play us out Roundabout!  💃 🕺

of course I had to make a JoJo reference -- Dante’s English VA is Dio’s!!

.

So like, real shit, pretty much nothing of what we see of Dante's thoughts, words or actions is congruent with Lucius's plans...

Lucius calls himself "savior of the world."

Dante says "If you're calling me evil though, I take that as a compliment"

Dante straight-up laughs and says that Yami is "going to open up a world that's far more magnificent!!" which is "A world crawling with devils. A place that will brim over with every sort of malice." – and Dante is "really looking forward to this!!"

Lucius's mission "For the sake of true peace, a peace without sadness or hatred, war or discrimination." Where he'll "repair all humans" and "make them into fortunate people who are equal in every respect."

Dante meanwhile "Animals have no malice. It's the supreme emotion, one that only humans developed! You must have felt it yourself. Anger. Hatred. Revenge. Destruction! The power of malice!! When you unleash your darkest emotions... that's when you're most human. Evil is the true shape of humanity."

and he repeatedly thanks and compliments Yami for making him feel new malice and jealousy

When Lucius grabs Sister Lily he says "Let me show you a human who is truly happy." Which apparently to him means brainwashing and paladinizing them.

Lucius calls Asta a flaw and wants to eliminate him.

Dante is apparently amused by Asta and says:

"Even if our ranks are different, we're both possessed by devils. We should be able to see eye to eye."

When Asta rejects Dante's ideas, Dante goes "I guess there's no choice. I'll wake up your true feelings for you" and stabs Gauche. In Dante's undeniably fucked-up view, he's doing Asta a favor

He's happy when Asta goes berserk, even saying "Now that's what makes you human!!!"

And as Asta is losing it, he says "I wanted to get your story... but you're out of control, and I guess now isn't the time."

He apparently genuinely wanted to have a chat with Asta. It's true that Dante beats Asta up, but as we see later, Dante could've done so much worse to him. He could've ripped him apart if he actually felt like it. Arguably, that beating was Dante going easy on Asta. Not only that, when Dante is asking Yami how he acquired "so many people with such unique magic" the panel shows Vanessa, Grey and berserk Asta.

I guess he was going to take all of them with him? I don't think Dante is as...interested in Asta the way he is with Yami but he does seem keen on bringing Asta to the dark side [insert "don't you want to go ape shit" meme here]

(also I've actually seen quite a bit of art where Dante adopts Asta 😁)

And then to top it off, Dante's moment of... dare I say... vulnerability with Yami. "I was bored. Tired of everything. Nothing... satisfied my malice." If you look at the page...

–this apparently includes the freaking coup and killing the king. Dante already had devil power at that time, but he still wasn't happy...

Either there's an actual rift between Dante and Lucius, or one of them came along later than some of you would like to believe.

I Will Always Be With You Chapter 6: Rights

After lunch, the Malfoy family left since they had to assist an important event, something related to Lucius' business in France, so the now Snape family was alone walking down the streets of Diagon Ally. It was a rather pleasant afternoon, not too cloudy even though it was December, it wasn't snowing either but the streets were white because of previous snow storms, you could say that Christmas was right around the corner, all the shops were decorated with colorful lights and extravagant ornaments, the children ran around the place trying to make their parents buy them that one toy they wanted Severus, on the other hand, was walking down the street with a quiet polite little boy who looked around in wonder but never asked for anything, this behavior worried Severus, he was expecting something different, maybe not as exuberant as the other children but definitely something, he looked towards Harry who was trying to figure out what everything was and softly said "Harry, we need to go find you some clothes, then we can go to the toy store" he, Severus Snape, was offering volunteer to go to a toy store, but Harry deserved it, he deserved some toys, it was a basic human right, children have the right to play. Harry, on the other hand, didn't want to hope for a trip to the toy store, it had happened before, Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia would say that he could get a toy if he behaved but, even if he didn't do anything he wouldn't get it because he was a freak, but his new dad seemed honest, he would be the best boy that way he would be able to get at least a little plushie. Harry nodded and followed Severus towards the entrance of muggle London, where they would shop first. The first shop was in a big mall so Severus made sure that Harry was by his side all the time taking his hand just in case, Severus tended to rush with everything and that usually ended up with people not following, he didn't want to lose the child, even though said child was already eight, he didn't seem to mind. Severus held various t-shirts in front of the child, mostly plain ones, for the one with designs Severus would let Harry pick out his favorites, the main color was, of course, green, like his eyes, the child pointed out that he liked blue, not any blue, Ravenclaw blue, even if the child didn't know just yet what that meant. At the end, he had purchased plain t-shirts sporting the four main Hogwarts colors, a couple white dress shirts and four pairs of jeans, all the way Harry seemed completely overwhelmed by all the things that Severus was buying and didn't ask for anything at all. Harry followed Severus holding his hand tightly, everything was a first, even the holding hand part, it was a normal gesture from a parent to a child and at Harry's age would be something to be embarrassed about, but he could not be happier, the gesture only reinforced the idea that Severus, his father now, wanted him. When they walked out of the store Severus stopped him and looked at him crouching down to seem less intimidating, Harry really appreciated this, "We are going to this other clothes store before we go to the toy store, be patience I know this might not be entertaining but it is necessary" Harry just nodded at this even though he thought to buy all these clothes was really fun and unnecessary "In this store there is more colorful and variate clothing so I want you to pick two t-shirts and one pair of jeans, you will need also a pair of sport shoes, alright my son?" Harry nodded happily, his dad just called him "his son" and he said it with affection and not in a sarcastic way, not like the Dursleys, who a couple of times before had pretended to care just to mock him. Harry started walking through the stands, still holding Severus hand tightly, he didn't want to lose his dad, suddenly a black t-shirt with a dark red dragon on the front caught his attention, he loved animals and dragons were fascinating, a book that he read for school said that dragons were mythical creatures, some had wings, others didn't… and they could control elements. Severus noticed how the child staid looking at the t-shirt in thought so Severus reached to the stack of shirts and looked for the right size, admiring the hope that radiated from his son's eyes "here, this is your size, it is a little bit big but you will grow to fit it properly" the adult handed the shirt to his son who smiled and pressed it tightly to his chest "now, one more shirt, then we will go get jeans." Harry look through some more finding a white shirt with a dark green and yellow snake, this time Harry asked for it instead of thinking too much if he could or could not have it "I like snakes… well I like reptiles in general" he had some trouble with the pronunciation of "reptiles" and Severus thought it was adorable, "Slytherin at its finest" commented Severus while picking the right size "I will tell you about Hogwarts houses when we get there, don't worry" Harry nodded and walked towards the jeans to repeat the process and pick some up, they ended up buying two instead of one because Harry seemed to have trouble deciding which one he wanted, then they picked the last item, some white trainers, paid and head outside. "Let's go to the toy store now, we will go to Madam Malkins on another date" Severus said while leading Harry towards the colorful store, while Severus did not like the idea of going into a toy store, the look of pure excitement on Harry's face was more than enough argument to adventure himself in such a place. Once on the store, Severus crouched down in front of Harry to be at the same level "Alright child, we are going to go to a magical toy store but I know you may want some familiar toys too so, anything at all that catches your attention tell me, understood?" Severus wasn't expecting to have his arms full of Harry at the end of the sentence, but hugged him back nevertheless "come on Harry, where do you want to start?" Harry looked around thinking for a moment, it felt weird, he had so many options, he could go anywhere, it felt a bit scary but Severus' hand on his shoulder made it better. He started walking toward the plushies and found a fluffy light pink rabbit, he didn't want to point it out at first because pink is a girl's color, but Severus seemed to read his mind and picked it up "he looks like a good friend Harry" the child smiled at this and squeezed his new friend "his name is Dante" Harry said holding it for Severus to see "really good name my son" Harry had heard the name to a couple of older girls on his school and always seemed like a great name. After that Harry was more confident at pointing out what he wanted, he still hesitated a bit a couple of times but Dante was the proof that Harry needed to trust that Severus was, indeed, buying him toys. They got an animal set, a couple more plushies, and a remote-control car, everything was exciting but the other children never stopped screaming and running around, even if it looked fun, their behavior was not the best and it made Harry get a headache. Once outside of the mall Severus held out his arm for him to reach, they were going to apparate back to Hogwarts where Severus believed necessary to hold a little "family meeting" in which Severus would explain basic human rights and explaining to the little one the Houses at Hogwarts. Immediately after they got into their quarters, Severus started to put the clothes on Harry's wardrobe while the child arranged his toys very carefully and thoughtfully "these are so many toys…" Severus heard his son mumbled, he sighed and sat down beside him on the floor "Harry… my son… you deserve them… it is your right as a child and I am sorry that you didn't have them before" Harry looked confused, he didn't know what "right" meant but he had heard it before, his uncle use to say it a lot "Uncle Vernon says that freaks don't have rights…" he said while looking down, ashamed of his past. Severus sighed and hugged the little boy, Petunia and Vernon where monsters and did not deserve anything, hopefully someday he will actually get revenge, for now, though he had to fix his best friend's, and James Potter, son "Harry, even though the world is an unfair place to be we all have rights, they are called human rights and as long as you are a human you have rights which are basically certain freedoms that are guaranteed" Harry nodded slowly, taking in all the information and trying to figure out what it meant for him "also, being a 'freak', which you are not, isn't bad… it just means… unusual, eccentric, rare, and believe me, when you get to adulthood we all want to be different" Severus laughed a little when Harry wrinkled his nose at the word "adulthood." Harry then rested his head on his dad's shoulder, he was tired and his dad was telling him all these things that flipped his world upside down "Dad? Do I look any different?" Severus looked down and took his son's chin "your cheekbones are a little sharper… I think your face is getting a bit longer in general, not a big deal but if you look at it you can definitely see it… and your hair is getting darker… I think it will end up being black, instead of the dark brown that was James' hair, you kept the crazy curls… and I like them…" Severus smiled widely "your parents, James and Lily, were good-looking people, especially Lily… so it is not a surprise how handsome you are" he kissed Harry's forehead "tomorrow we will redecorate this plain room and go visit some of the staff here at Hogwarts… so go get your pajamas and brush your teeth, I can tell you are tired, if you do it fast we can read something in bed" Harry listened to his dad carefully before sprinting towards the bathroom to get ready. Once both where ready Harry got under the covers Severus sat down next to him "so, what do you want me to tell you about?" Harry thought for a moment before saying "Hogwarts" in an excited voice, Severus smiled and started telling him about the founders of the school and how it was built, the child fell asleep soon after Severus started talking but the adult stayed to watch over him for a bit, just to breath calmly and get the idea of actually having this child with him to settle. After a couple of minutes, Severus stood up, took the camera that Lily had given to him a long time ago and took a picture of Harry sleeping, the first one of many others, then he went to bed, happy for the first time in many years.