Charms and Curses

Yep! Here it is!! Chapter 3 of Charms and Curses!!!

And here we will have a little bit more Bill/Fleur interaction :) *holds up an 'APPLAUSE' sign*

The usual disclaimers apply. Yadda yadda yadda...

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Simultaneously, they cried out, "YOU'RE my partner?!"

Fleur looked at him in shock for a few moments, then started to laugh, her chuckles sounding like tinkling crystal bells. Bill gave her a quizzical look, wondering if the part-Veela was laughing at him, and not as nice as she had seemed to be that evening at the inn. Some of these thoughts must have been apparent on his face, for she stopped laughing, and said to him, "Eef I 'ad known zat YOU were my partner, I would 'ave not left ze dining room an' talked to you longer about ze mission! I wuz worried for a while zat I would 'ave to work wis someone incompetent, but zen I sink 'Well, ze Professor Dumblydorr picked zis one 'imself, it can't be ZAT bad.' Eet is quite interesting zat we met yesterday, an' neizzer of us knew zat we would be working togezer."

Bill nodded. "Dumbledore didn't give me much information on you, either. Only that you were a top student and especially good at charms, and that he thought that we would be able to succeed." Then, lowering his voice, he whispered, "Are you accepting the mission?"

"Oh! Oui! Of course I am accepting ze mission!" Fleur looked as if NOT accepting the mission would be only marginally less horrible than hexing someone behind his back. Bill raised an eyebrow at her indignant expression.

"Well, you do know that this mission is very dangerous, that no one has ever succeeded in retrieving the crown and crook of Cleopatra before, and that we could very well die, right?"

She gave him a mildly exasperated look. "Of course I know zat ze mission is dangerous! Before I came 'ere, I even talked to my 'istory teacher, 'oo specialized in Egyptian Wizardry! 'e gave me some information about ze crown and crook, an' told me zat no one 'as successfully passed ze final test at le mausoleum de Cleopatra before! I am well aware zat ze danger involved in zis mission is great."

"And you don't mind at all? Do you fear?" He asked softly, his dark eyes gleaming curiously.

"Of course I fear! Every person wis any common sense would fear! But to fear is one sing, to fear and then let it rule your 'ead and your actions iz different. Ze Dark Lord has come back, an' since I am not on 'is side, I might die anyway. Why should I die doing nosing when I could die doing somesing meaningful in trying to stop 'im from coming back to power?" Her face was slightly flushed from her vehement speech. He was silent for a moment, then his eyes gleamed in genuine respect.

"Well-spoken. I see that Dumbledore was not wrong in his estimation of you." His praise brought a small smile to her lips, and she thanked him.

"So, what did your history teacher have to say about the mission? Anything besides what Dumbledore informed us of?"

"Well, 'e said zat zere were many many spells guarding it, and zat no one 'oo 'as evair tried ze last one ever came back alive. An' no one knows exactly what zat last one is. Also, zere was some sort of prophecy concerning it."

"Oh?" Bill's ears perked up. "What sort of prophecy?"

"Well, it sounded razzer silly, actually. Somesing like might be found in some romance or another. I sink I wrote ze words down. 'old on." Fleur removed her left earring and waved her wand over it. Suddenly, a rolled up parchment appeared in her hand. "Ah, yes, 'ere it is, you can read it if you like."

Bill took the parchment and opened it up, skimming over the words she'd scribbled down in a flowing, pretty script at the bottom of the paper. He chuckled, "So, I am assuming that one of us will have to be a princess for us to successfully find the artifacts. And that person shall certainly not be me. Are you a princess?"

Fleur laughed. "Of course not! Do I look like one?"

'Yes, you do. Very much so.' Bill thought to himself. Aloud he said lightly, "Well, I certainly hope that the prophecy is not to be taken too literally. As neither of us are royalty, we might be in trouble. Come on, let's go." And with that, he walked off towards the Great Pyramid.

Fleur hurriedly followed him. "Excuze me, but why are we going to zat pyramid? Zat is not 'er mausoleum."

"True, but there's an enchanted chamber in there that Muggles have never been able to find due to certain spells. Remember, a lot of people come here to vacation and explore. AND, this mission is top secret. I figure, the best place to discuss it would be here in this chamber. Plus, you should probably get used to going into pyramids and things like that." Bill explained patiently as he led her to a small entrance on one side of the pyramid. Fleur could barely make out the runic message engraved overhead. "Curzed be ze one 'oo enters and speaks not of God." She translated softly. "What iz ze Egyptian word for 'God'?"

"Geb." Bill spoke softly. The entrance slowly parted, and the two walked in. "It worked!" Fleur exclaimed. Bill gave a short nod and smiled down at her.

"Yes, it did. Clever of you, most don't figure out the riddle because of its very simplicity. How did you figure it out so quickly?"

Fleur laughed self-consciously. "Well, you probably wouldn't believe me..."

"Oh? Why?" He looked interestedly at her. She shrugged. "Somesing zat I actually liked doing in my spare time was to read Muggle literature. Zere is a very similar riddle in a book by zis writer named Tolkien. Also a riddle about 'ow to get srough a door." She blushed slightly, "I know zat most of our kind do not like to associate wis anysing zat is Muggle, but zey do have some good books..."

"Oh! You're talking about 'The Fellowship Of The Ring' from the Lord Of The Rings' trilogy, right?" Bill exclaimed. "My dad is quite interested in Muggles, and he has a collection of Muggle books and gadgets. He gave me the Trilogy when I made Head Boy."

"Oh! Your parents must have been proud of you when zat happened!" And so the casual conversation continued on as they walked down a narrow, meandering, twisted stone path. Bill walked quickly and surely, making a left turn, then a right turn, then another right, then left again...but Fleur looked around with bewildered eyes. Gently, she plucked out one single golden hair from her head, tapped it with her wand, and set it on the ground. Like a thread of sunlight, the hair grew longer and followed behind her heels as she walked alongside Bill towards their destination.

Finally, they reached what looked like a stone wall, every inch of it inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Bill paused. "This is the room. Now, this is how you open it." He withdrew his wand from a pocket, then waved it in a circular motion in front of the large eye-shaped glyph in the very center of the door. Then, quietly, he spoke the magic word, "Apokalypto", and four of the many glyphs glowed golden, forming a word. "Wsir." Bill said quietly, and the stone wall split neatly down the middle and opened inward. "Well, here it is."

Fleur briskly walked forward, "Lumos." She whispered. The tip of her wand was a ball of light in the darkened room, and she stepped inside. Bill's eyes widened. "Fleur, wait a second!" But his call was too late, and a shriek sounded from within the room.

Fleur did not see where it came from, or how it came, but suddenly a piece of rock came hurtling across the room and hit her on the arm. She yelped in pain and surprise, and suddenly, Bill had bounded in the room as well, grabbing her hand and swinging her easily behind him as he shot a spell in the direction that the rock had come from. Abruptly, there was silence, and Fleur was able to see what it was that had thrown the rock at her.

"A ghoul, is it not?" She asked Bill. He nodded.

"The Egyptian wizards installed him here so that any Muggles who might try to force their way into the chamber by breaking down the door would get scared away." He glanced down at the hand he still held in his own, and his gaze travelled up to her arm. The stone had scraped her skin slightly, and a bruise was starting to form. "I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you about it, I've been here so often that I barely think of him any more."

He looked genuinely contrite, so Fleur simply shrugged, "Zat is all right, I should 'ave been more careful before walking into a room in ze first place. I will remember zat for next time. " His hand was warm, not nearly as smooth as hers, not an aristocratic hand, but solid and capable and comforting. He pointed his wand at her arm and muttered a healing spell, and the pain went away. "Here, sit down." Still holding her hand, he led her to a stone bench against the wall.

She sat, and he sat next to her. "So, I did a bit of investigation after I found out what our mission was." He dropped her hand, and extracted a sheet of parchment from a pocket. "Cleopatra's Mausoleum is right here."

In the light from her wand, Fleur was able to see that the parchment had a map on it. Miniscule pyramids, obelisks, and other markings showed the various structures around the place. And outlined in red was a square tower with two windows. "Cleopatra's mausoleum." She whispered softly. "It is wisin ze anti-apparation zone, is it not?" She said, one slender finger running over the shadowed area surrounding the mausoleum stretching out about 30 square miles. He nodded.

"We will have to travel there by foot, but we should carry broomsticks with us just in case." He remarked. "I have gotten us both portable Gringotts broomsticks that can shrink to the size of a quill. Of course, not something like a Firebolt, but fairly fast anyway. And they're made of ironwood and covered with dragonhide. Unbreakable. Anyway, the journey should take a month at most. We'll have to travel as Muggles so as to not attract attention, but no matter. After we get there, though..." He sighed lightly, "Let's just hope we can retrieve the crown and crook and get out of there before Halloween."