Chapter 13
She should have gone with them. Hermione should have gone with them to make sure they didn’t get killed. Or at least put a tracking charm on them. Oh WHY did Hermione not put a tracking charm on those morons?! Hermione was ferociously and angrily working her way through the massacred library like a madwoman. She didn’t even go home which certainly helped when Hermione needed to magically fix a book in the middle of the night, but wasn’t helping Dr. Bay’s irritating brand of concern.
“Go HOME woman!” Hermione looked up with a raised eyebrow on day three of not going home. The library was almost back in order. Hermione was just doing her last look through to make sure that everything was in the correct place. She didn’t know how he was aware that she wasn’t going home. Hermione looked the same as she always did, but then she had forgotten.
“That’s right!” Hermione exclaimed. “You have an unhealthy habit of having random men watching my every move.”
“It is not normal to not sleep for three days straight,” Terence Bay continued undeterred.
“It is MY normal. I was just fixing the disaster the library was in rather than reading or spending time with my cat.”
“Yes. But the disaster is gone and now I need a break from you.”
“Or… are you just wanting to discuss me in the privacy of your study with whoever has been watching me work in this library without the threat of me walking in unannounced?” Nail right on the head.
“You STILL need to go home!” Terrence flustered and blustered.
“Alright, alright DEAR Terrence. I will do my final look through tomorrow. Try not to ruin my hard work.”
“ME ruin it?” Terrance was red with anger.
“Of course. Where do you think Evelyn learned it from?”
“You….! Just leave.”
“My pleasure,” Hermione grinned brightly. “See you tomorrow, Terrance Old Boy.”
“Oh, Allah.” Terrence looked to the sky. “Did you send this woman down to Earth JUST to test my patience? Because, whatever I’ve done, I am SO sorry.” Terrence sighed and headed to his study. “Were you able to distract them from Hamunaptra?”
“No,” Hazeeb sighed. “We will have to deal with them.” Terrence rubbed his hands over his face.
“What will I tell Miss Evans when they don’t come back?” Terrence said wearily. Hazeeb was sorry for it. Many of the Medjai were. They all thought of Miss Evans fondly. She had given them a lot of joyful stories to tell in a job that wore on them all. Now… they had to take the people away that she loved dearly. “She already suspects me. Miss Evans will know.” Hazeeb patted Terrence on the back.
“Maybe they will see sense… or change their minds.”
“One would hope.”
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O’Connell looked at the necklace around his neck critically. There was something strange with this thing. He just knew it. During the battle on the boat, O’Connell just thought he was lucky not to get shot. But then, during the fight with the desert men, O’Connell saw a horseman shoot a gun at him. It should have hit Rick right in the chest. But… there was a strange pulse of energy and the bullet ricocheted away from him. O’Connell had been shocked, but far too busy trying to stay alive to give it much thought until afterwards. And none of them had been hurt, even during the sword fight. O’Connell didn’t have a single scratch…. and neither did Evelyn or Jonathon.
“Evy… have you noticed anything strange about your necklace.” Evy gave him a look, but then lifted the necklace away from her neck. Not that she had noticed.
“Like what?”
“Like…” O’Connell didn’t know how to put it. “.... Like it is actually protecting you?”
“A necklace couldn’t do that,” Evelyn scoffed before taking the bottle of Glenlivet from Jonathon and taking a swig.
“Evy! That’s mine.”
“It’s stolen, Jonathon.”
“Not like he’s going to miss it,” Jonathon muttered. Evy continued to steal gulps from the bottle until she was quite tipsy.
“Alright, Mister O’Connell. Teach me to fight!” O’Connell shook his head, but stood up anyways. “Teach me to kick some ass,” Evelyn said with silly bravado.
“Miss Carnahan,” Rick playfully chastised. “Where did you learn such language?”
“Miss Evans,” Evelyn grinned.
“She must be quite the dame,” Rick chuckled before putting his fists up. “Now raise your fists like this.”
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Terrence had to hand it to Miss Evans, damn the woman was an efficient worker. Evelyn was as well, but Ms. Carnahan made so many blunders due to her clumsiness; a lot of her time was spent fixing those blunders. Miss Evans… She was too efficient. Terrence had nothing left for her to do. So instead, Miss Evans was sitting in his office… staring at him.
“Miss Evans, just GO HOME.”
“Nope,” Hermione said with a grin. “Evelyn told me to fill her shift, so that is exactly what I’ll do. Plus, I thought I’d put myself in your assigned sentry’s point of view and just watch your every move to ascertain anything nefarious and devious.” Terrence slammed his forehead so hard against his desk his hat went flying off.
“How do you expect me to work like this!?”
“That’s a good question. How do YOU expect ME to have a decent conversation with men following me around all the time and listening in on my every word? I’m truly curious.” Damn her. Damn her straight to HELL. CURSE Evelyn for asking Hermione Evans to fill in for her! Terrence didn’t care that she turned out to be amazingly competent and more than intelligent for the job. Miss Evans was absolutely insufferable! And Terrence couldn’t even argue because she coupled that with being infuriatingly right. Hermione nodded with satisfaction at his continued silence and Terrence fought to ignore her while he worked. He quite literally lept from his chair and actively pushed her out the door when the clock finally struck the end of her working hours. Hermione laughed loudly as the door was literally slammed in her face.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hermione sang. The door burst open again.
“Oh no! I won’t. Tomorrow is Evelyn’s day off!” Terrence said victoriously and slammed the door yet again. It wasn’t lost on Hermione that Dr. Bay was acting strangely. He kept looking at her guiltily. Like he had something to hide. Hermione had cast several charms on him under the table while she had been sitting there… including a tracking charm. She didn’t need to be around to keep an eye on him. Hermione smiled victoriously to herself before going to the lady’s room. She went directly to the window, opened it, and then promptly apparated home. The Medjai stayed outside that bathroom for at least an hour. Finally, he crept into the lady’s room and sighed with frustration to see the window open and no Miss Evans.
“I wasn’t even able to track her leaving the museum this time,” Ali groaned.
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It had happened. The creature was awake. Ardeth’s men had gone into the cursed city to try to recover any of the remaining survivors… but… their fates were not looking bright. Ardeth couldn’t hold back his rage when the Carnahan’s and the Americans ran out of the tomb. This wouldn’t have happened if they had just listened to reason!
“I told you to leave or die. You refused. And now you may have killed us all. For you have unleashed a creature that we have feared for nearly three thousand years.” Evelyn gulped guiltily. Hermione had said she had a bad feeling… damn did Evelyn wish she had been wrong.
“Relax. I got him.” Evelyn looked at Rick in disbelief. That thing was already dead!
“No mortal weapon can kill this creature! He is not of this world!” Oh, and when they brought out poor Burns… Evelyn could have killed herself for reading that book.
“You bastards!
“What did you do to him?”
“Saved him. Saved him before the creature could finish his work! Leave quickly before he finishes you all. Allah! Imshi! We must now go on the hunt and try to find a way to kill him.”
“I already told you I got him.”
“Know this. This creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat. He will never sleep. He will never stop.” Evelyn had difficulty really grasping what was going on. Men in black were telling her that… what… the end of the world was coming? The Hom Dai. Men in black. Men. In. Black.
“Wait a minute!” Ardeth stopped briefly. He was irritated and didn’t have time to answer a million questions. “You are the men in black. You’re the men that have been following Hermione around for the last five years.” Ardeth didn’t let the steel leave his gaze.
“Yes. Miss Evans has concerned us for a long time.”
“Why?” Evelyn was confused. “Why would Hermione concern you? Hermione is a bit odd at times… but I have never known her to do anything bad. Not in the entire time I’ve known her. And she certainly has NEVER tried to come here. Hermione was upset that I did.”
“I know. I was there for your argument,” Ardeth said simply. “And I don’t have time to answer unimportant questions.” And he walked away.
“Evelyn. We HAVE to go!” Evelyn followed Rick, but she couldn’t shake off that nagging question. Why were they following Hermione?
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Hermione woke up and knew that something was going to happen. There was something off. And then she went to make her tea… and poured it …and blood came out of the pot. Hermione couldn’t believe it. She dipped her finger in and she knew. Something was going horribly wrong. Hermione ran to Harry's water bowl. That was also blood. She had never gotten ready so fast in her entire life. Hermione walked out into the alleyway… and it was absolute chaos. Fire was literally raining from the heavens. The vagrants were screaming and running for cover. It was nothing that Hermione had ever seen. HOW was there no record of this in history? What was Hermione supposed to do? Something magical MUST be the cause behind this, but what could it possibly be? Hermione did what she usually did in these situations… she went to the library, and since there were no significant magical libraries in Cairo; Hermione headed straight for the museum.
“NO!” Terrence said the minute he saw Miss Evans walk in. “Today is your day off, and besides; if there was a reason for a day off, fiery hail IS the reason!”
“I’m not here to torment you,” Hermione sighed. “I’m here to look for a book in the library.
“Water turns to blood and fiery hail falls from the sky and your immediate response is to pop on over to the library?!”
“My response to EVERYTHING is to go to the library!” Ardeth lurked in the shadows. Miss Evans was alright. That was a relief.
“Just GO HOME. The library is closed.” Hermione did not know what to do with her frustration. She was not MADE to sit around and do nothing! Hermione had to know what the hell was going on.
“I need to know what the HELL is going on!” Hermione burst out with frustration.
“I assure you, the answer is NOT in that library!”
“And you know what is going on to know it is not in that library!?” Terrence faltered, and Hermione finally looked at him. “You DO! You do know what is going on!”
“I do not! I just know…. Things like this just defy explanation. Now PLEASE go home and be safe!” Terrence was pleading now. He really needed Miss Evans to leave. She was far too perceptive for her own good and Terrance needed her to not be in his face so he could help deal with this.
“Fine. I’ll go home.” Hermione said carefully. She would go home. Go home and get ready to follow Terrence Bay the MINUTE that man took a single step outside this museum! Terrence breathed a sigh of relief when she was finally gone.
“How does she do that?” Terrence said tiredly. “I can’t get anything past that woman.”
“The same could be said for my Mother.” Terrence gripped his heart in alarm.
“Ardeth Bay!” Terrence patted his chest a few times. “Have you been taking lessons from Miss Evans? What happened in Hamunaptra?”
“The creature is awakened,” Ardeth said grimly.
“I gathered as much,” Terrence said sarcastically. “What are we going to do to take care of it?”
“There is only one person I know that can give us any answers?” The entire Hamunaptra group rounded the corner and came across the Medjai.
“You!”
“Miss Carnahan. Gentlemen.” Jonathon could feel the dark robed desert gentleman staring at him… no… glaring at him. He wasn’t glaring at anyone else. Just Jonathon.
“What is he doing here?” The man finally turned away from him to look at Evy.
“Do you really want to know or would you prefer to just… shoot us?” Terrence was insufferable at the best and worst of times it seemed.
“After what I just saw, I’m willing to go on a little faith here.” Jonathon was seriously feeling threatened. Why was he glaring so hard at him?! It’s not as if Jonathon was the one who had read from the bloody book! Jonathon finally lowered his gun when he was elbowed by Evy, but kept close to O’Connell… just in case.
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It was after dark when Hermione’s wand buzzed. She jumped up and immediately grabbed her broom. At least that horrifying and absolutely awful crash course in flying with Kingsley wouldn’t be put to waste. Hermione apparated to an alley just outside the museum and immediately had to take flight when she apparated right in the middle of a mob of people. Hermione didn’t know what the hell she had walked into! She flew straight up into the air with an ill fated man covered in boils hanging onto the tail of her broom. Hermione spun and finally had to almost run into a building to knock him off.
Hermione landed on a nearby roof and pulled out her wand to check Terrence’s location; he was on the move, but he had suddenly stopped. Hermione began flying in the direction that her wand directed her to. And when she got there, Hermione immediately acted out of instinct and alarm. Terrence was surrounded by what looked to be boil covered inferi chanting “imhotep” over and over again. He was slashing at them with a sword, but they were quickly overtaking him. Hermione sent stunning spell after stunning spell. She made sure to hit Dr. Bay when he turned to see where the spells were coming from. When there was finally no more to take care of, Hermione flew down to check on him. Terrence was alive. Bruised and cut up… but alive.
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Ardeth watched Jonathon Carnahan numbly from the back seat of the car. His uncle was gone. Miss Evan’s best friend was going to be sacrificed. And he had no idea if Miss Evans herself was okay. Ardeth just had to hope that she made it home without coming across the creature. And if it wouldn’t be so heartbreaking for Miss Evans, he would be hoping that Jonathon Carnahan conveniently died so he wouldn’t marry her. Rick noticed the frankly odd behavior that the Medjai warrior was displaying towards Jonathon. He really did NOT like Jonathon. Had he picked his pocket in the past or something?
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Terrence Bay woke up… in his study at the museum.
“Do you usually fall asleep on the steps of the museum entrance?” Terrence jolted upright to look at Hermione Evans. How was he alive? Terrance had been losing the fight. He knew he would when he stayed behind. Terrance should be dead. “Hello! Earth to Terrance!”
“Asleep… on the steps to the museum?” Hermione looked at him like he was stupid.
“Yes… Did you get in a bar fight or something? Speaking of fights, what the hell happened here last night? The doors were broken down and it looked like a riot went through this place?” Acting aside, Hermione really wanted to know the answer to that question.
“Y-yes. Looters. Looters… attacked the museum. Did they take anything?” Terrence stood up shakily. Looters that were some sort of inferi… a dark wizard must have decided to have some fun with the Muggle populace. There were really no actual laws in place when it came to the separation of magic and muggles in Cairo. Hermione had been shocked when she arrived to see that. But essentially, Hermione was a British witch. She had carefully abided by British laws while she was in Egypt. Running around saying you were a witch wasn’t particularly wise in any case. Hermione was still trying to figure out exactly how a wizard had gotten away with the magic she had seen displayed the day prior. She had never seen anything like it, and had been combing through any books she possessed on the subject after Dr. Bay had run her out of the library the day prior. She still thought Dr. Bay MUST be some sort of… squib. Hermione couldn’t SHAKE that feeling that he knew EXACTLY what was going on. Or maybe he was a wizard? But that didn’t make a lick of sense. Hermione was certain she would have seen it by now. Terrence felt like he was being dissected. He could see the wheels in Miss Evans' brain turning furiously.
“Are you a squib, Dr. Bay?” Terrence looked at Miss Evans with puzzlement. She was clearly serious, and waiting for an answer. Coupling that with actually referring to him as Doctor.
“I have no conceivable idea of what that is, Miss Evans.” Hermione watched him with narrow eyes. “What is a squib?” Hermione finally shrugged.
“Never mind. You would know if you were one.”
“But… what is it?” Terrence persisted.
“Why was fire raining from the sky yesterday?” Terrence paused.
“I don’t know,” he finally lied.
“Then…. I don’t know what a squib is either,” Hermione said brightly. “I’d better get to work. We have a lot of cleanup to do.” Terrence sighed with frustration. She knew he knew. It didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t and more importantly shouldn’t tell her. Absolutely infuriating.
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“She lives!” Hermione hugged Evelyn tightly. She was truly SO happy to find out that Evelyn was alive and well. Hermione had been sitting at their usual cafe going out of her mind, and suddenly they were there! Alive and well.
“Oh, Hermione! I need to listen to your hunches from now on. The boat sank on the way there and… a myriad of other dangerous things.” Jonathon and O’Connell had made Evelyn swear not to tell Miss Evans what had happened, and she had finally agreed after hearing their arguments. It WAS too fantastical to believe. And, even though Hermione had begged her not to go just because of a bad feeling, it didn’t mean that Hermione would believe that Evelyn had brought a priest back from the dead. And secretly, Evelyn was relieved that she wouldn’t have to tell Hermione. Evelyn was ashamed. Utterly and completely ashamed of the way she had acted when she had scoffed at Hermione’s concerns. Everyone could have died and Evelyn was the dancing fool that had caused the whole thing.
“I’m just happy you’re okay. I didn’t expect you back so soon! Aren’t these expeditions supposed to take ages?”
“We kept running into trouble,” Evelyn flustered. “And, we found some meaningful artifacts. We figured it was best to quit while we were ahead.Oh, oh!” Evelyn grabbed Hermione’s arm excitedly. “O’Connell kissed me!”
“Evelyn!” Hermione whacked Evelyn on the arm. “ I TOLD you not to get engaged.”
“I’m not,” Evelyn blushed.
“Coming from you, you are as good as engaged.”
“They also rode the same camel coming back,” Jonathon interjected with a sickened expression.
“And Jonathon tried to kiss a camel,” Evelyn interjected in retaliation.
“I'm amazed you could see anything with your face stuck to O'Connell's!” Hermione just grinned even bigger at the sibling bickering.
“That’s desperation,” Hermione said dryly.
“Hey! I’ll have you know, I am a very rich man now. We can now buy that mansion we’ve always dreamed of, my love.”
“Rich? So you found what you were looking for?”
“And more,” O’Connell walked up looking positively starstruck. Evelyn giggled. Actually giggled. Hermione was as weirded out as Jonathon was grossed out. It was strange seeing Eveline so… goopy. Nice, just incredibly strange.
“Get a room would you,” Jonathon grumbled and turned to Hermione. “They have been like this since we left.”
“And it made you want to kiss a camel?”
“I did NOT try to kiss a camel!”
“My sources say otherwise,” Hermione grinned. Hermione looked around the cafe. It was so weird that everything went right back to normal after the strangeness only days ago. No wonder there were no laws against muggles knowing about magic. They simply didn’t care or let it affect them. If this was England, a giant cover-up would have been needed. Obliviation spells for the entire city. Someone’s head would have been on the chopping block. And Hermione had gone to magical Cairo to see what the witches and wizards were saying. They just commented on how strange it was and went about their days. No one was arrested. Nothing. It was absolutely unbelievable. Hermione still had absolutely no idea what had happened. She knew that the men in black had some idea… but past that absolutely nothing.
“So, you’ll be going back to your job now, Evelyn? Terence Bay will certainly be relieved. The day before yesterday, I just stared at him once I finished my work to make him crazy.”
“Yes,” Evelyn tried to sound upbeat. Like she didn’t know… that Terence was gone. “I’m sure he will be relieved.” Evelyn looked… morose.
“Don’t be too sad,” Hermione joked. “There was more than enough work at the museum when I left this morning.” O’Connell furrowed in confusion.
“This morning?”
“Yes,” Hermione said matter of factly. “I went to work this morning. Mister Bay was passed out on the steps. The place was trashed though. Some sort of looting incident.” In actuality, Hermione had carried him with the assistance of a feather lightening charm and placed him on his couch. Thankfully, her stunning spell had reached him on time and he had no conceivable idea what Hermione’s part actually was in his being saved. Evelyn tried not to bounce with excitement and joy.
“Oh! I… You know Hermione. I’m just so excited to show Dr. Bay my findings… Do you mind us popping off early to show him?”
“I guess.” They were acting strange. Evelyn especially.
“Yes. Yes. We should definitely rub it in the old codgers face after he burned up our map,” Jonathon helped.
“Come to dinner at our house tomorrow, Hermione! We can all have a nice meal. I’ll invite Dr. Bay and you can make him absolutely batty.”
“Alright,” Hermione smiled with uncertainty. “I’ll bring some dessert.”
“Ah, bless you; Goddess of Baked Goods,” Jonathon said gratefully. “Her croissants, they are absolutely amazing O’Connell. You are coming, aren’t you O’Connell old boy?”
“I’d never turn down a warm meal,” O’Connell said good naturedly.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Hermione.” Hermione waved at them with an awkward smile as they dashed off.
“Well that was weird.”
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Terrence was attempting to carefully remove artifacts from a broken display case when Ardeth started squeezing the life out of him. Ardeth had traveled to the city after notifying the tribe in order to get his Uncle’s affairs in order, and to find him alive… doing his job like always!
“Unhand me you buffoon!” Terrence wheezed.
“How did you survive?! You were surrounded, dear Uncle.”
“Well, I actually don’t know,” Terrence straightened his robes. “Suddenly there were flashes of red light and Imhotep’s zombies started dropping like flies. I thought I was a goner when I was hit with one also. But… I woke up on my sofa… and to Miss Evan’s snark.”
“Father will be so happy to hear you are alive,” Ardeth grinned joyfully.
“And Basma suitably disappointed,” Terrence snarked before he was nearly bowled over by an enthusiastic Evelyn.
“You’re ALIVE!”
“Let GO of me, you infernal woman!” Evelyn backed away with a sheepish grin.
“I’m happy you are not zombie food, Old Boy,” Jonathon said earnestly.
“Yeah,” O’Connell ‘patted’ Terrence on the back so hard he almost fell into the display case. “Glad you are alright.”
“You MUST come to dinner at our home to celebrate. Both of you! Hermione will be there so we won’t be able to discuss what happened, but that also means that there will be an absolutely AMAZING dessert. Please!”
“We would be happy to,” Ardeth interrupted before his Uncle could refuse, which earned him a nasty glare.
“I have WORK to do. I am staying here. Thank you for the offer and not succeeding in ending the world. Good day!” Ardeth shook his head at his Uncle’s manners and chuckled as he stomped away.
“I tried,” Ardeth shrugged to Evelyn apologetically.
“You will still come though?” Evelyn pleaded. Ardeth hesitated. He wanted to and he absolutely didn’t. Being close to Miss Evans for an evening sounded heavenly, but watching her and Jonathon together sounded like hell. But, he had already promised.
“Of course, my friend.”
“Wonderful!”
“See you then pal.” Ardeth sighed as soon as they had left. He was going to regret this.