Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, YuGiOh or the concept of the wildfolk (although I made a lot about them up)
Spoilers: PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF and OotP. (Written before book 6).
In this story, Yuugi is 16, the same age as Harry. I'm not very good with the name of story arcs and stuff, but it's after Yami Marik has been banished to the shadow realm. Bakura is...sort of a good guy, but he's still him.
/blah/ Yami to Yuugi
/blah/ Yuugi to Yami
:blah: Bakura to Ryou
:blah: Ryou to Bakura
This basically a big explainy chapter, but it also has several parts that start to progress the story. I know the markings are supposed to be a tattoo rather than brand marks, but Harry said it was burned on and to hide their supernaturalness the power made the markings apeear to be whatever you expect them to be. At least, thats my explanation.
The cards mentioned are from my brother's deck.
Chapter 6 - Secrets Revealed
"What's going on?"
It was Harry who asked the question, seemingly oblivious to the green fire his body was sheathed in.
"More importantly, why are you glowing?" asked Malik.
"Glowing? What are you talking about?" Harry responded.
"Your entire body is covered in green fire."
"Oh." He then sighed. "I'll tell you, on the condition that you explain to me how you seem to know where we are, and why I can keep sensing darkness from the three of you, especially you two." indicating Yuugi and Ryou.
"We might as well go first, since we're here." Yuugi said. "You remember that lesson today, where your aunt told everyone about the realm of shadows? Well, this is it."
"We just call it the shadow realm though." Malik asserted.
"It's dangerous here." Ryou added. "I'm not sure why you're not unconscious. Most people would be."
"You're not. And I thought the realm was supposed to be full of monsters."
"They dwell deeper in. They will only come here if they are summoned. As for why we're conscious…you remember her mentioning how seven items were made?" When Harry nodded he continued. ""They are called the Millennium Items. They each have their own abilities, but they are all capable of summoning this area of the shadow realm."
Yuugi then picked up the explanation. "Two items, the Puzzle and the Ring, house spirits. Supposedly we are the re-incarnation of these spirits, but a more accurate way of looking at it is that we are the other halves of their souls. You remember she said how the pharaoh sealed half his soul inside the Puzzle? At the exact same time, the pharaohs' greatest foe, the thief king, also sealed half his soul inside the ring. We don't know whether he actually wanted to do that or not though. Anyway, they are still inside those two items."
/Yami? Why don't you appear? You might be able to explain better than me. /
Ryou must have asked a similar question, as both yamis materialised.
"Whoa. I've seen you two before I think. You take over their bodies sometimes don't you? Why don't you just appear like this? I'm sure you could pretend to be brothers or something." Harry asked.
"We are only corporeal because we're in the shadow realm, where the Items power originates from. In the real world, we are only able to be seen by those that hold the Items." Yami replied.
"So you're basically saying the darkness I feel comes from these Millennium Items? That doesn't explain why you two feel so dark."
"When our souls were split, one half had to remain in the item. It was more likely that the darker half would be able to survive in the shadows for longer. That's what myself and Bakura are, the darker halves of our original souls."
"Okay then. Sooo, do you know your name? Pol would kill for any more information about today's lesson. It's one of her favourite subjects, along with the Aztecs."
"Sadly no. I was in the puzzle for so long I lost my memories. Since then they have been slowly returning, but as of yet my name is still lost. For the moment I am called Yami Yuugi, which means Dark Yuugi, but people usually just call me Yami for short."
"Does anyone else get the feeling we're being ignored here?" Malik chose this moment to comment.
"Sorry." Harry apologised. "So what do the Items look like? I'm assuming the puzzle is that gold pyramid Yuugi usually wears, but I've never gotten to see it up close and I haven't seen the others at all."
"Here," Yuugi offered "you can have a closer look at the puzzle but I advise against touching it, since I'm the rightful owner."
As Harry was looking, he noticed the design of the eye on the front and gasped.
"What is it?"
"I can't believe I never noticed before! I might have been able to find out what the hieroglyphics mean exactly. Oh well, at least I can find out now." This last part was muttered softly to himself.
"Hieroglyphics?"
"Yes, on my back. You'll have to wait until I'm in my real body to see them though, which is annoying because I'd be able to explain the green fire better with them."
As he mentioned that he had writing on his back, Maliks' face suddenly became guarded and the other four shot him looks, but didn't say anything.
"In that case," began Yuugi "it might be better if the entire explanation waited until we get back." The others all nodded their agreement.
"Well, now that's settled, who opened the realm?" asked Yami.
"Baka Pharaoh. Weren't you listening before? None of us did." replied Bakura. "Unless it was glow-boy over there."
"How could I do it? I don't even know how!" protested Harry.
"Good point. Why are we here then? Nothing's happening. There's no monsters or anything." As Ryou finished speaking, there was a brief deepening of the shadows, then Monster Egg (600/900) appeared.
"Haven't you learnt not to do that yet?" asked Harry. "You've jinxed it…metaphorically."
"Oops, sorry."
After a moment of looking around, Monster Egg attacked. But not any of the Item holders.
"Harry! Watch out!"
Just before the eggshells were about to hit him, Succubus Knight (1650/1300) appeared in front of Harry, and swatted them away with his batlike blades. (A.N. I don't know what weapon Succubus Knight actually uses, as it doesn't show on the card, so I made it up.)
"I don't understand! Okay Monster Egg is obviously a wild monster, but why is that Succubus Knight protecting Harry? I didn't hear anyone summoning it."
"He must have summoned it subconsciously, look at his scar!"
The glow that surrounded him was nothing compared to the intensity of the lightning bolt on his forehead. It was like looking at burning magnesium (only green).
"Well in that case…Harry! You have to tell Succubus Knight to attack Monster Egg!"
Apparently he didn't need to though, as upon hearing these words he turned and released a dark blue wave of magic, destroying Monster Egg.
"Must be another subconscious thing I guess." Ryou said, looking confused.
As he spoke, the shadow realm faded from around them until they were back in the Room of Requirement. The people around them began to stir.
"That was weird."
"Tell me about it. There wasn't even any point to it, it's not like we were challenged to a duel whilst we were there or anything."
"As far as I can tell it must be one of three things." Harry began. "First: the room responded to someone's subconscious desires, second: Voldemort's found a way to access the shadow realm and was testing us, or lastly that it's nothing to do with the wizarding world, it was someone who can only use shadow magic and the only reason I was attacked is as I have no Items they thought I was the weak link and decided to get rid of me first. When Succubus Knight appeared and destroyed their monster, they decided they needed to plan again and dispelled the realm. Personally, I'm hoping for theory one."
As people were becoming fully awake, they left the conversation at that.
"Okay, don't know what happened there, maybe someone's stunner went a bit odd. It's coming up to curfew though, so we'd all better get back to our common rooms. I'll set the next meeting on the galleons like usual."
As they were walking back towards Griffindor Tower, Harry told his friends "I'm not going to be here tomorrow, Ryou's having a sleepover back in Domino and most of the people will be muggles. I can't afford to miss it, in case they get as suspicious as these three were."
"It's a good job it's Saturday tomorrow then, you can't afford to miss any lessons, we need to prepare for the N.E.W.T.s."
"'Mione, that's not till next year!"
"We can't get out of the habit of preparing Ron or it'll be a nightmare, remember how stressed you were last year?"
As usual, Harry tuned their bickering out.
"N.E.W.T.s?" Yuugi whispered.
"Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. You need to pass them in order to get a decent job in the wizarding world."
"Oh."
Ron paused in his arguing long enough to give the password "Dragon's tooth".
Inside the common room Harry and the others from Domino took their robes off so they were just wearing muggle clothes again.
"Okay, just close your eyes and visualise your bodies back at my house."
There was a momentary dizziness, then:
"Open your eyes." They were sat on the floor of Harry's room, feeling like they'd just woken up.
"It's time for you to explain." Malik demanded.
"For centuries my whole family has been the guardians of a strange power." As he spoke he removed his shirt. "When I was a child, my mother died willingly to spare me. Somehow, that sacrifice seems to have strengthened and awoken the power. It's not just a source anymore, it has an awareness and a purpose. I became the current guardian about two months ago. During the ceremony, this design was burnt into my back." He turned around. "Any idea what it says? I'm the first protector this has happened to."
After a moment of shock, Malik translated "It says 'guardian and protector of the Millennium Bolt'. It must be a new Item that hasn't been created yet."
"I've got a better idea." Bakura began. "These markings are in the same green fire as before." He ignored the puzzled looks of the hikaris. "When the Items were made, they were created by the slaughter of Kuru Eruna, like we heard. They were tainted by blood, so the fire they were forged in was a reddish purple, very evil looking. From what the kid here's said, it's willing sacrifice that that gives this power strength. It must be an opposite Item, a kind of counterpoint to the darkness inherent in the Millennium Items."
"Good theory, but I have some questions. First of all, what do you mean green fire? They just look like normal brand-marks to me. Second, you sound as though you were actually there. I know you're from around that time, but if the village was slaughtered, the only way you could have known is by being one of the priests, and I know you wouldn't do that. You hated the pharaoh."
"Exactly. Don't you remember what she said today? There was a survivor. That was me. When the pharaoh died the only way I could get my revenge was by desecrating his pyramid. The gold helped me to survive, and it was pissing Yami here off so I carried on doing it."
"As for the fire, do you not see it aibou?" asked Yami, after giving Bakura a scathing look.
"No I see the same as Malik."
"It must just be us that sees it as we are linked to the Items."
"Actually," Harry began "it's probably more likely because you're not exactly human. Pol can see the fire too."
"I guess we'd better go, we've got school soon."
"Oh no! My homework!"
And so they began to get ready in a flurry of activity.
A short boy with slicked-back pale blonde hair and a pointed face was sitting in the darkness of the empty Slytherin common room. He'd been walking back here when he'd overheard people speaking. Recognising Potter's voice he had followed them, hoping for something he could torment Potter with, as most of his comments about 'dead dogs' didn't seem to be upsetting him as much as they should have been. What he heard was almost as good. Potter had said he was staying in a place called Domino, and he had lots of muggle friends. If the Dark Lord was made aware of Potter's location away from the protection of Hogwarts, perhaps he would be merciful and release his servants from Azkaban. Draco Malfoy stood up, decision made. He had a letter to write.
TBC
A.N.Thanks to all the reviewers. Can you let me know whether the majority of the story should take place in Hogwarts or Domino. I have plans for both of these places, but the everyday stuff is made up as I go along. Personally, I'm a bit wary of having it in Hogwarts as this is the route most fictions take, but I'd like other peoples opinions too.
Review Replies
Darkrose Dragonkin:Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been sick for a week or so. Kinda odd, you think I'd have more time to write if I was ill, but it was one of those annoying, can't-get-out-of-bed ones. Anyway, I'll try to get back to one a week.
Shinigami: Well he knows now. A bit anticlimactic, but I have no idea how emotional Bakura would be about it. After all, it was a long time ago and he's a spirity thing now. As for the fire thing, the only time non-supernatural people can see it is when the power kicks into full protection mode. In this case, it was protecting him from the shadow realm and keeping him concious. Bakuras reasoning about the fire is pretty close, but not exact.
lady sakura cosmos: Thanks.
I read A LOT of fanfiction: Thanks. It connects them pretty cleanly? That's good, I wasn't sure how easy the transition would be to the readers.
Wraith: Thanks. I've got the main story planned, so I'm gonna keep chugging along till I get to the end.
silverkitkat: Thanks. Yeah, it's the power in full protective mode because he was in the shadow realm. Sorry for the delay.
AssaianQueen: I think so, that's how he recognises the accent. I think he lived in England when he was a child but then moved to Japan after his sister died...I might be wrong though.
Thanks to all the reviewers, I'll try and update more regularly, but we'll see.
Amethyst Sylph