AN: Wow, loving the support being given to this story, I really did not expect so many views for my first fanfic, so thank you all reading and reviewing and following and favoriting and just a big thanks to all of you.

This chapter should be the end of the basic "tutorials" of the game, so the grinding and discovery of new and exciting skills begins now.

So sorry for the long wait as well, I have been stuck with college, hopefully I will be able to put out more chapters at a faster rate, but don't cross your fingers.

However there is some child abuse in this chapter so Be Warned, this will be one of the very few "dark" scenes in this story, as I do want it to be very lighthearted.

Also, for those who immediately thought of Hellsing when Mr Dornez was introduced, I did take a bit of inspiration from Walter, but sadly he won't be a garrotte wire wielding angel of death. But enough about my references; a bit of karma for the pig in a wig we all hate! Ooh and I don't own Harry Potter, that belongs to J K Rowling.

I let out a sigh, as I slowly turned around to face the lump of lard that was now my biological cousin along with a group of his cronies. And cronies they were for their name tags didn't even show their names, just Crony above each of them with 50 Hp in their health bars. I had never liked Dudley, period. He was a fat, good for nothing waste of space that was so unbelievably stupid he could barely add or count at all. He was cruel, ugly, and was one of the biggest contributors to Harry's misery all the way from the day he arrived to the day he left Privet Drive for good.

No amount of random apologising can make up for years of physical and mental abuse along with god knows how many other crimes he committed while Harry was away. So when he and his equally moronic groupies practically ordered me to stop and face them, I knew I could barely keep up my "meek and helpless act". I was trying so hard not to immediately put my Magical Push to the test out of anger and disgust.

Dudley and his little gang seemed to revel in my anxiety as I drew into myself and stuttered out a weak "Y-yeah, w-w-what do you w-want?". He and his buddies grew Grinch-like smiles, as they stalked towards me, perhaps in hope of dragging me off to a more secluded area so to avoid being seen by the large gathering of adults not too far away. Give Dudley credit, either he was brave enough to risk attacking me in front of so many witnesses or he was too stupid to care.

I knew I could not risk anything too drastic with Dudley, as anything that happened to him would land me in hot water with the older Dursleys. So as Dudley started to verbally attack me, I started making a plan on how to get out of this without getting hurt or in trouble.

"We missed you at lunch you little freak, we was hoping to have some fun with you!" Dudley jeered while giving me a look one would give a good meal. God I hoped that that was just Dudley's weird way of saying he wanted to beat me up. I pity anyone who would have to have sex with that thing. Kid probably hasn't seen his penis in such a long time given his disgusting girth. Probably legally dead by this point.

I shoved aside the thoughts of Dudleys genitals (God that was something I had never thought I would say), with the rational thought that he was only 9 and probably hadn't progressed through Puberty enough to develop an interest in sex of any kind. Probably still thought "girls were yucky".

One of Dudley's cronies stepped forward and said "Yeah, we needed something to knock around for bit and you weren't here. Where were you then freak?!" And it certainly didn't take them long to start using that word, as the rest of the gang seemed to start taunting me with it, falling back on their most effective insult. Unfortunately for them I was not Harry and did not naturally respond to the gibe. However I still pushed out a few tears and started shaking a little. Any person paying decent enough attention would see I was faking, but Dudley and his gang were only children and were to busy insulting me to notice.

Eventually, Dudley stepped forward and the jibes died down. Wiping away the tears with my shirt, I snuck a glance towards the group of adults. There were still a number of them there along with their children, who appeared to be watching the confrontation with a mix of sadness and interest. And that was when a plan came together.

Suppressing a grin, I faced Dudley and his mates as he began to talk again "Ok freak, I think we need to teach you a lesson about listening to us." I briefly wondered what he was talking about before realising this was probably a scheduled thing, that kept Dudley and his friends occupied during lunch, before two of Dudleys thugs moved forward to grab me. Putting my Dodging skill to good use, I ducked underneath their outstretched hands. I righted myself in time to turn to the right just in time to dodge a wild swing by one of the other Cronies.

This continued for a while, one of them threw a punch or tried to grab me and I simply ducked out of the way. They were large and slow, whereas I was small and nimble. However It was only a matter of time before one of them got in a lucky hit. One of the other Cronies had ended up behind me in the brawl and slammed his rather meaty fist into the back of my head, sending to the ground and taking me down a good 20 health, 15 from the hit and an extra 5 from smacking into the ground. Man could these kids punch! Or I was just small and weak, either or.

My plan of dodging and tiring them out had been working fine up until that point, but now I was rather worried. If one punch could do that much damage, it wouldn't take much for these guys to knock me unconscious or, if they weren't careful, even kill me. Fortunately, before the gang could start to assault me in the manner they were accustomed to, one of the kids that were still hanging around with their parents at the gate yelled out "FIGHT!" at the top of his lungs, which was surprisingly loud for a little boy at his age.

Everyone's attention turned to us, as the kids started hollering in excitement, different people cheering either me or Dudley's gang on. Taking advantage of the provided distraction, I rolled away until I could stand up, Dudley's gang, now all in front of me, and the crowd to my right and Dudley's left.

We stood there, staring each other down, as I wiped a bit of dirt off of my clothes from where I had been punched down, trying not to appear too confident or smug. I needed to look like the victim here and Dudley the aggressor. That meant not throwing unnecessary punches, or at least making it look like I hadn't done anything too serious. Dudley and his friends seemed to pay no attention to the crowd that was gathering, save for reveling in the cheering of those who were supporting them, but I did.

While the children were all ecstatic about the ongoing violence, the adults were rather split, some looking subtly smug at seeing the "freak" of the neighbourhood being "put in his place", some looking disgusted at the rather obvious display of aggression on Dudley's part, while the rest looked somewhat worried for me, one even running off to get a teacher.

I bit back a grimace. In any other situation I would be glad that someone was going off to get a teacher, but if they got involved it would almost definitely mean the Dursleys finding out. Add in the fact that they would be forced to come to school, if Petunia wasn't here already to pick up Dudley, and I was almost guaranteed a punishment. Curse you well meaning adult!

Seeing how I had next to no chance of avoiding punishment, I decided I might as well give Dudley a good punch in the face or other sensitive areas. I raised my fists in a stance I hoped would give protect me, covering my body with my raised arms, and my face with my left fist. It was a basic self defence stance I had seen on the internet once, designed to as a defencive stance rather than offencive. This was the limit of my knowledge however. But it was better than nothing, as one of Dudley's cronies charged at me.

I raised my arms to soften the blow, and the hit hurt like hell, leaving an achy pain and an almost assured bruise. My health dropped down some more, from 55 to 50. Luckily for me, the kid didn't expect me to block, so was left wide open, as I jammed one of my fists into his stomach.I assumed that I wouldn't do a lot of damage given my rather unimpressive strength, but I was pleasantly surprised to see I did a fairly decent 10 points of damage. Though I was rather weak, it was still enough to wind him, and allowed me to follow up with a quick knee to his gut, driving whatever remaining air he had left in his lungs out in a big wheeze, and dealing a further 10 damage, dropping the first Crony's health to 30.

I finished up with the oh so satisfying,childhood defining, kick to the dick. This seemed to be a weak spot or critical attack area as the kids health dropped a whole 25 points, right down to 5. I shoved him away onto the ground, idly noting that the collision with the ground dropped his health to 0, while observing the rather shocked faces of, well everyone. Not that I could blame them, I mean, if I was them I'd be equally shocked.

The rest of Dudley's gang seemed to hesitate over how quickly I had dispatched one of their friends, who lay defeated at my feet. Even Dudley showed some modicum of smarts, as he seemed to reconsider taking further action. Taking the chance, I Observed Dudley and his Cronies, hoping that some extra info may help me get through this fight without serious injury.

Name: Crony

Level 3

Health : 50

Mana : 0

Str: 4

Vit: 5

Dex: 2

Int: 2

Wis: 1

Chr: 1

Lck: 3

Basic child bullies. Strong and dimwitted, they are followers rather that leaders, and are also easily frightened by stronger opponents, or those who fight back.

Reward for defeating: 50xp, £0.50

Name: Dudley Dursley

Level: 5

Health : 75

Mana : 0

Str: 7

Vit: 4

Dex: 1

Int: 1

Wis: 1

Chr: 5

Lck: 4

A spoiled little brat, Dudley will do anything to get what he wants. He has gathered a group of cronies to harass both his cousin and the neighbourhood, though these misdeeds are often ignored.

Reward for defeating: 100xp, £3.00

Ok so that really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, they were big, strong idiots. I guess I could just stick with my current strategy of dodge and strike whenever I can. Or I could try and make my way out of this and hope it ends without anymore violence. Well, might as well try option 2 before rushing into danger.

"Dudley, just take your friends and walk away. Nobody else has to get hurt, and we can pretend this never happened." I pleaded. I knew it was a long shot and that Dudley was too stupid to accept, but hey, at least I can say I tried the peaceful route. My request garnered a few smiles amongst the crowd of adults but less so amongst the group of kids who was looking forwards to more fighting.

"Argh!" Dudley yelled, angry over even the idea of me telling him what to do, or running away (or in his case waddling away), or maybe the idea of a peaceful resolution was just so abhorrent in his mind he would rather resort to yelling and screaming. All 3 are likely in his case. The cause for Dudley's anger was pointless at the time, but what did matter was that he was now charging towards me at quite a pace for someone who was so heavy.

But still, not all that fast, as I casually sidestepped his swing, stuck out a leg, and watched in amusement as he was sent tumbling to the ground. Dudley gave out one of the most pathetic whines I had ever heard as he began sobbing his eyes out over a little trip into the ground. It had only done 5 damage, geesh!

Dudley's crew seemed lost. With their victim fighting back and their leader disabled (read, crying like a bitch), all they could do was look around confused, wondering what to do. Knowing there was probably not a lot of time before that person who went to get a teacher came back, I knew that I had to act fast to deal with the remaining bullies. I wanted to avoid more violence as I was not very confident that I could win at my current strength against a gang who were stronger than me. But I also wanted to humiliate Dudley a bit more. A plan soon came to mind.

Walking over to Dudley's prone and whimpering form, I eyed my target. The crowds eyes were on me, some having guessed at what was to come, others slightly confused. I pulled back my right leg as far as I could, and swung as hard a kick into Dudley's tiny little cock as I possibly could. Dog owners would be baffled by the strange behaviour of their pets that day, as many of them would howl in pain from a sound only they seemed capable of hearing.

All the males winced either in sympathy, even if they thought he deserved it, or their own imagined pain. The kids just ended up cheering even louder, obviously finding Dudley's punishment hilarious. Dudley's gang however took one look at what had happened to their leader and decided, with what few brain cells they had, that running away was probably the best course of action, picking up their fallen friend in the process.

As they hurried away, I spotted something the one I had knocked down had dropped. It was a three 10p coins. Must be the reward for beating him I guessed. Sending the coins into my inventory, I had only a few seconds to enjoy my victory over my opponents, even if I had only technically defeated 1 of them, as I heard an authoritative voice shout "MR POTTER! What do you think you're doing!?" I slowly turned around fearful of what I would see.

The parent who had run off to get a teacher had returned with help in tow in the form of a woman who, judging by the scowl on her face and bun style brown hair, must have been Professor Mcgonagall's english cousin. By her tone of voice and the way she walked, she was both someone of high importance, possibly the headmistress or at least the deputy, and rather upset at the moment.

"What do you think you're doing Mr Potter. Attacking another student! I'll see your properly punished for this you brat!" she spat. And I'm not being metaphorical, she literally spat it. It went all over my face, it was really disgusting.

Wiping my face clean I calmly replied "But Dudley and his friends attacked me first, I was just defending myself!"

"Well I don't see anyone else but you two here-"

"That's cause they ran away after I beat them." I interrupted indignantly. All I got in return was an aggravated glare from the woman.

"You can make up all the lies you want young man but the evidence speaks for itself. You and Dudley here will come with me while I contact your guardians."

Dudley immediately picked up at the mention of his parents and me getting the blame, his sobs abruptly stopping as he shot to his feet with a gleeful smirk that the teacher was seemingly oblivious to. I was dragged rather forcibly by my arm with Dudley waddling behind us, giggling at my misfortune all the while. None of the crowd who were cheering for me a few minutes before seed inclined to help. Traitors! I mentally yelled.

After a few minutes of the teacher manhandling me, we arrived in a rather plain looking office. In the centre was a standard wooden desk that all high ranking teachers seemed to have, that was covered in stationary and paperwork, however no space was wasted and everything was ordered and straight. I was actually kind of impressed and a little jealous. I had a rather small case of OCD that kicked in during my school years so I always liked seeing things neat and tidy. Around the room were file cabinets and bookshelves with a mixture of books, though I could not guess their contents.

The teacher sat us down, though dumped might be the better word to use in my case, into a pair of seats in front of her desk before pulling out a mobile phone from her pocket. I raised an eyebrow at the rather unofficial way she was getting in contact with the Dursleys. Wasn't they supposed to ring the parents on a landline phone or something? I really didn't like the way this was going. Dudley kept sending me smug looks, knowing that his parents would take his side and I'd be stuck with the punishments.

Before I could do something about wiping that damn smug smile off of his face, the teacher started talking. "Hey 'Tuni how've you been… oh that's great… oh I'm so happy for you! But I haven't called 'bout that, it's about the boy." she hissed this last part and I knew that I had the right idea in regards to where this meeting was going to end up.

After about a quarter of an hour passed, me simply sitting there while Dudley kept up his smug-ass face, Petunia finally arrived with Vernon in tow. Just by looking at them I knew I was screwed. Petunia had the biggest scowl I had ever seen plastered to her face. It was so unnaturally filled with loathing, that I was taken aback by the sheer vitriol in her stare. If anything though Vernon was worse. His face was a deep red, his eyes were scrunched up almost painfully in his anger, and his hands were tightly clenched. He looked ready to start throwing punches at whatever got in his way.

The minute Petunia saw Dudley's slightly bruised nose and tear stained face, she darted over to him, hugging and kissing and cooing to him that "Everything will be alright" and "Mummy's here now." All the while Dudley was forcing out obvious crocodile tears to gain further sympathy. Vernon showed no signs of caring about his son's condition either because he believed Petunia could handle it, or if he was so angry he wanted to lay into me as quickly as possible.

By the way he stalked towards me, and harshly grabbed my shoulder, drawing a gasp and whimper at the sudden pain, I was inclined to believe the latter. "We will be having words, boy!" never in my life had I heard someone whisper with that much hatred in their voice. And it terrified me. It did not take a genius to figure out that I would not be getting out of this confrontation without injury, and the thought scared me. I was in a still rather weak, young body and any retaliation could cause things to escalate even further. And if I wanted my initial plan to work I would have to stick it out for at least a little while.

That thought broug another. I had failed rather spectacularly at my attempts at being Harry. I wasn't overly meek, I was much less afraid to do well in class, and I actually fought back against Dudley rather than lay down and take it. In short, my façade had been broken by my own stupidity. Or maybe it was the lure of the extra rewards from the quest. Or even just me subconsciously thinking I couldn't pull it off so I forgot. The reason behind it didn't matter much in the long run, what mattered was I couldn't go back and try to pretend again. People would notice and get suspicious. Best to just be myself. Fuck what that death lady said, I'm my own man.

My attention was brought out of my inner monologue as I heard the ends of the conversation that was seemingly going on while I was thinking. "And that's what happened, it was a clear case of aggression on Mr Potter's part. Just like you told me 'Tuni, he really is a little menace. Just thought it wouldn't happen so soon in the school year." muttered the teacher.

"Oh yes, always was a scoundrel. Screaming, hitting, stealing. No matter what we do he just doesn't stop!" Petunia quietly screeched, or at least she was keeping her screeching at a whispering level.

"Yes well," interrupted a still furious Vernon, whose face was beginning to turn purple around the edges "we'd best be leaving now, wouldn't want to keep you any longer. Need to give the boy his punishment!" His words were pointed and like every other time he had injected extra hate into the word 'boy'.

We were waved out of the office, Dudley being held and comforted for his little boo boo by Petunia, while my shoulder was being crushed under the meaty paws of Vernon as he steered us through the school grounds to the car. He practically threw me in and slammed the door, uncaring of whether I was wholly in or not. Hell if I wasn't the sick bastard probably would have enjoyed slamming the door into my leg or arms and hope they broke.

The drive home was tense. Vernon was gripping the wheel with such force his knuckles turned white, Petunia had a perpetual scowl on her face and Dudley was continuing to give me that smug face of his, that made me want to lean over and punch him to wipe it off him. I was scared. I was going to be beaten by a man who was maybe 4 or 5 times my size, who likely suffered from a myriad of anger management issues, and whose abuse had actually killed the original Harry. So yeah, terrified was a bit of an understatement.

All too soon we arrived back at number 4. When we parked Vernon stepped out and opened my door, and gave me a hate filled glare as he pointed and growled "In!" Not wanting to give him more reason to hurt me, I dashed forwards to the door which Petunia had just unlocked. I was dimly aware of Vernon's heavy footsteps following me, but I was focussed solely on making it inside and to the relative safety of the cupboard. I barely got inside when Vernon swung at me.

Pain exploded on the back of my head as Vernon's blow connected and sent me tumbling into the wall of the hallway, doing further damage as my nose twisted broke under the sudden force. I let out a groan and a cry as I stumbled to my feet. As I turned around, I was met by another fist slamming into my face, breaking both my glasses and most likely my jaw, as my vision blurred and I spat up globs of spit and blood onto the carpet. Doubled over and my vision impaired due to the lack of glasses and the intense pain, all I saw of the knee that struck me was a dark blur. I had just enough time for the pain to register and to hear Vernon start shouting before I passed out.

However my blissful lack of consciousness lasted only a few seconds before I was roughly grabbed and shaken awake by the infuriated efforts of Vernon. My sense of sound was the first to come, as I heard snippets of yelling. "Freak", "worthless", "bastard" and a variety of swear words were all I could discern. Taste and smell returned next, the coppery taste of blood in my mouth, and the smell of vomit was heavy in the air. I was dreading the return of my limited vision, and I was right to be. All I could see was a purple blob that must have been Vernon's raging face as he continued to verbally attack me. Last but certainly not least was my sense of touch. Or perhaps the better way to describe it, my sense of pain. My face and chest was burning in agony as blood dripped from the various injuries that Vernon had inflicted. His shaking of me wasn't helping very much, only further aggravating my wounds.

I cast a glance to my health, and was somewhat disappointed that it was still quite full, given my injuries, at 35. The small part of my mind that could act through the pain was wondering why on earth I had any health left at all, when by all accounts I should be either dead or unconscious. Was the game mechanics keeping me alive and awake just so that I had to experience this complete agony? Was it interested in seeing me in pain? Because it was certainly getting its money's worth as I was really very much in pain.

My inner ranting was cut off however, as I heard Vernon give out one more yell, although this was less insulting and more an animalistic shout, as he through my limp body into the ground. I could hear the bones in my right leg break as I impacted, before I felt the pain. This was enough to send me back into the land of unconsciousness for good this time, despite any attempt made by Vernon to wake me.

I awoke not in incredible agony as I had expected but more to a rather annoying ache across my whole body, as if I had been exercising for an entire day. Or ran over with a truck. The pain kind of ebbs. Still it was enough for me to let out a groan as I woke up. My eyes squinted in the darkness, my glasses still missing, as I tried to figure out where I was and how I had got there. After a few seconds of thinking (maybe those hits had knocked something loose) I figured I must have been dumped in the cupboard under the stairs some time after I had passed out.

My attention was soon grabbed by a floating blue screen. It took a little while for me to read, darkness and poor eyesight aren't a good combination, but I eventually deciphered the squiggles that I saw the writing as.

You have slept in your bed (albeit a crappy one). Health and magic are 100% restored.

I let out a sigh of relief at that. Thank you mysterious game mechanics that allows sleep to fix major injuries. Almost makes up for it stopping me from passing out earlier and enjoying my uncles love taps. My sarcasm was lost on the game however as the screen just faded away. Left alone, I was given time to think about today and just things in general.

My plan to act like Harry had failed abysmally so there was little reason for me attempting to do so in the near future. Maybe I would play the part to fool the wizards in a few years if I had to. It all depended on whether or not Dumbledore was being all manipulative and evil and shit. If he was a decent guy that was honest and good than I would not put up a façade. However, if he was plotting my end from the very beginning I would show no mercy to him and those who knew but still supported him. The ignorant ones I would leave mostly alone, as they would just be as tricked and used as I would have been.

My second major thought was what I was going to do between now and Hogwarts. Training and becoming stronger was key. Voldemort and his supporters along with god-knows-what-else was out there, and all of them would be clambering to end my life in a variety of bloody and painful ways. I had no intention of letting that happening, so getting stronger was a major objective.

Magic would be my main focus, as Harry's stores were immense (or at least they appeared large). One big problem however was that I could only remember a few of the major spells from the series, and had no proper idea of how to cast them. The only one I knew about and knew how to cast off the top of my head was the Patronus charm. But I doubted I could pull that off anytime soon.

However, if my hunch was correct, I could create spells through the game, as evidenced through the magical push attack. All I had to do was shape my magic and give it an intent. I think. It was the best idea I could come up with given what I knew, plus it gave me hope that I wouldn't just have a basic push attack to defend myself. It's determined to have a decent repertoire of spells before I got to Hogwarts. Defensive and offensive, and maybe some things to help when not in immediate danger or combat. Like moving things through the air with some kind of telekinesis.

On the other hand I didn't want to specialise too much. It was something I had always done in games. I never specialised into just a handful of skills. I wanted a good grasp of at least the basics of other skills. Sneak, speech, lying, and bartering skills would be top priority along with potions making. Sneak could get me into banned areas, and the speech related skills could help me earn extra cash or get me out of tight situations. Or help me charm the ladies. Potions were important as what rpg didn't have situations where you needed to drink a healing potion or two.

Alternative attack and defence options were good to have too. I was leaning towards knives or swords, as well as bows or guns. Knives could be hidden and used for quick precise blows, and swords could be good for dealing with larger targets. Bows were classics and great for stealth, as well as just looking cool. The advantages to guns were obvious. Armour would have to be looked into but I doubted I would make much progress in making my own armour. Better to leave that to professionals. Some unarmed training wouldn't go amiss either in case I had no other options.

With my game plan set, my mind wandered to the Dursleys. They would no doubt notice the change I had undergone soon enough and if last night (had the next day already started?) was any indication, they would be angry and respond according to what they thought would put me back to normal. A part of me honestly wanted to use my powers to slam them into the walls of the house and kill them in cold blood. But another part wanted to stick to my current plan. I was not going to kill the Dursleys. I was going to do something far worse. And in a way, them hurting me like this would help me in a way, as long as I stayed conscious long enough to do what I needed to do.

I was brought out of my thoughts as I heard a familiar set of harsh knocks on the door and a screech to "Get up!". Guess it was morning already. Steeling myself for the day, I pushed open the door, ready to truly start my new life.

PS pwease don't be mad at me for taking so wong (adorable puppy dog eyes)