As Ryou walked in to the hall trough the large wooden gates, he was left speechless by the sight that greeted him. The ceiling was an exact image of the cloudless sky outside and the room was lit with thousands of floating candles. And he also noted that the plates and silverware were actually gold.

The hall gradually silenced as he walked along the middle aisle, all the students turned to look at him as he moved towards the teacher's table with the transfiguration professor. Boy, was he glad when he finally got there and could greet the headmaster and be announced to the students as the new professor.

They weren't staring at him anymore, but now they were whispering some very disturbing things. Like what was going to happen to him during the year. He had heard that one DaDa teacher had been captured by centaurs, one had been a werewolf. One had been an enemy spy in disguise, the real professor had been locked in a chest. One professor had crumbled to dust.

So this whispering really didn't fill him with much confidence, but he would be okay. None of the earlier professors had had a three thousand year old spirit constantly looking over their shoulder for them.

.----------

The following morning was exactly like Ryou had wanted it to be. It was sunny and the sky held small wool like clouds that floated around lazily. A great difference to yesterday's traveling conditions.

Ryou got up from bed and quickly showered and dressed in to his midnight blue cloak (the one with the silver hieroglyphs) and left for a small walk outside. No use going to breakfast yet, he had a few hours before classes started anyway.

He walked down the sun lit corridors and staircases of Hogwarts and actually took time to examine the interior of the castle. He even politely greeted some of the portraits that were already awake, causing some confusion on the portrait's part, it had been a while since someone had been that polite to them.

Ryou got out in no time and enjoyed the sun's warm rays on his face as he walked on the grass fields. He walked some time until he reached the shore of the lake and sat on to a stone to enjoy the scenery.

But before he knew it, time had flown forward and he should go to breakfast if he wanted to eat anything before his classes started. He quickly reviewed the schedule that he had and remembered that he had fifth years first, oh joy.

He walked back to the castle and quickly made his way to the great hall, causing everyone to stare at him again as he walked past the student filled tables who were just receiving their schedules. At least that was what he gathered from the constant smacking of heads on to the tables, especially from Gryffindors.

He gave every teacher a wish of good morning before sitting down to eat, the potions teacher was glaring cold death upon him again. Ryou looked up from his food and turned to face the professor in question "would you please tell me if I'm bothering you in some way? It's more polite than glaring".

The professor sneered "Not really. I' more concerned of how young you are. It's impossible for a wizard of your age to have enough experience to be teaching such a difficult subject". Ryou gave the professor a polite smile before answering "I understand your concern, but I assure you that I'm more than capable for teaching this subject".

"I think I've heard that before, oh yes. It was that Lockheart clown that said that". "Umm, a bit help with this man?" There was a sigh and Ryou felt like he was floating a bit, that was what happened every time the spirit took partial control of his body.

/"I have heard what happened to the maggot, but I do assure you that I'm quite capable of teaching these gaki how to survive even if there was a dragon after their lives, not even mentioning that "dark lord" of yours"/. The spirit enforced this comment by a small smirk and then was gone again.

"that went a bit over board" /"then why did you want my help?"/ "My mind's still asleep" /"yeah right…"/ Ryou gave the slightly petrified potions master a small smile and apologized "sorry for speaking so straight, I got carried away a bit".

Ryou quickly finished his breakfast and retreated from the hall, "I guess he won't be glaring at me like that for a while now". /"So there was no reason to scold me"/ Ryou laughed a bit at the spirit's hopeful tone of voice "don't worry, I'll figure out something to scold you of", /"darn"/.

Ryou quickly got to his class room and was a bit surprised when he saw it already furnished to his tastes. The candle holders were on the corners of his desk and most of his books were neatly organized on the shelves. The one's that he got from Knockturn alley were in a closet that was locked.

There were also some copies of old hieroglyphic manuscripts on the walls, there even was a tale of Kul Elna. Framed with frames that had carvings of the slaughter that had been done. And on the wall behind his desk was the Portrait's secret, hanging innocently, looking like an ordinary painting of an old man.

"You furnished this, didn't you?" /"You like it?"/ Ryou nodded and made note of how the books had been organized, and then went to read the tale of Kul Elna, immediately recognizing the way it was written. "You wrote this? I didn't know you wanted to share the tale". /"I don't, but you're the only one in here who can understand it enough to understand it. Not even the ancient runes professor is on your level"/.

"You're kidding, right?" /"No, he may understand the symbols, but he doesn't know the language. And as you probably already noticed I used a lot of thieving terms that no one else knows"/. It was a bit difficult to read, but Ryou succeeded anyway.

To think that the spirit had lived trough that horror of slaughter, he had lost his whole family. No wonder he had been desperate enough to make a pact with Zorc to get revenge. Before Ryou could make a deeper conversation about the writing with the spirit of the ring, the bell rang and students came in to the classroom, looking a bit horrified when they saw the grotesque skull candle holders on his desk. The frames of the writing didn't help any.

He must have looked out of place when he smiled at the students who all seemed ready to run out of the class room, screaming "deatheater".

Ryou walked behind his desk and was about to sit down but the spirit appeared corporeally on to the chair and smirked evilly at him. "We'll talk about this later", /"can't wait for it"/. Ryou sighed and opted to stand as the last of the student's rushed in yelling something about getting lost because they had forgotten the location of the class room during summer.

Ryou just smiled "It's okay, I'm not too strict about being late. As long as you don't bother the rest of the class when you do arrive". The two boys looked a bit embarrassed about yelling like that and promised not to do so again and Ryou finally got to start his first lesson in a magical school.

"As you might remember from last night, my name is Ryou Bakura and I'll be your Defense against the dark arts teacher this year. And as some basic rules of the class room. Don't bother your peers as they study. And I don't care what you speak about during the classes if I can't catch you, so if you can speak without being heard, I don't care what the subject is".

The class seemed to relax a bit, this teacher wasn't very strict. A girl's hand shot up and Ryou gave her the permission to speak "what will we be studying this year? I'd like to know so that I'll be prepared in the exam".

Ah, the exams. "I don't know how the last teachers have handled exams. But I'll be holding many small quiz like exams throughout the term, but there will be a bigger exam at the end of the year. Don't worry about it however, If you study well for the quizzes you'll be prepared for the bigger exam as well". The student's seemed to hate him now, they hated exams and he was going to have them do an extra amount of them.

"And before we start this year's study program there are still a few things I'd like to tell you". The small murmur in the class died down and everyone was once again listening to him. "I don't like using detentions to scare students…" Every student in the class cheered "However!" Ryou got their attention again.

"I will be landing extra homework to everyone if I see someone in the need of a detention". There was a wave of yelling and cursing from the boys in the class room. "And on a lighter note. If you're interested in earning extra house points or passing an exam without having to do it, I have an extra assignment. Do you want to hear it?"

Of course everyone was interested in extra house points or passing. "At any time during this term. You are free to create a maze filled with all imaginable and unimaginable traps and monsters. It can be anything you can think of. And if I can't get trough it, you'll pass a theory exam. If I get trough, you'll have to do the exams like the rest of the class, but you'll be rewarded points on good tries".

The kids seemed to start planning immediately and a hand rose from the back seat "can we do this only once?" Ryou shook his head "you can try as many times as you want, but I'll warn you. I'm quite good with mazes and obstacle courses".

Some of the students seemed to be a bit lost about what to put in their maze so Ryou decided to lend a bit of help "If you have trouble understanding what I meant, or figuring out how to go about this assignment. I suggest reading about ancient Egyptian tombs, they held marvelous traps and curses. But don't copy them, just use them as guide lines".

The student's seemed to be ready to start planning right away but Ryou had other ideas. "Now that that's over with, let's open the text book on the page eleven and start reading about basic counter curses".