An HP AU world inspired by the Dresden Files.

The Dispersed Wizarding World is one which is much more integrated into the Muggle world. Wizards are fewer in number. There is no Hogwarts; wizards go to Muggle school and learn magic via apprenticeships. There is no Ministry of Magic, but there are wizards embedded within the Muggle government seeing to the management of magic.

The wizarding world is also significantly more international. Wizards typically migrate to live in countries with a certain established level of wizards. There are accordingly a small number of countries with relatively large and diverse magical populations (but still smaller than the canon magical population), whereas the rest of the world has a very low incidence of wizards.

Full details at the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/...ouid=114999215493541605886&rtpof=true&sd=true

What stories might you tell within this universe?

Some obvious ones:

- Slice of life / mystical academia / romance story set within Dumbledore's school of 20 apprentices in the middle of London.

- Powerful political Riddle takes an interest in Harry / starts to tutor him / Harry begins to suspect Riddle is up to nefarious things.

- To steal even more from The Dresden Files, post-graduation, Harry setting himself up as a magical PI and getting involved in supernatural detective stuff.

 

Lavender Brown cursing herself to be pretty.

 

Honestly, this reminds me a lot of the Disney Show the Wizards of Waverly Place, which basically is higschool Slice of Life following the life three teenage wizard's life at a muggle school while being taught magic by their father(who used to be a wizard but was forced to give up his magic for marrying a muggle), with a lot of episodes basically just dealing with them trying to utilize spells and magical items they were introduced to that week to solve their mundane problems like dating and popularity or science projects and the likes, and it often creating magical problems for them to deal with and the problem of keeping the secrets from their muggle friends.

There are even episodes dealing with them dating people who turn out to be werewolves, vampires, elves, angels and at one point even a centaur. Also there's a wizarding competition among siblings which they have to do before they become adults to determine the best wizard among them, who is the only one allowed to keep his magical powers and absorbs those held by the others.

So I could see that kind of thing working fairly well for a setting like this, especially as things aren't quite as dystopian in terms of progress as the one above which is pretty close to a what if Voldemort won setting with an international wizarding government that forbids marriage between wizards and muggles and only allows the strongest wizard in a family to keep their powers. Also since it would be less random than a disney show which often introduced pieces of magic or worldbuilding and then forgot about them next week.

 

If you were to lean more on Dresden, you could have an older Harry acting as a professional wizard for hire and tell "The Potter Files" type stories.

A man called Arthur Weasley approaches him because his daughter Ginny is acting strangely.

A girl called Gabrielle Delacour asks him to find her older sister, who has disappeared - she suspects kidnapped by Veela.

Augusta Longbottom approaches him to figure out why her grandson is so useless at magic.

Narcissa Malfoy suspects her husband of cheating... Harry investigates, only to find Lucius Malfoy is involved in something rather darker.

Gringotts Bank employs him as a consultant after they are robbed.

 

This is just Storm Front

 

I'd take a more international approach to the wizarding world if you go to a smaller wizard population, rather than the 'wizards governed by local muggle governments' approach. Many Western countries have more continuous, gradually advancing history, but many parts of the world do not.


For example, imagine the life of a 130-year-old Korean wizard.

He was born and raised in the Joseon dynasty(400~500 years old absolute monarchy). Ideologies like nationalism, individualism, socialism, and capitalism were introduced in the early 20th century in this region. He lived through the colonial period as a Japanese. Right after liberation, two new states(as governing entities) were established in South and North Korea. Korean War destroyed almost all communities and any semblance of the traditional hierarchy he knew. SK was under military dictatorship until 1987. SK is still suffering from remnant militaristic cultures.

I don't believe wizards in this peninsula would have gone through this while having ingrained 'modern?' ideals or being obedient to local governments.

It is very hard to imagine wizards in each country to go war against each other in the Korean War. Chinese wizards go hunting South Korean wizards for reasons, while NK and SK wizards fight each other (considering each government was established in '48 and the war began in '50), American(and UN) wizarding forces fight against China/Soviet/NK...... just because muggles want them to.

And there are/were countries in a worse situation than SK. Including China etc.


I think the White Council approach is much more sensible and reasonable. In this way, wizards in a poorer country do not resent their neighboring muggle situation, identifying themselves as a wizard first and foremost.

Under more international wizarding world assumptions, this would be my approach for an HP/Dresden-style story.


Due to easy teleportation, there are several special schools for wizarding children. It is a muggle+wizard school. After the graduation, students (age 15~18?) became apprentices to respectable wizards.

So we have

1) Ellaine and Dresden who know some magic (without broader wizarding world knowledge) and some muggles, due to tragic backgrounds. Essentially muggleborns in canon.
2) When in doubt, obliviate-style traditional wizard with a considerable amount of knowledge to navigate in the Muggle world.
3) Muggles who are chosen (or get entangled) to work with/for WC or wizards.


<DF style storyline>
1) Due to the small number of wizards, WC allowed a few muggles to know about the supernatural world. They trained these individuals and organized various intelligence-gathering units across the world (loosely organized/supported). One of them was a Black Cat in Chicago, headed by Collin Murphy. Later, BC became SI. During a (magically) peaceful era, SI degraded to a similar state in DF.

2) Unnatural phenomenon is resurging in Chicago. Newly minted/or war hero Auror Harry Potter(?) became in charge of Chicago. He considers muggle laws as suggestions at best. He was told the head of SI, Karrin Murphy is the daughter of a distinguished member of BC. However, he quickly realizes Karrin was never told anything about magic. SI is a useless org at best in its current state. Harry has to reform SI to function as a useful intelligent gathering organization since there are so few wizards and he can't be everywhere. But how?

3) Murphy is a true believer in the legal system. She hates Harry at first. 'I'm above the muggle law' attitude infuriates her. His attitude towards 'muggles' is worse than Dresden's. It is clear to her HP considers Muggles as a race to be protected and nurtured, not respected as equal. HP objects whenever Murphy tries to take the field herself, not even giving a chance most time. But she has to work with him to save people.

4) Chicago's local friendly wizard Dresden has to somehow mediate two. Murphy tries to work behind HP to know more and act directly, using Dresden as a medium to the supernatural world. Dresden knows Aurors are a paranoid bunch and thinks it very bad idea, but he cannot betray Karrin and shatter her entire worldview.