Quidditch League Season 11 Round 5

Team: Tutshill Tornados

Position: Keeper

An: I just had this idea floating in my head and I had to get it written: Padfoot acting as a tourist while on the run in his dog's disguise!

On second thought, maybe the dementors were right about avoiding Egypt, the place was HOT. Padfoot was so warm that he felt as if his fur was going to catch fire. If he didn't know better, he would say that he could see some smoke going out of his ears. In fact, it was more likely to just be air dilatation which made the air seem all wobbly and smoky around his ears, and everywhere else too. Why was he analysing that? No idea.

Initially, Sirius had thought it would be a wonderful idea to visit Egypt while he was on the run. First of all, dementors were known never to adventure that far from their beloved humid climate as they feared the hot and desertic climates. Moreover, he had been fascinated by Ancient Egypt for a long time and had always wanted to visit the numerous temples and see the pyramids. Finally, it held many great memories, and he was just happy to reminisce about a long gone past. It had thus been logical for him to head to Egypt when he had made a narrow escape from Hogwarts on Buckbeak's back.

The hippogriff was, for the moment, hidden in a cave, recovering from his long journey so the animagus had decided to take a moment for himself to enjoy the place and relax for the first time in years. He had obviously chosen to hide himself as Padfoot so that he wouldn't attract attention to himself if the word had spread out internationally about his escape. He couldn't take the risk of being seen by a wizard who just happened to be there, as was often the case since Egyptian magic was very powerful and enthralling. He would much rather have stayed in human form, but he didn't have a wand to effectively conceal himself or to change his features. He didn't have money either to buy a disguise or any clothes which weren't his jail ones. Wandering in torn prison clothes would have been the best way to attract attention to himself which was obviously the last thing he wanted. He would therefore have to endure the oven that was Padfoot's fur in order to be able to stay anonymous.

In the Shack, Remus had promised he would find him something to wear promptly, but this plan had been compromised by all the following events, as had most of the plans made that fateful evening. Sirius couldn't hold back a growl at the thought of what had happened that day and how terrible his careful plan had turned out. Okay, maybe not that careful, but it was supposed to work out in the end, not fail that spectacularly and have him barely escaping a dementor's kiss.

Sirius turned his thoughts away from that fateful night and looked up. He was in a touristic zone, that much was sure, though he was not exactly sure where. He could see tourists buying little sphinxes and pyramids to teenage-looking boys and he could hear several languages being spoken or shouted over in microphones for groups to look at something or other.

Slipping between two groups of Spanish and Dutch tourists, Sirius, as Padfoot, managed to see what had attracted so many people there. In front of them, stood the Great Pyramid of Giza, the last of the Seven Wonders still erect. It was massive, especially from Padfoot's height. The sun reflected in the sand and gave the stone blocks a unique shine, a special aura which made the place feel even more mystical. Sirius was gobsmacked. He hadn't known he had landed so close to the Giza plateau.

When realisation hit him, he felt dizzy, delighted at the idea of realising a teenage dream. Standing still amidst the crowd, he was brought back to a time when visiting this place had the dream of his naïve existence.

"You know, I've read a little about those pyramids in Egypt, the ones we talked about last time in Muggle studies. It's pretty impressive don't you think? They built all that without magic and like two thousand years ago!" a sixteen-year-old Sirius said.

"They are actually even older, you know. I think they were built four thousand years ago." Remus corrected.

"Who cares? It's bloody impressive anyway!" Sirius sat on Remus's bed, a book on Ancient Egypt in his hand. "Look at this one! It says it's the biggest. It's even bigger than Hogwarts!"

"I wouldn't bet on it; Hogwarts is pretty massive you know."

"Spoilsport." Sirius stuck his tongue out at him and continued reading, Remus, not even bothering to acknowledge his childish behaviour, reading over his shoulder.

"It says it is the tomb of the Pharaoh Khufu… that means all this was built just for one person? Wait… there is a dead body inside?"

"Well, yes. The pyramids were basically overhyped graves for the pharaohs. They believed that they had a life after life and that they should be well prepared because they could bring some belongings with them. Visibly some were more prepared than others…" Remus explained. He always had answers about the most incongruous subjects, so Sirius was not surprised in the slightest that he knew all about funerary rites from Ancient Egypt. "That's also why they needed to conserve their bodies in mummies too, the thing you dressed as last Halloween and failed spectacularly." He snickered a bit and Sirius shot him an indignant look.

"Also, let's not fool ourselves, it mostly was to satisfy the monarch's ego. Who builds up a 480-foot-high pyramid just to be buried inside it? Apart from someone who already has a high image of oneself or a terrible inferiority complex and lots of money, I don't see who would do it. Khufu basically did not want to be forgotten, and it seems to have worked, I may add."

"It's hard to forget someone who just built the tallest building in the world when you live next door, I'd say!" Sirius joked.

"I would love to be able to visit it one day." Remus sighed. "There is just so much we don't know about it, that's fascinating. Did you know that some people said it was built thanks to the help of wizards?"

"That's stupid. It's just pureblood trying to say that muggles are unable to do things themselves." Sirius retorted. "They say that about any impressive achievement from the Muggles, I've heard it thousands of times. Though I am still waiting for wizards to invent something as wonderful as motorbikes."

"Why did I just know you would take this example?" the other fake sighed.

Silence fell upon them, and Sirus rested his head on Remus' shoulder as if it had always belonged there.

"You know, I would love to go to Egypt with you. In fact, you are the only person I want to go to Egypt with."

"Why?" Remus asked, surprised. "Not that I would object," he assured.

"Well, for one thing, you are always passionate about things, and you seem to know a lot about Ancient Egypt so I would learn tons of things about it. Also, I like it when you try to explain things, but you are too enthusiastic to even make sense: it's cute. I'm sure it would often happen, and you would just be cute all the time. Not that you aren't already! Also, I just want to spend a lot of time with you because I care a lot about you." The last part was a little muffled by Remus' shirt as Sirius tried to hide his blushing cheeks. Doing so, he did not notice Remus's quickly blushing.

Thinking back to that moment, Sirius reflected on how blind they had been at the time, dancing around each other without managing to express out loud what they both felt. Thankfully, they had managed to sort it out in the end. Giza's plateau had even been their Honeymoon's dream destination which they planned on visiting "when the war was over", needless to say, they never visited it.

Shaking away all these bittersweet memories, Sirius decided to enjoy himself and visit the site, especially Khufu's Pyramid which had always attracted his attention. Sirius, as Padfoot, thus started to walk in the direction of the pyramid, tail wagging from excitement. As he got closer to the edifice, the pyramid seemed bigger and bigger, a gigantic mountain lost in the desert.

He followed an English-speaking group, trying to understand what the guide spluttered in his microphone without great success and resorted to only walking around the pyramid to admire it from all angles. He tried as hard as he could to always be next to a tourist, changing from one to another every time it was necessary in order not to be chased out like a stray dog. In the eyes of everyone else, he was a stray dog and if he was caught, there was no way he could do anything not to be treated as one, but in his head, he was just a tourist like any other, enjoying a trip around the last standing Wonder of the world.

Unfortunately, that was only in his head. He found it the hard way as he stood in the queue in order to enter the pyramid. Truth be told, he had completely forgotten that he was not a human being for the rest of the world and had just stood in the queue behind the other tourists when he saw a sign stating that this was the entry to the interior of the pyramid. How could he ever forget that he was disguised as a dog? Well… he did not even know. Dogs have so much less complex thoughts than humans and he was so excited that he had just forgotten his disguise.

The truth was reminded to him when he heard a security guard hail the tourist next to her, reminding her with a stern face that animals were not allowed in the precious pyramid, it was quite logical really, he should have thought of that. Surprised, the woman replied in English that she did not have a dog which caused the guard to give her a look of utter confusion.

Taking this moment as his cue to leave, Padfoot escaped from the man, not wanting to end up in the dog pound as any stray dog, nor in the desert eaten by vultures, depending on the guard's mood. Okay, the second option was slightly less likely, but he didn't want to take any risk. He dodged the small barrier that kept the queue in line and ran in the opposite direction. He tried not to run into anyone and to get to a quite sheltered place where he would be able to catch his breath and think of what to do next.

In the end, he found a little space behind an abandoned stall where he hid himself. If he thought that he was hot before, it was nothing compared to the furnace that burned under his fur after this run. Looking up, still breathing heavily, he could still make out the Great Pyramid of Giza quite clearly, the gigantic edifice standing out in the blue sky. He spent a few minutes just admiring its eternal beauty before finally deciding to leave the place. Returning to the tourist site was impossible and the sun was already starting to go down, signalling him that he needed to get going if he wanted to get to the cave before nightfall.

With a last look at the pyramid, Sirius set off to his hiding place. This day would stay etched in his memory as the day he finally managed to fulfil a dream he had since Hogwarts: seeing the Egyptian pyramids. Actually, it was not completely fulfilled, had not visited them with Remus, to whom he had once made the promise that they would go there as their honeymoon "once the war was over". He would just have to wait a little bit more. He would bring him there soon once this war was over and his name was cleared. He could not wait for it!