Chapter ten: the map room

When Bill, taking Harry with him, apparated to Tanis, it was an hour till sunset. After he had eaten, Harry had gone back to his room and tried his best to sleep. While he'd failed at that, he did manage to get some much-needed rest. The two had been sent off by Fleur, and Harry, holding the invisibility cloak and the long wooden stick that would serve as the Staff of Ra, had felt his best since he had seen the truck burst into flames.

Harry had been expecting to find himself in the middle of a busy dig site of the type he had seen illustrated in textbooks. Instead, he and Bill were standing at the peak of a long dune of golden sand, which reached their ankles.

"Sorry," said Bill, "It's mile or two long walk from here. The Death Eaters put up an anti-apparation spell around the site. You'd better put on the cloak."

Harry nodded, and draped the invisibility cloak, his favorite Deathly Hallow, over his head, covering him completely. He held the staff and followed Bill, thankful that the long cloak swooshing through the sand hid his tracks.

It was not long before Tanis came into view. A group of tents clustered close together, around them ancient white stone building were protruding from the sands. There were several people around, Arabs, both wizard and muggle, as well as men in dark suits, Harry guessed they were Death Eaters, especially because of they way they intimidated the other wizards into working harder, while not doing any work themselves. Most of the activity was clustered around a single pit; the only place Harry could see people digging. He guessed this was the incorrect location off the Well of Souls. Nearby, was a long strip of hard sandy ground, marked off by white paint on the ground. To Harry, it looked most like a airplane runway, which made no sense, as most pure-blood Death Eaters would have nothing whatsoever to do with something as non-wizard as a plane. A tall wire fence, with only a single entrance, surrounded the whole compound.

Harry followed Bill down to the gap in the fence. The dark-suited man guarding the gate gave Bill a long look and, recognizing him, waved him in, Harry followed, unseen.

"The map room is at the other side of the dig, follow me," Bill whispered. Harry was happy to get a good look around. Though obviously antique, the white stone buildings of Tanis were perfectly preserved, Harry could almost believe they had only been buried the day before.

Harry saw three men standing on one of the roofs, talking in low voices. The man obviously in charge was young, barely older than Harry, with dark hair and equally dark eyes. He wore a long gray coat over his white suit, despite the heat. Harry suspected he was using a cooling spell.

"That's Goler," Bill whispered, nodding toward the young man. "He's Dietrich's second in command, does most of the menial work, hiring workers, ordering people's deaths, that sort of thing." Harry nodded, though Bill couldn't see. He had no idea that earlier that day Goler had ordered his own death.

Bill led him through the camp, past tables where men sitting outside eating, as well as playing gobstones, cards and wizard chess. Harry knew that though they would kill him without a second thought, but here they seemed like a happy normal people.

The map room was up a slope, near the fence. The building it was inside had not been fully unearthed, the Death Eaters had entered it through a round hole cut into the roof. From standing on the building, Harry could see of across the whole compound.

"Go in through the hole," Bill said, there was no need to whisper as they were so far away from the other workers. He quickly conjured a rope and, tying it securely, tossed the length into the hole. "I'll wait for you. You have fifteen minutes till sunset."

Harry nodded. "Here, you better take the cloak, I won't need it down there, and it'll look suspicious if they find you just waiting around here." He tossed the cloak to Bill, who examined it and then threw it over himself, disappearing.

Harry tossed the staff down the whole. It clattered to the stone floor. Taking a deep breath, Harry climbed down the rope after it.

His feet touched the stone floor safely, and only then did he look around. He found he was standing at the corner of a room that was an incredibly detailed miniature replica of the city of Tanis. Though Harry had not seen it completely unearthed, it appeared very accurate to him. Made in the same white stone as the buildings themselves, it almost felt as if Harry had an overhead view of Tanis during its glory days. This was slightly cumbered by the layer of dirt, dust and cobwebs that covered everything.

Harry saw that a thin ray of light was falling into the room from a small window across him. It was slowly moving toward him. Reminded of his time limit, Harry crossed the model, careful not to trip over any of the small buildings. He found a round hole, slightly elevated, at the edge of the model.

Harry fit the staff into the hole, pressing it down as far as it would go. He than fitted the headpiece over the top of the stick, it fit perfectly. The Staff of Ra was now complete.

Harry stepped backward into a corner to watch. It took a few minutes, but was certainly worth the wait. The light spilling from the small window hit the ruby embedded in the headpiece. The effect was immediate. The ruby began to glow with an inner light, looking like there was some miniature red sun embedded inside it.

A second later, a ray of concentrated, red-tinged light spilled from the ruby. It moved across the model, Harry breathed deeply, he hadn't realized he had been holding his breath.

The ray slowly moved across the model. It stopped as it reached a low rectangular building, for a moment the building seemed to glow, lit up completely, and then the red beam was gone, as the sun drifted out of view.

Harry quickly memorized the building's location. Then, to be safe, he wrote down its location on a small notebook he had brought along in his pocket for just such a purpose.

Harry took the staff from its resting-place. Tucked the headpiece into his pocket. Carrying the staff, he thought about leaving it, but decide not to, Harry climbed the rope. When he climbed out of the hole, it seemed he was alone for a moment. Then Bill came out from under the cloak.

"I assume all went well," he said, as Harry tossed him the staff and picked up his cloak.

Harry nodded. "It did. Got the coordinates and everything." He handed Bill the notebook.

Bill looked at the notebook, and then pointed to spot closer to them than the incorrect dig site. "There, perfect."

"You know," said Harry. "I'm guessing Shishak was a wizard." And with that he disappeared under the cloak.

Bill started walking down, in the general direction of the real location of the Well of Souls, hoping Harry was following him. He was.

All went well until they passed a table of particularly loud and, Harry suspected, somewhat drunk Death Eaters.

"Oiy, scarface," one of them shouted at Bill. Bill said nothing but stopped. "What were you doing up there?"

"If you want the truth, I was taking a-"

"I don't think so. I reckon you were having a look around the map room. Not only that, scarface," he looked around to make sure the other Death Eaters were paying attention to him, "but I think you're not alone. I think there's someone with you, invisible maybe."

"Yeah," said Bill sarcastically, "I just happen to have Harry Potter with, giving him a look around, you know it's bloody annoying though because you dunno whether he's really with you or not." many of the Death Eater's laughed.

"Hey" the talkative one protested, "we all know Potter's got an invisibility cloak."

Glancing toward a spot about five feet away from Harry, Bill mouthed, 'I'll handle this, go, now.'

Harry went, he stifled a laugh as he heard one of the Death Eaters explaining how Harry was such a powerful wizard he could disillusion himself so well he became insubstantial. If only that were true, he thought wistfully.

All dreams of power beyond his skill set vanished when Harry saw Goler, flanked by the two Death Eaters he had been talking to earlier, coming along the row of tents toward him. While Harry knew Goler couldn't see him, he still very much wanted to get out of his way.

Harry ducked through the threshold of a nearby tent. Like all wizarding tents, it was a great deal bigger on the inside than the outside would suggest. There was carpet under Harry's feet, and he feared he would leave distinct footprints with his sandy boots.

The tent was furnished with a long table, though there were no chairs. There was a tall wardrobe in on corner, a changing screen beside it. Two closed doors led into, Harry assumed, a bedroom and a bathroom. Nearby, a desk covered with parchment. Approaching it, Harry saw that the parchment included an artist rendition of Tanis at its prime, a list of the hired diggers and workers and how much they were being paid, and, Harry's heart fell, a copy of the same picture Musgrove had shown Harry of the Ark in action. It was clear why Hernon Dietrich was interested in the Ark of the Covenant.

Harry saw the corner of a photograph poking out from beneath a heavy leather bound book he didn't recognize. Without thinking, Harry grabbed it. Rising disbelief washed over him as he saw what it was. It was very like the picture he owned of the D.A., as well the picture he had seen of the old Order of the Phoenix. There was one difference though: this was a photograph of Voldemort's inner circle, his favorite Death Eaters. While it appeared Voldemort himself had not found time to appear in the picture, everyone else had, with the exceptions of Severus Snape and Barty Crouch Junior, one of whom had suffered the Dementor's kiss, the other under-cover at Hogwarts when the picture was taken.

Harry saw Dietrich standing in the center of the front row, next to Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's parents. Scanning the back row, Harry saw Crabbe and Goyle's fathers, staring stupidly, as well as Pius Thicknesse, Voldemort's puppet minister of magic. Harry turned over the photograph to see a short note scrawled in blood-red ink. That is, Harry hoped it was ink. It read:

Thought you ought to have a copy, I look good, don't I. Keep out of Azkaban.

Bella

Looking back at the photgraph, Harry saw who had written the note, the person he had hated almost as much as Voldemort, more than Voldemort. Bellatrix Lestrange, a tall, dark-haired witch, was standing at the left of the front row of the photograph. She smiled coyly at the camera, occasionaly running her fingers along her bared left arm, stroking the symbol of the skull with a snake curling from its mouth, scarred deeply into her skin. Harry now saw that all the picture's inhabitant's had their left sleeves rolled up, uncovering the dark marks their master had branded them with.

Feeling sicker by the minute, Harry stuffed the photo into his pocket, turning to leave, he saw her. There was a woman lying on the floor, her face pressed into the carpet. She was bound and gagged tightly with magical cords. Her eyes closed, her breathing eratic, she was soaked in dried blood, especially around her chest. Her clothes were torn and equally bloody, both of her shoes stolen.

The woman was Ginny Weasley.