Notes: Such a good response on the last chapter. I'm surprised. Thanks percychased (my dearest love) for reviewing!
Quick note, I had to switch the second person pov to third person pov because when I tried to plan ahead to later chapters I realized that the second person would not work very well, so I went back and edited it. Darn. I rather liked it in second person.
Competitions and Challenges this is entered in: The Long Haul Competition, more to be announced in later chapters, probably something really random.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I only own my idea and character that is far from being a perfect human being, thank you.
THE GAME
HARRY POTTER: THE JOURNEY OF ENGIMA
The room was dark.
Except for the thin stream of light that was entering through the windows, everything was muffled in the dark curtain of black. You could barely make out the bed shoved in the corner, the small desk overflowing with books and clothes and toys in the crook parallel, and miscellaneous items piled in various places across the small bedroom.
The large lump on the bed let out a groan and turned in its sleep, unconsciously revealing a puff of brown hair underneath the blanket. The lump didn't stir again for a few minutes, until a soft knocking could be heard on the door to the room.
"Nikolai? Time to wake up, sweetie." The voice was soft and feminine, and it was clearly heard through the piece of wood. "Nikolai? I let you sleep in, so don't come complaining to me about how you're tired. It's time to get up, Luminita wants to see you."
"Luminita always wants to see me, mum…" the boy muttered sleepily, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he heard his mother letting out a soft sigh from behind the door.
"She just wants to play with you; you haven't spent a lot of time with her in a little while, you're always cooped up in your room. Anyways, breakfast will be ready in ten minutes, get dressed."
"Fine, I'll play with her more. Why do I need to get dressed?"
"Why? Did you forget? We're going to Diagon Alley today, your father has some business he must attend to at Gringotts and I promised Luminita we could go see the owls." His mother sounded slightly confused, but she must have shrugged it off, since a few moments later Nikolai could hear her footsteps retreating down the stairs and a small murmur of conversation start up in the kitchen, where Luminita and his father were probably sitting.
Nikolai had the strangest feeling that something was off. There was something, deep in the back of his head, screaming at him that this morning felt different from all the rest. And it did. So what was going on?
The brown haired boy shook his head and untangled himself from the mess of blankets he had created. He yawned loudly and stretched his arms high above his head, letting out a small groan as he felt cracks and pops in his spine settled back into place. He scratched his head and moved lethargically towards the window on the far wall, where he pulled open the curtain to expose the dark, gloomy room to some much needed light.
Nikolai let out a hiss when the sun blinded his eyes for a second, and he covered them for a moment and blinked as to not hurt them again. When he opened them for a second time, he found the room lit well and the sun no longer a harsh fiend and he turned to his desk.
There was nothing strange about his desk, at his first glance. All his toys, clothes, and other piles of junk were where they usually were. Nothing seemed to be in the wrong place. But then, he caught sight of something small and thin rolled up on top of the pile, and he curiously picked up it with a little difficulty.
He unrolled it and felt the knot in his stomach made itself known once more.
Greetings Player!
You have entered the magical world of Harry Potter and now shall remain so until you are ejected from the game!
You are probably feeling quite strange right now, as you should be. You are remembering all your memories of your real life and are freaking out since you- quite obviously- are not in your home and have no idea what's going on. You are in your 'life' that you created.
You should have all the memories and knowledge you need to live in this world. You know your name, your family's name, age, and other facts to prove your identity should it be needed.
A reminder, all memories of your real life shall be pushed back until you completely forget they are there when you're not directly thinking about them. Do not be afraid, as the game moderators shall make sure you get a dose of your own life at the end of every 'week' spent in the game so you do not completely forget your own world and end up in a state of shock and illness when you are ejected from the game.
[Potterhead Inc. is not to be blamed for any suicides, insanity, bipolarness, or any other mental or physical health issues one might have received at the end of the game.]
All choices in the game are up to you now, you have control over your life in this realm. Do not stray farther than necessary from the canon time-line of the Harry Potter stories or you shall be ejected. Take control over all the plot holes. Make friends with the characters only see in the backgrounds. Find out your wand and what house you'll be in, your boggart and you patronus.
Welcome to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Player.
-The Potterhead Inc. Team
Nikolai's eyes were wide as everything that had happened flashed before him. He created his character- who he guessed he was now? How strange… and awesome… but really strange- and then fell asleep at the most inconvenient moment, and now he was here?
More so, why hadn't he reacted when his mother- but she wasn't his mother? But everything in his heart yelled 'mother', but the logical part of him screamed 'No'. It seemed like she wasn't his mother, although she raised him. He had memories of them laughing and playing, of his father tossing him into the pool during the summer and of himself throwing Luminita in the air while she screamed with happiness, much to his mother's worry.
That couldn't all be fake, right?
He stared down at the letter, and thought more about his family. Or what he thought was his family. His father was the Romanian ambassador to Wizarding Britain, apparently, so he knew both languages fluently.
…Cool!
He always thought that Romania was awesome and now he could claim that he was half Romanian? Sweet.
And then he thought more about his mother, who was the daughter of some rich family with power in the government, and she and his father met and fell in love, got married, gave birth to him, and the last year gave birth to his one year old sister, Luminita, who apparently worshiped the ground Nikolai walked on and was the best little sister he could ever ask for.
Nikolai always wanted a younger sibling, being an only child before he came here.
As for himself?
His full name was Nikolai Leon Vladimirescu, which was super cool because apparently his father hailed from the Transylvanian portion of Romania, and if his last name and Transylvanian parentage meant that he wasn't a vampire-ish person, he'd bite himself.
I officially love this game!
He was also seven, at the moment, which explained why he had such trouble trying to grab the piece of paper now in his hands before. He was short, not something he particularly liked, as he was short-ish in his real life also, and he was a wizard.
A real life wizard.
Or would it be game life?
He could spend his whole life in the game pondering philosophically at the game life versus real life, but as he didn't have much time left (his whole debate within himself took about seven minutes) he would quickly have to throw on some clothes and head downstairs to meet his family for breakfast.
His game family.
Not his real family, like his mother that was a workaholic lawyer who always was flying off to Belgium or Guam or someplace like that, or his father who worked at the local library and drove him around to his swim meets or basketball games. This was his family, who all laughed merrily and spent a lot of time together and they were the perfect people. They made his heart warm when just thinking about them.
This was like the perfect life he'd always wanted.
Nikolai, caught up in his new life, hastily threw on some clothes he found on his desk and practically bolted out of the room and down the stairs, smiling happily when he heard his mother shout 'No running in the house!' and Luminita's delighted, bubbly laugh as he slid into the kitchen.
Yes. He could get used to this.