Returning Customer.

'Let's experiment to find what thefts allow me to digest the potion faster.' Loki thought as he looked around the busy tube station wondering how many wallets he'd have to steal from to digest his potion.

'Alright. Let's begin.'

Loki dove headfirst into the crowd and began to search for targets.

It was already deep into the night and the only sources of light were the tube lights hung up on the walls of the station.

With people returning to their homes from businesses Loki easily found targets that were exiting the tube station.

It wasn't long after he began that Loki found a wealthy man carrying a suitcase while riding the wooden escalator.

Moving to stand behind him, Loki cleverly used magic to slip out the purse in the man's back pocket.

And before anyone could notice anything off, Loki picked out a fifty-pound note from the purse and placed the purse back into his pocket.

After which Loki continued stealing from other people, except he took lesser and lesser amounts of money and finally ended his stealing spree with a few one-pound coins.

With none of the people realizing anything missing from their purses, Loki didn't seem to have gotten any feedback from his potion digestion.

'Do they need to know that I'm stealing from them in order for me to digest the potion?' Loki wondered as he walked away from the tube station.

On his way back, he donated all the money he stole to random street orphans while telling them that he'd stolen the money from someone rich. But in doing so he wondered, 'Do they have to pay money to gangs for safety too?'

As Loki walked delilvering the money he suddenly stopped since he felt his potion digesting a little.

'It's a miniscule amount, but it's there. The potion did digest, if only by a fraction of a per cent.'

'So it is true. The person I need to steal from needs to learn the fact that someone has stolen from them and simultaneously the people who get the money need to know it was from theft.'

'So each theft has an audience? Would that count as a rule for acting?'

Loki began walking again and soon he was in front of the store he'd never thought he'd return to.

Although he hadn't know much about it before, he'd learnt plenty about it over the last couple of months from Walburga and Kreacher.

'Perhaps this is the only way I can reliably digest my potion contents before starting at Hogwarts.' Loki thought as he looked at the black market shack while recalling what Walburga had told him about this place.

"That place is connected to Knockturn Alley, the wizarding black market. The Black Family earns a significant cut of money each year from them, but recently we've broken ties after they stopped promoting the Darkness pathway to promising recruits."

"Why do you need to be connected to the black market?" Loki asked innocently.

"Because it gives me appendages that I can use to do some tasks that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise, and it's not just me that's connected with them, all the Twenty Eight noble families are in some way or another. As a demigod, I can't just respond to everything that happens myself can I?"

Loki had chosen to come to this part of the black market however and not the wizarding one because it would be risky to do so.

'I can't directly deal with other Beyonders right now, I don't have any experience even though I'm sure if I stole from other Beyonders my potion would digest faster.'

Loki pulled down his mask, straightened the collar of his jacket and stood in line with the people waiting for tasks to be assigned to them by the man in the shack.

As the line progressed further and further, Loki began to feel like he had seen the person in front of him somewhere in the past. But since the person had a mask and a jacket on, Loki couldn't be sure.

As the line progressed, Loki noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the back pocket of the boy standing ahead of him.

Upon closer inspection, Loki felt his blood chill when he figured out what the paper was.

'What the heck!?'

'How did this happen!? What is this strange bad luck?!'

'This is the paper I wrote my message on after robbing Ludwig and his gang.'

Loki wanted to step out of the line and run away, but a shred of rationality saved him and he stayed in the line.

'I can't act suspicious.'

Using all the ability to control his expression from his potion, Loki donned on the most neutral expression he could in spite of his heart beating a hundred miles an hour.

'Oh wait. I don't need to control my expression. I'm wearing a mask.'

'But I should still do it so I don't give myself away.'

Holding onto the same neutral expression, Loki used his skills as a marauder to blend into the crowd and become any other person in the line as he paid full attention to the conversation that the person in front of him was going to have.

"Where's Mr. A?" A voice Loki was very familiar with asked.

'It's Ludwig!'

'But why is he so scared?'

'Wait a second Mr. A? Aurora order?'

Loki inadvertently felt a shiver run down his spine as he mentally lampooned about how unfair the situation was.

'God damn it! A person from the Aurora Order!? How did I get involved in this of all things!? Is this why my potion digested so much?'

'Mr. A was a shepherd wasn't he?'

'What's the point of getting me involved in this!?'

'Do I have to stop the True Creator from spawning in London?'

'Bollocks! I should just run away from here! Someone else will surely stop that cursed mad god from spawning.'

Loki stayed as still as he could looking everywhere other than straight at Ludwig as he listened to the man in the shack respond to the question.

"Ho? In a hurry are you? Mr. A is waiting inside." the man said licking his lips as he pointed at the door in the shack that always remained closed.

Ludwig's body tensed as he heard those words and Loki watched him clench his hand tightly.

But Loki's mind was currently on the new piece of information that was revealed.

'Mr. A is inside the shack!?'

'I pray to whatever deity is watching me, please keep that madman away from me.'

'I always wondered why the man always sold stuff outside the shack, I guess even he fears disturbing the mad man who is inside.'

Ludwig with stiff steps moved towards the door in the shack that the man pointed at and slipped past it after opening it slowly, making the wood creak under the movement.

"*Ahem*" A short cough from the man in the shack brought Loki out of his lampooning forcing him to step up in the line.

Loki looked at the man for a bit as he stared right back at him.

"What do you need boy? I haven't got all day." The man said with a bit of gruff in his voice.

"Who's Mr. A?" Loki asked with a hint of pretend arrogance in his tone.

"You're not privy to such knowledge." The man said with a finality in his voice.

"Then give me a house to steal from." Loki demanded.

"Will that be all?" The old man asked picking something out from his drawer.

"Yes." Loki said with the same arrogance as before.

"Then here you g-"

Before the man could finish his sentence a dull *Thud* echoed from the room and before anyone could respond to it a shrill scream bled out of the room behind closed doors.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"

'What in the world!!'