Chapter 13: - Merry Christmas
Joey was insufferable all of Christmas Eve, while he waited for his sister to arrive via Floo Powder. There was no training done by the group, instead, they were gathered around the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room, playing games and laughing and joking, just spending the time unwinding, and enjoying being in each others' company, they would be family soon enough and if they hadn't been showing it before, they certainly were now.
Finally Professor McGonagall called Joey out of the Common Room and the group grinned at each other, knowing how much this meant to the young man, who hadn't stopped talking about it since the notes had gone up on the Common Room notice boards.
"Gotcha!" Hermione laughed, as she managed to take out the last of Kari's life points by getting her Millennium Witch to destroy Kari's Dark Magician Girl, the Apparaître summoned monsters fading.
"Good game." Yami said, from his perch on the sofa, where he was reading a sci-fi fantasy book Hermione had leant him.
"Want to play?" Yugi asked, looking for a game from someone.
Yami, for a change, shook his head, causing Hermione to challenge Yugi and Kari to sink into the sofa next to him, amused as how engrossed in the book the Pharaoh was. "Good book?" She asked, shuffling her deck and putting it back in it's box, before fishing a book from the same series out of her bag.
"Uh huh." Yami didn't even look up.
Kari had to try hard not to giggle, it wasn't often the boys got engrossed in books, and it tickled her fancy that Yami was this engrossed in a book about Dragon Riders considering the stunt they had pulled at the Quidditch World Cup.
"You all ready for tomorrow?" Ginny asked from where she was sat, at a table behind the sofa.
There was a round of nods and grunts from the others, Harry leaning back to look at Ginny, who didn't seemed perturbed in the slightest that her boyfriend had been spending more time with his brother then in the Common Room over the last couple of days.
Kari smiled slightly as she remembered how much she owed Noa for the dress she had to wear, since she certainly wouldn't have gone out to get it fitted had Noa not practically banned her from the office until she went and picked up her school supplies and he'd received the receipt for the dress from the shop.
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Kari didn't want to be here.
She had more important things to worry about then her dress robes.
Like the fact her friends were missing, one of her friends was missing a soul, the company that she worked for was going down in flames even with help from an unexpected source and she couldn't find the other half of her soul.
And yet Noa had basically ordered her to a high class dressmaker, the same one she'd been to before Von Stroder's stupid ball, Aoi Hanae, and told her that until her dress was ordered she wasn't allowed back into the Kaiba Corp building.
If she was honest, she needed this, she needed a chance to escape and unwind. She was surprised that Seto hadn't had a breakdown. However she wasn't being honest with herself, she was barely being rational at this point.
"Greeting Ironhide-Sama, we had a call from Kaiba Corp." A tall, elegant Japanese woman looked her over, "This way please."
"Hanae-San." Kari bowed. The woman had already turned and she followed her into a white room.
"Undress please."
Kari blushed.
"You don't have anything I haven't already seen." The woman looked amused, "I need to measure you."
Kari quickly undressed, taking an unusually long time over her top, finally sighing and dropping the blouse.
The woman's eyes roamed over her, as she came over with a tape measure, lingering for a moment on Kari's right shoulder. "I can hide that with the right dress." She said, taking the measurements as she went.
"I'm not ashamed of it." Kari said, looking at the woman sharply.
"I didn't say you had to be." The woman looked amused, "I was merely suggesting that it would be easier to attract a man if you didn't show any imperfections." There was a pause as she took some odd measurements. "Western style or Japanese?"
"Do you mean a kimono?"
"Yes. Or a western ball gown?"
"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."
"Mr Kaiba said this was a huge event." Hanae looked at her suspiciously.
"It is, I've just been preoccupied." Kari attempted a smile, but it felt so false she couldn't hold it for long.
"I wouldn't worry Ironhide-Sama, I'm sure they'll show up soon."
Startled brown met knowing green and Kari quickly looked away.
A knowing smile soon joined the look in the woman's eyes.
"I have an idea." She said, "Let me get something."
She was gone not more then five, ten minutes, long enough for Kari to get dressed again, before she came back with a roll of silver fabric, embroidered with a pattern that looked gorgeous, if Kari looked closely she could depict dragons.
"Ironhide-Sama?"
"It's…" Kari breathed.
Kanae-San's face fell. "No?"
"Yes, please." Kari grinned, "It's perfect."
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For a moment Kari's left hand went to her right shoulder. She didn't even think about it anymore, unless it was brought up… she growled under her breath, remembering how she'd gotten the scar, but was distracted by Ombre's head going up and turning towards the door.
Joey was back, leading a slightly nervous looking young woman, whose eyes lit up when she saw Yami.
"Serenity!" Yami called, with a grin.
"Yugi!"
Everyone winced but Yami just laughed at the look on Serenity's face as Yugi's head popped up and grinned at her, "Hi Serenity."
The Common Room had gone quiet for a moment, but then it was all noise again as everyone practically bounced off the ceiling with excitement about tomorrow.
"Oops." Serenity laughed lightly, "Sorry Yami, hi Yugi."
"S'ok Serenity." Yami nodded with a reassuring smile.
"Sis, I'd like you to meet the rest of my family." Joey grinned, "The twin girls are Kari and Ombre."
"Hi." The two nodded to the teen.
"Hi." Serenity nodded back. "Which is which?"
"Kari." Kari held her hand up.
"Ombre." Ombre said, waving.
Serenity nodded trying to take in the differences so she didn't forget.
"Hermione is the one attempting to beat Yugi." Joey indicated the young witch sprawled in front of the fire, with her cards out.
"Hello."
"Nice to meet you." Hermione said, looking up, "Joey's been a nightmare since he got permission. Anyone would think he wanted to see you or something."
Serenity laughed.
"And somewhere around here is… Oi Harry!"
Yami mentally poked Harry, who had fallen asleep in the chair with a book on water based magic and he jumped a mile and fell off of the chair, making the group laugh.
"That's Harry, he's not normally that clumsy."
"Hi." Harry nodded, with a mock glare at Joey.
"It's nice to put names to faces." Serenity said, looking around, "Joey's mentioned all of you hundreds of times in his letters and I only knew Yugi properly."
`Doesn't she know?` Harry asked Yami, who glanced over at the teen, who was picking himself up.
'Not everything. Not yet.'
"We haven't really had a chance to explain to her." Yugi filled in as Kari took Serenity upstairs to drop her stuff off in their dorm.
"Yugi…?" Hermione asked, "It's your turn."
"Sorry." Yugi settled back into Duelling, content to listen to Serenity explain about how things were going back home and fill in the gaps in his friend's chatter.
"Your English is really good." Hermione complimented, "Is it a translation spell or…?"
"No, Mum's been getting me some private tutoring." Serenity shook her head, "Just in case it comes in handy at a hospital or something."
"Cool."
"I'll be right back." Kari said, stretching and yawning.
"Where you going?" Harry asked, noting the fact she was taking her bag with her and wondering what was in it. You couldn't really tell anymore, since they'd all had their bags extended with the hold-all charm.
"I have something I need to drop off before tomorrow." Kari said, heading out the door without saying anything else.
"Last minute Christmas present?" Yugi asked.
"Think so." Ombre nodded, unsure herself.
Then the Weasley Twins descended and Serenity had to be warned off eating anything that they offered her, using Canary Creams, as a good example.
Fred and George looked most affronted when Joey took them aside and warned them off of his sister, something along the lines of 'prank her and we'll prank you', they kept clear after that.
"Sorry." Serenity finally said, yawning a couple of hours later, after playing games and just talking with the group, "I'm about nine hours behind myself."
"You should sleep." Joey advised. "Yugi'll have us all up ridiculously early tomorrow, he always does."
"I do not."
"Four am." Harry accused.
"Four thirty." Yugi countered.
"Four twenty seven actually." Yami said, settling it. "But that's not the earliest you've had us up."
"I'm not…"
"Well there was that year…"
"All right, all right." Yugi grumbled.
Serenity giggled at the look on Yugi's face.
"Night guys."
"Good night, Serenity." Yugi and Yami waved her off.
"Sis." Joey caught up with his sister at the bottom of the steps and gave her a hug, "It's good to see you."
"I've missed you."
"Missed you too." Joey said, sombrely, "I just hope you'll be able to cope with Yugi on Christmas morning."
"If I could survive you when you were little, I think I can survive Yugi." Serenity giggled, "He's a lot smaller then you for one."
"Serenity…" Joey whined.
"Night bro."
"Night little sis."
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It was Christmas in the Gryffindor Common Room and all hell had broken loose at five o'clock this morning when Yugi had tried to wake everyone up, as was traditional now, and had been halfway around the Dorm when he'd been pounced on by Kana and pinned to the floor.
This, of course, had meant that Yami had accidently woken everyone else up by trying to reason with his cat.
It had taken the promise of a share of Christmas turkey to get the cat off of Yugi, after which all of the cats had followed them around all day, getting under their feet and generally causing a nuisance of themselves as Kaiba joined them in the Common Room, much to Mokuba's delight, and presents were exchanged.
Mokuba was trying to avoid getting caught by Rebecca, who had come in at the same time as Luna and Seto, having come in a group from the Ravenclaw Common Room, as well as dodge Ginny who was stalking him with the mistletoe.
Seto was watching, half with amusement and half wondering what exactly the girls had planned once they caught his little brother and wondering if he should stop it.
Meanwhile Yugi was playing with a new game his Grandfather had sent as a Christmas present, an improved form of Capsule Monsters, which was spread in front of the fire with Yami playing against him, new necklace glinting in the firelight, a double cartouche that was blank on one side and had 'Yami' in hieroglyphs on the other. Mokuba had been telling them about a few tricks of the game before the girls had pounced.
Joey was sprawled all over the sofa, waiting from his turn to play, and complaining loudly that Serenity, Luna, Kari and Ombre were sat on him. Their response was that he had to share the sofa and if he wouldn't make room then they were going to sit on him or at least that was Luna's response, Serenity was laughing too hard, Kari was too busy fiddling with her new fan, given to her anonymously. She thought she knew who it was from though. It was heavy… beautiful but heavy… and as Joey had found out, sharp.
Luckily Joey's anonymous present had been a bandage, just confirming for Kari who had sent them.
She'd heard of these, they were a really old type of weapon, designed for courtiers of the ancient Japanese Emperors and samurai so they were never unarmed. She wasn't sure how you'd use one in a modern setting, but she was sure that she could find out.
Harry and Hermione were busy, playing the board game that Yugi had given Hermione, and while Hermione was well away, and winning by quite a margin, Harry was too busy wondering exactly when life had gotten perfect to be as engrossed as his friend.
It had to be said, this was, in fact, the best Christmas ever. Somehow he was certain one day he was going to wake up and all of this was going to be a dream.
He wasn't the only one thinking like that, but the other one was too engrossed in a game to be thinking outside of tactics.
They were all for going out later, down to their usual spot at the lake, even with the mud, but for now, they were content to stay inside, by the roaring fire and just be a family.
Well, that and the fact it was actually only about half seven and the sun hadn't risen yet.
"Yes!" Yugi grinned as Yami face palmed, wondering exactly how he'd managed to miss Yugi's surprise attack when it had been blatantly obvious for the three turns before it had struck but then he'd under estimated a level 1 monster and after the amount of times he'd pulled a Kuriboh tactic off, he should have known better.
Kaiba actually couldn't believe how laid back Yami got when he was around those he trusted, he'd always seen Yugi as the chilled out one that didn't get stressed, but then Yami had always been more prone to temper tantrums, while Yugi tended to bottle until he exploded and then woe betide the bad guy.
Yami was never like this outside the Common Room, he was always in 'Pharaoh' mode even around the other students… alright one of those students was a psychotic lunatic bent on killing him, or at least sending his soul to the Shadow Realm, but even around his own house mates, Yami didn't relax.
Joey was getting up, having finally been released from captivity by the girls, and actually gave a smile back towards Kaiba, Harry and Hermione, shocking the CEO since they were technically brothers, or as good as, but still enjoyed shouting at each other, practically rioting over minor details.
He found he'd actually miss it if he didn't have Yami or Joey to row with, Kari was often too tired nowadays to have a decent argument with, though he was certain she vented on him when she was at her lowest because she knew he could give better then she could, causing some stunning rows in the Ravenclaw Common Room and earning himself a few brownie points in this daft dating game of theirs when they made up.
There was a knock on portrait, making Kaiba wonder how that worked for a moment, as Ombre practically sprinted across the Common Room and opened the door to admit her boyfriend, Ryou.
All eyes avoided that section of the room as they wished each other a Merry Christmas… for about a minute and a half, by which point Kaiba calmly cleared his throat and pointed to the now empty sofa by the fire.
Ryou blushed and joined Ombre by the fire, though for a moment the tension in the room was palatable.
Then as Ombre and Ryou started opening presents, there was a relieved sigh and everything went almost back exactly as they had been.
Kaiba thought almost because Yami was on guard again, even though he was almost completely distracted by Yugi and Joey's game. You wouldn't even have noticed that he was on guard if he hadn't seen this so many times before and recognised Yami's body posture as the same that his own bodyguards had during the holidays.
He wondered if Yugi was aware he had two bodyguards as Joey stole a quick glance towards Ryou, who was so engrossed in the back of the 'Monster World' game piece box he was holding, that he missed it.
"OK, we're going out; I'll meet you at breakfast." Ombre said, having felt the tension in the room since she'd opened the door and practically dragging her boyfriend out. Once the portrait closed there was a second sigh of relief and things went back to exactly how they had been before Ryou had entered.
"Guys?" Kari turned from her discussion with Serenity who looked like she was uncertain of something, and asked, as Yugi wiped out two of Joey's Capsule Monsters in one fell swoop, "Who wants to come outside?"
"It's still dark!" Joey protested.
"I know." Kari grinned, "I wanna go skating while it's still dark. Please?"
"You're the only one who has ice skating boots." Yami said, "What would the rest of us do?"
"Firelit snowball fight!" Yugi grinned, looking out the window and spotting the snow that had fallen last night on the frozen ground. Had he ever mentioned that he loved spending Christmas in a hilly region?
"Pwease?"
The gang relented, not that Joey was unhappy to back out of the game considering he was getting crushed by Yugi. Not that that was unusual, but he wanted to practise against the others before he played Yugi again. He'd forgotten it had been the Muto 'twins' who had defeated Duke at his own game, so this new one had been picked up just as quickly.
Everyone grabbed coats and scarves and hats and gloves, though Kaiba was grateful to see Kari reach for the ice skating boots he'd gotten her for Christmas instead of heading upstairs for her old pair that were falling apart.
Most of the castle was still asleep as they headed outside, though that wouldn't last much longer and they wanted to be outside before the rest of it did wake up, as the castle had never been this full during the Christmas holiday before and they wanted some time to themselves, rather then the insanity that would happen once everyone woke up.
The only other place they could gather without anyone disturbing them was the Monster's Wing and they didn't go up there if they could help it, not wanting to disturb the dragons that lived there now.
Down by the lake side, where the Durmstrang ship was frozen into the ice, Kari stopped to change her trainers for the boots. They were gorgeous, white leather with blue and silver detailing, and must have cost a small fortune to buy, with cushioning charms and freshly sharpened blades.
However as she slipped her feet inside she tried not to wince as she felt the hard leather back of the boot. Magically enhanced or not, they were still going to hurt the back of her ankles until she'd broken them in.
The gang were already setting up magical fires as she cast Lumos and tucked her wand into her coat pocket, creating a small pocket of light around herself that would allow her to see the ice well enough to skate on. "Have fun!" She called as Yami threw the first snowball, hitting Seto in the face.
She was on the ice before anyone could hit her and skated out onto the lake and circling the ship before looking to the shore again, where a single snowball had started the single biggest snowball war, not just a fight, but a war, in known Hogwarts history.
She grinned, circling the ship again and wincing as her ankles rubbed, before being startled by a call from someone on the ship and falling down hard.
"Ow." She complained, looking up at where one of the Durmstrang boys was waving down at her. "Merry Christmas!"
The boy called back what she'd assume was Merry Christmas in what she thought was Bulgarian, and vanished.
She got up and skated round so she could see her friends, who were now paired up and fighting each other in teams.
Yugi was paired up with Yami and immensely enjoying not only their tactics, which seemed to be working, but the fact Joey and Kaiba had paired up without complaints when Mokuba and Ginny had double teamed them with Luna and Harry.
He saw Kari skate around the ship, but failed to spot the attack of the crazy people as Seto and Joey attacked without warning from behind the trees and Serenity and Hermione, came at them from the front, supported by Ombre who was levitating snowballs at people and as such had a team all of her own.
Yami yelped, ducking under one snowball but getting hit by three others as they were pelted, losing his partner while he couldn't see and finding himself practically a snowman before too long.
Joey had grabbed Yugi, nodding to his partner in crime, who was more then enjoying pelting Yami until he turned into a pile of snow, as he passed, and pulling his friend to one side of the conflict, letting go and grinning as Yugi finally had a chance to wipe the snow off of his face. "Joey?" Yugi looked confused.
"Just wanted to check you're alright. You've been quiet since the whole becoming a family under magical law thing came up."
"I'm fine, more then fine." Yugi paused and winced, "I just used the word fine didn't I?"
Joey nodded. "So? Or do I have to pelt you with snowballs until you tell me?"
"It's nothing really, I'm being stupid." Yugi shook his head, "Nothing that's overly dangerous or worrying, just me, being me."
"No, you being you is loud and fun, you being quiet is worrying."
Yugi paused and looked over to the firelight, where Yami was trying to dig himself out of the snow, while being pelted by Kaiba and Harry. The sides had changed while they'd been away, since now Luna and Hermione were chasing Mokuba and Ginny around the campfires with snowballs and Ombre proceeded to laugh herself silly at the 'Yami snowman'.
"Yuge?"
"It's…it sounds silly alright." Yugi sighed, "You'll laugh."
"I swear on Deck and Wand, I won't." Joey promised, making Yugi wonder when that had become their binding oath, it seemed to have happened without any of them realising it. "What's wrong?"
"I made a wish…six…no seven years ago, on the Millennium Puzzle." Yugi said, watching his friends play fighting, "Because Grandpa told me that the one who completes it gets one wish and that wish will come true."
"What'd ya wish for? 'Cause if you wasted it…"
"I didn't waste it, that's the problem now." Yugi frowned, "I wished for true friends, and I got them, the next day in fact and now those friends are going to become my family and I still can't help but think that I'm going to wake up one day and find that all of this was a dream and the wish never came true."
"You did waste it then." Joey snorted, causing Yugi to stare at him.
"What?"
"You wasted your wish, Yuge." Joey said, "I'd already decided to make friends with you before you completed it, after you stood up to Ushio for us. Why do you think I got that Puzzle piece back?"
Yugi blinked, uncomprehending.
"After all, any guy willing to stand up to a guy four times his height had to be worth being friends with." Then Joey frowned, "And what was Tea? Chopped liver?"
"Errr… I was young and foolish?"
Joey poked him, "You really thought we were only friends with you because of the Puzzle?"
"No, yes, no…" Yugi struggled to find what he wanted to say. "I…"
"You should give us more credit then that Yuge!" Joey frowned, "Besides, us becoming a family means that it can't have been your wish that made us all friends, because otherwise we'd be staying friends, not researching how to become a family."
When Joey explained it like that, it suddenly made so much sense.
"I…uhhh…"
"And what kind of friends were you expecting to get by magic? Come on! You might have gotten Bonz or something!"
Yugi looked surprisingly like a goldfish, mouth opening and closing, though Joey was glad to get a laugh from him for the Bonz comment.
"No wonder you've been so careful about arguing with us, you've been afraid you'd break the spell." Joey snorted, "Well, now you know it's not a spell, you have to put your own opinions into conversations more often and actually disagree with us sometimes."
"Uhhh."
"Honestly Yuge, I thought you had enough brains in your head to work this out for yourself. Perhaps we used to knock you around too much, knocked some of those brain cells loose." Joey joked, though he still felt horrible about how he had once treated his best friend.
Yugi hadn't been expecting this kind of rant, if anything he'd been expecting Joey to get mad and shout for a whole different reason.
"Besides," Joey continued as Kari passed, wondering what was going on, "Even if it had been a spell that made us friends, I wouldn't change things. I was going nowhere before I made friends with you. Now look at me, I'm actually doing well in school for a change."
"Well?" Yugi squeaked.
"Finally, he speaks!" Joey laughed. "Yes, well, as in not failing."
"Oi, Joey, bring back my hikari!" Yami yelled, laughing as he and Mokuba turned the tables on Kaiba.
"You know… the wish was probably the second test…" Joey said thoughtfully.
"Huh?" Yugi was confused again.
"Think about it, right." Joey continued, "You completed the Puzzle, the first trial, but what if an evil person had completed it, or a person who just wanted it for it's power, the wish could have been a second test to see if the person who completed it was innocent enough to wield it." Joey smirked and got his friend in a headlock, "I mean come on Yuge, that was a pretty naive wish."
Yugi didn't get to comment as Yami tackled Joey from behind, knocking the three of them into the snow. Confusion reigned for a moment, ending when Yugi and Yami managed to end up sat on Joey's back, while he was face first in the snow.
"No fair!" Joey complained, or at least that's what they thought he complained, since they couldn't hear him with a mouth full of snow.
"Get off my brother!" Serenity giggled, levitating the younger of the Muto twins off of her brother.
"Hey!" Yugi squeaked.
"Cheat!" Hermione giggled as Yugi floated in mid air.
"Yami!" Yugi yelped, "Help!"
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Robyn leant down to pick up the small, unobtrusive box that was next to her office door.
It was wrapped in blue and bronze paper, with a shiney bronze coloured tag that had just six words on it.
"To Robyn. Merry Christmas. From Kari."
Robyn picked it up, examining it. She hadn't expected anything, and if she was honest, she didn't know if Kari could possibly get her anything that she would be interested in, when Robyn herself wasn't really sure and they hadn't spoken in four, going on five years.
Slipping into her office, she shut the door behind her, and moved over to the window, looking out over the lake where a large group of students were having a snowball fight while watched over by a bunch of Duel Monsters.
Sighing, Robyn turned away and looked again at the package.
Merry Christmas…
She hoped Kari liked her fan, Robyn knew it would come in handy if Kari could learn how to use it properly… She'd given all of the Gryffindor seven gifts that would come in useful… in fact, she could bet that Joey's had come in useful already…
If only…
There were so many if onlys that Robyn didn't know where to start.
Well… there was one way…
She opened the present.
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Seto Kaiba was waiting at the bottom of the stairs leading to the upper floors of the castle, Ryou Bakura and Ombre Ironhide had just passed and met up with Ginny and Mokuba, Ryou in black dress robes, while Ombre had looked stunning in an Egyptain Style dress. Kaiba had refused to wear dress robes, instead settling for his white suit. His date hadn't told him what she would be wearing but he knew white went with everything as Mokuba was so fond of reminding him.
It was almost time for the ball and the dance would soon begin, something Kaiba was and wasn't looking forward to, it was a long time since he had attended a dance for anything other then Von Stroder's idea of business meetings, stupid man, an occasion such as this made him slightly nervous, not that he'd ever show it.
He heard footsteps on the stairs and looked up, his breath blown away by the three he saw descending, they saw his reaction and blushed instantly. A beautiful young woman descended, wearing a full length silver dress that hung off her left shoulder, her mousey brown hair tumbled down her back in ringlets and a circlet of… those couldn't be real snowflakes… could they? What ever they were they rested on top of her hair, which had blue and silver glitter in, and glittered in the torch light. The only thing about her he recognised to start with was the silver cartouche that hung around her neck and the dagger scar on her right shoulder which she seemed to wear like a badge of pride.
Considering she'd gotten it defending her friends, he wasn't surprised.
She was accompanied by two gorgeous teenage females, one of which was in a periwinkle blue dress, and whose normally bushy hair was sleek and shiny and twisted into an elegant knot at the back of her head, with blue glitter sparkling in it. She was also holding herself differently, something Kaiba attributed to the fact she wasn't carrying any school books.
The other, whose redish brown hair hung loose down her back and sparkled with golden glitter, wore a Japanese kimono, in black, green and silver, her hazel brown eyes dancing with excitement.
Joey, who had been waiting with him, with Cordi and Alecia, looked stunned and Kaiba had to admit that he hadn't expected the rough and tumble girls to look quite as stunning as they did.
"So?" Serenity asked her brother, twirling on the spot. "What do you think?"
"Wow, sis." Joey whistled, suddenly very glad that Duke and Tristan weren't here.
Serenity giggled, following her brother and his dates into the hall, leaving Kari and Hermione on the stairs.
"Seto." Kari grinned, bowing.
"Kari." Seto bowed back, and when he straightened up, he was actually smiling, the same, real smile, he'd been wearing all day. "You look amazing."
"Thank you."
"Her-mio-ninny." Krum bowed and stepped up, taking Hermione's hand, "You are beautiful."
"You look great Vicktor." Hermione blushed.
"Shall we go?" Seto asked, noting that she seemed happier then she had ever seen her, like something had been lifted from her shoulders, and received a bright smile as he offered his hand to Kari.
She nodded, "Lets."
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Rebecca looked at the cup in her left hand and the vial in her right.
It would be so easy, just slip the contents of the vial into the pumpkin juice and give it to Yugi and she'd be set. Yugi would fall in love with her and they'd live happily ever after.
Except they wouldn't.
She'd always know that Yugi didn't really love her for her, he loved her because of the potion, and while she hadn't minded while she'd been brewing the potion, now, as she watched him take his turn dancing with Joey's sister, Serenity, the decision didn't seem quite as clear cut.
Well… back to the old fashioned way of doing things. Yugi had asked her after all, not Serenity. Time to dance, she thought, putting the vial down.
The song ended and Yugi bowed with a smile to his best friend's sister, before allowing himself to given the drink Rebecca had brought over and dragged away by his date for the next number.
She loved him, Rebecca was quite certain of that, but Yugi had made it perfectly clear that he didn't love her the same way. As a friend certainly, Yugi loved all of his friends equally, it was why you always felt guilty about even thinking about betraying him or hurting him in anyway. He loved her as a little sister too, which was why, now she had her Grandfather's permission, she was in on the Clan planning sessions, but as a girlfriend… no, he didn't love her like that.
She was aware of the stares too. She'd heard the rumours circulating, every girl in the school wanted to date Harry, Yugi, Yami, Joey or Seto, there were even a few who envied Ginny her place of honour at Mokuba's side, but no one dared ask, there was too much danger surrounding the group that she belonged to for anyone to want to come into it, even with the most wanted boys in it.
She was also painfully aware that if it wasn't for the ball, Yugi wouldn't have asked her out.
And thoughts like that could drive her crazy… crazier at least…
Tonight was for her and Yugi and them alone, she'd share with Serenity for one or two dances, that she didn't mind, but no more then that. Tonight Yugi was hers.
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Mokuba swept the vial off of the table, putting it in a pocket, before rejoining his girlfriend on the dance floor.
He'd been aware of Rebecca's pause at the drinks table and had been ready to intercept if she had decided to go ahead, but found himself glad he hadn't had to. How he would have explained that to Yugi was beyond him and he probably would have found himself down one friend.
"Everything alright Mokuba?" Ginny asked once the sound of the music could cover their talk.
"It is now." Mokuba assured her, feeling slightly guilty that Ginny had long since learnt the art of discretion, waiting until they couldn't be overheard to ask, just in case.
"Good." The youngest Weasley leaned into him, relaxing.
He led her to the edge of the dance floor towards the cool night air once the number had ended and smiled at Ryou as he passed. It was thanks to the hikari and his girlfriend that they'd gotten in in the first place.
"We have to come up with a way to thank them." Ginny seemed to read his mind as they stepped out onto the grounds, kissing him on the cheek.
Mokuba nodded, then turned, smiled softly and without thinking about it, kissed her back.
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Seto Kaiba was watching the gaggle of girls at the table and sighed.
If he wanted to get his dance partner back tonight, he was going to have to interrupt their chatter.
"I'm glad she's mingling." Joey said, startling the CEO as he joined him, "Serenity I mean, I was worried that she wouldn't fit in with everyone, but I guess she's more of a social butterfly then I am."
"You're talking to me about this?" Kaiba gave him an incredulous look.
Joey shrugged, "Yuge and Yami are dancing with their dates, Harry vanished off somewhere with his, Ryou and Ombre are busy and you're just stood here. By the way, can I have a dance with your date? I think it's your turn to take my sister for a spin."
"I think you should ask her, not me." Seto said with the sort of look on his face that would have worried his employees.
Joey just laughed and shrugged, "I figured you'd glare if I didn't ask you too." He paused with a slightly evil grin, "Unless you want to dance with me."
He had to escape from the empty cup that Seto threw at him.
Serenity giggled as her older brother hid behind Kari from the CEO that looked like he wanted to commit homicide, "What's wrong Joey?" She asked, trying to keep a straight face.
Kari paused long enough to hear Seto mumble something under his breath about 'damn mutt' and grinned, moving aside, "I think your bother did something to annoy Seto."
"Don't you mean Brother?" Serenity asked.
"No, I meant what I said."
"Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you to dance." Seto asked, bowing to Serenity, who gave him a startled look and followed him onto the dance floor.
"Kari?" Joey asked.
"If you ask properly."
"Would you care to dance?" Joey's bow was deliberately over exaggerated but Kari laughed and dragged him onto the dance floor.
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Harry and Luna had left the crowded dance floor at the end of the sixth or seventh number and hadn't yet rejoined the dancers, though they'd seen their friends enjoying themselves, and Harry had been enjoying the rather random conversation.
The topic itself wasn't all that strange. They were discussing how the other students had paired off. What was rather strange was that Luna was confiding in Harry about the madness that had apparently affected the Ravenclaws. What was a nargle anyway?
Luna seemed to know an awful lot about the other students. Far more then Harry. But then Harry wasn't even sure of all his year mates' names, yet alone their habits.
They talked.
Harry hadn't realised a date could be so relaxing, compared to the frantic state he had been in before.
"Ummm, I just realised, I promised Joey I would dance with his sister, do you mind?"
Luna smiled, "Alright, let's go dance with Joey's sister." She said with a mischievous look in her eye and grabbed Harry's hand before heading back to the dance floor.
Harry caught a glimpse of Yami and his date, who looked like she was enjoying herself, and then found himself face to face with Seto Kaiba.
"Uhhh, could we borrow your dance partner?"
"And who might you be?" Serenity asked, smiling brightly at Luna.
"I'm Luna." Luna replied, brightly smiling and half bowing. Harry replied, remembering that Serenity hadn't been here long before she'd been rushed off with the rest of the girls to get ready.
Serenity glanced at the smiling blonde, "I'm Serenity."
"I know, and Joey asked all his friends to dance with you. So shall we dance?"
Serenity laughed and nodded, and Luna pulled both Harry and her deeper into the crowd of dancers, leaving Seto standing on his own, feeling slightly confused.
Did this mean Kari would be asking to dance with Serenity next?
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Hermione and Krum were dancing quite happily. To her surprise, considering that only Kari, Ombre and Seto had been aware of who her date was, no one in her group of friends had said anything about her dance partner, and in fact had come over for a quick chat and then had vanished with their own dates again.
"I think your friend needs a dance partner." Krum said to Hermione, indicating Kaiba, who looked like he wasn't quite sure what had just happened.
"I thought he was here with Kari." Hermione frowned, then saw the woman dancing with Joey, "Unless it was Seto's turn to dance with Serenity."
"Serenity?" Krum looked confused.
"Joey's sister." She indicated the tall golden blonde male, "He managed to get them to let him invite her but she didn't have a date so all of Joey's male friends are dancing with her." She paused spotting Luna dancing with both Harry and Serenity. "And apparently some of his female ones too." She glanced at Seto. "Do you mind?"
"I will go and get drinks, yes?"
"Thank you Vicktor." Hermione grinned and wandered over to Seto. "Hi Seto, having fun?"
"Luna just asked Serenity to dance." He uttered in a rather stunned voice.
"Seto, this is Luna, I wouldn't be surprised if she asks Professor McGonagall to dance by the end of the night." Hermione giggled, "Besides, you know what Harry's like, I swear if he was any shyer we wouldn't see him dawn to dusk."
Seto's gaze left Luna for a moment to turn to Hermione. "Please say something to distract me from thinking about Luna and Harry dancing with McGonagall."
"I like your suit, where did you get it?"
Seto frowned, "Hermione, I never thought you of all people would be reduced to talking about clothing."
"Would you prefer to discuss the theories on magical music?"
"I think, considering our location, I would prefer to dance."
Hermione smiled, "I thought you would never ask."
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"Potter."
"Malfoy."
Harry turned away from the drinks bar, holding two cups of pumpkin juice, attempting to at least be civil tonight of all nights.
"Enjoying your mudbloods, Potter?"
Harry froze, turned around, and gave Draco a glare that would have even impressed Yami. "Luna's a Pure Blood and don't call Serenity a Mudblood."
Draco snorted "Lovegood's no better then a Mudblood, the entire family are lunatics."
"Well you'd know all about insane families." Harry retorted, "Look at yours!"
"Harry?" Harry glanced over his shoulder and saw Yugi was looking over, having sensed Harry's anger. "You ok?"
`Malfoy.`
'Need a hand?' Yami asked, startling Astraea when he stopped mid dance and turned towards them.
`No, I'm…`
"Harry!"
Harry jumped as someone called his name and before he knew what was going on there was a spell bouncing off a shield and Luna had run over, wand in hand. "Leave him alone, Malfoy." She scowled.
"Stay out of this Loony Lovegood!"
"Watch it Malfoy!" Harry snapped, drawing his wand and aware Yugi and Yami were making their way over.
"Densaugeo!"
"Furnunculus!"
The two spells passed each other in mid air, causing Draco to gain boils, while Draco's spell hit Luna in the face.
A moment later, Yami and Yugi had Draco at wand point.
"Luna, you ok?" Rebecca asked, rushing over.
Luna just stared at her, her front teeth huge, enlarged by the spell.
"Malfoy." Yami growled. "Leave."
Draco would have said something else, but Bakura grabbed the back of his robes and dragged his brother out of the hall.
"I'll take her to see Madam Pomfrey." Rebecca said, pulling her friend towards the door.
"I'm coming too!" Harry followed them out of the Great Hall.
"What was that about?" Serenity asked Yugi.
"Draco Malfoy's been a pain since the first day we got here." Yugi advised, "Luna will be fine, Madam Pomfrey will be able to sort her teeth out."
"Okay…"
"Come on, let me show you the grounds." Yugi grinned reassuringly, taking her hand and leading her out of the hall, where the ball was returning to normal.
Leading Serenity around the icicle and fairy festooned garden, they exchanged funny stories about their friends and were just heading back to the hall when Yugi yelped and pulled Serenity into a bush.
"Yugi?"
"It's Hagrid and Madam Maxine." Yugi hissed.
"Who?"
"Our Care of Magical Creatures professor and the Head of Beauxbatons." Yugi hissed, holding up a hand as the two passed.
"Who do you get it from?" Hagrid was asking.
"Get what?" Madam Maxine feigned ignorance.
"It's on my mother's side," Hagrid continued, "But she left when I was little, wasn't really the nurturing type."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"I never found another like me before." Hagrid continued, "Half giant I mean…"
"How dare you?" Madam Maxine practically screeched, "I… I am just big boned!"
"If she's just big boned, I'm a Tomb Robber."
'Yugi?'
"I'll explain later." Yugi said as Madam Maxine stormed off.
Before Yugi could explain to Serenity, Snape blasted the bush they were hiding in and they had to run for it.
"Yugi? Did you know?"
Yugi shook his head, "I kind of suspected, but it's not really fair to ask, considering we never told Hagrid everything about Yami and Ombre."
Serenity frowned in confusion, "Your brother?"
Yugi cringed, "Okay, I think I'd better explain properly."
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Ronald Weasley had been faking sleep for hours by the time the first of his former friends returned to the dorm, excited, happy and tired, and it didn't improve his mood at all to find that a couple of them didn't return at all. Harry and Joey hadn't returned to the dorm, when Neville finally got back at around three am.
He hadn't had a date to the ball, he hadn't managed to get one in time, and there had been no way he was sticking around long when Hermione had gone with Vicktor Krum of all people and none of the gang seemed too worried about it, even though Krum could be spying on Kari and Harry, having headed outside and spent the greater majority of the night roaming around the gardens feeling like an idiot, even having fallen in the fountain in the courtyard and ending up picking a beetle out of his hair…
And he didn't care.
He had to remember that.
He had been angry and upset, thinking the gang had betrayed him, but that had worn off when he'd seen Kari and Harry injured by the dragons they had fought. Now he wanted to apologise, but he couldn't, didn't want to, while the others were ignoring him.
Alright, so he'd made a mistake, but he couldn't believe how the others were freezing him out. They were even inviting his little sister and his twin brothers to their family and they hadn't even talked to him since he'd had that… conversation… with Yugi.
They made him so mad when they just walked on by without saying a word, or he got woken up in the middle of the night by the gang moving around after one of Yugi's nightmares and he couldn't ask them what was wrong…
Ok, he wanted to make up for his mistake, but he also wanted them to see that they had been in the wrong too.
They were wrong it ignore him, they were wrong to treat Harry better then they did Ron, they were wrong to discard Ron's ideas and they should have listened to him about Malfoy instead of ignoring him.
Joey snuck up the stairs around fiveish, waking Ron up from a light sleep and Ron when got up, giving up on getting any real sleep at around sixish, and heading downstairs, only to find Harry and Luna on the sofa, having fallen asleep cuddled up together.
Ron gave up.
He wanted to be friends with them again, but it was hard when they didn't seem to miss him in the slightest. Hermione was with the world famous Vicktor Krum, Harry had found someone he really liked, and he'd even seen Yugi with Joey's sister, happier then Ron had seen him in a while.
They didn't miss him in the slightest, they didn't need him…
Ron stalked out of the Common Room.
He didn't need them, or their stupid Clan…
He didn't…
Finally Professor McGonagall called Joey out of the Common Room and the group grinned at each other, knowing how much this meant to the young man, who hadn't stopped talking about it since the notes had gone up on the Common Room notice boards.
"Gotcha!" Hermione laughed, as she managed to take out the last of Kari's life points by getting her Millennium Witch to destroy Kari's Dark Magician Girl, the Apparaître summoned monsters fading.
"Good game." Yami said, from his perch on the sofa, where he was reading a sci-fi fantasy book Hermione had leant him.
"Want to play?" Yugi asked, looking for a game from someone.
Yami, for a change, shook his head, causing Hermione to challenge Yugi and Kari to sink into the sofa next to him, amused as how engrossed in the book the Pharaoh was. "Good book?" She asked, shuffling her deck and putting it back in it's box, before fishing a book from the same series out of her bag.
"Uh huh." Yami didn't even look up.
Kari had to try hard not to giggle, it wasn't often the boys got engrossed in books, and it tickled her fancy that Yami was this engrossed in a book about Dragon Riders considering the stunt they had pulled at the Quidditch World Cup.
"You all ready for tomorrow?" Ginny asked from where she was sat, at a table behind the sofa.
There was a round of nods and grunts from the others, Harry leaning back to look at Ginny, who didn't seemed perturbed in the slightest that her boyfriend had been spending more time with his brother then in the Common Room over the last couple of days.
Kari smiled slightly as she remembered how much she owed Noa for the dress she had to wear, since she certainly wouldn't have gone out to get it fitted had Noa not practically banned her from the office until she went and picked up her school supplies and he'd received the receipt for the dress from the shop.
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Kari didn't want to be here.
She had more important things to worry about then her dress robes.
Like the fact her friends were missing, one of her friends was missing a soul, the company that she worked for was going down in flames even with help from an unexpected source and she couldn't find the other half of her soul.
And yet Noa had basically ordered her to a high class dressmaker, the same one she'd been to before Von Stroder's stupid ball, Aoi Hanae, and told her that until her dress was ordered she wasn't allowed back into the Kaiba Corp building.
If she was honest, she needed this, she needed a chance to escape and unwind. She was surprised that Seto hadn't had a breakdown. However she wasn't being honest with herself, she was barely being rational at this point.
"Greeting Ironhide-Sama, we had a call from Kaiba Corp." A tall, elegant Japanese woman looked her over, "This way please."
"Hanae-San." Kari bowed. The woman had already turned and she followed her into a white room.
"Undress please."
Kari blushed.
"You don't have anything I haven't already seen." The woman looked amused, "I need to measure you."
Kari quickly undressed, taking an unusually long time over her top, finally sighing and dropping the blouse.
The woman's eyes roamed over her, as she came over with a tape measure, lingering for a moment on Kari's right shoulder. "I can hide that with the right dress." She said, taking the measurements as she went.
"I'm not ashamed of it." Kari said, looking at the woman sharply.
"I didn't say you had to be." The woman looked amused, "I was merely suggesting that it would be easier to attract a man if you didn't show any imperfections." There was a pause as she took some odd measurements. "Western style or Japanese?"
"Do you mean a kimono?"
"Yes. Or a western ball gown?"
"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."
"Mr Kaiba said this was a huge event." Hanae looked at her suspiciously.
"It is, I've just been preoccupied." Kari attempted a smile, but it felt so false she couldn't hold it for long.
"I wouldn't worry Ironhide-Sama, I'm sure they'll show up soon."
Startled brown met knowing green and Kari quickly looked away.
A knowing smile soon joined the look in the woman's eyes.
"I have an idea." She said, "Let me get something."
She was gone not more then five, ten minutes, long enough for Kari to get dressed again, before she came back with a roll of silver fabric, embroidered with a pattern that looked gorgeous, if Kari looked closely she could depict dragons.
"Ironhide-Sama?"
"It's…" Kari breathed.
Kanae-San's face fell. "No?"
"Yes, please." Kari grinned, "It's perfect."
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For a moment Kari's left hand went to her right shoulder. She didn't even think about it anymore, unless it was brought up… she growled under her breath, remembering how she'd gotten the scar, but was distracted by Ombre's head going up and turning towards the door.
Joey was back, leading a slightly nervous looking young woman, whose eyes lit up when she saw Yami.
"Serenity!" Yami called, with a grin.
"Yugi!"
Everyone winced but Yami just laughed at the look on Serenity's face as Yugi's head popped up and grinned at her, "Hi Serenity."
The Common Room had gone quiet for a moment, but then it was all noise again as everyone practically bounced off the ceiling with excitement about tomorrow.
"Oops." Serenity laughed lightly, "Sorry Yami, hi Yugi."
"S'ok Serenity." Yami nodded with a reassuring smile.
"Sis, I'd like you to meet the rest of my family." Joey grinned, "The twin girls are Kari and Ombre."
"Hi." The two nodded to the teen.
"Hi." Serenity nodded back. "Which is which?"
"Kari." Kari held her hand up.
"Ombre." Ombre said, waving.
Serenity nodded trying to take in the differences so she didn't forget.
"Hermione is the one attempting to beat Yugi." Joey indicated the young witch sprawled in front of the fire, with her cards out.
"Hello."
"Nice to meet you." Hermione said, looking up, "Joey's been a nightmare since he got permission. Anyone would think he wanted to see you or something."
Serenity laughed.
"And somewhere around here is… Oi Harry!"
Yami mentally poked Harry, who had fallen asleep in the chair with a book on water based magic and he jumped a mile and fell off of the chair, making the group laugh.
"That's Harry, he's not normally that clumsy."
"Hi." Harry nodded, with a mock glare at Joey.
"It's nice to put names to faces." Serenity said, looking around, "Joey's mentioned all of you hundreds of times in his letters and I only knew Yugi properly."
`Doesn't she know?` Harry asked Yami, who glanced over at the teen, who was picking himself up.
'Not everything. Not yet.'
"We haven't really had a chance to explain to her." Yugi filled in as Kari took Serenity upstairs to drop her stuff off in their dorm.
"Yugi…?" Hermione asked, "It's your turn."
"Sorry." Yugi settled back into Duelling, content to listen to Serenity explain about how things were going back home and fill in the gaps in his friend's chatter.
"Your English is really good." Hermione complimented, "Is it a translation spell or…?"
"No, Mum's been getting me some private tutoring." Serenity shook her head, "Just in case it comes in handy at a hospital or something."
"Cool."
"I'll be right back." Kari said, stretching and yawning.
"Where you going?" Harry asked, noting the fact she was taking her bag with her and wondering what was in it. You couldn't really tell anymore, since they'd all had their bags extended with the hold-all charm.
"I have something I need to drop off before tomorrow." Kari said, heading out the door without saying anything else.
"Last minute Christmas present?" Yugi asked.
"Think so." Ombre nodded, unsure herself.
Then the Weasley Twins descended and Serenity had to be warned off eating anything that they offered her, using Canary Creams, as a good example.
Fred and George looked most affronted when Joey took them aside and warned them off of his sister, something along the lines of 'prank her and we'll prank you', they kept clear after that.
"Sorry." Serenity finally said, yawning a couple of hours later, after playing games and just talking with the group, "I'm about nine hours behind myself."
"You should sleep." Joey advised. "Yugi'll have us all up ridiculously early tomorrow, he always does."
"I do not."
"Four am." Harry accused.
"Four thirty." Yugi countered.
"Four twenty seven actually." Yami said, settling it. "But that's not the earliest you've had us up."
"I'm not…"
"Well there was that year…"
"All right, all right." Yugi grumbled.
Serenity giggled at the look on Yugi's face.
"Night guys."
"Good night, Serenity." Yugi and Yami waved her off.
"Sis." Joey caught up with his sister at the bottom of the steps and gave her a hug, "It's good to see you."
"I've missed you."
"Missed you too." Joey said, sombrely, "I just hope you'll be able to cope with Yugi on Christmas morning."
"If I could survive you when you were little, I think I can survive Yugi." Serenity giggled, "He's a lot smaller then you for one."
"Serenity…" Joey whined.
"Night bro."
"Night little sis."
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It was Christmas in the Gryffindor Common Room and all hell had broken loose at five o'clock this morning when Yugi had tried to wake everyone up, as was traditional now, and had been halfway around the Dorm when he'd been pounced on by Kana and pinned to the floor.
This, of course, had meant that Yami had accidently woken everyone else up by trying to reason with his cat.
It had taken the promise of a share of Christmas turkey to get the cat off of Yugi, after which all of the cats had followed them around all day, getting under their feet and generally causing a nuisance of themselves as Kaiba joined them in the Common Room, much to Mokuba's delight, and presents were exchanged.
Mokuba was trying to avoid getting caught by Rebecca, who had come in at the same time as Luna and Seto, having come in a group from the Ravenclaw Common Room, as well as dodge Ginny who was stalking him with the mistletoe.
Seto was watching, half with amusement and half wondering what exactly the girls had planned once they caught his little brother and wondering if he should stop it.
Meanwhile Yugi was playing with a new game his Grandfather had sent as a Christmas present, an improved form of Capsule Monsters, which was spread in front of the fire with Yami playing against him, new necklace glinting in the firelight, a double cartouche that was blank on one side and had 'Yami' in hieroglyphs on the other. Mokuba had been telling them about a few tricks of the game before the girls had pounced.
Joey was sprawled all over the sofa, waiting from his turn to play, and complaining loudly that Serenity, Luna, Kari and Ombre were sat on him. Their response was that he had to share the sofa and if he wouldn't make room then they were going to sit on him or at least that was Luna's response, Serenity was laughing too hard, Kari was too busy fiddling with her new fan, given to her anonymously. She thought she knew who it was from though. It was heavy… beautiful but heavy… and as Joey had found out, sharp.
Luckily Joey's anonymous present had been a bandage, just confirming for Kari who had sent them.
She'd heard of these, they were a really old type of weapon, designed for courtiers of the ancient Japanese Emperors and samurai so they were never unarmed. She wasn't sure how you'd use one in a modern setting, but she was sure that she could find out.
Harry and Hermione were busy, playing the board game that Yugi had given Hermione, and while Hermione was well away, and winning by quite a margin, Harry was too busy wondering exactly when life had gotten perfect to be as engrossed as his friend.
It had to be said, this was, in fact, the best Christmas ever. Somehow he was certain one day he was going to wake up and all of this was going to be a dream.
He wasn't the only one thinking like that, but the other one was too engrossed in a game to be thinking outside of tactics.
They were all for going out later, down to their usual spot at the lake, even with the mud, but for now, they were content to stay inside, by the roaring fire and just be a family.
Well, that and the fact it was actually only about half seven and the sun hadn't risen yet.
"Yes!" Yugi grinned as Yami face palmed, wondering exactly how he'd managed to miss Yugi's surprise attack when it had been blatantly obvious for the three turns before it had struck but then he'd under estimated a level 1 monster and after the amount of times he'd pulled a Kuriboh tactic off, he should have known better.
Kaiba actually couldn't believe how laid back Yami got when he was around those he trusted, he'd always seen Yugi as the chilled out one that didn't get stressed, but then Yami had always been more prone to temper tantrums, while Yugi tended to bottle until he exploded and then woe betide the bad guy.
Yami was never like this outside the Common Room, he was always in 'Pharaoh' mode even around the other students… alright one of those students was a psychotic lunatic bent on killing him, or at least sending his soul to the Shadow Realm, but even around his own house mates, Yami didn't relax.
Joey was getting up, having finally been released from captivity by the girls, and actually gave a smile back towards Kaiba, Harry and Hermione, shocking the CEO since they were technically brothers, or as good as, but still enjoyed shouting at each other, practically rioting over minor details.
He found he'd actually miss it if he didn't have Yami or Joey to row with, Kari was often too tired nowadays to have a decent argument with, though he was certain she vented on him when she was at her lowest because she knew he could give better then she could, causing some stunning rows in the Ravenclaw Common Room and earning himself a few brownie points in this daft dating game of theirs when they made up.
There was a knock on portrait, making Kaiba wonder how that worked for a moment, as Ombre practically sprinted across the Common Room and opened the door to admit her boyfriend, Ryou.
All eyes avoided that section of the room as they wished each other a Merry Christmas… for about a minute and a half, by which point Kaiba calmly cleared his throat and pointed to the now empty sofa by the fire.
Ryou blushed and joined Ombre by the fire, though for a moment the tension in the room was palatable.
Then as Ombre and Ryou started opening presents, there was a relieved sigh and everything went almost back exactly as they had been.
Kaiba thought almost because Yami was on guard again, even though he was almost completely distracted by Yugi and Joey's game. You wouldn't even have noticed that he was on guard if he hadn't seen this so many times before and recognised Yami's body posture as the same that his own bodyguards had during the holidays.
He wondered if Yugi was aware he had two bodyguards as Joey stole a quick glance towards Ryou, who was so engrossed in the back of the 'Monster World' game piece box he was holding, that he missed it.
"OK, we're going out; I'll meet you at breakfast." Ombre said, having felt the tension in the room since she'd opened the door and practically dragging her boyfriend out. Once the portrait closed there was a second sigh of relief and things went back to exactly how they had been before Ryou had entered.
"Guys?" Kari turned from her discussion with Serenity who looked like she was uncertain of something, and asked, as Yugi wiped out two of Joey's Capsule Monsters in one fell swoop, "Who wants to come outside?"
"It's still dark!" Joey protested.
"I know." Kari grinned, "I wanna go skating while it's still dark. Please?"
"You're the only one who has ice skating boots." Yami said, "What would the rest of us do?"
"Firelit snowball fight!" Yugi grinned, looking out the window and spotting the snow that had fallen last night on the frozen ground. Had he ever mentioned that he loved spending Christmas in a hilly region?
"Pwease?"
The gang relented, not that Joey was unhappy to back out of the game considering he was getting crushed by Yugi. Not that that was unusual, but he wanted to practise against the others before he played Yugi again. He'd forgotten it had been the Muto 'twins' who had defeated Duke at his own game, so this new one had been picked up just as quickly.
Everyone grabbed coats and scarves and hats and gloves, though Kaiba was grateful to see Kari reach for the ice skating boots he'd gotten her for Christmas instead of heading upstairs for her old pair that were falling apart.
Most of the castle was still asleep as they headed outside, though that wouldn't last much longer and they wanted to be outside before the rest of it did wake up, as the castle had never been this full during the Christmas holiday before and they wanted some time to themselves, rather then the insanity that would happen once everyone woke up.
The only other place they could gather without anyone disturbing them was the Monster's Wing and they didn't go up there if they could help it, not wanting to disturb the dragons that lived there now.
Down by the lake side, where the Durmstrang ship was frozen into the ice, Kari stopped to change her trainers for the boots. They were gorgeous, white leather with blue and silver detailing, and must have cost a small fortune to buy, with cushioning charms and freshly sharpened blades.
However as she slipped her feet inside she tried not to wince as she felt the hard leather back of the boot. Magically enhanced or not, they were still going to hurt the back of her ankles until she'd broken them in.
The gang were already setting up magical fires as she cast Lumos and tucked her wand into her coat pocket, creating a small pocket of light around herself that would allow her to see the ice well enough to skate on. "Have fun!" She called as Yami threw the first snowball, hitting Seto in the face.
She was on the ice before anyone could hit her and skated out onto the lake and circling the ship before looking to the shore again, where a single snowball had started the single biggest snowball war, not just a fight, but a war, in known Hogwarts history.
She grinned, circling the ship again and wincing as her ankles rubbed, before being startled by a call from someone on the ship and falling down hard.
"Ow." She complained, looking up at where one of the Durmstrang boys was waving down at her. "Merry Christmas!"
The boy called back what she'd assume was Merry Christmas in what she thought was Bulgarian, and vanished.
She got up and skated round so she could see her friends, who were now paired up and fighting each other in teams.
Yugi was paired up with Yami and immensely enjoying not only their tactics, which seemed to be working, but the fact Joey and Kaiba had paired up without complaints when Mokuba and Ginny had double teamed them with Luna and Harry.
He saw Kari skate around the ship, but failed to spot the attack of the crazy people as Seto and Joey attacked without warning from behind the trees and Serenity and Hermione, came at them from the front, supported by Ombre who was levitating snowballs at people and as such had a team all of her own.
Yami yelped, ducking under one snowball but getting hit by three others as they were pelted, losing his partner while he couldn't see and finding himself practically a snowman before too long.
Joey had grabbed Yugi, nodding to his partner in crime, who was more then enjoying pelting Yami until he turned into a pile of snow, as he passed, and pulling his friend to one side of the conflict, letting go and grinning as Yugi finally had a chance to wipe the snow off of his face. "Joey?" Yugi looked confused.
"Just wanted to check you're alright. You've been quiet since the whole becoming a family under magical law thing came up."
"I'm fine, more then fine." Yugi paused and winced, "I just used the word fine didn't I?"
Joey nodded. "So? Or do I have to pelt you with snowballs until you tell me?"
"It's nothing really, I'm being stupid." Yugi shook his head, "Nothing that's overly dangerous or worrying, just me, being me."
"No, you being you is loud and fun, you being quiet is worrying."
Yugi paused and looked over to the firelight, where Yami was trying to dig himself out of the snow, while being pelted by Kaiba and Harry. The sides had changed while they'd been away, since now Luna and Hermione were chasing Mokuba and Ginny around the campfires with snowballs and Ombre proceeded to laugh herself silly at the 'Yami snowman'.
"Yuge?"
"It's…it sounds silly alright." Yugi sighed, "You'll laugh."
"I swear on Deck and Wand, I won't." Joey promised, making Yugi wonder when that had become their binding oath, it seemed to have happened without any of them realising it. "What's wrong?"
"I made a wish…six…no seven years ago, on the Millennium Puzzle." Yugi said, watching his friends play fighting, "Because Grandpa told me that the one who completes it gets one wish and that wish will come true."
"What'd ya wish for? 'Cause if you wasted it…"
"I didn't waste it, that's the problem now." Yugi frowned, "I wished for true friends, and I got them, the next day in fact and now those friends are going to become my family and I still can't help but think that I'm going to wake up one day and find that all of this was a dream and the wish never came true."
"You did waste it then." Joey snorted, causing Yugi to stare at him.
"What?"
"You wasted your wish, Yuge." Joey said, "I'd already decided to make friends with you before you completed it, after you stood up to Ushio for us. Why do you think I got that Puzzle piece back?"
Yugi blinked, uncomprehending.
"After all, any guy willing to stand up to a guy four times his height had to be worth being friends with." Then Joey frowned, "And what was Tea? Chopped liver?"
"Errr… I was young and foolish?"
Joey poked him, "You really thought we were only friends with you because of the Puzzle?"
"No, yes, no…" Yugi struggled to find what he wanted to say. "I…"
"You should give us more credit then that Yuge!" Joey frowned, "Besides, us becoming a family means that it can't have been your wish that made us all friends, because otherwise we'd be staying friends, not researching how to become a family."
When Joey explained it like that, it suddenly made so much sense.
"I…uhhh…"
"And what kind of friends were you expecting to get by magic? Come on! You might have gotten Bonz or something!"
Yugi looked surprisingly like a goldfish, mouth opening and closing, though Joey was glad to get a laugh from him for the Bonz comment.
"No wonder you've been so careful about arguing with us, you've been afraid you'd break the spell." Joey snorted, "Well, now you know it's not a spell, you have to put your own opinions into conversations more often and actually disagree with us sometimes."
"Uhhh."
"Honestly Yuge, I thought you had enough brains in your head to work this out for yourself. Perhaps we used to knock you around too much, knocked some of those brain cells loose." Joey joked, though he still felt horrible about how he had once treated his best friend.
Yugi hadn't been expecting this kind of rant, if anything he'd been expecting Joey to get mad and shout for a whole different reason.
"Besides," Joey continued as Kari passed, wondering what was going on, "Even if it had been a spell that made us friends, I wouldn't change things. I was going nowhere before I made friends with you. Now look at me, I'm actually doing well in school for a change."
"Well?" Yugi squeaked.
"Finally, he speaks!" Joey laughed. "Yes, well, as in not failing."
"Oi, Joey, bring back my hikari!" Yami yelled, laughing as he and Mokuba turned the tables on Kaiba.
"You know… the wish was probably the second test…" Joey said thoughtfully.
"Huh?" Yugi was confused again.
"Think about it, right." Joey continued, "You completed the Puzzle, the first trial, but what if an evil person had completed it, or a person who just wanted it for it's power, the wish could have been a second test to see if the person who completed it was innocent enough to wield it." Joey smirked and got his friend in a headlock, "I mean come on Yuge, that was a pretty naive wish."
Yugi didn't get to comment as Yami tackled Joey from behind, knocking the three of them into the snow. Confusion reigned for a moment, ending when Yugi and Yami managed to end up sat on Joey's back, while he was face first in the snow.
"No fair!" Joey complained, or at least that's what they thought he complained, since they couldn't hear him with a mouth full of snow.
"Get off my brother!" Serenity giggled, levitating the younger of the Muto twins off of her brother.
"Hey!" Yugi squeaked.
"Cheat!" Hermione giggled as Yugi floated in mid air.
"Yami!" Yugi yelped, "Help!"
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Robyn leant down to pick up the small, unobtrusive box that was next to her office door.
It was wrapped in blue and bronze paper, with a shiney bronze coloured tag that had just six words on it.
"To Robyn. Merry Christmas. From Kari."
Robyn picked it up, examining it. She hadn't expected anything, and if she was honest, she didn't know if Kari could possibly get her anything that she would be interested in, when Robyn herself wasn't really sure and they hadn't spoken in four, going on five years.
Slipping into her office, she shut the door behind her, and moved over to the window, looking out over the lake where a large group of students were having a snowball fight while watched over by a bunch of Duel Monsters.
Sighing, Robyn turned away and looked again at the package.
Merry Christmas…
She hoped Kari liked her fan, Robyn knew it would come in handy if Kari could learn how to use it properly… She'd given all of the Gryffindor seven gifts that would come in useful… in fact, she could bet that Joey's had come in useful already…
If only…
There were so many if onlys that Robyn didn't know where to start.
Well… there was one way…
She opened the present.
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Seto Kaiba was waiting at the bottom of the stairs leading to the upper floors of the castle, Ryou Bakura and Ombre Ironhide had just passed and met up with Ginny and Mokuba, Ryou in black dress robes, while Ombre had looked stunning in an Egyptain Style dress. Kaiba had refused to wear dress robes, instead settling for his white suit. His date hadn't told him what she would be wearing but he knew white went with everything as Mokuba was so fond of reminding him.
It was almost time for the ball and the dance would soon begin, something Kaiba was and wasn't looking forward to, it was a long time since he had attended a dance for anything other then Von Stroder's idea of business meetings, stupid man, an occasion such as this made him slightly nervous, not that he'd ever show it.
He heard footsteps on the stairs and looked up, his breath blown away by the three he saw descending, they saw his reaction and blushed instantly. A beautiful young woman descended, wearing a full length silver dress that hung off her left shoulder, her mousey brown hair tumbled down her back in ringlets and a circlet of… those couldn't be real snowflakes… could they? What ever they were they rested on top of her hair, which had blue and silver glitter in, and glittered in the torch light. The only thing about her he recognised to start with was the silver cartouche that hung around her neck and the dagger scar on her right shoulder which she seemed to wear like a badge of pride.
Considering she'd gotten it defending her friends, he wasn't surprised.
She was accompanied by two gorgeous teenage females, one of which was in a periwinkle blue dress, and whose normally bushy hair was sleek and shiny and twisted into an elegant knot at the back of her head, with blue glitter sparkling in it. She was also holding herself differently, something Kaiba attributed to the fact she wasn't carrying any school books.
The other, whose redish brown hair hung loose down her back and sparkled with golden glitter, wore a Japanese kimono, in black, green and silver, her hazel brown eyes dancing with excitement.
Joey, who had been waiting with him, with Cordi and Alecia, looked stunned and Kaiba had to admit that he hadn't expected the rough and tumble girls to look quite as stunning as they did.
"So?" Serenity asked her brother, twirling on the spot. "What do you think?"
"Wow, sis." Joey whistled, suddenly very glad that Duke and Tristan weren't here.
Serenity giggled, following her brother and his dates into the hall, leaving Kari and Hermione on the stairs.
"Seto." Kari grinned, bowing.
"Kari." Seto bowed back, and when he straightened up, he was actually smiling, the same, real smile, he'd been wearing all day. "You look amazing."
"Thank you."
"Her-mio-ninny." Krum bowed and stepped up, taking Hermione's hand, "You are beautiful."
"You look great Vicktor." Hermione blushed.
"Shall we go?" Seto asked, noting that she seemed happier then she had ever seen her, like something had been lifted from her shoulders, and received a bright smile as he offered his hand to Kari.
She nodded, "Lets."
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Rebecca looked at the cup in her left hand and the vial in her right.
It would be so easy, just slip the contents of the vial into the pumpkin juice and give it to Yugi and she'd be set. Yugi would fall in love with her and they'd live happily ever after.
Except they wouldn't.
She'd always know that Yugi didn't really love her for her, he loved her because of the potion, and while she hadn't minded while she'd been brewing the potion, now, as she watched him take his turn dancing with Joey's sister, Serenity, the decision didn't seem quite as clear cut.
Well… back to the old fashioned way of doing things. Yugi had asked her after all, not Serenity. Time to dance, she thought, putting the vial down.
The song ended and Yugi bowed with a smile to his best friend's sister, before allowing himself to given the drink Rebecca had brought over and dragged away by his date for the next number.
She loved him, Rebecca was quite certain of that, but Yugi had made it perfectly clear that he didn't love her the same way. As a friend certainly, Yugi loved all of his friends equally, it was why you always felt guilty about even thinking about betraying him or hurting him in anyway. He loved her as a little sister too, which was why, now she had her Grandfather's permission, she was in on the Clan planning sessions, but as a girlfriend… no, he didn't love her like that.
She was aware of the stares too. She'd heard the rumours circulating, every girl in the school wanted to date Harry, Yugi, Yami, Joey or Seto, there were even a few who envied Ginny her place of honour at Mokuba's side, but no one dared ask, there was too much danger surrounding the group that she belonged to for anyone to want to come into it, even with the most wanted boys in it.
She was also painfully aware that if it wasn't for the ball, Yugi wouldn't have asked her out.
And thoughts like that could drive her crazy… crazier at least…
Tonight was for her and Yugi and them alone, she'd share with Serenity for one or two dances, that she didn't mind, but no more then that. Tonight Yugi was hers.
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Mokuba swept the vial off of the table, putting it in a pocket, before rejoining his girlfriend on the dance floor.
He'd been aware of Rebecca's pause at the drinks table and had been ready to intercept if she had decided to go ahead, but found himself glad he hadn't had to. How he would have explained that to Yugi was beyond him and he probably would have found himself down one friend.
"Everything alright Mokuba?" Ginny asked once the sound of the music could cover their talk.
"It is now." Mokuba assured her, feeling slightly guilty that Ginny had long since learnt the art of discretion, waiting until they couldn't be overheard to ask, just in case.
"Good." The youngest Weasley leaned into him, relaxing.
He led her to the edge of the dance floor towards the cool night air once the number had ended and smiled at Ryou as he passed. It was thanks to the hikari and his girlfriend that they'd gotten in in the first place.
"We have to come up with a way to thank them." Ginny seemed to read his mind as they stepped out onto the grounds, kissing him on the cheek.
Mokuba nodded, then turned, smiled softly and without thinking about it, kissed her back.
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Seto Kaiba was watching the gaggle of girls at the table and sighed.
If he wanted to get his dance partner back tonight, he was going to have to interrupt their chatter.
"I'm glad she's mingling." Joey said, startling the CEO as he joined him, "Serenity I mean, I was worried that she wouldn't fit in with everyone, but I guess she's more of a social butterfly then I am."
"You're talking to me about this?" Kaiba gave him an incredulous look.
Joey shrugged, "Yuge and Yami are dancing with their dates, Harry vanished off somewhere with his, Ryou and Ombre are busy and you're just stood here. By the way, can I have a dance with your date? I think it's your turn to take my sister for a spin."
"I think you should ask her, not me." Seto said with the sort of look on his face that would have worried his employees.
Joey just laughed and shrugged, "I figured you'd glare if I didn't ask you too." He paused with a slightly evil grin, "Unless you want to dance with me."
He had to escape from the empty cup that Seto threw at him.
Serenity giggled as her older brother hid behind Kari from the CEO that looked like he wanted to commit homicide, "What's wrong Joey?" She asked, trying to keep a straight face.
Kari paused long enough to hear Seto mumble something under his breath about 'damn mutt' and grinned, moving aside, "I think your bother did something to annoy Seto."
"Don't you mean Brother?" Serenity asked.
"No, I meant what I said."
"Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you to dance." Seto asked, bowing to Serenity, who gave him a startled look and followed him onto the dance floor.
"Kari?" Joey asked.
"If you ask properly."
"Would you care to dance?" Joey's bow was deliberately over exaggerated but Kari laughed and dragged him onto the dance floor.
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Harry and Luna had left the crowded dance floor at the end of the sixth or seventh number and hadn't yet rejoined the dancers, though they'd seen their friends enjoying themselves, and Harry had been enjoying the rather random conversation.
The topic itself wasn't all that strange. They were discussing how the other students had paired off. What was rather strange was that Luna was confiding in Harry about the madness that had apparently affected the Ravenclaws. What was a nargle anyway?
Luna seemed to know an awful lot about the other students. Far more then Harry. But then Harry wasn't even sure of all his year mates' names, yet alone their habits.
They talked.
Harry hadn't realised a date could be so relaxing, compared to the frantic state he had been in before.
"Ummm, I just realised, I promised Joey I would dance with his sister, do you mind?"
Luna smiled, "Alright, let's go dance with Joey's sister." She said with a mischievous look in her eye and grabbed Harry's hand before heading back to the dance floor.
Harry caught a glimpse of Yami and his date, who looked like she was enjoying herself, and then found himself face to face with Seto Kaiba.
"Uhhh, could we borrow your dance partner?"
"And who might you be?" Serenity asked, smiling brightly at Luna.
"I'm Luna." Luna replied, brightly smiling and half bowing. Harry replied, remembering that Serenity hadn't been here long before she'd been rushed off with the rest of the girls to get ready.
Serenity glanced at the smiling blonde, "I'm Serenity."
"I know, and Joey asked all his friends to dance with you. So shall we dance?"
Serenity laughed and nodded, and Luna pulled both Harry and her deeper into the crowd of dancers, leaving Seto standing on his own, feeling slightly confused.
Did this mean Kari would be asking to dance with Serenity next?
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Hermione and Krum were dancing quite happily. To her surprise, considering that only Kari, Ombre and Seto had been aware of who her date was, no one in her group of friends had said anything about her dance partner, and in fact had come over for a quick chat and then had vanished with their own dates again.
"I think your friend needs a dance partner." Krum said to Hermione, indicating Kaiba, who looked like he wasn't quite sure what had just happened.
"I thought he was here with Kari." Hermione frowned, then saw the woman dancing with Joey, "Unless it was Seto's turn to dance with Serenity."
"Serenity?" Krum looked confused.
"Joey's sister." She indicated the tall golden blonde male, "He managed to get them to let him invite her but she didn't have a date so all of Joey's male friends are dancing with her." She paused spotting Luna dancing with both Harry and Serenity. "And apparently some of his female ones too." She glanced at Seto. "Do you mind?"
"I will go and get drinks, yes?"
"Thank you Vicktor." Hermione grinned and wandered over to Seto. "Hi Seto, having fun?"
"Luna just asked Serenity to dance." He uttered in a rather stunned voice.
"Seto, this is Luna, I wouldn't be surprised if she asks Professor McGonagall to dance by the end of the night." Hermione giggled, "Besides, you know what Harry's like, I swear if he was any shyer we wouldn't see him dawn to dusk."
Seto's gaze left Luna for a moment to turn to Hermione. "Please say something to distract me from thinking about Luna and Harry dancing with McGonagall."
"I like your suit, where did you get it?"
Seto frowned, "Hermione, I never thought you of all people would be reduced to talking about clothing."
"Would you prefer to discuss the theories on magical music?"
"I think, considering our location, I would prefer to dance."
Hermione smiled, "I thought you would never ask."
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"Potter."
"Malfoy."
Harry turned away from the drinks bar, holding two cups of pumpkin juice, attempting to at least be civil tonight of all nights.
"Enjoying your mudbloods, Potter?"
Harry froze, turned around, and gave Draco a glare that would have even impressed Yami. "Luna's a Pure Blood and don't call Serenity a Mudblood."
Draco snorted "Lovegood's no better then a Mudblood, the entire family are lunatics."
"Well you'd know all about insane families." Harry retorted, "Look at yours!"
"Harry?" Harry glanced over his shoulder and saw Yugi was looking over, having sensed Harry's anger. "You ok?"
`Malfoy.`
'Need a hand?' Yami asked, startling Astraea when he stopped mid dance and turned towards them.
`No, I'm…`
"Harry!"
Harry jumped as someone called his name and before he knew what was going on there was a spell bouncing off a shield and Luna had run over, wand in hand. "Leave him alone, Malfoy." She scowled.
"Stay out of this Loony Lovegood!"
"Watch it Malfoy!" Harry snapped, drawing his wand and aware Yugi and Yami were making their way over.
"Densaugeo!"
"Furnunculus!"
The two spells passed each other in mid air, causing Draco to gain boils, while Draco's spell hit Luna in the face.
A moment later, Yami and Yugi had Draco at wand point.
"Luna, you ok?" Rebecca asked, rushing over.
Luna just stared at her, her front teeth huge, enlarged by the spell.
"Malfoy." Yami growled. "Leave."
Draco would have said something else, but Bakura grabbed the back of his robes and dragged his brother out of the hall.
"I'll take her to see Madam Pomfrey." Rebecca said, pulling her friend towards the door.
"I'm coming too!" Harry followed them out of the Great Hall.
"What was that about?" Serenity asked Yugi.
"Draco Malfoy's been a pain since the first day we got here." Yugi advised, "Luna will be fine, Madam Pomfrey will be able to sort her teeth out."
"Okay…"
"Come on, let me show you the grounds." Yugi grinned reassuringly, taking her hand and leading her out of the hall, where the ball was returning to normal.
Leading Serenity around the icicle and fairy festooned garden, they exchanged funny stories about their friends and were just heading back to the hall when Yugi yelped and pulled Serenity into a bush.
"Yugi?"
"It's Hagrid and Madam Maxine." Yugi hissed.
"Who?"
"Our Care of Magical Creatures professor and the Head of Beauxbatons." Yugi hissed, holding up a hand as the two passed.
"Who do you get it from?" Hagrid was asking.
"Get what?" Madam Maxine feigned ignorance.
"It's on my mother's side," Hagrid continued, "But she left when I was little, wasn't really the nurturing type."
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
"I never found another like me before." Hagrid continued, "Half giant I mean…"
"How dare you?" Madam Maxine practically screeched, "I… I am just big boned!"
"If she's just big boned, I'm a Tomb Robber."
'Yugi?'
"I'll explain later." Yugi said as Madam Maxine stormed off.
Before Yugi could explain to Serenity, Snape blasted the bush they were hiding in and they had to run for it.
"Yugi? Did you know?"
Yugi shook his head, "I kind of suspected, but it's not really fair to ask, considering we never told Hagrid everything about Yami and Ombre."
Serenity frowned in confusion, "Your brother?"
Yugi cringed, "Okay, I think I'd better explain properly."
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Ronald Weasley had been faking sleep for hours by the time the first of his former friends returned to the dorm, excited, happy and tired, and it didn't improve his mood at all to find that a couple of them didn't return at all. Harry and Joey hadn't returned to the dorm, when Neville finally got back at around three am.
He hadn't had a date to the ball, he hadn't managed to get one in time, and there had been no way he was sticking around long when Hermione had gone with Vicktor Krum of all people and none of the gang seemed too worried about it, even though Krum could be spying on Kari and Harry, having headed outside and spent the greater majority of the night roaming around the gardens feeling like an idiot, even having fallen in the fountain in the courtyard and ending up picking a beetle out of his hair…
And he didn't care.
He had to remember that.
He had been angry and upset, thinking the gang had betrayed him, but that had worn off when he'd seen Kari and Harry injured by the dragons they had fought. Now he wanted to apologise, but he couldn't, didn't want to, while the others were ignoring him.
Alright, so he'd made a mistake, but he couldn't believe how the others were freezing him out. They were even inviting his little sister and his twin brothers to their family and they hadn't even talked to him since he'd had that… conversation… with Yugi.
They made him so mad when they just walked on by without saying a word, or he got woken up in the middle of the night by the gang moving around after one of Yugi's nightmares and he couldn't ask them what was wrong…
Ok, he wanted to make up for his mistake, but he also wanted them to see that they had been in the wrong too.
They were wrong it ignore him, they were wrong to treat Harry better then they did Ron, they were wrong to discard Ron's ideas and they should have listened to him about Malfoy instead of ignoring him.
Joey snuck up the stairs around fiveish, waking Ron up from a light sleep and Ron when got up, giving up on getting any real sleep at around sixish, and heading downstairs, only to find Harry and Luna on the sofa, having fallen asleep cuddled up together.
Ron gave up.
He wanted to be friends with them again, but it was hard when they didn't seem to miss him in the slightest. Hermione was with the world famous Vicktor Krum, Harry had found someone he really liked, and he'd even seen Yugi with Joey's sister, happier then Ron had seen him in a while.
They didn't miss him in the slightest, they didn't need him…
Ron stalked out of the Common Room.
He didn't need them, or their stupid Clan…
He didn't…