Light and Darkness

Chapter Two

Meeting the Family

Disclaimer: I own neither Yu-Gi-Oh! nor Harry Potter, they belong to Takahashi and Rowling respectively and I take credit only for the situations in which I put their characters. I am also not making any sort of profit out of this story…would be great if I did, but I'm not. Eh, let's move on now…

Summary: The Pharaoh fulfilled his destiny and went though the Ceremonial Battle and on to the Afterlife. Only, he never considered that perhaps it wasn't as easy as that. Darkness needs light to exist. In another world, a young boy has just had his life changed, became orphan and hero in the same night, and lost a part of himself. They are both incomplete. And so, the gods decide to send the Pharaoh back to life, to become the boy's protector and guardian darkness. Hikari!Harry, Spirit!Atem, Manipulative!Dumbledore, etc.

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The whole night. He had stood guard and waited for one whole night. What was wrong with these people, leaving a child so young outside for so long, and in this kind of weather no less? The ex-Pharaoh felt the urge to growl, but he was much too busy keeping his new charge entertained. He had discovered that the young one could also touch him, even though he was a spirit and didn't really have a body, but he wasn't all that surprised at that, it had been the same…before.

He sighed again as he allowed the child to grasp his finger into his own little hand, apparently perfectly content with staying outside and playing with the ghostly finger of a long-dead Egyptian King. At lest he wasn't crying now.

Crimson eyes shot away from the small form of the baby and quickly scanned his surroundings, for he had heard a noise nearby and wanted to make sure whatever it was posed no threat to him or the child. Fortunately, it proved to be only a man going out of the house across from them and into his car. Apparently, the people of this neighborhood were starting to awaken. Good, it meant that perhaps now someone would find the child and take him inside at last.

He didn't have to wait much longer, for only about fifteen minutes later the door in front of them opened and revealed a man standing behind it. Well, Atem thought it was a man, but honestly, he looked quite similar to the picture in *Just Desserts, large and seriously overweight, with watery eyes and a soul full of greed. Crimson eyes narrowed. He did not like this man.

It took the overweight male more than a moment or two to realize that there was a baby abandoned on his doorstep, he sputtered, startled and certainly not liking the situation, and then quickly pulled the child inside the house, before the neighbors got a chance to see anything. The spirit was quick to follow, not willing to leave his little Light alone with this person. By now the man had tore open the letter than had been left with the baby and was reading quickly, his face becoming redder and redder by the minute, which only helped to worry Atem even more.

"Petunia! Come, come quick. Look at this! The-the nerve of these…these people!"

The Pharaoh felt like covering his ears in order to block the infernal shouting, but decided to busy himself instead with calming down the child, who had certainly gotten upset over said shouting, before he started to cry and made the whole thing worse. He barely even noticed it when a thin and rather horse-like woman hurried towards them and started to talk with the man in hushed and frightful tones, an angry exclamation being added every once in a while.

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Atem was glaring at a wall, his enraged red eyes almost threatening to burn wholes into the thing. He wasn't just angry, he was outraged and fuming. Apparently, the overweight man and the horsy woman were none other than his charge's uncle and aunt. Now, Atem was willing to overlook their initial unpleasantness and even the tainted feeling in their souls, since they were the little one's family and all, and family was very important, but then they went and did…this!

The man had already left, presumably to work although the Pharaoh couldn't understand how someone of that size and with so little ability to move could possibly work at anything, and the woman had stayed in the house, presumably to look after the children. Yes, children. There was another child in the house, one that although he didn't look all that much older than his Light, was definitely larger…and louder. Atem had very little experience with children, but even he could tell that the most well-behaved of the two was his little one, but even a blind man could have been able to tell, what with the tantrums the other child threw. Only, the woman wasn't looking after them, she was focusing on her son and allowing the other child to go ignored.

That was what brought Atem's anger, and he was pretty sure he would have at least glared the woman to submission by now if only she could see him. It had been four hours since he and his charge first entered the house and not once (once!) had she approached the black-haired baby to make sure that he was alright, and not hungry or something. He might not be an expert, but he was pretty sure children needed constant supervision.

Well, he decided, if she wasn't going to look after the child like any decent person would, then he would have to do the job as best as a spirit could, although that probably wasn't much. He would still try.

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He was sitting on the floor, right next to the old playpen where his Light was currently being kept, watching as the child entertained himself with some brightly colored blocks that the woman had thrown in hastily before leaving once again, but his attention was for once not really focused on the child. The aunt and uncle were there too, on the other side of the room, discussing what would become of the child someone had callously dropped on their doorstep.

Apparently and from what Atem could gather, the couple hated the child's parents, who were supposedly part of some cult or something, and didn't really want to look after him but someone, whoever had placed the child outside their house, had insisted (Atem took that to mean 'threatened') and they were scared of going against that person…or people, probably the whole cult, from what he understood. So they were going to keep him, albeit reluctantly. They were currently complaining about how much money they would have to waste and how they didn't want the child to contaminate their precious little son. It made the once-Pharaoh feel just about ready to blast someone into the Shadow Realm, if only he could.

Atem didn't think this was good news either. Sure, the little one would be with his family and all, but said family didn't really seem to like him at all, and being forced to take him in like this, against their wishes, was bound to create resentment and perhaps even hate. He knew what kind of darkness dwelt in the hearts of men, and he knew that hatred could easily fester there, even against someone as innocent and small as his new Light. But really, what could he possibly do about it? He didn't even have a body of his own, he had no Millennium Puzzle and no option but go along with the whole thing.

Well, at least the child still had him, even if he doubted a long-since-dead Pharaoh was really the appropriate company for someone so young. He could still probably do a much better job at raising him than his sorry excuse for a family could. He shook his head as he looked once more at his charge.

"Looks like we are staying here, little Light. Don't worry, though, I will not leave you alone with these…people"

The boy seemed oblivious to the direness of the situation and even to Atem's darker thoughts as he answered with a happy giggle and then raised his arms to the mostly-invisible spirit, rather clearly stating that he wanted to be picked up. The Pharaoh had never regretted being little more than a ghost until now, when he would have to disappoint the innocent child and deny him his wish.

The two adults looked sharply at the playpen and Atem could feel their nervous incredulity at seeing the child giggling to himself and raising his arms towards nothing at all. This was probably not good either, but it was hardly his or the child's fault that no one else could even see him. When the couple turned away, not without muttering something about 'unnatural' and 'abnormal' and so making Atem all the more frustrated and angry, the spirit once again offered his hand to the child, who was now pouting over not being picked up but seemed content enough to just hold on as he resumed playing with the blocks.

The spirit sighed again. He was a Pharaoh, a King, a Warrior, he had saved the world and defeated many different foes, he was the undefeated King of Games and number one Duelist, but he didn't know the first thing about playing babysitter. This was going to be a long lifetime.

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Author's Notes: Allright! Chapter Two is up! ^_^

* [http : / yugioh . wikia . com / wiki / Just_Desserts] Please tell me that doesn't look even a little bit like Vernon Dursley…I dare you XD

I want to thank all the people who reviewed -^_^- And I seriously want to answer your reviews, but is being a little daft at the moment and not letting me read them...I'll keep trying, though, and answer in the next chapter if it gets fixed ^^