Disclaimer: *see previous disclaimers*
A/N: I'm sorry about the messed up order of the chapters…I don't know why, but every time I log in to my account, I find that all my chapters are out of order and/or need reorganizing. It's a pain in the butt and I often forget to reorganize the chapters.
^_^;;; Sorry for the lack of updates!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Professor Snape dropped to the ground and rested for a while, listening to the teachers softly arguing amongst themselves. He fingered the dark mark on his arm nervously, all the while glancing at the carefree (yet extremely bored looking) faces of students around him.
Zelda swept up alongside him sat down next to him, brushing her long, blond hair back and fixing up her robes.
Professor Snape looked surprised, his cold eyes widening considerably.
"Uh…do you…uh…" He stammered, "Do you need something?" Students didn't often come up to him for anything. The girl didn't seem to have any particular reason for coming over here and sitting down with him.
"What's a Death Eater?"
Snape stared. "…Why…why do you ask?"
Zelda shrugged. "I've heard a lot of people mumbling about being brought here by Death Eaters…even though Bakura was the one responsible…"
Snape's already sallow skin paled even more and he gripped his wand tightly. He stared hard at the ground and his free hand trembled slightly.
Zelda took notice of this and quickly muttered, "Never mind." and got up to leave.
"How long have we been here?" Ron asked as he saw her approaching.
Zelda shrugged, sitting down with the others.
"It is now 8:15," Harry said, looking at his watch. "It was 8:15 when we got…here…" He smacked himself in the forehead, "I forgot…"
"You killed your watch last year in the tournament, the second task…remember?" Ron said.
"We've been here for about an hour." Hermione said, checking her own watch. "We've missed Charms…"
"Most of Charms." Harry corrected.
"We've missed enough of it to fail on the O.W.L.s!" Hermione snapped at him. "Do you know how impor—huh?" She broke of as Link's hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"Is it just me, or are there a lot less people here now than there was before?" He asked, looking slightly confused. "I could have sworn there were about forty-two us when we first got here. There are about…twenty-three of us now."
"Really?" Harry said, "Did the evil Bakura find a way to send us back?"
"A-hem!" someone behind him said rather loudly.
Harry turned to see a very pissed looking Bakura towering over him.
"Oh…Hi."
"I didn't do anything, but it seems like those Egyptians have been coming in and out of the Shadow realm a lot, trying to figure out a way to seal away the power of the millennium items ever since they heard that someone had completed the millennium puzzle. They'd all heard of the ancient prophecy and were determined to stop the evil before it got out of hand." Bakura said rather offhandedly. "Feh…Normally, I'd be upset about them trying to seal the powers away, except I've already lost mine so sealing it away doesn't matter too much to me anymore. Beside, my loss of powers doesn't seem to affecting me that much and these Egyptians seem to know multiple ways of entering and exiting the Shadow Realm."
"Don't you also know how?" Link asked. "Yami did say you'd escaped before after he beat you in a duel."
Bakura fumed, "He didn't beat me in a duel…He cheated! He had help from my Hikari! My Hikari betrayed me! I would have beat him if Ryou hadn't betrayed me!" He clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palms.
"How exactly did this…Yami…cheat?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Ryou helped him." Harry said flatly, "Weren't you listening?"
"Well, yes…but…how? And who's Ryou?"
"My hikari, my light side." Bakura answered. "He took control of one of my monsters on the field rather than Yami's. Yami took advantage of this and attacked me, wiping out my life points and winning the duel."
Everyone blinked.
Bakura sighed in exasperation, "I'll tell you later."
"You're going to be at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"I was supposed to be there yesterday, but as you all know I've been stuck in this place for the past few days." Bakura replied.
"But isn't Yami supposed to be coming too?" Ron asked.
Bakura looked confused. "Yami' has always been at Hogwarts."
"Then that would make you the third student from Japan. Dumbledore said there'd only be two." Zelda said.
Bakura stared blankly at her. "I am the second student..."
"But…" Hermione started.
There was an awkward silence.
Link suddenly said, "If Ryou shares a body with Yami Bakura and claims to be the second student, then wouldn't it make sense for Yugi to be sharing a body with Yami Yugi and be considered the first of the two Japanese students?"
"Not really." Ron said.
Hermione was about to explain when the darkness around them seemed to suddenly thin out and become translucent. Within a few seconds, the darkness and faded completely and the six of them had enough time to look around and blink in surprise at each other before landing in the middle of the lake with a loud splash.
The two Egyptains that had brought them out of the Shadow Realm stood on the shore and appeared to be apologizing.
Yami Bakura burst out of the water, gasping for air before starting to hurl insults at them in Egyptain.
The two men merely grinned and continued to apologize before disappearing back into the Shadow Realm.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Zelda paddled awkwardly, doing their best to not get themselves tangled up in their robes.
"I thought you said we were in the Shadow Realm for about an hour!" Ron sputtered through a mouthful of water. "It's already dark out! We could have been in the Shadow Realm for days!"
Hermione angrily splashed water in Ron's face and yelled, "Well it's not my fault if time runs differently in the Shadow Realm than it does here!"
Ron splashed water back at Hermione. Unfortunately, Link surfaced at that moment and was taking a deep breath when Ron's wave of water hit him in the face. He coughed and spat out the water, shaking his head to get his wet bangs out of his eyes.
"Heh…Sorry about that." Ron muttered, his ears turning red.
"No *cough* harm done." Link managed to gasp out.
"What took you so long?" Harry asked.
"Heavy army and long robes do not mix." Link said simply, sinking back in the water. He could feel everyone's eyes upon him. "What?" He asked innocently.
Zelda rolled her eyes, "I told you, you should have worn something else."
"It's not my fault I don't have a very good defense in this--!!!" Link broke off, as he was suddenly pulled underwater. He kicked out hard as long fingers began dragging him down towards the murky depths of the lake. He struck out with his fist and grinned in satisfaction as it connected with a bony head. The fingers on his leg loosened, but more of the creatures were beginning to approach the group.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Wands out!" Harry commanded. "Make sure you hit the grindylows and not Link!"
Bakura grinned and casual lifted a card above his head. "Don't bother…"
"Why not?" Harry demanded, "He's our friend! Stupefy!"
Zelda got out her wand, but stared at it with a clueless look on her face.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Link swiftly drew back as a boiling jet of water struck the grindylow in front of him. It stiffened, then suddenly slumped over in the water holding its face and silently howling in pain. The other grindylows bared their teeth, then began pulling faster.
Link heart was pounding. He needed to get back to the surface, he wouldn't be able to hold his breath forever. He fumbled in his bag until he found the familiar curves of the object he was looking for.
'Feh…I may as well…'~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry fired three more times in quick succession until Bakura grabbed his arm.
"Idiot boy! If he's truly your friend, then stop attacking! You can't see anything in the water! You could have already hit him rather than those 'grindylows!'" Bakura hissed.
Harry yelled, "Then what do you suggest? I don't see you coming up with any brilliant plan to help him!"
Zelda tapped his shoulder and pointed at the card in Bakura's hand.
"…Oh." Harry said. He reluctantly put his wand away.
"I don't see you coming up with any brilliant plan…" Bakura said, imitating Harry's voice. "Heh…I summon the Red Archery Girl!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Mum is going to kill us! They've been gone all day and we haven't got the faintest clue as to where they are!" Fred yelled in frustration.
"Hey, at least we got to work on our order forms without Hermione breathing down our necks." George said, slumping back in his chair and idly twirling his quill.
"Filch hasn't bothered us all day, either." Fred observed, nibbling on a sugar quill. "Anyways, I like to see the loom on his face when he realizes we'd been testing out our latest products in his office."
The twins grinned in anticipation.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Malfoy sighed in frustration, 'Why can't I get her out of my mind? It's not like I like the filthy mudblood anyways…"
Crabbe and Goyle looked confused, but knew better than to bother Malfoy with their questions. (isn't that scary? They actually know something!)
~*~*~*~*~*~
The mermaid surfaced, fitting another arrow to her bow.
"Any sign of him?" Bakura asked.erHermio
She barely had time to shake her head before the next two grindylows attacked. Fortunately, none of them were very strong, but the Red Archery Girl wasn't very strong either. She was struggling with the five grindylows that had suddenly decided to grab Harry by the back of robes.
"I thought there weren't any grindylows in the lake!" Ron yelled, flailing wildly in effort to dislodge the creature's sharp teeth from his wrist.
"I never said there weren't any! I said there weren't many of them! And help me get this one off of Harry! It's trying to strangle him!" Hermione yelled back. "Okay…" she said, taking a deep breath, resulting in her accidentally swallowing a mouthful of lake water. "Professor Lupin said that they have strong, but brittle fingers. We have to break their grip…Oh! This is so much easier with a wand!"
"I don't even know how to use a wand!" Zelda said, slapping a grindylow. It seemed to grin sheepishly as it released her dress.
Red Archery Girl leapt out of the water and dove headfirst into another group of grindylows, scattering them in every direction. The others she had slain were floating up to the surface, broken arrows protruding from their dead bodies.
Suddenly, the water began to clear. Looking down, they could see that every one of the grindylows had stopped moving and were floating rather lifelessly in the water.
"Good job." Bakura commented, giving the mermaid a rare, pleased looking grin. The grin faded when he saw that the Red Archery Girl was peering at the water, looking confused. She dove in a circled about, apparently looking for something.
Hermione and Zelda supported Harry as he fumbled through his pockets.
"My wand's gone!" He cried in dismay. "I must have dropped it when those grindylows attacked me!" He dived into the water to search for it.
"Link must have managed to escape." Hermione observed, "Red Archery Girl can't seem to find him anywhere! He hasn't drowned, that's for sure."
"Maybe the grindylows managed to escape with him." Ron said.
Zelda scoffed, "A few freaks like those grindylows can't possibly take down Link. You don't know him like I do. He's just as capable fighting in water as he is on land."
"Hey! Is anyone going to help me look for my wand?" Harry asked as he surfaced.
"This thing?" Bakura asked, holding up a thin piece of wood.
"Hey! That my wand!" Hermione said, looking in the pocket of her robes and realizing her wand was also missing.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Yami landed rather painfully on the ground in the middle of a particularly quiet and ominous looking forest. He rubbed his aching back as he got up to take a good look his surroundings. There were several loud thuds as other students appeared next to him.
Ginny climbed shakily to her feet, feeling slightly disoriented. "Where are we?"
A nearby Slytherin sat up, sporting a lump on his head from his rough landing. His eyes widened and the color drained from his face, "I know this place…Filch sent me here for detention last year…" He struck the ground with his fist. "Of all places to be…especially at night…Why'd we have to wind up in the Forbidden Forest?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry for the lame and confusing chapter…I didn't have time to proofread it so…yeah…it's probably really stupid.
Heh…I couldn't update until this week because I didn't have a good enough excuse to use the computer. My dad only let me use the computer because today's my birthday and we weren't exactly planning to do anything to celebrate it so…(you can tell that my family is weird). Anyways, if you were wondering about my penname, Link0723, the 0723 is July 23, my b-day! *grin* (I feel like an idiot)