(Sighs) This thing has actually been almost ready to go since Halloween. However, I've had a few complications (a poor excuse, I know) that have deterred me from posting. Everyone give PenPusherM a big hoot'n'holler for getting my ass in gear and this chapter up and running.

That said, we'll begin. All Hallows Eve rocks my socks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, Harry Potter, or YuGiOh... YYH belongs to a Japanese man who thought it would be interesting to kill off his hero before the story even got properly started. HP belongs to an English woman who killed off a character with a lot of potential, but not before a huge amount of fangirls fell in love with him. YGO belongs to a Japanese man who decided killing people was far too simple, but having egotistical main characters mess with the minds of idiots would be just jolly good entertainment.

Quidditch and Qualms

Ginny woke up the next morning with a horrendous headache attacking her skull. A closer inspection in her bathroom mirror proved she didn't look nearly as bad as she felt – her hair cascaded down her shoulders in fire-colored ringlets, and her eyes, for all they were accented by dark shadows, were a bright green color. The color of emeralds, her boyfriends always said. Rich, deep, emeralds.

Ginny rolled said eyes before applying a simple makeup charm. Vanity never won a Quidditch match, she reminded herself. Just look at Malfoy.

Soon dressed in the comfortable cotton of her Quidditch robes, she hurtled down towards the Great Hall, broomstick in hand. She ran past the breakfast table, stealing the piece of toast Dean Thomas was buttering generously, and with a wave and a smile to the bewildered boy, found herself on the Quidditch Pitch.

She sighed to herself. Four places to fill, she thought, and not one of them can be less than perfect. With her brothers gone, along with Alicia, Angelina and Katie, their team had suffered quite a loss. She'd already been assured by Harry she'd remain in her position of Chaser, if she wanted it. Her keen acceptance had seemed to take at least a little of the weight off her shoulders.

Speaking of which, she saw Harry rocket above her, putting his Firebolt through its paces. She'd always loved to watch Harry fly; she fancied it reflected his natural personality. His face showed nothing but pure joy of flight; until, at least, the Snitch showed. Then, he was nothing but strong determination, every muscle keyed towards achieving a goal.

Harry saw her, and she flagged him down to the ground, motioning to the line of Gryffindors eagerly awaiting a chance for the team. He rolled his eyes, reluctant to come back to Earth. But duty called, and he made his way down, landing in front of the line.

Harry took his broom in his hand, gazing at those lined in front of him with a grim little smile on his face. "You're all here to try out for the greatest team in this school, am I correct?" A few third years nodded tentatively, while the older students beamed. Harry nodded approval, and broke out into his own flashing grin. "Then we'll work it like this. Anyone trying for the Chaser positions, I want in the air first. We'll do Beaters the second we're done, alright?" He blinked. "Right. And just to let you know, there may be a few…erm…distractions throughout the field." He leaned in with an amused smirk. "Some of our new teachers have never been off the ground, apparently, and they're taking their first lessons today. Just treat them like Bludgers you're not allowed to hit." He surveyed them all again, hopping on his broom and motioning for Ginny to do the same – Ron was up near a goalpost, Quaffle in hand. "So anyone here for just the Bludger tryouts may either stay and watch, go back to bed, or prank the Slytherins. Not that I told you that," he added with a conspiratorial wink.

Ginny smiled. From here on out, the tryouts were on her terms – Harry had said as much. He didn't feel that he knew more than the basics of being a Chaser, and besides, the new recruits would be working with her as a team, not him. It made her worry how he'd handle choosing the newest Beaters.

"Alright, guys," she called to those mounting their brooms, deftly catching the Quaffle Ron had thrown down to her, "We're going to go in teams of three, including me, and try to get this shiny red ball past my poor older brother. Harry will be flying around us, evaluating you, so for goodness sakes don't hit him. I guarantee you won't find a spot on the team if you take out our captain. Who's up first?"

She smiled vindictively as all eight raised their hands simultaneously. If they survived the next few hours keeping up with her and Ron, and still had enough masochistic tendencies to make them want to join the team, they were as good as in.

She flew straight up into the air, motioning for two to follow as a shot of adrenaline raced through her system. Her headache disappeared, and the fun began.

Bakura growled softly to himself and tapped his foot impatiently – his hikari was such a wuss. Even the Pharaoh's brat had more temerity than his own!

/I'm sorry, 'Kura/ whispered Ryou from the depths of the thief's mind. /If you really wanted to, I suppose you could block me out entirely, and I'll just miss the experience…./

Bakura tried to conceal his twitching eye. /That takes energy neither of us have, ahou./ Besides, he thought to himself, Even if I weren't trading one worst nightmare for another, and I swore I would never do that again.

Ever.

Bakura had come away from many a Duel Monsters Tournament with his hikari's mind in a revolting state – sewn with nightmares and dark, enclosed spaces, and towering cliffs that sent the being standing atop them plunging to a horrific death.

It had taken the thief nearly three such experiences of looking for Ryou in his soulroom and encountering such spiritual messes before he'd finally confronted his hikari about it. The discussion that had followed had been something any other being would have described as 'bonding'.

Bakura flinched as that particular word ran through his mind. That shouldn't be in my vocabulary….

But kindness had overtaken him in that event, and upon learning that his hikari's fears included not only darkness, small spaces, and heights, but an unprecedented fear of being out of control of his own mind (hence a circle that only made the nightmares worse), he'd sworn to always, always, allow his hikari to be privy to the outside world.

It must be madness, Bakura mused.

Though the members of the Reikai Tantei did look as though they were having fun. All but Botan had started off a bit rocky, but they now shot through the air with an arrow-like grace.

Well, perhaps not exactly with grace, excluding his fellow thief. But the Jagan master certainly flew through the air as if he'd been born to do so; which he probably had, reflected the white haired thief – Bakura had seen Hiei 'fly' along the ground, faster than mortal eyes could see. And though the young human dived and looped in a decidedly brash manner, and his taunts to the Jagan master and thief went ignored or scorned, he still always avoided whatever obstacle came hurtling at him without too many near misses.

Though by the incredulous looks given to Yusuke by the Gryffindor team every time a loud crack rent throughout the air, Bakura could guess that Bludgers weren't meant to be smashed open by one's fist. Urameshi seemed to be taking a perverse sort of joy out of it.

"Stupid," CrackSmash, "Effing," CrackSmashThud, "Balls!"

Bakura sighed as various pieces of Bludger shrapnel fell towards him. Where were those other idiots? And why, why hadn't they taken him from this torment? Mokuba, at least, would have normally shown him some kindness, but neither he, his brother, nor the midget Pharaoh could be found this morning.

Which was by pure accident, he was sure.

It had taken a good portion of the morning to get through the Chaser's tryouts, and several minutes before they were meant to start with Beaters, the new teachers had come out to try their hands.

Harry regretted letting loose the Bludgers now – Madame Hooch would have his head for those that escaped.

Or made it to Urameshi, which was actually the exact opposite of escape. Five ruined Bludgers lay scattered throughout the field.

He must have some sort of strengthener spell on his hands, mused Harry. But he couldn't help flinching each and every time both hand and ball let out a ferocious crack that rang out through the pitch. You'd think a teacher would have more sense that to go around destroying school property, though….

Ginny was back inside, trying to decide amongst the new recruits. She'd looked rather unhappy – her best two options had very obviously been Seamus Finnegan and Michael Corner, the last of which she frequently referred to as "The Snake Among Lions".

Harry hoped Michael would survive the experience when chosen.

I should have asked Fred and George to judge the Beaters, thought Harry as one of the ten people he'd sent into the air whizzed by him, narrowly missing his head. I've no idea as to what they actually do, how they work…..

I am so in over my head….

Honestly, he couldn't tell who was doing better than the rest, and was leaning towards just giving the job to the Creevey brothers to keep with the good karma of having brothers working together for the job.

Or I would, at least, if weren't so small…. The Slytherins would pummel them.

Harry sighed and flew up towards Ron, dodging yet more players on the way, one who flew straight into a goal post trying (yet again) to look at his scar.

Ron snapped his head around as Harry approached. "You alright there, Harry?"

He nodded. "I'm fine. Any ideas?"

Ron winced as the same player who'd smashed into a goal post slammed into the ground. "Draw names from a hat?"

Harry rubbed his temples pensively, the headache Ginny had complained of switching to him. "It might just come to that, actually."

Ron took pity on him. "Look, Harry, why don't you head in and I'll finish up here, alright? I'm guessing I'll be able to pick just as well as you, and if we really get in a pickle, I'll ask Fred and George to host sort of a….a callback-type thing, okay? I mean, we're capable of weeding out the worst, right?" He poked Harry's forehead and the Boy-Who-Lived reeled back a little. "Go see Madame Pomfrey, and tell her we'll probably need her for that kid who keeps crashing."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Ron," he said, pointing his broom towards the window of the Infirmary. "You're a great friend."

Ron beamed and started fervently shouting orders.

"Alright, Seto, hand it over," proclaimed Atemu in a tired voice. "We've been wandering this castle since dawn and I hardly enjoy your company and more than you enjoy mine."

The spirit didn't exactly appreciate being awakened in the early hours of the morning, dragged out of bed by his host and the CEO's younger brother, and made to wander the castle by Kaiba's side in a dead silence – and all for the benefit of the eldest Kaiba brother. They had recently reached what the students referred to as 'The North Tower' – it was somewhere near Bakura's classroom, Atemu knew – and Mokuba had given him the basics of the situation as Seto stared broodily out across the lake. They were doing this in lieu of the Quidditch practice session Botan had promised them.

Seto reached into the front of his cloak – he had taken surprisingly well to the manner of dress here and was quite fond of the selection of capes and cloaks that could be found – and withdrew a thin envelope that had been folded and creased many times over. He continued to gaze into the distance as he extended his arm. Atemu snatched the letter from him as his abou took on a ghostlike form next to him – something they had taken to calling an 'Astral Projection'.

Atemu's eyes quickly scanned the parchment in front of him, Yugi reading over his shoulder. "You came to me with this as soon as you received it?"

Seto made a low growling noise which Mokuba readily translated. "He got it yesterday. We're still trying to figure it out." The younger Kaiba brother sighed. "It's just so odd."

Seto made an oddly stangled noise and turned to face the group. "This is not odd – it's ludicrous! What kind of a maniac goes off ranting about magic and Millennium Items in a letter when he doesn't even know whom he's speaking to?"

Atemu struggled to hide a burst of laughter at Kaiba's outrage and failed.

"That said….Do you even want to meet with him, Kaiba?" asked Yugi, shooting a venomous glance at his other.

"No," proclaimed Kaiba, voice stern and full of resolve, "I don't."

"Yes," said Mokuba, "You do. So write back to him already like I've been telling you to!"

Yami looked up at Seto sharply, eyes flashing. "Kaiba, you cannot just ignore this, whether or not it pleases you. Yes," he said, making a motion with his hands as he saw Seto's eyes narrow into a fierce glare, "I realize that you have yet to believe in destiny. However, Malik is still a prominent figure within the Ishtar clans. Refuse to answer him and you will be pitting yourself against a person who may as well be a prince. They will try to find you, should your obstinate streak remain. Surely you can understand those odds?"

"Let them try," sneered Seto. "I have the confidence that I could wipe them off the face of the Earth if need be."

Mokuba looked up at his brother wearily as Atemu took a deep breath and counted to ten – a tool his abou had taught him that occasionally helped. "Alright, Kaiba. It is your decision, after all. I may not approve of your choices, but then, our views have always differed." That, and if I don't intervene now I may just have a chance to rub it in when this verdict blows up in his face later on. "However," he continued, "I do ask one thing of everyone here." He looked Mokuba directly in the eyes and enunciated his next sentence very clearly, unsure of his reaction. "Do not tell Bakura – or any of the others – of this letter."

Mokuba's eyes went wide with outrage. "Why not? You're afraid he'll try to take over the world again with Malik – like he did in Battle City? That's insane, Atemu, and you know it! They're both perfectly stable," he declared, then paused. "Well, as stable as they're ever likely to get. But they're both good people now. Bakura has Ryou to restrain him from any troubles, and besides, they were good friends! What if something happened to Joey back home and no one told you about it? How do you think you would feel? How do you think Yugi would feel?"

Atemu bit his lip, stung, as Seto's lip quirked up a bit in pride for his younger sibling. /I think we may have taught him a bit too well, Yugi. He knows exactly where to hit./

Yugi ignored him. /Why don't you want him to know, Atemu/ he asked concernedly. /What's wrong with it/

/Because I'm afraid exactly what Mokuba has said will come true./

/And? You must have a reason beyond that./

Atemu hesitated briefly. /Chalk it up to a feeling, Yugi. Like the one you had before Battle City./

/Oh./ Yugi merged back into his own body and took control, amethyst eyes blinking. "For me, Mokuba? Please? Atemu's got a good reason, it's just…."

Mokuba turned back towards the stairs. "Just that you don't want to tell me. Fine. Fine. I'll keep your secret. But don't expect me to be happy about it." And with that, he stalked back down the long flight of stairs, slamming the door to the landing behind him.

Yugi turned to see Seto chuckling under his breath. "What? What's so funny?"

"I'm willing to bet that's the worst reaction you've ever gotten out of Mokuba, isn't it? You'll be feeling guilty for days, won't you?" He smiled. "And the worst is yet to come," he muttered, following his younger sibling down the long, winding staircase.

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Crazy Hyper Lady, Yamisgirl13, Chaos Guardian Sethros, Dreammistress Jade, ComputerFreak101, Akira Tosiyama, Yllom21, Misawa Kaitou, PenPushaSista of Another Mista, Starlet36, Black Irish, Chelley Angel, Rosedark, KamiKaze no Kage, DarkDaisy, Kayono, Kenmeishouri, Latin 101, BonnieGinger4Ever, and Chaos Tenshi.