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Birth of the Chinese Sorceress…
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The Forbidden City in China actually refers to two totally different places in China; the first is a muggle Chinese palace complex, but the magical equivalent spoke of a vast magical school in the vast network of caverns underneath a mountain range.
The Chinese sorcerers chose the name primarily because it was a good name, and if any muggle heard wizards speaking about the school, they would hopefully believe they were referring to the palace, and even if the muggles caught wind of the school's existence, it wasn't like they could do anything.
The mountain range was treacherous, impossible to reach without magic, and even if they could get there, they couldn't get to the students below. Like most magical schools, the Forbidden City was surrounded by natural and magical means of hiding their presence. The caverns were often hollowed out and provided living space and fantastic places for lessons.
Students started at the young age of 7, where they learnt the basics of potions, Chinese runic characters, and the basics of magic, lore and history, and magical traditions, as well as legends and myths of magical culture.
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Harry stared at the portal and rechecked the runic circle carefully, knowing that this was going to be complicated enough as it was. He had poured hundreds of hours into preparing the rune clusters to transfer his mind through the portal, which would then split off and create a whole new world, and it would create a twin of a witch or wizard, so then Harry's mind and soul would not interfere with the timeline.
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The teacher walked into the classroom, a smile on her face, readying herself for the lesson ahead. The new year had started for the Forbidden City, and her lesson in magical History was about to start for the new first years.
"Zi Yuan," the teacher called, holding up a register board and.
A small girl with her hair pulled back into a braid, stood up and held up her hand. "Here," she said clearly.
The teacher nodded and smiled back. The Zi family, despite their non-magical roots, were quickly becoming powerful. Young Yuan had much expected of her.
Once the register was finished, the teacher prepared to give the lessons.
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There was no way a 13-year-old boy could take on a Dark Lord, not without help, and because he didn't trust the wizarding world, never mind Albus Dumbledore who had plans of his own, his options were limited.
The Ministry could not be trusted, if they could post a hundred Dementors here, then he didn't even want to imagine what other acts of stupidity they could do. But to his delight, Harry had found something in the Room of Requirement related to essence transfer and time travel. It was possible for witches and wizards to send their minds into the past, and if done right, they could return with all of the knowledge they'd acquired.
The ritual had been pioneered by an African witch, who had been the Rowena Ravenclaw of her time. She had been fascinated by the concept of time travel, but she had wanted to explore history. Knowing full well of the dangers involving temporal paradoxes, she devised a ritual where someone could travel back in time, splitting a new parallel timeline off, and yet their body would remain in the original world while the mind formed a new body, and if they were born in another country, then they would instantly be able to translate the languages, but what was more important was when it was time to return they could do so..with all of their knowledge accumulated.
That was the ticket, the lynchpin, the key to his long-term plans.
If he could stay in a different history for a few years, great. It meant not only would he have different life experiences, but he would return with greater magical knowledge, and if Voldemort did come back sooner or later, he would be ready for him. Harry had explored several possibilities already and he had found several magical worlds that looked interesting; in one world, the history of Merlin was vastly different, but that would be explored later. For the first world, he planned on becoming a Chinese girl attending The Forbidden City Academy for Magic; what happened there would see many of Harry's long-term plans come to fruition.
After summoning several avatars to serve as experts, Harry was able to prepare the ritual and everything else that was needed.
And then it was time.
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Zi Yuan was happily learning at the Forbidden City; in just one potions class, she had learnt more about potions than she had ever done so with being under Snape's acidic tutelage. She wasn't bothered about her original body, with how the ritual worked Harry Potter would only experience a few seconds without mind and soul.
She had been attending the school for a month, this time, and she had learnt so much, and she was looking forward to learning more. She had made dozens of friends, and because she wasn't known at this time except as a member of the increasingly prominent Zi family, Yuan planned to enjoy her life here.