Chapter 4: 04 It Begins Again

The trip to the London Zoo with his relatives for Dudley's birthday was just like Harry had suspected it would be like. He was ignored almost completely until he tried to leave them behind and do his own thing, then he was kept under their watchful gaze and not allowed to roam around. He couldn't even use the money he had stolen to buy snacks or souvenirs.

Dudley and his buddy Piers were unholy terrors and Harry stayed as far out of their way as possible. Thanks to his skills, he could practically disappear right in front of people without even trying. He couldn't do that without being seen as a freak by his relatives and he didn't want to be punished for it, even if he had stored more food over the years than he could ever hope to eat.

When they entered the reptile house, Harry had fully expected to be pushed aside as Dudley and his friend rushed around to check out everything, even though the lizards and snakes were encased in terrariums and behind glass for the larger specimens. He walked over to the far end of the displays and stayed both out of the way and within viewing distance of his aunt and uncle.

When Harry saw that they knew where he was and were happy with his choice of where to stand, he looked at the enclosure he stood beside.

Burmese Python. Age 8 years. 18 feet long. Raised in captivity.
Suffers from condition: Bored.

“Ah, I see. That's me as well. I was raised in captivity and I'm bored, too.” Harry joked and the snake lifted its head from the warming rock to stare at him. “Hold on, you can understand me?”

Warning: Skill not fully recoverable. System Damage at 26%. Attempt to access Skill anyway?

Harry stared at the blue box because he had never seen anything referencing damage before. Also, 26% was really bad, considering there was only 100% to something and that meant his system was suffering from a loss of a full quarter of its potential.

“LOOK! It's moving!” Dudley yelled as he ran over with Piers and shoved Harry out of the way.

Harry bounced off of the nearby wall and fell forward as he landed on the floor and his hand touched the enclosure's glass. He felt that the glass wasn't attached and just sat into a slot, so he stored it into inventory.

“AHH!” Dudley and Piers yelled as one and tumbled into the enclosure. The pair splashed in the snake's wading pool and freaked out as the large snake slid off of his rock and it reared up to look at Harry.

“Thanks! Scare! Revenge!” The snake hissed him and then slid down onto the floor and slithered much faster than anyone in the crowd expected. They screamed and ran from the thing and it stopped to give a particularly loud hiss at Petunia. “BOOO!”

Petunia screamed bloody murder and Harry chuckled as he put the glass back. He didn't want to get caught standing right there with it missing.

Yes! She finally got some of what's coming to... “ARGH!” Harry yelled and fell to the floor as pain lanced through his head.

Verbal agreement accepted. Accessing damaged area.
Warning: System Damage at 26%. Beastspeak Skill Tree damaged. Installing available Skill.

You have learned a new Skill! Parseltongue. You can talk to snakes and they can talk to you. They aren't great conversationalists, however. Skill is considered a Dark Art in some countries (including yours).

Harry was in too much pain to read it and searched through his inventory for a headache pill. He chose to consume it directly instead of taking it out and laid on the floor with his eyes scrunched up and he was curled up into a ball.

Your Pain Resistance Skill has levelled up! Child Bonus x2 XP
Your Pain Resistance Skill has levelled up! Child Bonus x2 XP
Your Pain Resistance Skill has levelled up! Child Bonus x2 XP
Your Pain Resistance Skill has levelled up! Child Bonus x2 XP

The pain trailed off to linger in the back of his mind after the notices and Harry took several deep breaths. He hadn't felt pain that intense since his uncle had broken his arm years ago.

“BOY!” Vernon yelled and stomped over towards him.

“I don't know what happened!” Harry exclaimed and covered his head. “Dudley pushed me out of the way of the snake and I hit my head!”

Acting Skill check passed!
Supreme Actor Skill has levelled up! Child Bonus x2 XP!

Vernon looked both angry and happy, which ended up making him look constipated. “You're lucky he always looks out for you.”

Harry didn't respond and cowered on the floor, as was appropriate for the situation. He really want to comment about Dudley always looking out for an opportunity to pound on him with his fists, and kept it to himself. Comments like that were never a good idea and he was too smart to antagonize an irate Vernon.

It didn't take long for a zoo handler to arrive and they opened a side door that had been concealed behind a bush and easily led Dudley and Piers out of the empty enclosure. The drive home was filled with silence and Harry was grateful for it, because the pain in his head was just going away completely. He had also gained another Pain Resistance level and wondered when it would stop.

All skills can be levelled to 100. If there is a next stage, it will upgrade and the bonuses will increase.

Thanks. Harry thought at it and dismissed the blue box. He would have to lay low for a few days and work twice as hard at his chores to keep his relatives happy.

A week of hard work later, another letter for Hogwarts showed up. Harry knew better than to try and go outside before delivering the mail to his uncle. He gave the letters to him and excused himself before he walked calmly outside and looked around. Sure enough, he saw a barn owl out during the day and it was perched on a branch of a nearby tree.

Harry waved at it and it gave him a surprised look before it waved back with a wing. He chuckled and snuck back inside to grab a piece of paper and a pen, wrote out a quick note, and went back outside. He showed the note to the owl and it flew down to land on the ground in front of him.

“Can you take his to whoever sent you with the letter?” Harry asked it as he knelt on one knee and it hooted at him. “Thank you.”

The owl gave him a searching look when Harry didn't move to attach the note, so it carefully balanced and stuck its leg out.

“Oh! So that's how. I was trying to figure out if you carried it in your beak or with your claws.” Harry said. “What would you like as a treat?”

“Hoot?” The owl asked.

“I've got sliced pork, ham, bacon...”

“HOOT!” The owl interrupted.

“Bacon?” Harry asked and it hooted again. He took out a nice slice of cooked bacon. “Here you go.”

“Hoot.” The owl said and took it into its beak, then it flapped its wings and took off into the air.

“How do people not see that?” Harry asked, rhetorically. He shrugged and walked down the street, because he had to visit the library again to see if Maisie needed help in the back room.

A week later, a giant of a man showed up at the house and told Harry who he was, who his parents really were, and their plans for him. Vernon had an anger fit as he spit and sputtered about never paying for a school like that and that Harry would not be going to a freak school, if he had anything to say about it.

Harry turned to him and dropped his Supreme Actor skill and let Vernon see exactly how much he hated the man. “It's a good thing that you DON'T have a say, isn't it?” He asked with as evil of a tone of voice as he could manage, which was quite effective.

You have learned a new Skill! Intimidation, Level 2! Child Bonus x2 XP!

Vernon's face paled and he took a step back from the clearly angry boy that he had never seen before.

“Let's go, Hagrid.” Harry said and started using Supreme Actor again as he walked over to the front door. “I'll be back later.”

Vernon didn't say anything or demanded that Harry be home at a reasonable time, which was a first for the both of them.

The Knight Bus was an enlightening ride and Harry wasn't sure if he liked it or not. He had never experienced anything like it before and it was scary and fun at the same time.

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When they entered the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid immediately spilled the beans about who he was to the barman and everyone in the pub reacted as if he was a famous celebrity. If it hadn't been for his acting ability and his Gamer Mind, he would have punched the first man that had grabbed his hand to enthusiastically shake it without his permission.

In retrospect, Harry could have disguised himself to hide and he was about to kick himself mentally for leaving home so hastily, when Hagrid opened his big mouth and bellowed his name and started pointing out all of the different things he could buy as they walked down the street of Wizarding businesses called Diagon Alley. Harry knew then that any disguise would have been ruined by having Hagrid nearby. Subtle, he was not.

They went all the way down the street to the wizarding bank named Gringotts and Harry read the poem warning about thieves meeting their ends. He chuckled, because his Inventory range had expanded to encompass nearly thirty feet out from him, so he could pick up or drop anything that was non-living within that thirty feet, including from straight up or down below.

The odd pair approached the nearest teller and Hagrid told him that Harry was there to make a withdrawal.

The goblin gave Harry and his scar an intense look. “Does Mister Potter have his key?”

“Oh! I think I've got that here somewhere.” Hagrid said and started to dig through his pockets.

Both the goblin and Harry were a little disgusted by some of the thing Hagrid carried on him, then a brass key was placed on the goblin's desk. It was followed by an envelope and an explanation about an item in a secret vault.

The goblin left his station and led them into the back room and the three of them climbed into a mining cart. What followed was a wild ride down into the underground caverns and past hundreds of vaults. By the time the cart came to a stop, Harry was about 150,000 gold coins richer.

Only about ten feet of Harry's storage ability had been close enough to skim gold coins from every vault they passed while in the cart. Now that it was stopped and they walked along the row of vaults, that Harry would later learn were from old and wealthy families, nearly his entire ability was focused on gathering gold from the other vaults. His stolen total topped out at just over 500,000 gold coins.

The goblin opened Harry's vault with the key and Harry stared at the four foot tall pile of gold inside.

“You didn't think your parents wouldn't have left anything for ya, did ya, Harry?” Hagrid asked.

Harry didn't answer as he pretended to stuff his pockets full of gold coins. “How much is in here?”

“That's not my department.” The goblin said.

“Who do I talk to about who had access to my vault?” Harry asked.

“What do you mean?” The goblin asked back.

“I didn't know I had a vault until today or that I needed a key for it.” Harry responded. “I would have visited here years ago if I had known.”

The goblin shrugged. “Whoever has your key can access your vault. It is not the bank's responsibility to keep track of your key for you.”

Harry knew what that meant. It was the same mentality that the teachers at school had. His problems were not their problem and they wouldn't... or couldn't... do anything about it. He stepped out of the vault and the goblin closed and locked it before the creature handed him the key. He pretended to put the key into a pocket and instead stored it into inventory.

He also stored all the money inside the vault and discovered that there had been 122,348 gold coins, 26,783 silver sickles, and 12,432 bronze knuts. Thankfully, the system let him convert it all to gold coins if he wanted to and he dropped ten gold coins back into the vault, just in case it needed to have something in the vault to keep it open.

They walked along the long hallway and past dozens of more vaults, Harry pilfered all of the gold he could and gained another 750,000 coins until they reached the secret vault. No key was needed and the goblin just waved a hand at it. Several locks clicked open and it was the first time Harry had seen magic being performed.

It's really real. Harry thought, surprised.

You have seen Magic performed for the very first time and it has intrigued you. Learn all that you can about the new world you have entered.
Rewards: Knowledge of the wizarding world, basic magic history, 1,000 XP.
Failure: Remaining ignorant of your status, XP while learning Magic reduced by 50%.

Harry stared at the thing, because it didn't ask him if he wanted to do it.

First automatic Quest found! You have earned 10,000 XP! Child Bonus x2 XP!
You have levelled up! You are now Level 37 and 5 free stat points have been awarded.

For not the first time, Harry lamented the fact that there was no help option, menu option, or even a game command that would work. It hadn't taken him long to figure out he had a game system in his head, thanks to levelling Gamer Mind. He had tried hundreds of commands from different games that Dudley owned and none of them worked.

After the incident in the Reptile House at the zoo, Harry now knew why his system seemed out of whack. It was damaged. He had no clue what his actual stats were and there was no way to check. The only notices he ever received were adding to his stats when he did things and they never gave a total.

Harry didn't even know if levelling added to his stats, besides the 5 free points he received for every level. Those he never used, just because he had no clue where to put them or for what purpose. With the latest level, he had 180 free points and he didn't know where he should spend them. What if there was a stat he hadn't levelled yet and missed adding essential points to it, because it couldn't be levelled normally and needed the free points?

He also didn't know what he needed to level to the next level, so it was always a surprise when it happened. The whole situation was very frustrating if he thought about it, so he tried to not think about it too much. He had other things to do besides brood.

“Best not to mention this to anyone, Harry.” Hagrid said and took a small wrapped bundle from the vault and put it into his pocket.

“Sure, Hagrid.” Harry said and stole it as soon as they climbed back into the cart. He would look at it later to see what it was.

They rode the car back to the surface and Harry didn't gain any more free money. It wasn't until they were leaving the bank that he realized he could have stored silver sickles as well. He mentally shrugged and decided he could make an excuse later to make another vault visit. Not that he needed to. He had tons of money now and proved that he could rob the bank blind without even trying.

“Let's go and get your school things.” Hagrid said and led him over to the trunk shop.

Harry knew he had to maintain a facade to stop people from bugging him, so he bought the cheapest school trunk they had. The look on the shop owner's face as Harry carefully counted out the gold needed, as if he was having a difficult time with it, was quite funny to Harry.

“Do you know where they sell shoes, Hagrid?” Harry asked as Hagrid picked up the trunk. “My hate-filled muggle relatives never bought me any and I have to wear my cousin's cast-offs.”

Both Hagrid and the shop owner looked down to see a very worn pair of trainers that were barely held together with spello-tape, just like his glasses.

“I... ah... believe Madam Malkin's has what ya need, Harry.”

“Harry?” The shop owner asked and his eyes went to Harry's forehead. “My word, it really is you!”

Harry nodded and led Hagrid out of the shop. “Hagrid, why is everyone treating me like that?”

Hagrid looked uncomfortable. “Tha's not sumpthin' ta talk about with an empty stomach.” He said and nodded at the end of the alley. “Let's grab lunch and I'll tell ya while I have a pint or two.”

Harry nodded again and they went into the Leaky Cauldron to have lunch and Hagrid downed four pints of ale before he started to talk. He explained what had happened with his parents, why he was famous, what happened afterwards, the rumors of Voldemort still being around and waiting to come back, and then about the state of the wizarding world and how everyone just went on with their lives.

First automatic Quest completed! You have heard a brief history about the new world you have entered from someone that was actually there for most of it.
Rewards: Knowledge of the wizarding world, basic magic history, 1,000 XP. Child Bonus x2 XP.

For utilizing an unknown resource of information for personal gain, your Wisdom has increased by 1!

Well, that was easy. Harry thought.

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