Unnoticed by the wizards, the gold cat began to glow, a beaming pulse that caused the shadows to shudder and one albino to trip. Snake-like tendrils slithered through the castle intent on its goal, invisible to the wizards. It clasped its targets in glee and moved.
Harry groaned, the bright piercing light that was attacking his eyes encouraging him to turn over and just sleep. There was a strange feeling of nausea that lingered in his mind with no reason, as far as he could tell. To his left he could hear another body shift, the light sigh that was emitted dismissing all of his suspicions. No one in the boy's dorm sounded like that.
Curiosity urged him to get up, overpowering the grip that sleep had over him. With very little resistance he pushed himself up to look at the sleeping body next to him.
He blinked in surprise.
It was only Hermione; with that curiosity satisfied the boy-who-lived turned his attention to other matters, such as the strange room he found himself in. Panic grew inside his chest as his eyes darted around the room in a frantic search to find something that was familiar. The panic eased slightly as his eyes fell on his old school robes that were laid on the floor at the foot of his bed.
He pushed at Hermione's shoulder, struggling to wake the girl so that they could figure out where they were and how they were transported away from the castle.
"Hermione." He called, sitting back on his heels and waiting for a response. The girl simply turned over and continued to sleep, quite oblivious to her strange surroundings.
"Hermione." He repeated, pushing her shoulder again. As the girl continued to sleep, a smirk spreading over the boy's face as he considered his options.
He leaned over the girl, placing his lips near her ears as he readied himself for his next move. "Hermione!" He bellowed in the girl's ear, leaping aside as she struck out blindly.
"What?" She questioned, pushing herself up to see what had awakened her. "Harry? What did you do that for?" Her voice
Harry grinned for a moment before becoming much more serious. "You weren't waking up." He answered. "Hermione, do you recognize where we are."
The girl blinked for the first time, glancing around to take in her surroundings, Harry watched as the blood fled her face leaving it a ghastly imitation of a ghost. Her mouth moved, forming words that she couldn't express.
"I guess that's a no?" He questioned, ignoring the dark look the girl sent in his direction. He pushed himself up and stretched for a moment contemplating what they should do next. His curiosity was growing with each passing moment; he was becoming less and less willing to fight it.
"Come on, 'Mione." he chastised, holding his hand out to help the girl up. "Let's go see if we can find anything to help us."
"Harry," Hermione began, her voice taking on a knowledgeable tone, "do you really think that is the best idea? We have no idea where we are, or even how we got here- we are not prepared for anything out there."
The boy hesitated. He knew that his friend had made some good points, but the curiosity was like an itch he couldn't scratch. Harry knew that unless he went exploring- even just a little- the itch would not go away. He couldn't fight it.
"Hermione, think about it." He tempted. "All that information you could learn, and we still need to find Ron."
The girls eyes darkened in guilt at their other friend's name, she hadn't noticed that he wasn't there. "Okay."
She conceded.
A few blocks away another boy was waking, though this boy was much quicker to grasp what had happened- and to know where he was.
Ryou pushed himself up on the sand, sitting underneath the blazing sun and smiled. He hadn't been to Egypt since the summer when his father disappeared. He had meant to go look for the man in the last tomb he was in, but life had caught up and Ryou had been invited to a magic school.
Now though, he would have the chance to look for his father.
"Thank you, Bastet." He murmured. In the back of his mind he could hear the spirit snort at the thought. Ryou ignored him, knowing that most of it was just steam the Thief needed to blow off to feel like he had some control. Besides the Thief was not on the best of terms with the Goddess Bastet- the spirit would not explain why, but Ryou suspected that perhaps the Thief had stolen from her once before.
/Ryou,/ The spirit interrupted his thoughts. /You still need to figure out where we are./
The albino boy blinked in surprise, before laying his hand on his head in annoyance. He couldn't believe that he had forgotten about that!
He looked around in a careful perusal of his surroundings, trying to find landmarks or any clues to where he was. As looked across he saw the Pyramid of Khufu, and he sighed in relief. He knew where he was.
Gold flashed in the corner of the boy's eye, his head whipping to the side in such a speed it almost hurt his neck. "Malik." He greeted the Egyptian boy calmly; he had expected that they would have been dragged into Bastet's curse.
Malik glanced around him, searching for the three that he had expected to be with the other boy. "Where is the Trio?" He asked, his voice still mocking.
Ryou sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know, I haven't seen them." He paused. "If I had to guess, I would say that Bastet decided to separate them from us for a reason."
"And hopefully teach those brats a lesson." Malik murmured under his breath. Ryou missed the words, but a flash of crimson within the chocolate depths assured the Egyptian that the spirit didn't, and the lack of action said that he agreed.
"Let's go look for them." Ryou
AN: Here's the next chapter. There should be another out quite soon. If you have extra time, my Nano novel has been posted on Fictionpress, it's called Daemons Inducunt. Thanks, and happy holidays!