Chapter One

Growing up wasn't easy. Slowly realizing that the real world isn't as easy as you thought it was, that living actually costs money, and that money needs to come from hard work. Slowly you realize that the world wasn't full of fairy tails and adventures you could partake in.

For one Ares Potter, growing up again was hell.

Little control of your bowels, the absolute absence of motor control, re-learning how to talk, walk, and go to the damn toilet.

It was absolute torture.

Now, add to that a brother the same age as you... Yeah, not easy.

When I first saw my brother, it was a few hours after I was born. We were being held by our mother who just went through labor and then I saw our father.

I could still remember that day.

I also remembered the day the two were ripped from our lives, quite literally.

A flash of green and our mother fell to the ground, never to get up again.

I took a deep breath and looked to my right, where a boy, at the age of eleven, was sleeping on my arm.

Sighing, I reached out with my left arm and poked him. He mumbled something in response, and I poked him again.

My hand was asleep.

"Five more minutes..."

I blinked and looked up at the ceiling, counting the seconds mentally. After reaching three hundred, I poked him again. His eyelids pressed together before finally opening.

His green eyes stared at me, narrowing as he tried to get a clear look at me.

"What?"

I snorted, impudent brat.

"It's morning, get up, my hand is asleep."

He grumbled and sat up. As messy as a sleeper that he was, I didn't really mind. Sitting up, I cracked my neck and did the first thing In the morning after waking up for the last six years.

(Status.)

_

Character Name: Ares Potter

Level: 13

Experience Points: 34%

Health Points: 210/210

Mana Points : 290/290

Gold: 53 Gold

Stats:

Strength: 10

Endurance: 10

Agility: 8

Intelligence: 16

Stat points:36

Skill Points: 12

_

I hummed, looking over the experience percentage, and glanced over at my health. For level 13, it was sitting at the expected level. That would have to change soon. However, I couldn't take more quests other than "Cleaning the house" or "doing chores" until I was older, because, let's be honest, all those fanfictions from my old world were desperately unrealistic.

No one would let a child leave their sight at the age of twelve. Twelve-year-old bodies were unreliable, despite having the system I couldn't stand still for hours on end, and I have tried.

I had too much energy, even more than I remember having the last time, probably because I physically couldn't get exhausted, five minutes was all it took to be back to 100%.

I looked over at Harry, he didn't even bother to take off his pajamas as he walked out of the room presumably towards the bathroom.

(Inventory.)

Another blue, translucent screen opened in front of me and I took out a simple-looking book.

Apprentice's Grimoire was a level-five book, and I've read it occasionally at night over the years, re-reading the instructions on mana control.

Six revelations later, and three improvements on the grand total of three spells I had, my Intelligence went up six points. The point was that this whole book was like a small textbook with hardback cover, and it only had ten pages full of information, three spells, the basics on mana control, the basics on how to detect it, and the bare bones of Magic regeneration.

There was more information that wasn't written... yet, the other pages were empty but there were requirements to unlock more information.

Improving the three spells was the first one I got done, lowering their mana cost was the second task and finally, I needed to develop the skill "mana regeneration".

My mana regenerated naturally every time I slept, and I hadn't been doing that for a while, stopped doing it after completing the other tasks.

How the hell was I supposed to create the skill? The fictional characters got the skill instantly. I called bullshit on that for years.

Sighing, I quickly looked over the basics of mana until Harry came out of the bathroom.

Six years of reading this thing and I got nothing, I could probably figure out something if I actually studied other than the basic damn books that were used to educate 11-year-old kids!

My Intelligence points raised my IQ and by that logic, my mana reserves would improve each time I got smarter.

So, if one point of INT was 5 IQ I currently had 80 IQ...

That sucked! This thing made me dumber! I found that out with chess I played a few matches with the kids in school. I was a good player in my old life, not the best, but above average.

I knew why I needed to sacrifice the knight and ignore a valuable piece of the opponent to get checkmate in the next few moves, but I found myself wondering why couldn't I kill the available peace because "It would be better since he would have fewer pieces than me", it was annoying.

It was either that or my mind went back to being eight with just the memories of an eighteen-year-old.

I sighed as I heard the flushing of the toilet and closed the book, tossing it inside the inventory again.

Getting up and stretching I ran a hand through my hair, licking it to the side, annoying piece of work this thing is, it's not long enough to tie back, and I'm too young for it to look good.

Sighing again, I walk over to the door and opened it, seeing Harry on the other side, looking as sleepy as he was when he got up. His face was still slightly wet and he was using his sleeve to dry it.

Stepping to the side, he walked inside the room, letting me leave for the bathroom.

Stepping inside, I turned on the sink, and just stood there for a minute, looking over the blue screens. The quest screen was empty, but that would change as soon as the others in the house woke up.

Looked over my spells, sighing at the situation I was in.

_

Spell: Fireball

Mana Cost: 7

Description: Shoots a ball of fire at a target, dealing additional fire damage.

Spell: Healing Touch

Mana Cost: 14

Description: Restores a moderate amount of health to a friendly target.

Spell: Frost Nova

Mana Cost: 26

Description: Creates a freezing wave around the caster, freezing nearby enemies in place for a short duration.

_

I had the most training with Healing Touch, but that was about it, I couldn't train the other spells inside the house, but I could level up, and the skill points were a good bonus.

If I was correct about how they worked, then it would cut the training time down substantially.

Turning off the water, I turned around and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me.

Walking towards the room that I shared with my brother, I walked inside, spotting him putting on a brown T-shirt.

Humming slightly, I walked over to the closet and looked inside, grabbing a rather plain green shirt, to... compliment my eyes? I don't know, I just like the color green.

Putting it on, I took out shorts and put them on as well. I felt no different, meh.

Shrugging mentally, I walk over to the bed and laid down. It would have to be made sooner or later, but I would enjoy it for as long as I could.

"Get up, we have to make the bed."

I look over at Harry, raising an eyebrow. It was usually me that said that, but I wouldn't argue, and I won't comply either, so I remained on the bed like the child that I was.

I could hear Harry huff as I closed my eyes and a second later, I felt him grab my arm.

"Come on! Get up!"

He whined, trying to pull me up, but I remained where I was, utilizing my ten whole points in Strength to stay in place.

I heard him groan and he let go of my arm, giving up. Remaining on the bed, I started thin- Oof! That little shit!

Opening my eyes, I glared at the mop of hair that was on my chest. This little brat. His elbow was digging itself in my stomach but I couldn't feel anything besides the initial impact.

Rolling my eyes, I smirked and grabbed him by the waist. Sitting up, I hoisted him over my shoulder and stood up.

"Let me go, Ares! Right now!"

I snorted and put my free hand on my hip, Looking around the room, deliberately, turning my body so I could swing Harry from side to side like a sack of potatoes.

Ignoring his feeble hands hitting my back, I dropped him on his feet and turned to the bed, starting to tidy it up.

I heard another huff from behind me and a kick in the shin. And I felt absolutely nothing yet again.

"I'll go get the mail, start on breakfast and I'll start on the laundry after I'm back."

I grunted in response and looked over my shoulder to see him walk out of the room. Temperamental much?

Chuckling, I finished making the bed and walked out of the room and down the hall toward the stairs. Walking down the stairs, I rose an eyebrow when I felt the tiny trickle of magic that was coming off of my other relatives from my mother's side.

Petunia Evans Dursley, Dudley Dursley, and Vernon Dursley... Fucking idiots. The first six years of my life was a little less than abuse but a lot worse than "Bad Parenting".

It wasn't until I threatened them with a fireball. I learned that magic wasn't exclusive to me. Apparently "Freaks" like me were abundant in the world, someone magical left us on the doorstep in the first place after my mother died.

We stopped making their food after that, doing housework and acting like servants, basically, we stopped doing child labor.

We still did our chores and made our own food, but we did it four ourselves, and they treated us like we didn't even exist, though Dudley tried to start something a few times. That didn't last long.

When I walked into the kitchen, they spared a weary glance at me and I returned it with a blank expression.

Dudley and Vernon were built like bears, and I didn't mean that in the strength department, I meant that in the weight department.

Petunia was like a stick that could be knocked over with a slight breeze compared to them.

Ignoring them in return, I walked over to the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing a few pieces of bacon and four eggs. I didn't need to eat, but I needed to keep up appearances.

I put some oil on the pan and waited for it to heat up as I leaned back on the counter, looking up at the ceiling for a moment in thought, I heard the front door open and small footsteps walking to the kitchen.

My eyes wandered to the door as it opened and Harry walked in holding papers in hand putting most of them on the table. With two envelopes still in his hand, Harry walked over to the kitchen and handed me one of the papers.

In the corner of my eyes, I could see our cousin looking at us curiously and I suspected that he was trying his best to restrain himself from pointing out that we got letters.

Looking at what was written on the letter, I rose an eyebrow at the green ink used, my name, where I slept, and the street name, ignoring the rest, I turned the paper over, looking at the symbol of four animals, a lion, a bird... a snake... and a badger? I don't know what that one was.

But what was important about it was the name above it.

What the fuck was "Hogwarts"?