Hunt for the Items
61.
So now they had the ring and the eye, knew where the puzzle, the necklace and the slab where they were all supposed to rest was, and had three unaccounted for items.
'But if we're not destroying them,' Ron, quite sensibly, asked, 'then what are we supposed to do? Wait for someone to steal them again?'
'It's not very effective, is it?' Hermione hummed. 'Though I guess I'm not surprised. There's a lot of inefficiency in the magical system.'
'Still thinking of being Minister of Magic one day?' Harry teased.
She grinned back. 'I'll wait until Kingsley's paved the way.'
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62.
It was Harry who came up with the idea. Harry who'd been thinking about Sirius again because he would have loved the treasure hunt they were on now, would have loved the chance to kick another dark lord in the butt, would have loved the chance to hang out with his grandson with no strings attached…
Hopefully he was having fun with Harry's parents and the Lupins, at least. Maybe they'd even made amends with Snape and he only wished he'd had the chance as well.
And he thought of the veil. And knew things vanished and souls passed on.
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63.
'I guess so.' Though Hermione looked doubtful. 'I mean, we have no proof regarding where things that go through the Veil go.'
'Remus told me they disappear,' Harry said quietly. 'That's why there was no body.'
'Oh, Harry.' And they say no more on the topic that day.
But Ron suggests, the next, that they just visit the Department of Mysteries and ask. And they do. And they can't explain to Hermione's satisfaction so she has the idea, much to Ron's joy, to visit Bill Weasley as well.
'Better wards than the ancient Egyptians, huh,' he hummed. 'Pretty tall order.'
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64.
They left that issue in Bill's hands and resumed their hunt. Neither Sara nor Shadi had been by with any new helpful hints which left them to brainstorm themselves.
'We found the ring in Kul Elna,' Hermione repeated, 'and the eye was near a big producer for Duel Monster cards. The others must be connected as well, to either Ancient Egypt or the game.'
'Where does that leave, though?' Harry asked. 'We searched randomly along the Nile already.'
'No, I don't think it's the Nile. The ring would have pointed.'
Then where else was there?
'The ancient palace?' Ron suggested.
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65.
Finding the Pharoah's ancient palace proved easier said than done, considering the custom was to build a new palace for most new pharaohs. They did know where the ancient tomb was, though, so they began from there.
There was nothing in the tomb, thankfully, except traps they navigated with an almost alarming ease. But when the exited on the mountain face, the points of the ring began to point across the valley.
'Gold,' Ron grinned.
They only hoped it was that easy.
They found a large marketplace, and then the points spun so they split up and browsed the stalls.
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66.
Curiosity killed the cat, went the saying, except apparently in Egypt. Hermione might have Crookshanks but even she was a little overwhelmed with all the memorabilia. Still, she found the rod, or what looked like, eventually. A merchant was haggling with a man with tattoos covering half his face.
Hermione discretely sent a flash in the air. In moments, Ron and Harry were by her side and she pointed out the pair.
'He looks familiar,' Harry frowned. And the ring didn't point.
'A fake,' the man said, when he passed them empty-handed.
And then it clicked. Odion Ishtar, Ishizu's brother.
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67.
'Aren't you feeling a little redundant?' Ron asked, when they took a break from the market. 'I mean, they've got so many of their own people searching.'
'But they guided us to the ring instead of taking it,' Hermione pointed out. 'Though I agree; they've been a little too helpful.'
'They can't control the ring, I think,' said Harry. The spirit had been an ongoing nuisance but the occulomency shields kept him from doing much else.
'And he called you death's champion,' Ron added. 'Shadi, I mean. I wonder if they think we know a trick they don't.'
'We do.'
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68.
They didn't know magic. They backtracked along their contacts, tried to pierce the puzzle together. Some of them, like Ishizu and Pegasus, knew of magic. But they weren't wizards and witches. And they were dealing with magical items that had been stolen multiple times in the past.
'What else?' they mulled over it again. Where else could they look? What were they overlooking?
'We could try the news,' Ron offered, eventually. 'Some of those items have caused trouble in the past, right? Maybe they've left a news trail.'
So they look. And the trail leads into their own back yard.
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69.
It was ironic that the Death Eaters had tracked down a Millenium Items before they had, or perhaps that was just the corrupting nature of Zorc driving it. But they had apparently gathered an alarming number of people, considering the stings of Voldermort's defeat should still be strong.
Luckily, Kingsley was already on the case and between the aid of the Aurors and the Millenium Ring, it took only one major clash to secure the item… and some fancy manouvering to hide the red tape they'd cut in nabbing evidence from a high profile case.
Less people knew, the better.
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70.
So now they had the Millenium Scales as well as the key and eye, and this time without any hints from external parties. 'Four out of seven,' Ron said, 'and we know where the puzzle and the necklace are.' He paused. 'What does that leave?'
'The rod,' Hermione said, 'and I guess we should count ourselves lucky it wasn't that with its mind control powers that fell into the hands of the death eaters instead.'
But that still didn't tell them where the rod was, and neither news nor divine intervention (or even the not so divine variety) assisted them.
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71.
It was a coincidence, that time (apparently) when they ran into Sara. She wasn't by herself, for once, and was dressed on more regular clothes. She was with a dark-skinned boy over a head taller than her.
'Diva,' the boy introduced himself. 'Sara here is my sister.'
'Hello,' Sara nodded her head. 'I see you've made vast progress since last we've met.'
'Let's just say,' Hermione said, 'that the pieces fell into place fairly quickly.'
'They do that sometimes,' she agreed, 'and the last pieces tend to leave close to home.'
She took off her necklace with that statement. 'Here.'
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72.
'We should wear it,' Ron said.
'We should do no such thing,' Hermione protested.
But Harry had been wearing the Ring for over a month by that point, and the spirit was well under control as far as he could tell.
Still... 'You should wear it, Ron,' Harry said. 'I mean, prophecies and Hermione never really mixed.'
He laughed and agreed. 'That's true. And you've been the centre of one prophecy too many.'
He looked ridiculous, but if it worked, who were they to complain? Both Hermione and Harry had their wands ready, just in case.
They didn't need them.
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73.
'They weren't stolen,' Ron grumbled. 'Stupid white-suits only looking at what they want and forgetting the scraps.'
'Meaning?' Harry asked.
Hermione, on the other hand, was nodding. 'So you saw a record of the past, instead?' she asked. 'I guess I'm not surprised that happened.'
'Meaning?' Harry repeated.
She sighed again. 'Kaiba Seto and the Plana were both fixated on the Puzzle,' she explained. 'They didn't think to check on the other items till over a month later. The excavation site wasn't particularly secure. Anyone could sneak in, or snatch them off the black market.'
'So it was largely random?'
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74.
Randomness, Harry had learnt, still had a way of conforming to fate. They'd all learnt that, during the first Horcrux hunt. And they were relying on that principal now.
'I find it strange,' Harry said slowly, 'that although most incidents related to the game or the ancient magic in some way, we found nothing in Japan. The Pharaoh's reincarnation is in Japan, after all. You'd think he'd have attracted something.'
'It's worth a try,' Hermione sighed, because she couldn't think of anything better.
And so they return, once again, to Domino City in Japan.
This time, they meet Mutou Yugi.