Chapter 1
Six months into his new world, Harry Potter was hooked on computers.
Though he'd been familiar with them before his ventures into the magical world, Harry had never been allowed to spend a great deal of time with the machines, and, at any rate, his adolescent bursts of accidental magic would not have made working on them an easy thing to do. Besides, he had plenty to be going on with throughout his youth, what with the whole Voldemort thing.
Thank all the gods that was over and done, Harry thought.
But with Voldemort out of the way, Harry suddenly had a future, and though the Auror office beckoned, he took the advice of his friends and mentors and took a year off to reflect on what he wanted out of his life. Harry traveled, sometimes with a companion, sometimes not; lay on sunny beaches, went clubbing with friends and with strangers, and generally focused on learning about himself. He focused on his own well-being with the blessings of those he'd left behind, including Ginny.
Ah, Ginny. They'd tried their hardest to be a couple, but in the end, they'd realized they were better off as friends. Sometimes with benefits. But mostly just as companions who occasionally shared a male lover.
And wasn't that a revelation for someone of Harry's background? Dudley's detestable teasing aside, Harry hadn't actually ever thought of men in a sexual way until Ginny had opened his eyes to the possibility that he might enjoy them. Sure, he'd noticed Cedric's handsomeness and Bill's good looks ... okay, maybe he'd just been in denial. Harry had been expected to be the very heterosexual Gryffindor Golden Boy, after all, and he required the affection and affirmation that being said Golden Boy brought him, having been deprived of it otherwise his entire life.
Still, that year had taught him more about himself, just Harry, than he'd ever hoped for or dreamed of. He learned enough to know that while he didn't really want to chase down dark wizards for the rest of his life, he was uniquely suited for law enforcement.
At age 19, fresh from the beaches of southern France, Harry Potter walked into the Head Auror's office ready to start training, only to be pulled aside by Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Harry," Kingsley said, "I think I have a better opportunity for you. You were muggle-raised, correct?"
As if he didn't know, Harry thought. "Yes."
"How do you feel about university? Perhaps in the sciences?"
Harry quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Kingsley drew a deep breath. "What do you know about MI6?"
Harry raised both eyebrows. "Her Majesty's Secret Service?" At Kingsley's nod, Harry shrugged. "Never thought about them. Espionage for the interests of Britain, I suppose. That's it."
"MI6 would like to recruit muggle-raised or muggle-born wizards for service to the Commonwealth. In exchange for a period of five years of service, the wizards or witches will be given a complete university education at either Oxford or Cambridge, which would enable them to be completely employable in both the muggle and the magical worlds, especially with your Hogwarts education." Kingsley drew a deep breath. "As a veteran of the second war and the defeater of Voldemort, MI6 is particularly interested in you."
Harry felt as though his legs were falling out from under him, so he conjured a chair and fell into its plushy seat, not noticing that he'd failed to draw his wand to do so. He rarely used his wand these days, as power simply sang under the surface of his skin, clean and sizzling, ready for anything. Kingsley noticed, however, and added, "As a bonus, you, in particular, would be given a completely new identity and an opportunity to start with a clean slate in a world that knows nothing about you. You could live anonymously, if you chose to." He cleared his throat. "Of course, you could stay here, complete Auror training, and live entirely magical, as well."
Harry thought about it. Freedom, anonymity, and a chance to do good. Plus a muggle university education. "Other than the five years' service, is there another catch?"
"You'd have limited contact with the magical world, only as needed. And if it interests you, they'd prefer you to study something in the sciences-apparently there's a branch of MI6 devoted to support for their agents in the field that produces items that require knowledge of engineering, for example."
"I always did like maths when I was in school," Harry mumbled quietly, still thinking. Honestly, before he'd known he was a wizard, he'd thought about being a math teacher, if he'd thought anything at all beyond eventually getting out of the cupboard. "I really like this idea, actually."
Kingsley smiled. "Sleep on it. Come back tomorrow at noon, and I'll see if I can get someone from MI6 here to answer any questions you might have."
Harry nodded absently, then apparated away just as absently, unaware, as Kingsley gaped, that there were anti-apparation wards over the Ministry.
Kingsley took Harry to a restaurant in muggle London to meet a silver-haired lioness of a woman known only as M.
Six months later, Harry completed his first term project at Cambridge, a computer worm that worked on a complex mathematical algorithm.
He was hooked.
