Harry Potter Yu-Gi-Oh crossover – Disclaimer: I own neither
/Ryou and Bakura mind link/
Koe – Voice (What Ryou calls the spirit of the ring)
Yadonushi – Landlord (What the spirit calls Ryou)
0
Quidditch practice hadn't gone too well at all. That was partially because Harry's mind was far from focusing on the sport he so loved, and partially because once Ron missed a single ball, the ginger just slipped into a funk and couldn't really block anything else. Angela, the Gryffindor team captain, gave them a nice stern scolding that Harry really didn't hear. Despite Ron's meager attempts to strike up some kind of conversation, the two walked back to their dorms in relative silence. There they found Hermione waiting up for them.
"Harry, Professor McGonagall assured us that the students would be okay. She said an auror is watching over them." Hermione watched as Harry continued to pace the common room. Everyone else had already gone to bed, leaving just the trio of Gryffindors in the room. Harry had gone straight towards Dumbledore's office when he found out it had been Ryou's school that was attacked. Hermione could understand his worry – between all the letters Ryou and Harry were sharing, she can grown to care about Ryou and she feared for the muggle boy as well. It was a few minutes after their arrival outside the entrance to Dumbledore's study that Professor McGonagall came around and found the trio each shouting different kinds of candies at the stone statue that guarded the headmaster's office. Their head of house had done her best to calm their fears, but it was clearly still bothering Harry.
"I just want to know if he's one of the ones in the hospital. I want to make sure he's all right." Harry said as he stopped his pacing and gripped the back of one of the couches. Ron looked at Harry from his spot on an armchair.
"Who knows mate. Maybe he wasn't even in school that day. Maybe he skipped or was sick at home" Ron offered, but it did little to lighten Harry's spirits.
"Harry, if you're that worried… well, maybe we can talk to Dumbledore about it tomorrow. Maybe he'll know something the papers didn't say." Hermione watched Harry closely, noticing that the black haired teen was thinking her suggestion over.
"Yeah… I guess." He started, thinking hard. He looked up at his two friends with a frown. "I don't think it was teenage wizards that attacked the school either. What if it was Voldemort? What if the paper is just hiding a muggle massacre or something?" He blurted out. Ron visibly flinched at the name of the dark lord and Hermione looked at the ground a moment before looking back at Harry.
"Harry, why would Voldemort attack a muggle school? He would have nothing to gain from it."
"Maybe he knows I know Ryou and he did it just to get to me" Harry replied instantly. Hermione raised an eyebrow. Harry was really letting his paranoia get to him. Hermione let out a sigh and shook her head.
"We can get some answers tomorrow. For now, we've got to sleep. Tomorrow is an important day."
0
When the next day came, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were once again standing beside the statue guarding Dumbledore's office, each offering up possible passwords.
"Are you sure he's even up there? I'd hate to be wasting all this effort to figure out this bloody password, only to find out he's not up there" Ron grumbled as he slumped against the wall. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You're barely even trying. You've repeated the same word at least five times. And we know he's up there. Harry checked the Marauder's Map" She said before joining Ron against the wall. She continued to rack her brain for different kinds of candies the headmaster would use as a password, but her list was running out of options. Harry sighed and glared at the gargoyle guardian. It shouldn't be this hard to talk to your headmaster. This was absolutely ridiculous. Sometimes Harry swore Dumbledore was avoiding him on purpose.
"You know what? Let's find out for ourselves then. If none of the professors care, we can just… go check the hospital on our own." Harry said, his gaze never breaking away from that darn gargoyle. His friends stared at him.
"And how do you reckon we do that? Just hop on the local train?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No… we sneak to Hogsmeade, floo to Diagon Alley, go through the Leaky Cauldron, and get a cab to the hospital." Harry smirked at the flabbergasted look on Ron's face.
"But Harry…we don't even know which hospital the students were taken too, and the teachers will notice we're missing." Hermione, ever the voice of reason, spoke up.
"I'll bet the local muggle paper has something on the attack. They might have the hospital listed. If not, we can just ask around. And we can go at night under the invisibility cloak. We've never been caught before when we do this kind of stuff." He said with a shrug. He was sure this would work. It wouldn't be the first time they broke curfew or snuck off the school grounds.
"We'll be back by morning. Nobody will know we were gone." He added as he took in Hermione's nervous look. Ron seemed to accept the plan and was watching Hermione as well.
"Oh…oh fine. But we can't do it until after our meeting" She said as she fiddled with a golden coin she had pulled out from within her school robe. She traced the outline of the galleon in her hand with her finger before letting it disappear in her pocket once more. Harry nodded and the three headed down the hall. They had a new Defense class to teach.
0
Night came quickly and Harry stood waiting in the Gryffindor common room with his invisibility cloak in his hands. His usual school attire was sitting on his bed, and instead he was wearing a ragtag pair of jeans and a baggy t shirt. He looked across the room and watched his red haired friend who was also wearing some more common garb. Ron was fiddling with his wand, mimicking the movements for the expelliarmus charm. Harry smiled. It turned out that the newly christened 'Dumbledore's Army' had been worthwhile after all. The meeting had gone pretty well considering Professor Umbridge and her Slytherin spies were everywhere looking for any signs of misbehavior or rule breaking.
At last Hermione came down from the girls' dormitory dressed in her own set of street clothes.
"You're sure you want to do this, Harry?" She whispered. Harry nodded and the three slipped under the cloak. They were not as small as they used to be and keeping them all hidden was proving to be a small challenge. The three didn't risk conversing while out in the halls even though they knew they were completely alone. Even their breathing was quieted as they reached the stairs leading to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. Professor Umbridge wouldn't be in there at the moment, but they were extra cautious anyway. Harry pulled out his wand while Hermione and Ron kept lookout. He tapped the hump of a one-eyed witch statue sitting near the stairs, muttering the word Dissendium. The hump slowly opened and Harry ushered his friends inside without another word. It was times like these he truly appreciated Ron's crazy twin brothers and the marauder's map.
At the end of the passage hidden behind the statue, the trio found themselves in the cellar of Honeydukes – the sweetshop of Hogsmeade. The lights were all out and the place was eerily silent without any employees or customers.
"Why couldn't we just use the floo powder in the common room? That would have saved us loads of time and we could have skipped the whole sneaking bit." Ron said as they crept towards the stairs in the empty store.
"The fireplaces in the school are being watched. Don't you remember what happened last time Sirius tried to talk to us through the fireplace? Professor Umbridge almost caught him." Hermione reminded the red head. Harry nodded before going upstairs, letting his lumos lit wand guide the way. Once upstairs, he looked around the room. He spotted the door that led to the public section of the store. Tempting as it was to go grab some candy, they had a different mission to focus on and he looked elsewhere. He felt Hermione tap him on the shoulder and motion towards the opposite side of the room. A fireplace sat with a rod hanging beside it – most likely used to heat certain kinds of sweets or to hold a cauldron to make some of the potions inside the candies. Ron looked at the fireplace as a thought suddenly hit him.
"Great. So, now we've got a fireplace that we're hoping is connected to the floo network…. But where are we going to get - "
"floo powder?" Hermione asked as she held up a small pot filled with silver dust.
"How did …. "
"Come now Ron, the employees have to get home somehow and not everyone lives close enough to walk or fly." She said with a smile. Harry chuckled and dipped his hand into the fine powder.
"Take enough to come back with too" Hermione advised as Ron came over to take his own handful of powder. She pulled out a little pouch she had brought with her from school while the boys looked at each other for a moment, holding their handfuls, and then looked at Hermione. They gave her silent pleading looks, which she met with a frown.
"Oh fine, I guess I'll have to carry some for you two as well" She sighed as she took even more powder and put enough for all three of them into the little bag. She closed it up and hid it away before placing the powder filled pot back on the mantle she had snatched it from and walking over with her fist full of floo powder.
Harry looked at the two, gave a nod, and stepped into the fireplace.
"Diagon Alley." He called in a clear voice as the powder fell from his hand. In a flash of green flames, he vanished from sight. Seconds later, he reappeared on the deserted streets of Diagon Alley. The dim light of the moon shined down, showing just a stray paper blowing down the street. Moments later Ron and Hermione appeared, dusting off their clothes. The three hurried towards the Leaky Cauldron, using the invisibility cloak just in case somebody was up at this late hour. Hermione didn't even want to think about what the local authorities would think if they caught a bunch of students wandering around so far away from school at such a late hour. When they reached the back of the Leaky Cauldron, they pushed the door open and hastily went inside. They didn't bother closing the door, for upon entry the man behind the bar instantly looked at the door. The trio slowly backed away, careful not to bump into anything lest they give away their position. The barkeep walked over to the door, poking his head outside curiously and the trio used the chance to race out the front door. The barkeep instantly pulled his head inside, staring towards the front door where he had sworn he just heard a bang. There was nothing in sight though. He scratched his head and closed the back door.
Once outside, the trio walked a block away from the pub before hiding in an alley and stashing the cloak of invisibility into Harry's jacket pocket.
"That wasn't so bad. Now we just need to catch a cab to the hospital." Harry said with a smile. He glanced at Ron and repressed a small laugh. "Uh…Ron, no offense… but once we've got a cab, just…don't talk to the driver. Let me and Hermione handle the muggle business" He said and Ron was confused at first, but then he looked downright insulted by the insinuation that he'd blow their secret. It wasn't until Hermione asked him if he knew how to 'break a $20' that he finally calmed down. He really was ignorant when it came to the normal life of a non magical person.
Harry waved down a cab and the three huddled into the back seat. They were thankful the man in the car didn't question what children were doing out so late on the streets of London.
"Where to?" The cabbie asked as he studied his customers in the review mirror. Harry hesitated. They had never figured out where the students from the high school had been taken. Hermione quickly spoke up.
"Can you take us to the hospital where all the students from Stonewall High School were taken?" She asked in her most polite tone.
"Miss, visiting hours have been over for a while now" The cabbie began, but Hermione was relentless.
"Oh, please take us. You see, my brother was at school during the incident. As soon as I found out, my cousins and I just had to come check on him. We were supposed to arrive much earlier today, but our plane arrived late. Our guardians said they would meet us at the hospital so we could be there to support my poor brother. I don't want to lose my only sibling!" She cried, eyes starting to water. Harry caught on to what she was doing and patted her shoulder as if he were comforting her. Ron just watched the two in confusion. Thankfully, the ginger wasn't noticed by the cab driver who merely nodded in understanding and started to drive.
The car ride was silent – partially to hold up the act, and partially because nobody knew what to say. Hermione was the one who ended up paying the cab fair, and Harry promised he'd pay her back on galleons. Harry had also urged the driver to move on instead of waiting for them. They couldn't hide under the cloak again until he was gone.
Once safely hidden, invisible to the world, the trio made their way into the hospital. They held their breath when the woman behind the desk looked up at door, which seemed to have opened for no visible reason. They slowly snuck by her as she stared at the door with a furrowed brow, and once they reached a hallway, they picked up their pace. Hermione finally stopped them so she could look at a map. Ron had protested, but she saw no point in wandering the hall endlessly when there was a perfectly good map they could use to narrow down their search. Men and asking for directions….
She guided them to where she thought the students would be judging on how the building was divided, and the boys followed without question. Hermione was rarely wrong.
They were walking down hall after hall, peeking in through the windows and doors. Harry finally froze in his spot as they were passing one particularly large window. Inside, a line of beds were sitting perpendicular to the wall. No curtain divided them, but each had its own bedside table. Some had flowers, stuffed animals, or cards… but one had a schoolbag. Its owner had a mess of white hair.
"Is…is he in there?" Hermione asked once she noticed Harry staring. She looked inside the room, scanning the many bodies that lay motionless within. She looked back at Harry, who was giving a small silent nod.
"Which one?" Ron asked as he leaned closer against the glass. Harry pointed towards the white haired boy and the three locked their eyes on the sleeping figure. Ryou's eyes were tightly closed and instead of a blank, expressionless face people usually wore when they were unconscious, Ryou was frowning. Then someone grabbed the invisibility cloak and tore it away from the watching teenagers. The trio gasped and spun around, staring wide eyed at the tall, dark skinned man before them. Both the man and the students' blinked in recognition.
"Harry Potter. With Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger." The man's face was a picture of surprise and disapproval.
"And you're Kingsley Shacklebolt. You mean you're the auror in charge of interrogating the witnesses?" Hermione was surprised. Kingsley Shacklebolt was a senior auror and, despite his secret status as a member of the Order of the Phoenix, well respected within the ministry. Why would they send someone so powerful just to talk to a bunch of muggle children?
"How did you know we were here? We were invisible!" Ron asked with a bit of annoyance clear in his voice.
" It is my job to hear the victims' accounts of the attack before erasing their memories." Replied the auror as he looked at Hermione. He turned his gaze towards Ron and gave a half smile.
"That cloak may hide you from sight, but it does not silence your voices. Now, what are you three children doing so far away from Hogwarts in the middle of the night visiting a muggle hospital?" Kingsley demanded as he gave the trio a stern look, smile nowhere to be found.
"I know one of the students that was in the attack" Harry said instantly, staring straight back at the auror. He was here to visit a friend. He had nothing to be ashamed of. "Nobody was telling me anything, so I came to check on him myself."
Kingsley did not drop his look of disapproval.
"Look, I just want to know how he's doing. I find that out, and we'll go straight back to Hogwarts." Harry said as he raised his hands as if that would show his honesty. Kingsley watched the trio carefully before turning his eyes towards the patients. His face was unreadable. Harry turned to look at the kids as well.
"They are okay….aren't they?" Hermione asked suddenly. She had been watching the kids for awhile now and very few of them made any movements what so ever. Kingsley didn't answer. Hermione turned to look at the auror in confusion.
"well?" Harry prompted, returning his attention to Kingsley.
"Most likely they are just recovering from their worst memories. They should awaken in time."
"Memories? What do you mean by that? How could memories comatose people? And the Daily Prophet said magic was involved. Isn't that why you're here?" Hermione wasn't going to accept that half-answer, even if Kingsley did work for the ministry. As she spoke, Harry knew exactly how to answer her questions.
"Dementors."
Kingsley looked at Harry, but his face still showed nothing. "This isn't the concern of children. You've checked on your friend, now go back to school. Now." He ordered, but with the realization that Dementors could have been involved, Harry was even more worried for Ryou. What if he lost his soul?
"Harry… he's moving. Quite a lot actually." Ron said, gaining the attention of Kingsley and Hermione as well as Harry. The red head pointed and sure enough Ryou was awake, sitting straight up in his bed, looking around with panic clear on his face.
0
Darkness clouded his mind. Everything was cold and his lungs felt tight. His head was pounding and he didn't know why. He felt something warm in his hands, but he couldn't seem to open his eyes to look at it. Besides, he was a little alarmed by the strange pressure in his head. He didn't like it and tried to push it away but it was pretty resilient. He frowned and tried harder. Sure enough it started to leave… but something else replaced it. Nightmarish pictures. Scenes replaying over and over again. Blood, laughter, crunching metal…lights, cloaks, screaming. His breathing grew rapid and that weird pressure tried to return, but that only helped to increase his panic.
Then his eyes opened and he sat up straight with a small scream.
Ryou was breathing heavily and his whole body trembled. That warm thing was still in his hands and he looked down to find his knuckles turning white as they gripped gold. He tried to calm himself. Whatever was wrong had to have been a dream. He was in bed.
But not his bed.
Ryou jerked his head up and looked to either side of him. Panic swelled up inside once more as he took in the sight of motionless bodies. They weren't soulless right? Or did those strangers with the sticks that shot lights do something to them? Did they kill the students? Was he dead too? He finally released his grip on the millennium ring and held his arms to try to stop them from shaking so much. He barely even registered the bandage on his arm.
His head jerked up at the sound of a door opening. A man was coming in and he was pulling something out of his pocket. A stick. Instantly Ryou's look of panic melted into a dark glare. The man barely had time to register the change before the boy jumped out of bed and threw the blanket over the man. He grabbed the stick and forced it out of the man's hand with the help of a good elbow to the abdomen and threw the chunk of wood across the room, letting it land with a dull clatter in the darkness. He turned his narrowed gaze back on the man who had finally gotten the blanket off of his head and was prepared to launch a punch at that look of shock, but a voice caught him off guard.
"RYOU!"
The boy blinked as a familiar black haired kid with glasses came running over to him. In that moment of hesitation, Bakura found himself covered by the very blanket he had used against the stick wielder. The blanket was wrapped around his torso tightly, keeping his arms pinned to his sides. He tried his best to thrash around, but the man had a firm grip on him.
"Ryou, it's okay. We're here to help. Nobody is going to hurt you" Bakura heard four eyes again, using a calm voice as if to reassure him. He stopped his movement, becoming as still as death, and turned to glare at his Yadonushi's little pen pal.
"Then tell him to release me" Bakura growled with acid in his voice. The other boy blinked rapidly before nodding towards the man that had grabbed the white haired teenager and slowly Bakura felt his arms being freed. He pulled away from the man and put a few steps of distance between them, all the while letting his glare fall on the stick wielder.
"Ryou. It's…good to see you."
Bakura jerked his head towards the owner of the voice. The Potter brat was keeping his distance, but his face held worry.
Harry watched his friend nervously. He was truly glad that Ryou had woken up, but he didn't want to do anything else to startle him. Especially if he really had been attacked by Dementors. He smiled in relief as the white haired teen took a large breath and looked at Harry with a much calmer gaze.
"Harry… what's going on? Where am I?" Ryou asked as he started to walk towards Harry. He turned his eyes towards Kingsley and moved in an arc to avoid stepping any closer to the intimidating man. Harry noticed whatever fire had been in Ryou a minute ago had extinguished, leaving behind his usual timid self.
"Young man. I have a few questions for you." Kingsley said and Harry watched as Ryou all but jumped at the sound of the auror's voice.
"He's a good guy, Ryou. He just wants to know what happened." Harry assured him, but Ryou was still tense.
"He had a stick. Just like them. The people with sticks are bad." Ryou argued in a gentle yet anxious voice. Again his soft brown eyes flitted to Kingsley.
"People with sticks?" Harry parroted and Ryou gave a quick nod of the head, letting his eyes fall to the floor. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. "Like this one?" He asked and Ryou gasped as soon as he saw it. He took a step away from Harry and looked like a coiled spring just waiting to be unlatched. The wrong words would send him running for sure. Harry took that response as a yes.
"You were attacked by people with wands?" He blurted out as the realization hit him. Ryou had been staring at Harry's wand, but now his eyes jumped up to meet Harry's, and as Harry watched he swore he could see Ryu's expression change from confusion to realization.
"Harry. That's enough. You need to get back to your school." Kingsley's deep, commanding voice rung out in the room. Harry was trying to think up an argument, but Ryou spoke first.
" Wands… like magic wands? The people in cloaks…they were witches and wizards then? Those lights… they were spells…" Ryou said suddenly, positioning himself closer to Harry while maintaining his distance from Kingsley. Harry looked up at the auror, as if looking for permission to expose the magical world. He decided a second after looking towards the auror that he really didn't need permission. He looked back towards Ryou and nodded. It didn't matter what Ryou heard now anyway.
"Ryou, did you notice anything else about the cloaked people? Were they wearing masks, or did one have creepy red eyes?" Harry asked as he put his hands on Ryou's shoulders. Ryou tensed at the touch.
"Harry. Enough. Ryou is it? I need you to tell me what you saw when your school was attacked." Kingsley's voice rang out again and the auror stared at the boy. After Harry had calmed this 'Ryou' child, the boy wouldn't make eye contact with him. The auror had actually been impressed by the boy's quick action against him and how he instantly disarmed him. It seemed he was much more alert than the few children who had actually awoken since the incident. All of the other students couldn't recall a thing except the coldness and the replay of their darkest memories in their minds. But this boy had seen the wands of his attackers and recognized his own wand as the same weapon. He had also come to the conclusion of magic on his own. He could tell the child was shy by the way he kept looking at the floor or towards Harry for support. It was for that reason alone he was letting Harry Potter stay in the room at all.
"I don't really know. The wall just exploded. My classmates…some of them started to cry or scream. Sometimes both. People in black cloaks came in and were shooting at things with their sti-….wands. Things just started breaking and when the magic hit the people, they screamed really loud… or just hit the ground." Ryou shuddered as he recalled the memories.
"The school windows frosted when the wraiths came in. Everything near them grew icy." Ryou looked up and stared at Harry, his face looking as if what he was about to say something that was both alarming something that Harry wouldn't believe.
"The wraiths didn't have eyes or anything on their faces except mouths. They could fly too. They make pictures come into your head. I don't know how, but they do! They were much worse than the wand wielders."
Ryou finally looked up to see adult man's face, and went back and forth between him and Harry's expression. They both seemed shocked and their faces were covered with disbelief. As expected. They didn't believe him.
"Ryou… you can see Dementors?"
Ryou turned towards Harry in confusion.
"Dementors? What … that's what the wraiths are called?"
/Yadonushi, they know exactly what was going on./ The voice whispered, as he had been since relinquishing control to his host. Potter was close enough to take down in one hit if needed and the mage was disarmed. The spirit was confident he could win if it came to a fight. He was ready to take over at a moment's notice.
"Harry, you know something. Please… tell me what you know." Ryou pleaded as he stared at Harry. He watched as Harry looked at the tall, dark man who was staring at Ryou. It made him uncomfortable and he felt for sure he was squirming under that gaze.
Harry looked up at Kingsley, just as surprised as the auror that Ryou had seen what was supposed to be invisible to a muggle. It had seemed clear Ryou had no magic of his own. He hadn't recognized his attackers as wizards, nor had he known what a wand was, or the proper name of a Dementor. And yet he saw them. He looked at Ryou and took a breath.
"Ryou. I'm a wizard."
0
Hermione jumped a little as Kingsley came back out into the hall. She and Ron had watched the whole event through the window and Hermione in particular was curious as to what was said inside. She glanced back at the window, watching as Harry and Ryou sat on the edge of Ryou's hospital bed and Harry began talking to a very attentive Ryou. She looked back at Kingsley in confusion.
"What's going on?" She asked as she watched the auror stare through the window.
"That child. How does Harry know him?" Kingsley asked, ignoring Hermione's question in favor of his own. Hermione felt annoyed at the snuff, but answered anyway.
"He met him over the summer. He's a muggle that moved into Little Whinging."
"You are sure he is a muggle?"
Hermione tipped her head and looked back into the room at Ryou. Without Kingsley in there, he was steadily starting to relax. His face was also going from panicked concern to something between curiosity and awe. She really wanted to know what they were talking about.
"Course he's a muggle. He's not going to Hogwarts. Wasn't he in a muggle school?" Ron suddenly spoke up from beside Hermione, jolting her out of her thoughts.
"Is there a reason to doubt him?" Hermione asked as she and Ron locked their stares onto the auror. Kingsley frowned. He didn't want to give these children any reason to delay their return to Hogwarts and the protection it offered, but Harry was the type of boy who would tell them anyway.
"He can see Dementors." He said stiffly. This was unexpected. If the boy was truly muggle, he was unique in being able to see the magical. More than likely, the boy was magical himself.
"That's not possible. Muggles can't see Dementors. If he saw them… he must have magic too." Hermione echoed the auror's thoughts and all three of them returned to watching Harry and Ryou in the room. Ryou was nodding at something and smiling pleasantly, a smile that was matched by Harry. The boy who lived stood up and walked to the other end of the room, retrieving something from the ground as Ryou watched. Harry walked towards the door and slipped outside.
"From Ryou's description, the school was attacked by Death Eaters for sure." Harry said in a confident voice as he handed Kingsley something – the auror's thrown wand.
"Harry, I thought you said Ryou was a muggle." Ron said as he gave his friend a curious look.
"I thought he was. He doesn't know anything about the magical world, and he said he was never invited to a magic school before either. Maybe he's just a muggle that can see Dementors" Harry said with a shrug.
"That's just not possible. Ryou HAS to be magical. He's probably a muggle born wizard." Hermione said. He still should have received a letter. Maybe he was missed somehow?
"So wait, did you just spill everything magical to him?" Ron asked and Harry gave a quick yes.
"And he believed you without a fuss?" Hermione looked back at Ryou after Harry nodded. It just strengthened her theory that he was a muggle born wizard that was missed. He might have had bouts of accidental magic.
"Maybe it was because he moved to Japan. Perhaps the local Japanese school thought an English school would teach him, while an English school figured a Japanese school would take over his schooling." She said, offering her theory to an unasked questioned.
"What was because he moved?" Ron asked.
"That he didn't get a letter" Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Well, whatever his – " Harry's thought was cut short by a loud crack that echoed in the hallway. He turned towards the sound and his eyes fell on two cloaked figures wearing skull masks. Death Eaters.
"Ah, Kingsley Shacklebolt. So you're the big bad auror playing protection." One of the figures called as a bright green light jumped from her outstretched wand straight towards Kingsley. The auror dodged easily and positioned himself in front of Harry and his friends. The trio was smart enough to pull the invisibility cloak over them shortly after.
"Aww, how cute. Protect the kiddies at your own risk right? Don't worry darling, we won't kill them all. We're just after one." The witch cooed in delight as she sent another curse towards the auror, which rebounded off of a shield charm. Kingsley growled under his breath. Harry hadn't been exposed for that long. How had they known he was here?
The second Death Eater raised his wand and prepared to launch a spell of his own towards the closed door that held the students, but the door suddenly opened and the white hair of Ryou poked out. His brown eyes widened as he caught sight of the familiar black cloaks and masks.
"Ryou RUN!" Harry shouted, pulling the cloak off his head. His voice was like an alarm bell, and instantly Ryou tore off down the hallway. The male Death Eater shouted stupify and Harry watched with horror as a red beam collided with Ryou's back and his friend hit the floor hard. The female Death Eater protected her accomplice as they were attacked by the auror. As she caught sight of the now visible lightning scarred teen, she cried out in delight.
"Harry Potter! Perfect. He'll be so pleased" She called and her wand was aimed at him. Harry felt rage building up inside him and he reached into his pocket.
"No! You three get somewhere safe. Leave Ryou to me." Kingsley ordered as Harry pulled out his wand. Harry's protests were silenced when Kingsley said their very presence was making Ryou's retrieval that much harder.
"Then don't protect us! We can defend ourselves!" Harry argued back, but there was just no arguing with the senior auror. Even worse, Harry's distraction had allowed the Death Eaters to catch up to Ryou and while the female caste a powerful shield spell, the male bent down to lay a hand on Ryou's back.
"What about Potter?" The witch called out to the wizard behind her.
"He wasn't the assignment. We can get him next time. Unless you think you can kill Shacklebolt while constantly defending." The male Death Eater sneered at his female partner. He returned his attention to the unmoving boy before him and prepared to get this mission over with.
"Harry! They're going to apparate!" Hermione called and Harry's eyes locked onto Ryou with terror. Just then, the still figure of his friend rolled over and slammed his feet into the Death Eater's face with enough force to make the man crumple backwards to the ground. The second Death Eater turned to face Ryou in shock and turned her wand towards him as he stood, but that was all it took for Kingsley to get a good spell in, sending the witch flying against the wall. Once she managed to right herself, she grabbed her accomplice and disapperated with a loud crack.
Harry stared at Ryou, who was breathing heavily and had his hands balled into fists, standing ready to strike anything that came too close. He ran over to him, ignoring the feral stare Ryou was sending his way. Ron and Hermione could only watch in surprise.
"That was a bloody good kick" Ron finally sputtered as he watched Harry talk to the enigma that was Ryou. He hadn't really pictured Ryou as a white haired skinny little boy who could hit like that.
Ron's statement went unopposed as silence covered the hall. The auror looked at the children and caught their attention with his strong voice.
"Come on. All four of you. You can't stay here any longer." Kingsley said as Harry and Ryou walked over to him. Only Ryou seemed uncertain about where exactly Kingsley intended them to go.
"You're not going to leave him here and erase his memory?" Hermione asked as she glanced at Ryou.
"Erase my memory? !"
"No. It's clear he was their target. I'll escort you all to Hogwarts." Kingsley said as he affixed Ryou was a curious stare. What did the Death Eaters want from him?
