Yuugiou!
A New Generation of Priests
OH EM GE! An update! XD
Yeah, sorry about the long time between the last update. I've been working rather diligently on my video game, and decided to take a break when the programming became head splitty. X3;
Enjoy the new update; I might have another chapter out later tonight.
CHAPTER EIGHT – LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR
The next morning, Harry and Draco woke up with their arms rather stiff, but reboned. They ate oatmeal provided to them by the nurse rather clumsily with their opposite hands, before getting dressed and hurrying off into the school, Malfoy muttering about how he desperately needed a bath.
"You'll live," Harry replied to one of his rants, rolling his eyes as they made their way up to Gryffindor Tower. The portrait guardian was far from pleased to see Draco however.
"First the Hufflepuff boy, now a Slytherin!" she exclaimed, looking rather insulted. "Do you want to invite the whole school in!"
"No, but now that you mention it, I should bring Seto by one of these days. He's in Ravenclaw, you know," Harry replied dryly, before giving the password. The fat lady swung open with a grumble, admitting the two boys. Draco stood in the threshold, crossing his arms.
"Wait a bloody minute; why am I following you anyway?" he demanded.
"Because we've been expecting you," came Hermione's voice. They looked up, Harry blinking in surprise as his eyes fell upon not only her, but also Yuugi, Atemu, Ron, and Malik. After a moment, he pointed to Hermione.
"You're starting to freak me out with that thing," he said, getting her to turn rather red.
"It's not my fault! It just… shows me things," she replied, her voice shaking slightly. Malik reached over, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.
"Right, whatever," Draco replied, flopping down in a chair. "Then I guess you know that we know about that little Gryffindor mouse."
Yuugi and Atemu shot him annoyed looks at his manner, as Hermione nodded in agreement. "Yes; everyone's starting to get worried. No one knows just who it is that's setting this monster loose, just that it's someone in the school."
Atemu nodded slightly. "We've got to stop that monster and it's tamer before things get out of hand; before someone dies again."
"Wait," Draco began, fixing them with irritated looked. "Why us? Why not you? Don't drag me into this; I have more important things to do!"
"Like trying to sleep?" Malik replied dully, getting the pale boy to twitch and fix him with an irritated glare.
"Like trying to kill my family's house elf," he snapped, rubbing his reboned arm and drawing some confused looks. Harry explained about the visit from the elf, drawing a few sweatdrops from the others.
"You know, Harry, if that house elf doesn't stop trying to save your life, he's going to kill you," Malik said, shaking his head.
Yuugi snorted in amusement, grinning. "Anyway, back on the subject of this idiot trying to kill half the school—"
He was cut off by the sound of a gasp coming from the portrait hole, followed by the sound of books dropping. They turned or looked up to see Ginny standing there, looking at all of them, rather distraught. She spun about and ran out of the portrait hole a moment later, getting Ron to groan and smack a hand to his forehead.
"Ginny's been exceptionally jumpy since everything happened," he said, standing up. "I better go talk to her."
-.oOOo.-
In the second week of December, Professor McGonagall went around with the sign up sheet for students that would be staying at the school for the winter holidays. Yuugi and the others from Japan (and Egypt) signed up as usual, as well as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. In addition…
"You're staying too, Draco?" Yuugi asked, looking up at the pale boy as he sneaked into the library, after narrowly slipping away from his bodyguards.
Draco fixed him with an annoyed look. He hated it when they used his first name – which was happening more and more frequently as of late. It made them sound like oh-so-cozy friends. He was not friends with them, or anyone else for that matter.
"Yes," he grumbled, flopping down on a seat. "I don't feel like dealing with my father this Christmas. Explaining my nightmares would be too much frustration for me to deal with."
"Have they let up at all?" Atemu asked, setting his quill down and abandoning his homework for a moment.
Draco melted a bit, sagging in his seat. "No," he muttered despairingly.
Seto looked up from his homework, giving the young man a measured look. "Well, maybe we'll be able to work on that over the break," he said, before smirking in amusement. "Hermione needs the help too. Ishtar is going to go crazy if she keeps asking him about his past."
A week later, there was an announcement of a new Dueling Club that would be started just before the holidays. Harry made a bit of a face; wizard's duel… that was what Draco had challenged him to the year before, only to sic Filch on him instead. Seto was all for it, of course – that cocky gleam appeared in his eyes at the mention of it, the same look he always had on his face when he played Duel Monsters. He had to be reminded several times that dueling and wizard's dueling were two completely different things.
At eight 'o clock the night they learned of it, the group of eight friends joined others from different houses in the Great Hall. The long tables they normally ate at had been pushed to the side, and only a large stage stretched from one end of the hall to the other.
"I wonder who it is that will be instructing us?" Hermione asked as they pushed their way closer to the stage. "I heard Professor Flitwick was a Dueling Champion when he was younger."
Malik smirked, trying to picture the old man – that was somehow shorter than Yuugi – in a magic duel.
"I don't care who it is," he said. "Just as long as it isn't— aaahh… shit…"
Professor Snape had walked up onto the stage, a mighty scowl on his face that the eight of them had never seen before. That was not what had drawn the curse out of Malik, however. On the other end of the stage, grinning cheekily as always, was none other than Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" he announced. "Dumbledore has given me special permission to start this dueling club, in case you ever have need to defend yourself, like I myself have so many times in the past. For full details, see my published works." He waved a hand flamboyantly in the direction of Professor Snape. "Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape, who was sporting enough to offer to aid me in this endeavor."
Judging from the scowl on Snape's face, his assistance was not voluntary. Seto leaned down, whispering in Atemu's ear in Japanese so Hermione would not pitch a fit.
"If we're lucky," he said, "Snape will disable him so he can't do that thing he calls 'teaching' anymore."
"And if we're really lucky," the pharaoh returned, also in Japanese, "he'll kill him, and save the whole world a lot of grief."
Snape had apparently heard them, for he tossed them a half attempt at a humored smirk before he resumed glaring at Lockhart. The demonstration duel followed almost immediately, with the two professors bowing to one another. Well, Lockhart did with a great amount of twirling of his hands; Snape just jerked his head irritably. They walked away from one another then, looking like something out of a bad American Western film. Once they were far enough apart, they spun around and faced one another again, brandishing their wands before them like swords.
"On the count of three, we will cast our first spells," Lockhart announced to the crowd of students. "We won't be aiming to kill, of course."
"I wouldn't bet on that," Ryou commented, eyeing Snape. He could not understand how Lockhart could still be smiling; if Snape were glaring at him like that, he would be running in the opposite direction.
"One… two… three…"
"Expelliarmus!"
A burst of red sparks burst forth from Snape's wand. It hit Lockhart square in the chest, sending him flying into the far wall. He smacked against it, sliding down until his rump hit the ground. Several people started cheering (mostly Slytherins), while Hermione was dancing about, trying to see above the crowd.
"Is he all right?" she asked.
"Who cares?" the boys responded dryly.
Meanwhile, Lockhart was getting unsteadily to his feet, his wavy hair nearly standing on end. He chuckled, much to Snape's obvious displeasure, as he walked back to his previous position.
"Ah, yes, excellent idea to show them that first, Professor Snape," he said. "That was a Disarming Charm, and as you can see, I've lost my wand. Well, now, why don't we have two students try it out for themselves while I go look for it. Mr. Mutou, Mr. Kaiba, if you please?"
"Which Mutou?" Yuugi and Atemu asked at the same time, drawing several chuckles from the crowd.
"Uh…" Lockhart began. "The… taller one."
Atemu sweatdropped, but scrambled up onto the stage along with Seto. They mimicked what Snape and Lockhart had demonstrated, as the latter professor urged them to only use the Disarming Charm. Seto smirked as they both brought their wands at ready.
"Shall we make this more interesting?" he asked in Japanese, making it seem like he was insulting the pharaoh.
"As much as I would, I don't feel like getting a detention," Atemu returned in the same language. "Oh, and Snape knows Japanese."
Seto looked over his shoulder at the professor, who had another one of his smirks on his face. The young CEO rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Atemu.
"Oh well," he replied, in English, then announced, "We're ready!"
"On the count of three then," Snape said for Lockhart, as the other professor was still looking for his wand. "One… two… three."
"Expelliarmus!"
The name of the spells was shouted out at the same time, but because Seto moved his wand faster than Atemu did, the smaller boy was sent flailing backward first. He managed to grab the edge of the stage, preventing himself from hitting the wall like Lockhart had. Seto, heavier than him and not as easy to send flying, landed near the opposite edge of the stage with a thud that nearly knocked the wind out of him.
"Ah, excellent! Very excellent!" Lockhart exclaimed, finally recovering his wand. "Five points apiece to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Now, how about another student example before pairing off everyone? Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley?"
Harry clambered onto the stage, and Ron was about to follow, when Snape stood in front of him, blocking him off as he said to Lockhart, "In case you haven't noticed, Mr. Weasley's wand causes devastation with even the simplest of spells."
Ron backed off, shrugging to Harry sheepishly. The sad part was, Snape was right; his Spell-o-taped wand had not worked properly since it had broken.
"May I suggest a student from my own house?" the Potions Master continued. "Mr. Malfoy, perhaps?"
Draco climbed up onto the stage, looking like he would rather be anywhere else. Harry could not help but agree with that look.
"Remember, disarm only," Lockhart reminded them. "One… two –"
Despite the fact that they were getting along a bit better since encountering the petrified cat, Harry had expected him to try and pull something off. Good thing Malfoy never disappointed him; the pale boy's wand had already started moving on "two".
"Tarantallegra!"
Harry was hit full on with the curse, and it took all the self-control he could muster to prevent his legs from breaking out into some kind of dance. Squeezing his knees together, he pointed his wand at Draco.
"Rictusempra!"
A jet of silver shot out of his wand, hitting Malfoy in the chest while Lockhart started panicking.
"I said disarm only!" he stressed.
Everyone else ignored him, too caught up in the duel. Malfoy, wheezing from the Tickling Charm Harry had cast on him, held up his wand shakily.
"Serpensortia!"
It was like the end of Malfoy's wand had exploded. A long, black snake shot out of the wand, rearing up and hissing furiously. Some students screamed, and the crowd as a whole backed off. Even Harry took a step back, surprised. Apparently, that spell had been Snape's limit; he stepped forward, pulling out his wand.
"Don't move, you two," he warned.
"Allow me, Professor Snape!" Lockhart declared. A worried look crossed Snape's face before he backed off – along with both Harry and Draco.
After much apparently useless twirling, Lockhart pointed his wand at the snake. However, instead of disappearing, the snake flew up in the air and plopped down on the stage again. It reared up once more, still hissing; all that Lockhart's spell had accomplished was to make it angrier than it was before. The snake slithered toward a Hufflepuff boy, Justin Finch-Fletchley, looking like it was going to lash out at the paling boy any minute. Harry did the only thing he could think of: he stalked threateningly toward the snake, drawing its attention to him.
"Get away from him!" he shouted.
To his surprise, the snake became docile, slithering away from Justin and curling up in the center of the stage. Harry sighed in relief, and then smiled as he turned to the Hufflepuff boy. He expected him to maybe be a little confused, but grateful that he had called off the snake. He did not expect him to be standing there, shaking, looking like he was going to pass out.
"What are you playing at!" he demanded, before whirling around and stalking out of the room. Ryou gave Harry a worried look before running after him.
Harry looked around in confusion. All of the students were giving him strange, frightened looks. Draco looked as confused as he was, but was doing a better job of hiding it. Snape just stared at him, an unusual look of utter disbelief on his face, before he made the snake vanish. Suddenly, Ron grabbed the sleeve of his robe and tugged him off the stage.
"C'mon!" he hissed. "Move!"
Ron, Hermione, Malik, Yuugi, Atemu, and Seto pulled him along through the Great Hall. The going was easy, as the students quickly parted to let them through. Harry could only stare at their frightened faces; what had he done to get such a reaction out of them?
There was a thump from the stage a moment later, and Draco rushed to join them on the way out of the Great Hall, not caring what it looked like. The group did not stop until they reached the empty Gryffindor common room (the fat lady let out an irritated noise at Seto's presence, but did not bother protesting). Ron practically threw the still utterly confused Harry into a seat.
"You're a Parselmouth!" he exclaimed. "How come you never told us!"
"I'm a what?" Harry asked, getting more confused by the minute.
"A Parselmouth," Yuugi repeated for Ron, who looked like he was going to have a fit. "Someone who can talk to snakes."
"Oh," Harry replied. "Oh, yeah, I know. I accidentally set a boa constrictor on my cousin once… Long story," he added, noticing their looks of horror. "It was before I found out I was a wizard. The snake told me it had never seen Brazil."
"The snake told you?" Seto asked, his face paling.
"So what?" Harry demanded, starting to get angry. "If I hadn't told that snake to get away from Justin –"
"Oh, is that what you said to it?" Ron asked, sarcastically.
"Yes, that is what he said to it!" Draco exclaimed, drawing looks to him as well.
"You're a Parselmouth too!" Ron exclaimed, paling.
Draco fixed him with an irritated look. "We can't be. There's no way—"
"Draco, we heard Harry speaking Parseltongue," Malik replied, like he was talking to a two year old. "If you understood it, that makes you a Parselmouth."
Harry paled as Draco fumed, sinking back in his seat. "I spoke a different language?" he asked, shocked. "Wait a minute! How do you guys know about this!"
The foreign boys pointed to Hermione. She screwed up her courage, looking like she was going to regret what she was going to tell him.
"Harry, there's a reason why Slytherin House's animal is a snake," she began. "Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth."
Harry's mouth practically hit the floor at that.
"Exactly," Ron added. "Now everyone's going to think you're his great-great-great-great grandson or something."
Harry shook his head emphatically. "There's no way," he declared. "I'm in Gryffindor, remember?"
"That doesn't matter, Harry," Atemu pointed out. "Salazar Slytherin lived over a thousand years ago. For all we know… you could be."
Harry leaned back in his seat, a look of absolute dread on his face. One thing he had never told any of his friends, was that when he had put on the Sorting Hat what seemed like ages ago, the Hat was originally going to put him in Slytherin. He had urged it not to, and so it put him in Gryffindor instead. Now, with everything happening, he could not help but wonder if the Hat was right the first time…
His thoughts were broken by an irritated growl, and he looked up at a very frustrated Draco.
"Idiots, that's not all that's wrong with being a Parselmouth!" he snapped. "Why do you think there's a snake in the Death Eaters' symbol? Hunh?"
Hermione gave him a blank look, actually not knowing the answer for once.
"Death Eaters?" Atemu asked.
Draco's lip twitched. "The followers of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was a Parselmouth as well!"
-.oOOo.-
Harry had planned on explaining to Justin what he had really been trying to do at the dueling club during Herbology the next morning, but a sudden, severe snowstorm had canceled the last lesson of the term. So, instead of freezing in the greenhouses, he was freezing in the library with his friends, trying to use the free time to get some much needed studying. He just could not think straight, however; thoughts of him possibly being Slytherin's heir were running rampant in his mind.
"Harry," Yuugi said suddenly, sensing that something was bothering his friend, "why don't we go look for Justin?"
"He usually hangs out in the Great Hall when he has breaks," Ryou offered as Harry and Yuugi got up from their seats.
The two of them set off toward the Great Hall, ignoring the stares that were directed toward Harry. The younger boy scoffed at everyone's over-reactions, rolling his eyes. They were about to descend a staircase, when they almost bumped into something very tall and very hairy.
"Hello, Hagrid," Harry greeted.
A snow-covered balaclava hid most of Hagrid's face, but it could not have been anyone else. There was no other person in the school who could take up half the hallway like the giant of a man did.
"All righ' there, Harry, Yuugi?" he asked, pulling up the balaclava with his free hand so he could speak. His other hand had a dead rooster hanging from it. "Why aren't yeh in class?"
"Cancelled," Yuugi explained. "What are you doing with that?"
He pointed to the dead rooster. Hagrid held it up a bit.
"Second one killed this term," he explained. "Prob'ly foxes or a Blood-Suckin' Bugbear. I need Dumbledore's permission ter put a charm around the hen coop."
Harry checked his watch and frowned; damn, so much for talking to Justin. "Sorry, Hagrid, we've got to go," he said. "It's Transfiguration next and we still need to get our books."
Hagrid peered down at him. "Are yeh sure yeh're all right?" he asked. "Yeh look all hot an' bothered…"
Harry smiled slightly, grateful for his concern. "I'm okay," he said. "Just a lot of things going on lately."
The two of them said good-bye to Hagrid before heading up to their common room. Yuugi looked up to Harry, who still had a bit of a sour look on his face. He raced up in front of him and spun around, making him stop in mid-step.
"Harry, let me tell you something," he began, "when you guys found out about the other me, I was worried – very worried."
"About what?" Harry asked, wondering where this came from all of a sudden.
"That you and Ron and Hermione would not be my friends anymore," he replied. He held up a hand. "I don't mean to make a 'power of friendship' speech – my friend Anzu in Japan has a habit of making too many of those – but I will say this much. We're all true friends, even Draco in a way, and no matter what happens to us, or whoever our ancestors might be, we'll always have that bond."
Harry blinked, caught off guard. After a moment, he smiled his first true smile in a long time. "Thanks, Yuugi," he said. "I guess I really needed to hear that."
They resumed the walk to the common room then, taking a short cut down a dark corridor. The torches must have been blown out by a cold draft from somewhere, though the hallway was a bit warm. Yuugi pulled out his golden wand.
"Lumos!"
The tip of the wand lit up with a light powerful enough to illuminate a good portion of the hallway. The sight that lay out before them, however, nearly made the older boy drop the wand in shock. Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, perfectly still, a look of shock frozen on his face. Hovering slightly above him was the Gryffindor House ghost, Nearly Headless Nick. Instead of being pale and silvery like all the other ghosts were, however, he was gray and smoky, floating motionlessly parallel to the ground.
Harry fell to his knees in shock, his breathing coming out in shallow gasps. Yuugi himself looked like he was going to faint.
Just then, to add insult to injury, the school's resident poltergeist, Peeves, floated out of an empty classroom. He was on his back, looking like he was doing the backstroke in midair. The ghost flipped around when he saw them, a sneer on his face.
"Why, it's potty wee Potter!" he cackled, bouncing around him. "What's Potter up to this time, eh? Why's Potter lurking –"
Peeve cut himself off in mid bounce, a look of abject horror on his normally wicked little face. His beady little eyes were focused on Nearly Headless Nick.
"ATTACK!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE!"