It was a press conference like any other.

Meghan glanced furtively at her editor, and he gave her the thump up.

She sighed with relief because she hadn't made a mistake so far. And she had no room for error anyway. After the unexpectedly meteoric success of her last book, she had no choice but to learn how to promote it on the job.

Which meant answering questions from fans who knew her work better than she did and disturbing questions about her private life, all without making any media blunder.

"What was the first book which inspired you to write?" A journalist who hadn't done his homework asked.

"Well... I'm not proud of it, but I wrongly assumed it was common knowledge. So I debuted with Harry Potter fanfiction on the eponym website, and my editor scouted me to rewrite my first novel: the Avalon Crossing Series."

But another journalist immediately distorted what she had just said to try and trip her with a tricky question:

"What exactly makes you feel ashamed? Your humble beginnings or your unfortunate association with the infamous J.K.Rowling who has one scandal after another?"

"Being queer myself, I obviously condemn anyone using their celebrity to convey transphobic slurs. That being said, it doesn't change the fact that Harry Potter is a fantastic series that used to be my favorite childhood book, and fanfiction is an amazing tool to get started."

Of course, J.K.Rowling alleged plagiarism, her inability to replicate her first success, and her unique talent cleaving her fanbase played a massive part in J.K.Rowling's spiraling downfall in the court of public opinion.

"You said it used to be one of your favorite. Does that means you don't feel the same anymore?"

"Harry Potter is all about growing up, making friends, and giving one school life a touch of magic. Unfortunately, as I grew up and read the series a bit too much, I discovered that there was less about the books I could relate to and I became somewhat disenchanted with it."

There were also the apparent inconsistencies, the reverse causalities, and the influence of fanfictions that shifted her opinion over time until she woke up one day thinking: 'what the fuck I am reading.' not that she could publically admit that much.

Meghan was expecting the press conference to get back on track after that, but time froze, and light blue dots appeared erratically until they formed a transparent blue screen in the middle of her field of vision.

As a junior novelist, you reject the novel that first made you. Challenge accepted! You will be reincarnated in the Harry Potter Universe. Clear your Challenge to get back to your current narrative — clear conditions: unknown.

And then her words fade to black.

§§§

Megan was startled awake yet again by the same nightmare, the same memory of how she ended up there, in a body and family that wasn't hers.

And every day as she woke up, the same blue status screen welcome here.

Character Sheet

Character ID Hufflepuff Mob #3 (provisional) Name Megan Jones Birth February 14th 1980 Blood status: Squib (Half-Blood) Attributes Might Magic Will Craft 4 (1p) 0 (1p) 6 (1p) 2 (1p) Innate Talents Locked (10p) You have 2 audience points to spend. 100% left to the next one. Build an audience to get more. You have -40 story points. Current curse: You cannot cast any harmful spell. Create new content for the main character to get more points and alleviate the curse. Stealing more of the main character content will result in further points losses and worsen the curse. Magical Characteristics Locked (no magic: get at least 1 attribute point in magic to unlock) Affiliation Irrevelant (<11yo) Character Sheet Library Questlog Backlog

Her new reality revolved around that dreaded system and the point she needed to survive as a character in the Harry Potter series.

She got one audience point for achieving one popular trope called "Sirius break free" after sending him a letter in a desperate attempt to create new content. But she also lost twenty story points for stealing content from the main character. She also got another audience point later for achieving another popular trope called "The Dogfather."

But otherwise, all her attempts made her lose points. She lost another twenty story points after she removed Barty Crouch Junior and Senior in an effort to clear Sirius's name. But it backfired spectacularly. And all her other attempts to improve Harry's life so he would get a better childhood with hopefully new content, whatever it means, did not work out at all.

One of the two points she earned, she had to invest in magic before she turned eleven, or according to her Questlog, the system would forcefully remove her from the story, which would be a bad ending for her. The second point, she did not know if she should play her strength or shore up her weaknesses, especially with that curse crippling any magic she might unlock.

Since she did not know what her next quest would be, she planned to hoard every extra point she might earn for later use, which ended up amounting to one point.

Three years of hard work did not get her any "audience." She was supposed to get one point every one hundred views. Whoever the viewers were, feeling sorry for herself did not get her any sympathy. Doing good deeds or acting in character also did not get her anywhere.

Sure, making Sirius escape early and reuniting with Harry got her two points and one okayish new chapter in her library. But it did not earn her a single viewer.

'Come on! What's a ten years old girl supposed to do to earn points? Shower fan service?' She thought indignantly before goosebumps got the best of her, and she shook off the idea

She had no idea how her future 'viewers' would interact with her 'story' and how much they would see, hear or know of her day-to-day actions. Some things were better kept private after all.

Then she prayed once again before going on with her day:

'This is Megan Jones from the Potterverse. Please watch, share and subscribe to let me live.'