"You're enjoying yourself Harry."
From his perch on his chairs overstuffed arm Milenko lifted an eyebrow. Momentarily lifting his gaze from the esoteric text a hand was flippantly waved at the person daring to speak. He wasn't surprised to see it was Riddle and rolled his eyes even as the young woman was clutching her throat trying to breathe. "Call me that again bitch, I dare you" he said with a challenging yet dark look in his eyes. "The artifact tells me everything I need to know why we are here. An abomination of magic, not on The Carnival levels but really close, designed by non-Siren blooded witches trying to recreate the affect of a Siren's allure."
"Har..Harder. Choke me harder daddy!"
Harry scowled at the gasped retort. "It's no fun when you enjoy it bitch." A second dismissive wave of his hand dropped Riddle to her knees gasping for air as the signs of bruises in the shape of hands began forming on either side of her throat. "What I need to figure out is a set of things. Number A-"
"A is not a number." The large tome banished into Riddle's stomach vanished the air from her lungs with a violent impact expulsion. "Shu-shutting up" she wheezed holding her stomach tenderly.
"As I was saying, Number A is who put my name in this bastardized relic? I mean B+ for effort but the fact that the people in charge are using this artifact as a means of selecting tournament champions for what amounts to lethal blood sport without knowing the history behind the artifact in question should be concerning. For them that is" Milenko said with a flippant tone. Marking the page in the tome in his hands and slamming it shut his eyes looked thoughtful. "Number B, what is their design behind ensuring my name would emerge from the artifact? The person in question is a pawn or slave at best. No master manipulator would do the dirty deed themselves and endanger their own magical essence when there are ways to cheat out of this so called 'binding magical contract'. Of course, the moment that I do break it, the person who did put my name in will die. Their magical trace is on the parchment after all, not mine. Using that mundane trash is the last thing I would consider doing under any circumstance."
Riddle took a reclined seat against the wood siding with a carefulness seen only in the heavily pregnant or extremely ill. Being immortal was all well and good but being able to live forever did not take away your sense of physical pain.
"Number D.."
How did Riddle miss what was possibly going to earn her another wound? Of course in the long run it would only bring her pleasure in one form or another but fuck all did it really hurt in the short, immediate aftermath. "What about Letter Five?" she asked slowly.
"There is not Letter Five you daft cow. Did all the substance go to your chest and ass?" Milenko asked with a hybrid scowl-sneer that would put the devil to shame. He went to continue on when he stiffened as if struck by a full body bind. He couldn't sense the source immediately, a frustrating enough irritant, but it was the whispered chant on the wind that brought a spark of panic, real and truly genuine panic, to his necrotizing green colored eyes.
"May he be blessed in your name great spirit mother.
Love he was never shown
Peace he has never known
Life he had lived alone
Bless him with wife an-"
An ebony blade pierced the air and stabbed into an unseen creature. For a split second the tent was dead silent til a winged form was uncloaked from whatever spell had hidden and fell to the ground dead. A feral snarl tore from Milenko's lips as he stabbed the corpse repeatedly soaking the ground in blood and bone shards. "I hate meddlesome fae!" The rage in his tone could spark fire as he tore the knife from the dead creature and callously wiped the blood from his blade.
Riddle wisely did not comment on the moment of panic that the dead creature sparked in the other. Milenko's violent temper eclipsed the rest of the carnivals dark spirits combined and had, how he managed it was beyond her, murdered the last true immortal before she joined the carnival. Just that knowledge was enough to put the fear of Milenko into her yet at the same time her masochistic side couldn't help licking its metaphysical chops with lust.
**Somewhere in Hogwarts**
Within the confines of the library a set of eyes snapped open as a figured chuckled. "Murdered my little messenger huh mad mage? That wasn't very nice to do." Flipping long hair from their face they collected a set of books, some parchment with a half written essay on the importance of the moons position in regards to some rituals and a messenger bag the figure began to leave for their dorm. "Perhaps my next messenger should be a little more direct."
"Susan! It's nearly curfew!"
The newly named Susan took a moment to blow a rebellious strand of red hair from her eyes. "Calm down Hannah, I'll be there in a moment. Had to make sure everything was sorted in my bag." Dark blue eyes rolled in their sockets before she smirked to herself feeling a spike of magic she knew was in the direction of the Headmaster's office. No doubt Dumbledore and the Potter's, all three of them that is, were strategizing to 'save' the lost son from the carnival he apparently called home now. "Good luck with that, evil like his is not extinguished with gushy sentiment or some crocodile tears" she said to herself before catching up with her friend Hannah. Perhaps calling Hannah a 'friend' was laying it on thick but the benefits that came with having the girl on side was worth tolerating her.
"It's about time slow poke! Mrs. Norris is starting to prowl the halls" Hannah whined shifting her bag to her other shoulder and began pushing her fellow Puff back toward the common room by the kitchen.
**Headmasters Office; same time as Milenko murdering the fairy and the Puffs leaving the library**
"We have to get Harry away from those.. Those freaks!"
Dumbledore rubbed his temples as this was roughly the tenth time James had circled back to this particular point. While he understood James and Lily's frantic desire to be free Harry from the dark influence that 'carnival' was, there was much to give him pause. Between Harry, he refused to call the boy Milenko by any means, being older than he should and his behavior he had one gigantic task to handle. That level of violence, casual offhand violence, was beyond what he had seen from Voldemort when he was still Head Boy Tom Riddle. Even if he could overlook those two things, which he could not, there was the fact Harry was practicing magic forbidden by the Wizengamot and the ICW. Soul Magic and Necromancy were labelled as Black Magic- Darker than Dark Magic bordering on Taboo Magic- for very good reason!
"James, I sympathize and want it just as bad as you but coming back to using that revolting term makes you no better than my sister or her mutant husband." It was a low blow on Lily's part but she despised the word 'freak' in all contexts and connotation. She'd been called one by Petunia enough growing up that her hatred of the word and the fact James, love of her life, was using it was tempting her to hex him.
James froze momentarily in his pacing.
"He can't be saved. Not like you want him to be saved" Rosalind said with a expressionless tone. Under the eyes of her parents and the Headmaster the girl didn't flinch or squirm. "Everyone here knows I have the gift to read auras like my friend Luna." This was stated with fact as she held up a hand to cut off anyone from interrupting her. "His aura was black as black can be. There was no light whatsoever, only malice and a hunger for violence. If you want to save him, you'll have to kill him and that is not a course of action I'd recommend" she said with a grave expression taking over her face. "I could be wrong but there was something else lurking in his aura. A magical construct, something like a serpent I think, but it... it's cursed and intertwined with his soul & magical core."
Dumbledore's skin blanched at what Rosalind said. Magical constructs were not unheard of but for one to be intertwined with a persons core and soul? That was something unheard of since the time of the Hogwarts Founders. Having a magical construct like that was the mark of what was called, back then at least, a True Witch or True Warlock. He could count on one hand the number of True Witches and True Warlocks in the modern age & they were all monitored by the ICW since it was known a True Witch or True Warlock were dangerously unstable. "You are certain of this Rosalind?" he asked gravely.
"No sir but it appeared so. Something was in his aura and it was alive in a sense but it was purely magic born" the girl said frowning deeply.
Over the next few days Milenko tortured the fairy spirit until it coughed up the fact it was summoned to deliver the message from a Hogwarts student. Once he had that fact he crushed the spirit of the fairy and corrupted the magic before absorbing it into his own. Message? What had been partially relayed was no message but White Binding Magic! Given how warped he was in all regards, White Magic of any kind was lethal to him! If he ever found who sent the fairy in an attempt to do what they wanted he'd flay they alive one layer of skin at a time with a Fiendfyre whip!
"Milenko, we need to talk."
Necrotizing green eyes looked up spotting the Ringmaster. The man looked to be in his late thirties or early forties, notwithstanding the man was in very good physical shape unlike some humans he knew, though he knew the man practiced sacrificial magic to remain young & was well over three hundred years old. Dark brown borderline black hair topped his head contrasting his lightly tanned skin and pale blue eyes. Dressed every inch for his role in the carnival, a three piece suit with long coat tails, a top hat, cane depicting a roaring lions head and pointed shoes, he looked like a walking circus stereotype. "What about Ringmaster? I was about to go tempt a few dumb mortals to enter our humble slice of hell" he said with a slow drawl as he brushed his clothes, a simple pair of slacks covered by a blood red shirt with ruffled sleeves and a vest, of some imaginary dust.
"About that little near introduction of White Magic into my circus you stupid boy."
Milenko growled darkly as soul searing black flames erupted around his hands. "It was not my doing. Some idiot child in the citadel over there sent a fae with it as a 'message' to me. When, not if but when, I find the responsible party they will wish I killed them by the time I am finished" he said with a vicious cruelty turning his eyes nearly black.
Ringmaster said nothing for a long moment as if scrutinizing Milenko. "Make it so boy. If you fail, well I suggest you don't. You remember last time you failed and displeased me?" he said thought the 'asked' question was more of a rhetorical statement. Not giving Milenko a moment to answer he turned on heel and left the mages tent baking out orders at the other members of The Dark Carnival and the help.
Milenko snarled and was so tempted to utterly crush the soul of the Ringmaster but stopped himself. Not out of respect mind you but rather the carnivals existence would persist only as long the mans soul was intact. A Ringmaster with no soul means no Dark Carnival. No Dark Carnival means he has to hunt humans on his own and no one wants that since he would, most likely, massacre entire counties without care & without thought of how much attention he drew to himself as a True Warlock or the fact magic actually was real. Tamping down the urge harshly he stalked out toward the castle, hands still aflame, and punched the first person in the face who chose to speak to him.
It was unfortunate, depending on who you ask, that person happened to be a giant of a man with a beard who tried to molest him while saying something about Headmaster Dumbledore demanding he appear before him.
The smell of burnt flesh and hair as the giant of a man burnt alive was sweet to Milenko. Even as students of the school tried to put the fire out with various water based spells, all they did was make it exacerbate the problem. Within minutes the man was a burnt corpse as the last dregs of pitch black flame consumed the mans magical core and leapt back to Milenko absorbing the magic for himself. "You made the wrong move touching me half-breed." Spitting on the corpse as the young people scatted he moved on towards where the most logical, for the moment anyway, point of gathering for students was- the giant ass lake.
**The Black Lacke**
Perched against the trunk of an old Beech tree a blonde witch hummed to herself. Dressed rather oddly in a tye dye blouse, purple and wearing radishes for earrings she was rather odd to say the least. Looking down to her sketch pad on her lap she furrowed her brow erasing a part of the landscape that wasn't quite right and redrew it quickly. "You took your time getting here Mad Mage" she said after stopping her humming suddenly.
Milenko raised an eyebrow as the solitary witch addressed him yet did not look in his direction from what she was doing. "And what makes you think I came here on purpose little girl?" he asked with a somewhat amused tone.
"You can't bullshit a True Witch. You should know that too well, True Warlock" the girl said still not looking at Milenko. "Of course, you chose to curse your construct as a nuclear option. Mine is to curse others."
Milenko's eyebrow raised further at the declaration. "No, I suppose I can't. Truth be told I came here looking to find idiots to trick out of their souls, not another like myself though I did sense you when I was rudely summoned here against my will."
"That will be far from easy to do. The Headmaster and his minions won't allow you or your travelling companions alone with those they deem of value. Everyone whose smart knows to leave me the hell alone or risk an accident." Setting her sketch book aside she turned her gaze to look at the young man. "You'd do well to keep away from your vessels birth family too. They're planning to purge you of the corruption that has altered you to bring back Harry Potter the boy; the Headmaster is planning to help them is also obvious."
Milenko scowled a tiny fraction. "And they'll fail before dying in agonizing pain" he said with an assertive dark tone.
"I know. The only sensible one is Rosalind" the witch said with a shrug.
"Rosalind?" Milenko asked. "Harry Potter had no siblings."
"She was born a year after Harry Potter disappeared. I believe a surplus of alcohol and grief was involved on the parts of James and Lily Potter."
Milenko tapped his fingers together thoughtfully for a moment. Wasn't that something to chew on? His vessel had a blood sibling and.. He'd think on that later since this was a situation that could be exploited in so many ways. "What is name witch?" he asked.
"Luna Lovegood, True Witch of Natural Magic" the blonde witch said as she stood, early afternoon sunlight reflecting off her silver-blue eyes.
"A Wild Witch huh? I haven't seen one of your kind for four centuries" Milenko said rolling his wrist and conjured a spear. Without any motion from him the spear launched into the air and cleaved through an owls head killing it as it tried to race to the Headmasters office.
"If you wish to use the archaic title, yes I am." Luna looked somewhat amused as she outstretched a hand and the grass beneath it seemed to grow of its own accord like it was a child seeking to grasp its mothers hand.
Milenko tapped on his wrist before a smirk etched onto his lips as an idea formed. Pulling a flier from nowhere he held it out toward Luna and made a theatrical rolling gesture of his free hand. "How would you like to see the Carnival Ms. Lovegood? The first trip is on me."
Luna pondered for a moment before accepting the flier and gave it a look over. "A girl might think you have uncouth intentions Mr. Milenko" she said with a coquettish teasing tone.
"Now what makes you think of that?"
"I never said I was opposed. Shall we?" Luna asked.
If anyone had noticed the two walking away, Luna's arm wrapped one of Milenko's, they would've trembled as the very earth under Milenko's feet turned black and the plant life in Luna's wake took on demonic thorns.
A/N: So another chapter with setup done and I can't be happier for it. What role will Susan play? What are the Potters, James and Lily, along with Dumbledore planning? What would the White Magic have done to Milenko if he hadn't killed the fairy and where did Susan learn it? What part does Luna have to play in this lunacy?
So many questions, so few answers...for you my readers right now.
Before ANYONE says it, Luna's behavior towards Milenko/Harry DOESN'T mean I'm pair him with her. His partner is up in the air still. Just because she not as Canon-behavior doesn't mean I wasn't going to keep some of the things that make Luna, well Luna. Her airy-ness will still be present, she will still know things most don't etc.