Harry Potter and the Book of the Dead

…

Chapter 5: The (Not so) Great Escape

It was nightfall as the dirigible floated through the air, clouds passing by like floating cotton candy as Rick took a fortifying sip of some instant coffee that Izzy had made for everyone to keep them awake and warm from the night chill. Jonathon was conversing with Ardeth, whilst surreptitiously attempting to retrieve the Egyptian sceptre Rick had given to Izzy in lieu of payment. Evy was standing at the bow looking out into the horizon as the moon shined brightly in the night sky like a gleaming silver coin.

Finishing his coffee and setting the cup down on a nearby crate, Rick meandered over to his wife. Reaching out, he touched Evy gently on the upper arm. "Hey, you okay?" he whispered to her gently.

Glancing over her shoulder, Evy looked to be on the verge of tears as she replied in a choked voice, "I want him back, Rick. I want him in my arms again!" Rick did his best to not let his emotions overwhelm him too as he knew Evy was referring to Harry.

"I know," he replied to her distraught words. "We taught him well; he's smarter than you and he's tougher than me," he said to Evy in attempt to bolster her confidence.

"I know… I just… miss him so much!" Evy said softly.

Embracing her, Rick said to her, "I'll get Harry back, Evy, even if I have to kill Imhotep all over again to do it. I promise!"

Evy gave her husband a watery smile and said, "I know you will." Resting her head on Rick's shoulder, Evy allowed herself a moment to relax but she knew that she couldn't. Not until Harry was safe in her arms again where he belonged.

…

It was early morning aboard the train where Harry was held captive and he'd taken to tormenting his babysitter Lock-Nah whenever he could, getting some grim satisfaction in frustrating the man who dearly wished to cause him serious harm but was forbidden from doing so.

"Are we there yet?" Harry had asked the hundredth time.

"No," came the dour response from Imhotep's enforcer, a frustrated scowl on his face as he replied to Harry's query.

"Are we there yet?" Harry asked.

"No…" came the same reply from Lock-Nah his scowl deepening as his hand strayed to the dagger thrust into his sash.

"Are we there yet?" Harry asked cheekily.

"No!" Lock-Nah reacted pulling out his dagger and slamming the tip down onto the table right between Harry's middle and forefinger.

"Whoa! That was amazing!" Harry exclaimed. "Perfect aim!" he added as he looked up at Lock-Nah.

"What are you talking about?" Lock-Nah said to him. "I missed!" he told Harry with a wicked look in his dark eyes as he pulled his dagger out from the tabletop and held it idly in his hand. With his other hand, Lock-Nah drummed his fingers on the wooden surface. Harry drummed his fingers on the table as well. Glancing at him, Lock-Nah drummed his fingers again in a pattern which Harry mimicked. Doing another pattern, Lock-Nah scowled as the boy copied him again. His frustration boiling over, Lock-Nah raised his knife to attack Harry.

"I have to go to the bathroom!" the boy quickly said innocently. Lock-Nah seethed in impotent rage at this boy's antics. Silently, the enforcer swore he would make this boy suffer when the time came, as well as to ask for a bloody raise from Hafez; he didn't get paid enough to babysit unruly children!

Elsewhere, Meela entered Imhotep's private carriage. Laid on the floor were the dessicated dried out corpses of their hired thugs who originally were meant to steal the Bracelet from the O'Connells but when they failed that, Mr Hafez hired them to retrieve the cursed box that held the canopic jars containing Anck Su-Namun's organs. But there was a catch with the box; whosoever opened the box would be hunted by the Creature who drain them of their organs, fluids and overall lifeforce to regenerate and become whole again.

With that information and prior knowledge of what had happened to the Americans and Archaeologist who had found the box years before, the looters tried to demand a higher price. Meela had solved the problem by tricking them into going in Lord Imhotep's carriage and opening the box, allowing the Creature to kill and drain their life energies.

With a grimace of disgust as she stepped over the desiccated bodies of the tomb raiders, Meela soon came face to face with the Creature. But instead of the rotted mummified features he had before, his skin was now full of life and vigour, truly among the living. The lights from the braziers shone dimly on his smooth bald scalp as his dark eyes looked at Meela regally.

The reincarnation of Anck Su-Namun bowed her head in reverence and respect. Smiling, Imhotep gently put a gloved hand to the chin of his reincarnated lover who looked up at him with a smile. The fallen high priest then moved forward to embrace.

…

The door to the lavatory slammed open and Harry was pushed inside by Lock-Nah. "Make it quick!" the cultist ordered him.

Harry looked at the state of the so-called toilet. Fat blowflies buzzed around dark and suspicious looking stains and that was just the walls. The toilet itself looked dirty, like it hadn't been cleaned in years. Harry turned his head to look at Lock-Nah who glared at him, shoved towards the toilet seat. "Hurry up!" the man barked out like an angry dog.

"You can't expect to use this?" Harry asked him in a deadpan.

"Now!"

With a reluctant sigh, Harry stood up to look at the toilet apprehensively before looking at Lock-Nah and saying, "I can't go when someone's watching…"

Lock then turned around so that his broad back faced the boy who then said, "I don't trust you. You'll look!" he accused.

Lock-Nah looked over his shoulder, a truly offended look on his countenance before he left the toilet, slamming the door shut behind him.

Once Lock-Nah was gone, Harry immediately rushed towards the barred window, pulling on the rusty iron bars with all the strength in his body. But to no avail as the bars held firmly in place.

With a reluctant sigh at his escape attempt failing, Harry lifted the lid of the toilet and almost gagged in disgust at what lay in the bowl. "Bloody hell! Does anyone here even know how to flush a toilet?" he asked before pulling on the chain to flush the contents away. But what he saw next sparked an idea in his head.

Below the toilet were the railway tracks, zooming past at high speed. Harry then thought that if he slip through, he could make his escape. But how? With the speed the train was going at currently, he'd like be crushed and killed if he tried.

Then as if someone had granted his wish, Harry found himself deposited outside of train before some ancient ruins.

"Karnak!" Harry breathed in surprise. This was a stroke of fortune that he would be right where he needed to learn where to go next.

But, Harry's escape hadn't gone unnoticed as the Creature while sharing an intimate moment with Meela sensed the pulse of magic and cursed, "The boy!"

Reacting instantly, Meela pulled on the brake chain alerting the train driver to stop the train. Sparks sprayed out from between the wheels and the tracks, making a horrible scrreching noise. The sudden stop alarmed the cultists but they soon saw Harry making a run for it into the ruins. Reacting on instinct, the cultists fired their rifles at the boy and inside Mr Hafez glared at Lock-Nah who had a humiliated look on his face.

Sliding the doors of his carriage open, Imhotep saw with dismay the boy fleeing into the ruins of Karnak as his followers fired their guns at him.

'Ra damn them all!' the Creature cursed in his mind. Didn't these fools realise how important the boy was?! If he was killed, then they would have to find another to wear the bracelet and guide them to Ahm Shere! Raising his hands and calling on his magic, Imhotep telekinetically lifted the two cultists on the roof of his carriage. The two red-robed men screamed in alarm as they were magically lifted from their positions and then sent hurtling towards the ruins, slamming into the effigies of two pharaohs.

With his followers suitable cowed, Imhotep smiled at Meela. "Karnak," he told her. It seemed there was a silver lining in this; the boy had inadvertently led to them to the location where the Bracelet would show them the next step of the journey.

Harry raced into the ruins, sand flying up into the air as his shoes kicked it up. The cultists had stopped shooting at him which he was relieved about. Entering the main temple square, Harry panted for breath and was now wondering what to do next.

Suddenly the bracelet came to life, lifting Harry's arm up and projecting out of the golden bangle came another vision. Soaring over the deserts and dunes towards the sea, Harry saw that the next location was the temple complex pf Philae.

Then like a walking nightmare came the Creature fully regenerated striding through the vision as it ended. Harry backed up trying to think of a way to escape. The Creature raised a gloved hand and Harry was suddenly lifted into the air by an unseen force to be eye level with the fallen high priest who then pointed his finger and wagged it.

"Tsk-tsk-tsk," the Creature tisked like a school teacher chastising a wayward pupil. "You should not have tried to run," he said ominously. "Besides, you would never have made it on your own," he added casually.

"What does that mean?" Harry squawked out in confusion.

"Have you any water?" Imhotep said to him condescendingly and Harry flushed from embarrassment from that; he actually had not thought of that. So much for a great escape…

Lowering the boy back to his feet, Imhotep put a hand to the boy's shoulder and said "You hold much power within you, child. Power you do not even know."

"Power?" Harry echoed.

"Indeed," the Creature said with a sly smirk on his face. "Haven't you ever wondered about your gift to speak the Language of Wadjet?" he prompted.

"…No?" Harry offered uncertainly.

The Creature smiled broadly and said to him, "There is much about the world you do not know, child. Things that beyond your wildest dreams and most vivid nightmares… things I could teach you."

Then Mr Hafez, Meela, Lock-Nah and their cultists came in. "My lord Imhotep! Please forgive us!" Mr Hafez said pleadingly bowing his head in respect.

Imhotep looked at his resurrector and replied, "Worry not, Hafez. The boy is unharmed, but he almost wasn't because of your men's careless actions." He then glared at his followers who all bowed their heads in shame, wondering just who was going to be punished for almost killing the boy.

"I trust next time, your men will not be so thoughtless in their duties?" Imhotep then said to Hafez who smiled weakly and nodded in response.

With a wave of his hand in dismissal, Imhotep then looked at Harry. Locking eyes with the boy, Imhotep used his magic to peer into the boy's mind to see what vision the bracelet had given him. Nodding in understanding upon seeing the Temple of Philae, Imhotep looked at Meela and said to her "We will journey to Philae in the morning at first sun's light."

Meela nodded in understanding and relayed the words to Hafez and everyone else.

Lock-Nah then moved to grab the boy and haul him off, but he stopped upon seeing the cold snakelike stare from his master.

"Do not harm the child, Lock-Nah, or else it will be your doom," the Creature warned his servant forebodingly.

Lock-Nah suppressed a look of frustration while Harry gave a shit-eating grin at the enforcer before said enforcer picked him and hauled him off to somewhere else in the temple while the cultists began to set up camp for the night.

Imhotep then looked at his reincarnated love and said to her softly, "It will be time for you to remember who you are, my love."

Meela smiled at her love and master, embracing him softly with a look of eager anticipation in her eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A/N: There! After roughly two or three months, I've finally updated this! I apologise for this chapter being so short, but I hope it's enough to show that I'm not dead in this fanfic and I hope I did something original with Harry's accidental magic taking effect in helping him escape, but as you saw, Imhotep sensed it right away alerting everyone to Harry's escape. Plus, it seems like Imhotep has taken an interest in Harry, beyond just the soul shard within the kid, but also his Parseltongue ability and his magic as well.

Now, I'm not gonna do a whole Second Coming of Merlin power trip for Harry, but that isn't to say that he won't research magics that are often thought as fairy tales in the modern wizarding world or are dismissed as outright lies. The Book of the Dead will definitely play a part in Harry's role throughout the story as well as the Book of Amun-Ra which in case you've forgotten contains the incantations needed to render someone like Imhotep mortal and otherwise vulnerable.

Some of you and a couple of my friends on this site have asked if I plan to include the events of the 'third' Mummy move, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in this story. I would like to say that I would, but I would need to play around with the idea and see if and how I can incorporate it while at the same time make it better. Not to mention the events of Hogwarts would need to be included as well.

But other than that, I haven't got too much more to say about this chapter, so I'll leave this here and see you all in the next one.

Be kind to one another,

Angry lil' elf.

.

.

.

.

.

.

P.S, I've recently published a new crossover; a Goblin Slayer/For Honor crossover titled The Frontier's Most Honourable. Feel free to read and review it and let me know what you think of it so far.