𝑺𝑶𝑳𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑪𝑬 [𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀 𝑷𝑶𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹/𝑻𝑾𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻]

𝑁𝑂 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝐹𝑂𝑅 𝐷𝐸𝑆𝑃𝐴𝐼𝑅

"The Volturi" Gwen said finally, as she felt all eyes on her.

"You mentioned them in your article just briefly" Tiberius McLaggen frowned, looking as though he were trying to remember her exact words. He turned briefly to Kingsley, as though waiting for instructions.

"But the Volturi, here?" Rhea asked skeptically. "Did you not say they were the protectors of the Vampire's? They are the reason as to why we have not known about them until now, why would they attempt to infiltrate us now?"

Gwen thought hard through Rhea's questioning. Truly, only the Cullens and the Denali Coven knew about the Wizarding World. So how would the Volturi have found out? They had made it quite a point to make sure only the Cullen's and Denali's were placed into the safety of the wizarding world and established, before they would invite other covens.

After all, the clause in the legislation made it possible for only Vegetarian Vampires and Vampires who only drank pre-packaged blood to be able to join their society. Not Vampires who preyed on innocent muggles. So...How would the Volturi have known?

"Maybe I'm wrong" Gwen said, as Alex shot her a skeptical look. "But I'm not the one who is the most knowledgeable here about Vampires. We have the Denali Coven. Why were they not consulted?"

Silence filled the room as Gwen could see the hesitation on their faces. They had said again and again that they did not think it was the Vampires, that it was all a ploy to target the Republic of Magic. That the Vampires were not to blame and yet...As she looked around at the faces of the Representatives, she knew.

"You don't trust them" Gwen said, as Kingsley shook his head.

"We wanted to get an honest answer, one not under the duress and pressure of possibly outing themselves."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked quickly, a slight edge to his voice. "So you do think it was one of them who killed Kreacher?"

"We do not believe it was the Denali Coven. However, we do not know if they knew of these occurrences" Rhea said pointedly. "Or if they are the ones who may have leaked the information. As we have said, only those in this room are who we are trusting with this information."

"Kate, Tanya, Irina, Carmen, and Elezear love humans. They want nothing more than to be a part of our society!" Gwen argued. "They took a personal risk coming here, they wouldn't leak information."

"Tanya and Irina have been missing for a few days" Alex said, breaking the news to Gwen. "We thought Tanya had gone off with Viktor Krum, Irina has been appearing here and there, but lately, no sign of her. And we haven't been able to get in touch with Tanya."

"I thought we weren't blaming them for this" Gwen said once more, her heart thundering fiercely as she turned to Rhea.

"We are not. We are being cautious" Rhea said simply and clearly. "We wanted to have this conversation with you both, before we brought them in."

With a nod from Rhea, it was Gaia's turn to enter the other room and bring out the Denali Coven. Or at least, what was left of them.

Carmen and Eleazar were in the lead, with Kate following closely behind. The looks of curiosity on their bronze skin and brilliant eyes were quite marvelous, slightly stunning Gwen with their cautious looks.

"Gwen? What is going on?" Kate demanded, her long straight black hair moving fiercely with her words. "What are we doing here?"

"Cho and Alex brought us here, said you needed to speak with us" Carmen said, as Eleazar looked around to the representatives.