Chapter 14

After meeting with the elves Harry was pretty worn out, emotionally. He'd spent a good chunk of time exploring with Blinky and then in the elf-quarters. He didn't regret it, but it had taken a lot out of him. He'd left their den with a promise to come back, and an offer for them to talk to him if they ever wanted. He wasn't sure if they'd take him up on it, but by the time he'd left he'd gotten a pretty high reputation with the house elf faction, according to his log.

Speaking of his log, now that he wasn't in the middle of something he could actually take a look at the announcements he'd missed. It looked like with his new reputation level he was now able to call Blinky for help if he needed, as well as make requests for specific things from the kitchens. He could also get the elves to make repairs to his clothing – more durable than just using repair charms himself – but only up to gear of a certain level, and excluding armour or weapons and the like.

He'd also gotten an achievement for uncovering 25% and 50% of Hogwarts' map, which had given him a fair amount of exp and Hogwarts rep bringing him up to 'friendly' with the faction. At friendly, Hogwarts' stairs would be a little more favorable to him and ghosts and portraits would be more helpful. There were also a few more hidden passageways that would let him use them, if he could find them, which boggled him a bit. Apparently he hadn't discovered all of them – some only opened up to you if the castle liked you.

Taking a look at his map, Harry was pleased to see that his exploration with Blinky had brought the map up to 68% complete. That still left a lot missing, but Harry was determined to uncover it and still had all of the grounds yet to do. The experience he'd gained from exploring and getting the achievements (as well as a few hidden quests like 'find all the supply closests') had brought his level up to 15.

If Harry had one criticism to the game it was how distracting all the updates could be while he played. Keeping track of his surroundings meant he often had to ignore text coming up about quests or achievements and other things. Not a huge issue – he could look it up when he had a spare moment, but because the game didn't 'pause' for such things, it could be a bit irksome trying to split his attention when things happened. Especially since bonuses like rep gains could give him other boons, which would be interesting and useful to know but took time to read through – not good in a pinch. He'd just have to let Hermione know about it – perhaps if there was a way of seeing what the next level would give them without having to actually reach that level, it'd give players the chance to find out when they were building up to it. Not everyone would use it, but he knew he would look things up if he knew he was close to reaching the next tier.

Feeling pretty good about his achievements, but a bit guilty that he'd wandered off for so long doing his own thing when he was technically supposed to be helping out the other players if they needed it (hard to do when he was nowhere near them) Harry returned to the great hall.

He was pleased to see mixed-house students dotted along the tables, the hall bustling with players. Some were actually eating, but it seemed that many were using the space to chat with other players. It made sense – it was an easily accessible place for people to meet, and unlike in the real world students had friends all across the houses rather than being isolated into the house they'd been placed in. Many of the players were adults or non-magicals who were here to play with their friends and weren't about to let what house they were in separate them.

While he knew that Hogwarts in the real world was working on improving relations between houses it was still good to see how little the divide mattered here. There were clusters of players wearing their differing house colours, players of different ages and backgrounds. It was interesting the diversity of it now that there were so many players to compare. Some had decided on avatars that looked like themselves, or had subtle differences, while others looked much different. He recognised a few people, but most he didn't – most he wouldn't, given the strange coloured eyes and odd hairstyles some were sporting – clearly the avatar creation screen was popular. There were even some family units he saw, courtesy of the DoMI introducing non magical families to the game, as well as the parents of existing students. There were a few reunions going on already and it was nice to see the tentative curiosity in some of those family's faces.

Harry worried that people's appearances might be misrepresenting the magical world at first – people didn't look that strange after all, they were usually indistinguishable from muggles aside from their fashion sense. Hair and eyes could be changed in the magical world but people usually didn't bother – the more it differed from natural the more work had to go into maintaining it – and often could be destroyed with a stray finite. In game though people could give themselves crazy hair or other unique traits and it would be 'natural', even if it wasn't quite true-to life. Then again he wasn't all that exposed to things like appearance altering charms except for ones to hide him completely, so what did he know if people did change their hair or other features when they went out? And if you thought about it, such things were just expressions of fashion – which they all knew were dubious within the magical world. Just thinking of Neville's gran's hat still freaked him out a bit.

As he wandered along, it didn't take too long before he encountered someone he did recognise.

The girl wandering past him was clearly Luna, though she'd apparently used the avatar creation menu to make her default hair into a rather peculiar style. White-blond hair framed her face in a massive background of frizzy curls. She also, somehow, had managed to acquire the rank of 'Hogwarts fifth year student' to which Harry had no idea how she'd done, since the game had only been running a short time and nobody he'd seen was higher than a third year. Most were seconds years like himself, so perhaps she'd found some kind of loophole like he had with the basilisk chamber.

Either way he wasn't about to ask, because he was more surprised at the name she'd picked to be identified by.

"Luna?" Even knowing it was her he couldn't help but blurt her name out, as if just to double check.

"Why yes, that's me. Although I go by Lunacy on here, you see?" She very helpfully pointed to the space above her head where her nametag floated to ID her.

"Er, right. Sorry about that. Its just, Lunacy? Really?" Nobody liked the reminder of being bullied, though Luna always had been an odd one he supposed.

"So it would seem, UNO." Her reply was lighthearted, but she put some emphasis on his name. Of course Luna would just magically be able to identify him, Harry sighed.

"How are you doing? Enjoying the game so far?" He asked, if only to do his duty as a sort-of staff member on MWO.

"Oh I'm enjoying it very much thank you. It is very strange to be wearing my school uniform again though." She told him, despite wearing what looked to be a rather heavily-modified school uniform, even if it did still look like one, unlike Harry who was wearing his snakeskin coat and boots and barely looked like it was a uniform at all rather than a mercenary's getup. Before Harry could reply though, Luna was carrying on.

"Did you know they have thestrals in here? I went to see them, they're just as friendly as in the real Hogwarts. Thankfully there's a quest to acquire glasses to see them with, not that we need them of course." The younger girl gave a gentle shrug of her shoulders at the casual reference to having seen people die. Not that Harry could talk since they both seemed to be trying to move through their experiences, without completely blocking them out as many others were. He had to respect her for that – embracing those hard times and becoming stronger from them, rather than trying to pretend none of it ever happened. Luna had always been far stronger than most gave her credit for, even Harry on occasion, to his shame.

"Hey Lunaaaacy." Harry smiled sheepishly, wondering if he'd manage to say her in-game name instead of her real one without flubbing it. "Don't worry Harry, you call me Luna if you want." She interjected, a serene smile on her face as if it didn't bother her. Harry wished he was good enough to see past the absent-minded veneer more often but had to just take her word for it this time.

"Alright then Luna, is it alright if I add you to my friend's list? Maybe we can hang out or adventure later on. I'm still in the early stages of the game yet but maybe when I'm a bit more advanced then we can party up?" The game was a multiplayer after all, and so far he'd been going at it pretty much solo. It was early days yet though, but while he was having fun on his own he was sure there would be things later on that would be much more fun with more people.

"That sounds great UNO." She assured him, and accepted his friend request when he sent it. "I'm off to the Atrium now – I want to have a look at the quest board there."

Grinning at her, UNO stepped out of her way so she could go past him. "I'm looking forward to taking a look myself, but unfortunately I'm not able to just yet." It gave him a good excuse to get a jump on the beginner quests he'd not been doing though, since they'd eventually allow him to go exploring outside of Hogwarts. Although he was eager to explore it now, he'd be coming back here for some time so it wasn't like he had to get it done right away. It was unlikely he'd be able to explore it all so early anyway, given how much still had yet to be discovered he was sure it'd take more time and probably more skills than he had. While he'd enjoyed it and was still tempted to explore the grounds, it was probably best if he refocused onto the game proper for now and progressed through it.

In typical Luna fashion, the young woman wandered away from him then with nary a goodbye. Used to her eccentricities Harry merely smiled at her back and left to go and follow the main questline for a bit, unlocking a few more basic spells and the like. Since his rank was only a second year, he couldn't start the class quests for any of the electives so he was stuck doing potions lessons and astronomy since those were ones he was a bit behind in.

Most of charms and transfiguration he could skip because of his existing knowledge, but it turned out that he'd missed quite a bit of astronomy and potions. Both were understandable – with Snape giving very little guidance, getting some of the basics in the class was a first for him, and astronomy he'd tended to doze off in every now and then. After all, having eleven year olds staying up that late was hardly the brightest idea. Especially since much of the basics of astronomy were simple identification of the stars. It could easily be done via illusions for the most part and have the lesson moved to a more suitable hour, with perhaps occasional night classes, particularly in winter when it got darker sooner, perhaps within the great hall or somewhere that was protected from the cold.

Either way he was sure that astronomy would be addressed at Hogwarts, just as they had made improvements to so many other classes and the way that things were run.

In the meanwhile Harry just enjoyed being back in Hogwarts, but without actually being there himself. Seeing this place as a game, even if it was a reflection of reality, helped him immensely, as did having an avatar to use rather than being himself. It was like having a second chance to go to Hogwarts, even if it was a bit different in terms of the actual learning experience. There was nobody whispering about him in the halls or staring at him like he was some kind of zoo exhibit and that alone was a huge improvement over reality. In the real world Harry was still a spectacle, even if the populace had been brow-beaten into behaving appropriately and not as they had been when Fudge and Dumbledore were in charge. Neither had done anything to stop people from doing or saying whatever they wanted – Fudge in his newspapers and Dumbledore at the school.

But none of that was an issue here – nobody but a few knew who he was. He got a few odd looks because of his snakeskin coat but that was it. It was refreshingly free to not have the burden of his name weighing him down. Here he could build his own reputation as UNO, something that he brought upon himself and truly deserved.

Feeling lighter than he had in ages, Harry walked through the hallways of Hogwarts to his next class.

Notes:

Sorry for yet another delay guys, I know I'm really unreliable with this _" I was hoping to get a beta before I posted any more chapters (I've had this one sitting pretty on my pc for a little while now) but no dice, so I do apologise for any typos or flubs in the text - especially for the really long sentences with lots of commas that I can never seem to stop making. Feel free to complain at me and point out any mistakes I've made so I can fix them. Sorry!

FYI for those of you who are interested, Luna's hairstyle is a bit like Christina Aguilara's in the Lady Marmalade music video