Chapter 9: - The Press is the Source of All Evil
It was weird, being back in class after the madness of the last week.
It was difficult to read the attitudes of the school around them, the Gryffindors, or the greater majority of them at least, were on the gang's side, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs seemed firmly divided between those who supported the gang and those who didn't believe that Kari or Joey hadn't put Harry's name in the Goblet.
Of course there was no question of whose side the Slytherins were on, they had spent the last week and a bit making the gang's life miserable.
But then, this was nothing new.
If anything, the worst lesson they'd had so far was double potions, which Harry had escaped last week, but had been hellish for the others, since the Slytherins had seemed determined to make the whole group pay for the audacity of having two of their number in the Triwizard Tournament.
Kari, Ombre and Hermione joined the group late outside potions, having been in the library all lunchtime and carrying a couple of large books that wouldn't fit in their bags.
The badges were back out in force. Harry hadn't really noticed them last week, but they were rather more difficult to ignorewhen Malfoy proudly showed off the new message.
Kari wasn't sure whether she was glad or annoyed that the Slytherins had left her off completely, but had noted that Ron was stood over with Dean and Seamus and while he wasn't laughing at the collective Slytherin pressing of badges so they all flashed 'Potter stinks!', he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.
"Very funny." Joey was growling, glaring at them.
"You want one, Wheeler?" Malfoy asked, not stupid enough to come close, "It's free."
"Shut it Malfoy." Yami snapped.
"You can have one too, Muto, there's plenty for everyone, even Granger, but you'd better come and get it, I wouldn't want any Mudbloods sliming it up…" Draco paused and turned to Yugi, offering them, "So you should take them."
Yami's growl echoed down the corridor, but before he could do anything, Yugi had batted the tray out of Draco's hands and drawn his wand. Yugi had limits when I came to his friends and Draco had pushed them way too far.
"Try it, Yugi." Bakura had drawn his wand and was pointing at the hikari.
'Yugi…'
"Yuge…" Joey growled, wanting just as much to do something drastic to Draco, but knowing just how much trouble Yugi would be in if he was caught.
Yugi's eyes flickered away from Draco for a moment, to Bakura's, who held his gaze.
In that moment Draco had his wand out, "Incen…"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry had reacted faster then the others, Malfoy's wand flying down the corridor.
"Furnunculus!" Joey growled.
"Densaugeo!" Bakura countered, the two beams of light ricocheting off of each other and hitting Goyle and Hermione in the faces, just in time for Snape to arrive.
After demanding to know what had happened, sending Goyle to the hospital wing, insulting Hermione, causing her to flee and taking points from Gryffindor for the... rather interesting things he'd been called by the gang, the gang sat, quietly at the back of the class, trying not to say or do anything that could possibly get them into any more trouble, though what they really wanted to do was take their cauldrons and beat Bakura, Draco and Snape around the head with them until they started acting like rational human beings, or were unconscious, whichever came first.
"Antidotes." Snape said, looking around, his eyes glittering unpleasantly, "You should all have had time to prepare your recipes by now and…" There was a knock on the door.
It was Colin Creevey, who walked up to Snape's deck at the front of the room, "Excuse me sir, I've come to take Kari Ironhide and Harry Potter upstairs."
"Potter and Ironhide have another hour of potions to complete." Snape said, glaring at them as if it was their faults, "They will come upstairs when their class is finished."
"But Mr Bagman wants them. All the champions have to go. I think it's for photos or something."
"Great." Kari moaned, "The Press."
Snape smiled at Kari's complaint, it looked unpleasant on his face and Kari just knew she'd said the wrong thing, "Very well, very well, Ironhide, Potter, leave your things here, I want you back here to test your antidotes."
"Please sir, they're supposed to take their bags with them." Squeaked Colin, "All the Champions…"
"Very well." Snapped Snape, "Take your bags and get out of my sight."
Harry and Kari looked at each other, then at the others, shrugged, picked up their bags and followed Colin out.
Colin's inane banter kept their mind off of things as they headed upstairs for a much unwanted photo shoot, pausing outside the right door as Colin dashed down the corridor after a hasty good luck.
"Harry, don't say anything to any reporters when you're on your own," Kari said, having had experience with them before, "If they're as bad as the press back home, they're excellent at twisting words to gain sympathy or create trouble."
"Thanks for the warning." Harry said, knocking on the door.
It was small classroom, with a photo shoot area already set up. Kari half bowed to the other two Champions who both nodded back as Harry nodded to them. There were five chairs set out, where Ludo Bagman was sat, talking to a witch neither of them recognised in magenta robes.
Kari went over to talk to Fleur, who the camera man was watching and Bagman's face lit up when he saw them, "Ah good, the other two Champions. Harry, Kari, come on in, nothing to worry about, it's just the Wand Weighing Ceremony, you know. The other judges will be here in a minute."
"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.
"We just have to test that your wands are fully functional, no problems. They are your greatest tools after all."
Harry saw Kari pull out her silver and sphinx wing feather wand, examining it and giving it a quick polish with her robes.
"And this is Rita Skeeter, she's with the Daily Prophet, doing a small piece about the Triwizard Tournament."
"Maybe not that small a piece." She said. Kari noted her tone and the way she was looking at Harry and came back to her friend's side. "I was wondering if I may have a private word with Harry about the Tournament, you know, being the youngest champion and all, add a bit of colour to the piece."
"I'm sorry Miss Skeeter." Kari interrupted before Bagman could give his acceptance, "But we've already agreed that because of the controversial nature of Harry's being forced into this Tournament, he will not be speaking to the press on his own."
She found herself under a scrutinising gaze from the reporter, who smirked at her.
"Very wise." Bagman nodded, though he looked slightly put out.
Kari glared at Skeeter, her best you-are-the-press-and-hense-you-are-evil-leave-us-alone glare and dragged Harry over to the corner where she continued her conversation with Fleur, translating for Harry.
Skeeter looked amused and started writing something anyway.
It wasn't long before Professor Dumbledore entered the classroom, followed by Mr Crouch, Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff, who sat in the chairs, finally followed in by Mr Olivander, who was introduced by the Headmaster, and the Champions moved to one side as Fleur was called up.
"Hmmm." Olivander twirled the wand in his hands, causing pink sparks to fly from the end, then he held it close and examined it, "Nine and a half inches…" He almost muttered to himself, "Inflexible… and containing…"
"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela." Fleur sounded quite proud, "One of my Grandmuzzer's."
"I knew it." Kari grinned, "She is part veela!"
Olivander mentioned he'd never used veela hair, because it made for temperamental wands, and cast a spell that made a bunch of flowers spring from the wand tip before calling Kari forward.
"I remember this wand, you bought this one from me, but it's not one of my creations." Olivander said, noting the silver sparks flying from the end as he twirled it, "Silver, eleven inches, with Sphinx wing feather core."
"Has never let me down yet." Kari said.
"Well kept too." He noted, watching the light reflect off of the metal, sending silver smoke rings across the room with it before handing it back and calling Krum forward.
"A Gregorovitch creation, yes?" He asked, and Krum nodded, though it was more a comment then a question, "Hornbeam and dragon heartstring, quite rigid, thicker then one usually sees… Avis!" A number of small, twittering birds flew out of the window. "Good… that leaves Mr Potter."
Krum nodded to him as he passed and handed over his wand.
"Ahhh yes, I remember this wand well." Olivander's eyes were gleaming, "Yes, yes, yes, how I remember…" Harry severely hoped that Olivander wouldn't mention why he remembered it, he hadn't even told Yami, who had shared head space with him for a week about the fact that his wand and Voldemort's had cores from the same Phoenix.
Luckily Olivander didn't say much more, taking slightly longer over Harry's then anyone else's but handing it back after making a fountain of wine shoot out of it.
"Thank you all, you may return to classes…" Dumbledore said, "Or maybe you should go to dinner since class will be finished soon."
Unfortunatly they didn't get away that quickly, as Bagman called for photos and then Kari had to contend with Skeeter, who kept pulling Harry to the front of the group, even though the four champions were supposed to be equal in importance, and then she asked for shots of each of the Champions on their own.
When they were finally released for dinner, they sank into empty seats next to their friends, where Harry was happy to listen to Kari rant about Skeeter and how she hated the press and how it didn't seem to matter if they were English, Japanese, Magical or Muggle, they were all the same.
`What's Kaiba up to?` Harry asked, watching Seto get up from his seat and walk over.
"Miss Ironhide, may I have a word?" Seto asked, in the formal manner that Yami had seen him take only when dealing with business partners.
"You may, but you're my boss. You don't have to ask." Kari replied, confused.
"As I'm sure you are aware, a required item for this year's school supplies is dress robes. I cannot think of any reason for this except that there will be a formal dance later on this year, and I would be grateful if you would accompany me."
Kari took a moment to process his request, then nodded, "Yes, Mr Kaiba, I will. But only if you call me Kari."
"Certainly Kari." Seto half bowed, "If you will call me Seto. Until the ball, may I be your escort on any Hogsmead trips that may be between then and now?"
Kari smiled, Kaiba was certainly trying to do this properly, probably figuring that it was better to get to know a girl properly before he took her on a date, rather then asking someone randomly at the last moment. "It would be my pleasure to have your company on the Hogsmead trips, Seto." She nodded back.
"Then I will see you at Training tomorrow morning."
Kari nodded and Kaiba gave Yami and Joey a brief smirk before he left the Great Hall and their group exploded in noise.
"SHUT! UP!" Kari finally bellowed over the noise.
There was silence.
"Surely you figured something was up when you saw dress robes on the list. Noa made me go out to the best dress maker's in Tokyo when I told him about it."
"We didn't really think about it, we were a little too concerned with getting off of the island, and then out of jail, and then we kind of…"
"Forgot?" Kari laughed. "Well, I suggest you think about it, because when the notices go up a lot of girls will be asked quickly and you'll miss out."
With that, she grinned at Ombre and Hermione and they left.
"Guys. Strategy meeting. Now." Joey demanded, grabbing Yugi and Harry and pulling them to the Common Room, where they sank into the seats by the fire, the girls no where in sight and Yami highly amused by Joey's reaction.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I've already have a date to the ball." Yugi said, holding his hand up.
"And you didn't say anything?" Joey asked, then paused, "Wait, who?"
"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Yugi giggled.
"So that's what you were up to this morning." Yami said, sounding surprised, "I did wonder."
"Ha!" Joey crowed, "Yugi beat Kaiba! Again!"
"Joey, it's not a game." Harry sighed, looking rather uncomfortable.
Both Yami and Joey gave him odd looks. "Everything's a game." Joey replied.
"Not this."
"We could make it a game... with points and things, best score at the end of the year wins?"
"I don't wish to die." Harry said.
"Come on Harry! Someone's already trying to kill you, what harm could a few more on top of that do?"
"Girls are more inventive."
"Then we'll get more boys to join in, the more targets the girls have the less likely they'll kill us all."
They finally decided on;
+10 for a girl you didn't know before,
-10 for a girl you'd known for more then a year,
+20 for every successful date you had,
-5 for every argument,
+5 for every time you apologise in public for an argument,
+20 for Slytherin/Gryffindor alliances,
+10 for dating outside your house,
+20 for dating outside your school,
-20 if girl finds out,
-200 if the girl reacts badly to finding out,
+50 for getting though the ball without incident,
+20 for a successful breakup that doesn't result in the girl hating your guts.
And finally;
+20 if you manage to convince the girl to keep dating you until after the game ends.
Harry was still convinced that this was a crazy idea, but Yugi had already gone upstairs and Yami and Joey were talking to some of the other boys who'd come in during the discussions.
It was going to be an… interesting… term.
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Joey was awake and he wasn't sure why.
He'd been exhausted when he'd come to bed, but only a couple of hours later, he'd woken up and been unable to get to sleep.
Something was bothering him, preventing him from drifting back to sleep but he hadn't the foggiest idea what it was.
Odds were it was something silly and small, since he'd managed to sleep easily through both Battle City and the Pegasus thing, which most certainly counted as big things.
In the bed closet to the door, Yugi muttered and rolled over, making Joey smile. Yuge was practically his brother and they trusted each other with their lives, but almost every time they got into a dangerous situation Yuge found it practically impossible to sleep.
Since he was sleeping, Joey figured that whatever was keeping him awake wasn't something that affected his friend.
Then there was a change. A change in what Joey couldn't say, but it was enough to have him alert and halfway out of bed.
Something by Yuge's bed was glowing and as Joey moved quietly across the room, he realised it was something on Yuge's bedside table.
He paused. Glowing + bedside table = the Millennium Puzzle or the Millennium Necklace was active.
But which one was it?
The atmosphere changed again, getting colder, and Joey's eyes swept the room as he drew his wand. Sudden cold = Dementor in his mind and while they thought they had dealt with that problem, Joey wasn't ready to risk it.
Yugi moaned, hands closing on the sheets tightly and face taking on a frown.
Nightmare, Joey finally twigged, Yuge was having another nightmare. He always woke up when Yuge was having a nightmare.
"Yuge." Joey shook his friend, "Yuge, wake up."
Mutter. Mutter. Groan. "Joey?" Confusion and concern reigned in the look his best friend gave him.
"You were having another nightmare, Yuge." Joey whispered with a reassuring grin, "Probably caused by one of those." He nodded towards the bedside table.
"What?" Yugi's eyes widened and he slipped quietly out of bed to check them.
"One of them was glowing." Joey whispered in reply as Yugi picked up the Puzzle, looked over at the completely undisturbed Pharaoh, shook his head and reached for the Millennium Necklace, picking it up from where Joey had left it when he'd taken it off last night.
"It hasn't been playing up while I've been wearing it…" Joey said, reaching for it also.
The Millennium Necklace glowed brightly and the dorm vanished.
"Joey?" Yugi yelped, remembering that the Necklace could show the past, present or future. He looked around, seeing no Joey as he floated above the Quidditch Pitch. It no longer looked like the Quidditch Pitch, it looked like someone had grown a giant hedge maze there instead. The gang were gathered in the stands, looking nervous but excited.
Almost all of them.
Harry and Kari were by the maze entrance.
"A task?" Yugi wondered out loud as the cannon went off and Kari and Harry nodded to each other before entering, and were watched from above as Krum attempted to attack Kari, was taken down by Harry and the two raced for the cup, Kari fending off giant spiders to help her friend, just as he'd helped her.
"A tie?" Yugi frowned, "They'll tie."
The two reached for the cup at the same time.
And vanished.
Yugi himself back in the dorm, surrounded by his friends, two of whom had woken up at the flare of light.
"Yugi, are you alright?" Yami was asking. "What did you see?"
"A task." Yugi frowned, "The maze, whichever task that's going to be, Harry and Kari touched the cup and vanished."
"Vanished?" Harry looked a little surprised.
"Vanished."
"Did it look like part of the task?" Yami asked.
"It might have been, but I don't think so, why would the Millennium Necklace show us if it was meant to happen?" Yugi gave his dark a look that said, 'I'm right, I don't want to be but I'm right.'
Yami sighed, "We know it's possible to change the future, Kaiba did once, but who would we have to tell to try to fix this?"
"Professor McGonagall?"
"Can I get some sleep?" Ron complained from his bed.
"Shut up Ron." Joey snapped, then turned back to his friends. "She'd go to Professor Dumbledore, and he might do something, but what's the odds neither of them would believe us?"
"Dumbledore wouldn't do anything." Yami shook his head, "He seems intent on getting Harry into as much trouble as possible."
"But…" Harry said, then paused, knowing Yami was right.
"I know." Yami sighed, "We have to do something."
"Well… who else might be able to help?"
"Professor Moody?" Joey hazarded. "He's paranoid enough to suspect foul play and double check everything just to be sure, and if we tell him someone's going to play with the cup…"
"Then we'd have to prove how we knew or he'd think we were the ones who were going to play with it."
"No… we don't. We don't have to prove anything. Professor Moody already thinks we're paranoid. If we start double checking everything…"
"Then he'll think something is wrong and double check himself if only to double check what we're double checking."
"Or we could say we've found something suspicious while we were checking everything." Yami nodded.
Yugi slumped onto his bed, mind racing, and Yami watched him carefully. "Yugi?"
"We have to give Kari a heads up too." The hikari said, thinking out loud, "And now we know something might go wrong, we can work on other surprises while we're training." Yugi said, thinking, "Try and give you both some tricks that no one will think you have."
"Like what?"
"Good question."
"Charmed items?" Yugi suggested tentivly.
"Sounds like a good idea." Joey nodded, "What about higher level spells?"
"We'll ask Hermione." Yami said, "She's bound to know what some of the upper years are learning and where to get the books on it."
"There's nothing we can do until tomorrow, we can't get to the girl's dorms." Joey shrugged and yawned, "Meanwhile we should try to sleep."
"Thank you." Ron hissed.
Joey snarled and glared at the young man who glared right back.
"Not now Joey." Yami growled as Yugi yawned and put the Necklace back on the bedside table, "He's not worth the point deduction."
"Hey!" Ron protested, realising that Yami was being brutally honest in his opinion.
"Yami." Yugi growled at his dark, "Behave." He added down the link.
Yami settled for glaring and turned to give Yugi a look that said 'What? I was behaving.'
Yugi sighed and rolled his eyes. This had been a problem since Ron had fallen out with the group and if he was honest he was expecting his dark and Ron to come to blows if Ron didn't stop making snarky comments all the time. "Just don't, alright. I don't want to have to explain why we were up in the middle of the night to Madam Pomfrey."
'You wouldn't have to.'
"You're not allowed to Shadow Game him for being an idiot either."
There was no reply and Yugi's eyes shot towards his dark. He'd been joking!
`Yami's not that stupid…` Harry sent, `Right Yami?`
Yami looked amused by the idea and Yugi sent irritation down the link. "I give up, I'm going back to bed! Wake me up when you're being sane again."
`But then you'll never get up.` Harry pointed out.
'Hey!' Yami protested.
"Exactly." Yugi grinned at Yami who wasn't sure how serious Yugi was being. "Night guys…again."
"Night Yuge." Joey said, giving up his glaring contest with Ron and going back to bed.
Everyone went back to bed. 'You were joking right?' Yami asked down the link while looking at the back of Yugi's head.
"It depends, are you planning on 'Gaming' Ron any time in the near future? Because if you do, I'm refusing to get up to deal with the consequences."
'No, of course not!' Yami said hastily, 'I mean he is being a complete idiot and a Penalty Game might…'
"Yami!" Yugi rolled over and glared at him. "No."
'I…' Yami trailed off at the look he was getting. 'Uhhhh.'
"No, just no. I thought you knew better then to inflict Penalty Games to change people. Look how well it worked on Draco." Yugi snorted out loud.
Harry didn't know what to say and was wisely keeping out of it.
Yami thought of a few of the choicer shadow games he'd played in the beginning and cringed. 'I promise I won't Game Ron, ok?'
`I guess we shouldn't have said anything about gaming Voldemort.`
"That was different." Yugi said, "That was needed, he didn't belong in your head. Gaming Ron isn't necessary and I'm not ok with it! Yami shouldn't have considered it in the first place. There are better ways of getting people to see sense. He has to work out he's being an idiot for himself! If you Game him it's the magic changing him, not him getting a clue."
'Magic can't change people, Yugi.'
"Well someone didn't get your message, Yami, because it sure seems like it sometimes."
`You ok Yugi?` Harry frowned, `Last time you were this snappy, it was because of your parents.`
"No, I'm feeling annoyed at Yami. Other then that it's nothing a good night's sleep can't cure," Yugi growled down the link, "But now I can't sleep." Yugi closed his eyes and gave an irritated sigh as he tried to settle down to go back to sleep. "One Kuriboh, two Kuriboh, three Kuriboh…"
`One explosion, two explosions, three explosions…`
"Harry!" Yugi laughed.
`What?` Harry asked mock-innocently.
'Sorry.' Yami said so quietly that the two only just heard him.
Yugi opened his eyes and smiled ruefully, "Just promise me you'll think before you do things, 'Gaming' Ron would cause more problems then its worth."
'I promise.'
"Good, now go to sleep."
`You too, you're always up way too early!` Harry said, drifting off easily.
'Like you're one to talk.' Yami countered, trying to settle in to sleep himself, but it wasn't easy since he was able to sense Yugi trying to shift his irritation. He hadn't realised just how angry he'd made his hikari by not answering. 'I wouldn't have done it.' Yami sent, hoping it would calm Yugi's restless mind.
He saw Yugi freeze and then relax properly, the young man's emotions settling and while Yami found it slightly worrying that Yugi could think that he actually would Shadow Game, he did recognise it as a valid worry. He hadn't actually said anything to put Yugi's mind at rest during that entire conversation.
Finally settled, Yugi slipped easily back into sleep and Yami was only a few moments behind him.
It was difficult to read the attitudes of the school around them, the Gryffindors, or the greater majority of them at least, were on the gang's side, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs seemed firmly divided between those who supported the gang and those who didn't believe that Kari or Joey hadn't put Harry's name in the Goblet.
Of course there was no question of whose side the Slytherins were on, they had spent the last week and a bit making the gang's life miserable.
But then, this was nothing new.
If anything, the worst lesson they'd had so far was double potions, which Harry had escaped last week, but had been hellish for the others, since the Slytherins had seemed determined to make the whole group pay for the audacity of having two of their number in the Triwizard Tournament.
Kari, Ombre and Hermione joined the group late outside potions, having been in the library all lunchtime and carrying a couple of large books that wouldn't fit in their bags.
The badges were back out in force. Harry hadn't really noticed them last week, but they were rather more difficult to ignorewhen Malfoy proudly showed off the new message.
Kari wasn't sure whether she was glad or annoyed that the Slytherins had left her off completely, but had noted that Ron was stood over with Dean and Seamus and while he wasn't laughing at the collective Slytherin pressing of badges so they all flashed 'Potter stinks!', he wasn't sticking up for Harry either.
"Very funny." Joey was growling, glaring at them.
"You want one, Wheeler?" Malfoy asked, not stupid enough to come close, "It's free."
"Shut it Malfoy." Yami snapped.
"You can have one too, Muto, there's plenty for everyone, even Granger, but you'd better come and get it, I wouldn't want any Mudbloods sliming it up…" Draco paused and turned to Yugi, offering them, "So you should take them."
Yami's growl echoed down the corridor, but before he could do anything, Yugi had batted the tray out of Draco's hands and drawn his wand. Yugi had limits when I came to his friends and Draco had pushed them way too far.
"Try it, Yugi." Bakura had drawn his wand and was pointing at the hikari.
'Yugi…'
"Yuge…" Joey growled, wanting just as much to do something drastic to Draco, but knowing just how much trouble Yugi would be in if he was caught.
Yugi's eyes flickered away from Draco for a moment, to Bakura's, who held his gaze.
In that moment Draco had his wand out, "Incen…"
"Expelliarmus!" Harry had reacted faster then the others, Malfoy's wand flying down the corridor.
"Furnunculus!" Joey growled.
"Densaugeo!" Bakura countered, the two beams of light ricocheting off of each other and hitting Goyle and Hermione in the faces, just in time for Snape to arrive.
After demanding to know what had happened, sending Goyle to the hospital wing, insulting Hermione, causing her to flee and taking points from Gryffindor for the... rather interesting things he'd been called by the gang, the gang sat, quietly at the back of the class, trying not to say or do anything that could possibly get them into any more trouble, though what they really wanted to do was take their cauldrons and beat Bakura, Draco and Snape around the head with them until they started acting like rational human beings, or were unconscious, whichever came first.
"Antidotes." Snape said, looking around, his eyes glittering unpleasantly, "You should all have had time to prepare your recipes by now and…" There was a knock on the door.
It was Colin Creevey, who walked up to Snape's deck at the front of the room, "Excuse me sir, I've come to take Kari Ironhide and Harry Potter upstairs."
"Potter and Ironhide have another hour of potions to complete." Snape said, glaring at them as if it was their faults, "They will come upstairs when their class is finished."
"But Mr Bagman wants them. All the champions have to go. I think it's for photos or something."
"Great." Kari moaned, "The Press."
Snape smiled at Kari's complaint, it looked unpleasant on his face and Kari just knew she'd said the wrong thing, "Very well, very well, Ironhide, Potter, leave your things here, I want you back here to test your antidotes."
"Please sir, they're supposed to take their bags with them." Squeaked Colin, "All the Champions…"
"Very well." Snapped Snape, "Take your bags and get out of my sight."
Harry and Kari looked at each other, then at the others, shrugged, picked up their bags and followed Colin out.
Colin's inane banter kept their mind off of things as they headed upstairs for a much unwanted photo shoot, pausing outside the right door as Colin dashed down the corridor after a hasty good luck.
"Harry, don't say anything to any reporters when you're on your own," Kari said, having had experience with them before, "If they're as bad as the press back home, they're excellent at twisting words to gain sympathy or create trouble."
"Thanks for the warning." Harry said, knocking on the door.
It was small classroom, with a photo shoot area already set up. Kari half bowed to the other two Champions who both nodded back as Harry nodded to them. There were five chairs set out, where Ludo Bagman was sat, talking to a witch neither of them recognised in magenta robes.
Kari went over to talk to Fleur, who the camera man was watching and Bagman's face lit up when he saw them, "Ah good, the other two Champions. Harry, Kari, come on in, nothing to worry about, it's just the Wand Weighing Ceremony, you know. The other judges will be here in a minute."
"Wand weighing?" Harry repeated nervously.
"We just have to test that your wands are fully functional, no problems. They are your greatest tools after all."
Harry saw Kari pull out her silver and sphinx wing feather wand, examining it and giving it a quick polish with her robes.
"And this is Rita Skeeter, she's with the Daily Prophet, doing a small piece about the Triwizard Tournament."
"Maybe not that small a piece." She said. Kari noted her tone and the way she was looking at Harry and came back to her friend's side. "I was wondering if I may have a private word with Harry about the Tournament, you know, being the youngest champion and all, add a bit of colour to the piece."
"I'm sorry Miss Skeeter." Kari interrupted before Bagman could give his acceptance, "But we've already agreed that because of the controversial nature of Harry's being forced into this Tournament, he will not be speaking to the press on his own."
She found herself under a scrutinising gaze from the reporter, who smirked at her.
"Very wise." Bagman nodded, though he looked slightly put out.
Kari glared at Skeeter, her best you-are-the-press-and-hense-you-are-evil-leave-us-alone glare and dragged Harry over to the corner where she continued her conversation with Fleur, translating for Harry.
Skeeter looked amused and started writing something anyway.
It wasn't long before Professor Dumbledore entered the classroom, followed by Mr Crouch, Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff, who sat in the chairs, finally followed in by Mr Olivander, who was introduced by the Headmaster, and the Champions moved to one side as Fleur was called up.
"Hmmm." Olivander twirled the wand in his hands, causing pink sparks to fly from the end, then he held it close and examined it, "Nine and a half inches…" He almost muttered to himself, "Inflexible… and containing…"
"An 'air from ze 'ead of a veela." Fleur sounded quite proud, "One of my Grandmuzzer's."
"I knew it." Kari grinned, "She is part veela!"
Olivander mentioned he'd never used veela hair, because it made for temperamental wands, and cast a spell that made a bunch of flowers spring from the wand tip before calling Kari forward.
"I remember this wand, you bought this one from me, but it's not one of my creations." Olivander said, noting the silver sparks flying from the end as he twirled it, "Silver, eleven inches, with Sphinx wing feather core."
"Has never let me down yet." Kari said.
"Well kept too." He noted, watching the light reflect off of the metal, sending silver smoke rings across the room with it before handing it back and calling Krum forward.
"A Gregorovitch creation, yes?" He asked, and Krum nodded, though it was more a comment then a question, "Hornbeam and dragon heartstring, quite rigid, thicker then one usually sees… Avis!" A number of small, twittering birds flew out of the window. "Good… that leaves Mr Potter."
Krum nodded to him as he passed and handed over his wand.
"Ahhh yes, I remember this wand well." Olivander's eyes were gleaming, "Yes, yes, yes, how I remember…" Harry severely hoped that Olivander wouldn't mention why he remembered it, he hadn't even told Yami, who had shared head space with him for a week about the fact that his wand and Voldemort's had cores from the same Phoenix.
Luckily Olivander didn't say much more, taking slightly longer over Harry's then anyone else's but handing it back after making a fountain of wine shoot out of it.
"Thank you all, you may return to classes…" Dumbledore said, "Or maybe you should go to dinner since class will be finished soon."
Unfortunatly they didn't get away that quickly, as Bagman called for photos and then Kari had to contend with Skeeter, who kept pulling Harry to the front of the group, even though the four champions were supposed to be equal in importance, and then she asked for shots of each of the Champions on their own.
When they were finally released for dinner, they sank into empty seats next to their friends, where Harry was happy to listen to Kari rant about Skeeter and how she hated the press and how it didn't seem to matter if they were English, Japanese, Magical or Muggle, they were all the same.
`What's Kaiba up to?` Harry asked, watching Seto get up from his seat and walk over.
"Miss Ironhide, may I have a word?" Seto asked, in the formal manner that Yami had seen him take only when dealing with business partners.
"You may, but you're my boss. You don't have to ask." Kari replied, confused.
"As I'm sure you are aware, a required item for this year's school supplies is dress robes. I cannot think of any reason for this except that there will be a formal dance later on this year, and I would be grateful if you would accompany me."
Kari took a moment to process his request, then nodded, "Yes, Mr Kaiba, I will. But only if you call me Kari."
"Certainly Kari." Seto half bowed, "If you will call me Seto. Until the ball, may I be your escort on any Hogsmead trips that may be between then and now?"
Kari smiled, Kaiba was certainly trying to do this properly, probably figuring that it was better to get to know a girl properly before he took her on a date, rather then asking someone randomly at the last moment. "It would be my pleasure to have your company on the Hogsmead trips, Seto." She nodded back.
"Then I will see you at Training tomorrow morning."
Kari nodded and Kaiba gave Yami and Joey a brief smirk before he left the Great Hall and their group exploded in noise.
"SHUT! UP!" Kari finally bellowed over the noise.
There was silence.
"Surely you figured something was up when you saw dress robes on the list. Noa made me go out to the best dress maker's in Tokyo when I told him about it."
"We didn't really think about it, we were a little too concerned with getting off of the island, and then out of jail, and then we kind of…"
"Forgot?" Kari laughed. "Well, I suggest you think about it, because when the notices go up a lot of girls will be asked quickly and you'll miss out."
With that, she grinned at Ombre and Hermione and they left.
"Guys. Strategy meeting. Now." Joey demanded, grabbing Yugi and Harry and pulling them to the Common Room, where they sank into the seats by the fire, the girls no where in sight and Yami highly amused by Joey's reaction.
"I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I've already have a date to the ball." Yugi said, holding his hand up.
"And you didn't say anything?" Joey asked, then paused, "Wait, who?"
"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Yugi giggled.
"So that's what you were up to this morning." Yami said, sounding surprised, "I did wonder."
"Ha!" Joey crowed, "Yugi beat Kaiba! Again!"
"Joey, it's not a game." Harry sighed, looking rather uncomfortable.
Both Yami and Joey gave him odd looks. "Everything's a game." Joey replied.
"Not this."
"We could make it a game... with points and things, best score at the end of the year wins?"
"I don't wish to die." Harry said.
"Come on Harry! Someone's already trying to kill you, what harm could a few more on top of that do?"
"Girls are more inventive."
"Then we'll get more boys to join in, the more targets the girls have the less likely they'll kill us all."
They finally decided on;
+10 for a girl you didn't know before,
-10 for a girl you'd known for more then a year,
+20 for every successful date you had,
-5 for every argument,
+5 for every time you apologise in public for an argument,
+20 for Slytherin/Gryffindor alliances,
+10 for dating outside your house,
+20 for dating outside your school,
-20 if girl finds out,
-200 if the girl reacts badly to finding out,
+50 for getting though the ball without incident,
+20 for a successful breakup that doesn't result in the girl hating your guts.
And finally;
+20 if you manage to convince the girl to keep dating you until after the game ends.
Harry was still convinced that this was a crazy idea, but Yugi had already gone upstairs and Yami and Joey were talking to some of the other boys who'd come in during the discussions.
It was going to be an… interesting… term.
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Joey was awake and he wasn't sure why.
He'd been exhausted when he'd come to bed, but only a couple of hours later, he'd woken up and been unable to get to sleep.
Something was bothering him, preventing him from drifting back to sleep but he hadn't the foggiest idea what it was.
Odds were it was something silly and small, since he'd managed to sleep easily through both Battle City and the Pegasus thing, which most certainly counted as big things.
In the bed closet to the door, Yugi muttered and rolled over, making Joey smile. Yuge was practically his brother and they trusted each other with their lives, but almost every time they got into a dangerous situation Yuge found it practically impossible to sleep.
Since he was sleeping, Joey figured that whatever was keeping him awake wasn't something that affected his friend.
Then there was a change. A change in what Joey couldn't say, but it was enough to have him alert and halfway out of bed.
Something by Yuge's bed was glowing and as Joey moved quietly across the room, he realised it was something on Yuge's bedside table.
He paused. Glowing + bedside table = the Millennium Puzzle or the Millennium Necklace was active.
But which one was it?
The atmosphere changed again, getting colder, and Joey's eyes swept the room as he drew his wand. Sudden cold = Dementor in his mind and while they thought they had dealt with that problem, Joey wasn't ready to risk it.
Yugi moaned, hands closing on the sheets tightly and face taking on a frown.
Nightmare, Joey finally twigged, Yuge was having another nightmare. He always woke up when Yuge was having a nightmare.
"Yuge." Joey shook his friend, "Yuge, wake up."
Mutter. Mutter. Groan. "Joey?" Confusion and concern reigned in the look his best friend gave him.
"You were having another nightmare, Yuge." Joey whispered with a reassuring grin, "Probably caused by one of those." He nodded towards the bedside table.
"What?" Yugi's eyes widened and he slipped quietly out of bed to check them.
"One of them was glowing." Joey whispered in reply as Yugi picked up the Puzzle, looked over at the completely undisturbed Pharaoh, shook his head and reached for the Millennium Necklace, picking it up from where Joey had left it when he'd taken it off last night.
"It hasn't been playing up while I've been wearing it…" Joey said, reaching for it also.
The Millennium Necklace glowed brightly and the dorm vanished.
"Joey?" Yugi yelped, remembering that the Necklace could show the past, present or future. He looked around, seeing no Joey as he floated above the Quidditch Pitch. It no longer looked like the Quidditch Pitch, it looked like someone had grown a giant hedge maze there instead. The gang were gathered in the stands, looking nervous but excited.
Almost all of them.
Harry and Kari were by the maze entrance.
"A task?" Yugi wondered out loud as the cannon went off and Kari and Harry nodded to each other before entering, and were watched from above as Krum attempted to attack Kari, was taken down by Harry and the two raced for the cup, Kari fending off giant spiders to help her friend, just as he'd helped her.
"A tie?" Yugi frowned, "They'll tie."
The two reached for the cup at the same time.
And vanished.
Yugi himself back in the dorm, surrounded by his friends, two of whom had woken up at the flare of light.
"Yugi, are you alright?" Yami was asking. "What did you see?"
"A task." Yugi frowned, "The maze, whichever task that's going to be, Harry and Kari touched the cup and vanished."
"Vanished?" Harry looked a little surprised.
"Vanished."
"Did it look like part of the task?" Yami asked.
"It might have been, but I don't think so, why would the Millennium Necklace show us if it was meant to happen?" Yugi gave his dark a look that said, 'I'm right, I don't want to be but I'm right.'
Yami sighed, "We know it's possible to change the future, Kaiba did once, but who would we have to tell to try to fix this?"
"Professor McGonagall?"
"Can I get some sleep?" Ron complained from his bed.
"Shut up Ron." Joey snapped, then turned back to his friends. "She'd go to Professor Dumbledore, and he might do something, but what's the odds neither of them would believe us?"
"Dumbledore wouldn't do anything." Yami shook his head, "He seems intent on getting Harry into as much trouble as possible."
"But…" Harry said, then paused, knowing Yami was right.
"I know." Yami sighed, "We have to do something."
"Well… who else might be able to help?"
"Professor Moody?" Joey hazarded. "He's paranoid enough to suspect foul play and double check everything just to be sure, and if we tell him someone's going to play with the cup…"
"Then we'd have to prove how we knew or he'd think we were the ones who were going to play with it."
"No… we don't. We don't have to prove anything. Professor Moody already thinks we're paranoid. If we start double checking everything…"
"Then he'll think something is wrong and double check himself if only to double check what we're double checking."
"Or we could say we've found something suspicious while we were checking everything." Yami nodded.
Yugi slumped onto his bed, mind racing, and Yami watched him carefully. "Yugi?"
"We have to give Kari a heads up too." The hikari said, thinking out loud, "And now we know something might go wrong, we can work on other surprises while we're training." Yugi said, thinking, "Try and give you both some tricks that no one will think you have."
"Like what?"
"Good question."
"Charmed items?" Yugi suggested tentivly.
"Sounds like a good idea." Joey nodded, "What about higher level spells?"
"We'll ask Hermione." Yami said, "She's bound to know what some of the upper years are learning and where to get the books on it."
"There's nothing we can do until tomorrow, we can't get to the girl's dorms." Joey shrugged and yawned, "Meanwhile we should try to sleep."
"Thank you." Ron hissed.
Joey snarled and glared at the young man who glared right back.
"Not now Joey." Yami growled as Yugi yawned and put the Necklace back on the bedside table, "He's not worth the point deduction."
"Hey!" Ron protested, realising that Yami was being brutally honest in his opinion.
"Yami." Yugi growled at his dark, "Behave." He added down the link.
Yami settled for glaring and turned to give Yugi a look that said 'What? I was behaving.'
Yugi sighed and rolled his eyes. This had been a problem since Ron had fallen out with the group and if he was honest he was expecting his dark and Ron to come to blows if Ron didn't stop making snarky comments all the time. "Just don't, alright. I don't want to have to explain why we were up in the middle of the night to Madam Pomfrey."
'You wouldn't have to.'
"You're not allowed to Shadow Game him for being an idiot either."
There was no reply and Yugi's eyes shot towards his dark. He'd been joking!
`Yami's not that stupid…` Harry sent, `Right Yami?`
Yami looked amused by the idea and Yugi sent irritation down the link. "I give up, I'm going back to bed! Wake me up when you're being sane again."
`But then you'll never get up.` Harry pointed out.
'Hey!' Yami protested.
"Exactly." Yugi grinned at Yami who wasn't sure how serious Yugi was being. "Night guys…again."
"Night Yuge." Joey said, giving up his glaring contest with Ron and going back to bed.
Everyone went back to bed. 'You were joking right?' Yami asked down the link while looking at the back of Yugi's head.
"It depends, are you planning on 'Gaming' Ron any time in the near future? Because if you do, I'm refusing to get up to deal with the consequences."
'No, of course not!' Yami said hastily, 'I mean he is being a complete idiot and a Penalty Game might…'
"Yami!" Yugi rolled over and glared at him. "No."
'I…' Yami trailed off at the look he was getting. 'Uhhhh.'
"No, just no. I thought you knew better then to inflict Penalty Games to change people. Look how well it worked on Draco." Yugi snorted out loud.
Harry didn't know what to say and was wisely keeping out of it.
Yami thought of a few of the choicer shadow games he'd played in the beginning and cringed. 'I promise I won't Game Ron, ok?'
`I guess we shouldn't have said anything about gaming Voldemort.`
"That was different." Yugi said, "That was needed, he didn't belong in your head. Gaming Ron isn't necessary and I'm not ok with it! Yami shouldn't have considered it in the first place. There are better ways of getting people to see sense. He has to work out he's being an idiot for himself! If you Game him it's the magic changing him, not him getting a clue."
'Magic can't change people, Yugi.'
"Well someone didn't get your message, Yami, because it sure seems like it sometimes."
`You ok Yugi?` Harry frowned, `Last time you were this snappy, it was because of your parents.`
"No, I'm feeling annoyed at Yami. Other then that it's nothing a good night's sleep can't cure," Yugi growled down the link, "But now I can't sleep." Yugi closed his eyes and gave an irritated sigh as he tried to settle down to go back to sleep. "One Kuriboh, two Kuriboh, three Kuriboh…"
`One explosion, two explosions, three explosions…`
"Harry!" Yugi laughed.
`What?` Harry asked mock-innocently.
'Sorry.' Yami said so quietly that the two only just heard him.
Yugi opened his eyes and smiled ruefully, "Just promise me you'll think before you do things, 'Gaming' Ron would cause more problems then its worth."
'I promise.'
"Good, now go to sleep."
`You too, you're always up way too early!` Harry said, drifting off easily.
'Like you're one to talk.' Yami countered, trying to settle in to sleep himself, but it wasn't easy since he was able to sense Yugi trying to shift his irritation. He hadn't realised just how angry he'd made his hikari by not answering. 'I wouldn't have done it.' Yami sent, hoping it would calm Yugi's restless mind.
He saw Yugi freeze and then relax properly, the young man's emotions settling and while Yami found it slightly worrying that Yugi could think that he actually would Shadow Game, he did recognise it as a valid worry. He hadn't actually said anything to put Yugi's mind at rest during that entire conversation.
Finally settled, Yugi slipped easily back into sleep and Yami was only a few moments behind him.