The Servants of Egypt

The Servants of Egypt

Chapter Twelve

Lily and Kiya Potter were much more enthusiastic about being bridesmaids in their oldest brother's wedding than his younger brothers were about being ushers.

"But Dad," Sirius complained, "I don't get it! What do we do again?"

"Seat the Death Eaters on one side and the Order members on the other," grumbled Harry. He was not in a particularly good mood as he scanned the bills that were coming in for various things he'd never heard of that his wife assured him were absolutely necessary.

"Harry!" Luna chided him, as she walked into the room. She turned to her younger sons and smiled. "We're going to have a rehearsal the night before the wedding, darlings, and we will show you exactly what to do. Now run along, and don't worry anymore. It's going to be perfect. Trust me...you're going to do fine."

"Our wedding was perfect!" Harry reminded his wife. "Just our very best friends in the Registry Office in Hogsmeade to see the ceremony, and then out to dinner, and home to bed. We didn't need a hundred people witnessing our wedding to make it official."

"We didn't have such a big family then," Luna reminded him, stepping up behind him and laying her hands on his shoulders. "Who do you suggest we uninvite?"

"Do you really want to know?" Harry sighed, pulling his wife onto his lap.

"Harry, the bride's parents are not negotiable," Luna said firmly, looping her arms around her husband's neck.

"Damn!" Harry said, but he accepted his wife's scolding, and her kiss, with good grace.

"You are going to look so handsome in your new dress robes, that you'll probably be mistaken for the groom," Luna teased him.

"New robes I understand," Harry murmured into her hair, "but why, tell me please, do we need chair covers at the hall?" He waved one of the bills from his desk in her face. "What the hell is wrong with the chairs that we have to cover them?"

"Pansy, Olivia and I have a color scheme for this wedding!" Luna told him solemnly. "We want things to match!"

Harry laughed so hard he almost dropped her on the floor. "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

Luna blinked, clinging tighter to his neck. "What do you mean?"

"I knew you for at least three years before I saw you in anything that matched, and I never minded it a moment. It was part of your inexplicable charm. Admit it! Pansy wants things to match, and you're going along for the ride. If she wants chair covers, and wedding favors, and a guestbook, and Godric knows what else, why doesn't she pay for it?" Harry asked practically. "They're holding their own since Draco started working in London."

"Because we agreed to split the expenses!"

"I didn't agree to split anything."

"Then quit splitting hairs." Luna kissed Harry again, and slid her fingers up his neck into HIS hair, and ended the argument before it had a chance to escalate.

Olivia and Jim came into Harry's study a couple of hours later to find the father of the groom in a considerably better mood. He glanced up at them. "Keep it down, will you? Your mother's taking a nap. She's VERY tired."

Jim looked at his father, confused, then shrugged. "No problem. We just wanted to borrow you for awhile, Mr. ex-Auror."

"Daddy and Mum are taking us to see the manor this afternoon. I've been dying to go ever since we discussed it in Egypt," Olivia said. "The Ministry sealed it after Grandma Narcissa died, and we thought you might be able to help us if we have any problems getting in."

"Malfoy Manor...the ideal place for a field trip," Harry sighed.

"Will you go?" Olivia asked, laying her hand on Harry's shoulder.

"All right, sweetheart, if you really think you need me," Harry said, getting up and giving his almost daughter-in-law a quick kiss on her forehead. "Just let me leave Luna a note."

Using coordinates Draco worked out for them, Olivia, Jim, Harry, and Pansy apparated with him to the front doors of the manor. Harry was surprised to find it a truly impressive house, at the end of a long lane lined with magnificent oaks. Huge, Doric columns supported a roof level with the massive old trees. They held up a wide veranda for the second floor. The door knocker was a silver serpent, which was coming a bit loose from the door, and the place looked quite obviously abandoned, but it was an impressive building, even with the paint on the porch peeling.

The seal on the entrance was easy to lift, and they got through the front doors with no problems to find themselves in an enormous hall. Dust lay silvery on the floor, which was made of squares of green and gray marble. A large, curving stairway with a few broken posts led to the second floor, but the furniture in the hall seemed to be in good shape, although quite cobwebby.

This is a brilliant house," Jim exclaimed. "I can imagine what it would be like filled with people. I know our family would love it. Except for Uncle Neville's house, I've never seen one even half this grand."

Draco replied with a bit of the old Malfoy swagger, "You could fit Longbottom Manor INSIDE this house!"

"Oh, Daddy!" Olivia said, awed, "I didn't know it would be this big."

"It's big, all right," Draco sighed, walking into the dining room with his hands shoved in his pockets tensely. A long dusty dining table dominated the room, and a crystal chandelier, also spun with cobwebs hung over it.

Pansy walked over to the sideboard, and picked up a silver platter. When she blew the dust away, she saw her reflection.

"It's not even tarnished," Harry said, looking over her shoulder.

"Goblin wrought silver is treated never to tarnish," Pansy replied sadly. "Oh, the parties they used to have here! I remember coming with my parents. I remember the wonderful food, and the blood red wine, and the smell of the men's cigars. I came once for Narcissa's birthday, and I had a brand new set of dress robes, and my mum did my hair up. I felt like a princess!" She bit her lip suddenly, and Draco put his arm around her shoulder comfortingly.

"You were always my princess, until you gave me that one." He indicated Olivia and smiled slightly. "Want to see the upstairs?"

"Yes," she said softly.

They went up the stairs, which creaked. Draco introduced Olivia to all of the paintings they passed. Most of them nodded politely, but some were rather rude. Apparently they had not forgiven Draco for his flight from the manor, and were still feeling neglected.

Upstairs, they looked into all of the bedrooms. The master bedroom had an enormous four-poster canopied bed with the Malfoy family crest carved into the headboard. There was still a small silver-framed miniature portrait on the dressing table of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. Lucius looked down his nose at Harry, just as haughty as Harry remembered him.

"He looks kind of arrogant," Jim said. "No offense," he added hastily.

"None taken," Pansy sighed. "He was certainly the most supremely confident man I ever knew."

"Yes," Draco said, in a brittle voice, "he was."

There was a nursery on the left side of the hall, with an elaborate family cradle, and a well-worn rocking chair in it. The small bedroom that had been built adjoining it confused Olivia.

"That was my mother's sitting room," Draco told her. "My father didn't like her disturbing his sleep the few times I was ill, so she used to stay in that room when I needed her."

Draco became a bit more animated when they got to his old room. His books stood in the bookcase, and he showed some of them to Jim and Olivia, telling them a bit about some of the classes he'd taken. Harry was able to throw in a few stories about their old teachers. Jim and Olivia smiled at each other as they watched Harry and Draco talking excitedly together.

When Draco opened the wardrobe, his old Quidditch uniform was still hanging there. The leather trim had all dried out from age, but he picked it up reverently, and he and Harry began to reminisce happily about their days playing the game. Jim joined in enthusiastically, which made Pansy and Olivia roll their eyes, but anything that brought their men closer together had to be tolerated.

They went back downstairs, and Draco continued to tell Olivia about the house and the family. Jim and Harry found it very interesting.

When they wandered into the drawing room, father and son both gasped. This room was the most impressive of all. The fireplace was huge and made of stone, with an elaborate coat of arms hanging over it. There were crossed swords, axes, shields and other wicked looking instruments on the walls on both sides of the fireplace. The walls were covered with a dark green flocking with a cream background, which had faded rather badly, and a velvet of the darker hue was draped over the windows, with tattered silk draperies criss-crossed underneath. An extremely dirty green and gold carpet covered the floor.

Someone had thrown sheets over some of the furniture. Pansy pulled them off revealing a settee covered in pale green silk, and Louis XV chairs upholstered in mustard colored fabric that were still in fairly good shape. A tall, elegant French secretary stood near the double doors leading into the hall. The candle brackets along the walls were brass, in the shape of serpents.

Jim, Harry and Olivia stood staring agog at the splendid furnishings.

"This place is like a museum!" Olivia said. "This must have been an amazing place to grow up. I wish we could fix it as it used to be!"

"Mum has got to come see this, sometime," Jim told Harry. "She'd love it. She can find something interesting about almost anything, but the stuff in here would really get her going." He walked over to a very dusty statue, and examined it more closely. "Have you ever though of opening it up again, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Will you stop calling me Mr. Malfoy? Every time you do, I look around for my father. Anyway, it would cost too much to reopen the house," Draco said, "and it's way too big for just Pansy and me. It was way too big for mum, dad and me, come to think of it. It took half a dozen servants just to keep it neat. I'm thinking of selling it. The land is worth a lot, even though the house is falling down."

"But it's not," Harry said. "It needs work, but it's a well built house. It's been standing here for over a hundred years. I think it could stand a little longer." He looked around curiously. "By the way, Draco, how do you get to that secret room you have under the floor?"

Draco looked shocked. "How did you know about that?"

Harry looked sheepishly at Draco, and said, "I overheard you telling Crabb and Goyle about it one day. You didn't know I was there. "

"I told them? Yes, I think I do remember now. It was all so long ago." Draco walked over to the edge of the carpet, and kicked it over. A cloud of dust began to choke them all, and Pansy finally waved her wand, clearing the air and cleaning the carpet, which turned out to be rather lovely once its brilliant green and gold color was clearly visible. There was a trap door under the carpet. It took all three men to budge it, using identical levitating spells, as it was beginning to warp a bit and was quite stuck.

It finally opened with a terrible creak, revealing a set of wooden stairs.

"Lumos," said Draco, holding his wand aloft. He started down the stairs, and the others heard him gasp.

"Darling, are you all right?" Pansy asked, worried. "Is anything down there?"

Draco echoed Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut's tomb.

"Yes...wonderful things."

Harry walked carefully down the stairs next, and looked around the small room, stunned. He laid his hand on Draco's shoulder. He knew in that moment, exactly how Draco felt. Harry had felt exactly that way the first time he had seen his Gringott's vault. There were piles of gold, stacks of silver, and heaps of jewelry of every description.

"Oh, Merlin!" Olivia said, following the two men down the steps. "Where did all of this come from?"

"Your grandfather must have realized his position was getting shaky at the end," Harry theorized. "He must have cashed in all of his investments for solid assets. Then he hid them down here."

Jim and Pansy came down next, and looked around, awed, but confused. "But why didn't he tell his wife?" Jim asked.

" I don't know!" Pansy cried. "Narcissa couldn't have known, or she would have come down here and gotten some of the money. She was almost knutless when she died!"

"He wanted to be in control," Draco said bitterly. "He never told her anything he didn't have to. Poor Mum! She walked over this a dozen times a day, as she scrabbled and starved."

"But she must have known the room was here," Olivia argued. "Didn't she ever think to look here? Out of curiosity, if nothing else? Didn't you?"

"Oh, baby, I haven't thought of this room in years! I must have been thirteen or fourteen the last time I saw my dad open it, and if he'd known then that I had seen it, he would have throttled me. Dad used to keep some really nasty Dark Arts stuff down here. Mum would never have risked opening it. She would have been horrified to find me trying to. Godric knows what would have crawled out of here in those days! I can't believe I was even so stupid as to tell Crabb and Goyle it was here. Dad would have killed me if he'd known that."

Draco looked at Harry and grinned. "If you had only known at the time how much trouble you could have gotten me into! You'd never have been able to pass up a chance like that in those days!"

Harry shook his head. "I would never have told Lucius Malfoy anything about anyone, even to spite you. He made me too damned nervous. Oh, well, congratulations, Draco! Looks like you're on top again."

"I can't keep any of this," Draco said, shaking his head, as he picked up a necklace of magnificent opals out of a dusty chest that stood open on the floor. "Who knows what he did for this? It's blood money, some way or another. Pansy, could you wear this, knowing what you know about Dad?"

Pansy looked at the pile of treasure, then went to her husband's side. "I don't know what to say. We could never trace all of these things now, even if we wanted to. They're not doing anyone any good sitting down here, though. Draco, think of the things we could do with this money. We could put it to good use. We could do things with it that would make Lucius spin in his grave. We could help people who are still suffering the effects of the wars, or for old times sake, we could make a nice donation to St. Mungo's!"

She looked at her daughter. "What do you think, darling? This is your inheritance, too."

"I think it would be wonderful to use some of this for good. I'd like to give some of it to Clark Croaker for the new Kiya Hall at the Museum in Egypt, for one thing. We can have it named after Luna. She'd love that. But first, I think we should use some of it to fix up the manor. I'd love to see it look the way it did before the war. I can almost see it now. It wouldn't be that hard."

"Too much work, and what for? It's still too big for the two of us," Pansy said, looking at Draco.

"Olivia and I haven't found a house yet," Jim replied firmly. "We could come stay, at least for awhile, and help you, and I'll bet I could get some of my cousins to help us. They've heard so much about your dad and this house over the years, I'll bet they'd love to see what's inside here."

"I'll even lend a hand with the work," Harry said with a sudden grin. "If only to think of what Lucius would do if he could see the place overrun with Potters and Weasleys and Longbottoms. If he wasn't dead already, it would KILL him!"

Draco considered this for a moment, and them grinned, clapping Harry on the back. "You're on! And speaking of hidden rooms, I think we should see if there's anything left in the wine cellar."

* * *

When Harry and Jim arrived at the museum, dressed in brand new Muggle suits, Clark Croaker threaded his way through the milling crowd of art lovers, museum staff and Egyptian officials, and met them with a couple of glasses of champagne.

"You got here at last!" Clark smiled. "Good! Good! You're going to have a fantastic time at the reception. The opening of the Luna Lovegood Potter Gallery of Eighteenth Dynasty Artifacts! Who would have ever thought it! Thank Godric we finally got it done. I was beginning to think we'd never get this hall finished."

Clark looked around and sighed. "Do you realize, Jim, that I've been working nonstop for a year, except for the weekend I took off to go to your wedding? The last few months were nerve wracking, but it turned out perfect. You're going to love it."

The two men took the glasses offered them by their giddy friend and smiled.

"It was nice of Pansy and Draco to agree with Olivia about the name," Jim said. "Mum is over the moon about it."

"Then why didn't Luna come?" Croaker asked. "She very politely told me no, and wouldn't say why. That's where she lost me. I thought that she would be here if she had to walk. I wanted to have her and Olivia cut the ribbon and be the first ones to officially enter the exhibit."

Harry smiled at his adopted uncle. "They wanted, to Clark. They wanted to so much, but they would probably have HAD to walk! There was no way to do it and be sure it would be safe. Pregnant women aren't supposed to apparate long distances, and even floo powder can be tricky. And the idea of a Muggle flight from London to Cairo wasn't exactly appealing, either."

Clark Croaker stared at Harry, then at Jim, and started to laugh. "Olivia's pregnant? You're going to be a grandfather, Harry? Oh, that's priceless! Why didn't you tell me before? He gave Jim a slap on the back, and said, "Congratulations!"

Jim winced as his Dom Perignon sloshed over the side of his glass. He hated to waste good wine. "Thanks! It IS going to be extremely interesting."

Clark suddenly looked alert. "Olivia's okay, isn't she? I mean, she and the baby are coming along all right aren't they? She isn't having it too rough or anything?"

"No," Jim said, sipping his champagne, "she's doing great. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was worried for a minute, because Luna didn't come either. If Olivia couldn't come, that's one thing, but I know nothing means more to Luna than her family. If Luna had to stay home with Olivia, I was afraid that something must be wrong."

Jim eyed his father, who was beginning to look distinctly uncomfortable, and grinned. "Actually, Mum couldn't have come, either, even if she wanted to, but I'll let dad tell you more about that. I think I need another drink."

Leaving an open-mouthed Clark Croaker staring at a blushing Harry Potter, Jim fetched himself another glass of champagne, and took it over to a very large gilded wooden statue of Isis that stood outside the Potter Gallery entrance. Looking right into the statue's quartz eyes, Jim raised his glass.

"Good job, my Lady! Blessed be!"

Jim drank, and turned away from the statue. Just as he did so, he thought he heard a musical voice say, "Many thanks!" but when he turned around, no one was there.

THE END.