The Adventures of Artemis Hexley

THE BONDS WE BREAK • Chapter 2: Welcome Guests

July was always the hottest month of the year in Egypt, Artemis had reliably been informed by Bill Weasley.  He wasn't exaggerating.

Artemis had started taking to working inside, her favourite café abandoned in favour of a desk in the shadiest part of her room in the compound. There was no mint tea, but it saved her a sweltering walk with her scrolls and she could at least choose the music.

The problem she was now facing was a matter of concentrating on her work rather than the music playing straight into her ears from the Muggle machine she had been given four years previously. It wasn't that the document she was reading was dull, it was that it was just more dull than investigating ruins and breaking curses, the very things she had trained for two years to do. She had assumed that once she had finished the training program she would be done with reading documents about monetary valuations and report writing, but here she was, miles from home, sitting inside a room with beige walls and reams of parchment unfolded on the table in front of her.

Her unfocused concentration was broken completely by the pad being removed from her right ear, and the sound of a familiar voice replacing the music.

"You look like you're working hard," said the voice, and Artemis' face split into a grin.

"You're here!" she said, turning away from her work to face the newcomer and throwing her arms around his waist. "When did you arrive?"

Her hug was returned by a pair of freckled arms wrapping around her shoulders, and once the embrace was done with, she removed the musical headband altogether, though the music continued to play quietly through the ear pads.

"Around twenty minutes ago, but I've been standing in the doorway for about five of those minutes," said Charlie Weasley, half a smile playing on his freckled face as he bent down to stroke the ginger cat that was winding his way around his legs. "Fergus and I both got bored of waiting for you to notice I was here."

"I didn't hear you."

"I'm not surprised, I could hear the music all the way from over there," Charlie said, and Artemis rolled her eyes. "I don't think I'll ever understand how you can concentrate with that playing."

"I wasn't really," Artemis admitted. "Concentrating, I mean."

Charlie nodded his head. "You've cut your hair."

"I got too hot."

"I can understand that. Did cutting your hair help?"

"It did, but I burnt the back of my neck, look," Artemis lowered her head so that Charlie could see the sunburned patch of skin at the base of her nape that was no longer covered by her hair. "Are the others here, too?"

"Yeah, they're with Bill. We're going to go down for a tour of the village before dinner. You'd be welcome to join, if you've not got too much reading to do."

Artemis did have too much reading to do, really, but she was already on her feet before Charlie had even finished his invitation.

"I'm not really reading it anyway," she reasoned. "And Bill and Henry will have read it, I'll just ask them to go over the important bits."

Charlie laughed and shook his head, and the pair of them ventured down from Artemis' room to the common area downstairs, where the rest of the Weasley family were all chattering excitedly. Artemis shared hugs with Charlie and Bill's parents and younger sister Ginny, warmly greeted the three youngest brothers, and had her hand shook very formally by Percy, who was wearing a gold badge with the letters 'H.B.' on it.

"Head boy? Congratulations, Percy," she told him, before frowning deeply. "You know you don't have to wear that outside of school, right?"

The twins, Fred and George snickered loudly, and Percy scowled at her before opening a travel guide and reading it in silence. Artemis exchanged sheepish glances with Charlie and bit her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing.