Hermione opened her eyes slightly ahead of Harry, expecting to see the ritual chamber below Gringotts. Instead, the feline couple had a completely different vista before them. The floor beneath them was formed by massive slabs of polished black glass, volcanic obsidian, and stretched out around them for a good thirty feet before ending in a sudden drop. All about the edge were white marble pillars that kept going up beyond all logical limits. The starry sky was reflected in the polished flagstones beneath them. No more than five feet separated the cat children from the main source of illumination, a massive bowl, ten feet across, filled with a flame that burned white and steady.
Glancing down at themselves brought a moment of shock. Their clothes had been transformed, or so it seemed. They were now clad in white, gauzy silks, in the form of short kilts and, in Hermione's case a wrap that encased her upper torso. These were surprisingly comfortable.
Once again looking around, the catgirl gasped. Beyond the edge of the... platform? Temple? She realised she wasn't sure how to classify this place. However, beyond it in three directions lay the endless sands of what had to be Egypt, as on the fourth side, the west, was the River Nile, and beyond it, the pyramids.
A brightening light on the eastern horizon caught their attention, and as the sun came up, three figures emerged from its brilliance. Two were humanoid, mostly, while the third was a massive white-gold cobra. The male humanoid had the head of a jackal, and a thin black coat of fur. He was clad much as Harry was, and as he moved towards the white fire at the centre of the temple, he let his weapon, a strange-looking blade that curved for two-thirds of its four-foot length, not counting the grip, clatter to the floor, where it faded from existence. As a simple Egyptian throne emerged from the floor, he collapsed into it. The female humanoid looked like a larger, golden-furred version of Hermione, with a long black braid down her spine. Apparently, her weapon of choice was a double-headed spear, one blade at each end. The throne that she claimed from nowhere wasn't simple, but festooned with gemstones and cushions. Her spear was laid across her shoulders as the cobra, who was at least the length of the basilisk, curled about one of the pillars. As the kitty couple stared, wide-eyed in shock and awe, the jackal-headed man opened one eye and looked straight at them for the first time.
^Hey, Bast,^ he said, his 'voice' bypassing their ears and heading straight into their conscious minds, ^Two of yours are here. You and Mehen deal with them, I'm going to go kip. Osiris has a busy day lined up, and I need my beauty sleep.^ With that 'said', he disappeared. No noise, no light, just there one instant, gone the next.^
The golden feline glared at the empty space, snarling. The two black-furred felines understood every word. Ra curse it, Anubis, why are you always doing this? She turned to the two cat children before her.
Mehen, who had to be the cobra, loosed a hissing chuckle. {Because he knows how you react. Come, now, don't begrudge him the sleep. He is pulling double duty, remember? Guard Ra's barge at night, judge the souls of the dead by day, it's not an easy task. At least we only have half that task.} This earned him a glare from Bast, as well.
Leaving her throne, she approached the kitty couple. Her scrutiny was thorough, and Harry and Hermione shivered as she assessed them. Well, the golden feline said, I believe you are mine after all. Huh. She ran her paws over the remaining scars. I see the Mahjai are putting you through the ritual. Too bad for them, you were halfway through it already. This is going to be fun to watch.
Screwing up all his Gryffindor courage, Harry spoke up. Excuse me, but who are you, where are we, and how did we get here? When his mate elbowed him, he added Oh and what did you mean halfway?
Bast laughed. You don't know? Then you're not Mahjai, and they didn't tell you. The little cocktail they give you, what did they say was in it?
Venom and blood of Apep's children, tempered by the tears of Bennu, Hermione answered.
Apep is the King of Serpents, who tries to devour the sun each night, his gaze and venom can kill or destroy any mortal, that sound familiar? Without waiting for an answer, the golden feline went on. Bennu, bless his feathery hide, is the first phoenix. That pick-me-up you swallowed just increased the amounts already in your system. The good news is, it's not going to kill you. The bad news is, they may very well think it did if you don't get back in time. There are benefits, you know. You're Duati Bast'et now. Twice-born Bast'et. Poison and disease can't harm you now, and as for the other benefits your little side trip to Duat has given you, all I'll say is congratulations. Those you'll find out as you go. But it isn't free.
Harry gulped. It sounded like a lot of power to be handing out. What's the price? I don't know if we can afford it.
The cat-goddess laughed out loud. Oh, you're one of mine all right. Don't worry, it's something you'd want to do anyway. You have to deal with the should-be-dead, the unliving who still walk. They are corruptions of the sacred ways, and they have to be destroyed. She held up one clawed hand, and a crystal vessel appeared, containing two wedge-shaped blobs of utter blackness. This one split his ka, his soul, by the murder of innocents, and by using a corrupted version of mummification, created vessels for fragments of his essence. The darkest of priest-mages only used this once. He did more. Significantly more. You will have to destroy him piecemeal, and I cannot aid you further. You either do this, or this thing becomes a plague upon your lands. Oh, and should any other like him arise, your duty is to destroy them, also. Never forget, you are Duati Bast'et.
Mehen slithered over to rise before them. {It may not help much,} he hissed, {but all I have for you is advice. Remember this: that which does not kill you, only makes you stronger. Or was it more paranoid? I can never remember which...}
Anubis' reappearance behind them startled the kitty couple beyond words to describe. No scent, no noise, just suddenly there. ^It's time for you to go back, little ones,^ he 'said', placing something on their heads before taking each by an arm. The temple and the vista surrounding it faded from view.
They came to themselves in the same moment, springing up from the floor as the people around them began to move forward, in an attempt to give aid that was suddenly no longer necessary. As Harry and Hermione came to their feet in low crouches, they became aware of a weight upon their brows, and, reaching up, discovered said weight to be circlets of gold in the shape of coiled cobras, hoods extended, one for each of them.
Yassar rose ponderously from his seat, forcing his old bones to rise, and then to kneel. "This test is done. There will be no more. In all my life I have never seen a Bast'et, and now in my twilight of life, I meet two, and they are Duati! I pay homage to the gods of light and dark, and greet you, Duati Bast'et." His assistant, in shock at the appearance of the circlets, dropped to his knees at hearing this, and prostrated himself.
You could almost hear the thoughts of every other being in the chamber, including the feline couple in question, screaming "What the hell is going on here?"
The rest of the visit to Gringotts was rather anti-climactic. Harry and Hermione provided their signatures using a blood quill, which for some reason dissolved after they'd finished, on the papers to declare themselves one of the handful of Light-aligned Sentient Magical Creatures, and the Bast'et were one of the two that were permitted wands. They deposited their circlets in Harry's trust vault, even as he took enough Galleons for spending. All three Grangers were somewhat gobsmacked by the amount of money in the vault, but Harry pointed out that he'd have traded all of it in a heartbeat for his parents... or Hermione.
After leaving the goblin bank, Harry and the Grangers moved through Diagon Alley and the shopping districts of muggle London, in preparation for their trip to France.
The cell was, as this prison's cells mostly were, dank, and dismal. Cornelius Oswald Fudge did not consider this mandatory inspection to be an appropriate use of his time, when he was trying to drum up support to finally snag control of the Potter brat from Dumbledore. He'd managed, by hook or crook, mostly crook, to eliminate from contention those he'd been informed were the biggest obstacles to claiming the boy as a 'ward of the Ministry', but then Dumbledore had left the brat with muggle blood relatives. Infuriating. Now, however, the foolish child had opened himself up to control. He was going to need MacNair in on this one, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
He was momentarily concerned when a voice called to him from a nearby cell, startling him enough to almost drop the copy of the Daily Prophet wedged under his arm. Then he realised where he was.
"Hullo, minister," called Sirius Black. "Taking the air tonight, or are we inspecting property with an eye to future tenancy?" That voice was far too cheerful for someone who'd been this close to dementors for twelve years and change.
"Oh, no, Mr Black," he returned the sally with all the scintillating wit at his disposal. "I'm here to, um, make sure that, er, you're enjoying your, um, stay at our lovely, hmm, establishment." Admittedly, if he'd managed it without the hesitations, it might actually have sounded impressive. As it was, he seemed more of a buffoon.
Sirius Black, the only truly surviving innocent man in Azkaban (What was left of most people after this long could not be called surviving), grinned. "Most un-Gryffindor of me to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man, but then, I'm a Marauder," he thought. Aloud and to his audience, which included the Minister of Magic and four Aurors, one of whom was Mad-Eye Moody and another... "Curse it, why'd they bring a trainee down here? Why her? Poor Nymmie, she can't be too long out of school, must be near the end of her training."
Leaning nonchalantly against the bars of his... 'accommodations', Sirius answered the minister with the cheekiest grin the Marauder could summon. "Oh, still sane for now, Corn-cob, although I could be wrong, you know. As for this lovely hotel suite you've arranged for me, I must say the room service is lacking. I couldn't even get a decent English Breakfast, did you know? And no newspaper. How am I meant to concoct any kind of Fiendish Master Plan without the daily crossword? It just can't be done, Old Bean. Hey, are you finished with that one?"
Disdainfully, the corrupt bureaucrat held out the newspaper towards the prisoner. "You mean this one? Why, yes, I have." So saying, he dropped it on the floor, just out of Black's reach. With a haughty laugh as Sirius slammed himself against the bars in an attempt to catch the paper, Fudge turned and left. He didn't see the youngest Auror nudge the paper slightly with her foot as she followed. Neither did Sirius, as his vision was filled with stars at that point, but he knew the Minister had dropped the paper further from him than that...
Dragging the newspaper into his cell, he shook his head to clear it, and started to look at the paper. "Hmm, Arthur won a lottery, good for him, let's see, entire family in Britain, picture on page five... There we are. Interesting, something's different about the girl, Ginny, I think. That's the youngest boy, Ron, must be about Harry's age."
The people and animals in Wizard photographs do not stand still, as everyone knew. Nonetheless, it must have been some form of destiny that caused Ron's pet rat Scabbers to struggle from the boy's pocket. Clearly revealed were the colouration and markings that only two other living people knew. One of them was Sirius Orion Black. "It can't be... I've got to be certain. There! A missing claw! It's him, he's at Hogwarts! Harry's at Hogwarts by now, I've got to tell him."
Determined, he sat down and finished the cryptic crossword. Then he made his Fiendish Master Plan. The next morning, the guard who delivered the gruel that passed for breakfast here found an empty cell. Sirius Black had managed the impossible. He'd escaped from Azkaban.
As the guard, dropping the tray with the gruel, ran back to the guard station to sound the alarm, a large black dog, a grim, detached itself from the shadows under Sirius' cot, left the cell and sauntered through the empty corridors.