Disclaimer: I think you should be able to tell what I do and don't own by now. But, for the record, I don't own Yuugiou or Harry Potter.

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Ryou opened his eyes and looked around. He was on the floor in Yuugi's office, but he had some cushions to lay on and a blanket on top of him. Yuugi had obviously taken care of his friend. But Ryou was worried about what he was feeling. It was as if there was more information stuffed in his brain then there had been when he fell asleep. It was an odd feeling, to say the least.

He walked over to the go board, where he saw the black and the white stones all laid out. Yuugi had probably thrown the game. Yes, he definitely had, the traces in the shadows said so.

It took Ryou a moment to think about how he had known that. He realized that he knew everything about the shadows. Except... there were a few patches that seemed blurry, for lack of a better word.

Ryou drifted out of Yuugi's office and up to his own. Yuugi wasn't here, he could tell, so they must be at that workshop for muggles. That meant that he didn't have any classes, which he was glad of. He drifted up to the north tower, saying hello to a few of the students that were up early to get a start on the day. The sky was still gray, but the great hall already had breakfast out, so Ryou assumed that it was early, but not too early – about seven o'clock.

Ryou climbed into his office and sat behind his desk. He racked his new knowledge, but couldn't come up with any reason that he could see the wizarding establishments with no magic. The only answer he could come up with was that he had some other type of magic – neither shadows nor white. There were other types, but none of them had ever been prominent, and most had died out by now.

His ability to make predictions was a clue. There were a couple of magics that could do that, but not many. And most involved worship of certain gods. Ever since Amane's death, Ryou didn't believe in gods, though his interest in the occult had grown.

The thought that he now had three thousand years of magical knowledge at his fingertips and yet could not explain himself upset him greatly. But with his new powers, he had certain things to take care of first. So he pulled his coin purse out of a drawer and tied it under his robes before throwing some powder in the fire, which turned an emerald green color.

Ryou stepped into and said "Ollivander's" clearly, and the world started to spin around him. When it stopped, Ryou stepped into the famed wand shop.

The old man stared at the white haired man who stepped out of his fire impassively. It was quite normal for wizards to need new wands if accidents broke them. And over time, some wizards find that their wands don't work as well as they once did. What was unusual was that Ollivander didn't remember the man. But it was possible that he had been poorer earlier in life, and was just now getting a better wand.

"Do you need a new wand?" Ryou nodded his head. "Please."

"Can you give me some information on your old wand?"

Ryou blushed, embarrassed. "I – this is my first."

This befuddled Ollivander. To be in his twenties and be getting his first wand? It sounded like a ploy to Ollivander. But his job was to give him a wand, not to pry. So he simply pulled out the old tape measure.

"What's your name? I need to put it in the books."

Cue another blush. "Ry-, Ryou. Ryou Bakura."

Then another strange look by the old man.　"Don't you teach at Hogwarts?"

Ryou nodded. "I'm the divination teacher. I was raised as a muggle."

"But why are you getting your first wand now?"

"Well... Do you know about shadow magic?"

When Ollivander signed his ignorance on the subject – though it sounded like dark magic to him – Ryou began his story. He started with how he was trapped in London without a home, and he came to a small pub known as The Leaky Cauldron.

Ryou stepped out of his fireplace again, this time with a wand in his hand. It was yew, seventeen inches, and apparently quite springy. He loved it.

-

Harry stood from his comfortable chair in a small meeting room in the building the workshop had been held. Harry, Yuugi, Aldous, and Neville had sat down to discuss the workshop, how it had gone and such. Neville had just disapperated to the ministry, and Aldous had just left from the emerald flames that were in the fireplace. Harry was going to go next.

"Wait."

Harry turned to face the History of Magic teacher. He had been rather quiet during the meeting, though Neville had chewed him out a bit for freaking out the muggles. At the time, Harry thought that Yuugi had just been chagrined, though he had said that it was necessary to teach the ancient magic, as was his duty. Now he began to wonder if there was another reason for the younger one's silence.

"What is it?"

Yuugi paused before speaking. Even then, Harry wasn't sure that he was answering his question. "When in the presence of the shadows, some attract them, and some repel them. Those that attract them have an easier time with Shadow Magic, and those that repel them can only use it if they have white magic to force the shadows with, you have seen this."

Harry remained silent. Yuugi's mood mystified him. He was usually pretty cheerful, if a little naive seeming. But now, he seemed deadly serious, and Harry didn't like it. It didn't suit the short, tricolor haired form that was Hogwarts resident magician.

Yuugi turned to face him. "Ryou walked in on one of my classes the other day. He fainted from the shadows. Fainted. The shadows had a physical reaction to him. That is so rare that only the strongest of magicians have had the ability. I can count on one hand the number of times that's happened in history.

"So I played him for knowledge, and he won. So I had to suffer a penalty. Something equal to the knowledge of the shadows. I'm not quite sure what it is, but... I had a dream last night. I think that the gods of Egypt will have to judge me. Over the next year, I must prepare."

Harry was wide-eyed. He knew almost nothing about the Egyptian gods. He would have to ask Hermione what she knew from her old Ancient Runes classes. But he was pretty sure that their judgment ritual was pretty bad. And the punishment if you failed was as bad as could be, though he couldn't remember what it was. The look on Yuugi's face told him he was correct. It was a look of absolute dread.

Yuugi closed his eyes, and immediately regretted it. He saw, again, the face of the Anubis as it took him to the large set of scales where his existence could end. He saw Ammut, hungrily watching, ready to eat his soul should his heart not weigh the same amount as the feather that the winged goddess Ma'at was handing Osiris, the god of the dead, eternally scarred all over his body from where his brother had chopped him into many different pieces before dumping him into the Nile, dead. And there was Thoth, the Ibis-headed god of writing, waiting to record his name and result.

None of them cared about Yuugi. The indifference with which the god's watched him scared him. The only one who cared one way or the other was Ammut, who wanted to gobble him up. That frightened Yuugi to no extent.

He opened his eyes and took a breath, steadying himself. His job was more important. He had to prepare those that could help for the eventuality that – best not to think about what would happen if those scales tipped.

"Ryou has the power now. If I fail – gods be that it is not so – he can take over my mission, and my position as teacher of ancient magic."

Harry sat down. The idea of one of his friends dying a painful death had been in the back of his head since he had to restart the Order – which was long due for another meeting. If only they had more information... But that wasn't the point. This made him realize that it was possible that someone could die in the upcoming war. He felt himself having a reaction close to George's. He stared at Yuugi as the younger man stood, almost robotically. He walked over to a flower pot and threw more flu powder into the fireplace before saying "Hogwarts". Harry was left to decide what the history teacher was thinking. He seemed frightened, but he was holding it under the surface. This could not be good.

-

In the Ancient Runes classroom, Malik sat with a few exceptional students, the few that he had chosen to help him in his research. They were mostly sixth- and seventh-years who were, through years of training and self-study, pretty much fluent in the runes. Lily was one of them, since her aunt had been ceaselessly nagging her to take study over the summer, and she found that she quite enjoyed the runes. Neven was in there too, although for him it was more because his girlfriend had dragged him into it.

Their current project was Ancient Egyptian. Malik had found it in a temple when he had been working as an auror, and had recognized the magic in it immediately. None of the muggles who had found it knew it for what it was, though. So far, they had just figured out that it described a seal on magic.

It described several types of magic, including the offending magic of darkness, which sounded like it should be sealed, and white magic, which seemed to be their type of magic. It also described how certain cults had their own forms of magic. The followers of Anubis were described as being quite the necromancers, for example.

But the seal on the magic of darkness had had the unintentional side-effect of sealing off all but a few types of magic, their white magic being the most predominate of the ones that remained. Eventually, all the other types had died out.

They were trying to compile a list of all the types of magic and their different powers. Some of them were quite different. White magic covered the most arenas, but some, such as the soul, that shadow magic settled on, were barely touched.

The room had been silent for hours, not counting the sounds of pages of hand-copied hieroglyphs and the scratching of quills against parchment as the entire team took notes. Suddenly, Neven let go of Lily's hand and shot up. "Shadow magic!"

The entire room jumped and stared at him, before someone asked him where it was described. He pointed to a point on the paper. "I don't know why I didn't recognize it before. The magic of darkness is Shadow Magic. See, where it describes the darkness it calls?"

Malik had never seen any shadow magic before, so his curiosity was aroused. "Really? You're all learning the Magic of darkness?"

The students all signed their agreement, and the runes professor requested a demonstration. Neven agreed and closed his eyes.

He looked inside himself for the core of the shadows. It appeared to be door that was floating by itself in darkness. It was not shadows, they required a source of light. This was his shadow core, where the darkness was trapped as well. Neven could allow the darkness to come out from here.

Neven reached for the doorknob. It felt like ice in his hand, and a shudder ran through his body. Somewhere inside, there was something that didn't like what was behind that door and knew it. What scared him even more, though, was the part of him that yearned for the shadows. Neven took a deep breath before turning the knob and opening the door.

Shadows shot out of the door and filled Neven's shadow core. He opened his eyes, and took in the scene around him. The cold mist that were the shadows had filled the room, and, as usual, licked his ankles, as a large amount gathered around him. The fear that was in some student's eyes would never go away around the shadows. Neven felt especially bad for those who were scared of the shadows and yet attracted them.

Malik was also attracting a lot of the shadows. He felt, however, that they were warm, rather than cold, like his students had, invariably, described to him. They felt like a comforting illusion that, even though you know it for what it is, you believe in rather than give in to the cold, hard truth. He liked them.

When it became apparent that the professor was satisfied with this demonstration, and now wanted answers, Neven closed his eyes and his door to the shadows.

"That was interesting," mused Malik. "I'll have to ask Professor Mutou about this. He has knowledge about that time, correct?"

As Neven began to rant about the professor and his knowledge, Malik listened intently and took everything in. Lily, however, just made a mental note to tell her father and Professor Mutou of this, and of how much Malik attracted the shadows.

-

Lieutenant Colonel Shakeel Hafeez was in shock. He had gained his rank in the offices of peaceful Egypt. Now, there were explosions and gunfire going on all around them, not to mention the shouts and yells of men. And he was expected to give commands! Just because he had taken a few theoretical strategy classes. He may have received the best marks, but that knowledge did not seem to translate to the battlefield very well.

A woman came up to him. She was one of the officers that ran the communications station. She held out a note for him to read, presumably either a message from the enemy or commands from the main base. It turned out to be the latter. The message, which was, as all military messages, brief and to the point, read simply: CAIRO TAKEN. FALL BACK.

She looked at him, and he stared at the message. He may not have been happy being out here, but he was not going to allow that to happen. He called his troops around him.

There were not many left. There was a since of fear and adrenaline among them all, as explosion came around the trenches that they had dug to help defend themselves. There was also, however a since of camaraderie and purpose that overpowered the fear and excitement that came from war. These were brothers-in-arms, in the most perfect sense.

The fear was still there, however. An explosion rocked them, and it shook several of the soldiers more than simply physically. Shakeel knew that the message he had given them was going to shake them more. The only chance that he had of getting them follow his decision was to fall back on the brotherhood that killing and seeing others be killed gave them.

"Boys, I have some bad news for you. Cairo has been taken." There was a general murmuring of fear. If Cairo had been taken, the war was over. They had been defeated.

Shakeel knew this. "I know what you're thinking. But boys, we've become brothers. We refuse to live under the rule of the insurgents. We love Egypt for what it is. Allah has truly blessed me to have found a group of brothers that I have lived and fought with, and I thank him. Now, I wish to die with them, not as a second-class citizen, but as a free man. I want to take some of those damn insurgents out with me when I die. We have that chance now. I will take it, but if you don't want to, then you don't have to. Those of you that will shall certainly find themselves hailed among those like us as heroes. If you want to leave, do so. If you want to die a patriot's death, then stay.

That evening, most of the detachment snuck into the enemy camp. The watch noticed, and there was an immediate raising of alarms. Shakeel stood, and started firing his semi-automatic wildly, screaming. A few of the insurgents fell to his bullets before he saw a flash of green light and was no more.

-

Harry sat in his office, reading some of the notes on the secrets of the school. He wanted to find the limits to the room of requirement. But, it seemed that none of the previous headmasters had experimented with it. Still, he read on.

At the knock on his door, Harry looked up. Whoever he expected to walk in, it was not the aging woman with a stern look on her face that showed up to see the headmaster.

Minerva McGonagall had not been quiet on the Egypt front. She had been trying to find ways to communicate with the outside world, as a member of the Order. She had had sparse contacts, since she avoided the Council of Egyptian Magic Users due to Malik's warning. Now, she had lost contact.

She laid a small piece of parchment on Harry's desk silently. He calmly read it then set it down. "Who do we have that can replace Malik?"

McGonagall chose to reply with a different question. "So you plan on sending him? You know he's been declared an outlaw over there."

Harry nodded. "But he's the only person that can go to Egypt and have a framework to fall back on. He'll have friends that he can call upon, I'll bet you anything. And we need someone there now desperately."

Harry sighed as his old teacher left his office. He decided to send Ron an owl and have the order meet before sending Malik off to his homeland. But there needed to be an offshoot of the order there. The Order of the Phoenix was coming to Egypt, which was even more perfect when you realized that the phoenix was originally Egyptian. Harry smiled.

Now, he had to hope that Malik could get some trustworthy people together to fight the menace there. The first regime of the type that Voldemort threatened was here. Now, the order had to fight Bassam of the council. It would not be a fun war. Malik would have to find out soon.

This did not make Harry happy.

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First off, a BIG kudos to my betas, AmaneManiac and EmeraldxSapphire. They are both really amazing people for doing this for me. Send them much love!

This chapter is one of my favourites so far. We're starting to get into the meat of the story now.

Thank you to all of you that reviewed. I'll see you all next chapter!