Act 2
Chapter 2: Shadowed Threats
Grimmauld Place had been in Sirius' possession since the death of his mother over fifteen years ago. In that time he had largely ignored the house until the last few years when he and Harry had begun using it as a base of operations when they were in England. The kitchen, Sirius' bedroom, and a spare bedroom for Harry were the only rooms one hundred percent clean and free of dangerous creatures and objects. A few other rooms like the library, sitting room, and bathrooms had been given a rudimentary cleaning and cleared of most dangerous objects allowing the two to live in the house mostly unbothered.
Since discovering the Vault, Harry had cleaned out one of the other spare bedrooms and turned it into a planning room as he began an investigation into the mysterious 'Lord' that Malfoy had mentioned shortly before his death. He had learned first hand the dangers of letting Dark Lord's run around unopposed, the sooner he exposed this one the better.
However, that was proving to be a rather difficult task.
An entire wall of the room had been covered in various clues Harry and Sirius had discovered in their search. Pictures of Malfoy and his four accomplices were stuck near the bottom of the wall with large red X over each of them. Above them was a copy of the brief interrogation the ICW performed on the three survivors before turning them over to the British Ministry. Two of them had claimed to know nothing about the person who hired them, while the third, Theodore Nott, had claimed that it was a powerful wizard both financially and politically who had hired Malfoy to kill the people trying to enter the Vault.
Above the interrogation transcript was an article from the Daily Prophet about the murders of the three survivors shortly after they were turned over to British custody. Outside of England the murders were considered a huge embarrassment to the government that was still trying to recover from the War with Voldemort. To have three prisoners who had just tried to assassinate a national hero die in custody before they could be questioned had made the British Ministry the laughing stock of the ICW. At home Minister Diggory had done his best to keep the story underwraps and the small article in the Prophet was proof that the media had not quite regained its pre-war freedom.
Next to the article from the Daily Prophet was a copy of the Auror's official report along with a list of suspects and pictures of each suspect. The report and the list of suspects had required Harry and Sirius to call in some huge favors from people within the Ministry. Kingsley Shacklebolt had provided them the list of Aurors and Ministry personnel on duty who had access to the prisoners and could commit the murder. Harry had to bribe the Minister of Magic himself with a photo-op and comment supporting the rebuilt Ministry in order to secure the official report. Minister Diggory had seemed relieved to hear that Harry was personally looking into the murders though.
There was a large open space above the article and the report before a piece of paper with a large red question mark was spelled to the wall just below the ceiling. Under the question mark Harry had simply scrawled the word 'Lord'. The rest of the room was almost empty except for a bubbling cauldron of polyjuice potion and a table littered with newspapers from the last month that Harry had poured over looking for some clue to this new Dark Lord's identity or actions. In the center of the room Harry stood staring at the wall without seeing it. He didn't need to look at the measly amount of evidence they had gathered so far as he'd already committed it all to memory.
He stepped forward and ran his fingers over the only two names left on the list of suspects that hadn't been crossed out. John Dawlish and Willem Savage were the only two people who could have been in a position to murder the three prisoners but for some reason the Auror department had only lightly interrogated the two before declaring them innocent and putting them back to work. The entire thing reeked of a coverup but Shacklebolt was insistent they had provided solid alibi's.
Harry was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't hear Sirius enter the room carrying a plate of sandwiches. "You've been in here for three hours staring at that wall," Sirius said causing Harry to jump at the unexpected noise. "Have a sandwich and let your mind take a break."
"I'm not hungry," Harry said almost automatically as he moved back to the table to pour over the Daily Prophet articles again.
"Harry," Sirius said, pushing the plate towards him.
"I'm really not that hungry Sirius. Mrs. Weasley made a feast last night, I'm still stuffed," Harry said, patting his stomach.
"Speaking of, how did meeting the family go?" Sirius questioned grabbing one of the sandwiches for himself.
"Her brothers didn't try to kill me, although I think Bill was close at one point," Harry answered. "Her parents were very welcoming, I think Mrs. Weasley might have bruised a rib with her hug."
"Molly was always a very affectionate person," Sirius said with a smile. "She and Arthur were seventh years when your parents and I started Hogwarts. She loved to mother us firsties."
"She's definitely a woman who's proud to be a mother," Harry mumbled as he read through the alibi's for Dawlish and Savage once again. "I think we're going to have to question Dawlish and Savage ourselves."
Sirius gave him a curious look as he bit into his sandwich. "I don't think they're going to just agree to let you question them Harry," he said after swallowing.
"We're going to have to kidnap them," Harry agreed.
"Kidnapping two aurors and holding them against their will are some serious crimes Harry," Sirius said. "You're sure there really is some hidden dark lord orchestrating things from the shadows?"
"Malfoy and his flunkies couldn't have just found the Vault without help," Harry answered. "Someone killed them to make sure their presence remained hidden."
"Well if we're going to do this, let's make sure we do it right," Sirius said with a sigh. "If Ginny gets back from Egypt and you're in Azkaban she'll kill me."
Harry smiled at the comment, his dour complexion brightening slightly at the mention of his girlfriend. "Not before she comes to Azkaban and kills me first," he said.
"True enough," Sirius said as he nodded, "So which one are we going after first?"
"Dawlish has the weaker alibi, and a penchant for drinking after work," Harry said as he pointed to the picture of the man. "He'll be the easier one to grab and if he's innocent we'll just make him think he blacked out."
"Sounds good, maybe we should prepare an interrogation room?" Sirius said.
"You do that, I'm going to track down some truth serum," Harry said as he headed out of the room. "I doubt he'll just tell us everything we need to know."
"Have you found anything yet?" Ginny asked as she stood behind a lanky rail thin man with neatly combed brown hair and a few days growth on his face. Peering over his shoulder she squinted her eyes trying to pierce the darkness just outside the dome of light created by their wands.
"Nothing," he answered as he continued to wave his wand about.
Ginny growled in frustration as she stepped past him and further into the room beginning to cast her own spells. "This doesn't make any sense, besides a couple defensive spells on the entrance we haven't found any trace of magical defenses in this tomb."
"Maybe Gringotts information about this tomb was wrong," a second man said as he entered the room carrying a box of equipment. This man was shorter than the first, slightly rotund and had darkly tanned skin from several years working in the Egyptian sun.
"Yeah boss, not every dig can be Grindelwald's Vault," the first man said with a smile.
"I was at least hoping for something mildly challenging Drake," Ginny answered, an amused smile playing across her lips. "We've been here three days and have almost nothing to show for it."
"Ahmed seemed really happy about that mosaic in the last room," the second man said pointing back over his shoulder towards a dark haired Egyptian man scribbling notes as he studied the wall length mosaic they'd found in the previous room.
"Williamson is right," Drake said as he cast some detection spells towards the far wall. "I heard Ahmed mumbling about the historical implications from the story on the mosaic."
"I'm sure the Cairo branch will be very excited to have the correct life story of some long dead Egyptian Wizard," Ginny said as she banished a scorpion that had crawled out of a crack in the wall next to her. "I'm also sure they would be much happier with gold and precious jewels… and maybe the body of the supposed wizard at rest here."
"I'm pretty sure this room is clear boss," Drake said as he began moving past Ginny towards the stone doorway at the far end of the chamber. Ginny followed closely behind him glancing at the hieroglyphics on wall and wondering what they said.
"What the-" Drake started to say as he stepped on a trigger stone that sunk beneath his foot with a loud thunk sound.
"Get down!" screamed Ginny as she grabbed the back of Drake's shirt and pulled him backwards and to the ground just as three large iron spears pistoned out of the wall on either side of the chamber.
"Holy shit!" Drake said as the spears slowly receded back into the wall, the light from their wands glinting off the rusted metal. "Boss you saved my life!"
"It was nothing," Ginny said looking worriedly at the spears as they disappeared into the wall. "Mark off that tile, Williamson go warn Ahmed to be on the look out for muggle traps, detection charms won't show them," she said glancing over her shoulder to the short man who seemed frozen in his spot a look of complete shock on his face. "Williamson! Now!" she shouted finally breaking the man from his stupor as he turned and carefully walked back into the previous room.
"Maybe this tomb isn't as boring as you thought, eh boss?" Drake asked with a casual smile as he finished circling the trapped tile with a glowing line of magic that would stay for several weeks.
"Maybe not," Ginny answered as she began lightly working her way towards the opposite doorway while tapping each tile hesitantly with her foot.
"Anotha rou' fer ma frien's!" John Dawlish slurred out as he slammed an empty pint glass on the counter.
"That's the third round you've bought Dawlish, sure you can afford it?" Aberforth Dumbledore asked as he started to pour another round of drinks for the drunk man.
"I jus got a load of money!" Dawlish said loudly as he dropped a decently sized coin purse on the counter. "Dirty dee's aint done dir' cheap!" he said with a loud laugh.
"This is your last round tonight John, after this you should go home and sober up," Aberforth said as he handed the glasses to one of Dawlish's less intoxicated friends. "Come back tomorrow if you want to buy more rounds."
"Ya know I will Aber," Dawlish said as he staggered back to the group of people he'd just bought another round of drinks for. As he fell into his seat he pulled a nearby woman onto his lap before slobbering on her face. The woman looked mildly disgusted but didn't complain as she was being paid rather well by the man whose hand was working it's way under her skirt.
"Sweetie why don't we go somewhere private?" she asked grabbing his wrist. He might be paying her but she'd rather not do her work in front of the entire bar.
"Soun's like a goo idea to me," he slurred. "Ma place is around the corner."
"I can't wait," she said as she half led, half carried him toward the door. At this rate he'd pass out before she even had to do anything and he'd just wake up in the morning a poorer and unfulfilled man.
The two had just rounded the corner at the end of the street when two red curses silently shot out of an empty alley knocking both Dawlish and the woman unconscious and sending them sprawling to the ground. A second later two black cloaked figures appeared from the darkened alley looking down at the two unconscious people before them.
"I was expecting at least some resistance from one of the top Auror's at the ministry," Sirius said sadly as he nudged the man with his toe.
"You weren't in the Hogs Head, he's so drunk he can barely stand," Harry said. "What should we do with his companion?"
"A light memory charm should be fine, then just leave her in the alley with a notice-me-not charm on her. She'll wake up in ten-fifteen minutes on her own," Sirius answered before casting the memory charm on the woman and levitating her towards the alley.
"Alright, I'll see you at home," Harry said as he reached down and grabbed the back of Dawlish's robes before disappearing with a pop.
"Sorry about all this luv," Sirius whispered to the unconscious woman. "I might swing by this weekend and make it up to you. Hope you're a regular at Aberforth's."
A jet of freezing cold water was what brought Dawlish back to consciousness. Coughing and spluttering as he tried to blink the water from his eyes he glanced around the mostly empty room. Across from him was an indistinct black haired man holding out his wand which was still dripping some water from the end of it. Seated next to him was another completely ordinary looking man, brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin and no distinguishing features.
"Morning John, I'd ask if you want some coffee but your current seating arrangement would probably hinder your ability to drink," the seated man said nodding towards where Dawlish's hands were chained securely to the arms of the chair he was seated in.
"You really screwed up grabbing me," Dawlish threatened. "I don't know what you want but you can guarantee that I'll be killing you once I get out of here."
"Kill us just like you killed these three?" the man asked sliding the pictures of Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, and Vincent Crabbe into the light.
Dawlish looked at the pictures his face giving away nothing. He stared silently for several quiet moments before leaning back in his chair staring silently at a spot just over the man in the chairs shoulder.
The younger man pulled the pictures back with a sigh, "I was hoping you'd cooperate."
"Then you're a fool," Dawlish spat.
"Orion," the younger man finally said and a spell shot from the standing mans wand. Dawlish felt all his muscles lock in place as the spell took effect. The standing man approached him withdrawing a small potion bottle and tilting Dawlish's head back slightly. He felt two drops of the potion pass by his slightly parted lips and then his mind hazed over.
"Now lets try again," the younger man said, "Did you kill these three?" he asked holding up the photo's once again.
"Yes," Dawlish said his voice monotone and his eyes unfocused.
"Why?"
"My lord commanded me to."
"Who is your lord?"
Dawlish's face scrunched up in pain as he fought against the truth serum, "I-I can't tell you."
"Why not?" Harry said leaning forward.
"He'll kill me."
"Tell me!" Harry shouted rising to his feet.
"L-Lord, L-Lord," Dawlish stuttered out the potion forcing him to answer. "L-Lord Y- AHHH!" he screamed before he could complete the name and began thrashing violently in the chair his eyes rolled back in his head. As he thrashed blood began to foam out of his mouth and horrible choking sounds escaped his quickly flooding throat.
"Sirius! What's happening!?" Harry yelled as they ran to the dying man's side.
"I'm not sure, the potion shouldn't cause him to react like this," Sirius said as he began casting diagnostic spells on the man. "He's dying, his organs are ripping themselves apart."
It took two minutes for the thrashing to stop and Dawlish to slump bonelessly in his chair blood still dripping from his mouth. Sirius and Harry had stood by unable to help the man as he died. When the thrashing finally stopped Sirius cast a final diagnostic spell on the body confirming he was dead before kneeling down beside him and closing the wide open horrified eyes.
"Sirius did we cause this?" Harry asked quietly his eyes never leaving the body.
"I-I don't know."
"Best guess then?" Harry snapped.
"I think he swore an unbreakable oath to not reveal his Master's name. So when we tried to force it out of him his magic literally tore him apart," Sirius answered.
"He swore an Unbreakable Oath!?" Harry shouted. "What kind of idiot would do that?"
"This kind apparently," Sirius quipped. "Listen Harry, why don't you head up to bed? I'll uh, I'll clean this up."
"Sirius-" Harry started before Sirius cut him off.
"No Harry, grabbing him and questioning him was one thing," Sirius said. "But this could be considered murder and I'd rather have you as far away as possible."
"Sirius I'm an adult and I was here," Harry said. "It was my fault for pushing the question."
"No it wasn't Harry, it was his own fault for swearing an Unbreakable Oath over a question he'd be asked if he was ever caught," Sirius placed both hands on Harry's shoulders staring him straight in the eyes, "This isn't your fault Harry."
"Saying that won't change how I feel about this Sirius," Harry said, glancing over Sirius' shoulder at the dead man.
"He killed three people Harry, he wasn't an innocent man. This is just like during the last war," Sirius said.
"He didn't die in battle Sirius, he died because I asked a question!"
Sirius sighed realizing he couldn't get through to Harry right now, "You know my opinion on this Harry, but I'm going to insist that you get out of here and let me handle this part."
"What are you going to do?" Harry asked after several long quiet moments.
"Transfigure his body into a stick or something and go find a secluded wooded area somewhere," Sirius answered. "I doubt anyone will ever find him and well it's not like we had anything connecting us to him."
Harry stared at the corpse for several long silent moments but Sirius couldn't be sure if he was actually seeing the body. "Thank you Sirius," he finally whispered quietly before heading out of the room.
"No problem kiddo," Sirius said quietly to the empty room before turning towards the body.
"It's not a bad haul boss," Drake said as he carefully finished putting a pile of gold into a bag with Gringotts seal on it.
"It's not terrible," Ginny agreed as she weighed a gold statue they'd recovered. "But we haven't found the burial chamber yet, hopefully there's more treasure in there."
"These scrolls have so much information in them," Ahmed the groups translator and local historian said as he carefully opened one of the rolled up papyrus scrolls they had recovered. "I believe the wizard in this tomb may be a descendant of Tutankhamun himself, perhaps only two or three generations removed."
Ginny only had a basic knowledge of the muggle pharaohs from her history lessons during training but she remembered enough to know Tutankhamun was one of the more famous ones. "So a good chance of finding more treasure in the burial chamber?" she asked while notating the weight of the statue.
"Most likely," Ahmed said distractedly as he began translating the ancient scroll.
"Think you'll find the chamber tomorrow?" Williamson asked as he put down a box filled with some of the treasure they had found that day.
"Most likely," Ginny answered. "The magical protections have definitely increased in the last day so I think we're getting close. We might even break through to the chamber before you get back from your supply run tomorrow."
"Hope not, I want to be here when you finally crack this thing," he said. "Besides who will do all the heavy lifting if I'm not here?" he asked puffing up his chest and flexing his arms.
Ginny flicked her wand and began easily levitating the box Williamson had just carried in. "I'm sure we'll manage," she said smugly as the box settled in front of her on the table.
"Right, magic," Williamson said as he deflated slightly.
"Master Harry a letter arrived for you," Kreacher the house elf said as Harry entered the kitchen.
"Thank you Kreacher, could you prepare me a cup of tea and some scones?" Harry asked as he picked up the official looking envelope with his name on it.
"My pleasure Master Harry," Kreacher said as he shuffled towards the stove.
"And please just Harry," he added with a smile and he unfolded the letter.
Mr. Potter,
We have received several requests from Gringotts bank as to whether there were any personal journals or spellbooks from Merlin included in our inventory from the Vault of Grindelwald. We have informed them that we do not have any such artifacts in our possession. However, records indicate you kept several items including a few books as your finders right.
If you have books belonging to Merlin in your possession we ask that you promptly respond to this letter so that we can inform Gringotts.
Best Regards,
Oliver Dupont
Head of Magical Artifact Recovery and Storage
Harry put down the letter just as Kreacher set a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits before him. Harry knew Oliver pretty well and reading between the lines realized that Gringotts had made more than a few requests and several of them had probably been under the table and involved bribes. The ICW in this case would have been open with the bank as to whether they had the journal or not, but if he was being written directly then someone at the bank wanted the book desperately enough that the ICW saw a chance to trade for something of greater value to them.
"Kreacher I need to head to Diagon Alley, just let Sirius know whenever he wakes up," Harry asked as he grabbed his cloak, a sudden sense of unease about Merlin's Journal overcoming him.
Harry enjoyed visiting Diagon Alley in the morning. The small normally crowded street was almost deserted except for a few other early morning shoppers waiting patiently for the shopkeepers to open their stores. He was leaning against a building just across from the bank so he had a perfect view of all the approaching wizards and witches, most just coming to withdraw money before heading off to do their shopping. However, some were bank employees enjoying an early morning walk to work instead of simply using the Floo to get to the bank lobby.
At 8:55 am sharp Harry watched Hermione walk out the door of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and begin making her way down the alley greeting several shop keepers as she passed. A small part of him secretly enjoyed knowing he was about to throw off her well kept schedule. As she moved past him at 8:57 he stepped forward slightly into her path meeting her eye with a friendly smile.
"Hey Hermione," he greeted.
"Oh! Hello Harry, how are you?" she said glancing past his shoulder to the open doors of Gringotts. He could almost see her mind calculating how much faster she would have to walk to get to the building by 9am.
"I'm doing pretty well," he answered. "I know you're probably in a hurry to get to work, I just wanted to know if you had finished with that journal Ginny and I gave you."
Hermione shifted uncomfortably, her eyes refusing to meet his, "Oh, well, uh, no not yet. I've been rather, er- busy recently and haven't had a chance to finish translating it yet."
"Really?" Harry asked, wondering why the simple question had made Hermione uncomfortable and why she was obviously lying to him. "It's just I've received word from the ICW that some people are looking for the journal to study it and I was hoping you'd be willing to let them borrow it for a while."
"Oh! Well I left it at home and I am in a bit of a rush. Is there anyway I can get it to you later this week?" Hermione asked as she tried to step past Harry.
"Hermione is there something wrong?" he asked placing a hand gently on her arm to stop her while forcing her to look him in the eye.
"What!? No! N-Nothing at all!" she practically shrieked, her voice cracking at one point.
"You're a terrible liar Hermione," Harry responded with a smirk.
This time Hermione deflated and let out a defeated sigh, "I know."
"So what are you trying to hide? Is the journal damaged?"
Hermione gasped in a mix of horror and outrage. "How dare you think I would let harm come to such an important book! I would never let any book be damaged if I could prevent it!" she practically shouted at him.
Harry took a step back raising both his hands in defeat, glancing around the alley that was slowly beginning to fill with people. "Ok, well if it isn't damaged then why are you lying about it?"
"Well, I-I did finish translating the journal," Hermione said.
"Alright, and?" Harry prodded not sure where this was going.
"Well, you see you can't tell Ginny I told you even though she'll probably figure it out on her own and be really mad at me no matter what but you can't tell her-" Hermione began to ramble.
"Hermione! Why didn't Ginny want me to know you had translated the journal? What did you find?" Harry asked as a cold chill began to run down his spine, something wasn't right here and he was missing a huge clue.
"The journal ended with Merlin going to the magical Library of Alexandria, which most people had thought was destroyed. So Ginny was going to go find the Library after her current dig," Hermione said nervously wringing her hands, "I-I don't think she wanted you to be involved so that she could prove she hadn't gotten lucky the first time and that you'd done all the work. Some of the other Curse Breakers haven't exactly been nice to her over your rumored relationship."
"And the Library's location was the only important fact in the journal? No powerful spells or anything people could use?" Harry pushed.
"No nothing, I believe he kept a separate grimoire for recording the magic he discovered. The rest of the journal really just supported most of the things we already knew about his life," Hermione answered quickly.
"Did you tell anyone else about this besides me and Ginny?" Harry asked, the sixth sense for danger he had developed during the war practically screaming at him.
"No one, I swear!" Hermione said. "B-But Ginny would have had to tell the Head Curse Breaker to get permission to go find the Library."
"York?" Harry asked having heard of the man but never meeting him.
"Lord York," Hermione corrected while nodding.
Harry's brain froze for a second as he registered Hermione's words, "L-Lord?"
"Yes Lord York, it's not a self appointed title, he inherited it. I believe he's second generation magical but his family has a seat in Parliament and I believe holds the title of Baron or Viscount I'm not sure," Hermione explained.
Suddenly all the pieces began to fall into place: how Draco had found them and why the requests for the Journal were coming from Gringotts, there were still questions but York being the Dark Lord Harry had been looking for made sense, if not he at least could work for the man. All this meant was that if the Library was really York's goal then Ginny was in trouble.
"- so it's likely one of his ancestors-" Hermione was still talking about York had come by his title.
"Hermione!" Harry snapped interrupting her. "I have to go, I think Ginny might be in danger."
"What!? Really?" Hermione questioned grabbing his arm to stop him from leaving.
"Yes there's something wrong, I don't have time to explain," Harry said pulling his arm from her grip.
"Is that why she didn't check in?" Hermione questioned.
"What!?" Harry spun back to face the woman.
"B-Bill came by yesterday to ask if I had heard from Ginny, she missed her first scheduled field report," Hermione said her eyes suddenly wide.
"Hermione go to work you never saw me," Harry said as he took off sprinting down the Alley towards the nearest apparition point, pulling out his mirror as he went, "Sirius!"
"Harry? What's wrong?" Sirius asked a second later as his face appeared in the small mirror.
"I need a flight to Cairo now! No time to explain get me on the next flight I'm heading straight to Heathrow!" Harry said as he slid to a halt at the entrance to Diagon Alley.
"Ticket will be ready in five minutes," Sirius said as he cut the connection.
"Drake watch out!" Ginny shouted as a fireball materialized from thin air and shot towards her partner.
"I see it!" he shouted back casting a fire freezing spell just in time. "Whatever is through that door someone really doesn't want us getting to it."
"Which means it's probably very valuable," Ginny said as she banished several cobras that had been slithering towards her.
The architect of this tomb had been exceptionally good. The door from the previous room hadn't been trapped by magical means, but when opened it triggered another smaller door on the opposite side of the room that contained cobras placed under a stasis charm. The smaller door opening released the stasis spell setting the cobras loose. The cobras moving across the floor triggered a number of other traps which included the fireballs Drake had just barely been dodging. For some reason the cobras had zeroed in on Ginny heading straight for her with alarming speed.
One of the cobras slithered across another rune activating another trap as a panel in the ceiling pulled aside with a menacing rumbling sound. Dozens of scorpions began to drop from the ceiling, spreading in all directions but mostly heading towards the open doorway which currently contained Ginny and Drake.
"Drake transfigure that hole closed!" Ginny shouted as she conjured a small perfectly smooth wall at their feet to keep the snakes and scorpions back. The wave of scorpions eventually brought down the remaining cobras but their number was beginning to pile up against the wall creating a ramp.
"Got it!" Drake called as the hole in the ceiling finally sealed cutting off the tide of scorpions, despite there already being several hundred completely covering the floor of the room. "It will take hours to vanish all these scorpions," he said as he finally got a look at the room.
Ginny glanced around the room, noting that the fireballs had stopped and that there didn't seem to be any other traps being triggered by the scorpions. "Cast detection charms all over the room, I want to know if there's any more traps we have to worry about," she said before beginning to cast her own detection spells.
"What about the scorpions!?" Drake shouted. "They're going to get over that wall soon!"
"Just do it!" Ginny shouted back continuing to cast her own spells. After about a minute they determined the room was in fact clear of any further traps and Ginny stepped up to the wall she had created. "Incendio!" she shouted as a stream of flames sprouted from her wand landing squarely in the center of the room and spreading outwards over the carpet of scorpions. The scorpions began fleeing the approaching flames but in under a minute the entire floor of the room was engulfed in flames.
"What are you doing!?" Ahmed shouted as he ran up behind the duo and looked at the flames in horror.
"She's getting rid of the scorpions," Drake answered a hint of respect in his voice.
"Scorpions!?" Ahmed questioned looking back into the room. "But the flames are most likely damaging the hieroglyphics on the walls! They'll be unreadable now!"
"Sorry big guy, but the lady is in charge and she decided to burn the little blighters," Drake said placing a consoling hand on Ahmed's shoulder. "But, we're probably close to the burial chamber so just think of all the educational crap you can find in there."
"I will be including this in my report!" Ahmed growled as he shrugged off Drake's hand and turned to head back to a previous room.
"I probably should have come up with a better way to deal with them," Ginny said her eyes not leaving the flames as they began to die down.
"This was the quickest way boss, any other way would have taken us hours," Drake said as he began to conjure water to put out the flames.
"We're not in a race, I should have taken my time to preserve the room," Ginny berated herself, "It was a rookie mistake."
"No offense boss, you are a rookie," Drake said with a smile. "If anything I should have stopped you, being the more learned and wizened member of the group."
Ginny smirked but still didn't look happy about her mistake, "Come on, I'm almost sure the next room is the burial chamber. Let's get it open before Williamson gets back from the supply run."
Two hours later Williamson entered the Burial Chamber of the tomb levitating several large crates behind him. Most of them were empty to hold the treasure as the team catalogued it but a few were various supplies he had gotten on his supply run to the main Curse Breaker camp several kilometers to the north.
"Aw you guys didn't wait for me!" Williamson said as he looked around at the impressive amount of treasure that had been held in the burial chamber.
"Sorry but since you got to miss the cobras and scorpions we figured it was well within our rights to open the burial chamber without you," Drake said as he wrote down some notes on the golden rings adorned in precious stones he was wearing on his left hand.
"Cobras and scorpions?" Williamson asked as he settled the crates down. "Is that what those scorch marks in the other room are about?"
"Yeah boss lady went full pyromaniac on the little buggers," Drake confirmed with a laugh.
"Ruined hieroglyphics that were thousands of years old!" Ahmed snapped from where he was photographing one of the walls to refer to later.
"I'm sure it will be fine Ahmed," Williamson said as he noticed the sudden tensing of Ginny's shoulders. "I got a package from the main base for you Ginny, seemed important," he said pulling a large unopened plain brown crate from the top of the pile. "But before you open that, I ran into your boyfriend at HQ and he seems pretty desperate to see you. I made him wait up at the campsite, if you want I can go tell him to shove off."
"My boyfriend?" Ginny questioned playing dumb while trying to think of why Harry would be here.
Drake and Williamson shared a pointed look before Williamson continued, "Yeah Mr. Potter is waiting by your tent. You might want to talk to him, how he found out you missed a field report turn in is beyond me but if he comes run-"
"What?" Ginny interrupted. "I didn't miss turning in a field report, I sent it off three days ago."
Williamson looked confused as he glanced back over his shoulder towards the entrance. "Potter said Gringotts hadn't received your field report and was asking if anyone had heard from you," he said.
"I'll go see what he's on about," Ginny said heading towards the exit. "Just keep cataloguing the burial chamber."
"What about your package?" Williamson called holding up the crate with a grunt of effort.
"I'll open it when I get back." Ginny called back as she disappeared around a corner.
"Think we should follow her?" Drake asked. "To make sure she's alright," he added quickly when Williamson shot him a raised eyebrow.
"Nah she's a tough girl, she can handle Potter," Williamson said as he turned to put down the crate. "What the hell have they got in here? Weighs a ton."
"Don't know, never heard of a priority package for a team leader before," Drake answered eyeing the crate curiously. "Think we should take a peek?" he whispered quietly coming to stand beside Williamson and the package.
"It's a private package for Weasley, it'd be wrong to go snooping through her things," Williamson said his fingers already on the latch to the crate.
Standard procedure amongst Curse Breakers was to set up camp at least one hundred meters from the entrance to a tomb. So after spending a few minutes to climb her way out of the tomb itself Ginny still had a decent walk from the entrance of the tomb back to camp. As she crossed the mostly open space to the campsite she saw a tall man with black hair pacing nervously next to her tent.
"What are you doing here Harry?" she asked herself quietly.
She was about thirty meters from the entrance to the tomb when Harry caught sight of her and started moving towards her shouting something she couldn't quite make out.
"I can't hear you Harry!" she attempted to shout back still walking casually towards him.
Several things happened in quick succession as Ginny finished shouting. The ground beneath her began to shake violently a second before a loud 'Whumpf' sound deafened her. Almost simultaneously following the sound that deafened her something slammed into her back sending her soaring through the air end over end until the world was an indistinguishable blur of color and light.
The last thing Ginny Weasley saw was a large boulder that had rested between the tomb and the camp.
The sun was setting, already hanging just barely above the horizon as Molly and Arthur Weasley settled in for dinner. The house was abnormally quiet as all of their children had moved out and lived in their own homes and in most cases with their own families. It was quiet nights like these where Arthur Weasley was happy to count his many blessings and simply watch his wife as she bustled around the kitchen making sure everything had been prepared properly.
Over the quiet humming of his wife he could just make out the quiet snickering of the garden gnomes floating through the open kitchen window. He was getting too old to chase the little critters around the garden, but perhaps some of the boys would be up for coming home to help this weekend. As he mentally listed some other chores that he could use some help with the quiet evening was broken by a loud, sharp crack as someone apparated into the yard.
"Can you see who it is Mollywobbles?" Arthur asked from his spot, paranoia from the war had him subconsciously reaching for his wand.
"It's Bill!" Molly said happily as she peered through the window into the gathering darkness before heading to the kitchen door to let him in. "Bill dear!" she said pulling him into a tight hug. "Are you alright? You look pale, have you caught a summer cold?" she ask ushering him towards a chair. "Have a seat I have some pepper-up potion in the pantry."
"No mum, I-I'm ok but I need to tell you something," Bill said stepping out of his mother's grip and instead guiding her towards a chair.
"Are you alright son?" Arthur asked curiously. "You haven't looked this sick since you found out Fleur was pregnant."
"Oh! Are you and Fleur expecting again!?" Molly cried happily, the wheels in her head already turning as she began making plans for another baby blanket she would have to knit.
"No mum, Fleur isn't pregnant," Bill said running a hand over his face his eyes glancing to the broken family clock that still rested on the mantle. "I-I don't know how to tell you this."
"Tell us what son?" Arthur asked a sense of foreboding coming over him.
"T-There was an accident at work," Bill began.
"Are you alright!? Did those wretched goblins fire y-" Molly cut him off once again.
"No mum! The accident wasn't at Gringotts! It was in Egypt," Bill said quietly, willing his parents to understand what he was trying to say.
"No," Arthur whispered catching on to what Bill was trying to say. "I-Is she hurt? How badly? What happened Bill!?" the normally quiet matriarch of the Weasley family shouted.
"We're not sure," Bill said. "There was an explosion at the tomb Ginny was working in," he swallowed as he saw the small spark of hope in his parents tear filled eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he sobbed.
The quiet night air around the Burrow was shattered by a loud wail as a mother learned of the death of her only daughter.
Sorry for the long delay, and sorry in advance for probably not posting the next chapter for a few weeks... I'm sure you will all be fine though.