Disclaimer: the characters belong to J.K.Rowling.
Ideas also came from: "Star Wars: Dark Forces - Rebel Agent" by William C. Deets and Ezra Tucker; "The Mummy" and "SG1". However, it's not a crossover.
I hope you don't mind the frequent use of apparate/dissaparate, but I don't imagine that anyone who is able to do it would choose another method of travelling.
I'm watching "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", but I promise it's just a coincidence, no borrowed ideas.
Chapter VI - Digging up the Dead
Hermione apparated in her room. She was all sulky and she looked adorable. Oliver apparatted five minutes later.
"You dropped this"
"Oh, yes. The job again"
She took the brief with two fingers as if it was disgustingly dirty.
"Anything else, Mr. Wood?"
Oliver was ready to go, but her tone disturbed him.
"Miss Granger, you should grow up! I'm sorry I wasn't more tactful, but it's my duty to watch over you. Bill Weasley is a charming guy, I know that. But sometimes people are not what they seem. I didn't know you were already so attached to him. I hope I'm wrong and you're right, but we have more to lose if you make a mistake than you'd lose if you acted more cautiously although you were right."
She wanted to interrupt him with "I'm not so attached to him!", but she didn't. It wasn't Oliver Wood's business whom she fancied. And she didn't fancy Bill.
"I'll come in the morning to take you to the digging site"
"But"
But he was gone. She stamped her foot.
"That man!!!"
*******
After a peaceful night, the morning came with a vengeance. Oliver apparated in his usual spot, but he immediately stumbled on Hermione's shoes, which were lying carelessly on the floor.
The noise woke her up and she jumped out of bed, hardly dressed. Enjoying a full view of her body, Oliver stumbled again just as he was picking himself up.
"Is it morning already?" she asked him, combing her hair with her fingers.
"Yes, it's bloody morning! What have you done with the room?"
Piles of books were scattered here and there on the floor, mixed with a considerable number of shoes. Hermione looked around, remembering pieces of the previous evening, including her first attempt to drink a local "soft drink".
"I was looking for something"
As the anger over the not-so-immaculate landing decreased, Oliver turned his back to the half naked girl and coughed.
"We can go as soon as you're ready"
Hermione hurried to get dressed but she found the time to complain:
"I didn't have any breakfast!"
"It's 9 a.m.! We don't have a lot of time!"
He took her hand again, which had the same electrifying effect on her.
"Now that you know where to come I trust you won't be needing me for this again" he said when they apparated in a green valley.
"I hope so too!"
The hostility between them was growing again. The words "you won't be needing me to hold your hand everywhere we go" were swallowed with great difficulty by Oliver. Holding hands with Hermione felt terribly annoying because it felt terribly right.
"Come this way" he continued playing his part.
A few seconds later they encountered the first human being.
"Hallo, Oliver!" an olive-skinned girl kissed him on the cheek.
Hermione hated her from that moment. She'd never let herself be so friendly with him!
"Mena, this is Hermione Granger. She studies at the Cairo University. She'll represent the Institute on the site. Miss Granger, this is Mena Kalef, an esteemed archaeologist from the Egyptian Ministry of Magic. She's been working on this project for the last two years"
The women smiled at one another.
"Let me show you the ropes" Mena offered to guide her.
"I have to go now. I'll visit you soon, Miss Granger!"
Before Hermione had the chance to say anything, he popped out of sight.
"The site is half a mile away. It has an anti-apparition barrier, so the rendezvous point is here. And it's still too close for the pure blood wizards"
"So that's why he was in such a rush" she realised.
"Yes. We had only one pure blood wizard who lasted for ten days, but he was half dead when he left"
"What has this effect on wizards?"
"The Ancients have created discriminatory spells. Some of them affect only pure bloods, others only affect Muggles. This place was supposed to be sealed off from the magical community, because only sorcerers have the ability to use it"
"Use what?"
"The force. The energy. This place holds vast fields of energy. We're still puzzled. There are some legends, but most of them can't be verified. After thousands of years the grain of truth which spawned the legend becomes unrecognisable"
"But you did follow leads from legends to get here" Hermione remarked, knowing this from the brief.
"Well yeah, but this is like the 127th try" Mena laughed. "It was sheer luck!"
"How long do we have to snoop in this place?"
"Approximately 48 hours. The site literally disappears. Some legends speak of Hamunaptra and this is something similar. Except it's not the City of the Dead, although to uses the same cloaking devices"
"As far as I read, this window of opportunity appeared in time, it wasn't designed in the original spell"
"I think so, too" Mena was excited to find someone who appeared to understand things the same way. "The Ancients tried to make perfect spells. Unbreakable. This loophole would be something quite contrary to their way of thinking."
*Loophole* the word triggered Hermione's memory. *Isis*. She had to talk to Madeleine as soon as possible. Maybe the information wasn't completely lost!
*****
The next 48 hours were over in a heartbeat. Mena and Hermione worked perfectly together. The men were mostly used as beasts of labour on the site, since the place seemed to affect to a remarkable extent their intellectual abilities.
With every hour that was passing, Hermione was more convinced that they were dealing with spells cast by Isis. From what Madeleine had told her, she had a detailed image of the dead witch's spells.
*To hell with her hiding! This is important stuff. I'll owl her as soon as I get to Cairo"
********
She chose to apparate directly in her bathroom. The two days spent in the desert took their toll on her hygiene. She peeled the soiled clothes off and slipped into a tub full of scented foamy lukewarm water.
Hermione played the music from her mind in the nearby reality with the aid of "the ultimate hi-fi" as Madeleine called the spell. She was thinking of her long lost friend and her obsession with May Thorsen's books. She gave Hermione her signed copy of "Mind Spells", which the girl found very interesting. The possibilities to mess with the human mind were huge, reaching far beyond Madeleine's favourite "Obliviate".
"Dear Madeleine,
I wouldn't want to bother you with an inopportune «pop up» as you so affectionately called it, so I'm presenting my affection in this epistolary form. I'm only too happy to hear you are actually going to stick around for several months.
The University is everything you heard and maybe even more. So different from Hogwarts in so many ways! I am however dealing with the local culture and can't help being fascinated by it. For instance I heard this old legend, which stirred my curiosity about some valley of death, a place that could offer limitless powers to whoever enters. Did you hear anything about it now that you are in this line of work?
I ran into Bill Weasley last week. He's the only friendly face from home I've seen since I came here. Don't you feel guilty enough yet to pay me a visit? We have so many things to talk about!
Hermione"
She did feel a little guilty for having written to her just to get information and about having kept silent her collaboration with the Institute. Madeleine could piece things together on her own, but she didn't want to betray the Institute's confidence. The contract had worked perfectly on her conscientious spirit, making her loyal to her employers.
Just as she was sending her owl to Madeleine, Oliver's owl came in.
"Dear Miss Granger,
I'm writing to inquire about the developments that arose in your task in the past two days. You could start a detailed report for Dr. McNaulty, the concealment instructions are enclosed in your brief. However, I'll come and visit you as soon as my time will allow it, but certainly this week.
With the risk of upsetting you again, I must stress the importance of your discretion about our interest in Egypt in your conversations with or letters to your friends.
Respectfully yours,
Oliver Wood"
The mention of the letters made her suspicious about the extent in which they respected her privacy. Maybe it was just a coincidence though, nothing to do with her correspondence with Madeleine. Maybe they just imagined she'd rush and write to Harry or Ron.
"Yeah right! I shouldn't be so naïve. Of course they check my mail. And I actually should write to Harry and Ron. Not about this… but I should write them"
*******
For the first time, Hermione was ready to receive Oliver when he came. Sensing this, Oliver chose to apparate in the hall and knock on her door.
"Come in. Let me show you this" she pulled him inside agitated. "You'll never believe what I found out"
"Good evening"
"Yeah, yeah, good evening. You're so going to love me for this! I was looking through the reports of the previous expeditions and I noticed that they had always found clues about an oasis, but they always abandoned the leads for the silliest reasons. Once they had actually gave up because they ran out of funds. Or that's impossible since the only thing they had to do was scout the place for a couple of days and they'd know if it was a dead end or not"
"So?" he was still in the dark.
"Oh, can't you see this is a cover up? There was no reason to avoid searching that place. It's obvious that one or more wizards tried to mask the place's real importance…" her voice stopped in the middle of a thought. "I have a suspicion, but it's somebody's secret and I can't really talk about it. I think we should go and check it out?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well, the Egyptians don't seem interested in exploring the place, but I think there might be something great behind this smoke screen. I can go alone, if you didn't want to accompany me. I just thought somebody else should be present. There are a lot of tricks surrounding these places. They didn't last for thousands of years unguarded"
"You are not going alone! We should owl Dr. McNaulty first.
"I did. I sent him my report and my hypothesis. I think we should go."
"Don't you want to wait for his answer?"
"You send me here to search for the Osiris's parchment, right? So I think that's the way to go for it."
"And where is this place?"
Hermione saw this as a sign of acceptance.
"It's not far. Look" she showed him on the map.
"I can't help notice that it doesn't show an oasis there"
"Well, it was an oasis some time ago. I think is still livable."
"You think? We're going there on your intuition all right, but we can't just jump in uncharted territory like that"
"Yes we can. We're Gryffindor!"
*So this was the ace up her sleeve. She counted on the proverbial Gryffindor recklessness. And, dammit she's right!*
"We're just going to take a look!"
She could kiss him! He was a nice guy after all.