Marik, Ryou, Isis, and Rishid are very much lost. They can't tell one building from the next in this accursed suburb so how the hell are they supposed to find the one they're supposed to be staying in from the rest of the lot? The short answer is they can't, and it's driving the blonde Egyptian mad.
As he turns a corner, grumbling under his breath over the fact he chose what had to be the most boring direction to search of the lot of them, the teen's kohl lined purple eyes fell on something unique in this place. Walking into the seemingly empty park the duelist lets out a cry of "Thank the gods, something that isn't another identical block of houses! I thought I was going to die of boredom!" and flopped back into the sandbox to watch the clouds.
Hopefully his siblings' search is going better.
"Um, excuse me?" Marik cranes his neck and locks eyes with a boy about his age wearing the most unflattering and oversized clothing he's ever seen sitting on the nearby swings. The other's mop of messy black hair, pale skin baring a number of visible scars - the most prominent being the lightning bolt shaped one on his forehead -, and the most vivid green eyes the tomb keeper had ever seen staring at him through circular framed glasses all came together in the blonde's mind as cute; especially with that shy and curious expression.
"Yeah?"
"Are you ok?" the British boy asked, reminding Marik quite a bit of Ryou and only enhancing the Egyptian's fondness for the other teen as a result. He was always a sucker for a cute boy. "Better now. My family and friend are staying in one of the houses in this neighborhood, but all the damn houses look the same so we can't seem to find it. I'm just glad I found something to act as a landmark."
The raven chuckled "Yeah, it's pretty easy to get turned around here with how boring it is. I can probably help you find it if you want, I've lived here pretty much my whole life."
The blonde sat up with a wide grin, offering his hand to the green eyed boy "That would be much appreciated. Marik Ishtar."
"Harry Potter." the other said warily as he shook the offered hand, relaxing when the tomb keeper didn't react however he'd expected. Interesting."So what's the address?"
Harry was having a very bad day. His friends were ignoring him (supposedly on Dumbledore's orders, but it hurt nonetheless), he was having near constant nightmares about the Tournament and Voldemort's return, and according to the papers he's read Fudge and the Ministry are too busy slandering him and Dumbledore to keep their heads buried in the sand and deny the fact that the Dark Lord is back to do anything about any attacks the snake is doing.
And to make matters worse his relatives were getting too upset with his presence to care about the threat Sirius posed on them, going back to forcing him to do chores or taking swipes at him when their ire is peaked. Lucky him. At least he can ease up on the yelling and beatings by running out to the park here, Dudley and his gang have long since outgrown the play area and tend to hang out either inside or at the nearby shops these days.
The Boy-Who-Lived is enjoying the silence of the afternoon, sitting still on the swings to think, when a voice he's never heard before catches his attention. There's a boy his age with long blonde hair and dark bronze skin falling back to lay in the sand in front of him. The clearly foreign teen, what with his clearly not English accent, is dressed in a pair of tan pants and a black tank top with a sleeveless white hoodie over top of that that didn't cover any of his midriff and was held closed by a pair of gold chains on its front instead of typical buttons.
The other, Harry noticed as he spoke and got the taller boy's dark lined purple eyes looking directly into his own, was also wearing a lot of gold jewelry. Armbands around his forearms and upper arms, earrings, and a trio of bands fitted around his neck. With all that jewelry, the dark skin tone, and the elegant dark lines marking around and under his eyes the foreign boy reminded the wizard of the photos the Weasleys had shown him of Ancient Egyptian royalty carved into pyramid walls.
It also struck Harry, as the other replied to his question of whether or not he was ok, that the blonde not only had a very nice voice but he was very very attractive. Shite. He can not be crushing on a muggle boy he'd just met right now, can he?
But as they introduced themselves and Marik doesn't so much as blink at Harry's name, further proving his being a muggle, the wizard realizes that yes he is. Because the way his heart jumped into his throat when the blonde smiled at him, thanking him for offering to help, was all the proof the chosen one needed to know he was falling hard. Even harder than the first time he saw Cho last year and realized that she was pretty.
And wasn't that a scary thought?
But as he led his apparent new neighbor to the empty house at Number 5 - directly across the street from Number 4 - he couldn't fight his growing smile. With how bad his luck's been so far at least now he has something not awful to show for it. And if you ask Harry spending time with Marik, brief though it may come to be once his relatives get around to ruining it, was almost worth the awful start to his summer break so far.
Isis and Rishid were worried, though to be fair when it had to do with their little brother that was the usual reaction for them. Marik had made a habit of getting himself into trouble, most of the time on purpose, over the years. So when he texted them his location with nothing more than a simple 'Found it and met someone interesting.' they were understandably wary.
If the youngest Ishtar found someone interesting that usually meant nothing good, either for them or the person in question. Case in point the teen following them past the park in their brother's instructions: Ryou Bakura. The white haired boy seemed excited to meet Marik's new "friend" judging by the smile on his pale face and bounce in his step.
Neither tomb keeper had the heart to tell the keeper of the Millennium Ring that whoever this person was they probably hadn't caught their brother's eye because of anything good.
As they finally turned onto the street that, supposedly, had their new home on it the trio of duelists finally caught sight of the blonde in question and his new object of interest. Isis took in the smaller boy, thin and pale and dressed in clothes clearly not his own that were threadbare and far too large, with messy black hair with open surprise. This boy had a strange and powerful presence, but it was gentle and kind and... sad? This wasn't what she'd expected of a person Marik took interest in. From her brief glance at Rishid the raven can tell he's thinking the same.
"Marik, over here!" called Ryou with an excited wave as he walked up, causing both boys sitting on the lawn of Number 5 Private Drive to face them. When they did and the others got a good look at the new teen's face Isis found herself speechless.
Green eyes, brighter and more beautiful than even the emeralds and jade that were worn by the pharaohs of old, stared at them through round glasses rimmed in gold. While baring a jagged scar on his brow, like a lightning bolt, on his pale skin the teen was still approachable and kind - though the seer had no doubt the ones visible on his skin were the shallowest of the other's scars. This boy was someone important, someone blessed with magic no doubt - given his aura -, and the female tomb keeper knows now just why her little brother is so drawn to him.
From his spot next to Marik, having ran up to give his friend a hug and better introduce himself to their new friend, Ryou is having an internal crisis. And for once it isn't the spirit of the Ring's fault! This new boy, Harry as he introduced himself shyly, is probably one of the cutest people the white haired boy had ever met. And the teen is friends with Yugi!
"I'm Ryou Bakura, nice to meet you Harry." To Ryou's internal delight Harry's pale skin flushes with color, a flustered and fragile smile on his face as he stutters out a responding "N-nice to m-m-meet you too." Bakura must be rubbing off on him a bit, because he enjoyed that timid reaction perhaps a bit too much. From a glance at Marik's smirk and darkened gaze fixed on the raven teen and himself the English-Japanese boy can tell he isn't the only one enjoying Harry's reactions.
Pulling out the keys to their house the occult duelist opens the front door and asks "Would you like to stay over for a bit Harry? Maybe join us for dinner?"
The whitette isn't disappointed by the shorter boy's reply.
"If... If it's ok with you, I'd like that. Marik still hasn't finished explaining Duel Monsters to me yet after all."
As they closed the front door Ryou and the others' eyes fixed the green eyed boy with open surprise. "You've never played Duel monsters before?" the eldest Ishtar asked, finally speaking up for the first time today. Rishid isn't the only one shocked when Marik laughs out a responding, "More like he'd never heard of the game before! I'm planning on teaching him, helping him build his own deck."
Ryou spoke up with a nervous "I have some spare cards you can look through for that. If you want to, that is."
Harry's smile widened, loosing some of its shakiness as he grew comfortable with them. "I would... Like that I mean. My friends from school haven't really been speaking to me recently and I've never really been the most popular person around here." the boy explains with a humorless bark of laughter before adding "It'll be nice to just be me for once."
The blonde wrapped an arm around the raven's shoulders, grinning broadly as he declared "There's nothing like being true to yourself, is there? Let's get to teaching then! If the moving company did it's job right Ryou's and my stuff should be in our rooms upstairs."
As the messy black haired boy followed the whitette and blond up the staircase Isis and Rishid shared a look. The seer smiled fondly as she suggests "I'll call for food if you'll work on unpacking our rooms?" To which her elder brother nods with a fond smile.
They had a good feeling about Harry.
Harry was surprised by how well his day was going since he met Marik.
Ryou was just as attractive as the blonde, with long white hair and doe-like brown eyes that were set in a very cute and kind face. And any worries Harry had about the boys he's crushing on being weirded out by him or his magic if they should find out went out the window the second he stepped into the others' rooms. Marik's few possessions he'd seen as the other opened his boxes to find his cards were mainly clothes or scrolls, but there were a handful of clearly magical items the wizard noticed among the lot before the blonde gave a cry of "Aha! Found them!" and pulled out a box full of smaller boxes like the ones strapped to both of the taller teens' belts.
The Boy-Who-Lived's suspicions were proven correct when he and Marik went to check how Ryou's search was going and found the white haired teen mostly unpacked thanks to the wandless magic he was using at the moment. Glancing around the occult themed room, looking like a place fit for a witch or wizard along the lines of how the Dursleys imagined them (with the crystal balls, paper charms, ouija boards, pentagrams, and candles everywhere), Harry blurted in surprise.
"You two have magic?!"
Brown and purple fixed him in shock before Ryou nodded.
"Yeah. From your reaction I'm guessing you do too?"
Harry snorted, laughing mildly hysterically as he breathed out.
"You still don't know who I am?!"
Marik shrugged.
"I'm guessing someone important or otherwise famous given the way you talk about yourself and cringed when you introduced yourself. But personally I don't really care about things like that. As for how out of touch I am, my siblings and I are from a family of Tomb Keepers. We've literally grown up inside an underground tomb in the middle of nowhere where we should've never seen the light of day in our lives."
"That sounds awful!"
The blonde shrugged "It's over now. Isis works with museums and curse breakers to share our unique brand of magic and stored historical relics now, Rishid helps where he can, and I'm free to do what I want now. Ryou and I were actually transferring to Hogwarts to train our magic this year, since our magic lessons have been... Unconventional."
The green eyed boy glanced at Ryou curiously, who sighed.
"In my case things are... Complicated."
The white haired teen placed the box in his hands on the nearby desk and reached into his sweater, pulling out a pendant of solid gold that resembled a dreamcatcher and bore a single Egyptian eye design in the center.
"When I was young my father took me on an expedition to Egypt with him and I ended up being chosen by this; the Millennium Ring. Trapped inside is actually the spirit of one of my ancestors and past life, an ancient thief named Bakura. Over the years he's made the habit of taking over my body when I'm in danger, whether I know it or not, so my memory in general until recently has been... spotty to say the least."
Harry tensed at the word possession, asking warily after the rest of the explanation.
"This spirit, Bakura, he doesn't do anything bad does he? He doesn't use you against your will?"
The whitette blinked, sensing something personal in that question.
"I won't deny that, at the start, he wasn't very nice to be host to. But I consented to hosting him and he's gotten better, in his own way. I wouldn't call Bakura good per say... But he isn't bad if that's what you're worried about."
The unspoken "anymore" and laughter from the spirit echoing his host's mind as the wizard relaxes.
"That's ok I guess. Sorry... I had a bad experience with possession when I was twelve. A man who wanted me and a lot of people dead left an echo of his younger self tied to a book, the diary spirit possessed my best friend's little sister - and even myself for a bit - while pretending to be our friend. Turns out he was using us to help him attack the school with a thousands of years old basilisk while sucking our souls out to give himself a body of its own."
Ryou could feel even Bakura tense at that inside his soul room. In a flash brown eyes turned a maroon color, tame white sticking up into horn-like points as the spirit asked in a deeper voice than his host.
"I'm guessing you put a stop to that somehow."
Harry scanned the changed Ryou, Bakura he guesses, before replying.
"I tracked him down and decided to fight him to save everyone even though I had no idea what to do. I ended up slaying the basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, stabbing her through the roof of her mouth when she tried to eat me, and using the fang that got lodged in my arm when I did to stab the diary - killing the shade of Tom latched to it."
Marik freaked out here.
"Hold up, are you saying you got bitten by a thousands of years old basilisk?!"
The raven nodded, showing the two the circular scar in one of his forearms with minor pride in his voice.
"It hurt like hell, but thanks to Fawkes - the Headmaster's phoenix - crying into my wound I lived."
The blonde let out a shaky breath before stating more than asking.
"Something tells me that encounter is far from the only crazy thing to happen to you."
Harry chuckled.
"Oh, you have no idea!"
Bakura, joining the shorter teen in his chuckles, admits out loud.
"I can see why Yadonushi and the Tomb Keeper like you. I think I might actually enjoy going to school for once."
As they all moved to sort through the cards Harry chuckled and asked.
"If you're interested I can tell you about my years at Hogwarts, get you caught up on current events so you're in the loop when we get there."
Both foreign boys smirked back at the raven wizard, Marik replying.
"Trust me Harry, we're interested."
Bakura chuckled himself before adding.
"We're all ears."
As he passed by on his way from his own room to his sister's Rishid peeked in on the teens, smiling when he noticed Marik and the ring spirit (judging by his change of attitude and appearance) completely enthralled by whatever tale Harry was telling them. Judging from the snippet he caught and the proud and amused look on both thieves' faces it was something to do with a heist of some kind, considering the mentions of dangerous protections Harry and his friends had managed to sneak past and the priceless relic that is the Philosopher's stone. Shaking his head the eldest Ishtar moved on to unpack Isis' room, content in the knowledge that his brother's newest friend was going to fit right in with them.