Finally recovering from a nasty case of Pneumonia that saw me hospitalized for a time; my mistake for thinking it was a common cold, I guess. Sorry for the three-week hiatus everyone, but I simply did not have the energy to write at all. I am better now, and I have a few more ideas I want to try in Harry/Jasmine's pre-Hogwarts years; this chapter reflects some of them.

You're right; Hermione would have had a higher strength than Harry before he started extensive Quidditch training, possibly even unto third year. She was lugging two dozen huge books without Featherweight Charms after all; if those tomes were about 4 pounds each, that would be at least 10 strength. Do note that there are RL thirteen-year-old girls with a strength of 15+, the record being 240 lbs or so. And now that Harry is learning the system and has found the first 'exploit'...

Disclaimer: was Dumbledore able to put a spy in Harry's neighborhood without the rest of the Wizarding World realizing despite Harry being an important national icon and hero? If yes, I do not own Harry Potter; he belongs to JK Rowling and this story is free and for fun.

xxxx

Somehow, Jasmine managed to avoid the worst consequences of having fun at Piers Polkiss' expense. Neither Petunia nor Vernon would ever acknowledge Dudley's slow decline into barbarism and thus any misdeeds associated with it were safe from their scrutiny. Dudley was silently sulking of course, and refused to share any details as to why. His 'sister' might not have beaten him but she had beat his primary minion and admitting to being curbstomped by a girl was against the boy code, as Harry knew well enough. He and Ron had spent endless hours being embarrassed by Hermione's capability after all, even though they'd done little to attempt to match it in anything except Defense against the Dark Arts. Harry didn't know if it was the advantage of hindsight or being reborn as a girl, but that struck him as a rather stupid attitude now and seeing it in Dudley of all people didn't exactly make him feel good about his choices in that previous life.

The awkwardness of everyday life in Number 4 Privet Drive was soon overtaken by Dudley and Jasmine's return to school. Dudley entered his own little world of young boys slowly growing into professional troublemakers and bullies, and Harry in Jasmine's body had to deal with being a popular girl with several female friends. Things were not nearly as bad as what Harry knew of similar situations in Hogwarts, or what he'd heard of or imagined about girl cliques based on various rumours and second-hand information. That was probably due to Jasmine and her friends being eight-year-olds, but the problem remained that Harry didn't know anything about acting as either popular or female. So he cheated, and used Jasmine's acting skills for all they were worth to emulate what he remembered of Ginny and Lavender, with the occasional sprinkling of Pansy Parkinson as the situation demanded. It went without saying that his primary source of information on how girls acted was totally inappropriate for the task; Hermione might have been brilliant but she'd never been particularly girly from what he remembered. It couldn't have been solely his and Ron's fault that they had not really noticed she'd been a girl for three and a half years. Before the first few weeks were out he'd gotten several more ranks in his Deception skill, two ranks in Impersonation, and one in Ad-Libbing.

Speaking of skills, he soon realized that most mundane skills worked in a similar manner. They usually gave him a chance to perform a given action outright, a passive percentage bonus to an associated ability score in all tasks having to do with that action, and a trick or technique every five ranks or so. Deception for example which he had recently improved read:

Deception Rank 25

You know how to successfully mislead others and conceal information and actions during social interaction. Chance of being believed outright in normal circumstances 25% (1/rank, opposed by Empathy). Bonus to Charisma rolls for any kind of deception of 25% (1/rank). Tricks of avoiding suspicion mastered; 5 (looking innocent, friendly approach, playing the victim, exploit preconception, exploit social standing)

He wondered who codified something as complex as social interaction down to a few lines of words and numbers, and why. This "Game of Life" thing was very real to him now, but he wasn't entirely sure the world could be measured so simply. Did this game enforce its statistics and numbers into everything, or were the numbers an approximation of what happened in the world in general, and Harry's weird situation in particular? With magic everything was possible he supposed, but he wanted, needed to know how this second chance worked so he made the best choices available. He did not want to die again, but far more than that he did not want to see others dying when Voldemort made his bid for power once again.

School was fairly easy. Harry had gone through it before and while his years in the magical world had focused on magic more than muggle knowledge, his basic skills in English, memorizing textbooks, cross-referencing information, and writing long assignments had survived the transformation into a young girl at least in part. Coupled with a few memories of going through all the lessons before, and Dudley and his gang no longer actively trying to make his/her life hell, and Harry could have easily coasted his way through school. For that exact reason he decided he should do the opposite. Wasting time was a bad idea with war coming to Britain in less than a decade. Muggle primary education might not be able to help Harry, or rather Jasmine, when the time came to enter the magical world, but Harry had seen how helpful Hermione's academic skills had been and according to his "character sheet", Jasmine's speed-reading, information search, and memorization skills weren't so hot.

He was going to see if six hours a day, five days a week, of trying to study as hard and fast as possible would result in some useful improvement.

xxxx

Accidental Magic List:

Alter Shape, Animal Shape, Bounce, Blast, Command, Compel, Colour, Dark, Double, Erase, Featherweight, Freeze, Grow, Gust, Hide, Ignite, Jolt, Know, Light, Mend, Move, Negate, Open, Protect, Quiet, Repel, Reduce, Sound, Sunder, Travel, Thrust, Unveil, Vanish, Weigh, Weird.

Seeing all underage magic could do arrayed in a list was weird, but also exciting. Harry was certain the list did not include every variation of what accidental magic could do, but was limited to pretty standard effects overall when it came to what he could learn to do intentionally. So far, Harry had only intentionally managed a single effect - "Move" - and that with great difficulty. He remembered he'd managed at least a half a dozen of the effects on the list by accident in his past life and had heard of most of the others so he knew learning them was possible. He also remembered how Tom Riddle could use several of them intentionally before ever going to Hogwarts and with far less difficulty than he had, which would simply not do.

Now that Jasmine's "Accidental Magic" skill had just hit rank 15, he needed to pick one more effect from the list. At least that's what the game's messages told him. Adding the two effects he had not picked before, he had three choices in total. Too bad he wanted to pick everything... Given the laws about wands, the Statute of Secrecy, and his own need to remain hidden, buying a wand early was a bad idea even if Jasmine could easily find the money for one. And with the usual Potter luck already messing things up, being able to use magic could be a life-saver. Tentatively, he examined the most likely choices.

Blast: Direct magical attack at range using the highest of Agility or Intellect to hit, and Conviction for power. At 15% Conviction (1/rank of Accidental Magic)

Hide: deflect attention at full Conviction vs Intellect. Double effect vs Muggles. Duration in seconds based off Conviction. At 15% Conviction (1/rank of Accidental Magic)

Protect: temporary barrier around target. Power based off Conviction. Duration in seconds based off Conviction. At 15% Conviction (1/rank of Accidental Magic)

Travel: Short-range Apparition between targets. Range in yards based off Conviction. At 15% Conviction (1/rank of Accidental Magic)

Controlled underage magic might be much weaker than spells with a wand but it was still very useful. Blasting a threat with a bolt of magic was something Harry had done for most of his life, and as a way of solving problems it was both refreshingly direct and strangely comforting. Besides, if he had the Game's system correctly, 15% of Jasmine's Conviction was still almost twice her physical strength, meaning a blow four times as powerful and at range. Similarly, the other effects were pretty good too. Hiding from observers for a dozen seconds or taking a blow or two on a rudimentary Shield Charm might mean the difference between life and death for the rather squishy eight-year-old Jasmine still was. And Apparition was awesome, even if was limited at a distance of a dozen meters or so for now.

Unfortunately, Harry had not suddenly found the solution to all his troubles in the form of Underage Magic. There was a reason wizards and witches kept at least four eyes on their children given the insane dangers inherent in the magical world. For one thing, using underage magic intentionally was nowhere near as easy as it was with a wand. Even after Harry putting his current body through weeks of effort and practice, Jasmine could successfully use it after six or seven seconds of intense concentration - an impractical eternity in any sort of fight. For another, magic was several times more tiring than it used to be even when casting feeble effects. He'd hoped that with enough practice Jasmine could pull it off reliably enough to not have to rely on fisticuffs, but things were not going well.

It had taken nearly two months to get to the current level of proficiency, what with all the hours Jasmine had to spend on school and other activities. According to the game's messages, taking it to a point where Jasmine needed only three seconds and a bit of effort to pull off a spell would need months, perhaps years of attempts still because the skill became harder and harder to increase the higher its rank was. Rank 10 had taken her only about a thousand attempts spread over a couple of days. Rank 15 had taken three and a half thousand. Rank thirty, the point where Jasmine's magic would be useful in a fight, would take twenty-seven thousand... and failed attempts did not count.

Remembering an incident from Harry's past life involving a teacher, a wig, and the colour blue, Jasmine made a snap decision and chose "Colour" instead of "Hide" or "Travel" as her third underage magical effect learned. Reading books would help her future academic career but it was mighty boring. Changing Dudley's homework into blank white paper would alleviate said boredom and allow her to work magic in class without being obvious about it.

Efficient learning was the best kind.

xxxx

Another month, another point put into Endurance. Magic, dancing, skipping rope and playing dodgeball during breaks and PE to up her abysmal Dodging skill, even reading books for hours was tiring and the more energy Jasmine had available per day, the more she could do, the further she could push herself. In all those days of calm contemplation and the suspicious lack of magical monster attacks, Harry was beginning to understand how this Game of Life worked and had already found ways to use the rules to his... Jasmine's advantage.

There was no way to cheat that he was aware of, unless this second chance itself and his foreknowledge counted as cheating to begin with. But realizing how focusing on some specific attributes that fit the way he acted could maximize results? That was both an epiphany and an annoyance. If Harry had known what to expect when he first made Jasmine's sheet, he'd put a boatload of points into Endurance instead of his initial ten, and he'd have been leagues ahead of where he was now. But no use crying over spilt potion when there were many things still to be done.

With Accidental Magic now at Rank 20, Jasmine could reliably pull off the basic "Hiding" effect Harry had just picked every five seconds of effort. With her Conviction of seventy-five though, the magical concealment lasted for fifteen seconds, allowing her to keep it up as long as her Energy lasted - some twenty minutes. That was finally long enough to sneak out of Number 4 Privet Drive undetected and see for herself exactly what the deal was with the seemingly abandoned house at Number 2 Wisteria Walk. According to Harry's old memories, that should have been the residence of one Mrs Arabella Figg, an unmarried Squib, member of the Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore's spy.

Approaching the house took no time and effort beyond keeping the basic stealth charm on. Jasmine was not quite invisible but most people would just ignore her, especially if they were Muggles, and for as long as she didn't do something loud, obvious, or explosive as had been Harry's modus operandi in his previous life. That the streets were dark - not quite Dementor dark, thankfully - and mostly empty helped too. Unfortunately, while her arrival was unimpeded, entering the house would not be so easy. The entrance and windows were all solidly boarded and nailed shut to boot, something that would hardly hinder anyone with a wand or even a Squib with the right enchanted item but might be an almost insurmountable obstacle for an eight-year-old girl. On the other hand, this specific eight-year-old girl now had some crude but usable magic.

Making sure nobody was watching, Jasmine stalked to the small house's back yard and the door she remembered from Harry's previous life. It was exactly where it was supposed to be and boarded up too, but that would soon stop being a problem. Since the low, dilapidated fence and a decent amount of wild growth concealed her from passers-by, she dropped the concealment and reached for her ability to move objects. According to the game rules, she should be able to exert force as if she applied a Rank 15 strength, being able to lift over two hundred pounds. Practical testing had confirmed this and as she focused her efforts in one end of a thick wooden plank and pulled, she was rewarded with the groaning protests of wood and the cracks of rusty old nails snapping one by one. Satisfied, she focused on the next plank and the next until the entire back door was open some three minutes later.

The gaping black opening over which the planks had been nailed beckoned. With both excitement and trepidation, Harry/Jasmine ventured forth.