Cold water dripped in the dark tunnel. Ginny's arms lay paralyzed at her sides, useless on the cold hard stone. Sounds of a battle rang in her ears. A familiar voice, his voice, screamed in agony. A laugh cackled as one last "No" reverberated through her body. Her bones ached as she felt his pain reach her marrow. His body fell to her side, light streamed as she opened her eyes. She turned her head slowly seeing two lifeless green eyes staring at her face. His face was pale, paler than hers. His mouth was open. His eyes frozen in fear.
"Why Ginny? Why did you lure me down here? Why did I have to die for you?"
Ginny jerked awake. It was a dream. She panted trying to get her bearings in foreign surroundings. Panic filled her as she looked around not recognizing anything in the darkness. She emitted a small whimper trying to figure out if she was still in the chamber.
"Ginny, Ginny, did I wake you?" A voice filled with concern flooded her as a strong hand rubbed her back. It wasn't her Mum's small sturdy embrace, the hands were much larger and filled with calluses. Bill's face looked down at her. His long hair cascaded down his bare shoulders. She could smell his cup of chamomile tea.
Ginny burrowed her face into his broad chest and breathed in his familiar scent. When she was little and had nightmares it was his bed she wandered to find. He would always hold her tight and tell her stories until she would fall back asleep. Her shoulders heaved as hot tears spread down her cheeks.
"I was back. I was back in the chamber. I dre-drew Harry down. He died for me. The snake. It kills him every night." A tidal wave crashed over her drawing all the long-held emotions out. She never reached out to her Mum or told her what her dreams were about. She would whimper in her magically silenced room until she could bring herself back to the present moment by herself. She needed to prove to Mum she was better, that she was stronger and whole.
But this was Bill. This wasn't Mum.
"I am so tired Bill. Every night, every night he dies in different ways. I can't make it stop without the potion." She sobbed harder, her body shook as his arms wrapped around her. He didn't rush or stop her from talking. He didn't back away. He stood strong and was there. He held her as she cried and didn't try to make her feel anything. He let her fall apart. She sat sobbing for several minutes until she ran out of tears. Her breath slowed as she gasped trying to regain some sense of self. Bill sat silently rubbing her back making no noise. Finally, her breathing returned to a normal cadence. She looked up, red-eyed and puffy-cheeked, towards her big brother.
"Come on Ginny. Let's go sit outside. The stars are out. Let's go count them."
Bill stood and offered his hand down to her. He waited until she put her hand in his and together they walked to the window facing the balcony. Bill crawled through first and reached back to guide her onto the small balcony. Two iron seats sat around a small iron patio table. Grabbing his wand, he transfigured an empty terracotta pot into a mug splitting the tea between them. Ginny took her mug and held it beneath her nose. It was Mum's sleepy time tea. The same tea she gives them when they have trouble falling asleep. Chamomile with something sweet and valerian root mixed. The familiarity of the drink slowed Ginny's heart to a normal pace as the warm liquid flooded the back of her throat.
"It's cooled down hasn't it?" Bill took his wand and set several warming charms. "You wouldn't expect it to be this cool at night, given how hot it gets during the day. But it does. You get so used to the heat it feels like a chill sets in."
Ginny nodded. She put her mug to her mouth again drawing in another long sip.
"The stars aren't as bright as they are in Devon. I miss that. Too much light from the Muggles in the city. And listen," Bill said as a horn from the street trumpeted and people across the road yelled. "The noise isn't like back home. It's a city so it stays busy even at night. Not as bad as London, but certainly not like home."
"Home isn't like home anymore."
Bill didn't respond. He brought this terra cotta mug to his lips and took a long drink. He waited for her to continue.
"It's different. It's hard to explain. Mum seems worried, she is always there. I am never alone anymore. I am never free."
"That is different," said Bill slowly. Silence filled the next moment as he waited for her to continue.
"And it's infuriating at times," Ginny traced the circle of the mouth of her mug. "But I don't have a choice. I have to be normal again, for Mum, so she can stop worrying. I don't know what she will be like when I finally go back to school and she can't watch me all the time."
"You know that isn't your responsibility."
"No, but it's my fault! It's all my fault, Bill. I should have known better. I did know better." Ginny put the mug down harder than she meant to on the table. It clanked into the night sky. She sighed as she pulled her knees into her chest. Her legs dug into the cold metal patio chair beneath. "I want to go back to sleep. I don't want to talk anymore."
"Do you want me to lay down with you? Like old times? I have a great story about this one time a dragon sneezed on Charlie's bum lighting it on fire."
Ginny giggled. She looked away from her feet and up into Bill's eyes. They crinkled in moonlit mirth. His smile pulled to his left side in a smirk.
"Yes please." Ginny climbed through the window off the patio, back to the transfigured couch. Ron slept, snoring soundly, on a transformed cushion on the floor. Bill flew the two mugs to the sink before turning his attention to expanding the couch. As the base shoved Ron further to the left, he grunted, rolling over staying asleep. Bill smirked again at Ginny pantomiming Ron's ability to sleep through anything.
Climbing into the bed Ginny let Bill wrap the blankets around her in like a small child. He brushed her hair off her neck as she cuddled into his strong frame. Safety, security, feelings of being a child overcame Ginny. The fatigue from the day's travels re-washed over her. She yawned before Bill began speaking in his low baritone voice. It sounded as smooth and sweet as a cello lulling her back to sleep.
"So this one time, I went to visit Charlie at the dragon reservation."
When Ginny woke the next morning Bill was gone. She heard his voice carrying from the kitchen as he sat joking with her brothers. He was re-telling the story about the dragon sneezing and Charlie's unfortunate accident. The twins' laughter howled as one of them choked on his breakfast sausage. Ginny peered over the couch's back and looked into Bill's small kitchen. Her family congregated around a small magically enhanced table. Mum stood confused at the four burner stove as Bill grilled pancakes without magic. Bill saw Ginny peaking over and winked at her as he flipped the pancakes on his flat pan.
"Busy day today Ginners, best get up and eat while you can," called Bill.
"Where are we going today?"
"First to the Crocodile Museum followed by a trip to the tombs I de-cursed." Bill flipped the pancakes onto a plate and added some butter to the skillet.
"Bill that's too much," said Molly.
"Shh. I am cooking here. Stop hovering go sit!" Ginny laughed. Bill wacked their admonished Mum with his tea towel chasing her away from the stove. Their Mum humphed at them as she haughtily sat at the table.
"I was just trying to help."
"Help, hover, call it what you want, out of my kitchen." Bill winked at Ginny again as she found an empty stool at the bar.
"You all have 30 minutes to eat and get ready or you miss the bus." He plopped a plate of eggs and pancakes in front of Ginny. "And by bus, I mean my old beat up muggle car that still smells like the old owner."
They ate and dressed in a mad frenzy. Bill stood in the corner laughing as he set his watch to ring when 30 minutes transpired. His stern face alternated between business-like and laughter as they clamored over themselves. Ginny couldn't decipher how genuine he was about leaving them behind. His watched clanged and they filed out of his front door. Percy, the odd straggler, struggled to find his Head Boy badge until Mum accio'ed it from behind one of Bill's potted plants on his bookshelf.
They walked down five flights of stairs until they reached the ground floor. A chubby old man with a long nose and rounded face slept behind a desk with a fan blowing at full blast. The television in the corner blared the morning news in a language none of them spoke. The indecipherable headlines were squiggly written lines and symbols.
"Are those runes?" Percy asked Bill pointing to the TV.
"No, that is Arabic. I am picking up quite a big living here. Amir over there has been teaching me. He is an immigrant from Palestine. He came to join his brother who lives here. He left the magical part of Jerusalem to escape the conflict. Come on, I am parked out front."
They walked through the roundabout door. Fred and George took twice as long getting through after they insisted on walking through together and pretended to get stuck. Mum looked annoyed and embarrassed as she glanced back at a sleeping Amir to see if he noticed her unruly bunch. Arthur stood next to her and kept his arm around her shoulder. His eyes did not register his children's' chaos. They were too busy darting from one muggle contraption to the next as he walked with his eyes bugging out. They saw a small electric blue two-door car sitting by the curb. Bill gestured for them to get in.
"Well, here is she is, come on family get on in before anyone sees us. Mum and Dad, you sit up front with me, kids, you are stuck in the back."
Ginny got in first, eager to ride in Bill's car. The inside of the car was spacious and welcoming. Two large rows of tan leather seats faced one another. There were three seatbelts per row and the five of them were able to comfortably sit in the back. Ginny sat next to the window behind Bill riding backward. She kept turning around to ask him questions as they drove out of the city on a winding dirt road next to the rapidly flowing Nile.
"What kind of field is that?"
"That's sugar cane and corn, muggles grow it but a few wizards help with their irrigation systems. It is amazing what they can grow in the middle of the desert with water from the Nile. On the way home I will get my machete out of the trunk and cut you off a piece of the sugar cane."
"Bill! You don't really carry a machete around with you?" Mum asked admonished.
"Oh! Isn't that some sort of muggle sword?" Their Dad asked full of the enthusiasm their Mum lacked over the device. "Can you show me the irrigetty systems too?"
"I would love to Dad. I am friends with one of the witches who runs that plot over there." Bill pointed to his right.
"What is that big building on the left?" Ginny asked.
"That is the crocodile museum. The crocodile god Sobek is featured there. Mum and Dad could give him a real run for his galleons."
"Why is that?" asked Percy. "What is he the god of?"
"Fertility."
The car burst into laughter as Mum pretended to be scandalized. She swatted at Bill's arm before sticking her nose in the air. Ginny sat back in her seat and watched the sugar cane pass by her window as they drove to the museum. The Nile river flowed beside a temple with broad Corinthian columns with intricately embellished tops reached into the cloudless blue sky.
"Are we going to that temple?" Ginny asked. Her Mum started squirming in the front seat and quickly replied.
"No not today. We are much too busy with tombs, stop asking so many questions, Ginny."
They walked past the temple and into a simple rectangular stone building. Something about the temple called to Ginny as she turned to try and get a better look.
"What is in the temple? Can we go there later?" she pulled on her Mum's sleeve as they entered the building. The air conditioning blew icy cold air without the use of charms.
"Ginny, I said no more questions." Ginny sighed at her Mum's response. She looked around amazed at all the muggles and wizards streaming into the museum from the connecting temple. Cruise boats were docked on the Nile banks as people from all nationalities explored the temple in front of them.
Standing in a room surrounded by 300 mummified crocodiles, Ginny tried to take everything in around her. All the new sights, smells, and languages overwhelmed her senses. Her fingers itched for a quill. For the first time since last summer, she wanted to document all the new sensations she never wanted to forget. The idea of asking her Mum to buy her a new one filled her with regret. She remembered vividly the expression she wore after having the last one thrown in her face.
By noon, they left the museum. The twins were relatively well behaved and only tried to feed Ron to a live Crocodile once. They arrived at the first unmarked tomb. It didn't look like the previous temple with its large columns or like the big pyramids Ginny saw in her picture books. This one was smaller, more square at the entrance, like the museum. The hot desert sun reflected off the walls radiating heat. She could smell the heat out here, like a dry burning fire in the distance. The dust felt electrically charged as it bounced off her skin. In a distance, Ginny saw the heat waves rise above the sand in wiggling waving patterns. What looked like water in a pond flowed in the distance. She the heat burned her skin and desperately wanted to walk over and go for a swim.
"What's that?" Ginny pulled on Bill's shirt and pointed to the pond in the distance.
"That's a magical mirage. You could walk after it all day and night without ever getting a step closer. Unlike naturally made ones, only witches and wizards who are up to no good chase after it. The more ill-intent you have the stronger it calls to you. It's one of the first levels of protection we installed for the tomb. It is the opposite of a muggle repulsing charm. Come on it's time to go into the tomb."
Ginny turned and saw Fred and George wandering in the direction of the mirage. She laughed as she held back from her crowded family and pulled them over towards the tomb.
"Come on you two mischief makers, let's go take some of that ill intent and find ourselves our mini mummy."
