Hi again, whoa, 18 reviews O.O /is amazed/ well, thanks to: Kitroku, Shalaren and killah-sama for reviewing chapter 7, thanks to: Kitroku, killah-sama, Asaake and kenmeishouri for reviewing chapter 8
Marik: Yugi, why are you sitting in the corner ?
Yami Bakura: Yeh, all we did was dye your hair bright green, tie you to a log and let you float towards a waterfall, and try to feed you to lions.
FireChaos: Whoa ! O.O
Yugi: Help … me
Firechaos: anyway
Disclaimer: hmm, I don't own YGO or HP, interesting …
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Chapter 9: Darkness of another realm
Moonlight poured into the castle, creeping around the ancient school, until everywhere was lit by the dazzling light.
Harry shut his eyes, trying to force himself to sleep, it wasn't the moonlight that kept awake, but the many unanswered question that buzzed around his mind, like flies, never leaving, he mentally swatted at them, but they remained.
So many questions, dangers, Harry closed his eyes, remembering back a few days, Ron had accused the foreigners of being in league with Voldemort, Hermione had, of course, argued different, pointing out how they couldn't be his slaves, after time they had both grown tired, Harry had avoided their arguments.
At the time Harry had been unsure, Hermione had many good reasons as to why they wouldn't be 'evil' so at the time Harry had been confused, why would Malfoy walk up to something that hated him, then blame Marik, and why had he heard Bakura's thoughts ? He was sure it was Bakura, it sounded just like him.
Then, just after the lesson, he had felt someone in his mind, searching, he knew that the foreigners had some sort of power, but what ?
After a lot of thought, Harry had decided that they might not work for Voldemort, or even know him; maybe this was a new threat.
Harry rolled over, still determined to get to sleep, but once again the 'flies' of his thoughts pestered him, so he decided to search his mind for a question, that would give him answers that were worth listening to, but still not sound suspicious.
Harry sat up, picking his glasses up, he glanced at the clock: 6.30am. He groaned, then glanced around the dormitory.
Ron was snoring, sometimes he would mutter something, Harry was sure he heard him say, 'spider soup' he grinned to himself, Ryou looked peaceful, but Harry could see beads of sweat on the teens forehead, Yugi also seemed agitated. Marik seemed to be asleep, but Harry couldn't tell.
Yugi suddenly shot up, his eyes wide with fear,
"YAMI !" he called, his eyes were distant, not seeing the world he lived in, they glided slowly over to a place near his bed, Harry squinted, in the light of moonlight he could see a figure, shimmering in the light, Harry blinked, and the figure was gone.
Yugi was still staring at the same spot; slowly his eyes returned to normal he fell back onto his bed.
"Hey." Yugi shot up once more at Harry's voice, but soon realised who was speaking and seemed relieved.
"Hi." Yugi managed to say,
"Are you ok ?" Harry asked,
"Yeh, just a, a bad dream." Yugi spoke, as if reassuring himself, Harry's mind raced over questions, now would be a good time to seek information, Yugi seemed distracted, maybe he wouldn't think and say something that would be of importance to Harry, like who Yugi actually was, he seemed nice, but that could just be a mask.
"How do you know Marik and Bakura ?" Harry chose his words carefully, Yugi looked slightly confused, "well, your from Japan, and Marik's from Egypt, and Bakura likes all occult stuff, you seem to dislike occult."
"Well, err." Yugi stuttered, "It's. A long story." He concluded,
"Well we have ages." Harry replied, waving at a clock which now showed the time: 7.00am.
Yugi also looked at the clock, willing it to change, it didn't. And it was obvious that Yugi wouldn't get any sleep either.
"Well, Duel Monsters." He said simply,
"You mean those giant monsters ?" Yugi blinked and stared at Harry,
"Monsters ?" Harry looked around, this time it wasn't Yugi who had spoken, Marik sat up, Harry narrowed his eyes at the Egyptian, but Marik ignored him.
"You mean Monster cards, right ?" Yugi looked, almost pleading for Harry to say yes.
"Yeh." Harry said, unsure, Yugi sighed in relief, but Marik continued glaring.
There was a long pause, in which Yugi had decide he'd rebuild his deck, Marik was wandering around the dormitory, obviously bored, Yugi was nervously flicking through his cards, at one point he dropped them all on the floor.
Harry wondered why they were acting strange, was it something he said.
"So, you met by playing Duel Monsters ?" It was more of a question than a statement,
"Yeh, tournament, we were all there, played Duel Monsters." Yugi stuttered on the words, his voice was jumpy, his eyes continuously drifted across the room, Harry followed Yugi's gaze, but saw nothing.
Marik seemed to be ignoring Harry, his pacing finally woke Ryou, who sat up sleepily as the clock neared: 7.27am, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up, confusion showing on his face.
"Err …" Ryou began, but couldn't think of anything else to say,
"Harry asked how we all met." Marik said blankly.
"Oh." Ryou seemed to be only half listening, his eyes kept drifting to the ceiling, becoming cloudy, then normal, maybe he's just tired. Harry began to wonder why he was making excuses; he knew there was something, strange.
Soon everyone else was waking, Yugi nervously put his cards away, eyes darting towards Harry, who tried to ignore the worried expression.
They hurried to breakfast, were Yugi seemed frightened by everything that moved, Ryou stared at his plate, as if not seeing it at all, Marik simply glared at everyone.
The owls swooped down, one almost crashed into Ryou's head, Ryou didn't seem to notice it as the tiny creature ran down the table, tripping over bowls and falling in milk.
First lesson was charms, Yugi seemed to be more focused by then, quickly mastering how to levitate a feather, Ryou poked his a few times, causing the feather to blow up, Marik tried throwing the feather in the air, then pretend it had levitated, the teacher almost believed him, until Marik decided he was bored of holding his wand.
Hermione attempted to help Marik and Ryou, Ryou seemed grateful, but Marik wouldn't be helped, saying he didn't need a stupid wand.
Harry watched them, laughing occasionally as Yugi's feather collided with Marik's head, and Marik attempted to strangle Yugi, Ryou had stared at them for a while, then burst out laughing, which Harry thought strange for 'Ryou'.
Afterwards Bakura seemed to want to blow his feather up, not make it levitate, the Professor was getting slightly worried that the feathers would run out as Marik and Bakura laughed at the singed feather.
Next was History of Magic, Ryou somehow managed to stay awake, Yugi played around with his deck, before collapsing of tiredness.
The lesson finally ended, people cheered as they desperately ran towards the doors, the Professor simply thought they were excited to do their homework, and was pleased.
"I'm going to the library." Yugi yawned, "hey Marik, why don't you come too, you have loads of work to do." Marik shook his head, but before he could protest the tired Yugi was dragging him towards the library, Ryou laughed.
"I'm going for a walk." He smiled, "I need to think." He added quickly,
"Ok." Hermione and Ron nodded, once Ryou had left Harry turned to them,
"I'm going for a walk too." He smiled at his suspicious friends, Harry turned, he expected Ron to stop him, but nobody did.
Outside the air was cool on his face, Harry wasn't sure why he was following Ryou, maybe he would get some answers, but first he needed to find Ryou, it seemed like the teen had disappeared.
Harry continued walking, were to he didn't know, shivering slightly, the air seemed colder, dark, Harry glanced about, were was he ? Glancing behind he released he wasn't sure, it seemed a fog had fallen, Harry shivered again, he turned around, and gasped, the fog had darkened, now black, spirits flew, whispering in his ear, Harry covered his head, trying to shut out the threats and voices of sorrow.
"How did you get here ?" A cold voice was heard, Harry spun around,
"Ryou !" Harry stared in shock; 'Ryou's' gaze was cold,
"I said, how did you get here ?"
"Were ?" Harry shifted uncomfortably, "were is here ?" 'Ryou' laughed, a cold maniacal laugh,
"A realm of darkness, were spirits are tortured to insanity." 'Ryou' grinned again, Harry swallowed nervously, a realm of darkness ?
Yes Harry, a realm of darkness, utter darkness. It was like an echo in his mind, apart from this echo was full of hate, Bakura glared around the darkness,
"You'll never be freed from this place." Harry wondered whether Bakura was talking to Harry, or the voice, "You were banished,"
I'll return. The voice stated,
"Your hikari would never let you return."
My hikari has no control over me, unlike you. Bakura snarled at the last statement,
"My hikari doesn't control me, now show yourself." Bakura glared into the darkness, but nobody appeared, the voice laughed, then faded, then the darkness also disappeared, sunlight shone through the unnatural fog, Harry shivered,
"Who was that ?"
"No one." Bakura replied, venom dripping from every word,
"Your, not Ryou are you ?" Harry asked carefully,
"Then who am I ?"
"I thought you could tell me that ?" Bakura smirked,
"Thief king Bakura." The thief gave a mock bow.
Meanwhile, in the library, Yugi ran his finger over the many books, occasionally picking one out, then adding it to the pile Marik was holding, Yugi managed to drag a very big book out, and with great difficulty placed on top of the others, Marik staggered slightly, then fell, the books crashed down, Marik covered his head, Yugi fell, grabbing shelves to try to stop himself from falling, which didn't work, and only caused more books to fall.
The Liberian glared at them, then stormed over and ordered them to leave.
"Great, now we're never going to finish our work, and we'll get detentions !" Yugi wailed unhappily, Marik rolled his eyes,
"Calm down Yugi, were not going to die because we didn't do homework, anyway Hermione can help us." Yugi sighed, but followed Marik.
They walked in silence, Yugi muttering something, Marik sighed, obviously Yugi didn't think asking the walking dictionary (Hermione) to do their homework was a good idea, he glanced out the window, then stopped suddenly, his eyes narrowed,
"Yugi." Marik called after the smaller teen, who turned angrily,
"What ?" Yugi demanded, Marik pointed out the window, Yugi stormed over and looked out the window, his anger suddenly changed as he saw what Marik had been pointing at.
"The Shadow Realm." Yugi's voice showed confusion as he watched the blackness curl around anything near by, Yugi shook his head, hoping the darkness would disappear, but it didn't, then, there was a sudden burst of maniacal laughter, Yugi jumped, next to him Marik froze.
The shadows started to withdraw, turn paler, until two figures were visible in the fog, one was Harry, and the other,
"Ryou ?" Yugi was once again, confused, but as the darkness cleared it was obvious it wasn't Ryou.
"Bakura." Yugi's voce had deepened, his eyes narrowed, Marik glanced over,
"Come on." Yami turned and angrily walked towards the grounds, Marik soon followed.
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Harry glared at the thief,
"So, where's Ryou, what did you do to him ?"
"I did nothing to Ryou." Bakura laughed, but his laughter soon died away as he heard footsteps, he turned to see Marik and Yami running towards him.
Yami stopped, then glared at the thief, Harry wondered if he had even been noticed, Marik however, first glanced at Harry, anger showing in his eyes, then also turned to glare at Bakura.
"Bakura, what happened ?" Yami asked, not sounding concerned, Harry wanted to yell at 'Yugi', tell him that this wasn't Ryou, that whoever it was is a thief, but quickly decided against it.
"Nothing." The thief answered, Marik laughed, Harry narrowed his eyes, that laugh seemed familiar, it wasn't Marik's normal laugh, it sounded… evil.
Harry searched his mind, and suddenly he realized, the voice he had heard before, when it was so dark he couldn't even see the castle, the voice's laugh, sounded very similar to Marik's.
Bakura glared at Marik,
"What's so funny ?"
"Bakura, why was that other realm here ?" Yami asked, choosing his words carefully,
"Oh." Bakura glanced down at his feet; there was nothing to say now, apart from the truth. "I needed to be alone."
(Bakura) his hikari wailed (why did you have to go to the Shadow Realm to be alone ?)
((Go away.)) Bakura replied
(Bakura …) Ryou began, but his Yami cut him off,
((Don't you think I have enough trouble, now go away.)) And with that Bakura closed the link, cutting his hikari off completely.
Yami shook his head,
"Why couldn't you have just found somewhere in this realm ?"
"And why's he here ?" Marik pointed at Harry, Bakura glanced over, trying and failing to look surprised,
"He, just wandered into the darkness." He knew it wasn't a very good answer, but still, it was an answer,
"But, nobody can wander into the Shadows once they've formed." Marik stated, though his voice showed puzzlement,
"They hadn't formed." Bakura said as quietly as he could.
Harry glanced from Marik to 'Yugi', or was it Yugi; maybe he was a different person as well.
"And what about." Yami stopped, glancing at Harry for the first time, "that spirit." He ended; Bakura shuffled his feet, unsure of why he was so uncomfortable,
"He just came as well, I didn't do anything."
"Apart from summon the Shadows." Yami's voice showed frustration,
"Why don't you just fade away, like the darkness you're made from." For some reason Marik's statement hurt, any other time Bakura would've taken that as a compliment, except now,
"Maybe I will, then you'll be all be sorry, sometime you'll need my help." Bakura shouted, glaring at everyone close by,
"I don't need anyone's help." Marik yelled back, Harry glanced over at 'Yugi'; he just seemed to be staying away, not wanting to get involved. Bakura smirked,
"Actually, I can remember when you did need help, my help actually." The thief grinned at Marik, who growled angrily, Harry noticed him reaching for his back pocket, remembering that whatever would follow probably wouldn't be good, Bakura also seemed to notice,
"Temper, temper Marik, we don't want a repeat of Battle City."
"Shut up." Marik said, anger showing,
"For once, Bakura's right, we don't a repeat of that." Yami's voice was calm, Harry was, however, confused, he of course, didn't know anything about Battle City. Silence followed, Harry shifted awkwardly, then finally decided it might be best to ask the new question he had been wondering about,
"Your, not the same people are you ?" Harry glanced around, Yami's head snapped round to look at him, then back to Bakura,
"What did you say ?" Yami's question was directed at Bakura,
"He heard that other spirit mention hikari's." Bakura emphasised 'other spirit' making his voice sound more like Yami's, "So I told Harry I was Thief King Bakura."
"Idiot." Marik muttered.
Harry turned to Yami, waiting for an answer, Yami sighed,
"No, I'm not Yugi. My name is Yami,"
"Also known as Pharaoh." Bakura cut in, Harry nodded, then glanced over at Marik, he seemed different, but for some reason, Harry didn't think Marik had changed.
Marik shook his head,
"No, I'm the same person."
Harry nodded again, and was about to ask more, but Yami turned and started walking back towards the castle, Marik and Bakura soon followed.
Harry stayed were he was for a few minutes, thinking about everything that had happened, wondering if he should tell Ron and Hermione about what he had just discovered,
No, they'd just say that the transfers were working or Voldemort. Harry decided.
He walked quickly towards the castle, not wanting the darkness to return, when he walked into the common room he found Ryou, Yugi and Marik doing their homework, Harry narrowed his eyes, they were Yugi and Ryou, not Yami and the thief.
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Later that day Harry heard them arguing, this time Yami and Bakura had taken the place of Yugi and Ryou, but whenever Harry tried to listen, he found that they were speaking an unknown language.
"Hermione, what language are the transfers speaking ?" Hermione looked up from her book, listening,
"Ancient Egyptian." Her brow furrowed with confusion, "I didn't know Yugi or Ryou could speak that."
"Well, what are they saying ?"
"I'm, not sure, they're talking too fast." Hermione looked apologetic, then went back to reading.
Harry shook his head, wondering what they were saying, but soon enough Bakura stood up, then stormed of towards the stairs, a few minutes later the door slammed shut.
Yami sighed, and Harry watched in amazement as Yugi appeared in place of Yami. Yugi shook his head sadly; Marik glanced over at Harry, then whispered,
"What do you think will happen if that … other spirit does return ?"
Yugi sighed, "I think…"
He paused, glancing at the air beside him, as if someone was standing there, Harry narrowed his eyes, trying to hear Yugi's reply, but when he did he wished that they had been speaking that other language,
"That we'll probably all die."
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Ok, I know I didn't update, in ages x.x sorry, I could list all the excuses, but you probably wouldn't want to read them all.
Ok, this chapter is kinda… strange, but I hoped you all liked it anyway
Yugi: Ha, I'm safe; Marik and Yami Bakura aren't at the end of the chapter.
Marik: So this is what the end of a chapter is like.
Yugi: Help
Please review