Harry was glad when Ron and Hermione dragged him and Yellow away from the impromptu interrogation session being held in the common room. Red Harry had stormed out, pushing aside anyone in his way, and Blue had glared and made sarcastic jabs at everyone until they left him alone, leaving Yellow and normal Harry to fend everyone off. Everyone had had questions, and none of the Harrys had been able to answer them satisfactorily:
Why were there four Harrys? The sword did it. Why were there monsters? The sword did it. Where had they gotten the sword? The Chamber of Secrets. Why had there been a sword there? Er, because why not? Was it the Sword of Gryffindor? Not unless all the rubies had fallen out.
The past half hour had been nothing but circular questioning along those lines. Harry was ready to flop down on his bed and pretend that afternoon had never happened, but Ron and Hermione had questions of their own.
"You went down to the Chamber of Secrets, Harry? What if there were more basilisks down there, or some other ancient Slytherin beast? You could have been killed!" Hermione shrilled. "Are you alright? I mean, apart from there being more of you?"
Harry shrugged. "Yeah. I broke my nose and got a chill, but Madam Pomfrey fixed me right up."
"You're not a Slytherin now, are you?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"No, Ron, I'm normal Harry. My eyes were just green to begin with," Harry said with a hint of exasperation. While Malfoy's gang and the Slytherin Quidditch team's underhanded tactics had given Harry a firm dislike and distrust of Slytherins, he had never shared Ron's intense animosity. "If anyone's a Snake, I'd say it's Blue. I think he might be a mix of Slytherin and Ravenclaw."
"Let it never be said that cleverness and ambition are mutually exclusive," Blue said from where he lounged on his newly added bed. He had his nose buried in a Potions book identical to Harry's. They'd found that, in addition to Harry, the sword had multiplied all the boy's belongings as well.
Ron goggled at Blue. "It's like you've been possessed by Snape!" he hissed at Harry. "He'll be calling us 'dunderheads' next!"
All four Harrys snorted at the mental image of Harry dramatically billowing through the halls like the Great Bat.
"It's Professor Snape, and being intelligent isn't a crime," Hermione chided Ron. "I think it'll be nice to have a study partner. That is, if you'd like to, Blue."
Blue harry gave her a thumbs-up, not lowering his book.
"Well, there you have it, then," Hermione said with satisfaction.
"I-I'd like to study with you, too," Yellow said timidly. "I've never been good at taking notes, and my attention span is kinda short."
Hermione was delighted. "Of course I'll help you study," she said with a bright smile. She gave Harry a pointed look.
"Oh, no, I'm fine." He raised his hands in front of him. "I can make do with the usual."
The girl sighed. "It was worth an effort," she muttered.
"And what about you?" Ron asked of Red. "Green Harry's normal, Blue Harry's another Snape, and Yellow Harry's a Hufflepuff. What kind of Harry are you?"
Red pointed at the colored stripe in his hair, then at his scarlet bed hangings. "I'm the Gryffindor. Duh."
"But Harry's already a Gryffindor."
"Well, I'm more Gryffindor."
"He's a sword-happy hothead, in other words," Blue clarified. "You two should get along swimmingly." Ron and Red shot Blue matching glares, which made the boy smirk.
"So, could you tell us about what we missed while we were asleep?" Harry asked Hermione. "Dumbledore said magic-resistant monsters were popping up all over the castle. Have they attacked a lot of students?"
"Surprisingly, no. I think maybe five were sent to the Hospital Wing with bruises. The monsters seem more concerned about guarding certain corridors than anything else. They just walk to and fro." She waved a finger back and forth. "They have terrible eyesight, as well. They'll only attack if you're in front of them and maybe eight meters off. Fred and George checked." She rolled her eyes. "They also decided to see what attacks were most effective by running 'tests' on one of the pig-men outside."
Ron laughed. "They went at it with every spell they knew and then clubbed the thing with their Beater's bats. It had a spear, but they took that and started stabbing at it, too. It bled this weird smoke and then just went 'poof'." He mimed an expanding cloud. "I reckon all these monsters are just balls of magic. You know, like a conjured chair or something. You hit it enough and it'll vanish like any other conjured thing."
Hermione and Harry gaped at him.
"Yes, I have good ideas sometimes," he huffed. "I do have a brain."
"Pity you don't use those smarts more often," Blue remarked.
Ron opened his mouth to protest, realized he'd been served a backhanded compliment, and grumbled under his breath instead.
"Say, are classes still on?" Blue asked. "I know most schools would have canceled everything during a crisis like this, but Hogwarts has never followed the laws of reason."
"We're on a normal class schedule, with teachers escorting us through the halls," Hermione told him.
Blue cackled. "Of course! I'm sure no one will blow themselves up in Potions when a bat dives at their head."
Ron shrugged. "Can't be much different from having the Greasy Git swooping around. A shadow-bat would probably be less annoying, actually."
Everyone but Hermione had a snigger at that.
On Tuesday morning, Harry awoke before sunrise. It had been a challenge to coax himself to sleep, and his rest had been fitful even then.
Harry's body buzzed with nervous energy. Hogwarts had been invaded, there were four of him, and a murderer was trying to hunt him down. The school year had barely begun, yet it had already gone down the toilet!
Unable to sit still, Harry went through his morning routine and then headed down to the common room. At six in the morning, he doubted any but the earliest of early-birds were out of their dorms.
He was surprised to see Yellow and Blue curled up on a couch before the hearth. Yellow picked idly at a threadbare spot in the upholstery, while Blue read his way through an Arithmancy textbook.
The blue-eyed boy glanced up from his book at Harry's entrance. "Was I always such an insomniac, or is the strangeness of this situation just getting to me?" he wondered aloud.
"Hard to sleep when you keep seeing talking eyeballs," Yellow said, yawning. "Make sure I don't conk out during Potions, okay?"
Blue's lips quirked. "I'm sure Snape's barely-contained outrage at your existence will keep you awake quite nicely."
"Oh, yeah. Never mind, then." Yellow leaned over the side of the couch to look upside-down at Harry. "Did the talking eyeballs get you, too?" he asked.
"More the weirdness of everything, I think," Harry said. He sat down between Blue and Yellow, his nerves easing slightly as he did. It felt natural—right, even—to be near his other selves. "Red is the only one getting any sleep."
Blue grumbled something about "Gryffindor thick-headedness" into the pages of his book.
"I wonder what's different about the castle today," Yellow mused.
Harry regarded him curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Well, yesterday and the day before, stuff changed in the castle. That's what the twins told me, anyway," he said. "A couple corridors led somewhere else, there were new statues in some spots, and one painting—that nutter who showed us the way to Divination—switched from one side of the castle to the other. Oh, and there were these big floor-button-thingies outside a boys' bathroom on the third floor that four people had to stand on to open the door. It kept resetting every hour or so."
"Except for the 'floor-button-thingies', that sounds normal for Hogwarts," Harry said, thinking of the castle's notoriously unpredictable staircases. The corridors had a habit of changing destinations, as well; Harry knew of one hallway near the Great Hall that would send him up to the fourth floor on Mondays and to the dungeons on Saturdays. "We should keep an eye out for anything weird, though, just in case."
Blue's smirk could be seen from over the edge of his borrowed textbook. "'Look out for anything strange', said the boy to his yellow-eyed clone."
Harry blushed. "You know what I mean!"
Breakfast was had in a temporary chamber added to the common room. It held two smaller versions of the tables in the Great Hall, each with the Gryffindor crest hanging above it on a gold and scarlet pennant. Harry and Blue pushed their eggs and bacon around their respective plates, too anxious to eat. As Yellow, Red, and Ron scarfed down their breakfasts, they shared a commiserating glance across the table.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked in concern. "You've hardly touched your food."
"Just nervous," he told her. "You've had time to get used to what's going on. I only saw a glimpse of it when Dumbledore got us from the Hospital Wing."
Ron opened his mouth to speak, then chewed and swallowed at a glare from Hermione. "Don't worry, Harry. The monsters are too dumb to do any real damage. I mean, if you were on your own, you could die, but there'll be a whole lot of us going to Potions with you." Satisfied that he'd done his part, he continued inhaling his eggs.
"I know it sounds dour, but it's true," Hermione said. "There's safety in numbers."
At Harry's other side, Yellow muttered, "My friends are really bad at pep-talks."
'They try, though,' Harry thought fondly as he took a stab at finishing his bacon.
A frazzled-looking Professor McGonagall was the one to fetch Harry's Potions class. Her witch's hat, normally tall and proud, sagged to one side and her robes bore a number of small rips. A trio of thin red stripes marked one cheek in a mockery of whiskers. Despite this, the woman's eyes shone with a fierce inner fire.
"Are you sure that is appropriate, Mister Potter?" she asked as Harry stepped through the portrait hole.
"What do you mean?" Harry looked down at himself. He was dressed, he had his tie on, he had his school bag, and his sword—
Oh, right.
"I'll take it back to my dorm," he said sheepishly. "Me and my, er, other selves." He waved to Blue, who waited outside with Ron and Hermione, and pointed to the sword strapped to his back. His twin blinked in surprise, as if only now noticing he wore a sword as well.
"Professor, I don't think these things 'come off', exactly," Blue said to Professor McGonagall. "I tested mine last night, and it reappears on me if I move five meters from it. The other Harrys would have the same problem, I expect."
McGonagall pursed her lips, though didn't protest. Harry wondered if she'd been one of the teachers who'd tested the sword for curses. "Though the Headmaster has explained to everyone on staff the reason why you're wearing that weapon, I'm sure you're familiar with Professor Snape's dislike of distractions within his class," she said. "Don't be surprised if he tells you to leave your weapons at the door. A cluttered Potions classroom is a dangerous one."
'That sounds like code for "it's your funeral, Mister Potter",' Harry thought uneasily as the teacher went to the head of the group. "Snape's going to kill us," he groaned.
"He can try," Blue said with a shrug. "I think Ron and Red might get to us first. They said they were going to team up if Snape assigned partner-work today."
With a shudder, Harry joined the rest of his class as they began walking down the hall.
Hogwarts was terribly quiet. Every step seemed to echo for eons, the sound of hushed chatter more akin to a shouted discussion. Harry saw clusters of other students here and there—different Houses, different years—all huddled around their respective teachers. Faces were drawn and shoulders were defensively hunched. The silence of Hogwarts seemed to amplify the awful anticipation of an attack.
The tense hush was broken by a loud grunt to Harry's left. Seized by an odd reflex, he threw himself to the ground. As he did, something large and fast whistled overhead.
Seamus Finnigan's voice was the first to pierce the baffled silence that followed. "Blimey, they have arrows now?"
Harry glanced right—yes, that was an arrow, and an impressive one—and then looked left. He saw the pig-man, a two-meter-tall hulk of rippling muscle and pinkish-beige skin, ready another arrow on its longbow.
Professor McGonagall sent a spell at the creature that made it wobble back a step. "Get clear!" she barked at the Gryffindors. They took off like champion sprinters toward the end of the corridor.
Harry started to run, and then hesitated. Didn't he have a sword intended to banish evil? It wasn't right to leave Professor McGonagall futilely launching spells when he had the solution to the problem strapped to his back.
Just as he was thinking this, Red ran by with his sword held high. The battle-cry of a prepubescent child wasn't exactly fearsome, but the boy was certainly enthusiastic. Blue and Yellow ran after him, calling him a "blithering idiot" and a "stupid-head". Harry decided to join in the chase.
"M-Mister Potter!?" McGonagall yelped when they blew past her. "What are you doing?"
Harry didn't answer, too occupied with dodging the javelin-sized arrow the monster had sent at his chest. He threw himself to the side and landed in a clumsy heap. "That thing has good aim!" he cried.
Yellow grabbed ahold of Red's robes and yanked him out of another arrow's flight path. "Yeah, so how do we run away while it's shooting us?" he asked. "We can't dodge what we can't see!"
"Well, thanks to the resident Gryffindor, we can't run," Blue said grimly, unsheathing his sword. "Why don't we see how much damage four Harry Potters can do?"
Harry pressed himself flat against the floor to avoid an arrow and then pulled out his own sword. "We might as well, I guess."
"Pair up with Green!" Yellow instructed Red, pushing him in front of the pig-man. The golden-eyed boy gripped his sword and took a swing at the monster's middle. When the beast hopped forward to avoid the attack, Harry and Red lunged with their blades outstretched. Blue came at it from the side, wielding his sword like a sharp-edged bat. The monster roared in pain at the smoking gash that opened along its back and flank.
"Come and get me, you great brute!" the blue-eyed boy taunted as the pig-man swiped at him with its bow.
The remaining Harrys took advantage of the creature's turned back and hacked away for all they were worth. After a few chops on each boy's part, the monster disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke. Something hit the floor with a rattle, and all four of them looked down. A fist-sized, triangular blue gem lay glittering on the dull stone.
"Some kind of treasure, you reckon?" Red asked. He leaned down to pick up the jewel, only to freeze when Professor McGonagall's enraged voice rang out.
"Mister Potter, what in Merlin's name did you think you were doing?!"
The woman stormed over, an air of wrath crackling around her. "Were a troll, a teacher, and a basilisk not enough? Must you challenge the next thing that attempts to take off your head?" she snapped. "Detention in my office tonight at six o'clock and ten points from Gryffindor," Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "for each of you, Mister Potter."
Three Harrys hung their heads, but one wasn't going to take this offense lying down. "We saved you!" Red shouted. "Your spells weren't working!"
"You nearly got yourself pinned to the wall, Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall said with icy calm, her flared nostrils white with anger. "Three detentions for you. Today, Thursday, and Friday, all at six o'clock."
"But Professor—!"
"Must I raise it to a full week?"
Red snapped his mouth shut and dropped his gaze to his shoes.
"What else did you think would happen?" Blue hissed at him once Professor McGonagall had left earshot. "Have you completely forgotten first year?"
Harry wilted a bit. To be honest, Professor McGonagall's likely reaction had slipped his mind as well. He'd been more concerned about slaying the thing firing arrows at him and bravely defending his class in the process. Maybe he could be a little too Gryffindor-ish, sometimes.
"I don't need another Hermione," Red growled, snatching up the gem left behind by the monster. He shoved it into his bag. "Let's just get to class."
[EDIT 10/15/2021]
Notes:
-The triangular blue gem is a Force Gem. FSA Force Gem mechanics (including the counter reset at the end of each level) are at play during the first 4 dungeons. I've come back from the future to add this note because several reviewers apparently mistook the triangle gems for Rupees.