FicWad

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter do you think there ever would have been a chance of Harry and Ginny?



This story is set back in the timeline of The Mummy Returns so here's a basic rundown of the Harry Potter timeline in relation.
1922: Harry Potter is born to Lily and James Potter.
1923: Harry is a year old and his parents are murdered by Voldemort.
1927: Harry is five and goes to Egypt with his relatives.
1933: Harry turns eleven and starts Hogwarts.



Benny stumbled through another tangle of vegetation, chest constricting as the air grew tighter around him almost in warning, but his only thought was to keep moving and put as much distance between the desert and himself. Benny shuddered, as his insides squirmed, he should have never made that pact with Imhotep. Death would had been preferable had he known what would happen, but death was also something Benny did not think he would ever know. Not now, not anymore.

Benny remembered the horror as O'Connell left him in Hamunaptra to die, left him at the mercy of the scarabs. He had heard the rapid skittering of their fast feet over the hardened sand blocks as they were drawn to the scent of his life. He had screamed as they began to consume his flesh, wiggle beneath his skin for the sensitive insides that would be hot and juicy to taste. His screaming had only allowed them to enter his mouth and choke him. But he hadn't died. He hadn't died and the scarabs had become one with his body, were a part of him. He constantly felt their tiny bodies move about within his flesh, occasionally one would even come bursting from his skin, but the skin always regenerated. It had taken Benny quite a few attempts to realize that death had forsaken him, that his contract with Imhotep would not allow him to die until his Master was truly dead. He had nearly gone insane trapped inside Hamunaptra with this knowledge.

Then, he had felt movement in the sand far above him. He had known the moment they had unearth his Master and left him with a way out. He didn't know how long after Imhotep had been removed from his grave it was before he managed to make the surface, but he hadn't cared. The only thing that had mattered was running, and running was something Benny was good at. Somehow, even with the constant pain of the scarabs eating on his rapidly regenerating self, Benny had made it out of Egypt and across the Mediterranean Sea into Greece. From there he had headed north and now found himself in the dark part of some forest. At least it wasn't sand, Benny would be happy if he never saw another grain of sand again. Perhaps here he would manage to find death at last. Benny fell again as the scarabs ate away part of his right foot, causing him to falter in that second before the bones re-grew themselves. Moaning and calling upon the Gods that surely had forsaken him, Benny slowly climbed to his feet and promptly fell back to his knees fearing that he had found a form of death no one was ever meant to find.

~~ ~~ ~*~

"Won't you please help me with my divination homework?" Ron begged Kedar as he sat in the common room after dinner, reading an Egyptian book on curses that Bill and Evie had given him earlier that summer. "You don't take the class, but you seem to understand this rubbish."

Kedar sighed and slipped a book mark under the line of hieroglyphs he had just finished reading; he knew full well that Ron would not give him any peace until he at least helped make up some wild prediction for the red-head to fill in on his star chart. At least Hermione wasn't in the room at the moment, she was somewhere in the library helping Alex, because she would have given them both an earful. Of course Kedar agreed with Hermione that Ron needed to study more and do his own work, but he was willing to make an exception with divination if it got Ron off his back so he could get back to his reading. He was currently reading up on a curse that was supposed to be able to turn a person's body inside out-Kedar was also quite certain that Evie hadn't discovered the book's secondary code or she never would have sent him the book. At first glance the book appeared to be one of just the general magic used in guarding tombs, but a few odd symbols had lead Kedar to translate the book from their original hieroglyphs into the ones the Tribes used before giving them a final translation into the language the High Priests had once used to keep their magic a secret, hiding their spells behind the ritual of worship. It was painstaking work and Kedar was only just halfway through the book, much to his dismay at how long it was taking him to translate it; it probably would have gone faster if he had dared keep written notes, but that was just too much of a risk.

"Alright," Kedar sighed as he pulled Ron's star chart over towards him, studying the arrangement of the planetary bodies "the conjunction of Mars and Pluto indicates a struggle, either physical or within yourself. Saturn is predicting luck, but from what I hear of Trelawny I would make up something about a rash. The distancing of Mercury speaks of betrayal..."

Kedar continued to help Ron with his predictions, but now using a more loose translation of the planetary alignments as half his mind turned to the portent shown by Mercury. Betrayal was in Ron's future, but he would be the one doing the betraying and not being the one betrayed. That narrowed down things considerably. There were only a few people Ron was close enough to induce the level of betrayal ominously foretold by Mercury: his family, Hermione, and Kedar himself. Sometimes soon, perhaps within the week or the upcoming month, Ron would betray at least one of them and the consequences were refusing to be read from the chart of paper in front of him.

Kedar would have continued to dwell upon Ron's horoscope if it hadn't been for Alex flopping down heavily in the chair next to him with a sigh.

"Professor Snape is a git," Alex grumbled "he assigned a roll long parchment about the Polyjuice potion, but the only books on the subject are in the restricted section so that it's impossible to do. Hermione won't help me either, she's in a tizzy over something called a house-elf."

Kedar raised an eye, "We'll worry about Hermione later. I'm surprised Professor Snape gave you such a short assignment, but I see why since you can't get any books on it. What did your class do to piss him off so bloody bad?"

Alex reddened slightly "it wasn't the class, just me. My potion exploded everywhere, by accident, and drenched a bunch of the Slytherin's, sending them to the hospital wing in boils. I just don't understand potions at all!"

"Calm down," Kedar hid a small grin, "I'll help you with your assignment and then go over your potions work with you. If we need to, we'll ask professor Snape for lab time. Now, Polyjuice is a potion that allows you to physically turn into another person for an hour as long as you have a bit of the person you wish to change into..."

Kedar and Alex had just finished the short essay for Professor Snape when Hermione came flouncing into the common room, a box with something rattling inside it in her hands. Wisely, he tuned out Hermione as she launched into details about what seemed to be a group dedicated to helping house-elves and started reviewing basic potions material with Alex. Kedar knew that Alex had read through his potions book, but had found charms to be more intriguing and had ignored the tutorial on mixing ingredients properly and correct stirring movements; he also knew that Professor Snape wouldn't have covered any of it in class, expecting the students to do such research on their own. With the ease of long practice, Kedar kept Alex on track and ignored Hermione's steadily rising voice until a sharp 'tap tap tap' on the window caught his attention.

"Horus!" Alex had seen the falcon as well and followed Kedar over to the window to let the bird in, "Is there anything for me?"

Smiling, Kedar passed a piece of parchment over to Alex and took Horus up to his dorm to settle him in with Ra with a bowl of water and some food before unrolling his own note. It was like the usual start of year notes Ardeth would send him, asking how he was settling in and if there was anything he needed, but the ending was different and slightly troubling.

"Take care my son," Kedar whispered the last line out loud, "the sands shift uneasily."

The warning along with what Kedar had seen in Ron's fortune troubled him. Something was coming.

~~ ~~ ~*~

Kedar was dreaming, though everything seemed more real than any dream he had ever had before. He could actually feel the dry, arid heat of the desert closing around him, scented the tantalizing breath of an unseen wind that promised water. He knew where he was, he was close to the Blue Nile, close to where the mythical Oasis of Amh Shere had surfaced. Kedar whirled and found himself standing upon a high cliff of rock and sand, overlooking the Oasis as if he was once again catching his first glimpse of it from the dirigible. Kedar whirled again at a slight shift of air behind him only to come face-to-face with Imhotep.

"A Medjai," Imhotep's voice was smooth and refined, "and a child at that. I know you, have felt you before, though I have never seen you."

Slowly Imhotep raised a hand and Kedar found himself afraid to move as if movement would break the vision. The finger went unerringly for the lightening bolt shaped scar upon Kedar's forehead and traced it lightly. The scar began to burn and it was suddenly no longer Imhotep standing before him and the desert disappeared. Instead Kedar found himself in a graveyard, an insubstantial shadow with piercing red eyes hovering in front of him.

"Potter," this voice grated on Kedar like the hissing of an angry snake, "I will have you and the wizarding world will fall to its knees before me."

Once again conscious on how all too real the dream was, Kedar took a step back, his breath whispering out.

"/Bes/," Kedar called upon the Egyptian god that protected against evil, invoking the name as a barrier between himself and what must be the soul of Voldemort.

For a split second, Kedar swore he heard the sound of a harp in the distance, cutting through the gloom of the graveyard before he jerked awake to find himself safely in his bed. At that moment Kedar wished he could dismiss it all as a simple dream and go back to sleep as if it had never happened, but Anhar had taught him well and he could not dismiss the burning of his lightening-shaped scar.



Ardeth's warning combined with the strange vision-dream goaded Kedar into writing to Anhar, even though he knew the Medjai-priest would speak to Ardeth about what he wrote. By the time the night sky began to lighten outside the Tower window, Kedar had written at least half a dozen versions of his vision, trying each time to lessen the amount of unease he was unconsciously projecting into the written missive. He finally gave up trying to changes his words around and wrote a post note on the last version of his letter telling Ardeth to summon him without hesitation if he was needed home. The desert would always come first in his heart not matter how fond he had become of some things in England and Scotland. Riding in a lorry or flying a broom would never win over the sensation of being bent low over a horse's neck as sun-driven wind and hot sand was filling the air around you. With care, Kedar lifted Ra from his perch without waking the exhausted Horus.

"Take this to Ardeth and stay for a few days," he stroked the sleek plumage, knowing Ra would be eager to spending a few days in the warmth of the desert before being rested enough to come back to him, "I'll send Horus in your wake when he's rested. Fly well Ra."

With a small cry, Ra obediently took off, causing Horus to crack open an eye. For a moment Kedar wished he could sprout wings and follow his feathered friend across the sky towards home.

"Go back to sleep Horus," Kedar stroked the other bird instead, not caring that most people thought him crazy for speaking to the falcons as if they were people, "you'll follow in a few days once you're rested."

A small chirp answered him, and Kedar settled back onto his bed and emptied his mind of his surroundings and allowed it to fly free. Over mountains, hills, and water he let his mind wander as if he was actually making the journey until he felt as if he had entered the very sun itself. He knew that he was physically still back in Gryffindor Tower, but visualizing himself in his homeland allowed him to relax as he imagined what his fellow Medjai might be doing at that very moment. He imagined scenes from his childhood where he had played out in the desert with the children of whatever tribe he and Ardeth had been visiting at the time, remembered how Ardeth had revealed the sand's secrets to him. A chill across his body from the perpetually drafty castle reminded Kedar that his thoughts were not reality, but his longing for home wasn't nearly as sharp as it had been a moment ago, for within his very soul he guarded the memory of his homeland and would always have it with him no matter where his duty to the Medjai tribes sent him.

~~ ~~ ~*~

"The imperius/," Ron whispered in fear at Moody's announcement, Hermione looking pale herself, "he'll be putting the /imperius on us?"

Kedar sighed, but didn't give in to the urge to state the obvious. It really didn't bother him that an illegal curse was going to be placed upon him, what put him on edge was that this particular curse was designed to control a person and he didn't fully trust the caster of the spell. It would be an interesting spell to learn, but he was by no means going to let it control him; he would find a way to resist the curse no matter how difficult that was said to be.

"You're up Potter," Moody growled, relinquishing his hold on the spell he had been using to make Neville hop around the room like a frog, "imperio!"

A strange cold stole over Kedar as if part of his mind were frozen away from the rest and he felt himself acting differently than the part of him that remained detached wanted. The cold was a completely opposite to the feeling he sometimes got as his mind drifted away while he gazed deeply into a fire, then he felt warm and safe compared to the chill he felt now. The detached part of him that was cataloguing these differences noted that he was dancing around the room and that this was not proper behavior for a Medjai. Something in his mind whispered to just give in, that it felt so good, but it didn't. It felt wrong. NO!

With a start Kedar realized that he had fallen into the very trap he had sworn not to; it reminded him of how he used to fall into unexpected trances as a child before Anhar had taught him to remove his mind from the influence of the Gods and other mental attractions. He needed a barrier or the imperius curse would fully engulf him and he would start singing as Moody was now demanding. Using a great amount of effort, Kedar threw his mind into the void he used when he scryed, but this time he only stayed in there long enough for the spell to fully lose it's hold on him before emerging back into the conscious world; he had never before realized that the void actually held a comforting warmth within it instead of plain neutrality.

Immediately he began imagining a raging sandstorm billowing up around his mind to block off the Professor's renewed attack with the spell, the heat of the sand to battle the cold of the spell. Normally this would have been secure enough for him, would have been enough to keep out the visions of the Gods since most of them did not aim for the unwilling when there were so many willing to receive their blessing, but Kedar didn't trust Professor Moody that much. Anhar had never taught him anything beyond blocking the interference, but Kedar figured he could apply the same principles to securing his mind with a much more solid defense. Unfortunately Moody wasn't about to give him the chance to figure this out and Kedar acted upon instinct, throwing his sandstorm barrier along the cold trail of magic Moody was aiming at him. The man didn't stumble as Kedar had thought he might, but the curse let off and Moody shook his grizzled head as if to clear it.

"Good Potter," he growled, eyeing Kedar strangely, "you actually fought it in the end, which is more difficult then if you had actually started resisting in the beginning. Granger, you're next."

Kedar pulled air into his strangely starving lungs as Moody's attention turned from him and to Hermione, his disquiet feelings about the Professor growing as he glanced at the clock. Moody hadn't held any of the students under the spell for more than a minute, but at least five had passed since he had been put under the spell. The Professor should have left off the moment he started resisting the spell and then broke it the first time, not try and renew the attack with even more force. Suppressing the urge to shiver, Kedar settled himself in his seat and watched as the rest of his classmates were put under the spell. He still felt cold inside.

~~ ~~ ~*~

"I felt so warm and fuzzy," Neville was saying, "and then I woke up mid-jump and fell flat on my face."

Hermione was worrying her bottom lip in agitation, "I felt that way too. My mind wanted to break free of it though, but there's nothing in the books to tell you how to do that. How did you do it Kedar?"

Kedar shrugged his shoulders, hiding the unease he felt. Everyone described feeling warm and fuzzy under the spell, but he had felt really cold instead. As far as he knew, Moody hadn't cast the spell on him any differently then he had on the others, but he still perceived the spell differently. Kedar hoped that it was only his training with Anhar that had made the sensation for him different. Perhaps his training had made him more sensitive to mind-spells and his mind had changed the warm sensation to one of cold in order to alert him to the wrongness? Kedar hoped so, because if that wasn't it then there was a possibility that the Professor had been trying to harm him in someway or he was having a bad reaction to the spell. Kedar shook his head to clear it as Hermione impatiently repeated her question again, this time with more people crowding around to hear the answer.

"I don't know," he answered a little less than honestly, "I just knew that after awhile I didn't want to listen to Moody, didn't want to do what he was saying."

"There's got to be more to it than that!" Hermione really didn't like the fact that the spell had been able to control her so easily despite the fact that she had tried to fight it. "You fought it in the beginning for a bit, gave in, and then suddenly stopped obeying Professor Moody."

Had he fought it in the beginning? He really didn't remember that. He only remembered breaking off the spell in the end. Kedar shrugged at Hermione, frustrating the girl even further as he turned away from her to walk down the hall; he wasn't about to try and explain something that he wasn't completely sure about himself.

"Worry about it later," he called back, "Moody already said he was going to put us under the curse again next class so you'll have more time to figure it out then."

'And so will I,' Kedar thought silently to himself, 'but I won't let the curse control me, not next time.'