Title: Reset
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: All Books, except the epilogue.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Everything in Harry Potter's life is not what it seems – inspired by zerohour20xx's Harry Potter the Game: Epic Edition.
A/N: Yes, I know. Four Years between updates. Blame my muses, but enjoy.
Harry stretched as he stood from the desk in Charms class and moved to the door. It was Halloween and they had finally learnt their first spells in both Transfiguration and Charms. Transfiguration had been directly before Charms and there had been no time to examine the Magical Menu between the classes, but they had no classes in the afternoon so he was going to look into it before dinner. Unfortunately, as soon as he touched the door to exit Charms, for the first time, the Game paused and a 'Special Event Quest'. After a few minutes of swearing Harry began reading the options for the Quest.
Welcome to Halloween of your First Year. A Troll has been let into the Castle. You now have three options. Please choose one of the below options:
Offensive Action. Hermione is in Danger. Due to careless comments by Ron Weasley, she has hidden in a Girl's Bathroom while the Troll is loose. In this option you use your Authority as Captain of the Hogwarts Guard to protect the Student Body by going on the offensive and attacking the Troll. This will expose you as Captain of the Hogwarts Guard.
Successful completion of the Offensive Action will provide a large increase in Social Reputation with the Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Houses; a moderate increase in Social Reputation with the Hogwarts Staff (Except Dumbledore, Snape and Filch); a small increase in Social Reputation with Slytherin; a large amount of Experience and the addition of Hermione Granger as a Party Member. You will also receive a small decrease in Social Reputation with Dumbledore and a moderate decrease in Social Reputation with Snape. Due to the positive exposure of the Hogwarts Guard, you can now start recruiting potential members of the Hogwarts Guard.
Failure of Offensive Action will result in a moderate decrease in Social Reputation with all Students and Staff; long term detention and restriction of movement around Hogwarts; minor to severe injury to yourself and the PERMANENT death of Hermione Granger.
Defensive Action. All students are gathered together in the Great Hall, but the Troll is not confined to the Dungeon and is coming your way. In this option you use your Authority as Captain of the Hogwarts Guard to take over the defence of the Great Hall. This will expose you as Captain of the Hogwarts Guard.
Successful completion of Defensive Action will provide a moderate increase in Social Reputation with all Students and Staff and a small amount of Experience. Due to the positive exposure of the Hogwarts Guard, you can now start recruiting potential members of the Hogwarts Guard.
Failure of Defensive Action will result in a small decrease in Social Reputation with all Students and Staff and the potential for yourself or other students to be injured or killed.
No Action. With all of the students confined to the Great Hall and a few teachers to supervise, you choose to take no action. This will provide no immediate rewards or penalties and has no chance of failure. There is the risk further down the line that there could be negative Social Reputation if it is discovered that you could have helped and chose not to.
Harry looked over the options and considered them. Offensive Action was a big risk for big reward. The guaranteed loss of Hermione permanently for failure would be a massive blow, but on the other hand it resulted in the best social increases and Hermione as a party member if successful. Defensive action was middle of the road kind of option, modest risk for modest reward, but still having a potential for injury or death of himself or others. No Action was basically a pass.
Harry finally decided to go big and selected Offensive Action. He had beaten the troll last time with just Ron for help and this time he had his Guard Captain weapons he had been training with for almost two months. Worst comes to worst he could just levitate the Club again.
As soon as he selected Offensive Action a cut-scene started and he had no control over his body. Ron insulting Hermione. Padma telling him at dinner that Hermione was in a bathroom crying. Quirrell coming in and declaring there was a Troll. Harry standing and walking out of the Hall. Dumbledore objected and Harry activated his Guard Captain's weapons, which McGonagall recognised and overruled Dumbledore as The Guard Captain has ultimate authority in an emergency.
Harry regained control of his body as he gained sight of the Troll about to enter the girl's bathroom. Kneeling on one knee he lined up a shot with his Bow and managed to clip the Troll, causing a shallow furrow across its shoulder. The Troll roared and tried to find the source of the pain. This allowed Harry to get off two more arrows. The first went through its shoulder and the second went thorough its right knee. It finally spotted Harry and began to lumber towards him, hampered by the arrow through its knee. Under pressure, Harry fired off two more arrows, before shrinking his bow and quiver as he stepped back and drew his sword. One of the arrows went wide, but the other got lucky and hit it in the left eye, spewing blood and ocular fluid out of the wound.
The Troll made a large swing with its club that Harry dodged, taking the opportunity to slash at the Troll's ankle. Harry felt the sword bite into the Troll. This was not working fast enough. Time to go insane ago.
Slipping behind the Troll he jumped up onto the Troll's back and shoved the sword into the gap in the vertebra between the Troll's shoulder blades. Even with the enchanted Guard Commander's Sword it still took four thrusts to sever the spinal column and cause the Troll to drop to the ground dead.
Independence Improvement: +1,500 Independence Points.
Independence Level raised to 3
Relationship Improvement: Hogwarts Staff +300 Relationship Points
Relationship Improvement: Hufflepuff +500 Relationship Points
Relationship Improvement: Gryffindor +500 Relationship Points
Relationship Improvement: Ravenclaw +500 Relationship Points
Relationship Improvement: Slytherin +100 Relationship Points
Relationship Degradation: Albus Dumbledore -100 Relationship Points
Relationship Degradation: Severus Snape (Enemy) -300 Relationship Points
+25,000 EXP
Magus Points +1 – You have 3 Magus Points
Magus Points +1 – You have 4 Magus Points
New Party Member Gained: Hermione Granger.
Relationship Improvement: Hermione Granger +15,000 Relationship Points – New Status Inseparable Friends
Social Status with Hermione Granger Maxed
Romantic Improvement: Hermione Granger +20 Romantic Points
You have now unlocked Romantic Social Status with Hermione Granger. Romantic Social Status determines how much of an intimate relationship you can have with a character.
Once the scroll of messages finished, Harry ran into the Girl's Bathroom to check on Hermione, while shrinking his sword back to its Dagger size and sheathing it. The bushy haired girl was huddling in the corner of the bathroom.
"Hermione?" Harry said gaining her attention. "It's gone."
Hermione took a second to look up at him and then she launched herself at Harry and he wrapped her up in his arms as she sobbed into his shoulder. As he absently stroked her hair he opened up the menu and saw a second tab that had Hermione's Character Sheet. He also noticed that the Magical Menu was no longer greyed out. After a few seconds he closed the menus and gave his attention to comforting Hermione.
TBC…