Disclaimer: I do not own either the Harry Potter franchise nor the Yu-Gi-Oh one. If I did, a crossover would already be cannon, and the magical background of the two stories would be much more cohesive.

Harry and the Duel Spirits

Harry Potter did not like birthday parties. Unlike most children, his was never celebrated. In fact, it wasn't even acknowledged by his own family, and, unfortunately, that wasn't the worst of it. No, the worst of it was that he was forced to "help out" with his cousin, Dudley's birthday parties, which meant doing most of the set-up, serving cake and ice cream like a waiter, and cleaning up afterwards while Dudley and his guests went to do something more entertaining. But what neither Harry nor his relatives would have ever guessed was that this last chore would actually change his life for the better.

Dudley Dursely had a fair number of hobbies: eating, watching T.V., causing trouble, beating up Harry, but the one he was most proud of was dueling. Not with weapons, mind you, but with cards. Dudley was a local champion in the game of Duel Monsters; he'd competed in two tournaments already and had done well both times (Ninth place in the first, and Fifth in the second). Of course, Dudley felt he should have taken first in both because of his—supposedly—great skills and his deck full of rare and unbeatable cards. Truthfully, he had only done as well as he had more because of his deck than his skills; his parents bought him the cards most duelists would trade or scrounge through dozens of card packs for.

Still, Dudley considered himself a great duelist.

When Dudley's Aunt Marge had learned this, she had sent him a "very special present:" a complete collection of the six "Charmer" monsters. Harry had been handing out plates of cake, so he got to look over his cousin's shoulder and see them. The monsters took the form of attractive young women with their monster allies. At least, Harry assumed they did.

"They're so WEAK!" Dudley had cried, before throwing the cards his aunt had likely spent quite a lot of money on into the trash. Dudley had sulked and whined about the failed present for about five minutes before his mother had offered a new present to him. This one contained a pair of boxing gloves, which cheered him up immensely. Harry "looked forward" to helping Dudley enjoy that present.

After the presents, Vernon took Dudley and his friends out to the movies, while Petunia stayed behind to make sure Harry didn't break anything while he cleaned up. That was how Harry found himself walking around the living room with a garbage bag, picking up plates and forks and bits of wrapping paper. Harry's journey around the room eventually brought him to the waste basket . . . the same one Dudley had thrown his cards into . . .

Harry looked back. Aunt Petunia was still busy in the kitchen. For a single moment, Harry debated; then acting fast, he lifted the lid off the bin and saw them: six Duel Monster cards. Harry reached his hand in and grabbed two from the trash. He tried to stuff them into his pockets, but although the waist of Harry's jeans was big enough (it was Dudley's hand-me-down), the pockets were still too small. Thinking quickly, Harry opted to stuff them down his shirt instead. Looking again, he saw Petunia was still busy, so he grabbed two more cards and stuffed them in, too. He tried to complete the action a third time, but only managed to grab one card. Biting his lip, Harry thrust his hand back into the dumpster, but the card got stuck on the bag inside.

Come on, Harry "said" in his mind. Come on. You don't want to be thrown away, do you? I promise, I'll take care of you. I'll never throw you away. I'll—

Harry pulled the card loose. He smiled at it; it had a picture of a green-haired girl with a tiny, legless dragon. Wynn the Wind Charmer, it read.

"What's going on in there?" Petunia's voice rang out.

"Nothing, Aunt Petunia," Harry shouted back. Hearing her footsteps approaching, the boy grabbed the lid of the dumpster and put it back. He made it, but he was still holding the card. He couldn't fit it in his shirt in time—

"What are you doing?" Petunia asked as she came in the room.

"Just resting, Aunt Petunia," Harry said, reaching down and grabbing his trash bag, before continuing to put more garbage into it.

"You can rest tonight!" Petunia snapped. "That's why we give you a room and a bed. Get back to work, and don't let me catch you slacking off again."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry replied. Satisfied, his aunt turned and went back to preparing Dudley's special Birthday Dinner. When she was gone, Harry put the bag back down, and pulled the card he had worked so hard for out of his the extra-large sleeves of his shirt and slipped it down his collar to join its mates . . .

That night, Harry lay awake in his room: a closet under the stairs with an old mattress to serve as his bed. He was examining his six new treasures. Aussa the Earth Charmer, Dharc the Dark Charmer, Eria the Water Charmer, Hiita the Fire Charmer, Lyna the Light Charmer, and of course, Wynn the Wind Charmer. Each featured a pretty girl wearing tan robe, although Dharc looked a little like a boy, and wielding a magic staff alongside their companions. Each one had three stars, 500 ATK, 1500 DEF, and the special effect: FLIP: Target 1 face-up BLANK monster your opponent controls; take control of that target while this card is face-up on the field. Each one allowed you to take control of a different attribute of monster. Harry had watched Dudley duel plenty of times, so he had a pretty good grasp of the game; he understood that 500 ATK was actually pretty low. He understood why Dudley thought these monsters were weak, but he didn't care. They were his now: his cards, his monsters, his . . . friends.

That night, Harry fell asleep dreaming of competing in famous Duel tournaments and winning them all with the help of his six loyal Charmers . . .

Author's Note: I don't remember when I ran the poll that this fic won, and honestly I'm a little too intimidated to check.

You might have noticed that this piece was shorter than the chapters I usually write in World Tree or Son of a Snake. That is intentional. My goal is to be a little more like the author who wrote the challenge this is based on, crossoverparinglover, and crank out short chapters fast instead of big long ones every few months. This will hopefully keep me from getting bogged down in yet another overlong whirlpool that started out as an extended day-dream. Besides, I'd also like to give this fic a different feel from the others: much more whimisical and light-hearted than its predecessors.

P.S.

Yes, I know Dudley isn't supposed to begin boxing until Order of the Pheonix, but I figure he just couldn't get lessons in school before he was forteen (the age he would have been in school to learn).

Also, I was having trouble thinking up a present to give him because we know almost nothing aobut what Dudley likes to do beyond eat, watch T.V., and torment Harry.