It was the second to last day of term before they saw Bakura again.
He was slightly improved, his face mostly completed again, but his hands were still short half their fingers and he was down almost an entire leg. There had been little to no warning, same as last time.
Everyone else had finally left the Hospital Wing. The only guest left at that point was Ryou, in fact. Still, it was a surprise when Bakura appeared between Harry and Ron at the Gryffindor table during breakfast.
Certainly it attracted a bit of attention from those who read the Daily Prophet. People had been trying to sneak into the Hospital Wing since they'd returned, hoping to catch a glimpse of either Ryou or his strange friend. Now here Bakura was.
Ginny lit up when she saw him. "Is Ryou…?"
"He'll be awake by this afternoon," Bakura said curtly.
"How do you know?" Harry asked.
"We've spoken. His soul has recovered finally."
Harry furrowed his brow. "But how-"
He was ignored. "The host body is nearly back to normal," Bakura continued. "I still cannot spend much time out and about yet, however, so I will need to keep this brief. Just understand that Ryou wanted you to be informed of this fact, and that is all." He rose to his feet.
"Wait," Ginny said, but Bakura had already winked out of sight.
"I'm back," Bakura said. Ryou smiled up from the tangled sheets inside the soul room, his hair a sleepy mess. "Sleep well?"
"I told you I'm fine," Ryou scowled, but it was mostly half hearted. "You're the last person I expected to be a mother hen."
"Be glad you haven't had to speak to Uraeus then," Bakura said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Gods forbid that little snake ever shut up…"
Ryou laughed.
Bakura settled into the bed beside him, pulling Ryou close. "How much do you remember?" Ryou nuzzled deeper, enjoying the warmth Bakura brought with him.
"Everything… I think. The last thing was you scolding Harry, right?"
Bakura nodded. "Good. Other than spending a week out of if, it seems you're unharmed."
"Wait, you never told me it had been a whole week!" Ryou protested.
Bakura shrugged. "I don't keep track of days of week. I just heard it from students. So… In case you didn't know, it's been a week."
Ryou massaged his temples with a small groan. "Thanks Bakura."
Smug, Bakura grinned. "You're welcome."
"That was sarcasm!" Ryou said, flicking Bakura's ear. Bakura grabbed his wrist and twisted it above his head, snagging the other and pinning both down. He leaned over Ryou with a laugh.
"I'm aware. And now you're vulnerable…"
Ryou flushed. "I- I don't think- I mean, where are we? Not the hospital wing, I mean…" He swallowed thickly, struggling to get the thought out before it vanished from his head like smoke. "I mean, what… What do we call… This? Are we…?"
Bakura lowered his face, lips millimeters from Ryou's. Breath ghosted over his face, cool and sweet and smelling faintly of the shadows. Ryou's cheeks were hotter than before.
"What do you want?" Bakura asked. His voice was husky and deep and it rocked Ryou to his core. He was shaking faintly. Surely his heartbeat was loud enough that even Bakura could hear it.
"What- What do you want?" Ryou breathed. "I wouldn't… want to be… presumptuous…" He panted. Bakura's eyes were so dark and so close. Ryou's mind wandered away as a finger trailed down his cheek.
It was like being a cornered bit of prey, except instead of fear, there was something else. Attraction. Desire. He closed his eyes, tilting his head up just enough to brush their lips together briefly.
"Go ahead," Bakura said, "be…" He started to laugh. The trapped sensation shattered. "Presumptuous, hell, Hikari! You're the damnedest thing!"
Ryou started to laugh as well, and Bakura dropped and rolled to the side so they laid shoulder to shoulder.
"I think that whatever… this… is… That would be okay with me," Ryou said, smiling. He turned on his side so he'd face Bakura's dark red eyes.
"So, are we okay?" Bakura asked. "You aren't… Angry at me or anything still, right?"
"Of course not. I mean, if anything, I'm the one who smashed the orb..."
"I'll figure something else out," Bakura said with a sigh. "I always do."
Ryou moved a piece of hair from Bakura's face. "I... I really am sorry... But if you dare tell me what to do and yell at me when I have my own opinions again, Bakura, I swear on the Gods-"
"I know, I know," Bakura said.
"Or withhold information because you don't think I can handle it-"
"I get it!" Bakura said. He glowered. "But you have to listen to me occasionally. Believe it or not, sometimes I do know best."
Ryou snorted. "If I'd listened to you, who knows if everyone would have made it out alive?"
"Yes, but if you'd listened to me, you would have been conscious this entire week."
Ryou stuck out his tongue. "Maybe."
"Watch that tongue or I may bite it off," Bakura warned with a cat-like smirk.
Ryou giggled and nuzzled closer, kissing Bakura again. This was so much better than he had ever fantasized. The first kiss before Christmas had been just a taste of what this could be like.
Now living it for real… It was surreal. He closed his eyes. It was warm in Bakura's arms, cozy inside the blankets. His body was still too weak to rise, and really, it wasn't so bad. He still felt like sleeping just a little bit longer.
He was lulled to sleep by Bakura's hand running slowly through his hair.
Ginny had been ready to go to the Hospital Wing since 3, but after some persuading, they had convinced her to at least give Ryou a chance to wake up, and to visit after dinner.
Luna and Neville had also elected to tag along when they finally left, so the entire group made their way to the Hospital Wing. Harry walked a few steps ahead of the others, wondering if Ryou really was awake.
It had been seven days since they'd returned from the Ministry of Magic. He still remembered the urgent look on Bakura's face as he gently lowered Ryou to the ground.
Bakura called Ryou his host, but the way he'd looked at Ryou hadn't seemed like a parasitic relationship. It was the same thing which had driven Voldemort away. Harry had his suspicions, but none that he would voice yet. Better to leave it to Ryou to admit to himself.
He paused outside the Hospital Wing. The others had fallen a bit behind.
Parseltongue carried through the room, easier than normal voices. He heard the harsh whispers from the doorway.
"You know, I just realized… the nightmares never came back." It was a softer hissing voice.
The deeper, harsher voice replied, "Of course not. As if I'd allow that to happen."
"But still… Even when I was so mad… you gave up so many nights of sleep for me, so I wouldn't have to be afraid… I feel so ungrateful. It's terrible. How much work was it?"
There was a pause before, "Well, actually quite a bit."
"Thanks," the first voice said, earnest. "Really, Bakura, thanks."
"You two are ssssickly ssssweet," another voice said, one that was vaguely familiar. "Huh. It would appear that we have sssomeone eavessdropping jussst outssside the door."
"Oh really?" Bakura replied, still in Parsaltongue. "Who do we know that could possibly understand us?"
"Harry?" Ryou said in English.
Harry stuck his head into the room with a wave. "Ah… Hello!"
The two were shoulder to shoulder and leaning against the backboard of the hospital bed. Both looked rather like they belonged in the wing, at least in Harry's opinion, but Ryou was noticeably paler of the two.
Still, Ryou beamed when Harry stepped into the room. Bakura didn't move from his place beside Ryou. "I'm so glad the others are okay," Ryou said.
"Good to see you up, too."
"Ryou! You're okay! Oh. And Bakura's here too," Ginny said, slowing when she entered the room. She looked a bit frustrated to see him there, but didn't elaborate.
The others trailed into the room behind her, arraying themselves around the hospital bed. Ryou seemed elated to see so many people gathered around, but turned his attentions to Ginny first.
"Ginny! How are you feeling? Bakura said you saw the shadow realm. I told you not to, why did you insist?" Ryou fretted.
"It's fine," Ginny said. "It wasn't terrible. How are you feeling, Ryou? Is he giving you any trouble?" She stared distrustfully at Bakura.
"No trouble," Bakura said with a tight grin, holding up his hands in a show of innocence.
"Mostly tired," Ryou said. "It's kinda funny. I slept for a week and feel like I could sleep for another. And I'm starving." He feigned falling backward against the bed in a dead faint.
Bakura was gone instantly.
"Hold on, where did-" Neville started. He trailed off.
Ryou smiled and shrugged as he sat back up. "Who knows?"
"So… Ancient magic… It's completely different that our magic, right?" Hermione asked.
Ryou nodded. "Yes. I have access to both. But Bakura can only use the shadows, I think. He couldn't get my kind to work at all for him."
"We guessed as much," Ginny said. She dug around in her bag for something, eventually producing a sheaf of folded papers. "By the way, do you know you're in the paper?" She held the newspaper up, showing off the moving picture.
"Oh gods," Ryou muttered, taking it from her. He studied the page for a minute before putting it down on the bed sheet, cringing. "Oh, this is so embarrassing."
He had barely begun skimming the article when Bakura returned, arms laden with food. Ryou sat up and tossed the paper aside in delight.
"Oh you went to the kitchens, why didn't you just say?" Ryou asked, grinning.
"Was hoping to surprise you," Bakura replied with a shrug, lounging back beside Ryou once again. Ryou picked up a piece of bread and nibbled the crust.
"Thanks, Bakura," he said through the mouthful.
The exchange was too comfortable. It made Ginny shift unhappily in her perch on another bed. But then, she seemed distinctly uncomfortable about anything involving Bakura anymore, and she wouldn't say why. Harry suspected it had something to do with what had happened when Bakura had moved the others to safety.
Ryou smiled back at the others. "So, any questions?" He moved closer to Bakura in a movement that seemed a suspiciously close to a cuddle. Harry kept his lips shut and said nothing.
"The paper said Bakura was from Egypt, and that his name was Bakura Ishtar," Hermione offered.
Ryou and Bakura both started to laugh, howling so hard that tears came to their eyes. "Bakura Ishtar? Ahahaha! That's too good!" Bakura choked.
"Oh, Marik is going to never let this go!" Ryou laughed. The others seemed as confused as Harry.
"I don't get it," Ron said.
Ryou turned to the others, still giggling. "My friend, he can do this much better than I can, but not quite as good as Bakura, and he lives in Egypt. His name is Marik Ishtar. Does it make more sense now?"
Ron frowned, and realization suddenly dawned on him. "Wait, you don't mean… How do you know those tomb keepers? Bill tells us all the time that he and the others can never get ahold of them."
"Marik is a friend from a card tournament. I spent Christmas with him, actually. Lovely." Ryou smiled and played with the golden bracelet again. "We raced through a tomb and our team won."
"Spoils to the victor," Bakura agreed, tapping his finger on the blue lapis of the bracelet.
The others stared. "You play in tombs for Christmas?" Ron asked incredulously.
Hermione managed to look even more surprised. "You went to Egypt for Christmas? But you spent Christmas… Wait… The circle…"
Ryou sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Ah, yeah. That was to amplify the passage so we could get all the way there without me, you know, passing out or dying."
"You can amplify your powers with runic drawings?" Hermione's eyes lit up.
"Anyway!" Harry interrupted, sensing an impending rambling questionnaire about ancient runes. "The newspapers have been trying to report on the Ishtars, but nobody can seem to find them."
Ryou nodded understandingly. He held up a letter. "He and the others are keeping their heads down, is all. Dumbledore gave them just enough heads up to avoid any attention. I guess they got the full story while I was asleep. Madam Pomfrey and Bakura filled in the rest of what I didn't know, so I've only just found out today."
Bakura cackled a bit, reading the paper. He tossed a scrap of meat at Uraeus as he set the paper aside. The snake snapped it up greedily. It was disconcerting to watch the food vanish somewhere inside the crystalline structure of the emerald snake's body.
"You know, I bet all of this was Dumbledorf's work. Clever little hints of truth all bundled up in oh so believable lies." Bakura chuckled one last time and tossed the paper to the floor.
Harry found himself nodding slightly. The truth rang painfully clear, at least, to him.
"So… What is the story?" Harry asked.
Ginny nodded and leaned forward. "Yes, he wouldn't tell me."
Ryou frowned at Bakura. "You're making this harder on me."
Bakura just smiled innocently, a look that didn't suit his face. Ryou rolled his eyes and started in on some of the roasted chicken. After a few bites, he wiped his mouth off and finished with a drink of juice. Bakura chuckled softly.
"Simply put… Bakura is an immortal spirit. He's a fragment of a soul trapped inside of this millennium ring for all eternity," Ryou said. He held the ring up, drawing it out from under his shirt.
"Old as the sands," Bakura added. "Yes. I possessed Ryou many years ago, using him to further my own ends. But over an… ahem. Extended duration, we've learned to get along."
Ryou snorted at something unsaid. "Clearly," he muttered.
Bakura threw him a sideways look. "Keep eating." He grabbed one of the last bits of chicken and fed it to Ryou, then tossed another scrap to Uraeus.
"Ugh, no more," Ryou protested as Bakura attempted to shove more chicken into his mouth. "I'm full, come on." Bakura plopped it into his mouth. Ryou pouted as he chewed.
Bakura leered. "But if you don't eat meat, how can you have… This." He pulled out a pastry from somewhere unknown, as through drawing it out of nothingness.
Ryou's eyes lit up. "A cream puff?" He faced Bakura with a playful grin. "Oh fine. Bribery will get you everywhere," he muttered. Uraeus laughed.
The others could only stare at the exchange.
Gone was the mysterious, dark Bakura which had worried them. Possession was such a tricky topic. Ginny had insisted that Bakura was more evil than he appeared, but this was… Not at all what Harry had been expecting.
Harry's suspicions seemed even more true than before. "Are you two…?" he said before he could catch himself.
The two stared for a long moment. Ryou shook his head, then tilted it questioningly. Bakura nodded and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. It was a whole conversation playing out without a single word.
"Can you communicate telepathically?" Luna asked. Ron made a face, and he looked like he was about to say something to her, when Ryou nodded.
"Well, yes, actually," he said, looking surprised. "We can. It's a bit annoying sometimes, really." Bakura looked a bit evil. Ryou flushed. "Stop it. Stop!" he protested.
His cheeks grew even redder and he started to try to push Bakura off the bed. He was smiling still, but the embarrassment was there.
"Uh, what's-" Ron started, and Ryou turned around in a huff.
"I'll get revenge later," he promised Bakura, with a bit of an evil eye.
Hermione was drumming her fingers on her leg, words on the edge of her lips. It was likely taking all of her self control not to ask the thousands of questions she must have had.
"How do you communicate then?" Ginny asked. "I wrote in a diary, and he wrote back. Obviously that isn't what's happening now, but still…"
"Our minds are linked," Ryou said. "It's possible to block the other out, to a certain extent, and our thoughts are still our own, but we are connected. Bakura is privy to all of my thoughts, and I can sometimes pick up on some of his. We can also communicate sentences, images, memories…"
He looked away from them, all of them, staring up at the ceiling. Ryou's fingers trailed along Uraeus' back.
"I know you're considering separating us. The order would like it, and I know Dumbledore would if he could," Ryou said softly.
The thought hadn't really occurred to Harry. Ryou was smiling so softly that it seemed his mouth had never moved at all.
"But it isn't going to happen. It's impossible. And even if Bakura and I could be split apart, I wouldn't want that. Yami…" he mentioned softly, looking back at Bakura.
"Bakura is my darkness. I am his light. It is yin and yang, and when we are connected, there is balance. I hold back the acts of evil he attempts. He keeps me from complete self sacrifice. His selfishness balances my…"
"Unhealthy lack of self-preservation?" Bakura contributed.
Ryou flushed. "Ahem, well, yes. So, we're two of a kind, really. A set. And… I wouldn't want it any other way."
Bakura hummed. "Good. Because you're not getting away that easily."
Hermione was at a loss. All year, she'd tried to find out what was going on, and now here it was. "I just… I don't get it. Why were you so concerned about Bakura? Why are you so scared of him? You get along, you laugh at each other. He's talking to us! Why was Bakura something you kept so hidden?"
Bakura and Ginny exchanged a look. Her eyes narrowed. Bakura rested a hand possessively on top of Ryou's head.
It made sense enough. The dark edge in Bakura's expression was a bit suspect. They were comfortable, but that didn't mean Bakura was necessarily good. It just meant that they knew how to work around whatever evil Bakura might have been.
Still, it seemed like there wasn't anything to worry about for the moment…
Bakura just grinned wolfishly. "Treat Ryou well, and you'll never need to find out," he said simply.
Eventually everyone left. Even Bakura vanished when Madam Pomfrey bustled through the room with a tray full of potions. She'd doted on Ryou since he'd arrived, concerned at her inability to identify what was wrong. She still did, but only so he'd be okay to leave as soon as possible.
As far as she knew, Ryou had been asleep and simply wouldn't wake up. Dumbledore had insisted that he would awaken soon, so there was no room for disagreement.
Now she was just glad to see him awake and eating real food. He was confined to his bed, of course, but that wasn't such a big deal. He had plenty to do.
Between all of the letters and Bakura keeping him busy, there was never a dull moment. He ran the letter opener (actually just an overlarge knife Bakura had smuggled in) through another of the envelopes. It was another letter from someone who had read the article. He spared it half a glance. Another negative one. It scared people that this had been lurking under their noses.
Some actually thought it was amazing. Those people had a pile at the foot of the bed with a dozen or so letters.
Ryou tossed the newly opened sheaf of parchment to the floor, where it joined the thirty others.
"Don't let it bother you," Bakura said. "They can't do a damn thing to you and they know it. Only their words can hurt you, and only if you let them."
Ryou sighed and looked back at the newspaper that had been left by the others. He'd explained a bit more, but he tried to be sparse with concrete details where he could. The idea of them knowing everything still made Ryou nervous.
After a long moment, he looked away from the moving picture of him using the shadows.
His first try, forever captured in print. It was inelegant, brute-force manipulation of the shadows using a shortcut. No wonder it knocked him out for a week.
Bakura could make it look, well, magical. It was sheer elegance when he did it. Terrifying, of course, but Ryou had to admit, the spirit was a maestro of the darkness. The way he spun shadows through his fingers in whatever shape he desired…
It made Ryou look pathetic. And still, despite it all, people were frightened by this thing they didn't understand. And it didn't help that explaining more would only make them more afraid.
The others would be leaving for home soon. Taking the train back. Ryou wasn't allowed to leave the hospital wing to join them, but Dumbledore assured him that he'd get home. There were also several Death Eaters whose souls were locked away in the Shadow Realm, and though they were criminals, Ryou still intended to return those souls so the people could stand a proper trial.
Ryou sighed and reached for another letter from the stack. The handwriting on the outside was vaguely familiar. His hand stilled. Bile rose in the back of his throat, and he thought he'd be sick. He didn't even need to read the return address.
"Father…" he whispered.
STAY TUNED FOR THE EPILOGUE