A/N: Ok so I kinda want to warn you all that this chapter is going to be a little weirdly formatted. The first half of the chapter is going to jump between Milenko's perspective on the ball and Luna's decidedly twisted actions to bring Riddle under some form of hell for the perceived threat to her claim on Milenko. Though I will not mark the change or label it, the name and described settings will make it clear whose locations & actions are being talked about. Once you get past that bit, a more general view of what is going on with how Dumbledore plans to deal with 'freeing Harry' from the malicious entity controlling his body.
I also wanted to take this time to layout something that I have given a lot of thought to. I have almost ten stories on here and while some have more chapters than others, most are not paid as much attention as I would like or initially planned. That being said, going forward I'm going to focus on a block of three to four of my current stories going forward so that I can flush them out like I had originally planned to. The stories I am going to focus on going forward with for the moment are What it means to be King, Welcome To The Show!, A musicians muse and temper & finally He Who Ate God. Just because I am going forward on these four does not mean by any measure that I am letting the others die, though I'm sure there are those who believe I have already, but I assure they are NOT going to die into the graveyard of abandoned stories.
With everything needing said addressed, ONTO THE SHOW!
Oh! Last thing I promise, I had initially planned for the perspective regarding Milenko to be longer regarding the ball but I kind of... channeled a little bit of Hotel Hazbin Alastor here so... I broke it up as you'll see below with that same sort of flair and short tempered split personality that Vivziepop gave Alastor in the show. Yes, that is the disclaimer. Sue me if you find the mannerisms he displays at the ball unbecoming or obnoxious, he is not going to get better any time soon.
The silence that greeted Milenko's peacock worth strut made him smirk as the horrified eyes noticed how much blood was on his clothes. How the sheep were so blind and lead by the short hairs was as sad as it was amusing.
Up where the tournament officials and school representatives were sat, minus his "school" since there was no representative and if the carnival had one then the other reps would've been long dead, the ashen faces of the men looked in horror at the blood stained young man. Between the nasty aura, bloodstained clothes and devilishly sinister smirk on his lips the boy was just as terrifying here as he was in the arena.
"Now this, this a party! Why I haven't seen a party of this size or magnificence since the Stock Market Crash of 1929. So many suicides, so many murders" Milenko said with a wistful tone like he was recalling a pleasant treasured memory. "So many orphan slaves... Good times... I do so miss those times."
Horrified gasps were echoed as the remaining champions and their dates entered the hall.
Within the Dark Carnival's grounds, Riddle was stood atop the stage practicing her newest act. It was more accurately self-mutilation but in the eyes of the Ringmaster it was a show since it would draw a crowd. After all, what's a sideshow freak that doesn't have scars of some sort to mark them as the freak they are? It was something she disagreed with but didn't voice beyond the first time. It was also the last time as Milenko took the time to torture her to the brink of insanity and tear her soul to shreds before leaving the magic that made her immortal pull it back together one piece at time.
"You like to piss him off don't you?"
Riddle's head snapped over and saw the petite blonde witch that hung around Milenko watching her with an unreadable expression. She could guess the reason for the witch to be here instead of in her school at the ball thing but assuming was never the right answer. "Milenko sees no reason for having fun!" she whined petulantly like a child. "It's always 'steal souls here' or 'steal souls there' or-"
Luna snapped her fingers making a supersonic pitch assault Riddle's ears, one of the few spells her mother made successfully before her death. With a pitch that high in tone it forced the woman to her knees cradling her ears as her eardrums burst and bled out while her hands cupped the shell to try blocking the noise. With a deliberate slowness the witch advanced toward the stage, the tent closing behind her from a rather harsh blow of wind. "You listen to me you loose lipped, brainless hussy" blue eyes darkened to black as she drove her foot into Riddles's chest with enough force to knock the woman on her back and cough up blood "you'll leave him alone from now on. If I ever so much as hear you looked in his direction I will tear your head from you body, burn your corpse body to ash and scatter the ashes before I take and mount your head as a trophy above my desk! Am I understood?" she asked with a malevolent smirk.
"Ooh, there's booze. Why this is a proper party after all." Milenko snapped his fingers and the bowl of spiked punch dumped itself into a cup that, despite the size, filled completely without spilling a drop. Floating the glass to himself he sniffed it and scowled at the scent. "Weak ass shit, who brought this dollar store piss water? If you're going to piss in the kool-aid use something strong enough to knock all the kings men off their horses and onto their ass" he said with his eyes darkening to black shades. Dumping the glass he continued toward the dance floor and snapped his fingers.
Black sulfurous clouds swallowed the orchestra for a moment, the live musicians panicking before going silent, before blowing away revealing demonic looking olden time musicians only the flesh was falling off in places and the velvet clothes were rotted showing decaying limbs. Dead eyes stared out from hollow sockets as groans escaped their lips.
"Now I understand I have to open this little shindig with a dance of some sort?" Though it was posed as a question Milenko snapped his fingers again.
Instead of a black sulfurous cloud, an ominous column of red light shot up from through the floor and ceiling with flickering eldritch sigils floating around the column. As if on a silent cue a woman walked out with a rather peeved expression on her face. Her skin was was an ashen grey while her long hair was a light shade of red it was almost pink with a dual horizontal layer of black striping at the bottom touching her shoulders. Instead of looking normal, her ears were on top of her head like an animal, a deer specifically, and pitch fork like horns between her ears. Eyes like rubies glared at Milenko, the pupil a sharp demonic slit that seemed to resemble an old fashioned radio dial inside its retro glass face. Dressed in black thigh high stockings, a dark red suit jacket with pink pinstripes and its sleeves rolled up to her elbows, a black bowtie around her throat, a red shirt that matched the color of her hair minus the black coloring and black biker shorts under her suit jacket top completed the look. "Milenko!" the woman growled with an angry venomous growl. "What in the name of Lucifer's Dickless Wonder am I doing here?!"
Milenko wasn't fazed as the angry demon woman pointed black gloved hands, the tips of the gloved digits dyed red with what appeared to be blood, in his face with shaking wrath. "Alastor my lovely wench, why I'm so happy to see you answered my invitation."
"Don't give me that shit! I was in the middle of-"
Milenko backhanded the woman he called Alastor across the face with a smile that looked kind on the surface but reeked of malevolence. "You'll heed my summon when I summon you, you insignificant little whore. You were a lowly little fuckstick in the Fourth Circle trying to make a big bad shit of yourself when I dragged you out of that brothel sucking obese human soul dick for essence to upgrade your status from free cunt to cheap prostitute" he said with zero fucks given at the fact he was putting one of the most famous demons of Christian mythos out there as not only the fact he was actually a she but also started out as little more than a whore. He wasn't deaf to the whispers, fear filled stares and more than a handful of Hogwarts kids tracing an outline of a crucifix over their stupid looking bathrobes. "Now, I still own you Alastor and I really would like to get out of this monkey suit since I'm sure that the idiot James Potter would like nothing more than to tear my head from my body; futile as an endeavor as it would be. Be a dear and get off your ass so I can do this stupid dance with these idiots" a flippant gesture was made toward the other champions and their dates who all looked pissed off, save a Ravenclaw boy who was accompanying the French veela witch representing Beauxbaton's that was staring at said witch sightlessly, without so much as a look toward them "before I make you. suffer"
Riddle looked at the blonde girl with terror in her eyes. The petite blonde was covered in her blood from the collar of her robe down to her shoes. This girl was nuts! She didn't even like Milenko and this psycho teen was under the assumption that she was trying to seduce the bastard!
"I asked you a question or do I have to cut out another portion of your kidney?" Luna asked twirling a bloodstained knife in hand. With Riddle pinned under her own prop objects for the act, deadly razor sharp discs, had been severed in half with a spell and trapped against the ground it was quite easy restraining the immortal. The copious amounts of blood from lacerated veins just squirting the red liquid did little to make her bat an eye.
"I don't want him! He is not an-"
Luna stabbed her knife through Riddle's eye ignoring the scream. "I despise liars." Pulling the knife and eye clean out of the socket she regarded the destroyed organ with a detached interest before severing the optic nerve which seemed to bring the heavily injured immortal more pain. "I'd murder you for your insolence but you are immortal unfortunately. Your immortality doesn't ensure you against punishment though" she said as her eyes turned a solid silver color. "You will not interact with Milenko ever again unless absolutely necessary. Your presence irks him and beyond that it irks me. My violent temper is less than his but I know how to make you hurt. After all, this little demonstration should have more than sufficed I know how to hurt you." Her eyes narrowed at the rustle of fabric and turned to spot said possessed wizard looking at her with amusement.
"Don't mind me, continue your little show."
Luna's brow furrowed as she stomped on one half blade forcing it all the way into Riddle's wrist til the bone stopped it, the increased geyser of blood spraying her head to toe in crimson liquid not fazing her as the immortal screamed like a banshee. "I was having a spirited conversation about boundaries with Riddle. She doesn't seem to grasp what the virtue of honesty is" the blonde said as one shoulder dipped in disappointment. She'd intended to have this demonstration done with before Milenko was done for the evening at the ball but c'est la vie.
"Riddle wouldn't know boundaries if they were burned into her skin with basilisk venom." Milenko crouched down beside the jibbering immortal. The fact the demented immortal looked fearful of the little blonde witch was amusing as it was slightly erotic. Erotic in terms of the fact that the blonde witch was the one to inspire it but less so since she was underage. "So what boundaries are you trying to pound into her flesh?"
"Oh just how she seems to find it utterly fascinating to push your patience" Luna said twirling the knife again in her hand.
"If that's all you're far too late. Between moments of annoying me I find some way of torturing her, it doesn't seem to stick." Milenko stood back up and kicked Riddle in the jaw busting it and sending a handful of teeth scattering across the dirt floor. "Have fun" he said with a nonchalant wave over his shoulder as he left the tent.
**Dumbledore's office after the Yule ball**
"Albus, you are positively mad! That.. that monster cannot be redeemed in any way, shape or form!"
Severus Snape grimaced from his silent post observing the nearly frothing Potter patriarch rant at the ancient headmaster. While it made him positively ill to even mentally concede it, Potter was actually right on this matter. He was far too familiar with the ancient wizards MO for wanting to redeem from those who strayed from what he believed to be the one true path all humans, muggle or wizard, were meant to travel down. "Despite my urge to vomit and obliviate myself for even thinking it, Potter is right. You want to redeem a body possessed by a spirit more malevolent than the Dark Lord? Did you not see that monster summon the most feared demon to muggle 'God fearing' Christian slaves and what he did in front of everyone? He manhandled and beat down a demon that is feared for torturing human souls for eternity in front of the international media, something not even you can quash without losing face or credibility for."
Summoning Magic, true Summoning Magic and not the bastardized Summoning Charm, was a nearly lost art with very few families old enough to have the tomes that would guide new bloodline practitioners to learning their legacy. Even by those ridiculously rare standards, Summoning Magic was extremely limited in what could be summoned. While it wasn't rare for deities to be summoned by practitioners of old, they were only called upon for the most dire of straits. Elemental Spirits and Nature Spirits were far more common but summoning things like demons were considered taboo and forbidden. Demons were malicious entities and had a fearsome, cruel reputation for due reasons. The fact that Milenko, an entity of unknown origins that was possessing the body of Harry Potter, so nonchalantly summoned such a high echelon demon with the seeming authority of holding it to his whim like a slave was frightening.
"The entity possessing Harry's body and the subdued spirit of Harry Potter himself are completely separate entities. The foul essence-"
James' fierce scowl-sneer would put even Severus to shame as he slammed his hands on Dumbledore's desk interrupting the ancient wizard. "ENOUGH! If you poke your head into the affairs of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter again, I will see you thrown in front of the Wizengamot! I lost one child because of your inadequate attempts to find him turning up less than dragon shite! When his body is finally found, it's due to someone entering his name in a tournament meant for those who are of age! Then when we find him, at your incessant badgering, we tried to do something and do you know what we got out of it? My daughter permanently maimed and made dumber by the day & us nearly murdered!" he growled with a darkness permeating his tone. "If you want to waste your time on that monster be my guest! Leave me and my family alone or I swear that I will ruin you on my honor as Lord Potter and Representative Black!" With all that said, and Dumbledore in shock, James strode with clenched fists at his side out of the office ignoring the ancient mans begging words from him to heed reason.
"I've said my piece already. That thing breaks the very taboo of Summoning Magic and has an Arch Demon level entity feared by muggles as his slave. I'm not suicidal enough to throw myself on that sword for you, honor debt owed be damned." Just like James, Severus left ignoring the louder and renewed pleas -for that was what they were- for him to stop and listen.
Dumbledore was left alone with only the living portraits of headmasters and headmistresses past looking down on him, looks of disgust and malcontent aimed at him without any attempts to hide their expression. He didn't notice this however as his mind reeled at breakneck pace. He had to do something or all his planning was going to go to waste!