Totally, once again to those who have already reviewed. One of my friends commented why on earth I'd review even though I didn't get like, fifty reviews or something, but I like reviews in general. They are good. Thanks so much, guys!! (begins to hand out Yami plushies to accompany Yugi plushies)
Oh yeah....send me some opinions guys! Someone told me my characters were too flat...hope this one was a bit of an improvement. You might see that my style of writing may vary in the future, but just be aware of that in case you jumped from chapter 3 to chapter 55. XD
I don't own YGO or HP. There, I said it, Ryou.
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Chapter Six
The old auror stared at the empty room; growling under his breath. His magical eye twirled sickeningly about in its socket as he skimmed at his surroundings.
"Found anything yet?"
The old auror jumped. "Fletcher!" he snarled. "Don't do that..."
Mungdungus looked sheepishly at Moody, careful as to not stare too intently at the whirring, electric blue eye. "Not my fault....."
Moody snorted before returrning to skimming the room; it was rather empty. There seemed to be nothing of any importance within its empty stone chambers.
"You sure it's here?" asked Mungdungus.
"Positive," assured Moody. "The Ministry would like to keep it under check....I can't believe they managed to hide it all these years...."
"Relina did disappear in the Ministry," said Dung, looking around.
Moody reacted.
"DON'T touch anything," he snarled. "There's probably enough alarms here to alert all the muggles in China."
"Japan," corrected Mungdungus. "The kids are from Japan."
Moody growled and returned looking about. "They probably found Relina pretty quick and hid her files...I'd doubt she'd destroyed them when it was her life-time passion to discover any traces of the extinct Egyptian magic."
"Do you think it's alive now?"
Moody narrowed his eyes. "We'd have to find that out in her files, won't we?"
Mungdungus shrugged. He couldn't see where anything could possibly be in this empty room, but as he was about to turn, his eyes caught a glimpse of a golden, eye-shaped symbol, glistening in the darkness.
He reached out to touch where he thought it was, for it had disappeared the moment he tried to examine it too closely.
A long, ear-piercing scream ignited out of nowhere, emitting dangerous sparks and releasing trap doors randomly across the room. The floor beneath Mungdungus flipped under him, he grabbed at the edges of the trap door, holding of for his dear life.
"Dammit Fletcher!!"
"Any luck at all?"
Lupin peered inside the fireplace; Mungdungus and Moody were panting heavily, beads of sweat trickling down their red faces.
"What, in death?" asked Moody, gritting his teeth in an ugly look at Mungdungus.
"The thing's guarded too dang well," gasped Mungdungus.
Lupin etched his eyebrows together into a tense look. "Well, then, at least we know for certain it's there."
"Your consolations is not helping much, Moony," said the auror. "As escaping death with Dung should be an early hell."
Mungdungus shot Moody a sheepish look. "All I did was reach out a hand.."
"To Satan," finished Moody. He got up, his face disappearing from the flames, but his voice floated downwards. "I'm going to bed, get some beer....dratted sparks almost took myself an eye out..."
After Moody left, Lupin frowned back at Mungdungus.
"So how are we supposed to get it, then?" he asked. "I'm sure there is some sort of ingenious way, somehow."
"Naw," said Mungdungus. "Had a couple of talented robbers try to steal them....didn't work."
"Must you ask someone to steal it?" asked Lupin.
Mungudungus' eyes twinkled. "Betcha you did enough of that with Sirius and James, eh?" he commented lightly.
Lupin put on a small, sad smile.
Mungdungus began to smoke again as Lupin flipped randomly through the daily prophet.
"What's the Ministry's saying now?" he asked. "Ol' Fudge already admitted that You-Know-Who is alive, there ain't much he can do now to cover up."
"You're right," said Lupin, skimming the parchments. "Nothing on Harry, or Voldemort...." Mungdungus' face gave a twitch at the name.
"Then what is in that hunk of junk?"
"Random things..." said Lupin distractedly. "Sales, comments, feeble robberies...."
"Feeble robberies?" repeated Mungdungus."How can they be 'feeble'?"
"Suddenly more frequent pick-pocketings at Diagon Alley," replied Lupin, still reading, obviously not concerned.
"Did they get the culprit?"
"Why?" asked the werewolf, looking at the floating head of Mungdungus in the fire. "Voldemort would have nothing to do with pickpockets."
Mungdungus' eyes glittered. "Did they get the culprit?" he repeated
"No."
"Looks like I got myself another candidate," smiled Mungdungus.
"You've been doing that in Knockturn Alley all day yesterday..." sighed Lupin. "Surely there'd be another way to retrieve the files?"
"Met a nice kid," continued Mungdungus, obviously not listening to the werewolf. "Bit of a strange kid; white hair, brown eyes..." his face flickered a foolish grin. "Pretty good at sneaking too. Blends well with the dark."
"Don't do anything too extreme," warned Lupin.
"How can there be anything extreme in buying the kid a few drinks?"
A dark brown liquid suddenly spilled out of nowhere into the fire; a stench of Butterbeer fathomed the room as the flames flared around Mungdungus's hair.
"That," Lupin heard Moody say as Mungdungus retrieved his head through the fireplace and began to run about in the backround to sooth the flames.
"There---is---no---," growled Marik shortly, "---platform---nine---and---three---quarters---"
"I know, I know," said Ryou, slightly nervous. "Look, the ticket said there was..."
"How can you be so sure you can trust them?" snapped Marik. He, Bakura and even Yami had woken up rather testy that day, as Yami Bakura had attempted to steal rum from the bartender's the night before. He ended up sending a few bottles flying when the pharaoh caught him, and even drowned Marik's head with alcohol as he tried to escape.
"Well, Hagrid and Dumbledore were real enough," piped upYugi, blowing his stray blond strand out of his eyes.
"Like as if they weren't a joke," Marik stated, grimacing at his still sticky hair. The frown he wore on his face was alarmingly dangerous, and it was beginning to worry Ryou.
"Look," he said, attempting to assure Marik in any way, "perhaps we can ask someone."
"What, and look like idiots?"
"No, but...."
"I wouldn't want to be laughed for anything more, thanks. My hair and eyes do that well enough, if you remember how the Malfoy boy or whatever addressed us."
"Yes, but..."
Yugi shook his head. /What do you think, Yami?/
Yami peered out of Yugi's eyes. During the morning, Yugi allowed him to regain some sleep --- and most of his patience.
/I'm not sure,/the spirit replied, looking quizzically at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. /Do you think it could be behind that barrier?/
/Like...behind it?/
/Worth a look, aibou./
Yugi pushed his trolley towards the barrier, unaware that Ryou and Marik had finally stopped their feeble bickering and were following him with interest.As Yugi approached the brick barrier, another couple with a trolley full of trunks appeared in front of him --- and then they were gone.
/Yami! Did you just see that?/
/I did,/said Yami, blinking. /Though whatever I just saw certainly is not there now./
/....what do we do? The train is going to leave soon!/
"I still say we ask," stated Ryou, blinking at the barrier. "Surely someone would know."
"How many times do I need to repeat this?" asked Marik. "'And what? Look like idiots?' Which part of that sentence don't you understand?"
Ryou was looking slightly frustrated. "Malik, we have no other choice. If getting on that train means looking stupid..."
Suddenly Bakura took control of Ryou's body; the change was very sudden and alarming.
"BAKA!!! BAKA!!!" yelled Bakura, who obviously had not recovered from his bad mood. "Idiot!!!" In frustration, (and attracting strange looks from various passer-bys) Bakura slammed his foot against the barrier.
Expecting a harsh solid instead of air, Bakura blinked and tried his best to regain his balance, only to soar through the barrier head-first. In attempts to retrieve his friend, Yugi tried to hold back Bakura, only to follow the tomb robber through the barrier as well.
Yugi blinked; he had expected either hard cold, brick, or a swirling hole. But instead, he found himself on his knees, on a cement platform, next to the stunned Bakura and in front of a scarlet engine labelled "Hogwarts Express."
"That was....strange," commented Yugi as he brushed himself off. /Yami?/
/...certainly interesting,/was the ex-pharoah's only dry reply. Obviously Yami had not been expecting the barrier's ability either. /You alright, aibou?/he asked, regaining sense.
/Yeah....fine.../
Marik appeared suddenly and non-chalantly through the barrier with the trolley, as though he'd been walking through scary solid walls all his life. Casually he twirled his Rod, obviously in a much better mood.
"At times like these it makes me wonder why I sent you to the Shadow Realm," smiled Marik as he patted Bakura's head, who was still sitting on the ground. "I daresay you are an excellent help. A guinea pig, if you will." Bakura scowled.
"We better board," said Yugi quickly, not wanting to see another fight. Ryou regained control of his body and nodded. The threesome then trudged their luggage through the doors of the train, trying their best to find an empty compartement.
When they finally did, the train had already begun to move. Flashes of plains and pastures flew past as the Hogwarts Express headed towards the infamous wizarding school. Yugi was about to take out his dueling cards when a red-haired girl suddenly opened the compartement door.
"Oh!" said the girl. "I'm sorry....may we sit here? Everywhere else is full."
"Sure," replied Yugi enthusiastically.
"Of course," smiled Ryou pleasantly. "I'm Ryou Bakura."
Marik glared at the girl before nodding sharply. "Marik Ishtar."
"I'm Yugi Moto."
The girl suddenly brightened at the sound of Yugi's name. "Yugi Moto?"
"Yes," nodded Yugi. The girl beamed a mischevious grin and reached out her hand.
"Ginny Weasley," she said, her eyes twinkling. "Ron's told me all about what happened in Diagon Alley."
Yugi blushed, remembering the incident concerning the Malfoy boy. "Oh yes...I remember him too."
Ginny beamed. "He was right," she chuckled friendly. "Your hair is rather fascinating."
Yugi blushed as the girl then turned back and called out, "Ron! Harry! Over here!"
Within a minute, Harry's and Ron's heads appeared next to Ginny, slightly dishevieled as they pulled their trunks into the compartment. Both of them looked up and beamed when they saw the Japanese threesome.
"Yugi!" said Harry brightly. "Fancy meeting you here! How are you?"
"Pretty good," smiled Yugi as the edged himself closer to Ryou to make more room. "You?"
"Decently," said Harry, sitting down across from Yugi. Ron and Ginny settled themselves as Hermione entered the compartement.
"You could've lent me a hand, Ron," she said irritatedly.
"It's your books," replied Ron as he pulled her trunk into the compartement as well. Hermione beamed as much as broadly at the sight of Yugi and Ryou, but both she and Marik locked eyes with supressed loathing before she sat next to Ron.
"We never really got to know you guys back at Diagon Alley," commented Hermione, soothing the creases of her robes."That's great...if you guys came last year I doubt we would've had time to get to know each other. Ron and I were prefects last year; but I don't believe that sixth years can be prefects because they have to give the new fifth years a chance." She spoke all this very very fast. "Why don't you tell us a bit about yourselves?"
"What is this, another interrogation?" snapped Marik, staring out of the window. "Must you insist of being a know-it-all for everything?"
Hermione shot him a look. Ryou hasitly replied to answer Hermione's question. "Well...we've recently moved from Japan...."
"Don't mind him," said Yugi, gesturing to Hermione's glares at the unsuspecting, though obviously annoyed Marik. "He tends to be a little edgy at times."
"Why?" asked Ron.
"Various things," replied Yugi vaguely as Marik shot him a look of warning. "Just don't take it personally or anything."
Especially when he tries to murder, banish, betray, control, toture or destroy you in any waycommented Yami dryly from the back of Yugi's mind. Yugi smiled slightly and rolled his eyes.
"Where are you from?" asked Ginny.
"Japan," replied Ryou and Yugi.
"I'm actually born in England," said Ryou. "Marik here was born in Egypt."
"I still can't believe you guys managed to skip 5 years," noted Ron. "And what a horrible year you're stuck in...it's N.E.W.T year this year."
"Newts?" asked Yugi.
"Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," supplied Hermione. "They are a bit of an add-on for your O.W.Ls, which are called 'Ordinary Wizarding Levels. They determine what you're going to do as an occupation when you graduate from Hogwarts."
"Are they hard?" asked Ryou.
Ron groaned. "More than you want them to be."
Ryou and Yugi exchanged a look. "I don't think we have to worry," said Ryou, trying to convince himself as well as Yugi. "I don't think we're going to be coming back to the wizarding world much."
"We can help you if we can," offered Harry. "I don't actually think you should worry about N.E.W.Ts, really, because the most important thing right now is to simply study as much as you can, regardless of your marks."
"Why so?" Ryou asked, fingering the dangling points of his Ring.
"Because of...." Ron twitched. "Voldemort."
"Oh...." there was a dawning silence of realization on all seven of them.
"It's simply best if you can learn all you can for the sake of survival," said Harry quietly.
"He's very frightening, isn't he?" said Yugi.
"More than you will ever know," replied Harry quietly.
"You can't trust anyone at times like these," whispered Ginny as she looked out
"Interesting things," noted Hermione, pointing politely at the accessories that Yugi and Ryou wore, intent on changing the uncomfortable subject. "Are they a set or anything? They look rather familiar."
"Considering that Hogwarts now doesn't have a book that you haven't read?" said Ron. "Yeah, I'd guess so." Harry smiled.
"She's a bit of a bookworm," he explained to Yugi and Ryou, who nodded and smiled.
"A bit?" said Marik incrediously. Ryou, who had failed to kick him properly, hastily continued on.
"They're nothing really," he said. "My father gave me this one on an expedition."
"Do they come from Egypt or something?" asked Ron. "I think I've seen those eye-symbols a few times when I went there."
"You've been to Egypt?" asked Marik, genuinely curious.
"Yeah," replied Ron. "Went to visit my brother Bill. He works as a curse-breaker for Gringotts bank."
Ho ho!exclaimed Bakura from his soul room. Interesting. Perhaps the lad can be an apprentice in the future.
/Yami...please be quiet./
/Whatever. I am going to ask where I can meet this "Bill"./
/No! Yami....!/
Far too late, Yami Bakura emerged into Ryou's body, careful not to reveal the few significant signs that people seem to tend to look over.
"Where can I meet your brother?" asked Bakura, forcing his voice to be friendly.
"He's at Egypt on a excavation dig right now," replied Ron. "So I guess you can't really meet him. You wouldn't want to meet my brothers anyways..."
"Of course he wouldn't," cut in a cold voice that Harry only so familiarly knew.
"Shuddup Malfoy," said Harry wearily without turning around. Ron's ears began to turn red.
"Of course, then again," said the blond boy, who had leaned casually against the compartment door frame, "perhaps he would...it's only natural for such an albino to mingle with other freaks among the wizarding world."
Bakura narrowed his eyes menacingly. "Unless you'd like to see the darkest depth of the shadows, you'd better be careful with what you say to me," he said slowly, his voice thick and deadly.Marik threw Malfoy a silent look of pure hatred before casting a look to Yami, who had emerged immediately when Bakura did.
"Oh? Why should I?" asked Malfoy easily as his two croonies who looked as though they simply lived to be in the backround appeared behind Malfoy.
"Because it landed your father into Azkaban," said Harry, narrowing his eyes at Malfoy.
The blond haired boy also narrowed his eyes, though to hateful slits. "You will regret that, Potter," he snarled, an angry, murderous look in his eyes. "You ruined my family, Potter."
"So we're even," said Harry dryly. Malfoy's hand twitched towards his pocket.
Bakura paid no attention to the conversation that Harry and Malfoy were retorting at each other, as Yami was beginning to get in the tomb robber's way again. The ancient pharaoh could see that Bakura was comtemplating about sending the boy into the shadow realm...or perhaps making him into a small idol.
Where should I exchange his soul to?he thought menacingly. Into a piece of crap? Where it belongs?
/No..!! Yami!/
"Don't do it," said Yami firmly, his narrow eyes flashing. "You will get yourself into more trouble, tomb raider."
"Shut your ancient trap, pharaoh," growled Bakura back."Your lectures are getting as old as you are." Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny blinked at the names that Bakura and Yami had exchanged at each other, but soon their attention was drawn to Marik, who had stood.
"Leave," he said simply, his hand beginning to sweep towards his back pocket where the Millennium Rod stuck.
Malfoy snickered."And what are you going to do about it, ma'am? Surely if you've read the wizarding newspaper, you'd know that my father is a dangerous man...dare to cross with me and you will regret it for the rest of your life. But of course...such a freak like yourself would probably not even know the alphabet, much less read."
"And you'd know," growled Marik. "That if you dare cross with me....your life will be definately short a few mellenias. That is, if you know how to count."
"Tomb keeper," warned Yami, his voice low and threatening
Whereas Yami was distracted, Bakura threw himself into Malfoy, knocking the boy back. The two croonies beside him immediately attempted to attack Bakura, but he slipped away and shot them such a deadly snarl that both Crabbe and Goyle were beginning to back away.Hermione, Ginny, Harry and Ron were startled at the sudden change in their new good friend. He seemed almost frightening.
"Anything else you'd wish to say before your death?" asked Bakura, his voice supressing a scream of fury. "Impalement might suit you three....a long death with a stake through your intestines will surely teach you a lesson as to never to mess with Bakura-sama."
Marik narrowed his eyes and suddenly smiled.
"That was your fate, baka," he muttered, snickering.
Malfoy looked at Bakura straight in the eye before replying.
"Suck it, albino."
With a yell of fury that sent shivers down everyone's spine, Bakura leapt at Malfoy, ignoring the two croons next to him. Crabbe and Goyle were about to pound Bakura senseless had not Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny had created Stunning Spells that sent the two Slytherins into a shock of ceasing motion. In alarm, Yami and Marik jumped onto Bakura in attempts to prevent the tomb robber from further damage. As Yami pulled the struggling Bakura from Malfoy (aided reluctantly by Harry and Ron) Marik had struck Malfoy blindly with the sharper edges of the Rod, leaving a small, dark red slash across Malfoy's forehead. Malfoy sent Marik a glare of pure hatred, one more venenmous than the one he had eyed Bakura with, and left without further ado, wiping his cut with his sleeve.
"What the hell happened?" panted Ron as Bakura ceased struggling.
"Nothing too serious, I hope," replied Yami as he frowned at Bakura. The tomb robber stood up slowly.
It looked as though he were unscathed, except for a small cut on his right cheek, right underneath his eye.
"Ouch, Ryou...." said Hermione quietly. "That looked as though it might've hurt."
"You should go to the hospital wing," suggested Ginny. "Even though it's small, you should get it checked out. Whatever Malfoy has that caused that cut is worthwhile looking at."
To everyone's surprise (except Yami and Marik) Bakura began to laugh as he traced the cut underneath his eye.
"Check it out? Of course not. I think---" Yami shot hiim a look that was all too familiar and the tomb robber ceased his statement. He grumbled darkly and retreated into his soul room, allowing Ryou to emerge back out clearly conrfused, who winced in surprise at the cut underneath his eye.
"Hm...I should check it out, shouldn't I?" he asked good-naturedly. He looked very confused and sheepish as he sat back down.
No you're not!said Bakura. I like that scar. It suits you. Well, it suits me.
/I'm not going to talk to you/ protested Ryou. /Look what you've done!/ and without further ado, he left his soul room and concentrated on the conversation everyone was having now.
Marik was looking very stilll and infuriated. He suddenly turned towards the window and began to casually flick the blood off his Millennium Rod with his thumb, with an air of a knight wiping blood off his sword.
At that very moment, Harry's scar began to burn. He ducked his head, making it look like he was interested in Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, but Ron, Hermione and Ginny knew all too well that was happening. Not wanting to arouse suspicion of the new students, they kept it in tense silence until Harry's burning sensation disappeared.
Just as Harry casted a look at Yugi's Millenniun Puzzle as his scar burned terribly, the anicent golden pendant glowed faintly. Harry looked back up and saw Ron was staring at him.
"What's uh----" Ron gave Harry a look that clearly said, "that was odd..what's going on?" "---what's with the names that you guys called each other?"
Yami, who had decided that if the tomb robber was secluded in his soul room, it was safe to let Yugi take control. Yugi looked slightly bewildered at the "names" mentioned, but then brightened.
"Nothing," he said. "You see..." he looked down at his Puzzle. "My item comes from Egypt, right? And I'm..."
"The King of Games," finished Marik shortly. "Hence the name of 'pharaoh', if you want to describe the terms we address each other loosely."
"Why 'King of Games'?" asked Ron, his attention obviously directed elsewhere other than the two names that Yami had addressed Bakura and Marik with.
"Because there is simply no game you can beat Yugi with," said Ryou proudly. Marik scowled.
Ron looked very intrigued as he pulled out an old battered chess board.
"Okay," he said. "Let's see the King of Games."
"Ron's really good at chess," said Ginny proudly. "One time the teachers bewitched life-like chess games to play, and Ron beat them."
"Cool!" beamed Yugi. "I haven't actually played chess in a while, but I could try again."
Yugi and Ron began to play. The compartement door opened for the second, this time accompanied with a trolley of food. Ironically, just before the lady with the trolley entered, Yugi's first pawn had just been taken. In surpise that Ron's knight would maim his own pawn in such a way startled the ancient pharaoh just as much as it startled Yugi. Perhaps of this odd change reaction resulted in Yugi exclaiming loudly, "RA!! You killed him!"
As everyone took a break and began stuffing themselves silly with pasty and other various goodies, Ron bit off a chunk of a chocolate frog and gropped at the card inside. "Oh...that sucks," he said, his mouth full."It's Morgana again...." he threw the card casually at Yugi. "Here," he said. "You can start collecting."
"Do you play with these?" asked Ryou.
"No," said Harry. "You collect them."
"Oh," said Yugi. "We have something like that too, but some people not only collect the cards, they play them too."
"What is it that you guys play?"
Yugi pulled out his deck, as did Ryou. Marik reluctantly pulled out his too.
"It's called Duel Monsters," Yugi explained, growing very excited. "Have you ever seen them before?"
Hermione peered intensly at the cards. "I think I've seen them vaguely before...they are muggle cards, aren't they?"
"Never seen them in my life, so obviously they are," said Ron as he shuffled through Yugi's deck. "What do you do with them?"
With eagerness, Yugi explained the concepts of the game. Harry was looking vaguely interested as he watched Ron try to duel against Ryou. The look on Yugi's face when he was explaining the aspects of the game reminded him of how he would look if he were to ever explain about Quidditch.
"Quidditch?" voiced Ryou. "What is that?"
As the train trudged on, the seven students exchanged their love for their familiar games until the dark, looming shape of the castle began to grow from the shadows of the clouds. Ryou, Yugi and Marik stared at the magnificent foreboding shape with intensive awe.
Harry smiled. "Welcome to Hogwarts."
Remember, R&R! Don't make me fweel unwanted...!