Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl: Evil Awakens Chapter Seven
Disclaimer: I totally and completely own Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl. I have made millions selling these books.
P.S. Happy Tell a Big Fat Lie Day.
Uallach's Boat
Conway slept in his bed, his wounds slowly healing. The doctor had nodded off in his arm chair. Uallach was out on the deck, watching the water, thinking of what her next move would be.
Uallach didn't like it when things it didn't go her way. Harry refused to be her companion, despite the powers she'd given him. He had saved his wife and gotten away. He'd even had enough self control to not suck his wife dry, when she had gotten cut.
He was so attached to that pesky red haired girl. How could he be so in love with someone that would die way before him? It was foolish. He even had a child with her.
She should have killed the baby while she was there…
She wanted her book back too.
Harry has said it was in the Magical Museum in Paris. Conway had told her that he had heard Aeron had enlisted a dwarf to dig under the Museum and go inside to take pictures of the pages. That was how he had gotten the spells he needed.
Uallach went into Conway's room and poked him in the face.
"Wake up!"
Conway opened his eyes and scowled. "What?"
"What was the name of that dwarf you said helped Aeron?"
"Uh." Conway thought a moment. "I think he said his name was Mulch Diggums, but he goes by other names."
"Well, where is he now?"
Conway shrugged, and then winced. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" asked Uallach. "Useless…"
She went to the porthole window and looked out, grumbling to herself under her breath.
"Hang on," said Conway. "I heard him saying something to Amadae about him being in America. They were going to take care of the Potter boy and then go teach the dwarf a lesson for running off. Obviously Potter took care of them."
"Where in America?" asked Uallach, turning to him.
Conway thought for a moment. "I think he said something about Washington. But I don't know if he meant the state or the capitol, D.C."
Uallach looked out the porthole window again. "Well, I suppose we shall have to go looking for this Mulch Diggums."
Fowl Mansion
Holly and Artemis awoke in the morning as sunlight creeped in through partly open curtains.
"Morning, sleepy," said Holly, kissing Artemis on the lips. "No1 will be here later and we can go see about getting you some magic."
Artemis smiled an evil smile. "Perhaps with my magic, I can see about doubling the Fowl fortune. We can restart the criminal enterprise once more and-"
Holly smacked his arm. "You better not!"
"Ow!" said Artemis. "You know I was just kidding!"
No1 came on a shuttle later and spent the day with them. He played with James, who didn't seem a bit perturbed that a warlock was playing patty cake with him. Myles showed No1 his latest experiment and Beckett showed him the comic books he was drawing and illustrating himself.
Later, Artemis took No1 into his study for awhile to talk to him in secret.
They came out later looking pleased with themselves. Holly was coming down the hallway.
"Why do you both look so happy?" asked Holly.
No1 grinned like an idiot and Artemis shot him a warning look.
"Nothing much," said Artemis.
Holly folded her arms. "What are you two planning?"
"Nothing," said Artemis, keeping his face straight, but No1 snorted, like he had a happy secret and could barely hold it.
"No1, be quiet," said Artemis. "Listen, Holly, we are planning something, but we can't tell you yet. Don't worry, it's nothing bad though. I think you'll quite like it. I'd rather you didn't know we were planning anything, but No1 can't keep himself in check."
"Think of it as a wedding gift!" exclaimed No1.
"What is it?" asked Holly.
"We can't ruin the surprise," said Artemis.
Holly didn't say anything more about it, but the question of what it was niggled her brain constantly after that.
When night fall came, No1, Holly, and Artemis went to a ritual sight.
The full moon was out and the weather was comfortable. Holly had to perform the ritual as well to top herself off. She did it first, taking an acorn and planting it in the ground. Once full, No1 turned to Artemis.
"You've shown before that you can have magic, so I'm going to shoot you full of it," said No1. "I need you to kneel down and get to my eye level." Artemis did so and No1 continued. "Humans used to have magic and there is a part of your brain for it, but not everybody can handle it now. Some still can. I guess you're lucky. Now just relax and focus on me and let the magic fill you."
Artemis looked into No1 eyes, and willed himself to stop thinking of the lovely present he was going to give to Holly. No1's runes began to swirl and glow and he began focus on pumping Artemis full of his special magic.
Artemis could feel the magical energy flowing into him. It gave him a warm, tingly feeling all over his body and he glowed blue for a moment.
Steam began to vent from Artemis's body as any impurities were vented. No1 stopped what he was doing.
A spark leaped up on a small nick Artemis had gotten on his hand. The nick healed and the spark went away.
"Wow," said Artemis.
"So, now you just need to keep the magic in you for a couple of months before we do a fairy marriage," said No1. "You need to use the magic a bit, let it get used to flowing through you. I mean, I'm not telling you to hurt yourself, but you could try mesmerizing somebody, or if someone has hurt themselves, you could heal their booboo."
"Heal their booboo?" asked Artemis, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," said No1. "I'm sure James has his share of scrapes, running around the house and whatnot."
"Harry heals him if he accidentally hurts himself," said Artemis. "He can do it with the bronze ring. He just touches somebody and it heals anything wrong."
"Well, if James gets a booboo running around or something, ask Harry to let you do it," said No1.
No1 got picked up on a shuttle and went back to Haven. Artemis and Holly went home.
When they got home, James was running around in the foyer, dragging a wooden dog on a string, laughing and giggling to himself. When the dog was dragged, its wooden legs churned and the mouth opened and closed. Myles was sitting on the bottom stair, playing on his laptop.
"Alf," said James, pointing to Holly.
"Yes, I know I'm an elf," said Holly.
Ginny came in to the foyer. "It's past your bed time young man. Time for night-night."
"No!" squealed James, using his favorite new word. He darted for the living room. Hermione was sitting on the couch watching Family Guy and eating nachos, her latest craving.
"James, come back," sighed Ginny.
"I ne'er go to bed," they could James saying. "Oooh, chippeee."
"James, give me that! It was on the floor!"
Artemis and Holly followed Ginny into the living room. Hermione had the bowl of cheese drizzled nachos resting on her round belly. She had dropped a chip on the floor by accident and James had snatched it up.
"James!" said Ginny. "That has germs on it now-don't you dare-"
James crammed it into this mouth and chewed it and darted away from Ginny, surprisingly fast on his short legs. He ran past Holly and Artemis and into the dining room, and crawled under the table.
Ginny followed him and tried to crawl under the table after him, moving chairs.
"I told you not to eat stuff off the floor!" said Ginny.
James spit out the chew chip bits and crawled out from under the other side of the table. He stood up too soon and scraped the top of his head on the underside of the edge.
His mouth opened up silently for a moment and his eyes welled up. Then his face turned red and an epic scream of might proportions erupted from his mouth.
"WAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Ginny gasped and rushed to him. The scrape was very small but the way James was screaming, she almost expected to see blood start spurting from it.
"Calm down, we'll put some antiseptic on it and a band aid until-"
"Nooo!" wailed James, tears running down his face. "I wan daddeeee! Daddeee make it betta!"
"Daddy's in town getting diapers," said Ginny, scooping him up. "You'll have to wait until he gets back." She looked at Holly. "Or, Holly, could you?"
"I can heal it," said Artemis.
Ginny knew about Artemis getting magic.
"You can do it?" asked Ginny. "The magic thing worked?"
"Yes," said Artemis. He placed a hand lightly on the scrape. "Heal," he whispered.
A few spark flowed from Artemis's hand onto the scrape and in a matter of seconds, it was healed.
"There, all better," said Artemis.
"Thank you," said Ginny. "Want do you say, James?"
"Tankee," said James.
Ginny carried James upstairs.
"Daddee wead toree," said James.
"When he gets back," said Ginny, although she knew James would probably be passed out in his crib. He always said he wasn't tired and didn't want to go bed, and then he'd be asleep after five minutes in his crib.
Harry came home fifteen minutes later with Ron and a jumbo box of diapers.
"So how'd it go?" asked Ron.
"Good," said Artemis. "I already healed your son when he scraped his head."
"How'd he do that?" asked Harry.
"He went under the table and got out and stood up to quick," said Ginny, coming downstairs. "He wanted a story, but he's already asleep."
"I read him two storybooks before I left," said Harry.
"Yeah, well, you know he can't get enough of Toy Story and The Lion King," said Ginny.
Artemis and Holly went to their room.
"So, were doing the fairy marriage first, right?" asked Artemis.
"Yeah," said Holly. "Why do we need to have a human marriage anyway?"
"Legal stuff," answered Artemis. "I doubt most of the world recognizes the fairy version of marriage, even though it's more binding that human marriage. And the rest of my family, the ones that don't know about fairies, will expect me to properly marry."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," replied Holly.
"Technically, my family is Catholic," said Artemis. "But some are…more serious."
"How serious?" asked Holly.
"Well, Aunt Nola is the old fashioned sort that would faint if she knew we were sleeping in the same bed together," said Artemis.
"But we haven't even done anything yet!"
Artemis laughed. "That's how she is. So the human marriage is really for appearances sake. The fairy marriage is the real expression of our love."
"I still can't believe I'm marrying you," said Holly. "I mean, all those years ago when you kidnapped me-"
Artemis grimaced. "Holly, I was a different person then."
"I know," said Holly. "It's just, if someone had told me then I'd up marrying you, I would have said they were cracked in the head."
Artemis laughed. "Yeah, I probably would have said the same thing."
The next morning, Holly awoke and looked out the window when she heard a rumbling noise. She pulled the curtain back and there was a huge flat bed truck with something covered in tarp in the back.
"Shit…" she heard from behind her.
Artemis put a hand over Holly's eyes and snatched her away from the window.
"NO PEEKING!"
"What is that?" asked Holly.
"Nothing," said Artemis, peering outside. Satisfied that Holly would in no way be able to glean any info from what she had seen, he turned to her. "Let's go downstairs and eat breakfast. We have a busy day ahead of us!"
"We do?" asked Holly while Artemis dragged her downstairs.
"Yes, of course," replied Artemis. Holly noticed all the curtains on every window had been drawn shut.
Butler had made a huge platter of chocolate chip pancakes. There was coffee and everyone was eating.
"What is all the racket outside?" asked Hermione. "There was a truck."
"Shush," said Artemis, giving her a knowing look.
"Oh, yeah."
Holly was bursting to know was going on outside. Everybody else seemed to know!
"Artemis, tell me what's outside," she said, poking him in the side.
Butler cracked his knuckles menacing manner. "Holly, do I need to put you a sleeper hold?"
"I like to see you try," said Holly.
"I fought a troll once, remember?" Butler grinned evilly.
"So have I."
After breakfast, Artemis told Holly they were going out.
"It's cold, so I bought you a coat," said Artemis handing her a package in their room.
"It's not even Christmas yet," said Holly, winking at him. "Heck Thanksgiving isn't even here."
Inside was a child's coat. It was all black and made of soft wool with dark blue lining on the inside. It buttoned up the front and had a belt. It came with a matching hat.
"If you wear that, and the hat, you can pass for human," said Artemis. "We are going out today. I need to get you out of the house just in case you decide to go peeking out windows."
Holly scowled. "Such faith you have in me."
Artemis grinned and kissed her. "We are going to the aquarium. One opened up here in Dublin."
Holly changed into black jeans and a black, long sleeved shirt (clothes bought from Haven). She put the coat on and the hat and checked herself out in the mirror. She had never worn such an expensive coat.
"I love it," she said. "Thank you, honey!"
"You can pass for a child," said Artemis. "With the coat covering your physical features, and the hat covering your ears, no one will imagine you're an elf."
Artemis made her wear a blindfold and walked her out to the car. Butler was driving them. The Bentley started up and Holly felt them start moving.
"I would have driven us, but apparently Butler just had to come with us to see the fish," said Artemis.
Butler peered at them in the rearview. "I'm your bodyguard; I'm supposed to be around to protect you."
"I doubt the sharks or anything will attack us," said Artemis.
After they were well away from the manor, Artemis told Holly she could remove the blindfold.
"When can I see the surprise?" asked Holly.
"In a few days," said Artemis.
They arrived at the museum and paid there admission fee. Holly got the children's price.
Holly decided to play a joke. She peered over the counter and gave the ticket person a big goofy grin.
"I can't wait to see the fishies!" she piped up in a whiny voice, batting her eyelashes. The ticket person just looked at her. Artemis snorted.
"That's nice hon."
Artemis smirked as they walked inside and began looking at the exhibits. There was a tank with sharks swimming around.
Holly looked at Butler. "Five bucks and you go in there and wrestle one."
"You'd have to pay me more than five bucks," said Butler, looming behind them. "Unless Artemis somehow fell in a tank and got attacked."
They walked around. Artemis and Holly were standing looking at some colorful fish and Artemis had the urge to put his arm around Holly and kissed her. He almost did and then realized anybody around would think he was a pedophile kissing some little girl.
They aquarium was huge and they spent ages looking through it. There was a tour group where a person would explain in detail about the exhibits. At the end, the kids all got a free stuffed Sally the Shark stuffed animal, including Holly because she looked a kid.
"Well, I'd say this disguise works quite well," said Holly.
"Yeah, it's pretty good," said Artemis. "I had to remember not to hug you or do anything that might make me look like a pedophile."
Holly laughed. "Yeah, someone might call the police."
There was a place to get food in the cafeteria and they had a vegetarian plate so Holly got that. Then they went home.
Holly had to go in the house blindfolded again.
For three more days they went and did stuff to keep Holly occupied. On the evening of the third day, Artemis said they could finally go see what the surprise was.
He walked Holly blindfolded out of the manor and across the grounds. It wasn't quiet dark yet, but it was very cold outside. Holly breathed in the air, thinking how lucky she was to get to live on the surface.
They finally stopped.
"Ready?" asked Artemis.
"Ready," said Holly, wondering what the surprise was.
Artemis took off the blindfold and Holly gasped at what she seen before her.