Disclaimer: As much as I wish it was otherwise, I do not own Harry Potter or YuGiOh.

To my Reviewers!

Ok, soI changed my mind. But only the Ishtars, mainly Malik, will be in it for a while. Hey, I really only doing this by ear.

He will not, never, under no circumstances attend Hogwarts, not even in a non-existant exchange program. He may meet some of the original cast in later years, but he might not. I have yet to decide.

In regards to his scar, it overlaps and hides the original scar. And just so you know, it's not a big red thing, it's a big whitish thing 'cause it faded over time.

Suggested names for characters are welcome. Hell, make your own character and send it in, and chances are your person will appear. You can even decide if they'll be friend or foe. Applications close by the sixth chapter. Thank you for your cooperation. Have a nice day. ;-)


Bakura had indeed sent away for more information via a few summoned Skull Red Birds. If they thought he'd spend money on owls, they had another thing coming.

With the information that was sent to him in his dingy hotel room, he was able to eliminated Hogwarts, Darkfall and Stormhaven. Hogwarts because it sounded like a goody-goody prep school with no privacy, not to mention English wizards were ranked as a eight on Bakura's 'Who To Eliminate' List (especially after that thing with the runaway broomstick). Rami was highly sensitive to the cold so Darkfall was out. Stormhaven was an Elitist school and Bakura, and therefore Rami, never could stand authority.

So that left Freefall Academy and Shadow Gardens.

Freefall Academy was a compound based on the blue-prints of a long forgotten Roman university. The walls were white-washed and there were numerous water-features throughout the grounds, totally paved with white stone and gold. Bakura found the Academy sickeningly Light-oriented, but they did offer some of the best education in the world, and maybe their healers and mind-mages would be able to help Rami with his demons.

Shadow Gardens also appeared to be a likely candidate. Not only was it located in what was once the Pharaoh's Palace (which tickled Bakura's sense of irony), time was also stopped in the school grounds on the brink of sunset to allow for the non-human students who happened to be sensitive to direct sunlight, leaving the vast desert gardens in flame-red half-shadows. Each student was granted a room, single or shared, depending on request and reasons given, which world be protected by the student/s living in that room. The students would be given the same room each year unless a change was requested on reasonable grounds and they were given the option of remaining at the Gardens throughout both summer and Christmas holidays. The choices of classes taught were all selected for practical reasons, as was the curriculum. For example, Charms was not taught until third year, and didn't teach anything that would be essentially useless or would cause the student to come to depend on it, for instance; the cleaning charm discouraged manual labour, which in turn discouraged humility. Shadow Gardens taught anything form Herbology to Survival Training to Transfiguration to Science Physics. Unlike other schools, Shadow Gardens taught muggle-related subjects, which was considered highly unusual. One of the reasons the Gardens was so small was because, while discouraged, it was not unlikely for a student to kill or permanently injure another student.

Out of the two, Bakura was inclined to choose Shadow Gardens for obvious reasons. However, unlike the other schools, interviews with the prospective children was used to weed out candidates who were unlikely to succeed, were too squeamish or were likely to use the knowledge to deliberately harm innocents.

So. This was the incentive for Bakura to try to get Rami into this school, since we all know how competitive the thief is.

(space)

Rami was bored.

He knew his Master was sending him to a magic school. He had asked why and Bakura-sama had told him that it was not only compulsory for magically-inclined children to attend these special schools once they turned eleven. And besides, Bakura-sama had said, you need to learn these things and I don't really have all that much time or inclination to teach you, since I was born before most of these things were even discovered, let alone taught.

Though still, Rami had to admit Shadow Gardens was nice. It was all red and black. Like a room with only a fireplace for light. The air smelt like warm, dry sand, shadows and various dry-climate plants. Somewhere, he could hear a gurgling water-feature. It was peaceful.

An ethereal song cut through the air, and both Bakura and Rami looked up into the perpetual evening sky to watch three phoenixes dance and play, flame-travelling in their game of tag. A few moments later, Bakura moved on down the open-wall sandstone corridor. Rami followed.

Several minutes later, Bakura and Rami drifted to a stop in front of the Headmaster's office. Bakura knocked below the plate on the door which read 'Headmaster Malik Ishtar'.

Bakura had snorted in amusement the first time he saw the name of the headmaster. He didn't tell Rami why and Rami didn't ask.

"Enter."

A small smirk drifted across Bakura's lips as he entered the room, which, if memory served, once belonged to the Priest Mahaado. Behind a sandstone desk was a man with long hay-coloured hair and dark golden skin. The man glanced up, revealing icy-lavender eyes, before he looked down at the papers again.

After a moment the man froze, as if hit by an epiphany. His head snapped up and his skin paled a little.

Malik couldn't believe it. The being he and the other Item Holders had been searching for, for nearly ten years was standing in the doorway of his office, looking like he'd barely aged at all. There was a pale flicker behind the red and white of the dark spirit, whom Malik just realised hadn't moved since entering the room, the expression on his face showed nothing but boredom. Pale eyes flickered to the flicker and widened.

There was a child standing in the thief's shadow like a monochrome doll of black and white. The only colour in the child was the red light from the 'sun' and the dark forest green of his eyes. As he stared at this child, this boy, he made out a nasty scar. Malik's eyes flickered to Bakura when he moved forward towards the desk, and realised he had been staring.

As Bakura sat, Malik wandered if he was hallucinating from stress, because, once seated, the child crawled onto the Darkest Spirit in Existence's lap. A shudder went through Malik as he noticed the dull sheen of the Millennium Ring laying against the boy's chest.

"So," Malik almost jumped out of his skin at the sound that came from the thief's mouth. The voice was the same; like dark molasses laced with cyanide. "We are here for the interview required for my boy to be enrolled in your school."

Malik glanced at his planner. Yep, an interview under the name Akefia Naja, for his son, Rami Naja. Malik had read the file on this boy's education, and had been looking forward to meeting this child whom he had hoped would be a worthy candidate for the upcoming school year. Now he was positive the kid would get in. Malik didn't want Bakura coming after him for denying Rami entrance.

"So you're using Akefia Naja now? What gave you that idea?" Malik asked, trying to gather his wits. Was it just him, or was it dead quiet outside?

Bakura blinked gracefully. "Akefia in the name I was given at birth." Malik blinked. He hadn't known that. "Naja is the second name I gave to Rami when he found me. He didn't have a name before I gave him one."

When he saw the hidden puzzlement in Malik's face, he elaborated. "Rami had been astral projecting to escape the body long before he found me in the Shadow Realm half-way around the world when he was six or so." He was vaguely amused when the man across from him paled to an almost sickly shade as the implications set in. He had caught the under-toned reason for the astral projection.

Rami lifted his head slightly from Bakura's shoulder and fix Malik with his old eyes. "They were bad people."

Malik swallowed. "I see." He would have to try and corner Bakura about this later, if Bakura didn't corner him first. To save face, Malik slipped into 'Headmaster Mode' and began to enquire about Rami's education and special needs. The interview lasted for an hour or so, before it was decided that Rami was more than capable of being accepted into Shadow Gardens. Malik had to hold in a wince when Bakura suggested someone show Rami around the school while he and Malik 'ironed out the details'; read, try to milk each other for information.

Malik once again looked sickly when Rami wandered of with the Healing Professor, Minako Katsuragi, Dark Necrofear in tow.


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