I do not own Harry Potter or gain anything from writing this other than the opportunity of expanding on an already brilliant universe for my own entertainment, and hopefully yours.

The Dark Lord

The Great Hall was in an uproar at the incredulous image on the front of the paper and the article that was probably far from the truth. Apparently Harry Potter and his crew had gotten greedy and money hungry, nothing able to sate their desire for gold but the Gringotts vault of one of the most respectable families in Britain, the Lestranges. Who knows what the actual truth of the matter is, but it was a pretty epic picture of the famous trio and a dragon. Looks like they recovered quite well from their stay at Malfoy Manor.

After dinner, Daphne slipped her copy of the Prophet into her robes and went to the hospital wing, hoping someone would come get her for the secret room today; she knew the DA would get a kick out of the article. She was still asked to come to the room a couple times a week despite the need for healing being much less than it was. Most of the DA were already in hiding, only a handful were still covertly out and about, and those had access to the hospital wing.

Luck was on her side, a fourth year boy named Albert Flood came and asked Madam Pomfrey for his weekly potion, which was for his severe allergies, which was actually a bottle of gillywater. Daphne heard the exchange from the back room and was quick to dawn her Invisibility Cloak, walking out the door as soon as Madam Pomfrey opened it then doing the same for the exit. It was so routine at this point to sneak through the school under her cloak that she felt completely at ease. She became immediately on edge when the Death Eater occupants of Hogwarts came rushing down the stairs from above her, the Headmaster in the lead, his long robes billowing behind him as the others rushed to keep up.

'What does that mean?' Draco was asking nervously – or perhaps panicked is a more correct description. 'That means he's coming here?'

'And he is not happy,' Snape added, looking somewhat frantic for the first time Daphne's ever seen.

'Well he won't be taking it out on us,' Alecto said archly, 'hopefully he'll be taking it out on those brats.'

'Do you think he'll listen if you tell him it's forbidden to kill students, Snape?' Amycus asked, letting out a wheezy giggle. 'I just hope Longbottom or any of his lot are about. They deserve everything the Dark Lord …'

Daphne stopped following them as the significance of what they were saying hit home. There was only one He that could cause such a reaction. She hesitated for only a moment, then bolted up to the fifth floor corridor where the Room's entrance was currently located. Albert was waiting there, wondering why Daphne hadn't tapped him on the shoulder yet, so she rushed to do just that, then barely entered the room before the Invisibility Cloak was off her.

'You-Know-Who is coming to Hogwarts!' she cried, the chatter in the room dying at her exclamation. Chairs scrapped and people shot to their feet, but it took a long moment before the spike of fear subsided enough for anyone to speak.

'How do you know that?' Neville asked.

'I passed Snape, the Carrows and Draco Malfoy on my way up here,' she said quickly. 'Snape said he was coming here and he's not happy. The Carrows said he hopes he'll take it out on you and your lot. Said You-Know-Who isn't likely to care that Snape forbids the killing of students.'

The fact that the only reason the Carrows haven't resorted to killing students like Neville is because of Snape's intervention might have been surprising, but none of them had time to dwell on that. The room exploded in questions of what they should do, wondering half-heartedly if they should attack Voldemort, more declaring they should stay hidden. Neville looked conflicted, staring at a golden galleon and tapping it with his wand.

'Everyone who's still safe to wander around Hogwarts, gather all of our members and bring them here,' Neville said loudly, everyone else quieting to listen.

'We're hiding?' Seamus asked, he didn't seem sure if he was disappointed or relieved.

'I don't know,' Neville said. 'But if Vol – if You-Know-Who is coming and he's angry, I don't think any of us should stay out there where he can take it out on us. Hopefully the rest of the students stay out of trouble too.'

'Won't that kind of give some of us away?' Albert Flood asked.

'Maybe,' Neville admitted, 'but it's the safest way to go about this, I think. Harry always said that You-Know-Who doesn't much care about killing an innocent or two along the way. Let's keep our people safe, but if there's a chance, maybe we can fight back too.'

Fighting back against He Who Must Not Be Named? The idea was terrifying. Hopefully it didn't come to a fight, because Daphne didn't want to see any of these people, her friends, get hurt. There were others she had to make sure don't get hurt though.

'I need to go find Tracey and Astoria,' she said to Neville. 'Good luck with everything on your end.'

As she turned to leave a hand closed on her wrist.

'You're one of us, Daphne,' Neville said severely, 'you should stay with us. What if Malfoy really did notice something and told him? You might be in danger.'

Daphne smiled sadly at the boy who many months ago invited her to join them. He was the same boy who angrily told her to leave. And now he was the boy who was asking her to stay, because he didn't want to see her get hurt. It's been quite the roller coaster with Neville Longbottom, and it wasn't over quite yet.

'I might be,' she agreed, peeling his hand off her arm, 'but it's what I have to do anyway.'

She ignored his further protests and left the room, making her way as quickly as she could down to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was terrified at the news, rushing over to Professor McGonagall as quickly as she could. Daphne quickly changed her robes, but decided to keep her Invisibility Cloak with her, which seemed like a decent idea. But when she arrived back at her common room, there was a problem. Only Astoria was there, Tracey was nowhere in sight.

'Probably snogging Cornfoot,' Astoria groaned when Daphne explained the situation.

The odds of You-Know-Who stumbling upon Tracey seemed slim, but the thought was scary enough for Daphne to worry. She decided Tracey needed to be warned, or she needed to try anyway. Dawning her Invisibility Cloak once more, she went out into the corridors and began checking every broom cupboard from the dungeons to Ravenclaw tower, having absolutely no luck. She then checked the kitchens, but those were similarly abandoned. Imagining that they could be anywhere, she decided to enlist the help of a teacher, checking the hospital wing but finding Pomfrey was not present. Instead of making the long trek to McGonagall's office, she went to the Great Hall first, but came up short at one of the most frightening things she's ever seen in her life.

The Dark Lord Voldemort was walking through the front double doors of the school, his skin corpse-white, his eyes red and narrowed, his mouth thin and scowling. Above his head floated a large green snake in some kind of invisible force field, its coils writhing and moving. Behind the horrifying sight of Voldemort was more than a dozen Death Eaters, including the ones that normally resided at Hogwarts.

Daphne wasn't the only student in the corridor at his appearance, though likely the only one invisible. Students stood shocked, then bolted away recklessly to get out of Voldemort's path, screaming, terrified. The Dark Lord ignored them, just continued his advance, calling back a curt, 'Await my return in the Great Hall,' and gliding up the main staircase.

The Death Eaters froze in their advance, then after a hushed discussion did as they were ordered. Part of Daphne was afraid Voldemort was going to the secret room to find her friends, but realised that was probably wrong. Besides, he wouldn't be able to get in, could he? It might be foolish to believe that just because the Carrows couldn't enter that Voldemort couldn't, but Neville seemed completely confident in its safety. Following Voldemort to find out for sure would be foolish, for all she knew he had a way of seeing through her Invisibility Cloak, she would not tempt her own fate that way. Instead she went to her original destination, though the Great Hall was much more dangerous than it was before.

She stood just outside the open doors for a moment to watch the Death Eaters lounging impatiently around the staff and Slytherin tables, awaiting their master's return. Not a single student remained in the Hall. They all made a run for it at the entrance of the Death Eaters.

The corridors were empty all the way back to the Slytherin common room, where, thank Merlin, Tracey had returned after hearing about the presence of Voldemort in the castle. Word had spread incredibly quickly after his appearance, and everyone was quick to make themselves scarce. Even in the Slytherin common room everyone was nervous. Nervous and frightened of what exactly was going on, at how dangerous the present situation was, at who was going to die this year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Then the castle began to tremble above them, shaking dust and stone from the ceiling, causing students to cry and screech and huddle with their friends and escape to their dorms. The trembling didn't end, it occasionally paused for a long tense few seconds before continuing moments later. Daphne, Tracey and Astoria found themselves huddled together on Astoria's bed, holding each other for comfort, hoping that the shaking would stop. And hoping that nothing bad happened when it did.

The occupants of the Room of Requirement were quiet, listening to the rumbling of stones that reached them even inside the magical room. In their mind's eye they could all picture the scene in the seventh floor corridor. An enraged Voldemort, releasing wave after wave of destructive magic as the doors to the secret room he was trying to enter remained frustratingly shut. They also wondered if it was possible for him to get in. And for that, they had no answer.

Sitting in the centre of the room, a worn piece of parchment spread out on a table in front of him, sat Harry Potter, watching Voldemort's dot on the Marauder's Map. There was an ever growing crowd forming behind him as the messages that Neville then others sent were answered by everyone who thought there was going to be a fight. Even as more newcomers came, no one spoke in more than a whisper as many eyes watched the only three people who seemed to know what the hell was going on.

'It's in here then,' Hermione whispered from next to Harry, looking around the room. 'But where? How could it hide in here?'

Harry went from watching the dot on the seventh floor of Tom Riddle to look at the other ever growing number of names. The Death Eaters were gathering as per their master's orders, or perhaps because their peers had a sense of what was coming. It was getting concerning how dangerous the present situation was becoming. The remaining students were all already in their common rooms and dorms, probably feeling the tremble of Voldemort's temper tantrum from where they were. The professors were spread to all the common rooms, standing guard outside or inside, probably dealing with hysterical students.

'Well it's a magic room, right?' Ron mumbled, talking extremely quietly and being very aware of the attention on them.

Harry already had a general idea of how to find something hidden in the Room of Requirement, though he wasn't sure he could manage to change it to the room of hidden things with all these people in here. And he didn't know what he would be looking for even if he did. It was frustrating to be so close yet so far. To be in the room with the final Horcrux they needed to find but being unable to find it. Not to mention being unable to destroy it, as they couldn't destroy Hufflepuff's Cup that was in Hermione's beaded bag.

'Where I hid my potions textbook in sixth year, maybe,' Harry whispered. 'I told you about it, remember?'

'You think?' Hermione asked excitedly.

'Can it change when everyone's in here though?' Ron said, echoing Harry's worries out loud. 'We can't exactly kick them out, can we? Then we still have no way of destroying them.'

The loss of the sword was devastating, and he cursed Griphook for his treachery, but maybe if they waited this out they could find another method of destroying the final Horcruxes. The way Neville explained how the room could exit at different areas in the castle, how he could command it to keep Voldemort out, made him fairly confident that it would succeed at keeping them hidden. Though the question of what would become of the room if the entire castle collapsed was a worrying one. It might be a safer idea to leave the Room in case that becomes a possibility, but that would mean surrendering the Horcrux to Voldemort, and they definitely couldn't do that. They'd just have to trust in the integrity of the castle.

Harry closed his eyes and let his mind connect with Voldemort's. Unlike the rest of the occupants of the Room of Requirement, he had a front row seat to the events whenever he liked. The Dark Lord looked up sharply at an angry hiss, seeing Nagini floating over his head in some protective barrier so he could keep it safe. It was probably what he planned on doing with his other Horcrux. Keep it close until he could find a place to hide them properly. Which is why he was so frustrated that he couldn't get in.

The large hole that was once a blank wall and the doorway to the Room of Requirement was significant though, and much to Harry's delight and Voldemort's rage, once enough stone was cleared away the only thing that was there was a corridor that led to a stairway. This revelation caused Voldemort to take his ire out on anything and everything that surrounded him. And Harry had to admit that the destructive force of the magic was quite frightening. The tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy wouldn't recover from the treatment it received.

Opening his own eyes, he came back, only to find himself half-way through a conversation.

'… opportunity to ambush him alone,' Kingsley Shacklebolt was saying. 'With his Death Eaters seven floors down and the castle shaking regardless, it might be possible to overwhelm him with numbers.'

'Or die trying!' Molly Weasley cried, very obviously meaning for Kingsley's plan to be foolish.

'That would be the risk, yes,' Kingsley said gravely.

If only Kingsley had seen what Harry just had, he probably wouldn't sound nearly as confident.

'That's what we're here for anyway, right?' someone called from further back, 'To risk everything to end this for everyone!'

'And what numbers do you plan to overwhelm him with?' Aberforth Dumbledore said in his rumbling voice. 'Plan on sending in a bunch of school kids as a shield while you take him out, eh?!'

'And what, you think you're leaving us out of this fight?!' Neville demanded loudly.

'If you're underage you better believe you're staying out of this fight!' Mrs Weasley shouted.

'You can't do that!' Ginny cried. 'We've been preparing for this too!'

Their argument wasn't the only one going on around the room, they were just the loudest and closest to Harry. Hearing Ginny's voice had him turning around. She was staring at her mother defiantly as the woman admonished and denied her. It was the first time he saw her since that awful night of Bill and Fleur's wedding, and she looked even more beautiful than ever. The image popped into his head of her facing Voldemort – Voldemort with the Elder Wand no less. That wasn't something he ever wanted to happen. Not just to her, to everybody here. It wasn't impossible for Voldemort to tear them all apart.

Plus, it was Harry's job to kill Voldemort or die by his hand in the attempt. There was no way he'd throw these people to the wolves when they didn't even have that knowledge.

'Look!' Kingsley shouted, drawing everyone's attention back to the map, 'he's leaving! We have to act now!'

'No!' Harry called over the growing din, and he was surprised how quiet the room got at his voice. 'Even if we went out there and managed to beat him, he can't die yet anyway.'

Surprised murmuring was interrupted by Hermione hissing in his ear. 'Harry!'

Harry grimaced, but didn't regret what he said. It was better giving away some information than letting people fight a worthless fight. Though reducing Voldemort to a wraith wasn't the worst outcome. At least it would buy them some time.

The map showed Voldemort retreating from the seventh floor, moving down the steps quickly to arrive at the Great Hall, where he was, hopefully, taking his rage out on his Death Eaters. Familiar names stood out like Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape, and the Carrows that Neville and the rest of the DA described so venomously when Harry, Ron and Hermione arrived. The Carrows and Snape were who Voldemort moved to, but Harry couldn't manage to enter his mind at the moment. He's gotten invaluable information by allowing the connection through, and right now he needed to know what Voldemort was going to do since he couldn't get to his final Horcrux. It'd be perfect if he decided to check the others, the cave and the Gaunt's hut. That would give Harry the opportunity to do what he needed to do. Get the last one and find a means to destroy it and the cup before they went for Voldemort and the snake.

Luck didn't seem to be on their side though, and soon the eerie voice of Voldemort seemed to be coming out of the walls, his first words making the hairs stand on the back of Harry's neck.

'Harry Potter,' it said, and if Harry wasn't looking at the name on the Marauder's Map in the Great Hall he might've turned around and expected to see him there, 'I know that you are here, hiding from me.'

Some of the screams from behind him weren't quite able to resist the urge to whip around and look for the source. Voldemort knew how to sow fear into the masses.

'I know that you plan to continue to hide from me, but I will no longer allow it. Come to me and give me your life. Come to me now, or starting at midnight I will kill a student from this school until none remain. One by one they will die … unless you give your life to me now. Come, or they will all die.'

The cries of 'No!' began as soon as Voldemort made the declaration to start killing. The arguments against such madness became more vehement when Harry did nothing but stare wide eyed at Voldemort's dot on the map. But the Dark Lord was not done yet.

'To the students of Hogwarts, I do not wish to kill you. Every drop of magical blood is precious, sacred, and should be preserved. You can save yourselves, if only you choose to act. Tell me the secrets you know of this group that call themselves Dumbledore's Army and the place they've been hiding. They should be the first to die if Harry Potter does not reveal himself. Tell me their secrets, and you shall be rewarded. Your lives shall be unimaginably richer if only you act now. Tell me, and live. Keep your silence, and die.'

As far as Harry knew, all of Dumbledore's Army was in the Room of Requirement, but he didn't know what kind of knowledge the rest of the school had. Regardless, no one undesirable will be able to get in and any trap could be seen a mile away with the help of the Marauder's Map. The other condition was more worrying. The common rooms were more easily accessible, with the number of Death Eaters in the Great Hall and the growing number of Voldemort's forces that were gathering at the edge of the Marauder's Map outside of the castle, things were getting very dangerous. A battle here would mean a lot of death, but it was looking to be inevitable. Either they fight, or only one person dies. Those were the options. The only options.

Taking a deep breath, Harry willed the pounding of his heart to slow. Blood rushing through his ears deafened him from the surrounding frantic talk. His senses felt numb, as if they'd already ceased to live in anticipation. Still, he forced his voice to sound.

'Hey, Neville,' he called, his voice coming out hoarse. 'There's something I want to try with the Room. You said you can hand control to someone else, right?'

'Yeah,' Neville said, being pulled away from a conversation where people were already making plans of how to attack, 'you just have to think it really, it's simple. You want it now?'

'Yeah,' he replied, willing himself to sound stronger than his wooden body felt, 'just … something I want to try.'

In their distraction, no one noticed the two Ravenclaw students walking through the corridors until they were close to the Great Hall. Though even once they did notice, no one knew the reason they had for going to Voldemort, or the secrets they could possibly know that Voldemort might value. Harry just hoped they didn't give anything too important away, he hoped that they didn't put any members of Dumbledore's Army or anyone else in danger. Because they were all in enough danger without any more help.