The Lost Horcrux

A Pyramid Scheme

It was thirty-five degrees in the shade when Harry and Hermione stepped out of their Cairo hotel. Harry was glad of the thinness of his cotton robe in the searing heat, but Hermione was less impressed by their new attire. She was wearing a a full-head niqab, so only her eyes were showing, and she was very grumpy about the whole thing.

"I don't like this, Harry," she grumbled to him as they took in the bright morning. "I feel restricted in this outfit."

"Do you? I feel quite free," Harry quirked. "I quite like a bit of a breeze around my privates, you know."

"Don't make jokes, I'm not in the mood," Hermione huffed. "You know what I mean. Having to shroud myself like this ... it makes me feel repressed, and all because I'm a woman. And I rather think I've had enough of that for one lifetime."

"But I thought you said you were happy to be my slave?" Harry teased.

Hermione frowned from behind her veil. "In some circumstances, yes. But this is not what I had in mind."

"I know, I'm sorry," Harry sighed. "But whilst me may not agree with the norms of this culture, we still have to respect them while on their land. In any case, it serves our purposes while we are out here. We are about to take a big step towards winning our blood feud with the Weasley family and we need to be stealthy about it."

"I don't see why," Hermione griped. "If Dietmar knows where they are, we should just go in with all wands blazing and be done with it."

"I much as I see the merit in that scheme, I have another use for the Weasleys before we are done with them," Harry informed her.

"Which is?"

"Arthur has been sending money to an account in London, one we know is being used by Ron and Ginny," Harry explained. "If we can take over that account on Arthur's end then we may create a practical conduit to his errant kids that could be exploited to draw them into the open."

"I don't think I like you being so logical," Hermione huffed. "I much preferred it when you were rash and hot-headed. Was I always this infuriating, when I played the part of your Voice of Reason?"

"Pretty much," Harry smirked.

"No wonder you didn't fancy me at Hogwarts," Hermione bitched. "I'd have preached never-ending caution whenever you tried to get into my knickers! I'd have lost you over bloody logic!"

Harry chuckled at that. "I'd like to think I'd not be so fickle. "But enough of talk about a time when we weren't together ... I like to pretend that never existed. It's the future we are focusing on today."

"So, what is your plan?"

"I'm going to use one of them," Harry revealed, pointing to the giant stone monuments on the Giza Plateau in the near distance. "Use them for the one purpose they were never designed for."

"Which is?"

Harry turned to her, his eye dark and murderous. "I'm going to turn a pyramid into a tomb."

Hermione blinked, half in surprise, half from a stirring low in her belly, which she always felt whenever Harry was in this mode. It was a devastatingly alluring.

"You're going to lock them inside one of the great pyramids?"

Harry spat out incredulously. "Not one of those, no ... the Weasleys deserve no such grandeur. But there are lots of other, less conspicuous pyramids around this area, some the Muggle population know about, and some that they don't."

"And if you lock them in one that that don't, then no-one will think to look for them there?" Hermione quizzed, excitedly.

"Precisely," Harry nodded. "Dietmar has found a prime candidate. It belonged to a High Priest of significant social standing. It was ransacked hundreds of years ago, so it lies empty and waiting to be re-purposed."