Chapter 7

For the longest while, there was nothing. Then there was darkness. And then there was light.

When Harry woke up from his unplanned vacation from the land of the living, his welcome wasn't quite as pleasant as he had expected. A blinding headache threatened to split his head in half, and the bright light filtering into his squinted eyes wasn't helping. For a moment he wondered if there was some higher power out there playing a sick joke by making him wake up with a headache every day, but the thought was soon wiped from his mind when he noticed the flashing red screen in front of him.

Mana-2/50

He tried to raise his hand to wipe away the window, but instead managed to give himself a nasty surprise as he pulled on the saline tubes connected to the needles that were in his arm.

Surprised and a little queasy, he turned to look around at the room he was in.

It was a sterile place, cleaned to the point of obsession and furnished with a couple of chairs, his bed, a metal table, and a rather old television. With some trepidation, Harry recognized the seal of St. Brutus General Hospital on the wall in front of his bed. He remembered it on account having visited quite a few times before on account of injuries like a broken arm, fractured bones, and other cuts and bruises that Dudley managed to 'accidentally' end up giving him.

This wasn't good. Last he remembered, he had passed out in his garden, presumably due to excessive mana drainage, and his relatives must have brought him all the way out here. Wasting their time with his own problems was a sure-fire way to get himself starved for the week.

A nurse, Nurse Jane, judging from the box floating above her head, entered the room. Upon seeing him awake, she gave him a small smile.

"All awake now Harry?" she asked, picking up a board hanging on the end of his bed and making a few notes and ticks.

Upon seeing him nod, she said, "We've called your uncle to pick you up. They should be here any minute now. Please be careful to make sure that you don't work outside in the sun for so long Harry. You were all dehydrated and burning up when you were brought in." She chided.

Harry absently nodded as he looked around the room, catching sight of the calendar.

His eyes widened. This was worse than he could have ever imagined. He had been here for two whole days! The nurse saw what he was staring at and spoke while she unhooked all the tubes from his arm and held a tuft of cotton wool over the punctures. "Your uncle and a neighbor of yours-Fig or something her name was- brought you in on Sunday. As I said, you were entirely dehydrated and burning up with a high fever. Almost made the doctor put you into intensive care. But rest assured, you are fine now. Take care of yourself a bit more and keep drinking water regularly and you'll be right as rain in no time."

Harry sat up and smiled at her as she left and continued the inspection of his room.

Finding nothing more interesting to look at, he leaned back into his bed and was about to close his eyes when he suddenly caught sight of his Aunt walking in his direction out of the window.

With a sigh, Harry got up, knowing that they would be leaving quickly. He put on his clothes and got out of the room to walk over to her.

Together, they walked in complete silence to the reception desk where Aunt Petunia signed some papers and quickly walked off towards the familiar Chevette standing in front of the hospital, Harry in tow.

As the got closer to the car, Harry saw Dudley inside the car and wondered for a brief moment why his entire family had come to pick him up from the hospital. It was a seriously out of character thing for them to do. It was when he finally noticed the heaping pile of presents in the back-seat that he realized what day it was.

It was Dudley's birthday.

Aunt Petunia opened the front door and got in. Harry didn't bother. He knew what was coming. Walking over to the driver's side, he leaned down to hear what his Uncle Vernon had rolled his window open to say.

"Now listen here boy!" he started, very obviously miffed at Harry, "We had plans to go to the zoo for Dudley's birthday, but being the jealous little brat that you are, you had to go and faint right in the front lawn. But just because Miss Figg made us bring you here doesn't mean we will let you spoil our Duddydum's special day. No, we won't I tell you!" Vernon angrily declared as he fished out his wallet and handed Harry a few bills.

"Make your way home. No stealing food or spending money on anything other than the fare, or its straight to the cupboard with you! Now go!"

With those words, the Dursleys drove off, leaving a very confused 10-year-old behind.

Harry stood there gaping after the rapidly disappearing car. His relatives were truly one of a kind. He slowly tore his eyes off the fast vanishing car and looked down at his hands. This was the first sum of money that the Dursleys had ever given him. Ever. And he didn't know whether to be happy or sad about it.

After a few more seconds, when Gamer's mind had just asserted itself and smoothed his brain processes, suddenly, a brown box appeared in his sight and threw him into a state of panic again.

Ping!

Shield of Lily acquired as a permanent perk!

SoL grants 20 to all stats against all magicals with ill intent. Will nullify completely when Harry reaches the age 17. Represents the pure unconditional protective nature of a mother's love. Such is the power of Lily's sacrifice of her life for Harry.

Tears escaped Harry's eyes as he read about his mother. It didn't matter that he didn't know what the Game meant by her sacrifice. It didn't matter that he was confused as all hell. It didn't matter that he had been lied to his whole life by the only people he could call family...none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was that his mother wasn't a no good drunk who had gotten herself killed in a car accident. She had sacrificed herself to protect her son. And that, above anything else, mattered. Anger, joy, relief, regret, and sorrow gripped his heart wave after wave as he read over the description again and again.

And as tears escaped his eyes, he made a vow to himself right then and there. He vowed that he would honor his mum's sacrifice, that he would be the very best he could be, and that he would make his mum proud.

And he vowed that he would make the Dursleys pay.

Harry had never had what parents around the world would call a diverse upbringing. Being stuck in a cupboard for most of his early life wasn't particularly conducive to meeting new people and making new friends. As such, he had never really been exposed to many cultures around the world. So it was hardly surprising that being allowed to travel through London, one of the world's hottest travel destinations was going to be quite an experience for the young Potter.

Harry was having the time of his life, using Observe on every random stranger on the streets and marveling at their own unique stories and traits and levels. He had never even known that so many different names even existed. One stormy-eyed stranger even had the name,

Jupiter Optimus Maximus

It was the name of an actual Roman god, Harry noted enviously. He wistfully thought of the many amazing and colorful names he could have had instead of just Harry, and kept on walking lazily down the footpath. There was no hurry, since the Dursleys were known to take their sweet time on their days out, especially with Dudley whining at them to buy more presents.

After a lot of Observing and sneakily spying on people without their knowledge,

Ping!

Through constant use a skill has level up!

Observe Lv-2 (40%)

By Observing a target one will get information about said object

-Max HP, MP, stats and info.

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