Week 3
Hi mate, when I saw Pig was back without your letter I wondered if he had lost it, but then Hedwig came in and glared at the fluff ball like she was considering eating him, I laughed when Pig wasn't a bit cowed and went and bounced into your little lady.
Harry laughed at the idea, stifling it against his pillow. The rest of the letter continued in the same vein, and Harry wished his relatives were half as relaxed as the Weasleys, he couldn't imagine Petunia getting in the middle of a water fight and then throwing her own water balloons like Mrs Weasley had. But it was still fun to imagine Fred and George soaked to the bone, even if he didn't believe that it had happened like that. The twins barely ever got pranked themselves.
Again he had received lots of letters, five this time, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mokuba and then a sort of muti-letter from Joey, Yugi and Yami that had been written by their friend Tea, for the most part, but had comments from all three of them interspaced between Tea's paragraphs. Then he looked at the letter carefully and realised many others had added comments. The main group of them, Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tea and Tristan had all signed down the end, but other signatures were added in the text of the letter. Rebecca, the young Ravenclaw who often clung to Yugi, Duke, Art, and Max.
He was starting to think that Yugi attracted friends and enemies in equal proportions. Or would that be Yami?
Maybe Yami attracted the enemy while Yugi worked his magic on making the enemy into a friend.
"So where are you taking us?" Tea asked, looking curiously out the windows of the car.
"Someplace safe." Was Croquet's answer.
"No." Yami resolutely stated. Tea had been expecting that response, but for a moment she had dared hope that for once they would leave the monsters to those trained to deal with them. "If they're after me then I have to stop them."
She closed her eyes and waited, knowing how her friends would respond to that, how she would respond.
"Yami…" Yugi began, "You're not doing this alone."
"It's not safe; you know what Dementors can do."
Dementors, soul suckers, bringers of dark memories and darker emotions. Her eyes flickered open and she clasped her new necklace in her hand. Her friends…
"No, I'm with Yuge on this one, you're not going alone. Do you even have any idea where to go? Or what you're going to do?" Joey said.
Yami slumped, before his crimson eyes met Tea's, Tristan's, Duke's and then holding Rebecca's. "Rebecca, I want you to stay with Tea, Tristan and Duke. They won't be able to see the Dementors."
"Oh no Pharaoh, I'm coming with you." Tea demanded, crossing her arms, "You're not leaving me behind." Don't you know that by now? We will never let you face the darkness alone.
Yami sighed, "Tristan?"
"You know me, I'm coming too. You won't get rid of us that easy."
"Duke, please, stay with Rebecca."
"You're not seriously considering going after these Dementors by yourselves?"
"What choice do we have? They'll come after us soon enough. Watch Rebecca for us?"
"But Yugi!" Rebecca implored, "I'm not a kid. I can take care of myself."
"You are just a kid Becs," Yugi said, "A bright kid, but still just a kid; we promised your grandfather we wouldn't put you in danger. Please do this."
"Wouldn't it be better for all of us to stick together?" Duke suggested.
"No, the Dementors won't know enough to target you and Rebecca, unless they see you with us."
"But what do you intend to do?"
"If nothing else I can send them to the Shadow Realm." Yami stated, not meeting any of their eyes.
"No, never Yami, you promised. Don't you remember what happened last time? It almost killed you last time, and that was just a few of them."
"It is, as you say, your decision, but perhaps you would consider checking out Mr Pegasus's library, he has many texts on the Dark Arts and defence against them. There will be information concerning Dementors there." Croquet offered.
Tea could see Yami hesitate, and Yugi nudge him, but then he nodded, "We will look."
Ombre wandered aimlessly. She had decided to bus hop today, Kari had used to think it was fun. It had been at first, but not today, not alone. So she had left the buses behind and wandered in a part of Domino she didn't recognise getting increasingly lost.
She finally sat down on the grass of a small park and watched the sun set. She was most defiantly lost, had no charge left on her mobile, not that like liked using the noisy thing, and she hadn't seen a phone box or even a shop for ages, far enough away that she would get lost again trying to find them.
Then the air took on a much nastier chill.
'Hello Ombre.' The voice was cold and lifeless, and as she spun round trying to locate the source she realised whatever it was had spoken in her mind.
"Who's there?" She called out.
'A friend of the shadows.' It whispered, and Ombre started to retreat backwards.
Kari! Her mind shouted, but it bounced off. Either she was too far away or…
'Now that isn't very nice, is it? I only wanted to talk.'
The chill came closer, and Ombre felt the dregs of her happiness drain out of her. Then she hit something… cloth, old and torn. She spun around, and a chill hand clasped her arm. She looked down at the too pale, almost rotting flesh, and began to panic.
Then she looked up, and saw the face. Eyes scabbed over and instead of a mouth there was a dark hole, and she remembered Harry's description of its breathing, the death rattle.
Dementor!
She tried to pull away, but her limbs felt like limp noodles, and where it grasped her arm was painfully cold.
"Please…" Her voice coming out hoarse and sounding unnaturally loud in the silence that surrounded them.
It's second hand rose to touch her face, and she drew away from its caress. The hand travelled further up and clutched at her hair.
Ombre whimpered.
The library had been large, and when they first saw it Yami had wondered how they would ever find anything useful. Croquet had led them into a half hidden room, a half sized version of the main library, and he explained that Pegasus had not thought it wise to leave the magical texts on display, and that the texts on dark arts were again hidden, so all they had to deal with was a few bookshelves fill of books.
Only a few bookshelves. A good few hundred books. Pegasus had after all searched for years on ways to bring back his wife Celia.
"What are we looking for?" Tristan asked, and Yami glanced at his friends. They all looked disheartened, but determined.
"Anything on dark creatures and how to defeat them." Yami replied.
"Yeap, ignore anything on necromancy, curses…" Joey trailed off.
"Defending against dark magic might be useful." Rebecca added.
"You lot don't really have any ideas do you?" Duke asked.
"It's just, Dark magic is a broad subject, we don't study it, only the defence against it, and that's been more about which creatures are considered dark, how to recognise them and defend against them. Dementors aren't covered until NEWT level, if then." Yugi explained.
Still, none of the friends approached the bookshelves.
"Harry knows the Patronus charm; he might know other methods against Dementors." Joey said.
"We have no way of contacting him; a letter would take days to get there." Yami said, "No, he's safe in England, we can do this ourselves." Yami approached the bookshelf, and glared at the books. "Most of these don't have titles." He carefully pulled one off the shelf, waiting for the attack he was sure would come.
Joey and Rebecca both sighed with relief when nothing happened. Duke looked at them, "You didn't actually expect that Pegasus would booby-trap his bookshelf?"
Joey shrugged, "The Hogwarts books in the forbidden section are." Joey started pulling books down off the shelf. "So how are we doing this?"
Rebecca sighed, "Haven't you ever done research before? Scan a book, if it might be useful put it in one pile, if it's useless put it in another. The question is; who would recognise if something had possibilities?"
"Yami's the best in Defence." Joey said after a moment, leaving unsaid 'except for Harry and Hermione.' It was strange that even through Harry was a lot younger than them, sometimes he seemed older, and Joey hated facing a threat when his friends were scattered across the world. It hadn't mattered years ago, the four of them, Yugi, Tristan, Tea and Joey had nearly always been together, and they were together again facing this new threat.
But…
It seemed the more friends they had the stronger they became, but the more they relied on their varied friends, the more their absent was felt when they weren't there. Hermione and Kari were their best researchers, but Harry was the best at fitting together seemingly unrelated clues, when it really mattered, Hermione tended to flounder under pressure, and Kari tended to spread herself too thinly.
And none of this thinking and missing people was getting reading done.
Joey glared at the book he had picked up, and stared at the words. He groaned, "Guys, I don't actually recognise the language."
"Give it to me Joey." Rebecca told him, looking up from her book. "Fun." She muttered sarcastically, "It's in old English. Maybe we should sort the books by languages."
Hermione poked at her breakfast. The soggy cereal and congealed into a lumpy mass that didn't look at all appetising.
She sighed again, and decided to put the radio on. It eerily quiet, both her parents had already left and no one else was in the house, not even Crookshanks. At first she had enjoyed the peace and quiet, something that was missing from Hogwarts, but currently it was grating on her nerves.
It didn't help that she was waiting for letters. Harry hadn't replied yet to her most recent letter, nor had Ginny or Ron. Neither Kari nor Ombre had replied at all, and apart from a postcard from Joey she had yet to hear from her friends in America.
The summer was the time to pursue personal projects, she told herself firmly, not to mope around missing friends that you would see in a few weeks anyway.
Four weeks before I see Ron and Ginny, seven weeks before I see the others.
She poked her breakfast again, and considered what she would do today.
A tapping sound came from the window and she almost fell off her chair. Rushing to the window she let in the small brown owl, which held out its leg, a letter attached.
"Thank you." She told him, taking the letter. She turned it over, and found the seal.
Industrial Illusions.
Her heart managed to soar and her stomach plummeted at the same moment. With trembling hands she opened the envelope, and stared in shock at the first line.
Miss Hermione Granger,
We are pleased to inform you that you have successfully secured a place on our internship program…
Several hours later Yami glared at the pile of books and considered which one to pick up next. Most of them had been eliminated; Pegasus had been mostly interested in one thing, getting Celia back.
Most of the books were old, and seemed to be in several different languages. Rebecca had proved surprisingly helpful; she could identify most languages, and read two dozen. Duke, Tea, Tristan, and Joey only knew English and Japanese well, although Duke could speak another couple of languages, and Joey had picked up bits and pieces of French, and Tea could make some sense of Russian.
Yugi and himself were capable of reading English, Japanese, Egyptian, Arabic, Cantonese, German, and Latin, although neither was entirely sure how they had picked up all those languages since Yugi was sure that five years ago all he could read easily had been Japanese.
A headache was brewing. He couldn't have known those languages, not when even a thousand years could change a language drastically, he couldn't imagine the changes five thousand years would bring.
He pulled one off the Egyptian pile, but quickly discarded it as useless, more talk of necromancy.
"Where are Dementors from?" He asked, staring at the pile.
"Azkaban." Rebecca said, deeply in her translating, not realising who had spoken.
"No I mean, where do they originate from? They must come from somewhere. Wouldn't it be better to look at books about that area rather than trying everything?"
"Good idea Yami, except we don't know where they come from, and Dementors have been turning up in most of the books on Dark creatures." Joey said wearily.
Yugi looked up, "No, that isn't true. They turn up in all the modern books, but they weren't in any of the older Egyptian books, or at least I haven't seen them."
"Have you seen any Egyptian books on Dark Creatures?" Tea asked, and Yugi shook his head.
"Most are on the Death Rituals."
Rebecca looked up from her book, "No one knows where they came from. The Dementors were everywhere until the British Ministry offered them Azkaban."
"But why take Azkaban, and then betray the Ministry?"
"Why did they take Azkaban in the first place? I mean muggles can't see them, and we haven't found any defence against them yet, these books haven't even mentioned the Patronus charm."
"And that doesn't even hurts them, it drives them away and stops them feeding."
"So there has to be something that the Dementors are frightened of, some reason why they decided Azkaban was better than…"
"Maybe they are just lazy? I mean why go to the trouble of finding your own food when it will be brought to you?"
"So why leave now?"
"Maybe the ministry was starving them."
"They wanted revenge."
Seto Kaiba woke and wondered where it was. A murmur from a sleeping Mokuba was enough to make the memories from last night rush in.
A terrified Mokuba rushing into his study with a story about a Dementor of all things floating across the grounds. The two of them had searched the house top to bottom and had found nothing, a trembling Mokuba clinging to him all the way.
Not even when they had finished searching had Mokuba been satisfied, insisting that he had seen the Dementor, and refusing to sleep.
Finally Seto had locked their wing, and locked them in Mokuba's room saying firmly that even Dementors couldn't get through locked doors. Mokuba had finally fallen asleep, and Seto had tucked him in, deciding to read on Mokuba's sofa, until he too must had fallen asleep.
"Mokuba…" Seto whispered, shaking his head, "What am I'm doing?" Torn between worry for his brother and the large pile of work waiting for him, his brother won. Signing onto Mokuba's computer he started downloading his emails and work schedule for the week, delegating the unimportant ones, rescheduling the ones he had to attend, and glaring at the one that could not be put off.
Pegasus.
Another day, another dozen books to be read. It was worse than studying with Hermione, at least she was organised and had a good idea of what to look for.
"I need a break." Yami said at last, sliding out of his chair. The others barely looked up; most of them had already taken a break at one point or another that morning. It was frustrating going through books, knowing that the answer had to be somewhere and not having a clue where to look.
He decided to wander through the corridors, Pegasus's place was a maze, not as bad as Hogwarts, but Yami wouldn't have been surprised to discover that some of the stairs had been moving around while no one was looking.
Finally he found himself in a ball room; the balcony doors had swung open, and were now gently banging against the wall. Yami almost closed them, but then decided to check out the balcony. He was above the garden, a hedge maze with familiar looking bushes at strategic points, it wasn't clear from above but Yami was sure they were in the shape of some of Pegasus's favourite monsters.
His eyes searched for movement; at first glance it appeared no one was in the garden.
Only…
There was something.
A dark piece of cloth fluttered in the wind, near the entrance to the maze, near Gemini Elf.
Yami considered it, and considered the maze of a house. He looked down, only one story up; he had fallen from worse before. He swung himself over the balcony, landing in a crouch.
A quick glance internally, no, Yugi hadn't noticed, he was too deeply in research mode.
He picked up the piece of cloth, and grimaced. It looked a lot like the fabric the Dementors wore, but they didn't leave parts of themselves behind, not unless this was a trap.
He spun around, looking beneath the balcony, and only seeing a shadowy enclave. He approached cautiously, and found a door, almost entirely hidden. He opened it, half expecting a trap, but like the rest of the mansion he was happily mistaken. He searched the area, but found no more clues; the entrance to the maze tempted him.
He looked again at Gemini Elf, and something glittered in the sun, hidden by the leaves of the bush. Yami reached in and pulled out a bracelet with a green stone as the centrepiece.
"Yami?" Yugi's sudden noise made Yami jump, and the bracelet slipped into his pocket and out of his mind.
'I'm fine. Just found something.' Yami called back to Yugi, and showing him the strange piece of cloth.
"Dementor?"
'I don't know. Should we search the maze?'
Tears were once again threatening to fall, but Robyn didn't have time for them now. Another argument with her parents, but this one had been different. Her father had drawn his wand and shouted "Obliviate" at her, only she was quicker, her wand casting a shielding charm that stopped the memory modifying spell.
Then she had run, grabbing her backpack still standing by the door, and bolted.
It took her a minute to remember she could Apparate, and another moment to find a safe place she could do it from. Then she picked the first place she could think of, the Quidditch stadium she had left just a few hours ago. The place was dark and locked now, everyone had left either gone back home or to the pubs.
Tears threatened to spill. Where could she go? All her friends… she didn't have any real friends anymore, muggle or magical.
Well… it wasn't that late, maybe she could find a bed and breakfast, or a hotel that was still open.
But not here.
Not London, not any of the smaller places she preferred, not Scotland…
Where else could she go?
She sighed and then smiled. A Motorway rest stop. They would still have rooms, and would still be open, and who would find her? It wasn't like most Wizarding people ever used the Motorways, and she only knew them because she had gone to a muggle school. A quick pop and she was there, and if she had no real idea where the place was it was unlikely anyone else would find her there.
The maze had revealed nothing, the cloth even less.
Croquet confirmed that a Dementor should not have been able to get into the gardens.
Yami was half falling asleep when something caught his eyes. Old magic, very old magic.
Would it work?
He closed his eyes, thinking.
His hand slipped into his pocket, where a green crystal warmed to his touch and began to glow softly.
Alone. He would have to do it alone, it wouldn't work if his friends, if Yugi, was there. They would distract him, make him lose focus, make him lose his nerve.
He could do it, would do it for his friends, but not if they watched, not if they knew.
Kari came in and collapsed on her sofa, dumping her bag on the table.
She was still buzzing. Tired, but too wired to sleep.
Reluctantly she hauled herself out of the way too comfortable sofa and over to her computer. She patted the monitor as she turned it on, and went into the kitchen to find something to eat.
Soon the kettle was on to boil as she checked the fridge. Out came the milk, and some pre-cooked pasta that she nuked. Ombre liked pasta for some reason, and often left some in the fridge for whenever Kari came home. Actually, Ombre tended to cook enough to last a few days, and then divide it up into separate meals. The microwave was the one piece of Technology that Ombre seemed to like.
Then again Ombre seemed to like cooking, and was fairly good at it considering how bad Kari was. Kari had often teased her that the reason Ombre had learned to cook was so that she didn't have to use the phone to order food like Kari had used to, and still did more often than Ombre liked.
Food, hot chocolate, and a computer with internet access, what more would a girl want after a tiring day at work?
Well an email or two from her friends would be nice.
She looked at her email inbox in confusion. It was empty. She hadn't checked it in three days, after falling asleep instantly when she arrived home and too busy at work to consider checking her personal emails.
Okay, so most of her friends couldn't turn on a computer, let alone send an email, but Joey, Yugi and Hermione had all been emailing her practically every other day. Why had they stopped? She hadn't got an email from Yugi or Joey since Yugi won the tournament and Yami beat Yugi.
Hermione… well it wouldn't be the first time her parents had banned her from the computer and library because she was studying too much, not that the rest of the gang knew, Hermione was under the impression that if they did then they would tease her for it, or worse, drag her away from her books more often while they were in school.
No email from Ash, but he was on holiday.
She flicked through her friend list, and then stopped. Robyn…
Robyn Golden, her best friend before coming here, her best friend… only were they still friends?
Robyn had been the one to give her the Orb, as a Christmas present, but Robyn had never explained where it came from or why she thought Kari should have it, only that she thought Kari needed it more than she did.
Then… what had happened?
Robyn had been the strangest but most loyal of her friends before coming to Japan, but then after that Christmas they had started to drift apart. Robyn was never there when Kari went home, her email inbox was overflowing and no longer accepting new emails, letters and messages sent through Ash never arrived, but then Ash had never been reliable.
Somehow she had lost one of her best friends, and she didn't know why, and she hadn't even thought about Robyn until she started to feel lonely without any of her new friends.
What kind of friend was she? To just drop her best friend like that?
Kari turned off the computer, waiting until it had stopped humming.
"Ombre?" She asked, knocking on Ombre's door. No answer. Kari tried the handle, and the door opened.
The room seemed too tidy to Kari, too cold, too lifeless.
Ombre wasn't there.
'Come alone and your friends will not be harmed.'
'Come alone and we will leave your friends alone.'
'Come alone and we won't touch your friends'
'Come alone and your friends will be safe.'
Those four lines had repeated again and again in his head, ever since Yugi had fallen asleep. He stood by the window, leaning his head against the cool glass.
He couldn't ignore it.
As soon as he was sure his friends would not wake, he left.
He was doing it for them, they wouldn't be safe while the Dementors were free, and they wouldn't be safe while the Dementors were set against him.
He walked, knowing that the Dementors would reveal themselves when they wanted to. Hoping his plan would work. Knowing that if it didn't then his life, his soul, was forfeit.
Ginny laughed, Luna had tried to show her the steps of her latest attempt to see the well hidden, but when they had attempted the dance together both girls had ended up falling over each other, although only Ginny had immediately burst into giggles.
Luna smiled shyly. After two years of teasing from her dorm mates it was no longer easy for Luna to laugh, and three weeks of freedom hadn't been enough to erase the new found caution.
Ginny on the other hand had almost completely relaxed her guard around Luna. Luna had been her only friend for years, and while both considered the other a bit mad, there was a freedom in their friendship, a lack of expectation.
Luna had been the first person that had treated her like normal after their first year, the only barrier they had had to get over was that Luna was a Ravenclaw and Ginny a Gyffindor. That had lasted all of three seconds, with Luna pronouncing, "I don't care if you're in love with a pufflefin; you're still Ginerva Weasley, and I like her, even if you don't want to be my friend."
Their second year had been easier. At first the other second year Gyffindors would not speak with her, so she decided to hang about with Luna whenever she could. Then Mokuba, after glaring at the rest of the second year Gyffindors had sat next to her in their first class.
After a week Rebecca had decided to befriend Luna, and hence Ginny and Mokuba. House loyalty went out the window with their group; Rebecca was a firm fan and friend of Yugi's, while Mokuba was dedicated to his brother Seto. Ginny had almost burst out laughing when Rebecca turned up to the Gyffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch game wearing Mokuba's scarf, while Mokuba wore Rebecca's. Luna, ever pragmatic, had brought along two flags, a falcon in red and gold, and a lion in blue and silver.
It had surprised Ginny when her year mates listened to her when she said to lay off Luna. It hadn't surprised her when Mokuba backed her up. It had surprised Ginny when Rebecca asked for their help pranking the Ravenclaw second years. They hadn't learned to leave Luna alone, and the six other girls in Ravenclaw had formed a clique that left both Rebecca and Luna firmly on the outside.
Neither Rebecca nor Luna really cared, but Rebecca had a temper, and when the girls stole Luna's best clothes and artfully displayed them on the Christmas tree, Rebecca wanted revenge.
Charming the girls' underwear to start singing whenever a trigger word was said had been lots of fun, especially when it happened in Potions.
They had never told Luna.
"Mokuba wrote to me yesterday." Luna said dreamily, "I wonder if there are arvenoes in Japan, I would hate for him to be writing because he's unable to stop."
"Hmmm." Ginny nodded slightly, thinking, "He hasn't written to me yet."
"Did Harry?"
Ginny smiled, "Yeap, I can't believe it. It's so much easier to talk to him when he's not right in front of me."
"Harry's a good person."
Ginny nodded, seriously this time.
"Mokuba is too you know"
"I know…" Ginny said; her voice uncharacteristically quiet.
"Decided which one you like best yet?"
Ginny snorted, "Like either of them would be interested in me."
"Mokuba likes you."
"As a friend. Nothing else. He's more interested in Rebecca."
"And Rebecca is crushing on Yugi, so he has no chance until she grows up a bit."
"So I'm second choice?" Ginny snarled.
"He liked you first. He watches you, and he laughs at your jokes. I think he likes you."
"Maybe…"
"So…"
"So?"
"Harry or Mokuba."
Ginny groaned, "I don't know. I mean I like Mokuba, a lot. But Harry saved my life, I mean he's Harry Potter, any girl would dream of going out with her own personal shining knight in armour."
"But he's not…"
"Huh?"
"He's not your own personal knight. He's Harry Potter, saving people is what he does."
"I know."
"So Mokuba or Harry?"
"Luna, if either of them asked me out, I would say yes without a second thought."
"Good."
"Good?"
"Yes, good. We get Hogmead weekends next year, I'll distract Rebecca and then you'll get Mokuba alone for long enough for him to ask."
"He won't."
"He won't in front of Rebecca or his brother. He might if you're alone with him."
"Luna… that is not going to work."
"Trust me, if it doesn't work then I'll ask your brother out to Hogmead. Deal?"
"Which brother?"
"Well…"
"Luna!"
"Fine, I'll ask Ronald."
"Good, the twins wouldn't be nearly embarrassed enough for me to be satisfied."
Yugi woke, feeling cold and fearful. "Yami." He jumped up, still remembering the dream, Yami had been in danger. He had to find him, make sure he was okay.
"Yami?" He shouted down their link when his first mad scramble around the room revealed no Yami. The others began to wake.
'I'm sorry Yugi. I have to do this.' The thought was whispered back, the link strained and nearly silenced.
"Yugi? What's the matter?" Tea, looking only slightly rumpled.
"Yami, Yami's gone, I think he decided to go after the Dementors alone." That was enough to wake up everyone entirely; Joey and Tristan practically fell out their beds and grabbed their shoes, while Tea slid out more gracefully.
"Right, we had better go after him and hit some sense into that empty head of his." Joey growled.
Yugi threw on his boots, glad for once that he had been too tired last night to undress properly. Then he saw something metal shine against his backpack.
Yami had left the puzzle behind.
Yugi picked it up, his three friends saw it and their frantic rushing stilled.
"Bloody hell."
Seto was busy.
Mokuba knew with pin point accuracy the fine line between his brother being truly busy, and his brother trying to be busy, and his brother being buried under the amount of work left to do.
This dictated Mokuba's behaviour, not that he would ever admit it, nor receive thanks for it.
If, like in the first week they had been back in Japan, his brother was buried in work, Mokuba would hack into Seto's computer and steal some of the work, returning it a day later all done, Seto never commented on it, so Mokuba assumed that Seto's memory went haywire when he was overwhelmed. It did in other matters, Seto forgot to eat and sleep, but the most telling was Seto would forget to make sure Mokuba ate and slept.
If Seto was just pretending to be busy, which happened more often than not, like any good leader his brother knew how to keep the loyalty of good workers, and get rid of the bad. The turnover rate at Kaiba Corp may have been terrible the first few years when Seto took over, but now, after seven years, Kaiba Corp had some of the most loyal employees in Japan. The turn over rate was still pretty bad, 30 percent in the last year, unless you ignored the figures and looked at who they were losing. They took in a lot of the students, and lost about half of them when they graduated from college or university, but they were in the unskilled positions.
The techs barely ever left. They hadn't lost a designer in three years, and the woman who they had, left on maternity leave and still submitted stuff to Kaiba Corp occasionally. The managers they currently had… well they didn't have enough managers really, in theory many managers were in charge of multiple departments, but in practise if a department didn't have a manager Seto or Mokuba was in charge, with the official manager dealing with the day to day items.
It really did say something about Seto Kaiba. What, Mokuba wasn't too sure on, but it worked, most of the time, and Seto was gradually filling up the open positions with people he trusted, often employees that had worked their way up the ranks.
But right this moment, Seto was busy, as in he would notice if Mokuba stole some of his work, and would be annoyed if Mokuba tried to distract him.
Mokuba was bored.
He was happy, after all the Dementor he had seen last night wasn't likely to follow them onto a plane, and he was happy that he was happy, because it proved, to his mind at least, that there wasn't a Dementor on the plane.
Well… there was one thing he could do if he was bored, and had been doing for the past few weeks. It still amazed him that three cute girls wanted to be friends with him. Three cute, intelligent and interesting girls. Well maybe amazed was the wrong word. He had an easy confidence in himself that was completely alien to most thirteen year olds. He could have picked to be friends with anyone in his year, only to find most of them to be immature.
Then Ginny had come in, her head held high, her brown eyes nearly on fire, and sat down in their first lesson of the year, completely ignoring the mean looks and nasty comments of the rest of the class.
The little voices in Mokuba's mind that sounded a lot like Yugi and Seto had began to argue at that point. Yugi said, 'she looks like she needs a friend,' and Seto said, 'She's the competition, challenge her.'
Mokuba's own voice, or what he considered more himself than the other voices said; 'Now that's someone worth knowing.'
He wasn't too sure what he was going to do when he decided to sit next to her, "Mokuba Kaiba." He said as he sat down, holding his hand out. She shook it and smiled, the fire in her eyes becoming guarded.
"Ginny Weasley." She replied.
"I don't think we said more than two words to each other last year."
"Well now you've said sixteen words in one day, you're getting better at this whole conversation thing." She replied impishly.
"Well you know, the whole talking to girl thing is so uncool. My last school didn't even think boys should see girls until we were properly married." He said, trying for his best serious voice, and winking at the end.
She laughed, and Mokuba grinned. He liked that laugh; he wanted to hear it again. She had seemed rather too sombre last year; he didn't think he had heard her laugh once.
"Shock! Horror! How did you ever bare it?"
"By sneaking into the girl's school, how else?"
She giggled, her eyes finally seeming to relax around him.
Then Professor Lupin entered the room, and the lesson began. But he had made his choice, his decision. Ginny Weasley was the one person in Gyffindor he wanted as a real friend, the others could go entertain themselves.
Through her he met the strange girl known as Loony Lovegood by most of their year mates, Mokuba called her Lois, to Ginny's confusion and Rebecca's laughter. Luna didn't seem to mind, and so Mokuba kept it. Luna was fun, the kind of random puzzle that while completely beyond him was fun to try and work out.
Rebecca on the other hand was hard work. Even through she had spent most of her first year out of action, Rebecca was one of smartest people in their year and it hadn't taken her long to not only catch up, but to start competing with him for the top grades.
It had shocked him to realise that all three of his girls were smarter than him, some time in January; all three of them had out done him on the transfiguration test. At that point he had looked at their grades.
Ginny's grades had been steadily improving, from about the middle range last year, to being one of the best students.
Rebecca's grades last year had been the best in their year, before the Slytherin monster, but then her grades had plummeted after waking up. It had taken four months of hard work, but she had once again achieved her top spot.
Luna's grades were all over the place, she had been doing well, but not excellent, on any test set, but her homework was either the best of their year or terrible. He then realised that someone was wreaking Lois's homework before she had a chance to hand it in.
He wasn't a sore loser. He wasn't. The fact that since then it had been a toss up between Mokuba and Rebecca over who was getting the higher marks through the rest of the year, and that Mokuba was suddenly working a lot harder than before was Seto's fault, not his. After all he wanted his brother to be proud of him, and there was no way he was going to let Rebecca win at anything…
But then since he and Rebecca were in the library more, so was Ginny and Luna… and Luna had been managing to keep level with them all when she was only half trying, and Ginny was just as competitive as Rebecca and him…
No one else in their year had managed to break into the lock they had on the top four spots, and their subjects had ended up being equally divided between them, Ginny winning DADA, Rebecca winning Potions, Luna winning Charms, and Mokuba winning Transfiguration.
"Mokuba, we're here." Seto's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Okay big brother." Mokuba replied, putting down his barely written letter to Ginny.
Of all the stupid, idiotic, dim-witted things Yami could have done. Tea ranted in her head as she ran, not having the breath to say them out loud. At least her dancing meant that she was in great shape, and was no longer struggling to keep up with the boys, but the ice cold air and the brewing storm meant that it was getting more difficult to breath.
The rain looked like it was about to break any moment now, and Tea was not looking forward to it.
When they caught up to Yami she was going to tear into the fool like there was no tomorrow. She grinned fiercely at the thought, knowing it was more likely she would end up ranting and crying on him at the same time if they found him safe.
No, when they found him, because the Pharaoh couldn't get into danger without his friends standing beside him, she wouldn't let him.
Yami…
Then a dark mass of movement appeared on the horizon, circling around something at their centre.
Dementors? She didn't know, couldn't see, they were too far away.
Tea pulled upon her flagging resources and put on another bout of speed.
Harry wasn't used to having money. At least not in the muggle world.
Kari had set up a bank account for him, and with Harry's permission had set up a weekly transfer from Gringotts. Kari had almost decided to transfer some of her own money over each week, but Harry had stopped her, but he had then had to explain that he had money from his parents. After some thought Kari had offered to look over how much Harry could afford, and with some relief that someone was going to explain money to him he had handed over his statements.
Kari had then worked out how much he had spent over the past three years, how much he would need to spend for the next four, and how much extra money he had. Then she had explained how much money he would need if he needed to leave his relatives again, everything from travel expenses, hotel expenses, food expenses, and a dozen other things.
At first the number had seemed scarily high, certainly to Harry, who had never had even a pound for pocket money before. Then Kari had dropped a bombshell on him. His parents had left enough money that he could spend his next four years at the most expensive hotel in England, and still have enough left over to pay for a small flat in muggle London, even taking into account the cost of his education.
Kari had then set up the Plan. Or rather the Plans. Harry was more than welcomed at any of their homes, by his friends at least. The Weasleys (Plan A) wouldn't mind if Harry came, but the problem was getting to the Burrow. Multiple searches on the public transport network had shown that it would take a bus, three trains and two more buses before Harry got there, with rather too much waiting around for hours for any of his friends to be comfortable.
Hermione (Plan B) was fairly easy to get to, a bus, two trains and a short taxi ride, and Harry would only be waiting around the train station for thirty minutes. The problem there being that Hermione and her parents would not be there for the greater part of the summer.
It had taken Kari six weeks to get a passport for Harry. When it had arrived Kari had explained how to get a plane, and how to get to Japan, and made sure he knew some key phases, so Kari and Ombre were Plan C.
Then Joey had made sure Harry knew he was welcome to visit where ever they were, and Yugi had given him a list of where they would be each week, and had sent Harry updates each week. So Joey, Yami and Yugi were Plan D.
Hermione hadn't been able to leave it at that, so each of the plans were colour coded, and he was meant to send Hedwig to Hermione if he did decide to leave.
It made living with his relatives bearable, except for the lack of food, only now Harry had more than enough money to buy something to eat, so he withdrew a tenner from the machine, the smallest amount he could withdraw, and then went into the second nearest supermarket, (rather than the local stores where someone might recognise him), and brought lunch.
If only he could buy new clothes as easily, but he knew that if he brought new clothes his relatives would assume he stole them, or demand where he had gotten the money.
Although… maybe saying Sirius had sent him some money would work. No. He wouldn't risk it. It was enough that he had enough to eat, and several escape routes planned if he needed them. He would save his parents money for later if he could, it would be a waste any other way.
Tristan lost his footing and slid down the side of the track they were on. A quick hand from Joey stopped him sliding further, pulling him up.
He felt so numb. Running had done nothing to warm him, the chill air stealing every bit of heat.
Yami was in a hell load of trouble.
They were close enough to see him now, close enough to see his fighting stance fail, close enough to see Yami fall to his knees.
Keep running, almost there.
Memories started to pop up, dragging him down.
He fought them off. Yami was in trouble.
Joey flung himself at a Dementor, his fists swinging wildly. Tristan couldn't make out what he was saying but knowing Joey it was along the lines of 'Get your filthy mitts off my friend.'
An image invaded his mind, a hospital waiting room, waiting for news and knowing it was going to be bad, another one, Joey falling to Marik, another one, picking on Yugi.
No, Joey needed him now. He tore out of the memories in time to see Joey slump against the Dementor, to see Yami fall to the ground.
No.
A chill hand grasped him, and he struggled to break free, his mind screaming 'Yami! Joey! Not his friends, not again, please not his friends.'
Bright light. The hand holding him crumbled. He ran towards Joey, and again the bright light, a ball of white light he saw this time, hit a Dementor, this time the one clutching at Joey.
The Dementors began to scatter, and Tristan looked back to see Tea supporting a half collapsed Yugi, and summoning another ball of light.
Wait… Tea?
Joey was okay, still there, even if his eyes looked glazed and in pain. Tristan darted to Yami, fearing the worse.
Dark empty eyes stared at nothing. Yami was gone.
Yami was gone…
Yami…
"This is the Kame Game shop, how may I be of service?" Solomon Muto said into the phone. He had barely even opened the shop before it had begun to ring.
"Gramps, this is Kari, have you seen Ombre?"
"No, not for a few days."
"Neither have I, she didn't come home last night, and I haven't heard from her in two days, and she's not answering her phone or our mind link." The panic in her voice was becoming increasingly clear.
"Have you called the police?"
"Not yet, I thought… I thought maybe she had stayed over last night. I don't know who else to call."
"Kari, call the police. Do you have any idea where to start?"
"No, I've barely spoken to Ombre since we got back; I've just been so busy."
"Calm down. We'll find her. She probably just got lost or something. You call the Police, I'll call the hospital. We will find her."
"Thanks Gramps."
No. This wasn't happening. This wasn't real.
"Yugi? Please answer me, please Yugi." Tea said, crying, she looked empty, hollowed by her emotions, hollowed by the strange white magic that had frightened the Dementors away.
A dream, a nightmare. The Dementors had got him. This wasn't real.
"Come on Yuge, you've got to be okay, we've got to get Yami back." Joey… if only you knew. His eyes burned, hot tears threatened to spill.
Worse nightmare he had ever had. Nothing he had ever imagined before could compare to the deep despair he felt now.
"Not…" He began, forcing the word out. It sounded strange, dark and hoarse.
Not real. This couldn't be real. Let it be a nightmare.
"Yuge? Come on buddy, we've got to get out of here." Tristan, looking haunted. What had he seen? No, wrong question.
Too real. This was too real to be a dream, even one caused by the Dementors.
"Not Yugi." He finally managed, and sunk into himself at the effort.
Yugi… what did you do? How did you do it? Why did you do it?
You can't be gone. Please Yugi.
'Yugi…' He called down the mind link, but it was gone, Yugi was…
"Yugi's gone…" His friends, no. Yugi's friends looked shocked.
"But… but we saw…"
"Yugi activated the puzzle." That was Tea, sounding almost defeated.
"Yugi swapped us. It should have been me…" Yami trembled for a moment, but the cold and the now pouring rain stopped them. Too cold to tremble. He couldn't remember ever being this cold before.
Empty.
Yugi was gone…
His Hikari, his light, his aibou.
"Yami?" It was Joey who asked, but they all waited tensely for an answer.
He nodded, and the winds began to pick up, tearing through their wet clothing and chilling them further.
"We still need to get out of here, before the storm kills us." Tristan's words, and Yami let the voices of Yugi's friends wash over him.
"Come on Yami." He felt someone pull him up and push him forward.
He stumbled, his cold limbs, no. Yugi's cold limbs not obeying him.
The rain hid his tears, but only a few fell before he stifled his emotions.
Vengeance called.
Draco spent part of every morning reading to his mother.
Bakura insisted. It was both torture and a kindness. Draco was inclined to think Bakura just wanted to torture him.
Watching his once lively mother sitting in a chair, staring out a window, too tired to do anything else, and not getting any better. Not enough energy left to do any of the things she used to love, not enough energy left to do anything.
The healers said her condition was stable, but still had no idea what caused it in the first place. Her magic was keeping her alive, keeping her from getting worse, but she wasn't getting better.
Draco had wanted to blame Bakura. Had blamed Bakura. After two years he no longer considered it important, there was no proof, no reason to believe Bakura was to blame, and Bakura himself…
For two years Bakura had ordered his life, had controlled his finances, his friends, everything.
Exactly as his father had done before.
When they had first met, Draco had believed he could use Bakura. They had become allies. Then Draco had introduced Bakura to his father. Less than a month later Bakura had been adopted and a month after that Malfoy Senior had been arrested and imprisoned. Draco's mother had fallen apart. Bakura had taken control. Narcissa had barely resisted.
Narcissa never resisted now.
He kissed his mother and placed down the book. "I'll see you tomorrow mother."
She nodded, smiling gently. The healer would be checking on her soon.
Ryou was waiting for him outside. "How is she?"
Draco had trained himself to show as little emotion as possible, but visiting his mother always left him low. "No change."
Ryou fell into step beside him, and Draco resisted the desire to shy away. He didn't understand the quiet Hufflepuff. Still didn't understand what Bakura saw in him, and claimed he didn't understand the sudden mood swings. Only he did, Draco was one of the best informed in his year on the affects of Dark objects. The Ring was a very dark object, and both Ryou and Bakura were addicted. It made him wonder if the Muto's were addicted to their Puzzle.
It was now normal for Draco to check if either of them was wearing the Ring. Ryou wasn't.
"Why were you waiting for me?" Draco asked when Ryou didn't say anything more.
"Did Bakura…" Ryou trailed off, but Draco just waited, there were hundreds of ways that sentence could end, and Draco wasn't about to risk his thoughts to a near stranger.
Ryou started again. "Did Bakura do something to your mother?" The question was near whispered.
"I don't know, I don't think so, I can't imagine how. She got sick in November, we were in Hogwarts. The healers don't seem to think so."
The exhausted gang arrived back an hour later, Tristan carrying one of the Muto's while Joey virtually carried the second. Tea stumbled along, half blind between the rain, and the afterimage of lights in her eyes.
None of them talked, none of them wanted to think about what had just happened.
Tea could barely bring herself to look at Yami or Yugi, and her mind and heart were screaming at her. It was Yami's body that Tristan carried, but it was Yami in Yugi's body, crimson eyes only confirmed it for her, the stance and movement shouting louder than words that it wasn't Yugi, but every couple of moments her mind would be tricked into thinking it was Yugi there, not Yami.
When they reached the house they just collapsed, basking in the warmth, and within moments there were people swamping them, and within minutes Tea found herself in a hot bath and soon after that she collapsed into her bed.
Then the tears came.
Serenity Wheeler glared at the phone, thinking; 'Ring!' while imagining all the trouble Joey was going to be in if he wasn't in major trouble now.
"Serenity, don't you think it's time to get ready for bed?" Her mother asked, tidying up their living room.
"I'm waiting." She said firmly, never taking her eyes off the phone.
"Darling, if you don't end this staring contest soon, I will."
"He promised."
"Boys are jerks, I'm sure your little friend has just forgotten."
"Last time he forgot to phone his life was in danger, the time before that his friends were in danger."
"Serenity…"
"I'll wait."
"I don't know why this boy is so important to you, at your age…" Her mother was muttering to herself as she left the room. Serenity's eyes left the phone long enough to glare at her retreating back.
"Because he's my brother." She whispered, knowing that her mother wouldn't want to know.
Yami woke to a strange emptiness, and while his mind was racing to work out what was wrong his heart was already there and breaking.
"Yugi…" My fault, my fault, why did you do it? Why did you save me? Gone… Yugi's gone.
Forever.
Not my fault, please don't let it be my fault, not mine, Dementors'. Their fault. They took my Hikari. They took my Aibou. They took my Light. They took my Yugi.
Destroy them, tear them. Feed their souls to the shadows.
Never again.
Make them hurt, make them feel my pain, make them pay.
Destroy them. Make them bleed. Make them suffer. Trap them in the shadows.
"Ronald, stop asking." Molly Weasley said with a sigh of impatience as she cracked another egg into the frying pan.
"But Mum! It's Harry, we can't just leave him there; you don't know what his relatives are like."
"And neither do you Ron Weasley, I'm sure the poor lad with be just fine for a few more weeks. The Headmaster said…"
"I don't care what Dumbledore said!"
"Ronald Billus Weasley! You take that back right now!" Molly said, glaring at him.
Ron sighed, and sank into his chair, "I'm sorry Mum, but I just don't want Harry to run away again, we don't know what might happen if he does."
"Now dear, Harry's a sensible lad, I'm sure he won't run away again. He knows how worried we all were."
Ron ran a hand through his hair, preparing to answer, trying to make his mother see reason, but a voice from the doorway answered for him.
"He knows Mum, but that won't stop him, the Dursleys hate him, and if they try anything this year he will just leave." The youngest Weasley spoke, coming down to breakfast at last. She was the last, the others being long gone, her father and Percy to work, and the twins over Lee's for the day.
"Don't be silly darling; they don't hate him, who could hate such a nice young man?"
Ron and Ginny shared a look, why didn't their mother understand?
"They hate magic Mum." Ron tried again.
"That doesn't mean they hate Harry."
"They don't feed him Mum." Ginny tried.
"Well… maybe they just don't know that magical children need more food than muggles."
"Please Mum, why can't he come and stay here?"
"Because he needs to spend time with his relatives. Dumbledore said it's for his own good. He can come in August."
"But that's months away!" Ron exclaimed, while Ginny dropped into her chair defeated, for now.
"Five weeks Ron. Now no more complaining or he won't come at all." Ron glared, as Molly turned back to her eggs trying their best to burn.
Duke watched as his friends fell apart. There was nothing he could do, except be there in their grief, and share in their grief.
Yugi was gone. It hadn't sunk in yet. He couldn't, wouldn't believe it.
Rebecca leaned against him, sobs making her body shake, and all he could do was hold her. He barely knew the girl, but neither Tristan nor Joey were in any shape to offer comfort, Tristan had almost redrawn completely, any share energy was spent holding up Tea, Joey on the other hand couldn't sit still, he paced and swore and slammed things about. The walls were lucky to have only a few dents.
"I wish Harry was here." Rebecca said quietly, "He knows how to deal with Dementors."
Then it dawned on Duke. Someone would have to tell all of Yugi's friends, and somehow they would still need to defeat or drive off the enemy.
"Joey? Who needs to know?" He asked, and suddenly he had all of Joey's attention, and he wasn't so sure that was a good thing.
Joey abruptly went limp, dropping to the floor in an ungraceful heap. "Oh man, everyone." He head sunk into his hands. "Grandpa, Ombre, Kari, Kaiba…" He began listing names, and the list went on and on.
Duke closed his eyes, "Yugi had a lot of friends." He said quietly.
"And we still need to deal with those Dementors…" Joey said, voicing Duke's earlier thoughts.
"You dealt with them last year, don't you know any way of…"
"Harry… he knows the charm, I never bothered… didn't think I needed it all that much, not until after exams, and then it was too late, and Harry did it, so it didn't matter I didn't know, Harry saved us… but he's… not here." Joey rambled, finally trailing off, sinking further into his shell.
Duke looked at the three friends, none of them were with it, all in shock and grief, and they wouldn't deal, couldn't deal, not right now.
"Come on Becs." Duke said, pulling Rebecca to her feet. "I have an idea."
"Is it a good one?" She asked as he guided her out the room.
"How about we ask Harry about how to deal with Dementors?"
She stopped, and stared at him, considering, seeming to weigh him with her eyes. Then she nodded, slowly. "Harry will help."
The island was empty.
Seto trudged back to the plane, Mokuba following, in high dudgeon.
It wasn't bad enough that he had to come to this island in the first place, but to have no sign of Pegasus, or even a lackey or two… something was seriously wrong.
Someone had wanted him out the way, and if he found out Pegasus was helping someone else take over his company, again… well maybe it was time to cut his ties with Industrial Illusions, there was some things that just wasn't worth the profits.
The pilot was gone.
The fuel tanks drained.
The batteries dead.
Someone was going to pay.
Tea didn't know how long she had been crying, leaning against Tristan while Joey had curled in on himself not two feet away. She did know it wasn't long after Duke left that she and Tristan moved to sit beside Joey. Then time became fuzzy again, until her heart started to burn with a new pain.
She didn't recognise it at first, her own sorrow mixing in with the rage she felt distantly. Then Joey spoke.
"I think that's Yami…" His voice was rough with confined emotion, and it took a while for the words to sink in.
An old memory came rushing back, a memory of Yugi falling, and the echo of sorrow and pain they had all felt.
"I need… we should… he needs us." Tea said, her confused words making sense to the two young men.
They stood together, after a momentary confusion over how to stand up while they were all tangled in their grief sharing and comfort giving.
Normally they would have run. Normally the only thing quicker than these three when a friend was in trouble was the fourth member of their group.
A normal day shouldn't have contained grief for a lost soul.
Unfortunately for these three it had happened often enough that while not exactly normal, it wasn't uncommon.
They ran.
They weren't quick enough.
Well at least Pegasus had been considering redecorating the place.
When Rebecca and Duke returned to the safe house of Pegasus's they were a little surprised.
The front doors, those massive heavy things that were impossible to open without the aid of technology (Or magic, but then neither Duke nor Rebecca had yet adjusted to thinking of Pegasus as magical) were no longer there.
They were in splinters, ranging from just a few meters away from the door way to a good two hundred meters away. The entry hall had fared little better.
"What happened?" Duke asked a group of very nervous looking employees.
"Mr Muto decided to leave. Mr Croquet said no. Mr Muto didn't like that answer."
"Yami's gone?" Rebecca asked, never being able to imagine that Yugi would be capable of such destruction.
"And Mr Wheeler, Mr Taylor and Miss Gardiner."
"Great, they left without us. Did they at least say where they were going?"
"Train station." Duke sighed; they would never find them unless they decided to signpost their location. Although knowing Yami, Tea, Joey and Tristan it wasn't unlikely that they would end up in the middle of the biggest disaster this side of the US.
Far away a sleeping boy woke suddenly. Bright green eyes scanned the room for danger. With a groan he rubbed his scar, before realising that the scar didn't hurt and wasn't the source of his dream.
It wasn't Voldemort.
Rolling out of bed he pulled up the loose floorboard, and taking out the small notebook filled with numbers. Contact numbers for his friends, not all of them, and it would be very expensive to call anyone.
Maybe it was just a dream…
The same dream he had had for the past few days.
He could no longer shake the feeling that one of his friends was in danger.
Harry crept down the stairs silently.
Letters fell through the letterbox; the clanging of the letterbox shutting sounding unnaturally loud to Harry's fear heightened senses.
The warm glow he always felt when he saw a letter addressed to him was subdued by the worry.
AN: Wow, another chap done, and the adventure is underway, and next chap is being so much more fun to write, even if it is taking longer than all other three chaps put together, but then it's christmas holidays, I should get lots of writing done next week.
Thank you for all your reviews.