Megan woke up from a dreamless sleep in an unknown place, though the welcoming blue windows still awaited her. But instead of reading it immediately, she dismissed it and inspected her surrounding.

Everything around her was clinically white from the bed to the wall, so she had little to no doubt where she was: the Hospital Wing. As for why she ended up there, the last thing she remembered was putting the sorting hat on her head and the mental assault of the powerful tool's legilimency.

Whatever the system did to her mind disagreed with equal force to the invasion, resulting in her brain shutting down to protect itself before she got to know where the hat would sort her. Not that there was any surprise here since her Character ID was literally 'Hufflepuff Mob #3'.

The incident would undoubtedly have significant repercussions since she fainted in front of everyone during the Sorting, guaranteeing that she would have one hell of a reputation for the years to come. However, there was nothing she could do but endure until everyone somehow got over it.

After all, she had more pressing issues like her curse and wand, which would both impede her learning. As her curse prevented her from using harmful spells, while her wand — willow and phoenix feather — was somewhat specialized for healing and had a mind on its own.

Also, even the most basic Healing charm, Episkey, was not on Hogwarts' core curriculum and, therefore, would not be available for her to learn before her third year at the very least. For anyone else, it would not be much of an issue. It was okay for a normal kid to being an early bloomer.

But she had been on a timer for character deletion for the last four years, and she desperately needed to grow fast, so she could get some of those viewers and, hopefully, survive this.

Similarly, the simple shield charm Protego, which she was pretty sure was — albeit to her limited knowledge — the one and only non-harmful spell in the entire D.A.D.A. curriculum, was a spell she would not get to learn before her fifth to sixth years.

Why in the Potterverse did she incarnate into a seven years old body if she had not a single chance to shine until she was twice that age?

Sure, progression fantasy zero to hero was a popular trope. But being useless for the five years due to one damn curse? It would not be something her viewers, if she got any, would take kindly unless she aimed for a funny slice of life. Therefore, if she could not work with the curse or her wand, she would have to work around it.

The curse said she could not use any harmful spells. It said nothing about potions, enchanted objects, rituals, or tamed beasts.

Suppose the fantastic beast movies and Hagrid classes from the books were any indications. In that case, caring for magical creatures was challenging, and the keyword of the discipline was caring for them, not using them for combat, pokemon-style. Plus, she would not get a chance before her third year. It was a pass.

Rituals and enchanted objects were rare and never featured adequately in books and movies, except for the ritual that brought Voldemort back to life and the iconic Newt Scamander Wallet. Plus, both were advanced magic she would not get to learn before her senior years or after she graduated. So it was also a pass.

So potions it was. She will have lessons on the subject starting this week. And granted, she gave it enough investment, and since she was not a Gryffindor, so long she did not earn Severus Snape's ire, she should be able to thrive in that discipline.

Last but not least was the issue of her lack of points. After investing one point in magic, the price doubles. So even if she wanted to invest more in magic, she could not. Her reaction had gone all the way from 'Oh, the price double? Pretty standard RPG stuff' to 'What the fuck? How can the price double? I got only two points in four years!'

So investing her last remaining point in craft, which might or might not help her in potions, was her only chance. She needed to invest points if she wanted to see a return. And she saw little to no use in strengthening her might or will as she was.

But first, she had to check her Questlog. Now that she had made it to Hogwarts, she should have a new quest waiting for her.

Questlog

1991 Yearmate (main quest)

Unlock your magic, make it to Hogwarts or die trying

Status: Cleared

Reward: 1 story point

Fitting right in (main quest)

By Christmas, you must:

-make one friend

-get a passing grade on every subject

-get a grade in the first decile in one subject

-get mentioned in the story>

(no immediate penalty for failure)

Status: In progress

Reward: 1 story point

Questlog Backlog (6) Character Sheet (!) Library (1)

The new quest would be challenging, especially the part about being at the near top of one class. But it would be a concern for tomorrow as she saw notifications piling up in her Backlog and needed to know what was going on.

Backlog 1991 Yearmate quest completed New quest 'Fitting right in' issue Earn one story point for a total of -39 story points. Lower curse threshold: -50 Upper curse threshold: -25. Your current curse is left unchanged. Status change to 'Gryffindor Side-Character #6.' Quest 'Fitting right in' upgraded. Earn three audience points (300 views) for a total of 4 audience points. Backlog Character Sheet (!) Library (1) Questlog

She read the fourth notification three times before her mind finally came around. She did not know what happened and why the sorting hat sent her to Gryffindor instead of Hufflepuff, but there was no point agonizing about it. But it spoiled any thought of rejoicing about completing her first quest or finally getting an audience. So instead, she just opened her Library to confirm what she already knew.

Except for a certain Megan Jones, who got a seizure right after being sorted to Gryffindor — so much for it being the house of the braves — the Sorting had been rather long and uneventful.

There it was. Megan got mentioned in the third chapter. It was an embarrassing way to make an appearance in the novel. But even if she had known beforehand, there was nothing she could have done to prevent it. So she went on and willed her character sheet to open.

Character Sheet

Character ID Character ID: Gryffindor Side-Character #6. Name Megan Jones Birth February 14th 1980 Blood status: Half-Blood Attributes Might Magic Will Craft 4 (1p) 1 (2p) 6 (1p) 2 (1p) Innate Talents Locked (10p) You have 4 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 Wand

10.3, willow, phoenix feather

Known properties: healing.

Affiliation House Gryffindor Loyalty

None

Character Sheet Library Questlog Backlog

Now, all that was left was to decide on what attributes she should spend her hard-earned points.