Stella: Yes, yes, I know, late update, and the next update won't be for a while yet. I got the box 1 of the subtitled version on order, and it's going to be here any day now.

Disclaimer: The only things here that are even marginally arguable mine/Wind's are the plot ideas and the OCCs like Jena. (Okay, and a couple of them a friend suggested...)

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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Darts

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Professor Dumbledore, now in the safety of his office, heaved a great sigh. He had forgotten what teaching was like… he should give the other professors a pay raise. A large pay raise. And make sure to let them have a great access to wine… or lesser; Dumbledore had yet to decide on that, just as he could not yet decide whether to have a drink from the bottle in front of him.

As though Fawkes had read his mind, the phoenix flew from the perch, to settle in front of the professor, his head cocked, wishing for a pet, and coincidently, the phoenix's head blocked Dumbledore's hand from the bottle of champagne.

"Little plotting bird," Dumbledore accused, but obliged stroking the soft, warm feathers. "I wasn't going to have much, only a glass…"

The phoenix's eyes bore through Dumbledore.

"Well, maybe two… Ah, you're right. I should have it later, after ever thing has been dealt with."

Fawkes gave him another hard glare.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Fine, none. As usual you have glared me out of it."

The phoenix, satisfied, hopped away from the bottle, and went back to the perch, to continue to preen.

Dumbledore continued to set out his lessons plans for the next month. As he struggled with the problem of when to teach the Stunning Spell, a rumpled owl nearly hurt itself when it attempted to knock on the window. Dumbledore undid the catch on the window and let it in.

Errol, the family owl of the Weasleys flapped feebly in. Tied to its leg was a letter.

Dumbledore unknotted the cord that held it and unrolled it, wondering what it could be.

Dear Professor,

A most unfortunate event has happened. It seems when we were at the train station yesterday; someone had broke into our house. The window that we had deliberately left unlocked had been opened and relocked. However, none of the other traps in the house were sprung, so it is presumed that the thief or thieves are skilled. Other than that, nothing seems to have been touched, which argues great skill on the part of the trespasser(s). The papers and books were in the same place, but as it has been mentioned before in this letter, this may mean nothing. The only thing that is missing seems to be a book that had been left in the bathroom, by Ryou Bakura. Molly swore she saw it before she went out to the car and no one else had gone into the bathroom after her. Mundungus has come to investigate, and of course we have not brought the matter to the light of the Ministry.

In your trust,

Arthur Weasley

Dumbledore put down the letter. The most concerning thing had been the fact someone had gotten in and had triggered none of the traps. The papers and books would tell them little, if anything. Dumbledore only knew that the spell had done something requiring a great amount of power. He had chosen to cast the ancient spell because it seemed as though there was little that could hurt them or the neutrals, such as the giants. The Death Eaters would figure out little from the papers; a reason Dumbledore let them remain so unguarded. With any luck it would confuse them as well.

However, Dumbledore was still uneasy that some of the spells, such as the one that was to record any unknown person in the house had not activated.

***

"Yugi," Malik said, entering the boy's dormitory, seeing no one else in there, he muttered, "How can you look for a damn hour and not find him?"

//Maybe you're not looking in the right places,// suggested Yami Malik.

Malik ignored him. He did not want to even think about his yami hard right then. All he wanted to do then was to talk to Yugi a bit about what they should tell Yugi's friends back in Japan. For some reason Malik thought they would likely not be comforted by the knowledge that he was also attending school with him. He doubted even more they would take reassurance in the fact the slept in the same room. The hints in Isis's letters were beginning to shape into a firm for-your-own-good command to be friends with them. Isis was also constantly reminding him to keep his temper and not do anything his yami said.

She is restating the obvious.

Malik continued to search for Yugi.

***

Malik's quarry had been nearly kidnapped by Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins. Still not believing that Yugi's hair could be natural, they had taken a dozen books about hair out of the library and were attempting to stack them on Yugi's head. However, each time, they slowly toppled off. Yugi had resigned himself to it and had become rather competent in reading a Potion's textbook at an odd angle. Sitting outside the library on one of the several chairs scattered about, when Malik had stalked by, he was an easy person to spot.

"Yugi, there you are," the Egyptian said and stopped.

Fred (or was it George? In uniform they were impossible to identify,) had just placed four books on Yugi's head, and predictably, they fell off.

"They want to see if it's natural," Yugi explained.

"Uh-huh," Malik looked at the books with raised eyebrows.

"Well, since you went to all this trouble to find me, I assume that you need to tell me something," Yugi said standing. He walked to where Malik stood and a bit farther, and Malik took the hint to fallow. After the where out of hearing range of the three troublemakers, "I was starting to get a headache," Yugi confided.

"Mh," Malik said, not really interested. He noticed another student walk their way down the corridor. "Hey," he said seeing it was Yami Bakura.

Yugi suddenly frowned. "Yami wants to have a talk now," he said, perhaps by way of explanation. Yugi's steps paused for a moment, and Yami took over.

"What is it?" asked Yami Bakura.

"For once it's something none of us did," snapped Yami.

"Grumpy, aren't we?" Yami Bakura commented.

"Was I the only one who understood that there seems to be a rather serious sentence for controlling someone…?" Yami said softly, and let the full implications dawn on them…

They stood looking at each other.

"Well, there goes any hope of true expectance here," Malik finally muttered, "This is absolutely wonderful."

Yami nodded.

"Library, I guess," Yami Bakura said darkly, "It'll give us something to do."

***

The three researched for almost two hours, pulling thick volumes on law of the shelves. Yami Bakura had already gotten into the librarian's poor graces by trying to enter the Restricted Section. Though the information about the forbidden part had been interesting, Yami Bakura had left it only. Law books contained laws, which needed to be known to be fallowed. Only one book about wizarding laws had been in the Restricted Section. It was about one of the big wizarding sports. Quitrech or something like that. As Malik returned from reshelving five books, Ginny Weasley found them.

"Good evening," she said.

"'Lo," said Yami Bakura, feeling rather defeated by the sheer amount of legal terms he had encountered.

"Interesting reading," Ginny commented, her tone clearly conveying that interesting meant rather dull.

"Mh," Yami nodded, and managed to pick up the rest of the tomes to put back. No need for her to see what type of law most of them specialized in.

"Came to find you all for dinner," Ginny explained.

"Oh, yeah," Malik said, "We should probably wait for Yugi."

"Yeah, I guess," Ginny agreed.

***

Dinner was about the same as the night before, but without the good china and the elaborate arrangements of the food. Yugi had taken over had two hamburgers and Malik salads. Yami Bakura had to be reminded to eat and had a rare steak.

That night had been relatively uneventful –so far– the boys unpacking, the only thing of any real importance that had happened, other than Yami Bakura setting up a dartboard at the foot of his bed, because he had already unpacked…and Malik and Dean striking up a conversation about alcohol…

Yugi had watched and listened with wide eyes, finally he spoke, "Malik, you speak like you've drunk vodka…"

It was Malik's turn to stare, "Yugi, saying that one type tastes better than another would sorta imply that."

"Um…but…" Yugi said and paused.

There was a soft terwup of 'Bakura' hitting the broad.

 Yugi stared at Malik taking no notice of the noise, a stubborn expression on his features, "I thought you…" Yugi trailed off, failing to find a way to gracefully say that 'knew drinking is bad or you' without sounding like a little kid.

"Isis won't let me," Malik said regretfully, interpreting Yugi's stammer as 'I thought you didn't drink much.' "So Rishid sneaks it to me."

"Isis was right," muttered Yugi to himself, "Rishid does need more of a backbone."

"What does your mother have to say about this," asked Ron.

Malik froze in the middle of unpacking his substantial wardrobe, and all that could be heard was the sound of Yami Bakura's darts making and impact on the board.

Malik's eye's glinted in the light cast by the dozens of candles that lit the room. "She died giving birth to me," he said softly.

"Oh…Well," he said, trying to lighten the mood, "What does your father have to say about it then?"

"Oh, him? He died when I was eleven," Malik said flippantly, sounding more cheerful. He began to refold on of his shirts.

Ron sensed though this was touchy subjected, Malik would be willing to talk about it and bear no grudge against him for bringing it up. "How?" he asked, still a little cautiously, for all his emotional sensing, as he knew he messed up often there.

"Well," said Malik, putting his now folded shirt away, and sliding the dresser door shut, "It's a long story." He sat down on his bed.

If anyone had not been hanging on to Malik's every word, they might have heard the study thumping noise of the darts stop.

"We lived in the Middle East… you or may not know about the various religious fanatics there, but I knew of them well, as my father was one."

Harry blinked; by the way Malik acted, he would have thought he came from a family with rather loose religious beliefs.

"He could have been termed…abusive… and mad to boot, but we couldn't o to much as he was our only relative… When I was eleven, my sister and I snuck away to a nearby town, Rashid had agreed to cover for us while we were gone, but Father found out. He thought it might put me in danger and beat Rashid, until he blacked out. What happened after that is a mystery. When Isis and I came back we found him dead." Malik stood up and continued to unpack, his face neutral.

The soft terwup noise started again.

"So," Malik said after a couple of minutes, "You where saying something about 'fire whisky'?"

Dean startled stammered for a moment and then began to speak normal, though a little shocked.

"Malik," Yugi said quietly again, but insistent.

Malik glared at Yugi. "Bakura, help me corrupt him a little."

"No," Yami Bakura said quietly, sighting down the dart he held, "I don't hold with drinking, it clouds much of common sense and your senses." He let the dart fly, and the seven other pairs of eyes fallowed it. Yami Bakura had been throwing his numerous darts in a pattern on the board; the pattern was an upside down pyramid, with and odd eye in the middle. The dart that had been last thrown had land in the very center of the eye, completing the pattern. "I doubt you could be me at this game," he said to both Yugi and the other Yugi as he retrieved the darts, and came to stand beside him and smirk.

Yugi snatched the darts from Yami Bakura's hands and threw them with unnatural and uncanny accuracy. Quickly they formed the shape of a bird, rising from something. "I wouldn't be so sure," he said placing his single unthrown dart in Yami Bakura's hand.

***

The next day's breakfast was uneventful, for real this time, and their first class was Transfiguration.

Yugi swallowed hard as they entered the classroom. This was going to be the first time they did wand work and he had almost forgotten it in the dormitory, which to him boded ill for this class. The only good thing about it was that he had met the Professor.

Professor McGonagall was already there and behind her desk when the entered. Slowly, people filtered in and she closed the door as the bell rang. After a quick roll call, she began to speak about the spells.

"Well, it's review as usual," she said, and passed out large bowls, to transform into a chicken.

Yugi looked at the dish in fount of him and then back at the blackboard. Okay, so he had the item and the spell was there, but he still wasn't positive how he used the wand even. However, McGonagall came back and walked the three though the process twice, and then let them do it on their own.

 Yugi seemed to have a natural gift for it…and once he thought about it, it made sense. He had always wondered why he seemed to have so many boots, but few tennis shoes. Yami Bakura and Malik were about average, and seemed to be able to keep up.

Satisfied, McGonagall nodded. "Well, now you seem at least a little competent."

Across the room, Neville declared the spell loudly, and some smoke accompanied a soft cuwth was part of the result. The other part was Neville's stone had been Transformed into a smoldering pile of feathers.

As McGonagall passed Yugi, he thought he heard her mummer "Probably more."

The next class was Charms; Malik had found it a great deal easier, while Yami Bakura struggled.

It too was review (Summoning and Banishing), and many students sent pillows and cushions flying to and forth in the room. Malik mastered it with in ten minutes.

Professor Flitwick clapped his hands in delight. "That is the fastest I've seen anybody learn it," he said happily.

It took another fifteen minutes for Yugi, but Yami Bakura had yet to even get a pillow half way to him.

"That's fine," Flitwick had said, "It often takes over a month to learn."

Yami Bakura did not seem at all comforted. Even Neville seemed to be doing better than him, though his aim was off.

"I always knew you weren't very charming," Malik said, to Yami Bakura as the cushion he had just attempted to summon went flew further away.

Somehow, Yami Bakura's skill improved dramatically; the cushion he banished after that hit Malik square in the face. 

Yugi giggled; when those two fought over something as innocent as that and not tactics that could hurt someone, it was funny.

Lunch was just sandwiches and salad. Because there was Astronomy class late that night, the rest of the afternoon was free.

"We got to go to the library," said Malik, after the three had finished eating.

"What?" said Yugi, who had been staring across the table. "Why?"

"Need to look something up, remember?" said Malik.

"Mumm, yeah…" said Yugi slowly.

"Good."

"I don't see why you dislike them so much, Hermione," said Ron, "A full break and what do they do? Go to the library."

"Be quiet."

Harry decided that this might not be the best time to tell her about the conversation of the night before.

The library seemed the same as before, dusty and with a librarian who did not trust students; the tomes of law remained the same as well, dull. The only bright side to any of it was that no girl showed up that could see what they were reading. However, perhaps one in the group considered it a pity…

***

Ginny sighed and paid little attention to what Dumbledore said, and it wasn't over Ryou.

Counseling.

Her parents --to be frank-- could not afford it, so she had never seen a therapist. Only what she had heard was what see knew, and often the stories had differed. She supposed since there were two counselors, she could always switch…

"Ginny," said Professor Dumbledore said, interrupting her reverie.

"Yes?" Ginny said, trying not to look startled.

"When your mother knits, does she say 'knit one, purl three,' and such?" he asked.

"Um, sometimes," Ginny said, completely failing to see what it had to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Does that answer your question, Henrietta?"

"Sorry, Professor, no," replied Ginny's fellow classmate.

Dumbledore smiled and explained his reasoning while Ginny began to space out again.

Counseling…Well, I'll know what's like tomorrow's late afternoon, Ginny decided.

By the time the bell rang, Ginny was the only one who was not confused (other than Professor Dumbledore).

Ryou…wonder where he would be…Ginny exited class, and set of to find him.

***

Yami Bakura had decided next time he was felt that his light needed to be taught a lesson, one of the more entering (to him of course) was to have him read these damn books. Or maybe he should just try and burn the library… okay, not the most practical idea, but still, it gave him something to think about besides those accursed pages…

Malik slammed his book shut hard, earning him a glare from the librarian. At least this time he didn't yell 'sorry' across the library. "That's all I'm going to read to day. God, I've read more interesting things in those damn papyruses."

"Well, if we don't look really closely, we might not see the loop hole," Yugi said.

Malik snorted.

Yami Bakura shoved his book aside. "We need the best lawyers in the world to wriggle out of it still," he muttered, switching the conversation into the Ancient Egyptian language, it was too easy to be over heard in there.

"Yugi could appeal to Kaiba telling him that having to visit a prison to duel his rival might not be the best of things," Malik suggested, also in Ancient Egyptian, taking Yami Bakura's hint.

Yugi, with Yami's help, figured out what to reply. "Good luck," he muttered in Ancient Egyptian, "You know how he feels about magic."

"Oh, yeah…" Malik said, "By the way, how did he take the news that you were going of to a school of magic?"

"I didn't tell him in person," said Yugi, "I just sent him an e-mail. His reply was something along the lines of that I was off on one of my little adventures and if I need help to try and get someone else first. The whole tone was rather scornful."

"Ryou told him personally," remarked Yami Bakura, "He thought it was rather silly and he just treated the matter like we were of to a boarding school, and his birthday present to my host early."

"Mh." Yugi said. He saw that it was a place that the subject could be changed and he had been rather curious about something, "Malik, that story you had told last night was rather…different from what I thought you'd end up telling."

"Well, it's technically true, most of it, and that was what the government was told, anyway. Once they had come up with a plausible explanation, Rishid as he was the closest thing to a living relative we had, so he was then our guardian."

"Though Rishid is your guardian," Yami Bakura pondered aloud, "He takes his orders from you, ones that could even kill him…hmm."

Malik glared. "I just remembered that I need to finish my letter to Isis." He left swiftly.

Yugi too glared at Yami Bakura. "Here's a little tip for getting along with people: use some tact," he said, almost disgustedly.

Yami Bakura glared back. His eyes then refocused on something past Yugi's shoulder. "Heads up, it's Ginny."

"What do you mean heads up? I like Ginny," asked Yugi hotly.

"The books?" suggested Yami Bakura.

"Oh!" Yugi quickly grabbed all the books on the table and rushed away, to reshelf them.

"Hi," said Ginny, sitting on the seat next to 'Bakura'.

"Afternoon," he said politely.

"Just had Defense class," she remarked. "Dumbledore was being his usual eccentric self."

"I read something about that once or twice, but I wasn't sure about its reliability."

"Dumbledore is off his rocker, but that's because he's floating above," Ginny said with wry smile. "Realistically though, I still can't see the connection between knitting and Defense…"

Yami Bakura shrugged. "Using the needles to gouge out their eyes?"

"I don't think that's what he meant."

"Back, Bakura," Yugi said, with two books under his arm. "Hello, Ginny. I got these." Yugi placed the two books on the table, Basic Spells for Fifth Years and So Your Fourth Year Exam Is In Five Days…

"You two trying to find some decent spells books to try and catch up?" asked Ginny after reading the books titles.

"Yep," Yugi replied.

"I could help, if you want," she added hurriedly.

"Thank you," said Yugi happily.

Yami Bakura could have hit Yugi by the time they actual got around to checking out the books; a dozen each, as if the law books weren't enough.

***

Malik strode through the hallways, checking to make sure he didn't get confused and go the wrong way to the Gryffindor tower.

//Why not? It would be an adventure,// said the little voice of darkness.

/BE QUIET!/

//Why?//

/Because you nearly wrecked my life, making me hate you, and deciding you're barely tolerable when you're quiet and even less when you talk! So shut up!/

Yami Malik frowned as he completely retreated to his soul room. His plan was faulting badly…

It could be said that Malik was also not at all in a good mood. It was rather amazing he didn't snarl at Harry as they passed, and even managed a polite 'hello'.

"'Lo," replied Harry. "What are you doing right now?"

"Trying to get back up to the tower," Malik said.

"Well, then you might want to know that you're going in the wrong direction," Harry said.

"Oh."

"You and I can head back up now together, I just finished my errand."

As the walked up the second flight of stares, Harry cleared his throat and shot a glance at Malik, and then said nothing. Once they neared the end of the stairs, Harry cleared his throat again, but once more said nothing.

"Well, say it," said Malik, getting fed up.

"Um, well, I what I'm about to say might seem a little offensive but," Harry said quickly.

"Oh, just say, you probably have more act than some people I know."

"Okay…" Harry took a deep breath, "I know it seems like what you said about your family last night seemed to have little impact on the other guys, no questions and such."

"Yeah," Malik said, "I usually get at least one."

"Um, yeah. Anyway, only Seamus has one muggle parent and he doesn't watch the news much, so what you said didn't hit a trigger really."

"Ah, but what about you? You've used a couple of expression which seem rather 'muggle' to me."

"My parents died when I was a baby, and I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle," Harry explained. "They completely abhorred magic."

"I know the type," Malik muttered, "Says it isn't real and such."

"They admit it's real, if you press them, but they hate it."

"Must be hard for you."

"They've had a grudge against me from day one," he said.

Slowly, he told Malik about his childhood, and occasionally, Malik made remarks about his own how it compared to his own.

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Wind: *reading a book and looks up* Stella, chapter's over. *looks around and then out a window* She is outside, waiting for it to be delivered. She thinks it might come today, and she thought so as well yesterday. -_-u My turn to do the review responses.

Review Reponses for Twenty-Seven:

DHASN, ze love machina, demon_shadow18b, Lily of the Shadow, and Curtis Zidane Ziraa: Thanks!

chrispy: Thank you!

 Blood Aura: No, no OCCs other than ones like Jena and such.

 yami chip: Okaaayyy...

Ice-Spirit Phoenix: Thanks for reviewing now!

yesim@-flamesofeternaldarkness: Yes, poor guys. *smothered laughs*

C.M Aeris Queen of Insanity: Yeah, Stella has that problem sometimes too.

Ryuu no Furui Yami: No, we aren't, but I must complement you on your user name.

 Dark-necrophhia666: They might, but's going to take something drastic... Go Bakuras!

Ryou Bakura Obsessor: Didn't quiet get that, but thanks.

Lyn/Lin: Yeah, it's a good thing. The reason that Shadi and Isis were laughing was because they had recently threatened Yami Bakura and had found it very funny… It was Stella's idea, so don't blame me! Bakura is a good actor, but his yami has very high standards.

BakaNeko-Chan: This one didn't get up so soon, sorry. It was from the fifth book, one of things for an OWL...it was elaborated on some.

AG the master: You're welcome!

Cettie-girl: Only problem would be that it would damage them...then again...

Windswift: *grins* They had! I'll e-mail me at some point about the song, when the story begins to near the summer, 'kay?

Stella: *still standing at the mailbox, mail truck comes and Stella comes back to the house a bounce* IT"S HERE! *runs to the DVD player and begins playing them.*

Review Reponses for Twenty-Eight:

AG the master: Yeah...

Raven Scorne: It's fine and White Angel's is still longer. This is being continued.

Dragona 2007: I haven't seen it before either, but then again now only five or six is the number of HP fanfics that Stella keeps up with.

Pegasus' Niece: *smiles* I probable would have guessed it was you, Stella would say high, but you can't get her away from the DVD player... Hope to see you soon (but not your yami).

yesim@-flamesofeternaldarkness: Cool about the birthday song. Nice rant. And long reviews are good!

C.M Aeris Queen of Insanity: So do Stella and I.

Blood Cat: I only watch it now to make fun of it, mostly. NEED TO GET BOX 4!!! Ryou's soul room has its reasons.

YAMI CHIP: Yep, chess is always quite a bit more fun that way!

Cettie-girl, Ryou Bakura Obsessor, Delphine Pryde, Curtis Zidane Ziraa, Sarah, and Windswift: Thank you~!

Mavelus: Thanks, glad to have hooked you!

Cherry-San: Yeah, we have a soft spot for McGonagall.

Stella: And I thought they edited the knife out a lot… Wind, come here, just look at this. Seto's using his cards. Oh my gosh… the end song is LOADED with meanings…

Wind: *watches it the song* Stella, GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER.

Stella: It's in the shower, really…