Note: This was written as an omake of Probellum's Videogame Harry Potter fic. It takes place inside that story, though you can just pretend it's literally any videogame HP fic and it'll be the same thing. I see these kinds of things everywhere, but I've never seen anyone add a Multiplayer aspect to it. As an omake I didn't really invest the time or energy to really flesh it out, so it's rather rushed and skips a lot near the end. It was also written several years ago. Still, I figured some of you might like what's there.

Well, if you've ever wondered what a Multiplayer HP RL videogame would be like, look no further.

~~HP~

Harry Potter, The Videogame (Multiplayer)

~~HP~~

Harry figured he should have done this sooner. Really, the moment he'd accepted that he was in a videogame, or at least his mind had twisted itself enough to believe he was in one, he should have examined it in closer detail.

In an empty classroom where he wouldn't be found, Harry felt safe enough in exploring a little.

"Pause."

Immediately he noticed the slight changes around him. The whistling of the wind from outside the windows stopped and, once again, his eyes picked out a fly frozen in mid-flight. He regarded the fly with suspicion and narrowed eyes. In the end though, he had no way of knowing if it was the same one, so he shook his head and examined the effects his one word had had.

Interestingly, the usual pedestal did not appear. Instead, words floated around him, all facing him, so he had to turn to view everything.

He didn't know what he was expecting, but this was not quite it. All he saw were 'Resume', 'Options', 'My character', 'Save', 'Load', and 'Quit'. Of these, he'd already explored Options quite extensively. He assumed that 'My Character' is where his personal information and statistics would be. Perks would probably be there, come to think of it.

Save and Load were pretty self-explanatory, if frightening in their implications.

But that last one… Quit? Quit what, exactly? The game? His life? Or would it be something simpler, such as the Pause screen? Whatever it was, it would not be something irreversible or bad, he assumed, since this was the Pause screen of a game.

Deciding that he needed to know how 'Quit' worked, Harry extended his hand and touched it. It glowed a bright white for a second, and then all the text around him faded.

Harry nervously withdrew his hand, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was disappointed when all he got was some more words in the same floating grey text. It read:

Quitting now will lose you all unsaved progress. Do you still wish to quit?
Yes/No

Well that was decidedly anti-climactic, Harry though, embarrassed. He touched the 'No' letter, and the text once more disappeared, to be replaced once again by the Pause screen.

"Save." Harry said. It seemed to work the same as touching the letter, and the Pause menu disappeared, to be replaced by four phrases, floating around him.
"Quick Save", "Save Slot 1", "Save Slot 2", "Save Slot 3". He chose "Save Slot 1", and watched the phrase morph into:

Harry Potter
Hogwarts
Level 8

As it happened, a smaller phrase appeared above it, happily informing him that his save was successful. Well, that took care of that.

He was redirected to the Pause screen again. More calmly this time, he chose Quit, and pressed Yes, safe in the knowledge that his progress was saved.
What he wasn't expecting was for the world to literally dissolve around him. He stumbled backwards as the walls disappeared, as if melting, followed rapidly by everything else. In less than two seconds all that was left around him was a swirling, black mass. Not like the complete, all-encompassing blackness of his death. He felt like he could see the black masses move around him, like he had barely enough light to see in front of him.

Utterly terrified of looking down, he stood completely still, breathing ruggedly and heart pumping. Eventually, he gathered his courage, and, very slowly, risked taking a small step forward. Instead of falling endlessly in a dark abyss like he half-exected, his foot touched a hard surface, just like his other foot. Letting out a deep sigh, he straightened his posture, not able to avoid testing the invisible ground a couple more times.

Just as he felt he was getting the hang of it, he instinctively threw himself backwards t avoid the freaking huge shapes racing towards him. He landed painfully on his backside and lay there, sprawled and panting.

The shapes that scared him into diving away had stopped a few meters away from him, revealing themselves to be a set of gigantic letters. He groaned. More of those bloody things.

He picked himself off the ground, grateful that there was no one else to witness him flail about, and examined the new arrivals.

THE GAME
Singleplayer
Multiplayer
Options
Credits
Bonus Content

Well … okay. What the hell, another menu? He was really getting tired of these things.
"Let's see … Options" He opted for what seemed like the safest choice. To his dismay, the resulting Options menu was exactly the same as the one he'd already explored.

"Back to Main Menu it is." The letters stared down at him, as if mockingly. Harry's mind was on overdrive. Single-Player? What did that even mean? And what the hell was Multi-Player?

Wait, Credits? That means that whoever was responsible for this would be listed in the credits!

"Credits!" He all but yelled.

However, all that appeared was:

You need to first complete the classic game to view the Credits.

Well that was positively peachy. Harry glowered at the letters as they faded, leaving him back to the Main Menu. Damn him for even thinking of it with capitals.
Having exactly zero idea what the rest of them were, Harry picked one at random.

"Multiplayer."

Once again his surrounding vanished. He didn't react quite so strongly this time, having already experienced it once, and the fact that blackness disappearing was much less impactful than having the world around you dissolve.

The world around him seemed to swirl, and colors appeared. After a few seconds, they solidified in a large dome around Harry's stunned form.
All around him were scenes of battle. Like a portrait, but foggier, and many times bigger, each scene depicted various numbers of combatants in a state of magical battle. He couldn't discern a lot about them besides that their clothing varied greatly and all of them were apparently black haired.

Shaking his head, he focused on yet another menu.

Join Game
Create Game
Statistics
Friends
Options
Quit

Not sure what to do, Harry opened the Options just to check that it was the same, it was. He opened Friends, only to be notified that he apparently had no friends, to which he scoffed. Stupid game.

Statistics showed a whole lot of zeroes, so he left that for now.

"In for a penny … Join Game."

The Menu vanished, to be replaced by the phrase:

Would you like your first game to be against bots?
Yes/No

Bots? As in, robots? Those huge muggle machines? He'd caught a few of them on the telly when Dudley was watching some movie or other. They looked huge and dangerous.

"No, thanks."

The phrase faded to be replaced by another menu. Sadly, this one was more confusing.

Game Type: Any
Server: Any
Length: Any
Player Count: Any
Ranked: Yes
Player Levels: Any
Search Game
Quick Join
Back

Having no idea what any of these were, and being in no mood to wait around for anything, Harry opted for the line with the word "Quick" in it.

A smaller message appeared, saying "Joining Game", before everything around him dissolved once more. He didn't panic, and in a few seconds the world around him settled into something similar to the black mass he was in earlier, but this time decidedly blue.

He tested the invisible ground once more, finding it solid and nodding to himself.

Suddenly, golden mist appeared in a spot to his left, gathering and forming a humanoid figure. It solidified, forming a black haired boy, probably around his age. Like him, the boy wore Hogwarts robes.

By now Harry was not terribly surprised. 'MultiPlayer' now made more sense.

The boy looked up and met his eyes, smiling slightly. Harry had a weird sense of déjàvu. The haircut, the dark eyes and pale skin. He could've sworn he'd seen that guy before somewhere.

"Hello Harry." The newcomer said in a friendly tone of voice.

"Uh …" before Harry could formulate a response or a question, the golden mist appeared again, only this time it was in more than one place. Harry frantically counted 8 humanoid figures slowly solidifying.

He examined the other players, frowning. Three of them looked … exactly like him, down to the tie he was wearing. What the heck was up with that? Polyjuice?
Another one he could recognize as himself, but he was different. Older, taller, definitely more muscular. He looked to be about 20 something. He wore a plain dark robe and a confident smirk, twirling his, their, wand, in his fingers. The lightning bolt scar on his forehead left no question as to who he was.

Similarly, the next arrival he could recognize as himself, but he was much more different than the black robed Harry. This one was visibly older, maybe in his forties, with a scar on his right cheek and wearing dark red robes that Harry vaguely recognized as those of a Senior Auror, his dragon-hide boots peeking from underneath. He, too, was holding his wand.

The next one was more peculiar. He was tall, impossibly pale, bald, with no nose to speak of whatsoever and frightening red eyes that seemed to bore through whatever he was glaring at. He wore flowing dark robes, his white wand loosely held by his index and middle fingers. He had no idea who this guy was, but he was obviously bad news.

Next to him was another boy that was very similar to the one that materialized next to him and had said hi, but he was visibly older. There was also a dark haired man next to him, and though much older, had the same hair and eye color as the two younger not-Harrys, though his cheeks were gaunt and his posture more rigid. He was, surprisingly, not wearing a robe, instead having a dark brown trenchcoat over completely muggle clothing.

All in all, Harry had no idea what was going on.

The one Harry had identified as an Auror version of himself looked at the bald pale wizard, a small grimace marring his scarred face.
"R79" he said as a way of greeting, nodding his head.

"P43" the guy identified as R79 greeted coolly back, his voice almost flowing, or hissing.

Turning his head from R79, P43 scanned the other people present. After his eyes roamed through everyone, he groaned.

"Why do I always get the newbies?" He said to himself. The Harry with the black robes laughed, as did two of the non-Harrys.

"Cease your whining, Potter. We need to plan." The one dressed in muggle clothes said gruffly.

"Fine, R132, let's see what these guys can do. You, you, you, yes you two, gather round." P43 said as he pointed at Harry, the boy who appeared first, the other three Harrys and the other boy that looked like the first boy. Harry could feel his headache growing, but nevertheless grouped with other people near his age.

"Okay, who needs explaining, hmm? Anyone?" Harry could see the other boys shaking their heads, some with more confidence than others.

He could definitely do with some explanations right about now.

"Err …" He said smartly, not quite sure what to ask or say. It served to draw P43's attention to him, however. P43 frowned.

"What rank are you then, P214?" Harry frowned at his older self.

"What'd you call me?" He asked, confused. P214? What?

P43 just stared blankly at him for a few seconds. Harry could see at the edge of his vision R132 shake his head. P43 shook his head as if to clear it, and leveled a measured gaze at Harry.

"Didn't you play the tutorial, P214?"

"Tutorial?" Harry was definitely the center of attention now, since everyone was looking at him. The Harrys identical to him looked on in sympathy, one of them even patted him on the shoulder.

"You know, the bot game?"

"Well … no."

P43 sighed.

"Typical." One black haired boy said with a snort. One of Harry's carbon copies glared at him.

"Shut it, Riddle."

Wait, what.

"Did you just say Riddle?" Harry asked, incredulously. As in, Tom Riddle? Voldemort?

Now that Harry took a closer look, he easily made the connection between the non-Harrys and the memory of Tom Riddle, age 16.

The hand placed squarely on his shoulder was what stopped him from doing something he'd probably regret later. P43 was looking at him with sympathy.

"Listen kid, you're new to this. But you'll get used to it. You're not in your game anymore. Yes, he's Tom Riddle. In fact, all of us here are either Harry Potter or Tom Riddle. The point is that for the duration of this game we're a team. And we need to work together, understand?"

"But ... but, isn't that Voldemort? Aren't they all?"

P43 shook his head. "Some may be, some may not, but it doesn't matter."

"Why? What the hell is going on? Can you explain this? Who made my life into a freaking game? Why is this happening?" Harry asked, growing more flustered with each sentence. The others didn't react, leaving P43 to answer him. If the other 3 Harrys were any indication, this was happening quite often.

"Listen kid, don't go asking such questions. No one wants to get banned for spoiling. Just try to play the game, yeah? Maybe try to have some fun with it."

Harry slowly nodded his head, and turned his head to look at the boy, at Tom Riddle, that first materialized by him. About his age, Tom was smiling serenely at him.

"Did you get here by accident? Messing around with the menu, maybe?"the 20 something Harry asked him. Blushing lightly, Harry nodded. Two of the identical Harrys grimaced in embarrassment.

"Is your HUD on, P214?" P43 asked him.

"Err... no."

"Well, then, turn it on! How do you expect to fight without it?"

"... ok. HUD On." Immediately after his HUD formed, he realized why everyone was calling each other like that. Above every person present was a full green bar, and above that a numerical code, such as P43 for the Auror and R79 for the pale bald guy. He turned to look at the Riddle that first greeted him, noting his code, R225.

"The numerical system is used because it can get pretty confusing in here if we all call each other Harry and Tom." P43 explained. At the name Tom, R79 snarled, but said nothing.

"Ok, I think I got it. So ... what are we doing?"

"Why, we'll be fighting the red team of course! We are the blue team, as you can see." And Harry hadn't seen it before, but everyone's clothes bore distinctive blue stripes, even his own.

However, what if the enemy team comprised only of people like P43,R132 and R79?

"Fighting? But I'm a fourth year. And I guess that so are these guys." Harry said, pointing at P218,P231, P198 and R225. They smiled at him, but said nothing.
The black robed Harry talked next.

"Have you Mastered the shield charm, Harry? Protego?" At Harry's nod, P146 continued. "How about the Expeliarmus?" he nodded again. "Then you'll be fine. Most of the game types are objective based, anyway, and the game is scaled down so people like you can have a ghost of a chance against guys like him."

R146 said, absently pointing at R79, who was glaring at nothing in particular. "You new guys just support us and defend yourselves. We'll take care of the rest. Oh, and it's a good idea for you to pick up the Prophesy, since the carrier cannot attack anyway." The black robed Harry said while twirling his wand.

"Prophecy?" Harry asked, confused.

"Fourth year, right." P146 said, mostly to himself. "It's like a game of capture the flag, basically. You know how these work?" At Harry's tentative nod, P146 continued. "That's one of the game types. One session typically goes through all game types and the team with the highest eventual score wins. Types include things such as Capture and Hold, Assassination, Building Assault, etcetera."

"Did you say Assassination?"

"Don't worry, if you die you'll just respawn a few seconds later. It's not even painful."

"Well ... okay."

"During Body Count, which is basically the team with the highest killscore wins, you'll just be shit out of luck. Try to protect yourself as much as possible, avoid dying. We'll deal with the enemy team. As you get levels and grow you'll get better at it, don't worry."

"If you say so."

"In an case, your HUD will show you instructions and objectives, so pay attention."

Harry nodded, but didn't have time to say much else, because suddenly the light blue of the world around him started lightly flashing.

"The game is about to start," said P43 "The map is London Ruins, so we'll need to separate. Me and R79 will go together and engage the heavy hitters. P146 and R132 will go after the Capture Points. The rest of you ... assist 146 and 132, but don't commit to any engage. We'll just lose points. Let's have a good game everyone!"

The world around began to take shape, and what a shape it was. P43's description was pretty self-explanatory, actually. It was London, but devastated. The buildings were all destroyed, some crumbling, some standing. The roads full of debris and rubble and destroyed or burning cars.

"Go go go!" P146 yelled and started running. P43 and R79 freaking flew upwards and wove between the buildings, soon out of sight.

Harry, the Harrys and the Riddles followed P146 and R132. Harry found himself in step with R225, and glanced at the boy. He got a reassuring smile in return, to which he replied with a determined nod. He might be new to all this ... but his blood was pumping. He was caught up in the excitement.

The session ended one very tiring hour later. Harry's team had won, but Harry was well aware that they had done so in spite of him, rather than because of him. The enemy team was mostly Riddles, with only 3 Potters present. Interestingly, the enemy team had 3 Riddles that looked like R79 did. Harry still didn't know what was up with that.

More often than not, he found himself fighting side by side with 225 against opponents of similar level. Harry was rather hesitant of hexing himself, but after a Harry decked him with an Expelliarmus that sent him crashing against a brick wall, all bets were off.

He was embarrassed to note that he'd died a lot, the most times on his team. To his defense, most of his deaths were simply collateral damage due to the freaking massive fights that players of P43 and R79's caliber had. The more seasoned players knew well to avoid the vortexes of deadly magic, but he'd never been in such a situation before. By the time the game was over London was not even recognizable.

It was interesting to note that the game seemed to force higher level players to only use spells within their opponent's ability range, which enabled guys like him to fight much higher leveled people. However, the spells weren't the worst part. The speed and experience of the veterans was simply too much for him, the Harrys, and the Riddles. Thankfully, there was an equal number of enemies that were on a similar level.

The victorious music and big, shining golden "VICTORY" message felt rather good, Harry had to admit. After the devastated London faded away, back to the blue swirling nothingness.

Amidst his teammates congratulating each other, Harry found himself approached by R225. Although suspicious of him for being, quite literally, Tom Riddle, Harry could find no fault with the boy so far. They'd fought together, saved each other, and the Riddle had been nothing but nice to him.

"A better first game than mine, Harry." Tom said conversationally, and Harry couldn't resist a snort. He very much doubted that.

He noticed it when everyone started emitting golden flecks. Soon, everyone was dissolving in golden mist. He didn't panic, correctly assuming that this was the norm.

R225, dissolving next to him, spoke quickly. "Hey, 214. Add me to your friends list if you want, and we can play some games together later or exchange messages and stuff. I mean, if you want."

Although frowning, Harry couldn't really say no. This boy seemed completely different than the Riddle that tried to kill him and Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets. Rather than respond, he simply nodded his head.

Then he couldn't speak, see, or move. He rematerialized on the MultiPlayer Menu, scenes of what he recognized now as Potters and Riddles in combat playing around him.

Opening Friends, he saw the option of adding a new one. Not knowing what else to do, he simply said "R225." Immediately, where previously was written "No friends listed", appeared a profile photo of R225, with:

Tom M. Riddle-R225
Hogwarts
Level 10

That was that, then. He left the Friends screen, and opted to Quit. The world dissolved once more, and gave way once again to blackness of the Main Menu.
Having a pretty good idea of what he had to do, Harry opened Singleplayer. Choosing to Load Game, he picked Slot 1. A small 'Loading' message appeared flashing for a few seconds.

The world dissolved for the third consecutive time, only this time the empty classroom appeared around him. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Harry noted that he felt not the worse for wear, even after constantly fighting for about an hour, but chalked it up to game mechanics.

Noting that the game was no longer paused, and swatting the irritating fly out of his head, Harry decided that he'd experimented enough for today.

FIN

...but the Game never ends...