hh_mirror

((It should be noted that Valentine's inclusion is with mun-approval, a joint-tag seemed the smoothest start.))
The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen shifted slightly on his sofa, one arm wrapped around the shoulders of Lord Valentine Wolfe, and his feet propped up on the strangled corpse of a Dutch police officer which lay in front of the furniture. Over the last few months, the Baron and Lord Wolfe had been finding themselves spending an increasing amount of time with one another, and enjoying it all quite a bit. Although they'd failed to grow bored with each other's company, they had become somewhat bored with Hogwarts, even with the usually effective influence of Valentine's chemical concoctions- Hogwarts just didn't exist on a planetary scale. A recent missive received from the now-popcorned Paul Atreides or A-Ghola-of-Paul Atredies had also been bothering the Baron, and, all in all, a change, if only a brief one, sounded good. Thus, the Baron and Lord Wolfe had decided to go on a 'date', selecting De Wallen for their destination, having interpreted it as a destination which catered to any and all desires of the chemical or carnal nature.

And so, the pair of them had used the Floo network to connect to Amsterdam's equivalent of Diagon Alley, where they changed some wizarding money into the local currency, and ventured out unaware that their tastes were actually somewhat beyond the bounds of even the most 'liberal' of the local establishments. Neither of them made any concessions in their presentation, dressed in their usual manner- the Baron did reduce the effect of his suspensors, but still continued to levitate ever-so-slightly off the ground. Vladimir knew that the common masses tended to be an unobservant bunch, and thus, unlikely to notice anything that wasn't supposed to exist. And indeed, as they emerged arm-in-arm into the not-Wizarding world, the many strange looks they attracted were not directed at Vladimir's feet. It seemed as if the Wizarding world likely owed as much to this tendency as they did to their own obliviators when it came to keeping the rest of the world ignorant. The passer-bys entirely ignored their house-elves, who'd used a bit of her house-elf magic for the purpose. Traveling without slaves was unthinkable, and so, their house-elves had to suffice, with Mopsy occasionally working a bit of house-elf magic on the rare persons who she thought were staring a bit too much. On the whole, the pair didn't mind the stares they did attract, as both delighted in unsettling the dull sensibilities of others.

As Valentine had done a bit of traveling in the past, their outing began well enough. They were able to hail a cab, whose driver suffered them to order him around, presuming them to be obnoxious foreigners of some sort. He ignored Vladimir's occasional rants regarding the primitive insufficiency of wheeled vehicles just as he ignored the chemicals his passengers were obviously indulging in, delivering them to their demanded destination with very few words. To the best of their recollection, the relatively decent start to their trip lasted for some time, although their perception of this grew ever-more nebulous as the hours passed.

It was certain that several distinct events occurred, and, it seemed likely that at least one full day passed, if not a couple of them. The differences in lighting which accompanied various recollected scenes suggested a spread of time, and quite a few distinct locations. Many of the scenes with an impression of daylight seemed to be the 'coffee' shops- had they asked Mopsy, she would have confirmed that they'd gone to just about every one in the district while Valentine attempted to sample every chemical the town had to offer, as much of it bought under the counter as over, if not more. The Baron had no desire to discourage him in this, finding it a perfectly good way to spend their time, although he insisted on switching things up with a few stops of his own. Most of these were to various fast-food establishments he recognized from the Muggle commercials, in order to satiate the curiosity these had created. Despite insisting they were all horrible, common places which only the horrible, common masses would be able to tolerate, he had to admit that there was something to be said for some of the cuisine, cheap and common as it was. Thus, McDonalds had warranted multiple trips.

The corpse beneath their feet was tied to the nighttime recollections, however. They'd arrived back at Hogwarts perhaps a half-hour earlier, and, were now relaxing while they laughed over the disjointed little scenes which had lead to the corpse's creation- they were pretty sure there were several more back in Amsterdam. The officer who was serving as a temporary ottoman had inadvertently been brought along by a quick bit of side-along apparation on Mopsy's part, as the Baron had been in the process of strangling him. It seemed likely that he'd actually died in-route, and the Baron had already lamented how it was a shame that he'd finished him off already, given that he might have been a nice present for Jasper if not for the vampire preferring his meals alive.

Although the exact order of events remained nebulous, both Vladimir and Valentine were absolutely certain that they'd happened in one of the brothels. Their own interpretation of events varied quite a bit from that of the local law enforcement and media, who'd predictably describe it as a strange multiple homicide, and then sweep it under the rug. Given their own recollection of events, Vladimir and Valentine would feel it was an unfair simplification of the situation. For one, they'd paid for the young men they'd gotten a bit enthusiastic with, which in their opinion meant that it was their money lost, and, it was of no consequence to anyone else. It wasn't as if anyone had made it clear that there were odd local laws prohibiting the actual ownership of human flesh- of course, had anyone explained that the 'slaves' were merely for rent, and often working of their own volition, it wouldn't have been likely to have made any difference in what happened, laws being things which applied to lesser men.

In any case, what was certain was that at some point during their amusements, one of the pretty male whores was killed, quite possibly by accident or overdose. It had been a while since either the Baron or Lord Wolfe met with an opportunity to indulge certain psychopathic instincts, and, so it hadn't taken too long for them to finish off the rest of the batch they'd thought they 'purchased', which meant they'd needed a few more. Neither of them though that there was anything wrong with killing the first batch, and so they'd simply asked for exactly what they required- more whores, ideally as pretty as the dead ones, and, to have the 'used up' ones removed from the room they'd rented. A room which was now a spectacular mess, providing a very colorful (but mostly red) backdrop for what they got instead. Rather than receiving more whores, the pair soon found themselves confronted by several horrified officers of the law, who seemed intent on arresting them for the murder of what they'd understood to be their own property. The inevitable scuffle ensued, for which the local law enforcement was not at all prepared. The sort of crazy they were used to deal with tended to obey the laws of gravity, for one, and never involved creepy midgets with superpowers. Mopsy had spent the whole trip making herself as scarce as possible, but as soon as the confrontation escalated into actual violence, the house-elf made herself useful. This was why it was certain that the local authorities would sweep the incident under the rug- it wasn't exactly easy to explain what happened on a police report. In a matter of seconds, Mopsy's had used her house-elf magic to toss the majority of the officers across the room, and grabbed onto both her master and his companion for a quick side-along apparation. The officer that Vladimir had been strangling at the time ended up coming along, and had either died during magical transport, or a few seconds afterward. And now, the Baron and Lord Wolfe were still feeling a bit giddily excited from what they considered a spot of well-needed 'fun', already reflecting over their drug-colored memories of the event. Vladimir had thought to have the corpse removed a couple of times, but there was no rush- it wasn't as if it was going anywhere, and, he'd given Mopsy a few hours to relax after her timely bit of magic. He'd bother with calling a 'lesser' house-elf in later.