The GameMaster
Chapter 1 - Walloped into the Wizarding World
The warm summer breeze caressed my face as I walked with my mum, dad and younger brother down the streets of Torrevieja, Spain. It was the last day of our summer holiday, and only two weeks before I would finally fly the coop to start university. I was extremely excited to get out from under my parents' thumbs, and not only that, I'd be studying game design at one of the best universities for the course in the country.
The streets were busy—with the Spanish way of life meaning that most don't have dinner 'til at least nine p.m. Being English, we'd already eaten at one of my mum's favourite restaurants and were on our way back to the car to drive home to our rented apartment, not too far from the city centre. As we stepped through the crowd of people, a leggy, brunette Spaniard in her early twenties caught my eye. She was seriously hot, and I couldn't help but look back over my shoulder to get a second look.
"Eyes front, soldier," my dad jibed, giving me a playful slap on the back. "Plenty of time for girls at uni."
I looked up at my six-foot-eight giant of a father and smirked at him when we heard a sudden scream to our left. A little girl, who couldn't be more than five years old, had gone tottering out into the middle of the road, giggling madly. However, a large truck bearing the logo "
'GameMaster Internacional' was careening towards her at high speed, its engine growling menacingly.
"Son, what are you–?" my dad shouted, but it was too late. I'd sprinted out onto the asphalt, knowing that I'd have just enough time to grab her and get to the other side of the street. However, that's not what happened.
The wind rushed past my ears as, with both hands I grabbed the child by her arms. I had enough speed that I'd easily make it with time to spare, but then old numb-nuts here didn't see the chunk of old pavement that was just sitting there loose in the middle of the road. I stepped on it, and it rolled, I tripped and landed on my knees. Jerking my head up, I saw the truck mere metres away, I frantically pushed the toddler onto the safety of the sidewalk.
Then I died.
Or so I thought.
Blackness consumed me. There was nothing. And then… a message.
Congratulations, you are now dead. You managed it rather spectacularly, and due to your selfless sacrifice, you will be rewarded with a new life. Do you accept?
My mind reeled. Everything had happened so quickly. I'd died? Everything, everyone I'd ever known was gone, or rather… I was. I didn't want to die! But… what choice did I have?
As if responding to my thoughts, the options appeared in the same sage green text right in front of me.
Yes.
No.
But how do I?...
Text appeared below the two options.
Just think to select.
Yes.
Congratulations on your new life. You will now be transported to an alternate universe where you never existed, and will become one with a citizen of this world, specifically chosen based on your interests. Rebirth in three, two, one…
Before I had a chance to even comprehend what had been written, the text disappeared. Then the purest black flashed to blinding white—if I had eyes to be blinded right then, I guess. Everything faded to black again, before morphing into a deep red—the same deep red you see when you're awake with your eyes closed but have the sun on your face. Realising this, I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a comfy bed beneath threadbare, violently orange sheets, though that was all I could really make out. Weird. I'd always had 20/20 vision but now I couldn't see more than three feet away from my head.
The room was oddly familiar. Wait… it was very familiar.
Am I in?... Wait, people with bad eyesight need glasses. Where would they be?
I fumbled around on a bedside table, with surprising deftness considering I had a new body, until I found a strangely familiar-feeling pair of spectacles. Pushing them onto my face, I grinned as the inkling I had was proven right. Plastered across the far wall was a huge mural of a purple 'W' on red wallpaper, and underneath were the words 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.
Of all the fantasy universes I would've wanted to be placed in, this was definitely the one I would've picked. To say I knew it inside and out would be an understatement. I'd even dabbled in writing fanfiction from time to time.
Wait… glasses… I needed glasses to see. And I'm in the Burrow… does that mean?... If I'm Harry Potter, what year is it? What book have I landed myself in?
A peek under the duvet at the slender but slightly toned body of a young adult told me that I must've landed later on in the series. At least I wasn't in The Chamber of Secrets.
But when? What day is it?
The translucent dark green box at the top of my vision, bore its brighter green text so suddenly that it made me jump.
To view the time and date, think 'Menu'. - The GameMaster.
The GameMaster?
I blinked in confusion.
Menu.
A new box stretched and filled my whole vision, its rows of text quickly fading in one after another.
Menu - August 27th, 1997. 09:53
Profile
Inventory
Gacha
Talents
Spells and Abilities
Quests
Every single option on the list apart from 'Profile' was greyed out.
I'm in… a video game? Or a Harry Potter video game? Or what? How do I get to the damn profile?
You are in Universe ID: 61743285/XTTJB. This universe was selected for you because of your love for the Harry Potter franchise, which was imagined and brought into your universe as literature by pure coincidence. In another universe, they even made movies about it. The being known as 'The GameMaster' has granted you your rebirth and has chosen to grant you a boon by gamifying your new life. Various messages from him have been left to aid your experience.
Once I'd finished reading, the message disappeared, only to be replaced by another.
To select the Profile, think 'Profile'...obviously. - the GameMaster.
I snorted inwardly at the cheek.
Profile.
Profile
Harry James Potter - Level 20.
Age 17 years, 0 months, 27 days
Physical Attributes
Looks (Face) - B.
Looks (Body) - B.
Strength - 8
Agility - 14
Intellect - 10
Constitution - 8
Charisma - 11
Healing Factor - Magical Level 1
It all made sense, at least. After all, Harry was an average-looking bloke—not particularly strong, but he had great reflexes that enabled him to play as a Seeker. His, or my, constitution also being quite low was obviously a result of malnourishment at the hands of the Dursleys.
The main question was, had Voldemort been defeated? It didn't seem like I was going to get any answers here. I had no clue.
Back.
The main menu reappeared, but nearly everything was greyed out. How was I supposed to access anything?
Spells and Abilities
You currently do not have access to the 'Spells and Abilities' sub-menu. To unlock it, you must first complete the Memory Merge. This will take approximately five seconds, during which you will be briefly unconscious. Do you wish to start the Memory Merge?
Yes
No
Five seconds? It's not like there's anyone else here anyway.
Yes.
Going unconscious wasn't exactly the right term—aside from everything going black again, I was still aware. It felt like my whole body was being jerked back at speeds quicker than my mind could catch up with. But then, my eyes snapped open again—eyes from a mind now perfectly merged with Harry Potter's from the current timeline.
I knew everything that had happened, but boy were there a lot of things different from the books.
Voldemort was dead, thankfully, but in a completely different way than I'd remembered from Deathly Hallows. In this timeline, it wasn't Sirius, but Bill who had died at the Department of Mysteries. This meant that Sirius had been there when Dumbledore revealed the Prophecy at the end of that year and once Dumbledore had died, I'd gone to Sirius—not Ron and Hermione—with the quest to find the Horcruxes, though they came along of course. As always, though, Hogwarts had quickly fallen under the control of the Death Eaters.
I'd still received the Resurrection Stone in the Golden Snitch from Dumbledore in his will, and I'd also disarmed Draco on top of the Astronomy tower and thus, just like in the books, I'd died as the Master of Death… but not in the Forbidden Forest. Once all the Horcruxes except for myself had been destroyed, Hermione, Ron and I had lured Voldemort back to Godric's Hollow, where Sirius, the Order and as many Aurors as could be mustered had been lying in wait. In his arrogance, Voldemort had been too enraptured by the idea of ending me in the same place I'd defeated him as a baby to ignore the bait. In the ensuing battle, once again managed to kill me, and I met Dumbledore in the ghostly recreation of Kings Cross Station.
When I came to, the battle was still in full swing as if no time had passed at all, and I woke to see our side still fighting furiously with Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Sadly, among the casualties, Remus had fallen and Tonks was badly injured. When I'd fallen, my comrades had been minutes from defeat, but once I was awake, it became suddenly clear that with my sacrifice, none of Voldemort's or his Death Eater's spells had the ability to hurt anyone. With the months of planning we'd put into setting up the ambush, no one, not even Voldemort could get out of the Anti-Apparition wards. Being the Master of the Elder Wand, I'd easily defeated old Tom one-on-one. The rest of the Death Eaters fell like dominoes after that, the vast majority of them arrested and transported to Azkaban to await trial.
That had been exactly a month ago, and life had been a whirlwind ever since. Sirius quickly got his old job back as an Auror and was busy most of the time. I'd stayed with him for a while at Grimmauld Place, but he was rarely ever there, and when he was he was either drunkenly grieving the loss of Remus or spending time with his new girl, Emmaline Vance, who'd been part of the Order. I liked her well enough, but Sirius was clearly making up for lost time in Azkaban and they'd spent a lot of time alone. At those times the peaceful solitude I'd grown to enjoy had gone out of the window. Emmaline was quite the screamer, and Sirius had often been far too excited to think about Silencing Charms. After less than a month, I was done being alone. I'd thought I'd needed solace, but more and more I'd realised that it did nothing but make me think about what happened—and feel worse about it. So, just under a week ago, I'd moved into the Burrow to spend some time with the Weasleys and be more social. It had been great so far, feeling like I was part of the family again.
As I sifted through my memories, I was quickly trying to sort out the differences between what had happened in the books and what I knew now to be true. Having trained so often with Sirius in my sixth year, Ginny and I had never gotten together. Sirius had taken me seriously when I'd said I was worried about Draco being a Death Eater, and while we hadn't been able to foil the Vanishing Cabinet plot, we had managed to foil his more direct assassination attempts. This meant that Katie Bell was okay, and Ron hadn't been poisoned in Slughorn's office. Without him murmuring Hermione's name in a semi-conscious state, Lavender and Ron had stayed together all year. Eventually, Hermione had given up on her romantic interest in Ron after he'd called her a 'skank' for going on a Hogsmeade date with Krum, who'd been in England for an International match. Ron had swiftly apologised, but the damage was done. It had become clear that there was no longer that weird romantic air between them—especially on the Horcrux hunt, when we'd all shared a tent with Sirius. Ron and Lavender had been well and truly over by then, and though Ron had tried to rekindle his flame with Hermione, he soon realised it was a lost cause.
Now that the war was over, the rebuilding and rebirth of the Wizarding World was in full swing, and with the new Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt declaring that those in my year would have to repeat our seventh year–or take them at all, in my case– I'd been looking forward to going back. Now that I was reborn, I felt a new excitement to return to my old haunt like I'd never had before.
After the memory merge, things felt weird. I was obviously Harry—how could I not be? I had all of his memories and his body, but I still felt like the old me—the nerdy, scrawny young lad who'd recently had his heart broken and had been terrified since he was sixteen that there'd be nothing more to life than work and paying bills. Now that I had a new life, I knew there was definitely more to it now.
I pulled up the menu again. 'Inventory' and 'Gacha' were still greyed out, but I tried selecting them anyway.
You currently do not have access to the Inventory sub-menu. To unlock it, obtain your Internal Inventory (Secret).
You currently do not have access to the Gacha sub-menu. To unlock it, earn Gacha Tokens. These can be earned by increasing your Character Level, increasing your total Talent Points to certain thresholds, by completing certain Quests and Performing Feats.
I shrugged. Guess I knew where I needed to go next.
Talents
Talents
Howdy partner! This is where it gets exciting! This is your Talent Tree, which is composed of three main categories: Social, Physical and Magical. Please select a tree, and don't be shy, I know what options you really wanna pick. There's no respeccing in this game.
— the GameMaster
Social
Social Talents
You have - 1 point
Purchase ability to unlock a specialisation.
Choose a spec.
Specialisation - Orator
Your skills are targeted towards influencing others on a mass scale. With this spec, you can draw people to your cause, enact widespread political change, and upset the balance of power. Quests and progression relate to how influential you are to the masses.
Charisma +4
Looks (Face) - Upgraded by 1 Tier.
.
Talents Rewarded on Selection
Unlock - Inspect (Orator) - No Cooldown
Allows you to inspect a being's various statistics.
This version of 'Inspec' allows you to see your 'Influence' percentage and a person's hopes and dreams.
I'd tell you mine, but your tiny little mind might atomise into a million pieces.
.
Unlock - Listen Up - Three Day Cooldown
When you activate this skill, all within earshot will stop whatever they are doing and will listen to whatever you are about to say.
That doesn't mean they'll believe you, attention seeker.
I already knew from just looking at it that I wasn't going to pick that one. I'd only just arrived in this world, and it had already changed from the one I'd thought I'd known.
Specialisation - Master Manipulator
Your skills are specialised towards the gathering of information, exploiting your enemies' weaknesses and crafting grand plots to enact your wily ideas. Best for those wanting to take over the world, you manipulative bastard.
Quests and Progression relate to making dastardly deals and masterful plotting to achieve your ends.
Intellect +3
Charisma +2
.
Talents Rewarded on Selection:
Unlock - Inspect (Manipulator) - No Cooldown
Allows you to inspect a being's various statistics.
This version of Inspect allows you to see the name of the person they fear the most, and their deepest, darkest secret.
Of course, I already know yours, but it's pretty boring to be honest.
.
Unlock - Unfriendly Donation - One Week Cooldown
The victim of this Talent will give you one item of your choosing without question and won't remember giving it to you.
Of course you could just use Imperius, but the Unforgivables are just so messy, aren't they?
Interesting. An evil spec. This could be really fun, and it would've been cool if I could've just made Voldemort hand over the Elder Wand. Still, better look at the last one.
Specialisation - Lothario
For those who believe the best place in the world is between a woman's legs. Your skills are related to attracting those of the opposite sex using a combination of charm, heroic actions, and dashing good looks to achieve your carnal desires.
Created for the horny bastard who dreams of transforming into a Sex God.
Quests and Progression revolve around getting your end away with as many women as possible.
Charisma +2
Looks (Face) - Upgraded by 2 Tiers.
.
Talents Rewarded on Selection:
Unlock Inspect (Lothario) - No Cooldown
Allows you to inspect a being's various statistics.
This version of Inspect allows you to see your Seduction percentage of a given being, as well as the locations of the being's most sensitive erogenous zones.
I heard that Sirius' is just behind his ear. Try it if you dare.
.
Unlock - Flirtastic Flirtation - Cooldown: Once Daily (Max Three Uses Per Person, Per month)
During one conversation, up to three times, see various dialogue options with a corresponding Seduction percentage.
Choose this, and you've literally 'Got Game'.
Well, shit.
The Gamemaster was right. How was I ever going to choose anything else?
Select Lothario.
Congratulations!
You have enabled the Lothario Specialisation. Quests have been added to the Quest Log. Further upgrades will be visible when points can be spent. All physical changes will be implemented after the closing of this menu and will take roughly three days.
Neat! Just in time for me to return to Hogwarts!
I absolutely couldn't wait to see my new skills in action, but I had two other Talent Trees I needed to choose specs for.
For the Physical talent tree, I quickly decided against the 'Brute' spec, which would make me into what sounded like a cross between Kratos and the Hulk, and against the 'Slenderman' spec, which would give me the ability to contort and squish by body however I wanted.
I ended up going for 'Supreme Hunter', which would give me the body of a seasoned hunter—one capable of taking down large creatures. I'd get a 1 to Constitution, a 2 to Strength and Agility as well as go up 2 Tiers in Looks (Body). Surely that would be helpful with the Lothario tree as well. It also came with a new ability:
Unlock - Blistering Speed - Cooldown: Once per day
For ten seconds of real time, you can move and think at 100 times speed.
Better make sure you're wearing appropriate gear, unless you want to end up starkers.
Now that would be useful if I needed to make a quick getaway.
Finally, for the Magical tree, I had three options. The ones I decided against were focused around Alchemy, Potions and Herbalism, and around Beast Mastery and conversing in multiple languages. That last one would've of course been fun; I'd briefly contemplated seeing if I could tame and ride a dragon, but the spec I chose was too good to ignore. 'Arcane Sorcerer' was all about casting actual magic and promised the ability to cast near God-Like spells. It came with a massive 5 to Intellect, and I was more than happy with the initial ability it came with:
Unlock Wandless Cantrips - (Upgradeable) - No Cooldown
Select three Kinetic spells from your Spell List. Once selected, you can cast them wandlessly and without incantation.
Sure to turn a few heads, but be careful what you pick, you can't change the spells once you picked them, so you better be sure, you fickle fucker.
Now that would be fun. Looking in my spell list I already had a good grasp of a lot of spells, just from the Memory Merge, but I selected 'Accio', 'Depulso' and 'Wingardium Leviosa.' Push, Pull and Levitate seemed like a good place to start.
Now, what next?
Back.
Quests.
Quest Log.
Main Quests
Chapter 1 - Solve the Mystery of the Shroud of Azkedis.
.
The first Main Quest will become available upon reaching level 25.
Ooh, the plot thickens. Weird that my life has a plot. Well, I'm Harry Potter, I've always had a destiny, I guess. Kinda puts a damper on the whole 'free will' thing, doesn't it? Still got five levels to get to before 25 though. What else?
Social Quests
Cop a Feel
Get a girl to consent to touching her bare breasts or bum.
Reward: 50% Social XP, 25% Character XP.
.
Frenched
Make out with someone.
Reward - 25% Social XP, 25% Character XP.
.
Get Laid
Have consensual sexual intercourse.
Reward - 100% Social XP, 100% Character XP.
.
Magical Quests
Marauders' Legacy
Pull off a prank on the whole school without getting detention.
Reward - 50% Magical XP, 25% Character XP
.
Beast Mode
Become an animagus.
Reward - 100% Magical XP, 100% Character XP.
.
Collector of Life Debts
Save a life.
Reward - 100% Magical XP, 100% Character XP.
.
Physical Quests
Fighting Fit (Daily Quest)
Complete 200 push ups, 200 situps and 200 burpees every day.
Reward - 10% Physical XP, 5% Character XP.
Warning! Failure to complete this Daily Quest on more than five occasions within a one month period will result in a Tier loss of -1 to Look (Body).
.
The Golden Snitch
Catch a Snitch and win a game of Quidditch.
Reward - 100% Physical XP, 100% Character XP, 1 Gacha Token.
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Secret Quests - 0/99999
?
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Feats
?
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Annoying all these question marks, aren't they? No Spoilers, buttmunch
— The GameMaster.
I had a lot to get started on, and boy couldn't I wait to get started. Thinking I might as well get my daily quest out of the way, I closed the menu and sat up. Still in my boxers, I hopped out of bed and proceeded to start my exercises. I'd just finished the last of my burpees, when -
Ding!
Daily Quest: Fighting Fit - Completed.
Rewarded!
10% Physical XP
5% Character XP
.
Ding!
Feat Completed: My First Quest.
Rewarded!
50% Character XP.
I couldn't help but smile as the reward popped up, but then there were three sharp raps on the door and it swung open without so much as a "Come in!"