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.

Harry was sitting in the Ravenclaw Common Room, with Hermione curled up next to him with her head in his lap as he absently stroked her hair. She had calmed down a lot from the shock of the Troll attack the previous evening. They had both spent the night down in the Common Room as he had helped her deal with the fright and then they had both fallen asleep on the couch. It was now six am and he had the Party screen open in front of his eyes as he continued to comforted her. Not only did it show full details of Hermione, it also showed all her social relationships, both positive and negative, from her parents and the girl Hermione had a crush on when she was five and remained friends with to all the bullies and mean kids who had picked on her for being so smart, it also had a section for skill upgrades to her as a party member, but that was greyed out at the moment, so Harry assumed that Party Members develop individually as he used them or as they progressed through their education.

For Party Members there are two ways to use them, independent missions or as support in combat. Independent Missions were things such as sending them to research a topic, purchase rare items or even leading small teams of Hogwarts Guards on missions. In combat the Parry Members can support Harry in a number of ways. Some Party Members will be generalists, like Hermione, who can take on any of the specific roles, like Shielding, Healing or dedicated Offense, or can take the Generalist role where they will take the most effective action to support Harry regardless of what it is. Other Party Members will be specialists, only able to take one or two specific roles.

Exiting out of the Party Menu, Harry moved over to the Skills Menu and entered into the Magical Submenu, which had finally been unlocked. Like the other Skill submenus there were currently two options available. First was Increased Magical Pool, which Increases the total amount of Magical Reserves by 10% for the first level and 5% for each subsequent Level, with 3 levels available, but it cost 3 Magus Points for the first level and 2 Magus Points for each of the subsequent levels. The other option was Wand Quickdraw, which was described as with almost precognitive speed, you can draw your wand in a fraction of a second, giving you an edge in a fight costing 2 Magus Points. At this point, Harry could not see the point of purchasing either of the two Magical Skills with his four Magus Points. With only two spells under his belt, Magical Combat was going to be less effective than physical combat for a while, though once he had more spells under his belt those skills will be useful.

The fight with the Troll showed him how naive he had been to opt to improve his physical conditioning naturally rather than selecting any of the Physical Skills, particularly after he had started training as the Guard Commander. To rectify this, he purchased the first level of Cardio Pulmonary Boost which increased his endurance and reduced the absorption of toxic Gas through the lungs for 2 Magus Points, and Aim Improvement which provided better ranged accuracy with both his Bow and Wand and the ability to quick fire 'from the hip' for 1 Magus Point. If he had Aim Improvement during the Troll Fight he could possibly have taken down the Troll before it even reached him.

He tossed up how to spend his final Magus Point. He could add another level to either Cardio Pulmonary Boost, maxing it out, or to Silver Tongue bringing it up to level 2 of 3. On the other hand, he could take Aura Vision, which would highlight any Magical Books or items with critical information, anywhere except the Hogwarts Library or the Bookstore in Diagon Alley. After much thought, he finally selected Aura Vision to spend his last Magus Point on.

As he exited out of the Skills Menu, an Owl flew in the Owl chute in the ceiling of the Common Room and landed in front of him, holding out its leg. It was a note from Septima Vector inviting him to pre-breakfast tea to discuss what had happened the previous night. Activating Profiling briefly, Harry looked down at Hermione and saw her emotional status was at Calm, with a romantic sub-status of 'infatuated'.

"Hermione, time to move." Harry said.

"Too comfy." Hermione muttered.

"Professor Vector wants to see me." Harry said, nudging her head off his lap.

Hermione looked up at him and pouted.

"She's been a good mentor and offered some good advice." Harry pointed out as he stood.

"I suppose." Hermione said, snuggling back down into the warm spot where Harry had been sitting.

Harry got up and walked out of the Ravenclaw Common Room. As he walked towards Professor Vector's Office, he noticed a wall hanging that was glowing softly. Figuring this was from the new Auror Vision skill as he had walked past the same wall hanging the day before and it had not glowed. He touched the wall hanging and began reading the notification information

Secret Passageway discovered (Sixth Floor East corridor to Second Floor West Corridor)

Secret Revealed: +1 Secret Points

Secret Passages added to Hogwarts Maps.

Pausing briefly to being up the game map of Hogwarts, which showed all of the places he had been around the Castle, so there were a number of blank areas down around the dungeons and out in the grounds, he now saw a blue icon next to the white dot that was his location, and he idly noticed that there was a green dot back in the Ravenclaw Common Room with Hermione's name attached to it. It must be because she was a Party Member. Mentally clicking on the blue icon he saw the map change. On the left was his current location on the Sixth Floor and on the right was Second Floor West with a blue line connecting two points on the map.

He exited out of the map and moved on to Professor Vector's office. She was sitting in one of the chairs off to the side of the office with a small table between them where they had their tea sessions.

"Good morning, Septima." Harry said as he sat down on the other chair.

Septima simply raised her eyebrow at him and the profiling overlay activated across his vision. Ok, this was going to be serious.

"So… Guard Captain?" Septima asked.

Harry dropped down onto one of the couches in the Ravenclaw Common Room after the last of his classes for the day and Hermione curled up next to him, still out of sorts from the previous evening's attack, but now they had the weekend ahead of them for her to recover. The discussion with Septima that morning before class had been rocky but ended positively, and had pushed Septima up to the middle of 'Firm Friend' Social Status.

He had opened up the Romance Menu just to have a look at it, and Hermione's profile was the only one there, so he opened it. The fifty Romance points put Harry into the 'Mild Crush' status, which was the lowest level on the Romance progression bar, but his was not the only person in Hermione's Romance Profile. The other person was 'Sarah Whitcomb' who was in the 'Crush' section but was greyed out and marked as 'abandoned relationship – Friendly'. That was the girl Hermione had a crush on back when she was five.

There were a few other items on Hermione's Profile page besides the romance progression bars. There were statuses for Gender Identity (Female), Biological Identity (Female) and Sexual Orientation (Mostly Heterosexual - exploring).

Noticing a question mark icon in the top corner Harry concentrated on it and an information screen came up.

Information on the Romance Menu. The romance menu shows the status of Romance from the perspective of the other Character, not the Player. It will include all of the romantic interests of the selected Character, along with their Gender Identity Status (how they view themselves), Biological Identity Status (Their physical body) and Sexual Orientation Status (who they are interested in). The displayed result for the three Status are the Current Status and are subject to change over time due to interactions, experiences or trauma.

The Romance Interest Progression Bar goes from 'Minor Crush' to 'Soulmate'. The higher the progression along the bar, the more the Character will be romantically dedicated to the Romance Interest and more open to romantic suggestions from the Romance Interest. The Progression Bar is completely independent of the Social Bar. A Character can have a high Romantic Progression status and a Negative Social Status with another Character.

When a Romance ends one of two things will happen. Should it end amicably the Progression bar will be locked out in grey at the current level and marked 'abandoned relationship – Friendly', and may potentially be reactivated later should that romance be rekindled. Should the romance end with enmity, the Progression Bar will turn into a red Animosity Bar and be reset to zero. The Animosity Bar goes from 'Mildly Aggravating' to 'Turned to Hatred'. When the Animosity Bar reaches 'Romantic Foe' (middle of the Animosity Bar) it begins to have a negative effect on the Social Bar with that Character.

Feeling Hermione snuggle deeper into his side, Harry exited out of the Romance Menu and looked down at her. She had become more physically clingy since the Troll, having now been saved twice by Harry, she was starting to see him as a bit of a protector as well as his friend. While he enjoyed spending time with Hermione he still had plans he needed to do alone over the weekend, such as exercise and training as Captain of the Guard with Adrian Potter.

"Hey, Hermione." Harry said and she looked up at him. "I figured as Captain of the Hogwarts Guard, I should know a bit about the history of the Hogwarts Guard. I know a little from my grandfather's letter but I don't know a whole lot. Would you mind searching through the Library to find out more about the Guard?"

Harry did know a bit about the early years from Adrian, the Third Captain of the Guard, but did not know about most of the History of the Guard.

Independent Mission – Research Issued

Party Member – Hermione Granger

Mission – Research History of Hogwarts Guard.

"Oh Harry." Hermione said. "Of course, I will research them for you. I'll start after breakfast tomorrow."

Harry smile down at Hermione and her face lit up.

Relationship Improvement: Hermione Granger – Relationship Maxed

Romantic Improvement: Hermione Granger +5 Romantic Points

Party Member EXP Gain: Hermione Granger + 5 Exp

Party Member Quest – Hermione Granger: Guarding Knowledge.

Quick Resolution: Party Member finds as much information as they can in one week on the Research Mission

Reward: 20 EXP for Player, 5 Exp for Party Member, 10 Social Increase with Party Member, 10 Romance increase for Party Member (Hermione Granger Only)

Detailed Investigation: Party Member spends one month searching for information on the Research Mission

Reward: 30 Exp for Player. 20 Exp for Party Member, 20 Social Increase with Part Member, 25 Romance Increase for Party Member (Hermione Granger Only), one random item of Common Quality usable by either Player or Party Member

In-depth Research: Party Member spends as much time as necessary to find the information for the Research Mission (For current Mission duration is 4 months)

Reward: 50 Exp for Player, 60 Exp for Party Member (Hermione Granger gains 100 Exp), 60 Social Increase for party member, 150 Romance Increase for Party Member (Hermione Granger Only), One Random Item of Unusual Quality for Player or 1 Magus Kit, one random item of Common Quality usable by Party Member

Warning: while on Independent Mission the selected Party Member will be unavailable for other Independent Missions or for use in Combat.

Please select which type of Research Hermione Granger will undertake.

Harry though about it for a few minutes. On the one hand the longer missions had additional bonuses that were attractive, but on the other it would make Hermione unavailable for other missions for longer. As he considered a thought did come to him.

The Halloween Quest had opened the option for recruiting potential members for the Hogwarts Guard. Harry figured that some of those potential members would be 'Rank and File' Guard Members but there would be some that were Party Members and 'Officers' for the Guard. If he had to guess he figured he would find a few potential members soon and at least one would be an 'Officer'.

Harry selected In-depth Research option. There were no notifications after the selection but a big grin passed over Hermione's face.

TBC….