Chapter 38 (Part 2)

March 12th.

The area that Etal's forked tongue led them to was barren desert of a slightly more rocky persuasion than what people imagined when they thought of the Sahara, though there was no shortage of sand either. The sphinx hadn't been very specific about the meeting location, particularly not about how far south-west of Djoser's pyramid they were supposed to go. Quite far as it turned out, far enough that walking was out of the question, not that anyone really fancied a walk through the desert anyway. Fortunately, they were prepared and had brooms.

Their quarry was waiting for them with a look of endless patience and merely bid them to follow once they arrived.

The walk to their destination was short, the destination itself being a small and utterly unremarkable pile of sand and rocks the likes of which was ubiquitous around here.

Well, unremarkable for most.

"What's this supposed to be?" Dora asked, looking around in bewilderment.

Harry looked at her oddly. "You mean you can't see the door?" It was a rather big door.

"What door?" Sirius and Fleur said in unison.

"I don't see it either." Luna said.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to explain why I'm the only one that can see it?" Harry asked of the sphinx. He did have a few guesses, but they were just guesses.

"Ra illuminates the path for his chosen." The sphinx said simply.

"Huh." Harry said. That was impressively straightforward for a sphinx. The doorway was clearly hidden by some contrivance of magic that only the Sun's Light could pierce, but a more concentrated version than what could be found in regular sunlight. That Fleur couldn't see the door was a bit odd….or it could be that Harry was the oddity. He did have two Sol runes carved into his temples after all.

With a minor exertion of will, he concentrated the Sun's blazing magic into a globe in his hand and used it like a flashlight.

"Ah, that door." Sirius said as it became visible and the heavy stone plate blocking the entrance sank into the ground.

"Shall we?" Harry said with a grin, eager to see what was down there.

That got him a murmur of agreement from all except one member of their party.

" I am not going down there. " Etal hissed a tad petulantly, staring suspiciously into the darkness.

" Are you certain? " Harry hissed back, trying not to sound too amused. The quetzalcoatl hated being underground with a passion.

" Yes. " Etal sniffed. " I will go take a look at the jungles to the south and meet you later. "

" Alright, good hunting. "

The entrance was big enough even for the sphinx to pass without issue and was positively roomy for the rest of them.

"So, this wouldn't happen to be Imhotep's tomb, would it?" Harry asked casually, knowing that the Ancient Egyptian's tomb had never been found by either magicals or mundanes. "I was told that it was Pharaoh Djoser who commanded the creation of the sphinxes and Imhotep was his chief advisor, the High Priest of Ra and a bunch of other things, including a sorcerer."

"Yes, Imhotep rests here." The sphinx answered, showing no surprise at his guess.

"Like in that film we watched last month?" Luna asked with a smile.

"Not exactly." Harry replied absently, peering at the walls for anything of interest. "Aside from the name, the Imhotep in the film didn't really have much of anything in common with the real one. Timeline was all wrong too."

"As long as this tomb isn't crawling with scarabs." Fleur shuddered.

"Scarabs would be pretty cliché." Harry quipped, amused.

"I don't think we have anything to worry about where bugs are concerned, not when Fleur is such a pyro." Dora said wryly.

Said pyro shot a brief glare at the metamorphmagus before turning her nose up with a snooty huff.

"I just remembered something." Sirius said grimly, making everyone look a bit concerned at his tone.

"What?"

"The first people to open the ancient tomb always die." The dog animagus snickered at their flat looks.

"Well I'm sure Brendan Fraser will show up to save the day in case we release some ancient evil." Harry snarked, mildly pissed at the fact that his godfather had gotten one over on him.

"Hate to break it to you, Harry, but Brendan Fraser had a run in with a soul-sucking demon a few years ago and isn't in any shape to be saving anything." Dora said gravely.

"Dementor?" Harry asked, deeply skeptical that one of those would be anywhere near Hollywood.

"Worse, ex-wife."

"Ah."

The conversation petered out then and they focused on staying alert. The walls were featureless and did not branch to the sides. For all intents and purposes, it was a perfectly straight tunnel. Still, they continued scanning for possible traps or curses, even though it was beginning to seem like there wouldn't be any. The sphinx accommodated their slow pace without comment.

The slight downward incline eventually leveled out and a minute after that they entered what had to be the burial chamber. It was a considerably large, but mostly featureless, room that had four large columns supporting it. The only thing of real note in it were the hierogylphics inscribed on the columns and the sarcophagus sitting on a raised dais between them.

"Huh, for some reason I was expecting piles of gold." Dora said, scratching at her cheek as she looked around the dusty room.

Harry wasn't going to admit it, but so had he. The only thing piled around the corners was sand and dust.

"Imhotep's wealth was not in gold." The sphinx said, plopping herself into the typical catlike resting position nearby.

"What do these say?" Sirius asked, peering at the hieroglyphics as if they would yield their secrets simply due to his stare.

"It's a biography, I think." Harry said, frowning as he looked over the symbols. He might have magically cheated his way into being able to speak Ancient Egyptian, but reading it was another story.

For one thing, the language was old and had gone through a great deal of change. For another, it had hundreds of symbols and combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements. Even if his memory was very close to eidetic when really applying Occlumency to enhance recall, that was a tough proposition when working purely from memory. If the rather dull vacation so far had been good for anything though, it had been good practice for reading the hieroglyphics.

"What does it say?" Luna asked curiously.

"This part in particular seems to be talking about his job as the 'Maker of Vases in Chief'." Harry said, bemused.

"Really?" Sirius snickered before abruptly sobering up. "Wait, you know what this means, don't you?"

"What?" Harry asked, certain that it was going to be stupid.

"Imhotep… was a potter!" Sirius declared triumphantly.

There was dead silence for a minute before Harry, Fleur and Dora jeered at him for the terrible joke. Luna just giggled.

"Hey, there's writing on the sarcophagus too." Dora said once they were done haranguing Sirius for his atrocious sense of humor, using her hands to wipe the dust from the lid.

"Let me see." Harry said, moving over eagerly.

"It's an epitath of some kind, like you'd find on a tombstone." He said absently, wiping off the remaining dust.

"Anything interesting?" Fleur asked.

"Well it's written in first person, so he must have made it himself." Harry said, not taking his eyes off the writing. "His name, a long list of titles, including Maker of Vases in Chief of course, and…..huh."

"What?" Everyone asked, leaning closer.

Instead of trying to explain, Harry began reading out loud, his pace halting and slow as he stumbled through the translation. "'Long have I served the Pharaohs and protected Egypt from the vampire in the shadow and the succubus under the sky. I was ready to pass on my duty when the Assyrian demon-sorceress, Sar-Sarat, daughter of Li-Lit, attacked with her army of bewitched slaves.'"

"Sounds like one of your great aunts was causing a ruckus, Fleur." Dora noted with amusement.

"Yes, quite." Fleur agreed in a droll tone.

"There's more." Harry said, cutting off the banter as he continued to read. "'The war was long and the price of victory steep. My sons and students were no match for Sar-Sarat's fell magics and were turned against me. I could not save them and now I am left with no one to take my place. I am old and tired, I wish to rest, but I will not allow Egypt to fall to invaders, demons or monsters. Not now, not ever.'"

As soon as he read the last word, Harry felt a pulse of magic ripple from the sarcophagus. Judging by the wide-eyed looks Dora, Fleur and Luna were sporting, they'd felt it too. It was strong.

"Uh-oh." He said and slowly backed away from the stone casket.

"What do you mean 'uh-oh'?" Sirius demanded, looking between the four of them. He was the only one not sufficiently attuned to sense it.

"The inscription was like that stupid poem Gringott's has on their front door." Harry said with a scowl as he continued backing off. "It triggered a spell of some kind as soon as I read it."

It was a crafty bit of magic that duped the reader into powering whichever spell was worked into the text, which made it damn near undetectable unless you were specifically looking for it.

"Is this why you brought me here?" He demanded of the sphinx.

"The high priest of the temple inducts new priests." The sphinx replied in the evasive language of someone dancing around a magical compulsion.

Harry wanted ask something else, but a grind of stone on stone drew his attention to the sarcophagus.

The lid shifted and skeletal fingers covered in dry, leathery skin gripped the edge.

"You have got to be kidding me." Harry stated in flat disbelief.

The others said nothing as they watched the mummy push the heavy stone lid aside and climb out of the sarcophagus.

It was fairly typical in appearance as far as mummies went; skeletal, bandaged, leathery skin that crinkled like parchment with every motion.

Four things set it apart from other mummies, except for the obvious ability to move. First was the tall staff topped with a faceted crystal that it carried. The second was a thick book that hung from its waist on a chain. Third were the eldritch blue fires that burned in its empty eye sockets. The last and most important was the sense of powerful magic around it. Very powerful, and filled with a terrible sense of relentless purpose.

Under different circumstances, Harry would actually be rather excited to encounter a genuine lich.

As it was, he had only a moment to wonder at the extreme unlikeliness that this wasn't going to devolve into violence before the lich opened its tongueless mouth in a sepulchral scream that was more magic than sound and slammed the butt of its staff against the ground, letting out another pulse of magic.

Something shifted with the grind of stone on stone. Above them, sunlight broke through the roof of the burial chamber to shine on the undead wizard and to the sides, a secret door opened, from which rows of stone golems started marching out with clear violence in their purpose.

"Start blasting them." Harry ordered, throwing a blasting curse at the golems, but never taking his eyes off the lich.

Good thing too, as it pointed a finger at him with a clear command and the thus far eerily motionless sphinx launched itself at him without hesitation.

Fortunately, Harry had accounted for the possibility that the sphinx would become hostile during this little adventure, so he did not panic and did not attempt to use a spell to break through its magic resistance. Instead, he drew Blackrazor from where it sat on his belt and hurled it towards the charging sphinx in the same motion.

It was a terrible throw all things considered, hasty and poorly aimed. It would have probably done no more than minor damage, if it did any at all, had it been a normal knife.

Seeing as Blackrazor was cursed up the wazoo, it almost seemed to seek out its target and the hatred imbued into it made it lethal far beyond its unassuming size. The sphinx was hit in the directly chest as it leaped towards him and began convulsing immediately.

That didn't do anything for its momentum unfortunately, and Harry found himself the victim of physics as just shy of half a ton of dying pseudo-lion hurtled towards him. He didn't quite manage to dodge it.

I'm so happy that I put about three dozen cushioning charms on my clothes. Harry thought inanely as the heavy corpse clipped him and sent him stumbling to the ground from the force of it. It made him feel like he had a whole department store worth of pillows stuffed under his coat, minus the actual volume, but he hadn't wanted a repeat of Ahiga dislocating his shoulder with a glancing blow. It had no doubt saved his life just now.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled over the sound of stone being blasted apart. "Are you alright?"

Harry nodded and quickly climbed back on his feet, taking a moment to glance at the girls as he did so. They seemed to be handling the golems easily. Dora and Fleur were destroying them with carefully aimed blasting curses while Luna kept up a shield to defend against shrapnel. Clearly the things hadn't been made to fight this kind of battle and weren't doing well.

"What the….?" He trailed off as he saw what the lich was doing.

It was holding its staff in the air and somehow sucking in the sunlight streaming from the roof as if the crystal topping it was a black hole.

"Oh shit." He said softly and rushed over so that he was standing between the lich and the girls. "Sirius, watch my back!"

"You got it!" The dog animagus shouted back and positioned himself so that none of the golems could get him in the back.

Harry turned all his focus inward and started weaving a shielding spell that would, hopefully, protect them all from what was coming. He didn't know exactly what it would be, but he knew Light magic when he saw it. With that in mind, he crafted his shielding spell out of the same element, banking on like repelling like.

He cast the spell as soon as he was sure that he had it done just right and a nearly opaque golden shield appeared in front of him.

Less than two seconds later, a radiant beam of concentrated sunlight blazed from Imhotep's staff. It struck the shield at an angle and was deflected sideways, creating a trench of melted rock in the wall.

"What the fuck?!" Sirius squawked in shock.

Harry knew that he couldn't let the lich get off any more crazy ass spells. That beam had nearly busted through his shield and he might not recognise the next trick. It was a good thing that there was one surefire way of messing up a wizard's spellcasting ability. He would definitely be getting an earful for it later, but he'd take that over death.

With a thought, he called up the now fully controlled wolf spirit and felt his body ripple with animalistic power. He couldn't go too far into the change due to his clothes and boots, but it would be enough to more than double his strength.

The rush of animal savagery in his mind was familiar and Harry threw himself at the lich with a roar.

"Harry, no!" Several voices shouted, but he ignored them. He had to get in close.

That part at least was easy. The lich's spells might be powerful, but they weren't fast. Harry was upon him in moments and grabbed at the staff, wrenching it furiously from the bony fingers and throwing it across the room.

That threat dealt with, he grabbed at the skeletally thin wrists, noting with distant shock that the lich was actually much, much stronger than it looked, nearly as strong as him.

The ontological pressure of the undead wizard's mind, soul and magic was immense and terrible in its sheer otherness. Millenia of lichdom had robbed Imhotep of all humanity, leaving only the relentless will of the undead.

Imhotep's magic swirled with purpose and Harry rammed his own will into the unfinished mental construct with a snarl, disrupting the unfinished spell.

A distant sense of frustration rippled through the opposing aura and Harry's snarl twisted into a grin. He had the advantage now. Magic was no good at this range, but there was more than one way to skin a cat, as the rather morbid saying went.

With a jerk, he pulled Imhotep's right arm forward and prepared to shatter it. He had no idea what it would take to kill a lich, but pulverizing his skeleton into tiny bits sounded like a good start.

His arm came down on the elbow with shattering force… and stopped as if he'd struck a steel rod, the shock traveling painfully up his own arm as the impetus was abruptly halted.

His surprise cost him dearly as the lich pulled its arm out of his hold with even more strength than it had showed before, unbalancing him. In the same motion, the other arm slashed upwards with sharp, bony fingers.

He grunted in pain and reared back as the skeletal digits raked the left side of his face like claws. It hurt more than it should. Malice lingered in the newly made cuts as if it had been a spell that had made them. That thought was all he had time for before the lich shoved him in the chest with a strength more commonly found in trolls.

The multitude of cushioning charms once again absorbed the force, but he was still sent flying. The back-first impact against one of the pillars was likewise absorbed harmlessly, but there was no Cushioning Charm protecting his head when it snapped back and crashed into the stone.

It took Harry a precious few seconds to overcome the fierce ringing in his ears so that he could see what was going on.

Imhotep was preparing another spell, this one looking like some kind of contained windstorm if the howling sound was any indication, and Sirius was standing between the lich and Harry himself, throwing out spells and insults in equal measure, both of which were ignored.

"Sirius, no!" Harry shouted as he struggled back to his feet, knowing that his godfather didn't stand a ghost of a chance. Aside from the raw power disparity, there was something else going on here. There was simply no way that the lich should be that durable.

"Get him out of here!" Sirius bellowed back without turning around.

"Come on, Harry, time to go." Dora said grimly a moment later, already pulling him away.

Harry might have ignored her and gone to re-engage the lich despite the concussion currently fogging his brain, but it was a moot point. Imhotep had had enough time to complete his spell and release it.

It was indeed a contained windstorm just as Harry had guessed, but as soon as it was released it also sucked in a large amount of sand from nearby. Sirius had put up a shield, but he might as well have not bothered for all the good it did. The miniature sandstorm howled through it and hit Sirius dead on, it turned red and then bloodstained sand was thrown all across the burial chamber. Of Sirius there was no sign, not even bones. Around his left forearm, Harry felt the bracelet linked to his godfather's life break.

Imhotep's aura radiated a brief sense of grim satisfaction before it settled back into deadness. The lich extended a hand and his staff sailed back into it.

"Come on!" Dora repeated with a growl and roughly pulled him towards the entrance. "Transfigure the floor and put up walls!" She bellowed at Fleur and Luna as they retreated.

Harry forced himself to focus and helped turn the floor in a thick and deep mud pit as they ran back through the tunnel.

"Stop here." Harry said once they reached the incline that led outside.

"That thing is still after us." Dora barked, sounding very much like the auror she used to be. Her hair was very short and her figure distinctly unfeminine, all the better for combat.

"I know, but he's having trouble with the transfigurations, I can sense it." Harry replied.

"Fine, let me take a look at your face then." She said after a moment.

Harry nodded and let her examine him.

"It got you pretty good, you're lucky you didn't lose an eye." The metamorph commented in a forced light tone as she cast a few charms to clean his face of blood and sand. Harry absently noted that Dora was probably trained to push aside shock until the danger was over. Luna and Fleur looked much more rattled, each in their own way. "We'll need to put some Essence of Murtlap on that."

"Here." Luna said quietly, holding up the item in question.

"Thanks. Close your eyes and hold still, Harry."

He did so, feeling the cuts burn as the cold, slimy substance was applied, but the pain soon passed.

"Looks like you'll be a bit prettier from now on, lover." Dora said with a wince just as he opened his eyes.

Harry ran his fingers over the left side of his face, feeling the four parallel scars running across it. They went all the way from his jawline, up his cheeks and terminating at the level of his eyebrow. Dora was right, he was lucky that he still had his left eye. That was probably due to the fact that Imhotep was fairly short more than anything else.

He wasn't surprised that the scars hadn't healed, not when he could still feel traces of Imhotep's magic on his face. They were faint and getting fainter, but they were still there.

Harry shook his head to indicate that it wasn't important, wincing when his skull reminded him that he had a concussion. He rooted around his potions satchel for a healing potion that was designed specifically for head wounds and chugged it as soon as he found it, sighing in relief when his mind cleared.

His thoughts drifted back to the lich that he could even now sense was working to overcome the obstacles they'd put in his path. Imhotep's magic was powerful and tightly controlled, much like Harry's own.

He's like me, a spellweaver according to the sphinxes. Was that meant to be a hint? Why would they bring me here to wake him up? He made them, so they could be compelled to do it, but why only now? Imhotep lived in the 27th century BC, there had to have been other wizards capable of opening the door before me. I'm missing something.

"Why is he so slow?" Luna asked quietly, staring into the dark tunnel that led back to the burial chamber.

"I think the modern spells have him a bit stumped." Harry theorised. "Those golems were no match for you, but they would have been the death of any wizard that couldn't cast as quickly, and I know that transfiguration was only really developed as a true magical discipline around the time that Hogwarts was built. Imhotep's time was millennia before that."

"It didn't seem to be too stumped by Sirius' spells." Fleur said, grimacing immediately at her own tactlessness. "Sorry."

Sirius was dead. Harry wondered at how little he felt over it. All things must die.

He decided to consider that later and simply nodded at her, pushing forward. "I think we're dealing with something very much like a Horcrux here."

"What?!" Dora gaped.

"It's a mummy." Harry said. "There is no way that it should be capable of hosting a wizard's soul and magic. There is no way that it should be able to move without any muscles or organs. There is no way that it should be completely impervious to damage. The only way any of that is possible is if the soul is shackled to the bones, which would allow Imhotep to move through force of will alone, as well as conferring the indestructible nature of the soul to the bones."

It was also supported by his observations on Voldemort's Horcruxes. The diary had been able to act when written in it, as was its purpose. The locket had been able to act when opened, as was its purpose. Imhotep's body functioned as a vessel for the soul, as was its purpose.

"Well that's just fucking great." Dora snarled, throwing her hands into the air. "So you're telling me that we woke up an invincible super wizard, is that what you're saying?"

"Fiendfyre." Harry said simply.

"Fiendfyre?" Dora repeated slowly a few seconds later.

"It's the only spell I know that will destroy the magic holding him together." Oh, he desperately wanted Imhotep's staff and the book hanging from his waist, which he suspected to be the ancient sorcerer's grimoire, but he wanted to live even more.

"Can you control it?"

"Yes." Provided his attention didn't stray.

"….alright, let's go outside then."

"I'm afraid we can't do that." Harry sighed.

"Why the hell not?" Dora demanded.

"Fiendfyre is a spell of Dark, Imhotep is a Sun-sorcerer. You saw what he was able to do with just a little bit of sunlight. I'd rather not find out what he can do in the full light of day."

"But casting Fiendfyre in an enclosed space is as good as suicide!"

That was true. Fiendfyre did not behave like normal fire. It required no fuel and let off no smoke. It also had a ravenous appetite for magic and would pursue it like a living thing. This meant that the caster was most often its first victim. A sufficiently strong-willed wizard could keep it at bay, but truly controlling it was impossible, which was why casting it indoors was tantamount to suicide. Unfortunately, their other options weren't much better.

"Not if we-" Harry cut himself off, head snapping back down the tunnel. "He's breaking through. Move it, and spam more transfigurations."

They hurried to do just that, turning the ground into a deep, muddy swamp and putting up more walls as they retreated further towards the entrance.

"Right, as I was saying, it should be fine if we do a Spell Meld." Harry continued.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Dora pressed.

"No, but our only alternatives are to either risk fighting him outside where he will doubtlessly be even more powerful or running away altogether and letting a nearly invulnerable undead wizard with no idea how much the world has changed in the last four and a half thousand or so years run loose in Egypt." Not that he really cared much if Imhotep went on a rampage, but the girls would and someone might connect their sudden flight from the country to it. Then there was the Statute of Secrecy and how it was sure to be destroyed beyond repair if a lich were to take a stroll down the streets of Cairo and begin obliterating what it would probably see as invaders….

"….I hate it when you're right."

Harry quickly ditched his coat and shirt and waited. The girls each made a cut on their palms and his back and pressed the wounds together to initiate a Blood Linking. With practiced ease, he took it further until it was a full Spell Meld.

With their strength added to his own, Harry reached for the Dark and wreathed it in flame, creating Fiendfyre.

Fiendfyre was a surprisingly easy spell to cast, the Dark being more than happy to be coaxed into such a destructive form. Trying to contain it was the hard part, as once it was set loose it would just consume and consume until there was nothing left.

So far so good . Harry thought as he held the spell. It was struggling to break free of his grasp, but the four of them controlled it easily. It would become harder once it was released of course, but it was an encouraging sign.

A foreign presence made itself known to their senses. It 'looked' at their spell with recognition and an odd sense of outrage.

Harry decided to throw out the Fiendfyre before Imhotep had any more time to examine it.

Everything went well at first, the spell roared through the transfigured obstacles with little to no impediment and the four of them were able to keep it from burning the walls for the moment.

The problems began when it got close to Imhotep, as the ancient lich had no intention of going quietly. Harry felt the mental presence challenge them for control of the spell, trying to turn it back on them.

For several excruciating minutes, the spell was stuck between them, trying to escape control all the while and burn all five of them. In the end, Harry's superior understanding of Dark as well as the fact that there were four of them against one of him prevailed.

Unfortunately, the sudden loss of opposition as Imhotep (and his magic) was consumed, caused the Fiendfyre to nearly explode out of control and it took another couple of minutes for them to rein it back in and eventually snuff it out.

"Fucking hell, that was close." Dora gasped, sweating profusely and panting for breath.

"You can say that again." Fleur agreed, somehow still looking gorgeous despite being just as sweaty as the metamorph.

"I don't like that spell." Luna added with the tiniest of frowns. Coming from her, that was quite a severe statement.

"Come on, let's go back to the burial chamber." Harry said quietly.

Harry stared silently at the bloodstain that was the largest remaining sign of his godfather, holding hands with Luna and Dora and wondering if the loss of Sirius was going to hit him later like he'd heard happened sometimes or if he was really so dead inside.

A minute later he quietly sighed and turned away. Goodbye, Sirius. We weren't as close as we probably should have been…. I know I'm crap at opening up to people and I know I've kept you out of the loop, but I was sure you'd see that I was up to something and confront me about it. Looking back, I wonder if you didn't want to see what I've been doing, what I've become. I think a large part of you died with my parents, so I have a feeling that dying to save my life was something you would have wanted. I don't know if I'll be able to mourn you, but I will miss you.

Harry walked over to the sarcophagus curious to see if there was anything else in there or if this entire venture had been completely pointless.

As it turned out, there was something else in the sarcophagus. A single papyrus scroll lay inside, neatly rolled up and glowing to his sight with a strong, but very old, preservation spell.

"What is that?" Fleur asked as he unrolled it.

Harry skimmed over the contents and grimaced slightly.

"Instructions on how to turn yourself into a lich." He answered, rolling the scroll back up.

Imhotep had apparently ingested a large quantity of unicorn blood, after which a ritual had been performed to shackle his soul to his own bones as he had suspected. After that, he had been mummified by his acolytes, organ removal and all.

Harry could see how that might work. Unicorn blood was not a healing substance, but it would keep you alive through damn near anything by virtue of preventing the soul from escaping its fleshy prison. That would make a fine basis for a ritual to bind body and soul together in a permanent fashion. The problem with unicorn blood was that unicorns were one of the rare few magical species that had evolved on their own instead of being the result of wizards experimenting or accidentally screwing something up. Their magic in its raw form was wholly incompatible with humans and caused some progressively more horrible side effects over time if ingested through the blood. Mummification would certainly get around those side effects though….if you didn't mind being exsanguinated and having your organs pulled out of your still living body.

Not his cup of tea.

"You'll be keeping that locked in Ravenhead, never to see the light of day?" Dora asked pointedly.

"Exactly." Harry confirmed. He didn't even have any aspirations for immortality, much less undeath. "Let's go home."

March 13th.

"So, how did you get them to do it?" Bjomolf asked curiously.

"I didn't get them to do anything." Neferu scoffed. "I certainly tried, but they were avoiding human contact like the plague and I couldn't get any of my agents close without arousing at least Potter's suspicion. They blundered into Imhotep's tomb on their own, all I did was keep my people out of the way."

"All the better, now we can honestly say we had nothing to do with it." Bjomolf grinned. "Shame that none of the women died, but at least we are rid of that ancient menace."

"Quite, and it will certainly free up some manpower for me." Neferu agreed.

"Might I suggest that you use it to cast your web wider?"

"Why?" The Egyptian vampire asked suspiciously.

"I may have…. accelerated events a little bit."

Albania.

Draco started a little as a rather disreputable looking man sat down at his table without an invitation. He had hair cut very close to his skull, looked to be in need of a shave and had a rather large nose.

He was also dressed like a muggle, which would have immediately sent Draco into an insulting tirade had the circumstances been different. That it only annoyed him was a result of the fact that he had needed to learn how to blend in with muggles recently since there were no proper magical communities around there parts. Well, that and the fact that the man's grey eyes were rather intimidating, but Draco wasn't going to admit that.

"Can I help you?" He asked in English, not knowing a word of the local language.

"No, but I can help you." The man said in accented but otherwise very good English. "I'm Goran and someone paid me a lot of money to help you out with whatever you're here to do."

Draco smiled. The others had sent him help!

"In that case, it's a pleasure to meet you, Goran." He replied, not noticing the slight tick of the other man's eyebrow as he butchered the pronunciation of the name. "I'm Draco Malfoy."

He said the name as if it was supposed to mean something and Goran privately thought that the little blonde fucker was lucky that it really was a lot of money, or else he'd be tempted to bury him out in the woods somewhere, possibly still alive.