Hullo hullo hullo! I think it's been a month since my last update, which is stretching my last promise to update at least once a month, so I'm sorry for the wait! Life's been kicking my butt lately, so nowadays my free time that I would usually use for writing has been allocated to more important things, like napping. Sorry guys!
I know this story has been moving a little slow as of late, but please bear with me because I'm planning some action in the next few chapters.
Disclaimer: I'm just a HP/YGO superfan that's doing this for shits and giggles and nothing more, meaning that I own absolutely nothing!
Enjoy!
Chapter 33
Marik never trusted Shadi but Lord Voldemort invited him over to talk to them about the Millennium Items and Marik didn't know if he wanted to see him or not. Lord Voldemort said that Shadi would behave himself, at least he had better because Lord Voldemort was not getting any better at using any of the Millennium Items and he needed his help. If Shadi was bad then they would have to kill him and then he wouldn't be able to help Lord Voldemort anymore. Lord Voldemort was getting very mad because he wanted to be able to use the Millennium Items to fight Marik's stupid hikari and his stupid friends but they weren't working for him.
But that made Marik happy because it meant that he was getting to use the Millennium Eye more and more and more. Marik decided that he liked the Millennium Eye a lot because it made him able to see things. He could see that Miss Bella, who was married to some minion that Marik couldn't remember, was instead very much in love with Lord Voldemort. He could see that the other little minion who could turn into a rat was stupid and afraid of Lord Voldemort and Miss Bella and Marik and wanted to run away but he was too scared of what they would do to him. Marik laughed when he thought of what he would do to the little rat minion, but nobody in the dark cold room with Marik looked over because he laughed a lot at things that they didn't know or understand and now they ignored it.
Marik had gotten in a lot of trouble when Lord Voldemort had figured out that the reason that Brother and Sister had been taken away from them was that he showed his stupid hikari that they had them and were hurting them. Lord Voldemort said that he knew he would do it anyway and he said that he wanted a chance to use his new Millennium Item on Professor Dumbledore but he was still mad. Lord Voldemort had used a spell to make him hurt an awful lot, but Marik was very much used to pain so it didn't bother him as much as it bothered Brother and Sister. He wished that he could make his stupid hikari feel some of that pain too but he was getting better and better at blocking their connection.
Marik giggled some more, because he knew that his hikari was sleeping right now. Marik could feel when little Malik's defenses were down and it was easy for him to show him what he was seeing. He could not see what was going on in his hikari's mind, but Marik knew that his hikari was watching everything. And that was okay this time, because Lord Voldemort wanted their enemies to know how powerful they were all going to become. Marik wanted his stupid hikari to see what he was up against again and he wanted him to be afraid.
Marik giggled again.
Nagini the snake was slithering around Marik's ankles. They had become very good friends and told each other their secrets. Nagini the Snake told Marik that she had a very special connection with Lord Voldemort and he couldn't tell anybody about it, and Marik told Nagini that he was secretly afraid of his hikari. Marik had never had a friend before and he was very happy about it.
Nagini whispered to him that Shadi the Sprit was here. Marik stood up and squeezed the Millennium Eye in his hand behind his back because he wasn't sure what Shadi would do to him. Lord Voldemort and Miss Bella stood up too and the door flew open and two new minions that Marik didn't know and the minion with the long white hair pushed Shadi through the door. Marik saw the little black pieces of cloth tied to their wands that were pointed at Shadi and laughed and laughed and laughed when he found out that they had worked.
Shadi fell onto his knees and he looked up at his new masters and he didn't look scared or happy or sad or mad. Marik got mad at this because he wanted Shadi to feel stupid and weak under his power and he used the power of his Millennium Eye to see what Shadi was thinking and Marik remembered that he couldn't just yet and he waited patiently like Lord Voldemort had told him to.
"Don't you have places to be?" Miss Bella asked the two minions who had brought Shadi in that Marik didn't know and they looked afraid of Miss Bella and they said that they were sorry and bowed and they ran through the door but not before Miss Bella shot some spells at them, but the one with the long white hair stayed and kept his wand with the black cloth tied to it aimed at Shadi and used his magic to remove the Ankh from around his neck. Marik laughed at the two scared minions running for their lives. He liked it when Miss Bella hurt people.
"Well isn't this a pleasure," Miss Bella giggled as she looked at Shadi and then she looked up at the minion with the long white hair, "Lucius?" he nodded at her and he took the black cloth off of his wand. Marik smiled happily at Miss Bella and Marik now felt from the Eye that Shadi was thinking that there were three people in this room who were perfect matches to wield Millennium Items. "You weren't so difficult to catch after all, were you Shadi?"
The minion with the long white hair looked happy like he did something very good and was proud of himself. "Spirits such as this one are easily sought and captured when one has the right tools, Bellatrix," He said and was looking meanly down upon Shadi. "Especially when they can't put up a fight."
"Now, now, Lucius," Lord Voldemort said to the minion with the white hair and the Millennium Ankh in his hand. "I'm sure this spirit would have put up a very good fight had he been able to."
"You are Lord Voldemort, I presume?" Shadi asked him but he was looking at Marik who was looking at Shadi and confused. "And Marik Ishtar, even I must say that I did not see this coming, my child."
"I am not a child!" Marik screamed at Shadi, using the power of the Eye in his hand to throw some Shadow Magic at him and he flew backwards and hit a wall. Marik was happy that he was able to hurt Shadi and Shadi could not hurt him back.
"Marik," Lord Voldemort said in his voice that told Marik that he had been bad and that he would be punished later for this. "Shadi is our guest. His abilities are needed."
Marik growled at his master angrily because he knew that Lord Voldemort was right and he needed to be good if only for a few more minutes and he didn't like being wrong.
Shadi stood up and didn't even look angry at Marik or Lord Voldemort or Miss Bella or the minion with the long white hair who had his wand pointed at him again. "The Millennium Eye and Millennium Necklace will not work for you, Lord Voldemort."
"And why is that?" Lord Voldemort asked.
"Because they have already chosen their masters."
Marik knew that Lord Voldemort was getting very angry because he thought that he wasn't going to get a Millennium Item for himself and Marik thought that maybe Lord Voldemort was going to kill somebody to get his way. "Who?"
"The Millennium Eye wishes to be implanted in Marik Ishtar," Marik laughed because he knew that he was always the rightful owner for the Millennium Eye and Lord Voldemort could never take that away from him. "And the Millennium Necklace is yearning to be wielded by Bellatrix."
Lord Voldemort did not say anything and Miss Bella's lip began shaking and she looked like she was going to cry. "Master, please, kill me now," She begged and fell to her knees in front of Lord Voldemort and pulled the Millennium Necklace off of her neck and thrusted it at him. "I'm sorry, My Lord, it was never my place to stand in your way."
Lord Voldemort raised his wand and Marik excitedly bounced up and down because he was about to see Miss Bella die but Shadi interrupted him first.
"Do not kill her yet," He said. "I have a solution that I think you will be very fond of, my dear Lord. You are very much suited to be the wielder of the Millennium Ankh."
Lord Voldemort lowered his wand and Miss Bella collapsed to the ground sobbing and crying and wailing and Marik frowned unhappily because he was excited to see Miss Bella die and now it probably wasn't going to happen.
"My Lord," The minion with the long white hair stepped forwards and bowed while he was holding out the Millennium Ankh and Lord Voldemort took it in his hands and everybody gasped as the room was filled with Shadow Magic as the Millennium Ankh accepted Lord Voldemort as it's master.
"The Ankh is much better suited to you, my Lord," Shadi told him. "Not only will you now be able to see a person's soul, but you will be able to manipulate it to your own liking as well."
Lord Voldemort looked pleased that he had finally gotten his way and then he remembered that Miss Bella was crying on the ground and he told her to get up and she got up and Marik realized that she was only crying because she was so happy oh so happy to be alive and the new wielder of the Millennium Necklace.
"My dear Bellatrix," Shadi looked at her next and was smiling and Marik didn't know why because he had just given away his own Millennium Item and Marik knew that he knew he was going to die as soon as he had outlived his usefulness to Lord Voldemort. "The Millennium Necklace allows you to see through time. You may see visions of the past or future, events that can only be altered through the use of another Millennium Item."
Miss Bella shrieked with joy and she fastened the necklace back around her neck but this time the Shadows didn't react with excitement like they did with Lord Voldemort because the Necklace had already chosen Miss Bella to be it's owner.
"Marik," Shadi then looked at Marik and Marik smiled at Shadi because he knew what he was going to do and Marik couldn't help but be excited. He was finally going to have the eye implanted and then there would be no restricting his powers he would be able to use the Millennium Eye to it's full extent.
"Do it do it do it do it," Marik said and he held out the Millennium Eye so that Shadi could take it and put it in.
Shadi took the eye out of Marik's hand and slowly slowly slowly raised it to his face and slowly slowly slowly pushed it against his right eye and it hurt oh it hurt but it was a good pain and Marik screamed and screamed and screamed as he felt the Millennium Eye finally become his and his alone to manipulate and control.
xxx
Ellie was jerked awake to the sound of a blood-curdling scream coming from the bed next to her, and she grabbed her wand and pointed at the blurry dark area above Malik's bed, sure that somebody was attacking her friend.
But the scream quickly was cut off only to be replaced with the most awful, gut wrenching sobs that Ellie had ever heard and, confused, she lowered her wand and grabbed her glasses.
"Malik?" She asked as her world came into focus and she was able to see that her friend was in no danger. Ellie flipped back her covers and rushed over. It was pretty dark, but Ellie could see that Malik had his face buried in both of his hands and he was sobbing so hard that it was a wonder he was getting enough oxygen.
Ellie felt her heart break into a million pieces at the sight of her friend in so much pain, and guilt wrenched her stomach when she realized that this could have easily been prevented had she only provided him with some dreamless sleep potion. She felt her own eyes well up, but refused to let any tears fall just yet because she wanted to focus on comforting Malik before she selfishly sorted out her own emotions.
"Malik, it's alright," Ellie soothed, kneeling next to him on the bed and wrapping one arm around his back, while the other gently attempted to pull his hands away from his face. Malik instantly collapsed into her embrace, nearly knocking her backwards because she wasn't expecting him fall into her like that. He let one of his arms fall away from his face so that he could pull himself further in, but the other one remained firmly clutched to his right eye. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, and they stayed like that long enough for Malik's sobs to stop wracking his body and subside enough so that he could speak.
"It h-hurts," He finally gasped, pulling back and wiping the tears from his left eye, but he still never moved the hand covering the right. "It hurts so bad."
Ellie was confused by this, she had only assumed that he had another terrible nightmare about the night that Marik was resurrected. What could possibly he hurting him so badly that it warranted such a horrible reaction from Malik?
"What hurts, Malik?" Ellie asked gently, taking his free hand in both of hers and squeezing tightly.
"My - I mean, h-his eye," Malik choked out, a lone sob emerging to break apart his sentence.
"His eye? Whose ey- Oh!" Ellie gasped. "Is it Marik?"
Malik nodded wordlessly.
"Why is his eye hurting?"
A look of intense anger suddenly overcame Malik's features, and he finally took his hand away from his eye revealing nothing to be out of the ordinary. It was just a little bloodshot from the tears he had shed. "Because they caught Shadi," he spit out so fiercely that Ellie felt herself drawing back a little bit. His eyes widened, and he yanked her back in. "He implanted the Millennium Eye into Marik."
Ellie gasped and she felt her face pale and her eyes widen in fear. That would make Marik so much stronger. And Voldemort, too. And if Voldemort had Shadi, then they would surely find out that she had the Scales, making her a target now too…
Ellie's reaction to this news pushed Malik right over the edge again, and tears began pouring down his face a second time. Cursing herself and her fears, Ellie once again pulled Malik into her and allowed him to cry on her shoulder.
Ellie felt her own tears fall from her eyes, and she quickly brushed them away. She didn't want Malik to see her cry again, and she especially didn't want him to know how afraid she was. Ellie wanted to at least seem strong for him when he was hurting so much.
"It's going to be alright, Malik," Ellie murmured to him, rubbing his back. She felt like a traitor, though, because she didn't even believe her own words.
"I'm s-sorry, El," Came Malik's muffled, ashamed voice. "Don't tell."
"Shh, it's okay," Ellie replied. This wasn't an issue that they could hide from Dumbledore and their friends, but she knew that Malik just didn't want everyone to know that he was having a breakdown. "I won't tell anyone." Ellie couldn't help but think that it was strange, though. Malik was rarely the type to display any emotion other than happiness or anger. She supposed that the extraction of his yami had truly damaged the poor boy's sanity further than she had believed. Ellie just hoped that it was temporary. It really was killing her to see him like this and she hoped that it was just a one time thing.
After awhile, Malik had really stopped crying and he pulled back, laying back down. But his eyes were wide open and he stared at the ceiling. Unsure what to do, Ellie stood up.
"Do you want me to get Ryou and Yugi? Or Madame Pomfrey?" She asked, looking around to see where she had left her robe.
"No!" Malik said quickly, grabbing her hand and pulling her back to him so hard that she fell into a sitting position on the bed. "Don't leave me!"
Ellie couldn't help but feel kind of frightened again. She wouldn't leave Malik, couldn't leave Malik while he was like this, but the way that he was acting scared her. She didn't believe that he would hurt her in the slightest, but the intensity of his actions and his emotions were way beyond anything that she had ever experienced. Did he really trust her enough that he was comfortable breaking down so completely in front of her? And did he really value her company enough that he couldn't bear to be away from her in his time of need? That frightened her, but behind all of that, Ellie realized that she kind of liked it.
She smiled down at him, again taking one of his hands in hers and using the other to tuck him in properly and smooth his bangs back. "I won't leave you, Malik. Go to sleep, sweetheart."
xxx
"I'm glad that you guys are finally well enough to leave," Ryou said, shouldering Ellie's bag for her and leading the group out of the hospital wing to head to the Great Hall for supper. His stomach swooped at the smile she shot him for his efforts, and he tried not to blush. The bag was heavy, as it held the Scales, several books and a bunch of clothes that Hermione had brought to her for her stay in the hospital wing, but Ryou certainly didn't mind. Ellie was looking and acting a lot more like her normal self these days, but he still didn't want her to strain herself more than necessary.
It was the day after Shadi's capture. Malik had told them all about it the next morning, and the news was extremely troublesome because Shadi would surely tell Voldemort and his Death Eaters all about Ellie taking on the Scales, and surely she would become a new target for them. Ellie had been quiet when Malik had told them what he had seen in the middle of the night, and Ryou didn't like to see her so troubled. He was glad she was back to herself today, but he was definitely planning on keeping an eye out for her.
"You don't even know the half of it," Malik replied happily. The cut on his face was healed over now, but it was still red and painful looking. Dumbledore had chalked his wound and his stay in the hospital wing up to an accident in a remedial transfiguration session that McGonagall was only too happy to back up. Malik apparently had forgotten about his fight with Mclaggen and the fact that most of Hogwarts were terrified of him, but Ryou remembered. He frowned, but didn't mention it. Perhaps Malik shouldn't have been so excited to return to class the next day, or even to be going to dinner that night with the rest of the student body.
"Angelina has been asking about you, Ellie," Ron said. "She reckons that since you're out, you can go to practice tonight. Are you feeling up to it?"
"Yep!" Ellie said happily, and Ryou frowned again at the suggestion of her being up in the air that night, but an annoyed nudge from Bakura made him keep his mouth shut. "We have that match against Slytherin next week and I've already missed so much. I don't think I can afford another night off."
"Are you sure you're alright to play?" Hermione asked worriedly, and Ryou silently thanked her. "I've seen how Angeline runs those practices, they can be pretty demanding."
"Absolutely," She smiled dazzlingly at Hermione, who sighed and shook her head. Hermione was smart, she knew it was pointless to argue. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."
"How long will the practice be?" Yugi asked.
"A few hours, not too long," Harry answered. "Slytherin has the pitch booked after us, so we will be finished pretty early. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, we were just wondering," Yugi smiled mischievously, and Ryou hoped that he wouldn't give away what they had planned for that night.
"So, Harry?" Malik asked, trying to change the subject, but his voice sounded a little too innocent.
"Er, yeah?" Harry asked, obviously hearing the same tone as Ryou.
"When do you plan on having the next DA meeting?" He avoided everyone's eyes.
Harry cocked an eyebrow. "We've had two while you guys were in the hospital wing. But the next one is tomorrow night."
"Malik …" Yugi warned.
Ignoring him, Malik continued. "Can you partner me with Mclag- I mean, Cormac again?"
Harry stopped dead in his tracks and let out a disbelieving laugh. "You're not serious?"
"I am!" Malik said defensively. "I want to make things right with him. Everyone hates me."
"Nobody hates you, Malik!" Ellie argued.
"No, but they're all afraid of me." Malik muttered.
"Oh, please," Hermione said kindly. "People in this school believe anything. Look at Harry! They'll change their minds any day now, just you wait."
"And in the meantime," Malik interjected. "I want to make things better!"
"Do you really think that that's a good idea?" Ron asked. "I mean, in second year Harry tried to patch things up with Finch-Fletchley but before he could even-" He shut up when Hermione shot him a look, Ryou wondered what he was about to say but he figured Hermione had shut him up for a reason.
"I think it's a good idea!" Yugi spoke up. "You never know, you guys could become great friends."
Ryou highly doubted that, but he nodded along anyways. They entered the Great Hall, which was only about a quarter full due to the early hour. Nevertheless, though, most of it's occupants turned to stare at Malik. His reputation had not disappeared in his absence, and Ryou wondered if the students all bought the story about his transfiguration accident.
Ryou could practically hear the whispers coming from the students. He didn't want to know the crazy stories that they were all cooking up. He saw Malik pale out of the corner of his eye, the whiteness of his skin only making the scar on his right cheek more prominent.
Idiots, Bakura spat angrily in Ryou's head. If they don't shut up I swear I will send them all to the Shadow Realm.
I didn't realize you cared about Malik so much, Koe, Ryou said. He was not teasing him, either. Ryou realized that Bakura saw a lot of himself in Malik and truly did care for their friend more than he would ever admit. He never answered.
"Ignore them," Hermione said to Malik with her head held high.
Malik didn't answer, the paleness was quickly draining from his face and he was beginning to look angry. Ryou still had the Rod, but Malik was still very dangerous without it …
"Will you all shut up?" Ellie snapped loudly, effectively turning all the attention to her. "Don't you have something better to do?" Luckily, everyone was shamed into silence and nobody challenged her. Everyone resumed their meals, but it was fairly obvious that they were watching the group out of the corner of their eyes. Ellie sighed, completely unfazed. Ryou stared in disbelief. What had happened to the sweet, shy Ellie? "Don't let them get to you, Malik." Ellie said, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the Gryffindor table. Ryou furrowed a brow. When had she gotten so protective over Malik? Did something happen in the hospital wing? Ryou felt the first signs of dread build up in his throat, but remained silent.
"What was that?" Ron asked as they sat down. Unlike Ryou, he had a huge grin on his face and happily dumped a heaping mound of potatoes onto Ellie's plate for her.
Ellie shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know," She said, passing some food to Malik. Ryou felt his frown deepen.
"I don't know what that was either, but I liked it!" Malik laughed, back to his earlier cheery self. He raised his hand in an invitation for Ellie to high five him, and she happily slapped it with her own hand.
The group ate their meal quickly and without further event, and the Great Hall filled up with more and more students looking to eat their dinner. Ryou couldn't help but notice that Ellie was eating a lot more than usual. She had finished the huge mound of potatoes that Ron had given her and was knocking back several pieces of mincemeat pie, as well.
"Hungry?" Ryou asked when she asked him to pass her the butter for her second roll.
To his surprise, Ellie's happiness disappeared as she scowled and looked down at herself, as though she were unhappy with her appearance. "Yes, I've always been hungry since, well, you know."
Ryou nodded and handed the butter dish over. Usually the Shadows caused a loss of appetite, but he supposed that it was different for everyone. But still, Ryou didn't want Ellie to be self conscious and stop eating or anything, so he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Don't worry, El, you look as pretty as you always do." He couldn't help but flush, but Ryou knew nobody except Ellie heard him over Yugi's particularly animated tale of a tough game of Duel Monsters with Kaiba.
Ryou smiled when Ellie's cheeks turned pink too, but then she frowned at him. "You think I'm pretty?" She asked quizzically.
Mortified at being asked to repeat himself, Ryou could only manage an embarrassed nod. He was slightly disappointed at her reaction, but nonetheless stood by his word.
Ellie's frown turned quickly into an adorable half smile, that left Ryou slightly breathless. He made himself smile back, worried that it looked dopey on him because he was too busy staring. "You're sweet, Ryou." Ellie told him, leaning over and gently touching his arm.
Ryou had to take a moment to collect himself, and even still all he could stutter out was a mumbled thank you.
You're pathetic, you know that? Bakura asked. Ryou tried not to let the scowl show on his face, lest Ellie see it.
xxx
That night's Quidditch practice was terrible. Ellie especially. She was still exhausted. She tried not to let it show, but it was fairly obvious when she was fumbling the simplest of passes and missing the goal posts by meters. She had almost burst into tears several times when Angelina was yelling at her, and finally Katie had taken pity on her and asked Angelina to end the practice a half hour early.
Ellie knew that she was sulking, but she didn't care. She had purposely taken forever in the changing room so that she wouldn't have to walk back with the team, but of course Harry and Ron had waited for her anyways. It was pointless, because she wasn't much for conversation at the moment. She was trailing along ten feet behind them, brooding over both her terrible Quidditch playing and what Ryou had said to her.
She couldn't get it off of her mind. Ryou had practically come out of nowhere and called her pretty, which was flattering but disappointing. Ellie knew that Ryou liked her. She was hoping for a more passionate word. Perhaps he could have called her beautiful? Gorgeous? Dare she hoped for him to tell her that she was sexy? Ellie groaned to herself. Luckily she was too far behind Harry and Ron for them to hear.
Ellie had begun to hate her Quidditch Robes, and she had taken to wearing them as little as possible. They made her look even less feminine than her school uniform, so she had left them in the changing room. Ellie was only wearing a pair of loose trousers, her trainers and a long sleeve shirt, which was unfortunate because she was freezing on the cold walk back. Oh well, they'd be back to the castle soon, she thought. Until then, Ellie looked down in order to scrutinize herself. Pretty? Was that all? Pretty was the kind of word you would use to describe a little girl when her mom bought her a new dress and put her hair in pigtails. She felt herself scowl again. What had Ryou expected? That she would bust into giggles and thank him like some stupid, ditzy girl? Her scowl deepened. She didn't want Ryou to know how much that statement had bothered her, though. She didn't want him to think her ungrateful, so Ellie couldn't help but shoot him a smile that effectively shut him up. It was amazing how she could elicit any reaction she wanted from him, though, Ellie kind of wished she had realized her power over him earlier.
Ellie was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle until she was practically on top of Harry and Ron, who had stopped to confront them. They must have been headed down to the Slytherin Quidditch practice. Ellie groaned, and instantly pulled her wand out of her pocket. Luckily, she had left the Scales with the transfers. Ellie didn't want a repeat of what had happened in the hospital wing.
"Bloody hell, Milton, your game is worse than Weasley's, what's gotten into you?" Malfoy asked.
"Piss off, Malfoy," Ron snapped. He sounded less angry and more defeated than anything. Ellie couldn't blame him, she felt the exact same way. He hadn't done the best that night, either.
"No, I'm serious," Malfoy insisted, smirking down at them. Amazing how confident he was without the transfers around, Ellie thought dryly. They had hardly been bothered by these three ever since the incident on the train. "I was watching your practice from the castle. Between you two, the Gryffindor team might as well forfeit the match right now. Save yourself a hell of a lot of humiliation."
Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly.
Ellie was feeling so bad that she couldn't even think of anything to say to defend herself.
"Well I reckon we'll just have to wait and see then, won't we?" Harry valiantly stepped up in both of their defense. He knew that both of his friends were too defeated to deal with Malfoy right now. "Daddy can buy you as much practice time as you like but even your scumbag family can't buy talent."
Instead of wiping the smirk off of Malfoy's face like Ellie had hoped, Harry's comment only made it wider.
"Speaking of my father, Potter, he's heard a few interesting theories about why Milton's really been in the hospital wing all this time, would you care to hear?"
Ellie felt herself go pale, and all of a sudden the sound of the blood pumping in her ears drowned out whatever angry retort Harry had shot back at Malfoy.
He knew.
Malfoy knew about her.
If Malfoy knew that she had the Scales, then surely he had heard it from his father, which meant …
Voldemort would want to come after her.
"Ellie? Come on!" Harry's voice broke through to her, and next thing she knew she was being pulled up the hill. She heard the sounds of the three Slytherins howling with laughter, and she wanted to be sick.
"Don't give that prick the satisfaction," He ordered her. Ellie forced herself to nod at his words of advice. She wouldn't let herself show those jerks how much they had just scared her.
Ellie's hands were still shaking by the time they reached the Gryffindor common room, and she barely noticed when one of the boys, she wasn't even sure which, boosted her up into the portrait hole. Ellie wished that she could go straight upstairs to bed, but she knew that she had to face the transfers and Hermione eventually. Might as well get it over with. Ellie was afraid of what they would say. She waited for Harry and Ron to come through behind her, and together they made their way over to their friends. It looked like they were buried in homework, and didn't look up until they had all taken their seats.
"Hey guys!" Yugi chirped, looking up from his book. "How was- hey, what's wrong?"
Ellie, who was looking at the ground, felt rather than saw everybody's heads snap up at Yugi's question.
"Malfoy, being a prick as usual," Harry said angrily. "You know, we should really do something about him."
Hermione sighed, and sat up straighter. "What did he say to you this time, Harry?"
"Actually, he wasn't even after me tonight. He was after Ron and Ellie."
Ellie felt everyone's attention shift to her, and she squeezed her hands between her legs so hopefully their violent shaking would go undetected.
"What did he say?" Ryou demanded.
Ellie looked up into his worried face, and instantly felt terrible for all the mean things that she was thinking about him in her anger earlier. She quickly shifted her gaze over to Malik so she could focus on the matter at hand, and he smiled encouragingly at her. Ellie had a flashback to his breakdown in the hospital wing, and she instantly felt better that he was on her side. "He knows about me," She said. "That I have the Scales."
Hermione gasped. "He said that?"
Ellie shrugged. "Well, he didn't come out and say it."
"Then are you su-"
"Yes. I'm sure. Malfoy knows, Hermione! And so does his father, which means-"
"It's alright, Ellie," Yugi said quickly. "We're going to teach you how to defend yourself."
"And if that fails, we'll protect you," Ryou said. "You don't have to worry." He gave her a reassuring smile, while Malik and Yugi both nodded fervently in agreement.
Ellie was touched by their support. "Thank you," She said. She firmly told herself not to cry. It had been an emotional day, and she couldn't handle these ups and downs for much longer.
"We got you something, too," Yugi continued happily. He bounced up and grabbed the seat next to Ellie, placing a heavy bag in her lap.
"You did?" Ellie asked. She couldn't help but allow the smile to creep onto her face, the excitement in Yugi's eyes almost made her forget her worries. Almost.
"Well, open it!" Malik told her. He scooched closer, as did Ryou. They seemed to be more excited about the bag's contents than Ellie ever could be.
Ellie looked down at the bag in her lap, pulling apart the drawstrings. The bag opened to reveal hundreds of Duel Monsters cards. She couldn't help but gasp as she reached in and pulled out a Monster Reborn card. "Wow," Ellie said. "That's a lot of cards."
Yugi laughed. "Grampa sent them. He said you can choose a deck and then we'll send the unused cards back for the Order to make their own."
Ellie couldn't help but be intimidated. She didn't even know where to start: she knew the rules of the game but she had no concept of strategy or tactics. And Ellie had the three best players in the world staring at her expectantly, waiting for her to start constructing a fantastic deck. She knew that with Voldemort and his followers having access to Shadow Magic meant that there would probably be some dueling in her future though, so Ellie had to figure this out, and fast.
"Wow," Ellie repeated, trying to hide how overwhelmed she was. She wished that Yugi hadn't done this, the duel monster cards only made the situation more real. Once again, she felt the beginnings of tears prickling her eyes. Luckily, nobody noticed. "Thanks, Yugi. I really appreciate it."
She hoped that they wouldn't notice how freaked out she was when she started sorting through the cards and pretending to come up with a strategic deck.
xxx
Boy, that was another hard chapter to crank out! I hope you all liked it because I worked my ass off to get it out here. It's quite a bit shorter than what I have been writing, but quality always wins out over quantity, right?
Thanks very much for reading and reviewing up to this point, and I'll see you all in my next update!