chapter 2.

Birth of a Nightmare Man

Summary: Prequel to The Nightmare Man. How did Harry Potter become a feared lord of ancient times? Here we'll see the start of it.

Pairing/s: None.

Warnings: Violence, gore, dark!Harry and evil!Harry. Seriously, for quite a bit he's not friendly at all with humans. Be warned.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money writing this or any other fanfiction.

-o-

Yes, new chapter! No, it's not April's fool day with no writing, it's a real chapter. Yay!

So thank you for all the reviews, I wasn't quite expecting that response but shows how wrong one can be!

Harry is still quite sane in this chapter, but sooner or later that will change…

Enjoy reading!

-o-

Chapter Two

A year and four months had passed since Harry was locked up without trial due to Dumbledore's belief he was still a Horcrux and Voldemort was going to take over his brain or whatever, and Harry was evolving. Into what? He didn't know yet, but he wasn't afraid of himself anymore.

A formal complaint from George to the Ministry made the conditions at Azkaban better, as half of the guards were found guilty of torturing the prisoners. They were fired from their positions and the remaining guards made the showers regular again. This time the prisoners showered alone, and were allowed a few minutes of complete privacy. Harry loved it, showers every three days with no one looking at him. He had gotten taller by several inches despite the lack of nutrient food, but that also meant he gained no weight and was so thin one of the guards had taken the habit to get him a nutrient potion every other meal. That same guard was the only one who had never done him any harm.

He had new robes too, since autumn was coming and his old ones were falling to pieces. George had to take a guess to the measurements and apparently everyone tried to talk him out of getting them for Harry in the first place. Something about 'not wasting money on criminals', to which George laughed in their faces and got two pairs of robes instead of one.

The cell door opened and Harry looked over to see a Dementor come inside. The face that once had frightened him so was now a precious sight and he set aside the tiny Muggle chess set George gave him a month ago.

The Dementors came every day, and now they were doing something else than just comforting him; they taught him their words, their speech. He also learnt what they called him.

They didn't call him Harry. George suggested 'evil, dark lord' but it wasn't that either. Not even simple Potter or child or something like that, no, they called him 'Maker'.

Harry had tried to ask why but the Dementors weren't big on explaining that and just kept on calling him 'Maker' while petting his hair or touching his face. They were fond of him, that much was clear. If someone had told Harry before he went to Azkaban that a Dementor could be cuddly, he'd note those people down as insane and stay clear off them.

Now maybe he was the insane one but he didn't mind. He liked the Dementors, and they obviously liked him if the nuzzling was anything to go by.

He let the Dementor speak, listening to the words and recognizing a few of them. It was hard to learn them, difficult to speak and impossible to write down, but he trained.

"Um mate, you two need a minute alone?"

"I'm not going to kiss a Dementor," Harry told George. "You're early."

"I can't be early now?" the redhead said. "Get over here, and tell your Dementor to not breathe down my neck again."

"Sure."

George settled down and handed over some sweets and food, still hot. Harry took the food and tore into it.

"Water too," George said. "You're like a stick, and not in a good way. You're not getting the potions anymore?"

"Someone made a fuss about it, I told him not to risk his job. Did you know that guard has four kids at home?"

"Maybe that's why he's so nice to you," George said.

"Hasn't stopped your mother from hating me."

"Alright, so she's mental and he's a good parent. I'll see if I get my hands on some nutrient potions, I know mine weren't that good in school."

"Snape yelled at you?"

"He'd given up at that point."

"How are things going with the Ministry?" Harry wondered.

"Forward," George replied. "Slowly. I didn't know, but did you know that apparently you got a trial?"

"No, I did not know," Harry said. "Did I plead guilty?"

"It was determined that you were a danger to yourself and to others, and that locking you up at St Mungo's wasn't good enough because at any moment lil' Voldemort could come crawling out of your skull or something so you were put in Azkaban until further notice."

"Wow. Did Dumbledore just bullshit all that together?"

"You have to admit, he's good."

"Or everyone else are idiots," Harry said as they set up the Muggle chess.

"At least he didn't paint you as evil."

"No, he only threw me into prison and forgot I existed. That's a lot better. I'd prefer being called evil whilst being free. These chains are bugging me."

Not only did they keep Harry from using magic, they also hurt his wrists at times. He could deal with the pain; it was the absence of magic that drove Harry crazy. He felt naked without it, knew it was still deep inside of him but whenever he tried to access it the pain worsened until it was throbbing throughout his whole body.

"I can only imagine, mate."

"My wand…"

He hadn't asked about his wand before. But it was his wand, his and if it was gone…

"It's on display," George said. "Next to Voldemort's. At the Ministry."

"Why?"

"Two of the most powerful wands in the whole world? They want to show off I guess."

"As long as they don't break it. What about this fake trial, you know anything else?"

"It's filled with evidence of you going dark well before you started chasing down the Horcruxes, and some nonsense how Hermione and Ron were controlling your 'darker urges'…"

"That makes me sound like a pervert doing very wrong things; did they take that from their own evenings in their bed?"

George choked on his breath and said:

"No, no, you did not just plant that in my head! Oh Merlin, you did! You're evil, so totally evil, I don't even want to think of Ron and sex at the same time!"

Harry only shrugged and grinned at him.

"Anyway," George said once he got over whatever mental images Harry's words had conjured, "there is also a whole jury who voted for you going to prison. Only they never were part of a jury, and they certainly didn't allow Dumbledore to use their names."

"And?"

"Half of them are willing to go to the Ministry," George added and grinned. "They'll raise a fuss about it, and the Ministry will realize Dumbledore's huge trial never happened. It'll still take months, mate, but it's starting to move."

"About time," Harry said. "Checkmate."

"Oi, when the hell did you get better at chess?"

"We've been playing for over a year. I'm bound to pick up a trick or two."

-o-

Albus Dumbledore was at the school, a new year had just started up when he received some visitors.

Amelia Bones, a witch who had survived a murder attempt by Voldemort himself just before the war broke out, and two Aurors. Amelia was the new Minister of Magic and so far had given Dumbledore and his Order no problems. However, she was also one who sided with Harry James Potter and so she was always a visit Dumbledore feared.

"Amelia," he said nonetheless, rising up from his seat. "How lovely to see you."

"It's Ministry business," she said.

"Oh. Well, take a seat."

"No, I won't be long."

She settled her eyes on him and Dumbledore felt a bead of sweat at his hairline.

"I was visited by five witches and wizards that had a very interesting tale for me."

"Is that so?" Dumbledore said.

"Five of your so called jury members."

No…

"There never was a trial for Harry James Potter," Amelia continued, merely raising an eyebrow as Dumbledore tried to speak. The elderly man fell silent. "I will personally look up every piece of evidence you gave the new Ministry from your faked trial, and then I will personally question Harry James Potter himself. He has been in prison for over a year without a single reason stating why."

"Minister Bones, I assure you, there are reasons…"

"You faked a trial, Albus Dumbledore, to imprison a child who saved our world from Voldemort," Amelia said. "You lied to me, and I will not forget that. Once this has all been cleared up, the Ministry will collect Harry from prison and see how his version goes."

She then left without a goodbye, leaving Dumbledore stunned and panicking.

He couldn't allow Harry out from Azkaban. Harry needed to be put under strict control, and by now he was probably weak from malnutrition and the presence of Dementors, but he still wasn't ready to be locked up in the new prison Albus was making. It would look like freedom and Harry would be too mentally weak to say against it.

But if Amelia went through with this… if she let Harry go…

No, she couldn't! Shouldn't the fact that Albus suspected that Voldemort lived inside of Harry still be enough to still her actions? Why wasn't it enough?!

Something had to be done. How had she even found out? Albus had made sure to use names of people who did not associate with the Ministry, so how did they know he had used them?

It only got worse after that visit. Over the following weeks, Amelia Bones' attack against the trial ripped it wide open and the public learnt that their good headmaster of Hogwarts had tricked them.

They demanded a real trial before their Minister could even start to pick at the faked evidence. They demanded for Harry Potter to speak for himself, and then the letters began pouring into Albus' office.

It was quite aggravating. Couldn't they see he was trying to do the right thing, protecting them from Harry and protecting Harry from himself? In Azkaban, he could do no harm with those chains suppressing his magic and no harm could be done to him. It was quite sad to hear about the guards who tortured the prisoners, and Dumbledore had supported the decision to let them go. The prisoners were no doubt evil men and women but they were locked up. There was no need to hurt an already imprisoned person.

He did admit if Severus Snape had survived he would also be in Azkaban. He would never have let Albus place the boy Potter there, he would have, Merlin forbid, spoken up for the lad. Severus was led astray by his love to Lily Potter and was ready to defend her son only due to that. But Severus hadn't survived, he had died a noble death and Dumbledore did honour his actions in the war. No sense in not doing it, after all Severus had given the light side a winning chance.

But no matter what, Dumbledore could not allow Harry Potter out of Azkaban just yet. He knew of no methods to remove a Horcrux from a living being without killing them and killing the last Potter was a waste. He had so much potential, Harry, or at least his genes had. Paired off with the lovely Ginny Weasley, their children would be powerful.

He had to do something.

-o-

Albus knew keeping George away from Azkaban wouldn't work again. He had tried to keep up with it, warning Molly and Arthur so they did it too but George slipped through their fingers and spent hours at that place.

He never came to any of the Order meetings, never spoke to his parents or siblings with the exception of Bill, who wasn't even in the country and therefore weak to the suggestions of Fleur, a woman who had always liked Harry. Oh, and Charlie too, but Charlie at least had no opinion of Harry as he barely knew the lad.

The death of his brother weighed on him, naturally. Perhaps he thought he did society some good by talking to Harry? Perhaps he tried to get away from his grief-stricken family, but the Weasleys were healing.

Ron was already becoming an upstanding citizen of the magical world, and he and Hermione had already started a family. People like them were the backbone to the new future Dumbledore could see slowly blooming.

Plus Hermione helped Albus in his cause to spread awareness of Harry as a Horcrux. She pointed out several traits that guided some people to be convinced Harry was Voldemort's Horcrux, never mind the fact that they hadn't seen or heard him express those traits since Voldemort's death. He hid them obviously; with Voldemort's help to try and sell he wasn't a Horcrux anymore.

Albus watched his Order now, all of them discussing how to keep Harry away from the public, for their sake and for his own. Harry was powerful, he was the one to kill Voldemort after all, but they all knew his weakness against Legilimens. He had no protection against intrusions into his mind so Voldemort could already be in there, slowly poisoning the poor lad and erasing all he once was.

The headmaster contemplated on visiting Harry again but would he dare to look Harry in the eyes if Voldemort was in there? If he caught a sniff of Dumbledore's plans for Harry's future life, a limited-freedom life, he might do something that would release Harry from Dumbledore's grasp and that was simply not acceptable.

-o-

The winter came cold and unforgiving at Azkaban and George smuggled in some thick blankets to Harry, who had gotten a chest infection and spent much of their time coughing and using the walls as support.

"Here," George said one time, "managed to get a nice potion for that nasty infection of yours. It'll help a lot, and then you need to keep yourself bundled up. Shame those Dementors of yours can't provide any heat."

Harry drank the potion and grimaced.

"Yeah, shame," he croaked.

"Why don't they have windows to these cells?"

"Because that would make us prisoners comfortable," Harry said. "Hey, would you pass one of these along to Rabastan?"

"To the man whose sister-in-law killed Sirius?" George asked.

"Yes. He's mellowed out, and I promise he won't bite."

"Are you becoming friends with Death Eaters?"

"Just him, George. A good blanket will keep his complaints to a minimum too."

George shook his head but went over to Rabastan Lestrange's cell with a blanket in his hand. The man took the offered blanket and retreated into the darkness of his own cell. A mutter, 'Thanks', was barely heard over the wind outside.

He caught a good look of Harry when he turned around. A year and a half in prison could change a person. George never realized how much until now. Molly had once said that Harry would grow up to look just like James.

But he hadn't. George had seen pictures of James Potter and Harry looked nothing like his father. The hair was long and sleek, his face almost gaunt and his stature tall and thin. Only the glasses reminded George of who he was looking at, and the faint scar on Harry's forehead.

"What?" Harry said.

"Nothing, I'm just looking forward to the day I can get you out and have you eat a decent meal."

"Yeah, you and me both. How it's going for the Minister? It's Amelia Bones, right? I like her."

"She's combing through the fake trial and taking it all apart. She's doing it to have a rock solid case that Dumbledore is a filthy liar no matter what his reasons were."

"Good."

"Did you even know why he threw you in here?"

"Because he thinks Voldemort's in me."

"That's it? That's the sole reason why you are here?"

"Does he need anything else?" Harry said. "You've told me what Hermione said about me. All those signs that I was a Horcrux. Well, I can't talk to snakes now. I can't see Voldemort's mind because Voldemort is dead. I know it because I died and I came back to life while leaving his soul piece behind."

"Why didn't Dumbledore have you say that while under the influence of Veritaserum?"

"Because he has plans and no one interferes with his plans. I was part of his plans since I was a baby, he's never going to let go of me."

"Someone needs to tell him how to let go of things," George muttered.

-o-

It was hard to avoid his own mother when she came to the shop. George could have faked something, an emergency that meant no Molly bloody Weasley could follow him but figured it would be easier just to talk to her for a few minutes before having her escorted out if she made a scene.

Molly Weasley was really good at making scenes. Or screaming. She was good at screaming too. He'd know, she'd screamed a lot at him and Fred when they grew up. If someone made screaming into an art, she'd win first price without even trying. Impressive lungs, he'd give her that.

"George, dear?" she began. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, mum," he said, weaving through customers. It was still this crowded with students at Hogwarts? Well, it was nearing the holidays, and some of them looked too old or too young to go to Hogwarts.

"Anyone new in your life?" she continued.

"No, mum, I haven't met anyone. Busy with the shop and all."

He had even hired two assistants who helped out and kept the shop up and running when he visited Harry. He had made sure to get two people who didn't mind that, and who believed George when he said Harry wasn't insane.

"George, was it you who alerted the Minister about the trial?" Molly wondered.

"Mum, Harry deserves a trial. He hasn't done anything wrong."

"Haven't you listened to anything Albus said? You-Know-Who is…" Here she pulled him closer and whispered, rather over-dramatic in his eyes, "He is inside of Harry."

"I think Harry knows that better than Albus Dumbledore."

"George! Don't use that tone, Albus is a kind man who only wants what's best for everyone."

"Wants what's best? Mum, the boy you used to go to all lengths to protect is locked up in a tiny, cold cell surrounded by Dementors. He's locked up and he keeps getting sick and he's underweight. Albus Dumbledore doesn't want his best. Albus Dumbledore is killing Harry. Now let me go before I have you thrown out."

"You-Know-Who is using you, he's taken over Harry and he's using you to get away!" Molly hissed, trailing close behind. "He's manipulating you, isn't he? Using evil, magic tricks!"

"Magic tricks? Mum, Harry can't use magic. None of the prisoners can, and frankly, that was a lame attempt on trying to get me back to your side. Leave the shop, or I'll call the Aurors on you."

George walked away and missed Molly's calculating look.

She knew if Albus said Harry had been erased by Voldemort, then he had. The sweet boy she loved and cared for was gone, his face taken over by a monster who was now trying to hurt her precious son.

Oh, she wouldn't let that happen. If she had to, Molly would take care of Voldemort himself…

Tbc…

Uh-uh, this doesn't bode too well for Harry does it?

Chapter three: Harry meets Molly Weasley, and boy has she a surprise in store for him. The consequences of this alert Amelia Bones.