A/N: Here's the next chapter. A fair bit of it is told from Voldemort's point of view, but in the form of a vision of Harry's. Enjoy

A Darkened World

The Retreat

A week had passed since Harry and Rose had arrived on the mountainside overlooking Hogwarts castle and, apart from one incident involving a Werewolf that had gotten a little too close for comfort before losing interest, their presence had gone completely unnoticed.

In the time since their arrival, both Harry and Rose had taken turns keeping a diligent watch over the castle and its surrounding grounds, keeping an eye out for any break in ranks, any tell-tale sign of a weak link in the castle's fortifications, some way to slip passed the guards and infiltrate the castle.

So far the only thing worthy of note was that the Covered Bridge, which connected the Stone Circle to the Clock Tower Courtyard, was not subject to a regular patrol of guards. The only time it was used was when those tasked with patrolling the grounds of the castle swapped shifts, something which seemed to occur once every five hours.

Unfortunately the pathway between the Stone Circle and Hagrid's Hut (or what remained of it) on the edge of the forbidden forest was closely guarded. Also the Clock Tower Courtyard, although usually empty for the most part, was watched over by guards who were stationed inside the Clock Tower itself. For now though, the Covered Bridge still appeared to be their beast option for infiltrating the school, as all other entrances were far more heavily guarded.

The main Viaduct which connected the Entrance Courtyard to the hills on the other side of the Ravine that surrounded part of the castle was a definite no-go for them. Two Giants stood watchfully at either end of the Viaduct, with two more marching in patrol along its length, alongside fifty of Voldemort's wizard followers. The entrance gates, through which the Thestral-drawn carriages used to travel to take the students up to the castle on the first day of term was also heavily guarded, as was the stairway that connected the boathouse to the Entrance Courtyard.

The Whomping Willow that once resided in the grounds had long since been cut down and the entrance to the secret passageway that led to the Shrieking Shack near Hogsmeade Village was blocked off. Harry's previous experiences had shown that the other secret passages out of the castle, such as the one-eyed witch passageway which connected a corridor on Hogwarts' third floor to the basement of Honeydukes' Sweet Shop in Hogsmeade, were all also blocked up. The entrance located between the Greenhouses and the Charms corridor was watched closely as well (not that they could get to the greenhouses in the first place!)

For now at least, it seemed that their best they do was wait and hope that something might draw the guards away from one of the entrances.

When they had first arrived on the mountainside, Rose had assumed that the castle appeared so black, despite the lighting that came from within, because it was night-time. By daylight, however, it had become clear that the light, sandstone-hued stone walls of the castle that her mother used to describe to her had changed over time, eventually coming to reflect the evil that now dwelt within.

Harry had noted that Gryffindor Tower was no longer standing, presumably torn down upon Voldemort's order as it reflected everything that he was not. The Ravenclaw tower had been allowed to remain standing, however, though Harry doubted that the students were sorted into any house other than Slytherin anymore.

A good number of smaller towers and turrets had been added as well, all designed for the purposes of defence.

Hagrid's Hut and the Whomping Willow were not the only things absent from the grounds either. The Quidditch Pitch no longer stood; Voldemort clearly had no desire to allow those under his dominion to waste time with leisurely activities such as sports.

A good part of the Forbidden Forest was missing as well, like the Whomping Willow the ancient and mighty sycamores, aspens, scots pines, oaks, birches, rowans and junipers that once enclosed the grounds had been cut down and either burnt or used to construct the castle's new features. It seemed unlikely that Voldemort had left any of the forest's former inhabitants survive, be they Centaur, Unicorn, Hippogriff, Thestral or Acromantula.

All of this, of course, was nothing new to Harry, that much was obvious to Rose. Of course, he had been here before and seen it before. In fact, she suspected that he probably seen a vast majority of the changes happening, all the while knowing better than to try and stop it, not that he could have done so, anyway.

What did appear to make Harry uncomfortable, however, were the Werewolves. When they had first arrived, Rose hadn't given the matter much thought other than to acknowledge that there were Werewolves patrolling the grounds with the Death Eaters. However the warning signs were there: there were Werewolves in their wolf form, but the moon was crescent, not full. At first she had just assumed that Voldemort had found a way to make it so that the Werewolves could change into their wolf form at night, rather than just at the full moon. Then the sun came up and the Werewolves did not revert back to their human form.

Rose had then speculated that the Werewolves were now able to change form in the same way as an animagus, being completely untied from the cycle of the moon. Harry suggested that Voldemort had merely found a way to trap them in their wolf form at all times.

Both notions were frightening in their own right, but either way Voldemort must have cast some kind of enchantment over them to prevent them attacking the Death Eaters that they patrolled with. There again, with the number of spells and potions in the world, from Imperius and Confundus to Amortentia and Forgetfulness Potions, all of which were were designed to control and/or alter ones behaviour and personality, this did not seem like such an improbable feat.

A bell sounding from within the castle signalled that it was time for the guard to switch. Rose glanced down at her watch. It was time for her and Harry to swap watch duty as well.

Rising from her position near the rocky outcrop that shielded their tent, Rose walked over to the tent and went inside, where she hoped Harry was getting come sleep.

He was sleeping, though it was far from a peaceful slumber.

Dream Sequence

A series of massive fireballs soared through the air and came crashing down in amongst the ranks of the Dark Forces that were fighting with everything they had to maintain their hold upon what remained of the German city of Hamburg.

As his followers returned fire Voldemort stood above it all, surveying the situation from atop a ruined building, a deep scowl marring his ugly pale face.

Four days ago he and his forces had had to admit defeat in Berlin and had retreated. Now, having had barely any time to recover, the forces of the International Confederation of Wizards were upon him again, having launched attacks upon his final stronghold in Germany from the north east, south east and east in the early hours of the morning.

The enemy troops consisted mainly of Aurors and Hit Wizards (or whatever their county's equivalent was) from India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. But their ranks were heavily bolstered by the survivors of his claiming of Europe. Not only that, these wizards and witches also brought with them a whole host of creatures to fight alongside them, creatures that Voldemort could only fantasise about controlling.

With much of the city now out of his control, Voldemort knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to call a retreat. And with that retreat he would be abandoning not only the country of Germany, but also the entire European mainland to his enemies. He could not bring himself to do that just yet. He would dent his enemies' forces further before letting them have this land.

"My Lord!" an exhausted voice called out to him. He spun around and saw a battle-worn Lucius Malfoy, apparently having abandoned the north-western part of the city.

"My Lord," said Lucius again "The Indian Ministry has brought Basilisks to oppose us."

"How many?" asked Voldemort, knowing full well just how damaging Basilisks could be.

"I dared not look upon them for too long, for fear that I would see their eyes" said Lucius "But a counted at least three."

Voldemort hissed in anger. Basilisks were highly deadly creatures that were also difficult to kill, even with the killing curse. Despite common misconceptions, the killing curse was not capable of destroying everything. Creatures like Basilisks, Dragons, Manticores and even Giants had certain amounts of magical resistance. An average strength Death Eater could kill a dozen wizards with the killing curse without breaking a sweat. Put that same wizard up against a dragon and their spell might cause a bit of damage to the scales, in the same way that it might blow a chunk of wall apart, but the dragon would be largely unfazed because of the magical properties of its own armour; there were reasons that it took at minimum a dozen stunning spells to subdue a dragon.

Once again Voldemort found himself cursing Harry Potter. Had the brat not slain the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's campaign to seize control of the world would have gone much more smoothly.

An uprising like this certainly would not have happened, as the Basilisk's glare could have been used to kill hundreds in once go.

With a bellowing scream of agony, Golgomath, the leader of the Giants under Voldemort's control, toppled over backwards, clutching at his wounds and crushing two Death Eaters not fast enough to get out of the way.

From above there came a mighty roar. Voldemort looked skywards and saw the powerful body of a dragon, a Chinese Fireball to be exact, swooping down from the dark clouds above them. Six other members of its species flew in arrow formation behind it.

On the ground below terrified Death Eaters attempted to flee as others aimed their wands skywards to try and blast the fire breathing beasts out of the sky.

Their bodies being peppered by spells, each of the dragons opened their fanged mouths and each spat out a ball of fire. The ground below them, and everything that stood upon it was engulfed in flame.

With a yell of fury Voldemort raised his wand and aimed at the lead Dragon.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Just because it was impossible for most Wizards did not mean it was impossible for someone of Voldemort's power.

In a flash of green light, the Dragon died, but obviously there is a risk with killing a large flying creature when it is in flight: it cannot fly anymore.

The Fireball's immense, scaly body crashed to the ground, crushing anything unfortunate enough to find itself beneath it.

The other Dragons, whom Voldemort now noticed for the first time carried human riders, did not take too kindly to their leader being killed. Voldemort managed to kill the first to come after him, and it too went crashing to the ground. The second tried to bite him but missed; however before Voldemort could curse it, its clawed hind legs raked across his torso, drawing blood. Voldemort was knocked over, winded and bleeding as the head of the third dragon came into view. At is opened the hooked beak that was its jaws Voldemort disapparated. He was one of few to escape the rooftop. The rest, including Lucius, were roasted.

Below the building, Voldemort collapsed against a heap of rubble and cast healing charms to his torso, closing up his wounds and stopping the flow of the blood.

His attention was suddenly drawn to screams coming from the rear-lines of his followers. Above all that noise, however, he heard the hissing, rasping voice of a serpent. He did not need to look to know that a battalion of Indian Aurors had led a Basilisk into the ranks of the rear-guard.

More and more explosions were occurring all around. His followers were dropping to the ground left, right and centre. Another wave of cutting curses tore into the frontlines.

Something landed on the floor at Voldemort's feet, splashing his robes with blood. He looked down and saw that it was the head of Antonin Dolohov, one of the highest ranking Death Eaters.

With a roar an immense creature, at least twelve feet in height charged out from a side street and pounced upon on of the Mountain Trolls. Looking like some kind of cross between a crocodile, a dog and warthog, the creature was a Bunyip, a water-dwelling beast that came from Australia. Its clawed forelimbs fore into the Troll's flesh at its dagger-like teeth sank deeply into the neck.

Other Mountain Trolls were engaged in battle with Jungle Trolls out of the tropics as Werewolves found themselves confronted by their Indian counterparts; Weretigers. Seeing one of the foreign lycans tearing out the throat of Fenrir Greyback convinced Voldemort that it was now time to give up.

"RETREAT!" he bellowed so that all his forces could hear him "RETREAT! FALL BACK TO BRITAIN! MAKE PORTKEYS, BRING THE CREATURES WITH YOU! RETREAT!"

Once upon a time he would have just gotten the wizards out and abandoned the creatures to their deaths. Now though, he knew he would need them. He would need as many as possible.

As others simply fled, some grabbing the wounded, a few began hurriedly making portkeys out of the rubble. Voldemort himself quickly made a dozen and sent them towards his legion of Trolls. The moment a portkey touched one of them it vanished.

"RETREAT!" Voldemort bellowed again, fear gripping him. He knew he had his Horcruxes, but he dreaded becoming a wraith again. Moreover he dreaded what sort of world he might come back to if he were to be bashed for another thirteen years, like before.

He was now aware that he was practically wading through the blood of his followers. More than half of the forces that were stationed in the city that morning had been decimated.

All who could get out had gotten out. Voldemort raised his wand and sent a pulse of dark energy towards his enemies. There was an explosion of darkness, and Voldemort made his escape, intending to have his forces regroup at Hogwarts. The Ministry Building would have to be abandoned in order to bring more man-power to the castle. He would draw his enemy right into the heart of his stronghold, and there the fighting would be done on his terms.

His enemies had won the battle, but the war was far from over.

End Dream Sequence

"Harry?" the voice asked, as though from somewhere off in the distance "Harry, are you alright?"

Harry opened his eyes and the world came into view, although it was a bleary one. None the less, he could make out Rose standing over him, looking at him worriedly.

Noticing that he was shaking, he took a deep breath to calm himself and then announced "He's retreated from Germany."

Confused, Rose opened her mouth to say something, but a loud commotion outside caught their attention.

Harry shoved on his glasses and followed Rose outside.

Looking through their binoculars they saw the army making its retreat. Death Eaters swept towards the castle, using levitation spells to take their injured with them.

There were all sorts, from Wizards and Witches to Giants, Trolls, Dementors, Vampires and Werewolves.

Then there came a figure who, in spite of the distance separating them, Rose could just feel the evil radiating off of.

"That's him?" she asked with a whisper.

Harry nodded "Yeah. That's him alright."

"The war effort must being going well." Rose observed.

"Yeah, but that is not necessarily a good thing for us." replied Harry.

"Why not?"

"Because we need to get inside that castle." Harry stated, bluntly "And that castle had just received a boost in the numbers of people and creatures available to guard it. And those numbers now include Voldemort himself within them."

With a weary groan Rose allowed her head to drop onto the rock ledge "Crap." she grumbled miserably.

Ideally they wanted Voldemort's forces divided as well as distracted. Ideally they wanted a good number of Voldemort's forces battling in Germany whilst the American forces somehow drew out those guarding the castle and providing enough of a distraction to allow Harry and Rose to get inside via an unguarded route.

However, as Harry Potter knew only too well, and as Rose Weasley was quickly coming to learn, things in life rarely worked out in the way in which you ideally wanted them to.

But at least Voldemort was still unaware of what had occurred at his Ministry. It seemed he had been content with trusting those who ran it to keep Harry hostage whilst he fought alongside his warriors.

He was going to be in for a shock when he tried to call in his Puppet Minister, and Harry rather hoped that that would be a moment he got to witness; anything not going the Dark Lord's way usually cheered Harry up a little. And with a bit of luck, Voldemort might just kill a few more of his own followers in the process.

A/N: So how was that? Let me know. I've never written a fight from Voldemort's point of view before, and it didn't really feel right to do so; fights are supposed to be from the good guy's point of view. If any of you think that he was out of character, just remember he's faced opponents with stronger wills that most of those he faced in canon. He has learned the hard way that some people, when they get a killing curse thrown at them, will dodge it and throw one back.