Story Name: Of Curses and Shadows
Summary: What if there was a dark secret in Harry's family? A secret that left Harry not completely human?
Prologue: The Darkness of History
The Darkness wasn't capable of impatience. If it had been, it probably would have burst of it sometime during its centuries of waiting. As it was, it waited, unchanged by the constant flitting from host to host, waiting for something that at long last would allow it to burst forth in all its dark glory. Sometimes during its history, the host caused it to stir; to hover on the edge of awaking, but always the host never did more than that, causing the Darkness to retreat back into the depths of the host.
Then, IT had happened; at long last, energy had poured into it, awaking it fully, sending bolts of lightning through it. It had jetted to full consciousness, just in time to see death hurling towards itself and its host. Luckily, the Darkness was not subject to such things as panic. Instead it merely surveyed its surroundings. It, and its host body, were currently surrounded by a simmering shield of some sort; this shield was all that stood between the host body and the approaching maelstrom of magical death. Had it been able to, it would have snarled; it refused to be destroyed, just after the waiting had finally ended, and it was able to live! It lunged forward, bracing itself against the shield, prepared to spend all the power it was capable of summoning to protect itself, and by extension, its host, against death itself.
Then the magic hit. Instantly, the shield bowed under the pressure, nearly snapping before It rushed to support the pressured area. For a crucial moment, the shield gave, allowing a small part of the magic through, hitting the host body before It could intervene. The Darkness however, had no time to take notice of this; all its attention and strength was devoted to holding the shield in place. The shield bent further and further, even with the support of the Darkness, until it was certain the shield would snap under the pressure. Suddenly, without any sort of waning or warning, the pressure was gone as if it had never been.
For a few moments, the Darkness still braced itself against the shield expecting for the pressure to return at any minute. However, the expected pressure did not return, and it detached itself from the now-battered shield to inspect the damage. As it had expected, a considerable part of its own energies had been drained by the encounter, but that mattered little. Already, its stores of energies were beginning to refill. Next, it checked on the host. The host was mostly undamaged, save for a curious marking on its forehead, which practically buzzed with magic of the darkest sort. Taking a closer look, the Darkness noted that the magic didn't seem to be harmful anymore; it was already beginning to fade. However, it seemed to have had a serious effect on the mind of the host. It seemed to have altered it in some way that it couldn't understand completely. But, the change didn't seem to be harmful in any way; in fact, It surmised that, if left alone, they might be very handy in the distant future.
Finally, It turned back to study the shield. During the attack, the shield had taken a severe beating; the Darkness was therefore unsurprised to see that the shield was vastly weaker than before and most unlikely to survive another attack of that magnitude. However, it, after a moment's thought, concluded that it still could be of some purpose. It reached out to the shield, and pulled it in, blinding it into the skin of the host, intertwining flesh, blood, and bone with the tattered remains of the shield. After getting it started, the Darkness was able to leave the shield to itself, merely watching as the shield wove itself in-between and through the outer layers of the host. It was a very complex piece of magic, almost as complex as Itself; through quite different in purpose.
No matter; It had business of its own to accomplish before it could rest. It dived deep into the host, searching, looking; it had to find the perfect place or it might not be able to work to its full potential. There! It swooped into the place filling it totally, beginning to send out dark tentacles of power from the place. Like the shield before it, It began to merge with the host; unlike the shield, however, It's own merging was far deeper, more complex, and had an entirely different purpose in mind. As the merging continued, the Darkness allowed itself to drift away a little; there was no need for It to direct every movement of the merging with the host. Indeed, there was very little need for it now; It had done It's purpose to the letter. Now, it could feel itself beginning to unravel, becoming one with the host. It's last coherent thought was that the waiting was finally over.