The Curse-Breakers moved silently through the dark and winding tunnels, the only light coming from the tips of their wands. They were truly in the belly of the catacombs, and the smell of damp and centuries old dust pervaded the air, hanging in the atmosphere like a thick fog.

"We must be nearly there by now," whispered the smallest of the group, a young witch with dark hair pulled into an untidy bun under her brown wide-rimmed hat. She stood on her tiptoes to look over the arm of the wizard holding the map, shining her wandlight to see clearer. "The entrance to the crypt should be just through that next passageway."

The next passageway took them further underground still, matching the map entirely, but at its end, there was no entrance to be found. It was a dead end.

"Hidden by enchantments, do you think?"

"Must be," the group's leader, a tall wizard with long red hair pulled back into a low ponytail, pointed his wand at the wall. "Revelio!"

The wall seemed to shimmer, and in its place appeared a gap in the ancient stone, beyond which lay a small chamber. The walls were adorned with faded hieroglyphs, and the middle of the crypt a wide basin was filled with a single lit torch and so many gold coins that the entire room seemed to glow.

A smile spread across the dark-haired witch's face. The Curse-Breakers had been investigating this particular set of catacombs for several weeks, researching the defensive enchantments and maze of tunnels protecting the central crypt in order to access the treasures within. She stepped forward, more than ready to investigate further.

"Artemis, wait," the group's leader took hold of her elbow, preventing her from getting inside the crypt. He frowned, regarding the the space in the wall with sceptical blue eyes. "I don't like this. It's too easy."

"I hardly think that four curses, six booby traps and a Sphinx was easy, Bill," the witch, Artemis, rolled her eyes.

"Actually, it was seven booby traps."

"See? Not too easy at all," Artemis wriggled her arm out of Bill's grip, and her red-headed companion sighed heavily. "Besides, we can't just stand here staring all day. One of us has to go in at some point."

"She has a point," Henry McClarnon, the dark-haired wizard holding the map, muttered. "It could well be another trap, but until someone goes inside, we won't know for sure."

Bill didn't look convinced. Artemis took her hat off her head and threw it through the gap in the stone wall into the crypt. Nothing happened. She raised her eyebrows at Bill, and he nodded his head.

"Yeah, okay," he said. "Just don't touch anything just yet."

Artemis made no promises as she walked into the crypt, but she did as Bill said. Other than bending down to pick up her hat from the ground, she didn't touch a thing inside. The crypt was brighter than the tunnels that had led to it, due to the central flame, but nevertheless, the hieroglyphs on the back wall were hard to make out.

"Lumos maxima!" she whispered, and her wandlight grew brighter. She used it to illuminate the hieroglyphs, which were completely unfamiliar to her. "Do you know what this says, Bill?"

"No," Bill peered through into the crypt. "I don't recognise any of them. They aren't conventional hieroglyphs, and the script doesn't match any of the curses from the passages."

"Probably not a curse, then."

"No, but there could still be booby traps," said Henry, looking from the map to the crypt. "Anything overhead?"

Artemis looked up. A system of interknotted ropes stretched across the ceiling from the back of the room to the entrance, where the rope ends were tied to a thick slab of copper hanging above the entrance.

"There's nothing stopping you from coming in," said Artemis, "but there's a metal gate that might trap you inside if you break through the ropes. So don't touch them."

Other than the ropes, there didn't appear to be any other defences on the crypt. Artemis told her colleagues as much, and they entered the crypt with her.

"Stand back," Bill told them, before using his wand to levitate a single piece of gold from the basin and summon it towards himself. His eyes on the ropes overhead, he wrapped his fingers around the coin. When nothing happened, he exhaled, his shoulders relaxing as he did. "Okay, chaps. Let's get the gold."

Artemis, not being a chap, ignored Bill's instructions on principle. Instead of loading up with gold, she turned her attention back to the hieroglyphs on the wall. They had to be significant, she was sure of it, but without being able to translate the script, she couldn't tell how or why.

She unzipped the bag strapped around her waist and pulled out a small camera. Her wandlight still illuminating the markings, she took a series of photos, making sure not to miss a single hieroglyph. The photos printed immediately from the bottom of the camera, and she gathered the pictures together in order before stowing them and the camera away in her bag once more.

The other Curse-Breakers were making short work of collecting the treasure from the basin. As Artemis turned back to face them, it seemed like the basin had risen, as if it were lighter without the burden of its contents, which she supposed it was. Still, it had previously been at a height level with her chest, and she was now struggling to see into it. As more gold flew from the basin into the large drawstring pouches belonging to each of the Curse-Breakers, it lifted even further, levitating from the ground.

Frowning, Artemis looked down and then up. Something was hidden below the basin, a small sarcophagus the size of a shoebox, but that wasn't the thing that caught her attention: the torch in the middle of the treasure was now high enough that the flame was almost able to reach the rope above.

"Stop!" Artemis shouted, but it was too late. A heavy looking gold chalice flew out of the basin, and it rose another inch in the air.

The flame licked at the rope, which started to glow and blacken. Bill, who had followed Artemis' gaze to look up above their heads, swore loudly.

"Everyone out, now!"

None of the Curse-Breakers had to be told twice. All of them raced to the exit, as the ropes charred above their heads, the flames sizzling across the wide net.

Artemis was the first one out, and as she looked back, she could see that the sarcophagus still lay exposed below the basin. She attempted to summon it, but nothing happened.

Without even stopping to think what she was doing, she darted back into the crypt and grabbed the sarcophagus, Bill's shouts echoing in her ears. Above her, the ropes were almost completely burned, and by the time she reached the exit, the copper slab had begun to fall. Artemis threw herself underneath it, landing on the floor outside the crypt. A split second later, the ground shook as the metal hit the stone floor.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at, Artemis?" Bill hissed, pulling her back onto her feet. "I said to get out for a reason. You could have been crushed or trapped in there!"

"We all would have been trapped in there if I hadn't noticed the ropes setting fire," muttered Artemis. She raised her hand to her head, before looking down at the floor around her and groaning. "Oh no! My hat!"

"I'm sorry, did you want to go back for the hat as well?"

Artemis pulled a face at Bill, before holding the sarcophagus out to him.

"This was hidden under the big dish thing. Thought it was probably important, seeing as you could only get it once the ropes caught fire."

Bill took the sarcophagus from her, examining it under the light of his wand as the group started to reascend from the depths of the catacombs.

"Interesting," he said. "I wonder what's inside. You're right, it's got to be of some kind of value."

"Almost worth losing my hat for, you reckon?"

"The hat, definitely. Your life, not so much. Just do as you're told next time, please?"

Artemis and Bill continued to bicker as they made their way back through the tunnels, stopping only to answer another riddle from the Sphinx that guarded the main entrance. Outside, the bright sunlight was a blinding contrast to the dark passages of the catacombs. Hatless, Artemis scowled, using her hand to shield her eyes, as Bellock, the goblin supervising the site approached them.

"A successful expedition, Mr Weasley?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the heavy leather drawstring bags. Bill nodded curtly in response, and the goblins features twisted into a smile. "Of course, the exact value of the gold has yet to be decided."

"There's one item that might prove difficult to valuate," Bill told Bellock, with a sideways look at Artemis, still holding the sarcophagus under one arm. "But we believe it to be the item that the catacombs were designed to protect."

"Let me see it."

Reluctantly, Artemis handed the item to the goblin, who scrutinised it closely before prising it open. From inside, he pulled out a wooden figurine, carved into the shape of a winged horse, with two wheels in lieu of legs. Bellock used one long knobbly finger to push the back wheel, which spun around.

"A child's toy," he said, slowly. "This is of no value."

"It was to whoever built that crypt," Artemis argued. "It was hidden under the treasure, you couldn't get it out without setting off the trap."

"It is of no monetary value," there was a sardonic note to Bellock's voice. "If it means something to you, you can keep it."

Artemis half-snatched the toy from Bellock's hands, and stuffed it into her waistbag. The little wooden horse's head poked out, as if it were watching the goblin examine the rest of the treasure. Artemis also watched, her face stony and sullen.

"Honestly, Artemis," said Bill, as they made their way off the site and back to the village. "If you're that upset about the bloody hat, I'll buy you another one."

"I'm not upset about the hat."

"What's the matter, then?"

Artemis hesitated before telling him, "He said my horse was worthless."

"Really?"

"Well, you saw how protected it was. Obviously it wasn't worthless to-"

"Not to the person who put it there," Bill said, his voice carrying the patient tone of a teacher. "But the person who put it there is long gone. There won't be a person alive today who remembers them, let alone why a toy horse meant so much to them. Now it's just a very old wooden toy. It isn't worth anything anymore."

"Yeah, I know."

"Well, cheer up, then. We did well, we just have reports and valuations to finish and that's it. We'll have made good money, too."

"There's more to life than just money, Bill."

"There is, but having money doesn't hurt. Take it from someone who went without any for a long time," Bill smirked. "Tell you what, how about I get you lunch from the market? You can choose which stall."

"Thanks, but I'm meeting Ava for lunch," Artemis told him. "I was thinking I'd show her the photos of the hieroglyphs, I reckon they'll be right up her street."

Artemis' colleague Ava Campbell, a year her senior and the only other female Curse-Breaker currently assigned to the Egypt office, was an academic through and through. If anyone was going to know what the hieroglyphs meant, it would be her. Even if she didn't, Artemis had the sneaking suspicion that Ava's curiosity would get the better of her, and she would soon be able to find out their meanings.

"Are they in the right order this time?" Ava asked, as Artemis passed the pile of white-rimmed photographs across the café table at which they were eating. Artemis nodded, and the hint of a satisfied smile played on Ava's lips as she started to look through the images. "How peculiar. They aren't a standard script at all. What was actually inside the crypt?"

"A lot of gold, a trap mechanism, and this," Artemis placed the toy horse on the table. "This was the item that was actually protected by the trap."

"A toy? How interesting."

"Bellock didn't think so."

"He wouldn't. It's hardly like he could sell it, is it?" Ava pursed her lips. "If I were you, I'd keep it and take it to the Department of Magical Artefacts next time you're home. Or you could write to the Egyptian ministry, see if any of their curators know anything about it."

"Yeah. I guess."

"If you find out, let me know. I'd be interested to hear what they have to say," Ava looked at the photos again, her blonde hair falling forward over her shoulders as she did so. "Do you mind if I keep these? I'd like to try and translate them, if I can."

"Be my guest. I'm just glad someone thinks my work was worthwhile," Artemis rested her chin on her hand. At the questioning look Ava gave her, she sat up straight and forced a smile. "I'm fine. I just would've liked Bellock to have at least acknowledged what I found. I know it's not worth money, but it's still... I dunno, valuable somehow."

"Of course. Historically and anthropologically speaking, it's-"

"That's not what I mean. I just don't see why everything has to be to do with just money, that's all."

"It's probably something to do with working for a bank," Ava said, wryly.

Artemis' mood was lifted somewhat by the arrival of their food and by sharing the tales of her and Ava's research groups' latest escapades. Still, she couldn't help but feel despondent, partly to do with the morning's work, and partly because of the pair of skinny barefooted children watching them eat from the street nearby.

When they finished, Ava set back off for the research site, already impatient to start translating the hieroglyphs from the crypt. Artemis, tired of the early afternoon sun shining in her eyes, decided to go to the market. She had just enough money left in her bag to replace the hat she had lost inside the catacombs.

But, as she passed the two street children that had been watching her eat, she had a change of heart. Running her hands along the inside seam of her waistbag, she pulled out every last coin she had, and gave them to the older of the pair. The younger one stared, transfixed at the bag, and whispered something to his companion.

"I don't have any more money on me, I'm sorry," Artemis told them, with a shrug.

"He doesn't want money, Miss," said the older child, and she pointed to Artemis' bag. "He wants that."

Artemis looked down. The wooden horse's face was poking out of the bag.

"This?" she asked, holding up the toy. The little boy's dirty face split into a wide and hopeful smile. Artemis frowned, before handing it to him. "Here. Have it."

"Are you sure, Miss?"

"Yeah. It's not worth anything."

But as the boy clutched the wooden figurine to his chest, his innocent smile growing even wider, Artemis knew that simply wasn't true.