Authors' Notes: This story is part of an ongoing epic involving a natural Legilimens named Sydney (Siggy) Whetstone, a first year student at Hogwarts, his cat Morpheus, Severus Snape (who has become Siggy's guardian following the death of his abusive uncle), and Hermione Granger, who is studying Morpheus, a maneki neko with unusual magical powers. It takes place in roughly 2007 or thereabouts.

A Trip To Remember

A collaborative effort by Sinistra_Furze and SadiraSnape

CHAPTER 5 – Curse Breaking a Tomb

…and back again.

Well, I can't tell it all in a letter but what an amazing day!

Siggy led the way, crumpled map in hand, to the tombs. There was no clear path, but he stopped several times to look around, getting his bearings and sniffing the wind like a hound. It would have been comical to watch if it wasn't for the serious expression on Siggy's face.

When we arrived he asked us to wait and approached the site carefully. He stopped outside a small stone structure, not much bigger than a garden shed and only five feet high. The ground about was untended, there were no signs of recent habitation or use. I'd imagined Siggy would start trying to get in at once, but he sat down in the dust and stared at the door for ages. Being far from the village there were no sounds of human activity, no traffic, no animals, only the scrape of stones as I shuffled my feet nervously.

After another five minutes of nothing it first crossed my mind that Siggy didn't know what to do next. I opened my mouth to speak, but Severus warned me with a glare and shake of the head not to make a sound. He was watching the scene intently, fingers ready to draw his wand.

As I watched, a wisp of smoke curled from under the portal. A strong scent of myrrh drifted over. Then, at first so low it could hardly be heard, a muffled wailing quickly growing louder. In the absence of other sounds the moaning wail became all I could hear, almost hypnotic in its intensity. Siggy jumped up and pressed his hands to the stone door. He whispered something and listened for a reply. There was none, the noise died down and Siggy stepped back still focussed on the door as the smoke thickened and curled around his feet.

The sound of stone on stone, grating, a crackle of magical energy, followed by the orange flash of a spell, a cloud of smoke and the flickering of fire from inside the tomb. And like a ghost, covered in dust, through the smoke came a small animal. The creature stalked towards Siggy and - jumped up into his arms. It was Morpheus.

While I gaped in astonishment Siggy hugged his pet affectionately, getting covered in dust.

And then, from the tomb another creature emerged through the smoke. A large eagle sized bird, shaking the dust from its red and gold feathers, spreading its wings and crying out a beautiful piercing song. It was a phoenix. As we watched in awe as it paced a few steps and took flight, circling us several times as it rose higher on the air. Then in a bright flash of light it disappeared. As we gazed at the empty sky where it had been, three feathers drifted slowly downwards, one to each of us.

Once I'd cleared my head a bit I walked over to Siggy. He was beaming with happiness.

"Don't go in there yet," he said, meaning the tomb.

"What's inside?" Severus asked him, from over my shoulder.

"I'm not sure, but it will be dangerous to enter. Don't touch anything made from gold, or that looks valuable." He paused "actually I think we should seal it again straight away, to contain the remaining curses."

Severus went over to the entrance, but it was impossible to see inside because of all the smoke from the burning incense. As the smoke swirled around him his olive clothing blended in and for a moment I wasn't sure if he was still there. Suddenly I was worried he'd tried to enter the tomb. What if….. But the smoke cleared for a moment and I saw Severus standing by the entrance, wand ready. He muttered something quietly and the door to the tomb closed up with a final clunk.

Suddenly it seemed very quiet again. I realised there had been a presence, unheard and unseen, but there nevertheless and the sealing of the tomb had shut it in. We were back to silence, the quiet of the desert. If it were not for the purring of the cat I might have had trouble believing any of the last five minutes had actually happened.

We walked silently back to the village, Morpheus in the lead, the feathers safely stowed away in my bag. The normality of the village soothed me. The sound of cars driving by, the bark of a dog, squeals of children playing behind a high-walled courtyard. I hadn't realised how nervous I'd been, about what we might discover, and with concern for the safety of my two companions.

Severus led us to a café and we sat outside sipping mint tea, under the shade as the rising heat of the day beat down on the already parched street.

"We'll go back to our lodgings" said Severus, eventually "I think you owe us an explanation, Siggy."

…

Morpheus sat on Siggy's bed, washing himself thoroughly, pausing occasionally to inspect the humans with an appraising eye.

Severus cleared his throat "Well?"

Siggy began…"Well, Uncle Ambrose and I came here last year. He'd heard there was some amazing treasure in the tomb, but couldn't work out how to break in. He thought there were ghouls or something like that inside because of the moaning sound. But I felt something different. There was something trapped in the tomb but I realised after Uncle Ambrose failed that it could only be opened from the inside. Obviously apparating into an unknown tomb, protected by curses was stupid, so I did some reading in the Restricted Section once I got to School last September. Most people would be looking for a means to force a way in, but I realised I needed to bring gold or precious items into the tomb before it would let anything out. Morpheus apparated in with a bag of gold and precious things. This released the restraining curse, and allowed the phoenix to burn the incense it needed to be re-born. You saw the rest. There is a lot of valuable stuff in the tomb now, but I wouldn't try to get it out."

"Where did you get the valuables?" asked Severus.

"Errr. Morpheus found things that he liked. He collects stuff, you know. And I gave him some catnip so he could apparate." Siggy looked a little nervous as he said this, knowing full well he'd been told expressly not to allow any catnip. Morpheus, as if sensing himself the subject of the conversation, paused and watched us carefully, before resuming his wash.

"And to whom did those expensive little trinkets belong?" continued Severus.

I could see that up to now Siggy hadn't considered ownership of much importance. He seemed more concerned with the welfare of the magical creatures he encountered than the people. He looked down and fiddled with his shoelaces.

"….I hope none belonged to Mr Valentinas."

My heart sank. After all that lovely hospitality, those bathrooms….what could I say!

"Oh no! Morpheus is much smarter than that."

Severus scowled at the unintended slight.

"Is there anything else you wanted to do here?" asked Severus.

"No."

"Then we should be on our way. Pack up your bags immediately; I'll have a word with our hosts about transport."

When he'd gone I looked across at Siggy. Who looked at me and grinned. He was pleased with himself; being able to free the phoenix was more important to him than the gold, and for once it was all his own work. We had stood back watching just in case, but I could see from the light in his eyes that this was a big step for Siggy, and I was pleased for him. I grinned back.

It was a long and painful journey back on the bus, worse because I knew in advance how uncomfortable it was going to be. My bones rattled and I bounced on the seat at every pot-hole; I must have bruises on my bruises. Severus kept to himself, not talking, but watching us sideways out of half-closed eyes, smirking occasionally, though I saw nothing to be happy about.

Siggy chattered along to Morpheus like the cat knew what he was saying. I confess I do that with Crookshanks, but shhhhh.

I recalled that Siggy said he'd been in the Restricted Section of the Library, and I wondered who had let a First year in there. Not Severus, I'm sure, as he frowned when he heard of it.

Ooooffffff! I'm worn out, so I'll finish here, before I fall asleep on this blissfully soft bed. Write to me soon, letting me know how everyone is doing.

Love

Hermione

18 July

Part 2 – the assault

We rose fairly early that morning, none the worse for our interrupted sleep. No one mentioned it, so I chose to keep my own counsel regarding the incident. Siggy was looking a bit hollow-eyed; if he did indeed tap into my dream, I shouldn't wonder he's a bit frayed about the edges. My dreams tend not to be the most pleasant sort.

He led us to the tomb of interest, which from what I could make of the hieroglyphs was the resting place of the wizard Amahté-Sabé, claimed to be the "Possessor of the Living Flame". I could find nothing else that itemized the curses on the place, and glanced at Siggy. He had seated himself on the ground about 2 or 3 yards from the tomb, and was staring fixedly at the door. I could feel that slight pressure behind my eyes that lets me know another Legilimens is operating nearby, so I knew that Siggy was communicating with something either in the tomb, or in the vicinity. So I waited.

Hermione, of course, being a Gryffindor, is all action and to hell with planning. After about 10 minutes, she was about to speak to Siggy and interrupt his concentration – I managed to catch her eye before she could blurt out some nonsense and possibly ruin the entire proceedings. I shook my head at her, and made it obvious I was ready with my wand. As if I'd be just skylarking around while a 12 year old tried his hand at curse-breaking… She shut her mouth with an almost audible snap and continued shifting nervously from foot to foot.

Finally Siggy's curse breaking bore fruit - or rather, a maneki neko. After much smoke, wailing, and quite unnecessary pyrotechnics, the tomb opened and who should stroll out but his dratted cat. Which promptly leapt into Siggy's arms, coating him in tomb dust.

Wonderful.

I had just settled my wand back when, much to my surprise, a superb specimen of an Arabian phoenix left the tomb and flew away, gifting each of us with a feather. I must admit, this was completely unlooked for – I daresay my jaw dropped as much as Hermione's did, although I like to think I closed mine almost immediately. Hermione did not. Siggy caught his with a joyful laugh, Hermione and I a bit later (once we came out of our shock). Phoenix feathers are not gifted lightly…

After a bit of thought, Siggy agreed that it would be best to seal the tomb again, which I did immediately. A good thing, too, for the spirit in the tomb was preparing to work some sort of mischief.

We walked back to the village, each lost in our own thoughts. I am eager to research meanings of phoenix feathers, although most likely I will be overthinking it as usual, and it will be nothing more than a particularly rare and lovely gift, bestowed as thanks for releasing the creature from the tomb...

After refreshing ourselves with mint tea, we returned to our lodgings. Siggy explained how he was able to break the tomb and release the phoenix. Satisfied that he'd not engaged in any Dark Magic, and that Morpheus hadn't pilfered from any embarrassing sources, I directed the two to pack while I settled up with our hosts.

I must inquire further of Siggy how he managed to gain access to the Restricted Section of the library. I know Potter managed it, because he had his felonious father's Invisibility Cloak, but surely Siggy has nothing of the kind... I shall have to investigate this.

Our journey back was in the same 2-strips-of-leather-and-a-prayer jitney we arrived in. I had managed to procure a soft cushion from our hosts in exchange for a few coins, and traveled in relative comfort while watching Hermione bounce most deliciously. I'm sure she caught me observing her several times, but I don't seem to care anymore - in fact I believe I'd welcome her noticing me noticing her.

Naturally I Disillusioned the cushion before settling on it – if she'd seen it, she might have attempted an appeal to my more gentlemanly instincts and requested the use of it. Hah!

I shall of course gallantly offer my Debruising Lotion again, as well as my services as the applicator. One thing I shall not be offering is my opinion on the suitability of her undergarments - that would spoil all the fun of Hermione in motion!