Chapter Six – The New Job
"Harry, we got us a new job." Mr. White said one day over a cigar and a cup of coffee. Harry was eating a ham sandwich.
"What is it?"
"A better question would be who is our client," Mr. White admonished.
"Ok, sorry. Who is our client?" Harry asked.
"Fudge, Cornelius Fudge, newly made Minister of Magic. What do you think of that?"
"I don't really care."
"That's what I thought, well I don't either. But you should know who our target is first…"
"Who is it?"
"Lucius Malfoy."
"What?" Harry asked, wide eyed. "That was our previous client. What do we do?"
"We take the job," Mr. White said.
Harry eyed him incredulously. "What?"
"And we add our own spin to it."
"What are you talking about?"
"This is another part of our business Harry," Mr. White said and crushed the cigar into the ground. They were sitting on the porch, watching the sunrise. Harry had a plate on his lap, and a glass of milk beside him. Mr. White had a cup of coffee and a pack of cigars, from which he took another one out and lit up.
"Please elaborate," Harry said at last.
"This is called negotiation. Now, Fudge is paying us 30 grand of galleons."
"Wow, that's huge!"
"Yes, one of the highest prices you could get. Now what do you think Malfoy would pay us to get rid of Fudge?"
Harry was amazed. "I bow, grandfather, I bow to the master."
Mr. White ruffled his black hair, "Good boy. So here's your job: Intimidate Malfoy into paying us more."
"Then we can go back to Fudge and ask more than what Malfoy is giving him?"
Mr. White laughed. "You are learning fast, m'boy. In this business gold is at the top. Whoever can pay up can buy us. Got it?"
"Yes sir. Can I go to Malfoy and…?"
"Sure thing," Mr. White said. "That's your job since you are my apprentice and all but now you need to know the most important thing of all."
"What is it, grandpa?"
"You must never, NEVER, ever get recognized. If you do, we will have hundreds of killers on our tail. Aurors they are called, got it?"
"Yes sir. I'll wear a mask."
Mr. White groaned. "Not that hideous green thing again."
"But I like that mask!"
"It's horrible."
"But-"
"Fine whatever, keep that mask. Just be scary, okay?"
"That I can do!" Harry said and snarled.
Mr. White groaned. "You look like a fucking pig. Just… stay quiet and give Malfoy this letter. Don't say a word and keep your wand pointed straight at his heart." He conjured parchment and quil and wrote a letter. Harry read it quickly.
DEAR LUCIUS MALFOY – WE ARE HIRED TO KILL YOU FOR A SUM OF 30 000 GALLEONS. DO YOU HAVE A COUNTER OFFER? IF SO, NOD YOUR HEAD IN THREE SECONDS. IF NOT YOU WILL DIE A PAINFUL DEATH. AS SOON AS YOU FINISH READING THIS, THE PARCHMENT WILL BURN AWAY.
The parchment burned away in Harry's hand. Mr. White groaned again. "Don't read it, brat." He said and swatted Harry on the head.
"Ow!" Harry moaned as he clutched his head.
"Stop whining, here's another one." Mr. White handed it to him in an envelope. "Now get to business. First thing first, scout the manor for any traps. Here's the address."
He gave Harry apparration coordinates. Harry got dressed, invisibled himself with a cool spell he learnt the other day, and apparrated out of the compound. He stood on the front lawn of the manor awed and amazed at the size of it.
The manor looked good. Rich, very rich. Think of how much it would cost to get one of these? Harry thought, and drooled at the mouth. The manor was about fifty metres tall, had four floors, and was pinkish. It had a fountain in the middle of the lawn, and lots of flowers surrounding it. The gate was pure gold, with a big M on top that was of a pale jade green material. The manor road was asphalt, and patterned into snakes and dragons and gryphons. The markings and the artwork was astounding. Harry walked up to the gate and….
Sensed a ward.
"Those bastards, a trick burglar ward." There were more wards all over the place, Harry guessed. He thought back to how to get into warded areas. He had learnt a long time ago…
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Flashback
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"The trick to getting into warded places is to turn yourself into an animal. People never suspect animals when they make wards. So see, all warders are stupid. In fact everyone's stupid except assassins like us. Remember that Harry," Mr. White said while they were in his library, sitting over a pile of old books.
"Okay sir," Harry said. "How do we turn into an animal?"
"That's the hard part, you have to be an animagus."
"Okay so show me how."
Mr. White swatted him on the head. "You can't be an animagus easily boy, it takes years and years. Not worth it. Stupid boy, read more!"
"Okay, sorry sir."
"Now I know you are mad at me for hitting you but its for your own good. Remember that Harry."
"Yes sir," Harry said quietly.
"Okay so you want to learn how to be an animal…" Mr. White took a deep pull from his cigar and let the smokey air lose in Harry's tiny face.
"Well there's something called potions. That's what you have to learn real well, potions. Once you know how to brew hard potions – and quickly too, like in ten minutes tops – then you will truly master the art of assassination."
"Okay sir, so you can make potions that will turn you into animals?"
"Precisely." Mr. White said, "It's all in the potions. Now since you don't have skill in potions, and you probably never will, you will need to learn to BUY potions."
"From where? Last time I checked they don't sell that stuff in the wizard market."
"Black markets, Harry. Illegal markets, because potions like these are illegal."
"Where are the black markets?"
"It's not where, Harry, its who. And the best potion makers are usually vampires… They are immortal and have the patience to make good ones."
"So we got to the vampires?"
"Excellent, you are learning."
That day, late in the evening, they apparrated to a huge castle. Everything looked like one of those castles in movies, like the black and white Dracula movie Mr. White had shown him one day as a treat when he had learnt to shake off the imperio curse. Everything looked like it did in that movie.
They went into a huge chamber and stood in front of a long narrow table made of red wood that looked like blood. Behind the table, there were very old vampires who stared at the two in disgust.
"Yes? What do you what, younglings?" One of the oldest vampires said.
Mr. White cleared his throat. "We came here to buy potions from you."
"I see." He had a very crisp, all business no play accent. "That will cost you. How many?"
"Twenty bottles of animagi potions and twenty bottles of speed potions."
Speed potions, as Mr.White had explained earlier, enhanced your speed and endurance. Harry would have to take it when dueling, so he could outduel top security guards who had years of experience in the field.
"That's only until you get better yourself, Harry. Then you won't need to take speed. Until then, you're screwed." Mr. White said.
"I understand, sir, it's okay."
"Good boy."
Back to the vampires.
"I see," The old vampire said. "And how much are you willing to pay?"
Mr. White grandly took out a bag of galleons. "Four thousand galleons will be enough?"
The vampires whispered in shock. The old vampire seemed much more respectful now, "Thank you sir, that sounds very good." He snapped his fingers and two vampires came out of a door Harry hadn't seen before. "Here you go sir." A small teenage boy said. He was obviously a vampire. He held a rack out, there were potions bottles on the rack. The rack was long.
The colour of the top half of the potions were blue, and the bottom half, speed, was yellow. Pale yellow that looked like piss. Harry hated it on sight.
"The animagus potions will change you into a rabbit. Sorry that is the best we can do on such short notice." The vampire said. "Thank you, please come again at any time."
"Right, thank you Leader of the Vampires." Mr. White said and bowed. The Leader of the Vampires bowed back.
Later, Harry was always equipped with two potions, an animagi potion and a speed potion.
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End Flashback
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Harry took the animagi potion in big gulps. Instantly he changed into a rabbit. With a thought, he changed back into Harry. Then into a rabbit again. This was the first time he had taken such a potion and he was amazed. The rabbit was pure white in colour and had green eyes. It also had better sense of sight and smell that the human Harry did not.
The rabbit slipped past the gold bars of the gate and into the lawn of the manor. Then it circled the manor until it saw an open window and jumped in. The window was in the downstairs servants bathroom. A pale, shriveled house elf was taking a dump.
"AAAAAH! A RABBIT OIN MOI MANSION?" The house elf screamed. "OIL SAVE YERE MANSION!" It tried to grab the rabbit in its grubby hands and strangle it no doubt.
Harry leapt back, changed into a human, and stunned the house elf without a word but with his heart beating rapidly. Then he tied the house elf up in ropes of metal and made him stick to the wall. Just in case. Harry was taking no chances.
He grabbed his wand in his hand and said, "Point me Lucius Malfoy." The wand, an ebony coloured one that had wood of palm tree, and heart of toad, a weird combination, spun fast in circles.
Then it stopped, pointing east. Harry took the door and entered a long corrider. It took him some time to find Lucius's big office but he did and luckily nobody saw him. If they did he would have had had to do what he did to the poor insane house elf.
The wand hummed as he came to the end of the stair case and went down a corridor. There was a large oak door and a gold plaque, and written on it were the words that Harry wanted to see.
In silvery block letters it said: OFFICE. "This is it," Harry said aloud and spun his wand in a circle. The door blasted inward. Harry entered, footsteps thudding, a conjured black cloak sweeping behind him. He was wearing a pure black mask, and his eyes…
They were red. He had changed it himself to add a scarier touch to his image. It worked it seemed. When the door was blasted, Harry saw that Malfoy was surrounded with guards of all sorts. Skinny ones, fat ones, scary ones, dumb ones. It seemed to be a meeting, a reinstated death eater meeting.
"What? Who are you?" Malfoy said. "What are you doing here in my house?"
Harry walked up to him. The crowd parted. There were some old looking wizards and witches in there. Some young ones too. Most of them were middle aged. They all wore black robes.
Harry handed Lucius the parchment that Mr. White had given him. The little message. As Lucius read it, the color drained from his face, turning it the same colour as an egg.
"No…" He gasped. Harry quickly raised his wand and pointed it at Malfoy's scared face.
"Wait! Wait!" Lucius said and nodded quickly. The others had pulled their wands out. The parchment burned away. Lucius quickly dropped it. "Okay I'll get you your gold. I'll give you…."
"Fifty thousand galleons. How does that sound?"
Harry shook his head. "More is needed."
"Err, Sixty thousand?"
Harry nodded. "That is good." He said. "Pay up."
Lucius went to the back of the office, and lifted up a very big painting of a house. Under the painting was a safe. He opened the lock, and took out three brown bags. There were thousands of bags in that room which looked like an expanded closet.
"Here, there's twenty thousand in each bag." Lucius said nervously.
Harry had an idea. He nodded, and lifted his palm. "Put it on the table." He said, and pulled out the pale yellow potion from his belt. The one that looked like piss. He drank it all up and felt his body changing. To the others Harry seemed to be a blur.
Then Harry moved, quickly too, and felt little to no resistance for his plan. He swung his wand in an arc to the left, unloosening a huge red cutting curse that killed half the people in the room. At the same time he punched and kicked the other half into submission, using his martial arts skills. Lucius watched all this with horror.
When the crowd was all dead, well most of them anyway, Harry walked up to Lucius. "I don't like you Malfoy." He said. He was not the same height as any of them, barely reached their waist. He jumped up and took out his utility knife from his belt in mid air and slashed Lucius's throat. Blood squirted out and got on Harry's robes.
Harry knew he had to work fast. He conjured a bottomless bag, and summoned all the gold in Malfoy's vault to the bag. There were thousands of bags and they all flew at lightning speed inside Harry's pitless one. Harry grinned. This was probably the biggest heist in history. He was going to be rich! And famous! Grandpa would love this!
Then he put the bottomless bag filled with gold into his robe pocket, and changed into a rabbit again. The animagi potion worked for twenty minutes, the speed potion worked for one minute. Both of them needed a week cooldown before they could be used again, so Harry wasn't exactly invincible. He bounded across the halls and back into the bathroom he had come in. The elf was there, chained up and groaning in pain. Harry took pity, changed into a human and unloosened the elf.
The elf hugged him. Harry dropped his wand in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Thank you, thank you thank you!"
What the hell, thought Harry. "Um, okay."
The elf was a tricky one though. It had a small knife strapped to its wrist. He had felt his master die and was naturally very angry. His name was Kreaper. He unloosened the knife as he was hugging Harry and stabbed the boy in the back, right into the most dangerous place ever: The spinal cord.
The knife was coated with poison. African Boomslang venom, a very dangerous snake indeed.
Harry gasped, blood spurted out of his mouth as he kicked the elf away. He had been attacked! All he knew was he had to get to the manor quickly. Already his eyes felt droopy. The knife must have had venom in it! He stunned the elf quickly with a silent curse. He changed into a rabbit and jumped out of the window, vowing revenge on the elf if they ever crossed paths again.
In his haste, the bag with all the gold was accidently dropped in the washroom, next to the stunned house elf.
He ran across the lawns and through the golden bars of Gate Malfoy and changed into a human again. Waving hi wand he apparrated to America, then apparrated to the manor. It didn't pay to be careless, even if his body functions were slowing down and he was dead tired.
He changed into a rabbit at the outskirts of the compound, and since rabbits are faster than humans, he got inside quicker. As he opened the main door back in human form, his vision blackened and he fell… thankfully… into the arms of the surprised Mr. White.
His last thought was, "At least I have the gold."
When in fact he did not.
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AN: I got to take a dump. I'll start working on the next one after. Here's some more info on African Boomslangs from wikiepedia:
Many members of the family Colubridae that are considered venomous are essentially harmless to humans, because they either have small venom glands, relatively weak venom, or an inefficient system for delivery of venom. However, the boomslang is a notable exception in that it has a highly potent venom, which it delivers through large fangs that are located in the rear of the jaw[1. The venom of the boomslang is primarily a haemotoxin. It disables the blood clotting process and the victim may well die as a result of internal and external bleeding.[1[5 Other signs and symptoms include: headache, nausea, sleepiness and mental disorders. Because the venom is slow to act, symptoms may not be manifest until many hours after the bite. Unless of course injected in a vital part of the human body, like the heart, or the spinal cord. On the one hand, this provides time for procuring the serum, while on the other hand it may lead victims to underestimate the gravity of being bitten. (Snakes of any species can on occasion fail to inject venom when they bite and after a few hours without ill-effect the victim may fall into the error of supposing that the injury was not serious).
An adult boomslang has 4-8 milligrams of venom. 5 milligrams is said to be enough to kill a man.
In 1957, well-known herpetologist Karl Schmidt died after being bitten by a boomslang. D.S. Chapman states that between 1919 and 1962 there were eight serious human envenomations by boomslangs, two of which were fatal. The South African Vaccine Producers (formerly South African Institute of Medical Research) manufactures a monovalent antivenom for use in boomslang envenomations.
The boomslang is a timid snake and bites generally occur only when people attempt to handle, catch or kill the animal. The above data suggest that boomslangs are unlikely to be a significant source of human fatalities throughout their distribution range, so they can hardly be regarded as a threat to mankind. However there has been a history of assassinations, mainly five centuries and before where the assassins used boomslang venom to coat their weapons. In modern history, this has rarely been used.
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