Chapter 1

An Author's Note: Welcome to the sequel to Bridging the Gap. If you have not read that story then go ahead and do that now.

For everyone else, enjoy…

Chapter 1

And Now for a Bit of News

Deep in the Void there lives a creature. By all accounts a female creature, if one can really truly assign such labels to semi omnipotent beings, but for ease let's just call her female. She certainly considers herself female.

And who is going to argue with the Black Fox?

Actually, to be honest that is exactly what someone was going to do right now…

"Why did you kill him?" This someone asked.

The Black Fox turned around and stared at the globe a few miles down. She and the other were currently in the Void, staring down at the planet in front of them. The Fox grinned.

"Who?" she asked.

"Shadi!"

"You know my goals, our goals. We needed seven holders for seven items. Shadi wanted only one holder, the Pharaoh. And you know what would have happened!"

The figure winced "But there was no reason-"

"You are the one who approached me with this!" The Black Fox growled.

"I asked you to help them! Not kill them!"

"Shadi was going to die anyway." The Black Fox said with a sneer. "Better he go sooner before he could cause too much damage to our plan! It was hard enough influencing that diseased mind of his enough so that he would pass on the Ankh to Harry Potter!"

The figure sighed "I don't want them to suffer it again…it's bad enough it happened the first time."

"I know what I am doing." The Fox said, her grin showing off all her large sharp white teeth. "Trust me…"

From a local London muggle newspaper:

String of Card Based Crimes Baffle

For the past few weeks a string of odd thefts have broken out in the London area. Every single store broken where only relived of packs of cards from a game known as Duel Monsters. Strangely, the stores showed no evidence of being broken into. In two cases the store owners where found dead, but without a mark on them. Neighbors reported strange green lights the night before, but no clear leads have been found…

The night was dark. Dark and wet. Dark and wet and cold.

In other words, typical English weather.

A man was walking down the street. Why he was doing this at eleven at night one can only guess. However, that really does not matter, as the fact that he was being stalked by someone was a wee bit more important.

His stalker looked like she had just walked out of a horror movie. Bellatrix Lestrange, a Death Eater and certified loony toon, had pegged this pathetic muggle as an easy target. She wanted to run a test. A test for her new little toy that her wonderful master had blessed her with.

Mad grin fixed on her face she pulled out her wand and used a Disarming Charm to blast her victim into an alley. She did not want to be seen.

The man had been blown to the ground, and he looked up at his attacker with puzzlement in his eyes. Lestrange grinned and held up her new toy.

A Duel Monsters card.

"Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World." She said, and a disgusting humanoid monster with bone armor and a sharp spear appeared. It roared at its human victim, who cowered away from the beast.

The monster lifted its spear, intent on pinning the man to the ground, but it was stopped by its master's voice.

"No!" Lestrange said. "Play with it a little bit! Stupid monster! Don't you know how to have fun?"

The monster seemed to roll its eyes. It sighed. This girl just totally missed the point!

Lestrange started to laugh as her monster gave the man a few uninterested pokes.

Evil laughter erupted from the other end of the alley, Lestrange and her monster looked up and saw someone in a long black trench coat glaring at them. This person had long white hair and narrowed brown eyes. A small Hungarian Horntail dragon was perched on the person's shoulder.

"How do you like your little mistress, little fiend monster?" Yami Bakura said with a grin.

"Mudblood!" Lestrange bellowed. Instinctively she pointed her wand at the duelist. "Crucio!"

Yami Bakura dodged. The small dragon flew into the air, screeching at Lestrange in an angry manner. Yami Bakura pulled out a card of his own and summoned his monster. "Come, Felgrand Dragon!"

The golden dragon roared to life. "Beiige! Come and face me!" the dragon bellowed.

The fiend monster tightened its grip on the spear it carried. Lestrange grinned, pointed her wand at her monster and muttered a spell. The fiend seemed to swell and grew larger. It roared and attacked Gorneel. It thrust its spear into Gorneel's chest.

"Arg! Little help here, brother!" the dragon roared.

Yami Bakura growled and played a Rush Recklessly card, which gave Gorneel enough power to push Beiige away. The dragon blasted his enemy away, though it took twice as much force as it normally would have.

Lestrange decided to err on the side of caution, she Dispparated away from the scene of the crime as fast as she could.

"Coward, isn't she?" Gorneel grumbled. Yami Bakura nodded. Robot the mini Horntail landed back on Bakura's shoulder with an irritated hiss.

Lestrange's victim, meanwhile, was trying to head to the proverbial hills while he still could. His heart sank when Yami Bakura fixed a glare his direction. The Millennium Ring around Bakura's neck shone brightly. The man was transfixed.

"Ring, erase his mind." Yami Bakura said, and the Ring shone even more brightly.

As the light faded, the man shook his head, wondering why in the world he was in this dirty alley on the ground.

Neither Bakura nor the two dragons were anywhere in sight.

While not as fast as Apparation, Bakura's little trick of using the shadows to travel around was still very convenient. For one thing using this trick (which many were starting to label as "Shadowwalking") could bypass the anti-Apparation spells over Hogwarts.

What was better, was that the Ministry of Magic did not have a way to detect Shadow Magic, so Bakura could use it freely even though he was underage.

Although, since the other side was using Shadow Magic as well now, the fact that the Ministry could not detect it was a bit of a problem.

What was interesting, was the fact that, while the Death Eaters were using Shadow Magic, there had yet to be an actual Shadow Game. Yami Bakura thought that this might have something to do with the fact that Death Eaters really did not play games, so instead they tried to wield Shadow Magic like they wielded their magic. It made for some…interesting encounters. Yami Bakura was sure if they could corner a Death Eater then he could bet them in a Shadow Game, but the Death Eater's would not stand still long enough for him to declare one.

In a way, the Death Eaters played liked the old priests of Egypt…only more hamhanded.

As the Shadow's faded Yami Bakura found himself in Dumbledore's office. Robot hissed at the wizard's phoenix, Fawkes, who trilled back at the little lizard.

Dumbledore looked up and smiled at Yami Bakura. Yami Bakura just scowled back. This did not bother Dumbledore that much. It was the spirit's way to act this way, and the old wizard did not begrudge him that.

"Your hand alright?" Yami Bakura asked, trying not to sound too interested.

"It is alright." Dumbledore said, a bit of tiredness in his voice.

Yami Bakura snorted. He wished he knew what this man was up to. Yami Bakura remembered the day this fool wizard had shortened his existence by playing around with some odd ring…thing. Something that was rank with Dark Magic. Yami Bakura knew perfectly well that Albus Dumbledore was dieing, but for some reason that did not seem to bother Dumbledore.

It bothered Yami Bakura, but he did not want to admit it. Part of it was the fact that Dumbledore was doing something that Yami Bakura did not know about, and the ancient spirit hated not knowing. Another part was that Yami Bakura was starting to respect Dumbledore, just a bit.

"Did you find out anything?" Dumbledore asked.

Yami Bakura nodded "The Death Eaters are defiantly using Duel Monsters now. I just got into a small skirmish with Lestrange."

"Is she in the Shadow Realm?" Dumbledore asked mildly.

"No."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow "Didn't you just say that you had a Shadow Game with her?"

Yami Bakura shook his head "You don't need to declare a Shadow Game to use the magic, it is just the most…frequently used."

Dumbledore nodded "I see…" He closed his eyes and seemed to think for a moment "Yami Bakura, you think you could face any more Death Eaters in battle tonight, if you could?"

Yami Bakura smirked "They are amateurs when it comes to Shadow Magic. I could defeat them easily." And hopefully next time send them to the Shadow Realm.

"Ah, good." Dumbledore said as he got up "Then you will not mind coming with me to number four Privet Drive then?"

"…why?"

"To pick up Harry Potter."

"…fine."

A/N: What will the evil Dursley's think when they meet our buddy Yami Bakura? Will they survive the encounter?

Stay tuned.