What killed the cat
Third part
The air in Egypt was different. It was warm and moist, slightly stifling at times. He had left Sirius alone that morning, before disapparating to the border he had been tempted to back-out, not sure if leaving Sirius in his immaculate house unaccompanied was a good idea but it had been too late to back out as that morning he had sent a progress report to Dumbledore detailing the beginnings of his plan.
He now stood in front of the tomb who's inscription had caused so much excitement (despite the ministry's efforts to keep it all secret, the news had somehow leaked out.) There was not a witch or wizard in England who hadn't heard of the discovery, except perhaps Harry, stuck with the Dursleys. It was then that he remembered why he was doing this and so it was with newfound determination that he stepped over the threshold.
A thick blanket of dust covered the entire tomb – property of an Egyptian Priest long since deceased - it smelt like old books, a musty unshakeable scent that reminded Remus of the library at Hogwarts. His first few steps were tentative but then he recalled the Curse-breakers who had already taken down any harmful wards (and removed the valuable while they were at it.) He glanced around, he hadn't planned much further than this, his eagerness to get t the tomb had prevented him from it as he'd had to pull quite a few strings and call in a couple of favours to gain entrance, all those years of doing nothing were over now. He began copying down some carvings, consulting various books that had been packed in his briefcase as he went.
He left the tomb a little enlightened although still nowhere near obtaining his goal. He now had vast background knowledge on a few select Gods as well as a small detail he'd rather forget. The priest had actually been kissed, hence the tomb inscriptions, and then people from his village had killed him because they were "filled with pity for the soulless wanderer". He gave an involuntary shudder at the thought. He wondered what part "the Dark Army" played in local folklore and made a mental note to follow it up.
The follow-up occurred quicker than he had anticipated. The area in which he was walking (if you would call it walking; it was more of a stumble, stride, slip back to paces because of sloping sand, repeat) was swarming with tourists, the majority of which were muggles. He had put a cooling charm on his cloak to lessen the strain on himself and now they were regarding him and his peculiar ensemble – a long dark shabby cloak covering a thick robe – oddly. Remus had not prepared for such eventualities as suspicious muggles and tried to make a hasty escape by backing behind a half-collapsed wall, only to find himself tripping over one of the local village's inhabitants. The dark-skinned girl smiled sweetly at him, apparently cooling off in the shade.
"You want souvenir?" She said, gesturing to some crude looking statues in a box. He shook his head, not wanting to test his Egyptian at that particular moment in time. He was about to go find a different deserted spot from which he could disapparate when the girl cried out. He spun round in alarm to face her again.
"You can't leave shade, sun too hot for you." She pointed to the Sky where the Sun blazed in agreement. "You burn."
Remus, although he hated to admit it, saw the logic in that statement. His skin was extremely pale and would probably have caught fire had he not lathered on superfluous amounts of sun-cream on. He sat down in the shade behind the wall, putting as much distance between himself and the Egyptian girl as possible. Things were not going to plan. Despite his not-so-subtle hint, the Egyptian girl persisted in trying to strike up a conversation, Remus thought the least he could do was relieve her of the struggle she had with English. She was mildly surprised at his fluent Egyptian but did not let such trivialities break her stride as she rambled on. Remus, through some manoeuvring questions; managed to coax her into talking about the folklore he was interested in hearing about.
"Oh, the Dark Army. It was made by the God Set."
"Why?" He asked, suddenly eager (not to be confused with "aeger", Latin for "sick") She blushed a little but continued nevertheless.
"His wife Nephtys had fallen in love with his brother Osiris-" Remus recalled the inscription from the tomb "-he was jealous because he still loved her. He made the Dark Army with her in mind. Just as she had stolen his heart with a kiss, the Army stole people's souls with a kiss." She smiled again. Remus frowned thoughtfully.
"I thought Osiris was married to Isis."
"He was, it did not mean Nephtys could not love him though. When Set killed Osiris, Isis and Nephtys lamentations were so strong they brought him back to life. You can imagine how furious Set was of course." Remus nodded. The Sun no longer sat high in the sky. He looked at the girl, unable to communicate his gratitude, how helpful she had been. He knew Muggle-Wizard interactions were failing a little but he had no idea they were this bad. The fact that the origin of the Dementors could have been found ages ago, just by asking was, to put it bluntly, shameful. He looked at the box of vulgar ornaments and without hesitation bought them, all 32.
***
Sirius was regarding his hands with something akin to fascination, turning them over to take note of the lines and wrinkles, the odd unaccounted for mark and parchment-cut. Buckbeak was nudging a deflated football about the garden creating a rustling sound (it had taken a lot in the way of charms to hide her) and he thought he heard the wind sigh. He had the radio on, too, he was not sure if he liked the Muggle music it emitted but made no attempt to re-tune it, he was not listening anyway. The faint smell of burnt toast lingered in the air, a remnant of that morning's cookery attempt. Remus entered then, it came as something of a relief to Sirius who knew the man to be a perfect epitome of punctuality. He had expected Remus' arrival at 7pm, he thought he would have something to stain Remus' record with at 7:02, 3 minutes later he was slightly curious at the hold-up and at 7:30pm he was on the verge of panic - his hands had become a distraction.
"What happened?" Asked Sirius, he noticed the faintest hint of sourness in Remus' expression - an ordinary someone would not have seen it - reading Remus was a complicated process, one he had yet to master but still had control over.
There was a pause.
"The people at the border wouldn't let me pass straight away; they thought I was smuggling cursed objects." Sirius then saw the box of vulgar statuettes and wondered how he had over-looked it. "I had to stand there while they checked them for curses and then poked, prodded and inspected the things." Sirius nodded.
"…Why didn't you just leave them behind?"
"I offered to! It just made them more paranoid. Honestly Sirius, do I look shifty to you?" Sirius couldn't tell if the question was rhetorical.
"Er, you are a little pale…"
Of course when Remus wanted to he could make himself easier to read.
If looks could kill.
***
Remus found himself pouring over books for hours on end, attempting to ascertain as much knowledge on the Ancient Legends as possible while gathering Wizard perspective on the Muggle beliefs. For a moment he wished he had paid more attention during History of Magic, but such a task was as easy as forgetting to breathe. Finally, after countless hours spent hunched over dusty editions, he felt he needed to talk to someone who could answer his questions, but from a wizard POV.
Remus liked Bill Weasley from the moment he met him. The combination of an uninvited entry and a hoard of questions on knowledge Remus assumed Bill had could have put others in bad spirits but Bill remained amiable throughout the intrusion.
"Good to meet you at last! Ron's been going on and on about you since you taught in his third year at Hogwarts"
"All good, I hope." Bill smiled but Remus could not help but notice his lack of response on the matter.
"So, what can I do you for?" Bill chirped.
"I was hoping you could enlighten me on some aspects of Egyptian mythology. I understand of course if you're busy and that your current employment in Gringotts doesn't fully involve the legends" Remus replied.
"Well, sometimes I get time to read a few tomb walls in-between raiding, so what exactly are you interested in?"
"Pretty much what everyone else is interested in at the moment! The connection between Egypt and the Dementors" His eyes flicked briefly to a copy of the daily Prophet on Bill's desk. "I was wondering if you could divulge me with some information on the Egyptian Gods Isis, Nephtys, Set and Osiris in particular." Bill drummed his fingers idly on his desk for a moment before beginning.
"Well, first of all the weren't Gods, just wizards who used their power to make muggles believe they were. In a way the Egyptian people were deceived - I think this is a little harsh since their society's structure owed a lot to the magic and a lot of daily life was dictated by the beliefs."
"Secondly I think they were siblings but as was common in Egyptian hierarchy, they married. Isis was wed to Osiris and Set to Nephtys. Set was jealous of his brother's talent and finally it grew too much for Set as he tried to kill Osiris by trapping him in a coffin. Isis found the coffin at sea and brought Osiris back to life. She and her husband laid low away from Set. Meanwhile Nephtys was no longer in love with Set and so left to find her sister. When Set discovered Osiris again he ripped his brother's body to shreds and dispersed the pieces in the Ocean. Isis and Nephtys brought him back to life again in what was possibly the first mummification but it was not long before he retreated into the underworld. Set was finally killed by Osiris' son Horus, who waited to avenge his father's murder." Bill smiled again.
"You say Isis brought Osiris back to life, what do you mean" Remus asked, puzzled by the prospect of resurrection.
"Well, when they say he 'died' in the coffin it's hard to tell what is meant, the words are often symbolic. I think 'dead' refers to Osiris in a coma due to a lack of oxygen but it could mean anything. Again, I've only read snippets from tombs and pieced the rest together." Bill gave an animated shrug.
"Have you ever considered becoming a teacher?" Bill chuckled.
"Its not really my kind of thing, but I'd be surprised if I wasn't a little good at it after all those times I was forced to explain things to Charlie while he was at Hogwarts." Remus thanked Bill and stood up to leave when bill said unexpectedly, "If I might ask a question Mr. Lupin, you said when you came in that you wanted to talk about the link between Dementors and Egypt, am I right in thinking that the two are also connected with those four wizards as well?" Remus smiled evasively and made for the doorknob. Bill shook his head incredulous, "Who do you know that the ministry doesn't, or more amazingly who the Daily Prophet doesn't?!" Remus thought his own feelings were similar but said his 'goodbye' again before leaving.
***
Disclaimer: (Also applicable to the two previous chapters) The Harry Potter universe (all characters, names, places, products etc.) are the property of JK Rowling and her publishers, I'm just borrowing them, please refrain from sueing.
A/N: God, I feel so stupid. Before posting this I wrote it all by hand, the first story I've ever attempted with a plan, I managed to dump the plan and write a load of codswollup. Now I feel guilty because some people (namely the very very cool people who reviewed) actually like earlier installments and are going to be let down with the final parts sigh I don't get too deep in Ancient Egyptan mythology, I'm really dreading the ending to this thing though, because when I type it up its going to hit me just how odd it is. Any spellin'/grammma mistakes r de fault of de FIFA World Cup. Please click that little button now and review…