Ruthless

ONE

Harry found the train through careful and patient observation.

He found a seat in an empty compartment, and withdrew a book to read.

Only four times did someone seek to enter his compartment.

The first was a red-headed boy, exuberant and cheerful. He asked to sit, and Harry only stared at him. The boy left with an embarrassed wave, eyes narrowed in budding anger.

The second was a group of three boys, two reminding him strikingly of Dudley's gang, muscle without brain. But the third, blond and regal, was neither. His power over the others was nothing so blatant, though Harry read its source easily enough in the first words out of the blonde's mouth.

"I am Draco Malfoy. You are him, right? The Boy-Who-Lived?"

Harry gave him the same silent stare he had given the redhead, answered the blunt question regarding his name with no expression.

The blonde sneered.

"Are you deaf? Answer me!"

Harry sighed, and looked back at his book. The little boy was demanding, as if he had power over him. It was tedious, and he was tempted to make the choice to react in kind, to answer anger with anger. But that wasn't a better choice.

He heard the boy stomp a foot, a action reminding him again of Dudley, and then came the threat.

"How dare you ignore me?" And Harry heard the air move, the slight whistle of a thin long object being raised towards him.

A wand was not a gun, but it possessed the same potential. Harry had learned enough of spells to know this, and learned enough to know that in many ways it represented something much worse. A wand was harnessed chaos; it was pure will, and infinite potential. It was as bad and as good as its user.

And any wand in his direction was a threat, and Harry had early on made the choice to never allow any threat to go unmet.

His own wand rested in a holster on his arm. A flex of the wrist, and it was free. Harry did not wait for a reaction; did not wait for the first spell to be cast, for intentions to be clear, for fear to fall into their eyes.

He struck with quick speed, the first word he spoke filling the air with incantation, an advanced spell, far past the ones in his first year books.

But a good choice. Almost always a good choice. Which was why Harry had made it his goal to be the first spell he learned.

"Expelliarmus!"

The blond's wand fell from his fingers and into Harry's. Then came the fear, and Harry watched it with relish. The two muscles behind the blond flexed and stirred, but made no move. Harry's swift movement and attack had been unexpected, an escalation of force they had not known would come from the silent boy.

Harry looked at the wand in his fingers, then tossed it back with only one more word.

"Leave."

The blond did, grey eyes now calculating, pausing to look back once and speak.

"I formally apologize, Potter, for my words and actions."

Harry glanced up from where he had resumed reading, and nodded his head once.

The third interruption was a woman, large and jovial, with a cart full of treats. That choice was easy; Harry purchased one of everything, and enjoyed discovering the eccentricities of wizarding sweets.

The fourth was a boy and a girl, one large in body, the other large in hair. Harry smiled slightly at the comparison, even as he saw them look him over with curious eyes.