Chapter 1
I sighed as I was reading my textbooks about history of magic. I had to complete an essay about why witch burnings were ineffective. It was a boring homework and I found my mind kept wandering away from it, towards my newly found abilities. Yes, I had new abilities, some new kind of magic which I found nowhere in the Hogwarts library. I had awakened these powers, this system, after having killed the memory of Voldemort last school year. It showed itself as a blue computer-esque screen which floated in front of my vision when I said or thought ‘status’. It also showed me the names of other people above their heads together with some extra info about them if I focused. No one else seemed to see these screens and whenever I wanted to tell anyone about this new skill of mine, I couldn’t bring out the words, something blocked me from speaking about it or even writing about it. The main function of this ‘system’ was to collect golden orbs of ‘talent’ which other wizards and witches dropped both just sometimes at random and when they cast a spell. Collecting these orbs raises my ‘magical energy’ and my talents. Whenever my talents were raised, I got memories of casting new spells and found myself proficient with them. This system also removes the trace from my wand, or at least that is what it told me… I haven’t tried yet, too afraid for it to be wrong. If it was wrong and I cast a spell, I would be thrown out of school.
The names above everyone’s head were also color coded. Red means people that are against me and blue means people that are in support of me, whilst grey indicated those that are neutral to me. I learned this when I looked at my friends, who were blue, the dursley, who were red and Snape who was gray, which was strange because I could swear he hated me but apparently not as much as I thought.
“Status”, I checked the system just as I had done many times before.
[Wizarding talent system]
[Harry Potter][the boy who lived]
[Wizard]
[13]
Magical energy: 300(0=muggle, 10-15= squib, 20-50= child below hogwarts age, 60-100=first grader at hogwarts, 110-160= second grader, 170-270= 3rd grader, 280-380=fourth grader, 390-500=fifth grader, 520-640= sixth grader, 650-780= seventh grader, 800-950= Adult wizard, 1000-1200= teacher, 2000+=Dumbledore)
Talents(F rank= complete beginner, D rank= Student, C rank= average adult wizard, B rank=Competent wizard, A rank= teachers, S rank= Genius, S+= ???):
DADA: C rank(2300/5000)
Charms: D rank(200/1000)
Transfiguration: D rank(700/1000)
Herbology: D rank(100/1000)
Potions: D rank(100/1000)
Care of magical creatures: F rank(0/500)
Divination: F rank(0/500)
Ancient Runes: F rank(0/500)
Arithmancy: F rank(0/500)
Dark arts: F rank(0/500)
Special skills:
Parseltongue: D rank(10/1000)
Yeah, nothing changed from my- wait-! It said that I am 13? I looked over to the clock mounted on my desk and sure enough, it was past midnight, meaning I was officially 13 years old! Before I could further contemplate this new chapter of my life, there was hooting coming from my window and I saw a cluster of three owls flying towards my window, two of them carrying a third one.
[Hedwig][Potter owl]
[Errol][Weasley owl]
[Persephone][Hogwarts owl]
Hedwig and Errol were carrying packages, Hedwig carrying two whilst Errol only carried one. The hogwarts owl was carrying my hogwarts letter. I first took the package from Errol and sat him down in Hedwig’s cage to rest. It was a note, with a small package. The note was written on an excerpt of the Daily prophet: ‘Happy Birthday, Harry. My family won the Ministry raffle! We went to Egypt to visit Bill. Most of the money went to this trip but they also bought my a new wand, after what happened with my last… The tombs are so cool, Ginny wasn’t allowed in some of them because it was too scary for her, muggles with three heads, skeletons I mean, muggle skeletons. Anyways, I bought you a sneakoscope for your birthday, it whizzes and spins when someone untrustworthy is around. I think it is broken though, it kept whizzing all the time when it was with me’
Cool, I took the sneakoscope out of its package and it didn’t whizz or spin, it was just a glass spinning top. The next letter was from Hermione, ‘Happy Birthday Harry! My family and I have been spending the vacation in France. The magical side of paris is so fascinating, I rewrote my entire History of magic essay and ended up writing two scrolls too much. I ordered your present through the daily prophet catalog. I didn’t know how to get it to you though, what if the border control inspected it, that would jeopardize the statute of secrecy. Luckily, Hedwig came around, she must’ve been expecting presents from me, hope you like it, I picked it specially for you!’
Hermione’s package was big and square. I could only guess that it was some kind of book but no! Turns out it was a broom maintenance kit, with a do it yourself manual. She knew exactly what I liked… she was such a good friend. The second letter from Hedwig was from Hagrid, I could see it from his big, uneven writing, ‘Hallo Harry, a happy birthday to you. I have great news! After you and ron managed to clear my name, I have been permitted to continue my studies at Hogwarts, to finally get my OWL’s and NEWT’s, I will be joining you lot in your third year. I have -over the summer- trained a replacement for the groundskeeper position, Tom Nott is his name, I think one of his nephews, Theodore is in your year in slytherin… or should I say our year? Hahaha, anyways, I have send you your gift, a copy of ‘Quidditch through the ages’, a good day to you’
Huh- I didn’t expect Hagrid to send me a book… but good for him, that he is allowed back into the school, I wonder if he will continue to sleep within his hut or if he will sleep in the dormitories… though I am not sure how I would feel if hagrid slept in the same room as us. It is a bit creepy, ain’t it? But I am sure Dumbledore has a plan.
I picked up the hogwarts letter last. It was the same as always, listing the books and other equipment we needed to get but there was also a new piece of parchment in the envelope, a permission slip to go to hogsmeade. How the hell am I going to get the Dursleys to sign this?
Unexpectedly, I got a notification from the system, something which hadn’t happened before.
[Quest: Get the Dursleys to sign your permission slip:
Reward: 100 xp in charms talent]
So it also gave me quests? Interesting… but that was something for another day, for now, I needed to sleep.
So, I dozed off.
The next morning, the bombshell was dropped that Aunt Marge would stay for a week.
“I’m not sure whether or not I will be able to keep up this whole story with st. whatever-”
“St Brutus!”, Vernon yelled.
“Yes, that, what happens if I say, accidentally tell Marge about my ‘weirdness’”
“Then, I’ll punch the stuffing out of you”, he threatened.
“yes, but that won’t make her forget now, would it”, I said with a smug grin on my face.
“What do you want?”, Vernon’s face was showing signs of major worry, I had him on the hook.
“I want you to sign this permission slip, so that I can go to the village near Hog- I mean, my school”
“Fine, if you manage not to screw things up, I will sign your ruddy form”, Vernon resigned after a few seconds of contemplating.
“Thank you, I will do my best”, I snickered.
Vernon left and a few minutes later returned with Aunt Marge, who handed me her stuff and told me to carry it upstairs, to the guest room, which I dutifully did