Chapter 7: - Where Are the Curtains?
Joey was rewriting his homework when Harry sat up and looked around. "Dumbledore been back yet?"
"Nope." Joey said, frowning slightly at Harry's disappointed look. "Why?"
"Because Yami really wants to have a few words with a Headmaster about entering minds without permission and opening the doors for fragments of people's souls to take a hold." Harry sounded amused and annoyed at the same time, taking the Puzzle off and handing it Joey, "Put it on Yami, would you?"
Joey did so and spent the next ten minutes being highly amused by Yami's command of multiple languages and all the things the Pharaoh could think to call the headmaster, at least until he picked up 'Voldemort's soul fragment', then Yami's rage was understandable.
"Is it gone though?"
"Yami sent it to the Shadow Realm and the place it had been hiding in vanished." Harry said with a grin in Yami's direction.
"So you've been possessed?" Joey frowned.
"I don't think so…"
"The door was locked and barred from Harry's side." Yami said, "And it was only a seventh of a soul, if that, Harry would have had to have been practically dead before it could have taken over." Yami growled.
"Didn't Yugi have Voldemort's soul inside him for a few minutes?" Joey frowned.
"We checked him during that summer, Voldemort didn't leave traces behind. I don't even know how he split his soul in the first place." Yami snarled, "It's possible, I know it is, look at Yugi and me, but I don't remember how you'd go about it."
"It would be under different circumstances anyway." Harry pointed out. "You're only half a soul, that was… an eighth? Ninth?"
"No clue." Yami growled, "I actually hope Dumbledore comes back to check if I've left Harry's mind. I'd like a word with him."
"Why?"
"He's a mind reader, Joey."
"Legellimens." Joey offered, "The girls have been researching. The magic for mind reading is Legellimency." Joey paused, "Wait, so you think…?"
"There's no way he couldn't have known about the soul fragment if he was poking around as much as I think he was." Yami growled, "And without the Shadows, I wouldn't have been able to get rid of it."
"Perhaps he just wasn't able to get rid of it before?" Joey hazarded.
"He could have come to us, Joey." Yami growled, "We'd've done something about it sooner."
"Yami calm, it's done now, and you've gotten rid of it."
Yami closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again, still annoyed, it was easy to read in his posture, but willing to talk about something else. "Wolf plushie." He said, looking at Harry and grinning evilly.
"Akkk, you promised you wouldn't bring that up!" Harry cringed.
"I said no such thing."
"Wolf plushie?" Joey looked amused.
"Gold Winged Wolf plushie." Yami said.
"I wouldn't say too much about it, Pharaoh." Joey winked at Harry, "Or I might just mention that Dark Magician plushie to Yugi."
"You wouldn't…"
"You wanna bet?"
"Dark Magician plushie?" Harry asked.
"Yeap, looks like Maha…" Joey got a pillow to the face. "Hey, no…" Two pillows to the face. "Fair."
Yami mock glared his best friend, "You swore you wouldn't mention it!"
"To Yugi, I never said I wouldn't use it as blackmail." Joey pointed out, relieved that Yami had run out of pillows.
Sadly he hadn't counted on Harry's aim.
"I'm on your side!"
"Hey, he just got Voldemort out of my head, I'm on his side." Harry pointed out.
Joey blinked… "Harry?"
"Yes?" Harry asked.
Yami snickered, "I think he means to say, he's surprised you're taking sides, you don't usually."
Harry shrugged, "I don't see why I shouldn't." This was followed up by another pillow to the face for Joey.
"Yami, I think you broke something when you were fighting that soul fragment." Joey said, quietly thinking 'please, oh please, oh please, tell me that I won't have to deal with hyper Harry again.'
"No, I think I fixed something." Yami said, with a small smile.
"I'm great Joey, honest." Harry grinned, "I'm just happy."
"Yeah… I remember the last time you said that."
"What?" Harry looked hurt, "You don't believe me?"
"No, you've only said it once before, I believe you."
"Oh."
"Hopefully we'll be seeing more of happy Harry now." Yami said. "Now his mind's his, and his alone."
"I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just… alright, I know you're both out of pillows, who threw that one?" Joey scowled at the two, who gave him their best innocent looks.
Joey was saved from any more assaults by the arrival of Professor Dumbledore, who looked partially relieved to see Yami awake and active and partially concerned at Harry's actions. "Mr Muto, may I speak to you?"
"You'd have to ask Madam Pomfrey, she hasn't checked us over yet." Yami said, "But yes Sir, you may speak to me, in fact I would like to speak to you."
"I hope he's not too rude!" Harry laughed mentally.
Yami's stunned expression as he looked at Harry made Harry wonder what was wrong. "Harry, don't forget those last locks." Yami said with a confused look on his face.
After a 'quick' once over, Yami followed Professor Dumbledore out and Harry pushed the last locks into place, just as Yami had shown him.
'Harry?' Harry jumped a mile as Yami's voice sounded soft and unsure in his head; as if it wasn't sure it wanted to be heard.
"Harry?" Joey asked, concerned.
"I just…" Harry waved the concern off, `Yami? Is that you?`
'Oh by the Gods…' Yami sounded exasperated.
`Ummm, we couldn't do this before.`
'No, no we couldn't.'
`How do we turn it off?`
'Well normally I'd say taking the Puzzle off, but I'm wearing it.'
`You can't think at Yugi when he's not wearing the Puzzle?`
'I can but the link's weak, the thoughts don't always reach him.'
`Perhaps you need to spend some time in his head.`
'Not helpful.'
`So, why can we do this now?`
'Too much of my magic in your head?'
`You don't know, do you?`
'No clue.'
`I'm going to try something… Yugi?`
There was no reply.
`Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi?`
'Cut it out Harry.' Yami growled.
There was a flash of pain down the link, but not from either Harry or Yami and then, "Harry, how in Ra's name are you in my head?" Yugi yelped, audible by both Yami and Harry.
`Yami's fault. You ok?`
"Fell off my chair, do I want to know how you can talk to me mind to mind?"
'Yugi, can you hear me?' Yami tried.
"What did you do?" Laughter answered him, "Harry…you really shouldn't be amused about this."
`It's just… I get rid of one link and now I have another two.`
"Get rid of one link?"
'Harry explain please, while I talk to Dumbledore.'
`Ok.` Harry paused, `Oh, and please don't kill him Yami.`
"Why would Yami kill Dumbledore?"
`A part of Voldy's soul was in my head, and Dumbles knew it was there, and we think it's Dumbles' fault my mind was so open, and Dumbles can read minds and tried to get into mine.`
"I think he tried to get into mine the day of the Shadow Game." Yugi hesitated. "Someone tried to get into my mind and it hurt like hell, I thought it was you Yami, sorry."
'Oh, I'm not letting that one go.' Yami growled, mentally adding it to his itinerary of things to 'shout' at Dumbledore about.
`Yugi, how do you stop thoughts from reaching Yami when you're wearing the Puzzle and the link's open?`
"You have to think really quietly, like you're whispering."
`Like this?` Harry tried, mentally whispering and got no response. `Yeay! That works.`
"I'm going to come down to the Hospital Wing." Yugi sighed, "This is going to take some getting used to."
'You're telling me.'
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It was hard enough concentrating on the outside world when there was only one person talking in your head, having a three way conversation in your head and a conversation with someone else out loud was incredibly difficult and somehow Yami was surprised at how well he was juggling it, along with his temper as he explained his reasoning to the Headmaster.
At least he kept his temper well until he heard Yugi say '"I think he tried to get into mine the day of the Shadow Game. Someone tried to get into my mind and it hurt like hell, I thought it was you Yami, sorry."'
Then he gave the Professor a stern glare and demanded to know exactly what he was playing at, invading his hikari's mind, and spitting out everything else that had been bothering the Pharaoh.
And even more aggravating was that he earned himself three weekends of work in the Forbidden Forest and absolutely no answers except that it was for the 'greater good'.
Yami hated that phrase. So much could be done for the 'greater good' that actually didn't help, and in the end got more people hurt along the way, that he couldn't actually stomach the idea.
Yami couldn't help feeling that Dumbledore had been more aggravated at him for GETTING RID of the soul fragment then he had for the actual possession.
Yami leant against the wall outside the Hospital Wing, just thinking everything over. It had been hard enough when he'd been linked to just one person, Yugi meant everything to him and he hated seeing Yugi hurt or bullied. Would he be that overprotective of Harry now? He hoped not, because it certainly aggravated Yugi often enough when Yami was overprotective that he could imagine Harry's reaction.
`Yami, you coming in?` Harry laughed in his head, making Yami smile slightly, no matter how complicated the situation had just become.
Joey looked a little frazzled as he looked at Yami, "Ok, so that monster over there," He pointed at Harry, "Has managed to get himself linked to you, right?"
"Yeap." Yami felt just as frazzled. "I don't know how."
"How'd it go?" Harry asked.
"Detention, three weekends of work in the Forbidden Forest." Yami threw up his arms, "And no answers."
"Yami, how?" Joey asked again, looking a little put out.
"Complete and utter accident." Yami said, "Not that I'm complaining…" 'At the moment' he thought quietly, "But I wouldn't have done it if I'd had a choice."
"Well it won't be too bad, Hagrid is fairly okay for a detention."
"Not Hagrid. Golden."
"Kari's friend?" Yugi looked surprised. "You've got detention with her?"
Yami nodded, sinking onto a bed.
"Well… it won't be that bad."
"Are we remembering the same girl?"
"She was always nice to me."
"Everyone is nice to you. She did not like me."
"Well you did ask her forty two million questions and her friend was in danger because of us when we first met." Yugi pointed out.
"She fussed over everyone." Joey said, remembering the un-magical t-shirt, "Remember?"
"You still have that t-shirt, don't you?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well… is it still un-magical?"
"As far as I know… why?"
"Why did she call it un-magical? I mean she's magical, so why did she de-magic the t-shirt?"
"I think the question would be, how do you de-magic a t-shirt?"
"It was a t-shirt, I doubt it had any magic to begin with."
"Have you seen Kaiba Corps clothes? They all have a scary amount of magic."
"I'm almost afraid to ask how you know this."
Harry looked confused and without thinking Yugi sent him a memory of the event. Then paused, realising exactly what he'd done. "Ummm. Oops."
"For some reason, Kaiba Corp attracts magic." Yami said, wondering exactly what the issue was.
Harry blinked, "So, strange person."
"Very much so."
"Even by our standards."
"Yugi." Harry said, still confused, "Give me a warning before you do that again please."
"Do what?"
"I sent Harry a memory of the event without thinking." Yugi winced.
"No more sugar?" Harry asked, in Japanese.
Joey rolled his eyes, "This is going to take some getting used to, and for some odd reason I just stopped feeling left out. I don't think I'd want three people in my head, swapping memories."
"There would be four in your head if you were linked to us as well." Yami pointed out, "Or aren't you in there very often?"
This earned the Pharaoh a pillow to the face from Joey and it quietly dissolved into a pillow fight, until Madam Pomfrey caught them and kicked Yami, Joey and Yugi out.
'Goodnight Harry.'
"Night Harry."
`Goodnight Yugi, Yami.` And as Harry drifted off to sleep, the big, lonely Hospital Wing, didn't feel quite as lonely.
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Harry was released to the care of his friends the next morning, joining them in time for breakfast. By this time the entire gang knew the details, having been filled in during their morning practise by an irate Yami.
There wasn't much talking going on, the gang was too tired from training and too busy wondering what this new development meant for them.
Joey caught Yami's arm as the Pharaoh reached the door.
"Joey?"
"Yami… I… I want you to teach me."
"Huh?" Yami asked, confused.
"You taught Harry how to defend his mind, right?"
"I showed him the spells and helped him cast them, yes." Yami nodded.
"Can you show me?"
Yami frowned, "I…"
"Yami?"
`Everything ok?` Yugi and Harry asked, Yami looked over his shoulder to see that they had paused at the bottom of the stairs.
'It's ok, we'll meet you in class.' Yami assured them and they nodded and carried on up. He turned back to Joey, "I don't know if it's safe, you know what happened when I helped Harry with the spells."
Joey paused at that, "Never mind, it was a stupid idea."
"No, it wasn't." Yami reassured him, "There just has to be a better way of doing it." Yami smiled at his friend as they head upstairs. "We'll just have to find it."
`You're going to be late.` Harry giggled in Yami's head, making Yami sigh in exasperation.
"They're enjoying this way too much, aren't they?" Joey said, guessing what was going on.
"Harry says we're going to be late if we don't hurry up." Yami replied with a roll of his eyes. The two headed on up to class, discussing mental defences and oblivious to the fact someone was listening in.
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Yami waited in the great hall with a fair bit of impatience. Weekend detentions were always the worse, and he had six days with the unpredictable Robyn Golden.
When she appeared moments later, Yami stared. He had expected to see her dressed as a witch, not as a… well he had never seen someone dressed as Miss Golden was this moment.
Dull dark green trousers, heavy red-brown boots, a combat green army shirt, and a heavy looking coat.
She also had more pockets than he had ever seen on a person, and most of them looked full.
"Okay, first thing first, go get changed out of those clothes, you'll want a light t-shirt, and some leggings, then put these on top." She said handing over a cloth bag. "Since you won't have any walking boots, go put on a pair of sensible footwear that won't be hurt by a bit of mud."
Yami stared at her.
"I expect you back down here in twenty minutes, shoo."
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Twenty minutes later, Yami was hoping no one would see him.
Plastic like orange waterproofs covered his leggings, and a neon yellow coat, which was far heavier than any piece of clothing should be.
Then Robyn smiled at him when she saw him. She pulled straight the coat, and zipped it up, pulling the hood over his hair. Two minutes of fussing later, while Robyn had tied, zipped, clicked, and who knows what else, him into the jacket, including pulling out a pair of thick leathery gloves from the sleeves, that he hadn't even realised were there.
"Okay, now you're as ready for field work involving magical insects as clothes can make a man. Remember if anything attacks you, and I do mean anything, shout for help."
"What will I be doing?" Yami said, trying to keep his frustration out of his voice.
He failed.
"Well first, we'll be setting up some traps, such as honey traps, pit fall traps, status traps, and then we'll check the ones I've already set up. A break for lunch, then you can help me set up the moth tent."
"I've never done any of that before."
"Huh, I was under the impression you broke for lunch every day."
Yami felt his face flare red. "I meant everything else." He hissed.
"Wow, and I though going through fourteen for the third time would bring some maturity."
Yami growled.
"Relax, I'm not asking you to conquer the world, we'll leave that up to Yugi, all you'll will be doing is digging some holes, setting up some containers, and then helping me empty the ones I set last week, while listening to me monologging about why I'm doing this."
"What!" Was Yami's startled cry, as Robyn shooed him out the door and into the forest.
"It won't be that bad, it'll help in your potion lessons if you know more about the insects."
"Yugi's going to conquer the world?"
"Probably not, but you never know. Bakura definitely isn't going to any time soon. I think he's going soft in his young age."
Help. Yami thought as he tried to untangle Robyn's words.
Only to be lightly twatted over the head.
"No talkie on the mind link during detention. You might attract dragons."
Yami tried to glare, really he did, but either Robyn ignored it or his early morning confusion was lasting longer than he thought.
"Have you managed to find a nice pair of blinds yet?"
Or it could just be Robyn.
"I got gifted with a rather nasty set; I mean I'm all for keeping people out of my business, but la mort is probably not the best way. And I feel sorry for your poor guardian, I mean, who would want the burden of unseen sight."
Yes, it was probably Robyn.
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In the weeks that followed, the amount of time they had to themselves seemed to decrease in direct proportion to the increase of the difficulty of classes. Professor Moody had shocked them all when he'd announced that he was going to be using the Imperius Curse on each of them, to test their ability to break the control someone had over you, and to feel what it felt like, causing Hermione to protest and Joey to nearly walk out.
It was only Hermione's curiosity and Yugi's support that held the two in the lesson as one by one Professor Moody beckoned them forward to cast the curse on them.
'I don't like this.' Yami growled, after his turn was over, having failed to break the Professor's control on his mind and climbed up on the table, singing a Christmas Carol. 'That spell even gets through MY defences.'
"Hermione's right, this is illegal." Yugi returned as he stepped forward. "But it's the best way to learn how to break a spell, by being put under it."
`We don't have a choice if we want to pass the… what the hell was that?` Harry asked as Moody cast the spell and was blasted backwards by a flash of purple energy.
"Shit." Joey rushed over to help Moody to his feet.
"Language Mr Wheeler." Moody said, turning to look at Yugi, "And Puzzle off please Mr Muto."
Yugi looked at Yami, then handed the Puzzle to the Pharaoh, before turning back to Moody. "Well that's good to know." Yugi said after spending a couple of minutes, tap dancing around the room.
"What?"
"That the Puzzle objects that strongly to the Imperius Curse." Yugi said, settling back at his desk as Joey was called up.
The teen clenched his fists as Moody waved his wand.
"Joey's nervous?" Ron asked.
"Marik." Yami growled.
"Oh."
"Imperio!"
Joey froze as Moody called "Climb on a desk and sing the Japanese National Anthem."
There was nothing, no movement from Joey or sound, which had the group frowning since everyone else had started following orders almost immediately.
"Climb on a desk and sing the Japanese National Anthem." Moody growled.
Yugi, who'd reclaimed the Puzzle when he'd come back to his desk, sent out a wave of magic that weaved around Joey.
"He's fighting it." Yugi told his two linked friends.
Moody managed to get all of about a bar out of Joey before he finally gave up. "Look at that!" Moody sounded amused, "Wheeler fought it! Fought it and damn near beat it!"
Joey left the classroom, without his bag, slamming the door on his way out.
"Permission to go after him?" Yugi quickly asked the Professor.
"Granted, but neither of you are excused from the homework."
Yugi left quickly, packing up his and Joey's stuff and following his friend.
`I knew Joey hated mind control…`
'How much did we tell you about when Joey was under Marik's mind control?'
`That Yugi and Joey fought each other and Yugi threw the duel.`
'I'll explain later.' Yami growled as Harry stepped up.
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"Joey!"
The blonde in question sighed and stopped as his small friend caught up with him on his route to the Monster's Wing, which had once been full of monsters and now only served as the entrance to the Purple Eyes Silver Dragons' homes and was the perfect place to go if you wanted to be alone to think things over. "You ok?" Yugi asked, concerned.
"No." Joey said bluntly, "I'm not."
"You fought it," Yugi tried to reassure his friend, "You were winning too."
"That's not the point Yuge." Joey's voice echoed down the empty corridor. Joey shuddered as he leant against a wall, "It's just…" Visions of the death duel passed through Joey's mind.
"I know, Joey." Yugi sighed, currently thinking the same thoughts, "But we have to do everything we can to stop it possibly ever happening again."
"I can't." Joey shook his head, "I can't do that again."
Yugi's shoulders sank as he tried to think things though, "I don't think Moody will excuse you from class because of Marik, if anything he'll think it's a better reason to keep putting the Imperius on you, at least until you can shrug it off easily."
"I know, I know." Joey growled, running a hand through his hair, "But I can't Yuge, I just can't…"
"Easy Joey." Yugi bit his bottom lip, still thinking, "I've got your stuff, you don't have to go back today, and hopefully he won't do it again next lesson."
"This is Moody." Joey growled, "He'll keep doing it until all of us can throw it off!"
"Pineapple." Yugi said to the door to the Monster's Wing, causing it to swing open and admit them, before swinging shut behind them again. "Do you want to see if a Millennium Item would protect you?" Yugi asked, deadly seriously, as Joey slumped onto a table and Yugi sat in the windowsill.
"I'd have to beat you for them to work for me, wouldn't I?"
"You already did once." Yugi pointed out. "To recover your Red Eyes from us."
"I dunno Yuge, sounds dangerous."
"Probably is, but it's the only thing I can think of to keep Moody out of your head. Yami couldn't fight it at all."
"That's worrying." Joey frowned, "I'd have thought that he'd be immune with his mind like it is."
"Unfortunately it doesn't look that way, and I was only safe while I was wearing the Puzzle."
Joey chewed on his bottom lip, "I wouldn't want the Millennium Rod." He said finally, "And I'm not sticking the Millennium Eye in one of my eye sockets, and the Puzzle's yours…"
"That leaves the Necklace." Yugi said, rooting around in his bag, "I just hope it doesn't give you any visions." He said as he handed it over.
Joey laughed, "It's one of the tamer items, besides you've beaten me like thirty eight million times over by now, it probably won't work for me."
"It's worth trying though and you can hide it under your robes." Yugi said as Joey did up the fiddly clasp and hid it under his robes so it couldn't be seen. "Yami? Harry?"
'Not now.' Yugi frowned at Yami's short and tense reply, wondering he was disturbing. 'Joey's shouldn't come back. Moody saw Harry could fight the curse and is trying to get him to throw it off completely.'
Joey saw Yugi's look turn stormy. "Trouble?"
"You were right about Moody." Yugi frowned, "Harry can fight it too."
Joey's hand went to the golden item under his robes, "It's a little weird."
"You tend to stop noticing them after a while." Yugi said, "Don't let me forget to tell Yami that you have one."
Joey just shrugged, "At least it's the last lesson of the day too."
"Feeling hungry?" Yugi asked.
"Little bit." Joey said, spreading his arms wide, making Yugi giggle.
'Class is over, where are you two?'
"Monster's Wing."
`Joey ok?`
"Fine."
'Oh.' Yami paused, 'We'll meet you up there.'
"K."
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It was Sunday of the third weekend of Yami's detention with Miss Golden and the gang were sprawled around the lake, homework out and attention divided between the various books.
Harry and Yugi were unsuccessfully trying to block out Yami's continual monologue.
Apparently Robyn was making him check honey traps again. Between the creepy crawlies and Robyn's confusing conversation, he wasn't having a good time of it.
"You know." Harry said out loud to avoid being heard by Yami, "You'd have thought that having been a Pharaoh and all, a few bugs wouldn't bother him."
"Desert." Yugi pointed out, "Scarab beetles, locusts, not too many bugs of the creepy crawly verity."
"I think it's more the fact that Robyn is making sure he knows how to id them, and talking about their uses in potions and vision quests." Harry said.
"Is he still complaining?" Joey laughed.
"Are you sure you don't want to have my link to them?" Harry asked, "I'll give it to you!"
"No thanks." Joey laughed, "No wonder you used to be so distracted all the time Yuge," Joey laughed, "If he complains this much on a regular basis."
Yugi just flipped him off, going back to his Divination homework in time to hear Yami yelp, 'It bit me!'
Harry's laughter complimented Yugi's sigh.
"How did you deal with this in normal school?" Harry wanted to know, "It's almost impossible to focus when someone's ranting in your head!"
"Practise, lots and lots of it." Yugi sighed, "That and Yami wasn't complaining quite this much."
'No, no, no, no, no. I don't care that it can clarify memories; I am not eating one of those live.'
Harry burst into laughter again.
"Even if it helps?" Yugi asked.
'Don't you start. Ahhhh! Fire ants! What're fire ants doing here?' There was silence for a moment, then, 'Owww. Robyn's back. Better stop now.'
"Thank you!" Harry looked at the heavens before turning back to him homework.
Yugi just sighed and hit his head with his Divination text book before finding his page again and getting on with the work.
Hermione looked up from her ancient book, "Doesn't anyone else think it's weird that Robyn can hear you speaking to each other?"
"We never really thought about it." Yugi said, giving up on the homework and turning to the bushy haired teen. "When we first met her, we had other things to worry about and we haven't seen her much since."
"It does mean that Yami can't complain at us too much, because she docked points last time she caught him." Harry said gratefully.
"I didn't know she was a witch." Kari said, "I knew she had secrets, but she used to trust me with everything she could and I accepted that she had things she couldn't tell me, like I had things I couldn't tell her. Somehow I'm not surprised she can hear mind to mind thoughts."
"So… is she using Legellimency?"
Yugi shook his head, "You didn't see how angry she got when she found out Xuan was using it."
"So how?"
"She could be sensitive to the thoughts of the world around her, I mean you have to practically bellow at each other to pass thoughts along, don't you?"
"It's not that bad." Harry shook his head, "More like a normal conversation."
"No one else at Hogwarts can hear them talking." Joey pointed out.
"It was only an idea."
"It was a good idea." Ombre assured the bushy haired witch who was glaring at Joey.
"So she can hear any mind to mind link?" Ron asked, flicking at the grass, bored.
"It certainly seems like it." Kari nodded, "She can hear Yugi, Yami and Harry and she can hear me and Ombre so…" She paused, "Don't you have homework to do?"
"According to Yami, she keeps answering his comments before he makes them."
"So maybe she can hear minds?"
"It's a possibility." Kari was now glaring at Ron who sighed and got out his Defense textbook. "I've been trying to speak to her since term started but she keeps avoiding me."
Yugi frowned, "Well it would be difficult to catch someone who sees the future out."
"I'm not trying to catch her out, I want to talk to her." Kari growled.
'Robyn requests that you kindly stop discussing her now.'
`But we weren't even thinking at you!` Harry yelped.
'She's threatening to drag me into the lake to find some mud skippers if you don't.'
"Is she aware you can't swim?"
'And she also says she has an excellent recipe for mud skipper pie, which could easily replace all deserts for the next week.'
"Shutting up." Yugi looked at his friends, "Please stop talking about Robyn, she's threatening to drown Yami and replace all the deserts for the week with mud skipper pie."
"A little extreme don't you think?" Joey asked, giving him an incredulous look.
"Can we please not risk it?" Kari asked.
'Oh great, we've found some gillyweed.' Yami sounded ever so enthusiastic.
"Gillyweed?" Yugi asked aloud and in his mind for the benefit of his friends who couldn't hear the conversation.
'She says to ask Neville. Apparently it's useful for catching mud skippers," There was a pause, 'Or finding lost friends?' Yami sounded very confused at the latter. 'Help! Please help! It's bad enough listening to Trelawny's warnings, or Shadi's warnings, please save me! Oww…'
`I think you deserved that.` Harry laughed.
"Have we lost any friends recently?"
"Not since the summer." Hermione scowled at the group who'd vanished and Joey gulped.
"But we did find them again." Harry pointed out.
'Oh, and someone mark off Astia as someplace never to go. Oww…'
"Why?"
'Something about giant fire breathing wasps."
"Stop talking to us and concentrate on what you're doing." Yugi scolded.
'But it's water, I hate water, especially when it goes over my head, Yugi, please don't make me.'
"I'm not the one taking your detention, and I don't think she means to torture you."
'Oh…' Yami paused again, 'Yeay! We're not going too far out.' There was another pause, 'I'm coated in mud… I'm going to sink into it and you're never see me again...'
`Over exaggerating much?` Harry asked.
'Oh goody, water fleas, what is a water flea? Do I want to know? No, I don't think so.'
"Yami!" Yugi sounded irritated.
'Sorry…' Yami was silent again for a few minutes, then, 'There's something trying to eat my leg!'
"It's mud!"
'There's slimy slithery worms and oh no! They're spitting acid at the glass container and it's melting!'
"I'm going to melt him at this rate." Yugi growled.
'Help! I'm sinking, I'm sinking! I can't move!' Yami cried, 'I'm in quick mud.'
`There's no such thing as…`
'…Phew, I'm being dragged away from the lake.' Yami sighed in relief, 'Yugi… I'm coated in mud… And now I'm being laughed at…'
Harry saw Yugi twitch visibly, `Yami, I'd cut it out. I think Yugi's going to blow.`
'What?' Yami sounded worried and then, 'Oh… oops… sorry.'
"You keep saying that and you keep going." Yugi complained.
'Yes! I'm free! Free!' Yami cheered.
"Finally!" Yugi sighed in relief. "Yami'll be here in a minute." He told the others.
When Yami did appear, the others took one look at him and burst out laughing.
"You are coated!" Ron laughed, "She got you worse then Tea!"
Dark mud covered the Pharaoh from his foot to his waist and only his front had escaped, even his hair had a fair bit of mud in it.
"I know." Yami growled. "I'm going to have a shower. Then I'll be back."
"Well, that was an interesting detention." Harry said sarcastically, "Including running commentary."
"I don't think he was supposed to do that."
'Yugi?'
"Gah!" Yugi slammed the link shut, surprised Harry didn't have a headache too.
'Did I do something to annoy him?' Yami asked Harry, who was busy poking the dead link, never having been cut off like that before.
`Let's just say if moaning was an Olympic Sport, you'd get a gold.` Harry answered before returning to poking the link, this time adding, `Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi.`
'He can't hear you, he's shut us out.' Yami sighed, 'And that's irritating.'
`Really?` Harry asked. `Good. Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi…`
"Harry! Shut it!" Yugi snapped.
'You're evil.' Yami said once the shock of Yugi snapping passed, having forgotten that they hadn't quite gotten the nack of closing the door to Harry yet.
`And you've spent the greater part of the day irritating us.`
'Sorry?'
`Doesn't mean much when you've said it 49 times in one day.`
'You over exaggerate.'
`No, I counted.`
'Oh.'
`That's why Yugi was so irritated` Harry paused, `I think.`
There was a welcome silence until Yami returned, clean and reasonably tidy for a Sunday, in which time Yugi finally managed to get his homework done and was now led on his back, watching the clouds go by.
"Yugi, I wanted to apologise for being an idiot." Yami said aloud.
The hikari didn't roll over to look at him.
"I didn't think before I continued my ranting, even when you sounded irritated, and I feel really guilty about it."
Still nothing.
"Yugi?"
"I believe this is called the 'silent treatment'." Joey advised. "A fitting punishment considering you've been talking Yugi and Harry's ears off all day."
Yami slumped onto the grass, pulling out a book and was about three pages into the assigned chapter when something hit him on the nose.
He looked around sharply, but everyone was exactly where they had been…
So he turned back to his book.
This time something bounced off of his nose, causing him to glare at the group in general.
No one had moved.
Yami turned back to his book, but Hermione was giggling as something else bounced off his nose. Yami snatched it up from where it had fallen to find it was a piece of paper.
"Guys!" Yami sighed at them, plaintively.
No response.
So he went back to reading, keeping an eye out and, when he saw the next bit coming, he managed to catch a glimpse of who was flicking them at him. "Yugi?"
The Heir stuck his tongue out at the Pharaoh.
"Very mature, Yuge." Joey advised.
Yugi shrugged, "You. Me. Duel. Now." Yugi said, giving the Pharaoh a stern look.
Yami looked confused but got to his feet, enlarging his Duel Disk. "God Cards?" He asked, knowing Yugi had them.
"No." Yugi shook his head.
What's he up to? Joey wondered.
There was a tense moment as the duel started, but then they noticed how much Yugi was unwinding and started enjoying the two highly skilled Duellists battle each other with everything they had.
As Yugi wiped out the last of Yami's points, the last of his irritation slipped away and Harry felt the link open up again but didn't dare say anything in case he closed it again.
"Feeling better?" Kari asked.
"Yeap." Yugi grinned at Yami, who wasn't quite sure how he'd lost that one.
"I… how many turns ahead did you plan that one?" Yami asked.
"Seven, you're no fun to duel when you're tired." Yugi complained, "You don't see things coming."
Considering Joey couldn't defeat Yami on a bad day, post Shadow Game, with about two hours of sleep, he began to appreciate, more then ever, Yugi's skill and brains. The guy was incredibly smart… when he bothered to apply himself… and that was the problem, things just didn't hold his attention like games did.
"Kari?" Hermione asked, "Now everyone's here?"
Kari looked around, tallying heads, "No, we're one short, where's Seto?"
"He said he'd be down later, he had a book he wanted to get out of the library." Mokuba said.
"We'll wait." Hermione said, intriguing everyone.
Finally they were joined by the CEO, who settled next to his brother, book in hand.
"Ok." Kari said, catching everyone's attention. "Hermione and I have been working on something, I'm sure you're aware of that."
The Gryffindors nodded.
"Hermione?" Kari asked.
Hermione pulled something out from underneath her robes, a small, black disk on a leather cord.
"We were thinking about the summer and the Quidditch World Cup, when we got separated and couldn't find each other." Hermione explained, "And we came up with an idea."
"It's from an old potion's book we found right on the back shelves, just before the Restricted Section." Kari said, revealing one of her own. "About a locater spell that can pin point the direction of someone in need."
"Watch." Hermione lifted it up and spoke clearly, "Help me."
Kari's lit up in response, a small parchment brown arrow pointing towards Hermione.
"We made enough for everyone." Kari said, "You can use them as locators too, but we didn't quite get the potion it had to be doused in right and while it calls for help, it doesn't do the locating too well."
"Why not wait then?" Ron asked as Hermione handed him one and went around the group, handing out one each.
"We can't get a hold of the potions ingredients again." Kari growled, "We had to get special permission to order them in the first place."
"How does it work?" Yami asked, examining his disk, which showed a glowing red arrow for a moment before going completely blank again.
"The potion has a couple of ingredients that mean they resonate off of each other at great distances, like a magical version of a distress beacon." Hermione answered, "We researched it thoroughly before we tried it." She said, handing the last one to Seto, who gazed at it as it gained a glowing almost white arrow and went blank.
"The arrow colour is determined by something in the person that's wearing it and when you call for help, the arrow that appears should be in the caller's colour."
"How much did you spend on these?" Joey asked, appreciating his even if his arrow was a reddish grey.
"Ummm…" Kari and Hermione looked at each other and didn't say a word.
"Thank you." Yugi said, tying the cord and being careful not to tangle it with the chain of the Millennium Puzzle.
"Can I get a hand here Yuge?" Joey asked, trying not to tangle the much shorter chain of the Millennium Necklace with the cord.
"You could probably take that off now." Yami said, "Moody doesn't seem to have been so curse happy recently."
"Perhaps someone complained to the board."
"Do you think that would stop Moody?"
"Dunno."
"Kari… any idea why Robyn seems obsessed with blinds?"
"Blinds? Not really… what did she say?"
"She asked if I'd found a set yet."
"Didn't she ask you about that during the Xuan thing?" Yugi frowned, "Something about blinds and windows…"
"And she keeps asking?" A nod. "Then you missed one of her warnings."
"Well if she spoke straight instead of in riddles…"
"She wouldn't be Robyn."
"We don't own any windows, why would we need blinds?"
Above their heads, the clouds formed into a Blue Eyes White Dragon for just a few moments, but Kari was the only one who saw it, everyone else was too busy thinking about the riddle.
"There is normally a reason to her warnings." Kari said, "Or there always used to be."
"Okay then, why does she feel sorry for my Guardian? Whoever that may be."
"I dunno, Joey is Yugi's bodyguard." Ron said, without thinking.
"Hey!" Yugi protested. "Who says I need one?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Yuge."
Kari frowned, "Normally if she tells you she feels sorry for someone, it's because you've done something rather stupid that's caused danger or harm to someone."
"But we haven't done anything to anyone." Yami frowned, "We didn't even Game Draco for what he did to Harry."
"You know what I meant, Joey." Yugi said, "Not that I don't trust you with my life but…"
"Well… normally it's something you can fix, so you must have done something." Kari looked confused.
"But wouldn't we have noticed causing harm or danger to someone?"
Kari winced, old grief flickering across her face, "Not always."
"Kari…" Ombre moved to the woman's side as she slumped back into the grass, trying not to think about it.
"I'm ok."
"Are we going to have to add 'ok' to the list of things to watch out for, like 'oops' and 'fine'?" Joey asked.
Yami slumped. "So I have to find blinds for a pair of windows I don't have and undo whatever damage I've caused."
"Wait… a pair of windows?"
"Uh huh."
"Eyes, you idiot." Kaiba glared at him, "She was talking about eyes, eyes are the windows to the soul!"
"Oh."
"How do I keep losing to you if you're this much of a moron?" Kaiba growled.
"Hey!"
"So… I need blinds for my eyes… why?"
"Okay, where's Yami, cause you can't be him, he's never this slow." Joey growled, pointing his wand in Yami's direction.
"I'm tired."
"That's not a good excuse." Seto growled, also pointing his wand at the Pharaoh.
"If you'd been feed a millipede you'd be this slow too, I'm trying very hard not to think."
Kari laughed, "Never trust food Robyn gives you, didn't I tell you that?"
"Apparently it was good for me."
"If it makes you this slow?" Joey snorted, "I have to say she was wrong."
"She used to use that excuse on me too."
"Legellimency." Hermione said with an amused sigh, shaking her head at the look Yami was giving her best friend, "Needs eye contact."
And the pieces clicked into place. "Oh… I forgot that…"
"Yami!" The exasperated growl came from the entire group.
There was a pause and then Ron couldn't help but ask, "What did she say the millipede did?"
"Something about increasing metal defences, then she started going on about something called a rubix cube and making it so there's too many colours to see the true picture."
Yugi snorted, "This is a rubix cube." He sent Yami the image and Harry caught a flash of it before it went away again. "It's a puzzle where you have to try to match up the colours so they're all on one side."
Kari laughed again, "I think she was getting fed up with trying to get you to find a set of blinds."
"And what does that have to do with mental defences?"
"If the enemy has to sort through to get the image he's looking for, then you have longer to boot him out of your mind before he does any harm." Yugi said, now seriously concerned over the mental health of his dark half, since it should have been obvious, "You sure you're alright?"
"Apart from feeling like my head is in about twenty different places in time and space, I'm fine."
"Eek!" Kari yelped, "He said fine, get Madam Pomfrey!"
The group dissolved into laughter and Yugi relaxed slightly, still concerned, "Any idea when it'll wear off?"
Yami blinked, "You know… I think she said something about an antidote… if I'm translating Robyn speak correctly."
"Well, what is it?" Joey asked, "'Cause dopey Yami isn't much fun."
"Pink on toast?"
"You're kidding me."
"No… she defiantly said something about pink on toast."
"Wasn't pink on toast just before the food fight?" Yugi asked, wondering where exactly they could get some.
"Kiwi." Yami grinned, remembering the look on Kaiba's face.
"Shut it." Seto growled.
"Yami, I think we should go and get you the antidote before you get any worse." Yugi said, trying to forestall a fight he could see coming and wasn't sure Yami could win in his current state.
"But the green sparklers are declaring war on the drapes, can't I watch?"
"She's made him crazy…er." Ron growled.
"It'll be fine, just have to wait for owl prime time."
On that note Yugi and Joey looked at each other, dragged Yami to his feet and marched him up to the castle.
On his way past, Yami, with a dazed look on his face, patted Harry on the head, "Good wolfie."
They heard Joey mutter something as they got further away from the group.
"But I don't like cinnamon!" They could hear Yami protesting at whatever Joey had just said.
"I'm going to find Robyn." Kari said, standing up, "She shouldn't be feeding people things that make them that loopy."
"Wouldn't the mediwing be better?"
"No ducks!"
Kari just shook her head at that loud complaint and stalked off in the direction Yami had joined them from the first time when he'd been covered in mud, Ombre in tow.
"Well that was unexpected." Robyn commented, after hearing Kari's explanation, "I thought I told Yami to go eat right away."
"So what's the antidote?"
"Antidote?"
"You know, to stop Yami acting like a Robyn on a high?" Ombre growled.
"The elves are serving it for dinner today, why else would I tell Yami to go eat."
"They're serving it for dinner?"
"No, they are serving dinner, Yami just had too many trains docking at once."
"Err… what?"
"Misdirection. Lots of places to visit and not a clue where to end the journey."
"So, stopping the loopyness?"
"Stick to the one train so there isn't a tangle up at the station, silly."
"And the quick way?"
"Eat something and get rid of the gold blinds, they aren't really helping."
"Robyn, tell us how we fix Yami now."
"Oh, I don't think he'll like that, poor little puppy."
"Robyn."
Robyn sighed, "This shouldn't have happened. Something has changed. Something has interfered. A puzzle in a puzzle box where pieces fell through the cracks, and now all the pieces come flying back, but dragons don't like their treasures being stolen, so many minds all listening in, and poor little darkness hearing them all, but never you mind, the solution becomes clear, avoid the flames, but never you mind, all becomes found once again."
Kari and Ombre stared, "Well, that's as clear as mud."
"Then tell the wolf and the glowbug to be quiet for once."
"Robyn Golden, you've harmed my friend, and the real Robyn would never do such a thing." Kari sounded stern, but sad too.
"Then listen well, I did not harm your friend."
"Then what did you do?"
"The spider watches and waits, looking in all the windows and yet no one does a thing! The gold objects but cannot help, and the shadows scream for blood. I merely let the darkness keep out the light, for the darkness is needed against the night, and minds will shatter if nothing's done, but still they come and come, broken and in pieces and puzzling to boot, so shut your eyes and dream your life away. I can not do more then I have done."
The slap was unexpected and the three young women stare in shock.
"Dream he shall, dream of unending night, dream of dreams soon to be true and dreams that lie in hope and despair, but fine he is and shall be for now, just lost in dreams of old."
"Robyn…"
"Rebuild he must, time grows ever shorter. Before this year is out, he will have need of those walls. Go now, I have no more words for you."
"But…" Ombre started.
"No, Ombre." Kari said, giving her old friend a sad look, "We need to go tell Harry not to use the mind link for a while. The wolf, right?" Kari smiled sadly, though it wasn't a question, "Take care Robyn." She said, before turning away.
"Hikari…"
"Come on."
"Nope." Joey said, frowning slightly at Harry's disappointed look. "Why?"
"Because Yami really wants to have a few words with a Headmaster about entering minds without permission and opening the doors for fragments of people's souls to take a hold." Harry sounded amused and annoyed at the same time, taking the Puzzle off and handing it Joey, "Put it on Yami, would you?"
Joey did so and spent the next ten minutes being highly amused by Yami's command of multiple languages and all the things the Pharaoh could think to call the headmaster, at least until he picked up 'Voldemort's soul fragment', then Yami's rage was understandable.
"Is it gone though?"
"Yami sent it to the Shadow Realm and the place it had been hiding in vanished." Harry said with a grin in Yami's direction.
"So you've been possessed?" Joey frowned.
"I don't think so…"
"The door was locked and barred from Harry's side." Yami said, "And it was only a seventh of a soul, if that, Harry would have had to have been practically dead before it could have taken over." Yami growled.
"Didn't Yugi have Voldemort's soul inside him for a few minutes?" Joey frowned.
"We checked him during that summer, Voldemort didn't leave traces behind. I don't even know how he split his soul in the first place." Yami snarled, "It's possible, I know it is, look at Yugi and me, but I don't remember how you'd go about it."
"It would be under different circumstances anyway." Harry pointed out. "You're only half a soul, that was… an eighth? Ninth?"
"No clue." Yami growled, "I actually hope Dumbledore comes back to check if I've left Harry's mind. I'd like a word with him."
"Why?"
"He's a mind reader, Joey."
"Legellimens." Joey offered, "The girls have been researching. The magic for mind reading is Legellimency." Joey paused, "Wait, so you think…?"
"There's no way he couldn't have known about the soul fragment if he was poking around as much as I think he was." Yami growled, "And without the Shadows, I wouldn't have been able to get rid of it."
"Perhaps he just wasn't able to get rid of it before?" Joey hazarded.
"He could have come to us, Joey." Yami growled, "We'd've done something about it sooner."
"Yami calm, it's done now, and you've gotten rid of it."
Yami closed his eyes, took a deep breath and opened them again, still annoyed, it was easy to read in his posture, but willing to talk about something else. "Wolf plushie." He said, looking at Harry and grinning evilly.
"Akkk, you promised you wouldn't bring that up!" Harry cringed.
"I said no such thing."
"Wolf plushie?" Joey looked amused.
"Gold Winged Wolf plushie." Yami said.
"I wouldn't say too much about it, Pharaoh." Joey winked at Harry, "Or I might just mention that Dark Magician plushie to Yugi."
"You wouldn't…"
"You wanna bet?"
"Dark Magician plushie?" Harry asked.
"Yeap, looks like Maha…" Joey got a pillow to the face. "Hey, no…" Two pillows to the face. "Fair."
Yami mock glared his best friend, "You swore you wouldn't mention it!"
"To Yugi, I never said I wouldn't use it as blackmail." Joey pointed out, relieved that Yami had run out of pillows.
Sadly he hadn't counted on Harry's aim.
"I'm on your side!"
"Hey, he just got Voldemort out of my head, I'm on his side." Harry pointed out.
Joey blinked… "Harry?"
"Yes?" Harry asked.
Yami snickered, "I think he means to say, he's surprised you're taking sides, you don't usually."
Harry shrugged, "I don't see why I shouldn't." This was followed up by another pillow to the face for Joey.
"Yami, I think you broke something when you were fighting that soul fragment." Joey said, quietly thinking 'please, oh please, oh please, tell me that I won't have to deal with hyper Harry again.'
"No, I think I fixed something." Yami said, with a small smile.
"I'm great Joey, honest." Harry grinned, "I'm just happy."
"Yeah… I remember the last time you said that."
"What?" Harry looked hurt, "You don't believe me?"
"No, you've only said it once before, I believe you."
"Oh."
"Hopefully we'll be seeing more of happy Harry now." Yami said. "Now his mind's his, and his alone."
"I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just… alright, I know you're both out of pillows, who threw that one?" Joey scowled at the two, who gave him their best innocent looks.
Joey was saved from any more assaults by the arrival of Professor Dumbledore, who looked partially relieved to see Yami awake and active and partially concerned at Harry's actions. "Mr Muto, may I speak to you?"
"You'd have to ask Madam Pomfrey, she hasn't checked us over yet." Yami said, "But yes Sir, you may speak to me, in fact I would like to speak to you."
"I hope he's not too rude!" Harry laughed mentally.
Yami's stunned expression as he looked at Harry made Harry wonder what was wrong. "Harry, don't forget those last locks." Yami said with a confused look on his face.
After a 'quick' once over, Yami followed Professor Dumbledore out and Harry pushed the last locks into place, just as Yami had shown him.
'Harry?' Harry jumped a mile as Yami's voice sounded soft and unsure in his head; as if it wasn't sure it wanted to be heard.
"Harry?" Joey asked, concerned.
"I just…" Harry waved the concern off, `Yami? Is that you?`
'Oh by the Gods…' Yami sounded exasperated.
`Ummm, we couldn't do this before.`
'No, no we couldn't.'
`How do we turn it off?`
'Well normally I'd say taking the Puzzle off, but I'm wearing it.'
`You can't think at Yugi when he's not wearing the Puzzle?`
'I can but the link's weak, the thoughts don't always reach him.'
`Perhaps you need to spend some time in his head.`
'Not helpful.'
`So, why can we do this now?`
'Too much of my magic in your head?'
`You don't know, do you?`
'No clue.'
`I'm going to try something… Yugi?`
There was no reply.
`Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi? Yugi?`
'Cut it out Harry.' Yami growled.
There was a flash of pain down the link, but not from either Harry or Yami and then, "Harry, how in Ra's name are you in my head?" Yugi yelped, audible by both Yami and Harry.
`Yami's fault. You ok?`
"Fell off my chair, do I want to know how you can talk to me mind to mind?"
'Yugi, can you hear me?' Yami tried.
"What did you do?" Laughter answered him, "Harry…you really shouldn't be amused about this."
`It's just… I get rid of one link and now I have another two.`
"Get rid of one link?"
'Harry explain please, while I talk to Dumbledore.'
`Ok.` Harry paused, `Oh, and please don't kill him Yami.`
"Why would Yami kill Dumbledore?"
`A part of Voldy's soul was in my head, and Dumbles knew it was there, and we think it's Dumbles' fault my mind was so open, and Dumbles can read minds and tried to get into mine.`
"I think he tried to get into mine the day of the Shadow Game." Yugi hesitated. "Someone tried to get into my mind and it hurt like hell, I thought it was you Yami, sorry."
'Oh, I'm not letting that one go.' Yami growled, mentally adding it to his itinerary of things to 'shout' at Dumbledore about.
`Yugi, how do you stop thoughts from reaching Yami when you're wearing the Puzzle and the link's open?`
"You have to think really quietly, like you're whispering."
`Like this?` Harry tried, mentally whispering and got no response. `Yeay! That works.`
"I'm going to come down to the Hospital Wing." Yugi sighed, "This is going to take some getting used to."
'You're telling me.'
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It was hard enough concentrating on the outside world when there was only one person talking in your head, having a three way conversation in your head and a conversation with someone else out loud was incredibly difficult and somehow Yami was surprised at how well he was juggling it, along with his temper as he explained his reasoning to the Headmaster.
At least he kept his temper well until he heard Yugi say '"I think he tried to get into mine the day of the Shadow Game. Someone tried to get into my mind and it hurt like hell, I thought it was you Yami, sorry."'
Then he gave the Professor a stern glare and demanded to know exactly what he was playing at, invading his hikari's mind, and spitting out everything else that had been bothering the Pharaoh.
And even more aggravating was that he earned himself three weekends of work in the Forbidden Forest and absolutely no answers except that it was for the 'greater good'.
Yami hated that phrase. So much could be done for the 'greater good' that actually didn't help, and in the end got more people hurt along the way, that he couldn't actually stomach the idea.
Yami couldn't help feeling that Dumbledore had been more aggravated at him for GETTING RID of the soul fragment then he had for the actual possession.
Yami leant against the wall outside the Hospital Wing, just thinking everything over. It had been hard enough when he'd been linked to just one person, Yugi meant everything to him and he hated seeing Yugi hurt or bullied. Would he be that overprotective of Harry now? He hoped not, because it certainly aggravated Yugi often enough when Yami was overprotective that he could imagine Harry's reaction.
`Yami, you coming in?` Harry laughed in his head, making Yami smile slightly, no matter how complicated the situation had just become.
Joey looked a little frazzled as he looked at Yami, "Ok, so that monster over there," He pointed at Harry, "Has managed to get himself linked to you, right?"
"Yeap." Yami felt just as frazzled. "I don't know how."
"How'd it go?" Harry asked.
"Detention, three weekends of work in the Forbidden Forest." Yami threw up his arms, "And no answers."
"Yami, how?" Joey asked again, looking a little put out.
"Complete and utter accident." Yami said, "Not that I'm complaining…" 'At the moment' he thought quietly, "But I wouldn't have done it if I'd had a choice."
"Well it won't be too bad, Hagrid is fairly okay for a detention."
"Not Hagrid. Golden."
"Kari's friend?" Yugi looked surprised. "You've got detention with her?"
Yami nodded, sinking onto a bed.
"Well… it won't be that bad."
"Are we remembering the same girl?"
"She was always nice to me."
"Everyone is nice to you. She did not like me."
"Well you did ask her forty two million questions and her friend was in danger because of us when we first met." Yugi pointed out.
"She fussed over everyone." Joey said, remembering the un-magical t-shirt, "Remember?"
"You still have that t-shirt, don't you?"
"Yes, why?"
"Well… is it still un-magical?"
"As far as I know… why?"
"Why did she call it un-magical? I mean she's magical, so why did she de-magic the t-shirt?"
"I think the question would be, how do you de-magic a t-shirt?"
"It was a t-shirt, I doubt it had any magic to begin with."
"Have you seen Kaiba Corps clothes? They all have a scary amount of magic."
"I'm almost afraid to ask how you know this."
Harry looked confused and without thinking Yugi sent him a memory of the event. Then paused, realising exactly what he'd done. "Ummm. Oops."
"For some reason, Kaiba Corp attracts magic." Yami said, wondering exactly what the issue was.
Harry blinked, "So, strange person."
"Very much so."
"Even by our standards."
"Yugi." Harry said, still confused, "Give me a warning before you do that again please."
"Do what?"
"I sent Harry a memory of the event without thinking." Yugi winced.
"No more sugar?" Harry asked, in Japanese.
Joey rolled his eyes, "This is going to take some getting used to, and for some odd reason I just stopped feeling left out. I don't think I'd want three people in my head, swapping memories."
"There would be four in your head if you were linked to us as well." Yami pointed out, "Or aren't you in there very often?"
This earned the Pharaoh a pillow to the face from Joey and it quietly dissolved into a pillow fight, until Madam Pomfrey caught them and kicked Yami, Joey and Yugi out.
'Goodnight Harry.'
"Night Harry."
`Goodnight Yugi, Yami.` And as Harry drifted off to sleep, the big, lonely Hospital Wing, didn't feel quite as lonely.
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Harry was released to the care of his friends the next morning, joining them in time for breakfast. By this time the entire gang knew the details, having been filled in during their morning practise by an irate Yami.
There wasn't much talking going on, the gang was too tired from training and too busy wondering what this new development meant for them.
Joey caught Yami's arm as the Pharaoh reached the door.
"Joey?"
"Yami… I… I want you to teach me."
"Huh?" Yami asked, confused.
"You taught Harry how to defend his mind, right?"
"I showed him the spells and helped him cast them, yes." Yami nodded.
"Can you show me?"
Yami frowned, "I…"
"Yami?"
`Everything ok?` Yugi and Harry asked, Yami looked over his shoulder to see that they had paused at the bottom of the stairs.
'It's ok, we'll meet you in class.' Yami assured them and they nodded and carried on up. He turned back to Joey, "I don't know if it's safe, you know what happened when I helped Harry with the spells."
Joey paused at that, "Never mind, it was a stupid idea."
"No, it wasn't." Yami reassured him, "There just has to be a better way of doing it." Yami smiled at his friend as they head upstairs. "We'll just have to find it."
`You're going to be late.` Harry giggled in Yami's head, making Yami sigh in exasperation.
"They're enjoying this way too much, aren't they?" Joey said, guessing what was going on.
"Harry says we're going to be late if we don't hurry up." Yami replied with a roll of his eyes. The two headed on up to class, discussing mental defences and oblivious to the fact someone was listening in.
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Yami waited in the great hall with a fair bit of impatience. Weekend detentions were always the worse, and he had six days with the unpredictable Robyn Golden.
When she appeared moments later, Yami stared. He had expected to see her dressed as a witch, not as a… well he had never seen someone dressed as Miss Golden was this moment.
Dull dark green trousers, heavy red-brown boots, a combat green army shirt, and a heavy looking coat.
She also had more pockets than he had ever seen on a person, and most of them looked full.
"Okay, first thing first, go get changed out of those clothes, you'll want a light t-shirt, and some leggings, then put these on top." She said handing over a cloth bag. "Since you won't have any walking boots, go put on a pair of sensible footwear that won't be hurt by a bit of mud."
Yami stared at her.
"I expect you back down here in twenty minutes, shoo."
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Twenty minutes later, Yami was hoping no one would see him.
Plastic like orange waterproofs covered his leggings, and a neon yellow coat, which was far heavier than any piece of clothing should be.
Then Robyn smiled at him when she saw him. She pulled straight the coat, and zipped it up, pulling the hood over his hair. Two minutes of fussing later, while Robyn had tied, zipped, clicked, and who knows what else, him into the jacket, including pulling out a pair of thick leathery gloves from the sleeves, that he hadn't even realised were there.
"Okay, now you're as ready for field work involving magical insects as clothes can make a man. Remember if anything attacks you, and I do mean anything, shout for help."
"What will I be doing?" Yami said, trying to keep his frustration out of his voice.
He failed.
"Well first, we'll be setting up some traps, such as honey traps, pit fall traps, status traps, and then we'll check the ones I've already set up. A break for lunch, then you can help me set up the moth tent."
"I've never done any of that before."
"Huh, I was under the impression you broke for lunch every day."
Yami felt his face flare red. "I meant everything else." He hissed.
"Wow, and I though going through fourteen for the third time would bring some maturity."
Yami growled.
"Relax, I'm not asking you to conquer the world, we'll leave that up to Yugi, all you'll will be doing is digging some holes, setting up some containers, and then helping me empty the ones I set last week, while listening to me monologging about why I'm doing this."
"What!" Was Yami's startled cry, as Robyn shooed him out the door and into the forest.
"It won't be that bad, it'll help in your potion lessons if you know more about the insects."
"Yugi's going to conquer the world?"
"Probably not, but you never know. Bakura definitely isn't going to any time soon. I think he's going soft in his young age."
Help. Yami thought as he tried to untangle Robyn's words.
Only to be lightly twatted over the head.
"No talkie on the mind link during detention. You might attract dragons."
Yami tried to glare, really he did, but either Robyn ignored it or his early morning confusion was lasting longer than he thought.
"Have you managed to find a nice pair of blinds yet?"
Or it could just be Robyn.
"I got gifted with a rather nasty set; I mean I'm all for keeping people out of my business, but la mort is probably not the best way. And I feel sorry for your poor guardian, I mean, who would want the burden of unseen sight."
Yes, it was probably Robyn.
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In the weeks that followed, the amount of time they had to themselves seemed to decrease in direct proportion to the increase of the difficulty of classes. Professor Moody had shocked them all when he'd announced that he was going to be using the Imperius Curse on each of them, to test their ability to break the control someone had over you, and to feel what it felt like, causing Hermione to protest and Joey to nearly walk out.
It was only Hermione's curiosity and Yugi's support that held the two in the lesson as one by one Professor Moody beckoned them forward to cast the curse on them.
'I don't like this.' Yami growled, after his turn was over, having failed to break the Professor's control on his mind and climbed up on the table, singing a Christmas Carol. 'That spell even gets through MY defences.'
"Hermione's right, this is illegal." Yugi returned as he stepped forward. "But it's the best way to learn how to break a spell, by being put under it."
`We don't have a choice if we want to pass the… what the hell was that?` Harry asked as Moody cast the spell and was blasted backwards by a flash of purple energy.
"Shit." Joey rushed over to help Moody to his feet.
"Language Mr Wheeler." Moody said, turning to look at Yugi, "And Puzzle off please Mr Muto."
Yugi looked at Yami, then handed the Puzzle to the Pharaoh, before turning back to Moody. "Well that's good to know." Yugi said after spending a couple of minutes, tap dancing around the room.
"What?"
"That the Puzzle objects that strongly to the Imperius Curse." Yugi said, settling back at his desk as Joey was called up.
The teen clenched his fists as Moody waved his wand.
"Joey's nervous?" Ron asked.
"Marik." Yami growled.
"Oh."
"Imperio!"
Joey froze as Moody called "Climb on a desk and sing the Japanese National Anthem."
There was nothing, no movement from Joey or sound, which had the group frowning since everyone else had started following orders almost immediately.
"Climb on a desk and sing the Japanese National Anthem." Moody growled.
Yugi, who'd reclaimed the Puzzle when he'd come back to his desk, sent out a wave of magic that weaved around Joey.
"He's fighting it." Yugi told his two linked friends.
Moody managed to get all of about a bar out of Joey before he finally gave up. "Look at that!" Moody sounded amused, "Wheeler fought it! Fought it and damn near beat it!"
Joey left the classroom, without his bag, slamming the door on his way out.
"Permission to go after him?" Yugi quickly asked the Professor.
"Granted, but neither of you are excused from the homework."
Yugi left quickly, packing up his and Joey's stuff and following his friend.
`I knew Joey hated mind control…`
'How much did we tell you about when Joey was under Marik's mind control?'
`That Yugi and Joey fought each other and Yugi threw the duel.`
'I'll explain later.' Yami growled as Harry stepped up.
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"Joey!"
The blonde in question sighed and stopped as his small friend caught up with him on his route to the Monster's Wing, which had once been full of monsters and now only served as the entrance to the Purple Eyes Silver Dragons' homes and was the perfect place to go if you wanted to be alone to think things over. "You ok?" Yugi asked, concerned.
"No." Joey said bluntly, "I'm not."
"You fought it," Yugi tried to reassure his friend, "You were winning too."
"That's not the point Yuge." Joey's voice echoed down the empty corridor. Joey shuddered as he leant against a wall, "It's just…" Visions of the death duel passed through Joey's mind.
"I know, Joey." Yugi sighed, currently thinking the same thoughts, "But we have to do everything we can to stop it possibly ever happening again."
"I can't." Joey shook his head, "I can't do that again."
Yugi's shoulders sank as he tried to think things though, "I don't think Moody will excuse you from class because of Marik, if anything he'll think it's a better reason to keep putting the Imperius on you, at least until you can shrug it off easily."
"I know, I know." Joey growled, running a hand through his hair, "But I can't Yuge, I just can't…"
"Easy Joey." Yugi bit his bottom lip, still thinking, "I've got your stuff, you don't have to go back today, and hopefully he won't do it again next lesson."
"This is Moody." Joey growled, "He'll keep doing it until all of us can throw it off!"
"Pineapple." Yugi said to the door to the Monster's Wing, causing it to swing open and admit them, before swinging shut behind them again. "Do you want to see if a Millennium Item would protect you?" Yugi asked, deadly seriously, as Joey slumped onto a table and Yugi sat in the windowsill.
"I'd have to beat you for them to work for me, wouldn't I?"
"You already did once." Yugi pointed out. "To recover your Red Eyes from us."
"I dunno Yuge, sounds dangerous."
"Probably is, but it's the only thing I can think of to keep Moody out of your head. Yami couldn't fight it at all."
"That's worrying." Joey frowned, "I'd have thought that he'd be immune with his mind like it is."
"Unfortunately it doesn't look that way, and I was only safe while I was wearing the Puzzle."
Joey chewed on his bottom lip, "I wouldn't want the Millennium Rod." He said finally, "And I'm not sticking the Millennium Eye in one of my eye sockets, and the Puzzle's yours…"
"That leaves the Necklace." Yugi said, rooting around in his bag, "I just hope it doesn't give you any visions." He said as he handed it over.
Joey laughed, "It's one of the tamer items, besides you've beaten me like thirty eight million times over by now, it probably won't work for me."
"It's worth trying though and you can hide it under your robes." Yugi said as Joey did up the fiddly clasp and hid it under his robes so it couldn't be seen. "Yami? Harry?"
'Not now.' Yugi frowned at Yami's short and tense reply, wondering he was disturbing. 'Joey's shouldn't come back. Moody saw Harry could fight the curse and is trying to get him to throw it off completely.'
Joey saw Yugi's look turn stormy. "Trouble?"
"You were right about Moody." Yugi frowned, "Harry can fight it too."
Joey's hand went to the golden item under his robes, "It's a little weird."
"You tend to stop noticing them after a while." Yugi said, "Don't let me forget to tell Yami that you have one."
Joey just shrugged, "At least it's the last lesson of the day too."
"Feeling hungry?" Yugi asked.
"Little bit." Joey said, spreading his arms wide, making Yugi giggle.
'Class is over, where are you two?'
"Monster's Wing."
`Joey ok?`
"Fine."
'Oh.' Yami paused, 'We'll meet you up there.'
"K."
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It was Sunday of the third weekend of Yami's detention with Miss Golden and the gang were sprawled around the lake, homework out and attention divided between the various books.
Harry and Yugi were unsuccessfully trying to block out Yami's continual monologue.
Apparently Robyn was making him check honey traps again. Between the creepy crawlies and Robyn's confusing conversation, he wasn't having a good time of it.
"You know." Harry said out loud to avoid being heard by Yami, "You'd have thought that having been a Pharaoh and all, a few bugs wouldn't bother him."
"Desert." Yugi pointed out, "Scarab beetles, locusts, not too many bugs of the creepy crawly verity."
"I think it's more the fact that Robyn is making sure he knows how to id them, and talking about their uses in potions and vision quests." Harry said.
"Is he still complaining?" Joey laughed.
"Are you sure you don't want to have my link to them?" Harry asked, "I'll give it to you!"
"No thanks." Joey laughed, "No wonder you used to be so distracted all the time Yuge," Joey laughed, "If he complains this much on a regular basis."
Yugi just flipped him off, going back to his Divination homework in time to hear Yami yelp, 'It bit me!'
Harry's laughter complimented Yugi's sigh.
"How did you deal with this in normal school?" Harry wanted to know, "It's almost impossible to focus when someone's ranting in your head!"
"Practise, lots and lots of it." Yugi sighed, "That and Yami wasn't complaining quite this much."
'No, no, no, no, no. I don't care that it can clarify memories; I am not eating one of those live.'
Harry burst into laughter again.
"Even if it helps?" Yugi asked.
'Don't you start. Ahhhh! Fire ants! What're fire ants doing here?' There was silence for a moment, then, 'Owww. Robyn's back. Better stop now.'
"Thank you!" Harry looked at the heavens before turning back to him homework.
Yugi just sighed and hit his head with his Divination text book before finding his page again and getting on with the work.
Hermione looked up from her ancient book, "Doesn't anyone else think it's weird that Robyn can hear you speaking to each other?"
"We never really thought about it." Yugi said, giving up on the homework and turning to the bushy haired teen. "When we first met her, we had other things to worry about and we haven't seen her much since."
"It does mean that Yami can't complain at us too much, because she docked points last time she caught him." Harry said gratefully.
"I didn't know she was a witch." Kari said, "I knew she had secrets, but she used to trust me with everything she could and I accepted that she had things she couldn't tell me, like I had things I couldn't tell her. Somehow I'm not surprised she can hear mind to mind thoughts."
"So… is she using Legellimency?"
Yugi shook his head, "You didn't see how angry she got when she found out Xuan was using it."
"So how?"
"She could be sensitive to the thoughts of the world around her, I mean you have to practically bellow at each other to pass thoughts along, don't you?"
"It's not that bad." Harry shook his head, "More like a normal conversation."
"No one else at Hogwarts can hear them talking." Joey pointed out.
"It was only an idea."
"It was a good idea." Ombre assured the bushy haired witch who was glaring at Joey.
"So she can hear any mind to mind link?" Ron asked, flicking at the grass, bored.
"It certainly seems like it." Kari nodded, "She can hear Yugi, Yami and Harry and she can hear me and Ombre so…" She paused, "Don't you have homework to do?"
"According to Yami, she keeps answering his comments before he makes them."
"So maybe she can hear minds?"
"It's a possibility." Kari was now glaring at Ron who sighed and got out his Defense textbook. "I've been trying to speak to her since term started but she keeps avoiding me."
Yugi frowned, "Well it would be difficult to catch someone who sees the future out."
"I'm not trying to catch her out, I want to talk to her." Kari growled.
'Robyn requests that you kindly stop discussing her now.'
`But we weren't even thinking at you!` Harry yelped.
'She's threatening to drag me into the lake to find some mud skippers if you don't.'
"Is she aware you can't swim?"
'And she also says she has an excellent recipe for mud skipper pie, which could easily replace all deserts for the next week.'
"Shutting up." Yugi looked at his friends, "Please stop talking about Robyn, she's threatening to drown Yami and replace all the deserts for the week with mud skipper pie."
"A little extreme don't you think?" Joey asked, giving him an incredulous look.
"Can we please not risk it?" Kari asked.
'Oh great, we've found some gillyweed.' Yami sounded ever so enthusiastic.
"Gillyweed?" Yugi asked aloud and in his mind for the benefit of his friends who couldn't hear the conversation.
'She says to ask Neville. Apparently it's useful for catching mud skippers," There was a pause, 'Or finding lost friends?' Yami sounded very confused at the latter. 'Help! Please help! It's bad enough listening to Trelawny's warnings, or Shadi's warnings, please save me! Oww…'
`I think you deserved that.` Harry laughed.
"Have we lost any friends recently?"
"Not since the summer." Hermione scowled at the group who'd vanished and Joey gulped.
"But we did find them again." Harry pointed out.
'Oh, and someone mark off Astia as someplace never to go. Oww…'
"Why?"
'Something about giant fire breathing wasps."
"Stop talking to us and concentrate on what you're doing." Yugi scolded.
'But it's water, I hate water, especially when it goes over my head, Yugi, please don't make me.'
"I'm not the one taking your detention, and I don't think she means to torture you."
'Oh…' Yami paused again, 'Yeay! We're not going too far out.' There was another pause, 'I'm coated in mud… I'm going to sink into it and you're never see me again...'
`Over exaggerating much?` Harry asked.
'Oh goody, water fleas, what is a water flea? Do I want to know? No, I don't think so.'
"Yami!" Yugi sounded irritated.
'Sorry…' Yami was silent again for a few minutes, then, 'There's something trying to eat my leg!'
"It's mud!"
'There's slimy slithery worms and oh no! They're spitting acid at the glass container and it's melting!'
"I'm going to melt him at this rate." Yugi growled.
'Help! I'm sinking, I'm sinking! I can't move!' Yami cried, 'I'm in quick mud.'
`There's no such thing as…`
'…Phew, I'm being dragged away from the lake.' Yami sighed in relief, 'Yugi… I'm coated in mud… And now I'm being laughed at…'
Harry saw Yugi twitch visibly, `Yami, I'd cut it out. I think Yugi's going to blow.`
'What?' Yami sounded worried and then, 'Oh… oops… sorry.'
"You keep saying that and you keep going." Yugi complained.
'Yes! I'm free! Free!' Yami cheered.
"Finally!" Yugi sighed in relief. "Yami'll be here in a minute." He told the others.
When Yami did appear, the others took one look at him and burst out laughing.
"You are coated!" Ron laughed, "She got you worse then Tea!"
Dark mud covered the Pharaoh from his foot to his waist and only his front had escaped, even his hair had a fair bit of mud in it.
"I know." Yami growled. "I'm going to have a shower. Then I'll be back."
"Well, that was an interesting detention." Harry said sarcastically, "Including running commentary."
"I don't think he was supposed to do that."
'Yugi?'
"Gah!" Yugi slammed the link shut, surprised Harry didn't have a headache too.
'Did I do something to annoy him?' Yami asked Harry, who was busy poking the dead link, never having been cut off like that before.
`Let's just say if moaning was an Olympic Sport, you'd get a gold.` Harry answered before returning to poking the link, this time adding, `Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi.`
'He can't hear you, he's shut us out.' Yami sighed, 'And that's irritating.'
`Really?` Harry asked. `Good. Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, Yugi…`
"Harry! Shut it!" Yugi snapped.
'You're evil.' Yami said once the shock of Yugi snapping passed, having forgotten that they hadn't quite gotten the nack of closing the door to Harry yet.
`And you've spent the greater part of the day irritating us.`
'Sorry?'
`Doesn't mean much when you've said it 49 times in one day.`
'You over exaggerate.'
`No, I counted.`
'Oh.'
`That's why Yugi was so irritated` Harry paused, `I think.`
There was a welcome silence until Yami returned, clean and reasonably tidy for a Sunday, in which time Yugi finally managed to get his homework done and was now led on his back, watching the clouds go by.
"Yugi, I wanted to apologise for being an idiot." Yami said aloud.
The hikari didn't roll over to look at him.
"I didn't think before I continued my ranting, even when you sounded irritated, and I feel really guilty about it."
Still nothing.
"Yugi?"
"I believe this is called the 'silent treatment'." Joey advised. "A fitting punishment considering you've been talking Yugi and Harry's ears off all day."
Yami slumped onto the grass, pulling out a book and was about three pages into the assigned chapter when something hit him on the nose.
He looked around sharply, but everyone was exactly where they had been…
So he turned back to his book.
This time something bounced off of his nose, causing him to glare at the group in general.
No one had moved.
Yami turned back to his book, but Hermione was giggling as something else bounced off his nose. Yami snatched it up from where it had fallen to find it was a piece of paper.
"Guys!" Yami sighed at them, plaintively.
No response.
So he went back to reading, keeping an eye out and, when he saw the next bit coming, he managed to catch a glimpse of who was flicking them at him. "Yugi?"
The Heir stuck his tongue out at the Pharaoh.
"Very mature, Yuge." Joey advised.
Yugi shrugged, "You. Me. Duel. Now." Yugi said, giving the Pharaoh a stern look.
Yami looked confused but got to his feet, enlarging his Duel Disk. "God Cards?" He asked, knowing Yugi had them.
"No." Yugi shook his head.
What's he up to? Joey wondered.
There was a tense moment as the duel started, but then they noticed how much Yugi was unwinding and started enjoying the two highly skilled Duellists battle each other with everything they had.
As Yugi wiped out the last of Yami's points, the last of his irritation slipped away and Harry felt the link open up again but didn't dare say anything in case he closed it again.
"Feeling better?" Kari asked.
"Yeap." Yugi grinned at Yami, who wasn't quite sure how he'd lost that one.
"I… how many turns ahead did you plan that one?" Yami asked.
"Seven, you're no fun to duel when you're tired." Yugi complained, "You don't see things coming."
Considering Joey couldn't defeat Yami on a bad day, post Shadow Game, with about two hours of sleep, he began to appreciate, more then ever, Yugi's skill and brains. The guy was incredibly smart… when he bothered to apply himself… and that was the problem, things just didn't hold his attention like games did.
"Kari?" Hermione asked, "Now everyone's here?"
Kari looked around, tallying heads, "No, we're one short, where's Seto?"
"He said he'd be down later, he had a book he wanted to get out of the library." Mokuba said.
"We'll wait." Hermione said, intriguing everyone.
Finally they were joined by the CEO, who settled next to his brother, book in hand.
"Ok." Kari said, catching everyone's attention. "Hermione and I have been working on something, I'm sure you're aware of that."
The Gryffindors nodded.
"Hermione?" Kari asked.
Hermione pulled something out from underneath her robes, a small, black disk on a leather cord.
"We were thinking about the summer and the Quidditch World Cup, when we got separated and couldn't find each other." Hermione explained, "And we came up with an idea."
"It's from an old potion's book we found right on the back shelves, just before the Restricted Section." Kari said, revealing one of her own. "About a locater spell that can pin point the direction of someone in need."
"Watch." Hermione lifted it up and spoke clearly, "Help me."
Kari's lit up in response, a small parchment brown arrow pointing towards Hermione.
"We made enough for everyone." Kari said, "You can use them as locators too, but we didn't quite get the potion it had to be doused in right and while it calls for help, it doesn't do the locating too well."
"Why not wait then?" Ron asked as Hermione handed him one and went around the group, handing out one each.
"We can't get a hold of the potions ingredients again." Kari growled, "We had to get special permission to order them in the first place."
"How does it work?" Yami asked, examining his disk, which showed a glowing red arrow for a moment before going completely blank again.
"The potion has a couple of ingredients that mean they resonate off of each other at great distances, like a magical version of a distress beacon." Hermione answered, "We researched it thoroughly before we tried it." She said, handing the last one to Seto, who gazed at it as it gained a glowing almost white arrow and went blank.
"The arrow colour is determined by something in the person that's wearing it and when you call for help, the arrow that appears should be in the caller's colour."
"How much did you spend on these?" Joey asked, appreciating his even if his arrow was a reddish grey.
"Ummm…" Kari and Hermione looked at each other and didn't say a word.
"Thank you." Yugi said, tying the cord and being careful not to tangle it with the chain of the Millennium Puzzle.
"Can I get a hand here Yuge?" Joey asked, trying not to tangle the much shorter chain of the Millennium Necklace with the cord.
"You could probably take that off now." Yami said, "Moody doesn't seem to have been so curse happy recently."
"Perhaps someone complained to the board."
"Do you think that would stop Moody?"
"Dunno."
"Kari… any idea why Robyn seems obsessed with blinds?"
"Blinds? Not really… what did she say?"
"She asked if I'd found a set yet."
"Didn't she ask you about that during the Xuan thing?" Yugi frowned, "Something about blinds and windows…"
"And she keeps asking?" A nod. "Then you missed one of her warnings."
"Well if she spoke straight instead of in riddles…"
"She wouldn't be Robyn."
"We don't own any windows, why would we need blinds?"
Above their heads, the clouds formed into a Blue Eyes White Dragon for just a few moments, but Kari was the only one who saw it, everyone else was too busy thinking about the riddle.
"There is normally a reason to her warnings." Kari said, "Or there always used to be."
"Okay then, why does she feel sorry for my Guardian? Whoever that may be."
"I dunno, Joey is Yugi's bodyguard." Ron said, without thinking.
"Hey!" Yugi protested. "Who says I need one?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Yuge."
Kari frowned, "Normally if she tells you she feels sorry for someone, it's because you've done something rather stupid that's caused danger or harm to someone."
"But we haven't done anything to anyone." Yami frowned, "We didn't even Game Draco for what he did to Harry."
"You know what I meant, Joey." Yugi said, "Not that I don't trust you with my life but…"
"Well… normally it's something you can fix, so you must have done something." Kari looked confused.
"But wouldn't we have noticed causing harm or danger to someone?"
Kari winced, old grief flickering across her face, "Not always."
"Kari…" Ombre moved to the woman's side as she slumped back into the grass, trying not to think about it.
"I'm ok."
"Are we going to have to add 'ok' to the list of things to watch out for, like 'oops' and 'fine'?" Joey asked.
Yami slumped. "So I have to find blinds for a pair of windows I don't have and undo whatever damage I've caused."
"Wait… a pair of windows?"
"Uh huh."
"Eyes, you idiot." Kaiba glared at him, "She was talking about eyes, eyes are the windows to the soul!"
"Oh."
"How do I keep losing to you if you're this much of a moron?" Kaiba growled.
"Hey!"
"So… I need blinds for my eyes… why?"
"Okay, where's Yami, cause you can't be him, he's never this slow." Joey growled, pointing his wand in Yami's direction.
"I'm tired."
"That's not a good excuse." Seto growled, also pointing his wand at the Pharaoh.
"If you'd been feed a millipede you'd be this slow too, I'm trying very hard not to think."
Kari laughed, "Never trust food Robyn gives you, didn't I tell you that?"
"Apparently it was good for me."
"If it makes you this slow?" Joey snorted, "I have to say she was wrong."
"She used to use that excuse on me too."
"Legellimency." Hermione said with an amused sigh, shaking her head at the look Yami was giving her best friend, "Needs eye contact."
And the pieces clicked into place. "Oh… I forgot that…"
"Yami!" The exasperated growl came from the entire group.
There was a pause and then Ron couldn't help but ask, "What did she say the millipede did?"
"Something about increasing metal defences, then she started going on about something called a rubix cube and making it so there's too many colours to see the true picture."
Yugi snorted, "This is a rubix cube." He sent Yami the image and Harry caught a flash of it before it went away again. "It's a puzzle where you have to try to match up the colours so they're all on one side."
Kari laughed again, "I think she was getting fed up with trying to get you to find a set of blinds."
"And what does that have to do with mental defences?"
"If the enemy has to sort through to get the image he's looking for, then you have longer to boot him out of your mind before he does any harm." Yugi said, now seriously concerned over the mental health of his dark half, since it should have been obvious, "You sure you're alright?"
"Apart from feeling like my head is in about twenty different places in time and space, I'm fine."
"Eek!" Kari yelped, "He said fine, get Madam Pomfrey!"
The group dissolved into laughter and Yugi relaxed slightly, still concerned, "Any idea when it'll wear off?"
Yami blinked, "You know… I think she said something about an antidote… if I'm translating Robyn speak correctly."
"Well, what is it?" Joey asked, "'Cause dopey Yami isn't much fun."
"Pink on toast?"
"You're kidding me."
"No… she defiantly said something about pink on toast."
"Wasn't pink on toast just before the food fight?" Yugi asked, wondering where exactly they could get some.
"Kiwi." Yami grinned, remembering the look on Kaiba's face.
"Shut it." Seto growled.
"Yami, I think we should go and get you the antidote before you get any worse." Yugi said, trying to forestall a fight he could see coming and wasn't sure Yami could win in his current state.
"But the green sparklers are declaring war on the drapes, can't I watch?"
"She's made him crazy…er." Ron growled.
"It'll be fine, just have to wait for owl prime time."
On that note Yugi and Joey looked at each other, dragged Yami to his feet and marched him up to the castle.
On his way past, Yami, with a dazed look on his face, patted Harry on the head, "Good wolfie."
They heard Joey mutter something as they got further away from the group.
"But I don't like cinnamon!" They could hear Yami protesting at whatever Joey had just said.
"I'm going to find Robyn." Kari said, standing up, "She shouldn't be feeding people things that make them that loopy."
"Wouldn't the mediwing be better?"
"No ducks!"
Kari just shook her head at that loud complaint and stalked off in the direction Yami had joined them from the first time when he'd been covered in mud, Ombre in tow.
"Well that was unexpected." Robyn commented, after hearing Kari's explanation, "I thought I told Yami to go eat right away."
"So what's the antidote?"
"Antidote?"
"You know, to stop Yami acting like a Robyn on a high?" Ombre growled.
"The elves are serving it for dinner today, why else would I tell Yami to go eat."
"They're serving it for dinner?"
"No, they are serving dinner, Yami just had too many trains docking at once."
"Err… what?"
"Misdirection. Lots of places to visit and not a clue where to end the journey."
"So, stopping the loopyness?"
"Stick to the one train so there isn't a tangle up at the station, silly."
"And the quick way?"
"Eat something and get rid of the gold blinds, they aren't really helping."
"Robyn, tell us how we fix Yami now."
"Oh, I don't think he'll like that, poor little puppy."
"Robyn."
Robyn sighed, "This shouldn't have happened. Something has changed. Something has interfered. A puzzle in a puzzle box where pieces fell through the cracks, and now all the pieces come flying back, but dragons don't like their treasures being stolen, so many minds all listening in, and poor little darkness hearing them all, but never you mind, the solution becomes clear, avoid the flames, but never you mind, all becomes found once again."
Kari and Ombre stared, "Well, that's as clear as mud."
"Then tell the wolf and the glowbug to be quiet for once."
"Robyn Golden, you've harmed my friend, and the real Robyn would never do such a thing." Kari sounded stern, but sad too.
"Then listen well, I did not harm your friend."
"Then what did you do?"
"The spider watches and waits, looking in all the windows and yet no one does a thing! The gold objects but cannot help, and the shadows scream for blood. I merely let the darkness keep out the light, for the darkness is needed against the night, and minds will shatter if nothing's done, but still they come and come, broken and in pieces and puzzling to boot, so shut your eyes and dream your life away. I can not do more then I have done."
The slap was unexpected and the three young women stare in shock.
"Dream he shall, dream of unending night, dream of dreams soon to be true and dreams that lie in hope and despair, but fine he is and shall be for now, just lost in dreams of old."
"Robyn…"
"Rebuild he must, time grows ever shorter. Before this year is out, he will have need of those walls. Go now, I have no more words for you."
"But…" Ombre started.
"No, Ombre." Kari said, giving her old friend a sad look, "We need to go tell Harry not to use the mind link for a while. The wolf, right?" Kari smiled sadly, though it wasn't a question, "Take care Robyn." She said, before turning away.
"Hikari…"
"Come on."