I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.
I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.
The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.
-Hey dean what are you up to?
Harry had just walked in the gryffindor dormitory and found his roommate bending over one of those portable computers.
-Mmh? Oh just playing some WOW.
The young man responded without looking up.
-wow? wow what?
The incomprehension must have been obvious on Harry's face as the Irish student looked up and started laughing.
-WOW, as in World Of Warcraft, its a norms video game, you play it over the internet, its really cool, come and see.
The boy who lived had little more then a passing acquaintance with muggle video games so he approached to take a look.
When the screen came into view the sight puzzled him. A small humanoid form in the middle of the screen was obviously engaged in some sort of physical struggle with what appeared to be 5 bright red aragogs while all around confusing displays kept changing and at the bottom left a running commentary seemed to be detailing the action.
-What the...?
-I know it looks a bit overwhelming at first, but its actually easy to understand.
The look the boy who lived returned expressed his thoughts quite clearly.
-HA HA, no really it is, ignore whats all around and just look at the guy.
Harry focused on the screen.
-This is my blood elf hunter, Blackcoyote, and sharpclaw is her pet right now I'm just fighting random mobs for a quest.
Harry turned back to the Irish boy with a sardonic grin.
-With you up to about "this is my", then you lost me again.
Dean laughed at the comment.
-Sorry, sorry. Ok, let me try again, this is an online game, where you create a character.
He pointed to the female looking avatar on the screen.
-And you play with other people on their own computers all over the world, making sense so far?
Harry nodded slowly.
-Ok, so the world is a bit like the dark ages except with magic and other species, blood elf is one of those.
Harry just nodded to keep the information flow going.
-When you create a character you choose a class, hunter is one of them, there is a bunch of different ones but hunter is the most powerful against monsters.
-Monsters being the giant spiders?
-Exactly. More precisely everything that you fight that is not another player.
The black haired boy made a gesture with his hand to indicate that he understood.
-So you fight those monsters, kill them and you get XP and gold and once you get enough of both you get levels and you learn new things and you can get new gear and kill more powerful stuff.
-Wow, what is XP?
Dean shrugged apologetically.
-Sorry, Experience points, its a symbol of what you have learned and how you progress, its the only thing of real value in the game.
Harry nodded slowly as he processed this.
-Ok I think I got all that, now what is the point of the game?
Dean laughed.
-Funny how this is always the question everybody asks. The truth is there is no end to the game, you have 80 levels to gain which get progressively harder and then once you got that there is all the master dungeons and then arena, that's when you play against other players, and that's more or less the end of it, then you create another character from a different class and start over.
Green eyes focused on the screen as the tiger of its own volition killed one of the giant spiders that had wandered too close as they talked.
-I think I get it, now the next question, how the heck do you get this to work at Hogwarts?
The brown haired boy laughed at the exclamation.
-I don't really understand all of it myself, but me mom got me a special shielding on the computer from some American covenant and then she bought this card.
He pointed to a small orange antenna sticking out of the side of the machine with a feather dangling from the top.
-Its got some portal related magic on it that makes it so I can connect from anywhere in the world except that it acts as if I was in America so I can only get to bloody yank servers.
Harry once again stared with a raised eyebrow.
-Sorry, sorry. I mean that I can only connect to WOW servers that are in America for American players rather then here in England.
-I see.
Harry looked once again as dean methodically started clicking on all the corpses strewn around his character.
-Do you think you could let me have a go sometime?
Dean looked up.
-Of course mate, only not right now cuz I am in the middle of a quest.
The young man backed off hastily.
-No of course, just when you don't need it, only it looks fun and I'd like to try it.
Harry stepped back towards the door holding his backpack.
-Thanks for showing it to me, see you on the train.
Harry stepped out into the sunlight.
The carriage were waiting at the bottom of the steps, the students oblivious to all that had happened.
As he made his way down he thought back to that most horrible of evenings.
In many ways it felt like a car accident, he could only remember most of it after the facts and even then it was as if it had happened to somebody else.
The fight.
The flight from the Death eaters.
The chamber.
Sirius.
No. Not now. Later when he was alone he could break down, but now was NOT the time. Look up, smile, or at least bare your teeth in an upward grin. Let the herd think all was well.
His musings were brought to a halt as Hermione waived him towards one of the coaches.
-Harry, you ready to go?'
The obvious concern in her voice made him bare his teeth again.
Nodding his head he stepped into the carriage.
The trip to the station was uneventful, the conversation of his friends only needed a few non committal noises from him to keep going. Harry mused on the last few days when the image of Dean's game came up in his brain. Maybe that was what he needed, some time killing things that were not evil but simply there to be killed.
-Harry, you with us mate?
The boy looked up to his redhead friend.
-What?
Ron shook his head and smiled.
-Were here Harry, the train. It's time to go.
The boy who lived stood up and shouldered his backpack.
-Oh yeah, sorry about that.
As He turned his head he espied the Irish wizard getting on the train with his computer in his messenger bag at his hip.
-Huh, you guys find a compartment, I need to go talk to dean for a little while.
The black haired boy never noticed a pair of eyes following him as he stepped away from his friends.
Harry followed Dean as he stepped onto the train.
-Hey Thomas, can I talk to you for a minute.
He followed the boy as he and Seamus stepped into an empty compartment.
-Sure Harry, what do you need?
Seamus answered with a raised eyebrow.
-Mh actually, I just wanted to ask Dean if I could borrow his game for a few hours.
He turned to Dean.
-Can I?
The young boy started worrying his upper lip.
-I am sorry but no Harry, you can borrow it and start a character if you want but I promised my mom that I wouldn't let the prototype out of my sight.
The boy who lived smiled brightly as he dropped his backpack on the empty seat.
-No worries, if its ok with you guys I'll just stay here and play for a while.
He looked expectantly at the Irish wizard as he said this.
-Sure man, here let me boot it for you.
As the laptop was retrieved from its bag Harry sat himself comfortably and crossed his legs.
Dean booted the laptop and started the program.
The image of a dragon of bones filled the screen.
-Ok Harry, I'll start you on a PVE so you can learn ok?
The boy raised an eyebrow mockingly.
-P, V what?
Dean laughed at the look the two other boys were giving him.
-Don't worry about it, it just means other players can't attack you. Here Rexxar looks like a good low pop plus I know a hot girl that plays on it. I'll friend her to your toon when you get in.
the boy who lived just nodded at the incomprehensible sentence, he figured it would make sense once he got into the game.
-Here Harry, what do you want to play?
Harry picked up the computer, no laptop, that was the name and set it on his lap.
-Ok, those are all the races, Human, Night elf, Orc, Undead, etc, you need to start by choosing which one you want.
Harry looked a little disheveled.
-Which one would you pick?
Dean grinned.
-Well I play a female Night elf cuz they're hot.
He raised his eyebrows in a very Groucho like manner.
-But you might want to start human cuz they are a little easier to play.
The boy-who-lived-to-play-video-games grinned.
-Humans it is. Ok, what is this? Warrior?
-Well its your call really, your class determines pretty much everything about you so you want to chose carefully here.
Harry interrupted him.
-Which one can throw fireballs?
-Or you can just go with the one that throws fireball,' He laughed and pointed at the screen. 'mages.'
He pointed to the appropriate panel on the screen.
-Ok, I guess this guy looks like you enough as it is, now you just need to pick a name.
Harry started typing in h,a,r,r,y and pressed enter only to be greeted with an error message.
-Hey Cho.
The name jerked The young boy up.
-What are you up to Harry?
He blushed a little as he looked up.
-Some muggle game. What about you?
As he said this he started typing the name that had been on his mind so much lately, s,i,r,i,u,s.
Again the message came up "name is unavailable".
As Harry clicked on the name the words Cho were uttering started registering.
-...asked that you die half-breed and he selected ME as his instrument.
The sound of cloth tearing was drowned out by the computer as it started loudly declaiming something about Azeroth.
The boy-who-lived looked up.
Cho was pulling a cloth bag apart. Small silver drops started falling towards the floor as Harry opened his mouth.
The young lady threw the things in her hand and stepped out of the compartment grinning.
The moment took a surreal quality.
Time slowed as the small balls flew towards them.
Dean and Seamus stood there with there eyes bulging out.
The voice coming out of the speaker was sharp as a knife in his ears.
The first tear hit the the backpack by the irish boy. The bag started shrinking until nothing could be seen.
The next hit Dean on the chest. The boy did not have a chance to utter a scream as he too dissapeared into nothing.
-Wha...
The sound barely left his lips when two of the silver items hit together. One on his hand hovering over the keyboard, the other hit the talisman on the laptop.
Cho smirked as she quietly closed the compartment door behind her.