Disclaimer: *see previous disclaimers*
/Yami talking to Yugi/
//Yugi talking to Yami//
"everyone else talking"
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Cornelius Fudge leaned back in his seat, a pleased grin hovering on his lips. The report he'd gotten from his two spies was the best 'proof' he'd gotten in while. The two men watched the movements of all the staff and students in the Hogwarts, bringing news of any strange changes to the Minister of Magic as soon as possible.
"So, Dumbledore's disappeared, eh? Probably ran off to get more reinforcements to help him overthrow me! Well, I'll just have to prove to him that I'm not so easily pushed around!" Cornelius turned to the spies standing in the corner of the room, "When did he leave the school?"
The younger man, a boy barely out of his teens, turned slightly red. "To tell you the truth, he didn't actually leave the school…"
"But you told me--" Fudge began.
"He sort of…disappeared."
"Of course he's disappeared! He's not at the school anymore!" Fudge said. "You've already told me that twice! Get to the point!"
The older man pulled out a map of Hogwarts (similar to the Marauder's Map Harry has) and slammed it on Cornelius' desk. "The dots representing for the majority of the teachers and many of the students just disappeared off the map. They just faded away…the dots didn't disappear like it would if someone went beyond the boundaries of the school. And stop yelling at Thomas, he's new at this kind of stuff."
"Impossible! They can't just disappear off the map!" The minister of magic muttered.
"Well, they did." Thomas said, crossing his arms. "And I have no idea as to how they managed to do it…Have you got any ideas Jake?"
"I do question the reliability if these maps--" Jake murmured, glancing at the map.
Fudge fumed. "Those things are in perfect working order! They have been repeated tested and--"
"You obviously haven't checked everything." Jake said, pointing at one dot in particular.
Cornelius peered at it and blinked in confusion.
"Link? Who on earth names their kid Link?" He asked, peering at Jake.
"No one! You people obviously did not check carefully for typos. How do I know that you haven't missed other little details when 'testing' this map?" Jake asked scornfully.
"Why are there six people in the middle of the Forbidden forest and five in the lake?" Cornelius asked, looking carefully at the map, obviously not listening.
"Good question." Thomas said sarcastically.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry dragged himself ashore, trying to untangle himself from his soaked robes. He was looking around for signs of any others students that might have been nearby when a loud 'Eeek!' sounded close by, followed by a loud splash. He began running in the direction of the sound, ignoring the Ron and the others who were trying to dry themselves off. The sound wasn't too far away, but everyone just happened to be looking in the wrong direction at that particular moment.
Professor McGonagall sat in the shallows, blowing her disheveled hair out of her face. She looked very surprised to see Harry, but quickly recovered and beckoned him over.
Harry splashed over and helped her get to her feet.
"Thank you, Potter." She said softly, squeezing the water out of her robes.
"Er…Professor?"
"Hm?"
"Have you…did you by any chance…find a wand anywhere?" Harry asked.
"No, I have not. Why do you ask?" She asked, giving him an odd look.
"Oh…no reason."
Professor McGonagall nodded in acknowledgment as Bakura trotted over to them, "Ah…Bakura. I've been meaning to ask you something. If you were stuck in the Shadow Realm several days, how did you send your letter to me?"
She asked.
Bakura looked confused. "What letter?"
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow, "You said you weren't going to come to Hogwarts for at least another two months."
"…I did?" He looked like he was trying very hard to remember, "I never wrote you a letter…"
"If you didn't, then…who did?" Harry asked.
"They must have known you'd be in the Shadow Realm." Professor McGonagall muttered. "But who…?"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Link! When did you…How did you…?" Ron sputtered, looking flabbergasted. "…Are you okay?"
Link was sitting on the floor in front of the fire, looking paler than usual. He was wearing a dry, white tunic. His wet robes lay in a heap on the floor beside him. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his crimson eyes were staring blankly at the flames. Even his long, pointed ears seemed to be drooping.
"What happened? The gindylows didn't hurt you did they?" Hermione asked.
Zelda scoffed, "Impossible! Those things are pathetically weak in comparison to Link! Even so…I've never seen Link so depressed before…"
"He was unfortunate enough to meet up with several dementors…" said a soft voice from behind them. "Not far from the greenhouse…"
The three of the spun around to see whom the speaker was.
"Professor Lupin!" Hermione and Ron said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"…What's a dementor?" Zelda asked.
"You don't want to know." Lupin, Hermione, and Ron said at once.
"Oh…okay."
Link sighed, his head drooping even more. His long, platinum bangs hung limply in front on his eyes.
"What do dementors do?" Zelda asked worriedly.
"You don't want to--" Ron started.
"They suck all the happiness out of you." Hermione said simply.
"No they don't!" Ron argued. "Harry said it was a lot worse than that!"
"Dementors clamp their jaws on the mouth of their victim and suck out their soul." Harry said, climbing through the portrait hole. "Why are we talking about dememtors anyways?"
"They what???" Zelda yelled. "Link's had his soul sucked out???"
"No! Of course not! Calm down!" Professor Lupin cried, "He's not that helpless! He was actually doing a pretty good job at fending them off."
"Din's Fire was useless…" Link muttered. "It was too weak to fend them off for long."
"Well, you did a pretty good job for someone caught off guard and unaware of the exiLupin smiled sadly, "Fortunately, I managed to get there in time before the fire diminished completely. I was able to ward off the dementors before they could get at him."
"I thought dementors were banned from Hogwarts." Harry said after a moment's silence. "Hey!" He said, his eyes suddenly lighting up. "Maybe I can lure Dudley to one of the dementors and--"
"Harry!" Hermione scolded.
"Link must have had a pretty painful to have the dementors affect him so badly." Lupin observed. "It's even worse than what Harry suffers from…"
"Really?" Harry said, looking stunned.
"It's physical and mental torture for him to relive certain memories." Professor Lupin said. "I've been watching him for a while now…chocolate doesn't help much either."
The cackling flames were reflected in Link's dark red eyes. He shivered every time someone mentioned the dementors. Wordlessly, Link got up and slung his wet robes over his shoulder. He was headed for the spiral staircase when he suddenly remembered something.
Harry craned his neck to see who was tapping his shoulder.
"Here…" Link said, handing Harry something.
"Wha--? Hey! My wand! Thanks! Where'd you find it?"
"It was pretty close to the bottom of the lake when I found it…maybe not quite that deep, but pretty close." Link said, heading back to the spiral staircase.
Lupin, Ron, Harry, and Hermione gaped after him.
"Did he say the bottom of the lake?" Lupin asked.
Harry and Hermione nodded slowly.
"Well," Zelda said huffily, "You can expect Hylians to be different, but Link is unique even among Hylians."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Yami trudged wearily through the dark forest, doing his best to ignore Ginny's excited and frightened tittering. Micrathe, the Slytherin boy, kept peering
nervously up in the trees and in bushes. He suddenly held out his arm, stopping the other two in their tracks.
"What's wrong? Why are we stopping?" Yami demanded.
"Shh…" Micrathe said softly, "We're being followed…"
The three instantly fell silent, listening intently for the sound of footsteps. It was very dark in the forest, almost no light shined through the dense foliage in the branches above them. It was unusually quiet…there were no crickets or rustling of small animals in the grass. Yami could feel Micrathe tense up beside him. Yami suddenly felt a soft, warm breath on his neck. He spun around in surprise and sudden shock, but found that he was unable to do anything. Micrathe whipped out his wand and cried, "Impedimentra!"
The agonized shriek stopped as suddenly as it started.
"…Is it gone?" Ginny whispered.
"I think…" Micrathe said, "I think it's gone now."
"Phew."
"But that's not the thing that's following us…Whatever was following us before is still out there…Lumos!"
The light illuminated everything within a ten-foot radius of them, revealing hundreds of spiders skittering about them. Many more spiders, some the size of large dogs, hung from the branches above them. The rustling and clicking grew louder as the light fell on the spiders.
The Slytherin's face paled considerably and he gaped at the masses of spiders around them. "Oh sh*t…I hate spiders…especially the big ones…"
//Gah…I hate spiders too.//
"What should we do?" Yami whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
"On the count of three, we run." Micrathe whispered back. "One…two…THREE!!!"
The three of them shot off as fast as their legs would carry them, yelling expelliarmus as they ran.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Fools!" hissed a high, cold voice. "How could you let them escape? They were away from the protection of the school and peers! The boy we captured was supposed to keep the gate to the Shadow Realm open so that we'd be able to pass through it freely."
A shiver ran through the circle of Death Eaters as their lord bore down upon each of them it turn.
"Draining the powers from his ring was supposed to make it impossible for him to escape. Every time he tries, he unwittingly pulls people from the outside world into the Shadow Realm…" Voldemort stopped pacing, his wand raised. "Go! Bring me the other millennium items! As for their owners…" he said, a wicked smile playing about his thin lips, "…Kill them."
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A/N: Sorry about the lame chapter!