/Text/ Spirit to Host

/Text/ Host to Spirit

Chapter 16: Terror

"Remus!" Harry exclaimed, hurrying down the staircase in the Entrance Hall, "What are you doing here?"

"Acting as an escort," said Remus, "Professor Dumbledore has asked me to accompany Mr. Kaiba to London so he can make his flight home."

"Why doesn't he just use a portkey or the Floo Network?"

"Connecting a fireplace in Japan to our network would raise too many flags at the Ministry. As for portkeys, Professor Dumbledore offered to create one for him, but he refused, insisting on using his own transportation. Believe it or not, the fireplaces in the school are still being monitored by the Ministry, so we're avoiding them as well. We'll travel to Hogsmeade, and pick up the Knight Bus to London."

Harry nodded. He supposed that made sense. "Okay. When are you leaving?"

Remus looked up past him towards the staircase in the chance his charge was on his way down. "Soon. I'm afraid I'm dreadfully early this morning."

"Well…while you're here, I've got a question for you," said Harry. He pulled the Marauders Map from his bag. "I think there might be something wrong with the Map. I know you've said it never lies, but I've been seeing things on it that don't make any sense."

Remus tilted his head. "Like what?"

"Well…for one thing, Ryou Bakura showed up twice. I saw the dot labeled Ryou Bakura, and then there was a separate dot just labeled 'Bakura'."

Remus frowned. "That's…interesting. Was that all?"

Harry shook his head. "No. There was another dot on the map, but it was only labeled by a question mark. I've never seen that happen before. And these people – whoever they are, they just come and vanish all the time. But how can they if you can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts?"

"Apparating in the school is impossible," said Remus. "Have you seen these people before?"

Harry shook his head. "Not them, but there was a third one, called Set. I saw him last week. He looked like Seto Kaiba, only he was a ghost. And Seto is obviously alive, so that doesn't make sense either."

Remus looked around the Entrance Hall. "I can't say anything for the ghost, but the Map doesn't make mistakes. If there are two labels, then there must be a second person as well. If someone is not labeled, it is because their name is unknown."

"But it never had an issue identifying someone before, even people who normally didn't stay at the school," said Harry, "It knew Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew."

"Well, that was different. Peter Pettigrew was just choosing to remain in his rat form. What I mean to say, is that the individual in question may not have a name, or does not know it. Therefore, the Map cannot identify them."

"How does someone not know their own name?" asked Harry.

"Amnesia, perhaps," said Remus, "Though, if that were the case, the Map would probably still recognize them. The only thing I can think of is that whoever that person is, they must not have a name."

Harry gave him a look. How was that even possible – who isn't given a name at birth?

"O-okay…." Harry still couldn't wrap his head around this, "But the only place I ever see them is in Yugi's dorm. It's usually only at night. I don't get it."

"I'm guessing, as a concerned friend, you've asked Yugi and the others about this?" The silence was all he needed to hear. "Perhaps instead of jumping to conclusions, there is a perfectly good explanation waiting for you. Working on partial truths only leads to trouble, Harry. You know that better than anyone else."

Remus sighed. "Yugi and his friends don't have a lot to go on. They're here on faith that they will be protected. They don't know anyone here, and it makes it hard to know who they can trust. You, Ron, and Hermione have offered your friendship, and they've taken it. If you are suspecting something, I beg you to be open and honest with them, especially if you want them to do the same in return."

"Yeah, I've already heard this from Hermione," said Harry.

Remus smiled and looked past him as Seto descended the stairs. "You should listen to her." He patted Harry's shoulder. "I'll be in touch."

"I didn't think we would be spending so much time in the library considering Kaiba's been home all this week," said Ryou, "But…here we are."

"I know," said Yugi, looking down another stack. "But this is the last place left to look for Harry. He's not in the common room or the Great Hall, and there's no Quidditch practice today. He and Ron aren't in class either."

"What do you think he would be looking for in here? We don't have any major essays to write right now," said Ryou, "We just finished the one on vampires for Friday's class."

Yugi shrugged. "No idea. He's probably not even – oh, look there." He paused and pointed to the far end of the library. Harry was hunched over a huge tome that looked like it hadn't been opened before in years. They could just make out the dust cloud sparkling through the light from the windows.

"Harry?" Yugi asked, "What are you doing?"

Harry jumped and slammed shut the book he was reading.

"Sorry," said Ryou, "We didn't mean to startle you."

Harry shook his head. "No, it's fine. What's up?"

"Well…" Yugi looked at his companion. "Ryou and I were wondering…is it possible for someone to become invisible?"

"Like vanishing? We've learned how to do that in McGonagall's class, but I don't know if it works on people."

"No…I mean actually invisible."

Harry swallowed nervously. "Why do you ask?"

"The other night, I thought I saw the door to our room open and close on its own. We thought maybe someone was sneaking around the school," said Ryou. "We were worried that the security in the school might have been compromised."

"That would be pretty hard for an outsider to do," said Harry, "The tower is locked through the Fat Lady's portrait, remember? Only Professor McGonagall and anyone in Gryffindor House can get in. And besides, with all of the Aurors patrolling the school and all of the protective enchantments in place, it's highly unlikely someone was sneaking around."

Yugi's shoulders slumped as he looked at Ryou, "That's true…"

"Maybe it was a Gryffindor," said Ryou.

"Why would someone want to sneak around the dorms though?" asked Harry. "You guys are new here and haven't made any enemies or anything. Why would someone want to poke through your room?"

Ryou shrugged.

Harry tapped his fingers against the crook of his arm. He had an idea that just might draw their attention away. "Maybe it was the house elves. They can become invisible if they wanted to. They do a lot of cleaning at night after everyone goes to bed and probably figured you wouldn't notice them come and go. I bet you they were probably returning laundry or something."

Yugi sighed in relief, "Oh! I didn't think about that all!" He turned to Ryou, smiling, "I bet that's what it was."

Ryou nodded slowly, "It does explain how our robes are always cleaned without us worrying about it. And remember when I spilled my ink bottle while writing Snape's essay the other night? By morning, the stain on the rug was gone!"

"That was probably the house elves too," said Harry, "I've seen Dobby clean the common room really late at night before when I had trouble sleeping. I really wouldn't dwell too much on it."

"Okay," said Yugi, grabbing Ryou by the arm, "We'll let you get back to your studying. Thanks, Harry!" He dragged Ryou out of the library and waited to duck into the nearest empty classroom before letting him go.

"Do you believe him?" asked Yugi.

Ryou shrugged again. "I don't know. We haven't found anything to prove it was him. The spirit hasn't found any kind of invisibility cloak yet. He's determined to find it, but honestly, I don't think there is one, and he's looked so many times already!"

"Even if it wasn't him, Harry did have a point though - no one but Gryffindors could be snooping around the tower," said Yugi. "I suppose it could be the house elves, like he said. I really didn't think about that as a possible answer."

Ryou sighed. "Neither did I, and it would make sense for the elves to come around when they're sure that they won't be seen."

"We'll check with Kaiba when he comes back," said Yugi, "He's interacted with the house elves before."

They climbed the next set of stairs and moved back down the seventh floor corridor. "Did you see the book Harry was looking through?" asked Ryou.

"I didn't get a good look at the cover," said Yugi, "Sure looked old though. All that dust was beginning to make my nose itch."

"The spine had a picture of what looked like runes or hieroglyphs," said Ryou, "But Harry isn't taking Ancient Runes with you and Hermione, so why would he be looking through that?"

Yugi frowned. Why indeed? Their raven-haired friend had always been a bit curious about them. Perhaps he still was. But without some kind of invisible power, there was no way Harry was the one coming and going from their room late at night.

Unless the invisibility cloak was, of course, invisible, but then how would anyone find it - Harry included?

"Do you think he overheard us talking about the spirits, or the Millennium Items?" asked Yugi.

Ryou bit his lip. "I mean…there's always a chance. Even if it wasn't here, we were all at Ron's house over the summer. But just to try and find that out may give away too much anyhow."

Yugi slumped against the wall. "It's not like we can send Yami or your spirit on a recon mission to his room. We can't risk them being seen. It's bad enough Set may have been noticed that first night. I'm just hoping that if they only saw him once, whoever it was may write it off as a figment of their imagination."

"We can't even be sure it was Harry," said Ryou, "We don't want to accuse him of something without cause. But…Harry has his next meeting with Professor Dumbledore tonight. He wants to snoop again tonight, but I'm not sure if he'll find anything."

Yugi blinked. "Won't he get caught?"

Ryou raised an eyebrow and leveled him a look that said, 'Really? Him?'

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Right. Stupid question."

.

Hermione reached for Thursday morning's Daily Prophet the instant the owl dropped it beside her on the table.

"I thought you cancelled your subscription last year," said Harry. "Since it was printing nothing but lies."

Hermione turned red. "I did…these, um, are Seto's papers. I've been saving them for him for when he gets back."

"Should be later today, right?" asked Ryou.

Yugi shook his head. "I think he said Friday. He's hoping his flight arrives in London on schedule and he makes it back in time for Charms first thing in the morning."

Hermione took a look at one of the headlines on the global news page and nearly spit out her pumpkin juice. "There was another Death Eater attack!"

Harry and Ron looked up from trying to finish up their Charms essays. "What? Where?"

Hermione kept skimming the article. "Nowhere here. Reports of masked wizards disrupted a dig site in the middle of Egypt. Two Muggles were killed, and one is missing. So far there isn't a lot of information, but Aurors from both our Ministry and the Egyptian one are baffled to why You-Know-Who would take an interest there."

Yugi bit his lip. "Did it say who was killed or missing? My grandpa has friends who are archaeologists. I hope it wasn't anyone we knew."

Hermione passed him the article. "It doesn't say. There aren't any photographs either."

Ryou nibbled at his toast, appetite gone. "I know someone we could have asked, if we had the means to."

Yugi nodded. "Yeah. Ishizu. I'll have to send her a message once we get out of Charms. I just hope her brothers are alright."

Harry turned back to his homework when something caught his eye. Malfoy was hurrying out of the Great Hall. There was still plenty of time before Charms, so where would he be going? Back to the Slytherin dormitories in the dungeons to grab his books for the day? Or was he up to something else?

Harry looked up and down the Gryffindor table. Ron had joined Yugi, Ryou and Hermione in looking at the Prophet, and the nearest student on his other side was several feet away. Seamus was trying to change his juice into alcohol again while Neville and Dean watched from a safe distance.

Once he was certain no one was watching, Harry lifted up his Charms book and pulled out the Marauders Map from its hiding spot, scanning up and down the folded sheets, looking for Malfoy's set of footprints. The dungeons would make the most obvious choice, but he couldn't find him anywhere near the lower half of the castle.

It took a good minute of searching before he finally found him in the large staircase chamber, moving his way up towards the sixth floor. Why would he be going that way? That's nowhere near the Charms classroom…

"Harry?" Hermione asked, breaking his concentration. Harry quickly stuffed the map into the back of his book. "Are you still writing that essay?"

"Almost finished," said Harry. He waited for Hermione to turn back to the conversation she was having with Yugi and Ryou before stealing another peek at his map. Malfoy had made it to the seventh floor when he got interrupted. There were only so many places he could go to on that floor. Finally…let's see what you've been up to!

Harry unfolded out the pages on the map showing the upper castle, but instead of finding his rival's footprints, all that remained were empty corridors. He quickly laid out another section, in case he had started back downstairs, but no such luck.

Malfoy had vanished without a trace.

Harry didn't get another chance to look at the Marauder's Map until they had sat down in Charms. There wasn't any point to it, as Malfoy entered the class and sat down on the opposite end of the room only a few minutes after he did.

He tried to keep an eye on Malfoy with the map as the day went on, but for the rest of the day, the Slytherin student was either in class with him, or in his own common room down in the dungeons. The mysterious "?" and "Bakura" appeared again on the map that evening, but he didn't venture into their dorm to investigate. Yugi and Ryou had become suspicious of him sneaking into their room. He could only hope that suggesting that it was the house elves would throw their thoughts off track.

Harry was beginning to think his goose-chase into the Millennium Items was dead-ending. He had gone through as many books on ancient artifacts and any other kind of similar magic, but turned up nothing. Aside from the few snippets of overheard conversation between the two exchange students, he didn't have much to go on, and there hadn't been a lot of peculiar activity going on between them recently. If he was still going by what little he knew over the summer, he would have let it go a long time ago.

But the Marauder's Map had picked up extra people in Yugi's dorm. Seto had a ghostly doppelganger of himself. Did that mean that the elusive Bakura was Ryou's double? And what about the one that was only question marks – was that supposed to be Yugi's? Or were those completely different?

He continued to mull it over that Friday morning, as he sat in the Great Hall scribbling out the remainder of his Potions essay in between bites of toast. The weird ghosts only come out at night, and he was only able to see the one called Set while Seto was asleep. 'Ghost Seto' had his hand on Seto's forehead, whispering something in a language he didn't recognize while Seto seem to twitch uncomfortably. Was the ghost hurting him? Maybe it was trying to possess him, and that's why he looked to be in pain.

Harry took a bite of his breakfast and brushed away a few stray crumbs from the parchment. If Yugi and Bakura also had weird ghostly shadows of themselves…were they even aware of their existence? Considering they only came out after hours, he was willing to bet they weren't. What if those two were also dangerous? Yugi and Ryou could be in trouble, and they wouldn't even know it.

However, there was only so much more snooping he could do without getting caught. Somehow, he had been heard at least once, and would have to be more careful if he was going to sneak back into the room. Perhaps he would have to talk to Dumbledore about it. He would surely need to know if there was something evil in the school. Maybe...maybe it was time he brought this up to his new friends...

His concentration was broken as Yugi and Ryou sat down next to him, greeting him good morning.

"You're not still writing your essays, are you, Harry?" asked Ryou, "You could have had that one finished ages ago."

Harry shrugged. "I procrastinated."

Hermione shook her head. "That's an understatement. This is the second day in a row. I know our classes have gotten a lot more difficult as opposed to last year, but you've never had to finish this close to class before."

"Yeah, mate, even I got mine done yesterday," said Ron.

Harry gave him a look. "Yeah, but how much of it did Hermione write for you?"

His two friends turned beet red. "That's not –" Ron stammered.

Hermione glared at both of them. "Only the introduction, and I told him it was the last time I would do it, too."

Harry rolled up his parchment and shoved it back down inside his bag. "Well, I didn't spend a whole lot of time in the common room last night, remember?"

"Dumbledore's meeting," said Hermione, knowingly, "How did it go?"

Harry glanced down the table. Yugi and Ryou were perusing Seto's next copy of the Daily Prophet for any more news on the attack in Egypt. "He wants to show me memories."

"Memories? Whose memories?" asked Ron.

"Dumbledore's mostly, though there are some from other people too. They're all about Voldemort. Dumbledore thinks they key to defeating him may be in those memories."

"Hey you guys," said Yugi, looking up from the newspaper. "They decided on a new head of Magical Law Enforcement. It's that Pius Thicknesse guy the Prophet predicted in that one other article."

"I don't know too much about him," said Hermione. "We can only hope he will do a good job."

"Why is everyone outside the classroom?" asked Harry. There has never been a roadblock in the corridors leading around to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom before. Could Peeves be up to his old tricks again? Perhaps he was still following Fred and George's orders to give Umbridge the worst possible time at Hogwarts. He could only hope that was the case.

Neville moved through the throng of students gathered around the door. "The door is locked. I've been waiting here for the last ten minutes. There's been no sign of Professor Umbridge all afternoon."

"She's never locked the classroom before," said Ryou.

"I wonder if she's conspiring with her Ministry of Magic friends," said Harry. "Why else would she be here?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Line up, children!" said Professor Umbridge loudly as she walked down the hall. "We'll be spending today's review in one of the empty classrooms on the fourth floor today."

Yugi was glad that he wasn't the only one confused in the crowd. They followed Umbridge up the stairs and into an empty room where the desks were pushed up against one wall.

"Leave your bags along the wall there and gather around here. You don't need anything but your wands today."

Yugi and Ryou shuffled along with the class to the wall to leave their bags. Yugi turned to stand next to Ron, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Ryou was taking his sweet time to join the group, hanging in the back and dropping his bag right next to Harry's.

Professor Umbridge stood in the middle of the room. It was cleared out, save for a cabinet against the front wall.

"The Ministry was pleased to note that at least one of your unqualified professors in this subject has introduced you to dark creatures," said Umbridge. The usual lift in her voice that she normally used in her regular classes was gone. Clearly, she was not looking forward to having a hands-on lesson.

"Today we will review boggarts. Can anyone tell me what a boggart is?" Umbridge clasped her hands in front of her and scanned the room. As usual, Hermione's hand darted into the air…and that was it. She sighed, hating to continuously acknowledge Harry's know-it-all friend. "Anyone? I know all of you had participated in this exact class three years ago."

When it was clear that no one else was going to bother participating, she gestured to Hermione. "Yes, Miss Granger?"

"A boggart is a shape-shifting non-human being that takes the form of its victim's worst fear," said Hermione.

Umbridge nodded. "Correct. The best way to help defeat a boggart is to have a group of people, can anyone tell me why?"

She folded her arms and tapped her stubby fingers against the crook of her elbow, not bothering to hide her annoyance. You would think these kids would be ecstatic to use magic in the classroom. There has to be someone here who will answer my questions. "Someone other than Miss Granger."

Neville slowly raised his hand and was immediately called upon. "Because it'll get confused and not know what to turn into."

"That's right," said Umbridge flatly, "And who can tell me the proper spell to repel a boggart?"

A few mumbles of 'Riddikulus' resounded around the room.

"I'm glad to know you've retained some knowledge," said Umbridge. She aimed her wand at the doors to the cabinet. "Form a line, please."

Yugi wedged himself next to Ryou and Harry. "What happens when a boggart comes out?"

"It takes the form of your worst fear and feeds on it. To repel it, concentrate on something to make that fear humorous," Hermione said quietly, "Laughter is your best defense."

Yugi and Ryou shared nervous glances.

/I don't think I want everyone to see what my greatest fear is, Pharaoh…or yours either. What if the boggart senses you too and has to choose between us?/

From their soul corridor, Yami hugged his arms against his chest tightly and turned away towards the door to his labyrinth room. The last thing he wanted was for Yugi – or anyone else in the room – to see him at his darkest moment. The temptation of power he had succumbed to only a short time ago was still on the forefront of his mind and he couldn't bear to relive those moments of Yugi sacrificing himself for his sake again.

/I don't know, Yugi. All you can do is stay towards the back, and hope we don't get to the front of the line./

Yugi took a look around. He wasn't at the beginning of the line, but he wished there were a few extra people in front of him. Ron was the unlucky one to be stuck at the very front of the line.

Umbridge aimed her wand at the cabinet. "I expect you to be able to repel the boggart silently. Prepare yourselves."

Yugi and Ryou peered at from the middle of the line as the lock on cabinet turned. A long, hairy leg forced its way out, then another, until the group was staring down a huge spider. Everyone shrank back a step as it advanced on Ron.

Ron gulped, raising his wand with a trembling hand. He hadn't mastered nonverbal spellwork yet, and he could almost swear the spider was getting bigger with each terrified glance he gave it.

"Come on Ron!" shouted one of the girls towards the back of the line. Lavender, he thought it was.

Umbridge watched as Ron furrowed his brow, trying to concentrate (at least, she hoped that's what he was trying to do), and finally, after several attempts to silently cast his spell, blurted out a rushed 'Riddikulus!'

The spider's legs suddenly were held up by skates as it tried to keep its footing before its legs gave out and it crashed to the floor with a loud thud. The legs then fell off and the spider harmlessly rolled back and forth.

Umbridge tutted and began scribbling on her clipboard. "Nonverbally, children. Next!"

Parvati was next. The boggart spider stopped rolling around legless on the floor and began to transform into a rotting husk covered in bloody bandages. It stayed in the front of the room for only a moment before a quickly-cast spell caused it to trip over its wrappings, sending it stumbling.

Susan Bones' became a pair of hooded figures in masks with wands drawn. It took her four tries to stammer out a 'Riddikulus' before she hurried to the back of the room, wiping tears from her eyes.

Umbridge continued to make notes on her clipboard as the class took turns defending them from the boggart. She wasn't surprised in the slightest that Hermione was one of the handfuls of students that could perform the spell silently. Another unexpected twist was Harry's boggart. She would have certainly pegged him to be afraid of You-Know-Who, but the boggart instead transformed itself into a dementor. Abandoning the line they had made, the class instantly backed away towards the door.

The fake dementor rounded on the class rather quickly, and Umbridge watched as Harry stood fast in front of his peers and pushed it back with a rather powerful Patronus charm. She scribbled another note as Harry then remembered what he was supposed to be doing and cast the proper incantation, although he didn't do so silently.

Umbridge glanced to the clock on the wall and put down her notes. "Alright, children, the time is almost up, so gather your–"

She stopped, mid-sentence, as she noticed most of the class was fixated on the boggart. After being weakened by both of Harry's spells, it had begun to retreat towards the wardrobe again, but something made it stop. It began to grow again, shifting its features once more. Umbridge looked about at her students, and noticed that when Harry had stepped back towards his friends, he had left one person a few steps in front of the rest of the group.

The boggart became a monstrous shadow, taking up nearly the entire height of the room. It looked to shape itself into some sort of demon before it's feature's suddenly shrunk, fleshing out into a near double of Ryou Bakura, a slightly taller form with spikier white hair and cold reddish-brown eyes. A large golden necklace formed itself on top of its blue and white-striped shirt. Harry noted that the symbol on the center of the necklace matched the one on the upside-down pyramid Yugi wore everywhere.

Yugi looked at Ryou nervously. Should he intervene, or would Ryou be able to handle this on his own?

Harry exchanged confused glances with Ron and Hermione. Was Ryou's worst fear…of himself?

The boggart's eyes locked onto Ryou and he started forward, drawing a knife from his pocket.

"Well, well," said the boggart, "I see you've made some new friends, Landlord. How unfortunate that your game board isn't here for you all to play together. The last Monster World campaign went so well, didn't it?"

Oh no. Yugi made to move to intercept the boggart, to get it to switch its focus to him instead. Anything but Ryou's spirit…but found he couldn't move. Was that the boggart keeping him in place…or his own fear of what the dark Spirit of the Millennium Ring was capable of doing?

Ryou visibly shuddered. His wand stayed clenched in his fist at his side. This was the Spirit from when he was first released from the Millennium Ring, when he was in his most dangerous phase, before he had truly started to hang out with Yugi and his friends. The Duelist Kingdom and Battle City tournaments had toned him down a bit, but the last thing he wanted to remember was the beginning…when he was literally tethered to the Millennium Ring.

"...And you're still choosing the Pharaoh's vessel for company," said the boggart, shaking his head, a malice gleam in his eye. "Perhaps I've extended your leash too far…."

"No…" Ryou whispered, dropping to his knees. His wand clattered uselessly to the floor. "This is – you promised!" He knew, of course, that the spirit in his Ring was not the figure standing over him, at least not anymore, but he couldn't find it in his mind to concentrate on the Riddikulus charm to get rid of him. He could feel his Bakura shouting at him from their soul corridor, but a part of his brain was ignoring him, and he wondered if that was the boggart's doing. The only thing he could feel was the pain and memories he had tried so long and hard to forget.

"Look at yourself," the boggart snapped, "Nothing has changed. You're still weak."

"No," Ryou whispered, hugging his arms, "Stop, please."

The boggart laughed, waving the dagger lazily about. "You use the Pharaoh and his friends like a shield. As if they could truly protect you from me. Did you really think you would be rid of me just because our Ring was thrown from the top of Pegasus's castle? Or perhaps you were wishing that I would be left in the Shadow Realm following the Pharaoh's duel over Marik?"

Ryou covered his ears, "No…" he whispered, "Stop!" The pounding in his mind was getting worse.

The boggart dropped down to his knee in front of Ryou. "I think you need a reminder of just how our relationship works, Host." He forced Ryou's chin up to look at him with one hand, and with his other grabbed the Millennium Ring from around his neck and shoved it right into Ryou's line of sight. "Perhaps I should sink these spikes back where they belong, and then you won't go disobeying me again."

"NO!" Ryou cried, wrenching out of the monster's grasp and stumbling back a step. "Not again….please…."

The boggart advanced again, holding up the dagger, but before he could do anything, there were two golden flashes of light in the classroom. The Millennium Ring gleamed, appearing overtop of Ryou's robes while Yami switched places with Yugi and hurried to Ryou's side.

Bakura rose angrily and darted out a hand to stop Yami from coming any closer. "Back off," he barked, "This one is mine."

Yami watched warily as the room slowly became enveloped in a dark shadow. "Bakura…" he growled, "Stop."

Bakura ignored him, the Millennium Ring still glowing in the dark.

/Spirit, stop! You promised!/ Ryou cried, and pounded on the door to his room, trying to get out, but when his other half had taken control, he had shut him inside. This is just like in the beginning… /Let me out!/

/Quiet./

/The Shadow Realm – you promised you wouldn't summon it. Please, don't do this!/

/This creature has caused you enough suffering, don't you think?/

/Please, not this way…./

Bakura disregarded Ryou's pleas, and with another flash of the Millennium Ring, the Shadows dissipated, returning everyone back to the classroom. The boggart and the cabinet it had emerged from were both gone. With a glare at the Pharaoh next to him, Bakura released control back to Ryou.

Ryou staggered back, breathing heavily. Everyone in the room was staring at him, no doubt heavily confused to what they had all just witnessed. Even Umbridge just stood there, jaw dropped. Ryou reached down and snatched his wand from where he had dropped it and bolted from the room, not bothering to find his belongings from where he left them along the wall. He had to go – to get away from the questioning looks, the prying eyes, and more importantly, away from his other self.

He heard Yugi call out from the doorway to the classroom, but he didn't stop running all the way back to the Gryffindor common room.