Spiritus aduro
1.1 Part VI
Ria was hot, tired and fed up. The trip from Romania to Egypt had been nothing but trouble. She and her nieces had bid goodbye to Charlie and Merri that morning, in the hope of making it to Cairo by lunchtime. Ria had soon realised that cross-country Apparating was a lot less troublesome than cross-country travel using a combination of Floo powder and Portkeys. The Wizarding States Conference of 1705 had instituted a law that meant anyone using a magical method for international travel (with the exception of the broomstick) was required by law to check in at a customs point at each border they crossed. This was troublesome enough if you were Apparating, but when you were relying on State-run Portkeys, the situation was much worse. International Portkeys ran from a countries' Central Portkey Station only. Unfortunately, it was very rare for a CPS and a customs point to be in the same place, which meant that once you had been through customs you were required to use Floo powder to get to the CPS. This added hours to your travel total time, and the attitude of some of the Portkey and Floo Staff didn't do anything to ease the journey.
"Madam, I need to see your travel visa," one official had said. Ria had flashed her work permit for the dragon reserve at the woman. It was, after all, the sixth time her visa had been demanded in as many minutes.
"This isn't a travel permit," the woman had said, sulkily.
"Yes it is," Ria had replied patiently. "Look - 'in accordance with Worldwide Wizarding Law, this permit allows for its holder, Ariadne Olivia Rutherford' - that's me - 'to travel internationally, both for work and pleasure.' And then there's the signature of the Head of the Department of International Travel, and my employer's signature."
"Have you got any proof of identity?" the woman, 'Julia' according to her nametag, demanded, silkily. Ria glared at her.
"That is my proof of ID," she replied, fishing around inside her robes trying to find her Apparition License, while trying to keep half and eye on Livvy and Claire, who were being very good, considering the circumstances. Having found the license, she waved it at the official. "Look - Ariadne Olivia Rutherford. Me. Proof of Identity. May we go now?"
"I need to see their travel visas." Julia replied, motioning to Claire and Olivia.
"Look, honey, you clearly can't read," Ria said, losing patience, and all faith with Greek authorities - they were in Athens at the time. "It says that I am entitled to escort two under tens minus travel visas. That means that they," she gestured to her nieces, "can travel on my visa. Satisfied?"
"I'll need to check with my manager," Julia informed her. Ria was fast reaching her limit.
"Look," she hissed. "I have already spent three hours at a customs post in Bulgaria, followed by two hours waiting for the Portkey to get me here, thanks to some kind of blunder. I've already had six - six - of your personnel look at my visa, question my visa, demand proof of identity, blah blah blah. It is now," Ria looked at her watch, "two and a half hours since I arrived at this station, and I am beginning to get just a little cheesed off at your attitude. I have two young children with me, and if you don't get your act together, I can't guarantee that they won't blow the joint up." Claire and Olivia regarded their aunt in awe. Julia, however, wasn't impressed.
"I'm sorry madam, but you will have to wait - we can't let you through until we are sure that you are who you say you are."
"I'm sure," Ria replied sarcastically, accepting the inevitable with a bad grace.
"Auntie Ri?"
"What's up, Liv?"
"Are we going to get to Egypt soon?"
"I don't know, Livvy. It depends on whether they're any more efficient in Libya than they have been in Bulgaria and Greece. Probably not." Olivia nodded, solemnly. The three of them sat in silence.
"Auntie Ria?"
"Yes, Claire?"
"Where's the funny lady gone?"
"To find someone who knows what they're doing, I hope," Ria replied. Eventually, the manager appeared, and having examined Ria's documents closely, allowed her and her nieces to use the stations grate to get to Greece's CPS.
2 It was now 8:45 and they were stuck at the customs point in Alexandria, waiting for yet another bumbling fool to ascertain that Ria wasn't some kind of terrorist, and that Livvy and Claire were not her disguised henchmen. Next year, Ria decided, grimly, she'd go home, and they could all spend a week in Devon.
* * * *
"Aunt Ri?" Olivia jolted Ria out of her reverie. They had finally made it through customs, and were now not-so-comfortably ensconced in the Egyptian equivalent of the Knight bus. Claire was sleeping in one of the large beds, but Livvy had clearly woken up.
"Olivia?" Ria replied, smiling at the ragamuffin that was her niece. Livvy's hair had long since worked itself out of tidy pigtails, and she now made futile motions in an attempt to swipe it out of her eyes.
"What's Bill like?" Livvy fixed Ria with large blue eyes that were uncannily like her own.
"Well," Ria began, wondering just how to respond to her niece's idle remark, "I like him."
"Really?!" Livvy looked excited. "Are you going to marry him and live happily ever after like Cinderella?" Ria couldn't help but smile at Livvy's earnestness.
"I don't know, Liv," she replied honestly. "Sometimes I wonder if marriage is all it's hyped up to be." She was thinking about Aidan again. She couldn't help it - when marriage was mentioned she automatically thought of her ex-fiancé. Oh, she didn't love him any more - indeed, she sometimes wondered if she ever had - but he had hurt her awfully and she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to forgive him.
"Grandma says that men and women should marry before they live together," Livvy informed her aunt. "But you co-rabbit with Uncle Charlie and you aren't married." Ria smiled.
"Co-habit,' she corrected. "I know Grandma is a very wise woman, Livvy, but sometimes you have to make your own decisions. What do you think?"
"I don't think it matters too much," Livvy replied, after careful consideration. Suddenly her expression changed. "Auntie Ri, what's it like to fall in love?" Ria looked at her, startled.
"I suppose it's different for everyone, honey, but when you fall in love you'll know." Ria couldn't believe she was having this conversation with a seven year old. Out of the mouths of babes.
"Have you never been in love?" Livvy demanded. "Only I heard Mummy and Auntie Becca saying that you loved Uncle Aidan once. But he's married to Auntie Gemma, so doesn't that mean he loves her?" Ria silently cursed her sisters for talking about the past in front of the future, and ignored the dull ache that it invoked even now.
"I don't love Uncle Aidan in that way, Liv, don't you fret. You're quite right - he and Auntie Gemma are in love. Mummy and Auntie Becca were mistaken."
"Well, that's what I told Claire," Livvy said, matter of factly. "She thought you had a broken heart like Rapunzel." Ria smiled at Livvy again.
"No, Livvy, my heart is all in one piece, thank you very much, and I intend to keep it that way. Don't you or Claire worry about me."
"I think you should marry Uncle Charlie," Livvy informed her, suddenly. "He's fun."
"But I don't love Uncle Charlie, sweetheart."
"You could fall in love with him. I think he'd be a great real uncle." Ria mussed Livvy's hair affectionately, inwardly marvelling at the child's rose-tinted outlook on life.
* * * *
Ria caught sight of Bill's distinctive Weasley hair long before he caught sight of her. Taking her nieces' hands, she hurried over to greet him.
"Ria!" he exclaimed, grinning at her. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Ria informed him. "Bill, meet my nieces - Olivia and Claire. Girls, this is Bill."
"He looks like Uncle Charlie," Livvy said, shrewdly.
"That's because they're brothers, silly!" Claire told her, scathingly.
"Well, Edward doesn't look like you," Livvy retorted.
"No, but Mummy says he's the spitting image of Auntie Gemma," Claire was quick to inform her. Bill cleared his throat, and the two girls turned to stare at him once more.
"Pleased to meet you," he said, offering Livvy his hand.
"The pleasure is all mine," Livvy replied, causing her cousin and aunt to stare at her.
"So, are you Auntie Ria's boyfriend?" Claire demanded, shaking Bill's hand vigorously. Ria rolled her eyes, marvelling at the one-track nature of her nieces' minds. It was enough for her mother to be trying to marry her off all the time - now it appeared her nieces were at it as well.
"Kind of," Bill agreed. He turned to Ria. "Do you have everything?" Ria nodded, gesturing towards the pile of luggage at her feet.
"So," she said, as they began to move. "How are we getting to wherever it is we're going, anyway?"
"Ask no questions and I'll tell you no lies," Bill replied, cryptically. "You'll know soon enough." Intrigued, Ria followed him a short way down the street, and was amazed to see a rug floating in the air.
"A flying carpet?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought those were supposed to be illegal?"
"In Britain they are," Bill replied. "Not here though." He hoisted Claire on to the carpet, and then repeated the action with Livvy, before offering his hand to Ria.
"What about our stuff?" she demanded, doubtfully. In answer, he heaved their baggage on to the mat and it promptly disappeared.
"Inbuilt mechanism similar to a car boot," he exclaimed, catching Ria's horrified look. "You can get on now." Ria did as she was told, and Bill hopped on after her. Ria studied the vibrant material with interest as Bill issued instructions.
"Welcome to Bill's Brilliant Airways," he began. "Or Brilliant Bill's Airways, if you prefer. We hope you enjoy your flight. In order to do so, we would ask that you keep all appendages firmly on the carpet, and refrain from standing up throughout the journey. Thank you." Claire and Livvy regarded him with awe as the carpet began a steady ascent. Ria wasn't so sure that she liked this soft furnishings idea - she was certain that this Oriental form of transport couldn't possibly be safe. As if he could read her mind, Bill smiled at her.
"It's perfectly safe, you know," he assured her. "Flying carpets have been around much longer than broomsticks." Ria smiled and nodded. She supposed he had a point, and there was something oddly soothing about this mode of transport. Her nieces clearly preferred the carpet to the Knight bus. Sighing contentedly, she gazed at the stars in the Egyptian sky.
* * * *
The flying carpet fluttered gently down until it was hovering just inches from the ground. Ria stepped off daintily, before helping Livvy and Claire to the ground. Bill retrieved their luggage and rolled their transport up.
In front of them was a tent. At least, that was the way Ria would have described it. It was not a house like the one she shared with Charlie, but rather a mass of material magically anchored in the sand.
"It's not as primitive as it looks," Bill hastened to inform her. "But it's not practical for us to build on the sand using bricks and mortar, even using magic. Besides, we move around so much that it's easier to take our home from pyramid to pyramid then it is to Apparate backwards and forwards." As he spoke he raised the tent's flap and Ria was amazed to see that he was right. The inside of the cotton structure was exactly like a house, right down to having a porch, hall and dividing walls. The hall itself was brightly decorated, the walls were the same orange as the Chudley Cannons' robes, and they were hung with patterned rugs. Claire and Livvy loved it. As they exclaimed over their new surroundings, a man and woman descended from the staircase. Bill smiled at them, and turned to Ria. Before he could say anything, however, Livvy squealed.
"UNCLE TOM!!" she galloped up to the man, whose face broke into a delighted grin.
"Liv?" he looked at her incredulously. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"She's with me," Ria replied, politely, but there was a certain coldness in her tone that demanded an explanation.
"And you are." the man demanded, a similar note in his own voice.
"Ariadne Rutherford," Ria replied. "Livvy and Claire are my nieces."
"Lucy's sister?" the man asked, raising his eyebrows. "How extraordinary. You see, Livvy is my niece too - I'm Thomas Kettleworth. Geoff's brother. But he never mentioned that you and Livvy were coming here."
"He wouldn't have known," Ria replied, warming to him. "I just made Lucy promise to send Liv to me for a couple of weeks in the summer. Were you at the wedding? I don't recognise you." But even as she said it, she realised that there was something familiar about Tom - something that she couldn't quite place.
"I wasn't," Tom replied, frowning slightly. "I made it to Liv's christening though - were you there?"
"Not quite," Ria replied, ruefully. "Liv was born in the year that I did my OWL's, and Lucy and Geoff, in their wisdom, held the christening in term time. My parents decided that I would be better off at school."
"I'm named after Auntie Ri though," Livvy hastily informed her uncle. "Olivia's her middle name, and she's my godmother just like you're my godfather."
"Auntie Lucy and Uncle Geoff are mine," Claire piped up, not to be outdone. "And I'm named after my Grandma." Tom smiled at her.
"Are you indeed?" he asked. He turned to Ria. "When Geoff told me that Liv and her cousin were inseparable, I didn't realise he meant it literally." Ria laughed, but before she could say anything further, Bill spoke.
"Well, I'm glad that you two know each other," he observed, "but poor Katie is beginning to look a little left out. Ria, this is Katherine Bonniene. Kate, meet Ria."
"Pleased to meet you," Ria said, offering her hand to the young woman that Bill was gesturing towards. Katie was one of the most striking women that she had ever seen - her skin was milk white and her eyes the palest of blues, yet it was her hair that made her distinctive - long, glossy, wavy and jet black, in stark contrast with her skin. She reminded Ria of the girls she had known who were naturally blonde, and yet insisted on dying their hair a raven colour. Strangely, whilst this colour combination had looked odd on all of them, on Katherine Bonniene it looked completely natural and almost pretty.
"Likewise," Katie replied, in a startlingly deep voice for someone with so elfin an appearance. "Bill's told us a lot about you."
"Don't listen to him," Ria joked. "I'm a good girl really."
"My sources dispute that claim," Bill told her, grinning.
"You'd trust Charlie over me?" Ria asked, in mock hurt.
"Naturally," Bill replied, complacently. "He is, after all, my brother."
"No sibling rivalry in the Weasley family, then," Katie teased.
"Don't count on it," Ria replied. "Some of the letters Charlie gets are awful - the things the twins do to Percy, the poor boy!"
"Ah, Perce loves us really," Bill told her, lightly. "He just needs to lighten up a bit on occasion."
As they were talking, Ria and her nieces followed the three Gringotts employees into a large room with a selection of mismatched yet comfortable seats to chose from. Ria marvelled at how humble an exterior could house such grandeur within, for there was no doubt that some of the items in the room were very valuable antiques. She mentioned this to Katie, who smiled at her.
"You wouldn't believe where we found some of this stuff - when I came out her in '88 there was nothing. Absolutely nothing - Bill was living in some strange hostel, and the goblins were all for Tom and I doing the same. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no snob - I've slummed it with the best of them, but the conditions they expected us to survive in - it was disgusting. So, I suggested we create our own home if the goblins weren't going to help us, and so we did. I think I overheard Bill telling you that the house is a tent for practical reasons, but really it's all financial. We could afford a tent, we couldn't afford a house, and as it turns out, the tent works better than a house would anyway. But the antiques.well, a lot of them we found on Muggle rubbish sites. At first we didn't realise that we'd hit a jackpot - we needed furniture and didn't have enough money to buy brand new stuff - remember that Tom and I had only just left Hogwarts at this point. Then we came across all sorts of bits and pieces that came up as good as new with the aid of a Scouring Charm. The rest, as they say, is history."
3 "Auntie Ri," Claire began, doubtfully, "what's a batique?"
"Batique? Do you mean antique? It's something really old. Grandpa Alex has got lots of antiques. Next time you visit him and Grandma ask him to show them to you."
"Ah, yes, the famous Rutherford family heirlooms," Tom said, causing Ria to look at him strangely. "What? Geoff's told me all about your father's stash, including the singing bijou. Highly amusing, and worth millions according to him." Ria laughed.
"I used to play with that when I was a little girl, you know. Dad always said that it was a wonder it didn't have a nervous breakdowns, the number of songs I forced upon it."
"What's a bijou?" Olivia demanded.
"It's a bottom washer," Ria replied, seriously. "Grandpa can demonstrate for you when he shows you it."
"Sounds like fun," Bill said, dryly. A young local put her head around the door, and Bill nodded at her.
"That was our dinner cue," he told the assorted company. "Let us vacate to the dining room."
"You have a chef?" Ria demanded, incredulously as she sat in the chair Bill held out for her.
"Not quite," Bill replied. "When we're all busy, Elsie does the cooking. She's only sixteen, so really she should be at school, but her parents abandoned her when she was a small child."
"We found her when we were furniture hunting in the slums," Tom added. "You don't want to know what she was doing to stay alive - it made me feel sick. We sort of adopted her. Now she lives with us. When she's served up she'll eat with us too. She does speak English, but she's wary of strangers, and Arabic will always be her first language. She insists on cooking and cleaning in return for our 'kindness' as she puts it."
"I had to give her lessons first though," Katie ploughed in. "Poor kid didn't have a clue how to work an oven, and the slop she produced the first time we let her loose in the kitchen. I'm ever grateful that she's such a quick learner." As if on cue the girl entered again, this time carrying a stack of plates. When they had been distributed she left the room again, and returned with a steaming dish full of some kind of soup, and a large loaf of fresh, crusty bread. At her signal they all tucked in with healthy appetite, Claire and Livvy included.
* * * *
The next morning, Ria was rudely disturbed from pleasant slumbers by someone bouncing on her bed. Mumbling incoherently she fumbled for the light switch, and was not surprised to find her elder niece performing acrobatics in front of her.
"Livvy!" she groaned. "What time is it?"
"Half past seven," Livvy replied, proudly. She had only recently fully mastered the art of reading a watch and was always willing to demonstrate her skill. "Time to get up! Come on Aunt Ri! CLAIRE!!" Livvy yelled for her cousin, who peered around the doorway. "It's okay, she's awake now."
"Good," Claire replied, happily. "Are we going to see the pyramids with Uncle Bill today, Auntie Ri?"
"We can't go anywhere until she's up, silly," Livvy told her. "Help me," Ria was suddenly jerked into a sitting position by two small pairs of hands.
"Okay, okay!" she exclaimed. "Claire, to answer your question, yes we are going to see the pyramids with Uncle Bill today. Or rather, we're going to see one of them. There are a lot of pyramids, you know. But we're not going anywhere at half past seven in the morning when we're still in our pyjamas. Let's go and find breakfast, and we'll worry about the Mummies later."
Ria heaved herself out of bed and into her dressing gown, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she did so, and then followed her nieces - who were far too energetic, considering the time of morning - downstairs.
"Nice PJ's," Tom remarked as she sat down at the table and helped herself to cereal. Ria glanced down at the dancing teddy bears.
"Thank you," she replied, choosing to ignore the humour in his tone. "What are you doing today?"
"Working," he replied. "We can't all be like Bill and skive off, you know, or nothing would ever be done."
"I heard that, and I resent the implication," Bill told him, appearing in the doorway. "I deserve this holiday, and we could hardly leave our guests on their own."
"There are perfectly good tour guides, you know," Katie teased from her end of the table.
"Tour guides?!" Bill sounded horrified. "Have you any idea how they misinform the general public? Besides, they're Muggles, the lot of them. Every time they come past we have to pretend we're on an archaeological dig. It never ceases to amaze me that they don't realise we're not equipped for digging."
* * * *
"So, are we all ready then?" Bill demanded. The four of them - Bill, Ria, Claire and Livvy - were just about to embark on their pyramid trip. The two little girls nodded solemnly, and Ria smiled her assent. "We'd better make use of this again then, hadn't we," Bill told them, unfurling the flying carpet once more, and helping Claire to board it.
They had been on the carpet for a while when Claire and Livvy announced that they were bored. Patiently, Bill explained that the pyramid they were visiting was a long way away. As the scenery was sand, sand and more sand, he suggested that they relieve their boredom by singing, which they did with gusto.
"Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high
There's a land that I dreamt of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow,
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare
To dream really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds
Are far behind me -
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
And way above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can't I?"
Bill looked at Ria inquisitively as the unknown words and melody filled his ears. She smiled to herself.
"It's from the Wizard of Oz," she explained. "They love it, although they think it's unfair that wizards get better Muggle press than witches. Still, you can't have everything, and anything is better than Love is Like a Cruciatus Curse."
"You really don't like Celestina Warbeck, do you?" Ria simply looked at him. "No, I didn't think so. We're nearly there, by the way."
They dismounted ten minutes later, in front of a rather impressive pyramid structure. Ria found the panoramic view quite breathtaking, and even her nieces were speechless for once - a very rare occurrence in their case.
"Wow," Ria breathed. "It's fantastic."
"Why thank you," Bill replied, as if he had been responsible for all of it. Ria hit him playfully, and he responded in kind. Livvy and Claire watched, fascinated, as their Aunt and her friend rolled around in the sand.
"Such a good example you set your nieces," Bill told Ria when they were composed once more. Ria stuck her tongue out at him, making the children giggle at their aunt's apparent lack of decorum.
"Don't be such an old man," she told him. "Now take us into this yellow monstrosity that we might experience the grandeur of a pharaoh's final resting place."
Bill led them into the pyramid at a reasonably slow pace so that Livvy and Claire didn't have to run to keep up. When they were far enough inside that no one other than themselves could hear them, he began to explain Ancient Egypt.
"The first thing you need to understand about these pyramids is that the Egyptians were very religious when they were built, and they emphasised the after life a lot more than the mortal life. What you did in the mortal life would influence where you spent the afterlife, and it was to that end that the pharaohs had such grand pyramids built.
Ancient Egyptian mythology suggests that only the ocean existed at first - there was no land, just sea. Then the Ra, the Sun, came out of an egg that appeared on the surface of the water. Ra had four children, Shu and Keb, who were gods, and Tefnut and Nut, who were goddesses. Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere and they stood on Keb, who became the earth, and raised up Nut, who became the sky. Ra was the big chief type person who ruled over them all. Later, Keb and Nut had two sons - Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris succeeded Ra as the king of the earth, and he was helped by Isis, who became his sister wife. Unfortunately, Set wasn't too keen on his brother, so he killed him. Isis embalmed Osiris' body with the help of Anubis, who thus became the god of embalming. Isis used powerful charms to resurrect Osiris, who became king of the netherworld, the land of the dead. Isis and Osiris' son, Horus, later fought and defeated Set, and became the king of the earth. And that is a pretty simplified version of Ancient Egypt's ideas about creation."
"Cool!" Livvy breathed, ecstatically. "Much more interesting than all of that evocation stuff."
"Evolution, Liv," Ria corrected her, absent-mindedly. "I had no idea that Egyptian myths were so bloody, Bill. In History of Magic, Binns was far too keen on the goblins to go into any great detail about exotic history and culture."
"Ria, even if he had the chances are you wouldn't have taken it in. This is Binns we're talking about here!"
"Who cares about a ghost?" Claire asked, irreverently. "I want to know about pyramids!" Ria stared at her. She was pretty sure that she hadn't been that keen on history when she was six. Still, each to their own, and she supposed that she couldn't complain at the child's thirst for knowledge.
"Pyramids. Well, pyramids were usually built when the Nile flooded - the Nile is the longest river in the world. They built them then because they couldn't farm when the river was flooded. Some people think that the pyramids were built by slaves - forced labour, you know - but that wasn't actually the case. There's no evidence of any type of military authority on the ancient pictures depicting when they were built, and they suggest that the work was not too harsh - hard, yes, but harsh - not really. People would be proud to have a hand in building the pyramids, not only were they for the Pharaoh, who was seen as a sort of living god, but it was also a tomb, and the afterlife was very important to Egyptians. Some of the stone used to make the pyramids came from places hundreds of miles from the building site. It was hauled to the Nile and then floated up the river, before being pulled to its destination. Herodotus - someone who was around at the time - says it took about twenty years to build a pyramid. At the moment we're in the Valley of the Kings, where all the pharaohs were entombed in their pyramids. If you look carefully at the walls when we're moving through the pyramid then you'll be able to see some of the hieroglyphics that were painted when it was built."
Bill turned to shepherd them on, along the way pointing out wall paintings that would be of particular interest to them. Ria was so fascinated by them that she began to relax her guard, and took her eyes of Claire and Olivia for a few minutes to study the pictures. When she looked up again, the others had gone, and she was left alone in a pyramid that she knew nothing about with four possible routes to follow. She shivered. She had been worried that either Claire or Livvy would get lost in the huge monuments. Not for a moment had she considered that perhaps she would be left behind. Her decision to pick a path was probably not the most sensible choice she had ever made, but make it she did.
* * * *
Bill didn't realise that Ria was missing until Livvy bought her absence to his attention. As soon as he learnt of her disappearance, he hastened back in an attempt to find her, but by this time it was too late, and she had already gone. In the end he had no choice but to take the two girls home without their aunt, and then form a search party. The pyramids were perilous places - ancient Egyptian wizards had done a good job on curses, and leaving Ria in one overnight was something that he felt would be a bad idea. Ultimately her survival lay in a race against time, and he could only hope that he, Tom, and Katie could win.
Again, muchas gracias to all and sundry who reviewed the last chapter. There's still the will she won't she factor in this, I'm afraid. And there you all were, thinking I'd stopped with the Which Weasley fiasco. Sorry, but this triangle is just too much fun! *hides as everyone reading mobs her.* LOL And I have to share my lovely beta readers final comment on this with you all - Arabella, you made my day with this one.
'And if Charlie finds out Bill lost his best friend, he'll curse him to the ground!'
Quite right too. Thanks to Andy and Arabella for betaing, the next chapter will be ready soonish - it all depends on what school is like. I was enjoying a lull in homework when I wrote this, but as I'm a genius and take four essay based subjects, there's no guarantee that I won't have hundreds of essays to complete in the near future, especially as 'Progress Tests' are coming up. Believe me, leaving Ria in a curse filled pyramid for three months is not something I want to do, so hopefully it won't happen.
( Hallie
1.1 Part VI
Ria was hot, tired and fed up. The trip from Romania to Egypt had been nothing but trouble. She and her nieces had bid goodbye to Charlie and Merri that morning, in the hope of making it to Cairo by lunchtime. Ria had soon realised that cross-country Apparating was a lot less troublesome than cross-country travel using a combination of Floo powder and Portkeys. The Wizarding States Conference of 1705 had instituted a law that meant anyone using a magical method for international travel (with the exception of the broomstick) was required by law to check in at a customs point at each border they crossed. This was troublesome enough if you were Apparating, but when you were relying on State-run Portkeys, the situation was much worse. International Portkeys ran from a countries' Central Portkey Station only. Unfortunately, it was very rare for a CPS and a customs point to be in the same place, which meant that once you had been through customs you were required to use Floo powder to get to the CPS. This added hours to your travel total time, and the attitude of some of the Portkey and Floo Staff didn't do anything to ease the journey.
"Madam, I need to see your travel visa," one official had said. Ria had flashed her work permit for the dragon reserve at the woman. It was, after all, the sixth time her visa had been demanded in as many minutes.
"This isn't a travel permit," the woman had said, sulkily.
"Yes it is," Ria had replied patiently. "Look - 'in accordance with Worldwide Wizarding Law, this permit allows for its holder, Ariadne Olivia Rutherford' - that's me - 'to travel internationally, both for work and pleasure.' And then there's the signature of the Head of the Department of International Travel, and my employer's signature."
"Have you got any proof of identity?" the woman, 'Julia' according to her nametag, demanded, silkily. Ria glared at her.
"That is my proof of ID," she replied, fishing around inside her robes trying to find her Apparition License, while trying to keep half and eye on Livvy and Claire, who were being very good, considering the circumstances. Having found the license, she waved it at the official. "Look - Ariadne Olivia Rutherford. Me. Proof of Identity. May we go now?"
"I need to see their travel visas." Julia replied, motioning to Claire and Olivia.
"Look, honey, you clearly can't read," Ria said, losing patience, and all faith with Greek authorities - they were in Athens at the time. "It says that I am entitled to escort two under tens minus travel visas. That means that they," she gestured to her nieces, "can travel on my visa. Satisfied?"
"I'll need to check with my manager," Julia informed her. Ria was fast reaching her limit.
"Look," she hissed. "I have already spent three hours at a customs post in Bulgaria, followed by two hours waiting for the Portkey to get me here, thanks to some kind of blunder. I've already had six - six - of your personnel look at my visa, question my visa, demand proof of identity, blah blah blah. It is now," Ria looked at her watch, "two and a half hours since I arrived at this station, and I am beginning to get just a little cheesed off at your attitude. I have two young children with me, and if you don't get your act together, I can't guarantee that they won't blow the joint up." Claire and Olivia regarded their aunt in awe. Julia, however, wasn't impressed.
"I'm sorry madam, but you will have to wait - we can't let you through until we are sure that you are who you say you are."
"I'm sure," Ria replied sarcastically, accepting the inevitable with a bad grace.
"Auntie Ri?"
"What's up, Liv?"
"Are we going to get to Egypt soon?"
"I don't know, Livvy. It depends on whether they're any more efficient in Libya than they have been in Bulgaria and Greece. Probably not." Olivia nodded, solemnly. The three of them sat in silence.
"Auntie Ria?"
"Yes, Claire?"
"Where's the funny lady gone?"
"To find someone who knows what they're doing, I hope," Ria replied. Eventually, the manager appeared, and having examined Ria's documents closely, allowed her and her nieces to use the stations grate to get to Greece's CPS.
2 It was now 8:45 and they were stuck at the customs point in Alexandria, waiting for yet another bumbling fool to ascertain that Ria wasn't some kind of terrorist, and that Livvy and Claire were not her disguised henchmen. Next year, Ria decided, grimly, she'd go home, and they could all spend a week in Devon.
* * * *
"Aunt Ri?" Olivia jolted Ria out of her reverie. They had finally made it through customs, and were now not-so-comfortably ensconced in the Egyptian equivalent of the Knight bus. Claire was sleeping in one of the large beds, but Livvy had clearly woken up.
"Olivia?" Ria replied, smiling at the ragamuffin that was her niece. Livvy's hair had long since worked itself out of tidy pigtails, and she now made futile motions in an attempt to swipe it out of her eyes.
"What's Bill like?" Livvy fixed Ria with large blue eyes that were uncannily like her own.
"Well," Ria began, wondering just how to respond to her niece's idle remark, "I like him."
"Really?!" Livvy looked excited. "Are you going to marry him and live happily ever after like Cinderella?" Ria couldn't help but smile at Livvy's earnestness.
"I don't know, Liv," she replied honestly. "Sometimes I wonder if marriage is all it's hyped up to be." She was thinking about Aidan again. She couldn't help it - when marriage was mentioned she automatically thought of her ex-fiancé. Oh, she didn't love him any more - indeed, she sometimes wondered if she ever had - but he had hurt her awfully and she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to forgive him.
"Grandma says that men and women should marry before they live together," Livvy informed her aunt. "But you co-rabbit with Uncle Charlie and you aren't married." Ria smiled.
"Co-habit,' she corrected. "I know Grandma is a very wise woman, Livvy, but sometimes you have to make your own decisions. What do you think?"
"I don't think it matters too much," Livvy replied, after careful consideration. Suddenly her expression changed. "Auntie Ri, what's it like to fall in love?" Ria looked at her, startled.
"I suppose it's different for everyone, honey, but when you fall in love you'll know." Ria couldn't believe she was having this conversation with a seven year old. Out of the mouths of babes.
"Have you never been in love?" Livvy demanded. "Only I heard Mummy and Auntie Becca saying that you loved Uncle Aidan once. But he's married to Auntie Gemma, so doesn't that mean he loves her?" Ria silently cursed her sisters for talking about the past in front of the future, and ignored the dull ache that it invoked even now.
"I don't love Uncle Aidan in that way, Liv, don't you fret. You're quite right - he and Auntie Gemma are in love. Mummy and Auntie Becca were mistaken."
"Well, that's what I told Claire," Livvy said, matter of factly. "She thought you had a broken heart like Rapunzel." Ria smiled at Livvy again.
"No, Livvy, my heart is all in one piece, thank you very much, and I intend to keep it that way. Don't you or Claire worry about me."
"I think you should marry Uncle Charlie," Livvy informed her, suddenly. "He's fun."
"But I don't love Uncle Charlie, sweetheart."
"You could fall in love with him. I think he'd be a great real uncle." Ria mussed Livvy's hair affectionately, inwardly marvelling at the child's rose-tinted outlook on life.
* * * *
Ria caught sight of Bill's distinctive Weasley hair long before he caught sight of her. Taking her nieces' hands, she hurried over to greet him.
"Ria!" he exclaimed, grinning at her. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks," Ria informed him. "Bill, meet my nieces - Olivia and Claire. Girls, this is Bill."
"He looks like Uncle Charlie," Livvy said, shrewdly.
"That's because they're brothers, silly!" Claire told her, scathingly.
"Well, Edward doesn't look like you," Livvy retorted.
"No, but Mummy says he's the spitting image of Auntie Gemma," Claire was quick to inform her. Bill cleared his throat, and the two girls turned to stare at him once more.
"Pleased to meet you," he said, offering Livvy his hand.
"The pleasure is all mine," Livvy replied, causing her cousin and aunt to stare at her.
"So, are you Auntie Ria's boyfriend?" Claire demanded, shaking Bill's hand vigorously. Ria rolled her eyes, marvelling at the one-track nature of her nieces' minds. It was enough for her mother to be trying to marry her off all the time - now it appeared her nieces were at it as well.
"Kind of," Bill agreed. He turned to Ria. "Do you have everything?" Ria nodded, gesturing towards the pile of luggage at her feet.
"So," she said, as they began to move. "How are we getting to wherever it is we're going, anyway?"
"Ask no questions and I'll tell you no lies," Bill replied, cryptically. "You'll know soon enough." Intrigued, Ria followed him a short way down the street, and was amazed to see a rug floating in the air.
"A flying carpet?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought those were supposed to be illegal?"
"In Britain they are," Bill replied. "Not here though." He hoisted Claire on to the carpet, and then repeated the action with Livvy, before offering his hand to Ria.
"What about our stuff?" she demanded, doubtfully. In answer, he heaved their baggage on to the mat and it promptly disappeared.
"Inbuilt mechanism similar to a car boot," he exclaimed, catching Ria's horrified look. "You can get on now." Ria did as she was told, and Bill hopped on after her. Ria studied the vibrant material with interest as Bill issued instructions.
"Welcome to Bill's Brilliant Airways," he began. "Or Brilliant Bill's Airways, if you prefer. We hope you enjoy your flight. In order to do so, we would ask that you keep all appendages firmly on the carpet, and refrain from standing up throughout the journey. Thank you." Claire and Livvy regarded him with awe as the carpet began a steady ascent. Ria wasn't so sure that she liked this soft furnishings idea - she was certain that this Oriental form of transport couldn't possibly be safe. As if he could read her mind, Bill smiled at her.
"It's perfectly safe, you know," he assured her. "Flying carpets have been around much longer than broomsticks." Ria smiled and nodded. She supposed he had a point, and there was something oddly soothing about this mode of transport. Her nieces clearly preferred the carpet to the Knight bus. Sighing contentedly, she gazed at the stars in the Egyptian sky.
* * * *
The flying carpet fluttered gently down until it was hovering just inches from the ground. Ria stepped off daintily, before helping Livvy and Claire to the ground. Bill retrieved their luggage and rolled their transport up.
In front of them was a tent. At least, that was the way Ria would have described it. It was not a house like the one she shared with Charlie, but rather a mass of material magically anchored in the sand.
"It's not as primitive as it looks," Bill hastened to inform her. "But it's not practical for us to build on the sand using bricks and mortar, even using magic. Besides, we move around so much that it's easier to take our home from pyramid to pyramid then it is to Apparate backwards and forwards." As he spoke he raised the tent's flap and Ria was amazed to see that he was right. The inside of the cotton structure was exactly like a house, right down to having a porch, hall and dividing walls. The hall itself was brightly decorated, the walls were the same orange as the Chudley Cannons' robes, and they were hung with patterned rugs. Claire and Livvy loved it. As they exclaimed over their new surroundings, a man and woman descended from the staircase. Bill smiled at them, and turned to Ria. Before he could say anything, however, Livvy squealed.
"UNCLE TOM!!" she galloped up to the man, whose face broke into a delighted grin.
"Liv?" he looked at her incredulously. "What on earth are you doing here?"
"She's with me," Ria replied, politely, but there was a certain coldness in her tone that demanded an explanation.
"And you are." the man demanded, a similar note in his own voice.
"Ariadne Rutherford," Ria replied. "Livvy and Claire are my nieces."
"Lucy's sister?" the man asked, raising his eyebrows. "How extraordinary. You see, Livvy is my niece too - I'm Thomas Kettleworth. Geoff's brother. But he never mentioned that you and Livvy were coming here."
"He wouldn't have known," Ria replied, warming to him. "I just made Lucy promise to send Liv to me for a couple of weeks in the summer. Were you at the wedding? I don't recognise you." But even as she said it, she realised that there was something familiar about Tom - something that she couldn't quite place.
"I wasn't," Tom replied, frowning slightly. "I made it to Liv's christening though - were you there?"
"Not quite," Ria replied, ruefully. "Liv was born in the year that I did my OWL's, and Lucy and Geoff, in their wisdom, held the christening in term time. My parents decided that I would be better off at school."
"I'm named after Auntie Ri though," Livvy hastily informed her uncle. "Olivia's her middle name, and she's my godmother just like you're my godfather."
"Auntie Lucy and Uncle Geoff are mine," Claire piped up, not to be outdone. "And I'm named after my Grandma." Tom smiled at her.
"Are you indeed?" he asked. He turned to Ria. "When Geoff told me that Liv and her cousin were inseparable, I didn't realise he meant it literally." Ria laughed, but before she could say anything further, Bill spoke.
"Well, I'm glad that you two know each other," he observed, "but poor Katie is beginning to look a little left out. Ria, this is Katherine Bonniene. Kate, meet Ria."
"Pleased to meet you," Ria said, offering her hand to the young woman that Bill was gesturing towards. Katie was one of the most striking women that she had ever seen - her skin was milk white and her eyes the palest of blues, yet it was her hair that made her distinctive - long, glossy, wavy and jet black, in stark contrast with her skin. She reminded Ria of the girls she had known who were naturally blonde, and yet insisted on dying their hair a raven colour. Strangely, whilst this colour combination had looked odd on all of them, on Katherine Bonniene it looked completely natural and almost pretty.
"Likewise," Katie replied, in a startlingly deep voice for someone with so elfin an appearance. "Bill's told us a lot about you."
"Don't listen to him," Ria joked. "I'm a good girl really."
"My sources dispute that claim," Bill told her, grinning.
"You'd trust Charlie over me?" Ria asked, in mock hurt.
"Naturally," Bill replied, complacently. "He is, after all, my brother."
"No sibling rivalry in the Weasley family, then," Katie teased.
"Don't count on it," Ria replied. "Some of the letters Charlie gets are awful - the things the twins do to Percy, the poor boy!"
"Ah, Perce loves us really," Bill told her, lightly. "He just needs to lighten up a bit on occasion."
As they were talking, Ria and her nieces followed the three Gringotts employees into a large room with a selection of mismatched yet comfortable seats to chose from. Ria marvelled at how humble an exterior could house such grandeur within, for there was no doubt that some of the items in the room were very valuable antiques. She mentioned this to Katie, who smiled at her.
"You wouldn't believe where we found some of this stuff - when I came out her in '88 there was nothing. Absolutely nothing - Bill was living in some strange hostel, and the goblins were all for Tom and I doing the same. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no snob - I've slummed it with the best of them, but the conditions they expected us to survive in - it was disgusting. So, I suggested we create our own home if the goblins weren't going to help us, and so we did. I think I overheard Bill telling you that the house is a tent for practical reasons, but really it's all financial. We could afford a tent, we couldn't afford a house, and as it turns out, the tent works better than a house would anyway. But the antiques.well, a lot of them we found on Muggle rubbish sites. At first we didn't realise that we'd hit a jackpot - we needed furniture and didn't have enough money to buy brand new stuff - remember that Tom and I had only just left Hogwarts at this point. Then we came across all sorts of bits and pieces that came up as good as new with the aid of a Scouring Charm. The rest, as they say, is history."
3 "Auntie Ri," Claire began, doubtfully, "what's a batique?"
"Batique? Do you mean antique? It's something really old. Grandpa Alex has got lots of antiques. Next time you visit him and Grandma ask him to show them to you."
"Ah, yes, the famous Rutherford family heirlooms," Tom said, causing Ria to look at him strangely. "What? Geoff's told me all about your father's stash, including the singing bijou. Highly amusing, and worth millions according to him." Ria laughed.
"I used to play with that when I was a little girl, you know. Dad always said that it was a wonder it didn't have a nervous breakdowns, the number of songs I forced upon it."
"What's a bijou?" Olivia demanded.
"It's a bottom washer," Ria replied, seriously. "Grandpa can demonstrate for you when he shows you it."
"Sounds like fun," Bill said, dryly. A young local put her head around the door, and Bill nodded at her.
"That was our dinner cue," he told the assorted company. "Let us vacate to the dining room."
"You have a chef?" Ria demanded, incredulously as she sat in the chair Bill held out for her.
"Not quite," Bill replied. "When we're all busy, Elsie does the cooking. She's only sixteen, so really she should be at school, but her parents abandoned her when she was a small child."
"We found her when we were furniture hunting in the slums," Tom added. "You don't want to know what she was doing to stay alive - it made me feel sick. We sort of adopted her. Now she lives with us. When she's served up she'll eat with us too. She does speak English, but she's wary of strangers, and Arabic will always be her first language. She insists on cooking and cleaning in return for our 'kindness' as she puts it."
"I had to give her lessons first though," Katie ploughed in. "Poor kid didn't have a clue how to work an oven, and the slop she produced the first time we let her loose in the kitchen. I'm ever grateful that she's such a quick learner." As if on cue the girl entered again, this time carrying a stack of plates. When they had been distributed she left the room again, and returned with a steaming dish full of some kind of soup, and a large loaf of fresh, crusty bread. At her signal they all tucked in with healthy appetite, Claire and Livvy included.
* * * *
The next morning, Ria was rudely disturbed from pleasant slumbers by someone bouncing on her bed. Mumbling incoherently she fumbled for the light switch, and was not surprised to find her elder niece performing acrobatics in front of her.
"Livvy!" she groaned. "What time is it?"
"Half past seven," Livvy replied, proudly. She had only recently fully mastered the art of reading a watch and was always willing to demonstrate her skill. "Time to get up! Come on Aunt Ri! CLAIRE!!" Livvy yelled for her cousin, who peered around the doorway. "It's okay, she's awake now."
"Good," Claire replied, happily. "Are we going to see the pyramids with Uncle Bill today, Auntie Ri?"
"We can't go anywhere until she's up, silly," Livvy told her. "Help me," Ria was suddenly jerked into a sitting position by two small pairs of hands.
"Okay, okay!" she exclaimed. "Claire, to answer your question, yes we are going to see the pyramids with Uncle Bill today. Or rather, we're going to see one of them. There are a lot of pyramids, you know. But we're not going anywhere at half past seven in the morning when we're still in our pyjamas. Let's go and find breakfast, and we'll worry about the Mummies later."
Ria heaved herself out of bed and into her dressing gown, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she did so, and then followed her nieces - who were far too energetic, considering the time of morning - downstairs.
"Nice PJ's," Tom remarked as she sat down at the table and helped herself to cereal. Ria glanced down at the dancing teddy bears.
"Thank you," she replied, choosing to ignore the humour in his tone. "What are you doing today?"
"Working," he replied. "We can't all be like Bill and skive off, you know, or nothing would ever be done."
"I heard that, and I resent the implication," Bill told him, appearing in the doorway. "I deserve this holiday, and we could hardly leave our guests on their own."
"There are perfectly good tour guides, you know," Katie teased from her end of the table.
"Tour guides?!" Bill sounded horrified. "Have you any idea how they misinform the general public? Besides, they're Muggles, the lot of them. Every time they come past we have to pretend we're on an archaeological dig. It never ceases to amaze me that they don't realise we're not equipped for digging."
* * * *
"So, are we all ready then?" Bill demanded. The four of them - Bill, Ria, Claire and Livvy - were just about to embark on their pyramid trip. The two little girls nodded solemnly, and Ria smiled her assent. "We'd better make use of this again then, hadn't we," Bill told them, unfurling the flying carpet once more, and helping Claire to board it.
They had been on the carpet for a while when Claire and Livvy announced that they were bored. Patiently, Bill explained that the pyramid they were visiting was a long way away. As the scenery was sand, sand and more sand, he suggested that they relieve their boredom by singing, which they did with gusto.
"Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high
There's a land that I dreamt of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow,
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare
To dream really do come true.
Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds
Are far behind me -
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
And way above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can't I?"
Bill looked at Ria inquisitively as the unknown words and melody filled his ears. She smiled to herself.
"It's from the Wizard of Oz," she explained. "They love it, although they think it's unfair that wizards get better Muggle press than witches. Still, you can't have everything, and anything is better than Love is Like a Cruciatus Curse."
"You really don't like Celestina Warbeck, do you?" Ria simply looked at him. "No, I didn't think so. We're nearly there, by the way."
They dismounted ten minutes later, in front of a rather impressive pyramid structure. Ria found the panoramic view quite breathtaking, and even her nieces were speechless for once - a very rare occurrence in their case.
"Wow," Ria breathed. "It's fantastic."
"Why thank you," Bill replied, as if he had been responsible for all of it. Ria hit him playfully, and he responded in kind. Livvy and Claire watched, fascinated, as their Aunt and her friend rolled around in the sand.
"Such a good example you set your nieces," Bill told Ria when they were composed once more. Ria stuck her tongue out at him, making the children giggle at their aunt's apparent lack of decorum.
"Don't be such an old man," she told him. "Now take us into this yellow monstrosity that we might experience the grandeur of a pharaoh's final resting place."
Bill led them into the pyramid at a reasonably slow pace so that Livvy and Claire didn't have to run to keep up. When they were far enough inside that no one other than themselves could hear them, he began to explain Ancient Egypt.
"The first thing you need to understand about these pyramids is that the Egyptians were very religious when they were built, and they emphasised the after life a lot more than the mortal life. What you did in the mortal life would influence where you spent the afterlife, and it was to that end that the pharaohs had such grand pyramids built.
Ancient Egyptian mythology suggests that only the ocean existed at first - there was no land, just sea. Then the Ra, the Sun, came out of an egg that appeared on the surface of the water. Ra had four children, Shu and Keb, who were gods, and Tefnut and Nut, who were goddesses. Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere and they stood on Keb, who became the earth, and raised up Nut, who became the sky. Ra was the big chief type person who ruled over them all. Later, Keb and Nut had two sons - Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris succeeded Ra as the king of the earth, and he was helped by Isis, who became his sister wife. Unfortunately, Set wasn't too keen on his brother, so he killed him. Isis embalmed Osiris' body with the help of Anubis, who thus became the god of embalming. Isis used powerful charms to resurrect Osiris, who became king of the netherworld, the land of the dead. Isis and Osiris' son, Horus, later fought and defeated Set, and became the king of the earth. And that is a pretty simplified version of Ancient Egypt's ideas about creation."
"Cool!" Livvy breathed, ecstatically. "Much more interesting than all of that evocation stuff."
"Evolution, Liv," Ria corrected her, absent-mindedly. "I had no idea that Egyptian myths were so bloody, Bill. In History of Magic, Binns was far too keen on the goblins to go into any great detail about exotic history and culture."
"Ria, even if he had the chances are you wouldn't have taken it in. This is Binns we're talking about here!"
"Who cares about a ghost?" Claire asked, irreverently. "I want to know about pyramids!" Ria stared at her. She was pretty sure that she hadn't been that keen on history when she was six. Still, each to their own, and she supposed that she couldn't complain at the child's thirst for knowledge.
"Pyramids. Well, pyramids were usually built when the Nile flooded - the Nile is the longest river in the world. They built them then because they couldn't farm when the river was flooded. Some people think that the pyramids were built by slaves - forced labour, you know - but that wasn't actually the case. There's no evidence of any type of military authority on the ancient pictures depicting when they were built, and they suggest that the work was not too harsh - hard, yes, but harsh - not really. People would be proud to have a hand in building the pyramids, not only were they for the Pharaoh, who was seen as a sort of living god, but it was also a tomb, and the afterlife was very important to Egyptians. Some of the stone used to make the pyramids came from places hundreds of miles from the building site. It was hauled to the Nile and then floated up the river, before being pulled to its destination. Herodotus - someone who was around at the time - says it took about twenty years to build a pyramid. At the moment we're in the Valley of the Kings, where all the pharaohs were entombed in their pyramids. If you look carefully at the walls when we're moving through the pyramid then you'll be able to see some of the hieroglyphics that were painted when it was built."
Bill turned to shepherd them on, along the way pointing out wall paintings that would be of particular interest to them. Ria was so fascinated by them that she began to relax her guard, and took her eyes of Claire and Olivia for a few minutes to study the pictures. When she looked up again, the others had gone, and she was left alone in a pyramid that she knew nothing about with four possible routes to follow. She shivered. She had been worried that either Claire or Livvy would get lost in the huge monuments. Not for a moment had she considered that perhaps she would be left behind. Her decision to pick a path was probably not the most sensible choice she had ever made, but make it she did.
* * * *
Bill didn't realise that Ria was missing until Livvy bought her absence to his attention. As soon as he learnt of her disappearance, he hastened back in an attempt to find her, but by this time it was too late, and she had already gone. In the end he had no choice but to take the two girls home without their aunt, and then form a search party. The pyramids were perilous places - ancient Egyptian wizards had done a good job on curses, and leaving Ria in one overnight was something that he felt would be a bad idea. Ultimately her survival lay in a race against time, and he could only hope that he, Tom, and Katie could win.
Again, muchas gracias to all and sundry who reviewed the last chapter. There's still the will she won't she factor in this, I'm afraid. And there you all were, thinking I'd stopped with the Which Weasley fiasco. Sorry, but this triangle is just too much fun! *hides as everyone reading mobs her.* LOL And I have to share my lovely beta readers final comment on this with you all - Arabella, you made my day with this one.
'And if Charlie finds out Bill lost his best friend, he'll curse him to the ground!'
Quite right too. Thanks to Andy and Arabella for betaing, the next chapter will be ready soonish - it all depends on what school is like. I was enjoying a lull in homework when I wrote this, but as I'm a genius and take four essay based subjects, there's no guarantee that I won't have hundreds of essays to complete in the near future, especially as 'Progress Tests' are coming up. Believe me, leaving Ria in a curse filled pyramid for three months is not something I want to do, so hopefully it won't happen.
( Hallie