Chapter Two
Harry woke up in a familiar cupboard under the stairs. He frowned unhappily, never wanting to be back at Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. The cupboard was dark, a single line of sunlight slipping underneath the door to chase away the shadows of the cramped space. Harry could barely see the outline of his hands in front of his face, however, he could tell that his fingers were very small. He was a child once again.
“Character Info,” he spoke aloud, feeling ridiculous.
A small screen popped up, right in front of his face. It startled him slightly, and its dull glow hurt his eyes after the previous lack of light.
CHARACTER INFO:
Name: Harry James Potter | Titles: The Boy Who Lived (+10 relationship points with Wizarding World)
Species: Wizard | Age: 5 years
Hair: Black; Potter Hair (Potter Hair: The uncontrollably messy locks of all Potters. Is it magic? Maybe! Who knows? -10 relationship points with Severus Snape)
Eyes: Green; His Mother’s Eyes (His Mother’s Eyes: The emerald green irises of Lily Evans. +5 relationship points with Severus Snape, the Marauders, Hogwarts Professors & Staff)
STATS:
Level: 1 | Health: 💚💚💛💔💔
Magic: 10/10
Strength: 5/100
Speed: 12/100
Resilience: 10/100
Charisma: 0/100
Dexterity: 10/100
Intelligence: 8/100
Wisdom: 5/100
Luck: 5/100
SKILLS:
Accidental Magic: 15% Unlocked (Use Skill to Unlock)
Cleaning: 45/100 XP
Cooking: 25/100 XP
Gardening: 15/100 XP
Parseltongue: Locked (Speak with a snake to Unlock)
The stats were terrible. Harry curled up on his thin mattress, feeling depressed and slightly shameful. However, he wasn’t able to dwell on it. Less than a minute later, his aunt’s fist rapped against the cupboard door. “Get up, you lazy brat. Breakfast needs to be made before Dudley gets out of bed. I won’t have my precious Diddydums going hungry.”
Harry was pulled out of the cupboard roughly. Petunia Dursley’s hand had a vice-like grip on his thin arm as she tugged him toward the kitchen. Because of his short height, Harry had to stand on a wooden stool in order to reach the stove. He had gotten serious burns from cooking numerous times throughout his childhood, and his aunt never hesitated to swing a pan at his head when angry.
Thankfully, his aunt had invited the other housewives of the neighborhood over for tea. Wanting the house to look perfect, she was too busy to hover over him to make sure he didn’t ruin the kitchen with his freakishness. A list of chores was left on the counter for him, a strange glowing exclamation mark floating over it. Luckily, Petunia didn’t seem to be able to see it despite its neon coloration.
After cooking a large breakfast of bacon, eggs, coffee, and toast, Harry carried the heavy, overflowing plates of food to the table. As he set down the coffee pot, a little notification appeared in the corner of his eye.
+5 Cooking XP +2 Relationship (Petunia Dursley: 2/100) +1 Relationship (Vernon Dursley: 1/100) +1 Relationship (Dudley Dursley: 1/100)
“Relationship points?” Harry murmured, disbelieving. He stumbled back as an unfamiliar screen popped into existence. Relationships Unlocked!
RELATIONSHIPS:
Petunia Dursley: 2/100
Vernon Dursley: 1/100
Dudley Dursley: 1/100
Marjorie Dursley: 0/100 (Ripper: 0/100)
Piers Polkiss: 0/100
Little Whinging: 0/100 (The Dursleys say Harry Potter is a delinquent boy; they must be right. What good people they are, taking that boy into their perfectly normal home.)
Wizarding World & Characters Locked
If his Character Info was bad, then his Relationship stats were beyond horrific. Harry almost choked reading the description of his relationship with Little Whinging. The Dursleys being good people?! Hell would freeze over before that was true.
The three members of the Dursley family sat down at the table. The chairs groaned under the weight of Vernon Dursley. Dudley was five years old, and not yet as extremely obese as he would be in the future, though he was doing a very accurate imitation of a beach ball wearing clothes. Harry was sent back to the kitchen with two measly slices of toast. Thankfully, Petunia hadn’t noticed there was already butter on them, or she would have denied him even that. Harry hurriedly ate it once out of sight, along with a piece of bacon that had been a bit burnt. He washed down the food with orange juice straight from the carton, quickly shoving it back into the refrigerator lest he get caught.
+3 Luck +💚
It seemed that eating or drinking increased Health or increased the rate at which the hearts regenerated. +1 Intelligence
“Um, Menu,” Harry said quietly. He hoped that none of the Dursleys could hear him from their location in the dining room.
Harry Potter: The Magical Virtual Reality Simulation
MENU:
Resume Game
Save Game
New Game
Settings
Help
He quickly chose Save Game. Harry would hate for all his hard work to end up being for nothing. His joy slowly dissipated. He walked over to the counter and picked up the list of chores. The floating exclamation mark blinked when his fingers touched the paper, then vanished after he read it.
Quest Unlocked!
Quest: Daily Chores
Task: Complete every chore on the list before the end of the day.
Rewards: +3 Stat Points (Can NOT be used on Level, Health, or Magic)
Bonus Reward: Level Up!
He had to wash the dishes, weed the garden, clean the windows, and wash Vernon’s car once his uncle returned home from his job at a drill company, Grunnings. The list was shorter than usual, probably because Petunia wanted him out of the way while people were visiting.
The tap turned on with a squeak. Adding soap, Harry scrubbed the dirty dishes, rinsed them, and then dried them before putting them in their proper places in the cupboards. To reach the higher shelves, the small dark-haired boy had to use the stool while balancing on the tips of his toes. +5 Cleaning XP +1 Dexterity
That was one task down. Harry crossed it off the list with a small smile. Washing his uncle’s car had to wait for later, so he chose to wash the windows next. After that, he would go outside to weed the garden in the backyard and the small bed of flowers that lined the walkway in front of the house. Completing his chore of washing the house’s windows got him five more Cleaning experience points and another Relationship point with Petunia. Washing the chemicals from the window-cleaning spray off his hands in the bathroom, he noticed that the mirror in the bathroom was smeared with toothpaste. It was obviously Dudley’s doing, but Harry would get the blame for it anyway. So, he cleaned the mirror as well. This gained him another point with his aunt, though it barely counted as a victory, as well as a single point to Cleaning.
The rumble of Vernon’s car leaving the driveway could be heard from outside. Done with his chores in the house, Harry went out the back door. He would tackle the garden in the backyard first. It was larger and would take longer to finish.