arry had managed to do two more quests before dinner on the night of his birthday, earning enough cash for a really nice birthday dinner far away from the Dursleys. He'd sat at a counter, read his letters from his friends, and smiled when the Mason Jar quest completed successfully. That meant he had another month of summer that wouldn't be spent trapped in his room. He needed to plan for it.
As he considered that need, a new quest had appeared:
[JUNK IN THE TRUNK
Retrieve your belongings
O Wand
O Broomstick
O Cloak
O School Books
O Money Bag
O Robes
O Other Items]
That was enough incentive to follow through on his plans, and that night, after the Dursleys had all gone to sleep, totally full and dreaming of all the drills that Mr. Mason was going to buy, Harry slipped downstairs and quietly and carefully managed to employ his new lockpicking skills to open the padlock on the cupboard under the stairs. His trunk was, indeed, where Uncle Vernon had slung it as soon as he'd come back from school, and Harry wasted no time opening the inventory pane and pitching his belongings from the trunk into the grid.
Of all his items, the Nimbus 2000 broom was the biggest, taking up three grid squares. Each of the other items seemed to take a square on their own, and what he'd assumed was basically unlimited space quickly started to fill up. The grid was four squares wide and eight high, giving him only 32 items he could carry. Since it was eight high, he was guessing it was based on his Body score, and might be able to hold more if he got stronger. But even though it was slightly disappointing, that was still more than thirty objects he could carry secretly and weightlessly. And he'd be able to do his homework!
Was it weird that he was excited about getting to do his homework?
When he'd closed the mostly-empty trunk back up and sneaked upstairs, the quest had completed but he hadn't gotten any XP for it. He had to admit that it would have been pretty unfair if he could level up just by setting easily-attainable goals, but it was nice that the system would track his personal goals for him so he didn't forget.
Also, having access to his invisibility cloak would make getting around the Dursleys way easier. Back in the bedroom, he put on the cloak and held his wand, confirming that they showed up on his inventory paper doll.
[POTTER FAMILY CLOAK
This superior invisibility cloak never fades in
power, and can only be detected by the
strongest enchantments. [Learn more magical
history for more information.] Set Bonus: 1/3
HOLLY AND PHOENIX WAND
Harry Potter's wand is 11 inches long, made
of holly, and has a phoenix feather core
(donated by the phoenix Fawkes). It was
crafted by Garrick Ollivander.]
That was interesting information. Sadly, he didn't seem to be able to keep them equipped but out of sight until he needed them without shoving them back into his inventory. If he put his wand in his pocket, it at least still showed as equipped but stowed. With inventory slots at a premium, he'd probably still wind up using his pockets and bags for minor stuff. No sense using up a whole slot just for that hairpin, for example, unless he needed it to be secret. He could keep light stuff like that in his pockets no problem.
Worrying about how his broom took up nearly a third of his available inventory space, Harry next pulled it out and quietly called it to his hand with the traditional, "Up!" As the Nimbus 2000 slapped with familiarity into his palm, a notification asked:
[BIND MOUNT: NIMBUS 2000?]
"Yes," Harry agreed, then immediately checked his full inventory pane again. Sure enough, next to the Menagerie tab, there was a new tab for Mounts. He was able to slide his broom right into that section, keeping it safe and clear of the general inventory. "This is so awesome."
To keep his uncle from realizing Hedwig was basically free at this point, he set the cage back up and quietly called her back before he went to bed. She looked much happier after spending the evening getting to fly and hunt after a month cooped up. "We'll get you out a lot more, girl," he promised. "I'm going to bed for now, though."
As he went to bed, he reflected that this might not be the best birthday present he'd ever gotten (learning he was a wizard the previous year was hard to top, after all), but it was definitely number two.
The next morning, he woke up precisely at seven in the morning, fully rested.
[REST COMPLETE: METERS REFILLED]
He had already recovered the few HP he'd lost the day before prior to sleeping, but he was guessing that meant that he was now getting a video game's restoration for using a bed. He wasn't totally sure how the game would track serious injury (after all, Piers had only run off when he'd been reduced to 0 HP), and he wasn't super-excited to test it to find out. But maybe this would mean he wouldn't need quite so many days in the hospital wing the next time he was hurt?
It was a sad realization that he knew it was pretty likely that he'd wind up in the hospital wing again, probably soon. That was just how things seemed to be going for him.
"Don't think I missed that you shirked your chores yesterday, boy," Aunt Petunia informed him over breakfast. "I need you out working in the garden today. And the lawn needs mowing."
"And my car needs washing," Uncle Vernon added over the paper.
[DAILY QUEST: CHORES
Complete your household chores.
O Weed and fertilize the garden
O Mow the lawn
O Wash Uncle Vernon's car]
Well, maybe it would be a little easier to do all the work around the house (literally all the work around the house) if he could see the XP he was earning for it?
[QUEST COMPLETE
15 XP Earned]
"That's less than just helping a random person in town for a minute!" Harry complained, having spent most of the morning in the hot sun on the chores. "They must be low level quests. I'm too high level for this house."
At least the Dursleys were in a good enough mood from the dinner the previous night that they hadn't really tried to load him down. He even got a sandwich made from the heels of the bread loaf and the last of the lunchmeat for his troubles, though it didn't really make up for all the work he'd put in and he was still basically starving. In fact… he popped open his character sheet and learned that he, indeed, had a status condition:
[HUNGRY
You recover Endurance more slowly. If this condition
persists, you can lose Body permanently.]
Oh. Hermione had always nagged him about not eating enough when he was nervous. He wondered if that was why his Body was so low. Slipping off to town, he supplemented the little bit of lunch with leftovers he'd kept in his inventory overnight, and the Hungry condition finally cleared as he, indeed, felt sated.
Just outside of town, he was able to summon Hedwig to finally answer Ron's letters, and then made another call to Hermione from the pay phone. After summarizing everything that had happened since he'd talked to her the day before, she said, "Of course there are dark wizard families that keep slaves! But you say there are these house elves at Hogwarts, too? Why don't we see them? How are they treated? Are our meals made by slave labor!?"
"I don't know, Hermione," Harry told her, enduring the tirade over the phone. "But even if the school elves are okay, we should figure out how to help Dobby. He had a… a G-E-A-S. Maybe it sounds something like gesh? Well, he had one of those that made him 'punish' himself, like physically hurt himself, if he even thought bad things about his family. And it's keeping him from telling me what's going to happen this year at the school."
"That's awful," she agreed. "We'll have to look it up when we have access to the library again. Or maybe we can ask Ron. Are you going to Diagon Alley with everyone?"
"Maybe?" Harry shrugged. "Ron mentioned trying to go to his house for a week or so before school starts. I just sent him a letter explaining what's been going on. I'm not sure how I'd get out to Devon."
"Well, keep me posted," she agreed, knowing the phone was running out of minutes. "I'm especially interested in hearing what else you can learn about people and things with this inspect ability. Honestly, Harry, if this was happening to anyone else I wouldn't believe it."
"I do seem to get the weirdest things happening to me, don't I? Bye, Hermione."
"Bye Harry. Don't forget to do your homework!"
Harry spent the rest of the afternoon doing a couple more quests around town, and building up food in his inventory in case the Dursleys kept under-feeding him. He discovered that, if it weighed about a kilo or less, a whole bag of food would only take up one inventory slot, but if he took the food out of the bag, each item would take its own slot. That seemed like a useful way to save space for smaller items he still wanted in his inventory. The trade-off would be that he'd have to take out the whole bag and then find the item in it manually, rather than just quickly drawing it from the inventory pane.
It was a delicate balancing act, keeping some pounds in his inventory while still buying food. His wizarding money had similarly just turned into numbers on the inventory pane, and he had quite a few galleons left over from the previous year, but it wasn't like there were any restaurants in Little Whinging that would let him pay in gold coins.
As he was wandering back toward Privet Drive, he had gotten distracted by his own thoughts and hadn't noticed that Dudley, Piers, and their friend Dennis were following him. As he was crossing the again mostly-deserted playground (Dudley's gang made it no fun for the local kids, even on a Saturday), they spread out and surrounded him. "Heard you messed with Piers yesterday," Dudley called to him.
Harry turned and realized he was being bracketed in. "Are we really doing this, Dud?" Harry asked.
"Public place," his cousin shrugged. That conveyed a lot in two words and a gesture about Dudley's delicate position in his bullying friend group, fear of Harry's magic, and vague realization that Harry probably wasn't allowed to curse muggles that didn't know about magic. Even if he did, at least then Dudley would receive some sympathy from his friends, as they learned that Harry was more of a freak than they'd ever understood.
[RANDOM ENCOUNTER: MOVE TO INSTANCE?]
"I don't know what that means, but sure?" Harry quietly agreed to the prompt. With that, the boundaries of the playground suddenly became blurry like his glasses had fallen off, but he could still see everything nearby clearly. The few kids that had been on the monkey bars across the playground were missing. And a new prompt appeared:
[INSTANCE CREATED
The Trace does not function in this instance]
Wait, what? That was huge. If he understood that right, he could use magic and nobody would know. He hastily opened his inventory to grab his wand as Dennis started to charge. After all, the new bully hadn't gotten beaten the day before, and didn't have Dudley's justified fear of what Harry could do.
Dudley had noticed Harry's magic wand appear out of nowhere and his eyes widened in fear.
"Flipendo!" Harry tried, managing a fairly weak knockback jinx at Dennis before the larger boy could close. He wasn't as big as Dudley, but he was bigger than Piers, and Harry didn't want to get punched. The wash of magical energy caught the boy and caused him to lose momentum but not flip over or fall down. Harry should probably work on improving that particular attack. Maybe that was what having Combat Magic 0 did to him.
"Aaaagh!" Piers yelled, rushing toward Harry's side while he was distracted. The newly-learned Martial Arts skill kicked in, literally, as Harry was able to dodge at the last second and shove Piers over with his foot. Both of the boys had lost hit points from the bars floating over their heads, and Piers yelled, "Get him, Dud!" as he tried to get to his feet.
Dennis had recovered as Dudley continued to dither, and he resumed moving forward, so Harry tried the spell Hermione had used to paralyze Neville Longbottom before they'd gone after the stone a few weeks earlier, "Petrificus Totalus!" He hadn't gotten it totally right, or at least not for a fight, but it managed to catch Dennis and make the boy's arms and legs spasm like they were trying to fall asleep, and he crashed to the ground at Harry's feet. "Sure you want to get him, Dud?" he taunted his cousin.
"Freak!" the large boy said, trapped in a bully's conundrum of his prey fighting back, and doing so well. He didn't want to risk Harry's magic, but he also didn't want his friends to realize he hadn't even tried to help. He began to lumber forward.
Harry sighed and stepped back, making sure to get another of Hermione's spells right as he incanted, "Hyacintho Flammas." Cold-burning blue fire appeared at the tip of his wand. It couldn't hurt anyone, but looked impressive. "Don't make me use it, Dud," Harry bluffed.
Dudley drew up short, eyeing the flames, and then bent down to pick his friends up. "He's a freak. Let's go!"
As the three boys retreated across the playground, Harry let the flames expire and put his wand back in his inventory. As soon as he did, he heard faint triumphant music and was notified:
[100 Combat XP Earned
Martial Arts XP Earned
OWL Combat Magic XP Earned
OWL Charms XP Earned]
Well that was neat. He couldn't figure out where to find how fast his skills were improving, but it was nice to learn that they were eventually going to rank up as he used them. Along with the notification, the blur of the background became clear and he saw the other kids in the park again. He wondered what they had seen when the fight moved to a magical space.
He leaned down and picked up the pocket money that had dropped from the boys when they were defeated.
Another day, another crazy revelation about these powers. That evening, no letters or teachers showed up to yell at him about using magic in front of muggles. If he could figure out how to make one of those "instances" happen whenever he wanted, it wasn't just that he could defend himself from muggles, he could actually practice spells over the summer!