Charms and Curses

W00ties! And my productivity never ends! Here we go, ANOTHER chapter
of Charms and Curses for your perusal and enjoyment!

In which chapter, the two will reach Alexandria at last!! A sphinx makes an
appearance, and they find out what the shifting hieroglyphs say!

As always, disclaimers apply. As much as it saddens me, Bill is NOT mine.
This is why he is called Bill Weasley, not Bill-Thalia's-Personal-Sex-Toy.
Besides, contrary to popular belief I am NOT a masochist and would not want
to try to take him away from Fleur, who is also not mine^.^

REVIEW! I think that my recent productivity on so many ficcies merits lots of
reviews! Speaking of recent ficcies.....go right now and check out
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=250660 for my latest Collab
fic, and also go and check out "History Almost Repeats Itself" for another
Collab fic, co-written with the amazing Dove, my beta editor (thanks for the
help! ~Hands over Limited Edition Draco gift set, with plushies, dolls and a
life-sized statue clad in black leather~ )! Really, go read, they're worth your
time! And leave reviews to make me happy and inspire me to write some
more!!

Okay, moving on!.

* * *

Once again, they started in the direction of Alexandria, which was now
tantalizingly close. This time, they did not share their usual light-hearted
conversation, but instead, both of them seemed to be deep in thought. Little
did they know that their thoughts ran on quite similar veins. Bill was thinking
of how to make sure that HIS partner would never again be caught in situations
where she would be endangered, while Fleur was thinking of how to make sure
that she could help HER partner make it out of this mission alive.

By the time they reached Alexandria, it was quite late in the afternoon. Fleur
headed straight for the muggle tourist part of town, and after exchanging
galleons for muggle money, purchased a muggle Polaroid camera. Now,
camera placed securely in her knapsack, she and Bill headed towards the
wizarding establishment. The ordinary wizarding town was unguarded, but
after walking through it, they reached a plot of open land leading up to a hill,
with a tower on top. This plot of land was enclosed on all sides by enchanted
fencing, and the only gate was guarded by a sphinx.

Bill hesitated. He'd dealt with sphinxes before. They were common guardians
of treasure, intelligent and fair but ferocious riddlers. Now, the problem was,
he knew that Fleur probably did not have such experience. But... he could not
leave her behind, either.

"Fleur?" He called out tentatively.

"Oui? What is ze matter?"

"Nothing -- it's just -- you know that sphinxes give riddles, right?"

She laughed. "Of course I know zat! Everyone knows zat! Let's go, Bill! Eef
we don't 'urry, ze sun will set and I won't be able to take ze photograph."
Grabbing his hand, she continued determinedly towards the hill.

In twenty minutes' time, they were standing in front of a giant sphinx. Bill's eyes
widened. She was huge, the biggest sphinx that he had ever seen! Even in her
reclining position, she was thirty feet tall, her face, twice the size of a normal
woman's face, was deceptively serene. Sphinxes were not beautiful, but they
had a majestic, timeless expression, and this one was no different. Her face
was noble, with light copper skin and yellow, omniscient feline eyes, her head
covered with streaming black hair. The rest of her massive body was that of a
lion, covered with gleaming golden fur, with huge paws and long, sharp claws.
She smiled when she saw the two of them approach, revealing ivory-white,
sharp teeth, and spoke in a deep, purring voice.

"Travelers, if passage is what you seek,
Four riddles have I, which I shall speak,
Silence, and you must forever hence.
Mistake, and your blood my thirst shall quench.
Only ones who have passed the test
Shall pass, damnation to the rest!"

Bill and Fleur glanced at each other. It seemed that both of them would have to
answer her riddles if they wanted to pass. Bill stepped up first, gazing the
creature valiantly in the eye. She regarded him for a moment, then spoke her
first riddle.

"A pair of jeweled eyes before a leap,
I haunt the night, the squeaker's bane,
All hail the Goddess, sacred to keep,
A velvet coat with a plume for a train."

Bill frowned slightly. Jeweled eyes - leaping -- something that roamed during
the night time. Probably an animal. Squeaker's bane? Squeaker - squeaker --
what squeaked? Mice! So, the animal was a predator of rodents. The
Goddess? But of course! Bastet, the feline Egyptian Goddess! Cats were
sacred in Ancient Egypt, and velvet coats with a plume -- the plume would be
the cat's tail!

"A cat." He answered confidently. The sphinx smiled and nodded, then fixed
her unblinking yellow eyes on Fleur.

"I never was, am always to be,
No one ever saw me, nor ever will.
And yet, I am the confidence of all,
To live and breathe on this terrestrial ball."

Bill glanced at her worriedly. She stood in deep thought for a few moments,
her brows furrowed. Suddenly, her eyes brightened.

"Tomorrow." She said. The sphinx nodded again, and turned back to Bill.

"The beginning of eternity,
The end of time and space,
The beginning of every end
And the end of every place."

The beginning of eternity, and every end. The end of time and space, and
place...Bill thought hard, and then smiled.

"The letter E." The sphinx smiled and nodded once more, and spoke her last
riddle to Fleur.

"At night they come without being fetched.
And at day, they are lost without being stolen."

"Zey are ze stars." Fleur answered calmly after a moment's deliberation. The
sphinx bowed her stately head, and moved aside. The enchanted gate swung
open, and Bill and Fleur walked in.

They walked up the sandy hill, and sure enough, when they came within a
distance where the hieroglyphs were legible, they started shifting at dizzy
speeds, making any sort of reading or deciphering impossible. Fleur motioned
for Bill to step back with her. Together, taking slow backwards steps, they
backed to about twenty feet away from the entrance. Fleur took out her new
camera and zoomed in, then focused and snapped a picture. As she waited for
it to develop, she saw Bill giving her a strange look.

"Is somesing ze matter?" she asked curiously.

"Almost every time something comes up, I find that I have underestimated you.
When we first met, I found that you were knowledgeable and brave. Then, in
that incident with that bumbling waiter... what was his name? I found that you
were resourceful. In that incident with that lost child, I found that you were
kind-hearted. Now, I find that you're quite quick-thinking on your feet as well.
What more is there to you?" He asked, admiration in his eyes.

Fleur shrugged. "Zat is all zere is to me. Beauty, and some wits. Nosing else.
Ze picture should be ready soon."

"Nothing else? I doubt that." Bill contradicted her. "Here, let me see the
photograph."

Fleur handed it over to him. Sure enough, her idea of using a camera to capture
the arrangement of hieroglyphs on the entrance of Cleopatra's Mausoleum was
a clever one. The snapshot was clean and clear, and the symbols were easy
to make out.

"Now, let's see what this says." Bill examined it closely, re-copying the
symbols onto a spare piece of parchment. "All right then, it reads 'Only the
blessed, who with Hathor's bond are tied together, may step within this sacred
place.' Hathor - she's the Goddess of Love and Marriage ---- Oh!" His eyes
widened to the size of saucers, just as she gasped in comprehension. Finally,
she managed to stammer out the requirement.

"Zis means zat, in order to enter, we must be married! Mon Dieu!"