Together We Make Shadows

Chapter Six

Today was the day Amane was finally going to be picked up from the wizard hospital. After weeks of filling in forms and jumping through hoops, it had literally taken two months to arrange her release. If there was even a hint of the Death Eater activity in the area or anyone thinking of harming her the three reincarnations would've taken it into their own hands to get her released. They had to sign Ryou over as Amane's legal guardian, twice. In the normal world it wasn't hard for Ryouto get guardianship since his father had been neglectful and he was now over the age of eighteen, all he did for them was send money for their living and signing forms when needed. Mr Bakura signed the form to hand guardianship over to his son without even reading the form. Kaiba wasn't even sure if the man realised what he was signing. The hard part was getting Ryou magical guardianship. Even though he was eighteen and had legally been of age since he was seventeen in the eyes of the wizards he hadn't finished his magical education and the Bakura siblings blood status had been questioned many times. The authorities going through the boy's family heritage. The first issue they had come across was the fact Ryou's father was what the wizards called a muggle. A person without magical heritage who had no magic. Second issue was his mother hadn't been a pure blood witch. She had veela blood running through her veins which legally meant the Bakura siblings where considered magical creatures instead of a person. He wasn't much help since his influence didn't extend to the wizardry world. The war with Voldemort was still ongoing so he couldn't even have money converted to bribe these people with and his threats had fallen on deaf ears. In the end they had to go to Ryou's grandfather on his mother's side for help, he was an arrogant pureblood wizard who looked down on his grandson and considered the boy weak for abandoning the wizardry world. The one thing that was in Ryou's favour was that the pureblood wizard he despised his muggle son in-law and was only too happy to help remove him from having custody of Amane; but he hadn't made it easy for them even though he intended to let his grandson have guardianship of his granddaughter from the start. With his grandfathers influence Ryou finally had full guardianship of his sister.

Yugi had stayed behind with Mokuba at his London mansion which just so happened to be located near the Malfoy Manor where he'd been held captive for a few months. He didn't want his brother going near the wizardry world and needed someone he trusted to watch the young boy and Ryou couldn't go into the wizardry world alone due to the tomb robber being unpredictable.

He looked around the hospital with much interest, the air of distrust was everywhere the injuries of the patients only seemed to be minor since he'd sent Voldemort to the shadow realm the war had quietened down for a while, even when he'd been resurrected for that short while before the Thief King had dealt with him.

The nurse greeted Ryou happily and bought both boys up to the ward. It was quiet in the ward. Talking to Amane was a teenage boy who he vaguely remembered being in the hospital wing while he was at Hogwarts. He was sitting on the floor drawing with the young girl.

Ryou just stood watching contently waiting for his sister to notice him.

"Ryry" Amane shouted out, pushing the other boy aside and running to her brother and pulling him into a hug much like Mokuba did with himself. She chattered happily to her brother. Showing him all her new pictures, and telling him stories about other things. Ryou looked happy, actually genuinely happy and it was the first time Kaiba had ever seen him like that.

"It's good to see you again Ryou" the other boy greeted in a slightly shy manner.

Looking at Amane she looked like a normal healthy girl, but her mannerisms and personality where anything but. She behaved like a young child many years younger then what she was. She had the same pale hair and skin like her brother, her eyes where blue instead of reddish brown and her hair was straight

"How are your parents Neville? Ryou asked.

"Mum gave me a green wrapper today, dads the same as always" he replied sending a glance towards the two adults in the beds, the man asleep, the woman muttering on about nonsense. The other two adults weren't the only other people in the room. There were three other beds bringing the patient's for the room to six. Amane was the youngest person in the room.

Seeing the boy's parents in there vegetable like state made him glad his parents were dead. It couldn't be a pleasant form of existence. At least with your parents dead you had closure. His relative would've still dropped him at an orphanage anyway if his parents where in a state like that and he would've had with no way to visit them for a number of years. His step father certainly wouldn't allow for him and his brother to have those type of connections.

"Neville, this is a friend of mine. Seto Kaiba. He went to the same primary school as Amane and myself. Kaiba, this is Neville Longbottom whom I attended Hogwarts with, he was a grade above myself and Amane even though he's only a couple of months older then we are."

They exchanged pleasantries, Ryou and Neville catching up on whatever had happened since they both last saw one another.

"I'm actually here to pick Amane up, since I'm now of age in the muggle world and almost finished my schooling. I became her legal guardian." Ryou told him happily.

"Wow, that's a lot of responsibility to take on." Neville exclaimed. "I'd love to do the same with my mum. Dads too far gone there really isn't much point. But no-one has the time to be a full time career. Did something happen to your dad if you're now her legal guardian?"

"He's still the same as ever."

"Gran always comments about how you and your grandparents are her only visitors. Never you're father and even then..."

"My family's been like that since my mum died. I'd like it if you kept visiting Amane when you have time, she always enjoys her visits."

"I'm going to miss her when I visit mum and dad, it's not going to be the same without her."

"Amane, say goodbye to Neville" Ryou told his sister, before both boys packed up her belongings. A few staff members came around to say bye to Amane before they all left.

KC

Amane was looking at him with much interest, she looked with such knowing eyes, looking like a normal average teenage girl, and then she spoke making you realise she had the mental capacity of a young child. When Ryou and Amane where younger they looked so much alike that it was only the eye colour and Amanes smooth hair and Ryou's wavy hair that stood out as different. These days you could tell the pair where siblings but couldn't be mistaken for identical twins any longer. Both twins where petite, Amane slightly shorter than her brother, her pale straight hair flowing past her waist.

"Kenji" she grinned as she pointed at him. "You grew big like Ryou" she demonstrated holding her hands in the air and waving them around.

Neither boy thought that Amane would actually recognise who he was, not even her brother had recognised him as a former childhood friends at first. No one was sure of what the young girl could actually remember.

"She's never seen any school friends from before, they are all non-magical" Ryou told him. "It's only been family, a few teachers from Hogwarts and Neville when he visits his parents since she's been in there."

"And Harry and Hermione" Amane corrected her brother.

"Yes Harry and Hermione, stop by whenever they're visiting anyone else in the hospital which isn't very often."

"Why would the Hogwarts teachers visit her? Hasn't she been like this since the bus accident?" Kaiba asked, wondering if they were just visiting for Ryou's sake.

"She was in hospital for a couple of months, she recovered from that. Maybe it would've been better if she hadn't recovered." Ryou explained sadly, not saying anything else.

In the end it was the spirit who explained Amane's current condition. "During my host's first year at Hogwarts ...

Amane ran from the other students in tears, she had to get away from them. She'd been so excited when she'd got her letter as was Ryou. It was on their eleventh birthday and it had been such a long wait before they could attend the school their mother had gone to. Their birthday fell on the 2nd of September and the school year started on the 1st of September. It would be a whole year before they could attend the prestigious school. She made it to the girl's bathroom on the second floor, the one that no one ever used. She ran to the closest stall not caring that it was flooded and let the tears flow forming into full sobs. Hogwarts wasn't what she'd expected, nothing like the stories her mother had told. Her mother she'd been in the house Hufflepuff when she was a student. The twins on the other hand had been sorted into different houses. Ryou was in Slytherin and Amane was in Gryffindor. They were both devastated to be sorted into different houses. They thought they could make it work. Another sob came as she remembered how she couldn't sit with her brother to eat meals. How most their classes were separated. The few classes they could sit together the other Slytherin and Gryffindor students would tease them something horrendous because sitting with someone from that house was taboo. No one seemed to care about the fact that they were related. It didn't matter they where brother and sister. No one cared that they where twins. The both wished they'd asked the sorting hat to put them in Hufflepuff, they didn't even know it was an option until after they where sorted.

Ryou had no friends in Slytherin. He was ostracised for associating with a Gryffindor. It was a sin to his house for being muggle raised. And what the Slyterin's considered worst of all even worse than being muggle raised was being classified as a magical creature. Just because their mother was part veela they were considered magical creatures instead of human.

The Gryffindors where a bit more understanding but she still didn't have a close bonds with any of the girls in her grade. She got along with Collin Creevy. He didn't mind her brother being in a different house and got along with Ryou just fine. Being muggle born they had a lot in common when it came to talking about the world outside of Hogwarts. She also got along with Neville Longbottom in the grade above her own. Neville was always nice to her and Ryou even if he was slightly weary of her brother. Hermione Granger always spoke to herself and Ryou when they were in the library and Harry Potter; 'The Harry Potter' was always kind to the two first years. Her best friend at school was Luna Lovegood; she was a pure blood witch in Ravenclaw who was a misfit even to the witches and wizards. Even with her friend's support she still felt so alone and lost in the school.

When the attacks first started happening with the cat she was scared but was convinced that Dumbledore would catch the culprit. After all he was the strongest wizard of all time. Then Collin her only friend in her house year level she got along with was petrified. When that happened her and Ryou both sent letters to their father requesting that they come home. He never responded to any of their letters, in fact he hadn't sent them one letter the whole time they were at Hogwarts. The only thing they ever got from him was a Christmas present and not even that had a letter attached. He could barley look at them since their mother had passed away. Students from three of the houses had been attacked. Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students all in the hospital wing petrified.

The Slytherins thought they were all safe until the un-imaginable happened. Ryou Bakura her brother was found petrified. She hadn't been with him at the time. They had just gone their separate ways after leaving the library for the evening. She knew something had happened to her brother a few minutes after she'd left him it was like a part of her was frozen. Her heart felt heavy and the connection she felt with her brother was gone. She was the one to find him and since then everyone but her few friends began ignoring her and teasing her about being Slytherin's heir.

She stayed in the bathroom until close to curfew. Tripping on a book that was laying on the floor. Strangely the book was dry considering it was on the soaking floor. She just assumed it was charmed to stay dry. She took the book felling compelled to write in it. She didn't have any reason not to so she started writing about how much she missed her brother. How she hated how the other students teased her. She needed an outlet for her emotions. Someone to talk to and the diary seemed perfect even though she'd never really been one for writing in diaries. Ginny Weasley even attacked her when she'd been writing in the diary which had frightened her. Slowly over the remainder of the year the diary filled the vacant space in her heart that her brother had left behind.

Before long Amane had blank spaces in her life everywhere. No matter how hard she tried to fill in the blanks, she couldn't. She'd find herself standing in the hall, out around the grounds and one time in the forbidden forest. The spaces of what she didn't know where getting longer every day until the time she did remember amounted to only a few minutes every few days.

"The diary Amane was writing in was a horcrux, the first one created by Tom Riddle" the thief king continued. "He continued absorbing her soul, feeding off her fears and insecurities until all that was left were an empty shell. Harry Potter managed to defeat Tom Riddle before he fully absorbed and killed her but was too late; she was left as what you see before you now."

The thief king switched placed with his host. "It was awful waking up to find I'd been petrified for months and I was so lonely when no one was with me when I woke up. Everyone else had family and friends. I had no-one. I promised mum I'd always protect my sister. I couldn't even keep that promise." Ryou sobbed and was comforted by his sister who didn't realise it was her he was crying for. "It's alright Ruru" she hugged her bother lovingly.

He could relate it was how he felt when he'd woken up from his coma to find Mokuba gone. His brother was his anchor and he didn't even want to think about what he'd do if he was the one in Ryou's situation. After all he'd came very close to committing suicide at Duellist Kingdom when he thought he'd lost his chance at saving his younger brother.

KC

It was a couple of hours later that Ryou walked back into the room looking exhausted but the feelings that radiated off him was pure bliss. The video chat to Japan had ended quite a while ago to inform them that Amane was now in Ryou's custody and that they'd be returning home tomorrow. Neither teenager had seen Ryou Bakura look so genuinely happy before. Tears welled up in his eyes and he run towards Yugi. He almost had a heart attack thinking that he was going to be the one on the receiving end of that hug. His skin crawled and goose bumps appeared even though it was quiet warm that evening.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Ryou repeated over and over again. He moved to sit next to Yugi. "I never thought it would actually happen; that I would get my sister back." His voice was full of so much emotion, it was easy to see how much Ryou cared and loved his sister. "I've been so worried about her being left in the wizardry world for so long even before the war with Vol V Voldemort restarted. I tried to get my father take her back home or at the very least have her put into care in Japan but he refused. He wouldn't do it. He thought that she was safer the further away she was from me. He blames me for what happened to her. The blame only increased when my Yami started trapping my friend's souls in my monster world figurines.

"Considering what my Yami's like, I know that he would never do that to my sister. I'm crazy aren't I believing that he'd never harm my sister."

His eyes glanced in the direction of the Thief Kings spirit. He'd made himself invisible to even his light half.

"Of course I'd protect her you dope, families the most important thing in the world. I lost my family and I will do anything to get my revenge for their deaths. Guess that's why I'm bound to the ring." The spirit said before hugging his host in a possessive but protective manor. Ryou having no idea how much the dark spirit actually cared and no idea that the spirit was hugging him.

He never thought that he would share morals and family values with the evil spirit, but he did. He'd do anything to protect Mokuba and if someone ever did kill his brother he'd easily murder whoever was responsible.

"No matter what your father tells you, you're not to blame for your mother's death. It was a terrible accident that killed many people including my father." He told Ryou in the same tone that he used on Mokuba when the young boy was worried about something. "You are not to blame for what happened to your sister. I've met Tom Riddle and he is an evil man. You where a child. You'd been petrified by an ancient creature, the situation was beyond your control.

"You are not to blame for what your dark half has done while controlling your body. I know others will see it that way but remember that myself and Yugi will understand and know that it wasn't you."

"I've been there myself Ryou. When Pharaoh awoke he used to posses me on a regular basis and he sent many people to the shadows and mind crushed even more." Yugi told the distressed teen. "Only one of the people Yami's mind crushed has woken up. I'm glad to say that he's become a very good and loyal friend."

"You're making me sound like a dog." He snorted. "Plus I don't have any friends."

"Oh but we're friends because of the power of magic" Yugi replied in a light tone.

"No such thing as magic" he replied before they all burst out laughing. It felt nice to laugh, everything had been too serious recently with him being kidnapped. Recovering from his kidnap. The Ring being stolen and the amount of work it tool to get Amane released.

"Ryou, it's not your fault that your father doesn't love you and if he does, he hasn't done a very good job of showing it. I know what it's like having the person that should love and care for you believing you're a monster. Mot receiving the love and care they should be giving you. You have your sister now. She loves you dearly. You need to be there for her and show her the love your father should've showed. Prove to your father your better than him."

Ryou looked at him and smiled. "Thank you Seto." His slightly older classmate walked over and gave him a quick hug. "You're a good friend."

"It's been a long day you two, time for bed." He told everyone.

"Yes dad" Yugi grinned before running off dragging Bakura with him.

Dad it had a nice ring to it he smiled to himself, he would like to be a father one day. His hug from Ryou didn't leave his skin crawling or his heart constricting in a near panic attack. It was ... nice. He'd grown closer to Yugi and Ryou in the past several weeks of trying to get Amane back. Tonight wasn't the first time they'd called him dad either. They had a tendency to call him dad or mum when he made them do their homework or tutored them or when he'd sit down to read Mokuba a story, or the few times he cooked dinner.

He could happily say that Ryou was now on his close friends list with Yugi and Luna. He'd wanted to see Luna again, but she was busy preparing for the new school year and still in hiding with her father.

He walked down the hall and peeked into Amanes room. Ryou was leaning next to the bed already fast asleep. He had staff bring a futon and place it on the floor for the older brother. Once Ryou had been transferred to the futon he walked down the hall checking in on his own brother and heading to bed.