CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT:

Hermione's POV:

Wearing the body of a child felt strange. The complicated glamours woven over me were flawless, perfect, and I would be able to drop them at a moment's notice.

The confrontation seemed to be going our way, as surprising as it sounded. The Volturi had stopped, had listened to what we had to say- our show of force might have aided in that, but whatever worked.

And then Edward started crossing the field- Edward whose mind was filled with forbidden knowledge. Bella tensed beside me, and I had to fight the panic rising inside me. This was not good. Not good at all.

In the end, I could only see one solution.

It wasn't a good solution. In fact, it was a last resort. But the information in Edward's brain was too important to risk.

"Obliviate!" I murmured; quiet enough that not even Bella, whose hand I was clutching onto, would be able to hear. I internally apologized to her, to Edward, for my actions.

Obliviation, I had discovered, after my "mishap" with my parents, was largely... irreversible. The memories I had erased from Edward's mind, so many memories, memories of anything related to magic... well, chances were he would never get them back.

Slytherin and Gryffindor were normally pictured as opposites. But the truth was, they were, in some fundamental ways, quite similar.

Ravenclaws in battle would coolly plan the sacrifice of distant strangers to achieve an important objective, though that cold logic could collapse in the face of sacrificing family instead. Hufflepuffs would sacrifice no one, though it means they sacrifice an objective in its place.

Only Gryffindors and Slytherins were good at sacrificing those they loved. And I did love Edward. Our relationship had started off strained, but I did love him. He made my sister happy, he loved her, he loved my niece, and he even loved me.

This felt like a betrayal, a betrayal of the highest order, but I knew, I knew, that he would understand. And if he didn't...

Well, that was his problem.

Liar, my mind hissed, but I pushed the voice away, concentrated instead on the scene playing out before my eyes.

I knew my spell had been successful when Aro straightened, his eyes flashing open. When he did not turn to me, when instead his expression just remained curious, I knew my spell had worked. Later I would reflect upon the damage, right now I would focus on the present.

Aro seemed amazed, as he described to his "brothers" and the guard the truth of Elizabeth. And then he asked, "Will you introduce me to your daughter?"

My Occlumency shields sprung into place, and I had to fight to keep my expression child-like, in a mixture of slight fear and curiosity.

Aro responded to Edward's unspoken question, as their hands were still joint. "I think a compromise on this one point is certainly acceptable, under the circumstance. We will meet in the middle." Aro released his hand. Edward turned back toward us, and Aro joined him, throwing one arm casually over Edward's shoulder like they were the best of friends-all the while maintaining contact with Edward's skin. They began to cross the field back to our side. The entire guard fell into step behind them. Aro raised a hand negligently without looking at them. "Hold, my dear ones. Truly, they mean us no harm if we are peaceable." The guard reacted to this more openly than before, with snarls and hisses of protest, but held their position. The vampire clinging to Aro's back, the one Eleazar had told us was a shield- Aro's personal one- whimpered in anxiety.

"Master," she whispered.
"Don't fret, my love," he responded. "All is well."

"Perhaps you should bring a few members of your guard with us," Edward suggested. "It will make them more comfortable." Aro nodded as if this was a wise observation he should have thought of himself. He snapped his fingers twice.

"Felix, Demetri." The two vampires I remembered from the clearing, back after the defeat of Victoria, were at his side instantaneously. The five of them stopped in the middle of the snowy field.

"Bella," Edward called. "Bring Elizabeth... and a few friends." Beside me, Bella took a deep breath. Her body was tight with opposition.

"Jacob? Emmett?" She asked quietly. Both nodded, and Emmett grinned. I almost rolled my eyes at him, but refrained. Together we crossed the field, Bella not letting go of my hand, Emmett and Jacob flanking us. There was a rumble from the guard as they saw Bella's choices- clearly, they did not trust the werewolf. Aro lifted his hand, waving away their protest again.

Felix and Bella traded some light banter, while Aro's eyes didn't leave me for even a millisecond. His milky red eyes were filled with greedy curiosity. A half human, half vampire child would be a jewel in his collection- he wanted 'me'- desperately so.

I was momentarily entertained by Jane's jealousy upon the knowledge of Aro's gift to Bella, the collar-like necklace that had me itching to tear from her neck and throw far, far away, but then I concentrated back on the dangerous vampire before me.

"May I greet your daughter, lovely Bella?" he asked my sister sweetly. Bella walked two slow steps forward, me by her side, and Aro met us, his face beaming. "But she's exquisite," he murmured to her. "So like you and Edward." And then louder, "Hello, Elizabeth."

"Hello, Aro," I answered him formally.
"What is it?" Caius hissed from behind. He seemed infuriated by the need to ask.

"Half mortal, half immortal," Aro announced to him and the rest of the guard without turning his enthralled gaze from me- it made me feel sick. "Conceived so, and carried by this newborn while she was still human."

"Impossible," Caius scoffed.

"Do you think they've fooled me, then, brother?" Aro's expression was greatly amused, but Caius flinched. "Is the heartbeat you hear a trickery as well?" Caius scowled, looking as chagrined as if Aro's gentle questions had been blows. "Calmly and carefully, brother," Aro cautioned, still smiling at me, that hungry, greedy smile. "I know well how you love your justice, but there is no justice in acting against this unique little one for her parentage. And so much to learn, so much to learn! I know you don't have my enthusiasm for collecting histories, but be tolerant with me, brother, as I add a chapter that stuns me with its improbability. We came expecting only justice and the sadness of false friends, but look what we have gained instead! A new, bright knowledge of ourselves, our possibilities." He held out his hand to me in invitation.

Making sure my shields were tightly in place, I gently pressed my fingertips to his. Carefully, ever so carefully, I took care to only show him the memories I wanted to. I showed him memories of my time as "Elizabeth", of genuine fear for the lives of my family, the aching in my heart as I thought of dear, dear Alice, my "aunt"... I showed him what he wanted to see, and then I pulled back, curling into Bella's side.

I hid my amusement when Aro wondered about 'guard dogs' and the wolves unfavorable reaction, then I let Bella tug me after her, back to our line of witnesses as Aro returned to his "brothers" to confer with them.

In hindsight I should have expected that they wouldn't back down. Once they had- and reluctantly in Caius's case- accepted the fact that "I" was not an immortal child, Caius instantly started on the wolves. Edward pointed out that it was impossible for them to be werewolves, seeing as it was the middle of the day, but Caius was still unconvinced.

And then he killed Irina.
It was so sudden. He raised his hand, and in it was a strange metal object, carved and ornate.

This was a signal. The response was so fast that we all stared in stunned disbelief while it happened. Before there was time to react, it was over.

Three of the Volturi soldiers leaped forward, and Irina was completely obscured by their gray cloaks. In the same instant, a horrible metallic screeching ripped through the clearing. Caius slithered into the center of the gray melee, and the shocking squealing sound exploded into a startling upward shower of sparks and tongues of flame. The soldiers leaped back from the sudden inferno, immediately retaking their places in the guard's perfectly straight line.

Caius stood alone beside the blazing remains of Irina, the metal object in his hand still throwing a thick jet of flame into the pyre.

With a small clicking sound, the fire shooting from Caius's hand disappeared. A gasp rippled through the mass of witnesses behind the Volturi. Our side seemed too aghast to make any noise at all.

Caius smiled coldly. "Now she has taken full responsibility for her actions."

I felt anger flare within me, lighting a fire that had no vent. A surge of magic rose, spilling out into the clearing, unnoticed by the Volturi.

"You son of a bitch!" This was Kate; furious, out of control Kate. Both Tanya and Kate tried attacking Caius before I managed to immobilize them with two discrete spells, refusing to remove them until Carlisle and Garrett had talked them down.

And then Aro talked to our witnesses.

His line of questioning became painfully obvious, very, very quickly. He was trying to ascertain that "Elizabeth" was a risk to exposure. I could appreciate the need for secrecy, any witch or wizard- I had just wiped a significant portion of memory from the mind of someone I loved in the name of secrecy. But this... this was out of line.

I could barely hide my disgust as Amun and Kebi fled- I hated cowards. Spineless worms... there was a special place in hell for creatures like them.

I watched Aro talk, watched him monologue, hating the feeling of powerlessness I felt. I could destroy him in a heartbeat- I knew it. Whichever way this situation went, I would be going home tonight to be with my wife, my mate. The Volturi... the Italian Ministry would be very angry if they were destroyed, but I was a war hero, and the Volturi were "just vampires". There would be nothing they could do to me.

No, the problem was that with the destruction of the Volturi, who would keep the vampires in line?

That was the reason they were still here. That was the reason why they hadn't all been hunted down and destroyed- as awful, as hideous, as they were, they were kept the rest of the vampires docile enough to prevent The Secret from being exposed.

"Only the known is safe," Aro concluded his little speech. "Only the known is tolerable. The unknown is... a vulnerability."

As the three brothers held a silent counsel, around me, different vampires shared their love, their pain. They said goodbye without actually saying goodbye.

And then Bella straightened slightly. "Get ready," she whispered to us all, "it's starting."

"Chelsea is trying to break our bindings," Edward whispered. "But she can't find them. She can't feel us here..." His eyes cut to Bella. "Are you doing that?"

Bella smiled grimly at him. "I am all over this." She said.

I was impressed. Bella's shield had always been impressive, and she had trained hard to use it to cover more people then just herself. But I had no idea just how competent she had become.

It was almost with amusement that I watched the face of the guard- Jane in particular- as their attacks failed. There was panic, there was doubt, and it felt good.

The vote shared by the three brothers was little more then a charade.

Caius spoke with eager haste. "The child is an unknown quantity. There is no reason to allow such a risk to exist. It must be destroyed, along with all who protect it." He smiled in expectation.

Marcus lifted his uncaring eyes, seeming to look through us as he voted. "I see no immediate danger. The child is safe enough for now. We can always reevaluate later. Let us leave in peace."

"I must make the deciding vote, it seems," Aro mused. An expression of faux sadness covered his face. "Unfortunately, my dear friends, I must agree with Caius. The child is unknown, therefore is too much of a risk to allow to live."

Although action exploded on both sides, it was the ever-eager Felix who leapt forwards first, his target the wolves who stood on the outskirts of our group, the least protected, and it was Seth, poor, young Seth, who was closest. It was too late that I noticed the object in Felix's hand, ornate and carved, identical to the one that Caius had held.

It took less then five seconds for Seth's body to be reduced to ash. His body burst into flames after one.
He was dead by the third.
Dust by the fifth.

I stared in horror and utter disbelief at the smoking pile of charcoal colored dust that had, moments before, been a living, breathing young man, a teenage boy on the cusp of adulthood.

And rage filled me.

The flimsy barrier I was holding in place to keep back my magic crumpled under the sheer force of my fury, and streams of magic lashed through my body, wild and out of control.

I pointed my arm at the grinning Felix, so confident in his certain victory, so smug in his power. Our eyes met for a millisecond, and I thought, with all my strength and focus 'Incendio! Incendio! INCENDIO!'

What started as a simple spell, a curse, ended in a wild, out of control explosion of anger, a spinning, raging sphere of aggravated magic that I could just barely control. In a moment that seemed to stretch on to eternity, everyone just stared. I had only moments to act.

And then the world ended.