I know Ron is universally hated here so I came up with what I hope is a good idea.

Basically, Harry, Ron, and Hermione have found the first Horcrux. They go to retrieve it, they obviously have to go through some obstacles before they reach the horcrux. They finally reach it and Ron in all his stupidity grabs the horcrux without thinking of any possible traps. A curse appears and strikes Ron. What happens next is pretty much Rons' gruesome death from the curse.(If you are feeling sadistic I was thinking skin melting off, organs deteriorating, immense pain, etc)

In typical Harry fashion he blames himself. He blames himself for not being smart enough to counter the curse, for not stopping Ron, etc. So Harry decides to put off the Horcrux hunt and goes back to Howarts to learn all he can. Harry figures that it was his lack of knowledge in the Dark Arts that Ron died so he decideds that next time he will be prepared.

All Harry's life becomes is learning magic. Everything from Light to Dark, Charms to Transfiguration.

His dive into the darker side of magic obviously wouldn't sit well with Hermione. It may even force her to end their friendship until as she would put it "come to your senses."

Molly Weasley would no doubt be a wreck. In fact I picture her blaming Harry for "forcing" him to go with him. A nice way to end his acquaintance with the red heads.

I also thought about the possibility of using the Chamber to study the Dark Arts. I actually had a thought about that...Harry goes to the chamber and finds a journal written by Voldemort that he left there when Dumbledore turned him down for the teaching position. The journal is full Voldemort's thoughts, various spells from around the world, the location of one of his Horcurxes and the spells surrounding it, etc.

 

That's very much a fanon concept. As far as I remember, Harry partly blames himself but shifts most of the blame onto Snape. The whole emo-ing self-blame thing is largely fanon-induced I think.

No. Harry's mind-frame would at this point be focussed solely on the retrieval and destruction of the horcruxes. If anything, Ron's death will strengthen his resolve as he has seen both Dumbledore and Ron fall foul of the horcruxes. Was it all for nothing? If anything, he will refuse to let Hermione help him anymore.

This doesn't make sense. Remember, Harry has been moulded to hate the Dark Arts. While I agree that a motive is required to swing his mind-frame, this is not anywhere near good enough - even if the logic did work (which it doesn't). If anything, it will make him veer even further from the Dark Arts as it was the darkest of Dark Art which killed Ron.

Irony is sweet.

No again. It may even bring them closer together. She's not stupid. She realises the loss of Ron bears almost as heavily on Harry as it does her sons. To be perfectly honest with you, I'm getting a sneaky suspicion that you've been reading one too many poorly constructed fanfics...

Eh...it's been done a lot of times. And anyway, why would he go back there freely? It just doesn't make sense - the Room of Requirement serves that function and it has nice chairs to boot.

All in all, this is very ropey. I'm afraid to say you haven't laid any new ideas onto the table. Alright, let's ignore that. After the first few (generic) chapters of following this plot-line, where does the author go? Follow the same weathered path they've already hiked up?

Next time, think it through properly.

 

Ron dieing in book 7 is bretty much a given with all the foreshadowing in book 1 (the chessboard). He'll probably sacrifice himself gaining Harry the needed advantage to win Voldemort with the power of hes love (Book 5 ending)

Just replace the found Horcrux with a trap by Voldemort (contact that was supposed to give information regarding the location of a Hordrux), would be more interesting. You could even have Snape head the attack and personally kill Ron.

Molly wouldn't really be blaming Harry, but it would certainty increase tensions among any Weasley-Harry relationship, presto no Ginny or the Twins

The split with Hermione over Rons death and the subsequent vengeance has been kind of a plot point in my fic-that-will-never-be-published. Its a good idea but it needs more work as Hermione is more likely to stick by Harry after Rons death no mater what, so it has to be Harry that does all the pushing away.

If your looking for a bit more original approach to a dark Harry add a bit of Punisher-stile questioning instead of convenient Veritas or The Pain curse that leaves no psysical mark.

And one more thing, if someone needs Harry to discover a load of spells he'd better use them.

-Any of this more appealing?

 

I agree with the people above.

How about instead of just Ron dying, you throw in Hermione also. You mentioned that she would break her friendship with Harry, so killing her off might be the best idea.

Why? I think that if Harry sees two of his friends get killed, he would snap. Insanity is a sweet, sweet thing. It opens up a whole new realm of possibilities that you could use to mold Harry into a dark/gray wizard.

Don't include the Chamber of Secrets in Harry's studies. That's something that's been way overdone.

Start off small. Make Harry use a weak dark spell first, and then build up from there.

 

Why not have Ron die earlier...

Early in Book 5 is Ron and Harry sneaking around Hogwarts following some Slytherin when Ron is hit by a Dark Curse.

The Slytherin taunts Harry by saying that it is simple to reverse the curse if you know the Counter Curse but since Harry does not know it will Ron die.

The teachers are to late to save Ron and Harry blames himself for not knowing the counter curse so he starts to research in his Defence against the Dark Arts books to learn the counter curse only to not find the spell.

He finally starts to search dark arts books for the spell to see if he can find the counter curse that way.

This triggers Harry to learn dark arts, not to use but so he will recognise the
spells used against him and know their counter curses.


For me would this be a more realistic idea of Harry slowly being corrupted by the dark arts...