4 In 1 To The Power of Infinity

by Joshua The Evil Guy

Sequel to 4 In 1. Follows Harry and his friends as they travel through the Mirror of the Ancients to other universes in efforts to complete their training before it's too late. First Stop: Mahou Mo Ken by Enterprise1701 d.

1. Introductions

Title: 4 In 1 to the power of ∞ (Infinity)

Author: Joshua

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowlings and company. All the fanfics that will be crossed over herein are the intellectual property of the various authors that I get actual permission from, and they will be given due credit and immense gratitude at the head of each chapter where there story is intermingled.

Summary: Finding that things were worse than they appeared, Harry has taken his friends on a reality-spanning training journey in hopes of increasing their skills and powers in time to save their home reality. MULTI-Crossover!

First up to bat, my very good friend Enterprise1701-d and his fanfic Mahou mo Ken!

Story:

Previously in 4 in 1:

"I'm sorry, you're what?" young Harry Potter, just turned 11 and recently discovered wizard and student of Hogwarts, exclaimed at the strange man's bold proclamation.

"I'm from the future," he repeated.

"You're from the future?" Harry asked again.

"Well, sort of," Joshua shrugged and turned to lean against the white picket fence. "It's actually more complicated than that. I'm from the past too. And not like last week the past, but like several centuries the past. And on top of that, I'm from several centuries in the future as well. But for the simple fact of the matter, I know things. Things that are going to happen to you. To the world. To everybody and everything."

"The man's name was Joshua, but what's important about him is that he is a Time Wizard. When I was eleven years old, he visited me one night while my Aunt and Uncle were asleep, and explained some things, and then he gave me a choice. I accepted his offer. And here's where things go beyond what any of us learned at Hogwarts. He split me in two."

"I don't mean he cut me in two, I mean he split me in two," continued Harry before any of them could jump to the wrong conclusions. "Where there was once one Harry Potter, now there were two. Both completely identical down to... well down to the very last detail. Memories, bodies, scar, even magic. Well, actually, my magic was exactly halved but since I had no training in using magic at that point it really made no difference."

"One was left behind to live the life of Harry Potter, go to Hogwarts, face and fight Voldemort over the years and is the person that you all grew up knowing. The other was taken with Joshua to a different world. And I don't mean like the muggle world or the world of the Elves. A Pocket Dimension that was in turn connected to various other Realms, and that Harry Potter was trained from the age of 11 to the age of 16 in the practice and use of Battle Magic. Two weeks ago, that Harry Potter and Joshua the Time Wizard popped into the room of this world's Harry Potter, and at exactly midnight of that night, they were put back together. Into me. The real Harry Potter."

"So... you're not our Harry?" asked Ron, confused.

Snorting out a laugh, Harry shook his head. "I am Ron. I am 'your' Harry, but I'm also more than that. I'm like Harry Plus. I know everything that both of the Harry's did like I did it myself, and from my point of view, I did. I'm still your Harry Potter, just with some extra stuff thrown in. Good stuff, I promise."

They stared at each other for a full minute after they'd all reached the top of the hill. While they stood there staring, Harry observed the other and tried to figure out what was going on before he tried to do or say anything that might make him look foolish. Joshua had trained him to be observant and to use his observations to his advantage rather than simply react, so that's what he did.

This Harry Potter did not have a scar.

This was Harry Potter.

This Harry Potter was a part of the current Harry Potter.

This Harry Potter was the same age as the current Harry Potter.

All of this leads to only a single, logical conclusion. Joshua had split Harry Potter in two, long before his eleventh birthday. Joshua had split Harry Potter in two before, or at least by his first birthday! And then he'd left one behind to have his parents killed by Voldemort and to survive the Killing curse while harboring a shred of the murderer's soul and magic within him for seventeen years and to be raised by the Dursleys for eleven and to then be split in twain once again. This other Harry Potter, more than likely, had experienced the same splitting upon his eleventh birthday and had obviously been reunited with that part of him just a few weeks prior to this. And now Joshua was finishing the bargain that had been struck, and he was putting all the parts back together again.

Harry nodded in understanding towards Harry, then both looked over at Joshua, who shrugged with a sheepish expression on his face. "This has always been about your choice Harry. After you accepted my offer, the first time in Little Whining, that created an alternate timeline, basically the universe split on that decision. One where you said no, I cast a memory charm and you never so much as guessed that anything happened and you remained whole and were split neither when you were a baby, nor when you turned eleven. And then this timeline, where you said yes. And here we are. If you chose to, you both could even say to hell with this and not fuse, saying you're both happier as individuals if you want. Again, it's your choice."

"So that's why..." both Harry's said at once.

"That's why the emphasis, when I trained the halves that I split when you were eleven, on how important free will is and that there is nothing more important than being allowed to make your own choice. True, I did kind of manipulate you all into trusting me and how I didn't outline my overall plan to you, not that it's much of a plan, but first and foremost I made it your choice to accept my offer, with the understanding of the consequences of your decisions." Both Harry's nodded in understanding at that.

"And to clear up any confusion about what it is that you all know, this guy here," he pointed at the Harry that had spent the past week with the Weasleys and a few weeks with the Dursleys before that, "Is the Harry that was left behind and was raised in England and trained at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, combined with the Harry that I took and trained to be a warrior and is a Master-Rank Battle Mage."

"And this Harry," he pointed at the un-scarred Potter, "is the Harry that I split from baby Harry who was never struck by Voldemort's curse, nor saw his parents murdered before his eyes, and was left behind on the doorstep of Winding Circle to be raised as a mage of that world. When he turned eleven, one stayed behind to achieve the full ranks of both Academic and Ambient mages, and the other I took to another pocket dimension, where I trained him in what you might like to think of as Magical Espionage. In laymen terms, where you are Wizard and Warrior, he is Mage and Spy. And we're about outta time," he finished by glancing up at the stars.

Both Harry's looked up at the same moment and recognized the unusual alignment of constellations in the heavens at the moment. Symmetrically aligned into a crest of four side by side; Ursa Minor, Aquila, Leo, and Draco. At the stroke of midnight, they became perfectly aligned, and Joshua gave the pair a nod.

"This is it," W/W Harry said to the other.

"I'm looking forward to it," M/S Harry returned with a grin.

Nodding back at the Time Wizard, they simply smiled at each other, and then stepped forward and gave the other a hug. It had been a long time, but they were finally, all back together again.

The explosion of light and sound made the first fusion seem like a firecracker next to a Type 1A Supernova, and for a few precious moments, midnight in England became high noon.

"You knew this was coming, and we could've slipped away in the confusion of earlier, but I knew he would be coming directly here, and I couldn't let your family suffer just for putting me up for a week." Harry sighed and sat down so he was facing everyone still in the room. "The Death Eaters are the Ministry now. We can't afford to hide in places that are obvious anymore. We need to go underground. And yes, we. Ron and Hermione's names are synonymous with my own, and this last year at Hogwarts, Ginny and I were openly dating each other. If I disappear on my own and leave them behind, they'll be targeted and will disappear behind Ministry bureaucracy and into a Death Eater's dungeon somewhere. I'm not going to let that happen."

"I'm going to stop this. I'm going to stop him. But before I can do that, I need to free the Ministry, and I can't do that legitimately anymore. The coming months are going to be hard on everybody," he gave a meaningful look at the newlyweds. "Most likely, Gringotts, being under Goblin control, won't be too adversely affected. The Ministry still needs its gold, and the goblins all control that, so they won't risk too much in angering them. Still... it's not guaranteed protection."

"Mr. Weasley, Fred and George have come up with a way of clearing Ron for the year, and I've left their... plan intact. Ministry Officials, Truant Officers for lack of a better term, will be showing up before too long. Before they do, I'll have a plan in place for Ginny as well, so she won't be missed, and hopefully even explain away her absence in some other capacity."

"Fred, George... I think it's time you two took your trip abroad, like all wizards are supposed to do after they leave Hogwarts. Where you go, or what you do, I don't have any control over, but being in a place where you can be found would not be a good idea for you two right now," Harry told the twins in no-nonsense terms.

"But Harry..." Mrs. Weasley tried again.

"Mrs. Weasley... Molly," Harry's voice grew thick with emotion. "The only thing you can do for us is help us to remain hidden. We're in more danger if we stay, and as fearful as you can be riled up... I think even you would quail at facing an army of Death Eaters and 'Aurors' that were dead set on capturing and torturing your children, no matter what you had to say or did. We'll contact you, if we can, but don't expect anything."

At that moment, Ginny and Hermione both came back in, dressed in normal muggle clothing, jeans and sweatshirts. Ron just pulled off his dress robes to reveal a yellow t-shirt and blue jeans, before accepting a jacket from Hermione. Harry stood, gave them all one last look, before turning in a tight circle, his clothing changing around him as he did so into a red blouse, navy blue blazer, tight black jeans and black sneakers.

"Well... Bye," was all he said before all four disappeared in a near-blinding flash of emerald green light.

"Most people study chess strategies for entire lifetimes before they fully understand the concept of different strategies and the existence of counters for them. I know, because I happen to be one of them. It took me years of strategic training and tactical exercises to understand concepts that seem to come naturally to you."

"Yeah, so what?"

Harry chuckled again. "Well, I'm going to give you the same training I got and see where you can go with it. You already know chess, so introducing something simpler like chess, poker, or trading card games is pointless. Therefore I'm going to teach you another classical game that has aided military minds across the planet for centuries."

"Really? Wicked! Is this some sort of secret Battle Magic ritual?" he cackled.

Giving Ron a look that more or less said 'Huh? What? Are you out of your mind?' and replied, "No. I'm going to teach you Go."

As an experiment, Hermione decided to use the Leguz rune in a simple spiral pattern to see what would happen. She focused on the rune repeating over and over into an every expanding spiral with her at the center. Yet again, if she had opened her eyes, she would have seen all the runes that had been floating around her vanish until only the one she was focusing on floated directly above her head. It began to glow brighter the harder she concentrated on it, and then when she started focusing enough magic into her spiral, the spell finally triggered and the effect took place.

Hermione was suddenly brought out of her meditation by a sharp coldness surrounding her. Opening her eyes, she was shocked when she saw that the room she'd been sitting in was frozen over. Not just cold or a bit of snow and ice, but as in completely frozen throughout, like the next ice age had come through and spent a few hundred years transforming all that occupied the room into solid frozen matter.

"Oh... my..." she whispered softly as she got to her feet.

"I need to get Harry," she firmly decided and bolted for the exit as quickly as she could.

"They had lined up all of the 'Potential Undesirables' in the Department of Mysteries, had the Dementors there to keep everybody in line... There were children younger than school age in that line," he hissed. "Those that could 'prove blood purity' or to be more accurate could pay Umbitch enough bribes to give them a stamp of approval got to leave with their families. Everybody else? Azkaban. Muggleborns? Dementor's Kiss and body either killed or otherwise disposed of."

His three friends looked shocked and appalled at this information, but he wasn't done yet. "Of course I didn't know this at first. I was just looking around, saw the line, saw the Dementors, I reacted. Sure you saw the herd of Patroni I conjured, well that was the first thing I did, followed very shortly by getting the people out of here. Then I went in to confront Umbitch. Moment I let her see me, she shot the Cruciatus Curse at me. They're supposed to AK me on sight, you know? Anyway, I pulled out a mirror and she kept up the curse until she had a heart attack. Didn't kill her, unfortunately."

"Yeah, saw what you did to her, not bad work, mate. Twins would approve," Ron/Moody commented.

"Oh, that came after I revived her. Anyway, I don't exactly carry Veritaserum on me all the time, so I was forced to use other means of getting the information I required, and our former Headmistress was quite talkative after I demonstrated some of that for her."

"Harry..." Hermione/McGonagall whimpered.

He smiled and shook his head, "No, Hermione, I didn't torture her, although I do have to admit the temptation was there. One of the spells I learned from my spy days... uh... when I was 15, anyway, the spell is basically a truth spell, making the person or persons affected by it answer any question asked them with the full and unabridged truth, no matter what. Even keeping quiet or holding something back is not an option."

"And?" Ginny could tell that he was still holding something back himself.

"It's worse than I had ever feared," he told them, his expression going dark.

"The bodies, after being Kissed or killed... there's no physical evidence or actual proof, but Umbridge believed they were being sent off to Voldemort... and being turned into Inferi. Or Vampires. Or mind-controlled werewolves. Or... gods above, if there is a single Dark Creature that is born from the destruction or use of a dead wizard's body, he's using them to create an army that could march out over the entire world and nothing could stand in his way."

"Harry... what are you saying?" Hermione was confused.

"He's not stopping with the Ministry. I don't know if it's because I confronted him instead of running. I don't know if I just pushed him over the edge... But Riddle isn't going to sit back and rule Wizarding Britain and be satisfied with that. We already know how he plans on living forever. I've got the rest of his Horcruxes, except for the snake. Once that's gone, I can kill him free and clear, but... He's set up a contingency plan. He dies, his entire army marches out and it does not stop. I found the proof of his plan just before I came across you three here. Not proof of what happens to the bodies of the Undesirables, but proof that it is his plan. When this army of his reaches enough numbers that no matter who, what, or how many oppose him that it won't even matter, he's going to let it loose on the entire world. Not just the magical world. The whole world."

Hermione gasped, while the Weasleys just looked stunned. Wasn't much else they could do.

"And if that isn't bad enough, he's also made it so that the very moment that he dies, enough numbers or not, this... Dark Army is going to go out of control and start destroying everything there is. So if I kill him or not, there's still going to be a whole lot of damage done, if not the whole ball of wax going out the window," he told them.

"Well... we'll just have to stop this army first and then destroy him," Ron said, crossing his arms.

Harry shook his head. "Not enough time. Even if we contact the Order and I start training them the way I have been you guys... we just don't have the numbers and it would take too long! And while I found proof of it's existence, I have no clue as to where this Dark Army is being made or how many already exist. I could go out there and hunt Moldywart down right now, obliterate every trace of him and it could be only a handful of zombies, which I can handle, or it could be pockets of Dark Creatures hidden away all over Europe that I can't."

"We'll help!" Ginny exclaimed.

"That's just it, you're nowhere near being ready to help in something like this! Against Death Eaters and wizards and witches is one thing, but against this... Guys, the spells I've been teaching you are powerful, yes, but you'd need at least the amount of experience I have before—" Harry suddenly stopped talking as his eyes went wide and his breathing hitched.

"Harry?" the girls called, worried, while Ron kept looking around, but he couldn't see or hear anyone.

"Bloody hell, I'm brilliant," Harry said out loud. "We need to get back home. Now!"

With that, all four vanished in a blinding flash of light as Harry teleported them through several levels of wards and then across several miles back to 12 Grimmauld Place. They didn't have much time.

"This Mirror, is called the Mirror of the Ancients. It has some fancy Latin name but that really doesn't matter at this point. It has a duplicate in every single universe. That's rare. It cannot be destroyed, and if it is, it reforms somewhere else, maybe in some other form. Point is, what it does, is it connects itself to every single one of it's duplicates. Oh, not all at once. Think of it like the Floo, direct one-to-one, point-to-point links. Some things change, but for the large part, you'll find yourself in the same spot, just a completely different universe. A different reality, sometimes even alternate dimensions! But, as you all can guess, it's dangerous too. Hence, why the Founders put it in a Vault all by itself."

She silently glared at him. For good measure, she even threw in the look she gave him and Ron when they didn't finish their homework and crossed her arms to show her impatience. Harry crumbled like a house of cards. Sighing again, he ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing around the Mirror once more.

"What you were doing is an advanced magical art, a subsidiary study of Battle Magic. Not one of the primary lessons, something you either specialize in, or you don't use it at all," he explained. "It's called Rune Battle Magic. And, as you can guess from the name alone, it uses runes and similar symbols to form and cast spells with. And, it's used for battle and fighting."

"Why haven't you mentioned it before?"

"Like I said, you either specialize in it, or you don't do it," he told her. "I chose to become a generalist, learning everything to do with Battle Magic equally. The fact that, at seventeen, I'm pretty much a master in all my fields says a lot, but I'm not even a novice at Rune Battle Magic. I won't lie to you Hermione, the fact that you can use Rune Battle Magic naturally and seem to have quite a talent for it... well, it scares me."

"Scares you? But why?" Hermione couldn't understand.

"What was the first thing you did with this new skill? Accident or otherwise, what was the first thing?" he asked her with a pointed glare.

She sheepishly grimaced and shrugged. "Well, actually it looked like I sort of froze the library study..."

"Froze it solid, like it had been through an ice age or two maybe?" he pointedly asked. She nodded.

"Rune Magic of any sort is dangerous as the runes take the place of magical forms, and those symbols can mean almost anything. Put into a specific pattern, Rune Magic can have effects greater and more powerful than the strongest wizard using the strongest wand to cast the most powerful spell ever. Rune Battle Magic takes writing them down out of the equation. As you already know, Rune Battle Magic takes the method I taught you for forming the shape of the spell and then using that to cast the spell, to the next level, by forming runes in the same way. Same pattern of runes that makes a regular Rune spell, carved onto a stone alter to cast a mass area-effect spell, can be cast by just picturing the runes and forming them out of magic into the same pattern. What you did earlier was combine the rune for water in the universal pattern for wind. Combining two elements in a way that exponentially builds upon itself, increasing the formation of ice with each repetition of the pattern. Hence making ice of everything directly around you."

As she absorbed all that, he concluded, "Yeah, Hermione, it scares me. It should scare you too."

"Oh... OK..." she mumbled.

All of them held their wand hands forward, hovering just above the mirror's surface, waiting.

"All right, one," Harry began to count, "two... THREE!"

As one they all reached forward and touched the cool surface of the Mirror at the same moment.

And now, the Continuation...

Hogwarts Vault

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Late Morning

Traveling between universes was a lot like every type of magical transportation the Wizarding world had, all put together into one big unsettling experience. The moment their hands touched the glass, they felt the cool material against their skin for just that instant, right before it sucked them into it and then it was like their entire bodies were wrapped up in the somewhat cold material. After they were given a moment to appreciate the sensations going through their bodies, they felt something else, like they were being sucked through the hole of a very small straw, one atom at a time, tearing them apart and making them dizzy and disoriented all at once. The force of the suction became so intense that it was like walking through open flame for all eternity, and then before they knew it, they were whole and back in the coldness of the mirror's glass. An instant after that, they all found themselves in the same room, still holding their hands to the surface of the glass, just very disoriented.

All four teens stumbled back from the Ancient Mirror, releasing contact with the surface, and almost falling to the floor even. They all took a gasping breath, the tallest one bending down to grab his knees and trying to keep from throwing up. Both girls held themselves tightly, shivering slightly, taking short, gasping breaths, not sure whether to be screaming or crying or what, just glad it was over with. The final member of the group, with wild black hair, vivid emerald green eyes and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, however, just stood there calm as could be like he did things like that every single day.

"Wh-wh-wh-whu... what was th-th-that?" the tall boy with red hair and freckles stuttered.

"That, was us traveling between universes, Ron," the black-haired boy replied. "Get used to it. Like I said, this is a starting point. After we get finished here, or if things get too intense, then we'll head to another universe, hopefully one even quieter than this one."

"You're mad," Ron said to the other boy, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Harry," the red-haired girl called, "Where are we exactly?"

"Not sure, Ginny," Harry replied. "Let's go find out," he added with a grin.

"Wait!" the bushy-haired girl cried out. "Are we sure it's safe?"

Harry chuckled. "Hermione, most people would pass out in sheer terror if they knew how close to death they came just by waking up each day, and then some. Safe is a relative term, so let me put it like this; as long as I'm with you guys, it's as safe as safe can be."

Blushing, Hermione merely nodded, and the three teens followed Harry to the stairs leading up to the doorway, which was closed with a simple door, but they could clearly see sunlight spilling through. Opening the door for them, Harry took a quick look outside, grinned and nodded, then gestured for them all to go through. Hesitantly, Ron stepped through first, and was surprised to find him stepping out into noon-day sunlight and an open courtyard not too far away from the Transfiguration classroom.

Harry was the last one out, closing the door behind them. A door which vanished the moment it was closed. The others gasped, worried about losing access to the Vault and the Mirror within. Harry assured them that it was all right. They weren't exactly going to be needing it any time soon.

"So... now what?" asked Ron, clueless.

Harry grinned again, seemingly having the time of his life, a rapid change from the bossy and stressed leader of a band of fugitives from so much as an hour ago. "Now? Let's go meet the natives!"

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Harry?" Hermione questioned. "After all, they may not all be friendly."

"Oh, I'm certain not all of them will be friendly, Hermione," Harry laughed. "Some of them are Slytherins, keep in mind. Also, this place probably has it's own Moldywart, keep in mind. This universe is running just a tad behind us, though at roughly half the the speed faster. Meaning that in our universe, for every second that passes, one and a half seconds pass here."

"How could it be moving faster, yet still be behind us?" she wanted to know.

Harry shrugged, walking through the courtyard now, leading them into the school proper. Surprisingly, no students seemed to be walking the halls at the moment, but a very loud commotion could be heard from the direction of the Great Hall, leading to the guess that it was lunch time.

"Just because some universes started later than others, or some move slower, while still others move faster and just need time to catch up, and again others seemingly start at a later point in the time line and keep up the momentum somehow. It's... very complicated," he finally answered his friend.

"So," he stopped them at an intersection, "you guys hungry? Tired? It is practically midnight for us and noon for people here. And roughly 10 months behind us from the look of things, but that's besides the point. Do we join everybody in the Great Hall for Lunch, do we find our dorm rooms and take a nap, what do you guys want to try first?"

"How about some explanations?" Hermione demanded, crossing her arms.

Harry sighed, rolling his eyes. "Fine," he grunted, leading them to an empty nearby classroom.

Once they were inside, he slammed the door shut and waved his hand at the door, walls, ceiling and floor. "Now we have privacy. In order of your questions; the real reason that we basically made an exodus of our entire universe instead of going to the Room of Requirements or some other hidden away training area is because Voldemort controls more than just the Death Eaters and the Ministry."

"That Dark Army you mentioned," Ron commented. Harry nodded.

"The evidence I found," he pulled a folded up piece of parchment from his pocket, "isn't much, but when put into the proper context, it can be pretty terrifying. Orders for the prison graveyard at Azkaban to be dug up and the... contents of it delivered to Malfoy Manor. All prisoners that are executed, send to Malfoy Manor. And an order form, for all 'appropriated' ingredients needed for creating Inferi sent to an address in Little Hangleton. Umbridge herself witnessed one of these... transfers, where everything was shipped out. She didn't see it happening, but even she could figure out that if you're making that many dark creatures to be controlled by one man, then you've got yourselves a Dark Army answering only to the Dark Lord."

"And the reason we couldn't go to the Order of the Phoenix? Besides the fact that you think they're old and useless?" sarcastically asked Hermione.

Harry shrugged. "Do I really need another reason than that?"

"Harry!" she screeched.

"Well," he defensively cried, "they might be the good guys, but even if I trained the entire new generation and a few of the older generation in Battle Magic, the most, and I firmly stress the MOST we could have hoped for was a draw, matching the quality of our forces against the quantity and quality of his forces. Except that adding the Dark Army to the equation, a draw means that everything in between pretty much gets wasted and both sides are assured destruction. I don't know what it was, but the fact the Voldemort went to the trouble to actually start doing this in the first place says that he's more than willing to unleash it and if he suddenly finds himself on the losing side? He won't have any problem adopting a scorched earth philosophy nor following through on it."

Hermione audibly gulped.

"Not good?" Ron whimpered.

"It would be the end of the world," Ginny sarcastically informed her brother of the fact. "So, why us? Why not grab a few extra members of the Order? Why not wait a week, getting more information until the Mirror Room was accessible for a longer period of time and take more people? Why just us?"

"Ah, the hard question," Harry sighed and turned around to sit on one of the empty desks.

"Each of you are more powerful than you realize," he finally told them. "Ginny, you're magical strength is surprising, to say the least. Especially for one of your age and gender. The last few weeks training you has merely gone to prove that, as you're actually learning everything that I've been teaching you at roughly the same pace that I learned it. Need I remind you, I'm also one of the exceptionally few that have mastered just about every aspect of Battle Magic in less than five years, and hold masteries in Academic and Ambient classes of magic, all earned before I turned 16? It's impressive."

"Ron," Harry turned to his best friend, "You are the laziest, least motivated, most unfocused, most slothful, and most gluttonous wizard that I have ever met."

"Gee, thanks mate," Ron grumbled, feeling like crap all of a sudden.

"You're also one of the most talented chess players I've ever met, and a damn fine Keeper too," he added.

Ron's eyes lit up in hope, until they dulled once more as he remarked, "Yeah, that's all fine and good for my future careers as a professional chess and Quidditch player. Doesn't exactly do me a lot of good in the middle of a war or in a duel, does it?"

"Exactly!" Harry smiled openly at his friend's sudden depression. "So, how does that make you feel?"

Staring incredulously at the man he thought was his friend, Ron rolled his eyes as he answered, "Like crap. Why? Want to rub some salt in the wounds? Belittle my manhood while you're at it?"

"Well, needless to say, nobody likes feeling like crap, so what are you going to do about it?" Harry challenged.

Blinking, Ron looked back up at him, "Huh?"

"Do you always want to be lazy, stupid, unfocused, slow and fat? Or do you want to actually be a part of this war and turn your strengths into weapons?" Harry got into his face as he said this.

Ron's eyes narrowed as he considered the question. No, no considering needed. "What are you getting at mate? First you insult me to my face, after almost two months of the worst experiences I've ever had that you called training and now you tell me that I'm still no good and I'm supposed to turn chess and Keeper skills into weapons so I can fight in a war? No more guessing games, Potter! Give me a straight answer, for once!"

"Oh, there's a joke in there that I'm just dying to use, but I'm sure you'll give me opportunity to use it later," Harry chuckled. He stepped back and started walking around the classroom. "Ron, you are a chess prodigy, and when you're on your game, your Keeper skills are the best anybody has ever seen, even from professionals. You're also about as strong, magically speaking, as your sister is, which is more a testament to her than you, as you're the exact average for a wizard of your age, and she's a year younger and a witch."

"Little known fact," Harry cast as an aside to Hermione and Ginny, "Wizards tend to have more magical strength, y'know, force behind their spells. Witches, on the other hand, have greater control, and as such can usually cast more spells faster, but not with as much strength. So, again, Ginny is very unique here."

Back to Ron, "What do you know about strategy and tactics, Ron? No, don't answer that, rhetorical question. We went to Hogwarts School of Magic, not school of warfare. Thing is, some of the greatest tacticians and strategists of the ages have credited their own skill by playing chess, or similar games, and Go, the game that I started teaching you a few weeks ago, remember?"

Ron dumbly nodded his head.

"Think of war as a close-up and live version of those games, or, if it helps, as it does most, start thinking of Chess and Go as overhead pictures of both war and individual battles. An overall war is played similarly to the way Go is played, with each side's forces taking and losing territory and so on and so forth, while on a similar note, chess is very much like an individual battle, with the soldiers, knights, etc, etc, etc battling each other to obtain victory over the prized objective for this particular battle, whatever that might be."

"That does not, however, automatically mean that somebody good at chess can go out and become a General and win a war," he gave Ron a glare. "But, on the other hand, if a General that already has experience, starts exercising his already keen, tactical mind by playing Chess and Go, then he just might become an even better General and win his future battles more easily."

Ron's face lit up in realization. "That's why you've been after me these past few weeks, always challenging me to chess matches, making me play that Multi-Chess nightmare, learn how to play Go! All so you could tell me this?!"

Harry rolled his eyes, groaning out loud. "Close, so very close."

Hermione, sighing with her own frustration, said, "Ron, what Harry is trying to say is that he is getting you to exercise your mind, and develop, whatever small amount of it you have, your tactical and strategical senses. As much as it pains me to admit this, all of us will undoubtedly be involved in future battles, and apparently, Harry wants you to be as prepared for this as you can be."

"Wouldn't it be better to teach me more cool Battle spells, then?" the redhead turned hopefully to the green-eyed youth.

Groaning anew, Harry tried again.

"What would you do if I did teach you a bunch of cool battle spells, Ron?" he snapped at the boy suddenly. "What would you do if you could suddenly shoot out lightning bolts and fireballs with a wave of a wand? What would you do if you could actually stop the Unforgivables? What would you do if you could create an entire army of yourself and unleash it upon your enemies? What. Would. You. Do?"

At that, Ron was stumped. After a moment, he kicked his brain into gear and actually started to think about it. After a few moments, during which all three occupants of the room were silent in order to give him time to think, he started to realize that he really didn't know the answer to that question. He'd still been too caught up in how cool it would be to shoot out fireballs and lightning bolts and create hundreds of copies of yourself, he hadn't given a single thought to how he would use all these new spells. Heck, he already knew one cool battle spell, and being able to change into just about anything, anybody, and any animal in the world was cool enough, and he still hardly knew what to do with it.

Finally, he said aloud, "I... I don't know. I, I've been one colossal prat, haven't I?"

Harry shrugged with a grin, "Yeah, but we forgive you. We need somebody to be the comedy relief around here, might as well be you."

Ron laughed and nodded his head.

"So... how do I turn my strengths into weapons?" he asked, fully serious.

Harry saw this and nodded. "Well, you start by asking that question, and meaning it."

"I do," Ron nodded.

"Good. Next, you need to realize the correlation between the games and reality. Don't start classifying everybody as 'Pawn', 'Knight', 'Queen' and so forth, but start thinking of the ways that people, meaning wizards and witches, match up against one another. Some have certain strengths that give them a unique advantage against another that has different strengths. I won't give you any cheats here, just start thinking it over, Ron."

The red-haired wizard nodded his head and started giving it his full concentration.

"And Hermione..." Harry started to say.

"When are you going to teach me more about this Rune Battle Magic?" she interrupted.

He sighed, "... the uncomfortable question. Hermione... I can't teach you Rune Battle Magic..."

"Why not?" she screamed, outraged.

"...BECAUSE, I don't know how to do it myself!" he screamed back, half-glaring at her for interrupting him. "I tried to tell you before, you either learn Rune Battle Magic and nothing BUT Rune Battle Magic, or you don't learn it at all! So, here is my first order, and I pray it is the last I give outside of an actual battle. Hermione, you are not, under any circumstances, to use Rune Battle Magic at all. For any reasons whatsoever!"

"WHAT?!" Hermione swelled up, eerily identical to the way Mrs. Weasley could. "How dare...!!"

"I'm not finished!" he yelled at her.

Hermione blinked, taken aback. The Weasley's retreated a step even.

"I said," Harry glared at her, as if expecting her to interrupt him again, "that you are not to use Rune Battle Magic. You are more than welcome to research as much of it as you can, and I will help you with that. When we have the time," he stressed those words, "I'll tell you everything that I know of it and give you some direction on what it is you might need to know. But until we do know more, you are not to use Rune Battle Magic at all! Not even an experiment to test something out. If you do..."

Harry sighed, running his hand through his unruly black hair. "Hermione... if you do... Well, I just pray to God that you never do, as it could very well be the last thing that you ever will do. And I don't want you to die, all right?"

Gulping back tears suddenly, Hermione shakily nodded her head.

"Good. I'm hungry. Anybody else hungry? Let's go get something to eat," with that he waved his hand and he was out the door the moment it opened. Chagrined, his three friends quickly and quietly followed him.

Hogwarts Great Hall

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Lunch time

Harry and Maya were just sitting down to their meal, setting their respective staffs alongside their seats. They placed themselves across from Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table, already in the midst of a conversation, though few could really understand what it was they were talking about.

"I don't get it," Maya said as she sat down next to Harry. "The theory is sound. The Elemental Equations match. Why doesn't it work?"

Harry shrugged. "Sorry, can't help you there, Sis." He frowned in thought for a few seconds. "Maybe you're looking at this from the wrong angle. The Animagus Transformation is a Western piece of magic, and you're looking at it from an oriental mindset."

Maya nodded thoughtfully at the table. "Maybe. But the same laws of magic should still apply!"

"Maybe," Harry allowed. "But still, I can't cast a western spell using oriental methods."

Maya crossed her arms, and stared at her empty plate. "Maybe I am," she allowed. "Alright, overview. I am balancing the Void as well as the Air, in order to achieve an animal transfiguration on myself. I know this theory is sound, as I can use it to Transfigure someone else into an animal."

Harry nodded. "True. However, that is Transfiguration, not Animagus Transformation. One is a Transfiguration, basically, the changing of shape and size of one object into another. The other is a Transformation, a complete change of mind and body."

Maya stared at her brother for a few seconds. "I hadn't thought of it that way. Transfiguration of the Self is rather difficult, isn't it?"

Harry grinned.

"Will you two stop that!" Hermione said forcefully."

"Stop what?" Harry asked.

"Jabbering in Japanese like that!"

Harry looked sheepish. "Sorry. I guess it just comes naturally." He looked at Maya. "Also, Animagus Transformation is supposed to be to one animal, the one that is closest to you in mind and spirit. What animal were you trying to transform into?"

Hermione blustered as Harry picked right up in the middle of his conversation.

Maya frowned slightly. "I was going for a tiger, actually."

Harry looked thoughtful for a few moments. "I think the first thing we need to figure out is how to find the animal that is supposed to be your Animagus form, then figure out how to do the transformation. I know that my father and his friends figured it out by themselves, so it should be possible."

"True," Maya said, before muttering a 'finally' when the food appeared. "It still irks me that I could have overlooked the difference between Transfiguration and Transformation. And I still don't get why it can only do a single animal."

"Probably just because it is supposed to be the animal that is closest to you in mind and spirit. There can be only one of those, after all," Harry replied after filling his own plate.

Maya glanced at Ken. "Maybe Sensei can help."

"Maybe not," Harry said with a grin. "How about we do this as an extra-curricular exercise?"

Maya was silent for a few moments, before a wicked look entered her classic Asian features. "Great idea, Bro. I knew there was a reason why I kept you around."

"You needed someone to use as a punching bag?" Harry suggested helpfully, right as she was taking a drink from her goblet of pumpkin juice. The result was that she started hacking and coughing as the fluid went down her windpipe.

After a few more minutes, Hermione began to fidget, and Harry and Maya both counted down silently until the girl finally broke. It was clear that she wanted to ask Maya something and they both has a guess as to what it might be.

"Maya, do you think it's too late to call Ayumi?" Hermione asked finally. She had become rather fond of the Rune Apprentice from Japan, as they had more understanding of runes and arithmancy than anyone save the Professors themselves, with the bonus that they were the same age, more or less.

"It's past midnight over there, Hermione," Harry reminded his friend.

"No, it should not be too late," Maya grinned mischievously. "Knowing Ayumi, she's probably still online trying to get that arithmantic equation you two were talking about last week just right. Here you go," Maya handed over her MC, MagicCom, to her magical brother's friend.

"Thanks," Hermione gratefully accepted the piece of technology, turning it on as she glanced absentmindedly towards the entrance to the Great Hall. The MC was halfway through it's boot-up when she froze and slowly did a double-take between the entrance and Harry and Maya sitting in front of her.

Harry, for once paying more attention to his surroundings than his internal issues, noticed this and asked, concerned, "Hermione? Something the matter?"

Mute, Hermione only continued to stare up at the entrance to the Great Hall. Harry, realizing that Hermione was staring at something, and that was what was bothering her, glanced to the entrance of the Great Hall, where she was staring. He blinked.

Sis?

I see it too, Bro.

Thought so, Harry slowly stood up, making sure his sword was in the position where he could draw it quickly, and grabbed his staff in an attack rather than a carrying position.

"DA," Harry called, drawing instant attention from all those around him as more looked to the entrance.

Up at the Head Table, similar looks of shock were developing, save for two. A sallow-faced greasy-haired man sitting on one end of the table, and a composed and elegant Asian woman dressed in formal kimono carrying both staff and sword, sitting at the other side of the table. He frowned in contempt and growing hatred, while she displayed no visible emotions, save a small frown, which could easily be either disapproval or confusion.

Slowly, as first individuals, then whole groups began to glance towards the entrance and then to Gryffindor table, the Great Hall slowly quieted, until only a few individuals at Slytherin table were talking, but they quickly silenced once the quiet began to spread. After a few minutes, the entire Great Hall was staring at the four individuals just standing there in the entranceway.

Once silence had settled over the Great Hall, Harry got up and joined the procession from the Head Table to the entrance, Maya joining him as well.

"OK, for future reference, we'll go to Dumbledore first," Harry said as an aside to his friends beside him, as they noticed the rather heavy attention they were suddenly being given.

"Harry... Dumbledore's dead," Hermione reminded him.

"And we've basically gone back in time to a universe where he hasn't died yet," he reminded her gently. "Which we will continue to do for quite some time yet. Don't worry, you'll all get the hang of it. Eventually."

All three of them groaned, as they'd come to recognize Harry's "pranking" nature that usually came through when he was giving them a new torture session that he called training.

From the Head Table, they noticed a group making their way straight towards them, joined shortly by some of the students from Gryffindor table, while everyone else in the Hall remained seated, staring.

"Am I mistaken, or is that a new face?" Harry turned to his companions.

"Different Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Hermione suggested.

"Let's find out," Harry turned, stepping forward to be greeted by the very intimidating procession.

At the lead, of course, was Headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore, unfortunately with a near-mummified right hand, indicating he had only another few months to live, at the most. Almost on lead with him was an unfamiliar, to the travelers, Asian woman in formal kimono bearing both wooden staff and a sheathed Japanese longsword. Immediately behind her was a younger Asian woman, dressed in a Gryffindor school uniform, carrying a different wooden staff with her sheathed sword strapped to her waist. Immediately beside the young woman was Harry's counterpart, also carrying a staff with a sword belted to his waist. On Dumbledore's side, Professor Snape had beat Professor McGonagall in the foot race and was closer, though they were both behind the older wizard, bearing wands in hand.

Meanwhile, Harry had come to a stop just beside and to the left of Ken, Maya standing at his right shoulder. After a few seconds, Harry, standing next to Hermione, Ginny and Ron, shifted his stance so he stood more or less in front of his counterpart, who likewise took a step forward, bringing them in front of each other much like a mirror reflection of the other, save one in his school uniform, the other in jeans, shirt, and jacket.

"Who are you?" Dumbledore demanded.

Harry grinned and shrugged, replying, "Who do I look like?"

"You look like me," Harry, standing next to Ken and Maya answered.

"Then I must be you," Harry crossed his arms, smiling openly.

Both Harry's stared at each other for just a few seconds, before Harry squinted, and asked, "I'm guessing this is not like third year."

"Nope," Harry replied with a grin.

"And I hope it's not like second year." Harry said.

He grimaced and answered, "Thank Heavens, no."

"Fourth Year?"

"Good assumption, but no," the newcomer replied.

Harry nodded. Not a Time-Turner, not a Horcrux, and not polyjuice. "You seem to know the references, though," he said.

"A lot of people do," Harry reminded him, more and more people starting to look confused as the two Harry's played verbal catch.

"Not as many as we think, but more than we like," Harry said.

Harry shrugged, then nodded. "Unfortunately true."

"So," Harry finally said, after the silence had drawn on for ten long seconds, "Which one was closest?"

"Third year, I'd say," Harry commented. "But not really."

"Not time," Harry said, thinking things over. He squinted in concentration. "You seem to be a lot more powerful than I am. Even more so than the old man. Space?"

Harry just grinned. Most people looked confusedly back and forth between them. Maya smiled slightly. Ken remained her usual neutral self, while both Hermione's were staring wide-eyed as well, having caught most of the references both Harry's were using, and suitably impressed by the revelations implied.

"Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

Harry placed his free hand on his hip, and gave his counterpart a stare. His mirror nodded. "Gotcha. Snape?"

The look turned into a frown. His mirror grinned in return. "I think we'll get along fine. So, are you going to invite us to lunch? Cause I'm starving!"

Harry shrugged. "Sure, why not? Care to join us for lunch? I'm sure Maya and Ken-sensei are as curious to your origins as I am. My sister, and my teacher, respectively," he added when noticed his counterpart's inquiring look.

Harry blinked. "Sister?"

Harry grinned. "Let's trade secrets," He glanced around the Great Hall. "In private."

"Fair enough," his mirror replied, extending a hand, which Harry shook with a wide smile.

Before they even turned around however, Harry decided to introduce himself to both of the charming foreign ladies, starting with Ken. "Hi, I don't believe we've met," Harry smiled charmingly at the woman, "I'm Harry Potter, and you would be? Besides lovely, angelic, beautiful, gorgeous and hot that is."

The woman blinked, her frown deepened.

Off to the side, Harry whispered to him, "Oh my god, are you flirting with my Sensei?!"

Harry's eyes snapped to his counterpart at these words for only a moment. His eyes flashed back and forth between Harry, Maya, and the older Asian woman before him. He spent a whole second looking the woman up and down, focusing on several key things, before he said to her, "Mahou Mo Ken?"

Taken aback for the moment, the woman, now identified as Mahou Mo Ken, arched one elegant eyebrow in acknowledgment, but did not take her eyes off the Harry Potter in front of her.

"That is your title, yes?" Harry innocently remarked. "Magic and Sword. First Bodyguard to the Emperor of Japan, Official Leader of the Magical Defense Force of Japan in the wake of World War II, Unofficially the Voice of the Emperor to Magical Japan, carrying the Word of the Emperor as Law and then Enforcing it by steel and spell. Assuming the time lines remain linear, that would make you the..." he looked Ken over again, "Third Mahou Mo Ken since the Eradication, and the one thousand, four hundred twentieth to bear the title since it's inception."

"You are remarkably well informed," she addressed him, even as she lowered her staff until it was pointed directly in his face. A brief moment of concentration caused the tip to glow with magical power.

"Well, in my education, it pays to be as well informed as one can be," Harry grinned roguishly. "My apologies for being so forward, it was not my intention to offend. Quite the opposite in truth. Plus, it would be rude to interrupt lunch, and besides, I'm still hungry. Would you excuse me for just one moment? And guys? Relax. I was joking about the fighting."

Surprised, everyone glanced behind them to see Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all in martial arts stances, which further surprised them as most would expect them to be holding out wands instead. Ken looked back to the mirror image of her student, and was surprised to see him half a room away at the Ravenclaw table munching on a roll of bread and sitting next to Luna Lovegood!

"Y'know, you really should stop giving me the evil eye, Luna," he was saying to the girl beside him, "I might begin to think you don't like me for some reason. Care to pass the bacon, Terry? Thanks." He paused long enough to feed the snowy white owl on his shoulder a few strips of the cooked meat.

"You're not Harry," Luna almost hissed at the boy calmly eating beside her.

"Well," Harry said between swallows, "I am, I am, I am, I am, and I'm not. It's all really very complicated, which I suddenly have the feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot in the future..."

"Who are you?" the blond asked him.

He shrugged and replied, "Who do I look like?"

She tilted her head to the side, then pronounced, "You look like Harry James Potter mixed with Harry mixed with Harry Potter mixed with Potter."

Harry tilted his head back at her, then nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Nobody ever said it that way before though, but it works for me. Well, I enjoyed this chat, but I think the old people are starting to get restless. Talk to you later, Luna."

The next thing they knew, he was standing between his counterpart and Ken once again, saying, "After you, Nee-chan." In flawless Japanese.

"Being a shameless flirt does not suit you, Mr. Potter," Ken said, her wooden staff echoing loudly against the stone floor with every step.

"Sad, but true," the muggle-dressed Harry pouted. "Still, one cannot help it when in the presence of true beauty, and I was trained in the art of seduction by a bunch of nymphs, so please excuse the sometimes vagrant exaggerations, as I mean what I say. Sometimes it just comes out wrong."

"Y'know, you never did answer my question about whether you really did lose your virginity to a nymph the last time I asked you," Ginny 'innocently' remarked.

"And now we're having Lunch in the Headmaster's Office," Harry immediately changed the subject and stopped. He glanced around very briefly and then raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. Everyone in the Great Hall saw a blinding flash of green-tinted light and when it faded, all the Professors, the strangers, and the original Hermione, Ron, Harry and Maya were all gone.

Hogwarts

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Headmaster's Office

For those transported however, one second they're all in the Great Hall, the very next they're all seated in the Headmaster's Office. Those that were standing originally were still standing, but those that were sitting, thankfully, found themselves seated in the available seating and even found new seats conjured just for them even. Dumbledore was now behind his desk, while all the Professors of Hogwarts were arranged behind him in their seats, except for Professor McGonagall, who stood next to the Headmaster.

In front of the desk, Harry had placed himself and his friends, while he put Ken, Maya, his counterpart and his friends' counterparts off to the side, facing them, putting himself and the other 'outsiders' directly in the spotlight. "Figured I'd save us all some time," he said to their disbelieving looks.

"But... you can't Apparate within Hogwarts!" Hermione, next to Harry and Maya, protested.

"I didn't Apparate, I teleported," Harry grinned at her, then turned his full attention back to Dumbledore, Mahou mo Ken, and his counterpart.

"Mind if we do this while we eat?" he asked them suddenly, before any questions could start. "It's pretty much the middle of the night for us and dinner was like six hours ago. So...?"

"Of course, of course," Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling as he took his seat behind the desk, "I'll have something brought up immediately. Now, if you please, could you perhaps explain what it is you're doing here, and how you came to be here in the first place?"

"Sure, sure, sure," Harry casually waved his hand, and instantly comfortable seating appeared next to all of those still standing. His friends only took their seats after Harry gave them the OK, though he remained standing himself, feeling that he needed to as he explained. "At least to the first. More than happy to. Can't really help you on that second one though."

"Why not?" Snape snarled.

"Why didn't I teleport you to a mile over the middle of the lake?" Harry sarcastically asked in reply.

"The latter has to do with an object that is located within one of the Vaults of Hogwarts," he told Dumbledore. "If you knew what it was, or even where it is currently, you would remove it from the Vault to 'put it in a safe place' and that would be bad. Very bad. So bad that you would pretty much be destroying the entire world by doing that. So... I'm not going to answer the second question, OK? OK."

Dumbledore lost a bit of the twinkle in his eyes, but remained optimistic nevertheless. "So, Harry, what are you doing here?"

"Training," he answered, then remained silent.

"You wouldn't believe how often he does this," Ron sighed, shaking his head in his seat.

"Always keeping secrets?" Ron asked, silently gesturing between the two Harry's.

"No," Ron shook his head again, "Only answering direct questions, and when he 'explains', he always does it with the least amount of information possible. He's always honest and he doesn't hold anything back, but it's like pulling wool! You get some of it, most of it maybe, but you never get all of it until you ask the right questions. Bloody annoying, it is."

Harry just smiled, his own eyes twinkling at the words of the two Ron's conversation.

"Whose training?" Harry asked his counterpart.

"Theirs," Harry gestured at his friends.

"For?"

"Bad stuff happened in our universe. Even worse stuff was about to happen, I had just found out about it, and I had a decision to make. I made it. I've been training them for the past couple of months, but their progress was too slow for it to help or make any difference with what was about to happen. So, I got us more time, and more opportunities for training."

"Why would you be training them?" Maya asked. Not really disbelieving, just honestly curious.

"That's... complicated," Harry hedged.

"See what I mean?" Ron ad libbed.

"If I may," Dumbledore interrupted, "What was it that was happening in your home that you saw the only recourse was to leave your entire universe behind?"

"Oh, where do I begin," Harry grunted, agitatedly pacing back and forth as he listed the reasons. "To begin with, you, meaning our Dumbledore, was... is dead. Severus Snape is the new Headmaster of Hogwarts. Voldemort has openly declared war with the established government of Wizarding Britain. Death Eaters, on the day of Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley's wedding no less, attacked and summarily performed a coup de gras and essentially are the established government now, with Voldemort being the silent mastermind. New laws pretty much outlawing anything that is not a pedigree pureblood of at least a century or more. Goblins running a monopoly on all funds for the magical world and more or less funding the new Death Eater regime. Oh, and let's not forget; Voldemort building a vast army using the dead, dying or soulless bodies of those 'convicted' of not being "Pure" enough and sent to Azkaban, Kissed, or killed on sight. Then turning around and using those bodies to create Inferi, zombies, mindless werewolves brainwashed to serve, loyal vampires, more Dementors, Lethifolds, and pretty much every Dark Creature in the school books and then some and programming every last one of them to do nothing except follow the will of the Dark Lord, and upon his final death, go out and create as much absolute chaos as possible. How's that suit you for 'only recourse was to temporarily leave', huh?"

"That's impossible!" Snape exclaimed.

"Which part? The Dark Army, or you being Headmaster?" Harry monotoned.

"All of it! It's absolute dribble! If the Dark Lord were planning anything of that magnitude, there would be evidence to support it!" Snape argued.

"Except for the fact that we didn't just come from an alternate universe, but approximately nine months in the future. It's all very complicated, but the basis is that all realities more or less run parallel to each other, but due to compositional elements, creation date, separation date, magical, universal, existential, and temporal forces at work, each universe basically runs on it's own clock. Your own universe actually runs about 1.5 times the speed of ours, but the creation date seems to have been about a hundred solar cycles behind. So, instead of being a hundred or more years behind us, your time line is roughly a year behind ours, but you're catching up! So don't worry about that. Like I said; complicated."

"You arrogant—!" Snape started to say, but suddenly found himself lifted out of his chair, looking as though something had him by the throat. Harry was staring right at him, but otherwise hadn't moved.

"What do you think you are doing?!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, jumping to her feet. Everyone else looked about to do the same, but someone quickly put a stop to that.

"The Potions Master is in no danger here," Mahou mo Ken interrupted the Transfiguration Professor. "I believe our... guest is merely trying to prove a point. If he does escalate things to the level of murdering someone, I will stop him." She said this more to Harry than anyone else, but it settled everybody back down.

"I cannot begin to say how much I enjoy choking the life out of you, Professor Snape," he whispered harshly, still everyone was able to hear. "You have called me, and quite obviously my counterpart, 'arrogant' and 'attention-seeking' and 'brat' pretty much since Day One! I would love to torture you so that it would take you months to finally die. But, then there are your reasons for why you are the way you are, and I understand that. So consider this a very, very, very small warning. Next time you call me, or him, 'arrogant', 'attention-seeking', 'brat', or any related synonym... you will wish that I would torture you until you finally die. Understand?"

Gasping and feeling as though his larynx was being slowly crushed inside his throat, Snape tried to nod his head when it was clear he could not speak. After a moment, he dropped back into his seat, gasping and coughing and just breathing for the moment.

"Good," Harry was all smiles suddenly. "I cannot say how long I've wanted to do that."

"Thanks," Harry said in gratitude.

"You're welcome," Harry said. "Now, where were we?"

"Are you all really from an alternate reality?" Hermione asked.

"Ah! Right!" Harry grinned. "Yes, we really are from an alternate reality Hermione. I'll provide proof later on if it is still required. Now, there was something else... Oh yeah!"

"Reasons we're here instead of there! There, we're already in hiding and pretty much on the run from the Ministry, since the Ministry is pretty much Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Originally, I was just going to train my friends here in a new type of magic that I've somewhat recently become a master of, and while they learned and became adequate enough, we would annoy and strike out against Voldemort and his Death Eaters until their forces were sufficiently diminished that we could pretty much wipe them out in a single battle, while simultaneously getting Moldy Shorts annoyed enough with me that he would commit every single last one of his resources against me. Then I found out that wasn't working and revised it to pretty much incite the entire magical community to rise up against tyrannical rule with me as the figurehead. Then I found out about the Dark Army."

"Now the plan is to make each of these three here," he paced around to behind his friends and placed his hands on Hermione and Ron's shoulders, "just as strong, powerful, and skilled as I am, so that when we go back, there are four Battle Mages to deal with the Dark Army instead of just one and his apprentices."

"Battle Mage?" Ken questioned.

"Me," Harry pointed at himself, pacing back around to the center of the room.

"Who was your teacher? I have heard of this discipline, but I was not aware of any that actively practiced it," she asked. "Perhaps this man may have a counterpart in this reality that could assist us, should the same events come to happen."

"He's a Time Wizard, named Joshua," Harry answered with a straight face.

Every experienced witch and wizard in the room suddenly paled and grew ashen-faced, leaving all the students to wonder what that meant.

"You... were trained, personally, by a Time Wizard?" Dumbledore stuttered.

Harry nodded. "Twice. In two different... disciplines as Ken-sama called it. Battle Magic and Magical Counter-Intelligence/Espionage Fieldwork." Seeing the lack of understanding in their expressions, he said again, "Battle Magic and Spy Magic."

"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yeah, until he starts making you run laps," Ron mumbled.

"If it helps any, I've also passed most of my O.W.L.s and was only a year from taking my N.E.W.T.s, but to be quite honest about it, that was a mere formality as after the sixth year, everything else is just theoretical, review, and practicing enough to not need review in the future. And I am also an Accredited Mage of Winding Circle Temple, and a Licensed Professional Mage, graduate of Lightsbridge University." Harry further listed his credentials to all of them.

"I am afraid I am unfamiliar with those last two institutions," Dumbledore subtly questioned.

"You wouldn't be, as they do not exist in this reality," Harry answered him. "Trust me, however, when I tell you that as much recognition as Hogwarts gets you, Winding Circle and Lightsbridge each meet that reputation on their own. It's just one is for what they call Academic Magic, and the other is for Ambient Magic. So I probably know more about magic than just about everybody in this room."

"What is Ambient magic?" Hermione, sitting next to Harry and Ron, asked.

"Complicated," Harry said after a second to think about it.

"Oh fine, if you won't answer their questions, then I will," Hermione, having been sitting quietly behind Harry all this time, stood up. "Academic Magic, the way he explained it, is the way of using magic that requires rules, rituals, patterns, almost a science to their use. It's much like wizardry, except that they use different methods of performing spells. Academic Mages, as they're called, have an internal magical ability that, through training and understanding can be built up to perform spells, gaining strength as they get older."

"On the other end of matters, however, Ambient Mages are each connected in some unique way to a specific... element of magic. Sometimes fire, air, or earth. Sometimes they're connected to a skill, such as metalworking or gardening. Nevertheless, where Academic Mages learn to build up their own magical strength, Ambient Mages must learn to increase their control, as they're always connected to the same element of magic, and their strength is governed more by their control over it rather than how much force goes into each spell."

"So... you're both an Academic and an... Ambient Mage?" Harry asked his counterpart. "And a Battle Mage, a Spy Mage, and a Wizard on top of all that?"

Harry nodded in reply.

"Wow. And I thought learning Japanese magic was tough," he mumbled.

"But how is that even possible?" Hermione nearly screeched. "You don't look older than our Harry, and you claim to have experienced much of the same things that he did, and clearly you went to Hogwarts! So how could you have learned all of that and really become so powerful?"

"It helps when your teacher is a Time Wizard," Harry said to her.

"What does that even mean?" she crossed her arms in annoyance.

"What it means," Hermione gave her Harry a glare as she answered her counterpart, "is that Harry was taken to different planes of existence and the wizard that did so is capable of making it seem as though no time has passed at all. As for Harry's age, he turned seventeen about a month and a half ago."

"My story is very complicated, so let's not overload everyone at once here, OK?" Harry pulled Hermione back and sat her back down. "My point in telling you all of this is so that you might as well consider me an honorary Professor at this school, except that I only have three students. We will require accommodations, unlimited access to the school, and everyone's cooperation in our training. Which means give us rooms, food, and leave us all alone."

"OK, now you're starting to sound arrogant," Harry warned his counterpart.

"Food here yet?" Harry asked, ignoring the jibe.

"It shall be arriving momentarily," Dumbledore assured the young man, eyes twinkling like supernovas.

"If I may," Ken stood up, "Why is it that you automatically assume that these people would give into your demands so readily? My apprentice is correct, and it is the signs of an arrogant man when he does not bother to request or ask, and merely informs after the fact."

Harry nodded his head, accepting her criticism. "My apologies. But if Hogwarts does not provide for us, we're going somewhere else. And Dumbledore doesn't like wild cards. He's still not convinced we aren't some elaborate illusion or some other factor of Moldywart's or another Death Muncher's plans. Plus, my Dumbledore did something recently that really pissed me off, so I'm disinclined to show him the proper, if any respect at all. The Bodyguard of the Emperor of Japan, on the other hand, does deserve my respect. So I apologize." He bowed shortly, keeping his head down for a full ten seconds before righting himself.

Mahou mo Ken merely nodded, bowing shortly in return, then resumed her seat.

"What did he do?" Hermione, sitting next to Harry, innocently asked.

"He pretty much tried to manipulate me into letting Voldemort kill himself, while sacrificing pretty much the whole world in order to do so," Harry smiled, looking right at Dumbledore as he replied.

Professor Dumbledore gulped and hid his near-mummified hand within his robes.

"Found all the Horcruxes yet?" Harry asked, still staring right at Dumbledore.

"I..." the old wizard started to say something.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about now, Potter?" Snape interrupted. "Or should I say Evil-Potter? That is often the way things work when dealing with mirror images of people."

"Do you want to see how little air there is in the upper atmosphere? Because I am more than willing to accommodate you," Harry threateningly shot back.

"There are three more that I am mostly certain of," Dumbledore finally answered.

Looking around, Harry saw the Diary and the Ring sitting behind glass cases against the far wall. "Still haven't gone to retrieve the fake Locket then. Fletcher stolen the fixings and other stuff from Grimmauld Place yet? No? Good. Which just leaves the Cup, Diadem, and Nagini. I should probably go take care of that while I'm here... Ah, but after lunch!" Finally, the food had arrived, brought by House Elves.

"Oh good! I'm starving!" Ron practically dived upon the offerings, only to be held back by the girls.

"He gets like that, I'm sure you understand," Harry excused him.

"Only too well," his counterpart agreed. "Let's eat, shall we? Our own lunch was interrupted."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry shrugged, not apologetic in the least.

"You don't act like my brother," Maya muttered under her breath.

Harry glanced back at her and then looked back and forth between her and his counterpart for only a second before turning his full attention to the arrived food. Once everything was passed out and the new arrivals sat down and eating, he asked between bites, "So, like I said, we'll do this while we eat. Any other questions you want answered?"

"Oh yes," Dumbledore started to say, but was soundly interrupted by Ken.

"However, they can wait. Since the Headmaster has seen fit to accommodate your... demands, you will obviously be spending enough time here that you will have ample opportunity to answer those questions. Except for one of course. What are you going to do next?"

Harry smiled at the woman, biting into a sandwich after he did so and spent about a minute chewing and swallowing that one bite. After his mouth was clear, he slowly answered, "Well. Probably the first thing is get some sleep, but I don't think we're tired enough for that just yet, and we will have to get acclimated to the time change, and the sooner the better, right."

He took a few steady sips from his goblet, before finally telling them, "The immediate plans are for me to resume training my friends, in relative solitude. If you want us to attend classes or whatnot, keep in mind that Ron, Hermione and I are Seventh Years, while Ginny is a Sixth Year. Beyond that, nothing is set in stone just yet. Why? Would you have something to offer, Mahou mo Ken-sama?"

"I might," she cryptically replied.

Hogwarts Lake

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Later that Afternoon

"I had a feeling that there were things you wished to discuss with your counterparts that did not require the presence of the Headmaster or his staff," Ken said as she stood exactly between the two groups of four.

On her right were the visitors from another universe; Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. On her left was her students and his friends; Harry, Maya, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Neville. Those on her left were all dressed in the Hogwarts school robes, while those on her right were mostly dressed like muggles, in jeans or pants and shirts and jackets.

They had all walked down from the castle, and the Headmaster's office specifically, only about fifteen minutes ago. There, Neville and Luna met them at the Main Hall, almost waiting for them. Upon seeing Ken leading the group outside, they soon fell in step, which drew an expression of mild surprise from her student's counterpart, but no one said anything to exclude the new arrivals, therefore they were allowed to join the gathering without incident. There was also something else about the other Harry, which she could not immediately put her foot on, that which further singled him apart from her second apprentice.

This Harry nodded and bowed with the proper respect for her station, a mere formality, but she could tell he also conveyed his thanks with the act. "Thank you, Mahou mo Ken-sama," he verbalized. "There are... secrets that, despite the best of intentions by those that believe themselves to be wiser, should not be said casually, no matter to whom."

"I trust Ken-sensei," Harry stepped forward to speak with his counterpart.

Harry nodded in acknowledgment, then turned and raised an eyebrow in Ken's direction.

She nodded and bowed in understanding. Somethings, no matter how trusted the person, were private.

"My apprentice," she spoke to her Harry, "I appreciate your support and your trust. I return it to you now. What he has to say to you is for your ears only, and I am sure making allowances for my First Apprentice is stretching the bounds of privacy enough as it is. I do have other matters I must give my attention to. If you all will excuse me?" She merely nodded once in the other Harry's direction and then immediately walked back up to the castle.

"I like her," Harry said to Harry, even as she was still within hearing range. Then, he suddenly began pacing in a wide circle around the gathering. "She's a good teacher. And if half of what I've heard about those bearing the title of Mahou mo Ken, a powerful warrior as well."

"She is," Harry replied.

"So... what is it that you needed to speak to us about?" Hermione asked after a moment's silence.

"I'm rather wondering about that myself, actually," Hermione supported her double, crossing her arms as she watched Harry walk around them for the second time, knowing he was actually raising wards for privacy and protection. He'd done it all the time when they were meditating, until they'd learned how to contain their magic on their own that is.

"Basic history-comparison," he told them. "Different things have happened to each of us, and while for the large part we are the same people, those differences can pop up at the worst time and cause unnecessary conflict. So, I figured the sooner we got this over with, the better. Hermione, since you're so impatient, you get to go first."

"What?!" both of them screeched. "Why me? Why not you?"

"Uh, cause that would take too long?" both Harry's said in unison.

The Hermione's blinked, surprised by the answer as much that it was said together. "What do you mean?" they asked, unable to help themselves.

"That's going to get really annoying," the Ron's muttered.

"Tell me about it," Neville agreed with a wince at the other pair in stereo.

"You want to, or shall I?" the Harry walking around asked the one in the center.

"I have a guess, but I think you know. So please, by all means," he stepped back to let his double speak.

"OK, fair enough. I'm actually four Harry Potters fused into one being. He's a single Harry Potter that is being trained by a foreign dignitary, specifically the Prime Bodyguard for the Emperor of Japan. I beat Voldemort in battle, single handedly, twice, not to mention have been responsible for the deaths or vanquishes of over one hundred Death Eaters or otherwise dark creatures. He has a magical sister that he shares a very unique bond with. Comparing the differences between us would take the better part of the afternoon. You two, and Ron and Ron, can relate almost any differences that you do have, to your relationship with either one of us. Likewise with Ginny and Ginny. I figured we'd get the easy stuff out of the way first."

"Oh," Hermione mumbled looking down.

Her counterpart sighed and rolled her eyes up. She'd gotten used to this kind of treatment after a month of it now. "You know, you never did finish showing us the tricks that go along with inanimate object transforming," she idly remarked as he finally finished walking around the gathering.

"Oh, that stuff's easy," he snorted, waving it off. "Just focus your magic into the inanimate form and then in the same way that you shape a spell, you can then move yourself. It requires the same suffusing your magic throughout your entire body, but you've all gotten a lot better at that. If we hadn't had to go on this field trip, I would've given you guys a basic test tomorrow... although I guess that'd be today now, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, but it just goes to prove my point," she continued. "You're only bringing information to light when it suits you! Or when we come across a situation where we need to know right then. Well, it would be nice to have these explanations ahead of time, before we're in a life or death situation!"

"I have been kind of acting like Dumbledore, haven't I?" Harry winced. His friends glared at him, while his double was no help by just shrugging helplessly, before nodding in reply.

"All right, fine! I'm sorry. But I kind of can't help it. I've been flying by the seat of my pants pretty much from the word 'Go!' You want to know the real reason I started training you guys, Hermione? It was on the spur of the moment, and it was more convenient for me if you already knew. There! It's out in the open. I didn't start teaching you Battle Magic because I wanted to fight Voldemort, I started training you because that way I wouldn't have to hide it, like he had to," he pointed at his double, "when I had to train myself! Then the coup happened and we had to leave sooner than expected, so I took us to the one safe place that I knew of. Then I wanted to start fighting back... and you guys catch me and tell me to stop, so I have to start teaching you for real instead of just basic self-defense stuff. Then there was Diagon Alley..."

All of them looked down at the ground at that, seemingly sad and depressed about something, but he continued anyway. "And I have to come up with some other way of striking back against them all, and finally came last night, when I went to the Ministry and found evidence of what Voldemort is planning. I'm sorry, Hermione, but I don't have some master plan on what to do. I may act like a superhero, but believe me, that's as much an act as anything! I may have four lifetimes of experience and magical training, but I'm still only 17 years old, so don't look at me like I'm Dumbledore, all right? I'm not hiding things. I'm still figuring it all out, all right?"

Hermione nodded. "I'm sorry, Harry, it's just... You never used to be so..."

"Commanding," Luna suggested for the floundering brunette.

"Yes, thank you, Luna," she replied with a smile. "So, Harry, when you're not forthright with information, it seems as though you're hiding things from us. And I know that you're not, but could you at least give us a proper explanation about things. Please?"

"Hermione, the explanations you require would take a full year of classroom lecturing to go through," Harry laughed. "You require everything to be put in a precise, logical order. I've done my best to explain all I can about what I'm trying to teach you, show you, and what we're doing. But to be perfectly honest, there is no precise logical order. Sometimes you figure out the ending before you even understand the beginning with half this stuff! The Mirror? I only know what it is, what it does, in a very basic understanding at that, and how to make it work. Other than that, you could probably figure more out about it than I will ever know! The Vaults of Hogwarts? I told you, I found them during our day off when I came to see Snape! And I don't like sounding like Binns all the time, so I reveal little tidbits in hopes that you'll figure it out yourselves. Now, will you please stop whining about the way I explain things? Please?"

She rolled her eyes, but smiled and nodded. He sighed in relief and then turned back to everyone else.

"Anyway! Back on track. Hermione's, you're up. Don't really need to know about childhood stuff, though I'm sure there are a few differences there too. Let's start with Hogwarts. First Year. The Train. What did each of you do?" he asked them.

"Uh, well, I was rather nervous at the time," Hermione glanced back and forth between her Harry and this sudden double that seemed more powerful than even her friend had become.

"Shortly after settling in, I changed into my robes as soon as the train started moving. Then Neville came by, looking for Trevor, his toad," Hermione picked up where the other left off.

"Oh yes!" she said, suddenly getting into the recollection, "And we'd looked through two cars when I came across Ron and Harry sitting in their own compartment, with candy spread out all over the place!"

"Then Ron tried that silly little spell that Fred and George had pranked him with, the one to turn Scabbers yellow! It didn't work of course. Then I fixed Harry's glasses and we talked about him for a minute or two," Hermione added.

"Note to self," Harry interrupted, speaking more to himself than his counterpart or the Hermione's, "Every rat named Scabbers that I come across, I will kill." Everybody moved a step away from the powerful mage at that, but he motioned for the bushy-haired brunettes to continue, and so they did.

"Let's see... oh, right! That's about the time Malfoy came in."

"Buggering little ferret..." the other Hermione muttered, seemingly angry about something.

Confused, she gave her counterpart a look before continuing, "Anyway, after Malfoy left, we arrived at the Hogsmeade station about half an hour later and then we went in boats across the lake to the castle. Professor McGonagall was there to greet us and Hagrid, then she lead us into a waiting room and then from there into the Great Hall to be Sorted."

"Obviously, we both were sorted into Gryffindor. Is there really a point to this, Harry?" Hermione interrupted her double.

He glanced back and forth between them for a minute or two, before finally stating, "After we invaded the Department of Mysteries and fought the Death Eaters and Voldemort, I, meaning Harry Potter, went back to the Dursley's for the summer. After the first week, whose letter did I receive first?"

They both had on their 'confused' expression.

"What are you talking about Harry? Professor Dumbledore gave us strict instructions not to send any mail for fear of Death Eaters tracking the owls," she answered him.

Her double, however, had a different answer. "What are you talking about? Harry, Ron and I maintained a steady correspondence throughout the entire summer. We even went to his house in Surrey at least once a week!"

"No, Harry went to stay with the Weasleys for the last half of summer, after Professor Dumbledore retrieved him to hire Professor Slughorn," Hermione argued with her double.

Turning to the Ron's, Harry suddenly asked, "Who did you go to the Yule Ball with in Fourth Year?"

"Padma," Ron answered immediately.

"Pavarti," Ron said at the same time.

"How could you even tell them apart?" the first Ron asked.

"Harry asked them to wear nametags," came the short reply.

Harry winced, saying, "Wish I'd thought of that. Then again, wish I'd have been a different me on that night, too. Would've made things a lot simpler, and more fun."

"Who did Ginny go with to the Yule Ball?" he then asked.

"Dean Thomas," Ginny answered.

"Neville," her counterpart replied, causing Ginny and Neville both to blush fiercely.

"I didn't start dating Dean until the latter half of my fourth year," she commented to everyone.

"OK, so there are differences," Hermione finally huffed. "That's to be expected really. Why is that important again? Most of those differences actually have to do with our relationship with you, or their relationship with their Harry!"

"True, but what's your favorite color?" he asked her with a grin.

"Blue," she shrugged, not understanding the question.

He turned to the other Hermione with an expectant look on her face. She flushed and said, "Violet."

"See? The little things. The point of this little exercise is so that everyone can understand, as different as the Harry's are, there are still little things that are still different. And neither one is right. You could argue all day that her favorite color should be blue because it's your favorite color and she's you, or vice versa. Or maybe the way that you hold your wand is slightly different and you try 'correcting' your double and that could lead to a very unnecessary fight. The big things will be obvious. The little things are what could start a war between the same people. Get it?"

"Got it," his friends all mumbled, but still understanding the lesson in action.

"Good! Now, the real reason for our little powwow," he turned to his own double, facing right across.

"You were acting a little arrogant earlier, you know that, right?"

He nodded. "Little bit of that was an act. Most of it was that I've always wanted to stick it to Snape like that, and a little bit more of it was that I'm still pissed at Dumbledore for what he did to me."

"What was that?" Harry asked, concerned.

"He took away my free will. My choice. He heard the Prophecy so many years ago and on the night that it came to pass, he already had all the dominoes in place to fall in an exact pattern. Even after going to Hogwarts and even getting to know him, he still manipulated me into a specific set of actions that, quite frankly, were overall stupid. He never ONCE ASKED ME IF I WANTED TO DO THINGS *HIS* WAY!!"

The storm clouds that had been building overhead and flashing lightning and very loud thunder suddenly dissipated and it was all clear blue skies once more. "Sorry. I'm still kind of sensitive about it."

"Right. I can see that," Harry accepted with a straight nod.

"What did you mean earlier?" Maya interrupted. "When you mentioned teaching them a new spell, about changing inanimate objects? What all have you been teaching your friends?"

"Not much," Ron mumbled.

Harry shrugged. "I've really only had time to teach them one spell," he sheepishly admitted.

"Haven't you been... training them, for over a month, you said?" Hermione asked, putting her hands on her hips with that look she got whenever Ron abused his powers as Prefect.

"It took us over a week just to master animal transformations," her double told them.

"Not to mention self-transfiguration," Ginny added.

"And roughly about two or three days ago, he showed us how to turn into inanimate objects, he calls it," Ron put in his two knuts. "Then he goes on to show us these little tricks that twist the laws of magic, according to Hermione, like allowing us to cast spells on ourselves when we're currently a broom or a statue or something. Then there's changing directly from one form to another without returning to your normal state and... it's harder than anything McGonagall ever taught us, that's for sure!"

"And that's why, in only a month, I've only had enough time to teach them one spell," Harry pointed out.

"Definitely harder than Japanese magic," Harry gulped.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, necessarily," Harry corrected his double. "Japanese magic is very concerned with the elements. I haven't even started them on that yet, but for you to learn any Japanese-style magic at all, you'd have to start with learning the elements."

"Well, Ken-sensei is a good teacher, and she's given me a lot of help," Harry grinned.

"Plus, she gave him a little more help than normal," Maya added teasingly. Harry glanced back at her and frowned, then hit her on the shoulder with a soft punch, much the way a brother and sister would.

Harry looked his counterpart over, then Maya, then his counterpart up and down once again, finally settling for staring at his head. Finally, after about ten seconds, he arched an eyebrow and nodded. "She taught you how to form a mindscape and then transferred a large portion of her own knowledge and experience to you. Direct mind-to-mind transfer. Very risky. Impressive, but risky. Tell me, do you guys have any afternoon classes today?"

"How did you know that?" Harry snapped.

"Uh, I didn't, that's why I asked about your afternoon classes," Harry cluelessly replied.

Narrowing his eyes, Harry reiterated, "No, about what Sensei did for me."

"Oh, that. It's obvious," Harry shrugged. When his double wouldn't stop staring, more like glaring really, he sighed and shrugged again. "Your method of Occlumency is different from your standard Wizard variation, especially the style that Snape tried to teach. That style is like a solid brick wall, or to be more accurate, an old-style shield. Not a magical shield that covers the entire body for a limited time, but a physical piece of metal or wood that knights and soldiers of old used to use. Very blunt, very uni-directional, very single-oriented. Not very versatile."

"The kind of protections that I can sense that you're using now are based more upon the Mind Arts. Anything the mind can create, can be as real as anything in reality. It's very distinctive, not to mention very instinctive as well. For one trained in the Mental Arts, such as myself, it's very obvious which style of protection you employ in defending your mind."

"Mental Arts?" Harry repeated.

Harry shrugged. "I'm a Battle Mage."

"Yeah, what does that even mean? And everyone earlier reacted strangely to when you said that you were trained by a Time Wizard. What does that all mean?" he asked.

"It's complicated," came the short reply.

"That's not going to work on me," Harry chuckled at his twin, stepping forward.

"Sorry, but what might 'that' be?" Harry tilted his head in curiosity.

"The whole I-am-the-mysterious-sage thing," Harry said, still grinning. "I know because I've thought about doing that same thing a million times. As I thought about it, and you're doing it, you've obviously thought the same thing. In other words, it's not going to work."

"Hey, I'm finally free, so to speak. No school, no guardians or meddlesome Headmasters manipulating me into doing something, no responsibilities beyond those that I choose to claim. Forgive me if I'm just at little carefree in my appreciation of newly found adulthood. Still," Harry shrugged, sharing the same grin his double sported, "Even if 'that' is the case, then you would know..."

"—you have to ask the right questions to get the right answers," Harry finished for him. "Before that, though, I'd just like to tell you... you're kind of being an ass about the whole thing."

Harry shrugged, still grinning. "Adults have the prerogative to act like an ass if they want to. Still... I'll try to work on that a little bit, OK?"

"Just a bit of friendly advice," he shrugged back. "After all, that is why one looks into a mirror, no? To see the faults within themselves and identify them as needed."

"Hmm... Speaking of which, you ever have much trouble controlling your temper?" Harry asked, absently noting how his double tended to keep at least one hand on his sword at all times.

"What would you know about my temper?" Harry asked, thrown off balance by sudden changes in topic.

Harry just gave his double a knowing look. After a second of that stare, Harry forcefully calmed down and stepped back. "Sorry," he apologized. "I suppose out of anyone, you would be the one to know about my temper, huh?"

Harry shrugged, an understanding look covering his expression. "I can help you with that, if you'd like."

"I'd like it if you'd just give me a straight answer, for once," Harry growled, annoyed.

"Then ask the right question," Harry growled right back, teasing.

"What is a Battle Mage?"

"A Warrior. Trained to use magic as a weapon. I enter battle and I emerge victorious. I wage war and I win. I fight and I fight and I fight and I fight until there is nothing left to fight. I kill and subdue with ease and no distinction between the two. I live for conflict and I enjoy what you call Dueling as a sport. Next question," Harry said, straightforward and reflecting the tone he received in the question.

"What is a Time Wizard?"

"A being capable of controlling, traveling, altering, manipulating, and existing within Time Itself," he answered. "The being that came to me called himself Joshua. He gave me a choice when I was 11 years old. I made it, he actually split me in two. Where once was one Harry Potter, suddenly there were two. One was left behind, the other taken by him to a pocket of Space/Time that was connected to multiple worlds and was trained as a Battle Mage. At the exact same time that Warrior-Harry was being trained, Joshua went back in time to when I was a baby, and shortly after my first birthday, split baby Harry into two, one left behind to grow into 11 year old Harry, the other taken to another world where he was raised as an orphan boy in a Temple of Magecraft. When he turned 11, he was given a choice. Be split in two and have a chance to see my home again, or make a new home where I was living. It wasn't really a choice, but it had to be offered. When I turned 17, all four Harry's were brought back together into me. Next question."

Harry was silent for a few seconds, digesting what he'd been told so far, then asked, "What are those Mental Arts you mentioned, and what difference is there between what Ken-sensei taught me?"

"The Mental Arts are a Skill, or branch of Battle Magic. Difference, primarily being is that what you've been taught is about bringing the body and mind into sync with one another, bringing about balance for the spirit and soul. What I do, is all about fighting. Fighting mentally as well as fighting physically. Where you could defend yourself as well on the mental plane as you could on the physical plane, I can wage war on the mental plane just as easily as I can in the real world. In short, you defend your mind and when you try and attack another, you're merely trying to gain access to their mind. Me? When I defend my mind, I cripple the attacker so that they never can try to attack me ever again. When I attack a mind, I destroy that mind. Period."

"Anymore questions?" he crossed his arms and gave his double a look.

"Not at this time, but I'm sure you won't have any problem answering others that I come up with later on, will you?" Harry asked. After receiving the acknowledgment from his double, he then asked, "Now, what was that about my temper?"

Harry lifted an eyebrow. The other one shrugged. "I used to be one, instead of four. I remember what it was like before I had three times 7 plus years of training dumped into me."

"Alright, point taken," Harry said, a little gruffly. "I do have a temper problem when people I care about are threatened... but then again, I bet even you would lose your temper when someone you care for is hurt."

Harry shrugged, his face oddly devoid of emotion, then nodded, allowing the point. "Fair enough. But I still think I could help. Keep the little annoyance from becoming a big problem."

Harry stopped pacing for a few seconds, thinking about what his double said. He had lost his temper quite a bit lately. Perhaps the old adage was true – power corrupts. "Sure. I can always use more help."

The other Harry grinned, and extended a hand. "And it'd be my pleasure to provide said help... brother."

Harry grinned, and shook the hand. "Great. As if I didn't have enough problems with just a sister."

"Hey!" Maya complained good-naturedly.

Both Harry's laughed, then grinned and both of them held out and shook their hands at the same time.

"Now, about afternoon classes?"

Next Time on 4 In 1 To ∞:

Harry continues training his friends while getting to know their alternate selves, and learning more about one another. Meanwhile, Harry offers to help Mahou Mo Ken in teaching his double, and Harry introduces the Next Spell! Plus, AWESOME Mindscape action all around!

What will the Next Spell be?

What about back Home and the Dark Army?

What about Dumbledore and the Hogwarts Staff and Students?

What does Harry's Mindscape look like compared to his double's?

The answers to these questions and more, hopefully, next month in 4 In 1 To ∞ Chapter 2: More Training!