[Kitty: Alright now...let's get this party started.
Yugi: Poor Kitty has to go through high school now...
Kitty: Damn hellhole! I barely have anytime for my fics! (cries)
Noa: (pats Kitty's shoulder) It'll be okay. At least your first week is over, and you had Labor Day weekend.
Kitty: (sniff) True enough.
Yami: R&R!]
Chapter Twelve:
Twins and Twilight Wanderings
Christmas was coming, and it was kind of hard to tell which feeling controlled Diana more: excitement or complete and utter frustration. Although she liked Christmas as much as the next person, she was very frustrated because she nor any of her friends could find a thing about Nicholas Flamel.
"I still can't believe we haven't found anything yet," Diana growled as Ron kicked her ass at Wizard Chess in the Great Hall, "I was so sure that Nicholas Flamel was the clue we needed to figure out what Fluffy is guarding."
"Cheer up, Dare-kun," Yugi said, patting her shoulder, "We'll have plenty of time to look at that stuff at Christmas."
Diana sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."
"By the way," Harry said, "Are any of you staying at Hogwarts for Christmas?"
"I am," Ron said, "My mum and dad are going to Romania to visit my brother Charlie."
"I am too," Ryou replied, "My dad's not home, so I'm sure he won't mind."
"No way am I going home," Diana snorted, "Aunt Gwen's not going to be there, and the Weasleys won't either, so the best place for me to be is here."
Yugi smiled. "Well, Neko-chan and I are planning to travel to Russia this Christmas, so I'll stay next year."
"I'm going to Italy with my parents," Hermione said with a shrug.
"Do you think for a minute Mokuba would let me stay?" Seto asked, "If you do, you're crazy."
"Ishizu, Odeon and I don't even celebrate Christmas," Marik said, "But I should go back to Domino to check up on Kara-chan."
"Who's Kara-chan?" Diana asked.
"Marik's girlfriend," Ryou explained, "They're expecting twins around Christmas time."
"Whoa, Marik," Ron said, sounding surprised, "How old is Kara?"
"Fourteen," Marik replied quietly.
"Wow, isn't that a little young to be expecting twins?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Marik said awkwardly.
Harry looked about to speak, but Diana gave him a warning look, seeing Marik's obvious dislike for the subject, and he desisted.
Diana was a little sad that most of her new friends were leaving, but Ryou turned out to be what was needed right now. Not only was he very calm and patient, he loved to read. But Ryou, unfortunately, was shut away almost immediately whenever the Tomb Robber took over, which wasn't more than a few seconds.
One day in the library right before the holidays, Ryou and Diana had been looking for Nicholas Flamel in books such as Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century and Notable Magical Names of Our Time, and who would come and bother them, but Draco Malfoy.
"What ya reading, Whitey?" Malfoy mocked, "A book about how to actually look your sex?"
Diana stood up and pointed her wand at Malfoy. "I'm warning you, Malfoy, watch what you say to my friends."
"Ooh, Randall's mad at me," Malfoy said in feigned fear, "Really fitting that you like Whitey, Randall. You play the boy, and he plays the girl!"
Suddenly, Malfoy was blasted against the wall.
Diana whirled around to stare at Bakura, who was positively fuming. He walked over to Malfoy and grabbed him by his collar.
"I'm...no...girl...you...bastard," he snarled, before her threw Malfoy back against the wall.
Diana awoke on Christmas morning at around 9:00 AM to a deserted girls' dormitory and a loud shriek from her owl, Aries.
She took a swipe at the owl, trying to go back to sleep, but now that she was awake, the sunlight through her window was bothering her.
She pulled the covers over her, moaning, "Pesky owl...OW!"
Aries had dropped his package right on Diana's head.
"YOU STUPID, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING PIDGEON!" Diana yelled, pulling the covers off of herself and chasing Aries out of the dormitory and back through the window back toward the Owlery.
Diana grabbed her package and went down into the common room.
Harry and Ron were sitting in their pajamas on the couch all alone. Ron was eating a Chocolate Frog and Harry was opening Hermione's present, a large pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
The two boys looked at Diana, and immediately saw that she was crabby.
"I really need to get a new owl next Christmas," Diana grumbled, sitting down on the couch next to Harry.
She ripped open her aunt's letter, and read the following:
Dear Diana,
I do hope you're staying out of trouble, particularly because Albus has written to me several times on your account for fighting. He says you've get several detentions every week, and lose points for Gryffindor every month. I'm disappointed in you, and I hope your behavior improves, maybe to match your grades, which Albus tells me are very high.
Your mother used to play this for you before you went to sleep. I found it in a box of old stuff of hers, and thought you might like to be reacquainted with it. However, I do ask you not to use it unless it is very necessary (pranking Slytherins does not count as an emergency, young lady).
Gwen
Diana sighed and opened her present. It was some kind of panpipe, painted silver and decorated with tiny unicorns and flying horses.
Diana played a few notes in it. It did sound a little familiar.
She played a few more notes on it, and found she could play the old lullaby her mother used sing to her rather easily.
"Ron?"
Ron had started to doze off, dropping his Chocolate Frog on the floor and snoring loudly.
"Ron?" Diana poked him in the shoulder, "Ron!"
"What...huh?" Ron jerked out of his doze, "What?"
Diana grinned as she looked at her panpipe. "Wicked!"
Harry smiled and picked up a lumpy package. "Wonder who this is from..."
Ron blushed as Diana picked up a package similar to Harry's and opened it. "That would be my Mum. I told her you wouldn't be expecting any presents, so she sent you a Weasley sweater."
Harry's sweater was a bright emerald green that matched his eyes, and Diana's sweater was a silvery blue, and on it were little silver stars.
"No fair," Ron muttered, "She always does a nicer job if you're not family..." he sighed as he opened his, "And chooses better colors...she always gives me maroon..."
"It's very nice of her, though," Harry noted.
Diana picked up gift-wrapped box, which was very small and decorated in gold wrapping paper and a purple bow.
"This one's is addressed to all of us," she said slowly, before reading the rest of the tag and saying excitedly, "It's from Marik!"
"Open it!" Harry and Ron said together.
She did, only to find a folded pieces of paper inside, which said the following:
Name of Child-First (Given): Kane
Middle: Atem
Last (Family): Ishtar
Sex: Male
This Birth: Twin
Date of Birth: December 22nd, 1991
Name of Child-First (Given): Ariel
Middle: Diana
Last (Family): Ishtar
Sex: Female
This Birth: Twin
Date of Birth: December 22nd, 1991
Place of Birth: Domino Hospital
Father of Children: Marik Rowan Ishtar
Mother of Children: Takara Jade Rozene
Certification of Birth: Dr. Andrea Spence
"The twins' birth certificate," Diana said with a smile, before reading their letter;
Konnichiwa, Dare-kun, Harry-kun, Ron-kun and Ryou-kun!
Ariel and Kane Ishtar were born on December 22nd, each three pounds, eleven ounces and very adorable. Kara is doing fine, and they'll be back home by Christmas, which is when you'll open this unless you're taking a secret look under the Christmas tree (yeah, Dare, I mean you).
Joey and Mai, our respective God-parents, are totally in love with them, although Kane did spit up a bit when Joey was holding him. The twins seem to have taken a liking to Mokuba-chan. Kaiba-kun practically had to pull Ariel off his little brother's hair so he wouldn't be late for a board meeting.
Maybe if you guys ever visit Domino, you can get acquainted with the twins. Something tells me they'll love you guys as much as they love the others.
Hope you're well, and don't forget about researching Flamel!
Happy Christmas,
Marik
Harry grinned. "Nice to know they're alright," he said.
"I see they chose my name as Ariel's middle name," Diana said with a grin, "Who knows? Maybe Ariel will be like me!"
Ron looked at her in feigned horror. "Don't jinx Ariel's future like that!"
Diana whacked Ron upside the head, a vein popping in her temple.
Harry shook his head in amusement as Ron and Diana bickered a little, before picking up his last present and opening it.
Diana and Ron looked up from their fight and at Harry as something fluid and silver went slithering to the floor in shiny folds from his package.
It was an Invisibility Cloak.
"An Invisibility Cloak," Ron whispered in complete shock.
"I can't believe it," Diana said softly, "Those are so rare...who gave it to ya, Harry?"
"There was no name, but it said it had belonged to my dad and to...'use it well,'" Harry said quietly.
"'Use it well?'" Diana repeated suspiciously, "What does that mean?"
Ron shrugged. "Maybe the person who sent it to you thinks you'll need it."
"But how would they know that?" Harry asked.
Ron looked at Diana for an answer, but Diana shook her head.
"The only way they could know that is if they knew the future, and there hasn't been a real Seer in more than a century..." Diana said, before looking at Harry seriously, "Harry, who would your father trust enough to give something that rare to?"
Harry thought for a minute. "I don't know..." he admitted.
Diana shook her head. "Whatever. I better tell Ryou the news about the Ishtar twins."
And with that, she ran out of the common room.
Harry frowned, looking over his Invisibility Cloak.
'Who would your father trust enough to give something that rare to?'It was a great question. But Harry couldn't think of one answer to it.
Diana awoke around 11:00 PM, feeling wide awake.
She took out Marik's letter and read it through again. /'Don't forget about researching Flamel,' he says,/ she thought grumpily, /How am I supposed to do that when Ryou and I have looked through the entire library and found nothing? Merlin, the only place we haven't looked is the Restricted Section, and you need a note to get a book out of there.../
Her eyes widened, and she grinned mischievously. /Unless there's no librarian to catch me.../
/Okay, so stealing isn't really a good idea,/ Diana thought from under Harry's Invisibility Cloak, /I'll just have to apologize to Harry later.../
Diana tiptoed through the library and into the Restricted Section, praying under her breath that no one was there to catch her.
But as she closed the door behind her, Diana almost dropped her lantern.
There was another lantern there.
Diana gulped. "H-h-hello?" she whispered.
"Dare-kun?"
Diana stared at the blackness. "Ryou?" she whispered, taking off the Invisibility Cloak, "What are you doing here?"
"I should be asking you the same question," came a voice from the shadows.
And slowly, before her eyes, someone appeared, but...
Diana stared.
He wasn't Ryou.
His silver-white hair was up in a couple of places, and his eyes were a darker brown, and reflected much pain and coldness.
Bakura looked at Diana, and realization hit him in the face.
She could see the difference...Diana stared at Bakura, and Bakura stared at her, both in utter silence.
Finally, Diana was able to whisper, "Who...are you?"
Bakura sighed. "I was wondering when we'd have to tell ya. But there's no time for a full explanation right now. Just know that I'm Ryou's Yami, Bakura, that I was a Tomb Robber in Ancient Egypt, and now I live in a piece of gold called the Millennium Ring."
Diana nodded. "Okay, I'll accept that. But for right now, we should look up Flamel and get out of here."
Bakura pulled a book off the shelf. "I looked under the name 'Flamel' and didn't find anything," he informed her, "I guess we aught to just look through them for info."
Diana shrugged simply, as Bakura looked through the book he taken off the shelf. "Nothing here."
Diana grabbed another one, and flipped through some of the pages. "Nothing here either."
"Nothing."
"Nothing."
"Nothing."
"Nothing."
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Diana gawked at Bakura, who was holding a book that seemed to be screaming its head (bindings?) off.
"SHUT IT!" Diana yelled, slamming the book shut.
"Someone definitely would've heard that," Bakura said, his eyes darting around the library.
Diana grabbed the Invisibility Cloak. "Under here," she said, putting it over the both Bakura and her.
They both started down the hallway, and it was only ten minutes later when Diana remembered something.
"The lanterns!" Diana whispered, "We left them in the library!"
Bakura's eyes widened in horror. "Even if they did go out, which they probably did, it would still be hot. If someone investigated, they'd know someone was in there."
"Shit," Diana muttered, before starting back in the opposite direction, but Bakura grabbed her by the collar.
"We can't go back in," Bakura reminded her, "It'd too risky. Filch will be in there, for certain."
Diana nodded, and then looked around. "Which way do we go?"
Bakura looked at the corridors nervously. "Uh..."
Diana stared. "You don't know the way out of here?"
"Shouldn't you?" he snapped.
"You were a Tomb Robber!"
"You're a witch!"
Suddenly, the two froze at the sound of footsteps.
"Sniff around, my sweet, they couldn't have gotten far..."
"Filch," Bakura whispered, "Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn, oh damn..."
"Let's hide in there," Diana suggested, pointing to an abandoned classroom.
Bakura looked at her and smirked. "You are clever for a mortal."
Diana smiled modestly, before pulling Bakura inside the classroom.
They waited for Filch to leave, before Diana whispered, "What floor is your dormitory on?"
"The second," Bakura replied.
"Mine's on the fourth," Diana said, "If we can figure out what floor we're on, then maybe we can get out of here."
Bakura nodded, before looking around the classroom. "Whoa..."
Diana turned to look at what the Tomb Robber was looking at. It was a large mirror that was as tall as the ceiling, with a golden frame with an inscription that read, "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."
Diana walked closer to the mirror and examined the frame. "Wow..." she whispered, "This is nice..."
She then looked in the mirror, and she had to clap her hands to her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
"What?" Bakura asked.
Diana stared at the mirror, but didn't answer.
In the mirror, standing next to her, was a beautiful young woman with long red hair and shining blue eyes the same color as Diana's own, almond-shaped eyes.
It was Diana's mother, and she was smiling...like she was proud of her...
Diana felt like she was going to cry, not of sadness or pain like she had so many times as a little girl, but of happiness.
"Hello? Dare-kun?"
Diana blinked as a hand waved in front of her face.
She looked at Bakura, who asked, "Are you okay?"
Diana nodded quietly.
"C'mon," he said, taking her hand, "Let's go back to our dormitories before Filch catches us."
Diana nodded again, and the two left the room.
But before she left, Diana made a silent promise to her mother in the mirror;
/I will be back.../
[Kitty: That's it!
Yugi: Ooh, the Mirror of Erised...
Lina: And Diana's going back? Idiot.
Kitty: Well, she can't really help it...
Kara: (holding Ariel) It's nice to know I'm in this story.
Marik: (grins, holding Kane)
Kitty: (shrugs) I thought about it a little, and decided, "What the heck?" They make a cute couple in Destiny Dilemmas, so why not here too?
Yugi: Reviews, Lina?
Lina: (types on Kitty's computer) Uh...4. And Kani's first. She says, "yay! (does dance) cool chapter and yay Kura-kun for using the Man Eater Bug, whoot! Lol (glomps Harry)."
Harry: (being glomped) Nice to know Kani likes me this much. (kisses Kani's cheek)
Bakura: (bows) Thank you, thank you!
Lina: Next is...Avemtilla. She says... (gawks) A long review with a Snape cheer, results of Hogwarts House quizzes, and a confusion between "tropics" and "topics."
Kitty: (reads it herself and smiles) I don't particularly like Snape (no offense), but that cheer is cute.
Bakura: (rolls his eyes) Can I send him to the Shadow Realm now?
Kitty: No.
Bakura: (pouts) Aw...
Lina: (types on Kitty's computer) Next is trivial queen with a much shorter review that goes as follows, "YAY! The worst thing that they could do to Malfoy is to humiliate him in front of everybody."
Kitty: Hmm... (smirks) Nice idea. I'd just have to figure out where to put it...and who does it...
The Japanese Boys, their Yamis and the British Kids: Ooh! Me! Me!
Kitty: (sweatdrop)
Lina: (types on Kitty's computer) Last, but certainly not least is Rainbow Guardian Angel, who says, "Hiya! I just want to say that this is a terrific story! Not a lot of people can put Yu-Gi-Oh and Harry Potter together that well. You're a very talented writer, I wish I were as good as you! Please update soon, cause I'm loving this! I hope Yugi gets revenge on Malfoy soon, cause I hate that sleezeball! Oh, and 'Hi Yugi! Hi Atem! You two are so cool!' Okay, that's out of the bag. Please update soon, you rock!"
Yugi: (blushes) Thanks.
Atem: (blushes too) Nice to know we have such a nice fan, eh Yugi?
Yugi: (nods)
Kitty: (blushes) Thank you for such humane comments. (smiles) I just do what I like, and that is writing. And I'm sure you could be as good as I am, if not better. Hey, if you write any fics, I'll read 'em. (winks)
Yugi: And I hope I can get back at Malfoy soon too. (sighs)
Mokuba: R&R, peoples!]