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The Port Key


“Alright, everybody grab a hold -- a, uh, a good hold, mind!” Newt Scamander held up a pillow. Tina Scamander pressed close to him and took a fist full of the pillow’s fabric, and Ned Veigler grabbed a corner… Sirius did too, and Remus held tight to one corner and searched for Sirius’s free hand with his free hand and their fingers twined together. Newt nodded, “Alright. There we are. Are we ready, then?” he checked his watch, “I set it for half past ten… nearly there now, any second… any second…”

“I’ve never travelled by port key before,” Remus said, looking at Sirius, “Have you?”

“Once or twice,” Sirius replied. The sunlight glinted off the ring on his finger as he gripped the pillow. “It’s… interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“Yeah, sort of twisty.”

“Twisty?” Remus looked a bit panicked.

“Don’t worry,” Ned Veigler said, “It’s not so bad. Just don’t let go because if you do you’ll --”

But Remus never heard what would happen if he did.

Suddenly the pillow twisted and pulled them along, flipping them right off their feet and knotting itself up and disappearing with a CRACK! so that they all disappeared, leaving the hotel room perfectly empty.

Thousands of miles away, they reappeared, in a back alley in Cairo, with an equally loud CRACK!, the lot of them clutching a hotel room pillow. Remus stumbled backward and nearly fell over a rubbish bin they’d landed beside, but Sirius caught him and pulled him back upright as Ned Veigler shook his head to clear it and Tina Scamander fixed her hair quickly. Newt Scamander knelt down quickly opened his briefcase and, pushing the Niffler back in, threw the pillow into the laboratory, then closed the case and flipped the muggle worthy switch. “There we are,” he said. “All accounted for? No splinching?”

Ned Veigler pretended to count his fingers and Remus laughed as Sirius put an arm about his shoulders. Remus looked a bit peaky (he felt queasy and wondered whether his stomach might’ve been left back at the inn), so Sirius pecked his cheek with a quick kiss and said, “It’s alright, we’ve made it, Moony.”

Newt cleared his throat, “Now we need to be as inconspicuous as possible.”

Sirius looked about at them. They weren’t exactly the least conspicuous people in the world, by nature. He raised an eyebrow.

“I know, that’s not going to be easy…”

“I mean, you’re wearing an overcoat and scarf in… blimey it must be close to a bloody 40 degrees out here…” said Sirius, fanning himself.

Newt Scamander looked down at his clothes and he nodded, “Yes, well…” and he waved his wand and with a swooshing, they were suddenly all dressed in more traditional looking clothes of drab colour. The boys had long robes with dark coloured cumberbands tied about their middles and turbans covering their hair while Tina was in a dark brown dress with a shawl over her head, which she reached up to hold with her fist at her chest. “There, that’s, uh, better,” Newt said.

Sirius looked at Remus and Remus grinned at Sirius, “Blimey, you in a turban. Interesting.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Sirius smirked.

“Now listen - very, uh, very closely,” Newt Scamander said, “Culture here is very different than in London, you’ll, uh, you’ll be wanting to stay quiet. I’ll do the talking so we don’t, uh, offend anyone. It’s very… very important that we don’t offend anyone. Under - understand?”

The boys nodded and Sirius twisted his fingers up with Remus’s.

Newt shook his head, pointing to Sirius and Remus’s hands, “Not here. Not in public.”

“But --” Sirius started to argue, but Tina cut him off.

“Any affection in public is considered taboo,” she said. “Even between married couples.”

Ned Veigler said, “It’s best to fit in, obey their culture. Surely you can do that, we’re only here one day. One day of obeying rules. I do believe we can do it, don’t you?” He smirked at Sirius.

Sirius released Remus’s hand.

“Good, very good.” Newt Scamander waved for them to follow him, clutching his briefcase tightly in his fist, and they moved down the alleyway and into the street.

Cairo was a lot more built up than Sirius would’ve expected. When he thought of Egypt, he thought of deserts and pyramids and the Nile river. He thought of Pharaohs with gold and opal headdresses and golden staffs with heads shaped like snakes and cats and that sort of thing. He didn’t think of bustling cities with thousands of people milling about, darting this way and that. He didn’t think of apartment buildings with long clothing lines strung between them from balcony to balcony with clothes hanging down or red and white striped awnings over market doors. He didn’t picture street signs made of metal with funny lettering and arrows… His eyes darted about the street as they walked, his heart thumping wildly in his chest as they moved along, ducking between people, keeping up with Newt Scamander and the others. Remus pointed down a side road and there was a very tall camel sauntering down the street, and although that was one of the things that Sirius would’ve pictured in Egypt, it looked strangely out of place in this version of Egypt and he laughed.

Newt Scamander turned to be sure they were all there, following along behind him, and seeing they were, he waved for them to follow as he turned and they found themselves on an even wider road where little cars were trying to weave between the people, inching along, navigating around carts and clusters of men and women. People carried bags and had baskets up on their backs, tied by straps like backpacks. One man had a basket like this full of long breads that looked like they may be as tall as Sirius. They walked through a little market area, tents and booths set up, men calling out offers for them to buy their wares in another language that Sirius couldn’t understand.

The road was just so very crowded and there were a couple times that Newt Scamander had to pause to allow Remus and Sirius to catch up as they were distracted by something and paused to stare for a moment before rushing to rejoin the group. Luckily, Newt had expected it and he and Tina and Ned kept turning back to be sure the two boys were there. Sirius thought that Newt had incredible amount of patience for them, and he was glad because there were just so many interesting things to see and he didn’t want to miss a single one of them.

They walked for some time, down this road and that road, and Sirius was amazed at how big the city was. Finally, they came to a narrow street that was nearly empty and Newt turned down it, nodding to people passing by politely. One man grinned when he saw Newt Scamander he held his arms out, embracing Newt by putting a palm on each of Newt’s shoulders. “Ahlan wa sahlan, um Newt,” the man said and he nodded to Tina, Ned, Remus, and Sirius each in turn… He turned back the way he’d come, talking in speedy Arabic, and Newt, much to Remus and Sirius’s surprise, answered equally fluently.

“Did you know he knew Arabic?” asked Sirius quietly.

“I’m beginning to think Newt Scamander knows everything the same as Dumbledore does,” whispered back Remus.

The man led them down the narrow street to a small tent booth against the wall selling clay pots. The pots were rather shabby looking compared to the nice ones they’d seen just moments before in the market on the main street and Sirius couldn’t help but wonder who would ever buy a pot from this booth, when they could go to the booths just a few feet away and buy good clay pots… But the man walked right up to the booth, muttered something to the man behind it, and the tired-looking salesman waved his hands at a particular pot. The man that had greeted Newt Scamander stepped back, giving him room and Newt turned to look at the other four. “Come along, follow me,” he said, and Sirius wondered where exactly, but Newt struck out his hand, took hold of the clay pot, leaning it forward and muttering a spell under his breath… and a gap in the wall suddenly opened up, reminding Sirius of Diagon Alley and the way the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron opened, the bricks rearranging themselves.

Newt nodded to the man who’d greeted them, who waved and said, “Tirooh wa tigi bis salaama!” as they stepped through the doorway, which resealed itself the moment the five of them were through.

It was like stepping into a whole other world.

Again.

The walls of the space they’d stepped into was like a vast wonderland of a garden, even though they were indoors. Huge flowers, some with florets so big Sirius and Remus both could’ve crawled inside and had a nap on the petals, lined the walls, and long vines crept along the ceiling. There was a tinkilng of a waterfall and thick, knotted trees that grew straight through wide holes in the ceilings, seemingly cut out just for them. A man stood before them, a ways off across the garden, covered in bowtruckles as he spread little chips of wood across the floor and they scurried off him, diving for the woodchips. Remus was reminded of a woman he’d once seen in the park by Buckingham Palace when he was a young boy. Hope had brought him to see the changing of the guards, something she’d always fancied and romanticized about London, and they’d passed a woman covered in pigeons, tossing seeds for them to eat. This man looked like that, except with narrow little bowtruckles instead of fat city birds.

“Mr. Patra,” called out Newt, smiling widely at the bowtruckle-covered man, who turned and saw Newt and grinned wildly, shooing off the bowtruckles and dumping the remainder of the bag of woodchips across the ground.

“Newt Scamander!” Mr. Patra cried joivally, grinning as he walked toward them, face bright. “I hope your journey was safe?”

“Travelled by port key,” Newt said, nodding, “Very smooth.”

“That was a smooth port key?” whispered Remus, who’d found it worse than side-along apparition to stomach.

Sirius nodded solemnly.

“I don’t reckon I much fancy port keys,” Remus whispered.

Sirius smirked.

“And you’ve the Charkorais birds?” Mr. Patra asked, “How are the hatchlings coming along?”

Newt replied, “Yes, yes, they’re in here. Safe and sound.” He patted the suitcase. “And the chicks are doing marvelously, thanks to our Charkorais whisperer here… Remus Lupin,” Newt waved at Remus with a wide grin and Remus blushed.

“Was nothing…” he murmured.

Mr. Patra reached down and took Remus’s hand and shook it very solemnly. “Thank you, young man, for taking care of the Charkorais birds. You shall be blessed very greatly for your kindest heart.” He bowed and kissed Remus’s knuckles in reverence.

Remus blinked in surprise.

Sirius looked on a bit jealously.

“Come, come,” Mr. Patra said, releasing Remus’s hand, “Come and I will show you all the wonders of this place, my observatory. And we shall free the Charkorais in their habitat. Come.”