So, we are going dark on this one. Thanks to FrancisRose and Jess6800 for the prompt, this story is a mixture of things that you both suggested.

Not for the fainthearted, so consider this your warning, there is violence, but it won't be gratuitously graphic. Can't say the same for the smut, so if you don't like a healthy dollop of smut, this is not the story for you.

** As always, this story is a non-profit making work of fanfiction, and anything you may recognise belongs to the sublime JKR **

Enjoy.

Prologue/Chapter 1

"Harry Potter … is dead!"

Voldemort's hideously triumphant voice screamed maniacally around the courtyard and bounced off the tall towers of Hogwarts castle as he entered, flanked by his army of vile Death Eaters, several of whom were viciously prodding a partly-bound Hagrid, who was carrying the broken body of her best friend, his hairy face flushed with pain and remorse.

"No!"

Ginny Weasley could not hold herself, and sprang forth from the crowd of students and staff who had congregated on the front steps of the castle. She ran towards Voldemort, her wand drawn, and he cut her down with one swipe of his wand before she even reached her boyfriend, and her body fell lifeless to the floor.

"Stupid girl! Harry Potter is dead! He cannot help you! He cannot help anyone here! He is as useless as this witch who tried to save him. Put him down, giant, so everyone can see how the Chosen One has failed them!"

Hagrid tried to lower Harry's body gently, but Voldemort was having none of it, and used his wand to send Harry flying from Hagrid's grip, and roll over several times before coming to a halt next to his beloved Ginny.

Whatever small hope Hermione might have had that by some miracle he might not be dead, it was crushed when she saw the extent of Harry's injuries, his neck and limbs at such unnatural angles there was no way he could have survived.

"How like his father young Mr Potter is!" Voldemort crowed. "Why, the two of them looked just as these two do now, on that Halloween night so many years ago, both dead by the end of my wand!"

His self-indulgent bleating was interrupted by jet of green light that shot forth like emerald lightning, heading straight towards Voldemort, but Bellatrix Lestrange threw herself in front of it, taking the Killing Curse for the psychotic wizard with whom she harboured such a dark obsession. Bellatrix fell to the ground, not far from where Harry and Ginny lay.

Voldemort let out a screech of fury, but not anguish, as he searched for the caster.

Molly Weasley stepped forward, her wand hand extended and badly shaking.

"You will have no more of my children, Tom Riddle," she threatened.

Hermione's heart broke for her, as Arthur shouted for her to step down. They were well-meaning but ultimately empty words, as there was no way Mrs Weasley would step down, any more than her husband would expect her to. He would stand behind her all the way, for there was surely only one way this would end, for Molly had just forced Voldemort's favourite lieutenant to sacrifice herself for her master.

Molly had only just started to grieve for the fallen Fred, when the Dark Lord had taken down Harry, a boy she loved as another son, and her only daughter. Neither of them had any intention of backing away from the confrontation. The only question would be how much agony and humiliation Voldemort would decide to wreak upon Molly before he finally let her die.

As the heinous wizard cast his first Crucio, raising the motherly witch high into the air so that all could see and hear her screams of pain, a sea of redheads charged forward from all directions to save the woman they loved more than all others.

Entirely focused on Molly, they paid no heed to the army in front of them, and were cut down from all directions by the attending Death Eaters. The green flashes from myriad wands were fast and ruthless in their executions.

Arthur, who thankfully did not live to see any more of his children die.

Percy, who had reached his mother first, hit the ground a few seconds after his father.

Bill, who had attempted to disarm Voldemort and died while his new wife screamed.

George, who grabbed hold of his mother, only to be caught in the Crucio alongside her before one of the killing curses hit him, dying less than an hour after his twin.

And Ron, her dear Ron, who had been standing beside her only seconds before, squeezing her hand so tightly that she could still feel the imprint of his fingers, who had gone for broke and sent a Stunner directly to Voldemort's face, causing him to break the Crucio, and Molly dropped to the floor. She had been forced to watch her final son die before Riddle raised his wand to her.

"This is what happens to families who defy me … Mrs Weasley."

Avada Kedavra.

The silence that fell over the crowd was absolute, both Death Eaters and the Hogwarts army alike, for a whole family had been culled down in less than a minute before their very eyes.

Hermione could only think of Charlie, how he was currently carrying on his everyday life in Romania, not aware of the tragedy that had just befallen his entire family.

She clenched her jaw hard to stop herself from screaming out. She could not help them now. She could not save them. She could not avenge them, not like this. If she made any move now, she would be laying among that pile of bodies. Her self-control, at this moment, was paramount.

But they would pay. Voldemort would pay. She would finish the job that she, Harry and Ron had started. She swore it right there in the blood of her friends in the Hogwarts courtyard.

"To everyone who can hear my voice, remember this!"

Voldemort had regained his composure after Ron's stunner to his face, and was now addressing the dumbstruck witnesses.

"We are about to enter a new age! An age where Magic is Might - and our power shall be recognised and feared amongst non-magical beings. I have control of the Ministry, and now, today, I have control of Hogwarts. This school will now be run as it always should, for those of magical blood only. Severus! Come."

From his unmoving vantage point on the parapet of the Headmaster's Tower, Snape had been surveying the battle scene below for hours. Banished to his office by the Dark Lord and forbidden to leave, his life had been kept safe, but at what cost? He feared that his torment, such as it had been thus far, was about to pale into insignificance compared to what was to come.

He stepped elegantly from the parapet into the air and swirled down into the courtyard with no need of a broomstick, landing next to Voldemort with a swirl of long black robes, like a swooping vampire.

"My Lord?"

"The battle is won, Severus. Just as we planned."

Snape surveyed the bodies of Potter and the entire family of Weasleys, cut down in cold blood as they had attempted to save their mother. It had hardly been a fair contest, and was hardly anything to crow victory over. However, the sight of Bellatrix Lestrange's corpse alongside them gave him pleasure. Good. That witch was psychotic, and better off dead. He merely nodded in response.

"The school will now be run as we discussed, Headmaster. Begin."

Snape turned to the assembled students, their uniforms torn and blood-stained, their faces etched with the raw pain of defeat and in sheer terror of the madman that now stood in front of them. He looked at his staff, the professors who had fought so valiantly to assist Potter and to protect the children. He believed that some had been evacuated via the Hogs Head, but the vast crowd around him suggested that number had been small.

"You are to return to your common rooms," he began, keeping a close eye for any murmurs of dissent. "You are not to leave them until you are instructed to do so, whilst the Great Hall and other affected areas of the school are returned to their original states. Staff, you will assist with this."

"What if we don't want to?"

The strident tones of Professor McGonagall shattered the tense silence. He lifted his chin and looked his own former teacher straight in the eye.

"You will comply, Minerva, or you will be killed. That is your choice to make."

In the most uncharacteristic move he'd ever seen from her, she shut her mouth.

"Now. Muggle-born students should meet in the Transfiguration classroom, which I believe is undamaged. These students should not have been here this year, but I have reason to believe that some of you," he suggested, his eyes passing over Hermione Granger and Dean Thomas, "have infiltrated the school. You will not be staying at Hogwarts, since it is the decision of the new Ministry administration that students without proven magical heritage may not be educated here."

There were cries of "Dirty Mudbloods!" and "Thieves!" from the army of Death Eaters, and he was forced to wait for their obscene shouts to die down before he could continue.

"Once all the Muggle-born students present are assembled in Transfiguration classroom, Professor McGonagall will advise you what further action will be taken in your case. I caution you not to attempt to leave the school grounds. Now, move. Immediately."

Minerva stared at him with pure loathing as the students began to turn and head back into the castle, many of them shooting fearful looks over their shoulders at the dead bodies, and at the Death Eater army. There were a few quiet pops of Apparition as the final members of the decimated Order of the Phoenix left the area, he didn't quite see who, other than a flash of light blonde hair that indicated Miss Delacour was still alive.

Severus had lowered the wards around the school during the battle in an attempt to allow reinforcements to enter, but many of these extra fighters had also taken down by the rampaging army of Death Eaters. The grounds of the school would be littered with the bodies of forest-dwellers and Hogsmeade residents alike.

Voldemort saw them Apparate away, and immediately began to raise new wards around the castle - dark, complicated barriers that would be all-encroaching.

Hermione was on the top step of the castle when a commotion made her turn back. Neville Longbottom was the sole student left facing Voldemort and the Death Eaters, the courtyard now strangely empty, the cobbled stones covered with the bodies of Harry, the Weasleys, and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Neville had pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of nowhere, and was shouting at Voldemort as if he were suicidal, pointing the sword and swinging it ineffectively towards Nagini.

Nagini! Harry had told Neville to kill the snake – not telling him why, or how important it was. Neville was clearly determined to fulfil his mission, and as the giant snake reared up and her open jaw flew towards him, he made a brave attempt to stab the enormous reptile.

Hermione had to turn back as soon as she saw Nagini clamp her fangs around Neville's throat, wrenching him to the floor alongside his friends.

Holding her hand to her mouth lest she vomit where she stood, she headed for the Transfiguration classroom. Where she would go, or what would be done with her, she had no idea. It was the dawning of a new age, an age where the Dark Lord ruled the world.