Warning: Rated M for gore, violence, rape, sexual situations, language, psychological torment, genocide, mass killings, and other psychologically disturbing content.

Disclaimer: I am neither J.K. Rowling nor her equal in writing. I do not own Harry Potter or any of its affiliates. No copyright infringement was intended in writing this FanFiction. All characters seen in the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling exclusively.

Summary: With the fall of Voldemort, the world was at peace. For 25 years, it enjoyed this peace – until a new Dark Lord rose, calling himself Lord Sin and The Black Knight. He is vastly unknown and disbelieved, a rumor in the night. Few know that he is both very real and very powerful. But he is coming – and when he does, the barrier between Muggle and Wizard worlds will be shredded, and He will strike terror into the hearts of muggles and wizards alike. He can be stopped – maybe. But with a generation of war heroes unwilling to believe that evil still stalks their lands, it falls to their children – who barely know how to protect themselves, much less the world.

Prologue: At Death's Door.

I knew that it wasn't going to be easy before we even began.

Something moved in the darkness, and I couldn't tell if it was dark as night, black as sin, or even real at all. It flashed here and there, back and forth, round and round, yet it always moved closer to the shadowed edge of the city skyline.

I guess that I never expected surviving all of this to change us.

We'd probably die here. That's what protection was, right? To die in the place of what you're defending? It just felt like dying in vain. How do you protect something you can't sense? How could we do it alone?

But it's good, this change. We've survived enough. We're ready to die for this.

There were more now. They'd moved past the shadows, slowed down, and I could see them. They looked the same, moved the same, their stance murderous. They stared us down, challenged us. We stood tall.

We're ready for this. One final battle, one chance to take them down with us.

They stopped. We stilled. Nothing, no one, moved.

Let our blood burn, our courage boil, but most of all…

There was a flicker of black, the world going dark. They moved.

Let us drag them with us to death's domain.

The battle began.

Chapter One: Fire and Ice

Lily

I hated the trip to the train. If the judgmental stares from the people in the station proper weren't bad enough, there were always the stares of resentment from the wizards and witches on Platform 9 ¾.

I suppose it was to be expected though. And after six years at Hogwarts, I should be used to this. It was nothing new.

"Is that her," someone whispered too loudly, "Is that really Lily Potter?"

Someone answered, and there were shocked gasps from the group of first and second years to my left. Even their parents stared now, though they were more discreet.

The whispers started.

"Is it true that she skipped a whole year?"

"She's supposedly the smartest witch in the school."

"The brightest witch of the age, they say."

"Harry Potter's her father."

"She's the best Seeker in the league."

"Set to be Head Girl seventh year."

"Fifteen – just fifteen in 6th year!"

"Rumor is she can Apparate and morph into an Animagus."

"Everyone knows she's been with all the best boys in school – she hooked one from Durmstrang over summer! Everyone says so."

"I hear she's being tutored by the headmaster himself."

"Just look at her! She has to have a full glamour on to be that perfect. It's insulting."

"It's completely outrageous, isn't it?" Rose sneered to my left. "The rumors that fly around here… I could just scream sometimes! Apparently I've been dating half the Slytherin house all summer, trying to get Mikael Zabini jealous so he'll take me back. I've never looked twice at him! He's a Slytherin!"

Rose's rant continued, and I was content to listen. At least when she was talking, I could ignore what people were saying and keep myself from hexing them. I didn't need the extra problems this early in the year. I didn't need them at all with the close scrutiny I got.

"And apparently Hufflepuff's keeper James Mathers has been telling everyone that we've been…"

I looked up and down our platform, trying to see through the smoke from the train. If I could just find the rest of my group, we could disappear into the train and hopefully ignore the attention we generated.

"And this Ravenclaw boy – he's been sending me poetry. Poetry Lily! It's absolutely ridiculous. As if I could be swayed by words on a page. It's not even good poetry. It's all about the probability of futures and love and…"

I spotted Raven Longbottom coming out from behind a group of fourth years. She looked odd and dreamy as always – just like her mother, Aunt Luna. I could tell she was tired of the attention by the sharp reprimanding look in her eyes. She resembled Uncle Neville, our Herbology professor, perfectly when she was annoyed.

"Raven! Over here!"

She turned to look, and her spiral glasses fell off of her head and on to her nose sharply, spraying glitter everywhere. They were probably some sort of "Ukranian Snork repellers" or the like. The cloud of glitter floated out around her as she ambled over too us, eyes a bit glazed now that she'd found a respite from the onslaught of looks.

"Hello Lily," she drawled when she came to a stop. I pushed the glasses up off her nose and hugged her soundly.

"How was the Solstice hunt Raven?"

Her smile grew wide and her eyes sparkled a bit. "We didn't catch any Snorks, so the villages in northern France will still be over run come spring, but we did sight some marvelous Florificus tracks near our campsite. We must have just missed their migration."

"Glad to hear you had fun. Have you seen the Albus or Dimitri or Teddy anywhere?"

"Oh I have!" chirped Rose. "Albus is with Bethany in the prefect car, and Teddy's off with Victoire. Dimitri is still with the rest of the Krums. He and Aleksander are fighting again." Something crashed sharply off to our lefts and Raven smiled. "That'd be them now. I do hope that Criptin is alright. They knocked his cage off the trolly."

I gave Rose one glance and raced off toward where the boys were. The two twins had a horrid case of sibling rivalry, and there was nothing to be done about it but break them up when they went at each other. They'd picked the worst possible time for this – as usual. The train was leaving in just a few minutes, and we still didn't have everybody together. People were still staring, the luggage had to be loaded, and there wasn't enough space for them not to make a mess of things, but worse than all that…

Two arms wrapped about my waist, and a soft, silky voice whispered in my ear. "Why, hello my love."

Scorpius Malfoy was here looking on to the brother's brawl.

I ripped myself out of his arms before I could feel the comfort they had always brought me. Whirling, I met his cold gray eyes, knowing my own sapphire ones were spitting sparks. Those horrible eyes brought back every memory with him, vivid and real and just too much. It made me want to run to him and cry until I couldn't cry anymore. It made me hate – both him and myself. Both of those made me angry as hell.

"I'm not your anything anymore. Sod off Malfoy. Go play with your Slytherin girls and leave me be."

I turned back to the brothers, hoping to separate them and get out of there before more trouble showed up.

The brawl had been a tough one. The boys were just as big as each other, thoroughly matched, and neither could overpower the other. It would have been fabulous to watch – if a stray fist had not, at that very moment – gone stray and hit me hard enough in the head to knock me out cold.

I remember only two things before I fell completely out of consciousness. Scorpius's cold, steely, hateful eyes, and overwhelming fear at being vulnerable in front of him again.

Scorpius

Someone screamed off to my left – Lily's Weasley friend no doubt. The Longbottom girl looked almost shocked out of her fantasy world. Albus Potter, who'd come running from inside the train at some point, looked right pissed. And the two Krum boys – the two bloody brutish Krum boys – were still wrangling on the floor.

Wands were pulled everywhere – Lily's friends were fast to draw but always slow to cast. They had the Gryffindor nobility for the most part, and the Longbottom girl had the Raven claw curse of observation.

Both boys were stupefied soundly before the yelling had even started. I kicked one brother off the other contemptuously, and barely contained myself from casting some of the darker spells I knew. To hit a woman was unforgivable enough – to hit Lily Potter was almost assuredly suicidal. If she didn't kill them for it, I would. After all that had happened, I knew what it did to her.

My icy glare went around to the entire group. Not a one of them didn't look frightened afterwards, and their fear prompted my speech, making it more menacing than my anger. "Protection is a Gryffindor trait, is it not you dolts?"

They nodded, shocked by my authoritative tone and the question both.

"And loyalty is also, I presume?" More nods.

"Then why is your friend laying bleeding on the ground, unhealed and unchecked, while not a one of you has cast a spell? Why is it that the person she fears and loathes is the one to protect her? Why are you all USELESS?"

The Longbottom girl shot forward, wand in hand, going for Lily. Too little too late, I thought, and stepped straight into her path, almost on top of her. She looked up at me from her place on the floor, and all I could muster as a feeling was disgust. I had never liked Lily's friends, but before… I had tolerated their idiocy. Their slow reactions had hurt Lily – they were lower than dirt to me now.

"Don't touch her," I spat, dissolving into Parseltongue. "Don't you dare touch her." The hissing, serpentine sound of it made Longbottom draw back sharply, and I struck, scooping Lily into my arms and disappearing into the train.

I took her to a back carriage, a rather old one with locks and window shades. It was dusty and in poor repair, undignified really. They wouldn't check her for a prideful Slytherin.

Setting Lily down as gently as possible, I Accioed her luggage and mine to the car. Her nose healed nicely with a few simple healing spells, and she woke under another charm, rather calmly if too slowly for my tastes.

Her lashes fluttered against her rosy cheeks, dark and long. Her button nose wrinkled a bit, almost as if she was testing to see that it was healed properly. Her head rolled a bit from side to side, and her soft lips parted on the soft sigh of a single word.

"Scorpius…"

I knew then that I had been right in bringing her here. Despite her protest, despite her denials and mistrust, despite everything between us and against us, she still loved me.

Just as I loved her.

Author's Note

Next: Chapter Two: The Past Doesn't Die

Yours,

~TGA~