Harry Potter: Don't touch

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- Well... - Harry thought for a moment. - I don't even know. There's obviously a catch with the question. Logically it should sound something like 'Who will die and who will live', but I don't understand why they didn't tell us.

- I don't care. We don't have a lot of time to think about the catch phrases. Let's just say who we'd choose if we were in this situation. I'm sure you must know what the right choice is in this situation. Let's go on three!

- Come on! - he was sure his answer wouldn't match Finch-Fletchley's.

- One... Two... Three! The goblin from Gringotts!

- The Dark Lord! - Harry exclaimed a millisecond late.

Both friends stared at each other in surprise.

- A goblin from Gringotts? What do you need more money for? You've got pockets full of it already!

- What do you want with the Dark Lord? Studying every spell in existence won't do you any good, you already know loads of stuff... Well, or it will, but it's rubbish! You can't take spells when you can take gold.

- All right, let's get on with it,' Harry said. - I've got a huge pile of galleons in the Gringotts vault. And I'm neither happy nor cold about it. Money can't buy feelings, love, joy, friends! You can't learn magic with money, you can't defeat the Dark Lord. Money is only needed to buy food, water and shelter, and you and I have enough.

- No, it's not! Money can buy love and joy and friends. Money can buy a teacher to teach you magic, money can buy mercenaries to defeat the Dark Lord.

- Your money had no effect on me the first time I met you, and it never did at all. I only found out you were fabulously rich after you started throwing it around, betting on everything. You can buy anything you want with your money, so why would you need more when you can have both money and magic power! And you won't have time to spend all your money in your lifetime anyway.

- You can keep it for emergencies. Money gives you a guarantee that your life will be long and happy. I've always had a lot of money, my parents never restricted me, and thanks to that I realised that money has the greatest power.

- The power to defeat the Dark Lord? All right, well, we can argue about it for the rest of the tournament and let's just keep our opinions to ourselves, all right? We have a riddle to solve. And in the riddle, the person in the room with the wand is labelled with the pronoun 'You', so it could be any person with different priorities. You have to choose what anyone would choose.

- So we chose different things, so any person is also not... Not this... - Justin forgot the word. - Well, you know what I mean, right?

- Not exactly, but I get the general idea. We need to look at the puzzle from a different angle. What won't anyone choose?

- Obviously what! - Finch-Fletchley exclaimed. - Even you must realise!

- 'Let's not have this "Even you" thing, you're talking about Mrs Altruism, right? - Potter suggested.

- Yes! I can't imagine how unintelligent you'd have to be to take her up on her offer.

- I don't know. There was one phrase... It'll count for something in the next world. Theoretically speaking, those who are particularly religious can choose not to kill anyone. Many religions live by commandments, and one of them is 'Thou shalt not kill.'

- Look, Harry, you don't believe in God, do you?

- Erm... Well, I guess not...? I don't know. On the one hand, the whole religion thing, a big man watching your every move, sounds kind of idiotic. But, man, the soul is real, magicians have proven it. I'm not sure. Maybe there's something out there, but it's not what the rest of us believe.

- Agnostic? Well, that's not bad either, almost like an atheist. I don't believe, so taking Mrs Altruism up on her offer sounds like bullshit to me.

- Well, all right, all right, let's say we wouldn't have chosen her. But the condition says that anyone can stand. Which means that person can believe in God and agree with Altruism.

- Actually, the problem condition says that 'You' stands there, 'You' stand there, and there are two of us here and we both fit the definition of 'You'. So it's only our choice that matters. And since the question is unknown, I believe that the answer to this riddle is that in any race Mrs Altruism dies.

- I'm telling you, no! It's not like the riddle was riddled specifically for us! The Sphinx would have riddled it to anyone who came up here, the answer can't change depending on who was asked the question. I'm sure there's more hidden here. Let's look at it from another angle. What's the safest option for staying alive?

- The safest? Explain.

- Well, someone who's not gonna cheat. Let's say we decided to kill everyone but Death, and she cheated us, and that's it, we're screwed!

- So-' Finch-Fletchley thought for a moment. - Are you suggesting that the junkie survives? Harry, let's be normal.

- I'm not implying anything. I'm not implying anything. I'm suggesting we talk about who's not cheating.

- All right. So. The Dark Lord, Dumbledore, Lockhart can do it, the goblin with the crooked name can do it, that Johansson who's a Veela can do it, who else is there again?

- Death can cheat, Merlin, leprechaun, Fudge, Aphrodite. They all can. That leaves the junkie and... Mrs Altruism again.

- Her again! - Justin's angry. - I'd kill her on principle. And who knows if there's an afterlife? I mean, I know there isn't, but if you think about it as a believer, you can't be sure there's an afterlife, right?! And even if someone believes that there is definitely an afterlife, let's say this situation. Suddenly you don't kill anyone, and Altruism forgets to put in a good word with God, and you don't get credit for it in the afterlife. That's it.

- All right, Altruism can cheat. That leaves the junkie with his pill. By the way, happiness is quite a good gift, if he's not cheating, and the pill is really given by God, I wouldn't refuse eternal happiness. A drug addict, by the way, is a black horse. That's who we don't take seriously!

- Harry, don't turn into a junkie! What God? What happiness? At best, he'll give you some amphetamines and then he'll go away happy.

- Oh, yeah, and he might not give us anything. So we're screwed.

- Nah, you can take down a junkie. Even without a magic wand.

- But we don't know how strong the junkie is. Maybe he's a six-foot tall jock and he'll break us. Or worse, throw a plastic cup!

- I'm confused! It's too complicated! - Finch-Fletchley is in over his head. - What's the answer?

- I don't know either. Pull yourself together. Think. I need your help. I'm not making much sense yet either, but I feel like we're moving in the right direction. So, if we can't guarantee that the person we choose will honour their promise, then maybe we should choose someone we trust.

- Yeah, and if Moody, who doesn't trust anyone, is in the room! Why am I taking this so far?! You don't trust many people either!

Finch-Fletchley sat down on the ground.

- All right, I take it we're here for the long haul! - he said, making himself comfortable. - Speak up. What other ideas do you have?

- I don't know, let me think,' Harry started to rack his brain. - Oh, here's an idea. Maybe it's not about the people in the room at all. Maybe it's about you. Justin, what do you think?

- I have no idea. I'm open to discussing any theories. Tell me.

- Well, look, there's a bunch of people in a room and you're the only one with a magic wand, isn't that weird?

- Don't tell me you're going to talk about how all these people got in this room?! Death, Aphrodite and Lockhart walked into a bar.

- No, it's not that, it's the wand! Why are we the only ones with a wand?!

- That's a good question, by the way, and why is that?

- I don't know, but maybe that's the right question of this riddle, why do we have the wand? Why do we decide who lives and who dies? We have no power, no happiness, no love, no money, no knowledge of dark magic, no luck, no girlfriend....

- Speak for yourself.

- ...No people's love, no fame, no beauty, no place in paradise, no secrets of the universe! But for some reason it is we who decide who will live and who will die! Do you know why? We have the power!

- You just said we don't have power!

- That's the wrong kind of power, I mean the power derived from the minister, which is the other way round. Anyway, we have a wand! And the wand in this task gives power over other people! In this situation, creatures.

- So?

- Don't you get it? Justin, that's the answer! Holy shit, that's genius! I'm a genius! The wand gives you power! What does it matter who lives or dies?! That's not the question! The question is, why is everyone waiting for you to solve it? What is the power? The answer is, power comes from the wand.

Finch-Fletchley smirked.

- 'Nonsense,' he commented on this theory.

- Justify it.

- I've got a wand, look! - Finch-Fletchley waved his wand in front of him. - I command thee, O great sphinx, let us pass and give us the cup.

Of course, the sphinx was in no hurry to leave his post.

- All right,' Harry quickly admitted defeat. - But I'm sure I'm right, there's something about power... It just needs to be framed differently. Let's put it this way, power isn't a wand, power is strength. Whoever's strongest can rule over everyone.

- That's rubbish too!

For a moment, just a moment, Harry felt like punching Justin.

- Why bullshit?! Why don't you take part in solving this mystery?!

- I am. I'm doing it. I'm disproving your theories. It's bullshit because there is a government. Who has ruled countries for centuries? Kings, kings, councils, senates, presidents, prime ministers, sultans, sheiks and so on and so forth. The army did what these people told it to do.

- And why? Why did these people have the power?

- Well... Do you think I know? - Justin was confused. - Was it customary? Well, the people chose the leaders.

- The power is in the people? There have been people who came to power by force! And they didn't take the people's opinion into account.

- Well, I'm out. What is power, then?

- Maybe that's what we need to find out.

- Maybe. Maybe we have to figure out how you're gonna kill Death.

- What are you talking about? - Potter didn't catch Finch-Fletchley's train of thought.

- Well, the riddle involves Death. Asking you to kill everyone else. Suppose you don't listen to her and you kill her. How?

- Raise my wand, say Avada Kedavra, then she dies,' Potter still didn't understand his friend's point.

- Yeah, you kill Death. Bring death to Death, so to speak.

- Oh, I see, you mean Death is death itself, so you can't kill it? No, that's a mystery, it works a bit differently, I don't think that's the point. And if it does, there's a lot of different aspects to it. If you think like you, Aphrodite survives because she never existed. No, that's not exactly the point. Let's go back to power.

- Well, whatever, I've got an idea.

Suddenly, Harry had a brilliant idea. He'd been thinking about it for ten seconds and now he understood it. It explained everything.

- The power. This. Illusion.

Justin didn't instantly refute Potter's statement, but thought for a few seconds.

Yet, upon reflection, he once again disagreed with Harry's point of view.

- 'If Dumbledore decides to kick us out of school tomorrow, we'll go home. It's a nice illusion.

- But he won't be the one kicking us out. If we suddenly don't want to obey, we'll be dealt with by special people, not the headmaster.

- What's the difference? He's the one who'll make the decision. He'll decide that we're already breaking the rules, and we can't even solve a simple riddle.

- You know, there's a logic to it,' Justin said, giving Potter a clue.

- Well, that's what I mean, you did it in first year, with Snape, and I did it with you. And we'll go and work as janitors together.

- No, that's not the logic, I get it! - Harry rejoiced. - Dumbledore will make a decision, and other people will implement his decision. Why? Because they think Dumbledore has power. Power is where one thinks it is! Power is held by the person who convinces others of it!

Justin was silent for a moment, thinking it over.

- Okay. That'll do. Do you think that's the answer?

- Definitely.

Harry walked over to the sphinx, who was watching their discussion intently.

- The answer to the riddle: The one who has power is the one who convinces others of it.

A couple of seconds of silence.

- Wrong. The correct answer is that the survivor depends on the man with the wand.

- Holy shit!