A.N. And here is the next chapter! Sorry for the wait
Disclaimer: YGP and HP not mine. If it were I wouldn't be writing this now would I?
Chapter 21
"I…am dreaming," Malik said slowly as he stared up at the giant, metallic dragon.
;;Want me to pinch you?;;
;No, thank you, I don't.;
"This has to be a nightmare," Ryou groaned, "there is a Cyber Dragon in our school's great hall…"
The dragon lifted its great head and roared, shaking the very stone beneath their feet.
"Sorry Ryou," Yugi said slowly, "but I don't think this is a dream."
The three hikaris leaped out of their seats just as a blast of power lanced from the metallic dragon's open jaws to splinter the far end of their table and the entire hall erupted into screams and incoherent shouts. Students were scrambling off of the benches like people who had just sat down on hot coals, confusion clearly evident in their faces. Then the Hufflepuff table shattered in the middle, sending golden dishes laden with Halloween specials smashing to the floor.
"Stupefy!" someone shouted from amidst the mayhem and a thin jet of red light shot towards the dragon's pointed head—looking ridiculously tiny in comparison to the creature's bulk—only to bounce off of its armor and soar towards the imitation sky and knock a chittering bat from the air.
"Okay, this is beyond weird," Ron gasped, staring with eyes as round and almost as large as saucers. "I've never even heard of a dragon that looked like that!"
"That is hardly the point!" Hermione snapped, seizing a hold of the redhead and Harry's sleeves and dragging them away from the rapidly splintering tables. "What is a dragon of any kind doing breaking into the castle? And how in the world did it get in here in the first place?"
"Simple," Ron pointed at the gaping hole in the side of the great hall, "it blasted its way in."
"But the castle must have wards," Harry frowned, plunging his hand into his pockets in frantic search of his wand. "Why isn't anyone doing anything?"
"The teachers are, but—" Hermione cut herself off with a scream as the ceiling above their heads exploded in a shower of blinding sparks and massive chunks of the sky dislodged themselves to come tumbling downward. Ron let out a strangled, gurgling sound as he froze in place, but Harry whipped out his wand and pointed it at the falling pieces of ceiling.
"Wingardium leviosa!" he shouted, focusing with all his might on the spell. There was a split second where nothing happened and he seriously thought that he was about to be crushed before he could even graduate from school, but then the falling chunks of stone came to a halt in midair. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he moved his wand slowly and watched as the levitating pieces of ceiling drifted gradually sideways before finally setting down on the ground.
Beside him Ron emitted a small squeak that sounded halfway between relief and pure shock before literally keeling over in a dead faint.
X
"Stupefy!"
Another jet of crimson light streaked towards the dragon's head, aiming for its eyes, but it jerked backward at the last moment and the spell bounced off of its snout. Letting out an ear-splitting screech and threw itself into the great hall, its great, metallic body literally splintering the first table it came in contact with. Dishes and glasses went flying to shatter haphazardly on the floor and the bats squealed. Wheeling around the creature's head in a great swarm of small, furry wings, they turned their heads towards the gaping hole in the wall and soared out into the night in one massive, chattering flock.
"We have to send it back to the shadow realm!" Yugi exclaimed, scrambling over a piece of what looked like one of the long benches they had previously been seated on.
"Aw, but this is so entertaining!" Malik grinned.
"Malik!" Ryou looked at him in horror. "You can't be serious! It's going to destroy the school at this rate!"
"Okay, okay!" holding up his hands defensively, the Egyptian laughed. "I was just kidding, no need to look so horrified."
;;You were kidding?;; Ishtar repeated, sounding rather disappointed. ;;But I thought it would be so entertaining…!;;
;Well, I said I was kidding, I didn't say I didn't agree.;
Even as they spoke a swath of candles were obliterated by a deflected reduction spell. Feeling a rising sense of urgency, Yugi jumped over a spreading puddle of someone's soup and made a beeline for the dragon.
"What does he think he's doing?" Professor McGonagall exclaimed as she pulled off her hat—it had caught fire due to the falling candles she had not managed to avoid—and fumbling in her robes for her wand as her sharp eyes stared in a mixture of horror and anger at the Japanese boy running at the dragon—at! Not away! She had thought the students would have more sense! Well, maybe not Potter's gang, but at least they had had the sense not to get too close this time around! "Albus! We have to stop him!"
"Them!" she corrected her self, spotting familiar heads of white and blond hair following their friend's irresponsible example. Where had her dratted wand gone!
Beside her, Dumbledore frowned slightly, a thoughtful look in his eyes, "You know Minerva, I do believe we are about to discover something."
"Discover!" she repeated incredulously, shooting him a venomous glare. "Discover what? How a monstrous dragon gets its first meal of Hogwarts' students! That's what!"
"Calm yourself, Minerva," the wizard smiled slightly, though she noticed that his hand was stashed in his pocket—where it was presumably holding hi sward. "And watch."
By this time the metallic dragon now coiled just inside the massive hole it had blasted in the side of the great hall let out a piercing screech and focused its enraged eyes on the three tiny figures who dared to approach it. Rearing its head back, it opened its great jaws and yet another burst of pure power lanced through the air, searing violet after images into the eyes of all those present.
Panicking, Ryou fumbled at where his deck was tucked securely in the card case attached to his belt. Snatching the first card that came to his hand, he braced his feet and held it flung it up into the air.
"Negate!"
The card spun in the air for a moment before being engulfed by white light. An instant later the air itself seemed to twist as though some great force had taken the material of the world itself and was sucking it away. The Cyber Dragon's attack wavered for a moment then began to spiral through the air as yet more lances of light shot out from a single, indefinable point. Then it all twined together in a dazzling display of light before vanishing with an abruptness that left the hall breathless.
Even the dragon looked surprised.
Then the flash of light returned to Ryou's hand and formed itself back into the shape of a card before solidifying to reveal the picture of three spiraling beams of light framed in purple.
"Hey Ryou," Malik chuckled into the ensuing silence, "I think you've gotten faster!"
Looming above them, the dragon didn't look quite as amused.
"Cyber Dragon," Yugi murmured to himself, pulling out his deck."
:Attack points 2100, defense 1600.:
:Right.:
X
"What in the world…" Harry stared as the light spots in front of his eyes cleared slowly. "What's going on!"
"Oh, I don't know," Hermione sounded somewhere between extremely nervous and awed, "but…I think…well…I don't know…those look kind of like those playing cards…" but she trailed off, eyes uncertain.
The entire great hall seemed to be holding its breath, unable to look away from the three tiny figures standing before the massive, gleaming coils of the dragon. Even as they watched they saw Yugi raise what looked like another card, similar to the one Ryou had held up earlier, and though they heard something they couldn't tell exactly what he was saying. What they could see was the flash of golden light that burst from the card as a figure clad in purple robes materialized in the hall. Then there was another explosion of light, and by the time they could all see again both the dragon and the person from the card had vanished, leaving behind nothing but gaping mouths, a wrecked hall, and the massive hole in the side of the great hall that looked out into the darkness of the night and a deep, star spangled sky.
x-X-x
The thick, purple and black mists swirled around him as he made his way carefully through their midst, all his senses alert as he analyzed the fluctuating ripples of power infused into the air. It was like moving through nothingness, in a sense, for even though one could walk there didn't seem to be a ground—or anything else for that matter. All that could be truly noted as being substantial was the energy.
It was darker, deep, powerful, and ancient, pulsing like the heartbeat of some formless monster.
But its rhythmic throbbing had been disrupted as a far away tremor raced through the shadows—somehow conveying great distance in a place where there was no such thing as space and time.
Frowning slightly, Shadi glanced around, though he already knew he wasn't going to see anything. Reaching up unconsciously to touch the large, golden key dangling around his neck, he shook his head.
"You cannot locate it either."
Turning, he acknowledged the winged serpent hovering beside him with a short nod, "I can sense that great force has been exerted in some place far from our current location. However, what the purpose of that force was I cannot say. Nor can I determine the exact place of its effect upon the material realm."
Letting out a soft hiss, the Wingendi turned her head towards the swirling walls of darkness, luminous yellow eyes thoughtful.
A sudden jolt of power set off alarms in the guardian's mind, followed shorty by currents of brilliant blue light that swept through the shadows like rapid ripples over a dark lake. Spinning in the direction of the disturbance's source, Shadi drew up a shield before concentrating his attention on the energy readings.
A spell and a summoning…followed shortly by first one then another banishing…
Blue eyes snapped open and traded startled looks with bright, reptilian ones before he raised his hands quickly and held them as though he was going to form a circle around the Millennium Key. A bright, golden light flared around said item and in the blink of an eye the shadows were left deserted once more.
And the darkness crept back in, seeping through the atmosphere in no great hurry to retain dominance over its age-old domain. It could never be disturbed here for long, after all.
This was the realm of shadows, where nothing but shadows could ever reign supreme.
x-X-x
-((Absolutely brilliant move, oh great Pharaoh,))- Bakura's sarcastic tones rang through all of their minds as the hikaris—the threat of being incinerated by an unexpected visit from an unhappy Cyber Dragon vanquished—suddenly remembered that they were not the only living beings dwelling in the castle's great hall. It was not a pleasant thing to remember. -((And you have the nerve to go around telling us not to give ourselves away. Ha! Hypocrite.))-
-:Be quiet, Tomb Robber:- Yami snapped back angrily. -:Protection os the innocent is a vastly different matter from theft and irresponsible brandishing of powers for delight and useless vengeance.:-
-((Ooh, touchy aren't we?))-
-(Bakura,)- Ryou prodded anxiously, looking from the students slowly coming out from behind their various barricades to the teachers now making their way towards them with distinctly purposeful strides, -(stop needling him. We have a problem…)-
-((I was just pointing out whose fault that would be,))- the tomb robber sniffed. -((It's not my fault the Pharaoh can't control his temper.))-
-:Tomb Robber:-
-;;Touchy touchy,;;- Ishtar laughed and a merrily maniacal manner that reminded them all that he wasn't quite sane—not that they needed reminding.
-:Ryou has a point you guys:- Yugi hopped in quickly before the argument could really get started. -:It looks like we're gonna have a lot of explaining to do…:-
-;Not necessarily,;- Malik pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone of voice as he reached into his pocket to finger his Millennium Rod. -;There are…ways, to avoid answering uncomfortable and unpleasant questions.;-
-(…Why does that not strike me as a good solution?)-
-((I could always erase their memories,))- Bakura suggested, trying to sound helpful though they could all hear the evil grin he had to be wearing.
-:We can't. I mean, it'd be impossible to explain why there's a gaping hole in the wall and the dishes are all broken—not to mention the mess. I mean, the school has to have wards against that kind of thing being caused by student pranks.:-
-;;You never know. And anyways, wouldn't it funny to see all their confused little faces?;;-
-:…No, it wouldn't…:-
-:We must tell the truth:- Yami declared, sounding like he very much wished to glare at his fellow yamis. -:Lies and deceit only result in stronger webs and worse problems in the future.:-
-((Pah, that just means you're not a very good liar.))-
-:That is hardly a skill to be proud of.:-
-((Skill is skill.))-
-;I'll have to agree there!;- Malik grinned.
Ryou sighed, -(You guys—)-
-:Time's up:-
They all snapped back to reality, only to find themselves face to face with…well…just about everyone…
TBC
A.N. Ah well…so, what do you think? …Not quite what I was expecting it to be like, but I hope you liked it!