Ministry of Magic: Christmas Eve, 11:55 P.M.

Usually the Ministry was bustling at this time of the night, especially the 5th floor of the Department of Mysteries, but today the hallways were eerily quiet, not the squeaking of a mouse nor the chirping of a cricket could be heard tonight, for it was Christmas Eve and almost every single human being had forsaken working to spend some time with their family, with the exception of a few zealous and underpaid guards.

"Hey, Swanson, look at this." a young bright eyed guard boasted to his partner, pulling up the sleeves of his robes to show his partner his admittedly average muscles, "What do you think? Am I buff or am I buff?"

"Roberts, there is nothing there." his partner replied, sighing in exasperation, "Come on, let's keep going, we can't patrol properly if we stay in one place."

Roberts sighed in boredom, "There is nothing to patrol, it's Christmas Eve, and even the criminals go home to spend time with their families on Christmas Eve."

Swanson snorted at that, but didn't disagree with the sentiment because it certainly seemed to be quite true. There was nothing to be seen in the dark hallway of the 5th floor of the Department of Mysteries but identical looking doors, made of the same obsidian wood.

The men started walking again, both of them looking rather disinterested in their surroundings. Up ahead, a torch light flickered weakly, throwing grotesque shadows on the wall. Swanson, the more attentive of the two men frowned at that, but then shrugged it off as a light malfunction. Suddenly, the light flickered once more, before plunging the men into darkness.

"Swanson? What happened?" Roberts asked, reaching into his robes for his wand and simultaneously trying to move closer to his partner.

"Ouch! I'm right here!" Swanson replied, yelping as Roberts stepped on his foot, "I don't what happened, it's probably just a malfunction, who knows how old the lights in this hallway are." Nevertheless, he also pulled out his wand and lit it, trying to peer into the inky, black darkness.

"Sorry," his partner murmured sheepishly, moving away from Swanson and finally succeeding in lighting his wand with a whispered, "Lumos."

As the men cautiously edged forward, the lights turned back on, flooding the hallway with white light. The two men winced and closed their eyes, turning their heads away to shield them from the bright light.

Swanson was the first to recover his eyesight a minute later and when he did, the sight that greeted him rendered him mute. The hallway was splattered in blood, the walls coated in the sticky substance. The headless torso of his partner lay on the ground, the head nowhere to be seen, his torso chopped messily at the pelvis, separating his legs from the rest of his body. Roberts's intestines were spilled out onto the ground in a tangled disarray of flesh, his arms grotesquely twisted at the shoulder, barely hanging on by a sinew of muscle. The smell of freshly spilled blood, coppery in its wake, drenched the room nauseatingly.

"Roberts?" Swanson whispered in horror, his eyes wide in terror.

His breath stilled as the cool point of a wand jabbed his defenseless back.

"Move and I'll do to you what I did to your partner." a rough, guttural voice whispered in his ear.

Swanson gulped, trying to stay absolutely still and not move a muscle, the image of the mutilated corpse of his friend fresh in his mind.

"Good," the voice murmured in his ear, "Now, drop your wand on the ground and kick it away from you."

Swanson did as the voice instructed, quickly dropping his wand onto the ground and kicking it away from him, his body thrumming with fear and adrenalin. He watched in dismay and disgust as his wand rolled a few feet away and became stuck in a viscous pool of blood.

"Put your hands above your head and slowly turn around."

Swanson did as exactly that, his palms slick with sweat as he joined them above his head.

"Start walking slowly to the lobby of the Department of Mysteries. Don't make any sudden movements or you won't remain alive for much longer." the voice jabbed the wand into his back to emphasize the threat.

Swanson carefully started walking to the lobby of the 5th floor, blinking away sweat as it dripped into his eyes. He had to come up with a plan, some way to insure that this murderer didn't steal whatever he - Swanson presumed it to be a he from the low voice - wanted from the Department of Mysteries, but how? The man seemed impossibly dangerous, he had murdered Roberts brutally in a span of a minute, without breaking a sweat, without even letting Roberts have the opportunity to scream.

Swanson came across the door that would lead them into the lobby of the 5th floor. He hesitantly stood in front of the door, unsure whether to open the door or wait for more instructions. His dilemma was solved when the man prodded him sharply in the back once more.

"Open, the door with your badge." he instructed, "Remember, no sudden movements."

Swanson shakily reached for the badge that was safely secured to the front of his robes, secretly wishing that he had stashed away some kind of weapon on his person when he was getting ready to go to work this morning. He fumbled with the catch of the badge before roughly unpinning it from his robes, his hands shaking with fear. He held the identification badge in front of the small panel located where the door handle should have been. With baited breath he waited, hoping against hope that the

In a minute the light changed from dull blue to bright green, authenticating his presence. Swanson released a shaky breath of distress, his options quickly becoming limited.

His attacker nudged him forward with the butt of his wand. Swanson crossed the threshold and entered the lobby of the Department of Mysteries, a circular room that housed a plethora of doors that led to any imaginable wonder or death, one of the two.

Swanson walked to the center of the lobby, his whole body practically vibrating with tension, his thoughts jumbled; half-baked plans quickly entered his frenzied brain and were dismissed again as he tried to rack his brain for a solution to his rather sticky situation.

It is okay, he reasoned to himself, As soon as the door shuts behind the intruder, the room will start spinning and the attacker will be stuck here. The doors that led out of the lobby are filled with dangerous horrors that would surely prevent the intruder from stealing anything.

The door shut behind them with aloud clang, sealing them in. The intruder expelled a loud breath, which sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief. Swanson felt the wand move away from him and he readied himself to knock out his attacker, only for his heart to sink again as the attacker placed a restricting hand on his neck, not quite chocking him, but wordlessly threatening him. He heard a muttered incantation, too low for his ears too discern, but immediately there was a bright light and the scent of burnt wood that accompanied it, before the doors started rotating rapidly.

"Stand here, don't move." the low voice murmured in Swanson's ear, stopping him in the center of the room.

Swanson stood at attention, his back ramrod straight, watching in fascination as the doors spun around him, one door in particular catching his eyes. A door that seemed to have a flaming emblem seared into it. It spun out of his sight quickly, not allowing him time to properly observe the shape just as the doors came to a soundless halt.

The wand held at Swanson's back changed hands and the attacker reached into his own robes before withdrawing a small, matchbox shaped object. Swanson stared straight ahead in confusion and mounting fear as the attacker reached for Swanson's right hand and forced open the clenched fist. He positioned Swanson's arm in front of him, palm facing up and placed the innocuous looking matchbox in it, before forcing Swanson to make a fist around the object.

The attacker moved away from Swanson and said in a deadly voice, "Don't move a muscle. You move and I'll kill you."

Swanson stood, his hopes dwindling and then dying as he heard his attacker click open the doorknob of a door right behind him. The doors on the fifth floor were only sealed from the outside with identification wards, not from the inside, his attacker was going to escape, leaving behind one dead body and one guard scared out of his living wits standing in the middle of the lobby of the Department of Mysteries with a matchbox in hand.

Swanson could already read the headline of tomorrow's papers, "Ministry of Magic ransacked by Mysterious Individual, guard found with matchbox in hand, a Conspiracy brewing?"

He wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let the murderer of his partner leave without compensation. He clamped his hands around the fragile object in his hand and turned around, his feet hitting the ground, running full speed at the surprised face of his attacker, a surprisingly young face, blue eyes, shaggy brown hair, ordinary, nothing like what one would imagine a murderer to look like.

Just before Swanson would have collided with the young man, the wand pointed at Swanson swam into focus, a bright white light leaving it a second before impact.

Swanson felt his molecules disintegrate with surprising clarity, his last thought before he became no more was, I better get a framed picture in the lobby of St. Mungo's for this.


December 25th, The Burrow, 12:05 A.M.

Lily closed her eyes for a second, trying to will away the task in front of her. She took a deep breath, a puff of air escaping from her lips, clearly visible in the cold as she tried to center herself, to let go off the doubts that were slowly deteriorating her resolve.

What if it doesn't work...What if I'm caught...What if I can't do it? The questions seared in the back of her brain and she had half a mind to run away from the task that would rip her family apart. But the rational, calculating side of her soul wouldn't let her, even if her heart rebelled against the idea. She had come this far, she couldn't back out now, not when she was this close to making all of her dreams come true.

She opened her eyes, steely determination shining through them, her brown eyes looking pitch black in the pale moonlight. She critically looked up at the Burrow from her position in front of it. The Burrow looked hollow and empty, its shabbiness and state of despair looking even more pronounced. Its occupants were away for the night, all according to plan.

Lily reached into her pocket and withdrew the small object that resided within it. Holding it tightly in her hand, she resolutely walked through the invisible protective barrier surrounding the Burrow, shivering a little at its touch, almost afraid that it wouldn't accept her, but accept her it did, after all, she was family. She walked up to the dilapidated front door, a little disgusted when her ermine fur boots sunk into chicken feces. After gingerly wiping off the edge of her boots on the edge of the front step, she slipped her wand out of its holster. She tapped the doorknob with her wand, dispelling the wards wordlessly. The door opened noiselessly with another tap of her wand and she was inside.

She surveyed the cosy and mismatched interior disinterestedly and with dead eyes released the object clenched between her sweaty fingers. She watched the descent of the small package, transfixed, it slowly dropped from between her fingers and hit the carpet with a muffled thud. She stared at it for a second, almost tempted to pick it back up, but ignoring her urges, she robotically walked back out the front door, closing it with another wave of her wand.

She stopped short of the wards, aware of its location from the soft thrumming of the magic. She set to work dissolving the barriers, waving her wand dispassionately, her eyes glassy as she weaved through the protective layers carefully. It needed to look like a stranger had done this, not a family member, so it wouldn't do to leave the wards up. Thankfully, they were easier to dispel from the inside and after twenty-five grueling minutes of intense spell work, the last ward dissipated with a faint shimmer.

Lily took a shaky breath, feeling light-headed from the advanced magic she had performed. She raised a trembling hand to her forehead, wiping off the sweat that beaded her temple despite the chill of the night air. Taking an unsteady breath, she muttered the incantation that would determine the fate of the rest if her life and disapparated with a faint pop. A nanosecond later, a powerful detonation ripped apart the peaceful atmosphere, obliterating everything in its vicinity. An inferno had sprung up in Lily's wake and nothing would stop it from its goal. Nothing. In a twist of irony, it started snowing, little flakes of ice that were quickly devoured by the hungry flames.


Diagon Alley, 12:20 A.M.

He scanned the sparse crowd with disinterested eyes. He would have preferred to do this when there were more people milling around, the pungent aroma of fear would have been simply delicious, but he knew that the timing needed to be impeccable.

He was leaning against the wall of a shop. The shadows hiding his face like a mask, obstructing his features from the eyes of any curious passerby. He wore a thick black overcoat, preferring the simplicity and warmth of the muggle clothes, black gloves, and keeping with the theme of villainous black clothing, black slacks.

He took out his timepiece and checked the time, 12:25, it was almost time. He unhurriedly tugged off the glove on his right hand with his teeth, sticking it in his pocket. He reached into the same pocket and withdrew a small object. He pushed off from the wall and briskly made his way to "Flourish and Blotts" across the street, the small object loosely held in his hand. He stopped in front of the shop and took a moment to gaze through the glass door at the frenzied shoppers that were happily celebrating the release of the wildly popular book "Henry Warlock and the Diamond". They seemed so happy, carefree, unable to sense the predator that lurked just outside, a thin glass door separating the sheep from the wolf.

He gave a savage grin at the comparison and pushed open the door. His senses were immediately overwhelmed with the aroma of eggnog, freshly baked cookies, and the smell of inebriated bodies.

He carefully manipulated his way through the thick throng that was jubilantly celebrating and expertly dropped his package in the middle of the store. He smoothly transitioned his way out of the crowd and, once outside the shop, muttered the incantation. Instantly the joyous atmosphere was savagely quelled as the shop combusted into roaring flames. Screams permeated the atmosphere, desperate and hopeless.

He stood a safe distance away and smiled a chilling smile, closing his eyes and savoring the delightful scent of burnt flesh, the sound of screams music to his ears. He reluctantly opened his eyes after a few scant seconds. Unfortunately, it would not do to linger, someone might become suspicious. The aurors would be arriving soon and they would question anyone in the vicinity, it would be in his best interests to leave. Reluctantly he tore himself away from the macabre sight of burned bodies and disapparated away with nary a sound.


The Forbidden Forest, 12:45 A.M.

"Foutre!" the blonde Frenchmen cursed, hissing in pain as a particularly vicious tree branch gleefully scraped his cheek, bringing with it a sharp stinging sensation, followed by a steady stream of blood that trickled down his face. He angrily healed it with his wand, cursing his bad luck. If only he hadn't been assigned this rather dangerous mission, he could be at the mansion right now, enjoying the company of an aged bottle of Scotch.

He glowered into the darkness, thinking back to yesterday. It wasn't his fault that the stupid brat he was supposed to be watching had decided to run off. If you asked him, they were all better off without Dante, little cretin that he was. He was a weakness, a distraction from the real goal. His mother should have drowned him at birth when he was born, instead of fawning needlessly over him like she did.

He yelped a strangled obscenity as he tripped over another overgrown tree root and went sprawling head first into a patch of Devil's Snare. Baring his teeth in aggravation, he willed his body to relax amidst the roots of the Devil's Snare; slowly the vines clutching his body relaxed and then fell away all together. He leaped away from the devious plant and proceeded onward, this time exercising more caution.

He finally came upon his destination, the gates of Hogwarts. He breathed a sigh of relief; the most dangerous part of the mission was almost over. When he drew close to the gate, he pulled out his wand and emitted a red flare, the signal for the informant on the other side of the gates. A second later the informant appeared from behind the gates.

"Gabriél?" a soft voice questioned.

"Yes," He answered back stoically.

"You have the package?"

"Right here. Do you have the password for the gate?"

"Of course." the voice answered back from the shadows, sounding offended.

He pulled out the small container out his robes with care, cradling it between his fingers, allowing the person on the other side to get a good look at it, insuring its authenticity.

The person on the other side of the gate emitted a soft sigh of relief and then rapidly tapped the gate in quick succession, muttering charms under their breath. With a soft hiss, the door creaked open.

For the first time that night, Gabriél smiled. The informant held out an impatient hand between them, asking for the package. Gabriél carefully handed over the package, placing it in the palm of the informant.

"Remember the mission." he gave one last piece of advice before disapparating away, thankful that his part in the mission was over.

"I remember the mission quite clearly." the voice whispered in his wake.

Approximately five minutes later, an explosion rocked the castle, shaking its foundations apart. A long, drawn out scream was heard not a second later, only to be silenced abruptly, its message one of hopeless surrender.


Malfoy Manor, 1:00 A.M.

Draco Malfoy dozed fitfully on the sofa in his study, a book loosely clutched in one hand. A fire merrily burned in the fireplace and crickets chirped proudly outside in the garden.

Astoria Malfoy sleepily stepped into the study, her eyes falling to her husband. She smiled a fond smile at his position on the sofa, before crossing over to where he lay and perching on the arm of the sofa. She tenderly brushed his long bangs away from his face. Her eyes grew clouded as she remembered her errant son, who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth with nary a clue in his wake and with Rose Weasley of all people, a girl she hadn't even known existed, much less was dating her son, a day ago.

"Where are you Scorpius?" she whispered softly to the crackling fire.

As if in answer, an explosion of white light burst through the room, shaking apart its occupants as well as its contents. Astoria fell to the floor, her hands instinctively turning to cradle her stomach. Draco lurched off of the sofa, rudely ripped out of his fitful slumber, and was thrown viciously to the ground, hitting his head on the edge of the marble fireplace, instantly blacking out.


Supplies room, Unknown Location, 1:15 A.M.

Rose stared at Scorpius in rapt attention as he relayed the tale of the disappearance of one Teddy Lupin.

"During the months before his disappearance he started acting differently." Scorpius explained, sitting in front of her with his hands clasped in his lap, an earnest expression on his face. "He seemed more withdrawn, distant, quieter. A few weeks before he disappeared he had a huge fight with Uncle Harry. I don't know the specifics of the fight, but I know that it was about Teddy's father, Remus Lupin. Teddy stormed out after the fight and no one saw him for a few days before he came back for the monthly Pot Roast Sunday at the Burrow. He apologized to Uncle Harry but things still remained rocky with them. A few days later, he was gone."

Scorpius stopped speaking for a second, his eyes lost before continuing on again, "At first everyone just thought that he was holed up somewhere with a friend of his, but then, when he didn't show up at the Burrow for Pot Roast Sunday, people started getting worried. They officially reported him missing and alerted the Aurors. Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron personally searched for him on foot. Victoire Weasley, Teddy's girlfriend, was distraught. Days, weeks, months passed by and nothing, no clue of where Teddy had disappeared to. On the anniversary of his disappearance, the Weasleys held a vigil at the Burrow."

Scorpius's face took on a haunted hue, turning almost gray in pallor, "The next morning they found the hideously burned corpse of Teddy on their lawn."

Rose gaped silently in shock, before mustering up the courage to ask, "H-how did they know it was Teddy?"

"They weren't sure at first, but he was about Teddy's weight, height, and he was wearing Teddy's clothes when he disappeared." Scorpius said sadly.

"But, it wasn't him." Rose said matter of factly, recovering from the shock that she had felt upon hearing of the death of Teddy, "I saw him in the dungeons and it was Teddy Lupin, he said so himself."

"So?" Scorpius said scornfully, turning a baleful eye in her direction, "Anyone can say that they are someone else. Besides, you've never even seen Teddy, how do you know it was him?"

"Well, I don't," Rose admitted, "but then if he wasn't Teddy, why would he lie about his name?"

"Maybe to build your trust." Scorpius stated somewhat sarcastically, crossing and then uncrossing his arms in agitation, "Before, you know, he kills you."

"That makes absolutely no sense." Rose shot back immediately, her hackles rising at the insinuation that she was gullible enough to trust a would be killer, "He wouldn't have helped me if he wasn't Teddy! Besides, why do you not want him to be Teddy so much?"

"Because he's my cousin and I don't want to harbor false hope anymore." he said quietly, his face somber.

"Oh," Rose deflated a bit at that, her anger rushing out of her body.

"We need to get out of here." Scorpius stated after a few minutes, finally lifting his eyes from his lap to look at Rose, "Do you remember much from your trip here to the supply room from the dungeons?"

"No, not very much." Rose admitted fretfully, "I was more concerned about getting away from our attackers. I remember the way here, but I didn't take note of any exits or side doors."

"Well, it's start at least." Scorpius said determinedly, a fire igniting in his eyes, "We should start gathering any supplies that we can find here right now, and then, when we find an opportunity, escape."

"Sounds like a plan." Rose said, a small smile appearing on her face at the thought of escaping.

Scorpius winced a bit as his wounds stretched in protest as he got up off the floor. He reached down a hand to help up a worried Rose.

"Are you sure you should be getting up?" Rose asked worriedly, looking at his wounds questioningly.

"I have to gather my strength back up to be able to escape." Scorpius said, panting a bit and leaning heavily onto Rose's shoulder as his strength slowly waned.

"Speaking of strength, we need to eat." Rose said, grunting a bit as Scorpius precariously slumped his weight onto her.

Scorpius's stomach grumbled in answer. Rose grinned a bit at that and slowly shuffled with Scorpius in tow to the nearest shelf. Slowly, she eased his weight off of her shoulders and helped him to get a firm grip on the shelf before letting go of him.

She hovered over him, her hands ghosting over his, unsure whether he had the strength to hold on properly.

He held onto the shelf, his breath coming out in short gasps, his eyes closed. He stood there for a few seconds, regaining precious strength before he opened his eyes again.

He looked down at Rose and grinned a tired smile, rubbing a grimy hand across his face, "It's ok. I'm good."

Rose smiled back at him, struck by the fact the fact that he could still grin a dimpled smile despite the pain that he must be in. He wasn't a bad guy, not really, and now that she was stuck with him for the immediate future, she was glad that it was him that she was stuck with and not someone totally horrid, like Lily.


The Dungeons, Unknown Location, 4:00 A.M.

She came again, this time with a wide smirk and one little boy.

He stood up warily from his perch on the lumpy bed as she stepped into the cell, his eyes darting between her and son.

"Well, aren't you happy to see your son?" she asked with a deadly smile, her hand tightly encasing the hand of Dante, who was wincing because of the tight grip.

"You're hurting him," he said instead, gesturing to her grip.

"What?" she blinked in confusion, looking down at Dante before letting go of him in discomfit.

"Where did you find him?" Teddy asked wearily, his face looking gaunt an pale due to him not having slept a wink since late last night.

"We found him one of the safe bunkers, the ones that were used in the medieval era when knights used to raid houses of suspected witches."

"I'm glad that you're ok buddy." Teddy smiled at Dante before opening his arms in invitation.

Dante grinned in relief and jumped into his arms, hugging his father. Teddy crushed him to his chest, breathing in the scent of innocence, pure and untainted by the darkness that roamed this house. Teddy regretted a lot of things in his life, the foremost being joining the group that was about to destroy the wizarding world as he knew it but he didn't regret this, the small moments that he had with his only child. If he could do it all over again, he would still have married Bea, if only so he could hold Dante one more time.

"Hem hem." she cleared her throat pointedly, prompting Teddy to separate from Dante.

Teddy smiled reassuringly at Dante and allowed him to hold his hand before looking at her in question.

She scrutinized the pair of them with her onyx eyes before looking back up at Teddy and smirking, "Our plan went off without a hitch. Well, that's not absolutely true, we had a causality on our side but honestly the boy was simply not cut out for this job if he couldn't complete his mission properly."

Teddy released a shaky breath of sorrow, so many lives lost because of him, because of what he had done.

"I'm so proud of what we have accomplished." she continued on, undeterred by the haunted look on Teddy's face or, perhaps, because of it, "This is only the beginning of our reign, when we are done, the world will bow down to us."

She stopped speaking, stars in her eyes, imagining the world that they had spilled blood to create.

Teddy looked at the woman that he had once loved with every fiber of his being with loathing in his eyes, unable to fathom what he had ever seen in her. He looked down at Dante, who was looking at him with a worried expression on his face, and squeezed his hand consolingly.

She looked back at Teddy and Dante, a calculating expression on her face. She said nothing but, "Come, Dante." and gesturing impatiently to Dante with her hand.

Dante reluctantly relinquished the grip that he had on Teddy's hand and solemnly walked backed to his mother.

"Bye Dad." he said softly, waving goodbye to Teddy, before the door clanged shut and Teddy was left alone once again with his lonely regrets.


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Scorpius and Rose's escape will be featured in the next chapter and many questions will be answered. I would like to apologize for taking so long to update, my muse seemed to have disappeared for a little while. Please remember to drop me a review and I hope to have the next chapter up soon, hopefully. A tremendous thank you to everyone that has been following, favoriting, and most importantly, reviewing this story. A special thanks to Psychoticsmartypants for keeping me motivated. Adieu! :)