Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh or Harry Potter

Chapter 36

"That was a great duel; I haven't had a challenge like that in a long time. Thank you so much." Krista said as she walked over to Hermione.

"Next time, I'll get you." Hermione said.

"I can't believe you have Exodia in your deck, the pieces are so rare that very few duelists would even bother to try to collect them." Marik said.

"This coming from the man who employed a man with three complete sets in his deck, just to try to his hands on my Dark Magician." Atem stated as he remembered his duel in Battle City.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"They are referring to the Battle City Tournament. The looser of a duel had to fork over their rarest card." Kaiba explained.

"I actually never set out to collect Exodia, it was sort of accident." Hermione said.

"What do you mean?" Krista said.

"Well when I first set out to build a deck, I wasn't really sure what monsters I wanted in my deck. I wasn't even sure I wanted my monsters to have a theme. I was leaning toward making my deck very adaptable to any situation. I found that I really liked magic cards, but you can't win with just magic cards. So one day I was at a card shop and bought six booster packs and I took them home. In one contained my Dark Magician Girl, the other five each had a piece of Exodia in it. So I added them to my deck. This is the first time I ever lost with Exodia."

"It was no accident that you obtained Exodia, he chose you." Krista said.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"You know how a wand chooses a wizard; I truly believe that some monsters choose their duelist. And in your case Exodia chose you." Krista explained.

"So if Exodia chose me, who chose you?" Hermione asked.

"The Light Magician." Krista replied.

"So is your Light Magician your most powerful monster?" Hermione asked.

"She is the ace of my deck, she is my friend, but she is not my most powerful monster." Krista responded.

"You consider your monsters your friends?" Harry asked.

"Yes I do, that is why I keep my deck around my neck. That way the things I treasure most are closest to my heart." Krista said.

"Well I can't wait for a rematch, maybe I'll get to see your most powerful monster." Hermione said with excitement in her eyes.

"How about you Kaiba, which monster chose you?" Harry asked, he was finding this conversation very interesting.

Seto took his deck out of its holder. He picked up a card and showed it to Harry and Hermione. "This one, she is called the Blue Eyes White Dragon."

Hermione was staring at it, "I never thought I'd see one of those only four were ever created!"

"And three are in Kaiba's deck and the fourth he ripped in half so it could never be used against him in a duel." Atem said. He could not believe he just said that. Why would he be jealous of Kaiba, all Kaiba was doing was showing off his favorite card.

"That was a long time ago, Atem; I'm a different person now, why the hell did you even mention that." Kaiba yelled.

"Calm down, Atem is acting a little jealous of the fact that Hermione was paying attention to you and not him so he said something really stupid to get back at you for hogging her attention." Yugi sent.

"Oh for the love of Isis, he doesn't have to get jealous of me; I have Krista and wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her. Pharaoh, get a grip!" Kaiba responded.

"Sorry High Priest, it just slipped out, I don't even know why I would have any jealousy feelings towards you, now if the red headed boy had shown up that would have been a different story." Atem stated.

"It's because you want her and any other male you see as your competition, there is no logic to infatuation and often infatuation breeds jealousy." Krista replied.

"I have an idea why don't you take her someplace quiet to talk so you don't keep making a complete and total ass out of yourself. You're a pharaoh have some pride." Kaiba sent.

"Ah Hermione would you like to go out to the balcony to talk?" Atem asked he was feeling really ashamed of how he had been so jealous of Kaiba.

"That sounds nice, just let me put my stuff away," Hermione started to remove her deck from her disk.

"I must say I found this game almost as exciting as Quidditch." Harry said, "Do any of you play Quidditch?" The gang all shook their heads no. "Oh." Harry was disappointed he was hoping to be able to start a conversion on his favorite game.

"Harry would you like me to teach how do play Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked.

"Yea, that sounds like fun." Harry said as he and Yugi went to sit at a table and Yugi started to try to explain the basic rules of the game.

"Hey Bakura want to do a reading for me? I want to know if I'm going to meet a hot chick at school." Marik said.

"Sure, I think I can do that." Bakura pulled out his Tarot Cards as he and Marik sat down at another table.

"I think I better go check on Mokie and Rebecca something tells me they crashed watching TV again." Kaiba said as he went into one of the other room and opened the door. "Yep they are both out."

"I'm going to try to tackle some more of my books; I have to be at fifth year level in less than a month." Krista said as she went back to her laptop and got back to her learning.

"I better get cracking on those Arithmancy equations, I want electronics working soon." Kaiba said as he sat down next to Krista, cracked open one of his Arithmancy books and started up his laptop.

"I'm finished." Hermione said as she locked her duel disk case. Atem and Hermione walked on the balcony. The view overlooked downtown London.

"It is lovely," Hermione said.

"You should have seen the view from the suite we had in Cairo last week." Atem said.

"You were in Egypt?" Hermione said, "Sounds exciting."

"We were there for a funeral." Atem said. Hermione could hear the sadness in his voice.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said.

"Don't be you didn't know." Atem said as he looked into Hermione's brown eyes. By Ra they are beautiful everything about this girl was beautiful. After a slightly uncomfortable pause Atem spoke, "So did you mean what you said earlier?"

"What part." Hermione said in a flirty tone. She knew exactly what he meant she just wanted to see him squirm a little. She found it so cute.

"About thinking I'm cute." Atem said as his face turned red.

"You know when you blush; your cheeks match your eyes?" Hermione said teasingly. "It is so cute?"

"So you do think I'm cute." Atem said as his eyes got wider with excitement and his heart started beating faster.

"Yea," Hermione said as she bit her lower lip. She could feel her heart racing. No boy she had ever met had done that to her. She didn't know what to do so she started staring at her feet as her face turned red.

"I didn't mean to embarrass you," Atem said as he lifted her head with his hand to meet his eyes. "May I ask you a question?"

"You just did." Hermione said with a laugh. "But yes you can ask me anything you want."

Atem was so glad Krista and Kaiba were out of ear shot they would have had a field day poking fun of Hermione's last statement. "Do you believe in destiny?" Atem asked.

"If by destiny you mean like meeting you today in Diagon Alley after having several unusual events happening earlier in the day to make us meet at the right place in the right time?" Hermione asked as her eyes were sparkling.

"Something like that." Atem replied.

"Then yes. I do think it was destiny that made us meet today." She said with a smile.

"Me too." Atem said.

"Now I have a question for you." Hermione said.

"Fire away." Atem said.

"Do you want to kiss me?" Hermione couldn't believe she just asked that, but she knew she wanted to not come on to strong and after all a girl shouldn't be too forward with a guy, but a nudge in the right direction doesn't hurt.

Atem gulped then said, "Very much." His face once again was matching his eyes.

"Well the later it gets the later it gets." Hermione teased

Atem grabbed her waist and pulled her in close. Both their hearts were beating fast. He could feel Hermione's heart beating just as fast as his was. Atem closed his eyes as he bent down and kissed Hermione on her lips. Hermione wrapped her arms around Atem's neck as she returned his kiss. Several moments passed before they broke apart.

Atem took Hermione's hand in his, "So do you want to stay out here or go back inside?"

"Let's go back inside." She said as they walked back into the room hand in hand.

"I still don't get it." Harry said to Yugi "How can that monster not be stronger than this one." Yugi had spent the last several minutes trying to teach Harry the basics of Duel Monsters.

"I'll try to explain again. See if these two monsters were just battling each other than the one with the higher attack points wins, but when you add this magic card to the weaker monster. This is called equipping, than the monster gets a power boost. Remember when Krista and Hermione where having their duel and Krista's Dark Magician Girl beat Harmonies Dark Magician Girl. It was because Krista had added an equipment magic card increasing the attack points of her monster otherwise the Dark Magician Girls would have destroyed each other." Yugi said.

"Okay I get it so magic cards are good, they are necessary." Harry said.

"Yes," Yugi said with a sigh he hadn't had this hard of a time since he taught Joey how to play.

"I think Harry has finally gotten the meaning of equipment magic cards, now you only have about five others to teach him before going on to traps, you sure have your work cut out for you." Krista said without even looking up from her laptop.

"You were listening the whole time? I thought you were busy with your school work." Harry said with astonishment as he looked at Krista.

"Oh she does that all the time, we think she is so engrossed in her work, but then she'll say something that tells you she has been paying attention the whole time. I'm not sure how she does it but she does." Yugi explained.

"I did it. I solved the equations. Tomorrow we go to test them." Kaiba said.

"You did it, you solved them." Atem asked as everyone turned to look at him and Hermione. Atem had totally forgotten his hand was still in hers.

Krista looked up from her laptop and elbowed Kaiba who looked over at them and grinned. "Oh aren't they cute." Krista whispered to Kaiba.

"About time, I was getting sick of his antics hopefully a little kissing action did him good." Kaiba whispered back.

"Hey, Atem I'm not sure baby pink is a good color on you. I would have gone with something closer to plum." Krista hollered.

"What are you talking about Krista? I'm wearing my usual black and navy." Atem asked.

"She is referring to your lipstick, so either you two were out there playing tonsil hockey or you have decided to become a cross dresser." Kaiba said as he started laughing.

Hermione and Atem turned bright red, "I'm sorry about those two." Atem said as he tried to remove the lipstick on him, "They do this all the time to Yugi. I should have remembered to warn you."

"It's okay, I'm sure Harry is going to join on the teasing wagon. He and I are close like we are brother and sister. And a brother always teases his sister." Hermione said

"You go girl." Harry yelled, "You deserve a good man."

"What did I tell you?" Hermione said. "I guess that means you need to find yourself a woman, Harry."

"I do have a crush, but last year she was hung up on Cedric. If I asked her out now it would be tacky." Harry said.

"I'm sorry Harry, I forgot about your crush on Cho. I won't bring it up again." Hermione said.

"What do you two mean by that?" Marik asked.

"It is a pretty complicated story, but the short version is at the end of the school year Cedric was murdered by Voldemort. I saw it happen. I even saw Voldemort return to power using a very dark spell. Most of the magical community doesn't believe me. They say Cedric's death was an accident, and I'm a liar." Harry explained.

"We believe you." Ryou said.

"You do that makes me feel better, for a while I was afraid only Dumbledore and a few of his followers would believe me, but since students believe it will make the year easier." Harry said.

"Dumbledore actually believes him, that surprises me the old man is so dumb he doesn't know the difference between his ass and his elbow." Said Marik.

"Did I hear you right, you have already figured out all those equations." Atem asked as he and Hermione sat down next to Kaiba.

"Yes you did. I just had to read a few chapters in these books and the numbers just clicked in. Or did you forget that I'm an electronics genius and can do calculus in my head." Seto said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I didn't forget nor have I forgot about your over inflated ego." Atem smirked.

"Well Marik the cards say you will meet a girl, but it doesn't say whether she is going to be hot or not. Sorry about that buddy." Ryou said.

"Are they doing a Tarot Reading?" Hormone asked you could hear the skepticism in her voice. "I'm not so sure about them. Professor McGonagall says Divination is a wooly subject."

"Here we go again." Said Harry.

"Mind felling us in, I'm a little confused what is wrong with studying Divination." Krista said, the tone in Hermione's voice had caught her attention and she looked up from her laptop.

"Well in our third year, both Hermione and I took Divination. Hermione really didn't like the class so she walked out of it and never came back." Harry said. "I expect that some of you are taking Divination?"

"Krista and I are." Ryou said.

"Then here is my suggestion for you. Just make it up, the more times you predict your death the happier Professor Trelawney is. You'll pass the class with flying colors." Harry said.

"I won't need to make it up." Bakura said.

"Ryou is actually an expert in readings, they are very accurate. He sometimes uses his Tarot Cards; other times he uses his dueling deck which has an occult theme." Atem said.

"Well we haven't covered cards yet, just tealeaves and crystal balls." Harry said.

"Really, well to eat your own, I wouldn't waste my time, but if you want to study Divination who am I to judge. I do have a tendency to state my opinions about the class; I really didn't think it was taught well. All Professor Trelawney liked do was predict Harry's death ever single class." Hermione said.

"There was that insult she gave you about having a very old soul." Harry said.

"Oh yeah, not sure what she meant by that. I think she was just trying to get on my nerves." Hermione said.

"Ha I told you she was Mana's reincarnate. This Professor Trelawney must have been able to sense it. This day just keeps getting better and better." Atem sent.

"Well, let's hope she doesn't meet you it just might kill her to realize you are actually around 5000 years old." Kaiba said.

"So what other classes are all you taking?" Hermione asked, she just loved to talk about school work.

"In addition to Divination and my core classes I'm also taking Ancient Ruins, and Care of Magical Creature." Krista said.

"I'm in Ancient Ruins it is so much better than Divination. Sorry no offence I just didn't like the class." Hermione said. "I'm also in Care of Magical Creatures I like the teacher Professor Hagrid but sometimes he has creatures that are dangerous last year he had these blast ended skrewts we had to take care of I had burns on my fingers for weeks.

"Woo hoo I get to have all my classes with her. Yeah, I'm the luckiest man on the planet." Atem sent.

"I so hope he brings some dragons to class, I really want to see some dragons." Kaiba said.

"Hagrid had a dragon in our first year; Professor Dumbledore made him get rid of it." Harry said.

"Yeah, Sensei Snape mentioned something about that." Kaiba grumbled he was still upset that there wasn't a dragon at the school anymore.

"Sensei?" Harry asked.

"It is the Japanese word for teacher Harry. It is a term of respect." Hermione said.

"You guys actually like Snape? He hates me. I'm lucky I haven't failed out of his class yet." Harry said.

"I think hate is a strong word. Sometimes things aren't always what they seem." Atem said.

"Let's just put it this way Sensei Snape has earned our respect, the other teachers at Hogwarts will have to do the same. Respect is earned not freely given." Kaiba said.

"Is this another Japanese culture thing?" Harry asked.

"No it is more of an exchange student thing." Krista said.

"I have a question, if you are all from Japan why can you speak English?" Harry asked.

"Because when I took over Kaiba Corp, I told the schools in Domino City if they wanted any of my money for funding they would have to require English. So anyone who goes through the Domino School System now has to learn English. After all many of these students are future employees of Kaiba Corp and in the business world it is essential to know English." Kaiba said as if it was the most obvious reason.

"We also all don't originate from Japan. I was born in the United States. Rebecca is also from America." Krista said.

"I was born in Egypt, but have spent a lot of time in Japan the last couple of years." Marik said.

"I have lived in Japan many years, but I was born in England." Bakura said.

"Wow you guys are from all over." Harry said.

"How many other languages do you all speak?" Hermione asked.

"Most of us are only fluent in Japanese and English. Kaiba I believe is fluent in about 7 languages and Krista is an expert in linguistics she is fluent in almost 20." Atem said.

"If anyone of you find you are a Parselmouth let me know, it will make it a crazy year." Harry said.

"The only reason he would want to know if someone is a Parselmouth is he must be one." Krista sent to the court.

"I agree Royal Sorceress, he would want to be able to share that with someone else." Kaiba added.

"Will you two explain yourselves? What is a Parselmouth?" Yugi asked.

"It was in the book Hogwarts a History, it is the term these wizards use to say someone can speak to snakes in the snakes language and the snake actually talks back they call the language Parseltougue." Krista explained.

"I can do that, I just never knew it had a name." Marik sent.

"Tomb Keeper you might want to keep that to yourself, I'm sure Dumbledore will exploit that from you. It is a rare gift." Krista replied

"Rare for these English Wizards, but not for Tomb Keepers, how else would we get the snakes in the tombs to not hurt the keepers we talk to them, letting them know we are there to protect the tomb not rob it. That's why I have a pet cobra; it is fun to have a pet that talks." Marik explained.

"While I think this is an interesting fact to find out, I believe we should keep it to ourselves for the time being." Atem sent.

"Harry, our new friends may not know what a Parselmouth is." Hermione said as she say they all had spaced out looks on their faces.

"It is someone who can talk to snakes it was in Hogwarts a History," Atem said as he looked at Hermione. He could tell that Hermione was beaming. He figured she had read the same book and decided to use the knowledge he had received from his High Priest and Royal Sorceress to impress a very pretty girl. He was please to see it work.

"You didn't even read it. You are taking credit for mine and Krista's hard work. That is a low blow Pharaoh." Kaiba sent.

There conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. "If that is room service I'm sending my order back and not paying for it, their tardiness is unacceptable. I ordered food over an hour ago." Kaiba said as he got up to answer the door. "Hello Sensei Snape, come on in."

Snape did another double take evidently he had not only earned Yugi respect, but Kaiba's as well. He wondered if that applied to the entire group most likely it did. Snape walked in he noticed Harry's cloak on the couch. "Potter is here? Who else is with him?"

"Hermione, she and Krista dueled earlier." Kaiba said. "It was really close, Hermione almost won."

"Professor Snape, I'm sure this looks weird but Professor Dumbledore did give us permission to come here this evening." Hermione said.

"Then why use the cloak? Surely teens that have permission wouldn't need to sneak out."

"Mrs. Wesley didn't want us here. So Harry and I snuck out." Hermione said.

"Where is Mr. Weasley?" Snape asked.

"He insisted on not coming, Sir. He thought Hermione and I were being stupid and reckless and immature he didn't want anything to do with us tonight. Pretty much he was being a stupid git." Harry said.

"Well Potter, your story does sound suspicious; I'll have to look into it." Snape said he tried to sound not so harsh to him. After hearing about the abuse he just didn't want to yell at Potter anymore, but help him. The problem is he knew that Harry didn't trust him and given their past rows Snape understood the distrust but now he needed to come up with a way to earn Potters trust since trust always has to be earned. As Snape took a seat on a couch and observed the group of students.

"If you ask me he was hiding something. I've been getting suspicion of Ronald for a while. I just can't put my finger on why. I might just still be upset because his brothers broke my wand. It is possible I'm seeing things." Hermione said.

"Yippee, the red headed brat won't be a problem anymore. She is all mine. Thank Ra." Atem sent.

"I have a serious question to ask. I hope you can all help me with an answer." Hermione was a nervous she really didn't want to talk about what was bothering her but she knew she needed to.

"It's okay we are all friends. What's on your mind Sweetie?" Atem asked.

Hermione blushed at Atem's term of endearment before speaking. "How did you know that Professor Dumbledore would ask me to spy on you?"

"We don't trust Dumbledore and he doesn't trust us." Atem said. He was so furious at the old man for putting this wonderful girl in a situation she didn't want to be in. If the old man kept this up the penalty game would be the least of his problems. He would find himself in the shadow realm being devoured.

"I mean, we just met. I really think you are great, and I consider all you my friends. I don't want to tell Professor Dumbledore anything, and something's tonight are personal. What should I do?" Hermione asked.

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to report information to. I didn't want to tell even Hermione because I wanted her to have fun tonight. I thought maybe he had asked only me. I guess I was wrong." Harry said. "Lately I've been getting the feeling I'm wrong about a lot of things when it comes to Professor Dumbledore."

"If you want my option I'll give it." Snape said this just might be the opening he had been looking for. As he looked around the room.

"Sensei Snape, I can't speak for Harry or Hermione, but as far as the rest of ego. We gladly listen to your opinion." Ryou said.

"First Dumbledore is a very skilled at Legilimency, which means he will enter your mind to get the truth from you. The only defense is Occlumency. Since Potter and Granger don't know it. Hiding the truth from Dumbledore will be difficult, but not impossible. You should keep any answers to his questions brief and only give information that isn't too personal. When ever possible speak vaguely." Snape said.

"Did Dumbledore ask you not to tell us he asked you to spy on us?" Krista asked.

"Not that I recall." Hermione said.

"Then that is a good thing, because you told us it doesn't make you a spy anymore. If Dumbledore asks feel free to give him details. I don't think Dumbledore will be too impressed, after all the only thing to report about this evening is a friendly duel between a couple of duelists, Harry wanting to get to know the basics of dueling, Krista and Kaiba doing school work, and some good conversion." Atem said as he smiled at Hermione

"Atem's explanation of the evening is a great example of what I was talking about. It is precise and vague." Snape said.

Hermione smiled back at Atem, "Thank you."

"Anytime." Atem replied.

Hermione looked at her watch. "Oh crap it is getting late, we should really get back."

"Hermione we are all going to be at the Leaky Cauldron tomorrow would you like to join us? Kaiba is going to test electronics in magical environments it should be fun." Atem asked. "Please say yes, please say yes!" He sent.

"I would love to; I'll be there say noon." Hermione said with a blush as her heat started to beat faster. This boy defiantly was cute and she was so into him but why and would she ever find out.

"What about you Harry, you in?" Asked Yugi

"I can't I got a hearing at the ministry. If found guilty I get expelled from Hogwarts."

"Harry I have told you they can't expel you, it isn't illegal to use magic in life threatening situations and a dementors attack is life threatening. Fudge is just using this hearing to tarnish your reputation." Hermione said.

"Why not join us after the hearing even if you are expelled you aren't going to go to jail so come hang with us. I'll even pick up some starter sets and booster packs for you so you can start to build your own deck. But you are on your own for a duel disk. They aren't cheap." Yugi said. "Don't worry you can still duel without the disks, it just isn't as exciting."

"Okay I'll do it, I'll meet you guys in Diagon Alley after my hearing and if I'm expelled who cares, we can still have fun." Harry said as he grabbed his cloak.

"Well we best be going." Hermione said as she and Harry disappeared under the cloak and went out the door. The rest of the gang decided it was time to call it a night as one by one they went into the adjacent bedrooms to find a place to crash.

Krista was still rapidly working through her books. She was determined to get through at least one of the books before bed. Seto was catching up on some of his work for Kaiba Corp luckily today had been a slow day at the company and he didn't have much to do.

Seto looked over at Krista she looked so lovely. The moon was hitting her white hair at just the right angle to make her blue highlights really pop. Seto closed his laptop and walked over to his girl and extended his hand. "Imzadi, let's call it a night."

Krista looked up from her laptop and when her blue eyes met Seto's blue eyes she knew that it was time to call it a night. Her heart started to race just a little faster as she took Seto's hand in hers letting him help her to her feet and hand in hand they left the living room and headed for their bedroom.

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