Obtaining a wand had been no easy task- that is, for anyone other than Artemis Fowl and his Butler. After managing to decipher some of the Faerie language, at least enough so that they could perform mesmer, they simply had to find a dim-witted witch and trick her into taking them into the Alley. This had been done at night, so they had not been detected. With the help of some high-tech fairy hardware, they had raided Gringolds (well, actually they had just taken most of the witch's stock, leaving behind an I.O.U), gotten what they needed from various shops and disappeared into the night.

The blood in the vials was a combination of the witch's and Holly's. The witch blood would give them the right type of human magic, but it was quite weak so they had nabbed Holly's to balance the equation, plus give them extra magical skills. Once injected, the magic would stay in their blood stream for ten years. And in that time, Artemis planned to find out everything he could about the magical world, being only the second muggle in history to do so, and seriously upgrade his bank account. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

With help of a few indebted super-hackers, Artemis had enrolled himself in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had placed himself with the Fourth-years, according to his own age.

Artemis was a very good speed-reader. He and Butler had swiftly memorised the most important spells and charms for the parts they were playing- and a few besides.

"Vestimenta Ludus" he said offhand, with a flick of his wrist. Blue sparks shot out of the wand and, after wavering in the air for a few seconds, came to rest around his body. Poof! He looked down and saw the crest of Hogwarts on the school robes he was now wearing.

"How do I look?" he said, lifting his arms and letting them flop back to his sides.

"Just like the others," Butler told him, lifting his maple-and-unicorn wand. "Accio Trunk" he called, and with a bang, a coffin-sized trunk appeared in front of him. He took some keys out of his pocket and opened it. "MhmhmHMmmmhmHmharrMM" a muffled cry came from a person inside the trunk. Ignoring it, Butler deftly cut a piece of the man's hair, shut the trunk and locked it.

He withdrew another bigger vial from the bag and added the hair into the acidic mixture. Steam and gas blew out in clouds. Artemis was tapping his feet, politely looking away. Butler put the vial to his lips, and, with a grimace, skulled it. Artemis sighed and started humming a depressing song from Les Miserables. After a second of seismic shudders from Butler, Artemis looked up at the man. He looked entirely different. He was absolutely covered in scars, was considerably shorter, had a wooden leg, and, most noticeably, one of his eyes was an electric blue, revolving all around in its socket.

'Whoa. psychedelic." whispered Butler's unfamiliarly rough voice.

"Yeah, yeah, now we need that bird, and my trunk," replied Artemis. He then summoned a medium-sized tawny owl, and his trunk. The owl was specially trained to understand any command, and was part eagle. Artemis had created special camera-contact lenses, which, after a period of getting used to them, his owl, 'Apollo', was fully capable of being his aerial spy.

Artemis and Butler parted and climbed their way down unseen into different parts of the train. Butler locked himself into an empty compartment with his well-protected trunk, and Artemis began to explore.