Chapter 5: - Quidditch, Swimming and Potiential Trouble
Harry spent a lot of the time over the few days trying to avoid Lockheart. Harder to avoid was a Gryffindor first year by the name of Colin Creevey, who was obsessed with taking photos. Hedwig was still annoyed about the car journey and Ron's wand surpassed itself Friday by flying out of Ron's hand and hitting Professor Flitwick between the eyes. Harry was glad when the weekend came.
However Harry and Yugi were shaken awake earlier then they would have liked by Oliver Wood, captain of the Quidditch team. Kari was already awake and down in the Common Room, reading.
"Wassamatter?" Harry asked groggily as Oliver Wood moved across to Yugi and Yami's beds.
"Quidditch practise, which one of them is Yugi?"
"Bed closest to the door." Harry groaned, getting out of bed. He looked out the window, "Oliver, it's the crack of dawn."
"Exactly," Yugi looked at Oliver sleepily, "Come on Yugi, Quidditch tryouts today." He waited until Yugi was unlikely to go back to sleep, then moved on to waking Ron up. The four of them walked down to the Quidditch pitch together, where the rest of the Quidditch team was already in the changing rooms. They were followed down by people from other years all wanting to try out as reserves. This was the first year Gryffindor had been taking on reserves in two decades, but Oliver Wood had decided to take some on after they'd missed out on the Quidditch Cup because they hadn't had a reserve seeker.
Colin Creevey had followed them all the way down and had driven Harry up the wall. The try outs took place, with Yugi getting a place as a reserve chaser, though Wood had had a go at Colin, thinking he was a spy for Slytherin. They were about to start proper practise when green robes filed onto the pitch. "Oh I don't believe this! I booked the pitch for today! We'll see about this!"
"Flint!" Wood bellowed as he came into land, "This is our practise time, we booked the pitch for tryouts and practise today!"
"Ah," said Flint, with a look of trollish cunning on his face, "but I've got a note signed by Professor Snape, seeing as we have to train our new Seeker."
"You have a new Seeker?" Said Wood distracted, "Who?" From behind the six large figures came a seventh, smaller boy, smirking. It was Draco Malfoy. Yugi landed next to the team, "Aren't you…?"
"That's not all that's new this year." Seven highly polished broomstick glinted in the sunlight, the words Nimbus 2001 gleamed.
"The latest model, Draco's father bought them for us."
'And how exactly did he afford them? I thought Kaiba had bankrupted him.' Yugi thought.
"Oh look a pitch invasion!" Flint laughed, the gang were rushing over to see what was going on.
"What's happening?" Yami asked Yugi, "Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?" He was looking at Malfoy, taking in the Slytherin Quidditch robes. Ron was gaping at the new brooms.
"Good aren't they?" Malfoy said smoothly, "But perhaps if the Gryffindor team raised some money by raffling off those Cleansweep Fives, you might be able to afford better brooms." The Slytherin team howled with laughter.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor Team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent!" Kari said sharply. Malfoy's smug look flickered.
"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!" He spat.
It was the second time Harry had heard the phrase and he'd known it must be bad from the way Kaiba had reacted, but he wasn't quiet prepared for the entire Quidditch team to try to leap on Malfoy. Flint had to dive between the two groups to stop Fred and George beating Malfoy to a pulp. "How dare you!" said Ron, as he plunged his hand into his robes and pulled out his wand, yelling "You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" And managed to get it aimed at Malfoy's face.
A loud bang echoed around the stadium, with the monsters finally arriving as green light shot out the wrong end of Ron's wand pushing him backwards onto the grass. The Dark Magician Girl had her staff pointed at Malfoy, while the rest of the monsters glared and growled at the Slytherin Quidditch team.
"Ron!" Hermione squeaked, "Ron! Are you alright?"
Ron didn't reply, instead he gave a great belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap.
The Slytherin team, despite being afraid of the monsters, doubled up with laughter, while the Gryffindors gathered around Ron, though no one seemed to want to touch him.
"We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest." Said Harry to the rest of the group, Yami and Joey nodded and pulled Ron up by the arms. Harry had to shove Colin out of the way as the group headed to Hagrid's.
They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's hut when they were forced to hide to avoid Gilderoy Lockheart, who came striding out of Hagrid's hut. "It's a simple matter of knowing what you're doing!" Lockheart called loudly to Hagrid, "If you need help, you know where I am!"
Once Lockheart was out of sight they came out of hiding. "'Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me, come in, come in, thought yer mighta bin Professor Lockheart back again!" Hagrid said, smiling.
Yami and Joey supported Ron over the threshold and Harry explained about the slug problem, as the two teens lowered Ron into a chair. The monsters settled down around the building.
"Better out then in." Hagrid said, plonking a big copper basin in front of Ron, "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand…?"
"What did Lockheart want?" Yugi asked, putting his and Harry's broomsticks by the door.
"Givin' me advise on getting' kelpies out of a well…" Hagrid started ranting about Lockheart, and Yugi and Harry looked at him in surprise. "…If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."
Hermione immediately went on the defensive, "I think you're being unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job."
"He was the only man for the job," said Hagrid, offering them a mass of treacle fudge, which they turned down, though Kari was ignoring all of them, staring out the window, "Who was Ron trying to curse anyway."
"Malfoy called Kari something. It must have been really bad because everyone got mad." Yugi said.
"It was bad," Kari said, turning away from the window, "Kaiba told me what it means after Lucius Malfoy called him one, he… he called me a Mudblood."
"He never." Hagrid growled.
"What does it mean?" Joey asked.
"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of." Gasped Ron, coming up for air, "Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who was muggle-born, you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards, like Malfoy's family, who think that they're better then everyone else, because they're what people call, pure-blood." Ron burped and slugs fell into the bowl, "I mean the rest of us know it doesn't make any difference at all. I mean look at Neville Longbottom, he's pure-blood and he can barely stand a cauldron the right way up."
"It doesn't bother me, after all, it came from Draco Malfoy after all." Kari said, but Ombre could sense it had.
"And there aren't many spells our Kari can't do." said Hagrid making Kari blush.
"It's a disgusting thing to call someone," said Ron, "Dirty blood you see. Common blood, it's mad. Most wizards are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married muggles we would have died out." He retched and ducked out of sight again.
"Well I don't blame you for trying to curse him, but it might be a good thing yer wand back fired. 'Suspect Lucius Malfoy would've had something to say up ter school if yer'd cursed his son. Least yer not in trouble."
"That's something I was wondering about, how could Lucius Malfoy have afforded seven Nimbus 2001s when Kaiba bankrupted him?" Hermione asked.
"Kaiba did what?" Hagrid asked, shocked, "The Malfoy's are very rich, they will have hidden assets that outsiders could never reach, Seto could have tried to bankrupt him, but I doubt it would be easy."
Kari looked at Hagrid, Hagrid got to call him Seto, but that was probably because of the dragon last year. "That's not going to stop Kaiba from trying."
"But it might take him a while longer than the week you were predicting, Kari." Ron said, coming up for air again.
"Ok, should we take bets on when Malfoy will finally be properly bankrupt? I'm betting the week before Halloween." Yami laughed. "I mean, we should get the whole school involved."
"Alright, I bet two weeks before Christmas, because Kaiba'll want to be able to concentrate on the Christmas rush…" Kari trailed off, "I've gotta go!" She dashed out.
"What was that about?" Joey asked Ombre, who sighed.
"She forgot she was supposed to see Professor McGonagall today."
"Why?" Joey asked.
"Because." Ombre replied.
"Why?"
"BECAUSE!" Ombre shouted, silencing Joey and making everyone look at her. She crossed her arms and glared at Joey, "It's not my secret to tell, so I'm not telling. And don't even think about using the Millennium Eye to read either of our minds, Joseph Wheeler!" Joey tried to look innocent and failed, as he'd been reaching towards Yami's bag to see if it was in there.
"Speaking of…" Yami took the Puzzle off and passed it to Yugi, who'd left it behind so he didn't have to wake Yami up when he'd gone out to tryouts. Yugi smiled and put it on. Ombre reached into her robes and realised she still had the Orb.
They were there for a couple of hours but as lunch time neared they headed back towards the castle but had only taken a couple of steps into the Entrance Hall when Professor McGonagall swooped on them. Kari trailing behind, looking like she was thinking about a lot of things at once. "There you are, Potter, Weasley, Wheeler." The Professor said, looking sternly at them, "All three of you will do your detentions tonight."
"What're we doing?" Joey asked, wondering what was up with Kari.
"You, Mr Wheeler, and you Mr Weasley will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr Filch, without magic, using only elbow grease."
Ron and Joey looked worried. Mr Filch was hated by the students for a good reason, "And you Mr Potter, will be helping Professor Lockheart answer his fanmail."
"Can't I help in the trophy room instead?" Harry asked desperately.
"Certainly not. Eight o'clock sharp, all of you. Miss Ironhide, you'll meet me again at 2 pm tomorrow."
"Yes Professor McGonagall." Kari replied and the Professor let them go into the great hall.
"Alright spill it! Why do you have to see Professor McGonagall everyday?" Joey asked as Kari stuffed her face full of food, Kari refused to answer, swallowing her food and eating some more, Ombre handed her back the Millennium Orb. Harry and Ron were discussing their detentions while Hermione was wearing a look that clearly said well-you-did-break-the-rules.
"Kari tell, or I'm telling Kaiba you have a crush on him!"
"I DO NOT!" Kari growled.
"But he doesn't know that, so spill it!"
Ombre smiled, "It's not like Kaiba would believe anything Joey told him…"
"Joey, if I promise to tell, will you stop begging me?"
Joey nodded, "I promise."
"Then I promise I'll tell you, after Christmas!"
"That's not fair," Joey got up and started heading over to the Ravenclaw table.
"Uh oh!" Ombre growled.
"Joey Wheeler!" Kari yelled, "You promised! Are you going to break your word?" Joey continued to walk, not even hesitating. She pulled out her wand, "Petrificus Totalus!" Joey fell over, the full body bind in effect.
"Kari!" Yami yelled at her.
"He gave me no choice." Kari stormed, and stomped out of the Great Hall. "There's no ice around here!" Ombre could hear her growl as she stormed out. Ombre quickly followed, while Yugi and Hermione rushed over to Joey and Hermione did the counter-curse.
"Well you did promise." Hermione said, earning her a glare from Joey before he stormed out. Yugi sighed and followed. "What did I do?" Hermione asked herself.
Ombre chased her hikari up to their dorms in the Gryffindor tower and then back down to the lake. Where Kari took her robes off, revealing her scarlet swimming costume and dived in without stopping to test the water. "Kari!" Ombre yelled, fearful for her hikari when she didn't surface right away.
"What?" Kari asked, surfacing and swimming out a bit further.
"Do you always wear your swimming costume under your uniform?" Ombre asked, trying to act calm. Kari looked at her oddly.
"Well it is a weekend." Kari said, "Come and join me, the water is fine!" Ombre shook her head violently. "Why not?"
"I… I…" Ombre couldn't say it. Kari swam over to the side of the lake.
"You can't swim?" Kari asked, Ombre shook her head, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I… it never came up… I used to live in a desert you know, very little water, and it was too dangerous to swim in the Nile." Ombre said, getting defensive as Kari looked at her sadly.
"I would have taught you over the summer." Kari said sadly.
"Do you even have a swimming costume?" Ombre shook her head. "Liar, I saw you packing it. I only just remembered."
"I thought…"
"I'd laugh? Go get you swimming costume and I'll teach you not to drown at least, ok?"
"Ummm."
"Now Ombre."
"Ok." Ombre said quietly and went off to get her swimming costume.
"Dark Magician Girl?"
What is it?
"Can you ask the Dark Magician if Yami can swim?"
Why?
"Please."
Ok. Silence, and Kari took a few strokes out into the lake, and then, He has no idea.
"What if Yami can? Or that Yami has no idea?"
If the Pharaoh can.
"Tell him to tell Yami, if he doesn't get down here for swimming lessons, I'll drown him, Ok?" Kari thought for a moment, "Um, Dark Magician Girl, do you have a name?"
Mana, my name is Mana.
"Would you prefer I called you Mana, rather than Dark Magician Girl?"
Mana giggled, Are you asking permission to use my name? I doubt it holds any deep dark secrets, go ahead. By the way the Pharaoh is hiding in the Common Room.
"I'll get him out here somehow, do the other Duel Monsters have names?"
Well, the Dark Magician's name is Mahado, Blue Eyes White Dragon is Kisara, and yes she is a girl…um…The Blue Eyes White Chick is called Geki, the Emerald Dragon has a name, Becca was prompted, it's Minneola, Red Eyes Black is Tobias, while Red Eyes Darkness is Shadowfae, while Boh is the fuzzball, oh I just thought of an idea of how to get the Pharaoh down here.
"How?"
Enlist Yugi's help.
"Go on…"
Yugi's head shot up, Boh was talking to him, Yugi had to suppress a smile while he tried to convince his yami to go down for swimming lessons, having seen Ombre going down for hers. "Yami, you do realise Kaiba can swim, don't you? And Kari is organising races for next month."
"Yeah, but Kaiba likes flying too." Yami said, acting disinterested, but he wasn't, Kaiba had made his life hell all summer over Yami's stupid fear of flying, there was no way he wanted to lose to Kaiba, "But Yugi, it's September, it's cold outside!"
"Then get Kari to put a warming spell on you, she must have mastered it since she was swimming the moment the ice melted too much to skate on, last January."
My Pharaoh, the Princess says to warn you that if she has to send Shadowfae to get you, her hikari has free reign on what she does to you. Yami sighed, at the Dark Magician's, Mahado's, words, "Fine. Can I borrow some swimming trunks please."
"Who's going swimming?" Joey asked, entering the Common Room.
"Kari's going to give Yami lessons." Yugi said as Yami went up to their dorm.
"This I gotta see." Joey laughed and raced upstairs. Yugi had to almost literally drag Yami to the lake side, where Kari was teaching Ombre how to keep her head above the water.
"So the mighty Pharaoh decided to grace us with his presence after all!" Kari said in mock surprise, "Come on Yami, surely you can't be afraid of a little water!"
"I am not, and have never been, afraid of mere water." Kari laughed.
"Then why did it take seven, sorry eight of us to get you down here?" Kari corrected herself when she saw Joey.
"It's not like I'll ever need to know how to swim…" Yami began.
Kari glared as Joey started counting down the times they had nearly drowned.
"Lets see, there was the way to Duellist Kingdom, then there was during Rich-boy's first tournament…" Yami glared at him "And when the blimp nearly crashed and then there was when we only just got off the island in time before it blew up…" Joey trailed off when he saw the look on Yami's face.
"I'm right aren't I? You don't like water!" Ombre had to wonder how her hikari was getting away with winding Yami up without ending up in the Shadow Realm, she tried a different tactic.
"What are you going to do if Yugi ever gets into trouble in the water? Hope someone's around that can save him?" As they were talking, Ombre and Kari had left the water and they, Yugi and Joey, were between him and everything else bar the water.
"That's not fair."
"Who said I had to play fair?" Kari asked, since he still wasn't co-operating Yugi and Joey grabbed him and dragged him into the water. Kari waved her wand and water fell over all three boys, Yami, Yugi and Joey.
"IT'S COLD!" Yami yelled, making Kari laugh.
"It's not cold, this is warm!"
"You're crazy!"
"And you're afraid of flying and swimming." Yami growled at her but didn't have anything clever to use as a reply. Kari smirked, she'd won the battle, and she was determined to win the war. "It's not that hard, honest."
They spent the afternoon teaching Ombre and Yami how to swim, returning to the Gryffindor Common Room in time to get dry and for Joey to go for his detention.
Harry was filling out envelopes for Lockheart's fan mail replies when he heard a voice, "Come… Come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…"
"What?" Harry gasped. Lockheart realised what the time was, and let Harry go. He ran down the halls but there was no sign of the voice. Ron and Joey didn't get back for another couple of hours, by which time Harry had already woken their dorm. Harry explained what he'd heard, and Joey confirmed that the dragons said there was something moving around Hogwarts that spoke a language very similar to their own, because Red Eyes had warned him not to leave the trophy room.
"And Lockheart couldn't hear it?" Asked Ron, Harry shook his head, "And yet you and the dragons could, d'you think he was lying? But I don't get it, to get into your room, someone or something invisible would have to have opened the door get close enough for you to hear it."
"I know," Harry said as they led back to go back to sleep, "I don't get it either."
However Harry and Yugi were shaken awake earlier then they would have liked by Oliver Wood, captain of the Quidditch team. Kari was already awake and down in the Common Room, reading.
"Wassamatter?" Harry asked groggily as Oliver Wood moved across to Yugi and Yami's beds.
"Quidditch practise, which one of them is Yugi?"
"Bed closest to the door." Harry groaned, getting out of bed. He looked out the window, "Oliver, it's the crack of dawn."
"Exactly," Yugi looked at Oliver sleepily, "Come on Yugi, Quidditch tryouts today." He waited until Yugi was unlikely to go back to sleep, then moved on to waking Ron up. The four of them walked down to the Quidditch pitch together, where the rest of the Quidditch team was already in the changing rooms. They were followed down by people from other years all wanting to try out as reserves. This was the first year Gryffindor had been taking on reserves in two decades, but Oliver Wood had decided to take some on after they'd missed out on the Quidditch Cup because they hadn't had a reserve seeker.
Colin Creevey had followed them all the way down and had driven Harry up the wall. The try outs took place, with Yugi getting a place as a reserve chaser, though Wood had had a go at Colin, thinking he was a spy for Slytherin. They were about to start proper practise when green robes filed onto the pitch. "Oh I don't believe this! I booked the pitch for today! We'll see about this!"
"Flint!" Wood bellowed as he came into land, "This is our practise time, we booked the pitch for tryouts and practise today!"
"Ah," said Flint, with a look of trollish cunning on his face, "but I've got a note signed by Professor Snape, seeing as we have to train our new Seeker."
"You have a new Seeker?" Said Wood distracted, "Who?" From behind the six large figures came a seventh, smaller boy, smirking. It was Draco Malfoy. Yugi landed next to the team, "Aren't you…?"
"That's not all that's new this year." Seven highly polished broomstick glinted in the sunlight, the words Nimbus 2001 gleamed.
"The latest model, Draco's father bought them for us."
'And how exactly did he afford them? I thought Kaiba had bankrupted him.' Yugi thought.
"Oh look a pitch invasion!" Flint laughed, the gang were rushing over to see what was going on.
"What's happening?" Yami asked Yugi, "Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?" He was looking at Malfoy, taking in the Slytherin Quidditch robes. Ron was gaping at the new brooms.
"Good aren't they?" Malfoy said smoothly, "But perhaps if the Gryffindor team raised some money by raffling off those Cleansweep Fives, you might be able to afford better brooms." The Slytherin team howled with laughter.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor Team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent!" Kari said sharply. Malfoy's smug look flickered.
"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!" He spat.
It was the second time Harry had heard the phrase and he'd known it must be bad from the way Kaiba had reacted, but he wasn't quiet prepared for the entire Quidditch team to try to leap on Malfoy. Flint had to dive between the two groups to stop Fred and George beating Malfoy to a pulp. "How dare you!" said Ron, as he plunged his hand into his robes and pulled out his wand, yelling "You'll pay for that, Malfoy!" And managed to get it aimed at Malfoy's face.
A loud bang echoed around the stadium, with the monsters finally arriving as green light shot out the wrong end of Ron's wand pushing him backwards onto the grass. The Dark Magician Girl had her staff pointed at Malfoy, while the rest of the monsters glared and growled at the Slytherin Quidditch team.
"Ron!" Hermione squeaked, "Ron! Are you alright?"
Ron didn't reply, instead he gave a great belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth onto his lap.
The Slytherin team, despite being afraid of the monsters, doubled up with laughter, while the Gryffindors gathered around Ron, though no one seemed to want to touch him.
"We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest." Said Harry to the rest of the group, Yami and Joey nodded and pulled Ron up by the arms. Harry had to shove Colin out of the way as the group headed to Hagrid's.
They were within twenty feet of Hagrid's hut when they were forced to hide to avoid Gilderoy Lockheart, who came striding out of Hagrid's hut. "It's a simple matter of knowing what you're doing!" Lockheart called loudly to Hagrid, "If you need help, you know where I am!"
Once Lockheart was out of sight they came out of hiding. "'Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me, come in, come in, thought yer mighta bin Professor Lockheart back again!" Hagrid said, smiling.
Yami and Joey supported Ron over the threshold and Harry explained about the slug problem, as the two teens lowered Ron into a chair. The monsters settled down around the building.
"Better out then in." Hagrid said, plonking a big copper basin in front of Ron, "That's a difficult curse to work at the best of times, but with a broken wand…?"
"What did Lockheart want?" Yugi asked, putting his and Harry's broomsticks by the door.
"Givin' me advise on getting' kelpies out of a well…" Hagrid started ranting about Lockheart, and Yugi and Harry looked at him in surprise. "…If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle."
Hermione immediately went on the defensive, "I think you're being unfair. Professor Dumbledore obviously thought he was the best man for the job."
"He was the only man for the job," said Hagrid, offering them a mass of treacle fudge, which they turned down, though Kari was ignoring all of them, staring out the window, "Who was Ron trying to curse anyway."
"Malfoy called Kari something. It must have been really bad because everyone got mad." Yugi said.
"It was bad," Kari said, turning away from the window, "Kaiba told me what it means after Lucius Malfoy called him one, he… he called me a Mudblood."
"He never." Hagrid growled.
"What does it mean?" Joey asked.
"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of." Gasped Ron, coming up for air, "Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who was muggle-born, you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards, like Malfoy's family, who think that they're better then everyone else, because they're what people call, pure-blood." Ron burped and slugs fell into the bowl, "I mean the rest of us know it doesn't make any difference at all. I mean look at Neville Longbottom, he's pure-blood and he can barely stand a cauldron the right way up."
"It doesn't bother me, after all, it came from Draco Malfoy after all." Kari said, but Ombre could sense it had.
"And there aren't many spells our Kari can't do." said Hagrid making Kari blush.
"It's a disgusting thing to call someone," said Ron, "Dirty blood you see. Common blood, it's mad. Most wizards are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married muggles we would have died out." He retched and ducked out of sight again.
"Well I don't blame you for trying to curse him, but it might be a good thing yer wand back fired. 'Suspect Lucius Malfoy would've had something to say up ter school if yer'd cursed his son. Least yer not in trouble."
"That's something I was wondering about, how could Lucius Malfoy have afforded seven Nimbus 2001s when Kaiba bankrupted him?" Hermione asked.
"Kaiba did what?" Hagrid asked, shocked, "The Malfoy's are very rich, they will have hidden assets that outsiders could never reach, Seto could have tried to bankrupt him, but I doubt it would be easy."
Kari looked at Hagrid, Hagrid got to call him Seto, but that was probably because of the dragon last year. "That's not going to stop Kaiba from trying."
"But it might take him a while longer than the week you were predicting, Kari." Ron said, coming up for air again.
"Ok, should we take bets on when Malfoy will finally be properly bankrupt? I'm betting the week before Halloween." Yami laughed. "I mean, we should get the whole school involved."
"Alright, I bet two weeks before Christmas, because Kaiba'll want to be able to concentrate on the Christmas rush…" Kari trailed off, "I've gotta go!" She dashed out.
"What was that about?" Joey asked Ombre, who sighed.
"She forgot she was supposed to see Professor McGonagall today."
"Why?" Joey asked.
"Because." Ombre replied.
"Why?"
"BECAUSE!" Ombre shouted, silencing Joey and making everyone look at her. She crossed her arms and glared at Joey, "It's not my secret to tell, so I'm not telling. And don't even think about using the Millennium Eye to read either of our minds, Joseph Wheeler!" Joey tried to look innocent and failed, as he'd been reaching towards Yami's bag to see if it was in there.
"Speaking of…" Yami took the Puzzle off and passed it to Yugi, who'd left it behind so he didn't have to wake Yami up when he'd gone out to tryouts. Yugi smiled and put it on. Ombre reached into her robes and realised she still had the Orb.
They were there for a couple of hours but as lunch time neared they headed back towards the castle but had only taken a couple of steps into the Entrance Hall when Professor McGonagall swooped on them. Kari trailing behind, looking like she was thinking about a lot of things at once. "There you are, Potter, Weasley, Wheeler." The Professor said, looking sternly at them, "All three of you will do your detentions tonight."
"What're we doing?" Joey asked, wondering what was up with Kari.
"You, Mr Wheeler, and you Mr Weasley will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Mr Filch, without magic, using only elbow grease."
Ron and Joey looked worried. Mr Filch was hated by the students for a good reason, "And you Mr Potter, will be helping Professor Lockheart answer his fanmail."
"Can't I help in the trophy room instead?" Harry asked desperately.
"Certainly not. Eight o'clock sharp, all of you. Miss Ironhide, you'll meet me again at 2 pm tomorrow."
"Yes Professor McGonagall." Kari replied and the Professor let them go into the great hall.
"Alright spill it! Why do you have to see Professor McGonagall everyday?" Joey asked as Kari stuffed her face full of food, Kari refused to answer, swallowing her food and eating some more, Ombre handed her back the Millennium Orb. Harry and Ron were discussing their detentions while Hermione was wearing a look that clearly said well-you-did-break-the-rules.
"Kari tell, or I'm telling Kaiba you have a crush on him!"
"I DO NOT!" Kari growled.
"But he doesn't know that, so spill it!"
Ombre smiled, "It's not like Kaiba would believe anything Joey told him…"
"Joey, if I promise to tell, will you stop begging me?"
Joey nodded, "I promise."
"Then I promise I'll tell you, after Christmas!"
"That's not fair," Joey got up and started heading over to the Ravenclaw table.
"Uh oh!" Ombre growled.
"Joey Wheeler!" Kari yelled, "You promised! Are you going to break your word?" Joey continued to walk, not even hesitating. She pulled out her wand, "Petrificus Totalus!" Joey fell over, the full body bind in effect.
"Kari!" Yami yelled at her.
"He gave me no choice." Kari stormed, and stomped out of the Great Hall. "There's no ice around here!" Ombre could hear her growl as she stormed out. Ombre quickly followed, while Yugi and Hermione rushed over to Joey and Hermione did the counter-curse.
"Well you did promise." Hermione said, earning her a glare from Joey before he stormed out. Yugi sighed and followed. "What did I do?" Hermione asked herself.
Ombre chased her hikari up to their dorms in the Gryffindor tower and then back down to the lake. Where Kari took her robes off, revealing her scarlet swimming costume and dived in without stopping to test the water. "Kari!" Ombre yelled, fearful for her hikari when she didn't surface right away.
"What?" Kari asked, surfacing and swimming out a bit further.
"Do you always wear your swimming costume under your uniform?" Ombre asked, trying to act calm. Kari looked at her oddly.
"Well it is a weekend." Kari said, "Come and join me, the water is fine!" Ombre shook her head violently. "Why not?"
"I… I…" Ombre couldn't say it. Kari swam over to the side of the lake.
"You can't swim?" Kari asked, Ombre shook her head, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I… it never came up… I used to live in a desert you know, very little water, and it was too dangerous to swim in the Nile." Ombre said, getting defensive as Kari looked at her sadly.
"I would have taught you over the summer." Kari said sadly.
"Do you even have a swimming costume?" Ombre shook her head. "Liar, I saw you packing it. I only just remembered."
"I thought…"
"I'd laugh? Go get you swimming costume and I'll teach you not to drown at least, ok?"
"Ummm."
"Now Ombre."
"Ok." Ombre said quietly and went off to get her swimming costume.
"Dark Magician Girl?"
What is it?
"Can you ask the Dark Magician if Yami can swim?"
Why?
"Please."
Ok. Silence, and Kari took a few strokes out into the lake, and then, He has no idea.
"What if Yami can? Or that Yami has no idea?"
If the Pharaoh can.
"Tell him to tell Yami, if he doesn't get down here for swimming lessons, I'll drown him, Ok?" Kari thought for a moment, "Um, Dark Magician Girl, do you have a name?"
Mana, my name is Mana.
"Would you prefer I called you Mana, rather than Dark Magician Girl?"
Mana giggled, Are you asking permission to use my name? I doubt it holds any deep dark secrets, go ahead. By the way the Pharaoh is hiding in the Common Room.
"I'll get him out here somehow, do the other Duel Monsters have names?"
Well, the Dark Magician's name is Mahado, Blue Eyes White Dragon is Kisara, and yes she is a girl…um…The Blue Eyes White Chick is called Geki, the Emerald Dragon has a name, Becca was prompted, it's Minneola, Red Eyes Black is Tobias, while Red Eyes Darkness is Shadowfae, while Boh is the fuzzball, oh I just thought of an idea of how to get the Pharaoh down here.
"How?"
Enlist Yugi's help.
"Go on…"
Yugi's head shot up, Boh was talking to him, Yugi had to suppress a smile while he tried to convince his yami to go down for swimming lessons, having seen Ombre going down for hers. "Yami, you do realise Kaiba can swim, don't you? And Kari is organising races for next month."
"Yeah, but Kaiba likes flying too." Yami said, acting disinterested, but he wasn't, Kaiba had made his life hell all summer over Yami's stupid fear of flying, there was no way he wanted to lose to Kaiba, "But Yugi, it's September, it's cold outside!"
"Then get Kari to put a warming spell on you, she must have mastered it since she was swimming the moment the ice melted too much to skate on, last January."
My Pharaoh, the Princess says to warn you that if she has to send Shadowfae to get you, her hikari has free reign on what she does to you. Yami sighed, at the Dark Magician's, Mahado's, words, "Fine. Can I borrow some swimming trunks please."
"Who's going swimming?" Joey asked, entering the Common Room.
"Kari's going to give Yami lessons." Yugi said as Yami went up to their dorm.
"This I gotta see." Joey laughed and raced upstairs. Yugi had to almost literally drag Yami to the lake side, where Kari was teaching Ombre how to keep her head above the water.
"So the mighty Pharaoh decided to grace us with his presence after all!" Kari said in mock surprise, "Come on Yami, surely you can't be afraid of a little water!"
"I am not, and have never been, afraid of mere water." Kari laughed.
"Then why did it take seven, sorry eight of us to get you down here?" Kari corrected herself when she saw Joey.
"It's not like I'll ever need to know how to swim…" Yami began.
Kari glared as Joey started counting down the times they had nearly drowned.
"Lets see, there was the way to Duellist Kingdom, then there was during Rich-boy's first tournament…" Yami glared at him "And when the blimp nearly crashed and then there was when we only just got off the island in time before it blew up…" Joey trailed off when he saw the look on Yami's face.
"I'm right aren't I? You don't like water!" Ombre had to wonder how her hikari was getting away with winding Yami up without ending up in the Shadow Realm, she tried a different tactic.
"What are you going to do if Yugi ever gets into trouble in the water? Hope someone's around that can save him?" As they were talking, Ombre and Kari had left the water and they, Yugi and Joey, were between him and everything else bar the water.
"That's not fair."
"Who said I had to play fair?" Kari asked, since he still wasn't co-operating Yugi and Joey grabbed him and dragged him into the water. Kari waved her wand and water fell over all three boys, Yami, Yugi and Joey.
"IT'S COLD!" Yami yelled, making Kari laugh.
"It's not cold, this is warm!"
"You're crazy!"
"And you're afraid of flying and swimming." Yami growled at her but didn't have anything clever to use as a reply. Kari smirked, she'd won the battle, and she was determined to win the war. "It's not that hard, honest."
They spent the afternoon teaching Ombre and Yami how to swim, returning to the Gryffindor Common Room in time to get dry and for Joey to go for his detention.
Harry was filling out envelopes for Lockheart's fan mail replies when he heard a voice, "Come… Come to me… Let me rip you… Let me tear you… Let me kill you…"
"What?" Harry gasped. Lockheart realised what the time was, and let Harry go. He ran down the halls but there was no sign of the voice. Ron and Joey didn't get back for another couple of hours, by which time Harry had already woken their dorm. Harry explained what he'd heard, and Joey confirmed that the dragons said there was something moving around Hogwarts that spoke a language very similar to their own, because Red Eyes had warned him not to leave the trophy room.
"And Lockheart couldn't hear it?" Asked Ron, Harry shook his head, "And yet you and the dragons could, d'you think he was lying? But I don't get it, to get into your room, someone or something invisible would have to have opened the door get close enough for you to hear it."
"I know," Harry said as they led back to go back to sleep, "I don't get it either."