Chapter 1: - Meetings
To Ron,
Sorry we fell out of contact, things got a little insane over here. Full details when we get back, but suffice to say we kicked ass.
Would you believe our school supply letters reached us in the middle of nowhere? I'm not joking, we were on an unknown island in the middle of the Ocean!
We've bought our school supplies already, we visited the local version of Diagon Alley yesterday and will hopefully be able to meet up with you on the train unless you have tickets to the finals of the Quidditch World Cup. Just wait until you find out how we got ours.
See you soon.
Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Harry, Rebecca, Duke, Mokuba & Ombre.
P.S. Seto says Hi in his delightful way again.
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To Hermione,
Look! We're alive! Now stop worrying. Everything got a little crazy around here, there and everywhere, for a while but everyone's fine now.
This Summer has been one crazy event after another. Harry found us eventually, we got Yugi back, Yami's acting as normal as he
Ignore Joey, everything's fine, everyone's fine, Yami won the Tournament, Tea's show was great, the magical jail cells
Hi Hermione, Becs here. We're all coming to see the Quidditch Final, hopefully we'll meet you there. The American Ministry is really
How do you get any peace with this lot in your school? I've never seen anyone fight over a letter before.
Hermione, I hope you don't mind that most of your letter has been written by people you barely know. Harry's currently holding Joey down while us sane ones are hiding under the table.
You would have thought that they didn't want to tell you about their Summer.
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Hermione was feeling aggravated as she helped Mr Weasley pitch the tent and with good reason.
"At least your letter had a proper ending."
Ron Weasley was no less aggravated but was waiting a little better, and he'd heard this rant a good thirteen hundred times by now.
"Yes, but it had less information." Ron tried to placate her once again and, just like the last twelve thousand nine hundred and ninety nine times, it didn't stop Hermione from glaring at him and continuing on about how they could have said more in the letter and how they didn't even mention what type of trouble it had been, and what did Joey mean, they had gotten Yugi back, what had happened to him?
This rant continued for a good ten, fifteen minutes, covering everything and amusing the Weasley twins with Hermione's range of non-expletive non-magical curses.
The Weasleys had to wonder just how long Hermione had been saving this rant and if she'd have any steam left to rant at the group when they finally met up.
Finally running out of things to rant about, and unaware she'd repeated several things on the rant list at least fourteen times, Hermione finally bashed the last tent peg into place, imagining it was one of the gang's heads and sat down to look at the shabby, two man tents.
"There'll be enough room, for everyone." Mr Weasley said reassuringly.
Ron grinned, had he ever told anyone just how much he loved magic?
"Ron, I need to talk to you." Hermione whispered. "Privately."
Ron nodded. "Hey Dad, we'll go get the water if you want."
"Really?" Arthur's face lit up. "Well the buckets are around here somewhere…"
"Here Dad." Fred said, chucking them to Ron, a speculative look on his face as he looked at his little brother.
"Alright, don't take too long." Arthur gave Ron a sly smile.
Ron blushed bright red and took off with Hermione in hot pursuit.
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"Just put them on Archie, there's a good chap."
Joey and Harry grinned at each other, as two people back in the queue for water member of the English Ministry of Magic attempted to get an older Wizard into a pair of pinstriped trousers.
"I bought this in a Muggle Shop," Archie continued, "Muggle wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they where these!" He brandished the trousers.
"I'm not putting them on," Said Archie indignantly, "I like a healthy breeze round my privates, thanks."
Someone ducked out of the queue, giggling heavily.
"Should I?" Harry asked.
"Don't go too far." Joey advised.
Harry ducked out of the queue too, leaving Joey with the buckets. The blonde watched his friend for a moment, smiling as it took the girl half a moment to recognise Harry with the new clothes and the bandana hiding his scar, then wincing sympathetically as Hermione slapped the poor teen before hugging him.
She'd been spending way too much time with Kari.
To be fair to her, the last message Hermione had gotten until after all the craziness had finished was Harry's owl arriving with a white ribbon and the symbols for 'danger', 'flying', and 'don't owl me'. Not the most reassuring thing to be left hanging on for a few weeks and their letter after the craziness hadn't been much better.
The only problem was that she was going to demand to know exactly what had happened and there was no way that they could discuss it in public, even in amongst a group of witches and wizards.
He got his water, ducked out of the queue and had time to put them down before he was floored by a right hook from the angry teen, "Why can't you tell me what happened? I was so worried about you!"
"Hermione…" Joey was barely on his feet before he was hugged, "Hermione it was M.I. stuff."
"I don't care." She sniffed.
"Mione…"
"Oi, Joey!" Ron looked rather annoyed too.
Perfect, just perfect. Joey grumbled to himself, as Ron filled the buckets he'd been left with when Hermione ducked out of the queue and stormed over, glaring.
"What happened?"
"M.I. Incident, I can't talk about it here."
Ron had to pause before he ranted, slowing as the phrase sunk in, and his glare died slightly. An M.I. Incident could mean anything from Soul Sucking to stopping the End of the World and anything and everything in between.
Getting no letters from anyone suddenly made a lot more sense.
Ron was still annoyed about being left out of the loop, but now something else took precedence. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yugi and Yami are practising something at the tents, Tristan was still asleep, Ombre and Tea have gone looking for the Ministry tents to see if she can't find Kari, who's here as a liaison for Kaiba Corp, who're sponsoring the Finals." Joey listed, "Kaiba and Mokuba went back to Japan a week and a bit ago and should have arrived yesterday, so they're probably hunting Kari down too…"
"But you're all alright?" Hermione asked quietly.
"We're alright." Harry nodded.
"Where're you pitched? We'll come find you once we've taken the water back."
"Under the name Muto. Look for the white tent, it's Grandpa's so it's enchanted to be bigger inside then out, it has enough room for us guys at least."
"Muto tent, big and white, got it." Hermione nodded, wiping her face with her hand. "See you later."
"Later." Joey nodded.
Ron gave him a parting glare and Joey sighed. Note to self, warn everyone that we're going to be in the dog house for a while.
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"Hi guys!" Yugi waved at the two as they returned, "The fire's going, breakfast anyone?"
"Bacon smells good, you get the nack of that thing Yami was trying to show you?" Joey asked settling at the fireside.
"Almost." Yugi smiled slightly, "It's actually pretty easy compared to some of the things I've been learning."
"Where did you get the idea anyway?" Harry asked the Pharaoh as he started grabbing plates, "I don't think I've ever seen you do it."
"I can't do it." Yami said, dishing out the buttered bread, "But it's not that much different a spell, it's just calling light rather then Shadows." He traded the last of the buttered bread for his slices of bacon, "And Yugi came up with the idea, I'm just showing him how to do it safely."
"Before I forget," Joey said as everyone tucked in, "Hermione and Ron are gonna come looking for us and they're pissed we kept them out of the loop."
There was silence for a moment, and a collection of shudders as everyone remembered exactly why they'd fallen out of contact with Ron and Hermione this Summer.
"Anyway, thanks for breakfast guys." Harry nodded to the Mutos, who smiled.
"Itadakimasu." Joey grinned and tucked in.
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"Are you mad at them?"
"I don't know." There was a sigh, "I should be, I mean, they promised not to exclude us from things again, but then if it was an M.I. Incident, then I guess I can understand them getting distracted."
"You do realise they're not going to give us full details in public like this, they don't even like talking about it on the train."
Pursed lips, "I understand why they're so paranoid, but surely they can trust us."
"It's not that they don't trust us, it's that they don't trust everyone else with the sort of powers that they wield."
"But…"
"Don't get me wrong, I think they're wrong in some respects, but I wouldn't trust certain people with Shadow Magic, I mean, could you imagine Draco Malfoy with some of his brother's powers?"
"But…"
"And would you want to run the risk of being found out by the wrong people and them attempting to take the M.I.s or worse pulling a Marik and coming through us to get to them?"
"Deep, Ron?
"I've had time to think it over." A shrug, "We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, did we?"
"They never forced us to stay friends with them."
"I'm not saying they did, we just weren't aware of just how much craziness follows them and Harry around."
"Well, there's the tent, guess we can only see how much they're willing to say for now."
A nod.
"Let's go."
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"What does that mean?" Harry asked as they started cleaning up.
"Huh?"
"That word, Itadasimaku."
"Itadakimasu." Yami corrected with a small grin, "It directly translates as 'I receive', but it's the polite way of thanking people who helped make the meal you're about to eat."
"Is it too late to say it?" Harry asked, intrigued.
"After a meal the phrase you want is, gochisōsama deshita." Tristan advised.
"Goshisosma deshita." Harry attempted.
Yugi grinned, "It's gochisōsama deshita, but nice try."
"Teach me?" Harry pleaded.
"I'll start Japanese lessons, if you'll wash up." Yugi said to Joey, who shrugged and was about to get to his feet when Hermione and Ron turned up, opened their mouths, caught sight of Yami and shut them again.
Then Hermione spoke, "Yami, are you wearing your de-aging charm?"
Yugi and Joey looked at each other as Yami said something rude under his breath about the American Ministry of Magic.
"What was that?"
Yugi stepped between Hermione and the rather angry looking fourteen year old Pharaoh, "We had a run in with the American Ministry, and well," Yugi cringed, well aware of how Yami was going to take the next comment, "Do you know how to make aging potions?"
Yugi cringed as Yami's mental tirade against stupid American laws on ancient spirits and possession rang in his head and Hermione looked thoughtful.
"I'll do you a trade." She said finally, "You tell us about what happened and I'll find out how to make one."
There was a pause as the group at the tent took a look around to see who was nearby, then Yami said, "Deal."
Sorry we fell out of contact, things got a little insane over here. Full details when we get back, but suffice to say we kicked ass.
Would you believe our school supply letters reached us in the middle of nowhere? I'm not joking, we were on an unknown island in the middle of the Ocean!
We've bought our school supplies already, we visited the local version of Diagon Alley yesterday and will hopefully be able to meet up with you on the train unless you have tickets to the finals of the Quidditch World Cup. Just wait until you find out how we got ours.
See you soon.
Yugi, Yami, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Harry, Rebecca, Duke, Mokuba & Ombre.
P.S. Seto says Hi in his delightful way again.
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To Hermione,
Look! We're alive! Now stop worrying. Everything got a little crazy around here, there and everywhere, for a while but everyone's fine now.
This Summer has been one crazy event after another. Harry found us eventually, we got Yugi back, Yami's acting as normal as he
Ignore Joey, everything's fine, everyone's fine, Yami won the Tournament, Tea's show was great, the magical jail cells
Hi Hermione, Becs here. We're all coming to see the Quidditch Final, hopefully we'll meet you there. The American Ministry is really
How do you get any peace with this lot in your school? I've never seen anyone fight over a letter before.
Hermione, I hope you don't mind that most of your letter has been written by people you barely know. Harry's currently holding Joey down while us sane ones are hiding under the table.
You would have thought that they didn't want to tell you about their Summer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hermione was feeling aggravated as she helped Mr Weasley pitch the tent and with good reason.
"At least your letter had a proper ending."
Ron Weasley was no less aggravated but was waiting a little better, and he'd heard this rant a good thirteen hundred times by now.
"Yes, but it had less information." Ron tried to placate her once again and, just like the last twelve thousand nine hundred and ninety nine times, it didn't stop Hermione from glaring at him and continuing on about how they could have said more in the letter and how they didn't even mention what type of trouble it had been, and what did Joey mean, they had gotten Yugi back, what had happened to him?
This rant continued for a good ten, fifteen minutes, covering everything and amusing the Weasley twins with Hermione's range of non-expletive non-magical curses.
The Weasleys had to wonder just how long Hermione had been saving this rant and if she'd have any steam left to rant at the group when they finally met up.
Finally running out of things to rant about, and unaware she'd repeated several things on the rant list at least fourteen times, Hermione finally bashed the last tent peg into place, imagining it was one of the gang's heads and sat down to look at the shabby, two man tents.
"There'll be enough room, for everyone." Mr Weasley said reassuringly.
Ron grinned, had he ever told anyone just how much he loved magic?
"Ron, I need to talk to you." Hermione whispered. "Privately."
Ron nodded. "Hey Dad, we'll go get the water if you want."
"Really?" Arthur's face lit up. "Well the buckets are around here somewhere…"
"Here Dad." Fred said, chucking them to Ron, a speculative look on his face as he looked at his little brother.
"Alright, don't take too long." Arthur gave Ron a sly smile.
Ron blushed bright red and took off with Hermione in hot pursuit.
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"Just put them on Archie, there's a good chap."
Joey and Harry grinned at each other, as two people back in the queue for water member of the English Ministry of Magic attempted to get an older Wizard into a pair of pinstriped trousers.
"I bought this in a Muggle Shop," Archie continued, "Muggle wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they where these!" He brandished the trousers.
"I'm not putting them on," Said Archie indignantly, "I like a healthy breeze round my privates, thanks."
Someone ducked out of the queue, giggling heavily.
"Should I?" Harry asked.
"Don't go too far." Joey advised.
Harry ducked out of the queue too, leaving Joey with the buckets. The blonde watched his friend for a moment, smiling as it took the girl half a moment to recognise Harry with the new clothes and the bandana hiding his scar, then wincing sympathetically as Hermione slapped the poor teen before hugging him.
She'd been spending way too much time with Kari.
To be fair to her, the last message Hermione had gotten until after all the craziness had finished was Harry's owl arriving with a white ribbon and the symbols for 'danger', 'flying', and 'don't owl me'. Not the most reassuring thing to be left hanging on for a few weeks and their letter after the craziness hadn't been much better.
The only problem was that she was going to demand to know exactly what had happened and there was no way that they could discuss it in public, even in amongst a group of witches and wizards.
He got his water, ducked out of the queue and had time to put them down before he was floored by a right hook from the angry teen, "Why can't you tell me what happened? I was so worried about you!"
"Hermione…" Joey was barely on his feet before he was hugged, "Hermione it was M.I. stuff."
"I don't care." She sniffed.
"Mione…"
"Oi, Joey!" Ron looked rather annoyed too.
Perfect, just perfect. Joey grumbled to himself, as Ron filled the buckets he'd been left with when Hermione ducked out of the queue and stormed over, glaring.
"What happened?"
"M.I. Incident, I can't talk about it here."
Ron had to pause before he ranted, slowing as the phrase sunk in, and his glare died slightly. An M.I. Incident could mean anything from Soul Sucking to stopping the End of the World and anything and everything in between.
Getting no letters from anyone suddenly made a lot more sense.
Ron was still annoyed about being left out of the loop, but now something else took precedence. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yugi and Yami are practising something at the tents, Tristan was still asleep, Ombre and Tea have gone looking for the Ministry tents to see if she can't find Kari, who's here as a liaison for Kaiba Corp, who're sponsoring the Finals." Joey listed, "Kaiba and Mokuba went back to Japan a week and a bit ago and should have arrived yesterday, so they're probably hunting Kari down too…"
"But you're all alright?" Hermione asked quietly.
"We're alright." Harry nodded.
"Where're you pitched? We'll come find you once we've taken the water back."
"Under the name Muto. Look for the white tent, it's Grandpa's so it's enchanted to be bigger inside then out, it has enough room for us guys at least."
"Muto tent, big and white, got it." Hermione nodded, wiping her face with her hand. "See you later."
"Later." Joey nodded.
Ron gave him a parting glare and Joey sighed. Note to self, warn everyone that we're going to be in the dog house for a while.
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"Hi guys!" Yugi waved at the two as they returned, "The fire's going, breakfast anyone?"
"Bacon smells good, you get the nack of that thing Yami was trying to show you?" Joey asked settling at the fireside.
"Almost." Yugi smiled slightly, "It's actually pretty easy compared to some of the things I've been learning."
"Where did you get the idea anyway?" Harry asked the Pharaoh as he started grabbing plates, "I don't think I've ever seen you do it."
"I can't do it." Yami said, dishing out the buttered bread, "But it's not that much different a spell, it's just calling light rather then Shadows." He traded the last of the buttered bread for his slices of bacon, "And Yugi came up with the idea, I'm just showing him how to do it safely."
"Before I forget," Joey said as everyone tucked in, "Hermione and Ron are gonna come looking for us and they're pissed we kept them out of the loop."
There was silence for a moment, and a collection of shudders as everyone remembered exactly why they'd fallen out of contact with Ron and Hermione this Summer.
"Anyway, thanks for breakfast guys." Harry nodded to the Mutos, who smiled.
"Itadakimasu." Joey grinned and tucked in.
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"Are you mad at them?"
"I don't know." There was a sigh, "I should be, I mean, they promised not to exclude us from things again, but then if it was an M.I. Incident, then I guess I can understand them getting distracted."
"You do realise they're not going to give us full details in public like this, they don't even like talking about it on the train."
Pursed lips, "I understand why they're so paranoid, but surely they can trust us."
"It's not that they don't trust us, it's that they don't trust everyone else with the sort of powers that they wield."
"But…"
"Don't get me wrong, I think they're wrong in some respects, but I wouldn't trust certain people with Shadow Magic, I mean, could you imagine Draco Malfoy with some of his brother's powers?"
"But…"
"And would you want to run the risk of being found out by the wrong people and them attempting to take the M.I.s or worse pulling a Marik and coming through us to get to them?"
"Deep, Ron?
"I've had time to think it over." A shrug, "We didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into, did we?"
"They never forced us to stay friends with them."
"I'm not saying they did, we just weren't aware of just how much craziness follows them and Harry around."
"Well, there's the tent, guess we can only see how much they're willing to say for now."
A nod.
"Let's go."
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"What does that mean?" Harry asked as they started cleaning up.
"Huh?"
"That word, Itadasimaku."
"Itadakimasu." Yami corrected with a small grin, "It directly translates as 'I receive', but it's the polite way of thanking people who helped make the meal you're about to eat."
"Is it too late to say it?" Harry asked, intrigued.
"After a meal the phrase you want is, gochisōsama deshita." Tristan advised.
"Goshisosma deshita." Harry attempted.
Yugi grinned, "It's gochisōsama deshita, but nice try."
"Teach me?" Harry pleaded.
"I'll start Japanese lessons, if you'll wash up." Yugi said to Joey, who shrugged and was about to get to his feet when Hermione and Ron turned up, opened their mouths, caught sight of Yami and shut them again.
Then Hermione spoke, "Yami, are you wearing your de-aging charm?"
Yugi and Joey looked at each other as Yami said something rude under his breath about the American Ministry of Magic.
"What was that?"
Yugi stepped between Hermione and the rather angry looking fourteen year old Pharaoh, "We had a run in with the American Ministry, and well," Yugi cringed, well aware of how Yami was going to take the next comment, "Do you know how to make aging potions?"
Yugi cringed as Yami's mental tirade against stupid American laws on ancient spirits and possession rang in his head and Hermione looked thoughtful.
"I'll do you a trade." She said finally, "You tell us about what happened and I'll find out how to make one."
There was a pause as the group at the tent took a look around to see who was nearby, then Yami said, "Deal."