HP: Harry The Gamer

He suddenly paused as another question popped into his head.

Where did the quest come from? Did it come from himself, or was there a game master out there reading his thoughts and making things up for him to do? Harry wondered about that and then decided to try a little experiment of sorts.

If it was his own aspirations and thoughts that made his quests, then if he concentrated hard enough, he could make his own quest.

So he took a deep breath and focused on the most absurd thought he could think of. All of a sudden,

'Ping!'

'No bloody way,' he muttered as he read the quest in front of him.

Quest Alert!

Turn the Dursleys into sperm whales.

Rewards:

100xp

YES/NO?

Harry quickly pressed no and sighed to himself. It seemed like he was the one setting the goals and deciding on the quests, although it seemed like someone else determined the rewards for completing his quests. It was all just too confusing.

'Ping!'

For learning about the game mechanics and figuring out how quests work(somewhat) you have gained 1 INT!

Harry blinked before he pulled up his status screen and there it was;

INT-2

He was starting to see a pattern with the stats now. Wise decisions seemed to make him wiser and learning new things made him smarter.

If he had to wager, he would put his money on exercise making him stronger and a healthier diet making his vitality go up.

He was blanking on ideas for Luck though. It seemed strange that such a random thing could be quantified into a simple number.

Harry wiped all the boxes away and cleared his head trying to think. Something strange was up with this whole Game, something that he was missing because he knew so little about games in general.

Shaking his head and pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Harry patted down the soil around the stem of the bush he was working on and turned to look at the clock through the window.

With a sharp jolt of panic, he realized that he was running late for class.

'Crap!' Harry thought as he dashed into the house and into his cupboard. As he was hurriedly putting on his uniform, a sudden ping distracted him, much to his annoyance.

Ping!

Quest Alert!

You're late! Get to class on time!

Reward:

20xp

Failure:

Detention

Less reputation with everyone in class

YES/NO?

Harry frowned as he immediately pressed yes and focused on getting ready. Quickly, he finished his bath, put on his well worn St. Grogory's uniform and rushed out of Number 4 Privet Drive, dashing off in the direction of his school, cursing the game for making him late.

Little did he know, being late had saved his life.

Harry turned the street corner, fully intent on running full speed into the school and slipping into the class, finding one of the other kids who played games and get as much information about Role Playing Games from them as possible, thus completing the Quest and get closer to leveling up.

But all those ideas instantly vanished from his mind the moment he took in the sight in front of him.

The entire street was empty...unnaturally so. Not even the usually bustling shops around the end of the pathways had anyone in them, and the always busy sidewalks full of late students and class-bunk-ers were completely devoid of life.

No one was there.

No one except the three figures standing in a circle in front of the school's main gate.

No... not three, Harry realized as he approached quietly, trying not to draw attention to himself. There was a fourth, smaller form lying on the ground...someone familiar.

It was too small to be Dudley, and too tall and lanky to be anyone from his gang, but Harry had definitely seen before.

Whoever it was, the rather sickeningly large puddle of red liquid surrounding him; blood, Harry realized with a lurch in his stomach; didn't bode well for him.

'Murderers.'

The word flashed in Harry's mind of his own volition, and instantly his face drained of all color.

'Not now!' he thought to himself. Now wasn't the time for wild theories. Maybe they were just trying to help. But either way, he needed to find out what was going on.

Ping!

Quest Alert!

Find out what is going on.

Reward-

100xp

Failure-

The trio will learn you know about them and will 'take care of it.'

YES/NO?

Not taking long to read the quest and press Yes, Harry swiftly rushed closer to them. As soon as he could, he ducked behind a telephone pole and started listening. Their voices were starting to reach his ears.

"His wounds," a man's gravelly voice asked grimly, "Will they heal?"

"They should," said another man with a much younger voice, "It's not a spell I've seen before, but it looks like a bunch of normal deep wounds. Nothing our expert here can't handle. Isn't that right Em?"

"Yes," came the clipped reply from a woman's voice.

Harry audibly gasped. It wasn't just any woman. Harry knew that voice quite well from countless hours of nonsensical Chemistry lectures. It was Ms. Roemmele. And unfortunately for him, his gasp didn't go unnoticed.

"Did you hear that?" he heard the man ask, and he froze. This had never happened to him before. Sure, he tended to find himself in strange situations quite often, but this was a bit too grim even for me.

"Who is it?! Come out or we will be forced to shoot!" Ms. Roemmele's voice warned, and Harry broke out of his stupor. He knew better than to think she wasn't serious.

After a few seconds of hesitating, he finally made up his mind. Taking a deep breath and holding his hands up like he had seen in those old cop movies, he walked out from behind the telephone pole.

All three of the figures were standing around the fallen boy protectively, shielding him as they pointed sticks with glowing tips at Harry.

"Har-Mr. Potter!" Ms. Roemmele said in relief, catching herself halfway through saying his first name.