It amazed Marik as he walked in. There were candles floating in the air, and the ceiling was definitely closed in, but it looked like a night sky. There were four gigantic lunch tables, two on each side of the room. Marik looked straightforward rather than up, to see Hagrid in front of him.

"Just sit where you like," he told the first-years, "you'll be sorted into your houses momentarily."

Marik followed Harry and Ron, and sat right in between the two. Both of them turned to look at a man that was dressed in sky-blue robes, with a silvery-white beard. He gave a speech, one that Marik wasn't listening to because he was having to deal with Ryou, who was crying softly, like a... well, a baby. Then, he started to hear names.

"Sarah Bones!", an elderly woman shouted.

A young girl went up and sat on a wooden stool. A tattered hat has placed onto her head. Suddenly, the top of it separated itself from the rim. "HUFFLEPUFF!", it shouted.

The hat spoke. Okay.

"Ryou Bakura!", she screamed.

Marik couldn't do anything. He held Ryou tight to him. Ron elbowed Marik in the side.

"Take him up there!", he whisper-shouted.

Marik shook his head. "I can't. But, Bakura sent a letter, they should understand why I can't, though!"

"Ryou Bakura?", the woman shouted again, this time, confused.

Marik looked over at the table that all of the Slytherin students were sitting at, to see Bakura standing up, and walking up there. The elderly woman looked disgusted at first, but as Bakura began to speak, she seemed to suddenly realize something, then sent Bakura on his way.

"Hmm. Harry Potter!", she shouted.

There was a hushed silence around the room, as Harry stood up, and walked up there. he sat on the wooden stool, and the talking hat was placed on his head.

It took almost 3 or 4 minutes, then finally, the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

There was the biggest applauding that Marik had heard that night. Harry ran over, and sat next to Ron.

"Hermione Granger!", the woman shouted.

A young girl stood up and walked to the wooden stool to sit on it. The hat was placed on her head. After a around 20 or 30 seconds, the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!", and the girl sat to Harry's left, considering that Marik was to his right.

"Oh, Marik," Harry said, "this is Hermione."

Marik met his hand with hers. "Marik Ishtar," he muttered.

"Hermione Granger," she introduced herself.

She switched her gaze to the elderly woman standing next to the stool, with the talking hat in her hand. Marik switched his gaze, as well.

"Draco Malfoy!", the woman shouted.

A young boy with blond hair, slicked back, took his seat on the wooden stool. The hat didn't even need two seconds to know what to do with him.

"SLYTHERIN!", it screamed.

The kid took his place at the Slytherin table, right next to Bakura. Marik felt nervous, for whatever random reason.

"Marik Ishtar!", the woman shouted.

Marik gulped, and stood up. As he walked up the carpeted path, he heard idle chatter among the students.

"Who's that with him...?"

"Why does he look so nervous...?"

"The kid, there, in his arms, he looks like the sixth-year Slytherin that just came up here..."

"That kid looks his age, why is he clinging onto him...?"

Marik was more nervous than ever. As he sat on the stool, the hat was not placed on his head. The hat was handed over to Hagrid, and the elderly woman extended both of her hands out toward him.

"Here," she whispered, "let me take him."

Marik shook his head, backed up a little, and held on tighter to Ryou. Hagrid handed the elderly woman the hat, then came up to Marik, so they were looking at one another, face to face.

"Marik, you need to give Ryou to Professor McGonagall.", Hagrid told him, speaking with a whisper.

Marik shook his head. "You don't understand," he told him, whispering. "I promised Bakura that I wouldn't let him out of my sight."

"Bakura? Oh, lord...!"

Hagrid stomped off, and came back dragging Bakura by the front of his robes. By now, the whole room, including Harry and Ron, were staring, and Marik could just barely pick out Akamai at the Ravenclaw table, crying her eyes out. Marik sighed.

"Why in the world did you make him promise you not to leave him?!", Hagrid whisper-shouted in Bakura's face, putting his hands on his shoulders and shaking him a little.

"He's my little brother. I want him to stay safe. And get your bloody hands off of me, Hagrid!", Bakura shouted, trying to stay quiet but also make his point across.

Bakura's head raised up a little, as if something had just dawned on him. He reached his hands out to Marik. "Give Ryou to me. I'll hand him right back to you as soon as the banquet starts."

Marik nodded, hugged Ryou, and handed him to Bakura. The hat was then placed on his head.

He heard the hat's voice mutter. "This is very hard. Brave, like a Gryffindor. Smart, like a Ravenclaw. And, even loyal, like a Hufflepuff. Not a Pureblood, though. You can say goodbye to Slytherin. Still, you're brave and compelling, and are skilled in many magical fields. Better be...

GRYFFINDOR!"

There was cheering. Marik ran over to Bakura, and he was given Ryou. He ran to the Gryffindor table, and sat right next to Harry and Ron.

"Ronald Weasley!", Professor McGonagall shouted.

Ron nervously walked up and sat on the stool. The hat was placed on his head.

"GRYFFINDOR!", it screamed.

Ron's red face was now smiling as he ran back to the Gryffindor table, right in between Marik and Harry.

"I'm not surprised, actually," Ron told them, "all of the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor."

Marik only nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but quickly paused as he heard Ryou begin to make noises.

"'Kura... 'Kura..."

Marik started to pet Ryou. "You can't, right now, okay? I'll get you to him as soon as I can, okay?"

Hermione looked at Ryou, unsure of what to think. "Is there something wrong with him?", she asked.

"He's got a condition that his brother and I just can't figure out," Marik explained, "So, he's staying with me for a while."

"Who is he?", Hermione asked.

Marik glanced over at the Slytherin table. "You know that kid who went up there when Ryou Bakura was called up?" She nodded. "That's Ryou's older brother. He went up there to explain that Ryou couldn't come up there because of his condition. This is Ryou."

Hermione opened his mouth, and made it look like she was saying "Oh..." in realization, but no noise came out. It was simply a mouth movement.

The wizard with the sky-blue robes and the long, white beard stood at the wooden podium again. "And, to another good year at Hogwarts! The feast may begin!"

The empty platters in front of Marik were suddenly filled with food. His plate was sitting there in front of him, empty, and he was ready to fill it up. He grabbed the empty plate next to him first. He simply put a dollop of mashed potatoes on it, and stuck a spoon in it. He held Ryou out, so he was laying on his lap. Ryou was sucking on his thumb, so Marik pulled it out. Ryou began to cry, not too loudly, but loud enough to make Harry, Ron, and Hermione stare.

He looked at them, and laughed nervously. Hermione put a hand on Harry's shoulder and whispered something into his ear. Harry turned to Ron, and whispered another thing in his ear. Ron only nodded, and the three went back to eating. Marik smiled, let out a sigh of relief, and picked up the spoon of mashed potatoes. He tried to put it into Ryou's mouth, but Ryou was still crying.

Marik hugged him, and started to rock him a little. "Don't worry, it's okay. I just want to feed you."

"Want 'Kura! Want 'Kura!", Ryou screamed.

Marik felt a hand on his shoulder. "Pass the plate," the person told him. "And, the kid."

Marik looked over. It was another person. This person resembled him, but his hair stuck up- truly stuck up, it was pointy at the top. Otherwise, he and Marik looked nearly the knew who he was.

It was Malik.

Marik warily slid the plate over to him, and was extremely cautious in giving Ryou to him.

"Want 'Kura! Want 'Kura!", Ryou was still screaming.

Marik sighed. "It's not going to work, I'll have you know. You're not..."

Suddenly, Ryou quieted. He smiled as Malik, a complete stranger to him, slowly put a spoon of mashed potatoes into his mouth, and he seemed to be begging for more every time a spoonful went down his throat. Marik watched in amazement.

"How?", Marik asked, barely able to breathe.

"Poor Ryou, here, he knows ," Malik explained. "He's comfortable with me."

Marik's teeth were now clenched. "Listen, little brother," Malik said, "you don't have to live with me. I'm a Slytherin."

"How? You're not a Pureblood!", Marik informed him.

"Heh. You don't know this, but you're my half-brother. My Halfblood half-brother. I, however, am a Pureblood. That helped me gain my entrance into Slytherin. And, you know, his older brother is a good friend of mine... sometimes. Other times, we're rivals. You know what that's like.", Malik said.

Marik was still furious, watching Malik hold Ryou. "You're frenemies," he muttered.

"Precisely," Malik said.

He dove back onto the plate with the spoon, but the plate was empty. Malik went over to a bowl, and got some corn. He put the spoon into it, and fed it to Ryou.

"Yeah, you like that, don't you, Ryou? Yeah, yeah, you do. That's my Ryou," Malik baby-talked Ryou, trying to act paternal.

Marik balled his hands up into fists, and bit his bottom lip to keep himself from yelling at Malik. He found that simply biting his lip was not helping, and he decided to do the painful act of biting his tongue. He was screaming inside his head.

After the bowl of corn and another bowl, this one of green beans, were devoured, Malik gave Ryou back to Marik. "Just let me see the poor thing every now and then.", he said, walking back to the Slytherin table, and sitting down on Bakura's right.

Marik's stomach was churning. He did not want to eat anything; he was afraid that he would throw up if he did, and he did not want to do that with Ryou in his arms, much less, at a dinner table. Marik gagged every now and then, just smelling the food.

Ryou had a response to it every time he heard it: just to hug Marik, possibly in hopes of making him feel better. It seemed that the second he had gotten some food in his stomach, Ryou had cheered up, and was trying to force Marik into the same extremely happy mood.

It wasn't really working, but it made Marik smile every now and then. Maybe that's because he considered him a small child at that moment; he had been dealing with Ryou under this condition for a few months.

The wizard in sky-blue robes stood up to the podium again. "All depart!"

All of the students stood up. There was another student leading the group of Gryffindors, he seemed to be just about a year younger than Bakura- that would've made him a fifth-year student.

"All Gryffindor first-years, follow me!", he was shouting.

Marik, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all followed the group of other first-years following the fifth-year student. The staircases they were walking on moved- not like an escalator, but, rather, the whole staircase moved at an angle to change it's direction.

The paintings on the walls they passed by were pictures of people- famous witches and wizards, Marik supposed- and the people inside the paintings were able to move and talk. Even though he was used to magic and the concept of it, this was a kind of magic that Marik just couldn't handle, and Marik had told himself that he would be able to handle any kind of magic he saw at Hogwarts.

They finally stopped at the rooms Marik supposed were the dormitories for the school. Marik took in a deep breath as he followed Harry and Ron into the boy's dorms.

"So, Ryou's just going to be with you forevermore?"

Hermione had joined the boys inside the dormitories, and had been asking Marik countless questions about Ryou. She was either very curious about or very interested in Ryou's condition.

"Yes," Marik answered, then quickly thought about his response. "Actually, we need to find out what's going on with him. If we can get some medicine for him, then, maybe, he'll recover, and he'll be able to think and fend for himself."

Hermione nodded, and scribbled Marik's answer onto a piece of paper. Ever since she had started asking Marik questions about Ryou, she wrote the answer on paper. Maybe she was hoping to use these answers to figure out what Ryou's condition was, or something along those lines.

After a few more questions, Hermione left, holding three or four pieces of paper in her hands, all written on, back to back, with the answers to her numerous questions about Ryou and his condition.

Ron looked at her as she left, mostly focused on the papers in her hand. "That girl is mental!", he shouted.

Marik didn't necessarily agree, but he thought Ron was at least 75% correct. He looked down at Ryou, who was asleep in his arms. He smiled, and started to stroke his hair.

"You're going to sleep with me tonight, my sweet Ryou. You'll be safe with me," he whispered in Ryou's ear.

He tried to ignore the awkward stares Harry and Ron were giving him.

He pulled out his wand, and put it onto Ryou's back. "Silencio," he muttered.

Ryou's snoring became nothing but breathing. Harry and Ron looked at Marik, amazed. "And, that'll keep you from waking anyone up with your crying tonight. I'll let you make some noise at breakfast, okay?"

Ryou gripped on to Marik's robes, tighter. Marik hugged Ryou tighter, taking it as a "yes". He walked over to his bed, laid down, and covered himself, with Ryou still in his arms. A thought dawned on him. He pulled out his wand again.

"Protego Totalum," he muttered, and put his wand away, once more. "There. Now, I won't lose you."

He cuddled Ryou as he began to slowly fall asleep.