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Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition / Season Five, Round 3

Team: Puddlemere United

Position: Chaser 3

Prompt: Write about a Truth that is a love confession

Bonus Prompts:

3) (dialogue) "You don't have a choice. It's do or die."

5) (word) difference

10) (word) wither

Word Count (not including title and author's notes): 2906 (Google Docs)

The Gods' Magicians

There are some places in the world that seem to hold onto magic more than others. Over time, ancient enchantments and remnants of powerful spells seep into the very land and air, which has some unwanted consequences. People have been known to disappear into the night and never return. (Or worse, they do return, but are changed.) Curses are harder to break and Dark creatures seem to be drawn to the sites, like eager moths to a flame.

Thankfully, cities — even ones with long histories — remain, for the most part, unaffected. It is only when one steps out into the wilds of the world, into the places that history barely remembers or understands, that the difference can be felt. These places, for reasons best left forgotten, intensely absorb and emanate Dark magic.

Perhaps one of the most infamous, if not the oldest, of these being the Valley of Kings. Beware stepping foot into the twisting labyrinths for one will only find the Dead.

And the Dead are said to claim all who enter as their own.

.oOo.

The rugged Muggle Jeep sped out of the city and into the Egyptian desert, leaving a trail of dust behind it. Fleur Delacour watched the desert landscape fly past her window. Bill Weasley was sitting the seat in front of her; Alex, another Gringotts employee, sat in the back next to her. Both wore grim expressions. All three of them had been specifically pulled for an emergency assignment early that morning. They had only been told that they had an hour to pack and to wear Muggle clothes, before they were to travel to Egypt. That had been an hour and a half ago.

Fleur turned to look at their driver. The wizard was an unassuming man, but at the same time had a presence about himself that declared he didn't accept anyone's nonsense. Apparently, he was also a man of few words. He had only briefly introduced himself as they had stumbled out of the international Floo, before ushering them out of the Wizarding Republic of Egypt (WIRE) headquarters and into the Jeep.

"Gamil," she said, "what is going on? Why are we here?" Despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she found herself smiling slightly. It seemed that the last six months of working in Gringotts had paid off and her English had drastically improved. She barely noticed her accent.

Gamil glanced in the rear view at her, before pulling a piece of parchment out of his pocket. Without saying a word, he handed it to Bill, who immediately cracked the seal. Fleur frowned in response. She wasn't used to being ignored, especially by men. She glanced at Bill as he read the message and felt butterflies in her stomach.

As long as he does not ignore me, Fleur thought contentedly, I guess I will be okay.

You should tell him that, a snarky voice promptly responded in the back of her mind. She firmly pushed the thought aside as Alex leaned over toward her.

"Not very talkative, is he?" he muttered in her ear. Fleur smiled slightly in gratitude. They had previously worked together on a couple of research projects and had gotten along well. He winked at her and they fell into a companionable silence.

"It seems that a group of Muggle archaeologists stumbled across a new labyrinth of tombs in the Valley of Kings," Bill quickly summarized. He folded the letter and put it in his own jacket pocket. His face, if possible, seemed grimmer than before. "Three of them barely entered the labyrinth when they set off some sort of trap."

Anxiety set her heart pounding and stillness descended in the car. The tension was palpable. They all knew just what kind of traps could have been activated — and none of them were pretty.

Fleur was the first to break the silence. "Are they okay?" she asked tentatively. Bill tersely shook his head and her question was answered loud and clear.

"Shite," Alex whispered. Fleur couldn't help, but wholeheartedly agree. "How long until we arrive?"

"About 45 minutes," Bill responded. He turned in the seat to look at them. The car hit a rut and Fleur lurched forward, but her eyes remained locked on his. "Now's the time to do final preparations to your packs and plan on what you will be bringing. Because as soon as we get there, we enter the labyrinth."

"Yes, sir," Alex said. Fleur heard him start to rustle through his backpack, but couldn't bring herself to look through her own. She continued to stare into Bill's worried eyes.

"Fleur," he murmured, "I know this is your first time in the field. Are you sure—"

"Are you doubting me, Bill?" she interrupted, her tone defensive. This wasn't the first time that day she had been questioned about why she had been pulled for this assignment. The two wizards with her were seasoned Curse Breakers; she had only ever researched the cases for the teams in the field.

He held her gaze for another moment, as if he was searching for something important. Whatever it was, he apparently found it.

"I trust you, Fleur," he replied. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but instead closed his mouth and turned to face the front. She waited, but he didn't say anything more. Sighing, she pulled out her backpack and began sorting through it.

The next forty minutes or so were painfully quiet. It had only taken her twenty minutes to finish her preparations — a full five minutes longer than the more practiced men — so she had spent the rest of the time watching the scenery pass. It was the desert, so there wasn't too much variation. At one point, however, Fleur thought she had seen a shadow of something running out of the corner of her eye. But in the split second it had taken her to turn her head, nothing was there.

Finally, Gamil stopped the car next to a cluster of tents outside the opening to a cave. A few Muggles were huddled beneath them in a group. They looked up at their arrival and Fleur thought they looked both afraid and weary.

After what happened to their friends, you should not be surprised, she gently chastised herself.

As soon as the Jeep was parked, the four occupants jumped out. The moment her feet hit the blistering sand, Fleur was overcome by dread. Her palms became sweaty and she fiddled with the ends of her jacket sleeves.

Something is not right, she thought in a blind panic. She frantically glanced around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Although, no matter where she looked, her gaze was continually drawn back to the cave entrance. The shadows just past the entry seemed to twist and swirl unnaturally…

"Everything okay?" a voice murmured in her ear.

She jumped. Turning on a dime, she noticed Bill standing right next to her. He was gazing at her with concern. She looked back to the cave. While the feeling of dread was still there, it was noticeably less and the shadows appeared normal.

"Yeah," she said with a nod, trying to sound confident. "Yeah, I'm fine." Looking around for a new topic, she noticed Gamil was animatedly talking to the Muggles, while holding up a badge of some sort. Fleur watched him curiously.

"What is he doing?" she whispered to Bill. It was Alex who answered her question, however.

"He is informing them that we are an elite government team," he interjected, coming to stand on her left side. "It's the cover story we use for this type of work, especially when Muggles are involved. An elite government team comes in to fix the problem — highly classified, of course — and then Obliviators come in later and do memory modifications."

"When we have foreign teams come in for work, Alex is often that point person for them," Bill explained. "It's now time to focus on our job, though. When we enter the labyrinth, I will take point. Alex, you will be taking up the rear— no, don't argue. Remember that time in Paris? You have good eyes and fast reflexes. I need you watching our backs."

Alex nodded solemnly. Bill turned to Fleur. "How's your supersensory Charm work?" he asked.

"Good," she replied, real confidence finally creeping back into her voice. She was still a little shaken from earlier, but she pushed back against the fear; she had a job to do. Bill nodded and accepted her answer.

"Then you're our perfect sweeper. I need you to focus on our immediate area. Let us know right away if there are any hidden rooms or traps."

"Okay," she said.

"Then let's get going."

.oOo.

The going was slow — very, very slow.

They had easily found were the first trap had killed the Muggle archaeologists. Enchanted blades made of obsidian had erupted from the walls. There was still blood on the hieroglyphs, which posed a problem. The curses at work there were practically shouting that they were blood magic; the immediate trap had served a dual purpose. It had taken almost an hour to dismantle the second layer of spell work.

Moving further into the labyrinth, they quickly realized that the passages were far more extensive than they originally anticipated. They began using Muggle flares that Alex had brought to mark the passages they had finished exploring. With every turn, Bill took a moment to mark it in a journal. The hours slipped by in a haze of stopping and starting, deactivating traps and exploring tombs.

Fleur was the first one to realize that they hadn't just been traveling further into the labyrinth, they had been also going down into the earth.

"Stop," she said.

The two wizards froze. The one time they hadn't immediately listened to her, they had accidently tripped a curse that had enacted anti-Portkey and anti-Apparition wards. None of them could remove the wards, but there were worse things than having to walk out of the labyrinth, right?

"What is it, Fleur?" Bill asked. "Another trap?"

She shook her head, her blonde hair shimmered oddly in the wand light. "Can you not feel it?" she whispered.

"Feel what?" Alex responded.

"We have been going down," she replied. The hairs began to stand up the back of her neck and she fought the urge to look behind them.

Nothing is there, nothing is there, she repeated in her mind. Nothing is there… Please, Merlin…

"So what if we've been going down," Alex snapped. "We're in a tomb. They tend to be underground."

"Fleur, it's okay," Bill said comfortingly. But she held her ground.

"No, it is not okay," she shot back. A thought nudged at the back of her mind. There was something else that felt off; something else felt strange. She just couldn't place it…

"Can we keep going?" Alex asked, his tone a mixture of exhaustion and annoyance.

"We need to head back," Fleur said absentmindedly. She was still trying to sort out what felt wrong. "We have spent too much time in the labyrinth."

"Why?" Alex asked. "For the most part, we've been able to fly through the curse breaking. Sure there have been a few challenges and some of the traps had a second layer of spell work, but…"

Fleur tuned out the rest of what Alex was saying because she finally figured out what was wrong. And by the look on Bill's pale face, he realized it, too.

"It has been—" she started.

"—too easy," he finished.

"Let me see your journal, Bill," she demanded. "Now!" She did her best to ignore the overwhelming feeling of dread and the gathering shadows.

Bill tossed her the book and rapidly started casting spells.

"Protego Horribilis! Protego Totalum! Fianto Duri!" he commanded. "Fleur, can we fix this?"

"Maybe!" she responded.

"Fix what?" Alex shouted. Fleur snapped her head up and glared in his direction. "Fix what?" he repeated.

An unearthly shriek answered his question and echoed ahead of them in the darkness of the labyrinth.

Fleur watched as Alex seemed to wither in front of her eyes. Bill began to cast faster. "Fleur?" he frantically questioned in between spells.

"I am looking!" she shouted back, flipping through the book. "Alex! Help him!"

Alex seemed to come back to life. "Protego Maxima!" he shouted. "Cave Inimicum! Salvio Hexia!"

Fleur felt the protective wards spring up around them. "Please, please, please…" she muttered, as she filled through the pages in the journal. There was another shriek, this time much closer.

"Fleur…" Bill said desperately.

She found the page where Bill had been marking their turns, creating a crude map. She stared at it, her mind racing a mile a minute, before she realized what she was seeing. It wasn't a map.

They were Runes.

"Bill!" she shouted. "The labyrinth: it is Runes!"

"Salvio Hexia! What Runes?"

"They are…" her eyes scanned the page, looking at the Runes from the labyrinth entrance to where they were currently standing, "…binding. Morgana! Bill, they are Binding Runes! They are meant to keep all who walk the paths of the labyrinth here!"

"The paths?" Alex shouted. "The paths were Runes?"

"Whichever sadistic bastard created this labyrinth loved layering spells," Bill explained quickly. "It makes perfect twisted sense that the passages were laid out to make Runes. If you don't die from the traps, you get stuck down here anyway. How do we get out of here, Fleur?"

Another unnatural shriek sounded in the passage; this time it was just around the corner. Fleur felt her heart stop.

"We…we have to complete the last Rune," she said faintly. "And then undo everything."

"And we do that how?" Bill responded.

"By turning the corner up ahead and then retracing our steps out."

Alex started shaking his head. "No," he said frantically. "No, no, no! I can't do it!"

"You don't have a choice," Bill replied. "It's do or die."

Fleur tossed the book back to Bill. "We swap places," she said firmly. "I go first, Alex is in the middle, and Bill is in the back. That way when we turn the corner, we can all easily turn around and get out of here!"

"Fleur…" Bill protested, but was cut off.

"You don't have a choice," she said softly, turning his words back at him. "It's do or die. I will be fine."

Their eyes met and the moment stretched into infinity. But in that moment, they can to an understanding.

"You know," Bill said as he took his place behind Alex, "I think I might love you, Fleur."

"Yeah?" she said. "Well, I know I love you. NOW!"

Flares: That was the first thing Fleur saw as she rounded the corner. And then she saw it. She heard her companions come up behind her. Bill swore.

The short corridor ended about nine meters from the passageway junction. Laid on the ground at the end of the passage was a pile of all of their flares. And in illuminated by the light was a shadowy figure of a beast — a monster from nightmares. Fleur was strangely enthralled by it.

"Fleur! RUN!" She felt Alex's hand latch onto her arm and she was pulled out of the corridor as the beast shrieked. She faced forward and ran into the passages of the labyrinth. She felt the shadows crawling up her spine, but she never turned back.

.oOo.

The three of them bolted out of the labyrinth entrance and into the night. They uncontrollably tried to slow down and catch their breaths. Stars twinkled happily across the sky. Thankfully, Gamil was still awake and waiting for them with the Jeep.

"Do. Not. Ask," Fleur stated, as they all jumped into the car. Their driver raised an eyebrow in question. "Just drive. Please," she rephrased.

Gamil turned the key in the ignition and took off into the desert. The three Curse Breakers quietlt looked at one another. Bill reached out and held Fleur's hand.

"I quit," Alex stated.

"First, we have to tell WIRE and the Ministry what happened here," Fleur said. "Then you can quit." She smiled at him and he offered her a small grin in return.

"We also have to inform Gringotts," Bill added. "But sure, Alex. After that, you can quit."

"Gee, thanks, guys," Alex joked. "Anything else I need to do, before I can leave?"

"I will let you know," Fleur said in a mock serious voice.

The three of them looked at each other, before bursting into laughter. They survived and had plans to inform the necessary Ministries.

Everything was going to be fine.

.oOo.

…Except it wasn't.

The next morning when the Curse Breakers brought Ministry officials to the site, there was no evidence of a new labyrinth of tombs that had been recently uncovered. There was no evidence of magic, blood magic, enchantments, or Runes. There was no evidence of a Dark creature.

There was nothing.

But as Fleur stood on the site of where the labyrinth had been — because it had been there — she closed her eyes and felt it. Deep beneath the ground, swirled an ancient, shadowy evil that was waiting for the right time to once again try to gain its free. The land remembered the magic that had been there.

Some things could not be forgotten.