Summary: After Harry's fourth year, Dumbledore realizes that his blood protections won't work, and so sends him to live with his second cousin who happens to live in Japan, by the name of Ryou Bakura.
Disclaimer: Don't own. Sorry, there won't be any funny ones here.
A/N: Btw, this AUs the Potterverse at the end of Harry's fourth year. Fifth year happens as it does in the books, though, except where I go into detail about it.
"English" "-Japanese-" Thoughts "Telephone or other such communication device" (A/N)
Last Time:
At that point, there was a timid knock on the door. The Headmaster stood, stroking his long beard. "I said that time was short, but I didn't know how short. Come in," he called.
The door opened with a soft creak.
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Harry poked his head in the door. "You wanted to see me, Professor?"
Dumbledore smiled benignly at him. "Yes, yes. Have a seat. Lemon drop?" he offered, sitting down.
Harry shook his head at the bowl of Muggle sweets and took a seat in an overstuffed armchair.
The Headmaster sighed. "As you know, Voldemort returned this year, using your blood."
Harry nodded. He could vividly remember Wormtail digging the knife into the crook of his right elbow… He shuddered and forced himself not to think about it.
"Because of this, the blood protections placed on your aunt's house will no longer be effective against him," Dumbledore continued.
Harry stared in abject horror. "But that's the only place I have to go… Where will I go for the summer, then?"
Dumbledore smiled, stroking his beard. "You do have other blood relatives, you know. However, as he is not blood related to your mother, the blood protections would not have worked with him. As that point is now moot, I believe it would be to the advantage of everyone concerned to have you live with him."
Harry was curious in spite of himself. "Who is he? Where does he live?"
"His name is Ryou Bakura, your second cousin on your father's side. I don't know if he has magic himself, but I do know he is aware of our world. He lives in Domino, Japan."
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Ryou looked up from his book when he heard a tapping on his window. He blinked. There is an owl tapping on my window. In broad daylight. He blinked some more, then bookmarked his page, set his book down, and opened the window. The owl flew in, landed on a table, and stuck out its leg imperiously. It was then that he noticed there was a piece of paper tied to its leg. He blinked again, then untied it. The note read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Bakura,
Due to unforeseen consequences of an event which happened during the past school year, your second cousin, Mr. Harry Potter, will no longer be safe in England during the summers. As you are his only other living relative, please consider allowing him to stay with you during the summer.
Term ends on June 12. We await your owl by no later than May 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Ryou stared. "-Bakura?-" he called.
"-Yeah, Ryou?-" his yami called back.
"-Could you come here? I think you'll want to take a look at this.-"
Bakura stuck his head through the doorway. "-Eh? What is it? …Ryou, is that an owl?-"
Ryou didn't look up from the letter. "-Yes, Yami, it's an owl. It gave me this letter.-"
Bakura blinked, then walked over and read said letter over his hikari's shoulder.
"-…This is way too elaborate to be a prank. Malik would never be able to come up with something like this.-"
Ryou turned to look at his yami. "-I know it's not a prank.-"
Bakura blinked at him. "-Eh?-"
"-I have a second cousin by the name of Harry Potter who lives in England. My mother was a squib, which means she was born from a magical family but had no magic herself.-"
Bakura snorted. "-'Squib'? What the hell kind of word is 'Squib'?-"
The hikari rolled his eyes. "-Yami…-"
"-So what does that make you?-"
Ryou considered this. "-Umm… A Muggle, I think, since neither of my parents were magical.-"
Bakura stared. "-Muggle? Where do you get these words?-"
Ryou huffed. "-From the Wizarding World of Britain, of course.-"
His yami rolled his eyes. "-Riiight.-"
Ryou turned back to the letter. "-So do you think we could take him in for the summers?-"
Bakura grinned, displaying his fangs. "-I think we could work something out…-"
"-Yami!-"
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The first opportunity Harry had to tell his friends came on the train ride to King's Cross Station.
Ron stared at Harry. "You're not going back to the Dursley's this summer?" he asked around a mouthful of Chocolate Frog.
Harry nodded.
Hermione gave him a quizzical look, pointedly ignoring Ron's atrocious manners. "Where are you going, then?"
"To stay with my second cousin in Japan."
Ron gaped. "Japan?"
Hermione gasped. "Japan? Oh, wonderful! I've read so much about their magic and customs and…"
Harry and Ron tuned her out. "Yes, Ron, Japan."
The redhead frowned. "But how are you going to get there?"
"Dumbledore said he'd arranged for them to pick me up from King's Cross and take me to Japan by plane."
Ron blinked. "Plain?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Plane. Muggle contraption that flies. Capable of going long distances in a relatively short time."
"But how are you going to find them?" Hermione asked.
"Dumbledore said they'd recognize me."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Of course they will, you're the Boy-Who-Lived."
Harry laughed. "No, Ron, I'm the Boy-Who-Has-Too-Many-Hyphenated-Names-To-Count."
They all cracked up.
When they got to the station, they dragged their luggage off the Hogwarts Express and were immediately descended upon by the Weasleys.
"Oh, Harry! It's good to see you again!" Mrs. Weasley gushed, giving him a bone-crushing hug.
The twins snickered. "Don't squish him to death, Mum."
Mrs. Weasley let him go and turned to the twins.
Mr. Weasley smiled down at Harry. "I hope you have a good time this summer, Harry."
Harry grinned up at him. "I will. I'm not going back to the Dursley's."
All extraneous conversations among Weasleys stopped.
"Not going back to the Dursley's?" one twin asked incredulously.
"That's great, mate, but—"
"Where are you going to go?"
Mrs. Weasley joined the conversation. "You know you're always welcome at the Burrow, don't you, Harry dear?"
Harry smiled at them all. "Of course, Mrs. Weasley. I'll be staying with my second cousin in Japan."
The twins pounced on Harry. "Japan?"
"You've got—"
"To send us—"
"A souvenir, you know."
The green-eyed boy laughed. "Yes, Fred-and-George, I'll get you something."
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but would you be Harry Potter?" a quiet voice asked from behind him.
Harry turned and found himself looking at a pair of white-haired boys. "Uh, yeah, that's me."
The boy who'd spoken smiled. "Ah, good. Then we're in the right place. I'm Ryou Bakura," he introduced himself, holding out his hand.
Harry blinked, then shook it. "You're my second cousin?"
Ryou nodded. "And this is— Yami, what are you doing?"
The other boy was inspecting the train. He glanced back. "Just looking."
Ryou glared at him. It was a rather sorry excuse for a glare, once you'd met Snape. "Yami, get back here. I haven't introduced you yet."
The other boy looked over his shoulder, annoyed. He had a much better glare. "So do it. I don't need to be there."
"Yami!"
He grinned, then went back to examining the train.
Harry blinked. Fangs…? he thought incredulously.
Ryou huffed. "That's Yami Bakura. My twin brother."
The Weasley twins blinked. "You're twins?" one of them asked.
"That's so cool!"
"We've never—"
"Met another set—"
"Of twins before!"
Ryou smiled at them.
"Yes, we're twins. We kinda define "good twin-evil twin", ya know?" Yami said, throwing an arm over Ryou's shoulders. "And call me Bakura."
Harry blinked.
Fred and George bounded forward to shake their hands.
"I'm Gred—"
"And I'm Forge—"
"Or maybe I'm Forge—"
"And I'm Gred."
Ryou stared, bewildered.
Bakura gave them a critical look.
"Fred! George! Stop confusing them!" Mrs. Weasley reprimanded them.
"Sorry, Mum," they chorused.
"I'm actually Fred."
"And I'm George."
Bakura grinned, flashing his fangs again. It gave Harry a distinctly bad feeling. "You like pranking people, then?"
Ryou turned a horrified look on his twin. "Yami—!"
The twins grinned in unison. "Oh, we live for it!"
"It's our life!"
"Our dream—"
"Is to one day open the best joke shop in England!"
Bakura's grin widened. Harry had the sudden urge to hide behind something. "Oh, good. I think we'll get along famously."
"Yami!" Ryou wailed plaintively.
"Well, green-eyes, I do believe we should get going, or my hikari's going to bust a lung yelling at me," Bakura stated matter-of-factly, turning to Harry, who blinked.
"Hikari…?" he asked, confused.
Ryou turned and smiled apologetically at him. "It means 'light'."
"…Ah."
"It's what he calls me, because I'm his light half."
"Oi! Green-eyes! Ryou! Let's get going, here!" Bakura had Harry's trunk on one shoulder and was carrying Hedwig's cage in the other.
"Coming, Yami!" Ryou called, grabbing Harry's sleeve and running after his twin. Harry only barely managed a good-bye wave before he was through the barrier.
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IWA: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Chapter One of The Darkness and the Light. Review? Please? (puppy dog eyes)