A.N: Okay, so it turned out to be the beginning of the meeting of the yamis, but it's getting there. And here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't own YGO or HP

Chapter 33

Harry groaned. What had happened? He felt like he'd been beaten up by the Womping Willow. But that couldn't be right. He hadn't gone outside, and even if he had he knew better than to get within branch-reach of the bad-tempered tree.

On the other hand, if he hadn't gone outside, why did he feel like he was lying on bare earth?

He gave himself a few more seconds to just breathe before opening his eyes and staring blankly up into a pale, blue sky. It felt oddly close, but it was definitely the sky. So he was outside after all. But where? He couldn't think of anywhere on the grounds he could be where half the sky would be edged by jagged, mountain peaks.

Levering himself into a sitting position, he scanned his surroundings with growing confusion. He was seated on what appeared to be a small, rocky plateau. The aforementioned cliffs loomed along one side of said plateau. In the other direction huge boulder formations and ridges rose and fell in descending layers towards a haze of green and blue that might have been a valley of some kind.

Wherever this was, it definitely wasn't anywhere near Hogwarts.

Tearing his eyes away from the valley below, Harry turned his attention back to his immediate vicinity and the lack of any other human occupants in it. Whatever had brought him here then hadn't brought his friends. Or at least they hadn't been brought where he was.

A walk around the perimeter of the plateau revealed what appeared to be narrow paths leading both higher up the mountain and downward towards the foothills. He stood at the base of the uphill path for several minutes before turning and heading for the other road. If any of his friends had wound up higher on the mountain, they would have to head down eventually. And there wasn't much point in wasting time searching the higher levels of the mountain when they'd probably just miss each other if anyone was there and wind up wasting time if there wasn't. What he wouldn't give for his Firebolt right now . . .

x-X-x

Nevile was officially having the worst day of his entire life. Well, to be totally honest, there were probably a few that had been worse, but it was a pretty bad day regardless. This was largely due to the fact that whatever had happened—and he was still trying to figure out what that was—seemed to have blasted him right into the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Or at least that's where he thought he was. He couldn't think of anywhere else with this many tall, dark trees and this much thick, clinging undergrowth. To top it all off he would swear he could hear things moving around out there—always just out of sight. Sometimes he even thought he saw shapes out there in the darkness. Huge, looming, inhuman shapes he couldn't begin to describe because describing them would mean they were really there and he really, really, really didn't want them to be there.

On the bright side, he had run across Dean—quite literally, as the other boy had been lying unconscious half in and half out of a bush—and now he wasn't alone. Dean didn't seem to be liking this place any more than he was, but at least he didn't seem like he wanted to jump out of his skin, and that was kind of comforting. It would have been even more comforting if they could just figure out which way to go to get back to school.

"Point me," Dean muttered over his wand for the umpteenth time in the last half hour but, as it had every other time before, his wand remained motionless on his hand. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he looked up at Nevile. "I think maybe we should just pick a direction and start walking. We won't get anywhere by just standing around."

"But what if we just end up getting farther and farther away?" Nevile countered, casting another nervous glance around at the trees. "And what if—what if we run into . . ." He trailed off, not entirely sure how to end that sentence and not particularly wanting to try. There were too many possibilities, all of them horrible.

Dean too cast an uneasy look around but the set of his shoulders was determined. "If we stay here we still might get found by—by something we don't want to meet anyway. I still think going somewhere's the best choice we've got. Besides, we still have our wands." Even if they seemed to be slightly uncooperative at the moment. They'd tried the lumos spell and that at least had worked so they weren't completely useless.

Swallowing hard, Nevile resigned himself to the inevitable and trailed after his companion as Dean began to walk. He supposed it was true that they would have to get somewhere eventually if they kept moving in the same direction. He just hoped that somewhere wasn't the belly of some beast. Neither wizard spoke as they walked. There was a silent consensus that any comfort conversation might provide was less important than the ability to hear approaching danger. The last thing either of them wanted was to be caught unawares.

Time passed oddly when one was nervous, Nevile noted. He felt both like it had been forever and yet no time at all since they'd started moving. It didn't help that the forest looked the same no matter how far they went. Were they moving at all? Could they somehow be traveling in circles and yet not know it? But that wasn't possible . . .was it? What could they do about it if it was? How would they even know? The questions were endless and he couldn't answer any of them.

Unable to hold all the worry in any longer, Nevile opened his mouth to try and voice one, or maybe all, of them, but he was cut off before so much as a syllable could pass his lips by the sound of rustling leaves. He froze. Ahead of him Dean spun around, his wand rising automatically as wide eyes focused on the tall bushes to their right. The branches rustled again and both wizards held their breaths. Whatever was coming didn't seem particularly large, but it probably didn't have to be to be dangerous.

There was a final shake of dark, glossy leaves and a flash of white. Dean's mouth opened, a spell already on the tip of his tongue—

"Oh, Dean, Nevile!"

The wizards stared, then both boys relaxed as relieved smiles broke out across their faces. "Ryou!"

The white haired boy looked almost as relieved to see them as they were that he hadn't turned out to be some monster from the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

"So you're here too," Dean said, lowering his wand. "Don't suppose you have any idea if we're headed in the right direction to get back to school? We could get any of our directional spells to work."

"Back to school?" Ryou repeated, giving them both a puzzled look. "Uh, I don't think you'll be able to walk back to school, if that's what you were trying to do . . ."

Nevile paled. "Why? Are we that far away?"

"Uh, well, not exactly . . ." The duelist paused for a moment, looking like he was having some kind of fierce, internal debate. Finally, he looked them square in the eyes, expression far too serious for either of their comfort. "You won't be able to walk back because we are currently in the shadow realm. You might not have noticed because this area is a fixed Field, but it's still the shadow realm."

And Nevile had thought things couldn't get any worse.

x-X-x

The mountain paths multiplied in number the farther down the mountain Harry got. Every time he came to a new branch he would stop and find some pebbles he could use to line up an arrow shape in the dusty path. That way anyone coming down the mountain behind him would know which way he'd taken, and it would help if he had to backtrack for whatever reason. The thing was that there was simply no end to the number of paths. He had walked one route for what had to be at least two hours only to come out back at a crossroad he'd already passed. He'd wound up piecing together an 'x' next to the arrow marking that path, but the same thing happened several times more and he was beginning to wonder if he was really getting any closer to the ground at all. If he didn't have a change of scenery soon he was sure he was going to go mad.

The thought had no sooner crossed his mind when he saw the cave. Its gaping mouth was at least five times his height and twice again as wide. The pale sunlight pained a wiggly arch that showed its insides to be as dry and rocky as everything else on the mountain, but the shade further in looked rather inviting after trekking under the sun for hours on end. Letting out a quiet breath, he started into the cave, fully intent on taking a break and giving the bottoms of his feet time to recover. He was halted in mid-step however by a low, menacing growl.

Staring hard into the murky depths of the cave from which the chilling sound had come, he reached slowly into his pocket. His fingers closed around the comfortingly familiar shape of his wand as his searching eyes met—another pair of eyes. They were massive, glowing, yellow eyes with slitted, reptilian pupils.

"Don't move."

Harry nearly jumped at the voice speaking from behind him, but it sounded kind of familiar so he kept his eyes fixed on the eyes. Whoever had spoken moved up to stand beside him. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught a glimpse of spiky, multicolored hair.

"Yugi?" he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Start walking back slowly," the duelist instructed. "But don't turn your back."

The commanding tone in the other boy's voice had Harry obeying before he'd consciously decided to do so. His actions were rewarded however when the low growl that had never stopped began to grow quieter. Beside him, Yugi was doing the same, though he was keeping himself between Harry and the eyes. Finally, when both humans had passed fully out of the cave mouth, the growling stopped and the eyes disappeared.

Harry let out a sigh of relief and turned to his companion. He noted absently that the Yugi beside him seemed a bit different somehow—taller for one, and he carried himself differently. It was like those moments he'd noticed when Yugi started acting different. But now wasn't really the time to be thinking about that.

"How did you know what to do?" he asked instead, glancing back towards the cave to make sure its occupant hadn't changed its mind about pursuing them.

Yugi followed his gaze then shook his head. "That particular type of dragon is generally slow to anger. They protect their treasures fiercely, but will not follow a fleeing foe unless that foe is also a thief."

"So it was a dragon . . ." Somehow, Harry wasn't surprised. "I don't suppose you've seen any of the others?"

A frown flickered across the other's face, leaving a troubled shadow in narrowed eyes. "Not yet. But they are here—somewhere. What troubles me is that I am unable to pinpoint their exact locations or distance relative to our current position."

Harry blinked. "Oookaaay. Is that something your kind of magic lets you do?"

This drew a wry smile from his companion. "That depends. But while here in the realm I usually have no trouble with it."

"The realm?" Harry could feel his stomach flip at the implications of that word. "You mean . . ."

"Yes."

"But you showed us the shadow realm before and it was, well . . ." He gestured at the mountains all around them as his mind tried to find a good word to describe what he remembered of the shadow realm. Nothing seemed to fit so he finally settled for the somewhat lackluster term, "Different."

"Most of the realm would be like how you remember. But we are currently on a Fixed Field—a Mountain field to be exact. They don't happen very often but such areas can form in the realm on occasion. They don't usually last very long, but when they do they become homes for certain monsters. There are a few Fixed Fields that have developed whole colonies. But I think this one is relatively new."

"Oh." Harry wasn't sure what to say to that, but he did know one thing. "I think we need to find the others."

Yugi nodded, turning and starting down yet another path. Harry couldn't quite surpress the urge to sigh, but he followed anyway.

"Stay close to me," the shadow mage advised without turning to look at him. "Mountains tend to attract dragon-type monsters. They are more powerful here and almost all of them are territorial."

"Great," the wizard muttered under his breath.

Yugi laughed. "I'm not trying to scare you, but it is better to be careful."

x-X-x

The footprint was massive. She could stand in the middle of it and hold out her arms to either side and not reach either side. It was also a very familiar shape. She'd seen the shape in textbooks and at museums. Although she rather thought it was bigger than it should be. This was not comforting.

Maybe she was dreaming? Because there was no way it could really be a tyrannosaurus footprint.

Then again . . . She was almost positive at this point that wherever it was it wasn't the world she was used to. It felt too real to be a dream. Pinching had hurt, and she could smell the damp earth and earthy scent of wild, living things. Well, there was no point in dwelling on it. She was here now and she had to find her friends. She was sure that whatever had sent her here—it must have been something to do with that duel she could now barely remember—must have caught the others as well. Turning away from the disconcerting footprint, she cast one look towards the distant silhouette of a faintly smoking volcano and decided to go in the opposite direction. That thing looked active and ready to erupt at any moment.

She hadn't gone very far when her straining ears caught the sound of raised voices. Frowning, she quickened her steps.

"I didn't do anything!" someone was shouting.

"You must have! How else could we have ended up here?" a second voice, this one clearly recognizable as Malik's, retorted. "In case you haven't noticed, we're in the shadow realm! And Fields this big and this stable don't just appear!"

"It was your turn when it happened!" the first voice shot back, a snarl edging his voice. "How do we know it wasn't something you did?"

"Because I didn't do anything!"

"And I didn't either!"

Passing through a last screen of trees Hermione slowed to a stop and stared. Malik and Ryou were standing in the middle of a clearly, glaring at each other with their fists clenched at their sides. She'd never seen Ryou looking so . . .well, angry. He had his weird moments when he didn't seem quite as nice as he usually did, but this was an entirely new face and it scared her a little.

Drawing in a deep breath to calm her suddenly pounding heart, she stepped forward and cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me?"

Both duelists started and spun to face her. Malik's hand had gone automatically to his pocket and Ryou had dropped into a fighting stance, but both figures relaxed when they recognized her. The irate expression on Ryou's face smoothed almost instantly into something more like what she was used to, but his eyes still seemed different somehow.

"Hermione," he greeted with a smile. "So I guess it wasn't just us dragged here then."

Malik rolled his eyes and snorted, crossing his arms. "Like you didn't already know that."

Irritation flashed across Ryou's face again but it was gone in an instant. "And I suppose you didn't? You must be getting a bit rusty."

It was Malik's turn to bristle. "Yeah? Well, at least I didn't—"

"You guys," Hermione interjected hurriedly before the argument could rev up to full power again. "Do you know how to get back to school?"

The two traded glances before Malik cleared his throat. "We should be able to open a portal, but we should probably find the others first."

Hermione nodded, frowning slightly. Something about the way he'd said that bothered her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

TBC

A.N: I'm having a lot of fun writing this arc ^^ If it's confusing to anyone, don't worry, it will start making more sense. Hope you enjoyed it and have a Happy New Year!