The Protagonist System

69 Publishing Publisher

Petunia had a healthy little girl named Amaryllis, or Amy for short. She was a gorgeous brunette and had large and almost sparkling blue eyes, like the deep ocean, and both Petunia and Vernon adored her. Dudley and I weren't too far behind them and she was definitely going to be spoiled, so I would have to make sure it didn't go to her head. That was just a disaster in the making.

I made more merchandise for sale and Andromeda and Ted looked after everything else. We were making a fortune and I always put my share aside for donations. I couldn't really tell anyone what I had planned, because I technically wasn't supposed to know about Hogwarts yet. I would have to wait until my first book was published before I made the public announcement that the proceeds of sales went to subsidize student tuition.

When it was close to the time for me to act, I read the first of the seven books again. I had the odd feeling that I needed to do exactly what it described and I somehow knew that I wouldn't be allowed to use different spells or tactics than what was written. I thought back to what I agreed to before coming here and had to mentally nod at those feelings. These books were canon and had to happen just like they described. I couldn't be called a liar, could I?

I chuckled at that and looked for both the starting location and the date. It really was going to be soon and I had a lot of prep work to do. I would need to make a magical net, buy a declawing device that muggle veterinarians used on cats and had to enlarge it, make or buy special healing potions for piercing and poison damage, gather piles of wood and bricks for repairs, and learning magical construction techniques.

It was a lot to do for a nearly five year old child; but, I was Harry Potter, the best Harry Potter, and I couldn't disappoint my fans. So, I got to work. I only had a month left before my birthday and my first adventure happened a week after that. The funny thing was, I wasn't worried. I knew I would succeed and happily worked to complete my tasks.

*

The dark skinned people living in the large village didn't know what had hit them. One moment, everything was peaceful, and the next was filled with chaos and screaming. Several buildings were damaged under an out-of-control creature's rampage and it took several minutes of it destroying things before someone realized what it was. A Nundu!

Their screams to run from it caused even more panic, because no one ever survived a Nundu attack. The giant magical lion always ate its fill and killed everything else, razed whatever buildings that were in front of it, and disappeared back into the jungle until it was hungry again.

One villager lost her arm down the creature's gullet as she tried to block the monster from scooping her child up into its mouth. Her high pitched screams at being mortally wounded filled the air and made the creature pause, then it seemed to become even more enraged. It opened its mouth to spew its poison breath to destroy the human that dared to hurt its ears...

...and choked when a potion-soaked bundle of cloth was magically shoved into its throat. It coughed and backed up as it tried to use a paw to dig at its face. The large claws tore at its mouth, causing it even more pain, and it kept backing up and desperately tried to hack up the thing caught in its throat. A large net appeared over it and apparently caught it.

The little girl knelt by her bleeding mother and cried as she cradled her head, whispering that it was going to be all right.

“It will be.” A young voice said in her native language.

The girl lifted her tear-filled gaze from her dying mother's face to see a boy standing there wearing the most expensive clothing she had ever seen. He even wore a cape that flapped in the wind!

The boy knelt beside her and he placed a hand on the woman's forehead. The little girl stared as her mother glowed a golden color and a new arm slowly grew out of the severed shoulder. They stayed there in the middle of the street as the Nundu continued its struggle. As soon as the arm was fully back, the boy scooped the girl up into his arms and a flash of light later, the three of them were at the far side of the village.

“I'll be back to check on you after I deal with the naughty cat.” The boy said and stood her on her feet next to her mother before he turned away and started to walk back into the village and into danger, because the Nundu had torn open the net holding it.

“W-w-wait!” The girl exclaimed and he paused to look back at her. “Who... who are you?”

The handsome boy wearing glasses smiled warmly at her. “My name is Harry. Harry Potter.” He said, gave her a little wave, then he drew a glowing sword from his belt and ran faster than anyone she had ever seen before.

She watched in complete wonder as the boy that was around her age, had an epic fight with a creature that was twelve feet tall and breathed poisonous breath. It had finally spit out whatever that thing was and spewed murderous poison at the boy, only for him to use his cape to deflect it and then he shot it with a bolt of lightning from his sword.

The Nundu roared in pain as the bolt clipped its shoulder and it dodged to the side and avoided the second bolt. It smashed through the front of a building and was out of sight for a moment, then it roared and smashed through the side to try and pounce, its large claws primed to skewer the boy.

Harry dodged the first paw and rolled onto his side and up into a crouch to use his sword to catch the follow-up swipe. He grinned at the creature and pushed the paw away and lunged at its face. A swipe of the sword sliced through its left eye and it roared and backed up again as it shook its head, as if it could get rid of the damage if it shook its head enough.

Most of the villagers had gathered around the girl by this point and they watched as the creature did its best to kill the boy and the boy did his best to stay alive. His side was clipped by a claw's tip and blood spurted out through the wound. Luckily, it was only a graze and hadn't been deep. It would leave a large scar, though.

Harry glowed slightly as he healed the wound and pulled out his wand to point at the ground under the creature's paws. “Bombarda!”

Half of the street blew up and the creature screamed as it was thrown thirty feet and landed in a heap. It shook its head again and slowly climbed to its feet. Harry was right there and ran by it and sliced its back legs to cripple it.

The Nundu roared in pain and its rear end dropped down to the ground. It tried another blast of poison breath and Harry summoned the bundle of cloth and shoved it into its throat again. The poison breath was cut off and the creature choked and struggled with the obstruction back in its throat.

“You're not spitting it out this time.” Harry said and pointed his wand at the mouth. “Incarcerus!”

Ropes appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around the muzzle of the giant lion and the jaws slammed shut. Its roar came out as a muffled gargle and its lone eye seemed to glare at the boy.

“You are a bad kitty! Why couldn't you be happy eating your normal diet of apes and antelopes? Eating people would probably make you sick.” Harry said and bound the front paws with the same spell before he drew his sword again. “I almost feel bad about doing this.” He said and took aim for the thing's heart and shoved the glowing sword into its chest, twisted it, and tore it back out.

The Nundu's muffled roar seemed a little pathetic as it bled out and died from the fatal blow.

It took several minutes of intense silence before one of the men yelled a cheer of victory. The other villagers quickly joined in and they swarmed down the street to surround and congratulate their hero.

Harry thanked them for the praise as he sheathed his sword and asked if there was anyone suffering from the poison. He handed out potions to counter it and they spread out to help their fellows that had been attacked. He walked over to the little girl and her mother, whom was now awake and staring at him with shock and adoration on her face.

“How are you feeling?” Harry asked as he knelt and gave them each a nutrition potion and a poison cure potion. Both drank the potions gratefully.

“How did you do that?” The mother asked, her curiosity burning for the answer.

“I'm the savior of the wizarding world.” Harry said with a smile. “It's nice to meet you.”

The woman blinked her eyes at him several times. “You... are...”

“Harry Potter, at your service.” Harry said and bowed slightly, then he held a hand out to her. “Let me help you up.”

The woman took the hand with hers and she was surprised at the boy's strength as he really did help her stand. It was then she realized it was with the hand that the Nundu ate and she gasped.

“Come on. We have to go over there before they tear the Nundu apart for the potion ingredients.” Harry said and smiled crookedly. “I'll make sure that you and your daughter will be getting the lion's share.”

The girl giggled at the joke and her mother groaned at him. Harry laughed and brought them over to the impromptu party. He discussed with the villagers about donating the Nundu's corpse to the village, as long as he got to keep the head. They happily agreed and he agreed to help them repair the damages and took out the piles of construction supplies he had from his expanded backpack.

The whole village cheered and chanted his name. “Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Harry Potter!”

*

I arrived home at the castle and Nanny was there waiting for me. She tutted at me for exhausting myself again and I hugged her and thanked her for caring so much about me. She blushed and took me back to my room, helped me change, and put me to bed. It had been a long day and I didn't protest being babied as she tucked me under the blanket and kissed my forehead.

I waited a week and checked the book's publishing date before I sent the expanded trunk with 10,000 copies inside to Andromeda. I would let her negotiate with Flourish and Blotts for the rights to sell my stories and also told her to hint that there would be another book coming next year. The exclusive selling rights deal would be one that would make everyone involved a lot of money.

The book was an instant hit and became the most popular book in the wizarding world. Both adults and children wanted to read it or hear it read, because the children's picture books had paved the way. It didn't take long before the book was being sold in several different countries in different wizarding communities around the world.

The demand for more, even if they had to wait to get second and third editions, was enormous. The other Harry Potter merchandise also flew off the shelves. The large plushie Nundu was extremely popular with witches of all ages and they thought the one slashed eye was too cute. The updated Harry Potter plushies were popular as well and the original Toddler Harry plushies quickly became valuable collector items.

A week before the school year started at Hogwarts, a full page ad was placed in The Daily Prophet and a free edition was given to every magical person in Britain to let them know about the tuition subsidy that they could apply for. Depending on your need, the subsidy granted per family would grow if you had more children that went to school, and it was all thanks to Harry Potter.

Harry Potter's fame grew and everyone loved me. The fan mail soon became a torrent and the mail room had to be expanded to handle it all. Both Butter and Moppy loved having so much work to do. I still made sure to put an age appropriate personal touch on my response letters, because I didn't want to disappoint my fans.

*

About 7 months later, a new tomb had been discovered deep in the desert sands of Egypt. A curse-breaking team had been called in and hired for a substantial fee to assess the mostly buried pyramid. It only took them a few weeks to decipher most of the hieroglyphics to determine that it was a long forgotten king.

The mention of a treasure beyond compare made one of the group a little too eager to enter the tomb before all of the safety precautions were put in place. Galleons were almost dancing in his eyes on the easy payoff as he waited for everyone else to go to sleep. He went to the tomb and cast several silence spells before he brought the sledgehammer down onto the stone slab that covered the entrance.

It didn't take him long to break the seal that was thousands of years old. The hiss of escaping air was ignored as he used his wand to finish separating the stone slab and then levitated it out of the way. He conjured a torch and lit it with his wand, and held it in his left hand and kept his wand at the ready as he walked down the stairs and entered the tomb.

The man's skin crawled with a familiar feeling and he cast several dispelling and counter spells for the common curses that most tombs came with. It was almost like a standard practice to include them and he barely hid his triumph as the skin-crawling feeling dissipated. He did not notice the swirling dust at his feet that seemed to follow him.

He avoided and disabled several traps, like several hidden poisoned arrows activated by stepping on a particular stone on the floor and one pit trap with sharpened sticks at the bottom. He suppressed his shiver at the sight of the pile of bones down there and the skittering noise he heard.

After half an hour of hard work, using up nearly all of his magic, he had taken several wrong turns had had to backtrack. It was almost a maze and he hadn't brought the scribe to keep track of everything. It was frustrating him and he was growing tired. He wasn't going to give up, though. The bonus for finding the treasure first would be his!

*

A man's blood-curdling scream cut through the cursebreaker's camp like a hot knife through butter. It woke everyone up, as if it had been magically enhanced and ensured that everyone heard it. The more experienced members leapt to their feet and didn't bother getting dressed. They ran out of their tents with their wands ready and were fully prepared to attack whatever caused that noise.

The man in front was the first to die as a two foot long spike of earth impaled his chest through the heart. To everyone's shock, the spike immediately dissolved into sand and the body fell to the ground.

The others stared as the sand swirled and another spike formed. They didn't quite understand that they shouldn't be standing there and staring at it, until the spike flew at the next man and went through his head and impaled his brain. They got the point then and yelled for everyone to run.

The warning came too late.

*

I felt extremely sad that I wasn't allowed to arrive at the campsite until the story said so. I knew people were dying and there wasn't anything I could do about it. It was all thematically set and I had a specific part to play to correct the cursebreaker's mistake. The idiot had unleashed a very pissed off mummy that used to be a wizard that had made a horcrux.

Well, I knew it as a horcrux. It was actually called a soul phylactery and it contained half of the wizard's soul. It wouldn't have done anything by itself, because the inherent magic of the artifact would have faded to almost nothing after thousands of years. The introduction or infusion of new magic would either activate whatever curses were on it or let it take over whomever found it.

I double-checked the book and sighed. It would be another ten minutes before I could fly in on the magic carpet I had bought in Cairo. I wondered why the British Ministry of Magic banned them from being sold, because they were easy to use, were extremely safe with all the charms on them, and they could seat an entire family. The strong anti-muggle and notice-me-not charms were top notch, too.

I pushed those thoughts aside and reread my lines. I had to deliver them with the right panache to sound both confident and not like I was reading a script, even though that was exactly what I was doing. I took several deep breaths and took out my sword and wand as I mentally commanded my carpet to rise into the air. I counted down as I looked at the invisible clock in my head and nodded.

It was showtime!

*

They were saved! There were only two cursebreakers left from the team of eight and half of their helpers had been slain by the resurrected monster. It's unholy yells and unnatural magic had made short work of destroying the camp and the people in it, even if they hadn't done anything to the thing. Yet, anyway. They were hired to rob the tomb, after all.

Somehow, a young boy wearing glasses and a fancy cape had flown in on his colorful magic carpet, confronted the mummy with some fairly cheesy lines spoken in the Egyptian language, and drew it away from the slaughter that it had been hell-bent on completing for disturbing its resting place.

At one point, the boy disappeared and confused both the creature and the remaining people, then he suddenly reappeared and carried a large golden idol of a Siamese Cat in his hand.

“I'll handle the rest of them and they won't disturb you again! Go back to sleep! GO TO SLEEP!” The boy yelled and then chanted in some weird language as he waved his wand over the golden idol. It glowed a bright gold and the creature screamed as it glowed as well.

A black cloudy mist seemed to be torn out of the thing and it formed a face that screamed, despite not having lungs, then it flew at the boy. He held the idol up to put it in the way and it somehow sucked in the black cloud. The glow faded as the mummy's body dropped to the ground, once again stiff and still, like all mummies were supposed to be.

It took several minutes before anyone realized that it was over. They cheered and hugged, cried a little, and congratulated each other for not being dead. By the time they were done patting themselves on the back, the boy was long gone. The little bastard took the golden idol, too!

When they investigated the tomb after gathering up the bodies, they found that it was empty. There was evidence that it had been raided a long time ago and all that was left was the main sarcophagus. They would never know that Harry had arranged that after raiding the treasure room himself.

The two remaining cursebreakers put the mummy back inside the sarcophagus to ship it to their employers and were glad that the job hadn't been a complete bust. The loss of life was sad; but, being a cursebreaker was a dangerous life and they all accepted the risk when they took the job. They packed up their camp and turned the tomb over to the archaeologists from the local college. With luck, maybe they could get something valuable from the hieroglyphics in the main tomb room.