Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It had taken careful planning on Harry's part to escape from Grimmauld Place. He had worked on his idea for the entire summer, squeezing it in between his Hermione approved appearances. Even though Harry was eighteen now, and technically over school age, it had been decided that he should still complete his education at Hogwarts. After all, he had skipped out on his seventh year to hunt Horcruxes. Professor McGonagall had written a specific request for his return along with Ron and Hermione's. Mrs. Weasley had immediately stood behind the new Headmistress's request.

"I was against you skipping your seventh year at all, Harry dear," she told him when he had visited the Burrow. "I think it's quite right of you to complete your education." But Harry had known that he couldn't return to Hogwarts; things would be all wrong. So he began a plan; he would complete his seventh year, but not at Hogwarts, and not as Harry Potter.

He began to use Kreacher to run his errands. Harry sent the house elf to the other European wizarding schools to request transfer information. Once he had chosen a school, Harry was faced with the problem of who he would be. It was tricky to have a false ID in the wizarding world, since a wizard's wand served as his identification. This was the reason that Harry sent Kreacher to Master Ollivander. Ollivander had given up wand making, still frail after his encounters with Voldemort. But at Harry's request, he created one more wand. It was rosewood and unicorn hair, eleven and a quarter inches long, and it came with a letter from Ollivander.

My dear boy,

I hope this wand is satisfactory for your needs. As requested, it has not been registered with your name. However, I had to inform the Ministry of its creation. For this reason, it has been placed under the name of Nathaniel Brintley. I hope that you will use this identity for whatever purposes you deem necessary, and that luck is with you. The wand should obey you, and be no less powerful then your own.

Ollivander

While the new wand was not quite as comfortable for Harry to use, it did obey his every request, and lacked nothing in power. Because of the name created by Ollivander, Harry was spared another problem; he was able to enroll in Durmstrangs School of Wizardry as Nathaniel Brintley with no problems.

The next roadblock, however, came when the school asked to meet Nathaniel. They sent an owl, asking for him to come in person and take an aptitude test. Because Harry's reason for entering a new school was that he had been home schooled, the school wanted to make sure he was up for seventh year classes. This was when Harry realized that he would need to change his appearance drastically to pull it off at all. He frantically searched through the library of Grimmauld Place, looking for disguise spells both temporary and long lasting. At last, he came up with what he was looking for; a spell that would last for three hours, and a potion that would last as long as he needed it to. He immediately began to create the physical appearance of Nathaniel Brintley.

The day of the aptitude test, Harry was able to leave Grimmauld Place without arousing suspicion. He had told his friends that he wanted to go and visit Teddy Lupin and see how his little godson was doing. Hermione had smiled indulgently and then sent him off without any trouble, while Ron never questioned where Harry was going in the first place as long as he was back in a reasonable amount of time. Harry had then Apparated to an abandoned house Kreacher had found him not to far from the Durmstrangs castle. There, he took on his new appearance.

Nathaniel Brintley was slightly taller then Harry, with a few light freckles dusting his face. His hair was cut longer then Harry usually wore his, and occasionally flopped down into his eyes, which were a dreamy sky blue. Harry had taken care to subtly change many aspects of his appearance, from little things like a mole on his left knee to big things, like his skin color, which was now a bit darker then before. Harry had also found a spell in his searching that pleased him immensely; it had corrected his bad eyesight, sp that he no longer had to wear glasses. He had changed the ones he would wear as Harry until his escape so that they were plain glass that didn't affect his eyesight at all. Kreacher had provided black robes in the appropriate size, as well as shoes and a cloak. Harry went through his aptitude test confident that his disguise went undetected, and passed with flying colors.

Kreacher was sent on more errands as the first day of school drew nearer. Durmstrangs started earlier then Hogwarts, in the middle of August. Books, potion supplies, and new robes had to be purchased. The uniform for Durmstrangs included deep red robes and fur lined cloaks. By the time Harry had to leave, he was confident that he had everything he would need, including his disguise.

Harry had brewed up a very rare potion in absolute secret. It was called the verkleiden liebe, and would physically change a person's appearance for as long as they needed it too. The key of release was a kiss; since Harry had little intention for a romance, especially not at an all boy's school, he was confident that it would meet his needs perfectly.

The day he was to leave, Harry found himself stuck in another meeting with Hermione. As she droned on and on about pointless events he knew he wouldn't even be attending, Harry snapped. He stormed out on her. At first, he felt a bit guilty. But as he went up to his room, his heart began to beat fast with excitement. He was going to be free, he was going to be out of the public eye at last! And sol, even though he knew he had several hours left before he had to leave, Harry summoned Kreacher to his room. He gave the house elf his final instructions not to tell anyone where Harry was, to only contact him in an absolute emergency, and gave his the letter to give to his friends. Then, he took the potion and transformed into Nathaniel Brintley. Harry gathered up all of his things, took a last look round his room, then left through the window, heading toward his new identity.

Arriving at Durmstrangs was entirely different from arriving at Hogwarts. Instead of a train that took all of the students to their destination, each family was responsible for getting their own children there. Once they arrived, students were given their dormitory assignments. At this school, there were several buildings separate from the main school that had multiple floors of sleeping space. Each student was assigned a roommate, and meals were generally taken inside of the buildings themselves. Each one had a dining hall on the ground floor. When the entire school had to gather, it was done on the expansive grounds; what the castle lacked in interior space, it made up for in rolling grounds that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Nathaniel Brintley was assigned to the dragon building, on the third floor. He climbed the stairs without any problem, and arrived at his room barely breathing hard at all. His roommate had not yet arrived, so Harry chose one of the large, comfortable beds inside and began to unpack his stuff into the dresser next to it. He didn't look up until he heard the door opening, and the thud of a suitcase on the floor. Harry took a deep breath, then turned to meet his roommate.

"Hi, I'm Nathaniel Bri-" He broke off in shock. Harry felt as though his eyes were bugging out of his head as he stared at the person standing in the room with him, looking arrogantly around at the furnishings.

"Nathaniel, did you say?" The other boy gave a little smirk. "I'm Draco Malfoy. Nice to meet you."

Author's Note

My first author's note of my new story! I hope you're enjoying it so far. Thank you to everyone who left reviews for chapter one! I really do like to hear from you. A couple of you expressed confusion as to why Harry was going through his seventh year after the war, when the war was in his seventh year. I tried to explain it in the beginning of this chapter a bit, but in case it's still unclear, I'll try and simplify it a bit here. Basically, Harry hasn't learned his seventh year material yet or taken his NEWTs. This year, when he's eighteen, he's completing his education and taking his tests. He's partly doing it so he can get a good job, and partly because people around him pressured him into it. I'm sorry that not much happened in this chapter; I know it was kind of boring to read. But now that Draco's shown up, things are going to get interesting, I promise! Please review; I want to hear what you think, as long as you don't flame! I'll try to answer all reasonable questions that you ask. See you next chapter!