Work Text:
A typical night for Harry went like this:
Throw his backpack on the floor, take several deep breaths to calm himself down from whatever insult Professor Snape would give him, and then boot up his PC to play War of Light until all his worries fell away.
Growing up with the Dursleys, he'd never been able to play video games the way he'd seen Dudley play all his life. He'd been silently jealous for years, and then despaired over the fact that he couldn't afford a proper gaming console on a college student's budget, but then Hermione had started getting into mmorpgs and had suggested Harry try it too.
The trust fund his parents had left him was more than enough to pay for his tuition in full and also fund his living arrangements, but Harry's neglectful upbringing hadn't allowed him to justify the cost of a gaming console no matter how much money he had sitting in his bank account.
Harry had already owned a PC, and the cost of a single expansion pack for War of Light wasn't even a tenth of the cost of a gaming console, so the next thing he knew, he was creating a character (Ausalari, so he could play on the same faction as Hermione) and having the time of his life.
It had become his daily routine to put on his headset and talk to Ron and Hermione over Discord's voice chat. It was nice, being able to still talk to them even after they had parted at the end of the school day to go to their respective apartments.
He'd gotten the hang of playing the game and soon he was levelling like it was no one's business. Here, he could just forget Snape's dark eyes glaring at him from the front of the chemistry lab, could forget the pit it always left in his stomach when Snape sneered at him…
Harry blinked, seeing the "resurrect now?" box appear on his screen as the game environment turned grey.
"Harry, why are you dead?" Hermione's voice came through on his headset.
"I don't know?"
"Check your combat log, there aren't any kind around you- oh, bollocks."
Harry's eyebrows raised. Hermione had never been the type to be prone to swearing.
"What's wrong?" He was just switching to the combat log on the chat box when Hermione swore again, this time joined by Ron.
"Bloody hell, it's HalfBloodPrince." Ron's box in the party window turned black, indicating that he had died. "'Mione, just get out of there, use your invisibility."
"Can't, he already saw me- okay, I got on my mount, I'm running away."
"Who's HalfBloodPrince?" Harry had finally opened the combat log, and winced when he saw just how much damage he'd been hit for.
"He's pretty infamous in the Growor faction. Some big name raid leader, and is a total prat, as you can see." Ron sounded very pouty as he spoke. "He likes to sneak into the Asalari starting zones to gank low level players."
Harry resurrected himself and respawned back at the town. Hermione's dot on the mini-map was still moving very fast. "Mione, is he still chasing you?"
"Yeah, he's getting closer though."
Harry had always been protective of his best friends, and video games were no exception. He hopped onto his mount and headed towards Hermione's dot on the map.
"Harry, no!" Hermione said. "He's decked out in full legendaries, and you're a warrior, you're weak against mages- just get out."
It was too late. Harry had already desummoned his mount and attacked the blue skinned figure of HalfBloodPrince, his sword animations releasing white streaks of light on the other player.
To his dismay, he barely made a dent. HalfBloodPrince simply healed himself for the miniscule amount of damage Harry had given him, and killed Harry in two shots.
Harry winced as his screen turned grey again. On the bright side, Hermione was finally able to teleport away because of Harry's distraction.
Harry quickly switched to local chat, and typed "Hey, don't you have anything better to do than to harass new players?"
HalfBloodPrince didn't reply, his blue skinned character just standing over Harry's body silently. It looked like he was waiting for Harry to respawn so he could kill him again, and that ticked Harry right off.
"Oi," he typed. "Leave me alone."
A minute passed, and HalfBloodPrince simply replied: "No"
"Harry, don't get into a flamewar. It's not worth it,." Ron said.
"But he-"
"Is a git."
Harry didn't know how much of a git HalfBloodPrince had a reputation of being, because he spent the next two days getting killed by HalfBloodPrince no matter where he went. He would have gotten upset, but then he remembered it was just a video game, and though it was very annoying, he managed to stop himself from sending paragraphs of obscenities at the other player and would make himself some tea instead.
"What's the deal with that guy, anyway?" Harry had asked Hermione once HalfBloodPrince seemed to have gotten bored from killing him a week later.
"Well, he's pretty infamous in the Growor faction. He was one of the first players on the server to get a legendary weapon, and then one of the first to get a full set of legendary armor." Hermione told him. "He leads a lot of raids in that faction, and he likes to PVP a lot, as you could probably already tell. He's been on the worldwide top ten pvp rankings for a while now. He's … not very popular. I never thought we'd come across him, but here we are."
Harry snorted with laughter. Hermione, though she was far more experienced at War of Light than either him or Ron, was still a pretty casual player, but one that knew her stuff.
A quick Google search of "HalfBloodPrince" led him to a few streamers raging and hurling obscenities after being killed by him and the other members of his guild.
It seemed like The Death EATERZ guild was nearly, if not more, infamous than HalfBloodPrince was, and HalfBloodPrince happened to be one of its most prolific members.
Harry searched his guild tab for The Death EATERZ and quickly winced and closed the tab when he saw that one of the first requirements listed for membership was to have over a thousand kill count. He did not want to interact with those people, but thankfully, it was a Growor guild, so he probably never would unless he got ganked by them.
Harry had created a small guild for him and Ron and Hermione to share, but considering they were the only three members, it could hardly be considered a guild. All three of them had also joined the massive "GRYFFINDORKS" guild, which really didn't do much as it was really just a guild for people who had chosen the griffin as their starting mount.
He really did want to join a more focused and active guild soon- upon further research, there were a lot of activities in World of Light that would be difficult to complete without a large, focused group. Hermione had been echoing the same sentiment, as she still hasn't progressed much gear or level wise even after playing for a year.
However, Professor Snape had assigned their term project and soon all thoughts of gaming had fled Harry's mind.
The assignment for the term was to write a ten page essay, back to back, about a topic of their choice. However, those topics would obviously have to be vetted and approved by the Professor himself, and Harry now nervously waited outside of Snape's office waiting his turn, and dreading whatever Snape had to say about his list.
The thing was, he did actually like this course. He had specifically chosen Professor Snape's class because he was one of the leading experts on the field.
So to have Snape just constantly sneer at his efforts and to constantly go on about Harry's idiocy in front of the class actually hurt a little.
Half an hour later, Harry stepped out of Snape's office shaking with anger. At the very least, Snape had approved one of the topics, but had made sure to let Harry know it was still "uninspired, inane, and shamefully juvenile".
Well, bugger him. Harry would write the paper and he would make it a damn good one.
Harry ended up not logging into War of Light for a week. He poured all of his attention into writing the paper and calling Hermione over and over to get her opinion on nearly every line he wrote, and had checked out what was basically an entire mountain of books in the desperate hope of finding at least one line referencing the topic.
Ron complained that Harry had turned into Hermione, but stopped complaining when Harry asked if that meant he and Ron were dating now.
By the end of the week Harry had consumed more than his weight in caffeine and handed his paper in at Snape's office. He didn't even care what Snape had to say about the essay.
He didn't bother to talk to the greasy git, just dropped his paper on his desk with a "Hullo, Professor" and left. Snape didn't even seem to acknowledge his presence and was typing away on his laptop with a speed and a look that indicated that he was mad about something. Harry didn't bother finding out what it was.
He was grateful to open War of Light again. Hermione and Ron were on their weekly date night, leaving Harry to play alone, but he didn't mind. Maybe he would just relax and kill some mobs in the safe zones.
About an hour into killing random monsters, Harry took a look at his chatbox and noticed that it was suddenly being pretty active. Ginny, Dean, and Seamus tended to chat using the faction tab, and never particularly cared who saw their conversations.
LightEmUp: yo holy shit halfbloodprince got banned
GuyfromHowToGetAwayWithMurder: forreal tho?
LightEmUp: yeah I was levelling my growor toon and their faction chat was going nuts
LightEmUp: apparently he figured out how to solo Sleepless Town
LightEmUp: and you know that LusciousLocks dude has had beef with him for a while so he reported him to the GMs
LightEmUp: he only got banned for 24 hours but still
SephirothsWife: like did he exploit or use a hack or
LightEmUp: ok so idk the full details but HalfBloodPrince figured out that mages can actually use their spellsteal skill to steak the buffs of the mobs in that dungeon
LightEmUp: so he just went in there and solod the whole thing
SephirothsWife: sounds like he just knows how to use his skills LOL better than half you idiots on this faction
GuyfromHowToGetAwayWithMurder: I don't get how that would be bannable, I'm a mage too but even after stealing that buff wouldn't it still be really hard to keep the mobs alive make progress in the dungeon? Unless he really did use hacks or something
GuyfromHowToGetAwayWithMurder: also isn't LusciousLocks also in his guild? It seems to me like someone was jealous of his pvp rankings lol
LightEmUp: yeah smells like bs lmao… listen up everyone if you're good at the game you're getting banned XDXD
Harry wasn't high enough of a level to be able to speak in the faction chat, but the feeling of joy at HalfBloodPrince being banned quickly left him after reading the rest of the details Seamus had sent.
He'd forgotten how petty people in video games could be. HalfBloodPrince was bloody annoying, yes, but hadn't even seemed to have done anything worthy of getting banned. He almost felt sorry for the bloke.
Though the ban was rumored to last only 24 hours, Harry didn't see HalfBloodPrince online for another week. He had long since added HalfBloodPrince on his friend list so he could see whether or not he had to avoid whatever zone he saw he was in. It didn't help much, but it was worth the effort.
The rest of the week at the university ended up being a lot less stressful than he'd thought it would be.
Harry had gotten his essay back from Professor Snape and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw the passing grade at the top- barely passing, but that was pretty huge from Snape.
Snape also wasn't a big of a bully this week, either. He was quieter, and seemed to be bothered by something, but Harry didn't dare ask or bring it up. His classmates definitely gossipped about it, though.
It was… weird. Seeing Snape not his usual domineering and villainous self was off-putting.
Despite his better judgement, Harry approaches him at the end of class on Tuesday.
"Sir..?" He approached the desk where Snape sat hesitantly, knowing full well this was akin to poking a sleeping dragon with a stick.
"If you have come to ask me to reconsider your paper's grade, Potter, the answer is no." Snape scowled at him, and slammed his laptop shut. Harry winced, but pressed on.
"No- you've just been quieter this week… are you alright?"
Harry wanted to just jump out of the window the moment the words had left his mouth. Or punch himself.
Snape's face made an odd, confused expression, but it settled back into its usual sneer.
"Out, Potter."
Harry fled.
He met up with Hermione and Ron later that night. By now, checking for HalfBloodPrince's location had become a daily habit, even if they mostly stuck to the safe zones.
"Oh hey," Ron said. "HalfBloodPrince is back. Guess they figured what he didn't wasn't bannable after all."
Considering that the latest patch notes included a hefty nerf to the spellsteal ability for mages, Harry held back his snort of laughter to himself.
"That's so scummy, though, his own guild trying to get him banned," Hermione said. "They kept all the loot from that dungeon, too."
"He was probably a berk to them too," Ron said.
"Yeah, but-"
"Oh, jeez. HalfBloodPrince is here." HalfBloodPrince's username showed that he was currently in the Thunderhead Isle with them. "Watch out for him."
"Oh come on, I don't have any portals left,." Hermione said.
Harry had managed to get better gear over the past week without HalfBloodPrince there to thwart his grinding efforts, but not even near good enough to beat someone rumored to have multiple legendary sets.
Just then, he saw HalfBloodPrince riding towards him on his mount, and Harry was nearly about to switch to local chat to beg him, once again, to leave them alone, when he noticed something a bit off.
"Um, 'Mione?" Harry said. "He's here, but his name is green."
"Green?" Hermione asked. "Harry, try clicking him."
Harry did, and a small box reading 'member of the Asalari Alliance' appeared next to his mouse.
"I didn't even know you could switch factions," He said, baffled.
"You can, but it's very difficult to. Not surprised he'd be able to pull it off, though."
Harry was about to speak, but then he saw three small purple dots above HalfBloodPrince's head, indicating he was about to whisper to Harry.
"Oh my God, 'Mione, he just sent me a guild invite link."
"What guild?!" Hermione's voice went up a few pitches. "Oh my… he sent me one too. Ron, did you get one?"
"Yeah…" Ron sounded mystified.
Harry opened the invitation, and sat back, stumped.
"The Order of the Phoenix" was one of the top rated Asalari guilds. It was even higher rated than "The Death EATERZ".
The guild leader, MrHeadMaster, was one of the most notorious players in War of Light history. The Order of the Phoenix, under his leadership, had snagged many world firsts and set all sorts of records. Getting an invite was pretty huge.
"They let him in that guild?" Ron asked. "I'm accepting, I don't know about you guys."
"They made him an officer too, since he can invite people," Hermione said.
Harry clicked "accept", still mystified, and watched with an excited glee as appeared over his character's head.
Then, he got another invite, this one even more mystifying.
"Did you guys get a family invite too?" Harry asked.
"No…?"
Harry blinked, and accepted the family invite too.
He sent HalfBloodPrince a whisper.
Firebolt: hi
Firebolt: ...why?
HalfBloodPrince: need family buff
HalfBloodPrince: discord.gg/xxxxxxx
HalfBloodPrince: MrHeadMaster wants you in comms. Be there.
Well… that made sense, he supposed. But why Harry?
The discord link sent him to the Order of Phoenix's guild discord server, where he could see HalfBloodPrince in the voice channel with MrHeadMaster.
The guild chat tab was suddenly flooding with messages welcoming the three of them. Harry felt overwhelmed pretty quickly, but did manage to send a few "nice to meet you"s in reply.
Not for the first time, Harry felt pretty intimidated. The invitation from HalfBloodPrince was startling enough, but MrHeadMaster was a name even people who had never played War of Light knew about.
He entered the voice channel, and nearly slapped himself when he stuttered out a "H-hello."
"Welcome!" MrHeadMaster's voice boomed in through his headset, sounding exactly like he did in the numerous guides for War of Light he had posted on YouTube, and it made the situation suddenly sink in for Harry.
He was sitting in a voice channel with two of the most famous players in War of Light history.
"Nice to meet you." He said. "Er…"
"Headmaster," a very deep voice said. HalfBloodPrince. The voice was vaguely familiar, but only vaguely, having that crackly and muffled quality talking over Discord usually had. The voice was very attractive, and Harry suddenly hoped that he would keep talking. "Firebolt has accepted the family request."
"Ah, yes, yes. There you go, you have the permissions now."
"Ignore the next request, Firebolt." HalfBloodPrince said. Harry shivered.
He received a raid join request from HalfBloodPrince and clicked "ignore" as requested.
"Congratulations, Prince." MrHeadMaster said. "I trust you won't be raiding with your old guild anymore?"
HalfBloodPrince snorted, even that sounded attractive. "Honestly, Headmaster, they can keep the loot. Anyway- Firebolt."
"Y-Yeah?"
"Your damage output is abysmal. And you are too under-levelled to be grinding in pvp zones. As is your party. Tell them to come here, and bring your xp boosters."
A few minutes later, Harry heard the Discord singing sound that indicated Hermione and Ron had entered the voice chat.
"Hi…" Hermione squeaked out. Ron remained silent.
"WitchDarling," HalfBloodPrince said. "Have you ever been to Dragon Steppes?"
"N-no… neither have Firebolt or Treacle. We're not high enough of a level to beat the mobs there."
"Neither are any of you high enough levels to farm in pvp zones, and your damage outputs are abysmal. I cannot even tell what roles any of you are meant to be. Join my party."
They all joined HalfBloodPrince's party, and Harry's character waited next to where HalfBloodPrince for Hermione and Ron to catch up to them.
HalfBloodPrince created a portal, and they all went through it.
"Stay close and catch up," HalfBloodPrince said when they had loaded into the map. He summoned a mount, and Harry's mouth dropped open.
HalfBloodPrince had summoned a Black Drakar, which was not only currently the most expensive and most difficult to obtain mounts in the game, but was also the only two seater mount in the game.
"Firebolt," HalfBloodPrince said. "You're the lowest levelled one here. Get on my mount."
The Black Drakar was a majestic long, flying serpent that was a flat black with stars floating about it, looking as if a serpent like shape had been cut out of the game's environment to reveal a night sky behind it. Harry didn't have to be asked twice and seated his character on the mount.
"Catch up, and pop your xp boosters." HalfBloodPrince didn't jump on the mount himself. His character remained still for a moment, and Harry watched as he unequipped his (very impressive looking) gear and put on a set of legendary DPS gear instead.
Hermione and Ron were forced to keep up as best as they could as HalfBloodPrince took off into a run killing every mob he came across, and Harry watched as his level bar grew with the massive amount of xp he was receiving.
Harry didn't have to do anything, just sit there on HalfBloodPrince's mount and watch as he went from level 43 to level 50 in the span of an hour.
He wondered if this was the other player's way of apologizing for killing him so many times, and if the price for being able to just sit back and watch the xp come in was to get ganked over and over, he would happily let HalfBloodPrince do it again. Not that he could, as they were in the same faction now, but the point stood.
As HalfBloodPrince killed mobs, he eviscerated the three of them.
"The first problem," HalfBloodPrince, it seemed, was excellent at multitasking, as he killed a whole group of mobs with an aoe. "-is your gear, Firebolt. Your pants and your boots are underleveled, and most of your stats come from your accessories, yet you don't have any equipped. Are you a tank or a dps?"
"I was going for dps," Harry admitted.
"Wonderful. Destroy your sword. Is there a reason why you believed that vitality would be a good stat for a main weapon as a dps?"
"I wanted to stay alive-"
"If you are a dps, Firebolt, you stay alive by killing things before they can kill you."
Harry received an inbox notification then before he could make a retort, and quieted when he saw that HalfBloodPrince had sent him a full set of gear.
"I can't accept-"
"I suggest not finishing that sentence, Firebolt."
Harry flushed, and equipped the gear.
"You will need a new set when you're at a higher level anyway. I trust you could come by that by yourself."
The HalfBloodPrince had gone from annoying Harry to having Harry blush just by opening his mouth. It really should be illegal to have a voice like that.
Three hours later, Harry was at level 60 and Hermione and Ron were at levels 98 and 74 respectively.
"You will be expected to attend raid training and pvp training," MrHeadMaster said. "As Prince is now our new raid leader, you'll be spending your time with him. Once again, welcome to the guild, and it's past my bedtime. Toodles!"
They said their goodbyes, and MrHeadMaster logged out of the server, leaving them alone with HalfBloodPrince. Hermione and Ron had been spending the last three hours editing their stats and using up their gold to get new gear according to HalfBloodPrince's advice, and Ron sounded a bit put out from having to spend gold when Harry had gotten his set for free.
Eventually HalfBloodPrince tired of killing modve, and Hermione had to study, so she and Ron also logged out, leaving Harry alone with HalfBloodPrince.
"So…" Harry said.
"Out with it."
"... Do we have a family home instance?"
A family home instance was a space that could be chosen from any large town that only a particular player and their family could access.
"Yes." HalfBloodPrince spat out. He de-summoned the mount, making Harry's character fall on the ground, and opened a portal to a city zone.
The Golden Rise was a neutral zone that both the Asalari and Growor factions could access, but could not PVP in. It had a fantasy city theme to it, filled with various NPCs and, thankfully, no mobs anywhere.
HalfBloodPrince joined Harry's character on the mount this time after it was quickly resummoned, and took them to where the entrance of the home instance was, a massive white tower where a group of AFK players were standing outside of.
They entered the instance together, and loaded into an empty room with a sort of Viking theme to it. It was the usual family home instance for Asalari players, and Harry realized HalfBloodPrince must have had to start over after leaving the Growor faction.
Furniture started appearing in various spots in the room. Harry left HalfBloodPrince to his decorating and went to save the instance so he could go there at anytime he wanted, and went to check the faction chat.
MoneySpell: HalfBloodPrince got let into Order of Phoenix ew lmao
MoneySpell: we don't want u here
SephirothsWife: dude who cares, stop flaming the chat lmao
SephirothsWife: halfbloodprince killed me like 69 times and you don't see me b******* about it.
SephirothsWife: lol
Harry felt his annoyance raise, and he was reporting the player before he could even think about it. He then quickly realized that since he was over level 50, he could actually talk now.
Firebolt: is that LusciousLocks's alt?
SephirothsWife: o s*** i think it is
SephirothsWife: imagine driving someone out of your faction and then making an alt to beg him to come back lmao you suck
Go, Ginny. Harry laughed to himself and turned his attention back to the home instance, and saw that various expensive and glowing furniture had been set around the room. There was a massive bed that, upon hovering over it, Harry discovered he could get a random buff by sleeping on for a few minutes. He immediately did so, and heard HalfBloodPrince laugh.
"No need to come to my defense, Firebolt." HalfBloodPrince said. "I am well aware of my reputation. And yes, that is Snake's alt."
"What did you ever do to him? Isn't he the one that reported you?"
HalfBloodPrince let out an annoyed sigh. "Yes. He wasn't happy when I began continuously defeating him in duels, and resorted to juvenile tactics. I would simply ignore him if I were you."
"Why did you add me to your family?" Harry asked next.
"Headmaster gave me one condition to become a raid leader for this guild, and it was getting a family buff. Simple as that."
"Yeah, but why me?"
"So many questions with you."
Harry waited, until it became clear he wasn't getting an answer.
HalfBloodPrince then set down a cluster of synthesizers for crafting materials down in one corner, and Harry happily took what he needed from them.
"I think it's pretty cool, though," Harry said. "You got an entire patch named after you."
HalfBloodPrince was silent for a moment, then snorted.
Playing with HalfBloodPrince was very different from when he, Ron and Hermione were struggling through quests together.
The rest of the Order of the Phoenix guild was usually off in some high level raid together, and they didn't meet up with HalfBloodPrince until after those were done. Apparently, the guild had even more clears now with HalfBloodPrince as their raid leader, though some griped that he was too harsh with his commands.
It was pretty nice to kill things and just have HalfBloodPrince heal him every time his health dipped beneath 50 percent. Harry hoped he wouldn't become too reliant on having the best healer on the server constantly with him. He could almost forgive him for murdering Harry's character over and over. Almost.
At university, Professor Snape seemed to have snapped out of his depressed mood and was as snappy and insulting as ever. Harry tried to not be relieved, but it was difficult.
"... sir?" He was hanging around after class again. This time, Snape did not slam his laptop shut, and just raised his head to look at him with a raised brow.
"What, Potter?"
"I'm glad you're feeling better."
Snape just stared at him, and Harry ran out before he could say something stupid again, but he still smiled to himself on the drive home.
When Harry logged into Discord and War of Light at the same time that night, and found that he had a friend request from HalfBloodPrince. He quickly accepted it, and upon loading in, found himself outside the entrance of the family home instance.
He jumped on his mount and explored the city for a bit, and then received a whisper from HalfBloodPrince.
HalfBloodPrince: the Chaos Split is spawning at Lake Locke in 5 minutes.
HalfBloodPrince: are you coming?
The PVP voice channel for Order of the Phoenix was full, but he didn't see HalfBloodPrince on the list, and he was debating whether or not to just enter the general voice chat alone when HalfBloodPrince just called him through a private message.
"H-Hello."
"Meet me outside the home instance," HalfBloodPrince ordered.
Harry did, and jumped through the portal HalfBloodPrince made.
"I've never done a world boss before," Harry said.
"It's a simple one. If you're not enough of a dunderhead to stand in the big red circles, or an infant, you will be alright. Do the rotation I showed you yesterday." The 'or else' went unsaid, but Harry heard it loud and clear.
When they loaded in, there were already nearly a hundred players already waiting for the boss to spawn.
As promised, the boss really was simple. According to the game lore, the Chaos Split was where the goddess Hel opened a portal into the world to send forth a mere copy of herself to cause chaos. Of course, the goddess's plan would be foiled daily after getting jumped by over a hundred players hungry for loot.
The rotation HalfBloodPrince had shown him was a very simple one, but it was still much better than what he was doing before, and with the better gear, his damage output was vastly improved. Harry only died twice, which was a marked better job than many of the other players did.
Harry finally got to see, for the first time, the infamous HalfBloodPrince in action. His new friend was healing everyone around him for huge percentages, timed his invisibility skills exactly right to leave combat and switch to his DPS gear, do large amounts of damage, then go back to healing.
The skill he displayed with ease was amazing. Harry could see now why LusciousLocks was so jealous- if Harry had that type of personality to be that kind of jealous, he would be too.
The raid soon disbanded, and then they met up with Hermione and Ron's characters to continue the power levelling session.
HalfBloodPrince was also skilled enough that Harry hardly ever got hit by the mobs, and healing Harry so fast he hardly noticed that he had taken damage.
Harry never could have beaten this guy, and it dawned on him how immensely lucky he had gotten.
"So how long have you been playing?"
HalfBloodPrince made a "hmm" sound. "Since launch."
"Wow, so … eight years, huh?"
HalfBloodPrince chuckled, and the sound sent a pleased shiver down Harry's spine. "Mmm. The community gets stupider every day."
Harry burst out laughing. "Well you can kill players as if they're mobs, so does it really matter?"
He could hear the smile in HalfBloodPrince's voice. "Indeed, Firebolt."
Hermione's dot suddenly went dark on the screen, and HalfBloodPrince muttered a small "Fuck."
He ignored how hot hearing HalfBloodPrince swear was, and paid attention to what was happening. HalfBloodPrince rushed over to where Hermione's corpse was and began the slow process of reviving her.
Firebolt: what happened
WitchDarling: player attacked me
WitchDarling: LusciousLocks
HalfBloodPrince let out an aggravated sigh. "I'll go hunt him down, continue rezzing her."
HalfBloodPrince's character stood and ran off while casting aoes, but didn't stray too far. A large aoe revealed LusciousLocks, who immediately used his rogue ability to attack Ron. Harry used a crowd control skill, and it landed, stunning LusciousLocks, allowing HalfBloodPrince to strike the other player several times in rapid succession with his lightning bolt skills.
LusciousLocks: lol u really need 3 people to beat me huh
LusciousLocks: fucking f*****
LusciousLocks: f****** suck
LusciousLocks: you're so f****** prince
LusciousLocks: can't wait for u to be kicked out of ur s***** guild too lol
"Dunderhead," HalfBloodPrince muttered.
Harry felt his rage grow with every stupid message LusciousLocks sent, and started using his kick emote. His character began kicking LusciousLocks's corpse over and over, knowing full well he was painting a huge target on his back as he did so.
LusciousLocks: lol prince using your alt to kick my corpse?
HalfBloodPrince: that's not my alt
HalfBloodPrince: how have your raids been going lucy?
HalfBloodPrince: got any clears lately?
HalfBloodPrince: :)
"Have they?" Harry asked.
"Well," HalfBloodPrince said. "One can make a deduction, considering that their clear count shown on the guild index hasn't increased in, oh… perhaps three weeks now?"
"Wow," Harry said. "I guess they're bitter."
"Mmm. One would be bitter after spending thousands of pounds on gear, and still not being any good at actually using it."
Harry's mouth dropped open. "You're joking."
"I'm afraid not."
"But… that's an actual bannable offense. And he reported you for clearing a dungeon and letting his guild keep the loot?"
"I know, and you will do well not to share that," HalfBloodPrince said. "I could get his account permanently banned if he makes too many missteps. He's already on thin ice after reporting me. But… ah, he doesn't know that I know."
"Bloody hell," Harry muttered. Game politics never ceased to amaze him.
Private party chat
HalfBloodPrince: ignore him
HalfBloodPrince: get in the port
They all jumped into the portal, leaving the corpse behind.
There was another instance, a few days later, when Harry went into a panic an hour into the daily power level grind with HalfBloodPrince when he realized he hadn't done his homework for Snape's class.
Granted, it was still six hours away from the deadline, but he glanced between where his character silently rode on HalfBloodPrince's mount and to his notebook.
"You don't happen to know anything about chemistry, do you?"
HalfBloodPrince was silent for a moment. "I… might."
Harry rambled about the equation he was having trouble with. HalfBloodPrince's voice sounded strained as he spoke, as perhaps anyone's would be if they were asked about chemistry in the middle of what was meant to be their fun time, but he quietly listened as Harry explained the problem, and then explained how to solve the equation.
Harry was able to email Snape the homework only half an hour after his small freakout, and then he fell all over himself to thank HalfBloodPrince.
"You have no idea-" Harry said. "Really, thank you- Jesus, I was really freaking out there."
HalfBloodPrince only chuckled, and said, "Glad that I could be of use to you."
Over the next few days, school got hectic again as exams came around. Harry sent a quick message in the Order of the Phoenix Discord that he wouldn't be online for a few days to study for his exams. Coincidentally, HalfBloodPrince also sent a message saying his work was getting hectic as well, so Harry wouldn't be missing any playing time with him. He had also sent a message saying the same thing into Harry's private messages, which made his stomach flip flop pleasantly. A guildmate named "Tonkzz" promised to gank LusciousLocks as often as she could while they were gone, closing her message to say that raiding "low-key sucked ass" if HalfBloodPrince wasn't leading it, so she had the free time to do it.
Harry ended up taking his strictly-for-school-only laptop and ended up at a cozy little cafe down the road from the university, not trusting himself to be able to resist the call of War of Light if he studied at home.
The cafe was a nice one, solely because it was a bit more hidden away from the usual throngs of stressed university students.
The bell above the door clanged as another customer walked in, and Harry looked up to see none other than Severus Snape walk in, carrying a laptop of his own.
He looked down at his cup and decided he needed another coffee. Urgently. Maybe a scone to go with it too.
"Hullo, Professor…" Harry said sheepishly as he lined up behind Snape.
Snape, it seemed, hadn't noticed him, and actually jumped slightly. His usual sneer curled onto his face. "Potter."
"That will be £2.10," the barista said. Snape shifted the laptop in his arms and struggled to undoubtedly reach for his wallet in one of his bags.
Harry brushed past him and pulled out his own wallet. "That's alright, I'll pay."
"What are you-" Snape started, but the barista was already accepting Harry's money with a smile.
"Maybe a scone too?" The barista said sweetly. "The Professor likes the cranberry ones."
"That too, then."
Harry had no idea why he was doing it, but the startled expression on Snape's ugly face was almost cute.
"Buying me coffee won't increase your grade, Potter, in case you were thinking of adding a chocolate bar to your purchases-"
"That wasn't what I was going for, sir." Harry gestured towards his table. "Do you want to..
?"
"There's plenty of free space around." Snape sneered at him again, but he did take the table next to Harry's, so that was something.
"Exam work?" Harry asked when Snape opened his laptop. Snape glared at him briefly, and then turned his attention back to the screen.
"Research, if you must know. "
Harry looked down at his coffee before Snape could accuse him of attempting to steal glances at the term exam answers. When he looked up again, Snape was actually looking at a spreadsheet and frowning to himself, so Harry left him to it and enjoyed his coffee.
"After term ends-" Harry swallowed. "Do you want to .. get coffee, or something?"
It sounded pathetic. Harry immediately wanted to jam his fork into his eye.
Snape's hands froze over the keyboard.
"Are you- this is terribly inappropriate, Potter!" Snape's face turned a putrid shade of red.
"After term ends," Harry repeated.
"... I do not understand," Snape said. "Are you trying to tell me that you, of all people, are-"
He cut himself off, and swallowed.
"'Of all people?'" Harry repeated.
"Mr. Potter," Snape's voice was very even. "You are a handsome young man, with a wealth of opportunities before you-"
"You think I'm handsome?" Harry's voice sounded a little too hopeful right then. "Sir- just one date. If it doesn't work out, we can forget about it."
Snape opened his mouth, and closed it again.
"After term," Snape said.
Harry grinned. "It's a date."
Harry was filled with excited, lovestruck energy all the way through exam week. Snape could hardly look him in the eye when he gave him his finished exam paper, and perhaps the grin Harry shot him didn't help either.
The rest of his exams were alright, he knew he had most likely passed all of them, and thus was in a relaxed and happy mood when he booted up his PC to open War of Light.
The first thing he saw was a new load screen, and a mail notification containing the new patch notes.
Harry opened the patch notes with some interest. War of Light was introducing a new tier of weapons, which were slightly better than legendary gear, with some extra stats. The new weapon tier gave some extra, very cool looking animations when a character walked around, as demonstrated in a demo video.
Harry opened the list of crafting materials and recoiled at the sheer amount of expensive materials that appeared on the screen. He should probably focus on more attainable gear right now. Probably. It wasn't bad to want things, though.
His interest was especially taken by the Psinne's Battle-axe's design. It had a silver and navy blue theme to it, and engulfed the owner's character with blue flames. The effect was rather beautiful. According to the patch notes, it was the weapon of legend of Psinne, a long dead hero, who had used her own weapon to slit her throat after her lover, Neithmordus, had died.
Neithmordus had a weapon made named after him as well, Neithmordus's Greatsword, which had apparently been forever lost when he had drowned at sea. That had the animation effect of swathing its owner in dark shadows, and made the character leave inky dark footsteps as they walked.
Gorgeous, and so hideously unattainable. Harry resigned himself to a Psinne's Great-axe-less gaming experience, and opened up one of the many guides HalfBloodPrince had sent him.
What was more attainable, but still hideously expensive, was the Ruby Encrusted Sword. It was a rare drop from the final boss in the Twilight Town raid, and apparently many a drama had happened between many guilds -now disbanded- over who got to keep it after it dropped.
It had the perfect stats Harry needed, and the 2% increased damage would be pretty helpful, too. He was at level 80 now, thanks to HalfBloodPrince's power levelling, and he could join raids if he wanted.
He just needed to join raid training first, so he sent HalfBloodPrince a whisper detailing his plan. HalfBloodPrince didn't reply for nearly an hour, and when Harry opened his friend list to find that HalfBloodPrince was in a high levelled pvp zone that Harry really didn't feel like fighting his way through. He resolved to join Hermione and Ron to clear some low levelled dungeons for a while, and they had just finished a run when HalfBloodPrince sent a message in faction chat.
HalfBloodPrince never spoke in faction chat. He hardly even spoke in guild chat.
HalfBloodPrince: [Neithmordus's Greatsword]
Harry's mouth dropped open. The patch had only been out for two days.
The rest of the faction chat shared his sentiments.
HalfBloodPrince:[Neithmordus's Greatsword]
Tonkzz: how much do you want for it
Tonkzz: f**** dude how much do you want for it
Tonkzz: I have 500k on me right now
HalfBloodPrince: it's not for sale
HalfBloodPrince: :)
LEstray: crying in the club rn
LEstray: congrats man
Byebyebye: holy s*** that is so beautiful
Tonkzz: not even for your guildie :'(
LightEmUp: yoooo wtf
LightEmUp: I f***** HATE YOUUU
MoneySpell: lol show off much?
Trade chat:
MoneySpell: wtb Neithmordus's Greatsword
MoneySpell: pm me for offers
HalfBloodPrince: no :)
MoneySpell: f*** you I wasn't talking to you
SephirothsWife: bro it's the only tier 2 legendary on the server
SephirothsWife: probably the only one on EU too
SephirothsWife: so good luck lmfao
Tonkzz: LusciousLocks come on man you know prince can see trade chat right???? everyone knows this is your alt literally everyone
Harry called HalfBloodPrince on Discord.
"Congratulations!" He gasped, and then realized how breathy his voice sounded. "Two days, Prince, that's amazing!'
"I already had most of the materials." HalfBloodPrince sounded nonchalant about it, but Harry could hear the smugness in his voice. "The rest were pvp achievement related."
Harry glanced at the list, saw that one of the materials was the achievement reward after over five hundred pvp kills in a particular map, and shuddered.
"You're insane, you know that?"
"Hm. I might be even more insane when you hear what I'm about to tell you next."
"What?"
"I'm working on another one."
Harry might have been jealous, but frankly, that ingredient list was far too intimidating to be anything other than awed.
"You're really insane." He laughed. "Which one are you working on? Psinne's Battle-axe is … well, it's just beautiful."
"I can see you have your eyes on that one."
"Yeah," he laughed. "But I think I'll focus on the tier 1 legendaries first. Those are still pretty hard to get. Not as pretty, though."
"Mmm…" HalfBloodPrince sounded thoughtful now. "Can I show you something?"
Harry blinked. "Okay…?'
He got into the port HalfBloodPrince made, and found that they had loaded near the base of Kuna Delta, a mountain in the game that was known to be the highest point in the whole map. It was notoriously difficult to climb, but with the Black Drakar mount, it was probably significantly easier.
Harry was made to get on the mount again, and it was silent as HalfBloodPrince climbed them slowly up the mountain. There was a garden at the top though only blurry images of it existed on the internet.
Harry imagined what it would be like if he were actually on a long, black dragon, his arms around the person before him.
He closed his eyes, and he thought he could feel the chilly wind in his hair, feel dark hair brushing against his cheeks-
His stomach dropped then. That really wasn't fair to HalfBloodPrince. He probably looked nothing like Snape in real life- who on Earth did look like Snape, other than Snape himself?
HalfBloodPrince had an attractive voice, yes, and he was a great partner to play with, but…
He hadn't known when he'd decided Snape was it for him. When he'd decided he wanted to take his surly Professor out for coffee, and maybe bake him his special treacle tart recipe too.
The top of the mountain blew away all of Harry's expectations as the lighting abruptly changed to warm pinks and oranges. The garden had a beautiful design, little animated flower petals flying through the air, a few white arches, but what really cinched the location's beauty was the view.
"Woah-" Harry made his character jump off the mount and moved closer to the edge to get a better look. "That's- you can literally see the entire world from here. Holy…"
"Mmm, they edited the draw distance for this location, I believe." HalfBloodPrince joined Harry's character.
"It's beautiful," Harry breathed.
"..yes, yes it is."
Harry grinned, and if he had been standing next to HalfBloodPrince in real life, he would have hugged him. Instead, he targeted HalfBloodPrince and typed in "/love/" into the chatbox and watched as his character drew a heart in the air with its hands.
"Oh- I might vomit." Despite his words, HalfBloodPrince sounded pleased.
"You've done so much for me, I really don't know how I'll ever make all of this up to you.” He ran a circle around the garden.
"There is no need for that."
"Here." Harry sent the one valuable item he owned, a rare armor skin he had gotten out of a reward box randomly when he had first started playing.
"No, keep it-"
"It's a cash shop item, and I didn't like it much."
The armor skin made the chest piece it was applied to take on the image of a black blazer with golden dragons at its shoulders, and it was also on fire. Nice to look at, but not really Harry's style.
HalfBloodPrince didn't respond, but the chest piece he wore changed to the skin Harry had sent him, making a grin appear on his face.
"I really hated you when I first came across you, you know."
A laugh. "I was quite bored that week."
"You're horrible." Harry laughed too, and if his face felt far too warm, he didn't have to acknowledge it.
The end of the term had Harry waiting nervously in the same cafe, two black coffees waiting on a tray in front of him. He watched the minutes tick by, and was wondering if Snape had decided not to come after all when the door opened and Snape came in, a scowl still painted on his face, though the wild look in his eyes was unfamiliar to Harry.
"H-Hi!" Harry stood, and then sat down.
"Calm yourself, Potter." Snape sat down across from him, and Harry pushed one of the coffees towards him. "Oh."
"I got you a coffee," Harry said with a smile.
"...thank you." Snape took a sip, and Harry's eyes zeroed in on where his lips sat on the cup, then looked away.
"So, term's over," Harry said.
"Yes, quite." Snape raises an eyebrow. "Otherwise this ill-advised 'date' of ours would be quite controversial indeed."
"It was an extra credit course." Harry shrugged. "I happened to be taken in by its teacher."
Color rose high in Snapes cheeks. Harry kept the smug grin from breaking out on his face.
"I honestly don't know what has gotten into your dunderhead brain," Snape said. "Of all the people in the world, why-"
"Why ask out one of the snarkiest bastards I've ever met? The snarkiest bastard who also happens to be one of the funniest people I've ever met, one of the smartest, and has a talent for eviscerating people verbally?" Harry smirked. "Yeah, I wonder why I would want to go on a date with you."
"Well," Snape said evenly. "I suppose you're not too bad yourself, even if you do have dust between your ears."
It ended up being best date Harry had ever been on. When they parted ways two hours later outside of the cafe, he even felt bold enough to peck Snape on the lips. The older man had startled and looked at Harry with an expression that intimated he wanted a bit more than a peck on the lips, but Harry just grinned at him and went off to find his Uber driver.
Harry had managed to cajole Snape- Severus now, perhaps, and god, what a thrilling thought that was- into giving him his phone number.
He settled for sending Severus a short message that read "Made it home, can't wait to see you again" and sent it before he could overthink the text.
He turned on his PC and was dismayed to find that HalfBloodPrince wasn't online, either on War of Light or Discord. He would have liked to gush to his friend about his date.
Though, thinking about it… perhaps not.
Odd, how his two crushes could be so similar yet so different at the same time. For one, Harry doubted that the infamously surly and cynical academic Professor would ever be interested in playing something so juvenile as an MMORPG. Perhaps Harry could cajole him into making an account if things went well between them.
Harry spent the term break spending countless hours exploring maps with HalfBloodPrince, raid training, and buying cosmetic items. There was a particular potion in the game that turned one's character into a giant bunny, and he spent many hours tormenting HalfBloodPrince by using it.
In the day time, he had dates with Severus, who grew more relaxed around Harry the more dates they went on.
Last night, he had even kissed Harry's cheek.
His heart drummed in his chest as he thought about that small kiss. He had, of course, pulled Severus down to give him a better one.
Yet when he laughed with HalfBloodPrince over things like dying from falling off of high locations in War of Light, he felt guilty.
HalfBloodPrince was different, special, but he was still just a person who he liked to play a video game with. He wasn't like Severus, but he couldn't help from wanting anyway.
Then came the new path.
The update file was a rather large one. Harry ended up having to spend an hour fiddling on his phone as the game installed the new patch, and eagerly read through the patch notes.
There was now an option to "marry" another player for added perks, such as a unique buff, the guarantee of being placed together on instances, increased space in the family home instance, among others. The forums were already bursting with people planning to marry their alts to gain access to the perks.
There was only one player who he wanted to do that with, yet when the game finally opened and he invited HalfBloodPrince to his party, he suddenly felt too embarrassed to ask.
Besides, he couldn't just … marry someone, when in-game. He had Severus.
He resolved to just not ask. After several hours of raiding with HalfBloodPrince and the rest of the guild, he had a feeling that HalfBloodPrince wouldn't ask either.
They were raiding a difficult boss, around two weeks after the patch announcement, when the Ruby Encrusted Sword dropped.
MrHeadMaster sounded thrilled in the voice chat, and announced that he would auction it off to the guild.
Harry put down a bid for 100 gold, but then was immediately annoyed when TheKing bid 300 gold on the sword. TheKing was a mage. What on Earth did he need a melee sword for?!
He suddenly had gotten a trade request from HalfBloodPrince, who then sent him a whisper that only said "Don't say anything." HalfBloodPrince sent him 400 gold as Harry felt his heart drum in his chest again, and had barely been able to stop himself from replying with a "WILL YOU MARRY ME".
Harry put in his bid of 400 gold gleefully, and spent the next several hours hitting things with the sword to show it off.
But his good mood quickly soured when he saw that HalfBloodPrince had sent a message on Discord.
HalfBloodPrince
I will not be available to host the raid training on Saturday evening.
Harry didn't really have a problem with that, since he was scheduled to snuggle with Severus while watching those old noir movies Severus liked on Saturday evening, but the ensuing conversation put a heavy pit in his stomach.
Tonkzzz
OwO?
You have a daaaaaaaaaaaate?
HalfBloodPrince
Yes
Tonkzzz
Oh bet have fun dude!!!
It was irrational. Harry went on dates with Severus often, and was perfectly happy. He found himself simply logging off of everything and trying to sleep off his sudden bad mood, but it didn't work, and the bad mood lasted all the way into his next coffee date with Severus.
"Potter," Severus said tightly. "Are you ever going to take a bite out of your scone, or are you waiting until the wall you are glaring at catches fire?"
"Oh." Harry took a bite. "Mmmm."
Severus sighed. "If you are not in the mood for my company today, I can take my leave-"
"No!" Harry grabbed his wrist, and Severus gave him a tight look before sinking back down in his seat. "Sorry. I'm just bothered, is all."
"About?"
Harry sighed. "So you know I like playing that game, War of Light-"
"Ah." Severus looked like he suddenly understood perfectly, and gave Harry a smile all of a sudden. It looked good on him. Still terrifying, though. "And?"
"One of my friends, this guy I play with, he said he would be offline on Saturday for a date, and- nevermind, it's silly."
Severus stared at him. "'Guy I play with'?"
"Don't go getting jealous on me." Harry grinned.
"I'm not." Severus raised an eyebrow.
"It's really nothing." Harry coughed into his napkin. "I know you're not really interested in my video games…"
When Harry looked up, Severus was staring at him with a confused look.
"Not interested?" Severus repeated. "You…"
"What?"
Severus took a sip from his coffee. "I thought you knew- good heavens, Potter. You are an utter, complete, dolt."
"Hey!" Harry said, cross. "What's this about?"
Severus gave him one of those looks that made Harry feel like a toddler and pulled his laptop out of his bag. Harry watched, confused, as Snape fiddled around on it for a moment, but then Harry heard the all familiar music of the War of Light login screen.
"You play too?!" Harry demanded. "Why did you never…"
Severus turned the laptop around towards Harry, and whatever Harry was about to say died in his throat.
On the screen, unmistakably, was HalfBloodPrince's blue skinned character. Worse, it said CHARACTER [HALFBLOODPRINCE] IS READY TO PLAY at the top of the screen.
Harry's brain did several things at once as it processed its new reality. First he opened his mouth, closed it, and then he found himself reaching towards the screen and slamming it shut.
"What?!" he demanded. His Prince was Severus? How? When?
Then, oh. It started making sense.
Harry remembered, with horror, the tiny insignificant memory of freaking out to HalfBloodPrince about homework. The homework that was due for Severus's class. That Severus had assigned.
Harry's eyes grew. HalfBloodPrince had given him the gold for the Ruby Encrusted Sword. Had spent countless hours playing with him while Harry prattled on about his life. Had taken him to one of the prettiest locations in the game, had personally gone out to PK any players that trash talked Harry, placed Harry in his family.
"You bastard." He heard himself say. "Were you courting me? You gave me such a hard time when I asked you out!"
The smug expression on Severus's face fell away, and his face turned red.
"I had a crush on you," Harry said. "I was so conflicted about it too- you- you- stop laughing!"
But Snape was already chortling in that cruel way of his, and God help him, but it was infectious.
Harry found himself chuckling too, and they got some evil looks from the other patrons.
"I told you about my homework. Holy shit."
"Why yes, you did. It was quite amusing." Severus's lips curled into a cruel smirk.
"It makes a lot of sense, actually." Harry grinned. "I can't believe it. You were showing off for me. Like a peacock."
The smug look fell from Severus's face again.
"You were showing off… you had a crush on me. That's so embarrassing."
"Silence, Potter." Snape's face was even redder now, and he tried to hide it by taking several deep gulps of his coffee.
"I should get a tattoo." Harry said. "Property of the Half Blood Prince-"
Severus threw his scone at him, making Harry laugh uproariously.
That night, when they were curled up happily together in Severus's much better bed and Harry was drawing little circles onto Severus's chests.
"So… will you marry me?"
Severus made a choking sound, and Harry heard his heart start thudding concerningly fast where his ear was lying against his chest.
"In-game."
"Oh." Severus relaxed into the bedding. "I've been meaning to bring that up, but I was still working on your wedding gift…."
The next day, Harry bullied Severus into bringing his laptop over to Harry's apartment ("Dingy little place." Severus muttered) and for once they didn't need Discord to talk to each other as they played.
The process of getting married in-game cost a hefty 500 gold and a trip to the Magistrate in any main city on the map.
They brought their characters there, and Harry felt very giddy reading the game's wedding vows.
"What a load of tripe," Severus muttered, his ears red. "I should just leave you here at the altar."
He notably didn't, and they got to exchanging the wedding gifts, which many people in the game jokingly put cheap items such as potatoes or stacks of paper into, but Harry had actually gone out to craft a cosmetic item for Severus, and he still felt the sting of the loss of so many crafting materials as he dragged it out of his inventory and into the box.
Severus's wedding gift appeared, and Harry gasped, and turned in his seat to gape at Severus.
"Severus," he said weakly. "I can't accept that."
"I'm the one who crafted it, Potter, and I can't equip more than one tier 2 legendary, can I? Now, if you would like for it to be sold, arrangements can be made-"
"No, it's mine!" Harry hastily equipped Psinne's Battle-axe onto his character, and grinned as his character was engulfed in the pretty blue-flame animation. "It's nice having a sugar daddy."
Severus choked.
What was even nicer than being married and having the "Widow" title that came with the weapon was the extra buff they received for being a wedded couple and having the Lovers' Weapons equipped.
"Oh, that's cheesy." Harry said when the "Lovers Reunited" titles appeared over their characters' heads.
"Now that's done." Severus logged off and turned off his laptop. "Will you be sitting there all day, or are you joining me?"
Harry snuggled into his arms happily. He laid his head on Severus's chest and closed his eyes, enjoying the way he smelled.
"I really might get that tattoo." He whispered.
"If you do," Severus said quietly. "I will turn on your computer and delete your account."
"I'll just make a new one. Then you'll have to power level me again. We can't have that."
"No," Severus chuckled. "We can't, can we?"
Harry raised his head and kissed the corner of his jaw. "You're kind of my best friend, you know?"
"Oh for heavens- I might vomit."
"Big of you to say, peacock. Was linking your Niethmordus's Greatsword on faction chat for me?"
Severus didn't respond, and Harry smirked at him.
"Love you."
Severus sighed. "And I you."