This is a Harry Potter Fanfiction Only
Games, movies, books, and other game mechanics will be included.
Much like in other stories, this time both Hiro and Hector were hired by a company that wanted to create a full-dive Harry Potter-based game, seeing that Sword Art Online was a game without magic and this gave another company working under the same company that built and sold the nerve gear both of them being major enthusiasts of the Harry Potter materials, such as Hector focused his knowledge and understanding of the actual books, while Hiro focused on the Movies. Both of them enjoy games, such as Playstation and the PC Version of them, but Hector placed a couple of mobile games that were only available on his android phone.
It was their extensive knowledge of the games and the materials that caused the company to invite them to the closed beta testing of it when they had done a contest testing the knowledge of potential players, they intentionally made the contest an exam, and the questions were nothing to sneeze at. The fact is that the Author of the Harry Potter books initially complained that the contest was too hard, but she was told that they needed people that knew the content material enough so that they would not have any spend time and explain it, thus cutting on wasted test time. The testing was brutal and out of hundreds of applicants, only five people made it through the exam.
Some of the things that were asked were considered by many who failed to be unfair trivial facts, and that nobody would be able to answer, but those that did pass the exam proved them wrong, the only thing is they would have to live in a facility, cut off from the outside world while the closed beta test was happening, the last thing the company wanted was for anyone to know the game was this close to being finished, and the fact that it was a full-dive VR game after the disaster of SAO didn't help matters.
In the end, the three did everything they could to either enjoy the game or just have fun in it, except for two, who instead did nothing more than go through each section of the game and progressed to the next section when both had learned everything they could by obtaining every item, secret and skill, or by obtaining every single possible achievement in that segment of the game, and only when they had everything they would go forward. Some people called them lazy and they were not putting enough effort into trying to progress through the game storyline.
At the end of the first part of the close beta it proved that these two, Hiro and Hector had the right idea, after all, this section of the game was based on the Fantastic Beasts movies and as the segment come to an end, it was decided that to put an end to the constant bickering that two players were not doing their fair share of the testing, a tournament was organized between the five players. That is when the others learned that Hiro and Hector's actions had essentially guaranteed that unlike everyone else they could not lose.
Hiro and Hector beat the other three quickly and brutally, having spent days hearing them being insulted gave them plenty of motivation for wanting to get even with the other players. In the end, only they were standing and in the end provided the people who asked them about the game with dozens if not hundreds of bugs, exploits, and errors, when they said that these two explored everything, they did, and thanks to that this segment of the game had been able to avoid dozens if not hundreds of potential bugs that would have caused millions of potential buyers of the game to be pissed.
Seeing that the things that they did on this segment of the game saved them millions, and the very reputation of their company, which was low, to begin with, they continued to the next segment of the game, this time it was based on a mobile game called Hogwarts Mystery, and Hiro not having played it was very confused on somethings till Hector told him two dozen tips and tricks he learned from playing the mobile game, which made his playthrough of it rather easier. It was all about time and energy management.
Hiro of course being the person that he chose to make his main character be a Slytherin, it probably had nothing to do with the fact that thanks to the books, and movies, he knew how Professor Snape was a good person and he could rely on him. Hector, on the other hand, didn't want to deal with the bullshit of being the school equivalent of a punching bag, and not wanting to deal with the fact that he was surrounded by people that are more likely to stab him in the back than help him, so he picked the one where people left him the hell alone and let him study Ravenclaw.
Yes, Hector picked the one that is essentially egghead central in a housing dorm that is essentially a giant library and their head of the house is a half-goblin wizard who is by far the shortest of the teachers, but thanks to his accomplishments he was also one of the scariest since he is a world champion duelist. So in short he knows three things: how to deal with stupid problems, he is extremely skilled and knowledgeable, and he is also not someone that anyone should ever think about pissing off. So Hector was perfectly happy to be in that house.
The fact that the game was playing using a full-dive version of it, rather than the one that he had to play on his android phone was also a blessing in the fact that it was immensely more immersive, essentially the fact that before he had no way other than pushing a few places on his phone screen to control his choices and actions but now he felt like he was in Hogwarts with everything good and ill about it, to go down to the great hall each day and see as the food appears on the platters on each of the tables, or to smell the bubbling sent of a cauldron as a potion was brewing.
The fact is that Merula Snyde decided to challenge Hector to a duel claiming herself to be the strongest witch in their year, the thing, however, was that Hector had not been simply reading things without thought or completely at random, his reading was far from being something that was done with little thought, he, read books in such a precise order and clear plan that his magic became stronger after each book he read, and having first mastered the ability to speed read, he finished reading books faster than most people thought possible.
The fact is that his speed of reading and learning was so high that to the members of his house he looked like he was just flipping through the pages of the books, but in reality, he was learning everything that was written in each of the books and with his mind curious about the many ways the information connected and related to each other, this lead to him understanding what was written plus discover many hidden pieces of knowledge that were not easy for others to even notice.
In fact, by the time the duel was set to happen he was still reading another book, and he didn't care about the crude comments of Merula and her fellow Slytherins about him being nothing more than a weak nerd. In truth, the only reason Merula could say such things was because Hiro had asked Hector to try and not kill any students at the school. Due to this consideration, these fools could yap their gums and remain alive. As the duel was about to begin she didn't wait for the actual announcement for the duel to start or for her and Hector to stand at duel positions, she attacked him with a bashing spell without any warning at all.
Hector canceled that spell without even having to move this want, and instead, he cast a total body lock spell on her without his wand, a levitation charm, and a wind blast, causing her to be blasted outside the designated duel area, which means within second Merula was declared to have lost the duel. Hiro was watching his friend do this looking rather bored as he simply put away his book into his book bag and was about ready to leave the courtyard.
Hiro simply watched the duel end and smugly walked over to the beaten Merula and whispered something to her to remember about their bet, which made her sneer at him, and as she stood up she told him not to worry, she remembered about their bet regarding the duel, Merula suddenly remembered something Hector told her, never, ever make a bet against Hiro, because those that do always lose. They were in two separate houses and yet it seemed like Hector and Hiro knew each other better than some of the people they lived with, it was weird, the worst thing is, the minute one of them would try a new way to learn something the other immediately tried and learned it.
Merula often joked that maybe these two already knew how to talk with the merfolk and centaurs, that Hiro would go into the forbidden forest to ask lady centaurs out on a date, well it turns out she was only half right, Hector did spend some times talking with the Merfolk and even visited their village a few times, but it wasn't about flirting as much as it was asking them questions about their potion making practices. Hiro often did have heated discussions about astrology with centaurs but that wasn't about him flirting, it was just a talk between friends that sometimes ended in a fight when they argued, it was just that they were that passionate about the subject.
The first time they heard about the cursed vaults was from Merula claiming that she would find and get all the treasures and power from all of the vaults, but something made Hiro and Hector think that this was not something anyone should even think about, it was almost like they had a gut feeling that the vaults were cursed not to keep anyone from entering them, but rather to keep what was inside from escaping. As Hiro said that to Hector he simply asked his friend what was the difference between a cursed vault and a cursed prison. Cause after they talked about the concept he had the feeling these vaults were more than a prison than a place to protect something valuable.
It was a truly horrible year for Hiro as the reputation of his brother followed him even when he never mentioned who his brother was, and everyone knew that he was the brother of Jacob, the previous student who was expelled from Hogwarts for putting so many students lives in danger over his obsession with trying to break into the cursed vaults, some even consider him crazy for thinking that the cursed vaults existed in the first place, but Hiro remembered everything about his brother, and the pain of their mother as Jacob ran away from home and never returned.
Hiro secretly hoped that by learning about these Cursed Vaults he would somehow either find a way to rescue his brother or at the very least learn the truth of his actions and what happened to his brother. Hector was the ever curious and loyal friend, even as Merula and other people around him mocked him for standing up for Hector, it mattered not what they said about his friend, after all, he knew him better than they did, so it didn't matter what they said about his friend at all.
In this game, Hector had a backstory of a simple young man who grew up with a loving family, but a very dull life, thus his hunger and need to learn as much as possible could be explained, learning was his adventure and books were his windows to amazing places, Hiro having seen his older brother runaway his one desire is to reunite and prove that his brother did no wrong if anything so one day he could return to him and their parents who still loved him very much. Thus, Hiro, while trying to avoid problems and just have fun and make friends, would end up being accused of being as obsessed with the cursed vaults as his brother.
The first was causing ice that seem to continue to grow inside the entire castle and everyone in it in danger, the entire hallway was hidden behind an illusion that made people not realize the hallway was there in the first place, and the place was colder than anything and Hector felt like it was cold like everything that caused joy or happiness suddenly died. They didn't go alone however they went with the help of a higher grade student by the name of Willian Weasley, or Bill as he preferred to be called.
He helped them by training in the Incendio spell which was necessary for dealing with the ice. The three finally saw the frost door and with the spells of all three the door shattered, but what came from it was something out of nightmares, a knight, with no warmth, kindness, or desire to be sociable, immediately attacked them, but as he did Bill focused on healing the two friends and Hiro and Hector fought it head on, Hector used spells to slow it down or even cause it to be unable to evade and Hiro using his spell finally defeated the knight, as it burned into nothing but ashes in the wind.
To say that the trio was happy to hear that everyone was safe was easy to see, to see that they were rather confused at the lengthy lecture they got from some of the teachers about the stupidity of taking on the ice knight on their own was not what they would call a hero's welcome. Say that Hector got a lecture about being reckless, Bill got one about being a glory seeker, and Hiro got one from his head of Slytherin house, unlike the others for actually surviving, alright, for actually not thinking of another way to solve the issue other than with combat.
As it were due to many indiscretions done by Hiro, Ravenclaw won the House Cup, but Slytherin won the Quidditch Cup, so Gryffindor was the only house that had anything to complain about, well at least one of their own was a curse breaker who heroically risked his life to keep the entire castle safe if they ignore the fact that Bill didn't do it alone. Well, all in all, the many trials to overcome these cursed vaults were if anything educational, they learned new spells, new potions, and even things about dealing with things like the cursed ice and to both free people of it and treat exposure to the cursed ice.
The only thing Hector found hard was deciphering the runes that he found on that well when he and Hiro have initially trapped in a room no thanks to Merula, it was bad enough that it was a cryptic message but somehow Hector had a weird idea that this was a message written by Jacob for his brother, to make matters worse Hiro had no idea how to translate all those runes since apparently, the Slytherin House didn't have their private library as Ravenclaw House did.
To some that were obvious to Hector it was just being plain lazy, the castle had a library, if Hiro was not too busy flirting with the girl that had gotten both of them trapped in that ice-covered room maybe he could help with the translation of the runes, but no, he was too busy bugging and trying to get Merula and other girls from his house to go out with him.
It was something that soon became the norm for them, as the two friends studied and tried to do their very best at making the best of their time at Hogwarts, as they kept going through classes trying to earn house points, events, and side quests were done to grow stronger and learn things that were beyond what was expected of a student of their year.
The thing is that it also became rather repetitive, and as a result, it took a lot of willpower and plain being stubborn to actually continue but at long last, their second year was about to start again. If Hector wanted not to hear anything else about the fact that Merula, the girl that had spent the previous year either trying to get them expelled or trying to get in their way of making sense of the cursed vault was not officially the girlfriend of Hiro.
If Hector was asked he would call that either Hiro rubbing it in that he didn't have a girlfriend or that he was extremely proud of his acts of treason. The only thing they found was a book with weird writing and scribbles on it and a broken wand that Hiro told Hector it belonged to his missing brother.
The Thing is that Hector having played the game before on his phone, Hector knew that the broken wand was needed to open the second vault but the thing he didn't like was that the thing was built using fear as the thing that guards it, in fact, three boggarts were set to guard the place, exposing anyone that came near it or anyone in the school to that person's greatest and most terrible fear.
The damn thing was not going to be pleasant and finding one of these boggarts in the herbology greenhouse told both friends that someone had already tried to open the vault. This was stupid beyond reason, whoever is trying to do this was either greedy or malicious putting so many of the people in the castle at risk and this person didn't care at all.
Trying to find the vault was less of a chore than anything the two friends could imagine, in fact, the fact that provided them with the most problem was keeping the fact that they were searching a secret was the real problem, as Hiro had gained quite the reputation and was going around getting called a curse breaker.
The fact is that Merula for some strange reason decided to stop trying to get in the way of them searching for the Cursed Vaults, in fact, she was actively helping Hector in everything she could. It seems that Hiro and she went on quite a few dates when they weren't in school, and even when they were.
This somehow improved her willingness to be of help to Hector, to Hiro he called this a ploy of Merula to try and get to whatever treasure there is in the cursed vaults and then turn around and blame it on both of them. She was a Slytherin, it wouldn't be out of character for her or anyone in her house to do that.
Hiro honestly asked his friend to stop looking at Merula like she was going to stab them in the back when they least expect it, she was his girlfriend and she had proven that she loved him. To which Hector told him that it could all be a trap, she was a member of the den of vipers, and there was nothing the people of that house would be willing to do if it served their own interests.
Hiro punched him square in the jaw and told him to stop talking about his house in such horrible ways, in case Hector forgot, he was a member of the same house and he would never betray his friend, and to make matters worse he was seen dating a seven-year member of Slytherin the previous year. Hector reminded him that she unceremoniously dumped him the minute after she graduated and had not even sent him a single letter. And Hiro remind him that is because of her father Charlus Potter.
Hector was still angry so when the three Boggarts appeared in the hall hidden behind the bookcase in the Restricted Section of the library he showed them no mercy, especially since they took the form of Daphne Luna Potter mocking him. Most people make them take on a ridiculous appearance and laugh themselves silly, but not Hector.
Not Hector, he didn't want to just defeat them, he wanted to annihilate them, hearing her say so many mocking things about him, many comments about how pathetic he was in everything they did together, and that he was an idiot because she used him to get ready for her final exams made Hector angrier after every single comment.
This was something Hiro and even Bill didn't expect, a Ravenclaw that had actually fallen in love with a Slytherin, and even after facing that Ice Knight, having her say those things was his worst fear. He threw caution into the wind and caused a fireball to appear and using his knowledge of chemistry he also infused it with enough wind magic to make it burn bright blue.
He could have fired three fireballs and the boggarts would have been killed instead he fired one consistent beam of blue fire that hit the three boggarts in such a fashion that in the end, they had no choice but to beg for mercy, it was only thanks to Hiro that the three boggarts were spared.
Hiro was quick to explain that the person that they did that to and the image they took was that of a person he once loved, and to make matters worse they were correct, he often dread that those words they spoke were in fact true, so much so that some other Ravenclaws say that he was heard crying in his sleep.
Hiro touched the broken wand to the place that had been keeping something locked inside the vault and as it opened it held nothing more than yet another book of sketches, a map, and a rather large arrowhead. Merula wanted to ask to see the book, while Hector told her, no, he still needs to first restore, repair, and decipher it.
If she had enough time to bug him about this, she should spend that time asking her boyfriend, not that it will do her any good. Hector simply concentrated on the book and map for a couple of days while Hiro and Merula snogged in every single place a couple could do that in the entire castle. Not exactly being very discrete with their relationship.
Somehow the rumor of what the three boggarts said to him got around the castle and that had the consequence that pretty much made him the one guy that no witch would ever consider asking out. So he had plenty of chances to study, research and even get into the dueling club, where he was said to be a monster.
He won three tournaments and even Professor Flitwick consider him a champion-level duelist. To which Hector only told him that he simply was using the dueling club to blow off some steam, and get rid of some frustrations. Another Ravenclaw asked him why simply don't ask a girl out and have fun instead?
Hector was quick to tell the person that he already had a disastrous relationship once, he didn't need to repeat his mistakes to learn the lesson. If he was honest he was still upset about Daphne and how supposedly her father forbade her from sending her any letters or even used the Floo powder to talk with him.
It turns out the next vault was inside the Forbidden Forest and it was a lot easier to find thanks to the help of the Centaurs in their village, Hector focused on the task at hand, while apparently, Merula was trying very hard to keep some of the centaur fillies from making passes at her boyfriend.
One of the centaurs asked him why was he so focused on that strange cursed place, and Hector told him that his friend was trying to redeem and rescue his brother, and as far as Hector was concerned it was a danger to the school and everyone that lived in it or near it.