Darkness Supreme

A/N: I'm back! Well, for those of you who begged me for a sequel to my fanfic "Here's To the Night", here it is. If you didn't read "Here's To the Night" that's okay, because you don't really need to read it to understand this. It would be nice if you read it, though... ^_^ Anyway, this might be a little confusing, but I will do my very author-y best to make it understandable... or as understandable as anything will ever get with me. I would like to take up more space by thanking everyone who read & reviewed "Here's to the Night," because your reviews were so nice!! It really does mean a lot to me when people review my fics, so thank you very muchly. Anyway, without further ado, here's "Darkness Supreme!"

~ ~ ~

[Okay, I was just kidding about the 'without further ado' part. Here's some more ado that you don't *have* to read to understand the story, but it's a little important. This is a list of those who are members of The Resistance, both living and dead. This list is current, meaning that it is true when the story starts. It might change as the story goes on (hint, hint). It will say next their names and whether or not they are living. For those people who's first names I don't know (i.e. they're simply called Mrs. blahblah in the books, and never mentions the first name) I have made up names.]

The Resistance (members)

Potter, Harry (leader)

Granger, Hermione [deceased]

Weasley, Ronald

Abbott, Hannah [deceased]

Bell, Katie

Black, Sirius

Bones, Susan [deceased]

Boot, Terry

Brocklehurst, Mandy

Brown, Lavender [deceased]

Clearwater, Penelope [deceased]

Creevey, Colin [deceased]

Creevey, Dennis [deceased]

Diggory, Amos [deceased]

Diggory, June [deceased]

Dumbledore, Albus

Figg, Arabella

Finch-Fletchley, Justin [deceased]

Finnigan, Seamus (missing, presumed dead)

Fletcher, Mundungus [deceased]

Flitwick, Alberto [deceased]

Hagrid, Rubeus (missing, presumed dead)

Johnson, Angelina

Jordan, Lee

Longbottom, Neville (missing, presumed dead)

Lupin, Remus

Macmillan, Ernie [deceased]

Maxime, Olympe (missing, presumed dead)

McGonagall, Minerva

Moody, Alastor [deceased]

Patil, Padma [deceased]

Patil, Parvati [deceased]

Pince, Irma [deceased]

Pomfrey, Poppy

Sinistra, Tali [deceased]

Spinnet, Alicia

Sprout, Rose

Thomas, Dean [deceased]

Turpin, Lisa

Trelawney, Sybil [deceased]

Weasley, Arthur

Weasley, Bill

Weasley, Charlie

Weasley, Fred

Weasley, George

Weasley, Ginny

Weasley, Molly

Weasley, Percy [deceased]

Wood, Oliver

~ ~ ~

Ronald Weasley lay staring at the ceiling. He was currently in the Hospital Wing of the Subspace hideout, and he looked like some kind of odd mummy. He was wrapped up in bandages, with flares of red hair poking out from the white cloth wrapped around his head. His left leg was in a cast, and both his eyes were blackened. His lip was cut, and there was a long line of stitches along his left cheek.

Ron wasn't very happy. He had just returned from a very dangerous mission to free someone from the Pens, which was where Lord Voldemort kept his prisoners. The mission was very dangerous, and he had not really expected to come back alive... yet he had. He, Ron Weasley, was gloriously alive.

So why wasn't he happy about it?

Ron sighed. He knew why he wasn't happy. The night before he'd left, he had confessed his love to one of his best friends. It wasn't that she didn't return the feelings, which she had, but that she had left on a mission just as dangerous... possibly more so. It was that she hadn't come back.

Ron himself had been away for a year on his mission, and had been presumed dead until three weeks ago, when he had stumbled into the Subspace Hideout, bruised, bleeding, but triumphant. Mr. Ollivander, whom he had been sent to rescue, was back with the Resistance. His fellow team members (Amos Diggory, Professor Flitwick and a fellow Griffindor Hogwarts student named Dean Thomas) were all dead, killed by Dark Wizards when they were fleeing the Pens. He alone had escaped... how, he didn't know. He didn't even remember what must have been a long trek to get back home... or the closest he could call home, nowadays.

He did remember thinking how he had to survive... how he had to see her, once more, before he died. Ron hardly remembered the battles, the hiding, the fighting... he just remembered needing to see her. And now that he was home... she was gone. Dead. One of her teammates had made it back alive, with the news that the rest were gone. Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan... both classmates of his... gone. Lavender Brown had Apparated to the hideout, and managed to gasp out with her final breath that Hermione Granger was dead, and that Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan were presumed dead. Then she herself had died, gone to join her lover Seamus in the afterlife.

Ron had hardly cried for his classmates. He remembered being stunned, and remembered calmly thinking that this was all a trick, that it wasn't real, that any moment the spell would break and Hermione would come running at him yelling how he'd fallen for it. He'd waited, but the spell never broke. The night before, Ron had cried bitter tears, finally realising that he was not going to see Hermione again.

Madam Pomfrey (the Hogwarts students had never gotten over calling their former teachers "Professor" and "Madam") had just come back from her Mission, and was bustling into the room, rolling up her sleeves and tapping her wand against her thigh angrily.

"Those wizards, if I ever get my hands on one of them..." she muttered angrily, and whatever she would have done to the Dark Wizards was drowned out momentarily for Ron, because a jet of gold water was rushing out of Madam Pomfrey's wand with a loud gurgling noise. They water quickly molded to his body, covering everything and then solidifying. Madam Pomfrey waited a moment, then tapped the hard gold case sharply, and it cracked in half. The two halves fell to the floor and disintegrated. With a sharp flick of her wand, Ron's bandages unraveled themselves and dropped to the floor amid the gold dust. Ron sat up, cracked his neck, and gave Madam Pomfrey a faint smile.

"Thanks," he said. "Was beginning to think I'd never be able to do that again." Madam Pomfrey snorted and handed him a steaming goblet which she had just Summoned. She handed it to him carefully, he drank it, and then lay back down. Within moments he was snoring, and the nurse covered him in a blanket. She looked down at him fondly. He was so brave, she mused, as she began to go tend to the other injured parties in the Hospital Wing. He had managed to free Mr. Ollivander from the Pens, something many people had tried to do and failed. He was destined for greatness, just like his best friends Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Madam Pomfrey sniffed a little at the thought of Hermione. She had always been fond of the Muggle-born girl... she was always getting herself injured. The nurse had always had a soft spot for her, and now Hermione was gone, gone to join the others the Dark Wizards had taken from them.

Ron awoke the next morning refreshed and healed. He waved goodbye to the Nurse, and headed back to his own rooms. They had given his things to his sister Ginny, and he reclaimed them and stuffed the boxes back in to his old room. He then went to see Harry.

"Ron!" said Harry, jumping up from his chair. The black-haired man covered the space between them in a few long strides, and hugged his friend firmly. He broke away, grinning at the red-head. Ron grinned back for a moment, but then both smiles faded as they realised that Hermione was not going to come into the room, shrieking her joy that Ron was alive and well. Tears gathered in Ron's eyes, but he did not let them fall.

"Ginny told me," said Harry quietly. "About you two. Seems Hermione told her right before she left."

"Ginny," said Ron, shaking his head. "Always poking her nose into other people's business."

"You don't mind?" asked Harry anxiously, looking at his pale friend. Ron shook his head.

"No, I don't mind. Besides, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference either way," he said bitterly, blue eyes pained. Harry looked away and bit his lip.

"I should never have asked her to go," he said quietly, his own green eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I knew she would die, I knew it, and I asked her to go anyway..." he broke off, not wanting Ron to see him cry.

"You did what was right, Harry," Ron said quietly. "Snape had information for us. She was the only one who knew how to contact him without getting herself captured. She knew the danger, and accepted the mission anyway. She didn't hold anything against you." Harry looked a little better at hearing what he had obviously been telling himself since the news came of her death coming from another person.

"You really think that?" Harry asked. "Even though-"

"Yes," Ron interrupted. "Yes, I really think that." They stood in silence for a moment, then Harry spoke.

"Ginny's due back from her Mission tomorrow," he said. "Fred and George are due back the day after, Bill and your father in a week, Charlie in a week and a half, and your mother in..." he went back to his desk and looked through some papers, "About two weeks." He looked up. "They're going to be so happy."

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Look, I just got my stuff back from Ginny's room. I'm going to go unpack and everything. I'll see you later, alright?" Harry nodded, and Ron left, heading back to his old rooms. Many people stopped him along the way, delighted that he wasn't dead. Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet both tackled him and nearly strangled him, Lee Jordan hugged him so hard he thought his ribs would crack, Lisa Turpin (who he hardly even knew) kissed his cheek with tears running down her face.

Ron hurried inside his room, slamming the door in case anyone else wanted to pinch his cheeks or strangle him because they were so glad. He sighed, not really able to blame them for their enthusiasm. Even if someone he'd hardly knew had walked in alive, he would've been very glad to see them.

Ron turned to the three boxes of his things Ginny had kept in her room. If there was anything else, he supposed it would he in storage. He opened the first box, and found many sets of his old black wizard's robes. He stuffed them in the dresser, along with the other articles of clothing he found. One, however, was an old scarf that he didn't recognise as his... but upon closer examination, he found Hermione's name written in ink along the tag. He placed the scarf near his pillow.

The next box was filled with odd knick knacks, such as his wizard's chess set, some wand polisher, Spellotape, a few potion ingredients, and other oddities. He threw them all onto the top of his dresser, ignoring the loud complaints of his mirror as a pawn knocked into it. He then delved into the third box, which was very small and contained only a few items.

In this box, there was a thick stack of parchment, a stack of moving photographs, and a very old and battered copy of "Wizard's Chess – How to Master the Master's Techniques!". Ron's lower lip trembled slightly, but he picked up the stack of parchments carefully, as though they would crumble and turn to ash if he dropped them.

They were letters from Hermione.

The first letter she had ever written him, notes she had passed him during Potions, notes she had scribbled on his essays to help him with them... everything. Ron was certain he didn't realise he'd been saving them all these years, but now that she was gone, it was nice to sit and read about things that had gone on in his first year at Hogwarts, when things were still mercifully uncomplicated. As the dates on the letters got later, Hermione's acid wit began to show in what she'd written to Ron, as well as her growing affection for him. In almost every letter, she'd asked how his family was, how his rat was, his owl, etc... until finally towards the end of the letters she'd ask about him. As though she didn't want him to realise she cared.

Ron put the parchments back, eyes glimmering and a drop of blood on his lip where he'd bitten it through. He then picked up the photographs, and had to turn his head away for a moment before he could look at them again. In the white paper frames, photograph versions of Harry, himself and Hermione waved, laughing, their expressions happy. He smiled slightly, and thumbed through the pictures. There was one of him and Hermione furiously pointing their wands at each other and shouting... he remembered Harry having taken that one during Fifth Year, during a loud shouting match between himself and Hermione. How could he have not realised how much she meant to him? As he looked back, he was surprised that no one had ever said anything about it, except perhaps Hermione on the eve of the Yule Ball their Fourth Year.

Ron put down the photographs and picked up the book. He thumbed to the inscription on the inside cover.

Dear Ron,

I saw this in the window of Flourish and Blotts and decided you could use some more strategies for beating me at chess. Actually, if you look through this even once, let me know and I think I'll drop dead from the fact that you have read anything not related to Quidditch.

Happy Christmas,

Hermione

Ron smiled at the inscription. Hermione's wit had definitely increased over the years, and she had become increasingly more sarcastic. He closed the book and placed it back in the box. The box itself was placed on the bed, next to the pillow. He had just started gathering his chess pieces into their box when the door flew open, the knob cracking the wall behind it.

"Ron!" It was Harry. He was wild-eyed, looked pale as a ghost, and seemed torn between grinning from ear to ear and sobbing hysterically. All in all, it was a rather odd expression and Ron wasn't sure he wanted to know what had happened.

"What? Harry, what's happened? What's going on?" he asked, in spite of his better judgement. Harry simply grabbed his arm and yanked Ron out of his room and down the corridor, simply saying,

"You've got to see!" Ron went along good-naturedly, allowing himself to be dragged along the hallways. People leapt out of their way, and at one point Harry Repelled someone out of their path.

"Sorry!" Ron bellowed back down the hall as the woman (Arabella Figg) yelled something very rude after them. Harry seemed to finally reach where he wanted to take Ron, and threw open a door. Ron recognised this as the Hospital Wing.

"Harry, what's this all -" Ron's words died before they even had a chance to form on his tongue. There, lying on the bed, pale as marble, was...

Hermione Granger.

***

A/N: Bwahaha, don't you all hate me now? I'm very sorry for leaving you with a cliffhanger, but it had to be done. You see, this part has been written for a long time. I was planning on writing the entire story, then posting it all at once in one looooong chapter, because going to different chapters annoys me so, but people kept reviewing and e-mailing me asking to write a sequel soon and I felt guilty for not putting this up... I apologize for the shortness... but here it is, in it's totally insane and sleep-deprived glory. Oh wait, that's just me, never mind. This is really just to take up space, because I like rambling on about absolutely nothing. Oh, yeah. I have been grounded from going online, but due to the help of my techie pals and my sneakiness, I have stolen my phone cord back from The Evil Online-Taker-Awayer (aka my mom) so I can sneak on. If anyone want to e-mail or IM me, it's L i l i t h A D @ a o l . c o m just without the spaces. My IM is just LilithAD. So pweese talk to me... I am lonely... lalala...

--lotsa love,

The insanely pyromanical sleep-deprived chick who likes to bite people (mostly Chibi2)

(AKA Lilith)

Here some stuffies you may read and think are confusing!!!

The Resistance – A group formed by Harry, Ron and Hermione the year the Dark Lord took

control of the wizard world. Their goal is to kill Voldemort once and for all, and to try and return the world to the way it was before he came to power.

The Pens – The secret place in which wizards are held captive, for experimental reasons. They are tested upon, and made to do atrocious things under the Imperius Curse. Also, those who have the power to fight the Imperius Curse end up here, without magic, slaves of Lord Voldemort.

Voldemort's wand – Voldemort has done something to his wand that makes it able to simply feed him energy. He no longer needs to sleep, eat or rest, because his wand soaks up energy from around and gives it to him. He has, of course, rendered the thing invulnerable, but Mr. Ollivander (the wand's maker) knows how to destroy it. This information is priceless to the rebellion, but Voldemort knows this. He cannot kill Mr. Ollivander, because he himself does not know how to destroy the wand. If he knows, he can protect that weak spot. The Resistance must get the information before Voldemort does, otherwise they will have no hope defeating him.

Severus Snape – Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts, "re-joined" the Death Eaters and said he was a double agent for them. He feeds them false information with enough truth in it to keep the Death Eaters duped. He does not know if Lord Voldemort himself is fooled, though the Dark Lord has never tried to kill or have Snape killed. Currently, Professor Snape has valuable information regarding the Death Eater's next attack.

Subspace hideout - Sort of like unplottable land, but in this case it took many witches and wizards to come together and combine their magic to actually tear a hole in space itself. The Resistance actually lives in another dimension – inside a "rip" in the cosmic space.