Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter

Veiled Truth

By Crimson Skies

Chapter One – Rebirth

This contract binds both Mr. Harry Potter and Mr. Draco Malfoy to the terms of the challenge issued by Mr. Draco Malfoy. Any breach of this contract will result in the guilty party's immediate defeat and forfeiture. During the time prior to the day of their graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the end of their seventh year, Mr. Potter will attempt to convince Draco Malfoy the he, Harry Potter, is a true Slytherin.Whoever loses will become the other's servant for a year and a day, obeying all commands.The terms are as follows:

1. The victor is not allowed to order the loser to do anything illegal or life-threatening.

2.Mr. Potter is not allowed the use of polyjuice potions, glamour charms, or other magical disguises.

3. Mr. Potter is not allowed to tell anyone about this contract or its rules.

4. Mr. Potter is not allowed to ask for aid in convincing Mr. Malfoy.

5. Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley will stand witness to this contract.

6. Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley will completely forget about the existence of the challenge issued in this contract until the until either the day of Mr. Potter's victory or loss immediately after signing this contract.Harry Potter will remember every word.

7. The written copy of this document will be destroyed immediately after being signed. As this is a magical contract, the destruction of this hard copy will not nullify the contract.

8. Both parties are magically bound to this contract.

9. If this contract is violated, the offender will be stripped of their magic for five years.

VEILEDTRUTHBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERONEREBIRTH

Harry, not for the first time, berated himself for being a complete idiot. It had been a rash decision, made in anger. He and Malfoy had been fighting, both of them enraged. When Malfoy proposed a challenge, he was already past the point where he could back down. Thank Merlin that Hermione had kept a clear head. She had ensured that the terms were fair. If only she had been able to talk him out of it.

That didn't mean he hadn't already dug a hole he wasn't sure he could get out of. Already Ron and Hermione had completely forgotten about the existence of the bet. They didn't have a clue as to what awaited Harry for the rest of the summer, let alone the rest of sixth and seventh year. Now that he was thinking with a clearer head, he wanted nothing more than to back out. That was impossible, however. A magical contract was in place. If he strayed from his end of it, then he would be stripped of his magic. That wassomething he couldn't afford to have happen, not with Voldemort lurking just around the corner.

If he failed…he didn't even want to think about that. Malfoy was sure to make his life hell if he failed. It was as simple as that. No one would be able to save him then. If he hadn't been so angry at the time he would never have agreed to such a ridiculous thing. In order to accomplish this, he would have to turn his whole life upside down. Losing was no option. He had to win. That meant he was going to have to go to the absolute extreme to ensure his victory.

Harry had already come to one important conclusion. Harry Potter had to disappear. There was no way that he could accomplish this if he remained the 'Golden Boy.' The reason was simple. No matter how crafty or cunning he was, Draco Malfoy would never believe that he could be a Slytherin. So the solution was simple. Harry had to become someone else. Unfortunately, he couldn't magically disguise himself. Not that he was mourning the loss of polyjuice potion. The stuff was a pain to maintain, not to mention the taste.

Of course, being typically purebloods, the Slytherins had forgotten completely to rule out magical means. It was a mistake they would regret. Harry had been raised in the muggle world and was going to take full advantage of that fact. He had put a lot of thought into this already, and he already had quite a few ideas. What he was going to do was completely outrageous, and he was going to have to plan every down to the last detail.

He knew he'd hurt Hermione and Ron by asking to have a compartment to himself. Fortunately they'd probably believe that he just wanted to be alone for awhile because of…Sirius. He stamped down on that train of though quickly. Honestly, Harry was relieved to have something more immediate to take his mind off of…certain things. So he threw himself completely into his planning.

The first thing he decided on was that it was absolutely necessary to master Occlumency. He could not do this if Voldemort was able to pry into his mind. Besides, he'd learned his lesson. He would have to dedicate every spare moment to learning the skill, or he would be discovered. The Slytherins would never know what had hit them. This step would be still extremely difficult however.

Secondly, he had to find a way to go to Hogwarts as someone else. He couldn't directly ask for help, but that didn't mean he couldn't get help, indirectly of course. As a matter of fact, Harry already had a plan formulating of just how he could go about doing this. It involved some amount of danger, but that was something he'd have to risk. Fortunately, this particular part of his plan could be saved until it was nearing the end of summer. That would give him time to work out the kinks.

Lastly Harry had to become a different person. This was the hardest part. Taking his cue from Barty Crouch, he realized something. One didn't just have to change one's appearance to convince people that one was someone else. One had to change every from looks, to habits, to speech patterns. In Harry's case, it would have to mostly be done the muggle way. By subtly changing his mannerisms, he could subconsciously convince people that he was who he said. That would go far towards convincing their conscious selves. After all, it wasn't just Draco he had to fool. It was the entire wizarding world, including Voldemort.

Frowning, he realized he was tapping his fingers against his leg as he though. That was a definite 'Harry' habit. He immediately clenched his hand in a fist to make himself stop. It was all a matter of practice. Fortunately, he would be able to take the easy way out. He didn't have to erase habitual acts completely. That would be foolish as it would make him seem less genuine. He would just have to change them. Racking his brain, he tried to decide what the new Harry was going to do when he was thinking.

Immediately, he had to stop himself from running his hand through his hair in frustration. With a deep sigh, he calmed himself. It would take time. Everything was as simple as that. Fortunately he had the entire summer to work with. After everything else, his appearance would be the easy part.

VEILEDTRUTHBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERONEREBIRTH

With a speculative expression, Harry studied himself in the mirror of the hotel room in London. Now that he was allowed to practice magic outside of Hogwarts it was easy to get away from Privet Drive. A few well placed spells had convinced the muggle employees of the hotel that he was old enough to book a room. Immediately after obtaining a room, he'd sent a letter to Dumbledore with Hedwig, informing him simply that he was going to disappear for awhile. He had assured the Headmaster that he would return in due time. Harry knew that this would not appease Dumbledore, nor would it allay his worries, but at least he would know that Harry left voluntarily instead of being captured or killed. He'd also instructed Hedwig to stay with the Headmaster. Pulling his thoughts away from that, he focused once again on the mirror.

Harry examined himself critically, marveling silently at the lengths he had gone to in order to change his appearance. His hair was longer now, and pulled back in a pony tail reminiscent of Bill's. Harry had used a small fortune purchasing different hair products until he found one that would finally tame his hair. It wasn't perfect, but it was much more manageable now. Of course, there was no way it had grown eighteen inches in one summer. He's used a charm to grow it to the right length. While it was a magical alteration in appearance, it wasn't technically a 'disguise'. As long as he didn't overdo it, the ruled of the contract could be bent a bit.

Harry had only used one other piece of magic on himself. He'd purchased the best muggle make-up he could find to cover his scar. Unfortunately, there was no guarantee it would stay in place. And now that his bangs were grown out, it couldn't use them to hide it. In the end, he'd found a 'stay-fast' charm that would hold it in place. Unlike a glamour charm, even if someone used finite incantatem nothing would be revealed. They'd simply remove the permanero spell. The make-up would still be in place. He'd just have to reapply the spell later. Growing out his bangs was one of his more brilliant decisions. By doing so and then successfully hiding his scar it would never cross their minds that he could be Harry Potter. His bare forehead would stand testament without him ever having to say a word.

After growing his hair, he'd visited a muggle salon and gotten highlights. Harry had specifically requested completely undetectable highlights in only a slightly lighter shade. The idea was to make his hair appear dark brown instead of pitch black. The highlights would need to be touched up at Christmas break, but they still wouldn't be noticeable when they began to grow out. It was a subtle change and the resulting color wasn't radically different from his natural one. It was just enough of an alteration to make him look different.

Combined with all the other slight alterations he looked like someone completely different. Tinted contacts added just enough of a brown shade to his eyes to make them look a little less emerald and a little more hazel. Working out and eating right had helped him fill out, changing the shape of his body and face. Growing a couple of inches helped as well. He'd quit biting his fingernails and now they had a well maintained look reminiscent of a rigidly traditional pure-blood. There was a small split in his right eyebrow now. At the beginning of summer, he'd accidentally banged his head against the counter top. He'd chosen to let the split scar instead of healing it magically. As weird as he'd felt doing it, he learned a spell that witches used in place of plucking or waxing their eyebrows. They were a more tapered now, giving his face a sharper look.

Every change was carefully calculated. He didn't want a look that said 'I look completely different now'. He wanted something more like 'this is who I am'. It would never cross their minds that he and Harry Potter could be one person. Even his clothing wasn't drastically different. It fit now, and was relatively decent, but he'd made a point not to fit in to the height of fashion. It was just normal. He simply looked like a normal person.

Harry was proud of himself, and not only for the physical change. Whenever he was deep in thought tapped each of his fingertips together in sequence instead of tapping them on the nearest hard surface. Normally, he might have chewed on his lower lip when making a decision. Now he bit the inside of his cheek. His expressions were different as well. Instead of a grin, he offered a lopsided smile. To Harry, he still looked like himself, but that was because he'd witnessed all the changes. To anyone else he would appear to be someone different.

The greatest challenge of all, however, had been obtaining a Slytherin mindset. He was positive that he hadn't yet managed to do so, but was pretty sure he was improving. It was one thing to change one's habits. That was more body memory than anything else. It was completely different to change one's way of thinking. That was something he'd have to do over time. Come to think of it, he didn't really know how a Slytherin should act. He knew they were supposed to be cunning, true, and his own opinion of them was generally unpleasant. Unfortunately for him, the only side Slytherins in general had ever shown him was one of animosity.

'Harry Potter' would not be attending Hogwarts this year, but 'Bran Aegis' would.

Bran Aegis was a half-blood wizard. He was the son of a witch and a muggle man. His mother, who was an American had home-schooled him for the equivalent of has first five years of school. However, mother had discovered she had Treanna Disease. It was a chronic magic affliction that caused a person's magic to fluctuate sporadically, making them ill. There was no real cure, but it would often go disappear on it's own after several months. He and his parents wanted to continue his schooling however, so they were petitioning for his enrollment at Hogwarts. They had also decided that he could use the social interaction even if he disagreed.

That was the basic history that Harry would be telling Dumbledore in their meeting later in the day. Bran's parents couldn't attend of course, as his father couldn't take off work and his mother was sick. They instead, deemed him old enough to go by himself and sent a letter for the headmaster with him. It was perfectly reasonable. And for Harry, it was very, very convenient indeed.

VEILEDTRUTHBYCRIMSONSKIESCHAPTERONEREBIRTH

"Starburst," Dobby said to the statue guarding the Headmaster's office.

"Thank you very much for escorting me here, er…?"

"Dobby, sir. Dobby is most glad to help Mr. Aegis, sir. Dumbledore was telling me to show young sir to his office and so Dobby has," the excitable house elf explained. "Dobby will be going now, there is being lots of work to do." And just like that the house elf disappeared.

Harry briefly found himself wondering if Dumbledore always greeted guests with energetic house elves. Immediately he dismissed the idea. Privately though, the idea of Lucius Malfoy being led to the office by his ex-elf caused Harry to guffaw. He was forced to spend a minute regaining his composure before ascending the stairs. As soon as he reached the top, a familiar voice greeted him.

"Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Aegis. This may take awhile," Dumbledore said, gesturing to the chairs before taking a seat behind his desk. "Would you like a lemon drop?" he inquired politely.

"Yes, please," Harry answered softly, pitching his voice lower than usual. It was something he'd gotten in the habit of. Consequently, he discovered that people listened more closely to what he said when he spoke this way. It wasn't that he was difficult to understand, but that people seemed to think he was saying something important because of the way he spoke. That was an interesting bit of information that he'd filed away for future use.

Selecting a bright yellow candy from the tin offered to him. In exchange, Harry handed him the letter from his 'father', Isaac Aegis. Settling into his chair, Harry popped the lemon drop into his mouth. He'd always wondered why Dumbledore seemed so enamored with them, and had purchased a bag some weeks ago. To his surprise, he found that they grew on him over time. Or perhaps, they were just addicting for people with only a loose grasp on sanity. Harry wasn't sure he was entirely in his right mind considering the recent events in his life and Dumbledore had always appeared a little off his rocker. Harry wasn't angry with the Headmaster anymore for not telling him the prophecy. He was starting to understand that it was simply a human mistake, and he found himself liking the man more for it. After all, no one likes perfect people.

"It says here that you have not taken your OWLs because you are not registered with the British Ministry of Magic. Why is that?" The Headmaster inquired genially.

"My mother is an American. She was home-schooled, which was why she decided to home-school me. My father is British, but a muggle. He's slightly uncomfortable in wizard settings, so we live in the muggle world. I sort of…fell between the cracks I guess," he answered with a noncommittal shrug.

"Have you had much contact with the wizarding world? I think you should be made aware of the situation before you decide to enter this society," Dumbledore informed him seriously.

"I've been to a few wizarding towns before, and we go to Diagon Alley often enough. Dad likes to read the Daily Prophet too," Harry answered. Dumbledore pinned him with a sharp gaze and he immediately realized his mistake. Isaac Aegis was supposed to be uncomfortable with the wizarding world. "Even though he's a muggle, he likes to keep up with current events. He dislikes being ignorant," Harry added quickly. Perhaps, he realized suddenly, a little too quickly. Immediately he had to suppress a flinch. He was beginning to feel even more on edge. It was difficult to keep the references to his family natural and consistent.

"It makes me wonder how you're parents met. They seem very different from each other. Is your mother from a wizarding family?"

"She is, though not a very prominent one. It's actually a very strange story," Harry said with no small amount of discomfort. Yet again Dumbledore had unintentionally stumbled over and inconsistency. Thankfully, the Headmaster smiled in amusement, and Harry realized that Dumbledore thought his discomfort was embarrassment.

"I see," he said with a chuckle. Seeing the Headmaster's obvious humor, Harry was struck with a bit of inspiration. He relaxed a bit, and realized that this meeting would probably go much better if he enjoyed himself a bit.

"It was Halloween, you see. Mum was on vacation in London with some friends of hers and they had gone to a muggle party where Dad was. Um, they, well, they were drunk and…" here Harry plastered a rather embarrassed look on his face. "Mum got pregnant, with me. And, well, my Grandparents, on my Mum's side that is, are kind of traditionalists."

"Ah, the follies of youth," Dumbledore sighed. His eyes twinkled merrily. "I suppose your Grandparents insisted they get married?"

Harry nodded in confirmation, smiling sheepishly. "They're happy now though. I think they might have grown to love each other or something." Harry let his cheeks color a bit at this statement.

"Don't feel embarrassed. I understand that you're at an awkward age, but these things are nothing to be ashamed of." Laughter could be heard in the tones of Dumbledore's voice. "As much as I would like to continue this conversation, I'm afraid we still have business to attend to. I'm sorry to say this, but you will be required to take your OWLs so that we may place you in the appropriate classes. If you wish, I could arrange for you to be tested here at Hogwarts. Perhaps you could come sometime this week?"

"That should work. Thursday, maybe?" Harry said slowly, reviewing his schedule.

"Thursday would be excellent. That would give us a week to get the results. We can schedule your classes after the welcoming feast on the first day of school. Is this acceptable?"

"I should think so. I'll owl you if a find a problem."

"Excellent," the Headmaster exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "Which subjects do you feel you should be tested in?"

"Well, I've never really had exact subjects, though I did study from standard course books at times. I'd say defense against the dark arts, potions, transfiguration, charms, care of magical creatures, and possible divination and astronomy."

"Indeed. Well, I see no problem with you attending Hogwarts, should your scores be acceptable. I can't give you a complete list of supplies until we know what classes you will be taking, but I can give you this." Dumbledore plucked an envelope from a pile of papers on his desk and passed it to Harry. "This is a list of general supplies you will need. Oh, and you should know that students are allowed either and owl, cat, or toad."

"Thank you Professor. I'll keep that in mind," Harry replied.

"Oh, and one more thing I must ask before you go. Would that I didn't have to address this subject, but I fear it is necessary. You know about the return of Lord Voldemort, correct? Being from a mixed family puts you at an automatic risk. Are you sure you wish to be introduced formally into wizarding society knowing this? Are your parent sure about this?" Dumbledore's voice turned serious once again. Harry made himself twitch at Voldemort's name, knowing Dumbledore would note the reaction.

"My parents decided I was old enough to make that decision on my own." He paused, tapping his fingers together as he thought of how to word his response. "I can't hide forever, sir, and I doubt the wizarding world will let me," Harry answered truthfully. Even as he spoke, he marveled at the irony in that simple statement.

I can't hide forever indeed.

ENDCHAPTERONE

Well, I know things moved forward a bit fast, but this is just an introduction. If I hadn't accelerated time then it would have taken me several chapters before I even begin the real story. It would make this fanfiction much longer than I intend it to be. (It's probably going to be twenty plus chapters already after all.)

Okay,a fewthings I want to warn everyone about. I've already said in the summary that this is not HBP compliant, but as you'll notice there will also be inconsistencies with certain occurrences in OotP as well. This fic started as a plot bunny that bit me and wouldn't let go, so I only have a general idea of the plot, which means that I'm writing most of this on random burst of inspiration. Anyway, there will be no character bashing in this fanfiction. I try to avoid bashing characters in general, even the ones I don't particularly like. I don't know if this will have romance, and if it does I don't know what the pairing will be.

I would very much like to hear your opinions (as long as they aren't flames). Thanks much!