The Family Name

Year Five

By Elbereth in April

Chapter 11

"OK," Holly said. "What do we do, Artemis?"

"By now, Butler knows we're missing and has contacted Foaly. Those minions took our portkeys but not our broaches. They contain a way for us to contact Butler and a way for him to track us. However, I do not know how quickly he will be able to reach us. We can keep ahead of the trolls for awhile by flying from place to place, but eventually we will tire. They can wait us out."

"Trolls hate water, you said. What else? How does one normally fight them?" Draco asked. His heart was pounding wildly.

"One doesn't. One avoids them." Holly remembered her two fights with a troll—they hadn't been pretty. And that had been with a lone troll, not a pack of them. "They also hate light. It burns their retinas."

Artemis looked up. "Could you use the power cells from the cuffs to light up the sun?"

Holly grinned. "Yes. But that's still just a delaying tactic."

Artemis said, "We can use all the delays we can get." He looked back at the trolls, who had begun to climb. "Maybe some of them will fall."

"OK. Why don't you contact Butler while—hmm, Draco can you fly me closer to the sun?"

"Your wish, fair lady…" He concentrated and became a thestral again. Holly resettled astride his back. She gripped with her knees to keep balance. Draco's hovering was a bit awkward—he'd not spent a lot of time practicing flapping in one place, preferring to fly around. Holly reached up to the crystal sun.

"I can't find a power port. There should be an external socket."

Artemis cautiously crawled over. He stretched upward, sliding his finger across the sun until he found a small indent. "Here."

"Good. Power cells have uniform connection points, so the cuffs' cells should clip right on." She already had a pair in hand. She popped the cell covers. The cells were about the size of a credit card, glowing blue.

The trolls were getting progressively higher up the scaffolding. Draco made an alarmed horsey-sounding noise, and Holly patted his neck in reassurance.

"They're high enough that a fall might hurt them a bit. Here goes." She attached the power cells into the socket.

The sun buzzed, vibrated to life, then emitted one blinding flash of light. For a moment the entire exhibit glowed brilliant white, then the globe faded again. The trolls fell down like dandruff from a headshake, but seemed relatively unharmed.

"I had hoped the sun would last longer," Artemis said. "Still, it can take nocturnal creatures up to 15 minutes to recover their orientation following exposure to bright light."

"What next, then?"

"The river…"

"It's an artificial river. It's filtered through a central tank." Holly clambered off Draco's back and onto the roof again. Draco shimmered back into human.

"That's our way out then. The tank."

"We'll be killed! I have no idea how long we'd be underwater."

Draco was following the current with his eyes to a churning whirlpool. He winced, but gamely offered, "They didn't take my emergency potions kit." He pulled a small case out of his pocket, about the size of a wallet. It was bigger on the inside. "It's got gillyweed in it. That's good for an hour."

Artemis stared at him. "How long have you had that?"

"I made it up over Christmas, when it looked like Voldy was getting more active. I've got snake-bite antidotes in here, too."

Artemis smiled. "Very good. A quick message to Butler, then we jump into the river before the trolls can recover."

Holly let out her breath slowly, then nodded.

Artemis hit the control on his brooch. "Butler."

The man's relieved voice came back immediately. "Artemis! Are you OK?"

"Fine for now, old friend. All three of us. However, we are stuck in a mock replica of the Temple at Delphi, surrounded by trolls."

There was a pause. "I'm on my way. Foaly hooked me up with some help. We are en route in a shuttle."

"ETA?"

"Fifteen minutes."

The trolls were already starting to orientate themselves.

"Understood. We'll be here."

They ceased communications. The boys transformed and the three flew to the banks of the river. Human again, they picked up plastic logs from a fake campfire, as Holly instructed. Then they all dove in, Holly gracefully and the boys less so. Fortunately they were in relatively good shape due to Butler's defense classes, and Draco's Quidditch practice. They clung to their logs as the current drug them downstream.

"The trolls are heading this way again," Artemis said, holding onto his log as hard as he could to keep his head above water.

The journey was not pleasant. As they reached the whirlpool leading down to the filter, everything became curved. They let go of their logs and the water sucked them down like strands of spaghetti. The water was not so deep or dark, but it was fast and would not allow images to stay still to be identified. He caught Holly's big hazel eyes, and the brightness of Draco's hair.

They were forced together as the whirlpool's funnel grew narrower. They were swept diagonally down in a flurry of bumping torsos and flailing limbs, but at least they could breathe. Then they slammed into the metal grille covering the drainage pipe.

Holly slapped at the grille, which was shiny and new. Everything else was old. Apparently Koboi had anticipated this escape route and blocked them. This was confirmed by a message tied to the grille from the pixie herself on a monitor, repeating, "I beat you again."

They looked at each other. No escape this way then. The trolls were probably waiting for them at the riverbank by now. The ride down the whirlpool had momentarily exhausted them. They let the water push them along out of the slipstream into calmer waters. This time they bumped up against a mound of junk that had piled up. Draco grabbed hold and sat down on the river-bottom, stopping the others who did the same.

Holly gave him an inquiring look.

"Why go back up?" he mouthed. "Wait for Butler here. No trolls here."

Holly grinned.

Accordingly, 13 minutes later, the three surfaced onto the small junk island. The trolls were lined along both banks, watching and howling and beating their chests. They were separated by about twenty feet of six inch deep water.

Artemis called up Butler again. "How far are you?"

"We have reached the park," Butler responded calmly.

A huge rock splashed into the water beside them.

"Poor shot," Holly scoffed.

Artemis frowned.

"We are moving into position above you," the bodyguard continued.

All three automatically looked up.

The trolls continued to throw things. They kept missing.

"They're not aiming for us," Draco blurted, attention drawn back. "They're building a bridge."

Artemis glanced at him and nodded.

Draco scowled. "I refuse to die by troll."

A section of the hemisphere's panel was being removed as they spoke. Butler's head appeared in the opening. His voice came through the brooch. "Shall I lower a rope down, or send Lt. Ginkgo to fly you out?"

They had not made a wide enough hole in the panel for a thestral's wingspan, but Artemis could fly up and out. "I'll fly on my own," Artemis replied. "Send the LEP officer for Holly and Draco. That will be faster."

The island they were on rattled as the bridge the trolls were building extended ever closer. A few dipped their toes in the water, impatient, but quickly pulled them out, yelping in panic.

The fairy officer headed for them rapidly on his wings. The trolls were frantic now, confused by this new development and determined to reach their prey before it could somehow escape. The skulls and debris piled up. Their island was shaking continuously now. The trolls started across on both sides.

Artemis transformed into his owl form as Lt. Ginkgo attached Holly and Draco to him by his belt for safety. They all lifted into the air as the trolls screamed. They rose at a good clip, reaching a good fifteen feet in the air before the first troll industriously threw one of the skulls from their bridge at them. He missed.

The second troll did not. He threw a sizeable rock and hit Artemis in the back. The boy plummeted back down, landing on the island and hitting his head hard enough to pass out.

"Artemis!" Butler yelled.

"Go back!" Holly ordered Ginkgo.

Draco went pale as he watched the trolls converging on Artemis. With narrowed eyes, he thought back to a childhood mishap where he had accidentally rained lima beans on the house-elf serving them dinner (he hated lima beans). If he could wield wandless magic then, he could do it now.

He imagined the center of his being, where he suspected the magic came from. He pictured it moving through his body and into his hands, then out through his fingers.

"Lumos!"

Once again, there was a flash of blinding light as the trolls roared and attempted to keep their balance. Some fell off the bridge and into the river, where they created more chaos in their struggle to get out of the water.

"Aguamenti!"

The light had faded away to be replaced by a five-second rainshower. Now all the trolls were wet. More fell into the river.

Then Ginkgo landed on the island and scooped the stunned owl into his arms. He held him protectively as they took to the air again, this time without any thrown objects to be dodged. They cleared the hole in the roof, where Butler took Artemis, and Ginkgo unhooked them from his belt. They rushed to board the LEP shuttle waiting for them at the gate.

"Can one of you heal him?" Butler asked.

"My magic's running low," Holly confessed. "Lieutenant, you do it. I'll start flying us out of here."

The door closed behind them.

As Ginkgo healed Artemis, Draco flopped down in a chair. "We're going to have to get new portkeys," he said. "And replace our wands." Inside he was still marveling at the spells he'd cast. Accidental magic was just that—accidental, uncontrollable, and therefore ultimately useless. Wandless magic took a lot of study and strength to deliberately use. But he had managed it.

Artemis the owl lifted his feathered head, hooted, and then changed back into Artemis the teenager. "We're in a shuttle?"

"We escaped. I cast two spells, you should have seen it." Draco smirked, unable to let the opportunity to boast pass by.

"I disabled the security cameras when I arrived," Butler informed Artemis, "so that Opal doesn't know what just happened."

"Good. Well done, both of you. How did the LEP react to the news of Koboi's escape?"

Butler told them what Opal had said to him on the phone, and how he'd enlisted Foaly's aid to rescue them.

"You've been recalled back to HQ, Capt. Short," Ginkgo added as he slipped into the co-pilot's chair. "They want your help to search for Koboi."

"But that leaves the humans unprotected," Holly protested.

"We're hardly defenseless, Holly," Artemis said, "and no offense, but you were kidnapped right along with us. Go ahead and do what you have to do."

For a minute Holly looked as though she was debating whether or not to be offended anyway, but finally decided against it, sighed, and nodded.

"Also, I'd concentrate my search on the Brill Brothers. Koboi is smart enough that it's unlikely she'll be found, but her henchmen are much more likely to slip up."

"Good point. It sounds like Koboi is with the Mud Men somewhere, anyway. I wonder if she's with Lucius."

"No—she said she had a human mesmerized into believing she was his daughter. That won't be Lucius. That will be her Muggle contact. She's playing both sides—wizards and Muggle."

"Wait'll Father finds out he's been duped. I'd like to see that."

"We'll search for Lucius, too," Holly said, "since he is Koboi's wizard contact. Maybe we'll find your brother, Draco."

Draco gave her a wan smile. "Maybe."

"Don't give up hope! You've got a lot of people looking. Between the LEP's resources and the genius of Artemis Fowl, we will find him in the end."

As she'd hoped, that made the smile real. "Thanks."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

By the time they made it back to Hogwarts, classes were over and the Slytherins were in an uproar. All three had been missed by then, and Snape and Dumbledore were only a few minutes away from alerting their parents.

Before going to Dumbledore's office, they had managed to pull Nott aside—he was shocked to see them alive—and question him, trying to determine if he and Stormbrew knew about fairies. It seemed not; they had been sent a message from Lucius to apprehend the two teens at a certain time and leave them at a particular location, and they knew nothing else. Artemis Obliviated him when they were done.

The teachers both jumped up from their chairs when Butler led the boys into Dumbledore's office. "What happened? Where have you been?"

Artemis gave the story they'd agreed on. "Theodore Nott and Paul Stormbrew stunned Draco and I from behind and gave us to an unknown Death Eater. I don't know where he took us, but he blocked us in a cave with two trolls. Our wands had been taken away, of course, but we managed to out-think them and escape. We were in the middle of nowhere, just rocks and trees, but I had a way to contact Butler, and he came to get us."

"Without telling anyone?"

"I was searching for them outside and when I got the call, well, I just left. I wasn't thinking too clearly. I was worried." Butler looked a bit sheepish.

Artemis went on to a spin a tale of finding a Muggle town where Butler met them by car, and of how they had outwitted the trolls. They gave the name of a town at the edges of Scotland, but said no Death Eaters were staying there, that it had just been picked as an out-of-the-way place to take them.

After they had reassured the professors that they really were fine, Draco asked what was to be done with Nott and Stormbrew.

"I think I'll turn them over to Cronin," said Dumbledore with an eye-twinkle. "They are clearly Death Eater spies."

This was given due consideration, then approval.

When the boys returned to the Common Room, all kinds of Slytherins came up to greet them. "I guess we are celebrities," Artemis murmured to Draco as he shook Windsor's hand. He noticed the scars from the Blood Quill had faded with Pomfrey's care.

The Fifth Years were all sitting close by them, as well, as if to make sure no further harm could come to them. Crabbe and Goyle were particularly diligent, nearly hexing a boy who pulled a watch out of his pocket.

Artemis noted each person who came up to them carefully, as well as those who didn't. Then later that night, he and his friends made plans.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Nott and Stormbrew have been taken into custody by Aurors," Snape reported to Butler. "They're questioning them about who their contact was, and if they know where You-Know-Who and Lucius are, amongst other things. They're going to be charged with assault and kidnapping. You three will have to testify eventually."

"Very well."

"I pointed out to Cronin that he's been wrongly accusing Slytherins when Stormbrew was a Gryffindor," Snape added with satisfaction.

"But Nott is a Slytherin."

"Yes, well, that's what he said," Snape sighed.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"We want permission to form a manners and culture group," Draco told the High Inquisitor evenly, standing in his office. "You know appearances are very important in positions like finance and politics. We want to work on—how to act at a fancy ball, or a dinner, or a business meeting. Some of the younger Slytherins especially need work."

Cronin regarded him. Fudge had told him to go easy on Malfoy and Fowl for a little while. He said Fowl could take that Ministry inquiry and put a PR spin on it in the papers that would put the Ministry in a very bad light. He had the smarts, the money, and the contacts to do it. Obviously, something that had happened between Fowl and Fudge on that day had shaken the man. And now this arrest of a Gryffindor student. So he sighed. "Who would be in charge of this group?" But he already knew the answer.

"Artemis Fowl and myself."

"Very well. Do you have a faculty sponsor?"

"Mr. Butler."

"Of course." Cronin sneered at him briefly. "Name of group?"

"SUAVE."

Cronin gave him a look, and wrote it down in a book. "This is going to be an exclusive, Slytherin pureblood group, isn't it?"

"I expect it will end up that way because no one else seems to want to join our groups these days." Draco leveled his own look. "Seems we've gained a bad reputation from all the accusations against us recently."

"I expect bi-monthly progress reports from Butler. To make sure you're behaving. I trust he won't lie to me."

Expression of shock and dismay. "Of course not!"

"All right. You're approved."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

A number of Slytherins got invitations to come to the first meeting of SUAVE. They were all hand-picked by Draco, Artemis, and Marie. They met in the Potions classroom. Millicent passed out glasses of pumpkin juice and a sugar quill to everyone as they entered. After they all had gossiped and snacked for awhile, Draco stood up by Snape's desk. "Right," he said. "Who here has aspirations to join Voldemort and the Death Eaters?"

Two people said, "Me." / "I do." Then they looked around at the others in horror.

"Yeah, I put a little bit of veritaserum in the pumpkin juice," Draco confessed with an evil grin. So. Crabbe and Goyle, if you would escort those two out of the meeting?"

"I knew Miles was being corrupted by Valerius," Warrington muttered, "but I didn't suspect Waverly Crumbert. He was the only Sixth Year boy not to get picked up for Dark Arts objects in the raid."

"I imagine he had them hidden elsewhere," Draco said. "Is there anyone who would betray us and our activities to the Death Eaters or Cronin?"

That time no one spoke up. "Good," Draco smiled. "Then I'll tell you why you're here and what we're planning. We're all against Voldemort here, right?"

"Yes," everyone answered.

"We feel that we need to be able to defend ourselves from him and his henchmen. Even if we have no plans to fight against him personally, we want to be able to protect ourselves, and heal our friends who might be fighting. Are you all interested?"

"Yes," they chorused.

"Then welcome to the introductory meeting for SUAVE—Slytherins United Against Voldemort and Evil." Pansy and Marie walked amongst the tables and handed everyone a badge. It was oval, forest green, and said SUAVE in sparkly silver letters. "Our group has been officially approved by the High Inquisitor, even though he thinks we're a societal manners group, so wear your badges proudly. When we plan on having a meeting, they'll grow hot, so you'll know there's a meeting for 7 PM that evening. Artemis put a Protean Charm on them." The older students all looked suitably impressed. The younger ones didn't know what that was, but kept quiet.

"The group is going to have two separate levels," Draco continued. "Marie and Eva are going to teach anyone Fourth Year and under, and Artemis and I will be teaching the older years. That way the older students won't be held back. You'll be learning all kinds of spells, offensive, defensive, and healing. Everyone understand?"

Again everyone said yes. Draco looked them all over. Representing Seventh Year were Crispen Warrington and Adrian Pucey; Sixth Year, Orca McNewcater, Callisto Menkar, and Daphne Greengrass; Fourth Year, Nora Revell and her friend Tracey Davis, Adela Reed, Rebekah Kesrith and her friend Lloyd Harper, and Magenta Happenstance; Third Year, Adrian's sister Aurelia and Daphne's sister Astoria, and Irwin Windsor; Second Year, Graham Pritchard; and First Year, Pansy's cousin Melein and Warrington's cousin Morann.

"You First, Second, and Third Years we don't know as well. If any of your friends are anti-Voldemort, let us know and we'll invite them to join, too." Then he had them all sign a paper, which Artemis would charm like he had the DA's, and then they broke into their levels to start practicing.

While the others practiced the moves Artemis and Draco showed them, the two boys worked on wandless magic. Artemis had checked out a number of books and consulted with Snape on the subject. Now they were attempting a wandless Expelliarmus.

"It seems to require the ability to thoroughly concentrate and focus on one's spell," Artemis said. "As we have improved both these skills through our mastery of Occlumency and Legilimency, we should be able to learn this fairly quickly."

Draco was also studying up on how to make portkeys, and both boys had decided they wanted to secretly learn how to Apparate, underage or not.

"Pansy, what are you giggling about? You're supposed to be working," Millie scolded.

"Aren't you listening? Greg's conquests are clumped together there in the corner, comparing notes on him."

Millie quickly started eavesdropping. Greg, Pansy's partner, was blushing fiercely and looking quite uncomfortable. Vince was grinning.

"We need more guys in this group," Greg muttered.

"I can think of a couple," Daphne spoke up from where she was paired with Blaise.

"Good."

"Expelliarmus," Draco said, forehead crinkled in concentration. Artemis's wand flew into his hand and he let out a whoop. "All right!"

"Expelliarmus," Artemis said, and the wand came back to him. They smiled at each other. "Yes. This will go well."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS