July was always the hottest month of the year in Egypt, Artemis had reliably been informed by Bill Weasley. He wasn't exaggerating.
Artemis had started taking to working inside, her favourite café abandoned in favour of a desk in the shadiest part of her room in the compound. There was no mint tea, but it saved her a sweltering walk with her scrolls and she could at least choose the music.
The problem she was now facing was a matter of concentrating on her work rather than the music playing straight into her ears from the Muggle machine she had been given four years previously. It wasn't that the document she was reading was dull, it was that it was just more dull than investigating ruins and breaking curses, the very things she had trained for two years to do. She had assumed that once she had finished the training program she would be done with reading documents about monetary valuations and report writing, but here she was, miles from home, sitting inside a room with beige walls and reams of parchment unfolded on the table in front of her.
Her unfocused concentration was broken completely by the pad being removed from her right ear, and the sound of a familiar voice replacing the music.
"You look like you're working hard," said the voice, and Artemis' face split into a grin.
"You're here!" she said, turning away from her work to face the newcomer and throwing her arms around his waist. "When did you arrive?"
Her hug was returned by a pair of freckled arms wrapping around her shoulders, and once the embrace was done with, she removed the musical headband altogether, though the music continued to play quietly through the ear pads.
"Around twenty minutes ago, but I've been standing in the doorway for about five of those minutes," said Charlie Weasley, half a smile playing on his freckled face as he bent down to stroke the ginger cat that was winding his way around his legs. "Fergus and I both got bored of waiting for you to notice I was here."
"I didn't hear you."
"I'm not surprised, I could hear the music all the way from over there," Charlie said, and Artemis rolled her eyes. "I don't think I'll ever understand how you can concentrate with that playing."
"I wasn't really," Artemis admitted. "Concentrating, I mean."
Charlie nodded his head. "You've cut your hair."
"I got too hot."
"I can understand that. Did cutting your hair help?"
"It did, but I burnt the back of my neck, look," Artemis lowered her head so that Charlie could see the sunburned patch of skin at the base of her nape that was no longer covered by her hair. "Are the others here, too?"
"Yeah, they're with Bill. We're going to go down for a tour of the village before dinner. You'd be welcome to join, if you've not got too much reading to do."
Artemis did have too much reading to do, really, but she was already on her feet before Charlie had even finished his invitation.
"I'm not really reading it anyway," she reasoned. "And Bill and Henry will have read it, I'll just ask them to go over the important bits."
Charlie laughed and shook his head, and the pair of them ventured down from Artemis' room to the common area downstairs, where the rest of the Weasley family were all chattering excitedly. Artemis shared hugs with Charlie and Bill's parents and younger sister Ginny, warmly greeted the three youngest brothers, and had her hand shook very formally by Percy, who was wearing a gold badge with the letters 'H.B.' on it.
"Head boy? Congratulations, Percy," she told him, before frowning deeply. "You know you don't have to wear that outside of school, right?"
The twins, Fred and George snickered loudly, and Percy scowled at her before opening a travel guide and reading it in silence. Artemis exchanged sheepish glances with Charlie and bit her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing.
"Shall we head off, then?"
Outside, it was still sweltering, but the midday sun had sunk lower in the sky, and as Artemis and the Weasleys explored the village, the heat of the day seemed to ease to a more comfortable warmth. The sunshine, fresh air, and the sounds of village life intermingled with the noisy chatter and laughter of the Weasley family lifted Artemis' spirits immensely. This was what she had imagined from a life of travelling, not being stuck inside an employees' compound studying on her day off work.
The tour lasted several hours, in spite of Bill deciding that it would be better not to visit any of the catacombs ("we can go to the pyramids tomorrow", he said, with a nervous look at Fred and George). By the time they had finished, it was time for the Weasleys to return to their hotel for dinner, an event Artemis found herself once more being invited to.
Bill and Charlie's parents had done themselves well. Having entered a prize draw in the newspaper, they had ended up winning the grand prize: seven hundred galleons, enough to pay off several debts and take the whole family on holiday to visit their eldest son, complete with staying in a luxury hotel.
"There's even a spa," Mrs Weasley told Artemis over dinner, a comment to which Artemis merely hummed and nodded in return, never having been to a spa before, or even knowing what one was.
It was getting late when Mrs Weasley and Percy started to shepherd the younger siblings to their rooms, and Bill left for the compound, having work to do before he could join the family on their adventures the following day. Artemis was left alone with Charlie and his father, the three of them drinking sugarcane juice on a veranda outside the hotel.
"Do you not have work to do tomorrow morning, Artemis?" asked Mr Weasley, and Artemis shrugged in return.
"Probably, but I've promised Molly I'll go to the spa with her, and that sounds far more exciting."
She had answered the question with a smile on her face, but Charlie frowned at her words.
"You're still hating it, aren't you?" he asked quietly.
"I don't hate it," said Artemis, her smile slipping. "It's just not everything that I expected it would be, that's all."
"Is it as bad as when you were training?"
"Yes and no," Artemis sighed, tilting her glass and turning the base of it on the table in front of her, the sugar juice swilling and catching in the light as she did so. "I'm not working with O'Callahan anymore, which is good."
"O'Callahan?" Mr Weasley frowned.
"One of the trainers. He's been promoted to Head Curse-Breaker," Artemis explained, exchanging a wry glance with Charlie. "Total arse."
Charlie half-smiled. "Total and utter."
"Yeah. I mean, I've got a couple of sort-of friends who aren't Bill and I get to do actual curse-breaking now. And I guess I don't have to go to lectures on health and safety or learn Gobbledegook or do quite as many written assignments, but there's still a lot of paperwork. And everything is about making money."
"There's something to be said about making money," Charlie's dad smiled at her. "As someone who chose a job I'm passionate about over a job that pays well, let me tell you, it's not easy doing things the other way around, either."
"I guess. But it just feels wrong, handling so much money when in the village there are children begging on the streets."
"I can understand that."
"Yeah," Artemis shivered slightly, though the night air wasn't that cold. "I dunno. I guess being a professional Curse-Breaker isn't all it's cracked up to be."
She finished her drink and forced a smile that neither Charlie nor his father returned. Instead, Charlie was looking at her with a saddened expression, and Arthur appeared to be deep in thought.
"You know," he said pensively, "maybe you could do with taking a break, having some time to try something different. Widen your horizons, so to speak. I actually know of a few jobs they have coming up at the Ministry. Temporary positions, so no commitment if you don't enjoy them. A collaboration between the International Magical Co-Operation and the Department of Games and Sports. Could be right up your alley."
Artemis could guess why those particular jobs were coming up. Next summer, Britain was hosting the Quidditch World Cup, and no doubt the Ministry of Magic would need more employees to help manage the event. It would probably be quite fun, actually, and at least it would mean guaranteed tickets to watch international Quidditch matches. But even so, she shook her head.
"No," she told Arthur. "Thank you, but no. I'm just having a tough month and I'm making a mountain out of a gnome hill, really."
"I dunno, Artie," Charlie frowned. "Maybe-"
"I'm a Curse-Breaker. That's who I am, I wouldn't be me if I did anything else."
She raised her chin defiantly, and stared across the table at Charlie, as if daring him to argue with her, which he didn't. He shrugged, and smiled silently at her over the top of his drink, but his father wasn't done.
"Your job doesn't define you, Artemis," Arthur told her. "And there's never any shame in changing your mind about what you want from your life."
But Artemis couldn't think of anything else she would ever do with her life.