Harry Potter could have been having a terrible summer. After his first year that he could remember away from his "family," the Dursleys, he'd stepped off the Hogwarts Express to return to the clone-stamped suburban hellscape that was Little Whinging, Surrey, and all of his magical tools and school books had been promptly hidden away from him in the cupboard he'd used to call his bedroom. Uncle Vernon very much wanted to forget that Harry now spent ten months of the year learning magic. If he realized Harry wasn't allowed to practice it outside of school, things might even be worse.
But things weren't worse for one particular reason: Dudley's Commodore 64.
Harry's cousin had received a top-of-the-line personal gaming computer in 1990, couldn't figure out the keyboard-based operating system compared to the simplicity of his Nintendo, and had promptly shoved the ludicrously-expensive device into the back of a closet, along with the pile of games it had come with. It was par for the course with the spoiled boy, honestly. The closet in question happened to be the one in the room that Harry currently resided in, which had previously served as Dudley's playroom/junk bin.
The closets were so full of broken toys that Uncle Vernon probably hadn't realized he was leaving Harry with access to a valuable personal enrichment device. It was truly a wonder that Dudley hadn't smashed it out of pique, rather than just putting it away.
Due to the great boredom of the summer and lack of any other stimulus (his new friends weren't writing to him), Harry had made the effort to figure out the system. It did come with a manual after all, and learning the disk operating system commands wasn't that different from learning spells at school. Plus he had incentive: some of the game disks promised Wizardry. (It was a real testament to how unobservant the Dursleys were about their son that this particular video game had somehow slipped through their phobic opposition to anything magical.)
It turned out that computer RPGs weren't that helpful in learning lessons that would apply to his study of actual magic at Hogwarts, but they were a pretty fun time sink for a nearly-twelve-year-old with nothing better to do for two months of the summer. And they broke the terrifying and complex world of magical battles down into easily-understandable and organized components. On the evening before the last day of July, Harry's twelfth birthday, he went to bed thinking about how amazing the world would be if he had that kind of clarity.
Between being the chosen one of prophecy, marinating in recently-triggered sacrificial protection and the blood wards spawned of it, elf magic lingering from a well-meaning maniac trying to secretly protect him, and a little bit of pre-teen accidental magic, that unvoiced birthday wish was made a reality.
It didn't take Harry long to notice the new addition to his life the next morning, when he saw the nameplates hanging over his relatives' heads:
[VERNON DURSLEY
Salesperson, Level 10
[GRUNNINGS]
PETUNIA DURSLEY
Homemaker, Level 9
DUDLEY DURSLEY
Bully, Level 2]
Harry quietly cleaned his large round glasses as if that was going to change things, and was slightly astonished to notice that the text stayed in the air, crystal-clear, even as the rest of the world went blurry without his glasses.
Uncle Vernon chose that moment to clear his throat officiously and announce, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day." Harry shoved the glasses back on his face, wondering if the big man had noticed the strange ability suddenly afflicting him. "This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career!"
Oh, right, some rich builder and his wife were coming over for a dinner party, and Uncle Vernon was hoping to sell a whole load of drills to the man.
But what Harry hadn't expected was for a box of text to appear in the upper right corner of his field of view as soon as Vernon finished speaking. It moved as he turned his head, and he had to actually turn his eyes up and out to read it:
[MASON JAR
Timed Quest: 11:58:08
Help Vernon impress the Masons.
O Stay out of sight
O Don't make noise
O NO MAGIC!
Failure Warning: You will be locked in
your room for the rest of the summer.]
"What?" Harry mouthed incredulously to himself as the timer on the quest continued to count down to the end of dinnertime. Was he hallucinating? He wouldn't be surprised if his uncle would lock him up if he ruined the deal, but to see it written down like thatā¦ He barely realized that Vernon had asked him what his role in the family dinner was supposed to be, and absentmindedly agreed, "I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I'm not there."
He managed to repeat the line a couple more times when prompted as he stewed over what must be going on, and escaped breakfast as soon as Vernon left to pick up dinner jackets for himself and Dudley. His first stop was in the hall bathroom, confirming that his own head had a nameplate, conveniently not mirrored so he could easily read it:
[HARRY POTTER
Mage, Level 2
[GRYFFINDOR]]
Well, at least he was the same level as Dudley, so that was something. He hurried outside to the back garden to think. Had anything like this happened before? Could anyone else see these floating words? Was he just going crazy after a month solid playing RPGs all day? Who could he ask about it?
A new box of text appeared beneath the timed quest:
[PIECE OF MIND
Research the game system.
O Check the local library
O Check the Hogwarts library
O (Optional) Ask Hermione for help]
"Well, if nothing else, this will make keeping track of my appointments easier," Harry muttered to himself. "Though if I have a bunch of things going on at onceā¦" he thought, and then asked, "Journal? Quest Log?"
The intent alone seemed to be enough to fill his vision, partially translucent, as if a pane of written-on glass was being held up a couple feet in front of his face.
[FIRST-YEAR QUESTS
For its own snake
Going postal (failed)
Yer a wizard!
Purchasing power
Train gang
School spirit
Potions prodigy (failed)
Duel purposes
Jerk o'lanterns
Pitch perfect
Nightly reflections (failed)
The fabulous Mr. Flamel
Playing an egg (failed)
Secrets of silver blood (failed)
The headmaster's challenges
The philosopher's stone (main quest)
SECOND-YEAR QUESTS
Mason jar (tracked)
Piece of mind (tracked)]
As he looked at each of the items in the list, a succinct summary of the events of the previous year appeared on the right side of the pane. "Why did I fail the second one?" he wondered, looking to see:
[GOING POSTAL (FAILED)
Timed Quest
Read your Hogwarts letter.
X Read the first letter
X Read the second letter
X Read any of the bonus letters
X Read the Cokeworth letter
Harry Potter received a whole series of
Hogwarts letters that his Uncle didn't want
him to read. He managed to read none of
them and Rubeus Hagrid had to hand-deliver
the relevant information.]
"Oh, right. I guess that makes sense," Harry sighed. It really had been a comedy of errors. Similarly, it looked like he'd had the opportunity to answer the questions correctly in Snape's first class, escape the lure of the Mirror of Erised without Dumbledore's intervention, get Norbert out of the castle without losing a ton of points, and encounter Voldemort in the forest with allies that would have meant he didn't need to be saved by the centaurs.
Maybe whatever was going on would make it easier to not screw up so much this year?
He managed to get the quest log to close, and started to think about what he might try to do next when he noticed a nameplate floating only a couple of feet in the air, clipping into the leaves of the garden hedge:
[DOBBY
House Elf, Level 9]
Beneath the nameplate, he could make out a pair of enormous green eyes, and he asked out loud, "What's a house elf?"
A high-pitched voice went, "Eep!" and both eyes and nameplate suddenly disappeared.
Before Harry could consider the situation further, Dudley's voice sang from the back door, "I know what day it is!"
"What?" Harry asked, annoyed at having to deal with whatever it was his cousin wanted to bother him about.
"I know what day it is," Dudley repeated, coming to stand in the middle of the garden, close enough to Harry to loom over him where he was sitting on the bench.
"Well done," Harry told him absently. "Glad you've finally learned the days of the week."
"Today's your birthday," Dudley needled. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you even got friends at that freak place?"
Why hadn't he gotten any cards? As Harry considered, a new quest prompt appeared at the bottom of his stack:
[ACTS OF DISSERVICE
Prevent Dobby from "helping."
O (Optional) Retrieve mail from Dobby
O (Optional) Keep Dobby from ruining the party]
"A house elf is stealing my mail," Harry answered Dudley. He was suddenly leaning very heavily toward either being very crazy or these quest prompts being very helpful.
His bullying script interrupted, Dudley asked, "What's a house elf?"
"Let you know when I find out," Harry shrugged. "It has giant green eyes and hides in the hedge."
It was the matter-of-fact way that Harry said it that kept Dudley from running screaming to his mother. This suddenly sounded like one of those scary magic things. He just kept an eye on where Harry was staring and retreated carefully back into the house.
"I should check the library," Harry said to himself, remembering the second quest prompt. He was also a little worried about that note about Dobby ruining the party. With his aunt furiously busy in the kitchen, he was able to grab his shoes, slip out of the house, and walk toward the Little Whinging public library.
He'd only made it about halfway when a familiar and hated voice called out, "Haaaaarrrryyy Potter!"
[LONG WALK, SHORT PIERS
Escape or defeat Piers Polkiss.]
"Great, just what I needed today," Harry groaned, spotting Dudley's rat-faced friend across the playground.
[PIERS POLKISS
Bully, Level 2]
He probably shouldn't have gone through the playground: it was where Dudley's pals liked to hang out. And this early on a Friday morning, it was completely abandoned by any adults that might keep the boy from trying to attack him. But, interestingly, none of the rest of Dudley's gang seemed to be about. Piers had always been the scrawniest of the lot. And Harry suddenly realized that he'd been playing quidditch all year, and Piers had done no sports at all.
Sure, flying a broom wasn't nearly as much exercise as playing football or something, but Oliver Wood was a slave driver that figured that strong bodies made strong flyers and forced them to do all sorts of other exercises (on top of the endurance and agility Harry had built up spending hours racing around trying to find the snitch).
Also, Harry had fought a troll, faced a cerberus, encountered a wraith in a dark forest, and confronted the possessed Professor Quirrell. A nascent bully his own age wasn't that big of a deal.
"Pieeeeers Polkiiiis," Harry sang back to the annoying boy, planting himself in the open near a swing set.
"Been a year since we had any Harry Hunting," Piers told him as he sauntered up, though he seemed a little nonplussed that Harry hadn't immediately bolted. "Run for me, Potter!"
"Not today," Harry shook his head. Honestly, Piers Polkiss wasn't even as good of a bully as Draco Malfoy. He was forced to reflect on just how much he'd already outgrown this tiny, muggle village.
"Going to make you regret it!" Piers yelled, charging forward to take a swing before he totally lost control of the confrontation.
Harry hadn't really expected him to jump straight to punching, and barely got an arm up to protect his face. The impact of the bully's fist on his forearm still stung. "-10" floated in the air in red text, from a red bar that suddenly appeared in the upper left of his vision, opposite the quest log. He wasn't that shocked to notice that the now-missing chunk of the bar made up a pretty visible fraction. He was only level 2, after all, and probably didn't have many hit points.
Dodging the follow-up swing, Harry managed to shove Piers away and the other boy barely kept his balance in the sandy playground. A solid chunk of the bully's own hit point bar, now hovering over his nameplate, seemed to be removed by the unexpected push.
"Take your beating like a man!" Piers yelled, turning around and flailing wildly as Harry managed to weave backwards through the chains of the swings, nearly tangling his attacker and avoiding any further damage.
"You first," Harry told him, waiting for the boy to angrily push through the swings, ducking low, and shouldering right into Piers' stomach. Piers screamed and lost his balance, tripping backwards over the moving swings, and flopping bodily into the dirt.
His hit point bar emptied out, and Harry was suddenly worried he'd killed the kid somehow. But Piers simply continued wailing quietly and hissed, "I'm telling my mum!" before scrambling to his feet and running away.
[QUEST COMPLETE
20 XP Earned + 40 Combat XP]
Below his eyeline, Harry noticed a long gray line that was partially filled with white, the 20 and 40 falling from the fading notification down to what must be his experience point bar. As he was looking down, he also noticed a glitter in the dirt where Piers had fallen, and he spotted a handful of loose change. Had it dropped from Piers' pockets when he tripped, or was this some kind of loot? As he reached down to touch them, the coins suddenly disappeared, and a notification of, "Ā£1.60" appeared where they'd been and disappeared into the lower right of Harry's vision.
As his weird informational gift suddenly began to have a physical effect on the world, Harry wondered out loud, "Whatā¦ even?"