Chapter 4: - Choo Choo
"Kari, Ombre!" Yami stuck his head out of the window and waved to them, "This one!"
The two girls, Seto and Mokuba boarded the carriage and while Seto headed past their compartment in an attempt to find another empty one, Mokuba, Kari and Ombre all crammed into the already crowded compartment.
Yami stopped Ombre at the door, pulling her down the corridor giving a worried glance to their compartment. "Ombre, Kari's drawing from the Shadows."
"I know." The Princess was just as worried, if not more so, than the Pharaoh. "I'm working on that."
"What happened?"
"She was trying to be Yugi." Ombre said with an unhappy frown, and slipped into the compartment before Yami could say anything else.
Yami shook his head and entered the compartment, where Harry, Ron and Hermione had budged up to let Ombre and Mokuba sit down, Yugi and Kari were talking, while Joey, who was squashed against the wall, nodded to the teen who'd just come in.
"Move aside Yami." Kaiba growled, making Yami jump as Kaiba was stood right behind him, "There's no more room."
The Pharaoh let Kaiba sit down, then Kari slumped into the seat next to him, drifting off easily and asleep within seconds. Yugi took up the last of the room on the seat and Yami found himself left with perching on the table, or leaning against the door frame.
He took a slightly different option; he sat on the floor by the door and leant against the partition.
Silence fell, but it wasn't a natural silence, it was the silence of must not disturb 'Kaiba or he will eat your soul'!
To be fair this wasn't helped by the fact Kaiba still had a ridiculous amount of work to do, but had managed to organise it around his school timetable, which he'd gotten his Head of House to send him in advance, plus the help from 'he who must not be spoken of', and maybe Kaiba Corp might actually survive another year.
It had certainly been in a precarious situation when Seto had returned to work even with everything Kari and 'her associate' had done to preserve the company, there was just too much that Kaiba himself had to deal with.
So while the gang wanted to talk, they were just as content to just enjoy each others company… in complete silence…
"Will you stop fidgeting?" Kaiba finally, quietly, snapped at Ron. "Just talk already, if you're that desperate, but keep it down."
Ron was in fact wondering how Kari was getting away with having her head on Seto's shoulder. It had happened quite by accident, but Kaiba didn't seem to be saying or doing anything about it and no one dared asked about it.
"I had to threaten her with a temporary suspension before she'd leave work." Kaiba said without looking up from his laptop, "So I'm leaving her to sleep until we need to get changed."
"We weren't going to wake her." Yugi assured him.
"Good." Kaiba said and went back to his work.
Yami just shook his head, amused by the CEO's reaction to everything. He'd half expected Kaiba to refuse to come back this year with the state of play being how it had been a couple of weeks ago.
A low murmur of conversation ran around the compartment, ranging from Duel Monsters. To the Quidditch finals until Hermione couldn't contain her curiosity any longer and blurted, "Seto, I thought only a Kaiba could run Kaiba Corp."
"That's right."
"So how did Kari keep the company afloat?"
"Someone was keeping a secret from me." Seto said, fixing his little brother with a stern look. "He had a data file backed up from a few years ago that passed himself off as the CEO for a while."
"Noa?" Joey asked, too loudly and earned himself a half a second glare from Kaiba before the CEO returned to his work, "Sorry," He whispered, "You had a backup of Noa?" He asked Mokuba.
Mokuba nodded, "With time instructions on the file, Noa was living in another virtual world and I had it set up so that instructions would go out to all the Department Heads if I didn't sign into Noa's program within a certain amount of time. Kari was already doing her best to keep the company afloat, but she couldn't do a lot of things without a Kaiba."
"And that's where Noa came in." Kaiba said, "Although getting him to give up the reins was…interesting."
"I can imagine." Yami said, remembering the child who'd tried to steal Yugi's body, even after they'd won the duel. He'd failed though, because there'd been too many minds in one body and he'd ended up seeing some of the history of the Puzzle instead.
"But he doesn't have his own body…" Joey commented.
Mokuba glared lightly, "He is my brother too you know."
"Never said he wasn't." Joey would have backed up but he was squashed against the wall already. "I just wondered how he could do things like signing papers and things."
"Most machinery is controlled by computer now Joey, it was easy enough to set Noa up with an arm." Mokuba said.
"What about meetings?" Ron asked, interested.
"They came up with the excuse that he could only do conference calls as he was in a hospital retreat for his health and safety." Kaiba looked amused. "Some idiots fell for it too."
"That could have something to do with the amount of conference calls you have to make, big brother." Mokuba tutted at his older sibling. He shook his head, amused by the fact that Seto flipped him off, "We spoke to Professor Dumbledore too. As long as Seto schedules them outside of class time, he'll even provide the Portkeys to and from the office to hold meetings."
"Why?" Yugi wondered, the thought bouncing around his mind. "He didn't seem that interested in helping when he came to America."
"Doesn't want to lose students?" Yami hazarded.
"He held the power in America, I hold the power currently." Seto levelled a look at Yami, who gazed back with a thoughtful expression, "We needed him more then he needed us then, the tables have turned."
"Why us?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Kaiba snorted, "The 'Boy-Who-Lived' and the wielders of the most dangerous magic known to man? Of course he wants us on his side."
"So why not do us a favour?"
"We weren't sticking to his little 'game plan'." Yami said, thinking things over, now that Seto had brought them up in this light, "We were supposed to go home and act as normal as we get over the Summer and come back ready and willing to learn and follow his plan. Instead…"
"Instead things happened that changed his precious plans." Joey sounded more then slightly annoyed by this. "So what, leaving us in jail was a 'this is your punishment for being awkward'?"
"He probably didn't think about it like that." Hermione said in defence of the Professor.
"He wasn't thinking. He was just reacting. I refused to go along with his game plan." Harry said carefully.
"And considering how much power Dumbledore has, very few people ever say no to him." Yugi reasoned, mind kicking in and thoughts tumbling into place with the information he had, "Let me guess. He wanted you back at the Dursleys."
Harry nodded, with an grimace, "I'm not going back there, a jail cell is better. No matter how much Dumbledore tries to guilt trip me."
"I thought your room was a jail cell." Ron growled, remembering breaking his friend out. "You can't stay there. It's not right."
"Right and wrong seem to have an odd meaning to the Headmaster." Ombre said.
"Remind me why we're coming back." Joey sighed explosively.
"We need wand magic lessons and we can't afford tutors."
"We go, we attend lessons, we ignore Dumbledore's… oddities, we leave." Kaiba said dismissingly.
The whole group nodded in agreement, though Hermione didn't look happy, not used to not being able to trust those in positions of responsibility.
Yugi smiled grimly, they might be heading into dangerous territory, but at least Kaiba was FINALLY thinking himself as one of the gang.
"Sweets anyone?" The gang jumped as the sweet trolley came around, causing a round of hands in pockets and the disappearance of a table under a mountain of sweets.
Ron complained loudly about the fact the gold he'd collected from the Quidditch had disappeared, successfully waking Kari up and causing Kaiba, Yami, Ombre and Joey to glare at him, making him sulk, but shut up.
Yugi hated it when Ron complained about having no money, the Mutos were worse off then the Weasleys were. After bills and tax and rent and everything else that came out of the Kame Game Shop's profits, there wasn't much left for other things. In fact they only had enough money for them to keep coming to school thanks to Sirius, after they'd only made one tournament this summer, if anything Yugi and Yami's piles of sweets had been much smaller then Ron's.
But then Ron probably had no idea how much money was going in and out of his house, unlike the Mutos, where they had an excellent grasp of money matters.
Kari was awake long enough to eat a couple of chocolate frogs and get changed, before going back to sleep, much to the relief of her dark half, who got up, offered Yami her seat and went wandering down the train.
Yami watched her go, still confused over her, 'she was trying to be Yugi,' comment from earlier.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, mind to mind, sensing his dark's confusion, "You alright?"
'Fine.' Yami winced, 'Not the word I meant to use. I'm just tired and confused about everything.'
"Yami, what're the odds that Dumbledore knows about all the powers of the Millennium Items?"
'I don't think he can do, after all, the only one who should know all the powers of the Puzzle is me and well…' Yami shrugged. 'I think we probably have some tricks up our sleeves that he's unaware of.'
"Good." Yami was surprised by Yugi's thought, but then perhaps he shouldn't be, neither of them liked it when the enemy knew more then they did.
'Wait…' Yami thought, deliberately keeping that line of thought from Yugi, 'Did I really just compare Professor Dumbledore to Marik or Pegasus?'
"I'm going to get some fresh air." Yami said, standing up and exiting the compartment before anyone could say anything.
'Manipulative as he is, he's not sunken that low.' Yami thought, resting his head on the wall down the corridor from the compartment.
"Hey Yami." Ombre leant against the wall next to him, "Too many people?"
"Too many thoughts." The Pharaoh replied, "Some of them not as useful as others."
"You knew we were walking back into Dumbledore's plans, didn't you?"
"Until Kaiba brought it up, I hadn't even thought about it." The statement alone was enough to make Ombre frown.
Yami and Yugi had set ways of reacting, but both of them often saw the… 'moves' as it were… of people ahead of time, knowing how they were going to react to something or when to react to something. For the Mutos not to have realised that Dumbledore was manipulating them spoke either highly of Dumbledore's skills of manipulation, or highly of someone's ability to play with their minds without activating the Millennium's items' protections.
"So what is the plan?"
"We'll follow Kaiba's." Yami shrugged, "We need the lessons, or at least the hikaris do, if the worst comes to the worst, I can think of at least one way to get us out of there."
"The tunnel to Hogsmead." Ombre nodded, then she sighed. "What of our family? What happens if Sirius dies? Do we have to watch as Harry gets thrown back to the Dursleys?"
"I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I can't see why they're so important Dumbledore's scheme." Yami frowned.
"Something's wrong with this whole set up. There has to be something that we've missed in this whole thing. Harry was eleven when Voldemort returned and attacked, Yugi didn't face his first magical enemy until he was fourteen." Ombre said, "If Dumbledore's so powerful, why hasn't he faced Voldemort yet? Why does he keep leaving it to Harry?"
"Destiny?" Yami hazarded, "But even so Harry is ill prepared and each time we've escaped it's been more luck then judgement."
"I think Harry needs training."
Yami paused, "Joey's got him in on the fighting lessons with Yugi, what he needs is more magic lessons, but I don't think we can teach him much of our magic. Harry's not linked to the past like Kaiba or Joey."
"There's tactics, and battle situations, and general training."
"I'd be happy to teach Harry tactics and battle situations so at least he has a firm grip on those." Yami said thoughtfully, "So he has more to rely on then just unarmed combat, which is what he's learning from Joey."
"We could all do with being fitter if there's going to be trouble. Morning runs?"
Yami groaned, he hated mornings, but nodded, "Pre-breakfast." Then he smirked, "But you can tell them."
"That's not fair." Ombre protested.
"Your suggestion."
"Rock, paper, scissors?"
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"You'll lose."
"No I won't."
"Fine."
"Rock, paper, scissors…"
'Stupid Princesses and their stupi…'
"You alright?" Yugi tried not to laugh at Yami's grumbling as the Pharaoh re-entered the compartment.
"We came up with an idea." Yami said out loud, "But it means we'd have to get up a lot earlier then we are at the moment."
There were groans from most of the group, but Seto looked up from his laptop long enough to ask, "Morning combat training?"
"We were thinking morning runs." Ombre said, "Not full training sessions."
"I wouldn't mind a sparring partner, if you're up for it Rich-boy." Joey said, though the nickname held none of the old venom. "I wouldn't say no to a few lessons n martial arts. Street fighting's all well and good, as long as you're not up against a trained opponent who is expecting you."
"Why physical combat training?" Hermione asked.
Seto snorted, "I'm surprised you haven't noticed, wizards don't seem to be much good at physical combat, they expect everything to be able to fight with wands alone. This gives Wizarding flaw actually gives Muggle borns and those willing to learn an advantage as it's a tactic the enemy wouldn't expect."
"So we get up, go for a run, practise some fighting, get changed, go for breakfast?" Ron asked.
"Sounds like a plan." Joey nodded.
"All in favour?"
Everyone's hands…well the hands of those who were awake… went up.
"Plan passed." Ombre looked amused.
"Shouldn't we ask Kari as well?" Hermione asked.
"Kari can't be physically trained until she eats and sleeps better." Ombre said, "But she should… hopefully… be able to sort herself out over the next couple of months." 'Away from Kaiba's company.' She thought the last part quietly.
"I dunno Ombre, she's worse then Hermione when it comes to studying instead of sleeping." Joey snorted.
"She has to get herself sorted." Yami said firmly, making Joey realised something more then the obvious was wrong with his ex-girlfriend, "It's dangerous for her to continue the way she's been going."
"According to her PA, she was a lot worse before the Quidditch World Cup. At least now she's pausing for food." Ombre sighed, "When I remind her about it."
"Hey guys, has any of you seen a toad?" Neville Longbottom poked his head round the door, grinning at them and distracting them from their conversation.
"Don't tell me you've lost Trevor already!" Yugi laughed quietly, glancing to make sure he didn't wake Kari up, "Term hasn't even started yet!"
"He got away from me when I bumped into Draco Malfoy on the train." Neville complained, "I don't know what they were up too but…"
"Are you alright?" Yami asked, rising to his feet, concerned.
"Yeah, it was weird, he didn't say anything, just glared and stormed off." Neville shrugged, "Anyway, I take it you haven't seen Trevor."
"We'll keep an eye out." Ron promised and Neville left. "He needs a leash for that toad."
"A leash? For a toad?" Joey just stared at him.
"Yeah."
"A leash? For a toad?"
"Someone hit him." Ron complained.
Seto quite happily complied.
"Ow! Damn it Kaiba!"
"Just passing on a message."
Hermione on the other hand was thinking, "You know… it should be very easy to make a magical leash."
There was a round of stares.
"What? It would with the right spells." Hermione said, smirking at them. "You all need to read more."
"Wouldn't a tracking or summoning spell work better?" Kari murmured, still half asleep.
Yugi giggled, "Why not construct a magical ball for Trevor to roll around in, like those hamsters?"
"That would be funny." Joey agreed.
Ombre saw the look that was beginning to grace Kari's face and groaned. "Oh no, hikari, no more projects until you're better."
"But Ombre…!"
"Ohhh, does that mean I get this project?" Hermione asked, pulling out a pencil and notepad from somewhere.
"Ok, how come you get hammer space Duel Disks and Hermione gets hammer space home work equipment, but I don't get any hammer space storage?" Harry complained.
"What's hammer space?" Ron asked, confused.
"He means pockets Ron." Hermione sighed at the boys.
"You cannot fit a Duel Disk in a pocket!" Harry protested.
"You can once you've used a shrinking spell." Yami said.
Harry blinked. "Ohh…"
"Plus the fact that Kaiba Corp technology allows the Duel Disk to fold away to a small, easily transportable size." Yugi giggled and rolled his eyes at the same time. "Come on Yami, time to get changed." He said, poking his other self.
"It's no lighter though." Yami grinned and followed Yugi out.
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It was horrible out when they departed, raining so heavily that they were absolutely soaked before they reached the carriages.
"Hi Hagrid!" Harry yelled, waving to him as his friends bundled him over to the carriages, the huge man waved back as he directed the first years to the boats.
"I wouldn't like to be them." Hermione shivered once they were safely on their way.
It didn't take long, and once they were inside, the gang regrouped, safe in the knowledge that they couldn't possibly get any wetter then they already were…
Until Ombre, Harry and Yugi were hit by water balloons.
The Princess glared up at their attacker, who was floating close to the ceiling and laughing so hard he could barely continue to throw the balloons.
"PEEVES!" Someone roared, making the group jump. Professor McGonagall was heading in their direction, and slipped on the wet floor, grabbing onto Joey to stop from falling over. "Ow. Sorry Mr Wheeler."
"It's fine Professor." Joey said, rolling his eyes at his friends as the Professor started having a go at Peeves and the poltergeist vanished after throwing the last one the water balloons, one of which hit Kari and the other vanished into the crowd.
They headed into the great hall, slipping and sliding across the passageway until they reached the doors, where Ombre had to push her soggy hair out of her eyes and Joey decided he was going to laugh himself silly at the fact Yugi's spikes were drooping, earning himself a slap round the back of the head from Kari as they took their place at the Gryffindor table.
Yami successfully managed to distract Colin Creevley, leading to a discussion about brothers and sisters ending up in the same house, leading into a discussion about the lack of a new Defence Teacher at the staff table and Yami staring up at the ceiling when something flashed overhead.
"A thunder storm." Joey commented as another bolt of lightening passed overhead. "That's insane considering what the weather's been like during the day."
"English weather." Hermione shrugged.
Yugi was watching the staff table, where there were three empty seats, he could account for two of them, and the third had to be the new DADA Teacher, but it wasn't that that was holding his attention.
It was the look their group was getting from Professor Dumbledore. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore was expecting us back."
Yami looked and smirked, 'He was probably expecting to have to come get us from jail.'
"He knew he was getting Kaiba though." Yugi replied, "So wouldn't logic dictate that he'd be getting us too?"
'Probably didn't expect us to come back after he left us stranded, besides they could have released Kaiba and not us.' Yami gave Professor Dumbledore a level stare and the Professor gave him a perfectly reasonable look back. 'At least we got here safely.'
"No run in with Bakura on the train this year either."
'He is here though, I spotted him in the crowd. He was giving Peeves water balloons.'
Yugi rolled his eyes, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
'Professor McGonagall.' Yami stated, turning to look at the main entrance, where their Head of House was leading the new first years in.
"How many for Gryffindor?"
'Half.' Yami said, confidently.
He was wrong of course, and once the sorting hat had finished singing and the 'ickle firsties' had been sorted, the food, which they'd been waiting ever so patiently for…not… appeared on the table.
The boys, as per usual, stacked their plates high and were well into the meal when Nearly Headless Nick happened to mention that they nearly hadn't had a feast tonight because Peeves had caused trouble in the kitchen and upset the House Elves.
Hermione suddenly paled and pushed away her plate.
"You knew Hogwarts had House Elves." Yami frowned, "One of them was assigned to Kisara's children."
"That was before I knew what conditions they lived under!" Hermione glared at him.
"Are they happy?" Yami asked Nick.
"When Peeves isn't irritating them."
"Then what's the problem?" Yami asked, confused.
"If course you wouldn't understand." She snapped, "You probably had plenty of slaves to do your chores."
Yami just humphed at her, deciding she was being completely unreasonable, and went back to eating.
Dumbledore stood up to speak once the puddings had been consumed mentioning Filch's ever increasing list of banned items, that the Forbidden Forest was out of bounds and only third years and above could go to Hogsmead and finally a statement that made everyone complain.
"The Quidditch Cup will not take place this year!"
"What?" Yugi and Harry gasped simultaneously. Yami sure whether he was relived or upset and looked around at his team mates who seemed just as put out, if not more so, then Yugi and Harry.
"Instead," The Headmaster continued, "There is an event being held at Hogwarts this year, starting this October, that will take a lot of staff time and energy, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…"
Yugi grabbed Yami's arm in an attempt to stop him from getting to his feet in reaction to the loud bang that was the doors banging open. Joey was already there, wand drawn, and Harry hadn't been far behind. Both Ombre and Kari were about halfway up, wands already out, before a flash of lightening threw the man's face into sharp relief.
He looked like he'd seen more then his fair share of battles and had come out of them so scarred that he was probably unrecognisable. One of his eyes was fake and focused on the group who were between sat down and on their feet.
He reached the high table and shook hands with Professor Dumbledore, putting his hand that looked just as scarred as his face in the Headmaster's unblemished one.
It wasn't until he'd sat in the empty seat that was left that the guys settled back into their seats.
"So we're not jumpy at all." Yugi sighed.
Yami didn't say anything in reply, just watched as Professor Dumbledore acted like he'd expected him to enter at that exact moment of time and turned back to his students, "May I present your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Moody."
There was silence.
"Also, we have a Journeywitch this year, working on her masterpiece in the Forbidden Forest, but most likely she will only be seen occasionally around the castle. Her name is Mistress Golden, and you will show her the same respect you would a teacher."
"Mistress Golden?" Kari gasped, looking at her friends, "It can't be, can it?"
The others had no more clue then her, but turned back to Dumbledore in time to hear him say "…Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year!"
"You're joking!" Fred's loud comment broke the tension that had been filling the hall as nearly everyone laughed, even Dumbledore.
Dumbledore proceeded to explain about the Tournament and its history and finally started explaining the rules, including a rather unpopular one. An age limit.
Yugi cringed as Yami cussed the American Ministry in his head again and Fred and George protested loudly.
"The delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of a year. So I expect to see model behaviour from you all and hope that you will extend every courtesy while they are with us." The man looked around, "Now, to bed all of you. I expect you all to be alert and rested for your first lessons."
They filed out and the gang stuck together, "I might go for it." Joey said, "I'm old enough and I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."
"I would if I thought I knew enough." Yugi said, "But we're only fourth years, and we'd probably only be allowed to use 'Wand'" and he put heavy emphasis on the word, "Spells."
"If I was old enough, I would, but…" Yami started grumbling again.
"I might." Kari said.
"Not unless you've stopped drawing from the Shadows." Ombre glared at her.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were locked in conversation with Fred and George, something about aging potion, which, of course, caught Yami's attention.
"What is he like?"
Joey just snorted, thinking of what he could do with a thousand Galleons.
They headed straight up to their dorms, where, as per usual their stuff had been sorted out. Yugi had visions of Hermione ranting about 'this was all done by slave labour' and while he couldn't help but agree that House Elves needed better conditions and he'd always been taught that slavery was wrong, he knew that he'd have to be the one to get Yami to understand why, and that wouldn't be easy considering that even without his memories, Yami tended to have a mindset that was firmly stuck in the ancient times as regards to certain matters.
What he needed was a House Elf to talk to, before Yami and Hermione got into a heated debate over this.
Joey wasn't thinking about the debate, his head was too full of the sheer volume of cards he could buy with a thousand Galleons.
Ron was thinking about the glory, Harry was already asleep and Yami had gotten changed and was now led back on the bed, thinking.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Yugi asked, mind to mind, making the Pharaoh jump.
'If Fred and George can enter using the aging potion, I'm going to too.'
"Let me guess, they've asked for your help in exchange for some potion."
'Pretty much.' Yami agreed, 'Don't worry, I won't help them with anything illegal.'
"Good, I've had enough of jail cells."
'Me too.'
Yugi rolled over and looked at his dark, as the thunder still rolled overhead, "I don't know Yami, something feels off this year, like something's going to happen and we can't stop it."
'I was just thinking the same thing.' Yami admitted. 'The tracks' been set, and we're on the train and now we have to see where it takes us.'
Yugi yawned, "I might compete after all. It might be fun and I do have the two brightest witches and the brightest wizard in my year as friends."
'I'll support you whatever you decide. Yami yawned back, 'Go to sleep.'
"You too." Yugi laughed at him as Kiyoshe and Kana, the cat and the pilot cat, jumped up on his and Yami's beds, sensing Yami was as sleepy as he was. It didn't take long for Yami to drop off and Yugi was only minutes behind.
The silence that fell over the dorm was disturbed only by the sound of falling rain and thunder rumbling overhead. For a long time, the lightening outside flashed and was visible through the window, until at around 4am, the storm finally blew itself out and dispelled into a clear, cold Autumn night.
Then and only then could a glow of a different kind be seen from a student's backpack.
The glow of one of the Millennium Items.
The Millennium Necklace.
The two girls, Seto and Mokuba boarded the carriage and while Seto headed past their compartment in an attempt to find another empty one, Mokuba, Kari and Ombre all crammed into the already crowded compartment.
Yami stopped Ombre at the door, pulling her down the corridor giving a worried glance to their compartment. "Ombre, Kari's drawing from the Shadows."
"I know." The Princess was just as worried, if not more so, than the Pharaoh. "I'm working on that."
"What happened?"
"She was trying to be Yugi." Ombre said with an unhappy frown, and slipped into the compartment before Yami could say anything else.
Yami shook his head and entered the compartment, where Harry, Ron and Hermione had budged up to let Ombre and Mokuba sit down, Yugi and Kari were talking, while Joey, who was squashed against the wall, nodded to the teen who'd just come in.
"Move aside Yami." Kaiba growled, making Yami jump as Kaiba was stood right behind him, "There's no more room."
The Pharaoh let Kaiba sit down, then Kari slumped into the seat next to him, drifting off easily and asleep within seconds. Yugi took up the last of the room on the seat and Yami found himself left with perching on the table, or leaning against the door frame.
He took a slightly different option; he sat on the floor by the door and leant against the partition.
Silence fell, but it wasn't a natural silence, it was the silence of must not disturb 'Kaiba or he will eat your soul'!
To be fair this wasn't helped by the fact Kaiba still had a ridiculous amount of work to do, but had managed to organise it around his school timetable, which he'd gotten his Head of House to send him in advance, plus the help from 'he who must not be spoken of', and maybe Kaiba Corp might actually survive another year.
It had certainly been in a precarious situation when Seto had returned to work even with everything Kari and 'her associate' had done to preserve the company, there was just too much that Kaiba himself had to deal with.
So while the gang wanted to talk, they were just as content to just enjoy each others company… in complete silence…
"Will you stop fidgeting?" Kaiba finally, quietly, snapped at Ron. "Just talk already, if you're that desperate, but keep it down."
Ron was in fact wondering how Kari was getting away with having her head on Seto's shoulder. It had happened quite by accident, but Kaiba didn't seem to be saying or doing anything about it and no one dared asked about it.
"I had to threaten her with a temporary suspension before she'd leave work." Kaiba said without looking up from his laptop, "So I'm leaving her to sleep until we need to get changed."
"We weren't going to wake her." Yugi assured him.
"Good." Kaiba said and went back to his work.
Yami just shook his head, amused by the CEO's reaction to everything. He'd half expected Kaiba to refuse to come back this year with the state of play being how it had been a couple of weeks ago.
A low murmur of conversation ran around the compartment, ranging from Duel Monsters. To the Quidditch finals until Hermione couldn't contain her curiosity any longer and blurted, "Seto, I thought only a Kaiba could run Kaiba Corp."
"That's right."
"So how did Kari keep the company afloat?"
"Someone was keeping a secret from me." Seto said, fixing his little brother with a stern look. "He had a data file backed up from a few years ago that passed himself off as the CEO for a while."
"Noa?" Joey asked, too loudly and earned himself a half a second glare from Kaiba before the CEO returned to his work, "Sorry," He whispered, "You had a backup of Noa?" He asked Mokuba.
Mokuba nodded, "With time instructions on the file, Noa was living in another virtual world and I had it set up so that instructions would go out to all the Department Heads if I didn't sign into Noa's program within a certain amount of time. Kari was already doing her best to keep the company afloat, but she couldn't do a lot of things without a Kaiba."
"And that's where Noa came in." Kaiba said, "Although getting him to give up the reins was…interesting."
"I can imagine." Yami said, remembering the child who'd tried to steal Yugi's body, even after they'd won the duel. He'd failed though, because there'd been too many minds in one body and he'd ended up seeing some of the history of the Puzzle instead.
"But he doesn't have his own body…" Joey commented.
Mokuba glared lightly, "He is my brother too you know."
"Never said he wasn't." Joey would have backed up but he was squashed against the wall already. "I just wondered how he could do things like signing papers and things."
"Most machinery is controlled by computer now Joey, it was easy enough to set Noa up with an arm." Mokuba said.
"What about meetings?" Ron asked, interested.
"They came up with the excuse that he could only do conference calls as he was in a hospital retreat for his health and safety." Kaiba looked amused. "Some idiots fell for it too."
"That could have something to do with the amount of conference calls you have to make, big brother." Mokuba tutted at his older sibling. He shook his head, amused by the fact that Seto flipped him off, "We spoke to Professor Dumbledore too. As long as Seto schedules them outside of class time, he'll even provide the Portkeys to and from the office to hold meetings."
"Why?" Yugi wondered, the thought bouncing around his mind. "He didn't seem that interested in helping when he came to America."
"Doesn't want to lose students?" Yami hazarded.
"He held the power in America, I hold the power currently." Seto levelled a look at Yami, who gazed back with a thoughtful expression, "We needed him more then he needed us then, the tables have turned."
"Why us?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Kaiba snorted, "The 'Boy-Who-Lived' and the wielders of the most dangerous magic known to man? Of course he wants us on his side."
"So why not do us a favour?"
"We weren't sticking to his little 'game plan'." Yami said, thinking things over, now that Seto had brought them up in this light, "We were supposed to go home and act as normal as we get over the Summer and come back ready and willing to learn and follow his plan. Instead…"
"Instead things happened that changed his precious plans." Joey sounded more then slightly annoyed by this. "So what, leaving us in jail was a 'this is your punishment for being awkward'?"
"He probably didn't think about it like that." Hermione said in defence of the Professor.
"He wasn't thinking. He was just reacting. I refused to go along with his game plan." Harry said carefully.
"And considering how much power Dumbledore has, very few people ever say no to him." Yugi reasoned, mind kicking in and thoughts tumbling into place with the information he had, "Let me guess. He wanted you back at the Dursleys."
Harry nodded, with an grimace, "I'm not going back there, a jail cell is better. No matter how much Dumbledore tries to guilt trip me."
"I thought your room was a jail cell." Ron growled, remembering breaking his friend out. "You can't stay there. It's not right."
"Right and wrong seem to have an odd meaning to the Headmaster." Ombre said.
"Remind me why we're coming back." Joey sighed explosively.
"We need wand magic lessons and we can't afford tutors."
"We go, we attend lessons, we ignore Dumbledore's… oddities, we leave." Kaiba said dismissingly.
The whole group nodded in agreement, though Hermione didn't look happy, not used to not being able to trust those in positions of responsibility.
Yugi smiled grimly, they might be heading into dangerous territory, but at least Kaiba was FINALLY thinking himself as one of the gang.
"Sweets anyone?" The gang jumped as the sweet trolley came around, causing a round of hands in pockets and the disappearance of a table under a mountain of sweets.
Ron complained loudly about the fact the gold he'd collected from the Quidditch had disappeared, successfully waking Kari up and causing Kaiba, Yami, Ombre and Joey to glare at him, making him sulk, but shut up.
Yugi hated it when Ron complained about having no money, the Mutos were worse off then the Weasleys were. After bills and tax and rent and everything else that came out of the Kame Game Shop's profits, there wasn't much left for other things. In fact they only had enough money for them to keep coming to school thanks to Sirius, after they'd only made one tournament this summer, if anything Yugi and Yami's piles of sweets had been much smaller then Ron's.
But then Ron probably had no idea how much money was going in and out of his house, unlike the Mutos, where they had an excellent grasp of money matters.
Kari was awake long enough to eat a couple of chocolate frogs and get changed, before going back to sleep, much to the relief of her dark half, who got up, offered Yami her seat and went wandering down the train.
Yami watched her go, still confused over her, 'she was trying to be Yugi,' comment from earlier.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, mind to mind, sensing his dark's confusion, "You alright?"
'Fine.' Yami winced, 'Not the word I meant to use. I'm just tired and confused about everything.'
"Yami, what're the odds that Dumbledore knows about all the powers of the Millennium Items?"
'I don't think he can do, after all, the only one who should know all the powers of the Puzzle is me and well…' Yami shrugged. 'I think we probably have some tricks up our sleeves that he's unaware of.'
"Good." Yami was surprised by Yugi's thought, but then perhaps he shouldn't be, neither of them liked it when the enemy knew more then they did.
'Wait…' Yami thought, deliberately keeping that line of thought from Yugi, 'Did I really just compare Professor Dumbledore to Marik or Pegasus?'
"I'm going to get some fresh air." Yami said, standing up and exiting the compartment before anyone could say anything.
'Manipulative as he is, he's not sunken that low.' Yami thought, resting his head on the wall down the corridor from the compartment.
"Hey Yami." Ombre leant against the wall next to him, "Too many people?"
"Too many thoughts." The Pharaoh replied, "Some of them not as useful as others."
"You knew we were walking back into Dumbledore's plans, didn't you?"
"Until Kaiba brought it up, I hadn't even thought about it." The statement alone was enough to make Ombre frown.
Yami and Yugi had set ways of reacting, but both of them often saw the… 'moves' as it were… of people ahead of time, knowing how they were going to react to something or when to react to something. For the Mutos not to have realised that Dumbledore was manipulating them spoke either highly of Dumbledore's skills of manipulation, or highly of someone's ability to play with their minds without activating the Millennium's items' protections.
"So what is the plan?"
"We'll follow Kaiba's." Yami shrugged, "We need the lessons, or at least the hikaris do, if the worst comes to the worst, I can think of at least one way to get us out of there."
"The tunnel to Hogsmead." Ombre nodded, then she sighed. "What of our family? What happens if Sirius dies? Do we have to watch as Harry gets thrown back to the Dursleys?"
"I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I can't see why they're so important Dumbledore's scheme." Yami frowned.
"Something's wrong with this whole set up. There has to be something that we've missed in this whole thing. Harry was eleven when Voldemort returned and attacked, Yugi didn't face his first magical enemy until he was fourteen." Ombre said, "If Dumbledore's so powerful, why hasn't he faced Voldemort yet? Why does he keep leaving it to Harry?"
"Destiny?" Yami hazarded, "But even so Harry is ill prepared and each time we've escaped it's been more luck then judgement."
"I think Harry needs training."
Yami paused, "Joey's got him in on the fighting lessons with Yugi, what he needs is more magic lessons, but I don't think we can teach him much of our magic. Harry's not linked to the past like Kaiba or Joey."
"There's tactics, and battle situations, and general training."
"I'd be happy to teach Harry tactics and battle situations so at least he has a firm grip on those." Yami said thoughtfully, "So he has more to rely on then just unarmed combat, which is what he's learning from Joey."
"We could all do with being fitter if there's going to be trouble. Morning runs?"
Yami groaned, he hated mornings, but nodded, "Pre-breakfast." Then he smirked, "But you can tell them."
"That's not fair." Ombre protested.
"Your suggestion."
"Rock, paper, scissors?"
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"You'll lose."
"No I won't."
"Fine."
"Rock, paper, scissors…"
'Stupid Princesses and their stupi…'
"You alright?" Yugi tried not to laugh at Yami's grumbling as the Pharaoh re-entered the compartment.
"We came up with an idea." Yami said out loud, "But it means we'd have to get up a lot earlier then we are at the moment."
There were groans from most of the group, but Seto looked up from his laptop long enough to ask, "Morning combat training?"
"We were thinking morning runs." Ombre said, "Not full training sessions."
"I wouldn't mind a sparring partner, if you're up for it Rich-boy." Joey said, though the nickname held none of the old venom. "I wouldn't say no to a few lessons n martial arts. Street fighting's all well and good, as long as you're not up against a trained opponent who is expecting you."
"Why physical combat training?" Hermione asked.
Seto snorted, "I'm surprised you haven't noticed, wizards don't seem to be much good at physical combat, they expect everything to be able to fight with wands alone. This gives Wizarding flaw actually gives Muggle borns and those willing to learn an advantage as it's a tactic the enemy wouldn't expect."
"So we get up, go for a run, practise some fighting, get changed, go for breakfast?" Ron asked.
"Sounds like a plan." Joey nodded.
"All in favour?"
Everyone's hands…well the hands of those who were awake… went up.
"Plan passed." Ombre looked amused.
"Shouldn't we ask Kari as well?" Hermione asked.
"Kari can't be physically trained until she eats and sleeps better." Ombre said, "But she should… hopefully… be able to sort herself out over the next couple of months." 'Away from Kaiba's company.' She thought the last part quietly.
"I dunno Ombre, she's worse then Hermione when it comes to studying instead of sleeping." Joey snorted.
"She has to get herself sorted." Yami said firmly, making Joey realised something more then the obvious was wrong with his ex-girlfriend, "It's dangerous for her to continue the way she's been going."
"According to her PA, she was a lot worse before the Quidditch World Cup. At least now she's pausing for food." Ombre sighed, "When I remind her about it."
"Hey guys, has any of you seen a toad?" Neville Longbottom poked his head round the door, grinning at them and distracting them from their conversation.
"Don't tell me you've lost Trevor already!" Yugi laughed quietly, glancing to make sure he didn't wake Kari up, "Term hasn't even started yet!"
"He got away from me when I bumped into Draco Malfoy on the train." Neville complained, "I don't know what they were up too but…"
"Are you alright?" Yami asked, rising to his feet, concerned.
"Yeah, it was weird, he didn't say anything, just glared and stormed off." Neville shrugged, "Anyway, I take it you haven't seen Trevor."
"We'll keep an eye out." Ron promised and Neville left. "He needs a leash for that toad."
"A leash? For a toad?" Joey just stared at him.
"Yeah."
"A leash? For a toad?"
"Someone hit him." Ron complained.
Seto quite happily complied.
"Ow! Damn it Kaiba!"
"Just passing on a message."
Hermione on the other hand was thinking, "You know… it should be very easy to make a magical leash."
There was a round of stares.
"What? It would with the right spells." Hermione said, smirking at them. "You all need to read more."
"Wouldn't a tracking or summoning spell work better?" Kari murmured, still half asleep.
Yugi giggled, "Why not construct a magical ball for Trevor to roll around in, like those hamsters?"
"That would be funny." Joey agreed.
Ombre saw the look that was beginning to grace Kari's face and groaned. "Oh no, hikari, no more projects until you're better."
"But Ombre…!"
"Ohhh, does that mean I get this project?" Hermione asked, pulling out a pencil and notepad from somewhere.
"Ok, how come you get hammer space Duel Disks and Hermione gets hammer space home work equipment, but I don't get any hammer space storage?" Harry complained.
"What's hammer space?" Ron asked, confused.
"He means pockets Ron." Hermione sighed at the boys.
"You cannot fit a Duel Disk in a pocket!" Harry protested.
"You can once you've used a shrinking spell." Yami said.
Harry blinked. "Ohh…"
"Plus the fact that Kaiba Corp technology allows the Duel Disk to fold away to a small, easily transportable size." Yugi giggled and rolled his eyes at the same time. "Come on Yami, time to get changed." He said, poking his other self.
"It's no lighter though." Yami grinned and followed Yugi out.
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It was horrible out when they departed, raining so heavily that they were absolutely soaked before they reached the carriages.
"Hi Hagrid!" Harry yelled, waving to him as his friends bundled him over to the carriages, the huge man waved back as he directed the first years to the boats.
"I wouldn't like to be them." Hermione shivered once they were safely on their way.
It didn't take long, and once they were inside, the gang regrouped, safe in the knowledge that they couldn't possibly get any wetter then they already were…
Until Ombre, Harry and Yugi were hit by water balloons.
The Princess glared up at their attacker, who was floating close to the ceiling and laughing so hard he could barely continue to throw the balloons.
"PEEVES!" Someone roared, making the group jump. Professor McGonagall was heading in their direction, and slipped on the wet floor, grabbing onto Joey to stop from falling over. "Ow. Sorry Mr Wheeler."
"It's fine Professor." Joey said, rolling his eyes at his friends as the Professor started having a go at Peeves and the poltergeist vanished after throwing the last one the water balloons, one of which hit Kari and the other vanished into the crowd.
They headed into the great hall, slipping and sliding across the passageway until they reached the doors, where Ombre had to push her soggy hair out of her eyes and Joey decided he was going to laugh himself silly at the fact Yugi's spikes were drooping, earning himself a slap round the back of the head from Kari as they took their place at the Gryffindor table.
Yami successfully managed to distract Colin Creevley, leading to a discussion about brothers and sisters ending up in the same house, leading into a discussion about the lack of a new Defence Teacher at the staff table and Yami staring up at the ceiling when something flashed overhead.
"A thunder storm." Joey commented as another bolt of lightening passed overhead. "That's insane considering what the weather's been like during the day."
"English weather." Hermione shrugged.
Yugi was watching the staff table, where there were three empty seats, he could account for two of them, and the third had to be the new DADA Teacher, but it wasn't that that was holding his attention.
It was the look their group was getting from Professor Dumbledore. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore was expecting us back."
Yami looked and smirked, 'He was probably expecting to have to come get us from jail.'
"He knew he was getting Kaiba though." Yugi replied, "So wouldn't logic dictate that he'd be getting us too?"
'Probably didn't expect us to come back after he left us stranded, besides they could have released Kaiba and not us.' Yami gave Professor Dumbledore a level stare and the Professor gave him a perfectly reasonable look back. 'At least we got here safely.'
"No run in with Bakura on the train this year either."
'He is here though, I spotted him in the crowd. He was giving Peeves water balloons.'
Yugi rolled his eyes, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
'Professor McGonagall.' Yami stated, turning to look at the main entrance, where their Head of House was leading the new first years in.
"How many for Gryffindor?"
'Half.' Yami said, confidently.
He was wrong of course, and once the sorting hat had finished singing and the 'ickle firsties' had been sorted, the food, which they'd been waiting ever so patiently for…not… appeared on the table.
The boys, as per usual, stacked their plates high and were well into the meal when Nearly Headless Nick happened to mention that they nearly hadn't had a feast tonight because Peeves had caused trouble in the kitchen and upset the House Elves.
Hermione suddenly paled and pushed away her plate.
"You knew Hogwarts had House Elves." Yami frowned, "One of them was assigned to Kisara's children."
"That was before I knew what conditions they lived under!" Hermione glared at him.
"Are they happy?" Yami asked Nick.
"When Peeves isn't irritating them."
"Then what's the problem?" Yami asked, confused.
"If course you wouldn't understand." She snapped, "You probably had plenty of slaves to do your chores."
Yami just humphed at her, deciding she was being completely unreasonable, and went back to eating.
Dumbledore stood up to speak once the puddings had been consumed mentioning Filch's ever increasing list of banned items, that the Forbidden Forest was out of bounds and only third years and above could go to Hogsmead and finally a statement that made everyone complain.
"The Quidditch Cup will not take place this year!"
"What?" Yugi and Harry gasped simultaneously. Yami sure whether he was relived or upset and looked around at his team mates who seemed just as put out, if not more so, then Yugi and Harry.
"Instead," The Headmaster continued, "There is an event being held at Hogwarts this year, starting this October, that will take a lot of staff time and energy, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts…"
Yugi grabbed Yami's arm in an attempt to stop him from getting to his feet in reaction to the loud bang that was the doors banging open. Joey was already there, wand drawn, and Harry hadn't been far behind. Both Ombre and Kari were about halfway up, wands already out, before a flash of lightening threw the man's face into sharp relief.
He looked like he'd seen more then his fair share of battles and had come out of them so scarred that he was probably unrecognisable. One of his eyes was fake and focused on the group who were between sat down and on their feet.
He reached the high table and shook hands with Professor Dumbledore, putting his hand that looked just as scarred as his face in the Headmaster's unblemished one.
It wasn't until he'd sat in the empty seat that was left that the guys settled back into their seats.
"So we're not jumpy at all." Yugi sighed.
Yami didn't say anything in reply, just watched as Professor Dumbledore acted like he'd expected him to enter at that exact moment of time and turned back to his students, "May I present your new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Moody."
There was silence.
"Also, we have a Journeywitch this year, working on her masterpiece in the Forbidden Forest, but most likely she will only be seen occasionally around the castle. Her name is Mistress Golden, and you will show her the same respect you would a teacher."
"Mistress Golden?" Kari gasped, looking at her friends, "It can't be, can it?"
The others had no more clue then her, but turned back to Dumbledore in time to hear him say "…Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year!"
"You're joking!" Fred's loud comment broke the tension that had been filling the hall as nearly everyone laughed, even Dumbledore.
Dumbledore proceeded to explain about the Tournament and its history and finally started explaining the rules, including a rather unpopular one. An age limit.
Yugi cringed as Yami cussed the American Ministry in his head again and Fred and George protested loudly.
"The delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of a year. So I expect to see model behaviour from you all and hope that you will extend every courtesy while they are with us." The man looked around, "Now, to bed all of you. I expect you all to be alert and rested for your first lessons."
They filed out and the gang stuck together, "I might go for it." Joey said, "I'm old enough and I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."
"I would if I thought I knew enough." Yugi said, "But we're only fourth years, and we'd probably only be allowed to use 'Wand'" and he put heavy emphasis on the word, "Spells."
"If I was old enough, I would, but…" Yami started grumbling again.
"I might." Kari said.
"Not unless you've stopped drawing from the Shadows." Ombre glared at her.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were locked in conversation with Fred and George, something about aging potion, which, of course, caught Yami's attention.
"What is he like?"
Joey just snorted, thinking of what he could do with a thousand Galleons.
They headed straight up to their dorms, where, as per usual their stuff had been sorted out. Yugi had visions of Hermione ranting about 'this was all done by slave labour' and while he couldn't help but agree that House Elves needed better conditions and he'd always been taught that slavery was wrong, he knew that he'd have to be the one to get Yami to understand why, and that wouldn't be easy considering that even without his memories, Yami tended to have a mindset that was firmly stuck in the ancient times as regards to certain matters.
What he needed was a House Elf to talk to, before Yami and Hermione got into a heated debate over this.
Joey wasn't thinking about the debate, his head was too full of the sheer volume of cards he could buy with a thousand Galleons.
Ron was thinking about the glory, Harry was already asleep and Yami had gotten changed and was now led back on the bed, thinking.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Yugi asked, mind to mind, making the Pharaoh jump.
'If Fred and George can enter using the aging potion, I'm going to too.'
"Let me guess, they've asked for your help in exchange for some potion."
'Pretty much.' Yami agreed, 'Don't worry, I won't help them with anything illegal.'
"Good, I've had enough of jail cells."
'Me too.'
Yugi rolled over and looked at his dark, as the thunder still rolled overhead, "I don't know Yami, something feels off this year, like something's going to happen and we can't stop it."
'I was just thinking the same thing.' Yami admitted. 'The tracks' been set, and we're on the train and now we have to see where it takes us.'
Yugi yawned, "I might compete after all. It might be fun and I do have the two brightest witches and the brightest wizard in my year as friends."
'I'll support you whatever you decide. Yami yawned back, 'Go to sleep.'
"You too." Yugi laughed at him as Kiyoshe and Kana, the cat and the pilot cat, jumped up on his and Yami's beds, sensing Yami was as sleepy as he was. It didn't take long for Yami to drop off and Yugi was only minutes behind.
The silence that fell over the dorm was disturbed only by the sound of falling rain and thunder rumbling overhead. For a long time, the lightening outside flashed and was visible through the window, until at around 4am, the storm finally blew itself out and dispelled into a clear, cold Autumn night.
Then and only then could a glow of a different kind be seen from a student's backpack.
The glow of one of the Millennium Items.
The Millennium Necklace.