The classic confrontation happened as it always did, with Voldemort's assault on the tiny cottage that was the Potter Family's refuge, thanks to Peter Pettegrew's betrayal. James Potter died a hero, Lily sacrificed herself for her son, and Voldemort's wand was levelled at Baby Harry's face.

When the Avada Kadavra spell was unleashed, it hit a still developing body. The resulting explosion and backlash against Voldemort destroyed his body and broke a piece of his remaining soul off. It lodged into the only living being nearby and started something that would change things for the entire wizarding world.

Warning: Host body under attack. The Gamer System has not been properly installed. Commence installation nine years early?

Baby Harry garbled and made baby sounds at the pretty box in front of his face.

Verbal command accepted. Installing... installing... error. Gamer Mind unable to fully initiate. Corruption of source file at 26%. Foreign presence detected. Initiate anyway?

Baby Harry giggled.

Verbal acceptance confirmed. Installing system despite formatting errors. Installing basic version. Installing... installing... done. Gamer Body and Gamer Mind set at default Level 1.

Baby Harry swiped his little hand at the thing and it disappeared. He let out a laugh and then closed his eyes. He was pretty tired after all of the excitement and felt exhausted.

Warning: Visual acuity of host damaged. Corrective lenses needed until corrupted source is removed and healed. Adjust visual parameters to fit current sight restrictions?

A loud snore came from Baby Harry.

Verbal denial confirmed. Sight settings set to default. Host given visual debuff of 'Nearsighted' with a severity of 46%. Reading debuff of 75% until corrective lenses applied. System settings saved. Entering sleep mode. Initiating recharge of HP and MP. Time for completion: 18 hours, 29 minutes.

Baby Harry slept through everything that happened next. Hagrid taking him from Sirius Black, delivering him to Dumbledore for a magical examination, Hagrid being obliviated of the day, and delivering Baby Harry to the Dursleys. Little did Dumbledore realize the mistake he was about to commit.

Warning: Magical siphon detected. Source: Blood wards. MP depletion exceeds host's innate ability. Increasing MP recharge percentage from 0.03% to 0.05% of total. Insufficient MP to feed siphon demands.

Accessing MP allocation system. Rerouting automatic XP gains from Gamer Body to compensate. MP recharge rate increased to 2.5% of total. Siphon requirements met.

If you wish to cancel the previous action, please state so within the next ten seconds.

Since little Harry was sound asleep, thanks to Dumbledore's sleep spell, no response was made.

Warning: Gamer Body debuff applied. Levels will require twice as much XP to level. Consumption of extra nutritious food can counter this debuff for up to 6 hours per meal.

Dumbledore ignored the concerns of his deputy headmistress about the Dursleys and placed Baby Harry on the doorstep as he applied a warming charm that should last until the morning and dropped a letter on the baby's blanket. The three of them abandoned the boy there and left.

*

Five year old Harry Potter climbed onto the stool at seven in the morning and started cooking breakfast for his aunt, uncle, and cousin. He was much too young to be doing such things, especially chores that teenagers would balk at, and he did them without question. He didn't know why he was so good at everything he practised, either.

Ever since he could remember, he could see blurry blue boxes as they floated in front of his face whenever he did something for the first time. After that, the tasks just seemed to get easier and easier and he would only see the boxes occasionally. He had no idea why that was or why he could never see what the little boxes said, not that he knew how to read them anyway.

Harry had once made the mistake of asking what the little floating boxes said and his uncle had beaten him so badly that his arm had broken. He spent the night crying in his cupboard under the stairs and never made that mistake again. Even when the boxes appeared over his uncle, aunt, and cousin, he kept quiet about it.

“You're up already and making breakfast. Good.” Aunt Petunia said with a stern voice when she entered the kitchen. She would never admit that the boy could cook much better than her and he had only been cooking for less than a year. He also picked up anything new she taught him like he had been doing it for years, despite only being five years old.

“The tea is almost ready.” Harry said and flipped the bacon before he stirred the scrambled eggs.

“I'll get the tea. Hurry up and make the toast.” Petunia snapped.

Harry didn't move to follow her command and she raised her hand to smack him. He let the egg spatula go and held a hand out to the side just as the toaster popped and dropped two pieces into his hand. He had long ago gotten used to the boiling hot bread and buttered it with his other hand and put the pieces on the plate beside the stove.

Petunia stared at him and wondered how he had done that, and immediately thought about him using magic. “What did you just do, you freak?”

Harry put two more pieces of bread into the toaster and pulled the lever down. “I put the door wedge from the back door under the side of the toaster. When it pops, the toast jumps out quicker than when I had to reach for the toaster to pull them out.”

Petunia's hand dropped to her side and she went to the cupboard to get tea cups for her and her husband. She would never tell him how smart that was, because both she and Vernon had spent so much time telling him how stupid he was in comparison to their wonderful son, Dudley.

Harry finished cooking the bacon and eggs to perfection and served them onto three plates in the right proportions and nodded to Petunia. She glared at him as she took the three plates and put them on the table. When the toast popped again, Harry caught and buttered them and added them to the toast plate. He did this twice more and kept two of them for himself.

Harry went to the table and sat down without eating. Petunia glared at him, as if he would ever try to defy her, and they both waited for Vernon and Dudley. They showed up a couple of minutes later and they both dug into their huge plates of food. Petunia nodded to Harry and he used a plastic knife to take a single dab of jelly from the dish on the table and spread it over one piece of toast and put the other piece of toast on top.

He sat there quietly and ate his toast and jelly sandwich as the others at the table consumed more food than was healthy for a single person to eat. Harry didn't know that, though. He had always made that much and would make that much and probably more as he and Dudley grew up. He also knew that complaining about it would only earn him less food and a good beating.

“Have you told him yet?” Vernon asked Petunia.

“No, I was waiting for you to be here to give him a proper warning.” Petunia responded and Vernon nodded. “Boy, you are going to school today.”

Harry froze and appeared to stare at her. He wasn't, because a big blue box had appeared in front of his face. Yes, I see you. He thought at it, just like he thought at every other one that had appeared so close and demanded he look at it. The thing disappeared and he relaxed.

“I'm warning you now, Boy.” Vernon said with a stern and threatening voice. “If I hear about any funny business or freakishness going on at the school and you're involved, you'll be spending a week locked in your cupboard and you'll only get bread and water.”

Harry's heart plummeted, because he knew exactly what was going to happen. The happy smile on Dudley's face was easy to see, even blurry like it was, and he was going to make sure that Harry was going to get in trouble, just like he always did.

“I tried to not let you go at all, except the neighborhood already knows you live here and we can't keep you at home. You are to behave yourself, never speak out, and you are to walk two paces behind my Dudders at all times.” Petunia added.

Harry nodded, because objecting was never an option. He soon dressed in his best cast-offs, which were three sizes too big for him.

Petunia huffed angrily at him for not having any shoes to wear, even though that was completely her fault. “You're going to have to make do with just socks for now.”

Harry opened his mouth to tell her that he didn't have any clean socks and her glare silenced him. He took out a rolled up pair that he used when doing the gardening. They used to be white and were now mostly brown and caked with dried mud. He put them on and went to the front door to wait, because he was never allowed to leave the house before Dudley did.

The walk to school was quite a bit tougher on his feet than walking around the yard was, and a blue box appeared in front of his face again. He mentally said yes and pushed it way with his mind, just like always, and kept walking. The gravel was particularly difficult to walk on through different driveways and occasionally on the side of the road. It seemed to get better by the time they reached the school.

Harry dismissed the third box he had seen during the walk and entered the schoolyard behind Dudley. A huge blue box appeared and it was just as blurry as the others, so he mentally said yes again and pushed it away with his mind. It disappeared and he looked around at all the kid shapes he could see. He counted twelve of them and was surprised there was still more than that, because he could only count to twelve.

Petunia had taught him that was how many eggs were in a carton and he had to keep track or get in trouble again.

Harry didn't bother trying to talk to anyone, mainly because he knew that most of the kids were from the neighborhood and Dudley had already scared most of them away from being his friend. Being beat up was never fun and no one tried to be his friend after the first few were chased away.

He stood there by the stairs and waited to go into the building. The woman that stood there at the top of the steps gave him a similar glare to Petunia's when he came into the house with his dirty socks. He knew he couldn't do anything about that, considering they were his best pair and didn't have any holes in them, and he tried to not look at the woman at all.

The bell rang and Harry moved out of the way and let everyone else enter the school first, because he didn't want Dudley or the other bullies behind him. He followed the big bulk of Dudley's fat body into a classroom and went right to the back and sat down. The teacher was the same woman as outside and Harry did his best to make himself look as small as possible and tried to hide.

The woman called a bunch of names and the other kids said here or raised their hands. Harry sat there and waited for either Boy or Freak to be called. When it wasn't, he just sat there and waited. The teacher repeated a name several times and no one responded. She made a mark on the sheet and finished calling everyone's name until only Harry was left.

The woman walked over to him and gave him that same glare. “I only have one name not answered and you are the only student that hasn't responded yet.” She said and Harry shrunk down in his seat. “Why didn't you answer to your name?” She asked and he didn't say anything. “Answer me!”

Harry jerked in fright, because that was the same tone of voice Vernon used when he punished him. “You... you didn't... call my name.”

“Then what's your name?” The woman asked, clearly angry.

“B-b-boy.” Harry said and then whispered. “F-f-freak when you're angry.”

The other children started laughing and the woman's face changed from anger to shock.

“E-excuse me? What did you say?” The woman asked. “Can you repeat that, please?”

“I-I'm Boy.” Harry said.

“No, the second part.” The woman prompted.

Harry couldn't help but keep the scared look on his face. “F-f-freak.”

The woman took a deep breath and let it out. She knelt and Harry pushed back from her and almost fell off the chair he was in. “Your name isn't Boy... or... or Freak.” She whispered. “It's Harry. Harry Potter.”

“Is it really?” Harry asked and she nodded. “My aunt and uncle only call me Boy or Freak.”

The woman opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and closed her eyes. She took several breaths and opened her eyes again as she stood. “I want you to come with me, Harry.”

“W-where? Are you taking me back home?” Harry asked, still afraid. “Uncle Vernon said no foolishness or I'll be starved and locked up for a week in my cupboard.”

The woman gasped and her face changed to show anger and her hands became fists.

Harry instinctively ducked his head and covered his face to wait for the beating to come. He didn't cry out or anything, though. That always made the beating worse.

“Harry.” The woman's calm voice said. “Don't cower like that. I'm not going to hit you.”

Harry uncovered his face and looked up at her to see her hand held out to him.

“Come on. We have someone to go see.” The woman said and wagged her hand at him.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked and looked at her hand. “Is it a trick or something?”

The woman sighed and dropped her hand. “Just... follow me, please.”

Harry nodded and did as she asked. Petunia had said to behave at school and this woman seemed to be in charge. The other kids talked pretty loudly as Harry and the woman left the classroom.

An hour later, Petunia was in the principal's office and screamed her head off at the man. She told him in no uncertain terms that Harry was an orphan, a financial burden, and a delinquent so bad that they had to keep him locked up for their safety and his. Either they kept him in line while at school or she would sue them for dereliction of duty.

The woman slapped Petunia's face hard and screamed right back at her about Harry's mental state, his clothing, and his thin body. When she said that Harry didn't even know his own name, Petunia just laughed and responded that she would never utter the disgraceful name that her dead sister had picked.

The principal stepped in then and admonished the woman for slapping a parent and warned her that if she did anything like that again, she would be suspended.

“I think I would rather have her fired.” Petunia said, smugly. “Let's see what the school board has to say about a teacher laying hands on a respected member of the community.”

“Yes, let's do that while we see what child services thinks of that respected member of the community that's abusing a helpless child!” The woman spat.

“You have no right to tell me how to raise my delinquent nephew!” Petunia spat back.

“Ladies, please.” The principal said and managed to not sigh. “I'm sure we can work through this.”

And they did. By the end of the day, the teacher was put on probation for fighting, Petunia was warned to do better with her nephew, and Harry was terrified that Vernon was going to keep his word.

Vernon did.

Harry was beaten badly and locked up for a week with nothing but bread and water while Petunia called in sick for him. By the time Harry returned to school, his bruises had healed and the teacher completely ignored him.