Disclaimer for the entire story: I own naughta, nothing, zip, zilch, not a word!

A Thief's Special Brand of Magic

With red eyes and hair the new employee of the hotel should have stood out, but he danced within the shadows of the halls unnoticed, eyes full of mischief as he approached his targets room. He gave the door a single knock, a light tap, and waited, rocking back and forth on his heels.

It didn't take long before the door began to creep open, a single eye appearing through the gap. "What do you want?" muttered a gruff voice, heavy with sleep, "I aint' causin' any trouble for no one!"

"Sir," the new employee said, smiling, "would you happen to know anything about magic?"

"Magic?! What ya on about!" the man's voice hitched, raised, and the employee tilted his head, glasses catching in the light, before he stepped forward, once, twice, then, hand atop the door handle, laughed, "you know full well what I'm talking about, you can't hide it, I hear it."

"Hear it?" the man crowed incredulously, before shaking his head and pushing against the door with all his might, "ya best be getting out of 'ere, or I'll be calling the cops!"

The employee simply shrugged, "wouldn't be the first time that's happened." Then, without warning, there was the sound of bats fluttering towards the man's head, without thinking, without so much as a quick glance, he dived backward, away from the screeching creatures and towards his wand. Turning from the door, he searched, wildly, through a pile of discarded clothes, cursing all the while under his breath, then, cheering, he whipped around, wand poised in one hand, curse upon his lips.

But there were no bats, nor any other flying creature tearing through his room, no, the employee simply stood before him, door ajar, hands clasped deceivingly, and eyebrow raised in amusement. The curse, so ready before, halted, fumbled, crashed. And his mind almost let out an audible crack, laughing, tossing his now useless wand to the side, he asked what the employee intended to do with him.

The young man's smile was gentle, kind, but his eyes held mischief, and curiosity. Still, the employee made no move beyond lightly kicking the door closed. "You're sound is a sad one," the employee muttered, more to himself then to the man before him, "the rhythm is slow, faded, but there's still life to it."

The man remained silent, still, watching, hoping against hope that somehow all this crap that just keeps happening to him would end. First Voldemort destroys his family, torturing his wife and killing his son; then Snape had the gale to save him while he lie, begging for death; and now this…whatever this was.

"I want you to teach someone," the employee declared at last, done muttering to himself about sounds and rhythms.

Teach someone? Him? Ah, that was a laugh. But the young man stayed firm, "there are others with magic here"—a rather surprising declaration, he'd known of no others, mud-bloods perhaps?—"but yours is the only match, your sound, I mean—your rhythm."

"To who?" he asked, playing along, "you?"

The young man shook his head, "no, a friend."

"A lady friend?" he quipped, pulling himself up and standing before the employee, noting how small the young man actually was.

"A good friend, yes, her names Marie—she just woke to her powers a bit ago."

"A late bloomer?" the man muttered in both awe and disgust, shivering at the thought of having to teach a—likely—mud-blood anything. However, the words, the spells, they were there, on the tip of his tongue, but he could not move his body like he wished, it was almost as if the fight had been sucked out of him, the pulse torn from his grip.

And if he tried hard enough, he was certain he'd see it there, within the employee's hand.

"Why can't ya teach her? 'ever magic trick you're using 'eems powerful enough."

The young man raised an eyebrow, lips quirking up into a small smile, "I have no magic. Not like you."

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Authors Note:

This is done randomly, entirely, I actually wanted to write a crossover between Rhythm Thief and The Justice League (spoofing things up a bit of course), but then I realized I didn't know enough about the Justice League to make it even slightly passable, so I just started typing, then Teen Titans came to mind, but I couldn't remember the name of the Pizza shop they always go to so that idea was scrapped and it somehow morphed to Harry Potter. I have no idea where this is going, or if it is even going anywhere, but I figured I'd explore a few mysteries of our dear Raphael, if you want to join in the journey, leave a review, anything would be useful at this point.