Basil Foxwood had given him the same look of skepticism when he’d found Gus fiddling with the box in the middle of his guest room as Miss Dempsey was giving him now, as if expecting it to burst open and curse the lot of them. While it was entirely possible it contained something like that, it wasn’t going to do much of anything just sitting out in the open, untouched. Gus knew that because he’d been trained – and worked – with cursed objects on a daily basis for over a decade, and sometimes he was forgetful that other people didn’t. Cursed objects were considered almost evil although sometimes all they were doing was protecting something important.

Everyone had something worth protecting, didn’t they?

So, poking the box with his finger once just to make sure it wasn’t back to burning him when he touched it, his eyebrows knitting together in anticipation before he chuckled quietly to himself, the redhead tucked it back inside his pocket to deal with later.

Then Gus nodded, folding his fingers back around the cup. “Well, I left the day after the term ended. Gringotts provided a portkey to Egypt, and from there I was paired with a curse breaker with more experience than I had. I was an apprentice for a couple years, and it’s really just learning how to spot curses before you trigger them. After I finally dropped that title to become a full-fledged Curse Breaker, I traveled extensively between Egypt and South America, with a couple of small stints in the Middle East.” Gus picked up the cup to take a sip of the sweet tea. “Each place is different. For me, Egypt was more about tombs and breaking curses to look for valuables. The Amazons were more about breaking curses in hopes of finding something like ruins that might hold treasures. I went through a lot of caves and jungles. Both had their advantages and while I loved being outside, Egypt was definitely my favorite.”

He wet his lips before he beamed; Gus adored talking about these years. “The Amazons you meet a lot of creatures, and that’s typically the danger. But the Egyptian tombs? People will go through great lengths to protect what they believe is worth it. You could never know what to expect when tasked with looking for treasures.”

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