It all felt like a nightmare. He was let out of the hospital he was in, he went back to Hogwarts to play his part as Ryou 'till the end of school year. He knew that his performance could have been better. But he couldn't bother to try. He was not Ryou.

He did however keep up with the schedule that his other half had made and even teached the kids what he could. Okay perhaps his acting sucked big time to get the students worrying about him as well.

There was a group of Ravenclaws that stayed after class one day and asked if he was okay.

.---------

Bakura lifted his head from the papers that had been filled and returned after the day's practical session, and saw the small group of fifth year girls in their blue patterned robes.

"Can I help you in some way?" The girls glanced at each other before one of them stood a bit away from the rest and asked, "are you feeling okay professor? You have been acting differently since the deatheater attack".

"Only Dumbledore had died". That last statement hung unsaid in the air, what did they know.

Bakura sighed and shook his head slightly, letting his unruly white hair settle itself on his shoulders before standing up from his desk and walking to the papyrus he had written himself at the start of the school year.

"I am more than fine, if not a bit..." sad, heartbroken, lonely, confused "troubled..." It was a half truth at best but these were such young girls, who was he to trouble them with things he himself couldn't chance.

Before the girls could ask more he spontaneously changed the subject to the object before him on the wall. "Do you know what this writing is about?" he heard the girls shaking their heads, of course they had no idea.

"It's a story, about a dark magical rite that required 99 human sacrifices". He ignored the shudders from the girls and continued. "They were all melted in a huge cauldron with gold, to give shape to seven dark artifacts".

He turned to the girls who looked spooked but curious. Bakura nodded at them, mimicking what Ryou always did when he gave permission to speak. "Did one of the evil mages write that?"

Evil mages? The priests? Bakura shook his head. "Evil is merely a point of view. It was written by the only survivor of the village that they slaughtered". Bakura took a deep breath before continuing.

"The one's who killed all the people were the Pharao's, Akhnamkhanon's holy priests. They did it to fight off warriors from another land". Why was he telling them this? Perhaps because he had to be able to share it with someone.

"But now I fear you will be late for your next class if you linger any longer". He swung his hand towards the door and the girls started to leave, still confused about what they had just heard.

When the girls had left he reached for the writing and took it down from the wall. Holding it in his hands he summoned a small portal to the shadows on the floor and dropped the writing. The less memories the better.

"No child should have to live trough such".

"It's hard to face death at that age".

"Yes Hikari, it is hard. Harder than you ever knew".

.---------

Then there were the letters that Yugi and the gang had sent him shortly after the attack. It was hard to answer them to keep their suspicion off his shoulders for now. But he had somehow managed. And now Yugi was coming to England to take part in a big dueling tournament.

It was being held just when the schools ended, to allow the biggest number of attendants possible. He wanted to meet up with him. Bakura had warned the kid, in a way.

.---------

"Yugi, when you come to Britain. Please come to the King's Cross station and wait for me there. I haven't been as truthful as I could have been in the last few letters. But there are some things better spoken face to face.

There have been some drastic changes, and I believe you won't like them. But trust me, I like them even less than you will".

.---------

He could have given a proper heads up, but he just couldn't find the motivation anywhere. But now it was finally the time to meet up with the whelp.

Bakura was sitting silently in the train compartment he had nominated as his, and surprisingly no one had bothered him during the whole journey. Like there really would be anyone to bother him.

Bakura sighed for the umpteenth time and dug trough his trunk for a hairbrush, It had been a while since he had fought with the tangles of Ryou's hair. But it would be better if Yugi didn't try to send him to the shadow realm when he saw him.

He carefully collected the hair as he had seen his host do so many times before and started from the ends, slowly advancing towards the roots. It was strange to do something like this. It just grounded him more firmly to this body and this world.

He conjured a mirror with a small flick of their wand and checked that he looked as much like Ryou as he could.

It had startled him at first, how much he looked like his host. Apart from his right eye that was reddish brown when the other was the same kind chocolate brown as Ryou's had been. And the scar as well.

He gently pulled his fingers along the too familiar scar that decorated the space below the right eye. He couldn't help but think of the spell card Chance of Heart when he looked at the mirror. Half and half. Two halves of one.

The train started to slow down slightly as it got closer to the station and Bakura put the hair brush and the mirror away. Letting the trunk fade in to the shadow realm.

He stood up from his bench and pulled the long black coat on top of the white button up shirt he was wearing. Wouldn't want the pharaoh's chibi to turn tail and run.

He opened the door to his compartment and walked along the train corridor towards the closest door, putting his wand away in to one of his hidden knife pockets of the coat as the train finally stopped.

He opened the door and casually walked trough the masses of worried parents and siblings hugging the returned students.

Bakura bit his toung slightly to ground himself back to what he was doing. It wouldn't do to act weak before potential enemies.

He quickly slipped trough the magical barrier between the two muggle stations. "I guess that's it. Nothing else feels like magic in here". It didn't do any good to linger on the past, he had to keep his cool.

He walked lazily trough the people rushing to catch their trains and couldn't help but smirk when he noticed the half open handbag on a lady's elbow. He yawned and stretched while closing his eyes slightly. Causing himself to bump against the lady, he muttered his hasty apologies while his hand made a quick dive in to the purse.

He kept walking for a while before taking the cell phone out of his pocket and cringed at the flowery pattern on it's shell. He sighed and quickly dialed Yugi's number in the cell and waited.

It rung a few times and then Yugi answered, "Motou?" ah yes.. unknown phone number. "Yugi, meet me at...." Bakura glanced around before his eyes landed on the nearest cafe, "Robert's coffee??" It was better than Wayne's.

He shut the phone and dumped it in to the nearest trash bin as he walked towards the cafe.

He didn't have to sit there for too long until Yugi appeared at the doorway and he waved him over with a pleasant smile, Yugi smiled as well but it was short lived as he came closer and noticed the scar below his eye.

"Ryou, what happened?" Bakura shook his head and took a sip of the tea he had purchased earlier. "He died".

Yugi's eyes widened almost comically if it hadn't been for the shock in them. "What?!?" bakura gave him a glare that clearly told him to be quiet.

"look... Yugi. I told you there would be some changes in me". Yugi was about to say something but Bakura silenced him with a glare. "And I told you that I don't like them myself either".

"But what happened to him?" Yugi nearly begged to know and Bakura felt a small wave of sympathy at those purple watery eyes. He sighed as he began to re tell what he knew had happened and what he speculated was the reason why Ryou was gone.

"Look, Yugi. There was an attack on the school by the evil wizards that Ryou had told you about. They managed to hit him with that death curse of theirs. And it ripped the two of us apart... split us in two. We would both be still here if the spell weren't designed to absorb the soul of the dead person".

Yugi slumped in his seat and buried his face in to his hands. "But why him?" And before Bakura had the chance to continued Yugi nearly attacked him. "You pushed him in the way of that spell, didn't you! You got rid of him!"

Those words cut deep in to the wounds that hadn't healed yet. Bakura closed his eyes, willing himself to stay calm. But the last straw broke when Yugi whispered "you murderer".

Bakura opened his eyes and something in the way he looked at Yugi had changed because his eyes widened in confusion. Bakura shook his head and chugged down the rest of the tea, before managing to say "we continue this outside".

He got up before Yugi had the chance to say anything more to him, and out before the stinging behind his eyes got too bad. "How dare that whelp!?! Calling him a murderer of all people?" He leaned against a wall and took a few deep breaths before Yugi managed to join him.

"I didn't". Yugi blinked. "I didn't push him in the way of the spell. I didn't kill him". Yugi looked at him with a skeptical look. "I don't know how I could make you understand that I didn't want this to happen".

"Perhaps by telling me how you were a part of what happened to him". Bakura winced at the cold tone of Yugi's voice, he sounded too much like the pharaoh for his liking right now.

"I didn't survive the spell too well either". Yugi blinked and crossed his arms before his chest, now he even looked like the pharaoh.

"The spell ripped in to both halves of our soul, ripping parts out of mine and Ryou's. It just so happened that Ryou was inhabiting the body when it hit, that must be the only reason why he was the one to go".

Bakura couldn't stop the tears anymore. He needed a drink, and a strong one at that. "You don't happen to be carrying around a bottle of anything strong, do you?" Yugi could only shake his head in stupor, he had never seen the tomb robbers spirit crying before. Not even covering against impossible odds.

Bakura cursed loudly before locking his gaze with Yugi's again. "Whoever you tell, and whatever you tell them. I don't care. Just remember that I will hear it too, don't desecrate his memory".

And he walked away, slipping in to the crowd like he was a part of it. Leaving Yugi standing alone before the cafe thinking about the threat that he had left unsaid.

And that's it people... Thank you for the rewieved opinions, favourites and alerts.. I'm glad to be of service ^^