Explanations

Johan and Draco didn't waste their time. As soon as the alarms sounded, the older wizard crossed the wards guarding the phoenix eggs, quickly picked them up one by one and stuffed into his own extensible pouch, and went back to the entrance.

Seeing that their mission was done, Draco took out the poacher's pendant and whispered the password of the portkey. With a loud sound he disappeared. Johan soon followed.

Both of them reappeared at the clearing, where few phoenixes were still guarding the poachers. Beside them was Theo, who was urgently talking with someone on his own communication mirror. As soon as he heard two loud pops, indicating portkeys' arrival, he turned his head in the direction of the sound. The boy's eyes lit up with relief when he spotted that his friend was alright. With a quick whisper of "We will talk later" he ended the call and went forwards to check Draco for injuries.

"You're alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked while scanning the blond boy with his eyes for injuries. Johan, who was standing beside Draco, was completely ignored.

"I feel like no one likes me," the man muttered petulantly.

"Everything's fine," assured Draco with a smile, paying no mind to the older wizard. "When we went inside, Johan managed to take care of the guards and the most dangerous wards. Even though the poachers now know that someone was there, we managed to get the phoenix and the eggs." Draco lowered his chin to look at the young phoenix, who had been hiding in his arms all this time. Theo also finally noticed that Draco was holding something.

"It's the one, who was tortured?" he asked quietly. The bird almost didn't look like a phoenix – its feathers were dull and there were a lot of bald patches, indicating that someone had plucked them. It also didn't seem to be very energetic, not moving an inch from the blond boy's arms - looking more dead than alive.

Draco nodded and carefully placed the phoenix on the ground.

"You should go to meet your family," he told the bird gently.

The few phoenixes, who were nearby, hopped over and looked at the injured bird. They seemed to know that it wouldn't welcome them yet – after all, the bird, after hatching from the egg, only ever saw humans and never other birds of its kind.

The phoenixes let out happy and encouraging thrills, expressing that everything is alright now. The little bird got more courageous after hearing their short song and hopped over to curiously look at the older birds.

Few phoenixes, who weren't occupied by the new member of their flock, flew up to Draco and chirped at him. The blond boy couldn't understand them at all.

"What do they want?" he asked Theo warily. His friend seemed to be able to understand them better.

Theo tilted his head and observed the birds, who started chirping a bit more urgently, even flapping their wings, as though trying to convey with them, what they wanted to say. One of the phoenixes slowly raised and lowered its wings, making them show a wider arch as they got lower, before bringing them together.

"I think they are asking about the eggs!" Johan said with realization. Both boys turned to look at the older wizard. He could even understand that?

Johan ignored the weird looks sent his way and opened the expanded-on -the-inside pouch. He carefully removed the eggs one after another. The phoenixes, who stopped trying to imitate mimes, flew over to check the the precious objects for damage. They completely didn't trust the poachers to not harm them in some way.

"Have you done what I asked of you?" Draco turned to Theo again.

"Yes, you don't have to worry. Your parents should already be at the Egyptian Ministry of Magic. I told them that you were kidnapped and Johan went to save you. My father is also there for some reason..." the dark-haired boy trailed off with a scowl.

Draco nodded. The story would hold for now but when he was questioned later, he was sure that the truth will be exposed. He asked for Theo to do this only because he wanted to create a commotion at the Egyptian Ministry, in case anything happened to himself and Johan. It would also help to expose this country's corruption and make a big mess of things.

The bigger the commotion – the happier Draco would be, since it would ensure that the phoenixes could, at least, live in their enclosure without worries, for the time being. A few poachers may even be caught in the process.

However, whether Draco's interference would help in the long term – that was another question. The blond was sure that the poachers and their helpers won't stupidly expose themselves – they may lay low for a while but after some time they would surely continue their unsavory activities. Draco and Theo may have been in danger in that case, since sometimes people would seek to take revenge. However, since they were not natives to the country, as long as they left, it wouldn't matter.

And if someone targeted Johan, the most that could happen would be him getting booted from the Egyptian Ministry and being forbidden from getting involved in curse-breaking. After all, no one would actually be insane enough to do permanent damage to the man – if a British national suffered from an accident in the country, where he was involved in cracking down on illegal activity, even idiots would be suspicious of the motive. This could lead to deeper investigations on poaching activity in Egypt, which would be detrimental to the poachers. So, the more exposed this matter was, the less danger there would be in the end.

Suddenly Draco's thoughts were interrupted by the series of loud pops, indicating the arrival of several people. The phoenixes chirped warily at each other, suspiciously observing new and unknown humans arrive to their place. After recent happenings they were very wary of new visitors.

"I think it's alright," said Johan to them after seeing the birds' worry. "These are the Ministry workers." The man was first to recognize them because he worked with the Egyptian Ministry and was familiar with their style of dress.

One of the Ministry men looked around the clearing, his eyes landing on the two bloody poachers, who were still being guarded by a few phoenixes. After taking in the sight he turned attention to Johan, who seemed to be the most reliable source of information, considering that the other two humans, standing beside the man, were kids.

The auror asked in a stern tone, "We heard that there was a case of kidnapping which took place here. It doesn't seem to be the case anymore, unless there were more children with you?"

Johan was a bit stumped. No one kidnapped anyone, unless they were referring to the poachers illegally taking the phoenix eggs. So how should he explain it to the aurors, who were now looking around the place? Should he tell them the truth? That he brought a kid with him to rescue phoenix eggs from the poachers?

Even if he said everything as it was, how should he explain, why they didn't call the aurors in the first place? He couldn't exactly tell them that Draco suspected corruption in the Ministry and Johan believed a kid's wild fantasies because they seemed reasonable...

As Johan was speechlessly moving his mouth, trying to think of something to say, Draco came to his rescue. The boy stepped forward and confidently explained, as though everything was very reasonable:

"These poachers came to steal the phoenix eggs and we caught them. After interrogating them, they said that they had help from your Ministry and that there were more eggs in their place. So we went there to get them and, as you can see, we succeeded and are unharmed."

The aurors collectively raised their eyebrows at the concise explanation.

"You didn't call for us because?..." asked the auror, who seemed to be the leader - he was the only one talking.

"If we called you before getting the eggs, those Ministry workers could have been notified and would have escaped with everything before you could get there. After all, we don't know who among you is working with the poachers," replied Draco without caring about softening his words. After all, saying straight out that a kid thought a foreign government was corrupted was really insulting to said government's employees.

However, the lead auror didn't take offense. "But now the poachers should be aware that someone intruded and took the eggs, right?" he asked without a change of emotion.

"Yes, however, whether they managed to completely get away is another question. If you hurry up, you might be able to catch a few of them," Draco said with a smirk. He took out the poacher's pendant and gave it to the auror. With a nod of his head, the boy indicated for Johan to do the same. The man quickly complied.

The lead auror watched all of this with a thoughtful expression. "Why would they still be there?" he asked after observing the pendants for a second. The wizard could immediately tell that these were some high-end portkeys.

"If you hurry up, you will find out," the blond boy refused to say another word on the matter. If they continued to dilly-dally here, then all of the poachers would really escape.

The aurors took a hint and, after doing some magic on the pendants, five of them, including the leader, popped away. Three of those, who were left, approached the pecked-to-near-unconsciousness poachers and started questioning them. One of the criminals still refused to talk, while the other one, who readily told Draco everything before, just wanted all of this to end, so he was very cooperative with the authoritative wizards.

Draco gave a sigh of relief after seeing that everything would soon be settled.

"Missy!" he gently called for his house elf - who arrived before Draco could even finish saying her name.

"Young master is unharmed?" she asked worryingly.

The boy smiled and shook his head, "Everything is alright." He then continued, "You were with the phoenixes near the lake, right? Did you see what happened after the alarms sounded?"

Missy nodded and said in her squeaky voice, "Yes, Missy saw everything! Missy was worried about young master so Missy stayed nearby! Missy was scared when there was a loud sound, thinking that something happened to young master. When it sounded the birdies all flew to where the sound was coming from! Missy followed and saw that young master wasn't there. So Missy decided to help the birdies with the poachies. Missy made the portkeys allow the poachies to appear but not disappear, so the birdies were happy to peck the bad wizards! Then some other wizards came and helped to tie up the poachies. And then young master called for me."

The elf's explanation was very thorough and Draco understood what happened. He didn't expect for the poaches to arrive so readily to their capture. From the sound of it, the aurors should have caught more people than just the two guards that Johan disabled before. When he was instructing the birds before going into the hideout with Johan, Draco told them to go to the lake and wait around for any strange sounds, magic or commotion. He explained that it would be a signal, which would indicate where to come, in order to find the hideout.

Since phoenixes were hardly affected by magic, they wouldn't have a hard time finding the location with a signal and safely getting there. But the Nuwameisa lake was quite big - it would have been hard to find the cave from the start. And even if they found the cave, the phoenixes would have alerted the poachers, putting Johan and Draco in danger. So Draco told them to wait.

"Thank you, Missy," the boy said sincerely. "Without you, a lot of bad wizards would have escaped, since the phoenixes can't effectively restrict the usage of portkeys."

"Missy does her duty," the small elf said humbly. Then she hesitantly asked, "Young master, you don't want to talk to Master and Madam?"

Draco furrowed his eyebrows. What did she mean? Suddenly the realization hit him and his face rapidly paled. Theo, who was just about to open his mouth and help to explain the elf's words, quietly chuckled and retreated. He wouldn't want to get involved in this situation.

Draco slowly put his hand into the pocket and took out his communication mirror, which was constantly emitting flashes, indicating that someone was trying to call him. The boy nervously checked the caller's name, which was clearly spelled out on the mirror's surface, and, after bracing himself for a lecture, answered.

"Mother," he said quietly after seeing Narcissa's face, which showed a worried expression. The rims of her eyes were red, indicating that she had been crying recently. Suddenly Draco felt very guilty – he could have made up another story and not just instructed Theo to tell his parents that their child had been kidnapped.

"Draco! Oh Merlin, are you alright? Where have you been? What happened? Why didn't you use the mirror? Are you still with kidnappers? Quickly, tell me your place, we will send aurors!" she talked without stopping, her eyes frantically observing Draco's face, trying to see whether he was injured and hiding a pained expression.

"Everything is alright, I am at the phoenix enclosure with Theo and Johan. The Egyptian aurors are also here," he said quickly, trying to reassure the woman, who was on the verge of crying again. Suddenly the image on the mirror shook and Lucius' face showed up.

"Wait there and don't move an inch," he said sternly. Although the words sounded severe, the man's eyes showed concern and Draco felt even more guilty.

Seconds later more pops sounded and few more people arrived, this time dressed in more familiar British auror robes.

They took a glance around the surroundings and, after making sure that everything is alright, portkeyed the three troublemakers away.

Draco didn't have the time to check his surroundings before he was engulfed in a warm hug.

"Why do you have to worry us so much? First the incident with the artifact, now being kidnapped by the poachers… I will forbid you to have anything to do with Egypt until you are fifty!" said Narcissa after releasing the blond boy. She carefully checked him over and, seeing that he was unharmed, she was momentarily appeased.

Draco observed the surroundings. It seemed that they were in the Egyptian Ministry of Magic – he recognized the décor, however the office that they were in was even more lavish than the lobby.

"The Minister kindly agreed to help us," explained Lucius after seeing his son's look. He indicated with his head to another corner of the room, in the opposite direction to where the boy had been looking earlier.

Turning his head, Draco saw a beautiful lady sitting behind an ornate desk with long straight black hair, dressed in white Egyptian robs with gold details. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he couldn't help but gape at her, for a moment forgetting the situation in which he was right now.

His father coughed gently, returning Draco to the present.

Johan snickered at the side and suddenly, all attention was on him. Theo's father, Finlay Nott, who also arrived with Draco's parents, stood up from a sofa and asked, "Would you finally care to explain what happened?"

The man seemed to be angry and intimidating, carrying himself with a noble's disposition. Unlike the Malfoys, he didn't show much concern over his son and Theo didn't seem to expect it anyway. The dark-haired boy stood at the side, watching his friend's family with a resigned smile.

Before Johan could start his explanation, series of knocks sounded.

"Come in," called the Minister, ignoring the people making commotion in her office.

The door opened and Egyptian aurors came inside.

"We have dealt with the situation and the poachers have been caught. The suspects working with them in the Ministry are now waiting for interrogation," the man, who Draco recognized as the leader of the aurors, reported.

The Minister gracefully stood up and walked from behind the desk, her robes gently swaying with each step. "Please, explain to us the situation then. Our guests are confused, and so am I," she said with a small smile, while taking out few crystal goblets from one of the cabinets and pouring in the drinks. With a swing of her wand she made the goblets fly to each adult in the room, even the British aurors, who brought Draco here.

"To calm you down," the woman explained and turned her attention back to her own auror.

Safe to say, after hearing that there was no kidnapping and Draco went to the poachers' hideout on his own, never mind that there was another adult with him and he returned safely, Narcissa and Lucius were furious.