A/N: I know everyone is impatient for the reunion, but I need to bring everything up to date. Just remember that the reunion takes place October 20, 3018 T.A., and Iri and Sauron arrive in Arda April 18, 3016 T.A. So there's over two years to cover for Iri and Sauron.

Also, for the majority of this fic I'll be referring to Harry as Iri, since he has spent the last 400 years being called that and is used to it. (Not to mention that he never liked being Harry Potter because of the fame and expectations)

All spoken language is in Westron unless specified as otherwise.

Enjoy.

Orthanc, Isengard
April 21, 3016 T.A.

Iri woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. He looked around not recognizing the dark obsidian chamber. What happened?

Voldemort! The duel!

Iri's eyes snapped open in realization. Voldemort was dead! But how did he get here, wherever here was? And what happened to the rest of the world, was the resistance able to reinstate democracy with Voldemort gone? And exactly how long had he been unconscious for?

Suddenly a door that Iri had yet to notice opened, revealing an old man in white robes, with a large staff and a long white beard.

The wizard – for it was obvious that that was what this new person was – just stood there and seemed to study Iri for a few tense moments. He then opened his mouth and spoke in a language that Iri didn't recognize. Iri could only stare back, dumbfounded.

When the wizard got no response, he turned around and left, sealing a confused and slightly disturbed Iri back in the windowless obsidian room.

'What the hell is going on…'

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Barad-Dûr, Mordor
May 3, 3016 T.A,

Sauron was currently overseeing the construction on his almost fully rebuilt fortress. After 3000 years of being trapped in another world, forced to observe from the distance, it was good to finally be home.

Even though many things have been prepared (under his orders) for his return, some things Sauron had to see to in person. Such as the search for the One Ring.

He could feel it's power. It had obviously been dormant all these long years, waiting for his return. Now that he was back, he was prepared to search for the lost part of himself, the one thing which would enable him to finally enslave the whole of Arda.

Sauron had just arrived in Mordor, and he was already eager for the hunt. He was planning to send out his most trusted servants, the Nazgûls, to search for any trace of the ring.

While Sauron concentrates on the search for the ring and rebuilding his army, he has left Iri in the care of his new ally, Saruman the White.

He did this (besides the obvious fact that the ring is the most important thing in the world to him) because he didn't want Iri to become a liability or a weakness to him. Sauron recognized that he was slightly obsessed with the fiery captive, and he didn't want any enemies (or more importantly, any scheming allies) to realize that Iri was a potential weak point of the dark lord. Sauron was also hoping that with some time and space, the obsession would decrease.

Sauron pushed Iri out of his mind as he headed to talk to some orcs about a suspicious creature that had lived in the Misty Mountains that went by the name Gollum…

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Isengard
November 14, 3016

Iri checked his surroundings with a wary eye. With any luck Saruman won't notice his disappearance for a few hours yet.

Iri wasn't sure if he should be thankful for his past experiences of escaping power-hungry wizards for preparing him so well for this escape, or if he should be angry that there was yet another situation that forced him to escape from a power-hungry wizard.

Sometimes Iri swore that Fate picked on him whenever she was bored (which was a lot). He could picture Fate, relaxing on a large comfy La-Z-Boy chair with a huge tub of popcorn watching his life as entertainment.¹

Iri had spent the past 7 months as a 'guest' of Saruman, in Isengard. At first Iri was completely clueless as to what was happening; the last thing he knew he was in Voldemort's fortress and Snake Face had just kicked the bucket (thanks to yours truly). To suddenly find himself in some unknown tower, with a wizard he had never heard of who didn't speak English – well even in Iri's terms, that was plain unusual.

Fortunately Iri had a gift that the wizard didn't know about, a gift Iri used to his utmost advantage.

You see, magic can manifest itself in people in different ways. Most people who think 'magical gift' think in terms of witches and wizards, or turning invisible, or flying. That isn't always the case (especially when considering magical creatures).

Magic can also manifest in a specific skill or talent, and not necessarily an extraordinary skill or talent. For example, the 13th century wizard Bartholomew Odius is not known to have been a particularly talented or powerful wizard, but his skill with the harp and song-writing were said to have enchanted any who heard it. And the goblins of Gringotts, even though they were unable to manipulate magic, the skill they show in their forging and craftsmanship of metals can't be classified as anything other than a magical gift. Same with the centaurs and their penchant for reading the stars and seeing the future.

Iri had a gift with languages. Even though many people had this gift to some degree, no one had it to quite the same extent as Iri.

When Iri was only 17, he asked an expert aura reader to look at his curse scar. Iri had been afraid that he might have been a horcrux, or at least have some of Voldemort's essence trapped within since he had Voldemort's gift of parseltongue. What the aura reader uncovered was both a relief and a pleasant surprise. Iri was not a horcrux, and the only permanent damage he could find was a sort of reaction that the curse had with dark magic. As for the parseltongue, Iri didn't have it. Or at least he wasn't a true parselmouth. What Iri did have was a gift of languages – he could become fluent in a foreign language with only the smallest fraction of effort compared to a regular person. Apparently when Iri was younger and doing yard work, he was constantly in the presence of snakes and parseltongue, and eventually just picked up the language without realizing it, assuming that the distant chattering he had always heard when gardening was simply the neighbours.

This skill became extremely useful in this new world, especially since his host – who he later learned was called Saruman – didn't seem the least bit inclined to teach him anything.

But even with his gift learning was slow going – Saruman didn't talk to himself as much as you'd think an evil wizard genius would. And any time Saruman had guests Iri would be hidden away (but that didn't stop Iri from sneaking out and spying on them anyway).

What Iri was able to discover over the past few months was the following: he somehow was brought to another dimension by Voldemort's supposed advisor, who was in fact an immortal dark lord that was named Sauron. Iri was not the first person to come to Arda (the name of this new world), but Iri was unable to find out how many others had come and what their names had been. Saruman and Sauron had a truce of sorts and were planning to take over the world (like that was a surprise…). Sauron left Iri in Saruman's custody so he could look for some magical ring. Saruman wanted said magical ring for himself. Orcs were vicious creatures that wouldn't hesitate to eat him. Orcs hated sunlight. Saruman and some human named Wormie or something were planning something to do with a king and something called Rohan. A wizard who dresses in grey named Gandalf likes hobbits (whatever they were…). Among the races of middle earth there are dwarfs (short miners and metal craftsmen with long beards) and elves (tall, graceful immortal beings which are the most wise and powerful race).

Unfortunately, since Iri was new to this realm, he didn't know how much of what he found out was important, and how much was common knowledge to the other inhabitants of middle earth.

But Iri had a feeling that some of what he learned was not meant to be known by anyone (even though if it all ended up being useless knowledge Iri was glad to have learned it anyway). It was a good thing that Iri's life experiences had taught him to be somewhat paranoid and distrustful, becuase hiding the fact that he was quickly learning the language ended up being a good thing. The only reason that Iri's security was so light was because of the fact that Saruman thought Iri didn't understand a word he was saying and wouldn't dream of trying to escape into an unknown world where he didn't even speak the language.

Iri figured that he had a firm enough understanding of the language and of Arda in general to try and find somewhere else he could go. Even if he had no idea if there was anyone he could go to or trust, escaping now was a better option than staying here and eventually becoming a slave to a dark lord (yet again). And the sooner Iri left, the better – Saruman was beginning to get suspicious of Iri's apparent lack of progress with Westron (the language of this new world).

Mumbling thoughts of why he couldn't ever have a normal life, Iri swiftly and silently made his way to the borders of Isengard. He didn't really know where he was going, but that didn't matter – Iri just chose a direction and was sticking to it. He'd get somewhere eventually.

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February 27, 3018 T.A.
Barad-Dûr, Mordor

Sauron gazed out at the hundreds of thousands of orcs occupying the plains in front of Barad-Dûr with a deep sense of satisfaction. All he needed was the ring and Arda was as good as his.

Pushing the thoughts of his precious ring out of his head, Sauron's mind settled on his other obsession (besides the ring and ruling middle earth of course) – Iri.

It had been over a year ago that his green-eyed pet escaped Saruman's stronghold, disappearing to who knows where (Sauron doubted even Iri knew). Sauron wasn't worried though, if there was one thing that Sauron had learned while watching Iri in his home world of Earth, it was that Iri was a survivor. Sauron had no doubts that when the time came to reclaim his naughty pet after conquering the world, Iri would still be alive.

And if he wasn't…well there were plenty of other people he could make as pets, including the high and mighty elven Lord Elrond, or the lost heir of Isildur (a suitable revenge for a family which caused him undue pain by taking his ring in the first place). Sauron just had to ignore the odd pang in his chest that such thoughts invoked.

Sauron wondered what changes had occurred in Iri – he already knew of the other dimension travelers and the changes they had experienced from Saruman. But unlike the others, Iri had already been ageless and had already been partly merged with his animagus form before crossing realms. And not only that, but Iri had still been able to use magic when he was merged with his form back on Earth. Perhaps it was the actual journey of going to a new world that had what robbed the others of their ability to manipulate magic. Or maybe Iri would still be able to do magic because he had a magical animal as an animagus form. Unfortunately Sauron wouldn't know the answers to those questions until Iri was recaptured.

But until then, his faithful Nazgûl were out to bring back a creature named Gollum who had been in possession of his ring for over 500 years. Gollum was currently a prisoner of the mirkwood elves, but that didn't bother him. Sauron knew it was only a matter of time until Gollum frequented his own personal torture chamber, and reveal the location of the one ring.

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Orthanc, Isengard
July 10, 3018

"All these long years, it was in the Shire. Under my very nose."

"Yet you did not have the wit to see it. Your love of the Halflings leaf has clearly slowed your mind."

"But we still have time. Time enough to counter Sauron if we act quickly."

"Time. What time do you think we have?" ²

And this was who he was forced to work with! The fool, had he realized that the hobbit's ring was the One Ring long before now, Saruman would have already been it's master, and he wouldn't be in this position.

Saruman had to somehow convince Gandalf to join him against the races of elves and men (and eventually against Sauron himself). Even though Saruman was now a servant of Sauron, he did it only to be on the winning side and so he could eventually take the dark lord's place.

Unfortunately, Saruman was not powerful enough on his own to defeat Sauron, but maybe with Gandalf's help it would be possible. Saruman was also somewhat desperate for an ally ever since Iri's escape; Sauron was obviously displeased and Saruman's movements were being even more closely monitored by the dark lord. Saruman had no doubt that the moment he toed the line, Sauron would get rid of him once and for all.

Saruman let the conversation flow over him as he prepared the best way to ensnare Gandalf to his side. And if the grey wizard refused by being the fool of wizard that he was, well Saruman was sure that with enough time Gandalf could be made to see reason. And the view from the top of Isengard was surely one that Gandalf would appreciate.

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Weathertop, Eriador
October 6, 3018 T.A.

Iri observed the four children around the fire in silence. He decided that he was finally going to let himself be noticed by others. Hopefully he could find out where he was and information on where he could go.

It had been almost two years since he had escaped Isengard. He didn't know how far he traveled; Iri was continually forced to double back or go in random tangents and circles to avoid the numerous orcs that have been sent by Saruman to retrieve him. Even if Iri had been inclined to go back, he would never surrender himself to the orcs tracing him – they'd be more likely to eat him than take him back to Isengard.

Judging by the sun, he had traveled in a fairly northern direction, perhaps north-western.³ When traveling, Iri tended to stay away from anyone he came across (granted that he didn't come across many people), wary of foes and servants of Sauron and Saruman. But he liked to watch others from a distance (as long as they weren't orcs) to try and learn more about this world and it's people. He even began to pick up the elvish language from spying on a group of elves who were traveling for whatever reason. He only knows a few phrases and songs, but it's still something.

But the two years he had spent on his own weren't a complete waste; he was able to experiment with the changes in his body and magic (…again.). Iri had overheard Saruman tell the Wormie fellow not to worry about him, that he was not able to magic and was quite harmless. Iri had felt that wasn't quite true, he could still feel his magic flowing through him. In fear of attracting Saruman's attention, Iri ignored his magic while in the wizard's hold. But once he escaped, Iri had no qualms testing his body and magic.

What Iri discovered was that Saruman was partially correct; Iri could no longer do spells and the like. But as long as the magic had to do with his phoenix half, he was quite capable. And as for his body, there wasn't a lot of change, but there was some. It seemed that his phoenix attributes became even stronger. For example, in his old world, his eyes became 20/20 after merging with his phoenix form. Since coming to Arda, his eyesight has gotten even better, seeing minute details from extremely long distances. This was very useful when spying on the beings he came across.

Iri could also carry heavy objects with minimal effort. But this attribute was more of a magical one than a physical one – phoenixes have the power to make objects they carry weightless for a brief period of time. Therefore Iri would not be able to carry something large for a very long time or carry it at all if he was tired. His movements became even more graceful and fluid, allowing him to travel almost soundlessly. Iri still had a gift in healing, and with effort was able to cry a healing tear. But the effort involved had him out of commission for 3 days, which almost got him caught by a group of passing orcs. Needless to say Iri didn't try that again. And finally there was fire; in his own world, he was immune to the heat of fire and never got burned. Here he was able to manipulate fire somewhat, make it so the fire wouldn't burn anyone or make it grow and/or shrink. But Iri found that the energy required wasn't really worth it.

Iri pushed those thoughts aside to focus on the flicker of fire in the distance.

The group he was currently watching consisted of a man and four children. He only caught sight of them that morning, and was debating to himself whether he should reveal himself to them.

After leaving the elves without approaching them, Iri began to doubt he would ever find anyone that could help him. He hadn't wanted to reveal himself to the elves for three reasons: he was paranoid and wasn't willing to trust them, even though they had very good and light auras, he also didn't really know their language and they were headed in the direction he had just come from. He wasn't about to let himself be recaptured by Sauron or Saruman.

But Iri knew that he couldn't just continue roaming the world forever, he'd have to find somewhere to settle and learn about middle earth. That's why he felt his heart soar when he caught sight of this group; surely they wouldn't be too bad. After all, if he couldn't trust children then who could he trust?

With his mind made up, Iri went to reveal himself to the strangers. Too bad Iri never noticed the 9 other hooded figures that had just caught sight of the 'children' as well.

¹ I saw a fic where Fate did just that, unfortunately I don't remember the name of the fic or it's author.

² The dialogue between Saruman and Gandalf is from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.

³ The path Iri took was basically this: along the North-South road in Eriador to the bridge over the river Greyflood, then he followed along the river on the west bank until it split off, which made led him to follow the river Mitheithel. He followed that river until the Great East Road, which he took in the westerly direction. This led him to Weathertop. You can see a map of middle earth at www(dot)tuckburough(dot)net.

I know I cheated in a way for Harry to learn Westron so quickly, but I think the explanation I gave is a pretty good excuse. And how else is Harry going to do understand anything if he doesn't speak Westron.