Crappy chapter. So sue me. At least I finally screwed up some courage and actually got around to writing this thing! XD
No own Harry Potter or Yu-Gi-Oh.
Chapter Two: New Recruit
"So…we're having someone new, are we?" asked Sirius, in a rather monotone voice as he threw yet another undesirable item into a garbage bag. The canister of pure gold clanked among the other victims of the noble Black household; had it not been for the dead dust that skimmed each glistering treasure, one could've mistaken the piling heaps of bags to be ones of an archeological dig---
instead of a usual daily chore in the Grim's home.
"Mmn hmn," replied a rather quiet voice. Sirius turned around, giving his childhood friend a cynical look.
"More details, please, Moony?" asked the Grim, though clearly not politely. In the dimness of the nearby candles, Sirius could see the pale face of Remus Lupin smooth into a fleeting smile, before it vanished.
"Yes," replied the werewolf distantly, his eyes frowning slightly at the book he was reading.
There was a tense silence as Sirius ran a hand through his hair, suppressing the urge to blow his bangs out of his eyes in exasperation.
"Details, Moony," the dog animagus sighed, his patience running low. The werewolf seemed to barely heed his obviously distraught friend, continuing to be entirely engrossed by the book in his hands. "MOONY!"
"Hmn, I'm sorry, you called?" asked Remus mildly, still not looking up from the book. "I'm sorry Sirius, I'll tell you more about our recruit as soon as I…" suddenly, Remus made an odd noise, as one does when they were stifling laughter, "…finish reading this."
Sirius merely raised an eyebrow at his friend's behavior. Slacking his lips towards the side, Sirius blew his bangs from his dark blue eyes, staring up at the ceiling, before he looked back down upon his former classmate. It took Sirius a rather long time to notice that Remus was looking very amused at the book in his hand; it took the Grim even longer to realize that the book looked rather familiar; black, leatherbound…
…with the initials SB on them…
"MOONY!" exclaimed Sirius loudly, snatching the diary away. Making a face, Sirius hastily flipped through the pages, trying his best to ignore Remus's amused chuckle at his annoyance.
"I never knew you'd be so sensitive about your thoughts, Padfoot," Remus commented lightly, standing up and brushing himself.
"Yeah well…" Sirius rolled his eyes, snapping the book shut.
"In fact, I never even knew you kept a diary," Remus continued. Sirius smirked.
"It really wasn't a diary, now, was it?" he asked mischievously, waving the book slowly in his hand to emphasize the point, as though one would weigh something. Remus laughed.
"I suppose not. But I guess now I know it really was you who put the pink hair dye in James's shampoo."
"It was actually for Snivellus," said Sirius off-handedly, but smirked all the same, "but it still came out well, didn't it? I daresay it got Lily to notice Prongs after that!"
"Don't think he was eager to thank you though," Remus chuckled. "I would hardly think that he wanted Lily's attention that way. She did say that he reminded her a bit of a petunia."
Sirius made a face.
Sighing, Remus threw a couple more garbage into the rubbish bin, absent mindedly wondering about recent Order recruits.
"We're getting how many more?" Sirius asked, trying his best to pry out of his friend as much as possible.
"Not sure," Remus sighed. "We have one coming in a half and hour or so…Bill found him, ironically enough."
"Haven't been talking to Bill lately. He barely comes. It's just you and Snivellus that go to Egypt. So come on, fill me in."
"Yeah, well…" Remus half-shrugged. "Bill was working at the bank, as usual. He was trying to get some goblin recruits in, but they weren't quite very persuaded. A customer overheard and strangely enough, sided with him and, even more strangely enough, he got the goblins persuaded."
Sirius blinked, before he arched an eyebrow cynically. "Who is this guy? A random stranger poking his nose in Order business?"
"He was really interested," Remus insisted. "He told Bill that he had lots of experience with things among the darkside, so…"
Sirius's face turned even more suspicious. "Oh?"
Remus shugged helplessly. "You'll meet him. He's going be here soon anyway."
About half an hour later, Remus Lupin made his way into the kitchen, followed by a very unanticipated Sirius. The animagus wasn't exactly sure why, but he didn't quite like the idea of having a new recruit who was once a former Dark side member.
"Don't curse me if I curse him, got it?" Sirius asked flatly, as he shut the curtains of passing paintings closed.
Remus sighed semi-exasperatedly. "Sirius. At the very least be hospitable."
"You know I am hardly that when I'm actually at home."
Remus gave his friend a dry smile. "I know."
"Excuse me?" interrupted a quiet voice.
Immediately, both wizards turned their head to the sound of the voice. A young man, looking just in his early twenties, or possibly very late teens, stood in the darkness of the doorway. Though his face and head was covered by a rather deep lavender robes and hood, the Order wizards could clearly see flaxen golden bangs beneath them.
"Sorry if I bothered you by letting myself in," the stranger said softly, his voice accented a slight bit. "The man named Shacklebott let me in. Did I run in on something confidential?"
Remus shook his head. "Not at all." He gestured slightly to the wooden table. "Have a seat."
The stranger nodded, his face still hidden in the shadows of his hood. Without another sound, he silently slipped forwards towards the table, lavender robes swishing gracefully behind him. Through the parting of the violet robes, Remus could see dirty, sand-smudged khaki pants, with large baggy pockets, ending with black shoes. As the stranger reached toward to help himself to a seat, golden armbands glittered against caramel skin, his fingers covered in a few golden bands of rings.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Remus smiled mildly as he sat himself down also, followed by Sirius. "I am Remus Lupin, and this is…"
"Sirius Black," the animagus said stoutly, as though daring the stranger to say, 'Oh my god, MURDERER!'
However, the stranger hardly did so, shrugging lightly. "Pleased to meet you."
"And you?" Sirius prompted, one eyebrow disappearing into his black hair.
The stranger shrugged lightly again, before pulling off his hood. Out tumbled wispy, gold-spun hair, spewing across his shoulders. Intense but slightly large lavender eyes stared towards them, piercing and cool. His neck was wrought with yet another golden accessory, matching his dangling earrings from his ears.
"Malik Ishtal," the Egyptian said smoothly.
"This is where I live," Yugi said, smiling widely as he threw open the door. Ryou replied the childish smile with a light one of his own, before his eyes widened slightly at the sight of Yugi's apartment.
"Nice place," Ryou said, smiling.
Yugi grinned wryly. "Pity I have to give up so soon."
Indeed, it was a pity. Though small, the flat was a quite warming place to dwell. The walls were painted a rather soft shade of yellow, and the curtains by the windows were a rather pale, misty blue. In one corner was Yugi's bed, small and covered in a warm, multi-patched quilt. Next to the bed was a good-sized wooden desk, with oak drawers and golden handles. However, upon the table was not quite an art of its own. Papers spilled from corners, some beneath glasses of juice, other scattered with quills and ink.
Yet, despite the small area of the flat, it had a very warm, welcoming feeling to it. And distinctly, it reminded Ryou somewhat of Yugi's soulroom, including the random toys and duel monster decks scattered about the floor.
"Kitchen's that way," Yugi said, closing the door. "Help yourself to whatever's left. Yami ate most of them."
/Excuse me/ queried the mentioned pharaoh, slightly indignantly.
Yugi laughed. /Aw, come on, you know I didn't mean it./
/Just like when you didn't mean me being short/ Yami asked, forcing himself to restrain a wry smirk.
/You ARE just a few inches taller than me/ Yugi replied back, almost just as indignantly.
Yami laughed. / A few inches goes a long way. Unfortunately, just not with you./
Yugi mock-groaned. /Yaaaammmiii…./
Yami laughed again. /Alright alright! I kid. You know I was./
Yugi shook his head, a wry smile on his face as well.
/Just call it payback, aibou. Don't call me portly and I won't call you short./
Yugi made a face. /Portly? Where the heck did you learn that from/
There was silence at the end, broken only by Yami small groan of annoyance.
/I hate Britain./
"Thanks, Yugi," Ryou smiled, sipping lightly against his orange juice.
"No problem," Yugi replied, pouring himself a glass. He was quite pleased to see Ryou, after so long. They hadn't visited each other since they had graduated, going on their own little separate routes. "So…how's it been going? You're working for the Ministry now, right?"
As Ryou laughed modestly, he couldn't help blush slightly. "Yes," he said, taking another sip. "I'm not really an important ministrator yet or anything, but I help out a lot."
"Junior something?"
"Junior Ministry officer or assistant," Ryou supplied helpfully. "I work alongside with a couple of other Juniors. They almost have their own department, in a way. Most of them just graduated from wizarding school."
"So how did you get in?" Yugi asked, blinking.
"Took the test, wrote an application, then I got accepted because of my 'theory and knowledge of Muggle and Muggle studies'," Ryou said, sighing through a smile. "Really. I don't think they even know that I had never been to wizarding school. Maybe they thought I was home-taught."
"Who are you working with?" Yugi asked, taking a rather large gulp of his own orange juice, almost downing the entire thing in one swallow.
Yami snickered lightly.
Yugi poked at his darker half lightly. /Oh come on./
/What/ asked Yami innocently. /A good metabolism is a blessing./
Yugi grinned and rolled his eyes. /Just let me listen to Ryou in peace./
"Yugi?" Ryou asked, curiously waving a hand in front of his friend's face.
Yugi startled a bit, blinking at Ryou, who was smiling understandingly.
"I'm sorry, did I bother anything?" he asked.
Yugi laughed and shook his head. "No."
/…/
/What/
/And you say I have bad observation skills/
"Anyways," continued Ryou, oblivious to the teasing remarks that the Motou sides were making. "I'm working with a couple others…Percy Weasley's our head, and you can't believe what I have to go through with him everyday."
"Oh? Why?" Yugi asked, finally snapping out of his teasing battle with his yami. Even Yami had momentarily stopped his occasional leisure ranting and was listening Ryou intently, like the good regal pharaoh that he was.
"Junior to the Minister of Magic," Ryou said, with a look of respect and annoyance in his eyes. "And what a slave worker."
Yugi laughed. "How so? Does he come into work with a whip in hand and in military suits?"
Ryou arched an eyebrow and sweatdropped. "I'd be terrified if he did."
Both of them chuckled, before Yugi leaned his head against his palm thoughtfully.
"Weasley…I've heard of that name before," Yugi said distantly. "Professor Dumbledore mentioned something like them…what does your supervisor look like? Flaming red hair and freckles?"
"As much as he hates it, yes," Ryou replied, looking surprised. "How do you know?"
Yugi shrugged. "I heard he's got a big family, and a lot of them are still at Hogwarts. Two of them are troublemakers, so Professor Dumbledore told me to be on the lookout for them."
Ryou sighed, shaking his head. "Bakura and Malik have been enough trouble for me already."
Yugi smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, I know. At least I know the Weasley twins aren't going to be that bad." Yugi smiled, then poked Ryou in the arm. "They don't eat raw meat and have Shadow powers."
Ryou laughed, despite himself, and sipped against his orange juice again. "So what are you teaching in Hogwarts? I'm going there with the Ministry Inquisitor."
"Teaching Care of Magical Creatures," Yugi said, off-handedly. "Yami would be taking over most of the time though. He can control them better than I can."
Ryou nodded. "I see. Well, I guess I'd be seeing you there then. The Ministry Inquisitor is coming anyways, and I'm accompanying her so I can have more experience." Ryou cringed, as though he truly wanted to have nothing to do with the Inquisitor at all. "I went to a hearing a few weeks ago…gods, I don't think I'd ever want to go through that again."
"Oh? Why?" Yugi asked.
Ryou looked at his friend. "Ever heard of Harry Potter?"
Yugi furrowed his brows a bit, before he hesitantly nodded. "Kid who defeated a dark and evil Lord or something…am I right? I'm terrible at wizarding history."
Ryou laughed, his smile broadening as he stretched. "Yeah, that's him. Personally, I didn't know him either until I met him at the hearing. I think he's a really nice boy, so I have no idea why he was there. Turns out the was doing illegal magic because some Dementor was chasing after him…not that I knew what a Dementor was," Ryou added, looking exasperate.Yugi tsked. "No idea what Dementors are, either," Yugi said, shrugging.
Ryou grinned again. "Guess I won't feel that lonely when I get to Hogwarts, huh?"
Yugi beamed. "Of course you won't! I'll even let you sleep in my office or something if you need to."
Ryou shook his head. "I'm having my own. They have a couple of guest dorms for people like me. I think that's how they had the Triwizard Tournament last year. I mean, a thousand some people all in one castle!"
Yugi nodded. "Incredible, isn't it?"
Leaning back, Ryou stretched again, attempting to cover a yawn, but failing at pulling it off. As he regained themselves and watched Yugi get some tea before droopy eyes, he smiled tiredly.
"I think I'm going to like Hogwarts," Ryou laughed.
A/N: I thought of adding Seto in for this chapter, but I got really lazy. At least this was as long as the other: four pages long. I usually make my chapters on average four to like, thirteen pages long, so that's pretty good. Yes, Seto has a point in this story, which to me will be quite tough, since I hate writing his character. Also, there's abit of a er...Seto pairing in this one, but it's non-yaoi, as usual on this account, and also, it's a tad...unique, so to say.
Who thinks Kisara looks likea Veela? (oops, did I say that outloud? XD)