A/N: We made 200! Yayyy! Am very very thrilled about this.
Which is why, this chapter is dedicated to Cass who was not only the 200th reviewer but has also reviewed consistently since the first chapter. Thanks a bazillion- I've always appreciated your reviews and they have always made me smile :) I hope you'll continue to stick around for the rest of this story!
And of course, thanks to all the other brilliant people who reviewed: Zara Alexandros, x-rayLady, xiLynnx, SaruDM, eupheonix, Love without expectation, lunapeacock, amy, Missdagane, OMG I'm the tin dog, TheInnerMusingsOfMe, Rachel, Sundance1989, lilbuddie715, Cass- of course!, ohmygolly, ainat92, Tishica an tikinclocks.
I love all of you guys. You literally make writing/updating addictive for me with the fun comments and sometimes, even the praise you leave! Aah, it's enough to inflate anyone's ego ;)
Chapter 14:
"Okay, so you'll be good for it once I'm done. Hang on a minute."
The young wizard in front of her tapped her sharply on the head with his wand, muttering a long spell under his breath. An unpleasant sensation of pins-and-needles ran through her, subsiding quickly.
"There. All done. Now, turn around."
Rose did as he said and nearly gasped as she took in the structure in front of her. It seemed golden in the afternoon sun, its shadow dark and rippling against the sand. It didn't look too different from any other pyramid around but somehow, to her anyway, it seemed more special. And not just because she'd helped re-discover it. There was just something about it. Oh, and the small fact that it probably had traces of dark magic still clinging to it.
"It's really something isn't it?" the wizard next to her asked cheerfully.
"Yeah…" Rose agreed. "It really is."
Adam smiled at her and Rose returned the gesture. Adam Dyer- he was one of the younger wizards on the expedition, probably only a bit older than her. It made her wonder how old Natalie was, if she'd managed to become leader of the group…she didn't look older than twenty seven-eight, at any rate.
"So the entrance is-"
"I know where the entrance is, I found it." Rose cut in, slightly crabbily.
"Er, right. Sorry. I keep forgetting," Adam said contritely. "So, what've done so far is, we've managed to get as far as the entrance chamber. It took ages to take the wards off that part alone. Godric knows how many dark curses they've rigged the place with…"
"Hmm." There was a brief silence as the two continued to regard the looming structure.
"So, Rose," Adam said casually. "Who's that guy you came with?"
Rose turned to look at him warily. "You mean Malfoy?"
"Malfoy, huh? As in, Malfoy Junior? Interesting." Rose wasn't sure but she thought Adam's eyes glinted weirdly for a second before he turned to face her and said, "Do you think you could score me an introduction? Or are you two, you know, together?"
"Uhh" Rose gaped at him, not expecting the question. Well it wasn't the question itself, it was the way he'd said it... "Are you….?"
"Gay?" Adam supplied cheerfully. "Yup! And let me tell you, Mr. Malfoy over there is a stud. It's too much to hope he likes men though, right?"
Rose stared at him dumbfounded, for a moment before a fit of laughter seized her at the image of Scorpius cozying up to another guy.
Adam sighed disappointedly. "No? Too bad. I suppose he's the womanizing sort."
"Uhh yeah," Rose agreed, grinning at Adam. And you would be too, she added mentally. Adam was pretty much a 'stud' himself. His light brown hair flopped casually into his striking blue eyes and the tan he'd earned under the hot sun complimented his features nicely. If Rose had a hot-o-meter (which she did, back in Hogwarts, when her and Dom used to rate all the guys they saw), he would have been a nine easy. Maybe even a ten…
"I'll get over it. Besides I'd much rather have a hot Egyptian boyfriend. Seriously Rosie, you have to check out some of the blokes out here- they're brilliant. Is it okay if I call you that, by the way?"
Rose blinked under the onslaught of his sudden chattiness. "Call me what?"
"Rosie, of course!"
"Sure," she grinned wryly. How was it everyone insisted on calling her that?
"Awesome. Okay, Rosie, now tell me what the deal with you and Malfoy over there is. Before that ruddy Gnat gets her claws into him."
Rose let out a frustrated sigh. "Nothing. There's no deal. He's just my…uhh…"
She trailed off, not knowing what to say. He was her what? He was her bodyguard but she wasn't supposed to tell anyone that. And there was no way in hell she was saying he was a) her stalker- after all, that one turned out so well before; Or b) her boyfriend. Not while he and Natalie were making goo-goo eyes at each other anyway. That would make her the girl everyone knows is going to be dumped.
She looked over to them and saw Natalie pointing at the apex of the pyramid and saying something animatedly. Scorpius was nodding, hands in his pockets, looking laid-back as ever. She scowled as she realized Natalie had used the anti-glamour spell on Scorpius and hadn't bothered with Rose at all.
She shook her head, realizing it had been a full two minutes since she'd left her sentence unfinished. Adam was giving her a knowing look, having followed the direction of her gaze.
"Like I said, it's nothing. He's, well," Rose considered what to say- She was in Egypt, who gave a toss if she told Adam the truth? There was no one trying to do her in over here, was there? "He's my bodyguard," she admitted, relieved at having finally told someone.
It was horrible getting strange looks from all her friends back in England whenever they saw her being trailed by Scorpius. They probably thought they were together or something ridiculous like that…
Adam's eyebrows shot up. "Bodyguard?" he echoed.
"Yes…" Rose said warily. Was he going to call her paranoid and delusional? Or maybe he'd get freaked out and leave…
"That…" Adam said slowly. "…is bloody hot."
Rose laughed out of sheer surprise. "Hot?"
"Yeah! Merlin, if I had a bloke that fit guarding my body…." He grinned wickedly at her and waggled his eyebrows sending Rose into a fresh bout of giggles.
"So why do you need a bodyguard?" Adam asked curiously.
Rose grimaced. "I can't-"
"-tell me? S'alright, I didn't expect you to. This is supposed to be a secret right? Don't worry, I won't tell on you." Adam winked at her and she beamed at him, feeling ridiculously happy that she'd already found someone she didn't mind hanging around.
It was oddly like being in first year again. Natalie and all the others were the mean seniors and she was the newbie who'd finally made her first friend. Except of course, it had never really been too bad for Rose in Hogwarts what with her extensive family.
"So," Adam said, drawing her attention back to him. "How long have you been shagging your bodyguard?"
XXXXXXXXX
"Okay, so Dyer, Millie, Nathaniel, Carroll, Rose, Scorpius and of course me, are going to go inside first. The rest of you stay up here for now. We'll give you the all-clear when it's safe to come down. Any questions?"
There were a few protests by those not chosen for the first group but otherwise everyone remained mute, shrugging in acceptance.
"Alrighty then," Natalie said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Wands at the ready boys and girls. Follow me."
The group of six followed closely as she strode towards the entrance of the pyramid. She paused at the opening, turning to Scorpius. "You stay beside me, okay? You're new to this and if you get into trouble I'll be able to help you best. So, stay close!" She smiled at him coquettishly and brushed her fingers lightly over his hand before finally entering the pyramid.
Rose watched the exchange with disgust and followed, walking with Adam. The moment she took in the entrance chamber though, all thoughts of boys and bitches fled her mind. The chamber was surprisingly large and empty. In fact, it seemed that the entire pyramid was composed of only one cavernous room.
Raising her lit-up wand, she observed the sloping sides of the pyramid with confusion. Where were the partitions, the niches and alcoves, the sarcophagi? There were plenty of ancient relics scattered around at regular intervals, gold statues depicting Egyptian Gods and there was a throne on a pedestal in the centre. That in itself was odd. Why was there a throne in a place of death? Egyptians themselves had been too scared to linger unnecessarily in the pyramids as they were technically graveyards and chock-full of curses and death.
Stay too long and you'll stay forever.
Rose shuddered as the thought crossed her mind. She shrugged it off, making her way towards Natalie.
"Is this it?" she whispered as he drew level with her. "Where's the rest of it?"
Natalie shrugged. "We don't know. I was thinking maybe there's an extension charm on the place or a fidelius used to disguise a doorway or something. In which case, it's going to be extremely hard to break through."
Rose surveyed the place slowly, eyes adjusting the darkness. "No…I don't think it's an extension. The dimensions are too even and those are easy to detect. If it was a fidelius, the charm would have been nullified as soon as the last keeper of the secret passed away. And that must have been thousands of years ago."
Natalie shrugged. "I suppose. Anyway, keep looking and tell me if you find something. You probably won't, of course, but whatever."
She turned away, clearly dismissing her and Rose scowled at her back before heading back to stand with Adam. He was running a gloved hand over a series of hieroglyphs carved into the wall. "What do you think?" he asked quietly.
"About the runes?"
"No," he said. "About the second entrance. There has to be one, somewhere in here. Where do you think they buried their dead?"
Rose pursed her lips and tried to make sense of it. The team was operating under the assumption that the main chambers had been concealed using magic. But the pyramids weren't built by wizards, they were built by ordinary muggles. And the ancient Egyptians wouldn't have constructed a pyramid with just a single throne room and a bunch of squiggles on the walls.
They were famous for concealing entrances and traps using ingenious devices. What if…an idea struck her, and she almost slapped herself for being so stupid. If she was right, then they were all mad for not having thought of it before! It was so bloody obvious….
She rushed over towards the throne, Adam following in her wake, and fell quickly to her knees in front of it, crouching low to examine the floor around the ostentatious chair. There were thin grooves running in a spiral around it, expanding outwards from a central point. The head of the chair was engraved with a single hieroglyph: The eye of Ra- the Egyptian Sun God.
Rose's confidence grew as she looked around at the dark chamber. There was no light in the pyramid aside from the faint illumination cast by the wands. At intervals around the walls were large basins with a single groove running from the spiral to each one.
Aligning her wand with the centre, the 'eye' of the spiral, she cast a spell. "Incendio."
The fire caught and ran along the grooves as if they were filled with oil. The others turned to watch, stunned by the sight of rivulets of fire running across the ground, filling the basins with roaring red and golden flames.
The antechamber was illuminated with a blazing light, forcing her to shut her eyes as they adjusted to the sudden light. As she blinked away the dark spots swimming in her vision, she saw the throne shimmer and disappear revealing a square entrance below it.
The seven of them crowded around the dark hole, staring speechlessly at the flight of steps leading downwards into murky darkness.
Rose grinned excitedly at this final proof.
The burial chamber wasn't in the pyramid, it was underneath it.
XXXXXXXXX
"Okay we're going to go in pairs," Natalie whispered. "I'll go with Scorpius, because he's new and-"
"No," he cut in firmly. "I'm going with Rose."
Natalie reared back. "But-"
Scorpius shook his head. "I don't care about the other pairs, but you're not separating us if it's dangerous down there."
Yeah, and it's alright to separate us any other time, isn't it? Rose thought acerbically.
"Fine," Natalie sounded petulant even as she said it. "You!" she snapped at Adam. "Walk with me. Millie go with Nathaniel and Jenna."
Millie nodded and stood between the quiet Nathaniel and Jenna Carroll.
"Come on then. And be careful."
She descended first, followed by Adam, then Rose. The passage they walked down was narrow, walls lining both sides of it as they descended in a spiral. It reminded Rose of the eagle passageway leading to the principal's office back in Hogwarts.
They emerged into a small chamber with two entrances in the opposite wall.
"Great," Natalie muttered. "We'll have to split up."
Rose looked at her skeptically. "Split up? That's a terrible idea. What if someone gets lost? And there are likely to be a lot more curses down here-"
"Listen, Weasley," Natalie hissed at her. "Don't question my methods. We were doing fine with the curses before you got here. We can handle it. You just have beginner's luck."
There was a beat of silence as everyone stared between Natalie and Rose, taken aback by her words.
Rose's lips tightened perceptibly. "Right," she said in clipped tones. "We'll do it your way then, Valdez."
"Good." The brunette muttered, casting a disdainful look at Rose. "Nate, go left with Millie and Jenna. You three, come with me. We're going right."
"I certainly hope we are," Rose muttered as she walked into the yawning passageway. She was going to kill Natalie if anyone got hurt because of her stupid 'methods.'
XXXXXXX
"Do you guys see anything?" Nathaniel whispered.
"No," Jenna murmured back, ducking to avoid a large cobweb.
Nate nodded and continued on behind the two girls. The passage was too narrow for them to walk in anything but single file.
"Guys," he said. "This can't lead to the burial chamber, the passages are not wide enough for the sarcophagi to pass through."
That would be the right fork then, the one Natalie and Adam had taken. And the two newbies. He grimaced at the thought of it. Rose had a right to be there but what was the deal with the other bloke? Natalie wouldn't have let him come along if he hadn't been good looking, that much was for sure.
And to be honest, he agreed with the Weasley girl. Splitting up was a dumb idea, especially on their first foray into the underground chambers- which they probably would have never found if it wasn't for the redhead. It was amazing how she'd caught on to it so fast.
He bumped into Millie's back as she stopped abruptly.
"What is it?" he hissed, clutching his throbbing head where he'd hit it against hers. She didn't even seem to notice.
"Look." She pointed to an alcove. An idol of a woman with the head of a lion stood there, cobwebs draped around its figure. The irises were inlaid with rubies and glittered menacingly in the wand light.
"Sekhmet," Millie whispered. "The Eye of Ra."
"Er, yeah," Nate said. "Goddess of destruction, yadda yadda. Can we move now?"
Millie continued to gaze at the statue, eyes wide with rapturous wonder. "She's beautiful."
"Umm, Mills, she has the head of a lion. And anyway, we're looking for magic artifacts remember? Not statues."
Millie's head whipped around, eyes burning with wild fury as she looked at him. "Quiet! She's not a statue!"
Nate took a step back, unnerved by the intensity of Millie's anger.
"What's got your knickers in a twist? It is a statue, Mills. And it's not magic, so keep moving."
He prodded her in the back and she stumbled forward, glaring at him once more before following behind Jenna.
Nate glanced at the statue a final time before moving on, not noticing as the red eyes flashed with unnatural light.
For a second, they almost seemed to have moved, tracing the path of the three wizards as they left. But then they were gone, and there was no further movement in the passage.
XXXXXXXXX
"Rose…."
"Ow! Quit pushing, Adam."
"Rose!"
"What?"
"Umm, RUN!"
"Wha-? WHY IS THERE A GIANT FUCKING ROCK ROLLING AT US?"
"I didn't do anything!"
"DYER!"
"RUN, you idiots!"
A/N: Take that last scene as a sneak-peek rather than a cliffie and we're good to go.
Okay. V. Imp, listen please!
What happens in the pyramid is like a mini-story for a couple of chapters. Any creepy stuff going on has nothing to do with the killer in England and we'll be back to our usual fun, plotline soon enough- complete with murder and sexual tension.
And I can promise this because I've almost finished writing the story. Sniff. There are going to be about 22 chapters total, so I suppose this is more of a novella than a novel.
Ooh, What do you think of Adam? I love Adam. And Dom. Power to friend-zone characters.
And what do you think of Natalie now?
Pardon me for my deplorably uninspired chapter title. I'm the girl who used to call an essay about a tsunami 'Tsunami.'