Harry Potter: A Flight Into Games

Plot: I used to work at a local go karting track. After being reincarnated into an ancient pureblood family during the Marauders Era, I can safely say learning magic and all it has to offer is among my top priorities. SI/OC, Gamer.

Chapter One: The Silver Arrow

…

Working at an indoor go karting track in California was not what it was made out to be. I can compare it to working at a Chuck E. Cheese or fast food restaurant, if you let it get to you.

The finer points of it, or the parts I rather enjoy are the races I actually get into. I was never fast enough, my times weren't good enough. Everyone at the top of the track was faster, smarter, more agile, certainly more skilled. It's not that the karts were much better than each other, albeit a little, it was all the drivers without a doubt.

One day, I found myself no longer needing to worry about speed any longer.

I'm at the desk, clocked in, working like any other day. And it was truly dreadful.

As a 20 year old guy, I want little more than to make my way through community college. Play some video games, and enjoy myself after I get off work a few times a week with a few races.

However, stuck in the middle of an 8 hour shift, with nothing to do but look busy until the next two people come in and run a race all on my own. It's fine, until you realize time stops losing its meaning. It just means freedom.

It gets worse. I'm getting hungrier. So I thought you know, no one's gonna hear me say this anyway.

"I want to die." I muttered.

[Do you really want to die? Yes/No]

I looked around the karting track. It was completely empty. Everyone else working at the time was out of my eyesight.

It was eerie to say the least, a screen appearing out of nowhere asking me if I really wanted to die. Everyone was gone, and I wouldn't dare ask if I was seeing some really weird shit.

"No?" I muttered. "I just want to get the fuck outta here. And be faster, have more time I guess."

The window didn't react. I tried to look away and it followed me.

"Fuck off!" I said.

It stayed there.

Sighing I pressed [Yes]. Curious to see what happened. I mean, it's just some dumbass weird ass little screen, it's not going to-

…

I'm pretty sure I might actually be going crazy but I got turned into a small child. Or a midget...stuck in a really rich person's bedroom.

I looked around the room. Well I wasn't at work anymore, but I was actually starting to miss it because ironically at least it was familiar.

I walked to the mirror and didn't see the face I had known all my life. It was stranger, much younger of course, and I had very dark brown hair, almost black.

I was a very small child no older than 7, very well dressed and looking like I was in the 60s. Either I had smoked some crack before clocking into work or I had really gone crazy.

I touched my own face. My new face. Where was I? Who was I!?

The screen returned.

[Hello! And welcome to the Game!]

What!? Why? Go away!

The screen did not respond. So it only decided to respond to me a second ago and no it's not responsive to what I say or think.

Hello? Explain what is happening to me!

I sighed and tapped the screen.

[You have been reincarnated into Robert Pelham! You are now the Gamer in the Harry Potter universe!]

Great. Can I go home now to where things make sense?

Another window popped up.

[The menu screen can be brought up any time by thinking or saying 'menu.' To read further click here.]

Oh great, it's helpful. Somewhat.

[Your status tells you all your current stats and of course statuses, and your inventory contains all held items, the quests tab will hold all active or completed quests.]

[Menu

-Status

-Inventory

-Quests]

I clicked on status.

[Status:

Name: Robert Pelham

Age: 10

Level: 2 (12% to LV 3)

HP: 100/100

MP: 100/100

STR: 10

STA: 09

DEX: 16

INT: 15

WIS: 11

CHA: 10

LUK: 09

Skill Points: 0]

[Your starting stats indicate what your character is best at. When levelling up, skill points may be attributed to whichever stat is necessary, but certain skills will be learned quicker than what even the Gamer allows based on starting stats, and stat bonuses and increases from leveling increase quicker based on starting stats.

HP and MP are your health and mana points respectively, health is your life points and mana points are used when running, casting spells, or doing any exercise.

STR is the strength of your character, STA is the stamina, DEX is your dexterity or speed, INT your intelligence, WIS your wisdom or social skill, CHA your charisma or charm, and LUK is your luck stat.]

[Skills:

-Gamers Mind MAX: Ability to have the mind of a video game character, untouchable through mind magic or to cause stressful anxiety from fear or paranoia.

-Gamer's Body MAX: Ability to have the body of a video game character, sleep resets all HP and MP.

-Flying LV 47 (59%) - The use of enchanted objects to fly in multiple directions. A higher level allows the control of higher speeds.

-Observe LV 1: Tells you basic information by looking at an object, skill, or person, and telling you about it. Activated by looking and then willing the skill to show you its information.]

[Quests:

-Active:

The Broom Maker: Acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to save Pelham House from financial collapse in the wake of far better and newer brooms.

Success: +30 LVs, +700,000 Galleons

Failure: Eternal banishment and disownership from the Pelham Family

Time Limit: 17 Years]

I was surprised the luck stat wasn't higher based on how wealthy this kid was. Or, I was. I was about to wonder about this quest when a new window appeared.

[You have completed the introductory overview of the Gamer system! The Gamer power itself lets you learn faster and gives extraordinary abilities such as super speed and strength, and enhances the power and speed of all skills ranging from cooking and Alchemy to flying and magic.]

Ah magic. See I'm wondering why I was given something like this when I was born into what I am assuming was a rich wizarding family.

Let's see, it's the 60s or 70s probably, my family looked as wealthy as it got from the look of my bedroom, and I looked like I was wearing something straight out of a family photo you might find in Malfoy Manor.

Great, I was in all likelihood a pureblood family. The most needlessly racist and bigoted around. My father and mother might as well skip the pureblood only speech because I had it up to here with that nonsense.

I wasn't fond of the Weasleys, Hermione, or any character judged or talked about based on their "blood status" in the books or movies, nor did I hate them, and all the pureblood, half blood, mudblood was just a waste of time to me. I wasn't interested in it.

I'd say the point of being a wizard is just that. Being a wizard, you can manipulate anything into almost anything else. There are rules that cannot be passed such as creating human life out of magic, but still.

You can make a Ford Anglia fly if you're smart enough or enchant a castle powerful enough to survive over a thousand years of history without showing any age at all. Arthur Weasley wasn't the most talented wizard, respectable but still, and he could make a Muggle car fly.

I mean I couldn't care less if Salazar Slytherin or Godric Gryffindor hated each other because of their view on anything. They built a castle the entire wizarding world respected for a millennium, a castle with magic so well cast that not even Voldemort himself could destroy it.

I can't imagine what a feat that was. Uniting wizards across Britain who had studied magic since the dawn of time on their own, to come study it in a school. To be so well respected in the global wizarding community after creating Hogwarts that next to no one didn't revere the Four Founders as actual legends.

I respect that. Not some petty debate over whose someone's parents were.

Oh right. I'm ten years old now, no one respects what I think.

Someone knocked on my door. A maid, possibly?

"Robert, are you in there?" I heard a man's voice ask.

I shrugged. "Yes?"

A tall booming man with hair as dark as mine entered wearing a very sharp looking suit. He had a thick beard and stern look. "Come along. I have something to show you."

This Gamer thing seemed useful I guess, but I really had to thank it for telling me what this guy's name was as he had a small box floating over his head.

[Julius Pelham LV 68 - Broom Maker ]

Now I felt lucky. My favorite aspect of the Harry Potter universe was just that, improving speed and making things fly using magic.

"What do you have to show me?"

"Come along." he repeated without a glance at me.

This man gave me the impression he really didn't have the patience to tell me anything except what his "Father" needed him to do.

As I followed him quietly along the lavish hallway, I noticed the pictures along the wall were moving. They were of wizards and witches, all titled with different names.

They were portraits of sentient people. Titled "Elphias Pelham 1787"

Or "Diane Pelham 1859"

He led me to a room where he withdrew something I normally would've thought was nothing but a fancy looking stick otherwise. Clearly, it was a wand.

Julius tapped the doorknob and whispered beneath his breath before leading me inside. "When you're old enough I'll give you the password."

"Right." I was 20 before, now I'm ten thank you.

Inside the room was many brooms inside glass cases. I barely recognized any of them, except they were all titled with silver writing.

"Your grandfather took me here on my own tenth birthday. Same as yours. And he told me that broom making was all I must focus on. It is the reason for my graduation from Hogwarts, my entry into Experimentative Charms, and of course joining the family tradition."

"What brooms have we made?" I saw the look on his face, as if he was expecting me to say something. "...Father?"

"Don't be foolish now Robert." he said resting his hand on one of the display cases.

The Silver Arrow. I didn't know who made it, but it certainly wasn't this person. Or someone with the name Pelham.

"The Nimbus 1000 that was released this year, the Comet series. Our place as broom makers has faded." Julius sighed. "Every man in our family has brought wealth and respect to the Pelham family with a broom powerful enough to stun even our greatest critics. I haven't been able to make a broom as well made as the Arrow since I wed your mother. I, I need your help Robert."

I said the obvious. "I'm ten."

"Yes yes of course. Only when you reach Hogwarts. We need a design of our own, one that can be produced with the money our family has." Julius looked at me gravely. "If you don't achieve what we need. What our family needs. The consequences will be severe."

Huh. Putting the future of an entire pureblood family in a ten year old. Well, I mean, that does reek of desperation, but even if I was a bit older and about to head to Hogwarts that does show how dire this is.

So we were rich, very rich, possibly as rich as the Malfoy's but "fading". And only one broom could turn it all around?

Unless I make something better than the Firebolt, like a million times better. This man was going to be disappointed. I mean we already looked pretty rich, so this was about gaining wealth? More, enough to become as rich as possible?

Okay!? Why me!?

British people were just weird.

I looked around the room. Now this I respected indeed. There were broom designs dating back to 1723 as the labels said. Assuming this was no earlier than 1960, that's over two hundred years of broom making tradition.

"Are we famous?" I asked.

"Of course we are." Julius chuckled.

"But these newer broom making companies are better than us."

Julius nodded expecting a question to something he had just answered five seconds ago from someone of my apparent age.

"So how do we make any money?"

"Sharp." Julius chuckled. "We've had to start selling some of our old designs. Our more popular ones, our better ones. It's torn me apart to have done this, but you must do your best when you get to Hogwarts. Your marks must be your only priority. Friends, impressing your teachers, it all comes second."

"Couldn't you teach me how to make brooms?"

"I could teach you some things, yes." Julius said. "But the very foundations of broom making lie in most forms of magic. There's no better place to learn that than Hogwarts I'm afraid. I could teach you the charms and the craftsmanship, but I can't make you a wizard all on my own. At least, not as well as Dumbledore that is."

"So my house? My friends? Do they matter?"

"Your house must be either Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Those were mine and your mothers. And your friends don't matter, as long as they're of pure blood only that is."

I snorted, angering Julius for a moment. "I understand."

"Dinner is in two hours." Julius led me out of the room quickly locking it with a wave of his wand. "I'll be seeing you then." he said walking off before Apparating.

I registered the fact that all this wasn't just some really strange nightmare. This guy had just disappeared out of thin air to reappear somewhere else instantly.

Even though I would be eleven when I went to Hogwarts, the Gamer, at least, from what I gathered from what it told me, makes you so much better at everything, and lets you learn so quickly, that I should be able to make brooms in my first year at Hogwarts.

I mean. I could probably do anything.

Even though I'm ten, twenty mentally but ten to everyone here, I could tell this guy to get bent and then just do whatever I wanted.

I could do anything I wanted. I mean, if the Gamer truly did let me do almost anything like giving me super speed, then Dumbledore and Voldemort would both really want me on their side. They both wanted Severus Snape, and it took many years before he came into his own as a wizard.

I didn't even need to go to Hogwarts really. The only thing was, I knew almost nothing about magic, and I highly doubted a few books could compact seven years of schooling even with the Gamer.

I could probably alter the course of the entire First Wizarding War. Save who knows how many lives. But they were living breathing people now, not words on a page or actors on a screen, but it's not like I held their fate in my hands.

Ultimately, what I sought was the secrets to magic for sure, which lay far beyond what I saw in the books in films. Not necessarily discovering the source of magic by any means, but learning the secrets of this world and truly mastering all aspects of magic through the Gamer.

…

My mother, whoever she was, "was discussing business with some associates", so I had a pretty uncomfortable dinner with this Julius Pelham across a long dining table.

The second I finished eating a rather well cooked meal of veal and potatoes, Julius practically grabbed me by the arm and dragged me outside of the dining hall into the beautiful estate surrounding Pelham Manor.

It was nearly nightfall, and within seconds, Julius returned with a Silver Arrow, possibly the one in the display case but I didn't bother to ask.

I did use Observe on it however.

[Silver Arrow - LV 49 Racing Broom]

He placed it on the ground in front of me. "It's time for you to keep training your flying skills."

"But why-"

I saw the look on his face.

This couldn't be too hard right? Both the books and films implied some level of sentience.

"Up!"

The broom popped into my hand from the ground. I placed one leg over it and willed it into the air, starting to hover a few feet above the ground.

Still in complete control of it I flew off, and as if the broom had just had its accelerator hit, it flew up and forward a bit.

"There." Julius said. "Faster, round the grounds once and return here."

This old Silver Arrow packed a lot of speed and was very responsive. From above, Pelham Manor somehow appeared prettier than below. I was pretty far up, maybe about twenty feet above a three story tall mansion, but my previous fear of heights was gone.

Gamer's Mind was doing its work so I got to flying.

I looped around the manor multiple times, trying to understand just how the charm worked.

Accelerating and staying above the ground was easy enough, but how the broom did it was sort of a mystery. There was a charm that let it respond as if it was sentient to my movements and wills. Like what I wanted to do, the broom did.

Magic of course. My will transferred to the brooms. I expect spells to be the same.

The broom had the speed I need, I was just bringing it out through using the charm by willing it forward. Simple enough.

Now creating these charms was a whole other matter from understanding them, but these few loops around the manor helped.

When I returned to the ground Julius wasn't amused. "I said one lap. But I am satisfied with the speed you achieved in this flight."

"What was your first flight like?"

"Bed Robert. Now."

[You have leveled up flying! LV 47 - LV 48]

…

The next morning, I learned some pretty important details by reading the cover of Julius' copy of the Daily Prophet at the breakfast table.

It was March 3rd, 1970. I was born in the same month as James Potter as my birthday was yesterday, about twenty days or so from what I remembered.

This Wizarding War I listened to Julius mumble on about was difficult for me to get invested in.

Dumbledore cared about other people I think, but he was so closed about the immense amount of knowledge and how he went about that knowledge it bordered on negligence. Considering the circumstances I can give him a pass, but just barely because he really messed up here and there. Extremely flawed, but he tried his best.

And Voldemort was probably the exact opposite from the moral gray area Dumbledore occupied for me, just a mass murderer who had started to kill so often he could kill homeless people by the hundreds just to make an army of Inferi. And that was some of the tamer stuff he got up to.

For either of these two wizards to recruit me into fighting a war on their behalf wasn't gonna happen. I didn't like either of them, and their reasoning didn't reach me.

"Um. Father." I said. It still sounded awkward.

Julius flipped a page over in his copy of the Prophet. "Yes?" He sipped his morning tea.

"It was my birthday yesterday."

"Yes."

"And. You didn't get me anything."

"Yes," he said simply. "And what would you like?" he asked, as if he had the money to make it happen without a shred of doubt.

"The broomstick I used yesterday. Can I have it?"

Julius looked over his newspaper at me. "Wouldn't boys your age want a newer one?"

"Yes but. I liked it." I said honestly. "Until I can design my own."

"Pah!" Julius said. "Design your own. I couldn't design my own until I was fifteen. Even then it was a mess." his usually stubborn and cold gaze changed into a reminiscent one. "Well." his face changed. "It's yours regardless. It's a family heirloom, you do not want to discover what might happen if it breaks."

I left the breakfast table with a slight nod and walked off to wander the grounds of the manor.

They were truly beautiful and gave me time to think. The library I found was full of some very expensive books on magic and were helpful thanks to the Gamer, but without a wand I couldn't practice any of it yet.

I had to wait a few months before that happened.

A few months of flying, silence, and being stuck in this house with Britain's most distant and cold broom maker. From what I understood, Julius didn't bother trying to make friends with other pure blood families.

Not that I complained. They were so intermarried that they really should stop calling wizarding families "family trees" and more like a forest where each tree grows their branches together. I think every single major Harry Potter character was related in some way if they were pure bloods.

All I wanted to do was go to Diagon Alley and get a wand. Magic was begging to be learned, and with the Gamer I could learn and do so much. At least with the Gamer I could practice what I could, but for now, I was ten years old.

…

…

…