Hey guys! Once again, not much to say here. I just wanted to let you know that for the purposes of this story, Yugi, Malik and Ryou are the world's top three duelists. It's not a major plot point, but it just sounds better to say that 'the world's top 3 duelists are attending Hogwarts'.

-blah- = mindlink

I own absolutely nothing! There is a big chunk of dialogue from the book in here, which I am usually against, but I feel like it needed to be in there. But no part of that conversation is mine, I promise!

Enjoy!

Chapter 8

"These three are the reigning Duel Monsters Champions," Ellie told her friends. "And you," She pointed at Yugi, "are the King of Games." Ryou was surprised. From the way that the wizards have been acting all day, he figured that none of them knew anything of muggle things.

Yugi smiled sheepishly at her. "Call me Yugi," he said.

"What in Merlin's name is Duel Monsters?" Ron asked.

"It's a card game in which you play a combination of different cards to defeat your opponent's monsters and life points," Yugi explained.

"You would like it Ron, it involves a lot of strategy. You're good at that," Ellie told him, thinking of his talent for wizard's chess.

"Do you play?" Yugi eagerly asked Ellie. He was always looking for new opponents. Ryou wouldn't mind either, he was already looking for excuses to get to know her.

"Not really," Ellie replied. "I've played once or twice, but with a borrowed deck. My brother is into it, but I'm not very good."

"We'll have to teach you then!" Malik jumped in, happily.

Ryou frowned internally at Malik's forwardness while Bakura laughed at him. -I think that your jealousy has you jumping to conclusions, yanodoushi. I do not believe that Ishtar wants the girl.- This was meant in a mean way, but Ryou believed, with a little jolt of hope, that it might be true. -I'm not jealous, Koe. I barely know her.- Ryou told Bakura defensively, while the spirit just laughed again.

"Maybe. I'd need a proper deck first." Ellie smiled at him. "So, what brings you here anyways?"

"Ryou here was attacked by Death Eaters, and he fended them off. Now Voldemort wants him, and by extension, us." Malik gave her the edited version.

"Huh?" Harry asked rudely.

Yugi looked at Malik pointedly, and said "Malik, Dumbledore said that we can trust them. I think that it's fair that they get the whole story."

Ryou knew that by 'the whole story' Yugi meant their edited version that left out the Millennium Items. The three of them explained as much as they could. It didn't paint a very clear picture, as there were very obvious holes in the story.

"So how did you summon up that monster anyways?" Ellie asked, sounding impressed. Ryou blushed.

"I'm sorry. We can't tell you." He told her. He was truly sorry. He wanted to trust them, but Malik was right. They just met them, and even if they meant well, they could meddle. Also, another thought occurred to Ryou just then. If they became friends, then they could be pulled into their mess as well. He shuddered at the thought. He finally has a chance to make a fresh start with people that seemed pretty nice, and he didn't want anything to hurt them.

Ron moaned disappointedly, which actually made the transfers all laugh. "Did you tell Dumbledore?" He asked them. "That bloke knows everything."

Malik laughed. "He already knew! No idea how." Yugi nodded in agreement.

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that you're the top 3 duelists in the world?" Ellie asked.

"Ummm," Ryou said, trying to stall for enough time to come up with a decent lie. But in the end, he didn't have to.

"I don't understand how you know so much about them, El. I've never heard of them." Harry said moodily.

"I told you, Ollie was into Duel Monsters. Ever since his school went on that trip to Japan…"

Ryou didn't know what to think of Harry. Everybody here had spoken of him in such high esteem, yet he came off as very cranky and unpleasant to Ryou. Maybe he was missing something, but Harry did not seem to fit in with the friendly wizards that usually frequented Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

"So," Harry continued, breaking Ryou out of his reverie. "This is the safe house that you've been hiding from us all summer?"

"Harry, we weren't hiding-" Hermione began.

"Yeah, Dumbledore made us swear not to say anything, because he said that you were safest with the muggles," Ron interrupted.

"Well, he was wrong," Harry said quietly. "Has anyone here been attacked by dementors this summer?"

"Well, no- but that's why he's had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time -"

"Didn't work well, though, did it?" Harry said, his voice betraying the anger he felt. Ryou was confused. What was a dementor anyways? He had heard about the attack, but nobody had ever explained to the transfers exactly what exactly had gone after them. "We had to look after ourselves after all, didn't we, El?"

"Harry, please. . ." Ellie pleaded, glancing at Ryou, Malik and Yugi. It seemed that she could read Harry's tone well enough to know that whatever he was about to do wasn't going to make a good impression on the newcomers.

"He was so angry. Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary."

"Well, I'm glad he left. If he hadn't, we wouldn't have had to defend ourselves and Dumbledore would probably have left us at Private Drive all summer."

Ryou noticed that Ellie looked down at this. Her body language was exceptionally easy to read, he noticed. She apparently didn't agree with Harry on this.

"Aren't you . . . aren't you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?"

"No." Harry said at the same time that Ellie looked up and nodded. This must have flew over Harry's head, because he continued on as if she had not responded at all. "So why's Dumbledore been so keen to keep us in the dark? Did you, er, bother to ask him at all?"

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on, we did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here and he didn't have much time, he just made us swear not to write you. The owl could have been traced. We had to sneak out that one letter in the middle of the ni-"

"He still could have kept us informed!" Ellie burst out, shocking the transfers. She had been so quiet during the entire argument, but apparently being kept in the dark was a soft spot for her as well. "You're not honestly telling us that Dumbledore doesn't have any other method of communication!" She sighed, shook her head, and took on a defeated look.

Hermione and Ron looked at each other sheepishly, knowing that their answer wasn't going to evoke a good response from Harry. "I thought that too," Hermione began nervously, "But he didn't want you to know anything."

"Maybe he thinks that we can't be trusted." Harry said carefully.

Ellie looked over at the transfers, apologetically, apparently just realizing that they weren't alone after her outburst. It was obvious that she knew what was coming, and it seemed that she was nice enough to save them from her friend's wrath. "Hey, can you guys show me where my room is? I've never been here before and I need to . . . erm . . . wash my hair. . ." The three boys couldn't be more thankful. They rushed out of the room, unnoticed by everyone else. They closed the door just in time to hear Harry begin shouting.

"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS. BIG DEAL!"

Ellie flinched. She led them away from the door, until his shouting was (for the most part) too muffled to understand.

"I'm terribly sorry about him. He's not usually like that. He's just . . .er, it's just that. . ." It looked like she couldn't come up with a normal excuse for Harry's behavior. She sighed, and leaned against the wall. "His aunt and uncle are awful, the Daily Prophet has been saying horrible things about him, the Darkest and most powerful wizard of our time is after him, he might be expelled, and I think that he's hungry." She gave a weak smile. "I suppose he hasn't made the best of impressions on you three."

No one answered. Ryou agreed that he had made a bad impression, but she looked so dejected that he couldn't say it. Luckily, Yugi broke the uncomfortable silence. "No, he hasn't made the best impression. But I believe you, and I will give him a second chance. I'm sure that Malik and Ryou will too."

"Of course I will!" Malik said, clapping Ellie on the shoulder. She took a moment to look grateful, and then she looked hopefully at Ryou, who blushed again.

"I'll give him the benefit of the doubt," Ryou said quietly. Ellie's face broke into a huge smile, which resulted in a slight fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Bakura made a whip noise in their mind.

-Shut up, Koe.-

XXX

Ellie didn't know what to think. On one hand, Harry had been acting like this all summer, and she expected him to lash out at Ron and Hermione like this. But on the other hand, she was completely shocked over the appearance of the top 3 Duelists in the world, and the fact that Harry had just completely lost it in front of them.

She was glad that the three promised to give Harry a second chance once he calmed down enough to be a civilized human being. He had come off as very rude, though, so even though they said they'd give him the benefit of the doubt, Ellie didn't know if they would ever forget their first meeting. Harry was already so frowned upon in both the muggle and wizarding worlds, and the last thing that he needed was for even more people to dislike him.

Once Ellie got the three boys safely away from the scene of Hary's temper tantrum, she slipped back into his bedroom in order to try to help calm him down for Ron and Hermione's benefit. She flinched when she realized that he was still yelling at them.

"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER-"

"No, honest!"

"Harry, we're really sorry!" Hermione was crying by this point. "You're absolutely right, Harry, I'd be furious if it was me!"

There was a long pause, in which none of them noticed Ellie's return.

"I hope you're happy, Harry. You've made a lovely impression on the transfers." She scowled at him, drawing the trio's attention.

He scowled back, but didn't say anything.

"What is this place?" Ellie asked Ron.

"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," He replied.

"Is anybody going to bother telling us what the Order of the Phoenix-?"

"It's a secret society." Hermione and Ron proceeded to tell Ellie and Harry all about it. They then told them what they heard on the extendable ears about the transfers, which was pretty much the same story that they had just heard. It seems like Dumbledore was the only one who truly knew exactly where their powers came from and what they were, and it wasn't a topic that was typically discussed in the meetings.

Fred and George eventually apparated in, delighted that Harry and Ellie had arrived. Ginny meandered in as well, and Harry eventually began to look ashamed of his behavior. Serves him right, Ellie thought.

The Weasleys and Hermione proceeded to tell Ellie and Harry all of the information that they had been deprived of all summer. They had just about wrapped it up when Mrs. Weasley's voice floated up the stairs, bellowing for them to come down to dinner. They met the transfers in the landing.

Harry looked even more ashamed of himself. "Look, I'm sor-"

Yugi interrupted him. "It's fine, let's just start fresh. We understand." Ryou and Malik nodded. Harry nodded awkwardly and they all began their descent down the stairs.

"Be quiet in this hallway, now," Ginny whispered to them as they tiptoed past a set of moth-eaten curtains. "You don't want to wake anything up."

No sooner had she finished her sentence than Tonks had tripped over the umbrella stand, evoking blood-curdling screams to be emitted from the curtains, which had flown open to reveal a madly screaming portrait of an unbelieveably ugly woman.

Sirius and Lupin rushed out, and together they forced the curtains shut. Ellie was shocked. Who was . . ?

"Hello, Harry. Hello, Ellie. I see that you two have met my mother." Sirius said.

"Sirius!" Ellie called, launching herself at him. Sirius, being so thin was nearly knocked over, but he somehow managed to stay upright. "Oh! Sorry!" Ellie released him, realizing that she had almost knocked him over.

Sirius laughed his bark-like laugh, and pulled Ellie to him to return her hug. With his other arm, he pulled Harry in.

"You look better," Ellie told him, wiping her eyes as she pulled back. She hadn't seen Sirius since the time that they met him in the cave, and at that point the had looked like death. While he was still very thin, it was a vast improvement.

Sirius laughed again. "It's amazing what Molly's cooking can do."

Finally, finally, everyone's acquainted! I want to just skip the rest of their stay in Grimmauld place and get to Hogwarts, because this story was not meant to be nearly this long. xD But I'm going to do it right, so unless I get any major objections then I'm sticking to my guns.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it! Review review review!