Harry was currently in the middle of no where, flying high, and following the train tracks, looking for the wreck. Duke clung tightly, and Rebecca was following.
"This is so unreal." Duke muttered.
Harry smiled grimly, "Just be glad of the cushioning charms. You wouldn't want to fly for long on some of the school brooms. Believe me, I know."
"Very glad, very, very glad, but even through I sort of believe in magic after seeing Battle City, I still never thought anyone rode a broomstick."
"I see the train." Harry shouted.
"Where?" Rebecca called out.
"Follow me!" and Harry fell into a dive, falling faster than he had ever done before and realised that the extra weight of Duke was going to cost him some agility. Harry headed straight for the twisted metal lump, but not landing. Something was off.
"Rebecca, don't land." He shouted, and then half turning he asked, "Duke, can you hold us steady?"
"Sure Harry." And Harry waited until Duke had a hold on the broom handle before reaching for his wand, not that he needed Duke to hold them steady, but even after an hour of flying Duke simply hadn't relaxed, tightly clinging to Harry.
After some thought Harry couldn't blame him, muggles were more likely to die from falling than wizards, and even going slower than Harry usually did didn't make up for the fact Duke couldn't see or feel the protections on the Firebolt and had no reason to trust them like Harry did.
"Expecto patronum!" Harry called out, with no real need to call up a happy memory, he was flying, and therefore he was happy. Not even the thought of Yugi's soul being lost was enough to dull the happiness of flying by much, and it wasn't real to him yet, even seeing Yami's body lying there as if asleep had really convinced him that one of his friends had lost their soul to a Dementor. His mind might know it to be true, his heart denied it.
The stag that burst from his wand made Duke jump, and Harry was again glad he had made Duke take the handle.
"Hello Prongs." Harry sighed, the sight of the stag brought forth a sad kind of joy, happiness because a Patronus emitted joy, but also regret that he would never met the real Prongs, his father.
The stag itself galloped down to the ruined train, lighting it up and making it easier to see, but not for long as it hurtled through the side of the train until it came out the other side, chasing something dark with a greenish glow. Not even the light of the Patronus lit it up.
"Is that a Dementor?" Duke whispered.
"No, not like one I've ever seen." But Harry's eyes narrowed, "It's more like a shadow." The creature's shape seemed to flicker, almost like a lava lamp, never being able of retaining any one shape.
"Harry, what is that?" Rebecca asked, hovering near them on her own broom. The Patronus, instead of chasing the thing off, was running circles around it, keeping it confined. The thing, whatever it was, didn't move very fast and was slowing down, but every time the Patronus came too close it would flinch away. Finally it stopped moving, quivering in one spot and the Stag snorted at it and thumped its leg against the air it was standing on.
"Hermione or Ron might know. I don't." Harry said.
"I thought you were the expert on dark magic." Duke teased.
"Please, if the muggles haven't located all the non-magical animals yet, how are the magical people going to locate all the magical creatures when most of them are far better at hiding? Most of the ones we do know is because they are either too big to miss, or like to play with, annoy or eat humans." Rebecca began ranting, Harry remaining quiet. So far Rebecca had leapt to his defence whenever Duke said something even slightly against him.
"Rebecca, why don't you take a picture? We can ask someone later." Harry asked finally, and Rebecca gave Duke a smug look.
"Do you always let girls defend you?" Duke asked, keeping his voice little move than a whisper while Rebecca fumbled with her backpack.
"Experience tells me that if I complain about a girl defending me then all the girls get really annoyed with me, it's just easier to distract them." Harry whispered back.
"Harry, I think you have too many girlfriends."
Harry laughed, "Try telling one of them that sometime, I'll stand back and watch the fireworks."
"Got it!" Rebecca cried, and quickly took a picture, the flash blinding them for a moment.
"Becs, you were meant to take a pic of the thing, not us." Duke complained, blinking the light away.
"I did, it's a magical camera, and lights up the whole area so you can get everything and you can even develop it so it's like a hologram."
"Where did it go?" Harry asked, the Patronus also seemed confused, and came back step by step to Harry, looking every possible way.
"It's gone?"
"Maybe it didn't like the flash."
"I'm going to land. We should check the train anyway."
Tea woke slowly. She was warm and glowy and didn't want to move. A strange soft blanket was wrapped around her.
It was the feeling of unfamiliarity that finally made her get up and look around. Or try to at least. She was cocooned in blankets, and it took her several moments to wiggle out of them before she could get up.
She ached slightly. "The train! Yami!" She cried out, and rushed out of the cave to look for her friend, then went flying as she tripped over said friend.
"Tea?" Yami asked, looking rather confused. "Are you alright?"
She dusted herself off and carefully got to her feet. Then looked in shock just beyond Yami. "Yami, where did the cave go?" She asked.
"What cave?" He turned around to look at what Tea was staring at, then glanced back at his frightened friend. "Tea, this isn't the sort of place you get caves in." There was quite literally nothing there, except if you included the rather pitiful pine tree drooping over the sun hardened soil.
"I thought… I woke up in a cave, wrapped in blankets. When I ran out I tripped over you Yami. Surely you saw…"
"Tea, I didn't see a thing. I didn't even see you arrive, at least not until you had tripped over me."
"Oh…" Tea's hand crept up to her throat to clutch at her necklace. "Sorry Yami."
He sighed. "Not your fault. Something strange is going on, we're nowhere near any train tracks."
Tea groaned. "Why does this stuff always happen to us?"
The train hadn't been pretty or very reassuring. It was almost completely empty, except for the luggage. It had taken them awhile but they did find Joey's, Tristan's, Tea's and Yami's bags. It helped that Joey had a red eyes black dragon key ring attracted to his, the glittering of the red glass eyes had catch Duke's attention and a little pack raiding had confirmed it.
The bags had each contained plenty of chocolate, much to Harry's relief, someone had remembered, and chances were Joey at least would have carried some on him.
The inside of the train was deformed, almost like battle scars, bits of metal and plastic had melted, in one compartment the floor was covered in sand and broken glass. It wasn't until they reached the other end of the train they realised half of the train was missing, there had been no engine room, no driver's cabin, and the link… the link was shattered like a piece of glass.
"Someone must have frozen it for it to break like that." Rebecca had said when she saw it.
Now they were flying in the direction of the ruins, hopefully their friends had headed that way, otherwise it was going to be a nightmare to find them, and it was already getting dark.
"We might miss them." Had been Rebecca's argument for stopping, but none of them really wanted to.
But it was getting cold, the wind chill factor meaning another layer of coldness and their height another. Harry could barely feel his hands anymore, and the only warm place on his body was his back where Duke insulated him. It had to be a whole lot worse for Rebecca.
"Okay, let's go down, we're not going to find them tonight."
Seto was pacing. He had gotten a lot of practice these past few days.
The fact that he barely had any room to pace wasn't lost on the other person in the room. Luckily Mokuba was used to his brother's moods, and was used to hiding his smiles.
They had been told not to leave the cabin several times, before being locked in when the captain had gotten annoyed at Seto's attitude.
It would be another two weeks before they docked anywhere but the chain of private islands that the small boat delivered to.
Why couldn't the ship just contact Kaiba Korps?
It would have been suspicious even if the Kaiba brothers weren't paranoid.
Ron was scanning Hermione's message, wishing he had paid more attention to her code.
Green ink… did that mean Harry was fine, no it wasn't that obvious. Blue was in serious danger. Purple was he had arrived at Hermione's. Green, what did green mean?
Hedwig had arrived with a ribbon from Harry?
Why did Hermione make everything so complicated?
Okay, so Hedwig had gone to Hermione. That was all fine and dandy apart from the fact he now had no idea where his best friend was… And Hermione left yesterday, so he had no idea where either of his best friends were.
He could always write to… the thought trailed off. He didn't know where any of his friends were, except vaguely.
The world seemed to swirl around him.
He was alone. Completely cut off from his friends. Their lives could be in danger, and he wouldn't know until... until they all returned to Hogwarts, and if it was a Harry Solo adventure, he would probably never know.
Right, he had been cut off before. Nothing ever happened over the summer holidays. His friends were fine, would be fine, for a given value of fine.
There was nothing he could do.
He was worrying about nothing, for no reason. They would be fine.
Maybe he was just bored… yes that had to be it. He had nothing to do so he was worrying about nothing.
With great reluctance he opened the book Hermione had loaned him for some light summer reading.
Wind rushing so hard he couldn't hear anything but his own heartbeat, but knew he was yelling in joy, Duke, after hours of flying had began to relax.
Then he spotted two tall blobs in the distance, and homed in on them.
Harry grinned as he dived, knowing he was going faster than he ever had before, and that Duke was screaming in his ear comments Harry hadn't even considered possible as Duke clutched the younger boy, and the two blobs came into focus standing defensively, Joey, with what had to be his wand, out ready and the other boy in a similar stance, standing at Joey's right shoulder, not that the second figure seemed to have a wand.
And with a grace that many envied, both on and off the field, Harry came to a sliding stop just a few feet away from Joey and Tristan.
"Hi Joey!" Harry grinned. He had done it, done the near impossible, travelled half way around the world and found one of his friends.
"Harry?" Joey looked stunned, Tristan equally so.
"Duke?"
"Couldn't let you have all the fun." Duke declared, his voice sounding a more than a little hoarse as he climbed off the broom stick. He turned to Harry, and swiped at Harry's head, "If you ever do such a bloody minded dive again when I'm riding they'll be picking up pieces of you in Tokyo."
Harry rolled it eyes, "We didn't even get that close to the ground!"
"Right…"
"Duke, believe him, Harry's come within millimetres of the ground without crashing; he was probably being safe since he had a passenger on board." Joey said.
Then all four turned as they heard a scream. "Becs!" Duke yelled, and dived for cover. Necessary as it turned out as Rebecca's flight path would have slammed her right into Duke. Instead she flew through the hole he left coming to a stop ten paces away.
Rebecca carefully got off her broom, sinking to the floor. "Harry Potter! I think you scarred me for life!"
Harry chuckled, still on a high, "But I've never been that fast before! I mean I knew because of my weight my dives are slower even if I'm a better seeker because without I can reach higher speeds when going against gravity, but I didn't…"
Joey laughed, "Harry, you need to breath."
"Becs, can I ride with you next time? I think it's safer than the speed junky." Duke said tiredly.
"Oh no, I'm not getting on a broom again for a very long time." Rebecca declared, "I think I'll stick with my cards and my computers."
"But what are the Ravenclaws going to do for chaser when one of their best won't play?" Harry asked teasingly.
"Harry? Are you okay? You're acting kinda weird." Joey asked when Rebecca seemed too shocked to reply.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment and then smiled slightly, "It's weird but I always feel free in the air, you know? And this is the first time that feeling of freedom hasn't left me as soon as I touched down. If we're fighting Dementors I need to remember the happiness as clearly as possible." His green eyes flicked open, and seemed to glow slightly, hardening, "But I thought our friends were in danger, so I'm here to help."
"And we probably need all the help we can get, Yami's been wigging out over since Yugi got taken in his place."
"Explain what happened." Harry asked, by Joey felt some of the burden rise, he knew it was silly, that Harry Potter was just a teenager, but he was a better leader than Joey would ever be. Anyway, he was used to taking orders from the short spiky haired guy, and Harry certainly fit.
The day was suddenly looking a whole lot better.
Mokuba frowned at the porthole. It was barely above sea level, but the waves only lapped it occasionally. A thick mist had descended, making the view less than useless.
The sounds of the boat had reduced to almost nil. Even the gentle noise of the calm sea seemed unnaturally quiet, almost as if the sound was being muffled. Mokuba glanced at his brother. "Big brother, I think there's something wrong."
Seto, lying on the small cot that he had claimed as he own glanced at Mokuba. "You mean other than the Captain of the boat being in on some plot against us?" Seto said in his usual harsh tones.
"Yes, listen." They held silent for a few moments, and the ship groaned slightly.
"It's too quiet. No movement." Mokuba waited, knowing his brother wasn't finished. "Well, now is as good a time as any. I wanted to wait until we saw land, but if we can contact the coast guard at least…"
Mokuba grinned, sliding off his cot and looking at the lock on the door. "Looks easy enough to pick." As Mokuba drew out one of several lock picks he always kept on his person. Both he and Ginny were past masters, and had exchanged more than a few tips and hints between them. It wasn't much use at Hogwarts, but no skill ever went to waste.
With a final click the lock was open, and Mokuba carefully opened the door, ignoring the hiss from Seto.
The corridor was empty.
"One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand. Five one thousand."
"Luna, why are you counting?" Ginny asked, looking up from her witch weekly magazine.
"Sorry Ginny. One Lois Lane. Two Lois Lane. Three Lois Lane."
"Luna!"
"Ginny!" Luna pouted, and closed her Quibbler. "I'll see you later Ginerva." And left Ginny feeling rather confused.
Far out to sea, on a little boat surrounded by increasingly dark mist, the Kaiba brothers broke into the bridge, to find it suspiciously empty.
The brothers quickly barricaded the door with what seemed like practiced efficiency.
Mokuba sat down on the chair with an air of stubbornness known well by most of his year mates, but merely got a raised eyebrow from his brother. That door wouldn't be opening any time soon.
Seto strode over to the navigation computers, only to find them dead. The power completely gone.
Leaving the useless machines alone for a moment he looked out the window, wondering if the silence below deck matched above.
The fog hid much, leaving only dark shapes.
"Mokuba." He called and in an instant his brother was beside him.
"Is that?" Mokuba whispered, his hand seeking out his brother's in a moment of fear.
The mist swirled, and Kaiba blamed the lack of coffee, as the mist seemed to take shape, the illusion, for what else could it be? Of galloping hoofs and a horse like shape, and glowing green eyes that seemed dead.
"I don't know."
Then a whimper from his brother, and a single word hissed with hatred and fear, "Dementor."
AN: I'm still not happy with this chapter, but if I don't post it soon then I'll never get to the next one, so here it is.
The following is a bit that doesn't really fit in the story, partly because Duke and Rebecca wouldn't have time to discuss Harry in this sort of detail, and by the time they get time, Duke will know Harry a little better. Also I like the idea of Rebecca saying "He's Harry Potter." Like that explains anything. I also think Rebecca isn't that observant, she has some large blind spots in her world view.
So here's an Omake:
"He's not dangerous, he is just very good at picking out if something wrong, and you can tell who is fighting with who if you watch Harry, he's the only one who really keeps track of it even inside the group. He barely ever fights with anyone, except maybe Malfoy but only when the fight is brought to him, or to defend someone else. It's survival because their group is at the centre of Gyffindor, and whenever they fight the rest of Gyffindor starts having bad days, and a few of them will pick fights."
"So… why is he here?"
"Because he's Harry Potter." Rebecca replied, as if that explained everything.
"Right and that means what?"
"He's either going to be the next Leader of the Light, or the next Dark Lord."
"I doubt the boy will join those who murdered his parents Rebecca." Her grandfather admonished.
"No, he won't. But that won't stop him becoming the next Dark Lord. He has power, people will follow him, but just because he'll be fighting against the current darkness doesn't mean that he won't become dark. He's ruthless, up to a point, he's one of the few people I know who would stand up to Yami and Kaiba, at the same time, and if it ever came to a point where Yami and Harry are against each other I have no idea who would win, or even who I would want to win."
"Rebecca you had better not be telling me we let one of the bad guys into my house."
"But he's not, he's Harry Potter."
"And you say that like it's meant to mean something."
"He's a hero, and not just because he stopped he-who-must-not-be-named when he was a baby, but it's what he is. He saved a girl in my year from a Basilisk, he's a leader, and I know there's a lot of leaders in his year, but that's part of what's so amazing about him, most of the Gyffindors will follow Harry before Yami, most of the Hufflepuffs follow either Yugi or Harry, the Ravenclaws tend to follow Kaiba, but those who don't fall into Harry's camp, and that leaves the Slytherins that are divided between Bakura and Kaiba, but that's only because it would probably get them killed if they sided with a Gryffindor."
Duke groaned, "This is the reason I didn't go to a boarding school, too many politics."
"But think about it, Yami, Kaiba and Bakura all want to lead, even Yugi wants to just so he can make sure everyone's alright, but Harry hates it, he would rather fade into the background, and he does fade a lot, but he's a good leader and he always does the right thing."
"I don't see where you're going with this Rebecca."
"There are five leaders in Harry's year, and four of them are far older than the rest. Do you know what makes Harry stand out?"
"Rebecca, get to the point already."
"He was famous so everyone wanted to know him, but he didn't want that fame, nearly every Wizarding child was ready to follow his lead, they expected to see either a hero, and would follow him because that's what you do when you have a hero in your midst, or a very powerful wizard who could do what ever he wanted. Instead there was Harry. No one could believe it. Remember when you first saw the boy who beat Pegasus and Kaiba? I bet you couldn't believe it either. But he's Harry Potter, so in his first year he makes the Quidditch team, wins in his first game, saves a girl from a troll, gets attacked in the forbidden forest, gets past all the traps guarding the philosopher's stone, stops a teacher from stealing it, stops he-who-must-not-be-named from returning, and is the reason why Gyffindor wins the house cup at the end of the year."
Now Duke and Professor Hawkins stared at her.
"Rebecca, please tell me your year wasn't that dangerous."
Rebecca snorted, something that didn't reassure her grandfather. "Don't worry, my year was pretty tame, he only thing I had to worry about was grades, petty girls and the prefect that thinks I shouldn't associate with Yugi and the rest of the gang, because they're 'dangerous'." She put air quotes around the word dangerous. "I'm pretty low on the radar; I mean being friends with Mokuba and Yugi means a certain sort of person might notice me, but on the social side I'm considered little more than a hanger on, but I'm safe because Yami, Yugi and Kaiba have all stood up for me at certain points, and no one wants to mess with those three at once."
Duke groaned, "Politics."
Rebecca hit him. "I'm safe there, really. Probably safer than if Harry wasn't there, simply because he attracts danger just as much as Yugi and Kaiba do, just a different sort of danger, so between the three of them any possible dangerous individuals will go after them first, and most of the organised dangers already have one of them as a target."
"So Harry's like Yugi."
Rebecca nodded, "To them choosing to do the right thing isn't a choice, but Harry has a much better understanding why people act the way they do, Yugi still expects everyone to really be like him inside, and that they just can't see that what they are doing is wrong. I think Harry sees people a lot more clearly than Yugi or even Yami does. I mean Yami can see strengths and weaknesses in a second, but Harry… I think Harry can see why they have those strengths and weaknesses; I think he can see what drives people."