Saving F.

Chapter 8

Farida didn't mention Leta or her picture again, but Newt had a feeling that she wanted to. Every time he looked at her, she seemed on the verge of talking before settling for giving him a sympathetic glance then looking away. Newt tried to act as if he did not notice that, and as a result, they didn't exchange many words for the next hour.

When they left the suitcase at last, Newt's unease seemed to evaporate in the light of the noon sun which seeped through the ragged curtains. He turned to Farida and cleared his throat. "Shall we go to Ibrahim's house now?"

"Yes, of course," she said.

"All right. Farida, I was thinking —" Something caught Newt's attention, making him forget what he wanted to say. "But what is wrong with him?"

He pointed at Marzoo, who was hovering serenely above the ground, silent and calm, as if lost in a trance of reminiscence. He didn't move when Farida and Newt showed up nor did he look at them. His dull gaze remained focused on the ceiling like the stare of a dead person, but Poltergeists were never alive in the first place for that possibility to be true.

"Is this normal?" Newt asked dubiously.

"He's asleep," Farida explained in a whisper.

"Do Poltergeists sleep?" Newt was puzzled. He had studied Poltergeists during his travels, and they had never shown any need for slumber or rest.

"I don't know, do they?" Farida said, frowning dubiously as she moved towards the door. "But that's what Marzoo told me when I wondered about it before. So I asked him what he needed sleep for, and he was so offended that he didn't speak to me for three days. Do you think he is pretending?"

"Could be," said Newt, finding that a likely explanation. "But it's very interesting, whether he is pretending or not." He kept staring at Marzoo for a few more moments until he remembered what he had been about to say initially. "Farida, I was thinking we could go to the Geb Market first. I need to buy some things that might be useful."

"The Geb Market?" Farida raised her eyebrows in a sort of pleasant surprise. "You know about the Geb Market?"

"I visited it when I was here a few years ago," Newt explained.

"And they haven't Obliviated you?" she asked. "The Ministry people, I mean."

"They have made me forget its location, but not its existence," Newt answered. "Will you be able to take me there? I understand if you don't want to put yourself—"

"No, no, don't say that." Farida shook her head. "I'll take you. I know you can be trusted."

The Geb Market was one of the most fascinating places to which Newt had ever been, and an intriguing place overall in the opinion of most people who had visited it. But it was not the market itself that piqued the interest of many and made them eager to go there. It was its history, and the curious law that had been met by bewilderment in the whole Wizarding World: foreign wizards and witches were not allowed to remember where the Geb Market was once they had left it.

The events which led to the issuing of that law were quite as well-known as the law itself. Newt read about them in a history book which he had borrowed from the Hogwarts library back when he was still a student. In the past, the Geb Market had been a perfect destination for any wizard or witch who sought potions, books or magical artifacts they couldn't find in their home countries. Its shops were open for all wizard-kind, and the shop owners had the opportunity to show off their talent by selling fabulous objects they had enchanted themselves or spent a lot of time and effort searching for.

Then in the nineteenth century, something happened. A witch of a European nationality (the book did not specify which) brought her Muggle husband along with her to visit the Geb Market. When they had traveled back to their home, the Muggle husband, unaware of the strict rules against Muggle presence in magical places in Egypt, recommended the place to his relatives who were going to visit Egypt the next winter.