Everything is J.K. Rowlings. I only claim the plot. Everything else is hers, all the characters and the magic, all of it. Please let me know what you think though, I encourage feedback of all kinds, just be nice about it!

So, second chapter. I know it's right after the first but I like posting the first two at the same time just to give a better understanding of the story. And plus the first chapter is pretty short. So, hope you like it!

"What is Happening?"

Groaning, Harry opened his eyes. He was stiff and achy. What the hell had happened? Everything was so fuzzy in his head. He remembered being in a fevered, itchy, pain for the past few weeks and then suddenly it was all great. Was the tattoo real? And then — wait did his Uncle die? Wait...did he kill his Uncle? He groaned again and blinked his eyes to clear them a bit. After a few blinks, he was able to see clearly again, once again pleased that he didn't need glasses anymore.

Though once he took in the sight of where he was, Harry began wishing he couldn't see after all. It was like he was in some kind of cage or dungeon or prison or a combination. There were three walls of solid stone that looked dark and damp and then the fourth wall was comprised of prison bars. There was a torch near where the bars met with the stone wall but Harry could tell from where he sat that the torch would be just out of reach. Speaking of sat, Harry realized it wasn't exactly sitting so much as bound and tied to a chair.

Harry gave an experimental tug and winced as the rope strands dug deeper into his wrists. He was still only in the boxers he had worn out of the bathroom and goosebumps were appearing on his skin from the dank and chill air. Where was he? He couldn't see anyone, which didn't mean there wasn't anyone. Was he actually in prison? He thought Moody had arrived but maybe that had been part of his fevered dream state and it was someone else. Was he in Azkaban? He didn't think it likely. He would have at least had a trial and then he would have been given prison garb.

If he was with the Death Eaters Harry was sure he would have been woken up to torture. So if he was with the Order why was he tied to a chair and behind bars? "Hello?" he called out deciding that finding out what was happening was worth the risk. If it was Death Eaters at least he would know for sure and then he could plan his escape accordingly.

No one responded but there was the sound of a door being opened and then it sounded like footsteps coming downstairs. A couple of footsteps. So, multiple people...Harry mused. He hadn't realized there had been stairs in the room either. Good to know, he thought inwardly.

"Ah!" Harry cried out as the entire room was suddenly alight with glowing balls of light floating in the air. Blinking once again to try to get his eyes focused, Harry tried to examine who had arrived. Moody, Dumbledore, and Kingsley and some woman that Harry didn't recognize.

"Harry, I'm glad that you are awake now," Dumbledore spoke, his voice was still gentle and if he wasn't tied to a chair with bars separating them, Harry might have been more willing to buy the grandfather act.

"Professor, what's happening?" He rushed out. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. His Uncle had died and Harry was pretty sure he had done it. Maybe they had thought he was possessed and was tying him up just to be sure. Professor Dumbledore would clear it all up though. "Please, sir. What is going on? Why am I tied up? I promise I'm not possessed or anything."

"Yes, my boy, and that is what is most troubling."

"What?" Nerves twisted in his gut and trepidation started to grow but Harry still clung to the hope that this could all be sorted. "What's happening, please?"

"What's happening is that you are Dark, Potter," Moody growled out in disgust.

Harry gaped. "Are you serious? How can you say that? It's me! Harry. I'm just Harry. I'm not Dark," he pleaded, still finding it hard to believe he was having to do so in the first place. "Is this about my Uncle? I swear I don't know what happened. If anything it was an accident. But I'm not Dark."

"It is about your Uncle, my boy, but more importantly it is what you have become. But don't worry, my boy. We will take care of it. Just trust us."

Harry's mind was racing. What was Dumbledore talking about? His Uncle had been an accident. He wasn't Dark! How was Dumbledore going to take care of it? All four people on the other side of the bars raised their wands and Harry felt panic bubbling within him.

"We are going to bind the evil within you, Potter. Hold still. It's going to hurt," Moody growled and almost sounded pleased about the pain it would cause.

"No stop! Don't! I'm not Dark! What is happening?" Harry screamed out, his hysteria building as the four wands began to glow a sickly yellow as the four began to chant something that Harry couldn't fully hear or understand. "NO!" He screamed and again he felt the icy fire spreading throughout his body and dancing across his skin. His fear pushing the sensation past his body like a blurred heat wave towards the four. The four all stumbled at the impact and their wands were lowered.

Kingsley and the woman fell to their knees while Dumbledore and Moody fell back towards where the stairs were. Harry watched with a detached calm though he was still panicked enough to fuel whatever it was that he had sent to the adults. He watched with a disembodied interest as Kingsley seemed to be able to push himself farther away as the woman fell further to the floor, her skin starting to tinge grey. Harry felt that heady power high rush his head once again as the woman gave one last strangled gasp and collapsed.

"Demon!" The shout from Moody brought Harry out of his high-like trance and he blinked once again suddenly feeling incredibly exhausted. What the HELL had just happened? What had he done? Had he just killed that woman like he had killed his Uncle? Was he actually Dark like Dumbledore had claimed? Because again he didn't feel guilty about the woman's death. The three wizards stood on the stairs facing Harry who was looking at them with confused eyes and panic and also a fair amount of rage over having had wands trained on him again. "Crucio!" Moody spat suddenly and Harry screamed out as the spell hit him dead-on. Being tied to the chair both helped and worsened the spell. He wasn't able to flail about and twist his limbs but the twisting and writhing just made the ropes dig deeper into this skin.

Gasping when the curse was lifted he barely took three breaths before he was hit again. The pain was excruciating, it was comparable to when Voldemort had held him under. Moody hit him twice more before he was finally given a respite.

"Why?" Harry croaked, his head lolling to the side as blood dripped from his mouth from having bit his tongue and lips under the curse.

"It is for the Greater Good, my boy. We can't have you Dark," Dumbledore said almost sadly before the three men left the room, plunging Harry into the darkness broken only by the solitary torch.

Hermione Granger knew something foul was happening and she would bet her favorite edition of Hogwarts, A History that it had something to do with Harry. But she couldn't figure it out and it was frustrating her to no-end and filling her with endless worry. Thankfully, Ron, the twins, and Ginny seemed to be sharing in her concern. Something had been wrong all summer, starting from when the Headmaster had once again forbidden communication with Harry. Hermione and the others had all protested this. Sirius had just died! Harry needed someone now more than ever, but the Headmaster had insisted. Well, in a fit of rebellion Hermione and Ron had enlisted the twins to help get a letter out of Grimmauld Place.

The Headmaster had simply collected the letter mid-flight from the owl and given the four an incredibly long-winded speech about how dangerous and foolish they were being and to simply trust him that Harry was fine. They would see him soon. Having been caught red-handed and appropriately shamed for the moment, they had given in. Then two weeks ago, Ron had brought up Harry's birthday and if they should send his presents or would he be with them by then to give him the presents in person. The Headmaster had again denied their requests, saying they could just give him the presents late. Hermione did not like that idea at all but she and the four youngest Weasleys had been stumped on how to circumvent the Headmasters' wishes to actually get the presents to Harry. They had brainstormed for the rest of the two weeks, coming up short on all accounts.

Finally conceding that they would just have to give him his presents when he arrived and profusely apologize and hope his forgiving nature would accept it. However, on Harry's birthday, there had been a sudden mad flurry of activity just after breakfast when the Headmaster and Moody had fled the dining room. It was because something had happened to Harry, Hermione knew it. She just couldn't prove it.

And then that night, the twins had commented how the Headmaster, Moody, Kingsley, and some other Order woman had disappeared into the basement and only the three wizards had returned all murmuring together. Their Extendable Ears had picked up: 'how to bind him', 'one so powerful', 'there is no helping him now', 'a Necromancer!'.

The twins had brought their eavesdropped information to Hermione and Ron who had been laying on Hermione's bed discussing Harry with Ginny in the next bed over. The five teenagers could only speculate on what that all meant.

"Guys, can you silence the room?" Ron asked after the information had been relayed. Being of age, the twins were the only ones who could actually use magic outside of school. The two had complied without any banter, unusually serious.

"We have to get into that basement," Ginny finally announced. "We have to find out what is happening. Something doesn't feel right and it has to do with Harry. We need to help him and the first step is getting into that basement."

"Agreed," Hermione said with a nod. "But we need to do surveillance first, find out when we can go in without getting caught and see if there are any wards put up."

"Luckily the basement door is right-"

"Near the dining room and -"

"Library doors. It will be easy to-"

"Keep an eye on it and not arouse suspicion," the twins said, bouncing off each other.

"Yeah, so we just need to make sure one of us is always watching it during the day," Ron summarized. "And Hermione, you might want to start researching what you can about Necromancers."

That conversation had been held three days ago and the five had kept good on their word, watching the comings and goings of the three wizards. Discovering that either Kingsley or Moody would enter after everyone had gone to sleep and then at least one of them would go down sometime before or after lunch. Dumbledore never went back down to the basement but always met with the wizard who went down after lunch immediately upon their return.

During that time, Hermione had scoured the Black Library trying to find anything to do with Necromancy but most of the books only briefly mentioned it, stating it had died out centuries ago and has been a Family Magic passed down until the family had died out or stopped meeting the requirements. What the requirements were, Hermione couldn't figure out. The only decisive information she could find was the symbol that represented a Necromancer. A simple crown atop a large circle which held a triangle encompassing a smaller circle with a straight line dividing the triangle in half.

On the fourth day, it had been decided that Ron and Hermione would sneak into the basement an hour before dinner with the twins and Ginny standing guard and ready to provide a distraction if needed. They hoped that their chosen time would provide them with enough time since the lunchtime visit and then they could mingle with the dinner crowd once the investigation was done and sneak back in.

At four forty-five, Hermione casually put her book down on the end table near her chair and stretched, signaling Ron to give up the pretense of revising his summer homework and join her. The twins and Ginny were casually huddled together over a game of chess but Hermione noted their alert postures as they watched Ron and Hermione leave the Library. Luckily the hallway was empty and having determined that there were no obvious spells or wards blocking entry the previous day, Hermione and Ron slipped past the door and hoped that they hadn't sent off any alerts.

Quietly the two crept down the stone stairs, Hermione saw a lone torch flickering about midway through the dark room. "Homenum Revelio," she whispered. The twins had lent the two their wands so that they could cast magic if they needed to without alerting the Ministry. She was using Fred's wand and it felt odd in her hand. She knew that technically the magic engulfing the house would probably be enough to cover any magic she and Ron might use, but the five had decided it was a necessary precaution to take since they didn't actually know what was in the room.

The spell showed that there was only one other person in the room.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw Ron and held up one finger. He nodded and regripped the wand in his hand. "Lumos," he whispered just before she did. They sent their balls of light out and into the room. It wasn't a large room. Pretty bare, though the dank chill crept across her skin causing her to shiver. There was only one thing really in the room. And it was a person, a man, bound to a chair and behind bars in just a pair of dingy blue boxers. The person strapped to the chair moaned and their head was weakly raised at the sudden light.

Hermione gasped. It was Harry! And he looked awful like he had been tortured. Running down the final steps with Ron right behind her, the two rushed for the bars. "Harry, mate, what's happened?" Ron asked, his voice slightly hysterical sounding as he gazed at the beaten, half-naked form of his best friend.

"R-on?" kHarry croaked in a hoarse whisper.

"Yeah, mate, it's me. What the bloody hell is happening down here?"

Harry just squinted at the two of them as if trying to decide if they were real and if they could be trusted. The fact that Harry had to question their loyalty stung Hermione but she understood that their actions this summer hadn't helped their case. "Here, I have some potions. I took some just in case we found the worse," she said, pulling out three vials from her pocket. "I'm going to levitate them over to you. Just open your mouth for them. One is a pain reliever, one is a calming draught, and the other is a blood replenisher. Will you need the last two?" Harry gave a weak shake of his head. "Ok, just the pain one then." She said, with a stiff nod as she popped the top off the vial and levitated the vial through the bars. Her motions were automatic and fluid while inside her mind was a chaotic mess. Why was Harry tied up? What were Dumbledore, Moody, and Kingsley doing! She took deep breaths as she focused on doing what little she could to help Harry. When the vial reached Harry, he opened his mouth and tipped his head back slightly and she frowned in concentration as she focused on turning the vial upside down, pouring the potion into Harry's mouth. It worked, a little bit of it missed and dribbled down Harry's face and neck but the majority landed in his mouth and he was able to swallow it all.

Ron and Hermione were silent for a moment, allowing for the potion to relieve some of the pain their friend was suffering. They waited for him to speak, watching as he fully lifted his head to stare at the two with piercing green eyes. For some reason, the sight of those eyes vividly reminded Hermione of the Killing Curse. She had always noticed that Harry shared the same color as the curse but it wasn't until now that she actually felt the connection. "So, are you two supposed to be the Good Aurors? Dumbledore and his goons done with the Bad Auror role?"

"What?" Ron asked dumbly. "No, mate, we didn't even know you were down here. We just knew something fishy was happening. And knew it had something to do with you. And we've been trying to help you!"

Hermione grabbed his arm, knowing that Ron got irate when he started to defend himself and that wouldn't help matters. "He's right, Harry. Ron, Fred, George, Ginny and I, we've been trying to contact you all summer. We've tried writing letters but Dumbledore stopped them all. We wanted to send you presents too but he wouldn't let us and we couldn't find a way around it. I swear it, Harry. We have nothing to do with whatever is going on here. Please, believe us."

Harry was silent as he stared at the two of them, while they held their breath and tried to prove their innocence through their eyes alone. "Alright. I'll believe you for now. So you really don't know what is going on?"

They shook their heads sadly. "We kind of hoped whatever was hidden down here would give us the answer and we would be able to tell you all about what we found when you arrived," Ron admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Do you know why you are down here?" Hermione asked timidly.

"They say I'm Dark and they are trying to, I guess, torture it out of me," Harry commented coldly. Hermione gasped. Torture?

"How could they think you were Dark!" Ron spluttered.

"Torture?" Hermione whispered.

"Moody is pretty handy at the Cruciatus," Harry sneered.

"But why!" Ron growled in frustration. Harry shrugged and it was then that Hermione saw it. That mark! The mark on Harry's chest.

"Harry!" She said sharply. "When did you get that?"

He blinked and glanced at his chest. "My birthday. All summer I've been in this feverish pain and it all climaxed on my birthday. When I woke up my eyes were fixed and this mark was on my chest. Do you know what it is?" His question conveyed how hopeful he was that she would have the answer to his problems like she always had in the past.

Weakly Hermione nodded. "It's the mark of a Necromancer," she finally said.

"A Necromancer," Harry breathed, "me?"

"It seems like it," she replied.

"That would explain some things, actually," he sighed.

"But Necromancers died out centuries ago," Ron protested.

"There were two trains of thought, either the family had died out because apparently, it is a Family Magic. And the other was that people just stopped meeting the requirements to become a Necromancer. And no, Harry, I don't know what the requirements were. That's all I could find, actually. Well, that and that mark." She waited while the two boys processed that information. "What did you mean Harry by this explaining things. What things?"

"Well before my birthday I started killing the plants in my Aunts' garden. Not on purpose, but just being near them I guess caused them to start wilting. And then the day of my birthday. My Uncle, well you two know how much he hates me." The two nodded and Hermione felt her gut start to twist, dreading to hear the end of the story. "Well he started going into me again and then, I don't know what happened. Something just came over me and I was strangling him and he was turning grey. And next thing I knew, I was on the ground and he was dead. Moody arrived and stunned me. I woke up here." Harry's eyes were unfocused, staring at the ground in front of him while Ron and Hermione sat as a captive audience. "And then when I woke up, Dumbledore, Moody, Kingsley, and some lady arrived. They started saying how I was Dark and how they were going to take care of it. They raised their wands at me but I panicked and then that feeling occurred again and it was like before. I don't know what happened but I was able to send out this wave or something towards them. The other three managed to escape but the woman didn't. She died too. And that's when Moody started on with the Crucio's."

There was silence as the three processed the information. "You really never do things by half do you mate?" Ron asked with a sigh.

"I didn't mean for any of that to happen. I swear it. I didn't mean to kill that woman or my Uncle. I swear. I don't know how to control it. I don't know what I'm doing. I've only just found out what I apparently am. Please, don't hate me," his last plea was a whisper but in the silence of the room, Hermione and Ron easily heard it and Hermione's heart broke.

"Don't be silly, Harry. Of course, we don't hate you. We stood with you at eleven and we stand with you now. This is just another part of you. It's your magical inheritance, no one has a say in that and those who get them just need the proper training. You are the only Necromancer in the world right now, that we know of. So, of course, you can't control it. You just have to train yourself."

"She's right mate. We are with you. You're my best friend. I'm not going to stand by while you get tortured in the bloody basement! And I know you're not evil, so Necromancy can't be all that bad. Right?"

Harry smiled a little and his eyes were brighter. "Right."

"Harry, do you know what Dumbledore might be planning?" Hermione asked, bringing the focus back in.

He frowned in thought. "They keep talking about binding and needing a fourth. I don't know exactly what though. But I guess they plan on binding my ability and need four wizards to do so, that's why they had that woman before."

Hermione stared in shock. The Headmaster was planning on binding Harry's Necromancy! A magical inheritance couldn't be bound and if it was it would only result in the death of the individual. A magical inheritance was part of them, it was what they were. That couldn't be bound.

"That will kill you!" she whispered horrified.

"Your Necromancy must have realized what was happening that night and fought back, that's why that woman died," Ron mused. "That might be why they are torturing you, trying to weaken you so that when they try again they won't be killed in the process."

Hermione nodded in agreement and Harry's mouth twisted in disgust. "The bloody bastards," he spat. A sudden triple knock on the door above them echoed through the room and Ron and Hermione jumped to their feet. That was the signal.

"We need to get going. We can't get caught," Hermione explained. "We'll get you out of here, Harry. I swear it."

"Stay strong, mate, we won't let you down," Ron agreed as he grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her up the stairs.

Heart pounding at the information she had just learned, Hermione and Ron slipped past the door as casually as she could manage. She spotted Ginny leaning against the wall, she must have been the one who knocked. Fred and George were making a ruckus at the entryway, entertaining the Order members who were arriving. Spotting Dumbledore standing by the crowd, Hermione felt her stomach lurch. She couldn't handle sitting across that man, sharing a meal with him as if nothing had happened. Like he wasn't torturing her best friend beneath their feet.

"I can't do it, Ron," She whispered, grabbing at his hand, her eyes wide. "I can't face him right now."

He gave a grim nod. "I know what you mean. But if I don't go in there it will draw suspicion. I never miss a meal." Hermione was surprised to note how bitter the redhead seemed to be at that statement.

"Cover for me, I'll start figuring out how to help Harry," she whispered before darting up the stairs towards her bedroom. Ron would calm his siblings and keep people from seeking her out. Once in the room, she locked it and pulled out any books she could think of that might help her. Sadly, she couldn't go back to the library until after dinner, but she had brought many of the books with her for late night reading. So hopefully she would find something.

Harry needed them. She would not let him down.