121 Chapter 118
Nick and Ellie encouraged Harry to let Hedwig out from wherever he kept her. When he opened his pocket and the beautiful white phoenix flew out with a trill, Ellie's face lit up.
The next few minutes were spent with Harry explaining to Nick how he'd created the pocket for Hedwig using modified spells and Ellie cooing over Hedwig, who seemed to be loving the attention.
"That is actually a brilliant idea! You built it when you were bored in the Hospital wing?" Nick asked, examining his pocket's see-through properties.
"Yeah" Harry said.
Lie Successful!
"You should definitely get into enchanting. This is a pretty solid job you did!" Nick complimented.
After a half hour of random chit chat about how Harry's school year had been and if he'd recovered from what had happened with the DADA teacher, Nick flopped onto the couch in the living room with a book and Ellie began showing Harry around the apartment, all across the two floors, going through the rules about responsible magic casting, since the Ministry couldn't detect magic being cast in wizarding areas.
"And this…is your room." Ellie said as she opened the final door upstairs, with the air of an artist taking pride in her work.
And the pride was not undeserved. The medium sized room, much larger than anything Privet Drive had, was painted in a Ravenclaw blue, with the occasional flick of bronze in the paint. A set of a study table and a chair made of fine mahogany was sitting along a wall and a shelf half full of books stood across another. A wardrobe stood to the side. The bed was a single bed and looked so comfortable that Harry wanted to fall asleep on it as soon as possible. And above the bed hung a still painting of a Ravenclaw Eagle.
Hedwig flapped her wings, flying into the room and perching herself on the gilded bird stand that stood in the corner of the room.
It looked as if the room was tailor-made for Harry. And it was.
"So? Do you like it" Ellie asked, grinning at Harry.
"Like it?" Harry exclaimed, his moderate distrust of the couple forgotten in the moment, "It's perfect!"
"Good" Ellie said, ruffling Harry's hair. "Now put your stuff away and get yourself and Hedwig downstairs for dinner."
After she left, Harry put away his books on the shelf and put all his clothes into the wardrobe. His mind was exploding with questions that he didn't have the means to answer right now.
"What do you reckon Hedwig? They don't seem too bad do they?"
A happy chirp was his reply.
"I think so too…but why would Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel of all people want my guardianship? Did Dumbledore put them up to it?"
"Harry! Food is ready!" came the voice of Ellie from the kitchen as he finally finished arranging his books on the bookshelf. Putting away his thoughts for later and deciding to focus on his empty stomach for now, Harry opened the door and ran downstairs, Hedwig gliding out behind him.
Harry fell into his bed that night a bit worried. It was the first time this day that he'd gotten a chance to contemplate his situation.
If the Flamels somehow had become his guardians; presumably with Dumbledore's blessings; then they were creating new identities. Identities that'd be solidified by them gaining custody of the single most famous and loved child in the entire country.
'But why?' he wondered 'Why would they need to take a new identity and get my custody if they don't have the Stone and are about to die?'
'Unless,' Harry's Gamer's mind helped him deduce, 'they do have the Stone. And they did the media hoax and this identity change to protect it. Dumbledore said that Voldemort is still out there, which means he'd try to come after the Stone. If he thought it destroyed and its maker dead, he'd leave the Stone alone.'
That made an obscene amount of sense.
But not everything that made sense was the truth. He needed to get the Flamels to spill.
But how?
He had no physical evidence to force them to tell the truth. If he called them out on their names, they'd simply claim coincidence. And Harry certainly wasn't going to reveal his game abilities to them.
The only way to force them to tell the truth...was to find the stone.
Harry hesitated, pausing that line of thought.
What if he found the Stone and then they just obliviated him? Would Gamer's Mind stop that? Could Gamer's Mind stop that?
It had held off the Obliviate from the Auror way back when he had stumbled upon Emmeline Vance and her team of Aurors near his school, but that could just have been the Auror screwing up…
That was something that needed to be answered. He needed to be sure.
And so, Harry quickly thought up of a small experiment. Pulling out a small piece of paper and a pen from his inventory, he wrote a small note to himself.
'Experiment failed - GM susceptible to Memory modifications.'
He scribbled a small doodle only he knew on the corner, as a proof of authenticity, and placed the note on his bedside table. If the obliviate worked, then he'd find the note and try to find some other way to get the Flamels to spill.
Placing his wandtip to his forehead and using Gamer's Mind to focus carefully on the last one minute, he squeezed his eyes shut and cast the spell. "Obliviate"
Harry's memories remained intact. A window popped up.
Memory spell attack averted
So Obliviate didn't work on him. Harry felt a lot better about his entire situation now.
The clock on the wall struck twelve, and gave a little chime.
Suddenly, a massive glowing green screen, as high and wide as the walls of the room, appeared in front of him, with massive words written on it making Harry topple back onto his bed in shock.
Ping!
Congratulations!
You have successfully lived through you your first year at Hoggy Warty Hogwarts! As a reward, take this!
Unlockable Feature #1 unlocked!
Location Bonuses
These are bonuses and boosts to certain stats, skills, perks or any other abilities that are given by being present in certain locations. These bonuses are temporary and will be removed after you leave the location. The Location bonus screen can be accessed via the command 'location bonus'
Harry stared at that for a second before smiling and waving it away. "Location Bonus" he said clearly and a window popped up.
Location Bonus: Apartment 206B
+50% HP regen
x2 learning speed for Healing related skills and Alchemical magic.
x3 learning speed for Non-conventional magic.
Yep. He was in the Flamel's apartment alright. The learning boosts would be great if he could get them to share their secret identity.
And to do that he'd have to find the stone.
Harry frowned, wondering where the stone could possibly be. Gringotts and Hogwarts were out, for obvious reasons. And Harry wasn't aware enough about the common wizarding world to know if there were safer places than Hogwarts. For all he knew, they could have chucked it into the Atlantic ocean.
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