It was a surreal feeling, the energy of the portal passing through him and into the ward network that he could feel around him even if he could not see it. The sheer power was enough to give him goosebumps even as the last of the portals energy was dragged from it and it collapsed into nothingness once more.

Option 1: Close the portal selected

- 300 xp gained

-Quest: Repair what has been broken available

As the energy passed through the character, the magic strengthens the character's body and magic, giving a permanent boost to the character's magic. Perhaps, if the character were to close more portals then the magic might have further beneficial effects that they can take advantage of, in addition to stabilising the wards of course...

+10 mp (permanent)

Quest: If you go down to the woods today...-Complete

-Find three types of magical non-pocket creatures (3/3) (50 xp)

-Find a pocket creature (1/1) (50 xp, +5 relationship Arya Black)

-Investigate the Portal (1/1) ([Mysterious Power] Unlocked, 100xp)

Bonus Objectives

-Interact with one of the magical creatures (2/1) (50 xp, +1 Knowledge (Magical creatures)

-Defeat one of the Formians after interacting with the portal (1/1) (Achievement Unlocked, Perk Unlocked)

-Defeat at least 3 Formians before dealing with the Portal (failed)

Achievement Unlocked:

Using a Tornado to blow out a match (One shot an enemy with a normal attack.) - +1% critical chance when attack damage is at least 25% more than the target's damage reduction.

Perk Unlocked:

There is no such thing as overkill (Requires 3 Perk Points): The character is a true believer that the enemy is only dead when their body is ash upon the wind, and even then a bit more firepower is considered good practice. (Adds 2 damage to all destructive spells, increases Crit damage by 5 on all destructive spells or attacks).

Level up- Level 2 reached

12 hp max

18 mp max

2 skill points

1 perk point

The world around him had greyed out as he looked at the long rolling screen he had in front of him, meaning that he didn't need to worry about someone interrupting. The results of his level up were a little disappointing, but then again Harry hadn't really known what he was expecting in the first place, and with the other things he received for what had been a rather simple task he couldn't complain.

As he finished reading and closed the page, another screen appeared with a caricature of himself stood in the middle of it, a bar at the top filling steadily with blue before it suddenly blinked with gold and party poppers exploded around him. His caricature struck a heroic pose and seemed to grow a little larger, stats appearing next to him that Harry was quick to memorise for future information.

HP: 150 - 162

MP: 100 -118

Maximum [Mysterious Power] time: 10 -12

Now at least he knew what his base stats were now, something he would have liked to see earlier. The fact that the time he could use Mysterious power for such a short time was also concerning, and probably meant he was going to crash quite badly when he finished.

Time to face the music though Harry thought, the screen disappearing a moment later and the world speeding back up, falling to one knee as the feeling of power he had felt with the portal vanished. He hadn't felt this exhausted since his first year after Voldishade tried to kill/possess him, each and every muscle in his body screaming at the punishment the extra magical power had put them under.

"Harry! Harry are you okay?" In the next moment Aife was next to him, her worry obvious even as he nodded a gently as he could.

"Tired Aife... Just give me a minute okay?" Aife nodded before she shifted her expression to crestfallen, wringing her hands together in a manner he had come to associate with her feeling guilty.

"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean to... I was so scared when you nearly got caught by the second one of those ants..." Harry got the feeling he would have ended up in that fight regardless, so he tried his best reassuring smile as he looked up.

"Aife, it's fine, we're safe the pocket is closed and there won't be anymore creatures coming out anytime soon." Aife looked like she wanted to carry on apologising for a moment before shaking her head and smiling as she helped him up.

+10 relationship (Aife)

"Well, you said you would take me on an adventure Harry, I wasn't expecting you to go all mini-merlin on us and fight some actual monsters..." Arya was looking at him with an almost predatory look on her face, before she pointed to where the portal had been.

"What did you do with that portal? Can you teach me to do that?" Harry doubted it given what had been said about his Mysterious Power and how he had gained it, but that probably wouldn't be a good excuse.

"Probably not Arya as I have no idea how I did that, it was instinct more than anything. If we come across any more portals and it's safe we can give it a go." Arya seemed strangely happy with that even though Harry had effectively told her he didn't think it would work, another screen appearing in front of him as Arya turned to where he had blasted the Formian.

New Long term Quest chain available: The making of a female warlock

Members of the Black family are renowned for being interested in the most esoteric of subjects, and this extends into their pursuit of the arcane as well, each Black is only considered a true Black in their family if they can show advanced knowledge or understanding of a specialist field. Whilst no longer conforming to most of the Black traditions with Sirius as the new Lord, Arya Black is no different than the rest of her family in her pursuit of the unknown, and your new power comes right at the top of that list...

Quest 1 of ?: The first portal

-Take Arya Black to another portal and clear it of potential threats.

Bonus Objectives:

-Train Arya in preparation for trying to access the portal's power

-?

-?

"Should we check on the ant thing? Make sure it's dead?" Arya's question distracted Harry from what he had just read, not exactly clear instructions but the fact it was termed a long term quest meant he wouldn't have to worry about it right now.

"It's called a Formian, my people have warred with them more than a few times, if it were still alive we would have heard it by now." Aife was clearly nervous about the whole thing, but Arya was not to be deterred as she moved off in that direction, Harry putting an arm around the werekin as they moved to follow her.

"You okay Aife? You know I'm here if you need me." Aife smiled at the gesture, nodding shyly before they cleared the treeline, Arya poking the fallen Formian with a long stick.

"It is so much bigger than I thought it was, do you think we should take it back to mum? Does she know about your powers?" Harry was surprised Arya was asking, but given he had just agreed to try and help her learn to do it, maybe she wanted to keep her potential source of learning and power on her side.

It did leave Harry with a conundrum, whether to try and keep his powers a secret from the rest of his family or not. On the one hand he didn't know how Sirius would react, the man had made it clear he was very wary of anything that involved the pocket dimensions, even Aife and Briar were still treated with a little coolness when he came back from certain missions with the aurors. On the other, Harry knew from experience that hiding things from his friends never worked out well, and given how his previous life had turned out he wouldn't be able to stay out of the spotlight for long.

"Let's take it back, I would prefer if mum and dad knew about my powers now rather than finding out we have hidden it from them later. Besides, if you seriously want to learn how to do whatever that was, they will definitely know a lot more about how we can do it." Arya looked at him in surprise for a moment before sighing and throwing him a smirk.

Arya's Relationship altered: Respected now base companion level

New Title Gained: Mommy's Boy

"Such a mommy's boy... But I suppose you have a point, you want to give me a hand then?" Harry blushed at the comment but didn't argue, he was perfectly happy getting along with Freya, it was sappy but he did enjoy the mothering she gave him.

[]{}#%^*

They made it back just before lunch, Briar waiting for them worriedly at the edge of the forest and panicking when she caught sight of them with the Formian corpse behind them. They managed to convince her to let them explain when they got back to the house, Briar transforming to her bear form to carry it for them.

"I am surprised you actually told me about this incident Harry, I would have thought Arya would have persuaded you to keep it a secret." They hadn't even made it to the kitchen, his adopted mother noticing their approach through the large windows that looked out onto the back garden.

Freya had been initially furious with them, but Harry had managed to calm her down enough to explain things, though that had only been with a couple of very lucky random modifiers on tests and his luck modifier itself. Looking across to Arya as she was brought up, Harry decided to try and be the good guy.

"Arya was the one who actually suggested coming to see you first mum, and I thought it better to tell you now rather than have you learn if I have to use it later." He saw Arya cast his a fake betrayed look, but that changed into an embarrassed smile as Freya turned to her with a soft smile on her face.

+10 relationship (Arya)

"Good to hear it, very responsible of you Arya, though I will insist that any future trips into the woods are with either Briar or myself present. Now, we will talk more about the portal and what happened later, but first I think we can use this as an opportunity to give you a little practice for your Hogwarts classes." Having avoided the possible fall out of his mother's wrath, Harry was quite interested to see what she meant by that, the pair being lead through to the large potions lab that dominated the ground floor of the wing that extended from the main house itself.

"First, before we begin, Arya will probably want to tie her hair back and you will both need gloves. Harry do you want to fetch them?" Harry nodded, though he had only been allowed in the potions lab a few times he knew where all of the protective equipment was kept.

"So, the thing you defended yourself from today Harry is called a Formian, a race of humanoid ants that resulted from magical experimentation before the great schism. There are several different species of Formian and from what we have been able to chronicle they are as hostile to other species as they are humans, meaning that they were probably created in different experiments or even by different wizards to be used as weapons against each other." Having grabbed the gloves, Harry moved back over to the table, reading the quest screen that appeared almost subconsciously as he did so.

New Quest: Basics of The Bestiary

Every Master, whether of Monsters, Magic or Mundane, must start somewhere in their quest to delve into their chosen field. For those wishing to claim a mastery of Pocket, Magical or mundane creatures the first step is in the accumulation of a Bestiary page. Bestiary pages are used to catalogue the various creatures the character encounters, with each page dedicated to a single creature type. Freya is about to give you a lesson on Formians using the corpse you brought back from the woods, listen well and your bestiary page on them will expand...

Main Objectives:

-Listen to Freya as she talks about the Formian

-Ask questions about Formian culture (0/2)

Bonus Objectives

-?

-?

Simple enough as quests go, though Harry would have listened regardless, his mum was a experienced Inquisitorial soldier after all.

"There are five recognised species of Formian: the basic Formian which we have here; Red Formians; Black Formians; Higher Formians and Forest Formians. There are also Army Formians and Chimorians, but these are considered to be mutants or subspecies as opposed to actual separate entities." Each one of those names was followed by a small ding in Harry's book, but as neither Arya or Freya reacted he assumed it was just him that had heard it.

"The basic Formian are the least specialised of the 5 races, considered to be the 'jack of all trades' species that can adapt to different conditions better than the other 4. The Formian workers form the majority of a Formian Hives populace, they are the gatherers, nurturers and builders of the hive. They rarely stray far from recognised feeding sites and their hive, the exploration and security of the hive is left to the warrior caste, one of which you have managed to defeat." Looking down at the Formian's body, Harry decided to have a go at asking a question, even if it didn't relate to Formian culture as was hinted in the quest.

"How can you tell this is a Formian warrior not a Formian worker? What's the difference between the two?" Freya smiled at him, obviously pleased with the question, and gestured toward the face of the Formian, or more specifically the things mandibles.

"If you take a look at these mandibles Harry, on a worker these are longer and less serrated, designed to pick up and carry things as their primary function. Also, you see that pale yellow liquid on the edge of the mandible?" Harry had, and remembering what his observe had told him about the Formian's bite he had made sure none of them had touched it.

"Is it poison? Harry thought it might be and made sure we didn't touch it." Arya's comment made him cast an eye in her direction, she merely winked at his questioning glance, obviously she wanted something if she was trying to get him in the good books with Freya.

"It is, well done Harry for being so cautious, whilst it wouldn't have killed you the poison can cause bad rashes on skin and vomiting or even worse if you eat it or get it into your bloodstream. The Formian's poison is meant to weaken their enemies so they are easier to defeat, either by the warrior itself or others protecting the Hive, though the more aggressive species and larger warriors tend to have much more virulent poisons at their disposal." Harry carried on listening to the explanation about the warrior sects of the different species of Formian species, though he noticed at the end of Freya's explanation she had only talked about 4 of the species she had told them about before.

"Mum, why didn't you talk about the Higher Formians? Do they have no warrior caste?" Freya looked a little uneasy at this, a particular look that she usually had when someone asked her a question she didn't have the answer to.

"Higher Formians are a bit of an exception to the rule we talked about earlier, as well as being individually more intelligent than the basic members of the other races, there seems to only be one class of Higher Formian, which fulfils both roles the warrior and worker class cover with the other races." There was another small ding from his book, which Harry ignored as Freya clearly wasn't finished speaking.

"Well, that is what is considered to be the case, either that or we have only encountered their worker class in the documented encounters and their warrior class are yet to be discovered. Both theories are considered possible in the Inquisitorial ranks, anyone who does encounter a Higher Formian warrior class is in store a rather hefty reward, assuming they survive the encounter of course. Any other questions?" This time Arya stuck her hand up, puzzled expression on her face.

"If these guys are like ants, then does that mean they are ruled by a Queen ant?" Freya nodded.

"Yes, there are Queen Formians, they actually have a telepathic link with each ant in their hive, allowing them to see and hear everything that their workers or soldiers see?" Two questions sprang to Harry's mind at that point, based on what he had read earlier during his observation of the Formian.

"How do we know that they have a telepathic link between each other? And how do we know there are Queens? If they are anything like ants then surely the Queen's would never leave their nest inside the pockets?" Probably a little smart for a 10 year old, but from what he had gleaned from Arya he had always been smart for his age, or as she put it 'a nerdy little Ravenclaw'.

"There have been cases in the past where it is documented that portals were large enough to allow entire hives to migrate across, so Queens were encountered then. In regards to the telepathic link, legimencers have been able to communicate with the Queen through her workers, one of the things that made them such effective weapons if used correctly." Another bing, Harry was on a roll here.

"Now, as well as giving you a heads up in case you encounter any more Formians, I also wanted to show you some of the parts from a Formian that we can use." And then Freya began talking about the different parts of the Formian fighter and how it could be utilised in potions or enchanting, a steady stream of bings filling Harry's ears as she did so.

A pleasant thought occurred to him as he realised what those bings meant, if this game was going to contain information he had learned regarding potions ingredients and such, then the look on Snape's face when he aced his class was going to be absolutely awesome! Probably not the kind of aim the game had in mind when it drew him into it, but Harry was always one to focus on the little things...

A/N: Hi guys... I know it has been some time since I posted. I can't apologise for that, because I have spent quite a bit of that time trying to work out where the hell to go with this story, as well as things like mechanics and Quests etc...

I've made some progress, hence the chapter, but it is definitely not the easy writing I had originally when writing this thing. I am not giving up, that would be too easy, but I cannot promise another update with any great speed as I have to actually plan ahead in this story, which is something I don't usually have to do...

So I have tried to do some work on the Forum to actually get some of my background stuff there, but if there is anything else you guys want to see let me know and I will see if it is feasible.

As usual, let me know what you think guys,

Defias Out