Title: Child of the Shadows
Author: Serpent in the Shadows
Rating: R/M
Pairing: Harry/OMC (Implied)
Warnings: Slash, Dark!(but not evil)Harry, Creature!Harry
Summary: Sirius makes a decision that changes Harry's life forever. Will he be able to cope or will it destroy him?
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter just my OCs
Beta:Pysche


oOOoOOo

Blood Line Ritual

Using Magic from both the last remaining Elves and Vampires, a unique 'adoption' ritual was created. Blood Magic from the vampires gave a similar effect of 'turning' and allowed the 'parent' of the child in question to donate his genetic codes and completely make the human child their 'blood child'. Black magic from the Dark Elves sealed the 'adoption' allowing it to be uncontested, wiping out anything related to the birth parents.

The child ceased to exist to the outside world.

After one hundred years of rituals, the last of the pure Dark Elves and Vampires felt they reached an acceptable level to keep the Hybrids - or Siayons as they were now known by - flourishing and began to set up laws concerning the Blood Line Ritual and any one that went against the Council of the Firsts were punished accordingly.

The first law set simply stated that only the Elder of each Line could give permission to those under him for an adoption.

The second stated that only two children per 'family unit' were allowed to be adopted.

Third, only allowed orphaned magical or non-magical to be ritualized.

The fourth and final law stated that no human was allowed to enter the Realm of the Siayons before the ritual took place.

oOOoOOo

Sirius Naos - formally known as Black - sighed deeply as he continued to sit for the fourth night in a row beside the occupied bed in the large house that his adopted father owned, trying to put his disorganized thoughts and emotions in order. While he was overjoyed with the thoughts of his godson being away from those muggles and under his care as it should have always been, he couldn't help but feel he might have made a terrible mistake.

He himself had always been raised with values of a pureblood dark family, even if he did rebel against it when he started Hogwarts, but he was close to it, understood it to a certain degree and couldn't totally get away from it even if that's what he thought he wanted in the first place. It was inbred into him, down to his soul, even if he preferred the Light in school.

Deep down he could probably say - to himself, at night, under the cover of darkness - that if the stupid Dark Lords would quit popping up and corrupting the 'old' ways, that Dark values wouldn't have been all that bad. They were Old Ways of Life, traditions that spanned back before the time of the Founders, but...

Harry, his beloved godson, was born into a respected Light family, had parents that were hunted and killed by the Dark, was given to muggles of all people to be raised for the majority of his short life, then thrown into school as the Savior of the Light - praised for defeating something he was really too young to know about - and then continued to serve and live in the Light.

And in the matter of an hour, Harry James Potter became Harry Naos, his son, a Shadow Elf, a creature that would never be able to perform another Light spell again.

oOOoOOo

Power of the Shadows

When the first Hybrid child - a girl the age of three - made a semi-corporeal ball of darkness by innocently 'pulling' a shadow at the base of large oak tree, her parents couldn't help but be fascinated. When the ball began to bounce and follow her like a puppy, her astounded parents knew that something monumental had just happened. But when others ecstatically began to report similar things happening around their own Hybrids, the Dark Elves and Vampires knew this was just another thing and mystery that would be bound to the half breeds they had created.

And over time, the wonders of their children began to show just how special they were.

But it did not come without a price, for the Shadows took just as much as they gave.

Any magical child that took the ritual suddenly found themselves unable to perform the simplest spells - anything the Wizarding world deemed a 'light' spell - was taken away from them, only allowing them to perform anything that was Black or Blood magic based. It mangled their cores so much that it even mutated their animagus forms - making someone that would have turned into a animal look like a demon instead.

For most though, this wasn't really a problem, for the True Power of the Shadows made up for the loss of Light Magic. Even the weakest of the Shadow Elves could take small shadows and mold them into creatures that were only hindered by their imagination. From shadowy mice to dragons, the new creations were delightful, entertaining and even helpful.

And the more powerful the Siayon, the more intelligence the shadow creatures had.

oOOoOOo

"You shouldn't worry so much. He should be awake in a few more days."

Sirius sighed, closing his eyes as he rested his head in his hand. "I'm not worried about that. I knew that with his body so damaged that it would take time - more so than normal - for it to change. No, his body will be fine, it's his mind I'm worried about."

Acharon moved away from the door and stepped up behind his son who was still sitting in the same chair he had been in since they had brought the boy back. "Why? He never went without oxygen and there wasn't any major head wounds..."

"I know!" Sirius snapped, his head whipping around to stare up at the man and growled when all he received was a blank gaze in return. "But you aren't the one that did this to him. I did! I turned my own godson into one of the darkest creatures ever known."

The Elder's stoic mask never left his face even as he watched the man before him become more and more angered. "But you knew this before hand. I don't see why it's such a concern."

"Because, father, he didn't get a chance to decide."

"...decide?"

"Yes," Sirius sighed, his shoulders slumping and he leaned back against the chair. One of his hands reached out to gently take the younger boy's hand into his own, his fingers sliding over the smooth skin of new Shadow Elf's palm. "My plans were to stop just outside the village. Talk to him and explain everything about us and see what he wanted to do. The spell was only supposed to tell me when he either came of age or his guardians died."

Acharon's dark purple eyes looked between his son and his grandson. "You had no choice, he would have died if you had left it any longer. No human would have survived those wounds. Besides, there is nothing wrong with being a Siayon."

"Not to us - not to you who was one of the last naturally born or to me who didn't have another way or another life. But to him...it might be more of curse than a blessing."

"Well then, when that time comes, we will just have to make him see that he was given a generous gift."

"Easy for you to say," Sirius mumbled as the Elder walked out of the room.

oOOoOOo

Magical Children versus Non-Magical Children

When the first children that had taken the Blood Line Ritual began to grow and mature the last of the Hybrids and the Council of the Firsts began to notice right away that there were vast differences when it came to using children with inborn magic rather than those that didn't.

Wizarding children seemed to have a greater control over the Shadows that were their birthright. They were the ones that could make larger, more intelligent creatures but seemed to lack in the areas of weapons fighting. Slightly smaller in both weight and height, they lacked the necessary strength to wield some of the more popular weapons such as axes and even some of the heavier swords. Most of these Siayons chose archery or dirks.

A child born with no magic could control Shadows but their creatures were more like mindless slaves - taking on short 'programming' that only lasted a couple of hours. Excellent in battles but useless for anything else. But these children excelled in all forms of fighting and were known to make the best warriors and they often had the highest ranks even if they had they lowest control.

Both could do Blood Magic but only the magical ones could perform Black Magic.

And for this reason, non-magical children were the most sought after for they were a race of warriors even if peace had been granted them thus far.

oOOoOOo

Two days later, Sirius still found himself sitting by the bed waiting for his godson-slash-son to wake up. Only this time, he was able to admire the completed changes that had taken place.

There wasn't much difference in the boy's height, but he could tell that the distance between his feet and the end of the bed had dwindled a bit. If Sirius had to guess he figured his godson would stand at about five feet nine which was a respectable height amongst the Siayon since the tallest was only about five feet eleven. After all, they were warriors, elite fighters, and they didn't have a need or want to be tall and willowy like their Light cousins.

His skin tone had taken on a rich copper color that suited him well. His hair though, hadn't changed much as it was already dark to begin with and the ritual never affected the length but it did seem to be a bit heavier, thicker perhaps, for it wasn't as wild as before. Ears were tapered and Sirius had already noticed his fangs had grown in when he had to open the boy's mouth to pour some water and healing potions down his throat. While they weren't quite as long as a vampire's during feeding, they were still impressive nevertheless.

The biggest mystery though was what his eyes were going to look like. They were always the last thing to convert - his own changing from silver to the dark midnight blue they were now. But the thought of the new Elf's eyes looking anything but the emerald green he had always known disheartened him greatly because to look at them was a constant reminder of Lily - her fire, spirit, soul and looks were all packaged in those colorful eyes of her son.

The sound of sheets rustling tore him away from his musings and his eyes brightened to see Harry's arms moving, trying to pull away from the covers that were lying on top of him. There was a low moan and then a yawn before still sleepy eyes began to blink open.

"Hey there Pup," Sirius said softly, not wanting to spook Harry as he leaned forward on his seat. "About time you woke up."

Harry blinked his eyes once again before they turned away from his unfocused gaze at the ceiling and turned towards him. Sirius smiled brightly, even if he was a little confused and stunned, when bright green eyes looked back at him. The two stared at each other for a few seconds before Harry closed his eyes and began to laugh - one devoid of any humor and slightly hysterical. "Harry?"

The boy suddenly began to cough and forced himself into a sitting position to better help his lungs while Sirius handed him a glass of juice that he had brought in earlier. As the new Shadow Elf sipped the drink, those unchanged eyes looked at him again.

"Five years of evading Dark wizards twice as old as me and I get taken out by a muggle truck of all things. And now, to top it all off, I'm stuck in the afterlife with my dead godfather's weird ass look-a-like. Wrong eyes by the way...shade's a bit off."

Quirking an eyebrow at him, Sirius leaned in a bit more. "Harry, it is me and you're not dead. I'm not dead."

"No you can't be! I saw you fall though the veil," a choked sob cut his words off but he quickly regained himself with a shake of his head. "I saw your face when you..." Tears streamed down his face and Sirius closed his eyes briefly before getting up and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling Harry into his arms.

"I'm not dead, never was. Turns out the veil is more of a gateway...a portal to another realm. And because of that, I've been here all this time."

"Then why didn't you contact me if that is true? Why did you leave me to think..."

"That I was dead as you put it?" Sirius leaned back giving Harry some space as they talked. "Well, I was forbidden to really. There is a law here that prevents outside contact with loved ones since no human can enter this place."

Furrowing his eyebrows, Harry gave his godfather a questioning glance as he dried his tears. "Human?" he asked even as he ran his eyes over the tapered ears that were peaking out from behind Sirius' black hair. "Is that why I feel like I should be suddenly quoting Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Little Red...Riding...Hood?"

Cracking a grin, Harry just waved him off with a quick explanation of 'muggle thing' before he asked again, "Human?"

"Well, you see," Sirius began to looked nervous, his dark eyes looking anywhere other than Harry's. "That's the thing, in order to be here, you have to be...umm...changed into a Siayon or Shadow Elf as wizards call them."

"But I'm here..." he began before his eyes grew wide, "But then that would mean..."

"Yes," was the only answer he could give.