Autors Notes; (Feel free to skip, just my rant and have no importance on the story)

Welcome to my new story. I'm surprised to let you know that I have started to write a Harry Potter fanfiction story. Surprised because I have never been much of a Potter fan. I have read the books out of boredom and was not very impressed. Some time ago however, I was introduced to some quite interesting fanfiction stories and when I ran into a wall with my prioritized story this idea came to me and to get out of my writers block I started writing. If you are one of the few who have seen my "The art of pain" and liked it I can say that it is still very much active and will be finished. I had a major problem with the next chapter however since my original idea for the plot turned out to be a disappointment and I refuse to post anything even I can tell is crap. Thus I will rewrite the whole chapter. Anyway; This story intends to give a little more realistic perspective on the wizarding world than is found in most fanfiction while, hopefully, still being enjoyable. I have tried to give an explanation to some of the more obvious holes in the logic of the world as presented by Rowling. I have a plotline that have the potential to make this a quite long story but I like feedback to keep it up. If no one likes it I'm likely to drop it. "The art of pain" is my number one priority this is just to keep me busy when I get stuck on that story. A little Ironical since this is already the longer story.
Oh, and I like to warn you; it is slow paced and will continue being so. If you like fast action packed stories go look somewhere else.

I am proud to present:

The Baghdad connection
Chapter one; The rescue

As the moonlight fell through the window Mani Esfahani turned slightly to the side trying to find a more comfortable position. It was almost impossible to sleep on a muggle buss even one of the more luxurious long distance busses and his damn migraine was getting worse. It was ridiculous really, that he had to travel by muggle means but he had his professional pride to consider. As one of the words foremost wardjockeys every ward he constructed had to be perfect, and this client had insisted on total secretsy, thus no trace was allowed that could be followed to the warded area. And all means of magical transportation could be traced if you looked hard enough. No matter that no one in this wretched corner of the world had the skills or that the client probably had apparated in and out a dozen times by now, he was invisible by all magical means. At least the muggles here had somewhat more comfortable means of transport than back home. Not that it mattered really, the vibrations made this even worse than aeroplanes. He really had to get back to his old project of untraceable magical transport but he had so little time for everything. This was the twelfth warding this month and just like the others it wasn't like they needed the skills of a warder like him. They were just too rich and proud and asked for the best without really stopping and asking if they really needed anything other than the standard muggle repelling, fireproofing and anti theft wards. He really should get back to his research, he was sure that the answer lay with the flying carpet, if he could only find the right pattern...

The lights ahead where getting brighter indicating that they were nearing another town. He lifted his head and asked his neighbour a question before going back to his thoughts, Surrey, they were not that far from London then, with luck he would get a few hours sleep at the hotel before leaving for the airport. These missions were just too troublesome, he had more than enough money to retire and focus on his studies but he knew it was a fruitless fantasy. The Khan would ask questions, insisting that he got out, met people and make friends. He would not face that discussion again. If there was just a way to reduce the numbe...

He was immediately awake, that was a ward he passed into just now, and what a ward! It was a wide area detection ward but not one of the usual ones. He smiled for the first time that night and invoked his magesight. He loved a puzzle, and this surely was one. It was an active ward, not just a passive one. He opened his mouth slowly, tasting the magic in the air. It was low intensity, he almost missed it and he was more sensitive than anyone else he met or heard of. That meant that it was undetectable by anyone else. Such low intensity but jet such a wide area... it had to be multiple nodes then, but, no that wasn't right either. I turned his head first one way, then another. It came from one node only, slowly flowing out over the area. He had never heard about anything like it. So weak an intensity should dissipate within a few meters and this had to cover at least... He almost had a stroke right there, he was on a moving buss, and he was still inside the ward. It had to cover kilometres! Eager to learn something new, he was disappointed when he felt himself leaving the ward. Well, well, a new project. Wonderful! He could easily cancel the tickets tomorrow and rent a car. A quick note that something urgent had come up would clear the schedule for a week. That should let him do the initial survey at least. Hmmm, he needed a new identity as well. If the ward belonged to someone who didn't like people poking around he would not be welcome. Better that he left on that plane and came back under another name. Just in the unlikely case that someone was keeping track on him. It was known that he was in England after all. And even if the wizards here where backward barbarians it was no reason to be careless. After all, someone in this backwater had set up that ward. It didn't smell old. And he didn't recognise the style signifying that it would have to be local. Hmmm, it was summer; He could be a French tourist. He still had that old identity he never used on the Lusaka job 20 years ago... No that was to god to use on a short survey like this, he would create a new one, but a French tourist, or Chinese perhaps? No, that would stand out to much, a French who spoke good English but with a slight accent. That would do just fine, he was not familiar enough with the English culture to play the role of a local. He would get a car, start by localize the ward again and get a room just outside. Spend a few days studying it before finding the node. Hmmm, was surrey a place for tourists? He didn't know, a few days of study first then, in the worst case he would have to find another cover. A birdwatcher perhaps, that worked fine in Sweden last year. Or a botanist like in Tasmania -82. He would have to see...

oOoOo

It was three weeks before monsieur Philippe Morelli checked in at the local hotel in Little Whinging. He was an older gentleman with almost totally grey hair only leaving a few strands betraying that it had once been black. He wore a well tailored suit that betrayed some use but was not yet to be considered old. He was all in all the epitome of respectable and yet very friendly to those who approached him. He was happy to explain to those he met at the pub the first evening that he was a photographer and writer working for a respectable publisher in Strasbourg making The Complete Illustrated Guide to the British Islands. It was to be a grand total of 11 volumes that covered every aspect of the country, the people and the nature. And he was there to write the chapter on everyday life in Surrey. Thus he needed to make contact with the locals, hear their stories and take a lot of pictures. If anyone gave him an opening he was delighted to talk about photography. He would be disgusted by the young kids who would show up these days with a new toy and claim to be photographers. They didn't know the first thing about the art. With these new cameras you just pointed it in the right direction and pressed a button. It didn't give you an appreciation of the subject. You didn't have to decide what size of diaphragm to use nor the time of the shot. They didn't even understand the difference between different kinds of film. The new cameras even had automatic focus. No, true photography didn't happen in a moment. It took time and he was happy to demonstrate on his newly restored Hasselblad 1000F how he measured the light and chose every parameter to achieve perfection.

Over the next week he was seen walking around town at a leisurely pace, taking time to talk to everyone he met and he would stop often to take pictures of everyday streets. Sometimes he would sit at a bench in the park for hours writing in his black notebook. In a very short time he had become the pet of every old lady in the town as he loved to stop by and talk in the day. Telling stories in his wonderful French accent of the wide world where he had been with his work and happily listen to the gossip of the town. They were intrigued that just their town had been chosen for a more in depth coverage as a typical south English town and were disappointed when they learned that the book would be written entirely in French and would not be published for a few years yet as they had not yet begun to cover Ireland, Scotland or Wales and England was only halfway done. He promised to write when it was published though so the local bookstore could take in a few copies. In the evening he would visit one local bar or another and talk to the patrons before retiring at a respectable hour without being visibly intoxicated. When he met Schulz, the director who came in to start up the local branch of a German sales company, he was happy to converse in German about their common interest of the Mosel vineyards. No one even raised an eyebrow when one Sunday afternoon, he walked up the steps of No 4 Privet drive and rung the doorbell.

--

Mani was delighted and intrigued. It was not often he encountered something new and totally unknown that could intrigue him. Of course, he often found OLD things that intrigued him like wards on old temples and tombs. Likewise he occasionally found newer things but they were always from known sources. There were after all a few geniuses in the world that came up with new things now and then. But this... It took him days to recognize the wards for what they were. Blood wards. He didn't even consider it at first because blood wards of that strength would have a clear stench of the sacrifice required to power them. But these wards didn't stink. No trace of the evil normally associated with blood magic could be found. Besides that he had yet to find anything about how the wards were cast. Finding the Node proved simple. He had worried that such a widespread ward without a clear flow of magic from stronger to weaker would be difficult to map but once he was inside the general centre of the ward (he had walked the perimeter the first day) the node blazed like the sun to his mage sight. He was a little disturbed at first that he hadn't noticed it from the bus that time back in June, but after studying the ward and realizing what it was supposed to do he almost started to laugh. It was several wards in one, the first one was an active identifying ward focusing on the intent on whoever entered it. That was what he had felt from the bus. He had approached the ward and it had evaluated his intentions toward whatever it was warding. As he did not even knew of its existence he had then been left alone. Had he matched the parameters of the ward somebody would have been alerted to his presence. He was still unsure of what it would take to trigger the ward but as long as he only cared about the ward and not what it was warding he was safe. The second ward was very rare indeed. It was a wizard repelling ward. Simple and brilliant. It worked just like a wide area muggle repellent ward except that it targeted wizards of course. It started out very weak and grew stronger the closer to the centre one came. And using that strange blood magic that seemed to have an effect so much stronger than the magic indicated it would not be detected before it had taken effect. It only had one weakness; if you had a specific goal and knew it was there you could pass through it without problem. Like him when he was searching for the node. Then came several active defensive wards but once again they were targeted at the intent of the wizard approaching and since he only had intent towards the ward itself it did not affect him in the slightest. It was very ingenious, unless you were able to sense that first ward before the repelling ward got strong enough you would never even know it was there. There was no way to approach unless you knew where you were heading and did not intend anything unwanted toward the warded object. Or if you were a muggle of course. Well today he would finally approach the node. He had walked by several times before. It was a totally unremarkable house in a row of identical houses. Which was remarkable in itself. The house was the node. Not the anchor of the node but the node itself. And it was a very boring house. No self-respecting wizard would live like this but if you wanted to hide something from wizards it was perfect. There lived a muggle family in the house which was not very surprising in itself. They were probably totally unsuspecting of the magical properties of their home but it gave him the opportunity to enter the node to learn more.

--

"Yes, what can I help you with?" Petunia looked at a respectable older gentleman in a suit with a pleasant smile on his face. The smile was not the fake one she would expect from a salesman and the suit was not quite as perfect as it would look like if he had come from a religious sect. It was too comfortable.

"Ah, good afternoon, Mrs. Dursley isn't it?" he waited for her to nod, "I hope I am not disturbing. My name is Morelli, Philippe Morelli. I am a writer and photographer and I wondered if you had some time to talk for a moment"

Ah, that explained it; she had heard her neighbours talk about the nice Frenchman but she had not made the connection on the accent alone.

"I am writing about the everyday English lifestyle and I would be delighted to interview a typical English family. And perhaps take a few photos of your lovely home?"

At this Petunia begun to smile, just wait till Vernon heard this, they would be in a book, about normal life. "Of course, please come in, I have heard so much about you these last few days"

--

Well that does it, Mani was officially confused. As he slowly made his way back to the hotel he considered the visit. The woman, Petunia was very much a muggle, and yet she was the source of power for the node. It didn't make sense. She was a mean small-minded woman and a gossip. That he could tell after just that brief meeting. Not one to be trusted with anything important like anything that warranted such a ward. However she was not the only source. He could detect another source being the cupboard under the stairs of all places. Her husband and son were not home so he had acquired permission to return to be able to talk to the whole family. He wondered if they too were sources and if someone had devised a method to use blood without spilling it. It seemed impossible. Living blood could be used to focus some kinds of magic but to receive any kind of power a sacrifice was needed. At least according to every known magical theory. What further confused him was that the wards were failing. Once inside the node it was obvious. The wards where lopsided and swaying like a heavy building on quicksand. And it was the power source that was failing. Who would build such advanced wards on such a feeble ground? Unless of course, the husband and son where needed to keep it stable. That could explain it. But what role could the cupboard play? There were no ward stone, he could sense that. If so, the stone would be the node and not the whole house. And there was a power source under the stairs, not just a focus as would be the case if ambient magic were used... Well, he would just write down his observations for now and wait for his next opportunity. At least it was not boring; an easy explanation would not have been as fun. He smiled as he continued walking.

oOoOo

It was exactly one week later that Mani once again was returning to the hotel but this time he was angry as well as confused. Well at least his questions had been answered. Now he had to consider what to do... He had returned as arranged to meet the whole family and was met at the door by a very fat man he correctly assumed to be the father of the house, but he had hardly gotten inside the door before he got his first shock. He saw the woman from last week, Petunia was her name, roughly shove a small boy into the cupboard under the stairs. It was all he could do to pretend not to notice. Especially since the boy was very obviously both magical and a source for the ward. But was shocked him more was the reaction of the wards when Petunia touched the boy. They flared, and wavered, like they received a massive influx of energy, but that the energy tried to counter the wards... It was then that he realized the nature and purpose of the wards. The house was the node, but the boy was the focus. The wards were constructed to protect the boy! The source of the wards was the relationship between the woman and the boy. Mani stayed in the house for a little less than two hours before he took his leave. While he pretended interest in the daily life of the three family members he met. The only thing he really cared about was that during the whole time they did not mention the wizard boy a single time. The parents talked plenty about the other boy, He was six years old he was informed but already so fat that he was risking heart problems. In the house there were plenty of photos of the fat boy but none of the wizard boy. As he walked the short moment when the woman showed the child into the cupboard played over and over in his mind. There was something he was missing... They were harming the child, that much was evident, that was not a gentle push or an attempt to hide the boy to protect him. Why were the wards not intervening? The wards were supposed to protect the boy... ah, they were muggles, the wards were specifically aligned against wizards, they could kill the boy and the wards would not care... except that they would cease to exist as their focus disappeared. But that still did not explain how the wards were powered. Sure there were magic that were focused on the blood of relatives to for example grant entrance to family vaults and such but the key word was ´focused´. The power came from elsewhere... The closest thing he could think of was the Greek wedding charm where the couple were bound so that they formed a magical family that would include their children, the magic would give the impression of blood magic but truly it was soul magic powered by love...
That's it! Love, he knew there was something that he was missing. That's why the wards were so much stronger than they should be. It was soul magic, the most elusive magic of them all. And it had been mixed with blood magic to provide focus... risky business that. It could so easily backfire... Wait, that's what was happening! The blood magic was rejecting the soul magic. Thus the wards were failing... Now why? That must be quite some love to power those wards, it should not be failing, the only way would be for the love to die, and such a strong love would not die easily... wait, the wards was based on the relationship between the woman, Petunia, and the child. There was no love there, that much was clear... And if he ever could read people there never had been... So where did the love in the wards come from? And why does the blood magic enter the picture... Suddenly Mani turned pale. Shit, they didn't!

Without a second thought he turned around and walked back towards privet drive. This time however he walked towards the path that went along the back of the houses on the road. As he neared he kept to the shadows and stopped a fair bit away, easily pulling his aura around him and thus avoiding notice. In the back yard of number 4 a small boy was laying on his knees weeding the flowerbeds. Even from this distance Mani could see the bruises on his face and his all too thin body. He settled in and waited, leaning against a tree. Sooner or later he would get confirmation whether he was right or not. It hours later he could see the family dining through the lit window but the boy kept on working. Finally the woman came out and snarled,

"Not finished yet? Well in with you, and don't expect us to feed you after such a poor days work" she grabbed him and roughly showed him towards the door.

Mani let out a breath he had not been aware that he was holding. He was right, oh how he wished that he had been wrong. He slowly turned and walked away. The wards were indeed powered by love towards the boy, but not any love from the woman but from someone else, Love that had forcibly been transferred to the woman using blood magic. It must be a close blood relative for that to work. A parent, sibling or child. A child was unlikely, parent or sibling then. Now what was he to do? Those wards would break totally within months if not weeks. Forced love always turns to resentment, that's why love potions don't work unless there is already strong love to build on. And thus the wards were causing the boy more harm than good. The love was trying to protect, the blood magic was trying to harm and was slowly sapping the strength of the love. When the hate and resentment finally manage to breach the love the result would be spectacular. Of course it would probably kill the boy, or at least severely damage him. And the love must have been so strong to begin with... it still was, but that would not last. He hated it when amateurs messed around with advanced wards. It didn't really matter who the love came from but it would have been a formidable defence against basically anything had it been left alone. If the boy needed protection from wizards then normal protection wards would have been enough and the love would have dealt with the rest but no, someone just had to meddle. And now the boy was losing one of the strongest protections that Mani had ever seen. Well he could not let this go on... He had to do something. Step one was to find out who the boy was and why he had such advanced but flawed wards on him. Since the wards was specifically targeted at wizards and he lived with muggles he would probably get the most using muggle means. Tomorrow it was time for Philippe to do a little searching in the local library, and then he would probably have to access the taxation registry. Once he had the names involved he could search in the magical world.

oOoOo

Five days later Mani was back in Little Whinging. His research had been very enlightening. He was currently staring at the child hero Harry Potter. Celebrated all over western Europe as the saviour of the Wizarding world and he even got a silly epithet; ´the boy who lived´. Apparently Britain had had some trouble with a dark lord some years ago and this child had defeated him. Mani had not been aware of any European dark lord since that Grindewald fellow, but then he, like most of the rest of the world had been rather preoccupied with the Pashai dark lord that had wrought havoc in Afghanistan for a few decades. It was not so strange after all, England was a backwater no one really cared about except perhaps the muggles, Afghanistan had been a centre for wizarding culture and knowledge that shone bright all over the world. Had been! One dark lord and several long wars had shattered that complex joining of more than 50 subcultures and forced most of the magical communities to flee for their lives. The few who remained had closed in on themselves and become almost as isolationistic as the Inca or the Tasmani.

Well he could understand the need to hide young harry away, there were many who wanted to hurt him and to most of the rest of the British wizards he was an icon, a symbol, not a child with a child's needs. That was probably why he was here, someone had tried to hide him away from the public like a treasure to be guarded, but neglected to consider whether the hideaway was a good place for a child to grow up, and ignoring that a child has feelings, as has his guards. Well that would change today. He had spent a day checking the magical government of England and easily established that it was hopelessly corrupt and the chances that anyone would consider the best for the child was minimal. Young Harry had no living relatives except the muggles he currently lived with. His parents chosen guardians in case anything happened to them were either dead, in prison or unsuitable. (One was a werewolf without means of support and the other in a hospital mental ward) Well the Khan had always bothered him that he should start a family and it seems that he would do just that, but not the way the Khan imagined. There was no way that he would leave the child in an abusive environment even if the potentionally lethal problem with the wards was solved.

He waited as the sun set, and smiled as he considered the timing. Today was the boys birthing day. And today, he would be born again into a new family. Mani waited as the sounds from the house slowly settled down and the lights went out. Shortly before midnight he deemed the time to be right. As he walked up to the back door he took up a set of muggle burglary tools and the lock quickly gave way to his skilled fingers. No magic, that was important, he did not want to set off the wards or leave a trace that could be followed. He had not used his magic a single time since he entered England in this disguise and would not do so until they were out of the country and in a well warded area where he could do the spellwork to hide the boy from prying eyes. There was no way that they could follow his magical signature. The only thing they could possibly get was that a wizard with no ill wishes towards the boy had been in the general area. And the French gentleman had left town several days prior, never to return, not that he thought that the muggles would be interrogated. He silently bent down and opened the door to the cupboard. Locked from the outside! He quickly suppressed a growl as he looked into the darkness and saw the green wide open eyes that met his.

With a kind smile he motioned for the boy to be quiet and follow him. He was not really surprised when the boy obediently followed him out the back door without a sound. Once out in the back yard he turned at the boys question:

"who are you?"

Mani smiled. "I have come to take you away. We have to leave now but I promise to tell you everything once we are on our way."

The boy hesitated. "How long will we be gone? If I am not here to make breakfast tomorrow uncle Vernon will be really angry" the child shivered and visibly cringed at the thought.

"You will never come back; I will take you away forever."

The boy slowly looked up hope visible in his eyes "promise?"

Mani nodded "Yes I promise, you will never have to come even close to here if you don't want to". The Smile he got made the last months work more than worth the trouble.

oOoOo

As the two of them left the yard a shrill alarm set of in the headmaster's office at the Hogwarts School of wizardry and witchcraft. Unfortunately there was no one there to hear it as the headmaster was away for his yearly visit to his brother, leaving only the groundkeeper and the caretaker in the school. It was summer after all. Thus it took two days before he noticed the alarm. He quickly apparated to Privet drive only to find nothing amiss. Petunia opened the door when he rang the bell and after some soothing of her feelings he managed to learn that they had woken up the morning two days ago and the boy was gone. The doors were locked from the inside, all windows closed and no trace of anything wrong, except that the boy was not there. He had not taken any clothes or any other things; he just disappeared in his pyjamas. A few quick tests showed that no magic had been used in the area since a small burst of accidental magic two months ago. A quick check with legitimency showed that Petunia told the truth. Back outside he did a search using some of Harrys hair that he had in case of such a situation and found out that the boy was out of range. As he returned to the school he formed a list of who could help him looking for the boy. Harry had to be found! But as the months passed by and nothing new was discovered Albus Dumbledore had to face the fact. On his sixth birthday Harry Potter disappeared from the face of the earth and he did so completely without the aid of magic. More advanced scrying spells continued to show nothing.

oOoOo

Kamal Khan Achaemenēs threw away the report with a curse that had it crumbling in a blast of fire. This was not supposed to happen! The whole idea about the changes was that he should not be bothered by the muggle affairs. Well this war had made him realize how fruitless any such thoughts were. It had seemed so simple when he became Khan a decade earlier. His predecessor had tried to centralize the power like so many before him. The Shah ruled muggle Persia and the Shah did as the Khan told him. However, the muggles didn't want to be ruled. They demonstrated that quite clearly over and over again. At first the old Khan had been content to let the Shah handle the issue, even when he took help from these foreign barbarian muggles to strike down on the attempts the muggles made to rule themselves. It had been a disaster, chaos everywhere. Finally the Khan had been forced to intervene and convince the foreign muggles to withdraw their troops after the matter had settled down somewhat. In doing so he had discovered that these muggles, the English they were called, were ruled in a manner very similar to what they had been trying to strike down in Persia. Democracy they called it, named after the old Greek system. It was ironic really but the old Khan had seen that the English muggles had managed to live very comfortable lives under their system. Thus he convinced the Shah that perhaps it was this lifestyle that his people wanted and started a series of campaigns to 'modernize' Persia. Not that it worked. It took some time but in the end it failed miserably. The muggles showed beyond a doubt that they didn't want any foreign values or ideas forced upon them. They just wanted to rule themselves. As a result they turned very strongly towards the old traditions and violently reacted against anything from the outside.
That was when he had become the ruler of the Khanate. The muggle affairs had been such a headache and the solution had seemed so simple. Give the muggles what they wanted, let the shah be overthrown and establish this 'democratic' government. His advisors had been shocked. To let go of the muggle power would be to open up to great risks. Everyone remembered how the dark lord Grindewald had used the same democracy to get his toady Hitler to take control over the muggle government to quicken his own ascension. And they had already lost control of the muggles in large parts of the surrounding world after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the west and the rise of this communist empire in the north and had yet to regain control. They had lost much influence in muggle India hundreds of years earlier when the English took control and that doesn't even mention the disaster in Afghanistan. Besides Persia the only muggle holdings left where Persia and a few desert kingdoms to the south. It took some time but finally he made them see that they needed to solve the muggle problem so they could concentrate on the Pashai dark lord. After some discussion they had agreed as long as they left a failsafe to stop the muggles from doing anything too stupid. It had seemed so reasonable. Just put a small group to check any major decisions for foul play and let the muggles handle themselves. To hide the failsafe under the guise of religion had only seemed logical considered how the muggles had turned to their traditional values in the chaos. But no, nothing could just go as it was supposed to. He thought that he had a firm check on the muggle clerics, the mullas, but give them a small smell of power and they had to grab the whole thing. Now they sat like a growing tumour taking control of more and more of the newly formed Iranian government. The ordinary muggles never got much more than the illusion of democracy and now the resentment was growing once again. And like wolves smelling a wounded animal the foreign muggles had wanted part of the spoils. That's how the war started. That the neighbouring Iraq had invaded was bad enough. He had never really had any influence in muggle Iraq. But to make matters worse they had allied themselves with a long list of other muggle governments. Especially these 'americans' were a pain in the ass. They had supplied the Iraqi with something new that was called 'chemical weapons' and now the Iranian muggles were dying by the hundreds of thousands. These weapons were difficult to counter and he didn't really have any influence in how the muggles ran the war. The first attacks had actually managed to wipe out a small magical community. It was like nothing he had seen before, at first it looked like ordinary bombs and missiles but when they exploded it didn't seem very powerful. However these small explosions spread a cloud of something that killed anyone who breathed it. It had taken a hectic month to figure out how to make the wards stop it. Then when he had his back turned the Iranian muggles started something that almost was worse. They sent children to war! He had heard about it before but didn't want to believe it. Especially not that his Persians were capable of such a thing! He would not have been so surprised if those western barbarians did it but this was supposed to be a civilized culture!

With a deep sigh he collected himself and turned to look out at the fantastic view over Kūh-e Dinar. The giant mountain always had a soothing effect on him. He was glad that he had decided to come out here to relax after they had finally defeated the Pashai dark lord. Of course, he could not take too much time. They needed to stabilize Afghanistan and see if anything was salvageable of the once so flourishing magical society there. And that looked like it would be quite the task. He did not have time for this second war. A polite cough alerted him to his secretary's presence. He looked up,

"yes?" The man smiled, it could not be anything very bad when Hamed smiled.

"Aqa Mani has returned Khan" A glimmer appeared in the man's eye, indicating that something amused him highly. "And he brought a guest"

Now he was intrigued. His loner of a brother had never willingly socialized outside a very small circle of relatives and scholars. And he knew that none of them would be introduced as just 'a guest' of his brother. Had it been anyone else he would have suspected a political ploy but his brother had taken great lengths to distance himself from politics, he had even abandoned the family name and started to call himself just 'Esfahani'.

"Well, bring them in then."

It couldn't be could it? His brother had finally found himself a woman? He always claimed not to have time for such things but... He stopped as he saw his brother approaching across the courtyard. By his side walked a small child who could not be more than four years old. He was obviously not local, not with that skin tone and he had never seen such bright green eyes as those who peered at him from under the black bangs of his hair.

"Brother, I want you to meet my son."

He should have expected it really but it was a shock none the less. His brother the loner had adopted a child. He frowned at his infuriating brother, why was he speaking English of all things? Then he got it, he wanted the child to understand, he must be from England. That was where his brother had been right? He smiled.

"I'm delighted, welcome to the family young man." He looked up at his brother; "I have been waiting to tell you this for a long time Mani, but; I told you so. You can't ignore life for your studies, sooner or later someone was bound to break your shell. I'm looking forward to getting to know the wonder child that finally succeeded."

Mani just smiled " I expect so I need your approval to give him the family name after all."

For the second time that day he was stunned. "You want to take back the family name?"

Mani just shook his head, "not me, but my son will need its protection." A movement at the corner of his vision indicated that Hamed was still there, ah, food...

"Well we can discuss it later on for now we should just get to know each other, right?" He smiled at the boy "what should I call you?"

The boy had been silent the whole time and didn't answer now either. "We are still discussing that" Mani answered instead as they started walking towards the small dining room. " I think that he should keep a variation of his old name while he wants a completely new one."

oOoOo

The years passed and the summer of 1991 came around. Dumbledore had high hopes on this summer but was badly disappointed. The spells that sent out the Hogwarts acceptance letters where some of the more advanced around but while Harry Potter was confirmed as still on the rolls and thus alive, all attempts to find an address failed utterly. When school started on September first the Hogwarts express left the station one student short. And Dumbledore was worried. Harry was alive, he knew that now, and indications were showing that Voldemort had gained strength and started to stir in his hideaway in Eastern Europe searching for a way to come back to life. A horrid thought made him contact his old friend Flemming but was quickly put at ease, the philosophers stone was safe. Voldemort had not been able to get it when he had all his powers, he would not get it now. But the continuing absence of Harry was maddening. Dumbledore accelerated his search for stronger scrying spells. The school year continued without any bigger problems as did the next. The newspapers stopped writing about Potters absence after a few months of speculations raging from him being dead to receiving special training at secret ministry facilities. Lucius Malfoy had started to stir up some trouble sensing his masters increasing strength, but as Voldemort was still far from England he probably didn't feel the need to press the issue too far. He did manage to get a dark artefact into the school but it was rather easily countered. It was a diary that possessed one of the first year girls, but once he was aware of the problem the headmaster could find the offending book rather easily and break its hold on the girl. The only trouble it had caused was to petrify the caretakers' cat to the students delight. It could not be cured until late spring. The curse on the Defence teachers' position remained and professor Quirrel had to resign due to family issues, his successor professor Lockhart resigned in shame as he was publicly revealed as a fraud.

The spring of 1993 held a nasty surprise for the wizarding world. The wizards had never really cared much about muggle wars, they were a nuisance but not a real threat. Oh, sometimes the wizard wars spread over into the muggle world and the muggle armies were used by one dark lord or another but it was hundreds of years since purely muggle politics last affected the wizards. Thus the shock was great when a small muggle conflict wounded the wizards were it hurt the most; it struck at their children. In January 1993 a northern American country decided that they needed to put force behind their words in a diplomatic conflict in the middle east. A few airplanes lifted and sent their bombs towards the targets. How more than a few of them managed to hit the largest magical school in the world despite its strong wards was a mystery nobody dared to offer an answer to. As the Baghdad Institute of Magic became a bombed out shell, destroying one of the marvels of magical architecture, over seven hundred students died, caught asleep in their dormitories and a little more than six thousand students stood without a school. More than three fourths of them were badly wounded. Most of the faculty were either killed or incapacitated when they tried to stop the inferno from consuming the school. The weeks following the catastrophe showed an example of international cooperation at its best. Hospitals all over the world accepted the wounded students and nursed them back to health. It was discovered that rebuilding the school would take years, especially without a faculty to help and with the demands of total secrecy. The current muggle regime in Mesopotamia was not exactly one that could be made aware of the existence of magic. Thus the students were spread out across the other schools in the region. The other Arabic speaking schools were soon filled to the brim and the rest of the students were sent to whatever schools that could be found where they could handle the language. Beuxbaton received a quite large group and five students were found to speak acceptable English and were sent to Hogwarts when their wounds had healed. Thus September first 1993 found the first transfer students in 124 years entering the Hogwarts express.

Before that however, another shock came to the wizards. This one however hardly spread outside the foggy islands outside the European west coast. For the first time in history a prisoner escaped from Azkaban prison when Sirius Black disappeared from his cell a dark night. The largest manhunt in living memory turned out blank.

Realizing that he was in need of help Headmaster Dumbledore recruited his old pupil and protégé Remus Lupin for the post of defence against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts. Hoping not only that he would be able to help recapture his old friend Black but also to find Harry Potter before Black did.

oOoOo

AN/Well that's it, the first chapter. I hope you like it. I have the second one finished already but it will have to go through my private beta process before I post it. (let it sit for a few days before I reread it)
I intend to add a short explanation to any new concepts at the end of each chapters but in this first one I don't have much to add. Mani is an ordinary Persian name and Esfahani is a common Persian surname signifying 'from Esfahan'. Kamal is a Persian name signifying 'excellence'. Achaemenēs was a mytical leader of ancient Persia. The first dynasty of Persian emperors claimed him for ancestor. (As in the empire that was conquered by Alexander the Great.) In my story his line continued as rulers of the magical Persia after the fall of the muggle empire.
The sidestory about the modern history of Iran is more or less correct if you ignore the magical part. I wrote it from memory and didn't check all facts but it should be a fair description on the twentieth century Iran even if I choose the parts that fit my story. There were several attempts to introduce political systems that were more or less democratic during the first half of the century that were brutally crushed by the Shah (the Persian king) with the help of the British army. The shah then tried to modernize the country in the wake of the oil boom and failed miserably which led up to the revolution in -79 when the religious government was introduced. The 80's were dominated by the war with Irak who was closely allied to USA. USA supplied Irak with weapons and didn't even waver in their support when Saddam Hussein started to bomb civilian towns with chemical weapons. As a side interest CIA also supplied Iran with weapons illegally (as in not approved by the US congress) to finance terror attacks in Nicaragua. (the Iran-Contras scandal).
USA also did bomb Irak in january 1993.
I will add several more sidestories like this to give my idea of the history of the interactions between the magical and muggle world. I will not come back to modern Middle East history however. That is finished but you can look forward to my take on the Spanish inquisition, Makedonia under Alexander the great, the immigration in north and south America, Sub-Saharan Africa, 19th century Tasmania and the unification of china. Perhaps more.

That will be for later though. Next chapter will be more character development. Harry will return to England and meet well known characters. Any OC I make will be supporting characters and will have limited screen time.

Oh, and please review. I write fanfiction because I want to improve my writing and the best way to do this is to get a lot of feedback. So far I have not found a better way to get this.