Rita Skeeter was not a fan of the heat. That being said, an exclusive interview with the Harry Potter, who had been presumed dead until the goblins confirmed he was in fact alive and well, was something she wouldn't dare pass up.
A young man (and he qualified as a man of late twenties and not a teen like Harry was supposed to be) approached her. Beside him was the supposed Egyptian Death Eater (not that Rita bought that tripe... the man didn't have a single Dark Mark on him and he had the feel that he wouldn't care for authority anyway) and two young men with hair so white they made the Malfoy family look pale.
"Ms. Skeeter, I presume?" said the young man.
"And you are?"
"I believe you English refer to me as Harry Potter."
She straightened. He had black hair and emerald green eyes. Aside from being older than he was supposed to, he fit the description.
"Where's the scar?"
Harry lifted his bangs, revealing a thin lightning bolt scar that was faded. It was clear that whatever had caused it was gone.
Harry called over a waiter for some tea, and the man took one look at his face and bowed deeply.
Harry hated the fame he had in England, but he was proud of the fact he was a celebrity among the magicals in Egypt. Partially because it was his home, but mostly because he had earned that fame.
Here he was known as the only expert in the Ancient Spells, and he came to Egypt's magical schools occasionally as a guest lecturer and shared his magical knowledge.
Well that and as the owner as the largest number of Jeweled Scarabs and ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world.
"So tell me Mr. Potter, how is it you look in your twenties and not 16 like your birth certificate claims?" asked Rita.
Harry paused, and handed her a new quill.
"While I can only assume that you are a professional, I took the liberty of bringing a quill that is enchanted to only write what we say word for word. Excuse me for being cautious, however I am fully aware that there are very few libel laws in the English Magical Communities," said Harry smoothly.
Behind him the younger white-haired boy choked on his tea, obviously failing to hide his laughter.
Rita accepted the quill with grace, her own was getting a little frayed anyway. Besides, something told her this interview would be scandalous enough for her tastes without her interference.
"As I was saying... Why is it you look to be in your twenties and not 16 like your birth certificate claims, Mr. Potter?"
"Because I am in my twenties. I'm nearing twenty-five to be exact."
"How did you manage to age nine years?" asked Rita.
"Naturally of course. No magic was involved... Well, that is not entirely true, there was a little but it wasn't on my part. When I was a young child, roughly seven or eight, I was taken from the residence someone had so rudely forced upon me and dropped in the middle of the Egyptian desert exactly 5,000 years ago."
"Who dropped you in the past?"
"The goddess Bast. I learned quite a bit later, much later in fact, that she had done it mostly to anger Ra, since it was partly his fault I was forced to live with my so called maternal aunt Petunia Dursley."
"So you have problems with Muggles."
"If you mean non-magicals, then the answer is no. However I do have issues with a woman who was so bitter about not being allowed inside your precious school for magically inclined children that she took it out on her own flesh and blood. Her own husband considers magically inclined people to be freaks of nature, and they took many opportunities to, for lack of a better term 'beat the freakishness' out of me. I can only assume she mentioned the fact her sister was magical to her husband who took it the wrong way. They spoiled their own son so much that the last time I remember seeing him he resembled a small pig who didn't know the meaning of restraint. You can see why I never attempted to find my way back to England."
Rita was horrified. How dare those muggles attempt to beat the magic out of a child! Even she wouldn't try something so cruel.
"Of course Ancient Egypt wasn't without it's own perils. My brother and I often had to steal food for our family. At least we did right up until the Pharaoh's soldiers killed everyone for a foul magic ritual. Bast saved my brother and I, but everything we knew was gone."
"What proof do you have that you lived in Ancient Egypt?" she asked. No way were people going to by this without hard concrete evidence.
Harry laughed, and waved his hand. A scarab appeared, one that was out of it's shell. Rita froze, not wanting that thing anywhere near her even though her animagi form was a beetle. That thing was right up there with a Behemoth and a pissed off Dragon when in great numbers.
The thing chittered and thanks to her animal form she understood it. It called him Master.
Harry absentmindedly petted it, and the beetle scurried up his arm and never made a move to dive into his flesh to eat him alive.
"This proof enough? The Ancient Egyptians had a spell that has since been lost to keep Scarabs in their shells, and there are tombs littered with them all around Egypt. Not only can I control them to an extent, but I raise them. I even have a small side dimension that is filled with the little things where they can live and not worry about humans stealing their eggs to line their treasure rooms with."
Rita was pale, but if nothing else this confirmed his story. Only the Ancient Egyptians could ever control Scarabs, and that spell was long since destroyed by invading armies. And yet here he had one on his shoulder like...like a bloody pet!
(Because of her animal form, she had a fascination for scarabs. Particularly the Jeweled kind, which were fortunately extremely rare. To have even one was a sign of wealth, so long as it was in the shell.)
"How did you come back? I thought you said you had no interest in returning to England."
"I was forced back against my will by a certain meddling old man. I believe you know of him as well Ms. Skeeter. The last article of yours I read about him, which was why I chose you for the interview, called him a senile old goat with no fashion sense."
Her mouth went dry.
"You're talking about Albus Dumbledore?"
"I'm talking about an old man who should have retired decades ago at the end of the last war with Grindlewald. He forced me to return through time, though fortunately I had recently acquired an artifact which blocked the first attempt. It gave me ample time to work out an arrangement with the goblin clans here and create a new identity so as to avoid the one who brought me back by force. Of course once the Egyptian Minister learned who I was and what I had in my possession he couldn't help me fast enough."
Rita could only imagine. A man with the spell to control Jeweled Scarabs out of the shell would be worth many times his weight in gold. Let alone the other old spells long since lost.
Not to mention the fact that the goblins would probably salivate with the ability to get their hands on ancient gold.
"What is your grudge against Dumbledore?"
"For starters, it is entirely his fault I was at my aunt's and forced to stay there. Bast informed me of a spell that would make it impossible for anyone barring a seasoned auror to remove me from the home, even if there was clear evidence of abuse. Not to mention the wards on mail and magic suppressors that she removed once I was in Egypt. Then there was the fact that right before I was going to save my brother from fighting the Pharaoh and his...cohorts, I was dragged in a very painful manner through time and dropped in a time I had long since lost interest in. When he finally managed to summon me, he tried to coerce me into fighting a war I have no part in since my parents were killed. But my biggest issue is that he sealed my cousin's magic when he had been kidnapped by actual Death Eaters and forced to come to England and then thrown into Azkaban after a farce of a trial."
"Your cousin? I was under the impression you had no relatives other than the muggles?" said Rita. Now here was a real scoop!
"Marik here is my cousin. In actuality he's my descendant, but it's easier to claim he's my cousin. His sister is the current curator for the Magical Branch of the Egyptian Museum, though she is currently on loan to the Japanese Museum. Rashid back there is my cousin through adoption, and Bakura is my brother. Somehow he got himself reincarnated into an almost perfect double. How, I have no idea, but I don't particularly care."
The more Harry talked, the bigger the cut Rita saw coming her way. This was already a huge article, but the fact that Harry had no love for the Ministry, Dumbledore or Voldemort (let alone any interest in dealing with said Dark Lord since he had no reason to go after him) made it even bigger.
Well, that and the fact that he had attained lordship in Egypt without having to rely on his father's family. According to the account manager from Gringotts (who happened to be there on break) Harry's vault was already three times the size of the Potter family's entire fortune, and he hadn't had to rely on the gold his father left once!
Rita left Egypt with a huge scoop and the news that Potter was not only alive and trained, but he was easily the most eligible bachelor on any continent!
His fan club in England was sure to skyrocket when this article hit the press.
There was also going to be a small side article that explained that the supposed 'Egyptian Death Eater' was actually a victim forced to come to England and who tried to fight his way out but was wrongfully captured and tried for crimes he had very little part of.
Voldemort was displeased. No, make that pissed. His greatest rival, the one who was supposedly destined to stop him, had no interest and called the Dark Lord a "child playing with his parent's wand and setting the house on fire by accident".
The fact he called Dumbledore a "Senile old man with issues in holding power above everyone else and absolutely no taste in fashion sense" did little to improve his mood.
He had already killed three of his Death Eaters after reading the article and he was considering going after a fourth.
At least he had something to go on now. According to another article, the boy they had dragged to England and was falsely accused of being his supporter was Potter's cousin. One who was extremely powerful and had no respect for any authority but his own.
Then there was the photo of Lord Potter. Normally he wouldn't have given it a second glance, but there was the matter of the insect on his shoulder.
No sane person could possibly consider a Jeweled Scarab a pet. The fact he admitted to having quite a few more and was still alive meant there was something he wasn't telling.
And they still had no idea what happened to the Creature, who he sent nearly twenty of his minions after. The only one to return was Pettigrew, and he was given the Kiss soon after so he was less than useless now.
Which meant he had to send another team, this time to capture the 'brother'. Thankfully the magical photo showed an albino with a distinctive spiked hair-style.
He would kill Potter and end this farce. Then he could take over Britain.
Yugi was practically vibrating in his seat. Thanks to Seth, he had a scholarship to an Egyptian college when he graduated High School. Plus Seth had agreed to help him with his chosen career path, which was Egyptian History.
He had always been interested in Egyptian History, but the emergence of the Pharaoh had only increased it.
In fact Seth had offered to teach Yugi magic (both modern and Ancient) so long as he ditched the Pharaoh when he came to the lessons. Because he was the lighter (and in the brother's opinion more tolerable) half of the Pharaoh, Yugi could do magic. The problem was that the Gods had sealed it before he awakened to his other half in order to prevent problems from the modern magical community, who took possession poorly.
Ryou had lucked out in that front, because Bast had vouched for him so he had some education, even if it had been cut short by his father. Thanks to Seth and Bakura, he had not only caught up, but he planned to attend Magical College lessons next fall.
Plus Isis, when she learned of the reason they took Yugi with them, became a big help. In exchange for bringing the Tomb Keepers out of the darkness, Yugi got free room and board at a nearby apartment which the Keepers ran since there wasn't enough room in the tunnels.
Well, that and Marik was renegotiating a contract with the goblins over raiding the tombs. He was hoping to bridge the gap his father had caused between him and the Medjai.
Ragnarok, the head Goblin of Gringotts, was looking at the new contract written by Marik and dictated by Seth. When they learned that Marik was Seth's legal descendant (they claimed cousins because otherwise people would ask awkward questions) they decided that Seth could be the leader of the Tomb Keepers until Marik reached his majority.
As such, they were making a new contract which would benefit both parties greatly.
"So, in exchange for running the tomb we intend to break into through the Keepers, you will help us translate any artifacts we find and give us forty percent of any treasure we locate and remove the curses for us."
"And in the case of a dangerous artifact we will run it by the Medjai to see if it's safe to release to the goblins, no matter how valuable it is," said Seth.
Ragnarok didn't like that stipulation, but he agreed it was a reasonable term. Mostly because Seth had brought Exhibits A, B and C for artifacts that should never be released into public hands.
(And by that I mean the Book of Amun Ra, the Book of the Dead, and Imhotep himself. He seemed...amused, that he was an example of things that should left alone.)
"As for the Medjai, we will assist them in getting a document that will force the more unscrupulous members of the Egyptian Ministry from bothering them. Though to be fair I don't believe it's the Egyptian Ministry you need to worry about. We have searched the records for anyone who has fit the description of the children, and not a single one has been found in Egypt or Africa. It's like they vanished into thin air."
"I thought Bast's spell kept them from being taken?" said Marik to Seth.
"Taken by anything related to Ra. However there are other ways to steal children. Ardeth has done what he can, but he said that children are still being stolen, just not in large numbers as before."
"Well didn't you say that the old goat had a phoenix too?" asked Marik. It was one of the reasons why Seth disliked the man as much as he did the Pharaoh. Anyone with a pet phoenix shouldn't be trusted.
Seth tried not to curse.
"Ragnarok, is it possible that the children are being used to supplement the stagnating pure blood society?"
"It is possible. No, actually it is quite likely they are. By all accounts, Medjai children are listed as pure bloods in Egypt, unless one of their parents married into the clans. Abducting a child to increase the number of pure bloods wouldn't be that far fetched."
"Who would be the most likely culprit for the kidnapping?"
"Dumbledore, the Ministry...and possibly the Dark Lord's lackeys. I would bet on the Ministry or Dumbledore, though," said Ragnarok.
"So in order to keep them safe, we either have to bust this fact wide open, or take out two of the three and make it clear we don't tolerate that sort of thing."
"Precisely. Voldemort was bad enough the first time around, and Dumbledore is pulling the Ministry's strings in the shadows when the Dark Lord isn't. Fudge is merely a puppet for both parties, and he knows it's only a matter of time before they take him out and put someone new in."
"Explains the rather annoying laws the English have. How would the goblins like to see Dumbledore and Voldemort taken out in one fell swoop?"
Ragnarok grinned. It wasn't a pleasant sight and neither was his chortle.
"We would thank you for getting rid of a nuisance that has tried to rob us for far too long."
"Then let us sign this new deal between the Keepers and the goblins and begin the assault!" smirked Seth.
"What do you intend to do to Dumbledore and Voldemort?"
"My pets have been getting hungry lately. It would be interesting to see if those inbred fools can make it to the exit before they die a horrible death," said Seth with a smile.
"Death by scarabs. I don't know whether to pity them or ask if I can watch the show," said Ragnarok.
"Why not both? Bring anyone you like and some snacks. Should be fun to watch the senile old goat be eaten alive!" grinned Seth.