Disclaimer: All characters belong to either Eoin Colfer or J.K. Rowling, not me. If they were mine, I'd be in Southern France right now!
Harry Potter was fed up with his two best friends. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were his first real friends, who accepted him for who he was, not for what he had done. They were the best friends Harry could have wished for, but that didn't stop them arguing.
"For the last time Ronald Weasley, I will not finish off your charms essay!"
"Hermione, I don't want you to finish it! It is finished! All I want you to do is look over it, to make sure there aren't any mistakes!"
"I have my own homework to do, Ron! Anyway, you should start doing all this yourself. I won't be able to look over your OWL answers and correct them!"
Harry bent lower over his potions homework, silently contemplating whether or not to put a silencing charm on both of them. If they didn't shut up soon, Madam Pince, the school librarian would kick all three of them out of the library. If that happened, Harry wouldn't be able to finish his potions homework. And he had no intention of doing a detention just because his friends couldn't stop bickering for half an hour.
"I'm not that bad at charms! Just because you manage to do everything right first time does not mean that the rest of us are idiots! Right, Harry?"
Ron looked to his best friend in agreement and Harry slowly raised his read to look at his friend.
"I think you better be quiet before we get chucked out. I need to finish this essay for tomorrow or I'll get detention. I'm not missing quiddich practice again!" Harry said in a low voice, almost a hiss.
"He has a point." Noted Hermione. "We really do need to keep the noise down!"
Artemis Fowl was bored. That in itself was not something that happened very day. He was waiting for Holly to call him back.
Holly Short was one of Artemis' only friends. She also happened to be a fairy. Well, technically an elf. Just to confuse matters further, she had been a leprechaun. Or rather, a member of the LEPrecon squad. LEP stood for the Lower elements police, the police force underground.
Fairies lived deep underground because humans forced them to. Fairies didn't want to risk humans discovering their world, which was far more advanced than anything the humans had.
At that moment however, Holly wasn't underground with the vast majority of the fairy people. She was above ground, with her brand new, state-of-the-art wings, a cam-foil-covered dwarf clipped onto her moonbelt and heading straight for Fowl manor, clutching a bulky package.
"Arty! Come down here! We have something that you might be interested in down here with us!" Artemis' mother, Angeline Fowl, called for him.
"Coming, mother." Artemis replied wearily. What could they want with him?
Artemis opened the door of the main living room, with no great expectations to what he may have found inside. What he did see, however, made him break into a rare grin.
The room was full of people. Artemis recognised most as his relatives. His uncle Seamus was in a corner chatting to his cousin Susan. His father was talking with his brother-in-law, Edward. Many other relatives and family friends were scattered throughout the room, chatting merrily. Everyone had a smile on their face as they looked round when they heard the door open and close. Their smiles only grew wider when they shouted "Surprise!" at the teenager who had entered the room.
The biggest smile in the room, however, belonged to Angeline Fowl, as she enveloped her son in a hug and said to him,
"Happy fifteenth birthday, Arty!"
Nearly an hour later, Harry finally laid a finished potions essay aside. He had worked hard on it, but Snape would probably still refuse to give him a decent mark, he thought.
He turned to Ron and Hermione's whispered conversation. They were discussing that day's charms lesson. For once, they weren't arguing.
"I mean, what is the point in learning how to conjure chickens?" Ron was saying.
"I'm not sure, but it must have some educational value, or they wouldn't teach it to us at all," Hermione countered.
"But, I mean, look! I'll show you again! Peto Volator villa!"
"Ron!" Harry and Hermione both screamed at him.
Maybe they wanted to point out that the incantation was wrong, but they never got the words out, because they had disappeared from the library in a whirling maelstrom of colour.
A/N This is my first real fanfiction! Please R&R! I really want to see how I can improve it!