Hey, thanks for the great response to the first chapter, I really appreciate it. Just a heads up to all of you, this story does have a pretty big chance of having more than a few depressing moments. Harry is going to be a changed person, who has seen a lot of terrible things. I'll try and not bring your spirits down too much with this, but should you ever feel a bit low after reading it, then by all means check out my Christmas story for a bit of humour.

Anyway…

A Darkened World

Daughter of Traitors

Under the cover of darkness, the group of seven witches and wizards crept soundlessly through the undergrowth, each one of them focused on the mission at hand, and at the same time utterly terrified that something, anything might suddenly go wrong. Very wrong.

The leader of this group was a man in his early forties, a moustached American with greying brown hair and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times in his life, Thomas Jameson still preferred to be addressed by the nickname T.J. He had been on missions like this one dozens of times in the past, and he had one of the best success records.

Australians Terry and Ryan Stratton were twin brothers, and were two of the best ward-breakers in the world. Natalie Johnston and Jesse Smith were both Americans as well, and were superb healers who specialised in combat healing. Mark Harper was a Canadian who was well known for his prowess in a fight.

Last was Rose Weasley, brown haired and studious, she was barely out of school. Officially she was listed as an Australian, but her parents were two Brits who had fled from their country when all hope had seemed lost in the wake of the ever growing power of the dark wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort.

Rose was no fool; she knew that she was not exactly welcome amongst this group. She was new to the force and had only been on one mission previous to this, a raid in Germany. And a raid in Germany was like pick-pocketing a dead man in comparison to a raid in Britain. Only the best went on raids to Britain, and Rose was certainly anything but the best. She was not supposed to be here, she knew that and the others knew it as well. She was a replacement, and a rather poor one at that. Some Chinese guy was meant to be here in her place, but he had been too injured in his last mission to come along. There were not many people available to replace him, given how so many others were out on separate raids, and not one of them had the skill to be a part of a team conducting a raid in the heart of Lord Voldemort's empire.

However T.J. had become a superstitious man after so many years in the job, and he firmly believed in having a seven-person team, so Rose was selected as being the best of what was available and she was brought along for the trip. She wasn't much of a dueller yet, nor much of a healer. Her eyes weren't trained quite enough to be that good of a look-out, and she didn't have the experience to be a planner. At best she could be described as "An Extra Wand." Of course, someone with a more cynical view of life would have referred to her as "Cannon Fodder."

Twenty years ago, Voldemort had managed to make his hold on Wizarding Britain absolute. Any who opposed him had to either flee or be killed. In the eight years that followed, Voldemort had waged war on Europe as a whole, first crushing the best that France, Germany and Belgium had to offer first before moving further inland. All pleas for International Assistance had been ignored, and eventually Europe in its entirety had fallen, from Sweden, Finland and Norway in the north, to Italy and Greece in the south, all fell under Voldemort's control. Then he had moved forwards into Asia. His forces, now boosted by huge numbers gained in Europe, cut their way through west and central Asia before things changed.

China and India both proved to be a shock for Voldemort's forces. The ICW might have kept quiet about the war in Europe, with many of them expecting the problem to eventually fizzle out, although the fall of both France and Germany had been a shock, when the war began to spread into Asia, they finally took notice. India and China were just two of the countries to agree to offer sanctuary to fleeing Europeans, and with them they stood together to make a stand. Voldemort's forces came upon a roadblock which they had not been expecting and they quickly retreated. Following that, India and China served as a blockade to Voldemort's forces, with wizards from the States, Canada, Australia and a good dozen other powerful wizarding regions adding to their force. With a huge, international effort, they had managed to drive Voldemort completely from all Asian countries and then Voldemort, surprisingly, abandoned much of Eastern Europe to them. His reasons were unknown, though perhaps it was to lure them in. Since then, day by day they were getting nearer and nearer to the borders of Germany.

What happened to the muggles was not really something that the ICW concerned themselves with. More than a few were known to have fled; others were known to have been enslaved. As for the rest, well let's just say that Magic really does screw with muggle technology, and Dementors breed fast. One of the last big news stories to come out of Muggle Britain before it fell was that every piece of technology found throughout the country, from electric lamps to radios, televisions and computers, to cars and to guns had all stopped functioning.

Similar stories were heard from the survivors who came from many other countries. It seemed that Voldemort had come up with some way to take the greatest powers the muggles had at their disposal away from them.

The job of this group that Rose was a part of was not to wage full-scale war on the forces of darkness. That was for people who were hundreds of miles away. The job of this group was to sneak in behind enemy lines and cause problems, problems designed to draw Voldemort's attention away from the international army that ever encroached upon his empire. They would whisk away prisoners and slaves; they would carry out assassinations and blow things up.

They had one simple ethic to their work: get in and get out. Whatever they managed to do in between was considered a bonus.

Today they had two goals in mind. They were heading to a prison that was located near the border between England and Wales. Their primary objective was to sneak in under cover of darkness and slap international port-keys onto as many prisoners as possible and get them out of there. Their secondary objective was to assassinate the Death Eater in charge of the camp, this one a man by the name of Mulciber, though really that was just wishful thinking.

Suddenly T.J. stopped and gave the signal. They were at the ward line. Terry and Ryan moved to the front to begin taking down the wards. Everyone else remained still.

Rose was crouched behind a tree, one hand resting on its trunk. In her other hand she held her wand in a tight grip as her eyes scanned the darkness that surrounded them. Not too far from her, Natalie was doing the same thing.

It seemed to take forever for the wards to come down, but when they did the group moved quickly and quietly.

All was silent in the grounds surrounding the large grey building that was the prison, and the dark windows gave no indication that anyone was up ad about inside. Terry and Ryan broke through the protections on the door with relative ease, and they were in.

A Death Eater guard stood inside the door as if to welcome them. Before he could do anything, however, T.J. killed him.

There were four levels. Rose and Natalie took the one they were on, Ryan and Jesse took the next one up, Terry and Mark the one above that and T.J. went alone to the top floor, where Mulciber was most likely to be.

Rose and Natalie rounded the first corner and spotted the guard. His back was to them, and Rose took the chance. It was no stunning spell that left the tip of her wand. Stunned Death Eaters lived to fight again. Nor was it a piercing hex or cutting curse. A bleeding Death Eater could make a lot of noise. It was the green flash of the killing curse that ended this guard's life.

Quick and quiet, just like everything else they did.

As the body hit the floor with a soft thwump, Rose and Natalie had already turned their attentions to the first two prison cells. Thankfully even the basic training Rose had received was enough to break the locks on the cell doors. Each of them took a small cloth bag from their belts and began pulling out feathers from them before handing them out to the bleary-eyed and weak prisoners. One whispered activation phrase later and all ten prisoners in each cell were whisked away.

Rose and Natalie made it through another three cells each before trouble began. First it was the sound of spell-fire coming from somewhere above them that was quickly joined by shouting. Then the sirens began.

Rose cursed under her breath. She and Natalie ran back towards the door when suddenly it burst open. The pair threw themselves against the wall, hiding themselves from view as half a dozen Death Eaters charged in. Hearing their thundering footsteps as they charged upstairs, Rose and Natalie shared a look before diving out from behind their protection. Their spells caught the last two Death Eaters in their backs, and the two women made their way up the staircase. In situations like this they were supposed to flee, but it was not in either of them to do so. Natalie was a healer, and if any of them were hurt it was her job to help them. And Rose knew that in order for her to do that job Natalie would need some cover.

Up on the next floor they found Jesse dead. So was another Death Eater. Ryan was dying. Natalie crouched over him to do what she did best; heal him. Rose held her wand in a steady grip, her eyes scanning the gloom for the other Death Eaters. It was hard to tell a genuine threat from a prisoner panicking in his or her cell.

A loud crash came from upstairs, followed by a scream. A body came tumbling down the staircase. Its head was missing, but Rose could tell it was Terry from the brown boots he wore. Mark and T.J's were black.

Rose turned back to Natalie and hissed "Get out of here."

Natalie nodded, dropped the potion she had been using to heal Ryan back into her pocket, grabbed a fistful of the man's robes in one hand and snatched up one of the feather port keys in the other. Both disappeared.

Rose knew, deep down, that she ought to do the same. But she couldn't. She stepped over what was left of Terry and proceeded up the stairs cautiously.

Almost instantly she was locked in combat with a Death Eater. She managed to duck his killing curse and sent one of her own right back at him. It missed, but struck the wall next to him, causing a small explosion of dust and small chunks of concrete. The Death Eater must have gotten something in his eye by the way he flapped his arms in front of his face frantically, and Rose took her chance. In a flash of green light, the masked man dropped to the ground, lifeless.

Rose continued on for two steps when suddenly the floor above her gave way. She sprang back as debris and bodies came crashing down.

She heard T.J. shout "Get outta here!" before a flash of green light struck him. Rose fired off two killing curses before diving down the staircase without waiting to see if they hit anything.

She tripped over Terry's body and crashed to the ground. As she scrambled to her feet, something heavy landed on her. It snarled, and she felt hot breath on the back of her neck. By its strength alone she knew that it was a werewolf.

But the full moon wasn't out tonight…

"Looks like we've got us a pretty one." a snarling voice spoke above her.

With a jolt of fear, Rose realised that her wand had rolled away from her and it was impossible to locate in the darkness.

She felt deep gouges being torn into her shoulder and arm. She felt a hand tear away the bag of port keys… she was caught, and she had no defence… no defence, except…

-Flashback-

A fifteen year-old Rose Weasley sat next to her grandfather Dan Granger as he handed her a small wooden box. She opened it and gazed at what was inside.

"What's this granddad?" she asked.

"A souvenir." he replied "From my days in the army. That one got me out of a tight spot or two, I can tell you."

"And you want me to have it?"

He nodded.

-End flashback-

Rose had brought that thing with her on this mission, as a last-resort backup item. Well she certainly seemed to be in a situation that required last-resort type things.

With her free (well free-er) hand she grabbed for the knife. To her relief her fingers closed around the handle and she drew it. She made one wild swiping motion above her and must have struck something for the Werewolf howled and reared back, away from her. She took her chance and twisted herself into the oddest angle physically possible in order to drive the blade right into the heart of the beast.

Then she scrambled to her feet and ran.

Spells followed her out of the building and into the forest, but whoever was firing them did not follow her any further than that.

When she felt like she could not run anymore, Rose collapsed to the ground, breathing hard.

As she lay there, frightened, exhausted and bleeding, sound began to trickle back into her world. The sound of running water.

She forced herself to get up in head in the direction that the sound seemed to be coming from.

Ten minutes later she found it; a small stream so shallow that it would not even come half way up to her knees. She shrugged her robes off, and the top that she wore underneath followed it. She scooped some water up in her hands and splashed it onto her wounds as best she could. Then she splashed some onto her face, got up, dressed herself again and then looked around.

There was no other way to put it: she was lost.

She was in the middle of a forest, in the middle of the night, in a country that was perhaps the most dangerous in the world for her to be in. She was injured. She had no wand and no port key.

And she was on her own.

Damn.

Things really had gone wrong, hadn't they?

Perhaps, had she known, she might have been able to take comfort in the fact that one of the killing curses she had shot at random before she fled had actually struck Mulciber right between the eyes, so at least that part of the mission had been successful.

But she didn't know that. And there was no one left alive who could tell her so.

A/N: So how was that? Did you like it? I will be going into more detail about things soon, so if something doesn't make sense, it'll probably be explained. Let me know though and I'll go my best to make sure to include it. However, I will note here and now that the whole ICW not getting involved in the war thing is basically how I see the organisation in the canon, after all there was no mention of any real international help in either of the wars with Voldemort, despite Dumbledore being the head of the ICW (alright Fleur helped out, and so did Madam Maxime, a bit, but beyond that…) I really think that they, like the Ministry of Magic of Britain ignored the situation for as long as they could, even to the point of it being beyond justifying.