Black Hole Sun [Harry Potter/Twilight]

V : The Girl

"The old man gave me a load of crap" Cal said, as he drove them out of the reservation.

"Same with his son."

"How is it that most of the sightings of creatures have been by locals, and they have all been close enough to the reservation that no one here has seen anything? Only the tourists?"

"Maybe the reservation is protecting the creatures" Gwen said thoughtfully, as she thought of Jacob's slip up and the presence watching them from the forest.

"These creatures have murdered people" Cal said, as he raised his eyebrow skeptically. "I highly doubt no-maj's would allow them to roam around freely."

"Maybe" Gwen said, as she thought long and hard about what Jacob had told her. "Billy's son, Jacob, he said something strange."

"I should have known you would have been able to get some information from him!"

"He definitely doesn't believe it's an animal. And he thinks the creature was here looking for something. While we were outside, I could still sense something staring at us from the woods."

"Did you see what it was?"

"No, but I felt it's magic. It was almost as though it was just watching us...Protecting the reservation."

"Hmm...Do you think maybe they conjured it?"

"I don't know, but I doubt they'll ever tell us. We're outsiders remember? I could see it written on Billy's face the second we walked in."

Cal groaned in frustration, "You know, this would be a lot easier if we could just tie them both down and force-feed them truth potion. Then all of our problems would be solved."

Now it was Gwen's turn to raise her eyebrow at the man.

"I'm just saying," Cal said defensively. "Whoever thought of those no-maj protection laws wasn't thinking it through, sometimes truth potions and memory spells are needed."

"I helped write those laws" Gwen said pointedly, with a slight grin to Cal's mouth falling open in surprise and immediate regret for his outburst.

"We need to allow muggles to exercise free will" Gwen said, explaining the thought behind the laws that were passed after the Second Wizarding War was over. "They can't consent to our memory wipes or truth potions. It's not fair, and we're taking away their agency. During the Second Wizarding War, loads of muggles were getting their memories altered that it began to take a toll on them. And even before the war, there was a study on a muggle whose mind was wiped multiple times in one hour during the Quidditch World Cup. So much that he suffered permanent damage."

"I see what you're saying. But what if it's for the greater good? We would be helping stop these species from killing no-maj's. You said so yourself that Jacob and Billy were keeping something from us."

Gwen looked outside of her window as she mulled Cal's words over. It made sense, it definitely did. But she had also heard those words being used as an excuse for even worse things. And if they started to make exceptions, where would the line end? And where would it begin? And who would decided what was right and what was wrong?

"When people start speaking that way, claiming there is no choice and it's for the greater good, it eventually leads to war. We're not better than the muggles because we can use magic."

"I wasn't saying that--" Cal began.

"I know," Gwen said quickly. "But using our magic on them...it just doesn't feel right. We can do this without resulting to that."