"This is too valuable, Doug..."
Bill's voice grew a little hoarse, and he tried to slip the ring off.
"We're brothers, aren't we?"
Douglas interrupted him. Those eyes, usually tinged with amusement, were utterly serious now.
"You're on the front lines, facing ancient, deadly curses every day. It'll do far more good in your hands than in mine."
"Keep it on." Douglas's gaze left Bill no room to refuse.
Bill looked at him, his blue eyes flickering.
He stopped protesting, nodded firmly, and settled the ring securely on his finger.
Only then did Douglas smile and turn toward the pile of gray-black bones and shattered basalt pottery.
Bill followed, his gaze sweeping over the bronze amulet in the dust.
"This thing..." Bill's brows knitted. "It's a trap. Should we destroy it?"
"Destroy it? That would be such a waste."
Douglas shook his head, tracing an ancient Chinese character in the air with his wand-"Return."
"Prevention Charm."
A translucent magical barrier instantly enveloped the Ankh-Ka Amulet and the fragments around it.
Douglas had no intention of letting these life-draining things cause trouble while he wasn't looking.
"This is a perfect teaching example, Bill."
Douglas's eyes shone with the excitement of a scholar discovering a rare specimen.
"A Horcrux-or rather, the ancient Egyptian version of a Canopic Jar. A failed, primitive, but structurally complete experimental soul vessel."
He circled the fragments as though appraising a work of art.
"You're planning to take it back to Hogwarts?" Bill sounded incredulous. "To show the students?"
"Of course. Upper-year Defense Against Dark Magic can't keep focusing on dealing with ordinary matters."
Douglas took a velvet bag from his robe pocket and carefully used a Levitation Charm to place the black basalt fragments inside, one by one.
The mouth of the bag tightened on its own,