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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