A/N: The usual disclaimers apply, but with an addition for this chapter in particular: I do not own any people or intellectual property associated with World Wrestling Entertainment that you might see herein. I'm just a fan, and this felt like a perfect fit for this prompt. I hope anyone else who has awareness of both fandoms will feel the same way.
oneirataxia - (n.) inability to distinguish dreams or fantasy from real life [greek]
In the blink of an eye, it all changes…
Seamus Finnegan sat up in his bed. He couldn't quite pinpoint when it had all started, but lately he'd been having these dreams. No, not just dreams, more like out of body experiences. Visions of a world he didn't know, living the life of other people he'd never met. Bright lights, crowds of easily thousands upon thousands. It felt like a possession, but he was the one doing the possessing. None of the experiences seemed to have any real consequences so far, though the pain he encountered in all of them stayed with him until he woke the next day.
There was another constant as well: that damn music. It awakened something primal in him, something fierce and ferocious and dangerous. Seamus did his best to keep the impulses under control, but each time he was pulled into the experiences, it got more difficult. The internal war in his mind lost ground constantly, and eventually he would lose himself entirely if he couldn't figure out how to stop it.
He did get little clues about what was going on around him during his experiences, but the only name he'd been able to hold onto had hearkened back to some mythology that his mother had taught him when he was young: Balor, a giant with one deadly eye in the middle of his forehead. How that giant related to the body that he inhabited some of the time was beyond him, but he could feel his magic flowing freely into the body during the experiences, giving the body extra strength to ward off harm and fight back against those looking to harm him.
Shaking his head, Seamus wandered off to the shared bathroom of the Gryffindor 5th years. When these experiences happened, it usually signaled the end of any chance at sleep for the rest of the night. A quick Tempus showed that it was just before 5am. At least he had gotten some sleep this time. Wouldn't do to be caught falling asleep during Transfiguration by McGonagall.
As he entered the bathroom, his eyes were suddenly drawn to the mirror over the sink. Though he could feel no magic, he felt compelled to see his reflection. But the face staring back at him was not his. It was the face of an older man, approaching his mid-thirties if Seamus hit his guess. His hair was closer to the jet black color of Seamus' dormmate Harry Potter than his own sandy brown color, and a beard framed by light stubble covered his chin. He drew closer, and saw a much more muscular body as well, the body of an athlete. This, he recognized, is what he looked like when he was in the experiences, except there was one thing missing.
The Demon King Awakens…
As he visualized the differences, they slowly began appearing on him. Words, written in a manic script, faded into being on his torso. The same black substance that the words were written in spread down from the top of his head to cover his face and chest, then a sinister white smile formed on his neck. Feeling an itching on his back, he turned, to see an large yellow eye directly between his shoulder blades. For one second, it looked very real, and he swore he saw it blink, before it lost some of its substance and settled into a frozen position, staring straight ahead.
Unnerved, he quickly turned back to face the mirror, only to see bright green eyes staring back at him. These were not the killing curse green eyes of the Boy-Who-Lived; these eyes nearly glowed of their own fruition. He blinked. They were his. He moved quickly to the sink and splashed some water on his face. He looked back into the mirror, and saw only himself, as he was. No muscular athlete, no demonic writing, no itching eye on his back. Just Seamus Finnegan.
He wandered back towards his bed, hoping to at least find some peace while laying awake for the next hour. He didn't look back into the mirror.
In the mirror, the Demon King stood, observing silently. "Soon, young one, your magic shall feed my body, and I shall reign supreme once more."