Title: Signore Delle Ombre

Author: He'sDeadJim

Summary: The Summer before sixth year, Harry finds himself abandoned by those that call themselves the light. Sent to Azkaban for a crime he did not commit, he is forced to explore his growing and unusual powers, make new alliances, and form a new inner circle with those whose loyalties did not waver- although they are few, far between, and those that Harry would not have turned to before. Let the Battle Begin.

Character Types: Betrayed! Superpowered! Harry, Evil! Dumbledore, Stupid! Blind! Order of the Chicken, various others you will have to find throughout

SHIPs: TBD, most likely no slash

I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us?

-Matthew 27:4

Chapter One: Walking the Line

"Harry James Potter, I hear by sentence you to life in Azkaban for the torture and murder of Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley." Cornelius Fudge announced, looking down at the teen from his place on the bench. Beside him, Umbridge smiled toothily to herself, trying in vain to keep the triumph out of her eyes.

Harry sat on the bed in his room, staring dully at the wall. Ever since Sirius' death, his relatives had left him alone, perhaps recognizing the dangerous mood he was perpetually in. Harry had never felt so alone.

All members of the Order had cut off contact with him through the Owl Post this summer. The last time he had heard from them was the week in the beginning of the summer he had spent at headquarters, because the Dursleys had been in France on business. So now, with about a month before he was to begin sixth year, he didn't even have the letters of his friends to distract him from the tedium that was his life during the summer holidays.

Thankfully, relations with the Dursleys had gotten slightly better. When Harry had finally gone back to their house upon their return from France, it had finally hit him that these were his only relatives. Although, with Vernon, Harry had found that the closest thing possible to a familial relationship had been simple cordiality, Harry had become close with Petunia, and Dudley had become tolerable.

It was because of this change in Harry's home life that he no longer had to do all the chores around the house. He split them equally with Dudley, who, surprisingly enough, had turned out amiable. Of course, it could have had something to do with the fact that Dudley had attended many a counseling session in an effort to get him to "work better with the community as a whole", according to the school. Apparently Piers and company didn't count as the "community". So Dudley wasn't as nasty a bully as he had been.

Even if Harry had received any letters from the Order, he wasn't sure that they would have distracted him. Ron and Hermione had become increasingly distant to him over the course of the week during the beginning of the summer, acting stranger and stranger around him. In fact, now that he thought of it, almost all the Weasleys had, except for Fred, George, and, oddly enough, Bill and Percy.

Harry's gaze drifted to the clock. Almost midnight on this day of July 30th. Mentally, he started a countdown in his head.

10…

Harry stared unblinkly at the clock as the hand ticked closer and closer towards July 31st.

9…

Harry distantly heard his Uncle Vernon snore especially loud and mumble "the killer drills, the killer drills…" before going silent again.

8…

Soon he would be sixteen, and would have only two years of schooling before him.

7…

Only one more summer before he could legally be on his own.

6…

Next summer at this time he would be able to use magic without the Ministry descending on him.

5…

Harry stared at the clock, unwilling to look away.

4…

He dimly registered a loud crash coming from downstairs, but pushed it off as Dudley going downstairs for a late night snack.

3…

He heard another crash, and then his Uncle's enraged bellow.

2…

Enraged bellow?

1…

Harry got a distinct sense of déjà vu, but he knew that this time it wouldn't be Hagrid at the door.

0…

Voldemort had broken the wards on the house of Number Four, Privet Drive in Surrey.

"Do you have any last words?" Fudge demanded.

Harry looked unblinkingly at the people he had once called friends. Most of the Order was sitting in the stands around the courtroom with accusing looks on their faces. He frowned. Not everyone he knew was there. Mentally he ran down the list. Tonks, Fred, George, Luna, Neville, Remus, Snape, Bill, and Percy were the only people from the Order and his inner circle missing. Did they believe he was innocent, when his so-called best friends, who should have known him best, did not?

He could only hope so.

Lucius Malfoy laughed as he pointed Harry's wand at the Dursleys. Behind him, Harry's arms were being firmly held by Crabbe and Goyle Senior. As Harry's desperate eyes roved over the circle of Deatheaters, in the back of his head he noted down who was there. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle Sr., of course, the sniveling rat, Umbridge. He frowned. His suspicions had been correct. Umbridge was a Deatheater. The other Deatheaters were less recognizable, and Harry assumed that they were either lower level ones or new recruits.

He turned his eyes back to his only living family as Lucius Malfoy laughed and began to kill them one by one.

His Uncle Vernon was the first to be enveloped by the deadly green light, a vein popping dangerously on his neck, his face red, fury at the freaks who had entered his house evident. Dudley was next to fall, his fat body unable to evade the curse as it shot towards him. And then, it was his Aunt Petunia's turn.

Just as the Unforgivable began to speed towards Harry's Aunt, Petunia tossed something small and shiny Harry's way. Just as the object was thrown, the green light hit her and she crumpled to the ground.

With one furious motion, Harry summoned strength he did not know he had and wrenched his arms free in order to catch the object, whatever it was. Behind him, his captors moved to grab his arms again, but they were too slow to do it before the palm of his left hand made contact with the thing.

It burned. Harry screamed, and sank in the welcome blackness that was overwhelming his mind.

"Betrayal comes back to haunt those who inflict it." Harry said, his tone eerily grating on the ears of all listening. "You have condemned me, the one you once proclaimed your 'savior'. When you need help again, do not come running to me."

Harry glanced at all those present calmly, memorizing their faces. Although, before all this, Harry had never been a person set on vengeance, he knew without a doubt that should he ever be found innocent, he would make them pay.

Not with blood, but with suffering.

Harry woke to a throbbing pain on the palm of his left hand, where he had caught the object. But when he glanced at his hand, there was nothing there. No sign of a burn, cut, or anything.

With a frown, he struggled to sit up, and heard shouting. Dizzy, he fell back to the ground, praying that this was a dream and he would wake up soon.

A face descended into view as he cautiously opened his eyes again.

An Auror.

The man cleared his throat, his eyes hard and cold. "Harry Potter, you are under arrest for murder."

Harry could only frown in confusion and growing horror as the Aurors roughly dragged him off to the Ministry holding cells.

Harry was unconscious when the Dementors came to escort him to Azkaban. Although Dumbledore had petitioned many a time for human Aurors to take over the job of the nightmare bringers, the Ministry still refused to acknowledge that the Dementors could possibly have loyalty to anyone but them. So the Dementors stayed as the guards of the wizarding prison, bringing a sense of hopelessness to all who came there.

So it was that as Harry entered the prison for the first time, there were no humans to witness his hand glowing as the Dementors disembarked from the boat and Harry touched the ground for the first time.

Back at the Ministry, Dumbledore himself snapped Harry's wand.

A/N: Hello! This is my first fic, so… please review and please be nice. I don't mind flames if they're constructive. Thanks.

Note: The quote at the beginning of the chapter used to be from the song 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' by Green Day. Thanks to Quillian, who pointed out to me that under the new rules of I was unable to have song quotes