For those of you who have read or are reading Light in the Shadows this is a back story to it. It is about the time when Yami and the other Shades worked for Voldemort.

I love doing back stories; you don't have to work out what happens because you've already figured it out before. This story is going to be all from Yami's perspective so no chopping and changing like in the original.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Dark Lord

The Shade known to his fellows as Yami had a very large territory. It wasn't surprising to most because he was one of the strongest and oldest of their race. The one thing that bothered him, if only slightly, was the presence of human wizards within the boundaries of his territory.

Fifty years ago they had discovered some kind of spell within their own magic which could discourage a Shade from entering into an area. As such Yami, and almost every other Shade he could contact, now had large inaccessible bubbles in his territory. Yami was twitching around the edge of one now, glaring over the border line at a group of happy children playing with a ball. It was really quite wrong. Yami watched with annoyance as the darkings flitted through the barrier as though it didn't exist, snipping and tasting the magic within that safe little bubble.

Suddenly a surge of emotion caught Yami's attention. Spinning in the general direction of the wave of energy and sensation, Yami called to his darkings. Fear and agony, that was more like it. Though he did wonder what was causing it.

As a general rule humans didn't feel those kind of emotions at that level of intensity without some kind of input, usually a nice chunk of Shade magic. After all if you couldn't induce the emotional energy you fed on then there was no point in using it as an energy source. Yami checked his boundary spells. No Shade had crossed the spells, so whatever was causing the emotion was mortal in origin.

Dementors perhaps, Yami had seen a few more of them recently. Shades and the soul-feeders had a healthy respect for each other. Shades knew that the presence of a few dementors could enhance the fear being felt by their prey, generally humans, though it didn't taste nearly as good as Shade induced fear. While the dementors knew that if they came too close in too greater numbers to a Shade then their darker and more deadly cousins would easily and uncaringly obliterate them.

There was no way that Yami could tell from here what kind of creature was causing these emotions. He would have to wait until he got closer. The boundary spells after all only picked up other Shades. What was the point of detecting and differentiating between other races, they were all just prey and none could really cause any lasting damage to him.

Yami followed the scent of that fear and when he got closer the sense of pain increased dramatically. That was odd. Not a dementor then, as this was physical pain, not emotional pain as Yami had first thought.

Yami quickly pinned down the area where the emotions were coming from. It was a clearing; standing in it was a group of humans. They were all clad in black and they appeared to be torturing another human. They were using their wands, a primitive and vastly ineffectual type of magic. However the result in this case was impressive, the human was writhing on the stone in the centre of the clearing screaming in agony.

Yami slid into the line of trees, his shadow form blending flawlessly with the dimness in the undergrowth and watched. The human was nearing death now; Yami could taste it in the air.

The humans in the black robes were laughing and showed no signs of relenting. Yami watched for another moment before he stepped in, literally. His shadows drew together, forming into the slim body of a human youth.

At first none of the humans noticed him. However as he walked past them towards the exhausted human, red eyes flashing in the dim light, more and more of them stopped. As Yami's fear spells started to take hold the humans wands dropped to their sides and they began to stare, terror filling them. Yami smirked and moved to stand between the tortured human and the others. After all this was one of his humans and no one killed them except him.

The human male closest to Yami lifted his wand and opened his mouth to spell him. Yami distractedly detached a strand of shadows from his human form and sent them out, the human dropped dead. Yami was a little disappointed. It was much more satisfying when they died screaming, but he didn't have the time to make up and manipulate the spell required to do that.

Admittedly it didn't matter because the blind terror from the other humans was more than satisfactory. The response from the other humans after one of them died was predictable. They tried to curse him. As the other humans raised their wands Yami released the human behind him from her bonds.

He called on a darking to lead her away from the clearing; it would be no fun if she died like this, better to die screaming.

Spells began to spear towards him; Yami judged the magic and considered what to do. The spells would sting if they hit, he would have to block them then. He wove a shield from the dark shadows of his stronger reserves. The spells were absorbed into his magic. Yami smirked, as the humans continued to throw everything they had. The darkings were dancing around the clearing in delight. The little shadows feasted heavily on the wealth of magic which had suddenly appeared.

Yami watched the humans. They were stupid. This shield would simply use all the power that they were throwing at him to further strengthen the shielding, still they tried. Yami took the time to look around the clearing; there were twelve humans so he stored their magical signature in his memory. That way if any of them escaped he would be able to find them.

There was a pause in the spells, which was what Yami had been waiting for. He dissolved; his shadows began to whirl around the clearing, screams of terror and agony sung through Yami's senses.

The resulting scene was a little grisly. Yami had ripped the humans apart, he didn't know why; he didn't have a reason. He didn't really care if the human they had been torturing had died, but killing them had been fun and energy productive.

There was a soft chuckle. Yami turned his attention to the patch of shadows which had produced the laugh. His theoretical hackles rose. There was a human there, but this human was wrong. His soul was tainted in darkness. Yami let a growl ripple from his shadows, but the wizard held out his hands. "I am not going to attempt to spell you, I have an offer for you."

Yami swirled around for a moment considering the humans words. Then against his better judgement Yami took human form, this human felt like fear and anguish, overlaid with that dark taint that Yami couldn't quite place, he may not be too bad as humans went.

"Well human, your reason must be good or I will destroy you as I have destroyed your kin folk." Yami prowled around and seated himself on the stone in the clearing centre. The wizard stepped into the light and Yami suppressed a start of surprise, his skin was deathly pale and his eyes were red. Yami frowned faintly and examined the human more closely. No he was definitely not a Shade. His eyes were wrong, Yami realised after a few moments, the result of whatever he had done to taint his own soul.

The human was talking now, so Yami focused. "I have been considering ways to get what it is I need from the other wizards of the magical community. I believe that you could help me."

Yami sneered, "Why should I help you human, you have nothing that I want."

"I think I do. I can destroy the anti-Shade spells around all the wizard communities, letting you have free reign over the population and if you don't harm my Death Eaters they can help to induce a great deal of fear." The human stopped and allowed Yami to think.

It was a tempting proposition. Leave some humans and in return he could feast on the others. "What is it you want?"

"To rid the world of the mudbloods, impure wizards, all I ask of you is your allegiance." The human said, excitement rising. Yami hissed thoughtfully and was amused when the human flinched faintly. "Very well, I will assist you, but first you will destroy the spells within my own territory."

The human smiled, "Of course."

With a flick of his wand Voldemort signalled the Death Eaters stationed around the Shade's territory, it had taken him a long time to find this age old and powerful Shade and he was not going to let him get away easily. The Death Eaters destroyed the spells. By the time Voldemort had looked back the Shade was gone and echoing through the air were the screams of mudbloods who had not met a Shade in over fifty years.

Again I know I said that I was only going to write one story at a time, but this is sort of the same story, so I don't have to pay attention to too many characters. Plus it will help me to develop Yami in Light in the Shadows.

Let me know what you think.