Chapter 16

His eyes darted down the description to the last line, and his brow folded into a frown. That just wouldn't do. No magic of his was going to be used in protecting the Dursleys. If there was one thing he was sure of, that was it.

Immediately, he changed the perk choice. Three words summed up his choice pretty well.

Screw the Dursleys.

Wardstone acquired as a perk!

Grants 1000 HP and 1000 MP when activated it at the cost of -25 MP per minute. All wounds are healed. All ailments cured. 20 Str,20 Vit, 20 Dex.

This was going to be one of his most useful perks. Harry just knew it. The stone dissolved into his hands as his boosts faded, awaiting his activation command.

Just then Harry caught sight of Mrs. Monroe of Number 8, looking out of her window. She was known by most as the most paranoid harpy of the neighborhood.

Wary to use the Apparition skill again, quickly Harry activated his skill, Sneaking. He quietly walked into his house, thankful for having remembered to open the door, closed it behind him, and went into his bed, unaware of the devastating mistake he had just made.

Outside, the frail man who had been hidden under a tree outside the house across the road from Harry's was awoken from his nap by a sudden buzz in his hand. All day long, he had been waiting to find a chance opening in the Dursley home wards so that he could get into the house and finish what his master had started all those years ago.

With an angry grunt, he woke up, careful not to let a leg or arm slip out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak he was using as his blanket. He lifted his hand to his face to look at what had awoken him.

It was his wand. Ever since he had gotten to Privet Drive and started keeping an eye on the youngest Potter, the glowing orange light on his wand's tip had been telling him that if he dared step up to the Potter's house, he would be incinerated into fine dust.

Except that light was gone, replaced by a gentle green orb pulsating away happily.

He could only gape at it with wide eyes. How?! How had this happened?! How had the wards guarding Potter gone down?!

The rustling of the grass from the direction of Number Four made him look away from his wand to see what was going on. A crouched Potter slowly sneaked up to the front door of the house, and then promptly slipped into the house before closing the door carefully.

'It's Potter…the kid somehow managed to break his own wards!' he realized with a start, and a wide grin spread across his face.

Irony was a beautiful thing.

A giddy sort of laughter filled the entire street, and Mrs. Monroe looked around curiously, wondering where it was coming from.

Harry woke up with the same blue box over his head that he'd had the previous morning.

Ping!

You have slept in your own bed; HP and MP have been restored 100% each. All ailments and negative status effects have been cured.

He swiped it away, walked out of his cupboard, and looked around with a yawn. The time was 7 in the morning. Just early enough to finish his chores before school. Stretching a bit to free up his muscles, Harry headed upstairs and took a shower, before heading into the kitchen and starting to work on the breakfast. After making 30 hotcakes, just about enough to fill Dudley and Vernon for a few hours, he changed into his uniform and grabbed his bag.

Suddenly though, he stopped himself. The hotcakes…there was an opportunity there.

Since no one else was awake, Harry quickly pulled out the batter and started making more hotcakes. In addition to that, he quickly pulled out a bottle of maple syrup from the carton-full of the stuff that they kept around for Dudley, knowing they would never miss it.

He made a stack of hotcakes before he opened up his inventory and dragged the box over his newly made stack. He slowly lowered it down the stack. Much to his elation, they all slowly disappeared into the box before the food then reappeared in the inventory in a box. Grinning, Harry quickly loaded in as many pancakes as he could.

Finally, Harry closed his inventory after storing 20 hotcakes in it. He then grabbed two more and put them on his plate to eat, headed over to a corner of the room, and started to quickly devour his breakfast.

"Morning freak." came an ugly voice. Harry sighed and turned, and there he was, sucking in all the light and life from his surroundings. Dudley sneered at Harry.

"Sod off to your mum Dudders." Harry replied flippantly without looking at him.

"At least I have parents," Dudley said, after spending a moment processing Harry's statement, and walked away.

It shouldn't have hurt him. Harry was used to the insults. He was used to the Dursleys telling him he was an orphan, and that was the first thing, anyone, stranger or otherwise, would use to insult him. He should have been used to it by now, but he wasn't.

At least he knew the Dursleys had been lying to him all along. That hate made a fantastic suppression of the sadness.

He quietly looked down at his meal and quickly began to eat, before, on a whim, he used observe on his hotcakes;

Hotcakes: food,

Restores 30 HP, 10 MP.

Harry's eyes widened at that. He placed a hand behind his back and burned a flame for a few minutes to use up some mana, hoping all along that the Dursleys wouldn't notice. He then quickly ate a full hotcake and pulled up his mana bar. Sure enough,

Health-200/200

Mana-100/100

It was amazing, the way reality was so integrated with his Game. Even food affected magic and mana. Perhaps somewhere out there he would one day find food that could restore 100% of his mana and health. It would be an amazing find for sure.

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