“What the bloody hell was that?” Ron demanded, wheeling on his friend, who was looking rather irritable himself, green eyes scanning the area and taking in what was going on around them.
Sirius dragged the trio away from the scene of the Game and out of sight before turning to Harry with a frustrated grimace. “Was that really necessary?”
“Don’t blame me.” Harry protested, “Powel’s the one who took offence at the way he was treating Marik. Hey... where is Marik?” The four of them looked but Ishizu and Marik were nowhere in sight.
“You need to keep better tabs on your tenant.” Sirius growled at Harry the moment that they were certain that the pair of children had probably run off when Powel had started his Shadow Game.
“I’d love to.” Harry shot back, “Except I’m not awake when he is. I have absolutely no say in what he does.”
“Hey!” Ron interrupted, poking Harry as he did so, “What the hell’s going on? What tenant? And who the hell is Powel?”
Harry pulled away, worried that Ron getting in his face might trigger an ‘episode’. “Powel’s my tenant. He’s the ghost of a teacher who taught when the Founders were alive.”
“You’re possessed...” Hermione went pale at that, remembering all too well what had been said about the negative survival rate of those who where possessed.
“No, yes... It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it.” Ron growled at him, wondering if he was talking to Harry now or the mysterious Powel that apparently borrowed Harry’s body and challenged people to weird games.
“I can’t.” Harry retorted, “All I know is that this,” He held up his right arm and the sleeve fell down, revealing the Serpent Bracer, “Is mine. When I found it in the Chamber of Secrets, it became mine. Professor Dumbledore wants me to keep it too.”
“But it’s possessing you...” Hermione bit her lower lip.
“The guy who owned this before me, Powel Redgrave was...”
“I know him.” Hermione looked surprised by the name drop, “He was a Master of Transfiguration and one of the very first teachers the Founders ever hired for the school but he just disappears from the books after less than five years at the school.” She stared at the Bracer with a little more awe. Harry could almost see the cogs turning and her mind overflowing with all the questions she wanted to ask the ex-teacher.
“The guy who takes control of my body whenever I’m hurt or am too shocked to move,” Harry shot Sirius a withering look and got a cheeky grin in response, “Same guy. He got himself stuck in here somehow and when I put the Bracer on in the Chamber I somehow woke him up.”
“Bloody hell.” Ron’s articulate response made Harry smile slightly. It was going better so far than he had feared it would. Then his friend’s face darkened. “But if he’s possessing you, doesn’t that mean that you’re gunna die?”
“No actually.” Sirius said. “I confronted Powel on that matter myself, after all I don’t want my dog’s new owner to suddenly keel over and die. Apparently because Powel normally rests in the Bracer and Harry’s sent there every time Powel takes over his body, there’s no risk of the possession directly killing Harry.”
“Directly?” Harry wished Sirius hadn’t phrased it that way as his sharp friend stared at him, her concern obvious.
“You read the books, Hermione.” Harry pointed out. “What’s the one thing that the Serpent Items are well known for?”
“Shadow Games.” Hermione spoke softly realising what had just happened and what Sirius meant by what he’d said.
“Shadow what?” Ron asked, looking less amused and more confused by the second, “What just happened?”
“Shadow Games are one of the key powers of the Serpent Items.” Hermione explained, trying to remember exactly what she had read, “They allow the holder of the item to test their opponent and put them on trial for crimes they have committed. They’re also almost completely played in minds of the players. We only got to see it here because Harry went for an uncomplicated game that only required the use of the coin he had in his pocket.”
“Wasn’t me...”
“But if they’re Shadow Games doesn’t that make them dark magic?” Ron spoke over Harry, ignoring his friend’s protest.
“In theory yes, but the Founders created and used the Serpent Items and other than Slytherin, none of them were dark were they?” Hermione pointed out, “Besides, Dumbledore told Harry to keep it and he wouldn’t allow a dark artefact in his school would he?”
She put it like it was a matter of fact, but Harry couldn’t help but remember that Riddle’s Diary had been floating around Hogwarts for almost a full school year before it had been destroyed down in the Chamber of Secrets.
It only reassured Ron slightly and he stared at Harry’s Bracer like it was going to unleash a demon on the planet as he nodded slightly, “So what about the spirit of the Bracer? I mean ghosts aren’t supposed to be bound to things. That’s what made You-Know-Who’s diary so dangerous.”
“Riddle’s Diary,” Harry spoke up and managed to wedge his way into the conversation, “Wasn’t like the Bracer. It wasn’t magical before hand and it worked in a completely different way. I mean Ginny remembers everything Riddle did while using her body, doesn’t she? I fall asleep the moment Powel takes control and vice versa. Plus Riddle was trying to get his own body by draining Ginny’s life force. Powel’s not tried anything like that...”
“Yet.” Hermione pointed out, not willing to trust the spirit of the Bracer yet, not until she knew a lot more about him, though her natural trust in authority made the fact Powel had been a teacher during the time of the Founders stick out in her mind, after all if the Founders had hired him he couldn’t have been all bad. “You haven’t had the Bracer anywhere near as long as Ginny had the diary. I think we should do more tests.” She considered Harry carefully, “Can you wake him up?”
Harry shook his head. “I don’t know how and I don’t think we should play with this while we’re over here. If something goes wrong, I don’t want to be stranded in Egypt.”
“Point.” Hermione considered the options carefully, “I’m just worried about waiting another fortnight to get any answers, I mean...”
“What could it hurt?” Ron asked finally, “I mean if it hasn’t done any harm so far, I doubt another couple of weeks is going to make much of a difference. I mean if we keep a close eye on Harry, just in case he goes weird again there shouldn’t be any more trouble right?”
None of them actually believed that. They were too prone to attracting trouble and two weeks was a substantial amount of time. Anything could happen.
Still it was that or spend the entire holiday trying to work out ways of attracting Powel’s attention and getting answers from him about his plans for the future. Not that Harry expected him to announce his evil schemes, if he had any, but Ron seemed to be of the mind that Powel would launch into a villainous monologue at any given moment.
“I’ve got to go.” Sirius said, interrupting what was bound to become a long and drawn out argument between the three friends, “It was nice seeing you again, Mr Potter.”
“Mr Grey.” Harry carefully kept his tone neutral, still a little mad that Sirius thought that following him to Egypt had been a good idea and that he would probably follow him around, making sure that he didn’t get into trouble. It was bad enough when his friends did it, he didn’t really want his Godfather doing it as well.
When Harry’s friends also said their farewells, Sirius slipped away into the slowly declining crowds and the Golden Trio darted around, not really getting a chance to look at everything properly but managing to pick up a few trinkets before the stalls closed during the heat of the day. Harry and his friends took the opportunity to stop in a cafe for lunch and let the worst of the heat die down, wasting their time by playing a couple of rounds of Duel Monsters, before they continued their shopping trip.
By the time it was over Hermione had managed to find a second hand book stall and gotten severely loaded down with new books. She had had to purchase bag to put them all in and had chosen a rather pretty, rather ornately beaded but rather expensive magically expanded bag, stating that she had needed a new school bag anyway because her Muggle one had been falling apart at the seams from all of the books and equipment she had put in it on a regular basis.
Ron had gone another route, ignoring all of the old, fascinating text books, magical artefacts and tourist trinkets, bar a little golden pyramid that had a spell on it for luck and good grades, along with a pendant that was supposed to keep Mummies away if you visited any tombs, and proceeded, despite the huge lunch he had had, to try almost every type of food there was available on the stalls.
Harry however was more curious than anything else and he spent more time browsing than he did purchasing. He shocked Hermione by picking up a couple of books on magic from the huge bookstore at the top of the market, mostly, he admitted, because he was curious about the Bracer and how it had come to be, and caused Ron to complain that he didn’t eat enough when he wouldn’t try more than a couple of the foods on offer.
It wasn’t until he got back to the hotel he realised how restrained he had been. Everyone else had bags of stuff and he had barely brought anything. Harry made a note to go back out before they headed back and buy presents for everyone.
“Honestly Harry,” Fred, who along with his brother had managed to find the Egyptian equivalent of a magical joke shop and had made friends with the traders inside, along with several purchases that would keep them occupied for hours until they reverse engineered the tricks and treats and worked out how to produce a more effective and amusing version of the item in question, “Take you abroad and you don’t treat yourself...”
Harry, who was under the impression that the twins would probably blow their spending money within the first few days, just shrugged. He’d been looking for something that mentioned Shadow Magic or caught his attention and though he’d picked up a few things, there just hadn’t been anything that caught his eye.
If anything he’d been distracted all day because he thought he’d seen an Egyptian man with blank eyes wearing a turban following them around but hadn’t said anything because there were loads of them around. The only reason Harry thought he’d been following his group of friends was because the Bracer had grown warm every time the man had been close and it had been at a pretty constant, warm temperature all day although, Harry allowed, that could have been because of the heat.
He was glad he’d thought to pick up cool long sleeved clothing because even after they’d let the worst of the heat die away, it was still baking wandering the stalls and Harry was half convinced that he was going to find himself rather sunburnt when he woke up in the morning. Luckily Hermione had thought ahead. The moment that she’d agreed to come to Egypt with Harry and the Weasleys, she’d gone on a spending spree, buying very important things like sunscreen and aftersun, both of which she had used before leaving the hotel that morning, and a wide brimmed hat.
It looked a little silly, but Harry was envious of it later on in the evening when the aftersun he’d applied the moment they’d returned to the hotel did little for the soreness of his burnt neck and face.
“You look like a lobster.” Ron sniggered at him.
“Ummm, pots and kettles Ron.” Harry snorted back at him, amused, as he pointed at the window. The darkness outside caused the glass to reflect Ron back clearly and his red headed friend looked even more burnt than Harry did.
“Shut up Harry.” Ron let out a good natured but exasperated laugh, much the same way he had when Harry had chuckled when Ron’s broomstick had smacked him in the face during their first flying lesson with Madam Hooch.
“Well if the pair of you,” Hermione started in that tone of voice that Harry and Ron had come to know as Hermione’s ‘ha, ha I thought ahead and you didn’t’ tone of voice, “Didn’t think to buy something as simple as suntan lotion, I suppose I might be convinced to share to make sure that you don’t get burnt any worse than you already are...”
“No need.” Arthur said, having picked some up at the airport at Hermione’s direction while Harry had been herding the twins away from the Duty Free shops where they had been tempted by some of Muggle electronic toys, mostly to see how much it would take to make them blow up. “I thought that Harry had some with him or I would have handed them this sooner.”
Harry let out a soft groan as Arthur passed a bottle out of his bag and it got passed down the line to him and Ron. Not that the pair of them were the only ones who had been burnt, Fred and George had caught the sun and Ginny’s face was a lovely shade of pink.
“Don’t worry.” Arthur chuckled, “I managed to get a friend of ours to quickly brew up a few potions just in case this happened. They’re in our room. I’ll share them out before we go to bed but don’t take too much, we don’t have more than a couple each and they’re rather expensive to buy in tourist areas.”
They finished eating in the hotel’s dining hall and headed up to their rooms, Ron heading for his parents’ room in order to pick up the sunburn relief potions that would make tomorrow much more enjoyable, while Harry crashed out on the bed, dropping his wand on his bedside table and rolling his sleeve up, going to take the Bracer off only to realise that there was someone else in the room with him.
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