Calai'di– Now, I've gotten a review that said a part of this story was very similar to one in "The New Students" by White Angel Chan (thank you for the review on that, by the way, BakaNeko-Chan!). Well, that's right, it was a very similar part. There's a similar part in this chapter, too. However, it is not the same story, so I don't want anyone thinking it is, because once they reach Hogwarts nearly everything will be different (can't say what, that would spoil it). So while you people might notice similarities (probably only because I find that story a great inspiration and I read it constantly) I am absolutely not trying to copy that great work.
And while I'm up here– Disclaimers: I don't own Yugioh, Harry Potter, or Dune (which is mentioned in this chapter, as well as last).
Oh yeah, and no matter what other people say, I think Ryou and Bakura are pretty much albino, so that's what they're going to be here.
Chapter 4: Meetings
Malik didn't see Yugi or Ryou very much at all that day, just glimpses through the crowd most times, though he did catch Bakura and Yami's conversation around midday and Ryou's arrival with Phantom. But unlike the other two, he hadn't been able to buy everything on the list in one day. For starters, he had not had an escort and therefor had no idea where to look for school supplies, and there was no way he was going to swallow his pride and ask for directions; secondly, he didn't have enough money to buy all of his school supplies in the first place. Besides which, Isis, who had come with him to Diagon, also had things to buy, so there was half the money gone. At the end of the first day, all he had to show for his efforts was one third of the supplies list (not counting the books) and three Galleons left.
The next day, Malik was determined to finish his shopping, but the problem of money was still on his mind. He could easily steal some of the things he needed, like the phials or dragon hide gloves (Dragon hide, who's heard of such a thing? was his initial reaction, until he saw 'Dragon steak' on a menu), but other things could be very difficult. And he couldn't possibly ask Isis for more money since she needed it. So the solution Malik had come up with was…steal from other people.
And after another half day's efforts he'd managed another fifteen Galleons and eight Sickles, which was not nearly enough to buy even the books. Tiredly, he bought a wand (bit of excitement there when he blew up the remaining vases in the shop)– hickory and dragon heartstring, fourteen inches– and that blew off another seven Galleons. He leaned up against a wall outside the shop and closed his eyes, thinking of ways he might be able to revise his strategy and he must have been there for a while, since after a time he heard a voice nearby say, "Money isn't just going to materialize itself into your pocket, you know."
Malik glanced up and found Bakura, complete with one katagana and a dagger, watching him intently a short distance away.
"I'm perfecting my strategy," Malik answered, reaching down into a pocket of his pants.
"What strategy? I've been watching you, and I can't believe someone like yourself could have such pitiable skills."
"Pitiable?!" Malik exclaimed, appearing the perfect picture of intense rage. Inside, however, he was thrilled to have Bakura there; Bakura was someone with whom he could compare his skills, and they would often just egg each other on until half the town was a disaster. He had a feeling that Bakura felt the same way most of the time. "All right, know-it-all, what have I been doing wrong?"
"You're not picking your targets well," Bakura answered. He was taking pleasure in telling Malik off.
"Oh, really? None of them ever noticed."
"And that's the problem. If they don't notice, it's obvious they don't have enough money to miss in the first place. And it's not just their attitudes I've found is wrong." Bakura drew his dagger and twirled it expertly, sending light flashing across Malik's face and giving the impression that this was so routine that he was bored; on the contrary, there was nothing else he'd rather be doing right now. "Take that last guy. Any amateur could see that he had no money just by what he was wearing. His robes were raggedy and faded and a few inches too short; his hair was messy and looked like it hadn't been washed for a few days."
"But that doesn't always work," Malik argued. "I'm covered in gold, but the only money I have is what I just stole."
"Yes, but take a closer look at that gold. It's scratched and dented in a few places, like whoever owned it before didn't take care of it much, and it looks like it's only recently been taken care of. Obviously hand-me-downs."
Malik scowled crossly at him, but Bakura was right; Mr. Ishtal never had been one to take care of things.
Bakura continued, "You're way out of my league, Malik. I've been at this for a while."
"So who would you pick?"
Bakura glanced around the crowd, sizing each person up, then pointed at a teen their age standing a short distance away. The teen had hair about the same color as Malik's and an attitude that plainly said, "I'm completely above you, dirtbag."
"Right there. New robes, snobby attitude, and he keeps reaching down to his money bag and feeling it, as if to make sure it's still there. He's totally loaded."
Malik stared incredulously at the tomb robber. "That's suicide. This is reality, Bakura, not whatever fantasy you live in."
"'The mind imposes this framework which it calls 'reality.' That arbitrary framework has a tendency to be quite independent of what your senses report,'(1)" Bakura quoted, with a superior look on his face. "I could do it."
"Prove it," Malik said reproachfully. Bakura's head could be full of hot air sometimes, but he had the skills to back his boasts. Malik didn't doubt that the tomb robber could and would steal from that kid with out his being caught, so while he was at it he might as well help Malik with his money problems. "But you have to give me most of the profits."
"Agreed," Bakura said, as he didn't need the money anyway; he just stole because he enjoyed it, or maybe it was because it had become a part of him. Either way, he didn't mind giving Malik whatever money he got from the kid. "Watch and learn, amateur."
Bakura walked defiantly toward the teen, not bothering to attempt to conceal himself or sneak up on the boy, though Malik noticed that the spirit did make himself appear to be Ryou so that no one what notice what a thief he really was. In Bakura's mind, however, he was going over his strategy, thinking of ways to approach the problem. He could easily sneak up on the other teen, take the money, and be gone before anyone noticed, but that wasn't good enough for him; he had to be seen and look completely innocent as he committed this crime. As he approached the teen, he perfected his strategy, composed himself, and tried to act as innocent as possible, an simple task since he was easily the best actor out of any of Ryou's friends.
"Um, excuse me," he said once he come close enough. "I was wondering if you could tell me where, uh,–" glanced down at the supplies list he'd conveniently put in his pocket– "where I could buy a telescope?"
"You mean you don't know?" the teen asked arrogantly. Bakura scowled to himself; he really didn't want to suck up to someone like this, but now wasn't the time for his pride to go first. Ryou, who was watching everything from his soul room, was wondering whether he should laugh at the predicament or tell the tomb raider off for stealing from someone again. Bakura had a feeling, though, that maybe stealing from this kid might bring his arrogance down a few notches.
"No, sorry, I've never been to Diagon Alley before, and my escort disappeared somewhere. Could you help me please?"
"You've never been to Diagon Alley?" the teen asked suspiciously. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," Bakura answered, discreetly reaching down to the boy's side where the moneybag was.
"Huh, same year as me. And you've never been to Diagon. Weird. Anyway, the best place I know of to buy a telescope is Astronomical Advantages, over there." The boy pointed to a building near the entrance to Knockturn Alley; Bakura already knew about it but he didn't say so; he was, however, forced to draw his hand back as the other boy turned. "Actually, I was on my way over there. I'll show you around a bit, if you want."
Amazed, Bakura accepted and they walked toward the shop, but he soon figured out that the offer wasn't out of good faith, far from it, but out of suspicion and curiosity.
"Are you going to Hogwarts?" the boy asked. Bakura nodded, as he didn't trust himself to speak. "Then how come I've never seen you before?"
"I'm a transfer. From Japan."
"Know what House you'll be in yet?"
Bakura shook his head; he didn't even know what a 'House' was.
"No, I wouldn't have thought so," the other teen agreed with the arrogant attitude Bakura was growing tired of. "I'm in Slytherin. Best House there is, and I'm sure you'll agree. Make sure you don't get in Hufflepuff; if I'd been put in Hufflepuff, I would have left right then and there. But I knew I wouldn't be; my whole family's been in Slytherin." He stopped and turned accusingly to Bakura. "You are pure-blood, aren't you? Not Muggle-born?"
Bakura sensed the same hostility coming from this boy when he'd mentioned Muggle-borns as the man in Flourish and Blotts. He figured saying he was Muggle-born was a very bad idea so he answered, "My family has practiced magic for nearly three-thousand years." Which wasn't exactly a lie if you counted his previous hosts as 'family'.
The boy looked impressed and started walking again. "Good. You don't want to be hanging around with those mudbloods; it could ruin your chances. What's your name, anyway?"
"Ryou Bakura."
"Bakura, huh? Interesting name. I'm Draco Malfoy, Slytherin prefect and seeker on the Slytherin house Quidditch team." The boy glanced over and took interest in Bakura's hair. "How'd you get your hair like that?"
"What?" Bakura was so startled that he couldn't come up with a better response.
"Your hair. How did you get it to be that color? It's weird."
"It's natural."
"Can't be. You couldn't be born with that color of hair."
"Well I was," Bakura snarled. He liked his hair, thank you very much, and really didn't like to get it criticized. "I happen to be albino, for your information."
"Oh, regular freak of nature you mean," Malfoy said, not really caring if he hurt Bakura's feelings or not. Bakura scowled at him; he was getting really tired of this 'higher-than-thou' attitude the other boy had, but there wasn't much he could do about it without betraying his identity. However, he could lower Malfoy's self-esteem a notch or two; that's what he was doing here in the first place.
"So what about your hair?" Bakura gibed. "That 'natural' too?"
"Of course it is," growled Malfoy. Bakura could tell he didn't like getting his hair criticized either. "Why's yours so long? You look like a girl. I thought you were one when you first walked up to me."
"Yeah, well, a queer like you wouldn't know the difference," Bakura sneered.
"What?!" Malfoy was suddenly furious, and Bakura couldn't blame him; he wouldn't want to be called 'gay' either.
"I swear, I've seen a couple of the passer-by give you 'looks', if you know what I mean."
"How dare you imply–"
"I wasn't 'implying'–" He was cut short when Malfoy suddenly tried to charge into him; Bakura kicked out, hit the boy in the stomach, and Malfoy was sent sprawling to the ground. Bakura made an act of brushing himself off and said, "See you at Hogwarts, dumbass." And then he walked off leaving Malfoy fuming on the ground behind him.
I am so good at what I do, he thought proudly, reaching down into his pocket and the large pile of coins there.
/I bit too good if you ask me. You're making enemies even before we get to school. I thought Domino would be the last–/
Shut up and let me enjoy this. You're ruining my moment.Bakura growled good-naturedly back at his host. He knew Ryou had enjoyed watching that, even if he'd been to 'honorable' to say so.
Bakura met Malik outside the entrance to Diagon Alley; he was a bit disappointed since it could mean that the Egyptian hadn't watched his moment of victory, but he let it pass for a time.
"Here, knock yourself out," he said, dropping handful after handful of gold and silver into Malik's outstretched hands. "Next time, you're on your own."
"Thanks–"
"And look out for that kid I stole from. He'll probably be pretty steamed."
"Sure. What happened?"
"I implied he was gay."
Bakura had said it tonelessly, but Malik almost broke into laughter anyway. "Oooooh, I'll bet he wasn't happy."
"No. And by the way, Ryou's birthday is September 2nd. Don't forget," Bakura said, and he walked away back to his room.
For the next two weeks, Ryou, Yugi, and Malik all stayed in their rooms and, in Ryou and Malik's case, made sure they didn't get seen by Malfoy. Ryou read over about half of his schoolbooks and managed to work most of the spells he tried (most of them were the beginner spells at the beginning of the books). He also noticed that there was definitely something different about Phantom; he would have prophetic dreams every time he slept with the cat and they would nearly always come true the next day. Phantom also seemed to like Bakura somewhat more than Ryou; the cat would follow him everywhere no matter how many times he told it to go away. Ryou came to the conclusion the cat was special when Bakura separated from his host, and it ran right to him and knew he was there. When he told Yugi all these things, however, Yugi suggested it was possessed and that Ryou should get a different cat (Bakura, who had taken a liking to Phantom, almost threatened Yugi after this suggestion). After that, Ryou didn't mention Phantom's probable psychic powers.
Yugi spent the two weeks dividing his time between trying to learn out of the schoolbooks and playing games with Yami. However, the spirit was very restless anyway by the end of the two weeks, and it was he that decided they should go back into Diagon and see what else was there; he was positive they had missed at least one that had looked interesting when they were walking around with Hagrid. Bakura decided, without anyone's consent, that he would come with and keep an eye out for Malfoy, and after Malik found out that he would be left alone with the thought that he should have looked through a couple of books as well, he made the third member of their group. And so they bravely charged into Diagon Alley…
1) quote by Paul Muad'Dib from Dune by Frank Herbert
