Written: July 10, 2011

Author's Notes: IDEEKAY. What's with all my dark!Harry stories? D:
It's not a crossover because there are no real Death Note characters in it; it's just the notebook. You can read it with zero knowledge of Death Note. (What note now? Brown Note, you say?)

Summary: Power corrupts. Absolutely. Harry Potter finds the Death Note and resolves to use it to save the world. Dark!Harry

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I doubt any of JK's lawyers care anyway, but, hey, everyone else is doing it. (Oh, and also I don't own a Death Note. Or the franchise. Was that too oddly specific?)

Absolute

In sixth year, Slughorn hands Harry Potter an old potions book. It's just as tattered and frayed and old as the other ones in the pile. The owner is Raito Yagami and there's a small notebook inside it.

Harry reads the title, Death Note, and is reminded of Ginny Weasley and Tom Riddle's diary. It's a strangely morbid title on an even more morbid black-bound book. He tosses it into the corner of his trunk and resolves to never touch it.

But he's still young and very curious. It's his nature, really. So one morning, when he wakes up early and all his roommates are still asleep, he digs the book out of his trunk and tells himself that he just wants to try it.

He opens the cover, sees instructions, and scoffs. Only an idiot would need to learn how to write in a notebook. But he reads them anyway, and the first line surprises him: the human whose name is written in the note will die. Huh. Well. Just call him an idiot, then.

Harry reads on out of morbid curiosity. The rules tell him how to make a person die in a specific way and how to control them before their death. It's like a mix of the Killing Curse and the Imperius, really, and even if they were only there as a joke, it was too dark. And despite his curiosity—he really did want to see if it worked now—he remembered Riddle's diary and resolved to ignore it.

He stuffs the Death Note back into his trunk and forgets about it.

He doesn't remember it again until after Dumbledore's funeral, when he's furious at Malfoy and Snape and tossing everything he owned into the trunk in a display of horrible packing skills. The Death Note falls out. He eyes it, and wonders why not. They deserve to die, anyway.

He writes their names down with instructions for what they should do before their death. He puts the Death Note away and waits.

In less than thirty minutes, Hermione has rushed into his dorm and woken everybody up. Snape and Malfoy are in the Great Hall, she exclaims, panicked.

By the time he and his year-mates makes it there, Snape and Malfoy are already lying dead on the ground, their arms bare and showing the Dark Mark for the world to see. Inwardly, he's surprised, disgusted, and just a little pleased that the notebook actually worked. Outwardly, he exclaims shock and sympathy, and most of it is surprisingly true.

Later, when the Order asks for his opinion on their unusual cause of death, he shrugs; maybe Voldemort was displeased? The man was a psychopath. His friends agree that it was the best explanation. He fingers the scrap of notebook paper in his pocket and marvels. Such a little thing that kills such strong opponents.

He resolves to use it for good. He resolves to use to end the war and bring peace—and nothing more beyond. He's not a psychopath.

()

The horcrux hunt is surprisingly easily. Hermione and Ron exclaim their surprise when the locket Umbridge took is just lying there on the road, but reasons that maybe she just dropped it somewhere. Just like she dropped dead a few days later: heart attack, they said, she always did take too many sugars in her tea.

The goblin hands over the cup after Harry makes a speech about how it would save the world. Hermione is touched. Ron is just happy that it finished so quickly. When the goblin dies in an accident in one of the tunnels a few days later, nobody gives it a second thought.

It's not even a few months into his seventh year that the first two horcruxes are destroyed and everyone's filled with hope. When they find out that Nagini was accidentally eaten while hunting a few months ago, they're relieved and pleasantly surprised and laughing that Voldemort was stupid enough to use a living creature as a Horcrux. They don't know that the werewolf who ate Nagini died soon after. Because, really, werewolves—the only one that had ever seemed human to them was Lupin.

A brawl emerges in Death Eater-controlled Hogwarts. It's over rank or status or some other petty thing—the Golden Trio don't bother with that so much and take the opportunity to infiltrate the castle and destroy the diadem. By the time they get in, most of the Death Eaters were already dead by each other's hands. And if a few students had to die to make the disagreement realistic—well, it's to save the world. Harry Potter is certain that they wouldn't mind if he had told them.

The last battle with Voldemort is nothing short of dramatic. There aren't many Death Eaters left—most of the named ones had already died due to some natural cause or accident or another. Harry squares off against Voldemort in an one-on-one showdown and ducks and feints and dodges Killing Curses with pro seeker reflexes. People would never imagine that every last detail was pre-scripted.

Voldemort dies to an Expelliarmus and everyone is pleasantly surprised at how poetic it is: the Dark Lord killed by a non-fatal charm. They paint contrasts between light and darkness, between love and hate, and don't bother examining the corpse. If they did, they would find evidence of a heart attack at the exact moment their hero's charm hit.

But they don't notice, nobody does, and everyone celebrates and lives in euphoria for a few days. Harry tucks the Death Note away and resolves to never touch it again.

()

He gets engaged to Ginny and everything is going wonderfully. Then some of the remaining, pitiful amount of Death Eaters left over gets off with a slap on the wrist and it's clear the justice system won't punish them.

They start new lives, they reintegrate into society, and being mostly minor Death Eaters to begin with, they might have led happy, productive lives. But Harry isn't pleased with that. They're a dark tint in the perfect world, a relic from the other side of the war, and they shouldn't have been allowed out of Azkaban. He takes up the mantle of hero again, because nobody else would, and digs out the Death Note.

The remorse and guilt he once felt for killing has long faded. And, besides, it was easier when it was pen on paper and not a real person staring at you, the light fading out of his eyes. Harry Potter convinces himself that he's doing this to save the world. He kills every last Death Eater, then puts the Note away, his deed done at last.

His eldest son, James Sirius Potter, grows up and goes to Hogwarts. The first letter he receives from his son is a complaint about Slytherins. There are a lot less of them than his time at school, but they're just as vicious. Two fourth years corner James Sirius on his first day and tell him to watch out, because his father wrecked their families. A first year challenges Harry's son to a duel and is only dissuaded by McGonagall.

That was when Harry remembers the Death Eaters' children. After all, hadn't Draco Malfoy grown up to be just as evil as his father? Hadn't Crabbe and Goyle followed their parents' footsteps and served Voldemort? He thinks it over and digs out the Death Note with a put-upon sigh. It was time to save the world again.

He writes down the names of every child born to a Death Eater. Halfway through, he's tired of being creative and stops fabricating believable ways for them to die. He finishes the list and is pleased with himself until he remembers the Death Eaters' wives and extended family. Harry writes down names of Death Eaters' relatives that he thinks may possibly be Dark, but is generous enough to spare those he knows isn't.

The next morning, everyone is panicking and over a fourth of the population in Wizarding Britain had died overnight. There's whispers of a new Dark Lord or possibly a ruthless vigilante. They never point fingers towards Harry Potter: why, that would be just absurd. He was Light and their hero.

Harry himself smiles and gives himself a pat on the back for a job well done. He doesn't bother putting away the Death Note anymore: not when darkness can rear its ugly head at any moment and threaten his peaceful world.

Speaking of which, maybe the reporters who had slandered his names many years back should disappear too, along with several politicians blocking the way for that bill he wanted passed. After all, this was his perfect world, and there was no place for liars and bigots.

And definitely no place for murderers, of course—but Harry's already killed all of them.

Did you notice? The Horcrux in Harry's body wasn't destroyed.

One paragraph I took out, because I liked where I ended more:
In another world altogether, a shinigami laughed. The supposed saviour's actions is almost more interesting than what Raito had done. It was too bad, really: it would have been even more interesting if this place had an L.

Let me know if I've made any grammar or formatting mistakes.