Yuugiou!
Episode Nine and Three Quarters
Gah; this should have been up sooner. I was retagging and compiling all of my music onto iTunes. Is it bad I have seventeen days worth of music just on my harddrive?
That's what I thought. XP Anyway, enjoy the new chapter.
CHAPTER TEN – FLAMEL
To say that Seto Kaiba was pissed off come the next day was a gross understatement. Dark circles hung under his eyes from being kept awake by an overly cheerful and far too hyper extra tenant in his head. He had tried everything he could think of to get the man that looked like some gross misinterpretation of himself out of his head, but the other Seto had just latched onto his waist and huggled him like Mokuba used to do when they were younger. It was cute for his little brother, but for him, it looked more like someone was trying to get himself beat up or shot.
He blamed Yuugi for this, of course; the short of stature duelist was the one caught up in all the hokey spiritual Egypt stuff. So, of course, if he suddenly spouted an Egyptian alter ego, it was all his fault. Fortunately, said Egyptian alter ego was not a morning person, so he was allowed that small amount of peace.
It was a good thing Kaiba had not really gotten on Yuugi's case about it, aside from the nasty glares that were sent in his direction. He was already mortified enough that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had found out about his and Ryou's own spirits. Atemu blamed himself of course; he should have stayed under the radar more, instead of taking control every time Bakura was around.
Fortunately, Harry and Ron were taking things in stride, once they got over their initial reaction to having friends possessed by Egyptian spirits. They found Bakura and his "profession" particularly interesting; especially when they managed to weasel out the rare story about something he did in the past.
Hermione returned to the school the day before classes were to start again, and almost immediately started to ask Atemu as many questions as she could, until Bakura had to pull him away, accusing her of making his ears fall off. The pharaoh ended up pulled onto the tomb robber's lap, watching – with a very red face – as Harry updated her on what had happened to him.
"…Dumbledore showed up on the last night and explained to me what the mirror did," he finished. "I'm sorry I got distracted, Hermione."
Hermione pursed her lips, looking torn between scolding him for being out of bed after hours and disappointed that he had not found anything on Nicholas Flamel.
Once classes started up again, though, they were back to looking for some indication of who Flamel was for ten minutes at a time during their breaks. Harry had even less time than the others; the spectacular end to the last Quidditch had Wood working the team harder than ever. Apparently that was not the only reason, as he had revealed at the end of one of their practices…
Harry had dragged his feet back to the common room after that practice, going over to where Hermione and Ron were playing Wizard's Chess, Yuugi and Malik watching in amusement as the former was loosing spectacularly. Yuugi got that distant look on his face for a brief moment, indicating he was conversing with Atemu, before he looked up at Harry.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Harry sighed. "Quidditch," he answered. "Snape is refereeing the next match."
"Don't play," Hermione said at once.
"Say you're ill," Ron said.
"Pretend to break your leg," Yuugi suggested.
"Really break your leg," Malik replied.
Everyone gave the Egyptian a strange look.
"What?"
Harry shook his head. "Anyway… I can't do any of that," he said. "There isn't a replacement seeker; we'd loose for sure."
Yuugi rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, good point… and the other me would never hear the end of it from Bakura."
"Harry," Malik began, frowning, "Snape is one of the people who may have been jinxing your broom in the last match. What if he succeeds this time… or worse? Is this game really worth your life?"
Harry was about to reply, when Neville stumbled into the common room, his legs plastered together by the Leg-Locker Curse. Everyone else in the room literally fell over laughing as Hermione jumped up to perform the counter curse. The boy's legs sprang apart immediately, and he plopped his rear down on the floor, a pathetically sad look on his face.
"What happened?" Ron asked as him and Harry joined Hermione.
"It was Malfoy," Neville sniffed. "He said he always wanted to try that on someone."
"Report him!" Hermione insisted. "You can't let him get away with that!"
Neville hung his head. "I don't want no more trouble."
Harry reached into his robe pocket and handed the boy the last of the chocolate frogs he had gotten from Hermione that Christmas. Meanwhile, Yuugi and Malik watched from where they had been sitting with the others, the latter with a bitter look on his face.
"Damn that Malfoy," Malik snarled. "I wish I had some kind of power still. I'd love to teach that brat a lesson."
Yuugi nodded in agreement, holding the Puzzle in his hands as he said, "I'd let the other me teach Malfoy a lesson myself, but I just can't risk it. It's bad enough that our friends know about the spirits; if Malfoy found out about them, he'd probably do everything he could to get us expelled."
The Egyptian paused a moment, grinning. "We could always sic the high priest on him."
Yuugi looked horrified. "I wouldn't wish that ill on anyone."
Malik laughed, before he blew out a frustrated sigh. "So there's nothing we can do, hunh?"
Yuugi was about to reply when Harry, Ron, and Hermione raced over to them, excited. Harry had one of those Famous Witch or Wizard cards clutched in his hands – cards that came packaged with chocolate frogs. He held it up, showing off a picture of Dumbledore.
"Look, I've found Nicolas Flamel!" he exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
"But… that's…"
"Listen," Harry cut Malik off. "'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in nineteen-forty-five, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"
Hermione's eyes widened, and she suddenly raced out of the room, leaving the four boys wondering what was up. She returned a few minutes later, lugging an enormous old book in her arms. Before they could ask her what she was so excited about, she was using Malik's back as a table, forcing him to bend over so she could easily open the book and flip through its pages.
"I can't believe I forgot about this," she exclaimed. "I checked this out of the library a few weeks ago for a bit of light reading."
"Light?" Malik stressed, grunting from the weight of the book, and wondering how a little eleven-year-old girl managed to lug it down the stairs. Hermione ignored him, however, as she located the page she had been searching for and pointed to it dramatically.
"Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"
That did not quite have the effect she desired.
"The what?" Harry and Ron asked, with Malik trying to look over his shoulder at the book. She rolled her eyes and was about to explain it to them, when Yuugi beat her too it.
"The Philosopher's Stone can transform any metal into gold," he said. "I have a card called Philosopher's Stone; I was curious what it was so I looked it up."
"That's not the only thing it can do," Hermione said, nodding. "It can also produce the Elixir of Life, a substance that can make the drinker immortal."
"Great," Malik said. "Now we know what that grubby little pac—"
Suddenly, Hermione lifted the book off of his back. Caught off guard by the sudden change in weight, he lost his balance and toppled over face first, landing on the ground with a thud. Yuugi sweatdropped, embarrassed.
"Um… Malik-kun…"
"Notta word, Yuugi-kun," Malik replied.
"I wasn't gonna say anything," he responded. "I was just wondering what Jounouchi-kun would say to this."
She's got him whipped, Atemu answered, chuckling.
Yuugi never had a harder time fighting back a laugh.
-.oOOo.-
The day of the Quidditch match, Kaiba was stalking down the halls to the library, perfectly intent on missing the match and catching up on subjects that he had been lax in because of that damnable voice in his head. Unfortunately, as he got toward the library, he started to feel weird; like he was in two places at once. He did not realize what was happening until his feet continued on past the library, getting him to growl in frustration.
"Stop that, you idiotic…!" he snarled, trying to get his feet to listen to him.
Would it kill you to have fun every now and then? asked that far too damn cheery voice in his head.
"That's what you said the last time I was supposed to be studying for a test," Kaiba hissed.
You got one lousy question wrong, Seto replied. Whoopty freakin' whee-ha. You still scored higher than everyone else in the class.
"Not good enough," he replied, privately glad that the hallway they turned into was empty.
Oh spare me, the priest replied. In case you hadn't noticed, that bastard isn't standing over you with a riding crop anymore. You can cut the perfectionism act.
Kaiba somehow managed to stop cold in his tracks at that, eyes widening, before they narrowed, the expression on his face turning murderous.
"Stay out of my head," he snapped.
Hey, I can't help it, Seto replied flippantly, as if it were nothing at all. Your thoughts are as open as a teenaged girl that left her diary on the kitchen counter. Besides, everyone knows something's up with you; you cry in your sleep.
Kaiba turned red, though knowing him, it was not because he was embarrassed. Seto did not let up, though, speaking of all of his dark thoughts and hidden memories and feelings in such a loud voice that his outer self could not ignore it no matter how much he tried to. Kaiba clamped his hands over his ears as he sank to the floor, as if it would make him stop.
Suddenly, though, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder, and whirled around to see the high priest standing behind him, helping him to his feet. They were no longer in the hallway in Hogwarts, however; they were in a dark corridor, with a door apiece on both walls that surrounded them.
Kaiba gave the older man a hard look, observing him closely. Scary how much alike they looked, though there were a few – very few – differences between the two of them. Seto stood a bit taller than him, and had the same kind of regal bearing that made Kaiba want to strangle that damnable spirit in Yuugi. His hair was a bit darker as well, with black streaks mixed in, as if his hair could not decide what color it wanted to be. There was also some noticeable gray in his hair; though if it was from stress or something left from old age, it was hard to tell.
"You need to chill," Seto said after a moment, not letting Kaiba break away from him. "You want a reason to be miserable? Spend a few thousand years in the Rod a be the butt end of every dirty joke known to man."
Kaiba glared, not amused.
"Hey… seriously," Seto continued. "I know what its like to have a father that sucks. You can't let him haunt you. You'll end up like me."
Kaiba snorted. "A happy-go-lucky pain in the ass?"
"Well that too," the priest said, grinning. "But, no…" he continued, serious, "someone that let their grief eat them away. Or their anger… at yourself, or him."
Kaiba glared a bit glumly, shrugging him off. "I don't need someone telling me to do," he replied, something resembling a pout on his face.
Seto sniggered, grabbing him from behind and hugging him tight. Kaiba flailed, trying to get him off.
"Of course you do!" the priest exclaimed despite his protests. "If you didn't, you'd just study, study, study and never have a life. Oh, by the way, look alive."
Kaiba blinked… finding himself back in the real world, and outside in the cold to boot. He was just a few strides away from the Quidditch stadium; apparently his other self had kept their body walking while they had been talking. The game seemed to be finished, because there were students trickling out of the stands, among them were Yuugi and his friends, walking arm in arm. Kaiba sighed softly to himself, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting and watching as the group slowly came to a halt before him. He nodded to Harry.
"Did you win?" he asked.
"Yeah; within five minutes," Harry answered.
Kaiba did something rare: he cracked a smile. "Good."
Though he would deny it, it was at that point that Kaiba became a really good friend for all of them.
-.oOOo.-
Bakura cracked his knuckles, heading straight into the off limits forbidden forest. It was late at night, and he had slipped off as usual for his own time to "perform his craft" as he called it. This time, though, he was doing it for the sake of Atemu – as disturbing as that was. He had Ryou talk to Professor Sprout about flowers in the Wizarding world and what they meant; his outer self was flaky enough to ask about that. He was also flaky enough to be complaining about being out here.
It's called forbidden for a reason! Ryou moaned.
Gods, yadonushi, shut up already, Bakura grumbled. It's not like… wait.
As Ryou started asking what was wrong, Bakura ducked down into the darkness. Barely a moment later, a cloaked figure emerged from the castle. The tomb robber watched with narrowed eyes as the figure walked quickly into the forest, barely a few feet away from him. He waited a moment, before pursuing the individual. After a moment, he spotted Quirrell in his purple and lavender robes, and hid behind a large trunk as the cloaked man approached. They started speaking to each other in hushed voices, and Bakura strained desperately to hear.
"…d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet out h-here, Severus…"
"I thought we should keep this private," the cloaked man replied with a voice that could only be Snape's. Severus Snape; how fitting. "Student's are not to know about the Philosopher's Stone, after all."
Bakura narrowed his eyes; the others had told him about figuring out what Fluffy was guarding. It looked like that little girlfriend of Malik's was right.
"Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?" Snape suddenly snapped, nearly making him jump.
"B-b-but Severus…!"
"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," Snape warned, taking a menacing step toward the stuttering professor.
"I-I don't know…"
"You know perfectly well what I mean."
Something in the forest snarled suddenly, making Bakura jump again. He hid further into darkness, calming his heart in time to catch Snape saying, "…your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."
"B-but I d-d-don't…"
"Very well," Snape interrupted, looking around as if knowing someone was watching them. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decide where your loyalties lie."
With that said, Snape whirled about and left, leaving a shuddering Quirrell in his wake.
-.oOOo.-
The next morning during breakfast, Bakura hurried over to the Gryffindor table. Hermione opened her mouth to greet him, but he shushed her quickly, motioning for them to follow him. He led them to an empty hallway, making sure to check for ghosts, before telling them everything that he had overheard in the forest the night before.
"So, it really is the Philosopher's Stone that Fluffy's guarding," Yuugi replied, hardly believing it.
"And it's not just Fluffy that's guarding it," Hermione added. "There must be other enchantments that the professors placed around it to prevent its theft. Snape must know the other ones!"
"So that means Quirrell is our last defense against Snape," Harry said.
"The stone'll be gone by the end of the week," Ron replied dryly.