Harry Potter Yu-Gi-Oh crossover – Disclaimer: I own neither
/Ryou and Bakura mind link/
Koe – Voice (What Ryou calls the spirit of the ring)
Yadonushi – Landlord (What the spirit calls Ryou)
0
Harry listened as calmly as he could. He couldn't help but feel sour no matter what excuses those two threw at him. Luckily Hedwig had done her job well and Harry contented himself with looking as his friends' hands. He could still make out the cuts from Hedwig forcing them to write back to him after he sent her out the night of the dementor attack. He sighed and grabbed a piece of parchment from his trunk. He ignored the confused stare of his red headed friend and blocked out the apologies of the frizzy haired brunette who was trying to make him understand why they hadn't been able to contact him that summer. Soon they fell silent as Harry sat at the desk and dipped the tip of a worn out old feather quill into a small vile of ink.
"….Who are you writing to mate? Isn't everyone you'd write to here?" the red head asked, which earned him a disappointed glare from the brunette and a dark scowl from Harry.
"Believe it or not Ron, I have other friends besides you. And personally, I like to keep in touch with people I consider my friends" Harry replied with just a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"Oh Harry, how many times do we have to apologize? And you can't send a letter right now anyway. It's just not safe if an owl is seen flying back and forth not to mention Dumbledore won't allow it." The girl explained, trying to get the black haired boy to understand their situation. Harry's fists clenched and he stopped his writing mid sentence. He took a deep breath and dropped the quill.
"Well Hermione, how else am I supposed to explain? I did just disappear without any warning. God knows what the Dursleys told him" Harry growled as his face contorted into a look of disgust. He could bet his uncle was already spitting slander against him now that he wasn't there to defend himself. He was so caught up in his mental ranting he almost didn't see the looks from his friends. "…what?"
"Who are you talking about?" Hermione asked curiously, hoping to use this as a bridge to patch up their frizzled friendship.
"Oh right, you guys don't know about Ryou. Probably because you never wrote back and all…" Harry said immediately as he flicked the quill across the desk. Hermione was growing more irritated with every passing minute but she still tried to remain calm. She took a deep breath before she finally prepared a reply.
"Wait, you made a friend in your home town? Like… a real muggle one?" Ron asked incredulously. Hermione stared at Ron but she couldn't even get a word in to scold him before Harry angrily stood up from his seat by the desk. Immediately she stepped between the two. Ron was confused by Harry's reaction and it was up to her to get them to calm down.
"Ron, shush. Harry… Let's just please head downstairs. I'm starved personally, so let's get some dinner." She basically pleaded. The silence was staggering until Harry finally looked away and nodded. Soon the trio was heading through the halls of the old falling apart Grimmauld Place. Harry smirked as he looked at the decaying walls. He couldn't help but think how much Harthrow House had looked like this before Ryou Bakura had fixed it up.
0
Ryou leaned back in his bed, letting his arms crisscross behind his head as he stared up at the plain popcorn ceiling. The sun was just beginning to set and he was already in his lavender silk pajamas. The voice in his head was mocking him. The spirit was going on and on about how teenagers were supposed to live it up at night, but no, he had to go and get the defective vessel that went to bed at a reasonable hour.
"It's not that, Koe. I just don't feel like going out tonight." Ryou said with a shrug as he sat up and touched the ring that lay on his chest.
/Are you afraid of going out now that scar head has gone off and left you for his delinquent school? You know I will protect us from any harm Yadonushi/
Ryou was quiet as he mulled that over. The spirit would keep him alive at all costs, he knew that. After all, without him the spirit would be unable to interact with the world. That didn't mean Ryou wasn't going to get hurt though. In fact, he recalled a few different instances in which he was badly injured by the spirit himself.
"I'm not scared. I walk home at night all the time after work." Ryou said in his defense, even though he was well aware the spirit knew this already.
/So then you're moody because four eyes just up and left without saying anything huh? Stop being such a little girl./
Ryou sighed and hugged his pillow. He really had expected some forewarning before Harry left. He was surprised when he went to see him yesterday night only to find out he was already gone. He hadn't given the impression he was leaving that soon when they talked the night before. It looked like he would be going back to his usual solo routine. He thought about hanging out with Dudley and his friends, but just thinking about the older boys made his stomach squirm. He didn't really like the looks they gave him when he passed them on the street. They definitely seemed like the type of people who would corner a person when he or she was alone, and Ryou had no intention of walking straight into that situation.
The boy turned his brown eyes towards the window and watched the last red streaks disappear behind the black of the sky. He slipped the leather band that held the ring over his head and rested the golden charm on his bedside table.
"Goodnight Koe." He said as he slipped under the covers and curled up for bed.
0
Harry, Hermione, and Ron stood and stared at the disaster of a room they were assigned to clean for the day. Personally Harry was happy to have something to do to take his mind off of a certain hearing that was fast approaching. Even if it meant cleaning what appeared to have once been some kind of study.
"I don't even want to know what that was from" Ron said flatly as he stared at a rather large dark stain on the wooden floor board. Harry smiled, a gesture that did not go unnoticed by Hermione. It was a sure sign that Harry was finally getting over their lack of letters over the summer.
"Seriously, I'm absolutely amazed this house is even standing." Ron said in earnest. He was staring at a rotting wooden column. Harry's eyebrow rose as he thought about Ron's own home, the burrow. He was still amazed that place could stand at all. Pushing those thoughts aside, he watched as Ron carefully prodded the wood and suddenly jumped back when it crumbled.
"Ronald! Honestly, why would you touch something that looked like it was going to collapse?" Hermione scolded. Harry merely chuckled and headed over to the desk. Books and papers were stacked up in sloppy piles with cobwebs connecting them. Well, it was as good a place to start as any. He fingered the wand in his pocket and honestly contemplated whether or not to just use magic. He was already going to get expelled, so why not?
"Harry" Hermione gave him a disapproving look as she handed him a duster and placed a bucket of other cleaning supplies on the ground. Harry gave an innocent shrug as he took the duster and brushed off some of the books. Then he heard a scream. He turned his head to stare at the red head that had jumped up on the desk chair.
"Honestly, how can a place be this filthy! Spiders living in the books!" He whined as Hermione rolled her eyes and shooed the family of spiders that had crawled out of the collection of books Ron had been holding.
"You should be more careful with these. You have no idea what treasures they could have on their pages" Hermione said sternly as she scooped up the fallen books from the floor.
"Oh yeah, some treasure. A bunch of disgusting little creepy crawlers. It's impossible to clean a place this bad" He argued as he finally left the not-safety of the chair and hesitantly picked up another book.
"It's not that bad. Ryou did a great job cleaning up his place and it wasn't that far off from here" Harry noted as he stuck a group of books on a freshly dusted shelf. Hermione looked up at Harry curiously.
"You've mentioned Ryou before. Is he your new friend?" She asked. She let out an internal sigh of relief when Harry nodded instead of having another tantrum like he did the previous day.
"He just moved to Little Whinging this summer. His family owned this old house that everyone thought had been abandoned. Nobody had lived in it for years and the place looked something awful. Then one day, Ryou showed up." Harry smiled as he remembered helping out Ryou when they cleaned Harthrow House. At one point Ryou had tied scrubbing brushes to his hands and knees and just crawled across the floor. It didn't really work all that well and he downgraded it to just tying them on his feet. He and Harry ended up racing up and down the soapy hallway on their make shift cleaning shoes.
"Well at least he'd have his parents to help him out. A quick spell here and there and this would be loads easier." Ron pointed out as he tossed a crumpled ball of paper into the large trash bag they had left in the center of the room.
"He's a muggle, Ron. He cleaned his house the same way we're cleaning now" Harry said. He laughed at the astonished look on Ron's face.
"So, if he's a muggle, what did you guys talk about all summer?" Ron asked trying to think of something fun or interesting to do that was non-magic related. Harry and Hermione both shook their heads after exchanging a glance with each other.
"You know, there are plenty of topics that don't revolve around magic." Hermione said calmly. She couldn't hide her own curiosity about this mysterious Ryou though. She looked over at Harry and asked how he met Ryou.
"Well…actually… He found me in his house" Harry said sheepishly. Hermione looked baffled and wondered if she heard that right. Ron just laughed.
"Seriously? What where you doing in his house?" the freckled red head asked.
"I told you, it was supposedly abandoned. Dudley thought he saw a ghost and forced me in. It was pretty funny though. Dudley's face when Ryou came downstairs was just priceless" Harry said with a grin.
As the trio continued their attempts to make the house more livable, Harry told Hermione and Ron a bit more about his first encounter with Ryou, which led to him explaining how he managed to befriend the boy whose house he broke into. Soon enough he was telling them about his and Ryou's cleaning escapades. Cleaning went by exceptionally quickly when you could turn almost all of the chores into a game.
0
Hermione walked by the door to Harry and Ron's room on her way to dinner, but a small movement made her pause in her tracks. She glanced into the room to see the black haired boy sitting with Hedwig on his arm. He was petting her softly and saying something quietly to her.
"Harry?" Hermione gave him a curious look as she pressed the door open a little farther. Harry looked over at her and waved her on.
"I'll be right there. Just… saying hi to Hedwig before dinner" He said. He and Hermione stared at each other a moment longer before the frizzy haired brunette finally shrugged and moved on. She met up with Ron in the dining room and true to his word Harry came down a few minutes later. She let her eyes flit up to her fellow Gryffindor and waited until he sat down so she could lean over and talk without being overheard.
"Harry… you didn't come from the same direction as the room. Where did you take Hedwig?" She asked and Harry innocently smiled. Hermione frowned in response.
"Look, it's just one letter. She'll be fine. Besides, I sent letters to Sirius all the time last year and they didn't find him here." Harry said as he began to eat the food served by Mrs. Weasley. He saw no problem in one single little letter. Hermione had her hand covering her face and was clearly disappointed in him.
"Hermione dear, are you okay?" asked a nervous and caring Mrs. Weasley. Hermione quickly recovered and explained she was fine. She turned back to her food and looked at Harry and Ron who were already on the topic of Quidditch.
"I swear Harry. A little precaution wouldn't hurt you know."
0
Ryou stretched his arms and pulled the covers away as the sun streamed in through his window. He let out a nice big yawn and rubbed his eyes. He was glad he didn't work on Sundays. Today would be a day just for him and them. He smiled, though his eyes looked lost and nostalgic. He took a deep breath and pulled himself out of bed. He had a lot to tell them this week, so might as well have a good breakfast. His first stop was the bathroom and then he took on the task of getting a brush through that white mess of hair. When he returned to his room he unbuttoned his pajama shirt and tossed it in the hamper. He glanced at the golden ring that sat waiting beside his bed. After a moment, he walked over to the charm and picked it up, letting the leather chord and five golden spikes dangle. He traced the outline of the hieroglyphic eye that sat in the center of the ring. The all seeing eye of Horus. Ryou smiled at the irony that such a symbol was meant to bring its wearer safety and good health. His millennium ring had definitely brought him more trouble than anything else. Yet he could not give it up. He didn't know why, but it just felt like the ring belonged with him. He wouldn't give up the ring anyway. He couldn't.
/Yes Yadonushi. The unworthy cannot bear the ring and you are a chosen wielder. You know what happens to those unfit to wield a millennium item, don't you? /
Ryou's grip tightened around the golden trinket and he stared at the eye emblazoned on the pyramid shaped centerpiece of the ring. Finally he slipped the leather strap around his neck and let the ring rest against his bare chest. He promised himself he would learn more about the ring. Maybe if he understood it better, it would be easier to bear.
Ryou turned towards his bureau and fished out a plain gray button up shirt. He made sure the ring was snug behind the fabric, hidden from view, before he changed his pants to a pair of black jeans. He ate breakfast quickly and was out of the house by eleven. He smiled fondly at the flowers he purchased from the little shop down the street. The owners learned to expect him every Sunday and had the little bundle of Rosemary and Myosotis flowers ready and waiting for him when he arrived. With the little blue flowers in hand, he waved down a taxi and was heading towards London.
0
Ryou stepped out of the plain black taxi after thanking and paying the driver. He stared calmly at the cemetery before him as the taxi left him alone on the empty solemn street. Finally he walked past the black iron gate that marked the entrance and automatically steered himself through the multitude of gravestones that covered the land. Soon he was reunited with his family.
"Hello mom. Hi Amane." He greeted softly as he laid the delicate bundle of flowers down between the two granite stones. He let his hands drift into the deep pockets of his long black trench coat as he stared down at the graves. He suited a cemetery well. He looked like a wraith himself with his pale appearance and obsidian body length coat fluttering gently with every tiny gust.
/We even have the power over the shadows and the ability to manipulate souls/ purred the spirit of the ring, only adding to Ryou's imagery of their supernatural spectral selves.
"Please Koe." Ryou said quietly as he sat down in front of the final resting places of his mother and beloved little sister. He did not have to voice what exactly it was that he wanted. The spirit knew and respected his host's wish for silence.
And so they sat, letting the stillness of the air wrap around them as they each sank into their own thoughts. Ryou finally reached over to his lost sibling's tombstone and gently traced her name with his thin fingers.
"Amane, did I tell you? Father promised to come visit me for Christmas. I bet if he comes, we can visit you and mother together. It's been a long time since we've all been together hasn't it?" Ryou spoke quietly to the inanimate pieces of rock and the spirit dare not interrupt him.
"Hopefully he'll make it. I know he hasn't really come through with his promises in the past, but…" Here Ryou trailed off. He knew deep down that his father would most likely cancel their plans, but he could still hope. He told his little sister about what happened during the week, uninterrupted even when his stories were biased.
"I know you are watching out for me but I still miss you." He said as his other hand drifted up to touch his mother's gravestone. The rock was smooth under his hands and he felt comforted as he looked at his mother's name. He smiled as his hand brushed along the side of the smooth granite and he once again let silence lay her blanket over the land.
Finally the white haired teenager stood up, just barely disturbing the quiet that had settled around him. He looked at the graves again and took a deep breath. A smile formed on his lips as he recalled the good times he had managed to spend all those years ago. Before they were taken away from him.
"Goodbye. I'll visit again next week." He said softly as he pressed two fingers against his lips and then reached down to touch the stones. He gave one last parting look to the graves before he headed towards the exit.
"… thank you Koe" Ryou said as he reached the street. He took a breath and his eyes dulled. He stood completely still for a moment before his eyes narrowed and he looked around in suppressed astonishment.
"Yadonushi, explain." He said flatly as he folded his arms. A tiny ring of a chuckle reached him in the back of his mind.
/Koe, you said a few days ago that since people in Little Whinging were starting to notice your 'fun' that you would 'play' next time we visited London./ replied the gentle voice of the body's actual owner. Bakura stood in silent thought for a moment before he spoke up again.
"I was going to take control on my own soon anyway, Yadonushi." He said as he tucked his hands into the deep pockets of his favorite black coat. It was one of the few garments that he himself had picked out. Slowly the spirit grinned and tipped his head.
"I'm surprised Yadonushi. You know what I'm planning to do in the city and yet you still willingly gave up control. Not that anything you'd have done would have stopped me from taking command of the body anyway. " Bakura said as he began to walk down the road. He kept himself on the sidewalk. These English folk didn't seem to stop for anything…not even to avoid almost hitting a small child.
/Well, consider it … payment./ Ryou said with a smile to his mental roommate. /Every Sunday since we've been in England, you've respected my time visiting my family./
Bakura did not pause in his walk, but he was honestly stunned. It was true that he did not bother his lighter half when they visited the cemetery. He truly believed in honoring the dead, especially since he was technically dead himself. What surprised him was that Ryou had noticed Bakura's respectful silence. He had thought for sure that his host was too busy thinking of his departed mother and sister to remember the spirit's constant presence.
"Heh. Well then Yadonushi, since you're being so agreeable, I'm going to fully enjoy myself today. It'll be a nice change of pace to not have you whining about my choice of payment for my rent. Maybe you'll even learn to enjoy my trade." Bakura mused as he walked down the slowly populating road.
/…yeah, I don't think so./
Bakura let out a laugh and continued down the street. He sent a wild grin at a man who was giving him a strange look and the man quickly went on his way. Amazingly, he heard a tiny chuckle in the back of his mind. He smirked as he continued walking. Maybe having Ryou conscious when he was in control wasn't so annoyingly horrible after all.
0
Ryou stayed quiet as the spirit put his ancient skills to use in the modern day world. He grappled with his morality every time they entered a new building or 'accidently' bumped into a passerby, but he still he stayed quiet. If it wasn't for the fact that they were hurting a lot of people by stealing left and right, he probably would have admired the spirit's skill with his hands or how he could move about without drawing any attention to himself, even with their near luminous white hair. He had never really watched the spirit work before. Usually he was either forced into unconsciousness or he would spend his energy arguing with the spirit. As he sat in the room that housed his inner soul, he noticed something about the link he shared with the spirit. Right now their link was peacefully calm. Well, more so than it had ever been before. It was a nice feeling.
But was he doing the right thing? By allowing the spirit to control his body, he was just as at fault for their crimes. Suddenly guilt was nagging at his stomach and the moment of unified peace between him and the spirit of the millennium ring faded. Now the link held a mix of guilt, courtesy of Ryou, and a feeling of curiosity.
"Koe?" he called as he stood up and made his way over to the only door in this mental room. The door that connected his soul room to the corridor of souls. Gently he pushed the door open and he was greeted with the sight of the millennium ring, sitting in his hands.
0
/Koe… I thought it only did that on its own when it sensed another millennium item/ he said as he watched through the eyes of a body he had no control over.
"Interesting isn't it Yadonushi? Only a powerful source of magic can call out to the ring." Replied the spirit as he slid his finger across one of the tines that was connected to the ring. The tine was sitting parallel to the ground and pointing behind where Bakura now stood. He had pulled it out after feeling the sharp spikes shift beneath his clothes. It seemed the ring wanted to lead him somewhere. The white haired thief turned and followed the pointing piece of gold, retracing his steps until he was standing outside a shabby little pub. His eyes looked over the building as the ring's spike finally obeyed the laws of gravity and dangled lifelessly beside its four golden siblings.
/Strange… I don't remember seeing this here when we walked by./
"That's not saying much. You keep going into your soul room… Funny, when I lock you in your soul room you just complain, but now you go in there willingly." Bakura said as his eyes looked up at the sign hanging over the door. Leaky Cauldron was a pretty pathetic name for a pub. Then again, it suited the old run down place. What was more concerning was that he too did not remember passing this place when they walked by earlier.
/Yeah, willingly being the key word there Koe./
Bakura chuckled and tucked the millennium ring back to its place beneath his shirt. He reached for the handle of the door, but immediately stopped as his fingers touched the bronze. He frowned, staring at the door carefully.
/…what's wrong Koe? You're giving me a weird feeling./ Ryou shuddered as he felt the wave of suspicion traveling through his mental link with the spirit of the ring. Clearly the spirit was on edge about something.
"The shadows here are skewed." Bakura said quietly as he cast a furtive glance left and right. He locked eyes with a man watching him through the window of the pub. The man leaned over and whispered something to the person beside him, never breaking eye contact with the white haired boy. Bakura's eyes narrowed and he stepped back away from the door. As his glare darkened, the man finally looked away, shaking lightly as if he just felt a chill. Bakura turned away from the tavern and continued walking.
/You're not going in? That's good./ Ryou said quietly from within the thief's mind. Finally Bakura cracked a smile again.
"Now now Yadonushi, there may be no point in going in when people are watching, but I'm sure we can find time later to break in without drawing any attention" He said. He heard Ryou sigh in the back of his mind and his smirk grew.
0
"No, I'm not saying anything like that. Just because I was letting you have your fun doesn't mean I approved of it" Ryou said with a shake of his head as he walked down the road towards his house with a little backpack slipped over his shoulders. He was glad nobody was out this late. He had never stayed in London that long before and now that he was finally back in little Whinging, everyone was already in their homes for the night.
/Well, you can't deny you like the bag, can you Yadonushi? You've offered no complaints to using it./
"It's well made and it would be silly to just waste it… and I did need one for school… but I was going to buy one later." He replied. They couldn't just take whatever they wanted. Where would the order be if everyone did that?
/Cute, Yadonushi. You think there's order in the world./
Ryou didn't reply to the spirit. He reached his house and stopped when a slip of white reached his eyes. He cocked his head to the side as he stared down at the envelope lying in front of his door. It was Sunday wasn't it? The post office did not deliver on Sundays. He bent down and picked up the little scrap. Sure enough it was a letter with his name scrawled across the front. Suddenly a cree echoed above him and made him jump. His eyes dashed up to land on the snowy plumes of an owl. A smile broke across his face as he recognized the brilliant creature.
"Hedwig! What are you doing here?" He asked as he held out his arm. The bird flapped her wings and landed gently on his outstretched limb. She clicked her beak and tapped the letter.
"I see. This must be from Harry then huh?" Ryou asked the bird, who replied with a small hoot. Ryou smiled and opened the door to his house. He slipped in while balancing the owl on his arm. Once inside, Hedwig leapt off of Ryou and glided gently to the back of the couch. She looked over at Ryou, curiosity clear in those intelligent golden eyes. Ryou locked the door and placed the letter on the coffee table in front of the couch.
"Hold on for one minute. Harry said his school was far away, so I bet you're hungry." Ryou said as he rubbed the owl's head.
/She is a fierce winged predator. I'm sure she could catch her own food Yadonushi/
"Yeah, but sometimes it's nice to have a treat. Don't you think Koe?" Ryou asked as he walked into the kitchen. He smiled at the silence in his head. The spirit agreed with him, he could tell. Koe was just too proud to admit it.
Ryou returned to his living room with a small ball of ground beef in his hand. He offered it to the snowy owl and was delighted when she took it without hesitation. He sat down on the couch as Hedwig walked along the back of the sofa. She stopped when she was directly behind Ryou's head, peeking out behind his white mop of hair with her golden eyes. Ryou picked up the letter and slipped it open.
Ryou,
First, I have to apologize about disappearing like that. It was kind of a sudden decision when I left two nights ago and I didn't have any time to tell you I was leaving. I tried sending a letter as soon as I arrived to let you know what was going on. I know how downright annoying it can be when you're left in the dark. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to write and send Hedwig out until later. I made a promise to write to you, and you can count on me to see that promise through.
Anyway, I told Hedwig to wait until you've given her a reply before she returns. The next letter I send will be longer, promise.
-Harry Potter
PS: Wouldn't you know it, one of the first things they had me do when I arrived here was help clean up an old house. Good thing I had so much practice huh?
Ryou chuckled as he finished reading the letter. He felt a little better knowing what had happened. Harry really didn't just abandon him, not that he ever thought his latest friend would do such a thing. He glanced up at the snowy owl that was sitting behind him. She cooed and bobbed her head, almost as if she was gesturing to the letter in Ryou's hand. He smiled.
"You probably want to get back to Harry don't you?" He asked as he opened a small drawer in the coffee table. He place the letter on top of another note sent by his friends in Japan and pulled out a pen and a piece of stationary.
