A.N. This is my first try at an actual fanfic, helpful criticism is accepted. Enjoy! ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Harry Potter, love to, but don't.

NOTE: Everyone thank Susie Q for telling me that is making my former chapters' formats go haywire or I wouldn't have reformatted them this soon, hehe.

This chapter was edited and reposted December 2008. Please let me know if anything looks wrong, like it's not showing up, etc.

:. . .: is Yugi, double is Yami

(. . .) is Ryou, double is Bakura

;. . .; is Malik, double is Ishtar

Chapter 1

A tall, thin figure dressed in long, black robes stood in the center of a small chamber walled and tiled in stone. All around him the darkness stood still and thick as fog on a windless day. Only his eyes glinted in the darkness, two points of bright, bloody crimson.

"Who are you?" His voice though thin and dry as a serpent's hiss was harsh in its strength. As though in response the empty darkness before him stirred and gathered itself into a pool even blacker than night. And as though from the deepest recesses of a well another voice whispered back with words as soft and cold as silk.

"I am myself," it said. "I have no name. But I can be an ally to you if you will be an ally of mine."

Red eyes narrowed a little at the answer. He had not really expected a response, after all he had felt the shadow's presence for days and it had not spoken at all in that time, but now it seemed it had decided to make itself known. He would humor it, he thought. After all, he was curious about it, this creature that seemed to be nothing but a shadow and a voice.

"What do you have that could be of any use to me?"

To his surprise the darkness laughed. "Power, of course, what other answer could there be?"

He didn't like that mocking edge, but he had to admit the answer was sound. Still . . . "What power could you have to offer me that I could not attain myself?"

The darkness was silent and for a moment he thought he had caught it at its game, but then it spoke and it sounded entirely too smug. "The power of the shadows. Access to the realms that your people never mastered. That is the power I wield."

He considered this. So the creature was one of the other-realm dwellers. Perhaps it could be useful after all. "And what do you seek?"

The reply was immediate, a single word spat out with all the force of a striking snake. "Vengeance."

Very interesting indeed.

"I accept your offer, Shadow, but I do not make deals with the nameless."

This time there was a long moment of silence before the answer came slithering reluctantly forth. "If you need a name then call me Kahmiss."

x-X-x

"Malik! You aren't going out in that are you?" Yugi Motou, world Duel Monsters champion and reigning King of Games, asked, eyeing his blond, Egyptian friend's sleeveless shirt. "It's the middle of autumn!"

Malik looked down at himself with a critical eye. "So?"

"He means it might be cold," said the white-haired boy who had just walked out of the hotel room's one bathroom.

Malik shrugged. "How cold could it get?"

"Very," replied an old man wearing an orange bandana as he emerged from the adjoining room. "They say the temperature has dropped even further than usual for this time of year. I would suggest you wear a jacket at least. What would your sister say if you got sick on this trip?"

Grumbling, Malik pulled on a black jacket and tucked the Millennium Rod safely into an inside pocket.

"You three can walk around a bit while I take care of some business at the university. Just make sure you get back before eight. We'll be leaving for the house we rented after dinner."

"All right Grandpa." Yugi offered the old man a cheery smile which was returned in kind. His grandfather was the proud owner of a small game shop in Domino City, Japan, but he was also an archeologist and it was this other occupation of his that had brought the four of them to London. His grandfather had gotten an invitation from some colleagues at a university in London to attend a conference. They had also showed some desire for the man to give a few presentations of his own. The moment he had received the invitation Solomon Motou had immediately packed and booked tickets to London, too excited to dawdle, but he had waited long enough for his grandson to ask his closest friends if any of them were interested in coming along for the ride. Two of them, Malik Ishtar and Ryou Bakura, had been more than happy to come along for the impromptu vacation and spirits were running high now that they had finally arrived.

:This is going to be great!:

::I'm sure it will be,:: came the sleepy reply in his mind as the spirit who dwelled inside the puzzle he wore stirred. ::I'm going back to sleep Aibou, wake me if you need me.::

Yugi grinned at that. None of the three yamis carried by him and his friends respectively had been able to get any sleep last night on the plane. :I will Yami.:

x-X-x

It turned out that it was indeed quite cold. The travelers heard that the winter chills had come early that year and everyone was expecting early snows as well. But even with the temperature the three teenage duelists had a great time looking around London. Well, that was until the skies decided to open up and pour.

"This way!" Ryou shouted and they bolted for the nearest open shop which happened to be an old bar with a sign overhead declaring it to be 'The Leaky Cauldron'. Not that any of them minded as the place was apparently leaky in name only.

"Man! And we just got out too!" Malik complained loudly, watching the sheets of rain coming down like a waterfall just beyond the door.

"Just be glad that we're not in it," Yugi told him, trying to keep a cheerful face on things despite his own disappointment. It was after all only their first day in London and what was the point of starting a vacation on a sour note just because they couldn't control the weather?

"Can I help you?"

All three teens spun around at the unfamiliar voice to find a bent-backed old man watching them. From his clothes he appeared to be the bartender and he had somehow managed to come up behind them without their notice. This gave him instant black marks in Malik's book and he watched the man closely for any signs of suspicious behavior.

"Uh, no thank you sir," Ryou replied in his soft British accent when both Yugi and Malik looked to him as their best English speaker. "We came in to shelter from the storm, I hope you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind," the old man replied. "Will you be going to the alley then?"

Ryou looked blank but Malik quickly filled in the gap with a quick, "Yes we are. Could you show us the way?"

"Just follow me."

Ryou and Yugi both shot him strange looks behind the bartender's back but Malik shrugged them off. All he'd done was give the man the answer he apparently expected. The old man led them into the small walled courtyard behind the pub that contained nothing but a trashcan. He walked over to this while the boys watched, wondering what in the world he could possibly be doing, and tapped on one of the bricks with a stick. To their surprise, a hole appeared in the brick that had been tapped and it grew into a doorway leading out onto a cobbled street lined with shops.

"I'll just leave you now," he said once the arch was fully open and left, apparently oblivious to the stunned looks on their faces.

((Now that was unexpected.))

Ryou nearly jumped when the voice spoke up in the back of his mind. He had been under the impression the spirit of the Ring was still sleeping. (Yami! You're awake?)

((Of course I am!)) Bakura snapped. ((And I have been for a while now. You need to work on your observation skills.))

"So, are we going in?" Yugi asked nervously.

Malik shrugged. "Why not? We're supposed to be exploring London aren't we?"

And so, with Malik in the lead, they walked through the brick archway and started down the street beyond. The street that contained some of the strangest commodities they had ever seen.

X

"Wow! Look at all these things!" Yugi exclaimed in wide-eyed amazement. Every shop in the alley was overflowing with what could only be described as a Halloween fanatic's daydreams. Even Malik was staring in awe. Behind them Ryou walked with a slight frown on his face. Out of the three of them he was the only one who had ever been to London though he had been much younger at the time. His memories of the place were limited, but he was sure cauldrons and color-changing ink hadn't been commonplace back then. And his father had never mentioned them becoming so. Well, the ink he could understand, but he honestly couldn't imagine some of these products in an average English home.

((Oh, now that looks interesting,)) Bakura mused as he caught a glimpse of a decorative dagger on display in a newly opened store. He liked it.

(Yami! I don't think that's a good idea—)

But Bakura had already switched with his hikari and had slipped away from Malik and Yugi.

;;Hey Hikari, where's the tomb robber?;; Ishtar's voice sounded in Malik's mind.

Malik halted suddenly and glanced around. No Bakura or Ryou. He cursed under his breath and started backtracking their footsteps.

Yugi caught up with him a moment later. "Where do you think he could be?"

Apparently, Yami had also noticed the tomb robber's disappearance as well.

"THEIF!"

Yugi and Malik traded looks before bolting in the direction of the alarm.

X

Bakura skidded out of the shop and ran down the street, darting through the crowd, not caring whom he happened to knock head-over-heels.

(I told you that would be a bad idea,) Ryou scolded his yami.

((Well how was I supposed to know the cushion would scream when I took the dagger?)) Bakura snapped back. Modern technology wasn't his forte after all.

The shopkeeper and his assistant were chasing after him, yelling for him to return what he'd stolen. They were starting to draw a lot of attention—and bystanders were joining the chase.

Bakura vaulted onto a table of cauldrons, kicking them off to crash and roll towards his pursuers. Then, cackling maniacally, he sprinted past a menagerie, pausing a moment to unleash the startled inhabitants of various cages. Cage doors crashed open and the unsettled animals within them spilled forth to go rampaging down the street, getting in everybody's way.

X

Malik dodged a miniature horse-like creature and ducked in time to avoid having his head permanently misplaced by an encyclopedia flying at two hundred miles per hour. Yugi, due to his smaller size, was having a somewhat easier time of it because he could run underneath the missiles Bakura had set soaring with his magic. Then again, with all the things, inanimate and otherwise, littering the ground, it wasn't much of a relief.

"Blasted tomb robber!" Malik growled as yet another undesirable object came hurtling at him. He blocked it with a small-scale portal that sent it spiraling into the shadow realm.

"There he is!" Yugi panted, pointing up ahead to a fleeing figure with white hair from which a lunatic's laughter rang. The two caught up to Bakura and hauled him back through the wall, which probably wouldn't be closing again in a while since Malik, who had been in the lead, had forgotten which brick was the door. Now they leaned against a wall outside of the Leaky Cauldron.

"I haven't had that much fun in a long time!" Bakura grinned at his two companions.

"Next time you can have fun when we're not around!" Malik snarled, glaring daggers at the tomb robber.

Bakura barked an un-repenting laugh and retreated back into the Millennium Ring to gloat over his prize—the elaborate, silvery dagger with a hilt in the shape of a demonic looking eagle. With Ryou back in control of his body the three travelers stood for a moment in silence.

"We better get back," Yugi said tiredly as Ryou offered them an embarrassed apology. "At least it's stopped raining."

TBC

A.N. So how was it? I tried to make it a little funny but I'm not sure if I succeeded or not.