Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or Harry Potter.
/Blah/ Yugi talking to Yami Yugi //Blah// Yami Yugi talking to Yugi
:Blah: Ryou talking to Yami Bakura ::Blah:: Yami Bakura talking to Ryou
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was a cold night, but the room had a fire blazing in the grate, warming the two occupants just enough. One was sitting in a high backed armchair; the other was on the floor and appeared to be sifting through piles of books.
"Have you found anything yet, Wormtail?" asked the one in the chair. His voice was strangely high pitched, and cold as a sudden blast of icy wind.
"N-no, my Lord," the other stuttered nervously. "I've looked everywhere, all of the modern magical theories, the-" he was cut off by the other.
"Fool!" he hissed. "We will not find the way to gain more even power in modern books! Dumbledore already knows about all of them! I've already been denied one thing; don't make this a second one! The prophecy's gone and I didn't even get to hear it! Most of my loyal Death Eaters have been captured, too. But never mind them, they will escape. Look in the most ancient books of magic! Magic that has been long forgotten!"
"But master, those are just myths and legends. Surely you do not believe them?"
"Of course they are true! All legends and myths have origins that are real! Keep searching!"
"Yes, my Lord."
They continued to sit in silence, the man called Wormtail hurriedly flipping pages. An hour passed. Then two. They continued to sit there. Finally, Wormtail broke the silence. "My Lord! I have found something!" He spoke excitedly, his silver index finger pausing at a paragraph in a very old, very worn book. The other read the page, taking a definite interest in it.
'Once, when ancient evil Egyptian sorcerers threatened to
destroy the world with their summoned monsters, a young but
powerful pharaoh used his magic to seal them away. But the
sorcerers found a way to bring them to life, and the terror
continued. It was said that the pharaoh used seven very
magical items to trap them forever. These were the seven
Millennium Items. They were seven items that possessed
magical qualities. Each item had a different power, lying
dormant inside until the chosen one came across it. Legend
says that when all of these items are put together, the
owner of all of them will have the power to rule the whole
world.'
"Yes, this is exactly what I've been looking for, Wormtail! Track these items down at once!"
"Y-yes, my Lord." And with a swish of his cloak, and a small popping sound, Wormtail vanished.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The doorbell to number twelve, Grimmauld Place rang loudly. An old woman in a portrait began screaming. And an elderly man swept across the hall to open the door. A woman with spiky bubblegum pink hair was breathing heavily outside, obviously having just run a great deal.
"Tonks! What's the matter? Are you all right? Come in!" She gratefully did so, and they headed off towards the kitchen. Another woman was already sitting there. She had her graying hair up in a tight bun, and she immediately stood up as they arrived.
"Oh, my goodness!" she exclaimed. "Tonks, what happened?"
"I-was-worried-that-you-wouldn't-be-here!" she panted. "You-know-after- Sirius-" she broke off.
"Yes, as much as it pains me to set foot inside this house without Sirius in here, we still have to use it as headquarters. It's probably one of the safest places left." He paused. "Tonks, what did happen?"
"You-know-who! He has another target! Something about seven items that have magical powers. When they're put together, the owner will have enough power to rule the world! And I found out that many of the items are in one city."
She hesitated, then said, "I think it's called Domino or something. It's in Japan. Kingsley said that the owners of the objects are kids, and their close friends know all about the items."
"They're Muggles?" interrupted the other woman.
"Yeah, I think so. Minerva, Albus, those kids are in danger! We have to do something! And there's also an individual in that area who has traces of sorcerer's blood in him, with powers that have not been awakened yet. You-Know-Who will go after him for sure!"
The wizened man appeared to be thinking. Finally, he came to a conclusion. "We'll invite them to Hogwarts," he stated. "It'll be safe enough there. I will send them letters immediately. And I think their friends shall be invited, too. They might also be in danger. But of course, I can't make them accept. If they choose not to go, then we will just have to see what happens."
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was pouring like mad outside, and there were seven certain people hanging out at the Kame Game Shop. Yugi Motou was dueling Joey Wheeler in the center of the room. For a sixteen year old, Yugi was very short. He owned the Millennium Puzzle, given to him by his grandfather. Once he had pieced it together, he was bonded with the spirit of the puzzle, who just happened to be a 5, 000 year old pharaoh.
His opponent was as different as he could get. Joey was almost twice as tall as Yugi. His messy blonde hair was almost covering his amber eyes completely. Despite their differences, they were the best of friends, and were just dueling for fun. But it was obvious who was losing. Yugi's lifepoints were 3800, barely touched, and Joey's lifepoints were down to 100.
"I play Dragon Nails! It increases my Red Eyes Black Dragon's attack power by 600, making it 3000! That's more than your Dark Magician's. Red Eyes, attack his Dark Magician!" Joey ordered. He had a strong accent that was easy to notice. He whooped loudly, convinced that he had taken out one of Yugi's most powerful monsters. However, when the smoke cleared, the Dark Magician was still standing.
"You forgot about my face down card again, Joey," Yugi reminded him. "Activate the Spell-Binding Circle! Your Red Eyes's attack is reduced to 2300. Dark Magician, attack with Dark Magic!" They all watched as the tiny Dark Magician obliterated the Red Eyes Black Dragon on the field and saw Joey's lifepoints drop down to zero.
"Good show, Yugi!" called another teen from the sidelines. He was Ryou Bakura, a mild tempered boy that owned the Millennium Ring. He brushed his shoulder-length white hair out of his way as he thought about his yami. Yami Bakura usually popped out occasionally to watch duels. He decided to investigate. If anybody had been watching his eyes, they would have seen the chocolate brown orbs cloud over and gain an unfocused appearance.
:Um, yami? Are you feeling okay? Because-meep!:
His yami, who had probably been baiting him all along, had pressed him against the wall of the corridor that contained both of their soul rooms. He had suddenly started nipping at Ryou's neck, causing him to emit odd squeaks, and then other...sounds.
These sounds weren't heard in the real world, though.
Beside the distant Ryou was Malik Ishtar. He had turned less evil, and his yami had turned less evil. They were kind of friends with certain other people, namely Yami Bakura, but Seto was okay, too. The blond haired Egyptian also liked his hair slightly longer than, uh, usual. His lavender eyes surveyed the scene before him. Joey was still losing every single duel he fought with Yugi. How pathetic. Maybe he could use the Millennium Rod to control him again and defeat the Pharaoh's brat. He mused over that idea for a while, and then decided against it. It was raining. Who wanted to do evil things when it was raining?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Oh yeah. Maybe it would help to know what's happened since Battle City. Especially with the "bad guys" and the people with attitudes (*cough cough* Seto).
Malik and his yami weren't as evil-I didn't say "evil no more", I said "weren't AS evil". So basically, they're still evil, but not intent upon destroying Yugi and his yami anymore. He was now friends with Yugi, Ryou, and Yami Bakura. Seto and Mokuba were so-so, as was Yami. All of the others, he didn't like, period.
Seto could now could now carry a conversation without insulting the other person too much. You have to be careful, though. He can still act like how he was before-cold and uncaring. One more thing-he's still the CEO of his own multibillion company, still got a lot of power, not to mention money, so don't mess with him.
Yami Bakura was working on getting less...evil. Ryou had insisted upon it, and...yeah...
And now both Yugi and Seto are the number one duelist in the world! They dueled several times and they always ended up in ties.
By the way, is you were wondering where he was, Tristan died. *smiles happily* Yup! The stupidest character in Yu-Gi-Oh! died in a motorcycle accident. Or did he get murdered? Um, I forgot, but who cares anyway? I tried to make Tea die too, but I didn't succeed...
So, now that you know what's been going on, back to the story!
Sorry if you still find stupid, lame, and boring descriptions of everyone!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Ohh! I guess I did forget about your down card" Joey admitted, not looking concerned at all.
"Whatever! Yugi, I challenge you to a duel!" Everyone around the arena sweatdropped.
"That's got to be Joey's 60th time asking today!" Mokuba said to Seto.
"No, it's his 59th," his older brother corrected him.
"Oops, I guess I lost count after 52," said Mokuba sheepishly, indigo eyes lighting up as he smiled up at his older brother.
And Seto's eyes, on the other hand, were an icy blue. In addition to being a child prodigy, he was the CEO of his own company, Kaiba Corporations. It specialized in holographic imagers and computer technology beyond most people's dreams.
They were standing around one of his latest inventions, a miniature dueling arena. They had used it because there wasn't enough room for a full sized one. It was 6ftx3.5ft and was ideal for small areas. The holographic images were just as good though, except for the fact that they were tiny.
Meanwhile, the others were trying to get Joey to stop trying to duel Yugi again, who, even without the spirit to help him, was a great duelist and would probably crush him again.
"Uh, Joey, Tea's right. We should take a break. We've been dueling for a long time. Why don't we-" Yugi was interrupted by a loud tapping sound. It seemed to be coming from the window nearest to Seto.
Seto strode over to it, threw the window open, and something brown and wet fell in, as well as a whole lotta rain.
"What in the name of Ra is that?" Malik asked, peering closer. The thing valiantly got up, hopped over to Kaiba, and stretched its leg out. There was a thick envelope attached to it, which, to Seto's great surprise as he removed it, was perfectly dry.
Seto had now recognized the thing as an owl. It ruffled its feathers once, shook some water out, and flew back out of the window into the storm outside. Everybody was staring after it in shock. In the few seconds of a flash of lightening, they could see a dark shape being knocked around by the wind, zigzagging everywhere.
Seto turned back to the envelope. It was made out of yellowish parchment and had been addressed with emerald green ink. There was no stamp. He flipped it over. He saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, and eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. He opened the envelope, only to find about a dozen letters, all written on the same type of thick parchment as the envelope. He unfolded the first one that he pulled out, and read quickly and silently:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Kaiba,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to
participate in a special event occurring at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. This involves the enrolling of
foreign students to learn magic. For more information, please meet
Professor Dumbledore at Domino Park on August 2 at 1 PM. As
students above 3rd year are allowed to visit the village of
Hogsmeade, please get your permission form signed and ready if you
decide to attend. Also, be aware that you will need your
parent/guardian's consent to attend Hogwarts.
Term begins on September 1. Please find enclosed a list
of all necessary books and equipment, and a permission form to visit
the nearby village of Hogsmeade. We will be notified if you accept,
there will be no need to send an owl.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
He looked up. They were all looking at him apprehensively.
"What's it say? Huh? What's it say, big brother?" Mokuba asked excitedly, bouncing up and down. His bushy hair was swinging everywhere and managed to hit Tea in the face. The others ignored her indignant exclamation.
"Yeah, Kaiba, what does that letter have in it?" Joey asked.
"See for yourself, there letters for everyone here," he replied, tossing their letters, list of supplies, and Hogsmeade permission forms to them. He watched their faces as they read the letter. "Sounds like one big prank, doesn't it?" he asked.
Yugi, however, said, "I don't think so, Seto. It all sounds too serious for a trick. Well, the only way we're going to find out is by going to the park tomorrow." Everybody looked at him in surprise.
"What makes you think that it's not a joke, Yugi?" Tea asked.
He shrugged. "I just have this feeling." They all seemed to think it over for a few minutes, with the exception of Mokuba, who was jumping up and down, trying to get Seto to go to the Domino Park and see what it was about.
Then, Tea announced in a clear voice, over Mokuba's pleading, "I'm not even going to find out about it. There's like, absolutely no chance that I'll be able to go anyway. My parents would never let me, and I want to continue studying dance. Like, say this all turns out to be true, and I go. Well, what if a letter comes from New York for me to go learn dance there, and I'm at that place? I'm sorry. I really want to be with you guys. But remember, no matter what, no matter how many differences we have, no matter what we get put through separated, we'll always be friends." She said all of this last part with her hand over her heart.
She didn't really seem to notice that almost all of the people in the room were gagging. Seto had even covered Mokuba's ears. At any rate, they seemed to be glad that she wasn't going to join them.
"Nah, I don't think I'll go," said Joey. "I've gotta keep an eye out for Serenity."
Two out, that meant that there were only five people left that were in.
"Well, I'm also going because I think that this might have something to do with the Millennium Items." Yugi confessed quietly. "So...so I think that Ryou and Malik should come, too."
They were all looking at Seto and Mokuba now. "Please, Seto, please say that you'll let me go!" Mokuba was saying. Seto looked doubtful.
"I don't know, Mokuba. This all sounds-" Mokuba had given him Begging Face #1. This was the puppy dog eyes.
He shook his head. "Nope, that one's not going to work."
Mokuba turned to Begging Face #2. This was a mixture of the puppy dog eyes and going down on knees. Seto stayed firm.
Mokuba put on Begging Face #3...and Seto felt himself weakening. Everyone in the room had melted at the expression, except for Yugi, of course. He could get just about as cute at some times. Seto just had to give in. "Very well," he finally sighed. "We will go to Domino Park tomorrow and decide from there." Mokuba cheered and hugged his brother.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The next morning was wet and humid, due to the previous day's weather. And it was pretty.different at the Kaiba residence. Mokuba had gotten Seto to take a day off, and they were currently playing in the pool. Okay, Mokuba was playing in the pool, and Seto was sitting at one of the glass tables that surrounded the huge pool...under an umbrella, of course. He had been staring at a spot in gardens for so long without blinking that Mokuba had decided that he had fallen asleep. And what better way to have fun than tip a bucket of water on a big brother's head?
He got out of the pool silently, glancing at Seto. His eyes were still glazed over. He sneaked over to the equipment shed and got the biggest bucket there. It looked like it could hold 4 or 5 gallons, at the very least. He carried it over to the pool, checking on his brother once more. Still safe. He filled it up halfway, because he would never be able to lift it with 5 gallons of water in it. He lugged it to his brother, and SPLASH!
The maids and butlers were having a field day. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw your employer dripping wet and chasing an equally wet little brother around the house.
*~*~*~*~*~*
They met at the wrought iron gates of Domino Park. There, they saw an old man wearing what looked like an emerald green cloak, even though it was warm and sunny. He had half moon spectacles that were perched on a very long, very crooked nose that looked like it had been broken a couple of times. And his silver hair and beard went all the way down to his waist. People were giving him strange looks, but he didn't seem to mind. He spotted them and walked over to them.
"Misters Kaiba, Kaiba, Motou, Ishtar, and Bakura, I presume?" he asked. They nodded. "Good. I'm Albus Dumbledore. Now I was planning to talk to you here, but it's more crowded than I had anticipated. Do you know of anywhere where we can talk and not be heard?"
"We can go to Kaiba Corp., right Seto? It's a lot closer than any of our houses." Mokuba piped up. His big brother had already forgiven him about the pool incident. Well, at least he thought he had. Seto nodded, then took out his cell phone.
"It's me. Now listen up. We need transportation for six people. Meet us at the North Entrance of the Domino Park. You have two minutes or you're fired." He turned back to the others, who were staring at him, having overheard his conversation. "Two minutes until they get here," he said simply. Sure enough, exactly two minutes later, a black limousine rolled up. They could make out a silver KC logo, which was on a lot of Seto's stuff. Seto and Mokuba got in. They cautiously followed.
"Where to, Mister Kaiba?" a voice asked.
"Kaiba Corp.," he said briskly, then pressed a button and sat back. A laptop rose and stationed itself in front of him. He started typing away, his fingers a blur. Mokuba had already gotten his videogames out and was offering controllers to Yugi, Malik, Ryou, and Dumbledore.
"It might take a little while," he explained. "The traffic's really bad downtown."
"No thank you," Ryou and Dumbledore said at the same time.
But Malik had grabbed a controller and was pushing one to Yugi. "Let the King of Games play, I want to see if he can win at modern games," he said. While they had been talking, the blinds had been mechanically drawn, the lights had been shut off, and a screen had descended. In addition to their controllers, Mokuba had given them each a pair of headphones. "We might disturb Seto," he whispered. A few minutes into the game, a fourth player appeared. They all looked sideways in surprise. What looked like Yami Bakura had taken a controller, too.
Dumbledore had watched the whole scene. He had seen who he thought was Bakura grabbing a controller too and had distinctly heard him mumble 'Baka hikari' before joining in. He didn't comment on it, however.
He looked beyond them. Seto was still typing furiously. There were a considerable number of windows up on his laptop's screen, all of them bearing complicated looking charts and statistics. Then he looked out of the window. Mokuba hadn't been joking. The cars were all moving at a crawl. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Finally, after fifteen minutes, they turned left and into a huge parking lot, nearly full with cars. There were about five spaces that looked longer than normal parking spaces. These all said, 'RESERVED'. The limo parked in one of these. The chauffeur quickly stepped out and held open the door for them. Dumbledore stepped out and looked up. They were in the shadow of an enormous building. It was in a peculiar shape, though. In the middle was a logo, KC. The letters were slightly overlapping each other.
The four of them were still at the video game. Seto pressed a button conveniently located on the door. The videogame instantly shut off. "Sorry, Seto!" Mokuba said, taking off his headphones.
Seto was glaring past him at Malik. "Hey, psychopath, do you mind moving so that the rest of us can get out?" he asked coldly. Grumbling, Malik complied.
They walked in. A woman sitting at a desk only saw Dumbledore, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi and said in a bored voice, "Visitors, please sign in here." Then she caught sight of Mokuba and Seto. "M-Mister Kaiba!" she stammered, clearly terrified of him. "I didn't see you!"
"There's no need to sign in," he informed them. "Follow me." They followed him into one of the many elevators. He pushed one of the buttons in the middle. To their surprise, nobody got on at any of the floors. They didn't have to stop at all.
When Yugi asked about this, Mokuba said, "It's Seto's private elevator." Then Malik started an argument about who was winning back in the car. They were talking about it all the way to the 56th floor.
"Wasn't I winning?"
"If I remember correctly, the pharaoh was winning"
"Well I was better than you, Tomb Robber."
"No you weren't! I was in second place!"
Yugi had remained quiet, though. He had recognized Yami Bakura at once, for the real Ryou didn't talk like that. He hoped that Yami Bakura would let Ryou regain control for the "meeting". To Seto, Dumbledore, and Yugi's great relief, they all fell silent as the elevator doors opened. They walked down a hall with doors on every side. Seto stopped at one and punched the access code into a security device located near the door. 'ACCESSED' flashed on the screen, and a green light blinked on. They entered the room, and Malik, Yugi, and Ryou gasped.
It seemed to be a huge conference room. There was a long wooden rectangular table with chairs around it, and a food and drink bar. (How Malik had resisted the urge to stuff himself silly we still don't know.) They seated themselves on leather sofas at the other side of the room. There were three clustered around a fancy crystal table. Dumbledore cleared his throat and began to speak.
"As you know, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We have invited you to study magic with us. Let me tell you about Hogwarts. You will live there, and take different magical classes. If you accept, I will send you a list of all the extra classes that you can take. The regular classes are Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy. You will learn more about Hogwarts as you spend more time there. Why, even I don't know all of its secrets! If you decide-" he was interrupted by Seto.
"Why have we been chosen? You can't have picked us out randomly, there's no way you could have chosen six people that know each other so well."
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, you are quite correct. However, I cannot tell you all of it right now. But let me fill you in. Not too long ago, there was this powerful and wizard...
*~*~*~*~*~*
See? I edited it...a little. I'm not one of those people who think reviews are everything, but if you like the story so far or have any suggestions, please do so.
I will be thanking one particular person in the next few chapters. t.a.g.0 has helped a great deal with this story, giving me tips on how to write. So I'd like to thank her a lot-I don't think I could have made it this far without her.
Thank you t.a.g.0!
/Blah/ Yugi talking to Yami Yugi //Blah// Yami Yugi talking to Yugi
:Blah: Ryou talking to Yami Bakura ::Blah:: Yami Bakura talking to Ryou
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was a cold night, but the room had a fire blazing in the grate, warming the two occupants just enough. One was sitting in a high backed armchair; the other was on the floor and appeared to be sifting through piles of books.
"Have you found anything yet, Wormtail?" asked the one in the chair. His voice was strangely high pitched, and cold as a sudden blast of icy wind.
"N-no, my Lord," the other stuttered nervously. "I've looked everywhere, all of the modern magical theories, the-" he was cut off by the other.
"Fool!" he hissed. "We will not find the way to gain more even power in modern books! Dumbledore already knows about all of them! I've already been denied one thing; don't make this a second one! The prophecy's gone and I didn't even get to hear it! Most of my loyal Death Eaters have been captured, too. But never mind them, they will escape. Look in the most ancient books of magic! Magic that has been long forgotten!"
"But master, those are just myths and legends. Surely you do not believe them?"
"Of course they are true! All legends and myths have origins that are real! Keep searching!"
"Yes, my Lord."
They continued to sit in silence, the man called Wormtail hurriedly flipping pages. An hour passed. Then two. They continued to sit there. Finally, Wormtail broke the silence. "My Lord! I have found something!" He spoke excitedly, his silver index finger pausing at a paragraph in a very old, very worn book. The other read the page, taking a definite interest in it.
'Once, when ancient evil Egyptian sorcerers threatened to
destroy the world with their summoned monsters, a young but
powerful pharaoh used his magic to seal them away. But the
sorcerers found a way to bring them to life, and the terror
continued. It was said that the pharaoh used seven very
magical items to trap them forever. These were the seven
Millennium Items. They were seven items that possessed
magical qualities. Each item had a different power, lying
dormant inside until the chosen one came across it. Legend
says that when all of these items are put together, the
owner of all of them will have the power to rule the whole
world.'
"Yes, this is exactly what I've been looking for, Wormtail! Track these items down at once!"
"Y-yes, my Lord." And with a swish of his cloak, and a small popping sound, Wormtail vanished.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The doorbell to number twelve, Grimmauld Place rang loudly. An old woman in a portrait began screaming. And an elderly man swept across the hall to open the door. A woman with spiky bubblegum pink hair was breathing heavily outside, obviously having just run a great deal.
"Tonks! What's the matter? Are you all right? Come in!" She gratefully did so, and they headed off towards the kitchen. Another woman was already sitting there. She had her graying hair up in a tight bun, and she immediately stood up as they arrived.
"Oh, my goodness!" she exclaimed. "Tonks, what happened?"
"I-was-worried-that-you-wouldn't-be-here!" she panted. "You-know-after- Sirius-" she broke off.
"Yes, as much as it pains me to set foot inside this house without Sirius in here, we still have to use it as headquarters. It's probably one of the safest places left." He paused. "Tonks, what did happen?"
"You-know-who! He has another target! Something about seven items that have magical powers. When they're put together, the owner will have enough power to rule the world! And I found out that many of the items are in one city."
She hesitated, then said, "I think it's called Domino or something. It's in Japan. Kingsley said that the owners of the objects are kids, and their close friends know all about the items."
"They're Muggles?" interrupted the other woman.
"Yeah, I think so. Minerva, Albus, those kids are in danger! We have to do something! And there's also an individual in that area who has traces of sorcerer's blood in him, with powers that have not been awakened yet. You-Know-Who will go after him for sure!"
The wizened man appeared to be thinking. Finally, he came to a conclusion. "We'll invite them to Hogwarts," he stated. "It'll be safe enough there. I will send them letters immediately. And I think their friends shall be invited, too. They might also be in danger. But of course, I can't make them accept. If they choose not to go, then we will just have to see what happens."
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was pouring like mad outside, and there were seven certain people hanging out at the Kame Game Shop. Yugi Motou was dueling Joey Wheeler in the center of the room. For a sixteen year old, Yugi was very short. He owned the Millennium Puzzle, given to him by his grandfather. Once he had pieced it together, he was bonded with the spirit of the puzzle, who just happened to be a 5, 000 year old pharaoh.
His opponent was as different as he could get. Joey was almost twice as tall as Yugi. His messy blonde hair was almost covering his amber eyes completely. Despite their differences, they were the best of friends, and were just dueling for fun. But it was obvious who was losing. Yugi's lifepoints were 3800, barely touched, and Joey's lifepoints were down to 100.
"I play Dragon Nails! It increases my Red Eyes Black Dragon's attack power by 600, making it 3000! That's more than your Dark Magician's. Red Eyes, attack his Dark Magician!" Joey ordered. He had a strong accent that was easy to notice. He whooped loudly, convinced that he had taken out one of Yugi's most powerful monsters. However, when the smoke cleared, the Dark Magician was still standing.
"You forgot about my face down card again, Joey," Yugi reminded him. "Activate the Spell-Binding Circle! Your Red Eyes's attack is reduced to 2300. Dark Magician, attack with Dark Magic!" They all watched as the tiny Dark Magician obliterated the Red Eyes Black Dragon on the field and saw Joey's lifepoints drop down to zero.
"Good show, Yugi!" called another teen from the sidelines. He was Ryou Bakura, a mild tempered boy that owned the Millennium Ring. He brushed his shoulder-length white hair out of his way as he thought about his yami. Yami Bakura usually popped out occasionally to watch duels. He decided to investigate. If anybody had been watching his eyes, they would have seen the chocolate brown orbs cloud over and gain an unfocused appearance.
:Um, yami? Are you feeling okay? Because-meep!:
His yami, who had probably been baiting him all along, had pressed him against the wall of the corridor that contained both of their soul rooms. He had suddenly started nipping at Ryou's neck, causing him to emit odd squeaks, and then other...sounds.
These sounds weren't heard in the real world, though.
Beside the distant Ryou was Malik Ishtar. He had turned less evil, and his yami had turned less evil. They were kind of friends with certain other people, namely Yami Bakura, but Seto was okay, too. The blond haired Egyptian also liked his hair slightly longer than, uh, usual. His lavender eyes surveyed the scene before him. Joey was still losing every single duel he fought with Yugi. How pathetic. Maybe he could use the Millennium Rod to control him again and defeat the Pharaoh's brat. He mused over that idea for a while, and then decided against it. It was raining. Who wanted to do evil things when it was raining?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Oh yeah. Maybe it would help to know what's happened since Battle City. Especially with the "bad guys" and the people with attitudes (*cough cough* Seto).
Malik and his yami weren't as evil-I didn't say "evil no more", I said "weren't AS evil". So basically, they're still evil, but not intent upon destroying Yugi and his yami anymore. He was now friends with Yugi, Ryou, and Yami Bakura. Seto and Mokuba were so-so, as was Yami. All of the others, he didn't like, period.
Seto could now could now carry a conversation without insulting the other person too much. You have to be careful, though. He can still act like how he was before-cold and uncaring. One more thing-he's still the CEO of his own multibillion company, still got a lot of power, not to mention money, so don't mess with him.
Yami Bakura was working on getting less...evil. Ryou had insisted upon it, and...yeah...
And now both Yugi and Seto are the number one duelist in the world! They dueled several times and they always ended up in ties.
By the way, is you were wondering where he was, Tristan died. *smiles happily* Yup! The stupidest character in Yu-Gi-Oh! died in a motorcycle accident. Or did he get murdered? Um, I forgot, but who cares anyway? I tried to make Tea die too, but I didn't succeed...
So, now that you know what's been going on, back to the story!
Sorry if you still find stupid, lame, and boring descriptions of everyone!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Ohh! I guess I did forget about your down card" Joey admitted, not looking concerned at all.
"Whatever! Yugi, I challenge you to a duel!" Everyone around the arena sweatdropped.
"That's got to be Joey's 60th time asking today!" Mokuba said to Seto.
"No, it's his 59th," his older brother corrected him.
"Oops, I guess I lost count after 52," said Mokuba sheepishly, indigo eyes lighting up as he smiled up at his older brother.
And Seto's eyes, on the other hand, were an icy blue. In addition to being a child prodigy, he was the CEO of his own company, Kaiba Corporations. It specialized in holographic imagers and computer technology beyond most people's dreams.
They were standing around one of his latest inventions, a miniature dueling arena. They had used it because there wasn't enough room for a full sized one. It was 6ftx3.5ft and was ideal for small areas. The holographic images were just as good though, except for the fact that they were tiny.
Meanwhile, the others were trying to get Joey to stop trying to duel Yugi again, who, even without the spirit to help him, was a great duelist and would probably crush him again.
"Uh, Joey, Tea's right. We should take a break. We've been dueling for a long time. Why don't we-" Yugi was interrupted by a loud tapping sound. It seemed to be coming from the window nearest to Seto.
Seto strode over to it, threw the window open, and something brown and wet fell in, as well as a whole lotta rain.
"What in the name of Ra is that?" Malik asked, peering closer. The thing valiantly got up, hopped over to Kaiba, and stretched its leg out. There was a thick envelope attached to it, which, to Seto's great surprise as he removed it, was perfectly dry.
Seto had now recognized the thing as an owl. It ruffled its feathers once, shook some water out, and flew back out of the window into the storm outside. Everybody was staring after it in shock. In the few seconds of a flash of lightening, they could see a dark shape being knocked around by the wind, zigzagging everywhere.
Seto turned back to the envelope. It was made out of yellowish parchment and had been addressed with emerald green ink. There was no stamp. He flipped it over. He saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, and eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. He opened the envelope, only to find about a dozen letters, all written on the same type of thick parchment as the envelope. He unfolded the first one that he pulled out, and read quickly and silently:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Kaiba,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to
participate in a special event occurring at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. This involves the enrolling of
foreign students to learn magic. For more information, please meet
Professor Dumbledore at Domino Park on August 2 at 1 PM. As
students above 3rd year are allowed to visit the village of
Hogsmeade, please get your permission form signed and ready if you
decide to attend. Also, be aware that you will need your
parent/guardian's consent to attend Hogwarts.
Term begins on September 1. Please find enclosed a list
of all necessary books and equipment, and a permission form to visit
the nearby village of Hogsmeade. We will be notified if you accept,
there will be no need to send an owl.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
He looked up. They were all looking at him apprehensively.
"What's it say? Huh? What's it say, big brother?" Mokuba asked excitedly, bouncing up and down. His bushy hair was swinging everywhere and managed to hit Tea in the face. The others ignored her indignant exclamation.
"Yeah, Kaiba, what does that letter have in it?" Joey asked.
"See for yourself, there letters for everyone here," he replied, tossing their letters, list of supplies, and Hogsmeade permission forms to them. He watched their faces as they read the letter. "Sounds like one big prank, doesn't it?" he asked.
Yugi, however, said, "I don't think so, Seto. It all sounds too serious for a trick. Well, the only way we're going to find out is by going to the park tomorrow." Everybody looked at him in surprise.
"What makes you think that it's not a joke, Yugi?" Tea asked.
He shrugged. "I just have this feeling." They all seemed to think it over for a few minutes, with the exception of Mokuba, who was jumping up and down, trying to get Seto to go to the Domino Park and see what it was about.
Then, Tea announced in a clear voice, over Mokuba's pleading, "I'm not even going to find out about it. There's like, absolutely no chance that I'll be able to go anyway. My parents would never let me, and I want to continue studying dance. Like, say this all turns out to be true, and I go. Well, what if a letter comes from New York for me to go learn dance there, and I'm at that place? I'm sorry. I really want to be with you guys. But remember, no matter what, no matter how many differences we have, no matter what we get put through separated, we'll always be friends." She said all of this last part with her hand over her heart.
She didn't really seem to notice that almost all of the people in the room were gagging. Seto had even covered Mokuba's ears. At any rate, they seemed to be glad that she wasn't going to join them.
"Nah, I don't think I'll go," said Joey. "I've gotta keep an eye out for Serenity."
Two out, that meant that there were only five people left that were in.
"Well, I'm also going because I think that this might have something to do with the Millennium Items." Yugi confessed quietly. "So...so I think that Ryou and Malik should come, too."
They were all looking at Seto and Mokuba now. "Please, Seto, please say that you'll let me go!" Mokuba was saying. Seto looked doubtful.
"I don't know, Mokuba. This all sounds-" Mokuba had given him Begging Face #1. This was the puppy dog eyes.
He shook his head. "Nope, that one's not going to work."
Mokuba turned to Begging Face #2. This was a mixture of the puppy dog eyes and going down on knees. Seto stayed firm.
Mokuba put on Begging Face #3...and Seto felt himself weakening. Everyone in the room had melted at the expression, except for Yugi, of course. He could get just about as cute at some times. Seto just had to give in. "Very well," he finally sighed. "We will go to Domino Park tomorrow and decide from there." Mokuba cheered and hugged his brother.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The next morning was wet and humid, due to the previous day's weather. And it was pretty.different at the Kaiba residence. Mokuba had gotten Seto to take a day off, and they were currently playing in the pool. Okay, Mokuba was playing in the pool, and Seto was sitting at one of the glass tables that surrounded the huge pool...under an umbrella, of course. He had been staring at a spot in gardens for so long without blinking that Mokuba had decided that he had fallen asleep. And what better way to have fun than tip a bucket of water on a big brother's head?
He got out of the pool silently, glancing at Seto. His eyes were still glazed over. He sneaked over to the equipment shed and got the biggest bucket there. It looked like it could hold 4 or 5 gallons, at the very least. He carried it over to the pool, checking on his brother once more. Still safe. He filled it up halfway, because he would never be able to lift it with 5 gallons of water in it. He lugged it to his brother, and SPLASH!
The maids and butlers were having a field day. After all, it wasn't every day that you saw your employer dripping wet and chasing an equally wet little brother around the house.
*~*~*~*~*~*
They met at the wrought iron gates of Domino Park. There, they saw an old man wearing what looked like an emerald green cloak, even though it was warm and sunny. He had half moon spectacles that were perched on a very long, very crooked nose that looked like it had been broken a couple of times. And his silver hair and beard went all the way down to his waist. People were giving him strange looks, but he didn't seem to mind. He spotted them and walked over to them.
"Misters Kaiba, Kaiba, Motou, Ishtar, and Bakura, I presume?" he asked. They nodded. "Good. I'm Albus Dumbledore. Now I was planning to talk to you here, but it's more crowded than I had anticipated. Do you know of anywhere where we can talk and not be heard?"
"We can go to Kaiba Corp., right Seto? It's a lot closer than any of our houses." Mokuba piped up. His big brother had already forgiven him about the pool incident. Well, at least he thought he had. Seto nodded, then took out his cell phone.
"It's me. Now listen up. We need transportation for six people. Meet us at the North Entrance of the Domino Park. You have two minutes or you're fired." He turned back to the others, who were staring at him, having overheard his conversation. "Two minutes until they get here," he said simply. Sure enough, exactly two minutes later, a black limousine rolled up. They could make out a silver KC logo, which was on a lot of Seto's stuff. Seto and Mokuba got in. They cautiously followed.
"Where to, Mister Kaiba?" a voice asked.
"Kaiba Corp.," he said briskly, then pressed a button and sat back. A laptop rose and stationed itself in front of him. He started typing away, his fingers a blur. Mokuba had already gotten his videogames out and was offering controllers to Yugi, Malik, Ryou, and Dumbledore.
"It might take a little while," he explained. "The traffic's really bad downtown."
"No thank you," Ryou and Dumbledore said at the same time.
But Malik had grabbed a controller and was pushing one to Yugi. "Let the King of Games play, I want to see if he can win at modern games," he said. While they had been talking, the blinds had been mechanically drawn, the lights had been shut off, and a screen had descended. In addition to their controllers, Mokuba had given them each a pair of headphones. "We might disturb Seto," he whispered. A few minutes into the game, a fourth player appeared. They all looked sideways in surprise. What looked like Yami Bakura had taken a controller, too.
Dumbledore had watched the whole scene. He had seen who he thought was Bakura grabbing a controller too and had distinctly heard him mumble 'Baka hikari' before joining in. He didn't comment on it, however.
He looked beyond them. Seto was still typing furiously. There were a considerable number of windows up on his laptop's screen, all of them bearing complicated looking charts and statistics. Then he looked out of the window. Mokuba hadn't been joking. The cars were all moving at a crawl. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Finally, after fifteen minutes, they turned left and into a huge parking lot, nearly full with cars. There were about five spaces that looked longer than normal parking spaces. These all said, 'RESERVED'. The limo parked in one of these. The chauffeur quickly stepped out and held open the door for them. Dumbledore stepped out and looked up. They were in the shadow of an enormous building. It was in a peculiar shape, though. In the middle was a logo, KC. The letters were slightly overlapping each other.
The four of them were still at the video game. Seto pressed a button conveniently located on the door. The videogame instantly shut off. "Sorry, Seto!" Mokuba said, taking off his headphones.
Seto was glaring past him at Malik. "Hey, psychopath, do you mind moving so that the rest of us can get out?" he asked coldly. Grumbling, Malik complied.
They walked in. A woman sitting at a desk only saw Dumbledore, Ryou, Malik, and Yugi and said in a bored voice, "Visitors, please sign in here." Then she caught sight of Mokuba and Seto. "M-Mister Kaiba!" she stammered, clearly terrified of him. "I didn't see you!"
"There's no need to sign in," he informed them. "Follow me." They followed him into one of the many elevators. He pushed one of the buttons in the middle. To their surprise, nobody got on at any of the floors. They didn't have to stop at all.
When Yugi asked about this, Mokuba said, "It's Seto's private elevator." Then Malik started an argument about who was winning back in the car. They were talking about it all the way to the 56th floor.
"Wasn't I winning?"
"If I remember correctly, the pharaoh was winning"
"Well I was better than you, Tomb Robber."
"No you weren't! I was in second place!"
Yugi had remained quiet, though. He had recognized Yami Bakura at once, for the real Ryou didn't talk like that. He hoped that Yami Bakura would let Ryou regain control for the "meeting". To Seto, Dumbledore, and Yugi's great relief, they all fell silent as the elevator doors opened. They walked down a hall with doors on every side. Seto stopped at one and punched the access code into a security device located near the door. 'ACCESSED' flashed on the screen, and a green light blinked on. They entered the room, and Malik, Yugi, and Ryou gasped.
It seemed to be a huge conference room. There was a long wooden rectangular table with chairs around it, and a food and drink bar. (How Malik had resisted the urge to stuff himself silly we still don't know.) They seated themselves on leather sofas at the other side of the room. There were three clustered around a fancy crystal table. Dumbledore cleared his throat and began to speak.
"As you know, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We have invited you to study magic with us. Let me tell you about Hogwarts. You will live there, and take different magical classes. If you accept, I will send you a list of all the extra classes that you can take. The regular classes are Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy. You will learn more about Hogwarts as you spend more time there. Why, even I don't know all of its secrets! If you decide-" he was interrupted by Seto.
"Why have we been chosen? You can't have picked us out randomly, there's no way you could have chosen six people that know each other so well."
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, you are quite correct. However, I cannot tell you all of it right now. But let me fill you in. Not too long ago, there was this powerful and wizard...
*~*~*~*~*~*
See? I edited it...a little. I'm not one of those people who think reviews are everything, but if you like the story so far or have any suggestions, please do so.
I will be thanking one particular person in the next few chapters. t.a.g.0 has helped a great deal with this story, giving me tips on how to write. So I'd like to thank her a lot-I don't think I could have made it this far without her.
Thank you t.a.g.0!
