Chapter 218: Chapter 218: Giza, Barbecue and Nubia at the Night Market (Part 1) (Edited)
Warm, reassuring and, of course, with a little tickle in her nose, that's what Hermione felt. When she looked up, she saw beside her the dog's head, but evidently this head was not lodged in Tom's consciousness. Hermione kicked the dog's head, and felt it fleshy, like a big ball of fur.
With a small smile on her lips, she gave a couple of tugs on the three-headed dog's tail and pulled it over her body, wrapping her entire body in its fur. At that moment, the noise from the next room ceased: there was a limit to what could be done, and no one could resist.
The clean three-headed dog was fluffy, fluffy-furred and warm, like a giant stuffed animal.
Hermione couldn't help but bring his tail to the tip of her nose and inhale deeply, maybe it was an illusion, or maybe it was the smell of the shampoo, she smelled a fragrant odor. With this smell, exhaustion washed over Hermione like a tidal wave, making her eyelids struggle, and she finally fell asleep with his tail curled around her, resting her paws, her little feet relaxed, on top of a dog's head.
Tom felt something warm dig into him, and there was something very strange about watching Hermione in this form, his senses heightened to the point where he could feel her heartbeat, and the scent of Hermione's shampoo lingered on the ends of her hair as he watched her drift off to sleep.
It was the most soothing moment of his life.
Of course, the three-headed dog's sense of smell was greatly enhanced, so as Hermione drifted off to sleep, a large, furry tail suddenly dangled from the side of the bed, causing her boots and socks to fly off the floor. Once that was done, the tail tossed in the air several times, as if shaking its hand.
Tom also closed his eyes and fell asleep. He had a very, very long sleep.
...
Cold. Silent. White.
The sky and the earth, the mountains and the water, all was white above and below, and all was silent.
A figure, wrapped in a fine robe, walks sorrowfully through this white world.
In such a scene, a feeling of loneliness arises.
Suddenly, a huge brown figure disturbed the white world: a grizzly bear ran toward the figure aggressively, stood up when it was only a few feet away from the figure and raised its huge palm....
A flash of cold light shone and the bear was cut in two.
A great stream of foul-smelling, steaming blood gushed out, staining the white ground red.
The tip of the sword pointed downward, and the blood fell drop by drop onto the ground. The hand holding the sword swung violently and it was thrown to the ground, leaving a long crimson trail of blood.
The sword returned to its scabbard and, as it moved, the ornate pattern on the armor flashed, then was covered again by the cloak.
The figure continued its mechanical march.
...
The sky is filled with yellow sand, and several all-terrain vehicles struggle through the yellow "fog," their silhouettes blurring, and when the scene clears again, only a dune remains in view.
A gust of wind caused a small collapse of the dune and the front of one of the ATVs was exposed, sand was gradually blown out of the vehicle and several dry bodies appeared.
Tom's eyes snapped open.
It took him a while to recover from sleep and, at last, he didn't feel like he was drowning in the sand: it was pushing at him from all sides and, with every breath, he sucked the sand and air into his lungs....
He settled back and found himself in the hotel, lying on a comfortable bed, with Hermione sleeping peacefully in his arms. Her expression was peaceful and she had a smile on her lips, so she must have had a good sleep.
On the other side of the window, the sun had just risen, and the white-domed priest from the distant monastery was already leading a prayer, the indistinct sound of which was so piercing that it could be heard through the window. The prayer roused Hermione from her slumber and she opened her eyes, lifting his tail from her body,
She rubbed her eyes, yawned and stretched.
She patted Tom's head, "Good morning."
Tom returned to his human form.
"Come on, let's go down to breakfast," Hermione walked over to the bed, and looked down, "Hey, my..."
She saw the boots tossed in the distance and a blush crossed her face.
She jumped out of bed, barefoot, and pulled a fresh pair of socks out of her purse. The socks were unmistakable, one black and one white, with a long tube that reached up to her calf and a cat paw pattern in the center of the foot.
"Cat's paw socks!" Hermione was also delighted with the cute socks.
Once dressed, the two of them pushed open the door to their room just as Sarah, who lived in the next room, came out. She was wearing a leotard that showed off her figure perfectly.
"Good morning, little brother~," Sara greeted Tom with a beaming smile, then headed into the dining room.
"Has she gone mad? Dressing like that in Egypt!" exclaimed Hermione as she looked at Sara's attire.
"This hotel is only open to tourists, so she'll be fine even in a bikini. Come on, after dinner we can go to the Egyptian museum." Tom dragged Hermione into the restaurant.
Breakfast consisted of fruit, pancakes, roast beef and various sauces and, of course, if that wasn't to your liking, there was the western breakfast: fried eggs, milk, croissants and the like.
Today there was free time, as Hal Hunter was going to visit his father's friends in Egypt today, so Tom planned to visit the Egyptian National Museum after breakfast.
The best thing to do in a country is to visit the museums of that country or place, which give a concise picture of the country's civilization from antiquity to the present day, with its history unfolding through the museum windows. It would be a great loss to visit a country and not visit its museums.
But Hermione had another idea.
"We could go to Giza first and then come back in the afternoon to see the pyramids, so we could avoid the hottest and sunniest part of the day." Even in her magic robes, Hermione subconsciously didn't want to be out in the sun.
Naturally, Tom wasn't about to go against Hermione's wishes on such a trivial matter, and soon the two were in Giza, just outside the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where the world-famous pyramids of Giza are located.
"Tom, look, a camel!" Hermione was delighted to see the legendary Pyramids of Khufu, and was even more delighted when a salesman drove by driving a camel, she looked as if she wanted to jump off.
Tom instinctively wanted to refuse, because vendors walking around with large animals outside tourist attractions are like civilian mountain bandits, and camels were easy to get on and hard to get off. Some tourists, after a ride, come back with nothing on but the clothes on their backs....
Chapter 219: Chapter 219: Giza, Barbecue and Nubia at the Night Market (Part 2) (Edited)
"I don't advise you to go for a camel ride." Suddenly, a soft voice came from behind them. A very cool young man spoke. Yes, the first thing that struck Tom was that he was cool.
The young man was slim and tall, handsome, with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was dressed in a rock and roll style suit, with fang earrings and a pair of boots on his feet.
When Tom saw the boots, he raised his eyebrows: they were actually made of dragon skin. Hogwarts' teaching materials were full of dragon parts: dragon liver, dragon dung, dragon skin... Professor Sprout's herbology class required students to have dragon-skin gloves. After seeing a lot, you will know the products naturally.
As soon as Tom saw the material on the young man's boots, he realized that the man had to be connected to the magical world.
Red hair, British English and a connection to wizards, Tom had a rough idea.
He extended his hand toward the young man, "Thanks for the heads up, Tom Yodel."
The young man touched his hand, "Bill Weasley."
Indeed, he was a Weasley.
"Are you Ron's brother?"
Bill made a surprised face when he heard that, he had only warned the boys in passing so they wouldn't be fooled, but he hadn't expected them to know his brother.
If they knew Ron, they had to be Hogwarts students as well.
A few more questions confirmed what Bill had thought: the two in front of him were Ravenclaw juniors.
It was nice to meet younger students in a foreign country and, after a few words, Bill took the initiative to show Tom and Hermione around the outskirts of the Pyramid of Khufu. Coincidentally, Bill is a Gringotts Curse Breaker, a profession similar to that of a treasure hunter, who travels the world in search of treasure for Gringotts. Bill works in Egypt and knows the sites like the back of his hand.
Bill pointed out the perforated Pyramid of Khufu: "In fact, this thing was very beautiful in ancient times, and there are no signs of wear or flaws on the outside."
From Bill, Tom learned that thousands of years ago these pyramids were actually made of snow-white blocks of stone stacked regularly, with no gaps between them. Only thousands of years of sand and wind had given them this shape.
"There was a predecessor who found a hidden chamber under the Sphinx's legs and discovered a great treasure," Bill said, recalling his predecessors' experiences, "Inspired by Muggle rumors."
Here, Bill became serious: "If you find any relics in the wild, you'd better not venture into them, or you're likely to meet with misfortune: traps, remnants of magic, ancient curses... the ancient Egyptian wizards left a great deal of sorcery to defend these treasures. To unveil the treasures beneath the Sphinx, one of the Curse Breakers lost forever his sense of hearing, smell and sight, and another was admitted forever to St. Mungo's."
St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Wounds and Injuries is the largest general hospital for the wizarding community in the United Kingdom. If St. Mungo's couldn't cure the Curse Breaker, there was no chance of curing him anywhere else.
After visiting the pyramids, the sun was high and Bill drove them back to the city. The city was a little livelier at noon than it had been in the morning, with the faint sound of car horns coming from a distance replacing the chanting of prayer as Cairo's accompaniment.
Bill turned around and came to a street a little more ramshackle than downtown, a little more inhabited and a little less modern. As Tom walked down the street, he came in sight of a donkey cart with a load of goods running in front of it.
They followed Bill to a small, modest restaurant.
The restaurant was already full of diners and the ceiling fan was whirring.
As soon as they entered the restaurant, they were greeted by a waiter in a blue uniform, who led them to a table inside,
Bill greeted Tom and the two as they sat down and expertly ordered a few plates.
"Here, learning to eat in a Muggle restaurant can be a bit tricky at first; when I first arrived in Egypt I didn't know a pound from an Egyptian pound, and used to get the denominations mixed up, much to the chagrin of my team leader, but I got used to it after a while."
At that point the various meals were served.
A large skewer of roast lamb, a roast chicken cut in two, fried bean balls, fried eggplant, scrambled eggs with onions and parsley, and a plate of cucumber sticks sprinkled with a thick layer of cheese. There were also two slices of white bread on a plate, which Hermione took a bite of before realizing they were slices of fried blue cheese, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Of course, nothing was missing without the Egyptian pancakes.
Tom shook the greasy lamb off the skewer, put it on his plate and had some of the Egyptian version of tomato scrambled eggs.
Bill set two glasses of orange juice in front of them.
"Kids don't drink." He said.
As they ate, the conversation naturally turned to why Tom and the others were here. So Tom shared Dr. Hunter's findings with Bill.
"Is that so? Well, good luck with that, and if Mom and Dad don't come soon, I'll look for the city with you." Bill was very excited about the city, which he considered a great treasure in itself, even though there wasn't a single gold coin in it.
Many people have the misconception that gold, silver, jewels and antiques are treasure, but the mere fact that the mechanism that holds the treasure is treasure to the wizards is great treasure.
But Bill was also struck by the picture of the square Tom was talking about.
"Does it look like this?" Bill tapped the table gently with the wand and a picture appeared: the same twelve squares as always, only in this case they were arranged in a 3 x 4 format, with the rest of the picture almost identical, though this time the cat with the left eye appeared in the upper left corner.
Tom frowned, fully aware that the pattern was not a simple "customs declaration".
"Where did you see that?"
"Gringotts gives lots of clues to incomplete treasures, I saw this on one of the clues once, it was carved into a slab," Bill shrugged, "But the clue has been around for hundreds of years and no one has deciphered it."
Tom looked at the roast on the table and two verses echoed in his ears.
[Museum, Giza, kebab, Nubia at the night market]
["Knowledge, friends, legacies and secrets in cats"].
He felt he understood.
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