A.N. Here we go! Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: YGO and HP aren’t mine.

Chapter 30

When the rest of the Gryffindors returned from dinner it was to find the six of them crowded around the table nearest the hearth with cards spread across its surface. Few of the others paid this much attention, though a few of the ones who recognized the game did come by to see what was going on before losing interest when they realized there wasn’t actually a game going. Seamus, Dean, and Nevile however approached them when the rest of the room had decided there was nothing interesting in their direction. They had apparently been talking and it was Dean who spoke for them when they came, asking rather tentatively if they could join them. So the six of them had turned into the nine of them which left the rest of Gryffindor to wonder what was so interesting about point values and assorted other odd tidbits of knowledge.

“Thing is,” Yugi told the three newcomers when they settled into chairs, “if there is another breech you probably won’t have the cards around to tell you about the monster. So it would be best if you could memorize the information for at least some of the more common or powerful monsters.”

He was relieved when none of them argued. He’d been half afraid they would think the exercise ridiculous. But they were apparently content to listen. There was however a limit to how much raw information could be efficiently crammed into people in one sitting so the three duelists excused themselves when they noticed their students’ eyes glazing over, announcing they would retire early.

“I’m starting to think we should just go hunt down the source of all this ourselves,” Malik grumbled as he, Yugi, and Ryou made their way up the narrow staircase towards their room.

“Come on Malik,” Yugi laughed. “They’re not that bad. I actually think they’re dealing with it all pretty well, all considered.”

Malik rolled his eyes. “I don’t have your patience with amateurs.”

“Malik!” Ryou exclaimed. “That’s just rude.”

“Sorry, sorry, but that’s not what I meant anyway. It’s this waiting. It’s getting on my nerves. I don’t know how they can sit down there and wait for their Dark Lord guy to make the first move.”

“I guess sometimes that’s all you can do.” Yugi pushed open the door to the dormitory room they shared with Harry and the others. “Think about it this way,” he added as an afterthought. “It’s much easier to let them come to you then the other way around.”

The three were greeted by a soft hiss as a small, aquamarine head peered around one of the bed curtains to watch them. Satisfied with what it saw, it retreated back behind the curtains.

Malik plopped onto his own bed and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I haven’t seen her around much lately.”

Ryou raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean? You saw her earlier today.”

“That was in class, it doesn’t count. She knows she’s supposed to be there for class.”

“I think she’s been spending a lot of time with Shadi,” Yugi explained, moving to his bed to take a closer look at the Wingendi. She had curled herself into a scaly ball nestled into the folds of his blankets where they were shadowed by the bed hangings. “She looks tired.”

Malik snorted. “Figures. If not with the Pharaoh himself than why not the Pharaoh’s faithful servant?” He leaned his weight back on his hands. “I still can’t believe Shadi had us show them to the shadow realm! What’s next? Introduce them to the yamis?”

Ryou’s head snapped around suddenly in the direction of the door. “Bakura says someone’s coming.”

The words had barely left his mouth when the door opened and Harry walked in. He hesitated a moment over the threshold before coming fully inside and shutting the door behind himself. They watched him with curious eyes.

“Um,” he started, paused, then squared his shoulders and looked back at them. “I wanted to ask you something.”

The three waited for a moment before they realized he was waiting for an answer.

“Go on,” Ryou urged.

“I was wondering why you guys seem to look different sometimes,” he said in a rush. “Is it a part of your magic? You don’t have to answer,” he added quickly. “I know you’ve told us a lot more than you intended to today already. I just thought I’d ask all the questions now.” He shrugged, offering them a wry grin.

His outburst was answered with a momentary silence then Malik threw back his head and laughed. It was such an unexpected sound that even Yugi and Ryou jumped.

“Malik! Cut it out!” the latter exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head where he had cracked it on the frame of his four-poster. “It’s creepy when you laugh like that.”

“Sorry,” Malik managed to gasp out as he struggled to get his laughter under control. “I’ve got to hand it to you Harry, way to fulfill expectations. You know, you’re one of the few people I know who’d out and ask a question like that at a time like this. Remind us again and we’ll introduce you sometime.”

“I think what he means to say,” Yugi elaborated as Malik devolved into more laughter, “is that we’ll answer your question later. We’re all a little tired today.”

Harry nodded and withdrew, feeling oddly as though he had only witnessed half a conversation despite being a participant.

When he returned to the common room he found Hermione and Ron still talking with Seamus, Dean, and Nevile. All five of them looked up as he reclaimed his vacated seat.

“What?” he asked. He recognized that look as the one people usually gave someone when they had a lot to say but weren’t sure how to say it.

It was Seamus who finally leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “This is all just… I feel like I’ve just had a week’s worth of classes in one day and I still don’t know if I’m dreaming or not.”

Dean nodded. “You said it.”

x-X-x

There were two doors. They stood before him in the darkness, strangely vivid despite the absence of any kind of light. They reminded him a little of the hundreds and thousands of doors in his soul room, but he knew he wasn’t there right now. Or rather, he was, but this…place, if place it was, was not. It gave off the slightly unbalanced feeling of a place formed in dreams.

“Yami?”

Not entirely surprised, he turned to see Yugi walking out of the darkness behind him, looking confused. It wasn’t a common occurrence but they had shared dreams before—usually when the dream in question had something to say, and this one definitely felt like one of those.

“Where are we?” asked Yugi when he came to a stop beside the spirit.

“I’m not sure. But I think I know how to find out.” Striding up to the left hand door, the former Pharaoh placed a hand against it and pushed as it had no handle of any kind. It resisted for a moment then gave and swung open with the faintest of creaks. A corresponding creak made him turn his head to the side where he found that the other door too had opened.

“You know,” Yugi said thoughtfully. “They look like the same door. What’s on the other side?”

“Nothing that I can see.” Pushing the door further open, Yami stepped through it for a better look. He was greeted by more black nothing. Turning to go back through he saw that the edges of the doors didn’t quite line up so he could see Yugi on the other side through the crack. On an impulse he walked around the door instead of through it. Sure enough he wound up again on the other side without encountering any barriers. “So…we have a pair of doors that might be the same door standing unsupported in the middle of nothing, going nowhere.”

“Maybe something will happen if we wait,” Yugi suggested, sitting down cross-legged on the nonexistent floor.

Yami joined him with a sigh. “Omens are not my forte.”

Yugi laughed. “We can ask Bakura tomorrow.”

His companion resisted the urge to groan. “If we must.”

They fell silent after that, waiting. Both of them kept turning to look out into the darkness, half expecting something to leap out at them, but nothing did. Finally Yugi reached into his pocket and concentrated. When his hand came out it was holding a pack of playing cards. He grinned.

“It worked!” Dreams had their upsides. “Do you want to play? I bought a set of these at the airport. It’s a game called Uno. It’s a chance game and more fun with more players but it can help pass the time.”

Always up for a game of any kind, Yami agreed.

X

“Two doors?” Bakura repeated, frowning at Yugi and Yami who were sitting side by side on Yugi’s bed. The rest of their dorm mates had already headed downstairs. “That’s it?”

Yugi nodded. “We thought something might happen, but nothing did.”

“What did the doors look like?”

“Pretty plain,” Yami said shortly. “Probably made of some kind of metal.”

“And they move together… Did the doors look exactly the same? Was one perhaps marked? Or in a different condition?”

Yugi and Yami traded looks. Bakura rolled his eyes.

“Let me guess. Neither of you looked that closely.”

Yugi offered a somewhat sheepish laugh. “Sorry.”

“Seriously, pay attention next time. How am I supposed to make heads or tales out of such limited information? If you see the doors again, memorize them.”

“You guys,” Ryou cut in, getting to his feet. “We should get going or we’ll miss breakfast.”

x-X-x

“I don’t understand the point of this,” said Malik as he idly twirled his wand, watching the turtle on the table before him with disinterest. “We should be tracking down the disturbances, or at least gathering information, not trying to turn turtles into stupid teapots.”

“Class is still class Malik,” Ryou replied, frowning at his own turtle. “Though I must admit, I don’t feel right about trying to turn a living creature into crockery.”

“I know what you mean.” Yugi was patting his turtle on the head with one finger. Something the little creature seemed to be enjoying. “It does seem a bit cruel. I mean, what happens to the mind of an animal that’s been turned into an inanimate object? Come to think of it, would they even be aware of what happened?”

His companions gave this some serious thought.

“It’s entirely possible,” Malik said finally. “I mean, we all know minds can live in inanimate objects.”

Ryou drummed lightly on the table. “But that’s a different matter entirely. I mean, the Items are magical, and tools used in, by, or for, shadow games might as well be, but these teapots would be completely mundane.”

“They do turn them back into turtles sometimes though,” Yugi pointed out then frowned. “But I suppose you’d never know if it was the same turtle…”

Malik let out a loud groan and put his head down on the table. “I can’t believe we’re discussing this.”

Yugi reached over and gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. “We can’t spend all our time thinking about problems, Malik. Besides, you said yourself, we can only wait now.”

“Well, I’ve changed my mind. Shadi’s been investigating, so why shouldn’t we?” The moment the words were out of his mouth he found that he had garnered both his companions’ undivided attention. “What?” he demanded, a bit defensively. “You can’t tell me the thought never crossed your minds.”

“But if Shadi couldn’t find anything—”

“Different eyes see different things,” Malik cut in before Yugi could finish. “We just need to come up with a good strategy. That should be right up your alley. Just think about it like one of those mystery games.” He paused as his turtle stretched its neck out so it could peer at him in the face. As he still had his head on the table it wasn’t a difficult thing for the creature to do. It seemed to be thinking very hard. Then it reached that extra few millimeters and bit him on the nose. He yelped, jerking backwards and nearly toppling over his chair. His hands flew up to examine his now throbbing nose. He’d heard turtle bites could be painful but he’d never thought it would be true. “Why you little—you are so turning into a teapot for that!”

Hermione hung back when the students began to pour out of the room at the end of class.

“I need to talk to Professor McGonagall,” she explained to Ron and Harry before shooing them out with the others. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

“What do you think she’s up to?” Ron wondered as he and Harry were swept out into the corridor. Harry blinked and turned to look at him.

“What?”

The redhead let out an exasperated puff of air. “What is wrong with you two today? I feel like I’ve been talking to myself all morning.”

“Sorry, what was that?” asked Harry, hiding a grin at Ron’s look. “Seriously, I’ve just…been doing a lot of thinking.”

“No kidding.”

“And we can ask Hermione about it later. If we don’t hurry up we’re going to be late for History of Magic.”

“Like that’s any loss,” his friend grumbled but he lengthened his stride anyway. Hermione however didn’t catch up to them until mere moments before class began so she didn’t have time to explain her actions. She did however give them a very pleased smile that left them both even more confused than they had been before.

x-X-x

“So…dragon type monsters tend to have extremely high attack powers?” Seamus asked.

Yugi nodded. “Many of the most power monsters are dragons, but not everything that looks like a dragon is one and attack power isn’t everything. Take the Cyber Dragon you saw on Halloween for example. It’s actually a machine type monster and so its strengths and weaknesses are that of a machine even though it could physically be labeled a dragon.”

“So what is a dragon’s weakness?” Harry inquired, leaning forward a little so that he could take a closer look at the cards that the three duelists had arrayed across the table. He, Seamus, Dean, Nevile, and Ron were sitting in a circle around it with their self-appointed teachers for a second session of what Ron had dubbed their Defense Against Magical Creatures class in the Gryffindor common room after dinner. “For ours it’s the eyes.”

“For specifics it depends on the dragon,” Malik replied. “But generally it’s that they’re hard to summon. In a duel it’s because you need to tribute other monsters for the real power hitters, but for your situation it’s good to remember that the more powerful a creature a summoner calls the more energy the said summoner would have had to expend. So your best bet would be to go after the pooped out summoner if its possible instead of actually trying to fight the dragon.”

“But that’s what you’ve said for all of them!” Ron groaned. “According to you we wouldn’t stand a chance against anything more ferocious than that fuzball Kuri-whatever creature.”

The Egyptian’s lips twitched. “I’d advise you stay away from those too. They explode upon contact with the enemy.”

“Explode?” Nevile repeated, eyes going wide. “B—but I thought you said they were really weak.”

“The thing is,” Ryou said hurriedly, seeing the gleam in Malik’s eyes that he knew meant his friend was about to say something he thought was funny but which would probably not amuse their ‘students, “a lot of weaker monsters come with dangerous effects. The Man-Eater Bug and the Old Vindictive Magician for example have the ability to destroy another monster regardless of that other’s attack or defense points.”

“The important thing,” Yugi added, “is that every monster has a weakness.”

“Done!”

Everyone around the circle started as Hermione plopped herself down next to Ron, a stack of papers in hand.

Ron gave her a slightly sour look. “So are you going to tell us what you were doing now?”

“I’m getting to that. Can I put this down?”

“Sure.” Yugi cleared a space on the table and Hermione set her papers down.

“We,” she explained as she pulled out a quill, “are starting a club. I got the forms from Professor McGonagall. I just finished putting together our constitution. We just need to fill out our club officers’ list and I can submit it to her for approval.”

“A club?” Dean leaned over for a closer look. “That sounds interesting. What kind of club?”

“A dueling club of course.”

“But Professor Shadi told us—” Ron began only to be cut off by an impatient wave of Hermione’s hand.

“Not that kind of dueling! I was talking about wizard dueling. Remember how we were talking about how we needed the practice? Well, this would be a perfect way for people to sharpen their skills and maybe learn a thing or two. I know it’ll be kind of time consuming,” she added hurriedly when no one spoke. “With homework and O.W.L.s coming up and all, but I think it’ll be worth the time. And it couldn’t hurt our test scores to get some practical practice in.”

“You know,” Harry said slowly. “I think that’s a good idea.”

Hermione beamed. “So will you be the president?”

He stared at her for a moment, somewhat taken aback. “What?”

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” she said quickly. “But I really do think you could do it. We can get a club vote once we’re approved of course, but I was really hoping…?”

“I—”

“He says yes,” Ron interrupted, shooting his friend a grin and grabbing the quill from Hermione. “Here, I’ll sign for him.”

“But—”

“What about you Hermione?” the redhead continued, quill poised. “Since this is your idea.”

“Well…”

“Shouldn’t she be the vice president then?” Ryou suggested hesitantly.

“Good idea.” Ron wrote down Hermione’s name. “What else?”

“Usually there’re a secretary and a treasurer,” Dean offered. “That’s what clubs at muggle schools have anyway.”

Ron grinned. “I want to be treasurer. What’s a secretary do?”

Dean thought for a moment then shrugged. “I don’t really know. Keep track of club activities, I think.”

“So anyone want to do that?”

“I—I will.” Nevile turned red the moment the words left his mouth and he shrank back in its seat. “If that’s all right.”

“Sure why not.” Ron wrote his name too. “Anything else?”

“I think that’ll do for now. Professor McGonagall said we only need three officers to submit the constitution and we can adjust it later on if we need to.” There was a moment of silence as Hermione gathered up the papers and took her quill back from Ron. She looked up finally, her eyes going around the circle. “Um, so…are you all interested then?”

“Of course we are,” Seamus assured her with an enthusiastic grin. “Sounds fun.”

“Would you guys mind if we joined you?”

The witch turned surprised eyes to Yugi at the question. “Of course you are. And once we’re approved we can start recruiting other members.”

Hermione went on to outline the constitution she had written up and some of the ideas she had for activities they could put together. Seeing that everyone’s attention was focused on her, Malik leaned over to whisper into Yugi’s ear.

“You really think we should be spending time on this?”

“It could be useful,” the diminutive duelist replied. “And I think it would be fun. We never really got to learn much about their kind of dueling after all. Aren’t you curious?”

Malik paused then laughed. Fun. To think he had almost forgotten how fun this could all be. “That I am.”

x-X-x

“He has recovered?”

The head in the fire nodded. “Yes ma’am. The hospital released him this morning and he charged me to give you this.” A hand appeared beside the head and flicked a letter onto the hearthstones just beyond the flames. “He said it’s urgent ma’am.”

“Good, good.” Delores Umbridge bent to retrieve the letter from the ground. “Thank you. You may go now.”

The head nodded and disappeared in a flash of green flames.

TBC

A.N. I wish you all a happy New Year.