Malak Aboul Gheit is no stranger to suffering. To death. But she is neither a stranger to love.
The path of this young Egyptian witch as she joins Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy in 3rd year seemed uncertain, but she will soon be trapped i...
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Malak woke up all of a sudden, panting and breathing heavily. The images of her grandmother and uncle still very vivid in her mind. The image of her mom.
It was still very early in the morning. Only a couple of hours after the voices of the city of a thousand minarets had resonated, signaling the first of the five daily prayers in Old Muggle Cairo. The adhan echoing around every building and every street — still not crowded with the impossible amount of people that usually flooded the busy capital. That particular hour always gave Malak Aboul Gheit a sense of serenity and calmness that was invaluable to her. That was extremely rare in a city like Cairo.
Unfortunately that particular day, Malak had been too late to witness that magical moment — the golden hour in which it was even possible to hear the birds signing as the city woke up.
Beit-l-Gheit on the other hand was already awake. Malak could hear the faint sound of the voices of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin resonating around the halls, as their owners tangled like an old married couple.
They are just so adorable, Malak smiled to herself, stretching between the silky sheets of her bed. She should wake up, but she didn't want to.
Over that Egyptian summer, Malak had flirted with the idea of indulging in the pleasure of lazing around and oversleeping.
With Sirius and Remus living in Beit-l-Gheit for the time being, she was finally able to let go a bit of her duties regarding the house, and was actually enjoying her vacation for the first time since she was 13 years old. It a much needed breeze of fresh air.
Over that Egyptian summer, the relationship between the three had grown much stronger. They had been practicing dueling, and both adults were deeply invested in Malak's now successful potion-making business, whose production capability had suddenly soared. They were even considering opening a small shop in Khan El Khalili, the infamous souq and street market of Cairo, that Remus Lupin could man while Malak was at Hogwarts, while Sirius —who turned out to be a great potioneer as well— worked behind the walls of the house to supply the shop.
Malak had also discovered a new Remus Lupin. The Professor she once knew was but a shadow of the real man — so caring and kind that was almost unbelievable. Yet he was deeply burdened by the condition he suffered. Drowned in guilt by the fact that it was his transformation that opened the door for Pettigrew's scape.
Malak had been researching non-stop to develop a new way of treating him, so that an incident like that would not happen again. The knowledge of Alexandria, together with that of the centaurs, had given her the path to follow on her investigations, and so far, at least in Lupin's case, her remedy had been extremely successful. Some would say, groundbreaking.
The first major achievement in lycanthropy science since wolfsbane. One that could finally break the stigma of werewolves within the magical community.
