A/N: 'Kay, peeps. Here 'tis. Part four. I THINK this is going somewhere...(Keyword: THINK)

I'm using 's to separate thoughts. I've been told it makes words italics. It may or may not. Knowing
my luck, it won't. Hey, I tried...

Curse Breakers
Chapter 4: Is There Anything She CAN'T Do? (BTW~ that last part was too short and stupid to deserve a
title...And it DID suck...I don't care WHAT you say...)
by Veralidaine



Sarah looked up and smiled lightly, only revealing her surprise with a characteristically arched
eyebrow. "Bill? I didn't know you worked here."

Bill shook his head. "Well, yeah, but...Why are...How...?"

"He's real articulate, didya notice?" Diana muttered, causing Sarah to smile lopsidedly.

Bill glared. "No one asked you, Di." She stuck out her tongue in retaliation.

Sarah held a hand up, getting their attention. "No need to fight over it--I'm working here."

"You are?" Bill asked, sounding much more amazed than he'd intended.

She nodded. "Yep. I figured that since my little sister's graduated and planning on sharing a flat
with that one guy--whatsisname...Oh, yeah, Terry Boot--I ought to move out and stop playing mother
to her."

"So you just inadvertently decided to take a job in CAIRO?"

"Well, yeah, actually." She ran her fingers through her rather messy mop of hair. "Never been to Africa
before...I thought it'd be interesting."

"Plus she knows how to read hieroglyphs." Diana had drawn her wand and was twirling it idly in her small
hands. She gave Bill an I-Know-Something-You-Don't-Know sort of look, which, as planned, annoyed him.

Bill, more in an attempt to ignore Diana than because he doubted it, turned to Sarah. "You read--"

"Hieroglyphs. Yep. SWA offered classes in ancient wizardry, and since I took classes on the Egyptian
wizards in eighth year, I had to learn how to read glyphs. Didn't you?"

"Hogwarts only goes to seventh year..." Bill muttered.

"Oh, that's right..." Sarah shrugged. "Well..."

"Ahem..."

Everyone turned to face Abran, who wore an annoyed facial expression, drumming her fingers on her almost
painfully organized desk. Even the newspaper, bearing the headline DARK LORD SPOTTED IN GREECE, was
folded perfectly and sat at the side of her desk. "If the introductions have ceased...?"

Bill opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but Di shot him a look and he closed it, crossing his
arms defiantly. "Yes, your highness."

She shot him a glare but didn't respond. "Your first assignment is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings
that the Muggles have recently overlooked. If you can get into it, get the treasure, and get out without
invoking any curses, we would appreciate it."

Of course, growing an extra head WOULD be a bit of a problem for them to deal with, wouldn't it? "'Kay
then. We'll get moving tomorrow morning."

"No, actually..." Abran checked her wristwatch. "It's only six. Why don't you get a move on now, so you
won't have to deal with all the Muggle tourists?"

Bill's jaw dropped. "But I just got here! I JUST Apparated! I mean, can't we at least have TONIGHT off?"

"No."

Bill crossed his arms again, holding back strings of naughty language. "FINE," he snapped. "Fine..."

Sarah grabbed his sleeve and pulled him out of the office. "Now, Bill...Calm down. The woman is a slave-
driver. We know. She knows. Let's go to the tomb. If it's too tough, we'll come back tomorrow. Cool it."

He sighed. "Right, right...Let's go."

He, Sarah, and Diana raised their wands and Apparated together, reappearing with a slight POP at the
site. Hidden on the side of the cliff looming above them in the gathering darkness was a large hole,
most likely the entrance. Bill sighed. WHY did these ancient Egyptians always feel compelled to hide
dead people in cliffs? Of course, he supposed, it was to keep out people like him, who stole the various
pharoahs' treasure. Still, if they could just make them a LITTLE CLOSER TO THE GROUND...

He glanced involuntarily at Sarah. She was staring up at the cliffside, her face paler than usual, and
a light sweat breaking out on her forehead. She turned away from the cliff, obviously fighting a fit of
shivers, and gave him a rather unconvincing half-smile. "Er...This wasn't in the job application..."

"What; cliffs?"

"Yeah." She ran a hand through her hair again, nervously. "I of course knew that they had tombs in
cliffsides, but they look a lot smaller in the textbooks..."

"Hey." Diana was back. "You afraid of heights or something?"

"No," Sarah said quickly, shaking her head. "No...It's just that I've never done this sort of thing
before..."

"Oh." Diane paused, then: "Well, we need you, if you can. It was really tough without someone well-
versed in glyphs. One time, we didn't know what it meant to have pictures of that cat-woman all over
the walls. Turns out it was S...Uh...Se...--"

"Sekhmet."

"--Yeah, that. We didn't know that. Turns out she's the Goddess of Destruction. And she happened to be
guarding that particular tomb. I was falling down wells and knocking stuff over for weeks after that.
And that's NOTHING to the stuff that happened to Bill--he went in first." Diane grinned impishly, making
it difficult for Bill not to picture her as a Cornish Pixy.

"What happened to you?" Sarah asked curiously.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Bill said quickly, trying not to remember the various times in the month
after breaking into that tomb that he'd been mugged, gotten food-poisoning, and just generally been
miserable.

"Well, enough chit-chat," Diana chirped. "'S getting dark out. Let's get started, shall we?"

Sarah swallowed roughly. "Uhm...'Kay..."

"Seriously, are you afraid of heights?" Diana asked, conjuring a rope.

"No!"

"A'right, a'right...Just asking..." She shrugged. "We would Apparate, but the magic surrounding the
tombs is too strong--you could end up splinched."

Sarah cringed, but nodded. "Right. Okay, you lead."

Bill stopped staring at Sarah and went into professional mode. Sizing up the cliff, he saw that the best
way of getting to the tomb was about twenty feet to the left of it--it wasn't so steep there, so it
would be an easier climb. Then there was a narrow edge along the cliff that could be used as a path to
the tomb entrance. Having decided this, he strode forward and conjured a rope. It sprang from the tip of
his wand and lodged itself under a large boulder, about fifty feet above them.

He gripped the rope tightly and started climbing, pulling himself up with practiced ease. He could hear
Diana grunting as she pulled her skinny self up the rope behind him, but he couldn't quite hear anything
from Sarah, and was afraid to look down for fear of losing his hold. Reaching the top after a good
twenty minutes of climbing, he pulled himself up onto the ledge, panting and dusting his hands off.

About a minute later, Diana pulled herself up onto the ledge, panting rapidly, and leaned back against
the rocks next to him. "'Fraid the new recruit's having a bit of trouble getting up here."

Bill looked down. Sure enough, there was Sarah, hanging uneasily about ten feet below. She looked up and
gave a rather nervous laugh. "Uh, I'm coming."

Diana rased an eyebrow. "You need some help?"

"Nope," Sarah said cheerfully. "I'm good, thanks..."

"Well, the girl can read glyphs," Diana muttered to Bill, "and she can speak Egyptian--"

"--and play various instruments--"

"--and do magic, of course, but she can't climb."

Bill nodded. "That'd be my guess. I was starting to wonder if there was anything she couldn't do."

After about fifteen minutes, Sarah's arms appeared over the ledge and Bill helped her up. Once standing,
she looked very shaken. Bill leaned her back against the cliff. "You okay?"

She nodded quickly again, back pressed against the rock. "Oh, yes. Fine."

He shrugged. "Right. Let's go, then."

He took the lead, making his slow way along the narrow path to the tomb. He stopped after a moment and
looked behind him to be sure the other two were following. Diana was picking her way nimbly along the
rock, practically leaping from spot to spot as if this were all some sort of game. Sarah, on the other
hand, had one palm pressed up against the wall, and was laboriously managing each step. Diana caught up
with Bill. "What's the holdup?"

"You go on ahead--it's just up there, about ten feet that way."

"'Kay. You go get her to move."

As Diana skipped on ahead to the tomb, Bill yelled as an afterthought, "And don't go into the tomb yet!
Wait for us!"

"I know," she called back, still picking her way along the path.

Bill turned back to Sarah, who had finally given up and backed up against the cliff, eyes closed. "You
okay?"

Her eyes snapped open. "Of course I'm--"

"Stop faking it, Sarah."

There was that ever-so-rare un-lopsided smile. "You win. I'm scared to death."

"You don't look it," he commented, carefully climbing around her so he could follow behind her.

"Heh...I've mastered the whole emotional thing. Took years of practice, but there you have it..."

"What d'you mean?"

She shrugged. "Can we discuss it sometime when we're at a lower altitude?"

"Sure. Now, get away from the cliff and start walking."

"I--uh--okay." She very slowly stepped away from the side and started cautiously picking her way along.
She reached a small gap in the rock and froze. "Uh, Bill, uh, I can't really...That is...There's a hole
here..."

"It's only about eight inches across--step over it."

"But I..."

He grabbed her hand in his. "Here. If you slip, you won't go falling down the cliffside, okay? I've got
you. Now get moving."

She nodded mutely. Bill was somewhat surprised to see her in this state. She was perhaps the most self-
confident person he'd met, and certainly gave the impression of fearlessness, but up here, fifty or so
feet from solid ground, she was a totally different person. I suppose fear does that to people...

He started as rocks under her feet shifted. She yelped slightly and squeezed his hand so tight it almost
hurt. Somehow, he didn't mind though...She regained her footing and sighed deeply, giving him a somewhat
relieved smile. "That was...close..."

He nodded. "You're alright. Just keep moving and--"

She'd turned around again and the rock under her foot had broken loose. Bill's arm was pulled sharply as
her weight pulled on it and she went over the side of the cliff. He reached down over the ledge and
grabbed her other hand in his, pulling her up. (A/N: Hey, I could have stopped here--a cliffhanger!
Literally!) After a moment's panicked struggle, he lifted her up next to him, both of them panting and
Sarah shaking violently.

He still had her hand in his, so he pulled her up into a standing position next to him. "Can you keep
going?" he asked, wondering if he was being insensitive.

She nodded firmly, however, even though she looked near being ill. He followed behind her, still holding
her hand in case of some other accident. None occurred, though, and soon they were climbing up into the
entrance where a rather impatient-looking Diana had plopped down on a nearby rock. "Took you long
enough," she muttered.

"I f-fell," Sarah stammered. Bill glanced at her curiously. He'd never heard her stammer before. This
was new. What was he supposed to do? Put an arm around her? Not that he'd mind...

"Well," Diana said, leaping to her feet. "Let's get cracking. It's nearly seven-thirty and we've not
even read the inscriptions on the entrance."

Sarah, who apparently had recovered and was in her element now that she was on somewhat solid ground,
strode over to the entrance and started examining the hieroglyphs surrounding the stone door. Lighting
her wand, she leaned in close to the rock wall and Bill could see that she took this seriously. Her face
turned thoughtful as she ran her fingers over the stone carvings, muttering to herself. After a moment,
she turned, clapping her hands together and looking at them both cheerfully--much different from the
frightened girl sliding about on the rocks outside.

"Right. This is guarded by the sorceress Rahotep--"

"God bless you," Diana said.

"--who was considered very dangerous and powerful and so on. So we don't want to mess with her. She put
a number of curses on this place, but it doesn't list them. We'll just have to be extrememly careful."

"'Kay. So open it." Diana pulled out her wand, and Bill did the same.

Sarah went over the hieroglyphs once more and nodded to herself. Then she turned to the stone doorway.

"Apophis Ba."

The door slid open with a slight grating sound, and Diana boldly led the way into the chamber. Before
they stepped through the door, Bill stopped Sarah. "What does 'Apophis Ba' mean?"

"'Demon Soul,'" Sarah replied, before turning and entering the tomb.



A/N: I actually looked up the words for that, BTW. So, I think this is a bit better than last time,
right? Please, please, please review, 'kay?

~Veralidaine