Yu-Gi-Oh!
Dawn of Fate
CHAPTER EIGHT – MAD EYE MOODY
"Seto? Hogwarts to Seto! Come in please!"
"Seto-kun? Diajoubou?"
"I know what'll snap him out of it… Seto-kun! Kaiba Corporation is burning!"
Seto snapped out of his dazed state with a half muttered, "Hunh?" at that, only to see that Yugi and the others were staring at him strangely. He looked around, trying to remember where he was and why he was there. It slowly flooded back; it was the first day of classes, and they had gathered together in the library after lunch to hang out before their afternoon classes. Hermione had her usual huge book before her; Marik was sitting next to her with an equally large book, while the others just had their decks out as if they were getting ready to duel.
"Uh… what? What do you want?" Seto finally asked.
Marik raised a critical eyebrow. "You okay? You've been in your own little world all day long."
"I'm fine," Seto replied shortly, before gathering his school supplies and heading off. Yugi and Yami Yugi just watched him leave from their seat next to each other, perplexed.
"Is he okay?" the pharaoh asked, sounding a bit concerned.
Yami Bakura took that moment to appear behind his hikari, crossing his arms and leaning on his head a bit playfully. He grinned his typical sadistic grin, while Bakura just rolled his eyes.
"Kaiba's got a girlfriend!" the tomb robber exclaimed in a singsong voice. Yugi looked like he was going to faint, while Draco's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
"Seto!" he exclaimed. "A girlfriend? You're joking."
Yami Bakura's smile got more sadistic. "You obviously didn't see it last night," he replied smugly. "When those Beauxbatons chicks showed up, one of them went to sit with him. I've only seen strawberries and apples the shade of red he was turning."
Harry and Ron exchanged disbelieving looks while Hermione giggled, latching onto Marik's arm, who was just blinking rather stupidly. Yugi and Yami Yugi exchanged secret smiles while Bakura just sighed. Draco shook his head, before gathering up his books.
"C'mon, guys, we've got double Divination," he pointed out, not sounding very enthusiastic.
With that said, the group parted ways. Hermione and Bakura went off to their own classes, while the others went off all the way to the top floor of the North Tower (with the two yamis returning to their respective Soul Rooms). Then, it was up to Professor Trelawney's classroom, which really looked more like a tearoom than anything else. They went to their normal seats around one of the large tables, at which, Seto was already typing on his computer.
As they waited for the rest of the class to arrive and for the professor to reveal herself, Yugi kept taking sidelong glances at the young businessman. Finally, after a long moment, he asked, "So, what's her name?"
With a clack, Seto's fingers came to a dead stop, before he turned a bland look to the shorter boy. Yugi just smiled sheepishly, but he was saved from a tongue lashing by the misty voice of Professor Trelawney from behind them.
"Good day," she said quietly, making Harry nearly jump out of his chair. She looked down at him tragically, before she spoke again, "You are preoccupied, my dear. My inner eye sees past your brave face to the troubled soul within, and I regret to say that your worries are not baseless. I see difficult times ahead for you… all of you… I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass… and perhaps sooner than you think…"
Yugi, Marik, and Draco stared at her, wide-eyed, while Harry, Ron, and Seto gave her a stony look. After a long moment, the professor swept past them to her winged armchair before the fire, facing the class.
"My dears, it is time for us to consider the stars," she began. "The movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal only to those who understand the steps of the celestial dance. Human destiny may be deciphered by the planetary rays, which intermingle…"
Unlike the rest of the class, who were either watching with bored interest or hanging on her every word, Harry zoned out from the discussion. He never really took the professor seriously – she was the biggest fraud he ever came across – but what she had said disturbed him.
I fear the thing you dread will indeed come to pass…
It was not the words themselves that disturbed him, but the way that Yugi, Marik, and Draco reacted to it that bothered him the most. Harry had learned throughout the course of his friendship with the Japanese students that they and the Items the owned held a vast amount of secrets; way too many for him to comprehend. Hermione and Draco had become the same way since acquiring their Items, and he could not help but feel…
A jab to his side cut off his musings.
"Harry…!" Ron hissed.
Harry looked around, only to see everyone staring at him – much in the same way they had stared at Seto back in the library. It took him a minute to realize that he had almost dozed off, and he straightened himself, giving his friends a sort of embarrassed smile.
"As I was saying, my dear," Professor Trelawney said, looking less than pleased, "you were obviously born under the baleful influence of Saturn."
Harry blinked, his mind too fogged up to process that statement. "Hunh?"
"Saturn, dear! The planet Saturn!" the professor repeated, sounding downright irritated now. "I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth. Your dark hair, your mean stature, tragic losses so young in life; I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter."
Harry raised an eyebrow; she really was a kook. "No, I was born in July."
Ron was just about turning blue from holding back his laughter, while Draco turned his into a foul sounding cough.
"Actually," Marik cut in, his head resting in one hand while the other traced lines in the wood of the table, "if Harry were born under the primary sign of Saturn, that would mean that he was born under the constellation of Capricornus. In Egypt, this was also called a 'Negative Earth-sign', meaning a great part of his life would be consumed by or influenced by evil. However, Harry was born under the primary sign of the Sun and under the constellation of Leo. In Egypt, that was a 'Positive Fire-sign', meaning his life was dominated by courage and the desire to do good."
The stares of the class suddenly turned toward Marik. Even Professor Trelawney looked impressed. The young Egyptian, however, just shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's a hobby."
About half an hour later, everyone had been given a complicated star chart and were supposed to determine the positions of the planets at the moment of their birth. Marik and Seto finished theirs easily enough, Draco gave up after a few minutes, but everyone else put a valiant effort into it. The rest of the lesson progressed fairly well – Trelawney seemed to temporarily give up trying to predict Harry's death – until Ron asked Lavender a very… wrong sounding question.
"Can I have a look at Uranus too?"
Even after class let out, Ron could not figure out why he got more homework than anyone else.
-.oOOo.-
Seto sighed wearily as he made his way back toward the Ravenclaw dormitories, his mind still wandering back to last night and Fleur Delacor. He had never felt that way about anyone before, and he did not understand why either. Was it just lusting – nineteen years old and never had a girlfriend… very sad – or was there really such a thing as love at first sight? He sighed again, frustrated this time; he had too many other things to worry about, and raging hormones did not need to be one of them.
"Um, excuse me?"
Seto whirled around, then had to look down. Behind him were two mousy young Gryffindors, one of which was holding an old fashioned camera.
"Are you Seto Kaiba?" the one with the camera asked.
"Uh… yeah."
The two of them beamed. "I'm Colin Creevey, and this is my brother, Dennis," the one with the camera introduced. The other one looked up at him adoringly.
"You really are Seto Kaiba!" Dennis exclaimed. "I'm your biggest fan! I've collected all the Duelist Monthly magazine articles about you. I even have the two thousand and one special New Years pull out poster!"
Seto blinked, at a loss for words. "Uh… that's…"
He trailed off as the sound of laughter reached his ears. Turning, he desperately fought back a blush as he saw the person that had kept his mind occupied all day surrounded by a cluster of seventh year boys. Muttering an "Excuse me," to the Creevey brothers, he slowly approached the group, trying to draw Fleur's attention and not the other boys. Successful, Fleur turned in his direction slightly before excusing herself and walking toward him.
"Puppy-dog following?" Seto asked as she approached, ignoring the jealous looks he got from the other boys before they slowly dispersed. Fleur laughed lightly, shrugging slightly.
"It iz both a blezzing and a curse," she said, before pausing a moment, biting her lip uncertainly. "I… I am part veela."
Whatever reaction she was expecting, the one that she got was not it. Seto blinked, rather confused, before rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry, but I'm unfamiliar with… ah…"
He trailed off, smiling rather embarrassingly. Fleur just stared at him, caught off guard.
"Truly…?" she asked. "You truly don' know…?"
It was Seto's turn to bite his lip now, a million scenarios running through his mind, all of them going from bad to catastrophic. She surprised him again, however; laughing happily and practically glomping him, wrapping her arms around his neck and making his laptop carrying case slip off his shoulder to land on the ground with a metallic clank. Seto just stood there, stock still, his brain totally frozen and not offering him any suggestions on how to react. After a moment, she let go, and his mind was torn between wishing she had not to wondering why he was bothering with her to begin with.
"I'll zee you at dinner," Fleur said, walking off toward the Great Hall.
Seto stood there for a few minutes, blinking rather stupidly; the only thing running through his mind was what the mutt back in Japan would say if he saw him right now. He gulped a moment, fighting back another one of those accursed blushes, before collecting his case and rushing off to his dormitory…
…and missing the twin sets of brown eyes watching him.
-.oOOo.-
Yami Yugi, Yugi, Marik, Draco, Ron, and Harry made their way to the Gryffindor tower to drop off their belongings before going down to dinner. Hermione joined them just as they were about to ascend the stairs, smiling brightly and making a point to swing her unusually light backpack around as often as she possibly could.
"Homework?" she asked. "Professor Vector didn't give us any."
"Lucky you," Ron grumbled.
Marik smirked, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Ron got more homework than the rest of us."
The younger wizard threw up his hands in exasperation. "All I asked was if I could see Uranus! What's wrong with that?"
Yami Yugi grinned wolfishly. "Ah… to be young and naïve…"
Yugi had to hold onto his darker half as the look of realization that dawned on Ron's face sent him and Marik into howls of laughter. Their mirth was cut short, however, as an annoying voice rang out from behind them.
"Weasel! Hey, Weasel!"
They all turned, though they did not really need to, as they already knew the owner of that particular voice. Ecillia, Crabbe, and Goyle were running toward them; the former of the group was obviously happy about something as she waved a newspaper around excitedly.
"What do you want?" Ron asked blandly.
Ecillia smiled that predatory smile of hers. "Your dad's in the paper, Weasel!" she exclaimed, exaggeratingly fanning out the copy of the Daily Prophet before reading aloud:
FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles
are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special
Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor
crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still
unable to account for the disappearance of one of
its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh
embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold
Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.
Ecillia paused a moment, outright grinning at the last bit.
"They can't even get his name right, Weasel," she sneered. "He really is a nonentity, isn't he?"
Draco and Marik had to grab a hold of Ron to prevent him from tackling her as she continued:
Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession
of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved
in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers
("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive
dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the
aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who
retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the
difference between a handshake and attempted murder.
Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr.
Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had
once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was
forced to modify several memories before he could
escape from the policemen, but refused to answer
Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the
Ministry in such an undignified and potentially
embarrassing scene.
"And look, Weasel!" Ecillia exclaimed, not knowing when to quit even though it looked like Ron was going to turn into a rampaging bull any minute. "There's picture of your parents outside… is that thing a house! Oh, and dear me, your mum… she could stand to loose a little weight, now could she…?"
Harry and Yami Yugi had to add their weight to Ron to keep him from charging forward and doing something potentially drastic.
"Put a sock in it, Ecillia," Draco snapped. "Preferably a smelly one. C'mon, Ron…"
"Oh, Draco honey, you've seen that cow, haven't you?" Ecillia sneered, prompting everyone holding onto Ron to shout in surprise as he almost broke free. "Tell me, dear cousin, is she really that damn fat or is it just the picture?"
A dark look overtook Draco's face at that. "Do you even know your mother, Ecillia?" he snapped. "Last I heard, she didn't have much of her sanity left, thanks to the dementors."
Ecillia's smirk turned into a deadly scowl. "You have no right to speak of my mother that way."
"Then keep your fat mouth shut," Draco snarled in reply, helping the others turn Ron around…
BANG!
Yugi and Hermione yelped in surprise as Draco felt something hot brush past the side of his face. In the next instant, he had his hand in his pocket, ready to tear out his wand and make good use of it. He was stopped short, however, when another loud bang echoed through the corridor, followed by an angry bellow.
"OH NO YOU DON'T, MISSY!"
Everyone turned to see Professor "Mad-Eye" Moody limping toward them, a deadly look on his face. His wand was out, and pointed straight at a golden brown ferret, which was looking about in fright on the same spot Ecillia had been standing a few moments before. The group of Gryffindors stared at the animal, wide-eyed – no one knew if they should laugh or not. Moody took advantage of the shocked silence to shuffle up to Draco, inspecting the spot on his face that had gotten grazed by Ecillia's spell with his normal eye. The other one seemed to have rolled into the back of his head.
"Did she get you?" Moody asked, his voice as grave as his appearance.
"Just missed," Draco replied hesitantly.
"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted again suddenly.
Draco blinked. "Um… hunh?"
"Not you, him!" Moody growled, jerking a thumb back to Crabbe and Goyle, who had just frozen in their effort to pick up the Ecillia-ferret. Apparently, that rolling eye of the professor's did more than just creep people out. Professor Moody started to approach the three Slytherins, and the Ecillia-ferret squealed and tried to make a break for it.
"Oh, no you don't, missy!" Moody exclaimed, pointing his wand at her. She went flailing a good ten feet into the air, fell to the floor once more with a painful sounding smack, and was bounced up once more. "I don't like people who attack others when their back's turned," the professor continued, bouncing her higher and higher. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do!"
Ecillia-ferret bounced up once more, legs and tail flailing helplessly, and she was squealing so loudly it was a miracle the whole castle did not hear her.
"Never – do – that – again –" Moody said, bouncing her on the floor with each word.
"Professor Moody!" a horrified voice exclaimed. The boys and Hermione turned to see Professor McGonagall was walking toward them, loaded down with several dusty old books.
"Hello professor," Moody replied calmly, continuously bouncing the Ecillia-ferret higher and higher.
"What… are you doing…?" she asked, watching the ferret bounce.
"Teaching."
"Teach… Professor Moody, is that a student!" she exclaimed, dropping her books.
"Yup."
"No!" McGonagall exclaimed, pushing past Moody and tearing out her wand. One moment, and one snapping noise, later, Ecillia was back in her normal form. She was lying on the floor in a heap, her hair all askew and her face pink with humiliation. She crawled back to her feet, glaring daggers at Moody.
"Professor Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" McGonagall shrieked. "We give detentions, or speak to the student's Head of House!"
Moody shrugged, slightly disappointed. "I'll do that then," he said, hobbling over to Ecillia and grabbing her roughly by the arm. She winced, before continuing to glare at him, muttering something about "my uncle."
"Oh, yeah?" Moody replied, obviously hearing her, tugging her along with him, Crabbe and Goyle following reluctantly. "Well, I know that uncle of yours, missy. You tell him Moody's keeping an eye on his niece. Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"
They disappeared down the hall before any of them could hear Ecillia's scathing reply, but they did hear her yelp as Moody obviously did something. McGonagall sighed tiredly, before turning to the group of Gryffindors.
"You all had best get down to supper," she suggested.
"Don't talk to me," Ron replied, a giddy look on his face.
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall responded, shocked.
"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.
"No," Ron started to explain, closing his eyes. "I want to fix that image in my memory forever. Ecillia Lestrange, the amazing bouncing ferret…"
Professor McGonagall sighed in exasperation, but it looked like she was fighting to prevent her lips from curving up into a smile. She waved them off, before using a spell to collect her books and disappearing down the hall herself. The Gryffindors were about to go off to their dorm as they initially intended, when a sharp whistle stopped them. They turned to see both Bakura and Yami Bakura running up to them.
"News from the 'Seto in Love' front!" the tomb robber exclaimed, before he paused a moment. "What are you all so giddy about?"