Which school?
In the early light of dawn, which cast a beautiful hue of colours to usher in the new day over the beautiful islands in the Caribbean, Harry was out jogging.
While he wouldn't be here long, he had, as he had before in Europe, found a long jogging route and he went out as early as he could, padding gently while he walked and then accelerated into a run before he slowed down again. He would be jogging like this for most of the morning, taking advantage of the cool early morning as it grew hotter before returning to his villa.
Idly listening to some classical music turned down over the headphones - he had bought the small player and headphones in London, along with a few tapes to listen to when he was on a plane, or just travelling whenever he became bored before going out jogging - Harry's mind couldn't get the news he had received from Bloodbringer.
Honestly, a part of him was stunned about what the goblin had told him; yeah, looking at it from a certain perspective made him realise he should have recognised it straight away. He had taken the knowledge of all of the Death Eaters and their master. He had the knowledge and powers of dozens of witches and wizards, who had grown up in the magical world, among them being Lucius Malfoy.
Harry might have despised the blond Death Eater, even swearing and promising to murder the elder Malfoy for the wanton manner he had tried to kill Harry right outside the Headmaster's office, of all places, clearly believing he would get away with it because of his arrogance, shortly after the battle with the Basilisk.
Okay, at the time Harry knew the Death Eater was in the throes of a temper tantrum, but that was reckless, even for him. But Malfoy might have succeeded if Dobby hadn't been there, but after the elder Malfoy levelled the brazen threats, Harry had learnt what Malfoy had tried to do, swearing that one day he would cut the elder man's throat. In a way, he'd succeeded.
But Malfoy had a wealth of legal knowledge at his fingertips. Harry should have dug down in his head while he reeled from the news he was heading back to Hogwarts because of Dumbledore and Fudge; if he had done that, gone to Gringotts, then right now he would have been mentally preparing to go to a different school.
But no. For weeks, Harry had been mentally preparing to return to Hogwarts. He had spent a lot of his time with a mind healer who had been filling his brain with notions like confronting his past…
But he had to admit, he had felt better for confronting his parent's portraits. Right now Harry was torn. Harry slowed to a stop, trying to ignore the feeling inside of him that made him feel as if he had just been hit by a ghostly stunning spell. Taking a long swig from his water bottle, Harry panted as he looked over the sea.
He rubbed his eyes. Harry had barely had much sleep the night before. He had been shaken by Bloodbringers' news and he had been struggling to work out if the goblin's news could work now. A few months ago, the goblin's news would have made his day. But now he wondered if he was too hooked on spending a year at Hogwarts, and reminding everyone of their betrayal, and making them pay despite wanting nothing to do with them.
"Morning," someone said, making Harry jump. He turned and saw another jogger, who was going past.
"Morning," Harry called, and the other jogger just waved dismissively and went off on their way.
Shrugging, Harry took another swig, and slowly walked, building up his speed to complete his run, but he was still wracked with indecision about what he should do, although he was swinging definitely to changing his name and getting into another school, despite being prepared to face the demons of his past.
When he got back to the villa, Harry quickly had a shower and got changed before he headed back towards the sitting room, where he got the prospectuses hidden.
Bloodbringer had sent Harry some prospectuses of the different magical schools shortly after their conversation, believing that he would say yes regardless of whatever Harry decided, and used his initiative to aid him. While Harry was glad the goblin account manager had used his common sense, he was still a little perturbed at how the ultimate decision was being taken out of his hands.
Preparing a meal, Harry sat at the table and went through the prospectuses one at a time while he ate. One of the first prospectuses was a Hogwarts prospectus. Shaking his head in disdain at the goblin's shaky sense of humour, Harry threw it aside and turned his attention towards the other schools.
Two things were attractive about Beauxbatons. The first was the location of the French school. It was located in a fairly warm part of the country, in the Pyrenees mountains of southern France, the second was instead of the students taking their OWLs in their fifth year, as they did at Hogwarts, they took them a year ahead, so if Harry did decide to choose Beauxbatons, he would be at the right level and wouldn't feel far behind the others. While the curriculum was close to Hogwarts, and wasn't too problematic, Harry dismissed Beauxbatons. He didn't have anything against the French, he just had a long memory of the poor way Maxime and her students had treated him when they'd come for the Triwizard Tournament.
But he didn't know how many of them had been injured never mind killed by Voldemort's curse, and so he didn't want to even think about what they would do if he turned up.
It was for that reason and the fact he knew Durmstrang taught the dark arts and didn't like many people that he dismissed the other magical school without looking through the prospectus Bloodbringer had arranged for him to look through.
Koldovstoretz was the Russian version of Hogwarts, but its location put him off. It was located in a fairly cold part of the country, and the conditions were harsh, so he couldn't go there.
Nor could he go to Mahoutokoro, the magical school of Japan, he reflected as he took in the goblin's report. The school was attractive and as old Hogwarts, but it had a problem. The Japanese had largely stamped out the dark arts thanks to their code, and the student's uniforms were enchanted to turn white if they used the dark arts, even a single spell, they would be disgraced and permanently expelled. Harry was sure his magic was dark, considering he had gotten an overload from the Death Eaters and from Voldemort, so he wasn't sure if his robes would change colour if he used a lightning spell. So Mahoutokoro was out.
Logically, the school he should have focused on would have been the same school his cousins in the MACUSA used, Ilvermorny. As he flicked through the prospectus and went through what all the Death Eaters had known about the American school, it looked attractive, but Harry found two more magical schools which looked attractive as well. The first was Uagadou, Africa's main magical school. According to the report, a lot of magical knowledge humans used came from Africa, and Uagadou had simply been passing that knowledge down the generations. They taught the usual subjects as at Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Ilvermorny, but they taught alchemy, self transfiguration on a level that made Krum's use of it during the second task during the Triwizard Tournament (he would not think of the last task) look like a crude party trick, and they taught wandless magic, as it was a European fad that had simply taken off.
Biting his lip, Harry wondered if the Africans merely did that to spite them, but he didn't care.
Wandless magic, eh?
Harry knew some wandless magic tricks; when he was at the Dursleys, he had learnt how to use his magic, albeit in a crude manner, and even Voldemort, who'd gone to Africa on his quest for supremacy, had not gotten a knack for it beyond the basics.
But this was what magical education should be like. Learning everything you could, in different methods. Wands and wandless magic. Potions. Alchemy. Transfiguration. Charms. Ancient Runes…
Instead, he had spent four years learning magic while an old fool dropped breadcrumbs in front of him to solve mysteries while dropping him down the deep end and watching him to see if he sank or swam his way out.
While Harry liked the look of Uagadou, he knew he needed to be more realistic. He didn't know anything about wandless magic besides what he knew already, and Voldemort had never been too interested in alchemy besides the basics. If he chose Uagadou, if he decided to follow through with Bloodbringer's news, then he would be 4-5 years behind the other students. It would be ages before he left, and he didn't want to spend his 20s in school.
With a long sigh, Harry closed the Uagadou prospectus and he turned his focus towards the last one. This one was for a school in Brazil, Castelobruxo. In a few moments, Harry learnt the school was a lot like the other schools he'd read about; contrary to Hogwarts and Ilvermorny, this one didn't have Houses. Instead, the students weren't segregated, and because of that you either had friends or you didn't, and there were none of those stereotypes you got at Hogwarts, and presumably at Ilvermorny. Biting his lip again, Harry wondered to himself if Ilvermorny was really the school for him at all.
Castelobruxo was a good school, with a great reputation. The students left with a large knowledge of Herbology (cosmic!), but they were also experts in Magizoology. Wow, that was a good skill set to have, and while he didn't like the thought of Care of Magical Creatures having such a profound impact on the subjects, Harry had a feeling there were professional teachers, and not amateurs like Hagrid.
Popping a piece of fruit in his mouth, Harry chewed thoughtfully and kicked his feet out gently. While he had to admit Ilvermorny was the logical choice, what he didn't like was the thought of more schoolhouses. He was too old and too tired for those inter-house rivalries; they had exhausted him very quickly. But the only school which seemed to truly interest him was Uagadou, but it wasn't practical for him….unless...
Harry stiffened in thought as the idea popped into his brain. He still had the essence transfer knowledge back home. What if he conned the people back in Britain by spending a year at Hogwarts, getting his OWLs and his NEWTs all done, and then came out to America and be with his magical family there, and then jumped into the body of a baby for them to raise, which should have happened the first time round.
Quickly he realised there was a flaw with the idea. Harry would need to tell them about essence transfer and his plans for it, and that was dangerous since they might go to the MACUSA and alert the authorities of what he had in secret. But the thought of having a proper family had awoken a part of him he had thought had died a long time ago, and not even meeting Black had awoken it.
The idea of changing his name and simply going off to a different school had been intriguing for him, and while it was a good enough option, Harry decided to simply think it over, but the idea of de-ageing himself and being raised by his American family was something he couldn't ignore.
Many people dreamt of a second chance for life, where they could begin a new life without being burdened by the old, or to undo some stupid mistake…but Harry could do it for real.
Harry snorted. It was ironic, he had hoped by going through these prospectuses, he would have a better idea of what he wanted to do, and he was still stuck on square one by overcomplicating things. Popping another piece of fruit into his mouth to chew on, Harry decided to take a step back and think this through logically, and he did, he began to look back over the thoughts he had touched upon but hadn't bothered looking into much since Bloodbringer's message yesterday. If he changed his name, what would change? Seriously, what would change?
He would still be the freaky wizard with issues, who had white hair and a chip on his shoulders that cut down so deeply his arm would hang off by a thread. But if he went through the essence transfer ritual, he could jump into a fresh, clone body and get rid of his current one. He could be raised by a family, a proper family without being abused, without being forced to work like a slave, like a House Elf to a bunch of filthy muggles. He could have relatives who loved him and were like him, and he could finally be accepted.
He had three options; first, he could simply drop this, and go back to Hogwarts, dealing with Dumbledore, who would no doubt cook up some insane plan for him to cope with, the Weasels, Granger, Black, Lupin and the other students, and spend a year there getting his OWLs and NEWTs, before he left the country. Forever. And then he would use the essence transfer plan; the more he thought about it, the more appealing it was for him to just simply begin a new life, maybe even become a true baby in every sense of the word, and just forget everything he'd learnt, seen and done. He could finally start afresh.
Second, he could change his name, and change schools…but what would change for him? Nothing. Everyone would still see him as Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Man Who Conquered, or whatever stupid name he'd been given for the last month. Dumbledore, Black, Lupin, the Weasels, Fudge, Granger…they would not stop hounding him.
Or option three, Harry could go through the essence transfer ritual as soon as he got back home to the townhouse. Go to America, and live his new life with his American family.
Options 1 and 3 were the only attractive options out of those three because there was a new life attached that the second option lacked. Harry decided to spend time with his family in the MACUSA and perhaps ask them about their opinions before he made up his mind.