The year was 2001. The times were very dark, as the world had taken a turn for the worst. Three years earlier, Voldemort had succeeded in doing what no one had expected him to do. He had won the Second War, and with his victory, things had changed.

The forces of the light had fought valiantly. They did what they could do, given what they were up against. However, in the end, it proved not to be enough for them to win. With one foul swoop, they were crushed. The fates of the heroes are almost worse than the battles themselves.

Harry Potter, the savior of the world, had vanished. His story ended where it had began, Godric's Hollow. While his friends had gone to do battle at Hogwarts, he went to his family's old home. He knew Voldemort would be there waiting for him, and since he had already gotten rid of his Horcruxes, he felt that he would be able to win. No one knows exactly what happened, all that is known is that Harry Potter was never seen again and no body was ever found.

Harry was not the only person whose fate had been changed that night. Both of Harry's closest friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley had survived. They had gotten married in a makeshift ceremony shortly after Harry disappeared. Both of them still had hoped that Harry was alive, however, after such a long time; Hermione was beginning to lose faith.

The Weasley family in itself was down to almost nothing. Arthur and Molly Weasley had survived the battle, though some of their children had not. Ginny and Harry had reconciled their relationship just before the seventh year was to begin. Ginny was killed by Lucius Malfoy shortly after the battle had begun. He was then his with a barrage of high level curses, the combination of which badly wounded him. He then apparated away. Percy was killed when the Death Eaters raided the Ministry of Magic building. They went on a murdering spree and killed everyone that they could. Bill Weasley along with his wife Fleur were killed by Fenrir Greyback. He said he was doing it to "finish the job" he had started on Bill before. Charlie had gotten into one of the fiercest duels of the night. He and Antonin Dolohov had been going at it for oven an hour before Bill slipped over a stray wand and fell, allowing Antonin to finally kill him. It had been a sad moment, inspiring his brothers to fight. Fred and George had unleashed a fury that no one knew they had. The let lose some of their more dangerous pranks and effectively vanished a crew of Death Eaters. Even now, they will not disclose what they did with them, though they assure everyone that they are still alive, or at least they were when the vanished. Upon Ron's request, Arthur and Molly went to live with relatives in Scotland. Fred and George had also gone to live with them.

The members of the Order of the Phoenix had all but vanished. Their numbers had somewhat diminished since the death of their leader. However, for the most part, they had enough to fight. Remus Lupin had died at the hands of his former friend, Peter Pettigrew .On the night of the battle, there just so happened to be a full moon. Remus had taken his potion and had managed to take out quite a few enemies. However, Peter began to assault his former friend with his silver hand and soon, he was dead. Remus' lover, Tonks avenged his death. She sent Pettigrew flying into the lake where he would meet a watery death, thanks in part to the mer-people. Tonks herself did not survive the battle. She was driven insane by Bellatrix LeStrange. The woman had tortured her to the point of insanity and then laughed. However, this was very short lived. Neville Longbottom had witnessed it and made sure that this was the last person that Bella would ever hurt. Mad-Eye Moody survived the battle. The old man had enough fight in him to survive; however, he had lost his other leg, thanks to a giant.

Hogwarts in itself was overrun. The students that were not able to escape either fought or ended up being captured. Many of the professors had died. Some escaped. However, the only one to be captured was Professor McGonagall. Voldemort had killed her personally because she had chosen not to renounce Dumbledore. The greatest surprise of the battle had come from Severus Snape. When he appeared on the scene, time seemed to slow down. Many heads turned, including the Dark Lord's. They all almost seemed to wait and see what he would do. He quickly stunned and took the wand of the nearest Death Eater, shocking everyone. He continued on, even allowing many students to use his portkey to escape. However, in the end, nothing was enough.

Just when it seemed that victory was assured for the light, a second round of the dark army arrived to help the first. This army consisted of many creatures, especially Dementors. They had come to feed.

The remaining people fighting ended up having to retreat against their will. Some of them were never seen again. No one knows whether they are hiding or they've been captured.

Ron had taken it upon himself to try and make a new resistance. Voldemort was slowly taking over, and as of 2001, he controlled most, if not all of England. Ron and his fighters were established in the abandoned Ministry of Magic building. Every precaution had been taken on it. With Hermione at his side, Ron made sure that the building was fortified.

Many people had also come to join his resistance. Besides himself and Hermione, there was also Severus Snape. Kingsley Shacklebolt was also there, fighting just as hard as ever. Neville Longbottom was also helping. After the death of his grandmother, he decided that there was nothing left for him to do but fight. Many more people had also come to help. Some of them were ordinary people who wanted to fight. Some were former classmates and relatives.

Ron was not leading the resistance by himself. Though he and Hermione were married, he had made a conscious decision not to make her the co-leader. Instead, an outsider was chosen. At the beginning of the resistance, Ron and Hermione had found Edrea Rhodanthe. She was a very powerful witch. After proving herself loyal by saving Hermione's life, she was made co-leader.

The changes that they had undertaken were drastic. Ron had become exceptionally powerful. He was now able to cast almost any spell that he knew wordlessly. His frame had gone from lanky to muscular and he had let his hair grow down to shoulder's length.

They all had their work cut out for them.

"Ron, we've gotten word from Nick," Hermione stated.

"What did he say?" asked Ron, now staring at his wife intently.

"He says that he is no longer able to enter the building."

"What do you mean?" continued Ron, now paying closer attention.

"He says that when he tried to enter Hogwarts, it was as though he was solid again. He tried every door, window, all of that. Nothing worked."

"Damn. The one time that we actually counted on the ghosts to do something, they can't do it, Ron fumed.

"Ron, don't get angry with Nick. It's not his fault," Hermione tried to reason.

The door to their bedroom creaked open slowly, and in walked Edrea, the co-leader of the resistance. She looked at the duo sitting at the desk and sighed heavily.

"Don't you know how to knock?" asked Hermione, her eyebrows raised.

Edrea looked at her with disdain. "Of course I do. I just knew nothing would be going on. From the way you act sometimes, nothing ever goes on in this room, if you catch my drift," Edrea said curtly.

Hermione stood and began walking towards Edrea. Ron quickly grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her back. Raising his voice just a bit he said, "I'm not having this from you two again, not today." There was a definite air of finality in his voice. Hermione looked Edrea up and down as though summing the woman up before sitting.

"Edrea, to what do I owe this visit?" asked Ron, turning to look at her.

"Well, I was just wondering if you were up for a little practice. Things have been getting rather boring around here."

"Boring? Things are just heating up. I guess you haven't heard yet. Now that Voldemort has all but taken over, and the Muggle's are aware of magic, the government has created a new task force. They're calling themselves the Magical Prevention Corps. It's turning into the Salem Witch Trials all over again. It's not safe for anyone, because everyone is being accused of magic."

"You're not serious," she scoffed. "I never thought I would see the day when this would happen." Edrea looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, that sucks for me. I'm hated for being a lesbian. I'm hated for being a witch. What's next?" she laughed in her twisted sense of humor.

"You could get hated for being such a bitch," Hermione said.

The smile faded from Edrea's face. She looked at Hermione with a look of evil before opening her mouth. "Good one. Little miss goodie two shoes said a foul word. Let's see if you can back it up in some training."

Ron closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms. He knew that the two had been feuding since they had first met, and he had never known Hermione to be so venomous towards a person. However, he decided that he would let the two of them 'practice' together as long as he was there to monitor the situation. In his head, he had already worked out that Hermione would not win. She was an extraordinary witch; this he had no doubt of. However, Edrea was second in command for a reason. The hardships she had been through in her life, accompanied with her skill had been why he had chosen her. Her skills were second only to his. At least this battle would keep their bickering to a minimum…for the moment.

"Fine," Hermione said. She stood and marched off, heading towards the training area of the building. She bumped Edrea as she walked past her.

"You know, if she wasn't such a prude, she would make a half-way decent fighter," Edrea commented.

Edrea and Ron left for the training area. The aurors had used it during the time when the ministry was still active. It was a very large room, about the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. There were no windows, though the room was on the top floor. Six training dummies were on each of the four walls of the room. The dummies could be bewitched for many purposes. They could do martial arts, sword training, or you could 'program' them to fire spells that you choose at you or your opponent. One wall of the room was adorned with many weapons. There were swords, clubs, maces, and much more.

As they entered the room, to find Hermione waiting, they looked around to see that she had her wand out at the ready. Though Hermione could do some spells without a wand, she was not at Edrea's level, and certainly nowhere near Ron's.

"Look, I'm going to be here to watch this. I'm not refereeing or anything. I'm just here to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Now please, keep in mind that I would like to have the both of you back in one piece."

Edrea walked close to where Hermione was standing. She looked the woman up and down before speaking.

"What are the rules?" she asked.

"You issued the challenge, you decide," Hermione said.

"Fine," Edrea said, as she began to think quickly. "No unforgivable curses of course. The way to win is to force your opponent to say the words, 'I quit'. It's basically a submission match up. Ok?"

"Its fine by me," Hermione said.

The two of them bowed to one another. The battle then began. Hermione summoned a sword from the wall with her wand. She gripped it strongly, while looking around for Edrea. It was hard for her to hold the wand in one hand while gripping her wand in the other. She put her wand away and began to hope that the spells she could do nonverbally would be enough for her to win. Hermione stood in one spot and slowly turned around in a small circle. Trying to see where Edrea would be attacking from.

When Edrea finally attacked, she came hard at Hermione. She too had picked up a sword and the two of them were going against one another viciously. Each one of them was swinging in a motion that appeared as though they were trying to kill one another. Ron, who was looking at the battle with interest, was reading their faces and movements however. He saw that each one of them was holding back just a bit, as to not hurt their opponent.

In the little moment when Ron stopped paying attention, he had missed it. He looked up and saw Hermione pinned against the wall with Edrea's sword at her throat. He knew the battle was over, and stood to go and separate the two. However, he had moved to soon. He saw a gleam of something he didn't recognize in Hermione's eyes and then he knew what the dream was.

"I'M NOT DONE YET," Hermione's voice had boomed. She had cast the snorus spell without words and had yelled almost directly into Edrea's ears. Hermione acted quickly. She pushed Edrea away from her and grabbed the sword from her hand. She sent a few quick punches and kicks at Edrea while she was holding her hands to her ears. Finally, with a kick to the face, she had sent the woman to the ground.

"I quit," Edrea had said bitterly. "You cheating bitch. That was an underhanded move. If my head was not ringing right now, I would get up and kick your ass."

The door opened once more. In walked Severus Snape. He looked the same as he had when he was still teaching at Hogwarts. His hair was greasy as ever and his nose was still crooked.

"Mr. Weasley, now that this little exercise is finished. I have more pressing matters than need your attention," he said simply.