Title: Shinko Majutsu

Author: Katreal

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot, if even that.

Chapter 7

Bakura sat in the darkness of his soul room; listening to his hikari's thoughts through their link. He could feel them slowing down as Ryou slipped into dreaming, but still Bakura did nothing. Minutes passed, though it was near impossible to tell in the darkness of his soul room. Finally Bakura stood and made his way toward the door. He paused; his hand gripping the doorknob tightly; much the same way Ryou had done earlier. Bakura shook his head and opened the door to the Soul Corridor. He glanced at Ryou's soul room, the door was partially open. The white-haired spirit glanced inside; his hikari was fast asleep on the bed. A small smile tugged at Bakura's lips, despite popular opinion, the thief actually cared about his light; he had proven this on quite a few occasions.

The most obvious took place during the Battle City Finals, when he took the Egyptian God's attack; it would have almost certainly killed his hikari. The other occasions were less obvious but nevertheless, they happened.

Bakura softly pulled the door to his hikari's soul room shut, and locked it. He did not want Ryou to know what he was doing. Bakura knew quite well that Ryou was a light sleeper, and with the door to his Soul Room open he would wake up the moment his yami took over. With the door shut, Ryou could sleep deeply. Bakura didn't want to be responsible for causing Ryou to miss his classes due to lack of sleep.

The spirit winces, he really did not want to deal with a grumpy light the next morning; for grumpy Ryou would be if he missed his classes. Bakura sighed and took over.

Bakura opened his eyes and sat up. He stared absently at the green and silver hangings on the bed before muttering, "Gomen Ryou, It's not that I don't trust your judgment…but I've learned to listen to my instincts; and something is telling me that you being accepted here was no coincidence."

Bakura slipped one of Ryou's black robes over his pajamas and silently drew back the curtains. The tomb robber's sharpened senses took note of the breathing patterns of the other boys, in two cases he didn't need to check, they were snoring so loudly that Bakura began to wonder how anyone was able to sleep with the entire racket they were making. Bakura nodded slightly in satisfaction; he wouldn't have to worry about one of the others spotting him. Not that he cared if someone saw him; he just didn't want to have to erase anyone's memories this night.

The tomb robber padded across the room, his footfalls making no sound on the lush carpet that lined the floor of the Slytherin 6th Year Dorms. With practiced ease the white-haired thief opened the door just wide enough to slip through and closed it behind him, all without making a sound.

Draco Malfoy glanced around the common room; he knew not why he was still awake at such an ungodly hour on the first day of school, it was11 p.m. He groaned and sank back into the soft green and silver chair that he resided in; he felt tired, he knew he was tired, so why couldn't he sleep? Draco rubbed his temples; he could feel a headache coming on.

Draco's hand froze and he listened hard; he could have sworn he heard the sound of a door opening. His eyes immediately flickered to the two doors that lead to the separate dorms. There was nothing next to the door to the Girl's Dormitory Stairs. Draco glances at the door to the Boy's Dormitory stairs; there was a deep shadow next to it.

The Slytherin frowned; did he just imagine the sound? He didn't think so. There was an uneasy feeling in the room, like someone was watching him. He felt a shiver run up his spine.

'Am I going crazy?' Draco wondered absently as he glanced around the room. The unexplainable feeling was still there. Draco sighed and decided to just ask outright, "Who is there?"

Bakura had just slipped into the Slytherin Common Room when he immediately noticed another presence in the room. He growled softly and quickly ducked into the shadows beside the door. His blood red gaze roamed the room as he searched for the source. Bakura noticed the boy from earlier seated in one of the various chairs around the long cold fireplace. The Tomb Robber searched Ryou's memories and found a name for the boy, Draco Malfoy; the boy who Ryou had been puzzling over before the trip to his soul room earlier.

The thief's eyes narrowed as he recognized the green-eyed Slytherin's alert expression, Draco must have heard the door closing. Bakura really did not want to use his powers to erase anyone's memories. One, it would mostly likely wake up Ryou. Two, Bakura didn't want to risk messing with the magic barriers around the castle. Three, he was almost certain that there was another Shadow Magic user in the castle; he had sensed faint traces of it after the feast.

"Well? Who is it?"

It was official; the Slytherin knew he was there. Bakura weighed his options; he could pretend to be Ryou and claim that he couldn't sleep. He could just wait in the shadows until Draco fell asleep, which didn't look like it would be happening anytime soon according to how alert the Slytherin was. Or he could just erase the kid's memories and risk the possibility of alerting the other Shadow Magic user to his presence. Choices…what fun. (1)

Bakura gave an uncharacteristic sigh and half-closed his eyes; he hated choices, especially when they are made hard due to a recent personality shift. A year ago he wouldn't have thought twice about either killing the kid or erasing his memory regardless of the consequences. Stupid light, it was his entire fault. It seems that Bakura, the mighty King of Thieves, the Scourge of the Tombs, Thief of the Sennen Ring, had finally developed a conscience. The fact that it took about 5000 years didn't seem to bother him. One reason for the sudden change was that he no longer had a demented Egyptian God of Evil telling him to kill, maim, and drive insane. (2) Bakura knew this…but he was firmly set on blaming his light for the change anyway.

Opening his eyes Bakura decided on the first choice. He mentally winced; he hated acting like his light. Ryou was just too 'sweet' and polite for his own good. Luckily, Bakura had a lot of practice.

Draco's gaze flickered to the deep shadow by the door to the boy's staircase; he could have sworn he saw movement in there. As soon as trained his gaze on the shadow someone stepped out. Draco frowns; it was the boy he shared a compartment with on the train. What was his name again? Baku? Baka? Oh wait, Bakura(3). That was it.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you Malfoy-san. I didn't expect anyone else to be awake."

Draco's frown deepens at the other's statement. The words seemed like they were forced, as if the boy did not really mean them. This led to another question; Draco looked straight into Bakura's ruby red eyes, "Why are you down here?"

Wait a minute. Red eyes? Since when did the white-haired Slytherin have red eyes? He could have sworn they were brown earlier.

Bakura smiled guiltily, though Draco noticed that the 'smile didn't reach his eyes' to quote some random saying he had read before. The new Slytherin's voice didn't sound too guilty either, "I couldn't sleep, Malfoy-san. I thought I might be able to get some peace down here; it is quite noisy up there."

Draco snorted at this; he understood the boy's meaning all too well. It was true, Crabbe and Goyle both sounded like a horde of angry dragons when they slept. The only reason anyone ever got any sleep at all was because they had learned to put a silencing charm around their own beds.

Draco half closes his eyes and leans back against the chair, he was too tired to be mean to the new student tonight. He vaguely noticedthat Bakura sat down on one of the various sofas in the room. Draco sighed, not even bothering to don his usual mask of indifference, "They are a little loud aren't they?"

"Yes, quite."

Draco cracked one eye open, "You know the Silencio charm right?" At Bakura's hesitant nod he continued, "Then just cast it around your bed, it should wear off before morning. That way you can sleep."

"Thank you. Good night Malfoy-san." Bakura smiled gratefully, though once again both the smile and the words seemed empty.

Draco's eyes drifted closed as Bakura rose from his spot on the couch. He heard a door open and close and assumed that the other Slytherin had gone back to bed. Draco yawned, feeling even more tired then before. His eyelids fluttered as he tried to fight off sleep. Oh, now he was tired? Sighing Draco followed Bakura's example and headed up to bed. Due to his half-asleep state, Draco did not realize thatBakura's bed was empty.

Bakura had to resist gagging as he left the room. Just pretending to be that polite always made him feel sick. He shuddered and hoped he would never have to do it again, if he did…well lets just say that someone would receive a one-way ticket to the Shadow Realm. Well, at least he got out of that situation relatively easily; hopefully the Slyhterin would believe he had gone to bed. Shrugging Bakura stepped through the illusionary wall leading out into the maze-like hallways of Hogwarts School of Witch-Craft and Wizardry.

Bakura wandered the school the school for a bit, making a mental map of all the rooms, staircases, and secret passageways he could find. Eventually the thief found a passage behind a gargoyle. He frowned; this one seemed to be a password activated one. Extremely curious as to what lay behind the statue, he snooped around a bit. About ten minutes later Bakura sighed and gave up; he stalked to a nearby room and sat down, deciding to try a different approach.

He felt the body go limp as he materialized in spirit form. Bakura shook his head and glanced back, to all appearances it seemed like Ryou was sleeping. He smirked and made his way back towards the Gargoyle passage. Utilizing his current transparent nature, Bakura stepped through the wall to find a spiral staircase. Bakura smiled faintly as he made his way up the stairs; Beware world, the Tomb Robber's curiosity has been aroused!

At the top of the staircase Bakura stopped, he could hear voices on the other side.

(1) Please note the sarcasm in this statement.

(2) That rhymes! :D

(3) Remember…Draco tends to refer to people by their last names.

Muwahaha! A cliffy! Muwahaha! :cough: Anyways that's all I'm going to do for now. It's about twice as long as usual so be happy. I was sick this weekend u.u. So I decided to get a chapter out for you before I go back to school n.n. Er…I least I would have done so if my internet were working! :growls: I had to wait until I got home from school...Evilness!

I know I'm tending to focus on Ryou and Malfoy now…but Mahaado will be back soon! I promise. It's just that he's asleep right now…and who wants to write about someone sleeping? Heck, who wants to read about someone sleeping? Not very interesting, ne?

Also please ignore my switching between 'light' and 'hikari'. I just find that the word 'light' sounds better in some places.

Anyways if you think Malfoy is out of character, well think about it. It's late and he's tired, would he want to exert the effort of acting like a jerk to one of his own housemates? I think not.

Anyways, on to the review responses:

blackrosebunny451: Updated n.n

SPUW Commander, Ruler of the eastern hemisphere, whatever!!!!: Tis updated! Hope you enjoyed it.

Night-Owl123: Hope you enjoy it. Happy belated holidays to you too n.n

Koriaena: Baku-chan was being mean. He just doesn't want Ryou butting into his business.

InsanityRoseSparkles: You'll find out soon, just not in this chapter.

Lord Sesshomaru: Done n.n

shadow/phantomness: They will eventually…just not till after Christmas(story-time…not real-time)

Herald of Chaos: Yes Ryou should be in Gryffindor. But the hat announced his decision based on what he had seen which was mostly of Bakura. Harry will find out eventually n.n

Sycopowerranger: Tis okay. I'm just glad you reviewed.

Little Girl: :sigh: I know…MY reviser person has been getting after me about that…I tried to keep mostly in past tense this chapter.

SPUW Commander, Ruler of the eastern hemisphere, whatever!!!!'s brother: Meh…don't worry about it. English is my first language too…though I learned a bit of Japanese during my three year stay…well anyways back to your question. 'Hai'is a more formal way of saying yes. I think 'Aa' or 'Un' is more like yeah or uh huh. I am not certain about these however. After all I'm going by something I've picked up in watching subbed anime and what I can remember of Kindergarten and First grade…which is kind of hard to do when I am now in Ninth grade.

Well that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to review!