Love and Thanks to all those who reviewed: XXXmeggie-loves-to-readXXX, lunapeacock, KCornish13, euphoenix, frostykitten, SaruDM, Amy, Lovewithoutexpectation, Sundance1989, whathappenedtotruelove, lilbuddie715, Missdagane, roseweasley85, anonymous, ainat92, x-rayLady, rachel and TheInnerMusingsOfMe.

You guys are awesome, donut-points for all of you for sticking along so far! We are officially more than halfway done with this story.

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Okay, Disclaimer: I have never been to Egypt and I apologize if i have gotten any details wrong about the cities/culture/languages/people. Please do not be put off by any mistakes you may find as offence was not my intention.

And now, to the chapter...

Chapter 13:

"So….it's Oasis hotel right?"

"Yup. I would have preferred a wizarding institution of course. Interaction with muggles tends to get messy," Scorpius said, checking the map in his hands.

"Well, you clearly have a lot of friends…" Rose muttered under her breath. Honestly, interaction with muggles tended to get 'messy'? Were all his friends wizards?

"It's on Cairo-Alexandria desert road. Now where the fuck is that?"

Rose turned to examine the map. "Umm, it's about twenty kilometers from here….Crap! It's twenty kilometers from here! How are we supposed to get there?"

Rose looked helplessly around the busy street. There were cars with 'taxi' signs zooming around, picking up passengers every few minutes. She'd never actually used muggle transportation. Back in England, if she'd ever been unable to apparate, she'd just walked or taken the knight bus.

Rose shielded her eyes and looked up at the pyramids, towering over the city skyline. It really was amazing how you could see them even behind all the metal and glass structures the city was made of.

She turned to Scorpius, noting that he was looking towards the pyramids as well. "We could take a cab…" she suggested half-heartedly. Scorpius turned his gaze to her. "Screw that, I'm apparating."

"Scorp! You can't apparate to a place you've never been before! What if you end up in a wall or in someone's house or something? We did this in school, remember! It was one of the first things they taught us in apparition lessons, right after the three Ds and I really think you ought to-"

Scorpius rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm. "Don't be such a worrywart. I'm sure we'll be fine. Trunks still in your pocket?"

Rose patted her coat pocket, feeling the bump made by her shrunken luggage. "Yeah…"

"Good." He twisted on the spot, enveloping them in darkness. They reappeared with a sharp crack, layers of dust flying over them.

Rose coughed and tried to move away, banging her head against something hard. It was completely dark around them. "Oh my God!" she breathed, panic creeping in. "We are inside a wall! You've killed us, you prat!"

Even in the dark, she could sense Scorpius' disdain. "Don't be stupid, if we were inside a wall, we'd be crushed-"

A blinding light hit them as a door was flung open, revealing a large silhouette.

"من أنت؟"

"Sorry, what?" Rose said dumbly.

The swarthy man glared at her, looking completely outraged. "Who are you?" he tried again.

"Ah! Oh. Umm, I don't know, who are you?" Rose said nervously, elbowing Scorpius in the side. He hissed in pain, elbowing her back.

"Prat!"

"Pardon?" The man said.

"Uhm, nothing. Could you tell us where we are?"

"Yes," the man glowered at them both, hoisting up the apron around his waist in indignation. "You are in my shop, hiding in my cabbages. Why is this?"

"Erm-" Rose floundered for a reply. They were where?

"We're very sorry," Scorpius said, cutting in. "The lady needed to adjust her attire and we didn't want to do it in the shop lest we scare the customers."

He smiled winningly at the man, who grunted in response. "And you were helping her? Lucky man. Very well, be off with you. And if I find something missing…." He trailed off warningly, fixing them with a stern look.

"Thanks, mate." Scorpius clapped the man on the back as they filed past him. The man grunted again and thumped Scorpius on the back. Rose had to bite her tongue to stop from laughing when she heard him give an 'oomph' as the breath was knocked out of him.

They walked out of the shop, attracting curious stares the whole way as they exited the storeroom with disheveled clothes and dust in their hair. Finally, they stepped back out into the scorching heat, brushing off their clothes.

"Never again," Rose mumbled.

"I'll say…" Scorpius pivoted on the spot, pointing to a sprawling estate, covered in lush green grass and palm trees. "That should be it."

They completed the ten minute journey in silence, picking their way through the street, avoiding the herds of tourists trundling past in double-decker buses. It was with immense relief that they stepped into the cool lobby of the hotel.

Rose tapped the bell on the front desk and a manager with well oiled hair turned to face them. His eyebrows contracted and he blanched visibly as he took in their dusty appearance. "How may I be of service?" He said, looking very much as though he'd rather not be of service to the likes of them.

"We need two adjoining rooms for a week or so."

The manager looked relieved as he answered. "Aah, I'm afraid we're all booked out. We have no vacancy to suit those requirements. We've a very busy establishment after all…perhaps if you'd reserved in advance?"

Rose and Scorpius glanced at each other, eyebrows raised. They weren't used to issues of 'no space'. There were charms after all, undetectable extensions and space contractors…but they were of course, dealing with muggles. Honestly, reservations…

"And there's not a single room available?" Scorpius tried.

"No." Rose and the manager said together. Both men turned to look at her and she cleared her throat awkwardly, looking away.

"Not for such a long period I'm afraid," the man said happily. "I suggest you seek accommodation elsewhere, Sir."

Giving up the hotel as a lost job, Scorpius nodded in assent and turned to leave.

"Goodbye!" the manager said cheerfully as they exited, his voice laced with an undercurrent of triumph. "I wish you luck!"

Scorpius turned to look at Rose, who was staring determinedly at a potted plant to their left.

"Well," he said heavily. "What did I say about muggles? Messy little buggers."

Rose hummed in response.

XXXXXX

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope."

"You have got to be kidding me," Rose said again.

"Er-not really." Scorpius looked at her quizzically and pushed his way through the doors into the motel. "Are you coming?"

Rose sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. She seemed to be engaged in a mental debate for a few seconds, until finally she looked up again, squaring her shoulders. "Yeah. Let's do this."
"Good girl." Scorpius smirked to himself as she shot him an irritated glare.

He tapped the bell on the worn down front desk, wincing as he heard yet another sickly tinkling sound. They'd tried all the big hotels in the area and apparently all of them were 'booked out' or simply had 'no vacancies, sorry.'

What was it with muggles and going on holiday? Did they really require so much space? And why were there so many of them? He'd finally given up on getting a decent hotel and resigned himself to having to stay in one of the many dilapidated looking motels at the fringes of the city.

It would be sort of disgusting of course, staying in them, but he was sure a few cleaning spells would make the place more tolerable.

He was almost startled as a smallish man popped up from behind the desk, grinning at them boyishly.

"Room fer two?"

"Uhh," Scorpius glanced at Rose, who was looking about at the other patrons of the place interestedly. "Actually, do you have two adjoining rooms?"

"Nope," the man said happily.

"Really?" Scorpius asked skeptically.

"Yep."

"Well how about one room then?"

"Yep."

"Yes? Okay, yes. One room then." The man nodded happily and turned to the cubby holes behind his desk, searching for a room key.

"Rose."

"Huh? Yeah, do they have space?"

"Umm yeah they do. But only one room. We're going to have to share-"

"What?" Rose hissed at him. "Are you nuts? I'm not sharing a room with you! That is completely out of the question."

The short man turned back to them, looking warily between them. "Is honeymoon?" He asked, gesturing with his hand.

"God, no." Rose said acerbically. "As if-"

Scorpius butted in before she said something stupid. "Can we have our key? Yeah, cheers."

He swiped the keys from the confused man's grasp and dragged a fuming Rose behind him.

"This is ridiculous." She hissed. "Sharing rooms- bloody hell! If I ever encounter that bloody killer, I'm going to cut his bollocks off, the little-"

"O-kaaay." Scorpius held up his hands. "Right, we have room number 36. That's the top floor probably. Coming?"

He turned to ascend the stairs, Rose letting out a frustrated huff behind him.

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered eventually. "Lead the way, O' great one."

Scorpius led the way, hoping she wasn't going to hex him when he wasn't looking.

XXXXXX

"You can sleep on the couch."

"I'm not sleeping on the couch, Rosie."

"You're sleeping on the couch."

"There is no couch."

"….Oh."

Rose looked at the bed and she looked at Scorpius. And then she looked at the empty space where there should have been a sofa or a chair or something.

She waved her wand at a pillow and it twisted out of shape, turning into a lumpy looking mattress.

"There," she said firmly. "Problem solved."

She turned triumphantly towards the queen sized bed to see Scorpius sprawled across it, eyes closed. So much for chivalry. She cursed him under her breath and chucked her shrunken trunk onto her mattress, expanding it magically.

This trip was going to be a complete and utter disaster.

XXXXXXX

Rose tugged nervously at her shorts as she waited for the expedition's leader to receive her. It was scorching hot and looking around at the tanned wizards at the site, she was glad she'd packed her sunscreen. She didn't tan, she just burned.

Next to her, Scorpius was staring idly off towards the pile of rubble in front of them which was supposed to be the pyramid post-glamour. She turned to observe it as well, shading her eyes with one hand. There were about ten people milling around it, appearing and disappearing randomly at a single point. As she watched, one of the wizards sent a shower of purple sparks towards the structure. He nodded knowingly and jotted something down on a piece of parchment suspended in front of him.

"Rose Weasley?"

Rose turned to greet the woman who'd called her name. Her eyebrows shot up as she got her first look at the team leader- technically, her replacement. Her glossy black hair cascaded down her back and around her shoulders, her skin glowing with a healthy tan. She offered Rose a toothy smile and extended her right hand delicately. "Natalie Valdez, expedition leader."

Rose took the proffered hand, smiling back. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise. I've heard a lot about you from Bill."

"Oh, you know my uncle Bill?"

Natalie winked at her. "Quite well, actually. We've, ahh…worked together in the past."

Rose nearly gagged at the insinuation, forcing herself to keep the smile on her face. She knew for a fact that Uncle Bill would never cheat on her Aunt Fleur. Clearly, this Natalie Valdez had a habit of talking out her arse. Plus, Uncle Bill was old. Ew.

Natalie let go of her hand and leaned around her, a mega-watt smile lighting up her face. "And who's this?"

Rose felt her stomach twist as she turned around to see that Natalie's feral-er, friendly- gaze was fixed on Scorpius. "This is-"

"Scorpius Malfoy," he introduced himself smoothly, turning his attention to the leggy brunette.

Natalie's smile grew more pronounced and she extended her hand again, gripping Scorpius' delicately. "Pleasure to meet you. Am I going to be seeing a lot of you?"

Rose cleared her throat, a mix of horror, disgust and something else burning her from the inside as Scorpius and Natalie smiled at each other. She noted that Natalie was now holding onto Scorpius' hand with both of her own, hip cocked to the side and one knee slightly bent in the universal coming-on pose.

She vaguely registered Scorpius replying as Natalie's tinkling laughter filled the air.

"So, Scorpius- can I call you that?- what brings you here? Seeking a wild desert adventure? Perhaps I can help with that…"

Rose watched with growing disbelief as Natalie-still gripping his hand- towed Scorpius along with her, heading towards the campsite, clearly having forgotten all about her.

She shook her head and clenching her teeth, stomped after them.

What the hell had just happened?

A/N: As you can see, there is a new b!tch in town...or something.

Umm, anyway, LISTEN UP. Important: The next few chapters are like a sub-plot within the story to give y'all a break from all the stuff going on back in Ye Olde Englande. I certainly hope it won't be boring for you guys. And if it is, then I have a couple of things planned to make up for it. Also, I am aware that chapter 12 and and 13 are not up to scratch as I had major writer's block when I was doing these two. Hopefully, I'm over that and can continue to churn out quality stuff after this.

Okay, that's all!

See you all next chapter, which should be up Wednesday (depending on your timezone). ie. approx 48 hours.