- - - - Helga - - - -

Helga sat in the shade of her canopy tent, the familiar half smile upon her face as she fanned herself. It had been three years since the four of them had left Hogwarts, and they had made quite a name for themselves, delving into the ruins of past civilizations.

Their latest adventure took them to Egypt, and a pyramid with a slew of old traps and runes. However, unsurprisingly, Gringotts had sent a delegation to speak with her. She truly did enjoy the verbal spars, and today's tete-a-tete was no exception.

Well, she would be lying if she said this wasn't her favorite so far.

"As you see, Glowrath, we have everything in order and have worked with the local authorities. We have already begun delving inside."

"That may be, however, our contract allows us to put forth a claim and to preside over any excavation going on that we deem is failing to do the job efficiently, as Mr. Jones can attest."

Helga eyed the young goblin, keeping her amusement to herself, before she glanced up at her brother Jameson who was in his own seat beside the goblin. The bank had tried two other times to recruit them to be Gringotts' exclusive treasure hunters. Now they were trying to see if her brother could convince her. "I'm quite certain that Mr. Jones is correct." She could see Jameson biting back his laughter when the goblin leaned forward. "However, I imagine he must have also told you about clause sixteen of the contract that claims that efficiency is defined by whomever hired the contractor. There has been no dispute regarding our work ethics. So our claim has first priority."

- - - - Godric - - - -

Rowena, unsurprisingly, was utterly brilliant. They had traveled first, something that only he and Salazar had really done. But that had only been on their home island and mostly for war. Now, though, they traveled the world . They had tried new cuisine, saw different cultures, found new plants - Salazar enjoyed the idea of new ingredients to mess with while Helga was excited about the species - and they weren't confined by everyone's expectations.

At the moment, Rowena was a few rooms back, working on getting them deeper, and lower, into the pyramid. He and Salazar had been going room by room that had already been deemed 'mostly safe, don't touch anything too suspicious, Ric' by Rowena.

Godric snickered and continued strengthening the walls of the room he and Salazar were in. Salazar glanced over at Godric, lips pulling up into a smile, but didn't say anything before continuing on.

The non-magicals hadn't been able to get lower than the second level, and for good reason. This specific pyramid had been created by magicals, which meant only a magical could deconstruct the traps. Rowena and Salazar already had notes upon notes of ideas that they had gleaned from this one temple alone. The moment they had stepped into the third layer, flames erupted into every sconce, every third room while a large brazier filled with dancing fires was in every seventh. Rowena had spent a day trying to figure out how the magic worked or what their purpose was, but she hadn't come any closer to figuring it out. She was utterly delighted.

The mural on the wall had him pausing, head cocked to the side as he studied it. He knew the figures and objects meant something in an ancient language, but all his mind could come up with was how he could mix this art form with others. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Perhaps he could - the wall seemed to be pushed inwards. "Bollocks."

Salazar looked towards him, about to say something when he was interrupted by a gust of old, foul smelling air.

Godric coughed, steadying himself and waving his hand to clear the dust that had come along with the wind and found a small chamber opened beside him. The sound of mechanisms clicking into place seemed loud in his ears and there was a faint scent of poison and charged electricity that permeated the air. "...Oops."

Salazar laughed 'Off we go again' as he hiked up his robes and ran back the way they came. Godric waited a few extra seconds, peering into the hole that he had accidentally opened and saw a sluggish, green, slightly sparking, vapor making its way towards him. Well, looks like they figured out the purpose of those large braziers.

Chuckling, he raced after Salazar, wondering how they were going to explain how one of the pyramids was going to have an explosion.

- - - - Rowena - - - -

The four friends had traveled through the jungles of the Americas, the deserts of the Middle East, and the savannas of Africa before settling into their adventures in the new company they'd formed... name still pending. Honestly, they should come up with something eventually but none wanted another Hogwarts.

They were getting closer to the lower chamber of the second pyramid. Salazar and Godric were shoring up the walls while she worked on the wards to the door. The first pyramid had been a bit of a let down as there hadn't been nearly as many traps as Rowena had anticipated. But this one... this one was exhilarating.

WOOOOOSH!

Rowena paused in her work, jerking at the sudden gust of stale smelling air. There was laughter coming her way and Salazar, his robes hiked up in both hands as he moved as swiftly as his legs could manage, ran by her calling out, "You may want to run."

"Where is Godric?"

"He'll be here shortly!"

"Now is not the time to make puns, Salazar."

"Really?" Came Godric's question as he stood beside her.

"Ah," Rowena said triumphantly. "I find that if I make quips at your expense, you manage to show up just in time to hear them."

"Rowena..."

"Yes, Ric?"

"You should be running."

Rowena put her hands on her hips. "I am not frightened of you-" The woman's words cut off in a squeak of surprise as Godric scooped up Rowena, tossing her over his shoulder. "Oh honestly, Ric!"

Godric laughed as he ran in the direction that Salazar had disappeared. Rowena took note of a cloud of... was that smoke? Dust, perhaps? A poisonous gas? Rowena had her hands pressed to Godric's lower back, staring at whatever it was that followed them through the tunnels. "Fascinating..."

- - - - Salazar - - - -

Salazar was still running when he made it out of the pyramid and into their camp. There were others there, but he didn't exactly care who they were or what they wanted. Salazar only knew they needed to make an exit sooner rather than later.

He whipped his hand in a circular motion over his head, summoning their belongings into the nearest trunk by the time he reached Helga, one of her brothers, and a young nameless goblin... or more accurately a goblin that Salazar didn't recognize nor did he care what the goblin's name was. "Time to go, Helga dearest. Ismanna is sorely missing her mother."

The diplomat smiled at her friend. Salazar knew she understood the code well enough and didn't argue. Instead Helga turned to the young goblin saying, "It seems as if we are needed elsewhere. As we cannot continue our work here, we will hand over the contract to the bank if you're amiable." She held out her hand with the same unwavering smile firmly in place as she waited for the goblin to accept.

Everything was packed in mere moments, including the canopy that had been overhead, as the other two were bursting through the tunnel and back to camp. Salazar held his hand out for Helga, but the goblin was sneering at the two. Salazar huffed and stuck the shrunken trunks into his pocket stating, "We can keep the claim if you prefer to wait the two months it will take before we can make our way back here... I'm sure Helga would be happy to continue the negotiations at that time."

"No," the goblin growled and shook Helga's hand.

"Excellent." Salazar grinned, grabbed hold of Helga and said, "Ta!"

"I'll see you for Yule, Jameson," Helga said right before the four friends were together and spoke their activation code, "A thoirt dhachaigh."

As they were whipping away from the campsite, Helga asked, "What could possibly be so important that-" and was interrupted by the sound of a distant explosion.

Google Translate Time:

A thoirt dhachaigh = to carry home (ward stone)

AN-Ajellah: So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed reading this nearly as much as we did while writing it. And true to our nature, Elipsa and I are already looking at our next project. Right? Crazy.

AN-Elipsa: Also, a huge thank you to Jessica who read this and edited the story for us! We greatly appreciate it! :D