Daricio: Ok, here's the next chapter of Millennium Magic. And boy, this one will suuuure be fun.
Malik: You sure don't sound like you're having fun with this.
Daricio: -.- That's because QuickEdit stole my happy faces from me. (Sticks tongue out at QuickEdit) I don't mind the asterisk thing so much, except that I constantly forget to use parenthesis, but now I can't make my happy face. And they stole my divider thingys too.
Malik: (pat pat)
Daricio: (sniff) thanks. But any way, (forced looking happy face) Hello everybody! No real notes to speak of, unless I think of any, in which case it will be addressed at the end of the chapter, so let's just get on with the story, shall we?
Malik: Any chance of-
Daricio: (grin) Nope!
(-----Divider----)
The next day at school was rather boring, as usual. Harry, Hermione, and Ron didn't really have any more ideas for how to prove people innocent of the deed.
When they met up with Kaiba in the first period, he apologized for there not being enough ingredients, but according to him, what he had given them was all that he had in terms of those particular substances.
Apparently, rich as he was, he was only allowed to buy a certain amount of wizarding stuff or else he'd have the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department (The one where Ron's dad worked) on him in a flash, since he wasn't technically a wizard and so shouldn't have too much wizard stuff.
When he told them this, he said it with a huge scowl on his face. He apparently reeeeeally wasn't pleased with the Ministry of Magic. (Or maybe just not pleased that he was a squib...?)
Then they had to deal with the teachers of their different periods, (Especially their Math teacher and except for their first period English teacher,) because of homework not being completed. (well, except for Hermione, of course.)
But now school was out, and the three were still at a loss for any ideas. There wasn't exactly much you could do besides ask people and hope they tell the truth when it came to mysteries like these, and in this case they weren't allowed to ask anybody in the first place anyway.
Hermione had come up with the idea of inviting one of them, like Yugi, over to their "house" so that they could get a tour of the town as well as have an afternoon to get to know him and to come up with a plan, and she tried it now.
She turned to the group. "Hey, Yugi... Yugi? Hey, Tea, where's Yugi at?"
Tea shrugged. "I'm not sure. Right after we all walked out of the school, he told me that he had something to do today and he ran off in the other direction... It was rather strange, really..."
Harry frowned. Disappearing like that was rather suspicious... But oh well. They'd have to try out their plan tomorrow when they saw him again... For now, they were once again idea-less.
Tea, Joey, and Tristan broke off one way after a while to head towards their houses, and they walked a ways with just themselves and Bakura before he also went off down the street towards his house.
"We could... nah..." Ron said, speaking up and breaking the silence between the three of them as they walked down the road towards their temporary home.
"What, Ron?" Hermione asked. "We need ideas badly."
Ron shook his head. "No, never mind. Now that I think about it, it'd still put us right back in the same situation we're in now, with no new info..." he said, looking back down at the sidewalk as they went.
Harry frowned and also looked back down, thinking hard. What could they possibly do to figure out something about the criminal?
His mind wandered to Dudley's old Mystery movies he used to watch all the time, the ones he would hide out in the halls with his eyes pressed to Dudley's door crack in order to find some form of entertainment, and he tried to think of what any one of them would do.
He couldn't seem to make any of the scenarios from the movies fit in any way shape or form to his own, though, and there were always the same problems coming up in those strategies that there were in his own.
He sighed, and his mind wandered to some of the mysteries that had taken place in Hogwarts during his years there.
First, they had needed to find all the answers to all that stuff to get the sorcerer's stone. There wasn't really much of a mystery to that, though, so that didn't really apply.
Then, they had needed to figure out where the chamber of secrets was, and who the heir of Syltherin was... That was more of a mystery, but it was still so different than the one going on now that he couldn't see any way to go...
Third year was when Sirius had come into the picture, but there hadn't been any really mysteries involved in that.
And the Triwizard tournament that had taken place last year was difficult as well, but again, no mysteries there except, of course, for how he had managed to get into the tournament in the first place... And that mystery solved itself without him needing to do anything...
There was simply nothing for him to compare to that he could use to help them in this situation. It all seemed sort of... hopeless...
"I wonder if the Ministry has gotten any further than we have..." he mumbled to himself. "I hope not, or I'll feel rather stupid..."
Hermione smiled at him. "We'll figure something out." She said reassuringly.
Harry sighed. "I suppose... Eventually... But what can we do if.."
He was cut off by Ron. "Hey! I've got it! House searches! Somebody somewhere has got to have at least one clue in their bedrooms or something!"
Harry blinked. "One, Ron, how do we know who's house to search? Two, what exactly would we be looking for in there?"
Ron shrugged. "Letters, pictures, suspicious sleeping activity, who knows? But it might work..."
Hermione frowned. "And when would we find time to do this? We can't very well do it while people are at school."
"Why not?"
"Cause we'll still have to go to school too!" Hermione said, like this was an obvious thing.
Harry and Ron looked at each other with slightly pained looks.
Hermione laughed. "I'm kidding! Kidding! We don't HAVE to go. But we probably will. During the day, you can never be sure who's going to be home at different people's houses."
"So we go at night?" Ron asked, opening the door of the house and letting them all in.
Hermione nodded. "That would probably work best."
"But what if they wake up? We should take the invisibility cloak. And that works best if as few as possible people go." Harry pointed out as he sat in a chair. "Meaning we should choose out one of us."
Hermione and Ron agreed with this. "Who should go, though?" Ron asked.
Ron and Hermione both looked at each other, then at Harry, who stared back and sweatdropped. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"... It's your cloak, Harry..."
"And your idea, too..."
"Oh, man..."
(-----Divider-----)
Harry muttered under his breath as he sat underneath Joey's bedroom window. He had the invisibility cloak wrapped around him, and he was listening to snores coming out of the open window. When it seemed late enough at night for everybody to be asleep, he stood and peered in.
Coast clear. Silently, he lifted the window sill and slipped inside. Taking a step forward, he tripped over a shoe on the floor, landing with a fwump.
Harry glanced up at the bed to make sure Joey hadn't stirred. The glance wasn't necessary. His snores already told him that he was still asleep. He picked himself up off the floor. 'What a way to start a search.' He thought with annoyance at himself.
He sighed quietly, and began his search by going through the things on the top of the dresser.
It didn't take long before he took off the invisibility cloak so that the search would be easier. With the cloak on, he could very easily knock things over while he looked, and that would not only be loud, but it might make Joey suspicious the next morning when things were misplaced on his dresser.
There were a lot of things on top of the dresser. A photo of Joey and a younger girl who must be his sister Serenity while the two of them were at the beach, a half disassembled watch, a small collection of loose change, and a few buttons.
There was a large stack of unused and dusty Duel Monsters cards which, upon inspection, were obviously Joey's extras—They were rather dumb cards. Behind the stack was a ring of keys.
Half hidden under a paperback book was, strangely, a deck of Pokemon cards. Then there was a clock that didn't work. Unusual as all these things were, though, there wasn't really anything there that could prove or disprove his involvement in the mystery.
Harry carefully opened the first drawer on the dresser, which appeared to be a junk drawer. Slowly, he began to sift through the contents, hoping to find something to clear his new friend of the deed.
A small stuffed animal on a keychain, a small notebook that seemed to serve as a diary, (The last entry was a year ago and consisted of "Nothing much happened today. Today I ate..." and such things), a leaf collection in a ziplock bag, a pocketknife that had not only the usual knife stuff, but also had some lockpicking tools, a couple of really old model airplanes, and a tape recorder. There was also an assortment of handkerchiefs (unused of course), and more loose change.
Harry pulled out the tape recorder to see what was on the tape inside. He turned the volume really low and listened. The tape was blank. As he put the tape recorder back into the drawer, it flipped out of his hands and dropped onto the floor. Loudly.
Harry dove for the invisibility cloak, but it was too late. Joey sat straight up in bed, looking around wildly. "What's going on?" he said in alarm.
Harry froze, his eyes wide, as he tried to think up something to do.
"What are you doing in here?" Joey asked sternly.
"I, uh...." The invisibility cloak was out of the question now. Joey had seen him now, and to see him disappear would be disastrous.
"Uh huh." Joey sounded mad. "Just as I thought.... I told you, Keith, the Pizza is MINE."
Harry blinked. "Huh?"
"The pizza! Give it back, it's mine."
Harry looked up at Joey and smiled shakily as he realized that the teen's eyes were still closed. "All right, Joey, you can have the pizza back. I'm sorry." He said as he pulled the cloak back on.
Joey nodded firmly. "And the puppy?"
"What puppy?"
"You're sitting on him!"
"... Oh, sorry..."
Joey nodded again, seeming to be pleased with that response. He flopped back down onto his pillow again.
Harry let out a sigh. Slowly, he picked up the tape recorder and turned to put it back in the drawer. Just as he was about to do so, he got an idea.
He slipped over to Joey's bedside and poked him. "Hey, Joey?"
"what?" Joey's voice was muffled due to the fact that his face was now buried in the pillow.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Yug' whatever." Joey said, rolling over.
Harry blinked at the name, wondering how Joey was getting his voice mixed up with the small teen's. Then he turned on the tape recorder and began his questions.
"Do you know anything about a place called Hogwarts?" Harry asked, figuring that this was a safe enough question.
"Hogwarts?" Joey snerked slightly. "Like a Hog... wit warts..."
Harry smiled slightly. "It's a school."
"Oh... "he sighed, stretching. "Buuuuut, I've neva heard of it... why?"
"Ah... no reason... Can you do magic, Joey?"
Joey laughed. "Gotta talk to Yug' about that sort of stuff. Or Malik." He snickered again. "Didja know? He's got our first period teacher mind controlled just enough so's that she ignores us and we can duel and not do homework."
Harry blinked, one of his questions answered. "But you can't do any, right?"
"Naw, course not. Duh. Only Millennium Item holders can ..." his voice faded out as he rolled over, then it came back with a start and he laughed again. "Don't see me with one of those!"
Harry nodded, even though Joey couldn't see it. "All right then." He said quietly to himself. "I think that clears you." He switched off the tape recorder.
He stuffed it in his pocket to show to Hermione and Ron later, then he turned to leave.
"Clears me a' what, Harry?" Joey asked, his eyes fluttering open. Harry froze as Joey looked around the room. "Harry?"
After a while, he shook his head and lay back down, muttering to himself about weird dreams.
Harry waited for a while, then snuck back out the window, feeling very grateful for the invisibility cloak.
Another suspect was cleared.
(----Divider----)
Well, that's another chapter completed. ' hope that's long enough...
Malik: Of course it's not long enough! I already KNEW it wasn't Joey! These things will never be long enough until you tell me who did the stupid thing! Cause once that happens, then we get the cool fight scene!
Daricio: ' ah, maybe. I'm not very good at writing fight scenes. I have a scene written out in one of my notebooks where He-who-made-Hogwarts- disappear basically beats up on Harry for a little while, and I sort of have some of the final battle written out, but so far it's looking rather... um.... not very productive...
Malik: Great... And you still haven't cleared ME yet!
Daricio: That's nice, Malik.
Malik: I need to know if I did it or not, so I know whether or not to laugh insanely in the author notes or not!
Daricio: ' uh huh... Anyways, I'm going to end this chapter now... But first, list of remaining suspects: Kaiba/Mokuba, Yugi/Yami, Malik, and... wow, I think that's it... ' Only three left guys! Who do you think it is now?
Oh, and B/k? yes, I know that you know who it is. That's cause I TOLD you. (grin)'
Review please!
Malik: You sure don't sound like you're having fun with this.
Daricio: -.- That's because QuickEdit stole my happy faces from me. (Sticks tongue out at QuickEdit) I don't mind the asterisk thing so much, except that I constantly forget to use parenthesis, but now I can't make my happy face. And they stole my divider thingys too.
Malik: (pat pat)
Daricio: (sniff) thanks. But any way, (forced looking happy face) Hello everybody! No real notes to speak of, unless I think of any, in which case it will be addressed at the end of the chapter, so let's just get on with the story, shall we?
Malik: Any chance of-
Daricio: (grin) Nope!
(-----Divider----)
The next day at school was rather boring, as usual. Harry, Hermione, and Ron didn't really have any more ideas for how to prove people innocent of the deed.
When they met up with Kaiba in the first period, he apologized for there not being enough ingredients, but according to him, what he had given them was all that he had in terms of those particular substances.
Apparently, rich as he was, he was only allowed to buy a certain amount of wizarding stuff or else he'd have the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department (The one where Ron's dad worked) on him in a flash, since he wasn't technically a wizard and so shouldn't have too much wizard stuff.
When he told them this, he said it with a huge scowl on his face. He apparently reeeeeally wasn't pleased with the Ministry of Magic. (Or maybe just not pleased that he was a squib...?)
Then they had to deal with the teachers of their different periods, (Especially their Math teacher and except for their first period English teacher,) because of homework not being completed. (well, except for Hermione, of course.)
But now school was out, and the three were still at a loss for any ideas. There wasn't exactly much you could do besides ask people and hope they tell the truth when it came to mysteries like these, and in this case they weren't allowed to ask anybody in the first place anyway.
Hermione had come up with the idea of inviting one of them, like Yugi, over to their "house" so that they could get a tour of the town as well as have an afternoon to get to know him and to come up with a plan, and she tried it now.
She turned to the group. "Hey, Yugi... Yugi? Hey, Tea, where's Yugi at?"
Tea shrugged. "I'm not sure. Right after we all walked out of the school, he told me that he had something to do today and he ran off in the other direction... It was rather strange, really..."
Harry frowned. Disappearing like that was rather suspicious... But oh well. They'd have to try out their plan tomorrow when they saw him again... For now, they were once again idea-less.
Tea, Joey, and Tristan broke off one way after a while to head towards their houses, and they walked a ways with just themselves and Bakura before he also went off down the street towards his house.
"We could... nah..." Ron said, speaking up and breaking the silence between the three of them as they walked down the road towards their temporary home.
"What, Ron?" Hermione asked. "We need ideas badly."
Ron shook his head. "No, never mind. Now that I think about it, it'd still put us right back in the same situation we're in now, with no new info..." he said, looking back down at the sidewalk as they went.
Harry frowned and also looked back down, thinking hard. What could they possibly do to figure out something about the criminal?
His mind wandered to Dudley's old Mystery movies he used to watch all the time, the ones he would hide out in the halls with his eyes pressed to Dudley's door crack in order to find some form of entertainment, and he tried to think of what any one of them would do.
He couldn't seem to make any of the scenarios from the movies fit in any way shape or form to his own, though, and there were always the same problems coming up in those strategies that there were in his own.
He sighed, and his mind wandered to some of the mysteries that had taken place in Hogwarts during his years there.
First, they had needed to find all the answers to all that stuff to get the sorcerer's stone. There wasn't really much of a mystery to that, though, so that didn't really apply.
Then, they had needed to figure out where the chamber of secrets was, and who the heir of Syltherin was... That was more of a mystery, but it was still so different than the one going on now that he couldn't see any way to go...
Third year was when Sirius had come into the picture, but there hadn't been any really mysteries involved in that.
And the Triwizard tournament that had taken place last year was difficult as well, but again, no mysteries there except, of course, for how he had managed to get into the tournament in the first place... And that mystery solved itself without him needing to do anything...
There was simply nothing for him to compare to that he could use to help them in this situation. It all seemed sort of... hopeless...
"I wonder if the Ministry has gotten any further than we have..." he mumbled to himself. "I hope not, or I'll feel rather stupid..."
Hermione smiled at him. "We'll figure something out." She said reassuringly.
Harry sighed. "I suppose... Eventually... But what can we do if.."
He was cut off by Ron. "Hey! I've got it! House searches! Somebody somewhere has got to have at least one clue in their bedrooms or something!"
Harry blinked. "One, Ron, how do we know who's house to search? Two, what exactly would we be looking for in there?"
Ron shrugged. "Letters, pictures, suspicious sleeping activity, who knows? But it might work..."
Hermione frowned. "And when would we find time to do this? We can't very well do it while people are at school."
"Why not?"
"Cause we'll still have to go to school too!" Hermione said, like this was an obvious thing.
Harry and Ron looked at each other with slightly pained looks.
Hermione laughed. "I'm kidding! Kidding! We don't HAVE to go. But we probably will. During the day, you can never be sure who's going to be home at different people's houses."
"So we go at night?" Ron asked, opening the door of the house and letting them all in.
Hermione nodded. "That would probably work best."
"But what if they wake up? We should take the invisibility cloak. And that works best if as few as possible people go." Harry pointed out as he sat in a chair. "Meaning we should choose out one of us."
Hermione and Ron agreed with this. "Who should go, though?" Ron asked.
Ron and Hermione both looked at each other, then at Harry, who stared back and sweatdropped. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"... It's your cloak, Harry..."
"And your idea, too..."
"Oh, man..."
(-----Divider-----)
Harry muttered under his breath as he sat underneath Joey's bedroom window. He had the invisibility cloak wrapped around him, and he was listening to snores coming out of the open window. When it seemed late enough at night for everybody to be asleep, he stood and peered in.
Coast clear. Silently, he lifted the window sill and slipped inside. Taking a step forward, he tripped over a shoe on the floor, landing with a fwump.
Harry glanced up at the bed to make sure Joey hadn't stirred. The glance wasn't necessary. His snores already told him that he was still asleep. He picked himself up off the floor. 'What a way to start a search.' He thought with annoyance at himself.
He sighed quietly, and began his search by going through the things on the top of the dresser.
It didn't take long before he took off the invisibility cloak so that the search would be easier. With the cloak on, he could very easily knock things over while he looked, and that would not only be loud, but it might make Joey suspicious the next morning when things were misplaced on his dresser.
There were a lot of things on top of the dresser. A photo of Joey and a younger girl who must be his sister Serenity while the two of them were at the beach, a half disassembled watch, a small collection of loose change, and a few buttons.
There was a large stack of unused and dusty Duel Monsters cards which, upon inspection, were obviously Joey's extras—They were rather dumb cards. Behind the stack was a ring of keys.
Half hidden under a paperback book was, strangely, a deck of Pokemon cards. Then there was a clock that didn't work. Unusual as all these things were, though, there wasn't really anything there that could prove or disprove his involvement in the mystery.
Harry carefully opened the first drawer on the dresser, which appeared to be a junk drawer. Slowly, he began to sift through the contents, hoping to find something to clear his new friend of the deed.
A small stuffed animal on a keychain, a small notebook that seemed to serve as a diary, (The last entry was a year ago and consisted of "Nothing much happened today. Today I ate..." and such things), a leaf collection in a ziplock bag, a pocketknife that had not only the usual knife stuff, but also had some lockpicking tools, a couple of really old model airplanes, and a tape recorder. There was also an assortment of handkerchiefs (unused of course), and more loose change.
Harry pulled out the tape recorder to see what was on the tape inside. He turned the volume really low and listened. The tape was blank. As he put the tape recorder back into the drawer, it flipped out of his hands and dropped onto the floor. Loudly.
Harry dove for the invisibility cloak, but it was too late. Joey sat straight up in bed, looking around wildly. "What's going on?" he said in alarm.
Harry froze, his eyes wide, as he tried to think up something to do.
"What are you doing in here?" Joey asked sternly.
"I, uh...." The invisibility cloak was out of the question now. Joey had seen him now, and to see him disappear would be disastrous.
"Uh huh." Joey sounded mad. "Just as I thought.... I told you, Keith, the Pizza is MINE."
Harry blinked. "Huh?"
"The pizza! Give it back, it's mine."
Harry looked up at Joey and smiled shakily as he realized that the teen's eyes were still closed. "All right, Joey, you can have the pizza back. I'm sorry." He said as he pulled the cloak back on.
Joey nodded firmly. "And the puppy?"
"What puppy?"
"You're sitting on him!"
"... Oh, sorry..."
Joey nodded again, seeming to be pleased with that response. He flopped back down onto his pillow again.
Harry let out a sigh. Slowly, he picked up the tape recorder and turned to put it back in the drawer. Just as he was about to do so, he got an idea.
He slipped over to Joey's bedside and poked him. "Hey, Joey?"
"what?" Joey's voice was muffled due to the fact that his face was now buried in the pillow.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, Yug' whatever." Joey said, rolling over.
Harry blinked at the name, wondering how Joey was getting his voice mixed up with the small teen's. Then he turned on the tape recorder and began his questions.
"Do you know anything about a place called Hogwarts?" Harry asked, figuring that this was a safe enough question.
"Hogwarts?" Joey snerked slightly. "Like a Hog... wit warts..."
Harry smiled slightly. "It's a school."
"Oh... "he sighed, stretching. "Buuuuut, I've neva heard of it... why?"
"Ah... no reason... Can you do magic, Joey?"
Joey laughed. "Gotta talk to Yug' about that sort of stuff. Or Malik." He snickered again. "Didja know? He's got our first period teacher mind controlled just enough so's that she ignores us and we can duel and not do homework."
Harry blinked, one of his questions answered. "But you can't do any, right?"
"Naw, course not. Duh. Only Millennium Item holders can ..." his voice faded out as he rolled over, then it came back with a start and he laughed again. "Don't see me with one of those!"
Harry nodded, even though Joey couldn't see it. "All right then." He said quietly to himself. "I think that clears you." He switched off the tape recorder.
He stuffed it in his pocket to show to Hermione and Ron later, then he turned to leave.
"Clears me a' what, Harry?" Joey asked, his eyes fluttering open. Harry froze as Joey looked around the room. "Harry?"
After a while, he shook his head and lay back down, muttering to himself about weird dreams.
Harry waited for a while, then snuck back out the window, feeling very grateful for the invisibility cloak.
Another suspect was cleared.
(----Divider----)
Well, that's another chapter completed. ' hope that's long enough...
Malik: Of course it's not long enough! I already KNEW it wasn't Joey! These things will never be long enough until you tell me who did the stupid thing! Cause once that happens, then we get the cool fight scene!
Daricio: ' ah, maybe. I'm not very good at writing fight scenes. I have a scene written out in one of my notebooks where He-who-made-Hogwarts- disappear basically beats up on Harry for a little while, and I sort of have some of the final battle written out, but so far it's looking rather... um.... not very productive...
Malik: Great... And you still haven't cleared ME yet!
Daricio: That's nice, Malik.
Malik: I need to know if I did it or not, so I know whether or not to laugh insanely in the author notes or not!
Daricio: ' uh huh... Anyways, I'm going to end this chapter now... But first, list of remaining suspects: Kaiba/Mokuba, Yugi/Yami, Malik, and... wow, I think that's it... ' Only three left guys! Who do you think it is now?
Oh, and B/k? yes, I know that you know who it is. That's cause I TOLD you. (grin)'
Review please!