Notes: So a bit of explanation before the story. I like reading stories where Dumbledore's really manipulative, the Weasleys are being paid off, Hermione's being paid/blackmailed, etc. But most of the ones I've read either sucked or Harry ended up the heir to the entire Wizarding World, it seemed, with super-powers to match. And just...no. So instead, a perfectly normal Harry, manipulative Dumbledore, a nice-ish Snape thrown in the mix, etc. Also somewhere down the line, a Resorting. Sorry the first chapter is so short, but this is essentially the prelude to stranger things to come. Also, a word of warning, this story won't be updated as much as some of my other ones. But I will update it! Promise.

Anyway. On to the story!

Harry didn't mean to overhear anything. He'd gotten to the train station early and had staked out a good spot just inside the barrier, where he didn't have to watch the station personnel giving him and his owl funny looks. He'd had enough of that already and gotten sick of it, particularly when a nosy old woman with cat's eye glasses on a chain asked him, in a rather piercing voice, if he'd gone daft, toting around an owl like that. He'd nearly hexed her and only the realisation that if he did, he would get in trouble with the Ministry again kept his hand from straying to his wand.

He didn't mean to overhear the Weasleys talking, was the thing. He hadn't met Ron's dad yet, but the unmistakable tones of the Weasley matriarch reached through the bricks, grating on his ears.

"But what if he finds out?" he heard a lower, masculine voice ask worriedly.

"You worry too much, Arthur! He won't find out a thing. Potter's fast friends with our Ron and soon Ginny as well, I have no doubt," Molly Weasley said reassuringly. "Besides, Dumbledore's ensured it. With that Granger chit, too. Now shush, the children are coming, we can talk later."

Moments later, an exuberant set of redheaded twins burst through the entrance and Harry was hard-put not to immediately jump up and demand an explanation. They didn't notice him, too intent on joining their friend a bit closer to the train, and Harry was just as glad for it. He couldn't understand what the Weasleys had meant. Find out about what?

Sirius Black? But he knew about him. The gossip around Diagon Alley had ensured that, if nothing else. But an Azkaban escapee wouldn't bring up the question of what Dumbledore may have 'ensured.' It made no sense, and Harry didn't like it.

So instead of making himself known and going off to sit with Ron or Hermione, he picked a compartment rather farther down the train, one down from the one with a rather shabby-looking man slumped against the wall, snoring, and wrapped his invisibility cloak around himself and his belongings. Hedwig hooted reassuringly at him, and he slipped a finger between the bars of her cage, gently ruffling her feathers. He had a lot of thinking to do.