Daricio: Ok, time for the LAST last chapter of Millennium Magic... this is probably going to be one of the more boring chapters of the story... mostly because there's really nothing that's supposed to happen...
This chapter has been rather difficult to write... Mostly because I keep trying to have Yami Bakura pop in to say his sarcastic lines and such like that, since I'm used to Radley being around as my muse, but then I remember, "OH YEAH! Yami Bakura's the BAD GUY in this story! And he's GONE already! (sweatdrop)"
WARNING: Large confusing paragraphs ahead with people talking too much. (sweatdrop again)
So, let's just get going, shall we? (evil grin) That way we won't give Malik enough time to actually say anything at the beginning of this chapter.
Malik: Hey, wait just a--
(Poinky-Dead-Divider)
"All right, everybody. Grab ahold of this." Harry said, holding out the doorknob with his free hand. The other hand was holding tight to one of the side handles on his trunk; Hedwig's cage was tucked under his arm and Hedwig herself was perched on his shoulder.
The others, gathered in front of Yugi's house, nodded and shifted their gear so that they also had a free hand. Hermione and Ron each had a small trunk full of stuff, while Yugi, Malik, and Bakura were much less heavy-laden with simply a backpack full of clothes and essentials.
Getting six people to hold onto one doorknob was easier said than done, and in the end a few people had to simply touch it with their fingers rather than hold onto it completely so that nobody would be unintentionally left behind.
Harry fumbled in his robes for a moment, trying to get his wand out past his armload of stuff. Hermione stopped him with a roll of her eyes, politely asked Bakura to hold onto her trunk for her, since his hands were free, and got out her own wand so that Harry didn't drop anything.
"Everyone ready?" The teens all nodded and Hermione took a breath. "Ok. Portus."
The bits of metal that were still visible through the mass of hands glowed blue for an instant, then the familiar (to some of them) pull of the portkey caused the world around them to blur out of view as it gently tugged them though space with a jolt.
Very suddenly, the group was standing on the outskirts of the Hogwarts grounds. Harry looked around gratefully, glad that he was finally back at the school. He caught sight of Malik and had to hide a smile.
The slightly green looking Egyptian caught his glance and gave a weak grin. "I have decided," he began, his smile fading with another small onslaught of green tint, "That I don't like portkeys."
"It takes some getting used to." Ron said sympathetically. "The motion-sickness should fade soon..."
Malik nodded, giving a thumbs up. "I'll be ok."
Harry grinned. "Floo powder is even worse." He mentioned, remembering the first time he flew through the fireplace grates the wrong way into Knockturn Alley.
Malik grimaced at the thought, then turned to face the castle. "So that's Hogwarts, huh?"
"It's huge! Yugi exclaimed, his eyes glittering with excitement. "It looks almost like one of those German castles that the kingdoms in fairytales are based off of! That's really cool!"
Malik smirked. "So, is it bigger or smaller than Kaiba's mansion, do ya think?"
"About the same size, but still, that's pretty big..." Yugi replied cheerfully. "Come on, let's go!"
He led the way towards the castle, followed by the rest of the group. Hermione, being the one in the group who had actually read Hogwarts: A History, began readily answering any questions that Malik and Yugi asked her.
Bakura stayed mostly silent, only putting in a comment or two here or there, but the spark in his eyes showed that he was just as interested in this as the others.
Passing by Hagrid's hut and the Forbidden Forest, Harry thought he caught a glimpse of a Duel Monster of some sort peering out at him from the trees. He had the feeling that Hagrid's next Care of Magical Creatures class was going to be very interesting indeed.
Finally, they reached Hogwarts' front door. It opened as they approached, revealing a line of teachers waiting for them. As the six of them approached the smiling teachers, a man standing between all the others stepped forward and gave them a slight bow.
"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Yugi, Malik, and Bakura. I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster."
Malik shot Harry a questioning glance, wondering how the man had known his name, and Harry shrugged at him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Malik said politely. Bakura nodded with a smile, and Yugi grinned up at him.
Dumbledore gestured behind him. "Please, come with me. We have much to talk about."
The six teens did so, walking a few paces behind the headmaster as they walked through the stone walls, lit by torches that were placed regularly along the hall.
For a moment, Malik began to stare off into outer space, his eyebrows furrowed in worried remembrance of an underground living area in Egypt. The moment was broken, however, when they came across a window, looking out over the grounds, and Malik smiled.
Yugi touched his shoulder. "You ok?"
Malik started, not realizing he had stopped briefly by the window. He began to walk again. "Fine, thanks, Yugi."
Yugi watched him worriedly for a second before also resuming the walk.
Soon, the group reached a stone gargoyle that seemed to be guarding a slight arched indent in the wall. Dumbledore stepped up to it while the three teens from Domino looked at each other in slight confusion, wondering why this statue had any importance.
They had their answer a moment later, when Dumbledore stated, "Tootsie Roll."
The gargoyle sprang aside, revealing a doorway. Dumbledore swept through this entrance without a second look at his guard, and the rest followed quickly, three of them staring slightly at the statue for a moment before doing so.
"Tootsie Roll?" Bakura mouthed to the three teens that were actually used to this place. Harry shrugged with a grin.
Ron also grinned, and twirled his finger around his ear several times to indicate 'crazy in the head'.
After they passed, Yugi turned to look at the doorway in time to see the gargoyle walking slowly back to its original place guarding the door. It gave him a look that plainly said, "What are you looking at?" before turning its back on him and settling into place.
Yugi blinked, then caught up to the others.
The group entered Dumbledore's vast office, which was filled with portraits of sleeping wizards. Yugi, Malik, and Bakura ignored the pictures at first, thinking them to simply be an odd choice of decoration for an office, but then they noticed the snoring sounds issuing forth from the paintings, and they noticed that every now and then the subject of the picture would shift in his or her chair slightly to make themselves more comfortable.
Dumbledore gave the sleeping portraits no mind, instead sweeping into the center of the room where there was a desk and turning to face the teens that were following him and offered them a seat.
(A/n: ... Wait, he offers six teens a seat? Musical chairs...)
Once they were seated, the headmaster took a seat himself behind the desk.
Dumbledore smiled at everyone, then began to speak. "For now, I speak only for myself and this school, but I am sure that when the Ministry of Magic comes to their senses, I will have spoken for the entire wizarding community when I say that I offer you my sincere thanks for the great service you have done for us in defeating Lord Voldemort."
Ron winced at the name and Hermione elbowed him. Malik muttered under his breath almost inaudibly, "Voldemort was easy; Yami Bakura was the hard part." And Yugi elbowed him. Dumbledore began to speak again.
"As you all may know, the Hogwarts grounds and the school itself has had a very interesting field trip into what is known as the Shadow Realm for the past few weeks." The six exchanged amused glances at Dumbledore's phrasing. "And while we were there, the teachers and I have made extensive studies into our school's library to find out more information, as well as speaking to a few of the Duel Monsters who take residence there."
Yugi smiled at the headmaster. "Did you find anything useful?"
Dumbledore smiled back at him and inclined his head in a small nod. "Yes, but there was only one text, and it was written in Egyptian. Often, communicating with our duel monster friends was harder than just trying to translate for ourselves, being as quite a few of them didn't trust us with information.
"As it was, it took several translation spells to get anything out of it that wasn't unintelligible babble... And I quote from one of our earlier translations:" he picked up a sheet of parchment and read, "'thousand years sieve to the world to destroy there millenia, which steered the color of plays, which threatened.'" He raised an eyebrow at the teens.
(A/n: I used Babelfish to mess up a phrase from YGO. Something along the lines of "There are seven Millennium Items that control the shadow games that once threatened to destroy the world."...)
The teens giggled a little, then looked up again to see what it was that the headmaster had found.
"Once the translation issues were cleared up, we learned several things about certain 'Millennium Items'." He nodded at Yugi's clearly visible Puzzle. "But the one that interests me the most is that only certain 'chosen' people can use or even handle these items."
The three Millennium Item holders nodded. "The only exception is if you beat the chosen holder in a shadow game." Malik supplied.
Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed. But this brings up another point. Does the magic you wield come solely from the items you carry? Being as you must be chosen before you can have them, I believe that this is not the case. I believe that the three of you also have part of the magic within you."
Yugi, Bakura, and Malik glanced at each other. Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed silent. "Go on..." Yugi said.
"As you may have gleaned from the name of the school, or from the fact that these three have probably already told you, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaches the use, control, and origins of magic. Only those who have magic within them can actually attend the school. Normally, the three of you should have been identified as having magic by the Ministry of Magic at the age of 10, and sent to the nearest school to learn to use it."
"I didn't complete the Millennium Puzzle until about a year or so ago." Yugi said.
"I got my Millennium Ring about... 3 years ago, I think." Bakura said.
Malik nodded slowly. "I've guarded over the Millennium Rod and the Millennium Necklace with the rest of my family for all my life, but I didn't actually own the Millennium Rod myself until I was almost 11."
"It's possible, then, that the magic within you was dormant until the time that you found your Millennium Items, and the scans that look for children 10 and below with magic missed you completely. Because of this, it's still likely that many schools will not take you, thinking that your magic comes only from the Millennium Items, and has nothing to do with you. Or they may think that you are too old to learn magic. I, however, am willing to accept you as students here if you wish, and if the school near you will not have you."
"That would be awesome!" Ron burst out. "Maybe you'd be in Gryffindor with us!"
Yugi and Bakura smiled, but Malik looked unsure. "That'd mean missing out on normal schooling, though. I joined up at school in Domino because I wanted to get an education. I realize that this magic stuff would be interesting, but... You know, somehow I don't think the colleges are going to accept N.E.W.T. scores instead of SAT scores..."
"You say that is if you thought you were actually doing well enough in school to graduate from High School, Malik." Yugi joked. Malik stuck his tongue out at him.
"He does have a point, though." Hermione mentioned. "I came from a muggle family and I had also been going to a muggle school before I came to Hogwarts. That's one of the main things my parents worried about when they let me come here, was my getting a college education. But Hogwarts teaches many of the same things as normal school does; it just teaches them in a different way, one that has to do with magic. And as for SAT scores, you can take that when you get back, I suppose."
Malik still wasn't convinced. "Yeah, I suppose. But there's another thing. I've never before seen magic used the way these guys used it back there... I've gotten used to using my own brand of magic. I get the feeling that Shadow Magic is much different than your magic, and I really don't want to have to wave a silly wand around just to do things I could already do before."
"You wouldn't necessarily have to do that." Hermione answered easily. "You saw how the magic from your Millennium Items was able to power our wands before, and then they were still able to do what they used to do. Yami and Bakura put the Millennium Ring back together without the help from our wands. Even if all of your magic is shadow magic, that's still magic, and it still works with the wands."
Dumbledore nodded. "I made a similar observation myself. But before any arguments break out, let me say first that I do not expect you to decide immediately. The three of you are allowed to contact your families and talk it over with them as well. In the meantime, I hope all six of you will accept my offer to stay here at Hogwarts for the time being, whether you choose to attend school or not. The Ministry will take some time to convince of your good deeds."
All of them nodded gratefully.
"Now, there's only one more matter to settle." Dumbledore added. The teens looked at him expectantly. "You mentioned a Yami Bakura." He stated, looking over at Malik. "Who is he?"
"An annoyance." Yugi spoke up suddenly, his features obviously those of Yami wanting to stick a comment in.
"Annoyance!" Ron burst out. "I think he was more than just an annoyance! He nearly killed the lot of us!"
Yami shrugged and Malik grinned. "You get used to him after a while. Then he's just an annoyance."
"Who just. Won't. Die." Yami stated with a roll of his eyes. "He's like a cockroach."
Ron stared. "Cockroach. Right. Giant poisonous cockroach, maybe!"
"But a roach all the same." Yami pointed out with a smirk.
Bakura gave a small smile. "And you can be sure that if he ever heard you say that, he'd try to kill you... again..." he sweatdropped a little. "And probably lose again, too."
"But where did he come from? And how was he, as you said, more powerful than even Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked them.
Bakura held up the Millennium Ring. "I assume you know of the Pharaoh who locked away the magic of the Shadow Games back in Ancient Egypt?"
Dumbledore nodded. "'Powerful and brave, he sacrificed his own life to seal away the shadows.'" He quoted. "And?"
Yami gave a small smile. "I'm afraid I haven't introduced myself properly yet, Professor." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow and Yami continued. "My name is Yami. My spirit was locked inside the Millennium Puzzle when the shadows were locked away. Yugi Moto is my friend and my vessel in this time."
"So you are...?"
Malik smirked at the confused expression on the Headmaster's face. "The nameless Pharaoh." he supplied. He grinned at Yami. "The memories of whom my family has protected ever since that time. I am a tomb keeper."
"Even we don't know what his real name is." Yugi said, suddenly emerging once again. "We all call him Yami because when he first appeared, because he looks so much like me, everyone assumed he was simply my darker half. Yami means dark in Japanese."
Yami appeared next to his host in a temporary physical form and nodded at Dumbledore.
The Headmaster looked slightly flustered for a moment before regaining his composure and smiling at Yami. "Well, then. I welcome you to Hogwarts as well, Pharaoh Yami."
Yami nodded again.
"So Yami is the spirit of Mr. Moto's Millennium Item... I assume, then, that this Yami Bakura is the 'dark' of Mr. Bakura?"
Bakura nodded. "He was a tomb robber in Egypt. He battled one of Pharaoh Yami's priests, a man named Maahado who owned the Millennium Ring at the time, and won. Maahado's spirit was sealed into his ka monster, the Dark Magician, and Yami Bakura got the Millennium Ring."
"Which explains the rivalry between Yami and him. Pharaoh and Thief aren't supposed to get along." Malik said. "Especially when said Thief robs your father's tomb and throws his mummy at you, then battles your friend and seals him away."
Yami frowned. "That and the fact that he's an annoying cockroach."
"Well, that too."
Bakura rolled his eyes. "Yami Bakura continued to try going against Yami for the longest time, using my body since he didn't have his own anymore. Then he met Voldemort."
Harry Ron and Hermione nodded and began to tell their story of the happenings in Domino, the other three teens inserting their own point of views when they deemed it necessary.
When they finished, Dumbledore smiled. "Well, congratulations on your victory, all of you. I have one final question, and then you can go. We have a meal prepared for you in the Great Hall." He turned to Malik. "Does the Millennium Rod carry any spirits within it, like these other two?"
Malik shook his head. "No, but I do have a dark side, so to speak."
Yami smiled ruefully. "Ah, yes. Poor Malik is schizophrenic."
Malik glared at him. "I am not! It's your fault anyway."
"I didn't do a thing. I didn't ask Shadi to lie to you, and I certainly didn't ask your father to be such a son of a-"
"Yami!" Yugi frowned at him. Malik and Yami stuck their tongues out at each other, and then laughed. The issue, though sprouted from a touchy subject, had become somewhat of an inside joke for the two of them.
Dumbledore looked from one to the other with one eyebrow raised, then he shrugged. "Ah, I believe I'll ask you more about your... interesting pasts later. For now, let's go get some food."
They all agreed.
(Poinky-Dead-Divider)
"Alaric, Benjamin." Professor McGonagall's voice rang out in the Great Hall, announcing the first name to go up and be sorted for the late year.
The scared looking boy went up and put the hat on his head, which paused for a moment before calling out "HUFFLEPUFF!"
Yugi, Malik, and Bakura stood at the end of the line of first years excitedly, wearing their new robes that a few of the teachers had purchased for them in Diagon Alley, since they couldn't go out of Hogwarts without being set upon by Ministry of Magic workers.
There had been a lot of commotion about the whole thing in the Daily Prophet a week or so back; but seeing as the Ministry didn't want to admit that Voldemort had returned or that they had all gotten beaten up by a bunch of death eaters, OR that the ones who had actually taken Voldemort down and saved the Ministry of Magic from being killed by the death eaters were a bunch of teenagers, three of which had had no previous magical education, the Ministry hushed everything up fairly quickly.
(A/n: That was one sentence. O.o)
Not even people like Rita Skeeter could get any information on any of it.
"Bekhura, Thomas."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Bentley, Claire."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Hartman, Kirsten." The girl whose name was called twitched and muttered something about being called "Kirstie" not "Kirsten" and put the hat on, getting sorted into Slytherin.
"Jobe, Lisa."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Kaiba, Mokuba." Yugi, Malik, and Bakura gave the nervous looking boy a thumbs-up.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Kuroi, Ebby."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Lemon, Brett."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Makuriirando, Billy."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Mellish, Heather."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Menke, Melissa."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Moore, David."
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Nelson, Stephanie."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Redding, Angela."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Rhodes, Sagira."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Richards, Canay."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Simons, Lishara."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Turner, Andrew."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Valentine, Faye."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Wallace, Brian."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Wenschoff, Amy."
"RAVENCLAW!"
(A/n: MASS CAMEO! ... Oh, and some made up names. (sweatdrop) I hope I got everybody in there...)
Finally, the names of the first years had been read off, and they had all taken their places among the tables. All that were left to sort were Bakura, Yugi, and Malik.
"We have three new students this year that are not first years. They were missed by the normal means of detecting magic in young students, but their magic is just as powerful as your own, so please do not treat them unkindly." McGonagall said sharply. She looked back down on her list and read, "Bakura, Ryou."
Bakura stepped up to the stool and put on the hat. "GRYFFINDOR!" It called after a moment. Those at the Gryffindor table cheered loudly as he sat by Harry with a smile.
"Ishtar, Malik."
Malik jumped up on the stool and pulled the hat over his eyes. There was a somewhat long pause before it also shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table cheered again and Malik sat beside Bakura with a triumphant grin.
"Moto, Yugi and Moto, Yami."
A few whispers were exchanged at the double name as Yugi climbed up onto the stool. The hat's call was almost instantaneous. "GRYFFINDOR!"
Once again, the table erupted into cheers, and a few of the other students from other tables began to complain about the fact that Gryffindor got all of the 'cool' students. Yugi sat by the rest of his friends.
It was time for the new school year to finally begin!
(Poinky-Dead-Divider)
(Somewhere back in Domino)
"...Avada Kedavera! ...Crucio! Why won't this blasted thing work!" the Dark Lord banged his wand against his hand several times before stopping because the end was beginning to emit sparks.
Voldemort screamed in frustration and threw the wand as far as he could get it. Then he whirled on his Death Eaters, who looked slightly worse for wear. They all flinched as his eyes rested on them, and he held out his hand.
"Fine, then, I'll need a new wand, if that one won't work."
The Death Eaters all eyed each other nervously. None of them really wanted to give up their wands, but neither did any of them wish for the Dark Lord to be angry with them.
Wormtail was about to step forward to offer his own wand when suddenly Lucious Malfoy stepped forward. "And what if we don't want to give you ours?" He asked maliciously in a very brave move. "It's not like you can do anything about it right now."
If there were enough death eaters there who would stick by Voldemort even though he was powerless at the moment, then Malfoy would be in trouble...
Wormtail hesitated, then grinned, stepping beside Malfoy once it was obvious that most of the other death eaters would support his sudden stand.
Voldemort looked murderous. It looked like he was going to be having more trouble with this than he really needed...
(Poinky-Dead-Divider)
Somewhere in the Shadow Realm, an unconscious being awoke to the dismal view of the swirling darkness around him.
Yami Bakura sat up with a growl, instinctively curling and jumping to his feet, his right hand going for his hidden knife and his left reaching up to clench the cord of a Millennium Item he suddenly no longer had possession of.
When he realized that the Ring was gone, and that he was still in the mortal body he had created for himself, he screamed in frustration, the shadows around him whirling even more swiftly to amplify the angry mood he was in.
He couldn't take refuge in the Millennium Puzzle with this mortal body, and if Bakura still had the Millennium Ring, which he had undoubtedly merged with his own copy to keep Yami Bakura's hands off of it, he couldn't just call the Ring to him.
Yami Bakura glared at the shadows before him, feeling his anger flare up inside of him as he recalled his moments of ultimate power he had experienced before being hit with a tickling spell of all things, and having his advantage once again stripped away from him.
He had come so close to defeating them all and finally gaining the revenge he had been seeking. How could he have gotten so careless! He knew that his opponents were still behind him, and yet he turned his back to them in order to torture those insignificant fleas!
After he let his anger vent by cursing himself and everybody he knew for a while, a smirk appeared on his face as his hand slipped into the pocket of his trench coat and pulled out the Millennium Eye.
The symbol on its front glinted in the nonexistent light with a ringing sheen as the power activated and the shadows before him parted slowly. The Spirit of the Ring let out a dark laugh.
It would be a while before Yami Bakura was up to his old strength again, but he would indeed return. And he would get what he was seeking... this time...
"I am the darkness, Pharaoh... And the darkness never dies..."
(Poinky-Dead-Divider)
Endes!
(Cries)
Malik: ... O.o um... are you ok?
Daricio: (shniffle) yeah, I'm just sad that it's over!
Malik: (sweatdrop) um... (patpatpat) It's ok... sequel?
Daricio: Probably not for a while. I'll be in Germany from June 25th-July 17th, so... not much writing going on...
But I do get out of school this Friday! D
Thank you so much to everybody who supported me while I was writing this, including all of you who reviewed! You're the best, all of you!
Thanks especially to my friends: Lisa, B/k, Daisy-san, my little brother DVD and my little sister Shells. You supported, and still support me whenever I needed you. And you always inspire me. Thank you.
Malik: ... Hey, knock off the mushyness.
Daricio: (grin) And thanks to my loverly muses, who keep me insane even when I don't want to be.
Malik: Gee, thanks.
Radley: Were you ever sane, Daricio? I doubt you needed our help for that bit.
Daricio: (hugs him and comes very close to being very hurt)
Malik: (to Radley) Don't worry, we can kill her in her sleep later.
Radley: Good idea.
Daricio: And speaking of muses, B/k you'd better get that computer fixed soon! I miss you!
Bye all! Hope to see you all as I continue writing Where's Yugi and its 'sequel'/rewrite thing-o! ... And my annoying plot bunnies.
. --Daricio