Chapter 3: - Hellos and Goodbyes
They didn't get to sleep for very long, as Mr Weasley woke them just a few hours later, suggesting that they get out of here and offering them the shelter of the Weasley home until the Hogwarts Express was ready to leave in a week's time.
Kaiba had already booked himself an international Portkey and would be returning the same way on train day, and Mokuba, Kari and Ombre had gone with him.
Harry and Hermione had gone with Ron and his family, while the rest of the group, minus Robyn who had vanished again, had agreed to meet up for the second Portkey to the area near Ron's house, and had arrived at their tents, only to find that someone was waiting for them.
Yami would have been worried, except he recognised the teen.
"S…Serenity?" Joey gasped, moving forward quickly.
"I knew it!" The brunette gasped, staring at them, "I knew it when I saw the dragons!"
"You're a Witch?"
"You're a Madoushi?"
Serenity and Joey spoke simultaneously, Serenity giving the Japanese for Mage.
"How?" Yugi asked, coming forward and earning himself a startled smile from the younger sister of his best friend. "I didn't even guess…"
"I should have known you were a Wizard, Yugi, especially after Battle City." Serenity said, "I'm a last year student at Morning Glory, just outside of Tokyo."
"We're studying at Hogwarts, in Scotland." Joey said quickly, still stunned, "I didn't know…"
"Mum told me not to tell you, in case you got jealous or angry that magic couldn't fix my eyes…"
"Is she a Witch too?"
Serenity nodded as the others started to take the tents down, then she frowned, "But why are you at Hogwarts, surely you should be at a Japanese School."
There was a frown for a second as Joey thought about everything they'd learnt from Pegasus, even though he didn't trust the man, then he sighed, deciding to go with half of the truth, "The Japanese Schools had no room, so when the Millennium Magic was revealed to the Wizarding world during a Duel Monsters tournament, we were given places at Hogwarts."
"Even though you were too old?" Serenity asked, "Surely it would have been easier to get private tutors… oh…" Serenity's expression changed as she remembered that her brother couldn't afford it… "Sorry."
Joey smiled and shrugged, "S'ok." He looked at the others, who had already demolished the tents. "Are you here alone?"
"No, I'm with some friends." Serenity shook her head, "We're heading back today. If only I'd known you'd be here!"
"We didn't know ourselves until a month ago." Yami said, "It's nice to meet you properly, Serenity." He bowed to her.
"You're Yami, Yugi's brother, right?" Serenity asked.
"That's right." Yami nodded.
"It's nice to meet you too." Serenity smiled, a shrewd smile that had Yami wondering exactly how much she was like her brother. "I should go; I'll send post to your school." She turned to her brother, "You know, I would appreciate it if I didn't find out why my brother didn't contact me by finding it out in the papers, or finding a Red Eyes Black Dragon flying overhead."
"I apologised for not getting in contact over the summer!" Joey protested. "And you didn't tell me you were a witch either!"
Serenity pouted, then gave Yugi a wink, causing the hikari to smile slightly, Serenity was teasing her brother.
"I suppose I could forgive you." Serenity teased, "After all, I'll be out of school before you."
Joey's eyes widened and he grumbled as he realised she was teasing him, "Can you receive owl mail at your school?" He asked, now realising why the post he sent M2M took so long to reach her, Magical to Muggle would only get so far, and then it would have to be swapped to Magical again for the last part of the journey.
"Yeap." Serenity grinned, "Though I hope you won't use one owl, it's a very long way to fly."
"I'm not that daft." Joey poked his tongue out at her.
"Joey!" Tristan called, looking pointedly at his watch.
"I'll send you a letter soon." Serenity promised, "Term starts when?"
"A week's time." Joey said, "Your's?"
"A week and a half."
"And it was Morning Glory, right?" Joey asked. Serenity nodded. He hugged his sister tightly, having missed her dearly. "I'll message you soon sis, I promise."
"If you don't, I'll bombard you with letters." She promised, then dashed off to find her friends.
"Where did the Portkey we need go?" Tristan asked, wanting to take off the amulet he'd borrowed from Yugi. It felt weird on him and at least he could claim to be Joey's squib brother at the Weasley household.
"Stoatshead Hill." Yugi said, casting his gaze around for anything they'd missed and seeing nothing, smiled sadly and said, "Well, it was fun, while it lasted…"
"We can't seem to avoid the crazy Yuge." Joey shrugged, "At least this time it wasn't aimed at us."
"No," Tea said, "I've had enough of that for now."
"You'll miss us." Joey said, dodging Tea's arm as she tried to swat him.
"When's your flight?" Yami asked as they headed up the hill.
"Mine's tomorrow evening." Tristan said, "I'm due for work at a Tournament in Germany in three days time."
"Mine's tomorrow morning." Tea said, "I have to be back in class on Tuesday."
Yugi remembered they'd dragged her away from weeks of potential practise and work. "Sorry Tea."
"What for?" She asked cheerily, a little too cheerily but… "It's like old times."
And it was, really, they'd beaten the bad guy, saved the day, rescued their friends and life was returning to as normal as it got nowadays…
"Stoatshead Hill!"
They touched the rubber tyre and vanished.
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They arrived at Stoatshead Hill to find a rather harassed Mrs Weasley waiting for them. "Mrs Weasley?" Yugi asked, "What're you doing here?"
"Oh thank goodness!" She looked relived and had hugged Yugi, Yami and Joey before the boys had known what had hit them. "I was so worried and you were taking so long…" She paused, "Now, who're your friends?"
"I'm Tea." Tea bowed, still not quite having broken that habit, and knowing that this woman was important to her friends, "I'm a squib. I'm studying dance in America."
"I'm Tristan." He bowed too, "I've been working around the Duelling Circuit while my brothers have been in school."
"Brothers? I thought…" Mrs Weasley looked confused.
"We've been friends so long that we're more family then friends." Yugi said with a grin. He'd missed having the gang together, not that he didn't consider Kari, Ombre, Harry, Ron and Hermione family as well, but… he had missed his 'brother' and 'sister'.
Mrs Weasley looked the group over, nodding at the explanation, "You might have to sleep in the field, I don't know if we have enough room for all of you."
"We brought our tent." Yami said, smiling at her. He liked Mrs Weasley, and she'd always been friendly to them in return. "But Tea and Tristan will be flying out tomorrow so there won't be as many of us."
"Ok, that should be fine then. I will apologise in advance for the mess." She said as she led them back towards The Burrow, "I haven't had the chance to clean up."
"It's alright, you should see Yugi's room." Tea teased her friend, but Yugi didn't rise to it, hoping that once they were set up in the field, they could catch up on the missed sleep.
Joey poked Tristan, trying to get a rise out of him as they walked along. It was odd for the group to be this quiet and he'd had enough of it over the last few weeks, but then Yugi and Mrs Weasley were talking enough for the six of them.
He could understand why Yugi was distracting her from asking too many questions, he wondered if the reports of people riding dragons and attacking Death Eaters had made the newspaper and if it had, how long before Mrs Weasley mentioned it, and if she did there'd be a lot more explanations necessary then they really wanted to give, even to Ron's Mother.
Tristan finally reacted, but not in the way Joey expected. He sighed and caught Joey's hand. "Stop that."
Yami smirked slightly at Joey's surprised look and Tea grinned broadly, "You know," She said as Yugi looked back over his shoulder at Tristan's statement, "I think that hanging around with children has made you worse then ever, Joey."
"Has not." Joey retorted, then cringed as he realised how immature that sounded.
"Poor ickle Joey." The group laughed, and Joey scowled for a moment and then shrugged, at least he'd gotten them out of their thoughts and into the world around them again.
His gaze fell back to the one bringing up the rear of their group. Yami had been hanging back a lot since they'd gotten the Pharaoh back into his own body, through Joey could appreciate why he was sulking, considering that Yami had been a 21 year old at the start of the Summer.
Actually, Yami wasn't sulking… for a change… he was too busy appreciating having his family around when the world didn't have to be saved for a change, basking in the flow of friendly conversation and familiar auras.
Especially the bright sunspot that had been missing for so long.
Yami couldn't remember why they'd agreed to come to Hogwarts in the first place, at the time it had seemed so incredibly important that they go, and they'd done it without really thinking about it, but they'd just up and left Tea and Tristan, who, while they probably now relished the relative normalness of not having to help save the world every five seconds, had made it perfectly clear that they were to get in contact more often this year or they'd hunt them down and sit on them.
That didn't stop him almost jumping out of his skin when the much taller Joey decided that Yami was brooding, and had to be given a noogie.
The Pharaoh's yelp completely distracted Yugi from his conversation, as the hikari wheeled around almost instantly. "Do you deserve this?" Yugi asked his other half, "Or should I jump on him?"
"Help?" Yami croaked out, trying to duck out of Joey's hold.
The small Bludger that tackled Joey caught him by surprise and the three boys fell in a confused pile that quickly fell victim to uncontrolled laughter.
"Do they…?" Mrs Weasley looked at Tea.
"All the time." Tea sighed as Tristan joined the pile up. "Boys!" She sighed.
"You missed us really." Yugi managed to somehow scramble out from the bottom of the pile, only to find himself grabbed by Tristan before he could find a way to help Yami.
Watching the boys roll down the hill, Mrs Weasley chuckled, "Well at least they're heading in the right direction."
"I think I need to get myself some girl friends." Tea sighed.
"Well Ginny will be pleased to have another Witch in the house."
"Short red head with a stutter?" Tea asked, "And an excited squeal?"
Mrs Weasley gave her an odd look, "Squeal?"
"Let me guess, she's crushing on the 'Boy who Lived'."
"I don't believe so, more like her worship. Harry did save her life."
"So did Yugi from what I hear and she's not fan-girling over him."
"Fan girling?"
Tea's eyes narrowed, "Wait a minute, wasn't she making googlely eyes with Mokuba Kaiba?"
"They're in the same year at school and they study together with a group of friends." Mrs Weasley explained.
The rolling ball of boys ended with a splash and a panicked "Eep!" before Joey and Tristan dragged the frantic Yami out of the large puddle.
"Swimming lessons." Yugi said sternly, giving his dark the best glare he could manage while standing up to his knees in water and wearing soaking wet, muddy clothes.
Mrs Weasley chuckled again, "Boys." She said, shaking her head before pulling out her wand and enchanting, "Scorgify."
Now Yugi was in clean clothes… up to his knees… he wandered back over to the ladies who both looked torn between amusement and feeling resigned. He gave them a small, infectious smile, that passed among the group easily.
This was what they'd been missing this Summer, Tea realised, they were close, closer then most families, but it had been Yugi that had brought them together and it was Yugi that was still the glue of the group. It just hadn't felt right without him…
And now she wasn't looking forward to going back to America…
"You ok, Tea?" Yugi asked, noticing the sad look that crossed her features for a moment.
"I'm ok." Tea assured him, stoutly refusing to use the word 'fine', which in their group had become a byword for 'not fine' or 'badly injured', she sighed at the look Yugi gave her, she'd never been much good at lying to him, "I'm going to miss you guys."
"I'll make sure they write." Yami promised.
"And who's going to make sure you do?" Tea asked scathingly, though she didn't mean to. Yami knew it though, he wasn't looking forward to splitting up either. Even though he'd still have Yugi and Joey with him, it just wasn't the same.
"I will." Yugi said teasingly, determined to get them all relaxed again. He hated saying goodbye. He especially didn't understand how he'd done it so easily the first time, just gone without a trace… but he was determined that this last day with his family was going to be fun… so he pounced on Joey's back for no particular reason, other then it got Joey going again and made Tristan and Yami laugh as he somehow, and Yugi wasn't sure how since Joey was a lot bigger then him, managed to pin the taller, stronger man.
"I've been teaching you too well." Joey complained as he managed to shrug Yugi off. "Remind me to hold back some of my best moves."
"I thought you'd taught him all of them." Yami said, quickly moving away before Joey could grab him again.
It didn't work, as a stealthy trip from Tea sent Yami falling into the puddle again. They laughed and Yami mock-glared at them all.
Tea poked out her tongue.
Joey made the wise decision to stay well away from a scheming Tea and walked on ahead, refusing to look at them after that.
This of course, meant that Yugi and Yami gave each other the wickedest look anyone had ever seen from the pair... and they would have pounced on him again had they not come into sight of the strangest house they'd ever seen.
"Woah…" Was Tristan's articulate reaction.
"And this is the Burrow. It's not much, but it's home."
"It looks great." Joey assured her, wondering how much magic had been used in the extensions and if they could get the flat above the Kame Game Shop extended the same way.
"Huh, it looks… homey." Was Tea's response.
Yami was viewing it with an uncertain look, "It reminds me of something…"
"It's a bit like the Puzzle, a mish mash of everything." Yugi said cheerfully. "Hide and go shriek must have been so fun."
Tea looked for a moment like she was going to ask and then thought better of it.
"Hey guys!" Harry and Ron were leant on the gate, waving at them. The two paused, "Why is Yami covered in mud?"
"Someone decided I looked better this way." Yami raised an eyebrow at Tea.
"He fell in a puddle." Tea said innocently.
"I had help." Yami was only half joking as he growled at her.
"Where's Hermione?"
"Reading in a tree somewhere." Ron shrugged.
"Why am I not surprised?" Joey rolled his eyes, "She's worse then Kari."
"Are all girls workaholics? Or just the ones we know?"
"All of them are." Tristan said sagely, "But most of them like to pretend they're not."
"What about the ones that do nothing but look gorgeous all day?" Joey asked.
"Have you ever thought how much work it takes to look like that all day?" Tristan asked.
"No."
"No wonder you've only ever dated Kari."
Yami could just imagine the slap Tristan would get for that one. He didn't need to imagine the deeply insulted look Joey carried and the twat around the head that followed.
"You did ask for that." Yugi said, with a small frown.
Tristan smirked, "At least I don't have any trouble getting it with the ladies."
"I'd like to point out that the ladies that we've been around recently are either taken or very much underage." Yugi said looking insulted.
Harry, of all people, diverted the coming argument, "So what did you guys think of Quidditch."
Tea noticed the sour looks on most of her boys and quickly took up the challenge, "I don't know, it's not as exciting as Duel Monsters."
"That's because you've never been up there playing it!" Yugi said, distracted, "Duel Monsters is the best game in the world, but Quidditch come close second!"
"Close second?" Ron spluttered, "I'll have you know more people have died in Quidditch than any other sport except for Dragon Tickling!"
Tea gave him a steady look and said, "Golf."
Ron just looked confused at that, while Yugi was nodding, "She's right you know."
"Duel Monsters isn't normally fatal." Yami pitched in, sensing Yugi's relief at a subject change.
"That's not how we hear it." Ron said, "But what's golf?"
"What I want to know is who in the world would do something as stupid as Dragon Tickling?" Tristan wondered out loud.
"I bet it wouldn't eat me." Joey crowed.
"And there's your answer."
"It's not normally the eating that's the problem, it's the uncontrolled flaming."
Tristan laughed, "Crispy Joey."
"We didn't risk our lives to save yours to get yourselves killed doing something stupid." Yami mock glared, Yugi backing him up.
Ron grinned, "Alright then, crispy Kaiba."
"That I could live with."
"You'd be surprised at the amount of people who think that magic makes them invincible." Hermione's voice came out of thin air.
"Ha, we've learnt better then that, right Yuge?" Joey asked, ignoring the earlier comment.
"Hi Hermione." Harry called out, waving in an odd, up facing manner, causing the others to look.
She was perched in an apple tree, with 'Studies of the Ancient World', dropping down gracefully, "Hi guys." She looked at the new arrivals, "You get your stuff packed away alright?"
"Ummm, Hermione, are you aware you're…"
"Upside down? Yeap." She sounded quite cheerful about it too.
"Is this a new habit you've picked up recently?"
"Well I had to do something to keep my mind off you lunatics." She said, "Besides, it's an old habit but I can't do this at Hogwarts, I think the Whomping Willow would have a fit."
"There's that cherry blossom tree by the lake side that has sturdy branches." Yugi said, "Good for climbing too."
"Plus there's all the weird and wonderful deadly creatures in the forest that's just watching for a bookworm for lunch."
"The acromantulas might eat you, but I don't see the centaurs think a human is particularly tasty." Yami said quite reasonably.
"Acro… what?"
"Giant spiders."
"How do you know about those?"
"Yugi's memories of you mentioning them." Yami's tone very much gave the impression of him saying, 'duh'.
"Oh yeah." Ron said slowly, "Remind me never to tell Yugi anything I don't want getting back to Yami." He then whispered to Harry.
"Or telling Yami anything you don't want Yugi to know." Harry whispered back.
"Guys!" Yugi protested, "I heard that! The only reason I gave Yami that memory was because I was trying to let him catch up on everything."
"We don't normally swap memories unless it's really important." Yami agreed with his hikari.
Harry and Ron shared a look and nodded.
"Boys!" Tea sighed explosively and looked up at Hermione, "Mind if I join you?"
"I have a couple of spare books…"
"…More like twenty…"
"Shut up Ron, I couldn't have twenty books in a tree with me, that would be stupid."
Tea decided to ignore the bickering and in a couple of moments, she'd vanished into the tree branches.
"I didn't know she could climb like that." Joey looked suitably impressed.
"That's because she's normally wearing a skirt and would punch you for looking." Tristan said wisely.
After several moments, snippets of the mysterious language known as 'girl talk' drifted down, interspaced with what sounded like giggles.
Yugi just shook his head, he could speak many languages… for some reason… but 'girl talk' wasn't one of them, and climbed over the fence. "Where can we put the tent? It's heavy."
"Pick a field, any field." Ron said, "Except that one over there, otherwise you'll have the twins waking you up by playing Quidditch at six in the morning."
"Yeah, that's not a good idea. Yami and mornings?" Joey shuddered, earning himself a shove from his friend. "What? It's true!"
Yami glared at him.
"Don't fight now, I'm too tired." Yugi complained.
"You were in the news this morning." Ron said with a frown of his own. "So much for keeping your heads down. The dragons had a front page pic."
"Oops." Yugi looked properly apologetic to the others, but they shrugged.
"Nothing we can do about it now." Joey said, unconcerned, "Do they know who was riding them?"
"It's not hard to work out at least one of the riders." Harry said, "After all he was riding a Blue Eyes White Dragon."
"If they've linked back to Kaiba," Yugi said quietly, "It wouldn't be too hard to guess Joey was up there by his Red Eyes Black Dragon, and from Joey…"
"They could easily jump to us." Yami frowned, "Since during the holidays we're not very often apart and some of the students know we were there…"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, it certainly scared the Death Eaters." Joey sighed.
"Wanna Duel?" Ron asked suddenly.
"Right now?" Joey asked, giving him an odd look.
"I haven't played all Summer!" Ron protested, "Please, someone, anyone, I'll even play Yugi and Yami as a tag team I'm that desperate."
"Who would you pick as your tag team partner?" Yami asked, amused.
"Harry or Joey." Ron said without thinking, "Though I might steal Yugi and you could have Joey or Harry."
"Hey!" Harry glowered and Ron ducked the twat round the back of the head he thought was coming.
"I'm sorry Harry, but let's face it, would you rather have you or Yugi in a Duel to save the world?"
"Yugi." Harry sulked.
"My point exactly."
"But Yami wouldn't destroy the world." Joey pointed out.
"It's the same level of play." Ron shrugged.
Looks of disbelief were aimed at Ron from all angles.
"I don't feel like it right now." Yugi said, "Sorry Ron, I'll play you tomorrow."
"Who are you and what have you done with Yugi?" Ron demanded. "The real Yugi never says no to a Duel."
"It's an imposter!" Joey cried, "Get him!"
Yugi had time to squeak before he was grabbed by Joey. "Yami, help!" He sent down the link.
"Joey, please don't choke my hikari, I like him alive thank you." Yami deadpanned, making everyone stare for a moment and then laugh.
"So why don't you wanna Duel today?" Joey asked while he still had the hikari pinned.
"I just don't." Yugi shrugged, then realised that answer wouldn't get him out of the headlock, "I'm just tired and my brain feels like mush. Even Weevil could beat me right now."
"Yuge, Weevil couldn't beat you if you were in a coma."
"Don't even joke." Yami growled.
The only one who didn't freeze and/or wince in remembered memory was Ron, who, while he knew about the Dementors attacking, didn't know the full story.
Joey came under bombardment from above as apples rained down from the tree, causing him to yelp and move, with his captive, away from the apple tree.
This didn't help much, but had broken the mood that had been threatening to settle and it wasn't long before the boys were fighting again, ending with them in a pile in the middle of the Quidditch field, with the two smallest on the bottom and Joey attempting to untangle himself so he could get up first, having somehow lost his grip on his friend during the brawl and ending up on top of the pile.
In order, the boys managed to pick themselves up. Joey first, disentangling his belt buckle from Tristan's pocket, who then had to escape Yugi's grasp, who then managed to scramble out of Ron's way, who then removed himself from the pile, wincing as he stretched his arm, then Harry and finally Yami.
Yugi sat down with a grin, "Ok, we have got to do this more often?"
"What fighting? We pretty much haven't stopped since we were cleared of all charges." Joey only half complained.
"Hanging out during the holidays." Yugi gave his friend his best glare, which didn't intimidate Joey in the slightest.
"Come to more Tournaments." Tristan said, "I bet I could get them to put me on duty if you do."
"On duty?" Ron asked.
Tristan found himself explaining as they moved into the next field and set the tent up again.
They were joined by the two girls as the last tent pegs went in, the shabby looking white tent that was going a sandy colour from the amount of time it spent in winds full of the stuff, made the gang grin for a moment, then the grins faded.
"I have to pack." Tea said sadly.
"Me too." Tristan sounded like he was complaining.
"We'd better work out what's ours and what's not." Joey sighed, feeling drained all of a sudden.
Yugi's shoulders sank, face falling, but they had a point, they'd be splitting up tomorrow and it wasn't like anything that ended up in the wrong bag could be exchanged the next time they saw each other, since there was a high probability of it being at least a year…
Yami saw the look on his hikari's face and sighed, looking forward to tomorrow about as much as Yugi was. "Let's get it over with, then we can fight as much as we want."
This caused a round of grins and a double sigh of 'boys!' from Tea and Hermione.
Then backpacks and suitcases were unpacked from magically enlarged bags and things went flying as they tried to work out what belonged to whom.
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Kari was tired, fed up and really, really didn't want to be here, in work.
She wanted to be with her friends, with her yami, not here at her desk, relaying everything she could to Seto to be dealt with now he was back in control of the Company.
The stocks had fallen, the company's business partners all wanted a meeting with Seto this instant, and no they wouldn't wait and what did he mean he had no open slots until tomorrow and… she was very glad she wasn't his PA.
"Kari!" Mokuba was at the door again, looking like he'd run down the stairs from his office, "Sorry but where did you and Noa hid those forms for the rights to that thing that we were talking about yesterday?"
Since yesterday seemed like a very long time ago and in the intervening time Seto and Mokuba had asked her about so many forms that when she closed her eyes she could SEE forms, she had no idea what the younger Kaiba was on about and replied accordingly, "Huh?"
"The ones about the thing that…"
"Mokuba you sound like your brother." Kari sighed, "Plain English… or Japanese if you don't mind."
"The ones for the new game."
"Rising Star or the new expansion pack for Monster Stories?" Kari asked, opening her drawer, where both folders were kept.
"Monster Stories." Mokuba said and the file slid across the desk to him. "You have betas all sorted?"
"I did, but they're in England now and we need the game out soon to push shares up." Kari growled, her head hitting the desk and she sighed.
Mokuba hadn't seen her like this before and was worried, but before he could say anything his mobile went off. "Gotta go, Seto demands the file." Mokuba rolled his eyes and raced off.
"I don't want to be here." Kari realised, "And it's not just that I want to be with my friends. I don't want to be here anymore, but I can't leave, I'm needed here…"
'Kari? Are you alright?'
Kari's head shot up and a sad smile crossed her face. She'd missed the sound of Ombre's voice, she couldn't even remember the last time they'd had a proper mind to mind talk before Ombre's disappearance and she'd missed it. "I'm ok, honest, you must be pretty close to be in range while I'm in my office."
'I originally came to bring food, since it looks like you're going to have to pull an all nighter but Mokuba's got me running errands since Seto's fired most of his message runners.'
Kari giggled, "Poor Ombre."
'Finally!' Ombre sounded exasperated, 'A message for your floor. Wanna go for lunch?'
"Can't gotta finish the last eighty things before school kicks off again."
'Kari…'
"I can't just leave the company in limbo, it was falling apart Ombre, the company nearly went bust, everyone nearly lost their jobs… I didn't want to stay, I wanted to go find you, but I couldn't, I knew I could help here, I didn't know what to do, how to save everyone…" Kari's voice was so quiet that Ombre nearly missed the last thought, "I'm not Yugi…"
'Not even Yugi can save everyone, hikari.' Ombre tried to reassure her other half, 'You did everything you could.'
"It wasn't enough!" Kari sounded frustrated, "I was scared and there was nothing I could do as everything crashed down around me, the company going down in flames, you missing, Yugi or Yami's soul eaten by Dementors…" Tears flowed, though there was no one to see them, "I'm supposed to be a light, but I couldn't do anything about the darkness, I never can! I can't help my friends, I can't save my family…"
'Kari…'
Somehow the thought that Yugi couldn't actually save everyone was scarier then everything else Kari had faced, as she stumbled into her private bathroom, leaning over the sink, eyes closed, just trying to will the tears away before Ombre came into the office.
"I'm weak and worthless. What sort of person am I? That I chose my job over the other half of my soul?"
Ombre didn't reply for a moment and for a second Kari feared she'd made the dark mad and that she'd left. Then there was a reassuring hand on her shoulder and a familiar aura at her side.
Before she'd even thought about it, Kari had embraced her dark, sobbing into her top.
"Easy hikari." Ombre murmured, "It's ok."
"It's not."
Kari was shaking and Ombre found herself concerned, "Kari, when's the last time you ate or slept properly?"
"I don't know what those are anymore." Kari mumbled.
That statement made Ombre back off and look at Kari properly. "Hikari, when did you start drawing off the shadows?" Ombre gasped. Now she was looking she could see the shadow magic weaving around her hikari.
"Don't know." Kari said, "I stopped sleeping properly weeks ago, I'm not sure when eating went with it…"
"You're coming home and resting." Ombre growled, "You've exhausted your own magic and you're making yourself vulnerable to the Shadows like this."
"I can't Ombre, there's too much to do." Kari glared at the Princess.
"I will talk to Mokuba." Ombre threatened.
"Seto won't send me home." Kari didn't back down in the slightest.
"You can't keep working like this." Ombre said sternly, "You're killing yourself."
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"Bye guys." Tea hugged them all, before passing through the departure gates at Heathrow Airport.
They'd arrived via Portkey three hours early for Tea's flight, and had tried to prepare for the goodbye, but it still felt like someone had ripped a limb from each of them as the brunette vanished from sight.
"We've got to get together again soon." Joey said quietly, filling the sadness. "It's been way too long and the longer it is, the harder it's going to be to say goodbye next time."
"I honestly can't believe you three went in the first place." Tristan said, "You didn't even need to think about it too much."
"We kind of surprised ourselves too." Joey said sourly, "I guess we kinda thought we'd see you a lot more then we have."
"The world's still be turning Joey." Tristan shrugged, "We had our own paths to follow."
"Still…"
"The important thing is that we don't nearly fall out of contact again." Yugi said firmly, "Even if I have to send out a letter a day to make sure of it."
"You can't afford that many post owls." Yami said, "But you have a point."
Tristan frowned, scanning the crowd as he often did nowadays, always alert and wary when he was around his… well, family, he supposed… too many years of Yugi being the target of bad guys, of Joey having to watch his back, in case of the return of Hirutani (and hadn't that been fun?), of having to make sure that his friends weren't stabbed in the back (figuratively and on occasion literally) or that they didn't get themselves killed, and what made it worse, was that he knew he'd be no more use against the new bad guys then he was the old.
It had been bad when the fighting had always been duels to the death, in a game he couldn't play no matter how hard he tried, at least then he'd been on hand to offer support. Now he wasn't even around to do that and the Bad Guys weren't playing games, they were fighting to the death, with no qualms about how they got what they wanted.
These enemies didn't have the incredibly important rule that Yugi's enemies had always had before.
To get what they wanted, they had always had to play fair, and to a certain extent they had even when it didn't seem like they were.
There had always been a way out.
The Death Eaters didn't have to play the rules or give escape clauses and Tristan couldn't help wondering if his friends had made that distinction yet.
"Food?" Joey asked hopefully.
"Airport food." Yami said distastefully.
Joey's eager look died for a moment, then he shrugged, "Better then no food at all."
Yugi's stomache rumbled and that decided the matter.
They headed into the McDonalds.
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The three who were returning to Hogwarts watched as Tristan's flight left, or at least they thought it was that one.
"So, it's just us." Joey sighed.
"And Harry, and Ron, and Hermione, and soon Kari and Ombre too." Yami said wistfully.
"Yeah." Yugi murmured, sighing. "What've we got? A week?"
"Yeap."
"I bet I can get at least six letters in in that space of time." Yugi said with a grin.
"Thinking of letters, letter to Serenity." Yami poked Joey.
"Come on guys, let's get back." Yugi said, looking at his watch, "It's gone six and Mrs Weasley promised us tea when we got back."
"You have it?" Yami asked Joey, who nodded, looking around. "Ok."
They found a quiet place to hide and use the Portkey, arriving back at the Burrow just in time to see Mrs Weasley screeching at the twins who had done something or other that she didn't think was funny.
"That didn't take long." Ron complained as he went with them out to the tent, "Mum's been shouting at them most of the day about one thing or another."
"Anything else in the newspaper?" Yami asked.
"A couple of complaints about the Ministry, another mention of Dad and the dragons, nothing new." Ron shrugged, "Hermione's been hiding in a tree again, and my sane brothers had to go back to work."
"Poor Ron, where's Harry?"
"Got roped into helping Mum with tea." Ron felt sorry for his friend btu didn't show it.
"And it smells gorgeous." Yami said with a grin, "Food?"
"Food." Everyone agrees.
Kaiba had already booked himself an international Portkey and would be returning the same way on train day, and Mokuba, Kari and Ombre had gone with him.
Harry and Hermione had gone with Ron and his family, while the rest of the group, minus Robyn who had vanished again, had agreed to meet up for the second Portkey to the area near Ron's house, and had arrived at their tents, only to find that someone was waiting for them.
Yami would have been worried, except he recognised the teen.
"S…Serenity?" Joey gasped, moving forward quickly.
"I knew it!" The brunette gasped, staring at them, "I knew it when I saw the dragons!"
"You're a Witch?"
"You're a Madoushi?"
Serenity and Joey spoke simultaneously, Serenity giving the Japanese for Mage.
"How?" Yugi asked, coming forward and earning himself a startled smile from the younger sister of his best friend. "I didn't even guess…"
"I should have known you were a Wizard, Yugi, especially after Battle City." Serenity said, "I'm a last year student at Morning Glory, just outside of Tokyo."
"We're studying at Hogwarts, in Scotland." Joey said quickly, still stunned, "I didn't know…"
"Mum told me not to tell you, in case you got jealous or angry that magic couldn't fix my eyes…"
"Is she a Witch too?"
Serenity nodded as the others started to take the tents down, then she frowned, "But why are you at Hogwarts, surely you should be at a Japanese School."
There was a frown for a second as Joey thought about everything they'd learnt from Pegasus, even though he didn't trust the man, then he sighed, deciding to go with half of the truth, "The Japanese Schools had no room, so when the Millennium Magic was revealed to the Wizarding world during a Duel Monsters tournament, we were given places at Hogwarts."
"Even though you were too old?" Serenity asked, "Surely it would have been easier to get private tutors… oh…" Serenity's expression changed as she remembered that her brother couldn't afford it… "Sorry."
Joey smiled and shrugged, "S'ok." He looked at the others, who had already demolished the tents. "Are you here alone?"
"No, I'm with some friends." Serenity shook her head, "We're heading back today. If only I'd known you'd be here!"
"We didn't know ourselves until a month ago." Yami said, "It's nice to meet you properly, Serenity." He bowed to her.
"You're Yami, Yugi's brother, right?" Serenity asked.
"That's right." Yami nodded.
"It's nice to meet you too." Serenity smiled, a shrewd smile that had Yami wondering exactly how much she was like her brother. "I should go; I'll send post to your school." She turned to her brother, "You know, I would appreciate it if I didn't find out why my brother didn't contact me by finding it out in the papers, or finding a Red Eyes Black Dragon flying overhead."
"I apologised for not getting in contact over the summer!" Joey protested. "And you didn't tell me you were a witch either!"
Serenity pouted, then gave Yugi a wink, causing the hikari to smile slightly, Serenity was teasing her brother.
"I suppose I could forgive you." Serenity teased, "After all, I'll be out of school before you."
Joey's eyes widened and he grumbled as he realised she was teasing him, "Can you receive owl mail at your school?" He asked, now realising why the post he sent M2M took so long to reach her, Magical to Muggle would only get so far, and then it would have to be swapped to Magical again for the last part of the journey.
"Yeap." Serenity grinned, "Though I hope you won't use one owl, it's a very long way to fly."
"I'm not that daft." Joey poked his tongue out at her.
"Joey!" Tristan called, looking pointedly at his watch.
"I'll send you a letter soon." Serenity promised, "Term starts when?"
"A week's time." Joey said, "Your's?"
"A week and a half."
"And it was Morning Glory, right?" Joey asked. Serenity nodded. He hugged his sister tightly, having missed her dearly. "I'll message you soon sis, I promise."
"If you don't, I'll bombard you with letters." She promised, then dashed off to find her friends.
"Where did the Portkey we need go?" Tristan asked, wanting to take off the amulet he'd borrowed from Yugi. It felt weird on him and at least he could claim to be Joey's squib brother at the Weasley household.
"Stoatshead Hill." Yugi said, casting his gaze around for anything they'd missed and seeing nothing, smiled sadly and said, "Well, it was fun, while it lasted…"
"We can't seem to avoid the crazy Yuge." Joey shrugged, "At least this time it wasn't aimed at us."
"No," Tea said, "I've had enough of that for now."
"You'll miss us." Joey said, dodging Tea's arm as she tried to swat him.
"When's your flight?" Yami asked as they headed up the hill.
"Mine's tomorrow evening." Tristan said, "I'm due for work at a Tournament in Germany in three days time."
"Mine's tomorrow morning." Tea said, "I have to be back in class on Tuesday."
Yugi remembered they'd dragged her away from weeks of potential practise and work. "Sorry Tea."
"What for?" She asked cheerily, a little too cheerily but… "It's like old times."
And it was, really, they'd beaten the bad guy, saved the day, rescued their friends and life was returning to as normal as it got nowadays…
"Stoatshead Hill!"
They touched the rubber tyre and vanished.
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They arrived at Stoatshead Hill to find a rather harassed Mrs Weasley waiting for them. "Mrs Weasley?" Yugi asked, "What're you doing here?"
"Oh thank goodness!" She looked relived and had hugged Yugi, Yami and Joey before the boys had known what had hit them. "I was so worried and you were taking so long…" She paused, "Now, who're your friends?"
"I'm Tea." Tea bowed, still not quite having broken that habit, and knowing that this woman was important to her friends, "I'm a squib. I'm studying dance in America."
"I'm Tristan." He bowed too, "I've been working around the Duelling Circuit while my brothers have been in school."
"Brothers? I thought…" Mrs Weasley looked confused.
"We've been friends so long that we're more family then friends." Yugi said with a grin. He'd missed having the gang together, not that he didn't consider Kari, Ombre, Harry, Ron and Hermione family as well, but… he had missed his 'brother' and 'sister'.
Mrs Weasley looked the group over, nodding at the explanation, "You might have to sleep in the field, I don't know if we have enough room for all of you."
"We brought our tent." Yami said, smiling at her. He liked Mrs Weasley, and she'd always been friendly to them in return. "But Tea and Tristan will be flying out tomorrow so there won't be as many of us."
"Ok, that should be fine then. I will apologise in advance for the mess." She said as she led them back towards The Burrow, "I haven't had the chance to clean up."
"It's alright, you should see Yugi's room." Tea teased her friend, but Yugi didn't rise to it, hoping that once they were set up in the field, they could catch up on the missed sleep.
Joey poked Tristan, trying to get a rise out of him as they walked along. It was odd for the group to be this quiet and he'd had enough of it over the last few weeks, but then Yugi and Mrs Weasley were talking enough for the six of them.
He could understand why Yugi was distracting her from asking too many questions, he wondered if the reports of people riding dragons and attacking Death Eaters had made the newspaper and if it had, how long before Mrs Weasley mentioned it, and if she did there'd be a lot more explanations necessary then they really wanted to give, even to Ron's Mother.
Tristan finally reacted, but not in the way Joey expected. He sighed and caught Joey's hand. "Stop that."
Yami smirked slightly at Joey's surprised look and Tea grinned broadly, "You know," She said as Yugi looked back over his shoulder at Tristan's statement, "I think that hanging around with children has made you worse then ever, Joey."
"Has not." Joey retorted, then cringed as he realised how immature that sounded.
"Poor ickle Joey." The group laughed, and Joey scowled for a moment and then shrugged, at least he'd gotten them out of their thoughts and into the world around them again.
His gaze fell back to the one bringing up the rear of their group. Yami had been hanging back a lot since they'd gotten the Pharaoh back into his own body, through Joey could appreciate why he was sulking, considering that Yami had been a 21 year old at the start of the Summer.
Actually, Yami wasn't sulking… for a change… he was too busy appreciating having his family around when the world didn't have to be saved for a change, basking in the flow of friendly conversation and familiar auras.
Especially the bright sunspot that had been missing for so long.
Yami couldn't remember why they'd agreed to come to Hogwarts in the first place, at the time it had seemed so incredibly important that they go, and they'd done it without really thinking about it, but they'd just up and left Tea and Tristan, who, while they probably now relished the relative normalness of not having to help save the world every five seconds, had made it perfectly clear that they were to get in contact more often this year or they'd hunt them down and sit on them.
That didn't stop him almost jumping out of his skin when the much taller Joey decided that Yami was brooding, and had to be given a noogie.
The Pharaoh's yelp completely distracted Yugi from his conversation, as the hikari wheeled around almost instantly. "Do you deserve this?" Yugi asked his other half, "Or should I jump on him?"
"Help?" Yami croaked out, trying to duck out of Joey's hold.
The small Bludger that tackled Joey caught him by surprise and the three boys fell in a confused pile that quickly fell victim to uncontrolled laughter.
"Do they…?" Mrs Weasley looked at Tea.
"All the time." Tea sighed as Tristan joined the pile up. "Boys!" She sighed.
"You missed us really." Yugi managed to somehow scramble out from the bottom of the pile, only to find himself grabbed by Tristan before he could find a way to help Yami.
Watching the boys roll down the hill, Mrs Weasley chuckled, "Well at least they're heading in the right direction."
"I think I need to get myself some girl friends." Tea sighed.
"Well Ginny will be pleased to have another Witch in the house."
"Short red head with a stutter?" Tea asked, "And an excited squeal?"
Mrs Weasley gave her an odd look, "Squeal?"
"Let me guess, she's crushing on the 'Boy who Lived'."
"I don't believe so, more like her worship. Harry did save her life."
"So did Yugi from what I hear and she's not fan-girling over him."
"Fan girling?"
Tea's eyes narrowed, "Wait a minute, wasn't she making googlely eyes with Mokuba Kaiba?"
"They're in the same year at school and they study together with a group of friends." Mrs Weasley explained.
The rolling ball of boys ended with a splash and a panicked "Eep!" before Joey and Tristan dragged the frantic Yami out of the large puddle.
"Swimming lessons." Yugi said sternly, giving his dark the best glare he could manage while standing up to his knees in water and wearing soaking wet, muddy clothes.
Mrs Weasley chuckled again, "Boys." She said, shaking her head before pulling out her wand and enchanting, "Scorgify."
Now Yugi was in clean clothes… up to his knees… he wandered back over to the ladies who both looked torn between amusement and feeling resigned. He gave them a small, infectious smile, that passed among the group easily.
This was what they'd been missing this Summer, Tea realised, they were close, closer then most families, but it had been Yugi that had brought them together and it was Yugi that was still the glue of the group. It just hadn't felt right without him…
And now she wasn't looking forward to going back to America…
"You ok, Tea?" Yugi asked, noticing the sad look that crossed her features for a moment.
"I'm ok." Tea assured him, stoutly refusing to use the word 'fine', which in their group had become a byword for 'not fine' or 'badly injured', she sighed at the look Yugi gave her, she'd never been much good at lying to him, "I'm going to miss you guys."
"I'll make sure they write." Yami promised.
"And who's going to make sure you do?" Tea asked scathingly, though she didn't mean to. Yami knew it though, he wasn't looking forward to splitting up either. Even though he'd still have Yugi and Joey with him, it just wasn't the same.
"I will." Yugi said teasingly, determined to get them all relaxed again. He hated saying goodbye. He especially didn't understand how he'd done it so easily the first time, just gone without a trace… but he was determined that this last day with his family was going to be fun… so he pounced on Joey's back for no particular reason, other then it got Joey going again and made Tristan and Yami laugh as he somehow, and Yugi wasn't sure how since Joey was a lot bigger then him, managed to pin the taller, stronger man.
"I've been teaching you too well." Joey complained as he managed to shrug Yugi off. "Remind me to hold back some of my best moves."
"I thought you'd taught him all of them." Yami said, quickly moving away before Joey could grab him again.
It didn't work, as a stealthy trip from Tea sent Yami falling into the puddle again. They laughed and Yami mock-glared at them all.
Tea poked out her tongue.
Joey made the wise decision to stay well away from a scheming Tea and walked on ahead, refusing to look at them after that.
This of course, meant that Yugi and Yami gave each other the wickedest look anyone had ever seen from the pair... and they would have pounced on him again had they not come into sight of the strangest house they'd ever seen.
"Woah…" Was Tristan's articulate reaction.
"And this is the Burrow. It's not much, but it's home."
"It looks great." Joey assured her, wondering how much magic had been used in the extensions and if they could get the flat above the Kame Game Shop extended the same way.
"Huh, it looks… homey." Was Tea's response.
Yami was viewing it with an uncertain look, "It reminds me of something…"
"It's a bit like the Puzzle, a mish mash of everything." Yugi said cheerfully. "Hide and go shriek must have been so fun."
Tea looked for a moment like she was going to ask and then thought better of it.
"Hey guys!" Harry and Ron were leant on the gate, waving at them. The two paused, "Why is Yami covered in mud?"
"Someone decided I looked better this way." Yami raised an eyebrow at Tea.
"He fell in a puddle." Tea said innocently.
"I had help." Yami was only half joking as he growled at her.
"Where's Hermione?"
"Reading in a tree somewhere." Ron shrugged.
"Why am I not surprised?" Joey rolled his eyes, "She's worse then Kari."
"Are all girls workaholics? Or just the ones we know?"
"All of them are." Tristan said sagely, "But most of them like to pretend they're not."
"What about the ones that do nothing but look gorgeous all day?" Joey asked.
"Have you ever thought how much work it takes to look like that all day?" Tristan asked.
"No."
"No wonder you've only ever dated Kari."
Yami could just imagine the slap Tristan would get for that one. He didn't need to imagine the deeply insulted look Joey carried and the twat around the head that followed.
"You did ask for that." Yugi said, with a small frown.
Tristan smirked, "At least I don't have any trouble getting it with the ladies."
"I'd like to point out that the ladies that we've been around recently are either taken or very much underage." Yugi said looking insulted.
Harry, of all people, diverted the coming argument, "So what did you guys think of Quidditch."
Tea noticed the sour looks on most of her boys and quickly took up the challenge, "I don't know, it's not as exciting as Duel Monsters."
"That's because you've never been up there playing it!" Yugi said, distracted, "Duel Monsters is the best game in the world, but Quidditch come close second!"
"Close second?" Ron spluttered, "I'll have you know more people have died in Quidditch than any other sport except for Dragon Tickling!"
Tea gave him a steady look and said, "Golf."
Ron just looked confused at that, while Yugi was nodding, "She's right you know."
"Duel Monsters isn't normally fatal." Yami pitched in, sensing Yugi's relief at a subject change.
"That's not how we hear it." Ron said, "But what's golf?"
"What I want to know is who in the world would do something as stupid as Dragon Tickling?" Tristan wondered out loud.
"I bet it wouldn't eat me." Joey crowed.
"And there's your answer."
"It's not normally the eating that's the problem, it's the uncontrolled flaming."
Tristan laughed, "Crispy Joey."
"We didn't risk our lives to save yours to get yourselves killed doing something stupid." Yami mock glared, Yugi backing him up.
Ron grinned, "Alright then, crispy Kaiba."
"That I could live with."
"You'd be surprised at the amount of people who think that magic makes them invincible." Hermione's voice came out of thin air.
"Ha, we've learnt better then that, right Yuge?" Joey asked, ignoring the earlier comment.
"Hi Hermione." Harry called out, waving in an odd, up facing manner, causing the others to look.
She was perched in an apple tree, with 'Studies of the Ancient World', dropping down gracefully, "Hi guys." She looked at the new arrivals, "You get your stuff packed away alright?"
"Ummm, Hermione, are you aware you're…"
"Upside down? Yeap." She sounded quite cheerful about it too.
"Is this a new habit you've picked up recently?"
"Well I had to do something to keep my mind off you lunatics." She said, "Besides, it's an old habit but I can't do this at Hogwarts, I think the Whomping Willow would have a fit."
"There's that cherry blossom tree by the lake side that has sturdy branches." Yugi said, "Good for climbing too."
"Plus there's all the weird and wonderful deadly creatures in the forest that's just watching for a bookworm for lunch."
"The acromantulas might eat you, but I don't see the centaurs think a human is particularly tasty." Yami said quite reasonably.
"Acro… what?"
"Giant spiders."
"How do you know about those?"
"Yugi's memories of you mentioning them." Yami's tone very much gave the impression of him saying, 'duh'.
"Oh yeah." Ron said slowly, "Remind me never to tell Yugi anything I don't want getting back to Yami." He then whispered to Harry.
"Or telling Yami anything you don't want Yugi to know." Harry whispered back.
"Guys!" Yugi protested, "I heard that! The only reason I gave Yami that memory was because I was trying to let him catch up on everything."
"We don't normally swap memories unless it's really important." Yami agreed with his hikari.
Harry and Ron shared a look and nodded.
"Boys!" Tea sighed explosively and looked up at Hermione, "Mind if I join you?"
"I have a couple of spare books…"
"…More like twenty…"
"Shut up Ron, I couldn't have twenty books in a tree with me, that would be stupid."
Tea decided to ignore the bickering and in a couple of moments, she'd vanished into the tree branches.
"I didn't know she could climb like that." Joey looked suitably impressed.
"That's because she's normally wearing a skirt and would punch you for looking." Tristan said wisely.
After several moments, snippets of the mysterious language known as 'girl talk' drifted down, interspaced with what sounded like giggles.
Yugi just shook his head, he could speak many languages… for some reason… but 'girl talk' wasn't one of them, and climbed over the fence. "Where can we put the tent? It's heavy."
"Pick a field, any field." Ron said, "Except that one over there, otherwise you'll have the twins waking you up by playing Quidditch at six in the morning."
"Yeah, that's not a good idea. Yami and mornings?" Joey shuddered, earning himself a shove from his friend. "What? It's true!"
Yami glared at him.
"Don't fight now, I'm too tired." Yugi complained.
"You were in the news this morning." Ron said with a frown of his own. "So much for keeping your heads down. The dragons had a front page pic."
"Oops." Yugi looked properly apologetic to the others, but they shrugged.
"Nothing we can do about it now." Joey said, unconcerned, "Do they know who was riding them?"
"It's not hard to work out at least one of the riders." Harry said, "After all he was riding a Blue Eyes White Dragon."
"If they've linked back to Kaiba," Yugi said quietly, "It wouldn't be too hard to guess Joey was up there by his Red Eyes Black Dragon, and from Joey…"
"They could easily jump to us." Yami frowned, "Since during the holidays we're not very often apart and some of the students know we were there…"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, it certainly scared the Death Eaters." Joey sighed.
"Wanna Duel?" Ron asked suddenly.
"Right now?" Joey asked, giving him an odd look.
"I haven't played all Summer!" Ron protested, "Please, someone, anyone, I'll even play Yugi and Yami as a tag team I'm that desperate."
"Who would you pick as your tag team partner?" Yami asked, amused.
"Harry or Joey." Ron said without thinking, "Though I might steal Yugi and you could have Joey or Harry."
"Hey!" Harry glowered and Ron ducked the twat round the back of the head he thought was coming.
"I'm sorry Harry, but let's face it, would you rather have you or Yugi in a Duel to save the world?"
"Yugi." Harry sulked.
"My point exactly."
"But Yami wouldn't destroy the world." Joey pointed out.
"It's the same level of play." Ron shrugged.
Looks of disbelief were aimed at Ron from all angles.
"I don't feel like it right now." Yugi said, "Sorry Ron, I'll play you tomorrow."
"Who are you and what have you done with Yugi?" Ron demanded. "The real Yugi never says no to a Duel."
"It's an imposter!" Joey cried, "Get him!"
Yugi had time to squeak before he was grabbed by Joey. "Yami, help!" He sent down the link.
"Joey, please don't choke my hikari, I like him alive thank you." Yami deadpanned, making everyone stare for a moment and then laugh.
"So why don't you wanna Duel today?" Joey asked while he still had the hikari pinned.
"I just don't." Yugi shrugged, then realised that answer wouldn't get him out of the headlock, "I'm just tired and my brain feels like mush. Even Weevil could beat me right now."
"Yuge, Weevil couldn't beat you if you were in a coma."
"Don't even joke." Yami growled.
The only one who didn't freeze and/or wince in remembered memory was Ron, who, while he knew about the Dementors attacking, didn't know the full story.
Joey came under bombardment from above as apples rained down from the tree, causing him to yelp and move, with his captive, away from the apple tree.
This didn't help much, but had broken the mood that had been threatening to settle and it wasn't long before the boys were fighting again, ending with them in a pile in the middle of the Quidditch field, with the two smallest on the bottom and Joey attempting to untangle himself so he could get up first, having somehow lost his grip on his friend during the brawl and ending up on top of the pile.
In order, the boys managed to pick themselves up. Joey first, disentangling his belt buckle from Tristan's pocket, who then had to escape Yugi's grasp, who then managed to scramble out of Ron's way, who then removed himself from the pile, wincing as he stretched his arm, then Harry and finally Yami.
Yugi sat down with a grin, "Ok, we have got to do this more often?"
"What fighting? We pretty much haven't stopped since we were cleared of all charges." Joey only half complained.
"Hanging out during the holidays." Yugi gave his friend his best glare, which didn't intimidate Joey in the slightest.
"Come to more Tournaments." Tristan said, "I bet I could get them to put me on duty if you do."
"On duty?" Ron asked.
Tristan found himself explaining as they moved into the next field and set the tent up again.
They were joined by the two girls as the last tent pegs went in, the shabby looking white tent that was going a sandy colour from the amount of time it spent in winds full of the stuff, made the gang grin for a moment, then the grins faded.
"I have to pack." Tea said sadly.
"Me too." Tristan sounded like he was complaining.
"We'd better work out what's ours and what's not." Joey sighed, feeling drained all of a sudden.
Yugi's shoulders sank, face falling, but they had a point, they'd be splitting up tomorrow and it wasn't like anything that ended up in the wrong bag could be exchanged the next time they saw each other, since there was a high probability of it being at least a year…
Yami saw the look on his hikari's face and sighed, looking forward to tomorrow about as much as Yugi was. "Let's get it over with, then we can fight as much as we want."
This caused a round of grins and a double sigh of 'boys!' from Tea and Hermione.
Then backpacks and suitcases were unpacked from magically enlarged bags and things went flying as they tried to work out what belonged to whom.
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Kari was tired, fed up and really, really didn't want to be here, in work.
She wanted to be with her friends, with her yami, not here at her desk, relaying everything she could to Seto to be dealt with now he was back in control of the Company.
The stocks had fallen, the company's business partners all wanted a meeting with Seto this instant, and no they wouldn't wait and what did he mean he had no open slots until tomorrow and… she was very glad she wasn't his PA.
"Kari!" Mokuba was at the door again, looking like he'd run down the stairs from his office, "Sorry but where did you and Noa hid those forms for the rights to that thing that we were talking about yesterday?"
Since yesterday seemed like a very long time ago and in the intervening time Seto and Mokuba had asked her about so many forms that when she closed her eyes she could SEE forms, she had no idea what the younger Kaiba was on about and replied accordingly, "Huh?"
"The ones about the thing that…"
"Mokuba you sound like your brother." Kari sighed, "Plain English… or Japanese if you don't mind."
"The ones for the new game."
"Rising Star or the new expansion pack for Monster Stories?" Kari asked, opening her drawer, where both folders were kept.
"Monster Stories." Mokuba said and the file slid across the desk to him. "You have betas all sorted?"
"I did, but they're in England now and we need the game out soon to push shares up." Kari growled, her head hitting the desk and she sighed.
Mokuba hadn't seen her like this before and was worried, but before he could say anything his mobile went off. "Gotta go, Seto demands the file." Mokuba rolled his eyes and raced off.
"I don't want to be here." Kari realised, "And it's not just that I want to be with my friends. I don't want to be here anymore, but I can't leave, I'm needed here…"
'Kari? Are you alright?'
Kari's head shot up and a sad smile crossed her face. She'd missed the sound of Ombre's voice, she couldn't even remember the last time they'd had a proper mind to mind talk before Ombre's disappearance and she'd missed it. "I'm ok, honest, you must be pretty close to be in range while I'm in my office."
'I originally came to bring food, since it looks like you're going to have to pull an all nighter but Mokuba's got me running errands since Seto's fired most of his message runners.'
Kari giggled, "Poor Ombre."
'Finally!' Ombre sounded exasperated, 'A message for your floor. Wanna go for lunch?'
"Can't gotta finish the last eighty things before school kicks off again."
'Kari…'
"I can't just leave the company in limbo, it was falling apart Ombre, the company nearly went bust, everyone nearly lost their jobs… I didn't want to stay, I wanted to go find you, but I couldn't, I knew I could help here, I didn't know what to do, how to save everyone…" Kari's voice was so quiet that Ombre nearly missed the last thought, "I'm not Yugi…"
'Not even Yugi can save everyone, hikari.' Ombre tried to reassure her other half, 'You did everything you could.'
"It wasn't enough!" Kari sounded frustrated, "I was scared and there was nothing I could do as everything crashed down around me, the company going down in flames, you missing, Yugi or Yami's soul eaten by Dementors…" Tears flowed, though there was no one to see them, "I'm supposed to be a light, but I couldn't do anything about the darkness, I never can! I can't help my friends, I can't save my family…"
'Kari…'
Somehow the thought that Yugi couldn't actually save everyone was scarier then everything else Kari had faced, as she stumbled into her private bathroom, leaning over the sink, eyes closed, just trying to will the tears away before Ombre came into the office.
"I'm weak and worthless. What sort of person am I? That I chose my job over the other half of my soul?"
Ombre didn't reply for a moment and for a second Kari feared she'd made the dark mad and that she'd left. Then there was a reassuring hand on her shoulder and a familiar aura at her side.
Before she'd even thought about it, Kari had embraced her dark, sobbing into her top.
"Easy hikari." Ombre murmured, "It's ok."
"It's not."
Kari was shaking and Ombre found herself concerned, "Kari, when's the last time you ate or slept properly?"
"I don't know what those are anymore." Kari mumbled.
That statement made Ombre back off and look at Kari properly. "Hikari, when did you start drawing off the shadows?" Ombre gasped. Now she was looking she could see the shadow magic weaving around her hikari.
"Don't know." Kari said, "I stopped sleeping properly weeks ago, I'm not sure when eating went with it…"
"You're coming home and resting." Ombre growled, "You've exhausted your own magic and you're making yourself vulnerable to the Shadows like this."
"I can't Ombre, there's too much to do." Kari glared at the Princess.
"I will talk to Mokuba." Ombre threatened.
"Seto won't send me home." Kari didn't back down in the slightest.
"You can't keep working like this." Ombre said sternly, "You're killing yourself."
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"Bye guys." Tea hugged them all, before passing through the departure gates at Heathrow Airport.
They'd arrived via Portkey three hours early for Tea's flight, and had tried to prepare for the goodbye, but it still felt like someone had ripped a limb from each of them as the brunette vanished from sight.
"We've got to get together again soon." Joey said quietly, filling the sadness. "It's been way too long and the longer it is, the harder it's going to be to say goodbye next time."
"I honestly can't believe you three went in the first place." Tristan said, "You didn't even need to think about it too much."
"We kind of surprised ourselves too." Joey said sourly, "I guess we kinda thought we'd see you a lot more then we have."
"The world's still be turning Joey." Tristan shrugged, "We had our own paths to follow."
"Still…"
"The important thing is that we don't nearly fall out of contact again." Yugi said firmly, "Even if I have to send out a letter a day to make sure of it."
"You can't afford that many post owls." Yami said, "But you have a point."
Tristan frowned, scanning the crowd as he often did nowadays, always alert and wary when he was around his… well, family, he supposed… too many years of Yugi being the target of bad guys, of Joey having to watch his back, in case of the return of Hirutani (and hadn't that been fun?), of having to make sure that his friends weren't stabbed in the back (figuratively and on occasion literally) or that they didn't get themselves killed, and what made it worse, was that he knew he'd be no more use against the new bad guys then he was the old.
It had been bad when the fighting had always been duels to the death, in a game he couldn't play no matter how hard he tried, at least then he'd been on hand to offer support. Now he wasn't even around to do that and the Bad Guys weren't playing games, they were fighting to the death, with no qualms about how they got what they wanted.
These enemies didn't have the incredibly important rule that Yugi's enemies had always had before.
To get what they wanted, they had always had to play fair, and to a certain extent they had even when it didn't seem like they were.
There had always been a way out.
The Death Eaters didn't have to play the rules or give escape clauses and Tristan couldn't help wondering if his friends had made that distinction yet.
"Food?" Joey asked hopefully.
"Airport food." Yami said distastefully.
Joey's eager look died for a moment, then he shrugged, "Better then no food at all."
Yugi's stomache rumbled and that decided the matter.
They headed into the McDonalds.
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The three who were returning to Hogwarts watched as Tristan's flight left, or at least they thought it was that one.
"So, it's just us." Joey sighed.
"And Harry, and Ron, and Hermione, and soon Kari and Ombre too." Yami said wistfully.
"Yeah." Yugi murmured, sighing. "What've we got? A week?"
"Yeap."
"I bet I can get at least six letters in in that space of time." Yugi said with a grin.
"Thinking of letters, letter to Serenity." Yami poked Joey.
"Come on guys, let's get back." Yugi said, looking at his watch, "It's gone six and Mrs Weasley promised us tea when we got back."
"You have it?" Yami asked Joey, who nodded, looking around. "Ok."
They found a quiet place to hide and use the Portkey, arriving back at the Burrow just in time to see Mrs Weasley screeching at the twins who had done something or other that she didn't think was funny.
"That didn't take long." Ron complained as he went with them out to the tent, "Mum's been shouting at them most of the day about one thing or another."
"Anything else in the newspaper?" Yami asked.
"A couple of complaints about the Ministry, another mention of Dad and the dragons, nothing new." Ron shrugged, "Hermione's been hiding in a tree again, and my sane brothers had to go back to work."
"Poor Ron, where's Harry?"
"Got roped into helping Mum with tea." Ron felt sorry for his friend btu didn't show it.
"And it smells gorgeous." Yami said with a grin, "Food?"
"Food." Everyone agrees.