The Corrupted Gamer: Harry Potter

When Transfiguration class was over and everyone thanked him for teaching them such a useful spell, Harry excused himself to go to the bathroom. Once inside, he used one of the headmaster's recent memories as he attempted to check the table and chairs Harry had made for Professor McGonagall. It gave Harry a perfect image of the inside of the headmaster's office and he apparated from the bathroom stall to right behind the headmaster's desk.

“SQUAWK!” Fawkes exclaimed.

“You aren't supposed to be in here!” One of the portraits exclaimed and several others added their protests.

“Quiet, you colluders!” Harry exclaimed right back and they all fell silent. “I'm here to reclaim my family's stolen property! The family Albus Dumbledore swore to protect and then didn't do anything! The family he let be killed for his own selfishness!”

“Cherp.” Fawkes said, sadly.

“Yes, your human is a hidden dark lord that's even worse than Grindelwald and Voldemort. They openly tried to change things for their own needs. Dumbledore worked within the system and did more harm to the entire country than both world wars combined.” Harry said. “The Ministry of Magic is a sham. The Aurors are not allowed to do their jobs. Evil men are allowed to roam free because they were given second and third chances while good men and women were never given first chances.”

None of the portraits said anything in response.

Harry walked over to the cabinet at the side of the room and opened the doors. Inside were several things. A large pensieve for viewing memories, vials of memories, and a bottom set of doors. He opened the small doors and inside were several books and his family's invisibility cloak. For some reason, it did not have a blue box telling him what it was. He picked it up and gasped.

Congratulations! The second Deathly Hallow has been found!
Inheritance cycle of the ancient Peverell Family confirmed. Do you wish to bond permanently to the fabled Cloak of Invisibility?

YES! Harry thought and felt the drain as the cloak glowed.

Warning: Magical block found. Tracking charms found. Binding spells found.
It is suggested to remove the foreign magic before completing the binding process. Continue?

Remove the foreign magic and continue. Harry thought.

Magical block removed. Tracking charms removed. Binding spells removed. Cloak of Invisibility's full capabilities have been restored. Completing binding... done.

Harry caught his breath as he felt the cloak flow up from his hands and it wrapped around him to hug him, then it settled around his neck and then faded away. He reached up to touch it and it faded into existence for him to do so.

“That's handy.” Harry said and let it go. It faded away once more. He stored the books and gained the knowledge from them without having to read them. Since his magic skills were currently maxed out, thanks to Voldemort's magic knowledge and now Dumbledore's, it was just information that was archived. Speed Reading had upgraded to Knowledge Absorption and there were no levels to gain.

Harry was tempted to steal the pensieve, just because he could. He touched it to store it and it glowed slightly instead.

Your magical knowledge is at a sufficient level to copy this magical item through conjuration. Plans saved. Both temporary and permanent versions can be created.

Harry blinked his eyes at the popup and then smiled. You're protecting me from the consequences of stealing such a valuable item. He thought to his system and there was no response. Thank you.

Harry closed the little doors and the main cabinet doors and walked over to a set of shelves with a dozen little bits and bobs on it and he read the blue boxes. They were tracking charms, health monitoring charms, and one was even a life detector. Most of the tracking ones didn't have a target, thankfully. The devices were made of mostly silver and a few were gold. Some puffed smoke, some whirred, and others spun.

He swiped his new wand at them and they all froze. A second later, they dissolved into ash and then vanished. He was tempted to create copies and then shrugged. He wanted Albus to come back here and see that there was no way for him to tell if Harry Potter was alive.

Harry checked his watch and sighed. He was going to be late to class with Flitwick, assuming the short professor showed up. It all depended on how things went with Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing. He shrugged and walked over to a blank wall and tapped it with the Elder Wand in a similar sequence to entering Diagon Alley.

The wall opened up and inside were all the books that Dumbledore had confiscated over the years from students, teachers, and the library. Some he had raided personal family libraries to obtain the 'dangerous magics' and to hide them, when in fact he was hoarding the information all for himself. It had become progressively more difficult over the years for the old headmaster to maintain his all knowing persona.

Harry stored them all and didn't bother putting them back. He would return them to their rightful families if it was possible. If not, he would give them to Madam Pince for her personal library. That thought put a smile on his face, because he looked forward to receiving another hug from the stoic and stern woman for saving the books.

He closed the wall and walked over to Fawkes. He took out a handful of muggle hard candies and put them into the tray that the bird usually had food in. “I'll pop back later to give you actual food if the headmaster is kept in the hospital wing.”

“Chirp.” Fawkes said and picked up one of the candies in its beak and licked it with his tongue. It let out a startled sound and its tongue licked it furiously.

“It's called a Gobstopper.” Harry said and lightly pet the bird's head and back. “It has fifteen layers of flavors and it takes a long time to suck them down to the chalk candy center, which stops your gob from talking.”

Fawkes let out a happy trill and it eyed the different colored candies.

“I had to try them all and it took me all day.” Harry said with a chuckle. “See you later.”

Fawkes nodded and Harry popped away.

Harry appeared in the stall and walked calmly to Charms class. He was five minutes late and it apparently didn't matter, because there was no Flitwick.

“There you are!” Padma said, happily. “Are you okay?”

“I got lost staring at my luscious hair in the bathroom mirror.” Harry joked and flipped his hair with his hands to make everyone laugh. “Who wants to learn the Sticking Charm?”

“WE DO!” Everyone yelled.

Harry took his place up on Flitwick's desk and everyone cheered.

*

Lunch was a lot of fun because most of the first year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs spent it outside having a picnic. The quickly becoming popular Harry Bones told them jokes and showed them some cool magic as they ate, too. It got them all in a great mood, which was a huge benefit, because the class after lunch was History of Magic.

It was a class they all loved. A few older year students that had heard the rumors about Harry's teaching ability, had snuck in and taken seats at the back of the amphitheatre-like seating, because the first years had crowded the stage. After the last class, they suspected that today was going to be epic.

“The last class gave you all a taste of several small skirmishes of the 1766 Goblin rebellion and how it started.” Harry said and waved his new wand at the floor. A fifteen foot by ten foot section of stone grew out of the floor and rose to chest height. With another wave, the top changed to look like dirt, grass, roads, and had several trees.

“Oooo!” The girls cooed.

“Now it's time to watch what happened when the full scale battle happened.” Harry said and pretended to reach into his pocket for a handful of matchsticks. He tossed them into the air and he did this a bunch more times until there were two large groups of sticks. “The key players will have names and I want you to remember what they did. Some for their name and some for their fame.”

Harry transfigured the group on the left into a bunch of goblins that were twice as numerous as the other matchsticks that quickly became a bunch of witches and wizards. Several on each side had a little arrow pointing down and their names floated above their heads.

“Wicked!” Terry Boot exclaimed and most of the boys nodded.

“The goblins had set up camp...” Harry said and the goblins floated down as tents and hovels appeared in the dirt. There were even little campfires and grumbles like singing. “...and the wizards were lucky enough to stumble across them when the goblin sentries were unprepared.”

The wizards floated down into the trees and grass and they cut down several sacrificial goblins that had been peeing. That had the girls giggling and the guys complaining about that not being sporting.

“Then the real battle began.” Harry said and waved his wand at the battlefield.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh years in the back of the room stared in shock at the miniature scale representation of an actual battle. Spells were fired, explosions occurred, goblins used swords to cut down the wizards... and it was the most amazing thing they had ever seen.

When it was over, several sheets of papers appeared on everyone's desks.

“This is a brief summary of what you just watched.” Harry said and smirked at them. “I saw a distinct lack of anyone taking notes, even my fellow Ravenclaws.”

They all looked embarrassed and Harry laughed.

“It's all right, everyone. I did this on purpose.” Harry said and waved his wand at the bloody massacre and all the little bodies reformed to be whole. “I wanted to show you that History of Magic doesn't have to be boring. It doesn't have to only be memorization of dates and names. It can be fun. It can be enjoyable. It can even entertain to the point of forgetting to do anything else.”

Everyone caught their breath when the figures disappeared and each student had a little witch or wizard and a goblin appear in front of them.

“Those are souvenirs for you all to keep.” Harry said and everyone clapped. “I hope you all learned a few things today and I'll see you all next week. Class dismissed.”

Everyone started packing their things up and Padma ran over to Harry to briefly hug him.

“That was the best thing I've ever seen!” Terry said loudly as everyone started to leave. “I wish we had some way of saving it to show other people.”

Harry thought about mentioning a pensieve and decided that now was not the time to reveal he could create such an expensive and valuable memory viewing tool.

“I think this is my favorite class.” Hannah Abbot said as she and Susan approached Harry.

“You really need to tell us how you did all that.” Susan said.

Harry smiled. “Fifth year Transfiguration animation spell.”

Susan gave him a disbelieving look, then sighed. “You really need to lay off on the studying, Harry.”

Harry took her hand. “Thanks, sis. I can teach you to cast the same spells.”

Susan shook her head. “I already have my work done for the week so far. I don't need any more spells to practice.”

“Tomorrow's Friday, so we'll have the whole weekend free!” Hanna said. “We better get moving if we're meeting Parvati and Lavender.”

Everyone nodded and they left the classroom to go meet up with their friends from another house.

By the time supper was served in the Great Hall, everyone knew about how great the History of Magic classes were for the first year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.

*

“I don't know what to tell you.” Madam Pomfrey said to Minerva McGonagall the next morning. “He's physically fine.”

Minerva sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Poppy, he can't remember anything about magic.”

Madam Pomfrey nodded. “You know there's no such thing as a mind healer. If anyone becomes addled from spell damage, we shuffle them off to St. Mungo's long term care ward and hope for the best.”

“Stunners can't cause this kind of damage.” Minerva asserted.

“Albus is over 120 years old and he's had dozens of different spells cast on him at one point or another. Anything could cause him irreparable harm when cast and we might never know the cause.” Madam Pomfrey said and shrugged. “Just stubbing his toe on his nightstand while getting out of bed could cause him to fall and break his leg.”

Minerva thought about what she was going to do with a headmaster that was pretty much made into a vegetable.

The hospital wing doors opened and Severus Snape entered. “When neither of you showed up for lunch and then supper yesterday, I investigated last night and came right here this morning.”

“Severus, this isn't a good time for your negativity.” Minerva said.

“Ah, Severus! My good friend!” Albus said, happily. “I am terribly sorry for allowing you to do such terrible things to the students to maintain your cover for Voldemort's return. It is for the greater good, after all.”

Severus stopped walking and stared at the man for admitting he had free reign to do what he wanted. “Are you feeling all right?”

“I'm perfectly fine, my boy.” Albus said. “It was just a bout of weak knees and Poppy fixed me right up with something called magic. It's quite a wonderful thing, isn't it?”

Severus gave him an incredulous look and then looked at Minerva. “What happened?”

Minerva explained what she saw, which wasn't much. It was barely even a conversation.

Severus knew exactly what had happened, however. Albus had tried to read the boy's mind without skimming the surface thoughts first. Instead of the light probe being rebuffed like the one Severus had used, Albus had used a full probe and been completely caught. His own attack must have been returned in force and it somehow damaged the man's mind.

Severus now had two distinct problems. One, he knew the Bones boy was responsible and had no proof. Two, the boy had admitted he knew what had been done to him by both Albus and himself. Would he retaliate or seek revenge in a similar manner? Did he want to give the boy a chance to strike first?

Minerva could see the potions master thinking furiously. “Severus? What is it? Do you know what happened?”

Severus was knocked out of his scheming by the question. “It was a magical backlash. I suspect Albus tried to read the boy's magic and it rebounded. Why the damage was specifically for his magic knowledge and not everything, I cannot guess except with the same answer.”

“That does make sense.” Madam Pomfrey said. “Albus is quite powerful. If his own magic backfired...” She nodded and wrote it down. “Thank you, Professor Snape. I'll pass this along to St. Mungo's when they come to pick up the headmaster.”

Severus gave her a surprised look. “You're already sending him away?”

Madam Pomfrey nodded again. “I can't handle his long term care by myself and take care of hundreds of students every day. Unless the school wants to hire a personal healer for him...”

Minerva shook her head. “Our budget is already stretched thin and that's with not having to pay for a History of Magic professor.”

“Why is that?” Madam Pomfrey asked.

“When Binns died and his ghost didn't move on, he continued to do the same job. Since he doesn't need to be paid, the school governors cut his pay from the budget.” Minerva said. “We can't afford to hire anyone else, except for the new Defense professor when Albus finds... oh, dear.”

Severus immediately had the thought to transfer to the position. “I think we need to talk about this opportunity.” He said and Minerva widened her eyes. “It's becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified people for the Defense position. What if you searched for a Potions professor instead?”

Minerva opened her mouth to refuse, then realized he was right.

“We have some time before the morning potions class with the first years. I'll leave the potion directions on the chalkboard and we can work out a few things in the meantime.”

Minerva nodded and gave Albus a searching look. His happy face was so unnerving to see that she decided that Poppy was right in contacting St. Mungo's. Albus needed their help. “Poppy...”

“I'll floo call them right after lunch.” Madam Pomfrey said.

Minerva left the hospital wing with a smug looking Severus walking behind her.