It had been almost a year since Harry first unlocked the power of the Game, yet he found that things could still surprise him. He had taken his new powers in stride and began using them in every aspect of his life. Being able to use magic did wonders for his health, as he was now able to eat healthy food regularly. This coupled with the amount of exploring he did meant that he was almost completely recovered and was beginning to grow out of the damaged state his body used to be in.
In his search for anything relating to magic, Harry had explored most of Surrey, and upon deciding that nothing of note would be found in his county he moved on to looking through London. Unfortunately he hadn't made much progress on that front, as it took quite some time to get to London, meaning that his opportunity to explore was mitigated by the travel time.
Although he had become increasingly independent after gaining his powers, he still wasn't confident enough to leave the Dursley household as being homeless was out of the question and he wasn't well versed enough in magic to be able to make a place for himself. He had considered other approaches of course, but due to his constant use of magic he found the Dursleys almost completely ignored him, meaning he could go out and explore and practice magic when isolated. His cupboard was now just the place he slept, with most of his time spent outside he didn't really have to worry about the Dursleys. Outside of pranks and some righteous retribution for his time spent being their slave, he was glad to just stay away from them as much as possible.
Back in the present, Harry simply stared at the stranger in front of him with a mixture of shock, awe, and confusion.
"Alrigh' there Harry?" asked the absolute giant of a man, in a tone that was at odds with his size.
As he stood there in shock, the giant asked, "Mind if I step inside for a cuppa? Got your letter in here somewhere, we can catch up and chat all the while."
Forcing himself out of his stupor, he nodded his head and managed to mumble "Er right, come in then."
Luckily the Durselys had gone out for the day taking Dudley to a zoo or some sort of park, he wasn't sure where exactly. As he finished making tea he took another look at the behemoth and proceeded to bring the whole teapot to the couch where the man just barely fit.
The giant was first to break the silence saying "Well first up there's your Hogwarts letter of course, you'll know all about Hogwarts now."
Harry in fact did not know about Hogwarts, but it seemed like the giant expected him to so he simply nodded along while accepting a letter taken from one of the giant's many pockets on his old coat.
The giant then followed up, "Well next up we'll be going to Diagon Alley to get your school supplies, might want to tell your uncle and aunt that you'll be heading out."
"Diagonally?" Harry asked in confusion.
"The only place in the country that'll have everything you need." The giant affirmed.
"Well then we best get going now, I'll leave a note for the Dursleys, they're out for the day." Harry easily lied.
After some more back and forth conversation with the giant, Harry had more and more questions with each answer he received. Eventually they left the house and Harry made a show of leaving a paper on the dining table in front of the giant but did not write anything on it as the man turned around and headed out.
While on the way to wherever this Diagonally was, Harry took note of this journey there and continued pelting the giant with questions. For some reason the man kept making assumptions about his knowledge, but Harry felt it was better to learn about what was going on by trying to piece together what the man was saying while expecting Harry to understand.
The man clearly wasn't human, and from what Harry knew from fiction was that the supernatural had different customs and culture that was bizarre to humans. Given the way the giant still hadn't mentioned his name, Harry figured there was a reason for it, after all there was no way the man had just forgotten to tell him right?
They eventually arrived in a dingy looking pub called the Leaky Cauldron, in which the giant took Harry to the back where they stopped in front of a brick wall. As the man turned around to face him, Harry tensed, prepared to flee or fight if this had turned out to be a trap. While he didn't think he could take the giant in a fight, he had grown significantly in the past year and was confident he'd be able to escape.
The giant then winked at him, tapped his umbrella in a pattern Harry didn't quite catch, and proceeded to step into the newly opened entrance.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley Harry." The man said with a grin, giving Harry a knowing look as his jaw dropped.
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The giant took him to a bank first, one that was run by scary little creatures called goblins, and Harry was shocked to find he was filthy rich. Apparently his family had quite a bit of money, luckily none of it was accessible to the Dursleys or they surely would have taken all of it. He requested the giant to give him the key he used for his vault, and the giant had given him a long look and told him to be responsible with it, but have fun, though Harry wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean.
Before leaving the bank however, Harry had to wait for the giant to retrieve some sort of package from a very deep vault, which Harry then used observe on but didn't gain too much information.
[Mysterious Package - Rare Item
This item seems to be of great importance and secrecy, and yet for some reason it was retrieved in front of you. Whatever it is, you will be involved with it in the future].
A cryptic warning, though not one of much use, this just adds another mystery to the magical world that seems to include a conspiracy involving himself. With nothing to do with the matter, it was best to shelve this issue along with all the other mysteries and save it for later.
Heading out of the bank with more money than he ever thought he'd have, Harry was feeling elated with his newfound wealth. Store after store was visited and Harry bought everything on his list, each purchase making him more and more fascinated with the world he had entered.
Unfortunately he didn't have as much time as he wanted to look through the bookstore, as after buying several texts to read on his own time, the giant told him they'd have to move on to buy a wand.
The wand shop owner Ollivander was very strange and dramatic but after many tries with wands and cryptic messages from the owner, he found himself a holly and phoenix feather wand. All the allusions the shop owner made to Dark Lord's and destiny were annoying, and yet again Harry found himself with more questions than answers.
His annoyance was short lived however, as the sensations he was getting from his wand took his attention. When he held the wand, Harry could feel something change in his magic, and could barely sense a feeling of yearning from the wand. It wanted to be used, to perform magic, to be useful to its owner. Harry could sense just a sliver of this feeling emanating from the wand, but it did not worry him, as he could also feel that the wand was his, and somehow he knew it only wanted to help him.
[Harry Potter's Wand
The wand that chose you, 11 inches long, made of holly, and possesses a phoenix feather core. +100% to INT and WIS while equipped.
Equipment Unlocked! View tab to see details.]
Looking at the tab simply showed him his equipment, which only consisted of his wand. It seemed as though it featured only magical items, though he would have to get more to be able to tell for certain. The boost in stats from the wand was ridiculously good, though he supposed it made sense as it seemed a magic wand was a core part of how wizards used their magic.
As they walked back towards the entrance, Harry noticed an interesting looking store along a sidestreet, but asking the giant to check it out led to him giving a warning to stay away from that area as Knockturn Alley was apparently dangerous to travel through. Harry resolved to come back another day and check out the place when he didn't have someone watching his every move.
After the had arrived back to his home, Harry bid the giant farewell and thanks, and slipped back into his cupboard to get started on reading his books.
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The things written inside were so fascinating! A whole magical world was out there, and apparently had been forever. Vampires, werewolves, goblins, fairies, dragons, pretty much every so-called fantasy race actually existed in the real world! While his books certainly answered many of his questions, they ended up giving him more and more as he learned about the world and about magic.
Ever since unlocking his Gamer ability Harry found that he needed less sleep at night, and thus he was able to read late into the night without consequence. Eventually all good things come to an end however, and Harry packed everything back into his newly bought trunk.
+1 INT
+1 WIS
Harry was surprised at the sudden message, not having expected to increase his stats so quickly. While levelling up seemed the best way to get stats as it increased almost all of his stats at once, he had found that performing tasks in the field of each stat could also increase them individually. In the past, after a great deal of studying over a period of weeks, Harry had increased his INT and WIS when he finished grasping new concepts or expanded his understanding of things. Similarly, upon reaching undetermined milestones in his physical exercise his STR and DEX would increase. These previous changes however, seemed to happen after a great deal of effort, and had never been gained from a single day's worth of effort. Harry figured the most likely cause of this rapid stat increase now was due to him learning about magic, and about completely new fields of study.
If a few hours of self-study was enough for an immediate boost of two stats, how much more powerful would he get by learning at Hogwarts? Harry grinned in anticipation of everything he could learn at school. Harry knew that eventually, he would be the strongest, then no one could force him to do anything. He would finally be free.
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The next day Harry found himself immediately setting out for Diagon Alley once more. Without the giant constantly following him, Harry would be able to look at what he was curious about at his own pace, and was free to visit the place the giant warned him off of, Knockturn Alley.
Harry wasn't stupid though, he knew that if the giant said it was dangerous then there was a likely a reason for it, but he figured that as long as he was alert he could run away from anything that threatened him.
First up he looked through all of the sections in Flourish and Blotts that interested him, buying almost twice as much as he had the first time around. He bought books that caught his attention and those that seemed to be further extensions of what he was learning, but tried to hold himself off of completely buying out the store by taking note of anything too advanced for him to understand currently and vowing to come back later for them.
With some amount of shock and disbelief, Harry noted there were several books with HIS name on them! Browsing through them made him shake in rage, these books were fictional stories about his supposed adventures as a child, all of course being complete lies. After taking a moment to calm down, Harry moved on to the counter, resolving to inquire more about this book series using his image in the future.
He winced at the amount of galleons he was spending and briefly considered trying to steal some to lighten the cost, but without knowing more about magical protections he was hesitant to try. Moving on, he glanced at the pet store, Magical Menagerie, but ultimately didn't see a reason to buy a pet. If he wanted one in the future he could always come back and get something that tickled his fancy.
After getting a few more odds and ends, Harry made his way to Knockturn Alley and began cautiously looking for places that intrigued him. The first place he entered was a tiny one, squeezed between two larger storefronts and was called Miss Diana's Cure-alls. He doubted the place could really cure anything, but if they were able to do something about his poor eyesight he would gladly pay for it. Besides, right now he was exploring a secret magical district, the whole point of it was to venture forth and check things out!
As he entered the shop, there was an old woman at the counter that was stacking jars on top of each other. As he walked forward expecting to start a conversation about glasses and eyesight, the woman immediately yelled out to him.
"Whaddya want!"
"Er I was just checking if you could help my eyesight."
"Hm nothing for a kid like you, you look like you could use nutrient potions though."
"Nutrient potions?"
"They'll fill you in a bit more, make you stop being a twig."
"Huh, alright then yes please."
Many galleons later, Harry left the store feeling overwhelmed yet hopeful. Ideally these potions would help finish his recovery from malnutrition, fixing his problem once and for all. With instructions to take them each morning for a week, it seemed too good to be true but he supposed they were magic potions after all.
Moving through the alley, Harry finds perhaps the greatest thing he wished to find, a bookstore. While Flourish and Blotts had more books than he could conceive of reading, Harry was curious to see what sort of books could be found within the shadier Knockturn Alley. If there were books here of dubious legality they were bound to have forbidden knowledge would be interesting.
Entering the shop with the simple name Rosier Reads, Harry could immediately tell this place was much more well off than the previous old shop he had bought his potions from. The area was much larger than expected, and seemed to be bigger on the inside than the outside building suggested. The store was about 3 or 4 times larger than Flourish and Blotts, and the books were arranged a bit more orderly due to less space constraints.
As Harry walked inwards, he noticed that there were several individuals within the store this time, a few adults here and there as well as two girls who were clearly there together. Coming to a random section, Harry looked at the first book that caught his eye and saw the title: Quidditch Through the Ages. Reading the intro of the book talked about the history and prestige of apparently the magical world's most popular sport, quidditch. It was played on flying broomsticks and involved a bizarre set of rules and customs that Harry was confused by and so he shelved the book once more. He did recall seeing a broomstick in a storefront as he passed, but didn't think much of it. There was a complete overload of information after all, and paying attention to a broom of all things did not seem prudent.
After going through two other books, Harry concluded that this section must be dedicated to Quidditch, and decided to move somewhere else.
As Harry checked section after section and went through dozens of books, he had taken note of some to purchase when he was finished. Each seemed to be more in depth information for beginners to several disciplines of magic, all which seemed to be absent from Flourish and Blotts.
As time passed, Harry realized the store was now empty save for himself and the two girls that had been here when he first entered. They appeared to be sisters, both sharing a neat refined hairstyle with brown hair immaculately brushed. Both of them sharing heavy-lidded eyes were another clue as to their obvious familial connection. The younger one seemed to be several years younger than himself, perhaps 8 or 9, with the older appearing to be around 17. As Harry studied them, the older of the two made eye contact with him and then turned to the younger and sent her away to … behind the counter and into a back room?
The older girl then approached him and said in a smooth voice "Hello there, I am Alexandra Rosier, might I inquire what your name is?"
Harry decided to respond honestly and replied "I am Harry Potter."
It seemed as though she had expected that answer as she only nodded and then said, "Well then Potter, would you mind having a chat with me?"