Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
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The clamor Quirinius was making was to attract the Inferius, and only a few minutes passed before it arrived.
It was an ugly sight to behold. It's left leg was completely limp and it's right leg was at an odd angle. All the flesh had dripped off the arms so that they were only bone. The Inferius's once ebony skin had grayed significantly. Most of it's hair was missing, but what hair was still there fell down to the creature's shoulders. Its teeth were almost completely blackened, and its eyes seemed larger than natural, but were devoid of all humanity. It looked like a Muggle's worst idea of a zombie.
The protective enchantments down, the Inferius entered the campsite untroubled. Quirinius kept up the caterwauling charm to draw the Inferius closer to him.
The creature's eyes swept over the entire compound, but it couldn't develop an interest in the other wizards it sensed hiding in the buildings with Quirinius just ahead of him and making that racket.
It started moving faster, worried that Quirinius might get away and the Inferius would have to find an easier meal. But Quirinius stood his ground, challenging the Inferius further and further. Quirinius was just out of arm's reach when he lifted the caterwauling charm.
For a second, only the echo of the caterwauling charm and the soft moaning of the Inferius remained. It was eerily quiet, and Quirinius broke it, when he shouted, "Now! Diffindo!"
Bill had leaped from his hiding spot between Quirinius's "Now!" and his "Diffindo!" and seized the Inferius from behind. This was the moment all three of them had been fearing, as the spell was meant to decapitate the beast, but it would narrowly miss Bill. Time was crucial though, as Bill dragged the body away from its falling head to avoid them reconnecting. He shoved the body in the pit they'd dug and Asima wasted no time in filling it in.
The head of the Inferius rolled around, growling madly. Quirinius lifted his wand once again and shouted, "Confringo!" and the head let out one last cry of anguish before it erupted in flames and burnt to nothing.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and it had been executed perfectly. Bill let out a celebratory whoop and seized Asima in a tight embrace before he quickly let her go, remembering her true identity.
Quirinius let loose a heavy sigh as the nomads clambered out of the buildings to rush towards him. They tugged at his robes and made what were clearly shouts of praise.
"I think you've got a new fan club, Q," Bill called as he stepped forward.
Asima headed for the medical tent. "I should be able to heal the boy's cursed wounds now."
The Prince of the Purple Tribe stepped forward and said in broken English, "You will stay the night, and the map leads to Golden Lotus; the map is yours. And take this turban in thanks," and he placed a purple cloth over Quirinius's head and magicked it into a turban for him. Quirinius, at this point, was looking extremely awkward.
He leaned over to Bill and whispered, "What am I ever going to need a turban for?"
Bill shrugged. "You're covered if you ever get an ugly wart on the back of your head."
The Prince pulled a wooden chest from his robes and opened it, revealing rolled up papyrus and offering it to Bill. Bill gingerly lifted it out and rolled it open. There it was. Written in Ancient Runes was the sign for Sphynx, and beyond that, River, and beyond that, the sign for the Golden Lotus.
And it was just north of Minya.
"It's north of Minya," Bill said, breathing heavily. "It's right here. We can go there tonight. Our assignment will be over."
Bill had scarcely spoken these words when a bright jet of light blasted over his head and hit the medical tent. The whole tent erupted in flames with Asima inside.
Bill could feel the heat from the fire on his face but didn't want to believe it. The nomads were already scattering back, seeking shelter from this new danger. Bill tried to run forward to see if Asima was out of the flames, but there was no way she could've survived.
It occured to Bill that Quirinius was holding him back. The thought calmed him down enough to think straight; Asima was dead. She couldn't have survived that curse.
Bill turned to face the new enemy and realized their mistake; they hadn't put the protective enchantments back up.
Before them was a man dressed in flowing, white robes, with a long black beard and dark eyes. Something told him it could only be Riyasat al'Misri, the Dark Wizard after the Lotus. And Asima's father.
"Burn the campsite," al'Misri said, in English for Bill and Quirinius's benefit.
"No!" shouted Bill, and he turned and flung the papyrus map as hard as he could into the flames.
"No!" shouted al'Misri, this time in Arabic. "Grab it! Don't let it burn!"
Several of his followers ran forward, but the flames were too strong and it was already too late. Bill and Quirinius were seized from behind and held tight.
"The Lotus is lost forever!" al'Misri shouted in Bill's face.
"No, it's not," Bill spat back, and Quirinius looked at him in shock, looking still more absurd in his purple turban.
"I know where it is," Bill said, "and I'll show you."
"Bill, no!" hissed Quirinius, but the wizard holding him just gripped him around the neck so he couldn't speak.
"But only if we leave now, and you don't hurt these people," Bill said.
Al'Misri gave Bill a piercing look. "I see," he said. "An honorable man." He drew his wand and placed it on Bill's exposed throat like a knife. "I was never one for honor and all that nonsense. There is only power. Honor and glory mean nothing compared to who simply makes the rules."
"Then no deal," said Bill. "You kill us now, and then no one will ever find the Lotus."
"I could get it out of you," said al'Misri, turning his wand instead on Quirinius. "An honorable man such as yourself may rather give up the location than watch your companion suffer."
The wizard holding Quirinius loosened his grip a little just long enough for Quirinius to say, "Don't do it, Bill!"
Al'Misri turned his evil gaze onto Quirinius. "I sense a great destiny about you, Quirinius Quirrell. Your study of the Dark Arts will reveal the true nature of the world to you and you will be a great tool for Dark Magic."
Quirinius's eyes met al'Misri's with defiance. "Don't try to tempt me."
"I won't," al'Misri said, "but don't forget what I have told you." He turned back to Bill. "Alright, we'll have it your way. We will leave this village, and you will lead the way to the Golden Lotus."
Bill and Quirinius were released, but their wands were taken so they couldn't Apparate. They were forced at wand point onto a large flying carpet just outside the campsite's boundaries.
The twenty or so dark wizards joined them and the carpet lifted off.
"Well, man of honor," said al'Misri. "Where are we going?"
Bill said, "There's a Sphynx somewhere north of Minya, a city on the Nile. Beyond it is the Lotus."
Al'Misri barked something in Arabic and the carpet flew off.
They were surrounded by Dark Wizards, so Bill couldn't formulate a plan with Quirinius, but that didn't stop his mind from working furiously.
A thought occurred to him, and he wondered if it would work. It would involve quicker moving than the trap for the Inferius, and Bill wondered if it was possible at all.
The feeling that Bill had back at the tomb where he was getting the Heart of the Nile came back to him; the feeling that death was coming ever closer.
Bill wondered if dying itself hurt. If his plan went wrong, then certainly the method by which he would die would hurt a lot, but he couldn't help but wonder what death would feel like.
He hoped he wouldn't find out.
It was in the early hours of morning when the carpet landed in the desert. Bill could hear the Nile River flowing just out of sight. The dark wizards in league with al'Misri lit their wands and illuminated the area ahead of them.
"A sphynx, did you say?" came a voice from behind Bill, and he didn't have to turn around to know it was al'Misri.
"Yep," said Bill, "and I see it too."
It was true, up ahead, just before the water's edge, was a sphynx. It had the face of a fair woman and the powerful body of a lioness.
"I'm guessing you want me to answer the riddle," Bill said, taking a closer step backwards to al'Misri and brushing up against the wizard's robes.
"Better you than us," al'Misri grunted, and he shoved Bill and Quirinius forward.
The two wizards edged closer to the sphynx, which gave them a look with very knowing eyes.
"You are very near your goal," she said. "The only way is past me."
Bill smirked. "So move."
The sphynx shook her head. "No. Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess- I let you pass. Answer wrongly- I attack. Remain silent- I will let you walk away from me unscathed."
Bill nodded. This wasn't his first sphynx, and he'd heard the exact same instructions before. "Alright, let's hear the riddle, then."
"First think of something that lives when it is fed
but when you water it, it will be dead.
Then, using that word, think of what you can no longer do
After that word had happened to you.
Put the two of them together and I want you to say
What goes up, then out, then fades away."
Quirinius turned to Bill. "The first part, it's a desert animal of some sort."
Bill arched an eyebraw. "How do you figure?"
"It's fed, right? It requires food, but it's dangerous for it to get wet!"
"There's only one creature I can think of where it is truly dangerous for it to get wet," said Bill. "Come on, you said you were gonna be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. You should know this."
Quirinius's eyes darted back and forth as if he was reading the D.A.D.A curriculum from memory. Bill saw a flash of light that might have been comprehension when Quirinius said slowly, "Salamander?"
"That's right, Q" said Bill. "Salamanders can't get wet."
Quirinius was still confused. "But the second part. You're not able to do something after a Salamander has happened to you?"
"You're getting ahead of yourself, Q," said Bill. "Think about it for a second. Why can't Salamanders get wet?"
Quirinius thought for only a second, then answered slowly, "Because they're made of fire?"
"Yes, exactly," said Bill. "You can feed a fire, but you can't water a fire."
Comprehension lit up on Quirinius's face quickly after that. "And when you're fired, you can't work anymore!"
"And something that goes up, out, then fades away," said Bill,
"Is a firework!" they both said together.
Quirinius turned to the sphynx to give them the answer, but Bill clapped his hand over his mouth.
"An ear of corn!" he said loudly.
The sphynx gave him a questioning look. Then, rearing back on her hindlegs, she said, "Wrong answer," and she pounced.
Bill had been afraid of this moment, and knew so much depended on his speed now. He drew his wand and quickly thought, "Protego!"
The sphynx hit his shield charm and cartwheeled over him, and her teeth and claws landed instead on the Dark Wizards standing behind Bill and Quirinius.
Bill handed Quirinius's wand, which he had swiped from al'Misri's robes (along with his own) when he'd backed into him after they'd landed, back to Quirnius. Then, ignoring Quirinius's bewildered expression, Bill hurried Quirinius into a boat the sphynx was guarding and pushed off the shore.
Al'Misri managed to get the sphynx off with a Killing Curse. The attack had lasted only a moment, but his numbers had already dwindled to just a few others. It didn't matter. After he got the Lotus, he'd have hundreds of followers.
First, he had to kill that meddlesome cursebreaker.
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A/N: Before anyone asks, yes the sphynx's lines before the riddle were word for word from Goblet of Fire.