The first full day in Egypt was certainly one brimming with activities. The students were woken at what the twins would call an ungodly hour but what everyone else would call nine in the morning, by a loud shrill squealing that echoed around the whole school. Once everyone had established that they weren't under attack from some bizarre creature from beyond this world, and had trekked down to breakfast, they were informed by Currymore that what had awoken them was the school clock.
"It's an interesting thing that clock." admitted Enoch as he headed the table where the twins and Lee had plonked themselves, "Only the headmaster can set the alarm on it, and it bounces through the whole school. At least he let you sleep in. When I was teacher here, it would go off every morning at six."
"Does it have to be so annoying?" asked Lee scooping something similar to porridge into his mouth.
"Actually it changes everyday," shrugged Enoch, "it depends on the mood of the clock, I found that if you gave it a good clean with some oil then the next day it would soothe everyone awake with gradual birdsong."
"Remind me to pick some up," grumbled George yawning.
"So what are we supposed to be doing today?" asked Fred, taking a mouthful of some of his drink.
"Well I believe," Enoch started, looking thoughtful, "that we'll be taking you into the Wizarding Quarter for the first part of the morning, then after lunch you'll have a choice of going on a carpet tour of the surrounding areas, a tour of the school grounds, or watching a game of Rurble."
"What's Rurble?" asked Lee frowning.
"A very dangerous local sport," admitted Enoch, "you'd love it. Basically it involves teams of four on flying carpets. You have one person steering, while the other three have to protect each other from being hit by a Kei."
"A Kei?"
"The same as a Bludger," shrugged Enoch, "and that is basically it."
"That's it?" asked George astounded, "it's hardly that exciting."
"Well it is when you imagine that at the start of the game there are twenty teams of four and only one Kei," explained Enoch enthusiastically, "but when ever a team gets knocked out another Kei is added to the match, so when it comes down to the final two teams there are nineteen Keis bombarding around the place. Last team standing wins the game."
"That's insane," commented Fred shaking his head "sounds great. So what do they get given to protect themselves: a Beater's bat?"
"Something like that but only one bat," nodded Enoch, "and the other two get given a small shield to deflect the blows."
"I'm so going to choose to watch that over having a tour of anywhere," George decided firmly.
With so many activities to keep them distracted the day flew by for all the students. Everyone enjoyed the wander through the bustling streets and market places of the Wizarding Quarter, which reminded them all of Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, and most people managed to find themselves something to buy in one of the various shops. Charlie decided to stick close to the twins whilst they meandered through the multitude of bazaars, frequently making them put down anything that was too dangerous to be left in the hands of Fred or George which, the older Weasley soon realised, could pretty much be anything.
The students returned to the school for lunch, which was another sumptuous meal that left most people feeling rather full, and they took the time afterwards to show each other what they had purchased earlier in the day.
An hour of so later the students split up into their various groups; needless to say Fred, George, Lee and most of the other boys opted to go and watch a local Rurble game. It was just how Enoch had described it; vicious, dangerous and down right blood thirsty, and that was just the queue for refreshments.
The boys returned to the school chatting excitingly about the game and whether or not they'd be allowed to have a go at it. George even went up to McGonagall to ask if the school would consider adding it alongside Quidditch for the next year. He was politely but firmly told no.
After dinner, the students were left to their own devices, most of them either stayed in the Tower's Common Room or, like the twins and Lee, made their way down to the large courtyard and sat out in the slowly diminishing sunlight.
"That one guy who kept spinning his carpet upsidedown was fantastic," said Lee recalling the earlier Rurble game.
"Yeah," agreed Fred nodding, "it's a shame the rest his team weren't as good at holding on. They all fell off on his first loop."
"Alright guys," Angelina nodded as she sprawled herself down on the ground along with Alicia, "I hear you had a good time at the game."
"It was incredible," admitted George, "although I did get a bit put off by Oliver."
"How come?" asked Alicia.
"He kept elbowing me and George," complained Fred, "and then pointing at one of the guys hitting a Kei before going 'that's what you need to do.' I missed loads of it cos of him."
"So which did you go for?" asked Lee, "the school tour or the carpet ride."
"School tour," admitted Alicia, "it took me ages to sort out my hair after the last time."
"Really?" frowned George looking at her hair, "how did you notice?"
"If anyone shouldn't be making comments about people's hair it would be you," Angelina stated defending her friend.
"I'll have you know this look is all the rage in…" George thought for a moment, "…well… there's bound to be somewhere."
"Yeah probably somewhere where they haven't invented the mirror yet," agreed Lee smirking, "so what's the school like?"
"A lot like Hogwarts," shrugged Alicia, "except smaller, although they do have a fully working Muggle Studies lab. Apparently they put up a spell so that no magic will work inside of it, that way they can use electrolity and other muggle stuff that is normally affected by magic."
"Better not mention that to dad," Fred said thoughtfully, "he'd want to move over here."
As the sun disappeared over the horizon and the day slowly turned to night, the students made their way to the Astronomy Tower. The twins and Lee had been ready to sneak off after Enoch but were surprised to see that he too had joined everyone in waiting to catch a glimpse of the comet. Rather than using individual telescopes, Currymore had mounted a large crystal to the bottom of the one he was using which reflected the image onto the ceiling of the tower. Small twinkles of light beamed down onto the students as they waited patiently for the show to begin.
"Should be any minute now," commented Currymore looking at his pocket watch. He waved his hand over one of the lamps next to him and the light extinguished itself, all the other lights in the room followed suit and soon the inside of the Tower was plunged into darkness.
"He's moving," George whispered to Fred and Lee, pointing to where Enoch had previously been standing, they looked around and caught the faint outline of their uncle disappearing through one of the side doors.
Using the blackness to hid themselves, they made their way over to the door as best as they could, having to occasionally whisper an apology to someone they had bumped into or whose toes they had trodden on.
Once through the door they found themselves in a small stairwell leading down to the ground floor; they swiftly traversed this and came out just next to the main entranceway. The three boys urgently looked around to see if they could spot any trace of their uncle. Luckily Lee spotted Enoch's silhouette outside of the school and heading towards the groundskeeper's stables.
The boys ran as quickly as they could manage without making too much noise and headed over to the large wooden building; they hid behind an old broken wall and watched as a single carpet flew out through the doors. They ducked down low as it passed by their hiding place, but they were still able to make out Enoch's face as he went by.
Being careful to still remain silent Fred and George ran inside the stables while Lee stood outside keeping his eye on the gradually shrinking form of Enoch as he moved further and further from the school. Inside the stables were a number of different pens in various sizes used to house the schools animals, at the back there was a pile of flying carpets rolled up, and emitted what sounded like faint snores.
Fred and George grabbed the first one they saw, unravelled it onto the ground and jumped aboard.
"Now what?" asked George after a few seconds of sitting on the carpet.
"I don't know," complained Fred, "I've never flown one of these before."
"Hey er…. Mr Carpet?" George tried, "could you hover off of the ground for me?"
The carpet suddenly lurched upward and hovered a few feet off of the ground while Fred and George balanced uncertainly on top of it.
"Er… go?" George tried, after a few seconds he said it again and gave the carpet a pat he also decided to add, "please?"
The carpet wobbled hesitantly forward and out of the stable, where Lee was waiting impatiently still looking in the direction of where Enoch had disappeared.
"Here grab my hand," ordered Fred sticking his arm over the side, "George isn't sure he can land this thing."
"Thanks," said Lee after Fred hauled him up onto the carpet, he pointed out towards the hills in the distance, "Enoch went that way."
"Okay, can you head towards those hills please?" asked George politely, pointing for good measure, "and if you can make it quick we'd be very grateful."
"We'll buy you some nice carpet shampoo," added Fred just in case.
Whether is was George's polite tone or Fred's blatant attempt at bribery, something definitely worked as the carpet pitched forward and gathered speed quickly, taking them on their journey. They zipped along over the landscape, sticking as close to the ground as they dared, partly to do with the fact that they didn't want anyone from the school to spot them but mainly because George wasn't entirely sure he was in control of the carpet and didn't want to go to high in case they ended up falling off. It wasn't long before the familiar hills drew closer, they could even make out the outline of their uncle against the night sky, his carpet lit up by the moonlight.
George ordered, (well…respectfully asked) their carpet to slow down since they were close to being spotted by their uncle if not accidentally overtaking him. They shadowed him along for the rest of the journey, although they didn't mind staying too far behind him since they already knew where he was going. By the time they'd had reached the tombs that Bill had brought them to on the first day, Enoch had already dismounted his carpet and gone inside. George landed the carpet as best as he could.
"Nice one George," sputtered Fred coughing out a large mouthful of sand.
"You could have warned us," complained Lee picking himself off of the ground and dusting his trousers off.
"Hey don't blame me," argued George rubbing his shoulder that had recently broken his fall, "blame that rug."
'That rug' which had nestled itself comfortably on the ground suddenly raised itself off of the ground and dashed forward before spinning away, causing a plume of dust to flail up and engulf George.
"I'm sorry," George called after the carpet that was angrily heading back towards the school, having to swerve wildly to one side to avoid a rather startled owl.
"Well done," congratulated Fred.
"How was I to know they don't like being called rugs?" replied George indignantly, "come on lets go before we lose Enoch."
George cast one last look over his shoulder at their departing ride before following Fred and Lee into the large cavern. They went through the same invisible tunnel they had been brought down the previous day and made their way slowly along the passageway. As they got closer to the end they could hear Enoch muttering away to himself.
"Come on come on," Enoch mumbled looking at his watch, and then the scroll he'd shown to the twins earlier in the year. Lee's foot scraped along the ground and he stumbled slightly, bumping into Fred who in turned kicked a stone down the passageway. Enoch looked sharply up and pointed his wand in their direction. "Who goes there?"
"Alright Enoch," smiled Fred sheepishly, "fancy meeting you here."
"Yes, fancy that," said Enoch raising an eyebrow and lowering his wand, "shouldn't you be looking at a comet right about now?"
"Shouldn't you?" asked George.
"I'm a teacher," explained Enoch, "I'm allowed out. Come on you three, I'll put you on my carpet and send you back."
The twins and Lee protested all the way back down the tunnel, but their uncle was adamant, he kept telling them it was too dangerous and that they were too young and inexperienced to go messing around in places they weren't suppose to be. However at the end of the tunnel Enoch realised he had another problem, or two.
"What are you doing here?" Enoch asked, his astounded voice echoed around the vast chamber.
"Alright Angelina, Alicia," greeted George beaming, at the two Gryffindor girls who suddenly had a look of absolute shock at having been confronted by a teacher.
"Oh…" stammered Angelina, she pointed at the three boys, "we followed them. They always go on about their great adventures when they sneak off around Hogwarts."
"We just wanted to see what they were up to," mumbled Alicia with her head down.
"Well that's just lovely isn't it," muttered Enoch, he waved a finger at the two girls, "well you two can head back just the same. Oh, now what?" he looked over the shoulder of the girls as he spotted two shapes entering from outside.
"What is this?" asked Enoch, rubbing his forehead, "this isn't a school outing you know?"
"What?" shrugged Charlie as he and Miro had been revealed by the torches hung on the wall, "we were coming back from the city and we overheard those two," he pointed at the two girls, "going on about following them lot. We thought we'd better come along and check on them, make sure they didn't get into any trouble."
"Plus I always wanted to have a go flying one of those carpets," admitted Miro.
"Okay," snapped Enoch finally losing his patience, "everybody outside."
The seven students traipsed out into the cool night air. The twins could see that in addition to Enoch's carpet, three new ones were parked alongside.
"You flew one each?" Angelina asked the two older boys.
"No," replied Miro looking concerned, "there was only one when we landed."
"Alright," Enoch called out, pointing his wand into the darkness trying to spot anything, "who's there?"
"It's me," came a very timid answer. Out of one of the other chambers stepped Sebastian Walsh looking thoroughly scared.
"Sebastian?" asked Lee, "what are you doing here?"
"I'm not really into Astronomy," explained Sebastian looking at the ground, "so I asked Professor Snape if it was okay for me to head back to the dormitory. He said yes, but when I got downstairs I saw those two," he nodded at Charlie and Miro, "talking about how you'd gone off somewhere and well, I thought it would be fun to come along."
There was a long silence as everyone waited to see what Enoch would do; finally it was ended by Fred.
"Hang on," Fred said turning to George, "he's a first year, and he managed to land his carpet without almost killing himself."
"Obviously I just had a dodgy carpet," countered George, "which was clearly shown when it flew off in a sulk."
"Enough," said Enoch, letting out a long sigh, "Merlin's Beard, I doubt I'd have got this many people coming along with me if I'd stuck up a notice on the bulletin board."
"Can anyone else hear that?" asked George frowning.
"Don't think you can distract me like that," commented Enoch.
"Actually Enoch I think he is right," admitted Charlie, "I can definitely hear something."
The group of now nine looked all around them when it became apparent that George wasn't hearing things and that there was a strange noise coming from somewhere. Eventually they managed to pin point that it wasn't coming from around them but above them, it started of faintly, but gradually got louder as it seemed to be heading their way. It soon turned from a mysterious sound into something audible; it was a voice.
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die," the voice complained as it got closer and closer, "you're going too fast, you idiot. Pull up. Pull up. PULL UP!"
The group scattered out of the way as something swooped down on them like some ugly dragon. The dust swirled around them as an unknown heavy object seemed to be deposited in their midst. The object turned out to be the owner of the voice. The voice turned out to be very familiar. Fred groaned.
"You stupid flea ridden rug!" Filch shouted after the carpet that had dumped the caretaker on the ground and was now heading back to the school at speed. "I could have been killed!"
Filch stopped shaking his fist up at the retreating carpet, and looked around at his surrounding audience, "what?" he snarled.
Having just been dived-bombed by the caretaker, the assembly was obviously quite shocked and were slow to recover their composure.
"Filch," Enoch was the first to manage to form words, "what are you doing here?"
"Students," Filch pointed an accusatory finger around the group, then waved his two hands up in the air, "out of bed and out of school unattended."
"And you thought you'd track them down?"
"Eight," the caretaker counted, taking out a notebook to write down their names. "Eight students, you'll be expelled for sure."
"Er… Filch," Enoch interrupted, "firstly, Charlie and Miro are seventh years, and they are allowed to leave the school grounds unattended. As for the rest, they aren't unattended are they? They are will a member of staff, well two now, if you include yourself."
"But…but," Filch looked down at his notebook distraught, "out of bed."
"Yes," admitted Enoch, "this little group didn't want to watch the comet, so I thought I'd take them out for a little trip, apparently this area is great for spotting the Lesser Midnight Dust Nymph, but unfortunately we didn't see any, and probably won't after the quiet show you put on."
"Out of school," Filch mumbled to himself looking forlornly down at his notebook.
"But now that you are here," Enoch continued in a jovial voice, "you can kindly escort these students back to the school, there are plenty of carpets for you all, and I plan on giving it another hour or so, see if those Dust Nymphs turn up."
"I'm not getting back on one of those death traps," Filch pointed at the carpets accusingly, "I'll walk back thank you very much."
"Come on Filch," pleaded Enoch, "who else is going to escort them?"
"I think we could make the necessary arrangements for that," said a voice stepping out of the darkness.