A.N. Another chapter, another failure to make it to the sorting. That being said, at least the letter made it in this one!
Not much to note at this time. Since this, every chapter before it, and at least one after it is going out at the same time, just ready those A.N.s and we'll be good. I will mention, Harry does have a PARTIAL character sheet in this one, but it only includes anything that has been updated/added. Full sheet posted separately.
Rec. for this chapter will be Post-Apocalyptic Potter from Another Universe by burnable. Potter comes to Marvel, Harry/Black Widow, and the end is pretty good. Also, there is this bit where an evil psychic tries to possess Deadpool… let's just say I laughed for, like, ten minutes.
There was an update in the measuring system between the last chapter an this. If there are any discrepancies, PM me and use this chapter's ratings.
Other than that, please review and ALAKASAM! Chapter!
The next morning
3rd Person POV:
Harry and the Dragon Mage woke up early the next day, Harry out of habit, and the Mage because that's when he decided to wake up. After a brief, but very tasty breakfast, they settled down on the tower's front yard, which had a beautiful view of the jungle (as opposed to the back yard, which had a similar view of the jungle) for an interview (over crumpets) by the mage to the boy, to find out where he was, so that he could figure out the best way to teach him… everything else.
It started very normally; mundane, even. The dragon asked about Harry's math, language studies, sciences, and such, and Harry explained both what he knew, and what was new in the world of man, as well as a rather deep explanation of a wide swathe of modern tech. The mage asked about more personal mundane studies ("I may be a scientist, but magic has always been my forte. We'll look into that on its own, later.") and Harry talked about his smithing, leatherwork, and work on developing a business. They even did a brief tour through Harry's martial routines, the dragon taking copious notes on what Harry knew and what he did for practice in preparation for later. After several hours of discussion, however, Harry had been brought to a realization of a glaring flaw in his education, one he was rather embarrassed to bring up. Still, if he was to get the most out of his education, he knew he had to mention it.
"I think that about wraps up my mundane education for now; or, at least, you should have a pretty good idea of where I am at. That being said, I believe that there is one more subject, an important one, that I will need you to assist me with."
The mage set down his tea (of course he had tea, you dolts! They are living on the edge of a bloody FOREST of tea plants. And what else would you have with crumpets?) and gained a serious look on his face. "I can make no promises as to what I will teach you, young sir, but, by all means, ask. At the very worst, I will either not be able to answer, or I will make you figure it out for yourself!"
Harry rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I doubt the first, and I really hope it isn't the second. You see, I just noticed: you and I have been talking for hours today, and we talked for a fair it yesterday as well. During all that time, I have never remembered, until now, to ask for your name."
The aged mage slapped his face. "I am so sorry, young man. My excitement of having something to do after all these years made me forget about the formalities. My name is Reginald Drake, though most people call me Reg or Drake. As my student and potential business associate, of course, you can call me Master Drake. Pleasure to meet you… eh, that's awkward."
At that, Harry face-palmed as well, then chuckled. "Right. Heh, sorry about that. My name is Harry Potter, and I guess my title would be Mage. So, nice to meet you, Master Drake, I am Mage Potter, and I am eager to learn from you, and to work with you."
"Likewise, Mage Potter. Now, back to business. Speaking of your title, tell me about your magical education."
At this, the young Potter looked completely mystified. "What do you mean, magical education? Everything I know, I either figured out for myself, or…" he trailed off, not quite sure how to explain the rest.
"… or what?" Or what, indeed! Would the centuries-old dragon mage even know what a video game was? How could he possibly explain the nature of his power?
Just tell him.
No, game, that is a bad idea! He will think I'm crazy!!!
Just DO IT!!!
Fine! "My life is like a video game, and it feeds me the knowledge necessary as I level up by killing monsters or by completing objective to level them up."
The dragon mage looked at him for a moment, then leaned back in his chair. After several minutes (nervous ones for Harry), the mage finally responded. "That is… problematic. You have almost no background in the studies I would want to teach you, meaning that I would have to start from scratch. Not something I couldn't do, per say; but not something I would want to do. The only way I would really be willing to do such a thing, was if you were at, at least, tier three; but, given your age, you are probably only at tier on or two, if that. Just to be clear, how many studies do you have, what are they, and at what level are you at them? Magically, of course."
Completely befuddled at his lack of confusion or surprise, as well as concerned with his dislike of Harry's knowledge base, Harry just replied without thinking. "I have two magical classes, four magical subclasses, and somewhere between one and three magical titles, depending on how you count them. My magical classes are Rune Master, which I have at tier four, and golemancer, tier three. My subclasses for magic include wizard, tier four (pushing five, really); alchemist, tier five; artificer which is only tier two; and elementalist, which I have gotten to tier three. As for the titles, I have a tier three, metamorphmagi; and two (of questionable magic) tier fours, which is paladin and monk. I have several skills which are apparently magical in nature, but none of them are specifically magical, just technically magical."
The dragon mage's face had fallen at the start of his little info dump, believing that the sheer number of magical classes were evidence of his complete lack of mastery. As the dump went on, he shifted from unhappy, to overjoyed, to uncertain, to suspicious. Unless this kid was truly exceptional, or truly lying, he was missing something. Once Harry finished, the mage cast a scrying spell that would pull up the pertinent information from Harry. The second he reached Harry's stats, however, his skepticism transformed into wonder.
"This… this is impossible! How can your stats be this high? Thirty-five hundred charisma? Almost four THOUSAND wisdom!!! FOUR-THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR LUCK!!!! How is this possible? And where did your wizard skills come from without a magical education, or at least an apprenticeship? How could you be a paladin? They have to dedicate five years to fighting evil, MINIMUM! Not just any evil, either! Dark creatures, undead, and evil magic only, for at LEAST five years straight, and that is just to obtain tier one! And special rank? That requires twenty years of work, or the willing, innocent self-sacrifice of your own life to defeat evil and protect your friends, allies, and those who hate you, but have done no wrong! What have you been doing, kid?"
Harry scratched the back of his neck. "I don't really know what to tell you. I always knew I was different, form the first time I had a thought. I was almost to middle-school levels of learning at age four, and I gained the rest shortly thereafter. But it wasn't like I was learning it, just remembering it. Same goes for my wizardry. I have worked on mastering wandless magic, staff magic, and grimoire magic; but ever since I was eight, I just GOT wand magic. Like I already knew it. My wizard subclass, and both rouge and paladin titles, just appeared in my stats the day I got my powers, ironically seven years, three days, one hour, and twelve minutes after my first memory, the memory of my parents dying to protect me from someone trying to kill me and help me live on without them. The attack from that guy would have, SHOULD have killed me, but instead it just gave me this scar, a scar I somehow just KNOW is connected to him, or possibly a part of him. Other than that, I don't know. It makes no sense to me."
Suddenly, in his head, something clicked. He had three unknown skills, two to help him, one to hinder him; on the day his parents died, his father and his mother tried to save him, and the murderer tried to kill him. Why hadn't he put it together before?!?
PING!
Quest Update Alert!
Train under the Dragon Mage!
Bonus Objective:
[X] Discover the origin of your hidden skills.
Has been completed!
Reward:
[X] Knowledge of the hidden skills, their uses, and a tier upgrade to each of them.
Skills updated/upgraded!
[Horcrux] (Special (Passive)):
A potent Soul Shard of Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort), created when the killing curse he cast was reflected into him by the protections created by the willing sacrifice of your parent's lives.
-95% gain in mind magics. (Negated by Gamer's Mind)
-95% loss to physical stats. (Negated by Gamer's Body)
50% chance of possession in cases of extreme stress. (Negated by Gamer's Mind)
+100% chance of mental breach by Tom Marvolo Riddle. (Negated by Gamer's Mind)
+75% chance to attract dangerous circumstances.
Attracts and interests dark creatures.
+1 Extra Life per day. (Skill cleansed on usage.)
All reptilian and dark languages understood.
[A Father's Protection] (Legendary (Passive)):
Created by the willing sacrifice of your father's life, this skill will help you find your place in life, and help make that place better for you and yours.
75% chance of good advice randomly coming to you when you need or want it.
Provides inherent understanding of all information regarding your inheritance, as triggered.
Provides inherent understanding of social norms and requirements someone of your descent should have.
Boosts respect, honor, and influence of your name, both negative and positive.
All languages of state (from lawyer speech, to Latin) understood easier.
+250% boost to family business income.
[A Mother's Love] (Supreme (Passive)):
Created by the willing sacrifice of your mother's life, this skill will help you in your greatest trials, and aid in leading you to the light in your life.
50% chance of releasing a lethal attack in cases of stress. (charge 26,300/100,000; at 0, lost until fully recharged)
Attracts and interests light creatures.
Defends against magically dark attacks of dark creatures, by absorbing.
All light languages understood.
PING!
Quest Alert!
Parental blessing and the touch of a madman!
Discover the secrets to the creation of the gifts/curse given to you by those who interacted with you at the time of your parents' death.
Objectives:
[] Discover how your father's blessing was made.
[] Discover how your mother's blessing was made.
[] Discover how your Tom Riddle's horcrux was made.
[] Discover how your father's blessing was applied.
[] Discover how your mother's blessing was applied.
[] Discover how your Tom Riddle's horcrux became imbedded in your scar.
[] Discover how to craft similar blessings/curses.
Bonus Objectives:
[] Find out if Tom Riddle made more horcruxes.
[] Gather all of Tom Riddle's horcruxes. (1/?)
[] Help an orphan by crafting a similar blessing for them based off their parent's/s' sacrifice.
[] Find out how to cannibalize the soul-shard in your head.
[] Cannibalize any other horcruxes you find.
Rewards for reg. objectives:
Title: Bloodline Mage.
Title: Fractured Blessing.
1,000,000 EXP.
Tier upgrade for Horcrux perk, A Father's Protection perk, and A Mother's Love perk.
Rewards for bonus objectives:
[] 10,000 galleons, 10,000 EXP.
[] Disaster averted, New quest: Death-touched, various rewards/penalties based on method, EXP per found.
[] Title: Blessed of Orphans, Title evolution and upgrade: Paladin.
[] Tom's memories and info added to trigger bank, knowledge bank. Knowledge of other horcruxes.
[] +100 INT, 50 WIS, 25 SPR each; ?????? ?? ????? perk; Tier upgrade for Horcrux perk, A Father's Protection perk, and A Mother's Love perk.
TIME LIMIT: None.
Unaware of the sudden influx of info the boy in front of him was receiving, the draconim leaned back in his chair with an interest, yet confused, look on his face. "Your gamer powers are impressive, and you obviously haven't been sitting idle; at the same time, even with your talent and skill, you are severely undertrained. I am tempted to have you leave and come back in a few years after you have some education under your belt, but what I can see of your life and circumstances, as well as the impressions I get of your future, indicate that you would do well with training right now.
You do obviously have a knack for certain areas of knowledge, in particular magic, and it doesn't appear to be quite normal, or at least, ordinary. The most likely things, in my opinion, to cause the symptoms you have would be 1.) You ended up gaining information through another mage; either through Conquest Rights or a soul shard or attempted possession you managed to cannibalize, possibly even through the death of the madman who tried to kill you as a baby; 2.) your parents method of saving you ended up providing you with the information they had on the subjects you now have at your disposal; or 3.) someone else, someone of equal or greater strength than me, is involved here. The first is improbable, not only because such a thing is next to impossible to pull off, but because you should have memories from the person, not just triggerable knowledge of magic and pre-high school subjects. The second has the same problem, as well as the fact that you haven't noticed 'echoes' for lack of a better word, of your parents in your head, like a ghost, but in your mind. As for the third, I cannot guess, and I will not look. Some things, it doesn't pay to investigate.
That being said, I will, for now, take you on as a pupil. I will only promise to teach you for a month, at which time I will evaluate how far you have come and how far you are likely to go from there. How you do at that time will tell me how far, and in what way, we will proceed. If this is acceptable, we will get started right away, provided you don't have any questions."
"Actually, I have several questions, several of them quest-based, a few about my living conditions, and such like. Right now, however, I want to ask a question that has been bugging me for a bit. How do you know about gamer powers? Have there been others like me? Is this a big deal, or just an oddity. I mostly ask, because the only things I can find that are even close are a web comic from Korea and some fanfictions on the internet, many of which are dubious, not to mention unrealistic!"
"I have never heard of a webcomic or fanfiction before, though they do sound… uncertain. No, the gamer power is part of the omniverse system. Do you know anything about it?"
"Sure, created worlds for experiments, entertainment takin them over, the Paridisium Conglomerate, HELL Corp., etc."
"Yeah, that is the gist of it. Now, given the nature of the gamer system, you would think it would be for the entertainment bit of the industry, something that is, sometimes, true. The original, however was made by the HELL corp. child company, HEROES, or Hell's Endeavor to Research the Opportunities Ethics Support. The man behind it was attempting to create a system that allowed them to, well, systematize the growth and development of the various entities they used in their world-based, and later system-based experiments on ethics. It just helped clear up the data. How powerful were they? Was that really that powerful? If it isn't, what made them go bad (or be good, as the case may be)? If it was, was that what MADE them bad, or good, or did this just let them SHOW their bad, or good? That sort of thing. After that, It has been used by, like, millions, and us Ideals tend to talk, particularly about strange things like this. I, however, have seen gamers, thee times before. One tried to kill me, one taught me for a time, and one learned for me for a time. I only found out they were gamers a while after, however."
"Huh. Alright then. I'll still keep this to myself in the future. Now, about accommodations…"
Three years, seven months, twelve days, one hour and forty minutes later
Harry POV:
As Harry got ready to head back home, he looked, once more, in satisfaction at the fruits of his labor for the last three and a half years.
PING!
Quest Complete!
Train under the Dragon Mage!
Objectives:
[X] Upgrade Alchemist to Legendary.
[X] Upgrade Elemental Mastery to Legendary.
[X] Upgrade Wizardry to Legendary.
[X] Upgrade Golemancy to Legendary.
[X] Upgrade Rune Mastery to Legendary.
[X] Upgrade Artificery to Special.
[X] Get background training and actual training in all masteries.
[X] Get INT to 5000.
[X] Get CHA to 5000.
[X] Get WIS to 5000.
[X] Get SPR to 5000.
[X] Get PER to 5000.
[X] Get LVL to 100.
Bonus Objectives:
[X]X Get all stats up to 2500 (10/10).
[X] Get an extra mastery to Legendary.
[X] Get 3 or more extra masteries to Legendary. (7/3)
[X] Discover secret behind werewolves.
[X] Discover secret behind vampires.
[X] Discover the origin of your hidden perks.
[X] Impress the mage.
Rewards for ALL reg. objectives:
Title: Dragon Mage.
Title tier upgrade: Elementalist.
Title tier Upgrade: Rogue.
Access to Wardcrafter class.
Access to Runic Warrior class.
+25 levels.
1,000,000 galleons.
10 GATCHA tokens.
Companion: Dragon Mage for your servant slot.
Rewards for bonus objectives:
[X] X5 boost to HP and MP.
[X] X2.5 boost to HPR and MPR.
[X] 1 random piece of legendary gear per legendary class.
Eternal Stele (Rune Master)
Master's Hammer (Smith)
Pocket Dimension Watch: the Toybox (Golemancer)
Wizard's Hat (Wizard)
One for Awl (Leatherworker)
The Grand Sketchbook (Artificer)
Twelve Fragments Medallion (Elementalist)
[X] Loyalty of the Were perk.
[X] Lord of the Night perk.
[X] Knowledge of the hidden perks, their uses, and a tier upgrade to each of them.
[X] 250,000 galleons, 5 GATCHA tokens, 2 pieces of legendary gear.
Dragon's Wand
Epic Shirt
TIME LIMIT: 5 YEARS.
Harry Potter
Race: Human (Wizard (Metamorphmagi))
Rank: Rare
LVL 126
EXP: 96,760 / 561,000
Class: Rune Master (LVL 100 MAX (Mythic))
Smith (LVL 100 MAX (Supreme))
Golemancer (LVL 100/100 (Legendary))
Runic Warrior (LVL 50/50 (Legendary))
Wardcrafter (LVL 0/50)
Subclass: (Wizard (Mythic))
Wandless magic mastery: 85.08% complete
Wand magic mastery: 100% complete
Staff magic mastery: 86.91% complete
Grimoire Magic mastery: 75.75% complete
Total mastery: 86.94%
(Leatherworker (Supreme))
(Alchemist (Mythic))
(Merchant (Legendary))
(Artificer (Legendary))
(Elementalist Summoner (Legendary))
Earth magic mastery: 81.1% complete
Fire magic mastery: 71% complete
Water magic mastery: 52.6% complete
Air Magic mastery: 48.2% complete
Electricity magic mastery: 51.8% complete
Magnetism magic mastery: 43% complete
Light magic mastery: 57.9% complete
Dark Magic mastery: 49% complete
Total mastery: 56.8%
Titles: Magic Rogue (Mythic) (+75% dodge)
Paladin (Special) (+40% Holy dmg. & 20% necrotic res.)
Monk (Legendary) (+20% dodge, 500% CQC dmg., +500 spirit dmg.)
Weaponsmaster (Legendary) (All weapons at or below (Legendary) usable with +250 dmg)
Metamorphmagi (Rare) (Minor shapeshifting)
Dragon Mage (Legendary) (50% magic resistance, 250% boost to fire magic)
HP: 311,750
HP regen per sec: 29,469
Total time to regen: ~11 seconds
MP: 695,400
MP Regen per sec: 65,483.5
Total time to regen: ~11 seconds
STATS:
STR: 5000 (R)
VIT: 5920 (R)
AGI: 6444 (R)
INT: 5234 (R)
CHA: 7604 (S)
DEX: 8030 (S)
WIS: 7414 (R)
SPR: 7692 (S)
LCK: 7932 (S)
PER: 5273 (R)
Spendable Points: 457
Skills:
[Consumed Horcrux] (Special (Passive)):
A potent Soul Shard of Tom Marvolo Riddle (Voldemort), created when the killing curse he cast was reflected into him by the protections created by the willing sacrifice of your parent's lives. You have stripped it of it's evil.
+75% chance to attract dangerous circumstances.
Attracts and interests dark creatures.
+1 Extra Life per day.
All reptilian and dark languages understood.
[Melee Weapons Mastery] (Legendary (Passive)) (10,000/25,000 hours)
Melee damage X 16
Melee actions cost no stamina!
Melee special attacks cause opponents drawbacks!
You instinctively are able to use all cumulative knowledge, experience, and skill on any new weapon.
[Unarmed Fighting] (Legendary (Passive)) (10,425/25,000 hours)
Unarmed damage X 16
Unarmed actions cost no stamina!
Unarmed special attacks cause your opponents drawbacks!
Any new martial art you pick up will rapidly and smoothly be assimilated into your previous knowledge.
Any martial art you learn will instantly be expanded on by your previous experience.
[Summon Golem] (Legendary (Active)) (7,891/10,000)
Cost: (25 X (Rarity LVL per golem)) MP
Duration: HP of golem (LVL X rarity X 625)
MP of golem: (LVL X rarity X 10,000)
Permits you to summon a golem you have already created, or to summon a temporary golem.
Temporary golem's level max is (Skill LVL X 80)
Element of temporary golem available are:
Common: Stone (no req.)
Size: max 14 ft., max 1 ton
Uncommon: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Stone (no req.)
Size: max 16 ft., max 32 ton
Rare: Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Stone, Electricity, Magnetism, Light, Dark (no req.)
Size: max 20 ft., max 40 ton
Special: Any two elements mixed/used (req.: sample of elements)
Size: max 28 ft., max 56 ton
Legendary: Any three elements mixed/used (Req.: sample of elements, statue)
Size: max 44 ft., max 88 ton
# of temp. golems: ((LVL / 10) + (SPR) + ((WIS + INT)/ 10)/ rarity)
(8,969 C, 4,485 UC, 2,990 R, 2242 S, and 897 L)
[Read Runes] (Supreme (Passive)) {7/4}RM
[Write Runes] (Supreme (Active)) {7/4}RM
[Design Rune Scheme] (Supreme (Active)) (25,027/5,000 designed) {7/3}RM {7/5}G
[Make Artifact] (Legendary (Active))
[Smith] (Supreme (Active)) (240,920/156,250 forged) {7/2}RM {7/4}Sm {7/4}G
[Engrave] (Supreme (Active)) (874,921/156,250 engraved) {7/3}RM {7/4}Sm {7/4}G
[Drain Runes] (Supreme (Active)) {7/4}RM {7/5}G
[Power Runes] (Supreme (Active)) {7/3}RM {7/5}G
[Leatherworking] (Mythic (Active)) (12,347/25,000 worked) {7/3}Sm
[Craft Statue] (Legendary (Active)) (92,421/100,000) {5/4}G
[Identify Poison] (Mythic (Active)) (813/1,000)
[Identify Potion] (Mythic (Active)) (798/1,000)
[Craft Poison] (Mythic (Active)) (5,080/10,000)
[Craft Potion] (Mythic (Active)) (6,134/10,000)
[Transform Material] (Mythic (Active)) (12,470/25,000)
[Identify Material] (Mythic (Active)) (11,437/25,000) {5/3}Sm
[Loyalty of the Were] (Legendary (Passive))
Due to your time in the realm where the were-creatures roam on the night of the new moon, all were bow to you, in either form.
+100 obedience with any were.
Ability to cure/cast out/change were.
Ability to speak and learn any mammal or avian language.
Languages learned:
Common bird, Asian bird, predator (bird), mystic bird, magical bird.
Housecat, wildcat, big cat, magical cat, predator (cat), mystical cat.
Dog, wild dog, magic dog.
Were forms: Siberian Tiger, Dire Wolf, Simurgh
Passive gifts from were forms:
Cat: Claws and heightened sight/hearing.
Dog: Heightened taste, smell, and touch. Intimidation skill.
Bird: Lonely song skill. Gust skill.
[Lord of the Night] (Legendary (Passive))
You have faced the depths of the vampire curse in the land of it's making on the night of its making. Now, under the full moon which powers it, it bows to you!
+100 obedience with any vampire under Special tier.
Ability to cure/cast out/change vampire based on its morality.
Vampire form.
Passive gifts from were forms:
No attack under Special can harm you.
Life sense, Death sense, and magic sense.
Every time an attack of yours causes someone to bleed, you heal for the amount of that attack.
[Create Duplicate] (Legendary (Active))
As a rogue that knows the value of magic, you have developed the ability to magically create duplicates of anything
Cost: 1000 X ounce X tier + any enchantment costs
Speed: (Tier X Weight(oz)) seconds
Duration: 4 weeks / (tier - 2)
Tier 1= forever
Tier 2= as long as normal
Tier 3= four weeks
Tier 4= 2 weeks
Tier 5= 1 weeks
Tier 6= 84 hours
Tier 7= 42 hours
With one exception (Runic Warrior, which let Harry tattoo runes on his, and other people's, bodies to get specific effects), he hadn't tried at all to gain/use new classes or subclasses, contenting himself with twenty-four hours a day, six days a week training, study, and work.
Multiple power-ups, solving vampirism and lycanthropy, a Dragon Mage as a man-servant, a Stele that never misses a mark and can carve on anything, a hammer that can work any metal without heat, an unstealable pocket watch that let Harry keep an infinite number of golems 'at hand', a shapeshifting hat that can whisper advice to him and protect him from non-consensual rituals (in the shape of a fedora, duh), an awl that can work any leather without thread (as well as being able to combine and even mix leathers together, so you can get the look of one with the feel of the other, or merely make two pieces into one), a sketchbook with limitless pages that keeps anyone from imitating the designs in them (as in, once the design goes in the book, no-one else can come up with it if they have ever been near you or something you made), a medallion with undrainable fragments of all TWELVE elements (chaos, order, corruption and healing were uncontrollable. Apparently, they had special classes just for them.) so he would always have some of every element readily available to him, a wand made of, and from, the dragon mage, and the literal perfect shirt (which naturally went with his sash, coat, hat, and boots), and he was done with his magical education a la dragon mage, as well as his quest for such.
He had even made progress on the second quest he had gotten here!
PING!
Quest Update Alert!
Parental blessing and the touch of a madman!
Objectives:
[X] Discover how your father's blessing was made.
[X] Discover how your mother's blessing was made.
[X] Discover how your Tom Riddle's horcrux was made.
[X] Discover how your father's blessing was applied.
[X] Discover how your mother's blessing was applied.
[X] Discover how your Tom Riddle's horcrux became imbedded in your scar.
Bonus Objectives:
[X] Find out if Tom Riddle made more horcruxes.
[X] Find out how to cannibalize the soul-shard in your head.
Rewards for bonus objectives:
[X] 10,000 galleons, 10,000 EXP.
[X] Tom's memories and info added to trigger bank, knowledge bank. Knowledge of other horcruxes.
During his time here, however, he had the opportunity to gain something he didn't have before: perspective. He technically knew enough to be the top mage in the world, and his skill at golemancy should be unmatched. There was, however, a large difference between the certification and the reality of it. Just because he knew things, didn't mean he knew how to use them; and just because he knew how to do things, didn't mean he knew every method, or even the best method. Despite his large repertoire (from both him and Tom), he still had much to learn in application and performance. Ironically, due to his thorough understanding of nature, science, and natural science, he pretty much HAD mastered alchemy; it was the one practical science that magic had. True, he didn't know EVERYTHING, but his lack of knowledge now, as far as that one study, at least, was just a lack of exposure.
Now, however, it was time to go home. As he went to, he stopped, then chuckled. With a whisper of "Happy birthday to me." he disappeared with a 'pop' from the place he would think of as his home from now on. Or, at least, for the next, like, year.
Harry's eleventh birthday (again)
Harry's POV:
Harry was awakened, as usual, by his aunt (who was rather nervous around him ever since she had smack him in the head with a hot frying pan, and he hadn't noticed) rapping on the door to his cupboard and saying: "Boy, get up and make our breakfast."
After almost three years of not hearing her, Harry was almost nostalgic for a minute, thinking back on how it seemed like just yesterday that this was the way he would wake up every day. As it turns out, technically, it was. Reginald, for he was now Harry's manservant, and, as such, was to be referred to, by Harry at least, by his first name, was out in the world, getting reacquainted with it, and, barring a shopping trip or Harry finding himself a home, would not be expected to move in with him until two years from now, by which time they should have found a manageable place for a fake home for themselves. They would, of course, spend the eight YEARS that was their nights in the Other Realm, as it was called, to make the most of their time, with Reginald playing ferry for the two of them.
That being said, it was neither here nor there at the moment. Now was the time for him to get up and make breakfast for his spiteful coward of an aunt, his angry coward of an uncle, and his emotionally stunted, mentally-held-back-by-his-parents-because-they-don't-let-him-learn-because-it-is-'to-hard-for-him' cousin. Oh, joy. Will the wonders of his birthday never end? Then again, his gift to himself was heightened senses, nine legendary items, doubling his power, and VASTLY increasing his knowledge base, not to mention his draconim man-servant, so it wasn't so bad, all things considered.
And so the day began, boring as any other, with NO mention of his birthday. Nothing strange happened until he went to get the mail. Now, Harry was used to receiving mail by this point. Several of his business ventures required daily communication, which required him to both send and receive mail each day, and he had signed up for multiple auction catalogs to browse for anything interesting. However, he had only a few times (eight or ten, but he did communicate with Buckingham Palace) received letters written on parchment, and it was even more unusual to find it in a parchment envelope. That HAD to be expensive. Intrigued, he tossed the envelope, along with his other business correspondence, into his cupboard for later review.
Thankfully, the Dursleys were going out to the zoo today, due to the fact that on Dudley's birthday (and once a week since, if not more) they had gone to the zoo, and Dudley thought it was boring, so they kept going BACK, as if repeated attempts would make it more exciting. This, of course, had used up their capital with EVERY house- and baby-sitter in the neighborhood, and it made them more than angry when sleepy animals would respond to Harry, but not anyone else. Naturally, this meant that Harry would be spending his whole day in his cupboard. Or it would have, but, you know, magic.
Less than ten minutes after the Dursley's had triple locked the cupboard and left for the zoo, Harry was sitting at the kitchen table, reviewing his business mail. It took almost an hour for him to read the mail, write responses, and make the letters teleport themselves to the necessary peoples' desks unnoticed (much more convenient than mailing them. It was a trick Reginald had taught him shortly before they came here so they could keep in touch), and it took another fifteen minutes to write to Reginald with instructions concerning his house hunt, to be completed withing the next eighteen months. When that was all done, he had to answer a request for him to have tea with eighteen lords, seven ladies, twenty-seven business magnates, and the queen (he only said yes to three of the businessmen, one lady, and two of the lords. And the queen, duh.) for the next month, and then moved on to the anomaly. And what an anomaly it was!
Harry Potter
Number 4 Privet Drive
Cupboard under the Stairs
To Mr. Harry Potter
We are please to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary equipment and books. The term will begin September 1st, and inclused you will find your train ticket for Hogwarts. The train departs Kings Cross station at ten a.m. on August 31st from platform 9 an 3/4s.
Please respond if this is convenient or if you have any questions.
We await your owl.
Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
After several minutes of thought, Harry set about composing a reply, before (without thinking) spelling the letter away.