Chapter One: When Everything Falls Apart
Harry's POV
He would be the first to admit that when he first met Micheal it was on less than friendly terms. Hell, he had been at school in Ludendorff for only two years before he met the man as he was picking up his kids, one of the few times he saw Micheal there. He had figured at the time that since the guy wasn't around all too often he could easily make a quick grab of the guy's wallet and money before disappearing and letting his face become one of the many that would be forgotten before the day was up. Of course, all things considered, it was better said than done, before he knew it he was in an alley backed up to a wall by the guy who held his gun in a cold steady aim, the gaze he gave was both amused and amazed by his move. He would always remember the short conversation that followed, he didn't know if God was looking out for him, or if maybe he Micheal felt a little pity, but as it stood now he couldn't care less.
"That was pretty good kid, not good enough, but pretty good none the less." Micheal had said making him chuckle nervously at the time.
He didn't know how it went from some empty praise before he was going to die, to suddenly being inducted as the man's protege. He figured it was probably something the man had buried deep inside him but he was thankful to finally have some people he could relate with, or at least he could tolerate and enjoy the company off. Micheal was a fairly laid back guy when he wasn't on the job, he loved his family with a fervor and would no doubt make anyone who threatened them disappear in ways that didn't need to be spoken. Yet he somehow found himself in a position so few people could claim, being honorary family to the man, of course being trained by him in the same art most likely helped with that result.
He could still remember the first meeting between the mans family and himself, and while they were all a little weary at first he seemed to hit it off with both Tracey and James, Amanda took a little while to warm up to him, but that wasn't too big a surprise since she was a tad bit protective of her family. The one thing that managed to get her to warm up to him quickly was the ending of the bullies that went after Jimmy, or the shit head guys who went chasing after Tracey. He had taken care of the problem the moment it became known to him and he somehow found himself with a second family, and for all their faults this one was a family he wouldn't get rid of no matter the reason. Of course, his meeting with Trevor was a rather odd one, it was a few small jobs in with Micheal that he met the man, Micheal bringing him in on the job just after his solo one made it a bit of a surprise for himself.
While the man was a little unhinged and seemed to become more so with every job the guy seemed to almost place himself as protective uncle over him, although that wasn't too much a surprise since the man considered Micheal a spirit brother. He wouldn't say every conversation he got along with the man but at the end of it all, they eventually got over the arguments. The jobs that followed after his induction were larger and paid out more, and with each one done they got better and better at it, of course with Lester's superior brain and his exceptionally skilled help it wasn't too much of a surprise. The guy lost him sometimes with his obsession with technology but he trusted the man and after the few years working with him could easily call him a friend of sorts. The last man he met was someone he didn't really find himself liking very much.
The man seemed almost too excited to do his work and disregarded Lester's sound advice, something that made him rather annoyed since that advice had kept him from receiving a bullet once. Of course, the man's obvious dislike of Micheal helped in his lack of patience with the man. He could easily tolerate the fool, but he wasn't willing to trust him with anything that wasn't to easy for them to accomplish. Aside from those reasons he also seemed a little incredulous that he was even involved in anything, he was almost eighteen now but the man had met him back when he just turned seventeen and aside from his growth in skill he seemed to almost disregard anything he had to say or put in. It was rather aggravating and it caused more than one row over their roles on jobs they were setting up. When they were on the job he would ignore anything not related to the work if only to mitigate issues but before or after, he wouldn't hold back.
Then again, the man was probably annoyed when on their first job he didn't break down when he was forced to kill a civilian with a gun, his first kill had of course been Quirrell, even if it was in self-defense the man was dead, and the kill that followed him the most was one he accidentally committed when he was running on adrenaline during a job. They had just finished pulling cash out of a safe, and it was a solid score all around, the only problem was when they were leaving out a back alley, a gunshot had rung out and the bullet impacted next to his head in the brickwork of the store. He had turned quickly and fired back himself, of course, the spray of blood against the ground and the choked gasping made it pretty clear he shot the man in his neck. It has startled him into freezing and watching and it took Micheal a few times to break him from it. The man looked both pissed and sympathetic and that kicked him into gear again.
The awkward conversation that followed helped a little bit but part of him still looked back on it and gave a small chuckle. He was much more used to the idea and action now, having to do it a few more times even if Micheal tried to put him in positions he wouldn't really be faced with the choice. Although now, they were stuck doing a job in their hometown hoping to his the bank and pull the stashed money out for a pretty large take. He was still unsure of doing this job, especially since Lester had suggested against it, but he knew the situation Micheal was in, even with the stored away millions the man had, similar enough to the money he put away from his own takes on heists, he still needed this take to set them up somewhere nice and safe, as well as making sure nothing needed worrying about. He was honestly planning on just handing his take over to the man, the extra money would help him out and he had more than several million stored away, not taking into account his family vault back in England when he turns eighteen.
He had no plans to return, at least right now, but he could always access it through letters and he still had Hedwig, even if the ocean crossing would tire her out he knew she could handle it. The job came first though, and thinking about the future was never a good thing to do in the middle of one so he focused back to the present, taking account the small changes on Micheals face denoting stress and worry. He nodded slightly to the man seeing a slight bit of tension leave him and looked back around the lobby of the bank his gun clutched between his fingers. He watched as one lady was pushed to the ground and Trevor pointed his gun in her face.
"Alright, everyone pays attention and no one gets hurt." Micheal said while a guard behind the wire-mesh windows looked around in surprise and clearly stressed out.
"Arrgh, open the door or they'll get more than hurt!" Trevor said angrily making the guard quickly pull the door a bit only to have it slammed open by Trevor and get smacked in the face with the butt of his gun.
"H, get their phones." Micheal said making him walk into the room quickly and sift through each of their pockets before snapping the phones in half.
"M, we're good." He said getting a small sigh to sound out for a moment before Micheal walked in quickly and grabbed the guard.
"Hands behind your back." Micheal said quickly pulling the man up.
"Come on mister, we're giving you everything you want." The guard said hoping to buy a little time.
"Don't even think about it." Micheal said raising his gun towards one of the tellers who was reaching for a button underneath the table.
He pulled the man back away from it and raised his own gun waving it towards them while Micheal directed them to the office near the back.
"I'll do it, I'll do it. Oh god." A woman said her voice panic-stricken and breathing hard as she was rushed into the back with the rest by Brad.
"Get in there." Micheal said calmly while Trevor rushed through the double doors towards the vault.
He glanced around as the door shut behind the hostages before turning around his gun raised as the double doors smashed open.
"All set, use the phone." Trevor said making him sigh and lower his gun slightly.
"I'm calling it." Micheal said as he pulled up the phone thumbing through it for a second before a massive explosion rang out in the building.
He could hear Trevor's excitement as a small bit of dust shook free from the ceiling and he flinched to the side from the blast. He pushed open the doors as he walked through following after both Trevor and Micheal eyeing the bags on their hips.
"Show me the money!" Trevor called as he walked towards the blown out vault door and he blinked in surprise at the damage.
'Damn I didn't think those things had that much power.' He thought before walking in and pushing some carts out of the way.
"Slow and steady. T. Slow and steady." Micheal called before looking over the vault for a moment.
"M, we're good to go, got a couple carts out of the way of the target." He said getting a small nod before Micheal dropped the bag on the cart the money was sitting on and started putting the large stacks in the bag itself.
"Oh. There's enough here for us all to enjoy." Trevor said making him chuckle underneath his breath as he looked towards the vault entrance to make sure nothing was coming up from behind.
"Depends on how you look at it." Micheal said as the sound of a zipper moving behind him echoed slightly under the alarm.
"Come on, move it." Trevor said before turning around and exiting the vault.
"Coming out B." Trevor said just as he passed through making him raise an eyebrow at the lack of response before he jumped back a bit as a guard grabbed Micheal and pulled off his mask before raising a gun to his head.
He tried moving to another position to get a decent shot by the guy was using the vault's frame to block him out from any view inside.
"I saw your face, I'll remember you." The guard said quickly making Micheal lean back with his hold.
"You forget a thousand things every day. How 'bout you make sure this is one of 'em." Micheal said making him tense slightly as the man didn't let up.
A gunshot rang out and he watched the guard drop quickly.
"Fuck, you didn't have to do that!" Micheal yelled angrily wiping some blood off his face in annoyance.
"Better him than you." He said getting a small sigh from the guy.
"Let's get going there'll be time for grieving later." Trevor said ignoring the complaint.
"Yeah, you got that right." Micheal said grabbing his gun quickly off the floor and running for the back entrance.
He followed after the man thankful that he had yet to fire his gun yet before he frowned as they came upon a fairly well armored rear door. He ducked behind some boxes and Brad came out with another bomb.
"I'm setting the charges. They're on a timer, so brace yourselves." Brad said as he slapped the charge on the seam of the two doors and he turned his back to it for a minute before they went off sending the doors flying into the loading dock room.
He moved for the door before he heard a siren sound off. "Ah fuck, you hear that? Sirens." Micheal said angrily.
"Fuck the cops. T, get the shutter switch." Brad said making him hiss.
"Hold on how many of them are out there?" He asked getting Brad to turn to him quickly.
"Who cares, we'll kill them and make a break for the car." Brad said making him narrow his eyes towards the man before the sound of the shutters moving made him raise his gun and wait.
It was only a second after the cops were seen that everyone started firing, he focused on the left side and he could see Micheal and Brad focusing on the right as the four cops and their squad cars quickly made a home for the bullets they fired.
"What do we do their's a lot of 'em?" He asked as another dropped while two came up walking from the street.
"We keep moving forward." Michael yelled as he ducked by the pillar towards the entrance and fired from behind it at another squad car that slid to a top watching the driver slump over the steering wheel.
"Blame the pricks who called you here." Trevor yelled as another dropped to the ground a bullet in his face.
"The cars up here!" Trevor yelled as he rushed down the road killing another two cops who hadn't even stepped out of their cars.
He followed closely behind managing to hit the tire of one of the rushing cars making it swerve right and crash into another empty on killing the driver and passenger.
"Let's get out of here." Micheal said as the last squad car in sight stopped moving its officers dead on the ground next to it.
He ran up to the truck ignoring the two new squad cars as Trevor ripped into them. He popped the trunk and slid in closing it behind him.
"What took you so long." The local they tossed up as the driver asked annoying Trevor in the process.
"Shut the fuck up and drive." Trevor said shutting his door behind him before the local took off quickly.
"Did, you see that shit. I fucking put that bitches face against the glass." Brad said giddily.
"Yeah, you're a real stallion." Micheal commented back in sarcasm.
"Not that it helped any." He commented only to get cut off by Trevor.
"Aww fuck. How'd that happen?" Micheal asked as a squad car pulled up behind them and slowly moved over to match them on the side.
He heard glass break and watched as Trevor leaned out and shot at the car before he aimed out the window on his side and tried hitting the rear tire. He glanced right only to see the local slump to the right a bit.
"Fuck, Local yokel's bought it." Micheal said before pushing the man out of the car and slipping into the driver seat.
He braced himself as Micheal slammed the side of the SUV into the squad car and forced it to fly off the road and into a tree crumpling it like tin foil.
"Come on let's get to the chopper." Trevor said as Micheal floored it.
"We're getting there." Micheal said before two squad cars blew by.
"Be cool... they ain't made this car yet." Trevor said as they flew over the railroad crossing.
"Man I'll believe in this bird when I get eyes on it." Brad said making his eye twitch in annoyance.
Micheal had yet to lead them wrong before so he doubted the bird didn't exist.
"Shit shit shit. Roadblock. Go right beat the train." Trevor yelled as the car shifted quickly to speed around the corner and towards the crossing.
He waited as he tensed slightly before he felt the impact of the train on the truck. He slid around the back and slammed off the rear door before it popped open only to slam into the back of the seat. He coughed in mild pain as he could feel something was broken before stumbling out of the truck.
"You guys alright. Kid, you ok?" Micheal asked making him raise his right arm up waving him off.
"Maybe, once we get out of here." He said getting a small laugh.
"Come on. Ditch the car, alright? We can go this way to the Chopper." Trevor said slipping out of the car and making his way to the east.
"No hey. Stick to the plan." Micheal said before bending over for a breather.
He slipped out the back and hissed in mild pain before moving away from the car.
"What?" Trevor asked in surprise.
"Stick to the fucking plan. Come on." Micheal said angrily before stumbling for a hot second before walking towards the center of the farm area.
He followed after the guy holding his right arm to his side in order not to jostle his arm too much. It didn't feel broken or at least not like a terrible break but it hurt like hell. He flinched as a shot rang out and Brad dropped like a sack of shit. He turned towards the sound only to feel white-hot pain in his chest and fell back coughing slightly as he hit the ground.
"Fuck, come on kid, you better not die on me." Micheal said panicking slightly as his hands roamed over his chest.
Only to flop back himself as he got hit.
"Fuck, You gotta get out of here T. Shit man I'm not gonna make it." Micheal called making the angry man even angrier.
He coughed again feeling something wet on his lips before darkness took him.
He woke quickly and he could feel his hair was matted to his forehead. He tried raising his arm to wipe it away only to feel it stop short and a sharp pain to course through the arm.
"Good, you're awake." A male voice said making him shift his head over a bit to try and get a good look at the man talking.
"My name is Peter, I am a FIB agent that was part of the task force to bring down Micheal Townley and his crew." Peter said making him stare at the man in silence.
"At this moment in time, you are currently lying in a hospital in a high-security ward somewhere no one will find you. You have two options available to you at this time." Peter said before taking a seat near him.
"What options?" he asked his voice raspy from lack of water.
"First let's get you some water, can't really talk these options out if you can't speak." Peter said before holding a small glass up to his mouth.
He drank the water quickly sighing in relief once he finished it and laid back again.
"Option one. You can help us, in exchange for any information on anyone you have worked with in the past, including other members brought in to help your crew, you will avoid jail time, we will place you in a Witsec Program and move you to another area. For the first two years, agents will be nearby to watch you, to ensure you don't jump back into this life, this deal is only offered due to the fact that you aren't yet eighteen." Peter said making him stare at the man in silence.
"The next option, while you will still be tried as an adult no matter what, you hold your tongue, the judge finds you guilty of every charge and you end up in prison for twenty-five years at the minimum." Peter said.
"Odds are even with the first option you will have a mandatory year in prison under an assumed name, that year will most probably be spent here to ensure your health, after which you will get a new name, and identity and be relocated." Peter said making him sigh.
"What happened to Micheal?" He asked getting a small frown.
"Micheal Townley was shot and killed shortly after you took your own bullet." Peter said making him gape at the man.
"If I go with the first option will I be able to speak with the Townley's?" He asked getting a slow shake of the head.
"Even if we could find them you wouldn't be allowed near them, you would be under protection, and we can't simply just let you blow your own cover." Peter said making him sigh.
"Do I really have an option?" He asked getting a small laugh.
"That's for you to decide." Peter said making him sigh.
"I'll take it." He said getting a bright smile.
"Alright, we will bring in the plea deal and have you sign it, once that is done you will provide every ounce of information towards any other's you know of." Peter said before leaving him alone in the room.
He cursed silently as he once again felt as alone as he had when he first moved to this country.
Micheal's POV
He sighed softly as he watched his own funeral from outside the graveyard. He dispassionately flicked the butt of his cigarette away and leaned against the tree behind him. It wasn't just his funeral he was watching, The kid who was so much like a son to him took a bullet and went down. Part of him still felt the blood on his hands and even though he walked away after returning home on his own things went so far downhill. On top of forcing everyone to pack up to move, he was forced to break the news of what happened. Not a lot of packing happened that night as Tracey broke down and James couldn't stop staring at the ground in shock. Although the worst was probably Amanda, while she hadn't liked the kid at first he somehow found his way into her heart and she came to see him as a second son. The screams thrown his way could have probably been heard for miles.
He didn't really have it in him to argue back, He had made so many requests of Dave to make sure the kid didn't get hurt, and even though he trusted the kid to get through most of it without getting hurt he wasn't expecting the end result. As hollow as the FIB's apologize were they were better than nothing. Even with all the bullshit, he had been through he had still didn't think this would be the kind of result for all his past deads.
'I get to walk away free, and in return, I get to bury a kid. what kind of fucked up bull is that.' He thought angrily as the service slowly wrapped up and Dave walked over.
"Well, Micheal. Once we return back to your home we will be on our way. I'm still sorry about what happened with Harry." Dave said making him wave the guy off.
"Yeah Whatever, did you ever figure out who shot him?" He asked getting a small wince.
"A new blood agent, he wasn't completely read in on the agreement we had made." Dave said making him frown.
"Yeah, tell that to my wife." he said getting a small sigh from the man before they both got in a car to leave.
"I take it things at home aren't going too well." Dave said making him snort.
"No of course not, My wife is on a warpath, James has seemed to just slip into himself and Tracey can't stop crying. No everything at home is perfect we are the great fucking American nuclear family." He said angrily.
"Things will get better with time. Besides you are moving to Los Santos, if there is anywhere you can disappear and start a new better life in, that would be the place." Dave said making him shrug slightly.
'Oh well, here comes a new life. Hope it's not a shitty one' He thought as he leaned back in the seat for the ride.
A/N: Hmm... A short chapter, about the best I can do at the moment with the start Material that GTA has, especially since I have to establish the split between the two and establish the results of actions and what effects those actions have on far more than just Micheal and Harry. I should have the next chapter be much longer especially since it is a time skip much like in the game towards the "present" day Los Santos seen in the game. With the fact that the game is mostly free reign between missions we won't be going from main mission to mission, we will visit some side quests or even side jobs Harry will take himself. This freedom gives me the chance to make longer chapters and with that in mind, allows me to not make a chapter end after every mission, there may be portions before or after a mission where something else goes on, kind of like a cool down period before the chapter ends.
On top of this, I would like to host a poll. or something akin to it. I will host one poll first then a second one once I am about five chapters in. the First will have to do with the pairing, as we can see I left it open, very open and we have plenty of women in the GTA universe to work with, I won't be accepting HP universe girls since they won't possibly fit in until much later and trying to establish a relationship with someone who will be immersed in a world both across an ocean and different from the one he will have a life in, will be aggravating to write. The first poll will most likely have to do with what type of pairing, and I am not saying gay or lesbian for example, he will not be with a guy. I have nothing against it but I will not write it. No, what I mean is, Harry/one girl, Harry/two girls, Harry/three girls, Harry/harem. Something like that, now why is three girls, not a harem, because I feel harem mostly fits between four and more girls with the protagonist. Mind you I will not have the Harem exceed six people with him at most. the reason why is because then it becomes too big for the story and becomes a hassle to write making the story boring and therefore less interest to update it comes from my side.
Review Response: I'll admit you gave me much to think about, and I don't know if I had said this in the Prologue but that was a very rough draft idea to get the ball rolling, I do have every intention of going back in the future and revising certain things in order to allow it to make more sense and not seem like a swiss cheese plot so to speak. However, I would like to allay some concerns or at least answer some questions.
How he became automatically emancipated especially in the muggle world... Young adults are allowed to file for emancipation and depending on a courts decision can be allowed the same privileges of adults, baring voting, buying cigarettes (until eighteen), Buying alcohol (Until 21 in the us, 18 in UK), and joining the military unless they are at minimum 17 and are in their final year of school, they are however required to continue schooling of some sort unless they apply for a GED. Therefore a legally emancipated young adult CAN buy a home and car (if they have a license which requires them to be 16 years of age). They are also allowed to determine where they wish to live and what school they wish to go to, the only real requirement is that they are going to school. There actually is a pretty large precedent for young adults being emancipated however I would like to explain how a magical emancipation would carry over. I am running (under the assumption) that in the HP universe there are a series of Olde families, families that have existed for so long they were around during the formation of the Ministry inside of the UK. As such these Olde families would have written certain laws to outline the worst case scenario for their family line, as an example if a families branch dies out to the point where the only Heir and member of the Olde family left is a child under the age of majority, these laws would kick in and allow the child to be emancipated to adult status in order to secure their families future. Another thing they would have done was ensure this emancipation was properly recognized in the muggle world to ensure they don't run into any issues walking outside the magical world. It would be incredibly annoying to take a step a foot outside the jurisdiction of your world, where you are an adult and recognized as such, and get picked up by a cop who then tosses you into child services to ensure you have a proper home as a child in their eyes. With that in mind his ability to have an accountant and buy a home isn't so outrageous at least not compared to what we see in GTA sometimes. Also, the accountant in question is most likely his goblin account manager, it isn't like he was just gonna waltz into a bank and just look an accountant in the eyes and get financing and shit so easily, but the magical world has ways around those types of issues.
As to how a teenager with a backpack full of cash got on a plane without people questioning it, he didn't, there is a specific form you are REQUIRED to fill out if you are entering a country with a large sum of cash, however he is coming from the UK where the suspicion of someone coming over with large amounts of money isn't wide at all, at least not compared to someone coming over from Mexico with the same. But if you legally filed the paperwork most people or officials won't give a shit. at least in my experience, they end up not caring just so long as it's not some drug running cash running stuff, but generally, you get a little bit of the federal government looking into it but if they don't see anything suspicious they mostly drop it. You can buy homes quite easily in other countries, you file the proper paperwork have proof of monetary collateral and put the down payment down, and for someone looking to become a citizen, it's even easier, especially since there a multiple ways to go about becoming a citizen. In order to do so you kind of need a place to live in order to go through the time required to meet their standards to do so. most people go with apartments but if you have the money why not a home? Plus even if he wasn't becoming a citizen, plenty of people have vacation homes in other countries, so long as they pay taxes and stuff the government doesn't care who owns it.
Now your statement about each government at least monitoring their own location is interesting and it has gotten me thinking, but how do we know they have the entire country of each applicable country covered in "sensors" the united states itself is 3,531,905 square miles, that's a shit load of land, on top of the the current us population is approximately 341 million, the world population at the point is about 7 billion, and the estimated magical population in 1999 was 500 million, so if we approximate that out of 195 countries that exist on the planet, only lets say 40 have a government for themselves most of which reside in the European area we still need to split that average between them, and we have to think about all the area that don't have established governments or at least aren't part of the ICW. Let me put it simply, its impossible. Now let me explain. There is no feasible way in hell that they have enough people to power off of latent magic or even through lay lines a sensor based ward over a country the size of the unites states, that's not taking into effect the multiple islands under its control or even Alaska. it would seem reasonable for the UK since the island nation is about the size of some of the smaller states in the united states. but come on really? the entire united states? where the power coming from the keep it going? even if we are generous and say that 750 million people on the planet are magical it still wouldn't be possible. on top of that if it was a general ward that detected magical area, let's say something that covered the planet (Also impossible) every single established government would register the illegal use of magic, do you know how inefficient that is? the US is picking up illegal magic in the UK or Germany?
They would get pissed because resources are wasted on another countries problem since a response team would probably be sent before verification (Which governments do quite often) plus with that many people the improper use of magic office would be pinging constantly every moment of every day. its much more likely that certain big massive cities have the ward over them and the smaller towns and such don't have it in order to keep the required amount of magic used as small as possible especially since they have thousands of other wards on the mini magic cities inside those large cities. New York, for example, would make sense but let's say nowheresville in the middle of nowhere wouldn't. Mind you that gives me a few ideas though. Even if somehow they managed to do anything from above if he is emancipated why would they be tracing him? He's an adult now so why keep the trace? so if they cant actively trace his magic, and he's following the laws by not letting anyone see or at least isn't obvious in his use of it, they wouldn't ever care or respond even if they could see it. especially since they base the use in a muggle area based off the trace and if that's gone they cant. there were several points in HP canon that explained how adults would get drunk and accidentally throw some magic around before vanishing, there's no news that anyone was charged and all that happened were the muggles were obliviated.
As far as all those things go I hope I have answered your questions. if you have any more feel free to leave another review or even PM me I'm happy to discuss them in depth. You have given me some things to think over, and I will be looking over the prologue much later for a revision to make it much better than what I released before, I had quite a struggle writing in since that day I seemed to be drawing a complete blank and it didn't turn out quite like I wanted but was sufficient to at least start the process, I would like to make it much better though.
A/N: I did leave in the review response, sans a certain point as others coming in might be confused should that have seen your review and not at least seen the response, mind you our conversation was much more informative and did help. I have gone through and rewritten or at least revised this chapter to allow it to look better and flow better I suppose. I do hope you enjoy this version for this chapter than the last.