Chapter 21: The money?
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The apparent Mafia member grinned, happy that he had agreed so rapidly. "Well, nobody ever expects a child. We could just use one of our own kids or something, but they're at school, and frankly not skilled enough-"
"And what makes you think I'm skilled enough?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "You were running faster than fully-grown men, and then managed to take off your cloak and frame another boy in the space of a few seconds. You turned around with a trained wizard's reflexes when I spoke, and from the way you were pointing it at me, I have a feeling you actually know how to use your wand. You then proceeded to somehow detect someone under a disillusionment charm. I'm fairly sure that the average-"
"Eleven year-old," Harry helpfully supplied.
"-is unable to do that."
Harry hummed. "I suppose you do have a point. I come off as rather great even if you haven't seen me in combat."
The man raised a condescending eyebrow, severely doubting the claim. "As I was going to say before you interrupted, you'll be doing a variety of things. Robberies, break-ins, whatever. No one ever expects it was the child, and from what I've seen you're pretty good at getting away unnoticed. You'll be paid a cut of each job." He paused, as though trying to recall if there was anything else he wanted to say.
"So, do we have a deal?" he asked, extending his hand.
Harry reached out to shook it, and grinned. "Sure, but if you try to rip me off, you're going to die."
For a moment the man was stunned into silence, but then he blinked out of his shock and his grin grew even wider. "I like you already, kid."
Whatever doubts Harry might have had about joining a criminal organization were greatly outweighed by the potential benefits.
After arranging to meet the next day, by which time Marco, whose name Harry had learned after introducing himself as Harry Rossi, would hopefully have a mission, they had split up.
Harry knew that there were far easier ways to get money, but he was doing this mainly for contacts and resources. Whatever his future plans were, he would likely need both at some point.
He had slightly regretted telling Marco that he was named Harry, but there was next to no way that the man would make the connection between the apparently blond-haired "Harry Rossi" and the black-haired Harry Potter who had a distinctive scar upon his forehead. Well, Harry hoped that he wouldn't.
As he normally did, Harry had spent the night practising magic after leaving the alley. He didn't want to reveal his wandless and worldess magic until it was absolutely necessary, so he would have to use his wand the whole time.
That might not prove to be too much of a problem. There were, after all, plenty of ice-based spells that he could enhance with his Jotun magic.
Whilst he didn't want to display all his power, he still wanted to impress them, just not with anything that even the best wizards were incapable of.
When mid-day came around on the day of the meeting, Harry arrived at the café to find Marco already there, the brutish bodyguard from yesterday next to him. Upon further inspection, three other tables had a man on, all of them attempting to be discreet as they looked at Harry and Marco.
"Just my bodyguards," Marco assured him. "My father insists upon me bringing unnecessary amounts of force for any mission."
Harry raised an eyebrow. He was beginning to get the sense that Marco was further up in the organization than he had previously guessed. "So what do you want me to do?" he asked.
Marco smiled. "Well there was a reason why I was looking for a child specifically yesterday." He produced a manilla folder from his suit jacket and placed it upon the table, opening it to reveal a moving picture of a fat man with quite the resemblance to Vernon Dursley.
"Quite simply, we need to apprehend this man, and public warfare is not our way. Fortunately for us, he has a, ahem, fondness for children and you are going to lure him and his guards into a pre-determined location where we will have already set up silencing wards."
Harry simply nodded, taking the fact that he was being used as bait for a paedophile in his stride with ease. It wasn't exactly as though he hadn't been in worse situations before, it was just that he didn't get in them on purpose.
"Okay." He needed no more information, to do the job, other than knowledge of how much he would get paid. "The money?" he asked.
Marco raised a bag of golden coins from his pocket and it jingled when he shook it. Harry reached for it, but it was moved out of his range.
"Afterwards," Marco assured him. "What you said about killing me if I betrayed you goes both ways."
Harry frowned but nodded. If he was Marco, he certainly wouldn't trust a child he had met yesterday enough to have him carry out a mission, let alone give him the money beforehand.
He wasn't in the business of underestimating people, and he didn't doubt that the Mafia didn't actually trust him, they just thought that they could kill him with ease – they were wrong.
Marco stood, offering his arm. Harry grabbed it and they disappeared with a crack to the, the others following moments later.
Blackness closed in around Harry and for a moment he was squeezed, but it was nowhere near as bad as apparation normally was for him.
Well then, either Marco was very good at it, or he was absolutely terrible. He glanced around the location at which he had arrived.
From the directions he had been previously supplied, they were in an Italian equivalent of Knockturn alley, suspicious looking stores all around.
With nods and muttered incantations, all the men became shimmers in the air, and Harry walked forward, the others disappearing from sight completely a moment later.
Turning his eyes downwards, he twisted his expression to one of timid fear as he walked past the building outside of which his target currently was, eating at a table with about six other men.
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