A/N: Happy New Year! Thank you all for your patience these last several months. I really did not mean for almost a year to go by (again) without an update. Here's hoping 2023 will not continuously kick me in the face like 2022 did.

Also, I have learned that this site changed their notification policy, apparently, and you have to continuously opt-in to receive alerts every so many months? I know these updates don't come as frequently as we'd all like, but please make sure if you're subscribed to alerts that your settings are toggled properly so you receive them when the new chapters go up!

Thanks again for all of the support!

Chapter 52: Prophecy

"You're looking a little green, Harry," said Yugi the following morning at breakfast. "Are you okay?"

Harry nodded numbly and pushed the bacon around his plate with his fork. "Yeah. I guess."

I guess. Understatement of the morning. How was he supposed to sit down with Yugi and the others and explain the prophecy? And Dumbledore's meetings? After keeping everyone in the dark about most of it the entire year?

Sure Ron and Hermione knew about the prophecy. He knew they hadn't told anyone, and he only spoke briefly about it to Yugi at Ron's house over the summer. No details. He had only just met them then, they couldn't be trusted with information that sensitive; not when they were complete strangers to each other, but also Yugi and Ryou were still trying to adjust to a whole magical world that they didn't even know existed right under their noses. How were they supposed to cope with that at the time?

But now, almost 8 months later? After learning about the Millennium Items and spirits? Of dark priests and shadow magic, and fighting together to save the school from Voldemort? And now especially that no one was secretly possessed by either Voldemort or his new friend the Shadow Magus?

After his last meetings with Dumbledore?

Now was the time.

"He's looked off since getting back to the common room last night," said Ryou.

Hermione took a cursory glance around to be sure no one else at the Gryffindor table sat close enough to eavesdrop. "From your meeting?"

"…Yeah," said Harry, "We all have to talk tonight. After dinner."

Seto didn't bother to look up from his morning copy of The Daily Prophet. "Another peaceless night in the dormitory."

"I mean, it is the most secure spot to talk," said Ron, "you never know who of Ryou's fan club is eavesdropping in the common room."

Ryou almost choked on his orange juice, while Bakura snickered from their soul corridor. "Please, Ron! Don't encourage them, I thought I was more or less in the clear after Christmas!"

"On the contrary," said Hermione. "With the mess that followed us around after the holidays, you've just been too busy to notice. I've confiscated a number of home-brewed love potions last week."

Ryou pushed his plate away and put his head down onto the table. "And Valentine's Day is over! What are they thinking!?"

"One of them was one of Seto's fans, but it looks like she switched targets," said Hermione, "I remember she had tried stalking him in the library in the beginning of term."

"Kaiba, take your fangirl back!" Ryou mumbled.

"Absolutely not."

"I have enough problems as it is," Ryou sniffed. "My spirit is bad enough!"

Ron snickered. "They don't know about him. Right now they're just too afraid Seto will commit another round of high crimes against the school and moved on, mate."

Seto shot him a dark glare before passing the newspaper off to Hermione.

"Anyway…" Harry began, "There's a lot I have to fill you all in on. It…it's so much worse than I initially thought."

Yugi bit his lip. "How much worse?"

Harry dropped his fork unceremoniously onto the table. "I don't even know how to describe it. It's just bad."

Ron cringed. "Bad enough that we ought to start Snape's essay this morning before Herbology?"

"Yeah, there's no Exploding Snap today."

"Bummer."

"Perhaps it will do you both good to start your homework early for a change," said Hermione mildly. "Rather than wait until the last minute."

Ron paused; his food halfway to his mouth. "Hermione!" he said in a scandalized tone, "when has working ahead ever done us any good?"

"I'm just saying," said Hermione, "with…the brunt of things behind us (I hope), it would do us all good to get caught up properly. Especially now that we have Apparition lessons on the weekends."

"It's just one hour," said Harry, and he peered around her to try and get a decent look at a particular section of the Slytherin table. "It's not the entire day."

"But eventually you'll have to prepare for the exam," she said, "and our classes are only getting harder. As it is, I still feel behind, even after spending the extra time to get my outstanding homework finished from when I was in the Hospital Wing."

Ron waved his fork dismissively at her. "Not like we can practice Apparition outside of those lessons anyway."

Yugi caught Harry peering past both his and Hermione's heads and sighed. "Looking for Malfoy again?"

"He's not with Crabbe or Goyle this morning," said Harry, "but I thought I saw him come in earlier."

"That's strange," said Ron, and he too twisted around to take a hard look up and down the Slytherin table. "Why would he lose his muscle?"

"Dunno," Harry murmured.

Ryou nodded towards the end closer to the Great Hall entrance. "He's there, isn't he? With Pansy and…is that Blaise Zabini?"

"Yeah, that's them," said Harry. How convenient he wouldn't have to worry about tracking Malfoy down today. But Malfoy didn't look well at all; even from across the room, Harry could see how uncharacteristically disheveled he was, from the circles under his eyes to his pale face.

Malfoy moved sluggishly. Harry had to wonder if he would even make it all the way up to the Room of Requirement in the first place. Maybe he'd let him be today and just follow Ron back up to the common room following breakfast.

Surely the world wouldn't end with just one day.

It wasn't the first time they've huddled in Yugi's dorm around Hermione's makeshift blue flame-in-a-jar, and it wouldn't be the last time either, but for whatever reason Harry felt like he was transported in time all the way back to the first half of the year, after their inadvertent discovery of Ryou's dark spirit during Defense Against the Dark Arts and the collective tell-all that followed.

Except this time, he wasn't sitting with Ron and Hermione, waiting for Yugi or Bakura to start their tale of the Millennium Items. Roles were reversed, and instead they sat patiently waiting for him to begin. Ron and Hermione sat on either side of him, and he was never more grateful to have them here; he may not have delved into all of the intricate details of Dumbledore's meetings with them, but they at least knew of all of the history between him and Voldemort up to this point, and could help fill in the gaps if he wavered.

Harry glanced over; rather than join them, Seto stayed stretched out on his own, balancing his laptop on his legs. Come to think of it, he's never remembered Kaiba join them on the floor during their impromptu huddles.

Ron, however, seemed to guess Harry's next words and beat him to it. "You gonna get in on this, mate?"

Seto didn't bother to look up. "I can hear you all just fine from here."

Harry shrugged; it wouldn't be the first time Seto seemingly ignored them either. Oh well. He'd chime in if and when he wanted.

A deep breath.

"I…" Harry began, and then looked off to Ron, and then to Hermione, "I…almost don't even know where to start."

"Well, this is about those meetings you've been having with Dumbledore, right?" asked Yami, phased out of the Puzzle and hovering near Yugi's bed.

"Yeah," Harry said, running a hand nervously through his hair, "it's…just there's backstory to it. That you guys won't know."

"How much is there to tell," Bakura said stiffly, and Harry jumped; he didn't realize Ryou's spirit was also lurking about the room, "Voldemort tried to kill you as a baby and it didn't work, and he's spent the last several years plotting revenge and mucking it all up like an idiot."

"He's come close to winning almost every time, you know," Ron shot back hotly.

"Yeah?" Bakura said, unimpressed, "and Kaiba can tell you – it doesn't matter how close you get – a loss is a loss."

Yugi coughed politely. He could see Seto scowling into his laptop, but there was no other rise to that bait.

"In any case," he said, "maybe you can tell us a little more about your fights in the past? Maybe filling in the gaps for us will help with what you're having trouble with."

Hermione nodded. "That's a good idea."

"Okay…." Harry said, and started into an abbreviated tale of his first years at Hogwarts – of Voldemort's first attempt of a return, but too weak to do anything on his own so he had to hide under Professor Quirrell's turban and drink unicorn blood just to survive. The quest for eternal life through the Sorcerer's Stone and the battle fought in the hidden chambers under the school, and how his mother's sacrifice protected him until Dumbledore arrived.

They listened intently through the explanation of Tom Riddle's Diary and the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, and the preserved memory that almost sacrificed Ginny to become whole once more. And of Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban and the discovery that Peter Pettigrew cheated death as Ron's rat—

"Still bitter about that, by the way," Ron interrupted. "Fred and George had that map for who knows how long, and they never told me about Scabbers! That rat slept in my bed!"

"Maybe they never noticed?" Ryou offered, but Ron merely crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.

"…Anyway," Harry started awkwardly, "…yeah, Peter Pettigrew escaped back to Voldemort, and then there was the Tri-Wizard Tournament in our fourth year, where a Death Eater posing as our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Moody, rigged my name into the Goblet of Fire to get me to compete. And then bewitched the tournament cup to send me right to some creepy ritual to revive Voldemort for good."

"But you still have your mother's protection, right?" asked Yugi, "so he can't touch you?"

"No, he can now," said Harry, "because my blood got used in the ritual. They needed blood of the enemy – mine, flesh of the servant, and bone of the father. Pettigrew cut off his own hand, and they revived him in the graveyard where Tom Riddle Senior was buried."

Yugi wrinkled his nose. "Ewww."

Harry nodded. "Yeah."

"You really seem to have a habit of squeaking by through the skin of your teeth, Harry," said Ryou, "that's way too many close calls."

Harry sighed and stared down at the clasped hands in his lap. "….And this brings us to last year. I know we told you about Umbridge and all the things that happened at Hogwarts, but there was a lot that happened behind the scenes…elsewhere."

"Dumbledore did tell us some," said Ryou, "when we first met him. That once Voldemort came back, no one believed the two of you, and, well basically ostracized you from everyone else."

"More or less," said Harry, and he took another deep breath. "…How much do you guys know about the Department of Mysteries?"

"You've mentioned it a few times," said Yugi, "but that was about it. I think you said, back at Ron's house, that there was some sort of weapon there?"

"That's the super abbreviated version, yeah," said Harry. "The Order was investigating rumors of some sort of weapon that Voldemort was after – and it was something he didn't have during the war the first time around. No one knew what it was. But throughout the year I kept getting these visions through my connection to him – and through his snake.

"Eventually we," Harry said, gesturing to Ron and Hermione, "deduced that whatever he was after was hiding in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. And Voldemort used a false vision to lure me out to the Ministry."

"But he didn't get what he was looking for, right?" said Yugi. "He didn't get the weapon."

"No," said Harry grimly, "I nearly got me and my friends killed over it, but no, he didn't get it. It was destroyed in the fight."

"He won't try to find another one though, will he?" asked Ryou.

Harry shook his head. "He can't. There was only one. It…it was a prophecy."

Without even looking behind him, Yugi could sense Kaiba's eye-roll from the other side of the dormitory.

"A prophecy?" asked Yami. "How does one destroy that?"

"It was the physical orb of it," said Hermione, "stored in the Hall of Prophecies. They can only be removed from their shelves by the persons the prophecy was intended for."

"And this one was about you?" asked Yugi.

Harry nodded. "Me and Voldemort."

"Why didn't he just take it and avoid the whole mess of dragging you into it," said Ryou.

"Voldemort was laying low, remember? Most of the Wizarding World was in denial that he was even back in the first place. He couldn't just waltz into the Ministry," said Harry, "…even though, he ended up doing that anyway, in the end. But by then the prophecy had already smashed."

"I see," said Yami. "He needed you to come and retrieve it so he could take it from you by force later."

"That's rather risky," said Bakura, "because whatever information it had to say would just as well benefit you, and there was no guarantee he'd get it back."

"We were severely outmatched," said Hermione, "even with the Order members that showed up later to help. If it weren't for them, we'd all have been killed and he would have made off with it."

"And it's not like he's never heard of it before," Harry added, "Voldemort heard only a piece of the prophecy years ago – it's how he decided to come after me in the first place. But this was his chance to hear the entire thing, and well, he blew it. But it was first recited to Professor Dumbledore and he let me see the memory of it, so I got to hear it all."

"Well what did it say?" asked Yugi, leaning forward.

Harry took another deep breath. "I…I can't recite it word for word, but it more or less said that the one with the power to defeat Voldemort would be born as the seventh month died, and that he'd have powers Voldemort wasn't aware of…and that neither could live while the other survived."

He paused. "And that we'd be the ones to have to off each other."

Yugi and Ryou exchanged glances.

"So only you can defeat Voldemort, and vice versa," Yami mused, "though I feel the deck is horribly stacked against you. With how many run-ins with trouble you've had over the years, it's a surprise nothing else has done you in."

Harry exhaled noisily. "Tell me about it."

"…So…that's why he's kept coming after you all this time," said Ryou. "Even without him knowing the entirety of it, the Pharaoh is right – he does have the advantage. It's just you versus him and his entire Death Eater army!"

Harry bit his lip. "And…this brings us to present. …With my meetings with Dumbledore. He's…been teaching me about Voldemort's past."

"His past?" Yugi blinked. "Like…when he was younger, during the first war?"

Harry shook his head. "No…I mean…before that. Before he was even born."

"Why?" asked Ryou.

"Dumbledore believed that exploring Voldemort's past would uncover certain secrets about him that we'd need to beat him for good," Harry explained, "and he was right. I mean…it didn't start out that way.

"The reason he's been in and out of the castle so much this year was because he was tracking down people who knew Voldemort in the old days – when he was still Tom Riddle. And people who knew his family before he was even born."

"V-Voldemort was a teenager when the Chamber of Secrets opened, and that was just over fifty years ago," said Hermione, "these people must be old, if they're even still alive!"

Harry shook his head. "Most of them have died already. Dumbledore apparently had been working on this a long time. The one he was out of the castle for the most was one of Voldemort's old professors…I think his name was Slughorn or something. Dumbledore said it took a while to agree for him to give up any information because he was ashamed at what he knew."

"So, what, did Dumbledore just pull a Rita Skeeter and interview all these people?" asked Ron.

"No…he acquired their memories," said Harry.

Yugi and Yami exchanged glances.

"I'm sorry, what?" said Yugi.

"Dumbledore has a Pensieve," said Harry, "it's like a big…basin thing. You can review memories in it."

Ryou's eyes blew wide. "But…how do you look at someone else's?"

Harry placed his index finger against his forehead and made a slow dragging motion away from it. "There's a way to draw out and bottle memories. When you put the memory into the basin and dip your head into it, you can visit it, and watch it play out."

"Fascinating!" Yami gasped. "And…you can interact with it?"

"No, just observe."

Yami looked to Yugi. What if there was a way for them to use a pensieve to find missing links to the ancient past? Oh, if Bakura could ever agree to toss out a memory or two, what sort of treasure troves of information could he –

No…Bakura would never agree to give up whatever secrets he held over them. But….

Harry continued on about the first memories he got to witness, from someone who lived during the time of Voldemort's parents and grandfather, but Yami only half-listened, staring across the room at Yugi's trunk, where he knew Yugi kept the Millennium Rod.

Set was just starting to regain a few straggling memories. What if he was able to share what he knew? Even just a few names to match with a face or two would be better than nothing.

…But that would mean Kaiba would have to be willing to let him back out, and he knew better than to ask that again after the last time two days ago. He could only prod so far before Kaiba carried out his threat to melt the Millennium Item down into a paperweight.

"…so Voldemort kept trophies from the kids he tormented when he was little," Bakura said flatly. "Why am I not surprised?"

"That's not all though – those were just the old memories. I got to see Slughorn's the other day," said Harry. "And…"

He frowned.

Hermione tilted her head curiously. "…And?"

"Riddle asked him about something called a Horcrux," said Harry, and he wrinkled his nose, trying to remember how Slughorn explained this to Riddle so he could relay this properly. "And, er…so…committing a murder apparently damages your soul, so if you can separate that portion from the rest of your soul, you can stick it in an object, so then if your body died, you'd continue to live on because there's a bit of you still out there somewhere."

Hermione pursed her lips. "I don't know, Harry, I've never heard of such a thing before."

Ron snorted. "Like you've read everything in the Library. Just because you haven't stumbled upon it doesn't mean it's not real."

"But wait," said Yugi, "if murder splits the soul, wouldn't a lot more people have them? Think of all the murders we're read about in the newspaper just this year alone!"

"It's not just any kind of killing," said Harry. "Like if Ron and I were dueling and he killed me in self defense or something, or if I died protecting him from Voldemort or whoever, it wouldn't count. The person would have to deliberately kill without regret or remorse."

"That still sounds like half of You-Know-Who's inner circle," said Ron.

"Harry said it wasn't just the killing," said Yami, "one must still separate and seal that part of their soul into an object, the actual creation of the Horcrux, which I'm guessing is the more rare and obscure knowledge – especially if that professor seemed ashamed of even knowing about it."

"…That really puts things into perspective," Yugi said thoughtfully, and turned to Ryou, and then to Seto, but the latter still seemed just as disinterested in joining them, so he twisted back to the group. "Remember Dumbledore told us that Voldemort was seeking ways to live forever. And if he had a Horcrux and no one knew about it, then he really could be immortal!"

"So did he?" Ryou asked. "Actually create one, I mean."

"Dumbledore believes so," said Harry, "and it fits into place. Remember my first year here, and that Voldemort was stuck on the back of Quirrell's head? He was still barely alive, but didn't have a body of his own, because it was destroyed the night he killed my parents."

"But you also said that Quirrell died in that chamber under the school," said Bakura, "So without anything to tether to, that part of Voldemort's soul should have died with him."

Harry shook his head. "No…Voldemort left Quirrell's body before he died, and he was just some spirit. I think…if I remember right…that night in the graveyard when he first got his body back and he was boasting off to his Death Eaters, he mentioned something about how he was barely alive. By the time they performed that ritual to fully revive him, he was more of a thing, so somehow they got him a husk of a body to use."

"So it seems the key to destroying Voldemort…is to rid him of his Horcrux, so when you defeat him and ultimately fulfil that prophecy, he is gone for good," said Yami.

"But it could be anything," said Ron, "how are you – or even Dumbledore – supposed to pin down what it is?"

"Haven't you been paying attention?" Seto said, "that's the whole reason Dumbledore's been on a memory hunt all year. None of them are going to explicitly show Voldemort split his soul in half so you're need to know how his mind works to figure it out for yourselves."

He shifted the laptop off of his legs and eyed the group. "The question you should be asking right now isn't just what he turned into a Horcrux or even where they are. It's how many did he make, because I truly doubt he would have created just one."

"That's just it," said Harry, "We had to cut the meeting short because Dumbledore was still on the hunt for another memory…but he's certain that Voldemort made several – and that a few of them are already destroyed."

"Really?" Yugi gasped. Yami's brow furrowed pensively, and the frown on his face grew larger.

"Remember the diary I told you about – the one that Ginny used to open the Chamber of Secrets when Tom Riddle's memory possessed her? Dumbledore believed Riddle's memory to be a Horcrux within the diary and the basilisk fang that I stabbed through the book destroyed it. And Dumbledore found an old ring that belonged to Voldemort's family."

Harry held up his right hand. "He told me he managed to get rid of the Horcrux in it, but not without paying the price."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "Is that what happened to his hand? I thought it looked cursed…."

Yami clenched his hand into a fist and started pacing the length of the room. "Something doesn't quite add up here."

Ron twisted around to face him. "What d'you mean?"

Yami paused near the foot of Seto's bed. "Well…we're just learning about this, but clearly Dumbledore has been doing all of this research and questing for some time, and feels that this is the right moment to share it with us, or at least you, Harry. But…if Voldemort had a Horcrux, or even several, he must have had them for years. So clearly he had already satisfied his quest for immortality, even before he sought out that Sorcerer's Stone. …So why, when Dumbledore first paid us a visit over the summer, did he tell us that Voldemort was after the Millennium Items as a way to cheat death when he had already done it?"

"Because the war isn't black and white," said Seto. Echoes of his interrogation over dinner back in that dusty study whispered through his mind, and he suppressed the cold shiver coursing down his spine. "We know the Millennium Items don't make you immortal. None of Ishizu's scriptures or ancient fairytales passed through the ages made mention of it. But there were stories about Shadow Games. Voldemort was looking for the power. It just took him a long time to realize he couldn't do anything with it."

"Then why would Dumbledore tell you otherwise?" said Ron.

Seto glared at him. "Because Dumbledore has his own motives. Maybe he was interested too, and just knew how to be subtle about it."

"I don't see Professor Dumbledore as the type of person to go power-mad," said Hermione.

"On the contrary," said Bakura, "he painted a nice rosy picture of Voldemort as a monster from the very beginning, and himself as a beacon of trust. And what was one of the first things he had us reveal to him?"

"The Millennium Items," Ryou said softly. "We told him about them…almost right away…."

Seto swung his legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward. "Voldemort definitely had an interest in us – but I don't think he was the first, not in the way that Dumbledore presented this whole world to us."

"So what, are you saying that Dumbledore is going to try for the Millennium Items right out from under our noses?" said Yugi.

"I'm saying that between Dumbledore, Voldemort, and the Ministry – who, don't forget, may still possess a number of old Orichalcos rocks – we can't trust anyone."

Seto turned to both Yugi and Ryou. "Don't forget we were being watched. So was Roland and your grandfather and your friends. We still don't know by who. But Dumbledore pulled us from home and put us right where he could keep an eye on us. By your accounts of last year, there is no logical reason Umbridge should be back teaching, yet here she is. Wasn't she a decent enough spy for the Ministry last year?

"And don't forget Voldemort – who was two steps too late to get us in Domino before term started, so he bided his time until we went home. And what was his plan? To break the wards around the school so he could get his hands on whatever – or whoever – he wanted."

Hermione got to her feet and hugged wrung her hands together. "But…what would Professor Dumbledore want from you?"

"Our allegiance," said Yami, "and he's already got it. Whether these were his motives or not, his curiosity about the Millennium Items, even if he was sincere in protecting us from Voldemort, pulled us into your war. And, well, especially now that we've seen what Voldemort is capable of and already done to us, Dumbledore knows we'll end up trying to help put a stop to him."

"No, he doesn't," said Bakura scathingly, "we don't have to stay here. We're not prisoners. There is nothing stopping any of us from turning our backs on this war and going home. The Millennium Ring is more than enough to protect my host from this mess."

"You, perhaps, but if we were truly being watched through the Orichalcos adventure, or even after, then they already know that we will do what we can to put a stop to these messes," said Yami. "But we are in just as much danger going home as staying here. And our friends are no safer now than when we first left."

"And," said Harry, looking at Bakura, "you may be able to protect Ryou, and even his friends if you're ever feeling generous about it, but how long are you going to let Ryou be the target of attack before enough is enough?"

"The right thing to do is to see this through to its conclusion," said Yugi. "Wherever it takes us."

"So what do we do now?" asked Ryou.

"Dumbledore wants to meet again on Friday – he said he should have the last memory he wanted to show me then," said Harry, "and then…who knows…."

Ron stood and leaned up against Ryou's bed. "I suppose…in the meantime…we ought to try and figure out what the Ministry wants with you lot. Won't be easy, with Umbridge watching us nonstop since the Astronomy Tower, but…."

"She's not watching all of us," Seto snapped, "considering only one of us tried blowing up the Astronomy Tower with her in it."

"That's hardly fair and you know it, Kaiba," said Yami, "and since the Ministry long-finished that investigation she's got nothing to stand on."

Seto rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you go ahead and tell her that."

"I'm sure if Umbridge really is up to some of her old tricks that there are clues in her office," said Hermione, "but until we can come up with a way of getting in without getting caught, I think we still need to address the one person we haven't mentioned that's also part of this mess."

"Who?" said Ron.

Hermione turned to Yugi and Yami, purposely avoiding Seto's general direction. "The Shadow Magus. He came later, didn't he? We still don't know how he fits into this. Is he using V-Voldemort for resources and really acting alone? Or will he use his powers to turn the tide of the war against the Ministry and the Order?"

"Good luck finding that out," said Ron.

Yugi took a hesitant step forward. One wrong word and they were all likely to get reamed the riot act for the next week.

"Kaiba," he began slowly, and took another tiny step towards his rival's bed. Seto didn't seem to pay attention to him, his eyes were locked on the trunk at the foot of his bed, jaw visibly tensed.

"Kaiba?" Yugi said again, and blue eyes snapped up to meet violet ones. "Has…well…you remember those night fits you were having in the beginning of the year, right?"

"It's a bit hard to forget having your brain near picked apart."

"Right, stupid question. But – since Christmas, they haven't come back, right?"

"No."

"Figures," Harry said, "that was one of the only ways we could reach him."

Seto got up and took a furious step towards him, and Harry quickly waved his hands out, backpedaling. "Not to say that he should come back, because that's bad. But your interactions with him are the only clues we have."

Hermione stepped uneasily between the two of them. "I think we should put this to rest for tonight. We all got a huge dump of information to absorb, and…I for one want to try and make some sense of it."

"Read as – she's going to spend tomorrow in the Library trying to research Horcruxes," said Ron, and received a huffy glare in response.

"A good night's sleep will be good for all of us," said Yugi, "until the end of the week, where we'll find out something, hopefully, let's try and come up with ways to get into Umbridge's office that don't involve Bakura using the Shadow Realm."

Bakura scowled. "Why is this suddenly a problem?"

"Umbridge caught us in her office last year," Harry reminded him, "She's been leaving the school less and less, and it wouldn't surprise me if she had the office rigged in some way. Especially after seeing you use the Shadow Realm in action."

Bakura huffed, grumbled something unintelligible under his breath and disappeared.

"He didn't –"

"No, he's back in the Millennium Ring," Ryou said. "But I'm with Yugi and Hermione – we'll figure something out in the next few days. I'm beat."

They said their goodbyes to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and the instant the three of them were out of the room, Seto grabbed his shower kit and moved towards the bathroom. Yugi waited for the shower to kick on before he crossed the room and opened Seto's trunk.

"What are you doing?" Ryou asked, darting nervous glances towards the door, as if Kaiba would appear that very instant.

"I just wanted to see what had him so distracted before," said Yugi. He peered down at the topmost contents.

Books, a thick envelope full of what he assumed to be Kaiba Corp documents, and a long, bundle wrapped in what he recognized as the scarf his grandfather got him for Christmas. What was that doing in Kaiba's trunk?

"Isn't that yours?" Ryou asked.

"Yeah," said Yugi. He reached down and jostled the bundle until the handle edge of the Millennium Rod poked out from within the scarf. "This was in my trunk. I…I wonder if this is the first step to Kaiba reconnecting with Set. I wasn't going to give it back to him until he asked for it."

"You know it's possible that Kaiba might never have asked for it back," said Yami, "but the fact that he took it on his own is a huge step forward. Perhaps we'll see Set sooner rather than later."

Yugi tucked the end of the Rod back into the scarf and closed the lid of the trunk. Well, thankfully house scarves were issued to them; he couldn't bear staying outside the castle for long periods without one; the winter air was far too frigid.

"Maybe; I think we all dropped enough hints over the last few weeks, Pharaoh," Yugi said firmly. "I won't push him anymore and I won't have you doing it either."

"Alright," said Yami, "but we've lost so much time already. I can only hope that we're not too late in discovering what the Shadow Magus has in store, for us and this war."