Chapter One: The World as We Know It

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches:

Born to those that have trice defied him

Born as the seventh month dies

And the dark Lord will mark him as his equal

But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not

And either must die at the hands of the other

For neither can live will the other survives

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord

Will be born as the seventh month dies.

Harry Potter thought about those words, spoken so long ago by the late Sibyll Trelawney, and could not help the breath of sadness that passed over his face. Oh it was true that when he had first met her he had thought her nothing but on old fraud, and he'd had little more then unpleasant thoughts of her for the remainder of his school years. But looking back on it now, he supposed he owed a great deal to the old witch.

Harry sighed and wished for the thousandth time that he was back in his first year of Hogwarts, back before the war. Knowing what he did now he was sure that if he could just go back things would be different. Hell, even if he could just go back to his sixth year, if he could just make it back and speak to Dumbledore one more time, things would be different.

Harry sighed and pulled Ginny closer to him. She was one of the last strengths he had: his parents, James, Sirius, Dumbledore, Flitwick, Dean Thomas, Percy…the list of dead grew in numbers as the years passed. No one was safe; everyone he cared about was taken from him.

The Second War against Voldemort was quickly approaching its twenty-fourth year, and the resistance was slowly being eaten away as the Dark Lord killed more and more of it's members. There were people alive today that had known nothing but war all their lives and for that, Harry pitied them.

People that had never known the joys of playing quidditch, or of sitting in the commons rooms of Hogwarts arguing over homework. It's amazing what you begin to miss when you've lost everything. Harry never thought he'd miss homework or detentions served with Snape, but he did. He missed them because of their innocence. Since Voldemort's take over the world had lost all traces of her innocence and had taken refuge in the darkness, all light nearly extinguished. Where once the resistance had been a raging fire, it was now no more then a candle in a turbulent wind.

But there was some hope; proof that not all good had flown from the world. His daughter, Lily, for example was her father's light. She smile alone made the candle's flame dance more brightly and the howling wind seem less frightful in the darkening night.

Lily Claire Potter had been born on her father's 27th birthday nearly seventeen years ago. She had green eyes, like her father, but she had her mother's red locks. Actually, her hair was such a deep red that in dim light it appeared almost black. Her pale skin was devoid of the usual freckles associated with the Weasley family, and to tell the truth she looked a great deal like her grandmother; for whom she was named.

All her life she had had known nothing but war. An endless struggle that had cost her many of the people she loved most. Her Uncle Percy; redeemed when he saved the life of Bill and Fleur's two year old son from a death eater attack on the Burrow, had been killed in the attack that had left Grimmauld Place nothing but a pile of smoldering ashes. Her older brother, James, had died when the second floor caved in, consumed flames.

They had never found his body.

It was at the funeral of his son that Harry vowed that when Ginny gave birth, the child she carried would know not the pain that had befallen her brother. She would be kept hidden from the world so that Voldemort could not target her. Now, looking back on his daughter's life he wasn't sure if that had been the wisest decision.

Lily was brilliant, a true intellectual such as he had never seen. Hermione was smart, but her knowledge came from hours spent reading anything that she could get her hands on. Lily didn't need books to understand magic, she just did. Where Hermione would study to find the answer, Lily would simply look at the magic performed in front of her and understand.

Hogwarts had long ago fallen to Voldemort, Riddle's obsession with the magical school had prevailed when he had taken the ancient castle as his headquarters. Not to be deterred, the resistance had opened their own School and had the benefit of what remained of the Hogwarts staff and several First War aurors at it's disposal. What had changed more so was the manner of training the students received. In this dangerous world, if you don't know how to fight then you didn't survive. Children began their magical training the moment they showed their first signs of magic.

Lily had shown her first sign at five, when she had accioed her favorite toy to her arms when her mother had refused to give it to her. Severus and Alastor had shown particular interest in her ever since and she had advanced well beyond her classmates more quickly then either her two teachers could remember. When she was twelve she had completed all the required work and examinations for O.W.L's, scoring higher then anyone on record. By fifteen she had completed her N.E.W.T.'s.

It was at sixteen that Alastor had approached Harry and asked if she might be train as an auror. Harry had reluctantly agreed, under the restriction that she would never actually see battle. Moody had been less then pleased at Harry's condition but had excepted it, and Lily had begun training the next day.

His thoughts strayed from his daughter to the other members of his life that kept the candle burning.

Severus Snape had been cleared of all charges when Dumbledore's will was discovered a month before Harry would have entered his seventh year. As it was, Dumbledore had asked Snape to kill him rather then allow Draco to complete his task. Because the act of killing would certainly damage the soul of one so young, Dumbledore asked Severus to mentor the boy and to protect him at all costs. According to the document, Dumbledore believed that Draco could still be saved.

He was right.

Draco Malfoy was a conundrum in and of himself. He had earned Harry's complete and utter trust much in the same way as Snape had won Dumbledore's; by bringing him something of value. In this case a hourcrux.

With one more piece of Voldemort's soul destroyed Draco is trained in combat along side Harry and the others. Not long after they turn eighteen Harry asks Malfoy if he would be willing to return to the Dark Lord as a spy, a position that Draco accepts with honor. In the twenty-two years since he announced his decision to fight for the light, Voldemort had not once questioned him about his loyalties. Harry smiled to himself as he realized that, next to Ron and Hermione, Draco Malfoy was probably his closest friend.

When Lily was born, Harry asked Draco to be her godfather, and his once enemy had smiled so brilliantly that Harry thought he'd go blind. When Lily was three she began calling him uncle "Drake".

Ron and Hermione had wed not long after Ginny and himself, Harry still smiled when he remembered how his wife had shouted "Finally!" when his two best friends had announced the news. Hermione proved to be just as fertile as the rest of the Weasley women and was kept busy looking after their five children, three boys: Ryan, Percy, and Sirius; and two girls: Allison, and Sara. Hermione, to give her credit, still found the time to read everything she could get her hands on and out smart her husband and Harry in almost everything that did not involve flying.

Charlie had married a girl named Dracora, there was endless teasing of Draco for this, whom he had worked in Romania with and whom had helped him convince the dragons not to join Voldemort. She was a Dragon talker; a rare witch or wizard who could converse with dragons, not unlike parseltongues. They had yet to reproduce which was just as well seeing as they were almost always on some dangerous assignment, sometimes not coming back home for several months.

Home.

Harry couldn't remember when he had ever felt more at home then he did when he was in the underground caverns that were what remained of the once enormous castle Gryffindor. Unless you count his time at Hoqwarts.

To date, none of Voldemort's followers or supporters had been able to find them here. Harry doubted if anyone knew it even existed. Granted, there were a few buildings above ground, but only ones used to hold livestock. The only signs that anyone had ever been here was the one hundred meter, circular crater in the ground that marked were the castle had once stood.

It was so overgrown by trees and brush that it looked like nothing more then the entrance to a very extensive cave, rather then the home to nearly five hundred people. The last members of the resistance against Voldemort made their homes here.

Most were half-bloods, they had a task force designed to find and retrieve muggleborns before Voldemort could get to them. About two years into his reign, Voldemort had declared that all muggleborns were to be killed before reaching the eleventh year. The pureblood families had joined him rather then be killed. Harry knew that most of them hated him, they were simply biding their time until they could fight back.

Harry had many contacts within these families, and they kept the healthy supply of information coming so that Harry could organize his defenses. Not once had any of the information given by the families been wrong.

Some pureblood families like the Weasleys, the Lovegoods, the Thomas', the Woods, and the Diggorys had all sworn allegiance to Harry and made their homes here. They, to be honest, were some of his best supporters.

'Neither can live will the other survives,'

Harry thought again of the prophecy before he drifted off to sleep held in the loving embrace of his wife.

X

"Lily!" Ryan Weasley called to his best friend, and cousin, "Lily Potter come out right now!"

Ryan sighed in exasperation. He'd been looking for her for over an hour now and he had yet to discover her hiding spot. Ryan let out another heavy sigh and decided that he'd better just go wait in her room, she had to come back sometime.

He'd barely sat down on her bed when he heard a familiar voice say, "Oh, look. You found me."

Ryan jumped up in surprise and turned to find the object of his persistent quest crouched in the south corner of her room, hugging her knees to her chest. Ryan put his hands on his hips in a good imitation of his mother. "Now, just what is your problem young lady?"

Lily looked up at him. Lily's eyes had become the source of many great mutterings over the years. Backlit, as they were, by a strangeness that could only be described as a haunting light. It was quiet unnerving, and Ryan squirmed just a bit under her gaze.

"Well?" he questioned, crouching down next to her. She lowered gaze to the floor and Ryan silently thanked her for doing so.

"I turned seventeen today," she said sadly, eyes still on the floor.

Ryan wondered why she looked so defeated, most people were tickled pink when they became of age. It meant that they were allowed to leave the caves, allowed to see what lay beyond Haven (the name of the underground city that had been established by Dumbledore before he died as a place of safety).

"Yes," Ryan said happily, "I know that, I remember when I turned seventeen. Dad took me to London , well what was left of it anyway, and to Grimmauld Memorial. I can't wait till I can take you-"

"I can't go," Lily whispered softly.

Ryan stopped, "You're not still worried about passing your apperation test are you? Come on Lil, if I can pass it so can…"

"No, that's not it," Lily looked up at her best friend with tears in her eyes, "My dad says I'm not allowed to leave the city. Not until the war's over."

Ryan was dumbfounded. "What!" he shouted, "That's not fair, I mean I know your dad wants to protect you and all but you're an adult now, you can do whatever you want."

"I tried to tell him that, I really did, but…" she looked down at the floor, "he said he wasn't about to lose me like he did James."

Ryan sputtered incoherently while he pondered this. While everyone knew that Harry Potter was, to put it nicely, an overprotective parent he'd never dreamed in all his life that Uncle Harry would forbid his daughter from one of the few pleasures that were left in the world. That would just be cruel.

Lily looked up at him with shining eyes, "I want the world Ryan, I always have. I want it and I'll take it someday and make it mine. Nothing my father says will change my mind."

'Yes, well that's probably why Uncle Harry wants to protect her so much', Ryan thought to himself. Silently he took Lily's hand and pulled her to her feet. Together, they walked out onto the balcony that wound around the inside of the huge crater. Lily sat on the railing while he leaned against one of the many poles that held the structure up. He watched as Lily stared upward at the tiny patch of blue sky that could just be made out from betwixt the overgrown trees.

Albus Dumbledore had built this place during the First War as a place of refuge should the worst happen and Voldemort proved victorious. Luckily for the people at the time, Harry Potter had been born and had defeated the Dark Lord. With no need of it, he had hidden the map to its location in his office.

Minerva MacGonagal discovered its location while searching for Dumbledore's will. She, his mother and father, Harry, and Ginny had visited it not long after and begun improving it shortly. They were the ones that added the balconies and staircases leading up to the different levels. They had encouraged the trees and brush to grow wilder to obscure its location from a bird's eye view. Over the next two years they, with the help of various Order members, moved everything of value to the libraries and holding chambers in the lowest level.

There was a fifty-foot drop from the lowest balcony to the bottom of the crater where the topmost points of the towers of the long lost castle could still be seen amidst the ruble. Reaching up like the ghostly fingers of a drowning man.

It had been his mother's idea to fill the bottom with water, so that if anyone flying overhead did happen to look down they would see what they thought was a lake. It was an idea that had probably saved the lives of hundreds.

Ryan looked down and kicked a small rock off the edge of the balcony; it fell some two hundred feet before making a small ripple in the water below. They were currently on the second to top level of the six level complex. The school and training rooms were on the topmost level, as well as the outposts that jutted up to just above the crater's lip, at a level were they were still hidden by the trees.

The leaders and their families made up the second level. The families of the other refugees and soldiers continued on the way down. The libraries, council chambers and storage rooms were actually hidden some twenty feet down from the last level. The staircases leading to it were located about a mile inwards from the walls of the crater, making the hidden chambers hard to find and impossible to see from the outside.

They were also technically underwater, another idea of his mother's. If you were to stand in the west library and drill a hole through the east wall, after a mile of drilling you would emerge underwater at a depth of fifteen feet. Not that anyone had tried it, mind you, but the exact calculations were a standard beginner's problem for Arithmancy.

The two of them stayed perched in their respective positions and watched as the tiny patch of blue slowly turned to pink, then red, and finally dissolved into the dark blue of twilight. Ryan snuck a glance at his cousin and smiled at the look of peace on her face. If he let her, he was sure she would be more then content to remain pensive long into the night.

The air turned and Ryan shivered slightly as the winds of night came wafting down from the world above. "Come on Lily," Ryan said after a few moments silence, "It's getting dark, we should go inside."

Lily sighed, "I suppose."

The two of them reentered the caves through one of the three archways positioned evenly around each level. They walked for about ten minutes before emerging onto the inner balcony; a four foot wide series of levels, like the ones outside, that wound around the crater leading to the various homes and rooms.

They turned left and made their way down two levels and then entered another network of tunnels until finally they came out in a huge cavern crammed with long tables. At present, the rest of Haven's residents were engaged in their evening meal. One of the first things that any of them had learned about life before the war was Hogwarts. The dinning hall had been modeled after the Great Hall at the legendary school.

Ryan and Lily made their way towards the raised dais at the end of the long hall were the leader's and their families sat. His own family, the Weasleys, what was left of the Hogwarts staff, the Lupins, and the original Order members kept council here during meal times. Harry Potter sat at the table's head, set perpendicular to the long tables running the length of the hall. His wife, Ginny, sat at his right, while an empty chair to his left marked Lily's place.

Upon reaching them, Ryan kissed Lily's forehead and walked to the end of the table to sit with his mother and father. Lily took her chair across from her mother and pointedly refused to look her father in the eye, or even acknowledge him.

"Where were you today Lily?" Harry asked his only daughter, glancing sideways at her where she sat next to him, determined not to look at him. He supposed he could understand her anger, not three hours ago he had told her that she was not allowed to leave Haven, ever. He had given her her space, hoping that she would have calmed down by dinner.

When she remained mute, Harry sighed. Apparently not.

"Your father asked you a question, Lily," Ginny said diminutively, "I suggest you answer him."

"Why?" Lily asked, pointedly talking to her mother rather then to her father. "I am an adult, I may talk to whom I please. Even if I am not allowed to go where I please."

Ginny laughed, "My dear, of course you are allowed to go where you like," she smiled, "as you said, you are an adult."

Lily flashed her mother a weary glare; "I am allowed to go where I please so long as I do not leave Haven."

Ginny regarded her daughter with a perplexed expression. Silently she prayed that Harry hadn't gone and done something stupid. "How do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

Lily gave a shallow laugh, "He didn't tell you?" she said nodding at her father, who had remained strangely quiet considering he had not been given an answer yet, "He didn't tell you that I have been forbidden to leave Haven until the war is over!"

The table went silent; Ginny looked at her in utter shock before turning to glare at her husband. Harry ignored her.

"It is for the best," Harry said quietly.

"For whose best?" Lily demanded, standing. The rest of the hall became silent as she continued, "What do you think you are protecting me from? Dumbledore wouldn't want us to stop living our lives simply because you're afraid Voldemort may attack me!"

Harry jumped to his feet, "That is enough young lady!" he shouted, "Don't you dare bring Dumbledore into this, Dumbledore isn't here, he's dead."

"And you wish you were too!" she screamed, Harry looked shocked.

"I never-"

"You wish you were dead too, so you wouldn't have to deal with this war! You wish that Voldemort had chosen Neville instead of you! Destiny chose you for great things father, and instead of being strong you want to back down. If you hadn't been weak, if you hadn't have wanted to die we wouldn't be here. This isn't a haven father, you've imprisoned us in HELL!"

Lily pushed her chair back so hard that it crashed backwards. Angrily she fled the dinning hall, not allowing a single tear to fall until she was in the safety of her rooms.

All her life she'd been told stories of Harry, Ron, and Hermione and their adventures at Hogwarts. Neville had told her about the adventure at the Ministry when her father had been fifteen. She envied her father his freedom, he had gotten to experience life had gotten to enjoy it. Lily longed to have her own adventures.

Wearily she sank down into her bed. Sprawled on her back as she was, she stared at the ceiling, thinking of all the things that her father had gotten to experience that she never would. She would never get to go to Diagon Alley, never get to go to Hogsmead.

She'd never get the chance to earn house points, or even see Hogwarts. But what bothered her most, what she hated most, was that she wasn't allowed to participate in the order.

Just as her father, mother, aunts, and uncles had longed for the day they could join the fight so to had she counted the years until she could help. But it was not to be.

Her father had forbidden her from leaving Haven, all her dreams of helping end the war, of fighting back died when he uttered those foul words.

She was stuck here, alone, with no way of helping the cause by finding the missing piece. The only thing they needed to defeat Voldemort.

In her father's seventh and final year at Hogwarts, he and his friends and even her mother had gone looking for Voldemort's horcruxes, they had found all but one.

It was this failure that had led to their current situation. Without the final horcrux Voldemort could not be destroyed. Her father had tried, in the last days of the Battle for Hogwarts, but in the end he had failed.

Lily could not help but wish that she could go hunting for that last piece of the puzzle. It was what many of the defenders her own age were doing; indeed, it was what Ryan had been assigned to do.

Lily wanted desperately to leave Haven, and she hated her father because now she could not. She felt the weight of her father's legacy on her shoulders and the knowledge that she could never match it.

She cried herself to sleep.

X

Harry paced the length of the meeting chamber, Ginny and the rest of the leader's eyes following him, concern plastered on their faces.

Harry stopped pacing and sighed, "Is that what she really thinks of me?"

"More likely then not, she's just mad at you," Draco said quietly from the far corner of the room.

"Yes, it's alright Harry," Hermione comforted him, "she probably only wanted to hurt you."

"Well congratulations, she did a marvelous job," Harry said heavily, sinking into the nearest chair.

"Don't worry about it mate," Ron said happily, "She'll get over it, we'll have you feeling better in no time."

The group looked expectantly at Ginny, who had been silent since they had entered the council chamber; having left the dinning hall rather abruptly. Of the lot of them she was the only one, other then Draco, who hadn't offered Harry any reassuring words.

Which was the last thing he needed at the moment, she thought bitterly. While Ginny loved her husband with all her heart he could be remarkably thickheaded at times. "Perhaps, we should be less concerned about poor under-loved Harry Potter and be focused on Lily," Ginny said, her temper finally getting the better of her.

Her husband starred at her, Draco gave her an appraising look.

"Ginny!" Ron sounded shocked, Ginny looked incredulous.

Well, she might as well finish pissing everyone off. "Since this whole war started all it's ever been about is poor Harry, poor Harry, well now your own daughter hates you and all you can think about is how bad she made you feel!" Ginny screamed at her husband.

"That's not-" Harry began.

"Oh, don't you dare lie to me Harry James Potter, I know where you sleep at night!" Ginny yelled, "Never once tonight did you think about your daughter's feelings. She's a big girl, an adult now by law. You've just gone and denied her one of the few pleasures we have left simply because your afraid to lose her like you lost James!"

"Ginny," Hermione said in a horrified whisper. This was the first time in fifteen years that Ginny had mentioned her dead son.

"I didn't-"

"Oh, but you did," Ginny's words were now coming out in strangled sobs, "Our son is dead because of you. Not Voldemort, but you! You wanted to die that night, so much so that you stayed in the house until you passed out from the smoke. Moody had to carry you out."

"Ginny, I never-"

"Just shut up Harry," Ginny said softly, "Your daughter had you pegged just right, you gave up. My son, Harry, my SON! He went back to save his father, a seven year old boy was stronger then you that night. You killed him, you and no one else!"

"Ginny," Harry reached towards his wife but she pulled away. He cringed slightly as his fingers came up just short of her trembling arm.

"Lily isn't stupid Harry," Ginny continued, slowly backing towards the door. "You know this. She is the brightest witch to have been born in quiet a while. All she wants is the world, and that's the one thing that you refuse to let her have. You refuse to even let her try."

"Ginny you know why she can't leave Haven," Harry tried to make her understand, "What if she was captured? What do you think Voldemort would do to her once he found out that she is my daughter?"

"You can't protect her forever Harry," Ginny cried. "You can't lock her up just because you're afraid of what might happen. She's been in auror training for the past two years, she can take care of herself same as any of us."

Harry growled, "I specifically told Moody when I agreed to let him train her that it was understood that she would never see battle!"

"Why not?" Ginny yelled, "What harm is there in letting her fight. She has just as much to fight for as any of us. More so because all she's ever known in her life is war!"

Harry opened his mouth to retort but came up short when Ginny's hand lashed out and struck his left cheek. He was still seeing stars when the door shambled behind her so hard it caused dust to drift down from the ceiling.

"Well," Draco said lightly, breaking the silence, "I can't say that I don't agree."

The remaining people looked at Malfoy. He always was the outsider, the only one of them that hadn't been there from the beginning. Yet he was the only one that truly understood the war, that understood Harry for that matter. Looking at both men, they were opposites: Harry was dark to Malfoy's fair; one raised by light one by dark. But inside, where it mattered, they were almost exactly the same.

Draco left his place in the shadows were he'd been keeping silent vigil and walked to Harry, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I do believe your daughter hates you Harry, but not for the reason she says," Draco whispered, "All her life she's heard stories about your adventures, all her life she's heard of the wonders of the world. And now when her friends and peers are able to grasp that, she is not. You've locked her away like a china doll, Harry, she won't break. But her resentment for you will grow until her hate consumes her. You are doing her no favors by keeping her here."

Harry looked at his friend, and saw the truth shinning at him from silver eyes, and in that moment he knew that Draco was right.

Draco smiled at Harry before following Ginny's exit from the room. Once he was gone and the door firmly shut Harry turned and looked at his two best friends. They both wore identical looks of pity on their faces, although Hermione's looked a bit more reflective then her husband's.

Harry sighed, "Do you think I'm self centered?" he asked, "I mean I didn't exactly run to comfort her. What kind of father am I?"

"A good one, Harry, " Hermione said quietly. "You may not always do the right thing by her but she knows that you love her. She knows you just want her safe."

"Does she," he asked, "When she looked at me tonight her eyes were filled with such sadness. I just want her to be safe, She has more of a target on her then any other daughter in the world because she has my blood. Sometimes I wonder if she knows how much I love her."

"Of course she knows," Ron said, taking two steps towards his best mate, "You wouldn't be so damned over protective if you didn't love her."

"She's my baby girl," Harry breathed, "I think I'd just give up if anything were to happen to her."