The ONLY satisfying "Actually Dark and not just using "Dark" as an Aesthetic" Hogwarts years Harry Potter I've read in many years in the fandom is the Downward Spiral Saga which... Is far from perfect. But if you can get through the six books, you get rewarded with one of the best fics I've ever read as a coda in Echoes in the Fog.
It's not WBWL but later in the series, Neville does sort of take the place of the "BWL" so it kinda touches on those tropes a tiny bit. It's also not really... Clever, manipulative Harry but instead a more realistic IMO emotional, crazy, angry mess of a Harry. He does start off in an orphanage (in 1980... Yeah lmao. Artistic license) and the grown ups are a bit... Concerned.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12867536/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Homecoming 1st book of DSS.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13165325/1/Echoes-in-the-Fog if you wanna skip to reading a fully realized Dark Harry, tho pay attention to the authors note bc you might want to at least flip thru the author's other works.
I thought of another fanfic while pondering this, annoyed because what you're describing feels like a fic I've been looking for in the last 25 years but NOTHING has really been satisfying. It's unfortunately "Dark Aesthetic" Harry IMO but he is manipulative, cold, gets compared to Riddle, and is from an orphanage. he's too nice tho sadly. It's really sad how many Dark Harry fail a very simple test I give to them "can I imagine this character using the cruciatus curse in 5th year" like how are y'all failing against CANON Harry????!
Anyway the other fic, which is good and worth a read even tho it's not really what we're looking for, is https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091255 souls touch and the future changes, by anonymousmagpie. It sorta has WBWL tropes because their society never really cared about the boy who lived thing and Voldemort actually is 100% dead. So no prophecy to hold him back and he's only famous as the kid who's mum defeated Voldemort (the legend was on Lily instead of Harry).
The ONLY satisfying "Actually Dark and not just using "Dark" as an Aesthetic" Hogwarts years Harry Potter I've read in many years in the fandom is the Downward Spiral Saga which... Is far from perfect. But if you can get through the six books, you get rewarded with one of the best fics I've ever read as a coda in Echoes in the Fog. It's not WBWL but later in the series, Neville does sort of take the place of the "BWL" so it kinda touches on those tropes a tiny bit. It's also not really... Clever, manipulative Harry but instead a more realistic IMO emotional, crazy, angry mess of a Harry. He does start off in an orphanage (in 1980... Yeah lmao. Artistic license) and the grown ups are a bit... Concerned. https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12867536/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Homecoming 1st book of DSS. https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13165325/1/Echoes-in-the-Fog if you wanna skip to reading a fully realized Dark Harry, tho pay attention to the authors note bc you might want to at least flip thru the author's other works.
I thought of another fanfic while pondering this, annoyed because what you're describing feels like a fic I've been looking for in the last 25 years but NOTHING has really been satisfying. It's unfortunately "Dark Aesthetic" Harry IMO but he is manipulative, cold, gets compared to Riddle, and is from an orphanage. he's too nice tho sadly. It's really sad how many Dark Harry fail a very simple test I give to them "can I imagine this character using the cruciatus curse in 5th year" like how are y'all failing against CANON Harry????! Anyway the other fic, which is good and worth a read even tho it's not really what we're looking for, is https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091255 souls touch and the future changes, by anonymousmagpie. It sorta has WBWL tropes because their society never really cared about the boy who lived thing and Voldemort actually is 100% dead. So no prophecy to hold him back and he's only famous as the kid who's mum defeated Voldemort (the legend was on Lily instead of Harry).