The cutest boy

Hermione sighed as she wandered through the streets. Yami was a hero, and he had saved them both, but ever since he had turned up Harry had been paying attention only to him and ignoring her. It was only fair, she supposed, that he would want to be with the one who had saved him, and that he would rather be with another boy than a girl, but still, he was her friend. She was the one who had been with him for the past five years, the one who had always been there and who had helped him all the time. He shouldn't just dump her for someone who shows up and saves them once.

"Excuse me," said a soft voice at her elbow, "But you look lost. And I wouldn't go down that way if I were you. That's really not a nice neighborhood."

She turned bemusedly to find herself looking at what had to be the cutest boy she had ever seen. His long white hair fell in soft spikes around his face, and the gentle green eyes looking at her were framed by long lashes most girls would kill to have. In all he looked more like a girl than a guy, but his figure definitely gave it away. He was really thin, like he had an eating disorder or something, and only about an inch taller than her, and she was actually around the average height.

"Thank you." She replied, collecting her wits. "I wasn't really paying attention. Where is this, do you know? Sorry to bother you but I really am lost."

The boy shrugged casually. "It's all right, but I'm pretty new here myself and I'm not staying long, so I haven't bothered to figure out the layout. I only remembered that much because I ran into a bunch of thugs the only time I went in there. If you want I'll go with you to help you find your home, but it probably won't do you much good. I'm Ryou by the way."

Hermione smiled. "Nice to meet you Ryou. Would you come back with me? I'm sort of lonely." She was astonished by her own actions. She hadn't even mentioned that to Harry, and now she was telling all her problems to an absolute stranger. He probably thought that she was a dork. But she felt like she could trust him somehow.

"I know the feeling." Ryou agreed. "I'm on my own myself. I got this letter inviting me to some school called Hogwarts and my father bundled me off here with barely enough time to say goodbye to my friends. If you can even call them that. They're nice enough, but they never really seemed to think of me as anything more than just another kid from school." He paused, looking embarrassed. "Sorry, I must be boring you with all this talk about my problems. I'm sure you have enough of your own to worry about without my burdening you with my petty troubles."

"No, no." Hermione replied, startled. "It's just good to finally talk to someone. I go to Hogwarts too, actually. Anyway, one of my friends from there, one of my two best friends, is ignoring me. I don't think he's doing it on purpose, he's just too wrapped up in talking to Yami." She finished bitterly.

"Yami?" Ryou asked her, sounding curious. "Who's that? And why would your best friend be talking to them all the time when they could be talking to you?"

Hermione sighed. She'd been doing that a lot lately. "Yami saved us when we were trapped by a group of Death Eaters." She explained. "He looks really exotic and I think that may be part of the reason why Harry's suddenly become obsessed with him. And I keep feeling guilty for being unhappy about it, because he did save us and I shouldn't be jealous of him for being with Harry when I'm not, but I am. Plus I keep feeling like it's my fault that he'd rather spend time with Yami than with me. I'm just not interesting enough."

"It's not your fault." Ryou soothed her. "I think I know who you're talking about, and he seems to have that effect on everyone. Yami's really famous back in Japan. He's the champion of Duel Monsters and his charisma just seems to attract people. Actually he's one of the people I was talking about. So it's not you, it's Yami, and he probably wouldn't care anyway. I know it sounds really petty, but I really do think that Yami believes the world revolves around him. The only people he pays attention to are those who are either friends with Yugi or really heroic."

"That fits Harry all right." Hermione agreed. "He's definitely the heroic type. But let's not talk about them. What do you like to do?"