Content Warning: depiction of the corpse of a minor who was raped and murdered

If, in the last couple of weeks of the summer term, Privet Drive and its surrounding areas saw a sudden, rapid increase in the number of trees and plants in the surrounding area, Harriet could safely say that it was her fault. Not, she hoped, that anyone else was aware of that fact.

Seeds and buds needing to come to full bloom were far easier to find than she had thought they might be, and growing them, though still a rather slow process, was easier than she remembered. Every blue box of level improvements made her pause and wonder – as she mused on whether that plus the effects of a triple stacked overboost would be enough to regrow her old friend. Overboost had levelled up, meaning it could increase by twenty-six levels rather than the twenty five from before. She wondered how long it would take to regrow the tree which had saved her from her assaulter. A stacked overboost still only lasted for just under three minutes.

Then there was the matter of when she was going to try and regrow the tree which had saved her – because it wasn't like she could do it in front of everyone. Then she really would be ousted as a freak. Even if she was just an elf with magic. Everyone else was human, including her aunt and uncle, and Harriet had no doubts word would get back to them if anything strange happened.

A soft sigh escaped her, and she chewed on her lips, resolving to try and regrow the old oak later that day, after the school day had finished and everyone had gone home. She was perfectly capable of clambering out over the gate, and she was used to having to wait for things, unlike her cousin. Harriet could be patient – very patient – and with her stealth ability activated, she was more comfortable in staying hidden in the grounds, far, far away from the headmaster.

Silently, she wondered if one Ian Strange had called anybody else into his office to have a discussion about their conduct as of late. He was a child predator, after all, not a Harriet predator, if such a thing even existed. Who would want to go after her – and her alone? Certainly, improving her charisma stat had improved her beauty, of all things. A thought occurred to her then, hands trembling as she wondered why he had targeted her all of a sudden. His interest in her had only started after she had improved her charisma stat.

Harriet wondered if it could be considered her own fault for daring to improve her charisma stat – she had just wanted her family to love her, not for other people to take a terrifying interest in her. Arms wrapped around herself, trying to hide the shudders which coursed through her body at the reminder of that day and the ghostly feelings of hands running over her skin.

Morbidly, she wondered what would have happened if her tree hadn't saved her – if those hands far larger than her own would have kept roving over her body, pinching and pulling until he was satisfied. Until he had sexually assaulted her. Whatever that meant. Harriet still didn't understand it, and dimly, she wondered if the library had any books on it.

That was something to think about, perhaps. Harriet didn't like not knowing. She didn't, after all, want to be a stupid girl anymore. "Two stat points to intelligence," she mumbled under her breath, watching Miss Chenhelm warily. "Two stat points to wisdom," she added, watching as the stat page she had called up earlier shifted.

VIT: 10, STR: 6, DEX: 12, INT: 17, WIS: 18, CHA: 30

Unallotted Stat Points: 11

Her fingers drummed against the page of her workbook, part of her already figuring out how to do the exercise they were being assigned as she sat there, picking it up faster than her teacher probably thought possible for her. She wondered if, before she had obtained those stats and put them into wisdom and intelligence whether she had been as stupid as her aunt had liked to tell her she was. A soft sigh escaped her, part of her not wanting to linger long on the thoughts of Ian Strange and that day which was behind her by then.

She wondered why she couldn't just forget about it and move on. Harriet shook her head, trying to focus on something a bit more positive – like the fact that Miss Chenhelm wouldn't be her teacher next year. Instead, she would get one of the Year Four Teachers, and she'd heard good things about them through the grapevine. Though her reputation as a troublemaker was probably already set in stone – and if there was one thing she knew about stone, it was that it was a hard material to shape and change.

"Harriet," Miss Chenhelm called, and she flinched at the loud noise. "Seeing as how you've not been paying attention, I suppose that means you know how to answer this question," she said, gesturing to the maths equation on the board which she'd already worked out how to solve five minutes ago.

Harriet nodded, not uttering a word – it wasn't like saying anything or protesting would do anything to change her situation. Nor how much her teacher despised her existence. She took the whiteboard pen, scrawling her answer on the board in her neatest handwriting before handing the pen back to her dumbstruck teacher and taking her seat once more.

No one laughed at her that time.

Harriet thought she rather liked that silence.

There were two cars left in St Grogory's small carpark – one of which was parked in Headmaster Ian Strange's spot. She could only peer down at the small cars from the tree branch she was perched on. It was one of the thinner birch trees with spindlier branches and plenty of leafy coverage, especially at the height she was tucked away at, but she was smaller and lighter than normal for her grand age of seven. They supported her weight with ease, and with her stealth skill active, she was slightly more confident in remaining hidden. She had her skill box up in front of her, the EXP bar for her stealth skill slowly inching across that screen of hers, the proof that it was working and in use.

Movement caught her eye, the sight of him and another dark-haired teacher walking out then and closing the school up behind them making her smile. She hadn't forgotten the fact that she still had a mysterious enemy out on the loose. Observation, though, told her that invisible enemy of hers – who she had spotted lingering invisibly outside the school gates just a little while earlier – was gone by then.

Harriet didn't know why they were gone, but she was very, very grateful for that fact. She could work on her favourite oak tree without worry about another emergency quest or otherwise having to flee home with her tail tucked between her legs. Not that she actually had a tail. That would have been harder to hide than her ears, which admittedly had been discovered all too easily – far more easily than she had discovered her own changed ear shape on that emergency quest all those weeks ago. Without a doubt, she could safely say she loathed emergency quests. Or, perhaps more accurately, she was terrified of them. It was only a matter of time until she failed one, she mused hopelessly. She was stupid and useless according to her aunt, after all. Her fingers twitched, digging into the craggy surface of the branch, and once she heard the fading sounds of car engines, she made her move.

Tomorrow was the last day of term before they broke up for the summer holiday, and Harriet had the distinct impression it would be harder to sneak into the school once that began. The last thing she wanted was to be accused of either vandalism or theft when all she wanted to do was bring something back which had been stolen from her.

Her eyes narrowed into verdant chips at the thought of the headmaster, a nauseous feeling grabbing at her gut as she tried to keep her mind clear and forget all about those too large hands and where they'd touched. She didn't think she could forget the sensation of skin on skin against her inner thigh. Shaking her head, she slipped down from the tree like a silent shadow, hurrying across the grounds until she was standing in front of the old oak stump. It was large, telling of how long it had lived, only to be cut down because it had saved her from something terrible.

"Nature Magic," she said, holding out her hands, wanting to feel like she was actually doing something.

[Your Level of Nature Magic is too low to revive target: OLD OAK TREE]

A scowl curled at her lips – but that was okay. She had expected that much, and there was still a chance, what with her Overboost skill. "Overboost, Nature Magic," she said, repeating that twice more, watching as the box appeared to inform her she had temporarily reached Apprentice Lvl.26 – the highest level she had ever achieved with it.

Her eyes glowed white, and it was an effect Harriet wanted to attribute to achieving the Apprentice mastery of Nature Magic, not that she held that level of mastery for long. No box plinked into existence to tell her she couldn't revive her target then, and Harriet only grinned, teeth bared in a smile of satisfaction as a creaking sound echoed through the air. The tree trunk grew first, inch by inch, its growth feeling ever so slow as the timer on her overboost slowly ticked away.

Three minutes was such a short time.

[ALERT! Overboost (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.3!]

It didn't seem like the timing would be changing anytime soon, what with how it was the number of levels which was increasing with each level up – something which had just temporarily gained her an extra three levels. The rate of tree growth seemed to increase ever so slightly if she squinted.

Leaves sprouted, thick and a deep, vivid green, and Harriet could only let out a sigh as the overboost ran out and her tree stopped growing. Pain pulsed behind her temples, telling of the headache which was on its way to forming thanks to her using her nature magic so much. Looking up at her work, she could safely say it wasn't quite the same size as before – she was too weak to bring her tree back to its prime. But her tree was alive and living instead of dying.

"Lady… Druid…" The raspy, familiar voice made her step back, shoulders sinking in relief as she basked in the shadow of the old oak.

[ALERT! Voices of the Trees (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.52!]

She was over halfway to reaching the Lvl.100 she needed for that skill to complete her preparations quest for Elvenguard. Though Harriet supposed it was only natural for that skill to improve so quickly – she did, after all, have it on almost all of the time she was away from Privet Drive. It was almost surprising just how much time she tended to spend away from the house she called home. Though it was hardly what she would call a combat skill. Rather, it was more of a sensory skill, Harriet mused, staring proudly at her hard work.

Her hours of growing a wide variety of plants in spite of the headaches it gave her and sprinting back to Privet Drive before the sun fell had paid off. It seemed the more different plants she grew, the better that skill improved. Harriet didn't know how well her improvements would have gone, had that not been the case.

Job done, Harriet smiled, expertly hopping back over the school gate and running all the way back to Privet Drive as the sun began to set. Part of her was only grateful she didn't have any homework due – what with the summer holidays around the corner, otherwise she certainly wouldn't have been able to complete any, and probably would have gotten in trouble. More trouble than she was always, eternally in for one reason or another which didn't make sense to her.

There was a commotion at school the next day, and Harriet could only barely conceal her smile as she watched the teachers and her fellow students stare at the old oak which was no longer a dying stump. She supposed it was to be expected, what with magic not being something known to the humans there. Harriet ignored the musing that she'd had magic when she'd been human, according to the game which had taken over her life.

She wasn't entirely sure what made her look at the man she was terrified of yet loathed in the same breath. She wasn't entirely sure of the dark glee which bubbled up in her chest at the fear and knowing in his eyes as he looked at her. She wasn't entirely sure why her mouth moved without a conscious thought.

Ian Strange looked at her, knowing exactly who was behind the miraculous tree revival, and Harriet smiled like a shark.

Summer came to Privet Drive with a sizzling heat which made the tarmac too hot to walk on at midday. The nightmares never stopped, despite her regrowth of her oak tree, part of her almost terrified that they would try to cut her tree down once more. Yet she would just regrow it over and over again until they got the message.

Harriet sighed, rubbing at her tired eyes as she sat inside her cupboard, looking at the looming list of tasks before her before she could visit that place her curiosity had her burning to visit.

[PREPARATION QUEST: PART I]

• Reach Nature Magic (Novice) Lvl.100

• Reach Voices of the Trees (Novice) Lvl.100

• Reach Wrath of the Forest (Novice) Lvl.50

• Reach Stealth (Apprentice) Lvl.50

• Reach Archery (Apprentice) Lvl.50

• Learn Skill Mana Arrow (Novice) Lvl.1

[REWARDS: +1000 EXP, +5 STAT POINTS]

Nature Magic and Voices of the Trees were coming along nicely, as was her stealth skill with how much she used those three – Wrath of the Forest she didn't quite understand how to use, and she could hardly practice archery without a bow or a set of arrows. She would know. She'd tried, much to her own embarrassment of standing there like she was holding an invisible bow. Her brow furrowed, the last bullet point having her stumped, if only because she didn't understand how to learn a new skill, and a mana related skill in particular. Certainly, she'd received one after completing an emergency quest, but Harriet wanted to stay far, far away from those for maybe a year.

A year seemed like a nice period of time to be free from such quests. It also didn't seem like much to ask for either.

She hugged her knees to her chest, not trying to dwell on Ian Strange for too long, instead thinking of the other daily preparations quest that she had yet to fully complete once. Summer would only make it harder with the heat, despite the longer hours of sunlight it gave her.

Scowling, she climbed to her feet, listening to check it was clear before she scurried out of her cupboard and out into the outside world. Observation and Detect Enemies were still very good friends of hers when walking outside, even if she was slightly less scared of her mysterious enemy who hadn't appeared before her for quite some time. As long as he wasn't about to chase her through the woods she hadn't gone back to since that day, then she thought she was fine as could be.

Even if the result of failure for that emergency quest had been death rather than sexual assault.

Harriet wasn't entirely sure which was worse, because the hyperawareness she'd had after her first emergency quest had nothing on the nightmares and the feelings of ghostly hands which she couldn't quite shake off from the second. Then there was also the fact that she had frozen rather than running or fighting, and Harriet hated that fact. Tears bit at the corners of her eyes at the reminder of that paralysis which had overtaken her, fear making her freeze. And she hadn't been able to overcome that, and there was no stat which could magically make that happen.

Humming under her breath in an effort to distract herself, she skipped down the road, keeping an eye out for any red letters declaring an enemy, smiling as best she could when there was none. She was safe, and she was about to spend another day in her red grove where Dudley was unlikely to bother her.

Aunt Petunia had taken him and some of his friends to get ice cream. She hadn't bothered to ask if Harriet wanted to go as well, but she never did. It was hardly something unusual, and neither did it bother her. She would rather spend time around nature and the trees which whispered nice things to her as opposed to Dudley and his friends who would only sneer at her and pinch her arms until they were red and raw.

Red petals were scattered over green grass, and Harriet frowned at the sight as she edged into her grove, wondering if someone had come and ruined it – as Dudley and his friends would be wont to do, if they knew of its existence. They liked ruining the things she found enjoyment in. Yet Dudley wasn't there, and instead there were white letters hovering over the sleeping form of who she assumed to be the culprit.

Evidently one Elizabeth Eckins was as comfortable around nature as she was though that hardly gave her any right to rip petals from their flowers.

Scowling, Harriet stormed over to where those white letters hung, brow furrowing as she realised that her level was missing, as was her age. In fact, all there was, was—

Elizabeth Eckins (Corpse)

Sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves above them, and Harriet's blood ran cold as she stared at what was before her.

Pale bare feet the same size as hers rested amidst the roses and other red petalled flowers, green eyes staring sightlessly up at the sky, black hair pooling behind her head like an inky puddle, a jagged cut which hadn't healed and would never heal carved into her small forehead. Grass was stained copper, skin over the other girl's heart having been carved open and peeled back to reveal a gaping, bloody hole where her heart should have been. Elizabeth Eckins was as naked as the day she was born, her legs and lower torso stained with white and red, some sort of injury having been inflicted upon that same place where Strange had tried to touch her all too recently.

There was a dead body in front of her, in her grove which had once been a safe place where that invisible stranger hadn't been able to get to her.

That sense of safety was ripped away in an instant, and Harriet screamed.