Chapter 3: Love Is Dire
Ginny spent an enjoyable hour with Cenwig. Only one member of her audience returned, Maxwell, the pink-cardigan lady's companion. He was searching the grass for some forgotten item. Maxwell said nothing to her, though the glare he shot her way spoke volumes. Ginny guessed he was upset about the false Cher sighting.
The sun was nestled on the horizon when Ginny finally packed it in for the day. She had worked at a fierce pace all day with nothing to show for her efforts but a few broken pieces of mirror and a sunburn. She tried not to dwell on what Pucey would say to her when she returned to the office empty handed. Instead, she pondered why Fobellis would be excavating here but could come up with no plausible reason.
She returned to the office, leaving a report written on parchment on Pucey's desk and went home to Oliver.
"I can't, for the life of me figure out why Pucey has me excavating at that bloody site!" she complained to her husband that evening.
Oliver was standing behind her, massaging her aching shoulders and neck. He sometimes had a hard time being sympathetic about her work. In his mind, Ginny had chosen a career of backbreaking labour and therefore shouldn't complain about it, but when it came to Pucey, Oliver had a personal grudge.
"He was a slimy git when we played Quidditch back at Hogwarts, and he's a slimy git now that he's your boss. Don't worry, love, you'll find something really important at this torry place and then you can rub it in his face."
The next morning, Ginny returned to the Archeology Department with bagel and cappuccino in hand. Leaning against her desk, a particularly snobby looking Pucey was admiring his nails.
"You're late," he said coldly without looking up.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm less than two minutes late, the lady in front of the Department of Unimportant Findings kept droning on about something…"
"Never taking responsibility for ourselves, I see."
Ginny looked on at him in shock. Why was he attempting to embarrass her in front of the entire office? Besides, it wasn't like she had seen him lift a tool before noon until Stonehenge was destroyed. He looked up at her with his squinted eyes, daring her to say something. Ginny refused, she wasn't going to sink to his level.
Seeing no buttons were going to be pushed with only a little attitude, Pucey pulled a clear bag from behind him and pretended to admire the contents. "Ginny, I believe you left this on my desk. I see some broken mirror, a rusty bobby pin, oooh," he faked excitement, "is that a beer cap I see? It is! 'Morocco Ale'…how exotic."
Unfortunately, Pucey's act managed a stifled laugh from DeWay and Bowie- the two most relentless arse kissers the Ministry had ever seen. Ginny shot them a glare only comparable to the ones her mother gave while growing up.
Pucey stood up and walked to his office with a grin on his face. Ginny didn't know what had caused the particularly nasty show, but she Apparated to her dig quickly to avoid anyone seeing her with tears in the corner of her eyes. Disappointed in her inability to stand up for herself, Ginny threw her backpack on the ground and began to take out her anger on the ground with an axe. Why did she always have to be the good girl? Crack. Why couldn't she tell Pucey to go Hades and take DeWay and Bowie with him? Crack. Why did he constantly make sure Ginny was the arse of every joke? Crack. That- Crack. Arrogant- Crack. Good For Nothing- Crack. Bastard- Craaaack.
Ginny looked down to find that she had hit her axe against a thick metal. She traded the axe in for a smaller hand shovel and began to carefully remove the dirt from the area. She wanted desperately to use magic to remove whatever it was from the ground, especially since it started raining, but couldn't because of the high number of Muggle tourists in the area. She wasn't a Senior archeologist and thus didn't have the clearance to use charms and spells to repel Muggles or conceal her site.
One wet and muddy hour of digging had yielded a large, metal box that Ginny was starting to suspect was some sort of coffin. She used a magic measuring tape similar to the one used in Ollivanders wand shop to calculate its dimensions while she scouted the area for tourists.
Ginny climbed out of the trench she was in and pushed a lock of wet hair out of her face. Looking around she saw that there were a few hangers on, most of them leaving the Tor because of the rain. She cast a rain-repelling charm on herself before climbing back into the trench. What she saw when she got back down (that's worded wrong, erg) caused her to sit down hard in the mud.
The rain had washed the final layer of dirt off the metal box, which was, as Ginny had believed, a sarcophagus. The rain had revealed a painting in vivid yellows, blues and reds of a woman, asleep, her arms crossed over her chest ancient Egyptian style. Clutched in one painted hand was a scroll.
Confident that no Muggle would be unnecessarily exposed to magic,
Ginny cast Wingardium Leviosa on the sarcophagus and lifted it completely out
of the mud. The sides of the ornate coffin were decorated in the same colors
as the top.
Suppressing a whoop of excitement, Ginny levitated the sarcophagus to the ground
above. Her heart felt like it would pound its way out of her chest any moment
as she admired her find. She traced the edges of it with her fingers admiring
the craftsmanship. Sarcophagi were used throughout history although they began
to lose their popularity by medieval times. Despite her eagerness to pry open
the wooden sarcophagus, she stepped back and pulled out a mirror from her pocket.
Tapping the mirror lightly with her wand, she whispered "Pucey"
"What do you want, Weasley? This better be good."
"Trust me, you won't be disappointed," she said.
"You better hope you're right. I'll be over there in a minute."
Although Ginny knew Pucey was a prat, she couldn't help but feel that maybe this discovery prove once and for all that she had more to offer than her less than fantastic coffee making abilities.
"Weasley, what have you got?"
"This, sir," she said with a grin plastered on her face. "Isn't it great?"
Suspiciously, Pucey walked over to the sarcophagus and gave Ginny a look she couldn't read as he called for help from DeWay and Bowie.
"Why are you calling them? I can do this; I just needed to have your supervision."
Pucey gave her a glare before continuing to examine her find. Ginny sighed. Exasperated, she sat down on a large boulder and used her hands to push the muddy, rain soaked locks of hair out of her face.
The other two men appeared at the top of the hill in a matter of seconds awaiting directions.
"DeWay, get over here on this end, Bowie, grab the other," Pucey ordered.
"What are you doing?" Ginny exclaimed.
"What does it look like I'm doing, Weasley? I'm opening it up."
"No, no, no, no." Ginny began. "No, you can't do that. We need to bring it back and run tests, you can't just open it up on the site. Besides, I found it, not you."
"Watch me." Pucey glared as he whipped out his wand. He dragged his wand around the outside of the sarcophagus muttering a spell to separate the crack where the lid met the body.
"Pull!" Pucey commanded.
With a foreboding crack, the lid separated from the bottom. Ginny jumped up and ran over eagerly to examine the contents.
"Go over to the main dig, Weasley."
"Sir, you haven't wanted me over there all week, but now you do? I need to be here."
"I assure you, you don't."
"Well," Ginny said nervously, "I'm not going." She attempted to look determined and even crossed her arms over her chest for effect.
"Weasley, I order you to the main dig." He gave her a menacing glare. "Is that better?"
Ginny's jaw shook lightly as she tried to hold back tears. She had never taken people screaming at her well.
"Bowie, walk her over to the main dig and make sure she stays there," Pucey commanded.
The tall, lanky man walked over to Ginny, grabbing a hold of her upper arm as he led her away.
**
Last Chapters Anagram? The Physics of Unadoring Nags = Ginny Finds A Sarcophagus!