Harry Potter: A Real Tale(AU, SI)

A/N: In case you didn't notice the title, this chapter is a long one. 4.5k words, just a heads up.

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Please include some hints about the standard charms' versatility in your book. When I closed my eyes and controlled the levitating feather- it took a lot of practice- I could feel it move whenever the wind tried to push it away. Now doesn't that have a making of alarm system? If someone steps on the rocks you charmed, won't you get to know them even if you are in the other room?

 -What Leon wanted to write and owl to the author of Charms textbook if he cared or had time.

Trial- Mixed(A & U)

Aim: Steal Helena's necklace from the Museum and return to your starting point before noon.

"You have a hundred and thirty-three minutes. Get to it, kid!" The Scroll bobbed before disappearing, not giving Leon time to understand what was happening.

The Hufflepuff was walking towards the library, leaving his friends behind in the Quidditch field, when, suddenly, he was greeted by the scroll floating in a dark void with a picture of a necklace on it.

The void vanished just as he glanced at the image and details of what he was supposed to steal. Then, he was greeted with the high-pitched squeaks of rats.

'A back alley,' he noted, observing the trash bags stocked on the side.

'So, is this real or another illusion like the first trial? (Tutorial?)' he wondered, standing in the dingy alley.

Looking down, Leon saw he was still wearing his Sunday outfit- a long black robe on his white shirt and grey trousers.

'Let's believe this is real.' He decided, even though his mind was telling him, that no magical artifact would want its house heir to be a thief or even worse a thief who was caught.

With a quick notice-me-not charm, he left the alley.

A towering dome caught his eye along with a gaggle of tourists walking towards the said dome.

The Hufflepuff wanted to rip the scroll to shreds as he noticed cameras on the tourists.

'Argh! Stupid Scroll, there are so many ways this can go wrong if this is the real world!'

'I bet the Museum has CCTVs too! And I don't know how any of my spells like Alohomora or notice-me-not interact with the cameras and electronics. How am I supposed to steal anything without triggering any alarms or getting caught?'

Leon thought he would get to choose the trial instead of getting chucked in one without any input. Clearly, he was wrong.

He did learn some new spells in the 'Mastering the Senses' book for his trial, so it wasn't all bad.

Sighing, he walked towards the Museum.

It was a cloudy day in London, the tourists were spread out in front of the entrance, taking pictures, sitting on the benches- spending time with their families.

CCTVs, electric locks, pressure sensors, patrols, and display cases are the main obstacles that could prevent the heist.

'I can take care of patrols and glass(display) cases, but how do I even know if some alarm will go off if I lift the necklace from its podium?' Leon was pretty sure that pressure sensors were a thing in the 1990's.

'I am only a first year, damn it!' He wanted to yell at the sky, but he decided otherwise.

'First, let's check if I will appear in the pictures.' Nodding, Leon eyed the cameras, deciding to solve one problem at a time.

Most of the cameras had no screen, surprising him before he remembered that the year was 1991. People had to wait for the films to be developed to see what they had taken- digital handheld cameras were rare.

Cursing the Scroll again, Leon eliminated most tourists and kept an eye on the families with Polaroids- these cameras eject physical copies instantly.

He waited for a time to see if anyone would keep their camera aside but was met with no such luck.

Cursing as he wasn't going to get a clean way to check his spells, he walked towards a family who were posing for a picture.

A woman and two kids his age smiled, showing their pearly whites as the dad took the picture.

Leon skulked towards the family and posed behind the kids like he was walking with his face angled away from the camera. The notice me not charm made anyone ignore the teen skulking around in a tourist place.

With a flash, the camera went off.

Leon stood behind the family as they huddled to see the picture.

The result was going to decide the difficulty level of the trial.

"Ah! Who is this boy?" one of the kids pointed out.

The photo clearly showed Leon's side profile with his robe bundled in his arms.

"Steve, why did you click the picture with him in the frame?" The mother questioned, narrowing her eyes.

"I didn't, I didn't see the kid," the dad mumbled, looking around, confused.

 "Let's go again. Come on, kids, hurry up. Go on, Steve." The mom dragged the kids away, posing with them again.

Leon walked away from the family with a pout gnashing his teeth.

'Hmm! I hoped the camera would short circuit,' he sat on a bench, trying to imagine how the CCTVs in the museum would react to him.

'Stupid scroll! Stupid,' he sighed.

Shaking his head, he started to brainstorm.

'The intent behind the spell is not to let anyone notice me, but the spell breaks if I do something over the top. Now the 'don't see me' part of the spell makes people ignore me. A camera's working principle is nothing but a neat, upgraded, version of a muddy footprint." Leon vaguely remembers the camera's working principle from his high school days.

'Something something protons, reflected light, hits the chemical film leaving traces.'

'I guess as the spell doesn't cover the footprints I leave behind, it doesn't do anything to light rays getting reflected off me.' He concluded.

Leon has a spell to deal with the pesky light, but he is going to be seen as a blur, a distortion in space. So that spell was to be used at the right time as it also takes away his vision.

That spell bends the light around him, so nothing reaches him aka no light for him to see things.

Sight loss is one of the reasons that invisibility charms were tough.

He tapped his chin, the Hufflepuff had no idea if the notice-me-not spell would work in a video if he got recorded. But he didn't have high hopes for it, so he assumed he would be recorded and noticed like a muggle.

The charms book did mention the baseline taken for notice me not charm was for wizards. So, Leon knows that muggles would be forced to ignore his antics more than wizards - he doesn't know about the limit though.

'Will they not notice me even when I am walking to unauthorized areas or close to the exhibits?' He wondered.

After scaring another family with his camouflaged arm, a clear outline of a human hand was present in their picture, Leon walked towards the museum's exhibit map.

He knew the camouflage spell wouldn't work on cameras. After all, all it does is change him into a chameleon and he wasn't as powerful as Dumbledore, so it was within his expectations.

'Now, why can't I see where Helena's necklace- it's supposed to be under the name of Duchess's Jewel.' Scouring the map a couple more times, Leon sighed and stole a guide pamphlet the museum was selling.

He paged through the guide until he came across Helena's necklace.

'Stored for maintenance! The scroll is messing with me!'

Shaking the uncertainty and frustration, Leon began to plan as he got to know most of the variables.

'Maybe the necklace being stored is a good thing,' he thought as the outline of his plan formed.

 ...…

(Museum Employee POV)

It was a perfect day for Judy, she discovered a new place that makes great muffins. Her assistant, Timothy, looked awestruck at her new hairstyle, his ever-professional mask cracking.

He was recently hired. Timothy made great cuppas and was very easy on the eyes.

'I can feel it! He won't be playing hard to get any longer.' With a satisfied huff, she set aside the cup of tea and resumed her paperwork.

'I have a good feeling about today, even this mountain of paperwork isn't enough to ruin it,' she thought, seamlessly organizing them priority-wise after she finished her previous bundle.

As she flew through her work, the atmosphere in her office changed.

'Something's wrong.' 

Shadowy fear pervaded her office, the world suddenly lost its tranquility.

Unease flowed through her mind as she eyed the shadows in her office, they looked too dark and sinister.

Shivering, she quickly turned towards her large office windows- her room was never dark in the morning, it was well-ventilated.

Surprisingly, the sun was setting, and the clock rang, its hands resting at 6 and 12.

'Huh! How did I miss my lunch? What-' A loud ringing cut off her thoughts, her mind became heavy and muddled as she answered the telephone ringing on her desk.

"Timothy, why didn't you call me out for lunch or get me my evening tea for that matter?" she asked, after listening for a while.

She wasn't able to understand what he was saying but she could recognize his voice.

"Listen to me, Judy. Hide, Hide somewhere! The Museum, the museum is-!" The voice was clearer this time.

Something wasn't right, but her heavy thoughts coupled with the sheer panic she was hearing in her crush's voice made her ignore it.

"Where are you? What is happening?"

"Judy, Judy, tell me the passcode to enter the restoration vault. They are after me, please quickly."

She heard a loud gunshot from the other side of the phone.

"Tim, Tim."

"Judy quickly, please," he pleaded, breathless.

"It's 9876."

A deep sigh filled her room like the owner of the sound was disappointed in her before everything went black. 

......….

Leon looked at the woman sleeping on her desk and shook his head as he caught his breath.

That took more out of him than he thought it would. But it was better this way, he didn't have to invade her mind.. much. And he knew it was going to be tough if he tried to not leave marks in her mind.

'She is innocent. So, some effort to not leave traces in her mind is minimum courtesy,' he thought, adjusting the makeshift mask -his robe- covering his face.

Taking Daphne's repulsive lesson into account he kept the invasion of her mind to a minimum by not trying to make a realistic illusion.

Instead, he tried to overwhelm her mind, getting it sluggish and liable to answer the one question he projected.

'I guess, it went well for a first try.' He tried it - smothering others' minds- on some insects and that purebred Kneazle pet.

He did give the cat a lot of treats, and it seems it was halfbreed that was bred to retain pure Kneazle appearance.

The Hufflepuff wrongly assumed the rarity of Kneazles and their size- they were the size of small tigers.

The woman's mind was quite different from both wizards and their pets. It reacted like putty, filling the illusion with details by itself, following his intent when she was under the spell.

His book didn't mention anything about it, and he remembers how Smith was under the spell. It was like painting on a semi-frictionless surface, it required some effort from him to keep up the illusion.

 'Maybe, because is she a muggle?' Leaving that train of thought for another time, Leon sneaked away from the office, passing the Timothy guy who was sitting outside the office.

'Now! Please don't have another electronic lock, I don't want to go back again to mess with the woman's head.' Leon prayed as he retraced his steps toward the vault.

On his first sweep of the museum, cloaked in his stealth combo -notice-me-not and camouflage- he hugged the walls, creeping through the hallways at a snail's pace, mapping out the cameras guarding the path to the restoration vault.

As evidenced by his experiment, the camouflage spell sucked so he covered his face with his robe even under the stealth combo.

 Once he knew where the cameras were, it was easier. But he still wore the mask in case of hidden cameras.

He didn't want to have any contact with wizarding laws until he was an adult. So, he took every precaution to make that possible.

The paranoid *cough* thorough Hufflepuff swiftly walked towards the restorations vault. White smoke covered the cameras whenever he entered their line of sight, swiftly dissipating as he left them behind.

Practicing air-to-smoke transfiguration turned out to be one of the best things he ever did.

While he liked to be more thorough, the scroll only gave him a couple of hours. The clock was ticking and the next step in the heist required more time.

Leon entered the vault after typing the insultingly easy, and common, passcode and began to search for the necklace.

"Here it is!" The necklace was on a podium, locked away. But thankfully, the lock was mechanical.

Crouching near a wall- under his stealth combo- Leon searched the podium for any alarms, ignoring the camera, before unlocking it with an Alohomora.

The expected alarm didn't blare, making him sigh in relief.

 He resumed glaring at the podium to check if there were any more triggers- the necklace sat inches away from him in the open air.

It was beautiful, two rows of hexagonal gems cascaded on each other, their colors- blue and bronze- complimenting each other, imbuing the necklace with an air of sophistication and mystery.

Pressure sensors, pressure sensors were the last obstacle that stopped him from getting his hands on the necklace.

He didn't know if this museum employed them- it most likely did. So even before his foray into the museum as a camouflaged snail, he practiced some tricks by picking up leaves from puddles.

With a swish of his wand, the dust in the corners swirled and formed a ball at the tip of his wand.

'Good thing I practiced Leviosa spell with everything I came across to brighten up my tedious practice sessions.'

More and more dust flew from the roof, forming multiple rivers of dust, snaking across the room with magical grace.

After he got a sufficient amount of dust hidden near the podium, Leon let the transfigured smoke that obscured the camera in the vault disappear.

'Okay, let's hope the sensor isn't too sensitive.'

The dust snaked around the necklace and formed a second skin, swallowing it. The Hufflepuff gently applied the Leviosa charm on the necklace, creating hairline fractures on the dusty skin.

Leon carefully levitated the necklace to not cause sudden weight changes, his magical grip only supported the weight the transfigured dust added.

It was a very delicate operation; one he could only do because of his improved mental control aka reaching Un stage in his ancestor's mind art.

'Even pressure sensors can't stop me, MUHAHA!' He thought as no one disturbed the rocks -the ones he cast levitation charm on- he spread in this corridor's entrance.

Seconds ticked by as sweat poured across Hufflepuff's forehead.

Finally, it was done.

The transfigured dust replaced the original jewel which levitated for a second before it zoomed to his hand.

The transfigured duplicate looked and felt like metal, the first years practiced rock to metal and then dust to metal after their matchstick-to-needle (wood to metal) class.

The professor only touched upon the dust transfiguration owing to its small practical value. Leon, like in every class, got it in a couple of tries but he practiced the hell out of it in the remaining class, not resting after he met McGonagall's requirement for an average student.

Hardening the dust into your required shape and then transfiguring it into metal was tough for the first years but not for Leon.

'And of course, Rose did it easily too.' Shaking his head, Leon admired the result of his hard work for a second, only for a frown to replace his smug smile.

'You got to be kidding me!' The necklace was missing some jewels.

He looked around to see them in another podium locked in a glass case.

Just as he cracked his hands to steal them using his stupidly delicate process, he felt the charmed rocks move in the hallway.

Someone was coming towards the vault.

.....

(A dozen minutes earlier)

Frank, a fifty-year-old, leaned on his chair, his eyes on the screen that showed the bustling parts of the museum.

"Dinner with your kid is still on today, Frank?" Warren, his co-worker asked.

"Yes, of course." The fifty-year-old smiled. He was very content with his life these days.

The comfortable desk job was good but getting to see his grandchildren every week was the one thing that brightened his life already good life.

'Marge would have loved them to death,' he thought remembering his dead wife.

As his eyes roamed the screens, with a smile on his face, searching for suspicious activities, something fell into his eye.

Blowing into his hankey, he dabbed it on his eye as his other fell on the bottommost screen- the one that showed the restoration vault.

The vault was huge, with rows of podiums, locked, along with various tools, neatly arranged. It was nothing new. But something caught his eye.

There was no one in it, yet the door stood ajar, a little crack that was not noticeable unless one stared directly at the screen.

Even then, with how small the door looked on the screen, a common man wouldn't have noticed the gap. But Frank did.

"Warren, is anyone supposed to be in the restoration vault?"

His colleague shook his head.

The screen that showed inside the vault flashed white for a second.

Frank narrowed his eyes, no one was in the vault, and the vault door is only supposed to be open when someone is in it as you can't open it from the inside.

"Larry, Mitch. Come with me, let's check something out." Frank stood up from his comfortable chair.

'Why would anyone forget to close the door?' he wondered.

Something was fishy, his instinct never lied in his military days, and he wasn't going to start ignoring it now.

...

'Oh! Come on!' Leon's head whipped towards the door.

A quick Tempus let him know the time, he can't risk going out and waiting for the employees to complete their work in the vault.

While Leon knew someone might have noticed the open door, he doubted it was the case.

He cast a notice-me-not charm on the shelf that carried the TV that displayed the restoration vault. While it wasn't as great as casting the spell on the screen itself, it was the next best thing.

Even casting the spell on the rack made the screens near to it flicker dangerously and Leon didn't want the museum to shut down due to the security feed going black, so he snuck out of the monitoring room.

Heart thumping, Leon decided to take a risk.

After a quick Alohomora to unlock the glass case, he sent multiple stunners sailing towards the necklace jewels, raining the podium with his magic, covering every inch of it.

With a Leviosa spell, he levitated the jewels to his hand, the white smoke obscuring the camera.

Hurriedly, Leon pressed himself against the wall beside the door, transfiguring the dust into duplicate necklace pieces and locking the podiums.

An old man walked into the room with two guys following behind him just as the dust settled.

Leon didn't wait to see why they came and sneaked away.

'Man, I guess I am lucky.' He thought as he moved through the museum.

He knew electronics malfunction in the presence of magic, but he didn't want to risk setting the sensor off.

After all, the sensor sending out an alarm even with the necklace pieces undisturbed is also called malfunctioning. He didn't know enough about the interaction between electronics and magic to take risks when he had time. 

Leon made it out of the museum under a notice me not spell, unnoticed.

The sun was well in the sky when he came out.

'I still have a dozen minutes before the deadline.' He thought, glancing at the giant clock near the exhibit map.

Leon still didn't remove the robe on his face, his black robe covered his whole face, leaving a slit near his eyes to see.

'Home free!' Just as he began to celebrate, he heard someone yelling.

"Hey! You! Stop!"

Leon didn't stop, but he did turn slightly to see who was yelling.

'Hmm!' He grimaced and increased his speed, casting some spells on himself just in case- he didn't find the yelling guy.

The Hufflepuff darted into a gaggle of tourists, wondering if there was a wizard here. After all, muggles can't see him and a powerful wizard may, with his full-face mask making him stand apart.

'What is a wizard doing here?'

"Hey! Stop walking faster!" The man yelled, making Leon turn into an alley.

And with another swish of his wand, he catapulted himself to the roof of the building.

"Where did you go?" The man walked in, chasing Leon. He was dressed in a sharp grey suit with well-maintained hair and beard.

The stranger muttered and waved his wand before snapping his head towards Leon.

"Wait, I wanna talk!" he said and appeared on the roof with a pop.

"Get on with it!" A squeaky high-pitched voice greeted the stranger.

Leon hoped that the voice changer spell coupled with his body which was in the middle of the growth spurt would make the wizard think he wasn't a wet behind his years firstie.

"Where are you from, friend? I thought I knew all the magical thieves around here."

"Does it matter?" he asked in the same high-pitched squeak, reminiscent of Professor Flitwick.

"No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't." The guy got silent and observed Leon.

"So, British Muggleborns become thieves?" Leon asked, curious.

"The suit is a giveaway, isn't it? Let's say I am a special case, all my muggle-born friends are rich, you know. They are artifact restorers, furniture Mughals, treasure hunters- in the sea- some are even psychics that rich consult, all living it up large." He explained, smiling like he was happy for them.

"Then, why are you stealing?"

'Take that, stupid fanfics. How can one be poor, when they have magic? Nothing like a couple of Confundo's to live rent-free in a rich guy's penthouse he uses annually.'

"Well! I am lazy. I don't want to mingle with snobs or be a living factory. I was rich, but my parents cut me off and I am accustomed to certain comforts. Stealing priceless artifacts and leaving their duplicates behind is easy and big money for very little work. It's not like, muggle security is tough to crack and most of the time they can't even distinguish the real from the fake." He laughed.

Leon narrowed his eyes.

"So, here is my proposal. Someone wants that necklace, someone big in the wizarding world. Quote me a price and let me buy it from you, after all, there is no need for a fight in a foreign land when we could cooperate for all the coming century."

Leon's response was cut off as a woman apparated onto the roof, giving him a scare.

'Damn! I can't wait to learn apparition, these guys have it easy.'

...

A black dragon leather jacket glinted in the afternoon, snugly hugging a middle-aged woman.

It was old, burns and lacerations decorated the jacket, but it still looked better than the sickly woman who was wearing it.

"Who are you talking with, mud blood?" she asked, her gaunt eyes narrowed, wondering if the insect had gone mad.

'As I thought these mudbloods can't even bear the burden of casting a single dark spell.' Hate coursed through her mind, but she suppressed the urge to curse the blood thief.

"Don't see you the half-breed? He is right there." The mudblood pointed his hand in front of him.

She didn't see anything except filthy muggle houses.

'A halfbreed thinks he is better than me.' The suppressed hate bubbled and rushed through her mind, a dark curse forming at the tip of her wand.

The power of dark curses, something that became second nature to her, flowed through her veins, making her elated at her prowess.

The witch sent a dark green curse towards the direction the mud blood pointed.

"Damn! Stupid dark junkies," she heard the mud blood mutter, moving away from her.

But her mind ignored the inconsequential barking.

'He must be in awe!' She thought, enjoying the rush her favorite spell, the Exploding Entrails brought.

"Hey! No need for that! You just had to ask." The half-breed shimmered into reality, his voice unnatural like his brethren and absent of fear at her prowess.

She frowned at that; half-breeds should know their place.

'At least, it came out after I showed it my magic. Flushing pests out is sooo fun,' she grinned.

"What's the offering price, Mr suit?" the insolent half-breed spoke, enraging her.

"No offer for you, half-breed. Give it here if you want to live," she said, pointing her wand at him.

Even as her magic whispered to make the halfbreed kneel in pain, she controlled herself. She didn't want to damage the necklace; they needed it in pristine condition.

"Wrap it up, already. You used an offensive spell, not to mention a dark one, the Aurors are on the way if they aren't already here."

...…

(Leon's POV)

'Aurors?'

"See you guys, later!" Just as he was about to jump into the alley, he was met with several dark spells.

The man in the suit disappeared with a pop as the crazy woman rained down spells on Leon, who was stuck dodging them, unable to find a gap to fire his own spells or hide.

She was fast and lethal, betraying her homeless appearance.

"Caught the one!" A young voice exclaimed as the dark witch crumpled onto the floor.

A witch and Wizard appeared above the roof, flying on their brooms, their invisible cloaks snaking around their necks like scarves.

 "Who was she slinging her spells at, Mr Moody?"

The veteran wizard grunted as he eyed the rooftops, his magical eye swiveled like crazy.

"Found you!" The man muttered, his magical eye focused on a dark shadow on a roof far away.

 ....

A/N: Thoughts? Suggestions? Reviews? Powerstones?