Summary: Things aren't quite going as planned for Seto Kaiba. On his return from America he vowed to spend more time with his younger brother – instead he finds himself engulfed in a sinister game. Chosen by the Sennen Rod he unwittingly becomes part of the 'Egyptian Fairytale' he has always scorned. Hunted by wielders of a strange, modern magic Seto finds himself spirited away by a more-then-reluctant traveling companion and involved in a sinister plot to overthrow the government. All Seto wanted was to spend some time with his little brother. What he got was a magical revolution – and Severus Snape.

Warnings: Possibilities of future Shounen Ai, nasty language and death.

Book One of Eight;

Chasing the Dragon

-Chapter Nine-
Educational Etiquette

-Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus-

Mornings, Seto had decided, were his least favorite time of the day.

He had come to this conclusion while seated at the breakfast table the morning after his trip to Diagon Alley. The concept had been sparked when he discovered the first of many surprises that were to come to his attention that morning.

Seto Kaiba had been known to hate a lot of things – surprises had recently made it into the top twenty.

The first indication that something wasn't quite right that morning was when Mrs Weasley (in a decidedly brisk and grumpy mood), had deposited his mornings coffee with a clunk on the table before him and swept off without so much as a salutation. Seto had figured that her usual motherly glow had diminished if not extinguished following his less then warm reception of it the day previous.

When the caffeine began to fuse into his bloodstream it became quickly apparent that the frosty stares Mrs Weasley was broadcasting were not directed at him, but rather at Remus Lupin. Or, to be precise, Remus Lupin and the pile of musty, moth-eaten rags beside him.

The moth-eaten rags that Seto was sure he had just seen move.

Taking another long sip of his coffee Seto eyed the rags hawkishly. They seemed to be moving rhythmically now – almost as though they were breathing. Seto rolled his eyes and wondered if being locked up in the hovel was driving him around the twist.

Lupin, having caught Seto's slightly glazed stare, felt his lips quirk oddly and nudged the pile of rags with his elbow.

The pile shook and shifted and suddenly it became very apparent that they had been hiding a person within them.

Large drooping eyes blinked at Seto blearily as the stranger scratched his unshaven chin with a grimace. His thick ginger hair stuck up in odd tousles that assured Seto it hadn't seen a comb in a very, very long time. The elder Kaiba thought that he looked as though he should be lying in a ditch somewhere with an empty whiskey bottle clutched in his hands.

Shaking his head again Seto took another long sip from his coffee and wrapped an arm around his rib-cage with a grimace. He had a feeling that he'd broken something.

"Whassa'matter Lupin?" the distinctly grubby looking man grunted staring around with a vague expression.

Seto was sure he hadn't been all that far off with the whiskey scenario.

"Dung – this is Seto Kaiba," Lupin spoke up with a nod in Seto's direction before adding in an undertone, "the one I told you about."

Seto's eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly and he wondered just what Lupin had told the other man about him. This thought, however, was fated to be left neglected in the corner of Seto's mind.

For at that precise moment the Weasley twins made their grand entrance.

Fred swept in first, beaming with the mornings edition of, 'The Daily Prophet' clutched between his fingertips. He plonked himself down across from Seto and gave a broad grin in the elder Kaiba's direction.

"Love the photo mate" he declared cheerfully.

George dropped into the seat beside him and mirrored his twins expression with dollops of enthusiasm. "Absolutely superb facial expressions – but I do believe the Headline was better. What was it again Fred?"

At this the newspaper was rolled out and Fred put on a high, nasally voice before reading aloud, "Chaos in Diagon Alley – Criminal At Large."

George grinned wickedly across the table at Seto who shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. Determined to administer a reaction George continued, "never knew we were housing a ''criminal' Hey, Mum? Why didn't you let us know Kaiba here was a - how did they put it again?"

"Dangerous fugitive" Fred chimed in merrily.

"Yes – dangerous fugitive" George finished with an eerily wicked smile.

Mrs Weasley narrowed her eyes sternly and announced sharply, "that's enough you two! You know the Ministry are just stirring up trouble."

The twins shared grins and tossed the paper across the table at Seto who caught it deftly with a narrowed stare in their direction.

Unrolling the front page Seto caught sight of the aforementioned photograph – a giant head-shot that filled half the cover was scowling up at him irritably. Scanning the article he found that it was just as he had expected – his sudden appearance had been exploited so colorfully it made it seem as if he had been brandishing a shot-gun and ranting about his plans for World Domination.

Seto grimaced.

That was the media for you.

Setting the paper aside Seto proceeded to ignore the curious stares he received from all sides and poured himself another coffee.

'You'll have to answer their questions eventually omote' Set interrupted in a decidedly chipper voice.

The spirit was still smug about Seto agreeing to be his student. He had spent the entire night muttering in a state of deranged glee about 'Mahaado.'

'Thats what they think' Seto retorted smoothly and downed his second coffee in one gulp.

Set chuckled and slipped lazily out of Seto's body, causing Mokuba to visibly jump when his hand snapped down abruptly on the boys shoulder. Smirking at the younger Kaiba (who scowled in response) Set stretched his limbs in a cat-like fashion and ignored the rather startled stares he received from the vast majority of the tables occupants.

"Well omote? I think we've put off your lesson for far too long already."

Seto grimaced and muttered something rather unflattering beneath his breath before rising from his seat.

Lupin having seen this, cleared his throat suddenly and glanced up after jabbing Mundungus sharply in the side.

"Mister Kaiba – if you wouldn't mind, I'd like a word."

Set's eyebrow hung quivering, suspended so high that it threatened to completely disappear into his hairline. Slowly he turned his head to stare at the expression of downright mirth that adorned his reincarnations face before returning his stare towards the now somewhat irritable Remus Lupin.

"You want to track down the Tomb Robber?" he spluttered out disbelievingly.

His eyes lingered on the pair of wizards before he found himself unable to suppress the laughter that had been threatening to spill from his lips for the past ten minutes.

"You think that he," Set jabbed a finger violently in Mundungus' direction, "can find the legendary Touzoku Ou Bakura?"

His laugh resurged with a vengeance, a somewhat fanatic delirious laugh that caused Seto to shoot a somewhat disturbed stare in his direction.

"Even if you had the blessings of Neith herself... Nobody can catch the King of Thieves unless he wants to be caught."(1)

Set trailed off and began to scowl somewhat sulkily, every now and then his muttering would rise loud enough for them to hear snatches of, 'accursed tomb robber' and 'desecrating tombs of the..'

Eventually he shifted his moody stare towards Seto who was eying him with a thoughtful expression. What his reincarnation had to say however wasn't quite what he had expected, "perhaps Bakura wants to be found."

"He can't hide forever – with any luck he should have seen the newspaper today. Perhaps he is searching for us."

Set marveled briefly over the fact that Seto didn't seem to have any particular qualms about the thought that the King of Thieves could be searching for them and frowned. His reincarnation could be extremely strange when he wished to be.

Set frowned and turned sharp eyes upon Lupin and Mundungus. "I'm not saying that they shouldn't try – I'm just saying that only a thief could find the King of Thieves."

The last thing he expected was for Remus to crack a smile and eye him with dry amusement. He watched in confusion as the wizard lazed back into his seat and raised an eyebrow mildly.

"I think we have it covered then."

Set's second attempt at teaching was proving to be a great deal more successful then his first.

For one, not a single punch had been thrown yet and Seto had only tried to trip him up twice. For another, they had made progress – and it was already five minutes into the lesson.

Set had come to the abrupt conclusion that the reason why Seto had refused to focus was that he was far to naive about what the Sennen Items actually were. It didn't matter how wrong his conclusion proved to be, it was a conclusion that he was intent on stressing his point on. Therefore the lesson had begun with an infusion of History – just the way he remembered being taught when he was a child.

Settling down into the sofa he had commandeered for the afternoon, Set rested a very serious dark stare on his reincarnations face.

"You have been told before about the Shadow Games have you not omote?"

Seto stared him flatly in the eye and nodded his head vaguely in response. Set smiled a somewhat twisted smile and lent back further into the sofa.

"You know the history of the Item holders?"

Seto's eyebrow twitched and he resisted the urge to stand up and start smacking his head against the nearest wall.

"Of course I do! - I was right there when you were telling those other two idiots the entire bloody story."

Set grimaced and rubbed at his head with a somewhat shirty glance in his reincarnations direction before he opened his mouth to speak.

"The Sennen Items were created through a magical ritual. From the blood of 99 human sacrifices the Items were formed. The Puzzle, The Ring, The Ankh, The Scales, The Tauk, The Eye and of course – The Rod."

"The magic that the items hold is unparalleled by any other – even the magic of the wizards here. Shadow Magic is dangerous and brutal – losing is not met with sympathy. The shadows and the creatures that inhabit them have no sympathy. Those who can wield the power of the shadows are tied to them. The creatures that they summon to their aid are loyal to them and only them. These creatures are bound to their very souls."

A very faint twist of Sets lips made Seto frown, the high priest was looking positively bitter.

"Everything – all of our magic, it is all indebted to blood. Losses are paid in it, only by the very ka of the wielder can the Shadows be satisfied. Shadow Magic is not a game omote – that was a lesson that we learned much to late."

Set paused and sucked in a deep breath to steady the shaking that had begun to creep into his voice. His dark eyes traced the patterns on the carpet as he struggled over his words. He started when Seto spoke up with a faint dawning of suspicion arising in his voice, "why did they use blood?"

Laughter shimmered in Set's eyes as they turned upon Seto with vague amusement.

"Blood omote. Blood is life and death. It is a magic more powerful then any other – it forges a bond so powerful that no-one can break it. Blood magic is one of the strongest and most dangerous types of magic that can ever be tampered with." (2)

Set's smile was very weak as he eyed his reincarnation from behind his eyelashes.

"Blood is what bound me to the Rod – it is what has bound you to it now."

A vague shudder rolled through Seto's spine as he observed the spirit with a somewhat enlightened expression.

The shadows fed on blood and souls – they fed on life.

Life itself was essentially energy – at least that it what Seto had come to believe. Now that he thought about it he had always been exhausted following his brief delving into Shadow Magic: when he had received the rod, Set's appearance, Diagon Alley... But Set had none the less been growing stronger.

Something in Seto's mind seemed to snap with realization – his eyes went very round and he turned to stare with unnerving severity at the spirit.

Set, in turn, shifted uncomfortably under the stare and Seto almost laughed. Where he had once been able to make out the intricate patterning of the couch through Set's body he could only see blurred blotches of color. Somehow it was beginning to make sense.

Seto narrowed his eyes as he rolled to his feet to stare down at the High Priest with a frown.

"If the shadows have to feed off of life to survive – wouldn't it be logical that they would feed off of – other energies as well?"

Set frowned and massaged his temples, "that would make sense" he replied finally.

"Energies like other magic? You've been getting stronger since we've been around these wizards."

Set's eyebrows shot upwards and he turned to stare at Seto with an air of surprise and traces of pride lingering in his dark eyes. "I – think you might be right omote" he murmured as he rose to his own feet.

Both sets of blue eyes met levelly for several moments before Seto sank back into his chair with a furrowing brow.

Seto found that among the stirring questions that were ricocheting through his mind only one refused to go unasked, his eyes turned somewhat uncertainly towards the spirit as he found himself struggling to voice his thoughts.

"- How.. What if it is necessary to break a bond created by blood?"

Neither of them failed to notice the significance of the question, nor the true meaning that lay beneath it. Set's eyes sharpened visibly and he looked away abruptly to peer at the wall with intense scrutiny. His voice was hollow when he spoke again, his eyes fluttering back swiftly to his reincarnation for only a second, "then one or both will die."

Raising his head to stare resolutely up at the spirit who had strolled towards him and was now watching him intently he shook his head slowly. The conclusions he had come to had answered several questions yes, but it had opened a whole new line of inquiries that were already hurling themselves through his brain.

"I think," he spoke up finally with resolution clearing his cloudy eyes, "that it's about time we have another of our demands met."

Set raised an eyebrow slowly as he caught onto his reincarnations wave of thinking and crouched slowly to peer him in the eye. From the very brief amount of time that he had known Seto he had already come to the conclusion that Seto didn't like to ask for help.

"You want to contact the Pharaoh?" he inquired carefully.

"Wanting doesn't even figure into this equation" Seto replied sullenly as he slumped further back into his chair.

Set rose to his full height and cocked his head to one side, "I guess that we should go talk to the wizards then."

Seto pulled a face and stared venomously at the ceiling for quite an amount of time.

Help was something that Seto had never been comfortable in asking for, this was something that anybody who knew anything about him realized very quickly. Now, faced with the prospect of having to downright ask the Pharaoh for assistance was humiliating.

The fact that he had to ask the wizards so he could ask the pharaoh for help was mortifying.

Seto's day was nose-diving rather impressively into, 'please shoot me' territory.

The letter was clutched firmly in his fingers – he had already been warned against emailing Yuugi Mutou. Apparently with the ministry keeping tabs on him it wasn't safe to use any form of Muggle technology. Seto had told them quite frankly that none of them seemed to knew one bloody bit about his technology so they should keep their mouths shut.

The subject hadn't been discussed again.

Letter sending however was one of the few things that Albus Dumbledore had been resolute upon – he would not be sending it via email. He would not be sending it by the postal system – but apparently he was sending it via a half-brained bird that wasn't even native to Japan.

Yeah, that wasn't obvious.

His lip curling with distaste Seto glared darkly at the snowy owl that was preening its feathers. He couldn't help but feel that he was stuck in a world filled with idiots – the curse of the genius he supposed. Rubbing his head and trying to ignore the dull snickering that purred in his ears Seto took a step towards the bird uncertainly.

Seto had never particularly liked birds for a reason beyond his reckoning.

Eying the creature sharply he took another step forwards, watching as it hopped from clawed foot to clawed foot on its perch with an air of trepadition. He had the strangest feeling that it was plotting against him.

Ignoring the light brush of fingers against his shoulder he took another step forwards and attempted to maintain eye-contact with the creature. It had unnaturally bright jewel-like eyes that protruded rather too far out of its head for Seto's comfort – he wondered absently if it was messing with his mind.

"It's only a bird, omote. Don't tell me you're scared of birds?"

Pausing in his assault, Seto turned slowly to cast a dirty look back at the Spirit of the Rod. Set offered a smirk in response and Seto rolled his eyes. "I am not afraid of birds" he ground out darkly with a wrinkling of his nose and turned back towards where the owl was perched.

"Especially not a prissy English bird."

Set's snickering rolled across his back and Seto's eyebrows knitted together in irritation.

As though to back up his claim Seto strode purposefully forwards and paused only a few centimeters away from where the owl was perched.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the creature, which up until now had been watching his advance with the air of a bored spectator suddenly took flight. He watched it soar high over his head and descend towards the doorway which had only just opened. Seto blinked as he watched the owl lazily descend to perch on the extended hand of a discretely grinning Harry Potter.

"Professor Dumbledore said you might want some help" the boy spoke up loftily as he stroked the creatures head.

Raising an eyebrow with feigned disinterest Seto waved the letter lazily between his fingers, the boy was supposedly the same age as him if he remembered rightly.

Set grinned to himself and lounged against the side of a desk to watch.

Harry strode purposefully forwards with the bird perched perfectly still on his wrist. Seto watched the owl with a narrowed blue stare, it hooted dolefully at him and proceeded to stare right back at him. Set snickered under his breath and mused aloud, "it is only a bird, omote. Don't look so worried."

Harry suppressed a snort of laughter and shot a quick glance in the spirits general direction with a growing amount of interest. He had been told about the strange spirit that inhabited the elder Kaiba's body, in mild passing conversation by Lupin and then in explicit detail from the Weasley twins. But he had never actually seen him himself. Strangely he was exactly as he had imagined an identical Seto Kaiba to look like.

Funny that.

Seto's eyes darkened ominously and the growl that rolled up his throat made Harry start with surprise. The older Kaiba brother looked downright dangerous with the glare that was pinned onto the spirit.

"I toldyou already, I am not scared of birds. - And if you don't stop snickering next time I end up summoning the shadow realm you might just have a prolonged stay."

Set arched an eyebrow lazily, "be honest, you know you'd miss me terribly."

Seto's eyes glittered darkly and a smirk curved over his lips that had him looking positively deranged, "would you care to bet on that?"

"All over your little phobia, omote? Perhaps someone is in need of a decent therapist..."

Seto's eyebrows contracted and he looked positively frightening as he rounded on the spirit, "I. Do. Not. Have. A. Phobia."

Set winked at Harry in an extremely obvious fashion and smiled obligingly, "I heard you the first time, omote."

A muscle spasmed violently somewhere around Seto's eyebrow and he scowled viciously as he rounded on Harry. Suddenly the Boy-Who-Lived – the miraculous survivor of numerous encounters with the most feared dark wizard of their generation didn't really like his chances.

A dull haze seemed to settle over the occupants of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place as the week progressed.

Breakfast times were spent in relative silence, Bill rushing around to gather lost items before he disappeared to work. The twins making explosive bangs and creating havoc before they too left to open up their shop. Arthur Weasley would spend his time trying to engage Seto in conversations about plugs and light sockets – Seto would spend his time trying to avoid conversation with Arthur.(3) Harry Ron and Hermione seemed to have fallen into step with investigations into Seto and Mokuba – it seemed that the pair were a lot more suspicious then they had realized themselves to be. Meanwhile Molly Weasley attempted to force multiply courses of food down Harry's throat.

All in all, it was peace and serenity by most of the occupant's standards.

This was perhaps why it was such a stir when the usual monotony was broken on Saturday morning. Perhaps it was the fact that Seto had woken much to early or that he simply hadn't consumed enough caffeine the day before-hand. Whatever it was – the breakfasting occupants of the house were more then stunned to find the businessman stumbling into the kitchen dressed in all his belts and buckles – to the waist up at least.

Mokuba didn't appear to take any notice of the phenomena.

Ginny grinned a private grin to herself and exchanged glances with Hermione before settling back in her chair with a piece of toast and proceeding to do what any normal teenaged girl would do: observe.

A rather startled expression crossed Arthur Weasley's face while Bill looked up in vague amusement from his end of the table and raised an eyebrow in the direction of the twins.

Glancing upwards Mokuba rolled his eyes at the Weasley's and turned his eyes back to his game console with a roll of his eyes.

Every move that Seto made was scrutinized as he fumbled with the jug of coffee and proceeded to inhale every last drop within his cup. The procedure was followed a total of three times before Seto abruptly stood and strolled back out of the kitchen without the faintest inclination that anything remotely extraordinary had just happened.

Questioning stares rested upon a decidedly uncaring Mokuba who was busy blowing up aliens on one of his game-consoles over buttered toast. Wrinkling his nose when the screen flashed a depressing, 'Game Over' up at him Mokuba set the console aside with a frown.

"What the hell was that about?" George suddenly spoke up.

Mokuba raised an eyebrow carefully and reached for his orange juice, a slight shrug of his shoulders indicating that it really wasn't that much of a big deal. "Pre-Coffee" he replied sagely.

The grin on Georges face widened further still and he leaned across the table towards the younger Kaiba as though to discuss the best way to go about blackmailing.

Mokuba's eyes narrowed sharply as though he had anticipated the twins line of thought and cut him off with a sharp, "it doesn't count. It's pre-coffee time. Actually – it's a good thing. Means he's getting used to being here." (4)

Fred scoffed loudly and lounged back in his chair with a roll of his eyes, "there's no such thing!"

Mokuba raised an eyebrow carefully and twirled his game console between his hands with a quickly sharpening stare. The look upon his face showed that he most definitely didn't agree with Fred's position on the matter.

When Seto strolled back into the kitchen with a shirt neatly buttoned in place and sat back down in his chair as though nothing had happened the twins wheeled on him. Amusement littered the faces that lined the table and Seto merely raised an eyebrow before pouring himself another cup of coffee and snagging a piece of toast from his brothers plate.

"Missing anything?" Ginny spoke up cheerfully as she hid her smile behind a glass of orange juice.

Seto gave no indication that he'd heard her, he merely continued to eat his pilfered toast and casting an off-hand look towards his brother. Said younger brother scowled back at him with a small frown marring his face as he reached to butter more toast.

Loud yelling from the hallway interrupted the remotely peaceful breakfast when the kitchen door burst open. A wildly cursing Tonks hobbled inside with tears in her eyes, upon seeing the raised eyebrows she whined out, "it was that damned umbrella stand again. I swear it's right in the way.."

She was deftly ushered aside by the much larger, much more somber-looking Kingsley Shacklebot who spoke up with an urgent narrowing of eyes, "Death Eaters have some kid bailed up down by the Leaky Cauldron."

Tonks was still cursing when the breakfast table turned to chaos.

Bill apparated away with a loud crack startling them all by just how quickly he had moved. Fred and George went to follow but were met with an angry belting to their ears that they weren't quite thick enough to ignore – Arthur disappeared quickly after his son and Seto rose to his feet abruptly.

He failed to notice the slightly narrowed stares that followed his movements and he raised an eyebrow before speaking up sharply.

"You're the ones who wanted me in on this little crusade of yours – I'm going with you."

Footnotes:
1. Neith was an Egyptian Goddess linked to war and hunting. Was focused more on the 'hunting' part there..
2. Ding Ding.. I decided to give a little hint alert – take a sharp looksy at that paragraph then see if you can make any links between that and the end of Book 4.. Let me know any conclusions you come to..
3. -sniggers- Plugs... I couldn't resist that bit – Arthur Weasley's fascination with plugs has always amused me...
4. -Scowls- Pre-coffee time so does not count!

AN: Argh! This chapter was an abomination.. -twitches- The reason that it took so long to get out, (yes, there was a reason!) was the sudden unwanted presence of practice exams in my life. Bah, what is with 'practice' exams anyway? You'd think one lot of exams would be enough torture wouldn't you? Anyway, this chapter was unpolished and irritating in my vision. Not at all happy with it but I decided I should probably post before I get lynch-mobbed. Besides, the next chapter promises to be much more amusing. There were a few important details splashed into this chapter though so at least it got that out of the way.. In apologies for the lack of updates a brief insight into the next chapter; we finally get another YGO character involved. Though it might not be the one you expect.

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...