A.N.: I decided to do the whole "new name" trope. A few people seemed to like the idea... Special thanks to Red Valentino for helping me find a name (among other things.)

Also, this chapter is slightly different than the one posted on AO3. This version of the story will be less explicit, and have much less emphasis on sex and violence. If you want a more tame version, read the one on . So far, the differences are minor (blink and you'll miss them).

"Please take a seat, gentlemen."

Harry sat next to Zae, who appeared completely unbothered by the Headmistress' firm gaze. Harry, for his part, still found the woman oddly threatening.

"You will be happy to know that your story checks out," she said, addressing Harry. "Your escape made the front page of the wizarding press, and no one seems to have any idea where you are. Have you decided on whether or not you'll be staying?"

"I have," he replied, swallowing to ease his uncomfortably dry throat, "I'd like to stay."

Zae beamed beside him, but Harry was too fixated on the headmistress to notice.

"Good. I have arranged a student file and prepared your curriculum for the coming term. Hopefully the courses will be close enough to your old school for you to keep up. Protocol dictates that all persons seeking refuge are to be given a new identity, both for their own protection and to help maintain our isolation. You will find the relevant details in your file."

She handed Harry a slim folder.

"However, as you are quite recognizable to anyone with even a passing interest in international affairs, I have also arranged for one of the school healers to see if anything can be done about your scar. If you're not opposed to the idea, I also suggest you have minor aesthetic changes done. Zaraphradaeily will escort you to the medical wing as part of the school tour, which brings us to the next matter."

She turned to look at Zae.

"For the next three days, at least, I'd like you to be in charge of making sure mister Potter becomes acquainted with the campus, student life, and class structures. In short, show him anything and everything that he will need in order to become integrated in our society. I trust, given your... interest in humans, that this will not be a problem?"

Zae shook his head enthusiastically. "No ma'am. Not a problem at all!"

"Very well," she turned back to face Harry, "The last matter to settle is the problem of payment. Am I to assume that your resources are currently being guarded by the goblins?"

He nodded.

"For all their rebellions, the goblin economy is still too tightly tied to wizarding law for us to be allowed direct access to your funds. We can arrange for your money to be transferred to our banking system, but in order for it to be done safely it could take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Given your status as a fugitive, it will likely be closer to the later. Until that time, you will have to offer payment in the form of work, assisting professors whenever required. None of it should be more demanding than the average detention. Is that acceptable?"

Harry reluctantly agreed. Being on indefinite detention wasn't ideal, but it was better than the alternative.

"Good. Here is your schedule. Once you've passed these courses you can select your own. For now, consider these a mandatory element of your integration into our society. Tomorrow you will be taken to purchase supplies, but for now you are both to head to the medical wing. What Zaraphradaeily chooses to show you after that is up to him. Unless you have any questions, you are both dismissed."

~§~

Zae started talking the moment they stepped into the hallway.

"I can't believe you're staying! Do you have any idea how big this is?! We haven't had a human here for hundreds of years! I thought you were going to ditch us for sure, especially after I mentioned the feeding pens and stuff, but no! This is going to be so cool. I can't wait to show you the campus; you'll love it. Do you like herbology? We have a massive garden. It's over five kilometres across. A lot of the fey hang out there, especially in the tropical areas. You don't look like much of a gardener, though. Hands are too soft. That reminds me, can I see your wand some time? I want to see if human wands are made the same way. They pre-date The War, and I'm curious if our wand-making techniques have diverged."

The fey was all but jumping with excitement.

"We should look at your file," he said, changing the subject for the umpteenth time. "We need to know what you're called before we get to the medical wing."

Harry quickly scanned his file.

"Kettil Sumerled. But it's Swedish, so apparently the 'k' is pronounced like a 'ch'. How the hell am I supposed to pretend I'm Swedish?"

"You think anyone here knows anything about Sweden? We're culturally isolated; you'll be fine. And if you're worried, just say you moved when you were young."

Zae leaned over his shoulder and peered down at the file.

"Meh... kinda boring," he opined, "let's see your schedule."

Zae leaned over and snatched it from Harry's other hand. But before Harry (Kettil, he reminded himself) could think to complain, the other boy had already run off a few paces ahead of him, reading he paper with interest before bursting out into laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing, really. I just think you might die of culture shock."

"Let me see that," Harry (Kettil, damnit) huffed as he grabbed the schedule and began to read.

A few of the courses were familiar. He noticed with interest that potions and herbology were grouped as a single subject. Most of the courses were new to him, though, as was the shape of the schedule. The classes seemed to be split into two big groups, rather than being arranged in a timetable.

"Mind explaining this?"

"Sure thing," replied Zae, who was still giggling. He leaned on Harry's (Kettil's!) shoulder and began pointing to the page.

"On the left are your weekly classes: potions&herbology, charms, transfiguration, warding&enchantments, sympathetic magic, and combat training. The ones on the left are more like seminars or projects. They're usually a lot shorter, and focus on one very specific topic. You're signed up for animagus training, the history of The War, and alchemy. Not sure why Miss Roselund wants you in that last one. Did they teach that where you lived? It's kind of a niche subject here."

"They don't. I happen to like alchemy, though."

"Hmmm... She probably found out when she researched your past. Is it public knowledge?"

"Kind of..." Harry (Kettil! Fucking hell I am never going to get used to that) thought back to the reporting Skeeter had done. "It was mentioned in the paper once."

"Definitely public knowledge, then."

"So why am I going to get culture shock?"

"Well... where should I start." Zae seemed to ponder gleefully for a moment.

"For someone who was worrying about me freaking out earlier, you seem to be enjoying my potential discomfort entirely too much." Kettil pointed out. Ha! I got it right that time.

"Earlier you had the option of leaving. Now you're stuck here!"

"I am?"

"Yup! Agreeing to study here is a magical contract. Students aren't allowed to quit half way through. Otherwise everyone would only take the seminar classes that interested them and ignore their general education. We used to have a lot of problems with that. Anyway, back to your courses. Potions&herbology, charms, transfiguration, and warding&enchantments should all be fine. Those are all pretty normal in the wizarding world. The history of The War is going to have a very biased anti-human agenda, so if you want to do well you're basically going to have to start thinking of humans as the enemy. Same goes for combat training. The whole point of combat training is to prepare Fristad in case there's another war. It's basically a combination of duelling, physical combat, strategy, tracking, and survival tactics; all with the aim of defeating humans if they ever discover we exist."

Kettil had assumed combat training would be similar to defence against the dark arts. Guess I was wrong about that one...

"Animagu training is going to be really uncomfortable too," Zae continued, "We take it a lot more seriously than you wizards do. You're not just going to learn to transfigure yourself into an animal, you're going to become an animal. Your animal half becomes a part of you. It can change your personality, your looks, and even your magic. The big one, though, is sympathetic magic."

Zae waggled his pierced eyebrows suggestively. Kettil stared at him blankly.

"Mind explaining what that is?" he finally asked.

"Sex magic!" exclaimed the fey, throwing his arms up as if in celebration.

"I- What!?"

"Yup! Well... not really. That's just what the students call it. There isn't usually that much sex unless you get into the upper levels. Most of it is just holding hands and kissing. The only students our age who do anything extreme are the incubi, who literally need it to live, and the occasional kinky hedonist.

"The actual course is supposed to teach you how to join your magical core with another body." Zae continued in a more serious tone. "It's really important in a lot of advanced magic, which is why it's a prerequisite for necromancy, healing, advanced rituals, magical botany, and bond theory."

"They teach necromancy here?!" Kettil asked, momentarily distracted.

"It's formal name is soul magic, but yeah. It's a very theoretical field; mostly about understanding ghosts and things. I don't really know much about it. We're almost at the medical wing, by the way. It's that big white building over there."

The medical wing was a large domelike structure partially connected to the main building. Let's hope I don't spend as much time in there as I did in the hospital wing at Hogwarts...

"It's both a hospital and a training centre," Zae explained. "Any older students who want to become healers take most of their classes in the upper floors."

Kettil followed him through the frosted glass doors and up to the reception desk. Moments later, the two of them were escorted to a private room, where they were joined by an elderly man in a white robe.

"You must be Mr. Sumerled." He said said by way of greeting. "I'm healer Jameson. You're here to have your scar removed, yes? Helen also mentioned that you might also like to tweak your appearance a bit. Anything you had in mind?"

"Do I need to do anything? I'm pretty comfortable with how I look, now." Even the hair, he added to himself. Years ago he would have given anything for something that could be combed, but he'd grown to like it.

"It doesn't have to be anything drastic," the healer elaborated. "We just want to make sure you can't be recognized too easily. We can always change everything back if you decide you don't like it."

Kettil toyed with the idea a bit before finally nodding. Jameson smiled widely and conjured a large mirror.

"You can let me know if I change anything too much. Any questions before we get started?"

"Is there any reason I can't just use a glamor?"

"Many beings can see through glamors, including your friend here." Zae smiled sheepishly as the medic continued. "It's safer to change your body directly. It also eliminates the risk of other magic interfering with your glamors."

"Would it be possible to make me taller?" the young wizard requested hesitantly.

"I'm afraid not," replied the healer with a somewhat patronizing smile, "Bodies can never really adjust to magical height changes unless they happen very gradually. You'd spend the rest of your life tripping over your legs and falling down stairs. Now, Helen mentioned that you'd made your hair auburn before you were found, so why don't we start there..."

He waved his wand and Kettil's hair slowly gained an almost purple tinge.

"I think it would be best if you adopted unusual traits," the man explained as he worked, "Just enough so that you're not so obviously human. Is that colour alright?"

He stepped back and let the wizard examine himself in the mirror. His hair was still extremely dark, but not dark enough to be described as black. At Kettil's nod, the moved his wand lower.

"Great. Just need to change all the other hair follicles on your body aaand... done. Now, then, let's move on to your eyes. The easiest thing to do would be to lose the glasses."

"I don't use them to correct my vision," Kettil explained hastily, not wanting to risk losing his eyewear. "I had my eyes fixed a few years back. These are mostly cosmetic, and I don't wear them all the time. People would still recognize me without them."

"We'll have to do something else, then. Let's make your eyes bigger, to start. Wide eyes are less common on humans than narrow ones. That should help disguise your humanity a bit."

As he spoke, Kettil's vision warped and spun before finally settling. When he could finally look at the mirror, unusually round eyes stared back at him.

"Problem?" asked the healers, noticing the wizards look of alarm.

"It's just a little unsettling. And they look kind of... feminine? A bit?"

"That's probably a good thing," Zae interjected, "Androgyny is pretty much the norm in our cultural aesthetic. Portraying yourself as particularly masculine or feminine would carry a lot of connotations that you wouldn't like."

"That is true," conceded the healer, "but I don't think you should force yourself to fit in if it will make you uncomfortable. You're going to find things hard enough as it is without having to worry about body image. If you like, I can give you a sharper bone structure to help balance things out. If you don't like it, I can always change it back."

Kettil agreed, and soon he was examining his new face in the mirror. He still looked like himself, and he doubted the changes would fool anyone who knew him personally. But if anyone was to describe him - purplish red hair, wide eyes, and prominent cheek bones - none of it would match the descriptions of him before leaving Hogwarts.

"So, what do you think?" asked the healer.

"It will take some getting used to, I suppose. I kind of like it, though. It makes me look more... inquisitive."

"Good! Now that that's settled, we can get down to the problem of your scar." The healer began filling the air around Kettil's head with various diagnostic charms. "I assume it's some sort of curse scar, yes? Anything else would have been healed already. Normally I would ask you how you got it, but in this case I think it's fairly obvious."

"It is?" Kettil asked. Damn... I didn't think he'd recognized me.

"It was evidently some kind of soul magic. The diagnostic charms are registering direct ties to your magical core. I'll have to get the aurascope. If you'll excuse me for a moment..."

As soon as he left the room, Zae spoke up.

"Inquisitive? Really?"

"Yeah, so?" Kettil bristled, feeling oddly defensive of his new looks.

"Oh, nothing," the fey chuckled, "I just think it's a funny reaction. It's so adorably human."

Kettil blushed furiously in response, prompting Zae to burst out laughing.

Before Kettil could respond, healer Jameson returned carrying what looked like an engraved pair of binoculars.

"Alright, let's see what's going on here. But first I'll have to ask your friend here to leave. This kind of procedure is protected under confidentiality regulation."

Zae shrugged in mild disappointment and walked out of the office, motioning to Kettil that he would wait outside. The healer, meanwhile, raised the device to his eyes and peered at the young wizard through its jewelled lenses.

"What on earth..."

Kettil watched nervously as the healer's wand poked and prodded around his forehead.

"It looks like you have a piece of foreign magic tethered to your scar. Judging by the edge patterns I'd say it used to be linked much more closely, but now it's just barely hanging on. Have you undergone any big changes to your magic recently? Any sort of trauma that might have dislodged it?"

"Yes." The wizard answered in as neutral a tone as he could manage. Note to self: find out if the rituals I did are illegal here.

"Hmmm... Well it should make removing it easier, in any case. It's not tied directly enough for it to affect your magic, so I should be able to remove it without any trouble. Would you rather I transfer it to another object, or just let it fade out?"

Kettil considered it for a moment.

"I don't really know what it is, so I should probably keep it until I can figure out where it came from."

The healer nodded in agreement as he conjured a small pebble engraved with a lightning bolt.

"This should be a suitable container," he muttered as he began an exceedingly elaborate set of wand movements. Kettil felt a small jolt pass through his scar.

"All done," muttered the older man as he passed the pebble to Kettil. "Everything is now bound to this stone. I've charmed it to blink bright red and whistle if any sudden changes occur. Avoid touching it if that happens, and contact a senior staff member immediately."

The young wizard examined the rock, suddenly realizing that he couldn't see any of the foreign magic using his glasses. What the hell?

"Do you know what kind of magic it was?" he asked. "Could it have been some sort of long term spell?"

"Unfortunately not. The aurascope can only provide very limited information. I've already told you more or less everything I found, and, unfortunately, we don't have instruments sophisticated enough to delve much deeper."

Jameson banished the mirror as he spoke.

"Unless you needed anything else, I'd say we're done for now."

Kettil nodded and thanked the older man before leaving to find Zae.

~§~

"So, is there anywhere you want to go first?" Zae asked before Kettil had a chance to greet him. "Most of the students are away on break now, so we can pretty much go anywhere without having to worry about you being ambushed for being human. And even if we do run into someone, you could probably pass as some sort of rare species."

"Was it really that obvious that I'm human?" the wizard inquired, "Everyone I've seen so far looked pretty similar to me. If your hair didn't move, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

"Hmmm... maybe it's harder to see if you don't grow up around it. You'll learn to spot the differences between species eventually. Fey, for example, generally have a softer bone structure and pointed noses. We're herbivores, so our teeth are different, and we always have brightly coloured hair. Mine is only brown because I dye it. We're also slightly webbed," he added, holding up his hand to show thin flaps of skin joining the base of his fingers.

"Some species are easier to spot. You've met Aurel, so you know what vampires look like: gaunt, fangs, black hair, bloodshot eyes. Incubi have small horns and spade tipped tails. Their eyes have a black sclera and white irises. Lycanthropes have claws, huge yellow fangs, and are generally pretty hairy and feral looking. They tend to stick together, though, so I doubt you'll meet many of them. They have their own section on campus and everything."

"Wait," interrupted Kettil, "I thought werewolves were just humans who changed during the full moon."

"First of all, never use that term again unless you want one of them to rip your throat out. Secondly, that only happens if they try to maintain a human diet and suppress their pack instincts. It's a bit like if you tried to stay awake for a really long time. Sooner or later, your body would rebel and you'd pass out. Pretending you don't need sleep is just as misguided as a lycan pretending to be human."

"Oh... are there any other words I should avoid? I don't want to accidentally offend someone."

Zae thought for a moment.

"There aren't that many. Never call an incubus a succubus. The term succubus implies that they're too weak to be a predator, and that they have to resort to scavenging. Never call someone with human ancestry a half-breed or anything else that draws attention to their heritage. And never imply that sirens are related to merfolk, or resemble fish in any way."

At Kettil's puzzled look, he added, "They actually have more in common with birds, but they usually trim most of their feathers to be able to wear the same clothes as everyone else. The idea that they're related to merfolk was entirely invented by wizards. All the sirens left Greece at the end of The War. Their land was taken over by merpeople but the wizards never bothered to change the name.

"Anyway, we've gone waaaay off topic. I'm supposed to be showing you the school," the fey reminded him.

"Right... Would you mind showing me the library first?"

Zae's enthusiasm visibly withered.

"Really? There's much more interesting stuff we could go see. Why do you want to go look at books?"

"I have a lot of things to catch up on," Kettil defended, "I thought it might be useful to know where it was."

"Oh, fine... but we're not staying there long; that place drives me nuts. It's really close to the training grounds, though, so we can go see that afterwards. We might even get to see some profs doing duelling practice if we're lucky!"

With renewed vigour, Zae began to lead him down the long marble hallways. Along the way, Kettil noticed a recurring sign on a few of the doors.

"What's that?"

"Oh, that's a bathroom. Do you need to stop?"

"No, I was just curious. Is it for guys or girls?"

Zae gave him a puzzled look.

"Do humans segregate their bathrooms by sex?"

"Um... yes? You don't?"

"No. Geez, I knew humans were weird about gender differences, but that just seems stupid. Why would you build a separate bathroom? Is washing our hands considered private or something?"

"It's not so much the hand washing. It's more the actual act of, well... you know..." Merlin this conversation is weird...

"Oh... you mean you don't have individual stalls? I read that humans were generally really picky about who got to see their genitals."

Kettil fidgeted uncomfortably. Zae, on the other hand, looked fascinated.

"No, we have stalls. It's just, sort of... I don't know. Private."

"Huh... I guess it's just a cultural thing. Anyway, we're here, now."

They stopped in front of a towering set of wooden doors. They fey tapped the brass knocker lightly and they slowly groaned open.

"Welcome to the library."