A/N Stuff:
The usual disclaimer – I make no claim to the Harry Potter works – they belong to JK Rowling. Purely a piece of fanfiction.
A few words on the fic:
First, due to time constraints, this fic will be slow to update.
Second, pairings/storyline – this will be Harry/Fleur, and Fleur will enter the story's timeline before Goblet of Fire. No Veela bond/harem.
1140AD – The Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt
The small party traipsed toward the cliffs that sheltered the entrance of the Valley of the Kings from the harsh winds of the Egyptian desert. The two men in the front were a long way from home. Clad in leather armor and stark white tabards emblazoned with a thin, stylized red cross, they had adapted to their new environment by combining martial practicality with comfort. Behind them were four other men who carried torches and guided camels that had cloth bundles lashed to their saddles.
Despite wearing the heraldry of the Knights Templar, one of the many Catholic military orders operating within the Holy Land, this was no Templar expedition – indeed, Luxor was too far removed from Jerusalem to offer any strategic or religious value to the Crusaders – but then, these men were not ordinary Templars.
Instead of carrying the traditional swords of the order, the two men carried wands, held relaxed at their sides, but accessible in the event of an emergency. They looked intently towards the valley, and spoke quietly to each other, inaudible to the people behind them.
"Did the map say specifically the location of the tomb, William?" One of the men asked. They were both broad shouldered, built like the soldiers of their order. His colleague withdrew a faded map from a leather pouch at his belt, holding his wand over it. Light illuminated from the tip, displaying a rough sketch of what appeared to be the Valley of the Kings. He gestured to one of the closer marked tombs on the map in response.
"I must say, it was a stroke of luck finding this map in Jerusalem," William began, "because it would've taken us a significant amount of time to search the other tombs in the Valley – and there may also be tombs that haven't even been explored yet." His companion let out a laugh at that, before reaching for his waterskin and muttering, "This pursuit has taken us halfway across the world. Thankfully, for once, fortune was in our favour."
William nodded at that, as they approached the entrance to the Valley, which was barred by a stone gate, blocking the way ahead. "Hmmm," William commented, "this shouldn't pose a problem. Godfrey, I'll talk to the porters, if you can deal with this?"
The taller man nodded, his black hair and full beard almost indistinguishable from the black of the sky above. He raised his wand, and moved towards the obstacle. "Use your subtlety, not your strength please." William remarked dryly, turning in the opposite direction to the white-robed porters, who had stopped in their tracks, one hundred paces from the stone barrier.
"Gentlemen!" William swept his hands into an open stance asking, "What seems to be the problem?" There was a shuffling of feet, before one porter stepped forward, tugging on his robes anxiously. "We go no further sir," the man began, "It is a bad omen to cross into the Valley of the Dead."
William shook his head in disbelief at this. "Amon, we discussed this back in Cairo – you were to carry our equipment into the tomb and assist us with setting it up." The porter, Amon, checked to see whether his companions were still in support, before replying "No further, Mr. William" in a tone that indicated his decision was final.
William threw his hands up in exasperation. "Fine. Have it your way. Make sure you're here when we get back, and that the boat is ready for us to return to Cairo as soon as possible." Without waiting for a response, he whirled and stalked back to where Godfrey had, with a series of clean cuts with his wand, created a passageway slightly larger than the size of a person through the rock. With a snap of his fingers, and a cry of alarm from the porters out of vision behind him, several of the canvas bundles unstrapped and then floated off the camels, and began to follow William.
"What was the problem?" Godfrey enquired, as he stepped into the tunnel he had made.
"Porter revolt – they think the Valley of the Kings is cursed." William responded, following his friend, and tugging at his gloves.
"In a way, they're right though," Godfrey pointed out, "but it's not the type of curse they think."
After several paces, they stepped out into the Valley of the Kings proper. A single, dusty track wound from the entrance, where they stood in the lower ground up to the higher sections of the valley. It snaked around spurs of earth that jutted out of the imposing looking cliffs.
"Perfect place for an ambush." William remarked, looking at the tableau. He raised his wand aloft and called more light, illuminating the path in front of them. "We'll need to walk for a bit into the Valley proper, and then take one of the offshoot paths behind one of those hills," He informed Godfrey.
They walked in silence, the air still and the night chilled, a contrast to the desert heat of the day. They passed two offshoot tracks, before they reached a third. "This is the third fork – we need to take a left here." William explained, turning, and leaving the main pathway. On either side were rock cliffs that rose slowly. There were tomb entrances on both sides of the cliffs, but they had been blocked up. "We're nearly there." He muttered. They travelled down the left path of another fork, and soon, their vision of the main pathway was blocked, as the offshoot curved sharply around a rocky outcrop. There was a small archway built into rock, and it too, had been sealed with stone. "This is the one we need." William pointed.
They approached the archway. Scratched into the stone were phrases in Latin and Greek, written by Roman tourists, attempting to achieve immortality by graffiting their names and record of travel into the rock. William flicked his wand and vanished the stone seal on the tomb with several precise movements. "We'll use bubble head charms, I think. I'm unsure if there's any holes that would allow for the exchange of air if the tomb's sealed, so we should be cautious." Godfrey cast the charm at William's words, and then turned to the packs that had followed them.
He untied the string on the closest pack, and began searching through for an object. His hand emerged a moment later, holding a piece of cloth. Almost reverently, he unwrapped the cloth revealing a tile, with a Lapis Lazuli Eye of Horus set into the middle. He followed William down the steps into the tomb.
The two men descended down a flight of fifty steps, deep into the ground. The ceiling above and the walls on either side were covered in a range of hieroglyphics and murals depicting Pharaoh's greatest living moments. At the bottom of the stairs was a junction, with a side chamber on the left and the right, and a passage leading to the first chamber. A cursory glance into both side chambers revealed that the tomb had indeed been plundered, with burial goods, artefacts, games and furniture strewn across the floor, with a distinct lack of gold or jewellery. "You shouldn't be surprised," William began, watching Godfrey's expression, "as you saw the carvings outside – other people got to this part of the tomb long before we did, but they didn't have the keystone to go further."
They moved into the first chamber, where they were met by more hieroglyphs on the wall. "Shine some light over here, if you could?" William asked Godfrey. The black haired man moved and then they were able to see one of the hieroglyphic sections clearly. It depicted Pharaoh commanding several men who were carrying a jewelled box, while a man almost as tall as Pharaoh stood directly to his side watching on. William ran his fingers over the box, feeling the wall. "Ah, there's an indent here!" he exclaimed excitedly. Godfrey, at this, raised the lapis lazuli tile and held it over the indent, checking to see if it would fit, before gently pressing it into the wall.
There was suddenly a glowing, and blue lines ran across the specific scene, before there was a grinding of stone and the section of the wall descended into the ground. As it did, the tile shimmered and vanished. William looked on, suddenly wary. "Accio tile!" He commanded, raising his wand. Nothing, however, followed. "This could pose a problem." He murmured.
"Nonsense – the tile probably vanishes because it's no longer needed. The muggles will have a new wing of this tomb to explore once we've finished emptying it." Godfrey declared with satisfaction. "Come William, help me with the diagnostic charms and sight checks. I don't want to end up the victim of some ancient Egyptian curse."
William, still cautious, cast spells around the left side of the entrance, while Godfrey did the right. The diagnostic charm, essential for cursebreaking and tomb raiding, caused the sides of the wall to pulse different colours depending on the magic saturation. After establishing there was magical saturation, the next step was identifiying what type of magic was being used.
Initially, warders and cursebreakers would use arithmancy to augment their diagnostic spell, allowing it to test for specific wards and curses. Novices would start with a diagnostic that could only test for the existence of magic, but experienced warders and cursebreakers had built many different wards and curses into their diagnostic, so could glean much more information from an initial test. This was why experience was prized within the profession. Due to the nature of augmenting the diagnostic spell, it meant that you could only test for spells that you knew existed. This was why novice cursebreakers didn't last long without supervision.
If you were able to confirm the type of ward that was being used, you could create a circumstantial dispel charm that worked based on the environment and the type of magic. The dispel would directly counteract the existence of the ward. It used little energy, because the magic was applied to a very specific situation, and was the preferred method of experienced cursebreakers and warders. Sometimes, where the type of magic used was either very familiar to the caster, or was very simplistic, the arithmantic process could be bypassed based on experience.
If you were unable to confirm the type of ward, you could try to use a blanket dispel, and its strength was tied to the power of the wizard or witch casting it. More powerful wizards and witches could dispel more and stronger wards, albeit with considerable effort. This was a very tiring process, and left the caster vulnerable to harm if their magical reserves were depleted.
Generally, the cursebreaking process would see all of the identified curses or wards removed through the circumstantial dispel, and finally a blanket one. This meant the blanket dispel had to remove less, and used less energy. The downside to the blanket dispel was that if the caster had more magical energy than you, you weren't going to be able to dispel their work unless the magic had decayed over time, or you had multiple people dispelling at once.
However, in this particular check, he walls pulsed blue, indicating there was no magic present on the entrance, and a thorough search for any carved runes or hieroglyphs ensured that they could cross the threshold of the new wing of the tomb without fear of enchantments or protections that functioned similar to an age-line.
The staircase ahead of them was incredibly steep, and descended far deeper into the ground. William moved his hand through the archway before stepping onto the staircase, and immediately the ceiling, floor and walls pulsed red. Both William and Godfrey had spent the bulk of their wizarding careers thus far involved in decursing and warding. Part of their responsibilities with the Knights Templar had been to remove the magical wards placed on Jerusalem by the holding Caliphate. This had seen them work with a number of experienced cursebreakers and warders from across Europe – the best that money could buy – and they'd progressively augmented their diagnostic charms to be comprehensive – an amalgamation of the talent they'd worked with.
"This appears to be standard – there's an anti-apparition ward here, and notice-me-not charms. Nothing particularly nasty, but I think that will change as we get closer to the treasure room." William said thoughtfully, before breaking off, exclaiming "Oh, what's this? A trip jinx on the top step?"
Godfrey roared with laughter. "Anyone that gets caught by that deserves to break their neck at the bottom." He said, before making some precise movements with his wand. "We'll do the blanket dispel, and then we'll proceed forward." They flicked their wands, and did not feel an impact – a sign that there was no ward in place to dispel – or that their dispel wasn't strong enough to impact the magic put in place by another force. That was the unlikely scenario though – for their combined magic to not be strong enough to dispel something cast over a thousand years ago, that person would have to be more powerful than anything they'd seen before.
The two men stepped into the corridor, and diagnostic charms at the ready, inspected the second step. Finding it clear, they stepped down onto it, methodically ensuring that their path ahead was clear of traps, especially after the experience of the trip jinx.
A pause, and then suddenly, the stairs gave out underneath them. Wands held aloft, they plummeted down the stairwell, which was now a very deep shaft. Not expecting the sudden drop, the men lost their wands in the confusion. "Arresto Momentum!" roared William, ensuring the two would not die from falling from a height. Wandless summoners as they fell ensured the pair were able to regain their wands, but as they fell towards the bottom, previously unnoticeable grooves in the walls slid apart with vicious copper blades swinging out at speed, aiming to skewer anyone who was in the shaft, no matter what height they were at. Hoping that Godfrey was alert and covering the side closest to him, William conjured and banished a square of sheet metal at the protruding blades, just as they hit the ground. Metal hit metal, but the blades, robbed of their momentum due to the conjured resistance, created several dents within the iron, but did not reach him.
He turned around, and saw that his partner had accomplished the same result, but with a different means, having liquefied the copper, playing to his own strengths. Godfrey, however, did cry out in pain, as he hit the ground a half moment later than William, and he pitched forward onto the ground, clutching one of his ankles.
William took stock of their surroundings. The blades appeared to have retracted, and the stairs suddenly began resetting to their original formation. There were two skeletons next to Godfrey, very close to the wall. They were covered in purple, white and yellow robes, with leather satchels at their sides, and next to them lay two staves. Other tomb robbers, perhaps? He dismissed the thought, and turned to his friend, satisfied there was no imminent danger. "Are you alright?" He asked, concerned.
"My ankle, I think – it's broken." Godfrey grimaced. "Clearly your spell isn't so effective when cast wandlessly on two targets. Didn't check my fall completely." He tapped his wand to his ankle, and groaned again as the bone locked back into place. "My mobility will suffer a bit, because it'll be still tender, but I should be okay." He moved over to the skeletons of the other two would be robbers.
"Clearly they had no wandless momentum spell, or could not deal with the copper scythes," William began, "but their existence here disproves your theory that the tile vanishes. In our readings, I never found reference to the existence of multiple tiles – only THE tile. Perhaps it resets, or changes location?" Godfrey listened to his friend, and then looked at the skeletons closely. "Maybe – I'm not sure what that means for us though, if that's true – how old do you think these people are?"
William walked up and opened the pouches, looking for any information that might fill them in. "There's some vials of potion that's probably spoilt now, some bandages and a book in here," He began, "but I don't know enough about the wizarding history or culture of Egypt to assess their time period." He stood up from his crouch, holding the book, and gestured to the archway. "Shall we?"
Godfrey shook his head and held his wand at the archway, running the diagnostic spell again. It revealed the upcoming chamber was covered in a magical coating that reflected spells cast. "We also need to look for muggle devices or mechanisms – those stairs and blades weren't magical. Just a fantastic piece of engineering. We should've bought Guy." William said, before walking into the room. In front of them, on a table, was a scythe. The walls were covered in hieroglyphics depicting men in the field, using the scythe to gather reeds, and then bundling them, before taking them to the papyrus maker. Looking beyond the table, the two could see a field of reeds obscuring their view of the door, with a large basket in the center of the room.
"Not even close to what I expected." Godfrey muttered. "What kind of expedition have you got me into?"
William looked at the hieroglyphs, and then at the book he had looted from one of the skeletons. "What do you know that we don't?" He muttered to himself, before opening it and thumbing through the papyrus pages, looking for a clue. After several minutes, he looked up, inspecting the room ahead of them. "Godfrey, this is the Book of the Dead. The Egyptians believed that in the afterlife, you were still required to do work – you maintained your plot of land. I think this is a test." He explained.
Godfrey nodded slowly. "I say we try the door first – I don't want to cut up reeds." He reached the reed field, and tried to push the reeds away, before jumping back, swearing viciously, holding his hand. "It cut me!" The reeds did not budge. "I'll try the sickle." He threw up his hands as a concession.
Gingerly, he plucked the sickle from its resting place, and bent down to cut the reeds at their base. The scythe carved through them like butter, and as soon as the scythe touched the reeds, they bent passively, losing their sharpness and rigidity. William bent down next to him and began bundling the reeds, using some string to bind them into appropriate sized clumps.
After an hour's work of clearing out the chamber of reeds, the two men were sweating profusely, but there were a number of reed bundles stacked in the basket. The door ahead retracted into the floor, and the way forward was cleared. Wiping his brow, Godfrey reached for his waterskin, taking a long drink from it as he moved to the entrance of the second chamber.
The chamber that they entered was far larger than the one of reeds, and was completely empty, apart from four statues on the far wall that flanked the doorway exiting the chamber. The ground was covered in sand, but was unevenly distributed, creating tiny dunes that rose up to the knees of the two men.
"That statue seems somewhat familiar – didn't one of the porters point it out when we went past on the barge?" Godfrey asked, looking at one of the shaped blocks of coloured sandstone. There were four, each a hybrid of human-animal. An eagle's head and wings with the body and legs of a man. A Jackal's head, with a human's body. A crocodile head on human body, with a strong scaly tail. A lower body of a hippopotamus, but the torso and head of a woman. They each held staves, in their respective appendages. "This is certainly another test. Be on your guard." William cautioned.
They raised their wands, crossing the thousand-yard gap between the door they came through and the door they needed to move through to progress. As they reached halfway, there was a rumbling, and the statues began to move. Slowly at first – like waking up from a long nap – before moving towards the pair with a speed that belied their size and substance.
The eagle statue leapt into the air, jumping as opposed to flying, before landing in front of them. It whipped its wings and, with its stave hovering in front of them, blew up a gust that smashed into the dunes, sending sand towards them. If it was not for the bubble-head charm, they would have both been killed in the immediate instant after, as the jackal and crocodile hurtled around the eagle and used their stone arms to smash into the two wizards, who were protected from the sandstream, and thus able to jump back – Godfrey with some effort due to his ankle.
"Bombarda Maxima!" roared William, pointing at the crocodile statue, only to pitch himself backward onto the ground as the curse rebounded and crashed into the sand dune in front of him. Visibility immediately obscured, he conjured another sheet of iron in front of him, desperately trying to fend off an opportunity attack he anticipated was going to come from the hippopotamus or the eagle. The sound of stone on iron rang through the chamber, as William used the obstruction to pull himself to his feet again. "They're invulnerable to our spells!" he called out to Godfrey, unable to see him due to the sand stream that had been whipped up.
"I know! Any ideas?" his partner called back, before there was a grunt and a flash of light visible through the sand from where William was standing rebounded again. "The type of spell doesn't seem to matter!" Godfrey yelled.
Two of the statues advanced on William again, and he was able to side-step one, but the sand slowed his movement and he was not agile enough to evade the second, the large sandstone fist knocking him backwards and into one of the dunes. As the crocodile statue surged forward to take advantage of the felled wizard's precarious position, he flicked his wand in a diagonal movement, causing a jetstream of water to arc from the hands of the statue to the ground. He waved his wand again, as the stream continued, and the water turned to ice. The statue struggled to free its arms from the ice, giving William time to backpedal, and devote his attentions to the jackal, which had moved towards him.
As the sandstone jackal raised its arms above its head, to bring it down and pulverize the wizard, he moved quickly to conjure two steel manacles, and banished them into the wrists of the statue. Unfortunately, chaining the wrists of the statue did not stop the statue's ability to pulverize someone with a downwards crushing movement, and William had to roll out of the way. The fists hit the sand, throwing up even more of the coarse grains. He had no idea what was happening several yards away with Godfrey, but given that they were dealing with two equally, and he saw what he thought were jets of light in the sandstorm, he presumed his partner was still standing.
He waved his wand and directed a counterstream of air at the sand coming from the eagle, before conjuring up several more sheets of metal that acted as a barrier, blocking the movements of the still partially frozen crocodile, who was pulling backwards, trying to use its weight to shatter the ice, as well as the jackal. "We need to disengage, and think about this." He roared through the sandstorm under the exertion of the transfiguration. "This will buy us some time!"
Godfrey nodded, and with the sand temporarily streaming in the other direction, was able to direct a powerful banishing charm to push him and William to one of the corners of the room, granting them a temporary reprieve. "They're immune to spells cast on them directly, but they're not immune to indirect effects." William said, breathing heavily. The physical exertions of the reed room, in combination with the conjuration, quick movement and spellwork had left him drained. "Are you thinking of Fiendfyre?" Godfrey began, "using the heat to make the glass, like those two wizards in Rome showed us?"
William nodded, watching across the chamber as the statues pummelled through the barriers he had erected, and then began moving towards the two wizards. "Has to be – we need an end to this now, or we're dead – do you have enough strength to control it?" He asked Godfrey.
"I'll have to." Godfrey said, brushing the sand off and readying his wand. He made several motions and then hurled a stream of fire out of his wand that engulfed the oncoming statues. Flaming creatures danced out of the torrent, spurting from side to side, erratically. A glance at Godfrey revealed the strain he was under, sweat from the heat and the exertion dripping down his face, soaking his black hair. Suddenly, he collapsed down, managing to force his wand into the air, sending the stream against the roof, before the torrent began to subside and then, abruptly, died out.
William looked at where the fire had been a moment ago. In place of four sandstone statues were four shapes made of brilliant reddish glass. The sand underneath the torrent of fiendfyre had also been transformed, with the extreme heat of the dark magic converting the sand and stone. Whatever magic had been powering the statues did not appear to function through a transfiguration or conversion of the subject's matter, as was often the case, and the statues now presented no threat at all. Indeed, with the flick of his wand, William's explosive curse shattered them into fine powder. There was a rumbling and the door the statues had been shielding ground open.
William collapsed backwards, permitting himself to rest a moment in the sand next to Godfrey. "We were so close to not making it through that." William said quietly. "Thank god that wizard travelling from the Orient taught us that spell."
Godfrey nodded, sipping again from his waterskin. "Do you have any idea what comes now?" He asked William, as he pulled off his gloves and ran his fingers through his hair, eyes closed in exhaustion.
William clutched for the book in his satchel, before lifting it out and scanning it. "From what we read in the chamber of the reeds, and what we've just faced, it seems that we're travelling through a tomb with challenges based off the pathway through the Egyptian variant of the underworld." He said slowly. "One of the other challenges we should have to face is the weighing of the heart ceremony. Your heart represents a record of your actions in life, and is weighed against a feather – a symbol of truth and justice."
Godfrey looked up. "Look – we're really struggling here – we both don't have much left in reserve. If the room ahead isn't the last room, we'll have to turn back and come back after recuperating." He cautioned. William inclined his head in response. "I think we're nearly there, Godfrey – according to the book we've dealt with the two biggest challenges."
The two men staggered across the sand, moving towards the opposite door. Weary, they moved through the door and entered a narrow corridor, lined with hieroglyphs, lit by fire. As soon as they approached the threshold, they suddenly felt better – confident – and all thoughts of retreating to rest and recover were banished from their mind.
"This must be Gubraithian Fire – nothing else could have lasted this long. We need to check for wards." William noted, making some short, sharp jabs at the walls with his wand. The corridor was long, and the walls pulsed with an ugly red light under the diagnostic charm. "Fantastic – more use of magical energy." Godfrey noted. "There's ward stones embedded into the walls." William commented in response.
Ward stones acted as repositories for magic which allowed them to resist specifically crafted dispels, forcing the caster to apply more power, or, making it impossible for some wizards to overcome the ward. Inexperienced warders and cursebreakers would try to burn through all their strength overcoming the amount of magic stored in the ward stone, but that could kill you if you were unsure how much power was in the stone to begin with.
If a caster was talented with Arithmancy, they could devise a spell that created pressure in one specific part of the ward, parting the magic, allowing a partner to blast the ward stone directly with a reductor curse. The alternate strategy was to use a blast and focus approach. This was called into practice if the caster's arithmancy was insufficient, or they were rushed. A blast would draw energy from the ward stone across the ward, and if, immediately after, the caster targeted a small part of the ward's coverage, oftentimes, the magic would not be able to reach the targeted area with enough strength and in enough time, creating a small hole in the ward for a very short period of time.
William maintained the diagnostic charm, thinking for a few minutes. The passageway was 100 yards long, and every twenty yards was another set of ward stones. "The diagnostic reveals that ward conjures fiendfyre if it is triggered." The colour drained slightly from his face. It was extremely debateable whether or not they had been able to control the fiendfyre in the last room, and in the narrow confines of the passageway, triggered the dark magic would have fatal consequences.
"If you draw the ward's energy, I can make a small hole that will allow us to try and overload the ward stone." Godfrey said. William nodded, and Godfrey's wand emitted a blast of white that spattered the ward. As he did this, William flicked his wand and called a sharp beam of the same white light that focused on a miniscule section of the ward. There was a shimmer, and, almost unperceivable even to the trained eye, a slight gap in the ward. A reducto curse thrown through the gap caused the ward stone to crack. Godfrey clasped William's hand in celebration. "One down, nine to go." He chuckled, shaking the blonde wizard.
William couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, but every time he thought of the unease, it was gone immediately, reassuring him that they would be successful and they could do it…if they just kept going. Over the next two hours, the two wizards moved through the passageway, progressively disarming more and more ward stones, and deactivating the fiendfyre traps that had been embedded in them. Again, at the conclusion of removing the traps, they cast a general dispel, and did not feel any change in their magic levels. Upon reaching the doorway at the of the corridor, there was a grumbling of stone, and the door slid to the side, allowing them into a very unusual looking room.
A few steps in front of them was a floating scale. To its left was a fearsome looking creature that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. To its right was a man with green skin wearing a white robe, crown and carrying a crook and flail. "Hello there!" Godfrey called out cautiously, wary of the man's potential spellcasting capability, and also the creature. There was no response from the man, who merely looked at the scales.
William peered beyond the scales. There was what appeared to be an underground river, travelling deep down a passageway of hieroglyphics. There was a straw boat sitting just behind the scales, on a dock. "I think this is the weighing ceremony." He said quietly.
"What, we're supposed to cut out our hearts?" Godfrey scoffed. "What's the point of this treasure if you have to die to get it?"
Again, the hieroglyphics on the wall told the story. The scale, which had a book upon it instead of a feather, was replicated in the picture glyphs on the wall. There was a wand opposite the book in the picture. William looked at the wand he held in his left hand, and the scale, which had a book upon it instead of a feather. "I think we have to place our wands. Maybe it's an assessment of magic. If the beast makes a move, make sure you get me out of the way, okay?" He laughed softly.
He approached the scales, watching both the figures for any sudden movements. He gently placed his wand on the scales and waited for a moment, breathing slowly. There was a flash of green, and the scale hovered, the book and the wand balancing out equal. "You may proceed." Intoned the green-skinned man in a solemn voice, gesturing with his crook towards the boat. William took his wand, and stepped onto the dock, and then the boat.
He watched as Godfrey stepped up, and placed his wand onto the scales. Moments passed, and there was a flash of red. In the same tone, the man said "and you may not." He gestured with his flail at the fearsome looking creature, who sprung with incredible agility at Godfrey, who was knocked down. He rolled out of the way of the bite of the alligator, and hurled himself to his feet, racing for the scales to retrieve his wand. He held out his hand, the standard for a wandless summoning charm, but the wand did not move. He blinked in surprise, still keeping his momentum. The creature leapt again, and raked the back of his armor with its lion claws. He grunted, and began to fall forward under the weight, but managed at the last minute to extend a foot to prop himself up. He dodged and tried to snatch at his wand, but was unable to move it from the pedestal.
William, reacting at the same time, tried to leap off the boat, which had begun departing from the dock, but was blocked by an unseen force, keeping him an unwilling passenger. He drew his wand and sent several jets of green light towards the creature, but as they passed over the water, they dissipated. He blinked in confusion. Magic didn't just fade away like that – especially not the killing curse. "Godfrey!" He roared.
Godfrey, unable to get his wand free, ducked under the scale and tried to make a leap for the boat. The creature skidded on the sand and pursued him, ambling across the uneven surface on all fours, its eyes grinning cruelly, hungrily. Just before he could step foot on the dock, the same force that had obstructed William hurled him back, sailing over the devourer, who leapt for him but missed. He landed flat on his back, and with a frantic, panicked glance, he looked back for the door through which they had entered, and seeing it shut, tried to find anything that he could potentially use as a weapon.
Suddenly, the fear in his eyes snuffed out, replaced by determination and resignation. He stood, facing the oncoming amalgamation of man-killing Egyptian animals. "Look after my wife and son, William – it's been a pleasure." He called to his friend, who was pounding on different parts of an invisible wall that surrounded the boat, with fists and magic. He drew his knife from his boot, attempting to take his foe with him, and as the beast rushed forward, at the last possible second, he allowed the momentum of the beast to carry itself onto the knife. As it did so, its jaws closed upon his head, and with several sickening cracking and crunching noises, William knew his friend was no more. There was no scream.
William collapsed onto the straw that made up the floor of the boat, physically, mentally and emotionally spent. Time was meaningless, the boat continuing to float quickly down a long hallway marked by hieroglyphics and more fire. Godfrey Potter had been a constant companion of his since the two of them met had met in their first year of Hogwarts. The two of them had travelled across Europe, and then into the Holy Land as part of the Crusades, and it was through their experience that they had heard the rumour of the treasure. That one of them might die in the process was not something either of them had considered – they were experienced, cautious – weren't they?
The boat drifted to a halt, and William picked himself up off the floor, holding his wand. Internalizing his sorrow to come to terms with after he was out of the tomb, he took slow, steady paces towards the sealed door that confronted him. As if sensing his approach, the stone eased out of the way, leaving the doorway open.
He stepped through, and cast his routine diagnostic spell, but cancelled it immediately afterwards when it showed nothing. Sweeping from left to right, he could see nothing but wealth. Massive mounds of gold pieces, gems, jewellery, almost as far as the eye could see. There were also burial goods – exceptionally high quality fabrics, books, carvings, statues, board games – and works of culture, with paintings and carvings. This was a treasure no man could spend in a lifetime – or even multiple lifetimes.
The massive cavern was filled with wealth, but there was a stone pathway that led through the mounds of treasures, leading to a small chamber. William felt drawn to it – they had not come for treasure – they had come for a specific treasure – perhaps….it was there? As he walked towards the door, he passed works of art from a number of different ancient civilizations. If he was paying attention, he would've noted that no Egyptian had contact with some of the cultures that had produced those works, yet they still existed here, in this repository.
He entered the room, and as he did, a stone door shut behind him. The room was small – a man could stand at full height, but only just. There was a torch of gubraithian in each of the corners of the room, and oddly, the walls were not covered in hieroglyphed – just smooth sandstone. In the centre was a small crystal basin, filled with pure liquid. Floating above it was an ankh of solid gold, inscribed with tiny runes.
This was it. The Ankh of Osiris. William looked upon the relic almost reverently. He staggered to the basin, drinking it in from every possible angle. His wand stayed at his side, and with one gloved hand, he reached out for the ankh, cupping it gently. As soon as it was in his grasp, his mind suddenly cleared, and it dawned on him that they had made a horrific mistake.
There was a sound of hideous laughter, and William felt an intense pain at the core of his being, like a white hot knife that was twisted. He sank to the ground, unable to drop the ankh, which was now burning hot in his hand. Blue energy poured out of his body, and vanished into the basin. He twisted violently on the ground, as if he could move away from the pain, but it began in his body and radiated outward, inescapable.
"Your magic appeases me!" an ethereal voice echoed, followed by a hideous laughter. "The cost of immortality is very very high!" William groaned, and suddenly felt sand spilling down onto his head, slowly, then quickly. He looked around the room, half blind from the trauma, and noticed that room had begun to disappear, the walls becoming translucent, and the treasure in the outer chamber had also begun to vanish. "What?" He breathed in query, not expecting an answer.
Suddenly, the cavern roof had faded, and the sand stream had become a deluge – the cavern of treasure had faded completely, and William was surrounded by sand. "Depulso!" He croaked, finding it difficult to speak because of the sand, and the fact that it felt like his lungs and internal organs had been ripped through his throat. Nothing happened. He stared incredulously at his wand, and then the onrushing sand covered him completely, and he knew no more.