"You lost, Seto." Joey crowed, as the shock wore off and everyone started reacting again.

Seto paused, shook his head and smirked, "The best villains never admit defeat."

Joey was taken aback for a second, then glared, "So you're refusing to admit defeat?"

"Of course. Why would I hand over my prisoners because I lost one game?" Seto smirked, "The Princes aren't like your precious Millennium Items. I haven't lost the ability to hold them prisoner just because I've lost." Kaiba's smirk grew bigger, as he pulled his wand out of his back pocket, "It's not my fault that you've been hanging around them so long that you've forgotten that there are other methods of defeating people, then just at cards."

"You're actually trying to start a battle…" Kari frowned, confused.

"I'm not afraid to fight you, traitor." Joey drew his wand.

"I'm just trying to do what's best for the kingdom."

"By overthrowing it?"

"By building it anew."

"I won't let you."

"You can't defeat me alone." Seto snorted.

"He isn't alone. He has me." Harry wasn't quiet sure what was going on, or where the words had come from, but the teasing seemed to have passed out of the realm of fun and into something else entirely… however he was on Yami and Yugi's side and as such that put him on Joey's.

"I stand with my brother." Mokuba growled at Harry.

Before anyone had worked out what exactly was going on, they were polarised, on Joey's side, or Seto's. There had been a moment where Kari had been torn by indecision, settling on Seto's side only because she worked for him, but everyone else had seemed to know instinctively which side they belonged to.

"Five minutes." Seto warned and led his group off.

Joey paused and blinked. "What happened there?" He asked, completely confused.

"As far as I can tell, you've just agreed to lead us in a pitched battle." Harry said, "And I'm not a hundred percent sure why."

"I dunno… I got a bit carried away I think." Joey looked surprised at himself.

"What did he mean by five minutes?"

"We have five minutes before we're going to come under attack."

"So what's the plan?"

"Well, I'm guessing that the 'game' is going to be over when we reach the top floor of Dragon Tower, or we're all defeated." Joey said, frowning.

"But Robyn'll kill us if we wake them up." Hermione frowned.

"That's easy." Joey nodded, "Harry, is the dorm window open?"

"Uh huh." Harry nodded… "Oh, accio?"

"Uh huh, not up to the very top floor, but as close as you can get."

"Right."

"In the mean time, we'll distract them by attacking the front of the castle." Joey said, looking at Hermione, Ron, Ombre and Rebecca. "Seto will probably be sending someone up to guard the tower, if we can get there first we can win."

"Joey?"

"Fire only once you're sure of who you're aiming at, we'll get into a lot of trouble if we hit the wrong person. Harry, I don't want you dragged into an aerial battle. If you're attacked in the air, come down and join the front line. Getting into a fight at that height would be too dangerous."

"Right." Harry nodded, pulling out his wand, "Accio Firebolt."

As the broomstick arrived at Harry's side, Joey pointed out tactical places they could take for the assault on the door.

"Ready?" Joey asked.

Everyone nodded in return.

"Here we go then…"

Mokuba was surprised that Joey hadn't had his lot storm the front door when he'd realised that Kisara was guarding the tower. He and Ginny were holding the doors, while Kisara guarded the tower, Seto was holding the stairwell, on the floor where the Monster's Wing kicked in, Kari was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, Luna was outside, sneaking around the back of Joey's lot and they had all Apparaître summoned a bunch of flying creatures to guard the windows. The only way in was to come through the front doors… so why weren't they…?

"Mokuba!" Ginny yelped.

Mokuba ducked, narrowly missing getting hit by a spell, firing off two of his own as he finally spotted where they had taken shelter.

"I can't believe your brother started a war with Joey!" Ginny complained, between hexes.

"I'm surprised it hasn't come to this sooner." Mokuba laughed, "Talk about a way to blow off steam." He ducked an incoming charm and cast a leg-locker curse.

"What's going on here?"

"Hold Fire!" Mokuba heard Joey yell, turning around to look at who had asked the question and suddenly grateful that the young man had spotted the professor.

"It's a training exercise and a way to blow off steam, Professor Moody." Mokuba said, "Joey's team have to reach the top floor of Dragon Tower, and it's our job to stop them."

"The two of you against an entire team?"

"No, our team's spread out a bit more but we have around the same amount of people…"

"What's the story here?"

Joey winced and was glad that Mokuba had stopped firing when he'd realised who he'd nearly hit with a Full-Body Bind as he turned to face Miss Golden, who didn't look amused in the slightest.

"Vizier Seto has taken the Princes prisoner and we're trying to rescue them." Hermione said, with a giggle. "Joey's leading us in an assault against the castle in order to save them."

"And where exactly did this idea come from?"

"You telling us not to disturb them."

"So not disturbing them involves turning the castle into a full scale battlefield?"

"Umm… guess so…"

Robyn frowned at them for a moment, "Would it not be easier to go in a window?"

"Kisara's guarding the tower and Tobias is leading a bunch of our Duel Monsters in a clean up of the monsters guarding the windows, if we can free up a department, we can get in that way."

"So this is a distraction?"

Joey glanced at Mokuba and Ginny, who were waiting for Miss Golden to leave before they started up again, "Uh huh."

"Who's going to go in through the window once it's clear?" Robyn looked interested.

"Me." Harry said, "I tried going up the tower on my broomstick but Kisara chased me off."

"On your own?"

"No, I'm going with him." Hermione looked a little uncomfortable, "I'm borrowing Ron's broom stick."

"The attention is going to be on where the leader of the group is." Joey explained, "Meanwhile we can send a small group around the back and sneak up behind them."

"It's not our usual style of tactics but it's an unusual situation." Hermione defended it.

"It's just a little more Slytherin then I would have expected from you."

"The only other way we could see was to raid the front door and I know that won't work." Joey said with an odd expression on his face. "Seto's not going to make this easy."

"He wouldn't make a very good villain if he did." Ombre pointed out.

"True…" Joey conceded.

"You want to join in?" Hermione asked Robyn spontaneously, remembering that the woman was Kari's friend, and that Kari would probably mind if someone didn't offer a place on their team.

Robyn's eyes flickered across them, clearly considering.

"The more the merrier." Joey nodded, quite happy to have any help he could get against Seto.

Harry looked away to where Tobias was using his Inferno Fire Blast to flame something that looked like a Petite Dragon out of the sky. The air looked a little clearer, but it still wouldn't be safe yet…

Mokuba was frowning, unsure what was going on, was it over already? Professor Moody hadn't said anything against the battle.

No it wasn't over, Joey wouldn't give up that easily… they'd just have to be more careful.

"What?" Mokuba ducked as a spell came his way. "Hey, no fair!" Mokuba bellowed, as he took cover, "I thought we weren't firing when there were neutrals around!?"

He could hear someone giggling and poked his head around the door only to find that Robyn had her wand drawn. "Oh."

"Ready?" Ginny asked him, from behind the other door.

"I'll hold the doors, you go and get Kari. Hopefully Luna's going to sneak up behind them in a minute and then…" Mokuba stopped when he heard Hermione squeak and Ron yell.

"Now." Mokuba grinned, getting a few shots off before he had to take cover again.

"She alright?" Ginny worried as it went quiet outside.

Luna swooped through the doors and into the Great Hall on Harry's broomstick, giggling the entire time.

"Guess so."

"Wait…"

"Yes that was Harry's broomstick and yes she did just fly into the Great Hall."

"Uh oh."

Ginny rushed over to the Great Hall, while Mokuba attempted to hold back the invaders who managed to push him back to the Great Hall's doors. Kari, spotting a spell go flying past, rushed forward and cast a couple of her own, as Luna swooped back out of the Great Hall, cackling and casting spells from overhead and swooped up the staircase.

Before anyone was sure exactly what was going on, Joey's forces were being pushed back by a group in blue and bronze, ending up back outside. Kari and one of the Ravenclaws held the door as Mokuba tried to work out exactly what to do with the new troops.

"Did we just get pushed out of the school by a group of random Ravenclaws?" Joey asked, frowning as he was finally able to take a break from counter hexing.

"I suppose it did look like we were attacking the school."

"Okay, but how do we get a bunch of recruits?" Ron asked, "We can't win if we can't get into the castle."

"Well the problem is that everyone's at breakfast," Ombre groaned, "So unless we can get in there and explain to the Gryffindors what's going on, we're not going to get much support."

Hermione frowned and looked around, "Where's Robyn?"

Robyn had been in the Great Hall, speaking with Fred and George, but when the Gryffindors that Fred and George had called up had started battling with Seto's lot, Robyn had taken the opportunity to sneak up the stairs, unfortunately she'd been followed.

"Robyn!" Kari giggled, from a flight of stairs down, as the young woman reached the second floor. "I won't let you get any further!"

Robyn smiled slightly as she turned to face her friend, "You're on the wrong side, aren't you?"

"Maybe." Kari agreed, "But that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you rescue the Princes."

"You can't stop me."

"Wanna bet?" Kari giggled, racing up the next flight of stairs, Robyn laughed and ran up the next flight too, but they were half way up them when they started moving, leaving the two heading in completely different directions.

"I told you so." Robyn grinned and dashed up the stairs, while Kari turned down the corridor to find another route to the next floor.

Meanwhile, a huge battle had erupted on the ground floor, spilling into the dungeons, the grounds and the first floor, as the Hufflepuffs divided evenly between the two factions, the Gryffindors teamed up with Joey's forces, the remaining Ravenclaws weren't having any of that and had joined up with Seto's forces, and the Slytherins, under the command of Bakura, were undermining both sides equally.

Joey had managed to push his way to the top of the second floor staircase, along with Ryou and Ombre, while Hermione had already shot up the stairwell, on Ron's broom, heading for the seventh floor.

"Get Wheeler!" Joey ducked under an incoming spell, "Don't let him reach the fifth floor!"

"Ombre, Ryou." Joey grinned, "Dragon Tower has a third route in, other then the windows and the Monster's Wing, head for the seventh floor, there's a painting with dragons on, the wizard on it is the door keeper, you'll end up about a third of the way up."

"Good luck." Ombre nodded, shooting up the stairs.

Ryou and Ombre shot up the stairs, and Joey turned back to the battle.

Over the noise of the battle in the hallway, he didn't hear Dumbledore bellow for silence, and he certainly didn't realise that the teachers were getting involved, at least not until he'd nearly hit Professor Flitwick with a Full-Body Bind and lost five house points for it.

"Uh oh." Joey grimaced.

"I want the instigators of this downstairs immediately!" Now he could hear Dumbledore clearly and slunk down the stairs, coming face to face with the irate Professor.

"What's going on here?" Dumbledore demanded of the students in front of him, which consisted of Joey, Harry, Ron, Rebecca and Mokuba. It worried Joey that Draco and Bakura were no where to be seen and that meant that there was a high probability of them making their way up the staircase.

"Well you see Professor…"

"I don't think so!" Luna giggled as she and Hermione flew upwards. Luna was faster of course, and they landed on the sixth floor walkways, so they could battle properly, since neither of them wanted to fall all the way down.

Silence had fallen below them and Hermione gave Luna a confused look, and they both looked over the railing.

They couldn't see anything though, and they turned to each other.

"Join our side, Hermione, you can't win."

"All I have to do it get to the portrait and we'll win."

You have to get past me first."

Hermione checked, Luna was right; she was between Hermione and the set of stairs that led upwards.

"Petrificus Totalus!" They intoned at the same time and both ducked. Hermione's rebounded off of a set of armour and bounced into a wall, while Luna's hit a portrait, which looked less then amused.

"Locomotor Mortis!" Luna called.

"Protego!" The spell splattered over Hermione's shield charm, but did nothing to the girl inside the shield, "Impedimenta!"

"Incarcerous!" Hermione couldn't dodge fast enough since she was still mid incantation, and though Luna was hit by the slowing spell, Hermione found herself tied up and falling over, dropping her wand as she hit the stone. "Sorry Hermione, but I'm on Seto's side. I'm not just going to let you win."

The sounds resumed from downstairs.

"Guess it was a respite." Luna giggled as she picked up Hermione's wand. "Now, what do I do about you?"

"Where do you think you're going?"

Robyn paused as she was confronted by Bakura Malfoy. She looked at him for a moment, before asking, "And whose side are you on?"

"My own." Bakura laughed, "I don't follow the ideals of the Guardian or the High Priest."

"If you are not playing properly, then stay out of the way of those who are."

"I'm playing, I'm adding a new element to this game, after all, isn't Wheeler's objective to save the Princesses?"

"Princes, not Princesses."

Bakura smirked, "Same difference."

"So what's your objective?"

"Now that would be telling." Bakura smirked. "I have no intention of explaining my objective to anyone, yet alone someone who would report back to the Pharaoh."

"Since when have you ever known me to be on his side?"

"You're not on mine…"

"I'm neutral." Robyn replied. "I'm on any side that suits my purposes."

Bakura looked at her, thinking, "How would I convince you to join my side for the duration of this battle?"

This time it was Robyn that smirked, "Ensure they get battle experience." Nodding at the hall.

Bakura smirked, "You want me to incite the battle again? I have no problem with that. In exchange, I need you to make sure that no one from either team wakes the royals; I need them to recover as much as possible. I still need them, after all."

"Done and done," Robyn smirked, "I gave them a sleeping potion already."

Bakura snorted, his amusement obvious, "And they think you're on their side." He shook his head in amazement at their stupidity, ""What about the door?"

"Guarded by the Dark Magician, besides…" Robyn held up the key.

Bakura laughed. "I take it you've charmed it as well?"

"Anyone who attempts to pick the lock will be in for a surprise." Robyn's smirk was enough warning for the Tomb Robber.

"I'll tell Draco that you're working with us and I'll instigate more fighting," Bakura nodded, "Keep your end of the bargain." He warned, and left.

"Eek!" Kari's squeak reached Robyn's ears, and she leant over the railing, to see Ombre and Ryou battling Kari, who had the high ground advantage, at least for now, if they could push Kari back a bit further, they'd be on the fifth floor, and on the same level as the entrance to the Monster's Wing.

Robyn would have done something about it from her vantage point halfway between the sixth and seventh floors, but Seto was already emerging from the corridor to help. Instead, she headed up to the seventh floor, where Luna was holding a bound Hermione at wand point.

Luna looked at her, then at Hermione and then at Robyn again, turning away from her captive, though she still held Hermione's wand, "You're not getting past me."

Robyn grinned and replied, "I don't need to." Before jumping over the railing, and landing on a moving staircase, just before the staircase Luna and Hermione were on shifted yet again.

"Hey!" Luna squeaked, as Robyn vanished from sight, having run up the moving staircase and vanished down a corridor. "Now what do I do?"

"Let me go?" Hermione suggested.

"So you can fight your way past me and win, no way." Luna shook her head… she thought for a moment and then headed down the corridor to the left, leaving Hermione on the landing.

"Luna? You can't just leave me here! LUNA!"

Nobody was quite sure who cast the spell that started the fighting off again, or from where, but someone managed to tag one of the first year Gryffindors with a jelly legs jinx that had a few of their team mates looking for the culprit and hexing those who they thought were the culprits, mainly Slytherins, though there were a couple of Ravenclaws caught in the cross fire and from there everything started back up again, much to Dumbledore's disgust as even two rather loud, rather smoky fire crackers that he conjured didn't calm the riot down.

Joey headed for the stairs again as a rather irate Professor McGonagall decided that enough was enough and the next person to hex any student of hers would see what she could do, which, unfortunately turned out to be Mokuba… "Morphus!"

Even from those on his own side there were laughs as Mokuba looked at his robes and groaned. They had been turned into a dress, a rather familiar looking dress actually, and Joey couldn't help calling over, "Déjà vu much?"

He then had to flee at Mokuba turned on him and cast several hexes, trying to hit the young man who managed to escape around a corner.

"Professor McGonagall!" Dumbledore growled, irritated that his staff members were encouraging the students, only to find that some enterprising person had attempted to copy her spell, only to give him a rather large hat with a vulture sat on the brim.

Well if Professor McGonagall was going to defend her students, then so were the other heads of Houses, dividing between the two sides, well, three now that the Slytherins were back to attacking both sides.

The Headmaster had to wonder how, exactly, he had lost control of the school.

Up on the first floor, Harry dove around a corner, only to come face to face with Draco Malfoy, who seemed all too pleased with himself. "Move Malfoy."

"Petrificus…"

"Rictusempra!" Harry was faster, easily so, thanks to all the training they had been doing over the last few months, and beat Draco to the punch, the Slytherin collapsed in laughter at the tickling charm, and it wasn't hard for Harry to dodge around Crabbe and Goyle and shoot up the steps again.

"Everte… Statum!" Draco managed to gasp, the spell only just missing, as Harry dodged it, avoiding being thrown forwards and disappeared up the steps out of sight. "Don't just stand there!" Draco growled, once he'd gasped the counter curse, "Let's get him."

Chasing Wheeler had not originally been Bakura's plan, especially when Hogwarts, and he could swear sometimes that it was sentient, seemed so determined to join in the game, changing the stairs around more frequently then normal and throwing everyone's direction off, so capturing Potter when he passed the doorway where Bakura was emerging had been a point in his favour, especially considering Potter now had the Puzzle.

Of course this now left Bakura with a prisoner he wasn't sure what to do with, and, after… liberating… the Puzzle, only temporarily of course, unless he could defeat the Pharaoh or his runt hikari when they finally woke up, he had left Harry tied up in a closet and used Colloportus to seal the door with an odd but satisfying squelch.

'Note to self, remember to wind Pharaoh up with knowledge of where Potter is…' He thought.

Draco and his goons had already passed Bakura and were fighting with Wheeler when Bakura reached them, and he had the satisfaction of watching Wheeler flinch when he saw that Bakura was wearing the Puzzle.

Of course he hadn't realised that Wheeler would then proceed to attack the four of them with a ferocity that startled even the Tomb Robber, having not suspected it of this Guardian, and Bakura only escaped being defeated because he headed downwards, casting a few curses behind him and having the satisfaction of hearing Joey grunt, since he'd been chasing him…

A little paper bird flew into Bakura.

He glared at it and it unfolded to reveal a note from Robyn, 'SK is winning, remember our deal.'

Bakura growled and headed down into the melee, he knew how he could even this out quite nicely… well nicely for him anyway…

He hadn't quite expected to find that half the male students were now in dresses, which Professor McGonagall seemed quite happy to transfigure for them (Bakura ended up in a rather lovely black ball gown), but he did spot Mokuba quite easily.

The kid was in a fighting alongside his girlfriend… while wearing a rather fancy white and yellow dress that looked even more ornate then the dress Bakura now had on.

"Kaiba." He bellowed over the melee, ducking a couple of stunners cast his way.

Mokuba looked over, eyes widening at the sight of Bakura, in a dress, with the Puzzle, and headed over, fighting his way through the crowd, attempting to hex the Tomb Robber before he reached him and then chasing him up the flight of stairs, only to find that Joey was now fighting the Tomb Robber, tooth and nail.

"Damn it Guardian, stay out of my way." Bakura snapped as his jelly-legs jinx missed.

"Not until you hand over the Puzzle." Joey snapped.

"Fine." Bakura startled Joey by taking it off and pushing it towards him, "Take it."

"Huh?" Joey was stunned for a moment, allowing Bakura to get away.

Once he was over the shock, he figured that Bakura was already turning back towards the melee downstairs, and he headed upwards, reaching the fifth floor to find Ryou at wand point and Ombre a victim of Immobulus, their captor, Kari, was tired, but still good to go as she demonstrated by using the telekinesis given to her by the orb to hit Joey in the head with a book from the bookcase.

There were some things that Seto would kill for.

The safety of his little brother was one of those things, so when Kisara informed him that Bakura was holding his little brother prisoner obviously, and quite rightly, his little brother's safety came ahead of the responsibilities of the battle.

The trick was getting past the mutt, who had defeated Kari with the aid of Ombre and Ryou, without getting caught by any spells.

This was much easier then he had expected it to be, but left the Monster's Wing door wide open as he headed down the stairs to battle Bakura himself.

What he didn't realise was that Luna was in fact waiting on Harry's broomstick about halfway up and Robyn had set traps all the way up the first couple of flights of stairs in the tower and was working on the third.

Of course the interference of one Ronald Weasley had been both unexpected and irritating, as Ron led a group of Gryffindors that had managed to break away from the main battle downstairs, up towards the Monster's Wing.

Oh that was the last thing they needed, trust Weasley to go overboard… a bunch of Ravenclaws, led by Ginny Weasley, Mokuba's girlfriend, followed closely behind…

Mokuba first, keeping ahead in the game later…

He arrived on the third floor and headed down the corridor to where Bakura was waiting for him.

"Where's my brother?"

Ron had his back to the wall, as they fought with the Ravenclaws that had followed them to the Monster's Wing. The battle here had been going their way until a rather irate Dark Magician Girl had decided that she was going to blast everyone who was making enough noise to wake up her baby daughter, who was now safely with Mahado outside the Pharaoh's room, which, thankfully, had a silencing charm on so that the noise didn't filter through.

Also thankfully, Mana wasn't using her full power, only enough to push both groups away from the doors on the right hand side and back towards the entrance to the wing.

"Incarcerous!" Ron bellowed, casting at Mana, who gave him an incredibly irritated look as she floated in mid air, bound tightly. The spell didn't hold long as Mana dispelled the rope, but it was long enough for Ron and a couple of his guys to slip past the Dark Magician Girl and get into Dragon Tower.

Only to be stopped a floor up by a force field.

"Merlin's beard!" Ron complained, wishing he had his broomstick, which was, of course, still with Hermione.

They backed out of the tower, ready to head for the seventh floor, only to find a rather more irritated Mana waiting for them.

"Uh oh…"

Joey was wondering what had happened to Luna and Hermione as he, Ryou and Ombre reached the three quarter point on Dragon Tower, so close now that they could see it… and Harry, what had happened to Harry to give Bakura the chance to take the Puzzle from him…

Joey snarled, thinking that he should have stuck around to find out what Bakura had done under the cover of the battle…

And where had Kaiba gone?

Joey didn't like this in the slightest, it was like someone was running this battle under their noses and they weren't paying enough attention to notice it, too focused on their own objectives…

"Ombre, Ryou, you can handle the rest of the job, can't you?" He asked, heading back down.

"Where are you going, Joey?"

"To find Harry." Joey growled, one hand on the Puzzle, "Hermione, Luna and Kaiba too."

"You want to find Kaiba?" Ombre looked surprised.

"He's missing and there's always an epic climatic battle which draws the story to a close." Joey pointed out… "Keep going up, I'll meet you there…"

Harry was rubbing his wrists and ankles, trying to get some feeling back into his hands and feet. Bakura hadn't exactly been easy on him when he'd locked him up…

"Luna…" Harry went to thank her but Luna grinned and gave him a hug.

"S'ok."

"How's the battle going?"

"Kaiba was ahead, but I think the tide's turning." Luna said thoughtfully, "The battle downstairs is turning too, but I don't have much of an idea how, I left my post in Dragon Tower to come and rescue you."

"I have to find Bakura. He took the Puzzle."

"Joey has it now." Luna shook her head.

"How did Joey get the Puzzle from Bakura?"

Luna shrugged.

"Isn't Kaiba going to be irritated that you left your post to rescue the enemy?"

"Kaiba went somewhere and hasn't been back since, and Robyn's setting traps in the tower."

"I thought Robyn was on our side…"

"So did we, but apparently she's on the side of not letting anyone reach the top of Dragon Tower, ever."

"So how are Yugi and Yami going to come down when they've woken up?"

"I don't think anyone's thought of this."

Harry face palmed.

It had to be said, they were well and truly trapped.

Sat halfway up the stairs to the top floor, Joey, Ombre and Ryou were examining the barrier between them and the next flight of stairs, trying to find some weakness they hadn't thought of yet. Unfortunately back wasn't an option either, since there was another barrier blocking them from returning the way they'd come, which had activated when Joey had gone to look for Harry and Hermione, so they couldn't leave the tower and try something else.

Robyn waved merrily at them from above, where she was setting up tripwires.

"Wasn't Robyn just downstairs?"

"Yes, she was. Should we be worried about whatever she's setting up?"

"Yes, yes we should."

"Well there's one plus side to being stuck three quarters of the way up Dragon Tower." Ombre said as she watched Robyn work.

"What's that?"

"We know Bakura can't get past us."

"That's true." Joey looked pleased by this thought. "However this doesn't change the fact that we're stuck."

"We could try jumping." Ombre pointed to the stairs below and to the right of them.

"We could, but that's going down, not up. If we head up those stairs we end up back here."

Then they heard a most unnerving noise. Robyn was cackling. And hundreds, if not thousands, of bubbles were floating towards them.

Joey jumped, Ryou and Ombre close behind.

As the bubbles popped, they left behind something which looked rather like faery dust, or as a Muggle raised student might call it, glitter.

"We just fled from glitter…"

"Thank the Gods that Bakura or Kaiba never saw us… we'd never live it down."

"Weeeeeeeeeeeee!" Harry grinned as he shot up the middle of the tower, on his broomstick, flying through the glitter and carrying on going until he reached the top floor, except that wasn't what happened.

What actually happened was that Harry hit the glitter, carried on going for a moment, and then went in completely the opposite direction, lost his grip on his broomstick now that he was in fact going upside down because of the inverted gravity, and dropped onto a staircase… the bottom of a staircase… he was upside down on a stair case.

"So fleeing from the glitter was a good idea then?" Joey asked.

"Apparently."

"Um... guys? I think I'm stuck. Any ideas how to get off this staircase?" asked Harry, wandering back and forth, on the undersides of the staircase.

"Keep going up." Joey suggested, "Or try passing through the glitter again."

"You really don't want to try that." Robyn called down, "It'll take even longer to wear off if you go through again; we might not be able to get you down for days. Or worse, you might end up sideways or something..."

"Err, guys... what is going on?" Yugi asked, as he and Yami peered over the edge of the staircase at the glitter and the bouncing Robyn and the general insanity that was breaking out down at the bottom of the tower.

"War games!" Robyn happily declared, "Welcome back to the house of insanity, you've been missed."

Yami paused, decided he didn't wasn't awake enough to deal with this and turned to his hikari, "Yugi, I'm going back to bed."

Robyn smirked, "And so the mighty have fallen to my plotting!"

"What the what?"

"More sleepy time for the idiot who refuses to sleep." She giggled, "And voluntarily too."

Yami didn't grace Robyn with a response, he just turned around and re-entered the tower room, while Yugi took his wand from Mahado. "I'll be down in a sec." Yugi called, turning and having a conversation that the others couldn't quite hear with Yami, before vanishing as he headed down the stairs.

Joey, who was heading up to see if he could help Harry at all, was startled, a moment later to find Yugi go rolling past him, gift wrapped with a silver ribbon, and watched in amazement as Yugi continued to roll down the stairs till he reached the bottom and landed, stunned, at the feet of Seto Kaiba.

Robyn's giggling told Joey exactly whose trap that had been…

Seto, who wasn't exactly sure what was going on, plucked the gift tag off of the still stunned Yugi.

"To Seto, have fun with this, from Robyn."

Seto had to fight very hard not to lose it at that comment, gaining a rather evil smirk as he decided exactly what he was going to do as he picked up Yugi and led his forces in a retreat.

"Did Seto just…" Joey hoped he hadn't just seen what he thought he'd seen.

"Kidnap Yugi." Ombre nodded with a groan.

"How did Yugi roll past the barriers?" Ryou complained.

"Probably set to fall when a certain person walked… rolled… past." Ombre sighed. "Should we get Yami?"

Yami didn't need getting, he'd felt Yugi's shock as he'd fallen down the stairs, had emerged from the room just a little too late to see Seto escaping with his prisoner and was now looking at the over the railing, deciding he didn't want to know why Harry's broom was currently lying on the ceiling. "What…?"

"Yugi triggered a trap, fell… rolled, down the stairs and Seto just kidnapped him." Harry explained helpfully as he peered over the edge of the stairs to look up at him.

"Why are you on the bottom of the stairs?" Yami asked, then paused, "And why did Seto kidnap Yugi?"

"Robyn's fault and because Seto's the enemy."

"Seto's the enemy?" Yami looked confused. "Since when?"

"Since the morning training session."

"What time is it now?"

"Uh, coming up on lunch time I think."

Yami frowned, "I'll be down in a minute, then I want to know what's been going on while we've been asleep."

"Mind the stairs." Joey called up to him. "Robyn's set traps…"

Yami got his wand from Mahado and accioed Harry's broomstick.

"Don't fly through the glitter." Harry advised.

"In one window out the other." Yami shrugged.

"Kisara's guarding the windows."

"So I'm stuck up here, while Seto, who is apparently against us, has Yugi?"

"Pretty much."

"Fine." Yami vanished and Joey wondered what he was up to.

Next thing he knew there was another Muto rolling past him, gift wrapped, who rolled all the way to the bottom, but this time there were only members of Joey's team and a couple of Beuxbatons students down there.

By the time Joey reached the bottom, George had almost finished unwrapping Yami, who sat there looking rather dazed.

"Yami? You ok?" Dazed crimson met concerned chocolate and Yami shook his head to try to shift the dizziness. It did nothing but make him more dizzy and cause him to groan.

"Yami?"

"Fine, just dizzy." The Pharaoh groaned as Joey helped him to his feet. "What's going on here? What's this about war games and why is Seto the enemy? How exactly did this all start?"

"Well you see, there's a funny story behind all of this… You're going to laugh, believe me, you are going to laugh." Joey insisted.

Yami gave him a disbelieving glare of doom if he didn't hurry up and explain right now.

"You have two choices." Seto growled at Yugi as Mokuba enervated Kari, his forces having retreated, temporarily, to the Ravenclaw Common Room.

"What's going on?" Yugi demanded, squirming in an attempt to reach his wand, "Let me go Seto!" He glowered as he realised that the ribbon seemed to be getting tighter the more he struggled and ceased doing so for the time being.

"It's a war game, Yugi." Seto smirked, "Why would I free a prisoner?"

"Because you know Yami will come after you when he wakes up?" Yugi tried.

`Yugi?`

"Harry? Help!" Yugi yelped over the mind link, "What's going on?"

'Where are you?' Yami asked, concern obvious.

"Ravenclaw Common Room."

'Ra damn it…'

Yugi refrained from further mental conversation as he realised that Seto knew exactly what he was doing.

"You were just talking with Yami weren't you?"

"And Harry." Yugi admitted, knowing that lying was pointless.

"Thought so." Seto nodded, as if he'd just made up his mind about something, "You've woken up to a civil war, Yugi, and we," He indicated himself and his forces, which were spread over the Common Room, up the halls and out into the corridor, "Are guarding the castle, while your friends are trying to invade."

"Why?"

"Because they're trying to free the damsels in distress." Seto smirked.

"Damsels?" Yugi asked, looking around as bets he could, eyes widening as he looked at Mokuba, who was in the dress that he recognised as Princess Adnia's from that virtual game, "Please tell me that's just a dress and nothing else has changed."

Mokuba scowled at him, while Seto laughed, "No your highness, but I'm sure you've heard of 'save the Princess' game play before."

"Save the…" Yugi squeaked, "But I'm a guy!"

Mokuba started laughing at his reaction as Seto continued, enjoying winding Yugi up, "We're at a standstill at the moment, they've probably reached Yami by now, but we have you."

"Which is where those choices come in, I'm guessing."

"Two choices, you can either be a hostage who is left here, bound and guarded by a group of rather imposing seventh years, or you can be a hostage who unwillingly works for us."

"So either way I'm a hostage,"

"Yami won't see it any other way."

"Point." Yugi sighed.

"Come on Yugi, it's fun." Mokuba giggled, "It's only a game."

Yugi paused, thought for a moment, then firmly closed the mind link to Yami and Harry before responding to Kaiba, "What do you need me to do?"

"Sorry Hermione." Harry said, as he untied the bushy haired witch who was scowling at them.

She hissed at him as she got to her feet, "I take it it's over, if Yami's here…"

Yami shook his head, "Seto got Yugi and Yugi's blocking me."

"Why would Yugi block you if he's been captured…" She paused, "And why does Joey have the Puzzle?"

"Oops." Joey handed it to Yami.

"Why did you have the Puzzle?" Yami asked, wondering why he hadn't questioned it before.

"Got it from Bakura." Joey said very, very quietly.

"Bakura?" Yami snarled, "How did Bakura get his hands on the Puzzle?"

"I got captured." Harry was quiet and Yami turned to look at him, calming quickly in his concern, "He took it, sorry."

"Are you alright?"

"Fine."

"And you Joey?"

"I'm good."

"I'll deal with him later then." Yami surprised them all by saying, "As long as neither of you are hurt…"

"We're fine, better then fine, we're great." Joey babbled, "Now, how are we saving Yugi?"

"Well, he said he was in the Ravenclaw Common, before the link got blocked." Harry said, thinking.

"So we need to capture a Ravenclaw…" Ron started.

"They'll be guarding the Common Room, what we need to do is lure them out." Yami scowled, "But I don't know how."

"A climatic battle." Joey grinned, "We challenge Seto to a one on one, winner takes all fight and while everyone's watching that, we break into the Ravenclaw Common Room and save Yuge."

"Would Seto be stupid enough to accept?"

"Well he is playing the villain."

"Whoever we send with the message is likely to be captured."

"We really should gather our forces and tell them what's going on." Hermione frowned.

"Right…"

"I'll go," Harry grinned, "No one in school has a faster broom then mine."

"And you're bloody hard to hit." Joey nodded, "Have them come to the Monst… bad idea… Transfiguration Classrooms."

"Right." Harry nodded and took off.

"Next, transfiguration classrooms."

Bakura had called Slytherin House to him when Kaiba had rallied his own troops and Wheeler was now doing the same from his.

The battle was coming to a close, he could see it, and what was funny was that the teachers had no idea what was going on and no clue that there was one last battle to be fought. The war wasn't over yet, and wouldn't be for a little while longer yet, but there wasn't that much more fighting to be done.

Stomachs before leaders after all.

Durmstrang were bored, having already pulled back to the courtyard, and were talking about returning to the ship, while Beuxbatons had already pulled back to the Hufflepuff common room and it looked like they were just waiting for the next round.

Fleur was a surprisingly good leader and Krum had had to step up his game.

Of course this hadn't affected Bakura's plan, other then needing to cause more distractions, but now that the Princes were awake, he could focus on causing as much chaos for all the sides as possible without having to worry about the blasted tower.

And while he waited, he had orders… sorry… suggestions… to hand out.

It was quiet, too quiet, and Dumbledore didn't like it in the slightest.

When the student forces had split up, Dumbledore had sent his teachers with them, spreading them out but allowing them to sit in on the student's plans, figure out exactly what was going on and ensure that this didn't get any more out of hand then it already was.

He was guarding the main hallways, aware that just around the corner were the Durmstrang lot, who were waiting for either the fighting to start again, or the order, from their leader, Vicktor Krum, to retreat.

Surprisingly, for all of the fighting that had happened, the Great Hall was relatively untouched, and the tables were being laid for lunch. The House Elves were completely unphased by the battles going around them and had prepared lunch as if nothing unusual was happening.

The Headmaster couldn't help wondering though, how the sides were going to deal with lunch, if they'd take it in turns, call a temporary truce or if there would be a fight for the Great Hall.

Seto and his forces were already waiting when Joey and his troops reached the courtyard.

"Wheeler." Seto smirked at him, Mokuba and Kari at his side.

"Kaiba." Joey growled back, Yami and Harry at his side. The only ones missing from this scene were Ryou, Ombre and a few others, who were preparing to break into the Ravenclaw Common Rooms. "I'm here, as agreed."

Seto snorted, "Have chosen your Champion to duel alongside you?"

"It's my honour to have Yami fighting at my side." Joey nodded as Yami stepped forward.

Seto's smirk widened. "Oh that's just perfect." He grinned, gesturing to the crowd on his side, who parted to allow Yugi through. "Meet my champion."

"Yugi?!" Yami yelped, shocked.

Yugi smirked, a look that was completely out of place on his face, as he activated his Duel Disk.

"What did you do to him?" Yami snapped at Seto, who was unsurprised at Yami's forcefulness, but it was Yugi's cold laugh that turned the Pharaoh's attention away. "Yugi, why?"

"He made me an offer I couldn't refuse." Yugi replied, his tone making Yami flinch. "Are you going to fight or forfeit?"

"Yugi…" Yami hesitated, not really wanting to fight his hikari when he was acting like this…

"I'll pick someone else, Yami." Joey said, seeing Yami's hesitation and looking back at Harry or Rebecca, wondering exactly what he had offered Yugi to make him fight them.

"No." Yami growled, shaking his head and activating his Duel Disk. "I'll fight."

Yami jumped as he felt the mind link poke him, "Game on Yami?"

Yami had to fight very hard not to grin, as the link opened and he sensed Yugi's amusement and anticipation. 'Your acting skills have improved.' Yami snorted down the link.

"Well, it is a game and I have to play my role…" Yugi laughed.

'And I'll play mine.' Yami sent, amusement now reigning, "You won't win Kaiba, and when this is over, Yugi's coming with us."

"You won't win." Seto smirked, "We will, and when we do, you're going to call off your attack on the castle and admit that we won."

"Since this all started because you refused to admit that I beat you this morning," Joey growled, "You have to release Yugi, admit that we won and admit that I beat you earlier."

"Deal." Seto smirked, "Though I don't know why we're repeating everything we went over in the messages."

"So everyone knows exactly what the conditions are." Yami snorted. "Hikari, I'm not going to go easy on you just because you've been forced into working for the other side."

"Good, because I have no intention of losing." Yugi snorted back at him, well aware of the confusion on his friend's faces… well bar Harry, who was backing off and looked like he was trying to contain his amusement and failing, since he'd heard the conversation between Yami and Yugi.

"First turn is yours Yami." Kaiba smirked, amused at the banter.

"Then let's Duel."

"Miss Golden, what exactly do you think you're doing?"

"Aiding in the defence of the castle?" Robyn offered to the Headmaster.

"What?"

"I've been recruited to help one of the sides in the Interhouse Wargames." Robyn said with a straight face. "So, Professor, who do you think wins the Interhouse War trophy?"

"The what?"

"Well... I'm sure you are well aware of all of Hogwarts traditions, but the Interhouse Wargames haven't been played for over three hundred years, I think the students have preformed this re-enactment surprisingly well."

"Re-enactment?"

"Well, yes. I first heard of this when I saw Muggles play acting out old battles; I thought it was a prefect opportunity to act out one of the many battles that has taken place at Hogwarts." Robyn said, "Gives the students more interest in history."

"...but it was chaos..."

"Well, it was a war, what do you expect?"

"Two sides?"

"No no no no no! What are you thinking? Only two sides? In Hogwarts? Why, anyone would think the students were playing Lords of Light and Darkness. No. Anyway, you should know, War doesn't work that way."

"This was organised?"

"Well yes, of course, I was really impressed at what the students did with such short notice, and wasn't Hogwarts amazing?"

Dumbledore had to agree there, he had noticed that the school itself, which was alive with magicks older and more powerful then most would accredit a building, which had built up over hundreds and hundreds of years, had been moving staircases and locking doors and generally acting up much more then normal.

It was almost as if Hogwarts herself had been playing along.

Miss Golden certainly seemed to believe that she had been…

"I'll decide who wins the trophy once the final battle's played out." Dumbledore decided. But I have to find it or get a new one first…

"Well of course you were going to lose, how exactly did you plan on beating the God cards?" Kari laughed as she poked Seto at lunch time.

The CEO was 'not' sulking, but he had made one miscalculation, "I thought it was Yugi's turn to hold them."

"Didn't you think to ask him?" Kari smiled, trying not to laugh, "Yugi hasn't held the God Cards since the Millennium Items went missing. He won't take them."

"I'd have come up with another plan if I'd known that." Seto scowled at her.

"You didn't ask." Kari giggled.

"Next time, give me any important information you might have please." Seto continued to scowl at her.

"Next time?" Kari yelped, "All the Houses are on minus House Points and the House Cup isn't being distributed because we didn't warn the Headmaster about our 're-enactment'… I wonder who thought that up…"

"There'll be a next time. I'll win too."

"What did you offer Yugi to make his fight for your side?" Kari asked, curiosity burning.

"Nothing. I just reminded him that it was a game." Seto smirked, "You all seemed to forget that."

"We did, didn't we?" Kari laughed. "Oh well. Better luck next time Seto."

"Go sit on your own table." He mock glowered at her and she left.

Once she was gone, he smirked. He was already making plans, there would be next time, he was sure of it. It had been too much fun for Joey not to want to try it again.

And next time, he wouldn't lose.

Author Note: - And I firmly blame this chapter on the crazy at the end of chapter 18.

Okay, so Mantle of Leadership is up. It's the next story in the series, and takes place a week after the end of term. You can find itat http:// www. fanfiction. net /s/4949853/1/ (mind the spaces)