Calai'di–I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS BEING SO LATE!!! Please forgive me for making you wait so long!!! prostrates herself in front of readers Please forgive me!!!

Anyway, I have a question for all my readers. Do you guys want me to keep going with the Ryou x Bakura thing I've started, or to stop it? Mind you, if I don't get a sufficient answer, I will keep it going.

And one more question. Do you think I should change the rating on this story to PG-13? I've been thinking about it for some time, but no one's complained about it yet. I would appreciate it if you gave me feed back. Thanks!

Oh yeah, new disclaimer for the entire story: I do not own Yugioh, Harry Potter, Pink Floyd, the Geico commercial, the Dune series, or anything else that might pop up that's already copyrighted by someone else.

Chapter 17: Into the Air Again

"You know, they've been with Professor Dumbledore for a while," Hermione said. She glanced at Harry's back with worry. "Harry, do you know why they had to talk with him?"

"No, but I bet it has something to do with this 'Zoku Necrophadisu' person. You know what I think?"

"No, what?"

"I think Ryou's possessed." He stared out into the night beyond the window; the stars were shining brightly in the inky, cloudless sky, winking innocently at him. They reminded him of Ryou.

"You-you're kidding!" Ron exclaimed from behind him. "What makes you think that?"

"The personality changes, the fact that when Yugi and Malik dragged him out of the Great Hall this morning, the Marauder's Map said 'Zoku Necrophadisu' and not 'Ryou Bakura'. Things like that." He furrowed his brow and glanced back at the others. "Hermione, have you ever heard of this 'Zoku' person?"

"No, though it sounds familiar. Do you want me to look it up?"

"What?!" Ron exclaimed. "With everything else we have to do this year?! When will you have time?"

"Lunch, dinner, breaks," Hermione answered simply, opening one of her books on the table. Ron goggled incredulously at her.

"You're not going to pull a 'third year' on us, are you?"

"What on earth do you mean by that?"

"I mean like what you did in third year. Having so many classes and homework that you barely had time for anything else, and yet you still managed to squeeze extra research in! You were a mess, Hermione!"

"I have more time this year for extra research. Besides, I don't mind helping a friend. It's obvious Ryou doesn't like whatever's happening to him."

Harry sighed as his two friends continued to bicker back and forth; it seemed there was never a moment's peace when Ron and Hermione were together. It was obvious that they only fought to make it look like they didn't like each other, but sometimes he wished they would give it a rest. He was worried about Ryou and Yugi, but especially Ryou, and though he was used to solving mysteries by now, he needed help on this one. All he had was Hermione's research, the Marauder's Map, and what Shadi had said in class about possession.

"Did you see his face when you collapsed, Ryou?" Yugi asked as he and Ryou came in through the portrait hole. Their voices easily carried across the room to where Harry was standing. "He's really worried about you."

"Yeah, I know. He wouldn't let me retreat either. Malik seems just as worried, if not more."

"No, not more, it could never be more. You-know-who cares about you a lot more than you think. But you should have seen Malik's face when that thing started cursing at us. Priceless! Oh…hi guys," Yugi said when he noticed his English friends were staring at them. It didn't distract him for long though; he soon turned back to Ryou, and they began talking animatedly again, heading toward the boy's dorm all the while.

"I bet his was better."

"Actually, I didn't see his face then. But his was way better when you collapsed."

"It was not!" Ryou exclaimed, his voice a lot darker than moments before. Yugi giggled.

"Yeah, it was. You couldn't see it, but it was much better than Malik's this morning. It would have made you proud…I think…if it was on someone you were torturing or something like that."

Bakura looked like he was close to beating Yugi, but Ryou desperately waved peace signs from his soul room, so instead he looked the other way and said indignantly, "I don't like him enough for that to happen."

Yugi giggled again and they kept arguing as they went up the stairs. Hermione glared at Ron and turned back to her books.

"Still think they're in liege with Voldemort?" she asked him smartly.

"Voldemort doesn't care about anyone," Harry said quietly. "Whoever they're talking about couldn't be him."

"Then who is it?" Ron said, wondering aloud what they'd all been wondering silently.

"I wish I knew," Harry answered. "I wish I knew…"

The next day, Malik sat surprisingly close to Malfoy at every meal to see whether the Englishman had believed what he'd seen the previous morning. Malfoy didn't say anything about it, but whenever he looked down the table at the Egyptian, he smiled maliciously and winked a couple of times. It was clear that the other Slytherins didn't have a clue as to why the two rivals were getting along so well, and that was a very good sign. It meant Malfoy hadn't told anyone.

Malik wasn't allowed to watch Ryou and Yugi's Quidditch tryouts, as he was a Slytherin and even Harry couldn't get Katie to bend the rules for him. They didn't really mind though; Malik would just distract them on purpose so they wouldn't make the team.

Right after dinner, Yugi and Ryou followed Harry, Ron, and Katie to the Quidditch pitch for the tryouts; several people were already there, waiting for them, and a couple teens showed up after them. Yugi and Ryou were carrying brooms from the Quidditch supplies, since they didn't have their own, and, even though they were the best brooms Hogwarts had, they still looked shabby and outdated next to most of the other students'. After Katie was sure every one who was going to show up had, she walked to stand in front of them and cleared her throat self-consciously to get their attention.

"All right everyone, welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch trials. I've decided we'll hold all of them today, instead of breaking up the different positions. So, first we'll do Chasers, and then Beaters after that if there's time."

"Um, Katie," Yugi said quietly, holding up his hand, "I was thinking about trying out for substitute Seeker. What do I do?"

"Well, if you're the only one…I guess we can see how good you are after everyone else. You might have to wait until tomorrow." She shrugged and went on with what she'd been talking about before the interruption. She instructed them to break into two groups: one for Chasers and one for Beaters, and then she lead the Chasers to the middle of the field. Ron took his position by the goal posts at one end of the field so he could Keep for the trials. Yugi watched from the sidelines, giving Ryou silent good-wishes as he stopped in the middle of the field with the others.

"All right everyone, we're going to see how many goals you can make in–" she looked at her watch– "fifteen minutes each. The Bludgers we'll be up there, just like a normal game, though there won't be Beaters to protect you. Ginny and I will be up there to give you back the Quaffle, but otherwise, you're on your own to get it past Ron. I guess we'll go alphabetically by first name. So first is…Brendan Boulyard."

The other students stepped back as a black-haired boy who must have been Brendan mounted his broom and rose into the air, followed by Katie and Ginny. Ryou watched while Brendan soared toward the goal posts and swiftly threw the scarlet ball, almost too fast for anyone to see it. Needless to say, Ron couldn't stop it. After the allotted fifteen minutes, the boy had made forty-three out of his sixty shots, and Ryou was almost worried he wouldn't come close to that. But since he wasn't even sure he wanted to be on the team in the first place, it didn't really bother him. As Brendan landed on the field, another student lifted into the air.

After a short time, Ryou stopped watching; it was clear that some people were better than others, but by far, Brendan had been the best. There was one kid who barely even made ten shots, and almost every single one of them Ron caught; Ryou had confidence that he'd be able to beat that score. It was Brendan's score he really needed to beat.

When his name was called, he took a deep breath and rose into the air, heading straight for the goal posts. He caught the Quaffle when Ginny through it to him and almost dropped it out of nervousness and because a Bludger had just narrowly missed his head. Okay, this was more dangerous than it sounded on paper, that's for sure. He pushed the broom as fast as it would go and threw to the ball toward the goal hoops, praying it would go in, but he didn't have time to sit back and watch it; he only had fourteen minutes left.

Again and again, Ryou marveled at his odd ability to be able to sense the Bludgers coming, as well as where the Quaffle was being thrown from, and that made scoring a lot easier. When he finally touched down on the ground after what seemed to him as an eternity, he was relieved to hear from Harry that he'd done better than Brendan, in more ways than one. He'd managed to sink forty-five out of fifty-five shots, a much better percentage than Brendan's, and none of the Bludgers had gotten anywhere near him except that first one. Feeling slightly confident, he walked back to the sidelines where Yugi was to watch the rest of try-outs.

After all of the Chaser try-outs had finished, Katie decided they had enough time to do Beaters, which happened to be a smaller group, and probably Yugi's. They noticed that Brendan was trying out to be a Beater as well, and he was just as good at that as he was Chasing; no doubt he was good flier anyway and was good at anything in the air. When he sat down next to Ryou, he gave a very smug look, like he already knew the outcome of the try-outs. But they didn't have much time to worry about it. The trials were going two at a time and were almost over.

Yugi jumped slightly when Harry called him out onto the field, almost as strung with nerves as Ryou had been; the white-haired boy gave him an encouraging smile and pushed him on. Yugi walked to the middle of the field and pushed off into the air, slightly confused when Harry followed him, holding a bag of ordinary golf balls. Harry smiled at his bewildered expression and shrugged.

"It worked for me," he explained, taking a golf ball out of the bag. "I'm going to throw these into the air and you have to catch them. Just pretend each one is the Snitch."

Yugi nodded and zoomed after the first one, almost missing it as it headed swiftly toward the goal posts; Harry had made it sound a lot easier than it really was, and he didn't have a very good broom anyway. Nevertheless, he dutifully flew after every one with surprising accuracy, and when the bag was gone, he'd caught all but two of them. Yugi grinned at the others' shocked faces as he landed next to Harry and shrugged briefly.

"Did I ever mention I'm extremely good at games?" he said as if that would explain his ability. Katie stared at him for another minute or so before she finally regained her senses.

"All right, well Yugi, I'd say you'd be a wonderful reserve Seeker. Good luck," she said, sounding a little flustered. Yugi beamed and he and Ryou briefly high-fived. Katie went on, "And since unfortunately there's only one Chaser position open I had to make a difficult decision between two excellent fliers. I've decided Ryou will be the new Chaser–" Ryou looked shocked that he'd actually made it, and his amazement was echoed by Bakura from his soul room– "and Brendan and Dean will be the new Beaters." Brendan smirked slightly in Ryou's direction. "And for those of you who didn't make it, good luck if you decide to try-out next year. We should probably head back to the castle now. It's getting really dark."

"Malik! Malik! Malik!" Yugi exclaimed once they'd reached the library. Malik had chosen to wait there for them since he couldn't actually see the trials or meet them in the Gryffindor common room, but he did want to know how they done. Yugi ran up to the table where his friend was sitting and leaned over it, breathing heavily. "Guess what?! I've got really good news!"

"Wait, let me guess…you just saved a load of money on your car insurance by switching to Geico," Malik said sarcastically. Everyone but Ron, who looked really confused, started laughing at the muggle joke.

"What's 'Geico'?" Ron asked once the others had calmed down enough from to be heard, but that just started them off again.

"No, of course not," Yugi said once he'd sufficiently calmed down. "We got on the Quidditch team!"

"That's great! Even Ryou? I thought you weren't going to try-out," Malik said, directing the question at Ryou. The boy in question shrugged and said, "I was persuaded."

{{'Persuaded'? What is that supposed to mean?}} Bakura asked.

{It means exactly what it's supposed to mean,} Ryou thought back.

"So, when does the season start?" Malik asked.

Harry shrugged and glanced at Ron. "It usually starts in November, but training'll probably start this week or next. We'll have to ask Katie." He took what looked like a galleon out of his pocket and ran his wand over it once; Ron and Hermione exchanged surprised glances as they felt their own coins grow hot. Harry stuck the coin back into his pocket and said, "It's getting late. We should go get some homework done before tomorrow."

The five Gryffindors and Malik parted outside the library, heading for different ends of the castle. Yugi and Ryou were silent as they walked, inwardly discussing different affairs with their respective yamis, touching time and again on Harry's odd actions. They didn't say anything out loud, but all four of them knew Harry was extremely close to finding out the truth and discovering the yamis; it didn't help that Harry had been carrying his map with him everywhere. It was definitely something to discuss with each other once they got back to the dorm.