Egyptian Sorcery

By AlantisB

"Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world."
---Ron Weasley

"This year, you as fifth-years will be studying the origins of modern magic practice. Please open your books to page five, chapter one. Mr. Malfoy, please quiet down. Thank you.

According to ancient texts, the origin of modern magic started in what today is known as Egypt in North Africa. In Ancient Egypt, magic was abundant in the land, and those of magical decent were not witches and wizards as we are today, but they were priests of their gods or nobles of great power. We know this fact through reading the texts left by the Egyptian pharaohs in their temples.

As it is stated in your text book, in the early years when the world was still fairly young, the priests and nobles found a realm of magic through accidental means. A magical monster from this realm approached the humans and offered to teach them how to control their magic and to gain new teachers as they pass through different levels. Originally, the monsters were teachers to the priests and nobles but as generations passed the intent faded and the monsters became slaves as the priests gained more magical powers. While the priests were growing in power, new monsters would appear before them and be added to their collection.

Soon, people wanted to test each other's magical powers against one another and challenged the other to a duel. In a duel, the person would summon a monster onto the chosen battlefield and a barrier was erected around the two duelists. Each took turns using monsters to try and outwit the other person, and when one of the duelists were weakened enough that they couldn't summon another monster, the duel ended. The winner is allowed to take the loser's rarest monster.

The duels soon evolved into a full-fledged game that was known to the world as the Shadow Games. These Shadow Games were dangerous because as the game its self evolved, so had the stakes. The loser not only gave up their rarest monster from their deck (as the collections of monsters each person had were now called), but now they also gave up their life. The person would be banished to the Shadow realm, where the duel monsters had originated and some scholars theorized that they themselves became a monster for the games.

Popular legend states that a young pharaoh that had come into power at an early age was an extraordinary duelist. He wanted to stop the monstrous Shadow Games for the games were threatening to destroy the entire world with its power. Using seven solid gold items he had made using his magic, he challenged six of the most ruthless and evil duelists in the world to a tournament he simply called the Millennium Duel. Each player received a Millennium Item which they would have to wear in order to compete, and the winner would receive all seven items which would give them the power of a god.

As the legend continues, there are many variations to the story. Some legends state that the pharaoh was an evil duelist himself, but was bound by higher powers to play the in the Tournament and when he won, the power overwhelmed him and he died, erasing the connections to the Shadow realm. Another variation was that he was a fair, just ruler that wanted to help his people. He entered the tournament and when he won, he used the powers he had to seal the six evil duelists and the power of the Shadow Realm by using his own spirit as the seal to the spell.

Whatever the case may be, wizard scholars know that the end of the Tournament stopped the Shadow Games for good. When the influence of the Shadow Games was washed away over the course of many years, the priests and nobles that had gotten caught in the power now used only their own magics instead of the dueling monsters and evolved into what we are today; witches and wizards."

Yami?

Yes aibou?

What do you think really happened to seal the Shadow Games? I know we're the pharaoh, and you're the spirit of him from long ago, but do you have an idea on how it really ended?

I don't remember exactly. But I do know there was a Tournament, and that in the end the Shadow Games were sealed for a time. Perhaps, you should ask Meioh? He might remember, if not him then maybe one of his line.

I'll ask him in the next letter. His post is supposed to come in any day now. He's been real busy dealing with the Ministry and learning those new spells that are appearing in his book.

Sounds like a good idea, aibou. Uh oh, pay attention! I think Draco is trying to tell us something.

Yugi looked up from the doodles he made on a piece of parchment to his best friend, who was currently raising an eyebrow at him in a questioning manner. The duelist gave him a sly grin, and mouthed 'I'll tell you later'. Draco nodded slightly and pointed to the board where Professor Binns was writing notes to which Yugi sighed. He hated writing notes because he was left handed, and the ink got all over his hands.

The bell rang, signaling the class was over and the students got up packing their books into their satchel and headed off to their next class. Draco stopped Yugi just outside the history class room.

"What was that about?" Draco leaned against the wall with folded arms, staring Yugi down.

Yugi smiled nervously, "What was what about?"

"That," the other Slytherin made an exaggerated gesture with his hands towards the classroom, "Spacing out thing you did. You do that a lot, I've noticed."

"Oh. Um, well I—you're not going to believe me. So let's just forget about it okay?"

Draco smirked. "Try me."

"It's . . Well you know about my puzzle right? You saw me put it on last week."

His friend made a noise that sounded like an agreement.

"The puzzle came from Egypt. My grandpa said it was in one of the Ancient Egypt temples. He gave it to me as a birthday present. Anyway, I put the puzzle together when I was fifteen even though Grandpa said the puzzle was unsolvable and I found out there's a spirit inside. His name is Yami, which means darkness in Japanese. He was a pharaoh in Ancient Egypt . . and when I space out like that, I'm talking to him." Yugi trailed off as Draco's eyes seemed to get wider as he continued to spin the tale.

"A spirit possesses the puzzle! And you can talk to it?" Obviously his friend had gone bonkers, no one sane hears voices!

"Yeah, sometimes we can switch places and I go into the puzzle and he goes in my body. When he does that, my body gets taller by a few inches and the blonde spikes in my hair stand up. He looks older too, not a lot but his eyes look harder. We've looked in the mirror before and he pointed that out. Don't worry!" Yugi quickly said at the look directed at him. "It's not like he possesses me totally, he's a good guy. He's the one that was playing you at chess in Diagon Alley. I was giving him hints every time he got stuck."

"Really?"

Yugi nodded.

Draco was willing to give him the benefit of doubt, and decided to go along with it. "How interesting, you'll have to tell me more about it after potions--which we'll be late for if we don't run for it now!"

"Aww, poor Draco." He teased. "It's not like Snape is going to take points off the house if we're late, only if the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs really get a beat down on points." Yugi smirked, "And from what you said, the Dream Team is almost always late. I have yet to see the famous trio you talk about with so much contempt."

"You'll see them at the Halloween feast. They're just lucky we have Ravenclaws this semester for potions."

*

It was the day of the Halloween Feast and decorations and preparations were in full swing for the party. Students could barely sit still in their classes while the teachers were just glad to get the kids out of the classrooms as soon as they could. The Headmaster promised this year the party was going to be a big bash with the entire school dressed up in costumes and prizes for the most creative ones. Everyone couldn't wait until the end of class, and to Yugi and Draco, it couldn't have come any sooner.

The two had a big plan up their sleeves to make the party unforgettable. It seemed Yami had caught wind of the Weasley twins challenging anyone to a prank war, and true to form, Yami wanted to enter. He, with the help of Yugi and Draco, were going to pull off the start of the war with a bang. It was all set and ready to go: they had bribed the sprites holding up the decorations to curse the entire Gryffindor table with bad luck so that everyone at the party could enjoy watching them trip over their own feet, and basically get their asses laughed at. Yugi had immediately liked the idea, and so had Draco, but for different reasons.

Draco wanted to humiliate the Gryffindors, but his reasons were mostly his own and he wasn't sharing. Although Yugi suspected he wanted the Dream Team to get knocked down a peg or two. Yugi and Yami on the other hand, wanted to bring up their house respect in the eyes of the other houses, it wasn't right that stupid Slytherins like Crabbe and Goyle (who they had the unfortunate luck to meet) were the stereotypical Slytherin image. If he wanted to be put off as stupid, Yami would have joined the Hufflepuff house.

Yami stood in front of a mirror making the final touches to his costume. He was dressed up in Meioh's Magician outfit like Yugi had been in that one time he had battled Evil Bakura. The armor itself was flexable but good protection in case he got knocked around by cursed Gryffindors. When he had owled Meioh about the costume, Meioh wrote back real quick to tell Yugi all he needed to make it.

The letters were full of joking between good friends and he was glad his Dark Magician was enjoying his time as a person. The only bad news he had gotten in the letters was that Rags had runaway a week ago and hasn't been seen since. It saddened him that his pet had disappeared and he felt like he should have been there to stop the dog from leaving.

He frowned at his image in the mirror. "Don't do that, you'll get wrinkles," the mirror chastened him. Yami sighed.

He jumped when someone banged on the dorm room door. "Yugi, get the hell out of there. What are you, a woman? You spend more time looking at yourself in the mirror than anything else. Bloody hell, let's go already!" Draco's exasperated voice echoed from the hallway.

"Like you're one to talk Draco, you're the only person I know that cements his hair to his head like plaster." Yugi teased back as he switched with Yami.

*

The party had already started as they entered the Great Hall. To both of their great amusement, some of the Gryffindors had already been cursed with their prank and were bumbling around the room looking like great fools, tripping over their own costumes and knocking other people down. Draco snickered and Yugi grinned.

Yami, you're the best! Look at how much trouble we caused already and the party has only started.

By the time the teachers figure out the sprites are the cause of the cursed the table, the entire house will be infected.

I bow before the genius prankster, oh mighty Yu-Gi-Oh! Yugi replied mockingly.

Yami sent him a scowl. Aibou, if I could, I would smack you for calling me that, I am not the King of Games!

Mmhmm. But that's our title now, remember what Pegasus said? And anyway it fits the situation, I mean only great gamers like ourselves would have thought of that.

Or the Weasley twins. Yami added.

We thought of it first.

Draco nudged him, snapping Yugi out of his internal conversation. His friend raised an eyebrow in silent communication and he gave a curt nod of assessment. After that conversation in the hall that happened three days ago, Draco had been spending the time learning about the other personality of Yugi.

At first, he had thought that maybe his friend wasn't as sane as he appeared. That maybe the personal tutoring had messed with his mind, but as he learned more about Yami and Yugi, he found that they were separate. Not that he believed that Yami was really another spirit in Yugi's body, but that Yugi and Yami were different personalities with different strengths and weaknesses.

Last year if someone told him he would be friends with a split-personality muggleborn, he would have laughed in their face. But now he wasn't so sure, looking at Yugi and assessing his body language and voice whenever Yami took over. No one had noticed yet, but Yami was taller than Yugi which made him think that Yugi somehow hunched over and when he was Yami, he straightened up to seem taller. His eyes seemed to get deeper, and was it his imagination or did Yami look older too? Draco shook off those thoughts, truly worried at how much he paid attention to Yugi and Yami.

"Oh!" Yugi said suddenly, looking to the left. Draco turned to him, and then looked over in the same direction. Standing there was a big, black, ragged, mutt that was being pet by the Boy-Who-Lived and his gang. He sneered, but was shocked when Yugi said excitedly, "Rags!"

Draco had only a chance to mutter a surprised, "Huh?" Before his best friend ran over to where the Dream Team was standing, leaving him stupefied.

Meanwhile Yugi made his way over to the three unsuspecting Gryffindors. He managed to reach the dark corner, kneeled down next to the big dog and much to the surprise of the Dream Team, gave the dog a good ear and belly scratch.

"Rags! Wow, how did you get here? Meioh said you ran away a week ago, and now you're here? Did you come look for me?" Yugi said excitedly in one breath, while Rags flopped onto his back with his tongue lolling out, enjoying the good belly rub.

"Rags?" The teen with red hair snorted. "His name isn't Rags, its Snuffles."

Yugi glanced up from Rags, and noted the threes appearance. They looked exactly like Draco had described them; picture perfect with a black haired boy with a lightening scar. "Snuffles? Who would name a dog with such a ridiculous name?" He replied easily, then went back to ignoring the three in favor to pet his dog.

"I named him," the black haired boy he identified as Harry Potter.

Draco walked over and stood next to Yugi. "Well, what do we have here? The Scar-head, the Weasel, and the Mudblood." Ron seemed to literally growl at Draco, but the firm hand of Hermione on his shoulder stopped him. "Yugi, what are you doing over here? Petting that mangled mutt?"

Yugi brushed off the insulting tone, knowing it was the Gryffindors that were causing the meanness from Draco. "Remember when I told you about that letter from Meioh? How my dog ran away? This is him! Draco, meet Rags, the lazy mutt that loves to pelt belly rubs off me."

"That's the Rags I heard so much about?" To the surprise of the three heroes, Draco grinned a bit. "Could make a perfectly good guard dog with his size," to prove this point, Rags got up and growled at Draco, baring his teeth.

Yugi chuckled, "Rags, down boy. He's a friend. So what are you doing over here buy these Gryffindors? Come on, you don't want to get tripped on, do you?" Rags tilted its head, and the two Slytherins could swear intelligence shown in its eyes.

"Wait a minute," Ron said, glancing from Draco to Yugi. "You're the ones that had the entire house cursed! I should have suspected you would be behind this Malfoy!"

"Don't look at me, Weasel. I didn't come up with the idea, for once. My companion here had."

When the red head whirled around to give Yugi a dose of his temple, Yami looked him in the eyes with a smirk. They had switched when the others were occupied with talking to Draco. "I admit it. I am the one that I had thought of it. After all, the Weasley twins did call on for any challengers, did they not?"

"What are you--?"

"Oh Ron," Hermione sighed. "Don't you remember? George and Fred challenged everyone to a Prank War a few days ago."

"But still that—"

"Great opening act, isn't it?" Yami replied airily, and gave Rags one last scratch. "Rags, I'll see you later, hmm? I'll wait up for you."

With that said, the two Slytherins walked away, leaving the Gryffindors gaping at them, and one dog staring at their retreating backs.

TBC