48 Chapter 48

After the change, Harry found it far easier to interpret her various croons, hisses, squawks, and screeches and read her current moods through her body language. He quickly noticed that she had no trouble understanding him no matter which language he spoke and that she was intimately aware of his health and emotions. Aside from being an emotional barometer and a loyal companion, he also discovered that Hedwig could turn herself invisible using a chameleon effect that helped her to blend in with her surroundings and that she could detect and pinpoint others hiding under invisibility spells (both of which were handy abilities as it meant he never had to leave her behind no matter where he went and that no one could sneak up on him under cover of a spell so long as she was with him – the latter something that Dumbledore seemed particularly fond of trying to do).

If not for Hedwig's presence, Harry suspected he'd have broken under the stress and grief shortly after being fully immersed in the day to day life of being a Student of Magic.

His classes didn't really help as while magic itself was an interesting concept, it just couldn't compare to the world of Aincrad. The only classes he showed the least bit of interest in were Herbology, Potions, and Flying because all three were more hands on. The last class he'd actually mastered upon his first flight on the broom which had earned him a spot as Seeker on his House's Quidditch team and saw several of the NPCs in his age group labeling him a natural flier. Two days later, he'd received a broom via owl delivery and Harry began to suspect that someone was trying to distract him from his desire to leave the game by offering up pleasurable distractions; that thought almost ruined the little bit of enjoyment he'd gotten from the sense of freedom he'd gained while on a broom.

Despite knowing that someone was trying to make him forget that he was trapped in another game, Harry continued to take pleasure in flying; especially when he flew alongside Hedwig and could just fly instead of train. He even enjoyed his first Quidditch game against Slytherin, though he could have done without the opposite team's Beaters trying to kill him with the stupid flying balls; the two of them had kept trying to make the bludgers smack him in the head or take his broom out. Harry had been using his Listening Skills out of habit at the time though and managed to move at the last second each time because of the faint whistling noise the bludgers made as they speed through the air. That was how he found the snitch as well, the soft fluttering of wings just loud enough to catch his attention when it flew within twenty yards of him.

The rest of the classes seemed rather useless in his mind, though he was willing to admit that some of the hexes, jinxes, and charms they learned could be useful when used in combination with his traps. He made certain to put in the effort to learn the Skills they were teaching regardless of his personal opinions though; if only because he feared he'd forever be trapped in this prison game for the rest of his life if he didn't. If the NPC staff noticed his disinterest, they said nothing to him about it; that didn't stop him from noticing the looks of pity and concern that most of them sent his way when they thought he wasn't looking, though.

His research on the game had gone much better, his main source (aside from the school's vast library) was the school's groundskeeper; Rubeus Hagrid. The man was a veritable font on the various monsters and creatures that populated the game and he readily shared that information with Harry in exchange for being allowed to study Hedwig (who didn't mind the extra attention). Hagrid, as the man insisted Harry call him, absolutely adored Hedwig and always had a live treat on hand for the occamy when Harry visited him.

Harry had actually impressed the man with his desire to learn more about wyverns and dragons in his quest to find out whether or not occamies were related to any of the greater and lesser wurms or possibly one of the hot or cold blooded serpents. (Most dragons fell into the hot-blooded serpent category with sea dragons, also called sea serpents, making up the majority of cold-blooded serpents and wyverns making up the majority of the greater and lesser wurms – all of which were also cold-blooded.)

Hagrid was also the only adult NPC in the game that didn't try to force Harry to accept the game as reality which meant Harry willingly continued to seek the man out for the information he provided. Just the fact that Harry was willing to listen to the man (so long as he wasn't trying to fill Harry's head with what Harry believed were false tales of his parents – something the man had only attempted once when Harry first met him) meant that the gentle giant of a man welcomed the stunted eleven year old into his house no matter what kind of mood Harry was in (the default of which tended to fluctuate between irritated, apathetic, and depressed).

At the same time, it gave the other adult characters a false sense of security; they firmly believed that Hagrid would eventually help Harry to realize that he wasn't trapped in some kind of game.

A soft crooning pulled Harry from his introspection and he smiled weakly as Hedwig's scarlet and silver crested head appeared in his line of sight. Allowing his familiar's wordless lullaby to sooth his troubled emotions, Harry snuggled closer to the slightly chilly occamy (the feathered reptilian creature cold-blooded like most serpents – most dragons not withstanding) and let sleep claim him.

Friday, December 25, 2021 7:05 AM

Harry woke slowly and reluctantly the next morning. When he finally opened his eyes, he was greeted with a small pile of gaily wrapped presents stacked neatly in front of his face. His mood immediately plummeted at the reminder that he was trapped in another game, alone, and that all of his friends were either dead or back in the world of the living.

A white hot lance of pure rage rushed through Harry over the thought that the NPCs believed they could buy him with gifts and he had to fight the unreasonable urge to burn the entire lot by throwing them into the fire. There was a small part of him well aware that the game might have supplied him with a new tool crucial to completing his First Year Quest in the guise of a gift. Once the destructive urge passed, Harry sat up slowly and stared at the presents as if they were a nest of Vicious Vipers just waiting for him to turn his back before they attacked.

Hedwig curling up on his lap and wrapping her tail half way around his thigh helped him to calm down even further and he turned his back on the unexpected and unwanted gifts and lavished attention on the occamy instead. He was joined an hour later by the four redheaded Weasleys, two of which Harry knew through the Gryffindor Quidditch Team as they played as the team's two Beaters, and Hedwig shimmered out of sight as she always did when the youngest Weasley appeared; the boy did not like the occamy because she always stared intently at the boy's pet rat (the boy carried the rat with him most everywhere).

"Aren't you going to open your presents, Harry?" Ron, the youngest Weasley and one of Harry's four roommates, practically demanded as he noted the small pile of untouched gifts sitting behind Harry and Harry barely suppressed a grimace over being called by his first name; the eleven year old preferred to be addressed by his middle name after the two years he'd been known as James inside of SAO.

"Come on, James, there should be a little something in there from us," Fred encouraged; Harry knew it was Fred because Fred's voice was slightly deeper than George's which Harry only knew thanks to his Listening Skill.

"We promise it's not a prank…" George added with a grin.

"Well it's not a prank that will hit you at least," Fred interrupted as he smirked back at his twin.

Harry heaved a mental sigh before he reluctantly pulled the pile of presents closer and shifted through them until he found the small box with the tag signed by the twins (if only to avoid said twins pranking him for ignoring them for a second day in a row). He opened it up to find several thin, fleshy colored strips of what looked like leather. Knowing the twins liked playing pranks far more than Harry did and didn't care who got caught in them, Harry carefully lifted out a single strip and clinically studied it before he glanced up at the twins and arched a single eyebrow in question.

"We call it a Lip Trap," George answered as his grin grew wider.

"It was inspired by that prank you used on that seventh year Ravenclaw at the end of last month," Fred continued.

"You remember the one; he followed you around for two hours straight…"

"…trying to get you to answer his questions…"

"…until you got fed up with him…"

"…and gagged him and strung upside down by his feet…

"…with that one rope trick you like to use."

"Anyway, all you have to do…"

"…is flick one of the strips at your target…"

"…and it will latch onto the target's mouth…" Fred gleefully revealed.

"…and seal the target's mouth closed for an hour," George finished with an unholy smirk on his face.

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