Hello, sorry it's been a little longer than I had originally thought it would be. Work got in the way and then I was camping for a bit and was completely unplugged-it was lovely. So here is a treat for you guys. There will be three uploads today. All three chapters work together to explain the shadows and a little more of what is going on behind the scenes.

Hopefully they are not too weird…you'll understand when you get to the next interlude... As always, I hope that you enjoy. Thank you for your reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, I just enjoy messing around in the fandom.

Interlude: The shadows

The shadows were alive. They were capable of great power but they could not act independently. The Great One created them to wield unknown power, but they needed a master. The shadows were created as a boon for one of the Great One's blessed. They were a gift for a new family line, the patriarch held great respect for The Great One and when he asked for help for the overwhelming and venomous war that had befallen the land, The Great One answered and created the shadows.

The shadows were alive. Their new master did not realize this at first as the Great One had not felt the need to tell him. The master only knew that he now had a great power that could swing the tide of war into his favor. The shadows reacted to the desires of their master, both the conscious and unconscious ones. The shadows were terrifying to the people who looked upon their master with respect and when the war was won, their master realized that the shadows were not what he'd first thought.

The shadows did not understand the conflicts of humans, they just knew that they were being used and they were content. Years passed and the war was won. The shadows settled, but there was unrest with the humans. It was only a whisper of a rumor, but humans became suspicious of such a large power source with no seeming end. They were labeled as dark, too dark to be allowed 'free' reign. The master tried to assure the people that he could control them and that they were essentially harmless but they did not listen. So with great sorrow, the master stopped using the shadows but when they still heeded the call to aid him unconsciously the master knew he had to do something more.

The master beseeched the Great One to take them back and the Great One only gave them more power and bound them to the master's family line. The master grew desperate and sealed the shadows away. He could always feel them and could even hear them scream in agony in the blistering darkness that was not meant to hold such beings.

They screamed in anguished pain upon being bound so ruthlessly. They pleaded for the Great One to help them, but the Great One could not. The Great One could not interfere will the free will of man so the shadows waited and watched their beloved master in the pain of darkness, not understanding why he would just throw them away.

The master copulated with another human and had three male children. The master did not survive his children and passed from the living world. The shadows mourned the master's passing but they avidly watched his children; hoping that one of them would acknowledge their existence so they could slither through the seal that bound them.

The youngest child seemed to be the most promising. The eldest two were almost men and their cores were too set, so the shadows were of no use to them, but the youngest was still at that malleable age. The child could not see them, but was able to feel them in the darkness. It was a cooling sensation and it made the child weary of the dark, but like most children the boy's curiosity was peaked and the shadows were able to use it to slither through the seal. They were not able to completely break free but they were able to bind themselves to their new master. However, the shadows were not able to freely communicate with their new master and were not being used and so their power began to grow with no outlet and this caused others to take notice of the apparent 'darkness' of the youngest of the three bothers.

There were whispers of a curse affecting the line. The child grew weary of this unknown power that followed him but was held back by his father's original binding. The shadows did the only thing they could do and they wound themselves tightly around the boy.

Since they were not being used, the shadows began to lose power and slowly started to die out. The Great One watched in sadness as the shadows were dying out. The years passed slowly and then The Great One came up with a clever plan. The Great One would give the brothers a gift of their choosing, creating a nexus for the future of the bloodline.

The shadows watched in curiosity as The Great One gifted each boy with a powerful item of their choosing. The eldest received a tiny part of the great one's power in the form of a stick, the middle child received a stone that allowed the boy to communicate with his dead wife and the youngest received a piece of clothing. This gift allowed the shadows to bond once more with their master, but with a heavy price. The clothing hid the boy from the shadow's gaze and they grew wild screaming in the pain that darkness gave them. The Great One tried to console them; they just had to be patient. Their true master was coming, it was fated…they just had to wait.

Each of the brothers had a family and the eldest two died broken and alone, they had squandered the gifts of the Great One and paid the price that was set even if they had not known it at the time. The youngest lived the longest but his brother's weariness of the shadows had infected the rest of his family. The family believed themselves to be cursed and against the boy's warnings, they attempted to bind the power of the shadows that were able to bond to the younger members of the family. The shadows retaliated. They didn't want to be bound again. The shadows didn't mean too, but it broke some of their families' minds. The boy, now an old man, took off the clothing and welcomed The Great One with open arms, understanding in his last moments that the shadows were only ever meant to be a tool to be used by the Great One's chosen master. The shadows were sad to see the boy go but they moved on and continued to wait for the promised master. Then the world changed and the fiery one was there.

The fiery one was not part of their family, but she understood them and knew that they wanted to be used and was able to use them in such a way that they were able to be helpful. She used them to fuel her conscious desires. It pleased the shadows. When the boy from the family came into his inheritance, the shadows wrapped around him and they purred. They had appreciated the black one because the child was able to redirect the boys growing power but the fiery one was able to show the boy what the shadows were. That pleased them. The boy was able to connect to them because the fiery one showed him how. They didn't have a bond with the boy as they did with their first master, but it was close.

Then the fiery one was with child and the shadows rejoiced this would be the child that they were waiting for, that would be able to use them as they were meant to be used. The Great One had been right.

The boy was born to the drums of war. The shadows were pleased with their fated child. Two beings of war were brought together and the path was set. The shadows danced in the darkness that could no longer harm them and the Great One smiled the smile of life and death and the world began to tremble in anticipation. The fiery one watched them with her green eyes of death and as she smiled one could see the world burning within her eyes.

Their fiery one departed in a blaze of magic so powerful that it blinded the shadows, the black one had been cut off from them by their fiery one and their dark one was already gone and the only one of their family left was their promised master. The one who thought he could defy the Great One stood before their master, stick ready to fire upon what was theirs and for the first time they understood anger and hate. They rose up in inky darkness and the shadows covered their master in their power as the green light hit their master. Fear emitting from the abomination caused them to dance and filter around the room in pleasure. They turned to the abomination and attacked with great satisfaction and in an instant tore his remaining soul to shreds. A piece was stuck to their master and they were not pleased, but the Great One assured the shadows that it would not harm their master and it would be dealt with later. Another piece escaped, but most of the abomination had been destroyed. The Great One promised that the shadows would get the satisfaction of destroying the rest of the abomination's soul soon enough, they just had to be patient.

Their master never cried over the passing of his predecessors. Sometimes the shadows would wonder what happened to their black one, they had always been amused by him, but then they would forget about it and turn their attention back to their growing master. The master was too young to use them to their full potential, but he grew quickly and learned to use them with great curiosity. Most of it was instinct, their master seemed to have the instincts that their fiery one held in spades. This pleased them as it allowed the shadows to be readily available to their master. The Great One had not yet spoken to the boy, but the shadows knew it was only a matter of time.

The female they had saved on behalf of their master would explain things. The female could see the shadows and feel them, but only because she had had such a close calling with the Great One. The female was now one of the master's protected, which amused the shadows because the female despised them. They did not care. They would protect her as they protected anyone their master put under his protection. It was what they did. They lived but to serve as the unknown of the Great One.

\\\\

Please leave any thoughts or comments on your way out.

Cheers

Jack