NOTE: Timeline has been moved up to the 2000's to explain Harriet's familiarity with video games.


There was a small park a little ways away from Privet Drive, a midway point of sorts between her home and the library which was all too often a place of refuge for her, and it was there that she went to, the banging sounds of her uncle's fist against her door ringing in her memories.

The footpath was well-worn and probably more than a little in need of repair. There were potholes littering both the road and the footpath, and Harriet knew them like the back of her hand. Piers Polkiss had once done his ankle in during a game of Harriet Hunting when she had ran towards the park and the small wood hidden away behind the houses of Privet Drive and the other streets around.

In the evenings, when the shadows loomed, it looked like a scary place to go – but to her, to Harriet, who had once spend a couple of nights sleeping in the boroughs of trees there in avoidance of her aunt and uncle's hair-trigger tempers, it wasn't scary at all. Yet that was a moot point in itself, because it was the middle of a sunny day in the depths of summer. The summer hols were still a while off, Dudley's eighth birthday still to go, and on that unremarkable day was the day she had been sponsored.

A soft sigh escaped her, even as she reached the park. Unlike the neat houses and pristine gardens of Privet Drive and Westover Court, it looked just a bit dilapidated. Though Harriet supposed that was for the best. It was her place of solitude and escape. It would be less of both had there been more people wandering about within the grounds of the rather large park.

It was that quietness around her which had her saying something aloud again. "Um, what was it called?" she mumbled. "Ah. Profile!"

Her profile page opened up once more, the blue screen in sharp contrast with the world around it. The boxes were transparent, but not colourless, meaning she could still see where she was going just about, even with those blue boxes open in front of her. Harriet could only wonder if that was what it was like for a game character in those games. It certainly was like that for her in whatever strange game she was playing.

Harriet Lily Potter – Lvl.7 – Age: 7

Race: Elf Sponsor:?

Class: Arcane Archer Subclasses: Druid, ?

Title(s): None (Titles Available to Equip)

HP: 60/60 MP: 130/130

Exhaustion: 0/300

Her level had definitely gone up, like those alerts had told her, as had her MP for some reason. Frowning, she stared at the amount of MP which dwarfed her HP. "What happened?" she mumbled to herself, chewing on her lip as she tried to work out exactly why her MP capacity had changed. "Oh. Stats!"

[STATS]

VIT: 6, STR: 3, DEX: 5, INT: 13, WIS: 11, CHA: 15

Unallotted Stat Points: 12

"Unallotted stat points?" Harriet murmured, wondering when exactly she had gotten twelve of those – last she'd checked she'd had zero. "What are those?"

[ALERT! Automatically activating HELP functions for the beginner player!]

[The Player, Harriet Lily Potter, earns five USP per level up. Please note that stats can be increased through using these points, and by working and improving such stats through your own efforts. Ex. DEX could be improved through running at a high speed for a long period of time!]

"Put them into charisma! Twelve stat points to charisma," she declared, watching as the numbers changed and flashed before her eyes.

VIT: 6, STR: 3, DEX: 5, INT: 13, WIS: 11, CHA: 27

Unallotted Stat Points: 0

Charisma had to be the right stat – that was what affected relationships, familial, romantic—Harriet blinked, scratching at her head as she slowly came to realise that, bewilderingly enough, she somehow understood more about what relationships were. She wasn't too sure how she could describe the sensation of suddenly knowing more about something. There was nothing immediately out of place, sticking out like a sore thumb to say that she'd learnt something new. Instead, the answers to the questions she thought of on relationships just seemed to come to her from the depths of her mind.

[A NEW QUEST HAS ARRIVED!]

Harriet blinked. "Again?" she asked the empty air around her as she reached the shade of the trees and stepped gratefully into it. "I'm getting a lot of quests today," she said, wondering if that would be something which continued beyond that bizarre first day. Part of her wasn't too sure whether she would be able to do so many quests and her schoolwork at the same time. Her teachers hated it when she wasn't able to do her homework – but then again, the cupboard was pretty dark and cramped to write in.

[TUTORIAL QUEST PART II: LEVELLING UP SKILLS]

Skills are a new part of your 'Player' life! Learn how to level them up as quickly as you can! Please level up two of your new skills seven times!

[COMPLETION RATE: 0/7, 0/7]

[Hint: Say the name of the skill you wish to use aloud]

[REWARDS: +30 EXP, +3 STAT POINTS]

"Okay," Harriet said, thinking then on what skills she had – but she didn't really need to think. All she needed to do was—"Skills."

Her skill list popped up in front of her, and Harriet frowned as she wondered what skills she wanted to try and level up seven times. "What skills should I…" she trailed off, staring at the three options which stuck out to her, despite the only requirement being two. She couldn't use nature magic, despite her location, seeing as she wasn't supposed to use the m-word if she wanted her aunt and uncle to come around to liking her, which left three viable options, all of which could probably do with levelling up.

Detect Enemies (Novice) Lvl.1

Stealth (Novice) Lvl.5

Voices of the Trees (Novice) Lvl.1

"Stealth," she whispered, an odd feeling washing over her body as she activated that particular skill. "Uh, Voices of the Trees," she added, freezing as there came a hushed chorus of whispering voices almost chanting right in her ear. "Detect Enemies."

[ALERT! Enemy Detected!]

Harriet froze at that, wondering whether her uncle had come out to look for her before she dismissed that idea – her uncle wouldn't have come out to look for her. He'd never done that before. Yet somehow she had another enemy. But she could check that, couldn't she? "Uh, um, relationships?"

[RELATIONSHIPS]

Petunia Dursley: Rep -32. Conflicted.

Vernon Dursley: Rep -40. Enemy. (Type=Petty)

Dudley Dursley: Rep -11. Mild Hostility.

? ?: Rep +58. Enemy. (Type=?)

"Huh?" Her brow furrowed, because that was a positive relationship and yet it was classed as one of an enemy. Harriet didn't think it made much sense, even as a hissing whisper echoed through her skull.

"He watches…"

"Is that… the voice of a tree?" Harriet wondered, tilting her head, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end at that eerie, raspy tone and those words. It almost sounded like multiple people were talking as one, a discordant hum of voices which were speaking to her and making her shudder at the eeriness of it all.

"You…"

[ALERT! AN EMERGENCY QUEST HAS BEEN ACTIVATED!]

[AN EMERGENCY QUEST HAS BEEN ISSUED!]

[EMERGENCY QUEST]

[There is someone nearby who intends to harm the player!]

Evade your enemy's clutches successfully. Run, hide, or fight – the choice is yours!

[BONUS QUEST] Eliminate your enemy!

[REWARDS: +600 EXP, +5 STAT POINTS, Overboost (Novice) Lvl.1]

[BONUS QUEST REWARDS: ?]

[FAILURE: ?, DEATH]

"Huh?" Harriet whispered, a squeak escaping her as she finished reading it.

"From…"

Shivers rolled down her spine, blood pumping audibly through her ears, rushing to her head as she read that last line. The line which declared what would happen if she failed. It hit her then – that if it wasn't just fun and games, this new, strange gamey life of hers.

"The street…"

Her legs were moving before she realised it, ducking into the nearest section of underbrush, feet not making too much sound as they moved – a feat she attributed to her active stealth skill. Someone was watching her from the street, and she had to avoid them. There was no disbelief, no thinking that it couldn't be true because if there was one thing Harriet had learnt within the Dursley Household it was to trust her instincts. The same instincts which were screaming at her that she was prey and there was a hungry predator about.

The quest window remained open in front of her, taunting her as she gasped for breath and ran further into the little wood she knew far too well. It was her home territory. The only question was whether her pursuer was just as familiar with the area.

[ALERT! Skill: Stealth (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.6!]

[Practice has made you faster +1 DEX!]

Harriet swallowed, heart feeling like it was about to beat out of her chest as she wracked her brain for hiding places. She couldn't outrun an adult – the trees had told her it was an adult male chasing her, their raspy voices coming in and out of volume as she tried to think.

[ALERT! Skill: Voices of the Trees (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.2!]

She knew that place so very well, so why was it so hard to think? Harriet sucked in another shaky breath, hearing the rattling of leaves behind her as she wove around the mounds of stones which grew in frequency the closer she got to what the locals liked to call Gully's Rock. It was practically a cliff, and just beyond it, Harriet realised, was a small little hideaway tucked a little ways beneath the edge.

[Critical Thinking has improved your problem solving abilities +1 WIS!]

Harriet ran, her little legs moving as quickly as they could, every ding of an alert on that strange gaming interface making her jump, every fibre of her body praying that she made it there in time.

[ALERT! Skill: Sprinting (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.12!]

[ALERT! Skill: Dodging (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.17!]

Yet those alerts were barely paid attention to. Not like that other box and the damning white letters in it which proclaimed her fate if she failed.

[FAILURE: ?, DEATH]

That was all she could see as she ran onwards, eyes always straying to that line whenever she almost tripped over loose gravel or a stray tree root.

[QUESTION! Would the 'Player' like to equip the title: THE LAST DRUID for assistance?]

Harriet frowned. "Equip title!" she blurted out. "Yes," she said softly, ever reminded that someone was chasing her.

[ALERT! The Skill: Nature Magic (Novice) Lvl.1 is automatically activated!]

A bit out curse sounded behind her, along with the distinct sound of someone falling over, and Harriet could only be grateful – even if it meant her aunt and uncle would hate her for being a freakish girl. It was better than dying, wasn't it? She reached Gully's Rock, sliding to her backside, grabbing the edge of the small cliff face and tipping herself onto the ledge beneath and scurrying into the concealed hollow she had found once when Piers had shoved her off the top of that cliff before.

One moment she was falling, the next she had been in that little hollow while Piers had freaked out alongside Dudley because she wasn't at the bottom of the cliff, grievously injured. She had gotten thrown in her cupboard for two weeks after that incident. Her aunt and uncle hadn't cared that she had been pushed off an admittedly small cliff, compared to, say, the Cliffs of Dover. All they had cared about was her freakishness, because, Harriet realised belatedly, if she hadn't been so freakish, she would have been seriously injured, or otherwise dead.

There was an eerie sense of finality about that word.

Yet her family hadn't seemed to care, and Harriet wasn't sure what she was supposed to think about that. She didn't want to think about it, not with her odd new understanding of relationships and what they were supposed to be.

The charisma stat would fix all of that though. Wouldn't it? Her relatives had obviously hated her before because that same stat had been at zero. Zeros were never good – not on test scores and homework, and not on stats either.

[ALERT! Skill: Stealth (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.12!]

[ALERT! QUEST PROGRESSION: TUTORIAL QUEST PART II]

Harriet didn't have time to muse on her progression in a tutorial quest. Not when she had an emergency quest ongoing. Tutorial quests couldn't kill her. Emergency quests apparently could.

The sounds of her breathing, forcibly quietened, were the only things she could hear as she sat there, not daring to move or make a sound as an unfamiliar voice sounded from a little ways above. "Dammit," her enemy hissed. "Where did she go?" Footsteps thudded above her, small stones skittering down the rockface as erratic movements made them fall.

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears, muted whisperings of the voices of the trees reaching her, even as she curled up into a little ball and prayed to whatever deity was out there that he didn't find her, hidden as she was.

Another ding echoed in the silence – a sound she had figured out only she could hear, thankfully – another alert for one of her skills levelling up. Those dings filled up the silence, the sound almost soothing as she sat there, trembling like her life depended on it. Because it did. It was almost funny how she'd thought it was fun and like a game. Yet characters died all the times in games, and they respawned. Harriet didn't want to test whether or not she would respawn.

Part of her wondered, though, if she hadn't had that strange system, what would have happened? Would her enemy have watched her and killed her with her none the wiser? She swallowed thickly, shaking her head and pushing that thought off to one side.

Dimly, there was a part of her which mused on the fact that she never would have thought about these things only the day before. The day before an odd gaming system had appeared because she'd been sponsored by someone unknown.

Her hands went to her head, curling in her hair, and Harriet froze at that, momentarily forgetting about the man prowling above her as she realised there was something very, very off about her ears. Fingers brushed against her ears, the skin feeling remarkably sensitive all of a sudden – well, that and the fact she could feel defined points to the tips of her ears. She had pointed ears. Admittedly they were well concealed beneath her messy hair, but that didn't negate the fact that she had pointed ears.

Like an elf in one of her storybooks.

She swallowed nervously, blinking as a notification appeared in front of her – three of them, in fact.

[TUTORIAL QUEST PART II COMPLETE!]

[EMERGENCY QUEST COMPLETE!]

[EMERGENCY BONUS QUEST FAILED!]

Her shoulders slumped, and Harriet felt herself bonelessly slump against the hard stone walls around her. Pointed ears strained, trying to catch a sound of movement above her, but all she could hear was her own breath and the sound of her own heart beating.

Accept Rewards?

[YES] [NO]

Harriet pressed 'Yes', calling up her stats screen in the next instant and staring at her stats then. Some of them had gone up simply through that chase – meaning that there was a way to improve them without using those points. She tilted her head. What was it those alerts had said? Practice. Critical thinking. A soft sigh escaped her, even as she sat there, mostly relieved, and yet utterly terrified at the thought of leaving that hollow.

"Detect Enemies," she whispered hurriedly.

[No Enemies Detected]

Her shoulders slumped even more, until Harriet wondered about just how far she could sense her enemies from. The man from before wasn't above hre anymore, pacing atop the cliff top, yet he could have been lingering nearby. Couldn't he? Harriet could only wonder, hands shaking as she stared at her stats screen, finally able to give it her full attention.

VIT: 6, STR: 3, DEX: 7, INT: 13, WIS: 12, CHA: 27

Unallotted Stat Points: 8

Raspy whispering voices reached her, the trees still speaking to her, and Harriet felt her head jolt up as she realised they could tell her if her enemy was nearby. That was what they had done before.

"He…" the trees whispered.

[ALERT! Skill: Voices of the Trees (Novice) has levelled up to Lvl.10]

"Vanished…"

"So it's safe for me to come out," she mumbled, edging ever so carefully out of the hollow, hands finding familiar handholds as she hefted herself up and over the edge. With the trees whispering in her ears, she trekked back through the wood, heart beating much too fast at every snapped twig and rustle of leaves. Yet the trees were seemingly on her side, so they would definitely tell her if her newest enemy made a reappearance.

Though, as she exited the little wood, feet guiding her home, the whispers stopped and the skill deactivated itself. All too soon she was back at Privet Drive, walking quickly up the driveway and into her house, chanting Detect Enemies all the way. She nearly bolted when she picked up an enemy at home – almost wishing she had never left that hollow which had felt so safe – before she realised it was just her uncle. He was one of her enemies. She had two now.

She had barely walked through the door when she was accosted by her aunt – the same aunt who double took when she saw her. Harriet smiled tentatively. Hopefully. She was no longer at zero charisma, and it should have showed.

"You," her aunt said, and Harriet perked up, flinching only moments later when her aunt's voice took on that tone. The same tone which told her that Aunt Petunia was angry at her. "You… What did you do you little freak?"

Uncle Vernon chose that very moment to walk out of the living room, pausing then before turning to look at her. His face took on a perturbed expression. "Cupboard," he spat, face turning an unsightly shade of puce. "Now!"

Harriet scurried inside her cupboard, confused, more than a little hurt, and scared, blinking when she heard the bolt slide across, shutting her inside. Footsteps moved away, and Harriet could hear her aunt and uncle arguing in the living room about her and how very freakish she was.

Her improved charisma stat hadn't changed anything.