Chapter 17: -And Now I Shall Make Things Disappear
It was the end of May, the Bloodline potion was bubbling away happily, just a couple of weeks from completion, and what little time they had that wasn't looking up and learning new spells was spent doing homework or training or Duelling.
The last one had been pretty constant since Luna had said that she could hear the Duel Monsters and that the others should listen to them more often. They were up to the quarter finals now, which were in fact being held this Saturday, 'Joey vs Luna' and 'Bakura vs Rebecca' in one half of the bracket, and 'Seto vs Adelle' and 'Astraea vs Ombre' in the other, then the semis were in two weeks time, while the finals would be held just before the Third Task.
There had been an announcement at Breakfast, that all the Champions were to head to the Quidditch Pitch at nine o'clock and Kari and Harry had been unhappy about walking down after dark, but had gone, drawing their wands and using Lumos so they didn't trip over.
"This is insane," Kari sighed, "I guess we know where the last task is being held though."
"And the others know where to start patrolling." Harry nodded. "Do you think that we can interfere enough to stop it happening?"
"Truthfully?" Kari asked and Harry nodded, "I hope so, but nothing is certain, even the future can be changed, just because one path is seen, doesn't mean there aren't about a million others, it's just that in the right hands the Necklace is normally accurate." And I don't think Robyn was wrong once. "So we just have to be careful."
Harry nodded as they reached the Quidditch Pitch. "What have they done?"
Kari knelt down next to the small, crisscrossing walls, "Yugi's going to throw a fit when he realises that they're growing hedges here, I thought that they'd magically conjure walls or something."
"Ah Miss Ironhide, Mr Potter," Mr Bagman, the Head of Magical Games and Sports for the English Ministry of Magic, sounded rather overenthusiastic as they climbed over the hedges to get to him and Vicktor Krum, "We're just waiting for Miss Delacour and then I'll explain. They'll be twenty foot high this time next month!"
Harry grimaced, imagine trying to find the Snitch in a maze that was twenty foot tall.
"Oh don't worry, the pitch will be put back to rights after the task, you needn't worry about that." Bagman laughed, waving over Fleur. Once she was stood next to them he started talking again, "Right then, can any of you guess what we're growing here?"
"Maze." Krum said shortly.
"That's right, the last task is on the 24th of June and is really very easy, you just have to make your way to the centre of the maze."
Kari and Harry, who had been preparing for this for the last couple of months attempted to look surprised.
"So all we have to do is get through the maze and touch the cup?" Fleur asked.
"Oh, there will be obstacles." Bagman once again sounded way too happy about that, "Hagrid is providing creatures and there will be spells to avoid and defuse, but yes, the first one to touch the cup wins."
"Do we all go in at once?" Harry asked.
"No, as the Champions with the highest points, Miss Ironhide and Mr Potter will enter first, followed by Mr Krum and finally Miss Delacour. However, you will all be in with a fighting chance depending on how well you get past the obstacles. It'll be fun."
Harry and Kari looked at each other, knowing exactly what kind of creatures Hagrid was likely to provide, fun wasn't the word that they would use.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Mr Bagman asked. Everyone shook their heads. "In that case, it's quite chilly, shall we head up to the castle?"
Harry and Kari turned to leave, but Krum put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Can I haff a word?"
"Sure." Harry nodded.
"Do you mind if I come?"
Krum looked very much like he did mind.
"I'll hang back, where I can't hear you, but we tend to walk around in pairs since the Second Task, sorry."
Krum growled and shrugged, "Herrmy-own-ninny said something similar when I asked why Ombre follows you and Hermy-own-ninny around."
They headed towards Hagrid's hut for a while, passed that, went along past the Beuxbaton's carriage to the quiet stretch of ground just past the paddock where the flying horses were being kept where they trained most mornings, then Kari hung back, close enough to keep an eye on things, while being far enough back to avoid hearing the conversation.
Krum turned to Harry on they were in the shade of the trees, fixing him with a hard stare that made Harry wonder what he was supposed to have done. "I vant to know," He glowered, "Vot there is between you and Hermy-own-ninny?"
"Nothing!" Harry answered easily, "She's my Clan Sister, that's all."
"Vot is a Clan Sister?"
"We're members of Clan Domino," Harry answered easily, having suspected something other then this from the ever serious Vicktor Krum, "Founding members in fact, it makes us like brothers and sisters, even if we aren't related. But I'm not dating Hermione, in fact I'm currently seeing Luna Lovegood."
"You haff not…"
"I've never dated Hermione, or Kari for that matter." Harry said, figuring out where this had come from, "That was Rita Skeeter making stuff up. I think Seto Kaiba had something to say about that too."
Krum looked a little easier and stared at Harry for a moment, then, "You fly very well, I vos votching the first task."
Harry had to fight off a grin and just knew that Yugi and Yami would probably sense his elation that the praise from an international Quidditch Player gave him, "You're a great flyer too, I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup. Yugi and I have been dying to attempt that Wronski Feint."
"Maybe I could show you how?" Krum asked, amused.
"We'd have to try to get the Quidditch Pitch again," Harry said, thinking of the flying session the Clan had had, after talking Madam Hooch into overseeing a 'practise' session to keep their skills up, "But I bet Seto could…"
Harry cut off and drew his wand as something moved in the forest, having had experience with things from the forest before, moving between Krum and the forest.
"Vot is it?" Krum asked as Kari rushed forward.
A man staggered out of the forest. He looked ill, his robes were ripped and bloody and it looked like he hadn't washed his hair in days. This, however, was nothing compared to how he was talking.
"Mr Crouch?" Kari asked, rushing past Harry wand still drawn. "Ombre? Can you come here?"
Crouch? Harry wondered exactly what had happened to him to be in this state, as Kari attempted to get some sense out of the older Wizard, who seemed to be convinced that they were in his office and that he was talking not to a woman, but in fact to Percy Weasley, a fact they only gathered because he was talking to Weatherby and the twins had been talking about winding Percy about it for the last few weeks, since Percy had sent a rather snotty letter to the twins on their birthday.
'On my way hikari.'
"Mr Crouch, do you need to…eep!" Kari squeaked as Mr Crouch grabbed her by the shoulders. "Petrificus…"
"NO!" Couch growled, tossing her aside, "Dumbledore, I need to speak to Dumbledore!"
Harry rushed forward, Krum just behind as Kari glared at the man and picked herself up. "Come with us and we'll take you to see him." She said, as she picked up her wand.
"Who are you?" Crouch asked, gesticulating wildly and looking at them like he thought they would attack him.
"Students, at the school."
"Not his?"
"His?" Harry asked.
"You're not with…" Crouch looked around and whispered, "You-Know-Who?"
"Never."
"Dumbledore's?"
"Working against Voldemort." Kari nodded, working out that he was talking about sides, and while they would never be on Moldyshort's side, they couldn't completely say that they were with Dumbledore either after the revelations of earlier in the year.
"Warn…Dumbledore. Bertha dead… my fault… the Dark Lord… stronger… Harry Potter…"
"We'll go and get him." Kari promised and turned to Harry. "Harry, can you go and get the Headmaster, I'll stay here." Harry nodded and shot off, "Vicktor, can you…"
Something hit Krum, and she was just turning to fight it when the same something hit her… the ground came to meet her and then she knew nothing else.
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"I don't know what happened." Kari kicked a table, as they gathered in the Common Room, "I sent Harry off and the something tagged both me and Krum from behind, and I know it wasn't Crouch, he was stood to my left, I would have seen him!" Kari growled, "I can't believe he didn't believe me either! Gah!"
"What I want to know is how Crouch got away if he was as badly off as you said he was, if he was that determined to talk to Dumbledore, wouldn't he have headed towards the castle?"
"Dunno. You said that Professor Moody said that he couldn't see anyone around?" Yugi asked thoughtfully.
"Uh huh. I might have gotten back in time if Snape hadn't held me up." Harry complained.
"I doubt it, Kari called me the moment that Crouch came out of the trees and I didn't see who attacked them, so I doubt being a bit faster would have helped." Ombre shook her head. "I wonder if this means they'll hold off on the last task, so they can find him…"
"It's on the 24th." Harry said, "They can't push it much further back then that, because term will end."
"And it has to be completed…" Yami sighed. "So is it the maze?"
"Uh huh, they've dug up the Quidditch Pitch to put in walls of hedges…"
"What?" Yugi complained, "But…"
"Mr Bagman said that they would fix it afterwards." Kari shrugged, "There will be obstacles in it."
"Creatures and magic, right?" Joey nodded.
"Other then the Crouch problem, nothing we weren't expecting then." Yami growled, "Where could he have gone?"
"I don't know and it's not our problem." Ombre said firmly. "We have more important things to worry about, like making sure that we stay on guard now and try to make sure that Harry and Kari can get through the maze safely."
"And we start investigating the maze if we can." Yami nodded, "If we can get Moody investigating, he might notice the Cup's a portkey before it can be used to drag the winner away."
"But…"
"We can have a look around, but if Moody couldn't find anyone with that eye of his, I don't know how much more luck we'll have…"
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When Harry returned to the Gryffindor Tower after class the next day, he found Yugi sat at a table, glaring at something on it. "Yuge?"
"Nothing for four years," Yugi complained, as Harry walked over to find that the thing he was glaring at was the Millennium Necklace, "And then three within seven months of each other."
"Three?"
"Touched it by accident during Arithmancy." Yugi sighed.
"What was it then?"
"The maze, again." Yugi sighed, "And this time it was something about Professor Moody, but it wasn't very clear. I think it was back, not forward though, since I remember Mr Weasley mentioning something about exploding garbage cans back at the end of the Summer, when we were staying with him."
Harry thought back for a moment, Mr Weasley had mentioned something like that… then… "I thought the Necklace saw the future, not the past."
"It does both." Yugi sighed, "And we've obviously missed something if it's doing it without someone telling it to."
"Couldn't you ask Isuzu about it?" Harry asked as Yugi swiped the Necklace into his backpack and pulled out his text books. "She was the one who had it last, right?"
"Uh huh. I was planning to when I sent the letter off about this summer." Yugi said, "I need Yami to look at it before I send it though." He snorted as Harry pulled out a book on shield spells, "I would say that I envy you for not having any end of year exams, but I think the girls are piling enough homework on you anyway."
Harry laughed, "I'd rather have the exams thanks."
"I bet." Yugi nodded, comparing something in his Divination notes to his text book and rereading the paragraph, before scribbling out something in his notes and copying the new thing down. "I think half of what Professor Trelawny says is rubbish." Yugi said with a frown, "The notes I took don't match up with what the book is saying in many places at all."
"Trelawny is a fraud." Hermione said, having overheard and dumping her pile of books on the table, "But Divination itself is fascinating."
"So you gave it up because…?"
"Because she couldn't read a prophecy right if you handed the meaning to her on a silver platter." Hermione said, digging through the pile until she found her Arithmancy notes, "Yugi, did you get this part alright?" She asked, showing him her page of equations.
Yugi dug through his bag for his parchment and book from that class and compared them to Hermione's. Harry got bored rather quickly as they talked it through, though he was surprised at just how much he had forgotten of maths since he had left the Muggle World.
"What're they up to?" Joey asked, sitting down with his potions textbook.
"Maths."
"Yuck." Joey pulled a face and buried himself in his potions homework.
"You ready for tomorrow?" Hermione asked without looking up from her overly complex equations.
"As I can be." Joey frowned, "Luna's surprisingly good at Duel Monsters."
"Well she is friends with Mokuba."
"I know but…" Joey shrugged, not sure how to explain, "She's just really, really good. I mean you and Harry have a reason, Kari's a good teacher and Harry has Yugi and Yami's memories."
"Don't be mean." Yugi chided.
"No, it's true." Harry shook his head, "I have improved since I got linked to you guys."
"Awww," Hermione grinned suddenly, "Joey's scared."
"Am not!"
"Well you said that you were hoping to be booted out of the Tournament before you had to fight Bakura."
"I said she was good, I didn't say she was going to win."
"I can't wait to watch."
"I'm not going to be there, I'm going to watch the Rebecca verses Bakura match." Yugi frowned, "I'm hoping that Bakura will keep up his behaviour, he hasn't Shadow Gamed anyone yet, but I want to be on hand just in case." "Not that there's much I can do if he starts one, we're unable to interfere without severe consequences."
`Becca will be fine.` Harry sent, catching Yugi's thought and his amused glance, `Besides why would Bakura Game Becca? She may be his opponent in the Tournament, but she doesn't have anything he wants.`
'I'd be more worried if it was Joey or Seto fighting him.' Yami joined in the conversation from down in the library, 'I think Becs should be able to take him, but we don't know what his deck is like now, he seems to change it after every match.'
"We'll see."
"Uh guys, it's rude to talk about us when we can't hear you." Joey pointed out.
"Sorry Joey, we were having a three way discussion about the Becca verses Bakura match." Yugi looked bashful. "Yami seems pretty sure that Becs can take Bakura."
"Of course she can, she's not America's top Duellist for nothing." Joey snorted. "Bakura doesn't stand a chance."
Yugi shrugged, "I guess you're right."
"Guess nothing." Joey protested, "Everyone who thinks that Bakura's going to lose to Becs say aye!"
"Aye." Joey, Hermione and Harry said at the same time and after a moment Yugi smiled slightly.
"Aye."
"See, no problem." Joey grinned. If only he was as confident about his own match.
"The Weasley twins are taking bets." Hermione said, smiling slightly as she finished a particularly difficult sum, "The smart money's on a Joey verses Seto final, with…" Hermione trailed off.
"Seto to win, right?" Joey sighed.
"You know?"
"I can guess."
"You could beat Seto."
"I haven't beaten Rich-boy once in seven years…"
"That doesn't mean anything." Yugi shook his head, "I bet you could this time. Just look over your deck and practise. Seto's just as rusty as you are, if not worse, he's been out of the competitive circuit longer."
"I'd worry about it when it gets to that point." Hermione advised, "You've got to get past Luna and either Becs or Bakura first."
"Please let is be Becs, please let it be Becs…" Joey thought silently. "This summer we need to get back into the Tournament Circuit." Joey told Yugi, "We're out of practise and we know each other's decks too well for Duelling each other to be good practise anymore."
"I know." Yugi nodded. "But the others are progressing well, and…" Yugi sighed, "I wish I'd entered now…"
"You could try using Polyjuice to play against Luna if you like."
"One, I don't have time to make it and two, that's called cheating."
"Joey IS scared of Luna!" Hermione laughed.
"Am not!" Joey protested again, "I just thought I'd give Yugi the chance to decline the offer."
"And I'm declining." Yugi said firmly. "Besides, where would we get the ingredients without breaking into Snape's storage? We can't exactly order the stuff from where Kari normally gets her stuff. Besides, it would be too suspicious if your play style changed drastically for the last few matches."
"Yugi!" Hermione groaned, "Please tell me that you're not trying to convince yourself this is a bad idea, because it is, but you don't sound sure."
"I do think it's a bad idea, I'm just…"
"Bored." Harry supplied.
"The person I really want to duel against is Mai Valentine." Yugi said, leaning back and thinking about it, "She's a fantastic Duellist, an honourable one too. She'd be a challenge…"
"And I'm not?" Joey half-pretended to be insulted.
"Of course you are, but I know your deck inside out, back to front and upside down, where as I haven't Duelled Mai in years."
Hermione giggled, making the others look at her, "Who would have thought that you could get withdrawal symptoms from a lack of challenging Duels?"
"I wouldn't say that around Seto." Yugi warned.
"I wouldn't say that around Yami either!" Harry laughed.
"Of course not, I like living!" Hermione protested.
"Yami wouldn't kill you." Yugi mock-glared, "He doesn't kill allies and friends."
"He would if I told him that you didn't think that he was a challenge anymore."
"Na, he understands." Yugi sighed, "It's something we've discussed before, there's just something that is tugging at us, and it only seems to stop while we're duelling and the longer and more challenging a duel it is, the longer the tugging stops for. I don't know why, but it's like we're not allowed to let our Duelling Skills get too slack."
There was silence for a while, while they processed this. Hermione had one idea. That it was either their magic keeping them fighting, or fate had something planned for them still that their Duelling Skills were incredibly important for, but she couldn't see what. What could be so important that fate would tug on them until they played to make sure that they didn't get rusty?
"But you and Harry are real challenges now," Yugi started talking again, "And I'm defiantly going to challenge Luna soon… so…" He shrugged, "And that's not the right answer…" He scribbled out the number he'd put down and wrote the right one, sighing as he did so.
"So it's not just a case of boredom then?" Joey asked.
Yugi shook his head. "It's like going stir crazy… but for Duelling… I think." Yugi said, then realised exactly what he had said, "And that sounds crazy."
"We already knew you were crazy," Joey reassured him, "But that's alright, because we're crazy too."
"Ha ha." Yugi sounded surprisingly sarcastic.
"So, we need to find you and Yami the biggest Duel Monsters Tournament ever, and stick you right in the middle of it." Hermione nodded, "I'll get Kari to start looking."
"Why not just ask Seto to set one up?"
"Because if Seto sets one up, something insane will happen." Joey groaned, "The same goes for Industrial Illusions."
"Uh Joey," Harry tried not to laugh, "Don't insane things normally follow you guys around."
"You're not much better Mister!"
"Now you sound like Rebec…eep!" Harry had to flee as Joey attempted to noogie him.
"So Joey's never going to grow up, is he?" Hermione asked.
"Probably not." Yugi laughed, "But I don't care, Joey's fine the way he is."
"He wouldn't be Joey if he wasn't a little insane." Hermione agreed as Harry fled back past and would have escaped out of the portrait hole had he not gone crashing in Yami, ending up with both of them on their rears looking rather dazed.
This, of course, caused those who had seen what happened to laugh, as Joey helped Yami to his feet, giving Harry a chance escape.
"Is there a reason you're attempting to noogie Harry?"
"Well…"
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"Blue Eyes!" Kaiba called, White Lightening!"
His Blue Eyes White Dragon attacked, wiping out Adelle's Spirit of the Breeze.
The 0 attack, 1200 defence Duel Monster had been causing him trouble for a few turns, since Adelle had equipped it with Mage Power, Horn of the Unicorn and Sword of Deep-Seated, giving it an attack of 3700 points, since she'd had five magic and trap cards down, if you included the two face down cards that could have been anything, Seto had had no idea.
It hadn't been until he'd managed to summon one of his Blue Eyes by attributing Kaiser Seahorse and another with Monster Reborn that Seto had finally managed to weaken it by using his A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon, destroying all of her magic and trap cards by returning one of them to his hand and destroy the damn creature.
This would have finished the game off normally, but Spirit of the Breeze had a special effect that increased her Duellist's life points by 1000 every time the controlling Duellist drew a card.
Kaiba's sources hadn't been wrong, talent spotters, who watched Tournaments around the world and reported back to Kaiba Corp had spotted a few up and coming Duellists in Europe that he had been considering inviting to the Kaiba Corp Tournaments he was planning over the summer, and sixteen year old Adelle Rousseau had been on that list.
Deservedly it looked like.
Adelle still had 7400 lifepoints while Seto only had 1200.
"And that ends my turn."
Adelle was less then amused. Almost all of her equip cards had been destroyed in that last attack, along with both of her Sakuretsu Armor. She'd been warned that he was good, but she had thought that she had stacked her deck in a way that would defeat him.
She drew, "I play a card face down and summon Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo, in attack mode." It appeared on the field, in attack mode, a browny metallic looking creature.
"And why should I be afraid of that, it's no match for Blue Eyes, it has no attack points either."
"You'll see. Your turn, Kaiba."
Seto drew, "I summon Lord of D." He called, "And flip my Flute of Summoning Dragon." One of Seto's face down cards flipped up, revealing the flute, "Allowing me to summon the two Blue Eyes White Dragons I have in my hand."
The two appeared on the field, roaring.
"And I activate Polymerisation, fusing my three dragons together to form the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon." The three dragons came together to become the huge three headed terror, with 4500 attack points. "I'll destroy your monster and then win this. Blue Eyes! Attack her Dread Dynamo! Nova Blast!"
The Blue Eyes attacked, but Adelle's Dread Dynamo didn't die in the blast.
"You forgot my face down card!" Adelle laughed, as the crowd murmured, "Waboku. It negates your attack and protects me from harm."
"I know what it does." Seto glowered, "I end my turn."
Adelle drew, "I summon my Ancient Gear." The odd metallic gear like creature appeared on the field, with just 100 attack points. Next to Kaiba's dragons it looked pretty pathetic. "And because I have one on the field, I can summon the other two from my hand this turn." Two more little gear creatures appeared on the field.
"I'm not afraid of them, they're no match for my dragon."
"No, but I can sacrifice one of them to use with my Enemy Controller." Adelle grinned, "I tribute an Ancient Gear to take control of your Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
Kaiba's eyes widened, as the implications sank in as Blue Eyes switched sides.
"Blue Eyes, destroy his Lord of D!"
The Dragon blasted the lord who exploded when the energy wave hit him.
Seto's points hit zero.
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Yugi broke.
Rebecca, who was keeping half an eye on her friend, but the majority of her concentration on Bakura, turned to look at him.
Hermione poked the Heir, who looked stunned, "What?"
"Seto just lost." Yugi sounded incredulous.
"What?" Rebecca yelped.
"Harry says that Seto lost..." Yugi said, still sounding stunned.
Bakura looked incredibly amused. "It's still your turn Hawkins." Bakura snorted.
Rebecca just stared at him for a minute, before shaking her head and turning back to the duel, she was currently sat behind her Millennium Shield, which was equipped with a Ring of Magnetism, decreasing it's defence by 500 since it's attack couldn't go lower then zero, to 2500, in combination with Gravity Bind, which only allowed monsters with a level of three or less to attack.
This was fine for her, because she was annoying Bakura something rotten with a combination of her Marie the Fallen One, who was in the graveyard and increasing Rebecca's life points by 200, while her Fire Princess, who was in defence mode… just in case… used it's effect to decrease 500 points from Bakura's total every time Marie boosted Rebecca's.
She just needed three more turns…
If he did somehow manage to destroy her Millennium Shield, she did have Luster Dragon #2 in the Graveyard and Monster Reborn and Adamantine Sword Revival in her hand.
"I pass." Rebeeca called.
Bakura glowered, ticked off at the girl's waiting game, well aware that he was down to 1500 and only had three turns left.
He drew… and smirked, "I play a card face down and activate Card Destruction, meaning that we both have to…"
"Send our hands to the graveyard and redraw the same number, I know." Rebecca glared, as she did so.
"I then remove The Portrait's Secret, Jowgen the Spiritualist and Goblin Zombie to summon my Dark Necrofear," Bakura continued, "And play Spiritualistic Medium, selecting my Dark Necrofear."
His Dark Necrofear grew by 1500, taking it up to 3700.
"It can't attack though, because of my Gravity Bind."
"True, but what if I did this?" Bakura asked, activating the face down card he'd placed during his previous turn, "Spiritualism returns one magic or trap card to your hand, and I choose your Gravity Bind."
Rebecca squeaked as ghost rushed straight at her and the card flew out of the Duel Disk of its own accord.
"And I think that I'll end this." Bakura said, as if he was talking to himself, "By activating Negate Defence."
You couldn't really tell when he forced the Millennium Shield into attack mode, but everyone who knew the game, knew how much trouble Rebecca was in, "Dark Necrofear, destroy the shield and win the game!"
The Duel Monster threw a sphere of purple at the shield, exploding when it hit, and as a result Rebecca was thrown backwards, hitting the floor at the same time her life points hit zero.
Then Bakura turned to Yugi, who was watching warily, wondering if Bakura would try something… "Kaiba really lost?"
"Yes…"
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"Is it me, or can you hear Bakura laughing?" Luna asked Joey who was a little busy wondering exactly who he was going to get around her Dulauren, Tiger King of the Ice Boundary, which was prowling in front Luna's other monsters.
This he might have been able to handle had his Red Eyes Black Dragon not been taken by Luna's Allure Queen, which he's been unable to attack because of her 'Queen's Bodyguard' who now resided in the Graveyard.
Joey drew, frowned, double checked his hand and the field, where he had two face down cards and one in face down defence mode, and then grinned, "I activate Red-Eyes Transmigration!"
The Red Eyes Black Dragon equipped to Allure Queen disappeared, and Joey sent a warrior monster to his graveyard and grinned as the armour formed around him, turning him into a winged knight with black armour that looked like segments from a Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Luna looked fascinated, "I always thought that you'd make a good knight, Joey, but that armour is fantastic… one question… what will happen when I equip you to Arzu?"
"Not going to happen." Joey shook his head, "I'm attacking her."
He did so, and she exploded. Joey grinned as he returned to his side of the field, suddenly the ice tiger didn't seem quite as scary. "Your move Luna."
Luna looked like she wanted to ask about a million questions as she drew, summoning her Practitioner of the Ice Boundary in defence mode, "Your armour's not much good for attacking now Joey, neither your or Dulauren can attack while there's another Ice Boundary card on the field other then Petar, but that's all I can do so I end my turn."
Joey frowned as he drew, "He can't keep you safe Luna, I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight, in attack mode." It stood at his side, with 1800 attack points, "Sorry Luna, but… Gearfried, attack her Practitioner!"
The Ice Boundary monster exploded, but Luna didn't look overly bothered, making Joey frown, "And I'm attacking your tiger."
"I activate Scapegoat!" Luna called.
Joey, who was midway through an attack, wasn't quite sure what happened except half a moment later, he found himself on his rear, down by 100 life points, armourless and rather confused. "Uh what just…?"
"I activated Scapegoat so it was face up and then quickly activated Dulauren's ability to gain 500 points when I return any face up card to my hand, your armour was only 2400, Dulauren is 2500 until the end of the turn, so you lost."
"Oh." Joey nodded, understanding as he picked himself up, checking his life point counter, which stood at 1300.
"That looked fun though."
"It was." Joey agreed, remembering the Duel against Bakura right back during Duellist Kingdom when he'd said that he used to pretend it was him on the field trading blows with the enemy monsters… all right, it was a little sad, actually becoming a Duel Monster until you were attacked by something stronger, but it was exhilarating too… He noted his face down card, "I end my turn Luna."
"I summon Blizzd – Guard of the Ice Boundary and play a card face down." Joey watched as Blizzd, a blue bird that kind of reminded him of Fawkes, with blue armour, settled on Luna's shoulder, "Dulauren, attack Gearfried please."
The tiger roared and launched himself across the field.
"Magical Arm Shield!" Joey yelped, activating it just in time. The shield snatched the gorgeous blue bird off of Luna's shoulder and put it right in front of Dulauren's attack.
"That hurt!" Luna complained, as her points dropped by 1700, to 300, wincing and rotating her shoulder.
"Sorry Luna." Joey apologised quickly, "I didn't mean to…"
"I know, I know, you just don't always think before you do things that might hurt your friends… I guess I end my turn."
Now what was that supposed to mean?
Joey drew, "I play Release Restraint." The armour fell away from his Gearfried the Iron Knight to reveal a rather tough looking warrior. "Gearfried the Swordmaster, attack her Dulauren!"
"I activate Scapegoat…" Luna called again, this time it wasn't enough, but she only lost a hundred life points.
"That ends my turn Luna."
"Okay." Luna nodded, "This time I play Scapegoat." The four sheep tokens appeared on the field, bobbing up and down in front of her, "And I guess that is it."
Joey nodded, drawing, "Monster Reborn, to summon my Red Eyes Black Dragon back to the field." The dragon reappeared, glancing at Joey who nodded and grinned back at it. Only then did it let out a triumphant roar.
"You don't need to hear your Red Eyes." Luna looked amused, "You know what's he's saying anyway."
"Red Eyes means a lot to me." Joey said, gazing at the dragon. You've helped save both my life and Yugi's before… I wouldn't let go of you for a million pounds…
Red Eyes, who was staring back at him, roared and looked at the sheep. "Go ahead, if you're hungry." Joey nodded, "Red Eyes, attack! You too Gearfried!"
Two of Luna's sheep exploded.
"Your move."
Luna hesitated as she drew, "I play Monster Reborn on my Trap Eater, and use it and my two Scapegoat to Synchro Summon my Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary!"
Brionac was huge, there was no other way to describe it at first, until Joey realised that the dragon itself was, in fact, living ice, it was beautiful… but… "Luna, Brionac's only got 2300 attack points." Joey frowned, as the attack and defence points were projected by the holoemitters.
"I only have one card left in my hand to use his special ability." Luna explained, "Which allows me to discard this one card in order to return one card on the field to your hand. If I had more, I could return more, but as it is… I discard this card to return your Gearfried the Swordmaster to your hand!"
The 2600 light warrior returned to Joey's hand, leaving Red Eyes on the field alone, dwarfed by the icy Sea Serpent monster. "Your move Joey."
Joey drew. "Luna, I want to apologise in advance for this." Joey said, "But I'm going to win this Duel now, I activate the spell card, Inferno Fire Blast." Red Eyes took off, watching the field. "The spell card means that Red Eyes can attack you directly this turn, through direct damage."
Luna winced and looked up, Joey's Red Eyes bowed its head.
"It's okay, it's been a good duel, go ahead." Luna smiled.
Joey nodded, "Red Eyes, attack!"
The dragon fired off just one Inferno Fire Blast attack, though Joey had known him to get carried away once or twice, and when the flames and smoke cleared, Luna seemed perfectly fine, except that her life points had hit zero.
"Sorry you didn't get to play." She told her dragon as it faded away.
"Maybe next time, huh?" Joey asked as he reached her side. "Wanna go see how the others are doing?"
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Ombre and Astraea were coming to an end on their duel, with only 100 points a piece left, and it had taken until this point for Yami to get himself composed again, while still thinking up all the various ways that he could wind Seto up.
He'd had an excuse, when he'd lost during that Tournament when they'd gotten their Duel Monster partners, his opponent had been at least part vela. What was Kaiba's?
Astraea's Diabolos, King of the Abyss was glowering at Ombre, the huge grey dragon roaring at Ombre's Exxod, Master of the Guard, which was in defence mode and protecting Ombre from harm while the room they were fighting in had been transformed into something that looked a little like the Grand Canyon, due to Ombre's field card.
Astraea was currently unable to get past Exxod, but Ombre couldn't summon anything strong enough to defeat Astraea's dragon. There was a reason for this.
Around five turns ago, Astraea had summoned a very weak monster, with only 300 attack points, and equipped it with something. Had Yami been paying attention, he would have know what she was up to, as it was he'd been a little busy laughing and Ombre had walked straight into Astraea's trap, attacking her Kuriboh and activating Astraea's Crush Card Virus, which had destroyed all of Ombre's strongest attacking monsters.
Luckily for Ombre, a lot of her deck's strength was in their defence and their special abilities, she'd managed to know two thousand points off of Astraea's total using Exxod's special ability, before the Slytherin had destroyed Ombre's Moai Interceptor Cannons and brought the duel to this standstill. Both were just waiting for the right card.
"I pass again." Ombre said, revealing Mystical Space Typhoon putting it at the bottom of her deck, before glaring at the card she'd drawn, all too aware that, through Diabolos's special ability, her Brain Control was in fact the third card from the bottom of her deck, and Shifting Shadows wasn't a particularly helpful card right now, as you had to pay life points to use it.
"Me too." Astraea glowered at her Nobleman of Crossout, wondering where it had been two turns ago.
"And again." Ombre glowered, revealing Ordeal of a Traveller and putting it at the bottom of her deck and staring irritably at Shield and Sword. Great, in fact it would have been perfect had she not been aware that the Crush Card would destroy Exxod the moment that it's 0/4000 stats flipped over.
Astraea drew again, "Yes! I play Pot of Avarice, allowing me to return five monsters to my deck and draw two new cards," She shuffled the five monsters back in and drew her two cards. "And I get Shield Crush, which I play now!"
Exxod exploded.
"Ombre, it's been a good game but… Diabolos, win the game! Attack!"
Ombre threw her arms up to protect herself from the direct assault, but it didn't protect her life points, which hit zero, much to the delight of the Slytherins watching.
"Well played Astraea." Ombre nodded, trying to be polite while the Slytherins who had been watching made rude comments rather loudly.
"You too. That was a close game." Astraea frowned at her friends from her house, who just grinned at her for a second and turned back to their loud conversation. "Rematch?"
"Sure." Ombre nodded, before shaking Astraea's hand and turning and walking off with her friends. Astraea caught Yami smiling at her before he followed Ombre out.
Astraea shook her head and turned to her friends, "Astraea," One giggled, "Bakura's won his game too, there's a party going on in the Common Room. Come on."
Her friend grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the door.
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"It's not that funny." Yugi sighed as Yami paused long enough to catch his breath before he burst out laughing again.
"To be fair, Seto did wind him up mercilessly for weeks." Kari pointed out, from where she was sprawled over a chair, reading her transfiguration notes.
"Yes but it was in a much more subtle manner then this." Ombre glared at Yami who decided that now was a good time to go for a walk, mostly because he liked living.
"How are you doing with that?" Yugi asked, pointing at the notes, trying to ignore the fact Yami was scheming so loudly that Yugi could hear every detail and from the look on Harry's face, he could too, "Have you gotten any further with the animagus thing?"
Kari shook her head, "If anything I've had more trouble with it then ever, I don't think I'll have it down by the third task. I might have to wait until next year. Professor McGonagall has suggested that we take a break from it until September, considering that we only have a month left of the School Year."
"It makes sense." Yugi nodded, "You're learning a lot as it is so…"
"I just can't believe that this time next month it's all going to be over and we'll be on our way home."
"Thank the Gods." Kari sighed, "I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest, but at least I put my name in."
Harry nodded, trying to ignore what was going on around him in favour of getting on with his homework, which he had been in serious danger of falling behind on. "Can't wait."
Hermione, who was leaning on the wall, "Does anyone know if they found Mr Crouch?"
"No clue." Ombre shook her head, "No one's telling us anything and Percy was singularly unhelpful when we sent him an owl."
"Guys, I really think it is time we took this to Dumbledore." Hermione said firmly.
"I dunno Hermione." Joey frowned, having escaped the congratulations on his win in time to overhear. "If we tell him, he may want a demonstration and the Necklace isn't exactly easy to command."
"It shows what it wants to show," Yugi sighed, "We don't know how to control the visions yet, I've sent a letter out to Isuzu, though, asking about it, but it's a long way for the letter to go, so I'm not expecting an answer for a while."
"Where's Yami gone?"
"Away from Ombre since he couldn't stop laughing about the fact Kaiba got beat and it was irritating her." Kari said, she looked up and grinned, "Your fan club's back."
"What?" Joey wheeled around and squeaked as Colin Creevly took a photo.
`I feel sorry for Joey.` Harry sent to Yugi who looked amused.
"So do I, but at least Colin's leaving you alone and I think it's cheering Ombre up."
She did look highly amused as Joey went to hide from the aspiring Photographer and was followed by the boy.
"I still think that if you don't tell Dumbledore about the visions and something happens then you're never going to forgive yourself." Hermione said pointedly.
"I need to talk to Yami before I can make a decision about going to Dumbledore." Yugi said aloud, then, "Yami, I need to talk to you."
'What's wrong?'
"Hermione thinks that we need to go to Dumbledore about the visions we've had from the Millennium Necklace. Professor Moody seems to be ignoring us and we have to try something."
'…'
"I think that its better then not doing anything, at least this way, Dumbledore couldn't claim that we deliberately held back something as important as this from him." Yugi sighed, "If we catch him in his office, and explain exactly what's happened, we might get some sense out of him. If he needs us here as badly as Seto seems to think, then he should at least pay attention to us for that long."
'…You've already made up your mind about this haven't you?'
"Not really, I wanted to know how you felt about it. Revealing the powers of the Necklace may mean that we have to reveal the powers of the other items…"
'If he hasn't already stolen that information from the minds of our friends.'
`Wouldn't he have mentioned it if he knew exactly what the Millennium Rod could do?` Harry asked.
'Not if he didn't want to be caught out. He couldn't.'
"So what do we do?"
'We don't have a choice really. If we don't tell Dumbledore then we're not giving him a chance to intervene and when things go wrong, we could be accused of having a part in it. But by the same line of thought, we could be accused if we say something…'
"You're not making this easy."
'I'm just pointing out both sides of the equation.'
"Grrr…"
'It's up to you, I'll go with any decision you make.'
"Oh thank you." Yugi sighed.
"Unhelpful?" Joey asked.
"Just a little bit." Yugi nodded. "Do you even have a preference on this?"
'I have no idea how to get round it, so…' Yugi and Harry could sense Yami's shrug, 'It's up to you.'
Yugi leant back in his chair.
"What's he say?"
"It's my decision and he'll go along with whatever I decide." Yugi said, staring at the ceiling, "But it doesn't only affect me, if affects everyone…"
Ombre hummed something as she thought, Harry recognised it as the same thing that Mana had been singing, and he turned to look at her, confused, "If Moody isn't picking up on us hovering and checking and double checking, then I don't think we have a choice but to go to Dumbledore. He needs us here, so he has to listen to us."
"Even if he does nothing, we've told him and done everything we can do." Kari nodded, "And we can't, fairly, be blamed for the consequences."
"Alright." Yugi sighed, "I'll go…" "Yami, I'm going to see Professor Dumbledore."
'I'll meet you there.' Yami sent.
"See you later, guys."
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"Mr Muto, Pharaoh. Is there a reason you came to see me?"
"Professor Dumbledore, we require your help."
"Considering how little you seem to trust me, I do not see how I can help if there has been an accident with your magic again."
"There hasn't been an accident with our magic, but it's because of one of the Millennium Items that we have come to you." Yugi said slowly.
"What has happened?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forward in his seat.
Yugi looked unsure and Yami continued for him, "The Millennium Necklace presents visions of both the future and the past, and has recently revealed to us that something is going to go wrong with the third task."
"How recently?"
"Once before Christmas, and again earlier this week." Yugi said.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, "And you didn't come to me before now?"
Yami and Yugi paused and looked at each other.
"You didn't trust that I would intervene." Dumbledore stated.
"In our defence, Professor, you didn't do anything about the Dusleys." Yami growled. "And you were entering the minds of our friends without permission in the name of the 'greater good'. How could we know if you would help or not?"
"Yami." Yugi's tone was more a warning then anything, to the Pharaoh, not to Dumbledore, a tone that said 'now is not the time'.
"What do you need my help for?" Dumbledore asked, noting the way Yami attempted to calm himself at Yugi's… what was basically a command…
"The Triwizard Cup is going to be turned into a Portkey and the first ones to touch it will be transported somewhere. We don't know where and we don't know what's going to happen afterwards." Yugi said. "We can't get to the Triwizard Cup and there's nothing we can do about it once it's inside the maze anyway."
"So you want me to keep an eye out for trouble."
"If you could escort the Triwizard Cup to the centre of the maze on the day of the task, we'd be grateful. If you place it in the centre of the maze, then someone is going to have trouble turning it into a Portkey before the task."
"Am I to take it that Miss Ironhide is going to be the winner then?"
"Harry and Kari are going to tie."
"It seems a shame that the results are already known."
Yami snorted, "We'd rather be able to prepare our friends then have them disappear on us completely unprepared."
"Understandable. Have you spoken to anyone else about this?"
"Only the others in the group. We were trying to attract Professor Moody's attention by checking and double checking everything, since he seems to have worked out that we, as a whole, are paranoid about our friends and family, but it didn't work." Yami said thinking, "But we haven't spoken to anyone outside the Clan about it."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful and sat back slightly. "How guaranteed are the visions provided by the Millennium Necklace and how often do they come?"
"Unless you actively go out of your way to change it, it's pretty much a dead cert. The only time we've seen a vision changed it took a Millennium Item to change it, but it did concern one of the most stubborn people on the planet." Yugi said, amused when Dumbledore looked at Yami.
"Kaiba, not me."
"And how often do these visions come?"
"We've had three in the last few months, but other then that we haven't had one since Battle City, back before we came to Hogwarts." Yugi had already worked it out and didn't have to think about it.
"Three? You mentioned two…"
"One was a vision of the past," Yami said, "Back before the school year started, when Professor Moody's house was attacked."
"And he drove off the attackers with exploding dustbins." Yugi nodded.
"And you haven't had a vision before these in over four years?"
"We haven't really tried. We sent a letter off the former owner of the item, asking about a few things, but it's too soon to get a reply, since she lives in Egypt."
"You're not planning on leaving us, are you Pharaoh?" Dumbledore looked at little surprised.
Yami shook his head, "I want to find out my history but I don't want to leave, so we're enquiring about having the tablet of the Pharaoh brought to Japan."
`Yami, Yugi…` Harry prodded.
Yami shook his head, "We're getting off topic, can you do anything about the Triwizard Cup becoming a Portkey?"
"I will try my best." Professor Dumbledore nodded.
"Is there anything we can do about it?"
"Keep the Duel Monsters on standby, make sure they're ready if something happens and keep training Mr Potter and Miss Ironhide. If I cannot stop the events, then at least they aren't going to be unprepared."
"Thank you Professor." Yugi bowed and left, Yami in tow.
Professor Dumbledore looked at one of the portraits on the wall once they had left, "Could you inform Professor Moody that I'd like to speak to him?"
"Yes headmaster."
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Everyone had been running late all day.
Classes had overrun, they'd been late leaving meals, they hadn't gotten down to breakfast on time, detentions had been gained for being late and all in all this had been a really bad day, so when Yugi staggered into the Common Room at eleven pm, having just finished his detention with Professor Moody, most of the others were already in bed.
Ron waved him over, he and Joey had stayed awake, while Yami had tried, but had fallen asleep an hour ago and Harry had given up at around half past nine.
"How'd it go? Yami and Harry said you were blocking them the whole time."
"I'm never being late to his class ever again; detention with Professor Moody is evil." Yugi groaned, sinking into the couch, "Apparently his idea of a detention is to test my reflexes in Wizarding combat."
"Ouch."
Yugi just nodded. "Ow."
"How'd you do?"
"Surprisingly well apparently." Yugi shrugged, "I was a little slow to start with, but once I got warmed up, all of that practise we've been doing seemed to pay off. He was much better, even with his peg leg, but I'm not surprised, he was an Auror."
"Damn Yuge." Joey winced, "Harsh or what?"
"Incredibly. Now if you don't mind, I think I'm going to go to bed." Yugi poked Yami, who jumped and started bombarding Yugi with questions as they headed upstairs.
"Did Yugi have his bag when he went to Moody's detention?" Ron frowned, looking around for it.
"Uh huh." Joey nodded, joining the search… "Damn, not here and he didn't take it upstairs…"
"I'll get it." Ron nodded, vaulting the sofa.
"Just don't get…" Ron was already gone, "Caught."
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Yugi was late to breakfast, but when he came down he was carrying his bag. "Apparently one of the House Elves found it in the classroom and handed it in to Professor Moody." Yugi sat down and opened his bag. "All my books are still here, and…" Yugi paused, rooted around for another five minutes, pulled everything out and blanched, "The Millennium Items I keep in here are missing."
"Malfoy!" Yami bellowed across the Great Hall.
Draco jumped and Bakura actually looked startled as he looked over, but only for a moment. "What, Muto?"
"Outside." Yami glowered, nodding towards the double doors.
"Oh this can't be good." Joey winced as Yugi quickly followed his dark half out of the Great Hall. He would have gone too, but people were rapidly moving away from the double doors and blocking the exit.
"Where are they?" Yami demanded.
"Where are what, Pharaoh?" Bakura asked, hiding his confusion well.
"The Millennium Items, where are they?"
"In his bag, as far as I'm aware." Bakura pointed at Yugi, "I haven't touched them, they're no use to me unless I can beat the pair of you."
"Well considering that you're the only one who's interested in them, it has to be you who's stolen them."
"If I was going to steal them, I would have taken the Puzzle at the same time." Bakura snorted. "And challenged you for them already."
"But if you didn't take them…"
Bakura snorted, "Please, do you think I'd be so stupid as to have waited until you could accuse me in front of the entire school to admit that I had them? I have more sense then that, if I was going to challenge you to a battle for them, I would have interrupted your training session this morning."
"Had to be last night then." Yugi said, thinking quickly, "In the gap between me leaving my bag behind and the House Elf finding it."
"Wait, you left your bag unattended?" Bakura asked.
"Yes…"
"Four years I've waited for a chance like that and it finally comes along and I miss it?" Bakura sounded incredibly irritated.
"Okay, now I believe that he hasn't taken them." Yami snorted.
"I'll ask Professor Moody about it." Yugi said, frowning, "I'll meet you in class." Yugi was gone a moment later.
"Are you going to apologise or what?" Bakura asked.
"No." Yami shook his head, "Because I know that if you had been aware that Yugi's bag was unattended last night, you would have stolen the Millennium Items."
"Damn right." Bakura looked amused. "You'd better find them, before I do."
Yami glowered as Bakura walked away.
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"I'm not joking." Yami growled warningly, when they spoke to their head of house later that day, "I will Shadow Game every student I have to until the Millennium Items are returned to us."
"Mr Muto!" Professor McGonagall sighed, "That is unnecessary. If you cannot find them by this time next week, I will demand a full search of all students' belongings."
Yugi wasn't saying anything and had shut his mind off from Harry and Yami, having done nothing but search the entire time he hadn't been in class, he was just hanging back as Yami went on a full scale rant about how a week was too long and the Millennium Items could be anywhere by then, sinking as low as he could possibly get as Yami went on about how dangerous they could be if they fell into the wrong person's hands…
Joey was the first to notice Yugi slipping away from the group and heading back towards Defence Against the Dark Arts and left Yami 'reasoning' with Professor McGonagall to follow.
He was startled to find that three corridors away, Yugi wheeled around and punched a wall.
"Yuge!" Joey yelped. 'A little too much Yami there…'
"I'm such an idiot!" Yugi growled, leaning against the wall, "I can't believe I lost the Millennium Items! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" With each 'stupid', Yugi banged his head on the wall.
"Yugi. Stop it." Joey pulled his friend away from the wall. "It was going to happen sooner or later. There's just too many people who want the power. You can't be perfect forever, you were going to slip up. It happens."
"You don't get it Joey, I'm not allowed to slip up! What if they fall into the hands of someone like Bakura or Marik or Voldemort?"
"Then they'd have to defeat you or Yami to get them to work for them." Joey said, "Calm down. So they slip out of your grip for a while, you aren't going to lose in a game to anyone, so it won't matter, I mean they have to specifically state that they're taking the Millennium Items as their terms, right?"
"Right…"
"Then relax. When have you or Yami ever lost a FAIR game?"
"Definition of fair?"
"When the opponent wasn't a vela or threatening to commit suicide." Joey paused, "Or when you didn't give up to prove a point… or weren't fighting someone under mind control… I'm not helping am I?"
"Not really."
"Would it be so bad if you never got the missing Millennium Items back? All they've ever done is cause you trouble."
"Yes…no…gah!" Yugi threw his hands up in frustration. "We need them, I know we need them, and if I don't get them back…" Yugi started heading down to Defence Against the Dark Arts again, "But at the same time, if we don't have them then we don't have to guard them the whole time and if no one can use them without defeating one of us… but then it only takes once and if we die, they're free for all again and…"
"I get it. We need them back." Joey sighed, "But how many times are you going to check the Defence section of the castle until you realise that they're not there?"
"Until I find them."
"Yuge…" Joey sighed. There was going to be no reasoning with the man until he realised that someone had the items in question and they weren't just lying around the department.
He gave up and followed his friend. If he couldn't convince him not to search, at least he could be there with him.
The last one had been pretty constant since Luna had said that she could hear the Duel Monsters and that the others should listen to them more often. They were up to the quarter finals now, which were in fact being held this Saturday, 'Joey vs Luna' and 'Bakura vs Rebecca' in one half of the bracket, and 'Seto vs Adelle' and 'Astraea vs Ombre' in the other, then the semis were in two weeks time, while the finals would be held just before the Third Task.
There had been an announcement at Breakfast, that all the Champions were to head to the Quidditch Pitch at nine o'clock and Kari and Harry had been unhappy about walking down after dark, but had gone, drawing their wands and using Lumos so they didn't trip over.
"This is insane," Kari sighed, "I guess we know where the last task is being held though."
"And the others know where to start patrolling." Harry nodded. "Do you think that we can interfere enough to stop it happening?"
"Truthfully?" Kari asked and Harry nodded, "I hope so, but nothing is certain, even the future can be changed, just because one path is seen, doesn't mean there aren't about a million others, it's just that in the right hands the Necklace is normally accurate." And I don't think Robyn was wrong once. "So we just have to be careful."
Harry nodded as they reached the Quidditch Pitch. "What have they done?"
Kari knelt down next to the small, crisscrossing walls, "Yugi's going to throw a fit when he realises that they're growing hedges here, I thought that they'd magically conjure walls or something."
"Ah Miss Ironhide, Mr Potter," Mr Bagman, the Head of Magical Games and Sports for the English Ministry of Magic, sounded rather overenthusiastic as they climbed over the hedges to get to him and Vicktor Krum, "We're just waiting for Miss Delacour and then I'll explain. They'll be twenty foot high this time next month!"
Harry grimaced, imagine trying to find the Snitch in a maze that was twenty foot tall.
"Oh don't worry, the pitch will be put back to rights after the task, you needn't worry about that." Bagman laughed, waving over Fleur. Once she was stood next to them he started talking again, "Right then, can any of you guess what we're growing here?"
"Maze." Krum said shortly.
"That's right, the last task is on the 24th of June and is really very easy, you just have to make your way to the centre of the maze."
Kari and Harry, who had been preparing for this for the last couple of months attempted to look surprised.
"So all we have to do is get through the maze and touch the cup?" Fleur asked.
"Oh, there will be obstacles." Bagman once again sounded way too happy about that, "Hagrid is providing creatures and there will be spells to avoid and defuse, but yes, the first one to touch the cup wins."
"Do we all go in at once?" Harry asked.
"No, as the Champions with the highest points, Miss Ironhide and Mr Potter will enter first, followed by Mr Krum and finally Miss Delacour. However, you will all be in with a fighting chance depending on how well you get past the obstacles. It'll be fun."
Harry and Kari looked at each other, knowing exactly what kind of creatures Hagrid was likely to provide, fun wasn't the word that they would use.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Mr Bagman asked. Everyone shook their heads. "In that case, it's quite chilly, shall we head up to the castle?"
Harry and Kari turned to leave, but Krum put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Can I haff a word?"
"Sure." Harry nodded.
"Do you mind if I come?"
Krum looked very much like he did mind.
"I'll hang back, where I can't hear you, but we tend to walk around in pairs since the Second Task, sorry."
Krum growled and shrugged, "Herrmy-own-ninny said something similar when I asked why Ombre follows you and Hermy-own-ninny around."
They headed towards Hagrid's hut for a while, passed that, went along past the Beuxbaton's carriage to the quiet stretch of ground just past the paddock where the flying horses were being kept where they trained most mornings, then Kari hung back, close enough to keep an eye on things, while being far enough back to avoid hearing the conversation.
Krum turned to Harry on they were in the shade of the trees, fixing him with a hard stare that made Harry wonder what he was supposed to have done. "I vant to know," He glowered, "Vot there is between you and Hermy-own-ninny?"
"Nothing!" Harry answered easily, "She's my Clan Sister, that's all."
"Vot is a Clan Sister?"
"We're members of Clan Domino," Harry answered easily, having suspected something other then this from the ever serious Vicktor Krum, "Founding members in fact, it makes us like brothers and sisters, even if we aren't related. But I'm not dating Hermione, in fact I'm currently seeing Luna Lovegood."
"You haff not…"
"I've never dated Hermione, or Kari for that matter." Harry said, figuring out where this had come from, "That was Rita Skeeter making stuff up. I think Seto Kaiba had something to say about that too."
Krum looked a little easier and stared at Harry for a moment, then, "You fly very well, I vos votching the first task."
Harry had to fight off a grin and just knew that Yugi and Yami would probably sense his elation that the praise from an international Quidditch Player gave him, "You're a great flyer too, I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup. Yugi and I have been dying to attempt that Wronski Feint."
"Maybe I could show you how?" Krum asked, amused.
"We'd have to try to get the Quidditch Pitch again," Harry said, thinking of the flying session the Clan had had, after talking Madam Hooch into overseeing a 'practise' session to keep their skills up, "But I bet Seto could…"
Harry cut off and drew his wand as something moved in the forest, having had experience with things from the forest before, moving between Krum and the forest.
"Vot is it?" Krum asked as Kari rushed forward.
A man staggered out of the forest. He looked ill, his robes were ripped and bloody and it looked like he hadn't washed his hair in days. This, however, was nothing compared to how he was talking.
"Mr Crouch?" Kari asked, rushing past Harry wand still drawn. "Ombre? Can you come here?"
Crouch? Harry wondered exactly what had happened to him to be in this state, as Kari attempted to get some sense out of the older Wizard, who seemed to be convinced that they were in his office and that he was talking not to a woman, but in fact to Percy Weasley, a fact they only gathered because he was talking to Weatherby and the twins had been talking about winding Percy about it for the last few weeks, since Percy had sent a rather snotty letter to the twins on their birthday.
'On my way hikari.'
"Mr Crouch, do you need to…eep!" Kari squeaked as Mr Crouch grabbed her by the shoulders. "Petrificus…"
"NO!" Couch growled, tossing her aside, "Dumbledore, I need to speak to Dumbledore!"
Harry rushed forward, Krum just behind as Kari glared at the man and picked herself up. "Come with us and we'll take you to see him." She said, as she picked up her wand.
"Who are you?" Crouch asked, gesticulating wildly and looking at them like he thought they would attack him.
"Students, at the school."
"Not his?"
"His?" Harry asked.
"You're not with…" Crouch looked around and whispered, "You-Know-Who?"
"Never."
"Dumbledore's?"
"Working against Voldemort." Kari nodded, working out that he was talking about sides, and while they would never be on Moldyshort's side, they couldn't completely say that they were with Dumbledore either after the revelations of earlier in the year.
"Warn…Dumbledore. Bertha dead… my fault… the Dark Lord… stronger… Harry Potter…"
"We'll go and get him." Kari promised and turned to Harry. "Harry, can you go and get the Headmaster, I'll stay here." Harry nodded and shot off, "Vicktor, can you…"
Something hit Krum, and she was just turning to fight it when the same something hit her… the ground came to meet her and then she knew nothing else.
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"I don't know what happened." Kari kicked a table, as they gathered in the Common Room, "I sent Harry off and the something tagged both me and Krum from behind, and I know it wasn't Crouch, he was stood to my left, I would have seen him!" Kari growled, "I can't believe he didn't believe me either! Gah!"
"What I want to know is how Crouch got away if he was as badly off as you said he was, if he was that determined to talk to Dumbledore, wouldn't he have headed towards the castle?"
"Dunno. You said that Professor Moody said that he couldn't see anyone around?" Yugi asked thoughtfully.
"Uh huh. I might have gotten back in time if Snape hadn't held me up." Harry complained.
"I doubt it, Kari called me the moment that Crouch came out of the trees and I didn't see who attacked them, so I doubt being a bit faster would have helped." Ombre shook her head. "I wonder if this means they'll hold off on the last task, so they can find him…"
"It's on the 24th." Harry said, "They can't push it much further back then that, because term will end."
"And it has to be completed…" Yami sighed. "So is it the maze?"
"Uh huh, they've dug up the Quidditch Pitch to put in walls of hedges…"
"What?" Yugi complained, "But…"
"Mr Bagman said that they would fix it afterwards." Kari shrugged, "There will be obstacles in it."
"Creatures and magic, right?" Joey nodded.
"Other then the Crouch problem, nothing we weren't expecting then." Yami growled, "Where could he have gone?"
"I don't know and it's not our problem." Ombre said firmly. "We have more important things to worry about, like making sure that we stay on guard now and try to make sure that Harry and Kari can get through the maze safely."
"And we start investigating the maze if we can." Yami nodded, "If we can get Moody investigating, he might notice the Cup's a portkey before it can be used to drag the winner away."
"But…"
"We can have a look around, but if Moody couldn't find anyone with that eye of his, I don't know how much more luck we'll have…"
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When Harry returned to the Gryffindor Tower after class the next day, he found Yugi sat at a table, glaring at something on it. "Yuge?"
"Nothing for four years," Yugi complained, as Harry walked over to find that the thing he was glaring at was the Millennium Necklace, "And then three within seven months of each other."
"Three?"
"Touched it by accident during Arithmancy." Yugi sighed.
"What was it then?"
"The maze, again." Yugi sighed, "And this time it was something about Professor Moody, but it wasn't very clear. I think it was back, not forward though, since I remember Mr Weasley mentioning something about exploding garbage cans back at the end of the Summer, when we were staying with him."
Harry thought back for a moment, Mr Weasley had mentioned something like that… then… "I thought the Necklace saw the future, not the past."
"It does both." Yugi sighed, "And we've obviously missed something if it's doing it without someone telling it to."
"Couldn't you ask Isuzu about it?" Harry asked as Yugi swiped the Necklace into his backpack and pulled out his text books. "She was the one who had it last, right?"
"Uh huh. I was planning to when I sent the letter off about this summer." Yugi said, "I need Yami to look at it before I send it though." He snorted as Harry pulled out a book on shield spells, "I would say that I envy you for not having any end of year exams, but I think the girls are piling enough homework on you anyway."
Harry laughed, "I'd rather have the exams thanks."
"I bet." Yugi nodded, comparing something in his Divination notes to his text book and rereading the paragraph, before scribbling out something in his notes and copying the new thing down. "I think half of what Professor Trelawny says is rubbish." Yugi said with a frown, "The notes I took don't match up with what the book is saying in many places at all."
"Trelawny is a fraud." Hermione said, having overheard and dumping her pile of books on the table, "But Divination itself is fascinating."
"So you gave it up because…?"
"Because she couldn't read a prophecy right if you handed the meaning to her on a silver platter." Hermione said, digging through the pile until she found her Arithmancy notes, "Yugi, did you get this part alright?" She asked, showing him her page of equations.
Yugi dug through his bag for his parchment and book from that class and compared them to Hermione's. Harry got bored rather quickly as they talked it through, though he was surprised at just how much he had forgotten of maths since he had left the Muggle World.
"What're they up to?" Joey asked, sitting down with his potions textbook.
"Maths."
"Yuck." Joey pulled a face and buried himself in his potions homework.
"You ready for tomorrow?" Hermione asked without looking up from her overly complex equations.
"As I can be." Joey frowned, "Luna's surprisingly good at Duel Monsters."
"Well she is friends with Mokuba."
"I know but…" Joey shrugged, not sure how to explain, "She's just really, really good. I mean you and Harry have a reason, Kari's a good teacher and Harry has Yugi and Yami's memories."
"Don't be mean." Yugi chided.
"No, it's true." Harry shook his head, "I have improved since I got linked to you guys."
"Awww," Hermione grinned suddenly, "Joey's scared."
"Am not!"
"Well you said that you were hoping to be booted out of the Tournament before you had to fight Bakura."
"I said she was good, I didn't say she was going to win."
"I can't wait to watch."
"I'm not going to be there, I'm going to watch the Rebecca verses Bakura match." Yugi frowned, "I'm hoping that Bakura will keep up his behaviour, he hasn't Shadow Gamed anyone yet, but I want to be on hand just in case." "Not that there's much I can do if he starts one, we're unable to interfere without severe consequences."
`Becca will be fine.` Harry sent, catching Yugi's thought and his amused glance, `Besides why would Bakura Game Becca? She may be his opponent in the Tournament, but she doesn't have anything he wants.`
'I'd be more worried if it was Joey or Seto fighting him.' Yami joined in the conversation from down in the library, 'I think Becs should be able to take him, but we don't know what his deck is like now, he seems to change it after every match.'
"We'll see."
"Uh guys, it's rude to talk about us when we can't hear you." Joey pointed out.
"Sorry Joey, we were having a three way discussion about the Becca verses Bakura match." Yugi looked bashful. "Yami seems pretty sure that Becs can take Bakura."
"Of course she can, she's not America's top Duellist for nothing." Joey snorted. "Bakura doesn't stand a chance."
Yugi shrugged, "I guess you're right."
"Guess nothing." Joey protested, "Everyone who thinks that Bakura's going to lose to Becs say aye!"
"Aye." Joey, Hermione and Harry said at the same time and after a moment Yugi smiled slightly.
"Aye."
"See, no problem." Joey grinned. If only he was as confident about his own match.
"The Weasley twins are taking bets." Hermione said, smiling slightly as she finished a particularly difficult sum, "The smart money's on a Joey verses Seto final, with…" Hermione trailed off.
"Seto to win, right?" Joey sighed.
"You know?"
"I can guess."
"You could beat Seto."
"I haven't beaten Rich-boy once in seven years…"
"That doesn't mean anything." Yugi shook his head, "I bet you could this time. Just look over your deck and practise. Seto's just as rusty as you are, if not worse, he's been out of the competitive circuit longer."
"I'd worry about it when it gets to that point." Hermione advised, "You've got to get past Luna and either Becs or Bakura first."
"Please let is be Becs, please let it be Becs…" Joey thought silently. "This summer we need to get back into the Tournament Circuit." Joey told Yugi, "We're out of practise and we know each other's decks too well for Duelling each other to be good practise anymore."
"I know." Yugi nodded. "But the others are progressing well, and…" Yugi sighed, "I wish I'd entered now…"
"You could try using Polyjuice to play against Luna if you like."
"One, I don't have time to make it and two, that's called cheating."
"Joey IS scared of Luna!" Hermione laughed.
"Am not!" Joey protested again, "I just thought I'd give Yugi the chance to decline the offer."
"And I'm declining." Yugi said firmly. "Besides, where would we get the ingredients without breaking into Snape's storage? We can't exactly order the stuff from where Kari normally gets her stuff. Besides, it would be too suspicious if your play style changed drastically for the last few matches."
"Yugi!" Hermione groaned, "Please tell me that you're not trying to convince yourself this is a bad idea, because it is, but you don't sound sure."
"I do think it's a bad idea, I'm just…"
"Bored." Harry supplied.
"The person I really want to duel against is Mai Valentine." Yugi said, leaning back and thinking about it, "She's a fantastic Duellist, an honourable one too. She'd be a challenge…"
"And I'm not?" Joey half-pretended to be insulted.
"Of course you are, but I know your deck inside out, back to front and upside down, where as I haven't Duelled Mai in years."
Hermione giggled, making the others look at her, "Who would have thought that you could get withdrawal symptoms from a lack of challenging Duels?"
"I wouldn't say that around Seto." Yugi warned.
"I wouldn't say that around Yami either!" Harry laughed.
"Of course not, I like living!" Hermione protested.
"Yami wouldn't kill you." Yugi mock-glared, "He doesn't kill allies and friends."
"He would if I told him that you didn't think that he was a challenge anymore."
"Na, he understands." Yugi sighed, "It's something we've discussed before, there's just something that is tugging at us, and it only seems to stop while we're duelling and the longer and more challenging a duel it is, the longer the tugging stops for. I don't know why, but it's like we're not allowed to let our Duelling Skills get too slack."
There was silence for a while, while they processed this. Hermione had one idea. That it was either their magic keeping them fighting, or fate had something planned for them still that their Duelling Skills were incredibly important for, but she couldn't see what. What could be so important that fate would tug on them until they played to make sure that they didn't get rusty?
"But you and Harry are real challenges now," Yugi started talking again, "And I'm defiantly going to challenge Luna soon… so…" He shrugged, "And that's not the right answer…" He scribbled out the number he'd put down and wrote the right one, sighing as he did so.
"So it's not just a case of boredom then?" Joey asked.
Yugi shook his head. "It's like going stir crazy… but for Duelling… I think." Yugi said, then realised exactly what he had said, "And that sounds crazy."
"We already knew you were crazy," Joey reassured him, "But that's alright, because we're crazy too."
"Ha ha." Yugi sounded surprisingly sarcastic.
"So, we need to find you and Yami the biggest Duel Monsters Tournament ever, and stick you right in the middle of it." Hermione nodded, "I'll get Kari to start looking."
"Why not just ask Seto to set one up?"
"Because if Seto sets one up, something insane will happen." Joey groaned, "The same goes for Industrial Illusions."
"Uh Joey," Harry tried not to laugh, "Don't insane things normally follow you guys around."
"You're not much better Mister!"
"Now you sound like Rebec…eep!" Harry had to flee as Joey attempted to noogie him.
"So Joey's never going to grow up, is he?" Hermione asked.
"Probably not." Yugi laughed, "But I don't care, Joey's fine the way he is."
"He wouldn't be Joey if he wasn't a little insane." Hermione agreed as Harry fled back past and would have escaped out of the portrait hole had he not gone crashing in Yami, ending up with both of them on their rears looking rather dazed.
This, of course, caused those who had seen what happened to laugh, as Joey helped Yami to his feet, giving Harry a chance escape.
"Is there a reason you're attempting to noogie Harry?"
"Well…"
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"Blue Eyes!" Kaiba called, White Lightening!"
His Blue Eyes White Dragon attacked, wiping out Adelle's Spirit of the Breeze.
The 0 attack, 1200 defence Duel Monster had been causing him trouble for a few turns, since Adelle had equipped it with Mage Power, Horn of the Unicorn and Sword of Deep-Seated, giving it an attack of 3700 points, since she'd had five magic and trap cards down, if you included the two face down cards that could have been anything, Seto had had no idea.
It hadn't been until he'd managed to summon one of his Blue Eyes by attributing Kaiser Seahorse and another with Monster Reborn that Seto had finally managed to weaken it by using his A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon, destroying all of her magic and trap cards by returning one of them to his hand and destroy the damn creature.
This would have finished the game off normally, but Spirit of the Breeze had a special effect that increased her Duellist's life points by 1000 every time the controlling Duellist drew a card.
Kaiba's sources hadn't been wrong, talent spotters, who watched Tournaments around the world and reported back to Kaiba Corp had spotted a few up and coming Duellists in Europe that he had been considering inviting to the Kaiba Corp Tournaments he was planning over the summer, and sixteen year old Adelle Rousseau had been on that list.
Deservedly it looked like.
Adelle still had 7400 lifepoints while Seto only had 1200.
"And that ends my turn."
Adelle was less then amused. Almost all of her equip cards had been destroyed in that last attack, along with both of her Sakuretsu Armor. She'd been warned that he was good, but she had thought that she had stacked her deck in a way that would defeat him.
She drew, "I play a card face down and summon Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo, in attack mode." It appeared on the field, in attack mode, a browny metallic looking creature.
"And why should I be afraid of that, it's no match for Blue Eyes, it has no attack points either."
"You'll see. Your turn, Kaiba."
Seto drew, "I summon Lord of D." He called, "And flip my Flute of Summoning Dragon." One of Seto's face down cards flipped up, revealing the flute, "Allowing me to summon the two Blue Eyes White Dragons I have in my hand."
The two appeared on the field, roaring.
"And I activate Polymerisation, fusing my three dragons together to form the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon." The three dragons came together to become the huge three headed terror, with 4500 attack points. "I'll destroy your monster and then win this. Blue Eyes! Attack her Dread Dynamo! Nova Blast!"
The Blue Eyes attacked, but Adelle's Dread Dynamo didn't die in the blast.
"You forgot my face down card!" Adelle laughed, as the crowd murmured, "Waboku. It negates your attack and protects me from harm."
"I know what it does." Seto glowered, "I end my turn."
Adelle drew, "I summon my Ancient Gear." The odd metallic gear like creature appeared on the field, with just 100 attack points. Next to Kaiba's dragons it looked pretty pathetic. "And because I have one on the field, I can summon the other two from my hand this turn." Two more little gear creatures appeared on the field.
"I'm not afraid of them, they're no match for my dragon."
"No, but I can sacrifice one of them to use with my Enemy Controller." Adelle grinned, "I tribute an Ancient Gear to take control of your Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"
Kaiba's eyes widened, as the implications sank in as Blue Eyes switched sides.
"Blue Eyes, destroy his Lord of D!"
The Dragon blasted the lord who exploded when the energy wave hit him.
Seto's points hit zero.
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Yugi broke.
Rebecca, who was keeping half an eye on her friend, but the majority of her concentration on Bakura, turned to look at him.
Hermione poked the Heir, who looked stunned, "What?"
"Seto just lost." Yugi sounded incredulous.
"What?" Rebecca yelped.
"Harry says that Seto lost..." Yugi said, still sounding stunned.
Bakura looked incredibly amused. "It's still your turn Hawkins." Bakura snorted.
Rebecca just stared at him for a minute, before shaking her head and turning back to the duel, she was currently sat behind her Millennium Shield, which was equipped with a Ring of Magnetism, decreasing it's defence by 500 since it's attack couldn't go lower then zero, to 2500, in combination with Gravity Bind, which only allowed monsters with a level of three or less to attack.
This was fine for her, because she was annoying Bakura something rotten with a combination of her Marie the Fallen One, who was in the graveyard and increasing Rebecca's life points by 200, while her Fire Princess, who was in defence mode… just in case… used it's effect to decrease 500 points from Bakura's total every time Marie boosted Rebecca's.
She just needed three more turns…
If he did somehow manage to destroy her Millennium Shield, she did have Luster Dragon #2 in the Graveyard and Monster Reborn and Adamantine Sword Revival in her hand.
"I pass." Rebeeca called.
Bakura glowered, ticked off at the girl's waiting game, well aware that he was down to 1500 and only had three turns left.
He drew… and smirked, "I play a card face down and activate Card Destruction, meaning that we both have to…"
"Send our hands to the graveyard and redraw the same number, I know." Rebecca glared, as she did so.
"I then remove The Portrait's Secret, Jowgen the Spiritualist and Goblin Zombie to summon my Dark Necrofear," Bakura continued, "And play Spiritualistic Medium, selecting my Dark Necrofear."
His Dark Necrofear grew by 1500, taking it up to 3700.
"It can't attack though, because of my Gravity Bind."
"True, but what if I did this?" Bakura asked, activating the face down card he'd placed during his previous turn, "Spiritualism returns one magic or trap card to your hand, and I choose your Gravity Bind."
Rebecca squeaked as ghost rushed straight at her and the card flew out of the Duel Disk of its own accord.
"And I think that I'll end this." Bakura said, as if he was talking to himself, "By activating Negate Defence."
You couldn't really tell when he forced the Millennium Shield into attack mode, but everyone who knew the game, knew how much trouble Rebecca was in, "Dark Necrofear, destroy the shield and win the game!"
The Duel Monster threw a sphere of purple at the shield, exploding when it hit, and as a result Rebecca was thrown backwards, hitting the floor at the same time her life points hit zero.
Then Bakura turned to Yugi, who was watching warily, wondering if Bakura would try something… "Kaiba really lost?"
"Yes…"
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"Is it me, or can you hear Bakura laughing?" Luna asked Joey who was a little busy wondering exactly who he was going to get around her Dulauren, Tiger King of the Ice Boundary, which was prowling in front Luna's other monsters.
This he might have been able to handle had his Red Eyes Black Dragon not been taken by Luna's Allure Queen, which he's been unable to attack because of her 'Queen's Bodyguard' who now resided in the Graveyard.
Joey drew, frowned, double checked his hand and the field, where he had two face down cards and one in face down defence mode, and then grinned, "I activate Red-Eyes Transmigration!"
The Red Eyes Black Dragon equipped to Allure Queen disappeared, and Joey sent a warrior monster to his graveyard and grinned as the armour formed around him, turning him into a winged knight with black armour that looked like segments from a Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Luna looked fascinated, "I always thought that you'd make a good knight, Joey, but that armour is fantastic… one question… what will happen when I equip you to Arzu?"
"Not going to happen." Joey shook his head, "I'm attacking her."
He did so, and she exploded. Joey grinned as he returned to his side of the field, suddenly the ice tiger didn't seem quite as scary. "Your move Luna."
Luna looked like she wanted to ask about a million questions as she drew, summoning her Practitioner of the Ice Boundary in defence mode, "Your armour's not much good for attacking now Joey, neither your or Dulauren can attack while there's another Ice Boundary card on the field other then Petar, but that's all I can do so I end my turn."
Joey frowned as he drew, "He can't keep you safe Luna, I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight, in attack mode." It stood at his side, with 1800 attack points, "Sorry Luna, but… Gearfried, attack her Practitioner!"
The Ice Boundary monster exploded, but Luna didn't look overly bothered, making Joey frown, "And I'm attacking your tiger."
"I activate Scapegoat!" Luna called.
Joey, who was midway through an attack, wasn't quite sure what happened except half a moment later, he found himself on his rear, down by 100 life points, armourless and rather confused. "Uh what just…?"
"I activated Scapegoat so it was face up and then quickly activated Dulauren's ability to gain 500 points when I return any face up card to my hand, your armour was only 2400, Dulauren is 2500 until the end of the turn, so you lost."
"Oh." Joey nodded, understanding as he picked himself up, checking his life point counter, which stood at 1300.
"That looked fun though."
"It was." Joey agreed, remembering the Duel against Bakura right back during Duellist Kingdom when he'd said that he used to pretend it was him on the field trading blows with the enemy monsters… all right, it was a little sad, actually becoming a Duel Monster until you were attacked by something stronger, but it was exhilarating too… He noted his face down card, "I end my turn Luna."
"I summon Blizzd – Guard of the Ice Boundary and play a card face down." Joey watched as Blizzd, a blue bird that kind of reminded him of Fawkes, with blue armour, settled on Luna's shoulder, "Dulauren, attack Gearfried please."
The tiger roared and launched himself across the field.
"Magical Arm Shield!" Joey yelped, activating it just in time. The shield snatched the gorgeous blue bird off of Luna's shoulder and put it right in front of Dulauren's attack.
"That hurt!" Luna complained, as her points dropped by 1700, to 300, wincing and rotating her shoulder.
"Sorry Luna." Joey apologised quickly, "I didn't mean to…"
"I know, I know, you just don't always think before you do things that might hurt your friends… I guess I end my turn."
Now what was that supposed to mean?
Joey drew, "I play Release Restraint." The armour fell away from his Gearfried the Iron Knight to reveal a rather tough looking warrior. "Gearfried the Swordmaster, attack her Dulauren!"
"I activate Scapegoat…" Luna called again, this time it wasn't enough, but she only lost a hundred life points.
"That ends my turn Luna."
"Okay." Luna nodded, "This time I play Scapegoat." The four sheep tokens appeared on the field, bobbing up and down in front of her, "And I guess that is it."
Joey nodded, drawing, "Monster Reborn, to summon my Red Eyes Black Dragon back to the field." The dragon reappeared, glancing at Joey who nodded and grinned back at it. Only then did it let out a triumphant roar.
"You don't need to hear your Red Eyes." Luna looked amused, "You know what's he's saying anyway."
"Red Eyes means a lot to me." Joey said, gazing at the dragon. You've helped save both my life and Yugi's before… I wouldn't let go of you for a million pounds…
Red Eyes, who was staring back at him, roared and looked at the sheep. "Go ahead, if you're hungry." Joey nodded, "Red Eyes, attack! You too Gearfried!"
Two of Luna's sheep exploded.
"Your move."
Luna hesitated as she drew, "I play Monster Reborn on my Trap Eater, and use it and my two Scapegoat to Synchro Summon my Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary!"
Brionac was huge, there was no other way to describe it at first, until Joey realised that the dragon itself was, in fact, living ice, it was beautiful… but… "Luna, Brionac's only got 2300 attack points." Joey frowned, as the attack and defence points were projected by the holoemitters.
"I only have one card left in my hand to use his special ability." Luna explained, "Which allows me to discard this one card in order to return one card on the field to your hand. If I had more, I could return more, but as it is… I discard this card to return your Gearfried the Swordmaster to your hand!"
The 2600 light warrior returned to Joey's hand, leaving Red Eyes on the field alone, dwarfed by the icy Sea Serpent monster. "Your move Joey."
Joey drew. "Luna, I want to apologise in advance for this." Joey said, "But I'm going to win this Duel now, I activate the spell card, Inferno Fire Blast." Red Eyes took off, watching the field. "The spell card means that Red Eyes can attack you directly this turn, through direct damage."
Luna winced and looked up, Joey's Red Eyes bowed its head.
"It's okay, it's been a good duel, go ahead." Luna smiled.
Joey nodded, "Red Eyes, attack!"
The dragon fired off just one Inferno Fire Blast attack, though Joey had known him to get carried away once or twice, and when the flames and smoke cleared, Luna seemed perfectly fine, except that her life points had hit zero.
"Sorry you didn't get to play." She told her dragon as it faded away.
"Maybe next time, huh?" Joey asked as he reached her side. "Wanna go see how the others are doing?"
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Ombre and Astraea were coming to an end on their duel, with only 100 points a piece left, and it had taken until this point for Yami to get himself composed again, while still thinking up all the various ways that he could wind Seto up.
He'd had an excuse, when he'd lost during that Tournament when they'd gotten their Duel Monster partners, his opponent had been at least part vela. What was Kaiba's?
Astraea's Diabolos, King of the Abyss was glowering at Ombre, the huge grey dragon roaring at Ombre's Exxod, Master of the Guard, which was in defence mode and protecting Ombre from harm while the room they were fighting in had been transformed into something that looked a little like the Grand Canyon, due to Ombre's field card.
Astraea was currently unable to get past Exxod, but Ombre couldn't summon anything strong enough to defeat Astraea's dragon. There was a reason for this.
Around five turns ago, Astraea had summoned a very weak monster, with only 300 attack points, and equipped it with something. Had Yami been paying attention, he would have know what she was up to, as it was he'd been a little busy laughing and Ombre had walked straight into Astraea's trap, attacking her Kuriboh and activating Astraea's Crush Card Virus, which had destroyed all of Ombre's strongest attacking monsters.
Luckily for Ombre, a lot of her deck's strength was in their defence and their special abilities, she'd managed to know two thousand points off of Astraea's total using Exxod's special ability, before the Slytherin had destroyed Ombre's Moai Interceptor Cannons and brought the duel to this standstill. Both were just waiting for the right card.
"I pass again." Ombre said, revealing Mystical Space Typhoon putting it at the bottom of her deck, before glaring at the card she'd drawn, all too aware that, through Diabolos's special ability, her Brain Control was in fact the third card from the bottom of her deck, and Shifting Shadows wasn't a particularly helpful card right now, as you had to pay life points to use it.
"Me too." Astraea glowered at her Nobleman of Crossout, wondering where it had been two turns ago.
"And again." Ombre glowered, revealing Ordeal of a Traveller and putting it at the bottom of her deck and staring irritably at Shield and Sword. Great, in fact it would have been perfect had she not been aware that the Crush Card would destroy Exxod the moment that it's 0/4000 stats flipped over.
Astraea drew again, "Yes! I play Pot of Avarice, allowing me to return five monsters to my deck and draw two new cards," She shuffled the five monsters back in and drew her two cards. "And I get Shield Crush, which I play now!"
Exxod exploded.
"Ombre, it's been a good game but… Diabolos, win the game! Attack!"
Ombre threw her arms up to protect herself from the direct assault, but it didn't protect her life points, which hit zero, much to the delight of the Slytherins watching.
"Well played Astraea." Ombre nodded, trying to be polite while the Slytherins who had been watching made rude comments rather loudly.
"You too. That was a close game." Astraea frowned at her friends from her house, who just grinned at her for a second and turned back to their loud conversation. "Rematch?"
"Sure." Ombre nodded, before shaking Astraea's hand and turning and walking off with her friends. Astraea caught Yami smiling at her before he followed Ombre out.
Astraea shook her head and turned to her friends, "Astraea," One giggled, "Bakura's won his game too, there's a party going on in the Common Room. Come on."
Her friend grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the door.
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"It's not that funny." Yugi sighed as Yami paused long enough to catch his breath before he burst out laughing again.
"To be fair, Seto did wind him up mercilessly for weeks." Kari pointed out, from where she was sprawled over a chair, reading her transfiguration notes.
"Yes but it was in a much more subtle manner then this." Ombre glared at Yami who decided that now was a good time to go for a walk, mostly because he liked living.
"How are you doing with that?" Yugi asked, pointing at the notes, trying to ignore the fact Yami was scheming so loudly that Yugi could hear every detail and from the look on Harry's face, he could too, "Have you gotten any further with the animagus thing?"
Kari shook her head, "If anything I've had more trouble with it then ever, I don't think I'll have it down by the third task. I might have to wait until next year. Professor McGonagall has suggested that we take a break from it until September, considering that we only have a month left of the School Year."
"It makes sense." Yugi nodded, "You're learning a lot as it is so…"
"I just can't believe that this time next month it's all going to be over and we'll be on our way home."
"Thank the Gods." Kari sighed, "I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest, but at least I put my name in."
Harry nodded, trying to ignore what was going on around him in favour of getting on with his homework, which he had been in serious danger of falling behind on. "Can't wait."
Hermione, who was leaning on the wall, "Does anyone know if they found Mr Crouch?"
"No clue." Ombre shook her head, "No one's telling us anything and Percy was singularly unhelpful when we sent him an owl."
"Guys, I really think it is time we took this to Dumbledore." Hermione said firmly.
"I dunno Hermione." Joey frowned, having escaped the congratulations on his win in time to overhear. "If we tell him, he may want a demonstration and the Necklace isn't exactly easy to command."
"It shows what it wants to show," Yugi sighed, "We don't know how to control the visions yet, I've sent a letter out to Isuzu, though, asking about it, but it's a long way for the letter to go, so I'm not expecting an answer for a while."
"Where's Yami gone?"
"Away from Ombre since he couldn't stop laughing about the fact Kaiba got beat and it was irritating her." Kari said, she looked up and grinned, "Your fan club's back."
"What?" Joey wheeled around and squeaked as Colin Creevly took a photo.
`I feel sorry for Joey.` Harry sent to Yugi who looked amused.
"So do I, but at least Colin's leaving you alone and I think it's cheering Ombre up."
She did look highly amused as Joey went to hide from the aspiring Photographer and was followed by the boy.
"I still think that if you don't tell Dumbledore about the visions and something happens then you're never going to forgive yourself." Hermione said pointedly.
"I need to talk to Yami before I can make a decision about going to Dumbledore." Yugi said aloud, then, "Yami, I need to talk to you."
'What's wrong?'
"Hermione thinks that we need to go to Dumbledore about the visions we've had from the Millennium Necklace. Professor Moody seems to be ignoring us and we have to try something."
'…'
"I think that its better then not doing anything, at least this way, Dumbledore couldn't claim that we deliberately held back something as important as this from him." Yugi sighed, "If we catch him in his office, and explain exactly what's happened, we might get some sense out of him. If he needs us here as badly as Seto seems to think, then he should at least pay attention to us for that long."
'…You've already made up your mind about this haven't you?'
"Not really, I wanted to know how you felt about it. Revealing the powers of the Necklace may mean that we have to reveal the powers of the other items…"
'If he hasn't already stolen that information from the minds of our friends.'
`Wouldn't he have mentioned it if he knew exactly what the Millennium Rod could do?` Harry asked.
'Not if he didn't want to be caught out. He couldn't.'
"So what do we do?"
'We don't have a choice really. If we don't tell Dumbledore then we're not giving him a chance to intervene and when things go wrong, we could be accused of having a part in it. But by the same line of thought, we could be accused if we say something…'
"You're not making this easy."
'I'm just pointing out both sides of the equation.'
"Grrr…"
'It's up to you, I'll go with any decision you make.'
"Oh thank you." Yugi sighed.
"Unhelpful?" Joey asked.
"Just a little bit." Yugi nodded. "Do you even have a preference on this?"
'I have no idea how to get round it, so…' Yugi and Harry could sense Yami's shrug, 'It's up to you.'
Yugi leant back in his chair.
"What's he say?"
"It's my decision and he'll go along with whatever I decide." Yugi said, staring at the ceiling, "But it doesn't only affect me, if affects everyone…"
Ombre hummed something as she thought, Harry recognised it as the same thing that Mana had been singing, and he turned to look at her, confused, "If Moody isn't picking up on us hovering and checking and double checking, then I don't think we have a choice but to go to Dumbledore. He needs us here, so he has to listen to us."
"Even if he does nothing, we've told him and done everything we can do." Kari nodded, "And we can't, fairly, be blamed for the consequences."
"Alright." Yugi sighed, "I'll go…" "Yami, I'm going to see Professor Dumbledore."
'I'll meet you there.' Yami sent.
"See you later, guys."
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"Mr Muto, Pharaoh. Is there a reason you came to see me?"
"Professor Dumbledore, we require your help."
"Considering how little you seem to trust me, I do not see how I can help if there has been an accident with your magic again."
"There hasn't been an accident with our magic, but it's because of one of the Millennium Items that we have come to you." Yugi said slowly.
"What has happened?" Dumbledore asked, leaning forward in his seat.
Yugi looked unsure and Yami continued for him, "The Millennium Necklace presents visions of both the future and the past, and has recently revealed to us that something is going to go wrong with the third task."
"How recently?"
"Once before Christmas, and again earlier this week." Yugi said.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, "And you didn't come to me before now?"
Yami and Yugi paused and looked at each other.
"You didn't trust that I would intervene." Dumbledore stated.
"In our defence, Professor, you didn't do anything about the Dusleys." Yami growled. "And you were entering the minds of our friends without permission in the name of the 'greater good'. How could we know if you would help or not?"
"Yami." Yugi's tone was more a warning then anything, to the Pharaoh, not to Dumbledore, a tone that said 'now is not the time'.
"What do you need my help for?" Dumbledore asked, noting the way Yami attempted to calm himself at Yugi's… what was basically a command…
"The Triwizard Cup is going to be turned into a Portkey and the first ones to touch it will be transported somewhere. We don't know where and we don't know what's going to happen afterwards." Yugi said. "We can't get to the Triwizard Cup and there's nothing we can do about it once it's inside the maze anyway."
"So you want me to keep an eye out for trouble."
"If you could escort the Triwizard Cup to the centre of the maze on the day of the task, we'd be grateful. If you place it in the centre of the maze, then someone is going to have trouble turning it into a Portkey before the task."
"Am I to take it that Miss Ironhide is going to be the winner then?"
"Harry and Kari are going to tie."
"It seems a shame that the results are already known."
Yami snorted, "We'd rather be able to prepare our friends then have them disappear on us completely unprepared."
"Understandable. Have you spoken to anyone else about this?"
"Only the others in the group. We were trying to attract Professor Moody's attention by checking and double checking everything, since he seems to have worked out that we, as a whole, are paranoid about our friends and family, but it didn't work." Yami said thinking, "But we haven't spoken to anyone outside the Clan about it."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful and sat back slightly. "How guaranteed are the visions provided by the Millennium Necklace and how often do they come?"
"Unless you actively go out of your way to change it, it's pretty much a dead cert. The only time we've seen a vision changed it took a Millennium Item to change it, but it did concern one of the most stubborn people on the planet." Yugi said, amused when Dumbledore looked at Yami.
"Kaiba, not me."
"And how often do these visions come?"
"We've had three in the last few months, but other then that we haven't had one since Battle City, back before we came to Hogwarts." Yugi had already worked it out and didn't have to think about it.
"Three? You mentioned two…"
"One was a vision of the past," Yami said, "Back before the school year started, when Professor Moody's house was attacked."
"And he drove off the attackers with exploding dustbins." Yugi nodded.
"And you haven't had a vision before these in over four years?"
"We haven't really tried. We sent a letter off the former owner of the item, asking about a few things, but it's too soon to get a reply, since she lives in Egypt."
"You're not planning on leaving us, are you Pharaoh?" Dumbledore looked at little surprised.
Yami shook his head, "I want to find out my history but I don't want to leave, so we're enquiring about having the tablet of the Pharaoh brought to Japan."
`Yami, Yugi…` Harry prodded.
Yami shook his head, "We're getting off topic, can you do anything about the Triwizard Cup becoming a Portkey?"
"I will try my best." Professor Dumbledore nodded.
"Is there anything we can do about it?"
"Keep the Duel Monsters on standby, make sure they're ready if something happens and keep training Mr Potter and Miss Ironhide. If I cannot stop the events, then at least they aren't going to be unprepared."
"Thank you Professor." Yugi bowed and left, Yami in tow.
Professor Dumbledore looked at one of the portraits on the wall once they had left, "Could you inform Professor Moody that I'd like to speak to him?"
"Yes headmaster."
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Everyone had been running late all day.
Classes had overrun, they'd been late leaving meals, they hadn't gotten down to breakfast on time, detentions had been gained for being late and all in all this had been a really bad day, so when Yugi staggered into the Common Room at eleven pm, having just finished his detention with Professor Moody, most of the others were already in bed.
Ron waved him over, he and Joey had stayed awake, while Yami had tried, but had fallen asleep an hour ago and Harry had given up at around half past nine.
"How'd it go? Yami and Harry said you were blocking them the whole time."
"I'm never being late to his class ever again; detention with Professor Moody is evil." Yugi groaned, sinking into the couch, "Apparently his idea of a detention is to test my reflexes in Wizarding combat."
"Ouch."
Yugi just nodded. "Ow."
"How'd you do?"
"Surprisingly well apparently." Yugi shrugged, "I was a little slow to start with, but once I got warmed up, all of that practise we've been doing seemed to pay off. He was much better, even with his peg leg, but I'm not surprised, he was an Auror."
"Damn Yuge." Joey winced, "Harsh or what?"
"Incredibly. Now if you don't mind, I think I'm going to go to bed." Yugi poked Yami, who jumped and started bombarding Yugi with questions as they headed upstairs.
"Did Yugi have his bag when he went to Moody's detention?" Ron frowned, looking around for it.
"Uh huh." Joey nodded, joining the search… "Damn, not here and he didn't take it upstairs…"
"I'll get it." Ron nodded, vaulting the sofa.
"Just don't get…" Ron was already gone, "Caught."
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Yugi was late to breakfast, but when he came down he was carrying his bag. "Apparently one of the House Elves found it in the classroom and handed it in to Professor Moody." Yugi sat down and opened his bag. "All my books are still here, and…" Yugi paused, rooted around for another five minutes, pulled everything out and blanched, "The Millennium Items I keep in here are missing."
"Malfoy!" Yami bellowed across the Great Hall.
Draco jumped and Bakura actually looked startled as he looked over, but only for a moment. "What, Muto?"
"Outside." Yami glowered, nodding towards the double doors.
"Oh this can't be good." Joey winced as Yugi quickly followed his dark half out of the Great Hall. He would have gone too, but people were rapidly moving away from the double doors and blocking the exit.
"Where are they?" Yami demanded.
"Where are what, Pharaoh?" Bakura asked, hiding his confusion well.
"The Millennium Items, where are they?"
"In his bag, as far as I'm aware." Bakura pointed at Yugi, "I haven't touched them, they're no use to me unless I can beat the pair of you."
"Well considering that you're the only one who's interested in them, it has to be you who's stolen them."
"If I was going to steal them, I would have taken the Puzzle at the same time." Bakura snorted. "And challenged you for them already."
"But if you didn't take them…"
Bakura snorted, "Please, do you think I'd be so stupid as to have waited until you could accuse me in front of the entire school to admit that I had them? I have more sense then that, if I was going to challenge you to a battle for them, I would have interrupted your training session this morning."
"Had to be last night then." Yugi said, thinking quickly, "In the gap between me leaving my bag behind and the House Elf finding it."
"Wait, you left your bag unattended?" Bakura asked.
"Yes…"
"Four years I've waited for a chance like that and it finally comes along and I miss it?" Bakura sounded incredibly irritated.
"Okay, now I believe that he hasn't taken them." Yami snorted.
"I'll ask Professor Moody about it." Yugi said, frowning, "I'll meet you in class." Yugi was gone a moment later.
"Are you going to apologise or what?" Bakura asked.
"No." Yami shook his head, "Because I know that if you had been aware that Yugi's bag was unattended last night, you would have stolen the Millennium Items."
"Damn right." Bakura looked amused. "You'd better find them, before I do."
Yami glowered as Bakura walked away.
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"I'm not joking." Yami growled warningly, when they spoke to their head of house later that day, "I will Shadow Game every student I have to until the Millennium Items are returned to us."
"Mr Muto!" Professor McGonagall sighed, "That is unnecessary. If you cannot find them by this time next week, I will demand a full search of all students' belongings."
Yugi wasn't saying anything and had shut his mind off from Harry and Yami, having done nothing but search the entire time he hadn't been in class, he was just hanging back as Yami went on a full scale rant about how a week was too long and the Millennium Items could be anywhere by then, sinking as low as he could possibly get as Yami went on about how dangerous they could be if they fell into the wrong person's hands…
Joey was the first to notice Yugi slipping away from the group and heading back towards Defence Against the Dark Arts and left Yami 'reasoning' with Professor McGonagall to follow.
He was startled to find that three corridors away, Yugi wheeled around and punched a wall.
"Yuge!" Joey yelped. 'A little too much Yami there…'
"I'm such an idiot!" Yugi growled, leaning against the wall, "I can't believe I lost the Millennium Items! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" With each 'stupid', Yugi banged his head on the wall.
"Yugi. Stop it." Joey pulled his friend away from the wall. "It was going to happen sooner or later. There's just too many people who want the power. You can't be perfect forever, you were going to slip up. It happens."
"You don't get it Joey, I'm not allowed to slip up! What if they fall into the hands of someone like Bakura or Marik or Voldemort?"
"Then they'd have to defeat you or Yami to get them to work for them." Joey said, "Calm down. So they slip out of your grip for a while, you aren't going to lose in a game to anyone, so it won't matter, I mean they have to specifically state that they're taking the Millennium Items as their terms, right?"
"Right…"
"Then relax. When have you or Yami ever lost a FAIR game?"
"Definition of fair?"
"When the opponent wasn't a vela or threatening to commit suicide." Joey paused, "Or when you didn't give up to prove a point… or weren't fighting someone under mind control… I'm not helping am I?"
"Not really."
"Would it be so bad if you never got the missing Millennium Items back? All they've ever done is cause you trouble."
"Yes…no…gah!" Yugi threw his hands up in frustration. "We need them, I know we need them, and if I don't get them back…" Yugi started heading down to Defence Against the Dark Arts again, "But at the same time, if we don't have them then we don't have to guard them the whole time and if no one can use them without defeating one of us… but then it only takes once and if we die, they're free for all again and…"
"I get it. We need them back." Joey sighed, "But how many times are you going to check the Defence section of the castle until you realise that they're not there?"
"Until I find them."
"Yuge…" Joey sighed. There was going to be no reasoning with the man until he realised that someone had the items in question and they weren't just lying around the department.
He gave up and followed his friend. If he couldn't convince him not to search, at least he could be there with him.