"So what are you going to make your avatar?" asked Harry. He already had an idea of what his would be. The standard was a random animal...but Harry read enough fantasy novels to decide what he wanted.
"I was thinking an owl, since they said bird avatars have been known to replace the owls the magicals used."
"Didn't they also say that the avatars couldn't be used off school grounds until graduation when we receive our upgraded bracelets?"
Hermione looked a little annoyed.
"You can still borrow Astra if you want," offered Harry.
Astra was what he named his new owl. It was either that or Hedwig, and frankly he felt Astra was better.
"Or you can use the cell towers we have strategically positioned on the school grounds," piped an older student.
"I don't own a cell phone," said Hermione, "and neither does Harry."
"If you earn enough points, you can get one of the kid-friendly phones that run off cell towers through magic. No phone bill, but you have to keep up your grades. And until you earn those points, there are plenty of school phones students are allowed to use to keep in touch with their parents."
The kid-friendly ones were basically like the Jitterbug phones. It gave them a way to contact their parents and a set amount of friends, and that was it.
And that was the basic model for the students. The better the phone, the more points you had to save up to earn it. Some of the older students were working their butts off to earn the newest phone that allowed you to play games, store music and even surf the internet. It was set so high that they would have an incentive to study...and it worked.
Better than the Hogwarts method of 'house points' at any rate. There was no real incentive to keep up good grades or behave.
Hermione perked up.
"Maybe something other than an owl. I remember reading that you can have more than one avatar if your grades are high enough, and they give you a new one once you've spent five years here," said Harry.
"What would you suggest?"
Harry pulled out one of his manga books.
"Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S?" she read.
"OH! I love that series!" said another student. A red head with a Scottish accent came up and said, "Amelia Pond."
"Harry and this is my sorta-sister Hermione."
"What's a sorta sister?"
"My family's tried adopting him since his doesn't really like him that much for having magic, but for some reason it always falls through without explanation. So he mostly crashes at my house in the spare bedroom and we treat him like family. He comes so often he's more like my brother than a best friend," explained Hermione. "So what's this series about?"
Amelia looked at Harry.
"Not an Otaku?"
"She's more of a classics fan than a comic one. I like manga because it helps to visualize the things they're describing...and because it gives me a break from the science books I'm usually reading."
"Magical Girl Nanoha is a series about a girl who finds a ferret that turns out to be a boy and becomes a mage though a jewel called Raising Heart. Striker S is the third sequel in the series."
"Hermione needs something to base her avatar off of...and the first thing that came to mind was Zwei."
"Bookworm?"
"Both of us are, but I already have an idea of what I want," agreed Harry.
"Well there's a junior librarian club that will meet next week. Join them and you get exclusive tours to the deeper parts of the library."
Harry's eyes gleamed.
"Is it anything like the Library Exploration Club in Negima?" asked Harry.
"Exactly like it."
Harry turned to his sister and said "Join that club. The Library Exploration Club usually finds all sorts of rare and old books while looking through the deeper recesses of the library. Books that have been considered lost or forgotten for centuries."
Hermione took the challenge.
"So who or what is Zwei?"
Harry showed her the series.
"This is Reinforce Zwei, or Rein for short. She's a fairy-like spirit that lives in a book that helps to boost Hayate's power and can help with the math part of the spells. The Nanoha series relies a lot on math calculations, and I think she would be a good fit for you since I know you can do long division in your head," said Harry.
"Just this once I'll humor your addiction to anime. Let's see this series then."
Harry grinned. Hermione had pure addiction in her hands...though he wondered how she would take the yuri-pairings of the series.
"I hate you so much right now. Why didn't you tell me the main pairings were..."
"Why should it matter that Nanoha and Fate are dating, or that Hayate likes Vita? As far as I'm concerned you can love whoever you want provided they're of the age of consent, not related to you and it doesn't hurt anyone," said Harry flatly.
Vernon was an ass, but he did have his good qualities. Like giving others a sincere dislike of intolerance to your fellow man, a fierce love of exercise and healthy foods, and the ability to spot the brown nosers and cheaters.
In short, everything he wasn't. Harry liked to joke that Vernon and Dudley did have a purpose. They were examples of what to avoid.
Hermione stared at him, before she muttered "Boys..." under her breath.
"Still, did you get the inspiration you needed?"
"The series is very well written, but I could do without all the math they throw in," came Hermione's reply.
"Try reading the Fate/Stay Night series. It's even worse."
"No thank you. But I do like the idea of having a spirit like Rein who can help me locate my spell catalog faster."
"Do I know my own sister or not?" smirked Harry.
"This coming from the boy who wears an antique pocket watch, despite the fact he has a wristwatch on his left arm?" came Hermione's response.
"I like my watch, and the one in my pocket is special. Think of it like Edward Elric's State Alchemist watch. It's a badge to show people who you are."
The only problem was that every time he tried to open it up to see inside, he got the distinct feeling that he wasn't ready yet. That there was still something missing before he could open it. So he put it out of mind and mostly wore it around like a fashion statement.
Hermione rolled her eyes. She could understand reading something that had no scholastic value of any kind to unwind, but she had little interest in comics. Something like Lord of the Rings or Shakespeare she could stand, but those things weren't worth her time.
"Besides, I thought you would enjoy a series where most of the major powerhouses are females."
Hermione was a major feminist. She hated fashion, primarily because it was the air-headed fashionable girls at primary school who used to pick on her the most.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
"So what exactly are you going to make yours?"
"This."
Harry was decent at drawing. In his sketchpad was the drawing of a bird on fire.
"What is that?"
"Phoenix. A bird that habitually sets itself on fire to be reborn from the ashes. Very few things can kill it permanently, and it's tears can heal any poison, almost any wound. It's song can soothe even the most tormented heart."
He felt a strange kinship with the fiery bird, which was why he had chosen it.
"Someone's been reading ahead," said Amelia.
"I like fire," said Harry.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Wow...that's one detailed picture."
"I need things other than science to keep my brain from overworking."
It was the drawback he had discovered of having such an intelligent mind. If he didn't keep it focused on things that required computer-like skills, it tended to get overwhelmed. The best defense was to keep it off things that required him to think. So he delved into fantasy, manga, anime, drawing...something that would numb the constant pain in his head. Almost like it was a computer processor constantly stuck at the mid-way level of overheating. Anything too strenuous would lead to a meltdown.
He didn't hold back because of Vernon and Dudley. He held back because if he didn't, his mind would grow so painful that he would have to lie down for several hours. It had happened once. He learned to avoid it ever since.
"So what classes are you going to take?" asked Amelia.
"All of them," came Hermione's immediate response.
"Yeah, no. Here they don't let overachievers take more than ten classes a week. Weekends are free days, but if you want to take extra classes you have to prove you can handle the work load...and if your grades start to slip too far they'll remove them from your class schedule until you learn to balance it out properly."
"Ah...so they've had a Hermione here before," said Harry teasing.
"They've had overachievers trying to get more points through too many classes before," corrected Amelia.
"Like I said, you've had to deal with Hermione before. Ow!"
Hermione had punched him.
"In any case I don't think you'd be able to make a decent phoenix without some serious points saved up. Better to do something like Rein or maybe Yuuno first," said Amelia.
"The upgrades for that are that high?"
"Beyond high. Perpetual fire costs at least ten thousand, and an auto-save feature is easily five," said Amelia.
"...In that case I'll go with my second option. I'll make Archer EMIYA."
Just because he disliked how rabid Nasu-verse fans were about their stories didn't mean he hated the series. Quite the opposite in fact, he felt a kindred spirit in Archer, who got screwed over by the personification of humanity.
"Well you can get a good start on making Archer. There's a test in a few hours that determines which classes you can take in two days."
Hermione would have freaked, had it not been for Harry.
"What kind of test?"
"Personality quiz, a basic overview of how much you studied in school, a baseline IQ quiz."
"So it really has no impact on your placement, but makes getting into certain classes easier."
"Exactly!"
That seemed to calm her down.
Hermione was nervous, Harry wasn't.
They did the test, then were sent out to where they would get their shiny new avatar bracelets. Once they hit fifth year a second could be added, but until then they had to make do with just one.
Hermione put hers on her right wrist, while Harry put his own on his left. He wasn't left handed, but he didn't feel like worrying about his wrist watch rubbing the wrong way.
"These bracelets are water-proof, magic-proof and EMP-proof," said the teacher.
"EMP?"
"Electro-Magnetic Pulse. It's a sort of wave that emits from things like nuclear explosions that can fry electronics without harming humans, though generally it's paired with an explosion, so that makes it a moot point anyway," explained Harry without even thinking about it. The teacher nodded.
"There is also a function that makes it essentially invisible to metal detectors. While you are here, that bracelet acts as an ID card. It is your key to the classrooms during your scheduled class, but will not open any doors that are not programmed to accept your ID number. Failed attempts to hack into the bracelet will result in lost points. For every fail the number of points taken will be higher until you receive a detention."
Hermione stared.
"You make it sound like you want us to hack them."
"More along the lines of we know there are some techno-geeks out there that could probably hack it, but if you're able to do so we're not going to discourage it. The more times you try, the more you lose point wise and the harder the device will make it. If you can hack it, then you'll be registered and put into classes where you can hone your skills. We are a school after all."
"So if you're a good enough hacker or programmer to convince the bracelet you're an administrator, you get into special classes where you learn tricks of the trade since it takes talent that you're not going to waste," clarified Harry. The teacher nodded.
For someone like Hermione, that was like tossing a book to her and telling her not to read it. She would try to override the usual protocols even if she had to force Harry to do it for her. She was all about extra learning.
Harry turned to his surrogate sister and said flatly "I am not helping you get into those extra classes. You either do it by your own merit or not at all."
Hermione pouted at him. Harry wasn't moved. If Hermione wanted those extra classes so damn badly she would have to earn them herself the old fashioned way.
"Look at the bright side...at least they know what A-levels are here so you can still go to college once we graduate," offered Harry. That cheered her up.
It was the entire reason they had chosen Avalon over Hogwarts. They didn't want to be forced to work only in magical societies because they dropped off the mundane radar scholastic wise, and working through A-levels without the appropriate classes was not fun. At all.