Written by NeonDomino and ScreamingFaeries.
Written for - Capture the Flag.
Round Two - Flag Prompt: Gringotts
As Bill wandered across the hill towards his old childhood home, he gazed down at a letter in his hands, feeling slightly nervous.
The letter was from a higher authority at Gringotts. They'd approved for Bill to take a trip to Egypt, where he would be joining the experienced Curse-Breaking team that were working on the tombs out there.
Of course, Bill was naturally excited. He'd put his name out weeks ago when the Goblins were asking for wizards and witches to sign up for the trip, but being the youngest Curse Breaker to join Gringotts, he hadn't expected that he would be chosen. He'd never been abroad before, so this was going to be a whole new adventure.
However, as he reached the kitchen door to the Burrow, he swallowed nervously. Not because he was afraid of the trip he would be taking - he had someone much more ferocious to deal with than anyone he might meet abroad. His mother.
He took a couple of deep breaths before pushing the door open, glad that his mother wasn't cooking in there. Maybe if he could find his father first, Arthur would help him break the news gently?
That plan went out of the window when his mother came into room, freezing momentarily at the sight of her eldest son.
Her hands moved to her hips. "William Arthur Weasley, it feels like months since you've come to the house," she accused, both of them knowing it had only been a couple of weeks.
"Sorry mum," he replied, walking over and planting a kiss on her cheek and giving her a hug. "You got my owl?"
She nodded. "It's a nice surprise, you asking to have a family dinner… Ginny is just setting the table now." She noticed the nervous look on her son's face. "Is something wrong?" she asked. "Is it work? Is there a problem with your flat? Because you can come and stay in your old room if you need to."
Bill held his hands up at the onslaught of questions. "No, nothing's wrong. I just came to share some good news with you," Bill told her. He held out the letter which he had been clutching earlier on. "I...I got this from work today." Bill offered her a confident grin, though he struggled to make eye contact.
Molly narrowed her eyes at him and took the letter out of his hand, smoothing out the creases in the parchment. Bill watched as her face contorted into a look of utter horror, the further she got down the page. When she was finally done reading, she threw the letter down on the floor beside her.
"Well-this-I can't believe this!" she gasped in shock, and began to parade around the kitchen, flapping her hands around in distress. "No. They can't send you there. It's utterly ridiculous - a young boy of twenty one, you're barely out of Hogwarts! No, I'm going to speak to this-Griphook-right away. Just wait until your father gets home," Molly advanced on her son, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a warm embrace. "Don't worry dear, we'll make sure they don't send you on this horrible trip. Mummy will fix it."
"Mum," scoffed Bill, trying to push his mother back. "They're not making me go! I signed up for the trip weeks ago."
Molly's face dropped once again. "You-what?! Are you crazy? William Arthur Weasley-just wait until your father hears about this!"
With that, she stormed from the room. Bill sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It was going to be a long dinner!
...oOo...
Bill looked around the small tent that he had been brought to upon his arrival. It was pretty basic, with just a bed, dresser, desk and bookcase, but he didn't really need much more. He placed his suitcase onto the bed and began to look around, finding writing supplies in the desk drawer.
He pulled out a bit of parchment, ink and a quill and he started writing a letter to his mother, letting her know that he had arrived safely. He knew if he didn't, he'd end up with a howler from her, which is something he didn't want.
Once the letter was finished, he headed out in search of an owl to send it to her. He was sure he saw a couple flying around a tent near the start of their camp.
As he was tying his letter to the leg of a large brown owl that was perched on a fence a little way away from his tent, a group of wizards and one witch advanced upon him. "William Weasley?" the witch asked. She was a very old looking woman, with snow white hair and dressed in jet black robes, which couldn't have been comfortable in this scorching heat. She was carrying a large, knarly wooden staff, which was almost as big as her, and was staring up at Bill with piercing blue eyes.
"Yes, that's me," Bill replied, as the owl soared away from the camp with his letter. "But you can call me Bill."
"We'll call you whatever we like," snapped one of the wizards, a wide-set man of middle eastern descent, with a thick accent and a dark beard. Bill nodded at him, biting back the urge to shoot back a smart response.
"My name is Kassandra," the witch said. "I lead the Curse Breaking group over here in Cairo. We're heading out to a tomb right now, and I'd like you to join us."
"If you're not too jet-lagged from the apparition over here, of course," sneered the bearded man. The other wizards on the team sniggered, but Bill kept his attention on the witch. She seemed to be the only one taking anything seriously around here.
He supposed it was because of his age, but that made him more determined to prove himself. Just because he was a few years younger than the usual curse-breakers that got sent over, it didn't mean he was any less able to do the job.
"I'm ready," he replied, his eyes fixed on Kassandra.
Bill walked behind the group, ignoring the looks and the jokes from the men in front of him and tried not to look awed at the sight of the pyramid as they approached it. He kept his eyes fixed on the witch at the head of the group. They came to a stop and Kassandra stepped forward and pressed her hand against one of the stones.
The stones slid apart, revealing a narrow entry, and she stepped through, the men all following and Bill bringing up the back of the group.
Wands were lit as they slowly made their way up the narrow passageway. Bill's gaze falling on the Hieroglyphics lining the walls. He kept his eye out for anything that had even the faintest hint of magic, but nothing revealed itself to him.
The others were walking confidently, with their arms swinging beside them, as if they weren't even the slightest bit worried about what could possibly be around the corner. Bill was the only one edging along, keeping his eyes peeled and his wand firmly pointed ahead of him, despite the occasional snort that his comrades gave him.
Finally, they came to a very large, circular door, with two flame lit torches either side of it. It seemed to be made of an ethereal material; it was coloured purple, but it shimmered, as though it was made of liquid. Kassandra pressed her hand to the door briefly, and closed her eyes, as though she was listening to it.
"Oh yes, this is definitely going to take all of us," Kassandra murmured, stepping back. "Spread out everyone - you know the drill." Her eye caught Bill's. "William, please stand back over there - you'll want to sit this one out and observe."
"He might want to sit a few of them out," sniggered another one of the wizards, a silver-haired man in his late fifties. Bill rolled his eyes and did as Kassandra said, taking a few paces back.
Kassandra stood in the middle, directly in front of the circular door. She held her staff above her head, and began to chant something in a language that Bill didn't understand. Her team spread out around her, and they all pointed their wands at the door and joined in with the foreign chanting.
For a few moments, Bill didn't think that anything was happening. But as the chanting grew louder, he noticed that a thick plume of black smoke was pouring from a hole in the very centre of the circular door. As more smoke evicted the door, it no longer looked shimmery and purple. Finally, Kassandra gave a gasp, and held her staff higher, and all of the smoke that was surrounding the team appeared to be sucked into the staff.
The door looked completely different, now. Instead of being purple, it was solid gold, with various hieroglyphs etched across its breadth.
The door opened.
One of the men glanced at Bill. "A few years and you'll get to join in," he said, smirking at him. "Don't worry, you seem quite talented at sitting back and watching." Bill pursed his lips but said nothing.
Disappointed that he wasn't getting a response, the man turned back to his team and Bill listened to them all trying to work out which one of them would go inside first.
Kassandra seemed happy to let them talk it out, but after a few minutes, Bill got bored of waiting. It seemed to him that they were making excuses as to why they shouldn't be the first in.
"I'll do it," Bill said, causing the conversation to cease, and all sets of eyes to land on him. The men looked at him like he was joking, a couple sniggering.
Bill clenched his teeth, pushing past them and reaching for the door. He pushed it open and stepped inside. Before anyone could follow him, the door slammed shut behind him. He turned and reached for the door, trying to pull it open, but to no avail. He wondered if it was one of the guys playing a joke on him and let go, turning to look around the room instead.
He lit his wand, and began carefully moving across the large room. He remembered in training that he wasn't supposed to use bigger spells for lights until he had checked that there were no triggering spells in the room.
His gaze took everything in, and he watched every step, examined every bit of wall until he reached the door again. Happy that he hadn't found a triggering curse, he lit the whole room up.
His eyes moved across the artefacts in the room, and he was eager to get his hands on them and examine them. Finally his gaze fell on the sarcophagus sitting in the middle of the room. He slowly approached them.
After all, if the team were playing a joke on him, it was their loss that they were missing out on the discovery.
The sarcophagi that caught Bill's eye was the one in the very centre. It was a magnificent coffin, made from solid gold and encrusted with various gemstones. Bill allowed his wand-light to glow across it, feeling quite breathless at the intricate detail that had gone into creating this masterpiece.
Unable to contain himself, he reached out and ran his hand along the stone. Maybe he was imagining it, but it felt unusually warm to the touch.
Suddenly, there was an almighty cracking noise, and Bill jumped back as a low gravelly sound came from the core of the sarcophagus. Slowly, the stone front began to grind open.
Bill watched, horrified, as a human-shaped creature emerged from the coffin. It was covered head to toe in dirty, off-white wrappings, but there were gaps across the face. Instead of a human mouth there was a great gash where a persons lips would be, and dust and insects spilled from the opening. Bill could see one eye in it's face, which was golden yellow in colour, and glaring right at him.
It walked slowly, with it's arms outstretched, towards Bill. It was groaning and moaning comically, and if he had been in any other situation, Bill might have actually found the sight quite humorous.
He pointed his wand at the mummy, trying to recall any of his three years of training, but his mind was blank. He looked at the door, hoping the guys on the other side had heard the noise and would come in, but there was still silence from the other side.
Bill took a deep breath, trying to focus every bit of his attention on the approaching mummy. He had to get it back in the sarcophagus, and seal it in somehow.
Not certain what else to do, he ran through the spells from Hogwarts in his mind, searching for anything that would take the mummy down, or at least anything that would help him protect himself until the door opened.
If the door opened, that was.
He backed up, trying to put space between him and the creature, thinking hard. He grinned as he recalled Duelling Club back at Hogwarts, where he was one of the top.
This mummy didn't stand a chance!
...oOo…
Bill turned around to the door as it was flung open, all the men rushing in, their wands drawn. Their eyes searched the room until the spotted Bill.
"Weasley? What happened in here?"
"Not much, the mummy got out, so I put it back in and sealed the Sarcophagus," he said, putting his wand away. "What took you so long?"
"A spell," Kassandra explained. "It only allowed one entry. We only realised as you pushed the door open and weren't able to keep it open."
"You faced a mummy… alone?" One of the men asked, and Bill nodded. "Yeah. Bit scary, but not as much as my own mum. Why? Haven't any of you?"
"We're supposed to take on any creatures found in tombs in groups."
"Oh," Bill asked, amused. "I guess they're taking your ages into account, I mean, you wouldn't be able to handle it alone. No wonder they're taking on younger curse-breakers."
A few of the men glared, but the rest laughed.
"Maybe you aren't so bad after all," one of them muttered.
"So… are you lot just going to stand there, or are we going to explore?" Bill asked, grinning at his team.. "I found another door against the back. If you want, I could go through and make sure it's safe for all of you. Wouldn't want you to put your backs out fighting something now, would we?"