Over the next few years Harry's reading, writing, and maths ability rockets ahead of his peers. He manages to get to know enough older children in the library that his social meter, the one with the smiley face, is green by the time he goes home after school each day. This was along with his mental and motor skills, the former mainly due to being made to do the gardening, while the latter was from running from what used to be Dudley's gang. Dudley had stopped being such a bully after he started getting bullied for wanting to wear girls clothes. He'd also stopped calling Harry a freak for the same reason. Though, after Harry discovered the Manage World panel, his biggest bullies ended up with the same desire once he'd found the manage households panel, he was also just waiting for Mr Millbanks' wife, who had picked him up from school one day, to ask, or be asked, for another baby. He was a temporary teacher while Mrs Brookes was off having a baby, and he was absolutely horrid to Harry. Horrid enough that it made him so angry he almost had a freakish moment, and instead vented in the toilets by changing his walking style to a very feminine style and setting his gender to peeing sitting down, and being able to become pregnant. His vindictive streak stuck long enough to get the wife switched to making others pregnant.

Since he learnt to read well enough to really use his inventory, the box picture, he hadn't gone to bed hungry ever again. He had a veritable load of harvested fruit and flowers from around the town, as it was a simple matter to trigger a harvest which only took a couple of minutes regardless of how big the tree, and placed all of the fruit straight in his inventory. He'd also got a wide selection of fruit from the supermarket, something he didn't feel guilty for as taking it cost money from the household budget. None of which seemed to have a spoil time while it was in the inventory, though it gained one if he brought it out.

He has also found out that his uncle is earning £3,000 a month, and there is another £800 being paid for his upkeep. Though whatever his thing is, it seems to think that a month is a day with regards to work and bills. The household also has £150,753 to it's name, he knows it's accurate as he can see it go down whenever he has to go shopping with Petunia. That's another thing that's changed. He's found out that it's not the 'freakishness' that is the problem, so much as it is the overt displays. As such, he's no longer allowed to work on the front garden. As it seems to be impossible for him to not make the plants look pristine. Equally, he's now taken food shopping every week so that he can pick out the things that are going to take the longest to spoil, where they can spoil. That's not to say that he's treated well, there's enough messages saying that social workers are going to take him away in the notifications list to show that. He's also found a build menu, one that he's tested a little by buying himself a tablet computer that allows him to play video games and browse the internet, what little there is of it. When he saw the household money go down he was very wary about doing that again.

Today was a day he'd been waiting for for ages. Vernon landed a new contract last week, and just like every other time he landed it Harry got a notification of a windfall of several thousand pounds into the family account. Today, Saturday, he took his family out for the afternoon in celebration. Harry managed to persuade both his Uncle and Aunt that he could be left on his own, he'd been playing with the build mode and cancelling the changes before they took place in the world, and he knew that he could build basements up to four floors deep. So this afternoon he was going to build himself a proper bedroom with all the mod that he'd never been allowed growing up. It would also be somewhere he could use the mobile phone that his interface came with to talk with the few friends that he'd actually been able to make at school. It wasn't as good for playing games as the tablet computer was, but it was better than anything else he'd seen around England. Once they'd been gone long enough that he'd gotten bored, he opened up the build menu and cautiously built a small room under the cupboard he slept in before accepting the change. When that succeeded without doing anything to the house he built a small room below that one and placed a ladder from that room to the room above it. He cautiously tries to place a ladder under the stairs where his bed should be. It takes some finagling and moving his bed to household storage, but he manages it without making the cupboard door disappear. This is after he finds out that he can't put the door back once it's gone as it's not a valid item according to his interface, and it is just replaced by a wall. He silently thanks whoever designed the house to have a spiral end to the stairs to save space as it appears to have allowed enough non-stair space for the ladder to fit into. He then made a room on the 3rd basement level that would be his new bedroom. In there he put a bookshelf, chess table, fridge, computer, weird virtual game system, and the most comfortable bed he could find. Along with some lights that said they worked off the grid and weren't candles. They also had something about only working for people with magic. But as he had an ancient bloodline thing in his own traits, he assumed that he had magic enough to use them. That was a weird thing, as he also had an extra couple of traits that he shouldn't have.

As an afterthought he also added a creative station, a piano and violin, and a science station so that he could finish his aspiration. It was the only aspiration that he thought he could finish, but that was because of his relatives. While he was at it he added a rather snazzy American style post box to the edge of the property right next to the neighbours house. Hopefully, Vernon would assume that next door had erected it and they would assume that Vernon had.

It would take him another two years to raise the social and creative skills to 10 and unlock the additional skills to go with it. He also finishes his aspiration, and with the bonus points earned buys the observant and speed reader traits. Clutching his head he writhes on the floor of his bedroom as he feels his brain being rewired from the inside to be able to use those traits. The pain disappearing as quickly as it came on once it's done. Staggering to his feet he lurches over to a mirror and stares at his face in the mirror. He idly notes that he is now paying more attention to minute changes on his reflections face. He can already see the signs of mild tension at being indoors causes him, how his eyes flicker towards the exits of the room. He can also see signs of becoming a loner and gloomy becoming more prominent than his other traits. He set's his shoulders and makes a promise to himself that he won't allow the Dursley's treatment of him to shape the way he reacts to the world like that. While he doesn't think he can be the self-assured or social person that he'd love to be, with access to the internet, and the ability to order books he feels like he can make allowing his intelligence to shine through along with his love of reading. All the adults he's met seem to have three prominent traits that, while not everything they are, certainly stand out once you know what they are or how to look for them. Mrs Figg for example, everyone can see that she's a cat lover and a slob, given how rarely she's seen out of her house it's also clear that she's a loner. Oh, she's nice enough, certainly better than his relatives, but he always ends up doing her cleaning when they drop him off there just for his own sanity. What with the faint green smoke cloaking everything in the house. Children on the other hand seem to only have one prominent trait, which thinking about it logically makes sense, as he's still developing as a person so why wouldn't other children. Dudley is still very childish, and that will probably stay with him through life now.

Splashing his face with cold water, the last of the mental aftereffects of what he did fade into wisps of memories. Heading over to his computer he sits down and logs onto one of the message boards that he knows scientists and university students visit and starts socialising with them. As an afterthought he also orders a few books from the computer. He only had a couple of levels in charisma, but it was enough that he wasn't chased off the boards like some of the other kids he'd seen visit for a while.

It took him from Christmas to nearly his birthday, but looking in the mirror he feels like he's managed to express his intelligence and love of books more than his glumness or need to be alone. Junior school had ended a few weeks ago and tomorrow would be his birthday. Knowing that he's too excited to sleep properly, he uses the interface on the bed to command himself to sleep and allows himself to go with the feeling. Waking up feeling refreshed well before anyone else in the house would even be awake, he uses his fridge to magically get a simple meal. It's the third fridge he's had since he built this bedroom, as it occasionally breaks down and he can't find any way to make it work again. He also discovered the downside to his interface a year or so ago when he tried to manually cook something without the interface and it flatly refused to let him even pick up a knife or pan. Taking a cake out of his inventory, he adds the birthday candles he picked up at Sainsbury at the same time. Briefly singing happy birthday to himself, he smiles a sad smile as the candles light on their own. Blowing the candles out he's surprised when he gets a notification informing him that he is now a Teen, and can now learn all adult skills. Although he will need to attend Hogwarts school for his new education. Which is very different to the secure school that Vernon and Petunia kept telling everyone he'd be going to. Not that that particular school actually exists. Glancing over at his computer as he shivers at the thought of how ignorant he'd be if he hadn't got this interface, he's brought out of his gloomy thoughts by the addition of an upgrade option that didn't exist before. Excitedly, he looks around his room to see what else he can do that he couldn't before.

Even the notification about Petunia wanting him to cook breakfast can't dampen that same excitement as he goes through the process of climbing into his cupboard and then selling the ladder. He's even more overjoyed to see that he's now allowed to actually cook. Though his allowed options are rather limited, he can at least cook manually now. It's as he's sitting down to food with his relatives, an activity that has been becoming more common since he built his own bedroom, that the post arrives. With it comes a new notification telling him that he has mail and he needs to check the post box. When he gets up to get the mail without asking, he's surprised to find that there's no letter there for him. Silently he hands the post over to Vernon while he tries to work out what's going on. It's not until a couple of hours later when he's ushered out of the house that he remembers buying the post box. Excitedly he opens the post box and takes the letter. Looking at the address it's not like any address that he's ever seen before, 'Harry Potter, 3rd floor basement bedroom, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging'.

Jogging to the small wood around the local play area, he pauses just out of sight of the play area and opens the letter. Putting the letter into his inventory to look at later, he looks through the fruits that he's got for one that strikes his fancy. As he gets to the bottom of the panel he sees the crystal that he's had for as long as he can remember now. Focusing on it the option to travel to the realm of magic is now available. As he focuses on that option sparkles of light rise up around him and his vision is momentarily obscured before it clears and completely different view is in front of him.

In front of him is a large building sitting in the middle of what appears to be a purplish void. Someone pushing past him makes him aware of the shimmering portal in a stone arch behind him. He's startled when she pulls a modern household mop out of nowhere and tries to mount it as it tries to fly off without It happens so fast that he doesn't even register her name.

In a daze he walks up the path to the main building and finds himself in a large foyer with a lowered area that has a glowing magic circle that takes up most of it. Standing in the circle are two people having a magical duel. Floating above the head of one of them is a green symbol, when he focuses on the person he finds out that their name is Simeon Silversweater, and they are the sage of practical magic. Mesmerised he watches the duel continue until Simeon manages to catch his opponent in a spell that lifts them up in the air before laying them flat on the floor kissing the dirt. The whole thing can't have taken longer than 30 minutes from when he arrived. As Simeon helps his opponent off the floor and gives them a couple of kind words to soothe their feelings, Harry takes the time to look around the rest of the floor. To the left there's something that appears to be a kitchen area, to the right there's a large cauldron sitting in the middle of the floor of that wing. An older man is stirring something in the cauldron and muttering. Apart from the stairs going up to the next floor, the rest of the floor seems to be dedicated to bookshelves and places to sit and read books.

"Hello Harry Potter, I'm Simeon Silversweater, Sage of Practical Magic. Welcome to the realm of magic." – Harry jumps at the introduction as he didn't notice Simeon's approach – "I have to say, I don't recognise you, not only that but I don't know where you're from. Not only should that be impossible these days, as we've now explored the entire planet as well as most of the nearby planets, but it's interesting."

"Um, hello sir. Pleased to meet you. I, um, I'm from Little Whinging in England."

"How interesting, a new country, maybe a new world. And a Genius, Bookworm to boot, though I wonder how you managed to get those traits along with loving the outdoors."

"You can see my traits?" Harry says excitedly, all traces of his previous nervousness disappearing.

"You sound like that's something unusual."

"Where I come from, I'm the only person I've met that can see those."

"Ah, a new world indeed. Come sit, and tell me why you came here."

Harry takes a seat on a comfortable sofa while removing the letter from his inventory. "I got this letter today, and I when I saw the crystal in my inventory it made me think it might have something to do with here."

Simeon takes the letter and looks at it, "I fear that I can't read this. While we seem to be able to converse, it looks like we have a different alphabet. Would you care to read it out to me?"

Harry does so, and once he's finished he looks up to see Simeon looking at him quizzically, "I couldn't understand a word of what you just said. But as I got a notification that a new skill was created for English, I suspect that it's not just a written thing. I want you to read it again, and once you've finished each section look up and tell me what you just read."

Once they've gone through this over the next hour, Simeon has a fair idea of what is written there, "Ah, I see. No we don't have a Hogwarts here. The building that you see around you is all that's left of the Grand University of Magic. Our ancestors built it thousands of generations ago, and we used to know many more schools of magic. But due to a combination of a lack of suitable students, accidents, and disagreements, the only sages left are myself and my two colleagues. As it stands, it's only our presence here that is holding what's left of the university, the nearby village, and the gardens together. I suppose that we should be thankful that it's the old library that remained intact rather than one of the other buildings. It means that between the three of us we've been able preserve the school of Alchemy as well. We can certainly find much of what you need in the shops here, though whether it will be what your school wants you to have I don't know.

"I hope you have some money that you can buy supplies with, or at least stuff you can sell to buy those supplies."

"I"- Harry startles as he realises that his household budget is now showing 0 – "Had money this morning. I have lots of fruit if that helps?"

"That will do, they often sell well. Not as well as some of the rarer herbs and flowers, but well enough for today. Now have you ever sold anything using your inventory?"

"I didn't even know it was possible."

"That's understandable, we normally have to teach our children how to do that too. When you focus on the item or stack of items you want to sell you need to think about selling them. You'll then get a message pop up telling you how much they can be sold for. If you agree to the sale, they'll be taken and be available for other people to buy from the right devices."

"How does all of this work?"

"That was a question we asked for a long time. It was only with the recent development of industrial microscopes that we found out. The interface itself is made by nano machines in our bodies, we don't know where they came from. However, our histories tell us that people with a small amount of them can be controlled by people with enough to manifest the interface. These days that's limited to babies and toddlers, but there are some horror stories in the archives; such as people, or sims as the interface calls us, being forced to swim laps until they die from exhaustion. Or being forced to forgo the loo until they mess themselves. We have records that suggest that it was present in our population back when we were still wanderers. Some scientists think that it was an attempt to uplift us by an alien race. Personally, I think it was actually just a game to those aliens, and when they got bored with it we were left alone long enough for our innate magic to take control of the interface."

Harry just stares at him as he tries to process what he's been told.

"Come, I think you're stretching your brain enough. Let's go and see what we can find in the shops."

Obediently Harry follows Simeon out of the library and through a shimmering portal into a broken street with only half a dozen buildings still standing. Each of which have clear signs of damage as bricks and furniture hover above them in a tug of war with the magical realm and the island of land they're sitting on.

"Now, the shop keepers here are all astrally projecting as it's not safe to spend too long here, as we still get magic quakes occasionally. You don't need to be afraid of these people, as they're not actually ghosts. In fact, if you're here at the right times of day you can often find one of them bringing in new supplies for their shop. Now, I suggest that you buy yourself a wand, broom, and familiar. If they have any tomes that are suitable for apprentices then grab those too. I know your school doesn't want you to have a broom till later, but it will help you with getting around in this world. Once you've got those, I'll teach you how to use the broom, and then tell you how to use the main portal to go home. If I were you, I'd write a reply to the school and put it in your letter box at home. If the interface can deliver it, then it will. Otherwise, whatever mechanism they used to deliver the original letter may pick up the letter themselves. Come back tomorrow and I'll teach you the basics of spell casting and how to use the perks you'll earn."

"OK, erm, while I think about it, how do skills work?"

Simeon smiles, "They nano machines tend to build up in the parts of the brain that you use. As they do they can automate more complex things that you might want to do, and show those through the interface. When you're able to travel this world freely, you'll find that there are two groups, facers and faceless, these are a minority of our population, but one group chooses to only do things with the interface, while the other chooses to never use the interface to do things more complicated than the inventory and shopping. Now, you should buy your things and then get home."

Harry goes over to speak to the shop keepers and looks at their wares before selling enough fruit to buy a phoenix familiar, a tome describing how to make a Potion of Plentiful Needs, a wand of astral creation that catches his eye, finally a pink broom stick in lieu of the supermop they had for sale. He couldn't imagine trying to ride something that his Aunt would probably buy in Sainsbury. After a brief look at the potion supplies he also buys a bobble head called Morpheus cos it looks fun. Once he's finished he goes over to Simeon who's sat by the fountain while he was waiting.

"Ok, first thing, you'll want to bind your familiar. Either place your hand on the orb or focus on it in your inventory, then imagine sending a tendril of magic out to the orb and asking it if it will bind to you. For the moment, ignore the interface as it's better if you know how to do it yourself the first few times. That way you'll find it easier to learn new things without the interface. We teach most of our children to try doing it themselves first and only if that fails to use the interface. Granted, it point blank stops them from even trying some things, as I'm sure you've found. Getting into the habit of doing things without the system unless it's a repetitive task is how some people recently created the skill 'Snowboarding'."

Nodding, Harry removes the orb from his inventory and, with some further guidance from Simeon, manages to manually bind the phoenix. Once it's finished the orb turns into motes of magic and liquid fire flows into his hand and up his arm to his head where the presence of his new familiar settles. He gets a pulse into his head that seems to form the name sunbeam.

"Well done, now focus on that feeling in the back of your head and pull it forward with your magic. This should summon your familiar into the world."

Following the instruction, Harry does this and a majestic bird forms out of magic in front of him. Her feathers are made out of burnished metals, bronze, copper, cobalt, and gold, a shimmering heat haze shimmers around her as the grass beneath her feet starts to blacken and burn.

"Well done, you've managed to summon a true phoenix. Now I want to summon her and use the inter…" Simeon trails off as Sunbeam turns her gaze on him, "On second thoughts, I'll go and buy you another familiar and you can use the interface to bind and summon it so that you can feel the difference." He hurries off and returns, placing a black orb on the ground.

"Right, this is a raven. Focus on the orb and chose the bind familiar option."

Harry does so, then writhes on the floor for a few minutes as the orb dissolves into motes and enters his entire body. At the end of it he has another presence in the back of his mind, though this was so much worse than the first option.

"Well, that's new. Have you had the interface since birth?"

"I don't know, the earliest notification I had was on the 4th September 1986 informing me that I'd aged up from a toddler to a child. I don't really remember much before that date, and what I do remember is very hazy."

Simeon nods, "I'll have to check the archives, but what you're experiencing is indicative of a first generation user. Though your integration must be very high for you to have recovered so quickly. I want you to now try to summon your raven with the interface. This shouldn't be taxing on you as it's just automating an action rather than learning something new."

With more than a little trepidation, Harry focuses on that feeling until the interface pops up and he focuses on the summon familiar button. There is a brief pull on his magic and something that is recognisably a raven appears hovering in the air. Though it looks more like a raven from the dark crystal or the muppets than a real raven.

"As you can see, the familiar summoned using the interface has less depth than your phoenix. It is also less able to act independently, as such it may be unsummoned if you're in a crowded area like a small room, because it can't work out how to move around without going through something. You can also only have one familiar summoned using the interface, while if you do it yourself you can have as many as you can support with your magic." - Simeon pulls out his own broom, one that has crystals where the bristles would go – "Now, for your broom, I want you to bring it to your hand. Make sure you are holding it correctly like this. Once you've got a good grip, push the smallest amount of magic into it that you can. This will prevent you from letting go and also primes the broom for flight. Once you've done that, sit astride it and you should feel where the correct seating position is. Place your second hand behind your first so that both thumbs are facing forward. Finally, lift your feet, and you should feel some stirrups to rest your feet on. I want you to try that a few times."

Once he's happy that Harry has the correct seating position down, and is able to just float there he sits on his own broom again. "Now, just think of where you want to go and push more magic into it. The Broom will then do the rest, you have to be careful though, as if you do this step before you're seated properly you will be dragged to your destination. The mistake that most people make once they're familiar with riding a broom is they start to hurry, and stop ensuring that they're correctly seated. The more magic you pour into the broom the faster it will fly, though there is a limit to how much magic they will take. The supermops will take the least, but it's still faster than taking a car. Your broom will take a moderate amount, but it's nothing special. If you can ever find one of these brooms, it will take everything you can give it and more. Now, we're going to the portal you arrived at. So, I want you to focus on that, I'll be focusing on you, as that's another way to use the broom."

Firmly focusing on where he wants to go, Harry pushes magic into the broom, and with an exhilarated scream he is launched into the sky and to the portal. Simeon follows him with an indulgent smile on his face.

"I want to do that again." Harry fair bounces on his feet at the portal.

"Not today, look at the time."

Harry's shocked to find that it's now 3 in the afternoon, it was 10 in the morning when he arrived here. Raven kept pace with him through the entire flight, Sunbeam however doesn't seem to have a care in the world and stays perched where she is. When he arrives at the portal she disappears with a fulgent flash of white light that leaves after images in watchers vision, before reappearing in a similar flash of light on Harry's shoulder. Harry blinks tears out of his eyes before realising that the after image has already faded.

"Oh, yeah, she's a real phoenix. Something to remember is that the summoning orbs that you just used won't work unless you have a connection to the Realm of Magic, as you're not just using your innate magic to summon them. Same with the spells and alchemy that you can learn here. I don't want you to start on the tome that you bought until I've taught you how to cast a spell myself. And don't use the interface to do it either. Anyway, with this portal there are two ways to use it. The first is to just step through. That will take you to the anchor portal in Glimmerstone. The second is to focus on your home, it doesn't have to be an image, it can be the impressions and feelings of it. When you then step through you will appear just outside your home. Now I suggest that you unsummon your familiars so that you don't lose them if there's a problem going to your world. Feel free to summon them again when you get home. To unsummon them, find that feeling in your head and pull it back into you. You may also need to send feelings and thoughts as to your intentions if they are stubborn."

Concentrating on the feeling of his bedroom he steps through the portal.