Chapter 16: - It's Time to Dddddddduel
"Are you sure I can't do something about her?" Harry, who'd been sensing Yami's irritation since he'd gotten out of the bath, after their training session, walked into the Great Hall to hear the Pharaoh complaining at his hikari.
"Morning guys." Harry waved, "What's wrong?"
"Skeeter's at it again." Joey shrugged, "Just in time for the latest of the Hogsmead weekends."
"And Yami wants to Shadow Game her." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"What is it this time?" Harry snorted.
"Yami, sit down and calm down or I'll set Robyn on you." Yugi glared, before glancing over at Harry, "She was rather rude about Astraea, accusing her of being a gold digger, which of course we know isn't true."
"Yami doesn't have any money, so how can Astraea be a gold digger?" Harry frowned, "Besides, Astraea seems to be alright about it." He said, picking out the Slytherin teen among the crowd at that table.
"She wasn't when we first came down, she was furious until she realised that Yami wasn't mad at her. We should be very glad Skeeter wasn't in the castle this morning."
"There would have been pieces of her leaving." Joey nodded. "Maybe we should, you know, stop getting the Daily Prophet. Oh and I had a thought."
"What's that?"
"Well Yuge and I saw a maze as a task right?"
"Uh huh."
"And neither of the two tasks so far have been mazes right?"
"Uh huh."
"So that means that the third task has to be the maze and what are we doing about it?"
"As of today, we're going to the library to research as many non-lethal combative spells as we can find and we're going to learn as many of them as we can."
"What about direction spells?"
"Already looking." Hermione said, holding up the book. What Harry had assumed was another one of those really old books that she'd been engrossed in recently was in fact a well worn library book on magical dowsing.
"Um, how is finding water going to help?"
Hermione gave him a despairing look, "There should be something in here about finding out which direction you're going in."
"Have you decided what you're going to do yet about the Orb of Light yet?" Joey asked Kari, who held the Orb in hand and sighed.
"I don't know, I feel like I should take it with me, just in case, but then I don't want to take it…"
"Just in case." Yugi finished for her, nodding in understanding.
"I've been playing with the memories inside it," Kari continued, "But there's not really much advice you can get from the past about something that none of the former wielders have been through. I just worry that if something happens…" Kari sighed, she had that lost look about her again, as if she had realised she was being swept away by the tides, hadn't quite reached panic yet, but didn't really know what to do about it.
"You'd bring it back safely." Ombre said confidently. She was as worried as the rest of the Clan about the events of the third task, especially since Harry and Kari were going to disappear unless they did something about it, but had enough confidence in her partner to trust that she and Harry would come back safely.
"I suppose I'll wait to work it out on the day, after all, a lot can change in a couple of months, I might have worked out the secrets of the damn thing by then."
"Just don't get lost in the memories again please." Yugi said, remembering how long it had taken Ombre to find her when she had.
"No thank you." Kari shuddered, remembering the first time she'd dipped into the memories in the Orb and gotten completely lost and turned around and had been unable to get back to reality until Ombre had helped her.
"Any luck yet?" Yami asked, as he had at least once a week, since Kari had started using the Orb's memory banks extensively.
No one could blame him but it did get wearing after a while, especially when the answer was, "No, not yet, there's a lot of memories to get through and I'm having 'fun' sorting them. I'm getting there," That was new, "I caught a glimpse of either you," She looked at Joey, "Or someone who looked a lot like you, last night, so either that was a memory of mine or a memory of Ombre's."
"Shouldn't that have been easy to work out?" Ron asked.
"You try sorting through memories that don't want to be seen." Kari growled, "I don't know why, but I've seen very few memories of my own or of Ombre's. It's like I'm not allowed to look at them."
"Perhaps you're not." Yugi said, thinking, "Perhaps Ombre has to find her memories on her own first and perhaps you have to work out how to store your memories."
Kari looked at Ombre, who lowered her eyes; they'd had that conversation the day after the Clan Ritual. Ombre had more memories then she was letting on, the only reason she didn't have a name was because she was unsure which of the twin Princesses she was.
There had been two who had been sent to Egypt, not one, Princess Shani and Priestess Aziza. Shani had been raised to rule over the kingdom, while Aziza had been raised to take the High Priestess position at the Temple of the Sun. However it wasn't that easy.
Because they had been identical they had often swapped places, taking the other twin's lessons instead of their own, and as such it was impossible for an outsider to know which twin had sealed herself in the Orb, or if both of them had. For some reason there was too many conflicting memories, it was almost like someone had used a memory charm on the Orb, but that was impossible, right?
However, Kari had promised Ombre that she wouldn't say anything and hadn't yet, to anyone, not even Hermione.
"You'll work it out." Joey shrugged, sitting down and starting his own breakfast, "When the time is right."
"I suppose." Kari sighed, "It's just irritating."
There was silence for a moment as everyone chowed down and then Joey spoke up again, "Oh, I'll be a bit late joining you guys in the Three Broomsticks, Cordi and Alecia wanted to meet up…"
"Who knows, it might be a long lasting relationship." Yugi said, before looking down the table for something that wasn't pumpkin juice. Where did they even find pumpkins at this point of the year? They were out of season…
"You'd be the envy of most of the male population if it was." Harry added.
"I wish. But no, they only went to the ball with me because... how did Kaiba put it, 'I completely ignored all the signals that said they were already in a relationship, and they didn't want to cause a stir at Hogwarts'" Joey groaned.
There wasn't really much you could say to that.
"I might be late too," Yami changed the subject, "Astraea's meeting me by the gates of Hogsmead."
Yugi was thoughtful, he'd spoken to Rebecca a couple of weeks ago and she'd dumped him before he could dump her, saying that she'd had fun, but she knew he wouldn't have asked her if it hadn't been for the ball. It would have been a peaceful break up, if it hadn't been for the fact that Becs had fled in tears and Luna and Ginny hadn't spoken to him for a week.
"See you guys later?" Kari asked, as Seto waited at the door for her.
"Have fun." Ombre shoved her off, having spotted Ryou getting up from the Hufflepuff table.
"Later Kari." The group drifted apart upon reaching Hogsmead, heading for various dates and shops, and Yugi found himself in the Three Broomsticks, enjoying a drink that WASN'T pumpkin juice for a change and thinking about everything.
They were due to start brewing the bloodline potion tomorrow, March 2nd, but it looked like it was going to be around the beginning of June before the potion would be ready, Robyn hadn't been joking when she had said that it would take months for a decent one to brew properly and they couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
"Yugi." Yugi's train of thoughts jumped the tracks as Ginny and Rebecca waved, having just entered the Three Broomsticks. Yugi quickly waved them over, and the two girls settled quickly.
"You got everything you wanted?" Yugi asked.
"Uh huh." Ginny rattled off a list of things they'd bought. It was quite an extensive list that made Yugi wonder how exactly it all fitted into the bags the girls were carrying. "…And a couple of ever lasting gobstoppers." Ginny finally finished. "You're not shopping?"
"Got some sweets, but we're running out of money for Hogsmead trips." Yugi shrugged, "I think me and Yami have about six Galleons between us for this trip."
"Ouch." Ginny frowned.
"You want a drink?" Rebecca asked, noting the almost empty glass.
"No thank you." Yugi shook his head.
"What're you going to do?"
"We'll just have to make sure that we make a few more tournaments this year." Yugi shrugged, "I see you have your name down for the interschool Tournament, Becs."
Becca bounced in her seat. "I should be able to take the prize easily since you're not competing."
"You do know that Seto and Joey are entering right?"
"Uh huh, they don't worry me."
"Who doesn't worry you?" Mokuba asked, joining them, with a bottle of Butterbeer.
"Rebecca was just saying that she can beat your brother at Duel Monsters easily." Ginny said.
"No way." Mokuba laughed, "Sorry Becs, you're good but you wouldn't last five seconds against my brother."
Yugi, who saw the look Ginny got, decided that now would be a good time to spend the last of his money on a drink and quickly moved away from the table, reaching the bar just in time to be able to hear the 'discussion' from across the other side of the room.
Oh this was going to be sooo much fun.
The first round was going to be played out this time next week, with, thankfully, Joey and Seto ending up in different halves of the bracket so the only time they would end up playing each other would be the finals, if both of them made it that far and if Yugi was honest with himself, he didn't really see that not happening, considering that they were two of the best Duellists in the world.
If Kari had been allowed to compete, there might have been a problem, but as a Champion, she and Harry had had to drop out as it hadn't been fair to the other Hogwarts students unless Krum and Fleur competed and they hadn't wanted to.
In a move that had surprised everyone, Astraea had decided to compete, making up the Slytherin team alongside Draco and Bakura.
It was supposed to be Hogwarts against the other two schools, but everyone knew that the group from Gryffindor, Joey, Ombre and Hermione, were looking forward to beating two of the three Slytherins at Duel Monsters, but that was only if the group from Ravenclaw, Seto, Luna and Rebecca, didn't take them out of the Tournament first… the only ones not really taking part in this little war were the Hufflepuffs, represented by Ryou and Justin, who were in it for a bit of fun.
There were eleven from Beuxbatons competing, but just ten Durmstrang students had entered, making it easy for Seto to set up the Tournament bracket, with thirty two competitors, and Yugi was kind of glad that they hadn't entered. It would be interesting just to watch and cheer from the sidelines for a change.
Yami had been busy, over the last couple of weeks, helping Astraea prepare and while Joey had quiet frequently said that he didn't think that Astraea would ever match up to Yugi or Yami, but then in an aside he'd add that he didn't think anyone ever would, Yugi had the feeling that she might surprise them.
He hadn't thought that a Slytherin who wasn't involved the Millennium Item troubles would have shown an interest in a Muggle game like Duel Monsters, but then Astraea had seemed impressed at it's scope and influence… maybe she was interested in the sort of fame and glory a high ranking Duellist, even on the normal Tournament circuit, could gain.
The two in question walked in, Astraea looking a little less uncomfortable then she had done a couple of months ago, Duel Disks under arms and Yugi rolled his eyes. Yami was spending more time duelling Astaea then he was anyone else, not that it wasn't good training, but…
Today was the last day though, Astraea had found another training partner, and they had to start on the research for the third task. The Slytherin was in Kaiba's half of the bracket, which thankfully meant that she wasn't in Bakura's half.
This however, inevitably meant, unless someone was a lot better then they expected, or someone had an incredible run of bad luck, that Kaiba would end up fighting Astraea at some point and Joey, unfortunately would probably end up fighting Bakura.
Joey had joked only last night that maybe it would be a run of incredible good luck to end up kicked out of the competition before he had to fight Bakura, and was Yami or Yugi sure that they didn't want to enter…
The Clan was gathering, including those sworn in, just as they had been promised they could be, and Yugi hurried back to the table, enjoying spending time with his family. It had to be said that what Joey had said to him at Christmas had eased his worries a bit, but he still worried what the others would say sometimes…
"Yuge!" Joey grinned, apparently cheered up, as Kari and Seto trailed in, last of all, "Listen to this, right…"
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Sixteen Duels were being held today, all over the grounds of Hogwarts, and some how the Clan had to spread themselves out evenly at all the ones they wanted to watch.
It wasn't too bad, only seven instead of eight, Luna was playing Hermione down by Hagrid's hut, while Seto played Bojidar, a Durmstrang Student, at the lake side, Rebecca was facing off against Adeline, from Beuxbatons, a little further around.
Meanwhile Joey was fighting Iordan in the Great Hall, Ombre was facing Kiril in the Defence Against the Dark Arts room, Ryou was fighting Carole in an empty Charms classroom and Astraea was battling Celeste in a potions classroom.
The Clan were convinced that wouldn't have been allowed had Astraea not been a Slytherin.
In theory this should be an easy round, but they weren't taking the risk of underestimating their opponents. The only thing that was reassuring was that this was an inter-school tournament, not a Muggle world one, so it was a lot less likely that something particularly bad would happen, although the old body guard rosta had started up again, just in case, swapping who was being protected from Quidditch Players to Duellists and Champions.
There was little worry now, but when things got heated later on everyone could just see hexes flying in order to put people out of commission before the matches and everyone wanted their Duellist or Champion to win.
To say that it had been an interesting week would be an understatement.
And this would continue until the day before the last task, when the finals were held…
Yugi had decided to stick with Joey, cheering from the sidelines, and wondered as the two Duellists took their places and activated the enchanted Duel Disks, if they had deliberately placed Joey and Seto somewhere that their dragons would fit easily.
"Let's Duel!" Joey called in Japanese, while Yugi guessed that was what the Joey's opponent had called in Bulgarian. It had amused the Former King of Games that even though they seemed to all have picked up English during the duration of the translation spell, which he was certain had worn off years ago, he, Yami, Joey, Seto and Mokuba, all slipped back into Japanese when they were going into a Duel.
Perhaps he shouldn't be that surprised, Japanese was their first language, and Duel Monsters was… Yugi didn't even consider what it meant that his life had been so caught up in the game of Duel Monsters that he didn't even think about it when he said that playing the game came as naturally as breathing.
"Your move first…" The Bulgarian waved at Joey, who drew and scanned his hand quickly.
"Two cards face down and a card in defence mode." Joey said, playing quickly and easily. Yugi wasn't the only one this came naturally to anymore. "Your move."
The Bulgarian teen nodded, he wasn't anywhere as imposing as Vicktor and if Joey was honest he wasn't overly worried, but still… he hadn't been too worried about enemies before and look where that had gotten him…
"I play this in defence mode." A face down card appeared, "I play a card face down. Your move Joseph."
"Joey." Joey automatically corrected, drawing and thinking. "I tribute my face down card to summon the Flame Swordsman, and equip him with Salamandra!" His Flame Swordsman's attack points grew to 2500. "Now, attack his face down card!"
The fire serpent shot from around the sword to the card face down, which revealed itself to be Big Shield Gardna, which took the blow and then automatically switched itself into attack mode. Joey lost 100 life points, since the defence of Gardna had been 100 points higher then the attack of his Flame Swordsman. "I guess it's your go."
"I switch my Big Shield Gardna into defence mode and summoned the Obnoxious Celtic Guard in defence mode." This was a pretty safe play, becase Joey's Flame Swordsman was now too high to defeat the Celtic Guard, as it could only be destroyed by a monster with under 1900 attack points. Joey had a plan though. "Your turn."
"I summon Blue Flame Swordsman." Joey called, "And activate his effect, decreasing Blue Flame's attack by 500 and increasing Flame Swordsman by the same amount."
This took Flame Swordsman up to 3000, far above Big Shield Gardna, while Blue Flame Swordsman still had enough attack points, at 1300, to defeat the Celtic Guard while he was in defence mode. "Blue Flame Swordsman destroy his elf."
Yugi couldn't help wincing as the Celtic Guard was destroyed. He had one of those in his own deck and hated it when his was destroyed.
"Now, Flame Swordsman, destroy his Big Shield Gardna."
This too exploded, leaving the Bulgarian wide open. However, since Joey had no more monsters to attack with, he had to leave it for this turn. "Your go."
"I summon the Dark Knight in attack mode and equip him with Divine Sword – Pheonix Blade." Iordan growled, as his Knight grew to 2100, "And he attacks your Blue Flame Swordsman."
Weakened by powering up the Flame Swordsman and outmatched even if he hadn't, the Blue Flame Swordsman fell quickly, costing Joey another 800 points. Yugi frowned, certain that the Bulgarian was playing with a structure deck, as he recognised half the cards as coming from the Warrior's Revenge deck released just before he'd come back to Hogwarts.
Joey drew, but his mind was already on his next move, "Flame Swordsman, destroy Dark Knight!"
"Dust Tornado!"
"Mystical Space Typhoon!"
The Dust Tornado that would have removed the power up from Salamandra was destroyed and Dark Knight exploded in a blazing attack that cost Iordan 900 points.
"One card face down." Joey replaced the card he's used, "And it's your turn."
"One card, in defence mode." Iordan scowled, and one card face down."
Joey drew, on a roll now, "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode,. Gearfried, attack his face down card."
It was a Gearfried the Iron Knight that died, and for some reason, Joey's Flame Swordsman exploded too.
Yugi had seen the play though, "That was a Blast with Chain," He was explaining to Neville, who had asked him what had happened, "It's supposed to destroy an opponent's card when the monster it's sent to the graveyard by another card's effect, but it becomes an Equip Card and Gearfried isn't effected by Equip Cards, they automatically get destroyed when they're equipped to him."
"Is that why did Joey's Flame Swordsman exploded?"
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "But Joey can pull that back easily."
"Your move." Joey growled, wishing he'd thought that throw a little more carefully. That had always been his problem, he'd forget to think about the face down cards and get caught out…
"Goblin Attack Force, who wipe out your Gearfried." They did so, taking Joey down to 2600, but swapped into defence mode, where they were defenceless as they had no defence score at all. "That's it."
"Monster Reborn." Joey called, glad he'd managed to get his hands on one, "To bring back the Flame Swordsman and I also summon Battle Warrior."
The 700 attack point monster seemed worthless to most, but Yugi knew it was there only as bait and to take out the Goblin Attack Force.
"Battle Warrior, attack Goblin Attack Force."
The enemy exploded.
"Flame Swordsman, attack Iordan!"
The crowd hissed as the Swordsman struck as Iordan himself, knocking 1800 points off of his total.
"Your move."
"You're very good, Joey." Iordan said, sounding amused, "I had heard stories from your year mates, but I didn't think they were true."
"You're pretty good yourself." Joey nodded with a smile. He was enjoying this, even if he was ahead considerably. It had been far too long since they had played competitively.
"I set a card face down and end my turn."
"You're leaving yourself wide open?" Joey frowned… he didn't believe it could be this easy…
Yugi didn't believe it either, just willing to bet that the face down card was a Call of the Haunted, which was less frightening with no Pumpkin, King of Ghosts in play but could still raise one monster from the graveyard.
"Oh yeah!" Joey crowed as he drew, "Say hello to my good friend," Joey grinned, "I sacrifice Flame Swordsman and Battle Warrior for the Red Eyes Black Dragon."
Those who hadn't seen the dragon at his full size before backed up quickly as Red Eyes easily took up around half of the room. "Red Eyes, attack him directly!"
Iordan knew he would lose if he took the attack, and while he couldn't use it to decrease Joey's life points further, he activated his Call of the Haunted to summon back his Goblin Attack Force who exploded but only cost him 100 points, taking him down to 1200 life points.
"Your move."
"One card in defence mode and that's it."
"Then I end this." Joey drew, "By summoning Sasuke Samurai in attack mode."
The tiny little ninja didn't look overly threatening…
"He can destroy any monster that is in defence mode without any damage being dealt to either player and I direct him to do so now." The Samurai destroyed the face down defence position card, "I apologise, this will hurt… Red Eyes finish this."
Red Eyes blasted Iordan for 2400 points of direct damage, winning Joey the game. There were cheers from the Hogwarts spectators and boos from the Durmstrang one, but Joey offered his condolences and the wish for another game at another time and turned to Yugi, "Shall we see how the others are doing?"
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Yami was watching Astraea's match, confident that his friends would win easily.
She was doing well, 200 hundred points up, at 1200, and had just taken the shock lead with her Dimension Wall trap which had just reflected the damage that she should have taken, which would have wiped her out, right back at Celeste, reflecting 1800 points of damage right back at her.
If Yami was honest, there were a few cards in that deck of hers that he wouldn't like to face, somehow the structure deck that she'd picked up, 'Curse of Darkness', included cards like the Crush Card virus, the Deck Devastation Virus, the Dark Mirror Force, making any defence monsters the opponent had completely useless as it would destroy them, and if that wasn't enough, she had the Eradicator Epidemic Virus, which crippled the player's hand, destroying it and any cards they drew for the next three turns…
"It's my move." The Slytherin glared. If she was honest, she found this girl incredibly wishy washy, with a duelling style to match, no real skill, just a lot of showing off, Astraea was well aware that she was better then this girl and knew that her house mates wouldn't let her live it down if she lost. She was staying calm but even a novice like her would have known better then to walk straight into a trap like that.
"I summon my Nightmare Steelcage." She hissed, the iron cage closing in around Celeste. Yami flinched internally, remembering Strings and how close they had come to being killed by Slifer, "Neither of us can attack for two turns, and in my free time I play Pot of Avarice, sending five monsters from my Graveyard back to my deck and draw two cards." Astraea smirked, "And summon my Axe Dragonute." The black dragonlike knight appeared on the field, wings flaring, pointing his axe at the imprisoned Celeste. "Your move." The sneer was obvious, Astraea had drawn something good, and Celeste knew it, since she hesitated to draw.
"Don't give up!" Fleur cheered from the sidelines.
Celeste drew, "I set a card in defence mode and end my turn."
Astraea drew, "I sacrifice my Dragonute for the King of the Underworld. Lich Lord, come forth!" She demanded, throwing a hand forward. She couldn't help it, getting carried away. Yami had been right; playing in a tournament situation was about a million times more fun then just practise battles, she could see why he loved them
Her lich, a zombie like creature wearing a cloak and crown, with armour in some places and black, damaged wings, appeared, with a sinister smile, staff in hand.
"My Lich has 2400 hundred attack points, but only 1200 defence points." Astraea sighed, "Not that it matters, I wouldn't switch him into defence mode anyway… I end my turn, but in two turns, my Lich will wipe you out."
"Not possible!" Celeste glared, "I set a card in defence mode and end my turn."
The Nightmare Steelcage disappeared, and Celeste continued to glare.
Astraea was unworried. "I too set a card in defence mode, and then Lich Lord, destroy her left face down card."
It exploded, revealing a siren for a moment, before it vanished. "It's over, I end my turn."
"You can't win, I play Monster Reborn to summon my Space Mambo back to the field," The alien space ship fish thing reappeared. "And I sacrifice it and my face down Mermaid Knight to summon my Levia-Dragon – Daedalus to the field, in attack mode and play A Legendary Ocean." The blue sea serpent/effect monster appeared, proclaiming his strength, as the dungeon was flooded with water, making half the people there scream and back away. Some people didn't move though, they'd seen field cards that could create fields, forests, even cities, "Attack her King." The way Celeste said King made it sound rude. The Lich exploded, taking Astraea down to 800 life points. "I end my turn. Now what are you going to do?"
"My Lich goes to my hand instead of the graveyard, you can't kill him that easily, and with my face down card on the field I can bring him back."
"He's still no match for Daedalus."
"Ah but you've made him powerful enough, I sacrifice Plague Wolf for Lich Lord and equip him with Megamorph." The Lich grew to twice the size, the gem on his staff glowing, "Now if I'd have equipped that to him last turn, it would have halved his attack points," Astraea explained, "But since you knocked my life points down below yours, it now has the opposite effect. He's now forty eight hundred instead of twenty four."
Celeste didn't look amused.
"You lose. King of the Underworld, send Daedalus to your realm! Attack!" The Lich attacked, the Sea Serpent exploded and Celeste's points hit zero. "I win."
Celeste shook her hand begrudgingly as the Slytherins cheered, the Beuxbatons students clapped politely and Astraea ignored those among the crowd who had hoped she would lose. She sought Yami out.
"I told you that you'd win easily."
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"You can't win!" Kiril laughed as he summoned his huge Beat of Talwar. It was a level six fiend, with 2400 hundred attack points and two huge swords. "Beast of Talwar, destroy her Dark Valkyria!"
"I don't think so!" Ombre snapped, "Waboku!"
The attack was negated, Ombre's life points stayed safe, and Dark Valkyria just stared at the enemy. At just 300 life points apiece left,
"Sheer luck, I'll beat you next turn."
"I don't think so." Ombre growled, drawing. "I activate Dark Valkyria's ability, resummoning her to give her 300 extra points."
"That's only twenty one hundred, that's not enough!"
"I know, but after I equip her with the Sword of dark Rites, she's strong enough at 2500."
"You can't win though, I'd still have one hundred points left."
"Which is why I summon Apprentice Magician in attack mode." Ombre snorted, "And thanks to that Royal Decree I played earlier, you can't use traps to counter my attacks, so…" She grinned, "Dark Valkyria, attack his fiend!" The fiend exploded, taking a chunk of Kiril's life points with it. "Now, Apprentice Magician, finish this!"
Kiril swore loudly in Bulgarian as his points hit zero, and it was be grudgingly that he shook hands with Ombre, who looked around, only to find Ryou had already finished his match and was waiting with Kari.
"Nice one Ombre!" Kari grinned.
"Any idea how everyone else is doing?"
"I know Joey's around here somewhere," Kari looked around, "Or he might have headed outside, he won his match, as did Seto, I think the others are still going."
"Let's go watch then."
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Astraea didn't react to Yami's comment, "I thought you'd be with your friends."
"I am." Yami shrugged, making Astraea snort, "Yugi…" He stopped.
"You might as well continue, everyone knows about the mind links to Potter and Yugi."
"Yugi says that Joey defeated his opponent easily…"
"For all of Wheeler's joking, I fail to be surprised, given who his teachers are."
Yami laughed, "You grace us with far too much, Joey's a very skilled player."
"He wouldn't have been had you and your Grandfather not taught him everything he knows."
"But not everything we know." Yami half agreed, "Experience increases skill too."
"True, and this is certainly experience." Astraea nodded, well aware that Yami hadn't taught her everything that he knew, she wanted him to, but had already worked out that Yugi and Yami had something, she wasn't sure what, that even the most skilled players could never match. "What about Potter?"
"Harry's watching the match between Luna and Hermione, Seto defeated his opponent easily and Rebecca's about a turn and a half away."
"How could Potter know that?"
"Harry has seen into the minds of both me and Yugi, he's still got a lot of experience to pick up of his own, but he has most of our knowledge of Duel Monsters." Yami explained, "He can tell."
"Explain?"
Yami hesitated. As much as Astraea already knew, there was so much more that he couldn't tell her because he didn't know how far he could trust her.
"As much as you can?"
"What do you already know about the links?"
"It's how you know when Yugi's in trouble and how you can get away with talking to each other in class without getting into trouble. It's also what binds you and Yugi together and somehow Potter became trapped in it."
"We didn't trap Harry, it wasn't something we did deliberately. I did something we shouldn't have been able to do had someone not been playing with Harry's mind and he was so low on magic that his latched onto mine, which of course is half Yugi's." Yami explained, wanting that cleared up, "So he ended up linked to us. We didn't force it on him, we wouldn't do so to anyone. It's too dangerous."
"Dangerous how?"
"Never mind." Yami really didn't want to talk about it much further.
Astraea considered everything she had been allowed to know so far. The whole castle knew how protective Yami was of Yugi, and had been becoming of Harry since the incident a week into term, was this because of the link?
Astraea had to pause to let her eyes adjust to the bright sunlight and Yami paused to wait for her, though she could still see the thought process going on. Astraea had seen him like this before, and wondered if his friends had too.
She had this strange feeling that they hadn't, that around them Yami kept his fears secret, his pain hidden much better…
He had to be strong, and he did act strong around her, but there was a huge difference, she had seen it. Oh it wasn't like he wasn't relaxed around the others in a way he could never be when it was just him and her, she knew that while Yami respected her and trusted her enough that he'd left her alone with Yugi a couple of times, there was still that wariness that no one seemed to be able to break….
It was as if showing any weakness around Yugi and the others was unforgivable and she wondered if they knew that… maybe she should speak to Yugi…
Astraea nearly stopped walking as she realised where the train of thoughts was leading her. This was ridiculous. She was a Pure Blood, she had a duty and here she was, worrying about a fourth year Gryffindor as if he was the most important thing in the world to her.
What was she thinking?
She shook her head but didn't say anything, allowing Yami the time to gather his thoughts, walking in silence until they reached the arena where Hermione Granger was playing Luna Lovegood.
In theory she would have thought that Granger would have the advantage, being older, Muggle Born and having been friends with Yami for so long, but when they got there, Yami frowned as he took in the state of the duel.
"Harry?" He asked, "Luna's in the lead isn't she?"
"Only just, it's a good game." Harry nodded, "But…"
Hermione was hesitating. Luna was holding Hermione's Millennium Witch hostage with her Allure Queen Lv7, who Luna called Arzu, and she didn't want to destroy it.
It was the best card in her deck, at 2900/2100 and with the ability to increase one Spellcaster's attack or defence by 1500 once per turn.
Hermione had already used it once, on her Breaker the Magical Warrior, so Breaker had 3100 attack points and this meant that she could use it to destroy the Allure Queen, which only had 1500 attack points, but it would take her Millennium Witch out instead.
"You can't win while defending, Hermione." Luna said dreamily.
Hermione hesitated further, having played her friends often enough to be sure that Luna was baiting her, especially since she had a face down card… and yet… this was Luna… Luna didn't bluff people, she told the truth as she saw it…
"Breaker, attack Allure Queen!"
The brown haired woman in a Oriental style purple and gold short dress, with flames floating around her head and a great golden staff in one hand, laughed, and waved her staff.
Heavily, as if fighting it, Millennium Witch got between the attack and the Queen.
And screamed as the attack hit her, exploding.
Luna's points stayed exactly where they were, at 950.
Hermione growled, "A card face down and that's it."
She had to get through that queen!
Luna smiled, drawing a card, "I hate to do this to you Hermione."
"What?"
"I play Monster Reborn on Millennium Witch." Hermione's Millennium Witch reappeared, but she looked sad, "I'm sorry Alyth, I won't ask you to attack your partner, but I need your effect." Luna told the Duel Monster. "Allure Queen, capture her Breaker!"
Allure Queen waved her staff and Breaker, unwillingly, joined Luna's side, sitting, or rather, kneeling at the Queen's side. "Alyth, use your effect to boost Arzu's power!"
Millennium Witch waved her hand and Allure Queen glowed with a bright white light, her attack points doubling.
"Arzu, attack Hermione directly!" Allure Queen levelled her staff at Hermione and a bright beam of energy shot out of it.
"I activate Mystical Seal!" Hermione called, the purple seal appeared underneath "Which stops your Allure Queen in her tracks and negates the attack."
"Sorry Hermione, but I activate Dust Tornado." Hermione's seal vanished in a whirlwind and the attack broke through. 3000 points of direct damage struck Hermione in the chest and she fell over backwards, picking herself up as her points shot downwards, finally hitting zero.
"Thank you Arzu, thank you Alyth." Luna nodded to both of the monsters as they faded from view.
"Wow Luna!" Harry grinned as the cheering died down.
Yami frowned, "Luna?" He asked, as they tried to work out which Duel to head to next, "How did you know the name of those Duel Monsters?"
"I could hear them, and they told me." Luna smiled, "I picked cards that I could hear to go in my deck, and Alyth was trying to talk to Hermione all duel."
"She was?" Hermione asked quietly. "I couldn't hear her."
"I know, I'll pass messages on for you, if you like." Luna nodded, "You really should pay attention to your decks, all of you, they have the most interesting things to say, though…" She turned and pointed at Yami, "You have forgotten how to hear them!"
"What?" Yami yelped.
"Your cards try and talk to you all the time, but it makes them sad that you've forgotten how to hear them."
"I…" Yami's hand went to his deck pouch, "I've forgotten how to hear them…?"
"You've forgotten a lot of things, but don't worry, you'll remember soon."
"Morning guys." Harry waved, "What's wrong?"
"Skeeter's at it again." Joey shrugged, "Just in time for the latest of the Hogsmead weekends."
"And Yami wants to Shadow Game her." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"What is it this time?" Harry snorted.
"Yami, sit down and calm down or I'll set Robyn on you." Yugi glared, before glancing over at Harry, "She was rather rude about Astraea, accusing her of being a gold digger, which of course we know isn't true."
"Yami doesn't have any money, so how can Astraea be a gold digger?" Harry frowned, "Besides, Astraea seems to be alright about it." He said, picking out the Slytherin teen among the crowd at that table.
"She wasn't when we first came down, she was furious until she realised that Yami wasn't mad at her. We should be very glad Skeeter wasn't in the castle this morning."
"There would have been pieces of her leaving." Joey nodded. "Maybe we should, you know, stop getting the Daily Prophet. Oh and I had a thought."
"What's that?"
"Well Yuge and I saw a maze as a task right?"
"Uh huh."
"And neither of the two tasks so far have been mazes right?"
"Uh huh."
"So that means that the third task has to be the maze and what are we doing about it?"
"As of today, we're going to the library to research as many non-lethal combative spells as we can find and we're going to learn as many of them as we can."
"What about direction spells?"
"Already looking." Hermione said, holding up the book. What Harry had assumed was another one of those really old books that she'd been engrossed in recently was in fact a well worn library book on magical dowsing.
"Um, how is finding water going to help?"
Hermione gave him a despairing look, "There should be something in here about finding out which direction you're going in."
"Have you decided what you're going to do yet about the Orb of Light yet?" Joey asked Kari, who held the Orb in hand and sighed.
"I don't know, I feel like I should take it with me, just in case, but then I don't want to take it…"
"Just in case." Yugi finished for her, nodding in understanding.
"I've been playing with the memories inside it," Kari continued, "But there's not really much advice you can get from the past about something that none of the former wielders have been through. I just worry that if something happens…" Kari sighed, she had that lost look about her again, as if she had realised she was being swept away by the tides, hadn't quite reached panic yet, but didn't really know what to do about it.
"You'd bring it back safely." Ombre said confidently. She was as worried as the rest of the Clan about the events of the third task, especially since Harry and Kari were going to disappear unless they did something about it, but had enough confidence in her partner to trust that she and Harry would come back safely.
"I suppose I'll wait to work it out on the day, after all, a lot can change in a couple of months, I might have worked out the secrets of the damn thing by then."
"Just don't get lost in the memories again please." Yugi said, remembering how long it had taken Ombre to find her when she had.
"No thank you." Kari shuddered, remembering the first time she'd dipped into the memories in the Orb and gotten completely lost and turned around and had been unable to get back to reality until Ombre had helped her.
"Any luck yet?" Yami asked, as he had at least once a week, since Kari had started using the Orb's memory banks extensively.
No one could blame him but it did get wearing after a while, especially when the answer was, "No, not yet, there's a lot of memories to get through and I'm having 'fun' sorting them. I'm getting there," That was new, "I caught a glimpse of either you," She looked at Joey, "Or someone who looked a lot like you, last night, so either that was a memory of mine or a memory of Ombre's."
"Shouldn't that have been easy to work out?" Ron asked.
"You try sorting through memories that don't want to be seen." Kari growled, "I don't know why, but I've seen very few memories of my own or of Ombre's. It's like I'm not allowed to look at them."
"Perhaps you're not." Yugi said, thinking, "Perhaps Ombre has to find her memories on her own first and perhaps you have to work out how to store your memories."
Kari looked at Ombre, who lowered her eyes; they'd had that conversation the day after the Clan Ritual. Ombre had more memories then she was letting on, the only reason she didn't have a name was because she was unsure which of the twin Princesses she was.
There had been two who had been sent to Egypt, not one, Princess Shani and Priestess Aziza. Shani had been raised to rule over the kingdom, while Aziza had been raised to take the High Priestess position at the Temple of the Sun. However it wasn't that easy.
Because they had been identical they had often swapped places, taking the other twin's lessons instead of their own, and as such it was impossible for an outsider to know which twin had sealed herself in the Orb, or if both of them had. For some reason there was too many conflicting memories, it was almost like someone had used a memory charm on the Orb, but that was impossible, right?
However, Kari had promised Ombre that she wouldn't say anything and hadn't yet, to anyone, not even Hermione.
"You'll work it out." Joey shrugged, sitting down and starting his own breakfast, "When the time is right."
"I suppose." Kari sighed, "It's just irritating."
There was silence for a moment as everyone chowed down and then Joey spoke up again, "Oh, I'll be a bit late joining you guys in the Three Broomsticks, Cordi and Alecia wanted to meet up…"
"Who knows, it might be a long lasting relationship." Yugi said, before looking down the table for something that wasn't pumpkin juice. Where did they even find pumpkins at this point of the year? They were out of season…
"You'd be the envy of most of the male population if it was." Harry added.
"I wish. But no, they only went to the ball with me because... how did Kaiba put it, 'I completely ignored all the signals that said they were already in a relationship, and they didn't want to cause a stir at Hogwarts'" Joey groaned.
There wasn't really much you could say to that.
"I might be late too," Yami changed the subject, "Astraea's meeting me by the gates of Hogsmead."
Yugi was thoughtful, he'd spoken to Rebecca a couple of weeks ago and she'd dumped him before he could dump her, saying that she'd had fun, but she knew he wouldn't have asked her if it hadn't been for the ball. It would have been a peaceful break up, if it hadn't been for the fact that Becs had fled in tears and Luna and Ginny hadn't spoken to him for a week.
"See you guys later?" Kari asked, as Seto waited at the door for her.
"Have fun." Ombre shoved her off, having spotted Ryou getting up from the Hufflepuff table.
"Later Kari." The group drifted apart upon reaching Hogsmead, heading for various dates and shops, and Yugi found himself in the Three Broomsticks, enjoying a drink that WASN'T pumpkin juice for a change and thinking about everything.
They were due to start brewing the bloodline potion tomorrow, March 2nd, but it looked like it was going to be around the beginning of June before the potion would be ready, Robyn hadn't been joking when she had said that it would take months for a decent one to brew properly and they couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
"Yugi." Yugi's train of thoughts jumped the tracks as Ginny and Rebecca waved, having just entered the Three Broomsticks. Yugi quickly waved them over, and the two girls settled quickly.
"You got everything you wanted?" Yugi asked.
"Uh huh." Ginny rattled off a list of things they'd bought. It was quite an extensive list that made Yugi wonder how exactly it all fitted into the bags the girls were carrying. "…And a couple of ever lasting gobstoppers." Ginny finally finished. "You're not shopping?"
"Got some sweets, but we're running out of money for Hogsmead trips." Yugi shrugged, "I think me and Yami have about six Galleons between us for this trip."
"Ouch." Ginny frowned.
"You want a drink?" Rebecca asked, noting the almost empty glass.
"No thank you." Yugi shook his head.
"What're you going to do?"
"We'll just have to make sure that we make a few more tournaments this year." Yugi shrugged, "I see you have your name down for the interschool Tournament, Becs."
Becca bounced in her seat. "I should be able to take the prize easily since you're not competing."
"You do know that Seto and Joey are entering right?"
"Uh huh, they don't worry me."
"Who doesn't worry you?" Mokuba asked, joining them, with a bottle of Butterbeer.
"Rebecca was just saying that she can beat your brother at Duel Monsters easily." Ginny said.
"No way." Mokuba laughed, "Sorry Becs, you're good but you wouldn't last five seconds against my brother."
Yugi, who saw the look Ginny got, decided that now would be a good time to spend the last of his money on a drink and quickly moved away from the table, reaching the bar just in time to be able to hear the 'discussion' from across the other side of the room.
Oh this was going to be sooo much fun.
The first round was going to be played out this time next week, with, thankfully, Joey and Seto ending up in different halves of the bracket so the only time they would end up playing each other would be the finals, if both of them made it that far and if Yugi was honest with himself, he didn't really see that not happening, considering that they were two of the best Duellists in the world.
If Kari had been allowed to compete, there might have been a problem, but as a Champion, she and Harry had had to drop out as it hadn't been fair to the other Hogwarts students unless Krum and Fleur competed and they hadn't wanted to.
In a move that had surprised everyone, Astraea had decided to compete, making up the Slytherin team alongside Draco and Bakura.
It was supposed to be Hogwarts against the other two schools, but everyone knew that the group from Gryffindor, Joey, Ombre and Hermione, were looking forward to beating two of the three Slytherins at Duel Monsters, but that was only if the group from Ravenclaw, Seto, Luna and Rebecca, didn't take them out of the Tournament first… the only ones not really taking part in this little war were the Hufflepuffs, represented by Ryou and Justin, who were in it for a bit of fun.
There were eleven from Beuxbatons competing, but just ten Durmstrang students had entered, making it easy for Seto to set up the Tournament bracket, with thirty two competitors, and Yugi was kind of glad that they hadn't entered. It would be interesting just to watch and cheer from the sidelines for a change.
Yami had been busy, over the last couple of weeks, helping Astraea prepare and while Joey had quiet frequently said that he didn't think that Astraea would ever match up to Yugi or Yami, but then in an aside he'd add that he didn't think anyone ever would, Yugi had the feeling that she might surprise them.
He hadn't thought that a Slytherin who wasn't involved the Millennium Item troubles would have shown an interest in a Muggle game like Duel Monsters, but then Astraea had seemed impressed at it's scope and influence… maybe she was interested in the sort of fame and glory a high ranking Duellist, even on the normal Tournament circuit, could gain.
The two in question walked in, Astraea looking a little less uncomfortable then she had done a couple of months ago, Duel Disks under arms and Yugi rolled his eyes. Yami was spending more time duelling Astaea then he was anyone else, not that it wasn't good training, but…
Today was the last day though, Astraea had found another training partner, and they had to start on the research for the third task. The Slytherin was in Kaiba's half of the bracket, which thankfully meant that she wasn't in Bakura's half.
This however, inevitably meant, unless someone was a lot better then they expected, or someone had an incredible run of bad luck, that Kaiba would end up fighting Astraea at some point and Joey, unfortunately would probably end up fighting Bakura.
Joey had joked only last night that maybe it would be a run of incredible good luck to end up kicked out of the competition before he had to fight Bakura, and was Yami or Yugi sure that they didn't want to enter…
The Clan was gathering, including those sworn in, just as they had been promised they could be, and Yugi hurried back to the table, enjoying spending time with his family. It had to be said that what Joey had said to him at Christmas had eased his worries a bit, but he still worried what the others would say sometimes…
"Yuge!" Joey grinned, apparently cheered up, as Kari and Seto trailed in, last of all, "Listen to this, right…"
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Sixteen Duels were being held today, all over the grounds of Hogwarts, and some how the Clan had to spread themselves out evenly at all the ones they wanted to watch.
It wasn't too bad, only seven instead of eight, Luna was playing Hermione down by Hagrid's hut, while Seto played Bojidar, a Durmstrang Student, at the lake side, Rebecca was facing off against Adeline, from Beuxbatons, a little further around.
Meanwhile Joey was fighting Iordan in the Great Hall, Ombre was facing Kiril in the Defence Against the Dark Arts room, Ryou was fighting Carole in an empty Charms classroom and Astraea was battling Celeste in a potions classroom.
The Clan were convinced that wouldn't have been allowed had Astraea not been a Slytherin.
In theory this should be an easy round, but they weren't taking the risk of underestimating their opponents. The only thing that was reassuring was that this was an inter-school tournament, not a Muggle world one, so it was a lot less likely that something particularly bad would happen, although the old body guard rosta had started up again, just in case, swapping who was being protected from Quidditch Players to Duellists and Champions.
There was little worry now, but when things got heated later on everyone could just see hexes flying in order to put people out of commission before the matches and everyone wanted their Duellist or Champion to win.
To say that it had been an interesting week would be an understatement.
And this would continue until the day before the last task, when the finals were held…
Yugi had decided to stick with Joey, cheering from the sidelines, and wondered as the two Duellists took their places and activated the enchanted Duel Disks, if they had deliberately placed Joey and Seto somewhere that their dragons would fit easily.
"Let's Duel!" Joey called in Japanese, while Yugi guessed that was what the Joey's opponent had called in Bulgarian. It had amused the Former King of Games that even though they seemed to all have picked up English during the duration of the translation spell, which he was certain had worn off years ago, he, Yami, Joey, Seto and Mokuba, all slipped back into Japanese when they were going into a Duel.
Perhaps he shouldn't be that surprised, Japanese was their first language, and Duel Monsters was… Yugi didn't even consider what it meant that his life had been so caught up in the game of Duel Monsters that he didn't even think about it when he said that playing the game came as naturally as breathing.
"Your move first…" The Bulgarian waved at Joey, who drew and scanned his hand quickly.
"Two cards face down and a card in defence mode." Joey said, playing quickly and easily. Yugi wasn't the only one this came naturally to anymore. "Your move."
The Bulgarian teen nodded, he wasn't anywhere as imposing as Vicktor and if Joey was honest he wasn't overly worried, but still… he hadn't been too worried about enemies before and look where that had gotten him…
"I play this in defence mode." A face down card appeared, "I play a card face down. Your move Joseph."
"Joey." Joey automatically corrected, drawing and thinking. "I tribute my face down card to summon the Flame Swordsman, and equip him with Salamandra!" His Flame Swordsman's attack points grew to 2500. "Now, attack his face down card!"
The fire serpent shot from around the sword to the card face down, which revealed itself to be Big Shield Gardna, which took the blow and then automatically switched itself into attack mode. Joey lost 100 life points, since the defence of Gardna had been 100 points higher then the attack of his Flame Swordsman. "I guess it's your go."
"I switch my Big Shield Gardna into defence mode and summoned the Obnoxious Celtic Guard in defence mode." This was a pretty safe play, becase Joey's Flame Swordsman was now too high to defeat the Celtic Guard, as it could only be destroyed by a monster with under 1900 attack points. Joey had a plan though. "Your turn."
"I summon Blue Flame Swordsman." Joey called, "And activate his effect, decreasing Blue Flame's attack by 500 and increasing Flame Swordsman by the same amount."
This took Flame Swordsman up to 3000, far above Big Shield Gardna, while Blue Flame Swordsman still had enough attack points, at 1300, to defeat the Celtic Guard while he was in defence mode. "Blue Flame Swordsman destroy his elf."
Yugi couldn't help wincing as the Celtic Guard was destroyed. He had one of those in his own deck and hated it when his was destroyed.
"Now, Flame Swordsman, destroy his Big Shield Gardna."
This too exploded, leaving the Bulgarian wide open. However, since Joey had no more monsters to attack with, he had to leave it for this turn. "Your go."
"I summon the Dark Knight in attack mode and equip him with Divine Sword – Pheonix Blade." Iordan growled, as his Knight grew to 2100, "And he attacks your Blue Flame Swordsman."
Weakened by powering up the Flame Swordsman and outmatched even if he hadn't, the Blue Flame Swordsman fell quickly, costing Joey another 800 points. Yugi frowned, certain that the Bulgarian was playing with a structure deck, as he recognised half the cards as coming from the Warrior's Revenge deck released just before he'd come back to Hogwarts.
Joey drew, but his mind was already on his next move, "Flame Swordsman, destroy Dark Knight!"
"Dust Tornado!"
"Mystical Space Typhoon!"
The Dust Tornado that would have removed the power up from Salamandra was destroyed and Dark Knight exploded in a blazing attack that cost Iordan 900 points.
"One card face down." Joey replaced the card he's used, "And it's your turn."
"One card, in defence mode." Iordan scowled, and one card face down."
Joey drew, on a roll now, "I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode,. Gearfried, attack his face down card."
It was a Gearfried the Iron Knight that died, and for some reason, Joey's Flame Swordsman exploded too.
Yugi had seen the play though, "That was a Blast with Chain," He was explaining to Neville, who had asked him what had happened, "It's supposed to destroy an opponent's card when the monster it's sent to the graveyard by another card's effect, but it becomes an Equip Card and Gearfried isn't effected by Equip Cards, they automatically get destroyed when they're equipped to him."
"Is that why did Joey's Flame Swordsman exploded?"
"Uh huh." Yugi nodded, "But Joey can pull that back easily."
"Your move." Joey growled, wishing he'd thought that throw a little more carefully. That had always been his problem, he'd forget to think about the face down cards and get caught out…
"Goblin Attack Force, who wipe out your Gearfried." They did so, taking Joey down to 2600, but swapped into defence mode, where they were defenceless as they had no defence score at all. "That's it."
"Monster Reborn." Joey called, glad he'd managed to get his hands on one, "To bring back the Flame Swordsman and I also summon Battle Warrior."
The 700 attack point monster seemed worthless to most, but Yugi knew it was there only as bait and to take out the Goblin Attack Force.
"Battle Warrior, attack Goblin Attack Force."
The enemy exploded.
"Flame Swordsman, attack Iordan!"
The crowd hissed as the Swordsman struck as Iordan himself, knocking 1800 points off of his total.
"Your move."
"You're very good, Joey." Iordan said, sounding amused, "I had heard stories from your year mates, but I didn't think they were true."
"You're pretty good yourself." Joey nodded with a smile. He was enjoying this, even if he was ahead considerably. It had been far too long since they had played competitively.
"I set a card face down and end my turn."
"You're leaving yourself wide open?" Joey frowned… he didn't believe it could be this easy…
Yugi didn't believe it either, just willing to bet that the face down card was a Call of the Haunted, which was less frightening with no Pumpkin, King of Ghosts in play but could still raise one monster from the graveyard.
"Oh yeah!" Joey crowed as he drew, "Say hello to my good friend," Joey grinned, "I sacrifice Flame Swordsman and Battle Warrior for the Red Eyes Black Dragon."
Those who hadn't seen the dragon at his full size before backed up quickly as Red Eyes easily took up around half of the room. "Red Eyes, attack him directly!"
Iordan knew he would lose if he took the attack, and while he couldn't use it to decrease Joey's life points further, he activated his Call of the Haunted to summon back his Goblin Attack Force who exploded but only cost him 100 points, taking him down to 1200 life points.
"Your move."
"One card in defence mode and that's it."
"Then I end this." Joey drew, "By summoning Sasuke Samurai in attack mode."
The tiny little ninja didn't look overly threatening…
"He can destroy any monster that is in defence mode without any damage being dealt to either player and I direct him to do so now." The Samurai destroyed the face down defence position card, "I apologise, this will hurt… Red Eyes finish this."
Red Eyes blasted Iordan for 2400 points of direct damage, winning Joey the game. There were cheers from the Hogwarts spectators and boos from the Durmstrang one, but Joey offered his condolences and the wish for another game at another time and turned to Yugi, "Shall we see how the others are doing?"
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Yami was watching Astraea's match, confident that his friends would win easily.
She was doing well, 200 hundred points up, at 1200, and had just taken the shock lead with her Dimension Wall trap which had just reflected the damage that she should have taken, which would have wiped her out, right back at Celeste, reflecting 1800 points of damage right back at her.
If Yami was honest, there were a few cards in that deck of hers that he wouldn't like to face, somehow the structure deck that she'd picked up, 'Curse of Darkness', included cards like the Crush Card virus, the Deck Devastation Virus, the Dark Mirror Force, making any defence monsters the opponent had completely useless as it would destroy them, and if that wasn't enough, she had the Eradicator Epidemic Virus, which crippled the player's hand, destroying it and any cards they drew for the next three turns…
"It's my move." The Slytherin glared. If she was honest, she found this girl incredibly wishy washy, with a duelling style to match, no real skill, just a lot of showing off, Astraea was well aware that she was better then this girl and knew that her house mates wouldn't let her live it down if she lost. She was staying calm but even a novice like her would have known better then to walk straight into a trap like that.
"I summon my Nightmare Steelcage." She hissed, the iron cage closing in around Celeste. Yami flinched internally, remembering Strings and how close they had come to being killed by Slifer, "Neither of us can attack for two turns, and in my free time I play Pot of Avarice, sending five monsters from my Graveyard back to my deck and draw two cards." Astraea smirked, "And summon my Axe Dragonute." The black dragonlike knight appeared on the field, wings flaring, pointing his axe at the imprisoned Celeste. "Your move." The sneer was obvious, Astraea had drawn something good, and Celeste knew it, since she hesitated to draw.
"Don't give up!" Fleur cheered from the sidelines.
Celeste drew, "I set a card in defence mode and end my turn."
Astraea drew, "I sacrifice my Dragonute for the King of the Underworld. Lich Lord, come forth!" She demanded, throwing a hand forward. She couldn't help it, getting carried away. Yami had been right; playing in a tournament situation was about a million times more fun then just practise battles, she could see why he loved them
Her lich, a zombie like creature wearing a cloak and crown, with armour in some places and black, damaged wings, appeared, with a sinister smile, staff in hand.
"My Lich has 2400 hundred attack points, but only 1200 defence points." Astraea sighed, "Not that it matters, I wouldn't switch him into defence mode anyway… I end my turn, but in two turns, my Lich will wipe you out."
"Not possible!" Celeste glared, "I set a card in defence mode and end my turn."
The Nightmare Steelcage disappeared, and Celeste continued to glare.
Astraea was unworried. "I too set a card in defence mode, and then Lich Lord, destroy her left face down card."
It exploded, revealing a siren for a moment, before it vanished. "It's over, I end my turn."
"You can't win, I play Monster Reborn to summon my Space Mambo back to the field," The alien space ship fish thing reappeared. "And I sacrifice it and my face down Mermaid Knight to summon my Levia-Dragon – Daedalus to the field, in attack mode and play A Legendary Ocean." The blue sea serpent/effect monster appeared, proclaiming his strength, as the dungeon was flooded with water, making half the people there scream and back away. Some people didn't move though, they'd seen field cards that could create fields, forests, even cities, "Attack her King." The way Celeste said King made it sound rude. The Lich exploded, taking Astraea down to 800 life points. "I end my turn. Now what are you going to do?"
"My Lich goes to my hand instead of the graveyard, you can't kill him that easily, and with my face down card on the field I can bring him back."
"He's still no match for Daedalus."
"Ah but you've made him powerful enough, I sacrifice Plague Wolf for Lich Lord and equip him with Megamorph." The Lich grew to twice the size, the gem on his staff glowing, "Now if I'd have equipped that to him last turn, it would have halved his attack points," Astraea explained, "But since you knocked my life points down below yours, it now has the opposite effect. He's now forty eight hundred instead of twenty four."
Celeste didn't look amused.
"You lose. King of the Underworld, send Daedalus to your realm! Attack!" The Lich attacked, the Sea Serpent exploded and Celeste's points hit zero. "I win."
Celeste shook her hand begrudgingly as the Slytherins cheered, the Beuxbatons students clapped politely and Astraea ignored those among the crowd who had hoped she would lose. She sought Yami out.
"I told you that you'd win easily."
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"You can't win!" Kiril laughed as he summoned his huge Beat of Talwar. It was a level six fiend, with 2400 hundred attack points and two huge swords. "Beast of Talwar, destroy her Dark Valkyria!"
"I don't think so!" Ombre snapped, "Waboku!"
The attack was negated, Ombre's life points stayed safe, and Dark Valkyria just stared at the enemy. At just 300 life points apiece left,
"Sheer luck, I'll beat you next turn."
"I don't think so." Ombre growled, drawing. "I activate Dark Valkyria's ability, resummoning her to give her 300 extra points."
"That's only twenty one hundred, that's not enough!"
"I know, but after I equip her with the Sword of dark Rites, she's strong enough at 2500."
"You can't win though, I'd still have one hundred points left."
"Which is why I summon Apprentice Magician in attack mode." Ombre snorted, "And thanks to that Royal Decree I played earlier, you can't use traps to counter my attacks, so…" She grinned, "Dark Valkyria, attack his fiend!" The fiend exploded, taking a chunk of Kiril's life points with it. "Now, Apprentice Magician, finish this!"
Kiril swore loudly in Bulgarian as his points hit zero, and it was be grudgingly that he shook hands with Ombre, who looked around, only to find Ryou had already finished his match and was waiting with Kari.
"Nice one Ombre!" Kari grinned.
"Any idea how everyone else is doing?"
"I know Joey's around here somewhere," Kari looked around, "Or he might have headed outside, he won his match, as did Seto, I think the others are still going."
"Let's go watch then."
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Astraea didn't react to Yami's comment, "I thought you'd be with your friends."
"I am." Yami shrugged, making Astraea snort, "Yugi…" He stopped.
"You might as well continue, everyone knows about the mind links to Potter and Yugi."
"Yugi says that Joey defeated his opponent easily…"
"For all of Wheeler's joking, I fail to be surprised, given who his teachers are."
Yami laughed, "You grace us with far too much, Joey's a very skilled player."
"He wouldn't have been had you and your Grandfather not taught him everything he knows."
"But not everything we know." Yami half agreed, "Experience increases skill too."
"True, and this is certainly experience." Astraea nodded, well aware that Yami hadn't taught her everything that he knew, she wanted him to, but had already worked out that Yugi and Yami had something, she wasn't sure what, that even the most skilled players could never match. "What about Potter?"
"Harry's watching the match between Luna and Hermione, Seto defeated his opponent easily and Rebecca's about a turn and a half away."
"How could Potter know that?"
"Harry has seen into the minds of both me and Yugi, he's still got a lot of experience to pick up of his own, but he has most of our knowledge of Duel Monsters." Yami explained, "He can tell."
"Explain?"
Yami hesitated. As much as Astraea already knew, there was so much more that he couldn't tell her because he didn't know how far he could trust her.
"As much as you can?"
"What do you already know about the links?"
"It's how you know when Yugi's in trouble and how you can get away with talking to each other in class without getting into trouble. It's also what binds you and Yugi together and somehow Potter became trapped in it."
"We didn't trap Harry, it wasn't something we did deliberately. I did something we shouldn't have been able to do had someone not been playing with Harry's mind and he was so low on magic that his latched onto mine, which of course is half Yugi's." Yami explained, wanting that cleared up, "So he ended up linked to us. We didn't force it on him, we wouldn't do so to anyone. It's too dangerous."
"Dangerous how?"
"Never mind." Yami really didn't want to talk about it much further.
Astraea considered everything she had been allowed to know so far. The whole castle knew how protective Yami was of Yugi, and had been becoming of Harry since the incident a week into term, was this because of the link?
Astraea had to pause to let her eyes adjust to the bright sunlight and Yami paused to wait for her, though she could still see the thought process going on. Astraea had seen him like this before, and wondered if his friends had too.
She had this strange feeling that they hadn't, that around them Yami kept his fears secret, his pain hidden much better…
He had to be strong, and he did act strong around her, but there was a huge difference, she had seen it. Oh it wasn't like he wasn't relaxed around the others in a way he could never be when it was just him and her, she knew that while Yami respected her and trusted her enough that he'd left her alone with Yugi a couple of times, there was still that wariness that no one seemed to be able to break….
It was as if showing any weakness around Yugi and the others was unforgivable and she wondered if they knew that… maybe she should speak to Yugi…
Astraea nearly stopped walking as she realised where the train of thoughts was leading her. This was ridiculous. She was a Pure Blood, she had a duty and here she was, worrying about a fourth year Gryffindor as if he was the most important thing in the world to her.
What was she thinking?
She shook her head but didn't say anything, allowing Yami the time to gather his thoughts, walking in silence until they reached the arena where Hermione Granger was playing Luna Lovegood.
In theory she would have thought that Granger would have the advantage, being older, Muggle Born and having been friends with Yami for so long, but when they got there, Yami frowned as he took in the state of the duel.
"Harry?" He asked, "Luna's in the lead isn't she?"
"Only just, it's a good game." Harry nodded, "But…"
Hermione was hesitating. Luna was holding Hermione's Millennium Witch hostage with her Allure Queen Lv7, who Luna called Arzu, and she didn't want to destroy it.
It was the best card in her deck, at 2900/2100 and with the ability to increase one Spellcaster's attack or defence by 1500 once per turn.
Hermione had already used it once, on her Breaker the Magical Warrior, so Breaker had 3100 attack points and this meant that she could use it to destroy the Allure Queen, which only had 1500 attack points, but it would take her Millennium Witch out instead.
"You can't win while defending, Hermione." Luna said dreamily.
Hermione hesitated further, having played her friends often enough to be sure that Luna was baiting her, especially since she had a face down card… and yet… this was Luna… Luna didn't bluff people, she told the truth as she saw it…
"Breaker, attack Allure Queen!"
The brown haired woman in a Oriental style purple and gold short dress, with flames floating around her head and a great golden staff in one hand, laughed, and waved her staff.
Heavily, as if fighting it, Millennium Witch got between the attack and the Queen.
And screamed as the attack hit her, exploding.
Luna's points stayed exactly where they were, at 950.
Hermione growled, "A card face down and that's it."
She had to get through that queen!
Luna smiled, drawing a card, "I hate to do this to you Hermione."
"What?"
"I play Monster Reborn on Millennium Witch." Hermione's Millennium Witch reappeared, but she looked sad, "I'm sorry Alyth, I won't ask you to attack your partner, but I need your effect." Luna told the Duel Monster. "Allure Queen, capture her Breaker!"
Allure Queen waved her staff and Breaker, unwillingly, joined Luna's side, sitting, or rather, kneeling at the Queen's side. "Alyth, use your effect to boost Arzu's power!"
Millennium Witch waved her hand and Allure Queen glowed with a bright white light, her attack points doubling.
"Arzu, attack Hermione directly!" Allure Queen levelled her staff at Hermione and a bright beam of energy shot out of it.
"I activate Mystical Seal!" Hermione called, the purple seal appeared underneath "Which stops your Allure Queen in her tracks and negates the attack."
"Sorry Hermione, but I activate Dust Tornado." Hermione's seal vanished in a whirlwind and the attack broke through. 3000 points of direct damage struck Hermione in the chest and she fell over backwards, picking herself up as her points shot downwards, finally hitting zero.
"Thank you Arzu, thank you Alyth." Luna nodded to both of the monsters as they faded from view.
"Wow Luna!" Harry grinned as the cheering died down.
Yami frowned, "Luna?" He asked, as they tried to work out which Duel to head to next, "How did you know the name of those Duel Monsters?"
"I could hear them, and they told me." Luna smiled, "I picked cards that I could hear to go in my deck, and Alyth was trying to talk to Hermione all duel."
"She was?" Hermione asked quietly. "I couldn't hear her."
"I know, I'll pass messages on for you, if you like." Luna nodded, "You really should pay attention to your decks, all of you, they have the most interesting things to say, though…" She turned and pointed at Yami, "You have forgotten how to hear them!"
"What?" Yami yelped.
"Your cards try and talk to you all the time, but it makes them sad that you've forgotten how to hear them."
"I…" Yami's hand went to his deck pouch, "I've forgotten how to hear them…?"
"You've forgotten a lot of things, but don't worry, you'll remember soon."