Chapter 2: (I)nventory Screen

The Little Whinging Library was a boxy two-story building with large glass windows on the village's main retail drag, virtually indistinguishable from the sidewalk-accessible businesses around it. As he'd hit the town proper, Harry had begun to see more people on the street and in cars on their way to work or just out on a pretty nice late-July Friday morning.

And he knew all their names.

From the levels on display, he was beginning to get a sense that most adults were somewhere between levels 8 and 16. He'd seen one really old guy that looked like he might have been a World War I vet (with the Soldier class to match it) that was level 18. But clearly this wasn't a system that had a hundred levels, unless the muggles of Surrey were far behind everyone else in the world by virtue of being a starting location. He was keen to get a look at Dumbledore—who had to be one of the most powerful "characters" in Britain—to get a sense of what the possible range was. He'd seen a few children younger than he was and most of them were Level 1 or even Level 0, while any teens he saw seemed to have single-digit levels.

What were the chances that he'd get a level every year of Hogwarts, and then they'd drop off dramatically afterwards?

He was also interested in the bracketed names that often appeared below the person's level. They mostly seemed to indicate what business the person worked for, like Uncle Vernon's showed he worked at Grunnings. All of the librarians had a [Surrey Librarians] tag. But he'd seen one sketchy-looking twenty-something with a Criminal class and a [Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate] tag, so that might be another really useful piece of information.

Harry had wandered the stacks of the library for half an hour trying to figure out what he should even look for. What was the chance that a muggle library—not even a large one—had information on a seemingly-magical ability to perceive the world like he was living in a video game? No, for now he'd need to experiment a little more to even figure out what to ask someone about.

The disappearing money was the weirdest thing. Finding an isolated study desk in the back corner of the upstairs of the library, Harry sat and whispered, "Inventory?"

Sure enough, another translucent pane of information appeared in the air in front of him where the full quest log had appeared before. On the right side, a grid of spaces appeared, completely empty, but with "£1.60" on the top line. It looked like there was space for other denominations of money as well, so he assumed that when he got some wizarding money it wouldn't just get automatically converted to pounds. The goblins of Gringotts bank likely wouldn't appreciate it if he could magically convert between pounds and galleons.

On the left half, what was almost a mirror of himself appeared, standing spread-legged, head forward, arms lifted slightly from his sides, and little squares surrounded the "paper doll," pointing to various parts of his body. Seven of them were full, and it looked like he had spaces for several more. As he glanced at each of the squares, information floated over each in turn:

[BASIC ROUND GLASSES (REPAIRED)

SECONDHAND SHIRT (OVERSIZED)

SECONDHAND BELT (OVERSIZED, MODIFIED)

SECONDHAND SHORTS (OVERSIZED)

BASIC PANTS

BASIC SOCKS

BASIC TRAINERS]

Harry was pretty happy that, at least when it came to underwear, Aunt Petunia hadn't tried to make him wear Dudley's oversized clothing. They were the cheapest ones she could find, sure, but at least they hadn't been worn first by his cousin like his belt, trousers, and shirts. Not surprisingly, none of the clothing seemed to have any special abilities. He really needed to get hold of his invisibility cloak and see what that said. The squares at the bottom looked like they might be weapon slots, so he could probably see his wand if he had it, as well.

In fact, that made Harry consider that what he really wanted, when looking at this inventory sheet, was all of his stuff that his uncle had locked away for the summer. If he had his wand (and wasn't subject to the Trace), he could easily use the unlocking charm to get at his things. But maybe he could figure out how to unlock the door the muggle way.

Long practiced in not bothering Madam Pince, the Hogwarts librarian, and not sure how he'd explain to the nice-looking lady at the Little Whinging Library that he wanted to learn to pick locks, Harry instead hit the card catalog. He'd had to do enough of this at muggle school that the skill hadn't totally left him after a year at Hogwarts, and he tracked down a book on how locks worked. Maybe it would give him some ideas on how to get open the simple little keyed padlock that Uncle Vernon had placed on the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry had barely gotten the book opened to the first page when another prompt appeared in front of his vision:

[LEARN SKILL: BASIC LOCKS?]

"Yes?" Harry whispered.

The pages of the book flicked past as if they'd been caught in a magical wind, and he suddenly felt the knowledge of how locks worked enter his brain as if he'd read the book all the way through, thoroughly understood it, and even practiced a little.

[SKILL LEARNED: BASIC LOCKS 1]

Marveling at what had just happened, Harry was doubly surprised when a new quest was added to the right of his vision:

[FULLY BOOKED

(1/5) Find and use five skill books.]

"Brilliant!" Harry gasped. Hermione was going to lose her mind about this. Well, she might get mad that he was basically cheating, but if he actually read all his school books, she might also be impressed.

Thinking of Hermione, he glanced up from the new quest and saw:

[PIECE OF MIND

Research the game system.

* Check the local library

O Check the Hogwarts library

O (Optional) Ask Hermione for help]

"This quest was just trying to show me that skill books exist!" Harry realized. He was never going to find specifics about what was happening to him in a muggle library. "I wonder if there's anything else here that I should know about…"

With a half an hour of experimenting, a big stack of books, and the limited selection of the local library, Harry learned several things.

The first was that not all books were skill books. In particular, reference manuals didn't seem eager to just jump into his brain, only "skills," which seemed like things he could actively practice. He was worried that would hurt his plan to get ahead on all his school work. At the very least, astronomy, defense, herbology, and history were more about memorizing a lot of information than they were about actively doing things.

The second was that he didn't seem to be able to improve skills he already had with skill books, or at least not the ones he could get for free at the library. He'd gotten nothing from several books on cooking or gardening, for example, because he was already pretty good at those tasks after all his chores at the Dursleys'. And it wasn't clear whether level 1 in a skill was particularly useful, or just gave him a place to start.

The third was that the nice-looking librarians didn't really like it when you emptied several of the reference shelves into a big pile.

Kicked out of the library before noon, Harry had at least completed the quest and gotten another 20 XP from it. In addition to Basic Locks, he'd also managed Basic Martial Arts (which would be a big help if he ran into Dudley's gang again), Basic Drawing, Conversational French, and Conversational Latin.

He spoke French and Latin! At least a little bit! Hermione was going to lose her mind. And there was no time like the present.

"-£0.10" floated over the pay phone as Harry touched it, and it clicked as if he'd put a 10p coin in. He had the idea of calling Hermione, and touch tone noises sounded before he could even touch the buttons. This was good, because he'd utterly forgotten her phone number (and it wasn't like he was allowed to use the phone at the Dursleys' even if he'd remembered it).

"Granger residence," Hermione's voice answered after a few rings.

"Hey. It's Harry," he told her.

"Harry! Happy birthday!" his friend squealed into the phone. "I'm so glad you called. Only, the number you gave me was a wrong number and we weren't sure if you were getting mail!"

"Wrong number?" Harry latched onto, leaning against the side of the phone box.

"That's what the woman on the phone told me?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "That was probably my aunt. She doesn't like to admit I exist."

"Oh. Is that why you haven't replied to any of my letters?" she asked. "Only Ron says he hasn't heard from you either."

"No, that is because of the house elf," he admitted.

"What's a house elf?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. But one's stealing my mail. And my uncle made me lock Hedwig in her cage all month, so I haven't been able to send letters either."

"That's awful, Harry! How'd you finally get in touch with me?"

"I found some change and used a payphone," Harry hedged. Hermione probably wouldn't be impressed that he'd gotten in a fight. He was still down 8 HP and his arm was a little sore, but at least he appeared to be slowly healing. Or maybe regenerating? "It's good to talk to you. Also, something else weird happened."

Hermione sighed, "Oh no. What's weirder than an elf stealing your mail?"

"Have you ever played any computer roleplaying games? Like Wizardry or Ultima?" he asked.

"I don't think so?" she said. "I think my dad might have some of those on his office computer. What about them?"

"Well, I got my cousin's old computer working this summer and played some. And, then, since this morning… I'm basically in one."

Against her incredulity, he quickly summarized what had happened to him so far. As the optional entry on the quest checked off, she mused, "Well, assuming you're not just hallucinating because video games rot your brain…"

"Ha, ha," he rolled his eyes.

He could hear her grin across the phone as she continued, "...maybe accidental magic of some kind? It's weird that it's lasted all morning already. I doubt we'll find anything in our school books, but I can help research when we get back to Hogwarts. Maybe one of the professors will have an idea. If these 'quests' really are giving you advance warning about things, it could be a kind of divination. I don't know about the disappearing items and quick learning. Though I'm jealous about that if it's real. Only you, Harry Potter."

"Only me," he agreed, hearing the alert that his 10p was about to be used up. "Okay, I'm running out of time on this call. I'll try to call you again soon. If Dobby doesn't ruin dinner and I get locked up all summer."

"What!?" she shrieked. "They can't just lock you up like that! If I don't hear from you soon, I'll try to get help. Happy birthday, again!"

"Thanks! Bye!" he told her, filled with the happiness of having friends. He'd basically believed the quest about Dobby stealing his mail, but it felt really nice to be assured that Hermione and Ron hadn't left him alone on purpose over the last month.

Exiting the phone box and considering whether he should go back to Number Four Privet Drive to try to get lunch, pay some of Piers' money for something from the shops, or just do without, he noticed a golden exclamation mark floating above the head of one Sally Thompson, level 6 Cashier at Wimpy's as she stood outside of that same hamburger bar. While nothing in any of the CRPGs he'd played had made Harry associate that exclamation mark with a potential quest, it certainly drew his attention.

Noticing him gawking at her, Sally, a very pretty, short, teenaged girl with brown hair in a bob, said, "Hey kid! Got a few minutes to help me out?" Harry gave an agreeable shrug so she said, "My mum's swinging by with my housekeys that I forgot, but I gotta get inside and working. If you could wait until she drives by and bring them in for me, I'll get you a burger or something?"

"Sure," Harry nodded, lunch sorted out.

"Thanks. You're a life-saver. Red coupe. Long brown hair. Just flag her down. My name's Sally, by the way."

"Harry," he agreed. He raised an eyebrow as the golden exclamation mark over her head changed to a gray question mark.

[GOOD LOOKIN' OUT

Timed Quest: 0:07:34

Get Sally's keys from Mrs.

Thompson and bring them to her.]

Sure enough, after seven minutes a red car pulled up and the woman inside (Marge Thompson, Level 13 Secretary) started looking around for her daughter. The timer was still counting down, implying she'd leave after half a minute. Harry walked up to the car window and said, "Hi. Mrs. Thompson? Sally had to start working but she asked me to grab her keys and bring them in for her."

"Oh," she peered at him for a moment and decided that was too specific to be a con, handing over a key ring. "Tell her not to forget them next time. She was almost locked out all weekend. We're going to Cardiff."

"I'll tell her," Harry agreed, as the woman made sure he was heading into the Wimpy's before she drove off.

"Thanks Harry," Sally said, as he handed her keys across the counter, skipping the line of people. The gray question mark above her head turned gold. "Hamburger, fries, and a vanilla shake?" she asked. Harry smiled and nodded. "Hang about. I'll get you after these customers."

He grabbed a booth and, indeed, a few minutes later the older girl in the Wimpy's uniform brought him over a tray with the promised lunch on it. She smiled and asked, "Anything else you need?"

He glanced up and noticed that she had her hair pulled back with several hairpins and he asked, "One of your hairpins?"

"Sure," she gave him an odd look, and pulled one out, setting it on the tray. Putting her hand to her hair drew his attention to the quest marker above her head fading entirely. "See you around, Harry."

[QUEST COMPLETE

20 XP Earned

Quest Reward: A filling lunch

Bonus Quest Reward: Hairpin (Rudimentary Lockpick)]

Harry grinned and picked up the hairpin. He willed his inventory screen to open, made sure nobody was watching, and tried to put it in the inventory. Sure enough, it vanished from his hand and appeared in one of the grid squares on the right. He closed the screen and checked his pockets, not finding it anywhere.

If he could keep items hidden in a space where nobody could find them, the Weasley Twins were going to be as impressed as Hermione had been by his new powers.

Finishing up most of his lunch, Harry had another thought. In most of the games he'd played, you could just keep food in your inventory indefinitely, without it spoiling. Checking again that he was unobserved, he stuck the half-finished milkshake cup into the inventory slot next to the hairpin. If it was still cold later, he might have solved a really important problem: making sure he had enough to eat for the rest of the summer.