AN: This is a bit different than your typical "Voldemort wins" story. The Voldemort of JK Rowling is nowhere near as bad as he could have been; his devastation was limited to Britain and the "deus ex machina" of the Elder Wand combined with his character flaws in just the right way to cause his defeat. This story explores the absolute worst possible (yet still realistic) Voldemort anyone could possibly imagine (in fact, I challenge you to come up with any worse). He's a little less arrogant and high-handed, a little wiser, and a lot more diabolical - his less unpleasant reign during Harry's seventh year alienates fewer people, thus avoiding turning popular opinion against him, and thereby winning him the final battle.
There is no concept of Deathly Hallows in this story. Voldemort does not foolishly waste his time trying to "get the Hallows" and master death; instead, he starts making new Horcruxes when he finds out Harry is destroying his original ones. This, along with his concealment of his true plans, not tipping his hand too early, allows Voldemort to "win."
But it's not over yet. What was the true extent of Voldemort's plans? How far can a wizard's inhumanity to wizards go? Find out in this story...

Prologue:

May 3, 1998. The morning after the Battle of Hogwarts, a hard-fought but ultimately decisive victory for the "pureblood power" movement of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Among many blemishes marring Voldemort's triumph is a particularly embarrassing one: his own death, in the closing minutes of the battle, from yet another rebounding Killing Curse. Only Voldemort's foresight in making extra Horcruxes before the battle allows the surviving members of his Inner Circle to restore him to life. And nearly half of Voldemort's troops are martyred in the battle: his heroes, who are now by definition Britain's heroes, include such prominent names as Lestrange, Carrow, and Crabbe, among several posthumous recipients of the Order of Merlin. Nevertheless, victory is victory and the darkest empire in the history of wizardkind stands at its humble beginnings...

"Your orders, my Lord?"

Now restored to corporeal form following the embarrassing incident at the Battle of Hogwarts, Voldemort's face appeared in the green fires of the Minister for Magic's office.

"Issue the following Ministry decree, effective immediately. All individuals known to have acted or advocated in opposition to the Dark Lord are to sign an oath, which shall be magically binding, affirming their loyalty to the current Ministry and to the Dark Lord, and renouncing any conflicting loyalties. Upon taking the oath, such individuals, if they have never previously participated in armed resistance against the Dark Lord or his agents, shall be free wizards, with all prior offenses cleared from their records."

As Voldemort spoke, a magical quill on the Minister's desk recorded his new decree, later to be passed to the Wizengamot.

"As for all individuals who have participated in armed resistance," Voldemort continued, "legal procedures shall be announced shortly for their lawful reentry into wizarding society. In the meantime, they are to be held in custody and treated with adequate food and shelter as prisoners of war.

"A second decree. Effective immediately, the area as shown on the map we made previously shall be a Giant reserve. Giants are hereby reclassified as beings and shall have the rights afforded by that classification.

"Another decree, also effective immediately. In the interests of immediate postwar stability, Apparation into and out of the British Isles is hereby prohibited until further notice. Emigration is also temporarily prohibited. Wards shall be placed to enforce these restrictions, which will be lifted as the situation allows and as fugitives are captured and brought to justice.

"Finally, effective beginning today at eleven o'clock, a bounty shall be paid to any wizard for the deliverance of fugitive Muggle-borns to the office of the Muggle-born Registration Commission, in the amount of 50 galleons per fugitive, preferably alive. The bounty may also be paid to unregistered Muggle-borns who turn themselves in, and the records of these Muggle-borns shall be cleared of all offenses.

"Oh, and one last thing? I shall prefer to be called 'the Dark Lord' when referred to in public. This is not a decree, but do encourage it in polite society; my name is still Tabooed to aid in capturing fugitives, so the less I am referred to by name the better."

"Yes, my Lord." Yaxley, now in the chair of the Minister for Magic following Pius Thicknesse's death, gathered the notes he had taken and went to the Wizengamot. The new decrees were duly approved, and thereafter printed in the Daily Prophet.

The entire British Isles had been sealed off by anti-Apparation wards, and all ports of entry were watched closely for any attempted escapes. Only Voldemort's inner circle knew the full extent of his plans. He foresaw the elimination of all Muggle-borns, and ultimately all Muggles from the world. The first step would be to destroy every one of the three thousand Muggle-borns on the British Isles.

Perhaps a thousand had starved or died of disease in the deliberately poor conditions of Azkaban before the Battle of Hogwarts. Another thousand and eight hundred or so remained in custody, wasting away; this meant perhaps two hundred more had either fled or hidden.

Kevin Entwhistle was one of the many faceless prisoners. Like many others, he had been caught when one of his fellow fugitives accidentally read aloud the word "Voldemort" from a Quibbler article. At first he was alone in his cell, but as the year went on, he had to share his cell – and the rotten slice of daily bread – with an increasing number of other prisoners. At one point nine of them had been crammed into that bathroom-sized cell; newer prisoners brought a trickle of new rumors and other news from the outside, as well as knowledge of what the current date was – for all who entered soon lost track of the days as hunger and cold occupied their minds.

The last one to be thrown into "Entwhistle's cell" (the prisoners named it after Kevin because he had been its first occupant) said he had been captured on April 12, 1998, after his ancestry records were discovered to be fake. A few weeks later, two Dementors and a squad of Death Eaters stopped by, opened the door, and ordered Kevin out of the cell. It was the first time all year that anyone had been removed from the cell alive.

Kevin was used to the Dementors by now, and his despair, unbroken for many months, was disrupted by the change in routine, as he and two fellow prisoners were grabbed by the wrists and pulled out of their confinement into the comparatively well-lit corridor. As the Death Eaters pushed him down corridors, a wand poking into his back at all times, he was alertly looking for any possible opportunity to escape. To his dismay, no opportunity arose; the Death Eaters remained just as alert as he was, and they had wands while he didn't. Suddenly they emerged onto a long pier jutting off the island into the sea, and then one of the Death Eaters bound his hands and feet while another levitated him bodily into the air, dumping him down the hatch of a boat waiting at the dock. He landed on the wooden bottom of the boat yet felt an invisible cushion soften the blow; there were a few other prisoners he could see around him, all bound with ropes. A few more tied prisoners were thrown in, and then the hatch was shut leaving them all in darkness.

Perhaps a few hours later the hatch reopened and now the prisoners were levitated back out, dumped one by one on the ground. There were carts waiting in the distance; Kevin supposed he was to be taken to his execution on one of them.

Now the prisoners were being separated by gender; Kevin felt himself levitated again and laid on the grass alongside an assortment of other men and boys. There seemed to be about thirty of them altogether.

A large pack of Dementors seemed to approach out of nowhere. The despair to which Kevin was now accustomed returned, now more intensely; the Death Eaters were out of sight. He felt chilled, then he realized what was coming.

A Dementor's Kiss.

So this was the fate of a Mudblood! A few of the prisoners were now squirming about on the ground, trying to roll themselves away from the terror of the Dementors; it was futile. One man was murmuring a prayer. Now all was dark as the Dementors loomed over their helpless prey. For a brief moment Kevin felt the cold scrabbly hand of a Dementor on his chest and then it was over. He existed no longer; he was part of that black reservoir inside the intimidating cloak with its two decaying hands.

The Dementors withdrew, and now four Death Eaters stepped up. The body that once belonged to Kevin Entwhistle was thrown into a cart, just one among many others equally undead.

"Goyle," one of the Death Eaters called out, "Take that cart to the east entrance of the Forbidden Forest; the werewolves should be there. Leave it for them."

"Okay," the one called Goyle pocketed his wand and jumped onto the horse-drawn cart, driving it off to make his delivery.

The other three Death Eaters jumped onto a second cart. This one, unlike the first, was loaded with female bodies. They drove the cart a few miles over the horizon to the gate of a large mansion: here they again unloaded their soulless cargo, untying the hands and feet of each victim as they did so. Two more hooded Death Eaters emerged from the front door of the house to help send the living bodies inside.

"So, this is our first harvest?" one of them asked.

"That's right," confirmed one of the Death Eaters that had driven the cart. "Have all the potions ready?"

"Thirty doses right here," the first one answered. "Restorative, fertility potion, and fattener all combined."

All thirty of the victims were now lined up on the magically-cushioned floor of the living room. The first Death Eater locked the door with a swish of his wand, then proceeded down the line of bodies, removing the clothes they wore. The truth was, Mudblood naked flesh was no less appealing than anyone else's, and Death Eater men had all the same appetites as any male would. They proceeded to carry out the Dark Lord's orders, and by nightfall the Dark Lord had thirty new unborn subjects.

Thus in one evil stroke of genius, Voldemort both destroyed his enemies and rewarded his supporters.

Half-bloods, on the other hand, were fully accepted into wizarding society, though always subject to some amount of social snobbery from their pureblood fellows. Grindelwald's great mistake had been to treat half-bloods as second-class wizards, an insulting action that had inflamed many half-bloods to side with the Muggle-borns. Voldemort, a half-blood himself, and armed with the wisdom of the past, kept the half-bloods on his side.

This, of course, did not apply to half-bloods (or even purebloods) who had fought against Voldemort during the recent war. At the end of the battle, almost a hundred and fifty prisoners had been captured alive; they were initially bound and held in cells at the Ministry of Magic. It would be a pity to have to kill them all; for Britain's wizarding population had suffered heavily from the war, and if these former enemies of Voldemort could be converted to supporters, they would make valuable contributions to rebuilding the society. What could the Dark Lord use these people for? They would soon find out.

"Think about it this way," Antonin Dolohov explained, "A half-blood, by definition, is anyone who has a Muggle parent or grandparent, but yet also has some wizard ancestry. So the children of a pureblood father and a mudblood mother are going to be half-blood, because they'll have Muggle grandparents from the mudblood parent.

"Now let's say this half-blood kid is sensible and marries a pureblood. Their children won't have Muggle grandparents anymore, because the half-blood's grandparents will be great-grandparents for the offspring of this pair, and this means that we have effectively washed away the stain of Muggle ancestry by successive marriage to purebloods. Technically, under the law, these children become pureblood because they are the third generation of non-Muggles.

"So, what we ought to do with all the half-bloods is encourage them to marry pureblood wizards, so that the children will be more pure. In the short run this introduces a temporary bit of pollution into the pureblood family line, but over time, as the Muggle ancestry fades further into the past, the line gradually regains its original purity."

Alecto Carrow nodded. "So that means we've got about seventy fertile witches among our prisoners, and another eight hundred or so baby machines from the Mudblood stocks, which gives us, let's just say nine hundred new wizards per year…"

"Exactly right," Dolohov picked up, "so in five years we'll have increased our population by over four thousand children. After that the Mudbloods may be all worn out, but that already makes up for the total population we've lost in this war, and we'll be a much purer society then without all the Muggle influence. All these kids will attend Hogwarts, and learn how to be true wizards and witches, and then…

"In seventeen years they'll become adults, ready to fight for wizardkind," Carrow said.

"Fight and reproduce," Dolohov corrected. "We'll produce an army of new Aurors and Death Eaters every year after that. We'll have nine hundred a year for four or five years initially and then eighty to a hundred more in reinforcements annually. Then after twelve years of that, the next generation – children of the first bumper crop – start graduating too, and from there we just start growing and growing. We'll roll through Europe and on to Africa without trouble, bring the Dark Lord's merciful rule to the whole world…"

As they were chatting, the two Death Eaters had come back up to the small back porch where they had started. Dolohov glanced at a time piece. "I suppose I should go," he said, "my son is waiting for me." The men said their goodbyes as any pair of friends might, and Dolohov vanished with a pop.

A large, silvery doe Patronus leaped through the open window of Madame Maxime's office, stopping on a dime right in front of the headmistress's desk. It had to be a message from the Order; the headmistress looked up from the staff evaluation she was filling out, locked and Silenced the door with a flick of her wand, and listened to the silver animal speak:

"Pass this message on to our Order contacts in France," said Professor Snape's voice, "inform them that Potter is dead, the Dark Lord controls Britain. All forms of communication and transportation are watched, only Patronus and Muggle communications will be safe. The Dark Lord plans to use all female Muggle-borns to raise an army of half-blood Death Eaters to conquer the world, our schedule calls for a new world war starting eighteen years from now, when the first crop of new Death Eaters become adults. You must expose this plan to the world… the Dark Lord will deny it, he will claim that he only wishes to rule Britain… this is a lie, he has ordered us to plan for world conquest… the peace now prevailing will be short unless the wizards of the world can be roused against this rogue Ministry – "

The silver creature dissipated, its message delivered. The headmistress sighed as she lifted her wand to send her own Patronus to the remaining Order members. It seemed she was not the only one having a bad day.

It took a few minutes for George Weasley to realize he was no longer unconscious, but rather awake and blindfolded. In attempting to remove the blindfold to see his surroundings, he discovered that his hands and feet were bound in ropes.

He had been at Hogwarts to help in the final battle. Some Death Eaters must have escaped, he thought, or there was no explanation for his situation. His thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of someone's footsteps and soon after the blindfold was yanked from his head.

Blinking a few times in the light, George soon looked up at a Death Eater he didn't know. The Death Eater conjured a cushion and sat down next to George on the ground. Only then did George notice that he, too, had a cushion under him - since when did Death Eaters treat their prisoners so well? he wondered.

"Mr. Weasley, right?" the Death Eater asked cordially. George said nothing.

"Well, my name is Matthew Mulciber. I will be serving you as interrogator tonight." The Death Eater smiled politely; George still said nothing.

"Anyway, wouldn't you like to know what happened?" Mulciber asked. Given no response, he continued, "I'll just assume it's a yes. You have the right to know, anyways, because we need you to make an informed decision.

"Voldemort won the battle."

George tried to convince himself the Death Eater was simply trying to demoralize him.

"I know you were friends with Harry Potter," Mulciber went on, "it must be hard for you. Too bad the prophecy said he had to die. He would've been a fine wizard...

"But here's what it boils down to. You can choose, as a convicted blood traitor and enemy combatant, to be executed; or, if you recognize your errors, you can redeem yourself and swear allegiance, on your magic, to the Britain Ministry of Magic and to the Dark Lord. Sign this paper," Mulciber brought out a scroll and quill, setting it in front of George, "and you are a free wizard of Britain, with all your past indiscretions erased from the record."

Mulciber waved his wand to release George's hands.

"You want me to pledge allegiance to the man who killed my brother!" George burst out angrily. "What did you think - "

"Think through this carefully, Mr. Weasley," Mulciber interupted. "I know your brothers died in the war. As they say, war is cruel. But now peace has returned. Enemies must reconcile, our society must be rebuilt. You are the last of your illustrious line, Mr. Weasley. Only you can redeem your ancient family and restore the Weasley name to its former honor."

"You killed them all!" the prisoner whispered in horror.

"I'm sorry," Mulciber said, seeming genuinely sorry as he spoke. "You know that my brother died in the war too? He was kidnapped by the Ministry during the first war. They tortured him to make him testify against two friends who we both knew were absolutely innocent. He refused to condemn them, and then to break him, they brought me in and made him watch as they Crucio'ed me. That was when I finally realized how evil the Ministry was. It was only then that I began to consider joining the rebellion under Lord Voldemort. Our job was made so much harder by well-intentioned but foolish people like your parents, who actually fought FOR the Ministry and all the corrupt atrocities it stood for.

"I bet you know people who have been screwed over by the Ministry too. All that is in the past now. We have a new Ministry, one that will serve the interests of the wizard community and not just a few crooked officials. One that will even forgive your transgressions, and give all a second chance in the interest of national reconciliation.

"As a fellow citizen, Mr. Weasley, I urge you to sign the oath."

It almost sounded a bit tempting. George, however, was not so easily beaten. "Your new Ministry tortures people too!" he retorted, "in fact I have every reason to hate your Ministry, just as you hated the previous one!"

"We tried," Mulciber said quietly. "You whole lot of Weasleys are just too stubborn for your own good... I know what it's like to lose a family member. The Dark Lord is willing to kneel and ask your forgiveness. And we offer our own forgiveness to you in return."

"Maybe I'm just not good enough of a person," George said bitterly. "Would you forgive the one who killed your parents, your twin brother, your entire family, all your friends! Look, you couldn't forgive the ones who took your brother. Why should I be any better?"

"They never asked to be forgiven," Mulciber replied. "They didn't even care. Certainly we could just kill you - as the previous government would have - but it is our hope that no more pure blood may be shed. I know this is painful for you, Mr. Weasley. I understand you may need more time. You can stay here for a while, and think it through."

Leaving the cell and shutting the barred metal door behind him, Mulciber released all of the ropes binding George, and walked away.

A short while later, working his way down the line of prison cells, Mulciber would make the exact same pitch, and receive a similarly angry response, from Percy Weasley – so that both surviving brothers, unaware of the other, were misled into believing themselves the last of the Weasleys.

"But can they really be trusted?" Rabastan asked doubtfully. "The Dark Lord wants them to do us services…"

"No need to worry," Crabbe answered, "The oath measures their intentions. If they ever try to do something against the Ministry, or against the Dark Lord, they become Squibs instantly. They are free to think, but not to act."

"But if they receive contradictory orders…"

"That shouldn't be an issue. But the oath was written so that the Dark Lord's orders prevail in the event that the Ministry is taken over, or if some rebel fraudulently impersonates the Ministry to issue false decrees. They will be quite trustworthy, Rabastan."

Note to all the Hermione-only fans who clicked this story solely because of your favorite character - sorry I haven't brought her into the story just yet, but please rest assured she will be playing an important role later in the story, hang tight! Thanks for your patience! For now, I still need to set up the story... so it's Voldemort's show, for now.

Author's note:
In case it's not spelled out explicitly enough above, the overall outline of Voldemort's super-smart plan for world conquest is:
1. After winning the British Isles, he rewards the Dementors by letting them eat the souls of Muggle-borns and others who refuse to submit to him.
2. Then he rewards the Werewolves, Acromantulas, Giants, Trolls etc. by letting them eat the male Muggle-borns.
3. Then he rewards his human Death Eaters by letting them impregnate all the female Muggle-borns.
4. Then he uses those soul-less female bodies to crank out children to be raised as loyal followers.
5. Most former Light Side opponents can hopefully be won over by leniency and moderation, tricking them to think that the "Dark Lord" isn't that dark after all. In fact, Voldemort will promise - and deliver - a more-or-less true meritocracy, for everyone except Muggle-borns that is. Though purebloods retain their social superiority in the most extravagant circles, half-bloods are pleasantly surprised to find little discrimination in practical middle-class matters. The purebloods don't dare to complain when Voldemort promotes competent half-bloods to staff his Ministries.

The scheme continues in the next chapter as follows:
6. Additional "fresh blood" for mating purposes will be obtained by forcing his former enemies (people like George Weasley) to mate with carefully chosen loyal supporters. This is Voldemort's effort to improve his supporters' gene pool, but without a "marriage" law. After three such "services" they are released from probation and can marry whomever they wish. This policy is justified by "the need to rebuild our population after the recent tragic war".
7. Sensible reforms to improve the status of werewolves, giants, etc. will be implemented, of the type that Hermione Granger would have approved of; an ironic act of justice, but purely pragmatic from Voldemort's point of view (further rewards for his supporters).
8. All children will be properly indoctrinated.
9. Voldemort will attempt to be a moderate and upright ruler for the first 20 years, while concealing his plans from the world until he has sufficient numbers to conquer everyone in one massive surprise attack.
10. During the long wait, Death Eater agents will be sent out to destabilize other wizarding governments and foment prejudice in order to weaken resistance to the eventual conquest. They will collaborate with local pureblood sympathizers who are often the wealthy and powerful elite.

What are the flies in Voldemort's ointment?
1. Severus Snape will never stop looking for the opportunity to avenge Lily's death, no matter how comfortable his life as a respected "hero" for the dark side.