Disclaimer: All rights belong to J.K. Rowling and Kazuki Takahashi

Harry lifted his fork to his mouth, taking the next bite of his salad. He presided over the great hall at dinner, and he could feel the eyes of his students on his table. It was only to be expected, after all, since tonight was the first time that Malik and Yuugi had joined them in weeks. The tension between the two was palpable, and it was starting to bother Harry. They had to work together, after all.

On Harry's other side, Ryou and Luna were talking. Harry would have thought that Ryou would help his shorter friend after the duel, but instead the half-Japanese man seemed to be spending more and more time with the potions and herbology professor. Harry had heard the rumors that the whole school seemed to be whispering: Ryou and Luna were seeing each other. He knew some of what was going on, he had seen the results of their study sessions together.

Ryou was very proud of those results. He was now up to fifth year level in Charms, and second in Transfiguration, easily his worst subject. His best subjects were Potions and Herbology, possibly because of who taught it. He felt a real connection to his spay colleague, they seemed to think the same way.

He and Luna were talking about her father's old rag, The Quibbler. It was still in production, and the old man was often quoted as saying that they could tear the press out of his cold dead hands. In fact, he had recently seen a large boon in business as he made deals with several muggle chains to include it with the tabloids. Now muggles could get their celebrity news about their fellow muggles and the witches and wizards that they now knew that they shared the world with.

The Daily Prophet had seen a boon in business too, though not as much as The Quibbler had. Muggles all over the UK were now visited by owls every morning, some of them claiming that the experience of receiving post via owl was worth at least as much as the newspaper itself.

They were not the only wizarding businesses that were profiting from the new customers. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had expanded, and was now one of the greatest entertainment companies in the world. Ryou and Yuugi's hometown of Domino was the distribution headquarters for Asia, something that they knew very little about, except to wonder how the Kaiba and Ryuji were doing with the new competition.

Rose had been disappointed in her Potions, Herbology, and Divination classes since the duel. No matter how much she hinted at the professors, she could not get them to divulge their secret. Her attempts to use divination to uncover it had been quickly thwarted by the pale professor, who had come over to stop her. She would later describe it to her friends, most of whom did not take the class.

Rose drank a sip of tea and focused her mind on the large hunk of crystal in front of her. She saw... nothing. She couldn't help it, the only thing that appeared in the crystal to her were the imperfections. Even those refused to make shapes for her.

"If you are having problems, you might be taking the book a little to literally. The book says that you need to look into the crystal, I find it much easier to see when I look through the crystal. Imagine that it is a window, and on the other side are the visions of the future that you are looking for. Remember to keep your subject in mind."

Rose closed her eyes again, concentrating, and opened them with a new vengeance. She held a vision of Ryou in her head, and peered through the crystal. As she looked, she began to see movement. There was her teacher, and he was talking to Luna. They were in public somewhere, and Luna pointed up. She laughed, and said something else. Ryou reached for her...

The crystal ball lifted, leaving her reeling as her professor took the crystal away. "I do believe you have the hang of it. Now, why don't you try it on your real partner."

Embarrassed, Rose looked apologetically at her friend who sat across from her. Ryou set the ball back down, and she started over, now working with her partner's image in her mind.

When even the headmaster's daughter couldn't find out anything new, the rumors had started to flatten out about the two professors. While everyone could see that they were spending more and more time around each other, nobody was sure whether they were friends or there was a burgeoning romance.

However, another whisper was picked up among the students. Everyone knew something about how shadow magic worked. When the duel was over, Malik should have gained something or Yuugi should have been punished. However, it did not appear that either had happened. So, what was the result?

There were some patently ridiculous rumors flying around, of course, there always were. One stated that Yuugi could now no longer see properly, but that his shadow magic somehow made up for it. Then there was the one about one of his old friends in Japan being completely ruined. Neither of them seemed right to Rose.

No, Rose figured that Malik gained something, something that he wasn't sharing with anybody yet. She could tell by looking at her father's face that he didn't know either, and that it was starting to bother him.

Indeed, it was starting to bother Harry. He seemed to be losing control of the school. He needed to reign in the teachers. The shadow magic seemed to be a major cause of chaos within his school and he needed to stop it before it kept destroying the things around here.

By the time he had formulated a plan of action, he had gotten through two more courses in his meal. Putting down his desert fork, he stood and walked into the antechamber. Through there, he could get to his office and his rooms. He wanted to read over some of the post he was getting out of Egypt.

Luna laughed, watching Ryou attempt an aguamenti charm. Try as he might, his water ended up coming out muddy, not the cool, clear drinking water that it was supposed to be. Once, he had come out with wine instead of water, which they tried. It was definitely grape wine, but it tasted horrible. Ryou had pulled out a bottle of French wine to get the taste out of their mouths, and that had been quite good.

Luna had been teaching Ryou during lunches and free times for weeks now, and he had grown quickly in his powers as a wizard. While he did not pack the magical punch that she did, not even to mention Harry or Ginny, some of the most powerful people born in hundreds of years (Harry was rumored to be more powerful than Dumbledore in some ways, though he expressly denied it), his quick wit and knowledge of muggle occultism allowed him to make up for it in many ways. He was almost up to speed with the current sixth years in most subjects, and was nearing OWL levels in transfiguration. His best subjects besides divination were definitely her subjects, which required more mental ability and less power than any other subject taught at Hogwarts.

"Why don't you stop that now, Ryou. Look, your office is soaked. It's disgusting." Of course, a quick drying charm later the office was pristine.

"Well, are you excited for Halloween? It's a big deal at Hogwarts, and I've been put in charge of decorations. Want to help me?"

"I'd love to."

"Good. I have some ideas to give the students a real good time."

Ryou laughed. The look on her face was priceless. She was obviously was very excited to get to work on this. He had loved becoming her friend over the last few weeks. It had started with her lessons, but it had quickly evolved outside of that. Now, they spent a good part of their time together. They even helped each other grade essays, something the students now knew and managed to take advantage of. The little creature that he had given her was now a common sight in the greenhouses, where it would help them water the plants out there.

Luna appeared confused about his good-natured laughter, but not upset. Rather, she enjoyed the sound of his laughter. It had been happening more and more lately, he seemed to be pulling himself out of reach of a certain depression. She knew what Hannah had said he acted like when she discovered him, and Yuugi said he had always been a little depressed, though less so around friends.

It was then that she noticed the time. "Oh, we need to leave, or we'll be late for Harry's meeting."

Ryou looked at the clock as well. "Yes, it appears we had better go."

So the two of them crawled down out of the north tower. Making their way across the school, the pair finally ended up in the small meeting room the teachers sometimes used to meet in and would often retire to when they wanted the company only of people their own age. Taking their seats, they noticed that they were not the last to arrive. Soon, Yuugi took his seat, and Harry called the meeting to order.

"There is a problem I've been having. I've been trying to let you have free reign over what you do in your own time. It seems to have worked for Ginny and Hermione. However, the rest of you don't seem to be able to control yourselves. We've had two teachers have a duel, and the rumors surrounding two others are enough to make a veela blush! And it's not even Halloween yet. By Merlin's beard! What can I do. Believe me when I say that the last thing I want to do is to start cracking down on you, but we haven't had a class in history of magic for how long?"

"Three weeks," Yuugi said, looking down and blushing, obviously chagrined.

"Exactly. You two are lucky that Ryou here was able to take over your other classes. God, how he was able to not only teach three classes but take lessons in white magic from Luna is beyond me! If this keeps up, I'm going to have to start cracking down on you people. Don't think that I won't!"

The two professors that Harry had been chewing out both had strong emotions passing their faces. Yuugi continued to look embarrassed, shrinking back into his chair and making himself seem even smaller than he usually did. Malik on the other hand had fire in his eyes and his fist was clenched. He even appeared to be shaking slightly.

It was Malik that Harry turned his eyes on. "Do you have something you would like to say, Malik?"

Malik calmed down immediately. "N- No."

"Very good. As for you two," he turned on Ryou and Luna. "I have no problem with you two having lessons together, being friends, or even lovers if you like." This brought a blush to Ryou's face. "However, some of the rumors about you are quite... imaginative. I would appreciate it if you did something to dispel them, or I will start to have a problem with how you two spend your time. My daughter is listening to those rumors."

Ryou nodded, a little embarrassed by the rumors about him. "We'll certainly do something about them." Luna's nod confirmed it.

"Thank you. Now that the unpleasant business is taken care of, let's settle down to what we really do: teach. Report, Ginny?"

The rest of the meeting was spent talking about classes and children that were giving them problems. Yuugi spent some time talking about the muggle workshops he still gave from time to time, which seemed to be going well. Luna took some time to mention that Ryou's skills had improved immensely in a very short amount of time.

Then talk came to the upcoming festivities. It was decided that Luna would be in charge of the Halloween decorations and that Hermione would take charge come Christmas time. Several preliminary plans were approved, and work was started on them right away. So, it appeared that for the next couple of days or so, life at Hogwarts was back to what was relatively normal.

It's a bit shorter than I normally try to do, but I wanted to get this up for y'all right away. Anyhow, I want to thank those that reviewed for taking the time to do so, and to ask the rest of you to take the time to do so as well, as it's always appreciated.

Also, please check out another fic I started recently, Blue Eyes Incorporated. It's the story of what happens in Japan at the time that this fic takes place. Both stories are considered cannon in the other, so please take the time to read it. I just got chapter one up, but chapter two is already in the works. A warning: it's even more unusual than this one, and it focuses on the world of Yuugiou rather than the Potterverse. A full explanation of how the affect each other is in my profile.

Also, congratulations to MarzBunni, who is the only one to have gotten the reference correct: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, part of the Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.