Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in your ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Song lyrics which may crop up now and then will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 2 - We are nowhere and it's now

"In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
A past and future town
We are nowhere and it's now…."

Bright Eyes

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The two Slytherin boys stood in the doorway of the hospital wing while Lord Voldemort walked from bed to bed inspecting the casualties laid out with various wounds. Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse was the only healer present and where she had been flustered running around trying to perform triage on the wounded who had found their way to her room, she now stood as still as a statue a bottle of skele-grow in her shaking hands.

The Dark Lord turned once he had finished observing who exactly had come to the healer for help and looked at the two boys in the doorframe who were propping each other up, through injury and fatigue. "Tell me Draco and…" He paused for a moment, he did not know who the tall black boy was who propped up the other one, although he bore a striking resemblance to Ash Zabini, a Death Eater who had served him in the first war before his death.

Blaise did not know if he should tell the Dark Lord his name and interrupt him or hold his silence, it would be true to say that he was fairly afraid at that point in time. Although like many of his peers he had joined the Death Eaters on the battle field but he had never seen the Dark Lord in such close proximity before this night. "Blaise my Lord…"

Voldemort did not respond to this statement of the boy's name, but did note to himself that he was able to speak out for himself, whether that was a quality which would be a help or hindrance to him at that moment he had not decided. "The school nurse has been patching up both your enemies and your allies during the battle. Do you have an opinion to her fate?" Draco and Blaise looked at one another, neither were sure why the Dark Lord was asking their opinion on anything, Blaise vaguely wondered if it was a test while Draco tried to figure out from the number of beaten bodies stacked up in the room in real beds and makeshift ones who there was Death Eater and who was not. "Speak up!"

Blaise looked once more to his friend before clearing his throat a little and speaking in the loudest voice he could muster, which was still fairly quiet compared to the volume he would speak at normally. "I think my Lord, she should be allowed to continue healing the injured." Draco looked at Blaise like he had gone crazy. Still in her frozen position, Poppy Pomfrey let out a tiny breath.

"And why do you think that Blaise?"

Blaise swallowed a hard lump in his throat which felt like it stuck half way down, cutting off his airway partly. "Well... good healers are hard to come by and she has been helping whoever came through the door, not just Potter's lot."

Lord Voldemort turned his back, looking at the nurse for a moment, apparently contemplating the answer that the clearly nervous boy had given him. "I feel that that is a wise answer. No doubt there are more of my loyal servants who are in need of healing. And what do you think…" He turned again, looking directly at Draco. "Should happen to the injured number of our enemies?"

This time it was Draco's turn to be nervous, he had hoped he would not be questioned, considered the poor favour his family had been in with the Dark Lord's opinion, but swallowing hard he drew enough breath to attempt an answer to Voldemort's question. "Well, some of them will need to be interrogated, so maybe, they should have their wands taken off them and be healed a bit, because if they are dying, then I guess they won't be able to give much information…."

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Three days later….

Draco stood in the Ministry of Magic, the room which had formally been for the Wizengamot, but was now currently filled with top-end Death Eaters. Looking around at the be-robed clan of loyal followers of the Dark Lord, Draco swallowed hard. He wasn't quite sure how he had landed himself in this situation, but he was sure it was Blaise's fault. He was the one who just had to speak up and give the Dark Lord his opinion on what should happen to the rabble who had been in the hospital wing.

Draco felt a hand on his shoulder and looked upwards slightly at the tall Black boy who's right cheek now bore a thin scar where he had injured himself on the battle field, he'd been told it would fade in time, but Draco knew how angry he was about it, since he had always prided himself on looking as good as possible. "We better take our seat's mate, standing around here isn't going to do us any favours." Draco nodded a little and followed behind Blaise as they sat down at the back, behind several Death Eater's who they had not had chance to learn the names of yet.

Neither boy were sure why they had been shown favour from the Dark Lord, when all they had done was offer opinion. Blaise had wondered if it was because he was in an unusually good mood from winning the battle that they had both been sent owl's telling them to attend this meeting of followers. Draco was more wary than his friend, given the bad favour his family had been in. But seeing that both his father and his aunt were there, albeit sat much further forward than they, told him that perhaps they had been forgiven a little.

All the eyes in the room suddenly turned to the door as The Dark Lord entered the room and sat in the chair which had previously been occupied by the Minister for Magic. Closely following him where two bulking framed Death Eater's, dragging a limp person by the shoulder's, the gangly person's red hair told Blaise and Draco who it was without having to see their face. Weasley had gone on the run the night of the battle, but had been caught surprisingly quickly. Granger had been captured on the evening of the battle and had been since been held in the same place as all the other mudbloods.

Weasley, like the foolish Gryffindor he was had refused to disassociate himself from Potter's cause but only since he had pureblood was he now being given one last chance to turn his opinion. The Dark Lord pointed his finger at Darius Nott, an elderly but senior Death Eater who had been freed from Azkaban some time ago, he had not taken part in the battle due to his age, but now seemed to have some favour shown to him from the Dark Lord. Darius Nott stood up from his seat and walked forward, unrolling a scroll he had been holding in his hands. "Ronald Bilius Weasley, you have been brought before this council under the charge of insighting rebellion along with an enemy of the ministry for magic; Harry Potter. As you have pureblood you have been granted the chance of swearing an allegiance to the Dark Lord and turning your back on the notions instilled in you from Potter. What say you?"

Weasley lifted his head slightly, he grinned, his gum's and teeth were coated in blood, a little of which dribble down his chin. "I'm Potter's man through and through…." There was no sound in the room aside from a droplet of blood landing on the stone floor. Nott looked to Lord Voldemort who merely gave a small nod while the old man sighed and continued to read from the scroll. "Then by this council you will be sentence to public execution." He looked to the two thuggish Death Eater's. "Return him to his holding cell." The two men nodded and took hold of Weasley's shoulder's, dragging him back out of the room.

It was not until the door's had slammed shut did the Dark Lord rise to his feet and turned to face his followers. "My loyal servants, my time has come at last. I know you are eager to start enforcing the new laws I have implemented so I shall keep this brief. Tomorrow usher's in a new era for you all, embrace it for you deserve the chance to celebrate. The execution of all traitor's will take place in two days, some of you will be asked to help control the crowd's, no doubt some fool will attempt to rescue one of the prisoners, if that happens an extra place shall be made for them alongside the convicted. Now you may return to your work."

Tentatively, the Death Eater's started to stand out of their seats and make their way out of the room, some breathing a sigh of relief that a belated congratulations was all the new leader of wizarding Britain world had for them.

"Draco, Blaise, stay behind. I have a special assignment for you." Draco and Blaise looked to one another, a few rows down, Lucius looked up at his son with what seemed like a slight air of worry before having his armed tugged by Bellatrix Lestrange so that he would leave the room while the two young wizards made their way down the steps to the awaiting Lord Voldemort.

Once all the Death Eater's had left he turned and motioned for them to follow him out of the room. "Yes, I have a very special assignment for you two…."

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Author's notes:

Still confused? Stick with me, everything has a time and place and there is a LOT to come yet. It's early day's still.

Next chapter should be along soon. I am working on three stories at once here, possible four if I get a good ending for a one I have planned out in my head. I currently don't have access to my own computer so I am writing what I can, where I can.

I'm not giving anything away but the next chapter should have a lot more information in it. Well if all goes according to plan… and I find where I left my damn notebook.

Special thanks to tinydancer69 and Aisling Malfoy for leaving me reviews and super special thanks to fantasygirl26 for being a super star and reading verything I uploaded yesterday…. I owe you a shiny new donkey…