12 Grimmauld Place
Universe 4 In 1
Early Morning
They appeared on the ground floor of the apartment flat in a flash of green light, only a little disoriented from the sudden change, and the fact that Harry suddenly tore away from them, screaming, "KREACHER!"
The old House Elf appeared immediately. Curious, the others approached, dispelling their transformations as they did so. Harry knelt down so his eyes were on level with his House Elf's.
"Kreacher, me and the others are going away for a while. Things are happening in the world. Potentially bad things. Maybe even Very Bad Things," he paused when he heard Kreacher gasp, and he knew the House Elf understood. To an Elf, Very Bad Things can mean only a small number of scenarios. The mess an Army on a rampage left behind without a single Elf left alive to clean it up, fit right in there with that.
"We're going away because we need to become stronger, to become powerful enough to stop these bad things. I'm not about to abandon you though, so I want you to go back to Hogwarts and serve there. While you're there though, I need you to do something for me," he whispered.
Kreacher immediately began bobbing his head up and down, almost crying out loud, "Kreacher do anything for Master! Master brought back Master Regulus's Locket! Master can do anything! Kreacher will do whatever Master requires!"
"Good," Harry nodded, then leaned in close and whispered his instructions directly into the old House Elf's floppy bat-like ears. Immediately the Elf nodded his head and then disappeared with a crack.
"C'mon," Harry said as he stood to his feet. "We've got to pack."
"Harry? What...?" Hermione protested as he ran up the stairs.
"I'll explain as you pack! Now hurry, we really do not have the time to debate this!" he shouted.
Turning to look at each other, the three teens shrugged and raced up the stairs to do as their friend and leader commanded. Thankfully "packing" did not actually require much as they just had a few bags of clothes and another bunch of trinkets and tools acquired since leaving the Burrow, and then all of that went into Hermione's bag and stayed with her. Harry also tossed her a few other things that none of them recognized, but he just told them that they were useful items that they might need. He then stressed the words 'might need' several times over.
During this mad-dash packing, Harry answered all their questions as much as he could. Anything that would require a longer explanation, he said to them that he would tell them later on. For the most part, he just explained what it was they would be doing now.
"Where exactly are we going, Harry?" Hermione asked as she slowly placed all their items into her bottomless bag. "And why in such a hurry?"
"We have to leave tonight, preferably before the dawn," came Harry's short reply as he pulled the living portraits of Mrs. Black and former Hogwarts Headmaster Phineas Black out of somewhere and raced to put them back in their original places. "We also have a limited window in which to do so."
"But why?" Ron repeated Hermione's question.
Sighing, Harry tried to explain. "It's complicated," then he turned around and started looking for anything they might have missed. Realizing that was all the explanation he would give, they all protested.
"Harry! That's not an explanation!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Well, that's all I can say for right now!" he shouted back.
"At least tell us where we're going," Hermione begged, "Even if it's just to the train station."
He hesitated, before sighing. "Hogwarts," he replied shortly.
"What about it?" Ron asked, confused.
"We're going there," Harry muttered as he streaked past.
"Where?" Ron further questioned.
"Hogwarts," Harry growled this time.
"What about it already?" Ron asked, exasperated now. The girls both rolled their eyes and groaned.
"We're going to Hogwarts!" he screamed. "Happy now?"
"Why are we going to Hogwarts?" Ron asked after a minute of silence.
"It's complicated," Harry answered.
"Then try explaining it!" Hermione exclaimed, more than a little exasperated herself.
"You try explaining NEWT level material to First Years!" he shouted back at her, startling all of them into silence. "I am trying to keep all of you alive and save the whole bloody damned world at the same time here! I do not have the time to explain everything. You just have to trust me, all right? We need to leave. Sooner, rather than later. Now, do we have everything?"
They just stood there, staring silent at him.
Angered, he shouted again, "Do you have everything?!"
"Yes," Hermione squeaked. Ron and Ginny both timidly nodded their heads.
"Good, we need to go," he turned to leave the bedroom.
"Harry," Hermione called just before he left. He paused and turned to look at her. "There's something that I need to show you. I... I found it, I suppose you could say, earlier. When I was trying to find you that is..."
"Hermione, we really don't have time for show and tell," he turned back around, right until he felt exactly what it was Hermione was showing him. Spinning around, he watched as the light around Hermione seemed to leave everything else and put a spotlight on her, even as a glowing rune appeared above her head.
"Hermione!" he cried. "Hermione, stop it! Stop it! Stop it right now!"
Startled, she stopped and all effects vanished at once. "What? It was just a new meditation technique I was experimenting with..." she started to say when he cut her off.
"I really don't have time for this," he hissed, running his fingers through his wild hair.
He paced back and forth in a tight circle for a moment, then growled and shook his head. "I repeat, we don't have time for this. I'll explain later." Grabbing the girls he put Hermione's bag into her hands and then dragged them by their arms out the door. "Get down to the foyer. I have some last minute things to take care of. I'll join you when I'm done. Do not argue with me!" he shouted when it looked like they would.
Meekly, all three of them made their way downstairs, surprised when most of the lights went out as they made their way past the final landing, but they continued until they were in the foyer before the front door. Moments later, a tremor shook the house, they panicked a little, and the girls shrieked when a heavy object landed right beside them, after having fallen from the top story. They all breathed a little easier when they saw that it was just Harry. Moments later, Hedwig flew down and landed on her familiar spot on his right shoulder.
"What was that?" Ginny asked him.
"I just took the wards down. All of them. The Ministry, if they were ever tracking us or this place, will be here inside of a minute. That's why we don't have a lot of time. It's safe to Apparate now. Go to the main gate of Hogwarts. Don't worry, it's almost midnight, nobody is going to be there to see or hear us." Seeing them hesitate, he frowned and snapped, "Go! Now!" Three pops later, Harry was alone in 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Sorry you old ghoul," Harry sneered at the portrait of Sirius's Mother, "But the Blacks are dead. Time the last of their legacy went with them."
Cupping his hands together, he formed the spell without seals or any other methods beyond pure will upon the force of his magic. A brilliant emerald green orb formed between his cupped hands, shining it's light throughout the dark halls of the last refuge of the Ancient and Noble House of Black. His own eyes shining with twin rings of the same light, Harry cast the spell, even while forming the basic elements silently in his mind. "Full Elements: Armageddon."
He let his hands fall away and the orb floated where it had formed for a few seconds, right before falling to the floor and being absorbed into it. Smirking to himself as he teleported away, Harry joined his friends at Hogwarts Main Gate.
Thirty seconds later, the first Death Aurors arrived, signaling back with the all-clear and soon enough, every floor of the building had at least one Death Eater or 'loyal' Auror on the landing and in every major room. They cleared all the rooms and confirmed that there was no trace of delayed curses and sent back another signal. Ten seconds after that signal went off, the entire building exploded.
Hogwarts
Main Gate
Midnight-ish
Thing about teleporting versus Apparating, Wizards only ever prepare for what they know to prepare, and Wizards only know, or care for that matter, about Apparition. So the Anti-Apparition wards around Hogwarts really only apply to Apparition, and somebody teleporting in, like House Elves, or say... a Battle Mage, well they can get in just as easy as they please.
So Hermione's near outrage as Harry appeared on the other side of the gate from them could be understood if this fact was taken out of context.
"Harry!" she exclaimed when they saw him teleport in, within Hogwarts boundaries. "What are you... how did you... You can't Apparate in Hogwarts!"
"I didn't," he chuckled as he unlocked the gate from the inside, the only way it could be opened at all in fact, "I teleported. I do believe we've had this discussion before, Hermione."
"Oh... right," she blushed demurely.
Harry opened the gate and let them all in, before closing and locking it behind them. Then he turned and lead them up the pitch black path to their castle school. "OK," he whispered, "Obviously, it is after September first, so there are people here, Filch is patrolling the halls, the ghosts are doing whatever, all that. What we're looking for, what we need to find basically, is in the dungeons. Thankfully nowhere near the Slytherin dormitories, or the Potions lab, but the dungeons nevertheless. Once we are inside the castle, until I say otherwise, we make as little noise as possible. The cloak can't cover all four of us, and it's all or none, so that is no longer an option. We do not speak. If we need to communicate at all, I'll open a telepathic link, like I did in Diagon Alley, all right?"
They all nodded.
"Once we're in a safe enough spot, and I'll tell you when, I promise to explain. Until then, though," he glared at each of them in turn, "Absolute. Silence. Quiet. No questions, no complaints, no whining. Nothing."
Again, they nodded.
"Let's go," he lead them to one of the open end courtyards and then through one of the doors into the castle proper. Once there, still remaining as quiet as possible, they made their way to the Great Staircase, grateful that all the Portraits seemed to be dozing or very much asleep. Not surprising, given the hour.
Suddenly, Hermione tapped Harry impatiently on his shoulder, glaring at him when he stopped to glance back at her. Frowning, he let out a noiseless sigh, then opened the magical mind-link between all of them.
'What?!' was the first thought out of his head, directed solely at the bushy-haired brunette.
Frowning, yet still following as he lead them down into the dungeons, she retorted, 'Well, I was going to ask what we, or rather you are going to do if Filch or Mrs. Norris actually do find us, but given your tone, I'd rather know why you reacted so violently when I showed you my new meditation technique.'
Harry rolled his eyes, thankfully where Hermione could not see him do so, then replied, 'To the latter, it was not a meditation technique. It's something I wasn't even going to show you, let alone teach you! It's not something that I'm... talented in, we'll put it like that. Also, what you were about to do using... that, would have killed Ron, Ginny, and maybe myself if you managed to catch me off guard, which you almost did, I'll have you know. To the former; Filch is getting on in his years and none of the students would miss him.'
Hermione's eyes went wide, letting out and audible gasp, which had Harry turning on her with his hand over her mouth and anger in his eyes. 'QUIET!' he mentally screamed. Ron and Ginny both winced.
'Harry! How could you? Death Eaters and Dark Wizards are one thing, but... but we've known Filch for years, and he's just doing his job and...' Hermione protested silently.
'I did not say I would kill him. Brainwashing and Obliviating however...' he trailed off, leaving the thought unfinished.
'Good riddance, I say,' Ron added his two knuts.
'How about we work on NOT getting caught before we actually ARE caught, huh?' Ginny suggested.
'Stay quiet, follow me,' Harry turned them down an unused corridor of the dungeons. They all followed silently, making sure to stay as quiet as they could.
After about ten solid minutes of walking, down a straight corridor no less, they came to a door along the side of the hall. It wasn't any different from any other door in all of Hogwarts, in fact it was quite unremarkable. Even the door on the Third Floor Corridor in their First Year had at least a lock and a large archway with part of it, and this door didn't even have that much, just iron hinges and wooden panels in a simple stone doorway. Still, it was the door Harry stopped in front of.
'Hold on a minute,' Hermione sent, looking up and down the long hallway. 'Where exactly are we? I've never been to this part of the dungeons before. Come to look at it, I don't think anyone has, not in quite a while anyway. Harry? Where are we?'
Harry just smiled at her and opened the door in response.
Curious, they all walked in before him and saw a really unremarkable room. It was a square room for starters, and that was about as odd as it got, given how few rooms are actually square, equidistant on all sides, floor to ceiling and walls to walls. The door actually opened near the top corner of the cube-room, but had stairs going down, ending in the bottom corner. The only other thing that could be said about the room was that it had something in it. And only one thing, not counting the spiders, roaches, insects and other vermin.
'Harry, what is that thing?' Ginny asked as she started down the stairs.
Harry's reply was to shut the door behind them with a bang and then cast, "Silencio!"
"OK, free to talk now. I suggest taking the stairs," he told them, right before he jumped straight down to the floor about ten or fifteen feet below. Hermione almost screamed, but saw that he landed safely, not to count all the times she'd seen him do things considerably more dangerous than jumping down several meters.
"In answer to both yours and Hermione's questions, Ginny," Harry said as he walked towards the thing in the center of the room, "We're in one of the Vaults of Hogwarts. And this thing is what is being kept inside this particular vault."
"Wait a minute..." Hermione got that look where she started thinking faster than most birds could fly. She stopped just before taking the last step, Ron and Ginny already off the stairs and walking towards Harry. "One of the Vaults of Hogwarts, but... I read about them in Hogwarts, A History. They're supposed to have been specially warded rooms that the Founders set aside within Hogwarts. They were to have been created to store magical artifacts too dangerous for the rest of the world to know about, but too powerful to be destroyed or handled by the Ministry."
"Exactly right, Hermione," Harry grinned at her, casually walking around the object during her recitation. Ron and Ginny were just standing there, staring at the front of the thing. "Care to supply the rest of the information that can be found about this room that resides within Hogwarts, A History?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione was confused.
"The reason Hogwarts is so big and so few of it's rooms are actually used... is because practically the entire rest of the castle is... the Vaults of Hogwarts," he told them cheerfully.
"How... how is that possible?" she asked.
"The rooms move, Hermione," Harry told her straight out. "My guess, the reason the Sorcerer's Stone was put into the Third Floor Corridor and why Dumbledore put it under traps like that, is because he had thought that the room was one of the Vaults, hence him putting it there. When he found out it wasn't..." he shrugged and then continued, "Hence, the traps. I probably should have asked Dumbledore earlier if the reason he didn't keep moving the Stone around or put it under better traps was because he was looking for one of the Vaults so he could then put it there, but that's neither here not there."
"This room, and many, many, many others just like it, are why Hogwarts is known as the safest place in the world. More secure than Gringotts, for the simple fact that unless you're one of the Founders themselves, once you put something in one of the Vaults, nobody is getting it back."
"Then... how are we here?" Hermione, still on the last step of the stairs, questioned.
"The other way to get into the Vaults is to know exactly where it is, and where it will be going," Harry cryptically replied.
"What does that even mean?" Hermione exclaimed, shaking her head in confusion.
"I told you guys earlier that I came to Hogwarts during our day off, remember?"
They all nodded.
"Well, besides just grabbing the Elder Wand and having a... chat, with Professor Snape, I was also using my recently rejoined core and... unique magical education to map out Hogwarts with something a great deal more complete than the Marauder's Map ever could have been. I found a number of the Vaults and figured out how they moved. Think of it as one of those child games, the Rubik's Cube, that sort of thing. Each of the Vaults are constantly moving, but they're moving in a fixed pattern. Problem for most people is that that pattern takes about 100 years to cycle through, and each Vault is only in a single place for maybe... an hour at a time, if not much less."
"So," he continued, still walking around the thing, "when I mapped out the Vaults, it really wasn't that hard for someone of my intellect to figure out the pattern. It's only repeated about ten times and is starting on the eleventh in fact. So, keeping in mind of where each Vault was the last time I was here, calculating out the time difference for each Vault's speed and each location's holding time, simple arithmetic really. We're lucky actually, this place was about two minutes away from moving into the South wing wall when we walked in. It's also why we were in such a hurry, because getting into the South wall isn't exactly easy, and each Vault stays there, in the South wall, going in all sorts of crazy patterns, for about a week before moving onto another section. Not that it would have stopped me or anything, just made things... difficult."
"So... what is that thing anyway?" Hermione asked, finally taking the last step and walking forward.
"Take a look for yourself," Harry gestured, now leaning against the side of it.
She did, coming up next to Ron and Ginny, staring straight at it.
"It's an archway, a stone archway," she shrugged, not seeing anything to special about it.
"It's not an archway," Ron told her, his voice shaking somewhat.
"What?" Hermione took a closer look at it, and almost screamed, jumping back as she saw something move within the 'stone archway', and then felt like really screaming when she finally saw what it was.
"Let me provide a little light," Harry chuckled, raising a wand and then casting 'Lumos' then caused the light to get much brighter and leave the tip of his wand, hovering at the center of the ceiling, illuminating the entire cubed chamber.
Hermione almost screamed all over again when she finally saw what was inside the 'stone archway', then she tilted her head and looked again and felt rather silly. She sighed in relief when she saw that they were looking at a mirror, and that she had gotten so scared just from her own reflection. Seeing the other shapes lit up at the same time and then further mirror their own actions, particularly her own, relieved Hermione as she thought that they might've been found out.
"What is this Harry?" Hermione asked, then paused, looking about as there was an echo that she hadn't noticed before.
"Would you care to take this one?" Harry asked the mirror.
"With pleasure, thank you," came Harry's voice, right before Harry's 'reflection' moved to in front of the mirror, standing beside the Hermione in the mirror, while the 'real' Harry remained leaning against it. Of further note of interest, the Harry in the mirror also had a Hedwig on his shoulder, only she was perched on his left shoulder, while the 'real' Hedwig was still perched on Harry's right shoulder.
"What's going on?" both Hermione's asked, their voices semi-echoing each other.
"Harry—" they started as one, but then each said something different though at the exact same time.
'Real' Hermione, "—how is this showing you're reflection when you're there? Is it some kind of trick?"
'Mirror' Hermione "—how is it your reflection isn't there? Are you some kind of vampire now?"
Suddenly everybody was looking at the mirror for whole other reasons.
"What's going on?" both Hermione's demanded to know.
"I'd get cracking on that explanation," 'real' Harry said to the mirror, "You know how they get when we hold back information like that."
"Oh sure, place all the blame on me, why don't ya!" 'mirror' Harry retorted.
"Harry!" both Hermione's exclaimed, the one in the mirror hitting 'her' Harry on the arm.
"Ow! Don't have to hit me y'know!" he yelled back. 'Mirror' Hermione just glared at him, while 'real' Hermione began to freak out just a bit.
"What is going on here, Harry?! Why is it doing that? What is this thing?!" she screamed at him.
"Told you," Harry leaned around to glare at his counterpart.
"Fine," 'mirror' Harry grumbled. "First of all, Hermione, both Hermione's, please, calm down. You're not going crazy, the Mirror isn't evil, and it's not dangerous either. Well, not directly anyway. It is, however, a magic mirror, as that should be more than obvious, given how it's located in Hogwarts, and one of the Hogwarts Vaults to boot. With me so far?"
"Oh, get on with it already!" Harry growled, finally stepping out and taking the same position next to Hermione that the Harry in the mirror had. The difference was Hedwig's position made all the more obvious. 'Mirror' Hedwig took a glance at her counterpart, squawked at 'her' Harry, who nodded back. The snowy white owl in the mirror ruffled its feathers before hopping from the left shoulder to the right shoulder, even while 'real' Hedwig remained where she was, unmoving, though with a glint of amusement in her amber eyes.
"Why? You in some kind of rush? We made it to the room in time, not that it really matters what the other does in regards to the original, but we're safe now and can leave at any time we damn well please," 'mirror' Harry snapped back.
"Why do you need to use it, just curious?" Harry suddenly asked.
'Mirror' Harry shrugged and answered, "Thought it would be a good idea for getting them," he gestured at the Ron, Ginny, and Hermione behind and beside him, "some more practical experience. They've just mastered the Transform spell and Hermione showed me something that leads me to believe that they each need more training and in more diverse environments than going into hiding could provide." He got a confused look on his face suddenly, and asked, "Why? What do you need it for?"
"Did you go to the Ministry tonight? Infiltrate with the OSI spell and spy on them a bit?" Harry asked, ignoring the other's question.
Frowning now, 'mirror' Harry shook his head. "No. I was feeling a bit restless, and while I'll admit, the thought crossed my mind about doing that, I decided to do some more training and worked with Ron and Ginny until Hermione showed me... what I just mentioned. Why?"
"Because I did go to the Ministry tonight, freed a bunch of people lined up for being 'Impure' and 'Undesirable' and sent a bunch of Dementors fleeing to boot," he answered.
"Ah, well... I guess that's where we divided from then," 'mirror' Harry commented, then asked, "Why is that even important?"
"Because, besides doing all that, and tormenting Umbridge a bit too, I found concrete proof of Voldemort's plans to build an army, a Dark Army. Made up of every dark magical creature imaginable, zombies and Inferi included. It is also what's happening to all the Undesirables that Umbridge was sentencing to Azkaban," Harry informed his counterpart.
"Holy shit," said counterpart cursed, paling significantly.
"I couldn't say if the same is happening in your universe, and if what your Hermione is the same as what my Hermione almost showed me, then I can understand your reasons for resorting to this. It also draws attentions to the parallels, unfortunately."
"I... I can't go back now. We've got like thirty seconds to leave before being trapped in here for almost a week! And Filch was patrolling the grounds here, so I can't bust open the North wall!"
"I thought you said this room moved to the South wall?" Hermione asked, next to Harry.
"After all this conversation, between these two idiots," 'mirror' Hermione said, even while both Harry's cried out with a 'Hey!' at the insult, "you still haven't figured it out? What this mirror is for? What it does?"
Hermione silently nodded, then said, "I just really don't want to believe it is all. I mean... the scope of what this means... what has been inside of Hogwarts all along... It's terrifying!"
"Tell me about it," 'mirror' Ron scoffed, then looked at his counterpart when there was no echo.
Ron sheepishly shrugged and said, "I... uh, I wasn't going to say anything. Hermione talking about how terrifying something is, she's usually right on the money, and I don't want to know about anything more terrifying than a Dark Army that can destroy the whole world in less than a day." 'Mirror' Ron gulped.
"It's up to you," Harry shrugged at his counterpart. "Ten seconds by the way."
'Mirror' Harry glanced back and forth between the door and the mirror, then got a rather devious look on his face. 'Real' Harry saw it, then immediately mirrored it as he apparently realized what his counterpart was thinking. "Would certainly make a bang," he apparently agreed with the idea.
"We'll go ahead and get started with our training. I'm going to stick to those that are seriously outside of our time frame. Maybe even go back and meet the Founders. Should let us get back soon enough that I can make an entrance and still obtain the same proof you did."
"I'm sorry, a 'bang'? What are you talking about?" 'real' Hermione asked her Harry.
"Earlier, when I said that this particular Vault went to... one of the walls? Well, I meant the entrance appears on the inside of the wall. Impossible to get in or out of. Even opening the door would require blasting said wall apart from the inside out. As of right... now," he glanced at his pocket watch, "this room, on both sides of the Mirror, is behind said walls. Even to get out to the kitchens would requiring opening that door, which again, requires blowing the wall apart from the inside out. So, only way to really get out, is the way we're all going."
"Which is?" both Hermione's asked.
"Through the Mirror," both Harry's answered. "Into another universe."
"What's a uni—whatever?" both Ron's questioned.
"Ron, shut up!" both Ginny's slapped their brothers across the back of the head.
After a second, both Ron's commented, "That's going to get rather annoying."
"Just wait until you meet a double in person," both Harry's said.
"So, wait," 'real' Hermione interrupted, stepping forward, "If the only difference between our two... universes? ... is that... your Harry stayed behind while... our Harry went to the Ministry, does that mean that your Harry is the same as ours and..."
"Uh, Hermione, that's not really..." Harry tried to stop her.
"What do you mean?"'mirror' Hermione asked.
"Well, about how Harry has all this new magical knowledge and everything. How this Time Wizard came and split Harry into four different people and then gave each of them a different magical education," she answered.
'Mirror' Harry raised his eyebrows and nodded at his counterpart. "Impressive. And very unique might I add. What training do you have?"
Rolling his eyes at his bushy-haired friend, he replied, "Wizard, Hogwarts variation, Battle Magic, Ambient and Academic Mage training at Winding Circle and Lightsbridge University respectively, and Covert Field Training for the Magical Intelligence Community. I take it from your mention of the Transform spell, you're one of the ones that is both an Avatar of Merlin, a Descendant of one or more of the Founders, and has released the knowledge and powers within the soul fragment left in our scar?"
"Not Avatar," 'mirror' Harry said, "More like, replacement. Or Heir, yeah, Merlin's Heir works better."
"Wait... you're not the same?" 'real' Hermione pointed back and forth between both Harry's.
Harry shook his head and sighed. "No. What happened to me was entirely unique. For a lot of different reasons, but trust me when I say that I really am the only Harry that something like this has happened to. It might've coincided with other events happening in other universes, prompting the same series of events that has happened ever since two weeks before I left the Dursley's, but yeah, I'm the only four Harry's in one."
"Wicked!" 'mirror' Ron crowed.
"Anyway," 'mirror' Harry spoke up, "We'd better get moving along, as both of us have explanations to give. Good luck, Harry."
"Good luck, Harry," said Harry.
'Mirror' Harry made a motion with his hand and then the image just sort of blinked out and suddenly they were looking at the stone wall of the room. Although if they looked closely, they would see that it was still a mirror and what they were looking at was the wall behind them. So, the same room, empty, but in another universe.
"Harry... what is this thing? I mean, really, what is it?" Hermione demanded to know.
Taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh, Harry turned around and started to explain.
"This Mirror, is called the Mirror of the Ancients. It has some fancy Latin name but that really doesn't matter at this point. It has a duplicate in every single universe. That's rare. It cannot be destroyed, and if it is, it reforms somewhere else, maybe in some other form. Point is, what it does, is it connects itself to every single one of it's duplicates. Oh, not all at once. Think of it like the Floo, direct one-to-one, point-to-point links. Some things change, but for the large part, you'll find yourself in the same spot, just a completely different universe. A different reality, sometimes even alternate dimensions! But, as you all can guess, it's dangerous too. Hence, why the Founders put it in a Vault all by itself."
"What's a uni... what's that you're talking about?" Ron stuttered out. "I asked earlier, but you and the... other you... ignored me. Now that you're not distracted, what is it?"
"Not to sound as much of a prat," Ginny spared a glare for her brother, "but I'd like to understand too. I've never heard of this... universe thing. Let alone bunches of them!"
"Universe is the English word for the whole of creation," Harry answered before Hermione could.
"Well, quantum physics theorizes..." she started to say, then stopped when the confusion in both redheads' eyes increased, and Harry gave her a chastising look.
"Hermione, you know better. Wizards don't care for muggle science. Let alone theoretical science," he admonished her.
"How do you even know about the theory of alternate realities and parallel universes?" she snapped.
"Read a lot of science fiction when I was a kid," he joked. She wasn't laughing. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair and explained, "Joshua, the Time Wizard, also explained the concept to me, multiple times, for at least half of me, meaning two of my other selves. I was trained in a pocket dimension, I'll have you know! It's also, in part, how I know about this thing. There was one in that pocket dimension too, so I reasoned, since as I said there is one in every universe and dimension, there had to be one here, and Wizards would have found it first, and there are only two places in the world where it would've been put once they did. Here, or on Avalon."
"Avalon?" all three exclaimed.
"Yes, Avalon is real. Get over it," he scowled. "Anyway, back to the first few explanations I owe you guys. Voldemort's plan is bad. I've already explained why its bad and how bad it could get. Well, as many of me as I could make with all the copy spells I know, there's just no way to be certain, and now the Ministry is pretty much under his control. You guys can help, but you've only just begun to learn Battle Magic and I can't both train you and fight a war at the same time."
"But the Order of the Phoenix..." Hermione started to say.
"Would only get in the way. They're a bird watching club, or in actuality, a snake watching club. They're good at gathering information, but not at countering the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself at full strength. They might have been once, but that was when they were in their prime! The only new members are Tonks, the Twins and the other Weasley children. Maybe you can count Fleur and her Headmistress, but the rest of them are from the old war and none of them kept in shape and they've lost whatever edge they once had. Quite frankly, we need a different tactic. As good as Dumbledore was, times have changed, and I'm in charge now. And we're not ready for this."
"And this is supposed to help us get ready?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded, walking around it, temporarily disappearing from view when he stepped behind the mirror. "Different universes exist at different quantum frequencies..." he stopped, then started again, "What I mean is that one minute in this universe could be one hour or one day in another universe. Or like wise, one minute in another universe could be a hundred years here. No way to tell without actually visiting them and everything. The Mirror, however, is different. It stabilizes the time flow, sort of syncs everything up to the same clock, but only directly around it. Hence why it was locked up in a Vault in a magic school. Special wards, unique to this Vault, were placed around this room keeping the effect within this room only."
"Does that mean I'm getting older right now? Or younger? Or are we going to leave here and a hundred years will have passed?" Ron started to panic.
"No," said Harry, glaring at his friend. "All it means is that any 'time corrections' the Mirror does, does not affect the rest of the world. A week in here is still a week outside. But, if we step through and spend two weeks outside the room in another universe where one week is like a second here, then we step back through, only a couple seconds will have passed, while two weeks passed in that universe. That, is the plan."
"So, we spend however long it takes us to train and learn Battle Magic in another universe, or even other universes, then we come back home here..." Ginny began to say.
"And step back through at most, about a day later," Harry finished for her.
"How do we decide which universe to go to? Is there any way to tell?" Hermione asked.
He shrugged. "I can tell the general speed the universe is passing at just by looking at the reflection, but there are other factors to take into account, which I can't say anything about."
"Such as?"
"Well, the whole point of traveling to other universes is to give me the time to train each of you in Battle Magic and to make all of you more powerful. Pretty much the equal of me, as much as that is possible anyway. If, by some chance, we get to a universe where Voldemort succeeded in killing me 16 years ago, or where Gridelwald won and conquered all of the Wizarding world, or even where Slytherins are the heroes and Gryffindors are the dark wizards... Hey, it could happen!"
Ron had been rolling his eyes but held his tongue.
"Point is, we could wind up in a universe where we won't exactly have time or opportunity for me to continue your training. But, that's a chance we'll just have to take. Just wanted you to be aware of it," he said.
"How do we use it?" Ginny asked, stepping closer. He was suddenly there, between her and the Mirror.
"You touch it," he said. "Touch the surface of the mirror and the next thing you know, you're in another universe. So, don't touch it yet. That room doesn't have an us in it, but that could be because we were a little late in getting here in that universe. Nevertheless, safe bet that the Vault is sealed off there too."
"So... how do we get it to change... universes?" Hermione asked, sounding as though she couldn't believe she'd just said what she'd said. "I mean, how did that... other Harry make it change?"
"Simple wand motion will get it to shift it's view," he answered. "When two universes are connected and the one disconnects, or switches to another connection, the other mirror automatically reconnects to the next available universe. Stand here long enough, I'm sure..."
"—Is this how you do it?" Hermione's voice came from the mirror and suddenly instead of an empty room, they found another set of themselves... only Ginny had been replaced with Neville.
"... that another version of us will tune in," Harry finished what he was saying.
The two Harry's glanced at each other, then at each other's group before the one in the Mirror asked, "Dark Army?" Harry nodded, then asked him, "Extra training? Merlin's Heir?" His counterpart nodded with a cocky grin, then addressed his own Hermione, "Exactly like that Mione. Try the other way though, it can do more than just go in one direction..." he was cut off as the image went back to an empty room.
"See what I mean," Harry said to his friends.
"That was weird," Ginny commented.
"What's this thing about being Merlin's Heir, anyway?" Ron asked.
"Well, like I said, I'm unique. The only other Harry Potter's out there that can match me in both power, skill, and use similar if not the same spells of Battle Magic that I do, all tend to somehow inherit or are chosen to become the next Merlin. In other words, the Greatest Wizard of the Ages. This is either done from being trained my Merlin himself, becoming Merlin's Avatar, finding Merlin's Lost Staff, his grimoire, or even being directly descended from him on my mother's side. Lots of different things to arrive at the same result, an ultra powerful Harry Potter using magical skills that haven't been seen for over a thousand years in most cases."
"Wicked!" Ron acknowledged.
"So... if we don't want a sealed room, what are we looking for?" Hermione asked, trying to get them back on track.
"Tropical beach would be ideal, but unlikely," Harry chuckled. "We'll just have to look until we find something that catches our eye. And doesn't already have a group of us in it. If there's a group of us in there, by accident or not, it means that the universe in question is out of the question. They're needing to get out of their universe for time to train or to search for something to help them in their own battles, battles that are probably just as urgent as our own here. Hence, empty is good, but unsealed would be nice. Maybe some sunlight streaming in through the door," he pointed out the reflection of the door in the Mirror.
"OK, now that that's settled," Hermione stepped up and turned Harry around rather roughly, "You still have some more explaining to do! Why did you scream at me earlier? And I don't mean about the mirror or in the hall when I gasped, I mean back at Gimmauld Place! I started to show you something and you screamed at me to stop. Why? What was I doing that was so bad?"
Harry sighed again, slouching a bit. "Y'know, I'd kinda been hoping you'd forgotten about that."
She silently glared at him. For good measure, she even threw in the look she gave him and Ron when they didn't finish their homework and crossed her arms to show her impatience. Harry crumbled like a house of cards. Sighing again, he ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing around the Mirror once more.
"What you were doing is an advanced magical art, a subsidiary study of Battle Magic. Not one of the primary lessons, something you either specialize in, or you don't use it at all," he explained. "It's called Rune Battle Magic. And, as you can guess from the name alone, it uses runes and similar symbols to form and cast spells with. And, it's used for battle and fighting."
"Why haven't you mentioned it before?"
"Like I said, you either specialize in it, or you don't do it," he told her. "I chose to become a generalist, learning everything to do with Battle Magic equally. The fact that, at seventeen, I'm pretty much a master in all my fields says a lot, but I'm not even a novice at Rune Battle Magic. I won't lie to you Hermione, the fact that you can use Rune Battle Magic naturally and seem to have quite a talent for it... well, it scares me."
"Scares you? But why?" Hermione couldn't understand.
"What was the first thing you did with this new skill? Accident or otherwise, what was the first thing?" he asked her with a pointed glare.
She sheepishly grimaced and shrugged. "Well, actually it looked like I sort of froze the library study..."
"Froze it solid, like it had been through an ice age or two maybe?" he pointedly asked. She nodded.
"Rune Magic of any sort is dangerous as the runes take the place of magical forms, and those symbols can mean almost anything. Put into a specific pattern, Rune Magic can have effects greater and more powerful than the strongest wizard using the strongest wand to cast the most powerful spell ever. Rune Battle Magic takes writing them down out of the equation. As you already know, Rune Battle Magic takes the method I taught you for forming the shape of the spell and then using that to cast the spell, to the next level, by forming runes in the same way. Same pattern of runes that makes a regular Rune spell, carved onto a stone alter to cast a mass area-effect spell, can be cast by just picturing the runes and forming them out of magic into the same pattern. What you did earlier was combine the rune for water in the universal pattern for wind. Combining two elements in a way that exponentially builds upon itself, increasing the formation of ice with each repetition of the pattern. Hence making ice of everything directly around you."
As she absorbed all that, he concluded, "Yeah, Hermione, it scares me. It should scare you too."
"Oh... OK..." she mumbled.
"Uh... so... what about this mirror here?" Ron interrupted, clearly trying to change the subject.
"Right," Harry turned around to face the mirror directly. "First things first, finding a world where we won't be pressured for time or anything like that. Preferably a universe where time moves slower and is a few weeks, if not years behind where we are at. This might take a while, so you guys better get comfortable."
"How long is a while?" Ginny asked.
"Depends," was his only answer.
"Depends on what?" Ron questioned.
"Exactly," came Harry's infuriating reply.
"Exactly what? You're not making any sense mate!"
"The short answer is, this is going to take as long as it takes and not a minute sooner. There aren't any short cuts, and if we choose wrong, then we could be in even more hot water than we are as it is," he testily remarked. "So. While I'm searching for an appropriate universe for us to train in, how about you guys get a head start and practice meditating? Regular meditating," he emphasized with a look at Hermione.
"Right, right, right. I hate all this meditating stuff," Ron grumbled, but sat down on the floor and put himself in position to relax and reach for his magic. Ginny and Hermione quickly adopted positions to either of his sides, all three quickly falling into the unique magical meditation Harry had taught them.
Meanwhile, Harry turned his attention towards the Mirror. It was pretty simple to use, but the theory and technology behind it was light years beyond anything humans were currently capable of, even if it had been humans that made it millennia ago. Pulling out his Holly wand, he channeled only a spark of magic to the end and pointed it at the mirror. Keeping in mind his other doubles that he'd already seen and the way they moved their own wands right as they vanished, he figured it would be a good idea to head to the 'left' so to speak.
Twitching his wand to his left hand side, the image in the mirror flickered for an eye blink, though nothing else had changed. Still an empty room, still midnight. Twitching his wand again, another flicker, Harry got rather annoyed seeing another empty room. He twitched his wand once more, and found another empty room. Very annoyed now, Harry didn't so much twitch his wand as flicked it to the left all the way before returning it to a steady hold. The flicker lasted for the breadth of Harry's flick and when it returned to normal, he still saw an empty room, but the major difference came in that he saw a steady stream of light coming down from the closed doorway, indicating that direct sunlight was hitting it head on.
Thinking back to what he understood of the pattern this particular Vault took, he realized that this particular universe was roughly about a few weeks behind their own, as the only time the Vault was in a position to receive sunlight was when it was on the East tower, which it hadn't been for over a month. It also meant that it would be a very long drop if they opened that door, followed by a very long wait if they didn't as it went down to the dungeons after the tower.
Flicking his wand to the left again, Harry saw something even more promising. Moonlight streaming from the open doorway. Still a few months behind, but... Harry stopped when he saw a flash of light come from the doorway. Spell fire. Which would put it roughly about five months previous, on the night when Malfoy let all those Death Eaters into Hogwarts and Dumbledore killed himself using Snape. Sighing, he flicked his wand to the left once again.
Fifteen minutes later, he was still at it, having found a few good prospects, but usually it was either at a bad time, the Vault was in a bad place in Hogwarts, or some other factor (like that one that had a pile of chewed on bones in both corners and a sword and shield emblem on the wall) that prevented him from agreeing to that particular place. He'd gone from flicking his wand to swishing and going in more elaborate directions than just left or right, often at various angles.
Finally, after his friends had finished meditating and were just sitting there watching him, he found a good starting place. It would give them at least seven months before the end of 6th Year term, maybe more, and then he could just find the room again and go back even further, or in a completely different direction. Regardless, the universe he'd found was currently in mid-November, if not just quite, and the Vault was in an out-of-the-way place that would not be impossible to get out of.
"All right," he told his friends, "Here we are. It's not exactly perfect, but it's a starting point. During a relatively quiet time at Hogwarts, and in a universe that is far enough behind that we'll have plenty of time and able to get plenty more if it becomes necessary."
"So, how do we do this?" Ginny asked, curious.
"Just touch the mirror's surface. It's a little bit like a Portkey, only less violently unpleasant. Now, something that is pretty important here, we all need to touch the mirror at the same time. It's not life or death important, but it will prevent any inconvenience on our part." Harry warned them.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"Because if we don't all touch the mirror at the same time, the others will be waiting on whoever came last for about ten or fifteen minutes at a time," he answered. "The Mirror's effect covers interaction and observation, but the travel between universes requires taking into account all of the temporal differences between each phase of the Space/Time Continuum between each..." he stopped and looked at each of his friend's expressions. Sighing, he growled, "Just be sure to touch the Mirror at the exact same time, OK?"
"OK," Ron quickly agreed.
All of them held their wand hands forward, hovering just above the mirror's surface, waiting.
"All right, one," Harry began to count, "two... THREE!"
As one they all reached forward and touched the cool surface of the Mirror at the same moment.
TO BE CONTINUED...
In "4 In 1 To Infinity"
AN: A lot of people try doing stuff like this every so often, I've even tried it once or twice before. But this gives me a unique opportunity, so let's see how long I can keep it going, yeah? Anyway, the first chapter of the sequel story should be out on October 31, end of the month, same as my usual update date, and I hope you'll all enjoy it as much as you've enjoyed this one! If, and I do stress the word IF anybody would like to add to, or even like to cross in some of their own HP-fanfics, please contact me at to begin discussions and brainstorming! I think this story has a good momentum and I want to keep it up. PLEASE help me keep it up!
Enjoy!
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-- Joshua "The Evil Guy"