The Servants of Egypt

Chapter Two

Jimmy Potter threw down some money to pay for the tea and cakes, and ran out of the shop, but the pretty blonde girl was gone. Apparated, most likely, he thought, trying to remember what the name Malfoy meant. He had read about a Lucius Malfoy in History of Magic. That Malfoy had been a Death Eater, and involved with the Dark Lord that his father and his father's friends had helped defeat, long before Jim had ever been born.

Jimmy had also heard his father and Uncle Ron talking about a Draco Malfoy, someone they had played Quidditch against at Hogwarts, and had apparently disliked. Was this girl related to any of them? Did she think he would not want to be her friend if one of her ancestors had been a Death Eater? Or was she related to this Draco character? Maybe she had grown up hearing bad things about his dad. However, Jim himself had even heard bad things about his dad, so that would have been no big deal. His Aunt Ginny and Aunt Hermione were very fond of reminding his father of all the times he'd acted like a total prat at school. So what?

Jimmy sighed. He would never blame someone for what their parents or grandparents did or didn't do. He hoped the blonde girl wouldn't either. What had happened in the past certainly had no bearing on the present, or did it? He had been hoping to see her again. There were probably very few English girls his age walking around alone, and fewer witches still-- especially beautiful blondes. He thought they might have been able to have a few laughs together.

He headed toward the Egyptian Museum. Maybe Uncle Clark would have some ideas about the situation. As he passed the Nile Hilton, Jimmy looked up and wondered if the strange blonde girl was there. Once inside the museum, Jimmy thought about all of the time he had spent at museums with his family. He liked the Egyptian Museum, but his favorite had always been the British Museum. A bit homesick, he thought about the museum at home, and remembered especially the huge lion of Amenhotep III that had been reinscribed for Tutankhamun. The red granite lion had always reminded him of Gryffindor, the house that he, his father and his brothers shared. The older of his two sisters was a Ravenclaw like their mother, and were fond of telling her brothers how much smarter that made her, and his youngest sister was hoping to be sorted into Ravenclaw, too..

Jimmy grinned, and for a moment he felt a pang of homesickness, missing his sisters, Lily and Kiya. They had favorite statues at the British Museum, too. Lily, the most daring of the Potter clan, liked an Old Kingdom wooden statue of the Seal Bearer, Tjetji. Tjetji was nude, and very realistically carved, which always sent Lily into fits of giggles every time she saw him. Kiya, the most artistic of them all, had always favored a bronze, gold and silver inlayed statue of a Late Third Intermediate Period Queen, known as the Divine Consort, because of the way the different metals had combined for rich color contrasts.

Jimmy had always thought it a shame that some of the finest Egyptian art had been taken out of Egypt. Here he was in Egypt, thinking of pieces that he had seen back home. He shook his head, glancing up at a marble head of Ptolemy III that he was passing, that was part of the Tell Timai group. Life was very strange sometimes.

Asking after his great-uncle, he was directed to Room 22, a room filled with New Kingdom artifacts. Clark Croaker was standing beside a large glass exhibit case, casting some sort of spell on the contents when Jimmy found him. Jimmy waited patiently until his surrogate uncle finished what he was doing and noticed him.

"Jim!" Uncle Clark said, at last. "Good to see you, mate. When did you get in?"

"Last night. I always like coming into Egypt at night. I would have stopped in sooner this morning, but I took a walk through the bazaar first. What are you doing?"

Croaker eyed the glass case with concern. "I've been putting protective spells on all of the Ushabti. There's been a big jump in the prices of the ones that come up legally for sale, and they're also being stolen at an alarming rate from all museums all over the world. Someone is trying to get their hands on as many as possible."

Jimmy looked in the case, and saw a group of dolls. Some were made of wood, some of stone, and others of faience. They were carved in the shape of humans, with their arms crossed on their chests. From their waists down to their feet, they were all carved to look like they were wearing mummy wrappings. Some of them were holding tools of various types. They had hieroglyphics drawn across their rows of mummy wrappings. Jim thought they were pretty damned ugly, to tell the truth, but even the theft of ugly artifacts irritated him.

"Why would anyone steal them? Are they rare? Are they valuable?"

"Not rare, no," Uncle Clark answered. "The Ushabti, or shabti, or shawabti, as they were sometimes called, were placed in tombs to serve the deceased in the afterlife, and to be companions. During the Middle Kingdom, they were provided for the pharaohs. Later on, nobles and even some commoners had them placed in their tombs. They were supposed to work for their owners in the afterlife. The writing on their wrappings is the Ushabti spell for that particular figure. Supposedly when you read the spell, the figure would perform whatever task was required."

"So they were a type of Egyptian house elf? Or would tomb elf be a better term?" Jimmy asked.

Croaker looked at him, his expression one of concern. "In a sense, it would be. That's the problem. Now that fewer wizards have free labor from house elves, thanks to the tireless lobbying of your formidable Aunt Hermione, I believe the Ushabti are being magically brought to life to serve new masters."

"You're joking, right?"

"No, I don't think it's a joke at all, but it would take a powerful dark witch or wizard to steal them and animate them. I've been working with Aurors all over the world on the problem, and we have an idea of how many have been stolen and from where. We think they're fetching quite a high price as mystical servants." Croaker looked at the young man beside him fondly. "Don't worry, though. I'm not so busy that I won't be able to spend some time with you. How about lunch, for a start?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Where do you want to go, Jim? The Café here in the museum?"

"Nah, let's cut over to the Nile Hilton and go in the Ibis coffee shop. That's close by.I know you have to get back to work eventually, but I met a really cute witch at the bazaar who's staying at the Nile Hilton. We had tea together. Maybe I'll see her again."

Croaker sighed. "You just got here and you've picked up a girl already? You're as bad as your father was. I was very relieved when he got involved with your mother so young. If he'd had a chance with half the girls who had their eye on him, who knows what would have happened to Harry. How are your mother and father by the way?"

Jimmy laughed. "They're okay. I was surprised when Mum let me come here. She's usually much stricter with me than Dad is."

Croaker smiled as they entered the coffee shop. "Your mother has always had a special link with Egypt. Even when she was at Hogwarts."

"Speaking of Hogwarts," Jimmy said, as they sat down at their table, "did you know anyone there named Malfoy?" He was surprised to see his uncle blanch.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because the girl I met in the bazaar was named Olivia Malfoy. She told me that she just finished at Durmstrang, but she said her parents were originally from England, so I thought they might have gone to Hogwarts."

"Was she with her parents?" Croaker asked, urgently.

"No, she was alone. Why?"

"Because if she's who I think she is, her father is Draco Malfoy, an old enemy of your father, and one of the people we suspect of being involved with the theft of the Ushabti statues."

Jimmy almost spat out his coffee. "Are you serious? Why was he an enemy of my dad? The only time I ever heard dad mention him was when he and Uncle Ron were talking Quidditch. I gathered Draco was a seeker and my dad played against him I didn't think it was any big deal."

"Draco Malfoy was a seeker for Slytherin, and your dad did play against him, but they had a lot of bad blood between them besides that. Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, was a Death Eater and right in Lord Voldemort's inner circle. The whole family was full of pureblood snobs and rich to boot. Malfoy manor in those days would have made Longbottom manor look like Hagrid's hut. It's been abandoned for years. Draco never liked your dad, and he married a girl named Pansy Parkinson. She was also a Slytherin pureblood, and disliked your parents. It was an arranged marriage, but they had a lot in common. Neither of them ever missed a chance to get a dig in at Harry."

Jimmy shrugged. "Well, that has nothing to do with Olivia, or me."

Croaker looked at the young man's stubborn face with concern. "It could. I just wish I knew where Draco Malfoy was now. He was known to be in the area every time there was a robbery of Ushabti. He was definitely here in Egypt a few weeks ago when the Egyptian Museum was robbed, but then he disappeared, just up and vanished. We suspected he just Apparated out when the job was done, but it looks like something went wrong. His luggage was left at the hotel and he missed the dinner reservation he had made for that night at the Abu Aly Shisha here in the hotel. His wife has been frantic, calling the hotel and the local Wizarding Council day and night trying to find him. I think someone might have double-crossed him. With all the money involved in this case, anything could have happened. Draco was a sneaky little shite as a kid, but he always looked out for number one, and he was very loyal to his wife. I don't think he'd just up and leave her. I didn't know they had any children, though. I haven't seen him in years."

Jimmy looked puzzled. "If Olivia Malfoy is his daughter, she wasn't acting frantic. She was pretty calm, actually."

"What did she look like?" Croaker asked. "Can you describe her to me? Draco Malfoy was a very pale blonde kid, with a pointed face and gray eyes, not at all a bad looking boy in those days. A lot of the girls really went for him at school. Pansy had a rounder face and a pug nose..."

"This girl is very blonde, with gray eyes," Jimmy interrupted. "Almost as blonde as Aunt Fleur, and almost as good looking."

"I'll bet that's her. It's too unusual a name to be a coincidence. Sounds like she takes after her dear old dad. Where was she when you saw her?"

"In the bazaar, like I told you," Jimmy said crossly, taking a big bite of his lamb sandwich. He chewed for a moment, thinking. "When I first saw her, she was in the goldsmith section, then she headed over to look at antiques."

Croaker thought hard. "From what we know, the Ushabti were being exchanged for gold in many cases. It's something Muggles and wizards both understand, and the antique shops have had many inquiries for Ushabti in the last six months or so. If her dad is really missing, maybe she's trying to find him by tracing his route."

Jimmy sighed. "Are you sure her dad was the one running the smuggling operation? Or could he have just gotten caught up in the middle of something?"

"I never did think he was running it. I think he's being directed by a very powerful dark witch named Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Hang on," Jimmy said, "I think I've heard of her."

"Probably. She was responsible for what happened to Alice and Frank Longbottom, and she murdered your Great-uncle Sirius. Your dad and your Uncle Neville will never forgive her. It almost killed them that she got away from them at the end of the last war. She's pure evil," Croaker said calmly, "and she was very close to Lucius Malfoy. I suppose it's possible she's got something on Draco that she's blackmailing him with, or maybe he's running out of money. He lost almost everything when the Dark Lord was defeated and he had to leave England." He hesitated. "If you see Olivia again, try and find out what she's up to. An active Ushabti in every dark wizarding house could be very dangerous. They would do anything they were told to do by their masters with no questions asked, and they have no feelings, so you can't reason with them"

"If I see her again, believe me I'll try to talk to her," Jimmy promised.

When they finished their lunch they went back to the museum. Clark Croaker headed to his office, and Jimmy went back to look at the Ushabti. These Ushabti came with boxes that were, for the most part nicer looking than the Ushabti themselves. The ones in the case Uncle Croaker had been working on were bright with color. It was hard to believe they were thousands of years old. The boxes in this case were all about eleven inches tall and about five inches across, with curved lids. Some of the figures were better looking than others were. Most of the ones in this case were women, with wide eyes and black hair, topped by little golden headdresses. As tomb figures went, they didn't seem unusual, but Jim's eyes kept being drawn to the writing on them. Could it really bring them to life, turning them into real, life-sized servants?

It sounded so bizarre, but Jim had heard many stories of powerful spells that were just as strange.

As he thought about it, a voice came from behind him.

"You again! You are very persistent, Mr. Potter. How did you know that I would be coming here?" Olivia Malfoy demanded.

Jimmy turned. She had changed out of her jeans into a pair of loose, cotton pants with a drawstring waist, and she was wearing a scarf on her head and a tan blouse, cut more conservatively than the blue one she'd worn earlier. Her tote bag was still hanging over her shoulder loosely, and she looked annoyed.

"I just had lunch with my Uncle Clark. He's been working with these Ushabti dolls, trying to protect them from being stolen."

"About time they tried to do something," Olivia said in a drawling voice.

"But it's too late for your father, isn't it?" Jimmy said sharply.

The girl flinched. "What do you know about my father?"

"I know he and my dad didn't get along at Hogwarts, which doesn't really matter. I know that HIS dad was involved with dark witches and wizards, which wouldn't mean much either, except that some of them may still be around. I know that he's missing and your mother is worried about him."

Olivia Malfoy walked over to look at an elaborate headrest. "Then you have found out quite a lot. Why are you so interested, though? I think you'd be happy to hear that my father may be in trouble. He and your father rather detested each other, you know."

"I don't care what your father did at school. I'm interested in where he is now, and about what's going on with the Ushabti statues," Jimmy walked over, and set his hand lightly on the small of her back. "I'm worried about what's going to happen to you." He hesitated. "Why don't you talk to my uncle? He wants to find you father just as much as you do."

The girl whirled and gave him an angry look. "So he can arrest him for theft?"

"Uncle Clark thinks Bellatrix Lestrange may have forced your father into this. In my family, we hate that woman more than anyone else, certainly much more than your father. My dad hardly ever mentions your father, anyway. Whatever they had against each other, it doesn't matter any more. He wouldn't care if we help you. And you need help-- if your dad's trapped in the world of smugglers using dark magic to create an army of slaves."

An odd look passed quickly over Olivia's face. "I'm not fond of Aunt Bellatrix myself. She's bossy and bad tempered. I never liked her coming around when I was little, and I didn't like my father going to work for her again, but he said he had no choice, and that it would be over soon. He said we would be rich again, and that we would all be able to be comfortable for the rest of our lives."

She sighed. "Aunt Bella gave us an Ushabti to try out. The Ushabti seemed harmless at first. Like a little robot, she washed dishes and swept floors, and did other household chores. She never got tired, and never complained. You didn't have to pay her, and when you didn't want her around, you just opened her case, and told her to get inside. She would vanish until my we opened it again. But then..."

"What happened then?" Jimmy urged, when she hesitated.

"The Ushabti looked like the original statue at first, only larger. It looked like it just came to life and grew, but every time we used it, it gradually began to look more human. It began to feel like a slave, just as you said. I didn't like it. There's something evil about them. Maybe it's because they're so literal. You have to be careful what you tell them, and once they have a family, no one else can control them. You can't kill them, because they aren't really alive." She looked at him, her gray eyes sad. "I know why your uncle is worried. There's something weird about Ushabti. But the demand for them is very great. My father expected this whole thing to last a few weeks. It's been months, and it's getting out of hand. He intended to make this last operation his very last, but then he disappeared. I want to find him. He was here in Cairo, and then suddenly he wasn't anywhere."

"Tell Uncle Clark what you told me," Jimmy begged. "He's trying to trace the stolen figures back to whoever is animating them. Whoever that is, they must know what happened to your father."

"I can't. If I am looking for my father, that's one thing, but if dark wizards are involved, and they think I am working with Clark Croaker, they will kill my father, if they haven't already." She looked very forlorn. "It will be bad enough if they even see me with you and think I am using you as a go-between to Croaker. How can I explain a Malfoy meeting a Potter to someone like Aunt Bella, unless it is treason?"

"Tell your mother you're using me and my family's contacts to try and find your father. She can spread that around the dark side. They'll think you're very clever. Tell them that I have a big crush on you, if you want. That would be even better."

"WHAT?"

"No, really," Jimmy said excited. "We can do all sorts of touristy things. We'll make it look really good. I'll act like all I want is to be with you, and you can be very cool about it all. They'll think you're using me, and all the while, we'll be trying to get at the truth."

"Sort of a Romeo and Juliet sort of game, you mean?"

"Yes, exactly."

"There's only one problem with that," Olivia Malfoy said with a sigh.

"What's that?"

"Romeo and Juliet had the whole thing blow up in their faces and DIED!" She said with a sigh. "But I have to admit, it's the only plan we've got. All right. Very well, Mr. Potter. Get ready. From now until further notice, you have to adore me. This ought to be very interesting."