No, the only place Harry had ever known magic to exist was inside of SAO and he knew that the magic there had been created by the computer coding that was the building blocks of the entire program. Even the so called magic that Harry had inexplicably unlocked within the game behaved much as one would expect from a computer game and no different in Harry's mind than the unique Skill of Duel Wielding that Kirito had unlocked at some point in the game. Kayaba had gifted little kernels of extras like that to a small handful of players within the game so it was to be expected that some form of magic had existed there above and beyond the magic that was the world of SAO.
The final strike against Dumbledore's credibility had been the claim that Harry's body had been locked into something called a magical stasis for two years in order to explain away the reason why he still looked like a nine year old (well truth be told, he looked more like an eight year old but that was because he was still so short and scrawny). Cryogenics was a field of study that Klein had once regaled Harry with when they'd gone out to celebrate the defeat of the Boss Monster on the forty-first floor. Klein had insisted that scientists had been researching for a way to preserve the human body for over a hundred years as a way of defeating time itself and if science couldn't prevent true aging, then how could magic?
And what reason would magic have to save someone like him when there were so many other people out there that he thought would have been more worthy of magical healing and protection; Asuna, Kirito, Agil, Klein, and Lisbeth coming to mind.
Coupled with that was the fact that Dumbledore kept insisting that Harry's ability to feel pain was proof positive that he was not trapped in some game or illusion; Harry had been feeling pain and bleeding inside of a game since he'd reached level thirty. Agil had once suggested that because Harry hadn't properly had his NERDLES implanted that the device was malfunctioning and that the pain he felt had been the result. Agil's explanation was far more believable than Dumbledore's; even if it didn't explain why Harry bled when injured during a fight but it had explained the pain and possibly why Items seemed more realistic when in Harry's hands.
The other five NPCs (the nurse and the four adults he'd learned were some kind of teachers) had unsurprisingly offered their assertions that the story was true, each one of them either claiming to have personally taught his parents how to use their magic or claiming to have gone to school with them. That was only to be expected though since they were all part of the same game and apparently were all programmed to work out of the same business, or in this case the same school.
Learning that he would be trapped within the castle for at least seven years had been terrifying but after a while he began to wonder if there would be pre-programmed time skips in order to speed the game along. It just didn't seem realistic enough to force players to play through each and every day of a seven year education in magical arts. Then again, the more he learned about the game, the more he began to wonder if it was some kind of on-line prison for criminals in order to save money on housing them since it would be easier to lock a murderer up in a hospital bed and let his brain occupy itself than it would be to lock up the man himself where he could harm others out in the real world if he escaped.
It seemed like the kind of place that the Dursleys would have sent Harry to in any event; especially upon learning he'd been the one to steal the gaming equipment from the rubbish bin.
And so, here he was, waiting for the staff member that had been assigned to guide him through the first steps of the game so that he might start working his way through the required quests in order to beat the game. He'd spent every second of the past fives days hunting through his Menu for a backdoor out but hadn't been able to find one, so it was either allow them to lock him up in some sort of virtual mental institution for refusing to cooperate or play the game until he found or made another way out.
So long as he was somewhat free to move about, he could always look for another human player in order to get more information on the game or a system door that would allow him to escape; since there was still no logout function.
So he reluctantly chose to play along in the hopes that he could find a way out.
The moment he'd resigned himself to muddling his way through yet another game, two new bars had shimmered into existence below his gold HP Bar; a green one labeled as HP and a blue one labeled as MP. A quick check of his Stat Page let him know that the original gold HP Bar was now an indication of his overall Health, the green one would track his physical health (or Hit Points), and the blue one kept track of the magic he had available (Magic Points). The amounts of all three bars were currently listed as incalculable and hinted that whatever glitch had messed up his classification and HP in SAO was still affecting him in the new game.
A knock at the door brought Harry to his feet as he turned to meet his escort who turned out to be a young woman with long, silky black hair and light brown eyes that looked to be in her early thirties. She wore black robes (that looked more like a dress on her), high heeled boots that just barely peeked out from beneath the robes, and the stereotypical witch's hat upon her head. Harry supposed she could be considered pretty and if he'd been there, Klein probably would have tried to hit on her; a thought that actually made Harry smile sadly for the briefest of moments before he gave the newest NPC in this game his full attention.
"Good morning, Mr. Potter, I am Professor Sinistra," the woman informed him as she held out her hand for Harry to shake only for her to awkwardly drop it when he ignored the hand. "I teach Astronomy here at Hogwarts and because all of my classes take place in the evenings, I was asked to escort you to Diagon Alley this morning so that you might purchase your school supplies. Do you have the supply list Professor McGonagall left with you yesterday?"
"Yes," Harry replied as he opened his Player Menu to materialize the list in question so he would have it on hand. "Will I need to worry about us running into any monsters on our journey to the market town?"
"No, I'll be apparating us directly to the entrance to Diagon Alley in order to save time and to prevent you from getting lost since you have no experience with traveling through the Floo. The only creatures you'll need to worry about around here are the ones living within the Forbidden Forest; which is why students are prohibited from exploring the forest. If you will follow me…"
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