Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anyone else in his world. I also don't own the rights to Final Fantasy, although I do own a copy of the game.
A/N: This was just a random idea that I had, and it's taken over. I don't even know why. Dumbledore casts a spell, which puts the witches and wizards into a Muggle game, but will they be able to return? And who are they playing? But obviously, Draco is Tidus and Harry will be Yuna. The similarities are too close.
There will be three stories, and each one will have the characters in a different universe. And if you can't tell this story is Draco/Harry. But they probably won't actually get together until the third story.
Back to Draco, who isn't back with the others yet. Don't worry though, each member of the main cast will… hopefully… get at least one chapter.
Dreaming
Chapter 12: Suddenly Seymour
Eventually, they came to what appeared to be the halfway point to the Highroad. A shop was sitting in a field there.
Auron turned to face the group. "We rest here" he stated.
"But, this is an Al Bhed shop" Wakka protested, outraged.
Auron looked at him coolly. "Is that a problem"
"They don't believe in Yevon" the redhead replied"and in Luca they... They kidnapped Yuna"
"Where were her guardians" Auron asked, and Wakka blushed.
Yuna smiled at Wakka. "Sir Auron's just concerned about your health" she said.
"I'm not tired one bit" Wakka stated, crossing his arms.
Auron turned and walked toward the shop. "Well I am" he called back.
Inside, Draco Ran into Shelinda who was examining the shelves. "I've heard that the proprietor, Mr. Rin, is an Al Bhed" she told him"but I was very relieved to see that he keeps nothing sacrilegious here."
'Al Bhed?' Draco thought. 'Maybe he knows where Rikku is?'
Then, as he turned, he saw Maechen standing off to the side. He walked over to the man, who smiled and said"Mr. Rin's shops are all over Spira. They are quite convenient when you're on the road." Draco wondered if he'd get to meet this mysterious Mr. Rin.
They had been told to get a good night's rest, but Draco was too excited to sleep. "As if I could sleep" he exclaimed, heading outside. "Whoa! Check it out" He saw Yuna, sitting on a hill, watching the sun set. Then the voice spoke. "That sunset was different from the one I saw in Kilika. It was quiet-almost gentle."
He made his way to her, noticing Auron and the others standing around outside as well.
Then he sat down beside Yuna. "Whatcha up to" She hurriedly put something away, but he decided to pretend he hadn't seen it.
She pointed to the sunset. "Pretty..." she said, softly.
Draco glanced at her. "Sure is."
"I wish I could live in a place like this" she sighed. Then she saw his expression and added"Peaceful... Living with a smile on my face every day."
"You can, once you beat Sin, right" he asked, and her face fell slightly.
"But then a new Sin will be born anyway" she said, sadly.
Draco wondered why she always seemed sad. If he'd ever got the chance to be a hero, he probably would have jumped at it. "Well then, you can beat it again."
"I wish I could" was all she said.
"Hey, you can! Trust me! You are the best summoner out there" he exclaimed. Then he decided to ask the question he had wanted to know since they'd met the woman and her daughter. "Yuna, why does Sin always come back"
She stared into the sunset for a moment, and then replied"Sin is our punishment for our vanity. And it will not go away until we've atoned."
Draco was confused. 'How can a whole race ever completely atone for something that happened centuries ago?' he wondered. "How do we do that? What did we do that was so bad in the first place? Was it using lots of machina or something? Oh... Wait, was that such a bad thing, really"
Yuna looked thoughtful. "It's funny... Ever since I was young, I never questioned it. But now that you ask me if it is that bad or not... I don't know" she replied. "There are so many things I don't know."
Draco nodded. "Well then, we're the same" Then, he decided to try out an impression. "Such thinking is very unbecoming of a summoner! Sound like Mika"
They both laughed at the thought.
"That's not very nice, you know" she giggled.
They both sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun go down.
"You know... During a game, you have to think of blitz and nothing else, you know" Draco said suddenly. He figured that the same thing applied to Blitzball, anyway.
"Okay" Yuna said, looking confused.
"You can't think, 'That's a cute girl in the fifth seat from the right.' And you can't be thinking about where you're going to go on that date, because the minute you do, that's when you lose" he exclaimed, then realized that he sounded like a total jerk. He tried to clarify things. "You see, uh, Yuna, what I mean is, you really shouldn't worry, you know? After we beat Sin, that's when you can worry about the future."
She looked down. "I guess."
So, he tried to distract her with another question. "But, Yuna, how are you supposed to beat something big like that"
"The Final Summoning. It's the only way to defeat Sin. The only way" she stated, suddenly serious. "With it, we can call the Final Aeon. That's the goal of the pilgrimage. The Fayth of the Final Summoning lies waiting in the far north, to greet summoners that complete their pilgrimage. At the world's edge... in Zanarkand."
'Woah,' Draco thought. "In Zanarkand"
"She means the ruins of a city destroyed a thousand years ago" Auron spoke up from behind them. They hadn't even heard him approaching.
"You sure it's ruins" Draco asked.
"That's what I've heard" Yuna replied.
"You'll see it for yourself soon enough" Auron stated, turning to leave. "Yuna, come back inside." Then he left.
"You will go with us... to Zanarkand" Yuna asked, standing.
"Yeah, I'll go. I'll go to Zanarkand to see it with my own eyes" he replied.
They turned to go, but she paused to look back at the sunset, and as he watched, the voice took over again. "I knew it couldn't be my Zanarkand. But I had to make sure."
The next morning, everyone was already outside, when Draco woke up. As he started to rush out the door, he bumped into a tall blonde man.
"Bentuh sa" the man said. (Pardon me.)
Draco stared at him. "Sorry"
"Ah, forgive me, sir. I meant to say "pardon me" but it came out in Al Bhed" the man replied.
"Oh, you're an Al Bhed" he asked, surprised.
"I am Rin, owner of this establishment" the man stated. Then held out his hand. "Hela du saad oui." (Nice to meet you.)
Draco just looked at him.
Rin smiled. "It means"nice to meet you."
Draco shook his hand, nodding. "Well helly doo sad wee to you, too." He knew his pronunciation was off, but he wasn't great with languages, except French, and he doubted anyone in Spira spoke that.
Rin walked over to a bookshelf against the wall. "If you are interested... Al Bhed primers can be found all over Spira. Finding them and learning our language might be fun" he stated, and walked back over with a book in his hand. "Here, let me give you one in commemoration of our meeting. Although you might want to be careful where you speak our language" he added.
"Yeah, I hear Al Bhed aren't liked much" Draco replied, thinking of Rikku asking if he was an Al Bhed hater.
Rin looked puzzled.
"Oh, sorry" he exclaimed, feeling himself blush.
Rin just shook his head. "Ed ec y chesa" he said. (It is a shame.)
Then, suddenly, they heard a scream from outside. "Ahh! Someone, help! The chocobos"
Auron walked past and looked at Draco. "That's our cue, let's go."
Rin seemed surprised that they were going to help. "Oh. Thank you for your help. Please, use this." He handed Draco a couple of the Spiran healing potions.
Outside, Everyone was waiting on him. They turned as he came out, and Lulu pointed. "To the chocobo corral"
They raced around the side of the building, and Draco gasped, as he saw a huge fiend grabbing the Chocobos. Luckily, they got away, and Draco and the rest stepped in, and defeated the monster.
Rin and the Chocobo keepers were extremely grateful. "Have you an interest in renting some chocobos" he asked, and Yuna nodded. "As a token of our gratitude, the first time is free of charge. Please ask the attendant, if you wish to rent."
"Thank you so much for saving the chocobos" the attendant said, and hurried off to get them mounts.
They continued their journey, seeing Maechen and Shelinda again farther down the road. Draco wondered if they had left earlier, because he had seen them in Rin's shop the day before.
He stopped to speak to them. Shelinda seemed sad. "Thank you so much for your words yesterday" she stated, then looked away. "Word has gotten around about me. Now the crusaders are ignoring me." Draco offered a smile of encouragement, before turning to the old man.
Maechen was looking down into the ravine, which stretched below them. "Would you like to hear about the Highroad" he asked, as Draco moved to stand beside them.
Draco was becoming interested in this strange new world, so he nodded. "Please."
Maechen smiled at him, and looked back down. "We are currently travelling a part of the Mi'ihen Highroad called the Newroad. Naturally, that suggests that there is, or was, an Oldroad. The road that runs below this Newroad is the original Mi'ihen Highroad. Hence, the road that Lord Mi'ihen walked is not this road, but the Oldroad. The Newroad was built to replace the Oldroad, destroyed by Sin five hundred years ago. But, sometimes, standing on the Oldroad and reminiscing about the past can be a pleasurable pastime." Draco wondered if the old scholar was aware that he rambled. It wasn't that he wasn't interested, but the man just seemed to give slightly more information than was needed.
As he mounted his Chocobo again, Maechen looked up at him. "A safe journey to you" he said, before looking back down.
When the road split, Draco decided to wander down into the Oldroad, just to see what was going on down there. He could hear Chocobos, and he remembered that he had seen one of the Knights going in this direction yesterday.
When they got to the bottom of the ravine, he saw some more old ruins, covered with Chocobos in armor. Lucil was giving instructions to one of them, but looked up when she saw them.
""What are you doing on this road" she asked, curious.
Draco figured it might sound strange if he said they'd wanted to go exploring. After all, Yuna was supposed to be on her Pilgrimage. "Oh, you know…" he said vaguely.
She smiled. "I see. The Highroad ends over there" she said, pointing to where he had just come from. "However, we have sealed off the area beyond for the duration of our operation. You may ask the gate captain up ahead if you need to pass through."
They let her get back to her work, as Draco spotted another familiar face. O'aka XXIII, the merchant from the ship. As they approached, however, he was grumbling to himself. "Coming down to the Oldroad was a mistake… Ye can't run a business without customers." But then he spotted them, and his face brightened. "Say, can I interest you in something"
They purchased a few tings from him, and he seemed really happy to serve Yuna. Then, he leaned in, conspiratorially. "Sure are a lot of Crusaders about" he observed. "Wonder what they're up to"
Draco shrugged, and began to move back towards the Newroad. He figured they should probably get back on track.
When they reached the end of the road, however, Draco noticed that it was blocked off. Then he saw Dona and her guardian talking to a Crusader.
"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm a summoner" Dona was exclaiming.
The Crusader shook his head. "Sorry, ma'am! No exceptions"
She was really getting angry. "You dare impede a summoner's pilgrimage"
"Sorry, ma'am! No exceptions" the man repeated.
"Useless" She walked away, and Draco's group walked over to her, after dismounting. The Chocobos weren't allowed any further. "Oh, it's you" Dona said, smirking. "As you can see, not even summoners can pass. But they'll call on us in the end. Just wait and see." Then she grinned. "In the meantime, I think I'll have a nap. Oh, Barthello"
Draco grinned as well when they left. 'Nap my ass,' he thought, wondering how Pansy and Blaise managed to get this far, as sex-crazed as they were.
They decided to try anyway, and walked over to another Crusader. But, before they could say anything, Luzzu and Gatta arrived with the carriage.
"Gatta and Luzzu reporting, sir" Gatta stated, saluting.
Luzzu saluted as well. "This is the last of them."
The guard waved them through. "Good to have you with us. Go on through"
Draco watched as the carriage rolled by. It had a fiend inside. One that appeared to be Sinspawn.
The two men noticed the group standing there, and Gatta waved at them. "Show me how to play blitz sometime" he yelled at Draco.
Luzzu looked at Yuna. "Wait around. We'll have Sin beaten in no time"
Then, as the carriage faded into the distance, Draco's group tried to follow.
"I'm sorry. I can't let you pass" this guard said. "Hey, you're a summoner and her guardians right? Sorry for the inconvenience."
"Tell me about the operation" Draco said, wondering about the fiends.
"What, they didn't tell you" he asked, amazed. "We're bringing Sinspawn from all over Spira here. Sinspawn inevitably draw Sin, right? We're going to lure it into a trap"
Draco was intrigued by this information, and the guard seemed eager to talk, so he let him continue. "This mission, Operation Mi'ihen, is a Crusader-Al Bhed joint mission. We Crusaders lure Sin in, and the Al Bhed strike it down. You see, the Al Bhed hate Sin as much as we do. They managed to salvage ancient machina. They say they're as powerful as the mighty aeons."
Draco was skeptical about that, and the guard grinned. "Well, you know machina re forbidden by Yevon. Ah… on second thought, let's not go there" he stated. "Better for you not to know. The Crusaders in Operation Mi'ihen have all been excommunicated. My own family won't even speak to me now. We have to beat Sin. Otherwise, there's nowhere for us to go."
As they stepped aside, Draco saw Seymour arrive. Yuna bowed, praying, and he returned the motion.
"So we meet again, Lady Yuna" he said, his voice oily.
"Y-Yes" Yuna stammered. Draco figured it was because the guy was so powerful in this world. He knew it wasn't because he was anything special to look at.
Seymour stared down at her, with an expression Draco had only seen once before. The man's eyes were predatory… like Tom Riddle's had been, when Lucius had made him test the diary he had eventually given to Ginny Weasley. "You look troubled. Is there anything I can do"
"Well..." she stated, and began to explain how they were being made to wait until the operation was over.
"I see." Seymour walked over to the guards…
…who immediately began bowing. "Maester Seymour. Let me show you to the command center."
"Hold, I have a request" he said.
"Yes, Your Grace"
Seymour waved his hand at Yuna. "I need to have Summoner Yuna and her guardians let through to the command center."
The guard was stunned. "But, Maester Seymour, sir"
"Do not worry" he replied. "I will take full responsibility."
"Very well. They may pass."
Seymour smiled at Yuna, and Draco almost growled at the animosity he felt towards the other man. "It is done."
"Thank you. Your Grace" she said, bowing again. Finally, though, Seymour left, although Yuna was still bowing at the spot where he'd been.
Lulu touched her arm. "Yuna, it's time to go."
She started. "Oh! Right" she exclaimed, and they began moving.
Draco released the growl. "Who does he think he is"
Wakka just grinned at him. "He's a Maester. Better get used to it, ya"
Then Draco relaxed slightly. 'What am I worried about? If that is Potter,' he thought, 'he'll never fall for it.'
