(Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Harry Potter. RWBY is owned by Roosterteeth and Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling. If I owned either then I would be swimming in cash, which sadly I am not.)
Nothing Left
Chapter 12: Museum
The museum was a rather large building, it was quite like gringotts actually with the exception that it was wider than it was tall. Large marble pillars decorated the front of the building. The building spoke heavily of roman architecture, with the arches and large dome capping off the middle of the structure. However it also had a modern touch to it with large windows and skylights that let in a lot of natural light to the exhibits. Multi-colored spotlights lit up the front of the building to draw the eye and display its grandeur as dust powered limos and other fancy, expensive cars kept arriving in front of the building. The men and women who stepped out of the aforementioned vehicles were all wearing elaborate and probably overpriced suits and dresses which were most likely more expensive than the cars that they drove.
The event that they had chosen to attend was the first showing of the museum's new exhibits, one of which included their target, and they were throwing a party for all the rich in an effort to raise money for the company managing the museum. Junior had used some of his connections and got some tickets for the gathering.
Harry, Blake, and Yang were waiting in the lobby, where many of the other patrons were gathered, for the new exhibits to open and allow them to look at the new art that was put on display. While the artwork was promised to be fantastic and awe inspiring, the trio was not there for that. They were preparing to case the museum for the heist that was going to happen once the sun went down.
Junior wanted them to relieve the museum of a certain jewel that was on display there. It was a very rare dust crystal. While dust crystals were fairly common in Remnant, mixed dust crystals were not. They appeared in the rare occurrence that two different dusts mixed together peacefully and hardened in crystals through a rather volatile process that involved a lot of heat and pressure. However this crystal was special. It was a red and blue dust crystal, while not only impressive to look at, it was also a technical marvel that no one had been able to replicate. Blue dust created a cooling effect on whatever it was used on, be it bullets or machinery. Red dust, however, overheated things to the point of burning. Mixing the two of them together in dust form is nigh impossible without an explosion or other equally violent reactions and even if one succeeded in mixing the two, trying to crystalize the results would be unthinkable and deadly, yet there was one on display in the museum and Junior's client wanted it.
He had initially wanted to go alone and rob the museum with no one else as to keep them away from the crime, but Blake had convinced him to come along because she had robbed several stores during her time as a member of White Fang, so she knew what to look for and which routes would be best for getting in and out. The third member of the trio was there because she was stubborn about it. Harry wanted to keep her out of it because she had the stealth capabilities of a raging elephant in a china shop, not that he would ever say that to her face, however no matter what he said, she refused to be left out. She stated that since she was the one to start all this, she was going to help them. They argued about it for a while, but eventually settled on allowing her to go with them after making Weiss give her a crash course in how to act at formal events. Blake joined her in these lessons as well because she had never been to a high class gathering either. Weiss was against it at first, but after being whittled down and subjected to Ruby's dreaded puppy look, she agreed.
Harry was dressed in his normal three piece suit. It was a traditional black suit jacket over black slacks. The only thing about his suit that stood out was the quality of it and his personal motif embroidered on the both lapels. Underneath the jacket, he had a black waistcoat over top of a dark green silk dress shirt.
The entire outfit had been sitting in his pouch for almost a year. The last time he wore it was when he was forced to go to a pureblood social gathering to try and garner support for the order. Needless to say that it was agonizing for him to have to listen to meaningless chats and business talks for hours. After the second one, he never went to another again, no matter how much he was begged. Two events was two too many, but now he was going to have to sit through another one. Joy.
Even though he was dressed a notch above several of the others and was probably the only faunus in the room, he was not what caught everyone's eyes. The women, because girls just did not describe them at the moment, beside him drew the crowd's attention like moths to flames. Yang was wearing a simple, but elegant strapless gold dress that accented her curves wonderfully. It was hell trying to get her to wear the damn thing. She kept wanting to wear something that allowed more mobility, but after an hour of convincing her that she had to wear the dress and compromising, she eventually got in it and all the work they put into making her wear it was worth it if the slight glazed looks of the men around them indicated. Harry did have to stop himself from loudly growling at the drooling men, his lupine instincts wanted him to assert his dominance over the weaker males for looking at her, but it was easy to fight back and suppress.
Blake on the other hand, was just as stunning in the sleeveless black dress that they had found in one of the stores they went to while hunting for dresses for the two. Blake was much more agreeable about wearing a dress. She still wore the bow to hide her faunus status from the general public, but that was to be expected. Even after all the support and encouragement that she got from team RWBY, She was still not secure enough to allow strangers to see her without a bow to hide her ears.
The one thing that all three of them shared though, was the weapons hidden under their clothing. Just because they were wearing formal clothing did not mean that they were not armed. Harry, being the paranoid bastard that he was, had a semiautomatic pistol in a shoulder holster underneath his jacket and daggers strapped to each leg underneath his slacks with his wand strapped to his wrist. He managed to convince the girls to conceal a dagger each underneath their dresses, while he was not expecting trouble, it made him feel better to know that they were not weaponless in case something came up.
While everyone was standing around and beginning to socialize, Harry took a couple minutes to remember his lesson in dealing with high society, thankfully nobody asked him any questions during that time. They were all too busy gawking at the two beautiful women next to him or looking at him in distaste because of his wolf ears, his tail was hidden in his trousers, to get close enough to talk to him..
"Are you two ready?" Harry asked them when he noticed that the museum staff was starting to usher the crowd to the new displays.
Blake nodded her head and Yang gave a quiet "Yep,"
"Remember what you are looking for," Harry said and started walking towards the new displays with a show of confidence in his step, "Let's go,"
The group walked amongst the exhibits while examining the rooms. Even though they were not there for the exhibits, they did take some time out of their observing to check them out. Harry may not have an interest in art, but some of the paintings and sculptures were awe inspiring, even for him. It was not until they got into the room that housed the crystal did anything troublesome arise for their plans.
The display room for the crystal was large with several skylights covering the roof, which was a plus for them. When he saw that there were skylights in the room that they were breaking into, he was ecstatic. He could not show it while he was scoping the building and would draw needless attention to himself, but inside he was. It made the entire plan so much easier than it would have been if he needed to find an alternate route to the target.
The problem was just how much security the crystal was under. In just a couple seconds, the three of them spotted ten separate cameras and a couple motion detectors lining the walls. There were very little places where the cameras were blind, but the places that they could not see were covered by the motion sensors. Added to that, the crystal was under dust infused glass. The amount of energy that it would take to break that glass would be insane and pointless to attempt if they did not want to alert the entire city block to their presence. That meant that they would have to find a key or something to unlock the case rather than just breaking it like they originally planned to do.
Just as they were about to go and find out who would have the key and where, a man dressed in a suit that probably cost more than what most people made in a year, walked up to the trio. He was shorter than Harry was and he did not work out if the tenuous hold his belt had at keeping his stomach tucked into his cloth had anything to say about it. Added to this, the plump man had a nuance to his walk that screamed arrogance. Next to him, was a woman that Harry guessed to be his wife, she was gorgeous woman, not as much as his girlfriends though. The dress that she was wearing sparkled as it moved as to draw as much attention to her body as possible, while her strawberry blonde hair was tied up into a bun and her makeup was done in such a way that it highlighted her features while diverting attention away from any blemishes that may have marred her face.
"I hope that you are having a pleasant evening. My name is Bruce Kenstial and this is my wife, Katherine." He said with a smile plastered on his face. "I have been to more parties than I care to remember, but I do not recall ever seeing you three at any of them? I am sure that I would remember these two beauties,"
"We are new to town," Harry explained. He knew that he was going to have to answer such questions so he came up with a cover story as to why he was there. He had been rehearsing it in his mind all night, so much so that he was able to answer fluidly without missing a beat, even though everything that he was saying was false or half-truths. He had just been hoping that it would take longer for someone to come up to them, though in all honesty, he was actually surprised that it had taken someone as long as it had to come up to them. Blake and Yang drew a lot of attention by themselves, not to mention the fact that he was a faunus in a predominantly human event. Thankfully it was someone who was obviously rude and had at least a modicrum of decorum as to not make an ass out of themselves.
"So what brings you to Vale, Mr.…?" Bruce trails off when he realized that Harry had not introduced himself yet.
"How rude of me," Harry said apologetically. "My name is Harry Potter-Black, and this is Blake and Yang," He gestured to each of them. The man seemed to notice that he did not give out their last names, but decided that it was not worth asking about. The real reason that he kept their last names to himself was because if people knew their full names then they could find them. Harry, himself, technically did not exist in Remnant so he was not worried about anyone finding out about him. "It's a pleasure to meet you. As for your question, coming to Vale was just something that came up, there was not much planning before I got here,"
"I trust that you have enjoyed your time here then?" Bruce asked, Harry could tell that he really did not care. He was trying to Segway into something else, but did not want to be hasty about it. It was one of the first things that Harry had been taught when dealing with high class society. Being blunt rarely got one what they needed especially money.
"Oh yes, I have found it quite pleasant here," Harry answered, playing along with the man, "The city is grand and the people are amazing, I may even have settle down here,"
Oh really? That is great!" The man said with fake enthusiasm, "I'm sure that these two ladies have nothing to do with it then?" he asked, looking them over. His wife seemed to just ignore his lecherous behavior.
Harry felt the need to hurt the man in front of him rise up, but was able to push it down before anyone noticed and continued without missing a beat, "Oh don't get me wrong, they have plenty to do with why I wish to stay here." he could not hide the slight rumble in his chest though. Luckily only Blake and Bruce seemed to hear it. Yang had begun to look at the surrounding exhibits after she lost interest into the conversation.
"Of course, of course," The now slightly more man backpedalled, "I have to wonder though, what does your family do? It is not cheap to live in such a place,"
'Ah there it is,' Harry thought to himself. While many would be unable to catch it, someone with Harry's or Blake's training could pick up on the tones of condescendence coming from the man. If that did not tip them off to the backhanded comment, then the smirk that his wife was wearing would have. "My father was a police officer and my mother was a scientist," Not false, but not correct either. James was an auror and Lily studied and created charms for a living.
"Well the world can always use more police and scientists," The man said in a smarmy manner. His wife quietly laughed by his side. Harry was starting to dislike this man more and more as the conversation continued.
"So old money?" The man said with a smirk on his face. "Don't get me wrong, being an officer of the law or a scientist are fantastic jobs, but people from such… rewarding careers, never come to these kind of events," Harry was a couple seconds away from breaking the man's face right there and then. His rage at the man for not only looking at his girlfriends like pieces of meat then insulting his parents screamed at him to hurt him, but he sucked it up and put on a smile screamed fakeness and showed off his sharpened canines. The man took a step back along with most of the people watching their exchange.
"It is more of a mix of old and new money," Harry said, imitating the man's tone of voice perfectly. It was a slimy mixture of condescendence and arrogance with a mighty helping of loathing that was sure to get under anyone's skin. "My previous career path was quite lucrative,"
Harry was of course referring being a soldier. Mid-way through the war, death eaters withdrew all their money from Gringotts, they had decided that goblins could not be trusted with their finances. This turned out to be a good thing for the order because every time they raided a house, the order got a lot of money and the finders would get a percentage of the findings. Needless to say, Harry had raided many houses over the course of the war and made a pretty penny. Most of the money he had with him came from such raids rather than his inheritance.
He did not know why the man continued the conversation, he was obviously uncomfortable around Harry. Harry just attributed it to the fact that if he backed down from a faunus half his age in front of all those people, he would lose a lot of face with them. "And what career was that?"
"Why…" Harry said slowly, his smile taking a much more intimidating edge and showing off more of his teeth. "I used to be a pest exterminator,"
'A pest exterminator?" The man said with a chuckle, "How is that at all lucrative?"
"The pests that I got rid of was worth every penny that they paid me," Harry replied,
"What kind of pests did you hunt then," The man asked while starting to sweat at the glint that the red ringed emeralds gained.
"Ah, the most dangerous kind…" Harry stated with an ever growing smile. " Snakes and their ilk," Harry stated. For some reason that just did not ring true to Bruce. "Alas I was too good at my job and I was able to get rid of all of them once and for all, and had to move here,"
"So you come from a respectable background as well," The man said, trying the divert the conversation to a much safer path. All the while, he was mopping the sweat off his forehead with a white handkerchief he had pulled from his pocket. "I, myself, am the owner of several restaurants around the city,"
"That sounds delightful," Harry stated insincerely, "I will have to check them out sometime and see how they are. However we came here to view the art, so I must bring these meeting to an end. It has a pleasure to meet you," He stuck his hand out and Bruce quickly shook it and when he went to pull away, the ravenette's iron grip stopped him. The last of the Potter's pulled the man closer and whispered so that only the man could hear him. "If you look at the two of them like that again, you will not have eyes to look at them with again. Alright?" Harry did not wait for his answer as he let go of the man's hand. Bruce vacated the area alongside his wife, happy to get away from him.
A hand slapped him on the shoulder, he turned while rubbing his arm with mock hurt. Yang was laughing into her hand while Blake was looking at him with a smile. "Ow! What was that for, Blake?"
"That was mean," She said, "Pest exterminator? Really?"
"Yes well, death eaters served under the snake so it was an apt analogy," Harry replied quietly with a smile, "Besides, the man did not truly want to talk to me. I saw the way that he was looking at me earlier, he hated the fact that a faunus was here and wanted to show that he was better than me." He explained, "That along with trying to impress you two with his wit and wealth into sleeping with him." Their faces twisted with disgust.
"And what makes you think that?" Yang asked.
"The thoughts of lust and anger radiated off of him," He replied, glaring at the man's back as he began talking with other people. He seemed to sense Harry's scathing glare and tensed up. "That coupled with how he was looking at you two, does not leave much guess work,"
"But his wife was right there," Yang protested.
"So?" Harry said, "It does not matter for men like him,"
Yang glared at the man while Blake gasped, "Wait, his thoughts? You can read people's minds?" Yang's head snapped around so fast that he was surprised that he did not hear her neck crack.
"Yes," Harry replied shortly, then stopped. He watched as their frustrations grew and realized just why Oz liked to do that. It was fun to watch people get frustrated, but Harry did not let it get too far. "It is a rare art called legilimency," Harry explained as they made a show of looking at the new exhibits. "It is a branch of mind magics that deals with invading another's mind. With practice, one can 'hear', for the lack of a better term, the surface thoughts of anyone they concentrate on by looking into their eyes. I developed the ability enough to read surface thoughts without eye contact, but if I do look into a person's eyes, I can delve into their minds and even see their memories,"
"That is so cool!" Yang excitedly stated, but she seemed to remember where she was so she was not as loud as she could be. "Wait... Doesn't that mean that you have heard some of my thoughts?" Yang asked with a blush tinting her cheeks, Blake also gained some color to her face.
"No no no no," Harry quickly said, waving off their fears. "I never read the minds of my friends or allies. It is an invasion of privacy and while I don't mind using it on people like Bruce, I avoid doing it to everyone I meet," Unlike a certain old man and his pet bat that will remain nameless.
"Phew, thank god," Yang muttered to herself, "That would have been embarrassing," Harry did not mean to, but he got a slight glimpse at what she was thinking of at the moment. Needless to say, it took all of Harry's occlumency training and self-control to keep his face from turning bright red. After he realized that he had started to hear her thoughts, he withdrew the legilimency probe immediately and withdrew his mind from her's. He did not know that she was into half of the things that he had seen.
Harry coughed into his hand, "I believe that we were off to see where the keys were held for the crystal, yes?" He quickly turned around and went off looking for places they would likely keep the keys.
"What's wrong?" Yang asked. Then she noticed the flush to his face that he could not hide, "I thought that you said you did not look! Harry!" Her face lit up like a christmas tree as she took off at a brisk pace to catch the wizard, leaving Blake to stand there, silently laughing at the pair of them.
Night had finally fallen. Harry and Blake had no problem waiting the couple of hours it took for the museum to close, they had both suffered through worse from either their time in war or White fang respectively.
Yang was not used to waiting though. She was the kind of person to charge into a situation and come up with a plan on the fly, a Gryffindor through and through. That being said, the three hour wait inside a hotel down the street was horrendous for her. To pass the time, she had taken to laying across both of their laps while watching a movie. Her legs over Harry's and her head was resting on Blake's thigh. Blake was ironically stroking her hair like one would a feline. They used that time to learn more about each other without the fear of having anyone over hear them.
"So tell us more about your magic, Wolfy," Yang said from her spot on Blake's lap. "You have told us about specific spells and little things that you can do, but never really said anything about it,"
Harry froze at the nickname for a moment. It was not that he did not enjoy it, but that was the pet names that Tonks used to use on Remus before he died. He forced down the memories, but it was apparently not fast enough for the girls not to notice.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Blake asked while Yang sat up from Blake's lap, giving him a look that conveyed the same message.
"Aye," Harry said, "You saying 'Wolfy' just brought back some memories,"
The ever insightful, Blake shot him a look, "Good or bad ones?"
Harry waved away her concern, "Don't worry they were good ones," He explained, "That was just the pet name that one of my friends had given to my pseudo-uncle when they dated."
"Was he a wolf faunus too?" Yang asked with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. She knew not to pry too much into his past because the few times that anyone had, Harry had clammed up for the rest of the day.
"No, Remus was something that is called a werewolf," Harry corrected, "He was infected with a disease that forced him to change into a half man half wolf mix whenever a full moon was in the sky. He was a friend of my father's and later, he was my mentor and best friend."
"He sounds like a great guy,"
"Great does not even cover it," Harry said wistfully, "He was one of my first friends and by far one of the best. He even said that I was going to be the godfather of his child if he ever had one, but the war happened. He was one of the frontline fighters in the first battle and did not make it,"
"I'm sorry Harry," Blake said.
"It's fine, it was a long time ago and I have come to terms with what happened," That and the knife he put through Remus' killer's skull made him feel much better. "He went out protecting his friends and family like the way he wanted to,"
"Anyways, back to your question," Harry said, forcefully redirecting the conversation back to safer waters. Waters that were not riddled with such memories. "Magic is roughly based off of a couple branches. There are charms, battle magic, transfiguration, runes, a slew of smaller, more supplementary magic, and the 'dark arts'," He air quoted 'dark arts' while rolling his eyes.
"You don't like the dark arts?" Yang asked as she laid back into the position that she was in before.
"It is more, I don't agree with what the dark arts are labelled as," Harry said, "The ministry classified anything that could injure others or something they did not understand as 'dark', and forbid the use of it. I will get more into it later."
"Let's start with charms. The branch of magic called charms are basically self-explanatory. They are small things like summoning something from across the room, levitating, color changing spells, and other things like that. They are generally little cantrips save for a few like the incendiary charm." He held the palm of his hand towards the roof and fired a small cone of fire straight up. "Nothing too dangerous if you think linearly about it," If one had enough imagination, the summoning charm could be very deadly. No matter what, if the eyes are summoned out of someone's head or their brains rattled by summoning it, the end result would not be pretty.
"Battle magic is not really its own branch, more like a mixture of all combat oriented spells that I lump into one category. The name is kind of self-explanatory,"
"What kind of spells are there?" Yang asked with shining eyes, "Do they blow up?"
Harry laughed along with Blake at their girlfriend's 'slight' pyromania, "Yes, some of them do. Most of them don't, but are just as flashy," He grinned at the glazed look that took over her visage,
"Now transfiguration is one of my favorite branches out of all of them. I may know much more than anyone else about the dark arts and battle magic besides some of the more avid users, but transfiguration is special to me."
"Why?" Blake interrupted,
"I was getting to that," Harry said, "My father was great at transfiguration so it makes me feel closer to him by knowing it. My mother was the same with charms, but I did not have a talent for them. Also the transfiguration teacher at my old school was like a strict grandmother to me. She was one of the people that helped me keep my sanity through the war." McGonagall really was one of the reasons he was able to keep going and see the war through to the end. After the war began, she had taken to caring and guiding for all the orphans as if they were her own children. She took Harry under her wing and helped him with some of his more emotional problems. A teenager, no matter who it is, can not go through what Harry did without some damage. Luckily she knew exactly what he was going through and helped him through it.
"I turned out to have a talent for transfiguration as much as I did for fighting. Transfiguration is the art of magically changing things. For instance," Harry waved his hand and conjured a small figurine of a Swedish Short Snout dragon in it. "Changing air into solid matter, which is called conjuring. Then there is," Another wave had the wooden figure changed and gained scales and flesh. "Transfiguration, where the base material is changed into another one. Last, but not least is animation." A third wave of his hand had the dragon start moving around in his hand. It stretched out its new body and took to flying around the room before landing on Harry's shoulder. "That is as far as most people go. For those who are good enough, there is another step and that is becoming an animagus. An animagus is a person that can shift themselves into their animal form at will,"
"Can you do that?" Blake asked him with wide eyes. Yang was not really paying attention to the two, she was more interested in the miniature dragon that was perched on his shoulder, who had cutely tried to roar and failed with a squeak. Harry noticed and sent a mental nudge to his creation to hop off his shoulder and onto Yang.
"Yep," Harry said, "I learned how a while back,"
Blake waited for him to continue, when he didn't she asked, "Well what is it?"
"That, my dear, is…" When Harry saw her lean forward, he gained a smirk, "A secret."
He laughed at the look that took over her face, "I am saving the surprise for a special occasion. I am sure that you can somewhat guess what I change into," Harry pointedly twitched his ears and wrapped his tail around her waist.
Suddenly, both Harry and Blake heard a noise that distracted them for their conversation. They looked down to find that Yang had begun to hug and pet the dragon. The noise that drew their attention was both her cooing and the dragons subsequent purring.
"Huh, I did not know that dragons could purr like that," Harry mused. They both watched Yang play with the dragon for several minutes.
"Are you going to continue?" Yang asked him as she continued to stroke the dragon's chin. "I want to hear more about your magic."
"Alright," He replied, "After transfiguration, there is some supplementary studies and magic. There are a good few so I will only name the most prominent. Divination is like fortune telling with the exception that it works every now and again. Arithmancy is the math of magic, Potions, and Astronomy."
"Does that mean that you can see into the future?" Yang asked, thinking of all the ways to abuse such a power.
"No, I do not have the necessary talent for it and even if I did, it is very inaccurate and useless," The face of Trelawney popped up in his mind. That drunk seer was the very definition of useless. "So that means no, I can't tell you when there will be a pop quiz in Port's class," Yang seemed put out at being caught.
"Next is runes. They are something that I am somewhat proficient in. It is when one imbues magic into an object through the written word. I actually used it to create my weapons," He explained. "A smaller branch of runes would be something called warding, which does what it says. It wards a property from a number of things. I, myself, cannot do it. It requires years and I do mean years to be able to even create a competent one and I never had the need to learn it."
"So someone could create something like an anti-grimm ward?" Blake asked,
Harry stroked his chin in thought. He may not know much about warding, but he had come across a couple books on the basic uses of it before. "Theoretically yes, but practically no. Wards need to be bound by something called ward stones. They are magical anchors created through a special ritual that binds wards to an area. The ward stone powers the ward by drawing magic from the air and using that to supply the energy needed to maintain the magic. However, there is too much aura here and that would interfere with the powering of the stones. Best case, it would work at a diminished rate, and in a worst case scenario, blow up the stones and anything around it. This does not matter much though, because I have no ward stones in the first place and no way to get them,"
"Oh," Blake said crestfallenly, "Okay,"
"I'm sorry, Blake," Harry said wrapping an arm around her. "I would try if I could,"
"I know," She said, "That would have been a godsend for small towns that can't get help for their grimm infestations,"
There was an unbearable silence in the room before Yang broke it by being Yang. "Well if there was a barrier that blocked out grimms then where would we be? We just have to take out as many of them as possible to keep towns safe instead of some rock." She stated overly loud in an attempt to cheer up the ravenette. It worked somewhat because Blake let out a small chuckle and perked up marginally. "So you said that you were good at runes right? Can you put runes on our stuff as well?"
"Depends on what you want," Harry said, "Certain material can hold only a certain amount of magic before it breaks… violently. My jacket for instance is a perfect example. I had blown up, I don't know how many different ones to try and fit what I wanted in it."
"Oh," Yang said, "Does that mean no bulletproof clothes?"
"No, it means that I can't make something like your scarf unbreakable while at the same time, able to regulate your body temperature," He corrected, "If you want an bulletproof scarf, all you have to do is ask and give me some time to work on it," She immediately took her scarf off and held it out to him. "Later, Yang," he laughed. "When writing runes, one has to be delicate because one wrong stroke or etch could cause the magic to go haywire. That is why you have not seen me do any recently. It can take any where from a couple minutes to several hours for one runic array,"
"Okay," Yang pouted, "Then can you tell us about these dark arts now?"
Harry's playful demeanor did a complete shift into a more serious one, "Fine, but before I tell you about this branch of magic, I need to inform you both of something. Some of this magic is labelled dark for a reason, I may disagree with the ministry about some things that are marked as dark, but I have to agree for some of them. There is some very, very dark magic from my homeland." He warned, "I won't be talking about those today, or probably ever if I can help it. Some of those spells should be forgotten and never used again," Harry took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"Let's begin with the spells that I personally use the most," Harry explained, while he was talking he gained their undivided attention and they both were sitting up and waiting for him to continue. "I use spells that are more in the grey area than anything else. The grey spells are labelled as such because they were not designed around hurting or killing others, but can easily be used as such. The curse I used against the Nevermore is a great example. It was designed to clear debris and get rid of boulders and such for development of an area, but it can also be used to end the life of another rather easily. Another would be the wall of fire I raised. Again not necessarily designed for battle, but can be used as such."
"Then you have what classifies as dark magic. The problem with such magic is not just the spells themselves, but what they can do to the one using it. Some of the darker spells can destroy one's mind or twist it into something evil with continued use. A good example is one of Voldemort's biggest followers and the most sadistic person I have ever met, Bellatrix Lestrange. From what I learned through her journals I found while living in my godfather's ancestral home, she used to be a kind hearted girl when she was younger. One day she got a bit too adventurous and she started to dabble in the dark arts. Years later, she was no longer able to feel happiness or any positive emotions not caused from inflicting pain on others. That is one of the main reasons that I stay away from such spells. Don't get me wrong, I use them every now and again. Hell, my own personal spell could be considered one of the worst curses made this century, but I use them in moderation. Though I have only used one truly dark spell in front of you guys before and I hope to never have to use it again.
"Which one was that?" Yang inquired,
"The fiendfyre spell I used in the forest," Harry said, "It is a very dark curse that I would have never have used if I was in my right mind,"
"Why? It did not seem that bad," Blake said inquisitively.
"That is because I am able to control it," Harry explained, "I was able to minimize the damage done and keep it from growing out of control, but if I had not been able to do that. It would spread uncontrollably and burned everything in its path. The flame have a sort of semi-sentience and will do whatever it takes to free itself from control. It would not be that much of a problem if the flames weren't immune to being put out through conventional or magical means. However that spell is nothing compared to the three unforgivable."
"Why are they called that?" Yang asked without thinking.
Harry gave her a flat stare, "Because it is considered unforgivable to cast them," Yang lightly blushed in embarrassment. "The three are; the imperius curse, a spell that takes complete control of someone's mind; the cruciatus curse, a torture curse; and last, but not least, the killing curse, an unblockable spell that kills whoever it touches." He said, he knew that they knew some of them, so he just glanced over them. "Casting one of these will result in an instant life sentence to prison, too bad with how corrupt the government had gotten, that particular law was tossed right out the window," Harry grumbled to himself.
"Have you ever used one of those spells before?" Blake asked without thinking, when her brain caught up with what her mouth was saying, "Sorry, you don't have to answer that. I should not have asked,"
"Its fine, kitten," She glared at his smirking face minutely, it was mostly for show though. They had been giving her those little nicknames ever since they met each other and she was relatively numb to them by now. "I have used all of them multiple times on separate occasions, but I have also had all of them used on me several times,"
"What?" Yang shot up from her seat and got into his face. The Swedish short snout flew off of her chest with a yelp and had to flare its wings to gain a more controlled fall.
Harry was worried that she would be angry at him for casting such horrible spells, but his fears were dispelled with her next words. "What is this about them using the torture curse on my boyfriend? Where are they? I need to give them a piece of my mind!" She had started examining his body and running her hands over him as if he was just hit with one of the spells, not that it would matter even if he had gotten hit with one. None of them gave physical evidence other than death or uncontrollable muscle spasms, depending on the curse. Harry breathed out a breath of relief, while he knew that the girls would not think badly of him for what he did in the war, but he just admitted to at least using the cruciatus curse on another person.
"Dead, honey. I made sure of it," Harry said, "It was a while ago and whatever damage they had done to my body was fixed by my aura and nothing could have been done to my mind. I have been able to fight off the imperius curse without fail every time it was cast on me for over 4 years,"
"Doesn't that mean that it was used on you when you were fourteen?" Blake asked in shock.
Harry shook his head, "No, I was fifteen. A teacher was demonstrating it to the class and he used it on all the students to show everyone just how horrible it was to be put under such a spell,"
They seemed to silently fume at that and he could not blame them. He was pissed about it at the time as well, but what was the point of holding a grudge towards a dead man. Snape did and he turned out miserable and alone with nobody, but an old fumbling headmaster. "That's dangerous and highly irresponsible, what if the teacher turned out to be a criminal?" Blake stated with contempt in her voice. Harry suddenly burst out laughing when he heard that, much to the girl's confusion.
"Was something I said funny?" Blake wondered and looked to Yang for the answer. She shrugged her shoulders as well.
After calming down a bit, he stated, "I just found the irony hilarious, that's all. You got the criminal part right, the man, who was the defense teacher that year, was by far one of the most insane people that I have ever met. He had tied up the actual teacher and assumed his role using a polyjuice potion for over a year." Harry said, "He then used his access to me to kidnap me and use me in a ritual to bring Voldemort back to life,"
"Was there a single year, when your life was not in danger at that school?" Blake asked him incredulously.
Blake dropped her head into her hands when she noticed that Harry had begun counting on his fingers, trying to come up with a year that he was safe. "First was a troll and Quirrell so no… second basilisk, third was dementors," Harry cut off his mumbling to voice several swears under his breath, "Fourth was the tournament and Voldy, fifth was the visions and the pink bitch. Seventh was war, so sixth?" He questioned himself before reaffirming his answer. "Sixth year was relatively safe. I trained for most of that year and nobody besides my sword master was trying to kill me,"
It was silent for a moment, "Wait can we go back before your old messed up school and evil teacher, if you were fifteen, four years ago. Doesn't that mean that you are nineteen now?" Yang asked. "I thought you said you were eighteen,"
'I was, my birthday was back at the end of July," Harry said without thought. Suddenly he felt his skin crawl as the feeling of death washed over him. He looked towards the girls and was met with a very angry glare. "What?" The scarred teen asked, mildly frightened at the look Yang was giving him. Blake seemed annoyed if the ear twitches meant anything, which they probably did, but Yang looked pissed.
"Do you mean to tell us that we forgot your birthday and you did not say anything about it," Yang said in a sickly sweet voice that had nervous sweat running down the back of his neck. However he could not help, but notice an undertone of hurt to her voice.
"Well I never told you about it, so you could not really forget," Harry said to try and calm her down, but deep down, he knew that all he was doing was digging himself into an even deeper hole.
Yang walloped him on the back of the head, "Why didn't you tell us that we forgot your birthday?"
"Would you accept that I forgot about it until recently?" Harry asked. Sounding suspiciously like a certain blond faunus that they had run into earlier in the week. Blake and Yang both shook their heads. "Well that is kind of what happened,"
"How could you not tell us that it was your birthday on your birthday?" Yang asked,
"I'm sorry," Harry said while rubbing the back of his head, "My birthday is not that important to me. I have never celebrated it or done anything special so I sometimes forget,"
"You have never had a party?" Yang asked in disbelief. The very idea was horrifying for the party-going girl.
Harry responded, "The most I did was open one or two gifts that were sent to me by some of my friends," That was not to count the years before Hogwarts where the only thing that he got for his birthday was a beating and more redundant chores or later when his mail was being intercepted by Dumbledore and company.
"We still need to make up for missing it," Yang announced loudly and wrapped an arm around Blake's shoulder. "Right Blake?" The ravenette looked to Harry then back at the excited, while scheming eyes of Yang and nodded. "Yes!" She jumped up before flopping back down onto the couch.
Harry waved his arms in front of him, "No, it is fine. It's not that important,"
"Too late!" Yang proclaimed,
Harry looked like he was going to continue, but upon seeing Yang's glare, he looked past her to Blake. She normally was able to rein in her partner, but when he caught her eye, she just smirked at him and looked away.
After that he had to resign himself to his fate. If Blake was on board then there was nothing that he could do to stop Yang.
As they continued their talk, the clock struck midnight and they were finally about to begin their nights work. The plan was simple, get in then get out. It was a bit more complex than that, but that was what it boiled down to. Harry may be a good battlefield strategist, but he had no clue about how to rob a bank. It was not like he could ask someone about it either, so he decided to do things the old-fashion way and take things one step at a time.
A half an hour later, had the trio sitting on the roof of the museum next to the skylights that overlooked the red and blue dust crystal. They were all dressed the part for their midnight excursion. They were each wearing a set of tight black trousers and jackets with the hoods drawn up. They were form fitting so that they did not rustle while they moved or get caught on anything as they went through the job. It would be terrible to do everything correctly, only to get caught because their pants were too baggy. The only distinguishing marks that any of them had were the masks that completed the outfit. They had debated on whether or not the masks were necessary, but with Harry's plan. They settled on the fact that it was better to have them on rather than not. The catch was that the other two would have to pick out the kind of mask that each of them wore.
Yang ended up having to wear a mask depicting a tiger, while Blake was stuck wearing a mask with a passing resemblance to a cat, much to her chagrin and her girlfriend's and boyfriend's amusement. Harry finished off the trio with a wolf mask that earned him several retaliatory remarks from the cat faunus. While he did not have any problem with it, he was obligated as a former marauder to get her back eventually.
It was silent on the roof until one of them quietly sneezed, "Sorry," Blake muttered, "Its cold up here,"
Harry casted a warming charm on her and she shot him a thankful look through her mask. "Come on, it is time to begin," He said as he unlocked the skylight with a muttered "alohomora". He did not lift the glass though. Both Harry and Blake checked around the edges of the pane to see if there were any sensors or something that would activate if they opened the skylight. It would be foolish to get caught before they even got into the building.
Luckily, they found that the skylights were not rigged with anything beyond a simple lock that they had already bypassed. The designers of the building probably never thought that anyone would ever actually go on the roof to steal stuff. That was the kind of thing that was seen in movies, not real life. Too bad they did not take into account that Harry, even though he nurtured his Slytherin side, still had some Gryffindor blood in him and that led to some of his more outlandish plans. Most of which worked, though some were debatable.
Harry hefted the window open and lifted the lever on the window to keep it open.
"So you both remember the plan, right?" Harry asked the duo who occupied the roof with him.
Yang rolled her eyes, "Of course we know, you have only gone over it a hundred times,"
"Just making sure," Harry responded. "I don't want anything to go wrong today."
Harry took the rope that they had brought with them out of the bag. While normally he would use conjured rope, but he did not want to risk it and have the inherently weaker rope break while they rappelled down to the display. Any screw ups could result with them winding up in jail. He tied the rope off to one of the decorative battlements that lined the roof.
Harry dragged the rope across the roof and threw it through the hole. "So who wants to go first?" Harry asked with a smirk on his face as he leaned over the open window. Both of the girls looked down through the skylight to the museum floor below them.
Yang gulped audible while Blake paled marginally under her mask. Normally, such a height would not bother them in the least, but that was when they could use their weapons to propel them around and while being as loud as they wanted with no consequence. However, the need to be quiet removed the safety net that their weapons brought.
Harry, though, felt fine at being so high up, he was used to climbing over three hundred feet then dropping straight down at speeds that could rival muggle vehicles while on a broomstick, so the fifty drop was nothing. The lupine faunus laughed silently to himself before taking a better hold on the rope.
"Don't worry, I will show you how it is done," He playfully taunted as he walked by them. They were about to say something else, but what they were going to say turned into a horrified gasp. Harry had walked up to the skylight and walked straight into the hole in the roof. They knew that he was not going to sustain any life threatening injuries from such a fall, people who wielded aura had tougher bodies than normal people, but that did not diminish the shock they felt when he plummeted down. The duo raced to the edge and peered down to see that Harry was not falling the full fifty feet, and instead was using the friction between his hand and the rope to slow himself to a mere crawl moments before he would have hit the floor.
The moment that Harry hit the floor, he lost his carefree attitude and got down to business. His eyes darted around the room from behind his mask, identifying and locating all the cameras in the room that he spotted while in the display room. He knew that they had caught him on film so his time limit had officially begun.
He heard a dull whump from behind him, followed by a much louder, but still quiet thud. He turned and found that Blake was standing next to the tiger mask wearing teen, who in turn had fallen onto her rear when she landed.
Even with the mask on, Harry could tell that Blake was silently laughing at the blonde. "Yes, yes, laugh it up, Kitten," Yang growled, sticking to the code names they had decided on. There was definitely some hidden cameras and other security measures and they did not want to risk having their names caught on one.
"Come along," Harry stated to stop the two of them from continuing their playful argument. "We have work to do and little time to do it. Kitten, go after the keys. They should be in the security booth in the lobby." Harry ordered. He remembered seeing some of the guards relaxing and placing their keys in the drawers at the desk there. With any luck they would still be there. "Tiger and I will do what we need to do." Which meant that Harry was going to secure the area around the crystal and make sure that they would not be interrupted by any of the guards on patrol. Yang on the other hand was to prep for the recovery of the crystal and their escape.
Blake nodded and disappeared into the shadows. Harry swore that if he did not know that she was hunter, he would have thought that she was a ninja by the way that she was able to disappear like that. Sure he was able to replicate such a feat rather easily with spells, but that was the thing. It was a replication and would never be as good as the real thing. She was able to do it with only natural ability while he would have to rely on magic to accomplish the same thing.
Blake ran through the halls as quickly as she could while at the same time maintaining her invisibility in the shadows. She had some trouble with a single guard patrolling the halls, but with a little climbing, she was able to bypass him by going up one of the tall exhibits. He may have seen her if he was paying close attention to his surroundings, but the man just looked bored. It seemed that walking down the same halls lost its appeal when one had to do it at the dead of night every day. She did check his belt as he passed through to see if he had the key she needed so that she could save her a trip to the security booth. Alas he did not have it, not that she had much hope in the first place. Security guards typically did not carry the keys to cases that housed priceless artifacts around with them on patrol.
The trip to the booth after that was uneventful. The security booth was not that much of a booth in all actuality. It was really just a desk with a room the size of a walk-in closet behind it. Too bad that it was currently being manned. However it seemed that it was Blake's lucky day because the rather large man behind the desk was leaning back in his seat, sleeping. He must have been the reason that they had not been onset by guards the moment that they got into the museum through the skylight, they were not all that inconspicuous for the cameras when they had jumped down in the middle of the room. The plan was for them to be in and out before the police could arrive and stop them. It seemed that the rushing was not needed though because the lump of a man just slept right through their break in, none the wiser.
The cat eared girl slinked behind the desk and tried to silently open one of the drawers. She winced behind her mask as the hinges squealed loudly in protest. She heard the man's rhythmic snoring catch and stop with a snort. She quickly looked over at the man, to see that he was awake and looking around the room through bleary eyes. Blake froze when his dull eyes swept over her, but his sleep addled mind did not seem to register that she was there. He blinked a couple times before his head fell forward and his breathing evened out.
Blake let out a sigh of relief when the sounds of his snores filled the room again. She turned back to the desk and began to look through the drawer, but was disappointed to find that the drawer that caused her almost to get caught, did not have what she needed. Inside was nothing, but a boatload of pens, broken pencils, empty gum packages, and random bits of paper with nonsense scribbled on them. The second drawer that she tried, which was just as loud and thankfully did not wake the man up, was where she found was she was looking for. The drawer held important looking papers, a ring of keys, and a dust pistol lying next to it.
In a second, she was now the proud new owner of the set of keys to presumably held the keys to all the cases in the museum. She quietly lifted the dust pistol and removed the magazine from it and racked the slide as silently as she could to make sure there was no bullet in the chamber. It was more of a precaution if they tripped an alarm then anything. She quickly shut all the drawers and hid all the evidence that she was there then began to leave with her goal in hand.
As she was walking out of the room, the man snorted in his sleep and rolled over in his chair. The problem was that he was in an armless chair so when he rolled over, he fell off the chair and onto the floor. The fat man woke with a start and small cry of surprise.
Blake quickly sunk into the shadows of the room and held her breath in an effort to keep him from hearing her. The man popped up off the ground with speed that belied his girth, "Jon! I thought I told you to wake me up if I fell asleep!" He bellowed out, his cries echoing down the halls of the mostly empty museum. "Danny said that if he caught me asleep again, I would be fired!"
"You can keep your own lazy self awake, Nathan!" A deep voice called from a distant room. "You're the one the wanted to watch the cameras instead of doing your rounds, so deal with it. Unless you want to get off that fat ass of yours and do your job?"
"I'm fine, thanks!" The man shouted back, "Jackass," the man mumbled to himself as he wiped the sleep from his eyes. He flopped down back into the chair and spun around to face the screens. He swept through the active cameras and found nothing for several seconds. Then he cycled through a camera near the crystal's exhibit and it showed a guard looking at one of the paintings. Nothing was out of the ordinary until a shadow detached itself from the wall and wrapped itself around the man. The shadows arms wrapped around the man's throat, cutting off his air supply and stopping any sound from being made. Seconds later had the shadow drag the squirming guard into the darkness that surrounded them.
"Oh shit!" The man in front of the screens gasped in surprise and horror and immediately got on his radio and began to call out a name, getting nothing, but static in return. The night guard heaved himself out of his chair and turned towards the phone to call the police.
Blake knew that she could not allow him to do that and quietly slid behind him. The man was able to begin punching in the numbers for the police, but drew her blade and brought the blunt side down on his head, knocking him unconscious. His head fell forward and the phone fell from his now loose grip.
The bow wearing girl would never say it for fear of having it grow, but Harry's paranoia about bringing rope along just in case was a great idea. Blake quickly tied the man's hands and legs together in a single knot then rolled him under the desk so that anyone passing by would not see him. A quick gag fashioned from the man's own tie had him properly bound and gagged and she left the office with key in hand.
Harry was just getting done hiding the body of the guard he took out. Fortunately he did not have to try that hard to hide his victim because there was a broom closet just down the hall and with a little magic, it was the perfect place to hide his unconscious body. He silently clapped his hands together like he was wiping dust off of them as he left the closet and carefully locked it with a timed locking charm. It only lasted an hour, but in that hour, there was no mundane force possible to open it.
He had been surprised when he ran into the first guard, Harry fully expected them to be on full alert and trying the apprehend them, but instead most of them were lazily trudging through the halls. He thought that eventually someone would have filled them in about the intruders, but no matter how many guards he had run across, none of them were alert and if anything, they were half asleep where they stood.
Harry turned his head away from any cameras that may have been facing him and flashed the bone mask onto his face to do a final sweep of the area. Recently, it had been getting easier and easier to summon the mask and he had no idea why. Quite frankly, being able to bring forth an energy that projected fear and rage better did not fill him with confidence, but he pushed those worrying thoughts to the side and began looking for anyone in the surrounding area. He found Yang's warm and energetic aura close by and Blake's calm flowing aura a couple hundred feet away heading towards Yang's. Other than that, there were several guards nearby who were all unconscious or otherwise indisposed.
Now that his part of the job was done, the wizard began his trek back to meet the girls. Hopefully they were close to being done and would be gone by the time that the police got there. Even though he had not heard any alarms be raised, he knew that not all alarms made sounds so he could not trust the silence to mean anything.
Knowing that there was no danger of running into any guards, Harry swiftly strode down the hall back to where their operation began. He arrived to see Blake come into the room spinning a key ring around her finger while Yang was sitting on top of one of the random glass cases of the room with her chin resting in the palm of her hand. The room was cleared of anything that may implicate them in the crime.
"Did you run into trouble?" Harry asked Blake, as he settled into step beside her. Yang hopped off her makeshift chair to go up to them.
"Not much," She replied, "Getting there was easy, but someone was in the booth. He was asleep when I got there, so I doubt that the police have been called yet,"
Harry could not believe their luck. Not only had his plan gone off relatively well so far with only a few hitches along the way, but they had even more time because they were not constrained by the cops. However, the faunus pushed the upwelling of emotions down. It would not due to get careless and make a fatal error, this close to finishing.
"Well then, let's hurry up so it stays that way, shall we?" Harry said. Blake stepped up to the case and after several attempts, found the correct key and inserted it into the lock. With a twist, the case was unlocked. However, the peace was not meant to be, because the moment that they lifted the glass case from its housing to get to the crystal. They heard a click and a loud wailing alarm started up. Blake cursed herself for not checking the base for any switches. She grabbed the crystal from its stand and tossed it to Harry, who had a bag open to store it while they made their escape. Yang was the first up the rope followed by Blake. Harry however stayed behind for a moment.
A minute later, the impatient girls watched as Harry hauled himself up the rope and onto the roof.
"What took you so long?" Yang asked with her arms crossed while tapping her foot, which was never a good sign.
Harry rolled the rope up, "I was leaving a little something to divert their attention away from us," He said as he lowered the glass pane back down to its original position. Once the skylight was fully closed, they swiftly left the roof.
"What do you mean?" Blake asked as they hopped down the fire escape of an adjacent building.
"Exactly what I said," Harry stated, "I left a picture of White Fang's emblem on the crystal stand," Yang let out an 'oh' at that as they landed on the ground.
Harry stopped them from continuing on down the alleyway with a hand on their shoulders. Before they could stop him, he 'popped' himself with them away to their hotel room.
"Harry!" Yang near screeched and when she had finally regained her balance, the blonde punched him in the shoulder for revenge. "You know I hate that!"
Harry snickered light heartedly as he rubbed his throbbing shoulder. That girl could really punch.
"Wait… couldn't you have just teleported us into the museum?" Blake asked him. "Why didn't you do that, instead of having us climb on that freezing roof?"
Harry removed the mask off of his face, "Would you say that my method of transportation is unique?" At her nod, he continued, "Well then, if I had apparated straight onto the museum floor, they would know that the thief could do that. Then if by some chance that someone found out about my little ability, then they would probably recognize me from the party. From there it would not be hard to connect the dots,"
She thought about it for a moment before conceding "I guess you're right this one time,"
"Thank you… Hey!" Harry said in mock anger, Yang laughed loudly while Blake snickered to herself.
"Now I don't know about you two, but I am tired," Harry said while stretching. "I'm going to shower and then go to bed,"
He walked into the bathroom with a change of clothes and stepped into the shower. Cleaning charms got rid of all the dirt and sweat that accumulated during the day, but it did not have the same relaxing quality that the water gave. An added bonus was that the water soothed his scarred skin that magic just could not replicate.
After the shower, Harry left the room with his normal sleepwear on while he was tying his hair back. "The shower is open now, if either of you want it," he said as he flopped down ungracefully onto one of the beds. Having to rob a museum was draining, but having to deal with high society was much more so.
The next day, found the new thieves stepping into the club that housed Junior's gang. Yang went straight to the bar with her normal confident swagger while the other two trailed behind her, much more cautiously.
The bartender quickly noticed the blonde girl coming up to the bar, and realized that it was the same girl that had destroyed the bar several months ago and broke his arm. He immediately scowled and signaled to the men in suits around them. By the time that Yang and gang arrived at the bar, men in suits had surrounded them and were trying to intimidate them. Some of which were glaring pointedly at Yang while others were watching Harry and Blake warily.
"Men!" A deep voice belonging to their employer barked out, "Stand down! I will not have you assaulting my guests," Junior pushed his way through the line of large suit wearing men.
"But Boss!" One of his subordinates cried out, "That is the bitch that almost killed me!" Harry's fists curled into a ball at the insult and had to hold himself back from fixing his statement so it no longer contained the word 'almost' in it. As Harry tried to wrangle his anger down to a more manageable level, the gang members were beginning to spout off their own grievances, but they were quickly silenced by a cutting gesture of his boss's hand.
"No," The gang leader said firmly, "She is here as a guest right now and shall be treated as such!" He commanded and his men heeded their leader's words with only a couple moans and groans. "If what I have asked for them has been accomplished, all bad blood between us will be no longer, understand?"
The group all said their various agreements and slinked off to their posts, disappointed at not being able to get their revenge.
"Follow me," Junior said curtly. He turned on his heel and walked passed the bar and through a door. The door lead to a long hallway that ended with a large oak door that had Junior's name printed on it. Harry could not help, but think that the man had watched too many mob movies, and from the hidden smirk on Blake's face. She thought the same thing.
The inside of the room was almost exactly how the two faunus' had imagined it. It looked like it came straight out of a movie with the noted exception that the lights were turned on and they could see the room clearly. He supposed that having the lights turned off constantly lost its intimidation factor when all faunus could see in the dark as clearly as day.
"Do you have the crystal?" The baritone voiced man asked, holding out his hand.
Harry fished through his pouch and withdrew the crystal from it. "We do," Harry answered.
"Well then what are you waiting for?" He asked, "Hand it here, I have a paying customer that is looking forward to having this,"
"Before I do so, I need your word that Yang's slate is wiped clean and we won't have to fear for any retaliation," Harry said, drawing the crystal back, further from his waiting hand.
"Yes, yes, I said that we would be even and I meant it," Junior said with obvious annoyance. "I do not go back on my word,"
Harry did a quick legilimency scan on the man and found that all he said was surprisingly true. Harry nodded his head and dropped the crystal into the man's waiting hands. "Good," Harry said to the man behind the desk. "I suppose that this concludes our business then?"
"Yes, but before you go…" He said as he opened one of the drawers in his desk and handed Harry a card. It was like the last one except it had a different phone number on it and had what seemed to be the gang's symbol on it. "Take this, if you ever need some work or information. I'm your guy… except you Blondie. We may have forgiven you, but I will not forget the humiliation you put us through,"
"I wouldn't dream of coming to you for help," Yang said while sticking her tongue out like a child. That is until Blake jabbed her in the ribs, making her yelp in pain. "Hey!" She yelped while rubbing her side.
The trio turned and began to leave until they were stopped by the large man. "I have heard something interesting…" he said, "About White Fang,"
Blake notable tensed up under his gaze. "Why do you think that we care about what White Fang does?" Harry asked tersely. It seemed that Junior knew something and if he didn't then whatever he thought when he asked had been confirmed.
"I don't know," Junior said with mock confusion. "Why would two former members of White Fang care about what their old company was doing?"
'Damn it, he knows about Blake,' Harry thought to himself before ideas of how to get rid of Junior or insure his silence raged through his mind. "Whoever said that I was ever a terrorist?"
"You have that look in your eye. The one that almost every White Fang that I have ever come across have. Even if girlie there does not have the same look, I can tell," Junior explained. "And don't bullshit me by saying that you are not. I am not stupid, I saw that you knew exactly how to handle us when we surrounded you and students, hunters or not, do not act that way,"
"I am not and have never been part of White Fang," Harry said with an undertone of anger in his voice. He fought to keep his country out of the hands of terrorists and having someone accuse him of being what he hated just grated on his nerves. "Or any other terrorist factions for that matter,"
Junior held his hands at shoulder level in an effort to calm him down, "Fine, you're not a terrorist," He obviously thought that he did, but he was not willing to fight about it. "Does that mean that you don't want to hear what they are doing?"
Blake stepped forward, "Please tell us," She asked, "I wish to know,"
"I knew it," The shades wearing man muttered to himself.
"And you will keep it to yourself," Harry said, "Or I will make you,"
Junior studiously ignored the threat laced in his words, "I have word from a credible source that some White Fang members are going to be at the shipping yard tomorrow. There is a big shipment of dust coming in and word is that some big shot is going to be there. I don't know who though. Think of this as a bonus for a job well done,"
Harry took the dismissal for what it was and left. Both he and Blake dragging their third member out with them. They passed straight through the bar area and out the club's door. The two non-humans did not want to risk another incident with Yang and the gang. It would be a shame to get out of their debt only to get back into it a minute later.
Once they were out on the street and away from any prying ears, Harry voiced something that had been on his mind, "We are going to go check out the shipping yard, aren't we?"
"Yes," Blake said shortly with no room for argument.
"Fine, but let's go tell Little Red and Snow White about this," Harry sighed, "I don't want them to get worried, and you know how Ruby is when she is worried,"
"Yeah," Yang agreed, "Ruby gets super worried when people are late for something, and when she gets super worried, she likes to do dumb things. This one time she… well let's say that it ended with a couple of buildings burned down and my hair turning pink," Harry may have laughed if not for the pissed look on her face and it most likely was not about the buildings that burned. He knew that her hair was a very sensitive subject for her and laughing at it was testament to a death sentence.
"Well, we need to hurry, the last airship to the academy leaves in about an hour and we do not want to miss it," Harry said as he increased his pace towards the airport.
"Why don't you do that teleporting that you can do with your fancy magic?" Yang asked, "It would get us there faster and we would not have to pay for tickets,"
"I could apparated us, but I am not sure that you would like it," Harry warned, "Long distance apparition is different than the short range that you two have experienced,"
"What? You think that I can't take it?" Yang challenged. Harry sighed, he knew the look in her eye. It would not go away until he apparated her to the school and if he didn't, then she would be unbearable for the next week. Blake apparently, recognized the look because she groaned and dropped her head in her hands. "Because I can, so do it! I can take it,"
Harry looked to Blake who was shaking her head. "Do you want to?" Harry asked quietly.
"Alright," she muttered under her breath. Harry nodded and pulled both of them into an alley way.
Harry sighed and placed a hand on their shoulders. He murmured a quick apology to the ravenette next to him while the blonde was waiting with determination in her eyes. "Brace yourself," With a twist, they were disappeared with a muted crack.
The difference between long and short ranged apparition became apparent. Short range apparition feels like being squeezed into a small tube. It is not pleasant, but it is not too bad. The instant that they started apparating the differences between the two became apparent. They were compressed into a small straw. The pressure was intense and when they tried to take a deep breath, they found that they could not breathe. Then the pressure suddenly disappeared and they had the ability to breathe again.
They appeared in the middle of an empty classroom that Harry had been using as his apparition point since he got to the school.
Upon arriving, Yang immediately dropped to her knees and began to dry heave. Blake held a hand to her head and swayed where she stood. Harry crouched down next to Yang and rubbed her on the back.
"It's alright," He said, "You are doing better than I did when I first apparated,"
"Really?" She said in between her heaves, "What… Happened?"
"I splinched myself," He replied nonchalantly, then elaborated when Blake looked at him in confusion. "I apparated, but I left one of my hands behind. Needless to say, I did not take that well,"
"You can do that?" Blake asked in shock, instantly worried about all the time that she had apparated alongside him.
"It's a novice mistake," Harry reassured, "I have been apparating for years and besides that first time, I have not spliced myself and I have never done it to anyone,"
It marginally calmed her down, she turned to the recovering Yang, "You can take it, huh?" she teased,
"Shut up, Kitten," Yang moaned as she got to her feet with the aide of both of them. "I'm fine,"
Harry kissed her on the cheek, "Of course you are, let's go tell your sister that we are still alive, so she doesn't storm Junior's restaurant,"
(A/N: I have no excuse. The only thing that I can say is that I am sorry it took so long to update this chapter. The first couple weeks I did not post was because it was hectic around here and that did not let me write for a long while. First my power was knocked out for two days and it had gotten so cold that I had to abandon my house in favor of staying with my relatives until my power came back on. Then to make everything better, I got sick right after that so… that sucked. Then after a day or two of peace and quiet along with a boatload of schoolwork. It snowed like crazy for two days. All that coupled with my procrastination and writer's block, which I have been getting better about, made pounding out this story a PAIN. To try and make it up to you, I made this one extra long to try and tide you over until the next release.
It did not help the situation that my mind has not been on this story for the past couple of days. I have been thinking about another crossover that I want to try (I have been writing a rough outline and notes about it for the past three weeks). It is not just that though, I have had like ten different stories plaguing my mind, it does not help that I have been watching and playing the games that are influencing this change and I would be writing them, but I want to stick with this story before starting something new. It would take my attention away from this story and I don't want that to happen.
This story has given me a sense of accomplishment in a way that nothing else has in my life. You would not believe how joyous it is for me to receive positive reviews and people's opinions on my story. It is the first piece of writing that I have ever put effort into and I want to see it continue.
Now enough about all that and onto the chapter. This is the first completely non-canonical chapter of my story as you can hopefully tell. I really just rolled with my muse on this one for what I was writing. It was originally just going to be a snatch and grab from some rich dude's home, but I decided, what the hell! Let's rob a bank which then transformed into let's rob a museum. I have rewritten this chapter time and time again, each time adding and subtracting from the originally until it no longer resembled what I started with.
Something I need to add though. My releases will be much more sporadic than before. The goal that I set for myself at a chapter a week worked only for a bit before I burned myself out. I was writing so much that it had gotten exhausting so I am now going to write at a much more sedate pace to keep that from happening again. Other than that, there is not much left to say for this other than thank you for reading and that I hope you enjoyed it.
This is Dawnriser saying have a good day and hopefully I will get the next chapter out soon!)
