The third reason was the reason why he was so confused lately. For the past week, his Aunt and Uncle had been extra nice to them on their vacation in America. They fed him properly, and even let him stand close when they went out.
Even his cousin Dudley was nicer, though, not by much. It was confusing, and even a bit scary. He had no idea why the sudden change had occurred, but he had a bad feeling.
This bad feeling had only doubled when the four had stopped at the base of a large mountain for a picnic. As the 8 year old nibbled on a sandwich, his Aunt kept giving him almost sad looks, and had even began wrapping some food in a small pouch before his Uncle stopped her.
Uncle Vernon suddenly stomped up to Harry, grabbed him by the collar and lifted him in the air.
"MY family will be heading off now. You, stay here. We've had enough of your freakishness. That little stunt you pulled two weeks ago was the last straw! We're leaving you here, and we better not see you again." His Uncle growled.
Harry's eyes widened. Two weeks earlier he had gotten a shock when his pinkie finger had suddenly seemed to have lost all of it's skin and turned to bone. Luckily, it had gone back to normal by the end of the day, but the damage had been done when Aunt Petunia saw it.
"Vernon dear… are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Harry looked at his Aunt as she spoke. She seemed nervous, and hesitant. He looked at her with pleading eyes, begging her to stop Vernon.
"Of course it is Pet! This boy has been nothing but trouble!" Vernon dropped Harry to the ground and ushered his wife and son back to the car, taking their things with them, and drove off. Leaving poor Harry all alone.
Frisk wasn't sure what to do anymore. They'd reset so many times in the past, trying to get the perfect ending. However, even when they thought they'd gotten it, the world had reset on it's own. At one point, they'd even killed everyone in their path, much to Chara's, the spirit that seemed to have attached to them, delight. They'd abandoned the route however when they faced Sans, unable to stand their own guilt anymore.
They sat on the patch of flowers that they fell onto in the beginning, thinking through what the should do this time. Chara was floating near them, staring.
"You could always try that 'kill everyone' route again. Go all the way through with it." The ghost suggested.
"No… I highly doubt that's the right way." They replied, glaring.
"Well- Do you hear something?" The ghost looked up, prompting Frisk to do the same. The two saw a small figure falling quickly towards them, a scream echoing through the cave.
Frisk easily moved away, letting the small figure crash down onto the flowers with a thump, watching as it's HP dropped down to 5/20.
"Well… that's new…" Frisk whispered.
Harry didn't know what was happening. As soon as he was left alone, he became scared. He wasn't sure what to do, so he began to walk. He walked and walked until he ended up tripping on a tree root, and falling into a hole he hadn't known was there.
The next thing he knew, he was staring up at another person, and his entire body hurt so badly from the already present injuries to the ones sustained from the fall.
"… you OK? Are… OK? Are you OK?" The person above him asked. He blinked a few times before sitting up slowly. His body was bruised and he was sure he had a broken arm.
"I… don't know." He mumbled, tears pooling in his eyes.
"That was a pretty bad fall… Can you stand?" The person stood and offered their hand. Harry timidly took it with his good arm, unsure if this was some kind of trick, but instead of getting upset they just helped him up.
"My name is Frisk. What's yours?" The person, Frisk, asked.
"I-I'm Harry… nice to meet you." He looked up at them, as they were almost a foot taller than him, though he was short for his age. He held his broken arm with the good one, trying not to move it too much.
"Nice to meet you too! Um… say, how old are you? I'm 10 by the way." Frisk said, looking proud that they were that age. Indeed they were, though, they felt so much older from all the timelines they'd been through.
"I-I'm 8…" Harry replied. Frisk was pretty surprised. Harry looked younger, at least 6. But, Frisk figured he was just short.
"Awesome! You're pretty strong for 8! You took that fall like a champ. So… do you want to come with me? We're both in the same situation… I fell down that hole too." Frisk explained, looking sheepish. They were a bit embarrassed about falling down that hole in the first place.
"O-Ok… thank you… um…" Harry paused, not sure what to address Frisk as. He couldn't tell if they were a girl or a boy.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm-I'm sorry if this is rude but… are you a girl or a boy?" Harry finally asked. He was nervous about asking, since with the Dursley's, he'd get a slap if he asked any kind of question. Truth be told, they'd slap him even if he didn't ask a question.
"Well… It changes. Sometimes I'm a boy and sometimes I'm a girl. So, instead of 'he' or 'she', just use 'they' instead." Frisk explained, with a patient smile on their face.
"I don't… get it." Harry felt bad for not understanding, how could someone be a girl sometimes but a boy other times?
"It's a bit complicated, but… the best way to explain it is, sometimes I feel like I'm a boy, and sometimes I feel like a girl. In any case, we should find a way out of here huh? We can talk about that later yes?" Frisk said, holding their hand out. Harry stared at it for a moment before taking the older child's hand,
The two walked out of the small area, and into a new one, where a certain flower was waiting.
"Howdy! I'm Flowey, Flowey the… Flower." Flowey had paused when he saw Harry. This was a new element, an unknown, which made this game all the more interesting. So, he decided to do his usual intro instead of just leaving right away like he'd been doing the past few resets.
"Hmm, you must be new to the Underground, Aren'tcha? Golly, someone ought to teach you how things work around here, I guess little ol' me will have to do! Ready, here we go!" Suddenly, the room went grayscale, and two, floating hearts appeared in front of them.
One was a bright red heart, while the other was considerably different. The second one was mostly white, however, there were parts of green poking out in some places, while a small bit was red. The most noticeable thing however, was that it was sideways.
"See those hearts! Those are your Souls! The very culmination of your being! Your Soul starts out weak, but can grow strong if it gains a lot of LV! What's LV stand for? Why LOVE of course! You want some love don'tcha?" Harry could only stare at the flower, once he snapped out of it, he looked at Frisk, who was biting their lip and staring at something below Harry.
He looked down and saw in front of, and a little below his Soul, was several boxes and lines of text.
Harry Potter LV: 1 HP: 5/20 He wasn't sure what the HP was. HP were his initials, was that what it stood for? He looked over and saw that Frisk had the same thing, only with "Chara" where his name would be. They also had the HP, so he figured it wasn't his name it stood for.
"Down here, LOVE is shared through, little… white… friendliness pellets." As Flowey talked, white pellets floated around him. "Get ready! Get as many as you can!"
The pellets flew towards him and Frisk, Frisk dodged out of the way, and so Harry did the same.
"Hey… guys, you missed… let's try it again." Flowey had an annoyed look on his face as more pellets formed.
"Just dodge them. Don't touch them." Frisk whispered to him. Harry nodded and did as he was told.
"Is this a joke? Are you brain dead? Run. Into. The. Bullets Friendliness Pellets!" Flowey threw more at them, which the two dodged. The flower suddenly got a furious look on his face.
"You know what's going on here. You just want to see me suffer." A circle of bullets formed around them, making Harry yell out and cling to Frisk. "DIE" The bullets came closer and closer but instead of killing the two of them, the bullets stopped and disappeared.
Flowey looked confused until a ball of flame came forward and knocked him away. A tall, goat looking creature walked in.
"What a terrible creature, torturing such poor, innocent youths. Do not be afraid children, I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins, I pass through this place everyday to see if anyone has fallen down." Toriel moved closer and knelt in front of them.
"And what is your names?" She asked.
"I'm Frisk, and this is Harry." Frisk said, nudging Harry gently. Harry peeked out from where he'd hid his face in Frisk's sweater, and waved.
"It is very nice to meet you both. Oh dear, Harry, you are quite injured, let me heal you." Toriel reached her hand out, making Harry flinch slightly, but when her hand touched his forehead, he calmed, and he felt the bruises on his body fade, and it became a bit easier to breathe.
"What… just happened?" Harry asked.
"I healed you my dear. I know quite a bit of healing magic." Toriel explained. At the word 'magic' Harry looked surprised.
"B-but magic isn't real is it? I-I mean… that's what I've always heard…" Harry exclaimed. Toriel laughed a bit.
"Of course it's real! She's not a person in a costume I don't think, so she's probably some kind of monster." Frisk had a big smile on their face as they spoke to Harry.
"Whoa…" Was all he could say.
"Now, let us move on my children, I will guide you through the Ruins." Toriel walked away from them, and Frisk led Harry by the hand after her.
Chara watched the three walk away with a curious look on his face. This had never happened before in the previous timelines, and he was quite interested. He quickly followed after them, floating a few feet behind Frisk.
Every so often, Harry would look behind him, then immediately look away. At one point he leaned up to Frisk and whispered in their ear, making Frisk look back as well. They only smiled at him.
"That's just a friend, he's not going to hurt you. Promise." They whispered back. Chara's eyes widened. Harry could see him? This was certainly surprising, and Chara was more than excited to see what was going to happen now.
The two children and one ghost followed Toriel into a large room, with a set of large stairs at the back of the room. In front of the stairs was glowing star like object. Harry approached it and tried to touch it, but nothing happened. When Frisk touched it however, it made a noise.
"What was that?" Harry asked them.
"That? Um… well, I'll explain later OK? Promise." Frisk rubbed the back of their head nervously. Harry looked at the ground, trying not to pout at the lack of explanation. Frisk grabbed his hand again, and led him after Toriel. Other children would have been a bit upset about being treated like the child they were, Harry felt comfortable and safe when Frisk held his hand.
Toriel led them into a room with several buttons, and explained that there were many puzzles like that in the Ruins. Harry was a little worried since he wasn't the best at puzzles but he was sure going to try.
Toriel then led them into a room where she said there were two switches they needed to press and that she'd labeled them. Harry was able to find the switches easily, since they weren't pretty obvious. Although he had some trouble reaching the switches, so Frisk had to press them.
The next room they went into had a dummy in it, where Toriel told them to talk to it. Once he and Frisk got close, the thing that happened with Flowey happened again. The room went grayscale again, making Harry whimper.
Instead of getting attacked this time Harry's heart floated above the buttons that were there before. They were labeled "Fight", "Act", "Item" and "Mercy". Toriel had told them to talk to it so Harry went into "Act" and pressed "Talk" and Frisk did the same. Toriel seemed proud.
"Very good! You are very good!" She praised, making Harry feel happiness bubble inside him. The next room was bigger, and the path was kind of weird. Once they turned a corner however, the world went weird and a frog was in front of them.
"Hey there! I don't even need to kiss you, because you're already a prince!" Frisk said, making Harry stare at them.
"Wh-what are you doing?" He asked. Frisk only smiled and pointed at the frog, who was blushing. Suddenly, the frog's name, Froggit, according to the text box, was yellow. Suddenly, Toriel appeared, glaring at Froggit, making him run off.
"That… was weird." Harry whispered, and Frisk nodded in agreement. The next puzzle they didn't have to do, since Toriel led the two through the maze of spikes. Harry had been paranoid that the spikes would come back up while they were walking on them, but relaxed when that wasn't the case.
They hadn't got two feet into the next room when Toriel said this:
"You both have done amazingly thus far… but I'm afraid I have a difficult task to ask of you. I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourselves. Forgive me for this." With that Toriel walked away.
Harry immediately began to panic. Why was Toriel leaving? Had she gotten tired of them? Of him? Frisk squeezed his hand and led him through the room. At the end of the room there was a pillar, and once they got to it, Toriel came out.
"Do not be afraid. It's just me, Toriel. I did not leave you. I was merely behind his pillar the whole time. However, there was an important reason for this exercise. I must go for a bit, and you will need to wait here. I will give you a cell phone so if you need anything, just let me know." Toriel handed the phone to Frisk, probably because they looked, and were, older. With that, Toriel left.
"Is… she gone forever? Did-did she leave us here?" Harry whimpered, tears in his eyes.
"What? No! She's not gone forever. Trust me. But, let's surprise her and leave, so that we can meet up quicker!" Frisk suggested.
"B-but won't she be mad?"
"I doubt it. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe little guy." Frisk said, comfortingly, and led Harry out of the room.