“Ronald Bilius Weasley!” Molly’s voice boomed throughout the house, quaking it. Ginny nearly jumped out of her window in fright. “For the last time, get out of your bed!”

She could almost hear Ron wince.

“Fred Weasley! If I find one more Zonko’s in your and your brother’s luggage, I will make you clean the loos! Without magic!”

Fred and George instantly cleared out more than half their luggage.

“And Percy Weasley! Will you stop admiring your Head Boy badge for a moment?!”

As Molly thundered around the Burrow, getting ready and making sure others were ready, Ginny made her way down the stairs, very careful not to get in Molly’s way. She did not want to face an angry Molly Weasley.

“Ginny, dear, have you finished packing your luggage?” a smiling Molly Weasley dangerously cast her gaze upon the young girl, who frantically did her best woodpecker impression in affirmation. “Then go and wait outside in the backyard with your father.” She nodded again and bolted for the door.

In the backyard, she found Arthur quietly standing over a shovel, waving his wand over the thing, muttering some obscure incantations which Ginny recognised as Concealment, Anti-tracking and a few other Charms. Finally after a few more flourishes of his wand, he muttered, “Portus.” causing the stick to glow with a brilliant blue light for a few moments before fading away.

“Does that take us straight to Egypt?” She was rather curious how wizardkind handled international travel. After all, a simple portkey could take them halfway across the world instantaneously. It was almost impossible to stop them. There had to be some sort of restriction.

“As a matter of fact, no. And you should never try to, unless you want to start an International War.” explained Arthur, with a matter-of-fact tone. Upon seeing Ginny’s expectant face, he smiled wryly, “I don’t really know much, but most nations have a powerful detection ward spread out across their nation that detects any and all international travel, via Portkey, Apparation or otherwise. They might not be able to prevent illegal international travel, but they sure as hell can detect it. Try to do that, and you’ll have dozens of highly trained Hit-wizard squads upon you in moments, wands blazing.

“Any such travel without the explicit permission of the said nation’s ministry will be taken as an act of aggression and they will react thunderously.” he told her seriously.

“So, no this portkey does not take us directly to Egypt, but to the Egyptian Embassy in Great Britain, where we will be screened. From there, we will portkey to the British Embassy in Egypt, where we’ll be screened again and then finally we will be free to go.

“In fact, before the Global Wizarding War occurred, the security was much more lax. A fact that Grindelwald and his acolytes took full advantage of.”

Ginny nodded thoughtfully, before her curiosity spiked again, “So the wards-?”

“I dunno Ginny, that is completely beyond my knowledge. It is not something that I can come into contact with. If you really want to know, perhaps you should consider the Department of Mysteries after your N.E.W.T.s. They would jump at the chance to recruit someone as talented as you.” he encouraged her.

Ginny just nodded her head noncommittally. Her mind was too full of conspiracy theories about the Department of Mysteries to even consider the idea. Besides, she did not think that her plans would sit well with them.

It took an entire hour for the family to get ready.

“Everybody, grab a hold of the stick. Tight.” Arthur announced. They did.

And in just a minute, the portkey activated. Ginny felt a tug somewhere behind her navel. Interestingly, she realised that the feeling of ‘tugging’ coincided exactly with one’s centre of mass. As a former muggle, she understood that spacetime was a continuum. While she was not an astrophysicist by any means, she still had a surface understanding of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: Space curves around mass resulting in a Fundamental Force of the universe, Gravity. Perhaps there was something interesting going on there. It was just that she couldn’t really do anything about it for a long time. So she filed the thought away for later contemplation.

Just then, the journey ended. Their feet slammed into the ground with such force that they could not even keep their sense of balance. While her siblings were sent tumbling in all directions screaming and cursing - which Ginny found mighty amusing - she, like her parents, managed to keep her balance.

Ron was rather irked at her amusement, “How are you standing, anyway?”

“Isn’t it obvious, the Portkey,” she patted the stick, “tells you when it’s about to reach the destination. You just need to listen to it.” She was not lying, the Portkey did indeed give a jolt through its magical aura.

“Listen to it? Listen to it?! I was too busy listening to the bloody wind!” he exclaimed frustratingly.

“Alright, kids, that’s enough. We’re at the Embassy.” He gestured to a lonely shack in the middle of nowhere. Ginny’s mouth twitched. This was the Embassy of a nation? Even if she understood that there was probably an Undetectable Extension charm inside, a shack was too much. For Goodness’ sake, at least mend it a little so that it won’t look like you’ll catch a disease if you step inside!

The inside, thankfully, was a different story. She almost felt like she was already in Egypt - minus the heat. Ginny stepped through what felt like a film of water to her skin and kaleidoscope of weirdness to her Magical Perception - it almost gave her a vertigo - and into a massive hall. The floor, walls, pillars and all of the hall was made mostly out of stone, along with sandstone and granite in considerable quantities. They were also heavily enchanted.

At the centre of the hall was a counter behind which stood a rather beautiful Egyptian woman. Her tag read ‘Amaunet’.

“How may I help you, sir?” she queried with a polite smile, her English was perfect with zero indication of any accent. Arthur explained to the woman and was pointed to a room.

After being screened, they were taken by Meines, who introduced himself in his heavily accented English, to another room where they found a large platform with twenty seats, of which 10 were occupied.

The platform, Ginny realised, was one single whole.

‘It’s a Portkey’ she realised.

They took their seats and after 10 minutes, the portkey activated. This ride was much more comfortable than the one Arthur had enchanted.

And after another swirl of colours and magic, they were in Egypt.

-x-x-x-

After another round of screening, they were allowed to go. They went to the Tourists’ Area, where they looked around a bit when they heard someone calling out to them.

“Mum! Dad! Here!” They turned around to find a tanned Bill waving to them.

“William, dear,” Molly hurried over and gave her oldest a trademarked bone crushing Mother’s hug, which he happily returned.

After Molly reluctantly let go, he hugged Arthur and the rest of his family one-by-one. As they walked outside, they idly chatted about stuff, congratulating Percy on his appointment as the Head Boy. He was swatted by Molly when he tried to suggest prank ideas to Fred and George. While he explained to Ron why the Egyptian Quidditch Team would mop the floor with Englands.

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He reached out and patted Ginny’s head “Congratulations, Ginny. Heard you skipped a school year.” He continued, while Ginny was caught between the urge to chop off the offending hand and enjoying it. ‘It’s definitely the fault of this loli body!’ her occlumency operated at full force to stamp down the embarrassment.

Bill continued oblivious of Ginny’s inner struggle and the danger to his hand, “It’s something few have been able to achieve in the entire history of Hogwarts! Do you know how surprised I was-?”

“That’s outdated news old boy! -” Bill was interrupted by Fred.

“Very old! Our dear sister is the winner of the Under 15 Duelling Champion!” completed George.

It took a few moments for Bill to wrap his head around the idea. His eyes widened, “And Dad let you participate?!” He looked at Dad accusingly, “You told me to scram when I asked for the same thing!”

Arthur was obviously embarrassed. He couldn’t really say he gave in to Ginny’s demands, As a father he could not lose his dignity! So he said, “I don’t remember you ever skipping a year at Hogwarts!”

“Dad! I was 15 then!” he exclaimed, “This is an obvious case of pampering!”

They engaged in lively banter as they made their way to Bill’s home, which was, incidentally, large enough for all of them.

“So you have a girlfriend?!!” asked a flabbergasted Ginny, nearly spitting out her lunch.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I actually was - and still am - very popular amongst the girls!” Bill felt rather indignant at his sister’s intense surprise. He’d expected mild surprise, teasing, or even jealousy (the original Ginny was rather clingy when she was little). He had not expected this reaction at all.

‘Wait, so sometime in the near future they’re gonna break up?’ Ginny did not pay the slightest heed to the indignant Bill clamouring about his girl-wooing techniques. ‘From the way he speaks about her, it is obvious he cares a lot for her. Then why would he court Fleur when he was back in Britain?’

‘Well I can think about that later.’ she shrugged. She was not going to interfere in their love lives. She felt Fleur and Bill were a great couple now, despite not having any opinion on their relationship in her previous life.

When she tuned back in, she realised that Bill was still expounding on his flirting techniques, while Fred and George sat down looking very serious while taking notes. Ron was playing with his food, while discreetly listening while trying to look like he was not. Percy just scoffed, and declared that he already had a girlfriend. The twin’s surprise was palpable at the revelation.

“Penelope Clearwater, right? She’s the Ravenclaw Prefect.” Ginny exposed the girl’s identity. Percy nearly fell off his chair, “H-how did you know?!”

“Tsk, I had the displeasure of stumbling into you snogging in a broom cupboard. The two of you were so into it that you didn’t even notice a parade of dwarves shouting the cringiest lines. Ugh.” she visibly shivered from the cringe, even after several months.

“Wait, were those dwarves after you?” Ron continued in realisation, “They were, weren’t they? Who was it?”

“Dunno,” she shrugged, “I confounded them into believing that Sir Cadogan was me. My, oh my. That was amusing. But I had to bolt as the confundus was wearing off.”

After some more idle banter, they decided to stay home for the day. Anyway, they had a whole three weeks to enjoy their trip!

-x-x-x-

Over the next few days, they travelled magical Egypt, checking out various attractions. The wizards there created a rather nifty temperature charm that set the temperature around you to what you subconsciously thought most comfortable, for the tourists. It was rather complex, and one could only cast it on themselves. Ginny got it on her first try.

Bill, who had initially been proud that he’d mastered the spell in a week, and began doubting life before sighing a relief when he realised that the others’ fared just as badly. Or even worse.

His sister, Bill decided, was something else.

Ginny made it a point to buy all the books she could get her hands on. Sadly she could not get what Egypt specialised in: Jinxes and Curses that affected an area. She was far too young, and there was absolutely no way her parents would allow her to even get close to such magic. So she could only reluctantly give up. At the same time, she resolved to create a spell that allowed her to quickly copy the contents of books. It would make her life so much easier.

Their next destination was the iconic Pyramids of Giza. There were actually a lot of muggles here they had to avoid.

Bill led them to a doorway carved into the wall and rather excitedly introduced to them, “This is the Gate to the House of Osiris, one of the gates that the dead were supposed to pass through. They were supposedly guarded by supernatural beings and required the deceased to provide specific knowledge or recite certain spells to gain access. But,” he smiled, “This was just a ruse to scare off the muggles. Even though wizards were very respected back then, they still felt rather superior to muggles and built a secret society that only they could access. This is one of the doorways to the ‘other side’, so to speak.”

“And just like the legends, it requires a spell to access.” He whipped out his wand and chanted a few odd sounding incantations.

Just when they thought nothing was happening, the floor beneath them disappeared.

““AAAHHHH!!”” The whole family screamed while Bill laughed as he fell along with them.

With a ‘whoosh’ they slowed to halt just before they hit the floor. “Oh hahahahaha! The look on your faces, it was - Ow! Mum, I’m sor-Ow! OW! Ouch! Not my ear! Not my ear! Ow!” Bill didn’t laugh too long as he was promptly ganged up on and beaten to a pulp.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have done that, Bill.” a husky and incredibly attractive female voice sounded. Ginny and the rest turned around to find a woman who was just as attractive as her voice was. In her previous life as a man, this woman would have checked all the boxes. Long black hair, deep-blue eyes set on a heart-shaped face, luscious lips. And the figure of a supermodel.

Ginny also felt that she looked rather familiar. ‘Did I carry my ‘Every attractive girl looks familiar’ disease all the way here?!’ Ginny’s mouth twitched.

“Ah! Celeste! Help me!” Bill begged.

“You reap what you sow, Bill.”

“Won’t you introduce us to this lovely lady, Bill?” Molly dragged her beaten up eldest son over, by the ear.

“This is Celeste, the girlfriend I told you about.” Bill dropped a bomb.

“Girlfriend? She’s way above your league, Bill. Be honest.” Ginny was still feeling vindictive over that scare, so she wanted to thoroughly rend his heart before letting him go.

“But she really is!”

The young woman giggled lightly before taking Bill’s arm and hugging it quite closely. “I am indeed his girlfriend. You must be the younger sister he always talks about.”

She then went on to introduce herself to the rest of the family, while also leaving a generally positive impression on everyone… other than Molly. Molly scrutinised her the whole time as if evaluating her.

They told the family about how they met while working as Curse-breakers for Gringotts and initially hated each other and then came to like each other through dangerous expeditions and then Celeste took her chance and asked him out. Ginny nodded appreciatively, a girl who takes initiative was quite attractive.

As for Celeste's personal history, she was born to a mixed couple: a British wizard fell in love with an Egyptian woman and popped out Celeste. Her mother had passed away not long after she was born leaving the father alone with her. The wizard named Edgar Isolde raised her all by himself here in Egypt.

“Now I get why you look so familiar!” Ginny dropped her fist on her palm. “Do you know Guendollena Isolde? She’s my roomie!”

“Ah, that would be my niece.”

-x-x-x-

For the rest of their trip, Celeste and Bill showed them around the tombs explaining in great detail the frankly horrific curses and jinxes the Ancient Egyptians put on them. What confused Ginny the most was how these wizards managed to make their spells so damn long. No matter how she thought about it, a curse or jinx couldn’t be made to last more than a few millennia, but the curse here lasted tens of millenia! And they were still powerful enough to give the curse-breakers of today immense headaches.

The rather gruesome mutant skeletons sent chills down her spine. Extra heads, extra limbs, twisted bones and what she found to be the most horrific was that one skeleton that had small, sharp bone spurs growing all over it. She could barely imagine the horrendous pain that the victim had to go through!

What Ginny found strange was that there were no sphinxes in the Great Sphinx of Giza. What a disappointment!

Time flew by while one was having fun and their trip came to an end. She learnt a lot on this trip: history of Ancient Egypt, the Ancients Egyptian Wizards’ frankly over-the-top paranoia and viciousness.

She also understood how dangerous a career as a Curse-Breaker was, and was therefore worried about Bill. She knew that he would most likely be alright as she knew from canon. But now that she was here, she knew that canon would sooner or later be completely irrelevant. The butterfly had already flapped its wings and the storm was nigh; it was only when, where and how big that mattered.

So, she would never sit back and rely on the hope that canon would keep Bill safe. She realised that it was imperative she advance her attainment in magic.

(VOLUME 1 END)

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