Saving Lives and Preparing to Attack

Wilford was an outsider all along.

He came from a world different than the one Harry was used to. That world was the more advanced version of this one, stripped from magic, and possibly more real. Given the fact that Harry's reality seemed to be a fiction created for entertainment. Which in itself was a big deal.

But all the possible existential crisis Harry might have felt was clouded by fury. It was maddening him now that he knew what his life was meant to be like. From the very first day, Wilford did all he could in order to replace his character. He made sure all the important people in his life avoided him, and all the possibilities of him achieving anything at all were nipped in the bud.

He was thorough, in a very cruel way. During the fourth year, seeing that Harry was taking interest in girls, Wilford decided to not to risk and poison Harry by messing with his potion during the class. Back then it was just a speculation on Harry's part, but now he had evidence in the form of Wilford's own memories of doing it.

And that, among many other despicable things he had done, was just because Wilford was horny and jealous. He couldn't risk any of the girls taking a liking in Harry. And he knew for a fact that some of them would. And there was also that Harry's existence and influence must have been diminished as much as possible so that Wilford could take his role.

Harry wondered if there was anything sacred at all in the guy's head. He searched for his values and principles and was utterly disappointed to find nothing profound in Wilford. He was driven by his desires and was ruthless in nature. He saw other men as rivals to beat, and women as items that he could possess. In a nutshell, a simple hairless monkey.

Though, Harry did find something interesting. The older version of Wilford seemed to care about one other person aside from himself. That was his future wife, Fleur Delacour.

The first time Wilford saw her, right before the Triwizard Tournament, he was instantly enamored. 'The other girls didn't quite hit the feels' is how he explains it to himself. But Harry had other guesses, like the fact that Fleur was partially a Veela, who possessed passive ability of seducing men. And given Wilford's superficial outlook on life, it was enough to make him fall in love.

Fleur, however, saw through him quite quickly. And was hard to approach. So Wilford used a reward from his magical interface (whatever that is) and forcefully made Fleur 'love' him. And being the bastard he is, he cheated on her after a month and continued doing so even after they married.

That was something Harry noted and was going to use to hurt Wilford in the future. Without hurting Fleur in the process, mind you.

Now that he had all the knowledge, Harry needed to find a way to deal with Wilford. Because even at this point, he was a foe to be reckoned with.

Harry already tried to destroy his soul, to no avail. And he wasn't sure a simple death would do either. Something was protecting him. The soul Harry's seen was weird. Even Tom never saw anything like that.

Harry closed his eyes and tried to take a look at his soul. It was still there, perfectly fine, as if the suicidal self-explosion never happened. And even a small fraction of Wilford's soul was there too, hanging awkwardly on Harry's soul.

At a closer examination Harry noticed that it did have strange properties to it. As if programmed to be the way it is. Slightly artificial even. There were constraints to magic present in Wilford's soul. It was obviously full of magical energy, but only some of it could be used. And according to the new memories it was because Wilford didn't meet the requirements to use a higher leveled spells.

Harry wondered if that also applied to him. He used advanced healing spell on himself and felt the refreshing effect, meaning that it worked just as intended. But just after casting it his vision was barraged by images of various errors. And even sentences weren't full. They were broken, ripped apart, barely coherent. As if parts of it were missing.

It subsided after just a second and Harry cast another spell to see what it was. And then another one and another one, till the messages stopped appearing.

The messages stated that he didn't meet the requirements to use the spell but the spell still worked, meaning that there actually were constraints on magic. But those constraints didn't work when it came to Harry. That was a good thing. Now he had some kind of an advantage over Wilford.

"What are you doing?" Harry heard a boy across from him asking, pulling him out of his thoughts, "we are supposed to look at each other's cups."

Harry recognized the boy. It was Blaise Zabini. His former classmate from Slytherin.

Harry was sorted into Slytherin after being persuaded that it was a better house by Wilford. A decision Harry regretted many times over the years. He returned back to his third year in Hogwarts, so there was nothing he could do about this particular fact.

But it was still a good thing. At present time nothing really horrible and irreversible happened. Harry wasn't humiliated in front of everyone yet and was treated as a normal 13 year old.

"Sorry." Harry put his wand back in holster and turned his attention to the class.

It was a Divination Class which was taught by Professor Trelawney. He focused on his cup and took a book to find out what lay in Blaise's future.

He saw a sun and a cross, which meant 'happiness' and 'trials and suffering' and Blaise saw a falcon in Harry's cup, which meant 'a deadly enemy'.

Soon after that the class was dismissed and it was time to meet Hagrid again. Probably the only person he was eager to meet. As Hagrid was sacked after the Hippogriff incident, which was hard to solve unless there was an overpowered artifact like the time-turner which apparently existed in the books but didn't exist here in the 'real world'. And Wilford did nothing to save Hagrid and the Buckbeak (Hippogriff's name).

So Harry decided to make sure nothing happens this time.

He strolled through the hallways of Hogwarts alone, feeling nostalgic and nervous for some reason. After he left the building he headed to the grounds where Care of Magical Creatures class was about to take place.

Harry greeted Hagrid in a warm hug.

"Alright now Harry, join the others." Hagrid gently directed Harry to the crowd that was forming.

After everyone had gathered they went further into the forest and lined up in front of the Hippogriff.

"Say hello to Buckbeak." Hagrid announced solemnly.

After giving a small warning, he asked if anyone wanted to greet Buckbeak first. And exactly like in the past, Wilford Silverthorn (in the arse) stepped forward.

He looked as dignified and handsome as always. It turns out that it was a result of continuously completing quests and drinking a potion that makes him more handsome. Aside from that there were also other potions that could make him physically stronger, or a more powerful wizard. And the effects were permanent. Those potions raised his 'stats'. And at this point it was obvious that he drunk great many of them.

"Wilford, good come on." Hagrid beckoned, "Be polite, keep your distance. Give him a nice bow and see if he bows back." He instructed.

Wilford did as he was told, taking a couple of slow steps, then bowing down and waiting for Buckbeak's response. In the end Buckbeak bowed down and recognized Wilford's presence. The latter approached the Hippogriff and patted its beak.

Harry heard a round of applause and even shrieks from some of the girls.

"Well done, Wilford. Alright, now who wants to be the next?" Hagrid asked, and Harry could see that Wilford wasn't quite content for some reason.

"Can't I ride it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ride it? Hoh, I think it's too early for that." Hagrid patted his belly, "Come on now, return to your classmates."

Right after he said that, Harry silently cast a protective spell on Buckbeak. It wasn't exactly ON Buckbeak, but rather right next to him. Because Hippogriff most likely would have noticed.

Wilford put his hands in his robe and made a small motion. He cast a curse. Which was absorbed by the protective spell.

In the previous timeline, Malfoy and several other people, were badly injured because Hippogriff went rampant. However hard Hagrid tried to convince everyone that it wasn't usual for Buckbeak to act like that, in the end the creature was sentenced to death and Hagrid was sacked. And all of that happened because Wilford had a foul mood and thought it would be funny if Malfoy died like that.

Instead, as Malfoy was approaching Buckbeak and was about to make a fool of himself, Harry stepped forward and grabbed him by his hand.

"Hey, Draco, I have something very important to tell y…" Harry wasn't given the chance to finish as Malfoy jerked his hand off his grasp.

"Don't you touch me, you Potter!" He almost spat, saying Potter with emphasis on P, as him and Snape usually did.

"Fuck." Harry mumbled softly and followed right behind him.

As expected, Hippogriff was 'offended' and dashed forward to kick Malfoy's ass. But Harry stepped in just in time and pulled Draco back, avoiding the injury as well as the heap of problems that came with it.

Thankfully Buckbeak wasn't able to do anything more than scaring Draco, as Hagrid distracted the Hippogriff by throwing a fish to the side.

"It's-It's dangerous! How could you let this beast roam out of its leash!" Malfoy said, cowering back in fear.

"It IS dangerous. You were told so right in the beginning of the class." Harry replied impassively.

"Thankfully, no one's injured. I guess we can end today's class on that." Hagrid clapped and dismissed everyone.

And as Harry was about go sigh in relief a notification appeared right in front of him. It said that the quest was partially completed. And the requirement was patting the Hippogriff. Which Harry didn't do, meaning the message was meant for Wilford.

As Harry looked at the guy in question, he saw him staring at nothingness. Making it pretty obvious that he saw the same thing.

But Harry wasn't sure about 'the same thing' part. Because his messages were still incomplete and torn. Though, as he was heading back to the main building of the castle, the message became clearer and clearer.

He was confused for awhile, then looked at Willford, and approached him with a clue in his head. And when he was walking right behind Wilford, Harry's vision was filled with all the little boxes and letters. A small concentration on any of them unfolded an entire section with its own functions. Harry saw quests, the character sheet, unique abilities and inventory. He flipped through the first three and stopped on the last one - The Inventory.

Even with the incomplete memory of Wilford, Harry knew that the most important things were in the Inventory. He ought to try to access it. Since it would give him a lot more opportunities for revenge.

Without any resistance whatsoever, a huge panel with items opened up in front of Harry. He saw skillbooks, artifacts, wands, enhancement stickers, potions and many many other things.

Harry tried to pull out an enhancement sticker for wands and the next second it appeared in his hand. Looking at it he saw a small warning that said that the requirements 'Wandcraft lvl.5' and 'Wizard lvl.20' were not met. But he still tried to apply it to his wand.

Unsurprisingly, Harry saw a series of ERROR messages, but noticed that the sticker was gone. After concentrating on his wand he saw that it had a new property - 'Boomerang: Returns back if lost.'

Harry grinned as he opened the inventory again and gazed at the potions.