Chapter 9:
The prefect's bathroom was something of a legend at Hogwarts.
From first through seventh years, there were many who spoke of this sensual and titillating place that was built as a hard-earned reward for the tired and overworked prefects and how it stood in magnificent contrast to the rickety showers and plain stalls that the rest of the castle had to live with. Rumors of its contents included a pool sized bath, a massive diamond-encrusted chandelier, and multicolored crystal faucets that gave perfumed and soapy water to the desired combination of the lucky one who had the fortune of using it.
But getting in and experiencing its joys was not easy.
The door to the prefect's bathroom was entirely too well guarded. A massive metal armor stood across its door, blocking the path of anyone intending to access the bathroom. It only let people in after they said the password, which was a jealously guarded secret amongst the prefects. Even people who were dear friends or romantically involved with the prefects and did get to see the bathroom, never knew the password. Furthermore, the rumors of the knight getting violent towards anyone who tried to bypass it without the password, magically or otherwise, were not entirely wrong.
The protections on the bathroom were almost entirely impossible to get past.
Thus, it wasn't much of a surprise that Harry had managed to bypass the protections within five seconds.
Inside, he floated in the massive bath, holding up a book in one hand and a wand in the other while Hedwig flew around the room with cheerful trills, exploring around and doing aerial loops and turnabouts. The mermaid that was painted on the stained glass window delightfully clapped and giggled at the phoenix's antics.
Saturday mornings had classes for upper years and were completely free for first years, so no one was there to catch him mucking around. Besides, Harry had decided, wasn't this the real reason first years had the weekend off? So that they could explore the castle?
Blue screens kept popping up in Harry's vision as he progressed through the book.
Ping!
Spell learned!
Reparo
This charm is used to seamlessly repair a broken object and works on most materials.
-25 MP per use
Ping!
Spell learned!
Periculum
This spell is used to send out red sparks from the wand with a vast range. Often used to signal that one is in danger, and thus in need of help.
-15 MP per use
Ping!
Spell learned!
Mucus ad Nauseum/Febribus ad Perdere
This spell is used to opponents a cold and a runny nose. Counter Febribus ad Perdere cures cold
-10 MP per use
The fact that he automatically learned the counter to a spell if he learned the spell and vice versa was something Harry felt was a very exploitable facet of the Gamer abilities.
He had an inkling of a suspicion that his ability to pick up on magical currents was what had made it possible for it to happen, but there was no way to make sure. But he did have a sound theory behind it. His Gamer's Mind could feel the magical waves of the spell he learned, so it simply reversed the frequency, mana patterns, and phase characteristics of the spell, and voila! He automatically knew how to cast the counter-curse. All he needed after that was the incantation, which was provided in the notification that popped up.
He'd been lucky until now.
So far, the magical waves were simple enough that he could easily learn the counters to them, but he had a strong suspicion that it would get much more difficult to pull off with more complex spells.
Spell learned!
Leviosa
This spell is used to make things float. Its often used with a prefix.
-5 MP per use
With that one last spell, Harry swam over to the edge of the pool and climbed up, putting on his clothes.
"Com'ere Hedwig."
Hedwig burst into flames right where she was flying a second ago and appeared with another burst right on Harry's shoulders. Waving a goodbye to the mermaid on the glass, Harry walked over to the door of the bathroom.
He left the bathroom the same way he'd entered, popping into his Instant Dungeon's dimension, blowing a hole in the wall, walking through the hole and then breaking out of the ID.
The red sky outside shattered, showing the bright blue skies of the sunny day in Hogwarts, and a random kneazle that was passing by the door jumped a foot into the air and ran away as an eleven year old boy appeared into existence out of nowhere.
He let Hedwig go free to play in the forest and jogged off towards the Ravenclaw Tower.
Harry walked into the common room to find Terry, Stephen Cornfoot and Michael Corner on one of the tables, each thumbing through their own books, writing what Harry soon realized was their Monday's Transfiguration essay.
Harry paused and frowned. He had been remiss in making friends with his dorm-mates. He had talked to each of these guys throughout the last week at various times, but he liked to work and spend a lot of time alone, so he didn't really know any of them really well. Luckily for him, his celebrity status often worked in his favor and gave him an advantage in social interactions. Most people already liked him and were quite friendly with him, so he didn't have to worry too much about them hating him from the moment they met him.
Harry was glad for that.
"Hey, Harry!" Terry's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"Morning, Terry," Harry chimed back, "How is the Transfiguration essay going?"
"It just never ends, does it!?" Michael exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. Harry and Stephen dodged the droplets of ink that flew from the quill in his hand, "How are we supposed to explain why Metamorphmaguses-"
"Metamorphmagi," Stephen corrected.
"-Metamorphmagi can change their appearances! Isn't that contradicting itself! How can it not kill them if they can transfigure themselves? And don't they teach human transfiguration in the sixth year! How does that even- Argh!"
Harry listened to Michael's rant with a bemused smile as he pulled a chair out and sat on it.
"You've finished the essay haven't you? Why don't you help us out here?" Terry asked curiously.
"Alright then" Harry pulled a parchment and a quill to himself. "Well, its a bit like this." He drew three circles on the parchment before writing down, 'Metamorph' 'Human Transfiguration' 'Animagus' in them.
He pointed at the circles and spoke to the three Ravenclaws around him. "These are the primary oppositions that most people make with the whole 'No transfiguring people or stuff that goes into people' theory. The Professor explained why Animagus wasn't outright free transfiguration last week-"
"It's limited," Terry interrupted, "They can't go transforming into whatever they like. Limited transfiguration isn't free transfiguration, so it's not the kind of Transfiguration that we're doing."
"Exactly," Harry agreed, "It's the same with Metamorphs. They are limited too, otherwise, the ones that had fought in the last war would've been able to turn into a horde of bees or…I dunno… ten dragons… and destroyed the Death Eaters. As far as I've read, they can change only their facial appearance, bone length and skin color. That's pretty limited. And like Terry said, limited transfiguration is not free transfiguration."
Harry crossed off the Animagus and Metamorph circles before continuing.
"And human transfiguration is usually done by spells, since it's impossible for anyone to know a human's anatomy and the target transfiguration well enough to imagine it all in their head. I think I read about it in some book from the common room shelf last night."
He neatly wrote down the word proficisentor.
"Pretty sure that's the spell that is used in human transfigurations. So, if you have to make your hair yellow, then you just add the prefixes and suffixes and it comes down to…"
He paused to remember what the spell was, before writing down pilorum proficisentor flaviosa on the paper.
"This spell. I mean, it looks pretty hard to do. That's probably why they teach us that in NEWT year."
Stephen, who had been quiet the entire time, spoke up. He had a small smirk on his face. "I think I have a pretty good idea of why McGonagall was warning us against practicing human transfiguration."
Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Just take one look at the third years and above," Stephen said, "They're all just spending their time trying to impress some girl or boy. Don't you think they'd change their own appearance in a jiffy if they could? Make themselves prettier or more handsome? Even if they risk losing a nose or a head of hair? You see where I'm going don't you?"
"I do," Terry replied, stroking his chin, "McGonagall was trying to make sure that all of us respect the dangers of Transfiguration enough to not just go transfiguring ourselves into Lockharts to get girls? That…actually doesn't sound unlikely. I did read that puberty does pretty crazy stuff to you…" Terry spoke while stroking his chin.
Harry was impressed. He'd underestimated Stephen and Terry.
"Exactly!" Stephen exclaimed, "And even though human transfiguration and Metamorphs and Animagi are much less dangerous than free Transfiguration, McGonagall is also trying to make sure that we accept who we are as people. Most people probably get over their issues by the time they get to the final years, so that's when they start teaching human transfiguration!" Stephen said excitedly.
"And…thus…not…free…Transfiguration! That's the essay done!" Michael exclaimed. Stephen looked at him, slightly taken aback, before he realized what had happened.
Michael had been writing his essay the entire time Stephen and Terry had been on their tirade.
Terry smacked him over his head. "Don't you have any sensitivity you buffoon! We've been discussing the theory of transfiguration and how it affects the psychology of wizards, and you haven't even been paying attention!"
"Oi!" Michael protested, rubbing the back of his head with a wince, "I've been listening! Besides, my essay is done and yours isn't, so you don't exactly get the moral high ground."
Stephen and Terry sent a dirty look at him and picked up their quills to finish up their essays.
"Well, I'm off to the dorms. Have to change out of these robes. Why didn't you tell me we could go without these on weekends!" Harry asked.
"You didn't ask. Now come on. I'll go with you and let these philosopher types finish their essays." Michael said with a smile. Together, they both walked up the stairs to the Ravenclaw dorm. Anthony Goldstein was still snoring off in his bed. Harry looked at the wall clock. It was eleven in the morning.
"He's still sleeping?" Harry said with a wry smile on his face.
Michael chuckled. "Let him be, its Saturday."
Harry grinned and put away his robes. They wouldn't survive what he had planned for the rest of the day. Michael was rummaging around in his book bag as he turned around to leave.
"I'm off exploring. I'll turn up at the flying class and then probably turn up straight in the midnight astronomy class. Don't worry about me if you don't see me much today." Harry said.
"Your detention with Snape?"
"Starts next Saturday."
"What about the Potions essay?" Michael asked in dismay. "Surely you couldn't have finished everything!"
"Already finished!" Harry tossed over his shoulder, running down the stairs and out of the common room.
As Harry walked through the corridors of Hogwarts, he opened up his skill list and scrolled over to his ID Create skill.
ID Create, Lv-5 (20%)
Used to create Instant Dungeons. Higher the level, stronger the dungeon.
Current list-
Empty Dungeon- no monsters.
Monster Dungeon- Zombies
Harry had unlocked the Monster Dungeon- Zombies in Hogwarts a few days ago while repeatedly breaking in and out of IDs in order to grind and level up his skill. Since then, Harry had checked out a book from the library to explain exactly what the differences were between Inferi and Zombies were. He opened Newt Scamander's book to the required paragraph and read it.
Zombies are "living dead" creatures that dwell in the southern part of the United States of America. They are able to be identified by their greyish skin and rotten smell.
While zombies have much in common with Inferi, they are in fact, two distinct creatures. While inferi are made out of soulless dead bodies, Zombies were created out of live humans by a dark wizard in an experiment who wanted to use the zombified person's soul to sustain himself.
However, this turned upon him as it turned out that creating a zombie takes a permanent drain on the creator's magic. The wizard was turned into a squib after making his sixth zombie, and being defenseless against the half-dead monsters, was devoured. Many others have experimented with zombies but all have either been killed or turned into squibs and then into zombies
Many attempts have been made to eliminate zombies by wizards, however none have been very successful, due to a zombie's ability to infect muggles with a bite and turn them into new zombies. While wizards have been proven immune to this infection, a zombie's extreme strength can prove a danger to anybody. Fire is their only known weakness since they are very flammable.
Impossible to domesticate and known wizard killers.
Class XXXXX
'Fire…I can do fire,' Harry thought to himself. He looked around to make sure no one was watching and then intoned clearly, "ID Create: Zombies!"
The world's sky turned red again as Harry took out Riddler's wand, sheathing his own back into the inventory and ran off towards this dimension's Forbidden forest and entered it.
After all, where else would the zombies be?
He quickly flitted in and out of the leaves of the trees he was running on, making every landing and grabbing every branch he wished to. Nothing seemed impossible for him. It was the first time Harry had truly appreciated how his high Str and Dex had affected his body. Every muscle seemed perfectly toned, responding to his every thought and command, not showing even a single trace of fatigue as he jumped, ran, and swung from branches and treetops, searching for his first opponent.
A massive thunderous crack emerged from somewhere deeper into the forest.
Harry was about to wonder what it was, when suddenly he caught something out of the corner of his eyes. It was a man…or at least looked like a man, putrid grey going by skin color, his eyes were popped out of his sockets and his skin was peeling off in several places. Pressing down his sense of disgust, Harry quickly observed it.
Zombie,
Lv-6
HP:300/300
MP: 20/20
Str-25
Vit-6
Dex-2
Int-1
Wis-1
Luc-0
An undead come back to life for one thing and one thing only, the meat of the living. Thinks the word Zombie is offensive to zombies and wants to be called a Walker.
Kill to get- 50 Exp
Harry dismissed the screen and tossed a fireball at the zombie from his position in the tree, scoring a one-shot kill. The zombie disappeared in a shower of dust, leaving behind a 2 £ bill. He jumped down from the tree, pocketed the bill, and then walked further into the forest in search for more zombies.
It didn't take long for Harry to find what he was looking for. Or more precisely, for what he was looking for to find him. Less than five minutes into his walk, he was ambushed and quickly surrounded by a horde of zombies in a forest clearing.
Harry looked around. There were 5….14…..28 zombies out there. Some of them armed. For a moment, he considered killing them all in one shot with his elemental control. He could, and rather easily too, but he decided not to. He still had a few hours of free time left, and it was that he would much rather spend grinding rather than waiting around for his MP to regenerate from a massive Remomancy attack.
'Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way then,' he decided.
Another thunderous crack ripped through the forest.
Ignoring it and smiling like a maniac, Harry lit a fist on fire and punched the nearest zombie in the face with his full strength, snapping its neck backward and setting its head on fire. One down, 27 to go.
Taking a quick look around to judge the numbers around him, he ran towards the least concentrated area and jumped, delivering a flaming kick to another one's gut, setting it on fire and sending the flaming zombie stumbling back towards its friends. Any other zombie that came in contact with it caught fire as well, thinning the horde significantly.
"Twenty"
He turned and saw a small group of zombies coming too close for comfort. Sending a blast of wind to push most them back, he then parried the incoming armed zombie's sword with a push to the flat side of the blade and placed a hand on its stomach, blasting a hole in its midsection. He then let rip a small wave of fire at the remaining members of the group, deciding for once and all to screw the saving mana plan. He was having fun.
"Fourteen"
An idea struck Harry. He still had the Muggle weapons from the time he had raided Grunnings's little meeting. Opening his inventory, he chucked the zombie's sword in and grabbed an impact grenade. Pulling out the pin, he lobbed it straight towards the most crowded group of the undead.
BOOM!
'Shit!' he thought instantly. The trees had caught fire from the explosion. This was not good. Harry called for the underground water with his mana and sent a concentrated jet towards the trees, extinguishing the fire and destroying most of the remaining zombies, updating his zombie counter with every kill.
"One"
Harry paused for a second, and then sidestepped the sword swing that came from behind him. In one smooth motion, Harry swung around, pulled out a shotgun from his inventory and aimed and pulled the trigger.
"Zero"
The zombie's head flew off in many pieces and Harry slammed to the ground onto his butt from the recoil of the shotgun.
"Ow!"
Rubbing is bum, Harry decided that he would shelve the idea of using guns until he'd outgrown his skinny frame, no matter how cool he thought it would look.
Getting to his feet, Harry prepared himself. His mana reserves were running a bit lower than he wanted them to, his hands and knees were bruised, and there was a cut on his arm where a sword had glanced him. To make things even worse, the massive explosion was sure to have alerted every hostile in the area. Harry cursed his stupidity and quickly ran to the edge of the clearing and shimmied up a tree.
He started to wait, letting his mana regeneration get his magic back to top form and downed a few pancakes in an attempt to fill his HP back up. The more dangerous enemies were sure to come soon, and he'd have to take them out from the trees above. Hand to hand was no longer a viable option.
Sure enough, they came. And it wasn't any zombie this time. Oh no sir it was not.
At first, Harry heard a low grunting and the shuffling footfalls of huge feet. From under the trees on the right side, something huge was moving toward him. Harry shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.
It was a grotesque sight.
Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredibly horrible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.
"Observe"
SPECIAL ENEMY DETECTED!
Troll
Lv-12
HP:800/800
MP:50/50
Str-60
Vit-12
Dex-1
Int-2
Wis-1
Luc-0
A vicious forest troll that wants to kill anything in its way. One of the only creatures known to thrive with Undead Creatures, it is incredibly resistant to magic, has tough skin and incredible strength but is very dumb. He has mommy issues since she tried to eat him when he was born.
Kill to get- 75 Exp
'Thrives with Undead Creatures' didn't really explain how a creature that was technically 'living' existed in an undead dungeon. Worriedly, Harry eyed his new challenger when suddenly,
Bloodlust detected!
Without a second's hesitation, his legs coiled like a frog and he sprang from his spot out into the open air of the clearing.
The troll in the middle of the clearing seemed to be expecting it as it swung its club with all its force, intending to 'baseball shoot' Harry's life right out of him. Harry used a quick burst of wind midair to get himself away from the swing of the club and slowed down enough to land off to the side of the clearing. Balancing himself, he turned around to see what had caused his bloodlust warning to trigger,
The tree he was standing on was merely a destroyed stump now, and a massive troll, larger and meaner looking than the one already in the clearing was standing on it with its massive club resting on its shoulder.
'There are two of them!' Harry realized, dread sinking down into his stomach. He had no idea what he was going to do now. Trolls were supposed to be very hard to kill.
Deftly dodging the barrage of rocks and swinging clubs that was being thrown his way, Harry desperately sent out his mana, searching for anything that could help him. Fire and earth were completely useless due to tough skin and magic resistance respectively. And he had yet to find a way to use wind to kill monsters.
All this and more was passing through his head when he heard a soft, rhythmic thudding echoing in his mind. Swinging under the club of the smaller troll and jumping backward, Harry suddenly realized what he was hearing.
Water.
Rushing through the veins of the troll, into and out of its beating heart. It was much in lesser amount than any human blood, but it was there.
And it was enough.
Harry tilted his head to smile at the new challengers. Now all he had to do was to distract them enough to get his mana into their bloodstreams. And he knew just the way to do it.
He pulled out his holly wand and leveled both of his wands, one in each hand, right above the center of the clearing. Hoping that the description was right about them being dumb, he incanted, "Periculum"
A massive burst of red sparks shot skyward from his wands and settled above the clearing, floating. The trolls couldn't take their eyes off of the cloud of sparks and slowly raised their hands and started gurgling at it. It was working! Harry sent out his mana and commanded their blood to answer his call.
It did. Knowing that these creatures were not very intelligent and were probably only attacking out of instinct, Harry decided to give them a quick and painless death. With a little bit of effort, Harry jostled around the blood near their hearts, causing it to clot. The blood flow to their hearts stopped and they suddenly gave a giant heave, fell down and dissolved into golden dust.
Harry let go of his control and then looked at his mana;
Mana: 37/250
He really needed to improve the size of his mana pool, and that was only possible by getting much more Int points. Turning around to look at the troll foot he got as the loot, he grimaced and decided to not take it.
Sometimes, the rewards were just a little bit shit.
Harry turned and saw around twenty zombies coming at him. With a grin, he turned into the forest and he quickly ran deep inside. The zombies followed him, extremely slow and no real match for Harry's speed.
Harry smiled as he got a brilliant idea. He focused an air current under his feet and boosted himself upwards, grabbing onto a branch and swinging himself onto the tree. Then, he waited. His original sniping idea hadn't worked with the troll, but it was sure to work with these zombies.
Zombies were quickly picked out in ones and twos as Harry used his earth control to drive spikes into the zombies and take them down.
Over the next hour Harry hit small groups of zombies across the forest, slowly boosting up his stats, and after he was done with the final group of zombies, he walked out of the forest near the ID Hagrid's hut, extremely tired. He took out some meat and ate it, filling up his energy. Harry then moved to enter back into the forest for a bit more grinding when suddenly he heard the thunderous crack echo through the forest once again.
It was much closer now.
"What is this?" Harry wondered as he started following the sound. He'd been hearing these cracks since he'd entered the ID and he was starting to get very curious about what was causing them.
Harry ducked through the underbrush as he looked for the source. He'd just reached the clearing near the Black Lake, the one that was a favorite for students that wanted to indulge in activities of the more lascivious kind.
The sight that greeted him was a…strange one, to say the least. In the center of the clearing stood a huge horde of zombies.
No.
Horde was the wrong word, the appropriate term was an army. For they were exactly that. Together as one, they slammed their feet into the ground, all together, once again generating the massive crack of sound that had led Harry here.
Harry was slightly relieved. He could take zombies. At least it wasn't a dragon or something. He pulled out his wand and readied an Incendio spell, waiting for them to attack.
But they weren't poised to attack him, no. Instead, they were facing inwards. Harry watched as all the zombies crawled onto and over each other, working as if they were one single sentient organism, climbing and riding each other as they slowly fused into one giant monster that stood at over 30 feet tall, tall as the length of the longest Hogwarts greenhouse. With fear starting to set in, Harry cast observe.
Legion Zombie,
Lv-34
HP:15200/15200
MP: 1200/1200
Str- 82
Vit- 30
Dex-8
Int-4
Wis-2
Luc-0
An assembly of zombies that come out when a large amount of zombies are killed. It has insane strength and stamina but is slow. Some say that is if you kill enough of these Legion Zombies there is an even higher level of enemies of face.
Kill to get- 5000 Exp.
Harry knew that he didn't really stand a chance against this thing. His MP bar was full now, but he still needed more mana to even begin to fight this thing. There was only one thing left to do.
So Harry turned and ran.
As long as he was inside Hogwarts wards, his most powerful weapon, the Wardstone Perk, was entirely useless. The only way to win, was to get out of the wards. And so, he kept running on and on, with the giant zombie lumbering closer and closer behind him, crushing trees and rocks under its feet, until he felt a sinking pressure fall upon him, judging him before letting him through.
With his fingers crossed, Harry activated his perk.
Ping!
Wardstone perk activated!
Grants +1000 HP and +1000 MP when activated it at the cost of -25 MP per minute. All wounds are healed. All ailments cured. +20 Str,+20 Vit, +20 Dex.
'Yes!'
Harry readied himself and waited until the Legion zombie was right on top of him. The second the zombie put a foot out of the Hogwarts ward line, Harry pulled his hands upwards and pooled massive amounts of his mana in his hands and concentrating with all his will, he yelled, "RUNIC BURST!"
It was his first time using this particular attack, which was why it took him by surprise.
Dozens of rune-inscribed discs of light appeared all around the Legion Zombie and from within themselves, let loose a barrage of their respective spells onto the massive zombie orgy fest. Harry recognized multiple Incendios, Flipendos, Lapifies and Mucus ad Nauseums in the multicolored blasts of the attacks. The spells did an almost devastating amount of physical damage on the zombie. The Flipendos put it off balance and Lapifies rigidified parts of its exterior making it even slower. The Incendios were the most devastating as they burnt off Legion's foot at its knee, absolutely destroying its mobility. The Legion zombie toppled over onto the ground.
Harry lowered his arms and started to pant. The spell was powerful sure, but it used up mana to its fullest, and it had taken a lot out of him. He pulled up his stat screen and looked at his mana.
Mana: 35/1250
Harry had used all his mana in the last attack. It was going to take him almost 10 minutes to get it back up to full again, but Harry didn't know whether he had that much time left. He then turned to the Legion's HP.
HP:12260/15200
Harry stumbled and almost fell down in shock. All that for nothing? The creature's HP was still at a solid 80% of its total. Harry's attack barely managed to take out 20% of its total HP!
The Legion tried to stand up on one leg, only to immediately fall down causing the ground to rumble on the impact. At least it was slower now, Harry thought with relief. He moved back away from the reach of the Legion. If maybe he kept out of its reach for a long enough time, time enough for his Mana to fill up again, then he could end this quickly.
For the next ten minutes, Harry kept moving back and dodging, again and again, every time the Legion tried to reach for him, the fact that he was incredibly slow and had only one leg helped a lot. Eventually, Harry's mana was charged up fully again. Quickly hatching an idea for a new attack, Harry stood in the middle of a stream that flowed through the forest and he raised his hands again, this time for an elemental attack. This time, Harry aimed for the Legion's head.
Several water spikes rose out of the water and skewered the gigantic creature's head. And then Harry let rip a massive blast of fire at the head, making the water evaporate into scalding steam and burning off most of the Legion's head.
Critical strike! Steam Scald attack- 2940 x 300% times more = 8820 Attack!
Harry smiled as he lowered his arms yet again. Apparently, the Game liked to name his combo attacks. Harry quickly observed its health bar. Thankfully, this critical attack had done damage much more substantial than the attack before.
HP: 3440/15200
All he now had to do was wait.
As Harry waited for his mana to charge up, he looked around and realized he was nearly at the Quidditch pitch. He'd covered quite a distance dodging the Legion zombie.
With yet another attack idea in mind, he lifted one hand up and focused his mana into the air around the troll. A massive burst of swirling wind started at the Legion's feet. Harry winced. Controlling air was hard for him…even with his high mana regeneration rate he wouldn't be able to handle this for much longer!
With his burst of mana, he let loose a wave of fire at the swirling wind vortex.
The flames quickly grew and fed upon the air of the vortex of wind as they fed upon the oxygen and the Legion's flesh and turned into a massive fire tornado that started burning off the Legion, who was stuck inside it due to being entirely immobilized.
Critical strike! Fire Tornado- 2520 x 300% times more = 7560 Attack!
The Legion zombie didn't stand a chance. It slowly began to dissolve into dust, leaving an exhausted Harry behind. Heaving for breath, he dropped to the floor, every limb bursting with exhaustion.
Ping!
You gained a new title, you insane twat!
Apprentice Zombie killer- 30% more attack and defense when dealing with the undead. +5 to all stats when dealing with the undead.
Ping!
You gained a total of 14,875 Exp!
Ping!
You leveled up!
Harry Potter
Health-525/525
Mana-300/300
The Gamer
Title-The Boy who Lived
(+20 Str,+20 Vit, +20 Dex, while in Home Turf)
Level-10 Exp-39815/76800
Race-wizard
STR-12
VIT-10(+4)=14
DEX-12(+4)=16
INT-16
WIS-14
LUC-19
POINTS-20
MONEY- 1875£ / 2042G 182S 25K
Harry Potter is a wizard, the son of Lily Potter and James Potter. He has bad eyesight making it difficult for him to do well in class. His magic has gotten him trouble over the years in various schools. Strange things seem to happen around him. Harry is unaware of who he is, and wishes to find meaning in his life. Harry loves his mother, and hates the Dursleys.
Status- wizard, giving Harry +4 VIT, +4 DEX and the ability to control magic, talk to snakes, control his appearance and look cool.
Harry smiled at the larger mana pool he now had and swiped the box away. His new title was also sure to be useful later when he would come here to grind here again. Harry pushed himself back onto his feet and limped over to where the Legion zombie had dissolved and looked at what he got as loot. There were three things there for him.
Wiggenwald Potion, low-level x 3
Restores 45% of HP
restores 30% of MP
Essence of Murtlap, High level
Restores subject's health by a rate of 10% a minute.
Harry quickly stored the potions and the little jar away and picked up the skill book.
Skill book: Area Sense
Ping!
You have obtained the skill book: Area Sense
Would you like to learn?
YES/NO?
Harry pressed yes immediately and then the book burst into flames, filling Harry's head with the knowledge to use this brand new skill.
Ping!
You have obtained the skill, Area Sense!
Area Sense, Lv-1 (0%)
Allows the user to get a sense of the area around him/her. A more permanent version of the Supersensory Charm. The higher the level the more information is provided.
Effective until 20 feet.
Harry then closed the box and intoned, "ID escape." The alternate dimension shattered around him, and Harry found himself back in the real world. The sound of animals wandering around filled the forest air and the birds took the blue sky. Harry quickly put the yew wand into his inventory, pocketed his own one and stored everything else in his inventory.
For a moment he looked at the sky, reveling in the peace until he realized that the sun was right overhead. It was noon.
'Oh shit! The flying class!' he suddenly remembered and took off running towards the Quidditch pitch.
Harry had made it just in time to blend in with all the other boys of the first year and make his way to the center of the Quidditch pitch where Rolanda Hooch, the flying instructor stood with a bunch of brooms lying in rows. The girls would be learning to fly separately. Apparently, for some reason, girls didn't want to learn how to fly on broomsticks in the presence of boys.
Upskirt issues, Terry had called them.
The ground was nice and dry…and hard. Harry briefly paused to consider the numerous perils of flying on a broom of all things. It sounded awesome at first, but now, being only minutes away from it, the stupidity of the whole thing was starting to set it.
Why a broom?! He could do with a plank or even a carpet, but a broom?! That just seemed to be asking for trouble.
Harry paused to take a deep breath.
It was alright, he told himself. He'd flown before using his powers, sort of, and he had no fears of height. It was just that he had problems trusting those rickety looking brooms as much as his own powers.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Hooch barked, pulling Harry out of his reverie, "Everyone, stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."
Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.
"Stick out your right hand over the broom, or left hand if you're left-handed," called Madam Hooch. "And say, UP!"
"UP!" everyone shouted. The broomstick leaped eagerly into Harry's hand. That put him right at the front of the class. Apparently, saying "UP!" was a lot more difficult than it looked, because most of the broomsticks were still rolling around on the ground, or trying to inch away from their riders, as if terrified by the sheer realization that they'd soon be stuck between the legs of pre-pubescent boys.
'Poor brooms.' Harry thought amusedly.
Terry Boot's broom had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Harry wasn't surprised. There was a quiver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground. Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips.
After she was done, she surveyed the field of boys and nodded.
"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle-three-two-"
Harry had a bad feeling about this.
Just as he had thought that, one of the brooms shot skyward, accompanied by a boy's screams of horror. The boy was spinning at an awful rate as he ascended, they only got glimpses of his white face. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Harry realized who it was.
It was Neville!
"Come back, boy!" shouted Madam Hooch.
Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away and saw him gasp, slipping sideways…and he was thrown off the broom!
"NO!" Harry yelled, throwing his mana out in a desperate effort to bend the air around the boy to keep him from falling, but it was too far too little.
Neville plummeted to the ground fast.
Suddenly, almost as if of its own volition, Gamer's Mind snapped onto Harry's mind, sending as much mana as possible outwards into the area on the ground Neville was falling towards, creating a massive updraft of wind. It wasn't much use in stopping his fall, but Neville slowed down.
It wasn't much, but it saved his life.
WHAM! - a thud and a nasty crack echoed across the pitch. Neville lay face-down on the grass in a heap. His broom was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.
Harry blinked, shaking off the loud buzz caused by Gamer's Mind taking over so fast. Dropping his broom, he took off as fast as he could towards the fallen boy, discreetly casting observe.
Neville Longbottom
Lv-3
HP-60/150
MP-100/100
Race-Wizard
Str-3
Vit-5
Dex-4
Int-6
Wis-5
Luc-1
Neville Franklin Longbottom is a pureblood son of House Longbottom and the son of the now brain dead Frank and Alice Longbottom. He grew up with his Grandmother and Uncle until, at age eleven, he was accepted into Hogwarts. He possesses a good heart and is a gifted herbologist.
He is unconscious.
The HP wasn't too badly decreased, which was a huge relief.
Reaching the downed boy, Harry positioned his inventory subtly into his pocket to pull out a Wiggenwald healing potion. None of his classmates or his teachers saw him tip the potion into Neville's unconscious mouth since they were still running towards them. So, Harry pretended to be checking his pulse, before rising to his feet to reassure the worried Gryffindor boys that Neville was alive.
Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his. Harry heard a few groans. Apparently, the potion had done its job, and Neville was now conscious.
"Broken wrist," Harry heard Hooch mutter, "Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get."
She turned to the rest of the class.
"No one is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."
Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him. When they were out of earshot, one of the Slytherins started giggling. That set off the others. Gritting his teeth, Harry swung around to see who it was. It was Malfoy who had burst into laughter.
"Did you see his face, the great lump?"
"Shut up, you slimy Slytherins." snapped Seamus Finnigan. The Gryffindor first years looked as if they were about to launch into a fist fight.
"Look!" said Malfoy, ignoring the Gryffindors as he darted forwards and snatched something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."
A Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up. Harry remembered Neville showing it to him while coming to the pitch.
"Give that here, Malfoy," said Ron Weasley quietly, and everyone stopped talking to watch. Malfoy smiled nastily. Harry frowned. He wanted to help the Malfoy heir, but he wasn't making it easy to like him.
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find," he said, "How about...up a tree?"
Deciding that this was getting a bit too much, Harry intervened, "Malfoy, can I talk with you for a second. Privately?"
That brought Malfoy to an immediate and stuttering halt. Shooting a dirty look at the Weasley, he walked over to Harry before saying in a low tone, "If you're going to tell me to give this back to Longbottom then you-"
Harry cut him off.
"I have no intention of telling you to do anything Heir Malfoy. I intend to simply inform you what is going to happen if you choose to bully Heir Longbottom and flaunt the school rules in such a public manner. With these many students as a witness, not even your father will be able to prevent your removal from this school. Thievery is grounds for expulsion after all. So, if you choose to continue what you were doing, not only will you be disgracing the name of the House of Malfoy, but you will also be adversely affecting your own life. I say this not as a warning, but as advice to a potential ally," Harry said with the practiced clipped tone he'd learned from years of living with Aunt Petunia.
Malfoy was hesitating. Harry almost had him.
"If you have any worries of harming your reputation, don't worry. Just give the artifact to me and I will pass it on to Heir Longbottom," Harry said in a gentler tone.
With the final assurance of his reputation remaining safe, the situation was quickly resolved.
Draco gave the Remembrall to him and went off towards the Slytherins to calm them down. Later on the way back to the castle, Harry met a Gryffindor to hand over the Remembrall to give to Neville. On a whim, he observed the guy as he took the Remembrall.
Dean Thomas
Lv-4
HP-200/200
MP-125/125
Race-Wizard
Str-4
Vit-5
Dex-5
Int-7
Wis-6
Luc-5
Dean Thomas is a half-blood son of Jonathon Wright and Marie Corsaw. He grew up with his mother and stepfather until, at age eleven, he was accepted into Hogwarts. He possesses a good heart and loves his stepsisters.
"Johnathon Wright," Harry muttered as he saw the werewolf's name on the description.
This was his son! He'd found him!
The Astronomy classroom was a tower with the best view of the night sky, a massive model of the planets rotating inside the classroom and a roof that opened up to reveal the beautiful night sky. Harry had tried to listen to the lesson, but it mostly involved memorizing charts and planets. Although Professor Sinistra promised that the subject would get pretty interesting by the next class, he couldn't help but feel grossly underwhelmed. So, Harry quickly memorized the planets and charts with his Gamer's Mind and sat through most of the class thinking about the letter with yellowing edges that lay in his inventory.
That night, after the extraordinarily long and overstretched Astronomy class, Harry had something to ask Hedwig when she came back through the windows into the dorms after everyone else had fallen asleep.
"Girl, can you flame this letter to a guy in the Gryffindor dorms? I'd really like this to not be seen getting delivered," Harry asked, explaining his problem and showing the white phoenix the letter from John the werewolf.
The phoenix looked at the letter before chirping a dejected negative.
Harry sighed.
Of course she couldn't. Harry had specifically forbidden her from exploring Hogwarts on her own. He'd been worried about what'd happen if she was caught. So she'd been off all week exploring places all outside Hogwarts. That had been necessary, but now it was proving to be very inconvenient.
Both boy and bird settled down, thinking about how to tackle the problem. After a few minutes of deliberation, Hedwig suddenly let out an excited little chirp and promptly took off with a flap of her wings, diving out the window and into the night sky outside.
Harry stared at the window, wondering what had happened when suddenly she flew right back in. And she was not alone. Behind her flew in a red feathered golden tailed phoenix. The two phoenixes played around in the air for a minute before alighting back onto Harry's bed.
There was a moment of awkward silence.
Harry turned from the red-plumed phoenix back to his own white one, who was looking at him confused. A strange little itch was starting to build up in his gut.
"Trrrwwweeeeee?" Hedwig trilled, confused.
"Hedwig," Harry muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I swear to you that if this is some sort of boyfriend that you've picked up, we are going to be having some serious words-"
"I'm afraid that is not even close to the truth Mr. Potter."
Harry looked up and stared at the red flaming bird. The voice had no doubt come from it, but its mouth…beak...it hadn't even moved. There had to be some sort of Mind Arts involved.
"What in the- wait a minute, did you just speak?"
"Indeed, Mr. Potter. And while I am glad to see young Hedwig has the protection of such a dedicated guardian, she will not be needing said protection from myself. I am but a humble friend of hers. And to answer your unasked question, yes. Hedwig will be able to speak to you. It will take her some more time to fully learn your language. Perhaps by next autumn, if she pays attention."
"Well," Harry muttered apologetically, "I suppose I…shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."
"Trrreeewweeeeee!" Hedwig pecked him right on his head.
"OW! Calm down you crazy bird! Fine! Sorry! Sorry, what's your name again-Fawkes? I'm sorry Fawkes!"
"It's quite fine Mr. Potter. You two do remind me quite a bit of Albus and me in our younger days. Always bickering. Always overprotective. Now, the young one said you wished a letter delivered anonymously. If that is so, then I assure you that there is no bird that knows this castle as well as myself." Fawkes puffed up his chest. Clearly, he was quite proud of the fact.
"Er…yes. Do you know where Dean Thomas is? I need this delivered to him. Anonymously if possible."
"Dean Thomas eh? Gryffindor, if I remember correctly. Well, no fears sir! The tower of Gryffindor is a place I'm well acquainted with. And Hedwig did request that I keep this a secret from my human partner as well. I assure you that I shall be quite discreet."
Harry nodded and held out the letter for Fawkes to take. The phoenix grabbed the yellowing letter from Harry's hands and flamed away.
"Wait a second. Did he say, Albus? As in Albus Dumbledore?" Harry asked, staring at the spot from which the bird had disappeared. Receiving no reply from his companion, he turned around to face the furious bird who was staring at her shiny sharp claws with a terrifying glint in her eyes.
The only reason that night the entire dorm didn't wake up due to the fierce fighting between the two friends was because of the silencing curtains on the beds.
Heyo. Fixed up and changed a few of the scenes here. Let me know what you thought of the slightly edited up and improved class scenes, or even the fight scenes? I'm loving getting back into writing and I've got so many ideas going forward.