OMG! Can it be? Not only another update, but one only a week after the last update? What is the world coming to? Jk. So, I posted the chapter last week, and then I decided, hey, I can save some time and stress if I write chapters and wait to post them! So, that's what I did. I Have up to Chapter 14 typed and finished, so this will be lasting you until hopefully the week of Christmas if I only post one a week. ^_^ And now, my review replies to my lovely readers! ^_^
xDarklightx: Thanks! ^_^ I appreciate the review. And here's the update!
Phobias Athena: Awww, don't you like my cliffies? Jk, I know none of you like them. Thanks for the review! ^_^ And I'm glad you like the story!
moonlightskymist: Yeah, you will in the future. And in one of the previous chapters there was Ryou too with his Divination skills as well. Thanks for taking time to review! ^_^
Misting Rain: Well, you see Ron's reaction this Chapter! ^_^ And yeah, it was him at the end. I'm glad you liked the chapter and thanks for the review! ^_^
LightDarkandChaos: Well, you find those kind of people in the world. With Ryou in Divination, I predict him doing very well, and seeing as I'm the writer, I'm probably write. ^_^ kukuku- I made a pun there. right-write? Get it? Ha-ha... yeah, it was lame... Thanks for the review though!
j bear: That's funny. ^_^ I haven't seen the vid for it in a while, but I know that's how it starts off. Kitty Amane... Hmm... Kitty Ryou (seeing as they're twins)... Hmmm... Interesante... Thanks for the review!
Vi: Glad you like my story. I really enjoy writing it. You may be reading it in your room, yet, I am stuck writing it in my living room. Well, here's the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing!
mishirosan: Go with your japanese course then. I'm just saying that that's what I know the word to mean. Yet, I am not the ultimate Japanese speaker, so go with you Jap course. But in here it is just plain brother. I apologize in advance if it is going to bother you, but for the record, it isn't going to appear that often anyway in future chaps anyways... Thanks for the review!
Blagk: ...Alright then. Thanks for reviewing. u-.-
Shayala: Yeah... Well the letter thing was just to deliberately annoy their mom ('cuz to be honest, I deliberately annoy my mom from time to time.) And yeah, Amane is going to get less in future chapters as we see more from Ryou and Malik. Amane in the beginning was really to get her character set up so she wouldn't be introduced and then ignored for chapters to come until she really had her part in it. Thanks for the review and the CC. I appreciate it when CC is phrased like you phrased it! ^_^
Uchiha Kiara: Thanks! ^_^ I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you for reviewing.
justarandomNightWorldfan: Yeah, I agree. That's why I slipped it in there. Yet, you will see other pairings pop out. ^)^ Thank you for reviewing!
Thank you all for reviewing! You do not understand how much I appreciate you all for taking time out of your busy (or not busy) lives to read this. It means a lot to me, especially seeing as I'm pretty sure I don't have a very good grade in my English class... (I'm blaming the book we're reading and the fact that our interpretations aren't really our interpretations, they're what the teacher and Spark Notes interpret it as...)
And, one of the kids in my class was found out to be using Spark Notes on the book and we made a Spark Note flower out of it while he was in the bathroom. ^_^
I digress though. Enjoy the Chapter! ^_^
\Bakura to Ryou\
/Ryou to Bakura/
[Yes, I know I changed it... I didn't like it the other way...]
Disclaimer: I only own the story idea. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.
The Rat scurried across the market place as fast as he could. He had seen one of the palace cats lazing about, but he felt certain that she was going to corner him as soon as she could. And it wasn't just any palace cat that was lazing about- it was that one. The Curious Cat. While the other cats contented themselves to what the Rat supposed cats did, the Curious Cat was always sticking her nose where it didn't belong.
Pausing a moment, the Rat watched as a shadow that wasn't his loom over him. He reacted instantly, darting to the left, as the Curious Cat pounced where he had been moments earlier. The Rat couldn't help but to stop and laugh at the Curious Cat.
"Better luck next time!" He laughed, disappearing through a rat hole in the nearest building.
Chapter 12: In Which The Curious Cat Suspects A Rat
"Sounds pretty hardcore for a rivalry," Ryou commented finally once Ron and Harry had finished their explanation on the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. "I didn't think people would go that far to win."
\And all Shadow Games are are little girls putting on dresses and having tea parties.\ Bakura snorted in the back of Ryou's mind.
/Yami!/ Ryou whined plaintively in their shared mind. /You know what I meant!/
"I think it sounds fun," Amane shrugged from her spot between Harry and Ryou.
"Fun?" Ron echoed, disbelieving, and Amane nodded.
"Yeah. At Beauxbatons all houses were against one another." She explained. "It was all you could do to protect your classmates and friends. You could barely go a class period without having a hex-attempt made on you. We're a pretty vindictive bunch over there- 'specially with all the Veela."
"So you're all for the rivalry?" Ron asked, and Amane nodded.
"Sure, why not?" Amane answered.
"What about you mate?" Ron asked, looking over at Ryou. "Are you for it too?" Ryou shook his head.
"Nah," He replied. "I don't much care for rivalries like this one." /But you probably think it's funny./
\And what if I do?\ Bakura snarked back.
"'Like this one?'" Harry asked. "What do you mean?"
"W-Well," Ryou said, suddenly nervous. "I happen to game. The rivalries there happen to be quite…" Ryou struggled to find the right word. "Something." Saying that reminded Ryou just how oddly he missed it when Bakura made snide remarks about Yugi's Yami every other minute.
"Gaming? How bad can that be?" Ron snorted.
"You'd be surprised," A voice popped up from the side, causing Ron to jump.
It was Hermione and Malik, Malik grinning mischievously- it was obviously he who had spoken.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked in turn for his friend who had decided glaring at the blond Slytherin would be a wonderful idea.
"Just that," Malik shrugged. "The rivalries between some people in the gaming world are intense. You wouldn't believe what we've seen~ ne Ryou?"*
"Right," Ryou nodded, the two ignoring the confused looks from the other four.
The clock chimed the hour, and Malik started, as if he remembered something.
"That's right," He said, "Ryou, I need to talk to you about something later."
And the glow in his lavender eyes and the tone of his voice told Ryou and Bakura that he knew.
But how?
X.x.X.x.X
The two stood in an empty classroom that evening after supper. They stood across from each other, eyeing each other with indistinguishable emotions swirling in their eyes.
/How did he figure it out? It's only been two days…/
\Your sister probably told him, brat. I knew you shouldn't have trusted her.\
/Yami! Amane wouldn't do that…/ But Ryou wasn't even convincing himself. Could his sister really have ratted him out? Why would she do that to him? He trusted her!
Then, at once, they both started speaking, their voices intermingling over one anothers.
"Look Ryou, about the Items-"
"Malik, I wanted to tell you-"
They both stopped short, words dying on their lips, eyeing the other with confusion evident in both sets of eyes.
"What?" They asked together, before going on in unison in this fashion. "You first. No you." They both sighed, aggravated.
"Malik, you go first," Ryou said, an odd tone about his voice that made him (Ryou) wonder if it was really him talking, or if it was Bakura.
"Alright…" Malik hesitated, before looking towards the door, as if checking to make sure that they were truly alone. "Well-"
But Malik was cut off as the door was opened and a girl from Ravenclaw popped her head into the room.
"Hey you two," She snapped in a bossy tone that made Ryou believe that she was either a prefect or Head Girl, "Curfew is in five minutes. If you don't want detention I'd recommend going back to the dungeons. Now."
Ryou smiled sympathetically as the girl tapped her foot impatiently, holding the door open. It was obvious that she wasn't going to leave until they left.
"We can always talk later." He offered, and Malik snorted stomping past.
'Yeah,' He grumbled. 'Later.'
\Yandounishi, why do you have to be such a wimp?\ Bakura snarled. \What if what Malik had to say to us was important?\ Ryou sighed.
/Yami, you do realize that we are in the same house as Malik, right?/ Ryou asked. /If it's really important, Malik will probably tell us in the morning./
X.x.X.x.X
"I'm telling you mate, Ryou's bloody weird!" Ron protested as soon as Amane had retired for the night. (He figured it was wise not to talk about the girls' brother while she was present.)
"Come now Ron, he isn't that bad." Hermione scolded him. "What could possibly be wrong with him?"
"We were in Divination today," Ron started, Hermione scoffing at the mere mention of the subject, "And we're starting palmistry. I had to be his partner." The last part was a moan.
"So?" Hermione asked patiently. "What was so wrong about being his partner?"
"Well," Ron said. "He stared at my hand for five minutes, then he looked at me with these freaky red looking eyes and told me I would see a ring and die seven days later."**
"Honestly Ronald," Hermione started before hesitating a moment, something crossing her mind. "Don't you think he might've been kidding?"
"Kidding? 'Mione, who kids about someone dying?" Ron snapped back. Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes.
"You can be so childish," She huffed, gathering her stuff up and stalking her cat-like way up the stairs.
Ron spluttered from his spot in the arm chair, while Harry watched her go with a small thoughtful look on his face.
Snapping the curtains shut to her bed, Hermione fell back clutching her pillow.
Red eyes?
Ryou's were brown, like Amane's…
None of this added up…
Ryou and Amane had seemed normal enough when they first met, but now… Along with the Malik Ishtal… None of this was making sense…
Red eyes…
Black eyes…
Odd behavior…
Evasive…
Sadistic smirk…
Red and Black eyes…
Odd and Evasive behavior…
Sadistic looking smirk…
Red and Black eyes with odd and evasive behavior and a sadistic looking smirk…
Just who (or what) are these transfers?
X.x.X.x.X
[B O N U S _ S C E N E] ***
"Oh, blimey," Ron muttered to himself. "How could I get into this mess?"
"Trust me Weasel, I don't want to be in this situation either." Malfoy snapped back.
"Smile Darcy!" Ryou and Amane laughed, a camera light flashing as Harry and Hermione shook their heads in distaste as Malik laughed in the background.
\I can't believe you two did that to your own cousin,\ Bakura grinned. Maybe there was hope for his yandounishi. Maybe.
What, you're asking, exactly was the commotion?
Ron and Malfoy were handcuffed together.
How, you might ask?
That's something we'll never know how it happened. (Though it's most likely a product of the twins' boredom)
What we do know, is that the pictures found their way to every seat in the Great Hall the next morning, and everybody was talking about it for the next month to come.
[E N D _ B O N U S _ S C E N E]
X.x.X.x.X
*This is a personality quirk I imagine Malik has. If he doesn't, then he now has it. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to check right now…) (Ne means right/alright in Japanese as far as I know, but I 'm just viewing it as personality quirk...)
**The Ring reference, anybody? :-D
***Because I felt I was being really mean to you guys. (This was supposed to be the unseen scene of Ryou reading Ron's palm, but then a picture entered my head, and I decided to narrate that instead. [Please Note That This Scene Didn't Really Occur \Well, at this point in time, anyways… ;-)/])
So, how was the chappie? A bit on the short side, I know, but you got a bonus scene! That has to count for something, right?
...Yeah I know... But if any of you are RonxMalfoy lovers, you gotta like that implication, right? No? (Okay, 'cuz I just made up that pairing on the spot...)
So, you know the deal~ Read, Review, and I will see you in one week! (Yes, I know, before I couldn't promise one week, but I swear! I have two more chapters done! Pregunta la amiga mia, sabe... I mean, ask my friend, she knows!)
Read and Review!
~~Paw-Chan Signing Out~~
P.S.~ I love you all! ^_^