Author's Notes: MAJOR APOLOGIES TO ANGEL REAPER! Whose review I read after I had put the 8th chapter up and couldn't congratulate her on getting one of the worlds right. Gomen! As well, I saw what you said about the cards, Dumbledore saw them before Madam Pomfrey was taken, so at that time, there were four empty cards. Well spotted, though! ^-^ I'm just warning you, there's a bit of violence in this chapter, but not that much. I'll be responding to all the reviews in the next chapter, okay? Read on!

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and Kazuki Takahashi (thank you, flamedramongirl!) created Harry Potter and Yu-Gi-Oh, not me.

Chapter 9: The Right World at Last

The next day, everyone was too gloomy to talk to pretty much anyone. Everyone was too upset that Hogwarts was closing down even though a maniac was running amok. Some people were worried about affording to go to other schools, Beauxbatons, for one was a very expensive.

Everyone packed up all their school things and began to file out of the castle. It was going to be another half an hour before the train arrived, but everyone wanted out as soon as they could. Harry, Ron and Hermione were at the back of the line. All of a sudden, Hermione slapped her forehead in realization.

"I just remembered! I left Hogwarts: A History in the Gryffindor Tower! I'll be right back!" Hermione ran off, leaving her luggage behind.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in confusion.

"Should we go after her?" Harry said.

"We bloody well should!"

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Hermione stepped into the Gryffindor Tower and looked around frantically. How on earth could she, Hermione Granger, misplace a book? How come no one else found it?

She looked under the tables, on the chairs, and everywhere else she could think of. All of a sudden she felt a cold chill run down her spine. Hermione looked up suddenly. She had a distinct feeling she wasn't alone.

Her head twitched in every direction, trying to find out where the other occupant was. She looked every which way, trying to find a sign of other life.

Out of nowhere two hands reached out and gripped her fiercely by the neck. Hermione tried to let out a scream, but it only came out as an indistinct sound from her throat. The soul-snatcher was strangling her.

The invisibility cloak fell off him. "Where is he?" he demanded.

Hermione only managed to gasp, "Who?"

"Potter, where is he?" He tightened his grip on her throat.

Hermione couldn't talk anymore; it was a big enough job to breathe. He let go of her throat, grabbed her by her hair and dragged her across the room to an open window as she coughed and choked. To her surprise he lifted her up and out the window, holding her up by her ankles.

"Tell me where he is!" he said dangerously, his threat too clear for words. Hermione wouldn't answer for all the gold in Gringotts. For one thing, she was too loyal to Harry to do so, and she was too scared to reply.

"Hey – WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!!!!" Hermione could recognize that voice anywhere.

"HARRY! RON! HELP ME!" she cried desperately. She could see the soul-snatcher's face crack into a smirk.

"Now that you're here, Potter, I have no use for this!" with that said, he let go of Hermione, her screams filling the air.

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Yami turned to Tristan. "It's your turn to chose the door again."

Tristan thought for a moment, then said, "You guys, all this time we've been going to the right of our door."

"Yeah…"

"Well, maybe Evil Bakura went to the left, not the right. I'm sure he wouldn't go back this far just to go in a door."

"You know Tristan, you may be correct," Yami said, calculating the possibilities.

"Does that mean we have to go all the way back again?" Mokuba asked.

"We have to, if that's the right door."

They all eventually found their way to their door again. Tristan picked the first door on the left.

"Come on, let's hope we're not too late."

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Harry was ready to tackle the man, right then and there (Ron looked the same way) but something nailed his feet to the ground. He tried to run forward, but his legs wouldn't respond. There was something so incredibly insane about this man that made him to scared to move. Even the sound of Hermione's screams didn't propel him forward.

"Finally, the last soul I need," the man said, moving closer to them. Ron took out his wand and tried to curse him, but it had no effect. "Even if your magic does limit my own, you cannot use it against me." He turned to Harry once again. "At least you'll die knowing you bought my freedom, Potter. Isn't that a comforting thought?"

He was about to make his move when suddenly a group of people entered the room through what seemed like a hole in the air. The soul-snatcher backed away in shock. Who in the world are they? Harry wondered.

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Hermione clenched her eyes tight as she screamed. But instead of the air rushing past her head in acceleration, she stopped in mid air. Hermione opened her eyes to see herself being pulled back up to the window by some invisible force. What?

Slowly she rose (right side up now) to the window, and floated back in. There she saw the strangest people. The soul-snatcher was backed against the wall in shock staring at the group of people. The one with the oddest hairstyle she had ever seen had a medallion too, only shaped like a pyramid. He was staring at her and his medallion glowed faintly until her feet touched the ground. Ron and Harry's face were a mix of relief and shock.

"What's going on?" she said breathlessly.

All of a sudden Yami Bakura got the most crazed look in his eye. He burst out, "I don't care if you're here, Yugi, nothing's stopping me from stealing his soul!" He made his medallion glow again, much faster than he ever did before, but it stopped abruptly.

A blond boy with the strange group had punched Yami Bakura in the eye before he could finish. The boy with the tri-coloured hair approached Yami Bakura, who could only stare up weakly at him through a bruised eye.

"You don't deserve a second chance, Yami Bakura. Your plan failed. The only place you'll be going is the Shadow Realm," the boy said as his medallion shed a brilliant light that blinded everyone for a moment, then died down.

When the light faded the innocent boy with all the bruises and cuts was lying where the soul-snatcher had been. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked from one another to the strangers. Finally they got their question off their chests.

"Who are you?"

It looked like they were about to answer when Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, and Delacour came rushing up the stairs and surveyed the scene.

"What 'appened 'ere?" Fleur said, looking around the room.

The tall brown-haired boy with the blue trench coat said in a monotonous voice, "You might as well explain it all in one breath, Yugi."

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Eventually the whole story was spilled out by three parties: the bruised boy, the people from nowhere, and Harry himself.

Dumbledore sent an owl to the Ministry while the Professors kept the children from boarding the train and herded them back into the castle. Cornelius Fudge himself came with several Ministers to hear the story for themselves. In the end, it was decided that Hogwarts School would not be shut down.

Harry, Ron and Hermione got the privilege of seeing the strangers (whose names were Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Mokuba and Seto) resurrect the victims. It was quite a sight to see souls zooming out of cards and back into their bodies. Although in Myrtle's case, it simply returned to the girl's toilets.

The good Bakura (for that was his name) was healed immediately by Madam Pomfrey, and not one person blamed him at all for the things his other self did.

There was the biggest celebration Hogwarts had ever seen that night. All the victims were welcomed back with a huge round of applause, and the strangers joined the feast as well. Yugi (who also seemed to be two people in one, and was now a shorter, more innocent looking version of himself) was sitting beside Harry. He was getting questions from everyone within his earshot.

"So," Harry asked, taking a bite of a chicken leg, "how did the soul-snatcher get here in the first place?"

Yugi looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Yami said that souls in the Shadow Realm can't find their way to the doors without being summoned to that world, so we're assuming someone brought him here." Almost instantly Harry, Ron and Hermione's jaws dropped.

"So – you mean," Harry said, keeping his voice down, "someone brought him here?"

"But who would do that?" Ron wondered aloud.

Aren't I evil? *Not really* Oh well. There is someone behind Yami Bakura's appearance. The next chapter will be the last one. R & R!