June 2nd, 1991
Harry woke up to his aunt banging on his cupboard door. It was a fairly common occurrence, considering his aunt had never really been the pleasant sort.
"Get up, you lazy kid!", came the screech from outside. "If we're late for our flight, so help me!"
"I'm up!" Harry replied, sighing as he started to look around for his glasses.
It was the beginning of the summer vacation, and his aunt and uncle had made a vacation plan to the Canary Islands almost two months prior. It was a two week vacation plan that had been thoroughly advertised by Aunt Petunia whenever she talked to anyone in the neighborhood.
Of course, it was only them and his cousin, Dudley, who were actually going to the vacation. He was to stay at home alone and take care of all the daily chores.
Harry slowly walked out of the cupboard under the stairs, rubbing his eyes as he did so to remove the drowsiness. He hadn't found his glasses but had decided to come out rather than make his aunt wait even longer.
Walking out, he saw that the front door was open, and through the front door, he could see Dudley running around the car outside while Uncle Vernon loaded some trunks into the car.
Then Aunt Petunia rushed out the kitchen, grabbing ahold of his wrist as she did so, dragging him out the open door and to the porch
."Ouch!" Harry cried out in pain as Aunt Petunia pulled at his arm roughly. She either didn't notice that her nephew was in pain or simply didn't care enough to release him. Probably the latter, he was willing to bet.
Finally outside the house and on the front porch, Harry winced as she let go of his wrist, rubbing it to get the blood flowing again.
She gave him a scathing glare before she walked towards the car to fuss over her "Duddy-kins" who had already seated himself in the backseat of the vehicle and then climbed over the driver seat to keep pressing the horn, yelling along the lines of "Let's go already!"
While this was happening, Vernon strode towards Harry, a glare already on his face.
"Now, listen here, boy," he started as Aunt Petunia tried to stop Dudley in the background. "I expect you to cook for yourself as we have left you two weeks' worth of groceries."
Harry nodded, still holding his wrist gingerly. He hadn't said anything about cleaning, but it was understood that he was supposed to do that regardless.
"No letting others in the house, no talking to neighbors and NO," his voice took on an edge as he glared at the young boy in front of him, "...Freakish behavior!"
Harry, again, nodded absently in response.His "freakish behaviour", as his uncle had so pleasantly put it, was a bunch of random things that happened around him sometimes. He still didn't know what exactly happened, nor did he understand it. The only thing he knew was that his relatives hated him for it.
He had obviously told them that he hadn't turned his teacher's wig neon green, it had happened on its own whilst she was scolding him about his "loose, delinquent clothing", nor had he meant to talk to that garden snake. Yet they hadn't believed him in the slightest and locked him in his room all day.
Vernon gave a nod to the boy who was lost in his thoughts and then walked back towards the car.In a matter of moments, the three left the driveway with Dudley shouting something or the other as the car finally got moving.
He watched them leave for a few moments before he went back inside, locked the door, and started to look for his glasses.
Inside the cupboard, he took the stack of school books from his makeshift bedside table and placed them on the bed to look for his glasses. After a few more minutes of searching, he finally found them on the floor in a corner of the room.
Putting them back on, he started to place all the things he had moved back to their respective places, taking extra care with the books.
Harry thought of the holiday homework he had gotten from school as he placed the school books back on his table one by one. It was mainly all revision based, but there were some things like essays and such that he had to write over the summers.
Unlike other children his age, Harry actually liked doing his homework, mainly the sciences and geography. Science had awesome inventions while there were really cool maps in the geography notebooks, so he loved doing them. It was all the better for Dudley, who could simply copy his work on the last day.
He winced as the pain in his wrist flared up again. Looking at it, it had started to bruise.
After cleaning up, he walked to the kitchen where he opened the fridge to see what the Dursleys had left him. He frowned as he saw that the entire thing had nothing but raw vegetables. There wasn't even any bread or milk today, probably eaten by Dudley in the morning.
Even the vegetables themselves were only a few in numbers, barely a week's worth. Forget two weeks, it'd be hard for him to use them for a week even if he only ate two meals a day.
Sighing in frustration, he went towards the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. Taking his glasses off once more, he got to work.
After wiping his face dry with a ragged looking towel, he put his glasses back on and looked at himself in the mirror.
In the mirror, floating above his head were the words:
Harry Potter (Lv 1)
Student (4th Year, Junior)
What.
After staring at the mirror for a solid minute, he started panicking. Uncle Vernon was going to kill him.
He tried to swat away the words above his head, only for his arm to pass through them uselessly.
"Oh no…oh please no!" Harry was panicking by now. How was he going to explain this to the Dursleys once they came back?!
If he couldn't make this stop, he was in deep, deep trouble.
"What am I going to do now?!" He spoke aloud, fear lacing his every word.
Then, as if triggered by his words, a semi-transparent white coloured screen appeared before him. In it were words written in black colour.
Greetings! Would you like to start the tutorial?
Y/N
[Click on the screen to select your option]
"Aaah!" He jumped as the floating screen suddenly appeared in front of him. He then tried to look away only for the screen to remain solidly in front of him the entire time.
His legs gave away as he simply sat on the bathroom floor, shocked beyond belief.
After staring at the screen for a few seconds, Harry gingerly clicked on the 'N' option and watched as the screen disappeared.
He sighed in relief as the screen finally went away. What in the world was happening?
Then, just as suddenly as before, another screen appeared.
Understood! Please set a reminder for this message to appear at a later date.
[Vocal commands are accepted]
What in the world?
After a few minutes of trying to get his bearings, he spoke again with a trembling voice.
"Um…can I see it again?" He questioned the screen. Great, now he was talking to his hallucinations.
Then the previous screen appeared again, and this time, he chose the 'Y' option.
Salutations! Chosen One!
You have been chosen by the World to inherit the power of 'Growth'!
The power of 'Growth' has manifested itself in a manner easily understood in this Era!
From this point forward, you can become all that you are meant to be via 'Growth'!
Do you wish to understand this ability?
Y/N
He could understand what was happening?
He needed to know what's happening in order to put a stop to it, he thought before taking a deep breath and starting again.
Again, he chose 'Y' before getting up from the bathroom floor and wandering to a chair in the living room.
This…ability seemed to be able to communicate with him to a certain extent, and he really couldn't tell if it was a good thing.
For the sake of easy understanding, 'Growth' has manifested in the form of a Video Game System!
You now have Levels that represent overall strength and ability. You may also view others' strengths in the form of Levels.
To increase one's Level, one must gain "Experience" which can be gained by completing "Quests" or slaying your foes!
You also have "Stats" which represent your mental and physical ability. One can increase these "Stats" in order to grow stronger by using "Stat Points" which are gained upon "Level Up" or by doing things that improve those parts of you.
You also gain access to "Skills" which define what type of "Techniques" you can use!
You also gain an "Inventory" which is your own personal storage space!
To continue, say "Status Window" out loud.
Harry blinked, taking it all in. So this power made him a video game person? Now, he hadn't really played any video games himself, but he had seen Dudley play them lots of times.
Wait, so ce could grow stronger like a video game character? Harry's eyes widened as he understood the implications of that. If this was the case, then he would eventually be strong enough to escape from the Dursleys and live on his own!
Now, with new found enthusiasm, he said out loud "Status Window!"
Another screen appeared before him.
Status Window
Harry James Potter
(Lv: 1)
(Exp: 0.0%)
Status: Debuffed
Health: 60/60
Stamina: 110/110
Defense: 0
Stats:
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 1
Constitution: 1
Charisma: 1
Potency: 7.5%
Stat Points: 5
Reputation: 1000
Inventory: (0/10)
Title(s):
•The Boy Who Lived
Job(s):
•Student (4th Year, Junior)
Perk(s):
•Potter Heir
•Sacrificial Protection
•Protected by Blood
•Horcrux
•Dark Arts Affinity
Skill(s): [4/15]
•Parseltongue (Lv 1)
•Housekeeping (Lv 1)
•Dodging (Lv 1)
•Dark Arts Resistance (Lv 1)
[A new Skill Slot opens every 20 Levels]
Looking over the screen, Harry decided to take things slow as he started to click on things one by one.
He first clicked on the "Exp: 0.0%" right under his Level. It told him that he had zero percent progress in going up to level two.
Then he clicked on the "Debuffed" Status, immediately another, smaller, screen appeared besides the Status Window.
You are currently Debuffed due to "Malnourishment"!
You will get tired easily and have a diminished body performance. There is a risk of death should this condition continue!
To improve your condition, start eating three heavy meals a day!
Harry's eyes narrowed as he saw that he was at the risk of dying because of his shitty relatives.
All thoughts about them being his family evaporated in that instance.
It felt…bad, much to his surprise. He hadn't expected to feel sorrow at the thought of losing some semblance of a family that he had with the Dursleys even after how badly he was treated.
He powered on, reading more and more things on the screen in front of him. He understood the Health and Stamina parts, although it was scary to think that once the Health became 0, it would spell his doom.
He then proceeded to the Stats, which he learned represent his basic physical and mental abilities, which were apparently all abysmal at '1', which was somewhat weird considering he was pretty sure at least his Intelligence was more than one.
There were a bunch of conversions along with various details about how the stats worked and how Stat Points could be used. He found out that his Constitution and Charisma counted a "Sub-Stats" that were wholly dependent upon his "Primary Stats", namely his Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Wisdom and Stat Points couldn't be used to improve them.
Then he got to "Potency" which was at 7.5%. When he clicked on it, he got something he hadn't expected.
"Potency" refers to how potent your Magic is. It depends on various factors and is directly related to the strength of your Magic and the strength of the spells cast by you. Potency also defines if your spell was effective or not by comparing the Potencies of all the parties involved.
He…had magic?! What?!
Harry's mind came to a sudden halt as he got this new tidbit of information.
Suddenly, it all made sense! The so-called "Freakishness" of his. Did that mean there were others like him? Was one of his parents a magician as well? There were so many questions that he wanted answers to now!
Eventually, he continued on and saw that his Reputation at 1000. Which was weird considering he wasn't particularly well-liked by others.
He found out that his Inventory could be called upon and was able to store up to ten unique items with a stack of 10 of the same thing per slot. With a new slot opening every 10 levels.
"Inventory!" he called out loud, and a box appeared before him. It was like the other screens. Only this one was rectangular and had a grid inside, which divided the entire thing into 10 smaller squares in a 2 by 5 manner.
He then picked up a cushion and pushed it through the screen. His eyes widened as an image of the following cushion appeared in one of the squares before he thought about wanting to take it out, and the pillow reappeared in his hands once more.
"This is awesome!" He cried out loud, giddy at how useful his powers seemed to be.
He finally got to the "Title", which showed "The Boy Who Lived" clicking on it, Harry slowly read the description.
"Titles" are monikers that people may refer to you as. These titles usually depend on your actions and achievements (or sometimes the lack thereof). They are a mixed bag, and some Titles are beneficial whilst others are harmful to you. So be mindful of your actions.
Titles are of two types: Permanent and Temporary. Some Titles are such a huge part of you that you can not lose them, while others may be temporary and be lost with time or actions.
Your Title(s):
•The Boy Who Lived: [Permanent]
(You are the only person to ever survive the Killing Curse an, in doing so, have saved countless lives.
You get 1000 Reputation in UK and France, 1 to all Stats every 4 Levels, 0.5% Potency every Level and 10 Health and Stamina every Level)
"The…Killing Curse..?" Harry mumbled to himself before continuing on, but the foreboding feeling that the name brought never quite left him.
At least it showed how he had 1000 Reputation.
His job was just "Student (4th Year, Junior)", which was exactly what he had floating above his head along with his level and name.
"Perks" were next as he clicked on it to know more about them.
"Perks" are Passive bonuses achieved due to various achievements, heritage, etc. These are permanent passive bonuses.
Your Perk(s):
•Potter Heir:
(You have the blood of the Potters, who were inherent geniuses of Transfiguration.
You get 50% Less Intelligence required to learn Transfiguration and a 10% increase in its effectiveness)
•Sacrificial Protection:
(The love of your mother saved you from your imminent death, and at the cost of her life, you now live.
You get the Perk "Protected by Blood", Skill "Dark Arts Resistance" is generated and you receive a 1 Stat Points every Level)
•Protected by Blood:
(Until 17 years of age, you will be magically protected in any place you consider your home so long as a blood relative lives there. You only need to spend a day there in order to reset the protection for another year)
•Horcrux:
(You are a ?
Perk "Dark Arts Affinity" is generated, and Language Skill "Parseltongue" is generated. You can also ?)
•Dark Arts Affinity:
(Dark Arts, Rituals and Curses come easily to you.
You get a 50% reduction in Intelligence needed to learn Curses and Dark Arts and a 30% increase in their effectiveness)
Harry choked on a sob as he read the Perks. There were some confusing and worrying ones. Sure, there was even one that basically meant that there was a whole "Potter" family at one point.
Yet, what caught his eye was the fact that his mother had sacrificed herself for him. He wasn't sure why or how, but at that moment, it truly didn't matter.
Tears were streaming down his face uncontrollably as he realised that his parents weren't drug addicts who died in a crash. No, he had been loved by his parents by his mother.
He was sad that his parents had died. Sad that he was left alone with this aunt and uncle who neglected him but also inexplicably happy.
Harry hiccuped as he tried to control his sobs, wiping some of the tears as he finally read through all four Skills he had even thought his heart wasn't in it as he day-dreamed about living with his parents.
Although Parseltongue explained why he could speak to snakes and "Dark Arts Resistance" was an extremely ominus name for a Skill.
Then he received another message as he finished reading through the Status Window.
Are you ready to completely synchronise your body with the 'Growth' System?
Y/N