Chapter Text
“How touching ,” Aro declared, “seeing two friends reunite.”
Caius snorted, perfectly mimicking Severus’ opinion of that statement as he disengaged from the unexpected hug.
“He was my… teacher before I was turned,” Potter said, showing enough sense not to reveal everything. The young vampire looked up, seeming to meet his eye deliberately.
He felt a push against his Occlumency shields and, after some consideration, formed a small hole in them, allowing the presence inside.
…Professor? Potter’s mental voice asked.
How are you still alive? I thought…
I let Voldemort kill me. I died and had a choice. Stay dead, or come back.
And you returned.
I killed Voldemort. You- I thought- we all thought you were dead.
So did I, until I woke up.
Potter broke eye contact as his gaze flitted around the throne room, checking everyone’s locations. One of the boy’s ( man’s - he is of age now ) eyebrows rose slightly when he looked back.
What’s all this, then?
The three in the thrones are the leaders: Marcus, Aro, and Caius.
Of course they are.
Quite. They have set themselves up as the rulers of all vampires, making and enforcing laws… if Voldemort had been a vampire and not insane, I’d have said they taught him some of their tricks. Only some, though - they have an… unusual recruiting system. They find covens that have committed a crime, pick one of the vampires with a gift they want, say that vampire is innocent, kill the rest of the coven, and then Chelsea (he pictured her in his mind) uses her gifts to make the vampire loyal to them. Repeat intermittently to avoid suspicion, and their coven grows in strength and numbers.
Severus felt Potter’s mind ripple with a strong emotion - probably horror or shock.
… At least Voldemort couldn’t do that.
Aro killed his sister because she was going to leave, and Marcus with her. Marcus has tried unsuccessfully to find his wife’s killer ever since. He…
Severus paused for a fraction of a second.
Marcus has wanted to die for around three millennia, but Aro has him under Chelsea’s gift to prevent it.
He mentally raised an eyebrow in response to the string of swear words Potter thought.
Right. What’s the plan to bring down the coven?
The Volturi’s offensive wing is Alec and Jane. Demitri is their tracker, Heidi gets their food, Renata is Aro’s (and occasionally, the other two’s) bodyguard, Chelsea ensures everyone stays loyal, Felix is their hand-to-hand fighter, and Santiago is their fastest runner.
…Go for Chelsea? If the vampires’ loyalty weren’t forced, they would escape or attack each other - admittedly, some would stay loyal. The fighting and uncertainty over loyalty could eliminate their offensive and tracking capabilities temporarily, possibly permanently. I also believe we should inform Marcus.
Potter’s head rose and fell slightly.
He deserves to know. I could use the fact that no one knows my gift and pretend it’s a form of Divination or Legilimency to explain how I know…
Potter looked away, breaking their mental link.
“Oh? Your favourite, I presume?” Aro inquired, pretending to be interested (it was only due to Legilimency that he knew the truth - the vampire’s face was the image of interest).
Severus’ lip curled.
“The opposite - he was one of my least favourite - though Umbridge took the title in fifth year, helped by her habit of using Blood Quills in detentions,” Potter replied.
“I wasn’t too fond of her either. That shade of pink…”
Unknowingly, both pulled the same expression of disgust.
“Why don’t you stay for a while?” Aro asked, changing the topic, “We don’t often see new faces.”
He saw Potter flinch slightly, and the human girl - Ms Swan - suddenly looked confused.
One of those on their own was nothing - but both? At the same time?
That was informative .
Severus had never seen Chelsea use her gift, but he would guess that was the cause.
It also seemed that his gift had led to her skipping him.
“Chelsea… that was a bad idea,” he said, turning to the vampire. She looked at him - a quick brush against her mind showing confusion about why her gift wasn’t working as expected.
“What was a bad idea?”
“We - I presume Potter is also - are fed up with people trying to control us. The Headmaster, Riddle - and now you .”
Potter nodded in agreement, attention rapidly flicking between Aro, Marcus, Caius, and Chelsea while he slowly eased in front of Ms Swan by the end of his statement.
Potter hissed, eyes locking onto Marcus, who had barely reacted to anything happening.
“You… lost someone… your wife - Didyme?”
Marcus’ (and, Severus was quick to notice, Aro’s) face jerked towards Potter fast enough to crack a human’s neck.
“You’ve been searching… for centuries, millennia, even… trying to find her killer?”
Now, all the vampires’ attention was on Marcus and Potter - the former was apparently showing the most emotion that most of the vampires had ever seen in as long as they had known him… according to said vampires’ minds.
Severus moved slowly towards Chelsea - he didn’t know whether the spell would travel fast enough to reach her before she would dodge it, so the closer he got, the better. The spell’s colour would also attract all the other vampire’s attention.
“You know who did it?” Marcus asked, almost growling, “You know who killed her?”
( Eighteen feet )
“Marcus, there is no need-” began Aro, stepping forward slowly (for a vampire - to Ms Swan, it would have looked like he sprinted at a human’s pace. That thought led Severus to the subsequent realisation that they had been talking too fast for her to understand), but stopped at the other’s hiss.
( Sixteen feet )
“I do - I saw it as soon as I entered the room. I think my gift has to do with murder… seeing the relationships between murderers and their victims, whether strangers or family,” Potter replied softly.
Now fifteen feet away and almost able to see the cogs turning in Marcus’ mind as he quickly worked it out, Severus realised time had run out.
Pestis Incendium , he thought, looking at Chelsea.
A fiery chimaera appeared, beginning as a spark inside her stomach and quickly expanding outwards, engulfing her in a fraction of a second. Ignoring anyone else’s reactions, he mentally ordered it to stop, to shrink, to die .
It worked.
When he turned around, ten vampires had run, vanishing into the tunnels or out the main door. Severus could hear the screams of muggles as some took the opportunity to feed on the locals.
Heidi and Santiago had disappeared. Felix was trying to do the same but was accidentally being prevented by Renata, who thought he was trying to attack her.
A few other vampires (including Demitri), unsure what to do with their returned freedom of choice, backed towards the walls, staying out of any fight that may occur but ready to make a quick exit if needed.
Caius, whom Severus had read in his mind a desire to be the sole ruler but was prevented from attacking by Chelsea, had launched himself at Aro, who then had to stop concentrating on Marcus and Potter. Alec and Jane were eyeing up Ms Swan, who noticed and was staying as close to Potter as she could.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Potter whispered but was heard by everyone except Ms Swan, “Aro killed her.”
Despite his improved eyesight, Severus didn’t see Marcus snarl, turn, and join in the attack against Aro, who had barely been holding his own against Caius. He heard a snarl heading towards him - he turned, blocked the swipe to his throat ( What is it with others wanting to bite/attack my neck? he thought), and attacked back.
It seemed Anton - Chelsea’s mate - was looking for revenge.
Jane used her gift on Caius, who roared in pain as he was forced to break off his attack against Aro. Now fighting one-on-one, Marcus seemed to be the worst fighter of the two, as he quickly started losing ground.
Potter backed towards the wall, keeping Ms Swan behind him, eyes darting between the four groups of fighting vampires.
Severus, managing to trap Anton momentarily, cast a Petrificus Totalus , freezing the vampire and allowing him to follow it up with another short bout of Fiendfyre.
He could understand the vampire’s wish to see him dead - he wasn’t the first - but he wasn’t going to let himself be killed (again).
Potter didn’t react when he appeared beside him - though Ms Swan did jump slightly.
“Anyone you want to help?” he asked, turning to watch as Felix managed to get around Renata and run. The latter also glanced around the throne room. She must have seen something she didn’t like since she quickly exited through the same door, bolting towards another way leading out of the city.
“Both,” Potter replied, “but I don’t know who it would be better to kill first - Jane is too similar to Bellatrix for my liking, and Aro reminds me of a saner Voldemort.”
Severus considered, seeing his point about the resemblances.
“In this case, I’ll help Marcus while you take out Jane,” he responded, noticing the former was shortly going to lose, his desire for revenge causing him to make mistakes that Aro was exploiting.
Even as he finished speaking, Aro put Marcus in a headlock and pulled, ripping his head off. A second later, the head was thrown at Alec, attention turning to the three of them standing by the wall.
“Put this in a fire, please.”
Severus met Potter’s, mentally knocking on his shields, which dropped.
We could take him. The Volturi is down to himself, Demitri, Alec, a few lesser gifted vampires, and probably Jane - once she finishes playing with Caius.
We could, but I don’t want Bella to be killed or turned.
Has she Apparated?
Yes.
Are you staying in a hotel?
In Rome.
Bring her to the roof of the Duomo in Florence - they’d expect us to go to the capital city.
See you there.
The Occlumency shields went back up. Potter grabbed Ms Swan in his arms, turned on the spot, and Disapparated with a crack partially covered up by the sound of Caius’ head being ripped off by Jane. Severus followed almost instantaneously, just as Aro started running towards him.