Anaya's Creator: (Is busy listening to the soundtrack of Spamalot!)
Kaiba: Here's Chapter 4. Anaya's Creator Does Not Own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, Or Harry Potter!
Chapter 4: A Familiar Face
When Sakura woke up the next morning, she saw Stitch curled up in a ball beside her. She ran a hand along his back pensively, her thoughts wandering to the previous day. I know what happened between Kaiba and I yesterday was just a really, really creepy misunderstanding, but I can't get it out of my head. That felt so good, with his arms around me, and breath falling on my neck. I get shivers just... Wait a minute, what the hell am I thinking? Angry with herself for thinking such things, she shook her head to clear her mind. She looked over at her clock; it was four a.m. ... perfect
Stretching a little, she hauled herself out of bed. She changed into a tight pair of black cloth pants and a loose black t-shirt, tied back her hair in a long white braid, then she left the room.
About ten minutes later, she reached an empty classroom. Despite the lack of light, she could see the desks pushed up against the back wall and the last bits of starlight crept through the large churchlike windows. Sakura walked over to one of them and gazed out at the brightening landscape as the sun rose behind the forbidden forest. She unhooked one of the latches and pushed the glass panes aside. After all the rain yesterday, the air was humid and sticky, making it slightly difficult for her to breathe.
One of her ears twitched unexpectedly. Footsteps could be heard echoing off the walls into the spacious room. She inhaled deeply at the sound of the rapid beat. The scent of potion ingredients lingered in the air; her sensei (1) was approaching, and at quite a fast pace. The odor was getting stronger and she could hear the rhythm of footfalls more distinctly now. Her instructor was at the door, she turned around to greet him, but the entryway was empty.
One of her brows rose in curiosity and she said, "I know you're here, Sensei. Show yourself." She pulled out her wand (ten inches, black ebony) Her arm shook slightly as her wand hummed with energy
"Come and find me first," was the reply.
Sakura felt a tweak of annoyance. "What are you playing at?" There was a loud clunk as she hit the floor with her weapon with impatience.
"Patience, Sakura, patience; this is nothing too complicated. Simply figure out how to track me down... unless you don't have what it takes to figure it out."
Annoyance now slowly mounting to a mix of anger and exasperation, Sakura took a deep breath once more, then closing her eyes she zoned in on the scent and listened carefully. Her eyes snapped open a few moments later, and she charged.
"STUPEFY!"
A burst of red light shot out of nowhere and flew straight towards her.
Hastily, Sakura countered with a shield charm, just in time to block the stunning charm. She threw herself at where it had come from, but in vain, for she only ended up slamming herself into the wall.
The sound of laughter filled her ears. "Heh, heh, heh, come now little Cherry Blossom (2)," her sensei's voice jeered. "You know you can better. Heh, heh, heh..."
Now really irritated, she was having a lot of difficulty concentrating. If there was one thing her teacher knew most about her, it was how to successfully rattle her. She honed in on the cackles once more, tightened her grip on her wand and charged.
"Rictusempa!"
Another spell was launched in her direction. It sped closer and just as it was about five feet away she jumped over it. As she landed, more like almost falling and saving herself at the last minute, she heard her sensei move again.
"Your landings are as clumsy as ever. Didn't you practice over the summer? I was hoping for a better trained warrior this year, but you've only disappointed me."
Sakura felt her irritation boil into anger, but before she chargedagain she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. As she took deep, steadying breaths, her wand hummed even more and she could sense two auras clashing together, hers, and her sensei's. Suddenly she knew what to do. She outright launched herself in the direction of one of the auras, praying with all her might that it was the right one. Her claws curled around a bundle of cloth and she knew she had caught him.
"Good Sakura, but only that. Because of your rage, you caught me by sheer dumb luck! You must learn how to control that temper of yours. And do it soon."
Sakura released her teacher and asked, "But Professor, something happened! I could see auras!"
"So you sensed my aura. Did you see where yours and mine clashed?"
"Yes,"
"Hmm, maybe you haven't disappointed me, Sakura. We shall work more on this tomorrow morning."
"So what's the deal, Sensei? How did you turn invisible?"
"Like this," There was the swish of a cloak and a man with greasy black hair, a long hooked nose, and shallow skin was revealed. In Professor Snape's hand was a fluid, silvery grey cloth.
His student took it in her hands and ran her blood orbs over it curiously. "An invisibility cloak, nice. Where did you get it?"
"I borrowed it from someone in the Order of the Phoenix especially for this lesson. Now let us get back to your training."
Sakura spent the next hour with Professor Snape practicing the martial arts she had learned from her father. Then, sweating and panting for breath, she walked back to the Gryffindor Tower. As she stepped through the portrait hole, she saw Seto Kaiba sitting in front of the empty fireplace on one of the large armchairs, typing on his laptop. "Hey, working hard or hardly working?" she greeted, looking over his shoulder at the device.
Kaiba didn't answer her. His eyes were fixed on the cobalt screen covered in pie charts, e-mails, and other graphics, all pertaining to Kaiba Corps. However, he seemed to notice that she was leaning over his shoulder because the next moment he said, "Stop that immediately. You're annoying me and smell like a sweaty horse."
"Gee thanks," And with that, Sakura went up to the girl's dormitory to take a shower.
A while later, Yugi, Kaiba, Ryou, and the others sat at the Gryffindor eating breakfast. "Hey, check it out, I guess Dumbledore found a new D.A.D.A teacher; we got it right after lunch," Harry remarked as McGonagall passed out the new schedules.
"Wonder who the new professor is," Ron said as he took a bite of bacon.
"Remember Lockhart and when he let pixies run wild about the classroom?" Lara asked, her eyes laughing at the memory of their foolish Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from their second year.
"That baka had no idea what he was doing," Sakura commented.
"Who could forget? What about Lupin with the boggart? Snape in a lady's dress and vulture topped hat, now that's something that one can't forget easily," Ron brought up, laughing.
"And Moody and his obsession with Unforgivable Curses? He put it on me sixteen times before I was able to fight it off completely," Britts added.
"EEEWWW! THAT BLUE FREAK IS BACK AGAIN!" a girl shrieked; it was quite similar to the sound of a banshee's song.
Sakura stood on her chair and looked over at the Slytherin table. She squinted a bit and was able to make out a small blue colored creature crawling over it. "Interesting," she muttered, sitting back down on the bench.
A few moments later, Stitch waddled over to the Gryffindor table and leapt into Sakura's lap with a few plump sausages in his mouth. After applying a bit of brain power those sitting around her were able to piece together what had happened.
A pair of Slytherin girls approached Sakura. "I thought you got rid of that thing," one of them demanded. She had peroxide-blonde hair and dim grey eyes.
"Why should I? Stitch is the best companion I've ever had," Sakura replied, scooping some scrambled eggs with ketchup into her mouth. "Oh, and did you know, the peroxide look in your hair, doesn't bode well for you."
"How dare you insult her?" the other girl exclaimed. "Hybrid spawn like you isn't even worth the dirt beneath her shoes." She had brown hair that had red streaks in it and bright blue eyes. Both the girls had skinny frames that gave them an anorexic look.
Sakura made no reply, just turned her attention to Stitch, who was snuggling into her robes. "Oh my poor little puppy," she cooed. "Did these mean Slytherin girls do scary things to you?" She scratched him behind the ears as she spoke.
Stitch let out a content purr and rolled onto his stomach, begging for a belly scratch.
"Well, whatever that thing is, keep it away from us!"
"Correction, Stitch is a boy, not an 'it'."
"Whatever just—Oh hi Seto," Christe said with a seductive smile, having only now noticed the C.E.O.'s presence.
Kaiba didn't even look up.
Seeing that her flirtations were unreturned, Christe stomped off with her friend behind her.
"Who were those girls?" Ryou asked.
"Christe Morgana and Brittany Pandemic," Sakura answered, saying the names as if they were poison.
"The mail's here," Ron announced.
The peck of owls flew around the Great Hall, dropping letters and packages into their owners' laps and sometimes into their food. A large eagle owl flew over to Malfloy with a rather large package and a horned one landed in front of Sakura with only a medium sized envelope attached to it.
"Thanks Hera," she muttered as it landed on her shoulder.
"Is that your owl?" Yugi asked her as she removed the envelope.
The owl ate some of her toast and made ready to fly off.
"It actually belongs to the school." She opened the letter and scanned it over. "Yugi, Britts, Lara, Kaiba, Ryou, Professor McGonagall wishes to see us in her office tonight after dinner," she said.
Stitch crawled off of Rogue's lap and went over to Harry, begging for attention with huge puppy-dog eyes.
The five of them nodded.
Sakura's blood red irises glanced over at Seto who, to the interest of others besides herself, had acquired a large amount of letters, and she highly doubted that Kaiba Corp used owl post.
Letting curiosity get the better of him, Harry picked up one of them and looked it over. His eyes widened as he saw the sender. "You got a letter from Cho Chang. I wonder why?"
"You'll want to let go of that," Kaiba stated in a bored tone. He pulled out his wand and muttered "Explodious," as the letter dropped from the green-eyed boy's hand. Bang! And in a mixture of sparks and smoke, the flames disintegrated.
After breakfast, everyone left the house tables for classes. On her way to History of Magic, Sakura had her first run-in of the year with Peeves the Poltergeist. He flew out of the wall behind her, grabbed her nose, shouted "GOT YOUR CONK!" then grabbed her hat and sped away, blowing a large wet raspberry in her direction. As result of this humiliation, she had gone tearing down the hall after him, bellowing, "PEEVES! GET BACDK HERE AND SO I CAN KICK YOUR GHOST ASS AND RIP OUT YOUR HEART!" Unluckily, she ran into Argus Filch, the caretaker, who at that time was mopping the floor of one of the hallways. And, of course being a klutz, Sakura went sliding across the floor, landing right on her face.
Filch was furious. "You idiot student!" he shouted. "Can't you see that I'm mopping the floor here!"
"Well, excuuuuse me! How was I supposed to know that you were cleaning up down this hallway! Accio hat," Sakura's hat wrenched itself out of Peeves' hands and zoomed over to her. Her eyes glanced at her watch as she put it back on. "Lordy, is that the time? Filch, as much as I would love to stay and receive that detention I know you're dying to give me, I must go. Can't be late to the first class of the year, ya' know. That's tacky." She turned on her heel, ran back down the corridor, and came into the History of Magic classroom only one second late.
"Congratulations on being the first tardy of the year, Miss Yang, now if you would kindly take your seat, I can begin class," said the hollow wavery voice of Professor Binns.
"It's Yasha, sir," Sakura corrected, but she went and took her seat between Yugi and Britts anyways.
"You missed it," Yugi whispered to her. "Just before you came in, Professor Binns entered through the chalkboard."
"And that's the most exciting thing that'll happen anytime that you're in here," Harry told him.
Professor Binns took his normal place at the podium in front of the class. "Everyone, today you will be taking a start of term examination so I can see how much you've learned in the past five years you have spent with me."
There was a loud groan throughout out the mass of black robes that was the students along with lots of the exasperated rolling of eyes.
Professor Binns ignored them and passed out the exams then after thirty minutes of test-taking, he collected them and began lecturing them about something-or-other and in no time at all the class adjusted to its normal non-attentive, sleepy stupor. But what could you expect from a teacher that was a ghost. Yes my dear reader, you read that passage right, a ghost. Professor Binns had simply fallen asleep in front of the staffroom fire one night and gotten up to teach the next morning, failing to notice that he had left his body behind.
The only students able to stay alert during the teacher's droning were Hermione, Seto, and Sakura. Hermione was paying rapt attention and taking her usual notes. Sakura's black leather-bound book was out again and her pen was smoothly gliding across the blank pages. And as for Seto, this ghost was just like quite a few teachers he had been forced to listen today and night while he had been under Gozaburo's brutal care. Finally the class ended, and the sixth years headed down to the grounds for Care of Magical Creatures.
"What do you think Hagrid's going to show us this year?" Harry asked.
"No idea," Ron replied. "Let's just hope it isn't anything like the Blast-Ended Skrewts from fourth year."
"Those things were the devil's work for sure," Lara commented.
"Are you sure you weren't just scared of them, Carole?" sneered an all too familiar voice from behind her.
Sakura and Lara made to turn around, but Britts firmly grabbed their shoulders. "Just keep walking," she whispered and the whole group trudged towards Hagrid's cabin.
"All right, all ye gather 'round. I got someat' special for yer this year." Hagrid went into the forest for a moment and when he came back there were several gasps and whispers from the students.
"Hagrid... where did you get that?" Sakura gasped her eyes wide with wonder as she stared at the magnificent animal before them.
The beast was a majestic creature with the head and front legs of an eagle, but the hind legs of a lion. Its feathers were rich mahogany and its fur and beak were of purest gold. And at the end of its large feet were sharp onyx claws.
"Griffins," Hagrid announced. "Their origins lie in Greece and are used nowadays to by wizards to protect treasure and other valuables."
The rest of the lesson was spent learning about griffins. At one point, Hagrid asked if anyone wanted to come up and touch it. Thinking it was better to be safe than sorry, everyone stayed back.
The bell rang all too soon and everyone headed up to the castle.
"Well, that was an interesting lesson," Yugi said.
"Indeed," Ryou agreed.
"You Mudbloods call that a lesson?" Malfloy sneered from ahead of them. "Ha, you Japanese students must be dumber than you look."
Sakura was about to turn around and give them a piece of her mind when she perceived a strange presence. She glanced next to her and could feel a charged atmosphere around Ryou and Yugi. Their auras had changed, had become darker and she could sense it big time. Also instead of being their usual violet and chocolate brown, their irises flashed...crimson?
With a cross look in his eyes, Yugi turned to Ryou, "So what do you think we should do with these mortals, Bakura?" His voice had become deeper, more confident, not at all his normal tone
Malfloy must have sensed the adjustment in the air, for he began to look not so confident.
"I think we should put them out of our way permanently and send them to the shadow realm right now, Pharaoh," answered a voice that wasn't Ryou's.
Pharaoh? Shadow Realm?
Seto chuckled darkly. "Don't waste your energy, you two. They're obviously aren't worth it."
The atmosphere around them changed again and Yugi and Ryou seemed to stiffen then relax and changed back to their normal selves.
"What are we doing just standing around? Shouldn't we be going to lunch?" Yugi asked, his voice back to it's "innocent little me" sound.
Sakura was confused, and apparently she wasn't the only one. "What was that about?" she heard Lara whisper so lowly in her ear that only she could hear.
"I don't know."
"Hey bro!" shouted a voice from over by the greenhouses, distracting the girls.
The group turned and saw Mokuba streaming towards them.
"How was your first half a day, Mokuba?" Seto inquired, kneeling down to his little brother.
"Fun...I went to...Transfiguration...and Herbology and... made two new friends," the young colt panted, breathless from his run.
"That sounds really great, kiddo," Sakura said with a kind smile, patting the youngling on the shoulder. There was a great rumble from her stomach. "Dang, I'm so hungry I could eat a hippogriff; let's get inside." She began walking up the steps into the Great Hall, ignoring the pang that had formed in her heart. Seeing Seto and Mokuba acting like brothers reminded her of how she and Shippo used to be. The red-headed fox-demon had been a friend of her mother and father for many years, ever since he had been very young and had been a big brother to her. The last time she had seen him was when her parents last took her to the feudal era, barely a week before they had been killed. She hadn't seen him since.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8--
After lunch, the Gryffindors piled into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, excited and anxious about who their teacher would be.
"Hey guys, check it out," Ron elbowed Sakura in the ribs and she tapped Harry and Hermione on the shoulder. Ron gestured over to a large trunk in the front of the room, which rattled back and forth periodically.
Soon the four of them shared almost identical smiles. "One guess as to who this teacher is," Sakura muttered.
Moments later, Professor Lupin came into the classroom. He was as shabby and as tired as ever but he smiled brightly at them, despite his mane of now mostly grey hair. "Welcome sixth years, to N.E.W.T. Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am Professor Lupin, for those who know me, its good to be back, and for those who don't, it's a pleasure to meet you. You can put all your things away, except for your wands. I reviewed what Dumbledore said you had learned in the years I haven't been here, and since apparently had a quite boring time in here last year, I thought we'd start off this one with a little fun. Can anyone tell me what is in that trunk?"
The chest gave another loud shudder as almost everyone's hand went into the air.
"Just shout it out," Lupin told them.
"A boggart," a random person shouted.
"Very good, five points to Gryffindor. Now, since we all had so much fun with the one I brought when I taught you in your third year, I thought we'd give it another go. Everyone form a line."
Immediately, all the students jumped to their feet and hurriedly scrambled into a makeshift line with Kaiba, Yugi, Ryou, Yugi, Sakura, Britts, Lara, Ron, Harry, and Hermione mixed somewhere at the end.
"Does everyone remember how to get rid of a boggart?" Lupin asked.
There were several nods.
"Alright then, Dean Thomas, how about you go first." The professor turned to his record player and loud music began to play.
"How do you get rid of a boggart?" Ryou asked.
Sakura was about to answer when Britts answered for her.
"Just watch, it'll be easier to explain after you see it."
With a swish of Lupin's wand, the trunk burst open and out came a man dressed in a white doctor's coat carrying a small tooth drill. Apparently, Dean didn't like muggle dentists.
Dean cried, "Riddikulus!" and the dentist's hands were encased in cotton candy and skittles were falling around him.
"Seamus Finnigan,"
"What a boggart does is it takes the shape of what will frighten you most. What will get rid of a boggart is laughter. Using the Riddikulus charm you can force it into a shape you find amusing. But it must be done with feeling in order to make it work properly," Britts explained.
Time passed quickly as the boggart took on a myriad of shapes, until finially it was Sakura's turn.
She rushed to the front of the line, more than ready to face it. Instantly, the boggart changed, but instead of becoming the full moon like it did times she faced it before, it changed into... her?
But wait a minute it wasn't her. The boggart's eyes were vacant pools of blood with black slits for pupils. Its claws were longer than hers and were covered in red stains that reeked of human scent. There were also black jagged marks running from its ears to the middle of its cheeks.
Sakura gulped her eyes wide with fear. She felt petrified as the boggart revealed to her what she was truly afraid of. A warm light began glowing from around her neck, power radiated from it, giving her strength. "Riddikulus!" she exclaimed and the boggart changed into Rodger Rabbit (1) and began banging itself on the head with a frying pan. Sakura was soon laughing so hard that she was doubled over.
The boggart seemed to freeze for a minute, and then exploded into several whisps of smoke.
Anaya's Creator: Chapter 5 is coming soon.