Severus Snape, Hogwarts' resident Potion Master and Head of Slytherin House exited the staircase and stepped into the Headmaster's office.

Sitting in a large chair behind a desk covered with many scrawled scrolls and intricate looking devices was a man that almost perfectly fit the muggle stereotype of the word 'wizard'. The man wore garish purple robes with a contrasting silver star pattern. His long white hair and beard seemed long enough to tuck into his belt and his half-moon spectacles covered his light, bright and sparkling blue eyes. This man was Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Ah, Severus, very good to you. Please, take a seat," Albus said, gesturing toward one of the chairs on the opposite side of his desk.

Taking his seat, Severus kept his face neutral, "Good day Headmaster."

"Lemon drop?" Albus asked, his hand waving towards the small bowl of wrapped sweets in front of him.

"No, thank you." Severus had never accepted the offer before and he had no intention of doing so now or ever.

Chuckling lightly and taking one for himself, the headmaster popped the sweet into his mouth and sat back in his chair. "Perhaps one day you will accept my offer, if only to please this old man," the headmaster's eyes twinkled as he steepled his fingers. "So, what can I help you with, my boy?"

Severus' lip managed not to quirk and curl, with astonishing self-control. "I'm here to talk about Mr. Potter."

"Ah yes, young Harry," Albus said, stroking his beard slowly. "Striking resemblance to his father."

Severus didn't respond.

"But of course his eyes come from Lily," Albus continued, smiling genially in recollection.

"Potter told me that he had never heard of magic before a few months ago," Severus said.

Albus intertwined his fingers and laid his hands on the table in front of him.

"Why wasn't he aware of magic, Headmaster? Potter is supposed to be a pampered little prince."

"Ah, quite the imagination you have Severus," Albus smiled. "I wished for him to have a normal life, away from his celebrity status in our world. I felt it best to keep him safe from those that would over inflate his ego, or worse."

"I asked the boy about what you had explained to him about our world, as you and I both know you are his magical guardian. He couldn't understand why I would ask him such a question. Am I to understand that you never visited Potter?" Severus' eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"It was all well taken care of, I assure you my boy. Arabella Figg has been watching over young Harry as a neighbour since he was left in the care of his relatives. She has kept me informed as to Harry's wellbeing."

"Did you never once personally check up on him?"

"There was little need. I have full confidence in Arabella."

"Albus, the boy is clearly malnourished. He has no prior knowledge of magic, and I suspect his relatives have not been a real family to him. Are you truly satisfied with this?"

"He is rather small, but I rather doubt it's something to worry about. He is likely a fussy eater." Albus glanced at an instrument on a shelf to the side, "I assure you, whatever familial problems Harry has had with his relatives, it is still his home."

Snape followed the glance and saw numerous instruments whirring and puffing.

"Thank you for your time, Headmaster," Severus stood.

"My door is always open, my boy," Albus said with a smile, steepling his fingers and leaning back in his chair again.

With a billow of his robes, Snape strode out of the office.


In the dark of the nighttime dorm room, Harry laid back on his bed, enjoying the luxurious comfort once more. Glancing around the room he saw that he was the only one still awake.

Facing towards the ceiling, Harry instead focused on the status screen appearing in his view.

Name: Harry James Potter
Class: The Gamer
Title: Hogwarts Student
Level: 2
Experience 50/500

HP: 100/100
MP: 2000/2000
STR: 3
VIT: 5
DEX: 7
INT: 9
WIS: 10
LUK: 2

Points: 4
Money: 29G, 2S, 4K

Skills:

Persuasion [LV 2]
Spellcasting [LV 2]
Penmanship [LV 2]
Observe [LV 2]
Potioncraft [LV 1]

The problem with deciding where to allocate the points was that Harry had no frame of reference for what was normal. How much intelligence or strength should someone of his age have on average anyway? Secondly, he suspected that it was easiest to gain points through training when the attribute's number was low, so it might be a big mistake to allocate points towards strength, vitality or luck while he could make faster gains through another method.

Then again, supposing he started at a base of one, he had apparently only gained two points of strength in his whole life so far, so perhaps it wasn't as easy as he thought.

But then, I never really trained to become strong before.

Thinking about how people trained to become strong, he realised that he didn't actually know any specific method other than to pick up heavy things and put them down, over and over again.

Sighing audibly, Harry accepted that he wasn't going to fall asleep while his mind raced over this problem, so he decided to silently make his way out towards the common room.

The room was dark and empty, but somehow not cold. On his way towards the shelves of books, the main fireplace lit itself, bathing the room in a gentle yellow light. Harry smiled at the casual brilliance of magic.

That's really neat, wonder how it works.

Harry sat himself on a comfortable chair beside a bookcase and ran his eyes over the tomes. Spotting a particularly thick book, Harry grunted and pulled it off the shelf and carefully put it down on the floor.

Considering how quickly I have been gaining wisdom and intelligence, I guess it won't take long to find out if this works.

Looking around to ensure he was alone, and feeling slightly embarrassed even after confirming his solitude, Harry squatted down and picked up the book before putting it down again. He began to repeat the action.

After the seventh repetition Harry was breathing heavily and his whole body was feeling hot and sluggish.

Just three more!

The eight repetition came and went with a grunt, the ninth he struggled through with a bead of sweat dripping from his nose, and the tenth and final repetition caused Harry to strain and heave before finally, successfully, standing fully up straight with the book held in shaking arms. Feeling completely drained he stumbled backwards into the chair behind him, collapsed into the seat with the book landing heavily on his lap.

Through diligent effort you have gained 1 Strength!

Harry grinned happily through his deep gasps for breath, the sweat still beading on his forehead.

Confirming that his strength now read as four in his status screen, Harry thought over what had just happened. Wasn't that actually incredibly quick to gain a whole point of strength if he had otherwise only got two points in his entire life before now? Surely it was due to his Gamer ability.

A few minutes later, Harry stood up again after he had caught his breath. He immediately felt the difference in strength just as he had before. The book felt noticeably lighter. Deciding that the best course of action would be to make the weight as hard to lift as before, Harry stacked another heavy book on top of the first.

He began the same exercise, this time reaching eleven repetitions before he felt the same level of strain as he had near the eighth repetition last time. Once again, he pushed himself, sweat forming and his arms and legs shaking with the effort as he reached the 15th repetition.

No increase yet, and I know I can keep going.

With a grunt, Harry pushed through to the 16th and 17th rep, far outstripping his earlier performance. The 18th rep was the last, he just knew. He dug deep, with the same feeling of determination and effort he felt from before, he strained, sweat dripping once more, as he stood up, shaking with the effort.

Through diligent effort you have gained 1 Strength!

Collapsing back into the chair again gasping for breath, Harry felt he realised what it took to increase his stats, or at least specifically strength. It was the effort. It was getting to the point where he either chose to quit and be comfortable, or to push through and keep going. It was when he felt like there wasn't anything left to give, but he did it anyway.

Thinking back to the gains in other attributes from before, it seemed to somewhat match his theory. He had been thinking harder and more deeply than he ever really did before. It was quite possible that a different type of training could increase his vitality. Considering his higher vitality and dexterity than strength, Harry thought that perhaps it was related to the constant running and fleeing he had done in his Dudley-infested years.

How am I supposed to increase my luck though?

Combing tired fingers through his hair in thought, Harry sighed and stood, finally feeling that he could get some sleep.

Grinning at the ease of putting the books back on the shelf, Harry stretched his arms above his head. Satisfied that he had made some decent progress, he turned and walked back to the corridor leading to his dorm.

I am really starting to love this ability.

Smiling in reflection of his progress as he went, mid-step Harry blinked.

A gentle breeze brushed gently against his night clothes and through his hair. The air was cool and smelled old.

Heart racing as the surprise struck him, Harry looked around with wide eyes.

What just happened?!

Trees surrounded him, ancient trees, each and every one tall and imposing. The gnarled bark seemed to steal away what little light there was. The canopy above was thick but still a few bright dots of starlight managed to break through the gaps.

Harry stood still, the adrenaline fueled tenseness of his muscles easing as he considered what to do. The earth beneath his bare feet was cool, but not cold.

Am I in the Forbidden Forest? How did I even get here?

He strained his ears, trying to hear anything but the wind and the rustling of leaves overhead.

"Hello?"

His word echoed away quickly, returning him to the quiet once more. There were no insects, he realised.

Is this actually a dream? But, it doesn't feel like a dream…

He sighed as he felt the previous tiredness returning.

"I guess… I'll take a look around?"

After deciding that walking forwards seemed to be as good of a direction as any, he took exactly one step before two things happened.

A blue screen appeared and a high pitched giggle came from deep within the darkness in front of him.

You have entered an Instant Dungeon. Be careful.

Reading the message twice to ensure nothing was missed before dismissing it, Harry gulped at the ominous advice given. Whatever an instant dungeon was, it was apparently dangerous enough for the usually carefree system to actually warn him.

The giggling, though seemingly far away the first time, came again and it was undoubtedly getting closer.

Harry pulled his wand out from his inventory, feeling a little better to have something like a weapon, though didn't know what help it would be with his limited abilities.

He searched around for any other kind of weapon. There were no fallen branches or loose stones, the floor seemed to be unnaturally bare. Looking upwards, Harry saw that the branches of the trees began much higher up than he could reach. Seeing nothing at all useful other than the dirt on the floor, Harry resorted to grabbing a handful of it.

As he stood tall once more, Harry looked forward and yelped, hopping backwards and raising his arms. Some thing was floating in the air in front of him. It was bright blue with black pupil less eyes. Its small face seemed to be staring at him in a kind of fascination, with its mouth open in a small o.

Harry was unsure of what to do. This place and the situation had set him on edge and he felt that he would have to fight even if he really didn't want to.

The creature lazily flew closer towards Harry, inspecting him again.

Harry tensed and observed the creature in return.

Level: 5
Pixie
Description: Pixies love tricks and practical jokes. It is able to fly, and enjoys lifting people up by their ears and depositing them on the tops of trees and buildings.

It's three levels higher than me, but does that make a lot of difference in a fight? It's just staring at me… What should I do?

The pixie's mouth broke into a large grin before it giggled again. Harry grimaced at the shrill sound.

With the pixie floating in front of him doing nothing much but stare at him, Harry felt his tension lessen and dropped his hands to his side.

"Do you, uh… can you talk?" Harry asked.

"Nya nyo, nuhhh… nah nyu nyaaak?" the pixie replied and giggled.

"What?"

"Nahh?"

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Test."

"Nehh."

"One, two, three."

"Noh, noo, nee."

Harry sighed then chuckled as the pixie flew circles giggling.

"Where are we anyway?" Harry said aloud, mostly to himself, looking about once more.

The pixie quickly flew up to his face again, even closer this time causing Harry to take a cautionary step back.

"Nuah."

"Nuah?" Harry repeated.

The pixie smiled wide, and flew backwards, away from Harry.

"Where are you going?"

The pixie stopped and watched him, frowning now.

"Neh. Neh nah."

"I don't understand," Harry shook his head.

It was the pixie's turn to sigh this time as it flew back to Harry and began pulling on his sleeve.

"Right. Following you then."

Walking in the direction the pixie had flown, he was soon trailing behind it as it zipped and zoomed in the air, a little way ahead of him. There seemed to be no obvious distinction to the path they were taking, so Harry could only wonder as to where the pixie might be leading them.

After five minutes walking the starlit path between the trees, five minutes in which Harry had thrown away the dirt he had been holding and put his wand away, he again wondered what he was doing here, and more importantly how he got here.

There came another giggling sound from ahead.

The pixie in front of Harry turned back to him and grinned. The giggling came again, from the trees ahead.

"A friend?" Harry asked.

The pixie didn't reply, but flew towards the giggling sound. Harry followed, but quickly realised he needed to run to keep up.

"Hey, wait for me!"

The pixie disappeared off into the darkness ahead.

How is it so dark so quickly just in front of me anyway? I can see around me with no problem. It's almost as if it were...

Harry slapped his forehead with self-exasperation.

Ugh… it's magic, obviously.

Shaking his head at himself, he began walking forwards towards where the pixie had gone, Harry's steps soon slowed to a stop as he stood still, eyes wide and mouth dropped open in wonder. The scene in front such a startling contrast to the previous monotonous dark.

It was beautiful and wondrous. Harry's eyes roved over the view of the glittering pond, light blue and bright luminescence in the dark surrounding. A frame of white glowing flowers occasionally dropping liquid light, temporarily disturbing the calm stillness of the water. It felt powerfully magically. It was almost too captivating and unnaturally gorgeous.

A particularly loud giggle interrupted his reverie and Harry looked up to see pixies, a whole lot of them, floating and playing in the air above the pond.

"What is this place?" Harry whispered.

The pixies flew down to him, all smiling at him. Harry couldn't help but smile back. He felt happy here. One by one, the pixies settled on his clothing and turned to face the pond. Harry followed along, once more losing himself, looking at the scene.

Harry felt light. This was undoubtedly magical. He felt like he was floating in the air.

The pixies giggled together. The sound loud and shrill, disturbing the peace in Harry's mind, and suddenly Harry realised he didn't just feel like he was floating, he was floating!

"Uuahh!" Harry cried.

"Nuuah!" chroused the pixies, the loudness of their voices so close to his ears hurting.

Ahh, my ears!

They carried Harry up high into a tree, and dumped him down, frantically grabbing onto the thankfully sturdy branch that hung over the pond. Rubbing his sore ears and frowning at the pixies, Harry watched as they all flew around madly, cheering and hugging each other.

"What did you do that for?!" Harry yelled, causing them to laugh and fly away, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

"I'm never trusting a pixie again for as long as I live!"

Rubbing his ears until he was satisfied they weren't torn off or permanently damaged, Harry looked to the tree and felt his heart sink. There was no way he would be able to climb down from here. The tree was simply too massive to put his arms around and there were no hand holds of any sort to make use of.

Looking down at the pond far below, Harry felt a chill run through his hands and feet as he considered the drop.

"What do I do?"

Looking down to pond far below, with his feet dangling off the edge of the thick branch, Harry once more let himself succumb to the beauty. It helped calm him and it was a nice distraction from his current predicament.

It's so nice. The water looks soft, like a big, warm, cozy blanket.

Harry smiled while looking down, minutes passing.

The air whipped past his grinning face as he fell, only realising half way down what had just happened. His terrified scream was abruptly cut short as he crashed into the water. Everything hurt. Harry's whole world became pain as his body broke against the shallow depth of the pool.

He surfaced and splashed in a panic, spluttering and gathering great gasps of air as he scrambled for the side of the pond.

Heaving himself onto the verge, Harry remained on all fours as the water dripped from him, head hung low while he regained steady breathing.

Standing carefully, Harry patted his body in amazement and reassured himself that, yes actually, he was fine. Nothing hurt.

"But, how?"

Checking his status, Harry saw his health points were at their maximum, but then noticed something else. Under his list of skills which was normally shown at the bottom, there now read a new section.

Effects:

Blessing of Life

Tapping on the effect, Harry read the words from the new screen.

Blessing of Life
From the well of life you have been bestowed.
The effect restores full health once every 24 hours.
The effect cannot be applied more than once every 24 hours.
The effect provides a passive 25% increase to health regeneration for the duration.
Effect duration: 23 hours 57 minutes 3 seconds.

Harry watched the duration timer tick down as he thought about the words he just read.

Did the pixies know I would jump? Did they know I'd survive because of this… blessing?

Standing up, Harry looked to the water and noticed it seemed to be a little less alluring now. The bright vibrancy from before remained but had somewhat diminished.

It's a shame I have nothing to carry this water with….

Sighing, he looked around considering his next action. Once more alone, there was no reappearance of the pixies.

With difficulty, Harry decided to leave the pond behind, and decided to walk in a random direction, none looking any more advantageous than the others.

Into the darkness, as before, the immediate vicinity around Harry was discernible, but not far off there was an ever present darkness.

I could get lost in here forever…

After a while, Harry stopped walking. He had heard something. Something different. This wasn't the giggling of the pixies or the rustling of the leaves. If he had to describe it, Harry would have said it sounded like a pig. It was coming from ahead of him, and it was getting closer.

Immediately on guard, and deciding not to trust anything, Harry grabbed some dirt and pulled out his wand before running being a thick tree, peeking out as little as possible, to see what was coming.

Moments after Harry had hidden himself, the creature arrived. It was small, and it looked just like a piglet, as long as you ignored the fact that it had bright orange hair covering its whole body and perhaps more importantly the beginnings of a horn protruding from its forehead.

Observe.

Level: 3
Ignis Uniporcellus
This piglet is yet too young to take advantage of the prodigious fire based talents of its species. Its horn, though not fully grown, can inflict massive damage.

The Ignis Uniporcellus began snuffling around the base of the trees not far from Harry.

That warning about its horn sounds scary.

Quest created!
Defeat the Ignis Uniporcellus
Reward: Learn skill 'Escape Instant Dungeon'.
Failure: Remain in the Instant Dungeon.
Accept [Y / N]

The sudden presence of the new window startled Harry. After ensuring his flinching hadn't alerted the creature, Harry read the quest.

Does that mean if I fail I am stuck here? Would I be able to figure out that skill on my own anyway, without the quest? Besides, what does 'defeat' mean anyway? Would I need to just make it run away, or… kill it?

Rubbing his head with his knuckles, read the quest again.

What is pushing me to do these things?

Taking another look at the young creature, Harry felt a heavy sorrow as his decision had been made.

I don't know what else to do…

Quest accepted!

Taking a step from behind the tree, the Ignis Uniporcellus seemed to notice him immediately. It turned to face him and snuffed the air.

"Hey," said Harry.

It moved towards Harry slowly, warily.

"You're a cute one aren't you," Harry said with a sad smile.

It arrived at Harry's dirty bare feet and sniffed around, the hair on its face tickling him.

"I can't do it…" Harry said to it and it looked up to him almost questioningly. "I'm pretty sure it wants me to hurt you. I don't understand why. You're so small and young. I bet you're not even a year old."

It carried on watching Harry for a few moments longer before losing interest and returning to the tree from before.

Following, Harry tried to see what had caught its interest.

"What's there anyway? What are you looking for?"

Harry couldn't see anything different about this tree when comparing it to the others around him. It looked just as gnarled and old.

As Harry watched a new message appeared.

Warning! Defeat the Ignis Uniporcellus Quest failure likely.

A cold fear crept into Harry as he realised he had made a new decision. He was going to fail this quest.

Watching the small creature sniffing with purpose, Harry saw the message window vanish on its own, soon replaced by a new message.

Warning! Defeat the Ignis Uniporcellus Quest will fail automatically in 2 hours.

Harry grimaced as he read the message, and dismissed it quickly.

"Well, I'm glad at least I didn't have to hurt you."

It paused its searching and looked up at Harry.

"But how do I get out of here?"

It had no answer for him and seemed to have decided to move on from the tree. It began walking away, past other trees and Harry decided that he had no better direction so began following it.

I wonder if I'm going to be stuck here forever, following this little one around.

Occasionally it would pause at a tree and sniff around the base for a few minutes, a repetition of its earlier action, but for almost an hour the pattern didn't change.

Eventually the pattern did change. It had evidently found what it was looking for when it began to squeal excitedly around the base of a tree.

Harry couldn't see anything different about this tree, but looked down at where it was now digging into the earth. Soon enough, a shiny green sphere was unearthed and quickly eaten.

"So that was what you were looking for, whatever it was."

It squealed and jumped about happily before it suddenly stopped, standing absolutely still.

Harry watched, fascinated and concerned for his new friend.

Its hair and horn began to shine bright as the creature rapidly grew into what Harry assumed was its adult size.

The change was quick. Once the glowing stopped, Harry saw that it had become roughly three times bigger than before, with a permanent glow to its hair and a now elongated horn.

"Wow!"

Defeat the Ignis Uniporcellus Quest changed to Defeat the Ignis Uniporcus.

Spotting the change in the name, Harry used observe on it again.

Level: 5
Ignis Uniporcus
This Ignis Uniporcus has reached its juvenile form after successfully completing its growth quest. In its adolescence it has become much more aggressive. It now has access to part of its fire based talents but requires practice. Its horn, though not fully grown, can inflict extreme damage.

Quickly reading the description Harry looked back to the now named Ignis Uniporcus and watched it warily.

It was staring at him and huffing, its feet scratching into the ground.

"We're still friends, right?"

In answer, it screamed and charged at Harry. It was quick, but being on guard Harry was able to jump out of its way and scramble to his feet.

Taking out his wand again, Harry quickly grabbed a handful of dirt and threw.

Ignis Uniporcus temporarily blinded.

Harry watched as it shook its head and screamed louder still in its rage. It stumbled about blindly, hitting a tree causing it to stop and stand still.

Harry stood still, and wondered what to do. He only knew two spells.

Invenius locus is out, but… no pond for you to land in.

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The end of his wand fizzled and nothing really happened except that now it knew where Harry was. It turned and began another charge.

Scrambling backwards, Harry swished and flicked his wand once more, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

It was just a moment until the charge was successful, but it was enough time for the spell to take affect and raise the screaming creature into the air. Harry kept his concentration and lifted it, higher and higher. Higher even than he had fallen before.

"I'm sorry…" Harry whispered closing his eyes, and let the spell end.

He heard the fall as the scream got louder and the awful crunching thud as it landed. He turned away and began walking, eyes reading the new messages

Foe slain. You have gained 136 EXP.

Quest completed.
Reward: Learned skill 'Escape Instant Dungeon'.

Harry kept walking, and dismissed the windows. After thinking about it, he understood exactly how he could leave now and didn't hesitate.

Without a sound, Harry felt himself break out of the Instant Dungeon and transition back to the Ravenclaw common room. It was still dark, and the magical fire relit at his return.