1) I really appreciate the reviews and feedback all of you guys are giving me! Keep it up! Thank you for all the positive responses. I would ask only that you also include feed back. Remember, feed back will make this fic better!

2) I am going to open up a submission contest. Create a character, a short scene, or a plot point that you think will be cool, and the top five will be put into the story at some point, while characters may become permanent members of the cast. Please make these serious. I do not want vampiric bunny ninjas or anime characters as submissions. If I do put them in the story it will only be so that Butler can kill them with a pencil. Thou hast been warned. Submit characters =)

3) I own nothing!

4) Sorry for the long absence. I've got tons of stuff going on right now and I only just got back to the story.

Thanks alot!

Again, I really apologies for my long absence.


If Albus Dumbledore had to describe his current stae, it would be...shaken. No that wasn't true. He was panicking. Only this morning, a giant of a man had appeared at the gates, claiming to be poor young Artemis's butler of all things. Dumbledore didn't know of many butlers who carried pistols. Or who could knock the wind out of Hagrid with a single punch. The man had spared Dumbledore and the teachers only the briefest of disgusted glances, and had taken up position in front of Artemis's bed, where he had remained, as still as a statue.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Albus started. Poppy Pomfrey was looking at him worriedly. "Are you all right Albus?" she whispered.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine Poppy." Albus muttered. "How is he?"

"Not good." Madame Pomfrey frowned. "He should be dead, both his lungs were punctured, but I've got him on the strongest breathing spell I know, and he's a strong boy. The bleeding's stopped at least, but the venom is really my chief concern."

"Can't an antidote be made?"

"Oh of course it can professor. He's so chocked full of it the venom is completely harmless. That isn't what worries me." Madame Pomfrey held up a ratty old book. "Look here."

Albus looked. He read a short passage about an antidote to Basilisk Venom. Then he reached the bit about the side effects.

"Merlin's beard." He hissed, "Is this accurate?"

"Yes, St. Mungo's confirmed. They're sending a team here to care for him. In his condition, he can't be moved. Basilisk venom causes violent hallucinations. Vivid ones at that. To the infected, the dreams are as real as you or I. I've got him on so many sedatives I'm worried about killing him. If someone so much as touches him though, even with the sedatives, he'll go ape."

"What do you mean ape?"

"He'll try to kill everyone he sees. He'll try and tear the castle to the ground. Even without a wand, he's incredibly dangerous. His..butler could barely control him the last time he went off."

"So what do we do Poppy?"

"We wait. It's all we can do."


Lucius Malfoy smiled as he wrote. He was writing a little letter to Artemis Fowl, who had tragically been attacked. It was so sad, honestly, a smart little mud blood like him attacked by a monster like a basilisk. Malfoy looked at his bookshelf, where a single space was open. He had always wondered what the book would do, ever since his master had given it too him all those years ago.

Dear Mr. Fowl,

I regret to inform you that our little "arrangement" is at an end. We have worked together for roughly two months, and in that time I have made a considerable amount of money. I have also made some very powerful friends. Friends who do not know you are well, you, that is to say, a child. I have informed them of their employer's age, and their reaction has been, well, less than positive. Ever since I met you, I found you to be rude, insulting, pretentious, arrogant, and...

Malfoy paused here. Damn, writer's block. Oh wait, yes that would bother the boy to no end when he woke up. If he woke up.

and utterly boring. You are the worst of two worlds, a mudblood and an Irishman. Many mudbloods in this nation still hold the one redeeming quality of being English. You cannot even make that claim. I am no longer a minion Mr. Fowl, I work on my own now. I will be taking over control of the Alpha Trading Company, as well as it's subsidiaries in Europe and the Mediterranean. You may keep the banks. I have no interest in them. But do not attempt to fight me. I have taken many of your "employees". Very few wizarding criminals will work for a child. I can fight you Artemis, and now I can beat you. You have been warned.

Sincerely,

Lucius Malfoy Esq.

Malfoy folded the letter, placed it in an envelope, and sealed it.

"Are you sure about sending that?" Malfoy's study was filled with men, of all size and description. Some dressed like fops, others like bums. Many were tattooed, even more were severely scarred. Five of them sat in chairs in front of Malfoy's desk. These five were dressed in masterfully tailored suits, a recent addition to the wizard fashion world. Malfoy had always thought that Fowl had had a hand in that.

"Of course. The boy should know he's been dethroned."

The man who had spoken, a mean looking old man with a full mustache frowned. "Why not kill him? We're all safer if he dies."

Malfoy grimaced. This bit about his new "friends" he didn't like.

"If that makes you sleep well at night, I want nothing to do with it." The room sniggered. "Just leave the letter on his body." The sniggering stopped.

"John." mumbled the fattest of the five men in suits. A lean man stepped forwards, his wand twirling in his hand. "Yeah?"

"Take care of it for Mr. Malfoy."

"Sure."

Malfoy shivered inwardly. He had killed before. Tortured as well. He wasn't quite a stranger to murder. But it felt strange somehow, to command someones death. Artemis Fowl would die, and Malfoy wouldn't even touch him. Now he knew what the Dark Lord had felt every time he ordered a kill. This was power, true power. Lucius Malfoy decided he could get used to the feeling.


The Hospital Wing was quiet. It was just after midnight, and the wing was empty, save for a single occupied bed. Jonathan Raz, murderer, burglar, and ex spell breaker for Gringotts Bank, peered in through the great double windows. He had only minutes to do his work. The Hogwarts grounds were protected by magic too strong not to set off. Raz had hit at least two alarms on his way in. Probably another three as he climbed up the castle walls on a rope that had flown from the tip of his wand. It didn't matter. By the time the teachers reacted to the alarm, he would be long gone. He'd spend a night in Hogsmeade, then be gone before a search began in the village.

Slowly, Raz pushed open one of the windows. An old hinge creaked, and Raz froze. If the matron woke up, this could get messy. He heard a muffled grunt from her office. Blood was pumping in his ears now as he hung half in, half out of the window, barely holding on with one hand. If he let go, he doubted he'd be able to save himself. Muscles in his right arm screaming in protest, Raz waited.

A light clicked on. Then a shadow moved across the glass of the matrons office. She was going to come out into the wing. Raz shifted around so that his wand pointed towards the door. The shadow moved towards the door, rubbing it's eyes.

"Avada..." Raz began, already beginning the spell that would remove this last obstacle to his target.

The light clicked off.

Raz breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly cast a silence charm on the office and hauled himself through the window, landing soundlessly on the floor. He moved quickly over to the bed where the boy slept, and placed Mr. Malfoy's letter on the bedside table.

Then, he took aim. His wand moved until it was right between the boy's eyes, just grazing his skin.

"Bye bye." Raz muttered. Then the boy's eyes opened, and everything went to hell.

The boy let out a horrific scream of incomprehensible fury, smacking Raz's wand away, and seizing a water jug on the bedside table. As the jug smashed against his forehead, Raz heard the door of the hospital wing slam open.

"Master Fowl!" a deep voice boomed.

The jug, now sharp shards of glass, came down again, tearing into Raz's face. The would be assassin screamed piteously as his intended victim proceeded to pound his face, chest, and neck into a bloody mess.

"Master Fowl!" the deep voice roared again, and the boy was torn off him, pulled away by a dark giant.

"Wand...wand!" Raz yelled, searching desperately for the thin wooden stick.

There was a sickening snapping noise. The giant had picked up the wand, which had fallen onto the bed, and snapped it in half with one hand. This was so not good. Reaching into his coat, Raz drew out his fall back, a long wicked looking knife.

"Come on you big fucker!" Raz screamed, launching himself at the giant who had just subdued the boy with a head lock. The knife flew towards the man's throat, a cut that would tear open his jugular and his windpipe in a single, fluid, blow.

Which never landed.

Raz felt the man's head grip his wrist in a crushing hold, squeezing until the knife fell to the floor with a clatter. Then the giant moved, faster than Raz thought possible, slamming his other hand into Raz's outstretched elbow. There was a crack, and Raz screamed.

"WHO SENT YOU!" the giant boomed, scarred face close to Raz's own.

"My arm!" Another crack. the shoulder this time. Another scream.

"WHO SENT YOU!"

"Malfoy! Lucius Fucking Malfoy!" Raz gasped, blinded by blood and near incoherent with pain. The giant dropped him. The crippled hitman crumpled to the floor mewing in agony.

"Master Fowl?" The boy was standing in front of Raz, eyes boring into his own. There was a look there, the type Raz was all to familiar with. He'd seen it in the eyes of "co workers", friends, and enemies. It was a look that appeared occasionally in Knockturn Alley's criminal underworld. The men that had it all had one thing in common. They were all ruthless, vicious, dispassionate bastards. This boy had the eyes of a killer.

"Please...please don't hurt me!" Raz begged, trying to lift his hands to cover his face.

"Who sent him Butler?"

"Malfoy." The giant man rumbled.

"So he has betrayed me." the boy swayed suddenly, and his white shirt darkened. "Damn." The giant guided him back onto his bed.

"Butler."

"Yes Artemis?"

"Take this little man away. I want a damage report in the morning."

"Yes sir. If I may ask, how are you?"

"Butler, my old friend. I am in the middle of using every ounce of concentration I have not to tear out both of your throats. Knock me out, then remove that." the boy gestured to Raz. "Kill him...fucking kill him." he continued under his breath. Both Raz and the ginat saw the boy's hand drift towards the knife on the floor.

"Sorry sir." the giant grunted, and his hand flashed out. The boy collapsed.

"Now, to deal with you." as the giant moved towards Raz, he smiled. Raz had seen the same smile on sharks. The fear welled up inside him, and he did the natural thing. He voided himself, and screamed like a little girl.

When Madame Pomfrey woke the next morning, she found Artemis Fowl sitting up in bed, a strange smile on his face. There was also a considerable amount of blood on the bed, floor, curtains, and wall.