Chapter 2
He'd thanked his mentor for training him yesterday before the man said goodbye and left. 47 had advised him not to do anything that would require the man to hunt him down, and 80 thoroughly agreed with the sentiment. It would be a shameful waste to have to kill 47.
There hadn't even been much to say to One either, he'd been preparing him for the mission for four years. He knew every dossier, every attack venue, every ingress and egress point, every strength and weakness of the targets. He and One had even gone so far as to collect Riddle's anchors and disinhabit them in preparation. All he had to deal with as far as Riddle went was the possessed teacher. That was going to be a hefty score, he was looking forward to that.
Even so, even with a near certainty of success, 80 was not looking forward to the mission. He'd learned years ago that he did not mesh well with regular children. Even their parents he found to be stale and unintelligent.
Dumbing himself down enough to blend with the populace was the part of it all he least looked forward to. He wasn't fond of his hair, either. One had said he'd need to let it grow out to pass as a normal, but it itched and he didn't like the way it stuck out everywhere. At least it covered up his barcode, so he wouldn't be getting any inane comments about it. Worst of all though was the no firearms stipulation. That left him knives, magic, and blunt trauma, but he liked firearms. They were simple, reliable, stable, predictable. You cared for them and they did what you wanted them to. Blunt trauma was fun but messy, and magic was just too easy.
He didn't bother locking the door to his compartment on the train. He was half an hour early, and he was the first on board. There were a few others on the platform, parents and children hugging and saying their goodbyes. 80 decided to sharpen his knives. He got through seven of them before footsteps and laughter told him to stop.
His door opened and two girls entered clumsily and stowed their unwieldy trunks in the racks above the seats.
"Whew!" The dark-haired one huffed, "Glad that's done with." She sat on the same bench as 80, at the other end nearest the door.
The other one had less trouble getting her trunk into the rack even though she was chubbier.
"I can't wait to learn enough to make these stupid things easier to manage." She said as she sat opposite the first girl. "Oh!" She exclaimed when she finally saw him. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you! Do you mind if we sit with you?"
The dark haired girl started as she turned her head and saw him. Apparently she hadn't either.
80 gave them the welcoming smile he'd practiced. "Suit yourself." He said.
"Umm... hi. I'm Mandy, she's Millie." The dark haired one said bashfully.
"Harry." 80 replied. He had laughed at One when he was first told that he was going undercover using his own name as an alias, but he'd grown used to it in the time since. He had passports and other documentation under six different names that he'd used while 'work training' as 47 had put it. Really, it was just killing people. Well - killing people for money. He'd earned himself more than three hundred thousand sterling in the last year alone.
He let his smile fade as he went back to looking out the window and gave the girls a chance to talk to each other and get more comfortable with his presence. Instead, they whispered furiously between each other for a second.
"Are you Harry Potter?" Millie asked.
80 looked back at them and smiled again. "That's what it says on my trunk, yeah."
"Wow, you're really real." Mandy breathed. "Do you have a pet dragon too? Is your castle blue? Is it true your servants are all veela?
'What the hell goes through the mind of an eleven year old girl?' He wondered to himself. Millie too seemed to be waiting on his answer.
"I've never seen a dragon. I don't have a castle, far less a blue one, and I would never have a servant. Slavery is disgusting." He told her. Both in principle and in fact - he ought to know, he'd killed four different slavers.
"Oh." Mandy looked disappointed for some reason. Millie looked at him like he was a puzzle she didn't have any clue toward.
The door opened and a chubby, confident looking boy stood there with his trunk. "Hello everyone, do you mind if I sit with you?" He asked.
"Fine by me." 80 answered.
"Ladies?" The boy prompted.
"Okay." Mandy pouted.
"Fine." Mille answered.
"Capital." The boy smiled. "Justin Finch-Fletchley, pleased to make your acquaintance." He said as he stowed his trunk above the seat, then sat opposite Harry.
"Harry." Harry replied.
Justin held his hand out to Harry, but Harry shook his head slightly. "Not to offer a snub, I just don't like being touched."
Justin seemed a little surprised, but relaxed anyway. "Fair enough." He said.
"I'm Mandy, that's Millie." Mandy told Justin, and he shook the girls' hands.
"Pleasure." He smiled in return. "Excited to get to Hogwarts finally?"
80 watched Justin's manner and noted how it compared to that of a politician. It seemed warm and open, but in truth it was a script. It was a public face. He wondered if Justin's parents were involved with parliament. Whether they were or not, Justin's demeanor was more practiced than his own. He would have to study the boy and collect tips.
The final boarding whistle blew, and seconds later there was a surge of redheads outside the window as they all scrambled to get on the train at the same time. The train lurched, then lurched again, and started to slowly slide forward while Justin and Mandy slid into comfortable conversation. Millie seemed to take part in the conversation, but 80 could tell most of her attention was focused on him, even if she wasn't staring.
Thankfully they didn't expect him to be part of the conversation, and he just looked out the window for most of the trip.
At one point Malfoy, Goyle, and Crabbe showed up - their fathers were part of his current contract, so he knew who they were - so that Malfoy could attempt to ingratiate himself with 'Harry'.
80 made noncommittal noises and let the blonde boy know he didn't like to be touched. Draco left in a huff with the other two in tow, and the other three that shared his compartment started gabbling about it as soon as the door closed.
It was a long, boring trip.
When they finally arrived at Hogsmeade, he'd run through the entire gamut of mental exercises twice. He'd made notes on Justin's ability to keep Mandy and Millie engaged in conversation, and just wanted to be alone to stop pretending he fit in.
He patiently waited for the others to retrieve their trunks, even helped Mandy get hers down, and then followed them off the train. The boat ride seemed to have no purpose other than to present the castle in an aesthetic light. He rode a boat with Justin and Mandy and Millie as well, though Malfoy tried to order Millie out of the boat so he could take her place.
80 ignored it all, and trudged dutifully toward the antechamber to await sorting. He nearly killed one of the ghosts just out of reflex as it frightened some of the other children. He knew magic and had weapons specifically designed to harm ghosts and disembodied spirits, but he was able to control his reflex and not tip his hand too soon.
When his name was called, he sat on the stool the way the others had, and McGonagall put the hat on his head. As One had predicted, with his mental barriers in place, the hat could not read him.
"Hello?" The hat asked verbally.
"Ravenclaw." He told the hat mentally.
"Most peculiar." The hat replied verbally.
"Ravenclaw." He told it again.
"Better be... Ravenclaw!" the hat said out loud.
80 took the hat off and put it on the stool as he went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Mandy was already there and gave him a halfhearted smile when he sat across from her.
The children who came to the table after him he greeted with his practiced smile, and otherwise pretended to pay attention to the sorting. When it was finished Dumbledore gave a speech and a warning about the third floor corridor. He pretended to be confused by it, like the others, but he already knew all about it and had plans for it.
He tested the food before he ate a little chicken meat, some broccoli, some spinach, and a whole wheat roll, and tested the water before he drank it. One had informed him about the habitual 'additives'. Granted, he'd said the additives shouldn't appear until later, but better to get into the habit immediately.
Thankfully it was over after about an hour, and Dumbledore stood up to say some more things, but 80's mind was already preparing for that night's task. Everyone was dismissed to bed - at barely 2030 - so they all shuffled up the stairs toward the dorms.
80 didn't leave any luggage on the train, so there was nothing to identify his room save that it was the only one without a trunk in front of the door. Once inside with the door shut and locked and magically sealed, he took his own aramid-lined aluminum briefcase out of his pocket and re-enlarged it to normal size. There was enough space inside the thing for a normal-size harrier jet, but that storage was already earmarked for copies of every book in the Hogwarts library.
He closed the curtains around his bed before he changed out of the ridiculous school robes and put on his working suit. He stopped at the headmaster's office to pick up his invisibility cloak, then proceeded out the front entrance and down to the gates. Once outside the school's protections, he apparated to the job site.
When he arrived back to the dorm, he carefully changed out of his work suit and hung it up properly within his briefcase, then changed into his pyjamas. During training he'd slept in just his pants, but apparently to fit in he needed to wear pyjamas to bed. At least they weren't uncomfortable, and the castle was chilly enough to render them useful. When that was all done and all evidence of him having been out of bed was erased, he shrank his briefcase and put it in the nightstand drawer.
He set his pillow upright against the headboard, cast a security perimeter on the bed curtains, and lay a knife either side of him. He scooched his behind as far back toward the headboard as it would go, and crossed his legs, then let his head fall forward and relaxed.