Disclaimer: I own nothing that would make me money.

Chapter 2- Getting Into The Swing Of It

The black letters faded away, replaced by an insubstantial, illusory-looking screen bearing text. "Welcome to the world of Harry Potter," it said. "Before you can get started, you'll need to create your character. As you have not yet purchased any extra starting options, you'll have to stick with Original."

"How do I purchase extras," Harry wondered aloud. "Now you'll need to pick your traits and starting perk," the screen continued, ignoring Harry completely. "Ba-DING," something chimed as another screen appeared, overlaying the first.

INFORMATION: Traits and Perks

Traits and Perks permanently give Harry enhanced abilities, access to abilities he otherwise would not have, and just generally make him less pathetic!

You'll select two Traits at character creation, and a Character Perk at every odd numbered level. Of course, there are also Skill Perks and Player Perks, but we'll discuss those later.

OK

"They sound the same to me, why give them different names," Harry sulked. "And I'm not pathetic. Arse."

Harry closed the window, and the original one changed.

CHOOSE YOUR TRAIT

His Mother's Charm - The skill General Magic begins at 15 when it is discovered. Additionally, General Magic improves 10% faster.

His Mother's Cunning - The skill Potions begins at 15 when it is discovered. Additionally, Potions improves 10% faster.

His Mother's Sight - The skill Magic Detection begins at 10, and is already discovered. Additionally, Magic Detection improves 10% faster.

"Magic Detection? You can do that? Wait, is that how Dumbledore found the door in the Horcrux cave? Arrgh, too little information. Fine, I'll start off knowing something I have no clue how to learn otherwise." Harry touched 'His Mother's Sight,' then confirmed it when asked.

CHOOSE YOUR TRAIT

His Father's Changes – The skill Transfiguration begins at 15 when it is discovered. Additionally, Transfiguration improves 10% faster.

His Father's Cunning – The skill Stealth begins at 10, and is already discovered. Additionally, Stealth improves 10% faster.

His Father's Flight – All Flight related skills begin at 15 when discovered. Additionally, Flight related skills improve 10% faster.

"Flight. Well, that explains a few things," Harry said with a smile. "Bet just about anything that I had that one last time. Why not. Father's Flight it is."

CHOOSE YOUR PERK

Fleet of Foot - Increase base move rate by 10%.

Iron Stomach – Positive effects from food increase by 15%. Negative effects are decreased by 50%.

Well Read - Gain an extra skill point from reading skill books. Additionally, you learn skills from books 5% faster than normal.

"Well, considering I died from not being smart enough, I'll go with Well Read, thanks." "Hermione would be so proud," he laughed.

The screen shifted again. "Looks like you're all set up. Are you ready to begin? YES / NO."

Harry touched 'YES.'


Color. Sound. Spinning, like the portkey from hell. Flashes of image. Birth. First step. Wormtail and Riddle. His parent's deaths. Riddle's discorporation. The front step. Hit by Vernon. Hit by Dudley. Blue Hair. Apparating to the roof. Nausea. Speed. Full stop.


"Oh, that sucked," Harry moaned, as he tried to bring his breathing under control. He lay on a hard floor, surrounded by darkness.

"Ba-DING."

INFORMATION: Commands

In order to access certain aspects of the game, you'll need to use special commands. Simply say them aloud or think them with intent to access the feature. And people won't notice when you say commands out loud, so don't worry about them thinking you're crazy (not for this, anyway).

COMMANDS

Save Game- Save the current state of the game in one of your save slots

Load Game- Load a saved game

Quick Save- Save the correct state of the game in the quick save slot

Quick Load- Load the game from the quick save slot

Load Auto Save- Load the game from the last auto save

Character- View your character sheet

Inventory- View your inventory

Quest Log- View the log of current and past quests

Map- View the in game map

Notes- A scratch pad for making notes and reminders for yourself

Manual- View the manual for Harry Potter: The Roleplaying Game

OK

As Harry touched okay, the words 'Auto Save' flashed in the corner of his eye. "Ah, okay. I guess-" Harry was momentarily blinded as the door slammed open, flooding the small room with light. "BOY, GET OUT HERE!" Vernon roared, pulling Harry bodily from the cupboard. "WE DON'T WASTE GOOD MONEY ON YOU SO YOU CAN LAZE ABOUT ALL DAY!" "Ah, dear Vernon, how I've missed him and his gentle wake-up calls," Harry thought acerbically. Blinking rapidly to clear is eyes, Harry saw Vernon stump over to the kitchen table to join Petunia and Dudley. What drew his eye though, was the pillar of golden light by the stove in the kitchen.

"Ba-DING."

INFORMATION: Quests

Quests are missions that you can undertake to earn experience, character points, and rewards. Quests are available in two forms, Story Quests and Side Quests. Completing Story Quests will causes to plot to advance. Side Quests are not necessary to advance the plot, though they may have an effect on it.

A glowing pillar of light indicates that a quest may be started at that location. A golden pillar indicates a Story Quest. A silver pillar indicates a Side Quest. A blue pillar indicates a side quest which may be repeated, either immediately, or after a certain amount of time has passed. Any active quest can be canceled from the Quest Log, and restarted at its start point.

You can track down nearby quests by looking at your compass. Good Luck!

"Compass, what compass?" Harry asked, as a bar appeared at the bottom of his vision. The N and W seemed to indicate he was looking just a bit north of west, and there was a large golden tick-mark in the direction of the pillar of light. "Oh. That compass."

"What was that boy?" Vernon growled. "Nothing Uncle." "Too right."

With that, Vernon open the new paper and started to read.

"Okay. Save Game." Harry thought. Everything around him dulled, as if the color had run out of it, and froze completely. A screen appeared, bearing the words 'New Save', and below that, a picture of the inside of a dark cupboard (or so Harry assumed) labeled 'Auto Save.' "Okay, New Save." The world returned to normal and the words 'Game Saved' briefly appeared in the corner of his vision.

Harry spun in a slow circle, watching the compass. There were two more gold tick-marks, slightly small than the one pointing to the kitchen, and a very small blue one. "Okay, I need to get out of here and find someplace I can think things through." Harry carefully walked to the front door, warily watching the Dursleys, who gave no indication they even knew he was in the room.

Harry stepped through that door, and heard what sounded like a bass drum being struck. "Ba-Dump." In the center of his focus appeared the words "Location Discovered: #4 Privet Drive." There was another pillar of golden light ahead of him on the pavement.

"Alright, first things first, Character."

The world greyed out and froze around him again as a screen opened. Along the top were a number of tabs, Character Sheet, Inventory, Quest Log, Map, and Notes, of which Character Sheet was glowing faintly. Under those was another row of tabs, labeled Character, Equipment, Skills, Traits / Perks, Condition, and three more, which were blank and grey.

Name: Harry Potter

Level: 1

Experience: 0

Next Level: 1000

Character Points: 219

Health: 50/50

Magic: 100/100

Stamina: 50/50

Harry's brow furrowed. "Why are health, magic and stamina in red?" He shrugged, tapped Equipment, and snorted at what it showed. "Yeah, that's about right."

Cheap Glasses (Poor)

Partially Corrects for Nearsighted

Oversized Shirt (Poor)

-2 Socialize

Oversized Trainers (Poor)

Light Armor

Defense 0

-2 Socialize

Oversized Trousers (Poor)

-2 Socialize

"Alright, let's see what the damage is in Skills."

Acrobatics: 2

Athletics: 5

Block: 2

Cooking : 15

Light Armor: 2

Magic Detection: 10

Muggle Studies: 10

Perception: 5

Socialize: -1

Harry's brow furrowed again. Acrobatics, Athletics, Block, Light Armor, Perception, and Socialize were in red while the other three were in black. If they were like that because they were being penalized, then Perception and Socialize made sense, with his glasses and clothes. "But what's going on with the others? Traits / Perks"

Traits

His Mother's Sight- The skill Magic Detection begins at 10, and is already discovered. Additionally, Magic Detection improves 10% faster.

His Father's Flight- All Flight related skills begin at 15 when discovered. Additionally, Flight related skills improve 10% faster.

Parselmouth- Speak Parseltongue with Native proficiency.

Character Perks

Well Read- Gain an extra skill point from reading skill books. Additionally, you learn skills from books 5% faster than normal.

Skill Perks

None

Player Perks

None

"Parselmouth. Okay, nothing unexpected here. Conditions." Harry's eye started to twitch, fingers grasping for a wand that wasn't there.

Conditions

Bound Core- Maximum Magic reduced by 90%

Magic Leech- Maximum Magic reduced by 5%

Malnourished- Health, Stamina, and Physical Skills reduced by 50%

"Are. You. Kidding me!?" Harry screamed. "My magic should have been twenty times stronger than what is was!? Mother F- I could have taken the bastard with that! ARRRRRGH!" Over the next several minutes, Harry displayed native fluency in Angrish, eventually coming to a panting stop.

"Okay, okay, breathe Harry, breathe." He collapsed heavily in the grass and closed his eyes. "Relax, deep breaths, let it go." Harry sat there for several minutes, breathing deeply and trying to get a grip on his anger. He finally felt like he was calming down… and nearly jumped out of his skin when a bass drum went off in his ear.

"Ba-Da-DUMP!"

Skill Discovered: Occulmency 0

Harry stared dumbly for a moment, before collapsing on his back, laughing helplessly. "Ha, hahaha, ah, take that you bastard. Heh, cleared my bloody mind. Hehe, how do you like me now?"

He sat up, chuckling. "And wouldn't that just freak Snivy right out, if I showed up at Hogwarts with an impenetrable mind? Pity I don't have the time…" His face turned pensive. "Or do I? It said that things won't move on until I do Story Quests, right? From what little I remember of Dudley's games, that's how it should work. Can I just, just sit here and practice Occulmency for as long as I want? Or practice anything, for that matter?" He climbed to his feet, and started walking for the park. "Need to head somewhere the Dursleys won't bother me," he mused. He was jarred out of reverie when he was about a dozen yards down the pavement, as a strange shiver went through him. "The hell?"

He looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary. He stepped back towards Number 4. Nothing. "Huh. Weird." With a shrug, he turned back towards the park. A short walk later, Harry arrived and started looking for a comfortable looking tree to sit under. He also noticed a pillar of blue light in the center of the park, but decided to leave it for later. Spying a large tree a bit away from the walking paths, Harry headed over.

"Ba-Dump"

Location Discovered: Little Whinging Public Park

"I think I'm almost getting used to that." After arranging himself comfortably, Harry closed his eyes and began trying to clear his mind. There was no park, no birds singing, no children playing, no breeze on his skin, no stray thoughts in his head, just quiet and emp-"Ba-Da-Dump!"

Occulmency 1

"GAH!"


AN: Longer chapter this time. A little clarification before anyone asks. Harry's a bit confused about how that Magic stat works. While he'd have twenty times that battery life, if you will, he would not necessarily be more powerful.