Chapter 20
Schizophrenia
Marik rushed up to the Gryffindor common room and started pounding on the wall frantically.
"You again." The Fat Lady said irritably, Marik ignored her.
"COME ON TOMB ROBBER!" Marik bellowed.
"Oh, it's you." A familiar voice said from behind him.
"What the-Ron!" Marik turned to look at a half-frozen Ron. "What did you do, swim in the lake?" he asked.
"You want to talk to your friends?" Ron said dully.
Marik squinted at Ron "What is up with you? Your team won!"
Ron glared at Marik "You heard what your housemates were singing."
"Yeah, so? You're going to let the Bubbas rule your life?"
"The…Bubbas?"
"You know, what you call an inbreed hick in America. Bubba?" Marik said.
Ron just stared dully.
Marik rolled his eyes. "Look Ron, you shouldn't listen to idiots like Malfoy and the Voldemort Youth. What you should be doing is getting better so you can shove those lyrics down their throats at a later date…or fill their food with ants, whatever you prefer."
Ron gave a depressed sigh.
"Will it help you to know that Malfoy is off the team?"
Ron looked up at Marik "What?"
"Jeremy just threw him off." Marik grinned.
"Did he-"
"Personally I think he was just disgusted with Malfoy. He was looking for an excuse to do it. He also called him a…"
Marik proceeded to tell Ron exactly what had happened in the locker room. While Marik did not think it helped that much, Ron at least looked a bit less depressed.
"You bellowed, Marik?" Bakura's head emerged from behind the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Oh! Yeah!" Marik suddenly remembered his panic from before "Come here, Tomb Robber." Marik shoved Bakura into the Common Room and stated pushing him towards Bakura's and Yugi's dorm. "Got to talk, right now." He nodded at Harry and Hermione as he passed.
"What are they up to now?" Hermione said with narrowed eyes.
"I don't know." Harry said "Marik was acting a little odd up there…let's grab some Extendable Ears and take a listen in."
After finding their little spying devices and one invisibility cloak, the three of them huddled on the staircase and sent the ears out.
"I felt him inside me again. I don't like it Bakura!"
Harry gulped. Was Marik getting cold feet about their supposed assassination mission? Were they talking about Voldemort?
"Harry and the others are getting really suspicious about us. If they keep poking around he might…you know. You saw what he is like."
"You won't, you aren't leaving are you Marik?" Bakura asked in a shocked tone.
"What can I do! What would you do!" Marik was practically shouting.
"Keep it down you two!" Yugi said.
"This is it…we'll know the truth soon." Hermione said "We'll see if they are Voldemort's henchmen or…
"Yugi you know what my yami is like!" Marik said "You saw him at Battle City! What if this becomes a repeat of that!"
"We won't let it, Marik." Bakura said stubbornly. "Yugi has beaten your darker half as well as mine! It would be no different. Besides that, you beat him too. You have control…unlike me."
"But you did have some control before, didn't you, Bakura? You beat your yami twice before Battle City. But then during Battle City you had no control at all!"
"Ummm, guys…is that an ear?" said Yugi. A moment later Harry's ear was yanked through the door.
The three slammed into the ground, the cloak falling open and exposing them. The door to the room opened and Yugi, Marik and Bakura stared at the eavesdroppers.
A long silence.
"You…heard all of that…" Yugi said. It was not a question.
"Uh…yeah." Hermione said.
"Didn't anyone tell you that you can get hurt spying on people!" Yami Bakura took over and glared at Hermione.
Hermione thought quickly "It's alright, we figured it out." She said.
"Did you?" Yami Bakura growled, prepared to send them all to the Shadow Realm.
"You're not really Bakura, you are his other personality." Hermione said.
"Grrrr." Yami Bakura was just about to strike when-
"DON'T!" Yugi grabbed his arm.
"We figured out that Bakura is schizophrenic." Hermione said "It's alright, we don't care!"
"…what…?" Marik looked from Hermione to Bakura.
"Well…with what you said that day about voices in your head…and how agitated you got when Malfoy said those things in Care of Magical Creatures…and to be honest their have been times you have not acted like yourself…"
"You barely know me, how do you presume to know how I react?" Yami Bakura growled.
"I can tell, you are not the Bakura we know, are you?" Hermione said.
"Tomb Robber, this may be for the best." Marik said "Go along with it."
"Alright…I'll play along. So will my Host." Yami Bakura said. He turned back to Hermione "You are only partly right. Schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder are two different things. My Host and I do NOT have schizophrenia."
"Your host?" Harry gave Yami Bakura a strange look. "You know that makes you sound like a tapeworm, right?"
Marik burst out laughing. Yami Bakura glared at him.
"He's right Tomb Robber, it does make you sound like a little bloodsucking parasite!"
"Remind me to destroy you later." Yami Bakura said. "But you better not say a word about this to anyone." He turned his glare back to Harry and company.
Harry, Ron and Hermione agreed. A bit of an awkward silence followed.
Hermione casually looked out the window and jumped a little bit "Hey, there are lights out in Hagrid's house! He must be back!"
"Really?" Harry leaned out the window then gave a little whoop. "Talk to you guys later." The three wizards then rushed out the door.
"…that was odd." Marik grumbled. "Who is Hagrid?"
Bakura and Yugi shrugged.
Yami Bakura was certain that the three wizards were going to spill the beans on him and his host, but that did not happen. What did happen was the appearance of a rather large individual at the teacher's table.
"Who is that?" Yugi asked nervously.
"That's Hagrid." Fred grinned "He's finally back."
"Who is he?" Bakura asked his eyes wide.
"He's the gameskeeper and the normal Care of Magical Creature's teacher. He's great. Likes monsters a lot though."
"Hello all" Marik plopped down with a grin. "I thought you would like to know that we found a new Seeker."
"That fast?" Fred stared at Marik "Who is it?"
"Kaiba." Marik said, his grin growing wider.
"How did you get Kaiba to agree to that?" Bakura blinked.
"Simple, I told him with Harry gone Yugi is the new Seeker, and we all know how much Kaiba likes to try to beat Yugi." Marik said. "Now all I have to do is convince you, Bakura."
"No." Bakura growled.
Marik grinned; he would make Bakura come around…eventually.
"Wait," Fred asked "I thought he couldn't ride a broom!"
Marik's grin grew wider "Who said he was going to use a broom?"
Later at Care of Magical Creatures, the duelists got to see Hagrid up close. Yugi was a bit scared, after all he was already half the size of a normal teenager. Add that to the fact that Hagrid was covered with bruises and had a dead cow slung over his shoulder…
"Hey Bakura…Bakura?" Yugi turned to Bakura, who was not there. It was Yami Bakura, and for some reason he was staring at the Forbidden Forest with an odd expression on his face.
/Yami?/ Bakura said /Are you all right?/
/I have been here before…/ the spirit thought. /I did not recognize it at first…but this IS the forest…/
/What are you talking about?/
Yami Bakura seemed lost in thought as he wandered with the rest of the class into the forest.
Then they emerged, they looked like long, thin black horses with dragon like heads and tattered wings. To Bakura, they looked like fiend monsters, but to his yami they looked very very familiar.
/Thestrals my Host…thestrals/ Yami Bakura said. His eyes locked with the strange creature's, and for the second time this semester Yami Bakura heard a foreign voice in his head, only this time the normal Bakura could hear as well.
/Is it you…are you truly back?/ the voice said.
/I am indeed. I am the one who was once known as the Theif King./ Yami Bakura replied.
/That was ages ago, before I was hatched./ the thestral replied.
/True, but I am back in this boy's body. I did not expect to meet any of the Elder Breed here…/ Yami Bakura replied.
/Truly, there are many of us here. We of the thestral race share this forest with the giant spiderkind, the unicorn and the centaur. The lake is filled with merpeople and their ilk./
/But why do act as if you are beasts in front of these mere mortals?/ Yami Bakura asked /the thestrals I knew where creatures of war and honor. Why skulk in the shadows now?/
/I am not permitted to speak of such things./ the thestral went back to savaging the cow corpse /Perhaps you could meet with our elders later?/
/Tonight, warrior, I will come tonight./
/I will tell them of your coming/