Gotc: Hiii...

Ace: You don't get to talk to them anymore. Leaving people hanging for so long. Shame on you.

Gotc: Since when do you care?!

Ace: Since it makes your life more difficult.

Gotc: Someone please inform me why I put up with him. Anyway, yes I am back...ish. College just sucks and I think because the university is being forced to pay for it, it gives them free reign to make my life miserable. Besides that, my lappy died which has made the typing portion of updating difficult. But here it is and I hope you all enjoy! Squeaky!

Squeaky: Squeak! (No owning here people! But perhaps you could take it up with James Cameron, he might have some tips on stealing for you.)

Ace: OHOHO BURN!

Gotc: That wasn't nice Squeaky... *Snickers* Enjoy...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Rising Dragon

CHAPTER 25: The Game of Life

For in a long time, euphoria rather than the prevailing sense of awkwardness and unease was at an all time high. Kaiba had a working duel disk. That one, beautiful thought was enough to make even Bakura want to kick up his feet in jubilation. After having their very identities challenged and hidden away to avoid suspicion in this bizarre new culture, even just hearing the sound of the dueling machine come back to life was enough to breathe new life into them as well.

For a moment, Yugi felt guilty for rousing his darker half from what he knew was some much needed rest. But after hearing the news and seeing the look of pure joy on his weary yami's face, he decided it would have been far crueler to have kept such tidings from him. He even heard Bakura stir Ryou from his slumber, and the joyous exclamation to follow. And the look on Malik's face could hardly be described as anything less than ecstatic. Even Kaiba, the normally stoic and emotionally detached CEO had what Yugi could only guess was a smile on his face, as he muttered something about putting off another project to get a second disk working.

Hermione was close to condemning all of them, swearing the ingenious creation of magic and science before here was nothing less than blasphemy of the wizarding world. She refused to believe that a student, let alone someone with no prior training in the wizarding arts and who'd been nothing more than a muggle little more than a month ago could have possibly overcome one of the most ancient safeguards that kept the school safe from prying eyes. That fact alone was enough for her to sweep the contraption into her arms and march it straight to the headmaster's office.

"Hermione!" Malik nearly screeched, coming out of his chair and earning him a few odd looks from across the library, "What are you doing! Put it down before you break it!"

"I made it, you desert rat!" Kaiba hissed at Malik's comment, "And nothing with my name on it would ever be so fragile or poorly constructed! There's a dozen different spells on that thing, each one reinforcing the other. I'd like to see even their magical CIA or whatever they call it to try and take it apart."

"Seeing as how you haven't tested it, and that may very well be what they'll want to do with it," Ryou reasoned, taking over his body once more before Bakura sent an unwitting Hermione on a long trip to the Shadow Realm, "Don't you think it may be a good idea to stop her?"

Yugi was already well ahead of them, sprinting out ahead of Hermione to stop her before she could get within view of any other students or teachers. He understood where she was coming from, but telling her that she was wrong for being so mistrustful of the new technology wasn't going to help the situation at all. He had to make her understand.

"Hermione please," Yugi pleaded, "Will you just hear us out before you go to the Headmaster?"

Hermione stopped briefly in her stride to face Yugi a bit more directly, and shuffled the disk in her arms to a more comfortable position.

"Look," He started, not really waiting to hear her answer, "This whole wizarding thing is new to us. Every single day we find out there's yet another weird contraption you use on a daily basis for some routine task. You've asked us to adapt to a whole new world without complaint, so why is it so hard when we ask you to let us have one small piece of our world?"

"Because this," She said, hefting the duel disk for clarification, "Isn't just some small piece. If something like this ever got into the wrong hands or into some other muggle device, our whole world could be undone by just one small piece of your world!"

"I promise you're reading too much into it," Yugi said with a hint of a chuckle in his voice, "It's like Ryou said, it's Kaiba. I doubt there are very many wizarding CEO's of multi-million dollar high tech gaming corporations out there, much less ones half as stubborn as he is."

"This thing is still-"

"Not dangerous. It's little more than a toy," Yugi insisted, ignoring the twitch that came from Kaiba's direction, "You should come watch us, let us show you what it can do, and then you can make your decision about taking it to the Headmaster. Think of it as a learning experience. After all, how often do you get to look at working muggle technology here anyway?"

The determined look on her face softened ever so slightly as she looked at the shorter duelist, and a relenting sigh escaped her lips. She gave one more look at the duel disk in her arms, though this time without quite as much distaste for the device in her eyes as there had been, then handed it over to Yugi. There was an audible sigh of relief from both Malik and Ryou, as well from their respective yamis. He couldn't blame them. Dueling was their pastime, the one thing they would always know by heart, no matter how the game changed. So it wasn't a big surprise when they were ready to strangle Hermione for taking back the one thing that struck at the center of their being.

"I certainly hope for your sake," Hermione poked Yugi in the chest, but with none of the authority behind it, "that thing isn't dangerous. You're already in deep with Umbridge; I'd hate to see any of you end up worse off because of this…."

Yugi tried to keep his face serious, but the he could feel the smile still well up on his face no matter how many times he tried to force it back down. He looked down at the disk in his hands, fingers welcoming the familiar feel of the metal. A pulse came from his deck in response, but ebbed away as Malik and Ryou took the device away from him and back to the table. He made a silent promise to the waiting cards that they'd get their turn soon enough, and went to gather around while the others decided on who'd get the first duel.

Yugi hardly remembered detention with Umbridge. He'd drawn the lot to duel first with Kaiba, and with the promise of an exciting duel after such a long time had returned Yami back to his normal self. The flashes were forcibly removed to the back of their minds, as was Yugi's conversation with Bakura. He was almost certain he had a grin on his face the whole night, given the looks he kept getting from the toad-ish professor.

Not that he could help it. Even if he could have reigned in his own jubilation, there was no possible way to have brought the Pharaoh's into check, especially with he and Bakura once again issuing death threats back and forth to each other over who would win their upcoming matches. In fact, he found himself enjoying it, perhaps not the nature of the arguments, but the fact that the old spark had come back to brighten his other half's dark crimson eyes again was something he would have tolerated a lot more to see.

Harry kept giving them odd glances in between his peeks out the window to the Quiditch pitch and for once Yugi was actually glad Umbridge provided a reason for him to not have to explain. They'd made Hermione swear to secrecy to not say a word about the duel disk until their matches tomorrow. Not just because of the obvious reason of the wizards being suspicious of a student with no prior magical talent getting through a myriad of spells and enchantments during his first week in school to get muggle technology working, but there were still a generous number of fans of duel monsters within the wizarding community and a large audience was not an appealing thought.

Even with such a wonderful thing to look forward to, detention seemed to drag on forever, and Yugi suspected it was an intentional ploy by their jailer. In any case, it was long enough for Bakura's death threats to turn from Yami's life to hers and all involved managed to get an insightful look into the Thief King's "eloquent" vocabulary before the night was over. At last she called Harry over to her desk, which signaled the end of their torture. Yugi and Ryou stopped in their cleaning to put away their supplies, when a sudden wave of magic seemed to lash out at them. Their own defenses reacted immediately, but not quite fast enough to spare them from the malicious intent that the sudden burst seemed to carry. Then, just as quickly as it had come on; it vanished. Yugi and Ryou exchanged a quick glance at each other, after seeing that neither Harry nor Umbridge seemed to be affected, although the air in the room seemed to be far heavier than it had before. The three of them wasted no time in bolting for the door, their strides a bit quicker despite the long hours in an effort to put as much distance between them and that cursed office.

(Anyone know what that was all about?) Ryou asked.

/Must have been some new magic we're not used to yet./ Yami tried to reason, /It wasn't very strong whatever it was./

((Strong enough for the Items to react,)) Bakura pointed out.

/I know, but it wasn't aimed or even well controlled. It more or less ricocheted off of our defenses and vanished. I think it's safe enough to assume it was just residual from another spell or something./

/Makes sense to me./ Yugi shrugged, /Though just to be safe, why don't we, ya know, maybe stay away from her office in the future? So we don't have to find out?/

A mumbled agreement came though the link, weary but certainly with more than enough conviction behind it.

"Jeez….." Harry groaned, stretching out his stiff limbs after sitting in one place for so long, "Think she could have had us in there any longer?"

"Do you really need an answer to that question?" Yugi asked, though in a surprisingly good mood.

((Personally I feel that the Toad may be on to something,)) Bakura pointed out in a less than flattering manner, ((I mean I almost could have traded tonight for another millennia in the Shadow Realm. I wonder if the Keeper would be interested in wagering a night's detention with her as the stakes for a Shadow Game….))

/Are you out of your mind Thief?!/ Yami shot back at him, /We're treading on dangerous ground as it is. I doubt too many people are going to be thrilled at seeing giant monsters that are supposed to be a figment of their imaginations springing to life before their eyes, and you want to make them real with a Shadow Game?/

((Ra….You really have no spine do you Pharaoh?))

/Not when I can use yours to beat you with on an regular basis./

Yugi perked up an eyebrow, when Yami quickly cut their link as Bakura launched into a full-blown tirade. Apparently, the Thief had a deeper vocabulary than he'd first thought. He returned Ryou's exasperated sigh with a grin, just happy to be finally free of Umbridge's grasp. Still… That second back in Umbridge's room, it still hung in the air like an unspoken plague. Yugi knew Yami and Bakura had to have felt it, but for whatever reason they were acting as if it had never happened in the first place. He was just about to say something to his darker half about it, when the Fat Lady portrait swung open in front of them, barraging the three weary teens with a roar excitement and jubilation.

Ron spied them through the crowd of partying Gryffindors and came rushing up to them, slopping a good deal of his drink down the front of his robes in the process. He didn't seemed too bothered by it however, as he greeted them with a beaming smile.

"Harry, I did it, I'm in, I'm Keeper!" He shouted above the noise of the rest of the room.

It wasn't lost on Yugi that the news seemed to take a bit longer than it should have to register with Harry, but Ron didn't seem to notice as he shoved a couple of Butterbeers into their hands and drug them into the heart of the festivities. It was only a second before they were swallowed up and separated from one another, forced to mill about the room as the crowd would allow. Somehow, Yugi had the luck of ending up next to a crowd of giggling third-year girls who all seemed to have an utter fascination with his hair.

It was an entire lifetime before Yugi felt he was able to escape and stagger back towards the beckoning armchairs waiting for him around the fire. He threw himself into one, savoring the feeling of the chair's stuffing absorb the impact on his aching body. It seemed to be marginally quieter near the fireplace, and it at least gave him the luxury of being able to think again. Yugi still couldn't see Ryou, or hear any of the tell-tale signs of Bakura, so he assumed his friend had perhaps found another way out of the rabble and up to bed. His body was longing for a similar prospect, but his mind wasn't quite ready to let him doze off just yet despite how hard it was to put together any coherent thought.

Absentmindedly, Yugi reached for his belt and opened the clasp that kept the cards there secure in their holder. A small smile came to his face as he pulled his deck free, and began to flip through the cards one by one. It seemed like it had been forever since he'd used them last, or even held them for that matter, and it felt like the cards themselves shared the same sentiment. On impulse, he began to take each card and lay them out on them out on the table in front of him, if only just to reacquaint himself with them.

"Mind if I join you? Harry's gone off to bed and Ron's the man of the hour," Hermione's tired voice said next to him, shaking him from his own world, "You have quite a collection."

"Not at all and my Grandpa owns a store back home," Yugi said, before a small pang struck him, "Well… owned anyway."

Yugi's face fell slightly at the unwelcomed memory, and a twinge of homesickness crept into his thoughts for the first time since he'd fled Domino. Not that he really had a home to go back to anymore. He was glad his grandpa was in good hands with the Hawkins's, but that did nothing to lessen the ache that settled in the pit of his stomach. Hermione must have picked up on his mood, and quickly changed the subject before he was able to let the feeling take hold.

"So this game of yours," She said, tilting her head to get a better look at the cards spread out on the table, "How is it played? I mean, the pictures on the cards don't even move. Not that I think I'd want some of them to, but still…"

"You're going to be in for a shock tomorrow then," Yugi chuckled, laying out the last few cards in his hand, "It's simple enough to start. Each player starts out with 4000 life points and take turns summoning monsters to try and whittle their opponent's points down to zero. First one to have their opponent reach zero wins."

Hermione watched him without another question, until he placed the blank faced card that once housed his Celtic Guardian onto the table. Tilting her head to get a better look, she leaned in slightly then reached for the odd card, before recalling Malfoy's treatment at touching one of Kaiba's cards.

"It's alright," Yugi said, sensing her apprehension, "I won't break your arm like Kaiba."

Gingerly, she reached back out and lifted the card off the table, turning it over in her hands a few times. Sure enough, unlike the rest of the cards on the table, there was only a blank white face staring up at her.

"Why is this one blank?" She asked, looking back up at Yugi.

Yugi's gaze fixed on the card in her hand, an unblinking stare that carried past the thin paper. For a moment, she thought she was going to get an answer out of him, before he suddenly turned and gathered the cards lying out on the table and snatched back the one she was holding.

"I'm sorry Hermione," He apologized quickly, gathering up his things, "It's a long story and I'm really tired. Maybe some other time?"

For being as small as he was, Hermione didn't think it was possible for Yugi to move so fast. By the time she'd even had a chance to register what had happened, he was already up and gone without any indication, save for a warm chair, that he'd even been there in the first place. She let out a deep sigh for the second time that night, as she watched him hurry off to the dormitory, but not before glancing down at the blank card and tucking it into a pocket in his jacket.

/That may not have been the best move Aibou./ Yami's vice drifted into his head, as Yugi flopped backwards onto his bed, /She'll be more curious now than ever about what happened-/

/I couldn't talk about it tonight Yami,/ Yugi said shortly, /It's been a long day and tomorrow's gonna be a long day too. I didn't need to bring all that back up. Besides, the less she knows, the safer we'll be./

A shocked look crossed the incorporeal king's face for a moment, as he materialized next to his younger charge. He felt a pang of guilt at not realizing just how much of a toll their situation was taking on his lighter half. He rested a ghostly hand on Yugi's shoulder, and tried to think of something to say.

/Aibou I didn't mean-/

Yami stopped midsentence, as Yugi's body began to quake with silent sobs. Normally bright amethyst eyes looked up at him with a misty bloodshot hue as tears began to gather. But the look on his hikari's face was anything but sorrow, instead, it was a mix of frustration and regret that had a hold of him now.

/I should have been able to stop them,/ Yugi managed to get out, /If I'd had been more careful, maybe we would have seen them coming. Maybe he wouldn't have had to-/

/Yugi, it wasn't your fault what happened-/

/It's not just that. Your dreams, and now Bakura too? We're no closer to any answers than we were when they started, and now they're getting worse. How long do you think it's gonna be before someone realizes we're having a damn seizure in the middle of class and figures out it's because of the Items? I mean, look at how fast Hermione was ready to ship Kaiba's duel disk out and that's not even dangerous! What would happen if they found out what the Items could do? Everything's just happening at once and I don't know what to do!/

Yugi sat up in the bed and let his head fall onto his knees. It wasn't the first time they'd confronted such problems, but never all at once, or in such an unfamiliar place so far away from home. Every secret they had worked for so long to protect now seemed on the verge of being revealed to the world, even before they themselves knew what it was they were protecting.

/It's just a lot to deal with all at the same time, you know?/ Yugi sighed, his voice a little steadier than before, /And just being constantly reminded of what could happen if we make a mistake, while at the same time trying to keep up this illusion that we're just a couple of ordinary kids./

/I understand./ Yami nodded slowly, /And you're right, it is a lot at once. But you're leaving out one big advantage we still do have./

/Oh yeah?/ Yugi perked up a little, /What's that?/

/You don't have to bear all of that alone,/ The Pharaoh said, /And it's something I think we've both forgotten. I've tried to keep my worries from you, and you've been keeping yours from me. And if the truth be told, neither of us are doing a very good job at it./

/No, we're not are we?/ Yugi grinned, through the fatigue, /All this new stuff at once has us kinda off our game huh?/

/Yes. And I think if we want any chance of beating Kaiba tomorrow, we're going to have to be better about that./

/It's all about the game huh?/ Yugi jabbed at his darker half playfully.

/In the end Aibou, that's all life really is. Now go to sleep, it's your worrying now that's giving me the headache./

/Too bad you're still sharing my head,/ Yugi managed to joke back, before sleep finally overcame him.

For the first time in a long time, sleep came easy for Yugi. No nightmares, no feelings of dread and foreboding. Just a blanket of peace that seemed to settle over him for the night, that let him wake up feeling like he'd actually slept for the first time in weeks. He felt like himself again. The sun was just barely starting to creep over the horizon, tinting the bleary grey sky the faintest shade of pink. Ryou's bed was already empty, and Yugi's was soon to follow as he pulled his shirt and belt off of the nightstand next to him. A warm sensation spread across his hand and up his arm as he slipped his deck into its rightful place at his hip. He didn't break his stride grabbing his jacket from the bedpost on his way out the door.

The air outside was still cool and damp from the evening, but Yugi didn't find it hard to stay warm as he sprinted across the dew-kissed grass of the grounds. A thin curtain of fog was still draped across the air, but that didn't keep him from being able to make out four figures milling about on the far side of the school boundaries. With the lake on one side of them and the edge of the forbidden forest on the other, there wasn't any immediate chance of them being spotted. He wondered how Kaiba had managed the time to find such a perfect place for them, but then again, it was Kaiba so it was just one of those things he'd learned to not worry about.

"About time you woke up sleepyhead!" Malik shouted from across the field, "We've been waiting for you."

"Yeah, well..." Yugi shrugged, "It's called sleep. Try it sometime, it's nice."

"You can sleep after I beat you," Kaiba growled, shoving a duel disk into his arms, "Sleeping almost made you forfeit the match."

Yugi smirked as he felt the Puzzle's magic pulse once as the Pharaoh took over his body while he faded to an incorporeal spirit. The switch felt natural now after so many years, and came much smoother it seemed than the very beginning when he would black out for hours at a time while the Pharaoh was in control. The result was a seamless transition that even escaped the perceptive young witch that was anxiously waiting with his friends.

"Can we get this over with before the whole school wakes up and sees this?" Hermione asked, looking around as if someone could have followed them.

"Let 'em watch," Malik grinned, "It'll be the most exciting thing to happen to this place."

"I seriously doubt that," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

"Trust me," Malik chuckled, turning his attention to the two taking the field, "These two are the reason the ancients wrote their myths."

Hermione gave Malik an odd look, but never had the chance to ask him what he meant, before a metallic click drew her attention back to the field.

Yami wasted no time in securing the disk on his arm, relishing in the familiar weight as he shuffled his deck and pressed it into its holster with a practiced hand. Across the field, Kaiba was doing the same, and both lifted their arms in a single synchronized movement and fired the projectors to their respective places. The computerized chime filled the still air and swept the low-lying fog away as the miniature hologram projectors went to work.

A smile curled on Yami's face as he spared a glance at his hikari materializing next to him, before focusing his full attention on his opponent across the playing field.

"Let's duel."

Gotc: Ok, college officially sucks (enter your noun of choice here).

Ace: I'm impressed. I had you down for a year before you'd post again.

Gotc: Oh ha ha. Anyway, to make it up to you all for my disturbing lack of postingness (This is officially a word now) why don't you all head over to the next chappie and we'll continue this there!