Yes, I finally have this chapter with my beta reader!
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Joey was
confused for the ten seconds it took for him to re-orientate himself and take
in the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Then it hit him
that they had been teleported away from the fight at the Ministry of Magic and
dropped off here. Considering that they had been outmatched and outnumbered, it
would not have been a bad thing but there was an issue. A rather big issue.
Both Yugi and Harry had been left behind.
“Take us
back!” Joey furiously demanded as he glared around at the pair of mages who had
side-along apperated them to the school gates, far away from the battle.
“So you can
do what?” Moody, the real Moody, asked derisively, “Stand around and get
yourself and others killed because you tried to fight someone who’s older, better
trained and sneakier than you? You’ve not even taken your fifth year yet and if
you could summon those creatures of yours, you would have done by now. If you
go back now, you’ll get killed.”
“But...”
Joey trailed off when Hermione put a hand on his arm.
“Moody’s
right. Even if Harry and Yugi are still there, we’d be in the way.” She
murmured quietly as he glowered down her. Her expression told him that she
liked it as little as he did, but as per usual she had a much more level head
about the situation. “They’d never forgive themselves if we got killed going
back for them.”
“The others
will be here with your friends in a minute.” Moody’s accomplice, a young woman
whose hair could not seem to make up its mind what colour it was, spoke up,
trying to reassure them. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
Joey let out
an irritated huff. No, they were not ‘fine.’ He knew that already. Even before
Harry had nearly fallen, clutching his right arm, Joey had felt like someone
had grabbed his heart and squeezed. Just for a moment, but the sensation and
the lingering ache afterwards was worryingly familiar. There was nothing
physically wrong with him, but he knew what had caused it.
It was a
warning. An alarm call. A scream for backup.
Yugi was
hurt. Badly.
Harry’s collapse
and explanation had only confirmed what he had already known. On its own that
would have been bad enough, but the discomfort had only intensified as time
went on which was why he wanted to go back so badly. He did not need to though
as Professor Lupin arrived in a stream of white and a swirl of white smoke
which deposited the werewolf and Harry amongst their group.
Professor
Lupin rushed past them, Harry in tow and carrying something in his arms.
Hermione did not get a glimpse of what he had, but Joey did and he froze up in
horrified shock for a moment before rushing to catch up, all thoughts of going
back to the Ministry forgotten.
The trip to
the hospital wing had never seemed longer as they raced through the
surprisingly full corridors and Joey did not know what to do. Instead he
hesitated by the infirmary’s door as the werewolf laid Atem on the nearest bed
and called for the school’s healer.
“Yugi...” He
breathed as he stepped into the ward, Hermione’s shocked gasp going unnoticed
in the face of the reality of seeing his best friend led on a hospital bed,
unconscious, deathly pale and bleeding profusely.
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