Lines and Anger
For the whole week both Harry and Artimis wrote the lines in silence, in that time Harry didn't even get a glance at the bloody words on Artimis' hand for the second she left the room she would run off and the next day would be wearing what looked like a skin coloured mesh like wrist brace over the scars.
On the way back from detention Artimis crashed into Snape who looked like he was searching the area. "Miss Knight. What are you…"He paused as he noticed the blood dripping from her fingers.
"P… Professor… Sorry, excuse me." She tried to politely push past only to have Snape grab her arm and raise the injured hand to his eyes in a similar fashion Ron had to Harry on the first day of lines. A frown rippled across his face as he tried to read the marks but failed through the dripping blood and smudges from where Artimis' fingers had tried to stop the blood flow. "What is this?"
"Not inclined to speak of it, sir. Ask Harry, he has to do it too." She snatched her hand away sending blood splattering down the wall and the marble floor, as Snape seemed to step back at the mention of Harry. "Good night sir."
And she ran away with surprising speed, as Snape turned around Harry sluggishly walked around a corner and seemed to balk at the sight of Snape who eyed the blood that the young boy tried to wrap with his scarf. "Mr. Potter, care to explain why both you and Miss Knight are running around the school with bleeding hands?" And Harry didn't answer, leaving the Professor in the dark with this curious factor on his students. Looking down the hall after Harry rushed off, Snape leered in the direction. The direction led to Umbridge's room.
It was only a couple of weeks later when the Trio came to Artimis about Harry teaching a group of students in secret. Artimis' grin grew wide at the idea and joined them on one night of training in the Room of Requirement that Dobby had informed Harry of, Mythal wasn't around. The trio seemed shocked to discover that Artimis knew of the room for two years.
"Me and Myth found it in our first year here… been using it as our private study room." Hermione handed Artimis a fake galleon and explained how the magic on it worked before they all lined up in the massive room to start the lesson. Artimis looked around, it was far different in appearance then when her and Mythal used it.
For the whole day she helped Harry to teach certain spells and assisted in being the practice dummy for colour changing spells. By the end of the day Artimis had to walk around the school with vibrant green hair with yellow ends. It didn't help that it lasted into the next day too when the first lesson was Potions. Snape gave the hair one glance before giving Artimis a blank 'really?' look.
The next day after that was a Quidditch game between Slytherin and Gryffindor, Ron looked incredibly ill with nerves and the Slytherin's were wearing badges with the words 'Weasley is our King' which made Artimis give Mythal a warning look. The girl shrugged her shoulders from her position beside Draco, she didn't seem pleased with the blondes attitude lately.
It wasn't till they were out in the game that Artimis realized what was happening. A song erupted and it made Ron uneasy causing the redheaded boy to loose concentration and let in a large amount of scores for the Slytherin's. When Harry caught the snitch and got knocked off his broom by some Slytherin hitting him, there was obviously a fight about to start. Artimis was quick to run down the stadium in time to push herself between the Weasley's and Draco with arms raised. "Enough! Draco go away, stop being a selfish prat!"
Draco laughed with his mates, "What is this, the Head Girl is defending the loser and his friends? I see where you have fallen…" Suddenly terror filled his and his mate's eyes. Artimis' eyes burned into his, black veins started to spider their way from her lids as she glared.
"Draco Malfoy, turn around and leave… now…" Draco looked like he was choking on his words as he and the other Slytherin's turned around stiffly and ran away with pure terror on their faces. McGonagall got over in time to see what happened, Umbridge was right behind her with a vigilant look towards Artimis.
"Miss Knight… what was that? What's going on?" McGonagall slowly made her way over as Harry put a hand on the Head Girl's arm as Artimis rubbed her brow with a deep sigh, the veins faded away as she relaxed.
"I need to rest." Without another word she stalked away while McGonagall faced the Weasley's to yell at them and Harry. Umbridge watched Artimis with slit eyes before finally spinning onto Harry.
Years of Hate
Hagrid was back at school and they were all heading to his first lesson. All the students but the Golden Trio and the Knight Twosome were very nervous and didn't want to follow the half giant to the forest but they did it anyway. Hagrid threw down his cow corpse and sent out a screeching call, which Artimis recognized instantly and grinned demented at causing the students around her to look even more nervous.
From the forest came the Threstrals that only a few saw, Artimis and Mythal were amongst the few to raise their hands. A fake cough appeared behind them and Hagrid looked around before spotting Umbridge. The disgusting toad like woman insulted Hagrid and treated him like an idiot, speaking slowly with hand gestures
Artimis shrugged off any glares sent in her way by the woman and climbed onto the back of her favorite youngest Threstral she had named, 'Spirit' and rode him around so the more brave students could touch him. On the side she caught Umbridge say loudly, "Half-Breed's work well with the beasts." As the woman wrote the words she said down on her clipboard causing some students to frown in confusion and think she was talking about Hagrid, being half-human half-giant.
The Head Girl simply brushed the falling snow from her thick robe as if not hearing the woman and trotted around, Draco paled as Mythal walked over to Artimis and the invisible creature. "Let me up too!" With help from Hagrid, Mythal pulled up behind Artimis and whooped out loudly in glee. The class ended easily without injury, but anger towards Umbridge flew high from many students.
A snake attacked Ron's father only that night; Harry and all the Weasley's at Hogwarts disappeared to where Artimis guessed to have been Sirius' place. Christmas came by the next day after that with more snow and icy cold, and Artimis was completely alone for Mythal was off at the Malfoy's for the holiday. Artimis had gotten another sweater, which was tighter then last years one from Mrs. Weasley in simple lilac, and different cheap Muggle sweets from the other Weasley's; Sirius had also sent her a small gift. A gold ring with the Black crest that originally belonged to someone in his family, he wanted to be rid of it and knew Artimis had a love for old jewelry with history. The ring only fit on her thumb so she placed it on the chain with the tube of green gems with a smile at the irony, the tube was from Snape and the ring from Sirius who both despised each other.
So she was alone, or Artimis would have been if not for the fact it was a full moon. Artimis tilted her head to the side and stared at Snape as the man signed papers and examined vials with names tagged on the glass. Snape looked over when he felt her eyes bearing down on him, but before he could snap at her Fawkes appeared with a message from Dumbledore. Reading the letter over he gave a vicious glare towards his work then at Artimis as if trying to push blame onto her for some reason.
"I need to speak with Potter." The words came out thick, almost like it made him ill.
"So we both heading to Grimmauld Place, or just you?"
"It will be safer for you to come." So after Artimis' transformation only a minute later they both made their way through Hogwarts without getting attention from anyone, namely Umbridge. Outside Snape rubbed his chin as he tried to figure out a way to get to Grimmauld, being the fact they couldn't use the fires. First thing was to get out of Hogwarts barrier with a werewolf so they could Apparate, which was the most difficult mission.
Regarding around, Artimis looked up at him and whined, Snape looked down and watched her turn to stare at the Whomping Willow. A grin appeared on his face and he led the werewolf over when he cast a spell at the knob in the threes roots. When the tree froze the two squeezed through the gap, Artimis struggled but succeeded to get her haunches through finally as Snape expanded the hole enough with a non-verbal spell.
The two climbed through the tunnel then into the Shrieking Shack where Snape gestured Artimis to stand close at his side. The werewolf followed his order and stood against his leg and stayed still as the lanky man placed his hand on the top of her head. They Apparated, and it felt very… odd to werewolf Artimis. Almost like all the fur on her body was rippling and growing hard along her spine.
Soon man and wolf were in front of Sirius' family home, Snape knocked on the door and Molly Weasley answered. She looked at Snape in surprise then her eyes travelled down to the wolf at his side and released a loud squeal. The two outside pushed past quickly and slammed the door before anyone on the outside came searching for the scream, "Mrs. Weasley, enough. Miss Knight wont harm you."
At Artimis' name the red haired woman stopped just as Sirius rushed up the stairs with wand at the ready. The man's face went blank at the sight of his nemesis in his home but seemed to brighten at the sight of Artimis who bounded over to him with tail wagging, he pat her and savored the feeling of her fur for the first time. Snape ignored them and continued speaking to Mrs. Weasley, "I need to speak with Potter, send him downstairs." And he then pushed past Sirius who followed; Artimis tilted her head up at Mrs. Weasley with a deep whine. The woman bent down awkwardly and ran her fingers through the werewolf's fur before rushing up to find Harry.
Artimis rushed downstairs and stared at the two men as they glared at different walls, she huffed and sat at Snape's feet to await Harry's arrival. Sirius gave her a look of hurt betrayal before changing back to his glare just as Harry came through the door.
The room was silent for only a second before Snape said he was to teach Harry Occlumency under Dumbledore's orders, which started a fight between him and Sirius almost instantly. Artimis pushed Harry towards Sirius as the two men stood and pulled out their wands to face off. Harry nodded in understanding to her silent request and rushed to his godfather while Artimis to Snape. When a bandaged Arthur, the Weasley's and Hermione came through the door saying he was healed they were all met with two fuming men, a stressed out teenager and a werewolf whining loudly while pinning Snape's shoulders to the wall behind him with large white paws.
"Get off me, Miss Knight!"
"Harry, get out of the way!"
"Merlin's Beard… is this bad timing?" Arthur's voice was awkward as the two fighting men seemed to pause at the sight of the crowded stairwell, Snape managed to push Artimis away as she released a high pitched howl directly into his ear causing all the Weasley's to shiver and Snape wince as he sheathed his wand. The tall Potions Master stormed past the small crowd to the front door where Artimis looked up at Arthur with a huff of congratulations towards his return and wolfish shrug before chasing after the professor with a dog like yelp.
When back at the safety of the potions classroom moments later, Snape pulled out fire whiskey and hid away in the privacy of his own room. Artimis scratched against the door and whined sorrowfully at the mans answer, "Go away Miss Knight!"
So the werewolf dragged her clothes over to Snape's desk and curled up underneath to wait for morning with a huff.
It was boring waiting without being able to watch Snape mark or make a potion. It was a relief when Artimis turned back with a groan of pain, she wrapped her cloak around her and knocked on Snape's door. There was a pause until the door opened to allow Artimis in to grab her clothing pile on the end of Snape's bed. Looking over she began to dress quickly; Snape had his head leaning back and eyes tightly closed.
Artimis paused mid way leaving the room then stomped over to Snape and took the second bottle of whiskey from his clenching hand causing him to open his eyes and glare at her. Before he could think of complaining at her, he watched Artimis guzzle down the last mouthfuls of his drink then placed the empty glass on his table. "Shouldn't drink on duty or in anger, sir." She sniggered at Snape's deadpan expression before Bubble appeared at her side and took her away.
Half way through that day Snape spotted her later sitting out in the courtyard clenching her head and whimpering pathetically into a large steaming mug of coffee. He walked past and gave her a small smirk, "I drink concentrated Fire-Whiskey, if you were wondering…"
"You drank two blasted BOTTLES! DO have some kind of, superman metabolism or something!"
"Ten points from Gryffindor."
"Oh I hate you cruel man… picking on the wounded…"
Valentines Flowers
Two months later was Valentine's that had Artimis in an even fouler mood then ever before. Her expression was joined with many other singles amongst the great hall, which were few. She was pale from the full moon that night and the strong coffee Bubble gave her didn't seem to brighten her mood. Her muttering of, 'I hate Valentine's Day at Hogwarts, Mythal keeps rubbing it in my face' seemed to cause great distress through students that passed her by.
Seeing all the happy people around her, Artimis decided to rush from the hall still muttering something murderous as people continued to freak out over the ten Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban. She returned to her room with plans to curl up in her bed and read a book, where she was met with a surprising sight of Bubble placing a small vase of flowers on Artimis' beside table.
"Who are they from?" Bubble almost fell off her stool at Artimis' voice.
"ART! Uh… their from many…" Bubble nervously jumped from the stool and vanished it, "Happy St Valentine's!" And the elf was gone as well.
Artimis frowned and sat beside the roses, each red one had a name tagged around it. One each was from Sirius, Lupin, Hermione, Mythal, Dumbledore, Bubble, McGonagall and finally a single one with the name Weasley's writing in tiny scribe on a torn piece of fabric. Artimis smiled, her mood now dramatically raised enough that she wanted to go outside. She dressed in casual clothes, and stood in front of her high mirror next to the bathroom door to examine her appearance.
The pair of dark jeans was beginning to wear down and tatter around the hems and knees from kneeling at Grimmauld to clean and repair. She tugged on a pair of heavy duty boots and her sheer emerald green cardigan over two different styled tank tops, the cardigan was held up with fabric behind the neck and arms through the holes created from the loops causing the fabric to fall down low on her lower back. The bottom tank top was a peacock blue skintight T backed sports top and the top was a simple loose forest green one made from delicate cotton.
Artimis took in the appearance before tugging a leather belt around her hips to let the tassel ends to hang down on one side. She pulled on only her blue ring onto her right middle finger and the bracelet Lupin got her for her birthday two years ago on her left wrist. She paused while looking at the pair of necklaces she wore, one was the gift from Snape with Sirius' ring and the other her mass of amulets now on a tight chain for better protection because it was very weighty. She removed the amulets and looked in the mirror, with a nod she placed the amulet necklace in her cupboard and hefted her side bag over a shoulder.
Many people were surprise to see Artimis not only out of her usual dressage of thick layers and school robes but also the fact she was going to Hogsmeade with them on a day that she seemed to despise. She joined Harry in the line up who was eyeing Cho Chang with Cedric. When they were in Hogsmeade, Harry and Artimis separated to do what every single people did on this day… planned evil revenge.
At Hogsmeade Artimis was reminded what the Daily Prophet was saying about her, Dumbledore and Harry and their sanity. Many older witches and wizards recognized her and whispered as she passed by. At some point she might have unconsciously sent a rude hand gesture to a couple of crowds causing them to hiss in disgust. Artimis rushed into the Hogs Head that were usually unoccupied. The Barkeeper seemed to freeze mid cleaning at the sight of another customer before recognizing her and making up a glass of her usual drink before she even got to the bar table.
Artimis paused at the door as her eyes landed on the dark shadow hiding in the corner. Professor Snape looked up and spotted her before returning to his drink of fire whiskey. Not knowing what to do without looking weird, Artimis stepped into the room and paid for the mead she had tried here for the first time and always came back for with Hagrid. Who Artimis realized early on was currently sitting at the bar moping over a large bucket glass.
"What's wrong Hagrid?" The half-giant looked up before pulled the young woman into a tight hug almost sending her drink everywhere. Artimis coughed as she was met with the stench of Hagrid's beard and clothes, his grip powerful around her shoulders. "Right mate?"
Hagrid simply shook his head and didn't answer as Artimis awkwardly patted him on the shoulder with her arm stretching out as far as she could reach. To the side she could literally feel Snape sneering in dark humor at her. Artimis sent the potions master a glare as she was finally released; Snape simply shrugged it off and continued to sneer into his glass.
So Artimis spent all Valentine's Day trying to cheer up poor Hagrid and keep him from drowning himself in alcohol with Snape watching as if they were some kind of comedy show. She left the bar with Snape almost directly behind her sniggering under his breath and caught him about to open his mouth to say something but raised her hand up quickly in a failed sinister way, "Say something and I swear I will strangle you… or jinx you painful…" And stomped away with Snape eyeing her while grumbling, 'Valentines Day gets shittier and shittier each year… at least I got flowers this year round I guess…'
Offering My Mind
It was obvious when Harry had his last lesson with Occlumency; it was only around a day after Dumbledore ran away. Harry seemed to be locked in his thoughts and Hermione told Artimis that Snape had said that Harry could handle himself now. But Artimis didn't believe it and faced Harry one evening when he was alone.
"SO what happened, and don't lie… I can see it on both you and Snape's faces." So Harry explained what he saw, what he saw of his father. "I see, and you're going to try and get to Sirius about this?"
Harry nodded his head and Artimis continued on, "Alright then, need anything and I can try and come up with something… or ask the twins, I'm certain they will assist."
Two days later after those words and the Weasley twins went off into the skies on their stolen brooms with Umbridge screaming after them. Peeves was there and gave the twins a salute when they asked him to give Umbridge hell. Artimis stood beside Peeves where he floated and looked up at him, "You know what, Peeves. For once I feel rather proud of you, I will feel even better if you do something hilarious to Umbridge." Peeves gave her a grin and high-pitched chuckle before going off to make plans. Nearby the Bloody Baron gave them both a raised brow but didn't try to intervene.
And for weeks afterwards he did just that, Artimis grinned at the memory of how every student and teacher seemed to rebel against Umbridge. Even she tried assisting Peeves in rebelling and letting others off causing more lines, she now constantly wore a black fingerless glove over her hand to hide the cruel words marring her skin. Snape frowned at her deadly smile unnerved by how dark she looked and once again thought how great it was that he wasn't in her mind at that moment.
"Hey sir… I heard you stopped teaching Harry…"
"That is none of your business Miss Knight."
"No, the safety of a friend is never my business." Her words were a drawl that matched Snape's when insulting the Golden Trio, which made Snape look up at her again; she was leaning on the desk with chin on threaded fingers and a small smirk. Her robe was tightly pulled around her as she slitter her eyes at Snape with a surprisingly dark look, "If you don't want to teach Harry, why not work something else out?"
"And what would YOU suggest?" Snape's voice was curt and filled with loathing.
"Teach me Occlumency and Legilimency…"
Silence, and then, "You want me to…" And he paused again.
"Yeah, then I can bestow your FANTASTIC teaching skills down to Harry!" Snape just gave her his usual deadpanned look when talking with her, but still seemed to think it over. He didn't give her an answer as he instead paced into his office to let her change her form. Even after all the pain of the change Artimis did not forget and when Snape returned she kept staring at him.
"The idea is… it might work only if you're more, intellectual then Potter." Artimis snorted in humor causing the mans lips to twitch, "Yes, I guess anyone is smarter than him. Come by my office on Thursday, 8:30." Artimis nodded her pale head and sat beside his desk as Snape rubbed his chin in thought.
Later into the night Artimis began to wonder if it was a good idea as her memories flashed back to her time out of the HP world, would Snape be able to see those thoughts? But there was no time to back out now… specially when Artimis really did want to learn.
End Chapter 14