Started: October 24, 2004 5:49pm
The Shadow Wizards
Disclaimer: see chapter one
Summary: see chapter one
Authoress' Note: I've just realised that I've had them all understanding each other perfectly with only a minor 'explanation' sort of thing.
So: the reason they can understand each other is that, the moment they went to sleep, a Language Charm was cast over them by Lady Akira. This enables them to understand Japanese, but the others can't understand English, or French – which Dom occasionally speaks when she's flustered or when she forgets where she is etc.
Chapter Four: Ryou Bakura
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Ryou smiled softly. 'Hello Yuugi. Nice to see you again,' he murmured. Yuugi gaped for a moment longer, then grinned and leapt forward for a hug.
Ryou caught the 18-year-old deftly in his arms; he used to be friends with Yuugi when they both went to the same Muggle school for a while. He got used to the boy's obsession with touching people during that time.
'What are you doing here?'
'Same thing as you, I suppose; I got a letter when my father was killed on a dig a few months back. I just flew over a day or so ago. Jou and Honda say hello, by the way.'
'Cool! I can't believe you're here… I'm sorry about your father, though,' Yuugi grimaced slightly. He knew what it was to lose a parent to their work – his mother had been a nurse in a mental institution, and had been stabbed to death by a patient when he was only five.
That, in turn, had been the trigger for his father sinking into depression. Eventually, he lost his father as well, and was sent to live with his Grandpa, whom he barely knew. Then he met his oldest friend, Anzu, when he was six, and soon after that (around seven or eight), Jounouchi and Honda. Seto Kaiba finally succumbed to the cheerfulness of the small boy when Yuugi was about ten, then Ryou transferred to his school when they were all around thirteen.
But then he had lost touch with the five of them when he began school at Akira as, even though he had told them about his magical heritage and they believed him, their lives were too different and it was too long between letters.
'Oh, that's alright.' Ryou's answer snapped him back to the present. 'We were never very close… then he started going on those half-yearly long digs, and leaving me to take care of myself…' Ryou pulled a face.
Yuugi and Hermione laughed. 'Oh, Hermione. I was coming to find you.'
'What is it, Yuugi?' asked Hermione, seeing the look on his face change suddenly to one of worry.
'Justin got hurt in Care of Magical Creatures.' Hermione's eyes widened with interest.
'What happened? Is he OK?'
'Oh, he's fine – he just frightened a baby Pegasi,' Yuugi winced. Ryou looked between the two of them.
'Who's Justin?' he asked.
'A friend I made here,' Yuugi answered. 'Come on, Hermione. We're all at the Hospital Wing; he can see one person at a time.'
Hermione let herself be pulled along and Ryou followed, mystified.
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When they reached the Hospital Wing, the three were stunned to find that everyone seemed to have solidified. Yuugi had noticed the seemingly still corridors, but he just brushed it off – they were probably all doing some weird senior thing – this was the senior classes corridor.
But there were usually prefects rushing about everywhere, running errands or looking for something/someone. Hermione saw something out the window as Yuugi looked around for their friends. She rushed over. Ryou followed her, more interested in looking outside than looking for obviously not moving people.
It was a triple rainbow.
Apparently it had rained, and rained hard, while they were conversing. Triple rainbows, in the wizarding world, signified something strange happening, or about to happen.
The night that Lily and James were killed there had been a triple rainbow, but no-one had bothered to look, except for those few lucky Muggles who lived in Godric's Hollow.
The day Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban, he did it underneath a triple rainbow, and he had wondered at its significance.
Sirius had had another triple rainbow shining over him once. It hadn't been that long ago, two and a half years at the most. It had been the day he died – the day Harry had lost his last remaining 'family' member.
But back to the present. Hermione called Yuugi over, and pointed out the rainbow. He gasped, then frowned. 'I'll bet the rainbow has something to do with everyone being frozen.'
'Everyone? Everyone is frozen?' Hermione asked. Yuugi nodded. 'There's no-one moving in the Hospital Wing, or in the classrooms near here. I checked. It's probably the same everywhere else in the school.'
'What could have happened?'
'If I may?' asked Ryou, softly interrupting. Yuugi nodded "go ahead". 'My father once told me that there was an Ancient Egyptian ward to make a person or people move at a different frequency – thus invisible to the normal, unaffected person – to the world around them. Maybe this is the same sort of thing.'
Hermione nodded. 'I once read about a charm like that. Most of our spells nowadays are based off Ancient Egyptian, Greek or Roman wards and enchantments.'
'So do you guys think this is what is happening? Einstein's twin theory sort-of-thing?' Hermione looked confused at this, but Ryou nodded.
'Something like that.'
'Anyway… how do we slow down again?' asked Yuugi. Hermione and Ryou were at a loss. Then Yuugi remembered an episode of a TV show he used to watch.
'Well… on a show I used to watch called 'Black Hole High', the same sort of thing happened to Josie and her friends slowed her down by making something else speed up to take her place.' Yuugi explained hesitantly. The three moved to sit down – since no-one would know, Yuugi ushered them into the senior common room, and they sank into the plushy chairs.
'That's great… but how do we tell them that we're stuck in this faster-frequency thing?'
'Well, Josie left a note for someone,' Yuugi frowned. 'But it'll take them hours to move enough to pick it up.'
'Well, it'll take hours for us – for them, it'll take about three minutes,' Hermione joked. Yuugi sighed.
'Anyone got a piece of paper?'
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Suddenly Cam noticed a piece of paper sitting on the hard plastic seat next to him, where there hadn't been before. It was a letter from Yuugi, Hermione and some kid named Ryou.
'What does it say?' asked Harry.
'It says that they're stuck-in-time, and they need us to help them. Yuugi goes into detail about what to do. Well, if they're serious… come on, we need… a clock, a clay wheel and a couple of watches. We should also tell the Headmistress.'
Just before they left to go to the Headmistress' office, Cam stuck his head in the door and told Dom they had to do something, and they'd be back soon.
'Well, let's go,' sighed Cam. Yuugi had gotten himself into a mess like this before, only with one of Akura's stupid experiments with spells. They had managed to bring the two back last time, and they would again.
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'It's weird watching them,' Ryou remarked. Yuugi giggled.
'I think it's enough to put me to sleep. We know that they are moving, though.'
'Yeah, half an hour ago, Cam was sitting. Now he's got his head in the door,' Hermione laughed. The three had dragged chairs out into the hallway. 'I'm going to go and see what's happening elsewhere.'
She left the two boys sitting there, staring at each other.
'So…' Yuugi started. 'What's been happening?' he asked.
'Not much,' Ryou answered casually. 'Jou and Seto got together, would you believe?' he chuckled.
'Really? The dragon and his puppy…' Yuugi joined in the laughter.
'Yeah; Jou's really happy though. Honda went missing after graduation – so did Malik.'
'Really? I kind of expected it of Malik, but Honda?'
'I know. Malik and I had been together before he left, though.'
'Good for you!' Yuugi grinned. 'You like him still?'
'I don't know. I guess… but there is someone else I sort-of-like, now I think of it. You?'
'Oh, there's someone I've got a half-crush. There used to be someone as well – but he left… and I haven't seen him in ages.' Yuugi replied. He was talking about Akura, of course. The two were inseparable… literally. They had been together almost the entire time Yuugi had been to Akira's before Akura left.
Ryou smiled. His crush was probably just a passing lust for the person, but it couldn't be ignored at the moment. Especially not when the object of the crush was sitting right in front of him, unknowingly.
Yuugi smiled back. His crush was probably just a passing lust for the person, but it couldn't be ignored at the moment. Especially not when the object of the crush was sitting right in front of him, unknowingly.
And then Hermione returned.
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Finished: October 24, 2004 7:26pm
OK, my following notes are in order of appearance of the subject. They don't need to be read, but if you would like a further understanding of the story, here you go!
On the Subject of:
The Rainbow: I don't care if you say a triple rainbow isn't possible! I say it is, because I've seen one! As I was writing this chapter I saw a double!
The Twin Theory: Einstein's twin theory, I think, states that 'the closer you travel to the speed of light, the more time slows down':
If one twin went up into space and cruised around for a while, and his/her twin stayed on Earth, then the twin who went up into space would come back younger than the twin on Earth. The one in space would have been travelling faster, and thus, aging slower.
I'm not sure if I get it, but I tried to explain it. The explanation I gave my parents is that (yes, I explained it to my parents), if you spin a clock around really, really, really fast, it'll slow down.
I took a wild guess at the amount of time it would have taken for the trio stuck-in-time to get rescued. Six-to-eight hours for three minutes sound fair?
Malik: Malik is the same age as everyone else; around 18.
For the 'shippers: I have a page of relationships sitting on my hard drive at the moment for this story. As you can tell, YuugixRyou is one of them. But it's just a brief fling, as they both know. They'll both get their serious relationships.
The Sudden Ending: I suddenly got the urge to leave it right there, but don't worry. I'm on a roll at the moment – it's probably going to get written (or just planned out) tonight.
The Yamii: Yamii as in the plural for Yami (three, in this case – yamis doesn't look right.). They won't be showing up in this fic, I don't think. It's just a bit hard, unless I have them all as brothers separated at birth and all sent to Akira's. Or they're all Death Eaters or something etc.
Alternate Universe: Yup, this is definitely an AU. Just in case you couldn't tell.
V. V. V. V. V. Late Update: I attribute this to my extreme laziness, and my sudden loss of interest in fanfiction, and my terrible memory. I completely forgot that this one and another chapter are sitting on my hard drive! Gahhh!
