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Episode... Chapter Nine

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Yu-Gi-Oh!
Episode Nine and Three Quarters

CHAPTER NINE – BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR…


It had taken some doing, but somehow Bakura and Marik managed to drag Seto to the hospital wing on their own.  That left Yugi to finish doing what he had attempted to do yesterday night, and locate Dumbledore so he could get some answers.  He approached Professor McGonagall’s classroom and peered inside, grateful that she was in.  He opened the door and went up to her desk, and she smiled as he approached.

“How might I help you today, Mr. Mutou?” she asked.

“Professor… I need to see Professor Dumbledore,” he said in a rush before he lost his nerve.  McGonagall frowned at him, a distrusting look on her face.

“Is it important?”

Yugi fidgeted slightly.  “Ma’am, it’s about why I’m here.”

Her frown deepened, but she stood up and led him back out into the hallway.  They walked along in silence, and Yugi was trying to keep track of what statues or paintings they passed as so he would be able to retrace his steps, but he quickly found himself getting confused and abandoned the effort.  After a long time, they approached a small alcove where a large statue of a phoenix stood, its wings wrapped around so it would fit in the space.  McGonagall motioned for him to step inside, and he did so, looking back at her in confusion.

“Lemon drop!” she shouted.  The statue came to life almost immediately, spinning slowly to reveal a flight of spiral stairs leading up like an escalator.  Yugi held onto the statue, momentarily caught off guard.

“Arigato, McGonagall-sensei!” he shouted before she disappeared from his sight.  He raised his eyes to his destination, and saw another opening not all that far above him.  The statue/escalator came to a gentle rest at the opening, and Yugi stepped out into the headmaster’s office.

Whatever he had thought the office would look like was instantly dashed by what he saw.  Bookshelves filled to the brim took up most of the wall space in the room, and the areas of the wall that were not taken up by books were littered with paintings, most of which were empty at the moment.  The desk looked like his own desk at home: cluttered, and that was being nice about it.  Other than that, there was not much else of interest in the room except for two other things: the Sorting Hat sitting up on the top of a bookshelf, snoring slightly, and a large bird with brilliant red and gold plumage resting on a perch next to the headmaster’s desk.

The bird let out a gentle note as Yugi approached, fascinated.

“Sugoi!” he exclaimed, stopping just before the animal.  Yami Yugi suddenly appeared next to him, slightly faded as always, his hands in his pockets.

“It’s a phoenix,” he told his partner.  “They’re symbols of death and rebirth.”

“Nani?” Yugi asked, managing to tear his attention away from the bird to look up at his other half.

“When a phoenix dies,” Yami Yugi explained, “they burst into flames and then are reborn from the ashes, and in such a manner, they continue to live for eternity.”  He smirked.  “Just ask Marik.  The people of Egypt were strong believers of this.  That’s why you’ll often find pictures of phoenixes on sarcophaguses.”

Yugi turned back to the bird.  It cooed at him softly as he reached out to stroke its head.  The creature was warm to the touch, like an oven when it had been on for a while.

“She certainly is beautiful,” he said.

“Yes, he is quite a remarkable creature.”

Both Yugis looked up to see Professor Dumbledore leaning over the railing of the staircase above them, a gentle smile on his face.  Yugi took his hand away from the phoenix, a bit embarrassed that he had been caught poking around instead of waiting for the headmaster to appear.

“I-I-I’m sorry, Professor…” he stammered, backing up.

“No, it’s a common mistake to make,” Dumbledore assured him, misinterpreting his meaning.

“I-I mean –”

“And that’s all right as well,” he interrupted, coming down from the stairs to sit at his desk.  “When one is confronted by wonderful and mysterious things, one cannot help but be curious.”

Dumbledore waved for them to sit, and they did so as the phoenix fluttered over to sit on his master’s shoulder.  He folded his hands together at his desk, a gentle yet concerned look on his face.

“Now, as I understand it, young Yugi, you’re concerned with your reason for being here?” he asked.  Both of them nodded.  “I’m sure, then, you’ve already realized you did not fulfill the prophecy as ordained by the Gravekeepers.”

Yugi opened his mouth to say something, but Yami Yugi beat him to it, “If you’re saying I made a mistake, I don’t care.  Fulfilling the prophecy meant changing everything that had ever happened to my hikari, and I refuse to let him live his life alone.”

Dumbledore frowned slightly.  “But do you know for sure that he would have?”

Yami Yugi tried to talk back, but thought better of it, clamping his mouth shut and casting a regretful look to his partner.  Truth was, he had not really known for sure if Yugi’s life would have been all that different, but he was so afraid that it would have been that he could not bring himself to leave him alone.  Yugi looked back up at him, his wide eyes saying that he was grateful for his choice, and he smiled.

“I’m not saying that you made the wrong choice,” Dumbledore continued, drawing their attention back to him.  “It is our choices that make us who we are.  By choosing to stay with Yugi, you made yourself his protector.  However, because of this choice, your story is not over yet.”

“That’s why you called us to this school?” Yugi asked.  “But, what is it that we’re needed for?”

Unfortunately, Dumbledore just shook his head.  “I am the wrong person to ask,” he said, a nostalgic look appearing on his face.  “A man by the name of Joseph Campbell could have answered that question.  The most brilliant muggle I ever met; he was a sort of a modern day philosopher, if you can picture such a thing.  Yes, he traveled the world studying the legends of different peoples, mostly focusing on the heroes in those tales.”

He smiled gently, his gaze flicking back and forth between the two of them.  “One of the many things he was fond of saying was, ‘Furthermore, we have not even to risk the Adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us’.”

~.oOOo.~

The High Priest entered what remained of the Temple of the Tablets after the tomb robber’s assault.  He stared up at the altar in the center of the ruins, his eyes tired from grief, and his arms burdened with the reason for that grief.  The only three tablets that survived the tomb robber’s anger stared back down at him and the pale woman in his arms, as if mocking his loss.  He fell to his knees before the tablets and held up the golden rod clenched in his fist… a golden rod with the Eye of the Wisdom of Darkness on it.

“Almighty Gods!” he shouted.  “If you have any mercy within yourselves, let her Kaa live on with you!  Let her sacrifice not be in vain!”

Nothing happened, and the High Priest bowed his head in failure.  He held the woman close to his chest, looking deeply into her lifeless blue eyes.  Suddenly, the ground beneath him shuddered, and his head snapped up as a blank tablet rose out of the debris at the base of the altar.  Gradually, an image of a white dragon appeared on the stone, its mouth opened in a silent roar of rage.  The High Priest stared up at the image, then back down to the woman in his arms.

“For your sacrifice, this Kaa shall become my servant, and we shall seek vengeance together…”


~.oOOo.~

Seto’s eyes snapped open wide as he gasped in surprise.  He looked around at his surroundings, almost expecting to see the crumbling temple and the altar with the three tablets on it.  However, all he saw was the high ceiling and stained glass windows of the hospital wing, and a certain Egyptian snoring slightly in a chair next to his bed.

Marik let out a particularly loud snort, shifted his position, and muttered something about “that damned asshole” before going back to dreamland.  Seto rolled his eyes and started to sit up in bed when he became aware of the fact that his right hand was holding onto something tightly.  He looked down to see the Millennium Rod in his hand.

“This is a kingdom where world peace is supported with the absolute power of the king who’s become the living god…  But, the time where us Priests, who became the Pharaoh’s shadow and have hidden authority to protect the palace, is needed…”

Seto winced and gripped his head in pain, shutting his ears and eyes from the memories that did not belong to him.  He did not want to have anything to do with the past that Yami Yugi was from.  As far as he was concerned, it did not have anything to do with him.  He just played Duel Monsters in the modern world; he was just a duelist…

Just a duelist…

~.oOOo.~

November passed by in a blur, without further incidents from brooms or the Millennium Items, other than Seto refusing to take the Millennium Rod.  Marik all but shoved the Item down his throat, however, threatening to get the Weasley twins to show him how to do the Curse of the Bogies so he could use it on him if he did not take it (“I am not carting your heavy rear back down to the hospital wing again!” was his excuse but they all knew better).

Classes continued as always, and the lessons got harder.  However, between Seto and Hermione helping out during study sessions, they were all doing okay.  Marik stopped complaining about the Latin incantations, and was instead complaining about how he kept getting the four languages he knew mixed up.  That complaint did not last long, however, as Yugi (who had developed a knack for Transfiguration) threaten to send him back to Japan as a matchbox if he did not stop it.

Sometime right before December, Bakura had found a stash of various ingredients from the potions room hidden under a loose floorboard under his bed.  He gave the materials back to Professor Snape immediately, despite his other self threatening to send him to the Shadow Realm.  At first, Snape was furious and was about to give him a detention, when Bakura explained who really stole the ingredients.  The Potions Master paled before sending him on his way.

“It was weird,” Bakura told Yugi, Marik, and Seto afterwards.  “It was like he was afraid I’d let Yami Bakura-kun send him to the Shadow Realm or something.”

Marik looked pointedly at Yugi, who just rubbed the back of his neck, a huge grin on his face.

The first snow fell shortly after that incident, and snowball fights and snowmen building took up Friday break periods.  Marik was especially fond of it, as he had not had much of an opportunity to even see snow growing up.  He and Harry always managed to end up soaked by the time they went in, though they did not mind it in the least.

Of course, cold snowy days also meant time next to a warm fire.  The Weasley twins, Harry, and Ron caught Marik sitting in front of the fireplace in the common room one night, Hermione curled up next to him with her head resting in his lap.  The results of that… well, lets just say they were not pretty.

“I would have killed them,” Marik snarled after telling Yugi what had happened, wiping cream from his face and hair.  “They’re lucky I gave the Millennium Rod to Kaiba-kun.  Screw the Shadow Realm, I would have just killed them.”

Christmas approached, and a sign-up sheet was passed around for those who would need to stay at the school for the holiday.  Yugi, Seto, Marik, and Bakura signed up right away, neither of them wanting to go through the hassle of having to take the train ride back to London and then a plane back to Japan.  Harry and the Weasley brothers also signed up; the Weasleys had to because their parents were going to Romania to visit their elder brother Charlie for the holiday.  Harry did not have to stay at the school, but he said he wanted to – he did not want to have to spend another depressing Christmas at his home on Privet Drive.

“I’m pretty sure all I’ll hear from Uncle Vernon is how I’m a freak of nature,” he said in Potions the Friday before break, measuring out powdered spine of lionfish.

“Don’t let it bother you so much, Harry-kun,” Yugi encouraged, stirring the contents of their cauldron.  “You know that you’re not.  Hey, Marik-kun, pass the spider legs.”

“Yugi-kun, how are you going to do your Christmas shopping this year?” Marik asked, handing over a small box with some spider legs poking over the edge.

“I sent Ojii-chan a list of things I wanted to get and told him to take it out of my allowance,” Yugi explained, handing the box to Harry to take out what they needed.  “He’s been putting my allowance aside since we left for this country.”

“Oh, so you should have stuff showing up soon, hunh?” Ron asked.  Yugi raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, no jumping Panseru before he can give me everything to wrap,” he warned.  “I won’t forgive you if you peek.”

Yugi looked up from his potion a moment to see that Malfoy was glaring at Harry.  Apparently, he was still sour at him for the win he had gotten against Slytherin.  Yugi caught his attention and fingered a corner of the Millennium Puzzle, a smirk on his face.  As if it were possible, the blonde boy paled, but managed to give him a dirty look before returning his attention to his potion.  Harry noticed the look he had given his friend, though.

“Yugi, that reminds me,” he began.  “Malfoy’s been spreading rumors that you’re possessed by some kind of spirit or something.”

Yugi just shrugged.  “Ah, he’s just blowing steam out of his mouth,” he replied.  He could hear both Marik and Yami Yugi bite back a snigger at that.

~.oOOo.~

The day to leave for the students who were not staying at the school came fast, and it was also the day that Seto was ready to test his magic Duel Monsters board.  Yugi agreed to help with the test, and the two of them sat in the Great Hall with Marik, Ron, Bakura, and Harry watching.  Everything was going fine, until Seto tried to use an effect monster whose special ability could only be activated by a flip summon.  A puff of smoke appeared instead of the monster, accompanied by a loud bang that echoed through the Hall.  Everyone jumped in surprise, and passing students gave them funny looks.

Yugi smiled weakly.  “Well, at least it didn’t explode…”

“Don’t jinx it, Yugi,” Ron commented as Seto sighed.  The tall boy pulled out a piece of parchment and unrolled it, revealing the title “Problems” with a long list of scratched out items on it.  He added “Flip Summon + Effect” to the bottom of the list as Hermione walked up to them, dragging her trunk behind her.

“Have a good holiday, everyone,” she said warmly.  “You will keep looking in the library while I’m gone, wont you?”

“Hunh?” Yugi asked as Seto put his parchment away and collected his cards.

“After you and Kaiba-kun left Hagrid’s hut that time,” Bakura began, “he let slip that whatever it is that three-headed dog is guarding was the business of Dumbledore and a man named Nicolas Flamel.  We’re trying to find out who this Flamel is, but we haven’t had much luck.”

“Whatever that dog is guarding,” Harry picked up, “we know that either Snape or Quirrell or both of them want it.”

“Anyway, Hermione, why don’t you ask your parents who Flamel is?” Ron asked.  “It should be safe to ask them.”

Marik glared at him as Hermione giggled.  “Yes, very safe.  They’re both dentists.”

~.oOOo.~

Thanks to special permission from Dumbledore, and because there was next to no one left from their houses, Seto and Bakura were allowed to sleep in the Gryffindor tower with their friends during Christmas break.  That led to some interesting mornings (which almost always began with Marik complaining that Seto took too long in the bath) and some even more interesting evenings (which almost always ended with everyone banging on the door to the bath, urging Bakura to get out).  Christmas Eve finally came, and Harry went to bed that night looking forward to the food and fun he would have the next day, but not expecting to get anything.  He woke up late the next morning to find everyone already awake and went downstairs to join them.

“Merry Christmas, Harry-kun!” Yugi greeted.

“It’s about time!” Fred exclaimed.  “I was going to send Ron’s rat to wake you up.”

“Knowing Scabbers, he would have fallen asleep halfway up the stairs,” Ron replied sourly.

“Well, c’mon,” George urged.  “Come and open your presents!”

Harry blinked, caught off guard.  “I’ve got presents?”

“What did you expect to get, road apples?” Seto asked, grabbing a package with blue and white wrapping from under the tree and lobbing it in his direction.  “That’s from me.”

Harry stared at the present for a moment, before tearing off the wrapping and opening up the box that was revealed.  Inside was a beautiful silver watch, obviously special made, with a picture of his favorite Duel Monster – Gemini Elf – on the face, as well as five packs of Duel Monsters boosters.

“Th-thank you,” he stammered, slipping the watch onto his wrist as Seto handed out presents he had gotten for the others (except for the Weasley twins and Percy; he did not know them well enough).  Each one had a watch with their favorite monster on it, as well as five booster packs.

Next they went to presents labeled “From Hermione”.  Most of them contained chocolate frogs or Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, but Marik’s obviously contained something different, judging from the sudden blush that came to his cheeks.  The others tried to get a peek inside the box, but he snapped it closed before anyone could get a good look, the red tint never leaving his face as he set it aside.

Ron blushed as Harry and Yugi each went for a large package in nondescript brown paper wrapping.

“Hey, Mum sent you Weasley sweaters!” Fred exclaimed, also going for one with his name on it.

“Weasley sweaters?” Yugi asked.

“Yeah,” Ron glowered, opening one with his name on it.  “Mum always makes us sweaters for Christmas.  Mine’s always maroon.”

Everyone opened their “Weasley sweaters”.  The twins each got a blue one with their first initial on it; Percy’s also had his first initial on his (“P for prefect!” Fred joked), but was a sort of brownish color.  Seto’s was also blue like the twins, but had hints of silver woven into it.  Yugi got a purple one, Marik got a lavender one, and Harry got a green one, leaving them wondering if anyone had told Mrs. Weasley their eye colors.  Lastly, Bakura got a white one, and while he was pulling it over his head, it was hard to tell where his hair ended and the sweater began.

“Wow, these are warm!” he exclaimed as George picked at the initial on his sweater.

“I don’t know why Mum always has to put a letter on ours,” he said.  “I suppose she thinks we forget our names.”

“Really,” Fred chimed in.  “We know we’re called Gred and Forge.”

Yugi giggled, reaching for a stack of presents still under the tree.  “My gifts next!”

Everyone tore into the presents he had gotten them.  Marik got a new pair of gold earrings (“Are you trying to tell me something?” he joked) as well as two booster packs.  Bakura got booster packs as well, in addition to the latest action figure in a series he was collecting, but judging from the half elated, half wincing look on his face, Yami Bakura obviously disapproved.   To Harry, Ron, and Seto went ten Duel Monsters booster packs a piece, for he had been at a loss as to what to get them, especially Seto.  The twins got their own Duel Disk ][’s, as well as starter decks (“Finally!  Something I can beat my brothers at!” Ron had exclaimed), and Percy received a book on Japanese Sorcery he had been interested in.

“Geeze, Yugi-kun,” Marik said, reaching for the next set of packages under the tree.  “What kind of allowance do you get?”

“You’re asking this to someone who lives in a game store,” Bakura pointed out.

“Good point,” he replied, reading the Japanese scrawl two packages he had grabbed.  “Lessee, to Otouto, from Onee-san.  That would mine, and this one… from Otouto, to Onii-sama.  Seto…!”

~.oOOo.~

Totally exhausted from the snow fights and merry making of the day, once Yugi hit his pillow he did not know anything else.  That was, of course, until someone rudely shook his shoulder to wake him up.  He sat up in bed, bleary-eyed, trying to find the culprit, but no one was there.  He was about to flop back onto the bed, when suddenly Harry appeared as if from nowhere.  Yugi nearly jumped out of his skin, not awake enough for people to be popping up unexpectedly.

“Harry-kun, what the…!”

“Yugi, you’ve got to come see this!” he hissed quietly, so as not to wake the others.  Yugi stared at the silvery substance in his hand, watching as it sparkled slightly in the moonlight.

“What the heck is that thing?” he asked.  Harry looked down at it as well.

“It’s an invisibility cloak,” he said, getting a suspicious look out of Yugi.  “Someone left it on my pillow, with a note saying that it had belonged to my father.  Now, will you c’mon?”

Yugi slipped out of bed and into his slippers.  Harry tossed the invisibility cloak over them, and they disappeared from view immediately, though the shorter boy did not even know it until they passed a mirror, and nearly freaked out before Harry slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Just because we’re invisible, doesn’t mean we can’t be heard,” he warned.

They left the common room, alarming the fat lady in the pink dress, and made their way down the halls.  It seemed to take an eternity, and Yugi almost insisted that they turn around and go back, when Harry pulled him into a half open door and closed it behind them gently before throwing off the cloak.

Yugi looked around; it was just a normal, unused classroom they had walked into, with one special exception.  A mirror stood at the far corner of the room, almost touching the ceiling.  It had a golden frame, and stood on two, claw-like feet.  Up near the top of the mirror where the words: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

He gulped; that entire mumble jumble was the phrase “I show not your face but your hearts desire” spelled backwards with the spaces in the wrong places.  Harry either did not figure it out, or did not care as he jumped before the mirror.

“Look,” he said, pointing, “there’s my parents!”

Yugi looked into the mirror under the younger boy’s arm, but he did not see anything other than their reflections, and told him as much.  He stepped away from the mirror, and pulled him before it.

“There, stand in front of it properly,” he instructed.  “Now do you see them?”

Yugi looked, and bit back a gasp.  He did not see Harry’s parents, but what he did see shocked him to the core.  It was himself, dressed in the robes of the pharaoh, with the gleaming crown on his forehead.  He stared at the image, trying to put two and two together.  If the inverted words at the top meant anything, then the mirror showed people their desires – their hearts desires.  If that was the case, then why was he seeing himself as the pharaoh?  The only things he wanted were to stay with his other half and his friends, and to find out how his story was going to continue.  No matter how much he focused on these things, however, his image did not change.

“Well, do you see them?” Harry asked, starting to get impatient.

“No.  I don’t see anything,” Yugi lied.  “Can we go back to the common room now?”
Had to shorten the title because of space restritions. This is Yu-Gi-Oh! Episode Nine and Three Quarters, from FanFiction.net to your friendly neighborhood Deviant!

Yugi, Marik, Bakura, and Seto are accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but why do they need to go to a magic school out in England?
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