22 Egyptian Ministry of Magic

In the end, Draco decided that it was important to find some clues about how and why he got reincarnated. The Egyptian scepter was the only lead he had and he believed that it was not an accident that he decided to visit that particular exhibition with his friends and got knocked out by that particular artifact.

Even in muggle world, while there existed some coincidences, they could also sometimes be traced to conspiracies. Now that Draco lived in magical world, where anything was possible, believing in coincidences was hard and unwise. The boy was more inclined to think that it was fate, a decision of a higher being or even some powerful magician's arrangement. Coincidence? It couldn't be!

Anyway, as long as he didn't admit to knowing anything, no one would be able to harm him out in the open. Theo and Missy, Draco's faithful elf, would also keep him company to Egypt. He would be very safe.

So after the New Year and Theo's birthday celebration, Draco set out to visit the far-away country. Lucius and Narcissa were understandably reluctant to let their eight-year-old son go without much supervision, however, Draco managed to convince them.

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When Draco and Theo arrived to Egyptian Ministry of Magic via portkey, they were soon greeted by a dark-skinned man with clear blue eyes, which were especially outstanding, since they were lined in charcoal. The boys could see that such make-up was in fashion among the Egyptian magicals - almost everyone walked with charcoal-lined eyes and bright loose robes.

"Theo! And this must be your young friend?" asked the blue-eyed man as soon as he saw them. "Draco, yes? My name is Johan, I am in Egypt most of the time, so don't mind the look."

The man grinned enthusiastically and quickly ushered the boys into a large foyer, where Ministry workers were milling about.

"You know, this scepter is very interesting. After you were affected by it, all curse-breakers were so excited to see that it worked, that whole Ancient Artifacts Research Department was mobilized to study it. They invited everyone they could get their hands on! You know Maddie Killburn? She specializes in animal magic! And Iacob Cojocaru? He's a Romanian necromancer! He finally got some clues for them. Of course, there were some other people..."

Johan seemed to be very excited about the artifact as he kept going on about various people who were invited as well as some discoveries, which were announced to the public.

As they walked, Draco silently observed the Egyptian Ministry. It was very different from British one, which was generally dark. In Egypt, everything was done in blue, green, red and yellow colors - as long as it was bright, it was included. There were also a lot of displays showing off ancient artifacts, both muggle and magical. After looking around, Draco felt like he walked into a museum.

What he found particularly interesting, were the tall arcs, done in gold and carved with hieroglyphs, beyond which nothing could be seen. Every witch and wizard walked to and from those arcs, so Draco assumed that they led to different departments.

Finally, the small group arrived to one of the arcs, which had some of the Egyptian hieroglyphs on it. Draco studied a bit of Egyptian written language in Runes class, however, he wasn't proficient yet, so he couldn't understand what it was saying.

"Here we are: the Ancient Artifacts Research Department!" Johan announced and with a smile indicated for the boys to enter.

As soon as Draco stepped into the arc, he felt a pleasant sensation, as though he was being hugged from all sides by feathers. He involuntarily closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling.

"Hey, Draco! We are here," Theo nudged him at the side. Draco felt his eyebrow twitch. Couldn't he have a moment to enjoy in piece? But he still opened his eyes and looked around.

Ancient Artifact Research Department wasn't too different from the foyer. In fact, it contained even more of various statues, parchments, golden accessories, sarcophaguses and other stuff. A lot of people could be seen gathered at different tables or standing around in groups, waving their wands. There were multitudes of differently colored sparkles flashing as well as a lot of noise. It didn't seem like a place where one could calmly research.

Draco and Theo were led to one of the groups, perhaps the largest, which was gathered around the familiar-looking scepter. Witches and wizards, who were standing around it with notes floating beside them, were seriously discussing something. Draco realized that there was some kind of privacy ward cast around them, so he couldn't make anything out.

One of the wizards soon noticed the approaching group. He quickly disentangled himself from the heated discussion and came forward with open arms to greet the guests.

"Hello, hello! You must be Draco Malfoy, I heard all about you!" the wizard greeted with a smile. However, Draco noticed that his eyes were flashing cunningly as the wizard carefully observed the young boy.

"Hello, very nice to meet you. Yes, I'm Draco and this is Theodore Nott, my good friend," Draco said with a polished smile, acting as though he didn't notice the wizard's unpleasant stare.

"Ah, forgive me for my manners! I am Ahmose, the chief researcher in charge of the scepter which knocked you out - though, thankfully, not for long," laughed the wizard. Ahmose put his hand around Draco's shoulders and led him to the display. Theo and Johan were only spared a brief glance and a nod.

As they got closer to the scepter, unlike before, at the gallery, this time nothing happened. Draco released a silent sigh of relief - he didn't want to faint again. However, he noticed that the chief researcher wasn't as happy, though he tried to hide it.

"Everyone, gather around! This is Draco Malfoy, I am sure that you're all familiar with his name! Let me tell you, today we will crack this scepter no matter what!" Ahmose announced with a smile and other people politely clapped.

Suddenly Draco felt that this was a bad idea - these researchers were watching him as though he was some lab rat. He cold even hear a whisper of 'Do you think we will be able to perform some soul-specific rituals on him?' from someone. Thankfully though, no one asked this question directly and the whispering researchers were quickly shushed.

In fact, nothing scary actually happened. Ahmose first sat Draco before a table, which had a lot of parchment pieces scattered around, and started to seriously explain the department's discoveries. Draco noticed that Theo and Johan were politely led away by someone else because the information about the scepter was still considered as secret.

"At first we didn't discover much about the scepter, as you already know, Mr Malfoy. We allowed it to be displayed because it contained huge magical power but showed no reaction to anything we tried to do. Sometimes, displaying items in different parts of the world, especially magical places, makes them react in peculiar ways. That's why we always try to allow it - new discoveries about ancient magic helps us to advance our knowledge even now, thousands of years later," explained Ahmose.

Draco nodded - he could understand the reasoning, though he wasn't impressed with it. After all, these unknown items could be dangerous.

"When you collapsed and wouldn't wake up for a long time, we concluded that the scepter affected either the mind or the soul. The flash of light was also golden colored, which gave us some clues into which direction to look. Yellow color generally symbolizes eternity, which relates to the soul. So if you heard that the artifact is related to death, it is not entirely true - technically speaking."

"If you found out its relation to the soul, did you make any specific discoveries?" Draco questioned.

Ahmose nodded and brought out one of the parchments.

"Actually, the necromancer helped us to determine that the scepter has an effect on souls and it seems to be one-timed. This was also proved by the fact that the scepter didn't show a reaction when you approached it just now," the older wizard smiled at Draco. The younger boy wasn't impressed.

"What effect does it have on soul and why doesn't it react to everyone then?" he asked nonetheless.

"We are not sure about the specific effect - it should be related to soul magic. As for your other question, we did make some discoveries. The scepter reacts to those who lived a life and may have some memories of it. Tell me, do you?" Ahmose's eyes bore right into Draco's. If the blond boy didn't know any better, he would have thought that the Egyptian wizard was trying to read his mind to ensure that he was telling the truth.

Draco was silent for a moment. He thought about what to say before he came here and read a bit about the subject. There were a lot of religions even in magical world, which spoke about reincarnation, past life's memories, etc. He couldn't tell others what really happened to him, however he could give the researchers some bits and pieces.

"I don't know whether it is past life, like you are saying, or just strange dreams. When I learn a new subject or do an unfamiliar task, I sometimes get a feeling that I have done something similar before. I think it's called déjà vu? I believe everyone experienced it at least once in their lives, though," Draco acted hesitant and a bit confused. He could see that Ahmose was unfocused for a moment, as though carefully considering whether the explanation was credible.

"You said dreams? What kind of dreams?" the man asked seriously.

"Well, before I was seven, I think that I was afraid of being a squib, so I often dreamed of living a life as a muggle. You know, going to muggle school, working, driving a car and other muggle stuff."

Ahmose carefully scrutinized the young boy sitting before him and after a moment of contemplation released a sigh, "It would be too hard to determine whether it is really your past life or just your imagination playing tricks. On our end, we discovered that the undead, which an invited necromancer resurrected, drew some minor reactions from the scepter, showing that they might remember bits and pieces of their past lives. I suppose you may have experienced something similar."

Undead could remember their lives after they got resurrected? Well, that was certainly some news, in Draco's opinion.

"But undead shouldn't have a soul, right? So how would they be affected?"

"They are not affected," answered Ahmose shortly. "The undead just make the scepter release a golden sparkle or two when they are near. How could a sparkle affect them? When the scepter reacted to you before, you were directly bathed in its light - we examined some memories of the people who were at the gallery at the time, so we know for sure. After this reaction to you though, the scepter didn't react to anyone else as strongly."

"Then how do you know about its effects on soul?" Draco couldn't quite understand.

"Well, we don't," admitted Ahmose readily. "It's just a guess on our part and with you here, we can try and see whether it holds any credibility."

"You don't mean you want to conduct experiments on my soul?!" Draco almost leaped out of his chair. He controlled himself only because he saw the other man quickly shake his head to calm him down.

"No, no, of course not! We want to check your soul's condition - it doesn't require any invasive rituals or magic. We just need to do a general soul manifestation ritual and outwardly examine it. This ritual is quite common and is usually done to children when they reach school age, to see whether they are compatible with certain kinds of magic," Ahmose explained quickly. He didn't want to be accused of conducting illegal experiments on foreign children and lose his job.

"I need to think about it for a bit and ask for my parent's permission," Draco promptly found an excuse. These people could be telling him one thing, but who knew what the actual reality was? He wouldn't just jump at their command without first checking whether everything would really be alright with this ritual.

The Egyptian wizard nodded, "When you make your decision, please inform us."

"Certainly," Draco assured with a polite smile. He had some research to do.