Authors Note: Sorry about the wait on the update, guys, I know it's been a long time. I had to sort some things out before I could keep going with this fanfic. The ending is written, so now I need to take this story from where it is to where it's going. It may take a while, but I will not abandon this fic. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the reviews.

Chapter 5

Harry and Ginny were awake early the next morning, finding Charlie asleep in the window seat. It was obvious that he hadn't been able to sleep. His clothes were still on, his hair flat except where he had been running his fingers through it. He was snoring softly, and Ginny had to repress giggles when she thought of the way Bill complained when he REALLY got going.

With a careful shake and a shield charm, they woke the errant Weasley up. Charlie shook the kinks out of his neck, and they went down to the lobby for breakfast. The made it halfway down the stairs before Harry shouted 'OW!' A small, feathery tennis ball had once more connected with his head.

"Abandon operation. Meet central meeting point. New information. Urgent." –The eldest

The three of them stood up, left a large wad of Muggle money to make up for the fact they didn't even stick around for their food to arrive, and began making the jumps across countries to make it to Egypt. Less then three hours later, after many stops at various checkpoints, they found themselves in front of Gringotts, Cairo.

"Now what do we do?" Ginny asked, looking at the building with no small amount of distrust. "We don't know who might be watching for us."

Harry shook his head. "We'll have to send an owl. Set us up in a Muggle Hotel, and we look like tourists. Hopefully no one of the wrong sort will notice us." Charlie nodded.

"Sounds like a plan. I need something to eat anyway." Ginny, despite her exhaustion, giggled at her brother. "You always need something to eat." When Charlie elbowed her, she turned abruptly green and frantically ran around the building into the shade, where she proceeded to throw up the chocolate frog and half a pumpkin pasty she had grabbed at one of the checkpoints.

Harry looked alarmed, and held her hair back as she retched. She finished, wiped her mouth, and gave him a slightly watery smile. "I think we're fine now. Can we go get something to drink?" Charlie looked at his sister suspiciously, and led the way to a little café he liked to visit when he came to visit Bill.

"You sure you don't need a lie-down or something? You've been looking ill since we left England," he asked his baby sister.

"It must have been the heat or something. I'm fine. Can we eat?" Ginny changed the subject, and Charlie gave up. No one could pry anything out of her when she decided to keep it to herself, not even Harry. She opened the menu, and quickly ordered a salad and a cold butterbeer, declining some of the more… erm… interesting choices as her fiancé and brother began to put away large amounts of food.

Still a bit dubious, Charlie led the way to a small postal outlet right at the edge of the street. Carefully shielding from the outside, he tapped the wall three times with his wand and leaned on it. He disappeared before quickly arriving back.

"We can't send an owl, either. Hermione's charmed, remember? Chances are Bill's warded the entire place." Frustrated, he sat down. "We're close. So close I can FEEL it, but I don't know what to do."

"Do you think Bill's told them what's happening?" Ginny asked suddenly.

"Probably not. He said the goblins don't encourage a lot of familiarity. Makes it harder for them to encourage stupid risks, most likely," Harry said disparagingly.

"Then all we need to do is send one of us into the bank and ask for Bill's address. We can tell them we have grave news from home, news that can't be told in a letter. Even if they check it out, they'll find we're telling the truth!" Ginny said excitedly, the wan look on her face starting to fade as she ate.

Harry and Charlie shared another one of the glances that were starting to drive Ginny batty.

"It's going to be me, you know. After all, Harry's obvious and Charlie just looks dangerous. Who better then a sweet, innocent baby sister that needs her big brother's protection?" She gave her best sweet and harmless look, and without even giving them a chance to argue she walked out of the post office, up the street and into Gringotts. All Harry and Charlie could do was wait, and wonder.

The goblin Ginny spoke to was surprisingly sympathetic, and that was enough to put her on her guard. Since when did goblins care about anything except money? He left her in a little room off to the side, and suddenly reappeared with Bill.

Ginny threw herself at her brother like the horribly distraught female she was pretending to be, only to recoil at the feeling. This wasn't Bill. This was someone else, someone who smelled and felt Weasley but was magically off.

"I was open with you. Where the hell is my brother? And WHY did you send me a Polyjuiced impostor?" She let her brown eyes grow wide, and managed some very convincing tears.

"I knew I shouldn't have come when the owl came back. Something's happened to my brother, hasn't it? I've been out of the country, and now I can't FIND him. This was my last hope. I don't have anywhere…" she broke into wet, noisy sobs, and the would be Bill Disapparated with a pop.

Less then five minutes later, a head was poking out of the floo connection in the goblin's office.

"Prove to me you're Ginny Weasley," the voice commanded quickly. Ginny grinned. "I once painted your bedroom bright pink, without magic." The figure nodded once, and disappeared. Ten minutes later, while Charlie and Harry were attempting to figure out how to charge the bank without being killed by hundreds of goblins, Bill strode in the doors. He was dusty, and had most of his curse breaking equipment still around his waist.

"Prove to me you're Bill Weasley," Ginny echoed as soon as he walked in the door. "You're real name isn't Virginia, it's Ginevra, and I was the one who helped you learn how to spell it." Ginny nodded.

"Come with me. I have some news, and it's not good," Ginny said to him for the benefit of the listening goblins.

"Why? What happened now?" Bill asked innocently. He wasn't quite sure what tack his sister had used to get the goblins to summon him out of the tomb instead of using his doppelganger, but apparently she had been convincing. He had hoped they would find a way of getting all of them into Cairo without notice. At least they had the sense to keep the more dangerous ones hidden.

They nearly ran into Charlie and Harry as they were preparing to go in, wands drawn and faces set.

"Put those away, you idiots!" Bill hissed as they casually walked by the two would be rescuers. Sheepishly, the wands were tucked away and they strolled over to an alley. Bill passed out three slips of paper.

"Fidelius charm. 'Mione and I are even better hidden then the goblins could make us. Read, burn, Apparate. Understood?" The three nodded, after reading the co-ordinates and committing them to memory they burned the slips and tucked the ashes into their pockets.

They landed in the middle of the desert, with a single door standing apparently all by itself in the sand.

Bill arrived right behind them. "It's safe, just go, and quickly. We need to hide the door."

Several hours later, the exhausted group left the now severely battered piece of paper on the table, and crashed in hastily conjured sleeping bags jammed into every available space. To deflect any suspicion, Bill and Hermione would arrive at their respective positions the next day and the others would stay at the flat, using Hermione's library to find everything they could on brainwashing and resurrection spells. After all, as far as anyone knew Harry, Ginny and Charlie were just passing on news from home.

Hermione arrived at her designated meeting point, and glared at her guide to the tombs. Bill tried to keep from any nervous fidgeting, but the way his new wife was casually stroking her wand was making it very difficult.

"I'm sorry, I thought it would be funny?" he offered with his very best please-don't-hurt-me smile.

"Did you think I might possibly have NOT wanted to make a fool out of myself?" Hermione said, her voice going condescending. "Or did you think at all?"

Bill winced. "May I show you to the tomb, milady? I promise not to make a vocal translation while your head is in range." He had to repress a grin as his wife motioned in front of her.

"Carry on. It's bloody hot out here and we have better things to be doing as it is." Bill nodded, and managed to hold back the grin the frosty tone inspired until she was behind him and couldn't see it on his face. Sadly, though, he missed the grin that spread across hers the second he couldn't see her.

When they reached the tomb, Hermione stroked the glyphs with reverence that edged on worship. She took out her paper and charcoal, and, forsaking her wand, made a rubbing that she could lie flat on the floor.

"Ten lions in a pride

Some may live and some have died

Lions to kittens weak and lost

Cubs to be born to lioness cost

Many waking in their turn

Many sleeping, many burn

Secrets kept here win the battle

Words said here forever rattle

For this battle to be won at all

The Pride of Lions must forever fall"

"It sounds like a prophecy," Bill said flatly.

Hermione grinned at him. "All the ancient Egyptians thought they were prophets. You should know this by now. This could be the saga of a family, it could tell us what's going in a thousand years. We won't know until when or if it comes to pass. For all we know, it could have already happened and this has sat here without anyone knowing about it. It doesn't say anything about the traps or the treasures. It could be that the secrets it's talking about are the only thing in it."

"The goblins won't be happy. I've spent three weeks on this place." Bill pulled out his ponytail holder, shook out his hair, and then pulled his hair back again.

"Do you have a camp set up? I had expected this to be a lot harder. They don't usually call us in until its so archaic even translation spells are tricky. The only way this one would have been easier was if it was written in English."

"Why don't we go home for lunch? Then you can have a lie-down and I can head to Cairo to explain what's going on. I'll need to go hunting for the secrets later, but I think we've had a good morning worth of work.

"I'll take a lie-down when and if I need one. Honestly, the way you lot are acting anyone would think I'm the first woman having a baby." She smiled at him anyway, and casually slid her hand into his, interlacing her fingers with his. Together, they found the door and went home.