Hey guys!

You can't even begin to understand how long I've been waiting to write this chapter. I'm so pumped it's finally up. :D

So, without any further ado, please read on. I won't bore you with my ANs today.

Disclaimer: If I had a penny for every time I wished that I owned something worth owning, then I would be a very rich lady. But alas, I own nothing. Not even most of the characters, events, and settings of this story. *sigh*

Enjoy!

Chapter 24

Ellie was a terrible liar.

She knew that she should keep eye contact, but if she did she would instantly giggle. And even when she was able to keep a perfect poker face, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and now even Ryou could always see right through her. She didn't understand what gave her away on these occasions.

But luckily, the fact that she knew this meant that she was prepared.

Which is why Ellie purposely distanced herself from all of her friends after dinner. She walked a bit behind them, pretending to be absorbed in her potions notes. This way, when she called ahead that she left her textbook in the Great Hall, it was easy to turn and run back without looking suspicious.

Ellie didn't even give them the chance to offer to come along.

She called, "I'll meet you in the common room in five minutes!" over her shoulder, and took the corner so quickly that her black school shoes skidded and left little scuff marks on the stone floor.

Ellie was running so fast because she didn't have much time. Her excuse would only buy her a couple of minutes, and the journey that she needed to take required a lot more than a couple.

She said that she was running back to the Great Hall, but Ellie was really headed towards the second floor girl's bathroom.

Ellie didn't want anybody to know that she was secretly brewing and taking a dreamless sleep potion every night.

The thought of that man, Shadi, coming back terrified her.

Ryou, Yugi, and especially Malik's reactions to his intrusion on her dream scared her even than the dream itself. And it seemed as though none of the transfers could do anything to stop it. So Ellie had decided to take matters into her own hands.

In second year, their polyjuice potion had gone undiscovered in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. So Ellie figured that she would be even safer this time, since the dreamless sleep potion took only a few minutes to brew. She kept all of her unused supplies in a locked stall during the day.

Panting for breath, Ellie softly closed the bathroom door behind her and checked the time. She had about 10 minutes before her friends would begin to get suspicious. She ignored Myrtle's wails from her favorite toilet, and wiggled underneath the locked door of the stall with her supplies in it.

In no time at all, Ellie had a small fire cackling, and the potion was brewing.

As she added the different ingredients, Ellie was very glad indeed that her best subject was potions. Not only did it make her dream of becoming a healer a lot easier, but it allowed her to brew a perfect dreamless sleep potion every time.

She didn't know what she would do if she couldn't brew it herself. Go to Madam Pomfrey, she supposed. But she would most likely require an explanation, and Ellie was too ashamed for that.

She felt like such a coward.

Not only was Ellie running away from her fears, but she was hiding it from her friends. They were the ones that could help and support her through it, but she was selfishly denying them the chance.

Biting the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood, Ellie quickly poured the potion into three vials. She had enough to last her for three more days.

She waved her wand, and her cauldron was clean, the fire was out, and all of the supplies were neatly tucked away in her spare potions kit. Ellie stuffed the vials into her schoolbag, and wiggled back out from under the door.

Ellie reached the portrait hole with a couple of minutes to spare, and she took the time to dig her potions textbook out of her bag and catch her breath.

With a sigh, she climbed through and greeted her friends, feeling as though the potion in her backpack weighed a hundred pounds.

XXX

Malik couldn't take it anymore.

He already felt guilty as hell, wasn't that enough?

He never thought that he'd see the day where he wished some random girl would ask him out, or for people to stare at him solely because of his status as one of the top three Duel Monsters champions.

Was it too much to ask for people to not be afraid of him?

He was already afraid enough of himself.

Marik had gotten even stronger. Ever since he had exploded and jumped Mclaggen, Malik could even hear what he was thinking sometimes. Terrible thoughts: gory, violent, and completely obscene.

And knowing that Marik could hear his thoughts as well made him shudder.

He was currently sitting next to an equally dejected Ryou in charms, and neither had said a word since the class began. They were supposed to be reading a chapter from their textbooks, but the rest of the class were chatting amongst themselves. Flitwick didn't seem to mind.

Malik kept his eyes firmly on his textbook, trying to ignore the stares and whispers.

Of course, word of the fight had spread quicker than wildfire. It was only two days after the DA meeting, and the entire student body knew. Fortunately, the DA members had twisted the facts enough so that everybody just assumed that this fight had taken place in some random corridor, so the secret of the DA was still safe.

But through the tangled web of what was true and what wasn't, Malik had heard from Neville, who had heard from Seamus, who had heard from some guy in Ravenclaw, that Mclaggen had claimed that Malik's eyes had glowed red when he had attacked him.

They associated this with Voldemort, so naturally everyone was terrified of him.

He didn't even know if his eyes did glow red.

Malik looked over at Ryou, who wasn't doing much better than he was. The poor guy hadn't uttered a full sentence in days, and had dark circles under his eyes. Malik knew that Ryou hadn't been sleeping well. He figured that he was too afraid of reliving whatever he saw when Bakura attacked him.

He felt a twinge of annoyance at Ryou. He needed to snap out of it! Couldn't he see that Bakura didn't want to hurt him? That Malik needed his support right now?

Malik felt the sudden urge to hit him, to scream at him to get over it.

"So, I heard that he, like, tried to kill him. I mean, if those Wee- something twins weren't there he totally would have, too." Came the not so quiet voice of a Hufflepuff girl.

"I know! Did you see Cormac's face? He looked like he was hit by a hundred pound bludger!" Her friend replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder and eyeing him as if he couldn't hear her.

Malik raised his head, fixing his gaze on them. He glared, putting all of his hate into that one look. The girls let out small eeps before hastily relocating to a further table.

Malik snapped his quill in half, and clenched the edges of his desk with shaking hands. He felt that if he didn't get out of this place soon, he was going to really snap, and really hurt somebody.

And suddenly, leaving Hogwarts didn't seem like such a bad idea.

XXX

HARRY POV

Harry was sitting in an unfamiliar room, with an all-too-familiar serpent twining in and around his ankles. The covers on the windows were all drawn, creating a dank and chilly atmosphere.

There was a knock on the door.

"Enter," He called in a cold, high pitched voice.

"My Lord," Bellatrix praised. She rushed through the door and fell to her knees, kissing the hem of Harry's robes.

"Ah, Bellatrix. I see that you have returned much sooner than any of us expected. I trust that you have good news?"

"Master," She breathed, looking up with an expression of pure euphoria on her face. Harry beckoned for her to rise, and she did. "I found it."

"I am afraid that I have underestimated you, Bellatrix." Harry stood, towering over his most loyal servant. "How did you find them?"

Bellatrix giggled. "The Ishtar boy's older sister told me."

Harry felt a cruel rage build up in his chest. "I ordered you not to harm their families yet." He raised his wand to her heart, and instantly her bottom lip pushed out into a trembling pout.

"Master," She breathed, bowing slowly, never taking her dark eyes off of Harry's wand. "I would never dream of disobeying My Lord's orders."

Pleased, Harry lowered his wand.

"The girl speaks too freely of her past," Bellatrix explained, the fear leaving her eyes and the sadistic smile quickly returning to her face. "I merely had to wait and listen to find out where to find them."

"Where were they, Bellatrix?"

"Egypt." She breathed, pulling out a vial from her robes pocket. She kissed it, before presenting it to Harry with a flourish. "I've got the memory, My Lord."

Harry was beyond pleased. He took the memory, and poured the swirling white thoughts into the pensieve. There was no doubt in his mind that Bellatrix had tortured and maimed whoever's head this had come from, but Harry did not care. He knew that these people did not keep contact with the outside world, and their deeds would go undetected.

Harry immediately bowed into the pensieve, allowing him to be pulled into a cold tomb.

He saw a tall boy with primitive carvings of hieroglyphs on his face laying face down on the floor. He was being brutally whipped by an older man.

By the look of the boy's strange white garment, he had been whipped for awhile. It was ripped open and dripping in blood, allowing Harry to clearly see the wound. He felt a cruel smile color his features.

The whip snapped once more, and the boy cried out in pain.

Harry's attention was so fixated on the boy's screams of pain that he didn't even notice the boy in the doorway until he gasped. "Rishid!"

He looked up, and couldn't help but be shocked at what he saw. It was a much younger Malik. Innocence colored his horrified features, and he clutched at a brightly colored magazine page, featuring a man riding a motorcycle. It stood out in the drab room.

Who Harry now knew to be Rishid looked up. "Master Malik," he gasped, before collapsing. A girl ran in, and screamed at the scene in front of her.

The man with the whip turned around. He was panting. "Children. You knew the consequences of breaking the rules. This boy has taken his punishment because of you."

Harry saw Malik clutch at the sides of his head, gasping and moaning in what sounded like agony. The girl behind him clutched his shoulders. "Malik!"

"You're next, Malik." The man said, raising his whip.

But when Harry looked at Malik, he saw that a change had overcome the boy. A golden eye shone from his forehead, and there was an evil in his eyes that intrigued Harry. Anticipation filled him as he waited for what would happen next.

The man struck.

Malik didn't even flinch. He caught the whip with ease. He even managed to hold on when the much bigger man tried to pull it out of his grasp.

"Do you really want to resist me, Malik?" The man asked threateningly.

Malik looked into the man's eyes, and laughed. "Thank you for getting rid of Rishid for me." He pulled the whip, causing it to snap back at the man. He gasped in pain.

Malik stretched, and breathed in as though he was tasting oxygen for the first time. He walked over to a stone shelf, which held two golden items. He poised his hand over one. "The Rod is mine."

"No!" The man shouted. "You can't touch it! It's forbidden!"

Malik picked it up, and instantly the eye on his forehead glowed brighter, and the rod in his hand shone like a beacon in the darkness.

Malik chuckled again. "It accepts me."

"Put it back!"

"Shut up!" Malik shouted, holding the rod up towards the man. He instantly flew backwards into the wall with a loud thud, and screamed.

"Malik!" The girl shouted, running to his side. "Stop it!"

"You will obey me." Malik said, before using the rod to throw her back into the wall too.

"You're not Malik," she whimpered, before falling unconscious.

Malik turned back to the man. "I'll start with you, Father."

Harry actually felt shock. This man was the boy's father?

This was perfect.

Malik twisted the end of the rod, unsheathing a dagger carved into the tip. He approached his father's immobilized body, and laughed again.

"Malik! Stop it!"

Malik struck.

Malik's father screamed in pain as he was stabbed by his own son. Over and over again.

As the memory continued, Harry didn't even want to think about what he saw next. He only knew that when the memory ended, he woke up with a start. He ran to the bathroom to be violently sick.

He wondered exactly who he was currently sharing a dorm with.

XXX

Lord Voldemort's maniacal laughter rang throughout the dark room.

The Dark Lord looked at his most faithful servant, the potential of this boy already plaguing his mind.

"Bring him to me, Bellatrix."

"Yes, My Lord." She bowed.

Lord Voldemort wanted the boy. He saw the evil being that was inside of him, and knew that he could use that to his advantage.

XXX

"We need to talk."

Ellie looked up from her Arithmancy essay, and shared an uneasy glance with Hermione. "Talk about what, Harry?"

She hadn't even noticed Harry and Ron stalking up to them. They were in the library with Malik and Yugi. Yugi was actually studying, while Malik was glaring over at a group of third years for reasons that were beyond Ellie. She was worried about him, he hadn't been himself at all since the Mclaggen incident. And she wasn't deaf, Ellie knew what the rest of the student body was saying about him.

Yugi had told them that Ryou had left for the boy's dormitory immediately after dinner. She didn't even know why he bothered to show up at all, as he couldn't have eaten more than a few bites of his plate. His lack of appetite coupled with the obvious fact that he hadn't been sleeping meant that he looked like hell lately. She was just as worried about him, but knew that there was nothing she could do but wait for him to make amends with Bakura.

Ellie noticed that Harry was eyeing Malik suspiciously. Knowing what was coming, Ellie figured that she would once again be caught between her new friends and her old. She bit her lip.

Noticing the stare he was receiving, Malik tore his gaze from the third years and glared right back at Harry. "Do you have something to say to me?" He asked, a slight threat underlying his tone.

Ron, Ellie noticed, looked positively terrified. He was eyeing Malik as though he was a particularly large spider, and was clutching at his wand with white knuckles. Ellie gulped.

"As of right now? No. We need to talk with our friends, and you're just in the way." Harry spat. "Now, come on."

Yugi frowned. "Friends usually don't speak to friends like that," he said before either of them had a chance to react.

As much as she hated to admit it, Ellie had to agree. She didn't move, and neither did Hermione.

"Please," Ron said, grabbing each of their arms and pulling insistently. "It's important."

"What's wrong, Ron?" Hermione asked gently, standing up and beginning to gather her things.

Ron just looked at Yugi and Malik, and shook his head.

"And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Malik demanded, standing up.

"Ellie, come on," Harry demanded, as Ellie had yet to stand up.

She sighed, and nodded reluctantly. She began gathering her things. Ellie didn't like the way that Harry was acting, but she knew that he wouldn't demand her attention in such a way unless it was important.

As she got up, Ellie noticed that Malik was staring incredulously at her. "What?" She asked.

"You're seriously going with them?" He asked. Ellie noticed, with a hint of fear, that his hands were shaking in fury.

"Yes," She said. "I am."

Ellie and Hermione followed Harry and Ron out of the library.

XXX

Ryou sat on his bed, staring at the top drawer of his bedside table. He had locked the Millennium Ring in there along with all his memoirs of Amane and the Millennium Eye. He held the key to the drawer in his hand, debating on whether or not he should just chuck it out the window.

He felt slight waves of annoyance emanating from his yami. Since the ring was in the drawer, they couldn't communicate as easily. But Ryou could still feel him.

He sighed.

Bakura had apologized a million times over, and didn't get why Ryou wasn't back to normal. He tried to hide his annoyance and impatience, but he couldn't keep it from Ryou. Even though Ryou wanted nothing to do with Bakura, he couldn't help the bond that connected them through thick and thin.

Ryou didn't know what to do. He may have heard him out, if it wasn't for that fact that he still couldn't help but flinch when he heard him speak. So every time that Bakura apologized, Ryou would hear his voice and associate it with the distorted version that had egged him on in the dream.

Ryou didn't know what scared him more: his yami actually attacking him and sending him to his own personal hell, or the knowledge that there was a completely merciless influence causing him to do so.

Way back when Ryou got the ring from his father, even before he knew that it was Bakura possessing him, Ryou was terrified of what was inside of him. One minute he would be a regular boy, playing with his friends, and then his memory eluded him. Now Ryou supposed that Bakura had emerged and beaten the poor children at shadow games. Because when he woke up, they would always be in comas.

It was even worse after Ryou learned of his existence. Bakura would taunt him, control him, lock him in his soul room and commit unspeakable acts with Ryou's body, and even keep him from eating and drinking for days on end. He would torture him from the inside out, which was why Ryou was so afraid. Physical pain only lasted so long, but what Bakura did was so much worse.

All of this meant that Ryou could never let his guard down again. He had been so stupid to believe that his yami had overcome his own personal demons, that he had changed.

Never again, Ryou vowed.

A long time passed in which Ryou continued his staring contest with the drawer.

But, in the end, he couldn't resist the pull to his yami. Ryou unlocked the drawer and slipped the ring around his neck, laying back onto his bed. He soon fell into a reluctant, fitful sleep.

He never saw Bakura phase out. He reached out a translucent finger and attempted to brush Ryou's bangs back, sighing when his fingers sunk right through.

"Forgive me, Ryou."

XXX

"Harry, I really wish that you wouldn't be so rude to-"

"Hermione, I really don't want to hear you defend him right now!" He cut her off viciously, whirling around and stopping so fast that Ellie bumped right into him. "He's dangerous."

"Harry, we know he's dangerous. He wouldn't be here if he wasn't." Ellie protested.

"No. He's evil."

Ellie and Hermione shared a nervous glance.

"I had a dream where I was Voldemort again last night." Harry stated. "I saw something about Malik that I think you guys ought to know."

Ellie gulped. What did he see? Were they finally going to have to admit what they really knew about the transfers?

It was like she told Bakura: no matter how much she liked the transfers, in the end, her allegiances lay with her friends. And that meant telling them the truth. No matter how much it hurt.

Harry began walking again, and led them to the third floor corridor, where Ellie knew the Room of Requirement lay. Did they really need this much privacy? Usually they held discussions about Voldemort in whispers in the common room. What did Harry know?

Ellie, Hermione and Ron allowed Harry to pace in silence. They were all lost in their own thoughts, Ellie supposed.

When the door finally appeared, he held it open for them. Ellie and Hermione walked through to find a small cozy room, with four armchairs arranged in a circle to face each other. It looked like a miniature version of the Gryffindor common room.

Ellie hesitantly took a seat. Hermione and Ron joined her, while Harry opted to stand behind his armchair as though it were a podium and he was about to make a speech.

"What did you see, Harry?" Ellie asked in a whisper.

"A memory." Harry replied. He looked thoughtful for a moment, but apparently decided not to beat around the bush. "I watched Malik kill his father."

Hermione gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth. Ellie felt herself go pale, and she gripped the arms of her chair.

"Wh-what?" Hermione asked through her fingers. "No. You must have made a mistake."

"It isn't a mistake, Hermione." Ron said gently.

Hermione continued shaking her head in wide eyed disbelief. Ellie couldn't even speak.

Was it Malik? Or was it his yami?

Ellie began to wonder if it really mattered. She felt disgusted that she even associated herself with Malik, and by association Yugi and Ryou. They must have known about this. They knew everything about each other.

"Malik picked up a golden rod, just like the one you described him having in the alley." Harry said. "He unsheathed the end, where it had a sharp tip, like a dagger. He stabbed his father to death, laughing the whole time." His eyes were closed, as if he was watching the scene on the back of his eyelids. Ellie wondered if she should give him some dreamless sleep potion. "You don't want to know what happened next."

Ellie's mouth was suddenly very dry. She couldn't even fathom what he did next, but Harry was right: she certainly did not want to know. She felt bad that Harry had to witness this.

"The rod . . ." Hermione said. "He's. . . killed with it?"

Harry nodded.

Ellie buried her face in her hands.

Malik was a killer?

"Ellie?" Ron asked.

She looked up, realizing for the first time that there were tears streaking down her face.

She couldn't believe that she had been hanging out with a killer the past few months. There was no way to know for sure whether it was Malik or his yami who had done it, but Ellie realized that she didn't even care about the circumstances. The point was that he was a bad person, because he didn't stop it.

They all were.

"I trusted them," She finally whispered, shaking her head and allowing the tears to flow. "All of them."

"So did I," Hermione said.

Ellie thought back to all the times when Malik's darker side had shone through, and fear stabbed her heart when she realized that he could have killed both her and her friends, too.

"I can't do this anymore." Hermione said.

"Neither can I."

XXX

"Where are they?" Malik demanded Yugi and Ryou. "It's past curfew. They should be back by now."

Ryou had actually joined the pair after they had unintentionally woken him up and begged him to help them with their divination homework. He was just as restless as Malik. They were both worried about where Harry and Ron had taken Ellie and Hermione to talk.

"Stop worrying," Yugi said, chuckling. "They're fine. Believe it or not, they had to take care of themselves way before we came along, Malik."

Malik scowled. "That's not what I meant."

"What do you think that Harry wanted to tell them?" Ryou asked in a voice raspy from disuse.

Malik shrugged. "Dunno. He seemed pissed though."

Malik was nervous for them to walk through the door. He felt that seeing Harry would cause him to snap again. And the common room was almost empty, meaning that there would be fewer witnesses.

For the second time that day, Malik wondered if Marik's newfound strength would subside if he were to leave Hogwarts.

They didn't talk for the next little bit as they finished their homework. More and more people got up and left for the dormitories as the time passed, so when the portrait hole finally opened to let in those that they were waiting for, the common room was completely empty.

Harry and Ron clambered through first, followed by the much more graceful girls. Malik actually cracked a smile at the difference.

Harry and Ron didn't even see the boys on the couch as they said their goodnights to the girls. For that, Malik was grateful. He had hoped to avoid a fight for at least one more night. They trekked on up the stairs, leaving Ellie and Hermione to stop dead in their tracks when they saw that the common room was not quite as empty as they thought.

"Hey, guys," Yugi said cheerily, not noticing their strange reactions to seeing them. "You were out late."

When they didn't answer, and instead remained frozen like a couple of deer caught in headlights, Malik noticed that they were both very pale. Ellie looked as though she had been crying.

"Are you alright?" He asked worriedly. "What did they say to you?"

Ryou's head snapped up, and Malik watched out of the corner of his eye as he took in Ellie's disheveled appearance. But he remained silent.

Hermione shook her head, and seemed to come to her senses before Ellie. "It isn't them," she muttered, grabbing Ellie's wrist and yanking her along. "We're going to bed. Goodnight."

"Where are you going?" Malik asked, standing up and taking a few steps towards them. "Don't you want to hang out with us for a little while?" He actually felt a little pathetic asking them this, but he was desperate for their company. He had had an awful day and just wanted to be with some genuinely good and untainted people.

Hermione just shook her head again and continued pulling Ellie towards the stairs.

"You can tell us, you know." Yugi said to them. "Whatever is bothering you."

"Come on," Malik pressed, and then a sudden realization hit him. "It was that dick Mclaggen, wasn't it? He came after you because of what hap-"

"No!" Ellie snapped finally, stopping dead in her tracks. "It's not him!"

"Ellie, you can't," Hermione muttered anxiously, trying to pull her up the stairs and eyeing the boys in a way that Malik didn't like one bit. But Ellie wasn't having it. She didn't budge.

"Then what's wrong?" Malik asked gently.

"It's you, Malik."

"What are you talking about?" Malik hadn't done anything to betray their trust since he had seen them last, and was very confused.

"You killed your father."

Malik felt as though he had just been kicked in the stomach. He felt like he would be sick. "H-how did you-"

"You let us think that you were good, and that your yami was bad. But it's not him, it's you. You're the evil one." Tears were now streaming freely down Ellie's face, and she allowed Hermione to pull her up the stairs.

She looked back one more time to address Yugi and Ryou. "You all are."

XXX

It was 3am, and Malik hadn't slept a wink. He was sitting up in his bed with the curtains drawn around him.

None of the three boys had taken Ellie's accusation well, but Malik had certainly taken it the hardest.

He knew that he should never have gone to Hogwarts.

He knew that he should never have left home.

He buried his face in his hands, hating the tears that he felt there. Malik prided himself on being the guy that never cries, but here he was. Crying.

At least nobody was awake to see it.

It wasn't just the fact that Ellie and Hermione wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. That they were afraid of him, that they had somehowfound out that his other half wasn't his own person, like Bakura and Yami. That they knew that Marik came from inside of him.

It was so much more than that. It was the fact that everyone at this school was afraid of him. Afraid of Malik, not Marik.

And that Marik was still getting stronger. Soon, he would be able to control him completely again.

This place was doing it. Marik was feeding off of Hogwarts' magic daily, getting stronger and stronger every single day that he was here.

He heard a maniacal laugh in his head when he thought this.

Malik knew that Marik would be able to break free of his confines soon. That he would kill mercilessly until either he was dead, or everybody Malik cared about was.

Ellie and Hermione were right to be afraid of him. Malik was afraid of himself.

He suddenly didn't blame Ryou anymore. For withdrawing so completely, and barely speaking a word to Ellie. Sometimes, leaving the ones you loved was the only way to protect them.

Which is exactly what Malik had to do.

He had to leave.

He quickly grabbed a few necessities, and stuffed them into a bag. But he left the Millennium Rod on top of his pillow. He knew that it was too dangerous for him to keep it. Yugi, Yami and Ryou would keep it safe and out of the hands of Voldemort.

Finally, Malik dressed warmly, knowing that he had a long walk ahead of him. He longed for the old Harley that he had spent so long repairing. It would make his journey so much easier, but it was out of his reach, all the way back in Domino. Malik knew he was headed home, but it would take him a long time to find an airport on foot to take him there.

He missed Isis and Rishid so much. They were the ones that could always drive Marik into submission. His family gave him the strength he needed to fight back.

He stuffed some pillows under his comforter and closed his curtains to hopefully convince his roommates that he was still in bed sleeping. That would buy him some time to get further away.

But, not wanting them to worry, he left a note explaining why he left next to the rod and covered it with his blankets. He wrote it in ancient Egyptian to make sure that it wasn't read by the wrong eyes.

Malik darted out of the dormitory. There was no longer any evidence that he had been crying, as all the tears had dried and his face had taken on a determined expression. He snuck to the statue that Ron had told him led to Hogsmeade a few weeks back, and made his way through the passageway.

Malik left Hogwarts with no issue. He met no one in Hogsmeade, and easily found a road that would lead him towards the next muggle town. It was as though the Gods made his journey easier because they wanted him to leave.

The cool air of the early morning hours almost made him smile. Given any other circumstances, Malik would have enjoyed the walk.

He had no idea that nestled deep inside his bag, were the Millennium Eye and Necklace.

Malik had no idea that he had snatched them from his friends. It happened in a rare moment where Marik had taken over without his knowledge.

Nor did he have any idea that he had just fallen straight into his yami's plans.

Marik wanted Malik to leave Hogwarts. He wanted him to leave the Rod behind.

It left Malik completely and utterly defenseless when four people in black robes and masks apparated onto the deserted road. They raised their wands, and Malik realized that the only things that he had to fight them with were his fists.

But those were next to useless in this world.

"Hello, Malik," the shortest one said. It was a woman. She ripped off her hood and her mask to reveal an unruly mane of dark curly hair, and a sadistic smile to rival even that of Marik and Bakura's.

Malik gulped, and she laughed.

"My name is Bellatrix, and my Master would very much like to meet you."

She fired a spell at him before he could even react, and Malik's world went black.

XXX

Ah, poor Malik. Ellie and Hermione are quick to jump to conclusions in this chapter, no? And it's not as though their accusations are something that Malik would defend himself against. He feels that he is as bad of a person that they accuse him of.

The scene where Marik kills his dad? Yeah, if that sounds a little too familiar it's because I pretty much watched the scene in the sub and wrote it down. So I don't own one single part of it. Also, I implied that Marik skinned his father at the end like in the manga, but I didn't want to come right out and say it in the story. I don't think I could have described that without violating the T rating, and I wanted to be safe.

Speaking of that memory, I'm not sure if anyone noticed, but I kinda sort of maybe didn't make sense up there at one point. I had Bellatrix get the memory of Marik killing his father from a Tomb Keeper still living in Egypt. But, as we all know, there were no others present during this time. So that's kinda impossible.

I was hoping that no one would notice. But you guys are smarter than that, and I know that lots of you would spot it. And I suppose that you deserve an explanation. I just needed Voldemort to get that memory NOW, and it couldn't be from Isis or Rishid. So I cheated a little bit. Sue me. Because seamlessly writing crossovers is a damn hard job.

Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did! Any guesses for what Voldemort wants to do with Marik? I'm actually even more excited for that than this entire chapter. *squees*

Let me know how you liked it, my lovelies! C: