The sun beat down on the Weasleys, Fred and George lagging behind as Bill excitedly showed his family around magical Egypt.
Out of sight of their parents, Fred bargained for seemingly random objects while George paid the vendors.
"We need some viper rib." Fred muttered, "Could use some water lily vein. I'll take that bat skull off your hands for five knuts."
"Oh that's neat." George said, grabbing a small glass pyramid from one of the stalls.
A hand grabbed George's wrist.
"That one's a scam." Bill warned.
The twins grimaced, Molly Weasley was zeroed in on their activities now.
George dropped the pyramid back onto the counter and Fred discreetly shoved everything they bought into his many pockets.
"Sorry, Mum." George said, "Everything here just so fascinating!"
"Just don't go spending all your allowance on scams George." She warned him, "Now Bill, what was it you were saying about…"
Bill winked at them and flashed a silvery charm at them from inside his robe. Then, turning back to the front, he continued explaining more about Egypt to his parents and siblings.
Ron, also scanning the shops for anything interesting, suddenly shouted, pointing at a stall.
"Hey Dad! Can we rent a flying carpet?" He asked.
Arthur opened his mouth but Bill shook his head. "Those carpets look like they would unravel midflight. I can show you where to find the good ones."
Molly and Arthur Weasley shared a look and as one, they nodded.
"Charlie, my boy, come here."
"William dear, we need to talk."
Ginny crossed her arms. "Bet you two sickles they're going to pawn us off on Bill and Charlie." She whispered to Ron.
"Haven't gone two sickles." He murmured in reply.
"George gives good interest rates. Ask him for some."
"I already owe them five galleons and twenty knuts." Ron said.
"Fine, I'll bet you passenger seat on the carpet?"
He accepted the deal with a grumble.
Fred and George took this opportunity to badger the third eldest sibling into giving them the twelve galleons he owed them.
Percy rolled his eyes and handed over a prepackaged pouch of coins.
One twin started counting the coins while the other had Percy sign off on the debtors contract.
"You two are such redcaps." Percy growled.
"Maybe you didn't need those extra quills."
"They were four sickles each!"
"You spent ten galleons on them."
Percy threw his arms in the air and walked over to their parents .
"Mum, please tell me I don't have to put up with Fred and George for much longer." He complained.
"Actually, dear," Molly said out of the side of her mouth. "Me and your father need some alone time."
Arthur winked at her.
"And we need you and Bill to be on those two." She continued, giving him a handful of galleons, "Keep. Watch."
Five whole galleons! He thought. I will finally have enough to purchase the monogrammed parchment I've been eyeing! Penelope Clearwater is sure to be impressed with me!
He nodded.
"Boys!" Arthur announced, "Your mother and I are drained, we'll be turning in early."
"It's two o'clock." Ron said.
"Floo lag." Bill interjected.
Charlie grabbed the two youngest Weasleys and steered them away.
"Percy, Fred, and George." Bill said eagerly. "You three are with me. Wait till you see what I've got planned!"
The twins shared a grin and Percy groaned. He would much rather be inside practicing his essays.
Bill led them to a flying carpet shop. "We'll need one of these to get where I'm thinking." He explained.
"Where are we going?" Percy asked.
"You'll see."
They flew high above the desert sands for what felt like hours before they reached a low, rocky valley, littered with caves.
As they landed at the bottom of the valley, a light fog rose up around them and the sky started to darken, rain falling lightly.
"According to Egyptian belief," Fred said, as he flicked through the tour book, "Rain could mean great tidings."
"Or a terrible omen." George added.
Percy shivered.
"Nope, definitely a terrible omen!" Bill assured them rubbing his hands together. "AH! Here's the entrance!"
In front of them, a tall black line of strata tore across the rocky walls.
He whipped out his wand, "Wingardium Leviosa."
Nothing happened.
He pulled out a small pocketbook and flipped through it.
"Alarte Ascendare!"
A section of what they thought was rock broke away from its position and rose into a hidden crevice.
Beyond it was a dark, foreboding tunnel.
Percy lit his wand. "Lumos."
"You know what they say Perce." George grinned, "He who casts the first Lumos goes first."
Bill frowned, "You could die very easily here. I'm going in front."
He entered the tunnel.
The twins shoved Percy in front of them as they followed close behind.
"I heard you wanted to study Egyptian tombs, Perce." Bill said as they walked. "My team discovered this two weeks ago. Haven't gotten very far, though. We had to stop at the anteroom of what we believe is the burial chamber."
Percy perked up, legitimately interested for once.
"We lost a good man that day." Bill said somberly.
The twins winced, hiding behind Percy.
"Come on guys. Are you scared?" The curse breaker asked.
Percy nodded.
They continued into the darkness.
The twisting tunnel had many branches going in nearly every direction, some looked like they had been carved out more recently by something with enormous claws.
They would have gotten lost several times if Bill hadn't brought a map that was drawn inside of a little notebook he kept in his robes when not in use.
Every inch of the granite walls were covered in runes and pictographs.
"These hieroglyphics are different from the ones found in the muggle pyramids." Percy noted.
"Those are curses." Bill said off handedly. "We got rid of most of them but some might still be active."
Percy jerked back.
Fred ran his hand along the wall.
They stopped at a recently painted red line across the floor.
"That way is a death trap." Bill said, pointing down the passage. "Two steps after that red line, and skeletal hands will drag you into a hidden chamber beneath it, where you will lie for eternity in your own personal hell as your soul is slowly consumed to power the magic holding this trap together."
He pulled out his pocketbook again.
"The secret passage is this way." He said, tapping his wand against the wall to his left.
"Descendo."
The wall lowered, revealing another room.
"You guys excited to discover an ancient wizard tomb?" Bill asked.
The twins nodded hesitantly. Percy sighed and shrugged.
"Then follow me and don't touch anything that's painted off with red." He said, entering room.
Inside, a campsite was set up, three one-man tents surrounding a little campfire. Several feet away from it, a large red circle had been painted on the floor.
Bill pointed to the wall across from them and flourished his wand. "Behind this wall, we detected another space. All we need to do is break through. Like this. BOMBARDA!"
The curse bounced off the wall, sending the Weasleys leaping in all directions.
The wall behind them exploded and small pieces of stone rained down on them.
Bill groaned, getting to his knees. "Looks like there's a Salvio Hexia barrier protecting the wall. We won't get through with magic."
Percy and his brothers got to their feet.
Bill continued, "That was fu-"
He dropped through the floor.
"Bill!" Percy screamed.
With a fantastic show of athleticism never before seen, Percy leaped across the room, grabbing his older brother by his hand.
The twins sighed in relief.
Percy grunted and fell down the hole after Bill.
"Percy!" The twins shouted.
He was falling. One arm frantically scrabbled for a handhold above him while the other clutched Bill in a death grip.
Below him, the roar of magical fire was deafening.
"IT'S FIENDFYRE!" Bill screamed.
Percy tightened his grip.
"We got you!" Fred and George yelled.
Together, the twins had latched onto Percy's free arm.
"You have WANDS!" Percy shouted.
"NO MAGIC!" Bill shouted. "THAT COULD ACTIVATE THE SECONDARY TRAP!"
"Secondary trap!?" The brothers asked in disbelief.
"This was actually also noted in the journal." Bill told them. "We blocked off this trap a while ago. Looks like I stumbled into it."
"Explain the secondary trap!" Percy exclaimed.
"Yes, well you see, the fiendfyre is currently below us. And as long as we don't cast anything in the hole, it will remain below us."
The twins gulped.
Taking their time, they managed to pull their brothers to safety. Percy scrabbled up and Bill followed after him. Soon, the Weasleys were sitting in a circle, panting from the exertion.
Bill grimaced as he pried the melted leather soles off his shoes and glanced around. "Oh, it looks like the rubble from the explosion broke the wall open!"
Percy squealed in joy. He saw scroll after scroll heaped in piles around a large, golden sarcophagus that laid within the cavernous room, the roof of which stretched upwards of fifty feet.
Percy grabbed the nearest scroll, and opened it gently before frowning. He opened another scroll. Then another.
"All of these are about the dietary habits of an animated cactus." He declared.
"Ooh, I found one about becoming an animagus." George said from the other side of the room.
"When did-" Bill said whipping his head back and forth.
"I found one connected to the ceiling by a very long string!" Fred said, standing on top of the sarcophagus.
"NO!" Bill screamed.
"Oh, calm down." Fred yanked it free.
Bill felt the indescribable hatred every elder sibling had for a younger sibling every time they willingly ran into danger for no apparent reason.
Everybody froze except for Fred who opened it and started reading. "It says Got You."
The sarcophagus flung open, throwing him across the room into Percy who was casting Geminio on as many scrolls as he could before they were destroyed by the twins' tomfoolery.
"Huh, neat." George said, pocketing something on the ground.
A bandaged, grey hand gripped the edge of the casket. Pulling itself slowly to its feet, a mummy rose from the tomb.
Bill's anger quickly depleted, replaced by the brotherly urge to protect his younger siblings.
It raised a decrepit, black wand and pointed it at itself.
Bill groaned, "Are you kidding me?"
It cast a spell, and a violent amount of viscera shot out of its throat.
Percy screamed, "UGGGHH! MY NEW ROBES!"
"Finally." The mummy said in a raspy voice.
"RUN!" Bill screamed, "IT CAST ANAPNEO! IT CAN CAST SPELLS!"
"Now where's my horc-"
"QUIETUS!" Bill roared, silencing the mummy.
It continued at barely a whisper.
"I…I can't hear you, speak up!" George said from behind it, mockingly.
It turned around and started aggressively jerking towards him.
The twin screamed and dove around it.
Bill grabbed his brothers. "Mummies are famously brittle and slow, so we should be fine as long as it can't cast nonverbally."
"Like the ANAPNEO charm he just used?" Percy asked.
They turned towards the mummy.
It started shapeshifting.
"Animagus." Bill sighed. "Should've seen that coming."
Now a massive bull, the mummy charged towards them, horns glinting in the light of the Lumos charm.
The twins scrambled out of the room, into the side passage, dragging Percy with them. Bill followed, but the mummy separated them, slamming into the wall with a mighty crunch of rock and Bill teetered right on the lip of the painted red line.
"Depulso!" Bill cast frantically, banishing the animagus back into its tomb.
Snorting angrily, the mummy returned to its human form and, removing the Quietus charm, cast a yellow curse at Bill, who ducked down the corridor after his brothers.
Bill caught up and pulled them into one of the many side tunnels that moved at an upward angle. The passageway became steeper as they climbed until they reached two doors on their sides.
"Be careful, we haven't explored this bit yet." Bill said, pulling open one of the doors.
"That's a lot of gold." George noted.
His brothers looked past his shoulder into the long room. The walls appeared to be inlaid with gold and it was full of coins and shiny objects.
They walked a few steps inward, forgetting for a moment the imminent threat of the Mummy.
A loud sniffing sound came from their immediate right.
Fred turned quicker than the others and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"GIANT NIFFLER!"
The ten foot monster of a niffler swung at him with its massive claws, but he managed to duck just in time to avoid the unfortunate fate of the many skeletons in the room that he was only now noticing.
"Run." Bill sighed.
They took off back down the corridor, the niffler in hot pursuit.
"Who's got GOLD ON THEM!?" Bill screamed.
"Well..." Percy said, panting.
That was as far as he got before Bill snatched his coin purse. He tossed it down another passage and took them back towards the tomb entrance.
"MY MONOGRAMMED PARCHMENT!" Percy cried loudly as they dragged him to safety.
The group reached the entrance and Bill flicked his wand, "Alarte Ascendare!"
He slammed face first into the wall.
"WHAT!?" He shouted.
Percy sniffed "The mummy must've locked us in."
Bill took a minute to recompose himself.
"You three stay here. I'll destroy the mummy."
"We're not letting you go by yourself!" George exclaimed, Fred being too busy consoling a crying Percy.
"M-m-mommyyy." Percy whined.
"No, it's m-m-mummy." Fred gently corrected him.
Bill shook his head, "I got us into this mess and I've destroyed mummies before. I mean, I haven't fought spellcasting mummies yet, but there shouldn't be too much of a difference."
"At least take this charm with you." George said pulling a little glass pyramid out of his pocket and thrusting it into Bill's hand.
The eldest Weasley child frowned as he examined the piece. "Where did you get this?"
"I found it on the floor behind the sarcophagus." Came the reply.
"This has the symbol of Viritas on it. He was a dark lord who conquered Ancient Egypt. I think he was remembered for being easily enraged to an inhuman degree."
George's eyes widened. "Do you think it's worth some galleons?"
Bill chuckled. He couldn't help himself. His younger brothers were so ridiculous. At least now, he knew what to do.
William Weasley crept around the rubble, keeping aware of the mummy thanks to his impressive temper tantrum.
The ancient being went from charging into the sturdy walls as a bull to blasting everything in sight.
He figured it was looking for the pyramid his brother nabbed.
That, or the twenty-four scrolls Percy somehow managed to take with him.
Bill positioned himself, making sure the fiendfyre pit from before was between him and the zombie wizard before he spoke.
"HEY, OVER HERE!" He shouted, holding the glass object in front of him.
The mummies eyes narrowed and it started towards him.
"No!" Bill said, holding out his hand in a stopping gesture, "Stay right there! You're no ordinary mummy are you? Mummies don't normally have magic like living wizards do. This thing gives you power, doesn't it?"
The mummy slowed its approach. "No need to be so rash. Slowly now, return my property."
"No." Bill dropped it into the fiendfyre.
"YOU FOOL!" The wizard screamed. Taken over with rage, he turned into a bull and leaped over the blazing pit.
"VERA VERTO!" The cursebreaker bellowed.
Midair, the mummy turned bull changed into a water goblet and fell into the pit.
Bill smugly imagined that the glass would melt before it evaporated.
He did not expect it to begin levitating back up the pit.
"NO! NO MORE! DESCENDO! DEPULSO!"
The goblet caught fire and disintegrated as Bill forced it down.
The fire began rising.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."
He sprinted out of the door to the anteroom as it flooded with flames.
Screeching to a halt, Bill turned towards the cursed fire and raised the secret door, blocking its exit.
The adrenaline dissipated all at once and he collapsed to the floor.
"Is the mummy gone?" Asked a voice from down the passage.
Bill turned towards Percy, Fred, and George who were approaching warily.
He nodded, "Let's get out of here."
The tired siblings ran the rest of the way out before Bill turned around swiftly and spelled the door shut seven ways to Sunday. The twins sighed and sat down against the door.
"Well, that was unexpected." George said.
"Don't be unnecessary George." Fred snarled. "Let's just sit here for a minute.
After a few minutes, they heard what sounded like someone tapping lightly on wood.
Bill looked around and spoke up, "Where is Percy?"
The twins grinned as a muffled shout from within the tomb door interjected, accompanied by faint knocking.
Reopening the door took another half hour.
"Let's get rid of this weather right fast." Growled Bill as he swept his wand from left to right and flicked it four times.
"Nebulous!" He said, clearing the fog and rain.
The flight back to the city passed quickly. Percy was made to drive and Bill took a much needed nap.
As the carpet touched down at the rental shop, Bill groggily sat up.
The twins were looking at him with expressions of horror and Percy was stone faced.
No. Wait a second. They weren't looking at him, they were looking past hi-
"Bill." Percy said, just above a whisper, "I don't mean to scare you. But, mum and dad are right behind you and they don't look happy."
Bill closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He turned around.
"WILLIAM ARTHUR WEASLEY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!? YOU HAVE BEEN GONE TWO HOURS OVER THE TIME YOU RENTED THE CARPET FOR AND YOUR FATHER AND I HAD TO PAY IT OFF!"