The temple of the Snake Eyed King

Once he was gone Arundel did cry, through frustration and anger at herself, and then she had an overwhelming need to be alone. She couldn't spend another night with Severus, as he gently probed her for reasons why she was so cold, and in finding none would find fault in himself. She wished their relationship was a decade old and they were more comforted by a cup of tea and a crossword than each others bodies, she wished it wasn't so hard to constantly have to preempt or second guess what somebody was thinking. That's why she learned to read minds in the first place; because she was too lazy to guess. She dried her hair, pulled on her old clothes and decided to leave Snape a message. It was hard to compose, and in her head, the first three attempts were overly long or sounded needy and made her feel more disgusting than she already did. Eventually, she settled for. I'll be back before Tuesday. Which was ok, wasn't it? Nothing there to upset, or over think. No apology or explanation too and perhaps Snape needed that, but she didn't want to give it. She couldn't, not yet at least.

In her own room, deep in her travel case she stood in front of the only picture hanging on the wall and tapped the frame. "Amber," she called. "Amber?" The picture, which was a blank background, filled with the face of a younger girl with beautiful green-black eyes and long black hair. She was wearing a dark dress, and she smiled.

"It's late here," the girl said.

"Amber where's here?" Arundel asked, her voice exasperated.

"Thebes."

"Really?" Arun sighed.

"Oh yes," the portrait smiled. "Are you coming to see us?"

"I want to, but only if it's safe to."

"It's never safe."

"Can I come anyway?"

The painting shrugged. "I'll ask," she disappeared. Arun passed back and forth, packing clothes into a bag along with money. She kept checking, kept glancing at the picture, and realised as she paced she chewed her lip. She'd never felt so desperate.

"Ok." Arun looked up, the painting was back. "But be quick about it," and the girl in the picture turned and walked away, a tunnel formed and grew until Arun could follow her. As she walked in this dark corridor she had a sensation like her stomach was falling away from her body but over and over and then a blast of hot air shrunk her skin and she looked around at the inside of a very lavishly decorated bedouin tent, hung with lanterns which cast green and purple light around the room. "Amber?" Arundel called, and from a mass of blankets a black-haired woman, older than her portrait and five years senior to Arundel sat up.

"Hello, sis."

"Thank you for letting me stay," she said and then burst into tears.

"That time of the month is it?" her sister sniggered, which didn't help, but she did get up and pull Arundel into a tight hug. "Hi," she said again and held Arundel at arm's length. "What's up?"

Arundel shrugged, her big sister turned from her and waved her wand to get water heating for a cup of tea. "You've caught me on the move," she said. "I'm actually on the outskirts of Thebes, last night I was attacked at my hotel by James Deacon and his people. Whatever I do to keep one step ahead, they are always there," she rolled her eyes. "They won't find me here. This tent's hidden inside a rock in the middle of the desert. Come on. Sit down." Amber motioned for Arun to take a round puff of a seat, and she poured loose leaf tea for her and sat opposite. "So you're in trouble of your own then?" Amber asked.

"I'm just…. Yeah." Arun puffed out her cheeks, "Why do you always assume if I'm upset it's 'that time of the month'"

"Because," her sister pushed a long lock of hair behind her shoulder, "it usually is. Four weeks out of every five you're a stone-cold killer."

"Well I'm weeks away, and not enjoying this conversation."

"Well, I'm awake and worrying about my sister, who seems to have come to talk, but can't find the words to start." Amber sipped warm tea and studied her over the cup. "Men," she concluded, and Arun realised her sister had got even better at mindreading.

"You… Sis!" she whined.

"Don't worry, I didn't see anything more than a feeling."

"You Saw The feeling of men?" She turned that one round in her mouth, there was no way that it made sense.

Her sisters smile spread.

"It's not…" she trailed off. "I've got myself into a situation."

Her sister leaned forward, her mouth in a humorous pout, "Your last 'situation' got somebody killed. You're not pregnant, are you?"

"What? No! But this might be as bad as..."

"Oh." Amber set the teacup down no longer joking, "Do you want to speak to me or show me?" She tapped the side of her head.

"I'll speak. I think I need to hear myself." Arun told her sister, "Though you can't help me really, I just need to talk to somebody I trust."

Amber's mouth twitched, the way it did when somebody told her something that made her heart skip but on her sideboard, something started to spin, and both girls turned to look. "Your story may have to wait. We're about to be attacked."

Three loud pops smacked the air. Light filled the tent with the crack of a whip and curses were screamed. Arundel reacted with the instincts of a person who had spent her whole adult life fighting. She conjured a protective shield in the air, whilst her sister fired a string of powerful, voiceless magic. The first attacker was disarmed, Arundel finished him off with a horrible curse that broke every bone in his body and then folded him inside out and transfigured him into a doormat. The second fell by her sister's hand, but there were more pops sounding. Arundel grabbed her bag. Her sister tore the painting from the wall and snatched a bag of her own, then grabbed Arundel and apparated them.

They appeared practically noiselessly, into the middle of a hot dark desert. Amber checked her body for damage, "My tent!" she spat, "Those bastards!" her night clothes were ripped and the rest were left behind. "We can't stop here," she told Arun, "We'll go back to Thebes, I know a muggle place they won't look," then without ceremony she grabbed her sister again and they popped into the middle of an empty street in Luxor. "Damn," she muttered. "Thought it would be packed."

"It's past midnight."

Amber slapped her hands against her sides and curled the corner of her mouth, "Come on," she muttered.

By the Nile river was a hotel called the Pharaoh, it had four steps leading up to its double doors with two fake fire torches either side. The doors were painted fake gold and when Amber waved her wand they opened into a dark entrance hall. Inside was dingy, it would have once been lavish but it hadn't been decorated since the twenties and it didn't look like it had been cleaned either. The receptionist looked up, Amber waved her wand in his direction, "Go back to sleep" she commanded and his head fell back down. Another swish of her wand and a key levitated from the backboard into her hand. They took the stairs two at a time and entered a room with green carpeted walls.

Arundel cringed, "Who puts carpet on walls?"

"Muggles who want soundproofing," her sister laughed as she flicked on a light and closed the curtains. "This room has seen a thousand depraved acts I'm sure, help me set wards."

Ten minutes later they sat on the single bed together looking through their packs. Amber had a change of clothes, maps, a book, the painting and some money but she was upset about losing her tent. "Everything I need in my bag," she sighed. "But that tent was great."

"Everything? Really?"

"Really," her sister echoed but the happiness was gone from her voice. "They found me again. Deacon must be tracking me somehow."

"Why's he following you?"

"Because of the map," she motioned to the yellowed paper on the bed between them. "James is a treasure hunter just like you. Strangely, he doesn't like being seduced and having his effects stolen. He's furious with me." Amber's teeth were perfect pearly white when she smiled, "So angry actually that he'll kill to get it back," her smile fell. "It's not personal, he owes people and they will hurt him if he doesn't get to the treasure before me."

"Why are you treasure hunting? You study Old Magic you were never one for Tomb Cracking."

"If I find the Temple of the Snake Eyed King I find the oldest known record of parseltongue being worshipped. I find an unadulterated historical record." she leant forward. "Think about the implications. Those treasures must not go to the hands of private collectors."

This was where Arundel and Amber's relationship drew a line, and though both were adept at walking it and frequently helped each other out the line still existed. "I…" Arundel looked away. "I won't get in your way."

"Good, because James Deacon is exactly the kind of person you would slip off your seat for and I don't want you around to stab me in the back."

"I'm not one for seconds."

Amber grinned and settled against the backboard of the bed. "Why are you here Arun?"

Arundel bit her lip, "This might take a while to tell."

"We have all night, hopefully."

"Two years ago I was contacted by a wizard called Harold Kirk who lives in New York, who said he was a collector of rare artefacts and he paid me handsomely to locate something called the Grants Artifact. He gave me enough research to spark my interest and I travelled down to the southern states and started to hunt through reports of haunted houses and awful killings until I finally found what I was looking for. In a house in some swamp in Florida, that must have once housed a wizarding family but was left to decay. As soon as I walked in the door I was fighting apparitions, visions, the whole house seemed to want to kill me. The doors locked and I had to blast through them, the walls expanded or contracted, ghostly apparitions attacked me with anything not pinned down and I found the house littered with corpses of people who had come before me and their ghosts attacked with frightening strength."

"That's horrible."

"Eventually I found the artefact, it was a small black kettle hidden up a chimney. As soon as I held it in my hands everything went still, but I'd never felt so powerful. I did my job and returned to Harold Kirk, I got my money and I moved on, but a month later he called me back and this time met me with a man called Mr Lace, I don't know his first name, but Mr Lace was a fellow from a society, and he made it known to me that they had requested me personally because of my dealings with the Dark Lord in England. He said they felt I could be trusted to act with discretion and then told me that there were seven Artifacts in total and he wanted them all."

"Did he say why?" Amber asked, sitting forward a little.

"No, and I went away dutifully, greedy, and secured another one for him, but this time I was curious. I researched and through my research found out the power of these artefacts and then I grew afraid. By the time I truly realised the implications Lace and Kirk had four of the artefacts. I secured the fifth but I didn't deliver, and I came to England where my research suggested the last two are hidden."

"And like James Deacon they are now coming for you?"

"I went to the Aura's but they told me to piss off, I saw Dumbledore and he wouldn't buy it but he offered me a job. Then I just flitted around for a bit trying to work out what to do next. I was over at Narcissa's and-" Arundel's sister rolled her eyes. Narcissa and Amber had a cold friendship but there was some respect there, though begrudging. "I was at Cisy's and they tried to set me back up with Severus."

Now her sister gawfed, "Some friends-" she left it hanging but Arundel didn't join in. "Oh," Amber muttered.

"Severus mentioned hauntings at Hogwarts. Hauntings that were so bad he's had to move Slytherin's common room out of the dungeons. I travelled to Hogwarts as soon as I'd put my artefact in my vault and I took Dumbledore up on his job offer."

"So now you're a professor?" her sister wondered. "And I suppose you couldn't keep away from Snape?" she pulled her hair over her shoulder. "I don't know why you're bothering to pretend to be a teacher, all you need to do is get the artefact and hide it, "

"If I do that, I'll be running for the rest of my life."

"What are you going to do then?"

Arundel shrugged.

"So, with all this going on, why did I see boyfriend trou-"

"Not my boyfriend."

Amber chuckled.

"But you want him, don't you?"

"I really want him, and he's been so lovely but I can't…" she couldn't get the words out, but the feeling of humiliation and shame overwhelmed her and her sister sat back with her eyebrows raised.

"What the hell?" she muttered. "Where did that come from? It's like...like drowning."

"It shouldn't feel like that right? It should be exciting."

"Yeah it should, it should feel exhilarating not, not whatever this is. It's like a revulsion."

"He said to me, 'I wish I could stop you from hating yourself.'"

"When he touches you?" her sister asked. "Does it make you happy?"

"It makes me sick," Arundel blinked. She shivered, despite the heat, and felt hot tears roll down her cheeks. "What's wrong with me? I like him so much it hurts and yet when he touches me I feel sick."

Amber shook her head, "Perhaps you don't like him that much."

"That's what I told myself before, but I've slept with seventeen other people in the time I've- what?"

"Seventeen," Amber spat. "One Seven? Seventeen?"

Arun winced.

"Oh sis," Amber held her hand up to her mouth, "Different people?"

"Yes," Arun started to get defensive. "It's not hard to do you know, you go to a bar and you find somebody you think you can stand and you smile," she pretended to smile, "And you ask them about themselves, and you lay your hand on their arm," she tilted her head and lay her hand on her sisters arm. "And eventually they think you love them and they are flattered and the talk gets a bit dirty and you get closer and they suggest their flat or the park or the, fuck, the toilets and its over and you never see them again. And for a little while you think things like 'I've still got it,' and then you feel a bit hollow, so you go shopping and you move to a different country and you take a few jobs and remember a time when you were with a man who made you laugh, who talked to you for hours about potions and hexes and politics and people and whom you left because, ultimately, every time he touched you, you felt like you were filthy."

"Some people like that feeling."

"I hate it."

"But you've had a relationship with somebody since. That Faro guy."

"Yes, but he was-" Arun shrugged. "Well, he's dead now so I'll say he was amazing and I was happy."

"You were bored."

Arun shrugged. "It's all too much at once. Snape knows about the artefacts and he'll want to help and I can't-" she paused. "I can't."

Amber cupped Arun's face in her hands and squeezed her cheeks together. "Snape," she said, as if talking to a child, "Is not as important as your safety."

"He said to me 'you know you're safe with me.' what's that even supposed to mean? What does he think happened to me?"

Amber blinked, "You're joking right?"

"Yes, but why would I be safe with him? I'm not safe anywhere."

"I don't think he meant it like that."

Arundel opened her mouth to protest and closed it again.

"I think he meant you don't need to worry about him hurting you."

Arun tilted her chin, "I don't."

Amber's smile was quite sad, she reached over and hugged her sister, "Love ya sis." she squeezed, and Arundel closed her eyes and didn't want to let go, but her sister pulled away. "I'm going to go to the Egyptian Old Magic Society to research destroying the Artefacts, I'll do it as a side project." she smiled. "And you get that one in Hogwarts and put it somewhere safe, then get yourself somewhere safe too."

"Where is safer than Hogwarts?"

Amber shrugged, "The less I know the better, I find that as soon as I start prying people take notice so…" she shrugged. "Does he know how you feel?"

"No."

"Maybe it's best if you don't tell him."

"What's wrong with me?"

Amber shook her head, she had no idea what to say. So much for big sisters having all the answers. "Seventeen," she said again.

"Oh, come on, you've had your fair share."

Amber looked offended, "Four," she said. "And I regret three of them. I didn't even lose my virginity until I was twenty two."

Arun gawped, she hadn't expected that.