Chapter 3: "The Wand Chooses the Wizard"
Tom led them out behind the building, pulled out a wand, and tapped the third brick from the left above the trash can. Ryou and Yugi stepped back in awe as the bricks in the wall began to rearrange themselves into an archway through which they got their first look at the bustling street of Diagon Alley. He informed them that an escort was sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor waiting for them, pointed out the building, and then left; the archway closed up behind him. Ryou and Yugi had no idea who to look for as they approached the ice cream parlor, but became extremely worried when they saw a giant sitting there in the sunshine, enjoying a large ice cream sundae.
"Hey, you didn't let anything out, did you," Yugi asked, voice shaking. Ryou answered just as shakily, "No, he's not one of my cards–"
"There ya are!" exclaimed the giant as they drew nearer. "Dumbledore told me ter be lookin' fer sommat like you two. Me name's Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts and your Care o' Magical Creatures teacher. I'll be yer escort today."
"Oh, thank you very much," Ryou said earnestly, though still apprehensive about Hagrid's size. "My name is Ryou Bakura and this is Yugi Mutou. I'm afraid we've never been to Hogwarts or Diagon Alley before."
"Yeah, Dumbledore told me abou' you two. C'mon, I think we oughtta git yer money exchanged firs'."
Hagrid led them down the street, easily making a path through all the people for them to walk in, to the very end and a large, white marble building. The giant called it 'Gringotts'. Ryou couldn't help a look at the rhyme of words inscribed on the inner silver doors as he entered:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
So, a challenge is it?Bakura thought quietly in his soul room. Ryou didn't like his tone of voice.
/Iie, yami, that is not a challenge, so you had better not try./
You take the fun out of everything, hikari.
/No, Hagrid said you would be mad to try and rob Gringotts, and since I'm trying to cure you of that…/
Ryou took the next chance to warn Yugi that Bakura might show up soon and attempt to rob the bank. However, they exchanged their money without incident or trouble at all–well, unless you could count Yugi's dislike for the goblins as trouble– and then set off to buy school supplies. Hagrid insisted they go to Ollivanders first to buy wands so that Ryou and Yugi could get back into Diagon Alley with out help. This was definitely what Yugi was looking forward to, so when they entered the shop, Ryou had to hold his arm down to keep him from jumping off the walls.
"Mr. Ollivander?" Hagrid called as they entered, as there seemed to be no one in the shop. "Are yeh in here?"
They heard a loud crash from some back room, and a short time later, a dust covered, coughing man entered the main room.
"Ah, Rubeus, good morning. And who are these two?" asked the man, who must have been Mr. Ollivander, when he noticed the two teens. Ryou and Hagrid both opened their mouths to speak, but Yugi beat them to it.
"I'm Yugi Mutou and this is Ryou Bakura, and we came to get wands," he said hurriedly.
"Of course you have," said Mr. Ollivander as he smiled softly at Yugi, eyes twinkling as though he knew something they didn't. "Would you like to go first? Yes? Well then, hold out your wand arm."
And thus, the search for the perfect wand ensued. After the tape measure Mr. Ollivander had brought out finished measuring Yugi (it seemed to do so of its own accord), the shopkeep brought out wand after wand for him to try. Yugi tried dozens upon dozens of wands, and though quite a few didn't do anything when he waved them, many blew up something. Eventually, Yugi was most compatible with an ebony and phoenix tail feather wand, eight inches; it emitted red, gold, and purple sparks when he waved it.
Ryou took a great deal longer in finding the right wand, though he did blow up something every single time he waved one–boxes flew off the shelves, vases or glass objects shattered, curtains caught on fire. However, Mr. Ollivander was pleased almost every time this happened, said it showed Ryou had high magical aptitude. After more than twice as many wands as Yugi had tried, Ryou finally found one that liked him; it was willow and unicorn tail hair, eleven and a half inches, and gave off light blue and silver sparks when he first touched it.
Their next stop was Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to buy school robes. Ryou noticed they weren't the only ones in there; he saw the same boy who had gotten off the bus with them getting his robes adjusted. Yugi hopped up to him and started asking the boy questions, and Ryou noticed the boy showed no surprise when this happened, as though he expected people to walk up out of the blue and start asking questions. Ryou also noticed a scar on the other boy's forehead and wondered if it was of any importance.
They passed by the Apothecary and got Potions supplies, then went on to various other stores to get other random supplies. One of the shops, called Astronomical Advantages, was right near the entrance to another alley, and as soon as Bakura saw what the alley might have to offer, he took over. As Hagrid and Yugi entered the shop, Bakura sidled off and sneaked down into Knockturn Alley…
At first, Bakura was quite comfortable walking through this darker, more foreboding alley and fit in quite well, or at least, he thought he did, since no one was bothering him at all. Maybe they were all too surprised to see someone as 'young' as himself wandering so adeptly down this street. But as he examined the shops and people in the streets, he grew more and more irritated; nearly everything he saw was completely useless to him. There was even one shop that had the nerve to advertise "Tools of the Thieving Trade"; he checked out what the shop had to offer, but emerged from it scowling and more irritated than ever.
All in all, Bakura felt as if his wandering in Knockturn Alley was almost a complete waste of his time. The only shop he really liked was called The Bloody Blade; it sold all sorts of enchanted swords, daggers, and knives that could clean themselves, stay permanently stained no matter how much you washed them, grow larger or smaller, unlock any lock and undo any knot, or never had to be sharpened. Bakura decided that he might not ever get another chance like this, so he bought two katagana, or Japanese short-swords, an Egyptian dagger that seemed to be dedicated to Seth, and another dagger dedicated to the god Hermes. Then, just to prove his worth, one of the knives that could unlock or unknot anything found its way into his pocket, and the store owner never noticed.
He'd just emerged from the store congratulating himself when he heard a voice behind him say, "It would not be a good idea to bring those with you to school."
Turning, Bakura's gaze met that of a sallow faced man with greasy black hair, standing not more than a foot from him.
"I've been watching you since you arrived," the man continued. "You should not have bought those."
The man was pointedly referring to Bakura's resent acquisitions. Bakura scowled at him; in his opinion, it had been a brilliant idea to buy the blades and an even better one to sneak them to school, as long as Ryou didn't find out; he would be sure to throw them away.
"You say you've been watching me," Bakura snarled, his eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why?"
"Because though I've never seen you here, no one has bothered you. In fact, I've noticed that several people seem afraid of you. That never happens in Knockturn Alley. Why are you here?"
Bakura decided to avoid that question and asked one of his own. "How do you know I'm a student?"
"Perhaps it was the supply list sticking out of your pocket," the man answered in the same tone of voice. Bakura cursed softly at his stupidity; he should have known better than to have left anything like that out in the open. The man continued: "I don't care how adept you are here; students are not allowed in Knockturn Alley. Leave, now."
"Who are you to be telling me what to do?" Bakura snapped. "I take orders from no one."
"Then you will not last long at Hogwarts. I have been a teacher there for far too long to allow such impudence within its walls."
"A teacher, eh? Well, Professor, perhaps I can teach you a thing or two," Bakura said, one hand reaching back to the Egyptian dagger at his hip. The teacher noticed this and tried to pull out his wand to defend himself, but Bakura was two steps ahead of him; the man found that he couldn't move. Bakura watched the realization form in the man's eyes with satisfaction, and was just about to draw the dagger when he heard a familiar voice calling his host.
"Ryou, there yeh are! Only been lookin' fer yeh fer the last hour!"
It was Hagrid. Bakura glanced back to see the giant striding toward him through the crowd, Yami following close behind, his face betraying his annoyance. Bakura released his control over the professor and would have retreated to his soul room then and there except that then Ryou would have returned his swords. So he did the next best thing and imitated what Ryou was like just after coming out of possession half of the time; only Yami would be able to tell the difference.
"Afternoon, Severus," Hagrid said once he'd come close enough. "Didn't expect ter see yeh 'round here."
"It's lucky that I was," answered Snape. "This student has been caught out of bounds buying potentially dangerous items." He gestured to the scabbards crossing Bakura's back. Yami glared accusingly at him, but Bakura pretended he still had absolutely no idea what was going on.
"Oh, was I out of bounds?" he asked innocently, causing Yami to face-vault and Snape to do a double take. This student's attitude had been almost the complete opposite just moments ago, and he'd known just exactly where he was and why. So how could he be acting like this now? Was this and act or was he acting before? Bakura continued softly, "I'm truly sorry. I didn't know I wasn't allowed down here. I'm rather new to all this."
"That does not excuse you from punishment–"
"Oh, give him a break, Severus," Hagrid interjected. "He didn' know. He's one o' the late starters Dumbledore mentioned."
Snape thought for a moment, then said, "Well, he knows now. So I don't want to see you down here again," he said to Bakura, who nodded solemnly.
"You won't, sir. I promise you won't see me down here again." But that doesn't mean I won't be.
"I'll be watching you, boy. I don't want those weapons at school."
"Yes, sir."
Snape nodded once and disappeared with a crack. Bakura looked around, still pretending to be Ryou, and noticed that Yami was laughing behind Hagrid's back; Bakura glared at him, but that only made Yami laugh harder.
"Well, I guess we'd better get out of here. I'm not keen on having that teacher on my back again," Bakura said as he turned back toward the entrance to Diagon Alley; Hagrid caught his arm roughly and stared at the katagana.
"Shouldn't yeh return those?"
"No," Bakura answered, pulling his arm expertly out of Hagrid's grip. "I'm not going to bring them to school, but I've been wanting a pair of katagana for a while and I couldn't find any back home." With that, he walked off.
Yami caught up with him just as he'd entered Diagon Alley and fell into step beside the thief. "What are you doing?" he hissed. Bakura stared quizzically at him and Yami wasn't entirely sure if he was acting or not.
"What do you mean, Yugi?" Bakura asked, still pretending to be his host.
"You know perfectly well what I mean, tomb robber. You can't fool me with this stunt. And you shouldn't spend Ryou's money like that; he hasn't even bought books yet and those are sure to be expensive."
"Calm down, Pharaoh, I know what I'm doing. He's rich anyway and I can always steal more if we run out."
To Yami, it sounded very strange to hear Ryou's voice saying these things, but it wouldn't do him any good to protest. He may be an ex-Pharaoh, but he had very little control over what Bakura did. He noticed Bakura shift the weight of the swords on his back into a more comfortable position and decided to change the subject.
"Why do you need those anyway?" he demanded, staring at the katagana. "It's not like you'll be attacked at any moment."
"I might," Bakura answered as he stopped to stare into a shop window; Yami hung back and stared at him incredulously.
"What was that supposed to mean?"
Bakura only smirked in response and walked off again.
"Wait, that doesn't mean what I think it means, does it?" Yami asked as he caught up with the other spirit.
"Meaning is in the eye of the beholder. It becomes whatever you want it to become," Bakura answered. He took out his wand, tapped a brick on the wall in front of him, and stood back as the bricks rearranged themselves.
"But you'll get Ryou in trouble with that teacher again," Yugi said as he took over. Bakura barely glanced down at him to acknowledge the change.
"You two worry far too much. I don't think you realize who you're talking to."
"But–"
"I wonder what happened to Malik…" Bakura interjected, eyes scanning the pub they'd just entered. They walked up the stairs and back to their rooms to drop off their supplies, and Bakura to hide his blades. He kept the unlock/unknot knife, or "Un-knife" as he was beginning to call it, with him, just in case. And then, only because Yami and Yugi kept pestering him, he allowed Ryou to take control again.
After lunch, they went back into Diagon Alley to buy the remainder of their school supplies, though first Ryou had to go to Gringotts to exchange more money (Yugi did not go in with him). Nearly all of what he'd had left that morning had somehow disappeared. He had a funny feeling that his yami was involved in why the money was gone, since every time Yugi or Yami tried to tell him what had happened, he'd blackout and wouldn't have any idea what they said.
But Ryou didn't worry for too long since now they were going to buy books, and that was what he had been looking forward to; he'd read over the book list so many times throughout the summer that he practically knew it by heart. So when they entered, he had to exercise a lot of self-control to keep from buying every book in Flourish and Blotts. Yugi and Ryou wandered around for a while looking for the books on their list without help (Hagrid had also disappeared somewhere; Ryou suspected this was his yami's fault as well, but Bakura would only reel off quotes out of the Dune books when pressed for answers), and as such, they only found The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection along with a whole bunch of other defensive books. They were looking around for a third time when an assistant noticed their lost faces and walked over to them.
"Looking for something?" he asked gently, an odd accent playing on his words. "Perhaps I can help you."
"Yes, thank you. We're looking for all these books," Ryou said as he showed the assistant their book list. His eyes grew wide as he looked over the book list and read it over several times. Then he nodded and stated slowly, "That's quite a few books."
"Yeah, and we've only found this one," said Yugi, holding up the Dark Forces book. The assistant nodded again and gestured for them to follow him, striking up what seemed to be casual conversation as they went.
"Is this your first year at Hogwarts?"
"Yes," Ryou answered, trying to figure out why the man's accent was so familiar. The man frowned slightly as he handed each of them six books from the same set.
"How come you two are in sixth year, then?"
"Well, we're Muggle-born," Ryou responded, remembering what Dumbledore had written in his letters. He couldn't help noticing how the man's expression almost dropped to disgust as he heard this. Ryou continued, "and we only discovered we have magic a little while ago, but since we're so much older than normal first years, the school in our area wouldn't take us. Professor Dumbledore, though, thought that no one should be denied an education, so decided we could go to Hogwarts."
The assistant nodded curtly to acknowledge that he understood, but he didn't talk to either of them for the remainder of their time in Flourish and Blotts except to tell them the final price for the books. Ryou and Yugi had noticed that he'd stopped talking to them after he'd heard they were Muggle-borns, and it really confused them as to why that had made a difference.
When Ryou and Yugi reentered Diagon Alley from a brief visit to their rooms to drop off all the books, Ryou revealed that he had one more place he wanted to go.
"Well, it's my birthday the second day of term and Father gave me some extra money to buy myself something. And…since on the supplies list it says I can bring a pet, I was thinking I would so what there is here. I noticed a pet shop when we were wandering."
But Yugi had stopped listening, his eyes had grown wide with realization, and he had an odd expression on his face. Jerking to life, he exclaimed, "Uh, I've got to go! See ya later, Ryou!" and ran off in the opposite direction. Ryou smiled as he watched his friend get lost in the crowd, knowing exactly why Yugi had run off, so he continued on alone to the Magical Menagerie.
As soon as he entered he almost stepped on a cat running around and a blast of animal sounds bombarded his senses. He stared around the shop in awe, and especially at the cages of ravens hanging on the walls, but ravens weren't the only animals on the walls; owls hooted softly from their cages, snakes hissed as they watched several sleek black rats in a glass container on the front counter. Glass containers and metal cages also stood on the floor, holding a number of magical, and most likely poisonous, reptiles and invertebrates. The cats seemed to be the only animals allowed to run loose.
As Ryou walked around, he was seriously tempted to buy one of the ravens; they'd always been one of his favorite types of bird, and he'd longed to own one. But again and again his attention was drawn from the raven cages to the cats running around on the floor and climbing up the walls; several in particular caught his attention more than once. As he approached the front desk, the rats in the cage stopped running around for a moment, stared up at him, then resumed their exercise, though they were a bit more spirited this time, as if they were showing off; he looked down at them apologetically. Apparently, the lady from behind the desk noticed this.
"Not looking for a rat, then?" she asked disapprovingly.
"No, I'm not the type. I really would like a raven–" he glanced back at the cages and smiled– "but the cats keep drawing my attention."
The lady frowned at him again, but she obliged and called for all the cats in the store; each one sat in front and Ryou and waited patiently, but hopefully, for him to pick one. Ryou walked back and forth in front of the line of cats, and, though he made sure to pet each one, none of them were really what he was looking for. Saddened, he stood back, looked over them again, and was about to turn around and pick out one of the ravens when he heard a soft meow from somewhere other than the line of cats. All of a sudden, another cat had appeared and was rubbing up against his legs; he squatted down and picked up the cat. It was black and very fluffy and had silver eyes that stared at him like an owl; it wasn't very large either. Ryou stood up with the cat in his arms and walked to the front desk.
"Oh, you don't want him," the lady said as Ryou approached. "That cat is such a troublemaker; he never follows orders."
"Really?" Ryou looked down at the cat. "Are you a troublemaker?" The cat meowed in protest and began purring loudly. "How much is he?" Ryou asked the lady.
Yugi was waiting at the top of the stairs when Ryou carried his cat up to his room; Yugi stared apprehensively at the purring feline.
"Hi, Ryou. Um, I like your cat."
"Thanks, isn't he great? Watch this!" Ryou set the cat down on the floor. "Okay, Phantom, do a flip."
Phantom the cat crouched down, leapt into the air, flipped backwards, and landed gracefully on his feet; the he jumped back into Ryou's arms. Yugi and Yami (who was watching this intently) were very impressed.
"That was cool," Yugi said. "Phantom?"
The cat didn't respond, but Ryou did. "His full name is Phantom of Midnight, or just Phantom for short. He really liked it."
"Well, it's certainly…dark and occultish. Are you sure you named him?"
"Yup. Bakura's sitting in his soul room plotting ways to defeat your yami. I came up with the name myself."
"It fits him," Yugi said, looking suspiciously at the cat. As nice as Ryou was, he had an odd fascination with the occult and supernatural; in fact, he and Bakura were in complete agreement over their deck, even though Ryou didn't really duel, and that kind of scared Yugi considering how different the two Bakuras were. Anyway, the name and the cat were typical of Ryou; pick the most ghost-like cat and name it as such.
If he named his cat that, he is sure to love the birthday present you got him. Yami thought quietly. Yugi inwardly agreed.
