Woot! I'm above 100 reviews! Thanks everyone! Extra-early chapter to thank you.
Important explanations at the bottom. It'll keep you from being confused in later chapters. Read now if you like. Also, FF.Net is being a big pain in the butt and isn't letting me use asteriks and carrots and whatever, so I'm guessing scene changes will be showed by dashes like this: - - - Stupid site. And I'm thinking too many scene changes in this chapter. Tell me what you think?
Chapter 7
Reconciliation
"How did he know?" Kaiba demanded. "How did he know?"
Yami was rigid, staring down at the ground, his bangs hiding his eyes. Malik offered a guess. "Well, it's not like Battle City was a…private thing, you know? It was all over the news, right? It could've reached England."
"I screened those reports myself," Kaiba hissed. "Nothing private left the dueling arenas until I had double-checked them! They did reach England- in fact, they reached the whole world- but nothing about Ancient Egyptian spirits or whatnot was in them!"
"Who was that man, anyway?" Ryou questioned.
"His name is Lord Voldemort."
The voice came from behind them, all of them spinning around to face the boy that they had all temporarily forgotten in the ruckus. "You! Malfoy!" Joey growled.
The other boy nodded self-assuredly. "Yes."
"Malfoy!"
All of them turned to face the new arrivals, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry did a quick scan of the surroundings. There was no skeletal monster to be seen, but Gringotts was in no better shape than it had been when it left. The goblins were hobbling around, talking very loudly and in very irritated tones in a foreign language, probably something about how much the repairs were going to cost.
None of them appeared to be harmed in any way. Harry sighed in relief and thought he heard Ron and Hermione emit a similar noise as well, but he couldn't be sure.
"You said something about Voldemort, Malfoy?" Harry asked.
"Oh, yes. He was just here, talking to him," Draco said, jerking his finger to point at Yami. "You should have been there, Potter. I would have loved to have seen you blown to bits."
Ron scowled. "Shut up, Malfoy."
"Who is this…Voldemort?" Yami spoke up quite suddenly.
"A widely-feared evil wizard," Ron shrugged. "Doesn't seem to amount to much by my standards. Sure, I'm scared of him, but seeing as how Harry's kicked his butt four times already…"
Bakura snorted. "Doesn't amount to much by my standards, either," he shrugged. "And I'm not scared of him either. We incapacitated his minion in about two seconds."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Really? Wow! How did you do it?"
"It was simple," Bakura shrugged. "Just…an advanced spell."
Hermione's mouth hung open.
"Watch it, Ryou," Ron warned. "She's going to be all over you in about two sec-"
"Teach me!" she pleaded.
"Whoa," Bakura said, uncomfortable with the situation. He then got another idea. "Go…go ask Malik or something."
"Hey!"
Harry shook his head in amusement before turning to Yami, who was watching the scene with a twinkle in his eye. It was about time he apologized for alienating them at the Weasley's house anyway.
"Um," he began.
Yami turned towards him. Harry once again noticed the crimson eyes, but this time promised he'd investigate it later. He knew this other Yugi wasn't on Voldemort's side, and for now, that was good enough for him.
"Yes?"
"I…just wanted to say sorry," Harry blurted out. "You know, for being mean to you at Ron's house. Uh…I thought you were on Voldemort's side for a while."
Yami quirked a small grin. "Ah. So that was the reason. Well, you're forgiven. I would have done that too, if I were you."
Harry offered a smile in return. "So, err…how did you kill that monster?"
Yami winked at him. "It's a secret. Just be glad that it's gone."
"Right. However you did it…thanks."
"You're welcome," Yami replied. Then they turned their attention back to the two bickering teens.
"H-hey! Get off me! Bakura knows more about it than me! He, uh, took advanced placement courses!"
"What? I did not!"
"Oh, so now you're admitting that you do know less than me? And here I thought I'd never see the day."
Bakura realized what he had just said. "Hey, that wasn't fair!"
"I don't play fair," Malik smirked.
"Come back here, you! I'm going to incapacitate you with a spell that I know and you don't!"
The remainder of the group offered exasperated looks at each other. Minutes later, there was an explosion.
"Hey, that looks like it came from the direction of the Apothecary," Hermione realized. "Do you think there's another a-"
"Ha! You blew up the Apothecary! And I thought you said you didn't want to!"
"Malik, shut up!"
Everyone groaned and went off to find them and drag them away from the alley of potentially explosive objects before they could do any more damage.
Draco stared at their backs as they retreated out of the destroyed bank, then looked back at the place where Voldemort had vanished.
What was that about a pharaoh?
He shook his head. Then he turned around and left.
- - -
"I can't believe they wouldn't teach me anything," Hermione complained that night in Ron's bedroom.
"Hermione, stop it with that issue," Ron groaned. "You've been whining about it all afternoon. I wouldn't want to teach you either if you kept harping on like this."
"So we trust them now?" Fred asked.
"I guess," Harry said. "They did take down Voldemort's monster, right? If they were allied with him, they wouldn't have done that."
"Okay, Fred. Hand over the money."
Fred grumbled and dug in his pocket for some coins. "Um, Ron…"
"What?"
"I…don't think I have any Sickles on me right now…"
"Fred!!"
"You could always make him write you an IOU," a new voice came from the door.
"Ryou?" they all exclaimed in unison.
The white-haired teen offered them all a smile. "Do you mind…if I come in?"
Ron scurried to move a pile of Chudley Cannon posters off the last vacant chair in the room. "Have a seat," he said quickly.
"Did…you hear anything?" Hermione asked timidly.
Ryou shrugged. "Enough to figure out what was going on around here." He looked faintly amused. "You were betting on which side we were taking?"
"Er, well, yeah. Except it was them, not me," George said hastily, pointing at Fred and Ron. They both gave him glares. He just smiled disarmingly.
"Um, sorry?" Ron offered.
Ryou shook his head. "It's all right. I suppose we did give you cause to be slightly worried…"
"Kind of. Say, you aren't working for Voldemort, are you?" Harry asked curiously.
Ryou shook his head.
There was a period of comfortable silence.
"Ah, Ryou…"
"Hmm?"
"What's an IOU?"
Ryou smiled. "Want me to teach you how to write one?"
Ron nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Fred's going to 'forget' after a while and then I'll never get my money."
"Alright then…anybody have a piece of paper? And Fred, you'll have to sign this…"
- - -
Dinner that night was fairly uneventful. The conversation was much more lively than before, however, with Yugi and Joey wanting to know more about what Hogwarts was like. Kaiba was just typing on his laptop and being his usual anti-social self.
"So what are the teachers like?" Joey asked.
"Watch out for Professor Snape," Ron advised. "He's completely biased. Hates Gryffindors, dislikes Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and loves Slytherins. McGonagall's okay…Trelawney's a total airhead though, don't believe a thing she says…"
"Any new teachers this year?"
"Oh, yeah. There's a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher every single year. You never know who you're going to get. Last year we had an insane Death Eater disguised as Mad-Eye Moody teaching us Unforgivable Curses…and yes, he wanted to murder Harry. Came pretty darn close to it, too."
"Whoa. Scary."
"Definitely," Yugi echoed, looking around the table. That was when he caught sight of the chocolate cake.
Aibou…
/What?/
The cake…is calling out…to me…
/Argh. Why do you have to have a sweet tooth?/
I don't know. So can I?
/Fine, fine./
Yami peered around himself and then proceeded to reach for a piece of chocolate cake.
"Yugi, what are you doing?" Ryou asked. "We're still in the middle of dinner! You shouldn't be eating dessert yet!"
"But it was just sitting there…and inviting me to eat it…and…"
"You're as bad as Joey when it comes to chocolate."
"I'm not that bad am I?"
"Yes…you are."
Yami considered the cake for a minute before shrugging and stuffing it in his mouth anyway. Then he switched back with Yugi.
He just wanted to eat the food? Bakura asked in disbelief.
I guess…he does love chocolate, doesn't he?
Heh. Yes.
"Are you all ready for Hogwarts tomorrow?" Mr. Weasley asked cheerfully.
"Yeah, we should be," Ryou affirmed.
"Are you all packed?"
"Yeah," everyone chorused.
"Good, that'll save us some time tomorrow. We are usually late, aren't we… Anyway, I made hot chocolate again, and everyone should go to bed early tonight."
"We can always sleep on the train, right?" Malik asked.
"Well, yes, but no one usually does."
"Oh. Well, I'm going to anyway."
- -
Mrs. Weasley roused them all from their beds early the next morning. Yugi had eaten breakfast and was attempting to lug his trunk down the stairs without help before he found out that he had put his jacket on backwards and had worn mismatched socks. Embarrassed, he went back upstairs to change.
"Yugi, need help with your trunk?" Joey asked.
"Oh…yeah…sure. I need to change my socks, though. I'll be right back." He opened his trunk, grabbed a matching pair of socks, and vanished back upstairs, leaving Joey with the trunk.
"Ow! What did you put in here, bricks? And since when did you have to go upstairs to change your socks?"
Nevertheless, he dutifully took Yugi's trunk back downstairs.
- - -
Yugi changed his socks and did a quick glance around the room for anything that he might have forgotten. Something moving on the desk caught his eye. He went over and looked at it.
"The Daily Prophet? The wizarding world has a newspaper?" Yugi shrugged and took it downstairs. It would be something to do on the presumably boring train ride anyway.
They reached King's Cross station with a few minutes to spare, Mrs. Weasley quickly explaining how to get into platform 9 and ¾.
"So we just walk through this wall?" Malik asked. "Looks pretty solid to me."
"Here, Fred and George will give you an example," Mrs. Weasley said. "Boys?"
"Ah, right," Fred said, and the two walked right through the wall. Kaiba stared. Joey gave a yelp of surprise.
"Uh…"
"Who wants to go next?"
"Malik does," Bakura said immediately.
"Hey!"
"All right then, the two of you go next. Remember, don't let any of the Muggles see you."
Bakura and Malik casually strolled up to the barrier and fell in.
"Next, how about Yugi and Joey?"
- - -
Once they had all gotten through the barrier, they were confronted by the sight of a scarlet steam train. Wizards and witches in black robes were everywhere, swarming around the train and helping their children get their trunks into their compartments.
"They're all going to Hogwarts?" Kaiba asked in disbelief, staring as a particularly large wave of students swept through the platform to board the train.
"Believe it or not, yes," Mrs. Weasley said cheerfully. "You'll have a lot of company this year."
Kaiba just sighed and started dragging his trunk across the platform to the entrance to the train. The others followed.
"Neville, do you still have your toad? You haven't lost him again, have you?"
"No, Gram. He's right here. Oh, hi Harry!"
"Hi, Neville."
"Who're they?" Neville asked curiously, tilting his head towards where Ron and Hermione were explaining something to the five new students.
"Oh, they're new. Transfers from someplace in Japan. Domino City, I think."
"Hey, wasn't that the place that had that huge Duel Monsters tournament?"
"I wouldn't know that. The Dursleys only watch the local news. I do know that they all play, though."
"Hey, maybe they were in that tournament! Ask them for me, okay?"
"Um, sure. Are you a fan of Duel Monsters?"
"Yeah. My gram thought it was pretty funny that I was following a Muggle game all last year, but it was cool. Say, what year are they going into?"
"Fifth. Our year."
"Really? Where'd they come from?"
Harry shrugged. "I dunno. I don't think they came from anywhere in particular, Joey said they hadn't learned much magic before."
"Ah, well, I'm sure there's a reason they're in our year. I have to go now, Harry. See you at school!"
"Bye, Neville." The other boy hurried off, probably to say goodbye to his grandma. When Harry looked back towards the train, he found that Ron, Hermione, and the others had already boarded the train. He quickly hurried to get onboard before it left without him.
Ron and Hermione had found them an empty compartment and had gone off in search of Harry. They had been gone for ten minutes already, so they assumed that they wouldn't be coming back for a while.
The train started moving. Yugi, Joey, and Ryou caught sight of Mrs. Weasley waving at them and waved back.
"I hope they got back on the train," Ryou said.
"They probably did. Don't worry about it," Joey said.
Bakura noticed that the former pharaoh had begun to read a newspaper. Not something that he did every day, actually.
"Pharaoh, what are you doing? Where did you get that?" he demanded.
"I found it on the desk in my room and decided to bring it along," Yami said smoothly. "Don't worry, I asked Mrs. Weasley. It's quite interesting, really…even though it's pretty old. It dates back to right after Battle City. That was a year ago."
"Kaiba, when's your next Battle City tournament going to be?" Joey asked curiously. "It's already been over a year."
"I had originally planned for it to be this summer, but after I got Dumbledore's letter, I had to postpone it a year. A whole year. It's scheduled during our summer vacation after this term. Good thing I didn't release the plans to the public. They would be…rather…"
"Pissed," Joey completed.
"I suppose. That is, if I had announced the tournament. Which I didn't. So I'm safe for now." He went back to typing on his laptop.
Yami smirked and turned the page. He was now on a section about unusual sightings of magic in the Muggle world. It seemed rather boring, so Bakura stopped watching him and went back to talking with Malik. Yami seemed to have become engrossed in it anyway, and hardly noticed when Bakura pulled away.
A couple of minutes later, Yami emitted a soft "…What…?"
It was quiet, but Bakura heard it because he had, unfortunately, gotten stuck next to the Pharaoh for the rest of the train ride.
"What happened?" he inquired gruffly.
Wordlessly, Yami handed him the paper. Malik and Joey stuck their heads towards him in curiosity. Kaiba appeared to look bored but he was really scanning the small print as fast as he could.
They all read the article with growing disbelief. Bakura was about to voice some kind of exclamation, but Joey beat him to it.
"What the hell is this?"
Author's Notes:
In order for this new plot twist to work, this must have happened:
The first Battle City was held in early summer, during Harry's third summer vacation. It ended before the first mention of Rita Skeeter in book 4. Rita Skeeter must also have been able to get to Japan (but that should be easy because she can Apparate.)
Was an official date ever given for Battle City? If so, could someone please leave it in a review?
Thanks to Hawk Fin for the facts and corrections and stuff. And to C.M Aeris Queen of Insanity, I watch the dubbed version and I still like Noa. He's cool. Maybe I can work him into this story somehow, but I kind of doubt it…
I'm sure you've figured out what was in the article already. If not, then you're left with a nasty cliffhanger. Fun stuff.
My chapter outlines have been completely shot to hell with this new idea of mine. I have to go redo them now. But don't worry, another chapter will come soon. Hopefully? -shiftyeyes-
Eep, I got less reviews for the last chapter than any other, so make me happy and review please!