The Rite of the Cobra

Part I

Harry apparated with a pop onto the paved walkway up to 17 Violet Street, the residence of six of his favorite people in all of Wizardom. Grunting as he rearranged a sackful of presents on his shoulder, he pointed his wand at his chin and whispered a growth spell. A black, tangled beard sprung from his face, and with it came a tickling ebony mustache. With another flourish of his wand, every hair on his face and head turned white, and that done, he finished trudging up the walkway, large leather boots thumping on the pave stones.

He deepened his voice and swung the front door open. "Happy Christmas!"

Immediately, four short blurs and one tall blob attacked, amid battle shrieks of "Father Christmas!" Harry laughed as he shuffled forward, two little red-heads straddling his legs, each holding tight as he slowly walked. Jack and Victor, Hermione and Ron's only boys, were one year apart. Another two witchlings dangled from his arms, their peals of laughter music to his ears. They were the new generation of twins, Amelia and Andrea. The tall blob, up close looking like a furball, was Hermione, who was latched onto his middle, hugging him tightly.

In the background, squads of red-heads lined the walls, laughing merrily at the spectacle. Harry's best friend, Ron, came forward and started plucking his wife and children from Father Christmas like stubborn leeches.

"C'mon now, the lot of you! Give Father Christmas some room to breathe!" Once he had some space, Harry threw the sack of presents to one of the attending Weasleys, sure to keep it out of the little ones' hands. With both arms free, he started passing out hugs, first to the ecstatic Hermione, then to Ron and the Weaselets (who were all clinging to their father now, so Harry embraced them all as one many-headed unit), and finally moving to his surrogate brothers, sister, and parents. The large house was warm from the fire, laughter, and love that seemed to permeate the air. Down the staircase in the foyer tumbled six more friendly faces. Neville and Ginny's little son, Liam, followed by Fred's two offspring Diedre and Sean raced to greet Harry, and following a bit more sedately came Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Remus Lupin.

"Happy Christmas!" he shouted jovially to them, and echoes of his words were cried back with equal mirth. How he loved holidays with the Weasleys.

After more greeting, hugging, and untangling, the official festivities were finally started, and the night began.

~*~

"Alright now, Amelia, turn your broom and try to grab the Quaffle when Sean throws it," Harry instructed, watching attentively as the seven Weaslets practiced on their Christmas gifts from him, miniature broomsticks, so they could grow up and be professional Quidditch players just like their Uncle. He scratched his now hair-free chin in amusement at the thought of the National Quidditch League being overrun by ginger-haired demons.

Sean threw the makeshift Quaffle (a wiffle ball, because the real thing was far to heavy) to his cousin, who caught it with a flourish, and turned to toss it to Liam, who was too young to get his own broom yet, but waddled along the sidelines, watching eagerly. The ball landed at his feet, and he gurgled as he picked it up and chewed on it.

"No no, honey, we don't eat the Quidditch equipment!" Ginny cooed, maneuvering the ball away from her toddler's mouth and tossing it back into the fray. Diedre caught it, and blanched.

"Ugh, it's covered in Liam drool!" She hurled the ball away, unattentive as to which cousin it flew to. It happened to be her least favorite, Jack. Jack's personality strongly reminded Harry of Fred and George...combined.

The little seven-year old held the ball on the unsalivated side and quickly wiped the other side onto his sister Andrea's cheek. The little girl shrieked and turned on her brother, eyes wide and incisors bared. Her brother grinned and raced the other way on his Speedster 100. Harry saw a tempest in his niece's eyes as she gave chase. He hopped on his Firebolt and zoomed after them, catching up quickly. He was just in time to bodily shield Jack from one of Andrea's nasty, wandless hexes that she specialized in. The little girl screamed in fear, and the bright yellow beam crashed into his gut, doubling over in pain. The air rushed around him, and he was encircled in a hot, blinding light. He fell sideways off his broom and landed in the dirt, where it rose up and swept into his face, nose, ears, and mouth.

He coughed to dislodge the dirt, and sat up, his side sore from the fall. The bright light was still searing his closed eyes, but he hesitantly opened them anyway, and closed them again. He peeped through a slit in his lids, but the hallucination was still there. Pinching himself, he knew it was no dream when it hurt.

He was in the middle of bum-fudging Egypt. That was one heck of a wandless hex for a nine year-old.

~^~^~*~^~

At first, Harry attempted apparition, but for all the gold in Gringotts he could not get a picture of Ron and Hermione's house in his mind. He tried Hogwarts. He knew all about the school, but he could not imagine it's halls and classrooms. He couldn't even conjure up a thought of Hagrid's cozy hut. Something or someone didn't want him apparating.

So he tried sprinting up the shifting dunes, but he soon realized that this was a fruitless effort...he just slipped and slid back to the base of the sand mound. So he took to crawling up them, which used a large amount of energy. He was starting to get thirsty.

"Accio water!" he yelled, pointing his wand above his head. Not a spark nor a light appeared in the magical vessel. It was as useless as a PVC pipe.

Well, that wasn't an improvement.

As the sun waned by, Harry was finally able to reach the top of a particularly tall dune. To the south he saw an almost indistinguishable cord of three large blurbs on the horizon. He knew what those were. The Great Pyramids of Giza, and they appeared to be a day and a half's trek away. It just kept getting better and better.

"Shit. I guess I better get moving if I don't want to shrivel up and get mummified by this sand." Harry muttered as he sat on his rump and slid himself down the sand mound. He wanted to find some sort of boulder or shadow to curl up by to rest for the night. Twilight was pulling her long cloak over the sky, it's deep blue color dusted with stars. They were very prominent out here without any muggle technology and city lights to obscure their brilliance.

He guessed he had been there about seven hours. He started fantasizing about what the family was doing to find him back in England. Could they track him somehow? Harry thought of the damper on his wand magic and apparition ability. Maybe if no one could leave, no one could arrive either.

"What's that.....?" he wondered aloud, vaguely seeing a dark shadow, like a rock, appear in his line of vision. It was right next to one of the largest dunes he had come across, and he figured that it was as best a shelter as he could find at the moment.

^~^~~@~

Harry slumped against the stone, exhausted. It had been much farther away than he had estimated. It had taken him three hours to reach it, and the sun had long set. It was getting very cold. He wearily collapsed onto the sand around the rock, and rested his twenty-nine year-old bones. He thought he had left these insane adventures behind eleven years ago at Hogwarts.

"Oh well, old habits die hard." he chuckled to himself wryly.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, absentmindedly running his hands over the circular stone he was curled around, his fingernail dipped into a fine etching on the rock. He traced it, sleepily curious. His finger painted on the inside of his eyelid the image of an oval, like an almond-shaped eye. 'I'll look at it in the morning....' Harry thought, slipping into unconsiousness.

"Sleep deeply, little cobra, while you may." a light, ghostly voice whispered to his deafening ears, and with these words Harry slept like the dead.

~~~~^~^*~

Harry was a hawk, and he spread his wings to keep adrift on the desert's hot air currents. He was carrying a cobra in his talons. The cobra was black, with bright green eyes, and a gold-gilded pattern embossing his hood and forehead. The marking was a jagged line, a bolt of lightning, his own cursed insignia. He dropped the snake.

It hissed as it fell, and grew batlike wings, spinning it's body until it caught an air current and spread them with a flourish. Harry tried to outdistance it, but the snake was incredibly fast, and it caught up to him. The creature struck with a movement like electricity, and sank it's fangs into his neck. Harry cried out with pain and fury, and sent himself into a dive towards the desert floor.

The snake was strong, and twined itself around his neck. When Harry reached the ground, he transformed into his human self. He pulled at the snake, but it had become gold, and was now a necklace. There was no clasp, and he couldn't pull it over his head. It collared him like a pet.

He stood up, but the desert had different intentions. A gaping hole appeared under him, and he fell without a sound.

He fell forever, and he saw many things. The sun, the sky, her children the clouds. Then, the moon and his court of stars. Many beings flashed through his mind, many were humanoid creatures who were not people, but gods. The great gods of Egyptian lore. He saw them all conversing, and one luminous man stood and left the others.

Harry touched the bottom of the pit, and saw only blackness. The collar was a warm weight on his clavicle. It comforted him.

"Little Cobra, awaken now. I have a task for you." a dimly familiar voice whispered, and Harry was lifted bodily from his chamber, rising like a balloon to the outside again.

~*~~~^~

His eyes blinked rapidly, attempting to dislodge the grains of sand that had crept into them. The sky was a pale grey, the banner symbolizing the eminent arrival of the sun.

"The Egyptians worshipped the sun....the Sun god was Ra, and....what did he do?" Harry quizzed himself, mentally dredging through thirteen years' memory to remember the lessons in History of Magic on Ancient Egypt. It had been the one time he had paid close attention and taken his own notes. Egypt had always fascinated him.....but not so much right now.

"He ordered all humans to be killed by Sekhmet, but then decided against it. He could not stop Sekhmet in her bloodthirsty lioness form, so he had barrels upon barrels of beer made, mixed with red oxide, and poured it onto her field of slaughter. Thinking it was blood, she greedily lapped it up, and became so drunk that she forgot about the Egyptians she had been so eager to kill." Harry smiled to himself. He had actually remembered the story in that much detail, Hermione would be proud.

"You know your history. I am impressed."

The voice from his dream whispered in his ear, and Harry whirled around so fast that he lost his balance and landed on his backside. No one stood around him, and he threw hand-fulls of sand in a circle around him, checking for invisibility spells or cloaks. Not a thing turned up.

The Gryffindor wiped his brow with his arm. "It was just a hallucination, a mirage. Wait....can voices be a mirage? I guess I'm just losing my mind.....wouldn't be the first time." he muttered, heart still racing, as he stood up. The circular stone that he took shelter around was gleaming dully with the first rays on light, and he remembered what he had felt upon it last night.

It had indeed been an eye that he had traced, the eye of a falcon-headed man. On the god's head sat a headdress with cobras adorning it, and a large disc crowning it. He was Ra. Harry studied the stone itself closer. It was large, probably three meters in diameter. It was uneven at the top, suggesting a large fracture to the original structure. "It might have been a column....." the professional seeker ran his hand over the base of the stone, clearing some of the sand buildup. The pillar continued downward.

"Curiosity killed a kneazle.......let's dig." And so he dug.

~^~^*^~~~~

"This was a baaaad idea." Harry wheezed, sweating from clearing the sand to the base of the column, his throat dry and lips parched. He knew his back and face were sunburned, and he hadn't had a drink since that eggnog at the Christmas party last night. "I'm going to die out here." He fought the urge to lick the sweat from his arm....it was salty, and would only make his thirst worse.

His fingers scraped another stone under the last layer of sand. He had finally reached his goal. Sweeping the remaining sand to the side, he traced a square in the floor of the desert. On one side, a thick curl of bronze serving as a handle for what Harry could only assume was a trap door. And to make matters more frightening, an image of a cobra was etched into the slab's center, and on it's back was a bolt of lightning. He shuddered, his arm and neck hairs were standing on end.

Heaving on the handle of the trapdoor, he grunted and grimaced. It would not budge. "Bugger!" he cursed, pulling again. "Open, dammit!" The bronze burned red, and he flew backwards with a shriek. His palms were burned, and small imprints of a cobra and an eye now were permanently branded into his flesh. A fresh wave of profanities burst forth from him, and Harry licked the wounds like an injured wolf.

But the trapdoor was open, and a square of nothingness awaited him. 'At least it's not in the sun.' He descended, cradling his hands to his chest.

#######

The air around him was old.....very old. He'd only ever felt this silent, transcendental power in an environment when he'd visited Stonehenge once with a study trip from Hogwarts. It had re-energized his magic, his life, his being. Now, his fingers tingled, and he felt the empty pit inside him that was his void of magic, begin to refill, and much of his energy returned to him, although he was still mortally thirsty, and his hands were numb from pain.

The stairs he was descending were as dry as the world of sand above him. Not a thing in this tomb had a drop of moisture, the whole area had been mummified. 'So much for hoping for water.'

As he kept walking, his magic grew stronger, and he dared to try apparating again.

"Do not think of leaving before you have set foot in the door."

"Who said that?!" Harry cried out to the black air around him, backing up a few paces on the stair.

"Mind the stairs, Little Cobra. It wouldn't do to finally get you here, and then have you fall to your death. Take my word for it, you're a hair away from a lengthy drop." the disembodied voice said, and even though Harry didn't trust it, he tucked himself against the granite steps for security.

"Now if you please, I've planned and schemed for quite a long time to finally see you here. Please, join me at the bottom of the steps. I have water." the voice said, and Harry cautiously obeyed, crawling down the steps for what seemed like a century. When his boots touched the flagstones of the floor, a warm, large hand took hold of his elbow and steered him through the darkness silently. Harry was too confused to protest.

"We are here at last. Now, what was that quaint phrase? Oh yes, 'Let there be light!'" said the voice, and torches and flame basins ignited into existence. Before the bewildered and frightened man stood a baboon. Harry barked a half-laugh, half-sob. He had bloody lost his marbles.

"What sick prank is this? Fred, George? Bill?! This is not funny anymore, and I'm really thristy! Just wait till I tell Molly!"

"Be quiet, you shall wake the dead that lie in these halls! Close your mouth, you are not a Nile-dweller, young Cobra." the baboon chastised, standing up. Harry's open jaws closed with a snap.

"You talk....." he gabbled, his knees gone weak.

"You of all people should not be surprised. Chalk this up as one of those 'strange things' that happen to you." If it could, Harry was sure that the creature was smirking at him.

"What are you?" was all he could manage to ask. The baboon chuckled in a very primate manner.

"What am I not?"

"Please, I'm too thirsty for riddles.....are you a god?" Harry was wheezing again, the adrenaline had worn off, and made him even more parched.

"Oh that reminds me....follow me to the drinking pool, and I shall answer your question." The baboon turned and trotted off down the corridor, and Harry was quick to follow, rubbing his throat.

II_*_II_*_II

Perfectly carved murals decorated the walls of this chamber, with depictions of the stories of creation, of death, of the afterlife. Hieroglyphs beaded the walls and columns around the central structure, a rectangular pool about the length and width of Aunt Petunia's kitchen. The water was as clear and still as glass, and at first Harry thought that the pit was empty.

"You need but one drop of the liquid to revitalize you, but......boys shall always be boys." The baboon sighed as Harry collapsed at the pool's edge and dunked his torso into it, gulping mouthfuls of the precious liquid.

Harry didn't bother to note that this water was at least one thousand years old, if the tomb had remained unopened. It could be dragon piss for all he cared right now. What he did notice was that the water quenched his thirst like no drink he had ever consumed, and the pain in his hands ceased. He glanced at them, and saw that he still had the brands, though they were no longer red-hot and livid.

When he was satiated, the monkey moved forward to stand in front of his captive. "I am Thoth. Do you know my myth?" He asked.

Harry's eyes widened. "Yes, you are the god of the moon, and of knowledge. You became the king of the gods after your brother Ra abdicated the throne. I didn't know that one of your shapes was a baboon."

The creature chuckled, and patted Harry's knee in amusement. "I am glad that you have actually been taught something, I did not expect you to be this well-read! I chose to introduce myself in this body so as not to frighten you at first. My godly form can be...intimidating to mortals."

Harry grinned. "I appreciate that. I think I can handle your half-ibis form now."

The baboon locked eyes with Harry, and suddenly he was looking up instead of down. Thoth's true form WAS impressive, he towered two meters over Harry, who had reached his full potential of one point five meters. His body was naked save for a gold linen cloth intricately weaved around his hips and tied with a blue cord, and at the point where feathers met flesh at the clavicle, a wide golden necklace rested, with rubies, sapphires, and other gemstones accentuating it in rows. Atop his feathered head, a large headdress sat, with long plaits tied off with lapis lazuli beads. His head was of a gracefully thin crane, with an extremely long and narrow beak. His ibis eyes were black, keen and intrusive. Harry gulped audibly.

"If you are done gawping, I shall lead you on to the main chamber." Thoth said in his willowy voice, amusement dancing in his eyes. Harry dumbly followed.

Thoth turned into a full ibis to fit in a hidden crawlspace behind one of the pillars. Tired of his stooped posture after walking like that for five minutes, Harry decided to crawl on all fours. At the other end, Thoth turned back into his humanoid form and helped the prone man out of the tunnel. They stood up in one of the largest rooms Harry had ever been in, including Hogwart's Great Hall. It was not high, but WIDE, so wide that he could not see the opposite wall. Thoth glanced down and took his elbow again, and led him onward to the other side.

_II__#__II_

Harry had never been so speechless. He was standing before an enormous sarcophagus, a solid gold coffin of what appeared to be Ra, the Lord of the Sun, and his ka's necessities, which were also made of the precious metal. A throne, finer than the Queen's, jars of food and water that were now dust and sand, a chess board, an abacus, and several mummified servants and pets lay around the beautiful casket. It's head was that of a hawk, and it was wearing a crown of cobras and the disk of the sun. Thoth bowed to it, and numbly Harry followed suit.

"Ah, you found him. Forgive me for underestimating you, Uncle." A black Egyptian cat walked out from behind Ra's coffin, and rubbed languidly against the Seeker's leg. He smiled and passed his hand over her back and she purred.

"Yes Bast, I told you that I wouldn't let him slip away. Little Cobra," he addressed Harry, "I am sure you have been wondering why we would want you here, of all places you could be." The Man-Who-Lived nodded, scratching the stubble on his chin.

"Yeah, the thought did cross my mind. Am I in some trouble I never knew I got myself into?" He laughed half-heartedly, nervous as to their answer. Things like this always ended up drawing him to the center. Thoth and Bast glanced at each other, then Bast took the initiative.

"You know the story of Ra's abdication?" Harry nodded. "Well, when Ra walked out of the Court of the Gods, he hid himself from us by taking on mortal form, which none of us can do. Even Thoth, King though he is, has not the power of the Creator. Every century or so, he takes on a new life, starting as a newborn, and ending as an elder, if he doesn't get himself killed before then. As an immortal, he can be reborn at his will. We have no idea who or where he is, and frankly, we are in need of him. My half brother Seth has intentionally angered Sekhmet, and now she is up to her old, bloodthirsty tricks. Only Ra can rein her in." Bast finished, her almond-shaped green eyes blinking at Harry. "Oh by the way, your mother says she is proud of you."

Harry had opened his mouth to comment about Sekhmet, but shut it with a snap at the mention of his mother. "H-how?"

Bast flicked her tail at him. "I AM the patroness of mothers, and I am quite fond of yours....I keep in correspondence. She smiles at you now from her place in your heart." Bast transformed into her other form, that of a tall, voluptuous woman with a cat's head. She reached down and swept him into an embrace as if he was a child needing comfort. He was twenty-nine, but he felt nine through the Cat Goddess's touch. "That was from her. Now onto business." She let him down, but not before tickling his forehead with her whiskers. Harry expertly blinked away his emotion and turned to Thoth.

"Little Cobra, we know only a few facts about Ra in his current form. He bears an Egyptian name, yet was born and lives currently in a distant land. He knows not who he really is, it has been so long since he took on his godly form, but YOU know him, which is why you are here. You, little one, are our link to him. We will give you help, but the task of locating Ra and bringing him back here, to his tomb, is yours." The ibis-headed immortal said, and inwardly Harry growled in frustration. 'Fat lot of help those facts were. Really narrows it down for me.'

"But I don't think I know anyone with an Egyptian name....and that's going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack!" He exclaimed, trying not to lose his temper before the divine rulers of the Nile. Bast placed a warm hand on his shoulder like Mrs. Weasley would when he was still in school.

"I am sure there are ways to find out if their name is one of Egypt. Is there not some sort of census on the people of my nation? A list of common names?" The goddess asked quietly.

Harry thought about it. "A telephone book....yeah, that might be helpful." Thoth quirked his head at him.

"What are telephones? Ah, that is a conversation for another time, perhaps. What does this book look like?" The god asked.

Harry used his finger to draw the phone symbol on the lightly sanded floor. "It is a large, yellow paper book with THIS,"he pointed to his picture," on the cover. They would be everywhere in a large city." The moon god closed his eyes, and into his arms materialized one of Cairo's residential telephone directories.

"Brilliant!" Harry started to flip through it, but Bast gently stilled his hand and closed the book.

"Not here. We have other things to say. We have one other clue to Ra, but only you can wield it. Reach into this jar. Fear will make this worse, just reach like the brave man I know you are." His mother's patroness placed a large red pot at his feet, and stepped back, alongside Thoth. Harry glanced at them.

"It is absolutely necessary? Will I die, or become some undead minion for you?" They smiled at him, and silently shook their heads.

"We know not what is in this jar. It was placed here in secret, two millennia ago, by Ra himself for such a situation as this. All I know of it, is that it contains some part of Ra that applies to each of his human forms over time. I hope it enlightens us. Now, reach in." Thoth whispered, glancing at the jar. Harry gulped and lowered his arm into it.

Part II

Harry had to fish down to the bottom of the large jar before he found anything. What he did touch was cold and smooth....it was a snake. He heard the warning hiss. Before he could yank his hand away, the serpent struck, and sank its fangs into his wrist, and the room went as black as night.

He felt a familiar magic sense wrap around him, and his own power reached out to tangle with it. It was an ever-shifting duality of strength and weakness, love and hate, dissention and humility. 'This is my only clue....I must use it to the fullest.' Harry thought, and pulled strands out of the ethereal aura around him to weave an image of the mystery person.

A framework began to form....tall, deep voice, flammable temper, and.....Harry flew out of his trance, recognizing Ra's new form.

"What is it, Little Cobra? Did you identify our King?" Bast asked gently, and the Seeker realized that she had licked his snake wound and healed it to show only two small puncture scars.

"He has black eyes....the eyes of Severus Snape." Thoth looked thoughtful, and gestured to the phone book.

"Could you confirm his name?"

Harry flipped open the book and stared. "Uh, I can't read Egyptian. Can you translate.....wait a minute!" Harry paused, suddenly noticing something. "How are you speaking English?"

Thoth chucked, while Bast purred with amusement. "We are gods, are we not? You, little one, are speaking in the Ancient tongue of the Pharaohs. And as for this book..." The moon god waved his hand over the yellow tome, and Harry felt literate again.

"Ok, S....where are the S's? Oh, here is a Snape! Geez, there's a whole bloody herd of Snapes.....I guess this warrants it?" The man looked up for confirmation, and Bast nodded, eyes eager.

"We are very pleased, child. I wish to bestow a gift upon you." She reached into the jug Harry had been bitten in, and pulled out the small serpent. What had been a lively snake was now a inanimate gold cobra, with ruby insets for eyes. Large circles of lapis lazuli, turquoise, and aquamarine made up the pattern on its head, the familiar bolt of electricity. The cobra's open mouth bared ivory fangs, and an onyx tongue. It was one of the most beautiful artifacts Harry had ever seen.

"This is our help to you, our link, like the tag on a pet's collar. We may follow you, assist when we can, through this. Please put it on." Thoth said quietly, passing the treasure from his immortal niece to Harry.

"Like a tracking device, then? I saw this in my dream, you know. The snake bit me and all, while I was flying in the body of a hawk."

"Yes, that was my doing. You were lying in the rays of the moon, my domain." The ibis-man said. Bast laughed, which sounded like a feline hiss.

"It was his way of hinting what was to come. He's not that good with prophecies, especially when the moon is full."

Harry scratched his head. "Alright then I'll put it on. What special powers should I be aware of besides tracking?" He fitted it around his neck, and found that the tongue and tail clasped together. It instantly heated on his skin, and Harry didn't think of it as a collar and chain anymore, instead more like a container of power, an extra, living appendage.

"Yes, but those you will have to discover on your own. It shall be useful when you confront Ra and make him remember, so that he may return to us. We shall send you back to your land of rain and fog now. Fare thee well, little son of the Nile, we will meet again."

The gods waved their arms, and Harry vanished from the King of the Sun's hidden tomb.

Bast reached down and picked up the telephone book, while Thoth summoned a small cell phone.

"What say you to a few tricks?"

~~**~~**~~

Harry materialized in total darkness, and fought to maintain control of his panic. He felt around in the darkness, and smooth, aged wood met his fingertips just a short distance from his body. He leaned back slightly, and felt the same pressure. Both sides were blocked in as well. He was in a coffin.

Thankfully, he did not have taphephobia, but still his fingers anxiously quested for a crease. There! He pushed and kicked, and the lid of his own sarcophagus creaked open. Harry blinked as flourescent lights hit his eyes. Egyptian artifacts lined the walls, and little plaques were propped before each one.

He was in the British Museum in London. Peachy.

Harry stumbled out of the empty casket and was instantly repelled back inside by a force field of glass. 'Bloody hell....hope no one's around to hear this....' After re-closing the coffin lid for protection, he tapped into his wandless power, and blasted the paneling so he could escape. Jogging quickly out of the Egyptology exhibit as the security alarm blared, he found a small niche in a wall and Apparated to the front steps of 17 Violet Street. He had no problem visualizing anything this time.

########

"Where have you been this whole time?! You just vanished when Hellion Number Two here blasted you with her flappy ears jinx!" Hermione sobbed, shaking Harry so hard that his glasses ended up perched on the crown of his head.

"'Mione, get off him and let him speak!" Ron, always the mediator, tugged his hysterical wife off his best friend. Harry sucked in a lungful of air and wheezed his thanks. He made sure to keep his tattooed palms out of sight of inquisitive eyes, so that his secret mission could remain unknown to his friends.

"I ended up in Egypt....the Giza area to be exact." He ran his hand over his voraciously sprouting beard, and his fingers absently rubbed the coil under his robe collar where the cobra band rested. He had a feeling that this Ra business should solely remain between him and Snape, well, possibly Dumbledore, if the old coot insisted.

Hermione and Ron's eyes bugged, and the little red-headed sprite hiding behind her father's legs pounced on him, wailing with passionate fervor.

"I'm so sorry Uncle Harry, I didn't mean to send you away! I was just so angry at Jack, and I wasn't even going to hex him, but this feeling got in me and shot through my fingers like lightning. It was really scary Uncle Harry, I thought I va-por-ized you!" Andrea hugged her uncle and godfather tight, fearing that he'd disappear again. Harry smiled and twirled her around to hear her giggle again.

"Don't fret witchling, it was an accident. They happen all the time, especially to me. I don't blame you, Andy." Her eyes, blue like her father's, twinkled as she smooched him on his nose, her favorite part of his face.

"Why did it take you so long to get back?" Ron inquired, balancing the boys on his hips.

Harry hunted for a good lie. "The hex drained my magic, and I didn't feel like using my reserves until it was absolutely necessary. You know what happens when I'm driving on fumes." Ron, Hermione, and their four kids grimaced at the thought, and their friend laughed.

"Well, you're back now. We had aurors searching everywhere for you, and seven Seers, a Pendulum Mage, and the Hogwarts staff were using every scrying and scouring tool they had. It was if you had been wiped off the Earth, mate. Scared us all out of our bloody wits, even Dumbledore was getting worried. Oh, he'd be wanting to see you at Hogwarts. The floo's open when you feel like it." Ron said, gesturing at the fireplace.

"Thanks...I have an errand to run at Hogwarts anyway. Sorry I caused so much worry, I'll see you all soon. Cheer up, Andrea!" And after passing around hugs, he threw the floo powder into the fire, shouted "Hogwarts!" and whirled away in emerald flames.

II@II@II@II

"I just wanted to check in, Albus. Sorry about this whole mess....it was an adventure, though. Lots of sand and blinding sunshine." Harry smiled politely as he sucked on a sherbert lemon. Dumbledore chuckled and led his former student to the door.

"You gave us quite a fright, dear boy. Next time you decide to suddenly take a vacation to Egypt, please give us a head's up. And I suggest steering clear of the female Weasley tempers. They seem to be a detriment to your health." With a last nod and twinkle, he closed the door behind Harry, who proceeded down the stone staircase, and began his mission towards the Slytherin dungeons.

##*##*##

Harry banged on Professor Snape's office door for the fourth time.....the man was either very good at ignoring him, or was not in residence at the moment. Harry wouldn't doubt the man's intentional obliviousness, so he tried to force the door, but a theft ward shot him into the opposite flagstone wall. Harry choked on his breath in shock and pain, but picked himself up and decided to consult the current keeper of the Marauder's Map, DADA teacher Remus J. Lupin, and find out where the rogue god was really was in the maze of the Hogwarts castle. The gold snake around his neck flexed in agreement, a new development its owner had discovered when trying to think up a plan for his Operation Ra. Harry grimly wondered what else it could do.......

Part III

"Where is everybody?!" Harry growled when he was denied access again to his old friend's office. Remus was not suffering from the lunar pattern, he knew, and as far as he heard, the man was still in residence in the castle. So where the hell was he?!

"I guess I have to conduct this little manhunt on my lonesome." The former student of the castle tramped down a nearby staircase and turned left....his necklace grew cold as ice, and it made him shiver. He touched the metal serpent's head and it wriggled under his finger. It was trying to tell him something.

"Is this another power of yours? Like the "hot" and "cold" game? Ok, I'll play along." He went in the other direction down the hallway, and slowly the gold metal on his bare throat heated. Descending down three more flights of stairs the collar was getting comfortably warm. When he treaded towards the dungeons, it grew icy again, so he instead turned to the front doors of the Entrance Hall.

"So he's outside.....wonderful. He could be deep in the Forest for all I know." Harry grumbled, but used Bast's gift to steer his body in the proper direction, which led straight to the greenhouses. Greenhouse number four, to be exact. The professional Seeker saw a tall, dark shape moving around through the warped glass of the windows, and knew that he had hit the jackpot.

He opened the door and his former teacher looked up and frowned. "Professor Sna- OW!" He cried out and yanked the necklace off of his skin, it had actually heated to a scorching temperature. He smelled burnt hair and skin. Snape sighed, immediately examined his wound and strode over to a reed-like brush in one corner of the greenhouse, muttering curses under his breath the whole time.

"Honestly Potter, will you never stop attempting to give me a coronary? You are in here two seconds and already you have first degree burns. Come here." Snape chastised, pulling out a few stems of the plant and pulled them into thready segments. Harry grimaced as his former teacher placed them around his neck where a pattern of tiny golden scales had left their brand with white fire.

"Thank you sir....I came to speak with you. It's very important." Harry whispered, even his windpipe sore, as he held the strips of the quemadura plant against the base of his throat as the Potions Master went back to his previous task of stirring a graduated cylinder by a group of what he identified as moonbeam lotus beans, a hybrid breed created by some Herbology professor there centuries past. He remembered using them in complicated healing potions, they had very potent restorative properties.

"Could it wait ten minutes, Potter? I must do this before the sun sets today, and it takes four hours for these to become mature enough for harvesting." He said in a civil tone, which Harry had become used to after his defeat of Voldemort. The cold man had seemed to open a bit after the final battle.

Harry stood back to give him some work space, but the tall man eyed him warily. "Do you know what draught this is, Potter?" Harry nodded his head and placed himself in well-read student mode.

"It's the Draught of Sorrow. I didn't know that it had uses in herbology."

Snape smirked wryly, and fiddled with the moonbeam lotus seeds. "It doesn't. Let me tell you a little bit of unknown trivia about myself....I have the natural ability to catalyze the aging process in any living thing by simply shedding my tears on it. I do not know what twisted loon of an ancestor I inherited this gift from, but it has its uses. The dilemma is that I no longer possess the ability to cry of my own volition, which is where the Draught of Sorrow plays its roll."

Harry's question slipped from his mouth before he could stop it. "Why can't you cry?"

Snape locked eyes with him. "When I was fifteen, I held my owl Julius in my arms while trying to mend his broken wing. I had unwittingly started to weep, because he was loosing so much blood, and he was my only companion at Hogwarts in that year. He had only been two years old at the time, and when I had finished crying, he had died of old age. I conditioned myself out of fear and guilt to not let anything provoke me in that way again, and I must have been very good at it, because now I could not cry if I lobbed off my own leg."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I'm sorry." He rattled his brain to try and ease into the whole Ra subject after this startling bit of information. "...Do you know the myth of Ra's tears?"

Snape quirked his head to the side in a vaguely curious manner. "I'm afraid not."

Harry pounced on the opportunity. "When Ra created Life, he wept and his tears grew into Humankind. His tears had the power to give life, or un-create it." His neck had stopped throbbing, and he gently took the plant off. All that left of his injury was a circular welt.

"As interesting as this mythology lesson is, I really must get this done." The ex-Death Eater downed the potion and immediately his eyes began to water. He leaned over the seeds, and his falling tears dripped onto their shells.

Harry had never seen his professor show any extreme emotion, and frankly he found the scene, even a synthetic one, fascinating. He stared at the tears, the tears containing a dormant, divine power. The beans turned green and cracked open, while a little stem poked its way out. Snape wiped his eyes with a kerchief, blew his nose, and swept the seedlings up in a vial.

"The potion takes a few minutes to wear off....I watered it down as much as I could." Snape sniffled, and turned to his former student. "Now what was it that you needed to talk to me about, Potter?"

Harry glanced down at his fallen necklace, and picked it back up to secure around his neck once again. His palms were exposed, and the Potions Master's eyes locked on the brands. He pulled the Seeker's hands in his own, examining the cobras and Eye of Ra. He dropped Harry's wrists and then studied the necklace, his demeanor all of a sudden furious.

"Where did you get that? It reeks of foreign power! Did no one ever tell you not to fool with something when you couldn't see where it kept it's brain?!" Snape yelled, his eyes and nose clearing up. "You foolhardy.....obnoxious.....GRYFFINDOR!" He wheezed, his knuckles white as he gripped the potting table. Harry stepped back, surprised. Snape checked himself and cleared his throat, composing his expression before addressing him again.

"The Draught of Sorrow creates temporary emotional instability.....one of its nastier side effects." He excused his outburst, and gestured at the tattooed hands and the necklace. "What happened to you in Egypt?"

Harry took a deep breath and spilled the whole story. "My hands were burned on the copper-handled entrance to a buried tomb. The collar is a gift from Bast and Thoth....the Egyptian gods. It is infused with a drop of the sun god Ra's magical essence, like a fingerprint or a DNA sample. Through this cobra, I was able to recognize Ra in his current, mortal form. And all of the clues point to you. Uh, Bast said that you would not remember your divine form because it has been a few centuries since you used your powers....and Ra is buried in your memory. I guess they sent me to resurface it. They need you back, Ra. Um, wake up?" Harry clapped his hands before Snape's wide eyes for emphasis, and then stood there, quiet, waiting for a reaction, a bolt of lightning, or a peal of unearthly thunder.

Finally, the Potions professor opened his mouth. "Mr. Potter.....It has been half a century since I have spoken in my mother's native language, and I only understood about one eighth of the babble you just threw at me. Repeat again, please, and this time in English."

Harry's jaw unhinged and hung in space. He HAD said that all in English, right? He cleared his throat. "How about now?" Snape narrowed his eyes.

"Do deers live in the ocean?....I've never heard of it, but spells do go awry. Well, I have certainly learned something new about you. No one told me that you could speak fluent Egyptian. When did you learn?" Harry gawped at him, and tried again.

"Severus Snape is a wanker."

"Not a clue besides my name."

Harry shrieked in frustration and fumbled with the clasp of the serpent collar. It was jammed. It was forcing him to speak as he with the tongue of the gods, and unfortunately Snape knew not a sentence of it. He yanked from the front, and the scales cut into the back of his neck. He shouted in pain, and Snape, annoyed, grabbed the snake, placed his boot in the center of Harry's chest, the flat of his palm against his scarred forehead, and tugged on the gold band. In his hands it came free, but only after the golden cobra trinket flared into life.

The wizard tried to shake the serpent off, but it curled around his arm, and sank its fangs into his veins. Snape went as rigid as stone, and passed out cold on the greenhouse floor.

"Professor?" Harry checked for a pulse, and found a weak, erratic one. "Sonorus!" he tried to cast the amplifying charm on him to call from help, but Snape's wand lay useless in his hand. His magic had dissipated again.

Snape's body started to spasm, and his eyes shot open. Instead of the deep black of his irises, Harry saw that they were gold, as vibrantly aureate as the cobra itself.

"S-S-S.....Sever-r-r-r...ah...wh-what's my name?......S-S-S-....."

A large hand rested on his right shoulder, and the panicked man spun around, nerves jangled. Thoth and Bast towered above him, looking at Snape with relief and pleasure.

"You have done your part, Little Cobra. His present body will not last long, they never do when He remembers Himself. The power tears away at it. We must take him to his tomb before He is once again reborn." Thoth explained, picking up Snape's twitching body like a rag doll.

"He's going to die?" Harry's voice sounded small, and once again he felt ten years younger, and the memory of the Final Battle floated through his consciousness. Snape had taken a Cruciatus for him twice, and had lend him what remained of his energy so that he could make the killing thrust of the Gryffindor sword, coated in the blood of each person bearing the Dark Mark, and his own, into Voldemort's heart. The man had saved his life in all the years he was a member of the Wizarding World, and now he had turned and buried that sword into his own savior's gut.

"He will shuck this shell soon, so yes, this shroud of Severus Snape will be no more. I am sorry if you were attached to Him in this form, but this is for the best of all man. If Sekhmet breaks free, then no one shall live, and Mother Earth Nun shall be soaked in her own children's blood."

The two gods closed their eyes and started fading away. "I'm coming with you!" Harry yelled, and grabbed onto his former teacher's arm, dissipating with them.

Part IV

Harry opened his eyes...they were in Ra's tomb. Bast and Thoth were busy opening the heavy gold casket, oblivious of Harry's presence. They had lain Severus Snape's murmuring body on a plain marble altar ten meters in front of his carpophagous. The man's dying eyes were so gold that they were reflecting the fire's light and luminating his face. It made Harry shudder.

"Sir...." He knelt neck to his fading teacher. "I wish there was something I could do for you, I know that this is the way it is meant to be, that your soul isn't dying, but but.....well, I still see this as a death bed. I've known you for a long time.....you did teach me a lot. Thank you for saving me so many times, I don't remember if I ever showed my gratitude. Who do I pay my Wizard's Debt to if you've passed? Do you have any kids, parents? I don't even know that about you....I'm sorry I haven't cared enough. And you've been a bloody god the whole time." He barked out a laugh at the irony, and clumsily patted a cold hand, unaware of why he did it. It just seemed appropriate.

"Th-th-the seeds.....mmmmy work....I don't want-guh.....this." Severus babbled, his body jolting erratically on the flat slab of stone. "S-s-sever....uhm, ra.......nuh"

"I'm so sorry. Tell me I can do something for you." Harry whispered, and the unfocused eyes locked on him. "I have a Wizard's Debt to pay you."

"Debt......" Snape's clammy hand fumbled for his, and the Seeker readily grasped it. He bit his lip as he felt the brands of Ra's symbols flare to life. He felt the divine illness ebb from his former teacher and seep into his palms, and his vision was taken over by golden oblivion.

***II***II***

Severus groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position. Harry Potter lay prone at the foot of the altar he vaguely remembered being set upon. He eased himself off, and checked his former student's pulse. It was unnaturally fast and forceful. If it wasn't lowered, then Snape was sure the man would go into cardiac arrest, and soon.

"This is unexpected....and unfortunate. Our Little Cobra sacrificed his body for yours, because he wanted to pay his debt to you. Ra has transferred His spirit from you to him. He will die within the next minute." A cat-headed woman whispered, and picked up the dying man, cradling him for a moment, and laying him out on the altar in Severus's place. "Unlike your body would have, his shall not be reborn. The Lady of the great star Sirius, Sopdet, shall lift him in her arms and carry him to the everlasting fields of Hetep, my brother Lord Osiris's domain. He wishes you to know that he cared, out of all the people, he cared the most."

Snape moaned, and gripped the altar with white, shaking knuckles. "Stupid Gryffindor."

"We have need of you, Severe One. Before Ra's transfer, Harry had a drop of His magic from the necklace. He was to assist in the embalming of your form with Ra, so that His ka could no longer shift to another form. You now have that one drop, and it the vital ingredient to Ra's resurrection, for he made it so that only He could bring Himself back."

Snape's hands shook as he watched his former charge take a gasping breath, then still, lifeless. A tear trickled down his cheek. "The Savior once again, I see."

Fin