$2000 Computer Set-up

The car ride was short and Chris arrived at Madeline's house. While many would think that Madeline lived in a gigantic mansion with servants everywhere, that was far from the truth. It was a modest home that any middle class family would own with 2 floors, a pool, and a garage that fit two cars. When Chris went inside, it was as normal as it got with a wooden floor, family photos with cheap frames, and furniture that most middle class families would buy.

When he went inside, he saw Madeline's dad who smiled when he saw him.

"Hello Chris, I haven't seen you in a while. You didn't come for a while," Madeline's dad greeted with a hearty smile.

"Hello Mr. Porter," Chris greeted. "I'm sorry I haven't visited. I've been a bit... busy,"

"Oh no worries. I was only kidding. I know that you're busy. You're a high school senior. There are a lot of things to do," Mr. Porter said. "Well we're always glad to have you here. Think of yourself as family here,"

"Thank you," Chris said.

Chris smiled as he remembered the warmth of Mr. Porter who treated him as family. He even gave Chris a $25 dollar an hour part-time job as a janitor in one of his stores. As it was Mr. Porter was the one that gave him a job, Chris only worked three hours a day including weekends and the manager always sucked up to him even though he was only a janitor. Even though he gave some of the money to his parents and had to pay taxes, he was still able to save $30,000. Although Chris quit the job in his senior year, he was always grateful to Mr. Porter for giving him so much money.

'He reminds me of Father back in the Wizarding World," Chris thought.

"Come on Chris, you need to see this!" Madeline exclaimed as she excitedly pulled Chris upstairs.

"Wait Madeline, I'm coming. There's no need to pull me," Chris said.

They soon entered Madeline's room that was as big as two rooms. It looked like it was originally 2 rooms with the walls torn down to make it just 1. The room was girly with pink walls and stuffed animals placed here and there. The bed was a normal queen sized bed with pink blankets.

"Look at what I have on my desk!" Madeline said. When she pointed to her wooden desk, there was a large PC and monitor. Although Chris has had the best computer that was offered before, he could tell with a simple glance that the set-up Madeline had was top-notch back in 2005.

"AMD64, GTX7800, and everything you need to have the best gaming experience. I also have the best headphones and gaming mouse for the job," Madeline said.

"Oh those are pretty good specs," Chris said as he went and started the admire the set-up.

"What do mean 'pretty good'? Madeline asked with a sarcastic tone. "This is top of the line. I asked Dad to get this for me. He was reluctant, but this overall cost me $2000,"

'Oh boy. I spent over $10,000 on my gaming setup. If only a good gaming PC was this cheap in the future,' Chris thought as he remembered crying about the hole in his wallet after he had gotten his gaming PC. Although he had to eat fast food and cup ramen for a while, it was worth it.

"Well so you have a gaming PC. What are you going to play on it?" Chris asked.

"I don't know. That's what you'll have to help me with," Madeline said. "Well the computer was the surprise although you didn't really look that surprised,"

"I mean the computer is really nice," Chris said. "I mean other than something related to Harry Potter, have you seen me get surprised?"

"I guess not. Even when Kathie that really pretty girl confessed to you, you just said no which made her cry and run away. Come to think of it, didn't some guy try to bully you for making her cry?" Madeline asked as she chuckled thinking about that time.

"Yeah and I beat his ass," Chris said.

"That's an understatement. You humiliated him in front of all the kids and he transferred schools within the next month," Madeline said teasingly.

"Alright let's not do this whole history digging. Let's find a game that you can play," Chris said. Madeline turned the computer on. It turned on quickly and Chris was hit with Windows XP that he had not seen in decades.

'Oh boy have I not seen that in a while,' Chris thought as the Windows logo disappeared and Madeline opened up Internet Explorer.

"Alright so what should we play?" Madeline asked as she searched up games to play on her computer. "Oh World of Warcraft is pretty popular right now,"

"No!" Chris exclaimed. "Let's play something else..."

(Nothing against WOW players. I just don't know anything about WOW, but it was really popular at the time so I had to include it.)

"Sheesh alright," Madeline said. "How about Maplestory?"

"Huh... Alright. Let's go with that," Chris said. He had good memories of this game. When he had a bit of time, he would go to the PC Room near him and play some Maplestory. While he was not able to have much time playing it due to his part time job, he always enjoyed it when he did get to play it.

"This is my final surprise!" Madeline said as he opened up a drawer and took out a camera. "Tadah! I'm going to be a Youtuber!"

!

Chris started to remember this portion of his life. When Madeline wanted to become a Youtuber, she decided to play World of Warcraft. While her Youtube channel did alright, she quit Youtube a bit before it became one of the biggest games in the world. Although she regretted it a bit, Madeline always said to Chris that she would've quit anyways.

"Alright then let's play," Madeline said. She downloaded Maplestory and set up her camera.