Professor Montgomery Vance set down the latest copy of Hexbreakers Monthly with a frown. The news out of Bubastis was not good. One hexbreaker had vanished and another seemed to be caught in a repeating nightmare from which he could not be awakened. What have you got in there, Bastet? Gummy wondered, as he tucked the magazine under his arm and strode quickly to his classroom.
"Terribly sorry for my late arrival," he said to the graduate students already in their seats. "Quite the coincidence, really. There is unsettling news out of Bubastis, Egypt -- and it concerns the subject of today's lesson." Gummy pulled a small cloth bag out of his pocket and moved to the far side of the room where three squat stone columns sat. He pulled three small figurines out of the pouch and placed one on each of the columns. Then stepping back, he silently pointed his wand at the first of the figurines. In an instant, it enlarged until it was recognizable to everyone in the class as a three foot tall bronze statue of a woman with the head of a cat. She stood with one foot forward and holding a statuette. As a result, the woman appeared as if she were walking in a procession or about to present a gift.
"Can anyone tell me the name of this rather famous witch?" Gummy asked.
A blonde witch with sparkling blue eyes raised her hand and began speaking when the professor nodded in her direction. "You refer to her as Bastet in the syllabus, but she's also known as Bast. She was worshipped as a goddess by the Egyptians who made lots of statues of her in full cat form."
"Excellent, Gloria! This is a statue of the witch known Bast and as Bastet. Her name was Bast originally. The -t sound ending on her name was what made it a girl's. Much to Bast's irritation, Muggles and wizards alike tended to slur her name and made it sound as if there were no -t at the end at all. That would have been like calling a girl George when her name is Georgia. At some point Bast became so fed up with everyone messing up her name that she added another -t sound to the end of it. And so the easily slurred name 'Bast' became the unquestionably female 'Bastet'."
"If you recall from last lesson, Bastet was one of Ra's family. No one is really sure who her mother was, but she followed her father's lead and soon became a favorite with many of the Muggles. You see, cats have always been good at keeping rodent populations in check. Ancient Egyptian farmers appreciated this ability as much as we do today.
"Bastet was friendly, helpful and kind, but a ferocious fighter if anyone or thing under her protection was attacked. So she was rather like a mother in a lot of ways and people grew to adore her, but that is not why we are studying her."
Gummy pointed his wand at the second figurine on its pedestal and it grew into an 18 inch bronze statue of a cat with a gold hoop in one ear. The smooth green patina covering the bronze indicated the piece was very old.
"Bastet's most important contribution to wizarding history is that she was the first animagus. Because of this, both wizards and Muggles alike created images of her in her cat form. Ra had made partial human-to-animal transfiguration all the rage, but Bastet transforming without a wand into a sleek, beautiful, perfectly formed cat? That surprised and awed everyone. It also led to her most significant contribution to cat history."
Professor Vance chuckled as he pointed his wand at the third figurine. Suddenly, the students began to murmur. While the first two statues had been recognizable, the class found this final one confusing. It was a rectangular box, obviously made of bronze with a patina every bit as rich with age as the other statues. But where they had been intricately detailed, this was a simple box with a small cat seated on top.
"It's too simple to be a jewelry box. It's too large to be a perfume holder. And it's certainly not an instrument case. So what is it?" Gummy asked as he looked around the room expectently.
Tentatively a hand rose at the back of the room. The Professor smiled encouragingly and motioned for the redheaded young man to speak. "It sort of looks like a coffin, sir. It's a coffin for a cat, isn't it?" A couple of the other students looked at it with renewed interest. Most, however, wrinkled their noses in disgust.
"Correct! It is a sarcophagus for a cat. Bastet transformed into cat and back often. It got so confusing for people that they began to treat all cats as if they were Bastet -- just in case the cat they were dealing with really was her. Cats in general came to be considered the 'incarnation' of Bastet and were held sacred at her temples and by her followers. When they died, cats were mummified and buried. Later, when their owners died, they were buried next to their cats - especially in Bubastis and the surrounding region."
Professor Vance waved the copy of Hexbreakers Monthly. "And that brings us back to Bubastis. Bubastis was a city in Lower Egypt -- that's the northern delta area closest to where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean. Southern Egypt is known as Upper Egypt, because it's closer to the Nile's source. Anyway, Bubastis roughly translates as "Bastet's house" and it was, in fact, where Bastet settled."
"Muggle archaeologists have been excavating the area for years now and have found a startling number of mummified cats. But more importantly, they have not managed to locate Bastet's extremely well fortified home, wizard hexbreakers have. The structure is protected by layer upon layer of traps, hexes, curses, riddles and a seemingly endless number of thoroughly aggravating scrambles."
"Hexbreakers, historians and local authorities are all very interested in getting in there. Reliable contemporary accounts say Bastet kept a diary of her early years -- including the time she was working on becoming an animagus. There are also reports that she was the keeper of dark secrets. It has always been assumed that 'keeper of dark secrets' referred to knowledge of terrible things." Gummy shifted uncomfortably and the silence in the room seemed to thicken.
"But what do you think it means, Professor?" the redheaded young man at the back of the class asked quitely.
"All those curses, all those layers of protection -- it's so much more than what you usually find. And they're powerful. One wizard vanished. They've been looking for him for weeks, but there's no sign. Another is in the hospital, screaming endlessly from a nightmare they can't awaken him from. And these were professional, experienced Hexbreakers." Gummy paused. "What if the witch who was known to be so protective of her people was the keeper of some thing so dark it's very existence was kept secret?"
Everyone jumped as the bell signalling the end of class rang. It had never seemed louder or more welcome as it shattered the strained silence. Nervous laughter filled the classroom.
"Right. Off you go. Pick up a copy of the homework on your way out."
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