Chapter Text
"Come on, Harri! Keep up!"
Harriett groaned at Bill's teasing taunt. He'd been doing it for days now. The sun beating down on her fair skin didn't help much either. The veil covering her head and face helped not only from being burnt to a crisp but it kept the drifting sand in the air from making her eat it, let alone make a home in her eyes. She found herself for perhaps the hundredth time this year on why she let Hermione talk her into a vacation.
What kind of fucking vacation is eating sand every bleeding day?
"Bill!" Harri snapped. "I prefer to spend my days in libraries, or I don't know - exploring ancient ruins or, preferably smothered by kittens! Not hiking through sand dunes and getting sand in places they shouldn't be!"
Bill barked a laugh while Hermione and Fleur giggled like it was hilarious. Ginny on the other hand - obviously felt Harri's pain for she grimaced in solidarity. Getting sand up one's fanny was not a happy-go-lucky time. If anything, it hurt like a mother fucker and the rash was just a pure fuck my life vibes all the way around.
"Maybe you shouldn't go ham with Charlie then," Ron snickered.
Harri blushed.
Charlie, who only agreed to come along on this spontaneous Weasley-Potter-Granger trip was because Harri was going. They had gotten close after the war. She had come to Romania to hide out for a little while. Something about a terrible mistake - she was too embarrassed to show her face in public because of it. Charlie didn't know for sure but their closeness was obviously heading into uncharted territory of their friendship. They might have had one too many drinks one night... Charlie may have gotten the stupid idea to bump uglies into one of the pyramids while drunker than a boiled owl. Either way, Harri's fanny had been rashed all to hell.
Ginny had apparently the same idea with one of the locals and the two girls had suffered for a night of fun.
"Ron," Charlie said a little sternly and a little exasperated.
Harri picked up the pace. The faster they get into the pyramids, the faster she can ditch them all and escape the teasing.
When the war had ended, Harri had locked herself up in Grimmauld with Kreacher. While everyone else was trying to act like the last year hadn't happened, Harri had been unable to do it. She couldn't go back to Hogwarts like Hermione for their seventh and final year - nor could she become an Auror with Ron. Even if Shacklebolt, their new Prime Minister had told her she could. She just couldn't do it.
So she spent every day for four solid months drinking, bumping, and smoking herself into oblivion with Kreacher barely being able to keep her alive. He sure did like to wail it into the high heavens about how stupid and foolish she was being - besmirching the name of Black by acting like a muggle.
She didn't ask but she was positive that it was Kreachers fault about who came into Grimmauld. A person who gave her quite a rude wake-up call. Draco Malfoy of all people had come to her rescue. He pulled her right out of the spiraling depression she was drowning in. Picked her up - held her and somehow, someway, Harri and he had ended up falling between the sheets over and over again.
Draco made her feel. He made her listen and when they both stopped and took a moment to appreciate the fact they were still alive... they never spoke of it again. And like the war, they acted like it didn't happen.
Harri ran.
She first ran off to Germany but then ended up in Rome then Russia. She stayed in one place long enough to sightsee but the war had made her uneasy about being out in the open. She felt like she was still undesirable number one even if nobody could find her; let alone track her. The Hallows came quite in handy for that. She was able to hide her signature and just disappear.
For four months she had just vanished, trying to make up for years of being deprived of everything. She learned to laugh again and to sing and tried her hand at cooking authentic foods. She blended in with the Muggles and had a go at a few random men... And women.
Harri was living. She was living... But she lacked something much more important.
She lacked love.
Harri went to Romania. Charlie was very glad to see she was still breathing. After months of radio silence from her, they were all very worried. Even more so when nobody could find her. The only reason they even knew she was alive was because of the money she kept taking out of her account thanks to Bill being able to check every few weeks.
She stayed there, not quite ready to go home. Charlie helped heal the chunk that was missing for a time but it still wasn't whole. Then she returned to England. Ron had just finished his Auror training and Hermione, had finished her last year at Hogwarts. The Golden Trio tried to settle in at Grimmauld, all living together as they planned since they were 15. Only a few months in when Hermione got this idea in her head that she would really love to see Greece and visit a few magical ruins. She had found out that Harri had a talent for runes and was set on pushing her to become a curse breaker despite Harri being so filthy rich that she wouldn't have to work a single day for the rest of her life.
After traveling from one place to the next for too many months, Charlie, George, Ginny, Bill, and Fleur met up with them when they arrived in Cairo. Egypt, after all, was Bill's stamping ground. And what better guide than the man himself? Harri had so much money she was more than happy to spend it for them all to be together. Even if Mr. & Mrs. Weasley decided they would keep Victoria at home so Bill and Fleur could have some time together.
It had been nice for a time. But something was still missing. Harri thought maybe she was just lonely. That's how she and Charlie sort of ended up in a relationship. But even he with this closeness couldn't fill that void inside her heart. She didn't know what it was but whatever was missing had felt important. Important enough that when her chosen family teased her, she couldn't brush it off with a laugh like she used to. It felt like they were prodding and poking at something deeply personal and it chafed.
"Don't tease her," Charlie snapped at Ron when he mentioned that she needed to get a ring on her finger already.
Neither Charlie nor Harri wanted to get married. At least not Harri to Charlie. They weren't even bloody dating! She was barely 19 for Merlin's sake!
Harri stumbled through the wizarding entrance of the first pyramid. They had not finished their tour yet and hopefully, they would soon so they could see the others. There was more than just ancient pyramids to see. She kind of liked Egypt - despite the sand. They've already seen a whole bunch of things. Valley of Kings was perhaps her favorite part so far but those nights in sharm el sheikhhad been a close second. Though she had to say, wrestling a crocodile had to be at the very top of the list of things she most regretted.
Harri still wasn't sure if it was just her Potter luck that she survived or if she was just good at circumventing risky injuries. Ron and George were still swearing that their ears rang from getting smacked by Hermione and Fleur for putting poor Harri in such a dangerous position. It was their fault that Harri had ended up in the Nile River to start with and somehow ended up wrestling with the beast trying to eat her. If she had been a muggle, she wouldn't have had a chance.
"Harri!" Ginny caught up with her, wrapping her arm through hers. "Come on. We can ditch the lot, yeah?"
Harri laughed and agreed. They'd be fine.
Famous last words.
"Look at this!" Ginny picked up two curved swords that were oddly not rusted or ruined from ages past from a pile and began wielding them playfully.
Harri began to playfully lift her hips, her veil flying around her with her skirts as she danced around Ginny. The two of them had been playing around with all the colors and tassels since they let a group of muggle women dress them up and try to teach them to dance. Harri had quickly learned she was capable of dancing when one didn't have to sweep across the floor connected to a partner.
"Shake them hips!" Ginny laughed as Harri gave a bounce and shimmed her shoulders down.
Being stuck in whatever little hole they accidentally fell into when they ran off on their own... well they had to entertain themselves somehow. And if it was them acting like Egyptians walking around or Harri moving around like the beautiful Arabian girls they had seen and danced with, it was certainly better than just sitting there waiting to be rescued.
Ginny tripped and knocked over a vase filled with grey-looking ash with the swords she had been playing around with. Harri gasped when it shattered across the floor.
"Oops!" Ginny winced.
Harri began coughing from the smoke rising. "Ginny!" She gasped. "Cover your face!" Harri was pulling her veil back around around her face, pressing it to her nose and mouth. "Get against the wall!"
The smoke began clouding the room, shielding her from Ginny. Harri hissed under her breath when she stubbed her toe against something hard. She cursed herself for taking off her flats.
Scrambling for her wand, Harri tried to clear the air but it was as if the smoke was resistant to magic. It lingered. Harri stared into the thick of it, she could have sworn something moved within it.
"Ginny!" She called.
"I'm alright!" Ginny yelled. "I'm near the Spynix statue!"
Harri felt disoriented and unsure of her surroundings. She instinctively took a step back, her fingers outstretched, desperately searching for the reassuring solidity of a wall to guide her toward Ginny. Suddenly, her foot landed on something sharp, and a gasp escaped her lips. "Ouch!" she cried as she lost her balance, her body careening across the shimmering golden surface of coins beneath her.
As she stumbled, a hand crafted from molten silver that glimmered like liquid metal—burst forth from the swirling smoke, seizing her arm with an iron grip and pulling her upright.
Panic surged through her as she found herself face to face with the fearsome visage of a jackal, its head looming dangerously close, eyes glinting with an unsettling intelligence as they locked onto hers.
Harri screamed. She screamed like she was some stupid blonde in a horror movie.
"Harri!" Ginny yelled. "Harri!"
Harri began thrashing when it locked her in a chokehold and twisted her around, her body against its chest - a very human chest!
"Let go of me!" She screamed. Its inhuman strength was like iron. Magic flared in her from panicking and like the smoke, it was resistant to it.
The panic set in and Harri began crying. She hadn't cried like this in a very long time. It was a desperation to live. A desperation she didn't even know she had.
"La! Tawaqaf!" The words she barely picked up since they had been in Eygpt came in handy but whatever this thing was certainly didn't understand her.
The last thing Harri heard when it began dragging her deeper into the smoke was Ginny screaming and crying for her.
Deep sets of golden eyes appeared before her face and the world fell from out under her feet.