Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: Harry gets an explanation, realises something and loses something.
Chapter 2: In Memoriam
Harry hardly knew Professor Vector. Of course he had seen him around the institute, usually at the head table during meals, and knew that he taught Arithmancy, but since Harry had never taken the subject, there had never been any interactions between them.
Hermione did have Arithmancy as one of her NEWT subjects. She'd even called it her favourite subject a few times and Harry thought that that probably meant that Professor Vector liked her as well, but Hermione was nowhere to be seen right now. Most likely she'd left along with most of the other students.
"Professor?" he asked more timidly than he usually spoke with his own teachers.
"Ah yes, Harry Potter, isn't it?" the Professor asked digging through his pockets for something.
"Yes," Harry confirmed. "I'm not Muggle born. I shouldn't be here."
"Oh, but of course you must be aware that despite your wizarding blood you are in even bigger danger than the Muggle born students. Of course it is entirely possible that You-Know-Who will decide to kill them, but in the long run that would drastically reduce the wizarding population which cannot be in his interest. Therefore I am more inclined to expect that he will subject them to all sorts of reprisals, but leave them alive. In your case however, we know for sure that he intends murder. You must be hidden at all costs. Luckily you were already raised in a Muggle primary institute so you are as able to pretend to be a Muggle as the Muggle borns."
Harry nodded. It shouldn't be hard for him to pretend to be a Muggle. He just didn't want to leave the institute without his NEWTs.
"The one problem that we do have is that You-Know-Who will make a much more thorough search for Harry Potter than for any one missing Muggle born child. We will try to make him believe that you have been smuggled out of the country to continue your magical education at a foreign institute, but he might still check Muggle files. It isn't very difficult to put some poor unsuspecting Muggle under imperius and order them to search for Muggle files on a student called Harry Potter. Therefore," He had finally found what he'd been looking for and pulled a piece of parchment out of his pocket triumphantly. "The headmistress has decided that you are to be sent to the Muggle institute under the name of your mother's Muggle husband. P..." He blinked at the parchment trying to make out the apparently badly scrawled name.
"Prewett," Harry supplied. "But he's a squib, not a Muggle."
"Ah excellent, you already know your new name. Now please remember not to tell any of the other Professors, especially not Professor Snape. He ... is likely to be questioned by You-Know-Who, you see, and you know what an excellent Legilimens he is. The only ones that need to know of your name change are the Muggle borns that will go to the same institute as you ... though I don't think the Muggles will be surprised if they get your last name wrong. You have always been Harry number five to them after all and why should they have paid any particular attention to your last name. They are likely to be more surprised to find that you have told it to younger students at all."
Harry nodded. He'd have to warn Hermione, Ron, Draco, Vincent and Gregory, of course. And Neville, Dean and Seamus. People would get suspicious if his best friends and dorm-mates all insisted that his name was Potter and not Prewett.
He'd already reached the changing room and started to take off his robes when he remembered that Ron was a pureblood. There was no reason to hide him from You-Know-Who and he wouldn't know how to pretend to be a Muggle. He'd never been to a Muggle institute, nor had he taken Muggle Studies.
The same was true for his Slytherin friends and Seamus, though Neville at least had been brought up in a Muggle institute as well.
What would happen to their wizard born fellow students? Would they even see them again? He almost turned around and rushed back to the common room to say good bye before he remembered that the others would all be in class or the library right now. He'd have to wait until lunchtime when they'd be sure to be in the great hall.
So he finished undressing and then stood and fumbled with the white Muggle transfer clothes he had been given to change into before he remembered which way around they went. It had been so very long since he had worn trousers or a shirt and there was no wand pocket in these clothes. Where was he supposed to put his wand?
In the end he kept it in his hand, slung his sea-sack over his shoulder and marched out to let Professor Flittwick inspect him. To his surprise the students in the corridor looked very pale and some, especially among the younger ones, were even crying.
Harry glanced at them wondering whether he should stop to console them, but then Professor Flittwick had just finished checking another student's sea-sack and when he looked up his eyes fell on Harry.
"Ah Harry, over here! Professor Vector explained your ... special circumstances?"
"Yes Sir," Harry confirmed. "I'm going to be ca... going with the Muggle borns since I grew up in a Muggle institute like them." He remembered only just in time that he wasn't supposed to tell the other Professors that he was going under another name.
Luckily Professor Flittwick hadn't been paying attention to the slip-up as he'd caught sight of what Harry was holding in his hand.
"What's that? A wand? Hand it over! Is it your's?"
"Why yes, Sir," Harry said a little confusedly.
"Foolish boy! You can't take a wand to the Muggle institute!"
"But Sir!" Harry exclaimed. "It's my wand! You can't just!"
But Professor Flittwick had already twisted it out of Harry’s hand with surprising dexterity.
"No wands in the Muggle world," he declared. "It must remain here. Now let's see your luggage."
