Feeding the Rumor Mill

Coming into the common room Bakura was startled by the sound of stifled sobs and the fact that everyone seemed to be ignoring them. Shrugging, he headed towards the source of the noise, wanting to at least find out who it was that was crying. Halfway down one of the two sets of stairs that led to the dorms Bakura found his answer.

Myrtle was lying where she had fallen, sobbing miserably against the hard stone of the steps. Bakura watched her for a moment before sitting down on the steps and opening the book he had been studying for his Astronomy class Monday night and beginning to read. It was only a few minutes before the noises stopped and Bakura stopped reading, letting the book rest on his lap as he looked down at Myrtle, who had stopped crying and was looking up at him, wiping her eyes with her hands.

"Bakura?" Her voice was hoarse from crying, and it broke in the middle of the word, but it was an improvement.

"Myrtle." Bakura's response was cool, distant. "Is there a reason why you are crying your eyes out on the steps? It can not possibly be comfortable."

Myrtle went beet red and looked down, avoiding his eyes. "It's nothing, just… something someone said to me." She wasn't quite lying, but he didn't believe that she was telling the whole truth either. Then again, what had he told her that wasn't a lie?

"Forget it then if it is nothing." Bakura stood. "I am going to bed."

Ignoring the girl he did as he had said, ascending the steps and going to his room to lie on his bed and finish reading his assignment before falling asleep.

The next day he woke and was out of the common room before any of the other students were up. He'd seen some of the castle trying to get to his classes yesterday, but today he wanted to find out more and to get the layout fixed in his mind. It was a strange place, built almost like some of the tombs he had been in but on an even greater scale than the largest of the great mausoleums.

There were secret doors everywhere, and Bakura made note of them in the back of his mind for further exploration later. This time he intended to stick to finding out the basic layout of the building. He'd have time another day for a more detailed exploration, but for now he simply wanted to make sure that he would not get lost in the castle – not that such a situation was likely, but it was possible.

The people in the painting that hung on the walls were sleeping as he started out, although a few of them roused as he passed to complain of the time. It was late enough by the time that he had finished his explorations, however, that most of the pictures were awake and ready to talk. One of the older men on the upper, less populated, floors caught his attention for a while reminiscing about the secret passages, but when he started to repeat himself Bakura made his excuses and left.

In the end he was one of the last people to enter the Great Hall, although he was rather more awake than the other stragglers who filtered in. Without really thinking about it, Bakura took the seat next to Myrtle and began to eat, paying no attention to her incredulous glances. There were a number of people staring at him today and he supposed that the gossip about him had now reached through the school, but strangely enough not all of the looks seemed to be disdainful or disbelieving. In particular there was one pair of very blue eyes that seemed to follow his every move.

The stares made him uncomfortable, but he refused to show it, instead eating his fill in silence and leaving to get his books. Even though today was one of the days they did not have classes Bakura still needed to study so that he could catch up with the other students so he took his things to the library and took a seat in the corner. The information contained in the books was fascinating, but Bakura still found simply being able to read even more so. It was as though he were a noble rather than a peasant and a thief.

Bakura hadn't been reading for more than an hour before he was interrupted by a pleasant voice. "You're Bakura, right? The new boy everyone's talking about?" It was the same girl who had been watching him at breakfast.

"I am that," he responded mildly, looking up at her with raised brows. He wasn't stupid. He knew what she had come here for, although he was more than a little surprised that the fact that he was a first-year student hadn't scared her away. "And you would be?"

She smiled at him, a charming, flirtatious smile, and took a seat, tossing golden hair out of her way with a practiced flip of her hand, deliberately calling attention to the trait. "I'm Diane. You've turned the school on its ears, do you know that? Everyone wants to know who the new first year is, but no one seems to have heard anything." She giggled, an odd, high-pitched noise that he disliked instantly, and gave him that smile again. "Really, you are an interesting boy."

"So I am," Bakura returned, picking up his book again. The girl had a pretty face, but she was so strange, so unlike the girls that he had flirted with at home that he wasn't interested in playing the game. It was then that he realised part of the reason why he continued to make use of Myrtle when there were others who would do just as well. The girl's dark hair and eyes reminded him of home, and there was little enough that could do that in this unfamiliar place. "I intend to stay that way."

Diane gave another one of her irritating giggles and smiled at him in a way that was calculated to dazzle. "Oh come now, don't be so cold. Surely you don't want to be a mystery forever."

Seeing that she wasn't taking the hint, Bakura cooled his expression still further, adding a thin layer of ice to his words. "And if I do what business is it of yours? Not only do I not know you, but I believe that your House and mine are antagonists." Rising and hefting his bag lightly, he gave her an annoyed look. "I bid you good day."