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.

2. More Training!

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!

Continuing with the next chapter of my very good friend, Enterprise1701-d's fanfic Mahou mo Ken!

Story:

Hogwarts

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Clearing By The Lake

"OK, first things first, I think that we need to begin by meditating," Harry said to his friends, who all groaned at this announcement. "Oh, don't start with me. Because we all get to run around the lake afterwards." The groans increased in volume. "Home team excluded as I don't really get to tell you guys what to do or not, but you are more than welcome to join us."

"Uh, yeah, sure, whatever," Ron mumbled.

Hermione, Ginny and Maya glared at the redhead sloth, then nodded that they would be glad to join in. Neville looked back and forth between the two camps and tried to smile and nod, though it was clear he wasn't sure of his decision.

"You guys meditate?" Harry asked his double and friends.

"Helps with magic control," Harry said back. "You're more than welcome to join us."

"Thanks," he said, sitting down along with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. Maya quickly joined in.

"I still haven't gotten the hang of that meditating thing," Ron grumbled as he was pulled down by his sister beside Hermione and Maya. Neville sat down beside Hermione, slowly settling himself into a meditative pose along with everyone else.

"Took me a while too, mate," Ron said to his double. "But it's worth it. Harry showed me how meditating helps in increasing the power and use of my spells, even showed us how we could cast wandlessly through this. Hasn't shown us exactly how to do it yet, though," he glared at the still-standing Harry.

"You kind of have to figure it out on your own, Ron," Harry replied. Then he jumped back and was suddenly sitting cross-legged in mid-air. "Begin when you're ready, I'll keep an eye on your progress."

"Is there a reason for the casual displays of magic?" Hermione, next to Maya and Neville, asked him.

Harry shrugged, still sitting cross-legged midair. "Makes things easier. Also, I'm kind of showing off and I know that it sounds arrogant of me, but it's not arrogance if you know your limits and stay within them. Plus, there's not enough room on the blanket."

"What blanket?" she asked, then looked down and saw that they were now all seated on a cotton red and gold Gryffindor Lion quilt. "How...?"

"Eh, I need practice on basic conjuring," midair Harry shrugged again.

Harry's three friends were already deep into their meditation, each of them breathing almost in sync with one another. Breathing in, holding, breathing out, all to the same pace. Their bodies soon relaxed and Harry, on the blanket, almost envied them for how easy they made it look. Sensing mild amusement at his jealousy from their connection, Harry grinned over at his sister, then closed his eyes to catch up.

"Uh, we're meditating," midair Harry quietly told him and Maya, while hovering himself upside down and right in front of the two of them. "Not entering the mindscape. There is a difference. Also, our kind of meditating hasn't progressed that far, so please don't skip ahead of the rest of the class, please. Thank you."

Harry rolled his eyes at the friendly teasing, then asked, "So, what kind of meditating do you use?"

"I'll walk you through it," Harry said, flipping himself back upright, and then floating around to Harry's blind spot. "First, close your eyes and just breathe. That's it. Now, listen to your heartbeat and breathe in, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Hold the breath, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Breathe out, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Breathe in... Hold... Breathe out... Breathe... Hold... Breathe..."

Harry kept his voice soft, slowly lowering it as they progressed, noticing how now all of them were breathing to the same pattern without any difficulty. "Now," he kept his voice hypnotically low, "Feel, with each passing breath. All of the air flowing into you. Through you. Through your body. Sustaining you. Giving you power. Feeding your magic. With every exhale. Feel your magic grow. Flare out, like the flames of a fire. Inhale. Hold. Exhale." He timed each word precisely, most said during the held breath.

"Reach deep inside," he progressed the meditation. "Feel out your magic. Feel the pulse of your heart. Your blood. Your magic. Feel your core. Find it, reach for it, and let it fill you up, filling every cell of your body with it's power." He winced as seven bodies lit up with a blinding amount of magic. "Good," he struggled not to sound pained by the glare, "Now. Imagine one object, something small, something familiar, something that you know. It can be anything. Now focus all of your magic deep down into that one object. Don't let it frustrate you. Keep at it. Keep breathing. Feel the magic flowing. Feel it flowing down into where, and what you need to place it in. Focus, and feel it happen."

The glare of magic slowly faded. After about five minutes, his friends were normal and had successfully and fully contained their magic within themselves, while their counterparts, and Maya, were down to an intermittent glow. His own counterpart, however, was as bright as ever, though that could be placed at the feet that there was just still so much, even though his magic had dimmed quite a bit!

He floated himself upside down once more and put himself right behind his double's ear, and whispered, "Focus. Don't lose concentration. Don't let it frustrate you. Keep to the task and it will be done. Focus. Breathe. Feel."

Finally, the magic dimmed to a bright glow, then a muted glow, and by the time even Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Neville had completed the exercise, Harry's once blazing aura was non-existent, all of it contained within.

"Good," Harry said to all of them, speaking low. "Now, pull out your magic from that one object, only a little bit at a time, and once more fill your body with your magic. Once you've done that, put it back into that one object and do it again. Keep focus. Feel the magic flow. Don't let it flood out, only a little bit at a time. Barely anything at all. Good..."

Harry walked them through the control exercises another five times before calling a halt to it. They'd only been meditating for an hour when he talked them out of their meditations and let them stretch to work out the kinks of staying still for so long.

"That... that was amazing," Harry admitted to Harry.

Harry, still sitting midair, shrugged. "Basics of magecraft. Can't work with magic if you can't control it, and the only way to control it is through proper mental discipline. Hence, meditation is taught to every mage first thing. Teaches them control and thus is the basis for their magic use. Don't take this the wrong way, but you seemed to be having the most trouble of all."

Harry blushed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. "Uh, yeah, well..."

"When we have some time later, I'll show you a few of the magic control exercises that I use myself," Harry interrupted any excuses that might have been coming. "I can't tell you how bad my control was after I was fully merged. Took me almost a solid month, altogether to get my control back up to where it is supposed to be. Still working at it, in fact. It's not a weakness to have too much magic to control. Quite the opposite, for most. It does, however mean that you need to work at control harder than everyone else."

"How come you haven't taught us these advanced techniques yet?" Ron asked.

"Cause you don't need them. Yet," Harry answered patiently. "Don't take this the wrong way, Ron, but to make any use of the techniques I'm going to show him, you would need roughly twice the amount of magic that you currently have at your disposal. At least."

"Also," he said as an aside to Harry, "I actually didn't learn them officially, I just came up with them on my own while learning to control my own magic. Personal training you might say."

"Now," Harry clapped his hands together as his feet touched the ground, "Can anybody guess what time it is?" The smirk on his face was absolute, pure, 100 percent total evil incarnate.

"It's time to run," Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Maya all said with differing tones.

"Right!" Harry exclaimed enthusiastically. "Give me a minute to take down the circle and then you can get started." With that, he began walking around the gathering as he had at first, but this time going in the opposite direction.

"Why is he doing that?" Hermione asked her double. "And what does he mean 'circle'?"

"Harry places protective wards around us whenever we meditate, telling us that it's just a standard precaution that he was trained to take when dealing with magic. He wouldn't go into detail about it, but from what I gathered, whenever a mage, or witches and wizards in this case, is meditating, their magic is controlled more by their subconscious than their conscious minds, and thus have a tendency of releasing bursts of harmful magic until the person learns the proper amount of control."

"Not exactly, but close enough," Harry, passing them for the third time, interjected.

"Well, then why don't you explain it better?" she challenged him.

"How could magic be harmful? I mean, what you're speaking of is like Accidental magic, yes?" Hermione questioned the other Harry.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," he answered. "Accidental or not, given off in enough quantity, at the wrong time, and the wrong kind of magic in the wrong place... It's unpredictable, but it's potentially dangerous just because of that. I could give the whole lecture, but I just finished pulling down the last protections, and you guys have laps to run." Seeing they were about to argue, he interrupted any protests.

"Hop to it!" Harry smirked. "At least one lap around the lake. Jump over obstacles using martial arts training, but stick to the shoreline. If you any of you decide to go past one lap, and then can keep up with me for one full lap, I will teach the lot of you anything that you want me to teach you, and I'll have you learn it before the day is out. But. Keeping pace with me for a few steps isn't enough, you have to stay even with me, or even ahead of me for one full lap."

"You're going to use Lightning Shoes, aren't you?" Hermione grumbled.

Harry shrugged. "If I went at your pace, I'd still be running by the end of next week before I even got winded," he told them. "I won't start my laps until every last one of you have completed one lap. So if you're not participating, please say so now."

"Uh, wanna go play chess or something?" Ron desperately begged his double.

Sighing in frustration, and remembering an earlier conversation, Ron merely took off his jacket and bent down to lace up his trainers. Hermione likewise began to stretch her legs, while Ginny took off her blouse and tied it around her waist, leaving her in her green stretch tank top and denims. Harry nodded in appreciation of the work his counterpart had done in training his friends so far. He took off his own robes, and though he had not yet had an opportunity to replace his dragon-hide armor, for just running, his undershirt and pants would do just fine. The school-issue shoes, however needed a quick transfiguration, which he took care of forthwith.

Maya glanced around her, then shrugged and stamped her staff on the ground before a wave of magical energy engulfed her, leaving her in a blue and white kimono, though the bottom half seemed to have been cut away as it left Maya's legs almost fully bare, save for her socks and sandals. At her brother's incredulous look, she just grinned at him and stuck her tongue out, before dashing off at full speed in a counter-clockwise direction around the lake. Harry quickly caught up, followed instantly by Ginny, Hermione, and Ron.

Ginny, Hermione, Neville and Ron watched as their friends and counterparts took off, running faster than they themselves believed it possible for them to run. Harry looked at them, half-expectantly, half-curious. After about half a minute, they both seemed to come to a decision.

Ron ran back up to the castle as fast as he possibly could, barely running a sixth of the speed his counterpart was clocking. Ginny and Neville quickly disrobed to shirts and pants, transfigured their shoes, and raced to catch up with their friends. Hermione, however, turned and faced Harry and stepped forward.

"I have more questions," she told him, crossing her arms expectantly.

Sighing, as he knew the expression on her face all to well from his own Hermione, he nodded and said back, "You have until Ginny and Neville get back, then I'm starting my run and the only way I'll answer any more questions would be if you could keep up and continue asking, all right?" She nodded and started asking.

Half an hour later, a bunch of red-faced, heavily breathing Gryffindors, with only two exceptions, came jogging by and Harry gave Hermione an apologetic shrug as the last of them crossed their position. He then got up and quickly caught up with the group, despite doing so in the middle of answering her last question. Harry and Maya were both at the lead, but they made sure to encourage everyone else along, keeping them almost bunched up together. Ginny and Hermione were offering the same support to Ginny and Neville, while Ron ran with a single-minded determination.

"Enjoying the workout?" Harry asked his double, who looked winded and was breathing heavy, but still looked like he could run a while yet.

"Considering that this is my second time today running this course, yeah, I am actually," Harry answered with a smile. "Did you enjoy Hermione grilling you on everything that she thinks is impossible?"

"I don't..." the Hermione behind them started to protest, but Ron quickly shushed her.

"Honestly?" Harry said, "It was, word for word, the exact same conversation that I had with my own Hermione when I revealed what had happened to me and I started teaching them Battle Magic. Except that the conversation ran short because Ginny and Neville made good time for newbies." The exhausted and red-faced Gryffindors just kept jogging, probably because if they did anything else they would collapse outright.

"Remember that deal I made with you all?" he suddenly asked them.

"Yeah, I take it that's sort of an incentive to get them," Harry gestured behind them at Ginny, Hermione, and Ron, "to train harder? Ken-sensei does something similar, only she does this thing where she shows us what she promises to teach us first, and then expects us to complete the exercise before showing us even one thing more."

"Something like that," Harry grinned openly. "Only my exact wording was that I will teach all of you whatever it is that you want me to teach you, and I'll make sure you know it before the end of the day."

"And what makes you think I want to learn what you have to teach?" Harry shot back.

Harry laughed, all of them still jogging and only just coming around the first bend of the lake.

"I could go on with all the bribes in the universe, telling you everything that I could do," he said, "and you could just keep acting like you weren't interested until I either told you everything I could do, or recanted the offer. So tell you what. No matter the spell, Western, Eastern, Battle Magic or something else, I will teach the lot of you one spell, no matter what spell, IF even one of you can keep up with me for one full lap around the lake."

"Doesn't sound too hard," Maya teased.

"We're about to pass the Whomping Willow's clearing," Harry pointed out. "That's the point where I start my real workout. I'm not joking about what I said either. And keeping up with me doesn't necessarily mean having our feet move at the same speed. It just means that you pass that clearing close enough to the same time that I do, just as many times as I do. Since the beginning, I've made this deal with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny here, right guys?"

Sour-sounding grumbles came as reply, to which Harry laughed at. "So far, none of them have been able to keep up with me."

"You use a spell to make yourself move faster!" Hermione protested.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean there aren't still ways for you to keep up with me despite that. Have you tried just Apparating next to me every ten feet?" he offered.

"It's impossible to Apparate in Hogwarts!" Hermione reiterated, again.

Harry just shrugged, even as he formed the spell construct in his mind, without seals. "Well, try thinking outside the box then, Hermione. Though I might suggest, if my double here can actually keep pace with me, or if his lovely sister can instead, have them ask me to teach you all the Lightning Shoes spell. Might make things easier in the future when I offer this challenge again."

"What kind of spell is called Lightning Shoes?" Harry asked.

"This one," he replied with a smile. "Ready! Set! GO!" Then he vanished.

"Grrr! I hate it when he does this!" Ron growled, suddenly accelerating himself to his top speed.

"What... where did... how...?" Harry and Maya were both at a loss as to what happened.

Then quickly realized it as they looked across the lake and saw a dark streak moving around the edge at considerable speed. "OK, I'm officially impressed," Harry muttered to his sister. She nodded mutely, then suddenly smiled wickedly.

"That's nothing," she said, "Tell me, Harry, has Ken-Sensei taught you Shinpou, the Flash Step, yet?"

"Not yet," he replied.

She turned to look at him, her eyes gleaming in that wicked fashion he had come to love and dread. "Wanna learn?"

"Of course!" he declared. She nodded, and a burst of information through the link had him running behind her, grabbing her around her waist.

"Feel the magic as it moves through me, ototokun."

He let out his breath, feeling out for the magic deep within her, again becoming aware of her glorious amount of control, the influence she had over her own magic, the way it shaped and responded to her slightest touch and thought. The world blurred around them, coming into focus barely a fraction of a second later, before blurring again an identical fraction later. Each jump had them dozen of meters further, catching up to Harry in rapid pace.

Can you feel it? Maya asked.

I can feel it, Harry replied, stepping in sync with her. He was merely planting his feet, not yet stepping himself, not willing to disrupt her rapid pace.

Focus on where you want to go, and let your magic carry you, she instructed. You do the next step.

The world blurred into focus, and Harry's eyes locked onto the likely next destination. Forcing his magic through what he had felt from Maya, he felt the world blur out of focus around him. As it blurred back into focus, he became aware of two things.

The first was his next destination.

The second was a resounding crack as his feet struck the ground and his magic carried the two of them to the next destination.

Extreme-short-range teleportation indeed.

Flashing past the running Harry, both Harry and Maya lifted one hand as they briefly blurred into existence before vanishing again, only to reappear another dozen or so meters further down the shoreline, before vanishing again, rapidly taking distance from him. Each time they appeared, a resounding crack threw dust and earth up into the air.

You're using too much force, ototokun, Maya lectured. I'll take the next one. Watch me.

She indeed took the next step, Harry holding on for the ride once more. I see. Next, he replied, taking the next step in her stead. The crack was a lot less. She took the step after that again, once more showing him the correct method. The step after that was his, and it was nearly silent.

Thank you, Oneesama, he replied as they blurred into existence at the starting line.

They waited patiently for the other Harry to appear, watching as his blurring form came to a sudden and abrupt halt with no sign of effort on his part.

"So, you'll teach us everything we want to know?" Harry asked with a lifted eyebrow, a pleased smirk on his face.

"Never underestimate the first Apprentice of Mahou mo Ken-sama," Maya said, adding her own smirk. "Besides, that was an excellent opportunity to teach my little brother the Shinpou."

"Flash steps," Harry translated, nodding. Then he shrugged. "I always keep my promises, but I've only just started my workout here. You guys want to keep running, or would you like to begin extra lessons now?" he asked with a wide grin.

"I'm actually curious to see if you can keep up with us now," Harry laughed with his double. "And I think I still need to work on my own Shinpou a little more anyway. Plus, the pressure would be on you, for once, as you also promised that you'd teach all our friends one spell before the end of the day and," he glanced up at the sky, "you're kind of running out of time."

"I promised everybody that was running," Harry hurriedly reminded him. "And that won't really be a problem, unless you decide that you want to learn a technique so advanced that it would take a year for anybody, ourselves included, to learn it. So, we still running, because I'm not even winded yet."

"Oh, you're on bro," both Harry's turned and posed like professional runners for a moment, right before they both disappeared in a flash of movement.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Maya called after them, flashing away herself.

"Slowpoke!" Harry called back at Harry, each step taking him farther around the track, and exercising his body as well as his magic. Suddenly, every single time the world stopped blurring, his double was right there beside him.

"You didn't think that I started off at my top speed, did you?" he asked as they both flashed around the lake. "You always start off slow and then accelerate, warming yourself up. You never start a run cold, otherwise you risk cramps and other discomforts. See if you can't keep up the speed after your feet land. Mess around with it, see what you can do and what you can't do. Oh, and, uh, try not to slam into any trees. Might get messy."

"Personal experience?" Harry laughed at his twin.

"Oh yeah!" Harry laughed with him, remembering. "Well, see ya!"

Harry noticed how his double brought both his hands together and then formed a series of hand seals, right before clenching his fists and throwing his arms behind his back as he leaned forward, and then he just seemed to blur away and pull ahead. That is, until Harry made his next jump, and he saw the other Harry just ahead of him, running at a perfectly normal pace... while the world around them blurred out of focus.

What the HELL?! Harry screamed inside his own head. A moment later, Maya was right beside him.

Harry? What is it? What happened? she asked him.

Watch, he told her, taking her hand and pulling her along into his very next jump, and pointed ahead to where his twin was running along at an impressive pace, while the rest of the world was racing past at an insane speed. Then he blurred away again when the world came back into focus and they both had to take their next step and jumped again, and saw him even further ahead, moving at the same speed they were.

He's moving at a pace similar to sensei, Maya said, somewhat grudgingly. I haven't progressed that far in my training yet.

He agreed that we already won his deal, and this is just his own workout, Harry thought 'out loud' between the two of them.

Well, he did admit that his stamina is so great that if he ran without the aid of this spell of his, he'd still be running a week from now without even getting winded. This spell he's using now must put even more pressure on his body than the Shinpou does with us. Why do you think Ken-sensei has us running all the time?

Good point, Harry acknowledged his fellow apprentice's logic. Is there a way of increasing our speed again? I mean, doubling up on the Shinpou, or maybe even cutting out taking a step at regular speed but taking it at the same speed as when we're moving at full speed?

Maya seemed pensive for a moment, and they both noticed how the other Harry was steadily pulling ahead of them as they, more or less, decelerated for just a moment for each step while he remained, more or less, at a constant.

Ken-Sensei has told me that I am not yet ready to learn the next step of Shinpou, Maya replied, somewhat dully. There are techniques in Shinpou that allow a person to move so fast they leave afterimages, or to be able to move so fast that it appears as if an attach struck target, however, you are already in safety. She sighed. We're not ready for those techniques yet.

In other words, more experience is needed first, Harry sighed. Did she ever explain how that was possible? I mean, surely Sensei is a master of Shinpou!

Don't overestimate yourself, ototokun! Maya rebuked him. You're still making too much noise and wasting too much energy at your current speed. If you really want to learn your 'brother's' magic, then ask him to teach you the spells he just used!

Suddenly, she altered her steps so that she was pretty much a full step ahead of him and nothing he did allowed him to catch back up. Not without knowing how and what she did, anyway. He looked across to the other side of the lake, where he saw his double still running along, well as long as he was doing the Flash Step that is, otherwise all he saw was a vague blur.

"OK!" he suddenly heard shouted across the lake, and quickly 'flashed' so he could see his double clearly once more, only to see that he was the one shouting.

"I'm going to finish up my workout on my own now. Since Harry and Maya were both able to keep up, I'll be showing you guys whatever spell you all want to know. Meet you by the Whomping Willow when I'm done. Uh, and guys, walk Ginny and Neville through a cool down, they look like they're about to collapse!"

The next thing that Harry knew, there was the sound of thunder, or actually more like a sonic boom, and he completely lost sight of his twin, until he accelerated again... and saw a streak of color coming up from behind him, and then moving past him before he could turn his head! Then had to take another step and all he saw was himself and Maya, and their friends across the way in the clearing by the Willow.

He took another step, putting more force behind it and trying to extend his next stepping point. Sweat was trickling down his face and back in small rivers now, and his breathing was labored, but he knew he could go on a little while further.

During his next flash step, he saw the streak of color again, only this time he seemed to be moving fast enough now that he could see past that and identified his double, blurry and blazing past, but he could see that it was the other Harry Potter. Apparently using an even more advanced spell that let him move beyond Shinpou speed! The very brief glimpse that he got, however, showed that the other Harry was now looking just as labored as he was feeling, so clearly this more advanced spell put even more stress on the body than anything else he'd used so far.

Deciding this was his last lap, Harry focused more on Maya and catching up with her than Harry, seeing how impossible that was for him at the moment. He also decided that he rather liked the thought of being able to move that fast with only a spell or two. Then, he thought, there's also the idea of using Shinpou while using that Lightning Shoes spell for some breakneck speed right there!

Flashing into existence next to his Hermione, who screeched at his appearing out of nowhere, Harry almost collapsed to the ground, but knew better by now. Waving tiredly at his friend, he walked over to join Ron, Hermione and Ginny in their cool down exercises, Maya already a few steps ahead of him.

"Did you see how fast he was moving?" he asked her out loud. "I think it's safe to say what spell we'll be having him teach us, huh?"

"Nope, I'm going to get him to teach us a Copy spell," Ron interrupted.

"What's a copy spell?" Harry asked, then winced as the answer popped into his head almost immediately, "I mean, what's a Battle Magic copy spell?"

"Oh, you'll see," Ron grinned.

"Apparently," Hermione, currently stretching her back by reaching high and arching her back and rotating her hips a bit, "Harry seems to know almost every variation of the Copy spell there is, though we've only seen him use around three or four variations. The way that it works is that, depending upon how much magic you place into the spell, you can make any number of copies of yourself. The different variations come in that you can base each copy on a different kind of element. Shadows, Darkness, Air, Water, Earth, even Blood. Each element affects the copy differently. Using your own shadow, the Copies are perfect copies of yourself, and can even cast their own spells and have all of your knowledge, and when they dispel, you then have all of their knowledge."

"Using your own blood, however," Ginny interjected, even as she was bending over to stretch out her legs and thighs, "you get the same result, with some major differences. Shadows aren't really there. So while the copies can do manual labor and cast spells, they disappear easily and in fact if they get hit even once they're gone along with any effects they produced. Blood Copies, are more like clones. They're you and until you dispel them, they'll stick around and can even substitute for you and fool everyone and everything. They can even be killed in your place. Good way to fake your own death if you're ever desperate, as all it takes is a few drops of blood."

"Then there were those Darkness Copies he used when Riddle attacked," Ron continued. He shivered, as did the girls, very similar to the way Harry himself did whenever he remembered encounters with Dementors.

"Don't ask," Hermione said to them, noticing their looks. "You really, really don't want to know."

"Almost wish I didn't," Ron mumbled.

"So, uh, how many... copies can he make?" Harry asked.

"An army," all three answered together.

"How many is an army?" Maya questioned.

"He once offered to make one thousand, all to renovate the Burrow," Hermione answered.

Harry and Maya both blinked. They knew their sensei was the best, but hearing about a wizard that can do all the things he's claimed to have done, and on top of all that, he can literally make an army of himself whenever he wants to was a bit much!

"So... uh, what about the spells he's already taught you?" Harry asked in hopes of changing the subject. "There's got to be something more than just casting spells on yourself, right?"

"Yeah, that's just the latest stuff he's shown us. We're... well, we were still working out the details of how to do it, but he outright told us earlier," Ron answered. "And he's only taught us one spell. With... lots of variations covered by it."

"Variations?" Maya repeated, confused by the term.

"Harry's taught us self-transfiguration," Hermione finally revealed, currently moving her body through the movements for the Water style of martial arts that Harry had taught her. "Parts of that include changing to look like other people, exactly like the Polyjuice potion, but without the time limit and cast with a spell instead of a potion. Also how to change into animals, and inanimate objects. Much like the Animagus transformations, and human transfiguration... except on ourselves and we're not limited to one animal either."

Both apprentices to Mahou Mo Ken and their friends sitting nearby, stopped moving and gave disbelieving looks to their 'guests' while they silently digested that information. Finally, Hermione blurted out, "You're having us on... aren't you?"

"No, why?" Ginny asked, confused by their sudden disbelief, even as she continued moving through the patterns for the Air style.

Harry and Maya exchanged looks, wondering what to say next.

"That... that... that's impossible!!" Hermione blustered.

"That's what I thought... until Harry did it in front of me and showed us how to do it," Hermione reprimanded her counterpart. "Keep in mind, the transfiguration spells that we've been using and Harry's been teaching us is Battle Magic, not Wizardry or Witchcraft. The rules are different."

Harry and Maya shared a look, thinking the same thing, while Hermione just stared, her jaw dropping near to the ground in shock. Ginny and Neville were listening but they were too tired to really follow along.

"So... how exactly does Battle Magic work?" Harry asked, nonchalant.

"By focusing and manipulating the magic directly with only your mind and your will, no other mediums," Ginny answered them, slowing her routine down a bit. "Instead of casting the spell through words or movements or even picturing the end result and willing it to happen, we focus the magic to create the 'shape' of the spell, an abstract mental construct that is more felt out than imagined or pictured, and then channel the magic through that shape to create the ultimate effect. Hand seals are sometimes used as mnemonic devices to help in recalling certain 'shapes' faster and more effectively than feeling out the 'shape' for every single spell."

"Sounds a bit like the way Ken-sensei taught me to create my mindscape..." he said to himself.

"Wouldn't know, we haven't gotten that far yet," Ginny wryly commented.

"How much longer is this going to take?" Maya asked, looking at the barely-visible blur still circumnavigating the Hogwarts Lake.

"Don't know," Ron shrugged, doing leg squats now. "Last time Harry went all out in his workout... he lasted for about an hour or so. Of course it's like five in the morning for us by now, so he might just consider this the morning calisthenics."

"Which last two hours," Hermione put in, still moving through a few Water katas.

"But it's late afternoon here," Ron continued, "and for the past few weeks, Harry's been running us ragged and we pretty much exercised the entire afternoon when Harry wasn't directly tutoring us in magic."

"Meaning, coaching us in performing self-transfiguration," Ginny added.

"In other words..." Harry began to ask.

"It will take as long as it takes," Maya finished for her brother.

"Unless he actually pushes himself into using the Ultimate form of the spell," Hermione said out loud.

"Ultimate form?" all those that didn't know repeated.

"Instant Movement," was the short reply.

"Think we can get him to teach us that?" Maya asked.

"Not a snowball's chance in Hell," Harry's voice said from directly behind the Japanese teen.

Managing not to scream, Mahou Mo Ken's First Apprentice still jumped as she spun around, her heart beating much quicker than it was a few seconds ago. "Do not do that," she warned him.

He just shrugged and grinned, giving his double a wink.

"So, you guys decided?" he asked them, still grinning.

"Why is it you can't teach us Instant Movement?" Harry asked him.

"I promised to teach you something before the end of the day, provided that it wouldn't take years to learn in the first place. I'll go ahead and add another limitation. I won't teach you anything that could kill you if you don't do it right the first time." Harry told them this with a deadly serious face, and there was no sudden shift to a wide grin to make them think it was some kind of joke either.

"I want to learn a Copy spell," Ron said. "Even if you teach us Lightning Shoes and show us how to improve to cast the higher level spells, you could always change the offer later on to some other requirement! Way you explained it, the Copies transfer what they learned back to you when they get dispelled. That's more valuable to learning than just running fast."

Now Harry grinned. "Very good deduction, Ron. I'm glad you've taken my advice to heart. So tell you what... Shadow Copy Kaleidoscope!"

Harry, Maya, and the others all watched as the shadow at Harry's feet seemed to come alive and darken, right before spreading out into a spiral with him at the middle. The tendrils of shadow suddenly began to form up out of the ground, like animated mud almost, until they were all as big as a human, and then began to fill out until they were the same shape and size as Harry himself. That's when the color came in and within a few seconds where there had only been two Harry's before, now there were nine! Two, of course being real, while the others were all Shadow Copies.

"Now there's one for everybody that actually ran laps," he stated, moving over to stand next to his real double while all the copies moved next to each of the others that would be learning. "Even though it was only Harry and Maya here that could keep up, I did promise that all of you would be taught. Still, it's not exactly fair to make them the ones to decide what all of you will learn. But the limit remains. One spell, something easy, and something that won't kill you if you screw up. Tell them what it is you want to learn, and they'll do their best to teach you the Basic Spell."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all shared a look, and said together, "Copy spell."

"Basic Copy spell it is then," Harry gestured to the copies, who all nodded back before turning to their respective 'students', and gesturing for them to follow.

"Neville, Ginny, Luna?" he offered.

"Any spell?" Neville asked, still sweating from the run.

Harry just grinned and shrugged again.

"I think I'd like to see things more clearly than I do right now," Luna dreamily said.

Harry and the copy next to Luna both winced. "Uh, Luna, are you sure about that?" the real one asked. She just smiled and nodded, not really looking at either of them.

"What?" Luna's friend asked his double.

"She wants to learn how to see magical auras and magic itself," he replied softly. "Not an easy skill to master. Easy enough to teach, but the ones that can naturally do it sometimes go insane. That's not a euphemism by the way. I'll have to make sure she has a handle on it before we leave. Which will, hopefully, be in a few months time, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about."

"Luna's... eccentricities have nothing to do with her mental capacity," Harry quietly growled back.

"I know, she has perfect Occlumency shields," was the surprising reply. "It tends to cut off a lot more perception of the real world when focus is settled wholly on defending and protecting one's own 'self'. When I said insane, I meant that they can no longer tell the difference between the 'magical' world their viewing from the 'actual' world that relies on input from the eyes, ears, and touch. I'll show you later..."

"Neville, Ginny? Any preferences?" Harry asked them, after a momentary conference with his double.

"Could you teach me those Seals that you, er, he... uh, I mean that Harry and Maya use?" Neville asked.

Raising an eyebrow at that, all the Harry's and Maya shared a look.

Ginny, unaffected by this bold statement, said, "I want to learn how to deflect magic like Harry did that day he humiliated Draco!"

The copy standing next to the redhead almost looked relieved at that. "Looks like I got the easy job, Boss," the copy remarked to the original.

"Go, use the Room of Requirements if necessary," said original told the copy. Quickly, a Harry and Ginny left, the former practically dragging the latter from the clearing to hasten her along.

"Seals?" Harry turned to Harry and Maya with crossed arms and a curious expression, once everyone but them, Neville and the other Hermione were gone.

Harry and Maya glanced at one another. Somehow, I doubt destroying the REAL Whomping Willow will win us any points for the House Cup, he silently said to her.

Never judge things at face value ototokun. This is as much an opportunity for us to learn more about your mysterious doppleganger as it is to show off Ken-sensei's teachings. Ask him to create targets for us, she suggested.

"We're going to need something to hit," Harry replied to his double's question.

Smirking, Harry turned out towards the lake, and when they looked again, eight targets of various composition had formed along the shore. There were two each, indicating a set of targets for both Harry and Maya. One was just a 10-foot stone monolith. Another was a wooden figure dressed up in dark robes and with a rather distinctive mask covering the face. The last two were pure elemental fissures; a sparkling ice column and a towering inferno that did not spread or catch fire to anything around it.

"How did you...?" Hermione started to ask, but her shock overwhelmed her curiosity and her voice failed her. Harry answered her anyway.

"It's part of my Mage training at Winding Circle," he said. "I know I told you guys that I'm an ambient mage, and I apologize, but I didn't really go into what... 'magical element' that I'm attuned to. Turns out I'm an Elemental Mage. I knew a girl back at Winding Circle, stayed in the same... dorm I suppose, as me and a few other mage kids. She could control the Weather, but she did this by tapping into the various elements, primarily wind and water, but earth and fire as well when needed. Lightning was a favorite of hers."

"Anyway, took me a while, but we finally figured out that while she tapped the elements to create and control weather, I can tap the elements directly and do whatever the hell I want with them. Want a canyon, no sweat. Need to flood a desert, piece of cake. Have a problem with forest fires or arson, easy as pie. I can fly too. Manipulating the elements directly is actually a step above using them to create weather. For one, weather is just the after effects and side effects of the elements interacting with one another. Me? I can change that interaction so that the elements do something else entirely."

"*Bragging alert*," Harry coughed, loudly.

Glaring at his double briefly, he gestured at the eight waiting targets. "If you would please?"

Harry glanced at his sister. He didn't even need to use their mental link, as she shook her head slightly, and took two steps back.

"Step back, everybody," Maya said.

The people from the home universe, not hearing Maya hand out warnings too often, stepped back with single-minded determination. the visitors, seeing the others move, followed docilely.

Harry closed his eyes, and held out his hand.

A single seal appeared in between his fingers.

"Here it comes..." Neville whispered.

Suddenly, the seal glowed blue, detached itself from Harry's hand, and FLEW over to the central area above the targets, affixing itself to it with deft precision. Suddenly, it started growing.

Still a playing card in shape, it grew to something five times as large, as Harry's voice finally cut across the silence. "Harry Potter, Plasmatizer, asks the Seal, what are you!?"

The voice that replied was deep and menacing, and made the ground tremble.

I am the atmosphere! One who fills the air like white mist!

And just like that, all eight targets and most of the shoreline immediately around them were just gone!

Closing his eyes, and averting his face, Harry felt the blast wave of the detonation wave over him long before the sound and the heat did.

"Did you HAVE to use the Major Arcana!?" Maya asked.

"Seeing how this was my one chance of showing off," Harry replied. "Yes. Yes, I did."

Maya looked at the remainder of the shoreline, water only now starting to fill in the crater left by the magical equivalent of a thousand-pound bomb. "You're lucky you didn't kill the Giant Squid."

Harry paled. "Damn. Forgot all about him. And the merpeople."

Maya walked to what remained of a once pristine shoreline. "Seems they were smart enough to run for it once the targets went up. I can't detect a hint of blood." She turned to look at him, crossing her arms, and looking quite angry. "You were lucky."

"And stupid," his double helpfully added.

"I was," Harry replied, nodding. "It was never my intention to hurt anything or anyone."

"Next time you decide to pull out the Large Arcana, remember that they are cataloged as SIEGE BREAKERS and ARTILLERY magic for a reason," Maya snapped. "You shouldn't keep throwing Seals around like that."

"Sorry," Harry whispered.

"So let me get this straight," Harry suddenly stepped forward between the two magical siblings. "Sorry for interrupting, but I just need to understand," he apologized to Maya before facing his twin, "You've been throwing around Artillery magic like they were stunners and 3rd Year jinxes? Right?"

Looking annoyed now, Harry shrugged and nodded his head.

"Cool," Harry grinned at his counterpart.

"Thanks... Hey!" Harry snapped back as he realized exactly what he'd been asked. "I know that Seals are considered artillery for a reason! You don't have to keep shoving it in my face, all right?"

"Personal experience?"

He shrugged, looking out over the lake briefly, "Bit of a scuffle."

"Death Eater attack?"

"Hogsmeade. They... they grabbed Luna. I chased after them."

"Using the... Seals, before or after they grabbed her?"

"Before. I chased after them and either deflected or used spells after that point."

"Would it have made a difference?"

"Huh?"

"If you'd used something other than artillery-grade spells before they grabbed her, would it have made a difference if you'd used just stunners or whatnot?"

"..."

"Well?"

"Probably not," Harry finally answered him.

"How many did you kill?" his twin's voice took on a grave tone, and Harry knew he was being serious.

Paling a bit, Harry scratched the back of his head as he answered, "A... a few..."

"It doesn't get easier," was the quiet reply. "But after you make peace with yourself over the actions... it's not as hard." He waited a moment as they both composed themselves, then continued with the conversation, "Now, I'm still having trouble understanding what the difference is on these seals here that you're using. I personally use hand-seals, but those are like saying the words of the spell. This is clearly different."

Harry and Maya both nodded their heads acknowledging what he was saying. "It is, a bit..." Harry started to say, but Maya interrupted.

"I thought you said that you were familiar with Japanese magic?" she pointedly asked.

"I'm familiar enough to recognize it when I see it, not do it myself," he paused, then continued, "Well, for the most part. I'm actually somewhat good with a few Chinese Spells, and the Eastern Art of Spell-Control." At the blank looks he received, he clarified, "Diverting spells around and throwing them back at the caster."

"Ah," both Harry and Maya understood.

He snapped his fingers and a single set of the four separate targets appeared this time. "Now, if you would be so kind... Again!" he ordered, a hint of playfulness in his tone. "This time, without going overboard. I'd like to see a bit of a variety please. The last spell was an appropriate use of this style of casting, but obviously you don't use that specific one every time you use these seals. Use some spells that really explore what all that these Seals of yours can do. Please."

Harry nodded and resumed his spot and snapped his hand out, retrieving four blank seals as he drew it back and closed his eyes. When his eyes snapped open, they were shining with power.

"Wait!" Harry interrupted him.

"Whu... but I thought..."

"Try using what you just learned from your mediation, and your run from a few minutes ago. You were using way too much power for what I think you have intended. Bottle it all down to that one object, and then draw forth only what you need to do the spell. Now please, try again."

Nodding, Harry frowned for a moment as he considered that it should have been Ken giving him instruction, but this was different. Wasn't it?

Taking the Seal held between his thumb and fingers he cast it out, holding the other three back and cried out, "Harry Potter, Plasmatizer, asks the Seal, what are you?"

I am Burning Hell, bringing Punishment to the Wicked! I ride through the Skies in a Chariot of Fire!

A man-sized fireball raced out and burned the wooden figure to ash, and then reduced the ash to free-floating smoke that quickly evaporated as the spell and target both vanished. Harry took a deep breath and flicked out his next seal, "Harry Potter, Plasmatizer, asks the Seal, what are you?"

I am a blade, a white blade! I am the one who dances like a mist and cuts the enemy into pieces!

A nigh-invisible wind blade arched out and sliced the stone pillar to sand, and then blowing it all away. He quickly kept up his momentum and didn't wait a full second before sending out his last two seals, attempting something he'd been working towards, but hadn't had much success with.

"Harry Potter, Plasmatizer, asks the Seal, what are you? What are you?!"

The first flew on, heading right for the water pillar, while the second seemed to hesitate almost, even as the first cried out with the same ominous echoing voice.

I am ice and snow, white ice and snow! I am the one who becomes a veil of ice that freezes everything!

It struck and froze the water pillar so it was now an ice pillar, and it had even spread a bit to the flame pillar, but that quickly thawed itself out. That's when the second Seal finally answered.

I am the raging storm, the perfect storm! I am the one who ravages and drowns your enemies!

From the seal a small, focused hurricane ripped out and threw itself against the two remaining pillars. The winds were strong enough to shred the ice pillar and make icecubes for elves! It also poured out enough rain and water that the fire pillar was doused almost immediately and once Harry saw that all four targets were downed, he released his hold on the spell and the elements returned to normal.

After that little show, he felt suddenly drained and took a few deep breaths. Surprisingly, his double was right there handing him a cup of water. Briefly wondering where it had come from, he forgot all about asking as he downed the cool refreshing liquid. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem," Harry said, before turning back to the rest. "And I do apologize Neville, I can't really teach you that particular skill. I can, however, show you some alternatives that can be used both close, mid, and long range. If you're interested?"

"Uh... yeah, I-I guess," the 6th Year Gryffindor hesitantly agreed.

"Great! Allow me to demonstrate first of all," he said to all of them before stepping around to the shore.

"It's called Direct Elemental Manipulation, and surprisingly lots of people can do it, it's just they all do it in slightly different ways. Me? I can actually do them in five different ways." Harry explained. Then he began to show off a bit himself.

Taking a deep breath, Harry spun around and then breathed out... a HUGE fireball that actually rippled the surface of the water from the force of it's energy, despite that the fireball didn't come close to the surface in the slightest. Once he ran out of breath, the fireball disappeared, but Harry wasn't done yet. He reached out his hand over the surface of the water and began to move through a basic Water kata, a trail of water from the lake following his hand and flowing around him in time and pattern with his movements.

After a minute or two of dancing with the water, he finally put it back in the lake, and then punched the earth at his feet. A Quaffle sized rock suddenly exploded out of the ground and hovered about three feet above it. After a moment to allow his audience to realize what they were seeing, Harry punched the rock with his fist, which, to the surprise of everyone watching, shattered on impact before dissolving into sand, the sand then moving up and onto Harry's body. After a few seconds, his entire body was covered by the stone gravel, right before it seemed to liquefy into sand, before all that seemingly became invisible.

"Stone Skin armor," he told them. "Makes me somewhat impervious to most physical damage. Not invincible you understand, just better protected. Oh, and remember when I said I could fly?"

Rather than wait for their answer, he just grinned and jumped... and kept going up and up at an ever increasing rate of speed. When he was high enough he was nothing but a dot in the sky, he headed towards the castle, flying around each of the towers at least once, before heading back to the clearing where they all waited.

"OK, so he's slightly better at showing off than I am," Harry muttered to Maya. She just grinned.

With a burst of wind as he landed, Harry removed the Stone Skin armor off as soon as his feet touched the ground, the sand dissolving and falling to the ground just like that. "There is one more element I can control, but I don't really like to showcase that outside of an actual battle. So, Neville, what do you think?"

"H-how are you going to t-teach me all that in just one evening?" Neville stuttered.

"Well, like I said," Harry repeated, "lots of people can do it, they just do it in slightly different ways. I happen to know for a fact that you are one of the people that can do this. Now, you probably won't be breathing fire or flying around before morning or anything like that, but I can show you how to do it, and then the rest is up to you. I don't like to limit people by saying you can only do that by doing this and other hogwash like that. Besides, it's more fun figuring out all the stuff you can do on your own, being surprised every once in a while."

"Oh... o-okay..." Neville hesitantly nodded.

"Come on, Nev, you're gonna love this," the last remaining Shadow Copy said as he took Neville off in the direction of the greenhouses.

"Which just leaves you two... and Hermione? What are you still doing here? I thought you would've gone back up to the castle with Ron after our conversation was finished?" Harry asked, confused.

"And what makes you think I would do that? After all, you promised to teach everyone a spell," she pointed out to him. Both Harry's and Maya quickly corrected her thinking.

"For everybody that ran," they all said together. "You didn't run," the visiting Harry pointed out.

"Oh," she flushed pink and then without a word quickly picked herself up and almost ran back up to the castle. Both Harry's sighed, knowing what that meant from personal experience with the bushy-haired brainiac.

"I'll talk to her later," Harry assured his double.

"How good is your direct elemental manipulation, by the way?" Harry asked him after Hermione had gone.

"I... might need to work on my control a bit more, and it's certainly not at your level," he answered.

"Maya?" Harry offered her the same question.

"Passing Fair for myself," she shrugged off the question, "Ken-sensei is much better than I am, and I have more experience and thus better control than my ototokun here." Harry stuck his tongue out at her.

"Children," Harry warned them, though his tone was just a playful.

"Tell you what," he suddenly turned around and began leading them back up towards the castle. "I certainly don't want to step on anyone's toes here, and Mahou mo Ken-sama is your sensei. It's only fair that she's aware of our deal and there to say what should and should not be taught by an outsider. Shall we?"

Few minutes later

Hogwarts

Ken & Maya's Private Suite

"Nice place you got here," Harry couldn't help himself from saying as Ken let the three students into the suite just off of the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Thank you," Ken said in a neutral tone, but both her apprentices could see she was amused.

"Ken-sensei, my... double here has made a... deal with us," Harry began to explain. "If any of us could 'keep up' with him for even one lap during our exercises, he would teach all of us one spell, though the spell could be chosen by the individual. Maya showed me how to... properly perform the Shinpou and we managed to keep up with him for more than one lap. However..."

"Yes?" Ken asked, when it became clear her apprentice was reluctant to speak. She quickly divined the problem, and answered his unasked question anyway. "You're concerned that because you are my apprentice that you might offend me in some way by learning a single spell from this stranger?"

"Well, he's not exactly a stranger..." Harry grumbled, blushing furiously.

Ken smiled at him, sitting herself in a comfortable chair before answering her pupil's concerns. "No, I don't suppose that he is," she said, looking Harry up and down briefly, before turning back to her second apprentice. "Harry, it would be impractical and cruel of me to demand that you learn nothing but what I teach you. You are, after all, still attending Hogwarts, are you not? I have no objection to whatever you may learn from this encounter with Harry here. I imagine it would be quite a learning experience in fact, facing an alternate mirror image like this."

"You guys always do that?" Harry interrupted with a cocky smile.

"Do what?" Harry responded.

"Converse in Japanese like that?" was the questioning reply.

Harry blinked and his cheeks reddened slightly.

"It's good practice," Maya defended her brother, speaking English.

"It's like with Parseltongue, isn't it?" Harry hissed in said language at his double.

Managing to control his blush, Harry just nodded. Acknowledging that, the other Harry nodded back and resumed speaking in English, "I was hoping, Mahou mo ken-sama, if you might enlighten me as to what my alternate has been learning, so that I might offer him something that would compliment your teachings, or even give him an alternative if ever he were disarmed in a fight. What I have offered both him and Maya so far does not seem to interest them, and I must admit that's partially my fault for not displaying what all I have to offer before making the deal with them that I have with my friends."

"I see," the Japanese mage acknowledged. "Then perhaps it might be best to continue my own lessons with young Harry, and allow you to observe, so that by the end of our lesson, you might be able to complete your deal with my apprentices."

Harry bowed his head, and said, "Thank you Mahou mo ken-sama. I would be honored."

"Given how you have exercised your bodies so thoroughly, let's exercise your minds now, shall we?" Ken said to both her students and repositioned herself to one of the tatami mats that were set out in the middle of the room. Another mat was conjured and put in place for their guest as everyone settled in.

A few minutes of meditating later Harry entered his Hogwarts mindscape and waited for the expected knocks on his mental shields from his double and Ken-sensei. Harry had to admit though, he wasn't even sure his double could enter his mindscape at all, despite all the claims he had made so far. He wondered just how different they really were, magically speaking of course. Just how unusual, how much more different this 'Battle Magic' was to what Ken was teaching him.

The answer came surprisingly sooner than expected.

"Nice place you've got here," Harry's voice carried across the grassy hills of Harry's mind.

Harry spun on the spot, staring wide-eyed and confused as he watched... well, he wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, but he was pretty sure it was his dimensional twin. He was slowly walking towards him from the gate, but that wasn't what was so confusing. First of all, he was sort of not-really-there, but still there, much like a ghost but not at the same time. Secondly was his mode of dress, which was vastly different from what he'd been wearing in real life. This was more like something out of a fantasy novel, or maybe a comic book!

His alternates mind was represented by a six and a half, almost seven foot tall armored warrior, dressed in Slytherin green and silver armor, with the Sword of Gryffindor and a familiar red and gold lion patch held to his belt, a blue and white-lined cape falling off his shoulders and gloves and boots of bright yellow lined with black edges, along with likewise color-schemed sunglasses and wide-brim had covering his wild hair. On many people it would appear to be quite a silly combination, and the had would look just as silly, but something about him made it look as natural as anything Harry had worn himself.

"What the..." Harry started to ask the most important question, but he couldn't stop himself from saying instead, "What the bloody hell are you wearing? And why are you like that?"

"Huh?" the armored Harry looked down at himself, as though only just realizing his status. "Oh. Sorry. Kinda hard to have an accurate self-image when you're the combination of four individual minds that only recently were merged together again. Here." Suddenly Harry felt a different kind of 'knock' on his shields, like they were coming both from the outside and the inside at the same time and resounding without. Harry let the presence inside, and then his double blurred, and reappeared in the same clothes he wore in the real world, looking entirely the same. "Better?"

"A bit..." Harry acknowledged, wanting to ask how he'd gotten past his mental protections, when he felt those protections alert him to someone knocking. At the same moment, Maya appeared beside her brother, even as he let Ken in as well.

"Hey, why'd you let him in before sensei?" Maya asked, pointing at the other Harry.

"He didn't 'let' you in," the 'other' Harry snapped back at her.

"Uh, that's a very good question. Because I, kind of, didn't have to, I think," Harry started to explain to Maya, but his twin waved it off.

"Yeah, yeah, I understand, the whole magical connection deal," he said, turning this way and that and basically looking the whole place over. Finally, he turned back to him and asked, "Hogwarts? For real? You feel... safe, protected, centered... at Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, why?" Harry said back, defensively.

The other Harry shrugged and looked around again, and answered, "Oh, I don't know, maybe having to do with the fact that we were both attacked by a Mountain Troll in our first year, people were getting petrified in our second year and we found out there was a giant basilisk living underneath the school, that there is a clan of acromantia living in the forest," he waved off in it's direction, "Were attacked by a werewolf, dementors, a rogue bludger, a dragon, centaurs, merpeople, other students, Snape, the occasional dark wizard or witch, Hagrid's giant half-brother, witnessed at least one, if not more people murdered in cold blood, and since you're in your Sixth year and you did have to deal with Umbitch, were tortured for the majority of your Fifth year." He paused, "Yeah, that about sums it up. I don't know, I just feel I would've chosen some place, oh I don't know, safe, protected, and where I felt I could center myself and be at peace with my body."

Harry shrugged. "Look at it this way – Hogwarts is where I feel safest, centered, and protected. It is the people that make it dangerous." He spread his arms, and grinned. "And do you see basilisks, trolls, giant toads trying to use the Cruciatus Curse, or Greasy Potions Masters running around? Besides, where would you have chosen, the Dursley's?"

Wincing, the other had to nod. "OK, got a point there. But me, personally, I probably would've chosen some place like the Burrow, or the Gryffindor Common Room and only the Common Room. Some place where I actually feel... safe, protected, and centered."

"I would appreciate it if you would not insult my student's accomplishments," Ken interrupted.

Wincing again, Harry held up his hands and backed up a step. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. Not what I meant. I was just trying to better understand his choices and reasoning. Still, I meant what I said about you having a nice place here. Done... a lot of... renovating..." he trailed off, as he seemed to only just notice the ground they were all standing on.

"Whoa," he said. "Nice hardware. Mind if I copy it for some of my own protections?"

"I thought you were the mighty Battle Mage, the one that could wipe out minds with a single thought," Harry teased him.

"No, I said that because of my training in the Mental Arts of Battle Magic, when I attack someone's mind, I don't just gain access to it, I destroy it. Besides, it's for my more inexperienced self and his mind," Harry told them absent-mindedly.

"Wait, what?" Harry asked for clarification.

Suddenly, the visitor from another universe looked up startled. Apparently, he hadn't meant to say what he'd said. "Uh... I'll, uh, probably show you later. But, for now, how about we continue our discussion from earlier? Please?"

Seeing that it was a sore subject, all three of them agreed and resumed the purpose of their coming to the mindscape in the first place. "Very well," Ken said, "You wished to know what I have taught your counterpart? In effort to understand what spell that you might be able to teach him yourself, yes?"

"Simply put, yes, basically, yeah, uh-huh, sure, why not?" casually-dressed Harry grinned wide. "And let me just say again, this is really a nice place you've got here, bro. A credit to your teacher, who no doubt gave you ample instruction and motivation. I especially like the offensive modifications." He tapped his foot against the grassy hill they were all standing on, the clank of metal sounding with each footfall.

"Somehow, I thought that you might," Mahou Mo Ken's student remarked with a matching grin.

"Anyway, onwards with our agreement," Harry started pacing in front of master and apprentices, speaking as he walked back and forth. "I understand a little bit about the Japanese Branch of Eastern Magics. Dedicated more towards action and the intermingling practices of Bushido, Shintoism, and the Elements than the Chinese, or even the Korean Branches of Eastern Magics, correct?"

"In a very simplified way of putting it, but for the most part, yes, you are correct," Ken answered diplomatically.

"So, to save time and effort, as anything that I'm going to teach your apprentices will require a significant portion of effort on their part, and it would be foolish to make them demonstrate everything they know only to be too exhausted to learn anything else, if you would, please, just list what all you have taught them?" he asked.

Ken nodded and began to list, from the first lessons in building his Mindscape to what they had only covered just that morning, all of what she had taught Harry and expanding what she had focused in teaching Maya before him, and the approximate level of skill and power for both. The full explanation took some half an hour, mindscape-time, but their visitor was nodding and grinning again.

"I've got the perfect spell, for both of you actually," he told them, grinning widely, like a kid with a surprise they can't wait to shout to the whole world. "It's actually more of a magical exercise that I came up with during my Battle Magic training, and it's not really a spell per sé. I suppose to compare it to something you would understand is to call it a magical skill. Like being an Animagus, or even a Metamorphmagus, or a Parselmouth."

"Two of which you've taught Hermione, Ron, and Ginny how to do without the limitations that are supposed to be present with those skills," Maya pointed out.

"Exactly!" he grinned, pointing at her.

"Something that only a few would normally be able to do naturally, but you have a way of teaching so everyone would be able to do it?" Ken clarified. The counterpart of her apprentice nodded, before turning to said apprentice.

"First step, I'm going to need you to create a couple of trees here," he said to Harry. "And not just more additions to the forest over there, but really, really, REALLY big trees. Like, as tall and as big around as one of the towers!"

Confused by this request, but willing to go along, Harry turned to an open space a short distance away and began to concentrate. Slowly at first, but steadily, four tall oak trees sprouted equidistant from one another and grew to just under forty feet tall, big for any tree of that species.

"Uh..."

Harry could see that it wasn't what his double was expecting, more evidence that they were not the same person. "What?" he asked, agitated by being questioned in his own mind by someone that was more or less him!

"Taller... and bigger, please. And fewer branches. Think, Redwood," his double suggested.

Sighing, Harry changed the four trees, growing them until they were nothing but trunks with very small branches and leaves at the very top like a pine tree, measuring to about fifty feet straight up. When he heard his own sigh repeated, this time from a few feet in front of him, he felt a vein popping near his temple. "What now?!"

"Sorry, but I have something specific in mind, so would you mind if I just showed you?" Harry asked, stepping up beside him. "Now, to make sure this works, I'd rather be safe than sorry, so we'll need to stay in contact here, OK?"

"Sure, no problem," Harry nodded back.

"Good, cause this is gonna feel kinda... weird," was all the warning Harry got as the other Harry placed his hand on his shoulder. The second after that, Harry felt pure power coursing through his entire being.

He'd done this only once with Ken-sensei, and a few times now with Maya. With Ken, he hadn't yet been aware enough to understand what he'd been feeling, but with Maya he always noticed how much control she held over her magic, especially when she was casting spells, it flowed like water and felt as calm as silk. His own magic always felt more like a raging river, or maybe a collapsing avalanche sometimes, where he had to struggle to maintain any control whatsoever. What he felt now was so much... more.

First of all, he felt the other Harry, his counterpart there, inside his mind, almost inside him! Similar, but... different from the way he felt Maya all the time now. Unlike Maya though, this other Harry felt less like flowing water and silk, but more like... like... well, to be honest with himself, Harry had to admit that he felt like the times when he'd drawn power from the Ley Lines. Like this other him was a living, breathing, walking around Ley Line!

Then, he did something, Harry wasn't sure what, and he felt his control over the Mindscape... shift just a bit. It was still his Mindscape, and he was in overall control, but suddenly this visitor to his mind, who he'd allowed access and more or less merged with him here, now also had just a bit of control. Then, that power, that living force that was so similar to a major ley line, channeled some of it's power, no that's not right. Not it's power, it's thoughts into reshaping the mindscape, and before he was even fully aware of this, the changes were already done.

Outside of the merged Harry's, Ken and Maya watched as the four redwoods suddenly exploded with growth, growing larger and taller and wider and the roots spreading even as the trunks grew to heights that towered over the mental Hogwarts castle the same way the castle towered over them!

It all happened so fast and was done so efficiently that by the time they all blinked and Harry had stepped back from the owner of the mindscape the all occupied, the four trees were massively huge! Their trunks were the same size of any tower in Hogwarts walls, but compared to the height, all four were rather skinny, as the trees reached up for literal miles before stopping with a thick, leafy canopy. It wasn't an exaggeration either, as Ken judged that if these trees existed in reality, they would be topped out at the top of the lower atmosphere, reaching into stratosphere.

"Oh," Harry said out loud, after taking a moment to observe the changes to his mindscape. "That's what you meant by 'big'."

The other Harry shrugged. "So sue me. I'm used to trees this size. In fact, this size is about medium compared to a lot of the trees that were around in the dimension where I was trained in Battle Magic. These particular breeds are especially good in training for the type of exercises I have in mind."

"Perhaps it would be best if you began with explaining exactly what magical skill you will be teaching my students?" Ken asked.

"Right, " he nodded to his two temporary students. "This skill is somewhat unique, mostly because even those that can do it, don't really have much reason to do it, so they don't. To put it simply, I'm going to teach you to climb trees. Without using your hands. Harry, would you mind moving us closer?" He smiled enigmatically, before they found themselves moved to just below the four trees, amidst their roots, all of which were underground thankfully with none sticking up or blocking their access to the trunks.

"Thank you. Now then, the key to this is magic control. Power and focus is all well and good. But individual spells teach you how to control the magic for that spell. I've found that this exercise can usually help in increasing control for your entire arsenal. Allow me to demonstrate first of all." He then turned and started walking towards the trunk of the first tree.

When he got there, he did not pause in his steps, instead merely placing his foot on the trunk of the tree rather than on the ground. To the surprise of Harry and Maya, the next step he took was further up the trunk, and he didn't fall! In fact, he was walking vertically UP the tree!

Ken had seen things similar to this, although usually it was associated with a specific spell, the 'Sticky Feet' spell for example. But that was only temporary and you had to keep up constant motion, otherwise gravity quickly took over and the person would fall. Given that this particular Harry Potter wasn't rushing, in fact he was walking casually, and when he was about thirty feet up, he paused, stopped, and turned around to face them, Ken doubted that this was anything similar to those spells she was thinking of.

"Impressive," she had to admit out loud. Studying the concept, she quickly figured out the basic principles behind the exercise, and admitted that she had something similar for both Harry and Maya to learn, but they both needed more experience before they were ready for that. Perhaps this other exercise might give them that experience.

"Thank you," Harry called from up on the tree. "Now, if I had bothered to put any branches this far down, I could show you that this works for walking on the ceiling just as well as it does for walking on walls. Just a moment and I'll show you how to do this, all right!"

A flicker of motion later, and Harry was back on the ground next to them.

"How did you do that?" Harry and Maya both wanted to know.

"Like I said, magic control," he grinned and explained. "First up, you channel magic to one portion of your body, in this case your feet. Then, you direct the magic to pull constant and steady. Don't think of anything else, or any kind of spell or wish or though or focus. This is strictly magic control, so it's not just making your feet stick to whatever your standing on, it's tricking you magic to change your personal orientation."

"I don't understand," Harry admitted.

Scratching his head, the other Harry thought for a moment before continuing, "OK, think of it like this. Magic isn't just energy or power, it's directed as much by your thoughts and emotions just as much as it is by wand movements, spells, and focusing energies. When you direct the magic to your feet and then tell it to 'pull', it basically changes your entire body's position in Space/Time. Theoretically, you can use this to 'fly' as well, but I wouldn't try that without a lot of thought and practice put into it."

"Let me guess, Push instead of Pull," Harry chuckled.

"Close," his double shrugged. "There are other forces to take into account than just gravity. In this case, friction. Your feet are in contact with something that is down as far as they can tell, and when your magic is pulling on what the feet call down, then the entire body adjusts thanks to magic. For one thing, done right, it makes it a lot easier changing perspective orientations..." he paused at the confused looks he saw on Harry and Maya's faces, and clarified, "switching from floor, to wall, to ceiling, it feels like all of it is constantly right side-up, even if you aren't. There are other things that this skill will allow you to do, but half the fun is figuring all that out for yourself. Have any questions, I'll be down here with Ken-sama."

Startled, Harry and Maya turned back and forth between the massive tree trunks and the two observing instructors. Gulping, they glanced at each other, then nodded together and took a moment to focus.

"If it helps, you might want to get a running start, but be sure to keep your eyes open," their temporary instructor suggested.

They both nodded and each took one tree and ran straight at the trunks, and began their new training.

Two Hours Later

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

Hogwarts Mindscape

"Gaaahhhhh!" Harry gasped as he fell back to the ground of his mindscape.

Maya, next to him, was also gasping and sweating, down on her knees in front of her own tree. They had been training in this Tree Climbing exercise for the past two hours. Maya was able to complete it on the first attempt, running a good distance straight up the tree. After about five minutes, during which she gave him helpful pointers, Harry was able to make the same distance.

After that, Ken had instructed both her students to run until they reached the branches of their respective trees and then to run all the way back down, and to keep it up until they were too exhausted to do anything else. The four in one Harry Potter had been discussing several different things with Ken while this was going on, from his counterpart, her student, Japan's History, Eastern Magic, Battle Magic, lots of things.

Seeing the two just lying there on the ground prompted Harry to ask them, "You guys finished already?"

Maya nodded her head pitifully, while her brother rolled his head around to glare at his double, but could do nothing else. Their power, strength, and what little energy they had left was spent in maintaining their presence in the mindscape more than anything else. Seeing this, Harry and Ken decided to give them a break.

"Next opportunity," Harry said as he and Ken walked up to the two students, "try using this skill in the real world. Preferably the walls of Hogwarts instead of a giant tree in the Forbidden Forest, maybe even try some ceiling walking too. I discussed some of the other things Ken was going to teach you, and surprisingly, some of them sync up with what else I would've taught you regarding this particular magical skill, so she'll be sure that you get just as much exercise in your future training endeavors. Now, I trust that I've lived up to my side of our deal, yes?"

"YES!" they both shouted, terrified at the idea that he would make them work even more if they said anything to the contrary.

"OK, you guys have worked hard," he chuckled. "I think you deserve a treat, so to speak."

"If this treat includes a hot shower, bed rest and a good meal, I'm all for it," Harry mumbled from his position on the ground.

"Actually, it involves something a little bit more taxing than that. Come on, get up." The visitor from another universe helped his dimensional twin to his feet as Maya stood to her own feet, though looking like she might keel over at any second. They were both that exhausted.

"Tell me, and I'm asking you bro," Harry said to his double, "Have you ever been to another's mindscape before? Maya, rather obviously, has, and Ken found you, but what about you?"

Harry nodded once. "Yeah, one time. Maya let me stay in her mind while I was recuperating one time after wiping out my mindscape again."

Raising an eyebrow, Harry shot a look at Ken and repeated, "Again?"

She just smiled at him and shrugged, not answering.

"It's to be expected that stress in life can upset and even outright destroy a person's mindscape after they've constructed it, more than once even. Thing is, when I say the word again in relation to something like that, the number of times is actually quite high. As in more than ten times in a row."

None of them bothered answering the outsider, so he just sighed and let the matter drop for the moment.

"Anyway, my whole point of asking, is that I would like to invite all of you to visit my own mindscape," Harry offered. "You've all shown me great trust today, as well as unexpected support. The least I can do to thank you is to show you all the same trust, as well as provide the answers to the questions you have in regards to myself."

"I'm not sure I have enough energy to do something like that..." Harry tiredly admitted to his double.

"Well, you actually don't have anything to worry about. I'll show you how to access my mind the same way I accessed yours. Ken-sama and Maya-san, however, will need to go through the normal channels, so to speak. I'll be there to greet you as well."

The two Japanese witches shared a glance before turning back to the young Battle Mage.

"What is it exactly that you are suggesting, Potter-san?" Ken asked, folding her hands together.

Harry shrugged at the question, taking his double by the shoulders once again. "I just figured, fair is fair after all. You stood up for me with the others and more or less vouched for me. Your first apprentice stood up to me and demonstrated that she is both trustworthy, and incredibly brave and wise, and loyal to... well to someone that I might have been had circumstances been different. The very least I can do is show you the same trust that my twin here shows you, and answer some of your lingering questions in the process, I hope."

"I was referring to your method of access that allowed you entrance to my student's mind, and will apparently allow him the same access to yours," Ken clarified.

"Oh," Harry blushed, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand in embarrassment. "Well, fairs fair. The reason that I accessed Harry's mind here is simply because I am him. I am Harry Potter. He is Harry Potter. He is me, I am him. Get it?"

All three of them stared at him, utterly perplexed, before glancing back at each other and looking back at him to reply, "No!"

Sighing, Harry let go of his double's shoulder and started pacing back and forth a bit.

"OK," he finally said, "This is... very hard to explain out loud. Makes a lot more sense in my head, especially since I already understand it I suppose. Anyway, it's a very Existentialistic concept. Uh, you do know what existentialism is, right?"

Ken and Maya both nodded, but Harry just stared with a dull look in his eyes, blinking very slowly. The visiting Harry let out a heavier sigh and hung his head. "Text book definition, without going into more history than any of us really want to go into, existentialism is basically a philosophy, or belief, that human consciousness is an act of intention, rather than of circumstance. What that means can be summed up with five little words; 'I think, therefore I am.' Existentialism is also a very... free branch of philosophy itself, so when you say existentialism to identify it as a study of philosophy, it would be more accurate to say existentialisms."

"What I meant, when I said that this is an existentialistic concept, I was referring to the existentialistic philosophy, more hypothesis really, that states that everything is interconnected. Everything. Period. Mind, body, soul, food, animals, plants, trees, stone, elements, sun, space, moon, stars, mountains, buildings, people both muggle and magical, every single one of them are connected to each other. And because they are connected, they are each other."

"Huh?!" the younger wizard exclaimed.

Harry waved off the question. "That's not important, and I'm not trying to sell you on becoming an Existentialist. The concept that allows me into your mind the same way that Maya has access to you mind is because we are the same person. I am Harry James Potter. You are Harry James Potter. We have the exact same DNA, we have the exact same brainwave patterns and other physiological signs of life. We even have the same past and most of the same memories. We have very similar, though not identical thoughts. Even our magical cores are largely the same. One could therefore argue that we are the same person."

"Ooohh-kay..."

"And I was going to wait to tell you this so only you know it, because it's kind of scary the story I'm about to reveal..." he trailed off, giving not so subtle looks to Ken and Maya.

Maya rolled her eyes while Ken stared intently at the dimensional visitor. Finally, she seemed to come to a decision and merely nodded her head at the visitor. "Very well then, Potter-san. I will look forward to your answers. Let us know when you wish us to rejoin you."

"Sensei, Sis," Harry said, stopping them before they could leave. He turned to his 'dimensional twin'. "This is the second time you are asking my teacher to leave," he said, trying his best not to come across as 'aggressive', and get himself toasted. "I have trusted, and still trust, both of them with my life." He didn't need to hint at the addition of … and that's a whole lot more than I trust you at the moment.

The other Harry stared back and forth between the three magic-users for a few seconds before speaking.

"I'm only going to ask this once," he said, speaking to Ken in a serious tone of voice that they had not yet heard from him. "Do you know what 'S-Class Secret' refers to?"

Ken blinked, while Maya actually startled, while Harry looked on, confused.

"This is an S-Class Secret that I found out about by accident and even now that I know what it is and am willing to show it to another, I still wish I had never found out about it, because of the consequences that came about from learning it," he continued in the serious tone. "If you remain, which I have no overall objection to, you must all swear absolute secrecy and never seek confirmation for yourselves, do you understand?"

Ken nodded her understanding, while Maya was still just a little stunned. Ken then asked, "May I inquire how it is that you know of the S-Class rank and it's meaning to my people?"

"S-Class is a spy term, Ken-sama," he stated with finality. "Ninjas, and as a result your entire Intelligence network, are spies. For the moment, I will trust you, simply because my double trusts you, and knowing myself as I do, you would only have that if you had earned it."

"Thank you," Ken merely said in honest appreciation, while Maya just sent him her silent appreciation.

"Now... what's the big secret?" Harry asked his double, more than a little annoyed at his behavior. He was done letting people push him around, especially if the person doing the pushing was himself.

"The reason I know about this concept and this connection is because I found it a number of years ago, during my training," the Battle Mage quickly explained to his Wizard counterpart. "I was meditating, reaching for and working to control the core of my magic. I was following the paths of energy when I discovered a link that seemed to disappear into nothingness, like a fishing line disappearing into the water of a lake that you cannot see through."

"I followed it further, and then I 'dipped my head' through the 'waters surface', so to speak. I found out that that link... was to alternate versions of myself, and it wasn't just two-way or one-way. The most intricate spiderweb ever created couldn't come close to being like what I found that day. Shortly after that experience, my teacher, the Time Mage I mentioned earlier, told me about the Ancients Mirror, the one that we used to come to your universe here."

"Why is that at all important?" Harry had to ask.

"Because it's how I gained access to your mind. And how you will gain access to mine. It's also why I looked like the ghost of a color-blind knight, because I was connecting to your mind, but because your mind was protecting itself, I was kept at the fringes of your mindscape, and it took a few tricks I learned to get as far as I did, but you could still detect me. Furthermore, if either of us wanted, it would be how we would gain access to the minds and souls of other Harry Potters," he warned.

Gulping at the implications, Harry then asked, "Well, why were you being so short with Ken-sensei and Maya-sempai? You were almost throwing them out!"

"Because of curiosity, and how much it likes to kill kitties."

"HUH?"

"Now you understand why this is an S-Class Secret! If anyone but those trustworthy enough to know about this knew how to do it, it could be a disaster! They'd get curious and eventually delve so far into their core that they'd find what I had found and then go looking around!" he shouted out loud. "THINK Harry, think! Ken-sama found you by chance! When you were having a nightmare while she was meditating! If she decides to start going around and checking up on alternate versions of herself, or of us or Maya or even her Emperor?! That's a can of worms that does not even need to be taken off the shelf, let alone opened up, Harry!"

"You've all sworn to reveal this secret to no one. If you do... well, I'll let the consequences speak for themselves," he gave them one final warning, whispering to himself, "I had to..."

Both Ken and Maya fully acknowledged their oaths and repeated them before vanishing from the mindscape. "I understand. Now," Harry sighed, acknowledging to himself the potential consequences of this secret getting out, "how do I access this... existential connection between the two of us?"

Nodding, Harry lead him towards the Castle, explaining, "Here, let me show you..."

Five Minutes Later

Universe Mahou_mo_Ken_1.5

4-In-1-Harry's Mindscape

"Wh-where are we?"

The question had been asked by young Harry Potter, student of Mahou Mo Ken, and it had been directed at his dimensional counterpart, whose mind he just entered. Supposedly his teacher and magical sister, were already 'here' in the other Harry Potter's mind, but all he saw was complete and utter blackness. Not even the kind of black that you get when you close your eyes or stare into a dark room, because then biology works so you see bits of color and light just about everywhere. But this was a blackness of the mind, no biology to tell you that you aren't in the middle of an abyss.

"My mind," came the predictable reply. After all, it's how Harry would've given it, had the situations been reversed.

"Rather dark in here, isn't it?" he sarcastically retorted.

He heard the other Harry chuckle, that's when he finally looked and saw that he could see the other Harry, once more in that crazy armor outfit, standing there like the sun was shining down right on him. Looking down at himself, Harry saw that it was the same with him.

"Try looking up," the armored Harry pointed.

Harry did so, and his jaw promptly dropped open in shock, his eyes wide in awe, "Wh-wh-what the...?"

He was looking at a solar system. Not the Solar System, a solar system, that consisted of a very large central yellow star, with four planets slowly revolving around it. Unlike with a real solar system however, the four planets were all on the exact same track, equidistant from each other, from the star, and moving in the same direction at the same speed. There were no moons, no asteroids, and something to explain the darkness, no stars either. Each of the planets rotated, but again at the exact same speed, and unlike the Earth that was tilted on the axis upon which it rotated, each of them were perfect spheres that rotated like ball bearings upon a needle point.

Each planet was unique, despite all the similar qualities that designated their place around the sun. The first one to draw Harry's attention was the one that looked perfectly like Earth, right down to the placement of the continents, though... England did look much larger from his point of view than it probably was in real life. The next one to catch his eye was another blue-green world, though the continents were nothing that he recognized. He also had a feeling that this one, while still inaccurate, was a bit better proportioned.

The last two were very different from the other two though. For starters, there was one that almost looked like a cross between Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Earth, mixed together into one giant battlefield! The other was almost completely dark, except for the side the faced the sun, and Harry could see that there were giant cities all across the surface, and on the dark side there were twinkling lights, giving reason to believe that the entire planet was just one huge city!

"Wh-w-w-w-WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!" Harry shouted out loud.

Instantly, Ken and Maya were by the sides of the two Harry's, appearing out of nowhere via the instantaneous method of travel capable in the mind. They were still looking around confused, and apparently still had not looked up, as both women approached their Harry, concerned by his outburst.

"Harry? What happened? . . . Why are you looking up?" Maya asked in a rush, before trailing off.

Ken, seeing that her second apprentice was neither injured, nor being attacked, turned her attention to their current host. "This is an impressive defense," she said to him. "If one cannot see anything once they have breeched your mind, then they believe they have failed, or that you have no mind and give up. A good way of avoiding unnecessary conflict. However, you did invite us here, so if you might, please, remove the veil?"

Harry smirked, though he was actually smiling, it came out as a smirk.

"I already let you past the outer defenses, Ken-sama. All that's left at this stage are the internal defenses. And I thank you for your opinion, but there is no veil, and I'm not preventing you from seeing my mindscape at all. Though it might interest you to know just how many people are fooled when they see a black emptiness inside my mind and assume either superior mental skill, or the opposite and that my head is empty and I'm an idiot. But I'll tell you what I've already told young Harry here," he then pointed, "Look up."

They did so, and even Ken showed astonishment, while Maya more clearly resembled her magical brother in reactions. "Wh-what is this?" the first apprentice of Mahou Mo Ken whispered in awe.

"My mind," Harry replied easily. "From a safe distance of course. Reason being is because of the way that I gained my Mental Skills, I sort of combined my magical core into my mindscape, and any... we'll call it cosmic radiation for this particular instant, is actually some of my magic, and it could adversely affect you without proper protection, hence, safe distance, and you get to see pretty much the whole picture too."

"Your... mind, is a solar system?" Maya stated.

Harry nodded.

"How... how is that even possible?" his twin wanted to know.

Harry started to shrug, then stopped himself.

"It's complicated, and not easy to explain with words," he began. "Remember our earlier talk, about our differences?"

Harry, standing between Ken and Maya, nodded his head.

"Remember me saying that I'm actually four Harry Potter's in one? Not in those exact words, but..."

Harry nodded his head again, then frowned and asked, "How does that work again? You explained it once, the basics anyway, about how the Time Mage split you off and then put you back together again after the different parts received magical training, but how could..."

"That doesn't matter," Harry waved off the question he could sense coming, and he wasn't willing to answer that question just yet. "Point is, each of those planets up there? They're actually individual mindscapes, crafted for each of my four parts. The world they each is most accustomed to, as well as where all of their memories, skills, knowledge, and power reside."

"So the planets house the four that made you?" Ken asked.

Wincing, Harry shook his head, "No, not exactly. Sorry, I wasn't being clear. The four that you speak of are actually a part of me. It would be like separating aspects of yourself based on roles, skills, or titles that you possess. You're still you, and no matter how you divide yourself up, that will always be true. So no, there aren't other mini-me's running around on each of the planets. They just house the knowledge, memories, and individual powers. Like with your Harry's mindscape," he gestured at the other Harry, "he compartmentalizes certain things. You have the training field and outside of the castle where you work with Ken-sama and Maya-san. Then you probably have a couple of rooms inside the castle that only you can access, where precious memories, or defenses, or even the Parselmouth ability are stored and sorted out, right?"

He shrugged, and gestured up at the planets. "Same thing, only I use planets instead of rooms."

Ken nodded, understanding what he was saying. "And what of you? What of your own accomplishments, memories, and powers? Those unique to yourself? Or are you just the sum of your parts?"

Harry grinned openly at her, then pointed again, this time at something very specific. "My personal mindscape, where all things precious to me are located and stored... is inside the sun. In fact, you could even say that it is the sun."

Even Ken was impressed by that, as her two apprentices looked up to stare at the sight in awe once more.

"Care for a tour?" Harry offered.

"Sure!" Harry and Maya enthusiastically accepted.

Instantly, all four of them were surrounded by a clear, yet solid bubble and moving through the space of Harry's mindscape so fast that it looked as if the planets were rushing at them like giant bullets fired from a gun! They zeroed in on the Earth-like planet first, specifically Northern half of the British Isles, Scotland to be more specific, until a very familiar castle came into view.

It was almost like being back in the first Harry's mindscape again, until said Harry noticed a few details that he did not have in his own Hogwarts mindscape. A few other things, such as the flags flying over each of the towers and the presence of Hogsmeade, details of the Forbidden Forest, and even the Giant Squid were also evidence that this mindscape was very different from his own. They flew around in the clear bubble for a few circuits around the school grounds as their host explained a few things.

"This is what I like to call, my Gryffindor mindscape. Detail-perfect Hogwarts, thanks to reading the Marauder's Map so often during my time there. Also have a few memories stored in the presence of either a location, an animal, or something or other. For example, I've got the Chamber of Secrets, complete with Basilisk, an Aragog and a bunch of spiders out in the Forest, and the Shrieking Shack is haunted by the memories of that night playing over like ghosts doing a scene from a movie over and over again. Reason for making this a planet instead of just one big snow globe, is because I've also got a London, complete with Diagon Alley, a Burrow in St. Catchpole, and even a Number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging. Sadly, I didn't really do much traveling beyond that."

"Anyway, moving on," he shifted moods suddenly and they were speeding away now to the next planet in orbit, which just happened to be the second blue-green world with continents nothing like Earth at all.

"This," he explained as they breeched the atmosphere and approached a coastline city, "Is what I like to call my Ravenclaw mind, or to be more accurate, Living Circle mindscape. Remember those two institutions that had reputations equal to Hogwarts, where I learned magecraft? Well, this," he gestured at the coastline city, or cities actually, as there was one major population center and then a short distance away was a walled area that looked to be a temple with winding circular paths, but was as much a city as the first, "is Winding Circle Temple, just outside of Summersea, capitol city of Emelan. And this..."

Suddenly the landscape was flashing by beneath them and they came to a much larger city, the center of which seemed to be a castle just as grand and majestic as Hogwarts when it was first created. "... This is Lightsbridge Academy. Spent four years here studying aspects of magic that make NEWT-courses at Hogwarts look like Pre-school lessons. Not better mind you, just different... but infinitely more involved. Moving on!"

They launched out of the atmosphere and quickly moved on to the city-planet.

They orbited at the equator of the planet and went low enough to identify unbelievably tall skyscrapers and buildings and other structures that boggled the imagination. "We can't stay here for too long," he whispered, "Seeing as this particular planet holds the memories and skills that are associated with my Spy Magic. The city isn't the actual world, which should actually look like a cross between the other two Earth-like planets over there. The city is actually automated defenses, put in place by the aspect of my mind that underwent training to be a magical spy. Hence, why I call this the Slytherin Mindscape, given that it's my untrustworthy, suspicious, and power-hungry aspect of myself."

"Slytherin?!" Harry blurted out, shocked that this other him admitted to having anything to do with that sort of thing! Unfortunately, he'd spoken a little loud when he did so, and they all noticed how several 'buildings' very quickly turned into automated turrets and missile silos, all aimed right at them.

"Moving on!" the Harry controlling the clear bubble accelerated it away even faster, as several nuclear weapons detonated in their wake!

"And finally, Hufflepuff World," their tour guide sighed in relief as they entered the cloudy atmosphere of the the battlefield-covered planet. "Also known as where the majority of my Battle Magic learning experiences are stored, mostly by recreating individual battles that I've had throughout my life."

"Wait, you associate your Battle Mage title with... Hufflepuff?!" his twin exclaimed, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, so?" Harry looked back, confused about why this would be a question.

"Uh, nothing, it's just, well... none of the Hufflepuffs that I know are particularly... well, they're not the warrior type, if you know what I mean," he lamely replied.

"Are you sure about that?" he was asked. "Think about it for a second. What would you be willing to do for a friend, a true friend? When you give your loyalty to someone, aren't you then willing to do almost anything for them, to do whatever they say, or even do something for their sake?" Harry shrugged at them as he took them over several rather spectacular battles, between shades of 'himself' and armies of monsters, demons, or even other spell casters and human warriors.

"I made this decision, to have myself split apart, in order to gain more power yes, but also because I had been told that I would have friends in the future. Friends that would suffer if I didn't do something to stop it. I also gained more friends this way, not just at Hogwarts, but across several dimensions! Trust me, a Hufflepuff fighting for their friend is scarier than a hundred Gryffindors and Slytherins working together."

They were silent for a time, as Harry finished the 'tour' of his mind, and then took them, though much slower than before, towards the central sun. Or, more accurately, the extremely small moon that had just appeared directly above it. He took them to the dark side of the moon, but once they were settled, they suddenly found themselves standing in a forest clearing, not far from a stream and surrounded by tall trees, with a yellow sun shining normally down on them from the noon position.

"Temporary mindscape, useful for conversations between minds when you don't want to get intimate," Harry explained at their surprised looks. "You have questions, I'm here to answer them."

"Thank you," Ken nodded her head. "I am curious, what are you going to do now?"

Harry shrugged. "For the time being, focus on Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's training. Maybe take a couple of classes, in Runes and Arithmancy maybe. You know, a couple of those courses that I missed out on. Beyond that... I'm winging it."

"And what of your dislike for Dumbledore and Snape?" Ken then asked him.

He shrugged again, looking off into the distance, where it just so happened after-images of both men being hanged or otherwise executed were fading away. "I'll live with it," he finally said. "I won't start any trouble, that's for certain, but I'll finish it if it comes my way. Why do you ask?"

"I am sure both of them would be trouble for you and your friends at some point, as Snape has an unwarranted hatred for all things named Potter, but Dumbledore, I have noticed, has a similar compulsion to meddle in things that are best left alone. For as long as I am here, seeing the trust you have placed in me this day, I would be willing to support you in any... struggles that may come up between you or them."

"I appreciate that, Mahou Mo Ken-sama," Harry bowed even with his waist.

"Please, you may call me Ken, Potter-san," she returned the bow.

"Harry, then," he replied back. She merely nodded in acceptance.

"Now then, how about I show off for a little while," Harry laughed and spent the rest of the time showing off all of his abilities and new powers. Short of opening his Gate, that is.

Next Time on 4 In 1 To ∞:

Harry and his friends stick around for a while, learning and training and getting to know their hosts and dimensional doubles. Unfortunately, all is not well, as it is announced that Mahou Mo Ken and Maya must return to Japan soon, and things only get worse as the local Voldemort and his Death Eaters attack Hogsmeade once more, and this time they're out for revenge for past transgressions!

What does it mean for young Harry Potter when his mentor and sister have to leave so soon?

What will 4-In-1 Harry do about his friends' training?

How will two Harry Potters deal with an unexpected Death Eater Attack, even with all their training?

What will happen during the battle?

The answers to these questions and more, hopefully, next month in 4 In 1 To ∞ Chapter 3: First Test!