AN I have gone over this chapter and the last and changed a few things regarding the format of the game portions of the fic. Now all game information will be displayed in bold like this. Also if you have any suggestions at all feel free to send me a message and I will get back to you when I can.

As I emerged from number 4 Privet Drive, the harsh light of the morning sun caught my eye, blinding me momentarily. I lifted my hand to block the sun's rays as I started forward while shaking my head in an attempt to clear away the black spots in my eyes. When I was out of the direct path of the light, I lowered my arm and took my first glance at my surroundings. And it was boring. The books, and every fanfic ever, always emphasized how similar the houses were to each other, and they were not exaggerating. Every one was the same 2 floor house, with the exact same features. Same paintwork, same windows, same doors. The only thing that seemed to have any sense of individuality was the gardens, and even they were almost identical. I just prayed, that I would be able to spot my "home" among all these replicas.

I made to move forward when I realized something. The world map was helpful for finding out where to go, but it was an awful hassle to keep pulling it up to try and remember the way. If only there was some kind of minimap. As if responding to my thoughts, another blue box appeared along with a ping.

Now that you have entered the wide open world around you, you have unlocked the use of a minimap. This small map will show the surrounding area, and will turn automatically to face the direction you are facing. It will also show the path to any waypoints you have set in the map screen. Upgrades can be made to the minimap, however these may only be unlocked through the use of certain spells or items. Similarly, other features will be unlocked through this method, or through progressing through the game.

The explanation made sense. Why shove everything at someone all at once, when they can give a little at a time so they have time to get used to what they have. It also explained why my "HUD" seemed to be lacking many of the normal video game criteria like health and mana bars. Oh well. Guess I'll unlock them sometime important.

As I looked in the right-hand corner of my vision, there was a small blue circle. It was about the size of a tangerine in diameter, and showed the outlines of houses as white lines, the roads as black and the gardens were a bright green. I was displayed as I red arrow-head, and the path to school was shown as a white dotted line. Satisfied that I could find my way without pausing every time a split in the path came up, I set off on my quest to get to school. And sure enough it was an actual quest, as a red box stopped me in my tracks not 5 steps out the door saying:

Tutorial quest added: Makin' it on time

Arrive at school before class starts

Survive the random encounter

Reward: 150xp, £3.00

Failure: Death or severe injury, reduced reputation with the people of Surrey

I gaped at the sheer seriousness of what I assumed would be an easy journey. Risk of DEATH!? I'm sorry but fuck that! I was only 9 now! Level 1. Crappy stats and no skills. How was I gonna survive some random encounter with… well I don't know what it could be cause it was random. It could be serial killer, or a rapist, or pedophile or a gang member- at this point I started to hyperventilate as my mind cooked up scenarios of varying seriousness that would all end in my grizzly death. My last thought though - of a clown beating me to death with a balloon animal - put a stop to my panic attack as I ended up giggling to myself like an idiot. After where my thoughts were going I was still a little hysterical so forgive me for finding something like that funny. I took a deep breath to calm myself and to stop the whirlwind of thoughts that filled my head.

I was overreacting. This was only a tutorial quest. It couldn't be too hard. I t could be passed. Plus, all it said I had to do was survive. It didn't mean I had to stay and fight whatever ended up attacking me. If it even did. It was an encounter, not a fight. For all I knew it could be a wizard who recognised me and wanted a hand shake. Nothing nefarious at all. I knew I was deluding myself but it was the only way to prevent myself from having a panic attack. While I was playing a "game" version of life, I was still very much human, and I could freak out. And I had no "Gamer's Mind" to keep my emotions in check. So with my mind trying to keep itself blissfully ignorant, I closed the quest screen and set off. Finally.

There was very few people up at this time, so my journey was rather quiet. Taking the opportunity to test something, I opened my inventory and pulled out the slice of toast I had gotten as a reward for my first quest. I was rather hungry, given that I hadn't eaten before setting off, but there was one thing I wanted to check before I devoured it. I looked at the cooked bread I held in between my fingers, and whispered "observe". As I thought, a box appeared next to the slice.

Toast (cooked bread)

A food item, restores 25 health.

This was my first opportunity to properly use observe, as back in the Dursleys house, one of them would surely have seen me looking at them strangely, and I had been too busy cooking breakfast to observe Petunia when we were alone. The skill, being low leveled, showed very little information, but enough for me to confirm my suspicions. Yes, items could be observed, and yes food did serve as a recovery item. Happy at my findings, I wolfed down the toast, giving a contented little sigh at the feeling of my stomach having something to fill it. I decided not to eat the meat I had gained as, while it was a very small meal, my undersized 9 year old stomach had already begun protesting as I finished the toast. A testament to the shithole that Dumbledore had thrown me into to keep me "safe".

About 10 minutes later, as I was walking through a more populated area of the town, though there were few people out an about even now, the path to the school took a detour through some of the alleys in between some of the stores that made up the area. My danger, and common, senses were both telling me to go around the alleys rather than through, painting gruesome images of my death as my mind was reminded of the random encounter that was promised at the beginning of my journey. But another part of my brain, the part that just wanted to get this walk to school over and done with, was repeatedly yelling at my senses and encouraging me to go through with a "Fuck it" attitude. Being the now young boy I was, I decided to follow this part of my brain's idea, and continued to follow the path the map suggested.

The ambience was noticeably different after I took my first few steps into the alley. It was dark, which was a given since it was an alley, and the buildings to either side of me loomed above, further blocking the light by casting shadows over the ground. Every so often there was a rubbish bin or bag that was carelessly abandoned, its content spilling out and casting a foul odour over the area. The walls were chipped and stained with different substances of unknown origin. Most likely drunks who either spilt their alcohol or threw up against the walls. So perhaps, not unknown origins after all. Though that did not explain the red, coppery looking substance that was splattered on the ground. It wasn't blood. It couldn't be blood. Because if it was blood, that would mean something was possibly in here that could cause me to lose said blood by hurting me, and the "game" wouldn't do that to me so early. Wouldn't it!?

As I slowly came to the rather obvious conclusion that coming down here was a very bad decision, my attention was brought away from my beginnings of my panic attack by a low growling noise, followed by a ping and a green box.

Congrats on discovering your first skill. These are different from abilities in that they are passive skills that almost always active, or only activate under certain circumstances, for example parseltongue is a skill that can only be used in the presence of a snake or snake object.

In this case, you have discovered Detect Bloodlust, allowing you to sense when a dangerous opponent is planning to attack you, and the distance between you and your opponent.

Warning bloodlust detected 7 feet away.

My eyes widened at the pair of messages, as I slowly turned around to face the snarls. To my not so much surprise, the source of the noise and bloodlust was a moderately sized white dog. Or at least, it appeared to once be white, but it's fur was now a horrible unclean mess, with chunks seemingly ripped out either by hand or by teeth. It's ribs were painfully visible and it's legs were thin and shaky, as if it could barely hold itself up due to it's hunger. The dog's mouth slobbered as it eyed me as it's next meal, and a glimpse at it's teeth revealed short, sharp, yellow canines meant for ripping meat from flesh like their wolf ancestors. I made eye contact with it, my fear preventing me from running like my mind was screaming at me to do. Then I blinked.

The beast took this a time to strike as it dashed forwards towards me before leaping at my throat, aiming for a quick kill. Fortunately I had the instinct to dodge hardwired into my brain as most people do, as the dog soared past me, rolling over the ground as it's momentum carried it away. And with that I booked it. I ran as fast as my tiny little legs could carry me. I twisted and turned through the alleys, trying to put some distance between me and the rather ferocious animal that was after me. My breath came in gasps, as I sprinted in a vain attempt to gain some ground. The corners were the only time I could though as the dog would often overshoot and give me a few seconds to get away, only to catch up again in the straighter alleys. A part of me laughed at the somewhat cartoony way the dog would always run past me and hit the walls at the corners of alleyways, and another part expressed disbelief in the length and quantity of the alleys in this part of town. It was a friggin maze! And like all mazes I just had to hit a dead end. Face first as well! In my defense I was looking over my shoulder to see if I had lost the dog.

As I peeled my face off of the bricks, I pounded my hands against them in frustration instead. After all that running and I end up getting killed because of a fucking dead end. How cliched was that! My assault on the innocent wall was stopped by the return of the dog's growling as it approached me. Seeing me trapped, it slowed itself, as if savouring the kill, or preparing for a fight. The idea was laughable. I was a 9 year old, malnourished, weak little boy. There wasn't anything I could do.

But I knew I had to try. I had tried flight, now my basic instincts shrieked at me to perform the only other option I had. Fight. The dog continued its approach from the end of the alley, giving me plenty of time to form a plan, unless it decided to say "fuck it" and just ran at me in which case I was shit out of luck. Think, what do I have. I have a small body and one almost useless skill. Well, use what you've got I thought, as I said out loud "observe" for the first time on a living target. Like with the toast, a box appeared next to the dog, or at least next to it and closer to me so I could actually see what it said.

Starving dog

Level 2

HP: 50

Mana: 0

Str: 5

Dex:5

Vit:3

This is just one of the abandoned creatures that roam this town's alleys. Left on it's own this beast has regained it's feral nature and wild instincts. It will attack anything that it sees as a potential meal.

Reward for killing: 30xp, dog meat, dog bones, £0.10

So good news is it's health was as low as mine, it had no magic, and it only had 3 stats, the others being 0 most likely, given that they weren't shown, and I seemed to have a knack for dodging. Bad news was it could very likely do a lot of damage with those teeth and had a very good incentive to kill me. Also that it was only one of these things and these were apparently pretty common. Add all that together and you get a pretty scared young boy. Oh if only I had a weapon or a spell or something convenient that could save me! At that rather melodramatic thought, my inner gamer decided to finally kick in and desperately scanned my surroundings. Any weapon would do in this case and alleys always have junk in them you can use in a fight. It was a rule of the universe. At least in movies and games. Media logic don't fail me now!

My luck seemed to be in as I spotted a half empty bottle of alcohol laid out on the ground, forgotten by some drunk who in all likelihood had dropped after slamming his head against the wall before nodding off to hangoverland. I snatched it up holding it in my tiny hands. And then life decided to give me what might have been a last F-You as a blue screen popped up in front of me, blocking my vision of the still slowly approaching threat.

You have entered combat. From now on, all enemies and npcs will have their health, mana, name and level displayed above their heads. Your own health and mana will also be displayed in the lower lefthand corner of the screen along with your stamina bar. When your health hits 0, you will either die or be rendered unconscious, depending on the attacks used against you.

My right eye was twitching as I read the message, the only sign of my anger towards the whole idea of a video game life and the interrupting box, and I barely took note of the blue, red, and green bars appearing in the side of my vision. But what did grab my attention was the substantial beast, now with health bar, name and level hovering above it, leaping at me, jaws open and oh my god - I dodged to the side (read - bent back, arms up in the air and sucked in my stomach comically with a shit scared expression on my face). The dog seemed to move in slow motion as it flew past me, and in a moment of clarity, or perhaps frustration at all the shit this thing had caused me, I slammed the bottle down on it's back, causing it to crash painfully into the pavement, and the glass bottle to shatter and spill its content over the canine.

I stared in astonishment at the now broken and bloodied glass I held in hand with no small amount of trepidation. I could not believe I had just done that! Oh wait, yes I could, cause I was staring right at the evidence. Call me what you want but blind to the truth I am not. But what had paralyzed me was the sight of blood on the bottle. I may have been accepting of violence in my last life, but I had never seen a good amount of blood in real life. In movies and games for sure. But barely any in reality. It actually made me rather nauseous the amount that was on the bottle and the way it dripped and mixed with the alcohol as it fell onto the … dog right at my feet - oh shit!

I jumped away from it as it struggled to it's feet. Evidently my attack must have done quite a bit of damage by the way it was struggling to stand. Or perhaps its hunger combined with the blow to the spine just put it in enough pain to daze it. Whatever my attack had done, the only thing that showed just how much damage I'd done was the dog's health bar which had dropped a surprising amount, now just showing 30Hp. It was reassuring to know I had at least gotten it down to 3/5ths of it's health. Now I actually had a chance! This glimmer of hope was harshly extinguished as the dog made it's way to its feet before turning to face me. The look in it's eyes were no longer just of hunger. They were the eyes of a very pissed off predator.

Before I had time to react, whether consciously or unconsciously, the dog had leapt at me and latched onto my arm, it's keen teeth penetrating my shirt and into my skin. For a few seconds I felt nothing, before I screamed in unholy pain and terror as my arm was mauled at by this brute. The feeling of my skin being put under such precise pressure as it was punctured and ripped was agonizing. My nerves felt as if they were being shocked with electricity before being branded with a fire stoker. In a slightly delusional state from the pain I was enduring, I noticed my health bar lose a rather large chunk, dropping to around 20Hp, and continuing to drop as the dog shook my arm, igniting further pain.

At that point I knew I was about to die. I was going to be killed by some damn, common, flea ridden, half starved mutt at only level 1! As my health dropped to 10 points. I closed my eyes in fear. I didn't want to die again. And this time I got to feel my life fade away. Everything was dulling. I could hardly hear, smell, or feel anything. Except for pain. Pain and fear. Pain, fear, anger, desperation! I didn't want to die like this!

Many fans of the Harry Potter series, as well as fans of the many other series' that involve fantasy elements, know that magic is linked with emotion. Case and point "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" when Harry blew his Aunt Marge up like a balloon in a fit of anger. So it should come as no surprise that because of the rather heavy negative emotions going on inside me at that point, that my magic reacted rather violently to the cause of said emotions.

The feeling of pain was lessened considerably, as with a yelp, the dog was forced to let go of my arm as it was flung into the air before slamming into a wall with a sickening crunch of what was undoubtedly the breaking of bones. It's health bar dropped to 0 before fading away. I sat there, shaking in a state of emotional turmoil. I had no idea what I should be feeling. Shock, anger, sadness, joy, sick? That last one had the most appeal as I looked at the broken and bloodied body of the dog that not 10 seconds ago had been gnawing on my arm. I felt the bile rise up, burning and bubbling in my throat as I turned to the side and emptied the meager contents of my stomach onto the ground. I retched and coughed and spat out vomit for a few minutes, as my body convulsed against my will and my vision swam.

Having cleared my stomach, I sat on my hands and knees just shaking. Just shaking. I had never imagined what killing something would feel like. I felt… unclean. Like I had violated something. The feeling of my puke running over my hands did little to shake me out of my breakdown. It took me a while but I was finally able to spit out and/or swallow down whatever bile was left as I pushed myself away from the sick, sit back down, and take a look at my injury. It was bad that was for sure. The dog's teeth had shredded my shirt leaving a huge gaping hole, and my skin was ripped up and bleeding heavily as well. A quick check of my Health bar showed it had stopped at 5Hp which meant that if the rabid animal had held on for a few seconds more I would surely have died. The worst part was that I was feeling so weak. Not just because of the emotional stress I was under having almost died, but physically as well, reflecting the state of my Health.

It was after having a glimpse of the regurgitated remains of my light breakfast that I remembered that I still had my healing food. Opening up my inventory and pulling out my sausage (ha ha, multiple entendre), and bacon before observing them, hoping it would be enough to get me back to a healthy level.

Bacon

A food item, restores 20 health

Sausage

A food item, restores 15 health

I breathed a sigh of relief. While it wouldn't heal me completely, it would take me to a somewhat healthy 40Hp out of 50Hp. Forcing the food into my recently cleared stomach was not enjoyable in the slightest, despite being almost ravenous after having a very small breakfast, the intense "exercise" I just went through, and losing whatever I had left afterwards. As I got to my feet, my gaze traveled to the corpse of the dog in front of me. While I was still shaken after my encounter with it, and was holding down my food from making another appearance, it was with a sick curiosity that made me walk towards it.

If anything the sight was worse up close. It's back was filled with shards of glass that dug into it's flesh, with blood seeping out. It was twisted at an unnatural angle as the bones that kept its structure were bent and broken. The smell was overwhelming, a mixture of coppery blood and disease filled flesh. Above the cadaver was curiously, a box that read:

Harvest

Mildly disturbed by the choice of words and the implications, but still willing to see just what clicking the box would do, I did just that. I regretted it almost instantly. I seemed to lose all control of my body, as if it was being guided by another. I sat on my knees and with inhuman strength, thrust my hands into the body! My mind drew a blank as my hands rooted around in the flesh of the dog before seemingly dragging something out of it. At this point I was freaking out mentally. I had no control over myself at this point despite all my attempts to tell my body to stop. I was cycling through emotions faster than I could handle, and my brain seemed to shut down for a few seconds before rebooting. When I regained a conscious view of the world I was holding of all things, a small bag. The body of the dog, as well as its blood that had previously stained the wall as well as my hands, were gone.

While still very nauseous, I forced down the desire to vomit for a second time in the past 20 minutes and instead tried to focus on just why I shoved my hands into a dead dog and pulled out a clean brown sack, all without being in control of my body while it happened. It all happened when I pressed the Harvest button. Perhaps it was a built in way to make the act easier. So I didn't hesitate to retrieve my rewards for defeating my opponents. If it was, why did it have to be so disgusting and traumatizing. I was going to have nightmares for weeks just from the dog trying to kill me, now I have to add this on top of that?

Shaking away my rising anger towards the universe for putting me in this situation I instead turned my attention back to the bag I was holding onto. It was held shut by a simple red ribbon. Gently pulling it loose, the sack opened up to show a handful of bones, a lump of meat and a 10 pence coin. At first I was confused at the seemingly random contents, before I remembered that the dogs Observe information page showed that it would drop some bones, meat and some money. I quickly dumped the meat and bones into a miscellaneous tab and the coin seemed to automatically join the rest of my money in my inventory.

Realizing that I was still due for school, I swept myself clear of some of the dust and grime I had accumulated in the alley and set off. As I was making my way back out to the street through the labyrinth of alleys a screen popped up, startling me, as my adrenaline was still pumping through my blood and keeping me at high alert.

Because of you fight with your first enemy, you have learned a number of abilities and skills.

You have learned:

Blunt weapons mastery(Skill Lv1 20%): Increases the damage and swing speed of blunt weapons by 5%

Magical push(Ability Lv1 10%): Force an opponent back with magic. Deals 20 damage (can be increased if the target hits something while being pushed), range of 5 meters, costs 20Mp

Dodging(Skill Lv1 30%): Increases the chance to dodge an enemy attack. Currently +5% chance to dodge.

Sprinting(Skill Lv2 5%): Increases the speed you can sprint as well as how much stamina it uses. Currently 7Mph, 47 stamina cost per minute

This was arguably the only good thing about the whole endeavor, I mused as I walked down the street, avoiding looking at the more significant amount of people on the streets who were looking at me with thinly veiled, if not at all hidden, looks of disdain. It was understandable though as I had just emerged from an alley in horribly oversized, used clothes that now had a huge hole in the arm. So it made sense for people to not want to look at me. Anyway, the unlocking of all these skills helped show I was making some more headway. Now, along with the Observe ability, I had things I could train and improve about myself. Especially the Magical push ability. It would be so cool to just be able to push things around with magic. Maybe use it to fuck with Dudley a bit. Try catching when you're always tripping over some unknown force now Lard-arse!

Hurrying along the path shown by the minimap, I actually managed to make it to the school in time. I was nowhere near as early as I would have been had I not been attacked, but the abilities and skills I unlocked were a worthy reward in exchange for the destruction of a large amount of my innocence, nightmares for weeks as well as almost being late for school. Right? Anyway as soon as I was in the school grounds I headed straight to the bathroom to clear away some of the dirt that wouldn't be simply swept off. Finding the nearest male toilets, I quickly washed my hands and arm clear of the grime and swilled some water around my mouth to clear away the smell and taste of vomit that still lingered over from before. Emerging into the now crowded corridor I looked around searching for one of Harry's classmates , and upon finding one, a young black haired girl by the name of Annabel, followed her to the classroom.

It was a rather basic class filled with tables and chairs for groups of students to sit at and work with each other. Seeing people arguing over where they would sit gave me the idea that we could just sit anywhere and that no proper places for students had been chosen by the teacher. I gave a mental sigh of relief as I wished to avoid the embarrassment of having to explain why I had forgotten a load of basic facts that I should already know. I would save that for Hogwarts where I would have a legitimate excuse I could tell people as to why I got something wrong. When I took a seat towards the back of the class, mostly to avoid the attention of Dudley who I prayed was not in this class, or any of his cronies, a screen popped up in front of me.

Quest completed

You have gained:

150xp

£3.00

Allowing myself a small, smug smile of satisfaction at the rewards, I was suddenly filled with an invigorating feeling. I saw my health and mana in the bottom of the screen pulse before the numbers increased. A new screen appeared, replacing the old one.

Congratulations on your first level up. Leveling up will increase your health and mana capacity, completely restore them, and give you 5 stat points to add to your current stats. These points can be used at any point by opening your status screen and tapping the arrow next to your stats that will appear when you have available stat points to spend.

Closing the explanation, I quickly went to my status page to check any of the changes I could see.

Name: Harry James Potter

Level 2 (341/500)

Age: 9

Race: Human (wizard)

Health : 75

Mana : 250

£3.60/0g, 0s, 0kn

Strength (str): 3 (-2) ↑

Vitality (vit): 3 (-2) ↑

Dexterity (dex): 5 (-3) ↑

Intelligence (int): 10 ↑

Wisdom (wis): 10 ↑

Charisma (chr): 8 ↑

Luck (lck): 5 ↑

Available stat points: 5

Malnourished

Damaged eyes:

"Town Hooligan"

Adorable

Living Horcrux

Foreknowledge

So overall not much had changed. My health had gone up by 25 and my mana by 50 which was quite an increase at this stage. My money had of course gone up from all the rewards for completing the quests and killing that wild dog. But aside from those my stats had not changed at all. Perhaps they only increased with training. It made sense as all these stats in Gamer fics only increased after certain actions. All though I wondered why they hadn't increased for me at all yet. It was probably the game preventing me from increasing them just yet. I did appreciate that as if I had been getting screens popping up in the middle of combat it would have been very distracting. So the stat leveling up would come later like the health and mana bar displays only came up when I started combat and would actually need them. I was drawn out of my thoughts of the mechanics of the game when the bell rang signaling the start of class. A new screen appeared with a new quest.

Tutorial quest added: School daze

Make it through the school day

(Optional) Show the teachers you are intelligent without showing off to the rest of the class too much

Rewards: 50xp, £1.

Bonus rewards for completing optional task; 20xp, £0.50

With a slightly anxious smile mixed with anticipation, I closed the screen and turned my attention to the front of the class, waiting to begin.