“What
the bloody hell was that?” Ron demanded, wheeling on his friend, who was
looking rather irritable himself, green eyes scanning the area and taking in
what was going on around them.
Sirius
dragged the trio away from the scene of the Game and out of sight before
turning to Harry with a frustrated grimace. “Was that really necessary?”
“Don’t
blame me.” Harry protested, “Powel’s the one who took offence at the way he was
treating Marik. Hey... where is Marik?” The four of them looked but Ishizu and
Marik were nowhere in sight.
“You
need to keep better tabs on your tenant.” Sirius growled at Harry the moment
that they were certain that the pair of children had probably run off when
Powel had started his Shadow Game.
“I’d
love to.” Harry shot back, “Except I’m not awake when he is. I have absolutely
no say in what he does.”
“Hey!”
Ron interrupted, poking Harry as he did so, “What the hell’s going on? What
tenant? And who the hell is Powel?”
Harry
pulled away, worried that Ron getting in his face might trigger an ‘episode’.
“Powel’s my tenant. He’s the ghost of a teacher who taught when the Founders
were alive.”
“You’re
possessed...” Hermione went pale at that, remembering all too well what had
been said about the negative survival rate of those who where possessed.
“No,
yes... It’s complicated.”
“Then
uncomplicate it.” Ron growled at him, wondering if he was talking to Harry now
or the mysterious Powel that apparently borrowed Harry’s body and challenged
people to weird games.
“I
can’t.” Harry retorted, “All I know is that this,” He held up his right arm and
the sleeve fell down, revealing the Serpent Bracer, “Is mine. When I found it
in the Chamber of Secrets, it became mine. Professor Dumbledore wants me to
keep it too.”
“But
it’s possessing you...” Hermione bit her lower lip.
“The
guy who owned this before me, Powel Redgrave was...”
“I
know him.” Hermione looked surprised by the name drop, “He was a Master of
Transfiguration and one of the very first teachers the Founders ever hired for
the school but he just disappears from the books after less than five years at
the school.” She stared at the Bracer with a little more awe. Harry could
almost see the cogs turning and her mind overflowing with all the questions she
wanted to ask the ex-teacher.
“The
guy who takes control of my body whenever I’m hurt or am too shocked to move,”
Harry shot Sirius a withering look and got a cheeky grin in response, “Same
guy. He got himself stuck in here somehow and when I put the Bracer on in the
Chamber I somehow woke him up.”
“Bloody
hell.” Ron’s articulate response made Harry smile slightly. It was going better
so far than he had feared it would. Then his friend’s face darkened. “But if he’s
possessing you, doesn’t that mean that you’re gunna die?”
“No
actually.” Sirius said. “I confronted Powel on that matter myself, after all I
don’t want my dog’s new owner to suddenly keel over and die. Apparently because
Powel normally rests in the Bracer and Harry’s sent there every time Powel
takes over his body, there’s no risk of the possession directly killing Harry.”
“Directly?”
Harry wished Sirius hadn’t phrased it that way as his sharp friend stared at
him, her concern obvious.
“You
read the books, Hermione.” Harry pointed out. “What’s the one thing that the
Serpent Items are well known for?”
“Shadow
Games.” Hermione spoke softly realising what had just happened and what Sirius
meant by what he’d said.
“Shadow
what?” Ron asked, looking less amused and more confused by the second, “What
just happened?”
“Shadow
Games are one of the key powers of the Serpent Items.” Hermione explained,
trying to remember exactly what she had read, “They allow the holder of the
item to test their opponent and put them on trial for crimes they have
committed. They’re also almost completely played in minds of the players. We
only got to see it here because Harry went for an uncomplicated game that only
required the use of the coin he had in his pocket.”
“Wasn’t
me...”
“But
if they’re Shadow Games doesn’t that
make them dark magic?” Ron spoke over Harry, ignoring his friend’s protest.
“In
theory yes, but the Founders created and used the Serpent Items and other than
Slytherin, none of them were dark were they?” Hermione pointed out, “Besides,
Dumbledore told Harry to keep it and he wouldn’t allow a dark artefact in his
school would he?”
She
put it like it was a matter of fact, but Harry couldn’t help but remember that
Riddle’s Diary had been floating around Hogwarts for almost a full school year
before it had been destroyed down in the Chamber of Secrets.
It
only reassured Ron slightly and he stared at Harry’s Bracer like it was going
to unleash a demon on the planet as he nodded slightly, “So what about the spirit
of the Bracer? I mean ghosts aren’t supposed to be bound to things. That’s what
made You-Know-Who’s diary so dangerous.”
“Riddle’s
Diary,” Harry spoke up and managed to wedge his way into the conversation,
“Wasn’t like the Bracer. It wasn’t magical before hand and it worked in a
completely different way. I mean Ginny remembers everything Riddle did while
using her body, doesn’t she? I fall asleep the moment Powel takes control and
vice versa. Plus Riddle was trying to get his own body by draining Ginny’s life
force. Powel’s not tried anything like that...”
“Yet.”
Hermione pointed out, not willing to trust the spirit of the Bracer yet, not
until she knew a lot more about him, though her natural trust in authority made
the fact Powel had been a teacher during the time of the Founders stick out in
her mind, after all if the Founders had hired him he couldn’t have been all
bad. “You haven’t had the Bracer anywhere near as long as Ginny had the diary.
I think we should do more tests.” She considered Harry carefully, “Can you wake
him up?”
Harry
shook his head. “I don’t know how and I don’t think we should play with this
while we’re over here. If something goes wrong, I don’t want to be stranded in
Egypt.”
“Point.”
Hermione considered the options carefully, “I’m just worried about waiting
another fortnight to get any answers, I mean...”
“What
could it hurt?” Ron asked finally, “I mean if it hasn’t done any harm so far, I
doubt another couple of weeks is going to make much of a difference. I mean if
we keep a close eye on Harry, just in case he goes weird again there shouldn’t
be any more trouble right?”
None
of them actually believed that. They were too prone to attracting trouble and
two weeks was a substantial amount of time. Anything could happen.
Still
it was that or spend the entire holiday trying to work out ways of attracting
Powel’s attention and getting answers from him about his plans for the future.
Not that Harry expected him to announce his evil schemes, if he had any, but
Ron seemed to be of the mind that Powel would launch into a villainous
monologue at any given moment.
“I’ve
got to go.” Sirius said, interrupting what was bound to become a long and drawn
out argument between the three friends, “It was nice seeing you again, Mr
Potter.”
“Mr
Grey.” Harry carefully kept his tone neutral, still a little mad that Sirius
thought that following him to Egypt had been a good idea and that he would
probably follow him around, making sure that he didn’t get into trouble. It was
bad enough when his friends did it, he didn’t really want his Godfather doing
it as well.
When
Harry’s friends also said their farewells, Sirius slipped away into the slowly
declining crowds and the Golden Trio darted around, not really getting a chance
to look at everything properly but managing to pick up a few trinkets before
the stalls closed during the heat of the day. Harry and his friends took the
opportunity to stop in a cafe for lunch and let the worst of the heat die down,
wasting their time by playing a couple of rounds of Duel Monsters, before they
continued their shopping trip.
By
the time it was over Hermione had managed to find a second hand book stall and gotten
severely loaded down with new books. She had had to purchase bag to put them
all in and had chosen a rather pretty, rather ornately beaded but rather
expensive magically expanded bag, stating that she had needed a new school bag
anyway because her Muggle one had been falling apart at the seams from all of
the books and equipment she had put in it on a regular basis.
Ron
had gone another route, ignoring all of the old, fascinating text books,
magical artefacts and tourist trinkets, bar a little golden pyramid that had a
spell on it for luck and good grades, along with a pendant that was supposed to
keep Mummies away if you visited any tombs, and proceeded, despite the huge
lunch he had had, to try almost every type of food there was available on the
stalls.
Harry
however was more curious than anything else and he spent more time browsing
than he did purchasing. He shocked Hermione by picking up a couple of books on
magic from the huge bookstore at the top of the market, mostly, he admitted,
because he was curious about the Bracer and how it had come to be, and caused
Ron to complain that he didn’t eat enough when he wouldn’t try more than a
couple of the foods on offer.
It
wasn’t until he got back to the hotel he realised how restrained he had been.
Everyone else had bags of stuff and he had barely brought anything. Harry made
a note to go back out before they headed back and buy presents for everyone.
“Honestly
Harry,” Fred, who along with his brother had managed to find the Egyptian
equivalent of a magical joke shop and had made friends with the traders inside,
along with several purchases that would keep them occupied for hours until they
reverse engineered the tricks and treats and worked out how to produce a more
effective and amusing version of the item in question, “Take you abroad and you
don’t treat yourself...”
Harry,
who was under the impression that the twins would probably blow their spending money
within the first few days, just shrugged. He’d been looking for something that
mentioned Shadow Magic or caught his attention and though he’d picked up a few
things, there just hadn’t been anything that caught his eye.
If
anything he’d been distracted all day because he thought he’d seen an Egyptian
man with blank eyes wearing a turban following them around but hadn’t said
anything because there were loads of them around. The only reason Harry thought
he’d been following his group of friends was because the Bracer had grown warm
every time the man had been close and it had been at a pretty constant, warm
temperature all day although, Harry allowed, that could have been because of
the heat.
He
was glad he’d thought to pick up cool long sleeved clothing because even after
they’d let the worst of the heat die away, it was still baking wandering the
stalls and Harry was half convinced that he was going to find himself rather
sunburnt when he woke up in the morning. Luckily Hermione had thought ahead.
The moment that she’d agreed to come to Egypt with Harry and the Weasleys,
she’d gone on a spending spree, buying very important things like sunscreen and
aftersun, both of which she had used before leaving the hotel that morning, and
a wide brimmed hat.
It
looked a little silly, but Harry was envious of it later on in the evening when
the aftersun he’d applied the moment they’d returned to the hotel did little
for the soreness of his burnt neck and face.
“You
look like a lobster.” Ron sniggered at him.
“Ummm,
pots and kettles Ron.” Harry snorted back at him, amused, as he pointed at the
window. The darkness outside caused the glass to reflect Ron back clearly and
his red headed friend looked even more burnt than Harry did.
“Shut
up Harry.” Ron let out a good natured but exasperated laugh, much the same way
he had when Harry had chuckled when Ron’s broomstick had smacked him in the
face during their first flying lesson with Madam Hooch.
“Well
if the pair of you,” Hermione started in that tone of voice that Harry and Ron
had come to know as Hermione’s ‘ha, ha I thought ahead and you didn’t’ tone of
voice, “Didn’t think to buy something as simple as suntan lotion, I suppose I
might be convinced to share to make sure that you don’t get burnt any worse
than you already are...”
“No
need.” Arthur said, having picked some up at the airport at Hermione’s
direction while Harry had been herding the twins away from the Duty Free shops
where they had been tempted by some of Muggle electronic toys, mostly to see
how much it would take to make them blow up. “I thought that Harry had some
with him or I would have handed them this sooner.”
Harry
let out a soft groan as Arthur passed a bottle out of his bag and it got passed
down the line to him and Ron. Not that the pair of them were the only ones who
had been burnt, Fred and George had caught the sun and Ginny’s face was a
lovely shade of pink.
“Don’t worry.” Arthur chuckled, “I managed to
get a friend of ours to quickly brew up a few potions just in case this
happened. They’re in our room. I’ll share them out before we go to bed but
don’t take too much, we don’t have more than a couple each and they’re rather
expensive to buy in tourist areas.”
They
finished eating in the hotel’s dining hall and headed up to their rooms, Ron
heading for his parents’ room in order to pick up the sunburn relief potions
that would make tomorrow much more enjoyable, while Harry crashed out on the
bed, dropping his wand on his bedside table and rolling his sleeve up, going to
take the Bracer off only to realise that there was someone else in the room
with him.
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