Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

1 .

Ron blamed Hermione. Hermione blamed Ron. Harry wasn't sure who to blame, but he couldn't exactly complain. After all, they'd all agreed when Ron had proposed the idea while they'd wondered just what to do in the world after chasing Horcruxes for a year.

After all, chasing down five Horcruxes was a good testament of their hunting skills. Better still, they had one of Hogwarts' famous Seekers on their team. Hunting and seeking… They went hand in hand and they'd take anything from a lost toad (testament to Neville) to the Horcruxes of another Dark Lord.

Preferably not more Horcruxes.

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2.

To be fair, their client didn't call them Horcruxes, but they sounded similar enough that it really came down to semantics… or a language barrier, since their client spoke Arabic.

Their client was also a ghost, but they'd gone to Hogwarts which was teeming with ghosts. The Arabic was the issue. Luckily, they'd had a phone fit in their office at Hermione's insistence and all she had to do was call an online interpreting service. Problem solved.

But Millennium Items made from the destruction of an ancient Egyptian village and could lead to the resurrection of a god was… serious.

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3.

The Millennium Items had quite the story to them. An ancient Egyptian Pharaoh had wielded them in order to seal away the Shadow Games. Ninety-nine people in a thieving village were sacrificed for it – and whatever their crimes, surely they didn't deserve complete annihilation?

Then the village's sole survivor sold his soul to the devil for revenge against the pharaoh. And the ensuring quarrel between the two lasted five thousand years until their present day reincarnations took up two of the seven Millennium Items and began the endgame.

They ended it. The Pharaoh won and the souls were set free.

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4.

Then came the second part of the tale. Someone decided it was a good idea to dig up the Valley of the Kings where the Pharaoh had passed to the underworld and all those magical items were buried. They'd been after one particular item but that didn't stop the other six from scattering into the world… Including the most dangerous out of the seven, the one who contained the soul who'd sold himself to the devil.

And that one couldn't be contained without sealing them all. Which meant finding the other six and dealing with someone possessed by a demon.

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5.

They agreed. Of course they agreed because something akin to another Voldermort was the sort of trouble they couldn't allow to brew. And they knew firsthand how destructive those Horcruxes could be. What they could do in the wrong hands, and in the right hands… In any hands that didn't destroy them immediately, really.

Finding them wasn't going to be a walk in the park, though. Magic had its limitations, as they'd discovered that year on the run. As they discovered now, standing in the middle of Domino City and becoming increasingly frustrated with every failed summoning spell while waiting.

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6.

Their first stop was Kaiba Mokuba, acting CEO of game cooperation: Kaiba Corp. His company (and the CEO proper) had been involved in the excavation of the Millennium Items. They also had the world's largest sales in anything duelling related.

It was pretty popular even in England, but none of them were really the card game type and didn't know it.

Though Ron in particular was in awe when he saw the spread of cards. 'And those are only the dime a dozen stuff,' Mokuba laughed. 'There's some one of a kind's out there, too. Like my brother's Blue-Eyes series.'

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7.

Business began once Ron stopped oogling at the cards, and that wasn't until Mokuba rolled his eyes good-naturedly and gave them all a few complimentary packs.

Hermione, wisely, stuffed them in her pocket space before Ron could tear them open. Harry just sighed, knowing he'd be seeing a lot of those cards in the future. Maybe Dudley would pick up the game instead. It was muggle, after all. Something for his cousin and best friend to bond over.

Except it seemed the card game was a little more relevant than that. 'In ancient Egypt, the people fought via. card duels…'

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8.

Ancient Egypt was ridiculous.

Then again, the magical world was ridiculous sometimes too. Harry had proven that himself, after all, deciding their fate with a simple disarming spell.

The Ancient Egyptians decided their fates with card games and magical items created in blood rituals.

Honestly, using a thousand souls for seven little trinkets made Voldermort's horcruxes look tame. Hermione and Ron seemed to agree. Hermione looked green. Ron looked white under his freckles.

Harry wondered which colour he'd turned.

Mokuba wasn't looking at them at all, instead pulling up pictures on the projector. An ancient tablet. And then seven photos.

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9.

The Millennium Items were fancy looking things. Again, Harry was reminded of Voldermort, who'd taken treasures of the magical world and turned them into containers for his soul. Except these treasures had been moulded from pure gold.

And they weren't Hocruxes. Not really. There were at least three different souls scattered about the seven. Three different figures locked in a five thousand year old battle.

The Pharaoh inside the puzzle had won, Mokuba said. The Pharaoh with the spiky hair who'd shared a body with the current Duel Champion to pull it off.

Not possessed, but shared. A critical difference.

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10.

And then finally, their current predicament. The good guys won, finally, and the Pharaoh was the last departed soul to wander into the Afterlife after some fancy duel ritual, and then the items were buried.

And then excavated some years later because someone couldn't leave the past well enough. Which they thought would be harmless because they'd only taken the Puzzle, only the good Pharaoh's soul container… But then someone swooped in and stole the others.

And they proved the Pharaoh could come back.

Which meant the whole debacle could start all over again.

Finally, Mokuba sighs. 'And that's that.'

Chapter Text

11.

'Where's the puzzle now?' Hermione asked first, and finally.

'In space,' Mokuba replies sheepishly. 'Sorry, my brother's really stubborn about duelling the Pharaoh again.'

They groaned. Magic could do a lot of things, but they're all pretty sure they can't apparate into space quite yet.

'Figures,' Ron grumbled. 'We're walking completely blind.'

'We do have the Ring,' Mokuba offered.

'Right,' said Hermione, cutting Ron off. 'We'll need that.'

'It's…' Mokuba hedged. 'It's got this tendency to possess anyone who touches it.'

Sounded like the locket. That was one of his least favourite Hocruxes. And he'd had one in his head.

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12.

Hermione whipped out the dragonhide gloves, then considered them. They’d never tried handling the hocruxes with dragonhide gloves, and Mokuba’s method of using robotic arms seemed to work better.

At least when no-one was in contact with those robotic arms, anyway. The moment Ron, fascinated with the robots, touched one, the theory was blown out the window.

Harry had his wand out and a banishment charm on his lips before Hermione could draw her own. It did the job too, though perhaps not elegantly.

Hermione fixed the damage with a neat reparo. Mokuba gaped at the blatant display of magic.

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13.

Thank goodness the Statue of Secrecy had been rewritten, otherwise the owls would’ve been knocking them down for that. But they were a recognised company dealing with magical artefacts, and this came under some blanket agreement only Hermione really understood.

Harry didn’t worry about things like that. Neither did Ron, even if he was nursing his head and spitting out apologies and thank yous. Hermione did. They figured she was still looking to rewrite the Ministry, even if Kingsley was doing a decent job. Harry… He’d just be happy once Auror training was over. Hunting evil artefacts became nice breaks. Though the fact that the ring had vanished after that display was somewhat bitter.

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14.

‘So that’s a Millennium Item.’ Ron is still a little breathless. ‘Merlin, that was worse than the locket.’

Harry was inclined to accept Ron’s assessment on that, considering the red-head was the one who wound up destroying it… And the one probably most affected by it too.

Hermione hummed. She probably agreed too. She was looking towards the ring anyway… And why was it even called a ring, when it looked more like a pendant with pokey things dangling off? Rings went around people’s fingers!

Mokuba shrugged. ‘I’m not that interested in history. You could probably ask Mutou Sugoroku-san though.’

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15.

They did ask Mutou Sugoroku-san, who turned out to be the elderly owner of Kame Game, a modest little card shop. Which mightn’t have been their best move, but was still far smoother than Xenophilius Lovegood.

He just talked a lot, and got off track a little, and mentioned a grandson so many times, they almost wondered if he was dead instead of buying tomatoes.

Because it certainly didn’t take all afternoon to buy tomatoes. ‘We can look?” Harry offered, a little tentatively because finding people was a whole other kettle of fish – but he’d be damned leaving this alone.

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16.

To their surprise, the old man just laughed. ‘That’s my Yugi,’ he said affectionately. ‘Always distracted by an adventure. You might meet him anyway, looking for ancient Egyptian artefacts. You are looking for ancient Egyptian artefacts, right?’

At that moment, the trio wondered just how much the old man knew about the items. Hermione made the mistake of asking.

They were treated to a long lecture that lasted well past (and, at least, included) dinner, which possibly only Hermione paid any real attention to. Some of it was interesting, and Harry found himself intermittently listening… but he’d never liked history.

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17.

They had a list of names, in the end. Old owners of the Items but that didn’t really help them locating them now.

Still, after the Ring had vanished into thin air and left them high and dry, it might be a good idea to see them anyway, to know what sort of effects they had. So Hermione pointed out anyway, and she always was their voice of reason.

Or almost always, anyway. Harry and Ron didn’t pluck their embarrassing stories store out of nowhere, after all.

But her idea was sound, especially since scrying was a thing of Muggle fantasy and not a reality in the magical world quite yet.

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18.

Two of them were in Egypt, where they’d have to visit due to the tablet anyway, but some were in Japan and that was far easier. They were already there, after all.

Finding Mutou Yugi was probably going to be one of the harder ones, sans Kaiba Seto somewhere in space. So those two were back-benched. That left Pegasus J. Crawford, who Mokuba promised to get them a meeting slot with (being another company CEO), and Bakura Ryou who was currently studying archaeology at Domino University.

And then there was the ghost who had commissioned them in the first place.

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19.

The ghost hadn’t been kind enough to leave them a forwarding address, nor had he mentioned that he’d once been the owner of two of the Millennium Items he’d commissioned them to find.

Ron in particular grumbled about elusive ghosts, but they all shared the sentiment. And that meant they really only had one lead until next week, because Pegasus J. Crawford wasn’t in any particular hurry to see them (since the world wasn’t in any acute crisis, apparently).

So they checked out Domino University and its archaeology department.

Then, to Ron’s delight, the cafeteria because Ryou was eating lunch.

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20.

He blinked and stared at them: three foreigners who’d stopped at his otherwise empty table.

And they were surprised to see he didn’t look entirely Japanese himself. Maybe he was half? Or an immigrant? Or just studying at the university…

While Harry’s mind drifted, Hermoine introduced them. Still bemused, Ryou offered them a seat and food, and they happily accepted.

Things were calm until they mentioned the Millennium Ring. Then Ryou’s face paled and his shoulders stiffened.

                ‘I don’t know where the Ring is.’

                ‘We have it,’ Hermione hurried to reassure.

Ryou’s face lost what was left of its colour. 

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21.

‘I don’t – ‘ He stopped, aborted, and started again. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

And he was gone before they even registered him getting up. Ron stared at the doors, then the food at the table. ‘Should we chase him or wait for him?’

‘Which direction did he go?’

Ron groaned and reached for a pudding. ‘You’re a witch, remember.’

Hermione blushed, a kick-back to their first year as she pulled out her wand (after a discreet check, of course. The cafeteria was mostly empty, and Harry could cover her wand hand easily enough.)

‘Point me Ryou Bakura.’

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22.

They never talked about people possessed by Hocruxes long term. There wasn’t anyone, really. Except for Harry but Harry didn’t count because he hadn’t been possessed, for the most part. Nagini counted, but Nagini had lost her mind and sense of self far too long ago to tell them anything of her experience.

And she was a snake. Human minds were far sterner… and far more fragile.

They never talked about it. But sometimes they thought. Especially Harry. What he could have been. What he could have turned into.

Maybe Ryou Bakura’s knee-jerk reaction to the Ring was close enough.

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23.

When they found him, he was crying. The three of them shared awkward looks at that… Because they were all awful at dealing with people crying.

So they left and came back the next day, hoping Ryou wouldn’t see them and run the other way.

He didn’t. He just offered them chocolate bars.

Harry wondered if food was a comfort for him, or if he’d been so desperately starving at one point it had become a lifeline.

Ryou followed his line of thought. Or maybe just his gaze. ‘Sometimes, I’d be in the Shadow Realm for months at a time.’

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24.

The Shadow Realm, after a few tentative questions, sounded very much to Harry like that weird limbo place he’d met Professor Dumbledore in. The one he’d wound up in when Voldermort had killed his own horcrux instead of him. That place that was neither life nor death.

But it wasn’t like that, after a few more questions. It was a nightmare one couldn’t get out of. A darkness that went on forever. And the only light in there was the one that came from their rescuers, in a place where hope was nothing more than fleeting sparks till they’re saved.

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25.

Ryou was munching on another chocolate bar as he wrapped up his explanation of the Shadow Realm, but even Ron who never turned down free food was looking a little green. So was Harry, who could understand a little better than the other two, even if it hadn’t been a problem for years…

Still, the day he woke up and realised he was starting to look like his cousin had been a scare. (Still, he’d never approached his cousin’s previous body habitus – not dissimilar to a whale).

Hermione was probably preoccupied with the cavities. Two dentists’ daughter through and through.

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26.

They didn’t learn much about the capabilities of the Ring, in the end. Just the malevolent spirit who’d lived in it, hijacked the poor guy’s body, caused damaged that couldn’t always be repaired and left holes like swiss cheese.

All of them were also sure there were some things left out of the tale, but they didn’t push. They probably didn’t need to know that stuff. And the spirit stuff was useful. A being completely enveloped by Zorc, like Nagini had drowned in Voldermort. Or Bellatrix, or some of his other Death Eaters.

He’s still somewhat amazed the Malfoys didn’t.

Chapter Text

27.

They thanked Ryou and sent him off with a sneak cheering charm, because they all feel bad (and they don’t all want to just cast on a whim, because overpowered cheering charms are a torture in themselves).

That left them with some time to kill (with ghost-hunting and the good old paper research) until their scheduled meeting with Pegasus J Crawford.

They left Hermione to the latter, while Harry and Ron walked down the unfamiliar streets. ‘How do you even look for a ghost anyway?’ Ron complained.

Harry shrugged. Usually they just asked other ghosts, but Domino City wasn’t Hogwarts.

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28.

They didn’t find Shadi. They did, however, find some things from the museum, and a few names that led them right back to the university and Ryou Bakura.

He was far happier when they weren’t inquiring about the Ring, and helpfully introduced them to the papers and professors they needed. Knowledge that may have been too much, or not enough, or unimportant leaves in a forest but Hermione was meticulous like that. And she soaked it all up like a sponge.

She must have gotten something useful out of it too, because her next plan of attack was visiting Egypt.

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29.

‘Echoes,’ she explained excitedly. ‘We can follow the echoes. All the Millennium Items originated from the Valley of the Kings. That’s their birthplace and their resting place too, so their presence is strongest there. It’s like how the hocruxes were linked to Hogwarts –‘

‘That’s a bit of a stretch,’ Ron said sceptically.

‘Not really, since it’s true,’ Harry shrugged. ‘But that was more Tom’s sentimentality.’

Ron snorted.

‘What?’

‘You just called You Know Who – ‘

‘For heaven’s sake, Ron.’

‘ – all right, Voldermort, sentimental.’

‘Well,’ Harry shrugged again. ‘He was. Trinkets from the four Founders. And a diary?’

‘Point.’

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30.

They went to Egypt. It wasn’t too much trouble, for two wizards and a witch (no more so than going to Japan, anyway). The Valley of the Kings proved a little harder to find.

Luckily, they had contacts. Kind of. It might have been smarter to actually ask for a referral, but at least once they got to Ishizu Ishtar, things were smoother sailing. Kind of.

‘I’ve been expecting you,’ was the first thing she said.

‘Can she see the future or something?’ Ron muttered.

Hermione rolled her eyes. She still was a firm disbeliever of Divination (with few exceptions).

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31.

Ishizu explained about the Millennium Necklace. ‘It once afforded me the ability to see the future.’

‘So it was Divination,’ Ron muttered.

‘But then I had a duel with Seto Kaiba, and he proved that my visions could be overcome.’ She was smiling as she said it. It must have been a bad vision, then. Or a vision that led to other, bad, ones. ‘Still, I learned much from the Necklace. And much from the events that transpired around the Items.’ Her expression was sombre, as she added: ‘And lost much, as well. And the items… simply won’t stay asleep.’

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32.

It sort of was like Voldermort. The Items had a sordid history and it turned out little of it was in the museum… and Ryou Bakura had told them little as well.

‘Honestly, I’m not sure how much he remembers,’ Ishizu confessed. ‘We all decided it was best to not poke that bear. There were many victims, but he and my brother were the ones to lose the most. Both of them… lost themselves, as well.’

‘Lost themselves?’ Harry repeated. ‘Like the Imperius?’

Hermione jabbed him in the ribs, for using magical terms before a Muggle.

However, Ishizu surprised them.

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33.

‘No, not like Imperius. Nor like a Dementor’s kiss. Though you could certainly cause it a culling of the soul, and a possession.’

The three gaped at her. Imperius was Harry’s slip, but none of them had mentioned Dementors.

‘I suppose the best way to explain it would be the Hocrux corrupting a living person… at least in my brother’s case. He began as himself and twisted, and eventually an entirely separate being emerged.’

‘Like Tom and the diary,’ Harry breathed, feeling sick. Ron was white behind his freckles at the reminder.

‘Tom?’ Ishizu asked.

‘Voldermort.’ Hermione rubbed her brow.

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34.

‘And Bakura?’ Hermione asked.

‘Most is not for me to tell,’ Ishizu replied. ‘Be careful though, if the Millennium Ring is anywhere near his vicinity. Whatever relationship those two share, he loses his autonomy where the Ring is concerned. If the Puzzle is the antithesis of Zorc, then the Ring is his heart and the spirit within it is undeniably its vessel. And it leaves a wake of tragedy to sculpt its host.’

That left out the details, but they could imagine it easily enough, and it was sickening: orchestrating someone’s life so they’d be the perfect shell to inhabit.

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35.

‘I’ve said too much,’ Ishizu closed her eyes, ‘perhaps. But you may wind up facing Zorc at some point in your quest, so you had to know.’

And then she led them into the Valley of the Kings, for the same reason. Sacred ground her family guarded, but had been traversed by many strangers in her time. ‘Over the last five thousand years, many people have sought the tomb and some have even found it,’ she explained. ‘In time, the Millennium Items were removed from the stone upon which they rested. And then returned. And now, they’ve been taken again.’

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36.

‘Who took them?’ Hermione asked. ‘We haven’t been able to find that out.’

‘A child of the Plana,’ Ishizu replied. ‘There are many legends around the Nameless Pharaoh, but the one in question told of a great power – the power called the Plana – that could reshape the world once the Pharaoh returned to the Underworld. However, should the Pharaoh come back over to this world, then humankind was deemed unworthy of that power and it would be taken away. And indeed that was what occurred – though, ironically, in part because those with the power sought to prevent the Pharaoh’s return.’

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37.

‘Another self-fulfilling prophecy,’ Hermione sighed, as they moved deeper into the tomb. ‘Though I wonder if, in this case, it wasn’t for the best. Still, it sounds like their intentions weren’t exactly bad.’

‘No,’ Ishizu agreed. ‘They just unleashed something that had been sealed away in the process. Though it was inevitable, really. Fate, as curiosity or coincidence, would have led someone to the tomb again. It would have happened eventually. I think better it happens in this generation, where the knowledge in its entirety still exists, than later once it’s been lost.

‘Though it’s easy for me to say.’

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38.

In the end, they found knowledge but no more Items. Ishizu didn’t know where they were, and they weren’t in the Valley of the Kings. Hermione recast her spells and they followed the signals to a pyramid that had been buried some years ago.

‘Bill would love this,’ Ron mused, as they carefully work out where they can Apparate without getting themselves stuck in aged sand or stone. Harry helps, because his aim is the best of all of them, and Hermione’s busy surfing the net for information about the pyramid they’ve found themselves at.

Cursed, apparently. Bill’d love it.

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39.

The pyramid reminds them of the obstacle course they endured to find the Philosopher’s stone, and the maze in their fourth year. It’s testing them; the trio can see that plainly… and, thankfully, they pass the test. It’s a challenge, because only Ron knows anything about capsule monsters, but they still have their wands and their ingenuity and each other.

When they face the final challenge, the cruel king, they realise how important that unity is.

The surprise element doesn’t hurt, when their opponents can use monsters but not magic.

It’s especially satisfying to use Wingardium Leviosa as the finishing move.

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40.

Their opponent turned out to be Alexander the Great, and the name doesn’t mean much to the pureblood Ron. His relevance in their quest is another story.

He, it turned out, also held the Millennium Ring at some point.

“It sure got around,” Ron muttered.

“It is rather promiscuous,” Alexander agreed. “Some say because it houses a Thief king – because, technically, it was stolen from its true owner and never returned.”

“One could argue,” Hermione mused afterwards, “though that the Thief was the true owner of all the Millennium Items, as they were made from the blood of his people.”

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41.

At the entrance to the pyramid, they unexpectedly met a girl. “I’ve been waiting.”

“You are..?” Hermione asked.

“Sara.” Her braids flutter in the island wind, revealing a strange necklace on her throat. “I saw a shadow threatening to rise, so I have come to offer you a hint.”

She stepped closer, passing Ron and Hermione, and places a dainty hand on Harry’s chest.

“Power is not what saves the world,” she said. “You already know that.”

“I do,” Harry agrees. They all did. “It’s love.”

“Darkness threatens to kill love.” The girl smiles. “The key lives in the river.”

Chapter Text

42.

‘The key lies in the river,’ Hermione muttered to herself. ‘What does that mean?’

‘The Nile?’ Harry suggested. ‘Though it’s a huge river. It’d be impossible to find anything.’

‘Maybe she meant it literally,’ was Ron’s suggestion, and he glanced quickly around, made sure there were no onlookers, and whipped out his wand. ‘Accio key.’

Nothing came.

Hermione sighed. ‘Lucky you didn’t summon every house key in the vicinity,’ she said, before she brightened. ‘Maybe by key, she meant the ankh.’

‘The millennium item?’ the boys asked, together.

Hermione looked at Ron.

Obligingly, he brandished his wand again. ‘Accio Ankh.’

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43.

A summoning charm would have been too easy, probably. And they could think of no better places to search than the Nile so they found themselves, a little reminiscent of the cave with the Hocruxes, in a little boat scanning the bottom of the river.

Harry was right; it was too big. But they were two wizards and a witch and even if a summoning charm didn’t help and they weren’t game enough to try gillyweed in the famous Nile, they had other means to search the bottom of the river.

Doesn’t mean they’d found anything, three sun-baked days later.

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44.

On the fourth night, Harry had a dream. He was in a maze of some sort, something that made the third task of the Triwizard Tournament and the Department of Mysteries both seem like childs play. Or perhaps it was only because there’d been an end in sight, for those. And a goal he’d been moving towards.

This time, there were just doors upon doors, and he couldn’t even work which way was up or down.

He wished he had his broom.

And then suddenly, he did. But it didn’t help him orientate any better –

Until he flew into someone.

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45.

Professor Quirrel had put him off turbans entirely, but somehow it didn’t look out of place in this man. More distracting, though, was what he held in his hands.

What two things he held in his hands, rather. A key and a pair of scales, both made from gold.

Two of the Millennium Items, then.

But when curiosity got the better of him and he reached out to touch, they were transparent. So was the man.

‘I am Shadi,’ he said. ‘And the gods of death may have put their trust in you, but I have come to see myself.’

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46.

Harry wasn’t sure what Shadi saw, but he awoke in the morning with a sense of purpose. He couldn’t explain it to Hermione either, much to her frustration, but they were happy enough to abandon their fruitless searching and accompany him.

They trekked across the desert instead, to a long abandoned city that stank of death. “Kul Elna,” Hermione whispered, shuddering, and they remembered that city from what Bakura Ryou had told them before, and shuddered as well.

But they’d come for a reason, regardless, and in an underground cellar with a huge empty vat, they found the Millennium Ring.

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47.

‘So I had the items wrong.’

Neither Ron nor Harry had brought it up, but Hermione seemed to be taking it hard anyway.

‘Still,’ Ron comforted, ‘it’s a Millennium Item, isn’t it? One item down! And there must be a reason we were led to this one. I mean, Harry basically woke one morning and marched us here.’

Harry scratched his head. ‘I’m still not entirely sure why myself,’ he admits. ‘Shadi said he was testing me, but I don’t recall the test itself. I just had the urge to come this way.’

‘I guess you passed the test then.’

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48.

Harry held the ring gingerly. Knowing it housed a genocidal thief didn’t make it particularly easy to wear, nor did the thorn-like decorations that dangled from it.

Fleetingly, he wondered if Bakura Ryou carried scars from those, but that would have been a rude question to ask. He knew better, wearing scars himself: the bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, and the words permanently etched into his right hand.

He felt a sudden stab of pain, and then heard a curse echo in his ears. ‘So you’re not going to let me in, new landlord.’

‘Nope, definitely not,’ Harry said automatically.

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49.

Harry didn’t often count his experiences against Voldermort as lucky, but one good thing that had come out of it was the occulomency (once he got past the fact that it had cost him both Sirius and Dobby). But without that, the Thief King would have had free reign over his mind, and given that he’d sold his soul to Zorc some three thousand years ago, that would arguably have spelt the end of the world.

Hermoine and Ron were reluctant to let him keep the ring anyway, given what had happened with the locket last time. They did, though.

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50.

Along the shore of the Nile, the ring began pointing. Harry asked the spirit if it knew where. It stayed stubbornly silent.

They followed the ring, given they had no better leads. Caught another boat to do it, too. Eventually, they found themselves at an excavation site. And they weren’t the only ones there.

The spirit laughed, suddenly. ‘I might have known. Kaiba Seto.’

Harry repeated the name. Hermione pointed at the logo on the jacket of each man, and the one who wasn’t in uniform above them all. That must be Kaiba Seto – or Seto Kaiba, in English, then.

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51.

Seto Kaiba, it turned out, wasn’t particularly thrilled by their lack of progress, but hadn’t made much more progress himself either. He still had the puzzle, thankfully, and apparently it was safely in orbit at the present time.

Which didn’t explain what the ring was pointing to, until they followed it all the way to the tablet.

‘Zorc’s tablet,’ said Ron with a grimace. ‘Think if we destroy that, we can avoid the end of the world again?’

‘Don’t you dare,’ the spirit seethed, where only Harry could hear it.

Only Harry, apparently, and Shadi and Sara who’d also appeared.

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52.

This time, Harry was able to place Shadi as the ghost who’d hired them initially. Perhaps he hadn’t seen the resemblance in his dream because the other hadn’t been so ghost like in it. Or perhaps it was because he hadn’t physically been there when the request came through, and had gotten the information second hand.

Neither Hermione nor Ron, for whatever reason, mentioned the turban.

Though it didn’t really matter. They were only there to can the idea of destroying a Milleniumm Item or the stone itself, because that would also spell the end of the world.

Bloody inconvenient.

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53.

‘You found the ring,’ Sara smiled.

‘You found the ring.’ Shadi looked solemn.

‘I don’t get it,’ Harry admitted. ‘You hired us, and then you tested me?’

‘I had to make sure you could withstand the ring,’ he replied, ‘elsewise you could have been the instrument of our demise.’

‘But you’re already dead,’ Ron pointed out.

‘And it was the ring who did that,’ Shadi sighed. ‘The ring in the hand of a poor little boy.’

They gasp, horrified, when it clicks. Who could ask a kid to control a wayward spirit?

Who could ask a baby to defeat Voldermort?

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54.

And, it turned out, Shadi and Sara had come with more news for them. Shadi suggested a trip to America. Sara pushed back her hair and revealed a necklace.

The necklace. ‘That party trick again,’ Kaiba frowned. ‘Don’t you girls get tired of predicting the future.’

Sara smiled. ‘It is precisely that you take that stance that I have taken this,’ she said, ‘but rest assured the others were not stolen by me or mine. He’d taken pieces of the puzzle, and the ring, and that was all. He had no interest in the rest.’

But the question was who did?

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55.

Sara kept the necklace, but she did tell them to look for jealousy close to the past owner of the eye. From that, they apparate to the headquarters of Industrial Illusions and Hermione does a bit of quick talking to get them through the door.

In fact, it is Ron who comes in handy, having previous knowledge of the game and a head of strategy. He manages to bluff his way through card designers and to the front door, aided with confoundus charms of course.

And there is Pegasus J Crawford, the previous owner of the Millennium Eye.

‘Hello there.’

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56.

He didn’t have a future-seeing eye or any shred of magic, but he had an entire staff of people and seemed to know more about them than they’d expected.

And though he didn’t have any magic himself, he was pretty familiar with it.

‘It is a pity though,’ he said, somewhat longingly. ‘Though I suppose magic comes with its own problems. Just like the Millennium Items. But is it true it can’t bring back the dead?’

‘We can reanimate dead bodies,’ Hermione said, sympathetic but clear, ‘and make horcruxes, but no-one cheats death forever.’

‘Death is a friend,’ added Harry.

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57.

‘A friend,’ Pegasus repeated. ‘How interesting. And have you lost anyone you loved?’

‘Yes.’ He had lost plenty.

And maybe it had showed on his face, because the man’s face softened. ‘I’m sorry; that was insensitive of me.’ He glanced at a photo on his desk.

‘Your wife?’ Ron asked. She was a pretty woman, full of life.

He nodded. ‘The reason for my descent and my saving grace as well.’ A hand brushed away his hair. They all gasped at the empty eye socket and scar tissue coating it. ‘My eye was a small price to pay for it.’

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58.

After that, they talked about Sara’s hint, though they quickly realised that, as the long time CEO and world famous card designer, there was no shortage of people jealous of him.

Though the ring pointed down, which suggested someone in the company.

‘Maybe…’ Pegasus thought aloud. ‘I can’t think of any of my employees, but one is working on a new card series and is being rather secretive about the details. I’m not too worried though; he’s always delivered.’

He points them in the direction of a Mr Phoenix’s home anyway. And they see a man in a beanie outside.

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59.

From their vantage position, they see a young boy and a man in a neatly pressed shirt and pants walk into the building. They watch the man in the beanie watch him.

Harry feels the ring in his bag. Its pointing to the man in the beanie. He’s sure of it.

He’s also sure that if they leave him alone, something will happen, but he wasn’t sure why.

He wished he could read the other’s mind, but he couldn’t.

‘What is it?’ Hermione hissed.

‘That man…’

‘He’s creepy, right?,’ Ron agreed. ‘He must be our guy.’

‘It’s circumstantial,’ Hermione hissed.

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60.

It wasn’t circumstantial when darkness fell, and the man took a gold eye out of his apartment and used it to stare at the building once more.

A quick stupefy took care of him, and the eye was in their possession as well.

‘But what I want to know is what he planned on doing here,’ said Ron. ‘We should obliviate him just to be safe.’

They look at Hermione. She shook her head, hair flying. ‘Mine fell apart,’ she protested. ‘It should be Harry; he’s good at charms too.’

So Harry took a breath and levelled his wand. ‘Obliviate.’

Chapter Text

Hunt for the Items
61.

So now they had the ring and the eye, knew where the puzzle, the necklace and the slab where they were all supposed to rest was, and had three unaccounted for items.

‘But if we’re not destroying them,’ Ron, quite sensibly, asked, ‘then what are we supposed to do? Wait for someone to steal them again?’

‘It’s not very effective, is it?’ Hermione hummed. ‘Though I guess I’m not surprised. There’s a lot of inefficiency in the magical system.’

‘Still thinking of being Minister of Magic one day?’ Harry teased.

She grinned back. ‘I’ll wait until Kingsley’s paved the way.’

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62.

It was Harry who came up with the idea. Harry who’d been thinking about Sirius again because he would have loved the treasure hunt they were on now, would have loved the chance to kick another dark lord in the butt, would have loved the chance to hang out with his grandson with no strings attached…

Hopefully he was having fun with Harry’s parents and the Lupins, at least. Maybe they’d even made amends with Snape and he only wished he’d had the chance as well.

And he thought of the veil. And knew things vanished and souls passed on.

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63.

‘I guess so.’ Though Hermione looked doubtful. ‘I mean, we have no proof regarding where things that go through the Veil go.’

‘Remus told me they disappear,’ Harry said quietly. ‘That’s why there was no body.’

‘Oh, Harry.’ And they say no more on the topic that day.

But Ron suggests, the next, that they just visit the Department of Mysteries and ask. And they do. And they can’t explain to Hermione’s satisfaction so she has the idea, much to Ron’s joy, to visit Bill Weasley as well.

‘Better wards than the ancient Egyptians, huh,’ he hummed. ‘Pretty tall order.’

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64.

They left that issue in Bill’s hands and resumed their hunt. Neither Sara nor Shadi had been by with any new helpful hints which left them to brainstorm themselves.

‘We found the ring in Kul Elna,’ Hermione repeated, ‘and the eye was near a big producer for Duel Monster cards. The others must be connected as well, to either Ancient Egypt or the game.’

‘Where does that leave, though?’ Harry asked. ‘We searched randomly along the Nile already.’

‘No, I don’t think it’s the Nile. The ring would have pointed.’

Then where else was there?

‘The ancient palace?’ Ron suggested.

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65.

Finding the Pharoah’s ancient palace proved easier said than done, considering the custom was to build a new palace for most new pharaohs. They did know where the ancient tomb was, though, so they began from there.

There was nothing in the tomb, thankfully, except traps they navigated with an almost alarming ease. But when the exited on the mountain face, the points of the ring began to point across the valley.

‘Gold,’ Ron grinned.

They only hoped it was that easy.

They found a large marketplace, and then the points spun so they split up and browsed the stalls.

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66.

Curiosity killed the cat, went the saying, except apparently in Egypt. Hermione might have Crookshanks but even she was a little overwhelmed with all the memorabilia. Still, she found the rod, or what looked like, eventually. A merchant was haggling with a man with tattoos covering half his face.

Hermione discretely sent a flash in the air. In moments, Ron and Harry were by her side and she pointed out the pair.

‘He looks familiar,’ Harry frowned. And the ring didn’t point.

‘A fake,’ the man said, when he passed them empty-handed.

And then it clicked. Odion Ishtar, Ishizu’s brother.

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67.

‘Aren’t you feeling a little redundant?’ Ron asked, when they took a break from the market. ‘I mean, they’ve got so many of their own people searching.’

‘But they guided us to the ring instead of taking it,’ Hermione pointed out. ‘Though I agree; they’ve been a little too helpful.’

‘They can’t control the ring, I think,’ said Harry. The spirit had been an ongoing nuisance but the occulomency shields kept him from doing much else.

‘And he called you death’s champion,’ Ron added. ‘Shadi, I mean. I wonder if they think we know a trick they don’t.’

‘We do.’

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68.

They didn’t know magic. They backtracked along their contacts, tried to pierce the puzzle together. Some of them, like Ishizu and Pegasus, knew of magic. But they weren’t wizards and witches. And they were dealing with magical items that had been stolen multiple times in the past.

‘What else?’ they mulled over it again. Where else could they look? What were they overlooking?

‘We could try the news,’ Ron offered, eventually. ‘Some of those items have caused trouble in the past, right? Maybe they’ve left a news trail.’

So they look. And the trail leads into their own back yard.

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69.

It was ironic that the Death Eaters had tracked down a Millenium Items before they had, or perhaps that was just the corrupting nature of Zorc driving it. But they had apparently gathered an alarming number of people, considering the stings of Voldermort’s defeat should still be strong.

Luckily, Kingsley was already on the case and between the aid of the Aurors and the Millenium Ring, it took only one major clash to secure the item… and some fancy manouvering to hide the red tape they’d cut in nabbing evidence from a high profile case.

Less people knew, the better.

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70.

So now they had the Millenium Scales as well as the key and eye, and this time without any hints from external parties. ‘Four out of seven,’ Ron said, ‘and we know where the puzzle and the necklace are.’ He paused. ‘What does that leave?’

‘The rod,’ Hermione said, ‘and I guess we should count ourselves lucky it wasn’t that with its mind control powers that fell into the hands of the death eaters instead.’

But that still didn’t tell them where the rod was, and neither news nor divine intervention (or even the not so divine variety) assisted them.

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71.

It was a coincidence, that time (apparently) when they ran into Sara. She wasn’t by herself, for once, and was dressed on more regular clothes. She was with a dark-skinned boy over a head taller than her.

‘Diva,’ the boy introduced himself. ‘Sara here is my sister.’

‘Hello,’ Sara nodded her head. ‘I see you’ve made vast progress since last we’ve met.’

‘Let’s just say,’ Hermione said, ‘that the pieces fell into place fairly quickly.’

‘They do that sometimes,’ she agreed, ‘and the last pieces tend to leave close to home.’

She took off her necklace with that statement. ‘Here.’

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72.

‘We should wear it,’ Ron said.

‘We should do no such thing,’ Hermione protested.

But Harry had been wearing the Ring for over a month by that point, and the spirit was well under control as far as he could tell.

Still... ‘You should wear it, Ron,’ Harry said. ‘I mean, prophecies and Hermione never really mixed.’

He laughed and agreed. ‘That’s true. And you’ve been the centre of one prophecy too many.’

He looked ridiculous, but if it worked, who were they to complain? Both Hermione and Harry had their wands ready, just in case.

They didn’t need them.

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73.

‘They weren’t stolen,’ Ron grumbled. ‘Stupid white-suits only looking at what they want and forgetting the scraps.’

‘Meaning?’ Harry asked.

Hermione, on the other hand, was nodding. ‘So you saw a record of the past, instead?’ she asked. ‘I guess I’m not surprised that happened.’

‘Meaning?’ Harry repeated.

She sighed again. ‘Kaiba Seto and the Plana were both fixated on the Puzzle,’ she explained. ‘They didn’t think to check on the other items till over a month later. The excavation site wasn’t particularly secure. Anyone could sneak in, or snatch them off the black market.’

‘So it was largely random?’

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74.

Randomness, Harry had learnt, still had a way of conforming to fate. They’d all learnt that, during the first Horcrux hunt. And they were relying on that principal now.

‘I find it strange,’ Harry said slowly, ‘that although most incidents related to the game or the ancient magic in some way, we found nothing in Japan. The Pharaoh’s reincarnation is in Japan, after all. You’d think he’d have attracted something.’

‘It’s worth a try,’ Hermione sighed, because she couldn’t think of anything better.

And so they return, once again, to Domino City in Japan.

This time, they meet Mutou Yugi.

Chapter Text

75.

‘I heard from Kaiba,’ he explained, ‘though I wasn’t expecting to bump into you like this.’

‘Neither were we,’ said Ron, which was rather ironic considering he was wearing the Millenium Necklace still.

Yugi said as much. ‘However, Ishizu also said strong wills can change the flow of fate.’

‘Sounds about right,’ Ron agreed.

Harry wondered if he was talking about them and Voldermort’s defeat, but that was tooting their horn a little bit.

‘And I wasn’t too surprised,’ he confessed, ‘to hear the items had spread around the globe. They had a way of making it to certain niches.’

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76.

The ring had made it back to Kul Elna. A little Plana girl had gotten hold of the necklace. The scales had wound up in the hands of a judgemental group of death eaters. The eye had come into the hands of a greedy man who would have paid anything for power.

Yes, they all had their tales, but then were was the rod? That’s the question they’d been asking before they came to Japan.

‘Do you know?’ Harry asked. ‘You’re quite travelled, yourself.’

‘I haven’t heard of any mind control incidents,’ Yugi shrugged. ‘But the rod was initially Kaiba’s.’

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77.

‘We’re going in circles,’ Ron grumbled as they went to Kaiba Corp to meet with the younger Kaiba again.

They were, by that point. The younger Kaiba didn’t know much about the rod either, and the information he offered could have led them on a wild goose chase through the underground.

‘There’s got to be an easier way,’ Hermione frowned. ‘Or another place or person we’re not thinking about.’

The ring had been decidedly unhelpful throughout.

It was Ron, in the end, who came up with the plan. ‘Why don’t we trace the Kaiba brothers’ footsteps? It worked with Voldermort.’

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78.

It wasn’t at the orphanage or the school, or downtown Domino and they’d already ruled out the company. However Kaiba had also been involved in creating other infrastructures like Kaiba Land, the Kaiba Dome and Duel Academia on an offshore island.

‘Tooting his horn much?’ Ron wondered, then frowned, a faraway look in his eyes. ‘I think it’s the island.’

‘Why?’ Hermione asked immediately.

‘Looked like an island to me,’ Ron shrugged, somewhat shaken ‘and I don’t know if anything’s happened yet, but it’s going to be the centre of quite a bit of magic and battling in the future.’

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79.

He described what he saw. Just flashes, and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him. Three monsters: red, yellow and blue. Something really bright controlling minds and destroying life. A half bat, half dragon like woman and a young boy with brown eyes clad in dark armour and gold contacts. And, at the end, a skeleton like figure covering the sun in a dark shadow.

‘Could be those Egyptian gods,’ he shrugged, ‘and Zorc. Not that I really know how any of them are supposed to look.’

‘There should be records –‘ Hermione began.

They never looked.

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80.

Ron was right. The rod was at Duel Academia island. In a dormitory, no less, but luckily all the damage it had done was bewitching a student to carve the history of the Millennium Items on the wall.

They left the work there. They didn’t see the harm and now they had six of the seven items at their disposal.

And that’s where the next problem came. Kaiba wouldn’t hand over the puzzle.

‘There’s a limit to how much magic I’ll believe,’ he said firmly. ‘I will see the Pharaoh and an ancient cursed being isn’t going to stop me.’

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81.

‘It’s probably for the best,’ Bill admitted. ‘The ancient Egyptian magic is beyond us, even still. I don’t think you’ll find a person alive who could unravel these items, and the backlash from destroying even one of them would be too great.’

‘Then the Veil?’ Hermione asked. She still wasn’t sold, given they had no proof where the Veil went.

‘Probably. It’s our safest option.’

‘But throwing all the items in would be…’

‘But we’re not. Sans the puzzle, for one. And we can wrap them with layers of enchantments and traps. Better than Voldermort, just one man, managed himself.’

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82.

And that was the selling point. It was a team effort, and they had all sorts of magic at their disposal. Even if Kaiba never know the pains they went through to make sure nobody but the Kaiba brothers and Mutou Yugi could touch the Millenium Puzzle. Even if the other items were layered with enough enchantments to function as bubblewrap so they’d never physically touch each other.

Theoretically, someone could unravel it all, but they layered their spells and made the net as tight as possible. Theoretically, someone could unravel the ancient Egyptian curses as well, but not yet.

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83.

It was quite a procession who watched the tablet shoved into the veil. And it was their own fault, Harry reflected, really.

Or maybe it was Shadi’s. He had unexpectedly showed up, and when they updated him, he updated the others. Some form of closure, possibly, or farewell. And Harry, who’d had the same chance with the Resurrection Stone, could hardly begrudge that.

Though he forgot to ask the ghost how he planned to compensate them. The others did too. Kaiba Mokuba did wire them a sum of money though. And they’d, hopefully, very neatly avoided another Dark Lord’s return.

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84.

By about ten years later, they’d heard a few tales. A murder of an Industrial Illusions employee and his orphaned son taking in by the new champ. An incident at Duel Academia where the Illusionary Gods rampaged (and turned out they weren’t the same gods after all, just the same colour scheme), and then the following year, the Light of Destruction reigned.

A year after that, the darkness blotted out the sky and Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at the eclipse and wondered if Zorc had escaped the veil.

It was something called Darkness, and no hocruxes involved this time.