52

52

Rating: You name it, we´ve got it - at some point in the story - as long as you don´t name children or animals. (Werewolves not considered animals)
Kids? Scram! Don´t like kinky, \"perverted\" sex? Don´t read. - In short: NC-17! Consider yourself warned.

Disclaimer: All Hail JKR! Everything recognizable belongs to her. The story though, belongs to us.

Posting of this story will go on for a year, (April 2005 - April 2006) and be - to our knowledge - the first (kind of) realtime FF written. Posting will be at least once a week. It is a birthday present for a beautiful (and kinky) young woman, Matilde, who only deserves the best. We´ll try to give her exactly that.

As you might have noticed frim the dates, we are falling behind. This is due to the big, bad real life and we are struggline to catch up. Bear with us :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Eighth week - May 29th to June 4th – Staring at the sand

The trip to the airport was remarkable only because it was so uneventful compared to the last week of chaos. Albus insisted on taking them, even though Tonks had been against it herself – she had a hard time imagining Albus look remotely muggle-like – but he had done very well; no one would have taken him for anything else than a caring grandfather seeing his relatives off.
She was used to the muggle world, but Severus was a bit of another matter. At least he was exceedingly good at being discreet, and at watching and learning.
No incident.
Her thoughts were a huge pile of piled up stuff, and the trip to the airport was used going though much of it. She was unusually silent.

Leaving Charlie behind had been painful. Mainly because it was so awkward for her; she had not had the heart to tell him about her ‘encounters’ with Severus; it would serve little purpose other than to hurt a man she might never see again, and who deserved to be happy. There were no grand hopes for anything between them, and they both knew it.
But she cared for him a lot, no matter what else had happened.

Severus was another matter entirely. She could not get her mind around that one at all; her feelings, his, what happened, why, how; everything muddled in her brain.
Confusion. Big time.
And yet she had no doubt that she cared for him too. Deeper, in a way, than for Charlie. It was like the difference between teenager love and love. Only she wasn’t sure that ‘love’ was the correct word at all…
Depth was the difference. Between the men and the way she thought about them.

And she was quite certain that Severus had not liked Charlie’s goodbye kiss to her.
She felt that she owed it to Charlie, but she could probably never explain that to Severus; right now she feared that she might have already done what Minerva had warned her about and hurt him, but then again she still doubted that she mattered enough for him to get hurt.
There was still that mysterious longing in him; she might just be a distraction till he could reclaim whatever – or whomever – it was that he longed for.

They reached the airport, and had to stick close together through the mayhem; Albus mumbled something about liking flying much better in Lindberg’s days.
He said a very heartfelt goodbye to both of them and even waved for as long as they could see him.
Tonks was a bit overwhelmed.

The Departure Hall was large, crowded, smelly and noisy. Severus looked as if he would have preferred aggravating his Influenza by flying on a broom to this Hell on Earth.
Tonks guided them to a small dining area with a relatively quiet corner where they could wait for their plane to be called out. She did her best to make a bit of cheerful conversation, but Severus was not buying. She suspected he was feeling sick again and left him alone.

When they were finally called they had to go through the final security check, and Tonks just knew this would be a bit of a problem; metal detectors picked up on her piercings and Romanian authorities were not used to that – or known to be particularly friendly.
Sure enough, a loud beeping noise went off as she passed through the detector.

She sighed, and put on her brightest smile.
‘Don’t worry,’ she told the lady who approached her, ‘it’s only jewels.’
The lady eyed her suspiciously and led her to a small cubicle next to the gate. While she was there Severus came through without incident, he was rather relieved, he didn’t particularly fancy having that woman drag him off somewhere private.

Tonks returned a few minutes later, still smiling, if a bit strained, and with a shocked woman in her trail.
‘Freak,’ the woman muttered under her breath, as Tonks retrieved her handbag from the conveyor belt where she had left it.

‘You might consider treating the young woman nicer,’ he said, a bit surprised when he heard himself, ‘she has done absolutely nothing wrong.’
The woman stared at him in disbelief, then gave a short, sharp laugh and turned to relay something to her colleague in Romanian. The colleague, a man, looked at Tonks, then at Severus, and laughed out loud.

Tonks hurried to pull Severus with her before he got aggravated enough to act on it; she was glad that she didn’t know any Romanian, but from the look on his face, he did.

They reached the plane and boarded without any more problems. Severus did seem a bit uncomfortable to actually be inside a flying thing instead of on top of it.
‘Did you know,’ Tonks said cheerfully, attempting to cheer him up, ‘that muggles have a ‘club’ called ‘the mile high club’ and the ‘members’ are people who had sex in an aeroplane?’

‘I did not, and I must say I was happier in my ignorance. Then I could at least pretend that there were no people that stupid on this planet.’

‘Oh, lighten up, Sev. At least let other people live a little.’

He ignored her after that, and she sighed and tried to not think about Charlie as they were on the way to meet his brother.

~ ~ ~

Egypt was warm. Very much so! Romania had been nice and warm, they had been in the mountains and because of that it had been relatively cool for their latitude and it had been dry with cool nights.
Egypt was hot as a melting pot, and as humid as a Turkish bath.

Bill and Fleur met them at the airport as promised, Fleur seemed quite unhappy with the heat as well; she carried a parasol to avoid too much sun and had trouble finding clothes that would allow enough air through and still be acceptable to the local populace – she complained about this at length on their way; for once Tonks agreed completely with Severus’ annoyed and tired looks.

Tonks found herself hoping that the girl was good in bed; if not she didn’t see why the heck Bill put up with her – he only had to wink at most girls and they would be right where he wanted them.
But perhaps that was why; Fleur could do the same trick…

~ ~ ~

They went to Fleur and Bill’s house in a small wizarding community on the outskirts of Cairo. Not at all like Hogsmeade, this was more like an enclave in a regular suburb, but only wizarding folk lived in that small area, and that gave a minimum of protection and privacy.

It was a small but nice house they lived in. There was even electricity, something that was a bit necessary to blend in, and a convenience that neither of them minded – not even Severus, since it meant that there was the option for keeping things cool in a fridge or a freezer and he promptly appropriated space for his potion ingredients.

Bill had a bit of a laugh out of that.
‘He hasn’t changed one bit, has he?’ he more stated to than asked Tonks.
She agreed.
‘Our Professor is very much himself,’ she said, ‘and are we not all delighted at that.’ She winked at Bill, but Severus looked quite annoyed.
‘And we really are, you know,’ she hurried to continue, ‘I tell you, that flu… I don’t think I have seen anyone that sick in my life.’

Severus still looked a bit annoyed, but at least he didn’t pursue it any further.
They spent a few hours catching up and talking. Bill was thrilled to hear about the fight with the dragons and to hear more about his brother as well.
Tonks did most of the talking, Severus was still not quite up to full strength, and he never did enjoy socialising much.

They called it a night fairly early; the two guests were very tired from their ordeals and the travel. Tonks insisted that Severus get the guest room to since he needed rest the most; she slept on a couch in the living room.

~ ~ ~

The following day was mainly spent with relaxing, finding ways to deal with the heat and getting Severus back to full health. Cairo was large, noisy, dirty and actually pretty horrible; that was their conclusion after a short trip outside due to boredom.
But since they were in Egypt, and especially since that provided some interesting opportunities for gathering potions ingredients, they decided that they should venture out to the souk the day after.

~ ~ ~

The following day was dusty, dirty, smelly, noisy and not all that sunny, which at least was one good thing, and Tonks and Severus kept to their plan of going to town.
Bill warned them to be careful and not trust anyone; many of the shops, especially those dealing in ‘ancient’ or ‘occult’ matters were nothing more than scams for tourists.

To survive the heat, Tonks had found some long and loose-fitting garments that make her look a bit out of San Francisco, 1968, and Severus, who kept to black robes – they were loose to begin with – adopted a local fashion of wearing a white scarf over his head to keep the worst of the sun and heat away.
Tonks privately thought that it made him look even more striking; the fabric underlined his strong features and his dark eyes.

It was an overwhelming experience to visit Cairo’s souk, the strange smells of carpets, spices, naphthalene, dye and goodness knows what else hung in the air, the sounds of thousands of voices rang in their ears and the diversity of the goods bought and sold was amazing.
Tonks felt as if she needn’t see any other part of Egypt to know what the spirit of the country was; this was it.

Severus finally managed to find some of the things he was looking for.
They purchased some dried scarab beetles, and some local plants and seeds as well, and Tonks had her heart set on Egyptian jewellery, and they backtracked to a small shop, she remembered, where she got some earrings and a necklace.

The man who owned the shop kept looking at Severus with a strange look, and mumbled in Arabic; he didn’t seem to understand any English, and Tonks had no idea what he was saying. She suspected that Severus might understand some of it, but chose to act as if he didn’t.

When they were about to leave, the shopkeeper tried to stall them; he summoned someone from a nearby carpet shop to help him out, and they managed to convey the message by means of some English and home-made hand signs. The man in the jewellery shop wanted to show them the hand of a mummy, which he kept locked away somewhere else.

A small light came on in Severus’ eyes; he had hoped for something like this, but this was almost too easy to be true. Tonks was a bit worried. She was certain it was too easy to be true, and she the mumbling man made her feel uneasy; his mumblings reminded her of spell-casting and she was constantly suspicious these days, that was, after all, her job and function here.
None the less, she knew she would never be able to talk Severus out of going, so better play along, act stupid, and watch out.

The two men led them through some back alleys and down into a small and dark cellar under a house where one of them supposedly lived.
They did in fact have a mummified hand in a small wooden chest down there, so far so good, and they stayed well within sight at all times, which also calmed Tonks a bit, if it didn’t make her lower her guards.

‘It may be mummified,’ Severus mumbled to her, ‘but it is no more than a few hundred years old, probably from a regular graveyard somewhere; the dry sand would do that to it with time.’

‘Really? How can you see that?’ she asked, he sure did know the weirdest things sometimes.

‘I will tell you later, right now it is time to teach them a little lesson. You see, the jewellery seller seems to see a good deal of resemblance between me and the ghost of a dead pharaoh, for some reason, and I think that superstition will work nicely to teach him not to try and trick people.’

‘Severus, don’t!’ she whispered intently, but he ignored her.

Instead he spoke a few words in Arabic, doing his best Potions Master impression and ended it with a wave of his wand and one clearly spoken word: ‘Kheleb’.
The carpet-guy was transfigured to a dog.
The jewellery-guy stood as if petrified for a few seconds, and then started talking very much and very fast, bowing and almost crawling before Severus.
Tonks had to admit it was funny, she concentrated on looking awed instead, but had a hard time holding back her laughter.

Severus held up a hand and stopped the other man’s chatter. He said a few commanding words, the other nodded and bowed and nodded again, and finally Severus reversed the transfiguration.

The two men escorted them all the way out of that part of town, before Severus persuaded them to go back.
When they left, Tonks finally allowed herself to laugh. After looking at her in amazement for a few seconds, Severus joined in.

‘Merlin’s breeches, that was so funny, Severus! What did you say to him?’ she asked when she had dried her eyes again.

‘Oh, not much. Only that I did not take kindly to someone lying to me, and that they should know better than to insult someone like me in such a fashion. Since they did, I would show them my wrath. Dogs are very lowly creatures in this part of the world, they are perceived as dirty, so I really did scare them a lot. And now they are convinced that I am the ghost of a certain pharaoh, so now they want to show me my tomb. Apparently they actually do know a few things, one of those being how to get into on of the great pyramids. They will meet us Friday night and take us there – Friday is the equivalent to Sunday here, the holy day – and they will feel more protected from magic then.’

‘Are you sure this is such a good idea, Sev, I mean, what if they try to trick us again?’
She wondered for a moment why they would think he was an ancient Egyptian ghost, but then realised that he did in fact look the part. He was tall, regal, had long black hare and a marked face that had a few features akin to those of the local people, and he was quite pale.

‘They will not. I am certain. But of course, you can stay home if you care – or wait outside for me,’ he said, pulling her back to the discussion at hand.

‘Are you kidding? And miss seeing the inside of a pyramid!’ She grinned at him with a conspiratorial twinkle in her eye.
‘But I think we best not tell anyone of it, they will give us hell, and Minerva will skin me alive if she hears that I went along with this.’

‘I would rather prefer that as well, I would have to strangle the Weasley if he tries to preach – not to mention what I’d do to that annoying imitation Veela…’

They had reached the house, which was still empty, and went inside. It was nice and cool there, and Tonks fetched the both of them something cool to drink, while Severus found a seat in the living room.

‘Actually, I think I have a rather good idea what you’d like to do to her, and strangling has nothing to do with that,’ she said in a very suggestive voice as she handed him his glass.

‘Careful, girl, or I might do something to you,’ he warned her, looking sternly at her over the rim of his glass.

‘Is that a promise?’ she asked, and moved a bit closer. Inside her a voice was screaming at her to stop and move away, but part of her was drawn to him and that force was stronger. She secretly wanted it to be.

His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist and with the other hand he gently took the glass from her and put it on the table next to his own.
‘Not only a promise, I assure you,’ he growled.

A strong shiver ran down her spine as he yanked her closer and his free hand moved up under her long skirt.
‘No underwear?’ he said, and his eyebrows almost touched his hairline.

‘No. It’s nice in the heat,’ she told him.

His hand under her skirt and his firm grip along with his words had started a strong fire in her, she was quite aware that she was very wet.

‘I see. And how about acting properly for a young woman, and not run around dressed like slut?’ he said. ‘You really should know better, but perhaps you just need to be taught.’

Before she could say anything, she was lying over his knees with her skirt around her waist, and felt the first sharp slap of his hand on her bottom.
She felt the heat build as he continued spanking her, a heat that rapidly spread to the rest of her body, and start a fire between her legs.

When he stopped she wanted to ask him to continue, but instead slipped down on the floor as he told her to.
He guided her hands and head and soon she had his erection in her mouth, using both hands and tongue to please him as much as possible. To judge by the way he leaned back and sighed, she was succeeding, and she felt quite proud to cause a reaction like that in him.
He held on to her hair and directed her pace and she could sense the pressure in him.

He forcefully pulled her away, then stood up and quickly bent her over the side of the couch and, seemingly without stopping, pushed himself into her.
She let out a loud moan as he did, and was only half aware that she continued to moan and mumble as he fucked her hard. When she came, she did know that she yelled his name, and also that she probably shouldn’t have, but it felt so damned right.

They still felt awkward towards each other afterwards, and this time she couldn’t turn into a wolf and run off. Instead they just sat quietly together for a while, till Fleur came home and provided a distraction that was sort of welcome, yet also intruding.

~ ~ ~

The following day they decided to go to museums and do some regular sight seeing. Apart from wanting to see some of the interesting things in Egypt they also wanted to prepare for their outing on Friday by looking more into the pyramids, and the one they would be going to in particular.

That meant visiting Giza and taking a look from the outside, as well as visiting the museum where so many artefacts from the pyramids were stored and where they learned all about the excavations and the design and building of the pyramids.

They were looking at a large model over the pyramid of Khufu – the one they would be seeing from the inside - when they heard English being spoken nearby. That was not all that surprising in itself, given the number of tourists here, but then some of the words reached them, and they were surprising.
‘Goodness, isn’t that Tonks,’ said a woman’s voice, now very close behind them.

Tonks turned around, and broke into a huge smile.
‘Yeah, it’s me. Well spotted, Mrs. Granger. Fancy meeting you here, are you on holidays?’

‘Yes, we decided that we wanted to go somewhere farther away this year, and to go a bit early since it gets even more unbearably warm here later in the summer,’ Mr. Granger said in response.
‘And what about yourself?’

‘Professor Snape and I are on a small research expedition,’ she told them, indicating Severus with a gesture.

‘Ah, Professor!’ Mr. Granger extended a hand towards him. ‘A pleasure to meet you, Sir, we have of course heard of you.’

‘I imagine,’ Severus replied dryly. ‘You have a most gifted daughter,’ he added, as she shook hands with both of them.

They chatted for a while, and the Grangers insisted on giving them the address to their hotel, and made them promise to drop by if possible.
Severus looked quite contrary, but Tonks felt that she would at least like to meet up with them again; they really were such nice people, and any piece of home was very welcome to her.

~ ~ ~

Thursday they elected to stay at the house, as it is the equivalent to Saturday in the western world and as such a busy and even more noisy and unruly day.
Instead the four of them had a fairly nice time just relaxing; even Fleur cooled down sufficiently to make it a pleasant time.

Some time during the afternoon a laughing Bill came into the living room where the rest of them were, holding a piece of parchment.
‘You’ll never guess what happened back home,’ he said, still laughing. ‘I just heard from Ron. It is very sweet but also so funny!’

‘Tell us then, if we’ll never guess anyway,’ Tonks said sensibly. She hated being kept in suspense like that.

‘Since Hermione is brewing potions for Remus all the time, they got to know each other better and, shall we say, differently from their teacher-student relationship…’ Bills eyes were sparkling with laughter, and Tonks could feel a giggle build in her chest.

‘You are not telling me that, that they, you know, got together!’ she said, giving in to that giggle.

Bill nodded, he was laughing again, and now so hard that tears were running.

‘I fail to see the amusement,’ Severus commented from the other side of the room. ‘It is most irresponsible of Remus, not to mention rather foolish of Hermione. They both ought to know better.’

‘Oh, Sev, take it easy,’ Tonks told him, a bit annoyed at his attitude towards Remus; he was another man who had suffered much and deserved some happiness.
‘Love happens, you know, and Remus could deserve a bit of a break, his life has been hard. I would have thought that you might relate a bit.’

He looked at her with disgust; she never could understand why he so disliked Remus. But she did understand that he didn’t take kindly to being berated like that.
‘I’m sorry, Severus,’ she said, trying to make it up to him a bit. ‘It’s really none of my business, but I do think you are a bit unfair towards them.’

He grunted, but at least he didn’t follow up, so he was not angry anymore.

~ ~ ~

Friday was their big night. They had agreed to sneak out in the evening, as that would make everything much easier for them, and Tonks had a good deal of fun over the thought of the stern Potions Master sneaking out like an unruly schoolboy.

They got to the rendezvous point without incident and met up with their guide. According to Severus’ translation of the jewellery-guy’s, whose name was Kemal, words, his friend was to scared to come along.

He led them along some secret passages and down a hidden tunnel, which he said would lead them into the great pyramid. Severus, who decided that it might be prudent to remind the man that he could turn him into a dog as well, lit the way with his wand that by far outshone the light Kemal had brought.

When the reached the end of the tunnel, that had sloped up again for a while, Kemal pressed a loose stone above them and one of the large blocks up there moved up and to the side and they climbed up into a new tunnel, this time clearly inside the pyramid.

Kemal explained that they were in the entrance passage, and behind them they did see the passage sloping slightly up towards the entrance. In front of them there were two passages, one up and one down, and that last one was where they were going.
They climbed the steep stone passage, and finally reached first the Queen’s and then the King’s burial chamber.

In that last chamber, Kemal looked expectantly at Severus, as if he was supposed to somehow recognize it, find his rest or something, and Tonks once more had to stifle a laugh.

Severus understood the situation and decided he’d better look the part. He experimentally tried to see if the heavy stone sarcophagus would in any way respond to an ‘Alohomora’, and when it didn’t had the idea of trying it on the wall above what looked like a small air shaft.

Much to the surprise of all of them, the stones moved, making a space just large enough for a human to climb through.

‘Wow,’ Tonks said in awe, ‘so what do we do now…?’

‘We, that is, you, stay here with Kemal, and I will take a look in there, when some air has had time to circulate,’ he told her.

‘Hey, no fair,’ she said, ‘I want to see the secret room too.’

‘Perhaps,’ he said. ‘But that depends strongly on what’s in there…’

She had to agree that it was best if one of them stay out here and watch Kemal and the other’s back, so after what felt like a long wait, she watched as Severus squeezed through the opening between the stones.
She had lit her wand as well now, shocking the poor Kemal no end, but she had no time to pay much attention to his fright; as long as he didn’t try to double cross them or anything.

After perhaps 15 minutes Severus returned.
‘You have to go take a look,’ he told her, ‘it is absolutely stunning. I brought this back with me, it is a protective charm, engraved with many of the most powerful symbols of ancient Egyptian magic, along with Khufu’s name.’
He held up a small gold plate, the shape of a cartouche, and after taking a good look at it, Tonks hurried to take a look at the room herself.

There were literally piles of treasures in there. Gold, gemstones, furniture, large clay pots, carved wooden figures; it was completely overwhelming.
She dared not touch anything, it was after all someone’s grave, and it would be disrespectful, she felt. Severus may see it differently, but that was how she felt.
Instead she drank it all with her eyes.
The muggles who so desperately searched for hidden chambers in here, and who so hoped to find Khufu’s treasures would not be disappointed when they did.
She felt a bit sorry that they would have to close the room again and could never tell the poor archaeologists about it.

They were both fairly quiet on the way home. It was such an amazing thing they had just witnessed, and there was no doubt in their minds that this night would stay with them forever.
And they could never tell a soul.

~ ~ ~

Tonks wrote the customary letter to Minerva on Saturday, and found it hard since most of what had happened could not be told. It would look as if they had had a truly dull week, when, in fact, they had had one of the most eventful times of their lives.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Minerva!

I though I’d better write you so you know we are doing fine.
Egypt is warm, dirty and very fascinating!
We saw the pyramids the other day, and guess what, we also ran into Hermione’s parents. Really funny. Small world, isn’t it?

Severus is fine again, back to normal and everything; he recovered completely after only one day here. I hope You-know-who wont find our trail for a good while; Severus really deserves a rest.

Speaking of him, I really think I might be falling for him, and I don’t know how to go about talking to him about it. I think he likes me too, at least he certainly tries to take care of me, and, eh, we had sex again… And he sure likes that a lot. So do I for that matter. A lot, that is.

And there’s still Charlie. I really owe it to him to talk to him again, let him know where things are.
I really care for him, and he’s the nicest guy I’ve even been with, but he just doesn’t make me feel the way Severus does. It’s like the difference between a boy and a man.

Oh, and if I kill Fleur, do you think anyone will blame me? Gods, that girl is a pain! At times it is so bad that Bill actually took me aside and told me that she’s really not like this at all when they are alone, that it’s just that she’s so concerned about appearances that she goes ballistic when someone’s around.
She needs to get her head examined, that one!

Hope to see you soon, and give our best to everyone back there.

Love, Tonks

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill had provided an owl for them to fly the letter to England; the animal was trained for long-distance flights but Tonks still felt a bit sorry for it as she watched it take of in the twilight. England seemed so bloody far away…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N : A ‘souk’ is a bazaar; it is an Arabic word. I do not know if they use that term in Egypt, but they did in Bahrain, where I lived for a year as a child.
Khufu is the name for Cheops, so that is whom the salesmen thought Severus was.

Irene : We are truly sorry to hear that you don’t like Tonks, but there’s not much we can do about that. Seeing as this is a story about Tonks and Severus, we instead suggest you read something else if you don’t like her – she’s not going anywhere.