A.N. I finished this chapter a little faster than I expected, and here it is! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and special thanks to Lizethfor the great picture. ^_^ Oh yeah, and anyone who didn't see what Bakura said last chapter, I reloaded it with a different type of quoting so it shows up now.

Disclaimer: I do not own YGO or HP.

Edited and Reposted December 2008.



Chapter 7

The hikaris were given no time to ponder the problem of the strange book of the shadow realm the next morning for their first class was Transfiguration and things were not going well. Professor McGonagall had given each of them a match to be turned into a needle before they could join the rest of the class, this being among the most simple of transformations, but none of them were making any progress, to put it politely.

Malik ground his teeth in frustration. "The wretched thing won't change!"

"We've got to be doing something wrong," Ryou murmured, trying again for the umpteenth time.

Yugi shook his head. "I'm positive we're doing the right thing!"

Malik prodded his match angrily with his wand. "Well, what's wrong then?"

"I don't know . . ."

:Do you have any ideas Yami?:

Yami shook his head from his soul room. ::Not a clue . . .unless . . .::

:Unless what?:

::It may be possible,:: Yami began hesitantly, ::that our magic is not compatible with that of these wizards.::

Yugi's heart sank. :Then is there anything we can do about it?:

Yami paused. ::I'll need some time to think about it Aibou.::

They had all of History of Magic to think about it, but the only possible solution—thought up by Ishtar, which was a bad omen in itself—was to turn the Millennium Items into wands. Yami pointed out this couldn't be done anyway, and that even if it could there was no one to do it.

Things didn't go any better in Charms when Professor Flitwick chose to have them do levitation as their 'join the class' test.

Class was nearly over and Malik was going from frustrated to furious. Finally he pointed his wand at the feather like a sword and shouted 'Fly dammit!' in outrage. But this time, something happened.

There was a silent explosion of power that seemed to echo through the minds of all who were present, drawing every pair of eyes in the classroom. Dark energy crackled up the wand, like tendrils of black electricity, dancing from where Malik's hand gripped the wand up to the tip. The feather shot straight up into the air and stopped abruptly, lying on empty air five feet off of the table.

No one spoke.

;Oookaaay, not good.;

;;Why not? We figured out how we're supposed to use these wand thingies didn't we?;;

;Sure,; Malik replied sarcastically, ;channel shadow magic into it so that everyone in here got a first hand demonstration of shadow powers! There's nothing wrong with that, they'll only find out we've been hiding something that could destroy the world! They've already got this dark lord guy running around, I doubt they'll appreciate another possible threat.;

;;We're not trying to destroy the world,;; Ishtar reasoned. ;;For the time being,;; he added as an afterthought. ;;And anyway, I doubt they'll know it's shadow magic.;;

:We're in trouble,: Yugi declared as Professor Flitwick approached the table where he, Ryou, and Malik, who's feather hadn't come down yet, sat.

::I doubt it'll be too bad. No one at this school but Shadi would recognize shadow magic, and he's the guardian of the items.::

((Oh ho! So that's how it works!)) Bakura crowed in triumph. He'd been getting angry at the fact that all their attempts at spells had been failing, since he considered his magic far superior to those of the wizards.

(How are we supposed to explain this?) Ryou wasn't listening to his yami, he was worried about how they were going to explain what Malik had just done.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "Very good Mr. Ishtar, but would you care to tell us what you did? It was really quite shocking and I'm sure we'd all like to know."

"Uh . . ." Malik glanced around. Everyone was staring at him, except for Yugi and Ryou, who looked concerned. "I . . .um . . .got a little mad—"

;;What an understatement!;;

;Shut up.;

"—and I guess my wand reacted to that . . ."

;Which was true enough.;

Harry watched Malik closely. That burst of energy had been extremely strange. It had held a feeling of great darkness and immense power, but it was nothing like the evil of Voldemort, more like the shadowy, mysterious aura of the Forbidden Forest. He also noticed the worried looks on both Ryou and Yugi's faces as they watched their blond companion.

They're hiding something, but what? Harry frowned and made a mental note to tell Sirius about this in his next letter.

Luckily, for the hikaris, the professor accepted this answer and told them that once Yugi and Ryou managed the levitation spell, they'd be able to move on and join the class.

::Just try what Malik did without the fireworks,::

:But what exactly did he do?:

::I'm not sure exactly how to put it . . . Here, I'll tell you each step and just do the steps as I say them.::

Listening to Yami's instructions Yugi 'took hold' of the magic he felt within his wand and slowly, carefully, let a thin stream of shadow magic flow through him and into the wand. The two types of magic swirled through the wand for a few seconds before merging with each other and becoming a perfect balance of the two.

Yugi raised his wand, pointed it at the feather, and recited, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

He was echoed by Ryou and both of their feathers rose into the air.

x-X-x

"I've never seen anything like that before." Hermione frowned. The three of them were in the common room, having a sort of private meeting. Malik, Yugi, and Ryou had gone upstairs early, again.

"Wow," Ron gasped in mock shock, "there's actually something you've never read about?"

Hermione glared at the redhead. "Of course there is!"

"Maybe we should ask Dumbledore about it," Harry suggested.

"But we're not sure if it's something we need to worry about," Hermione pointed out.

Ron grinned, "Then we'll have to find out won't we?"

x-X-x

The next morning's first class was Herbology. Malik had thought it would be a boring class—

;What could possibly be interesting about plants?;

—but he found himself proved wrong when Professor Sprout set them to 'feeding' some bright yellow and orange flowers she'd called Bitarias. Each blossom ranged in size from that of a small boulder to that of a car. They were large, tough leaved, and absolutely vicious.

"These aren't flowers!" Malik panted, dodging one plant's grappling 'tongue' and tossing a slab of raw meat into its waiting jaws. "They're duel monsters who never got sealed into the shadow realm!"

;;Would you like me to change that?;; Ishtar asked eagerly.

;Some other day Yami! Don't talk to me right now! I have no desire to be eaten.;

Yami, who had volunteered to take his hikaris place in this exercise, and Bakura, who wanted to see just how good these Bitarias were, were in wholehearted agreement.

The Gryffindors headed, panting, back to the castle after class, intent on getting a quick shower before going to a new class that everyone was looking forward to.

"I can't wait to find out how the wizards duel!" Yugi exclaimed excitedly as they headed for the classroom.

"Gonna see if you can win this one too eh?" Malik grinned.

((Looks like I get another chance at the Pharaoh.))

(Outside of class please.)

"This is really exciting!" Ron said enthusiastically. "I wonder who's teaching?"

"As long as it's not someone like Lockheart," Harry remarked, grinning too.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked indignantly.

"Oh really Hermione, after all he did, you're still defending him?"

Hermione opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by Ryou.

"Uh, guys? You might want to take a look at our classmates."

They all looked up—to see the Slytherins lined up along the far wall across from the Gryffindors.

The door opened and in walked the auror who was staying at the school. He glared around at them, sharp eyes surveying every student in the room with disapproval. He stumped up to the front of the classroom and turned to glare at everyone. The students looked back at him with varying degrees of eagerness which seemed to cause his already grim face to grow all the more stony.

He snorted. "Look at you all! None of you are fit for anything but book work and petty games! You couldn't defeat a wild dog, let alone a full-fledged wizard! I've never seen a more pitiful group!"

((Why that little—))

(Calm down Yami.)

((Calm down! You're telling me to calm down? He just insulted me! I'll send him to the shadow realm and then we'll see who's weak!))

(Please don't, you'll get me expelled.)

((Ch.))

Yami fumed in his soul room at the phrase 'petty games', glaring out through his hikari's eyes at the man who dared call the Pharaoh weak. Malik and Ishtar however were on similar footing in the situation and the Egyptian strode out boldly into the center of the room to stare defiantly at the auror.

"Do you care to prove that?" Malik asked in a cold, way-too-calm voice, lavender eyes flashing.

"What does he think he's doing challenging an auror like that?" Hermione gasped. "And a teacher!"

"Dunno," Ron replied in awe.

"What do you suppose he's going to do?" Harry wondered, brows creased in worry. The auror didn't look like someone who would let a fifteen-year-old get away with such an attitude.

:We have to stop him!:

::Leave it to me Aibou. Though I'd say he deserves the punishment,:: he added as an afterthought.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked, but Yami ignored the redhead, hurrying to where Malik stood, Ryou on his heels.

Meanwhile, the auror's anger was rising to equal Malik's injured pride.

"Get back in line boy," he warned, eyes narrowing.

"Make me," Malik shot back.

"Malik," Yami hissed, "this is neither the time nor the place."

"The same goes to you too Pharaoh," Malik snapped.

Yami gritted his teeth. "But—"

"Don't bother," Bakura cut in. "Can't you see he's not going to listen to reason?"

Then the tomb robber grinned. "I vote for banishing him in pieces!"

(Yami!)

((Just kidding . . .sort of.))

The auror watched the three arguing teens with growing suspicion. What were they talking about? And why did he sense a strange, dark aura around the one with the spiky hair and his white haired companion? And the blonde was also starting to emanate a similar, if somewhat different, aura.

Dumbledore had asked him to teach this class, partly to inform the students in more combative magics but also to keep an eye on them. He was to report anything suspicious, and he had something to report all right.


TBC

A.N. How was it? And does anyone know exactly how many spaces are open on the Gryffindor team? Who do you guys prefer for this year's captain? It's not going to be one of the hikaris though.

Responses: (For questions)

DragonMaiden: Yeah, ^_^ I thought it was really funny when I went to the museum and found out 'Ishtar' was the name of a mother goddess, but I use it for Yami Malik because it's Malik's last name.

BakuraKrazie: Actually, Wadjet's a she. No, Yugi can't speak parseltongue, but Wadjet can understand human speech. And Harry hasn't seen Wadjet because she'd hiding. ^_^

Antagonist: U^_^ I didn't mean anything by it, I just didn't want to say 'wake up'.

Selena-Wolf: There might have been if this was a romance, since I'm kind of fond of yami:hikari pairings. But this isn't, and I don't plan on making it one. Of course there's going to be duels! ^_^