Chapter 49
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Alexandria had an interesting dynamic between its magical and non-magical sides. Many magical places were actually blended into the non-magical world, such as the Qasr Wadj-Wer, but others were simply too big to include.
One such place was the Suq Alshams, or Market of the Sun, which was the Egyptian equivalent of Diagon Alley, but it wasn't the only one. After all, like in many other places in the world, the Egyptian magical world was much more traditional than the muggle world, and in this case, Alexandria was still the largest magical hub in the country, and some would argue, in the entire continent.
As a result, the Market of the Sun was much bigger than Diagon Alley, although it was a bit hard to see since they were vastly different. Where Diagon Alley was a set of rather narrow alleys, the Market of the Sun was an extremely large marketplace.
There were many stands, and while many were held by locals, Ethan also noticed some people from the rest of the world trading here.
The family bought some souvenirs, for which Tracey insisted she use her own allowance, as well as some local food. They weren't here to buy anything in particular, but it was still a pleasant time for them. Even Ethan, who had an objective for coming here, enjoyed simply walking through the market, taking in the atmosphere.
Be it in this life or his past one, Ethan had never stepped foot in Africa, his interactions with it coming solely from immigrants. He thought he understood the culture, but today, standing in the middle of the market, he felt differently.
One thing he knew about this culture was that everyone haggled, and this was something he always disliked. With hindsight, disliking something from afar without having ever come into contact with it was maybe not the most adult way to look at things, and now he understood it wasn't just about prices.
There was a certain... 'je ne sais quoi' to it when people here haggled, which made it so Ethan didn't feel like they were just trying to screw him over, although most were, but that it was a social interaction like any other.
It felt weird, but it allowed Ethan to review some of his prejudice.
Still, as enjoyable as the place was, Ethan had suggested coming here for a reason—the very reason why he had come here.
"Look, a snake dancer!" Ethan called out, drawing the attention of his family to the goal of his trip here.
There, a teenager who didn't look much older than Ethan and Tracey sat down on a mat with a large snake in front of him. It looked like a large cobra, although Ethan wasn't exactly an expert in snakes. It did feel magical, however, a feeling corroborated by Miyuki.
The teenage boy did not use a flute or a wand to direct the snake, but instead his hand. It was quite audacious to place one's hand so close to a dangerous snake, such as a cobra.
He was whispering something at the same time, which sounded an awful lot like hisses.
Tracey whispered, "Do you think he is a Parselmouth?"
Ethan nodded, and behind them, Henry explained, "People in Britain are among the only ones in the world to have bad blood with Parselmouths, because many of our dark wizards and dark lords were Parselmouths, but in many regions of the world, such as here, they are actually highly respected."
Ethan snorted at that, as it didn't surprise him. When he was younger, he thought that every wizard was just naturally fearful, or even paranoid, calling children future dark lords and feeling irrational fear towards stupid things, such as Parseltongue, but he later understood that it was actually mostly Britain.
Actually, Britain was probably the weirdest magical country in the world. They loved to give silly names to just about anything, and they were deeply traumatised by their history of violence. Ethan remembered hearing about it having something to do with France in his History of Magic class.
He remembered it because it was one of the only subjects broached that had nothing to do with the goblin wars. Binns hadn't gone deep into the details, but basically, ancient French wizards were supposedly pretty hardcore in the way they did things and are one of the factors as to why the wizarding community was so small in the United Kingdom. And also why the Dark Arts were so feared in the United Kingdom.
Back to the performance, the snake was not showing any signs of aggressiveness, but the show remained interesting, not only for the performance of Parseltongue but also for the way the cobra danced around his finger.
If Ethan wasn't 100% sure the snake was magical before, he was now as he saw it start to fly. Ethan wasn't sure how it achieved this feat, but it looked effortless as the snake moved with grace.
However, as it coiled in the air around the boy and turned in Ethan's direction, the snake suddenly hissed harshly, its neck thinning and its coils tightening as it looked ready to attack.
The people around did not react immediately, believing at first that it was still part of the performance, but when the teenage boy got up and started soothing the snake, they all turned to look in at what had caused the commotion.
The teenage boy took a few seconds to calm down the snake before he turned towards Ethan and said with a smile, "I knew Dahlia was tense today. Is this a Kitsune?"
The boy's English was not perfect, but it was good enough to carry a conversation. Besides, Ethan wasn't exactly in a position to judge his English since he did not speak Arabic himself.
Ethan scratched Miyuki under her chin, making her purr as he said, "She is. Sorry, I ruined your performance, but it was very impressive. I would love to learn more about your art."
The teenage boy bowed lightly and reassured, "You're fine; it's time for me to leave anyway. But I can't teach you. You need to be a Mubarak."
As he said that, the boy looked away, and following his gaze, Ethan noticed the crowd was getting agitated, and several men in coats were approaching.
The teenage boy quickly started packing his things onto his mat, his snake coiling around him as he lifted an imaginary hat, bowing to the crowd as his mat started flying. "Salim Awad, ladies and gentlemen!"
As the boy flew away on his flying carpet, the men in coats, whom Ethan recognised as the security, arrived on the scene but were left helpless as they could do nothing but watch as he flew away.
Salim Awad; Ethan would remember the name. Although what he said about him needing to be a Parselmouth, or at least that's what he assumed a Mubarak was, to learn Snake Dancing put a damper on his ambitions, he still found the boy interesting. Besides, he did not believe that every Snake Dancer was a Parseltongue, and even for Salim, it did not look like his practice was all about being a Parseltongue.
"Grindelwald!"
Every muscle in Ethan's body tensed as he heard someone yell his name. Even faster than his muscles was his magic. He did not recognise the voice, but he could hear the hostility in it.
As he turned around, he saw a man standing there, and the crowd around him moved away from the man. He was an older man with grey hair, worn-out features, and, most strikingly, a missing left arm.
Ethan was ready to defend himself, if need be, yet as he looked at the man, he realised his attention wasn't on him but on Helene instead.
Sneaking a glance at his parents, he noticed that his mother's expression had turned icy, while Henry looked calm, but Ethan could tell that they were tense as well. One wrong move, and they would blast everything to hell.
As for Tracey... Ethan only realised now that she had come up behind him at some point, cautiousness etched on her face.
Helene frowned at the man and asked, "Do I know you?"
The man seemed even more angered by the question, and since the enmity was clear, Ethan decided to venture into the old man's mind.
However, a slight probe revealed impressive defences. The old man's mental defences were about as good as Ethan's at the start of his first year, and his mind was even slightly stronger than Ethan's had been at the time.
Of course, nearly a year had passed since then, and while the increase in his defences had been rather marginal since he had a lot of other things to worry about, his mind's strength had increased drastically. It was thanks to a mix of his age, as teens evolved the fastest, both in mind and body, and his daily meditation.
Ethan supposed he would be able to overwhelm the old man's defences, but it would take at least half a minute, which was not viable.
However, as he tried to peek into the old man's mind and was about to retreat, he sensed another emotion, this one directed at him. He probably would have missed it if it had not been for his mind being already opened.
Forcing himself not to look directly, Ethan whispered to Miyuki in Japanese, "On my right, slightly behind me. Is there a threat?"
Ethan felt no movement from Miyuki, but she still taped his head once. Meaning yes.