Professor McGonagall waited for Sally-Anne Perks to take her seat before calling the next name on her list. Pursing her lips slightly less than usual she called out "Potter, Harry."

As Harry stepped forward, students all around hall started whispering.

Taking a seat on the stool, Harry saw out towards the hall full of expectant faces, all leaning over each other trying to get a good look at him.

Suddenly everything was dark and a small voice spoke into his ear.

"Now that's interesting."

What's interesting? thought Harry.

"You are!"

You can hear my thoughts?!

The voice chuckled happily "Of course I can. Now, let me see, where I should put you. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"

Not Slytherin!

"Not Slytherin, eh? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head."

Just as the last word was spoken, Harry felt a sudden thrill shudder through him, and a lightness settled onto his mind.

I feel strange.

"Oh my," whispered the voice. "That really is very interesting."

Sorry, but really, what's interesting?

"You'll see soon enough, I'm sure."

Harry felt like he could see the mischievous smirk that he could almost definitely hear in that.

"With your talent, there can be no better place than…"

Not Slytherin!

"RAVENCLAW!"

Harry heard the hat shout the last word out to the whole hall. A little stunned, but thankful that he wasn't sorted into Slytherin, he took off the hat and gasped as he saw.

Floating above the heads of everyone he could see were words. He turned slightly to Professor McGonagall and opened his mouth to ask if this was normal before his eyes shot up to the words above her head, which read as follows:

Hogwarts Professor

LV? Minerva McGonagall

The students at the Ravenclaw table all began clapping loudly with a few cheers, followed closely behind by the rest of the hall.

"Mr. Potter, if you wouldn't mind, please make your way to your house's table," came the clearly impatient voice of McGonagall.

"Uh… right!" Harry finally stood up from the stool, replaced the hat and walked with wide eyes towards the Ravenclaw table.

Taking a seat next to the most recent Ravenclaw newcomer, he dazedly glanced around and tried to smile as the students around him congratulated him and introduced themselves.

"Thomas, Dean," McGonagall called out, as she continued the sorting.

"Welcome to Ravenclaw Harry," whispered a girl's voice next to him.

Turning to his side he smiled and glanced up briefly, confirming the name he heard briefly before his own was called out.

Hogwarts Student

LV4 Padma Patil

"Thank you, Padma," Harry whispered back. "By the way, do you see the words floating above everyone too?"

Padma scrunched her face slightly in confusion, "Words? I don't see any words," she said as she looked around and shook her head again in finality. "I see candles floating about, and the stars in the ceiling."

"Oh. Forget it." Harry felt himself become a little more concerned. This wasn't normal? He wondered if he could ask a professor about it, or maybe the school nurse.

"You're funny Harry," Padma smiled at him but then turned away slightly as she began paying attention to the rest of the sorting ceremony.

Harry decided that he would seek out a professor's opinion and glanced up at the high table for the first time since he was sorted.

At one end of the table sat Hagrid, who caught Harry's eye and gave him a grin and a thumb's up. Harry returned the gesture with a small wave and look across to the aged wizard seated in the center. Albus Dumbledore looked every bit like you would imagine a stereotypical wizard. Brightly coloured robes, long white beard, half-moon spectacles and pointy wizard hat. Dumbledore also caught Harry's eye and gave him a warm smile.

"Weasley, Ron," McGonagall called out, and Harry saw his first friend looking pale green as he made his way to the sorting hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted out the hat.

Harry clapped for Ron but felt a bit confused. He wasn't sure if Ron would want to be friends with him now that he was sorted into Ravenclaw. He watched Ron walk to the Gryffindor table and briefly their eyes met. Ron looked just as confused as Harry felt.

As 'Zabini, Blaise' was made a Slytherin, Harry clapped but couldn't stop himself from looking at all the names floating above the heads of those nearby.

Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Harry looked down for the first time at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked the other Ravenclaw students.

"Probably nothing," replied one.

"Definitely a riddle," claimed another.

"Are they some kind of animal?" asked Padma.

Before anyone else could provide their own theory the plates in front of them were suddenly piled up with food. The strong aromas made Harry's mouth water almost immediately.

Wasting no time, Harry started to dig into what he could easily claim as the most extravagant and delicious meal he had ever experienced.

"There's so much food!" he said to the others around him.

"I don't think I've ever seen so much food at once," replied a boy across from him.

Harry glanced up briefly at the name floating above him and saw:

Hogwarts Student

LV4 Terry Boot

"Me neither Terry," Harry replied with a wide happy smile.

"Oh! You know my name already," Terry said, looking very happy about this.

"Uh…" Harry realised two things just then. First of all, this meant that Terry couldn't see the names floating around either. Secondly, Harry realised that this way he wouldn't ever get anyone's name wrong.

"Well, yeah," Harry replied lamely and shrugged, but it seemed enough for Terry who just nodded with a smile and carried on eating.

Harry considered this ability of his to see people's names a bit more. It would probably be a bad idea to reveal he knew someone's name before they introduced themselves unless he had a plausible reason to already know it… like having heard it called out during the sorting ceremony.

Apart from being able to see their name, he could also see what he guessed was their job description, or something close to it.

Then there was this LV just before the name. Harry had no idea what that might mean. He looked around at the students close to him and saw they had numbers ranging from 4 all the way to 12. Harry looked a bit further up the table at the older students and with a squint was able to see numbers up to 26.

Harry considered that it might be to do with age, but the numbers didn't seem to match that exactly, as he had seen some clearly older students with lower numbers than some that were only a bit older than he was.

"Is it all true Harry? In the books?" came a voice beyond Padma.

Harry looked and saw a boy named Eddie Carmichael.

"What do you mean? What books?" replied Harry.

"You know, in all your books," Eddie raised his eyebrows at Harry.

"My books? The school textbooks?" Harry was trying to make sense of the question.

"What?" Eddie laughed, and so did some of the students who were listening. "In those books about where you go on adventures, and save the princess, and the rest."

Harry didn't reply immediately. He frowned and considered what Hagrid had told him before, and how everyone seemed to think he was famous. It made sense that there were probably books written about him.

"I don't know, I haven't read them. I didn't even know about them until you just mentioned them," Harry finally replied.

"That's weird," said Terry.

"You mean they aren't real?" asked Eddie.

"Clearly they're not real." said another student besides Eddie.

"Didn't you at least get some money for them Harry?" asked Padma.

Harry's eyes widened a little. "Why would I get money for someone's books?"

"Well, they're using your name, and likeness and all of that. It stands to reason that you'd get royalties," replied Eddie.

"Wow that's really bad!" exclaimed Terry.

"What's bad?" asked Harry, feeling a little too far out of his depth.

"Harry you should probably speak to Professor Flitwick about this," said Padma.

"OK… I guess so," said Harry, not really sure what he would be asking about.

"You could sue them and get really rich Harry," Terry informed him.

"I bet they've made a lot of money off those books." Eddie chimed in.

Seeing that Harry wasn't comfortable with this topic, Eddie decided to talk about something else.

"So, what do you think your favourite class is going to be?" he asked, looking around at all the new first years.

The conversation flowed easily, with Harry providing small contributions. The consensus that Charms was the best didn't really surprise Harry considering his own Head of House was the Charms Professor. Harry learned that Professor Snape who taught Potions was particularly difficult, but as long as you worked hard and didn't cause any trouble he would generally leave you be.

Harry looked up to the High Table once more and noticed Professor Snape looking at him with an odd look. Suddenly a blue rectangle appeared in front of Harry's eyes.

A hostile presence has been detected!

Harry gasped and jumped slightly, looking around to see if anyone else reacted. No one else seemed to look surprised.

Looking at the blue rectangle, Harry noticed that if he moved the direction he looked then it stayed in the same relative place of his vision.

Hesitantly, Harry reached out and poked at it, but his finger passed through without any resistance.

Go away! thought Harry and it vanished immediately. Staring forwards mutely, Harry wasn't sure what to think except relief that he didn't have a blue rectangle stuck in his eyes forever.

Wait, a hostile presence? From where? Was it when I looked at Professor Snape?

Harry looked back to the High Table but this time Snape was looking away, talking closely with a turban-wearing teacher beside him.

No hostile presence anymore?

Harry considered this again a bit further but was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore rising from his chair and clearing his throat.

"Just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

The hall was silent now.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Gryffindor table.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

Harry nodded, understanding that this made sense.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

Harry wondered briefly if he would enjoy playing Quidditch. The thought of being on a broom in the sky excited him.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death."

Harry raised his eyebrows at this and looked to those around him, who looked back at him with identical expressions.

"And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Harry looked about and noticed a couple of older students making their way towards the first years.

"First years, welcome again to Ravenclaw. If you would please follow me, I'll direct you towards the Ravenclaw Tower."

Harry glanced up and briefly noticed that this older boy was LV21 and had the title Hogwarts Prefect.

At the top of a spiral staircase on the fifth floor, Harry and his fellow first years were stopped before a door without a doorknob or keyhole, but a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

The prefect faced the small crowd with a serious visage.

"To enter the Ravenclaw Tower you must answer a riddle asked by the eagle knocker; if you answer incorrectly, you must wait for someone else who gets it right."

He raised the knocker and knocked it twice. A mellow feminine voice called out "What always comes, but never arrives?"

The prefect looked around at the first years, "Does anyone know the answer?"

A brown haired girl stepped forward.

Hogwarts Student

LV4 Lisa Turpin

"Tomorrow," she answered with what Harry thought was a lot of confidence.

"You may enter," replied the eagle, and the door swung open.

"Well done," said the prefect with a nod of approval.

The girls and the boys were separated into different corridors and Harry was led to the room he discovered he would be sharing with the other first-year Ravenclaw boys.

"Your trunks are at your beds. Make sure you sleep well. You're expected to excel in your studies here at Hogwarts. Ravenclaw House has a reputation to maintain."

Hearing this, Harry felt a little scared, but also somewhat thrilled. When he was younger he had always been made to underperform because otherwise his Aunt and Uncle would have been very unhappy with him outshining his cousin. Finally, he would be able to try his best. In fact, it was expected of him!

Harry introduced himself to his new dorm mates. He had already met Terry, but the new faces belonged to

Hogwarts Student

LV4 Michael Corner

and

Hogwarts Student

LV5 Anthony Goldstein

"Nice to meet you both. I hope we'll be friends," Harry said trying not to sound too forward.

"Of course!" replied Anthony with a happy smile.

"Sure," nodded Michael, him too with a smile.

Harry smiled back, feeling grateful that he was sorted into Ravenclaw with such nice people.

"But, as great as learning magic is going to be, I am going to miss my video games," said Terry with a sigh.

"Video games? What's that?" asked Anthony as he looked at Terry then at Harry and Michael in confusion.

"Oh, my cousin played a lot of those," supplied Harry.

"Yeah, video games are great!" Michael added.

"They're games that you play with a controller on a television," answered Terry to Anthony.

Anthony looked very confused and Harry wondered why.

"Oh you don't know about any of that do you?" Terry asked.

"I'm afraid I don't, but I definitely want to know," Anthony looked very curious.

Terry and Michael spent the next while explaining to Anthony what exactly video games; televisions; electricity; and more were. It took a while and they needed to cover a lot but it seemed that Anthony was beginning to understand.

"I definitely want to try this out."

Harry agreed that he would like to play too because he had only ever been able to watch his cousin play and even then not for long.

As the dorm mates got ready for bed, Harry went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and caught himself in the mirror. Pausing as he was about to begin brushing he could see in the reflection some words floating above his head in reverse.

Hogwarts Student

The Gamer

LV1 Harry Potter

What the…?

He was LV1? That was the lowest he'd seen of everyone! Was that good? Considering that older students generally had a higher number, he reasoned it probably was a bad thing to be lower.

What's with this description? The Gamer? Was that the reason he could see all of these things? Harry hadn't seen anyone else with two descriptions.

A gamer? THE gamer?

Harry considered what the implications of this might be and decided he didn't really know anything at all about this other than what he could see.

I wonder if this means I'm playing a game. Is there a game manual? Or instructions of some sort? I think I remember Dudley always skipping the tutorial.

As Harry thought that last word, a new blue rectangle appeared in his view.

Welcome to the tutorial! This will introduce a few basic concepts. There's plenty more to learn, but you can figure that out on your own!

Controls

Status

Skills

Harry read the words and closed his eyes before he shook his head vigorously. Opening his eyes once again he saw the blue rectangle remained.

"OK…" Harry whispered to himself, then looked back into the dorm room seeing his new friends sitting on their beds chatting still.

Controls thought Harry.

You can control the menus with your hands, voice or even your mind! Sometimes you can't do it every way, sometimes it's only one way. Figure it out.

Harry grimaced. Was this a big elaborate joke? But then, there was already too much that had been proven true to think this wasn't at least somewhat real. With another thought, the controls tutorial closed.

"Status" Harry whispered this time, testing out whether or not controlling with his voice worked too.

A larger blue rectangle formed this time. Bigger than any before and the information it contained was startling at first.

Name: Harry James Potter
Class: The Gamer
Title: Hogwarts Student
Level: 1
Experience 0/100
HP: 100/100
MP: 2000/2000

STR: 2
VIT: 5
DEX: 7
INT: 7
WIS: 6
LUK: 2

Points: 0
Money: 29G, 2S, 4K

Skills:

None

Deciding to read from top to bottom, Harry swallowed his nerves and pressed on.

His name appeared to be correct, even so far as including his middle name, which wasn't what appeared above his head. His 'Class' is 'The Gamer' apparently. The class made a bit of sense when Harry considered the rest of what he saw. If what he thought was happening was actually happening then he didn't know if he could believe it. Then again, wasn't magic an impossibility to him only a few months ago? What's to say that this isn't something that is just uncommon but still sort of normal?

Moving on, Harry saw his title and nodded absently, as it coincided with the rest of his school mates.

Level 1. So LV meant Level. Wait didn't that mean he was the lowest possible level? He was the only one he'd seen with such a low level too. Harry felt a bit annoyed by this and renewed his feelings of working his hardest in his studies. He assumed that he would gain levels if he studied and learned, considering most of the older students had higher levels and even those of his classmates were higher than his, if only a little.

Experience he thought about for a moment and remembered from the talk earlier about when Terry had mentioned leveling up your character and becoming stronger, and how he would attack enemies and complete quests to gain experience.

Suddenly a blue rectangle appeared above that of his status page.

Due to your thoughtfulness and insight you have gained 1 Wisdom!

Harry gasped again and felt a pleasant little lightness in his head as this message appeared. Dismissing the message with a thought he saw that his WIS now had number 7 beside it.

He was able to gain stats by actions! That was very interesting. Did it actually change anything though? Harry hadn't had any proof that the numbers on his screen were actually an accurate representation of himself so he didn't fully trust it.

Even knowing that it wasn't necessarily real, he wasn't able to control his imagination as he thought about becoming a more intelligent person quickly through this weird ability.

Looking back to his status page he wondered at the meaning of HP and MP.

I wonder if the tutorial can provide some more information about this? What is HP?

HP stands for Hit Points which is a representation of your health! Don't let it reach zero or you die!

Harry blanched at the writing. Death? Did he trust this thing? Was it wise to ignore it if it could somehow be true anyway? Harry decided to trust it for now, as he didn't want to test this particular claim.

Closing this message, Harry thought again. What is MP?

MP stands for Mana Points which is a representation of your magic and how much you can do before you get super tired.

The difference between the amount of HP and MP seemed to be very large to Harry but he didn't know if that really meant anything. There was so much he didn't know and he was very curious.

Harry consulted the tutorial about the rest of the words on the status page and felt he generally agreed with the numbers in terms of what they represented. He definitely didn't feel very strong, and he considered his luck to be pretty terrible.

Considering that all he had to do was think deeply about something meant he gained a point of wisdom, Harry was excited about the prospect of improving his other stats through similar means.

Lowering his eyes to money, he knew it was accurate because he had made sure to keep an accurate count of the amount he was given before.

Finally looking at skills, Harry frowned and wondered if this was true. He thought himself quite skilled at certain things, like cooking or gardening, but maybe they weren't there because it wasn't related to magic.

Realising that there was another part of the tutorial that he had yet to access, Harry closed the status screen and thought Skills.

Skills are gained by repetitive action and provide amazing bonuses! By the way, your skills before today don't count!

Harry wasn't sure what that meant. Did that mean that he suddenly wasn't able to cook or was it just that he needed to unlock it for the game to count it?

Closing the screen, Harry finally began brushing his teeth while considering the possibilities of this whole thing, if it turned out to be real.

After cleaning up Harry walked back into the dorm room and said goodnight to his new friends. Getting into the bed he couldn't believe how comfortable it was in comparison to his cupboard under the stairs. Within moments Harry was breathing more deeply, not truly realising how overwhelming today had been until just before sleep took him.