Ch 25 Sand and Sun
"Come on, Ginny," Molly Weasley huffed. "If we don't hurry we're going to miss the port keys, and I know you've been looking forward to this chance to see the Pyramids."
Ginny for her part, merely rolled her eyes. She had not in fact been looking forward to this trip in the slightest. Apart from the chance to see her eldest brother, this was all a phenomenal waste of time. Still she hurried her short legs along so as to avoid any more unpleasant chatter from her mother.
Ginny arrived just behind her brothers in time to hear her father say, "Now gather round Weasleys, and we'll all grab the Portkey on three. One… Two… Three!" Ginny felt a sudden tug behind her naval and when she felt well enough to look around all she saw was the heat waves of the evening radiating from the rapidly cooling desert wasteland.
"Ughhh.. why are we here again?" Ginny moaned.
"To visit your brother, now please drop the attitude," Molly replied shortly.
As they trudged up to the hotel Ginny could be heard steadily mumbling curses against everything within view and quite a few hidden items as well. "What crawled up her bum and died?" Ron asked George, earning him a highly reproachful glare from Percy.
"I suppose it's because the boy wonder didn't show his face for the last couple days," Fred replied softly.
"Don't understand that. I mean he's my best mate and you don't see me being snarky," Ron shot back. Any further conversation was cut off by a patented glare-of-doom from the youngest Weasley. Ron gulped and realised that it was in his best interest to play nicely with his only sister. It was going to be a long trip if this kept up.
Ginny stared idly at the interior of the hotel lobby. Even with seven hundred Galleons their parents couldn't afford anything decent for all seven of them. The interior was dingy and yellowing and judging by the slow rate at which her father was speaking, the clerk behind the counter had less than a decent grasp of the English language. Her daddy always thought that if you spoke more slowly the other person would understand eventually. Finally the clerk and Arthur seemed to reach an understanding of sorts, and the Weasleys were on their way to their fabulous suite of rooms. Fred, George and Ron had all been crammed into one room with her parents in another and finally she was asked to share with… Percy. It wasn't that she hated her older brother. In fact when they were younger his propensity to follow the rules had saved her on several occasions, however that propensity had grown to a full blow log that was shoved unceremoniously up his backside.
When she asked why she had to be the one to share with the pompous git of the family, "Family unity and peace," were the only answers her mother would give. Ginny secretly suspected that her Mum and Daddy were still in a state of disbelief that Fred and George had mended their ways. Despite the thorough ransacking their rooms had taken at Hogwarts and at the Burrow, both twins had come down several minutes after aforementioned ransacking holding a variety of products including stacks of order forms for something called 'Weasley Wizard Wheezes'. The row about that would long be inscribed in the annals of legend.
To their credit, Fred did point out that they had volunteered to give these up and not, in fact, kept them hidden to be used or discovered at a later date. This piece of logic had shocked Molly so much that she stopped ranting long enough to give Arthur an opening to spirit the boys out to his work shed. Ginny had asked them what they discussed when they were out there. Fred told her, and apparently all her father had wanted to know was why. Ginny was very curious too. "We've given it up, Gin. Our pranks got us into this whole mess and nearly got our family killed. Besides, there's only so far you can go being the joke of the family," with that and a resigned shrug the matter was closed.
Unfortunately, her parents mistrust still forced Ginny into close and frequent proximity of her git of a brother. Sighing resignedly she pushed open the door and saw the drab interior of the lobby had translated into the equally drab interior of the rooms. There were two beds with white linen sheets, several small bedside tables and a tiny washroom in one corner. It seemed the hotel's one furnishing was a Kneazle…
Ginny's brain froze for a moment. There was a Kneazle on her bed, curled up and asleep. His black paws resting lightly over his eyes to block out the sun did nothing to obfuscate the white patch above his eye. "Harry?" Ginny began tentatively.
"Prrrt?" A sleepy Kneazle head rose from the bed and seemed to greet her with a drowsy smile.
"Harry! It is you. How did you make it over here? I can't believe it. Is this why you didn't come see me? Oh, I wish you would have told me," Ginny gushed.
"Ginny?" Percy poked his head in nervously. "What's all the fuss about?"
"Oh, Perc, look who's here!" she squealed.
Percy's eyes grew round as saucers as he locked gazes with the smug countenance of the Harry Kneazle. The Kneazle was the devil, Percy was sure of that. Not only did he give Percy one of his most distinguishing marks, a long slash across the bridge of his nose after the one and only prank he'd helped perpetrate on his younger sister , but Percy was willing to bet money he didn't have that this was the same cat that rode comfortably between the fabled breasts of his girlfriend. Percy glared at the small animal. How a cat had more luck with women than he did, still baffled the head boy.
"Get him out of here Ginny. He isn't sleeping in here," Percy informed her authoritatively.
"Percy, where else is he supposed to go? He's miles away from home and he came all this way to visit me!" Ginny huffed.
Percy gave her a stern glare, disbelief written across his scowling features. "A Kneazle, Ginny, does not travel so far from its home to 'visit' anyone. I've taken four years of Care of Magical Creatures and I can tell you that definitively."
Ginny drew up to her full and inconsiderable height and glared back at her brother. "He stays with me, Percy, and Merlin's left ball cheek can't change that!"
"We'll just see what Mum has to say about all of that," Percy growled as he stormed from the room. His uncharacteristic fierceness shocked even Percy, himself. He thought of himself as above the fray of silly sibling squabbles. If they'd only respect their parents' wishes, life would be so much easier for everyone.
Ginny had to use every trick in her not inconsiderable arsenal to allow Harry to stay with her. Her father was quickly won over by use of her trademark 'brown eyes of immeasurable sorrow and sadness'. Her mother took the better part of half an hour to convince that this was indeed Harry from home and that obviously Uncle Sebastian must have sent him either as a prank or a present to help cheer up his favourite niece.
In the end Mum Weasley relented, "Don't let him muss up the room and tell Ron to keep Scabbers out of sight," finished the conversation for good.
Ginny watched her Kneazle-boy suspiciously and was suitably mollified when he went to the window and stared out into space long enough for her to get changed into her night things. With a final figure eight and a hearty purr to let her know he was indeed pleased to be here, Harry leapt onto the bed, Percy's bed. "Get off you silly beast! Shoo!" Percy shouted.
Harry bristled and stood as erect as his feline form would allow. He was getting bigger, he knew, because Mum had said so. This made for a far more imposing Kneazle, at least Harry thought so, and judging by the way Percy's eyes had gone rather round and glassy, so did he.
"Ginny, call your Kneazle. He should be sleeping with you."
"I'm a little young for that Percy," Ginny muttered, and then continued. "I don't own him Percy. He sleeps where he wants. If he wants your bed then that's where he'll be."
"He'll just sleep on the floor then," Percy retorted and moved to shove the full-bodied feline to the floor. He stopped just as suddenly when Harry's strong right paw rose up and hung there, like a boxer's right hook, waiting to connect.
"Just let him be, Percy. He's actually quite comfortable."
Grumbling, Percy finally acquiesced and lay down to try and get a decent sleep. The feeling of strong paws needing his stomach did nothing to help. Finally, the Kneazle seemed to quiet and all the inhabitants of the room drifted off to sleep.
oOo
The next morning the Weasley clan awoke to a shrill shriek from Ginny's room. Ginny's head rose slowly from her pillow. She'd been having a nice dream, dammit! Looking over at her brother, she saw nothing unusual enough to warrant such a tantrum.
The door flew open a moment later and the rest of Ginny's family raced in. "What's the matter, Ginny dear?" Molly asked in her best concerned mother voice.
"Don't look at me, Mum. Percy is the one who screamed." Behind her parents backs she could hear her other brothers snickering none too softly.
"Well, Percy, what's wrong?" Arthur asked, genuinely concerned. Of all his children, Percy was the most grounded and least easily put off, Arthur had always thought.
"Ginny's Kneazle won't stop staring at me. It's like he's waiting for something," Percy started lamely as the snickering crescendoed into all out guffaws. "Aww… is Perc-Perc afraid of a kitty?" Ron asked cheerily.
"You try waking up to those eyes and tell me it doesn't turn your stomach! That cat is mad," Percy defended hastily. Harry merely stood up, stretched lazily and leapt to the ground, where he proceeded to saunter over to Mum Weasley and do a fine figure eight around her legs, thus rapidly diffusing the situation. The laughter from Ginny's brothers was unstoppable now. Molly merely looked pleasantly befuddled.
"Percy, please no more hysterics. I think you just had a bad dream. Now, get along with all of you. We've a busy day today and we must be off." Molly gently shooed her family out of the room to allow the occupants their own privacy. Harry sauntered out with them, and only Percy and Ginny caught the smug, saucy look the Kneazle gave.
An hour later Harry was sitting patiently in the dust of the steps of Gringotts' Egyptian headquarters as he watched his human engage in a display of physical sibling affection. Ginny finally disentangled herself from the monstrous hug she was giving Bill, enough to allow the rest of her family to finally say hello.
Harry vaguely remembered the eldest Weasley, but he didn't look anything like that now. With his dragon hide outfit and long hair, Bill looked far more like a member of a notorious criminal enterprise rather than an upstanding curse breaker.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a light scratching on his head, which he leaned in to forcefully. "You're much calmer than last time I saw you, Harry." Harry jerked his head up to stare at the smiling visage of Charlie Weasley. Ginny had gone on about Charlie two summers ago when he got a job at the dragon preserve in Romania. As the stocky Weasley man resumed his gentle scratching, Harry could well understand why the dragons might appreciate someone with such a delicate touch.
Charlie continued to talk softly to him for a few minutes until Ginny returned and the entire group headed on for the whirlwind tour of Bill's work. "There isn't much here, really," Bill began. "Most of the time we're out in the desert on assignment. That's where the real action is." Indeed, compared to the London branch the Cairo office seemed rather dull. Only fifteen or so goblins worked here, alongside forty or so Human counterparts. The marble was no less polished though and the halls were remarkably dust free for such a sandy place. Bill informed them, when Percy asked, that this was because Goblins take pride in their surroundings no matter the location.
The day passed quickly and before everyone knew it, lunch time had transfigured itself nicely into dinner and again into the pleasant time after supper in which everyone is too full for pudding, but wants to try a little something anyway. "What do you have planned for tomorrow, Mum?" Bill asked finally.
"Oh, I thought we'd be seeing the sights. If you've other things to do, I'm sure we can manage," Molly said slowly. Her voice letting it be known that while they would manage it, it might very well break the matron's heart.
Bill for his part merely chuckled. "Oh, you mean the touristy spots where they never show you anything worth looking at? I tell you what, I'll take the whole lot on a dig tomorrow. They've just discovered one here in Cairo again and after that we can have a little behind the scenes tour," Bill smirked.
"Dear, you don't have to do that. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble with work."
"No trouble at all Mum. You lot travelled an awfully long way just to see me. The least you can get out of it is a little fun and some secret access. Really, what's the point of having an internationally known curse breaker for a son if there aren't a few perks to go along with it?"
Molly finally agreed and the family broke apart heading back to their various lodgings. "Mum, is it ok if I go outside for a bit? It's kind of stuffy in the room and Percy keeps getting annoyed with me for 'breathing too loudly' or something like that," Ginny asked timidly. Looking outside, Molly noted the sun hadn't gone completely to bed yet and after a moment's consideration relented. Even she was willing to acknowledge how fussy Percy could be when he was studying for something.
"Fine dear, but just outside and be careful. This isn't like the Burrow."
"Yes, Mum," Ginny replied and scampered down the steps, her Kneazle companion close on her heels.
"Finally! You can change back now Harry," Ginny said, once they had ducked into an alley across the street from their hotel. Harry merely shook his head.
"What do you mean? Of course you can! Come on, don't be silly," but Ginny's rant stopped short as she saw her Kneazle-boy scratching in the dirt.
'can't, promised Sebastian. Said dangerous for Harry Potter. Kneazle Harry ok.'
"You promised Uncle Sebastian?" Harry nodded. "So can we still practice my transformation?" Harry nodded.
'every night' he wrote.
Ginny grinned, "Fabulous."
oOo
Their trip abroad had grown on Ginny faster than her parents had hoped. She'd taken a liking to nearly everything the family had done, after her initial bout of pre-teen angst. From trying new foods to enthusiastically following Bill on every sightseeing adventure they'd had, with or without her mum's approval.
Ginny, too, was elated at how the summer was progressing. Her best friend and she were hanging out every day, despite his inability to communicate in the English language. She was surrounded by her family, which while often vexing was comforting, and she was seeing more interesting things than she'd ever seen in England.
There were pyramids with ancient mummies and murals painted for kings. She saw where the bodies were prepared for the afterlife and with Harry's assistance (he'd distracted her mum for a few crucial moments) she'd even managed to see several areas that the Egyptian wizards had trapped with particularly dark magic. If she'd been thinking clearly, the horrified expressions on the corpses would have made her skin crawl, but this was all just too cool!
But the best part, at least in the soon-to-be second year's mind, was that she was almost there. Harry had told her, or tried to, that he'd seen definite improvement. So much in fact that she'd even sprouted whiskers and gone around with them for the better part of the morning until her mum finally asked her what was going on. Naturally she blamed Percy.
Today though was shaping up to be slightly less spectacular than the prior ones. She'd woken up late because Harry had been out hunting and forgotten to get her up. The large rat he brought her certainly did nothing to improve her mood. Speaking of rats, Ron it seemed was nearly as scatterbrained and had forgotten to leave Scabbers in the hotel. Since the family was already considerably late to see Bill, her parents had simply agreed that Ron would have to bring the rodent along. Unfortunately, it seemed Harry's breakfast hadn't been enough as he kept eying Ron's pocket suspiciously.
"Pictures, portraits and all manner of souvenirs!" a street vendor cried. Judging from the man's assortment of wares his primary source of employment was photographing tourists.
"Oh, Arthur, we haven't had a decent family portrait in years. Do we have the money?" Molly looked beseechingly at her husband, who thought briefly and then nodded. As the family made their way towards the dingy assortment of moving pictures and cheap Egyptian ankhs a hand gently laid itself upon Arthur's shoulder. Harry's hackles went up at once. No one approached his family so familiarly without his say-so.
"Excuse me sir, do I know you?" Arthur seemed equally reluctant to have his body accosted so.
"No you don't, mate, but the name is Reginald Rumplesnout, Daily Prophet." The other man replied holding up his badge that clearly identified him as such. "Look, just a bit of friendly advice from a mate who's been here a bit. Don't you stop at one of those street vendors. They've urchins that'll pick you blind and I don't suppose you have the wherewithal to afford that. I know I don't," the man continued cordially.
"Rumplesnout… you're the bloke who's covering our new Cairo dig!" Bill exclaimed. "Pleased to meet you. I've read your articles. It's so rare someone from the Prophet gets the facts right out here."
Rumplesnout gave a carefree smile. "It isn't like most of the blokes that get shipped out here give a damn. Mr…"
"Bill Weasley," Bill replied.
"Weasley! Merlin, you lot were looking for a picture weren't you?"
Arthur shifted uneasily, "I suppose so, why?"
"Well, after you won the Ministry drawing one of my mates was supposed to go round to your house to get a picture after you gave the Floo interview, but you'd already shoved off, and they won't print the article without a picture. If I could get a picture, it would be worth quite a bit for me and I could give you a few copies professionally done by a friend back in England," Rumplesnout rushed out.
After a brief family discussion between Arthur and Molly, conducted entirely with their eyes they agreed.
"Alright now, taller ones in the back. Madam if you could stand by your man there, miss if you could come down and stand next to your little brother,"
"Hey! I'm a year older than her," Ron squawked.
"Yes, yes, but I need you two to stand next to each other…"
Harry was vaguely paying attention, but his mind was elsewhere. There was something rotten in the state of… wherever the hell they were. Harry could sense something unnatural among them. He could smell it and feel it. He could almost taste it, but he couldn't figure out what it was, or more precisely where it was coming from. It felt like another human, but not a passer-by on the street. Where ever he went, the feeling was too. As Ginny began to move, Harry absent-mindedly kept up at her heels. He was her protector after all.
The feeling was so strong now it was suffocating and as Harry looked up he saw something he'd not seen in a long time, Scabbers. The rat had taken to avoiding Harry like a cow avoids the butcher, and Harry had seen him before, as a human. Now his Kneazle senses were going into overdrive. The way the rat sat, smelled, and squeaked were all wrong. Focusing intently, Harry realised this was the source of his discomfort. Harry felt a memory in the back of his mind move just a little bit. The feeling he was getting from the family's longtime pet was the same as he felt from McGonagall.
Thinking a bit more, Harry realised the rat was older than he was. He certainly was around when Harry met Ginny. Finally it all clicked. The rat… wasn't a rat at all. Another Animagus? It had to be, and if the small furry animal hadn't revealed himself then only nefarious plots were afoot. Besides, what kind of rabbit brained toad licker would decide to become a rat of all things. That would be like deciding to learn to transfigure yourself into a platter of lamb chops… with legs.
The picture did come out, contrary to Mum Weasley's ranting; however when developed it clearly did not show anyone's best side. Harry was caught mid-leap, snarling and pouncing on Ron's shoulder while Ginny and Molly looked mortified. A panicked Scabbers was squealing and desperately trying to evade pointy death. Fred and George were smirking gleefully and Arthur could be seen merely planting his face in the palm of his hand. Charlie was laughing uproariously and slapping Bill on the back who looked considerably worse for the contact. In fact only Percy looked normal with his usual scowl for anything that upset the natural order. All in all, it wasn't a good day for the Weasleys.
oOo
Back at the hotel, Ginny was receiving the verbal flogging of her life. Everything from 'I thought you were more responsible than that' to 'you just wait till we get home young lady' were trotted out for the occasion. Twenty minutes later a tear-stained Ginny ran to her room and flopped unceremoniously onto her bed, crying her eyes out at the total humiliation she'd just suffered. It wasn't enough that her Mum, Dad, and Percy had all given her their own form of a lecture, but even Bill seemed a little disappointed, and the worst part was it wasn't even her fault!
"Prrt?" A familiar musical meow reached Ginny's ears. She shot up, with murder in her eyes.
"You ignorant, selfish, greedy, tit-waffle! I can't believe you. You muss up the only picture we've had of the whole family and get me in trouble with Bill and then walk in, smooth as silk and expect me to just scratch you ears? I can't believe your gall," Ginny ground out. She gasped, in a second Harry had become the nearly thirteen-year-old heartthrob she'd traversed the Forbidden Forest with. The sparkly green eyes that could be so infuriating when coupled with pointy ears were far more alluring on a human frame. They stopped her rant, mid-sentence.
"I'm sorry, Ginny."
That got her hackles up again. Saying he was sorry, did he really think that would be enough? The next statement drew her attention though.
"I just can't understand why your family lives with another Animagus."
Ginny gasped, and looked rather puzzled. "What are you talking about Harry? You're the only Animagus in the house. I think we'd know if we had another."
"You didn't know you had me," Harry pointed out evenly. "And did you really say tit-waffle? What is a tit-waffle anyway?"
Ginny sputtered a bit and then regained her composure. "Don't worry about that! What do you mean there is another Animagus in our house?"
"Ron's rat, Scabbers, he's one too."
Ginny merely scoffed, "How can you be sure?"
"Look at him Ginny, I mean really look. He doesn't act like a rat, he doesn't smell like a rat and he certainly doesn't feel like a rat. Ignoring all that, how long has he been alive now?"
Ginny looked thoughtful. "Since around the time I was born I suppose. He's always been here. I can't remember anytime he wasn't here…"
"Exactly, and let me tell you rats simply don't live that long. Four maybe five years, but he doesn't look like he's aged a bit does he? He still looks like a middle aged rat."
Ginny was forced to concede the point. "So you really think he's an Animagus living with us?" Ginny asked slowly. Harry nodded. "Then what do we do?"
"As much as it pains me to do this, we have to tell your parents," Harry winced.
"And they're going to believe me?" Ginny shot back skeptically.
"No, likely not at first, but you'll have to convince them. It's either that or I can kill it and I don't think Ron's going to let me anywhere near his room anytime soon."
Ginny sat back for a moment, and thought. "Will you come with me? …as a Kneazle I mean." Harry nodded and smiled.
A moment later, the smile was gone, "Ginny," Harry shouted. "Get your parents. The rat's going to escape!" Harry furploded and raced after the opposing four-legged creature. It was fortunate, Harry thought, that he'd managed to spot the spy in the room, though he'd no idea how he'd gotten out of his cage without alerting Ron or the twins. Harry could feel the rat's human heart beating furiously. Fear and desperation coursed through the transformed human's mind. Harry's hunter senses were beginning to take over. 'Don't kill, don't kill,' he studiously chanted in his mind. They needed to discover what this trickster wanted, as he obviously wasn't looking out for the best interests of the family.
Rounding a corner, Harry could sense he had almost caught up with the treacherous rodent, when a unseen force delivered a bone-jarring thump forceful enough to drive him into the wall and knock the wind out of his massive Kneazle lungs.
Harry sat on the floor for a moment gasping and then forced himself to rise again, which was easier than he thought. Except that our hero-in-fur kept rising off the ground. In a moment he was suspended at eye height with a furious Ron. "You bastard!" Ron screamed. "Ginny, I swear to Merlin, I'm going to kill the lousy cat."
Harry for his part merely growled as Ron held him by the scruff in a most uncomfortable position. He was rewarded with a furious thump on his head. Luckily, Ginny and Mum Weasley both arrived at the same time and began yelling at the offending brother to drop the Kneazle.
"Mum, he killed Scabbers! I found blood and cat fur all over my sheets," Ron yelled.
"Mum, he's hurting Harry!" Ginny cried out. Harry was furious, not only manhandled by his best male friend, but being framed for murder and allowing the rat to escape. Father would never forgive him. A few seconds more of incessant argument finally saw Harry ungracefully pitched across the hallway of the hotel, his back legs nearly tumbling arse over whiskers and finally with the help of gravity landing rather unceremoniously on all four. Kneazle-boy snorted in his mind. Cats may always land on their feet, but no one ever mentions that it isn't painless.
Doing his best arrow from a bow impression the black-furred terror sped along the corridor, stopping every so often to sniff and check for scents. Thirty minutes later Harry returned in a foul mood, itching to dig his claws into something expensive and silky. No good, dumb Ron picking him up. If the prat hadn't obstructed his chase they'd be currently extracting answers from a rat that had lived with the Weasleys longer than he had and had never, apparently, divulged the fact that he was indeed an Animagus. Harry consoled himself with the fact that he did it at least, because he didn't know he was an Animagus.
Sauntering slowly back into the Weasley-occupied section of the hotel, he narrowly avoided being squashed by the sudden emergence of his favourite human and her mother who seemed to be in the death throes of an argument.
"Ginny, I'll not have you spreading wild rumours about like this. Scabbers was an old rat, but that was no reason for your cat to eat him."
"Mum," Ginny pleaded. "Harry didn't eat him, and he only tried because he was an Animagus. I told you, Kneazles can sense things like that. Why won't you believe me?"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. We've had Scabbers for nearly twelve years now, why would a person spend twelve years as a rat?" Molly huffed.
"Mum, how could a rat live twelve years? I can't believe this!"
"Ginevra Molly Weasley, go to your room now. We're going home tomorrow and your father has been spending this entire time trying to explain to the manager what the rumpus we've been having up here is. We'll be lucky if we aren't out on the street tonight." The Weasley Matriarch's voice was cold as ice and hard as diamond. Ginny held back tears only because of the resolve the feeling a furry body wrapping around her legs gave her. Sniffling loudly she headed back to her hotel bed and proceeded to cry it out.
Harry sat scrunched against her side, purring a loud rumbling lullaby, like Mum used to do when he was a kitten. He wondered briefly what Human Mums did for their kittens, or what his mum did for him before Isis took him to her service. Shaking the blasphemous thought out of his head he concentrated on making his Human feel better.
"Stupid Mum, wouldn't believe me. Told me to stop making things up. Told me Kneazles couldn't talk or let us know things and I certainly wasn't going to tell your secret was I? Stupid Mum, even said Daddy was going to have a talk with me for carrying on like a broken banshee. Bet Ron doesn't get a talk. Stupid Ron, stupid Mum, stupid… well I guess it's not Daddy's fault. I still wish they would believe me for one second though. Not like it matters now. You didn't catch him did you?" Harry shook his head and meowed forlornly.
Ginny quickly changed into her night gown, despite the early hour, and faked sleep until the real thing overcame her. The last thing she wanted to deal with that evening was another of pompous Percy-the-prat's lectures.
oOo
The next day little was said, though both Harry and Ginny received glares of eternal enmity from Ron and ultimate motherly disappointment from Molly. They met up with Bill once again to say fond farewells. "How long do you have then?" Bill asked quickly.
"Three hours or so," Arthur replied.
"Do you lot have time to see one more? We finished de-cursing it just a few days ago. I know you would, Gin. It's got you and your Kneazle written all over it."
They headed out to an excavation that looked fresher than the rest. Ginny wondered what was so important that Bill wanted to show him, her mind travelling over the various possibilities while the rest of her family droned on in the background and she studiously avoided Ron's angry gaze.
"This room was built as a bank of sorts," Bill was telling them. "It took us nearly three months to break just the first round of enchantments, and another six to get through the rest. The Goblins weren't too happy with the extra time spent, but the reward shut them up rather nicely," he grinned. "Now, what I'm going to show you one of the archaeology teams only discovered a few days ago. We had to check it for wards and dark magic, obviously but it is one of the damndest things I've ever seen."
Now Ginny and Harry's attention was fully concentrated with no more daydreaming. Stepping into a low roofed room in front of them stood a statue of black rock. It was a young girl, dressed in traditional Egyptian garb and holding a large staff in one hand.
"The symbol on the staff is for Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god," Bill explained. "We're not sure what it is, but I thought you'd appreciate the subject matter, Gin."
Ginny gasped as she stared at it. The young girl had several large felines wrapped around her feet and another on her shoulder. Her hair was flowing and regal, her skin seemed to lack (at least to Ginny's artistic senses) the traditional hue of the Egyptian people. The cats seemed lifelike, almost like guardians and the girl's face was dotted with what appeared to be freckles, and while Ginny never had a fine appreciation for the arts, even she had to admit this was pretty cool.
"Kind of looks like you, Sparkplug," Arthur stated off-handedly. "In a very Egyptian sort of way. What do those funny rune things at the bottom say?" He asked his eldest son.
"From what the egg-heads tell me in linguistics, it says 'The Isis of flesh. She who will lead them to true understanding.' The Egyptian wizards had a fascination with cats. They thought that their great defenders were the Sphinx. Practically worshiped the little buggers."
"That's not a cat, Bill. That's a Kneazle. Look how much bigger they are," Ginny remarked slowly.
"Huh? I guess they are, makes the bird on the pedestal even more like you then, doesn't it?"
Any further speculation was silenced as Molly quickly announced their Portkey time was near and that the family would need to say their final goodbyes, preferably outside of a thousand-year-old tomb. So it was with squinting eyes and fond memories that the large family did exactly that. Charlie had to leave first for Romania, and Bill said he was needed at the office, which left only the children at home plus one Kneazle in the care of their parents as the group headed to the spot that would return them to England and the Burrow.
"Everyone have a good Holiday?" Arthur asked. Everyone except Ron agreed. The youngest boy merely muttered something that sounded like 'stupid pet rat-killer', but it was lost in the void as they all grabbed the Portkey, Harry being clutched tightly in Ginny's free arm.
AN: A very Happy labor day to all my American comrades basking in the anticipation of a Monday off. I hope this is all very satisfactory and you aren't too impatient with my updates. Here is the long awaited trip to Egypt. Before anyone asks, just wait and see about the statue. The ending to that hasn't been totally resolved yet. I hope all you Yanks have a good time with the day off and to everyone else, maybe you can pretend to be American and take Monday off regardless.