Gotc: Alright, so there are several of you who are not so happy that our friend Kaiba hasn't really had much purpose in this story. Which means you have all fallen into my trap: BUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And as some added clearance (mainly due to one of the reviews I received from last chappie) Ace is in fact a rather integral part of this whole story. I'm rather irritated with some of the holes in the YGO series that I felt were never truly explained, so he's going to fill them in…mostly. But back to the whole Kaiba thing. This whole chapter is dedicated to all of you who have waited so patiently for Kaiba to have an impact on this story. Enjoy!

Squeaky: Squeak….(And because she forgot, go sue for ownership elsewhere.)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Rising Dragon

CHAPTER 19: Do not cross Seto Kaiba

Two days. It really was a record. Normally, it was at least a week before Seto was ready to kill someone while he was on vacation. Then again, his vacations didn't include him being stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a medieval castle complete with ghosts and floating candles on the ceiling, with three unstable mental ward patients. It was bad enough that for the past few years those same people had been forcing the same "magic and destiny" routine down his throat until he thought he'd be physically ill if he ever heard the words again. There was no such thing as magic, only performers who used a bunch of smoke and mirrors to dazzle people with nothing better to do out of their hard-earned money. But now, here he was, miles away from any sane individual, surrounded by the very thing Yugi and his friends had said existed for so long. Magic. And he was good at it.

He'd done his best to distance himself from everything he had been forced to accumulate to prepare for the upcoming year. As soon as something magical came into his possession, into his trunk it went, without a second glance. That was especially true for his wand.

He knew from the moment his skin touched the smooth, polished wood that there was something more to the embellished twig. Sparks seemed to shoot up his arm, even as they spouted from its tip. He blatantly ignored the old wandmaker's comment about the heartstring that made up the core coming from that of a white dragon, and turned a blind eye to the winged creature carved so delicately into the handle. He refused to acknowledge that anything Yugi had been saying all those years had any truth to them, and so, into the trunk the wand went.

But now that he was trapped in this school for the next few months, he was faced with the reality that he would eventually have to use the thing at some point. That first night, Kaiba had waited until his new housemates had all gone to bed before he'd pulled one of his books and wand from the confines of his trunk. Settling down into one of the big easy chairs, he opened the book and began reading, even if most of it sounded like something straight from a child's fairytale book.

At last he settled on one of the spells to try; the book called it a levitation charm. He grabbed a hold of the wand and pointed it at one of the logs smoldering in the fireplace. He muttered the words for the charm, and gave his wand a dismissive flick. He expected nothing to happen, but almost as soon as the notion crossed his mind, the same log he'd been pointing at shifted ever so slightly in the dying embers.

"This is ridiculous," Kaiba thought to himself shaking his head, "Just because I point a stick at something and say some made up words, doesn't make things fly through the air!"

As if on cue he could hear that Hat's voice run through his mind, chiding him almost for his disbelief.

"A brilliant mind it is, but it's your heart that's been split…One clinging to cold logic, the other towards the human emotion your mind refuses to acknowledge. You could learn from that…"

"Fine!" Kaiba growled to no one in particular, raising his wand again at the log, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Now the CEO wasn't one to get frazzled about much of anything. He was a duelist and head of Kaiba Corp. He'd assumed control of his adoptive father's company in a ruthless takeover in his early teens, faced homicidal maniacs out to kill him and his brother, and been sucked into a virtual world where his own advisors had tried to steal his body. Seto Kaiba did not get frazzled.

What he did do, was drop his wand as if it had just burned him and climbed over the back of the chair, as the log suddenly went soaring to the top of the fireplace and burst into a shower of embers that rained back down into the ashes.

It took a moment for him to calm down and steady himself, as he watched the embers from the log slowly die away one by one. Only once the last of them had winked out, did he slowly reach out to gather up his things. He looked at the wand once again, turning it over slowly in his hand.

"No." He told himself firmly, shoving the lot under his arm, "The psychiatrist was right. I've finally reached a breaking point and have started to see things. I'll get some sleep and none of this will have ever happened."

With an air of superiority, Kaiba started back up the steps and back to bed, but not before stopping once to glance back at the black scorch mark left against the red brick of the fireplace.

Kaiba shook his head in utter frustration, as he sat through his lessons. Muggle Studies? What a joke. They were staring out with muggle technology, and the first item on the list had been a cell phone. At least that's what Kaiba thought it was. The thing was almost as big as his forearm, and must have run on a nuclear battery. The teacher seemed to have no idea about what the thing was either, and still managed to have the class hanging off of his every word.

"You have got to be kidding me…." He groaned to himself, rubbing his temples to keep his forming headache at bay. It had started just after he discovered he'd need to get almost a mile off of the school grounds to make some kind of contact with his company and Mokuba who had safely made it back to Japan under the watchful eye of one of the Order members. Not that he trusted them, but they did manage to pull him and Yugi's entourage out of the frying pan when those 'Death Eaters' came after them.

He suppressed a shudder at the memory. Kaiba was a good master over his emotions. They only got in the way, clouded judgment, and led to mistakes. Only when it came to Mokuba did he lower his guard a little, but after holding it rigidly in place almost 24-7, even that was difficult. But when those….things had come after them, it was like every bad memory and experience had thrown themselves against that wall, threatening to break him. Maybe that was the reason he gave such an angry glare to the curious third-year who asked him about their escape. It was something he did not want to relive.

A cup of coffee had helped placate the throbbing at his temples, but what he wanted was a couple of aspirin. However, since the whole class was practically goggling over a phone older than they were, he figured that it was pretty much out of the question. Besides, he really didn't want to know what passed for a wizarding headache cure. Even so, he was used to working with a headache, and managed to make the most of his day without it being too eventful.

And it might have been, but in trying to ignore his headache, he'd forgotten all about the other three he was here with. Something he was forcibly reminded of when he managed to catch a piece of a conversation going on out in the halls as he was making his way to dinner.

"What do you mean 'they got detention'?" Kaiba growled, forcing his way into the conversation.

"W..ell," The kid stammered, "the Potter kid and those new exchange students got into some sort of fight with Professor Umbridge. Someone said the white haired one threatened to stab her-Hey! Where you goin'?"

As if it wasn't obvious. The second he stepped into the Great Hall, Kaiba had no trouble spotting the three from their seats at the far end of the Gryffindor table. For as many looks as their unusual hair got them, it did make them extremely easy to track down in a large crowd. Malik seemed to be giving them a razing of his own, but despite their surprisingly thick skulls, he wanted to get a message through.

Both hands slammed down onto the table next to them, making a few nearby dishes rock with the force. Several of the students that had been sitting closer to them quickly scurried away, sensing the impending fight. They didn't know Kaiba, but judging by the murderous look in his eyes, whatever was about to happen wasn't going to be pretty.

"What happened to 'laying low'?!"

"Look Kaiba," Yugi started, obviously ready to feed him some excuse, "It wasn't-"

"I don't want to hear to hear your excuse!" The livid CEO growled through clenched teeth, trying to keep from yelling as he would if they were back in his office, "On top of having to run my company long-distance and this school work, I do not want to add babysitting you three to my list of things to do! You do realize that woman will be out for all of us now, right?"

From the moment he'd opened his mouth, Kaiba knew he wasn't going to make any progress. Yugi looked like he'd been hit by a truck, and Ryou didn't look any better. And Malik? As much as he lumped all three of them together as psychotic, he was probably the one that could be certifiably insane.

"Oh get over it," Malik turned on Kaiba, "Now Marik and I are gonna have to work twice as hard to make her life miserable now that she's gonna be doing the same to me!"

Great. It was like telling a dog not to chase parked cars.

"Do you just plan on being hated by everyone you encounter Malik?" Yugi asked wearily, propping up his head with one hand, "Or is it just a gift?"

"You mental ward rejects are missing the point!" Kaiba hissed, shooting a glare at a group of second years, sending them scurrying for safer ground, "People are suspicious about us! I had someone ask me today about how we managed to get out of Domino with Death Eaters on our tails! And you drawing attention to us isn't helping!"

"Kaiba, we don't even know how we managed to do it."

Ryou's comment left him at the point of shaking. These three, as unstable as they may be, had always seemed so sure of themselves when it came to dealing with the crazy things that seemed to happen to them on a regular basis. Hearing that they had been floundering…It made Kaiba rethink just how close they might have all been…

"Besides, Bakura isn't exactly the easiest person to reason with when he gets an idea in his head," Ryou pointed out, "When he has an opinion, he's going to let you know about it."

"I don't care! If you don't get your psychotic episodes under control," Kaiba warned, reaffixing his CEO personality back in place, "We're all going to be in trouble!"

He didn't give them a chance to respond. They were starting to draw more and more attention to their conversation, and it wasn't like it was going anywhere fast. He didn't feel like eating anymore, and despite his best efforts, his stomach was rolling with unease. He started to head back to the common room, but instead found his feet carrying him through the castle of their own accord.

Simply talking about their last experience in Domino had dredged up the memories from that night. He remembered the way it felt to crack the heads of those two hooded men. And though it would have been easier to draw blood from a stone, he had been relieved to see Yugi, Ryou, and Malik in the midst of the chaos. But now that he thought back on it, Yugi had been on the brink of unconsciousness, and both Ryou and Malik looked panicked as they barricaded his office. He'd seen them have a wide range of emotion, but fear was not one of them.

Feeling unsteady, Kaiba stopped in the hall and leaned against a wall for support, letting the darkness comfort him from the outside world. Why was this such a big deal? They were fine, Mokuba was fine, damages were being repaired and life was moving on. There wasn't any reason to worry about it anymore. A sound from down the hall, jerked him back to his senses as he peered out of the shadows to see who it was. He needed some time to regain his composure and didn't want to be stumbled upon by anyone.

As he looked around, his eyes rested on Professor Cooper looking out an open window. He looked different than the few times he'd caught a glimpse of him in the Great Hall, almost tired instead of the proud and confident man he took him to be. But Kaiba didn't have any time to think on it, when he heard a deep voice rumble from outside the window. From his hiding place, his view outside was completely skewed by a pillar that stood next to the professor. Moving to get a better view would certainly give away his hiding place, and seeing as it looked like the man had yet to notice him, Kaiba was in no hurry to give him the opportunity.

What frustrated him the most was while he couldn't see, he could hear the two clearly, but for the life of him couldn't understand a word they said. The language was something far different than anything he'd heard before. The words seemed to flow from Cooper's tongue like water, filling the air with what felt like an electric current. Even the deeper voice from beyond the window, while not as powerful as Cooper, still managed to add to the strange feeling. But it wasn't at all unfamiliar either. Kaiba remembered feeling the same way the first time he'd heard Ancient Egyptian. How the words themselves seemed to carry power they'd accumulated from years of existence. This, however, was far more potent. It felt older.

Suddenly, there was the sound of more voices coming from the adjacent corridor. Professor Cooper quickly barked something at the window, and hurried to close it, before melting into the shadows himself. For a moment, Kaiba was worried he would accidentally bump into him, until he could see the professor's head peek out and down the next corridor. Kaiba's eyes widened with horror as he saw Yugi, Ryou and Malik disappear under some kind of veil, and summon a monster to torment one of the castle's ghosts. And Professor Cooper had seen the whole thing. The three came back into view as soon as the cost was clear, Ryou and Malik laughing their heads off while Yugi at least had the sense to see that what they were doing could get them in trouble.

Kaiba felt his headache come back with full-force. First the Umbridge woman, now this? They didn't even know who this man was and now those three idiots had just given themselves away! He clenched his fists tightly, as he pressed himself further into the shadows. A new set of voices now were coming from down the hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione. Perfect. They'd already shown a teacher what kind of freaks they were, why not reveal it to the rest of the school while they were at it? Speaking of, where had the professor vanished to?

The three had now heard Yugi and the other's voices, and were slowly creeping along the wall to catch a glimpse of them. Kaiba was thankful that the three at least had enough common sense to refrain from using English, but it certainly made it more suspicious. With an inward groan, he made up his mind to interrupt their snooping, but before he could take one step, Professor Cooper beat him to it.

It was an odd mix of relief and suspicion, as Yugi and the other seized the opportunity to make themselves scarce, while Cooper provided the distraction. But Kaiba couldn't help but notice how well the man played the part of a casual passer-by, rather than be spooked by the events he had just witnessed. He certainly didn't seem the type to get rattled easily, but seeing a monster appear out of nowhere wasn't something someone just got used to seeing.

As Kaiba watched the Professor send the Gryffindors off, a new question tugged at his mind. Who was this man? What had he been talking to, and why would he have helped to conceal such a foreign magic from prying eyes? Sure he was a muggle, but he must be able to tell that display was hardly something common to the curriculum? He waited until Professor Cooper was long gone before moving from his hiding spot. It looked like the other three had realized that perhaps patrolling the halls and pranking ghosts wasn't the best idea either, and had left as well.

A part of him wanted to go after them, but the logical part told him to simply go back to his house and wait for a better time. He had no idea if the area was still being watched, and he didn't want the professor to know he'd been spied on. So, watching over his shoulder every step of the way, Kaiba slowly made his way back to the Ravenclaw commons, a million questions weighing heavy on his mind.

Kaiba had hoped for a chance to talk to Yugi and the rest the next morning before classes, but by the time Yugi and Ryou made it down to breakfast, Professor Cooper had also found his way into the Great Hall. So rather than risk the conversation being overheard, Kaiba bit his tongue in frustration, until one of his fellow first years took a seat next to him.

"Nasty out," The boy said, looking up at the ceiling, "But the day should be interesting enough."

"What?" Kaiba asked, having not really paid attention.

"The muggle," The boy said, "We'll have him today. Double class period too."

Kaiba let out a sigh; he'd forgotten all about his class schedule. Now that he thought about it, he did remember seeing Cooper's class listed for today.

"It'll be interesting to say the least," The boy continued on, "Not sure what a muggle'll be able to teach us about defense against the dark arts though. Anyway, name's Cody Rayner, you?"

"Seto Kaiba," He said shaking Cody's outstretched hand.

"You're the Kaiba Corp guy!" Cody remarked, slightly awestruck, "Wow, big jump from tech to magic, eh? So you and the rest of the new kids, you're duelists right?"

"Yeah," Kaiba said rolling his eyes. This was almost as bad as being hounded by reporters.

"Way cool, my little brother'll flip when I tell him who's in my house," Cody said, not noticing his growing irritation, "He's a big fan of yours. Followed you all the way through Battle City. Too bad ya' lost to that Yugi kid huh?"

Kaiba turned a glare on Cody that would have melted steel, but the teen seemed to busy with his breakfast to notice. Before he could say anything more, people started getting up from their tables and shuffling off to class. Kaiba downed the last of his cup of coffee, and scanned the crowd again. Yugi and Ryou had already gone, and while Malik was still in the room, there was no way he'd be able to get close enough to him without being obvious about it.

Class went by in a haze, too many other pressing matters vying for his attention than whatever their ghostly professor was droning on about. He could feel a wary uneasy starting to build every second the clock ticked off until their next class with Professor Cooper. At this point, he was fairly certain he'd gone unnoticed, but that confidence wavered considerably as the Ravenclaws trudged across the sodden field to meet their new professor.

Cooper certainly looked professional enough, closer to a drill sergeant than a professor as he stood waiting for them with his hands clasped behind his back. Kaiba deliberately stood towards the back of the group, as far away from the man as he could get. He could hear him giving a start of term speech, but didn't pay much attention to what was being said, instead focusing more on his demeanor as he paced in front of the class.

There was confidence in his stride, and air of power that Kaiba hadn't noticed in the other fighters he'd seen on TV. Of course, he knew those were staged fights, a winner already determined before the fight ever began and every one of them had a self-superior act put on for the camera. Cooper didn't. Even from a distance, he could tell the man knew how to fight and do it well until it had become a part of who he was.

"…Which is why I'm going to give you all a chance to see what you are capable of," The professor's voice finally registering, "You can use magic if you'd like, but seeing as this will be the only time you will be using your wands in this class, it might be better to get used to defending yourselves without them. So whoever would like to try first…"

Now Kaiba got it. He was testing them. He wanted to see what everyone was capable of, or perhaps wanted to engrain it into everyone's minds that he was not one to be disrespected, simply because he did not carry a wand in his back pocket.

And it was a point he made painfully clear, as both spell and fist were thrown at the professor, each one dodged as gracefully as that odd language had rolled off of his tongue the night before. It was a moment before Kaiba noticed that he and Cooper were the only two now left standing.

"Well?" The professor asked, a smirk on his face.

"I don't charge into something without knowing my opponent." Kaiba glared back.

"No Mr. Kaiba," Cooper nodded, "I suppose you don't. I've seen some of your duels, saw how you set up your little tournament there for Battle City. You had every deck of every duelist there already figured out before the game even started. It's smart."

Cooper was now almost staring him down, while Kaiba maintained his own glare at the professor, unwilling to be goaded into anything.

"But hardly practical," Cooper smirked.

"And thinking you can win your student's respect by a show of force is?" He shot back.

"No Mr. Kaiba, because that is the very definition of Power." The professor said, his face falling into a more serious look than he'd had yet to see, "And let me assure you, that kind of respect is one I hope never to have."

"Then what is this all about?" Kaiba frowned, "If you're not trying to get our respect, then why go through this?"

"Because it's your first lesson," The response came with a grin, "I want to see how you adapt. So far, these students have been taught to use nothing but magic to defend themselves, which doesn't do a damn lot of good outside this castle. The world's not going to have teachers observing every skirmish and directing what words you use for a spell and if you're pronouncing them wrong. You haven't been tested outside of your comfort zones yet, and that's what I plan on doing."

A scoff of mild acknowledgement found its way from Kaiba. Strange as this man was, he wasn't an idiot.

"And you are very much out of your comfort zone aren't you Mr. Kaiba?" Cooper continued.

"What makes you say that?" Kaiba bristled.

"Your wand. The rest of your classmates had them out and to the ready at the beginning of class. I've yet to see you touch yours," He clarified, "Which means, you aren't comfortable with magic, or don't trust it. Either way, just being in this school would have to be going against everything you believe about the way the world should work."

"What about you?" The CEO growled back, mostly with irritation that he'd been read so easily, "You don't use magic, and didn't even know it existed before you came here."

"Like I said before, it's all about adapting to your surroundings," Cooper grinned, "If you need some help with it, I'd talk to your friend Yugi. Seems to me by the way he duels, he's got the idea down already. Maybe that's why he keeps beating you-"

That was it. He knew Professor Cooper had been prodding for a sore spot to provoke him, and he'd found it at last. The frustration from the last few weeks finally compounded against him and burst through in a single wave. Kaiba rushed Cooper, planning on pushing his fist through the man's smug grin. But just as his fist should have made contact, it only flew through air until his forearm was caught in a vice-like grip and twisted around his back. Cooper only had to use a little pressure to force Kaiba down to his knees, before he released him and started to walk over to where the rest of the class had gathered to watch.

"By the way Mr. Kaiba," Cooper called back to him, "Just because I was saying those things to you to provoke you, doesn't make them any less true."

Kaiba watched him walk off to the rest of the class and begin to explain the next part of their activities. His head was still buzzing with the professor's words, which only served to fuel his wounded pride. Ace Cooper was no common brawler, and whether the professor thought it was prudent or not, he planned on finding out exactly who this man was.

Gotc: BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ace: How come everyone's suspicious of me? Why can't I be the good guy for once?

Gotc: Cause that's not how I roll. Anyway, I hope this helped satiate some of you who wanted Seto there to have a bigger part. He'll be more prominent from here on out….well, maybe not so much in the next chapter, but more after that. But it does beg the question…What will he discover? Hmmmmm? Well I'm not telling unless I get reviews. They make me happy. So go on, click the button, and let me know what you thought. See you all next chappie!