"Hariezer, solve the puzzle and give me the stone!"
But suddenly... "I have heard it all from *** and the pensieves. You plan to end this early on in the first book without me even dying as planned."
"I'll hold you off right here and then."
"What... this talk makes no sense, this is not even a book, though this is usual... and you're..."
This was truly what made Voldemort afraid of him; he was not afraid to die. "A deathist." It was in fact the term coined not by this fic but by what may have been the first rationalist fic.
Such mature themes will surely amp the rating of the fic to M.
"I will die!"
"I won't die!"
That was the clash of ideals going on.
"Harry... Pottah... sss..." said the dark lord. "Holding the same name is two Pottahs!"
"Can both of them get the stone of prophecy?"
"Wait," I said.
My final flippendo level 2 requires mp to use. As a level 1 with level 2 spell, I did not have it.
This was not a battle of only hp. There was also mp. I could not take hp without mp. I could not level up from the fight without the mp. This... reminded me of and seemed to be hinting at something I couldn't quite get the grasp of. Like a reference to something. An eternal cycle... hp and mp... the Philosopher's Stone...
My soul went back to the regular world where Flippendo is not a real spell and I remembered.
I had to stop Hariezer who why did I play Ping Pong with, that must've been tampering with the timeline if it happened.
He'd try to make everyone live forever, in which case we'd eventually get bored and trapped in space.
It was the worst of all timelines.
By an undescribable set of circumnstances, Charles had stumbled across the forbidden door.
"Even though I'm an average person, damn it... well I might aswell go there..."
The four mcs approached the ultimate room.
"Pottah, get the stone..."
"What happened to Quirrell? Why do I get only this imitation Voldemort?"
"The other Quirrell."
"Damn it, I'm stuck with this dumb guy instead..."
"Pottah, the stone..."
"Wait, what really is going on?" Charles had arrived at the scene and saw through Occlumency that Hariezer wanted to get stone to take over the world unlike Harry who didn't care. "I can't allow someone to break the monotony by making a third, heck even a fourth power. I'm a boring Chinese passing by as an average person... until now."
"He who shall not be named," I said arriving too, "you stand no chance against the four of us, it's basically four Potters!"
"A good try for a non-Bayesian," said Hariezer casting a spell.
"My criticism may really be sneer," I said when repelling his attack.
"You guys can't even cook," said Charles preparing his reserves.
This was it. The ultimate showdown of great destiny.
"For the 12 schools of [Chinese] magic arts of the Zodiac!"
"For the Bayesian school of statistics, that I prefer over frequentism!"
"The world... is all that is the case!"
The spells connected into one as we poured the magic of our logic soul into a single attack.
Charles finally used some spell to break the stalemate.
The exploding spell corroded the middle of the room.
Hariezer used the particle manipulation he used to full effect in the end of the fic.
I had of course prepared for it with my shield of air. I had the advantage of knowing his attack. Since I knew their attacks and had a year to prepare, I had the time to combine their techniques.
Lucky, it had took fully all the logic-judo he had left.
Voldemort had no chance but no one was paying attention to him anymore and he was defeated but someone would have to finish the horcruxes later.
The magic had then blown Charles who defended with a shield he got from a tactical situation he saw in the original series.
Yet, this gave me the chance to disarm him.
He tried to tactically accio the wand, preparing a rune inspired spell that would take all his magic reserves.
I'd then counter with my own rune of air.
It wasn't going to fully counter a rune of earth used by his affinity; which then might explode due to the unconstrained nature of rune magic.
Such was the nature of runes that Atlantis itself fell.
Voldemort tried to resist one last time but was blown away by the rune.
I had already realized, though.
Hariezer manipulated mere matter by taking the most minimal quantum theory that existed. "Not rational enough, is it?" I said. If this was possible, why not lead further into Tarski's theory and Ludwig's motto. "The truth is what corresponds to reality". As someone else put it, "the world is all that is the case". Either or not the former is really what was meant which I don't know since I didn't check all the maths... it stands.
He would then go on to say that what is the case is the set of facts, not of things. This had been the mistake methods potter committed by merely taking a physical and not a theoretical theory of reality.
The realm of logic itself was at my command.
Reality warped around us. All that is the case was momentarily at my hands as long as I had the magic reserves for it.
I was then disarmed by the time-traveller.
"Wait, who are you?"
"I'm the one who read your fic. I merely waited for your battle to finish when you were both weak-"
A sixth figure appeared with a gun.
Something that would go unnoticed by all the charms of Hogwarts because it wasn't magic.
"No, my only weakness... in fact, the one every wizard has... a gun."
"Haha," the figure said. "I will let you go to become your future self. However, know that-"
It was the one wild card no one could have predicted.
"Expelliarmus!"
It did not work.
"Use accio!" I yelled.
Then, "accio!"
The original, regular, Harry Potter.
How ironic that the original mc was the one to save us.
"The original Pottah... I'm not done in by the way," said Voldemort rising again.
Nooo!
Nooo!
They soon realized that merely getting close would magic both of them.
Harry had no choice.
He had to get a gun.
He used the one he had gotten by disarming the last mc.
"A muggle weapon... you fight me with this..."
I took the opportunity to disarm the time-traveller.
"Dumbledore died courageously fighting Quirrel..." I said.
"Quirrel died courageously... huh... not trying to kill us all..." Hariezer said.
"This other Quirrell isn't in the books..." is the final remark added by Charles.
"I'm one who had read the fanfics you are all in." said Stephen.
So this was it.
"There may be more before me. Those who had read my fanfic. Those with other kinds of concepts that to them is logic." Stephen continued. "A pointless battle, I admit. However, the winner may choose to become the master of a new world. A world where your ideals are made true."
"This... is a tempting promise."
With catch or not, was it worth a try? It all had been a battle to determine which logic ideal would prevail. Harry had no interest in this and wanted to be an average person. Thus, I was the winner. The time-traveller merely wanted a good book to read and was tired of messing with the higher worlds anyway
A world with ideals made true. And these may be logical ideals of the soul.
A world where, perhaps, no one was immortal and trapped in space.
"It was determined by runes made long ago. Such runes might have been made not with air or earth but aether and time."
"Who knows what hopes the one who made them had? Still..."
It was time.
I crossed the event horizon.