"Unity, and unity alone."
Bryan Watson's voice rang out through the high assembly hall, firm and resolute, carrying with enough force to seem to shake the rafters.
Yet the expressions of those gathered beneath the great dome told a different story—one of every possible temperament under the heavens.
Some looked thoughtful, weighing the two words carefully. Some let their eyes slide away entirely, unwilling to commit even a glance to visible agreement. Some wore faces of cold indifference, the mask of nations with nothing yet to gain or lose. And a smaller handful seemed intrigued.
But not a single delegate present slapped the table in enthusiastic, open agreement, and for one uncomfortable moment, the hall settled into an awkward, uncertain chill.
Seeing this cool reception, the flame that had just kindled brightly in Vipor Dreghorn's eyes in one of the Seven Seats went out again almost as quickly as it had appeared, and a distinct shadow of disappointment crossed his face.
"Unity."
Chairman Quahog turned the single word over slowly on his own tongue, then asked with careful consideration, "Vice-Chairman Watson, do you mean to say—"
The cool reception hadn't entirely surprised Bryan, watching the room from the podium. If anything, it would have been genuinely strange, for the Confederation to answer his proposal with instant, unanimous applause on first hearing.
"I trust everyone present has come to recognise the strength of the terrorist organisation known as the Death Eaters, and the danger they now pose to us all. I think we can also agree, that no single nation's magical civilisation can realistically hope to stand against them entirely alone.
Because the Death Eaters, under Voldemort's leadership, are in essence a kind of distillation of everything dark within the world's magical civilisations, drawn together from every corner into a single, coordinated threat."
This was, admittedly, something of a rhetorical overstatement. But if Voldemort were simply allowed to keep running wild across international borders unchecked, then sooner or later, by any reasonable projection, he would become a threat to the entire world, just as Grindelwald had once been in his own time.
"And so, I believe personally and I put this forward for the assembly's consideration—that there ought to be established a joint task force. One built to meet the threat the Death Eaters currently pose to magical civilisation across the entire globe."
Bryan said this evenly, without raising his own voice for effect, letting the substance of the proposal carry its own weight.
Whispers rose immediately in every corner of the vast hall, faces began creasing with hesitation as delegates murmured rapidly among themselves.
The world has never lacked for clever, calculating minds, and this chamber held a considerable concentration of them.
The moment Bryan Watson had spoken the single word "unity," more than a few delegates present had already, privately, guessed something of what he was actually after beneath the surface framing.
"A joint task force."
Minister Nash of the French Ministry of Magic furrowed his brow deeply at the proposal.
"If this proposal is purely about the Death Eaters—what I mean to say is, forming any joint force is an extremely serious, weighty matter for this assembly to undertake. To do so purely for the Death Eaters alone, as a single threat, seems to me, on balance, more trouble and entanglement than it would ultimately be worth for most nations represented here."
Minister Nash's cautious remark won a measure of silent agreement from the room—particularly, and predictably, from those nations sitting geographically farther from the current eye of the storm, or those whose own size and international standing remained comparatively modest; such delegates were not especially inclined, by temperament or resources, to favour the considerable commitment such an idea would require.
"The terrorist activities of the Death Eater organisation are, without question, a problem the magical world urgently needs to face together but the underlying purpose of forming a joint task force is not, in fact, purely about them alone—"
Bryan turned his gaze toward the French Minister of Magic and said calmly, addressing the objection directly.
"Ordinary criminal activity is nothing rare within any given nation's own borders; under normal, everyday circumstances, the domestic security forces of each country's Ministry of Magic are more than sufficient, on their own, to deal with such matters without external assistance.
But across the continents, across every nation represented in this hall tonight, there occasionally arise cross-regional alliances of dark wizards—organisations that, by their very nature and design, tend to operate across multiple countries at once, exploiting exactly the jurisdictional gaps between our separate national forces.
Much like the Death Eater organisation itself, which has now relocated a portion of its activity abroad after suffering a fatal, decisive blow to its operations in Britain.
No single nation's individual strength is enough to root out such a distributed threat entirely on its own. To properly answer this recurring, structural problem of dark wizard alliances that cross borders to escape pursuit, establishing a joint rapid-response task force has become, in my assessment, a real and pressing necessity for our shared future."
Objectively speaking, weighing the proposal on its actual merits, Bryan's suggestion was a genuinely reasonable one. The trouble was that it touched simultaneously on far too many competing national interests all at once.
"Then this so-called joint task force of yours—"
After a moment of considering silence, Chairman Quahog asked, leaning forward slightly in his seat.
"—who exactly would it actually answer to, in practice?"
"Honoured delegates, my own view on this particular question is as follows—"
Bryan nodded once toward Samuel and then said solemnly.
"This joint task force should fall under the jurisdiction of the International Confederation of Wizards itself."
At these words, even Samuel's own composed expression turned visibly cool—let alone the reactions rippling through everyone else present.
"—A new Coordination Committee should be established beneath the International Confederation of Wizards, to direct the joint task force's day-to-day operations and strategic priorities.
This committee would be led by the sitting Chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards, with one additional seat allotted to each represented continent. No committee member, under this structure, may simultaneously hold an official position within any national government.
Each individual committee member would hold exactly one vote in committee proceedings; the sitting Confederation Chairman alone would hold two votes."
Bryan spoke on at considerable length from behind the podium, laying out the full architecture piece by piece.
"Every member state of the International Confederation of Wizards would retain the sovereign right to freely decide whether or not to sign the proposed Joint Security Treaty. Any nation that does sign automatically becomes a full member of the Coordination Committee, with the corresponding right to formally request that the Committee deploy the joint task force to intervene against any dark wizard organisation operating within its own sovereign territory or region.
The Committee would then vote formally on any such application submitted by a member state; a two-thirds majority of the full Committee would be required for the deployment's approval.
The joint task force itself would hold the formal authority to pursue and detain such dark wizard organisations across the territory of every member state within the association, without the usual jurisdictional barriers that currently protect fleeing criminals."
Hiss—
Samuel drew a soft, hissing breath through his teeth at the full shape of it—this, at least, sounded genuinely, carefully reasonable on its face, considerably more so than he'd initially expected.
But he quickly, with the sharp instincts of long diplomatic experience, spotted an loophole buried in the structure.
"In other words—the joint task force would have no authority to enter a Confederation member state that hasn't signed the Security Treaty, in order to pursue anyone fleeing across that particular border?"
"Naturally."
Bryan smiled at the observation, his expression was open and entirely untroubled by having the mechanism identified so quickly.
A number of delegates' faces grew suddenly energetic at the realisation.
Which was to say, working through the logic together: the moment the joint task force moved decisively to bring the hammer down on some dark wizard alliance operating within signatory territory, that alliance—unless its own members were fools would simply relocate itself wholesale to whichever neighbouring nation hadn't yet signed the Security Treaty, exploiting exactly that gap!
Bryan Watson was, in effect, through this single choice, forcing every nation present in this chamber's hand toward eventual signature.
Of course, the entire proposal itself could still, in principle, be voted down by the full assembly tonight. But even those delegates turning the implications carefully over in their own minds had to privately admit—this Security Treaty really did seem necessary for their own long-term security.
No nation present could guarantee that an organisation quite like the Death Eaters wouldn't someday rise up within their own borders, given enough time and the right conditions. And if it did, for that unlucky nation, it would be an unmitigated, potentially civilisation-ending catastrophe.
Not every country in this hall, after all, had an Albus Dumbledore of its own standing ready to intervene.
What's more, the existence of both the Coordination Committee's voting structure and the Joint Security Treaty's opt-in design together placed real limits on what the joint task force could actually do without broad consensus.
And this particular point mattered enormously to nearly everyone present tonight.
No nation in this chamber, whatever their current anxiety about the Death Eaters, genuinely wanted to see a resurgent, all-powerful International Confederation of Wizards standing unchecked over the modern wizarding world once again, the memory of the institution's earlier, more domineering era was still living in official memory.
"Well then, Vice-Chairman Watson—"
Minister Adenauer, too, seemed to be warming visibly to the underlying idea now that its careful structure had been properly laid out before him.
"—how exactly do you propose we actually go about building it?"
"My own preliminary thought on the matter is this: each nation that signs the Security Treaty would send twenty of their own trained Hit Wizards to be stationed at the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards. The exact final number, of course, should properly be settled by this assembly itself through further discussion."
Bryan answered like a man who had clearly turned this entire proposal over in his own mind long and carefully before ever bringing it formally to this chamber.
"And the operating budget for all this?"
"To be split proportionally among all member states of the Coordination Committee."
Bryan answered this particular question, posed by Minister Oblansk of Bulgaria.
Question after question about the Joint Security Treaty and its associated task force was put to him from every corner of the hall, and Bryan, standing steadily at the podium throughout, answered every single one without any visible hesitation or need to consult notes.
It was plain to every experienced diplomat watching that he had turned this entire proposal over in his mind long and carefully, working through countless objections, before ever bringing it here tonight for the assembly's consideration.
Every delegate in the hall was, by this point, genuinely weighing the proposal, turning its various implications over from multiple angles.
More than a few glanced covertly toward Dumbledore at the centre of the Seven Seats during this exchange, and were startled to see that even the Chairman of the Confederation sat with his own brow faintly furrowed in evident thought, ideas churning behind those familiar deep blue eyes as though he, too, were weighing the proposal's full costs and benefits for the first time alongside everyone else.
It seemed, then, reading Dumbledore's own visible reaction, that Bryan Watson had really not given the Supreme Mugwump any advance private word of this specific proposal before bringing it to the assembly tonight.
Noticing this particular detail, the assembled delegates felt, for reasons somewhat hard to properly articulate even to themselves, a measure of reassurance settle over their earlier wariness.
Though the formation of this joint security force came bound tightly with meaningful structural restrictions, and its core operational authority did not rest solely in the Confederation Chairman's own hands, still, for an International Confederation of Wizards that had, over recent decades, been gradually reduced to little more than an increasingly empty ceremonial shell, this proposal was nothing short of a shot of adrenaline, one that would considerably restore the prestige and relevance of its Chairman's office going forward.
There was one further detail, mentioned earlier in passing by Vice-Chairman Watson, that put the assembled delegates further at ease as they continued turning the proposal over.
Official, currently serving personnel of any national Ministry of Magic were barred from serving as Coordination Committee members.
Which meant that Watson himself could never become a committee member—after all, he still held his own post within the British Ministry of Magic!
Bryan looked out steadily over the hall as the general murmur of discussion gradually settled, and a confident smile appeared across his face.
"And now," he said, "I formally request that this assembly proceed to a vote on my proposal!"
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