Egyptian Sorcery

By AlantisB

Chapter Nine

"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where it keeps its brain."

-Arthur Weasley

The dorm was silent, the sounds of sleeping teens echoed in the room. One of them was not sleeping however, but staring at the ceiling in thoughtfulness. Draco was not sure what exactly had lead him to this point in his life, caring about someone other than himself, like his best friend Yugi Mouto.

He supposed it all started in Diagon Alley, the chess game match. There is something to be said about a challenge and he was no fool to realize he had found an equal to which he could test his skills. Losing had been an unfortunate side-effect, on the plus side he had managed to acquire an alliance with someone powerful enough to beat a man with three souls to back up his power—and win. Of course, he hadn't known it at the time. Now he knew.

There was one thing he couldn't understand, it was all the mysterious things that existed around his friend. Let's count the clues in the case:

One: Meioh, Yugi's guardian. Although the man was his friend's guardian, he had yet to see him act like a figure of authority to Yugi. He acted like one of Draco's house elves, considerate, and always on hand for anything his master would want.

Two: Yugi's puzzle. He knew for a fact through careful research that there should be no way ordinary muggles could get a hold of such a powerful object through an evacuation muggle site in Egypt. No muggles were allowed around places where magical objects are buried or believed to be. That means Yugi's grandpa couldn't have gotten the puzzle.

Three: Yami, the mysterious spirit Yugi claims to have come from the puzzle but can possess Yugi to the point of changing his personality and facial features. Though he did not believe it because Yami seemed more like another aspect of Yugi, not a separate entity—and that brings up one more point.

Four: Professor Ryu Bakura. He has been around long enough in this school to recognize an evil person from a normal professor, and Professor Bakura was not at all normal. Although he couldn't get his friend to elaborate on what exactly caused the reaction he had to Professor Bakura when he had first seen him, Draco suspected the two knew each other. Well enough for the professor to rile the younger wizard to actually yell in the Great Hall, causing attention to be put on him.

So what did all these clues lead up to? Draco hadn't a clue. But he knew for a fact that Yugi was not a normal wizard at all, which lead him to believe that maybe, Yugi wasn't a wizard. For one so untrained, (and Yugi was untrained dreadfully if his Transfiguration abilities were to attest for it), he had amazing control. Which lead him to his next clue;

What was so special about those cards Yugi carried? There was only one way to find out, he had to get them.

Quietly, Draco slipped out of bed and moved over to his friend's bed. Moving slowly, he managed to edge his way closer and grab the deck that lied on the bed stand near his friend's head. As soon as his hand gripped the deck, what felt like a magic shock zapped his hand, then his own magic, curled deep in the pit of his stomach, leaped out of his hand to touch the deck. He felt the powers slide against each other, testing the boundaries, learning about one another. And then Draco knew. The deck was full of power, a wonderful, teasing power that spoke of dark things.

Ever-so-slowly, the Slytherin moved away from Yugi's bed to his own four-poster bed. He climbed in, untied the clasps that held the fabric against the posts and close the curtains to his bed. Then he moved to the center of the bed and used his wand (which he had liberated from the bed-side table a moment before) to call up a dim light. Carefully, Draco put the cards down onto the space in front of him.

For a moment, he just stared down at it. Carefully, he reached over and picked up the top card, turning it over to look at it. The picture was of a blonde elf with startling brown eyes and dressed in barbarian armor complete with a sword. It was called "Celtic Guardian".

Draco carefully examined the card, trying to figure out if it was full of magic or if it just reacted to magic. He found that if he used the magic from within him to touch the card, it glowed briefly in reaction. But nothing else he did had it react in the same way. He sighed, flopping back onto his pillows. He threw the card towards the direction of the deck. "What a stupid name for a muggle playing card game, Celtic Guardian-"

His eyes widened when the card suddenly flipped itself over and shined as brilliantly as the sun. Draco covered his eyes from the harmful light and soon he felt something dip the bed from added weight. When the light cleared, Draco uncovered his eyes, blinking rapidly to get rid of the spots in front of his eyes. That was when he felt the cold edge of steel against his neck and a voice whispering into his ear in a breathy, melodious voice, "Who are you and where are my masters, thief?"

Draco narrowed his eyes, glaring up into startlingly deep brown eyes when his brain caught up to what he was actually seeing. The man in his bed—elf he corrected himself—looked exactly like the picture on the card. Down to the sword and barbarian armor—there was no way the Celtic Guardian was in his bed! What ever the case was, no one gets away calling a Malfoy a thief. "I am not a thief, elf."

"Then, explain to me boy, why is my masters' deck with you and not them?" The elf hissed, pressing the sword closer to the Slytherin's neck. It was so sharp! Draco could feel a bead of blood drip from the slim cut on his throat. He swallowed thickly.

"Put the sword down, Sir Elf. I'll tell you," Draco replied sounding as calm as ever, even as his heart beat three times faster than as if he were truly calm.

The Celtic Guardian stared the boy deeply in the eyes for a few moments. Apparently he was satisfied with what he saw in their gray depths because he slid the sword back into its sheath at his side. The blonde elf's armor dissolved in an impressive display of leaf-sparkles. It was showy, though the threat held in those eyes as it disappeared lead Draco to believe that one wrong move he'd be dead before he could pick up his wand.

"Well?" To add insult to injury, the Celtic Guardian raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, looking down his nose at Draco.

"You see these?" Draco gestured to the cards and the elf nodded. "Right, to get straight to the point, your . . . masters Yugi and Yami are different from any wizard I know. I concluded it had to deal with those cards of his, so I snatched for a quick peek."

The Celtic Guardian stared at him.

"Fine, I did pick up your card and looked at it. Tried to test it with my magic to see if it'd do a thing—but the bloody thing didn't even react until I touched it with my magic! So I experimented a bit, decided I was bored, threw your card down, then POOF you appear like some giant fairy."

The elf was thinking quietly as he picked up his own card to stare at the ghostly image of himself printed there. Then he frowned, turning the card over and back again to check the face. "That is not right."

"What?" Draco moved closer to check out the card. He didn't see anything wrong with it, besides the ghost image of the Celtic Guardian in the picture. That was a little freaky.

"The image."

"What about it?"

"There shouldn't be one."

Draco sat frozen, confused. "Explain."

"When a card is summoned from the Shado-from where we come from, there is no face on it." The elf picked up Yugi's deck and sifted through it. He froze when he reached Dark Magician. He had a shadow too, just like his own card. Could it be..? The Celtic Guardian felt his wrist.

Draco watched the card, puzzled by the elf's actions. He looked at the card the elf was holding and froze. It was impossible! The Dark Magician looked just like Meioh, Yugi's guardian.

"No," the elf muttered. Frantic, he felt his chest. His panicked breathing increased in intensity as he felt the slow beat of a heart. He was alive. He was a living creature, a teacher like the legends. Like Meioh . . . He was alive like Meioh. Could it be that this boy in front of him was the cause? He looked Draco over and noticed the swirl of shadow energy in his aura.

He was fit to be a priest, a high one if he ever found a god to beseech to. But he had power, enough power to play the games. He could be in the Shadow Games if he was trained. Should he train the boy? This world hasn't seen the Games or any mention of it since five-thousand years ago, yet there was the proof that they would start up soon. With that much power echoing off the boy, he would be a target unless he had a guardian, a teacher to guild him. He sighed, making his decision.

Carefully sitting on his knees, the elf bowed to Draco with a small, sad smile. "My name is Legolas. How may I serve you to better you in the Games, young master?"

Draco's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

Legolas gave another small smile. "The Shadow Games are about to be awakened and you have the mark to serve the games. You summoned me to the living to be your teacher, and I wish to know what I should do to help."

"But—you're Yugi's! I can't-you're not-"

"I am yours. You summoned me into a living creature," Legolas took Draco's hand and put it over his heart where the Slytherin can feel the beating. "By default, I am no longer Mas—Yugi's card. I am your first."

Draco frowned. What was going on? He was even more confused than he had been before he stole Yugi's deck to look at. When had the situation gotten out of his control? He hadn't a clue what to do, and the only one who might have one is sleeping in his bed, unaware he had stolen the deck. What could he say to his best friend when he woke up to see an elf in Draco's bed, and the Celtic Guardian at that!

"He is right." Draco whirled around in shock to see Yami peering at them through the crack in the curtains. He gave the boy a smirk. "I heard you both whispering, you aren't exactly quiet. But Legolas is right, he is no longer mine. You now have your first monster for the Shadow Games, Draco. You may wish you have never met me when you learn how deep the world can sink into the Shadow." Yami's crimson eyes held a note of old pain and sympathy for the Slytherin he called a friend.

Shadow Games, where had he heard that before? Then the answer game to him in an instant and he felt his eyes widen. "You mean those games in legend—"

"The very same from History of Magic," Yami climbed into the bed to sit next to Draco, still managing to look as regal as ever. "Professor Binns was correct that the entire world was almost destroyed. Thankfully, only an empire fell in ruins and not the world."

"What empire?"

Legolas was the one to answer, "The Roman Empire."

Draco sat stunned. "It caused the downfall of that?"

"Yes. The people were too corrupted and spread out to protect themselves. The barbarians were able to take over them because of the Shadow Games that were still played." Yami looked down at the sheets. "I have hard times remembering what happened, except for the immense pain of having my soul ripped in two and one half shoved into a solid gold pyramid puzzle while the other went on."

That was when Draco realized that maybe his best friend wasn't as crazy as he had thought. If Yugi was crazy, then he would have to be too. Because for some strange reason, he believed in Yami's words, and he believed that he was talking to a real elf that he had brought to life through a muggle card.

He believed that his friend was two separate pieces of the same person, he also realized they were separate because not of a disease in the mind, but in time. Yami and Yugi are the same person but not. One was the actual pharaoh and the other was the pharaoh reborn.

"And this game, The Shadow Games," Draco corrected himself. "Will rise again?"


"Yes," Yami sighed. "It has already begun with the arrival of Bakura."


"What about him?" Draco sneered, he hated that teacher. Something about him made him feel off centered-like the professor just didn't belong.

Yami swallowed, cursing inwardly for the mistake. He had forgotten Draco didn't know that he and Bakura were from another world, where the Shadow Games are already being played. What could he do now? Tell his friend that he was from an alternate dimension or lie to him? What was the right thing to do? What was the wrong thing? What would make this all go so much smoother? Yami suddenly wished his other was awake. Then they could have handled this together and he could help Yami make the decision for him.

Unseen by the boys and elf in bed, the dark silhouette of Rags left the room quietly.

TBC

A/N: A new chapter will arrive in two weeks. And if I can, another one before the end of the month! Look forward to seeing more of Yugi and his adventures. I was wondering, has anyone drawn any fanart for me yet?