Chapter 3
The first thing that Ginny felt upon stepping out of the fireplace at Cairo International Floo Network was an unbelievably dry heat that pervaded the entire building despite the numerous cooling charms futilely attempting to keep the vast cavernous space cool.
Then she was being swept into a pair of muscled, sun-bronzed arms that held her tightly, so tightly that it was difficult to breathe. She started to sob in the arms that were holding her as if they never wanted to let her go. It only lasted a few moments before they both reluctantly remembered themselves and let go of each other.
"The rest of us are standing right here William" her mother's voice sharply reminded her eldest son.
The two siblings looked at each other in resignation, before turning as a united front to face the rest of the family.
With a stiff smile on his face Bill went and pecked his mother on the cheek, before extending a handshake with his dad.
His smile when he turned to face his four younger brothers was much more genuine. "You four horrors seem to have shot up since I saw you last. Perce you're wearing a prefect badge- i told you that you'd get it! As for you two..." Fred and George immediately plastered their most innocent expressions on their face, "I warn you I am prepared. Any pranks will be met with swift retaliation, understood? Hey Ron, I see Scabber's is somehow still going strong; have you considered a career in animal care? Anyways if you come this way, I've already arranged for a portkey but it's illegal to use it in this Hall..."
Already moving Bill used his wand to pick up the luggage and have it float behind him leaving the family no choice but to follow him.
Ginny took a moment to observe her family's reactions to seeing Bill for the first time in almost two years. Her mother had the same sour look on her face that appeared anytime that Bill or for that matter Bill's career was mentioned. Her father had the forced jovial expression that was almost his de facto facial expression, acting as usual as though nothing was wrong in the family dynamics. Percy had puffed up with pride the moment that Bill had mentioned his Prefect status, obviously enjoying the praise of at least one of his siblings. The twins were already engaged in hushed conversation, clearly attempting to come up with a fool-proof plan to prank their eldest brother, who had the audacity to promise retaliation. And Ron...Ron was the hardest of all her siblings to read. In this case Ginny had no idea what Ron was thinking.
The moment they stepped out of the Hall, they all grabbed their particular luggage and grabbed hold of the long thin rope that was their portkey. They spun around in the magical vortex for what seemed an eternity but in actuality were only a few moments before coming in to land on sand. Ginny, Fred, George, Percy and Ron all landed in a heap in the sand. The three adults who had landed gracefully on their feet stifled coughs obviously trying not to laugh at the predicament that the youngsters were in.
Ginny had taken a kick in the side and felt more than a little bruised and battered. Her mood was not improved by the fact that most magical children her age had long since learnt how to travel by portkey. The eminent expert on magical transportation, Leopold Duce, had estimated three centuries ago that it usually only took about ten trips by portkey before a magical child became acquainted enough with the transportation to be able to travel comfortably. But portkey's were an unfordable luxury for the Weasley family and it was only the second time that Ginny had ever travelled by portkey.
She stood up shakily, finally beginning to take notice of her surroundings. Directly in front of her, perhaps five hundred metres in the distance, towered rows upon rows of pyramids hugging the River Nile. She turned around, noticing for the first time, the unassuming white canvas tent.
She mischievously looked at her brother and in an undertone asked "So this is the infamous love shack?"
Unfortunately she did not notice her mother standing a mere two feet away. If looks kill Ginny would have been fried to a crisp.
Her mother immediately went off on a long-winded rant about the inappropriateness of Bill engaging in that sort of behaviour, of Bill being so divorced from common sense as to mention his depraved night-time activities with any young innocent girl- let his sister and cumulating in "and are you honestly meaning to tell me that you live in a tent! Because if you are there is no power on this earth that will convince me to stay here, young man! Honestly a tent, your father and I raised you better than to be tent-trash..."
Bill had finally had enough and interrupted his mother with a tone of quiet authority "Come and see inside and if you still don't want to stay than I'll arrange for a Hotel."
Ginny, unlike the rest of her family, had seen pictures of the 'tent' and pushed forward eagerly. The tent consisted of four bed rooms, a study, a library and the most drop dead gorgeous open-plan living room that Ginny had ever seen. The beautifully polished wooden floorboards creaked underfoot. The windows reflected the view outside. On one side of the house the windows showed sand dunes stretching as far as the eye could see, whilst in stark contrast on the other side of the house, the windows showed the breathtaking lushness of the river and the towering pyramids that hugged it, whilst in the distance the sun had begun to set.
Bill, who had silently followed her into the house, took her hand and escorted her to her room. Her breathe hitched as she saw the absolutely gorgeous room that her eldest brother had given her. The room itself was about as big as the entire ground floor of the Burrow. Standing in the centre of the room was a massive antique four-poster bed. Perched in between two windows was the most gorgeously petite writing desk that she had ever seen. Noticing two doors off to the side of the room, Ginny hurried off to explore. One room was a walk-in closet that was literally bigger than her bedroom at home; the other was a massive luxuriously-appointed marble bathroom. Having finished her whirlwind tour of her set of rooms Ginny ran back to her room- only to find that Bill had gone to settle in the rest of the family.
She slowly opened the door, faltering for a second when she heard her mother's voice disdainfully stating "I suppose this will do..."
Closing her eyes she attempted to contain the surge of anger that she felt towards her mother. Her mother who so superbly disdainful of this gorgeous house contained in a tent, who was so disdainful of Bill's hopes and dreams and career, who couldn't bring herself to love Ginny anymore.
It was hearing Bill's calm, measured voice that stopped Ginny from descending into yet another orgy of grief and guilt and despair. "What would you like to do this evening? I thought we might..."
Once again her mother did not give him time to finish, before interrupting "Have some consideration! We're all bone weary and ready for some rest. I, for one, am going to bed now."
Bill looked over at Ginny, still standing in the doorway, and smiled.
Which is how Ginny found herself sneaking out of the tent and traipsing across the desert with her eldest brother a couple of hours later.
Even by English standards it was a bitterly cold evening, especially when juxtaposed with the searing midday heat. There was a kind of eerie beauty to the scene, with brother and sister being the only sign of life, the horizon framed by the massive pyramids and endlessly clear stars. They walked in companionable silence for a few miles, going uphill the entire way, long enough to be out of sight of the tent.
It was when they reached the top of the sand dune that Ginny realised from the mischievous smirk her brother was giving her that he had something up his sleeve.
It was somewhat of a letdown when he triumphantly produced a matchstick. Disappointment soon morphed into excitement when she saw what he intended to do with it. A wave of his wand and the matchstick had been transfigured into a toboggan.
She was unable to keep the delighted laughter out of her voice when she attempted to ask the serious question of "Have you ever done this before?"
Reassured by the nod of his head, she sat on the front of the toboggan, whilst he hopped on the back, and they flew down the dune.
They stopped mere metres from an oasis- a clear blue pond for swimming in, palm trees and hammocks waiting.
Looking at the abundance of life, stranded in the middle of the desert she said the first thing that came to mind.
"That can't be natural."
"No, well actually they do exist, but this one was created for Gringotts employees. I thought it might be a good place for us to have a chat- you know, away from the inquisition? You know, reading your letters you'd think that everything was fine, that nothing bad had ever happened to you... How are you really?"
Ginny had tensed up the moment the subject had shifted from the oasis. The light in her eyes, which had briefly shone upon the joy of being reunited with Bill, died, and she forced a smile onto her face.
"Like you said I'm fine."
Her brother took in a deep breath and didn't speak for a minute. She watched him knowingly- Bill had always been one for a forthright approach when it came to discussing feelings.
"You know, I have this muggleborn apprentice from New Zealand. Great guy- bit of a movie buff though. Actually you two would probably get on like a house on fire. Anyways we have these enforced rest days when we're not allowed to be anywhere near the tombs, and this bloke, he has a movie theatre set up in his tent. So he invites the team along all the time to watch what he calls 'classic' movies. They all blur together in my mind, movies aren't really my thing. But in one of the movies this character talks about what being fine really means. If you're fine you're actually freaked out, insecure, neurotic and emotional. Does that ring any bells for you Gin?"
She looked at him, stunned, completely blindsided as to where that conversation had being heading. Vaguely in the back of her head she noted that her brother had more emotional depth than she had given him credit for. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she looked hard at her brother.
He steadily returned her gaze. This conversation was not going to end any time soon.
In that moment she realised it too. It was all it took for months of walls, built up brick by brick to protect herself, to crumble into dust. As her walls crumbled so did she.
Bill was at her side in moments, clutching her tight, as she sobbed till she could sob no more. When she was finally too exhausted to cry anymore Bill waved his wand, transfigured a few items, and begun to make them both a cup of coco.
"Tell me what's making you so miserable Gin" he coaxed.
And she did. Beginning with the way her classmates hated her and how she couldn't bring herself to blame them, since she hated herself too. Moving on to the way their dad couldn't bring himself to look at her anymore and how her mum blamed her for the entire episode. She talked about how her brother's ignored her very existence at Hogwarts. The soul-destroying lonliness. And then, very apprehensively, she told Bill about Blaise.
It was the only time in her entire narrative that Bill's face lost its grim tension.
"Gin, I can't... I can't fix all your problems... But I need you to know this. I love you. I've loved you always and will love you always. Your classmates need time... time to forget. In the mean time Blaise sounds nice and if you want to write to me every day then do so, I will reply. None of this is your fault, and just because our parents are too idiotic to see that, doesn't make it any the less true. As for the parents- they are what they are. I made my peace with that a long time ago and I think you need to so too. I wouldn't tell mum and dad, about you being friends with a Slytherin, they're too prejudiced. You and I can be the family exiles together, hey? Having said that I don't think it will be too long before Fred and George join us on the dark side... "
The cuddle that finished his reassurance left her feeling more at peace than she had in a long time. They lay in the hammock, peacefully staring at the stars, for a long time. Unfortunately they both dozed off pretty much a so at the same time. Ginny awoke first, alerted to the lateness of the hour by how hot she was suddenly feeling. When she became aware of her surroundings she fell rather inelegantly out of the hammock. Unfortunately that led to Bill also being deposited on the ground and also being rudely awoken.
Ginny started to absolutely panic, "We're at least an hours walk away, probably more, mum's going to go ballistic..."
She was interrupted by her brothers calm drawl "Are you a witch or not? I'll appaparte you back to your room... As for mum discovering that we've been out- I won't tell if you don't. I'm a curse breaker and I like to experiment in my house. Nobody's getting into a room that they haven't been assigned to without the express permission of the occupant. Remember- the story is we've slept in."
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Thousands of miles away, a young boy sat in an incredibly luxurious villa. He was surrounded by thick files containing information about his infinitely large business interests. Later in the day the Italian minister of magic would be stopping by for a macchiato, which would then be followed by a meeting with the various heads of the clans. Both needed him to adjudicate a trade dispute that had erupted between the ministry and the mafia. If he could not find a solution magical Italy would come to a standstill. And as Italy was one of the powerhouses of the wizarding world economies global trade would suffer as a consequence.
He needed to be on top of his game. But try as he might he could not stop himself from brooding about an unexpected encounter that he had had a day earlier. He had been shopping in the Plaza, stocking up on some new dress robes, when he had seen his mother in the distance. She was accompanied by a suave looking fellow- either her seventh husband or one of her many affairs. Blaise had never tried to keep up to date with his mother's love life. It was a full time job for many of the paparazzi and tabloid gossip rags. But never the less yesterday he couldn't bring himself to stop looking at her. When she tried to come over and say hello his security detail stopped her in her tracks. He knew it was stupid- that she was a world class manipulator, but he couldn't get her hurt look out of his head. Looking around at his desk, he looked for something, anything to distract himself.
He found an unopened letter and begun to lose himself in Ginny's world.
A/N This has been sitting in my harddrive for a while...I've been travelling and access to the internet hasn't been great. Thanks to the PersonOverThere for beta-ing this. Good news- should have another chapter up before i go to the family's holiday house on the coast in nsw for Christmas (where internet-connections are non-existant). Once again a huge thanks to everybody who has been responding to this story!