The following story uses characters and concepts that are the property of J. K. Rowling, Scholastic, Warner Bros., and other applicable copyright holders, which unfortunately do not include me. Used without permission.

"Hurry up, dear, or you'll be late!" shouted a slender, golden-skinned, raven-haired woman in a shrill voice as she shoved her daughter onto the waiting carpet. She wore an emerald green shalwar kameez with embroidered silver serpents and matching bangles for the occasion to express fond remembrance of her own days as a pureblood pupil at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and as a not-so-subtle reminder that Muna Alireza fully expected her daughter, Fairouz, to follow after her as a member of Slytherin House.

Hamid Alireza, proud father of Fairouz, was a pureblood wizard short of stature with graying temples. Since he was educated at home rather than abroad, he did not pay attention to Hogwarts house prejudices beyond the fact that the higher concentration of purebloods in Slytherin than any other house lent it a higher nobility, in his view, than the other three. He was pleased as punch that his only child had received a Hogwarts letter, for by attending such a prestigious school, her marriage prospects would increase immensely. Muna Alireza, in true Slytherin fashion, had certainly used her own educational achievements to advance her social standing by securing a proposal from Hamid Alireza.

Not all Indian witches and wizards were invited to attend Hogwarts; only those with the requisite English proficiency and higher than average magical aptitude were offered a place, as the majority of spots were needed for British-born wizards. Indian residents and others under colonial rule had only recently begun to benefit from the uneven relationship, such as through access to Hogwarts. The British Ministry of Magic had long taken advantage of the chaos wrought by Muggle colonialism to pressure certain members of the International Confederation of Wizards to vote as Britain dictated, whereas other territories, such as the region known as India, had completely lost their independent voting status, becoming but a department administered through the British Ministry.

Fairouz Alireza, a scrawny girl of eleven with long, braided black hair and her great-grandmother's blue eyes, leaned against her trunk and blinked back at her parents. She knew some of what to expect from her mother's tales, but still wondered what living in a strange country where everyone and everything looked different would be like.

"Will they like me? Will I like them? How will I get along in my lessons? What do you think, Navand?" she asked the small brown owl in the wicker cage beside her.

"You'll be brilliant!" said her mother, as she kissed Fairouz farewell. "Mummy loves you very much!"

"Promise to write every week, sweetheart! That's why I got you this great big owl." said her father as he gave her a big hug. Fairouz looked back at him, confused by the contradiction between the size of her new pet and her father's words. "Oh, well I mean that he will be a great big owl, just like you're my great big growing up girl. Remember, he was still finishing changing his baby feathers last week, and the man down in the Delhi bazaar said that he'd get at least five times the size. You saw those full grown ones when were getting some of your school things. You'll need one that huge if he's got to fly all the way to Scotland and back." He sighed. "You'll have to be off now if you want to get the rest of your things in London with your uncle Peyman. Especially since the British make such a big fuss over using a wand and there aren't any Hogwarts textbooks here."

"Goodbye, Daddy! Goodbye, Mummy! I promise I'll write as soon as I get there!"

"Goodbye!" said Muna and Hamid in unison.

"And we're off!" said Peyman Alireza, the spacious carpet beginning to lift from the cobblestoned courtyard of the family villa.

"Don't let her fall off!" joked Hamid.

"I won't! Goodbye!"

It was nearly impossible to leave a magic carpet while airborne due to all the charms, except by deliberately jumping up and over the barrier created by sorcery. Besides, Peyman was an older member of the Alireza family than Hamid, and therefore more experienced in the family business of flying carpets that extended from Northern India to Northern Persia. Peyman had gone on his first trading expedition while Hamid was still learning how to read.

He had scheduled a business trip to London to coincide with the time Fairouz would start at Hogwarts, and he was happy to take his niece along for the ride. His dozens of colorful wares were rolled and stacked behind himself and behind Fairouz's trunk. They clashed with the rusts, sages, and dusty blues of their sturdy eight foot by twelve foot conveyance. And somewhere in with all the carpets lay the provisions for their ten hour journey.

Up and up and up they flew, waving at the family members waving back down below, who were getting ever smaller in the dawn mist. Soon, they had left their house in a Muggle-proof area next to a pristine lake in the vales of Kashmir, and the lake too grew smaller and smaller, and it too disappeared, and they were flying high in the mountains. Peyman passed two bottles of warming draught to Fairouz- one for herself, and a tiny one for her owl. At their altitude, most of the air would be icy all the way to London.

Fairouz was used to flying to see her cousins in Persia twice a year, but eventually they had left Persia, and all the areas that she had yet seen in an aerial view, and they flew onward over Mesopotamia, through the Mediterranean, over Spain, and up the Pacific into the United Kingdom…