105Revisited: 27.12.2021. Changed a few details. Fixed some typos and made some paragraphs smoother. Fixed the power scaling in the System and removed a few unnecessary parts.
Chapter 2. New Beginning
Charlus Potter was many things. Stubborn, intelligent, a loving father and husband, easily angered, and quite a powerful wizard and fighter back in his prime. But not once in his life, did he feel as weak as in this moment.
He didn't know how long he was asleep, but the last thing he remembered was fighting against a bunch of those bloody terrorists that attacked him and Dorea in Potter Manor after they brought down the wards. He intercepted Voldemort's followers so Dorea could prepare the trapping wards that would hopefully save them in time.
He would probably be able to defeat them if it wasn't for one important fact.
Demons.
Lured by the signs of fighting and the lack of wards around the manor, those damned creatures decided to join the fray. Charlus only encountered demons a few times in his life as he never really wanted to go into the whole Demon hunting business. At this one moment, he instantly regretted his decision.
Charlus might have been strong, but even he couldn't fight against both demons and Death Eaters at the same time. Of course, those cursed creatures attacked everything in their sight, but Voldemort's minions evidently wanted to finish their task so much that they didn't care about survival.
From there the room the entire manor was consumed in chaos and somewhere along the line, Charlus was too late to react to an incoming spell and his fight was finished. Or so he had thought as evidently, the spell wasn't lethal.
And now he awoke in what he recognized as one of the rooms in St. Mungos. He had been here enough times to recognize the building interior. Not really a fact he was proud of. Hopefully, if he was still alive then that meant that Dorea managed to activate the wards and destroy anything that wasn't supposed to be in their manor.
If only he could move a single part of his body. Charlus felt like all of his muscles were dead and that was something that didn't happen in his life before. Hopefully, a healer would finally come and explain what the hell was going on.
His pleas were answered almost instantly as not even a minute later, the door creaked open. Unfortunately, he couldn't even get a sound out of his throat and so he waited for the damned idiots to do something.
The healer finally entered his vision field and Charlus was glad when he saw a familiar face, even if there were some changes to it.
"So you really awoke Charlus huh?" the healer almost whispered. "I was beginning to lose faith. After so many years most would, but here you are among the living once again..."
Years? He couldn't mean that he fell into a coma. What about his family? What about the war?
Charlus needed some answers so he tried to at least release some kind of sound so his old friend would finally notice that he couldn't speak. Thankfully he managed to let out a small grunt and the healer quickly reacted.
"I apologize. I completely forgot..." the man waved his wand a few times and then send out a Patronus. "You see Charlus, due to your longer than a ten-year coma, your body is not in the best state. We tried to do as much as we could to help it, but not even magic could stop it from deteriorating after years. You will need to wait a few minutes before another healer comes with some potions that should at least help a bit. It will take time before you will be able to move again. For now, let me help you with the dry throat."
His friend then conjured a small cup and then filled it with water. Slowly he helped Charlus to drink it all and the Potter instantly felt better.
"W-what happened?" That was all that Charlus managed to stutter out.
"Too much Charlus, too much..." The healer answered, his voice never raising. "I wish that I could give you all the happy news, but unfortunately weren't any. Yes, the war against Voldemort was won, by your family nonetheless. But the cost for victory..."
"Tell me!" demanded Charlus with the last strength in his already weak voice.
The healer remained silent for a moment before sighing. "After the Aurors finally arrived at Potter Manor, they found it in ruins. Bodies of Death Eaters and still disappearing demons laid before the front gate. From what I heard, the inside was not better. They searched the manor, hoping that maybe you or Dorea survived, but in the end, they only found you, half-dead under the rubble."
"Dorea?" Charlus asked quietly, already expecting the answer as a few tears appeared in his eyes.
"I am really sorry to say that Charlus, but she was found dead in the main study. Or what remained of it... They took her body and your son organized the funeral. Meanwhile, you were taken to St. Mungos where we did all that we could to keep you alive. Even with all of the best healers here, we only managed to stabilize you."
Charlus didn't want to believe in what his friend said, but he knew that the man would never lie to him in such a situation. The Potter was quite broken now, but he needed to know what happened after.
Just as he wanted to ask his question, the doors opened again and another healer came in, carrying a few potions with her.
"Healer Decker, those are the potions you asked for. Is there anything else that you need?" Spoke a young female voice.
"No thank you, Emily, for now, it should be all. Please leave us alone," Decker answered as he took the potions from the woman. Emily did as she was told and a second later Charlus again heard the doors closing.
"Here you go Charlus. Those potions should help your body recover. It will probably take a month or two, but you are no longer a man in his prime so that should be expected. Now please just drink them and after that, I will answer the rest of your questions," Decker said and Charlus did as he was told.
"So what else do you want to know? The last potion should have helped with your voice. Just remember, I already told you that nothing good happened after you went into a coma."
Charlus remained silent while he gathered his thoughts. "You said that the war was won by my family. How?"
"Remembered that eh?" the healer shook his head. "Two years or so after you went into the coma, your son and his wife had a kid. Harry James Potter. I don't really know all of the details but a little bit after your grandson was born, Voldemort invaded their house."
Charlus froze, his heartbeat speeding up. Dorea's death already ruined him, but he didn't know if he could handle the loss of his own child.
"Again I am sorry Charlus, but neither James nor his wife survived." As the last word left Decker's mouth, Charlus finally broke down into tears, ignoring his friend. He lost his family, everything that was important to him. And here he was, an old man, barely alive and now the last member of his house.
"Charlus!" he heard his friend shout, but the Potter ignored him completely. "Charlus for fuck sake! Did you forget what I said? Yes, I know that their death hurts, but please listen to me."
"Why should I!?" Charlus tried to shout, only to fail miserably. "I lost everything. At least let me grieve."
"No, you didn't! You grandson, Harry, he is still alive and well, at least that's what Dumbledore says," Decker added.
Charlus head snapped to Decked at once. His grandson. He was still alive, but how?
The healer was quick to elaborate. "As I said, I don't have all the details. But according to what the Daily Prophet said a day after the attack, Harry somehow survived the killing curse and it backfired at Voldemort. The madman died and Harry was left with just a small scar."
My Grandson somehow defeated Voldemort... He is alive. He is alive! Charlus cried out internally as finally, some light appeared in his life. The loss of Dorea and his son would haunt him for the rest of his days, but at least now, he knew that he wasn't alone. He had a grandson to take care of.
"Where is he, Paul? Where is the last remnant of my family?" Chalus asked, his voice hard as steel.
"I don't know Charlus. You will need to contact Dumbledore to find out. He was the one who decided where Harry would go and he hasn't told anyone to keep the boy safe," explained Decker.
While Charlus could respect that, he couldn't help but wonder why Harry wasn't with his godparents. Where they dead? Charlus knew that his friend wouldn't know the answer to this question so he closed his eyes. "Thank you, Paul. I am glad that it was you who I saw first after I awoke."
The healer waved him off. "No problem old friend. I waited a long time for this day and I am glad to have you back. Now get some rest, if you want to get back to your grandson faster then you need to recover first."
Charlus gave the man a small smile and let the darkness consume him.
After Harry finally disappeared from his mindscape, he woke up to the same forest clearing with the sword lying next to him and the body of a disappearing demon. By now almost half of its body turned into smoke and Harry really didn't like how the process looked.
Then there was the sword. Harry was interested in older weaponry since he began getting dreams of Akiari fighting. He was by no means a specialist, but he knew some things about them.
The blade that laid before him was somewhat similar to a scimitar in appearance. Harry saw this kind of weapon in one of the movies that his uncle watched on TV. The single-edged blade had a curved handle and a blade that swept backward. After that, the similarities stopped. The weapon was mostly black in color with some lines of dark violet that went through the guard and the middle part of the blade. Apart from that the blade also possessed sharper edges around the hilt, a serrated blade, and decorative etchings[1].
It was almost half as long as Harry's whole body so he had no clue how he was supposed to wield the blade. Slowly, Harry took the weapon in his hands and was surprised that it was so light that he could raise it with one hand like it weighed nothing.
Harry speculated that the weapon was probably special in some way. If magic existed then why magical blades couldn't? Unfortunately, he still didn't have a clue how he would hide the weapon from everyone.
The moment the thought went through his mind a blue, transparent box appeared before him.
[Welcome to the Game System. Do you want to start the tutorial?]
YES/NO
"What?" Harry squeaked.
Taking a breath, Harry read the text one more time and was even more confused. Was it another part of magic or was he just special? Harry understood what game and tutorial meant as he saw Dudley play some games on the consoles that the boy got from his parents. But how a game system was related to real life?
Scowling, Harry decided to just ignore the impossibilities that began to appear in his life and just go with the flow. Besides Harry always wanted to play some games so there was another reason pushing him forward.
With this decision in mind, Harry tried to use his hand and click on the 'YES' button. Thankfully it worked and another larger blue window appeared.
[Welcome player to the System created by the Goddess Rigna to help you with your future adventures. The system possesses a wide variety of functions that will be explained throughout this tutorial.
The first thing for you to know is the commands. Either when the game asks you a question or you will want to use some of the functions you can either say or think the command. The System recommends using mental commands to avoid unnecessary reactions from other people as only you can see the system.]
Now let us introduce you to the numerous function of the system.
Please say/think 'Inventory' to proceed.]
"So what my life is now like a video game? Awesome!" Harry shouted, completely forgetting about the disappearing corpse of a demon next to him and the events that just happened a moment before.
So 'Inventory'? Harry thought and again the large box disappeared and in its place, a smaller one appeared. This time it was divided into smaller squares. Harry counted them slowly and saw that there were only ten squares.
[This is your inventory screen. You can store things and pull them out whenever you want. You can also equip clothes and items right from the inventory without the need to change. Currently, you can only put 10 unique items into your inventory. As you get stronger the limit will slowly rise.
When you are ready to continue, say/think 'Status']
"I can store things in there?" Harry frowned before his sight fell on his new sword. "Can I put you in there?"
And so Harry tried exactly that. The moment the sword touched one of the squares it disappeared. Instead, an image of the sword filled the small box. Wanting to test another thing, Harry did as the system told him and mentally ordered the weapon to appear in his hand. The blade did exactly that and Harry hid it again to continue with the tutorial with the command 'Status'.
Name: Harry James Potter
Race: Divine Akiari/?
Power: 250/250
Strength: E- | (0%)
Endurance: E- | (0%)
Agility: E | (0%)
Mind: E | (0%)
Magical Power: E+ | (0%)
Luck: Good
[This is your status screen. It contains all of the most important information that you will need during your new life. Think of any of those attributes to get further explanation of them.]
To Harry everything on this new screen was foreign. He might have watched some of his cousin's games, but not enough to know everything about them. Besides Harry was quite sure that none of the games that Dudley played, worked like this.
The name part was obvious even to him, but he wanted to know what exactly the 'Race' meant and why a question mark was there.
[Your current race. It can change throughout your life.
Your current race is a mix between a Divine Akiari and ?. Your Akiari race has the prefix of Divine as you are the successor of the Goddess Rigna. The second part of the race is for now hidden and will remain like that until you discover it.]
So Rigna didn't lie to me. Harry thought as his mind went to the moment when the Goddess told him about his transformation. He wanted to believe everything that Rigna said and now he at least had some sort of proof. Maybe it really wasn't a dream.
Dismissing his thoughts, Harry called out another piece of information. 'Power'.
[Power is your most important statistic. Not only does it calculate your overall strength, but it also acts as a health and mana bar in one. Without high enough Power, you might not be able to perform some of the stronger skills later on. The main difference between Power and health bar is that you won't die if your Power reaches zero. You will be exhausted and probably fall unconscious, but if you aren't be fatally wounded then you will recover after some time. You can also die from fatal attacks before your Power reaches zero. It doesn't make you invincible.
You can raise your Power by almost every action in your life. Some will just work faster. Even getting older grants you a boost to Power.]
Harry didn't understand fully what the system meant, but he knew that Power was very important and it would make him stronger overall. Next, he thought about the individual attributes, hoping to understand them better.
[Strength indicates how strong physically you are. This stat also impacts how much you can carry in your inventory.
Endurance indicates how tough your body is. The better rank the more punishment it will be able to take and the better your stamina will get. You also gain a small amount of resistance versus magic with higher rankings. This stat also impacts how much you can carry in your inventory.
Agility, how agile you are. This stat indicates your movement speed, ability to dodge, reaction time, and attack speed. This stat can also impact your aim with ranged weapons.
Mind. This one combined stat indicates your mental capabilities. With this attribute, you can think faster, memorize things better, and choose the best of available paths.
Magical Power indicates the overall power of your magic. With a higher ranking, you will be able to produce more magic and it will become more potent resulting in stronger results in some magic arts.
Luck, your overall luck. It affects your loot from enemies and possible events in your life.]
With that, the explanation finally finished and Harry had some time to think over everything he just read about.
Most of what he read was pretty easy to understand even for a boy as young as him, but Harry was quite sure that there was something that he missed and would probably need to find out on his own later. Besides, he also wanted to know what the ranking system meant.
[Ranking system of E, D, C, B, A, S indicates how far you progressed with different attributes or skills.
Power Levels:
E- | The weakest of beings/normal humans
E | Normal humans
E+ | The peak of normal human abilities. This rule does not apply to Mind and Magical Power. Effects may vary with Agility stat.
Rank D equals about 2 times human's peak | Rank C = 3x D+ | Rank B = 4x C+ | Rank A = 5x B+
You can train your stats by performing actions related to them. You can also gain an instant boost by completing quests or performing some rituals.
To proceed with the tutorial please say/think 'Perks'.]
Harry wanted an easy explanation and got something a bit too complicated for his already confused mind to handle. At least it did explain some things, even if the fact that his highest stat was only an E+ didn't make him too happy.
Still, Harry knew that he needed to go back to his relatives soon so he proceeded with the next command, 'Perks'.
Perks:
[Heir of a Goddess and ?:
Grants natural alignment towards ice and darkness elements. You can unlock an ability to no longer require a focus to use elemental magic and the simplest spells (can change with experience).
You understand and learn all things related to fighting 50% faster.
You are 10% more resistant to all kinds of attacks.
Due to the power of ? coursing through you, you can now absorb a small amount of Power from every defeated enemy. The amount of absorbed power depends on the power difference.]
[Divine Akiari:
Due to an event during your childhood, your race has been altered. With this change, you gain serval advantages.
Your senses become a lot sharper. Fighting is in your blood. You gain access to elemental magic. Upon your fourteenth birthday, you are allowed to go through a special ritual to ascend as a true Akiari and gain your wings. You gain the ability to unlock your soul creature. And what's probably the most important, your potential becomes unlimited.]
[This is your perk window. They are one of the most impactful parts of the System and can grant you abilities that no skill would ever offer. You can gain them via rare events during your life.
For the last part of the tutorial please say/think 'Skills'.]
Harry quickly read through his perks and wholly agreed with what the system told him. He only had two perks and they gave a lot of new abilities, even if the boy didn't understand half of them.
The thing that caught his attention was the part about wings. Harry always liked birds, they could fly whenever they wanted and be truly free. And somewhere, deep inside, Harry also wanted to possess such freedom.
Brought out from his thoughts by the slowly setting sun, Harry called out the next part of the tutorial.
Skills:
[Warrior's Mind (Passive) Mastery: Max
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Grants weak protection versus mind attacks.]
[Semi-Gamer's body (Passive) Mastery: Max
Grants a body that gives the user some abilities of a game character. After sleeping in a bed, it restores Power and cures all status effects. Warning: Your body can still get tired. Wounds will still appear on your body and you can still experience pain.]
[Sword mastery (Passive) Mastery: Novice
Your current mastery of handling a sword. The higher your mastery, the better your ability to fight with a sword will become. Your attacks will become more precise, faster, and more controlled.
This skill does not stop you from learning other styles of fighting, instead, it helps you learn them faster.
Special moves:]
[Observe (Active) Mastery: Max
Using this skill on any object or living being will give you a certain amount of information about them. The amount of information given depends on the power difference or the origin of the item.
Cost: 50 Power]
[Those are your current skills. You can gain more of them through certain actions and skill books.
That is all for the tutorial. You can still ask questions to the System later. Good luck with your adventure user.]
Harry quickly skimmed through all of his skills before he closed the blue window and began running out of the forest. On his way out Harry noticed that some things about him changed. He could run a bit faster, he still wasn't tired by the time he exited the park and most importantly all of his senses were a lot stronger.
His sight that was always pretty good, was even better now. He could see things more clearly and gained a weak night vision. His senses of smell and hearing were also stronger, but not to the point that it was uncomfortable. Overall Harry felt great.
It didn't take long for Harry to get back to Privet Drive and before his relatives could spot him, the boy entered his cupboard. He was tired from all of the events today and he needed some rest. Hopefully, when he would wake up tomorrow, the game system would still be there. There was still so much that Harry wanted to know about.
Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, was deep in thought as he sat in his office. It was not rare for him to get lost in thoughts, but this time something very important was on his mind.
This morning, the elderly wizard was informed that Charlus Potter, the last member of the family, apart from Harry, finally awoke from his coma. All in all, Albus was happy for the man even if they didn't always see eye to eye in the past. The problem was that with Charlus back, the man would probably ask for Harry to come back to him.
Now, Albus had nothing against it as Harry's place was with his family. But Dumbledore was not sure if the elder Potter would be able to give Harry the protection he needed. Charlus, like Dumbledore, was no longer in his prime and after the destruction of Potter Manor, he didn't really have a place to live that could keep both him and Harry safe.
Then there was the question of whether Charlus was in the right state of mind. The elder Potter lost almost all of his family and events like that could make or break a person.
For now, the boy was living with his muggle relatives behind very strong wards. While Dumbledore knew that there was a chance for someone to find Harry, it was a very small one.
That was why he didn't really know what to do next. He was sure that if Charlus went to Wizengamot after he recovered, they would make Dumbledore tell everyone where Harry was kept. No, Albus couldn't allow that. He had to go and meet with the elder Potter to find out what he wanted to do next. From there he could decide his next course of action.
Now Albus could just hope that Charlus was willing to work with him. Hopefully, the elder Potter would agree if it meant that Harry was safe. After all, family was always the most important part of the Potter house.
[1] Daedric sword from Skyrim but in black-dark violet theme.
For now, thank you all for reading and if you have any questions, please leave them in a review or PM.
Have a good day/night.