A/N: Here's the next chapter, in which those from the Americas arrive.

A Darkened World

Possible Allies and Discord

Rose was seated at the table within the tent, absentmindedly leafing through the pages of a book without paying any attention to them.

It had been three days since Harry had had the vision of Voldemort's defeat in Germany, and the subsequent retreat that they had witnessed, which had confirmed the vision as being real.

Since then, a slow yet steady stream of Death Eaters, Dementors and Dark Creatures had been arriving slightly beyond the ward line of Hogwarts Castle before making their way up to the building on foot. On average, a new group would arrive every two hours or so. It seemed likely that all of Voldemort's forces stationed in Britain had returned to the castle within the first twenty four hours, as the groups arriving then had been the largest. More recently the groups arriving had been much smaller, suggesting that they instead were units from other countries who had remained hidden in order to sabotage and/or infiltrate their enemies' ranks from behind.

Harry was currently outside of the tent, keeping an eye out for the next group to arrive, which according to the timetable they had calculated, should have turned up a quarter of an hour before.

Just as she was beginning to wonder if perhaps the last of Voldemort's followers had arrived and that no more were coming, Rose's attention was pulled towards Harry as he entered the tent.

"They're here."

Rose stood up and followed Harry back outside the tent.

Standing at the very edge of the area protected by their enchantments, Harry and Rose were able to watch as several small groups of Dark Wizards popped into existence about twenty yards from the ward line that surrounded Hogwarts. They had apparated and, a couple of moments later a dozen creatures arrived by portkey. All in all there were around fifty or so witches and wizards, four Mountain Trolls and eight Werewolves in their transformed state (Voldemort had long ago figured out a way to trap his Werewolves in their beast form).

"This group is bigger than the last one." Rose observed with an uneasy tone of voice.

Harry made no comment in reply, and when she took a glancing look at him, Rose saw that he had a stony expression upon his face; emotionless and almost unfeeling.

The first spell caught Harry and Rose by surprise. It caught the Death Eaters by surprise as well, and it cut in half the man who appeared to be their leader. Before the Death Eaters could rally themselves to return fire, spells were suddenly being fired upon them from all directions. Whoever it was that was firing the spells, they were either invisible, well concealed or both. And the spells were not simply to stun either; piercing spells, blasting curses, reductor curses, entrails-expelling curses, severing charms and yes, even killing curses. Whoever it was that was attacking had no intention of leaving any of the dark group alive. But the Death Eaters did manage to begin returning fire, and several of their spells hit targets with lethal results. As one of the Trolls went down three of the Werewolves sprang towards one of the sources of spell-fire. One of them was cut down but the other two managed to pounce upon their hidden target. As they wrestled the victim to the ground, a severing charm carved clean through the spine of one of the beasts, but the other managed to tear his victim's throat out in his jaws before being drought down.

Only when the last Death Eater dropped to the ground, blood pouring from a deep and deadly wound on his neck did their attackers reveal themselves. They had used disillusionment charms to disguise themselves and then used the nearby rocks and sparse vegetation around them for extra cover.

Rose's eyes lit up at the sight of them. She turned to Harry.

"Harry, we've got help! Those are Aurors from the United States and Canada. Come on, we've got to go to them."

Just as she was turning to walk through the ward line they had set up around the tent, Harry reached out and grabbed her arm to pull her back.

"Not so fast." he said "Those Aurors have just been involved in a lethal battle, a battle in which they suffered severe casualties. Now, given those circumstances, what do you think their first reaction would be if you suddenly appeared out of nowhere and headed towards them?"

Rose winced. Chastised she asked "What do we do then?"

Harry turned his eyes back on the group of wizards and witches below who were currently vanishing the bodies of their enemies and gathering up their injured and dead.

"That many Aurors in one place at one time, this ambush wasn't a reconnaissance mission turned violent. They must have moved their camp somewhere nearby. If we can find that then we might be able to approach them there. We'd probably be arrested by guards at the perimeter, but it's better than getting killed here."

"How do we locate their camp?" Rose asked.

Before Harry could answer, the pair received another surprise. The protective enchantments that Harry had placed around the tent were usually invisible. For a brief moment they turned a bright blue before becoming orange and breaking apart to nothing.

The two of them spun around and found seven US Aurors standing a little further up the slope, each with their wands aimed at Harry and Rose.

The Auror in the centre of the line addressed them "Put any and all weapons on the floor, place your hands on your heads and make no sudden moves."

Taking her knife and her wand out of her pockets, Rose distinctly heard Harry mutter the word "Bugger." under his breath as he mirrored her actions.

With blindfolds covering their eyes and their hands securely bound behind their backs, Harry and Rose were marched blindly along amongst the ranks of the US and Canadian Aurors.

Completely disorientated, Rose had to wonder just what would happen now. Initially she had been delighted by the sight of the North American wizards and witches, but now she was beginning to think that that happiness was woefully misguided.

At least she and Harry weren't dead.

After what felt like a good half-hour's worth of marching, Harry and Rose were both pulled to a stop.

"And what have we got here?" asked a male voice.

"Two unknowns." answered a second voice, female this time, from off to Rose's left "They were hiding behind protective enchantments slightly above the point where we set our ambush. We figured the boss would want a few words with them before we decide what to do with them."

"He's in a consultation with our Minister and the ones from Canada and Mexico right now. Shove them into one of the prisoner tents for now."

"Yes, sir. Come on you two."

Still blindfolded, Rose found herself being jostled forwards again, presumably to await questioning. At least they were going to get a chance to plead their case. Hopefully things would be easily sorted out once she gave over her details; details that would confirm her identity as someone involved in the war effort; they were bound to have some kind of record of who she was seeing as her last mission has seen her working alongside three Americans and a Canadian. And with any luck they would quickly recognise Harry for who he was and they'd all be able to start working on a plan to locate the Horcruxes within that were still hidden within the ancient walls of Hogwarts Castle.

Although she didn't see the tent, she knew when they dragged her inside of one. She was shoved unceremoniously into a seat, and she heard Harry being pushed into another nearby. She gasped slightly when she felt cold metal chains wrapping themselves around her, securing her to the chair.

"Harry?" she half called, half asked.

"Quiet." spoke another voice before Harry could answer.

Rose chose to not speak again.

After what seemed like a good few hours, the blindfold was pulled away from Rose's eyes and the off her head completely.

She looked around with a bleary gaze and blinked a few times. The world came into focus and she turned to look at Harry just in time to see the blindfold being pulled off of his head.

She noticed that they did not give his glasses back to him.

Around the room at least two dozen US and Canadian Aurors were standing guard as a man took a seat before them. Rose noticed that he had an image of the flag of the United States of America sewn into the sleeve of his robes, just below shoulder level. Below that was the symbol for the International Confederation of Wizards.

He was a man in his late fifties with white hair that was rather short in length and a thick white moustache.

Without preamble, or even extending the common courtesy of introducing himself, he demanded "Who are you?"

Deciding to ignore the unpleasant look on his face, Rose answered "Rose Weasley. I am an agent of the Australian Ministry of Magic."

The man raised one eyebrow at her and asked "Identification number?"

"1037122." Rose replied.

The man gestured to one of the Aurors standing guard and the man came forward. With a flick of his wand a file appeared on the interrogators lap. Rose noticed that it was labelled with the "Australian Ministerial Personnel; Numbers 1037000 – 1038000."

The interrogator rifled through the folder until he found what he was looking for. Removing a piece of parchment from the file, he then shoved said file towards the Auror who took it from him. The man then scanned the parchment intently. Rose knew he was trying to discover any discrepancies.

"Says here that you are listed as "Missing in action, presumed dead.""

Rose nodded and admitted "Yes, that raid did not go as well as was planned."

The man nodded "I knew your group's leader. He was a good man."

He turned back to the parchment in his hand. After a few moments he said "Well, you appear to match the description provided, including your identification photograph. Though your wand, as listed here, should be Ooline wood with the ground up antler of a Gunni for its core. However the one we found on you was of Oak wood with a Dragon heartstring for its core."

"Yes," said Rose "I lost my wand in the fight that saw me separated from my group. I took that wand from a Death Eater at a later date, and found it to be an adequate, though far from perfect match for me."

The interrogator nodded "Just one last thing to verify who you are…" he drew a wand and fired a quick spell at her. Rose's whole body took on a yellow glow for a moment before the spell left her body and shot towards the piece of parchment in their interrogator's hand.

When the parchment took on a blue glow, the man smiled and stood. He gestured to a pair of Aurors, who undid the chains securing her to her chair. As she got to her feet, her man held out a hand and said "Good to have you back, Miss Weasley. Always brightens the day to find a missing person alive and well."

Rose gladly shook the man's hand, relieved to be back amongst friendly ranks. She was handed her knife and her stolen wand.

The interrogator then turned his attention to Harry "And just who might you be?"

Rose had rather hoped that Harry would be recognised for who he was, but now that she looked at him, with his glasses missing, his hair long and land and his face unshaven, he looked very much unlike what Harry Potter should look like.

He also looked thoroughly disgruntled, and when he spoke he very much sounded it.

"Might I possibly have my glasses back so I can at least see who it is I am talking to?"

The interrogator nodded to one of the Aurors who took Harry's glasses from his pocket and put them on Harry's face. That one of the lenses was cracked did nothing to improve Harry's mood. No attempt to repair the lens was made, however, as when the Auror had pushed the pair of glasses onto Harry's face, he had moved some of Harry's long hair away from his eyes and in doing so the Auror had also uncovered the trademark lightning bolt shaped scar that resided on Harry's forehead.

The Auror sprang back as though electrocuted "Merlin's beard! Harry Potter."

Rose would have been delighted with the man's recognition of Harry, as it should have meant getting the situation cleared up a lot sooner. However the man's tone of voice, the apparent fear that it contained was certainly cause for concern. That every other Auror in the room had drawn his or her wand and now had it aimed on Harry was also troubling.

The Wizard who had questioned Rose moved forward and reached for Harry's forehead. He hooked a finger through Harry's unwashed locks and moved them away to reveal the scar for himself to see.

With a frown he stepped back and announced "Harry Potter, you are hereby under arrest on suspicion of aiding in the murder of former Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Albus Dumbledore."

"What?" Rose half asked, half demanded, unable to keep an indignant squeak out of her voice "That's preposterous."

Harry's eyes, meanwhile, only narrowed further "You mean that you actually believe the propaganda espoused by Voldemort and his followers? Well, it's no wonder it has taken you people twenty years to get here."

That, clearly, was the wrong thing to have said. Before she could protest, Rose found herself escorted from the tent and the interrogation of Harry Potter began in earnest.

Two whole days had passed, and Rose had seen neither hide nor hair of Harry. She presumed that he was still being kept in the same tent, but couldn't say for sure. He could have been moved to another area when she was taken to gather everything up at their campsite. People seemed to be going out of their way to make her feel welcome, but for some reason or other, the fact that Harry was still being held prisoner was not doing much to ease her discomfort.

From conversations that she had overheard, she knew that Harry was steadfastly refusing to answer any questions. Rose wondered what questions they were asking him; she had a feeling that further accusations of him being involved in the murder of Albus Dumbledore would do nothing to persuade him to talk with them; about that subject or any other.

In the time that she had been within the camp, she had learnt that following the fight they saw, two more groups of Voldemort's followers had arrived at that same point, and each time another fight had ensued. Since then, however, none of Voldemort's followers came via that route. Given that all other routes into the castle were now being watched as well, it was being assumed that Voldemort now had all his surviving forces with him inside the castle's stone walls.

The door to the small tent that Rose had been staying in was opened and a Canadian Auror asked her to accompany him.

"Where?" she asked.

"Your friend is being interrogated again, Miss." replied the Auror "It's hoped that he might talk to you."

Rose allowed herself to be left across the camp ground to the same tent in which she had been questioned upon her arrival. The Auror did not enter; instead he merely pulled the entrance to the tent open and beckoned her inside.

Inside the tent, Rose found the walls to be lined with Aurors from the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and a few other countries. Along the back wall were a few of the higher ranking Aurors from each country, including the one who had interrogated Rose herself. She had since learned that his name was Samuel J. Stevenson. With the higher ranking Aurors were several other people. Rose recognised one as the US Minister for Magic, and next to him stood the Canadian Minister. This led her to assume that the rest were the Ministers from the other countries, and a few other important officials.

In the centre of the room, still chained to his chair was Harry. He looked even grubbier than before, and looked thinner somehow, and more tired. Rose guessed that they were hoping that a combination of hunger and sleep deprivation would break him.

There was a seat situated opposite Harry. No one told her to take that seat, but Rose correctly guessed that that was where they wanted her. As she sat, she noted with disappointment that the right lens of his glasses still hadn't been mended. Her view of his right eye might have been skewered, but looking into the left one told her that the hunger and lack of sleep were not producing the results the people around her were hoping for. That did not surprise her in the slightest. She knew enough about Harry now to know that the past two decades of his life had been one long exercise in sleep deprivation and starvation. Hell, he was probably used to such things long before his long-winded camping trip.

In the back of her mind, Rose wondered just what the governments and security personnel of the muggle sides of the countries represented around her would make of the actions of their magical counterparts.

She rather hoped that they would not approve of Harry's treatment

Coming to the sudden realisation that she had been doing nothing by stare at Harry for a good few minutes, Rose shook off her thoughts and addressed her friend.

"So Harry, care to tell me why you aren't talking to these nice men and women?"

Harry said nothing in response; he just narrowed his eyes at her.

An uncomfortable shiver ran down her spine at that look. It was almost as if he hated her.

Deciding to ignore it Rose pressed on "Harry? Talk to me. Why aren't you answering their questions?"

Finally Harry opened his mouth and spoke a reply.

"I have yet to hear a question worth dignifying by responding to it."

"Okay," said Rose shifting uncomfortably in her seat "And why do you think that their questions aren't worth answering?"

"Because the very fact that they are asking them proves that they believe Voldemort's lies. They're no better than everyone else."

Deciding to see if a playful approach might break through Harry's angry exterior, she said sweetly "I hope that you are not including me that "everyone else" remark."

It didn't work. In fact Harry seemed to become even angrier.

"You are especially included in that remark." he retorted, a tone of pure venom in his voice.

Just as she was wondering what she could possibly have done to warrant such a thing, Stevenson and an Auror stepped forward, the Auror carrying what appeared to be a box with a cloth draped over it.

"Miss Weasley," said Stevenson "Your friend here is being most uncooperative, but we would hoping that you would tell us just what these are."

With that he pulled the cloth away, revealing the box beneath. Rose's heart skipped a beat, and suddenly she knew what she had done.

Or at least appeared to have done in Harry's eyes.

The box was opened to reveal the locket of Salazar Slytherin and the cup of Helga Hufflepuff contained within.

Rose opened her mouth to try and say something, anything in reply, but no words came to her.

Obviously one of the Aurors who had accompanied her to the tent must have found them and hidden them before she could notice.

Shut inside this tent, however, it looked to Harry as though Rose had handed the Horcruxes over. And thanks in no small part to their more than slight hold over him, in his eyes, she had betrayed him.

Just like her mother and father before her.

After five minutes of her saying nothing, Stevenson order for her to be escorted from the tent. As she was leaving, Rose heard him say "These are dark artefacts Mr Potter and you are wanted for the death of a great wizard. We will get answers from you, one way or another. We have veritaserum brewing as we speak, but first we'll see what a little solitary confinement will do for you."

Rose could have told them that Harry Potter was very much used to being alone, but decided to save her breath. If she said anything and they then decided on using something worse to get information from Harry, then that would only make things worse between her and Harry.

The Ministries and their Aurors wanted answers out of Harry, answers to questions that to be honest were not all that unreasonable. The problem was that Harry had a stubborn side, a side not at all eased by the influence of the Horcruxes had on him. By trying to force answers out of him, just like the British Ministry of Magic before them, the Wizards wanting answers were just making the situation worse.

And now Harry thought that Rose had betrayed him.

She entered her tent, sank down onto the bed, buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

She had hoped that finding allies would help ease their problems, but everything now seemed to be conspiring to make their problems much worse.

She now hoped that, should the Australian forces ever arrive, that her mother would be amongst the healers that they brought with them. She so desperately wanted to put everything right, but had no idea how to do so. A talk with her mother had always helped sort out major problems in the past, and she would give anything just to be able to have one of those talks now.

Little did she know that at that very moment the Australian Aurors were leaving Germany to join those in Britain. Unfortunately, however, she would find no help there.

The rumours of Harry's involvement in the death of Albus Dumbledore had begun long before the rest of the world had truly realised that Voldemort had taken over in Britain. As far as they were aware, Harry really was implicated in Dumbledore's murder. The fact that he had been missing for twenty years compounded the matter further.

Harry truly was a suspect, and until Rose or anyone else could prove otherwise, once and for all, then the future was not looking good.

A/N: Now before anyone bites my head off with regards to this portrayal of wizards from the Americas, I would just like to point out that the belief that Harry might have been the one to kill Dumbledore is a global view; people in Australia believe it (as hinted at near the end of the chapter), people in China believe it, people in India believe it, people in Russia, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, those who survived Voldemort's takeover of Europe, they all believe it. It just so happens that the Americans were the first ones to find Harry and be able to question him about it, but not in a way that will get answers from a stubborn, Horcrux addled Harry. Also I hasten to point out that this chapter clearly distinguishes that these Americans are Wizards! Not Muggles! So please, no rants a la Chapter Nineteen of "Forgotten Brother."

Oh, and for those of you wondering, "Ooline" is a common name for Cadellia pentastylis, a tree native to Australia (where Rose grew up in this story) and a Gunni is a cryptid creature from Australia, most likely a hoax, that is said to be a Wombat with antlers, much like how a Jackalope is meant to be a rabbit with antlers.