One thing that really irks me about a lot of post OOtP fics is that the writer seems to have a need to resurrect Sirius. This usually has no real purpose other than being able to incorporate some of their (oh so cleverly) thought up pranks as filler into the story.
The way Sirius usually "comes back" is usually very... original but not very plausible. Examples can include the veil actually being a huge cryogenic freezer, or even Harry jumping through the veil to return Sirius to the human world.

Another concept that bugs me is that in a lot of fics Harry uses an endless amount of dark magic which never seems to taint his soul at all. In my mind, the drawback for the use of dark magic is that it warps a person's soul and eventually ends up slowly killing them (which is why there is a need for rituals to ensure immortality).

Having said this (or more like ranted about it), here is my idea.
Harry comes back after OOtP (still being the naïve little Gryffindor) and is heartbroken about Sirius's death. Wanting more than anything to get him back Harry turns to necromancy, but doens't know how this magic (the darkest of dark magics) affects his soul. Let's face it, he is rather oblivious to these kinds of things.
Once he resurrects Sirius, he realizes what he has done and how the corruption of his soul cannot be reversed at this stage. And to add insult to injury, the ministry has picked up on his spell usage and Harry is forced to run.

Guidelines and explanations:
* how Harry got the idea of using necromancy must be fully explained by the author as well as the theory behind necromancy (e.g. include different kinds of necromancy etc.)
* Sirius cannot be revived properly unless the author comes up with a feasible explanation as to how Harry found Sirius body. Maybe his soul is revived and he is forced to inhabit others.
* Sirius cannot be returned and act the same as before. His death and the following rituals have probably affected Sirius's soul. The author can even opt to have Sirius returned as a complete lunatic or vegetable (not everything has to be a success).
* Harry can't go back to school
* Harry is on the run, somehow his precautions to alerting others about his magic usage (if you even have him make those, remember canon!harry is an idiot) have to fail and he has to go on the run from both Dumbledore (who thinks Harry is going dark, which he is) and the ministry.
* Harry has to start out as canon!harry but this can be (gradually) changed over time as Harry soul becomes more and more corrupted by the dark magic he does.
* Harry must fight Voldemort (ultimate reason is up to the author, although just the prophecy existing isn't enough)

Allright, I think that's about it.
Just for the record, how often are any of the (must be hundreds of them by now) challenges ever answered? That being said, on the off chance someone does answer this challenge, drop me a line.

Now go forth and find all the plotholes and mistakes I've made

 

I really, really like this idea. Rep for you. I have also been wanting to see realistic consequences to the Dark Arts in a story, as well as showing a gradual change in Harry's demeanor/mindset/personality. (Key word is gradual, if you didn't catch that.) Too many stories, my first attempt included , have Harry learn the Dark Arts within a few months with no negative reactions. Come on! They're labeled Dark for a reason!

The only real thing that I see wrong with this idea is that a Post-OotP Harry, who we all know is a complete dumbass in pretty much everything, is going to evade the Order and Dumbledore for at least a few years. I would suggest him somehow finding a mentor/accomplice that would help him hide and learn this necromancy. Personally, I think that Andromeda Tonks would fit this role perfectly. She's reportedly close to Sirius, was once a Black and her daughter's an Auror. For Nymphy to be an Auror, Andromeda must have done something right, correct? Also, I've always viewed her as a mix between most fanon Narcissas and Sirius--unafraid of using the Dark Arts, provided that she doesn't go too far with them, still a Slytherin to the core, except for the whole, "Gah! Kill all teh Mudbloodz!!1!!3!!!!56%#!!, and she's a bit rebellious, hence her marrying a Muggle.

So, how about this? Come the middle of the Post-OotP summer for Harry, Ted Tonks is killed by Voldemort's forces in a shopping mall or something. Sirius had just died, leaving Andromeda all alone except for her daughter. She comes to Grimmauld Place to be with her, but half the time, Nymphy is out on duty or something, leaving Andromeda all alone in the house except for Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry feels that he needs some alone time to process everything that just happened to him, i.e. Sirius' death, the prophecy, but sees a kindred soul in Andromeda who has just lost Sirius as well as her husband. They begin to hang out together, for lack of a better term, and slowly the idea spawns that it would be possible to bring both of their loved ones back, through a branch of necromancy that some random evil person in Andromeda's family had once spoken about. They begin to research, and then begins your challenge.

Personally, that seems a lot more plausible to me, just because I find it hard to believe that Post-OotP Harry can tie his own shoes, much less learn high-level Necromancy and evade the Order, Dumbledore, Death Eaters and the Ministry. Tell me what you think, because I would really like to read a story like this. Hell, if I wasn't in the middle of one, I just might take this up...

 

That sounds wonderful, I'm a huge fan of Necromany and if I had the talent (and antention span) I'd probably try this one.

 

It is a great idea, I would love to see a clueless Harry running around ranting about how he will fight fire with fire only to find out that everytime he use the dark arts so is his soul corrupted. I would also love to see Andromeda as Harry's mentor.

 

I definitely like the idea, especially the gradual change in Harry and his being effected by the Dark Arts, something a number of authors oh-so-conveniently leave out.

One idea I did have though, to encourage Harry's 'descent into evil,' is that perhaps Sirius came back relatively properly but instead of being Harry's companion, he becomes pissed off at Harry because he had died and gone to heaven (or some sort of blissful equivalent) and Harry pulled him out of there. Sirius gets mad at Harry and tells him, in no uncertain terms, that he hates him.

Harry soon feels as though he has nothing left to live for ( maybe after a bit of filler). After all, he risked everything he had to get his godfather back, and then the godfather, the closest thing to a parent harry has, despises him. Harry runs away from the community, it could be to get away from Dumbledore (who thinks he turned dark) or from the aurors (trying to arrest them) or even (if you want to run with the pussy, canon harry) he feels so shameful about what he does to Sirius that he feels he doesn't deserve to be around his 'beloved, loyal and perfect' friends.

But my idea does have a number of problems, the main one being that if Harry was so ashamed of his dark magic, why would he continue to practice it instead of fighting the corruption. Something would have to be altered to make it fit into the original storyline.



Overall though, definitely a good idea for a story and I can't really see many plot holes in it (none that couldn't be brushed over with a convenient excuse anyway). And to answer your question, not many are answered as far as I know. Any threads that I've seen are often just left alone after a while, although a number of times people have said 'wow, I've written a thousand words of this story already!'. But nothing has really come from that.

 

Hey KANE, your pussy!harry one wouldn't/shouldn't be possible. If he's as corupted by the dark arts as he should be at this point then he couldn't feel all that sorry. After all, he would probably lose that piece of humanity to the taint.. hopefully

 

KANE, can always have your puzzy!Harry not be corrupted enough so that he would still feel sorry about what he had done to sirius, he would then try to fight the corruption but slowly become more angry and gains a tendency to lash out at people who piss him off, but he no longer screams at them, he lash out with dark magic, so everytime he lose control of his emotions does he use dark magic and becomes a little bit more corrupted.

After a few months would he start hating Sirius for not thinking about everything harry had given up to be with sirius again.

 

The idea was that it was before Harry was completely corrupt, that he was on the road to becoming evil but was still close enough to canon harry to be sorry for his 'shamefull, naughty' behaviour. And as the story progresses he loses that petiness and gives into the temptation and becomes fully corrupt.

Yeah this was along the lines of what I was trying to explain. Sorry if I didn't get that accross well.