Yuugiou!
Episode Nine and Three Quarters

Sorry this chapter is so late; my dad was working on enlargening my closet, and I haven't had much of a chance to work on it.

I've got a bone to pick with some of you people that review. I've more or less given up on getting an intellegent review from everyone -- I'm not that lucky I guess. :P And I'm glad for some of the reviews -- the individual that compares my stories to food amuses me to no end -- but some of you... ugh...

To the person advertising their website on my review board: take it to a message board. A review box is not a place for you to spam your goddamn site.

To the "dubbie elitist" that so kindly informed me that the high priest's name was really Seth... Hun, I've watched 223 episodes of Yuugiou Duel Monsters (I'm still too chicken to watch the last episode) at least once in their original Japanese language format. I'd be rather upset with myself if I didn't know the characters' names by now.

To the idiots begging me for more shounen-ai pairings... shut the hell up. I've already addressed this.

Enjoy the new chapter; I hope to have the next out a bit sooner than this one.

CHAPTER ELEVEN – GETTING RID OF DRAGONS

Quirrell must have been more resilient than any of them thought, because by the end of the week he was still standing, though he did look considerably paler. Harry and the others tried to give him as much support as they could; Kaiba even glared at the Weasley twins for trying to stick quills in his turban the one day. The professor seemed to have his spirits boosted because of it.

Hermione and Kaiba had other ideas outside of increasing Quirrell's self-confidence. The two of them had ganged up on the others, writing out final exam study sheets and forcing them to go over them at least once a night.

"C'mon, Hermi-chaaaaaaaan," Malik groaned one day. "Finals are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione reminded stiffly. "You need to be well prepared."

Arguing with Kaiba was pointless, so they did not even bother.

What made things even worse was that the teachers seemed to be agreeing with him and Hermione. They had more homework than they had the entire year, and many of the first years were stressing just to get their assignments done before the due date.

"I'm never going to remember any of this!" Ron declared one day in the library, slamming his book closed before flopping over on top of it. Seto raised an eyebrow at him, tapping him over the head with his quill as Yuugi looked up, rubbing his eyes.

"I think both my minds are numb…" he muttered.

Hermione sighed. "Well, I suppose we cou—oh, hello, Hagrid."

Bleary eyes were raised to see the giant groundskeeper coming out from a book section, eyeing them suspiciously.

"'Ello…" he said, glancing at their books. "An' what're you lot up ter? Yer still not lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out about him ages ago," Ryou said, waving a dismissive hand. "Not to mention what Fluffy is guarding."

"Yup!" Malik chirped. "The Philosophe—"

"SHHH!" Hagrid hushed him quickly, looking around. "Look… come an' see me later. I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it here. Students aren' s'pposed ter know."

"We'll see you later then," Harry said, a little too happily.

Hagrid left, looking disgruntled. The others got up to leave as well, having enough with studying for the day. As Yuugi was collecting his things, however, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning revealed Bakura standing behind him, and Atemu was taking his place a moment later.

"Bakura, what?" he asked, sounding stressed. "I'm not in the mood fo—"

"Chill, your worship," Bakura cut him off. "I don't know if you noticed, but Hagrid isn't exactly the type to come into a library looking for reading material just for the hell of it."

Atemu was tempted to ask him if he knew that from his own experience, but he decided against it, asking instead, "Well, what section was he in?"

Bakura shrugged, motioning the two of them toward the section that Hagrid had occupied. Atemu walked along the shelves, blinking in surprise as he stopped at the part the giant had been looking at. He pulled out a book marked Dragons: From Egg to Inferno, a Dragon Keeper's Guide, opening it up and flipping through a few pages.

"Dragons?" Bakura asked, casually slipping an arm around his waist. "You don't think…?"

Atemu had a weirded out look on his face. "Hagrid has trouble distinguishing what's safe from what's really dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised." He snapped the book closed, putting it back on the shelf. "We should talk to him about it. Now."

Bakura stumbled as the pharaoh grabbed his hand, half dragging him out of the library.

-.oOOo.-

Considering what they were there for, Atemu and Bakura were not too surprised when they saw that the curtains were drawn on Hagrid's house, nor how cautious he was when he let them in. It was horrendously hot inside, forcing the two of them to take their robes off as they sat down. Hagrid made them tea, and offered them stoat sandwiches, though they took one look at them and quickly refused.

"I thought yeh'd be comin' with the others," the giant said, looking rather distracted as he sat down.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you ourselves," Atemu said casually, sipping at his tea.

Bakura tugged at his shirt. "Geeze, can you at least open a window in here?"

"Sorry, Ry'u, can't," Hagrid said, looking distractedly toward the fire. Atemu followed his gaze, spotting something black half hidden under the kettle. It did not take much to figure out what it was.

"So… where did you get that dragon egg?" he said, mock cheerfully, as if dragon eggs in a fireplace were normal. Hagrid looked a bit uncomfortable at being caught.

"Er… I won it," he said. "Down in the village; got in a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

Atemu and Bakura exchanged looks. My, how terribly convenient; who in their right mind would go through the trouble of getting a dragon egg, only to loose it in a game of cards?

"And… how exactly are you going to take care of it?" the tomb robber asked finally.

"Well… I've bin doin' some readin'," the gamekeeper said, reaching over and slipping a book marked Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit out from under his pillow. "It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breath on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here: how ter recognize diff'rent eggs. What I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

Atemu and Bakura ended up leaving a few minutes later, a feeling of doom hanging between them both.

"Oh, man… that guy is whacked," Bakura muttered. "He does realize he lives in a wooden house, right?"

"I don't think he's realizing much of anything right now," Atemu grumbled, before turning toward him. "Look, we can't tell the others about this, and we can't let them know. We'll tell them we questioned Hagrid already and didn't get anything out of him."

"Well, why—?"

"If we tell Harry and the others, they'll want to get involved," the pharaoh pointed out. "Well, maybe not Kaiba… willingly, but you know Malik and Harry and Ron and Hermione are going to want to figure out a way to get rid of that thing."

"Point," Bakura conceded. "So, what do we do?"

"I'm not sure…" Atemu said. "We need to get in touch with someone that's actually supposed to handle dragons. I think Ron told me once that his brother works with them… I'll have to make sure; send him a letter."

Bakura sighed. "Man, why can't we go to a normal school again…?"

-.oOOo.-

Keeping the fact that Hagrid was raising an illegal dragon a secret from the others turned out to be easier than Atemu had counted on. They were too focused on finding out what else was guarding the Philosopher's Stone and how to keep Snape from getting to it, that they had not realized he was lying through his teeth. Just as well; he doubted Hagrid would have told them anything important even if he did know what else was guarding the Stone.

Harry, though, was starting to get suspicious, especially when he noticed that Atemu and Bakura were out more often than Yuugi and Ryou again. His suspicions increased when he saw the two of them writing a note – or rather, Atemu was writing, and Bakura was criticizing him. Finally the pharaoh elbowed him, glaring up at him.

"You don't even know English that well, so shut up!" he exclaimed.

Harry left at that moment, mostly because Bakura did something that made the pharaoh squeak, and he really did not want to see the aftermath.

Then, one day a few weeks later, Yuugi got a note delivered by one of the school owls. He instantly looked worried, crumpling the note up quickly before shoving it in his pocket and switching places with the pharaoh. He muttered an excuse me to the others, before hurrying off to the Hufflepuff table to talk with Bakura.

That day, Yuugi was not in Herbology, nor was Ryou in any of his classes. That got (probably unwanted) attention from Hermione.

"What are they doing, skipping classes," she huffed. "They could get into so much trouble!"

The next day, another odd thing caught Harry's attention: Malfoy looked like the sun was shining only on him. When the Slytherin boy looked that damn triumphant, Harry knew that something was up. It was just confirmed when he saw Atemu and Bakura in the library later that day, the former pacing back and forth, wringing his hands.

"This is bad…" he was saying. "Malfoy must have followed us. What are we going to do? He's probably going to start blabbing about it all over the school, and then—!"

Bakura, who had been reclining in a chair, rolled his eyes as he stood up, throwing his arms around Atemu and holding him tight.

"Will you chill?" he asked softly, biting on his ear. "If Charlie doesn't write us back… well, we could just let it loose in the forest."

Atemu groaned. "With our luck, one puff and it would burn down the whole place," he said. "No; we've just got to hope Charlie's letter comes before Malfoy does anything."

Harry left at that moment, frowning. Just… what were they trying to do…?

-.oOOo.-

A week later, Hagrid's dragon – whom the giant was fondly calling Norbert – was about the size of a large dog. Atemu was starting to get worried that even when they got Charlie's letter back, they would not be able to carry the damn dragon to any kind of drop off point. Then, as if reading his mind, the school owl they had used to send a message to the Weasley brother returned with a note. The pharaoh rushed over to see Bakura right away, pulling him off into a private hallway before reading the note aloud.

Dear Yuugi,

Thanks for your letter; Ron's told me so much about you. I'd
be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy
getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over
with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week.
Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.

Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on
Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's
still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Charlie

Atemu felt like he could breathe again. "Oh, thank Ra…" he muttered, leaning back against Bakura. "We're saved."

"How are we gonna get it up there?" the tomb robber asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Even I can't sneak around with a dragon in a cage."

The pharaoh bit his lip. "I'll… I'll steal Harry's invisibility cloak. He sleeps like a rock; he won't even notice I took it."

"You? Steal?" Bakura asked… before grabbing him in a bear hug. "I'm so proud!"

Atemu sweatdropped, about ready to hit him… when he spotted something black, like a school robe, slipping away from around the corner.

"Oh, great," Bakura snarled, spotting it too. "Is there no privacy in this place?"

Atemu worried his lip. "Saturday… I better get a note off to him…"

"Don't worry about it," Bakura said dismissively. "I'll sneak out into town and send out a letter using one of the post offices' express owls."

The pharaoh sweatdropped; express… owls…? He shook his head; he did not want to know, so long as it worked.

-.oOOo.-

Yuugi lay down in bed, waiting quietly for the sound of snoring around him, before wishing his other self good luck as they switched places. Atemu sat up in bed, taking a breath, before slipping out, still dressed in his clothes. He crept over to Harry's trunk at the foot of the young wizard's bed, carefully opening it and pulled out the cloak from where it was hidden under all his junk. He muttered an apology, before throwing it over himself and quickly heading out.

He met up with Bakura at the door to the castle, and the both slipped under the cloak as they made a beeline for Hagrid's hut. The giant already had Norbert packed away in a crate (which looked more like a gigantic dog kennel) by the time they arrived.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," he explained, carefully handing the crate off to the two of them, who grunted under the weight. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

Atemu sweatdropped as a ripping sound came from the crate. "Yes, really lonely."

"Bye, bye, Norbert!" Hagrid called tearfully as the two of them shambled off. "Mummy will never forget you!"

"Let's go before I gag…" Bakura muttered.

How they managed to drag that heavy crate up and into the school, they would never know. The minutes ticked by slowly as they hauled Norbert up along staircases and down corridors. Even Bakura's short cuts did not make the trip any easier; the dragon was so heavy that after the third staircase, Atemu felt like his arm was going to be pulled out of its socket.

"Almost there…!" Bakura hissed, obviously not fairing much better than him.

A sudden sound made the both of them freeze where they stood. Shadows grappled in the darkness before them, before the tip of a wand came to light, revealing Professor McGonagall in a tartan robe and hairnet dragging Malfoy away by his ear.

"DETENTION!" she shrieked. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night; the insolence…"

"But professor!" Malfoy exclaimed, flailing. "It's Mutou and Bakura! They've got a dragon!"

"What rubbish!" the professor exclaimed. "I'll be seeing Professor Snape about you!"

The trip up to the tallest tower seemed much easier after that, and soon they were back out in the crisp night air once again. Atemu threw off the cloak after they set Norbert down, looking like he just took his first breath since leaving the Gryffindor common room.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!"

"Please, spare my ears," Bakura teased… only to end up nursing a reddening hand print on his face, marking where Atemu hit him.

They sat down on the tower railing together, keeping an eye out for Charlie's friends as Norbert thrashed restlessly in his crate. Bakura looked up and around them; damn… star-filled night… perfect air… now all that was needed was flowers and violins and the whole scene could be taken in another way.

Whoa… bad thought.

"Bakura?" Atemu asked suddenly.

He blinked at him in surprise. "What?"

The pharaoh was quiet for a long moment, making Bakura think he had changed his mind, before he finally asked, "What would you have done… if I decided to… pass on?"

He stared at him for a long moment, before looking away. "Nothing; what could I have done? Unless Ryou put on the Ring, I couldn't do squat."

"Mmm…" was Atemu's only reply, making the tomb robber raise an eyebrow.

"What brought this on all of a sudden?" he asked.

Atemu finally turned to him then. "I was thinking… if we had gotten caught, Yuugi and Ryou would be the ones to pay the price, not us. We really are a burden to them, even if we're not trying to be…" He looked down at his hands – Yuugi's hands, really… – quiet for a moment, before he continued, "I… I want to keep living. I want to get my own body, so I can have my own life again… and maybe get to live it this time…"

Bakura blinked at him, before he gave him a rare, soft smile. He reached over with both hands, cupping his face and forcing him to look at him again.

"Atemu… believe me when I say that I can't wait for the time I can use my own hands to hold you like this…" he replied.

The pharaoh bit his lip, a weird feeling in his chest, like his heart skipped several beats. It felt like several more beats as Bakura started leaning closer to him, close to touching…

"Bakura…"

"Pharaoh… I…"

"OY!"

The two of them sprang apart and whirled around, spotting several people approaching them on broomsticks. Charlie's friends; perfect timing…

They were certainly a cheery bunch, and Bakura might have liked them a bit better if they had not interrupted him. They showed him and Atemu the harness they had rigged up to carry Norbert, and the two of them assisted in buckling in the dragon safely. Pretty soon, Charlie's friends were bidding them good-bye, and the dragon was going… going… gone.

Atemu and Bakura shared a long look between the two of them… before they started back down the tower, able to hold one another's hand now that they did not have a crate between them. No more dragon, Malfoy in detention… the night really could not get any better.

Of course… when things are going good, they tend to go wrong really, really quick, as they found out when they reached the bottom of the stairs. There was Filch, standing there with an amused smirk on his face… and holding a guilty looking Harry by the scruff of his neck.

They had left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower…!

"My, my…" Filch practically purred. "We are in trouble…"