Calai'di–Note: I don't know how many people out there don't know Bakura's story so I'm putting this just in case. There are spoilers for the AE/Memory World arc near the end that pertain to Bakura, so be warned. It gets pretty ugly.

Chapter 12: To Fly Without Wings

Yugi glanced anxiously at his friend as they followed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the Quidditch pitch. He'd noticed Ryou had been entranced by the Erklings earlier even without hearing them, though he had a feeling Bakura had been listening. Ryou had almost blackout several times earlier today, and he had blacked-out yesterday, and it was for a class Yugi knew he'd been looking forward to. The Puzzle holder knew Ryou must not be feeling very confident at the moment and his mental state was probably pretty bad. Yugi had a pretty good idea what that felt like himself.

Glancing over again, he noticed that Malik, who had asked Harry to tell Katie he would be coming with them to learn to fly, was holding Ryou's hand rather tightly and, looking for the reason, saw that Ryou had his eyes closed and brow furrowed in deep thought. Presumably talking to Bakura, Yugi realized. It was no doubt rather hand on the spirit as well, since he'd made it his business to make sure his host was all right, and now Ryou was apparently being possessed and no one knew why.

But once they got to the Quidditch pitch, most of Yugi's worries and fears left him. They were going to learn how to fly!

Katie stood in the middle of the pitch with three old school brooms lined out in front of her and her own over her shoulder. Harry and Ron had their own brooms with them as well, hoping for some flying time of their own before practices started.

"Do you have any ideas for the team, Katie?" Harry asked once the stopped in front of her.

She nodded. "Well, Ginny said last year she'd like to be a Chaser, and she'd be good at it I'm sure. Dean Thomas would actually be good Keeper, if he'd tried out for it last year, but I was think of nudging him into trying out for Beater. That leaves two spots open if they make it, so we'll have to see at try-outs."

"Anyway, we'd better get started," Malik said, glancing at his shortest friend, "before Yugi wets himself from excitement."

"Malik!" exclaimed the offend boy.

"You're right, we should get started," Katie agreed. "These are some of the brooms from the Quidditch supplies, so they're a little temperamental, but Madame Hooch uses them so they'll work. Now, each of you stand next to a broom, hold your hand out over it, and say 'Up'."

"UP!" the three recited.

Ryou's broom immediately jumped into his hand, nearly knocking him off-balance, as he didn't expect it. Yugi's only rolled on the ground on his first try and then zoomed into his hand, actually knocking him off his feet. Malik laughed slightly as Yugi fell to the ground, then turned back to his own broom. It hadn't done anything at all. He yelled at it, kicked it, even tried to sound polite, and then finally, it listened and knocked him off his feet as well. Yugi got to his feet and laugh a little at his fallen friend before reaching out a hand to help Malik get back up.

"Looks like those brooms don't like mudbloods much," said a drawling voice as Malik nearly pulled Yugi to the ground as he got up. They turned to see Malfoy striding up to them from the entrance, followed by Crabbe and Goyle, which was why he looked much more confident. Malik's hands closed into fists again, and Ron went so far as to put his broom down and pull his wand out.

"You aren't welcome here, Malfoy," hissed Ron warningly. "I think you should leave."

"Actually, Weasley, I have every right to be here. You see, our captain's been put in detention and he asked me to watch Ishtal's practice. So I guess you're just stuck with me."

"Just ignore him, guys," Katie said to turn their attention back to her. "We'll just get on with the lesson."

She showed them how to mount their brooms without slipping off the end and corrected their grips; she had to correct Malik's several times because he was getting impatient.

"Now, push off hard from the ground. You should rise up from the ground a few feet. To maneuver, you lean in the direction you want your broom to go."

Both Yugi and Malik pushed off into the air at once, and were soon flying at each other playfully. Ryou stayed on the ground and watched them, less sure of himself and more afraid of falling to his doom than ever. Flying did look like fun, though, and Bakura was starting to get annoyed that his host was letting his fears take him over again. But, it was fun to just watch Yugi and Malik, who were now chasing each other around the stadium, and none of them were really watching Malfoy as he crept up behind Ryou.

Ryou didn't know how it could have happened, his yami should have stopped it, but as he saw the blur past his face he knew Malfoy was involved. He turned around to find the other teen grinning ferally and holding something gold in his hand. Eyes wide, Ryou glanced down at his chest where he left the Ring hanging in front of his robes. It wasn't there. He couldn't sense Bakura very well either.

"Looking for something, freak?" Malfoy sneered, moving his hand so the Ring glinted in the sunshine. Ryou couldn't believe what had happened. How could Malfoy get the Ring like that without him noticing, from around his neck?

"Malfoy, I'd like that back, please," he said calmly, holding his hand out.

"Oh, is this yours?" Malfoy said with mock surprise. "I'd thought you'd stolen it from someone."

Ryou glared at him, an interesting habit he'd gotten from his yami. He knew exactly what Malfoy was talking about this time, as he'd been watching when Bakura had stolen the boy's money. It didn't look like that had dropped Malfoy's arrogance any though.

By now, their quarrel had gained the attention of the others; Yugi and Malik were hovering in the air near the goal hoops at one end, watching from there. Ron had his wand out again, and Harry was holding his broom, ready to mount it if this got ugly. He was used to dealing with Malfoy; Ryou definitely wasn't.

"Well, my mistake," said Malfoy, shrugging his shoulders. He held out the Ring to Ryou. "I guess you can have this back."

As soon as Ryou got close enough to take his possession, however, Malfoy tossed it high in the air, and, in a flash, was on his own broom, holding the Ring out where he'd caught it.

"You'll have to come up here to get this back, freak!" he yelled as he rose higher and higher. A spell shot from his wand, nearly hitting Harry, who'd been about to mount his Firebolt. "And don't think about helping, Potter. I know you and your friends were involved in that 'Dumbledore's Army' thing last year, so I made sure this summer to learn numerous spells to take you down. One move from any of you and you'll be in the hospital wing."

Ryou watched and listened helplessly as Malfoy rose higher and farther away; Bakura's exclamations of annoyance were growing softer until...he couldn't hear his yami at all. He couldn't sense anything; his yami was gone.

"Malfoy, this is really low, even for you!" Hermione shouted, breaking through Ryou's anguish. "Just give it back to him!"

"Hermione, isn't there anything you and Ron can do as prefects?" Harry asked.

"I could take it to Professor McGonagall or Snape, but Malfoy's a prefect, too, remember? I can't do anything about it at the moment."

"Hey, freak! Aren't you going to come up here and get this? Or maybe–" Malfoy made a move like he was going to put the cord around his neck– "I'll just–"

"NO!!!"

In an instant, Ryou was in the air himself, his fears of flying pushed back by his fears of losing the Ring and Bakura. Somehow knowing exactly what he was doing, he flew straight at Malfoy, tears welling in his eyes. Malfoy was just able to dodge him as Ryou had been going so fast. The white-haired boy descended till he was level with the other teen, and there was ice in his voice when he spoke.

"Malfoy, I'm only asking one more time," Ryou said, forcing himself to sound calm. "May I have my pendant back, please?"

"Politeness isn't going to get you anywhere, freak," answered Malfoy, and he flew off toward the goal hoops at the other end of the pitch.

Ryou knew what the other boy was going to do almost before he heard the answer. He accelerated the broom without thinking and quickly caught Malfoy up halfway to the intended target. The Slytherin glanced over his shoulder and shot a spell at his chaser, only to have Ryou dodge it and speed up again like he'd flown his whole life. Malfoy aimed again, but this time Ryou dived and came up in front of him, causing him to change his course. And then he spotted Malik heading their way from the other end of the pitch, but Malfoy didn't want any interference, so he shot the other Slytherin down with a different spell. This was his revenge on the thieving boy and he didn't want anyone in his way. He'd already gotten Malik back for the snide remark on the train anyway.

Ryou saw Malik fall to the ground with mixed emotions. He really didn't want his friends to get hurt because of him again, but he also didn't want them think he was helpless either. This was between him and Malfoy, and he was going to get the Ring back.

Ryou pulled his own wand out; Malfoy didn't know it, but many of the spells he'd managed to learn himself were defensive types of spell, so he was quite capable of looking out for himself. Ryou dodged another of Malfoy's spells, then whispered one himself. The Leg-Locker Curse caught Malfoy on the back and he was soon crying out in pain (you'd feel pain too, if a broom was caught between your legs). It didn't last long, though, and once Malfoy muttered the counter-curse, he turned his broom around and flew like a bullet straight at Ryou. The white-haired teen had no problems dodging the cowardly attack, since he already knew it was coming, and took the opportunity to hit Malfoy with another spell, this time causing the wand to fly out of the other boy's hand. Malfoy flew off to catch it, then came back, this time fury showing on his face.

"How could you–"

"Because I, like you, did some summer reading, Malfoy," Ryou answered, holding his wand up. "Now will you give me my pendant back? That's all I ask."

"Why do you want this thing so much anyway? Did you boyfriend give it to you when you left him?" Malfoy sneered.

"If you really want to know, my father gave me that after he came back from a particularly long archeological expedition," Ryou said, trying to ignore the 'boyfriend' comment. "You seem to like your father a lot, too, Malfoy. Wouldn't you hold something that he gave you in high esteem?"

Malfoy looked thoughtful after this statement, but he wasn't going to give up the Ring without one final victory. "You're right, I would, which is why I'm going to give this back to you. Better watch it carefully!" With that, he threw the golden pendant in the direction of the lake. Ryou turned and flew after it but he didn't have to follow it very far, because he remembered something his yami had done once. He held out his hand toward the Ring and willed it to come back to him; it stopped and flew right back into his hand. Relieved, he slipped the cord back over his head and flew back to where his friends were standing, smiling as he heard his yami start to chew him out for not doing that in the first place.

"Wow, Ryou, that was awesome!" Yugi exclaimed as Ryou touched down and dismounted. "I wish I could fly like that, then I could tryout for the Quidditch team."

"Speaking of the team," Katie said, "I think you should tryout next week, Ryou. We could really use someone like you on the team."

"M-me?" Ryou asked, nervous now that he'd realized what he'd just done.

"Yeah, you," Ron said, clapping an arm over his shoulder. "You were really brilliant, especially since that was your first time. And that was a pretty good Summoning Charm for a first year."

"But I–" Ryou started but Yugi elbowed him to shut up.

"They don't need to know the Ring is magic, remember?" Yugi whispered for only him to hear.

"Is Malik okay?" Ryou suddenly asked, prodding the lifeless Egyptian with his toe. "I saw him fall but–"

"I think Malfoy just stunned him," Harry answered and then pointed his wand at the teen and muttered a few words. Malik didn't move. "Hermione, it's 'Ennervate', right?"

"Yeah, should be. Ennervate," she said, pointing her wand at Malik. He still didn't move.

"Uh, maybe we should get him to the hospital wing," Yugi suggested shakily as he turned his friend over onto his back. Malik's face was contorted with pain and he didn't seem to be breathing very well, if at all.

Madame Pomfrey fixed Malik up fairly quick, but she made him stay overnight for observation anyway. This time, it was unfortunate she didn't ask questions, because Malfoy would have gotten in serious trouble. She told them what curse had been used, and Hermione said Malik and Ryou should talk to Professor McGonagall or Snape and report him. Malik said that was tattling, and Ryou didn't want to cause any trouble.

"You know, Ryou, he'll just keep picking on you if you don't report him," Hermione said as they walked back the common room. "As a prefect, Malfoy shouldn't be cursing people like that, and the spell he used is illegal for underage wizards."

"Yeah, telling on him would be a good way to get revenge," Ron added, earning an elbow in the side from Hermione.

"Well, if you don't tell on him, I will," said Hermione determinedly, and she walked off to find the head of Gryffindor house.

"What'd you do to get him that mad at you anyway?" Ron asked. "Even Malfoy doesn't normally steal things from people."

"Uh, well, we met in Diagon Alley, but I didn't do anything to him. He criticized my hair, though. He's been accusing me of stealing money from him, but I had plenty of my own."

"We heard about that from your brothers, Ron," Harry said. "What was it he stole from you? You went to a lot of trouble to get it back, I saw."

"Oh, my pendant," Ryou answered, holding the Ring out in front of him so they could see it. He glanced over at Yugi before going on. "It's called the Millennium Ring, and it dates back three thousand years to ancient Egypt. My father gave it to me after a really long expedition in Egypt, so it makes me think of him when I wear it. It was really hard for me when Malfoy stole it."

"Well, he certainly won't get away with that without punishment," said a stern voice from behind them. They turned to find Professor McGonagall and Hermione behind them; the professor had a very stern expression on her face. "Stealing from a fellow classmate, and Miss Granger told me he used a forbidden curse on Mr. Ishtal for trying to help you. Mr. Malfoy would not be a prefect for much longer if he were in my house, but I'll have to take this up with Professor Snape as Mr. Malfoy is in his."

"Malik's still in the hospital wing, Professor," Yugi said. "Madame Pomfrey wanted him to stay overnight."

"That is understandable," said Professor McGonagall. She turned to Ryou with a softened expression. "Miss Bell just told me about your performance, Mr. Bakura. Though I know how much work you'll have this year to catch up with your classmates, I would look forward to seeing you make the team. I highly encourage you to try out next week. Merlin knows we need a better team then last year."

"But we won the Cup!" Ron protested.

"That's true, but even I'll admit I had doubts about our chances last year. Anyway, I have to talk with Professor Snape about his student." With that, the professor turned and strode of in the direction of the teacher's lounge.

"Wow, even McGonagall didn't think you could win last year?" Harry remarked as they approached the Fat Lady. "That's saying something. Good thing we've got a clean slate this year–lemon tarts."

The portrait swung forward and they climbed into the common room.

"Yeah, you know Ryou, you and Yugi should try out," Ron said, dropping his bag by a chair.

"You really think so?" Yugi asked, trying fruitlessly to hide the excitement in his voice.

"Sure, you were better than you're giving yourself credit for, Yugi," Harry answered as he sat down at one of the tables. "For you, I'd suggest either Chaser or substitute Seeker."

To tell the truth, Ryou had been thinking about flying ever since he'd gotten off the broom; he hadn't expected it to be so fun. But trying out for the team...from what he'd heard about Quidditch, it was a very dangerous game and no matter what position you played, you still had things flying at you and a responsibility to uphold. He might have to think about this.

(Note: this going to get kind of bad, so if you can't take murder scenes, especially ones that make Bakura almost cry, skip to the next part)

He blinked the wind out of his eyes as he passed over the darkened desert below. Ryou had never been to Egypt, but he'd seen enough pictures to know that's where he was, and the approaching pyramids only confirmed his suspicions. He looked below him, spotting the Nile as a black streak in the gray sand, watching it until a giant shape blocked his view; the closest pyramid. He hadn't realized how fast he'd been flying but now he knew it must be very fast as the pyramid was left behind. He pulled back on the broom to slow his speed and hovered bewilderedly between the two pyramids. How had he gotten here? He couldn't have flown all the way from England.

"Hikari, do you know why we're in Egypt?" asked a harsh, bitter voice close to him. Bakura was hovering near by on a much better looking broomstick, but it was the fact that his yami was here in the air with him that surprised Ryou.

"I...why are you up here?" Ryou asked. Bakura shrugged and looked back down at the desert below them.

"It's odd," he muttered. "I've never seen it from up here before, but somehow I recognize this place."

"You should, it's the Pyramids of Giza, yami. Everyone knows what they look like."

"No, it's something else..." Bakura suddenly dived, heading straight towards the river. Ryou followed, bewilderedly, and they were soon flying over the Nile heading towards a city of lights in the distance. Bakura stopped at the village edge, a worried expression on his face, and it grew more concerned and even fearful as he looked around.

"I knew it. We should get out of here, Ryou. Now." His voice was full of urgency, and he turned his broom back toward the river; Ryou followed, still confused about why they were here.

"Bakura! What's going on?!" he shouted. The yami was at his side in an instant, though it was to shut him up than to explain.

"Would you be quiet?!" Bakura hissed, holding his hand tight of Ryou's mouth. "I can't tell you here. We need to go, now, before–"

Shouts from near the town caused him to jerk his head up, and he nearly dragged Ryou off his broom in his desperate attempt to get away. They were halfway across the river before Bakura released his host and turned to look at the town. Figures on horseback were riding back and forth, lighting buildings on fire, and murdering every villager they found.

"Kuru Eruna..." Bakura murmured, staring sadly at the burning village, his words almost overpowered by the screams coming from its inhabitants.

"What–what's going on?" Ryou asked, horrified at the slaughter before them.

"This is the village where I grew up, before I was trapped in the Ring," Bakura answered quietly. "It was a thieves' town. When I was eight, the Pharaoh's soldiers came in and killed everyone to make the Millennium Items. I was the only one to escape, and I almost drowned in the river trying to get away."

He pointed to the left side of the dying village to where a small boy with stark white hair had just emerged. The boy glanced around for a moment, then broke into a run straight towards the Nile; two soldiers noticed him and began following, yelling and shouting the whole time. They were slowly advancing on the little boy and would have overcome him if he had reached the river and dived in. The boy began to flail his arms and sank several times until he finally didn't come back up. One of the soldiers laughed and said the Nile had done their job for them, and they turned their horses back to the burning town.

After a few moments, the little boy emerged on the other side of the river, coughing up water and looking thoroughly frightened. He sat and watched as his village burned to the ground and his family undoubtedly skewered on the end of swords. And then he began to cry.

"You mean...Yami did this?" Ryou finally asked, his voice sounding very high pitched.

"No, Yami wouldn't have the guts. It was his father who was Pharaoh when this happened." Bakura stared at the younger version of himself on the riverbank. "The damn bastard died before I could go after him, so Yami had to take his place."

"Bakura...I'm sorry, I had no idea–"

"That's because you didn't need to know. I–what the...?!"

A shape had suddenly appeared in the smoke above the burning village; it looked like a face but had no identifying features. The face looked down at the village, then little Bakura, then straight at older Bakura and Ryou.

"So this is how you were when you were young," said the face, it's voice deep and thundering. Bakura glanced down at himself but the boy hadn't noticed anything. The face went on: "That, Bakura, is pathetic. I'm amazed you actually became a thief, much less the King of Thieves."

"You know who I am?" Bakura shouted, now aware that the soldiers below them probably couldn't see or hear them.

"Of course. You were my servant once, but that was when you were not so weak. Your friend, or host should I say, is my servant now, and there is nothing you two can do about it."

"Who are you?" Ryou called.

"You'll find out soon enough. Goodnight, little Bakura."

The middle of the town suddenly exploded, overwhelming the face with a giant mushroom cloud. When the cloud had passed, the face was gone. Bakura and Ryou hovered over the river, watching as body after body was pulled out of the mess, many of them mangled horribly or soaked with blood, and put into a large pile to the north. This continued until the sky began to lighten in color and rays of sunlight poked over the horizon. A small wisp of smoke floated up into the sky as Ra gave his first light to the broken village of Kuru Eruna...

Ryou sat straight up in his four-poster bed in Gryffindor tower. That had been such an awful dream, and it seemed so real. Only vaguely aware of Phantom's weight by his feet, Ryou turned over and reached under his bed for a flashlight. Then he remembered reading that technology didn't work at Hogwarts, so he felt for his wand instead and used the Lumos spell he'd learned on his own to light up his bed area inside the closed curtains. It came as a bit of a shock when he saw Bakura sitting at the end of the bed, slowly stroking the cat.

"Do you know who that was?" Bakura asked quietly, not taking his eyes off of Phantom.

{No, I thought you might know.} Ryou answered, speaking through their mental link. He didn't want to wake any of his fellow dorm-mates. {You mean the figure in the smoke?}

"Yes. It was obvious that wasn't part of my memories. He knew exactly who we were."

{Maybe it was Phantom.} Ryou suggested. After receiving a very harsh glare from Bakura, he went on: {Well, Phantom's manipulated my dreams before. He put me in one of Harry's dreams once. And the thing about me being his servant is sort of right.}

"It wasn't Phantom."

{But–}

"I wasn't, hikari!" Bakura turned his head and stared at the curtain, though it was obvious he wasn't seeing it. "That isn't what Phantom looks like when he's in one of our dreams. And he wouldn't treat me like that either," he added irritably. "I wasn't that weak when I was little."

{Wait, you met Phantom in a dream? You talked to him?}

"It's not that weird. You said yourself he can manipulate dreams. Anyway, we're getting off topic."

{Kuru Eruna...} Ryou muttered, remembering the screams they heard from the villagers.

"I think you should go back to sleep, hikari. Worry about it in the morning. Go ask that fool Shadi for all I care; you have his class tomorrow. But right now you need to forget about it and go to sleep. Besides," he said, peaking through the curtains, "you're attracting attention with that light. From spiky-haired, vertically challenged teens nonetheless."

{Oh.}

"Nox," Ryou whispered and the light from the end of his wand went out.

Bakura watched in silence as his host curled down under the covers and soon fell back asleep. He had a feeling he knew who it was that was in the smoke, but why that person would now call Ryou servant as well didn't make any sense to him. Sighing, he returned to his soul room conjured up a bed of his own. Might as well sleep on it.