Anaya's Creator: I'm mad, by the time I reached this point in my fic before it got deleted, it was over 100 reviews. Now, it's only 22.
Darklady919:
I'm glad you like it. Please review other chapters as well.
Onyx Rose:
Sorry, can't tell you. It'd be spoiling stuff.
Zuko's 1and only:
Onyx Rose likes Noah too.
Kaiba: Anaya's Creator doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, Inu-Yasha, or Harry Potter.
Chapter 14:
February rain pelted against the windows of the castle that next Saturday as sixth years conglomerated in the Great Hall for their first Apparition lesson. The house tables had disappeared and the ceiling was a mass of dark gloomy clouds swirling above them. Everyone lined up in front of their Head of House—a.k.a. Professors Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout and a small wizard who must have been the Apparition instructor from the Ministry. He was extremely odd looking, with pale eyelashes, thin hair, and a frail build that made it seem if you even just barely poked his clothing he would fall over. Sakura wondered if this was the effect of constant apparition on a human or simply you needed to be that freakishly thin if you ever wanted to vanish.
"I sure hope I don't look like that when I'm older," Britts murmured.
"Of course you won't Brit," Lara whispered back. "Your breasts will be hanging all the way to the floor by then."
"Lara, be serious!" Britts exclaimed, blushing with fury.
"Good morning everyone," he said when everyone was present and had been hushed up by the four teachers. "I am Wilkie Twycross and I shall be teaching you all Apparition for the next twelve weeks. My hope is that you will be prepared for your Apparition Tests at the end—"
"Malfloy, hush up and pay attention!" barked Professor McGonagall.
Nearly everyone's head turned. Draco flushed dull pink and stepped away from Crabbe with whom he seemed to have been arguing with in furious hushed whispers.
"At the end of that timeframe," Twycross continued, smoothly resuming his speech as if he had simply stooped to take a deep breath.
"As you know, due to complex enchantments and spells, it is impossible to Apparate or Disapparate within the castle grounds. Professor Dumbledore has kindly removed this protection from the Great Hall, but only for our hour long Saturday morning lessons. Now if you would all spread out so that you all have about five feet in front of you."
"Mortals are so amusing," Bakura murmured softly as he took over Ryou's mind so he could watch the show of hormonal teenagers scrambling to get a spot, running into each other, or ordering others to give up their places. "The directions were plain and simple: find a spot, make sure there's five feet in front of you, and stay there."
"But as always, humans make any situation more complicated than necessary," Britts concluded as she, Sakura, and Seto took places near him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him smirk at her, raising an eyebrow.
"You're human too," he told her.
"No I'm not, I'm a goddess, just ask Sakura and Lara,"
"Yeah, she's a goddess alright," Lara said as she joined them. "No one could act as innocent as she does and be human."
"I wonder where Harry's got to," Yugi wondered out loud.
"He's going towards Malfloy," Seto answered, looking over the crowd. "Looks like he and Crabbe are arguing again."
"Who cares? It's their problem, not ours," Sakura said.
"Quiet!" the Heads of House shouted and silence swept through the hall once more.
"Thank you," said Twycross. "Now then..." With a wave of his wand, an old-fashioned wooden hoop appeared in front of each teen.
"The important this to remember about apparition is the three Ds," Twycross told them. "Destination, Determination, and Deliberation! The first step: Determination. You must focus on nothing except for where you're going. Now kindly concentrate on your hoop before you."
"I cannot believe this. He's treating us like damned two-year-olds," Sakura huffed as she stared at her hoop.
Britts gave her a stern look. "Stop whining," she mouthed.
"But he is,"
"The next step: focus your determination to occupy the visualized space. Let your yearning to enter it flow into every particle of your body, even your soul,"
Sakura made a face. Old man, there is something seriously wrong with you, she thought looking down at the plain circle. She looked around and saw Yugi staring into his hoop so intently his eyes looked like they could pop out at any moment. She could only just manage to swallow her laughter.
"Step three: When I give the command, turn, feeling your way through emptiness, moving with deliberation. One..."
Sakura's jaw dropped. Apparate? Now? She glanced at her friends; they too seemed startled to be ordered to attempt Apparition so soon.
"—two—"
My mind's gone blank, Sakura panicked. What are we supposed to do again?
"—THREE!"
The albino watched as her friends began to spin then a glazed look overcame them as they lost their balance and almost fell over. Seto suddenly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder to steady himself with.
"Having fun?" she asked.
"Not really,"
"You okay?"
"Fine, you?"
"Perfect, I just stood here, not doing anything because I forgot everything he said."
"Never mind, never mind," Twycross said, with an expression that said he hadn't expected anything better anyways. "Adjust your hoops, please, and back to your original positions..."
Sakura's second attempt was a little bit better than her first; she started spinning, like many other students, but, didn't go anywhere. The third was just the same. It wasn't until everyone's fourth try that anything interesting happened. There was a horrible screech of pain and everyone looked around to see Yugi with in his circle but an arm and a foot still back where he started. It was not a pretty sight.
The Heads of House swooped down on him; with a great bang and putt of purple smoke Yugi breathing hard and looking horrified but reunited with his missing body parts.
"Splinching, or the separation of random body parts," Twycross bluntly explained. "This is what happens when the mind is not sufficiently determined. You must focus completely and constantly on your destination, and move, without haste, but deliberation...thus."
Twycross stepped forward, turned gracefully with his arms outstretched, and vanished in a swirl of cloth, reappearing at the other end of the hall.
"Showoff," Kaiba muttered.
"Remember the three D's," he said, "and try again... one--two—three—"
About an hour later, Yugi's Splinching was still the most interesting thing that happened, though Twycross did not seem discouraged at all. Fastening the clasp of his cloak, he merely said, "Until next Saturday then, and remember the three Ds: Destination, Determination, Deliberation."
With a wave of his wand, the hoops departed and he walked out of the hall accompanied by Professor McGonagall.
"Flying is so much better," Sakura told Seto as the two of them walked out of the hall with the rest of their company.
"How did you guys do?" Ron asked as Harry came to join them. "On my last try I felt a sort of tingling in my feet.
"Maybe you're trainers are too small, Won-Won," Hermione taunted, smirking as she stalked past.
Sakura gave Kaiba an apologizing look and hurried after her. The group distinctly heard her say, "Hermione, that was uncalled for," before the two girls disappeared into the mass of black robes.
February soon gave way to March and the weather became extremely windy with lots of rain. And to everyone's let down, the next Hogsmeade visit had been canceled most likely thanks to the accident with Katie Bell that had happened on the trip before Christmas. More and more disappearances were reported in the Daily Prophet and most of them were relatives of students.
"FUCK LORD VOLDEMORT!" Lara shouted one day at the breakfast table when she found out that her aunt was now one of the missing. "I swear if that motherfucker isn't caught soon, I'm gonna take a leaf out of your father's book, Sakura, and strangle the shit out of Lord Voldemort, then rip out his fucking guts and put 'em in a bowl for our whole damned Wizarding World to see! That should be a suitable punishment for what he and his fucking Death Eater Assholes have …" Suddenly suds started pouring from her mouth.
"Wash out your mouth, young lady," Professor McGonagall said from behind her, tapping her middle back and causing the foam to cease. "I shall see you in my office tonight for detention, Miss Carole."
"Yes Professor," Lara answered weakly before running to the bathroom to rinse out her soapy mouth.
"You know, that doesn't sound like such a horrible idea. But first I'm gonna avenge my family by ripping off Lucius Malfloy's testicles, stabbing him several times, then let him bleed to death.
"Feeling sadist much?" Kaiba inquired.
"Yes,"
"Seto, Sakura, come quickly," Hermione exclaimed breathlessly as she found the two of them in the library.
"What is it, Hermione?" Sakura asked, accidentally letting go of the book she had been skimming through.
"Sakura, watch where you're dropping things!" Seto chastised as he caught the book just above his foot with a wordless levitation spell.
"Ron's in the hospital wing."
"What? Why?" the demon girl asked.
"We shouldn't discuss it here," Hermione gestured to the door and began walking towards it. Seto and Sakura grabbed their bags and followed her out and into a deserted classroom.
"He and Harry went to Professor Slughorn's office for a cure for a love potion," Hermione said as they got inside.
"Slughorn? The astronomy teacher? Since when is he good at potions?" Seto inquired.
"That's not important!" Hermione stressed angrily before continuing on with her tale. "The point is that they went there and after Ron was given the antidote he gave Ron and Harry some glasses of mead. Ron took a sip, started having a fit, Harry gave him a bezoar and now he's in the hospital wing."
"Why do I have a feeling Malfloy's behind this?" Sakura said.
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Sakura, you're as bad as Harry. Why would Malfloy be behind this?"
"Hello! He's been acting not normal ever since school started. He's missed almost every Quidditch game except for the first match. Plus, he's been disappearing. Harry can't even find him on his map of Hogwarts. Don't tell me that's not suspicious."
"But what would be his motive for almost killing two other students?"
"Quidditch possibly, both the victims were on the Gryffindor team,"
"I don't think its Quidditch and I don't believe Malfloy would do something like this, but there's definitely a connection between the attacks," Hermione put in.
"They both could have been fatal attacks, but thanks to dumb luck the victims were spared," Kaiba said.
"And neither the poison nor necklace seemed to reach the person it was intended to destroy," Hermione added, "which makes the killer all the more dangerous because he or she obviously doesn't care who he harms on his way to his intended victim."
"But the big questions are who's doing this? Why? Who are they trying to kill? And what do they plan to accomplish by doing it?" Sakura asked.
That night, Ginny Weasly got to the common room just behind Harry and Hermione. "Harry! Wait!" she said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Jerking from his thoughts, Harry jumped out of his chair by the fire, his wand at the ready.
Whoa! Easy! I'm not gonna hex you or nothing," she said, holding up her arms as if she were at gun point.
"Sorry Ginny, you just surprised me, that's all. I thought the common room was empty." He withdrew his wand and sat back down. "Shouldn't you be with Ron and the rest of your family?"
"Mum and Dad told me to get some sleep," as she sat in the chair next to him, her arms on the armrests. "Besides, I needed to talk to you about Quidditch anyways. It's Cormac McLaggen. He looked pretty smug when told me he'd seen the teachers taking Ron up to the Hospital wing earlier. And he implied that he would be substitute keeper for next week's match since it seemed to him that Ron might not be able to make it."
"Yeah, I guess he will be. He did do second best at the tryouts. I can't think of why he shouldn't."
"Why he shouldn't!" Ginny bellowed. This was so unlike her that Harry couldn't help flinching a little. "He thinks he's superior to everyone else on the team, even you. Not to mention he'll try to take over your position of captain."
"How do you figure?"
"He said that he had tons of strategies that would make our team better. Not that I'm not open to new plays and such, but you're the captain not him. And he needs to realize that."
"Don't worry, I'll talk to him about being keeper, and he will. Trust me," he assured her, putting a hand on hers. He gave her a sincere smile then went up to bed, the monster inside his chest purring contently.
The day of the Quidditch match, the whole team was waiting for Harry in the changing rooms.
"Where have you been?" Ginny demanded. The entire team was dressed already and ready to go. Sakura was drumming her nails against the lockers. At first, Harry couldn't tell if it was out of irritation or nervousness, but then he saw her annoyed glances at McLaggen and decided it was probably the former.
"I met Malfloy on the way. He was heading up to the castle with a couple of girlfriends."
"So?"
"So I was curious as to why he was up there while the rest of us were down here."
"Is that really of importance right now?"
"I'm not likely to find out, am I?" Harry seized his broomstick and they all headed out to the Quidditch pitch.
"Tricky conditions," McLaggen told the team. "Carole, Yasha, you both should fly out of the sun so they don't see you coming."
"You think I know that?" Sakura retorted irritably. She turned to Lara, "Do you want to hit a Bludger at his head or should I?"
Lara shook her head, not answering her friend's question. This is going to be a long match... she thought.
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Anaya's Creator: REVIEW STUPID PEOPLE OR I WON'T LIKE YOU NO MORE!