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Harry Potter: Thinking like a Thief.

If there was one thing his time at Hogwarts had given Harry, it was an appreciation and an admiration for steam locomotives; as he stepped through the entrance from the muggle side of King's Cross and stepped into the magical side of the train station, he smiled as he took in the sight of the Hogwarts Express and the set of coaches coupled up.

When he had been in America, Harry had visited a few preserved American steam railways and he'd had a great deal of fun; their design of locomotives with the cowcatchers and the fluted funnels were certainly interesting. For Harry, being on a steam train was like using a more powerful Time-Turner and using it to travel back a century. There was a sense of timelessness to them.

Some might wonder if the magical world had - ironically - removed that sense of magic and wonder when they had started using the Hogwarts Express, but Harry didn't agree. With the magic imbued in the Hogwarts Express which completely removed the need for coal fires to boil the water until it created enough steam for power, and the coaches themselves were kept in tip-top shape using magic, the magic found in steam engines ever since the day the first engines were used for transport was present.

Walking to the coaches, Harry took a look at the time. He nodded in satisfaction. It was 9:45. He was early, which was a world record in itself; his previous journeys on the express usually came about because he'd had to take a lift from the Dursleys, or he had been brought here by the Weasleys or the Ministry. Without the Dursleys to fall back on, or putting up with the chaotic running about with the Weasleys who were completely disorganised and hadn't yet seemed to grasp the necessity in telling the time, Harry had had a much better time getting to the station. And thanks to the fact he was in London anyway, it was easy for him to prepare a couple of nights beforehand and just add the finishing touches the night before and then simply grab it for a trip to King's Cross. He was just thankful he had learnt how to beat the early morning rush. In another hour the train would leave the station. Adjusting the shoulder strap of the backpack he had instead of pushing his bulky trunk which contained a miniaturised trunk and some books as well as a packed lunch, and since Hedwig was currently at the flat unless he called for her, Harry walked up the line of the train to find a decent enough part of the train where he could be afforded some privacy. He had a lot of choices. The express would fill up gradually over the next hour before it left King's Cross.

Finally opting to choose a compartment at random, Harry went to board the train while he ignored the looks he was getting from the few students who were there. Gone was the prince or pauper look. Instead, Harry was wearing a pair of black trousers topped by a black button-up shirt underneath a green overcoat. He had decided he wanted to look better than he usually did. He no longer wanted to look like something pulled out of a bin, and while he knew the Weasleys and Granger would likely ask questions, it was just something he couldn't be bothered about.

Once he was settled on the Express, Harry pulled out one of the books in the pack and he started to read. In his pack were The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The Island of Dr Moreau, First Men in the Moon, and The Invisible Man by HG Wells. He was gaining a strong appreciation for HG Well's; granted, the author's beliefs on society were completely wrong and a bit optimistic for Harry's perspective, but you could not deny the author had dreams.

He started to read, and he had had just reached the part of The Time Machine when the Time Traveller went forwards in time after confronting the Morlocks when he looked up and he sighed in exasperation when he saw the Weasleys appear, distinctive with the blustering form of Molly Weasley, and their threadbare, hand-me-down clothes and their secondhand possessions, not to mention their orange ginger mops. But they were not alone.

Sirius? What the hell is he doing here? Harry thought as he spotted the massive grim-like black dog trotting on the platform while he was escorted by the unmistakable form of Remus Lupin, although judging from the unsubtle looks of annoyance he was getting from Mrs Weasley, Sirius' presence was not wholly accepted.

Harry sighed as he saw the adults of the group looking up and down the train, moving from the coaches. He knew they were trying to find him, but he didn't bother making their job difficult. Placing the bookmark into the part of the book he was reading - not long now, and he would move onto the War of the Worlds - Harry decided to wait.

Finally, they spotted him. A young woman with pink hair - Tonks, if Dobby's description and intel on the current membership of the Order of the Phoenix were accurate, spotted him first. She began jumping up and down with excitement before another auror, this time a tall black man, Kingsley Shacklebolt if he remembered, calmed her down although Molly Weasley leaned forward and gave her an earful.

Harry frowned with curiosity when he saw one of the group move down the length of the train while the others boarded the train carriage he was currently seated in. Harry groaned and he waited for the inevitable. Finally, the compartment door opened and he suddenly had a massive black dog jumping on the seat, trying to get to his face.

"No, Sirius," Harry pushed the animagus of his godfather off of the seat. "If you're going to speak to me, speak to me."

The dog whined and it transformed back into Sirius Black. The escaped convict looked well to Harry's eyes, much better than he had on the night Harry had discovered the truth for what had happened to his parents.

Sirius was about to speak when Mrs Weasley blustered in.

"Harry, dear! Where did you run off to? You should have stayed with your family!" She said in her usual blustering manner.

Harry sighed under his breath. "I didn't run off to anywhere," he answered patiently, "I didn't want to stay with the Dursleys for an entire summer."

And then Molly Weasley made a critical mistake. "That wasn't for you to decide, Harry," she said as if she was speaking dismissively to a retarded child. "You should have listened to Professor Dumbledore-."

"If I had listened to Dumbledore then I would have likely been kissed by Dementors, or I would have been forced to use magic to fight them off," Harry was not going to let Mrs Weasley get away with that while he fought down his anger at how he could not do anything without Dumbledore's approval; he had plans for the future, and he was not going to allow some old wizard who had a desire for controlling other people and feeding them half-truths without giving back any kind of trust in return of their loyalty. "And that would have been a bad move. Fudge is determined to get anything on me, and I won't give that little fool a chance."

The Order members were astonished by the interruption, but a few of them were giving Harry speculative looks while they looked slightly sheepish; they had clearly not seen the whole picture from his point of view. They had simply seen him as a petulant teenager who had gone off in a fit of temper, or something like that.

"Where did you go, Harry?" Lupin asked from behind the tall black auror, realising this was not the time nor the place for a debate.

"America. I wanted to get away from Britain for a bit," Harry replied while he refused to say what he had been doing in America.

"America? Wow. You certainly get around," Sirius commented, sending a look at Lupin that the other former Marauder noted at once. Sirius had put up a meagre amount of protest when Dumbledore had sanctioned the information embargo on Harry. He believed his godson needed time to not worry about Voldemort's return, he agreed there. He also wanted Harry to enjoy his childhood, but he had completely missed the fact that thanks to the Dursleys, a childhood was something he had never really possessed.

The Order members in the compartment had also not noticed Harry wasn't asking any questions about them, about what was happening. It completely did not occur to any of them that Harry had his own sources of information and many of them were far superior compared to the biased accounts of Severus Snape.

"You went abroad? Harry, that was completely dangerous and reckless-."

"How?" Harry interrupted, fixing Mrs Weasley with a strong look, hoping she gave him something he could throw back at her.

Molly refused to be intimidated. She had raised six boys, she could handle this one. But it slipped her mind that Harry was not like her sons. "You should have told us-."

"Told who?" Harry interrupted again, but this time Mrs Weasley had had more than enough of the interruptions.

"Us!" She waved her arms around the compartment to the other members of the Order.

"I don't know who they are," Harry replied. "Or are they the so-called 'old crowd' Dumbledore had described last year?"

Mrs Weasley's reaction was unexpected. She jumped almost a foot in the air. "You know about the Order?"

"No, he doesn't, Molly," Shacklebolt sighed. "He doesn't know about the Order's name, but he knows only what Dumbledore said last year."

"Dumbledore mentioned and named a few witches and wizards shortly after Voldemort's return," Harry rolled his eyes when he saw the frankly pathetic and predictable reactions from the group. "But he didn't say anything else. As for why I did not tell you, take this into account; your Order put an information embargo on me. You lot basically told me to go back to the Dursleys and to not do anything stupid. I was not going to waste an entire summer living with my muggle relatives. And I don't care what you think."

"But it was not safe-!"

"How?!" Harry demanded, looking firmly at Mrs Weasley, who was beginning to sound much like a broken record (he didn't ignore or not notice the fact the woman was treating him like a small child; her comment prior to the journey to Hogwarts before third year of how he was just a child who didn't need to know about the dangers posed against him still irritated him. He had lived for a decade being starved and treated as a house-elf by the Dursleys, and now all of a sudden he had this overbearing housewife with mothering issues there to hold his hand?). "I was perfectly safe. Voldemort is currently biding his time, gathering his forces for the war. He's barely ready to take on the British Ministry, never mind the MACUSA. In any case, even if he had found out where I was, Voldemort would not want to get on the wrong side of the Americans.

"Did you know the MACUSA have draconian methods of punishment for anyone who casts magic in muggle areas of the country? They had caught several British wizards, teenagers fresh from Hogwarts who had made the mistake of thinking their family names would keep them out of trouble. America has locked them up despite Fudge's protests and threats to blockade magical trade between Britain and America, although truthfully the threat is empty since the magical trade is limited to a few potion ingredients, they're not in major supply so the Americans are not worried. In any case, the bunch of idiots will be released…. In a few years time. Hopefully, they will be much wiser, but I doubt it.

"Voldemort might be powerful in comparison, Mrs Weasley, but right now he is trying to keep his return secret. When he does announce his return, he will smash into this country like a wrecking ball or a high powered demolition curse. He is not ready for a full-on fight. And even if he felt he was, he would face the full force of the MACUSA. I was perfectly safe. I didn't tell anyone where I was going in case something did happen, and besides the MACUSA knew where I was. So that was something and it slightly dampens down your belief I was irresponsible. And another thing, you can tell Dumbledore that the information embargo was perhaps the stupidest thing he ever came up with. What makes him think Voldemort won't stop coming after me just because you lot are keeping things from me?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow, noting Harry's lack of interest. He, and indeed several other members of the Order, had fully expected Harry to want to know what was going on. Instead, he seemed completely indifferent, almost as if he no longer cared. That was worrying if you looked at it from a certain angle, but truly Sirius would want nothing better if Harry stayed clear to the war despite everything he had done.

Dumbledore be damned, Voldemort was supposed to be their problem. They had failed to stop the snake-faced wizard who'd pushed dozens of families into extinction. But Dumbledore seemed convinced Harry was important in the war. That would be hard if the boy did not give a damn.

"I agree with your points about America, Harry," Sirius said, at last, speaking up quickly before Mrs Weasley went on. "The MACUSA have never tolerated it whenever someone revealed magic, after what happened with Dorcas Twelvetrees."

"You know about that?"

Sirius nodded. "I visited America once. The MACUSA allow visits, but they have made it abundantly clear if anyone reveals magic, even a spark, they will be taken to their equivalent of Azkaban, and you'll be lucky if they don't throw away the key. While I don't like the fact you left without a word, I do understand it."

Harry wasn't entirely sure if he did understand it, but it didn't make any difference. He had no intention of letting the Order dictate his life. What infuriated him the most was while Sirius was saying the words, he was uncertain if Sirius was being sincere. He'd always had problems trusting adults - the Dursleys had seen to that - but the others in the neighbourhood (and he was sure Dumbledore, or someone working with and for him, had done a lot of work to stop anyone taking him away from the Dursleys) had only made it worse.

In the magical world, he had discovered it was even worse. McGonagall was a weak-willed idiot who listened to the opinions of others, namely Snape and Granger, who claimed him to be a mediocre student, a description Harry did his best to live up to since it gave him the opportunity to play the long game with them all. Snape was a biased bully who was trapped in the memories of his own past. Dumbledore, Fudge, Voldemort, and so many others were determined to push him in different directions.

Sirius….

Sirius, despite the rare moments, was someone Harry was just uncertain about. He just barely knew the other wizard, thanks to Pettigrew's second escape and Dumbledore keeping them apart. But the tragic thing was Sirius did not seem prepared to make any effort. Harry knew if the roles were reversed, and he had spent a decade of his life torn from him by a prolonged stay in Azkaban, he would move heaven and Earth to be there for his godchild. He would not let some old fool with delusions of godhood take that from him.

But Sirius was not him.

Suddenly a number of leaflets rained down on the people in the compartment. Harry caught one with a hand honed with reflexes of a short lifetime, pretending to be surprised, ignoring the Order members and their exclamations of surprise - he noted out of the corner of his eye, as he glanced out of the window, a few of the last students boarding the train were also showered with leaflets.

Harry opened his up curiously, and although he knew precisely what was written inside the pamphlet, he put up what he hoped was a good performance of surprise. Highlighted in the pamphlet was a collage of pictures imposed on the parchment, of the victims taken out of the brothel some of them looking hollow-eyed with trauma, pictures of Dark Marks and aristocratic-looking wizards except they hosted terrible injuries, and there was a photo of Fudge accepting money in a corner from Lucius Malfoy, and three other people known as Death Eaters.

To the people of the magical world.

What is wrong with the pictures above? I'll tell you what is wrong. Nobody is doing anything about it. In St. Mungo's, we have a number of children, many of them are muggles or muggle-borns, some of them no older than seven although there are a few who at least three. Wait for my next pamphlet, and then you will see what happened to a few of those children, who had done nothing except being caught unawares.

Look at the photographs of the wizards who are burned, the ones who had clear Dark Marks branded into their skin - did you know muggle farmers do the same thing to their animals as a sort of This animal is mine; hands off! Some purebloods… I thought the lot of them would rather die than have anything muggle near them. Guess I was wrong.

But what else would I be expecting from a bunch of liars?

Oh yeah, and let's not forget the picture of Lucius Malfoy, pureblood of the decade, giving money to our dear Minister, Cornelius Fudge. Do you want to know what that little bit of funding was? I'll tell you. On that date, less than a month ago, Lucius Malfoy and some of the Upstanding citizens of the magical world, paid Fudge to pass the laws which would ensure Albus Dumbledore was removed from office.

And… he took it.

He passed the law.

Albus Dumbledore was removed from his vaunted positions.

It's bad enough the Minister was paid to pass the law in the first place, proving to everyone he can't stand on his own two feet, he is easily susceptible to accepting bribes. Seriously, is this man the best the magical world has for a leader? Can't he make decisions for himself? Merlin, what is he like at home, or does he have to have someone tuck him in at nights?

A concerned citizen.

X

Molly Weasley turned to Tonks and Kingsley and Remus after they had stepped off of the Hogwarts Express. "Merlin, that was unexpected," she began, but Tonks held up her hand.

"Not yet, Molly. Let's wait until the Express leaves. Then we'll have time to speak."

Molly bit her lip, but she nodded when she accepted the logic.

As the Express puffed out of the station, leaving behind parents and elder siblings who had come to see their younger brothers and siblings off for the new school year, reading their own pamphlets, the members of the Order waited until the station was virtually cleared out before they spoke. Going to a waiting room, Molly waited until Tonks and Kingsley both cast privacy wards.

"Remember what Dumbledore said, about someone else out there? Well, I guess that someone had made their move," Tonks folded her arms while she looked at the leaflet in her hand.

"We weren't expecting this," Kingsley rubbed his face thoughtfully while he tried to work out what would happen now. Many of the pictures and accusations would send dozens of shockwaves through the magical world, but it was hard to be sure what would happen.

Sirius had transformed into his human form again and he took the leaflet out of his pocket and read it. His eyes fixed on each picture for a moment before he spoke up. "I don't recognise some of the Death Eaters," he said thoughtfully, "but many people out there will. This will certainly cause problems."

"Problems, what do you mean?" Tonks asked.

"He means there will be fingers pointed at the families, but since one of their members have been revealed as a Death Eater, it means they'll be put under a lot of scrutiny," Lupin answered for Sirius.

"Yeah, but Fudge was also a target. Things are already troublesome for him as it is, this is the last thing Fudge needs," Tonks said.

"Who cares?" Sirius asked. "The idiot has been denying the truth of Voldemort's return for a month. On top of that, he has been sweeping things under the rug. That he's been accepting bribes is serious as it is, and it will have many consequences if it's known to the ICW."

"They'll kick him out?"

"Yes."

X

As the Hogwarts Express puffed out of the station, Harry had a few minutes to himself before the Weasleys and Granger found him. He used those moments to pull out a small notebook and he flipped it open and pulled out a muggle biro. As he looked at the pages, Harry smirked.

"And so it begins," he chuckled.