Hidden Savior (Bill Weasley)

Chapter 5

5 HOURS LATER

"Have any of you got anything?" I ask for probably the tenth time.

"No, you?" Maddox answers from across the room.

"Would I be asking if I had?" I snap.

"No need to be rude, we're all struggling here."

I pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, "Sorry. It's usually not this hard for me to figure things out."

"It's not this hard for us either," Bill spoke up for the first time in five hours, still not looking at me, looking at a random spot above my head. "We're just as smart as you."

"You're nearly as smart as me. You didn't know I was a witch, and I knew you were a wizard, so I win."

"I knew you were a witch." Everyone turns to see Dillon emerge from the backroom.

I frown slightly, shrugging, "So, Dillon is as smart as me. That's an interesting plot twist."

"How did you know she was a witch?"

"How many times have we reached the object and the curse was already broken? How many times has she appeared out of nowhere? Hint: the answer is a lot of times."

I giggle, "No need for the sass, Brown. How long have you known?"

"About three years. You should be less obvious about it if you don't want people to find out."

There's a loud crack, "She's become subconsciously more obvious because she actually wanted Bill to find out," Jack grins, winking at me when he sees my I'm going to kill you eyes.

"Who the hell are you?"

"This is Jack Budy, my lab assistant."

"I'm not your lab assistant! I am a world renowned archeologist with a Ph.D. in history- both magical and otherwise. And a bunch of other things. Bitch."

"Sorry jackass. Everyone, this is Dr. Budy your friendly male escort."

"Hey!"

"Never mind, what are you doing here? I thought you guys were quarantined."

"I just got cleared by the CDC and the FBoM, because, apparently, since I was being unproductive and getting a snack I wasn't affected." He grins plopping down next to me. "So how's it going?"

"We haven't gotten anywhere. This is starting to look bad," Oliver answers, slamming his copy shut.

I sigh, opening my mouth to put in my two cents but Bill cuts me off, "Maybe it would help if we knew what time period it's from- you said it wasn't one of the original artifacts?"

"I dated the material and it's almost five centuries younger than the tomb itself, my people are still working on an exact year."

"Okay, so maybe if we find the year, we can see what type of encryptions they used," Bill suggests.

"I'll call the lab, see how the tests are going," Jack says, pushing a button on his watch. "How's it going, bitches?"

---

"I've got it!" I shout, causing Dillon to jolt awake, nearly falling out of his chair.

"You figured out the code?"

"Yes, it's- well it's too long to say out loud, but I have it."

"But we still have to figure out which set of directions is right," Bill points out, walking over to pick up the code from my table. With a flick of his wand, his book is now in perfect English. He smiles slightly, handing the paper off to Jack.

"Right. We should split it up. Each of us takes 13 sets of directions, and we'll narrow things down."

"How exactly will we know if they're the wrong set?" Oliver asks, flipping through his now readable book, still confused.

"At first glance, it looks like some of them mention "the silver tablet" so you can scratch those. I think the tablet is meant as protection for the tomb, seeing as it was set off when the locals opened it up, so the instructions should mention breaking a protection spell."

"Also look for misspellings, you should be able to rule out instructions that have them," Bill adds, starting to back away. "Let's get started."

I sigh, trying not to think about the fact he hasn't looked at me directly at all for over 9 hours.