"Hey!" Yugi protested as Malik snatched the book away. The Egyptian ignored him as he stared at the book with disbelief.

"This...I didn't think it existed. But it has to be it. I-I can't believe this would be HERE!" Malik stuttered excitedly. Yugi looked at him with curiosity.

"You know what this is, Malik?" Yugi asked.

"I have a guess," Malik answered. "There was a rumor many years ago that the priest who held the millennium rod kept his secrets in a book. It was supposed to be powerful spells and information regarding the items. But the book was said to be lost in time. I never believed that it was real, but this has got to be it! I don't know what else it could be. That's the only reason why this book would have only the millennium rod on it. It was a symbol of that priest."

"And that's why Dumbledore wouldn't have found this," Yugi said with a nod. "He wouldn't have recognized the millennium rod." Then another thought came to his mind. "When you say that this book was probably written by the priest who once held the millennium rod, you don't mean...?"

Malik nodded, getting what Yugi was hinting at loud and clear. "I do. It this is what I think it is, then this was written by Kaiba in his past existence. When he was the keeper of the millennium rod." Malik sounded bitter as he said this. He didn't like to think of Kaiba as the owner of his precious millennium item.

"Well, let's read it!" Yugi said eagerly. "I've been waiting for this and so has Yami! Give it here." Yugi reached for the book, but Malik held it out of his reach. "Hey, give it back, Malik," Yugi pouted. "I really want to see it."

"Patience, patience," Malik said, waving a finger in Yugi's direction. "You promised we'd go to lunch after we finished this aisle. And this aisle is done."

"But we found the right book!" Yugi argued. "We just can't put it aside now! I know you want to read that as much as I do!"

"Yes, I do want to read it," Malik agreed. "In fact, I'm probably the only one who CAN read it. Hieroglyphics and all. But, I have been searching through this damned library since sunrise, and I am hungry. This book has waited three thousand years. It can wait another thirty minutes for us to get some food."

Yugi frowned. "But Malik..."

"If you want me to read the book, I cannot do so on an empty stomach. I'll take a look at it after." Malik grinned, knowing Yugi had to agree. "Besides, we might see Bakura in the Great Hall if he takes a break for lunch. He should be in on this, too. It's only fair."

Yugi sighed, beaten. "Oh, alright. We can eat first." Malik smiled triumphantly.

//Don't worry about it, Yugi,\\ Yami assured. //Malik's right. It can wait if he insists on eating first. And we will most likely need him to read it.\\ Yugi frowned yet again, but nodded mentally.

Knowing he'd won, Malik thrust the book back at Yugi. "Come on, let's go."

They went to the librarian to check out the book. She wrote down their names and where the book was taken from. Then the parchment she was writing on disappeared, going to "the records."

Malik stretched as soon as he left the library, cracking his back and neck. He was certainly glad to be out of there. He motioned for Yugi to follow him as he turned in the direction of the Great Hall and the smell of food. Yugi was moving rather slowly, probably do to the heavy book he had to carry. 'I should probably be the one carrying that book,' Malik thought. 'But so long as Yugi's not complaining...'

Malik was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by the sound of a short yelp and the clatter of metal against stone behind him. He turned to see the book on the floor and Yugi standing over it, clutching his hand and looking dumbstruck.

"What happened?" Malik asked, gazing first at Yugi, then at the book, and then back at Yugi. "Why'd you drop the book?"

"It-it bit me!" Yugi stammered.

"It what?" Malik asked flatly, not sure he had heard right.

"It bit me!" Yugi repeated, pointing a shaking finger at the book on the floor.

"The book bit you..." Malik asked, confused.

"I-I just tried to open it and the snake on the cover came to l-life and bi- bit me," Yugi stuttered. Malik leaned in closer. Sure enough, there were two spots of blood on the fleshy part of Yugi's thumb.

Malik stared at the 'bite.' Now that was strange... He then eyed the book on the floor. It looked unchanged. The snakes were engraved and painted on the book just as they were before, wrapped almost protectively around the millennium rod. So what happened to Yugi exactly? Something wasn't right here...

Malik looked up and down the hall, making sure that no one was nearby. Then cautiously, he removed the millennium rod from his robes.

"Wha...what are you doing, Malik?" Yugi asked, still gripping his hand.

"I wanna see for myself," Malik answered simply as he circled the book on the floor. It looked so...well, not normal, but it didn't look alive, that was for sure.

"M-Malik..." Yugi muttered.

"Just a minute," Malik answered, putting a hand up to shush Yugi. Carefully, Malik stooped down, and reached out...with the rod, of course. He wasn't stupid enough to reach with his hand.

He poked the book with the head of the millennium rod. Nothing. He tapped it. Nothing. He pushed it slightly. Still nothing. He was beginning to think that maybe there had been a bug in the pages that had bitten Yugi when he opened it. Must have been a big bug, though...

No longer worried that much would happen, Malik caught the cover of the book with one of the blade-like extensions on the side of the rod and attempted to flip the cover open. Then he saw it...the danger of the book.

One of the snakes on the cover did indeed come to life before him, hissing and making a quick snap at the rod. Malik could hear the scraping of its fangs against the gold. He fell backward in shock with a yelp, landing on his bottom. As soon as the rod was no longer raising the cover, the snake settled back down to its slumber, seemingly inanimate once more.

"Wha...What the Hell was that for?!" Malik exclaimed angrily, taking personal offense to the attack. "Damn secretive priest..."

"Malik...This really hurts," Yugi murmured, sounding as if he were trying to keep calm. Malik didn't seem to notice this. In fact, he didn't even seem to hear Yugi. He was too lost in his own thoughts.

'Now, why the snakes,' Malik thought. 'What did he want to hide? If I couldn't even open it with the rod, then what can open it? Does it need magic? Millennium magic or this wizard magic? Or maybe there's a password... Well, there must certainly be something of interest in there if there was so much hassle first to find it, and now to open it...'

"Malik," Yugi's voice was calmer now, but seemed to be lacking patience. It was deeper, too.

"What is it?" the blonde asked, knowing he was addressing the pharaoh.

"What kind of snakes are those on the cover?" Yami sounded as if he were trying to make a point.

Malik glanced at the cover, taking the time to notice the species for the first time. "Egyptian cobras," Malik answered.

"And would those be poisonous?" Malik suddenly understood what Yami was getting at and his eyes widened. Oh, he hadn't thought of that... Magical snakes on the cover that were poisonous as well? What did that priest want to hide?!

Malik turned to see Yami, who was looking rather pale despite his forced calm expression. His hand was starting to swell. Yugi had been panicking, so he had taken over. Now he was looking at Malik as if the boy was completely dense. "Well? Hospital Wing?"

Malik stood, looking rather cross with the Pharaoh's patronizing tone of voice. "You know, a simple 'help please,' would have worked faster than Twenty Questions." Malik eyed the book on the floor, and after some thought, picked it up. It seemed safe as long and nobody tried to open it.

"If you didn't have such a one-track mind you would have noticed Yugi's distress," Yami answered with narrowed eyes. "I haven't the slightest clue how to get to the hospital wing from here. Now, would you-"

Malik cut him off, grabbing him by the sleeve of his robes and tugging him along. "If you had ANY sense of direction, you could have just gone when you realized what was wrong," he muttered. "For someone so good at freakin' puzzles..."

"Yugi's only been by there once!" Yami defended. "AND he wasn't paying that much attention to his surroundings!"

"Big deal, I was only there once, and I had a concussion at the time," Malik argued back, a firm grip still on Yami's sleeve. "But it seemed like a good idea to make a mental note of where something as important as the Hospital Wing was." Truth was the Hospital Wing was on the way to Malik's Ancient Ruins class so he'd passed by in on many occasions, but Yami didn't need to know that.

They bickered a majority of the way to Madame Pomfrey's, thus, they had no explanation for the bite prepared. If they blamed the book, it might be taken away. Luckily, Madame Pomfrey had a policy of treat now, ask questions never.

Twenty minutes and a bottle of Warlock Wilton's All-Purpose Anti-Venom later, Yami relinquished control back to Yugi with one last dirty look at Malik as they left the Hospital Wing. Yugi was less resentful.

"Thanks for the help," Yugi said. "Sorry about Yami. He's protective."

"Uh, huh," Malik mumbled in agreement. "No big deal. I'm used to dealing with stubborn spirits. Speaking of which, I wonder if Bakura's back from practice."

"If he is, he's probably getting lunch," Yugi replied with a shrug. "Since we can't exactly read that book now, I guess we might as well head to the Great Hall, too."

"Sounds good to me," Malik said, a slight smile appearing on his face. He was starving.

The Great Hall was bustling with activity. Almost every spot at the tables was filled. Yugi and Malik had a hard time finding place next to their friends. Hermione and Ron were there as well as the accident-prone Neville boy and Ron's little sister Ginny, but the Quidditch players were nowhere to be seen.

"They haven't come in yet," Hermione answered the questioning look on their faces. "Fred and George were slacking off before, so now they're working overtime to make up for it before Saturday's game. The rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor is always heightened as game day nears."

"Tell me about it," Malik muttered, noticing the especially dirty looks he was getting from the Slytherin table for sitting with the Gryffindors again. But he was well used to getting much nastier glares from much more intimidating people, so he simply shrugged it off.

"What's that book?" Hermione asked, her eye catching the glittering gold cover before Malik could stash it under the table. Malik kept a straight face, as if it were nothing of interest. "Just some extra study for Ruins class," Malik said.

"What's it called?" Hermione persisted. "Maybe I've read it."

"Don't know what it's called," Malik answered nonchalantly, "I need to translate it."

"Oh," Hermione muttered, looking disappointed. Ron just rolled his eye at her. Both of them had been watching the new students out of the corners of their eyes, looking for anything odd. Since they'd formed their hypothesis about them, they'd been uneasy. But the...normal way their comrades had been acting made it easy to forget from time to time.

Ten minutes into their meal, the Quidditch players arrived. Harry, looking exhausted, plopped down between Ron and Ginny and rested his head on the table. Ginny cocked an eyebrow at him. "Rough practice?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry muttered without lifting his head. "Who knew your brothers could be such slave-drivers?"

"It's because it's Slytherin," Ron answered, not surprised. "If it were Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, they'd just assume Gryffindor was better. But they really don't want to lose to Slytherin." Harry sighed in response. True, he wanted to win the match, too, but he didn't want to die in the process. As if by cue, the twins sat across from their sibling and beside Yugi. The blue and green of their hair from their Color Bombs was quickly being replaced by their own red once more, but for now, it gave their hair the appearance of fire and they were quite proud of the effect. No doubt they would start pedaling their Color Bombs around the school soon, if they hadn't already.

The Gryffindor team continued to file in, each looking dead-tired, save the Weasly twins, who masked their fatigue with confidence and a smug attitude. But someone was missing.

"Where's Bakura?" Yugi asked, blinking in confusion. He should have been here, right?

"Skipping lunch," Fred answered. "Wanted to work on that Exile of the Giants essay Binns gave him. No wonder he's so skinny. But really, the extra work you guys have to do to get credit for the other years is ridiculous. I don't see how you stand it."

Malik's face fell. "I completely forgot about that essay. But I don't have History of Magic tomorrow, so I still have some time." Malik went back to his meal, but Yugi still had a concerned look on his face.

"He really shouldn't be skipping meals," he said. "You guy's aren't going back out today, are you?"

"Naw, the team's complaining about falling behind on homework too much," George answered. "Plus Slytherin has the field booked for this afternoon. We'd still be out there if Snape hadn't kicked us off. So the team has the afternoon off." Harry scoffed from his face-down position on the table.

"Off? Essays, research... That's hardly off."

"I haven't been practicing and I'm not done either," Ron muttered. "I still have ten inches of parchment to write on the Major Arcana for Divination."

"Well, I'm done," Hermione piped up. "I can help you if you need it, Harry."

"Thanks," Harry mumbled. "But I got it. Why don't you see if one of the others needs your help?" Hermione turned to Yugi and Malik expectantly.

"I can handle it, thanks," Malik said taking a swig of pumpkin juice. "But I'm not going back to that library. Yugi had me in there all morning," he glared at Yugi as he said this. Yugi only shrugged innocently back at him. "I'll just go up to the observatory tower to study. It's quiet up there."

"What about you, Yugi," Hermione offered. "Need help?"

"I think you better offer it to Bakura first," Yugi answered. "I'm sure he's swamped. Speaking of which..." Yugi unfolded his napkin and began placing food in it: a couple fried chicken legs, a roll, and several carrot and celery sticks. "I think I'll take some food to him. He must be starving. We can take food up there, right?"

"Technically, no, but Fred and George do all the time," Hermione said with a bit of a disapproving look. Fred and George beamed proudly as they always did when accused of such things.

"Hey, the house elves don't complain," George said. Hermione only rolled her eyes. As a prefect she really shouldn't be allowing this, but what else was she going to do?

Yugi stood, grabbing his books. Malik gave him a nod towards the table where the golden book was concealed to say that he would keep it. Why did Yugi have this sneaking suspicion that the book was going to end up in plain sight lying on Malik's bed or something? An open invitation to Malfoy? Well, it didn't take Malik long to find a way to cause trouble without the millennium rod. Yugi sighed inwardly and tried not to think about it. He folded the napkin of food and waved to the others as he headed off to Gryffindor tower.

He gave his password to the Fat Lady and the portrait door opened into the Gryffindor common room. It was almost empty, most of the students being either at lunch or studying elsewhere. There were a couple first year girls off in one corner working on star charts, but other than that, there was no one, save Ryou.

Ryou had positioned himself at a table by the fireplace where a flame was already going strong even though it was a rather warm October. He was face down, quill still gripped in his hand right where he had left off, mid- sentence. His hair was still windswept from him being on a broomstick all morning. He snored softly away.

Yugi hesitated, debating whether or not he should wake him. Well, since Ryou obviously wasn't done with his work for the next day, it was probably best that he not sleep at the moment. Yugi gently shook Ryou's shoulder and the white-haired boy woke with a jolt. His eyes darted about, confused until they fell on Yugi. Realizing where he was, he shook his head to clear it of sleep, rubbing his eyes with a fist. "Thanks," he muttered to Yugi with a yawn. "I really don't have time for a nap. I don't even remember falling asleep..."

Yugi had to suppress a laugh. Ryou had a clear imprint of a section of his essay on his cheek from lying on his parchment when the ink was apparently not quite dry. A short giggle escaped him as he pointed this out. Ryou blushed and wiped it away with his sleeve.

"I snuck you some food from the Great Hall," Yugi said, setting the napkin on the table, carefully avoiding Ryou's work. "I figured you must be hungry."

Ryou's stomach growled as if agreeing with Yugi. Ryou smiled sheepishly and thanked him.

Yugi set up his own books at the table while Ryou ate and worked on his essay. He still had about five inches left to write on this essay. It wasn't until Yugi picked up his quill and noticed the now nearly invisible bite marks on his hand that he thought to tell Ryou what happened with the book. But Hermione popped in at that moment to offer her assistance. Ryou gratefully accepted it. Yugi would just have to tell him later.

Benefiting from Hermione, Yugi was done with all his work by three that afternoon. He passed the time afterwards by showing his deck to the Weasly twins and giving them a more detailed rundown of the game of Duel Monsters. They were confused as all heck, but they still liked it. Especially Black Magician Girl. Ron and Harry wandered in as well and started a game of chess. Yami wanted to play, but Yugi told him to let Ron win a few against Harry first.

By six, Ryou was able to throw down his quill, finally caught up. Hermione was amazed at the speed at which Ryou worked. He barely had to look anything up. It was like his brain was a sponge that absorbed everything said in class. Ryou didn't think it was a big deal. Just retained knowledge.

He stretched, stiff from being in the same position for so long. "I'm going down to the Great Hall. Coming, Yugi?"

"In a minute," Yugi answered. "I just have a few cards left. Go on ahead."

Ryou looked around to see if anyone else was ready to go. Harry and Ron were still finishing a game and Hermione was watching them. Ryou shrugged and headed out the portrait hole alone.

"You really should cut that hair," The Fat Lady said to him as he closed the door. "What is this school coming to with the ridiculous hair styles they're allowing nowadays?"

"I like my hair," Ryou said with a frown. That lady was really rude for a picture. The Fat Lady merely turned her nose up at him. Ryou sighed and turned away.

Halfway down the hall, he heard someone call to him. He looked over his shoulder to see Malik jogging to catch up to him with a book bag slung over his shoulder. Ryou waited for him.

"So, you ARE alive," Malik said sarcastically. "I haven't seen you for a while, I though you might have crossed over."

Ryou gave him a look. "It's not my fault. Practice and all that homework... But I should have enough done to get credit for First Year soon."

"Yeah, me too," Malik said with a smirk. "I only have, oh, about five freakin' feet to write left."

Ryou grinned. "That's your fault, slacker."

"Ha, ha..." Malik laughed dryly. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you for a minute. The other you."

Ryou narrowed his eyes. "I just finished my work and already you want me to turn the reigns over to him? He can hear what I hear, you know. You don't have to talk to him directly."

"But I insist on talking to him directly," Malik said.

Ryou didn't look at all pleased. "You're trying to start trouble again, aren't you? Otherwise you wouldn't be trying to go around me. Do you really have to involve him in all your little plots?"

"Don't want him feeling left out," Malik replied. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oi! Quit hiding behind your sensible side and come on out!"

Before Malik could react, Ryou's hand grabbed him by the front of the robes and pulled him dangerously close. "Would you quite making a scene?" Yami Bakura said dangerously, his nose and inch from Malik's. "This hall isn't empty, you know."

Malik held his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Calm down. I just wanted to give you an opportunity that I knew you wouldn't want to miss. I didn't want Bakura blowing the whistle on it. You, um, are blocking him out, aren't you?"

"Yes," Yami Bakura said with a heavy sigh. He released his grip on Malik's collar. "What is it this time?"

"Well..." Malik began, a shifty look in his eye. "I thought you might want to get back at Malfoy and his gang for the girls' bathroom thing."

"Yeah, and?" Yami Bakura said for that was obvious.

"Halloween is this week, you know..."

Yami Bakura nodded his head with a slight smirk. "I see. Want scary ole Bakura to work his magic for the occasion, right? I suppose that your coming to me with this has nothing to do with the fact that you got busted for the millennium rod by Dumbledore? Can't use that anymore, so you want me to do the dirty work for you."

"I just wanted to give you the chance for revenge," Malik said in his best innocent voice. "I just KNEW you didn't want Malfoy to get away with everything."

Yami Bakura grinned and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He well knew he was being led into this situation, but so what? "What did you have in mind?"

"Like you said," Malik answered. "I want scary ole Bakura to work his magic..."

Yami Bakura's grin widened. This was going to be fun...
 

Zoo's starting a new fic contest! Check out the new rules at her contest website. The link appears in my bio.

Thank you to all of you who kept reviewing despite my absence. Your patience is appreciated. I went over the reviews, but I may have missed some things, if you asked something I did not address, fell free to e-mail me.

Shirubie, please e-mail me about your fanart! Address is in my bio. Pwease?

And the dubs have done it again. Sneak preview for Americans (Canadians have seen this already) of Yami Malik's dub voice, curtesy of Duowolf.