Disclaimer: Everything important belongs to J.K. Rowling the Brilliant. Sarah belongs to me, Diana belongs to me, Abran belongs to me, and Sarah's guitar is also mine. Like I said, everything important belongs to J.K.
A/N: Okay, guys, I'm so sorry this took so long. I was going to just let this die (seriously, it needed to be taken out back and shot), but I've gotten so many reviews for the bloody thing (not to mention some rather insistent e-mails) that I can't very well do that, can I? Also, this part happens to be particularly fluffy, so sorry 'bout that…
Please review at the end, or really, I'll let this thing die. I mean, I've already got two other series to work on, as is. I just can't make myself finish one first…
Curse Breakers
Part 6
by Veralidaine
Bill steadied himself, trying to stay out of the way of the Egyptian ministry wizards as they scurried about the completely sacked office, searching for clues as to where Abran had disappeared to. Sarah was standing, red-eyed from lack of sleep, in the doorway. Sighing and closing her eyes, she leaned back against the doorframe, taking deep breaths. Bill nervously brushed a few strands of hair out of his face, watching as one wizard approached him, dark eyes flitting behind him to Sarah. He was rather young and looked extremely proud of himself for even being on the scene. Despite the fact that he had a very thick accent, he reminded Bill somewhat of Percy. "Mr. Weasley? We were wondering if you have any idea what could have happened here. Do you have any theories?"
Of course he had theories. But he wasn't about to get Sarah into trouble before he even knew what had really happened. Wildly hoping that the whole business with the fire had merely been a freakish trick of the wind, he shook his head. "Not as of now. If anything comes up, I'll let you know."
The ministry wizard nodded and turned importantly back to his colleagues, apparently satisfied with that much. Bill sighed loudly, turning to leave. Sarah, who was still leaning against the doorframe, arched an eyebrow in an inquisitive manner. He shot her a look and mouthed, "Outside."
As the heat of the midday Egyptian sun washed over them, Sarah shielded her eyes and pursed her lips, looking at him. "Why didn't you tell them?"
"Because," Bill replied calmly, "They would have thrown you into jail for it. They're different down here than they are in England. Or America."
She sighed lightly, bringing her hand down from her forehead and squinting at him, the messy mop hair forming a sort of gold-brown halo around her head. "Well?"
"Well what?"
She snorted. "Our boss has mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of what happened to her or who took her. Coincidentally, that same evening, we read from an ancient Egyptian spellbook that put the fire out like in one of those cheesy horror movies. And all you can say is 'well what?'"
He shrugged. He'd been going over the facts in his head. Yes, it was probable that something had occurred due to Sarah reading from that stupid old book. On the other hand, Abran had certainly annoyed enough people to the point of gaining several enemies that could quite possibly be out for revenge. Granted, Bill thought, none of them would be stupid enough to kidnap or murder her, but it was possible...One never did know...
Sarah, impatient with his silence, scuffed her boot on the sandy street and turned away towards a nearby cafe. After standing for a moment longer, thinking, Bill followed her inside. It was noisy, both from the various people talking in numerous languages, and from the many fans going, trying and failing to keep the place at a comfortable temperature. Normally, there would have been a cooling charm cast on the place, but due to lack of adequate security in Egypt, it was too great a risk that a Muggle might wander in—especially a tourist. So even the magical suffered northern Africa's heat.
He stood at the counter next to her and glanced sideways. She sighed again (she was doing that quite a bit today) and asked in slow, even English for "just a glass of water, please." After a moment of attempting to act this out, the barkeep seemed to get the general idea and brought back a rather dusty-looking glass filled with what had to have been from the animal food-trough outside. Sarah offered a quick smile as a thank-you, and the barkeep disappeared to tend to his other customers.
"Well…" Sarah sighed, picking up and glancing at her glass of water, which lacked the usual transparency for some reason. She made a face and set the glass down, looking at him. "Now what?"
Bill shrugged. They'd turned in their treasure, and the book, that morning. The gold would be shipped off to museums, and the Spellbook was even going to be on loan to the British Wizarding Museum of History. "I s'pose we could take a break from all of this, you know? Go home?"
"England, you mean?"
"Sure, why not? I mean, we've just pulled in a good three months' worth of treasure, our boss has gone missing, the ministry's going crackers, and I just want to go home." He shrugged again, levering himself up from his leaned position against the bar. "I mean, I know it's kind of insensitive, but I'm tired. All this stress with You-Know-Who, and Abran, and my family..."
Sarah sighed. "Bill...Shouldn't we...You know...Stick around, and try to help?"
"We'll only get in the way," he replied, leaning on the counter again. "They don't want us trying to help."
The cafe doors opened again, and Diana stalked in, muttering to herself. She spotted Bill (well, it's not easy to miss red hair among crowds of dark) and joined the two of them, leaning up against the bar and raising her eyebrows. "Soooo...What d'you reckon?"
Bill shrugged again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. It seemed to him that finally he'd just gotten tired of staying in Egypt. It just didn't hold the same fascination for him, at least right now. He couldn't do it anymore...He would be glad to help if the authorities wanted him to, but otherwise...He just wanted to go home. "Well…Home's looking really good now, even though I'm going to have to deal with my family…" He sighed. "Well, Ginny did want me to stay longer…"
Diana slid herself up onto the counter to sit, swinging her legs, and looked at them both. "Ya know, I've not been to Jolly Old England in ages. You get to have all the fun. I vote we go say hi to your Mummy."
"Bad pun," Sarah said flatly. "Very bad pun, Di. Not even worthy of Shakespeare." Both Bill and Diana looked extremely confused, and Sarah sighed. "Never mind…Muggle humor." She glanced at them again and sighed. "Ugh…"
*
If he'd been tired before, Bill was exhausted now. For some reason, he'd been completely unable to sleep ever since that bloody book had been opened and Abran had disappeared. It was quite miserable for him, really, as he desperately wanted the energy to be able to Apparate. He was a bit too wary of getting splinched to risk it, and so it was going to be one long bus ride to Ottery St. Catchpole.
Bill leaned back against the alley wall, waiting patiently for Diana and Sarah's portkey to come in. He'd taken the first one about twenty minutes earlier, as for some reason Diana had wanted to talk to Sarah for a moment, and had hastily rushed him over to the small group of ministry officials and their dirty old sock or a portkey.
There was a slight pop as their group arrived. Most of the other people wandered vaguely off, probably to go to sleep, as it was nearly one o'clock in the morning, locally. Diana shifted her duffel bag to her left shoulder and looked up at Bill, shrugging to keep the strap from scratching her neck. "I'm staying with Sarah at her flat. You gonna try Apparating?"
Bill shrugged. "I might," he said shortly, trailing off as he was interrupted most inconveniently by a large yawn.
"And shall I pick up whatever body part you leave here and give it to you when we next see each other?" Diana said dryly. "Either take the bus or come stay with us. Sarah doesn't mind, right?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Nah, I've got a few extra rooms. Liv owled me to tell me she was going to be out of town anyway. Some silly graduation trip they took. At any rate…"
Bill thought for a moment. What would Charlie say—"You'll splinch yourself. Don't be an idiot. Go on, stay with them." Fred? Well, who needed Fred's advice, of all people? "Small apartment, two girls, all night, alone? You're actually ASKING?" Percy—"Take the bus—do you have any idea how bad that would look if you stayed?" Bill smiled to himself. He didn't even want to think about what his mother would say.
He shrugged, thinking, why not? and looked at Sarah. "You've got an extra room?"
Sarah glanced up at him, kneeling down next to her backpack and rooting around in its contents. "Yep. Diana can have Liv's room, you can have the extra room, and I'll sleep back in my own lovely bed tonight. No more sandy sheets for me."
Bill nodded appreciatively. Well, he'd deal with his family's reactions later. Or maybe he'd just conveniently forget to mention the whole thing.
*
Several hours later, he lay on the guest bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening to the rain outside. He'd not been away from home long enough to forget about rain, like he usually did—he'd only been away for three days, really. But most of the time, it was always so odd coming home from the desert and having it rain all night. It was really quite comforting, staying in Fred and George's room and having the rain patter on the roof just above. They didn't get much rain in Egypt, obviously.
But then, this wasn't Fred and George's room. Even so, it was actually rather pleasant, if a bit girly. White walls, lace curtains, and a simple cotton duvet (blue, not white, surprisingly). Bill hadn't even changed into nightclothes. He just lay there, on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling in his rather scruffy jeans and tee shirt. There was a very soft knock on the door, and Bill sat up on one elbow, surprised. "Come in?"
The door cracked open and Sarah shuffled in, hair sticking up quite comically. "You're not asleep, then?"
He sighed and flopped back down on his back. "Nope."
She glanced at his jeans. "Doncha have pajamas?"
"Yep."
She arched an eyebrow. "Have we lost the capability of speaking in words more than one syllable long?"
"Nope."
She sat down cross-legged on the spindly little rocking chair next to the nightstand, pulling the bottoms of her gray pajama pants over her bare ankles. "I couldn't sleep, either."
He shrugged. "I've not slept since…" he paused to think. "Uhm…I think since I was in England last time, actually. Huh. Yeah, that'd be about right, because that night we found the book, and I've not slept since."
She shook her head. "I know. It's weird…Can't sleep. Don't get me wrong, I'm exhausted. But I keep thinking about it. I mean, I'm sure it was what I read."
"You don't know that."
She gave him a sarcastic look. "Sure. You're still convinced it was the wind, aren't you?"
Bill shrugged. "I dunno, to be truthful. I honestly have no idea. I'm just not going to worry about it as of now. They'll find her. They always find who they're looking for. If they have to, they'll call in the British Ministry officials. It'll all settle down, so don't start accusing yourself just yet. I mean," he laughed, "let's just say that you did release whatsername. What's she going to do? She's dead. I mean, right now the only evil sorcerer we need to worry about is You-Know-Who. And he's not shown himself for ages."
Sarah ducked her head, casting her face in shadow, and seemingly deep in thought. She looked back up at him, all traces of worry gone from her face, and offered a light smile. "Hope you're right."
"I am," Bill said with finality, and yawned. "At this rate, I'll never Apparate again. I'm going to attempt to sleep now, and it'd probably be a good idea for you to do the same. You look tired."
She shrugged. "I guess."
"G'night, Sarah."
"Night." She grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze before quietly closing the door behind her and padding into her bedroom. Bill was disturbed at the tingly feeling it gave him, and quickly rolled over onto his side, trying for sleep again in a vain attempt to distract himself. For heaven's sake—he had enough plaguing his mind without having to deal with girls!
A/N: Heehee…Fluffy, I know, but I had to post something on this, or I fear the requests would never cease. I kinda know where this is going, but it may be a bit, as I'm currently trying (keyword being "trying") to work on the next bit of Lost, which is being a really difficult little bugger.
Okay, well, review—it's my birthday! Seriously, it is! And all I want are some nice reviews… (though, chocolates would be good, too…)