Disclaimer: Nope, neither Mr. Colfer nor Mrs. Rowling have seen it fit to let me own their characters that I use in this story.. yet.
CHAPTER 7
THE UNEXPECTED TAIL WHIP
There was indeed no known way of escaping their impeding falls to death unless someone on the ground helped, the main reason being that when the dragon lashed out at our fantastic four who decided to take on the monster, they all had their wands knocked clean out of their hands, including the Fowl heir himself, who, although not easily surprised, found himself wandless, broomless, and as many would call their fall, hopeless.
But this was Artemis' specialty – he knew things no one did. Even while McGonagall screamed, Artemis held out his hand in a thrust at the ground, muttering an incantation so fast, Flitwick was surprised. Fowl knew that they were about 400 ft. above the ground and it would take about 5.6 seconds for them to touch earth with corrections for air resistance; he had to finish the spell within 3/4th that time or they would get seriously injured or worse. They were running out of time. He was not prepared for this. Come to think of it, he was not really prepared for the dragon, either.
He just knew he won't make it in time. And he couldn't make them all fly. And if he fell with them, nobody could protect Hogwarts from the dragon. For the first time in his life, Artemis Fowl's selfishness would actually be for the welfare of the masses. Now that was irony, but Artemis didn't have time for it.
He managed to unleash the spell 30 million nanoseconds late and knew that that should call for some broken bones, even with the very elements of nature acting against their nature to land his teachers safely. He knew that trying to build up air resistance or creating a cushion on the ground would be futile as relative motion could cause blunders. What struck him was pure genius – the elements! The fundamental forces of nature were not subject to relativity and were absolute in relation, and if he could use them, they could be saved. From death only, though. Bone stability was not an option.
Artemis personally had just enough time to stop falling and start flying; now he had to face the dragon. One would almost feel sorry for him. The dragon, of course.
Now that Artemis was by himself, he raised his hand gracefully and his wand appeared from nowhere, and he clasped it with seasoned indifference. His carelessness had almost cost his life. It was a good lesson for him to not play with big things. Especially very, very big things, like larger than a castle. But then, had he learnt the lesson then and there, he wouldn't have had trouble with one Jon Spiro. But more of that later, because defeating a dragon can even put Voldemort on a high.
Artemis could not defeat the dragon using an extraordinary spell without being questioned by the authorities. But he had plans for that. Big plans.
Before Fowl could flick his wand, a dragon thrice the size of the Welsh Green came and headbutted at its heart. Even Artemis looked stunned.
This isn't happening, thought McGonagall, and she passed out.
The larger dragon roared a terrible roar and flew away, as if nothing else mattered to it all.
That's odd, thought Neville. Why didn't that one try to eat us? He concluded that it must've just had a great meal and couldn't be bothered more. He saw Artemis try to bind the falling dragon with large, ancient chains summoned from within the castle and tried to help.
Professor Flitwick intervened, "the dragon's dead, Neville, stop trying to tie it, can't you see? You too, boy, Mr. Fowl, there's no need for chaining it. That was the largest dragon I've ever seen. Forget seen, I've never heard of something as large as that before. Where did that come from?"
Maybe I took it a little too far, thought Artemis.
"We're safe, Filius, and I think that's all that matters," said Neville.
Ah, Professor Longbottom to the rescue, smiled Artemis. Now what was Artemis so gleeful about?
Artemis Fowl had conjured an illusion so powerful that let alone a dumb dragon, all of Hogwarts was hoodwinked. Of course there had been no second dragon; Artemis knew that the only way to protect Hogwarts was to kill this dragon. It was too large and just too dangerous, and Gringotts or not, it had to be eliminated before it could cause concerns for the students again. And if he did use a spell, everybody watching would know that he had done it.
Before Artemis made the show of flicking his wand, he had already conjured an extremely vivid illusion of the large dragon taking on our Welsh Green. While everybody was occupied with the large dragon enter the picture (something too big is hard to miss), Artemis flicked his wand lightly. The force of the spell was such that it broke through the most ancient enchantments carved gracefully on the dragon to protect it from outsider harm as though they didn't even exist.
This was the third most powerful spell Artemis had at command. The other two would damage much more than the dragon, so Artemis chose this. To convey a better sense of understanding its power, even with Dumbledore's protection, if this spell had been targeted at the Hogwarts castle, half the castle would be in ruins. It was, of course, one of Artemis' own novelties.
ooooooo
A few years ago, one his fellow dragons had escaped that horrible place and rumor had it, escaped upon three of the creatures who tortured and controlled them while outside this dungeon. Inside, short and clever creatures continued the job, giving them a lot of pain with the sounding of the clankers. He knew he was being trained to be taken there, as many of his kin had told him of the horrible fate of their chained brothers, and many having personally experienced it themselves, later relegated to other uses when they were found unfit to stay alive in the tough conditions in those dungeons.
He was the strongest dragon of any group or task he had been put in, but he didn't want to go to that dungeon. A dragon's pride never allowed it to choose wisely.
The man with the red hair was the chief in-charge of maintaining his group, but today he was nowhere to be seen. He was a clever one and not to be fooled around, but with him gone, here was his chance of escape.
And escape he did, strong as he was. For some reason the north just attracted him, and he flew and flew and flew. And suddenly, after crossing so many hills and lush green forests, was the smell of flesh.. fresh and young. He turned and flew towards that smell.
As the smell of the flesh grew stronger, suddenly he started seeing strange colors and was struck with a minor epileptic seizure. By the time he cleared that up, he was still pretty confused. With a giant tail swipe he confirmed that the flashes posed him no great danger and let out an immense roar to scare away all possible adversaries.
He suddenly saw that four creatures that looked like they belonged with his torturers were flying at great speed towards him with those small, dangerous sticks that they carried around their pockets. He knew that they always had a reply for his fire, so he'd have to try something new – and he lashed out his tail, knocking all of them off the longer sticks they were comfortably sitting upon, and to his glee, they lost their dangerous small sticks too.
As he turned his giant bulk to face his running prey, he saw that one of his much bigger kin was coming here to share the meat. How nice it would be! It was a long time before he'd eaten in peace with any of his brothers. But he had never seen another dragon so large, nor even heard of, and he was more and more awed at his size as he drew nearer and nearer. And he didn't look like he was here to share the meat.. it was almost as if..
And before he knew it, he was hit hard at his heart and knew it was a fatal blow. His last thoughts were, how could a dragon be THAT big? The life force in his body left, and his soulless body fell.
ooooooo
Sure that the dragon was dead, and Hogwarts was under no more threats, Artemis glided down to the ground amid august applause, attracting astonished McGonagall from her daze. Oh dear, he was in trouble. How was he going to escape this one?
"What happened to the… the other dragon? The larger one?" asked McGonagall.
"It flew away, Minerva," Neville replied, "and I guess we should be glad it did. If not for that dragon, I doubt we'd still be alive!"
Slughorn, hearing the applause, had understood the dragon to have fallen and rushed out to see the spectacle. But all he saw was an angry Minerva. The dragon's remains lay quite far from their reach, because of the thrust of Artemis' spell.
"Thank heavens, we're safe, Hogwarts and the students are out of harm. This was a most serious neglect on the part of the Ministry and they are going to have to answer all the parents. Prefects will lead their students back to their dormitories, now. Nobody will go near the dragon. Any student who does so will find themselves incurably older than Nicolas Flamel will ever be, and," she said with a dangerous looking smile, "I'm not joking. Neville, Horace, Filius, follow me to my room."
Artemis knew that he did not need to be invited, it was just understood that he had to come too. Slughorn didn't seem very happy about coming to her room, and Artemis could vaguely hear him muttering "she's mad… dragon liver… dragon blood… galleons.. skin…" Artemis stole what he knew might be his last glance at the dragon. Any time now, Ministry officials would arrive to take care of the dragon's remains, now that its location was not obscure anymore.
"What was that, Horace? I didn't hear you properly," said McGonagall.
"Nothing, Minerva, nothing at all, a dragon attacking Hogwarts, and such a big one too, what a nightmare…"
"We'll leave it to the Ministry to answer. Now, will you follow me Horace, Filius, Neville? You too, boy," she said, tapping Artemis' shoulder with her wand.
Artemis had expected as much, and followed McGonagall, wondering which excuses were going to save him from explanations for wandless magic and broomless flight.
ooooooo
Author's Note: Well, it's been long indeed. To say I was too absorbed in other things to spare a thought for this would not be an overstatement. I even considered just forgetting all about this. Then, someone gave me inspiration to continue from nowhere, though I'm not sure if said someone really matters to me anymore or not. But I guess it matters to me that you guys want to see the end of this story, and I did have a decent plot in mind, so I shouldn't stop you from the treat. I'll try my best, guys. I'm sure this is not the last you'll see of me.
Sorry for the short chapter, but you can be sure there is more action to come. I thought a short but quick update was sure better than a large, late update. And do please, read and review!
