Shadows of Conquest
Summary: Hidden in the texts of the Millennium Tome is a Ritual which looks like it could end Voldemort once and for all.
Chapter Two
It had been a long time since Harry and Hermione had last seen Ron. The pair had decided to track him down for Hermione to formally break up with Ron, and let him know of their decision to become the parents to the reborn Tom M. Riddle.
"Harry," Molly Weasley shouted out when she saw who had turned up. The Weasley matron ran to the pair, hugging them both. "I've missed you both so much. Never go running off like that again! Do you know how worried Arthur and I were? Never run off like that again. We would have helped you. I've already given Ronald an ear full about leaving you two. I cannot believe that boy, running away from home and then abandoning his friends. He didn't even have the will to come back home afterwards. He ran away to Bill and Fleurs. I can't believe those sons of mine. Letting me worry like that. You need to come in and eat. You are both far too thin. Have you been eating properly?"
Molly didn't get a chance for either Harry or Hermione to talk as she almost squeezed them both to death with a hug and then pulled them into the house. The Burrow had been repaired since the attack by the Death Eaters back on Harrys birthday during Bill and Fleurs wedding.
"Ronald wanted to go back and find you both after he left, but I wouldn't allow it. Bill has been working in Japan for over a year now. I sent Ron and Ginny both to live with him and Fleur. It kept them away from the war and out of the Death Eaters eyes. Sent them both to a muggle school. They didn't like it at first but ended up making some very good friends. It turned out that some of the students at the muggle school where magical. Do you remember Ryou Bakura? The poor dear. I can't help thinking what if it was Ginny and not Amane that was taken into the chamber. He and his sister were in Ginny's year level. He goes to school in Japan. Both my children don't like him much. I'm not sure if it was because he was in Slytherin or for some other reason. He's such a sweet boy if you ask me."
Molly sat Harry and Hermione at the table, piling food in front of them. Still not giving them a chance to eat.
"Seems like all my children are destined to end up in Japan eventually. Percy's now working there as a teacher, at a mixed muggle and magical school. Bill was offered the job originally but declined. He likes his work as a curse breaker too much. Bill recommended Percy. Can you believe that? My boys haven't been on talking terms for a few years, and Bill recommended Percy. Even better Percy got the job and has been enjoying it a lot more than his work at the ministry. It also gets him away from this blasted war. Remus Lupin is also working at the school. His boss knows he is a werewolf and takes even more precautions than Dumbledore ever did that he does not hurt the other staff or students. Not sure if you have ever met Ishizu Ishtar, she was the replacement divination teacher for Professor Trelawney. But she also teaches at the school. The first year the school was open they only taught thirty students, this year the number has been doubled to sixty and they've hired more teachers. Apparently, next year will take on one-hundred students and if everything goes well the year after the school will be open up for full capacity, which is apparently eight-hundred students. It would be nice if Hogwarts had that many students again. The war has been awful for student numbers. Your year group especially."
"Harry, Hermione," the looked up the stairs to see Ginny.
"It's good to see you again." Harry grinned at his ex-girlfriend. He forgot that it wasn't just Ron he had to explain things to. He also had Ginny. He still loved his ex-girlfriend but found that it was more like a sister than anything more.
"RON," Ginny called out at the top of her lungs. "It's Harry and Hermione, they're here."
They heard crashing as Ron ran towards the stairs. He stumbled down the stairs.
"Harry, Hermione. I missed you so much," Ron hugged his best friends.
Molly was still talking; she hadn't noticed her children weren't listening. "Did you know Professor Snape was never actually a Death Eater? I'm not sure what happened with the inner circle but apparently he was cleared by the ministry. I send a letter of apology to him straight away. I wish that Albus would clue more people in about what he was doing. I respect Albus, but he was the worst when it came to keeping things to himself. Poor Severus had no one supporting him for those few months, everyone believing he was a Death Eater. Did you know he was still making wolfsbane for Remus during those few months? Attaching coded notes with Death Eater activity to them."
"Mum," Ron shouted.
"What is it, sweetheart?"
"You need to slow down, let Harry and Hermione have a chance to talk." Ron scolded his mother.
"Actually, Mrs Weasly. Hermione and I need to talk to Ron ... Alone." Harry told her.
"Of course, make sure you come back afterwards. We have some more catching up to do." Molly told them.
Ginny made to follow them out into the gardens, Molly put her hand onto Ginny's shoulder to stop her daughter. "They need to talk amongst themselves first."
"But they're my friends too," Ginny replied. She huffed when she turned and realised they hadn't even waited for her. They had apparted somewhere, and she had no clue where.
KC
"The Forest of Dean?" Ron questioned.
"We have a lot to talk about, and needed somewhere we wouldn't be overheard," Hermione explained. Putting up the tent that had been her's and Harry's home for well over a year. Warding the area so they were hidden from prying ears and eyes.
"I'm sorry for leaving. I regretted it as soon as I left." Ron apologised. "I came back after I'd cooled down, but you'd already gone. I am sorry about lashing out at you and what I said before I left. I was jealous of your relationship. I was the third wheel. I feel like an idiot for not seeing it sooner, for being jealous in the first place. It's obvious now when I look back, that we'd never work out in the long run." Ron looked at Hermione. "I was always second place to you Harry, in Hermione's heart. Don't even say it's not true Hermione, because it is. Ever since the troll in our first year."
"You've grown up a lot Ron." Hermione smiled. "You're right, Harry was always first. I just didn't realise it."
"Does this mean we're now officially broken up?" Ron asked.
"I think our relationship was over the moment you walked out of the tent," Hermione replied. "But yes, we are now officially broken up."
"I haven't dated anyone since I left you guys. I didn't want to make things worse since we hadn't made anything official." Ron replied before smiling. "It was hard you know, there were a lot of cute girls at the school I went to in Japan."
"Ronald," Hermione scolded before smiling and laughing with him.
"So are you two an item?" Ron asked. "I've done a lot of thinking and I don't mind. I don't see you two being together changing our friendship if we still have one that is."
"Don't be silly Ron, you're my best mate. Have been since the first train ride to Hogwarts. We're not going to let the best girl in the world get between us." Harry smiled, relief showing on his face. He'd been worried that he'd wrecked his friendship with his oldest friend.
"Best girl, so you are together?" Ron questioned.
"It's complicated, it's actually what we came here to talk about," Hermione told him.
"So when did you get together?" Ron asked.
"We're not together ... yet." Harry told him.
"Yet, so you're going to be together soon?"
"We're getting married Ron" Hermione told her ex-boyfriend with a straight face.
Ron choked for a second. "You're not together yet, but you're getting married." He started laughing at his two friends. "How does that even work? When did you decide you were going to get married? You're skipping the dating and going straight for marriage?"
"We made the decision a few days ago" Harry started.
"As soon as it was decided that we would marry, we came to find you, to tell you in person so that you didn't hear it from anyone else," Hermione explained.
"Who else knows?" Ron asked.
"Your brother Bill and your sister-in-law Fleur. Professors Snape and Lupin for starters. Plus a few others know."
"Why does Snape know? When did you even see him?" Ron queried.
"We've seen him a few times since we separated. When Tom and the inner circle were taken out for one." Harry continued.
Hermione continued on. "The second time was when Tom was possessed and getting tortured the muggle way by an ancient spirit. Harry was in a bad way, Professor Snape was the only one I could think of to help. We've met up several times since then, he's been helping with our hunt. Professor Dumbledore had told him about the Horcruxes. We have all the Horcruxes now, kind off anyway. Most of them have been destroyed in the past year by his recent deaths."
"Snape ... Severus knows because he was there when we made the decision that will lead to our marriage. Ron, even though we have all the Horcruxes, we're going to perform a ritual to combine Riddles spirit so that it's one again." Harry Said.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"There's an issue with two of the Horcrux's. We needed an alternate method. We can't just get rid of all the other items and leave the two. He won't actually be dead."
"Why can't you destroy the last two? Don't you have it?"
"Ron, I'm the last Horcrux," Harry told him. "To destroy it, I would have to die."
Ron paled and pointed to Harrys forehead. "Your scar; you're a connection to you-know-who. It's because you're one of them?"
"It's the reason why the locket affected me less than you two. I was already carrying one around with me. Do you remember Amane?" Harry asked.
"She was in Ginny's year, the girl that was taken into the chamber, who couldn't return to school?" Ron said sadly. "I saw her in Japan."
"The diary was also a Horcrux, she absorbed it. If it was only my life on the line, I would consider dying to destroy them all, but it is not just my life. I can't decide for Amane." Harry told Ron.
"That could've been Ginny, she had the diary first." Ron paled. "Don't talk about dying mate. Both Hermione and I don't want to lose you. So what's this ritual that's causing you to get married?"
"It's a sex ritual," Hermione blushed. "It can only be performed by two willing virgins."
Ron laughed again. "You know you can have sex without getting married right."
"That's not the point Ronald," Hermione yelled at him. "I'm saving myself for marriage and the only person I will be sleeping with is my husband. My husband is going to be Harry."
"There's more Ron, the sex ritual that will bring all the pieces of Voldemort together, well those soul pieces need to go somewhere." Harry blushed. "If everything with the ritual goes to plan, Hermione's going to fall pregnant ... with Tom Riddles reformed soul. We're going to be his parents."
Ron paled. "What happens with the baby after it's born?"
"We raise him as our own child," Hermione replied.
"We love him and raise him, and give him a better life than he had the first time." Harry continued.
Ron blurted, "But he's You-Know-Who! He killed your parents. And so many other people. Why would you have him be reborn?"
"I know. You don't need to understand, but we're going to be doing this. We just wanted you to know before we did anything." Harry replied.
"So when are you performing this ritual?" Ron asked.
"31st of October," Hermione replied.
"Oh good, I've got a few months to get used to the idea." Ron sighed. "It's going to be hard to get my head around the fact you are willingly going to be You-Know-Who's parents. But I'll support you both. You're really something special Hermione. I can't see any other girls willingly being You-Know-Who's parent. Can you imagine Ginny or me even me as the father? I don't think either one of us would be able to do it. I give you two my blessing."
"We actually did imagine it," Harry grinned. "Hermione and I had a good laugh imagining what you two would be like as parents to Tom."
"My sister isn't ready to be a mother, just like I'm not ready to be a father." Ron agreed. "So when's the wedding? Is it going to be the day of the ritual or before?"
"We haven't really discussed a date yet, but will be before," Harry replied.
"We're just not sure how long before. We need to keep the days beforehand free to prepare for the ritual."
"So do other people have to watch?" Ron asked. "Bill was telling me about sex rituals and said that most of them require a rune and or arithmancy expert to be present."
"Yes, there will be other's present. I'm not sure of how many other people will be present yet. We're still working out the details of the ritual." Hermione said.
"Where was this ritual found?" Ron enquired.
"You've probably never heard of it. The book is extremely rare. So rare that there is only one of the book in existence. It's called the Millennium Tome." Hermione replied.
"Are you kidding me!" Ron exclaimed. "Did you get to see it? I was with Bill and Ginny in Egypt when it was recovered but wasn't allowed to even look at it."
"Yes, we've both seen it. Unfortunately, I can't read it. It's in a dialect of Egyptian we never studied in ancient runes. Not even Bill could read most of the runes and writing."
"You should've been there when the tomb was opened. It was amazing." Ron gushed. "These two guys from school who I thought were muggles up until that point performed magic like I'd never seen or felt before. It was amazing. If you've seen the tome you've probably met them. Yugi Moto, he's one of my friends. And Seto Kaiba, we don't get along at all. Can't stand the guy, reminds me so much of Malfoy. When I first met him he was in a wheelchair and would space out most of the day, yet he still acted like he was better than everyone else."
"We've met them both. Kaiba's the one who took out Voldemort and the inner circle of Death Eaters and changed Bellatrix Lestrange personality so she's nice." Hermione replied.
"According to Draco he killed three Death Eaters, including his uncle, by hand." Harry continued. "Seto was held prisoner with Luna for four months."
Ron nodded. "That explains why he got along so well with Draco and Luna. He gets along pretty well with Neville as well. Do you have any idea how he knows Neville?"
Hermione smiled a sad smile. "Amane was in the same ward as Neville's parents. Remember Ryou Bakura. He was also in your sister's year level. He's Amane's brother. Seto was with Ryou when she was released from the hospital. It just happened to be the same day Neville was visiting his parents."
"So how did you meet Yugi?" Ron asked.
Hermione told him. "At Hogwarts. After the inner circle was taken out and the school relieved of the Death Eaters. Yugi and Seto's brother Mokuba were both there to see him."
"The first time we saw Seto wasn't when he took out the Death Eaters inner circle. It was Christmas eve in at the cemetery in Godric's Hollow." Harry told him.
"What were you all doing there?" Ron asked.
"Visiting Harry's parents. Seto was visiting his father." Hermione explained.
"Isn't his father a muggle? Why would he be buried in a wizard's cemetery?" Ron enquired.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly Ronald, Godric Hollow is a mixed town of muggles and wizards. Hogsme is the only pure wizard town in Europe."
"Yeah yeah, I forgot," Ron replied. "It's good to have you guy's back. We should really get back to mum and Ginny."
"Who should we tell next? Mrs Weasley ... I mean Molly or Ginny or do we wait till we locate your parents?" Harry asked.
"I don't mind telling Molly next, she's been like a mother to you since just before the second year. The Weasleys are your family"
"But I'm not with Ginny anymore. I'm pretty sure Molly wanted me with Ginny so I'd be her real son." Harry pointed out.
"As long as we let her be grandparents to our children, and keep including her in your life she'll be fine," Hermione told him.
"Yeah, mum loves you too much. I swear she loves you more than me." Ron pointed out.
"We'll just leave out the ritual, You Know Who stuff," Ron told them both. "Leave out the baby altogether. I told mum that we broke up, ages ago, so she should be fine."
KC
"You're back," Ginny shouted. "Why did you leave without me?"
"Sorry, Ginny. Harry, Hermione and I had a few things we needed to sort out in private. We're all good now." Ron told his sister.
"Ginny, we really need to talk to your mum, in private. But we'll talk afterwards." Harry told her.
"We'll go see Fred and George and bring them back with us," Ron told them.
"Thanks, Ron. It would be good to see the twins again. It's been a long time." Harry replied.
"But, it's been ages since I last saw you both. I've missed you, Harry. I'm willing to give things another go. You Know Who has been gone for months. Even though he's still around it's not as dangerous as before. You don't need to stay away from me to protect me any longer." Ginny pleaded.
"I'm sorry Ginny. Don't get me wrong, I do love you. But I've come to realise during our time apart that my love for you is like that of a sister." Harry told her. "We'll talk properly after I've spoken with your mum."
Ginny looked heartbroken at that claim.
"Oh stop looking so betrayed." Ron snapped at his sister. "It's not like you were patiently waiting for him to come back. You've dated other guy's during the past year."
"Were do you think you two are going?" Molly scolded her two youngest as they went for the flu powder.
"Harry and Hermione would like to talk to you in private mum, so I'm taking Ginny to get the twins," Ron told his mother.
"It's really important Molly," Hermione told her.
"Did you two have a fight with Ron?" She asked.
"No," Harry replied. "Any issues we had with each other have been sorted."
"Alight, go to your brothers and nowhere else," Molly told her two youngest.
"Honestly, it's like she forgets we're both of age now and can do what we want," Ron grumbled to his sister.
Ginny gave one last heartbroken look towards Harry before stepping into the floo.
"So what is so important that you need to talk to me without Ron and Ginny around?" Molly asked in a disapproving voice.
"Ron already knows what we're here to talk about. Ginny on the other hand ... Let's just say she wouldn't take the news well." Hermione replied. "We wanted to tell you in person before you heard from anyone else."
"Hermione and I plan to marry," Harry told the woman he considered his mother.
"I can see why you haven't told Ginny yet." Molly sighed.
"Are you disappointed?" Harry asked.
"What no, of course not," Molly replied. "Where did you even get that idea from?"
"Well, you didn't seem happy with Bill and Fleur when they got married. And you wanted Ginny and me together." Harry pointed out.
"Harry, any mother would love to have you as a son-in-law. I know that you would love, respect and care for Ginny. I just hope whomever Ginny ends up with is half as decent as you." Molly explained. "As for my issues with Fleur. There is the age difference for one thing and her veela charm effects woman in a very different way than it affects men. It tends to bring the worse out in a woman. I can't think of anyone that suits you more than Hermione does. I'm not sure if anyone's told you this before Hermione, but you're very much like Lily was personality wise. You do a good job of keeping my boys and Ginny inline. That is why I wanted you as a daughter-in-law. You fit in well with our family."
"I can still be your daughter-in-law Molly." Hermione smiled.
Harry smiled as well. "You're the closest thing to a mother I have. Would it be too much to ask you to be the grandparents to our children when we have children?"
"You're not getting married because Hermione's pregnant?" Molly enquired.
"What, no." Harry blushed. "We haven't gone that far with our relationship. We haven't even kissed."
Molly laughed at the children before her. "So when did you two get together as a couple?"
"We kind of skipped the dating Molly," Hermione replied.
"So you woke up one morning and said let's get married?" She asked.
"Well, we were talking with Professors Lupin, Professor Snape, Professor Ishtar, Tonks, Bill, Fleur and a couple other friends. We were discussing the future. They asked Harry who he would like to be the mother of his future children."
"I told them I needed someone that could see past my fame." Harry blushed while telling Molly the edited version. "Hermione pretty much told them she couldn't see anyone else seeing me for just Harry besides her. What we want with life is actually pretty similar. We both want to get married and have children while were still young."
"My parents had trouble having any more children because they put their career first. I don't want to do the same thing." Hermione admitted.
"We've decided that after the war has ended that I'm going to be a stay at home dad and Hermione is going to work part time. I have enough money that neither of us have to work if we don't want to." Harry told his mother figure.
"You're not going to be a stay at home mother?" Molly asked.
"We thought about it, but I need to be constantly doing something to keep my mind active. I go a little stir crazy if I'm not doing something academic. Harry's also a lot better at cooking and housekeeping in general. When Ron was still living with us, he'd always just assume that because I was a woman I would do the cleaning and cooking. We'd fight all the time." Hermione informed Molly.
"I'd do the cooking and cleaning and Hermione strengthens the wards surrounding the tent," Harry replied. "After living with each other for more than a year, I can't imagine any other woman in my life besides Hermione."
"I can't imagine any other man besides Harry. If we did find other partners, I don't think they would easily accept the relationship Hermione and I have."
"We also have the same ideals when it comes to how we want to raise our children."
"We're going to going to be living in the muggle world. That way out children stay away from the fame of who I am most of the time."
"But also aware of how the magical world works."
"So when they're older they can choose which world they want to live in, and can easily live in both without issue."
"It seems that most of your discussions have been about children," Molly replied. "There are other aspects to married life besides children."
"We know. The only thing our relationship doesn't have at this stage is a physical relationship. We've decided that we've waiting this long that we'll wait till after we're married before taking our relationship further."
"We already talk about everything," Harry told her.
"Oh, everything." Molly grinned. "Even Hermione's time of the month? Things like that?"
"As a matter of a fact yes," Hermione replied. "We've been talking about that type of thing since the third year. He's always a sweetheart. Would get me pain relieving potions, chocolate and keep others away from me when I wanted to be left alone."
"You have no idea how many times I had to go to the store to buy supplies and pain killers when we were travelling," Harry told Molly. "I was so embarrassed the first few times, but got used to it after a while."
"Why would you need to buy supplied for your time of the month?"
"I prefer muggle sanitary products," Hermione replied. "Besides, we were using bare minimum spells at the time. It wasn't always possible to cast the spells I needed."
"Did you talk about this type of thing with Ron?" Molly enquired.
"No way," Hermione replied. "He was so childish whenever the subject would come up. He also didn't understand when we were dating and I wanted to be left alone. He'd end up jealous of Harry when Harry tried to get him to leave me alone."
"Looks like you have a good catch, Hermione. Keep a hold of that one. Arthur is still squeamish when it comes to my woman time. It's probably we a good thing we only had one daughter instead of six. I'll get Arthur and Bill to talk to you, Harry. We'll be having a talk later Hermione. Oh, I'm so excited. Another wedding. We need to have a family meal to celebrate. You'll both be staying tonight won't you? Of course you are. Will you be sharing a bedroom or still separate bedrooms until your wedding?"
"We've been sharing a room for months," Hermione replied. "I don't think that we'd be able to sleep separately after all this time."
"Same bed or separate beds?" She asked.
"It doesn't really matter," Harry replied. "As long as we're in the same room."
Molly nodded her head. "Oh when is the wedding? Is it going to be sooner or are you going to wait?"
"Well I want to get Hermione's parents blessing first, so won't be until we've tracked them down."
"We would prefer our wedding to be sooner."
"Ron's okay with you getting married, considering his past relationship with you Hermione?"
"He's going to be our best man. In fact, he gave us his blessing before we even told him we were getting married."
"Good good. Oh, we need to celebrate. Let's see. I need to contact Percy first. Make sure he's free. She looked at the clock that said he was home. Then Charlie and Bill. Oh and lastly the twins. Is there anyone else? Remus for example."
"We've already had a celebration with Remus. Just the Weasley's will be fine." Harry told her.
"I'll contact everyone for dinner." Molly got the floo powder and bent in front of the fireplace, calling Percy like she said. Moments later he stepped through the fireplace with Bill, Fleur, Victoire and Charlie all in toe."
"It's so nice to see my boys getting along." Molly wept. "Oh, Percy." Molly hugged her third boy.
"I'm not going anywhere." Percy reminded her.
"We were talking about trying to hatch my dragon egg," Charlie told her.
The floo flared up and the twins, Ron and Ginny all stepped through.
"Why is everyone here?" Ginny asked.
"We're having a celebration," Molly told them.
"For what?" The twins asked at the same time.
"That can wait till your father is home. Now, what's this I hear about dragon eggs? You know it's illegal to hatch them don't you Charles. Where did you get it from?" Molly scolded.
"Mother, I'm a licenced dragon handler. I'm one of the few people in the world that is legally allowed to hatch dragon eggs. The egg in question was recovered from Pharaoh Set's tomb in Egypt. It's got all sorts of stasis spells on it. That's why Percy and Bill were both helping me with it."
"You have," Fred said. "A dragons egg." George continued. "So cool can we see it." Both said at the same time.
"Ginny and I have already seen it," Ron boasted to the twins.
"Wicked," both twins said at the same time.
"It's a species that's supposed to be extinct. Pharaoh Set had an extensive collection of dragon eggs." Charlie told them.
"How many eggs altogether?" Hermione enquired.
"I'm not sure. I can't actually get into the tomb. There are very few people in the world that would actually be able to get into the tomb. If we want to recover anymore we'd have to ask miss Ishtar's permission. It took them just over two weeks the last time they were in the tomb."
"Why's that?" Hermione asked.
"Well, the ritual to get into the tomb you need to be a descendant of Pharaoh Set. You also require at least one dark magic user and one light magic user. Both descendants. To top it off it's not our normal magic either. It's Shadow magic. Very few people alive today are even capable of possessing Shadow magic." Bill explained.
"I've never even heard of Shadow magic." Hermione frowned.
"That's because it was an ancient magic, practised in Egypt. The Tomb Keepers clan that miss Ishtar belong to are extremely unique. They're a pure blood Shadow magic family. They can trace their family history back to the time of the Pharaoh's. A lot further than any pureblood family can trace their roots. And unique in regard that they can trace every member of their family back that far. The pureblood families have the issue that they can only trace one or two lines back that far. Miss Ishtar is a confirmed direct descendant of Pharaoh Set. If the land was still ruled by Pharaohs, her family would rule over Egypt."
"You mean our divination teacher Professor Ishtar, from my sixth year?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, that's her. She's naturally gifted in divination. But also well versed in ancient runes and arithmancy." Bill replied. "She works with Gringotts much like myself. She is also an Egyptian politician in the muggle world and teaches at the same school as Percy."
"She's only a relief teacher this year," Percy informed his brother.
Molly had gone back to the kitchen, calling her children to help.
"I've met Miss Ishtar. I quite like her. She's very different than Professor Trelawney. If she'd been our divination teacher from the start I think I would've kept going with the subject. She's very efficient in teaching the theory of the different forms of divination. She can even recognise the area that people are gifted in if they are truly gifted. Professor Ishtar gets vivid visions of the past and future as if she was there. She recognised that Harry gets prophetic dreams, and it's not just from his scar."
"According to Severus ... Professor Snape, my mother also had prophetic dreams." Harry smiled. He liked having gifts from his parents and not something that was a result of his cursed scar.
"I don't have any talent for divination." Hermione continued. "Ryou Bakura, he's very talented in tarot cards. Have any of you heard of duel monsters?"
"No." The twins replied. Everyone else replied yes. Molly was still in the kitchen so didn't hear the question.
"It's a muggle card game," Percy told them. "The school that I teach at teaches students how to play the game professionally."
Hermione scoffed.
"Oh, believe me, I thought it was ridiculous at first, setting up a school just for a muggle card game," Percy told her. "But my boss Seto Kaiba has very high standards for the students in every subject. What is required to pass is a lot higher than at Hogwarts and according to the other teachers, the standard is higher than the Japanese public schools, and the majority of the private schools. Next year Mr Kaiba will be hiring more teachers to cover more magical subjects. For teachers that actually specialise in different fields instead of Remus, Ishizu and I teaching a little bit of everything. But what I believe Hermione was getting at is the fact that Mr Bakura can use a person's duel monsters deck like he can use tarot cards to read a person's future, with more accuracy then when he uses tarot cards."
"Seto Kaiba seems to come up a lot," Harry told Hermione.
"Same with Yugi Moto." Hermione agreed. "And Ryou Bakura."
"It's because they are all like Ishizu. Apart of the few people in the world that can use Shadow magic with proficiency and all direct descendants of Pharaoh Set. Mages of Shadow magic."
"Remus always commented that Mr Kaiba reminded him of Severus. Yugi Moto reminded him of himself and that another student Joey Wheeler reminded him of Sirius Black." Percy told them.
"Have you seen Joey and Kaiba fight," Bill asked them. "It's just like watching a cat and a dog fight."
"Have I ever. Do you have any idea how many detentions I had to give those two for fighting in class." Percy replied. "The other teachers would always act so horrified when I gave Mr Kaiba detention. Just because he's our boss, doesn't exempt him from the rules. I expect him to behave, like any other student. Remus and Ishizu are the only two that ever gave him detention besides myself."
"Children," Arthur said happily as he stepped out the fireplace seeing his whole family. "Harry and Hermione. I see you're finally home." Arthur hugged them both. "Isn't it wonderful to have the whole family."
"Isn't it." Molly agreed from the kitchen.
"It's nice to see you again Mr Weasley," Harry told the man who'd been like a father to him for so many years.
"I see that we're celebrating," Arthur stated. Smelling what his wife was cooking.
Arthur smiled as Harry and Hermione took each other's hands after he released them from his hug. A quick glance towards his only daughter and youngest son showed they'd both noticed as well. Ron had a huge grin on his face, Ginny had a small frown.
"Yes," Molly told them with glittering eyes. "Why don't you pair tell them what we're celebrating?"
"You mean it's not just for Harry and Hermione coming back?" Ginny asked. "Have you defeated You-Know-Who?"
"Not yet, but we're pretty close. He'd been severely weakened in the past two years." Harry told them. He took a nervous gulp and sent a quick glance in Ginny's direction. "Hermione and I are here to tell you in person before you hear from anyone else that we've decided to get married."
Arthur did a quick glance towards his two youngest children. After all Ron had dated Hermione and Ginny had dated Harry. To see how they Ron had a goofy grin on his face, he already knew and had given his friends his blessing. Ginny, on the other hand, looked shocked and heartbroken.
He smiled as his older children and daughter-in-law as they congratulated the pair.
"Ginny, it's going to be okay," He told his daughter who was now crying. "You knew that this was coming. We all did. Those two have been inseparable since their first year at Hogwarts. I was actually surprised when you and Harry dated for a short while. I know it hurts now, but Harry's still a part of this family."
"I guess that out of everyone I could've lost him too, I'm glad it was her. It would've hurt a lot more if he'd come home with a stranger." Ginny sobbed. "You go congratulate them." Ginny tried to force a smile. "I'm going up to my room for a bit. I need to do some thinking."
"Congratulations." Arthur finally told the pair once he could get to them, which was hard considering how excitable most of his children could be. "Ginny's needs sometimes. She did tell me she was happy that the person you bought home was Hermione and not some other woman."