"Bahira?" Harry calls quietly, shaking his sister's shoulder as her eyes refuse to open. He refuses to watch the city collapse in on itself, unable to bring himself to look for the other people of their rescue party as Ardeth does.
"Harry?" she whispers as her eyes flutter open, exhausted and slightly hazy.
"Bahira!" Ardeth sighs in relief, finally looking away from the crumbling Hamunaptra. He kneels beside her and pulls her into his arms, holding her tightly. "I was beginning to worry you wouldn't awaken."
She blinks up at him as she pulls back. "I was calling the Twin Books," she explains lightly, before a glittering dome appears beside herself and Harry, one darkening and the other lightening.
Ardeth stares at the domes as they dim and vanish, leaving the books in their place, the Book of the Dead by Harry with a key on top, and The Book of Amun Ra beside Bahira with another key as well. He looks between the two of them before a final rumble from the city echoes across the desert where they rest. They look to find only a plume of dust beginning to settle where Hamunaptra had proudly hidden for the past three thousand years, now buried beneath the sands with the treasures still hidden deep within. And they see the group of three slowing down, watching the ancient site with relief in every line of their bodies.
Bahira releases herself from her protector's grasp and takes her key from the top of her book as Harry continues to inspect his own. "Are you okay?" she asks him, smiling gently at him with the eyes they share.
He nods slowly. "I'm okay." He then looks at Ardeth. "What's gonna happen to me now? And Dudley?"
Ardeth eyes the British siblings and the American soldier, and grimaces slightly. "I think I might have a solution," he begins slowly as they turn to him, each clutching their respective books. "But we need to get in touch with some people in England, they should be able to help."
The Order members gathered in Dumbledore's office breathe a sigh of relief as the delicate instruments monitoring the Boy-Who-Lived finally return to their normal, quiet states.
"Albus, how are we to find the boy now?" Severus asks slowly and quietly. "All we know is that he and his relatives are in Cairo, and we have no contacts there."
The called-upon Headmaster frowns, deep in thought. "We could send a letter to their Ministry and ask them if they could track down the family."
Minerva shakes her head. "You know they would demand to know why we do that and not go there ourselves. And they already have their hands full with the sudden curse over the entire city. Something the muggles would say are the ten plagues of Egypt." She sighs. "I just hope that Ardeth is alright, I've not heard from him since he left Hogwarts nearly three years ago."
"Ardeth!" Severus groans in annoyance. "I've been in touch with him since he left, Minerva. He talks a lot about a little girl his uncle adopted after finding the child before his fifth year here, roughly six years ago I do believe."
They all perk up at this mention of a desert contact. "Could you send him a letter and ask if he's seen Harry?" Molly asks, worry in her light brown eyes.
"I shall, though I have a feeling he will be getting in touch with us sooner than later," he drawls, before rising from his seat, robes billowing dramatically behind him as he makes a hasty exit. He can only hope, as he makes his way to his office, that the owl can make it through the desert and find the recipient of his letter before dying of the harsh heat.
Bahira literally drags the smaller boy behind her up to her room, leaving the adults to chuckle slightly at her excitement to show Harry her collection of books and marbles, both of them lugging the heavy books with them almost absentmindedly.
Ardeth turns to Evy and Rick, Jonathan having chosen to go to the closest bar to drink away the nightmare of the past several days. "There is something that I think you both ought to know about Bahira, and her birth family."
Evy starts, taken off-guard. "Her family? Did you know them?"
"Yes, I went to school for a few years with her parents, I believe it was in Scotland. They were in their sixth year, and just starting to date, but I heard all of the stories about Lily calling James an… 'arrogant toerag' since they had first met in their own first year. They were very kind people, and helped me to adjust to the new climate, and tutoring me with all of the courses." He almost smiles at this. "They married weeks after graduating, and somehow roped me into being one of their guests. I was at the hospital with James and Lily when she had twins, their names Harry and Ivy Potter, and was nearly named godfather of Ivy when she took to me so easily, but I convinced them to choose someone else to take on the role, as I would not be able to be around as much as I felt a godfather ought to."
"So what happened?" Rick asks, sitting down and leaning against the small table.
Ardeth sighs. "It gets… difficult to explain this without breaking a few laws, but as you are so involved with her, I will have to ask that nobody else learns of what I am about to tell you. Do you understand?"
Evy frowns in thought. "That sounds an awful lot like what my parents once told Jonathan and I, before we went to meet our neighbors, and old family allies… a Lord Malfoy I believe it was."
He nearly chokes at this. "You… you know Lucius?"
She wrinkles her nose a little. "A little too much like a peacock for my taste, but he was decent enough. The Carnahan family is a long line of pure-blood squibs, for future reference. I had a little talent, but not enough to go to school for it. Only enough to do the odd trick here and there."
Rick stares at her. "Are you talking about Wizards?"
"Yes…" she says slowly. "How do you know of them?"
"Met one, he tried to wipe my memory after I told him about what happened during my time in the French Foreign Legion," he growls, before smiling at the delighted cheering of the children upstairs.
Ardeth sighs in relief. "You just made explaining all of this so much easier. James and Lily were a wizard and witch, the school we went to was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were prefects when I met them, and Head Boy and Girl in their seventh year. Both were powerful in their own right, and sided with Dumbledore, the Headmaster, in the war with Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord at the time. They joined the Order of the Phoenix, a vigilante group that aided Aurors, the police, in responding to attacks. However, when the twins were a month from being born, there was a prophecy, stating that there would be a boy, born at the end of July, who would have a power that could vanquish the Dark Lord. After the births, Harry was the prime choice, second was a child named Neville, his parents were friends of ours." He rubs his eyes tiredly, dredging up memories of those last few months with his friends. "Both families went into hiding when they got word that the enemy had learned only part of the prophecy, under wards and spells so powerful that, were any who didn't know of their location, would look into their window and not see them standing right before them."
"Then where does Bahira come into all of this?" Evy asks when Ardeth falls silent.
"Ivy was unexpected by Lily and James, but they were thrilled to have a set of twins. The twins were spoiled by their parents and their friends, but on a visit to St. Mungo's, the wizarding hospital, a few weeks after the birth, there was an attack on the mediwizard checking Ivy, and she was abducted, along with the stealing of a knife that was crafted by the Goblin Nation under contract with James. We were all devastated by the kidnapping, and the wizarding governments all around the world were asked to search for her. She was gone a week before I had to return to the desert, where I found the infant abandoned in the dunes with her knife tucked into her blanket. When I finally had the chance to get in touch with the Potters, they were already under the wards, and unable to be reached, but as we had planned for this, I brought her to Terrence. We renamed her Bahira, in order to protect her, should any of the Dark Lord's followers be trying to get their hands on her to have as a hostage." He bows his head slightly. "We only learned of the end of the war when it was too late for us to retrieve Harry to keep the twins together. He's been lost to the Wizarding world since Halloween night five years ago."
"Bahira is Ivy Potter?" Evy asks for clarification.
"She is," Ardeth confirms, before narrowing his eyes. "You said your neighbor in England was Lucius Malfoy?" he asks again.
She nods quickly. "No matter how intolerable he may be, I was still on good terms with him."
He looks up to the ceiling in thought. "I met him briefly in my first year at Hogwarts, he was kind enough to keep Slytherin house from picking fights with me in exchange for keeping an open mind to trade with his family. Perhaps I ought to go with you to England and see about contacting him and a few other people."
Rick shakes his head. "I don't mean to offend you, but England is one of the last places I could imagine you being."
Ardeth's eyes shine with amusement. "I was rather unhappy with the arrangement myself at the time, but I found it to be a refreshing change of scenery. Though the first time it snowed… the rest of Gryffindor house was laughing for days."