As Professor McGonagall stepped into the hallway, the door swung shut behind her.
And the Common Room was promptly filled with shrieking laughter.
Chapter 4
"Did you see her face?" Alicia gasped, then collapsed back into giggles.
"I didn't know skin could turn that color!" Angelina replied.
"I actually saw Snape smirk when he said 'unnecessary trip'!" Parvati exclaimed. Ron's eyes bugged. "You're barmy!"
"And he looked so sincere the whole time! I don't even think she realized he was mocking her! Heck, I wasn't sure until he winked!" Lee had tears running down his face at this point.
"A true master!" The twins crowed.
Several students had collapsed, laughing, to the floor. Harry almost joined them- he was nearly doubled in half as it was.
"Oh, man it was like watching him duel without his cards." Dean proclaimed when he got his breath back. This sent a good portion of students back into hysterics. Before Harry could ask what he meant, Lavender chimed in.
"But-but the best thing were those ghosts!"
Seamus snickered. "Right? I thought she was going to have a heart attack when she saw them! No such luck, though."
"Those were ghosts then?" Collin asked eagerly. "I thought they might have been poltergeists since they had color. And one of them actually held that book, remember?"
"That might explain Hermione's face all night." Alicia teased good-naturedly. "Three more poltergeists plus Peeves must be a nightmare for a prefect."
It seemed Hermione had finally snapped out of her state of shock during the course of the conversation. She rolled her eyes. "Those weren't poltergeists. They were sylphs."
Harry blinked. 'What?'
Hermione was subjected to several skeptical looks from students all around the common room. There likely would have been more, but the majority of the residents of Gryffindor Tower were still laughing so hard they were having trouble breathing.
"Come off it, Hermione." Fred scoffed, though the effect was ruined by his wide grin.
"There hasn't been a sylph sighting for over a hundred years." George continued.
"Er, guys," Harry broke in, eyebrows furrowed, "what is a, um, slif, exactly?"
Hermione sighed in mild exasperation. "A sylph, Harry, is an air spirit. They're known to be guardians of knowledge and you used to be able to find them in every Wizarding library in the world, and even some of the more impressive Muggle ones."
She scowled. "Then, the library of Alexandria burned down. Sylphs didn't want anything to do with humans after they destroyed such an amazing store of knowledge. They started to disappear and there isn't really a consensus on where they went." Her expression turned from sour to that of excited awe. "Which is why it's so incredible that three of them were there! Professor Muto was actually conversing with them! Oh, I can't wait to ask him about it! We're going to learn so much this year!" She was practically vibrating with excitement.
"You know," Neville spoke up, looking thoughtful, "sylphs were actually considered the first librarians. They would clean the libraries and take care of the books; make sure they were ordered correctly and always in good repair and stuff. I wonder if that's why Madam Pince looked so happy?"
"Oh, good, you saw her smile, too? I thought I was going crazy." Lee cut in. There were several snickers and more nods.
"Hey, by the way," Ginny began, laughter clear in her voice, "someone want to explain to us plebeians why there was such a big reaction to our new professor? And what was that about him dueling? If he's famous for it, I feel like more of us would know about him."
Dean blinked at her. "Oh, right. Sometimes I forget Wizards don't really pay attention to what goes on in the Muggle world."
"Wait, he's famous in the Muggle world?" Parvati broke in, looking surprised. Harry was, too.
Most Wizards didn't care to integrate themselves any further into the Muggle world than they absolutely had to. Even those with a vested interest in the Muggle world, such as Mr. Weasley, only ventured into it for brief stretches of time. Heck, Muggleborns tended to pick one world over the other, as it was exhausting to split their time between the two completely different cultures.
Harry knew first-hand how hard it was to just keep up to date with news from one world when you were staying in the other. Not to mention culture and keeping in touch with friends. Every time he went back to the Dursley's for the summer, Dudley seemed to have new tech and new slang. If Harry cared to try and keep up with it all, he knew he'd have a lot of trouble. And although he didn't have any, he could imagine how Muggle friendships would quickly become strained with one party missing for most of the year, without even being able to tell the other where they went or what they were doing.
Suffice to say, Harry couldn't imagine being famous in the Muggle world and being integrated enough in the Wizarding world to be able to become a professor. Maybe it was different for Mages (Magi?)?
Harry shook himself out of his thoughts as Dean continued. "Yeah. He is actually famous for dueling, just not the kind you're thinking of."
"What, like fighting or something?" Katie interjected curiously.
"Nah, he's-"
"He's the King of Games!" Dennis exclaimed, bouncing in place.
"King!?" Ron spluttered. Several people gained wide-eyed looks.
Hermione rolled her eyes for a second time that night. "Relax, Ronald. It's merely an arbitrary title he was awarded. It would be more accurate to call him a champion."
"It used to be arbitrary." Dean corrected, looking mildly annoyed by the interruption. "At this point it actually is accurate to call him the King of Games."
"Hold on," Ginny said, "Start at the beginning. Where did the title come from in the first place?"
Dean grimaced a bit. "That's gonna be a little hard to explain since you guys don't know much about the modern day Muggle world." He shrugged. "I'll do my best, though."
"See, there's this popular Muggle card game called Duel Monsters. It's basically a strategy game where you use Monster, Trap, and Spell cards in different combinations to make your opponent's Life Points reach zero before your own. It started getting really popular after this company called KaibaCorp started developing Solid Vision, which created holographic effects every time you played a card." He paused at the confused looks he was getting. "Er, basically like how Wizard chess pieces react when you make a move, except with a lot more features because there are so many different kinds of cards." He continued after receiving several nods of understanding.
"As for his title, Yugi received it as part of winning a tournament where he was up against some of the best duelists in the world. The tournament was held by Maximilian Pegasus who's actually the creator of the game, so for duelists, the title was pretty legitimate."
Katie hummed thoughtfully from her spot next to Alicia, where she was listening to the explanation. "So that's what you meant by arbitrary. But, Hermione would be right then, wouldn't she? He should just be considered the World Champion of Duel Monsters, or something?"
"That's why I said it used to be arbitrary." Dean explained. "See, a lot of other World Champs thought the same thing. They started contesting Yugi's title, but they didn't make very much headway since, like I said, it was the creator of Duel Monsters who gave him the title in the first place, so the title couldn't just be dismissed offhand like they could if he was given it by a magazine or newspaper or something. So, some of the Champs thought it would be easier if they just challenged him outright and presumably, when Yugi lost, it would be clear that the title was way too broad."
"Makes sense." The twins said.
Dean gave them a knowing look. "Only thing is, Yugi didn't lose. And I'm not talking one or two people. Well, at first maybe. But after he kept winning, more people started challenging him. And not just the World or Regional Champs, either. He got issued challenges by everyone from beginners to professionals, in all kinds of games. Backgammon, chess, go, shogi, poker, draughts, mahjong, marbles, capsule monsters, mancala, dominoes, scrabble- you name it, players showed up and challenged him. Of course, that includes other duelists.
"Since there weren't really any regulations to the title King of Games, basically if Yugi lost to anyone, that person would have a legitimate claim to it, which was what attracted so many people. Well, finally Pegasus and the CEO- er, I mean the head- of KaibaCorp, Seto Kaiba, decided enough was enough and hashed out the regulations for Yugi's title. Of course, they went through the proper channels and stuff to get it approved around the world, but that's less important. Basically, being the King of Games means that you've bested over half of the game Champions of the world, as well as the previous King of Games. You have to be specifically playing for the title, too, since the King of Games is allowed to enter tournaments for reasons other than defending his title. Otherwise, I imagine it'd get pretty boring. Since Yugi met these requirements, not counting the previous King of Games thing since he's the first, he still holds his title."
"So, does that mean that you can be King of Games without necessarily being a World Champion?" Neville asked.
"Yeah, exactly." Dean replied. "Yugi's actually considered the World Champion of Duel Monsters, but for any other Championship title, he'd have to enter and win a tournament specifically being held for it. Also, if the World Champion of something ever loses their title to someone else, unless the new person challenges Yugi and wins, Yugi is still considered to have bested the World Champ of that game."
"Wow," Alicia said, "I can see where all the hype came from. Even without having seen him in action, I'm seriously impressed."
Dean nodded. "And that's just the basic rundown."
"There's more?" Ron said incredulously.
Dean laughed. "Oh, loads. Like, even before Yugi started getting challenged by the World Champs, he'd never lost a duel. Still hasn't, actually. But you wanna know the really impressive thing? Remember when I said he was being challenged left and right before the regulations? Well, because there weren't any regulations, it was considered possible for Yugi to lose his title through forfeit. So, he just took on all the challenges. And there were hundreds. Sometimes, he'd even go up against several people at once. Not to mention over half of his opponents were players of games he didn't have any expertise in. And he's still undefeated, on top of basically being the reason the entire gaming world had to be restructured. That's why he's so famous."
Dean laughed at the wide-eyed looks. "Yeah, that's pretty much how the rest of the world reacted, too. And you haven't even seen a duel yet."
"Speaking of, you never explained what you meant by him dueling Umbridge without his cards." Parvati said curiously.
"Oh, right. Well when Yugi, or anyone else really, duels, he plays mind games. That's half the duel, actually. You try to psyche your opponent out. If you do it right, you can completely cripple their strategy. Your opponent might start doubting themselves and try to change their strategy last minute, or they make a bunch of mistakes by trying to hurry their game plan along, or they'll actually start ranting about how great their strategy is and basically lay it all out when they think they've got you cornered, or all number of things, really. It's seriously cool to watch."
"Oh, so...you were talking about how he was mocking her without her noticing, and then got her to leave without much of a fuss, then?" Parvati guessed.
"It was more than that," Hermione interjected, "Professor Muto didn't just make Umbridge leave- he made leaving seem like her own idea, one she came up with in front of a room full of witnesses. She can't somehow spin it so that it seems like she was intimidated into it by him or something similar to try and get him dismissed."
"Why would she want him dismissed?" Ginny interrupted.
"Weren't you listening to her?" Hermione asked.
"You were?" Ginny countered incredulously.
Hermione sighed. "Basically, the Ministry wants to interfere at Hogwarts. And from the way Umbridge was talking, it sounds like they'd like to stamp down on any and all ideas they don't agree with. But as I was saying, since Umbridge left of her own accord, she doesn't really have a reason to come back. And instead of leaving her be to come up with a reason to come back later, it was already suggested that the only reason she would have to come back is to visit Professor Muto from a diplomatic standpoint, seeing as he's a Mage. Meaning even if she does find her way back here, it will be on his terms.
"And it's not like she can just go around spreading outlandish accusations about him to make people wary- say, accusing him of being a dark Wizard or something- since he just so happened to let it slip that he's a Mage. If that wasn't enough, he came into the Great Hall surrounded by sylphs, whom he could communicate with and who obviously seemed to like him. As mischievous as sylphs can be, they hate it when people try to use knowledge for harm; they've been known to abhor people with ill intent, sometimes even going so far as to attack them. For them to react so well in Professor Muto's presence is the best proof of his good will short of declaring his intentions under veritaserum.
"All in all, Professor Muto just made himself seem interesting in the most positive way possible. And we all know Wizards are terrible gossips; they'll be watching for any news about him after this. Umbridge won't be able to touch him for a while, meaning she won't be able to touch Hogwarts for a while, at least not without looking seriously suspicious. It really was a masterful manipulation on Professor Muto's part."
There were wide-eyed stares and gaping mouths all around when she finished. "Wow," Angelina muttered after a few seconds of silence, "I knew you were smart, Hermione, but to get all of that out of one conversation..." She trailed off, shaking her head slightly in bewilderment as several heads nodded in tandem. A pleased flush slowly spread up Hermione's cheeks at the praise.
"You know," Fred began in a mock-thoughtful voice, lips curling into the beginnings of a sly smile, "I believe our dear new prefect is right, wouldn't you agree Gred?"
"Oh, wholeheartedly, Forge." George mirrored the look.
Hermione eyed them suspiciously. "Right about what?"
The twins grinned at her and exclaimed together, "We're going to learn so much this year!"
Alicia raised an amused eyebrow at their antics. "Somehow, the idea of you two learning something from him scares me silly." She said dryly, spurring another round of giggles.
Harry decided to take advantage of the slight lull in conversation in order to ask about something else that had been bothering him.
"Hey, Hermione," he ignored the cool looks some people were giving him now that they had calmed down enough to notice who was speaking, "what does being a Mage mean? And is it really that big of a deal if the new professor is one?"
"Hey, yeah, I was wondering the same thing!" Dennis broke in, hand raised as if they were in class and bouncing like he was on a sugar high (which, actually, he probably was, considering the countless array of desserts no Hogwarts feast would be complete without). Collin nodded eagerly, backing his brother up with a beaming smile.
Harry forged ahead, valiantly ignoring the adoring looks the pair sent his way (honestly, he almost preferred the glares). "As funny as Umbridge's reaction was-"
"And it was hilarious-" Lee interjected.
"-I don't really get why it was so extreme." He finished with an exasperated, if amused, glance at Lee.
Hermione's brow furrowed. "That's actually rather complicated. When I was reading about Magi in the library-"
"When did you have time to go to the library?!" Ron spluttered.
Hermione rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Last year, Ronald." Ron's ears turned red. "Oh, right."
"Anyway," Hermione continued, lips twitching, "since we didn't know what to expect for the first task, I searched through as many books as I could for anything that might be useful. I did find a few books that mentioned Magi, but there really wasn't anything in them that seemed applicable for you, so I wasn't able to look into the subject as much as I'd have liked." She admitted with a frown.
"What I did read was all rather contradictory. From what I was able to gather, very little is actually known about Magi. On top of that, their interaction with Wizarding society is sporadic at best, which makes the information even less reliable. Their society is definitely structured differently from Wizards, but none of the authors really seemed to agree on how it was different. While all the authors agree that Magi are governed by something called a 'Mage Court', nobody really agreed on what that meant. Some books mentioned a hierarchy with the Court at the top, but then others clearly stated that the Magi are divided into clans and the Court consists of representatives and doesn't really have much ruling power over individuals.
"There were some very old books that seemed more accurately detailed, but the information they gave was either too general or too specific to be of any use- something like 'Magi are considered very powerful beings' for the former and, say, a fairly notorious Mage's favorite food for the latter." She said when several people shot her a confused look, before resuming her explanation. 'Or is it a rant at this point?' Harry mused, smothering a grin.
"And who knows what's changed since then. Basically, the consensus is that Magi are powerful, they use a different type of magic than Wizards, are ruled over by a Mage Court, and that the Founders enlisted some for help when building Hogwarts," she nodded at Harry's startled look, then grimaced, "-though there's no detail as to what they did, so I'm not sure if they had any input on classes or if they were only asked to help strengthen the wards or something else entirely. One author claimed that the Founders actually got the idea of building a school from Magi, but another disagreed on the basis that while Wizards actively try not to interact with Muggles, Magi are much more integrated with non-magical society- although I really don't know where the basis for such a statement came from- so it wouldn't make much sense for a Mage to suggest that Wizards try to isolate themselves, even through the use of something as benign as a school."
Here, she sighed and continued in a slightly sullen voice.
"There really isn't any more concrete information. Accounts in several of the books seemed more like ghost stories than facts, and there are dozens of instances where two books wrote the complete opposite of each other. Honestly, trying to cross reference was a nightmare." Hermione finished with a scowl. Then she raised an eyebrow as the silence started to stretch.
"What?"
Lee was the one to answer her question. "This is you 'not looking into a subject as much as you'd have liked'?" He asked, eyebrows raised clear to his hairline.
Hermione huffed.
The twins seemed to shake themselves.
"That's not really a surprise-" Began Fred (probably).
"-Like you said," continued George (most likely), "Magi don't really interact with Wizards.-"
"-It used to be more common around the Founder's time, and downright expected going into more ancient times,-"
"-but now it's extremely rare to even see one, let lone meet one.-"
They each shot a grin and a wink at Hermione.
"-Completely unheard of to be taught by one. Which mean-"
"-he's probably expecting a bunch of questions. So you-"
"-can start to fill in those knowledge gaps when classes start up."
Hermione brightened up considerably as George (or was that Fred?) continued.
"But anyway,-"
"-part of the problem is probably that the library has books written by people in different centuries and countries, each with-"
"-a different experience with Magi. English Wizards are a bit more fond of Magi because we can recognize-"
"-and quantify how helpful they can be what with them helping build Hogwarts.-"
"-With how sporadically they appear in recent history, though, it's getting harder and harder to get a read on them-
"-and we're already working with limited knowledge of their society. It's honestly a little surprising that people are still willing to look for actual information-"
"-rather than it turning into a rumors game, you know?-"
"-So, while we acknowledge the good side of Magi, with them being out of touch so much people-"
"-most particularly the Ministry-"
"-are starting to focus more on how powerful they are.-"
"-And that goes hand in hand with how much of a threat they might be."
The twins got several alarmed looks at that. Fred (possibly? Harry's head was starting to hurt trying to keep track. He was grateful that the twins seemed to be trying to make the explanation as painless as possible, rather than sticking to their usual goal, which was, in a word, chaos. Why, they were practically speaking full sentences each!) was quick to reassure, "Of course, that opinion has only just started to gain ground in the Ministry within the last few years. There are-"
"-a few families who have held it for awhile, but for the most part-"
"-public opinion is still firmly that Magi are pretty benevolent. Even some of the-"
"-historically dark families agree that they're more of an asset than a liability."
Hermione nodded, catching on, "Which explains why Umbridge had such an extreme reaction compared to everyone else."
The twins nodded, before finishing together, "All in all, if the Ministry is really trying to take over like you say, having a Mage as a professor is a pretty big wild card, a game changer even."
They suddenly dropped their sober expressions.
"But enough of the explanations!-" Fred (George?) exclaimed with a grin.
"-We'll have to deal with plenty of those on Monday! It's our first night back and-"
"-tomorrow's Saturday!"
"Let's party!" They crowed together. The suggestion was met with a roar of approval from the students before they eagerly complied.
As the noise level started to rise, Harry let out a sigh of relief. The year was starting off much better than he had thought it would. He had avoided gaining another incompetent Defense professor and if Dumbledore had hired a Mage, who were apparently widely renowned for their power, they might have gained an indispensable ally. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all?
So this was supposed to be a Thanksgiving update...then a Christmas update...then an Easter update...then an after exams update...yeah. My bad. In my defense, I was trying to figure out the plot. So far, I was just working with the idea 'Yugi teaches at Hogwarts in fifth year' which is fine as a starting point, but would end with me writing myself into a corner in no time and the story quality would plummet, crash, and burn. Unfortunately, I am still very fuzzy on plot details, but I definitely have more than I started with so...yay?
That being said, I have a project I'm working on for school that I'm trying to get done before my semester starts, so I may or may not upload another chapter within the month. You definitely won't have as long a wait for chapter 5 as you did chapter 4, though- promise! Thank you all for putting up with me! And huge thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, or reviewed (I've read every one)!