Once again I return my amazing readers! I'm back with my Houses comp round 7 standard fic! You all know the routine: I'm doing this as the Slytherin HOH writer :)

This round was a themed round, and for the standard, we had to use the theme of traveling. Exciting, no? I have also picked the prompt (quote) "The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting" from the Doctor in Doctor Who. I've been on an Egyptian kick recently, so let's go!

Note: MUGGLE AU! Secondary note, I will be using some important finds of the Valley of the Kings and surrounding necropolises as reference for what I have found. I am in no way intending to undermine the achievements of the amazing people who actually made those discoveries, I'm just using them so I don't screw up and write something completely made up.

Word Count: 992

Betas: Aya, Ash Juillet, Dhrish

As the merciless Egyptian sun beat down, Hermione Granger-Weasley wiped a line of sweat off her brow and examined the worksite around her. People milled about busily, both travelers there for a day of sightseeing, and other Egyptologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists going about their jobs.

Hermione was a member of the latter, having dreamed about being an archaeologist ever since she'd seen The Mummy. Despite the fact that she knew that a lot of the information in the movies was wildly inaccurate, she had dragged her then-boyfriend (now-husband) Ron to see it many times.

And at this moment, she had made that dream a reality. This was her first dig season, and she was pulling her hair out because of the limited time she had to accomplish anything. Unlike most of the other archaeologists, she didn't stay primarily on one site; she traveled around to various sites around Egypt and the surrounding countries. She loved it, but the fact that she couldn't stick to one place made making any significant headway in anything difficult.

Currently, she was at one of the most famous sites of all—the Valley of the Kings. She would be here for two weeks before moving on to the nearby Valley of the Queens. Today she had heard from one of the local teams that they might have found a significant find at one of the smaller, unidentified tombs, KV 49. For years, people had theories as to why the tombs were robbed so soon after being sealed, and they might have found evidence that there might have been a great conspiracy to rob the tombs by the Egyptian state in ancient times.

"Hermione, look alive!" said a voice just behind Hermione. Turning, she saw that her best friend and sister-in-law, Ginny Weasley, was the one who had snuck up on her. Like Hermione, Ginny had dreamed of working in Egypt, but her interest had begun during her childhood trip with the rest of her family. Now she was a bigshot archaeologist mainly on the search for lost tombs. "Ahmad is waiting for us at Seti I's tomb. Says he might have something there. Evidence that there was a huge flood there, and that's why there's so much damage."

Hermione's eyes widened in excitement at this news. Seti I's tomb, KV 17, was one of the most elaborately decorated tombs but had survived despite the extreme damage. While it might not have seemed important, information on how the tombs were damaged often proved important as a way to know how to preserve them. "Oh, that's amazing! Let's—" Her face then fell as she realized that she now had two spots that she needed to go to, that were almost on completely opposite sides of the necropolis. "Let's do this. What's the fastest way to do it?"

Ginny let out a laugh which turned into a mischievous smirk. "The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at the sound of this. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Let's go see what some of the other groups are up to, eh? Travel around, have a bit of fun!"

Hermione was about to argue. The discoveries that awaited were extremely important, and she only had a short permit this year. But then she remembered why she had become an archaeologist. She had wanted to travel the world, make discoveries, shape history and science, of course. But she'd also done it because it was just something she loved. She loved learning; she loved Ancient Egyptian culture. No detail was too small nor was it unimportant.

With a sigh, Hermione nodded slowly. Grabbing her dig bag and her hat, she and Ginny headed out into the Valley.

A few hours later, Hermione had finally made it to KV 49, which was the more intriguing discovery in her mind. At the entrance, a local worker was waiting for her to open the metal cover of the tomb.

"Hello, Sadiki," Hermione greeted in rudimentary Arabic. "What did we find?"

As he opened the tomb, Sadiki responded, "We found a ring of Ramses III in here yesterday. We left it where it was in case the location was important."

Hermione's brow crinkled in confusion. "This isn't Ramses' tomb, though."

Sadiki gave her a knowing look. "Exactly."

They made their way into the tomb, which Hermione knew to be an unfinished but standard example of an 18th Dynasty tomb. Sadiki led her to one corner, where, atop a pile of debris, a brilliant blue ring rested. Kneeling down, Hermione picked the ring up and examined it.

"This is from Ramses III, all right," Hermione confirmed. "I want to go over to KV11 to make sure tomorrow, but I'm almost positive."

"So what does that mean?" Sadiki asked.

"Well..." Hermione considered the question. "It firmly confirms the theory that there was a tomb robbery conspiracy going on, and this tomb was used. My theory is that the people involved brought Ramses' body here, unwrapped it, and took out all of the valuables within the cloth, before rewrapping the mummy. This ring must have fallen out of those wrappings or off of the mummy's fingers."

Sadiki nodded in awe at this, and Hermione wasn't much better. It was an amazing find, after all. She had finally made a discovery worthy of the amazing location she had come to.

That evening, as Hermione was heading back, she saw Ginny up ahead and called to her. "Gin! Hey, guess what!"

Ginny turned around and looked in anticipation as to Hermione's answer. "Heard you went to 49 today. What'd you find?"

Grinning, Hermione said, "A ring. From Ramses III." Ginny's reaction was just as she'd expected. "Right?"

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, right." Then she grinned in return. "Guess that little sightseeing tour of the valley we had gave you some luck, huh?"

"More than you know," Hermione responded.