A/N: Sorry for the delay, work has been a bit hectic lately. Most weekdays I'm working three or four hours' overtime, as well as most Saturday mornings. I fully welcome the opportunity to earn a bit more money, as chances to do so have been rare at work in the past five years. However, as you can probably imagine, with this extra work other things had to be pushed aside. This included writing new updates. I did manage to plan a bit more of this and other stories however, and the extra work seems to be coming to an end, so updating should be a little more frequent from now on.

Darkened World

Darkness' Hold

The water from the stream was cold, causing Rose to shiver after she gathered some up in her hands and splashed it onto her face. This helped wake her up a bit.

Undeterred by Harry's twenty plus years of finding nothing useful in his collection of reference books, Rose had been pouring over them all, page after page, paragraph after paragraph in a determined attempt to find something, anything that might help Harry to complete the task that he set out to do over two decades ago.

It had now been three weeks. Three long weeks of doing nothing but reading and researching, trying to find some small clue or a tiny detail that might just help them out.

Whenever Harry saw her reading like this, he said nothing. Instead he would just shake his head apathetically and leave her to it. In twenty years he had found nothing, and much to Rose's chagrin it was slowly looking more and more like he was right; there was nothing in the books that was of use to them in their current situation.

Not that Rose hadn't found anything that she had thought might be useful. She had found several spells that she was unfamiliar with, but Harry was already well practiced in the use of them. Not that they were of any use to her as she didn't have a wand anymore.

She had read and was able to confirm what Harry had already told her; the best ways of destroying Horcruxes were the killing curse, basilisk venom and fiend fire, the incantation of which was nowhere to be found; there was only a dire warning about the use of the spell by unpractised individuals.

She could see why Harry avoided using that spell.

The most interesting things that she had discovered had resulted in an interesting talk with Harry. In one of the books, she found mention of the "Founders' Artefacts" and their powers. The Sword of Gryffindor could increase the wielder's confidence. The Diadem of Ravenclaw could increase the wearer's wisdom. The Locket of Slytherin could increase the wearer's cunning. The Cup of Hufflepuff could negate the effects of any poison placed within it, and increase the power of any healing potion that was drank from it. And the Sorting Hat, if it were inclined to do so, could clear the mind of the wearer, allowing them to think without clouded judgement.

According to the book, should one person ever possess all five artefacts themselves all at once, the possessor would gain, not only the powers mentioned as belonging to each individually, but also something much, much more. What that something was, was not made clear by the book. However the logical answer would be that all five items were meant to be in the possession of the current headmaster of Hogwarts School, so as to enable that person to run the school appropriately.

Unfortunately, only the Sorting Hat and the Sword had remained at Hogwarts throughout the centuries, and they were seldom used for their true purpose.

When Salazar Slytherin left Hogwarts following his feud with Godric Gryffindor, he had taken the locket with him, leaving it as an heirloom to his descendants. Helena Ravenclaw, in a fit of anger, had stolen and hidden her mother Rowena's diadem, resulting in it being lost for centuries. And the cup of Helga Hufflepuff… well, it was not clear what had happened there, but it was possible that a descendant of hers (though one probably not holding the same moral values as her) had seen fit to steal what their saw as their rightful family heirloom.

And all three of the artefacts that had been taken from Hogwarts Castle had long since been tracked down by Lord Voldemort and turned into Horcruxes.

When Rose had pointed this information out to Harry, he had dismissed it. He, quite rightly, pointed out that they had no way to access the Diadem, the Sword or the Hat, nor did they have any way of knowing if the three items were still within Hogwarts. For all they knew the Diadem had been relocated elsewhere, and Voldemort could have destroyed both the Sword and the Hat because of what they represented. He then pointed out that the two founders' artefacts that they did have in their possession were now corrupt. The locket now sewed doubt and misery rather than cunning, whereas no one in their right mind should drink anything coming from the cup.

However, Rose had still pressed the idea further, but had been cut off by Harry. Quite forcefully, as a matter of fact.

"Just ignore the idea." he had said "Put it out of your head. If you don't you'll become obsessed with it, like I was with the Deathly Hallows."

Rose had read several mentions of the Deathly Hallows, but nothing too specific (she hadn't bothered reading "The Tales of Beadle the Bard" as it was just a children's book). She pressed Harry on the subject, and he relented, going on to reveal that such things really did exist, and that he had come to the conclusion that the Invisibility Cloak he owned was most likely one of the Hallows.

Rose had been overjoyed to hear this, but Harry again told her to forget about it. He revealed that locating the Hallows had been a three-year obsession for him, before realising that the wand that Voldemort had stolen from Dumbledore's tomb had, in fact, been the Elder Wand.

"So you've got one, he's got one, and the third is missing?" Rose had asked.

Harry had nodded in reply before turning away.

It was at that point that the true reality of the situation had hit Rose. She had acknowledged that this Harry was a little different to the one her mother used to tell her about. For the first time she saw clearly that this Harry was one that had had the bravery, nobleness and loyalty drained from him by a combination of hurt, betrayal, torment, abandonment and two decades worth of loneliness.

This was a Harry who had largely given up.

She wanted very much to change that, but it was now four days since that conversation, and she still had no ideas as to how to go about it.

He was obviously well aware of the current regime at Hogwarts, so going there to see the place he had once thought of as home now under Voldemort's control was not going to do it.

The only real thought that she had had on the subject had been to get Harry to Godric's Hollow, to see the graves of his parents. Her mother had said that Harry had always wanted to do that, and Rose didn't know if he had ever done so.

Perhaps being reminded of his parents' sacrifice would put a little bit of fight back into him.

Mind made up, Rose used her sleeve to dry her face before standing up and leaving the bank of the stream, heading for the tent.

Harry's nightmares were as prevalent as ever, but Rose had not seen him conversing with the Locket again. This gave her hope that her presence was at least somewhat helpful to Harry. She decided that he must trust her, for he had seen fit to give her knife back to her, apologising for keeping it from her, but saying it was necessary for him to be able to trust her first.

Outside the tent, a strange sound made her pause. It was a hissing sound.

'Oh no!' she thought, worriedly 'He wouldn't. Not again! Oh please don't let him have-'

She pushed her way through the opening at the front of the tent, and froze at the sight that met her.

The armchair was on its back. The wooden box hidden beneath it was open. The cup lay on the floor, and the locket sat in Harry's hand, its chain around his neck.

Harry was conversing with it in Parseltongue.

Without any other thought than to get Harry away from the locket's influence, Rose lunged at him and knocked him to the floor with her landing on top of him. One of her hands clasped around his hand that held the locket as she began to yank desperately on the chain with her other hand, trying desperately to break it.

Harry, however, fought back. Rose quickly found herself flat on her back with Harry's hand clenched tightly upon her throat.

She looked into his eyes and was horrified to see a deep and intense madness there.

"You will not have it." Harry snarled in such a way that it was almost like he was speaking parseltongue again.

Rose still had fight in her, though, and determination. She managed to bring her knee up and drive it as hard as she could into Harry's side, knocking the wind out of him. Another blow caused him to loosen his grip on her throat and roll off of her, winded.

Gasping for breath, Rose seized her chance and lunged for Harry again, she drew her knife and held it to his throat. When he saw it he went very still. Quickly she wrenched the golden chain of the locket from around his neck. Almost immediately she felt its corrosive influence begin to penetrate her mind, but out of instinct she threw it as hard as she could.

The locket soared through the air and landed with a soft thwump onto the spare bed that had once been used by her father, Ron.

The two of them then remained like that for several long minutes, both staring at each other as they fought for breath, Rose still holding her knife to Harry's throat.

Finally she lowered her weapon, though she did not put it away.

"What were you thinking Harry?" she asked, her voice almost pleading with him "Why do you talk to it? You know it's dangerous. You must do."

Somewhat reluctantly, Harry got into a sitting position.

"I know." he said, clearly frustrated "But I've been fighting it for so long."

"Why do it in the fight place?" asked Rose.

"It's been all the company I've had for twenty years. I needed some comfort from the torment and the locket provided that, or at least it seemed to."

"Well, I'm here now." said Rose, a comforting tone in her voice now "So how about we forget the locket, and you talk with me instead?"

Harry said nothing for several long moments, making Rose think he wasn't going to take her up on her offer.

Then he began.

"Do you know why the Battle of Hogwarts started, Rose?"

Rose shook her head.

"It began because two Death Eaters that Voldemort had placed amongst the staff pushed the students too far. Amycus and Alecto Carrow were officially at Hogwarts to teach a bastardised version of Muggle Studies, and the Dark Arts. They were also there to "discipline" the students. Of course, in this case "discipline" meant torture. They did it to as many students as possible, and as frequently as possible, often times just for the hell of it. They forced the older students to punish the younger ones with whips or the Cruciatus curse. Of course, a good number of the Slytherin students did not need encouraging.

"Other students refused to follow the Carrows' orders. They were punished the worst. One day, Seamus Finnigan was caught giving a first-year Hufflepuff a potion that would help heal the gouges on her back. The Carrows decided to make an example of him right in the middle of the Great Hall at dinner.

"They both the torture curse on him, one after the other, and then together. Then the older Slytherins were given the chance to join in. Eventually Seamus managed to lash out, breaking Draco Malfoy's nose with his fist.

"Amycus Carrow killed him for that. Used a dark cutting spell that sliced him clean in two.

"Then all hell broke loose. Like cowards the staff of Hogwarts had remained seated and silent throughout the whole thing, fearing for their own lives when they outnumbered the Carrows by at least ten to one.

"But now the Carrows had committed murder, and were likely to do more. So the staff took action, finally. Amycus' back erupted in an explosion of gore, courtesy of a spell of Minerva McGonagall. Alecto was harder to bring down, but the rest of the staff joined in, and so did the older students. Within seconds Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and at least another dozen Slytherins were dead. Snape, the headmaster, and another Death Eater had jumped, grabbed Malfoy by the arm and made his exit, followed by a flurry of spells as Alecto's head was separated from the rest of the body by Flitwick.

"I don't know whether it was Snape who raised the alarm, or if Alecto did so before dying, but within an hour Voldemort brought his full force to Hogwarts and delivered his crushing blow. Voldemort killed McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn personally. Bellatrix Lestrange killed Nymphadora Tonks, Hestia Jones and Poppy Pomfrey before finishing off the last two Longbottoms; Neville and his Grandmother. Dolohov got Kingsley Shacklebolt, Elphias Doge and more than a few students. Snape came back and killed Remus Lupin. Draco was with him and got Michael Corner and Ernie Macmillan. It was a bloodbath. So many faces I knew were soon lying dead or dying in the wake of Voldemort making his hold over the British Wizarding World total.

"They were killed by people who should have been given the Dementor's Kiss, or people whom Dumbledore insisted we trust, right until his dying breath.

"The Ministry folded like a napkin, and Hogwarts fell in a bloodbath."

"From then on there was nothing stopping the Death Eaters' rule. They went out and obliterated the muggle portions of society. They were apparate in scattered groups right into bustling crowds on busy streets, let loose flames controlled by dark magic and then disapparated. They could do this almost in the blink of an eye, as they did not need to aim their spell, just fire it. Thousands of people were burnt alive this way. With the flames being enchanted, there was nothing that the firemen and their water could do to stop the spread.

"Entire towns and cities were burnt to the ground within the first few hours following Voldemort's recovery from what I did to him after his victory at Hogwarts.

"They even managed to disable the muggle military in this way. Get in, set fire to the place and get out before a soldier could even think to raise his gun."

Rose frowned and said "I thought that after you drove him from your mind that time that Voldemort never tried to torture you by showing you these things."

Harry shook his head "He never did it purposefully. And I hardly ever saw it happening while it was going on. I see it at night."

"The fire spell you mentioned" said Rose "was it fiend-fire?"

"No. I think it's related, but there were never any serpents or chimeras formed out of flame. It's just a wave-like blast of flames that consumes everything in its path."

"Would it work on the Horcruxes, like fiend fire does?"

Again Harry shook his head "I tried. When Liverpool was burning, I apparated ahead of the flames and set the locket down. Then I apparated out, gave the flames half an hour in which to pass, and then went back. The ground and everything around it was blackened from the flames, but the locket was just sitting there, all shiny and gold. If anything it looked as though the flames had cleaned it, probably burnt all the dirt and grime off of it. It was still in one piece, it hadn't melted, and the piece of Voldemort's soul still resided within it. I think fiend fire can destroy a Horcrux because the spell is literally the caster calling forth flames from hell itself. The spell the Death Eaters were using was enchanted, it was highly destructive, but it was not hell fire."

Silence filled the air after Harry finished talking. He seemed to have run out of things to say, and Rose could not think of any comforting words for him.

"Do you know the worst thing I've seen is?" Harry asked after a while, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"The murder of my own parents, as seen from Voldemort's point of view."

Rose felt sick at those words. If Harry was seeing his parents' murders from Voldemort's perspective, then surely that meant that it would appear…

Harry broke down, sobs wracking his body and tears leaking from his eyes.

Those visions of his parents' murders would make it seem like Harry was the one killing them.

Rose got up, moved over to Harry and wrapped him in a hug, not unlike the one her mother once gave him, shortly after Sirius' death.

Finally after a good few long minutes, Rose pulled back and said "Harry, would it make you feel better if we went to Godric's Hollow to see your parents' graves?"

Harry shrugged in reply.

"Have you ever been there before?" she asked.

"Once. A long time ago."

"Do you want to go again?"

It took a moment, but finally Harry gave a nod, before adding "We'd better go under the invisibility cloak, though."

"Go and get it then." said Rose, and Harry stood and went in search of it.

Rose knew that going to Godric's Hollow meant that they were risking being seen, but they could always apparate out quickly. With those visions of his parents' deaths in his mind, what Harry needed more than anything was to make his peace with them. That had to be achieved before any progress could be made in getting Harry back on track.

Harry returned with the cloak and they left the tent. Beyond the protective charms that surrounded the tent, Harry threw the cloak over the both of them, took Rose by the hand and disapparated.

Rose knew that this had been a bad idea the moment that they arrived in the historically important little village.

Or at least, what was left of it.

Godric's Hollow had changed a lot in the twenty years since Harry had last come here to see his parents' graves for the first time. Most of it had been destroyed.

Of course it had. This was where Voldemort had met his first downfall. Why would he leave it standing?

Houses and the village church had been reduced to rubble. Skeletons of the murdered victims of the Death Eaters littered the ground, lying where they fell.

Nothing of Harry's parents' old house now remained, and the memorial statue dedicated to the Potter family now lay in broken pieces.

There did not seem to be anyone about, but Rose spoke in a whisper anyway "Harry, this was a bad idea. We should leave."

But Harry shook his head "No. We're here now."

He continued on towards the graveyard, and Rose was left with no choice but to hurry along with him, or lose what little protection the invisibility cloak offered her.

The graveyard seemed to be mostly intact. Apparently the Death Eaters saw no point in destroying every tomb stone. Some, however, had been broken apart. Rose noticed the family name of "Abbott" on one of the broken pieces. Another bore the name "Bones", another "Prewitt" and another "McKinnon", all families that had stood against Voldemort and his followers.

The Potter graves were different. They weren't merely damaged, they were desecrated.

The words "Mudblood Whore" were painted in red on a large piece of wood that had been driven into the grave. The piece of wood looked like it might have once been a part of a front door. The word "Scum" was carved into one of the larger pieces of headstone that remained, and the ground bore deep, black gouge marks that made Rose think that someone must have struck the ground repeatedly with a fire-whip.

Harry sank to his knees at the foot of the grave, and it took Rose a moment to notice that he was no longer covered by the cloak. She reached out with a hand to pull him back under, but suddenly her hand was grabbed in a vice-like grip.

The cloak was ripped off of her and two wand-tips dug themselves painfully into her throat.

"Stand up and drop you wand, Harry Potter, and we might let the mudblood live a little longer." said a female voice from Rose's left side. The voice sounded sadistic, but also held tones of extreme arrogance.

Slowly Harry stood to his feet, his wand dropping from his hand as he did so.

Rose could see another dozen Death Eaters coming out of the shadows of the graveyard ahead of him.

Harry turned around and faced the owner of the voice.

"Bellatrix." he said by way of acknowledgement.

A/N: Again, sorry for the long wait, I hope this was worth it. As far a back story goes, I think there's only one more large dose to come, and that will be in the next chapter, after that the plot speeds up a bit.

I hope I've done a reasonable job of explaining what happened to the muggles. I get quite frequent reviews extolling the virtures of guns, and the suppossed superiority of the bullet over a spell. These people seem to forget that the Death Eater's would not care who was killed and would destroy quickly before getting out again (as shown at the start of film 6). What can bullets do against rapidly spreading flames that cannot be put out except by magic? A series of quick, simultaneous attacks, especially on military bases, would quickly cripple the muggles, and can be easily done by people who can appear, cast their highly destructive spell and then disappear again within two seconds. Most pure-bloods are ignorant, but Voldemort is not dumb; I am fairly certain the he is well aware of what muggles can do.

Also, please don't hate Rose for this last idea. It has backfired, but she was right; Harry needed to get some fight back into him, and this was all she could think of.