Chapter 1

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It was quite an accident how Ryou met He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Well, maybe not accidentally per se, but the events that lead up to it was quite unpredicted.

He had gone back to England for the summer, to visit his grandparents. It had been over five years since the last time he had been back in London, but the instant he stepped onto the streets he felt the familiar comfort of home. His grandparents knew he was dying to go visit all the places he had known so well when he used to live here, so they gave him all the excuses to leave the house and rediscover his favourite places. On that day, his grandmother sent him out to fetch prune juice from a special vendor on the far west side of city. The first chance of fate was that he forgot his cellphone, but he knew he had his wallet so if he really needed to call he can pop into the nearest telly booth. The second chance of fate was that he missed bus and so instead of waiting another 20 minutes, he decided to walk. It had been five years, but the city had not changed that much, and so he didn't even consider taking a map.

So when he ended up on some random street after taking what he thought was short cut, and he was suddenly left with very limited options.

"Excuse me," Ryou asked the nearest passerby. The man ignored him, probably because he didn't hear Ryou's voice over the loud bustling street. After several failed attempts, Bakura was thoroughly annoyed. He absolutely hated when Ryou got all shy and polite like this and so he took control of Ryou's body and stalked into the nearest shop to demand for the stupid directions.

The shop that he chose, purely based on the fact that it was the closest one, was called the Leaky Cauldron, and it was dark and grimy inside. Bakura didn't spare a glance either way as he made his way to where the bartender stood. The bartender, looked up hoping for business, but the sight of Bakura made him heave a sad little sigh, "Hogwarts student then? Come on, follow me."

Before Bakura could object, he was quickly led to the back, where a very plain brick wall stood. Bakura could sense the magic that was trickling out from behind whatever was behind the wall. On top of everything his ring jingled as if excited by the dense magic around them. So his curiosity got the best of him as he watched the bartender tap the bricks with a polished twig. The wall opened up to a busy street, but one that was completely from the one he had just stepped off.

Ryou panicked, //Kura stop,// he said frantically, //you were suppose to get directions, not become more lost.//

/Oh shut up. You can get your stupid prune juice later./ Bakura growled, and eagerly kept walking. The first thing he noticed was that the magic here was quite dense and the people here could manipulate it in a primitive sort of way. The second thing he noticed was that everyone was wearing some kind of long dress, the men too. But it was the shops that were really interesting; one shop had books, some of them locked up in cages since they were tearing each other part. Another sold cauldrons, which seemed like some kind of odd pot that everyone needed. There where common stores like the ice cream shop which boasted flavours like Exploding Blue Cracknuts, and Choking Chocolate Fusion. What really caught his eye were the way these "people" paid for their goods, with big, fat, shiny, gold and silver coins. As he pushed his way through the heavy traffic, he nicked a few pockets, effectively getting enough money to spend leisurely. He examined one of the bags and took out the gold coin. He bit it carefully and he wasn't surprised that it dented easily, though a moment later, the dent faded back to the smooth texture it was before. Bakura smiled wolfishly as he dumped out all the little bronze coins, saving only the gold and a few of the silver ones.

He didn't spend the money. He rarely ever needed to. Every store he went in, he simply took whatever interested him and left. Of course some of the items had some primitive protection spell on them, but Bakura quickly figured out how to undo the spell by casting one of his own cards. Soon he had a duffle bag worth of trinkets. Bakura had almost decided that he had seen enough, when his nose caught a whift of Gringotts. He stared in awe at the white building that towered above all the others, with a strange ugly creature patrolling the entrance. Bakura grinned and leisurely strolled towards the large bronze doors. The creature bowed politely as he walked through the double doors. He almost laughed to himself at the little poem that was recited as he entered the main chamber. It told him a valuable piece of information; the vault was underground, sort of like the empty vaults of dead pharaohs he had robbed.

There were many more of those strange creatures, and each one of them was occupied with measuring and counting coins and jewels. Bakura nearly wanted to stage an improvised robbery there and then, but the constant nagging from Ryou coupled with his uncertainty about the strange pointy creatures deterred him. He vowed to himself that he will be back and this place will be less a few coins and jewels.

//Can we please go now?// Ryou pleaded fervently from with his soul room.

Bakura wasn't listening. He had finally spotted what he was looking for. It was a dark and grimy shop, tucked away in a dark corner of a windy side road. Bakura had a knack for finding treasures, and from the moment he had stepped onto Diagon Alley, he knew that there was one of these shady pawn stores somewhere. The store was crowded to the brim with dark and dusty objects, all of them which emitted and evil aura that warmed Bakura's heart. There was even a hand of glory in one of the glass cases. He could still recall making one for himself out of one of the hand of an unlucky pharaoh when he robbed his tomb. He walked around examining the items when a hunched man came out of the back room, probably the owner of the store. "Hey!" he shouted, "If you're not 'ere to buy nuthing, then you best be gettin' out."

Bakura whirled on the man and walked purposely towards him. "If you talk to me like that again mortal, I will dispel your soul to an eternity of torture in the shadow realm. Now, tell me, that knife, where did you get it?" he said pointing to an unobtrusive silver knife hanging at the top. He had been eyeing that knife since the moment he walked in here.

Borgin took down the silver knife, and smiled, "This little treasure cost me two arms and a leg, it's called the talon of-"

"-Horus. I know what it is called fool," Bakura interrupted, his voice full of irritation, "I asked you where you got it from."

Borgin reeled at the arrogant tone of this muggle-like teenager, "It's from Egypt, one of the few treasures those greedy Gringotts goblins didn't get their hands on," he replied stiffly, "Though it's clearly out of your price range, I don't see why you bother." That was when he caught a glimpse of the smile from the boy. It made him shiver all over, and he has seen some pretty evil things. The space around the boy seemed oddly dimmer than everywhere else; he could have sworn there were eyes watching him. Borgin froze in his step, "Who are you...?" he whispered with narrowed eyes.

Just then the door opened and a pair of cloaked figures stepped through. Bakura glanced over at the two who were in the middle of pulling off their cloaks. Borgin immediately became polite and beamed in what he thought was a welcoming air. "What I can I do for you fine gentlemen?" Borgin asked eagerly, shunning Bakura to the side. Bakura pocketed the unattended knife.

The taller of the two men saw the teenager boy and glared at him, "What are you staring at?" he snarled, then he noticed Bakura's clothes, "Heh, you're a mud-blood aren't you? I didn't know you did business with their kind Borgin."

Borgin reeled fearfully, "I assure you Mr. Nott that I was just about to throw him out."

Bakura didn't take kindly to being insulted and so he smiled, showing off all of his teeth, "Well, well, well. When did worms learn to talk? If you don`t like the staring, why don`t you try and stop me?"

The other drew out a wand and poised it menacingly. "Do you know who you are trying to pick a fight with?" he hissed dangerously.

This only made Bakura laugh harder, "What are you going to with that? Poke me with it?"

The one with the wand muttered something as his wand slashed through the air sending an angry red streak. Bakura carelessly brushed it aside with the back of his hand as he continued to laugh manically, "You'll have to do better than a few sparks if you want to defeat me."

The two backed into a shelf, sending the assortment of masks tumbling to the ground. "Who are you?" the shorter one shouted, brandishing his wand wildly, as more sparks flew out at Bakura.

Bakura had already casted the necromancy shield card, and the spells bounced off harmlessly. "Oh what's the matter? I haven't done anything yet," he said, the dangling pendants on the ring around his neck clinked ominously. "but both you seem like tough worms, why don't we play a game?"

The dark purple shadows sprung up around Bakura engulfing the contents of the store.

The two corned men fell back, trying to avoid the shadows. "Do you know who we are?!" one of them screamed, "You dare threaten the Dark Lord's faithful servants?! We, the Death Eaters who serves the most powerful wizard ever to grace this world?!"

The shadows disappeared suddenly as Bakura straightened up, as the two on the ground gasped a sigh of relief. "The most powerful you say?" Bakura asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

The other two hastily stood up, "Must be because you are mud-blood, how else would you not know the greatness of our true master?" Nott spat through his teeth.

Bakura drew out a card from his pocket and flicked it into the air. The card glowed as ropes shot out and bind the two Death Eaters. "Well, then as the King of Thieves I must go and pay my respects, wouldn't you say? Take me to him."

***

Shadi felt the disturbance even before he ascertained it. He glanced out the windowless room to the clear Egyptian night and the millions of stars that twinkled down upon the land. The moon that was there a moment ago had suddenly been obscured by a dark cloud. He tore his gaze away and fixed it upon the millennium scale sitting quietly on his desk. It was glowing, a white feather on one side a black feather on the other. Then the scale tipped towards the darker feather. He blinked once as he acknowledged the duty that lay in front of him. Giving one last glance out the window, he casted a teleportation spell.


A/N: I've always wanted to write a YGO/HP fic. Lol, I'm sorry if it's clichéd since it's been so done before. But I hope you liked it anyways! Please review!