Chapter 1

[Welcome to the Game!]

Harry Potter had always known there was something different about him. The Dursleys reminded him whenever they could, to the point of him believing his name was freak before he learned it was Harry Potter in kindergarten. It was now his 10th birthday and just like every year, he hadn't expected anything. Despite knowing that strange things sometimes happened to him, Harry had never experienced something like this. In front of his face was floating text, somehow visible regardless of the darkness of his cupboard, and it was welcoming him to a game?

[Quest Alert!

What is the Game?

Find out what this Game is and what is going on!

Rewards: You understand what is happening, 100 exp.]

Harry hesitantly brought his hand up to the text only for it to vanish when he made contact with it and for a lot of text and screens to appear. At the top of everything was the word Menu, reminding Harry of the games he had seen Dudley play. Underneath the word were several tabs including Status, Relationships, Quests, Equipment and Settings. Going to status showed him the following:

[Harry James Potter

Condition: Normal

Title: [Lone Wizard] - When you are in close proximity to muggles: Temporary -5 Reputation and +5 Obedience with muggles

Race - Human (Magical)

Level - 2

Health Points - 100 (75)

Magic Points - 80 (60)

Strength - 6 (4.5)

Vitality - 10 (7.5)

Dexterity - 14 (10.5)

Intelligence - 11 (8.25)

Wisdom - 8 (6)

Charisma - 10 (7.5)

Luck - 5 (3.75)]

Well his stats didn't seem very good, especially with them being reduced for some reason, but his title and race explained a lot. He wasn't just a regular human, he was a wizard! He would have to figure out why his stats were reduced and what reputation and obedience was but he could save that for later. The title he had explained a bit of why no one seemed to like him, but what exactly was a muggle? He figured it was another thing to find out later.

Next to status was a small window that said skills, and upon selecting it he understood why he had reduced stats.

[Skills:

Malnourished (Trait) - You have been underfed almost your whole life and now your stats are paying the price. All stats reduced by 25%.

Boy Who Lived (Perk) - You defeated Lady Voldemort, ending her reign of terror in Britain. All light oriented magicals in Britain start with +20 Reputation.

Child of Darkness (Perk) - You were literally raised in a cupboard. Gain +5 to all stats when in darkness or tight spaces.

Physical Resistance (Passive skill) - You were subjected to physical punishment and beatings throughout your childhood, as a result you are moderately resistant to physical damage and pain. All physical damage incurred is reduced by 20%.]

Well that was a lot to unpack. Malnourished certainly made sense, he could only hope that there was some way to get rid of it in the future, it would be suck if he had reduced stats forever.

[Quest Alert!

A growing boy!

Find a way to cure your malnourishment.

Rewards: You'll no longer have a stat debuff, +5 Charisma.]

Well that's a confirmation. I don't suppose you could explain the second skill?

...

Doesn't look like it. Well apparently I did what it says but I have no clue what that means or how I did it. I'm not sure how I could possibly find out either so I'll have to set it aside for now. It looks like the perks are good but the traits are bad? I'm not too sure. Moving on to the next tab showed him relationships he had with the Dursleys.

[Dudley Dursley: -40 Reputation

Petunia Dursley: -75 Reputation

Vernon Dursley: -60 Reputation]

He was a little disappointed there wasn't an explanation but he supposed there were other things to look at.

Next up is quests which shows two sections, ongoing quests and completed quests. Ongoing quests only features the one he had received earlier, and the completed quests section is empty.

His equipment section was painfully empty, maybe one day he would actually have something of his own.

The last section, settings, seemed to have quite a bit to customize in terms of the menu and how it looked, and he could also change how he received notifications. No other tabs were present, so Harry changed the settings to the compact version, hoping that it would make things easier to take in.

[Quest Complete!

What is the Game?

+100 exp.

Quest Alert!

You're a wizard Harry!

Succeed in using magic on the Dursleys.

Bonus Objective: Don't get caught.

Rewards: 100 exp, Observe skill.

Bonus Reward: ? Perk.]

This quest confirms that I can use magic right now! I don't think there's any way I can get out of my cupboard for an hour or two so I'll try to practice here. Gathering my focus, I try to start simple and make my socks move with my mind.

_________________

I've been at this for at least half an hour and nothing is happening. This isn't working. Think Harry, what could the trick to using magic be? Oh great, now I'm talking to myself. Maybe I've gone crazy and am hallucinating all this Game stuff. I probably just wanted to be special and get something over the Dursleys, but as usual, the freak can't do anything ri-

Bam!

Well then. As I grab my socks from the wall they blasted into, I realize what I've been doing wrong. Whenever I used magic in the past it was always when I was angry or scared. So maybe I should just try to focus on that feeling to do stuff? Determination fills me and I concentrate on being angry and blasting the socks again. After letting out a breath, I slump in disappointment as nothing happens. Well nothing to do until Aunt Petunia lets me out, might as well practice.

_________________

While practicing I noticed that my Magic Points would go down each successful attempt, but nothing would happen otherwise. I suppose I should be careful not to completely run out, I don't know what would happen but I doubt it would be pleasant. Regardless, now I should be preparing to complete the quest.

Aunt Petunia finally unlocks the door and tells me to start breakfast, so it's off to work for now.

As I finish up breakfast, Dudley finally makes his way downstairs and sits at the table with his parents. Bringing the plates to the table, I take the piece of toast Aunt Petunia set aside for me and begin slowly eating it. As Dudley grabs a piece of bacon and puts it into his mouth, I use my magic to send it into the back of his throat.

As he starts flailing around and coughing I briefly wonder if what I'm doing is too much, but then I shake myself off the thought quickly. The Dursleys deserve what's coming to them.

[Quest Complete!

You're a wizard Harry!

+100 exp, Observe skill, Muggle-baiter Perk.]

After the fiasco is over, I'm sent back to my cupboard for the rest of the day. They don't suspect me, but I am a target for them so any annoyance and frustration is taken out on me. Dudley has gone back to his room and Uncle Vernon has gone out for work. That only leaves Aunt Petunia and she'll be out gossiping with the neighbors soon. That leaves me with time to figure out my rewards and find out what's next for the Game.

Pulling up his new skills showed the following:

[Observe (Active Skill) - Observe the target, learning detailed information about them. If the target is significantly more powerful than the user, information provided is limited. Costs 10MP.

Muggle-baiter (Perk) - You've messed with muggles using magic, leaving them none the wiser. When using magic on or near muggles, they will find it much more difficult to figure out that you are the source of their problems.]

While they both seem like fantastic abilities, I'm still not sure what a muggle is. Judging by the context of the ability and my title, I assume it is a person without magic. Hopefully then this should allow me to mess with the Dursleys a lot more. Now that I think more about it, this means I might even be able to use magic in other places like school or at parks without being found out! If that's the case then my life will be changing quite a bit in the near future.

The other skill seems like something that requires testing to figure out, detailed information could mean many things. It also has a cost given to it? It's the first skill I have that actually has one, maybe it's a real magic spell? I did notice that using my magic drained me a bit but it wasn't by much. Right now though I can only use this Observe skill 6 times before I am out of magic, so I should test how effective it is now I suppose.

After pondering how to use the skill for a moment, I decided to just think about using it on my glasses and see what happens.

[Old Glasses - Trash Item

An old pair of glasses that is barely usable and the wrong prescription for the user.]

Trash tier? I mean I know my glasses aren't the best but that's a little harsh isn't it?

[Items are classified into several tiers, each denoting a combination of rarity, significance, and potency, amongst other factors. The tiers are the following:

Trash, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary.

Tiers can help the Gamer roughly determine the value of items quickly.]

Well if it means my glasses are trash in the grand scheme of things I can't be too upset. Magic existing means that there are probably tons of stuff out there that is a lot more important than my old glasses.

As I lie down listening to Dudley scream in anger at his games and Aunt Petunia laughing haughtily outside the door I think about my new circumstances. I don't know what happened to me, but with the help of the Game, my life will be turning around from now on.