"Hello Headmaster," George smiled from the floor.
"Mr Weasley," Dumbledore nodded a greeting, "there I was, minding my own business. When who should interrupt my thoughtful pacing but Sir Cardogan here," he waved a hand towards the knight, who tried to say something but was out of breath from having made the run down and back to the Headmaster's office. In the end he just gave a little wave and collapsed against a tree contained in the current portrait he was in. "He informed me that we had two intruders in the school on the third floor. Of course I hastened here as fast as I could, I even broke into a bit of a run after I heard that loud noise, but it seems that you two managed to get to the scene much faster then me. Despite it clearly being late enough for you to be in your House."
"Well," stammered Fred under the unblinking smiling face of the Headmaster, "you see…what happened…er…was…"
"Now Sir Cardogan here," Dumbledore carried on, seemingly oblivious to the attempted explanation from Fred, "told me that two students were the ones to raise the alarm, of course I can only assume that the two students in question were yourselves?"
"Yes."Since there seemed to be little else to contribute Fred kept his answer to a single word.
"I understand that both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Quidditch teams were out practising late tonight, no doubt what happened was that you two decided to visit your uncle on the way back, which is when you happened upon the intruders. Is this what happened?"
"Of course," replied George quickly relieved that they had been given a way out that didn't involve admitting they had snuck out of their House.
"Now, I'm sure…" Dumbledore started before he was interrupted by an out of breath Filch suddenly jumping out from behind an old tapestry.
"Ha…" wheezed the caretaker, glaring at Fred and George, "out of beds at this hour," his grin of triumph broadened even further when he looked at Enoch's broken door, "and destruction of school property. I heard you all the way over the other side of the school, you'll be expelled for sure this time once I tell the Headmaster."
"Ahem," Dumbledore coughed politely. Filch had been so overjoyed at catching the twins he's completely failed to notice the presence of the old wizard.
"Oh Headmaster, you're already here," Filch stammered, clearly startled, although he managed to rally himself quite quickly, "you caught them in the act eh sir? Shall I get the shackles?"
"Firstly, I am pretty sure we have already discussed the use of shackles on Hogwarts students, no less then four times already this year alone…"
"Well, I thought I'd better check in case you changed your mind," mumbled Filch looking disappointed.
"And secondly," continued Dumbledore as though he hadn't heard Filch's comment, "these two young gentlemen were coming back from Quidditch practice so weren't really out of their House without permission."
"Oh…well… I suppose that's ok then," muttered Filch looking as though he'd just been made to eat something rather unpleasant.
"Dumbledore!" exclaimed Enoch who had just come around the corner from the main staircase.
"Ahh Enoch," Dumbledore smiled and turned to look at the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, "I understand you had some problems with a couple of intruders, or at least your door did."
"Yes," flustered Enoch rubbing his hands together nervously, "just a couple of old friends, a bit of a misunderstanding about an old debt, it's all be solved now."
"Well that is good to hear that has been all cleared up of course," admitted Dumbledore, "although it is a little worrying that two people who aren't staff managed to get access to the school. As far as I'm aware the only way they could have got onto the school grounds without being detected would be if someone had let them in through the gates."
"There is always the Forest of course," replied Enoch.
"Only very stupid or very brave individuals would try to get to the school through the Forest," Dumbledore pointed out, "if that is the case, it must have been some debt."
"You know me Dumbledore," shrugged Enoch, "I never do anything by half."
"That is certainly true," nodded Dumbledore, "nevertheless I think I'll increase the security spells around the school personally, and maybe have a word with the centaurs about the Forest. Although to be honest, since this is a school, most of the time we are more concern with making sure people don't sneak out rather then sneak in," he gave Fred and George a little smile when he said this part, "well,as it is late, I'll suggest that you look after your nephew's foot rather than disturb Madam Pomfrey and then it'll probably be best if you escorted them back to Gryffindor House, and afterwards could you drop by my office? I'm sure we have plenty to discuss if I am to investigate this matter fully. Goodnight gentlemen."
"Goodnight Headmaster," chorused the twins.
"Goodnight Sir," bade Filch, he turned his eyes down to the twins, "you came this close to getting caught. Next time you won't be so lucky."
"Lucky?" said George waving his foot in the air, "hello?"
Filch gave Enoch and the twins one final withering look and stomped off down the corridor. Enoch helped George to his feet and with the aid of Fred he half limped into his uncle's room and sat himself gingerly down on one of the chairs. Inside the room looked as though a tornado had hit it, drawers had been opened and upturned, the floor was covered in so much debris and mess it reminded the twins of their room in the Burrow. Their uncle remained outside for the time being, casting a few spells to clean up the mess and repair the door to its former glory. Once this was done, as well as a few apologies to the portraits that had been woken during the disturbance, Enoch returned to the room and knelt in front of George to examine his foot.
"Well?" asked Fred after a few seconds.
"I don't think it's broken," admitted Enoch, lowering the foot, "just twisted a bit."
"I didn't mean his foot," replied Fred shaking his head, "we don't care about that."
"Speak for yourself," George complained, wincing as he put his foot back down on the floor.
"That's the second time those two have tried to attack you," Fred pointed out, "we know they are after that box of yours. Tell us what's going on."
"I'm sorry you got caught up in this lads," apologised Enoch, who had gone to one of his cabinets and seemed to be searching around inside it.Eventually he found what his was looking for strewn on the floor with the rest of the contents. He picked up a large glass container and a cloth, and returned to George. He soaked the cloth in the sweet smelling liquid contained inside, pulled off George's shoe and sock and wrapped the cloth around his foot.
"Right, that should be ok in a few minutes, just don't move your foot around too much," advised Enoch. He stood back up and sat down on one of the free chairs around the table. He looked thoughtful for a moment as though trying to come to a decision, eventually he let out a long sigh, "I suppose I might as well let you know what is going on, since you did save my life back there by giving me that warning and I did nearly get you killed the other week."
"Might as well?" replied George looking annoyed, "it's the least you could do."
"I just didn't want to get you involved," Enoch tried to explain, "I suppose it is too late for that now."
"Just a bit."
"Ok, those two… were members of the Sect of Kai," Enoch revealed pausing to let this sink in.
"Is that suppose to mean anything?" asked Fred, riding roughshod over any dramatic effect Enoch had been going for.
"Honestly," Enoch shook his head in disgust, "don't they teach you anything these days? Right let's start at the beginning. You know about Shadeesh Kai because I told you about him before."
"Yep," agreed the twins in unison.
"Ok, well at the height of his powers he was practically worshiped as a God, he had hundreds of thousands of follows both wizard and muggle alike."
"I thought he killed any wizards he could find," George interrupted, "he was afraid of them wasn't he?"
"As a rule yes," admitted Enoch, "but there were some who proved they were completely loyal to him."
"How did they manage that?"
"They would sacrifice a member of their family in front of him. If the wizard doing the killing flinched or hesitated, even for a moment, then Kai would deem him unworthy and destroy him instantly."
"The guy was a complete nutter," George summed up.
"That's not quite the description the historians use but it's roughly the same idea. Anyway when Kai was finally killed, while most of the people rejoiced, his followers were enraged."
"What did they do?" Fred asked readily.
"The ones that weren't caught or killed went into hiding," shrugged Enoch.He bent down and unwrapped the cloth around George's foot and added some more ointment to it before putting it back in place, "but that wasn't the end of them. The surviving members kept in contact, working together in secret, their one single goal was to return Kai back to power."
"But he was dead. You can't bring someone back from the dead can you?"
"Opinion is divided on that," Enoch admitted, "while you can technically bring a body back to life, they aren't really living so they don't really count. However there is a single spell that can be used to restore someone to life, it is probably the hardest incantation to pull off successfully, the ingredients you need to use are so rare half of them don't exist anymore, and since it requires you to fulfil certain requirements only the darkest wizards could have ever thought it up."
"What is it?" asked George eagerly.
"A wish spell."
"I'm sorry? A wish spell?" Fred replied frowning, "like a genie?"
"Yes and no," Enoch leaned back in his chair, "when genies cast a wish they normally have limitations, you can't bring someone back from the dead, you can't use the wish to kill someone or make them fall in love with you, and the effects are temporary, usually only a day or two before reality comes back. A wish spell has no such limitations. In theory."
"Why in theory?"
"Because no one has ever managed to cast it," explained Enoch, "at least not successfully anyway. Historians only know certain parts of the ritual. The actual incantation you need to use has been lost over the years. As well as that the ceremony requires a number of rare ingredients, most of which no longer exist, so even if you knew the full process you couldn't perform the spell anyway. But according to legend, Kai managed it and infused the spell into a rare gem, known as the Emerald of Kai. The idea was that if he was ever killed his most loyal followers would use it to resurrect him."
"So where is it now?" asked Fred eagerly.
"Well that's the thing," admitted Enoch, "it was suppose to be hidden in a secret catacomb somewhere in his tomb but they've been searched extensively and nothing showed up. But I always doubted that he would have just left it lying around for anyone to pick up, and I was right."
The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacherleft his seat, took out his wand and waved it over a portion of the floor while he muttered quietly under his breath. A very quiet 'click' could be heard and Enoch pushed a part of the floor with his hand. A hidden hatch creaked open and revealed a large plain wooden box with an iron handle on top. Enoch picked it out of the crevasse and placed it on the table.
"It's a Securaway Box," he said fiddling with the various clasps, "completely hides anything inside and can't be detected by spells or sensors, probably why those two couldn't find this."
Enoch had flipped the top of the box open and pulled out a second smaller box, George instantly recognised it as the one he'd seen through his Twin Mirror, as there was the carved mark of Kai emblazoned in the centre of the lid.
"I eventually worked out how to open it," commented Enoch. He rolled up the sleeve of his forearm to reveal his own mark of Kai, and pressed it to the wood. Instantly the heavy looking latch unclipped itself, which allowed Enoch to pull the lid back. The twins craned their necks to try and get a glimpse of the content.
"So what's that?" asked George pointing the scroll that was housed in the box, "is it the spell?"
"No," said Enoch flatly, carefully taking out the scroll and gently unravelling it, "it's instructions of how to find and use the Emerald of Kai."
"You can read that?" Fred pointed that the words on the page, which were made up from unfamiliar letters and symbols.
"Honestly I don't know why I can read it," Enoch informed them, "I learnt Ancient Egyptian whilst I was in Africa, but these words are a completely different dialect and I have never seen them used like this, it's possible that this was a language devised by Kai and his followers. The only reason that I can think of as to why I can understand the writing is that the Mark on my arm has given me the ability to read it. I know it sounds stupid," he admitted in response to the looks of scepticism now plastered on the faces of his nephews, "but it's the only thing I can think of."
"Not exactly the most detailed instructions are they?" said George nodding at the page, "it's only a couple of paragraphs."
"It's not all the instructions, just the first two parts," admitted Enoch, "once you complete one part of the instructions the next part reveals itself."
"Sounds smart I guess," George shrugged, he leant forward and took the cloth off of his foot and rotated it experimentally, "so what were the first two parts?"
"The first part was an incantation to locate where the Emerald, it's in Alexandria. To be honest I pretty much already suspected that, but they only found the tomb of Kai relatively recently so if that hadn't been found the first part would have been pretty useful. The second part tells us that the entrance to the catacombs will only reveal itself during a full moon, and gives a second spell to use to find it."
"It's a full moon tonight," said George excitedly, "we can go now and find the entrance."
"Hold on there George," replied Enoch holding his hand up, "you think those two tonight were the only members of the Sect?"
"There's more?"
"Definitely. I don't know how many, no one does. Their numbers won't be as great as they used to be but they still exist, and each one would be a formidable dark wizard. I'm sure they have people watching the tomb and I guarantee that if I apparated anywhere close to it, they'd be on tome in seconds. I needed a way of getting close to the tomb that still left me protected."
"The school trip to Egypt was all your idea wasn't it? You'd be safe in the other school, especially surrounded by Dumbledore and all the other teachers," asked Fred as realisation dawned.
"Guilty as charged," grinned Enoch holding up his hand in acknowledgement, "I just mentioned it as an idea to a few of the other teachers, and it seemed to go down quite well. Soon everyone was suggesting the trip to Dumbledore."
"So what was the plan?" inquired George folding his arms, "get to Egypt, hang around with us for a couple of days and then sneak off in the middle of the night?"
"Pretty much," shrugged Enoch.
"That's basically the same plan I would have come up with," admitted George, "so these Sect guys are going to be all over that place?"
"Yeah, more than likely" nodded Enoch, "the tomb is like a shrine to them…no. Absolutely not."
"What?" asked George innocently.
"I know that look," Enoch said pointing at his nephew, "it's the same one I get. You two, aren't getting involved in this, it's too dangerous."
"We're already involved in this," countered Fred leaning forward and pointing at his brother's foot.
"Well you aren't getting any more involved," argued Enoch shaking his head firmly, "I'm grateful for the whole 'saving my life' thing but you two could get seriously hurt and I'm not going to risk that, for a start Molly would kill me."
"Are you telling us we can't get involved because we'll get hurt or because mum will kill you if we get hurt?"
"It's probably about fifty-fifty," replied Enoch thoughtfully, "sorry guys, this is definitely a one man job."
"Come on," complained George, "you have to take us along with you. Sneaking around where we aren't allowed is a speciality of me and Fred."
"Yes, I've seen the detention file. Most impressive," smiled Enoch, "but seriously it's too dangerous, I'm not going to take you with me."
"Well, what if we told Dumbledore what was going on?" Fred threatened.
"You'd honestly tell on me?"
"No," replied Fred, his shoulders sagging. "It was worth a try."
"There's one more thing," said George flexing his foot again, "when we overheard those two, they said something like 'he said Enoch's room is on this floor', that means someone let them into the school. How else would they know where your room was?"
"Ah well to be perfectly honest," replied Enoch looking slightly embarrassed, "anyone from Hogsmeade could have told them that. I got rather drunk the other night and in front of the whole pub I invited Rosmerta back to my room. It took two whole days for the red mark from the slap to go down."
"Well we can't fault you for your taste," grinned George.
"Or your confidence," added Fred.
"Your foot should be ok now," advised Enoch ignoring his smiling nephews, choosing instead to take off the wrapping around George's foot, "how's that feel?"
"Much better," admitted George, standing up and bouncing on his foot as he tested it, "still a little sore."
"That should be gone by tomorrow," admitted Enoch, "come on then I'll walk you back to Gryffindor House."
Enoch and the boys left his room and headed down the corridor towards the school's main stairway, all the way the twins were trying to convince their uncle to change his mind and let them come on his adventure when they got to Egypt, but he remained steadfast. In the end Enoch decided to refuse to even comment on the matter.
"Will you two be ok to get back to your House from here?" asked Enoch once they'd traversed a few stairs.
"Yeah," agreed George, "don't worry, I doubt we'd be sneaking around the school tonight with my foot the way it is. Where are you off to?"
"Dumbledore's," admitted Enoch, "look at me, a grown man and I'm still getting sent to the Headmaster's office."
"What are you going to tell him?"
"I'll stick with the story about owing people money," shrugged Enoch, "it's pretty much believable, especially since I borrowed some Galleons from Dumbledore last week. Thanks again boys, goodnight."
"'Night Enoch," chorused the twins as they continued heading towards Gryffindor House.
"What do you think?" asked George holding onto the rail of the staircase.
"I think we are going to be sticking very close to our uncle when we are in Egypt," admitted Fred smiling.
The boys continued to talk about the story their uncle had told them that night, as they neared their House conversation turned to the Emerald of Kai and what they'd do with it if they found it.
"I'm telling you," George wagged his finger at this brother, "becoming the richest men in the world is the way to go."
"What about becoming Minister of Magic?" countered Fred, "that could be pretty cool."
"Let me get this straight," George said stopping, "you have the ability to have anything in the world, and the thing you wish for the most is a job?"
"Ah, I see your point," nodded Fred.
"And plus," George carried on, "if we were the richest men in the world then we could just buy anything we wanted anyway."
"That's very true," admitted Fred, as the two boys approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, "just think by the end of the term we could have that Emerald in our hands and be about to granted any wish we desire."
"Now, I was already looking forward to that school trip," said George as Fred gave the password to the Fat Lady causing her to swing open, "but this has made it absolutely perfect."
The two boys stepped through the doorway and into their House. There was a slight creak, as the Fat Lady swung closed again followed by a click as the door latched into place, this was followed by a very quiet scratching sound coming from down the corridor.
"Who's there?" demanded the Fat Lady.
The candlelight flickered slightly and caught something in the shadows. Two small bright eyes reflected back out before the Mrs Norris slinked forward and sat down in front of the entrance to Gryffindor House.
"Oh it's just you," commented the Fat Lady, before waving a hand dismissively at the animal, "be on your way now, shoo."
Mrs Norris let out a long protracted yawn and stretched slowly before giving the Fat Lady another look of indifference. She cocked her head to one side before gazing lazily over her shoulder and letting out a soft meow.
"Don't worry my pet," said Filch stepping out of a hidden doorway that looked, to the uninformed, just like any other section of wall, "I heard everything."