Chapter 2

Harry took his seat at the Slytherin table and looked around the vast expanse of the Great Hall. All around him students enjoyed their meals and talked among their friends and housemates. Draco sat at the other end of the table, discussing something with Crabbe and Goyle while Pansy Parkinson practically drooled on herself while she eyed him. Meanwhile, at the Gryffindor table, several notable figures sat around chatting in a jovial manner. Seamus and Dean were laughing at some joke Neville had told them, Ginny was cozying up to Charles, whispering something into his ear, causing him to blush beet red. Harry then looked over to the head table, observing Hagrid burst into thunderous laughter over something that Flitwick had said, meanwhile Snape was listening intently to Dumbledore, his customary scowl remaining ever prevalent on his face. Eventually, Harry turned back to his own meal, taking a few bites of a chicken leg despite not feeling very hungry at the moment. He gave up on eating his meal after a few more bites and pushed his plate away, resting his head on his hand and waiting for dinner to conclude so he could get some sleep. A few minutes later his wish was granted as Dumbledore ascended to the podium at the head of the hall, causing the students to hush almost immediately.

"The very best of evenings to you all, first of all allow me to introduce to you the newest member of our staff, Horace Slughorn. Professor Slughorn I am pleased to say has agreed to resume his old post as potions master. Meanwhile the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts will be taken by Professor Snape. Once again, another year at Hogwarts has begun, to all of our new first year students, welcome, and to all of our returning students, welcome back. As always a few reminders are in order, students are not to use magic in the corridors and are asked to refrain from unsupervised experimentation with magic outside of the classroom. As always, the Forbidden Forest is strictly off-limits to all students and to those who do not wish to die a most painful death. Also, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you, that certain items are strictly prohibited on school grounds and will be confiscated if found, new items have been added to the list and you can view this list posted outside of Mr. Filch's office.

Dumbledore looked around the hall, observing the students closely, especially their reactions to a not so subtle addition to the Hogwarts scenery.

"As you are all aware, each and every one of you was searched upon your arrival here tonight, and you have a right to know why. Once, there was a young boy, who like you, sat in this very hall, walked in this castle's corridors, slept under its roof. He seemed to all the world a student like any other. His name, Tom Riddle.

The hall burst into a series of murmurs, expressing curiosity of Dumbledore's words before falling silent again.

"Today of course, he is known all over the world by another name, which is why as I stand before you all tonight, I'm reminded of a sobering fact, Every day, every hour, this very minute perhaps, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle's walls. But in the end, their greatest weapon is you. Just something to think about. Now off to bed, pip pip.

Harry and the rest of the Slytherin table got up and joined the rest of the mass of students in exiting the Great Hall. On the way to the dungeons Harry noticed Draco unconsciously tugging the right sleeve of his robe downward. He looked pale and thin, seeming like he could throw up or pass out at any time without warning. Harry knew what was the cause of Draco's distress of course, he was no fool, he knew that eventually Draco would be pressed into becoming a Death Eater. Harry laughed inwardly, appreciating the irony of the situation. All throughout their years at Hogwarts, Draco had bragged about his family's position in the Dark Lord's organization and how he was eager to serve Voldemort when the time came. But now that his time had actually come, he looked far from the eager young boy from those early years. If anything, he looked more terrified than he ever had in his life. Harry felt sorry for him, to a certain extent anyway. Draco was without question not the most pleasant individual at Hogwarts, at least not to Harry. However, despite his past behavior, Harry didn't fully believe that Draco was capable of the level of evil the Death Eaters were. While he may be the classic schoolyard bully, that's mostly where the extent of his threats remained. At the end of the day, he was just a man doing what he had to do to stay alive. Much like many others these days. Eventually they reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room and entered after someone had given the password. He proceeded to his dorm room and crashed on his bed, stretching out and finally taking a minute to relax and let the day's events sink in. After a few minutes and waiting for his dorm mates to finish their showers, Harry went and showered, changing into his night clothes and returning to his bed. As he drifted off to sleep, one last thought grazed his mind.

"Give me just one normal year at Hogwarts"

That was not to be the case.

He awoke that next morning with a pounding headache and a growling stomach, an excellent start to the first day of classes he thought. Groggily, Harry dressed in his uniform and robes and grabbed his bag before eventually making his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. On the way, he rubbed the temples of his head, trying in vain to ease the headache that was ravaging his skull, not paying much attention to his surroundings as he entered the Great Hall. It wasn't until he roughly bumped into somebody that he was jerked out of his pain induced stupor. He looked down to see Hermione Granger on the ground, with books she was carrying strewn about the floor.

"Oh Hermione, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going!" He quickly scrambled down to help her collect the fallen books from the floor/

"It's alright quite alright Harry, perhaps I should've been paying more…"

"Oi! What the bloody hell are you doing!"

Harry turned around to see Charles and Ron storming towards him. He could swear he saw a vein bulging out of Ron's forehead as he stomped towards them like an enraged bull, ready to gore any poor soul that got in his way. Harry stood up and faced down the enraged Ron, as well as his equally incensed twin.

"I bet you did that on purpose didn't you, filthy snake! Ron shouted in his face.

"What? No! I just bumped into her by accident!"

"Likely story!" At this point, Charles stepped forward with a smug look mixing with the fury in his eyes, gently ushering Ron to his side.

"Of course, an accident, just like you."

Harry said nothing, he stood there and balled his fists, his own anger rising with each passing second. At this point all other chatter in the hall had ceased and all eyes were on the confrontation taking place in the center of the hall.

Charles's smug look only grew and he chuckled slightly "I mean look at you, a disgrace to the Potter name, how our father hasn't disowned you yet is a mystery not even Dumbledore can solve."

At this point, Hermione attempted to interject "Boys, it was just an accident…"

Charles, seemingly not paying much regard to her statement, simply dismissing her "Quiet Hermione, we'll take care of this." At this statement, she was effectively shut out of the discussion.

"We have a very different idea on what disgraces the name Potter, Charles"

"Our parents don't think so, even they realize how truly pathetic you are Harry." Charles then turned towards the crowd "I mean, even the house elves avoid you"

At this, the crowd of students burst into laughter. The Gryffindors specifically taking much delight in the torment of a Slytherin.

At this point, Harry simply had enough, he grabbed his bag and tried to move past Charles, who in turn shoved him to the ground, to the continuing laughter of the students. Snap. There it was, something had finally crossed the threshold in Harry's mind. At that moment, he no longer felt the restraint he had so desperately tried to maintain throughout the entire confrontation. Instead, he just saw red. In an instant he sprung back to his feet and tackled Charles to the ground, pinning him on his back. Charles was too stunned to put up any major resistance as Harry began landing punch after punch on his face, each blow as painful as the last. Originally, the crowd cheered on the fight, some even taking bets on the victor. However, their excited cheers quickly turned into horrified silence as Harry continued to beat his twin, despite Charles having gone limp after the first series of punches had landed. Harry had completely forgotten about his surroundings at this point, the crowd, Ron, Hermione, the arrival of the professors, none of that mattered now, he had completely tunnel visioned on his brother, fixated on beating him senseless. Suddenly, he felt two pairs of hands grab him by each arm and pull him away from his brother. Neville and Dean dragged an irate Harry away from Charles, struggling to hold him back as he attempted to break free of their grip. Eventually they pushed him away and he landed on his backside. The landing had snapped him out of his rage induced trace and he finally took a good look at the scene before him. All around him people gazed at the unconscious and bloody form of Charles, his glasses were crushed, his nose was broken in at least two places and blood was flowing from his nose and mouth, as well as from other cuts on his face. Even the Professors were taken aback by it, momentarily at a loss for words. Harry knew this was it for him, he was done. There would be hell to pay for this, that much was clear. Of course, there was another alternative, run. As soon as the thought had entered his mind, Harry didn't hesitate. He grabbed his bag and ran. He ran faster than he ever had before in his life.

"I have to get out of here, I have to get out of here, I have to run"

Harry reached the entrance to the common room and quickly gave the password and ran inside, reaching his room in seconds. Luckily, there was nobody present on account of everyone being down in the Great Hall. He sat on his bed and tried to calm himself, but ultimately failing miserably as he began talking to himself.

"What am I going to do! Oh I'm fucked, I'm so fucked!"

Then his earlier thought returned to him, run.

"I have to run, I need to leave now."

He quickly opened his trunk and dumped out the contents, stuffing some spare clothes and a picture of Sirius inside of it before closing it and shrinking it down to put it in his pocket. He grabbed his broom out from the pile of previously dumped contents from his trunk and slung his bag over his shoulder and once again, he ran. He sprinted out of the dorm and the common room and out of the dungeons. He knew it was too late to go back now, he knew that this was probably the most foolish idea he's ever had, but his decision was made, he had to go now. As soon as he had reached the ground floor of the castle, he bolted for the front door, eventually reaching the main courtyard and finally he stopped. For a brief moment, he hesitated, for the first time seriously questioning what he was about to do, but his hesitation was quickly quashed by the sound of voices from the Great Hall quickly approaching the courtyard. It was now or never. Harry mounted his broom and kicked off, quickly darting into the sky. He turned his head back just in time to see the crowd of students burst into the courtyard. The castle grew smaller and small until finally it disappeared from sight completely. It was then Harry's white knuckled grip on his broom finally loosened and he released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. The adrenaline finally began to wear off and he began to calm down. It was only then did he begin to comprehend the consequences of his actions, now he was completely alone, on the run, and with nowhere to go.

"What the fuck have I done"

He had been flying through the night and the sun was just now rising over on the horizon. He could feel the creeping sense of exhaustion coming over him, but he kept flying, determined to push on as long as he could. However, he did realize that unless he found a place to land soon, he would have some major problems. Harry had been fighting to stay awake for hours now and yet he knew falling asleep in the air would spell certain death. It was then that we saw the skyline of a city in the distance, a rather large city by the looks of it. He immediately flew closer to the clouds in order to conceal himself from any muggles that may happen to be looking up. He eventually decided to land on the roof of a building and figure out what to do from there. A few minutes later, he landed on a roof and dismounted his broom. He also realized that he was still in his Hogwarts robes. He withdrew the trunk from his pocket and pulled out his wand and was about to return the trunk to its original size, until he had a realization.

"Shit, I still have the trace on me"

Realizing that enlarging the trunk would alert the Ministry to his location, he begrudgingly put the shrunken trunk in his pants pocket and began to remove his robe and tie. He hid his robe and tie, as well as his broom behind a series of vents on the roof and climbed off of the roof into an alley. Now, with just a button down shirt and slacks, he would be able to blend in with the muggles without raising suspicion, he did keep his wand on him however, for emergencies only. Harry decided he would explore the city for a while before returning later to retrieve his hidden belongings. But first, he needed to know which city he was in. After walking around for a half hour, he realized that he had landed in Edinburgh, at least that's what the bloody street map said. After exploring the city for a few hours, Harry realized the gravity of the situation he was in. He was broke, hungry, and homeless with nobody to turn to or anywhere to go. He sat down at a bench and put his head in his hands, wondering how his life had taken such a sharp turn in such a short amount of time. It was then that he noticed something, or rather, someone. A man in what appeared to be some type of military uniform had walked down the sidewalk across from Harry and entered one of the offices on the street. More out of curiosity than anything else, Harry got up to investigate. Upon crossing the street, he found himself standing directly in front of an office entrance with a sign above the door saying in bold letters "British Army Recruitment Centre". He stood there for a moment, contemplating his options. The army? He had never even considered a muggle career, much less possibly joining their military. It's not that he hated muggles, far from it, but never in his life had there ever been a serious possibility that he would be making a life in the muggle world. It's not like he can just return to Hogwarts and the magical world at this point, of this much he was dead certain. After another moment of deliberation with himself, he made his decision.

"Fuck it, I've made it this far, why the hell not"

He grabbed the handle of the door and with one final deep breath, he walked into the office.