Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, they belong to J.K. Rowling. This fic is based on 'The Darkness Within' by Kurinoone, Harry's background story as well as Damien belong to her.

A/N: Yes, I'm alive and well. College takes up most of my time though. I promised myself that I would finish this story and that's exactly what I intend to do. Also, I'm sorry for not updating in so long and I hope you guys will forgive me. I've always wanted to play around with this specific chapter in DW, I've changed quite a lot though. On another note, I don't know if anyone noticed, but I recently went back and edited past chapters. Mostly because reading what my 18 year old self wrote is cringy as hell. I hope I don't look back in 5 years time, when I'm 29, and think the same of this. Lastly, please follow/favorite/review if u can, it always helps with my motivation.

Only when I stop to think about you, I know
Only when you stop to think about me, do you know?

I hate everything about you
Why do I love you?
You hate everything about me
Why do you love me?

I Hate Everything About You – Three Days Grace

Throughout his life, James had met an immeasurable amount of annoying people, and yet he had never been this close to hexing someone just to shut them up.

He rolled his eyes for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. Jason Riley, the Death Eater that they had been tasked to apprehend kept mumbling incoherently to himself, turning his head frantically to both sides. His dark eyes wide with fear. From what James could tell, Riley's personality had done a complete one-eighty from what his psychological profile said about him. The recorded cunning, intelligent and dangerous man with an aptitude for charms and above average physical prowess was nowhere to be found.

Despite his annoyance, he could understand why the man was frightened — to some extent. If he was a Death Eater who had just been captured by Aurors, he too would be trembling by the possibility of receiving the infamous Dementor's Kiss. Still, James thought things would be much easier with a little bit of silence. The situation was already frustrating enough as it was without the muddled mumblings of a thirty-something year old coward.

To make matters even worse, Riley had resisted the arrest, trying unsuccessfully to fight all the Aurors at the same time, resulting in a fight that had forced Kingsley to cast a powerful cutting hex that had landed on Riley's right arm. Riley, in his state of panic, had tried to heal himself. He had been unsuccessful. In fact, what used to be a painful but manageable wound had turned into a severely bleeding cut, deep enough that you could see the bone. That had finally managed to subdue him.

Now, they were stuck with an injured, overly frightened Death Eater in a two hour walk back to the ministry.

They couldn't just apparate back since the wound on Jason's arm appeared to be deep and he faced the risk of splinching. It wasn't life threatening, but it was too deep for any of the present Aurors to heal with their basic knowledge of healing spells.

James hoped that all this was worth it in the end. Their sources said that Riley had been a close confident of Voldemort, maybe he knew something important, something they could use. In any case, Jason Riley would be interrogated once they reached the Ministry.

Deciding to distract himself from Jason's never-ending ramblings, James focused his attention on counting the number of trees they passed.

The road they were walking on was in the middle of a forest.

He sighed, it was bound to be a very long day. He was brought out of his thoughts by a loud yell.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"

James' head snapped to the left as he heard his best friend's voice. The sight of a very annoyed Sirius greeted him. His teeth were clenched and his hands were white, forming angry fists to his sides. However, the real rage was on his eyes as he glared daggers at Riley.

If looks could kill

The man in question didn't seem to acknowledge Sirius' words as he continued with his ramblings in small whispers. The words "It's just a myth. It's just a myth" were barely loud enough for James to make out, as he was the closest to the recently captured Death Eater.

Riley wasn't even concerned about his own wound, which was now wrapped in a makeshift bandage they had fashioned out of his robe. The clothing had long turned red with blood. He would've passed out from blood loss already, had they not used a Blood Replenishment Potion.

James blinked quickly. The sun was shining brightly in the middle of the sky and even if the surrounding trees provided some much-needed shade, the brightness still hurt his eyes.

It was times like these that made James wish he had become a quidditch player, he would've only had to deal with bludgers then, and probably the occasional rude teammate or reporter . . . but of course that was never to be his fate, there was a war going on and he had to do his part for the good of his people.

He turned his head to the left, hoping to ask his best friend about last week's quidditch match so he could distract him and hopefully, stop him from killing the crazy Death Eater.

He had barely opened his mouth when a high-pitched sound stopped him. The recognizable whistle-like sound of a spell zooming past him was barely registered for half a second in his mind before his eyes widened as their captured Death Eater, Riley, was thrown through the air forwards at incredible speeds. James instinctively turned around to chase after his target when his body suddenly stopped responding without any warning.

The sound of wood cracking reached James' ears a second before his eyes focused to his right, right on the enormous tree falling down — heading straight towards him, it's weight about to literally crush him into the ground.

The fear of death came instantly as his mind went blank and he froze on the spot. He tried to move, to do anything, but his body wasn't responding.

"James!"

Thankfully, Sirius' words were enough to make James react. He bit down hard on his bottom lip — drawing blood — before pushing himself backwards. Effectively getting out of harm's way at the last possible second as the tree crashed loudly into the spot he had just been standing on. James covered his eyes from the dust with his left arm, as his other arm wiped away the blood that was still running down his chin.

The pain of biting his lip had nullified the effects of the paralysis, making it possible for him to escape certain death. It was his Auror training and knowledge that had saved him. For a brief moment, he found himself mentally thanking his wife for forcing him to memorize as much as he could about the spell theory part of his Auror training and not just practical part, at which he had excelled at.

It took a moment for the ground below his feet to stop moving after the ear-splitting crash that had just occurred. James took in the sight before him, the fallen tree was truly gigantic, even horizontally, the tree trunk was easily twice his height, there was no way for him to see anything behind it, mainly Riley, who he knew had been thrown at least a hundred meters or more, courtesy of the spell he was hit with earlier.

"Is everyone ok?" He questioned, looking back at his fellow Aurors.

A quick look confirmed to him that everyone except Nathan had some blood running down their mouths. Sirius had pushed Nathan out of the way, if how close they were on the ground was any indication. So, he wasn't the only one that had been paralyzed thought James. He had been an Auror for more than twenty years, he never froze. This had definitely been some kind of complex spellwork, a weak version of the body-bind or some variation.

"Still alive," responded Kingsley, breathing heavily as he tried — and failed — to get up, grasping his clearly injured knee.

There was blood slowly dripping from his hands as he clutched his knee in pain. Sweat dripping down his face as it twisted into an expression of sheer agony. He had thrown himself back at an awkward angle and had landed with all his body weight painfully crushing his right knee.

James didn't need to be a healer to know Kingsley wouldn't be able to fight in his current condition.

"Careful mate, try not to move." Sirius said. He used the sleeve of his robe to remove the dust from his eyes before examining Kingsley's knee more closely.

Sirius took a small vial out of his pocket before enlarging it with a wave of his wand. He removed the cork before giving the pain relief potion to his fellow Auror. "You can't fight like this. We'll take you to the edge of the tree and you can cover us from there," he added after a few seconds.

Kingsley's small nod was the only response he got as James bent down — wand in hand — to levitate his injured comrade. The empty vial forgotten in the ground.

James was shocked, these attackers had blasted Riley away, paralyzed their entire squad and then somehow cut down that tree, calculating its falling trajectory for it to cause as much damage as possible — only to separate them from Riley. Such power. There was no way this was a planned ambush, since there was no way for anyone to predict that they would injure Riley and as a result that they would have to walk to the ministry, instead of just apparating. This was not a normal group of dumb Death Eaters, in a short time they had demonstrated great magical skill, cunning and above all a strategic mind. Who the bloody hell were they?

Once everyone else was able to stand, they walked as silently as they could; making their way towards the edge of the fallen tree, hoping to figure out where Riley had been thrown. As he was being levitated, Kingsley kept his hand over his mouth to avoid making any sounds, his knee was still bent at an awkward angle.

The Aurors walked without making a single noise, as they'd been taught since joining the academy all those years ago. The crash had pulled so much dust into the air, breathing without coughing was hard for the first couple of minutes. To make matters worse, the only thing they could see was dust, and the silhouettes of the vegetation as they walked around the tree.

It took them nearly two minutes of silent and steady walking to reach opposite side of the fallen enormity. It would have been significantly less, but they had to place Kingsley where he could get cover himself, while having a vantage point to cover them should they need it.

There was only one thing going through James' mind when they stopped.

What the hell?

There was absolutely nothing there. Where he had expected to see multiple Death Eaters and a somewhat healed Jason Riley – there was only green. There was no sign of Riley, not even a shift in the grass to indicate he had landed there, no footprints, nothing. James turned around looking frantically at his companions. Something was not right, Riley had been thrown this way, he had seen it with his own two eyes, there was also no way to apparate Riley without the risk of killing him, unless the Death Eaters had a very talented healer with them, which he doubted. James tried to calm his mind to allow his rational thoughts to pour in, unsuccessfully. There was a logical, magical explanation for all of this, he just hadn't found it yet.

James' head snapped to his left as soon as he saw Sirius raise his hand. His best friend was still in formation. Sirius hand indicated to be quiet – even though there was hardly any need, none of them had made a sound since they had left Kingsley at the edge of the tree.

At once James' mind cleared. Sirius was pointing towards a line of trees ahead of them. James squinted his eyes – he could see nothing beyond said line of trees. When James saw Sirius point to his ears he felt like a rookie. He had been paying so much attention at what he could see, he had neglected his other senses. James could now hear the unmistakable sound of voices far away in the distance, there was no way for him to know what they were saying, but now they knew without a doubt that someone was ahead.

The Aurors resume their silent stalking, advancing on the enemy's position while a million scenarios of what was about to come flashed through James' head.

Every Auror hid behind a tree as soon as two forms entered their field of vision. James was sure Kingsley would not be able to cover them from where they had left him.

Sirius raised his wand, doing a quick spell to see how many people were around the vicinity. He turned his head around to look for James. James could only stare unblinkingly as a look of confusion came over his best friend's face. The spell had revealed that there was only one attacker, of course that was assuming that the other figure was Riley.

'Only one?' Sirius silently mouthed.

A look of surprise overtook James' face as he opened and close his mouth in shock.

One? Only person had done all this? One person had managed to paralyze and almost kill them all? One person against five fully trained Aurors?

James shook his head, blinking rapidly as he took in the form of their attacker from afar. James was flabbergasted, struck down with shock as he perceived what appeared to be the form of only one man — just as Sirius had said — wearing the standard black death eater robes, a silver mask firmly on his face as he towered over the frightened Riley, who stared at him pleadingly, kneeling on the ground in what James thought was one of the most demeaning positions he had ever seen. They were inside a small beautiful meadow that was a perfect contrast to the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in. Both, Riley and the new arrival where hidden from the burning sun by the shadows of the trees around them.

Liam pointed his wand at their target, helping the sound waves come towards the Aurors; allowing them to hear to what was being said.

James found himself with his back against a tree; listening to a strangely familiar voice.

". . . betrayed my father Riley. The punishment for your actions is death. Your life is forfeit."

He had to cover his mouth as his eyes widen. Their attacker couldn't be more than a teenager by the sound of his voice. What the bloody hell was going on? He turned his head towards his fellow Aurors, only to see expressions mirroring his own.

James' eyes hardened after a few seconds. The age of their attacker didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was his words and actions, he was a potential threat, who was moments away from taking a life. They had been task to apprehend Riley, not to kill him . . . or watch him get killed.

"No p-please! P-Please Dark Prince, have mercy, it wasn't —"

"Shut up, you truly are pathetic!" Interrupted the boy, James could hear the hate in his voice, growing with each sob that escaped Riley.

He turned to look at Sirius. 'Dark Prince?' he muttered, smirking. What kind of name was that?

James couldn't, for the life of him, understand what was going on in front of him. Why was a known murderer — a Death Eater — sobbing scared at the feet of a mere boy, who didn't even look to have drawn a wand?

The fact that the boy hadn't notice them yet was enough to make James pause. His raised hand motioned for Sirius, Nathan and Liam to wait and keep hidden. The current situation was not ideal by any means, but they still had a clear advantage in their numbers and the fact that the boy hadn't seem to notice them hiding behind the trees, yet. He signalled what he wanted every member of his squad to do, as he carefully took one silent step toward their targets. James steadied his breathing as he prepared himself for the surprise attack they were about to engage on.

Even if he didn't understand what the hell was happening in front of him, he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.

"N-No! Please D-Dark Prince, p-please have mercy. There must be a mistake, I would never betray my Lord . . . or his s-son. P-Please don't kill me!" Riley's voice cracked as he trembled.

. . .

Wait. . .

What?!

WHAT?!

SON?!

VOLDEMORT HAD A SON?!

THIS BOY WAS VOLDEMORT'S SON?!

James turned around to look at the masked boy again. He understood Riley's reaction and demeaning position now. This was Voldemort's kid; his son. His flesh, his blood. The son of the darkest wizard the world had ever known. Everything seemed to click into place. Now the thought of five full grown men being ambushed by this boy was not so unfathomable.

The boy raised his wand, pointing it right between Riley's eyes.

"I don't forgive people who cross my father!"

Riley kept sobbing uncontrollably, still knelt on the grass. James gestured for Sirius, Nathan and Liam to move in at his next signal. Kingsley couldn't cover them, but they still had to act.

"Enjoy your last breath Riley. Avada Keda —"

James gave the signal and the three Aurors dove straight for the boy. Two disarming spells and a body-bind curse went sailing through the air.

The Dark Prince didn't even blink, and before James knew what had happened, Voldemort's son waved of his wand and the three spells dissolved into nothingness.

James stared in shock.

Upon a closer look, he could see a transparent blueish shield protecting the boy from head to toe. Unlike James, Sirius was still stunned at what he had just witnessed, he had watched as the curses impacted with this blueish bubble before dissolving like they had been casted by first year Hogwarts students; instead of by fully trained Ministry Aurors. What in Gryffindor's name was going on? The boy hadn't even turned to face them, he had blocked multiple curses without even looking at them.

Bright green eyes found James' hazel ones as time stopped. The boy had turned to face them, no expression could be seen because of his mask, yet James could have sworn he saw contempt flash clearly in those slytherin green eyes as he regarded them.

James felt his heart skip a beat, he didn't like that look, he didn't like it at all.

The Aurors were still speechless as the boy raised his wand and fired.

"Diffindo!"

The cutting hex raced towards Liam, who didn't seem to be able to react on time. Luckily for him, James had. A wave of his wand was all it took to bring forth a huge levitated rock, ready to block the spell. Time slowed down as James watched the hex flying towards it. The hex hit, cutting the rock in half before continuing towards Liam as if nothing had happened. Liam fell to the floor screaming when it struck his chest, opening a long and bloody gash.

He turned around to look at the boy just in time to see him move out of the path of Sirius' and Nathan's curses. They rushed towards the kid, who drew back his wand and waved it as if brandish a whip. The wave of suffocating heat that followed smashed into James like a tidal wave. An enormous flame sprung from the tip of the boy's wand. Embers began eating at each other, before taking the shape of a serpent. Horns jutted form its head, twisted spirals of flame. Its features twisted and blurred as the hellish being moved. Hungry infernal eyes narrowed in on them. The atrocity hissed fiercely. It coiled, ready to strike.

Fiendfyre!?

Sheer awe was the first thing James felt. Then came the fear, blinding and paralyzing. A cold shiver ran down his spine. It took all his Auror training to blink it away. He needed to act quickly if he wanted to survive this. He raised his wand, pointing it towards the hissing serpent.

"Aguamenti!"

He poured every ounce of magical power he could into the spell and powerful jet of water shot out of his wand, colliding with the fiery being. The surrounding area quickly filled with a grey, opaque water vapor.

James managed to see two other identical jets of water hurtling towards the flaming beast before he was blasted through the air by an unknown spell. He felt his shoulder dislocate painfully when he crashed against a tree. The impact had taken the air out of him. How had he been attacked? He hadn't seen or heard anything. He slumped on the ground. His lungs desperatly cried for oxygen.

It took close to a full minute for him to regain his senses. With his wand drawn he turned around to face his enemy. Surprise flashed across his face at was he saw.

Kingsley had apparently recovered enough to attempt a go at the boy — it had gone poorly by the looks of things. The six-foot Auror was now knocked out cold right were James had last seen their enemy. His face was smeared with blood from his nose, it had been badly broken. There was a bright red fist mark his cheek, it was starting to swell.

His eyes finally found his target, some distance to the left of Kingsley. Sirius had managed to get the better of the boy by getting within striking distance and was now in the process of getting him into a headlock. The kid had stopped struggling. What an anticlimactic victory. Yet as soon as the thought materialized in James' head — and before he could even blink — the boy's hand was raised in the air.

Perhaps it was the calmness of the boy, or perhaps James had hit his head harder than he thought when he was attacked, but for some twisted reason, an image of Damy raising his hand to ask a question in class popped into his mind.

But they weren't in Hogwarts and the boy was asking no questions.

Instead, the water from the three aguamenti spells that had drenched the forest floor earlier was now floating above their heads, thousands of water bubbles fluidly moving around. James saw the look of amazement in his best friends face right before the boy violently closed his fist. The water merged and froze, forming more than a dozen icicles that dashed through the air, straight towards Sirius.

Sirius managed to throw himself backwards just in time to avoid being impaled by the icicles. He had to let go of the boy to do it. James watched as their opponent became a blur moving in his best friends direction before said blur delivered a gut-wrenching kick to Sirius' knee. A piercing scream filled the air as the knee bent the wrong way with a crunching sound.

Nathan was in front of him before the boy could finish the job, intent on protecting Sirius from any further harm the boy wanted to inflict. His fellow Auror threw a spell that caught their attacker in the torso, throwing him back. Sirius was scrambling, trying to get up and make it a two vs one.

James used the distraction and quickly rushed towards Riley, who hadn't moved at all since the fight had started. His hand closed around Riley's collar, as he turned to regard him.

"Quickly let's go!" he shouted.

There was no response from Riley, he was frantically watching the fight, a look of horror plastered across his face. James took one look at him before slapping him across the face, hard.

"Snap out of it! He wants to kill you, we want to arrest you. CHOOSE!" he yelled angrily.

Riley quickly got his bearing and realized the truth of James' statement. James grabbed a hold of Riley's healthy arm as they rushed through the trees, trying to get away. He couldn't apparate with Riley, there was still the risk of splinching. Regardless, there was no way he was staying in the clearing where the Dark Prince could just kill Riley with a single well-placed killing curse.

An ear-splitting scream echoed. James turned in time to watch as Nathan went down, a wide and lengthy icicle was sticking out of his leg. Sirius was trying unsuccessfully to hold on to their opponent, even with his knee bent backwards.

James had seen more than enough. He didn't wait to see who had would win the fight. He grabbed Riley's arm forcefully and pushed him as fast as he could. He must have run about fifty meters before the sound of frantic footsteps behind them reached him. Fuck it then, he was going to have to risk splinching the shivering idiot. It was either that or just letting him die. But just before he could reach out to grab his captive, he heard a spell zoom past him.

He watched as the jet of red light impacted with Riley's back, throwing him to the ground. James head snapped back towards their attacker. He quick glance told him Riley was still breathing, the spell had been a stunner. Calm footsteps could be heard as the boy approached him.

James stood with his back towards a stunned Riley, protecting him. Angry green eyes regarded him. His opponent was tense, breathing a little heavily, but other than that, there wasn't a single scratch on his robes. He had just fought, and won, against five fully grown and experienced Aurors.

"This traitor belongs to me Potter. He is no concern of yours," said the boy in an icy voice.

A wave of something he couldn't identify went through his spine. The hairs in the back of James neck stood. He gritted his teeth in defiance. The boy's voice felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. James held up his wand at the ready.

"This man is under the protection of the Ministry. I won't let you kill him in cold blood," he responded.

"Under the protection of the Ministry? Is that what they call getting arrested nowadays? Since when does the Ministry care what happens to Death Eaters?" mocked the boy.

"Since when did Death Eaters started killing each other?" James shot back.

The boy's eyes flashed with anger. He pronounced every word slowly. "I am NOT a Death Eater."

In a blink of an eye the boy waved his hand in his direction. James felt an invisible force smash into his chest with all the subtlety of a hammer. It felt as though a meteor had just slammed into him. He was sent flying backwards — for the second time that day.

Just like the last time, the air was knocked out of him by the forceful impact of the landing. His ears began to ring as his vision filled with black spots. He struggled to get up, forcing himself to move. He turned just in time to see the look of terror spread across Riley's face.

"N-no, p-please. M-e-ercy my Prince, mercy," begged Riley.

The boy took aim.

James raised his wand to try and block the curse he knew was coming — but it was futile.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The jet of bright green light shot out of the Dark Prince's wand and slammed into Riley. Riley's body slumped to the ground as the light left his eyes. He was dead. Anger and guilt flowed through James' body. They had been completely useless, powerless to stop this boy from killing their captive right in front of their eyes. In less than a second, he was blocking the boy's path.

"Get out of my way Potter, before I do something I've been dying to do," said the boy.

"Try it!" snapped James back at him.

"Move Potter, or you'll wish you had."

"NO WAY YOU LITTLE SHIT!" yelled James, losing what was left of his temper.

Something flashed through the boy's eyes as he clenched his teeth together in fury. The boy waved his wand and suddenly, the trees surrounding James started to come alive. Branches violently began to attack him from all sides. James quickly casted a shielding charm. It held strong but the force of the branches striking it would eventually overwhelm it.

His eyes focused on his attacker, who had somehow reappeared right in from of him, bypassing his shield. James' head snapped violently to the right as a punch struck his cheek. James took a step back, but before he could even blink, he was forcefully thrown backwards — for the third time — the boy had done that with just a wave of his hand, as if swatting a fly. This time though, James was prepared for the painful impact. A second after he crashed into the ground his wand was raised, pointed straight towards his opponent.

"Sorupto!" yelled James.

The boy's eyes widen, he obviously hadn't expected a counter attack. James' advanced cutting hex missed the boy's torso, but it still hit him. A huge tear appeared on his leg as blood drenched the boy's robe and he fell. With a painful gasp, he grabbed his wounded leg, pulling it close.

James took the opportunity and pointed his wand at his downed opponent. However, before the spell could leave his lips his wand fell to the ground. Something extremely sharp had come flying through the air and had pierced his wrist. Ignoring the pain, James raced towards his wand. He managed to grab it, with his healthy arm, swiftly pointing it towards the boy. Once more, he felt the words choke in his mouth. Black spots filled his eyes as he fell to his knees. He felt his mouth fill with blood, his lungs crying for oxygen.

James looked down to see a small black blade sticking out of his right side. He couldn't breathe. His training told him that the metallic knife had probably pierced one of his lungs and that he would drown in his own blood without help. He hadn't even seen the boy moved. Darkness claimed him in that moment as he ultimately blacked out.