HP: The Arcane Thief

Raising his hand, he casually knocked on the doors.

"Fuck off!" Was all heard from inside, spoken in Russian.

"Well, I tried to be civil…" shrugging, Axel broke through the enchantments and kicked the door open. This is not too much for a master thief.

Entering the door, his eyes zeroed in to Andrei Mikhailov, who was sitting on the edge of a particularly huge bed while the Sergie's bitchy wife was kneeling on the floor, sucking his member.

!!!

The adulterous couple were, no doubt, shocked to see the masked Axel enter the room covered in his dark attire. Nina screamed while Andrei tried to reach for his wand while cursing.

Though, Axel only tilted his head. "You're a small man, Andrei." He couldn't help but comment before he stunned the pair before they could put up any resistance.

Walking over, Axel grabbed Andrei's head and used Legilimency. This bastard has had contacts with the Kraken. Axel prioritised finding about that above finding the resources he came here to find.

The mind of the Leader of a syndicate as big as the Mikhailov Family was a surprisingly difficult thing to do. The amount of protection this guy had on his head was nothing to scoff at, even according to the system's standards. Still, Axel managed to succeed after putting in some serious effort.

As soon as Axel got into the man's head, he knew where his son Maksmilian got all his craziness from. The things this guy has done and his thoughts are so twisted that Axel immediately wanted to get out. But of course, Axel still ruthlessly dug deeper, not caring if he damaged the guy's head in the process.

While searching, Axel came to realize that, even though he had always been evil, Andrei still used to be a lot more restrained in the past. Wielding too much power has caused him to slowly push past all the boundaries and unleash his true nature after realizing that he can get away with it. Now it has gotten to the point that he has so many illegal businesses and no one can actually stop him anymore.

Finally getting to the part about the Kraken, Axel found himself majorly disappointed. There was nothing useful. All he found out was that the Kraken was planning a major move soon and they're recruiting manpower for that.

The guy has basically zero information on them. All contacts were initiated in a way that the Organisation didn't reveal anything useful about themselves.

In the end, Axel just decided to be content with the fact that his thieving mission was still a success as he got information on all the assets of the Mikhailov family and how to steal them.

Quickly taking out his wand, Axel did something he had wanted to try out in a while. He put the wand on Andrei's temple and pulled, extracting a silvery white tendril of memory. But, he didn't stop there. Controlling the link, he started to roll the wand in his hand, causing the thread of memories to be pulled non-stop from Andrei's head and wrap around his wand. silvery white cotton candy. Soon, all the memories were extracted and the memories wrapped around his wand looked like a shining silver cotton candy which Axel secured in a jar.

With that done, he looked down at Russia's biggest mafia boss, thinking.

'What to do with him?' he wondered.

"Ah, fuck it," his knife flashed, and Andrei's head separated from his body, causing a fountain of blood to spread out everywhere on the bed.

He decided to kill the bastard here and now. Can anyone blame him? This guy is a certified psycho with too much power at his fingertips. He is hell bent on destroying Martina's family, not to mention that Axel has thoroughly pissed him off by beating the shit out of his son at the Christmas party. Yep, Andrei Mikhailov is better off dead, consequences be damned. If allowed to live, this madman would definitely end up doing something that will make Axel regret letting him live.

And thus, Andrei Mikhailov, the leader of the Russian Mafia died. Just like that.

…

Sergie Mikhailov currently laid in a dirty cell with a lost look on his face. He had been kicked out of his family, then thrown into prison for "betraying the family". His wife had cheated on him with his brother and the son he had been raising for ten years was not his son, but his nephew.

He only reason he wasn't committing suicide was because he didn't want die such a pathetic death. So laid there, wondering what to do now.

But as he stared into the space, all sound suddenly ceased, followed by the guards quickly dropping one after another. The silencing ward was lifted and a figure clad in black appeared in front of Sergie.

!

Focus returned to Sergei's dead eyes as he looked up at the figure. "Who… are you?" He asked while sitting up.

Ignoring the question, Axel crouched down to Sergei's eye level.

'Legilimens.'

Sergei's mind went blank for a moment as a foreign force suddenly tore through his defences without any warnings. By the time he came to, the dark figure in front of him was already standing up again.

Axel nodded his head to himself. "You'll do. Here, sign this," said Axel, throwing down a piece of parchment.

Sergei read the contents and balked. "What— is this?!"

It was detailed contract, with many clauses, but it basically went like this:

"Party A will free party B and make him the new head of the Mikhailov family. In return, party B will try their best to fulfill whatever demands party A has."

Sergei was quite gobsmacked by the ridiculous conditions written on the contract.

"It's a simple contract. Just sign it and I'll make you ruler of this place. Make your decision quick. I don't have time."

Sergei began shaking his head. "This is like a slave contract. I cannot sign it without knowing you. Not to mention I don't believe you can even make me the ruler of this place." Saying so, he tried to return the contract back to Axel.

"I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be wasting your time here. I appreciate your efforts but please leave. The guards would be arriving soon."

Axel was a bit exasperated by Sergei's words. He didn't have time for this. A severed head appeared in his hand. "Still don't believe me?"

Sergei fell back on his butt as he stared at the head of his brother in horror. "You… this… is that real?!"

Undoing all the enchantments, Axel cut down the bars and let the head roll in. "Check for yourself. And now listen to your options. Sign the contract or die."

"If sign the contract, I'll kill all of Andrei's supporters and make you the de facto ruler and leave you to your job. Even if you're my slave, you can still do everything you've always wanted. You can free the slaves, stop all bad businesses, whatever. My demands won't be much, as my main goal was to kill that psycho before he destroyed half of Italy."

"On the other hand, if you do not accept the contract, well, I'll still get what I want and leave. When everyone realizes Andrei is dead, chaos will ensue as everyone fights to be the leader. You'll, of course, be killed by them since you are powerless and next in succession."

"So, what will be your choice?"

…

—Flashback end—

So, this is what happened in Russia. Currently, Sergie Mikhailov is ruling the Mikhailov Family. No doubt, signing the contract had been the best decision he has ever made in his life. He has been making subtle changes in every field of the family business, gradually shifting the Mikhailov family away from crime while also retaining it's power so that other forces do not take over. Of course, peace had already been made with the Valentinos and two families won't be fighting any time soon. After all, the Mikhailov Godfather was Axel's slave.

"Axel? AXEL?"

Axel realized that he had phased out for a moment, thinking about the events. "Yeah? What were you saying?" He asked Theodore, who shook him out of his reverie.

"I asked if you were not bothered by all the attention you're getting tonight. You look a bit out of it."

Axel just shook his head. "Nah, I'm fine." He looked over at the Ravenclaw table, searching for Daphne. He found her sitting among a group of girls, both older and younger, all who quickly perked up upon seeing him looking over. But Daphne, on the other hand, seemed determined not to look at him.

'What's up with her?'

After losing all of her memories of him, through the combination of media gossips and rumors, she had gotten the impression that he was some womanizer having relations with multiple women. He had hoped he'd finally be able to be close to her now that he had cleared everything up to her but clearly that did not seem to be the case right now.

As he ate his breakfast, Axel realized that Daphne seemed to be getting really annoyed with something after which, she just got up and stormed out of the great hall.

…

Daphne Greengrass was feeling downright awful right now.

First of all, she had no idea that the real reason for Axel's silence would be so complicated. She had simply thought that Axel was lying to her about his engagement being fake. Why else would he keep his silence to the whole world? But, she had no idea just how wrong she had been.

His engagement with Martina was indeed fake. And the reason he had been silent about it was because it could have started a war. Now Daphne felt absolutely mortified to think he was just a scumbag who would go after rich girls.

Though, that wasn't the only reason for her bad mood.

"Hey! I think he just looked here!"

"Really?! Oh no! Is my make up alright?"

"Get lost! As if he would be swayed by looks."

"That's true…"

"Hey, Daphne, you used to be quite close to him, right? Any clue about what kind of girl he likes?" Asked Cho Chang, bringing Daphne out of her brooding thoughts.

Daphne frowned. This was the other thing that was bothering her. She's currently sitting among a group of Ravenclaw girls, both older and younger, and all of them can't stop talking about Axel.

Ever since the interview, the amount of annoying flies targeting Axel had suddenly increased. It's not like he didn't use to attract a fair share of female attention before this, but now, the situation is worse.

"What in Merlin's name is up with you guys? Why are you all suddenly so interested in him?" Daphne couldn't help but grumble.

"What's wrong with that? He's no longer engaged, isn't he? That means he's fair game," said one of the older girls, throwing a predatory look at Axel.

"I think it's understandable," said Penelope Clearwater, a fifth year girl, analyzing the situation neutrally. "Axel Hunt has always been popular among girls due to his looks and unique bad-boy attitude. Also, being an athlete, he looks quite older for his age due to his physique. The only reason the girls had been keeping their distance from him was due his bad reputation and existing relationship with multiple high profile girls. But now it's been revealed all of that were just rumors," she summarized. "Though, even I don't understand why the difference is so huge," she said thoughtfully.

"Clearwater, not everything is numbers and logic," said one of the girls disdainfully.

"Yes, just think about it. We thought he was some womanizer who already has a fianceé. But turns out, he was only being used as a shield to block off another proposal. How tragic is that?"

"It is, isn't it? He even went so far as to duel the heir of the Mikhailov family and yet, he was only used as a shield. He didn't even tell anyone about it, even though he got the hatred of so many people."

"Such a guy… He's a keeper, isn't he?"

"Yeah! He might be broken, and damaged, but I'm sure I could fix him."

"Exactly!"

That was it. Daphne couldn't take it anymore. Getting up, she walked out of the Great Hall in a hurry. If she stayed any longer she might actually kill someone.

Feeling incredibly gloomy, she was no longer in the mood to attend any classes. With nowhere to go, her feet ended up taking her to the only place she could find peace, the Greenhouse.

"Those bitches!" She fumed to herself. Daphne didn't know why, but she felt extremely uncomfortable when she heard those girls talking about Axel like that. It felt as if she had lost something that only belonged to her until now.

Distressed, she once again went to the same place she always goes. The Greenhouse. She inhaled deeply, breathing in the air of the greenhouse, mixed with the fragrance of different species of magical flora and instantly felt much calmer.

At this moment, the sound of a second pair of footsteps echoed in the greenhouse, causing her to look over. Her eyes widened as she involuntarily stepped back. "What are you doing here?!"