Hey guys! Finally I included a little bit of action in this chapter, so I won't bother you with my pointless ramblings until after. :)

-blah- = hikaris/yamis speaking through mindlink

Disclaimer: I own nothing! And I took a bit of text from the book here, because I couldn't do it justice on my own. Everything is JKR's in that scene, though.

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

CRRRAAACKK!

Ellie's head snapped up. What was that? It sounded like somebody apparating or disapparating. From her perch on her breezy front porch, Ellie watched a cat streak out from underneath a car, and a loud clattering noise that could only be some very expensive china being broken came from the Dursley's. Was Harry under attack?

Ellie tossed her Divination horoscopes aside, and jumped up, pulling her wand out of her pocket. Who would be apparating into Little Whinging? Ellie ran into the deserted street, aiming for Harry's.

When she got closer, she could see Mr. Dursley attempting to both strangle Harry, and take his wand away at the same time through the window. Ellie sped up. She reached the Dursley's lawn just in time to see Mr. Dursley let go of Harry and jerk back as if he'd been electrocuted.

"Harry!" She called, running to the window and stuffing her wand into her pocket when she saw the look that Mr. Dursley was giving her. His beady eyes first glared at her, and then shifted to the neighbor's houses. His actions reminded Ellie that they most likely had the attention of most of the neighbors looking out of their windows.

"Lovely evening!" Mr. Dursley called, "Did you hear that car backfire just now? Gave Petunia and me quite a turn!" He kept his face plastered in a phony smile, his right eye twitching. He kept 'beaming' at them until the last curious one retreated behind her curtains. His smile vanished instantly, and he rounded on the two of them. "What the devil do you mean by it, boy?"

"You surely can't be accusing him of making that noise?" Ellie asked, and Mr. Dursley looked like he was going to round on her instead, but luckily she was saved by Mrs. Dursley poking her bony head out of the window next to him.

"Why were you lurking under our window?" She demanded Harry.

"Yes! An excellent question. Answer your aunt, boy," Mr. Dursley snarled.

"Listening to the news." Harry replied. The Dursley's didn't seem to accept this answer, as it led to full on row between him and his uncle. Both Ellie and Mrs. Dursley tried to keep them quiet, but they were uncontrollable. The argument ended with Harry calling both of the Dursley's stupid and storming off, dragging Ellie with him.

Instantly brushing off the argument, Ellie asked: "That crack, Harry. You don't suppose…?" She trailed off.

"Yeah, I think that it was someone apparating or disapparating." He replied breathlessly, speeding up. It seemed like he wanted to be as far away from his aunt and uncle as possible. "Do you have your wand on you?" He kept swiveling his head, looking for any potential danger.

"Of course I do, Harry." She was slightly breathless, as she was practically jogging in order for her short legs to keep up with Harry's long and lanky ones. "But, who could it be?"

"I dunno, El. Dobby? He's apparated here before, remember second year? Besides," He slowed a little when he realized Ellie was having trouble keeping up. "If it was anybody dangerous, then they would have attacked us by now. But keep your eyes peeled, anything could happen."

The paranoid pair continued in silence until they reached one of their familiar haunts, the play park. It was cast in shadows, as the sun was slowly beginning to set on Little Whinging.

"I finally got a letter from Ron and Hermione," Harry broke the silence, handing Ellie a very short piece of parchment. He scowled. "Not much of a letter, either. I dunno why they even bothered writing, fat load of help that it was."

Ellie read the letter. Harry was right. There was no substance to the letter, it basically consisted of them telling Harry that it was too dangerous for them to write in case it got intercepted, and they weren't allowed to write back in case the owl was tracked. But Ellie got the message.

"So they're together?" She asked, sitting on the swing, looking hurt that they've been so left out.

"Yep. And it doesn't sound like they're in any hurry to get us out of here."

Ellie was slightly uncomfortable at the use of 'we' in that sentence. Her life on Private Drive wasn't nearly as bad as Harry's. She lived with her family, while Harry had to put up with the Dursleys. While Ellie did not have a particularly great relationship with her family, it was most certainly not a bad one. Ellie did all that she could to help Harry out. She brought him food, hid his homework from the Dursley's, and kept him company as much as she could. However, Ellie had very strict parents. They fit well with the mentality of the rest of Private Drive. They were not ashamed of their daughter's magical abilities, but they were eager to please the very 'influential' Dursley's, so her parents respected their rule of forbidding Harry to go near their house. The Dursley's knew that Harry could retreat there as much as he pleased had they not enforced this rule, and the Milton's were only too happy to oblige.

Ellie felt bad that she lived so well while, just a few doors down, Harry was suffering horribly. But she still tried to cheer him up.

"Oh, come on Harry, Hogwarts starts back up in a few weeks! You'll see them soon enough," She reasoned cautiously. She knew how touchy was ever since Voldemort's return and Cedric's death. "It's not so bad here, you know." Ellie regretted those words as soon as she spoke them,

"Not that bad for YOU," Harry snapped. "You have no reason to complain, you have no clue what I have to deal with." He paused, while Ellie looked down, refusing to meet his eyes. "You don't know what it's like," He finally spat, venomously.

Ellie kept her eyes down, biting her lip, afraid to defend herself in case it set Harry off again. "I'm sorry, Harry," she whispered passively when she was sure he wouldn't bite her head off. They were both silent for a few minutes.

Finally, Harry sighed. "No, I'm sorry El. I shouldn't have snapped: you were only trying to help." He felt bad, Ellie was never anything but nice to him.

Ellie opened her mouth to tell him that it was okay, but she forgot what she was going to say when she saw Harry's face. He was looking at something behind her, and his eyes flashed with something that Ellie didn't like, or recognize. She turned her head around and looked behind her to see a group of very large boys headed their way.

It was Dudley and his gang. Some had bikes, and one was singing a very inappropriate song, to which the others were all laughing at. When Ellie looked back round at Harry, there was a slight hint of anticipation on his face.

"Harry, no." She told him firmly. It was fairly obvious what was running through her friend's mind: he was looking for a fight. They all knew that the gang would make a beeline for Harry. But what only Harry and Ellie knew was that Dudley would be caught between his fear of Harry and his reputation with his cronies.

Harry tried to look innocent. "No what?" He asked.

"You can't go picking a fight with half a dozen muggle boys just so you can let off some steam. I know you're angry, but this isn't the way to deal with it." Ellie didn't know how to deal with her friend lately, because he was always so angry.

But, in the end all of Ellie's efforts were wasted, as one of Dudley's gang spotted them and began elbowing the rest.

"Let's go, Harry!" Ellie pleaded, standing up and pulling on his sleeve. "You know that the ministry is just begging for an excuse to snap your wand."

But once again, Ellie's attempts at keeping the peace was wasted on Harry. He wanted a fight as much as any of the boys present, and nothing was going to stop him.

"Hey, Ellie!" One of them called when they got within earshot. "Why do you hang out with that Potter freak so much? Why don't you come over to my place once and awhile?" The boys all laughed, and one wolf whistled at her. Ellie cringed, but remained silent.

Harry stood up next to her and pushed her behind him, his hand on his wand. He was going to tell the boy who had spoken to Ellie off, but Ellie just tugged on his arm, and whispered, "just walk away, Harry. Please."

"Yeah, Harry," another taunted, "Why don't you listen to your little girlfriend and take a walk? Don't worry, we'll take care of her while you're gone." The gang stupidly nodded and laughed, while the one who spoke was very obviously eyeing Ellie's short clad legs.

"Back off," Harry growled, pushing Ellie even further behind him, "before I make you."

"Oooooooooh," They all chanted, grinning at each other.

Dudley stepped forwards. "Big tough man now, aren't we, Potter?" The gang moved closer, and began spreading out slightly. "But you're not so brave at night, though." He laughed.

"This is night, Diddykins," Harry taunted, using Dudley's mother's pet name for him. "That's what we call it when it goes all dark like this."

"I mean when you're in bed!" Dudley snarled, pointing a threatening finger at Harry.

"What d'you mean, I'm not brave when I'm in bed? What am I supposed to be afraid of, pillows or something?"

Dudley grinned triumphantly. "I heard you last night." The gang had finally closed ranks on them, not that Harry noticed, though Ellie certainly did. She remained quiet, but she stayed by Harry's side. "Talking in your sleep. Moaning."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, his cocky and defensive manner gone. Oh no, Ellie thought. Not the Cedric dreams, that was the one thing sure to get Harry all riled up.

"Don't kill Cedric! Don't kill Cedric! Who's Cedric anyways, your boyfriend?"

"I - you're lying." Harry stated, going pale.

"Dad! Help me! Dad, he's going to kill me! Dad? Boo hoo!" Dudley taunted, grinning manically. His friends laughed threateningly from all sides.

From her vantage point behind Harry, Ellie could see his hand tighten on his wand in his pocket.

"Shut up. Shut up Dudley, I'm warning you."

"Come and help me, Dad! Mum, come and help me! He's killed Cedric! Dad, help me! He's going to- DON'T YOU POINT THAT THING AT ME!"

Ellie lunged forward to pull Harry back, but she didn't get far. The two boys who had yelled at her earlier had grabbed her arms, rendering her unable to stop Harry, or to even reach her own wand.

Ellie fought tooth and nail to get away, but the boys were big and she was small. She looked up at the one on her right, and he smiled sickeningly down at her. She stomped on his foot, but this only resulted in him getting angry and twisting her arm painfully. She was so afraid that Harry would cast a spell and get kicked out of Hogwarts, and she could do nothing to stop it. "Harry! Please don't!" she pleaded.

When he realized that there was a hell of a lot of commotion going on behind him, Harry looked back. He was shocked to see Ellie being restrained with a look of pain on her face, but he did not lower his wand from Dudley's throat. "Get your hands off of her!" He cried.

They did not, however they did loosen their holds so Ellie wasn't in so much pain. Dudley tried to use Harry's distraction to run away, but Harry was considerably quicker, and he twisted back to him, and pointed his wand at Dudley's heart.

"Harry!" She begged, still fighting desperately to get free.

"Don't you point that thing at me!" Dudley finally repeated, breathlessly.

"Don't you ever talk about that again," Harry breathed, "Do you understand me?"

"Point that thing some where's else!" Dudley cried.

"I said, do you understand me?"

"Point it somewhere else!"

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" Harry had finally lost it.

"GET THAT THING AWAY FROM-" Dudley stopped yelling mid-sentence, and gasped loudly. The boys surrounding Ellie and Harry all stepped back, looking around wildly. Ellie was released, and she then pulled out her own wand.

Suddenly, the warm night that was brightly bathed in moonlight went ice cold and pitch black. It was as if the stars and moon themselves were extinguished, leaving the group of teens in a cloud of their own breath.

Dudley's gang didn't last long. "Let's get out of here!" One of them yelled, and they scattered. The sounds of the boys running away vanished way sooner than they should have. Harry lowered his wand from Dudley's heart, and pointed it instead at the darkness that surrounded them.

Ellie didn't think that it was possible, but it then got even darker and colder. The silence was deafening, as the sound of the three teenager's breathing was the only one.

"What are you d-doing?" Dudley demanded. "Stop it! Stop it right now Potter!" he began to back away.

"I'm not doing anything! Now shut up so that I can listen!" Harry snapped. Dudley started backing even further away.

"Dudley, stay here so we can protect you," Ellie told him kindly. He whimpered, and moved closer to her. "Harry, I think it's dementors." She said to him. "What do you reckon?"

"Yeah, I reckon that you're right. Stay close," Harry replied.

Dudley let out a huge sob. "Wh-what are…" He trailed off as the air got colder, and the dread got worse.

Just then, the sound of raspy, rattling breathing reached their ears. Harry and Ellie saw a tall, dark and hooded figure enter the park. It was quickly gliding towards them. Ellie shuddered as she began to feel the full effects of the dementors. She tried to fight through the despair to find a happy memory.

"Expecto Patronum!" They both cried, pointing their wands at it. But neither of their spells worked. Ellie was never able to produce a full-bodied patronus, and Harry was simply out of practice. But neither of that mattered, as they were both left defenseless as a second dementor entered the park. Ellie whipped around to face this one, her back pressed up against Harry's. Dudley collapsed next to them.

"Expecto Patronum!" She cried again, this time managing to produce a little bit of silver vapor, but still not nearly enough to protect them. The dementors were almost upon them. Ellie was shaking, but she didn't know if it was her, or if it was because she was pressed against Harry.

"Expecto Patronum!" She heard him cry, and he only managed to produce silver vapor as well, granted it was a lot more than what she had produced, but still not enough.

The dementors were now upon them.

Ellie grabbed Harry's left hand with her right, and with their fingers entwined, they both tried again.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" They both yelled together. A stag burst forwards from Harry's wand, and a large silver shield was produced from Ellie's wand. It was enough to hold her dementor at bay long enough for Harry's stag to finish off the first dementor. Ellie shielded her eyes at the blinding light that the stag was producing, and when she finally looked, the stars were back, and the night had warmed up. She released Harry's hand, and rushed over to Dudley's shivering form.

"Dudley? Are you okay?" She asked, attempting to roll his massive form over. "Harry, come help me!" But Harry didn't have nearly as much sympathy for his cousin, and instead he was standing still, trying to figure out what two dementors were doing in Little Whinging.

As Dudley moaned and began to return to a state of semi-consciousness, they heard a pair of footsteps running towards them. A figure burst out of some of the remaining mist.

"Mrs. Figg?"

xxx

Ryou eagerly watched the planes landing in London. It was 6 PM, and Yugi and Malik's plane was due to touch down any minute now. He was eager to both see his friends and to get under whatever magical protection that Dumbledore had set up for them. The spirit was convinced that they were being tailed by one of Dumbledore's men all day, which made him mad, but reassured Ryou. He figured that the spirit could handle any danger that was thrown their way, but he didn't want to take that chance.

-Your little friends had better hurry up host, I am getting impatient.- Said spirit grumbled. Ryou wished he would stop complaining.

-Koe, if you don't like it then go to your soul room. I'd rather not listen to you complaining.- Ryou replied testily, shocking the spirit, and even more so himself. He NEVER spoke like that to anyone, let alone the one that he was most afraid of. But the spirit was so shocked, he complied, but not without a snort aimed in Ryou's direction.

Finally, finally, the big TV screen switched the flight from Domino from 'ON TIME' to 'ARRIVED'. Ryou jumped up, picked up his luggage, and hurried over to the security gate just in time to see his two spiky haired friends emerge, laden down with luggage.

"Yugi!" He called, waving. "Malik! Over here!" He ran to his friends. "You made it here safely!"

"Hey, buddy!" Malik hollered, launching himself and painfully hugging the poor embarrassed boy. Ryou's face burned, and he fought desperately to get away. Malik laughed, released him, and gave him a hard clap on the back. Ryou blushed even harder at the attention that he were getting and rubbed the back of his neck. Yugi laughed at his friends antics.

"We're glad to see that you're here safely as well, Ryou." Yugi said, smiling warmly. Yami agreed. They were both worried that the Dark Lord would have gotten to Ryou before they even arrived in England. "When and where are we meeting the guard?" He asked.

Ryou looked at his watch. "In 10 minutes in the back of the parking lot. So we had better get moving. It's a bit of a walk." The three boys exited the airport, and walked straight into the blazing heat of the heat wave that had settled over England.

"Any idea where this safe house is, Ryou?" Malik asked him after awhile. Growing up in the deserts of Egypt, he was the only one that looked at home in this heat. He was walking normally, while Yugi and Ryou were panting and sweating.

"No," Ryou gasped. He pulled the note out of his pocket, and checked the number of the empty row of parking spaces they were currently stopped at. "But I think that this is us, they should be arriving any minute now."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, than a loud crack exploded around them, and a short, grizzled, and very scarred man popped out of nowhere. He had a bright electric blue eye that was fixed on them. Both of the yami's had taken over, startled at the man's appearance. But before they could do anything, another crack sounded, and another. A tall thin man with thinning red hair appeared, along with a sickly looking man with greying brown hair.

The first man looked them suspiciously. "Bakura? Muto? Ishtar?" He asked them, his normal eye fixed on Bakura, while the magic one looked at the other two respectively.

-This is your guard, aibou?- Yami asked, incredulously. He was pleased. This man did not look like the kindest out there, but there was no doubt that he was tough, and his battle scars more than proved that he was capable of taking care of himself. The other two men, on the other hand, were both very skinny and looked easy to take down in a fight. However, as both Yugi and Yami knew, size could be deceiving. Yami relinquished control to his light.

"Y-yes.." Yugi answered him in heavily accented English. "I am Yugi, this is Ryou, and this is Malik," he introduced himself and his friends.

"I take it that you're our guard?" Bakura said unpleasantly, before giving control to Ryou. He too was satisfied. This weathered man looked more than capable of defending the body, which meant that he could relax.

He grunted. "The name's Moody. This is Weasley, and Lupin. Dumbledore tells me that you three are in need of a safe house." He said. It was not a question.

"Cool eye, Mister Moody!" Malik said, grinning. The man that was introduced as Weasley smiled warmly at him

"Wait until you find out what it does," he told him, winking. "Now, boys, it is impervious that you listen. This is what we call a portkey." He held out a dirty looking old milk jug. "When the time comes, grab hold, and it will transport us to the safe house. Do NOT let go."

Lupin looked at their luggage. "If you will step back, I can take care of your luggage, boys." He told them, pulling out a wand. Yugi and Malik felt a flicker of excitement, they had never seen magic performed before. Lupin flicked his wand at the luggage, and it shrunk small enough to fit in their pockets.

Yugi's eyes widened. Shadow magic couldn't do that! He felt even more excited to go to a magic school to learn how to do things like that, and more.

"Yugi, if that works both ways we can make you taller!" Malik said, giving him a playful shove. Yugi scowled at him, while Mr. Weasley and even Ryou cracked a smile.

"Constant vigilance! Pay attention to your surroundings, otherwise you might find yourselves locked in a trunk for a year!" Moody snapped. "Now, the portkey will activate soon. Everyone grab hold."

The three boys quickly gathered their luggage, and awkwardly hooked a finger onto the milk jug with the three older wizards. Just when Malik was starting to wonder if anything was going to happen, he felt a rough tug somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach. They were being tugged into the air!

After a few moments of violent spinning, they finally slammed into the ground on a street lined with gloomy looking houses.

"Quickly, quickly! Read this and memorize," Mr. Weasley shoved a piece of paper into their hands, that read The Order of the Phoenix is located at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "Good?" He asked, and poked the paper with his wand, and it promptly burned into a crisp.

The three boys looked at each other, confused. They knew enough English to read the street sign, which told them that they had the right street. But there was no 12, only a gap between 11 and 13.

-Something's happening.- Yami said to Yugi.

-Look! A house!- Yugi replied, mentally pointing. A house had suddenly appeared where number 12 should have been. And sure enough, when Yugi squinted, he could make out the number 12 on the front.

"Hurry, now, boys," Lupin said. "Before we're seen!"

The three men ushered them inside, which was very dark, and musty smelling.

"Welcome to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, boys." Mr. Weasley said to them, smiling.

xxx

Kind of a bad spot to end it, I know. But I didn't want to introduce them to Ron + Hermione yet, and I didn't know how else to stop it!

Anyways, I hope you liked it! Review please my dears! :D