Death Dealer guards against her fellow guards, confessed that she'd not only bore witness to and participated in Didyme's murder, she'd used her gift at Aro's behest, upon Marcus, Sulpicia and Athenodora to keep them from leaving. Uncomfortable murmurs resounded throughout the auditorium. My stomach turned to ice. The gaping pit in my gut widened.
The wives and Marcus were kept prisoners by the ones they'd loved. And Corin admitted that she'd used her gift on the wives in order to keep them content and speaking against the conditions of their imprisonment. Heidi testified, as did other members of the guard, that the charges against her coven were falsified, and that Aro was quick to show her mercy upon discovering her gift. Eleazar also had to testify that Heidi's particular gift was for luring human prey.
They weren't the only ones used by Aro and Caius.
Other members of our species, including the Denali coven, testified that all that Irina had done was to report what she believed to have been a crime of an Immortal Child to the Volturi. They gave testimony on the verdicts of Aro, Caius and Marcus- how out of all the three, Marcus was the only one to caution to wait and see if Renesmee truly posed any danger to our secrecy, and that Caius was not only eager for Nessie to burn, when it was proven that Renesmee was not an Immortal Child, Irina reiterated her accusation and apologised for bringing this to us- only for Caius to order her immediate execution without a trial, though she was innocent. Her only crime was immediately reacting in horror upon seeing Renesmee and immediately remembering her mother's crime and execution. The Denali sisters also testified that they had no knowledge that their mother had ever created an Immortal Child, until the day she- and he- were sentenced and executed. And that even though Aro assured Caius and touched the girls to see their minds and verify for himself whether they were innocent, Caius wanted them to burn- for no reason apart from being Sasha's creations.
Sasha. So that was the Denali's mother's name. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carlisle twitch as if he too had just realised that.
Every member of our species that ever interacted with the Volturi, myself included, were called upon the witness stand to describe our interactions with Aro and Caius. We all confirmed that even though Edward had attempted to expose himself to a crowd of humans, the Volturi had let him go free. They'd only made the Cullens promise that they'd transform me, and promised to send some of their guard to check if it was done months later.
It was a sign of corruption and inefficiency if anything. That the Volturi used and abused the law for their own benefits, alternatively breaking and reinforcing whenever it suited them.
Lady Laima announced to all that that officially rendered their authority as a governing body null and void as a result. Caius glared at her with hate in his eyes. The Vampire Queen remained cool, calm and collected.
In addition to corruption, the Volturi stood trial for the crimes of scouting and transforming witches and wizards- which endangered the vampires' relations and alliance with them in general- transforming, grooming and brainwashing underage children to become killing machines, torturers and child-soldiers, risking their exposure to the non-magical world, falsifying charges against innocent people, warmongering, kinslaying (as Didyme had been Aro's biological sister as well as coven-mate), false imprisonment, brainwashing and enslaving individuals via magic to serve as their guard...
And the list of charges went on.
We all knew they were guilty before the trial ended. I had no qualms about revealing and elaborating on my interactions with the Volturi. I sympathised with Sulpicia and Athenodora, who had been held prisoner, mind-controlled and backstabbed by the husbands they'd loved. And Marcus had lost his wife. I'd also remembered that he had been the only one to speak in Renesmee's defence during the confrontation on New Year's Eve without the threat of a battle or trying to recruit new members of the guard. I'd bore witness to that, and I now knew that Marcus' seeming apathy was due to the unresolved loss of his wife- and his inability to do anything about it. Chelsea's power had kept him bound, loyal and unable to do or act without Aro's prompting, and he certainly could not leave or even investigate the mystery of his wife's death. He could do nothing.
But I'd even sympathised with Heidi, who had been Victoria's coven-mate and bait for human prey, as well as Alec and Jane, who'd wanted me to suffer. It certainly helped that now I could see that they saw me as another human monster, like the ones who murdered their mother and burned them at the stake, and that also explained their animosity towards Edward, Carlisle and the Cullens in general who acted as protectors of humankind. To them humans- non-magical ones, anyway- were not the innocents we'd believed them to be. They'd been framed for crimes they didn't commit, used, traumatised, transformed unwillingly and brainwashed into becoming eternal child-soldiers and torturers for Aro and Caius for centuries. And according to Gabrielle's testimony, they were also driven insane, though not as wild and uncontrollable as toddlers who had been transformed.
They were Immortal Children. Frozen into mindless, obedient, dutiful and frenzied killers forever.
Even Kate, who had hated them, looked at them with pity in her eyes as we all witnessed understanding slowly dawn in them as to what they had done- and who had made them do it. Beside her Garrett grimaced. He turned away. I understood. Even he couldn't bear to see as Jane turned towards Aro with betrayal in her eyes. I saw a flicker, a hesitation. A stunned disbelief. Aro tried to deny it, reaching out to the twins, particularly Jane, beseeching them to remember the love he had for them; the wonderful times they shared. I snarled in disgust and outrage. I wasn't the only one. Lady Laima was the only one who kept her cool and informed Aro not to address either of the twins. Everyone was beyond outraged. Tanya, Kate, Garrett, Eleazar, Carmen and Rosalie all appeared angered and revolted. As did every vampire I knew. In the wizards' box, I noticed that they all looked outraged and beyond disgusted with them.
Esme breathed deeply, trying to keep her cool. She pinched her forehead.
Perhaps being a mother makes you realise things I never had before I had Renesmee.
Now all I could imagine was if my daughter had been ripped from my arms for powers she could not control, did not understand and never asked for, while I was unable to save her. I thought about her being forced to watch while Edward and I were killed, the way we were prepared to be on New Year's Eve. I thought of her being tortured and then burned alive by mindless fanatics, crying in pain and pleading for mercy, only to receive none, and then being forced to undergo the same transformation I had at when she was still so young.
I thought about her enduring the lonely centuries, living for over a thousand years with no one but manipulative, greedy Aro to guide her, pulling the strings and pushing her buttons, using her to as a soldier, torturer and mindless killer. Turning her into something which had little resemblance of the girl she had once been: an innocent child. I thought about her pain and anguish as she discovered, over a thousand years later, that she had been used, manipulated, and betrayed by the one she trusted the most, and that for over a thousand years she'd lived a lie. That the one she trusted and looked up to the most had been the person who forced and manipulated her to live a hellish existence as a monster for over a thousand years...
I had never wanted Aro and Caius dead more than during that moment. I remembered that Caius was fully prepared to execute Renesmee without evidence and that even while they debated the matter of my daughter's execution, Aro had extended Edward and I an offer to join his army, alongside our allies. His slave army, no less.
I'd never hated anyone more than I ever hated Aro and Caius. Not James. Not Victoria. Not Riley. Not Alec and Jane. Not even myself.
And that was truly saying something.
If I could get close to them, I wouldn't hesitate to leap through the air and tear their throats out. I wouldn't hesitate to light the pyre to watch them burn.
They truly were monsters: heartless evil beings.
How do you like my explanation for how Edward looks like Cedric Diggory (though Cedric was never mentioned by name) and how the vampires got their powers?
The dates for Hogwarts' opening and Alec and Jane's birth are taken from canon and semi-canon sources approved by J.K Rowling and Stephenie Meyer respectively- and this also includes the story of how Jane and Alec came to be vampires; I didn't make any of it up.
The only things I made up was 1) Jane's birth name: the original English form of Jane was Joan, which was taken from the French name Jeanne, which was taken from an earlier name Jehanne- the French feminine form of John. And it would have been French as the twins' father was from Frankia which became the kingdom of France. Their mother was English but before the Norman conquest, making her Anglo-Saxon, so they wouldn't have merged (Old) English and (Old) French- or Frankish as they would have spoken in the twins' father's native Frankia- too much with their names, especially as we have to take in mind that the twins came from a peasant family. Alec is obviously short for Alexander, the Latin variant of the Greek Alexandros.
2) the second thing I made up was Aro's involvement in the twins' mother's murder and their execution. However, this is based on my logic and fact gathered from Twilight canon/semi-canon: I think it was far too convenient for Aro- born Greek and later relocated to Italy- to have been in Anglo-Saxon England to scout the twins as small children, not see them for years and then suddenly appear when they were about to die and needed saving. I smell a rat here and it's not Wormtail.
Trial continues two chapters after this. Next chapter it's La Push and the Wolves.