Camp NaNo April 2014: Digital Distraction: Part 3

It was eighteen hours before Yami came around after he finally got off to sleep, assisted by a Dreamless Sleep Potion that the nurse slipped into his pumpkin juice. It was another six before Madam Pomfrey started trying to kick him out of the hospital wing, just as she had to the others.

It took her another day and a half to manage it and even then he only left because Yugi finally came around. Yami had been in the middle of yet another discussion about why he didn’t need to go outside and how he would get plenty of fresh air AFTER his light had awoken, when he had felt Yugi’s mind begin to stir and has irritated Madam Pomfrey by ignoring her completely in order to dart to Yugi’s side.

The Pharaoh tried not to mentally wince as pain spiked across the link. There was only a certain amount of pain they could keep from each other and even as Yugi’s groggy, wounded mind scrambled to try and hold back as much of the pain as it could, Yami sat down on the bed next to him, taking Yugi’s hand in his and murmuring, “It’s okay, you don’t have to deal with this alone.”

“Yami?” Yugi’s voice had a pained edge to it, eyes half opened, pain dimmed amethyst looking up at him, a worried, confused expression taking over as Yugi asked, “What happened? Where are we?”

“You need to try and remember, Yugi.” Yami replied, watching his light carefully as Yugi tried to remember what had happened, concerned that Yugi’s confusion was because of the memories that had been lost during the fight.

Yugi frowned, trying to sit up and needing Yami’s help to do so. He gazed at the bed as he tried to pull his thoughts into a coherent pattern. Yami smiled slightly when he felt something in Yugi’s mind ‘click’ and the teen gasped slightly as he stared at his dark half.

“Voldemort!” Yugi yelped, clutching Yami’s arm, “What happened to...?”

“He’s gone.” Yami reassured him, “For now at least.”

“And the others? Are they alright?” Yugi worried at him, glancing around the infirmary and pausing when his gaze fell on Harry, concern obvious.

“Everyone’s okay, or are going to be.” Yami reassured him, glancing over at Harry with a slight grimace, “Harry burnt his magic out somehow. They’re not sure how...”

“Quirrell,” Yugi muttered, turning his eyes towards the bedcovers, “I don’t know what Harry did or how he did it, but his touch seemed to burn Quirrell. He saved us both. That’s probably what did it.” Yugi looked up at Yami, worried, “It will come back, won’t it?”

“Madam Pomfrey doesn’t seem too worried.” Yami shrugged, not sure himself but willing to trust the expert on this. “So I would have thought so.”

“That’s good.” Yugi relaxed at that, flopping back onto the bed, exhaustion beginning to drag him under again.

“Don’t worry about the others.” Yami reassured him, helping him get comfortable, “They’re fine and I’ll look after them. You need to rest and recover.”

“You need to take care of yourself too.” Yugi grasped the Pharaoh’s arm, “Go and eat. I’ll be okay.”

“But...” Yami trailed off at the stubborn look that Yugi gave him. “Yugi...”

“I’ll be fine, Yami, I promise. You’ve seen to that.” Yami started at that, realising that Yugi could sense what he had done to help him, “Go and rest. Please?”

“That’s cheating.” The Pharaoh grumbled, unable to resist the look Yugi gave him in combination with the ‘please.’

“You just haven’t learnt the rules.” Yugi chuckled as he snuggled into his pillow, “Slow learner.”

“Hey...” Yami’s protest was half hearted and pointless as Yugi had already returned to his slumber. He sighed, shaking his head in amusement as he stood up and looked around for the nurse.

Madam Pomfrey was not hard to find and she seemed pleased when Yami said he was going to head down to the great hall for dinner. She had been worried about the amount of food he had been eating over the last couple of days, or rather the lack thereof, and knowing that he was heading down to join his other friends reassured her. She was sure that they would be able to bully him into eating where she had not.

She was quite right, the moment Yami joined his friends they plonked a plate full of food in front of him and told him he wasn’t allowed to leave the table until everything on it was gone.

He was just finishing his meal when the post owls arrived with a rather large stack of post for Yugi. Yami, who had had permission to open Yugi’s post for months, ripped open the envelopes to find a whole bunch of tournament invites that had been forwarded to them by their Grandfather.  

He put them aside for now, unsure what to do about them when they were for ‘Yugi Mutou’ and he could no longer go by that name, but Yugi would be in no fit state to compete for the first few weeks of the holidays. He decided to deal with it when Yugi was more awake and able to help him make a decision on the matter.

CampNaNo April2014: Digital Distraction Part 1

Yami nearly missed Yugi’s collapse as he watched Voldemort’s shade flee. It was only the soft groan that escaped his hikari’s lips that caused him to turn around in time to catch Yugi before he could hit the ground.

“Yugi!” Yami gasped, fear overriding the anger that had been flooding his system as he realised that Yugi’s soul was beginning to fade away and he could barely sense Yugi’s light. He missed the fact the Shadows around them were vanishing, revealing them to be within Yugi’s soul room, completely in his haste to try and stabilise his brother’s soul.

It was obvious who had come out the worst in the battle between the Dark Lord and the teenager he had been trying to possess. Yugi’s soul was grievously wounded and for a few terrifying moments, before Yami could start taking on some of the injuries and feeding Yugi some of his own energy, Yami was terrifyingly worried that he was too late to do anything for the boy and that Yugi was already gone.

“Hold on.” Yami begged as he laid Yugi down on the floor carefully and knelt at his side. Something in the room shifted and fell as he worked but he didn’t pay any attention to it as he felt what little he could sense from his light flicker and nearly fade out completely. He worked quickly, transferring injuries and sending his own life energy to Yugi in order to try and stabilise the fading light. “Please, Yugi, don’t leave me.”

Yami’s eyes widened in realisation as he placed a hand over Yugi’s heart in order to try and transfer life energy to the teen faster, only to finally sense that the dark remnants of a hex that Voldemort must have cast were curled around his light’s heart, draining not only the energy he was sending but what little remained of Yugi’s life force too.

The Pharaoh let out a growl as he carefully extracted the dark power that had embedded itself within his light. It felt oily on his skin as it balled in his hand, the energy radiating from it drawing the attention of the Shadows that Yami was trying to control in order to heal his light.

The moment the last of it was free from Yugi, he threw the ball of it out into the corridor between his soul room and Yugi’s. The Shadows pounced on it, consuming the newer, weaker magic allowing Yami to finally manage to draw Yugi back from the edge. The Pharaoh let out a relieved sigh as Yugi’s light stabilised and the boy’s exhausted, wounded soul finally solidified completely.

Yugi still didn’t stir. Yami wasn’t surprised though. With how close the teen had come to dying and how wounded he was, even with Yami taking on as much as he dared without putting himself out of action too, the Pharaoh suspected it would be hours, possibly days before Yugi’s soul was strong enough to awaken.

He glanced around at their surroundings, trying to work out where they were, only for a low, furious growl to emerge when he realised where they were. That they had returned to Yugi’s soul room wouldn’t have been a problem normally, in fact he had planned on getting Yugi to his bed there anyway. However the room was trashed. The walls were spell damaged and a rather large number of the toys and games scattered across the room were damaged, or worse, broken.

Each of those toys and games contained an important memory, or a group of related memories. The ones that were damaged would no longer be able to hold those memories properly but at least there would be partial memories within. The broken ones were unlikely to have even that. It was much more likely that the memories within were lost, probably forever.

Yami was just glad at there were more undamaged toys and games than damaged ones. Still, when Yugi awoke, he knew he would have to help his hikari try and work out what memories had been lost and piece together Yugi’s personal history once again. The one consolation was that he would be able to share his memories with Yugi. Hopefully that would help fill in any blanks in the timeline.

He scooped his hikari up and made his way over to the bed in the corner of the room, being careful not to stand on anything and damage the room any further than it already was. He was in the middle of tucking Yugi in when he heard a voice echoing down the corridor between his room and Yugi’s.

“Dumbledore.” Yami murmured, glancing out the door as he recognised the voice. He hesitated, not wanting to leave Yugi’s side while he was so weak. He knew, however, that if he didn’t, someone would try and separate him and Yugi and he couldn’t let that happen. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He promised Yugi, finishing tucking him in before heading out into the corridor and back to his body.

Clanverse: Rocks Fall...

Platform Nine and Three Quarters had become a war zone, as Aurors and parents fought against Voldemort and his Death Eaters as they attempted to attack the Hogwarts Express, which had been dropping all of the children off home for the Summer.

On the side of the Aurors were those teachers who had travelled with the train and those few who weren’t really children, but adults who had charms that allowed them to fit in more easily among their year mates, and most of their family members.

“Robyn, take her and go.” Mana, the Dark Magician Girl, called, pushing her seven month old daughter into the arms of Robyn Golden, as the sounds of the fighting reached them, the blonde’s head turning towards the noises.

“You don’t have to go out there.” Robyn frowned. Mana was already gone, leaving Robyn holding the baby and joining the battle.

Robyn hesitated for only a moment, before side-along Apparating, with Nakia, Mana’s daughter, away from the fighting.

Outside the battle wasn’t going well, the Death Eaters hadn’t expected any heavy resistance, but the people defending the students hadn’t expected an attack in the first place, giving Voldemort and the Death Eaters the advantage.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that several of the Slytherins had turned on their classmates and there were other students who were under the imperius.

The situation had turned impossible very quickly and the Domino Clan, who had attempted to sent their younger members through the gate, to safety, only to have the route out blocked, were backed into a corner.

They’d already lost Ombre, who had been killed when she had taken out Lucius Malfoy, and Ron had managed to grab Ginny and Rebecca and get them out to safety, but hadn’t been able to get back in to help.

Harry was locked in battle with Voldemort himself, as Yugi and Yami attempted to get through the Death Eaters to the battle going on beyond, testing his light against Voldemort’s shadows, just as he had in the graveyard.

But it was burning out, and for all the magic that Yugi was sending him down the link, his light boosting Harry’s, Harry wasn’t sure how much longer they could hold out.

They were losing ground in this battle…

“Avada Kedavra!”

“No!”

Harry made the mistake of allowing himself to be distracted by Yugi’s cry, watching with horror as Yami fell, just as Kari had. `Yami!`

There was no answer and Harry saw Yugi snarl and start to cast spells again… Harry turned back to the battle, but the distraction had been long enough.

Voldemort had been waiting for him to turn back and was already waiting.

“Avada Kedavra!”

“Expelli…”

Harry was too slow, and was hit by Voldemort’s unforgivable curse before he could finish his incantation.

Yugi staggered as the link was cut, fatally turning away from his battle for the moment, to look disbelieving, that it took one of the Death Eaters to cast the killing curse, striking Yugi in the back…

Mana saw Yugi fall and darted forward, snatching up the Millennium Puzzle, and looking at Hermione who had frozen when all three had been killed in such quick succession.

“GO!” Hermione shrieked at her. “Take it and go!”

Mana hesitated only a moment, escaping as she was nearly attacked by a pair of Death Eaters…

Hermione, Kari… I’m sorry.

Clanverse: Just at the end of Philosopher's Stone, while Harry and Yugi are still in the hospital wing

Yami hated Voldemort.

He hated him for what he’d done to Harry’s parents; he hated him for trying to arrange for his friends’ deaths and most of all he hated him for what he had done to Yugi.

Yugi had only woken up once or twice since Voldemort had tried to possess him, and every time he had, while his body had been fine, the constant pain that infected his soul, bled over from Yugi to Yami so much that only Joey was daring to snap at him at the moment, evolved into agony.

Yami took as much of that pain onto himself as he could, but even it was never enough, Yugi would inevitably last only an hour, two at max before passing out again.

He hated that he’d been unable to help in that battle, hated that he hadn’t been able to protect his hikari…

He hated a lot of things right now, and all he could do was sit there and allow Yugi’s wounded soul to siphon off his energy in order to restore itself, be it sitting in the Infirmary, sitting in the Common Dorm or sitting by the lake, letting the draw on his energy lull him to sleep.

Joey knew, of course, but then Joey was the only one who really knew what to look for. He’d seen soul rending wounds before, when Yami and Yugi had taken that blast from Ra for him, when the shadows had been ripping Yugi apart piece by piece while Yami was helpless to watch…

Joey knew what to look for, knew what sort of pain they were in…

Yami had a feeling that, if Joey had the ability, he’d take some of Yugi’s pain onto himself to ease their burden.

But he didn’t.

So all he could so was offer his support, just by being there and being Joey.

And weirdly that’s all Yugi and Yami needed right now. They had each other mind to mind, but the pain made them weak, made them helpless, a simple physical attack right now would finish them…

They needed Joey and Joey knew it. So he didn’t complain when Yami asked him to stick close, didn’t say a word each time Yugi awoke and the first thing out of his throat was a pained whimper, didn’t question when it had been necessary for the pair of them to sneak down to the hospital wing at some ridiculous time of the morning because Yami couldn’t sense Yugi and feared…

In some ways this was worse then the game against Marik, Joey understood. At least when they’d defeated the enemy then, the Shadows had restored Yugi’s soul to the way it had been before the game.

Joey was beginning to understand the way the Wizarding world worked.

And fair had never been a part of it.

He knew how much Yugi and Yami were relying on him right now, could see how much pain they were in constantly, and he missed the others, missed having Tristan at his back, missed having Tea’s friendship speeches thrown at him, having that extra support pillar…

It wasn’t that the others weren’t trying to be supportive, but they just couldn’t understand. Other then Kari and Ombre, who were more used to these things, they thought that a wound of the soul was as simple to heal as a wound of the body, after all it was just another kind of body, but Joey knew better.

Yugi had once explained a Soul Room as the personification of everything a person is, the way they thought or felt, the very essence of a soul, and what happened in a Soul Room stayed happened.

And Voldemort had gotten into Yugi’s in his attempt to possess the hikari and turn him on his friends.

Was there some spell Voldemort had left behind? Some hex he’d cast that was doing this?

The words, “what happened in a Soul Room, stayed happened” haunted Joey.

Yami had sworn Yugi would get better, would in fact, be up and about by the end of term, but there was that lingering fear that there was something wrong Yami couldn’t fix, some cause to all this pain that the Pharaoh would be unable to handle.

Joey had heard of people going insane because of pain and he didn’t want Yugi to become one of them.

Gods…

Joey kicked the bed to the left of him, the crash startling Yami who had been lost in his own little world… or maybe that was a little world he shared with Yugi… into looking at him with a mixture of concern, irritation and bemusement. “Joey?” He asked, tone reflecting all three.

“Frustration.” Joey explained, cringing as he realised he’d woken Harry up.

“Hey.” Harry murmured, sitting up and feeling around for his glasses.

“Sorry Harry.” Joey muttered as he found them and put them on as he sat up.

“I’m ok.” Harry waved it off, gesturing to his pile of sweets. “You want some?” Yami hesitated, as hungry as he was, but Joey took the invite in his stride and dove in, making Harry chuckle. “I don’t mind, honest.” Harry told the Pharaoh, “Sugar gives you more energy, energy will help Yugi recover, right?”

“Sugar does give energy,” Yami acknowledged, “But it will burn out quickly.”

“Still better then none at all.”

Yami had to concede he had a point and swiped a couple of boxes of iced mice off the table.

Harry started to eat a chocolate frog, waiting for someone to say anything, but they didn’t. Joey was busy with his Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and Yami had barely touched his iced mice, and was just watching his hikari, strain visible where a moment ago there had been none.

Harry realised he was being allowed to see something rather rare, Yami with his guard down, allowing the weariness, the fear and the pain to show to the outside world, trusting Joey and Harry that implicitly that he’d allow them to see this side of himself…

“Yami…” Harry spoke up, frightened to break that trust but needing to know, when Yugi groaned and Yami’s hand tightened on the chair arm to the point his knuckles were going white, “How much… are you alright?”

The look the Pharaoh gave him was startled for a second, then Yami schooled it back into a reassuring look, “I’m ok.”

“But you’re in pain.”

Harry felt Joey’s gaze examining him, saw Yami’s gaze harden for a moment and wondered what he’d said wrong. Then Yami sighed and Joey relaxed slightly, the Pharaoh turning back to his hikari, concern in his eyes, if not his face, and said, “The pain’s not mine.”

“Yugi…” Harry’s gaze turned swiftly to his friend, who had put his soul on the line to stop Voldemort using his body as a vessel in order to destroy Yugi’s friends. “But you told Dumbledore…”

“He will be fine, but wounds like the ones Yugi suffered aren’t easy to recover from. There’s nothing more Madam Pomfrey can do for him.” Yami explained, “When he fought Voldemort in his Soul Room…” Yami shook his head, “It will take longer then we have left of the term for Yugi to recover fully, but he’ll be up and about by the Leaving Feast and should, hopefully be fully healed by the end of the Summer.”

Harry nodded his understanding, concerned as he was about what this was doing to them. Then the thought hit him, Yugi had willingly taken this damage and left himself weakened for as long as it would take to recover in order to protect him and all his other friends…

“I think the ‘why?’ question is finally appearing in Harry’s head.” Joey chuckled, not a particularly mirth filled chuckle, but one of understanding. “Took you long enough.”

“Be nice, you knew Yugi for six months before you questioned why he did what he did.” Yami scolded Joey who looked properly contrite.

“I’ve wondered why before now.” Harry shook his head, “But it’s never really hit me before now, just how much he’s willing to sacrifice for us.”

The Pharaoh’s eyes darkened and Joey gave a knowing nod. “I had a similar moment when he jumped between this thug, Ushio, and us, Tristan and I, that is, Ushio was like three times Yuge’s size and he still stood up for us. Ended up bloody and bruised for it too.”

Yami’s mind wandered back to that day and how Ushio had been the first person he’d played against in ‘self-defence’.

“What about you, Yami?” Joey brought him back to the present, “When was your moment of ‘I shouldn’t under estimate what this kid is willing to do to protect those he considers friends’?”

“I’ve had several.” Yami admitted, amused that this was a subject Yugi had never broached with him, respecting Yami’s right to private thoughts and feelings, just as he respected Yugi’s. “Starting with Death-T, I think.”

Joey growled something about killing Kaiba, but Harry didn’t think Joey would go through with it. He did however wonder what Death-T was but didn’t want to ask in case he interrupted the Pharaoh who looked like he was going to continue, “Playing Bakura, in Monster World, that was another one.”

“Heh, then we fell straight into his card game trap a few weeks later…” Joey sounded self deprecating.

“You were noble during that duel, you shouldn’t belittle yourself.”

“Very funny.” Joey deadpanned, “I was six inches tall, wearing a dress…”

“You’re quoting yourself.” Yami sounded amused.

“Let me guess, the next one was Pegasus?” Joey waved it off.

“Panik, actually. Challenging Panik was his idea, I was just happy to provide the firepower. Player killing scumbag.” The last three words were muttered.

“Then Pegasus?”

Yami hesitated.

“Not the Paradox brothers?!” Joey protested, “We both kicked ass that duel.”

“I was thinking Kaiba.” Yami admitted slowly.

Joey’s eyes widened and he said little for a moment, fully aware that Yugi and Yami didn’t bring up that duel very often for a reason.

“Then Pegasus, for about twelve different reasons, including the fact he stood up to Pegasus over what he did to Kaiba, was the one who came up with the mind shuffle strategy, pushed himself to destruction point to give us a fighting chance…” Yami shuddered; Joey did too, the memory hitting them at the same moment, of that echo of pain that had nearly claimed Yugi forever. “I still don’t know how you saved him, but thank you.”

“Wasn’t just me, pal, and I’d do it again if I had to.”

“I know. Still…”

“You’re welcome.” Joey nodded sagely.

“I think by that point, I thought Yugi couldn’t surprise me anymore.” Yami’s laugh was a little bitter and Harry watched, amazed, as Yami and Joey talked, seeming to forget he was here, or knowing he was here and allowing him a view into how they really felt about things. “I mean he’d already almost destroyed his soul to save his grandfather and the Kaiba brothers, who he barely knew, what else could he give up?”

Joey cringed, “Please tell me you didn’t think that.”

“I was a Pharaoh. Pharaohs aren’t subject to Murphy’s Law they have people to deal with that for them.” Yami snorted, “How was I supposed to know it would end in insane magicians, crazy mimes, brainwashed friends,” Joey cringed at that one, the Death Duel managed to work it’s way into his nightmares far too often, “Bodysnatching idiots, psychotic patricides, dark wizards and Ra only knows what else we’ve faced since then.”

Harry decided he had only heard a quarter, if that, of the stories they had to tell.

Yugi moaned and opened his eyes.

Harry saw it instantly, the way Joey was suddenly on full alert as Yami’s attention was completely focused on Yugi. The way Yami tried to hide what he was going through from his hikari, even as he knew that Yugi would know that it had hit the point that Yami was suffering with it too. The way Yugi seemed to know what to say to calm Yami down, to settle Joey’s nerves, to reassure Harry. The slight fear in Yugi’s eyes after almost three days of waking up intermittently to this pain that he might not recover and would be unable to help Yami…

“Right, that’s enough.” Madam Pomfrey bustled down the rows of bed, shooing Yami and Joey away.

“But I’ve only just woken up!” Yugi protested. Harry was stunned at how little pain was reveal in his tone, considering the way Yami had gone white when Yugi had awoken.

“A little at a time Mr Muto, if you want to go to this Leaving Feast.” The Mediwitch scolded.

Harry chuckled as Yugi and Yami got almost identical obstinate looks, different only by eye colour, but were unable to persuade Madam Pomfrey to change her mind, and she ushered Yami and Joey out the door before doing a whole bunch of tests.

Once she was satisfied and had disappeared into her office, muttering something about not thinking they were ready, but Albus insisted and what Albus insisted Albus got… Yugi led back, not asleep but having trouble staying alert when his mind threw a head fit every time he tried to think too hard.

“Yugi?” Harry asked, causing the hikari to look at him. Physically Yugi looked fine, but it was the pain brightened amethyst eyes, and the pale colour of Yugi’s skin that convinced him otherwise, “Thanks for saving us.”

“I didn’t do anything.” Yugi shook his head, “Yami saved me.”

“You’re the one who gave Yami enough time to wake up, get into your mind, find you, since you’d left your soul room by that point and defeat Voldemort.” Harry pointed out.

Yugi hurt too much to argue with him.

“Can’t you ask Madam Pomfrey for something for the pain?”

“I’ve had worse. When I fought Pegasus I couldn’t even get my thoughts straight, yet alone completely coherent. I think it went something along the lines of ‘card goes here’ and even that was a stretch.”

His problems thinking were over exaggerated but that fact the pain had been worse wasn’t. Though it wouldn’t be for many years that Harry would know this fact, having not gone through a Shadow Game and therefore unable to appreciate the torture of going through a match in the Shadow Realm without protection.

“Harry…”

“Yeah Yuge?” Harry asked, testing the nickname Joey used for Yugi and being rewarded by seeing Yugi’s face light up briefly.

“Thanks for coming down to get us.”

Harry nodded, “You’re my friends, I wasn’t going to let something happen to you.”

Yugi paused to consider this, and then chuckled.

“What?” Harry protested.

“Too much alike.” Yugi laughed, “Be careful, the Puzzle might pick you for its next owner.”

“Doubt it.” Harry was scornful not because he didn’t believe the Puzzle would pick another owner if Yugi was defeated or killed, but because he really didn’t believe the Puzzle would pick someone like him.

“I didn’t think I was worthy either for a long time.” Yugi admitted.

“You’re gunna get better, then you’re going to trounce Yami and take back your title.” Harry said, reading between the lines.

“I’ve decided.” Yugi said, chuckling slightly at the thought that had hit him, “All villains have to fill out ‘intention to attack’ forms in triplicate.”

“You have ‘intention to attack’ forms? Where do you get them? I want some.” Harry laughed. “And what’s on them?”

“I had Kari print some up.” Yugi joked, “With things like, name, date of birth, gender, powers, magical items, date of planned assault, location of planned attack, you know, the normal.”

Harry couldn’t help the laughter that escaped. “How is any of that normal?” He managed to gasp, when he paused to catch his breath.

“Normal for us.” Yugi pointed out.

Harry just snorted his amusement. “How much does she charge per form?” He asked, making Yugi grin.

“Fifty Yen a copy.” Yugi played along, sitting up, “You get a 20% discount if you order more then a hundred.”

“Fifty Yen?” Harry asked, “Any idea how many sickles that is?”

“I don’t even think it translates to one.” Yugi replied, trying to remember the conversion rate at Gringotts.

“I might ask her to print a few copies for me too, then.” Harry nodded.

Then the two dissolved into laughter again.

This was much better then yesterday, when Yugi had been drifting in and out of consciousness the entire time and unable to hold a conversation.

“I bet Kaiba could do with a few too.” Yugi added, setting Harry off again which unfortunately attracted the wrath of a certain Mediwitch who told them they were supposed to be resting and she’d make sure they were if they didn’t keep the noise down.

Yugi looked kind of disappointed, but settled down, falling asleep again before long, leaving Harry to tuck into a book that Kari had let him borrow about elves. He wasn’t sure he really liked it, but it beat counting the rafters for the thirty second time and he wasn’t going to complain.