And for anyone waiting for Anzu in Wonderland, sorry. I'll post something... soon. Before the month's over, anyhow. -.-u
Disclaimer - For the lack of a witty way to say this, no, I do not own YuuGiOu!. Sorry.
Warnings - OCCness and a poor, fangirl-ized Hermione. Yes, you may hate me.
...Maybe I should lower the rating on this... O.o
"Please tell me you're joking."
"I'm afraid he's not, Mr. Kaiba. I am, indeed, your Headmaster." Grin.
Ryo looked at the older man, astonished. Sure, when he had heard about the Wizarding School, the first thing he had thought of was like some sort of character out of a Lord of the Ring; some old, wise-looking man. Of course, Bakura had quickly snapped that notion out of his head. He had said it wasn't likely an older man would be running as wizarding school. It would need to be someone young, someone capable of handling mishaps that were sure to happen everyday. So then he had been expecting someone young.
Why didn't he ever just stick with his first instinct?
"Please, come in," bid the man, grinning happily at the young pair. He was wearing robes of purple that made the Tomb Robber envious; in his days, that had been a rare color to come by, and made the robes he had proudly stolen look... well... Stolen. And not as good. And, even now, his mind was whirling with the possibilities and ways to steal such a wonder (Needless to say, Ryo wasn't listening, or would have otherwise reprimanded his alter-ego).
Ryo and Seto walked in, Hagrid left standing at the door. He appeared unsure where to go, and looked around the room silently, as if finding his position very desirable. Unfortunately, the half-giant was not going to stay as he might have wanted, as Dumbledore announced, "Your presence will not be required, Hagrid."
"Ah, yes, Headmaster sir," he nodded polietly in return, and turned around to leave.
"Would you please send... oh... Snape here, however, in about thirty minutes? And please tell him that he will be escorting these two young men around Diagon Alley." Hagrid gave him an undignified look of surprised, but nodded.
"O' course." And with that (And with the approval of one CEO), he left the three by themselves.
"I'm so glad you two could make it," announced Dumbledore, smiling at the two. "Now, please take a seat in front of my desk. I'm sure you've got plenty of questions you'd like to ask." Seto snorted. He wasn't asked to elaborate upon what he found so amusing.
They both sat themselves down in comfy, over-stuffed chairs in front of a large wooden desk, and the white-haired boy couldn't help but stare around in wonder at all of the magical things in the room. They were tons of pictures lining the walls, and they moved! Many of them talked amongst themselves, and visited each other through the picture frames, and others were looking intently upon the current meetings. There were bowls and bowls of mysterious looking mixtures, along with thingamabobs that whirled and twirled with a mind of their own. In a far-off corner was an empty cage that housed a few red feathers that sat all by their lonesome.
Seto, as well, was thoroughly interested in the ideas. He wasn't willing to show his amazement at the magical items, however, and was content with just staring at the items on the wizard's desk. They were amusing enough, as it was, and it would at least make him -appear- to be waiting for the Headmaster to make the first move.
Business tactic number one: Allow your opponent to move first. Determine weaknesses, and then hit them where it hurts.
Okay, maybe not to the letter, but he supposed it still applied. Maybe.
"I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry," he announced to gather their attention. "I have invited both of you to this school, due to the sudden appearance of some very -powerful- magic within the two of you." Seto snorted again, and Dumbledore looked at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. You just reminded me of a certain short, star-head shaped Pharaoh." Dumbledore was lost for a response to such a remark (The man certainly didn't know whether or not this was a compliment, obviously), so decided to go on with his introduction.
"Just as well. Here, you can learn very powerful magicks for your benefit and for that of others, and you will not be rejected simply because you are late starters. Now, I am open to any and all questions you may possess, and will answer to the best of my ability."
"Why England?" Seto asked flatly, looking at Dumbledore seriously. "Assuming that there's more wizards and witches, wouldn't there be a school in Japan that would be much easier to attend?"
"Indeed, there is a very nice school in Japan. The Imperial Dynasty School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I believe it is called. However, they are not used to students that start just quite as late as you have. Due to circumstances, they are not able to catch you two up on lessons quickly enough to keep you with students near your own age."
"Does this happen normally?"
"Does what happen normally, Mr. Kaiba?"
"Late starters." He stated it as if the question should be obvious.
"Occasionally." He shrugged. "It's not like it happens every year, or something, but it isn't as if the odds are ten million to one it would ever happen."
Silence.
"Is that really all?"
More silence.
"Huh. I suppose so."
Ten minutes later, a one Kaiba Seto and Bakura Ryo were following a Severus Snape out of the Headmaster's office.
"Professor?"
"Yes, Hagrid?"
"Why Professor Snape?"
"I thought it would be amusing."
Hagrid accepted the answer with a chuckle.
"So, Harry, who do you suppose is going to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?"
"Dunno, Ron. Whoever it is, they'll have to have a lot of guts to even try."
Harry and Ron strolled side-by-side through the busy streets of Diagon Alley, talking excitedly about current Wizarding events, Quidditch, and other such things. Harry was lugging along plenty of books; it appeared as if Snape decided there would be more book-work than ever, the new DADA thought that preparation was more important than Hermoine would have, and Trelawney was amused by the idea of teaching them something to do with tea leaves and animal droppings.
"HARRY!" cried a familiar voice from behind them. Suddenly, Harry and Ron were faced with the all-might attack of a hug from a happy, fifteen year old Gryffindor.
"I'm so glad to see you two! I was wondering if I would have to wait until school to see you," declared Hermoine, releasing her two male friends. She clasped her hands together, having dropped her own books to the ground (which were currently residing in a large, brown burlap bag). "When did you get here?"
"Mrs. Weasley just Floo'ed (1) us here this morning. You?"
"My parents and I spent the night at the Leaky Cauldron last night. Oh, Ron, Harry, I've been everywhere this summer! I even visited America! It was absolutely brilliant! I'll have to tell you two all about it!" she suddenly announced, grinning ear to ear.
"No wonder Errol couldn't find you," Ron mused quietly, frowning.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to tell you, but it was such a rushed decision. My father won quite a bit of money - I'm not sure how, though. Denists don't typically gamble, but, ah well - And we left quite all of the sudden."
"Ah, don't worry about it. You'll just have to make up by buying us lunch." Though meant in jest, Hermoine took it seriously. She was fully intending on doing so. Harry and Ron decided not to argue with the matter.
"By the way, have you two heard about some new students this year?" Ron suddenly spoke up, looking at he other two.
"The first years?"
"No, no! We're supposed to be getting some exchange students! At least that's what Fred and George say. I hope it's true; that'd be brilliant."
"That would be nice. I wonder where they're from; maybe somewhere foreign, like Asia!" Hermoine squeaked. Harry shrugged.
"We'll just have to wait and find out, I guess."
The wait, however, lasted about two point seven seconds.
Down the street in Diagon Alley, and one brown-haired CEO was glaring up at their 'escort's back. What kind of escort leaves his two charges, standing in the middle of a foreign area with an amount of money that looked like something they would have used centuries ago? He snorted, crossed his arms across his chest, and glanced around.
"Well, I'm going to get my things," he announced flatly, and stalked off in the direction of Harry and company. Ryo nodded, and wondered whether or not he should tag along. Less than a second later, he started walking after the taller boy.
"Maybe they'll have a special ceremony for them, or something, rather than make them stay together with the first - HARRY!"
"What is it, Hermoine?" The two boys blinked at the girl's sudden outburst, as she stared forward at a certain on-coming figure.
"It's SETO KAIBA!"
And thus started one of those days where Kaiba Seto wished he wasn't famous.
(1)Floo Powder - A type of powder that you can use to travel between fireplaces.
Thunderstorm101 - Blah. I know. x.X It's hard to make an original HPYGO cross-over, so I decided humor was a better tactic. .:sweatdrop:. Howver, I'm glad you thought it was good!
Glitchhunter - YAY! XDD
Setoglomper - Merph. Seto's just upset about being proven wrong with the whole magic-thing :)
DarkLegacies - You can smell it? Lucky dog. I wanna be able to smell dysfunction... XDD
Just A Penniless Writer - Yeah. I had fun writing the Bakura/Ryo st00f, and making Seto whine's just one of those thing I like to do. .:grin:.
yllom21 - Well, wah-la! Hope you liked this chapter, as well!
Seto's Girl 2004 - .:shifty look:. Uh... Okay, this wasn't very soon -.-u I only update chaptered stories about once a month, or days in a row once a month (Or every weekend, or... Okay, shutting up now X.x) And then theres all those one-shots I write. .:bashes head against keyboard:. Hope this was soon enough for ya!
SOS: Well, review and please make my day! And ten imaginary cookies to whoever can correctly guess who the new DADA teacher! (And yes, it IS a character in the books. No OC's.)