Chapter 8: Thievery 101
"To be truly invisible, ya must learn to 'ide in plain sight" Rupert remarked.
Today's lesson seemed simple enough.
Harry and Rupert stood on a rooftop watching the scene play out before them. A crowd gathered below them marching in opposite directions.
This was a popular bus stand. Apparently, a muggle-born fascinated with muggle Britain's public transit system and cringing at Flu powder's cost had come up with this contraption. It was called "Knight Bus."
The muggle-born now resided on a pile of gold larger than many pureblood dynasties.
"Even reality changin' kiddies won't be spared from all mighty 'ands of the free market" Rupert had drily remarked to Harry.
In their hideout in the café below, Rupert had thoroughly drilled the intricacies of the plot in Harry. If Harry had rote learned this well in Hogwarts, Hermione, and many other Ravenclaws would have suffered many more sleepless nights.
"A crowd is a non-sentient, guttural beast, my boy. It 'as dung for brains but the muscle power of a dragon." Rupert stated during their "study session".
"That's precisely why we, the sentient ones, must act with utter conviction and purpose," Rupert said.
"And what happens when the crowd starts noticing?" Harry asked.
"That's the thing lad, we will be long gone by the time they know what's happened," Rupert replied.
"The red lady wiv the bag, tell me baht 'er." Rupert suddenly demanded.
It took a moment for Harry to pinpoint her among the utterly chaotic herd below.
The witch looked nothing to write about home. She wore red robes and carried a small purse slung over her left shoulder.
She looked utterly occupied trying to prevent the crowd from getting in her waiting spot.
"She looks nothing special to me. A bit distracted but not too much that she won't notice somebody slinging her purse" Harry answered.
"Close but no cigar," Rupert said.
"Look deeper. You saw where she came from and where she went, no?" Rupert ordered Harry.
Harry looked at the woman again and went into overdrive.
"She came in more than half an hour ago to the Herbologist's shop," Harry said.
"And?"
"She didn't go anywhere else. All this time, 45 or so minutes, she was in there. Probably a large order." Harry continued.
Rupert stayed silent but his grin indicated to Harry that he was close. Harry leaned in to look better.
The woman had no companions or elf, she spent almost an hour in the shop and had emerged with no baggage.
Then it hit him.
"She is using an expansion charm inside the bag?!" Harry blurted out.
"DING DING!" Rupert sang out.
Harry felt an ember of pride begins to take root. Rupert regained himself from the happy prospector act and continued,
"The way she leans towards her right, placing stress on one side, implies weight," Rupert said.
"Also, look how she glares at anyone who gets too close to her right side? There's definitely something valuable in there."
"But how can, we be sure? All of this is still speculation from up here, no?" Harry said.
"Ah, but we absolutely can. If we can get near 'er and cast a 'revelio', we'll know all there's needed to know abaht the bag." Rupert stated.
"Casting a revelio that close to her might set her off." Harry said.
"Unless we…" Rupert said and slowly rotated his arms in an expecting motion.
Unless we… Harry thought along
… Brain cells struggled.
…. Connections were made and lost.
.. Cells arose.
"Unless we hide in plain sight by causing a distraction!" Harry whispered excitedly.
A Cheshire grin from Rupert was his reward.
It was not just his observational skills that Rupert had put to task.
Although "Harry's" wand was incompatible with him, that didn't stop Rupert from putting him to the task.
Rupert had insisted that were certain spells that every sneaky thief must have mastered.
"Glovis"
Harry whispered as a transparent sheen came about his wand.
The spell added a magical barrier around his hand that responded to will. Like added limbs, they conveniently shifted the weight of a mark's baggage.
Inconvenient zipper? A bag's straps in your way? Wards on the pocket?
"'Av no fear! Glovis's shield will push 'em away and make way!" Rupert had boasted.
The silent part was that the shield deteriorated as it collided with wards and material objects.
They had decided to cross that bridge when they got there.
His hands ready, Harry approached the red witch.
"Merlin's Beard Madame! You look absolutely parched!" Rupert wailed.
The witch, morbidly embarrassed to be approached randomly by such a character, steadfastly looked forward.
"Worry not milady! I have the perfect tonic for parched throats & scorched coats!" Rupert enthusiastically yelled and pushed a massive yellow bottle in her face.
Rupert's distraction was encompassing but would not last long. Like an eagle with a target lock, Harry cut through the crow & approached the red witch.
"I am quite fine, sir" The lady replied tersely and turned her face away from Rupert.
Damn.
With her back now facing away from Harry, this would be a tougher challenge.
Rupert never lost a beat in the entire charade & simply jiggled in front of her again.
Some in the crowd had now begun to take notice of this bizarre drama.
Harry needed to move fast before the others called for Aurors to investigate or somebody else felt macho enough to do so.
"Pretty please milady! I 'av oh so much prepared this with much passion!" Rupert wailed again and pushed his bottle in front of her face again.
This seemed to be the straw on the camel's back.
The witch now furious, snapped her hand to her purse to grab her wand- her hand was met with air.
The witch paused and then swiveled. Her purse wasn't on her back anymore. Only empty straps hung from her shoulder.
She moved forward to seek the strange man once again, but he too had vanished.
"Thief!"
A shriek went off in the crowd, but it was of no avail. A Knight Bus had just pulled up and the crowd stormed towards the opening, hoping to grab a seat.
Her indignation was drowned out by the unthinking desires of the horde.
In the coming days, Aurors would knock around every scoundrel that loitered around the bus stands. Of course, Harry had directed the Aurors towards the wastrels.
A search had revealed the witch's now empty bag was found from one of them.
Upstanding citizens such as him shouldn't be around such creatures. Nobody ever suspected them.
A Strong Offense Is a Great Offense
"For fook's sake boy! Don't let 'em off their feets. Kick em!" Rupert roared above the noise of the crowd.
Too late, Harry thought.
His opponent had already recovered after rolling away from Harry's stunner.
He grinned as he aimed at Harry once again and started hitting him with every random spell in the world.
A blue light him and Harry felt his back being scrubbed raw with an old wiry sponge.
Is the man firing kitchen spells at me?!
Regardless, it made concentrating very difficult and time was of the essence.
Incendio
The man yelled as a fiery trail raced from his wand towards Harry.
Clearly a line cook
The wall he stood behind became enflamed and smoke began to choke him.
Harry grimaced and leaped aside. This cannot be allowed to continue.
Fortunately, A loud buzzer rang and both parties stopped fighting.
Cornerman would both ends entered the ring and rushed towards their fighters.
Rupert approached Harry with a frustrated sigh and kicked him in the thigh,
"Up! Up! Yer damned baby!"
Harry glared at him as he grabbed Rupert's outstretched hand and plopped himself on a now available stool.
"Fookin hell 'Arry. Why the hell did yer have let the fat bastard get back on his feet?!"
Harry didn't have a response. It was a mistake on his end.
"I swear, if you lose to a fookin chef from the cauldron, we'll never live to see the end of it." Rupert continued.
Ah, so he is a chef.
"Listen, kid, the man's a bum. He has no trainin'. He has no stamina. Look at 'im! Go hard and don't let 'im recover!" Rupert said as he continued to run his wand over Harry's skin.
His burn wounds started to mend themselves.
"You hearin' me, lad?"
Harry nodded in response.
A buzzer rang out marking the restart of their bout.
Rupert slapped encouragingly on his shoulder and grabbed the stool.
"Leave it," Harry said.
Rupert nodded and left the ring.
Harry wasted no time. The other party's cornermen looked like they hadn't heard the buzzer. They were still engaged in bodily repair.
Harry aimed at the floor beneath them.
"BOMBARDA"
A loud explosion rang out as the two obese men were briefly launched into the air.
They fell with a loud thud and the crowd's laughter echoed throughout the arena.
His cornerman attempted to get up first and got a red stunner on his ribs as a reward.
The other had suitably gotten up and was drawing his wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The stool levitated from the ground and then launched itself at the man. He dodged right once again.
How Predictable.
Harry fired another stunner at him and the man managed to finally draw out a wand and put up a shield.
Harry didn't relent and continued his attack.
"Incendio"
A fiery trail lept at the cook, his own tactics were now being used against him.
The fire engulfed his shield from the front as the man desperately poured his strength into it. He didn't wish to be cooked alive. That was his gig!
If the chef had a little more ground awareness, he would have noticed a swarm of hornets emerging from the not-stool lying behind him.
The hornets mercilessly dove at his exposed back and the man was soon howling in misery.
Harry doused out the flames as the man's shield went dark, he was too busy thrashing around to maintain it.
With the target now exposed, Harry simply aimed his wand and shouted,
"Stupefy!"
The chef went limp, and the hornets vanished.
The crowd went mad with barbaric ecstasy.
"WINNER OF THE MATCH BY KNOCKET: PETROV!"
Harry saw Rupert approaching him with an ear-to-ear smile as he juggled two-coin bags.
He tossed one to Harry and Harry was briefly taken aback by the sheer weight of the bag.
And for the first time, Harry answered Rupert's grin with one of his own.
They made a bank with this one.
"It would've been much 'avier if you finished off the son'o'bitch" Rupert yelled in Harry's ear above the crowd's roar.
"Cook the cook in his own cookfire!"
Harry merely shook his head.
A week later.
Always mind your surroundings.
"But ov' course, any honest bit o' thievery, must involve invisibility," Rupert remarked.
Harry stalked the man ever since he left Gringotts.
The man had made a dozen pitstops ever since, each more dubious than the last one. Their dance had now let them into Knockturn Alley.
This was more to his element now. Funny how time changes perceptions.
"Always mind yer surroundings, 'Arry lad." Rupert had lectured when Harry had first expressed fear about entering the alley.
Rupert had none of it. Thus, Harry was forced to peruse every bit of shop over there for Rupert's business.
He presented the red witch's bag to a mean-looking hag as she scaled each and every bit of the contents inside.
Spitting with condemnation, the hag slapped Galleons on the table and barked at Harry to leave.
In another life, he would have simply fled to the nearest authority figure he could find. Now he explored the city on his own.
Rupert had drilled into him the benefit of having a network throughout the city. A good fix was worth its weight in gold.
A bull statue made of diamond ain't worth spit if there wasn't a competent fix selling it off for parts without the Aurors knowing. Rupert said.
London, no, Eldermoor as he learned, was thriving in opportunities. All it needed was a dedicated crew willing to do what it takes to win.
Harry knew he had made the right bet with Rupert.
Harry warmly smiled at the Hag as he collected his due,
"Always happy doing business with you Amanda!" Harry cheerfully replied and made to exit.
The hag merely scowled harder in response and gestured for the boy to leave.
Time went on.
The dance between the predator and prey grew longer. Harry remained invisible, his wand cooperating with wordless casting for now.
Harry had intended to surprise Rupert with a few tricks of his own. Particularly the ones he had picked up in a Chamber in another life an eon ago.
The wizard stopped. Harry was forced to do the same.
He stared intently at his reflection in a mirror for sale. Harry rolled his eyes at the display of vanity.
"Did it ever occur to you, young man, that you are not as skilled as you think you are?"
The man got a red burst of light,
"STUPEFY!"
In his response.
No need to wait or let the other man draw.
Don't wait for them to breathe 'arry lad! Kick the shit out 'em!
The man did have some skill as he rolled away from the mirror.
Harry didn't intend for the man to breathe or even draw out his wand, he fired a pale-yellow curse at tiles near him.
The wizard still struggling with his attempted dodge, smirked as the curse missed him.
His condescending turned into howling, as the transfigured tiles transformed into hornets and descended on his face.
The man roared in pain and flailed his wand without a plan.
"Expelliarmus"
The wand flew away and Harry landed a solid kick to the man's groin.
"No, old man, I think YOU are quite lacking", Harry said as he took the man's wand, silver watch, & chain.
Harry grabbed him by the scruff and demanded,
"Now! Who told you I would be following?"
The main only moaned in pain as he bled through his red swollen face.
Harry angrily rolled his eyes and vigorously shook him,
"Now old man! Who was it?!"
"y-yo f-feet mud… idiot" The man tried to formulate a response before slipping into the unconscious.
Harry glared at him before tossing him back to the ground.
He stared at his feet, having no idea what the man was trying to imply.
There was mud all around them. They were in a downtrodden area of the alley.
More footprint than usual. Was there anyone watching them? Harry wondered.
Wait, there are 4 footprints.
Four.
Bloody hell. The man saw his footprints in the mud in the vanity mirror.
Always Mind Yer Surroundings, 'Arry lad – Rupert.
Harry pettily threw a rock at the display set. It harmlessly bounced off the shop's wards.
Rupert roared with laughter as Harry seethed with rage.
An entire weekend of mastering the damn spell. Making it work wordless and a simple case of mud had given him away.
If there was a laughing edge to this, Harry failed to see it as clearly as Rupert did.
"Good thing I had started betting on you in the fighting pits. Would've been bad if your dueling sucked as bad as your sneaking."
"Not funny, Rupert" Harry seethed.
They were walking through Eldermoor downside.
"Anyhow, you should have finished him off. What if he remembers your face?"
"For the last time, Rupert, I am not a murderer," Harry replied.
"Yer won't make a great thief if you 'av a heart as soft as a sparrow." Rupert spat out.
Harry merely scowled in response.
Cracking Eggs.
"The best way to successfully open a door is to know your limits dear" Rupert lectured.
He was working on a small safe as Harry kept both a lookout and observed Rupert's process.
He gently tapped his wand at the center of the safe and whispered,
"Lumos Revelatio"
Strands of hidden spells' webs glowed in front of Harry & Rupert. Despite the alleged powerlessness of the wizard, his safety was well protected.
The spell was Rupert's specialty. It forced a harmless lumos spell throughout the nexus of the protective wards placed on the vault door. Everyone planned for a dark wizard firing unforgivables the door.
Rarely did people imagine the usefulness of a minor incantation charm pulsing through their web of spells.
"I don't go around opening vaults of Flammels, Nots, or Unga Bunga goblins." Rupert continued, not at all bothered by the illumination.
He merely worked on the "branches" connecting two glowing bright points. The bright points symbolized spells and the branches between them were linkages.
"That's precisely why I don't have skeleton chewed up a spider weighing a ton. Or a jewel from the Pharoah's time enslaving my soul because I answered a riddle wrong." Rupert said.
"Know yourself 'Arry boy. And you shall know which battles ye be winnin"
Harry nodded. Perhaps it was time to live truer to Rupert's ideal.
Harry shuddered as he felt a phantom pain jabbing in his arm.
A massive serpent hissed at him in anger and struck him. Its fang fully going through his left arm.
That thing was clearly out of his league.
Harry shook his head in the affirmative. In agreement with Rupert's remarks and shake away a bad memory.
"Now, experience in this kind of thing matters most. See the many lines the spell reveals?"
"I see them," Harry replied.
"Yea the more experience you have with cracking, the more connections you see. See how there's a link between a petrifying spell & dissolving one?"
Harry shook his head in negative.
"Right. So, I see it because me old man had this kind of thing on his own locker."
Rupert started as he focused on that particular strand. It was still invisible to Harry.
"The logic behind it is if the wards detect a violent attempt on the main door, be it bludgeoning or melting it, it will fire an immobilizer to ye know, immobilize a man. Then pour acid on the poor sod to bugger im' off"
"That's brutal," Harry said.
"That's the point. Make the next bastard so terrified of what he might do wrong, he quits bein' a thief altogether."
"And effective" Harry conceded.
"So how do we move forward?" Harry asked.
"Simple, we don't do what the ward tells us not to do."
"We should stop being thieves?"
"Cheeky. But no. The ward says not to melt the vault door. So, we blow the walls around it."
Harry stared at him.
"Funny how amateur charms always focus so much on the door. Not enough on the support"
Rupert pointed his wand at the walls around the safe door,
"BOMBARDA!"
Dust clouds filled the room as the walls came down around them.
"Grab the bags and get to it, kid" Rupert ordered.
Before them lay piles of Galleons in neat towers. Harry snorted and waved his wand,
"Accio!"
The gold lay unmoving. His back remained empty.
Rupert turned around and glared at him,
"Arry, did yer really think I neva thought of that?"
"Calm, I will get them manually."
A wild bird's shriek went off in the entire house. Rupert's glare intensified,
"Too late"
An old man's voice shouted,
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
Rupert stiffened, his eyes wide in panic, and dropped to the ground. He never had a chance to defend himself.
Meanwhile, Harry wasted no time in leaping back from his position as another spell crashed into his former place.
The old man didn't look in any mood to let them go.
Without wasting a beat, Harry fired back in the old man's general direction.
"BOMBARDA!"
A green jet of light went through the walls like a canon ball but didn't find its mark.
Harry's heart pounded in his chest as he watched Rupert's petrified body. It lay still as a corpse from the powerful spell that had struck him.
Harry sixth screamed at him to move as he rolled forwards behind the now defunct vault door.
He felt multiple stabs in the door.
The old wizard had wasted no time. With a flick of his wand, he conjured a set of gleaming knives that hung in the air before him.
They whizzed through the air toward Harry, their blades glinting ominously in the dimly lit room, and lodged themselves in the vault door.
Instinct had kept him safe so far, he must regain the initiative.
Summoning his former Gryffindor courage, Harry pointed his wand and cried, "Stupefy!"
The spell shot from his wand, crackling with energy, but the old man stood resolute.
He felt no need to rush for cover as he merely raised his hand, conjuring an invisible shield that effortlessly absorbed the stunning spell.
The older wizard retaliated instantly.
His lips moved silently, casting a cutting hex that slashed through the air, leaving a trail of blood-red glow in its wake.
Harry's eyes widened in alarm, and he roared:
"Portego!"
The hex cut through the vault door with ease and was now slashing his shields.
Harry's shields kept thinning as the red blade grinding against it.
The old man not satisfied with the pace of Harry's impending demise, waved his wand overhead in a circular motion.
Two King Cobras now stood conjured before him. They rushed Harry with fangs bared.
Panic engulfed Harry as stopping the cutting curse prevented him from counter casting.
He felt like his heart now pounded at thousands of beats per minute. Stress made it difficult for his brain to process.
Harry felt his sentience drop and a voice took over.
"STOP. I AM YOUR MASTER! THE MAN WANTS THE HEIR DEAD! STOP HIM!"
It took a brief moment for Harry to realize that he had spoken in Parseltongue for the first time since arriving in this new world.
The cobras, on the other hand, didn't share Harry's brain froze. They simply turned face and struck at the old man.
This element of surprise had caught him completely off guard. Still, his hex persisted but with less intensity.
Harry felt his shield thickening again. He spied as the old man's curse on Rupert dissolved and he got up and aimed his wand at him,
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The old man immobilized by cobra venom, took the green streak head-on and dropped dead.
The hex subsided and Harry fell to the ground in exhaustion.
"You ok, kid?" Rupert inquired as he rotated his shoulders, checking for injuries.
Harry couldn't reply. This time he was well and truly out of his depth.
They were petty thieves merely trying to make a living before.
They were now murderers.
Author Notes:
Ah, there now appears to be a trouble in paradise. Soon Harry & Rupert will have to make drastic decisions with far reaching repercussions. Expect to see old faces from OG H.P. soon.
London is muggle city. Wizards call it Eldermoor. My own invention. Within Eldermoor there is knockturn and Diagon Alley. Ch09 is already done and requires editing. It will be updated shortly. Let me know what you think of the story so far and what you expect to see in future. Thanks!