𝑺𝑶𝑳𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑪𝑬 [𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀 𝑷𝑶𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹/𝑻𝑾𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻]

𝐼 𝑁 𝑇 𝐸 𝑅 𝐿 𝑈 𝐷 𝐸

The room was silent and still as Harry finished reading the last sentence of the news article of Gwen's obituary. The shock of the report was etched on every face, as the raven-haired woman looked around at every person in the room. Though she knew it was quite serious, there was little that made actual sense. Especially since she was still alive and she had no idea of the political climate they spoke about in the article.

Swallowing hard, she eyed the photograph of herself smiling back at her from the paper. It felt surreal hearing about her own death, wondering how there was so much information about her if they had just found her.

"At least...At least they picked a good picture" Gwen said quietly, not quite knowing how to break the silence between them all.

From the corner of her eye she saw Edward slightly grin as he was more accustomed to her humor, as Alex snorted loudly.

"This is obviously rubbish!" Alex stated, picking up the article and chucking it across the room.

"Why is this happening?" Harry asked Orla angrily, not amused with Gwen's sudden urge to joke around. "Who--?"

"The traitors of course" Alex growled, crossing his arms as he looked around the room. "The ones who have been feeding this information to Vetrova, or whoever is in charge of whatever they're planning! Well jokes on them, Gwen's alive. Once she gets her memory back she can expose them!"

"But until we find out who the traitor is or who they are, Gwen's death is front news" Orla pointed out. "They're using this as a rallying cry against us. And the people are listening."

Gwen looked over to Orla, feeling a distinct anger at the tone of her words. Still unaware of what these words meant, Gwen remained silent as she observed the words said in the room.

"There's no way people believe this" Edward said cautiously, scanning the paper. "Why would Gwen's death be announced like this? No comment form Harry? No body? No real truth or facts?"

Orla sighed, "Vetrova is giving fuel to this growing underground movement. Using the Vampires as scapegoats. Using Gwen's death as a rallying point to go back to the way things were."

"How were things before?" Gwen asked quietly, wanting to get as much information as possible.

"We underestimated just how far people hate us," Orla answered simply, her wide eyes gathering around Gwen once more.

"Hate Elves?" Edward asked in disbelief.

"No dear vampire" Orla said with a twisted smile. "Not just the Elves, but every single thing that does not fit into the pure blood category. Including yourself. We knew there was much to change, revolutions bring that change. But what we didn't realize was how much the hate towards non-wizards had lingered."

Edward answered politely, "As in with human history, the initial systematic issues linger after the success of a revolution."

"Well, I thought it would keep us from fighting each other!" Alex groaned. "I thought it would be cruise sailing after we won! No more dangerous missions, no more fighting..."

Gwen looked around, Edward and Orla looking at Alex skeptically. And she turned to Harry, who remained quiet but also slightly looked as though he agreed with what Alex had said. She wondered if she too, believed it to be "cruise sailing" as Alex had put it.

She glanced around the room, her eyes lingering on the article that Alex had thrown. She had no recollection of any of the words printed, but...She felt as though everyone in the room was waiting for her to come up with some plan. How did the woman in the paper put it? Gwen was the "Hero of the Second Wizarding War?"