A/N: Some people completely ignored the note at the end of the last chapter. I really want to have a go at them, as they hid behind guest reviews, but I can't be arsed to make the same points that I have made in other my other story. I doubt that these people would have uttered a peep had Australia been the first people Harry and Rose encountered.

Anyway, on with the story, in which a familiar face returns…

A Darkened World

A Friendly Face

Rose lay stretched out on the camp bed in the tent that had been graciously given to her. It was now five days since she and Harry had arrived in the camp. Harry was still being held prisoner, or at least he was as far as Rose knew; she had seen neither hide nor hair of him for three days. A few hours after she had last left the tent in which Harry was being held, Aurors from Australia, along with representatives from their Ministry, including the Australian Minister of Magic had arrived en masse at the edge of the camp and, after the necessary checks were made, they had moved to integrate.

What with her being an Australian citizen, Rose, naturally, was taken to a meeting with the Australian Minister and a few other higher ups from the Ministry of her country of birth.

Flashback

Rose entered the tent and was greeted by the smiling face of Joseph Fraser, the Minister for Magic of Australia.

"Miss Weasley," he exclaimed upon her entrance "Wonderful to see you again, simply wonderful."

Rose was confused by a part of that statement; "wonderful to see you again?" when the hell had he ever seen her? She certainly could not remember ever meeting him in person before now. Deciding that to he probably meant "wonderful to find that you are alive" Rose gave a smile, a nod and said "Thank you."

She was then led over to a seat and then questioned extensively. She was asked to tell the tale of her escape from the scene of the botched raid on the prison, how she had met Harry and what they had been doing since. Rose had felt a lot more comfortable talking with these people than with any of the Americans, be they from the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina or any other country. The accents she was hearing now were familiar, along with the expressions, and the body postures, everything was far more familiar than her previous interrogators.

In fact she felt comfortable enough to discuss their capture by Death Eaters and their subsequent escape from and destruction of the British Ministry building. The story was treated as greatly welcomed news;

"Even when officially classed as a missing person, you still perform your assigned tasks well." Fraser had complimented her.

Rose smiled at that, but could not take all the credit "Well, Harry was actually the one who did the most. He engineered our escape; I was more of a second wand."

At that Fraser's face had taken on a more grim tone "Yes, well seeing as we are on the subject of young Mr Potter…"

Rose grimaced; she should have seen this coming.

The Australian Minister continued "He is being most uncooperative. He simply refuses answer any and all questions asked of him."

"Perhaps you should ask questions that he doesn't mind answering." replied Rose "Arresting him based upon the propaganda that was put about by Lord Voldemort over twenty years ago when this war really began was just about the worst thing you could do in order to get some answers out of him. He is a stubborn person so trying to then force the issue will only make him dig his heels in more."

"And why would he go to such measures to keep his secrets if he has nothing to hide?"

"He has plenty to hide from those he thinks unworthy of trust. The worse you treat him, the less worthy of trust you become in his eyes." Rose was angry now, her fists were clenched in her lap, with her knuckles turning white "Harry Potter learned long ago to not trust figures in authority; they abuse it too much."

End Flashback

The meeting had ended soon after that, before the subject of the Horcruxes could be raised. No one had tried to question Rose since. No one had really spoken to Rose since, well… no one in authority, anyway.

Why couldn't these people just admit that they were wrong about the way that they were dealing with Harry? Surely they could see for themselves that the more they pushed him the more he dug his heels in. Was it too much to ask that they treat Harry in a civilised way? If they had just asked Harry to help them clarify the events surrounding Dumbledore's death and admitted that they had a hazy at best account of the events of that night, Harry would more than likely have cooperated fully in order to clear things up.

In fact, Rose knew he would have. Had they just let things be, had they just been civilised, had they just left those damn Horcruxes alone, then they would probably have had all their answers by now, plus a lot more information besides.

Hell, they could probably be planning how to get Harry into the castle by know, so that he could get to and destroy the final Horcruxes.

They might even have done it already.

The trouble was, people involved in government were too "big picture" and when that occurred, you tended to stop seeing people as individuals. To them, Harry was just another person being defiant, rather than as someone with genuine reasons for not trusting them. To them, their treatment of Harry was acceptable because "the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, or the one."

Too bad they could not see that disregarding Harry's needs was in fact being detrimental to the needs of the many.

Rose sighed and rolled over onto her side in her bed. This was not how this was supposed to go. Finding other people with the same goal of bringing down Lord Voldemort was supposed to signal the beginning of the end. Instead she found that things were getting rapidly worse, if not for her then most certainly for Harry.

Since her interview with the Australian Minister, people from Japan, China, New Zealand and many other countries had arrived. None of them had questioned her, and there did not seem to have been any protesting about Harry's current predicament.

Rose had wondered several times if she ought to just go over and tell them exactly what the Horcruxes were, but she hadn't done so yet. Mostly it was out of fear as to how they would react; if they found out that Harry had been living in close proximity to pieces of Lord Voldemort's soul for twenty years, they'd likely subject him to worse treatment as they tried to ascertain just how much damage the Horcruxes had done to him. She didn't like to admit it, but she often thought that Harry's mind had been damaged in some way by his prolonged exposure to the two Horcruxes; she dreaded what the results of a medical scan on Harry would be. Suppose they decided he was a risk? The magical world were not exactly known for taking good care of people with mental health issues; Harry would either be dumped into a hospital bed and confined there until his dying day, or, if he was deemed too much of a risk, they would probably just kill him in order to have done with it.

The simple fact was that Harry needed to talk, the leaders of the war against Voldemort would force him to talk if they had to, and Rose knew that forcing the issue would just make Harry's attitude worse.

What Rose needed was an ally; someone who knew Harry well enough to know how to talk to him.

What she needed, she thought, was her mother; though a version of her mother that hadn't turned her back on Harry twenty years ago.

Little did she know, help had just arrived on the edge of the camp.

The three newly arrived battalions of Indian Aurors were meeting with their superiors and a few similarly ranking officials from other countries, being appraised of the situation.

"…believe he has drawn all of his forces behind the castle walls" Samuel Stevenson, Head Auror of the US Wizarding Society was saying "and we have specially trained ward-breakers and curse-breakers working on bringing down the wards surrounding the castle as we speak. We killed the last few groups of Dark Wizards and Creatures to try and enter the castle. Unfortunately they were so hostile that we were unable to obtain any for questioning. We have, however, located and arrested Harry Potter for questioning regarding the death of Albus Dumbledore-"

He was cut off by an indignant shout of "What?"

This caught him completely off guard. So far no one had shown the slightest bit of annoyance at their arrest of Potter, in fact everyone seemed to approve. This Auror, apparently, did not.

"Auror, step forward." he ordered.

A woman stepped out of rank. She was in her late thirties, nearly forty in fact, and bore all the signs of having fought a long and hard war; clearly she was a veteran of many battles. He recognised her, but could not place a name… "something" Shah, he recalled.

"You object to our arrest of Harry Potter?" he asked her.

"I do." Shah replied "Harry Potter had nothing to do with the death of Albus Dumbledore. The killer was Severus Snape."

"What proof is there of that? It is well established by reports that-" he was interrupted by the Auror again.

"Those reports were nothing but propaganda put about by Voldemort's regime. It was the perfect was to turn people against Harry Potter."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I went to Hogwarts School. I was a student there the night that Dumbledore was killed. Half the school witnessed Snape fleeing the scene with half a dozen others. Harry confronted them outside the Gamekeeper's cabin. He attempted to stop them from leaving and nearly lost his life in the process."

It was the Canadian Head Auror who stepped forward to speak "Mr Potter is refusing to answer our questions. As you seem to know him, perhaps you could ask him a few things on our behalf."

The witch stared at him with a considering look for a long moment before giving a nod of her head "Alright, I will. Though it might take a while, depending on how ill-tempered he is."

Rose had just stepped outside of her tent in order to get some fresh air when a group of people walked by. More important, however, was the shiver that went down her spine as they passed her. She knew of only one thing that could cause a shiver like that, and that meant that those people had the Horcruxes, or at least one of them.

Rose watched as the group make their way over to the tent she assumed Harry was still inside. It seemed like they were going to attempt to question him again.

Interestingly only one person went inside this time; an Indian woman, who looked around forty. Rose got the distinct feeling that she had seen her face somewhere before.

Harry was starving, cold, uncomfortable and downright miserable, but he wasn't about to let that break him; he had been in worse situations before now.

It had been two days since his last interrogation, and figured that they were trying to let solitude wear him down, though again that was something he was used to.

He heard the tent flap open and someone come in, but he didn't look up. He supposed that they had found themselves incapable of waiting for answers any longer. Well they'd be disappointed.

"Well, well. Harry Potter; aren't you a sight for sore eyes? Or should that be, aren't you a sore sight?"

Harry started slightly. He knew that voice, though it was more like a very distant memory now. He raised his head to look up at the witch who now stood before him, and his mouth fell open in surprise "Padma?" he asked "Padma Patil?"

She smiled at him and said "Actually it's Shah now; Padma Shah." her face fell slightly "Or at least it was until my husband died about a year ago."

Harry had no idea what to say to that, other than "Sorry to hear that."

Padma gave a kind-of resigned shrug and said "I'm kind of used to death by now anyway."

She took a seat opposite him and said "So, Harry, how come you're refusing to answer the questions that your interrogators ask of you?"

Harry's eyes darkened "If you're here for them-"

Padma cut him off "Not so much. I am well aware that you had nothing to do with Dumbledore's death; it's everyone else who needs convincing of that fact. What I really want to know is where you have been, what you have been up to, and what these are."

With that she opened a bag that she had brought in with her and took out the familiar wooden box, which she opened to reveal the contents; the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff and the Locket of Salazar Slytherin.

Padma most certainly did not miss the look that came into Harry's eyes; a combination of desire, anger and fear.

After a full minute, Harry tore his eyes away from the Horcruxes and looked directly into Padma's eyes "I only tell those I trust enough with their secret."

Padma closed the box and tucked it under her seat "Harry, in the months before her capture by the Death Eaters, I befriended Luna Lovegood; I took her under my wing, as it were, to make sure that the bullies would leave her alone. She told me that Dumbledore left you a mission of some kind. What that mission was she never said, and I don't think that she knew, but it is obvious now that it involves these two items in some way. It is also obvious that the intended end result is Voldemort's downfall. And it is especially obvious that you cannot do this task on your own."

Harry remained silent, and the expression on his face was unreadable; it had become that way the moment that she had mentioned Luna Lovegood by name.

She had hoped that it would. Not only had she been Luna's friend, she had also been a study partner with Hermione Granger, starting near the end of their fourth year at Hogwarts. One thing both girls had told her was how Harry needed to be handled; make good and rational arguments to take the wind out of his sails, so to speak, until he would listen. Both girls had acknowledged that at times this did not work, but it had a good success rate, and that was good enough for Padma to make use of it now.

It was a little bit like she was channelling both of her old friends.

It was time to press her advantage.

"I know you need help, Harry. And I want to help you, but you have to let me."

She could see he was still unconvinced.

"Harry, I was part of the D.A at Hogwarts. I fought in the desperate battle against the Death Eaters that took place there, doing my best to help younger students flee. I lost my twin sister in that battle. And I lost a fair few friends. Since then I worked hard to get the world to take notice, and as soon as they came to their senses, I was right there on the frontline of battle and have been there ever since. In that time I have lost both of my parents, my older brother, my husband, both my daughters and my son. Does that not entitle me to hear some truths from you?"

Harry watched her for a long while after her speech. And then he spoke, telling her the truth… well, most of it.

"Those two items are Horcruxes; vessels that contain fragments of Voldemort's soul. The task that Dumbledore assigned me was to find and destroy them all. Two are already destroyed, I have two, and two others are inside Hogwarts castle. One of those is the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, which is stored in the Room of Hidden Things, one of the rooms made available by the Room of Requirement. The other is Voldemort's pet snake, which remains by his side as much as possible, though usually not in battle. Along with the part of it that still exists within his living body, Voldemort has seven soul fragments, or he did. To destroy the remaining Horcruxes, I need the Sword of Gryffindor, which I am assuming is somewhere on the inside of Hogwarts castle as well. Until all four remaining Horcruxes are destroyed, then Voldemort can never truly die. Should we destroy his body again, he will very likely just create another using the same method as before."

"So the long and short of it is that you need to get into Hogwarts." surmised Padma.

"And I have been waiting for twenty years to do so." replied Harry "The castle and its grounds are heavily guarded. Without something to draw the guard from the castle, I had no hope of infiltrating it. If I tried to do so and got captured, then Voldemort would be able to reclaim the two Horcruxes I had, and no one else would know about them, so he would never die."

Padma stood from her seat and held out her hand to him "Well then, Mr Potter, I believe it is high time that we see to it that you get into that castle."

Harry gazed at her outstretched hand for a moment, and then reached out and took it as Padma used her wand to undo the bindings that kept him tied to the chair he had occupied for several long days.

Rose had made her way over to the tent where Harry was being held, hoping to get some kind of inclination as to what was going on. However, no one spoke to her, and no one even acknowledged her presence.

After what seemed like an age, the entrance to the tent opened and the Indian witch she had seen entering earlier came out, a tired and starved looking Harry following on behind her. The witch said something to a couple of the guards and they each nodded before accompanying both the witch and Harry towards the large tent a short distance away that Rose knew was where those in charge of the war effort met and made their plans.

As they group passed by her, Harry did not even so much as glance in her direction, something that resulted in her feeling rather hollow inside.

A/N: So how was that? I hope you enjoyed it. Don't worry, Rose isn't out of things yet, and although he is willing to work with Padma, Harry is more than capable of holding his grudge against everyone else.

I have pretty much figured out this story in its entirety right to the end now and there should now be between four and six chapters to go, depending on how things work out.