A/N: Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is the best fic you'll ever read, so you have lots to look forward to. Particularly if you're tired of the standard fanfiction plot, with the standard characters and the standard romances. This is something new, set after Harry's time…when there's still one Horcrux left to find and Voldemort has just about won. Be prepared for dark sexiness.

CHAPTER ONE: THE NEW WORLD

The door opened with a bang. Everyone inside had their wands ignited and pointing towards the door, but as soon as they spotted the familiar long black hair they sighed in relief. Cautiously, they lowered their wands and moved aside so there was room enough for the woman named Nathalie Jane Sterling to enter. She sat down by the table next to her sister Dawn, who wrinkled her nose from the smell.

"Sorry," mumbled Nathalie sheepishly, "I fell ... and naturally right into an enormous pool of mud! It's so typical, why is it always me? Why should I inherit the clumsy genes?"

Dawn didn't dignify her big sister's whining with a comment; she merely straightened her glasses and looked over at where Bill Weasley and Parvati Patil stood waiting. All eleven that were left of the Order had arrived and the meeting could finally begin.

They all gathered around the dark and very large wooden table and sat down. Once upon a time the table had been meant for more than forty people: now it was less than a dozen of them left. The floor – or rather, the ground – was made of hard earth and so was the roof, although a few strings of roots had found their way down. In the corner furthest away there was a rather large rock, pointing out towards the table and could, if necessary, function as another chair. From time to time someone would sit on it, but for now it was left alone. If worst came to worst the rock could be rolled aside by magic and provide them with an extra escape route. They never used that way normally, however, as secrecy was of utmost importance. If both exits were discovered and blocked, they would be stuck.

They had searched a long time before finding the right location for the Order to gather safely. In the end they had decided that having the meetings in an actual building was too risky. It would draw too much attention, and additionally an increasing amount of houses in London had been raided and destroyed lately.

The main entrance was protected by a Fidelius charm where Parvati was the secret keeper. To get there one would have to be in the London underground by Chancery Lane station. They would have to go far to the left, move backwards through the wall similar to the brick wall from King's Cross between platform nine and ten. Then they would have to find their way through a magical labyrinth. Unless you were extremely lucky or had it memorised, as the Order members had, it would take hours to find the right way. Also, if someone unfamiliar went through the opening a small bell on the table in the cave room would chime, alerting everyone of the intrusion.

Thankfully, there was no bell chiming at the moment and the Order members could focus on each other. However; since Parvati and Bill were the Order leaders, all eyes were mainly on them.

Parvati glanced at Bill for a moment in a silent question if she could break the news. Bill nodded slightly and shrugged as if to say he had little news anyway, and Parvati straightened and cleared her throat.

"Neville," she began hesitantly and took another deep breath. "Is dead."

Shocked silence filled the air of the small room. For at least one minute no one knew what to say. Suddenly, Melussina Draghoney, or Mellie as most people called her, let out a great sob and the silence was broken. Within seconds her brother Sebastian couldn't help but sob as well and by the looks of his tear strained face it was obvious that he had been crying in silence. Mellie grabbed his hand and squeezed it, but it gave neither of them much comfort. Neville had been one of the last major fighters they had left and without him they were all much more vulnerable.

Getting over Harry's death 3 years ago had been an extreme hard blow for them, and when Ron and Hermione had followed him to the grave less than a year later they had been devastated.

The Order of the Phoenix hadn't been able to achieve anything of importance since then.

Even though they had tried to move on from what had happened and concentrate on the future - finding the last Horcrux - Parvati could still remember the battle as clear as if it had been yesterday. Sometimes when she slept she would experience the whole thing all over again and the pictures in her head were so alive that she could have sworn it wasn't three years, but rather three hours ago since it had happened. She remembered it all; flashes of green wherever she turned, screams of pain, screams of fright, screams of anger and also of sorrow or disbelief. Desperate people she did not know clung onto her and begged her to save their loved ones only because she was a member of the Order. The battle had been fought on Hogwarts ground in front of hundreds of underage children.

Voldemort was planning on taking over the school and transforming it into a Death Eater trainee centre; forcing young children to adapt to his ideology by brainwashing them and teaching them how to become cold blooded killers and forget how to be humans. If Voldemort controlled Hogwarts it would mean that he controlled the future of the Wizarding world, and that was why Hogwarts was perhaps the most important thing to defend. The Ministry could be taken back when – or if – they managed to destroy Voldemort, but the minds of the kids and their innocence would be lost forever and then there was a chance that Voldemort and all he stood for would continue to live and terrorize the world through these young people.

This was the reason why Harry had immediately called together an Order meeting when he had received news about Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts. He had almost been out of his wits; walking around the Head Quarter in circles while talking about how this would be the most important battle in the history of wizards. Even though what he said over and over again was that they couldn't let Voldemort plant his ideology in the minds of innocent children, Parvati suspected there lay more behind than that. She hadn't been in Harry's close circle when they went to Hogwarts together, but she still knew how much he loved the school who had saved him from his terrible life at his aunt and uncle's, showed him who he truly was and introduced him to a whole new future and real friends. When she looked at the desperation in Harry's green eyes, she knew that if Hogwarts were to be taken, a part of Harry would die too. It was almost as though this was Harry and Voldemort's own private battle, not theirs.

Without much planning – there was no time – they had tried to take a portkey into Hogwarts and found that the apparation block had been removed from the grounds, that there were Death Eaters everywhere and that panicked students were desperately trying to escape. At least 50 of them had been petrified by Death Eaters when they tried to escape the Hogwarts ground in an effort to get into Hogsmeade. Some of the older ones had even tried to disapparate, failed, and ended up splinching, which caused misplaced body parts to hang around in the weirdest places. Parvati remembered the loud and panicked screams that had echoed in her ears the whole night, and the only thing she could hear above the terrorized screams was the wild thumping from her own heart that beat so wildly it almost hurt.

The Death Eaters were taken by surprise when the Order had showed up unexpectedly, which gave the Order an advantage. Even though they hadn't had any time for preparation – the meeting had been summoned in the middle of the night, and some of the members even had their pyjamas on – the two sides of the battle had been quite equal. The Order had even had the upper hand at first, perhaps mostly because of Harry's incredible courage and spirits. They had even managed to finish of Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort's most loyal and trusted servant, and several other Death Eaters. But then, when Voldemort was finally updated on the status of the fight, things started to turn around. The Death Eaters outnumbered the Order, and they were rested and prepared for fight. The only thing the Order had that the Death Eaters didn't have was Harry's unbuckling determination not to let Voldemort get in control of Hogwarts.

When they lost that spirit, there had been nothing left.

Harry and Voldemort had found each other next to the Whomping Willow where they had started to duel wildly. Since his Hogwarts years, Harry had been in constant training to prepare for the upcoming war. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks had practiced with him five times a week and it seemed like Voldemort noticed the results now. Harry was fit, Harry was fast, Harry knew how to think quickly, and Harry knew complex defensive spells. The duel had almost been equal, although it was clear that Voldemort still had an upper hand and was forcing Harry to slowly back away towards the Willow and its killer branches.

Death Eaters, Order members and even students had forgotten about their own fight and gathered in a crowd around the Willow to watch, forgetting all about the mortal danger they were in themselves. Parvati remember standing next to Bill Weasley, grasping his hand so tightly that it hurt and trying desperately not to cry or scream or simply just faint. There had been several battles before, but none as big and horrible as this one.

As Harry backed closer and closer to the Willow, still battling Voldemort, Parvati noticed that he was casting quick glances around as if to count his options. In front of him was Voldemort and behind him were the whipping branches of the Willow. To his right were at least fifteen Death Eaters and to his left with her jaws wide open were Voldemort's snake, Nagini. For a split second, Parvati had seen Harry's eyes widen behind his glasses; Nagini had been the target of the order for several months now, impossible to reach without meeting Voldemort because she was his dearest and he kept her with him at all times. Yet, there she was, curled up in a kind of ready-to-strike position with her tale beating at the ground and her tongue hissing between large venomous fangs.

Before Voldemort or anyone else had time to react, Harry had launched himself at the snake. A silver light shot out of the tip of his wand, and within a second, he had pierced the snake's head with it like a sword.

If snakes could scream, Nagini's scream would have been high and piercing, and would have caused people to crumble on the ground with their ears covered by their hands. However, snakes can't scream, and the only sound that was heard was her desperate hissing and the sounds of her tail hitting the ground as she rolled around on the ground in pain. It seemed as though she was struggling to squeeze herself out of her own skin. You could almost feel a 'wooosh' go thorough the whole crowd around the Willow as Voldemort's facial expression changed from shocked to raging mad within a second. He didn't make a sound as his snake like face turned to Harry, who still stood by the suffering snake with his wand at the ready, pointed at Voldemort, ready to resume their battle. But before any of them had time to curse the other, something else had taken control over the battle. Just as Harry, his wand still raised, took a step away from the dying snake to face Voldemort, one of the branches of the Whomping Willow finally found its target. Harry was hit hard in one of his ankles, which caused him to fall backwards closer the tree that seemed to welcome him with open arms. The raging expression in Voldemort's face changed to triumphant. For several seconds all he did was to stand quite still with his wand ready, watching as Harry, now lying on the ground, was being whipped by the deadly branches. Within seconds Harry was covered in his own blood. Every part of his bare skin that was exposed was scarlet, his glasses had been knocked of, and there was no chance that he would be able to get himself out from under the branches without help.

Parvati had always wondered if Voldemort had a method of communicating with his Death Eaters without speaking - some sort of telepathic system – because the second she, and many other of the Order members, was about to step forward to come to Harry's aid, she felt a wand pressed hard against her throat. She could almost hear her own pulse beat against the wooden stick and knew that if she tried to move or aim a curse at anyone, she would be killed. The whole of the Order were forced to stand motionlessly, watching Harry Potter being beat half to death by the tree.

It had lasted for a minute or so, until Voldemort seemed to be bored with it all, and decided to put an end to it – or to Harry, more likely.

The killing curse had hit him in the right side of his chest, and then someone had turned off all the sounds. The world had been muted since the moment that Harry's body became limp and motionless. The tree was still playing with him like a ragged doll.

Since that moment, Parvati hadn't heard a sound. Not the screams. Not the loud voices yelling curses. Not people bellowing her name or bangs as the stones of the castle were hit and fell to the ground. The Death Eaters must have let the Order members go for God knows what reason, but nevertheless the battle had been resumed. Everything moved in slow motion, and all Parvati could think of was that there was no point in fighting; that all was lost. It seemed like most of the other Order members felt the same way, because neither of them gave much resistance against the Death Eaters who had resumed the battle. The snake was dead, but what did it matter? How could anything be done now that they had lost Harry?

And the losses continued throughout the night. The bravest of the Order members, the ones that didn't allow themselves to give up hope, were all killed one by one: Remus, Kingsley, Molly and Arthur, Tonks, Fred, George, McGonagall, Hagrid and Charlie. At one point none of them knew what was happening or who was in charge of the Order. Not until Ron and Neville managed to pull themselves together and make the rest of the Order understand that they were retreating. The Order of the Phoenix had hit the wall hard, and now they were scraping up the remaining members and escaping.

It hadn't been until they got back to the head quarters that they understood how many people they had lost. Around twenty members still remained; the rest of them had been killed in the battle. None of them had been able to say a word, they had just sat around the now too big table looking at each other and letting reality sink into them, minute by minute. Was there really any point in continuing to fight back against Voldemort now?

It was hard to accept that the ones who had the best shot to end the terrible fight were lost, and for a long while there had been a split in the Order and some even joined the Death Eater ranks because they thought the Light side was doomed and would rather find a way to survive than fighting for what they believed in. In that time, when the Order was too split too fight back, Voldemort managed to take over everything, even the Ministry of Magic, and when the Order finally gathered themselves and actually did start to fight back, the numbers against them were often too big for them to win. The choice then was either to be captivated, die or retreat ... and not all of them got the chance to retreat.

Ron and Hermione had taken over the leadership of the Order, which now only consisted of members under the age of forty; most of them were in their twenties and had just joined in. They were all inexperienced and frightened. Ron and Hermione did their best to keep up the spirit of the members, but it didn't work much. And one year later when Death Eaters unexpectedly attacked and killed them too, even fewer of the members saw any point in continuing the fight. It was then, after Neville had turned down the leadership, Parvati had decided that the depression couldn't go on any longer. She convinced Bill to join her in taking over the Order. They would continue the fighting.

"There is only one Horcrux left, we can't give up now. Are we just going to waste all of Harry's previous efforts to destroy he-who-must-not-be named? No, we are not! We are going to fight, and we are going to kill him off for good. We are going to start by finding the last Horcrux and destroying it, and then we'll take it from there. Because as long as we stick together, the Order of the Phoenix still exist, and so does hope!"

Her speech had been completely improvised, and it didn't seem to have very much effect on people, but it was enough to keep them from giving up. Even though it was she and Bill who were the leaders now, Parvati still felt that it was more Neville who was her co-leader. As much as she wanted Bill to get more engaged she knew he had never really gotten over Fleur's death several years ago, and that his losses in the war had been the greatest, by far. He had not only lost the woman he loved, he had lost his entire family.

Slowly, slowly, the spirits of the Order had started to rise. Neville had been a major factor in this. His spirits never seemed to buckle, and whenever someone lost faith, he would pull them back up again.

Neville had been the one who had been there for everyone if they had needed someone, telling them that there was still hope and that they could still win. Somehow, even if it was just words, everything hadn't seemed as hopeless as it did now that he was gone too.

"I can't believe it!" whispered Nathalie, clutching her fists in her cheeks, leaving nail marks all over the place. Dawn was very pale – even paler than usual – and sat in her seat, motionlessly. Bill kept his eyes to the floor, frozen.

"I know this is a great shock and a terrible loss for us all, but if we give up now all is lost," continued Parvati. She was nearly whispering, but still everyone heard every word. "Neville was a great hero and he used his last breath to give me the most valuable piece of information."

Bill's head snapped up. "You – you were there when he died?" In his state of shock he had trouble pronouncing the words. "What did he say?"

Parvati met his wild look affectionately.

"Yes, I found him, bleeding from the stomach in Death Alley. He had been in some kind of battle, I don't know with whom … I tried to stop the bleeding, but none of my spells worked and I couldn't!" She gasped in an attempt not to cry. "I tried, I really did…"

"We know you did," Sebastian choked out. "We know. You know healing spells better than any of us. If you couldn't do it, none of us would have been able to either."

Parvati tried to give him a smile in thanks, but failed miserably. She turned back to Bill. "Neville told me that we have been looking for the last Horcrux in the wrong place. He said that it is not in the Ministry after all, but that it is hidden somewhere in Death Alley and that he had been looking for it when Death Eaters attacked him."

Bill blinked. "Did he say something else?" Everyone in the room was paying rapt attention.

Parvati thought for a second. "He kept calling for you, Bill … I think he would rather have told you about this than me."

Bill blinked again and sucked in some air. "He was a great man. Too bad he died in vain; I still believe the Horcrux is at the Ministry. Unless Neville told you the reason for changing search ground?" He raised his eyebrows at Parvati, who blushed slightly.

"No, he didn't … he died quite quickly after I found him. He seemed very certain of it, though. I believe we ought to check it out."

"We could do that. However, we now got two clues to where the last Horcrux might be hidden and I believe it is a good idea to rule the other rumour out before we start following a new one."

For the past few weeks, they had been working on a plan of how to break into the Ministry to search for the Horcrux that supposedly was hidden there. Now they were suddenly presented with the idea of the Horcrux being a completely different place, and naturally they were quite skeptical. If Neville's theory turned out to be right, all of their efforts concerning the Ministry would have been done in vain. And Death Alley? There was bound to be at least a million hiding places there, and now they had nothing but Neville's last words as source. Although Neville's words counted a great deal, it was quite tempting to get the whole Ministry part over and done with before starting a new project.

"Maybe we should have a vote?" Suggested Oliver Wood, and the people sitting around him nodded.

"Good idea. All in favour of checking out Death Alley first raise their hands!" Parvati called out.

Oliver, Mellie, Sebastian, Elizabeth Smithson and finally Parvati herself all raised their hands. "And all in favour of sticking with the original Ministry plan raise their hands." Parvati continued.

Bill's hand shot instantly into the air, and was soon followed by Natalie's, her boyfriend Louis Jennings', Rasmus Rasshol's, , and Carl Sterling's, Nathalie and Dawn's brother.

Bill had been counting the votes, and his expression was puzzled. "Five versus five? That can't be right. There are eleven of us."

All faces turned to Dawn Sterling, who was still gazing blankly into the room in front of her.

"Dawn?" Sebastian asked, leaning over the table to tap her shoulder.

"Huh?" Dawn finally seemed to have woken up.

"Would you rather stick with the original plan of raiding the Ministry or follow Neville's clue and start searching Death Alley for the Horcrux?" Sebastian elaborated kindly.

Dawn shook her head for a second and frowned. "I think we should go to the Ministry first and take it from there."

It was settled: In a week, the Order of the Phoenix would hopefully destroy the last part of Voldemort's soul that kept them from attacking him. It didn't mean that they would be able to actually kill or destroy Voldemort in the end, but at least they would have a chance. As long as Voldemort still had a piece of his soul hidden in Helga Hufflepuff's cup there was no point in even trying.

The plan was quite simple, yet very dangerous: They would all wear their spell repellent cloaks and their concealing charms. Obviously they couldn't just march into the ministry all at once undetected. That's why they would all enter from different fireplaces at the same time, creating a diversion by casting a pack of decoy detonators invented by the deceased Weasley twins that would ensure chaos around them. The Order would then stupefy everyone within reach and quickly take the elevator down to the basement before more Ministry employees or Death Eaters (they were all the same) would show up. They would then run like hell to the Department of Mysteries, where they knew a big security project was going on. That's where they would need Bill – in case there were a lot of protective charms on it. He was known for being one of the best with spell- and cursebreakers after working for so many years at the Gringotts bank. While Bill would try to solve the mystery the rest of them would stand by all the other doors in the room and guard them with all their might.

The plan was flawed and they knew it – a suicide mission others would call it –it would not be their first dangerous mission, but they where also desperate and after going through all their options so many times this seemed like their best shot. They wanted something to happen that could change the war, one way or the other.

"But remember," Parvati warned everyone as they were about to get up to leave, "be very discrete about the order. There are spies hidden everywhere, maybe even among ourselves." She looked around the room until her eyes finally landed on Rasmus Rasshol, who looked a little nervous. "Be careful who you share information with and if in doubt, always come to me or Bill first." Parvati sniffed and fought back more tears. "But please, you guys .. don't let this make you give up hope. Please don't let this keep you from fighting for what is right and for what we believe in. As long as there is breath in the Order, You-Know-Who has not won completely. Stay together, be careful, and stay strong. Never, will anything we do matter as much as it does now."

Parvati took Bill's hand and looked over at him for comfort, but he stayed as silent and awkward as he had been ever since he had heard the news of Neville's death. After a few seconds he looked over at Parvati after all and gave her a brave little smile before he got up and left the head quarters as the first one. Sebastian, who stood closest to the door, could swear he heard Bill sigh heavily as he left, but didn't have any time to think about it. He had to say goodbye to everyone in the room before he hurried outside after Dawn, who had left right after Bill without saying goodbye to anyone but her still quite smelly sister.

Luckily for Sebastian, he spotted Dawn at the street above Chancery Lane underground station. Small drops of rain were drizzling from the morning sky; it was, ironically enough, the break of dawn; the sky was getting lighter almost by the minute and the dim cold night was beginning to fade away. Sebastian would guess that it was near 4am.

"Dawn!" he called, and caught up with her as she was about to round a corner into an alleyway where she would be able to disapparate unnoticed by the muggles around. When she heard her name, Dawn looked up at Sebastian and tried to give him a little smile, but didn't have much success. He guessed she was exhausted after the long meeting – it hadn't been the happiest they had had – and of course affected by the situation they were all in.

"Sebastian." Dawn said with polite curiosity in her voice as she stopped and eyed him through her square black glasses.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay, that's all. You seemed a little distracted at the meeting. Who can blame you, really, I was shocked when I heard about Neville too." Sebastian said, trying with all his might not to seem like he was at the verge of tears again.

"Oh!" Dawn said with obvious surprise written all over her face. "Yes. Of course I'm all right. I mean -" she continued, removing a strand of black hair that had escaped her pony tail and still looking at Sebastian with very blue eyes. "Naturally it came as a terrible shock, and it was quite an unexpected blow for the Order, but… this is war time, Sebastian. You have to walk around all the time preparing yourself that something terrible might happen. Someone you love might die, you might get attacked yourself. It's just the way things are."

She was silent for a second or two after that, and Sebastian used the moment to try and think of something wise to say, but before his head had finished constructing the sentence, Dawn suddenly jerked and looked at the small watch around her wrist. "I have to go now; I'm in a hurry, actually. But I'll see you tomorrow, Sebastian." She turned and started walking into the alleyway again, but before she could disapparate Sebastian called out after her: "Wait! Let me… let me walk you home! Like you said, it's not safe out there, and you don't live that far away, do you?" he took a step closer to where she now stood half hidden in the shadows of the alleyway.

"No thank you, Sebastian, I don't really have time for that. Thanks for asking, though." The answer came back, and before Sebastian had time to even blink, Dawn had disapparated without another word. He stood there for a while in the drizzling rain and watched the spot where she had disappeared from until his clothes were moist and he had started shivering. Then he finally jerked himself out of the trance, took a quick look over his shoulder to check for possible muggles, and apparated back to his own apartment where his cat Feather had taken the best chair and was purring loudly, fast asleep.

In her calmness and happiness, Sebastian couldn't have envied the cat more.

A/N: Chapter two coming up shortly! Make sure to add this story to your favourites or alerts so you don't miss it.