This chapter will be mostly in letters written back and forth between Ron, Hermione and Harry, as they will be discussing Egypt, France, and the Dursleys, so it'll be short. Don't worry, I'll make up for it next chapter.
The dates are the dates that they wrote the letters, so they may seem out of order. I'm gonna try to pack in as much as I can without sounding like a textbook. You know how Hermione can get.
Chapter 43: Egypt
Egypt had been positively wicked since the day we had arrived. I was having fun spending family time with everyone, especially Charlie and Bill.
Bill was a curse breaker working in some of the pyramids in Egypt. He took us in one of them in a place called Giza, where we went into a chamber that muggles didn't know anything about. There, he showed us bizarre things like deformed mummies and bones of grave robbers that had been hit by the curses that the wizard Egyptians had left to protect their gold. Bill had a knack for spotting a curse before it would strike him. He had actually disabled two while Charlie, Fred, George, and I was with him, even though he missed one that hit Fred and caused his nether regions to itch really badly.
July 26, 1993
Dear Harry,
Happy birthday!
Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted.
It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.
I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year.
We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there?
Don't let the Muggles get you down!
Try and come to London,
Ron
P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week.
After I sealed the letter, I wrote on another piece of parchment about the present that I had gotten Harry for his birthday.
Harry, this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup.
Bye!
Ron
I sealed the Pocket Sneakoscope up and attached all of it to Errol's leg. Hopefully, he would be strong enough to get it to him. He had just finished dropping off a letter than Hermione had wrote to me, begging for more pictures and overloading me with facts that I really didn't care to know, but I read them anyway.
July 26, 1993
Dear Hermione,
Okay, okay, here are your pictures that you have been nagging me about. How was France? Are you still there? Ginny wanted me to ask you if you could get her a beret.
We have one more week to go into Egypt, and I find myself wanting to leave right now. Being with Bill and Charlie is nice, but the twins are driving me mental.
We finally visited the tomb of that kid king Tutankhamen you told me about. Most of the tomb had been altered for tourists, but Bill took us into this room that he had been trying to break a curse in.
It has all these treasures that he told us we couldn't touch. There was an imploding curse on them. Any person that touched one of the treasures, would cause the tomb to fall into itself.
Of course, Fred didn't listen and touched some statue, and we almost didn't make it out alive. I thought Bill was going to hex him, as mad as he was. We didn't tell Mum. Bill had ripped into him enough.
I was feeling generous and got you a present. It's a book on hieroglyphics and translating them. By you can't read it until you're done with your holiday in France. NO LEARNING SHIT HERMIONE!
Can your parents drop you off at the Leaky the week before term? That's where we will be staying. We can go get our supplies together, plus, I have a surprise for you.
I gotta go. Mum's fixing dinner. Let me know how you like the book!
Love,
Ron.
P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week. That's going to make our year so much better. I'm really looking forward to it.
That was sarcasm in case you didn't catch on.
July 31, 1993
Dear Ron,
I'm so glad to have heard from you! Thanks for the Pocket Sneakoscope, although I had to practically bury it under my clothes. It's always going off. Maybe because I like with Dudley.
You, Hermione, and Hagrid really made my birthday. Even though Hagrid sent me some killer book. It almost bit my fucking hand off! I don't know what he was thinking.
Yeah, the phone fiasco didn't go over well. I actually heard the entire thing, and Uncle Vernon was seething. It's okay. I think he would have been that way even if you would have whispered. I'm actually glad it was you and not Hermione. He would have made the poor girl cry.
Speaking of Hermione, did you hear she's in France for her holiday? I wish I could go to France. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the fucking Dursleys who hates my guts and treats me like I'm their servant. If you weren't on holiday, I would ask if you could see if Mrs. Weasley would let me come stay with you guys. Then again, they wouldn't let me go. I don't understand it. How could people that hate me so much not let me out of their hair during the holiday?
Anyways, just wanted to thank you for my gift. I really appreciate it. And I can't wait to see you guys. Whenever that is.
Bye git,
Harry.
P.S. Percy made Head Boy? There goes our third year.
August 4, 1993
Dear Ron,
My mum and dad said I couldn't stay the week, but I can come on the day before term to shop and I can stay with you then. I practically begged them. I don't understand why they wouldn't let me. I'm going to be 14 soon after all.
Thank you so much for the book! What you sent me, along with what I learned in France is going into my essay for Professor Binns. Speaking of that, have you started on your essay yet, Ronald? I bet you haven't. I bet you haven't done a lick of your summer homework at all. That's not good, Ron. You'll be so far behind when we get to school.
Thanks for the pictures also. My parents went absolutely bonkers over them. Muggles don't have moving photos, so they thought it was extraordinary. They even hung one of them up in our hallway. Don't know how they will explain it to the neighbors when they visit though.
I hope that Ginny likes the beret I sent her. I figured green would be best for her red hair. And I hope you enjoy the sweets I sent. Mum almost didn't buy then, but I explained that in the wizarding world, there are spells to protect your teeth as well as fix them. Which got me into a huge debate over fixing my own.
I've got to go. Write back if you can. If not, I'll see you the day before term!
Love from,
Hermione
P.S: Don't worry about Percy being Head Boy. I'm sure you'll be fine. I'm not planning on getting in any trouble (that should include the two of you) this year, so you shouldn't have any problems with him at all. I would imagine the twins would be the ones in the most.
The night before we has to leave for home, I found myself not wanting to go. I loved it there. I loved being with Bill and talking to him about everything I was going through. I felt like he was the only one that truly listened to me, and he never teased me for how I felt about something.
However, I was also happy to be able to be seeing Hermione and Harry soon. I missed them a lot, and I was worried about Harry especially. Dad had shown me the paper about Harry blowing up an aunt and having a hearing. It hadn't said that he had gotten off yet, only that there was a chance that he wouldn't be back at school and that he was missing.