A/N: I'm back! Sorry the hiatus was so long! Major life changes at the end of 2021 severely affected my overall writing time, and I've been in a rather creative slump for quite a while. I will also be rotating fics with each update, so while I probably (read as: hopefully) will not take another 7 months to update OLSSM again, please be aware that new chapters may not come out at the frequency we were all used to in the past.

If anyone is interested in keeping up with my writing progress between chapters, you can check out my tumblr (dxmichelle) where I also post fic snippets!

I really appreciate your patience while I struggled to get this finished! And with that out of the way, let's proceed into the final third of… 'Part 1'.

/Text/ Spirit to Host

/Text/ Host to Spirit

Chapter 51: Splinching

The sun had already started to rise over the east towers of the castle by the time Yugi dragged himself up and down the seventh-floor corridor and towards Gryffindor Tower with his duel disk tucked safely under his arm.

A few of the portraits along the walls yawned obnoxiously when he passed them by, but none of them batted a lidded eye at him – except for, naturally, the Fat Lady, who was none too happy to be woken up at the early hour and stared down at him in disgust, long after he called out the password.

"What are you doing up so early?"

"Just let me in," Yugi huffed, "I've had one heck of a night and just want to go to sleep."

"Fat chance of that with the sun up," said the Fat Lady.

"Well I'm certainly not going to take a nap out here," Yugi said, "and I already gave you the password!"

"Password's been changed," said the Fat Lady.

"No it hasn't!" Yugi crossed his arms over his chest. "Now are you going to let me in or what?"

The Fat Lady rolled her eyes at him but did swing open for him after a haughty sigh. "Next time I won't be so nice!" she called, after he had already climbed up the opening and out into the common room.

Is the world out to get me tonight or something?

The Pharaoh didn't comment on the thought, and Yugi couldn't help but wonder if the Pharaoh's soul actually did sleep when tucked away in his soul labyrinth. Or maybe he was just lost in his thoughts over the night's disaster.

So much for rescuing the Millennium Rod. He was lucky that Umbridge didn't confiscate his duel disk out of spite.

He crossed the room to slink up the stairs, ready to face Kaiba's deadpanned 'I told you this wouldn't work' stare that he just knew was waiting on the other side of the dormitory door; because this was the usual time for him to get out of bed, wasn't it?

His legs felt more sluggish with each passing landing, and a fleeting glance towards each door as he passed made him wish his room wasn't so close to the top of the tower. But no matter how tired his body felt, his brain kept whirring away.

What was he going to do if Ryou was still missing? Would he wait to find both him and the spirit later to grill them on what happened?

You already know what happened, said a tiny little voice in his ear once Yugi pushed himself passed the third years' landing. He heard Umbridge coming and left.

/It really shouldn't surprise you,/ said Yami. /We both know his need for survival is stronger than any desire to do a good deed for us. Really, I almost expect Ryou is back in bed, as if he never left in the first place./

Yugi sighed and pushed his way past the fifth years' landing.

/And if he's not? What then? We lost our one chance to leave the grounds. Professor Umbridge is going to be keeping a closer eye on us now. She's going to notice eventually if Bakura doesn't show up./

The first rays of daylight had already found their way through the tower window when he slipped into the dormitory, and he couldn't have been more thankful that for once, Seto still appeared to be asleep. What was even better? His tip-toeing around didn't wake him up, either.

Perhaps it was some tiny miracle in his favor that Kaiba hadn't yet gotten his wand back. The extended confinement to the tower seemed to put him on more of a normal sleep schedule, because otherwise he'd already be halfway out of bed with the laptop up and running. And right now, he really didn't need him on his case about the rescue mission going sideways.

Yugi quickly changed and slid under his blankets. He reached up to close his bedside curtains and paused, one arm frozen in midair and clutching the scarlet hangings.

Bakura's bed was empty.

"I'm afraid I must apologize on Professor Dumbledore's behalf," said Professor McGonagall. It was a stroke of a miracle that she managed to find one of the three transfer students in the Great Hall at lunchtime, and that it was the one she mainly had been looking for. Ryou Bakura's and Yugi Muto's absence at both breakfast and lunch would have been far more suspicious if she didn't have to listen to Umbridge rave about how tired she was after catching students out of bed overnight. "…He wished to join us, but was called away from the school on an urgent matter."

"Imagine that," Seto said dryly and followed her into her office. "Hasn't he been out of the castle for half the year?"

Professor McGonagall gestured to the empty seat in front of her desk before settling down. "It isn't my place to keep tabs on him," she said, "though I will admit he has been away a considerable amount. But we aren't here to talk about Professor Dumbledore."

Seto squared his jaw. This was it – he had been waiting for this for days. For the Ministry to finish their bogus investigation and arrest him on some outlandish terrorist charge. To tell him that, despite Voldemort getting hold of him, destroying the Astronomy Tower was his doing and his doing alone. That he really was just out to kill a school full of children that he would have never met if Dumbledore hadn't barged into his office all those months ago.

If he really wanted to argue, technically everything that happened to him up to this point was the old man's fault. For all the good that would do, Dumbledore was barely in the castle as it was, and the Ministry of Magic was clearly more interested in making life difficult for him than being competent.

Typical government.

"If this is your way of buttering me up to say I'm not getting my wand back, I wish you'd just spit it out. If your Ministry still thinks I'm some violent threat, then say so, and I'll make arrangements to leave."

Professor McGonagall blinked. "Leave?"

"There's no point of me staying in this school if I'm not going to be allowed to learn or produce magic," said Seto, "and I'm not going to waste my time educating myself in the dormitory when there are far more important things I could be doing. At home."

As it stood, this impromptu meeting in her office already cost him his afternoon chat with Mokuba.

"While Professor Dumbledore and I both agree that returning to Domino at this time would be ill-advisable, we certainly cannot stop you from leaving if you no longer wish to stay here," said McGonagall. "But that wasn't why I wanted to speak with you."

Seto crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into his chair. "Better make it quick before I get another slap on the wrist from Umbridge for not retreating back up to my personal dungeon."

He watched her eye twitch and in that moment his respect for her rose just a tad higher. While he didn't care much for any of the professors or authority figures wandering the castle grounds, Professor McGonagall seemed to care the most for his wellbeing, even if her verbal protests at his treatment in Dumbledore's office always fell on deaf ears.

"Dolores does not run this school," McGonagall spat. "And I do not answer to her. I am your head of house. If I wish to have a conversation with you in my office, I damn well will do so. This is a school, not Azkaban."

"Not from where I'm sitting," Seto countered, "The portraits harass me every time I leave the common room. You can't sit there and tell me that Umbridge didn't put them up to it in retaliation for breaking her rules."

"I would hardly give her credit for that," said Professor McGonagall, "since she, like the rest of us, were merely following the restrictions put in place by Minister Scrimgeour. It seems she has just been more enthusiastic about enforcement than the rest of the staff. As for the school portraits, I imagine most of that was spurred on by Sir Cadogan. While he is always running through the school, there is a reason his portrait is hidden away in the Divination Corridor.

"But, speaking of rules…" she began slowly, "I heard, from Peeves no less, that Professor Umbridge caught Yugi Muto trying to sneak out of the castle last night."

Seto raised an eyebrow.

"Supposedly Ryou Bakura was with him," said Professor McGonagall. "Would you know anything about that?"

"I'm not their babysitter."

"No," said Professor McGonagall, "but they were both missing from breakfast and lunch today, and they are your roommates."

"That doesn't mean I keep tabs on them," said Seto. "Last night I went to bed and those two were still downstairs in the common room."

"Well, be that as it may, Mr. Muto was caught down at the Thestral enclosure, by the Forbidden Forest. As far as I am aware Professor Umbridge couldn't get him to admit to what he was doing out of bed so late."

"If that's what you're wondering, you're asking the wrong person."

Professor McGonagall took a deep breath and clasped her hands loosely together on her desk. "Mr. Kaiba, there's no need to tiptoe around the truth with me. I am not Professor Umbridge, nor am I the Ministry or Albus Dumbledore. I am, however, trying to keep you safe, whether you believe it or not."

Seto merely stared at her.

"I am not a fool," said Professor McGonagall, "I am blatantly aware that the Thestrals can be used as transportation off of the school grounds. Did I expect Mr. Muto to be aware of that fact? No. But I do know five of your housemates who used that exact method to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic not even a year ago.

"I am also aware that Professor Umbridge gave you quite the hard time just the other week for leaving the castle unattended."

"I went for a walk," Seto snapped, "what did she or those Aurors think I was going to do without a wand – set the castle on fire just by looking at it?"

Professor McGonagall raised her hand into the air to silence him. "I'm not here to berate you, Mr. Kaiba. But what I want to determine is if you put Mr. Muto up to leaving the castle because you could not."

Seto snorted. "If I was going to leave the grounds, it would be to go home. And no matter how much Yugi missed his friends, he wouldn't sneak out in the middle of the night to ride back to Domino on a skeleton horse he couldn't even see."

"But would he – and Mr. Bakura – attempt to leave the grounds for you?"

"Why would they?" said Seto, "I'm not missing anymore."

She raised an eyebrow. "So, hypothetically, had you still been with You-Know-Who, they would have attempted to leave the castle?"

"They all talked about it," said Seto. Yugi wanted that fact kept under wraps for so long, but really, he didn't see the point in it anymore. Especially now that he went and got himself caught. Who cared now if Yugi and Harry wanted to corral the troops to play his hero? His crash landing rendered the plan moot before they could even reach the Thestral pen.

"Oh I'm sure they did," said Professor McGonagall, "especially knowing the company you keep in Gryffindor Tower."

She reclasped her hands again and pitched forward. "Did you ask him to retrieve the Millennium Rod for you?"

Seto didn't answer her, but he didn't have to – the briefest twitch in his jaw did the work for him.

"There is no point in hiding the fact – Professor Dumbledore told me of the Millennium Items before you even stepped foot in Hogwarts. And he was very aware that it was not in Domino when you were taken or with you when you were recovered. Aurors swept the area of the grounds where you were found and couldn't locate it."

"I didn't push him to go looking for it, if that's what you're implying."

"But that was why he and Ryou Bakura were trying to get out of the castle in the middle of the night?"

Seto narrowed his eyes, stared at her for another long minute, before he got up and closed the door to her office.

"Does it matter?"

"It does to me."

Seto crossed his arms and leaned against the door. "Why?"

Another fish for information – that made her just as bad as Dumbledore and Umbridge and the rest of them. But in the same way she was not like Dumbledore or Umbridge or the Ministry. Umbridge clearly had her position just to be a mole for the Ministry. Perhaps not as obvious this time as Harry and the others claimed her to be last year, but a mole just the same. He just had to figure out her angle.

And Dumbledore, for how much everyone in the castle seemed to raise him onto a gleaming pedestal, and for all of the great achievements he had read the man had done, fell disappointingly short. Missing in action all the time and full of empty promises. Another enigma.

Professor McGonagall pulled her wand from her pocket and gestured him away from the door with it. "Muffliato."

Seto glanced back once at the door and then to her, one eyebrow raised. "You really think someone is hiding on the other side of the wall? No one is going to be hiding in an empty classroom on a Sunday afternoon."

"Oh?" She smirked at him. "I seem to recall you doing just that through the entire first term. Ghosts and portraits talk, Mr. Kaiba. You were not as hidden as you may have believed to be."

Touché.

"It matters because you three are in over your heads. We don't need to worry about You-Know-Who capturing someone else after just getting you back."

Seto huffed. "Again, I wasn't the one trying to sneak out. You should be reading him the riot act. Not me."

"I needed to be certain that after the incident in the Astronomy Tower, you were not deliberately pushing your friends into danger."

She quickly raised her hand again when he opened his mouth, brow furrowed furiously at her. "I know you had no control over that debacle – but the fact is the Millennium Rod is still missing, and running right back into the lion's den to get it, and taking another Millennium Item with him to do it was not wise. We were supposed to keep You-Know-Who away from those things in the first place. Giving him another one and another hostage on top is the last thing we need."

"And again, none of that is my fault."

"I didn't mean to imply otherwise," she said. "But this business with You-Know-Who and the Millennium Items doesn't make sense to me. Dumbledore keeps the Order informed as best he can, but there are still items that don't add together, and are too closely linked to be coincidences."

She gestured to the empty chair again. "I am only trying to look out for the three of you, because I am worried that no one else in the school is."

"Not even Dumbledore?"

Professor McGonagall stayed silent, and even that was telling. He'd heard how fiercely loyal she was to Dumbledore. He knew that Dumbledore didn't seem to be putting forth a whole lot of effort for them as of late, but he didn't expect her to also admit it.

They were both tiptoeing around whatever the point to her calling him into her office happened to be. It couldn't have been just to poke him for information about Yugi. He knew better; McGonagall wasn't a fool, and she was no Umbridge. She was, as Harry and the others had said while going over the professors to watch out for in the beginning of the year, stern but fair.

Perhaps in the end she didn't know how to breach the true topic at hand. Doubtful, she's never held back her tongue before…but whatever it was, she made absolutely sure there were no eavesdroppers. But who would she expect to be lurking about her office?

Umbridge? Made sense, but it couldn't just be her. The Aurors that still continued to tail him around the school perhaps? Was she worried that they would overhear something and run back to Pius or to the Minister of Magic himself?

Or maybe, he thought, she doesn't want Dumbledore himself to overhear.

He was supposed to be in this meeting, after all. What would stop him from dropping in if he returned back to Hogwarts sooner rather than later?

Seto waited a beat, then sat back down. He drummed his fingers against the edge of the desk. "When I was recovering in the Hospital Wing," he said, "you were the first professor to check in on me. When I was awake to remember it, at any rate. When Dumbledore dragged me out of the Room of Requirement and up to his office, you pitched the fight solo to get out of there and to the Hospital Wing. And when that didn't work, you wrapped my arm on the way back to Gryffindor Tower."

He looked directly at her. "You're a stickler for following the rules. But when I broke them and went outside the castle, you didn't care."

"Well," said Professor McGonagall, "I think Miss Granger's health at the time was a bit more of a priority, seeing as she never should have stepped out of the Hospital Wing in the first place."

"You could have sent me back to Gryffindor Tower. You could have even reported me to the Ministry like Umbridge threatened to do all the way back up to the castle. But you let me stay in the hospital with her instead."

"I could very well have sent you back to Gryffindor Tower," she said. "But I am not unreasonable. I did not agree with Minister Scrimgeour's decision, but I respected the reasoning behind it still the same. I cannot say that I've been confined to any one tower of the castle for an extended period of time, but if you ask me, had I been in your position I'd likely have gone mad."

Her face softened, and a small sad smile formed on her face. "And if I may, I think you've been punished enough already."

Seto's jaw visibly twitched this time. Well, she certainly wasn't wrong. "In any case…what I'm saying is that you have at least tried more than some others in the castle, and for that, you've earned my respect. But that doesn't change the fact that you're in Dumbledore's pocket, and despite what you've done for me, I don't know if I can trust you not to go to him with whatever I say in this room, because I certainly don't trust him."

"I am indeed loyal to Professor Dumbledore," said Professor McGonagall, "but I also do not always see eye to eye with him. Your specific circumstances wouldn't have been the first time I've spoken out against his wishes."

Seto shook his head. "You might be telling the truth, but I can't take that chance. Not today."

Professor McGonagall hung her head for a beat, eyes closed. "I understand. But should you change your mind, know that if nothing else, this office is a safe space for you."

She sighed. "I would still like to have a chat with the three of you. Not just because of this failed bid to leave the school, but because I feel there is information you should know about You-Know-Who that I sincerely doubt Professor Dumbledore has told you."

"Like what – his quest for the Millennium Items? I think I've lived through that already."

"No," said Professor McGonagall, "it is about something else, but I would rather tell you all at once. And in the meantime…."

She opened a drawer to her desk and pulled out Seto's wand, which she then held out to him. "I meant to give this to you before we got carried away. Professor Dumbledore wished to return this himself, but seeing as he couldn't attend…."

Seto turned it over in his hands, looking for any indication that someone had damaged it in the weeks it had been interrogated. It felt strange holding it again. Naturally, they gave it back to him once he got himself into a good working rhythm taking care of Kaiba Corp matters while stuck in Gryffindor Tower. The break from class was nice, but at least now he could go back to what he was supposed to be doing.

"…How long have you been holding onto this?"

"Professor Dumbledore gave it to me this morning before leaving the castle. As far as I am aware, the Ministry had it in their possession until now."

"Not Umbridge?"

"After I took you back to Gryffindor Tower that day, I returned straight to Professor Dumbledore's office. Dolores never handled your wand, and even if she did, I doubt she'd be involved in the interrogation. It was taken off school grounds."

She stood up and walked to the door. "With the Ministry's investigation complete, I feel as though I should advise you all to keep your noses to the ground and try not to attract any more of their attention. However, you spend your time with Potter, Weasley, and Miss Granger, so I imagine by the end of next week it'll have fallen on deaf ears. But do try and stay out of trouble, would you?"

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

Professor McGonagall shook her head and opened the office door. "Hm. At least relay to Mr. Muto that I will not turn a blind eye again. I expect all of you to respect the school rules and stay inside after curfew."

Seto nodded and started up the classroom aisle towards the corridor. He had only made it past three rows of desks before he stopped and turned back.

"How did she know?"

Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Umbridge. I never could figure out how she knew that Hermione and I were at that exact spot along the Black Lake."

Professor McGonagall shook her head. "She must have seen you from the castle. Or the Auror that would have followed you tipped her off."

"There wouldn't have been enough time for him to get all the way back up to the school, find her, and have her waddle her way down to where we were. On top of that, Hermione and I were walking away from the point where the Auror last saw us."

"I'm afraid I don't have an answer for you," said Professor McGonagall. She followed him through the classroom and held open the door for him. "You may be reading into nothing. I'm sure it was a coincidence and not worth dwelling over."

Seto scowled at her, but nodded and started up the corridor towards the Grand Staircases.

There were too many other problems on his mind to worry about it properly on that day. Hermione hadn't recovered from Voldemort's curse and he was still reeling from the after-effects of his own kidnapping. And then he spent the night in the Hospital Wing with her, while Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey worked on an antidote by reviewing his memories of the fight.

But now that he had actual time to reflect, it would have been impossible for Umbridge to see them from her office on the clear opposite wing of the castle. The Auror that stood there by the trees watching him might have gotten back to the school in time to tattle on him – why though, they don't work for her – but the last place he could offer was the boulder at the end of the path, and not the actual spot where they stopped to stare out along the shore.

Was it just luck that when she made it to that spot she turned the right direction to tail them instead of moving the opposite way down the beach?

He could only judge the time and distance back up to the school in increments. First to Hagrid's, and then back up to the school. The amount of time it took Umbridge to huff her way up the steep sloping hills to the front steps did not match up properly.

Which meant she was probably outside already. But the school grounds were huge; for her to find them that fast she had to have been nearby. And he couldn't see her just going for a joy walk for the heck of it; she complained about climbing the path the entire way. And the last he heard, not only did she and Hagrid not get along, but she kept herself a safe distance from the forest edge.

It wasn't the Forbidden Forest, but the road to the lake still went through the trees along the edge of the grounds, and she seemed much more on edge going through them than on open ground. He bet for anyone else she wouldn't have gone through the bother of wandering through uncomfortable areas of the grounds.

No, he was certain her appearing wasn't a coincidence.

Yugi blearily opened his eyes to the dark space around his bed, cut off from what was left of the daylight by his curtains. He felt as though he hadn't slept at all, despite most of the day already gone.

His stomach grumbled at him as he sat up, and he checked the time again for good measure, despite having looked at it a whopping six seconds ago.

Damn. Missed breakfast and lunch. No wonder I'm so hungry.

He blinked the last flecks of drowsiness away, stretched his arms wide in an attempt to better wake himself up, and turned his head right into a pair of bright red eyes.

"AH!"

Thank goodness he was almost as far back into his headboard as possible. Had he been angled any other way, he'd have rolled off the bed.

Yami Bakura rolled his eyes from his spot perched on the edge of Yugi's bed. "It's about time you got up."

Yugi drew his knees up to his chest. "You're one to talk," he hissed, "where the heck have you been!?"

Bakura smiled wide, and Yugi swallowed, suddenly incredibly uneasy. This wasn't any sort of happy, genuine smile. It might have been, if Ryou was the one in control. On the Spirit of the Ring though? That Cheshire Cat grin looked horribly out of place.

Which was probably the point; if the Dark Bakura was smiling, he was up to no good.

"Out and about," said Yami Bakura.

"Yeah, thanks for that," said Yugi. "What was the big deal leaving me alone to deal with Umbridge? Why didn't you…I don't know…manage to sneak me out with you? That wasn't part of the plan!"

"That wasn't your plan," said Bakura, and angled his head up to stare down his nose at Yugi. "It was, however, my plan."

Yami phased angrily out of the Puzzle. "Wait just a minute!" he said, "You meant us to get stuck here?"

"How did you even know Umbridge would find us on the grounds?" asked Yugi, "did you tip her off?"

"If you knew you were going to leave us behind, you could have acted at any time – why wait until now?"

"Why bother inviting us when you're just going to make us wait on the sidelines!?"

"Okay, okay," said Yami Bakura. He held up his hand, shifted off of the bed and leaned up against the laundry chute in the center of the dorm. "You both need to stop asking questions at the same time."

Yami crossed his arms over his chest. "I think you owe us an explanation."

"Really?" said Yami Bakura, "I think you're asking all the wrong questions."

Yugi and Yami exchanged looks with each other, but ended up twisting around to face the door to the dormitory as Seto walked inside, and stopped short just beyond the doorway.

"I see you're back," he said, his voice stiff. "Good. Then you two can explain to Professor McGonagall just how stupid your plan was so everyone can get off my back."

"Oh, I wouldn't say it was stupid," said Bakura, "It worked, after all."

Yugi huffed and glared at him.

Seto nudged the door shut with his foot and started packing his laptop and a few loose folders into his briefcase. "Yeah, because leaving Yugi behind was part of it, I'm sure."

"Again," said Yami Bakura, and reached behind him to unhook the Millennium Rod from where he had stashed it against his belt and under his coat, and held it out for them to see. "The plan worked."

Seto froze and glared at it.

Yugi's eyes doubled in size and he jumped out of bed. "Oh! You found it!"

Bakura scoffed. "Like there was any doubt. Out in the middle of nowhere in some old rundown house. I think that was the easiest heist I've ever pulled."

"Really?" said Yami. "No Voldemort?"

"No anyone," said Bakura. "At least not in the room I appeared in, and I wasn't about to wait around to make friends either. I took the Rod and left."

Seto raised an eyebrow. "What about the Shadow Magus?"

"Didn't see him. Perhaps he and Voldemort were off causing trouble elsewhere," said Bakura.

He looked down at the Millennium Rod and ran his hand along the length of the handle. "I was very tempted to come back seemingly empty-handed and hold onto this for a rainy day," he said, "but then I remembered how much I despise Set and I do not want him getting any funny ideas of trying to communicate with my host."

"Can you?" asked Yugi, and then quickly waved a hand in the air. "I mean, can he communicate outside of the Millennium Rod?"

"Voldemort and the Shadow Magus killed our link, so I imagine not," said Seto.

"If you're asking if I can connect to the Millennium Rod, then the answer is no," Bakura said carefully. Technically, he could, by sealing a small piece of his soul into the Rod, the same way he did to the Puzzle that day in the burning warehouse. Except that it was far easier to hide in the Pharaoh's labyrinth. Set's soul was far too straight-forward, and if the priest didn't discover him lurking in the shadows, that pesky dragon certainly would.

"So in other words," Yami said slowly, "it would be up to Kaiba to –"

"Don't get any ideas," Seto snapped. He shut the briefcase and moved back towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Yami.

"To some secluded hole in the castle where no one will find me."

"But what about—"

"I'm not tethered to the tower anymore. And as for that," he said, nodded his head to the Millennium Rod, "keep him away from my side of the room. If I choose to take him back, it'll be on my terms, not his."

And with that he was back out of the dormitory, and the door slammed shut behind him.

"Well this certainly is different," said Ryou, stepping into the Great Hall the following weekend. The four long house tables in the Great Hall had vanished and "X" marks instead were spaced evenly across the floor.

"Do you think it matters where we go?" asked Ron.

"On an X," said Seto dryly.

Ron turned around to fire back a retort but Yugi cut him off. "I don't see an instructor anywhere. There are also a lot more Aurors than I expected."

"I wonder if they're expecting something to happen during these lessons," said Harry, eyeing the sides of the room. An Auror stood on each side of the back wall, flanking the huge double doors into the hall. Another two or three stood spaced along the length of the room. On both sides.

Wasn't this a bit of overkill? He spotted all the Heads of Houses up front near the staff table. Were all of the Aurors really necessary? If they were all in here, then who was patrolling the grounds?

"Maybe it's because you can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts," said Hermione. "It's –"

"Yeah, we know," said Ron, "in Hogwarts: A History."

Harry shook his head and found them a cluster of six unclaimed spaces on the floor. "I don't honestly expect anyone to be able to apparate on their first try. I mean, this is a twelve-week class."

The room also wasn't as full as he expected it to be. The way Ron had described apparition when they were getting up this morning, it sounded like a Muggle driver's license, and he remembered Uncle Vernon going on about Dudley getting his license over the summer before he arrived at the Burrow. It was a rite of passage. Wouldn't all sixth years choose to take the class?

Ron shrugged from beside him when he asked. "I mean, there are a lot of other magical ways to travel. Floo and Portkey and the Knight Bus. Not to mention that flying car off in the forest somewhere…."

He turned to Yugi on his other side. "I'm surprised you guys came with us. Aren't you going to just go back to Domino when this is all over?"

"Yeah," said Yugi, "I wasn't going to sign up for the class at first, but Kaiba told me yesterday he paid out for all three of us."

"Damn," said Harry. "Seems a bit generous for him."

"Eh." Yugi said. "He just didn't want to have to swoop in and bail us out when we got into trouble."

"And by that," Ryou said mildly from the standing spot directly in front of Harry, "he means Yugi, because the Spirit is already very convinced he could get me out of anything."

/That's because I can, Landlord. This entire exercise is a waste of your time./

/We went over this already. What would happen if we were separated?/

/It wouldn't last. You do remember what happened after the Pharaoh's idiot friend threw me off of Duelist King—oh, no, that's right. You were unconscious./

/I would like you to please, for once, not try and spoil something I was looking forward to doing. Maybe I want to learn how to disappear and reappear somewhere else too! I can't have you doing everything for me, and this way is probably far safer than the Shadow Realm./

Bakura threw up his arms and stormed off towards his soul room. /Have it your way./

"Alright everyone, settle down!" boomed a voice from the front of the room, and the idle chatter buzzing around the Great Hall fizzled away. A man that Harry had never seen before stood in front of Dumbledore' podium. "I am Wilkie Twycross and I work for the Department of Magical Transportation at the Ministry of Magic, and for the next three months, I will be your Apparation instructor.

"Please don't be alarmed at the members of our Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Auror Office observing us. In order to conduct this class, the Anti-Apparation charm around the Great Hall must be removed. They are only here to maintain our safety during the lessons. "

Ron leaned closer while Twycross kept talking. "He looks like a ghost."

Harry nodded. Twycross had to be the palest man he had ever seen, and part of him seemed almost transparent. Perhaps he did so much Apparating and Disapparating that he lost a little complexion each time. He could almost pass for a ghost if he wasn't so solid and…well, alive.

"…as some of you may be aware, you must be seventeen to obtain a license. In order to take this course, you must be turning seventeen by no later than August 31. If this does not apply to you, then I must ask you to leave the Great Hall."

He waited patiently while heads turned around the hall, waiting to see if anyone would step out of the neatly arranged rows and scurry out of the hall, and then nodded, visibly impressed when no one made any move to leave.

"Right," said Twycross, clearing his throat. "Let's move on then. Apparation is not as simple as one would think. You cannot just disappear and reappear wherever you wish. If it were that easy, everyone would do it. It is the fastest mode of travel, but also the most dangerous if not done correctly. There are several things one must have down before they can successfully Apparate."

He descended the steps from the teacher's table and started a slow walk up and down the rows of students. "First: you must have a wand. You may be able to Apparate without one, technically, but that is only for those who have mastered wandless magic and is far out of the realm of possibility for underage wizards. Apparating without a wand also increases your chance of splinching. Who can tell me what that is?"

Harry and Ron glanced at each other, not surprised in the slightest that Hermione's arm went up in the air first.

"Yes, Miss…?"

"Granger, sir," said Hermione. "Splinching is the leaving a part of yourself behind when you Apparate."

"Correct," said Twycross. "It might be an arm you leave behind, or perhaps you might leave only a lock of hair or a piece of your clothes and never know it. There is no rhyme or reason to it – but of course leaving your arm halfway across the country will leave you far worse off than a strand of hair. But any splinch is an unsuccessful Apparation. Which takes us to the three D's."

He reached the back of the room and moved up through the next row, passing between Harry and Ron in his trek back to the front of the hall. "Destination, Determination, and Deliberation! You must have determination to reach your destination, and you must move without haste, but with deliberation."

Twycross made it back to the front of the Great Hall and drew his wand from his pocket. Without uttering a sound, he waved it in a wide arc and a large wooden hoop appeared several feet away in front of every student. "I mentioned before that one cannot just appear wherever they wish. You must have a clear image of your desired location in your mind. You must concentrate and be determined to get there, or it will not work. Do not rush. Unclear and unfocused movements will only increase your chance of splinching.

"For each of our sessions, you will practice Apparating into the hoop in front of you. Focus your mind on the hoop, and then quickly spin around with the intent of appearing inside of it. Like so."

Twycross created a hoop beside him, pivoted on the spot and with a loud pop!, disappeared from his place in front of the podium and reappeared in the center of the hoop. "Begin."

"Well, here goes nothing," said Harry. He stared intently at the hoop in front of him, then closed his eyes and quickly spun around, only to lose his balance and have to stagger two steps to the left to avoid falling over. He quickly righted himself and glanced around to see he wasn't the only one with a terrible first attempt. Many of the other sixth years had stumbled around on their marked X on the floor.

If Twycross was disappointed that no one managed to move even an inch, he didn't show it. "Come, do not give up. Straighten up and try again."

Ryou did a quick spin and threw his arms out before he wobbled right into Hermione next to him. He felt a bit silly just doing quick spins, but at least everyone else looked to be having the same amount of luck landing in the hoop. Neville ended up landing flat on his back, blinking up at the sunny ceiling sky without any serious desire to clamber back onto his feet and try again. And he wasn't the only one. One of the two large, stocky Slytherin sixth years that Harry and Ron said used to trail Malfoy around managed to trip over his hoop and fall on his face.

A loud CRACK echoed through the hall, followed immediately by a horrible screech of pain, and everyone turned to see poor Hannah Abbott screaming, wobbling on one foot inside her hoop. Her left leg remained standing back where she started on the X.

The professors descended on her at once, blocking off Ryou's line of sight, and with another scream Hannah's leg reattached back to her body. When the teachers moved away again, she stood in the middle of the hoop ashen-faced and trembling. Professor Sprout moved closer, whispered something to her, and with a soothing hand on her back led her out of the Great Hall.

Once the doors closed, Twycross started talking again but Ryou couldn't pay enough attention to hear him. He still stared blankly at Hannah's spot in the room. The professors vanished the blood splatter left from her leg severing, but his mind still saw it there. And there was a lot of it for just a few seconds of Hannah's splinching.

What if he apparated somewhere alone and forgot to take all of him along? He could bleed out and no one would be any wiser. Ryou swallowed nervously and shuddered; he didn't need the thought of dying in the middle of nowhere with an arm or a leg missing right now.

Maybe the Shadow Realm was safer after all….

Sunday evening, Ron glanced up from his Transfiguration essay – or what was supposed to be his essay, the only thing actually written on the page during the last hour was his name, a title, and an opening sentence – to see Harry slowly shuffle back through the portrait hole, and sprang up from their usual table by the fire. Harry hadn't even made it three steps into the common room and Ron could clearly see something wasn't right with his best friend. He had been in Dumbledore's office for most of the evening, doing who knows what. Not the first time they've had what he liked to call their secret little conspiracy meetings. But he didn't remember Harry going off to a meeting recently.

The last one had to be…

Ron frowned. When was it?

…How long has it been? He remembered Harry went to one right around the time Seto returned to the school, but that was weeks and weeks ago. Was that really the last one? Regardless, if Harry's pale face was anything to go by, whatever the two of them talked over in the Headmaster's Tower was far from pleasant.

"Mate – you alright?"

Ryou twisted around and set his quill down against the corner of his workbook. "Oh my! Harry, you look as if you've seen a ghost!" He grabbed hold of one of Harry's arms and guided him down to one of the empty chairs at the table. "What happened to you?"

"Dumbledore happened," Harry said and bit his lip. Ron and Ryou were the only ones at the table. "Where is everyone else?"

"In bed, I'm guessing," said Ryou. "Kaiba made it back to the common room about two minutes before curfew and disappeared to the dormitory without a word to any of us – the norm, you know? – and Hermione and Yugi only went up a short while ago."

"Damn," Harry muttered. "I was hoping we could talk."

"About what?" asked Ron.

"Everything," said Harry. "Professor Dumbledore told me what he was doing all those times he's been away from the castle…and…."

Ryou tilted his head. "…And?"

"Honestly," Harry sighed, "I'm overwhelmed."

"Well, what can we do to help?" asked Ryou.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think there's anything you can do. Not yet. Do you and Yugi and Seto have one of those remedial classes tomorrow night?"

"No, that's Tuesday."

"Good," said Harry. "I think your dorm is still the safest place for us all to meet, and I have a lot to go over."

Yami Bakura phased out of the Millennium Ring to float behind Ryou, arms crossed over his chest, and one eyebrow raised. "Is this the part where you tell us just what these little secret meetings of yours have been about all this time? Going to finally let us in are you?"

"Hey, he hasn't told me either," Ron shot back, "So you're not the only one left in the dark!"

"I haven't told anyone yet, because I didn't have much to go on…and I didn't want to give out anything without knowing all of the details," Harry said carefully. He had meant to tell Ron and Hermione, but it was right in the thick of Kaiba being missing, and there were other more important things to worry about at the time.

Perhaps the way everything played out, it was better he never got around to it. Their first couple of weeks all together in Hogwarts ended up stained with stealth and secrets. All water under the bridge now, but it would be a disservice now to keep Yugi and the others out of the loop after everything that's happened.

"You've never come back from Dumbledore's office this shook up before," said Ron, "What, did he tell you the big secret on how to defeat You-Know-Who or something?"

The look Harry gave him in return was all he needed to know.

"Oh, bloody hell."