Harry Potter and the Curse of the Millennium Items
Chapter Five
Thalia was watching the Sorting with avid curiosity. She wondered where each of them would end up. Probably Gryffindor, if the Editor Behind the Scenes had any sense. She stretched gracefully and hid a yawn. She gradually began to hope that Kaiba would be in the Ravenclaw House like she was. Then maybe they could pick up where they left off before Duelist Kingdom when they'd had their last major fight. Thalia went down memory lane trying to work out exactly what that fight had been about. Something to do with the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the way he went about collecting them? Probably. She blinked and came back to herself: Kaiba was now being Sorted. All the first years had been done rather quickly.
"Hmmm Kaiba," the Sorting Hat stated using Kaiba's last name and forgetting that it used everyone else's first, "You're cold, all right. You don't like anyone finding things out about you, do you? Certainly ambitious, certainly Slytherin. But no, there's a loyalty that a Slytherin would never have, and an intelligence that is more like knowledge than cunningness…"
"Get on with it," Kaiba growled growing impatient and in the process wondering how the Sorting Hat knew so much about him.
"Could only mean…. RAVENCLAW!" The Sorting Hat shouted the last word out to the general public, and the Ravenclaw table burst into applause.
Thalia watched her mouth hanging open gracefully as she could manage without looking like an idiot. So the Editor Behind the Scenes was lacking a bit of sense, then. But then, it must have something to do with the eventual Plot, or else Kaiba would have ended up in Slytherin or Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw. Yes, it must have something to do with the Plot, Thalia decided and settled right back down, smiling at Kaiba as he sat next to her and her friends collapsed into giggles. Thalia went back to watching the Sorting. Bakura and Marik both were Sorted into Slytherin. It wasn't a surprise, not really. Hadn't Kaiba told her they'd once tried to take over the world? Hadn't Bakura nearly succeeded, maybe better than her own father had? Then it was Anzu's turn.
"Hmm, strong sense of loyalty there. Quite loud, not afraid to voice your opinions," the Sorting Hat mused, "It must have taken guts to have a go at Kaiba when you did. Definitely brave, but again different from what would put you into Gryffindor. You prize friendship more than anything else, and that only leaves… HUFFLEPUFF!" the Sorting Hat shouted the last word to the whole school.
Anzu trying to do her best impression of gracefulness, got up swiftly from the Sorting Stool and strode confidently to the Hufflepuff House. She only hoped Joey would not be going there, too, else she'd have a lot of bad luck to contend with. Especially when in the last chapter, Joey had once again drawn the short straw. She suspected the Editor Behind the Scenes intervention, since the Editor Behind the Scenes had the tendency to play god, or goddess, in the Editor Behind the Scenes case.
Then it was Yu-gi's turn. Ultimately, the Editor Behind the Scenes had already chosen a House for him without needing the Sorting Hat to confirm it. But McGonagall called him up anyway, and the Sorting Hat had no choice.
"Well since your House has already been decided," The Sorting Hat said miserably, "You'll be In GRYFFINDOR! Though I think you should be joining your girlfriend in Hufflepuff."
"How has my House already been decided?" Yu-gi asked quickly before he went to the Gryffindor House.
"Because the Editor Behind the Scenes says it's essential to the plot," The Sorting Hat sulked.
So Yu-gi joined Harry and the trio in the Gryffindor House puzzling over what the Sorting Hat had told him. He paid not much attention to the fact that Joey had been Sorted into Hufflepuff, nor to the fact that he nearly tripped over every single table on the way to actually getting there. He was quiet through Umbridge's speech about how she was improving Hogwarts standards and that anyone who thought that You-Know-Who existed was a liar. Then he looked directly at Hermione and asked:
"If my being in Gryffindor is Plot related, how come everyone else got Sorted into a different house?" Yu-gi asked, "Surely it would make things more difficult to further any Plot related incidents."
"I personally don't know," Hermione said carefully, "But I think it's the Editor Behind the Scenes again. She's mentioned through all this chapter and the last one. I mean, usually in Parody Law, all of you should be in Gryffindor except Bakura and Marik who should be in Slytherin."
"So this is breaking Parody Law?" Ron asked stupidly.
"Yes," Hermione said simply, "But our Editor Behind the Scenes has had problems throughout the last four chapters. Apparently, it's the Originality Flaw."
"And that is what exactly?" Yu-gi asked now seriously interested.
"I don't know exactly," Hermione said surprising everyone, "But she has it. I think it's like a kind of sickness. It gets worse before it gets better. If she keeps on breaking Parody Law like this, she'll end up answering to the Department of Creativity who scorn all original thought and prefer keeping to the cliches. Well, that's if you're doing a Parody of course. However, if it's original, we wouldn't be seeing people like Thalia around much at all."
"You think we're going to see more people like Thalia?" Yu-gi asked dubiously.
"Quite possibly," Hermione concluded, "If the Editor Behind the Scenes doesn't want the Department of Creativity all over her arse, she's more likely to have these people flit throughout the Plot."
"So there are people more powerful than the Editor Behind the Scenes!" Harry exclaimed, "Thank god."
"Can't have everything being too original you know," Hermione answered firmly, "It'll ruin everything. That's why I expect we'll be seeing a lot of the Eighth Millennium Item and the Fourth God Card. You told me about them, remember Yu-gi? In the second chapter."
"Right," Yu-gi agreed begrudgingly as he and Harry went to the Gryffindor dormitory.
Ron and Hermione had to lead the first years to the dormitory for the first time, and Ron was complaining loudly about it.
Back at the Ravenclaw table Thalia was beginning to wonder why she'd broken up with Kaiba in the first place. It was her idea, too, which surprised her since in most Plot related instances he did the breaking up and telling her that she was much safer without him in her life. She wondered this even more as they went to the Ravenclaw tower, situated by the lake with an excellent view of the mountains and the lake. Then Thalia remembered before all this started that Kaiba drew the longest straw. Would it be possible that it had something to do with the Editor Behind the Scenes and everything that was involved with that mystery?
"What's wrong?" Kaiba asked her conveniently unaware that he wasn't supposed to care.
"Why did we break up?" Thalia asked him, "I remember fighting with you about something…"
"You weren't happy with the way I went about getting the Blue Eyes White Dragon cards," Kaiba said simply, "Threw a enormous fit about it as I recall. Then you said you'd never have anything to do with me ever again, which suited me just fine until now for some reason. I can only assume it's because of the Editor Behind the Scenes, again."
"Or it's magic," Thalia said trying to deny there was someone running her life after all the time she spent rebelling against authority.
Kaiba rolled his eyes as they came to a halt outside the Ravenclaw portrait. Thalia frowned, her features more beautiful than ever. Kaiba didn't know why he was doing it, but for some reason he kissed her. He was even more surprised when she kissed back, but got over it rather quickly. After a while they went into the Ravenclaw common room after answering the portraits question.
Author's Note: I thought this was a more than fitting way to end the chapter. Usually the relationship between Kaiba and the Mary Sue starts right about now, anyway. So there we go. Hope you're happy. Oh and the Department of Creativity might be having a look in on later chapters. I haven't heard from them yet so we'll carry on with the Plot, and hope they don't show else I'm gonna have to run and hide. Eep!
Thank you for your reviews, and to everyone who decided to put my story on alert! I have little emails sent to me that tell me these things, you see. Muwhahahahahahaha!