29"RAVENCLAW!"
With that proclamation, the next 7 years of his life were decided. It certainly seemed that way at least. There were notifications from the Gamer System that Harry glanced at but upon seeing nothing time sensitive, he decided to shelve it for later.
All the observers were silent for a moment before the Ravenclaw table erupted in cheers and the other houses gave polite applause. Harry moved to sit next to the other first years, ending up next to a small blond boy named Anthony Goldstein and across from Sue. Giving her a smile, his attention is drawn back to the sorting as he continues to watch the results.
A nervous girl with short red hair named Lisa Turpin soon joined them, sitting on his right. He offered her a small smile as she looked towards him, and she returned it with a shy smile of her own.
Now that his own sorting was done, Harry found it easier to focus and tried to keep track of each person's name, appearance, and what house they were sorted into. He found it difficult to keep track of and figured he would learn them over the course of the school year anyway so it didn't matter too much. His own sorting made him too nervous to keep track of most of the people sorted before him as well, which happened to be the majority of the first-years given that it was alphabetical.
As the sorting finally ended and the headmaster said some nonsensical words, Harry immediately turned to the food and started eating. Despite not being starved for about a year, the Hogwarts food was far above anything he had ever seen. Fully intending to take advantage of the free food, he served generous portions of all kinds of dishes he had never heard of before. Despite his abundance of food, he did his best to eat with etiquette to avoid looking like a complete pig. As he finished up with his third serving of treacle tart, he washed down his food with a swig of his drink. Unfortunately for him, the drink was pumpkin juice, and he found himself struggling to not immediately spit it out. As he glared at his goblet, he was further embarrassed by Sue giggling at his actions.
"Laugh it up all you want, this juice is truly disgusting." Harry grumbled.
Sue simply burst out into even more giggles, and Harry found that he couldn't stay upset for long over such a simple thing.
It was then that the headmaster stood up and began his welcoming speech for the start of the new school year. He warned the students away from the forbidden forest, wished the students well for their classes, and then strangely mentioned that a painful death awaited any who ventured into a corridor on the third floor. After the foreboding message he simply sat back down and continued sipping from his goblet while turning to talk with the professor next to him.
"Is he serious?" A boy Harry thought was Terry Boot hesitantly questioned.
"Best to take it seriously even though it seems strange" One of the older students replied.
When it seemed that all the first years were done eating, the two Ravenclaw prefects introduced themselves as Robert Hilliard and Penelope Clearwater. They promptly gathered them all and took them to the Ravenclaw common room. On the way there they pointed out various points of intrigue and noted the portraits and statues on the way that could act as landmarks for them should the castle layout change. Apparently sometimes certain areas would go completely missing or swap around with other parts of the castle. When they finally made it to the Ravenclaw entrance, a door with a bronze eagle shaped knocker awaited them. One of the prefects knocked once, which then resulted in the knocker speaking, much to the surprise of all the first years.
"What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?" The eagle questioned.
"Silence!" Kevin Entwhistle immediately exclaimed.
The door swung open and the prefects nodded in approval towards the boy.
"Keep in mind that the riddles on the first day tend to be easier, later on in the school year some very difficult ones are asked. I myself have been stuck waiting for someone else to open it for me, so make sure to think about your answer before responding as each person only gets one try every hour." The male prefect spoke in an ominous tone, although Harry thought he detected mirth in his eyes.
Entering the room, Harry immediately noticed the blue and bronze color scheme decorating the entire circular room. Blue silks were draped around the walls, which in turn were lined with giant windows overlooking the mountains. The ceiling and floor were mirror images of one another, each displaying a starry deep blue sky. Bronze tables and chairs were plentiful, all found grouped in varying amounts. There were numerous portraits surrounding them, most of their occupants present and greeting the new arrivals with enthusiasm. Two doors were at the other end of the room, however what was between them was what every first year was staring at: a beautiful marble statue, likely depicting Rowena Ravenclaw herself.
"As you can see, the Ravenclaw room is excellent for studying while also providing a beautiful view of Hogwarts and the surrounding area. The statue there is our founder, Rowena Ravenclaw herself, and you WILL treat it with respect as all Ravenclaws do." Robert ended with a menacing stare.
Penelope then took over, bringing them towards the statue. "The door to the right leads to the dorms, all of which are marked for each year's boys and girls. The door on the left leads to the Ravenclaw library, it is very small compared to the Hogwarts library but has many texts by alumni that can only be found here. You will find that none of the books can leave our tower, and that damaging a book will result in severe punishment."
Harry then noticed one of the staff members approaching them, a very short man with large round glasses exuding cheerfulness and excitement. "Hello young ravens, I am your head of house Professor Flitwick and I would like to offer you a warm welcome as the newest members of our house. I am sure you are all eager to head off to bed so I will keep this short and sweet - much like myself!" He expressed in a slightly squeaky higher voice.
After a few of his peers gave some smiles at his words, the Professor continued "If you ever have trouble you find difficult to solve, do not hesitate to go to any available prefects as they will do their best to help you out. Similarly, I am quite busy but will always make time each day for students to seek me out in my office if the need arises. Please do not worry about bothering me and feel free to come by to ask questions or talk about anything you need to. I look forward to seeing each of you in my class and growing into fine wizards and witches. Goodnight!"
Harry was impressed with how the man was able to say everything in a single breath and was looking forward to learning in his class.
As he walked away, he was curious about the stats of a trained adult wizard and checked him with observe.
Filius Flitwick
[Charms Professor]
LV - 188
Harry couldn't help but let out a gasp. Fortunately all the students were moving towards the doors so no one noticed him looking strangely at their head of house as he walked away. Level 188 was absurdly high! He never would have thought anyone except for Voldemort would be that strong. He also couldn't see any information other than his name, title, and level. That meant that the gap in power between them was so high that nothing else was visible. Frantically, he used observe on Robert and one of his fellow first years.
Robert Hilliard
[Ravenclaw Prefect]
LV - 52
Terry Boot
Condition: Normal
[Ravenclaw Student]
LV - 4
HP - 170
MP - 160
STR - 9
VIT - 17
DEX - 15
INT - 35
WIS - 16
CHA - 6
LCK - 10
Robert was also much more powerful than he assumed, though not to the ridiculous degree that Professor Flitwick was. At least Terry Boot seemed to be where he expected all the first years to be, stronger than he was upon first becoming the Gamer but not quite his current strength.
Harry was interrupted from his thoughts by the rest of the 1st years heading towards the dorms where they all quickly found a bed to make their own. He was pleased to see that the curtains of the bed seemed to block off light, which would make late night reading easier to do without interruption.
Settling into bed, Harry then decided to look over everything he had gained so far.
Harry James Potter
Condition: Panicked
Title: [Lone Wizard] - When you are in close proximity to non-magicals: Temporary -5 Reputation and +5 Obedience with all.
Race - Human (Magical)
Level - 8
Health Points - 250
Magic Points - 440
Strength - 20
Vitality - 25
Dexterity - 33
Intelligence - 62
Wisdom - 44
Charisma - 17
Luck - 10
Harry knew his stats were being boosted by Child of Darkness at the moment, but they were still very impressive compared to Terry Boot, the only person his age he had compared to. Despite no longer being the weak boy being abused by his relatives, he was far from being a powerful wizard. He would have to become much stronger than his current rate if he wanted to be even comparable to others. He began to calm down from his panicked state and thought about his Gamer System and that he would finally be learning magic at a school dedicated to it. He should be safe here and won't always need his magical reserves to be nearly full to defend himself. With that realization, Harry resolved to practice spells as much as he could, along with his observe skill.
Harry then looked through other sections of his Gamer ability, starting with the skills tab:
Skills:
Boy Who Lived (Perk) - You defeated Lord Voldemort, ending his reign of terror in Britain. All light oriented magicals in Britain start with +20 Reputation.
Child of Darkness (Perk) - You were literally raised in a cupboard. Gain +5 to all stats when in darkness or tight spaces.
Muggle-baiter (Perk) - You've messed with muggles using magic, leaving them none the wiser. When using magic on or near muggles, they will find it much more difficult to figure out that you are the source of their problems.
Observe (Active Skill) - Observe the target, learning detailed information about them. If the target is significantly more powerful than the user, information provided is limited. Costs 10MP.
Physical Resistance (Passive skill) - You are accustomed to physical punishment and beatings throughout your childhood, as a result you are moderately resistant to physical damage and pain. All physical damage incurred is reduced by 20%.
Nothing new there, he still had all the same set of skills, though his malnourishment trait was thankfully gone now. Next up was equipment:
Harry Potter's Wand - The wand that chose you, made of holly with a phoenix feather core, said to share its core's phoenix donor with Lord Voldemort. +100% to INT and WIS while equipped.
Ravenclaw Robes - Clothing that signifies you as a Ravenclaw student. +5 to INT and WIS while equipped.
Harry was pleased to see that his robes also provided him with bonus stats, and that he could see them as potential equipment even when not wearing them. The last section to check was relationships:
Petunia Dursley: -85 Rep
Vernon Dursley: -60 Rep
Dudley Dursley: -40 Rep
Gregory Goyle: 0 Rep
Robert Hilliard: 0 Rep
Vincent Crabbe: 0 Rep
Draco Malfoy: 5 Rep
Lisa Turpin: 5 Rep
Alexandra Rosier: 10 Rep
Flora Carrow: 10 Rep
Hestia Carrow: 10 Rep
Sue Li: 10 Rep
Anthony Goldstein: 20 Rep
Penelope Clearwater: 20 Rep
Filius Flitwick: 25 Rep
Rubeus Hagrid: 30 Rep
That was a lot of reputation for seemingly no reason. The Boy Who Lived perk was much better than he thought it would be. Starting off with a higher reputation with so many people would be great for setting first impressions with them and forming stronger relationships later on. He could also use the reputation number to figure out how a person was aligned, though that may not prove to be very useful.
Now the only question he had was why he couldn't see Robert's stats. He understood Flitwick being so much stronger that Harry couldn't see his information, but Robert isn't that much more powerful than himself.
You can only see detailed stats on people within your level range or lower. Every 50 levels can be considered as a new tier. This also applies to items, with explanations being more detailed the higher your tier is.
Oh. Well then Robert was only just barely in the higher tier preventing Harry from seeing his stats. Interesting that observing items would also reveal more information if he was closer in level to them. Anything else you want to tell me about the Game System?
…If only it were that easy. Maybe more specific questions would have to be asked, as that seemed to be the only time he got a response. For now though, it was time to sleep for the first day tomorrow.
Author's Note: Faster new chapter than usual for once! Someone brought up that switching between 1st and 3rd person is weird to read and doesn't make a lot of sense so I tried to keep it in 1st person. I don't have experience in writing and I'm finding it hard to manage perspectives properly so apologies for the messy viewpoints.
I don't like adding huge stat sheets in every chapter so sorry if that's what some of you want. I will be adding them periodically throughout the fic, just not in every chapter (unless lots of people request it). Usually I will just include a specific part, such as Harry wondering about how Draco views him and then I would just only show Draco's rep.
Despite what it looks like, things will NOT be following canon exactly. There will be similarities of course but things are not as they seem…there will be rituals, blood sacrifice, mind arts, and a bunch of fun stuff like that. In what capacity these appear will remain to be seen. Anyway, I recommend reading Spells in Silence by Silently Watches, a fantastic fem Harry fic focused on magic much better than I could ever hope to write. Elden Ring is all I've been playing since it came out so I guess check it out? Almost everyone has probably heard great things about it and I have to agree. Once again I'll try to get a fast chapter out, keep up the reviews please - positive stuff makes me feel good and negative but constructive criticism helps me write better!