Chapter 9: Professor Artemis
Harry awoke the next morning feeling restless and lethargic. He threw on his robes and wandered downstairs to breakfast, rubbing his eyes. Looking around the hall, he saw an empty seat next to Amber but wandered around to sit with Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, you look terrible!" said Hermione.
"Yeah," added Ron, "you've got shopping bags under your eyes."
Harry sat down silently. He wasn't just tired because he had had difficulty falling asleep. The real reason was that, once he did, he was in the desert again, walking towards the tomb, carrying the grandiose coffin. He remembered the previous year when he had repeatedly had dreams about the ministry of magic, as Voldemort had been putting them in there. Harry wondered if, now that Snape had calmed down about the incident the previous year, he should start asking Snape for lessons in Occulmency again, but for some reason he had a feeling that this wasn't the same type of dream. He remembered that he'd been having them off and on at the Burrow. Tracing it back, the first time he had had this kind of dream was when he had first taken the Drakhen from the box of his mom's old stuff.
Sighing, Harry scooped some eggs onto his plate and turned to Hermione, who looked refreshed, but still had many scratches from her previous adventures.
"Feeling better today?"
"Much better, thank you. Professor McGonagall gave me my schedule. I'm continuing all my courses to NEWT level, because I'm not sure what I want to do yet? How about you guys?"
"Well," Harry began, "I need NEWTs in Defense against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms and… Potions. Ugh, Snape gives me the creeps. He's worse than last year. And, I'm going on with Care of Magical Creatures as well as Herbology. At least I can dump Trelawney and Binns, though."
"Yeah, but we also have Firenze this year," said Ron. "It was sort of weird last year, but kind of cool… I'm staying on with Divination."
"But remember the OWL? They didn't want us to burn sage leaves, they had us staring into a crystal ball."
"Do you think the NEWT will be the same?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Well, what did I miss yesterday?" asked Hermione in a lull in the conversation.
"You've met your new roommates, right?" said Ron.
"That Amber's a piece of work. I'm going to report her to Professor McGonagall first thing!"
"Why, what did she do?" asked Harry around a mouthful of toast.
"She and Umiko had a big fight. Apparently, Amber was using some of Umiko's stuff and called her a 'crazy Jap'. I tried to stop it, and Umiko just went kind of moody on me, but Amber flipped out and threw a book at me. And she kept talking about a kid named Devin and how he and his brother were the only nice people in the school. Do you know him?"
"Yeah," said Harry grimly.
"He's our new roommate," added Ron.
"Who's his brother?"
"Draco," said Ron and Harry together.
"Not… Malfoy?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"How'd a Malfoy get in Gryffindor?"
"He asked the sorting hat."
"And you have to live with him?"
"Unfortunately."
Harry looked down the table at Amber as she left the dining hall. She was holding something, but Harry couldn't see right. Then, to Harry's horror, he saw that she was holding Devin's hand. Harry's heart dropped.
"I'm not hungry," he said moodily, getting up.
"Why?"
"Just am. See you in Herbology."
Harry barely could see where he was going as he stumbled past paintings and statues who saluted him and kids wanting to know more about the end of the previous year. As soon as he got into the common room, he packed up his bags and walked over to the greenhouses. It had been so much easier with Cho, as she had lived in another house. He saw her only at mealtimes and the DA meetings. But Amber seemed to hate him already, and she was seemingly always there, in all his classes and wherever he went. He just felt worse and worse every time he thought about her. How perfect it could have been, if only he were different, he thought wistfully. I'm just a worthless little kid. Why can't I be rich like the Malfoys, why do I have to have this stupid scar on my head?
Harry stepped carefully over the vegetable patch and into Greenhouse 5, where they were studying today. As Harry stepped in, he realized exactly why they kept this greenhouse until NEWT level. Looking through the mist, Harry saw plants he never thought existed. Two kinds of ivy (one with rather nasty-looking spines) were racing each other around the sides of the greenhouse, dodging explosive spores that were sent by a nearby thing that looked, to Harry, like a green cannon with leaves on the sides. Another plant was singing the newest hits by the Weird Sisters softly to itself. Each blade in a bed of grass was changing places with another in an extended game of Chinese Fire Drill and one plant was sucking in huge breaths of carbon dioxide and blowing smoke rings of oxygen in various shapes, impressing a nearby sapling that clapped its branches in appreciation.
"Today," said Professor Sprout, striding into the room followed by a band of Hufflepuffs, "we will be studying flying lily pads, a topic that often comes up on the NEWT examination. Everybody get in pairs and go to you're a free lily pad."
Everyone looked around to see exactly what she meant. There was no pond in sight, where were the lily pads? Only Hermione, and her partner Pravati Patil, knew where to go. She walked over to a large bowl-shaped plant that was filled with water. A small seed floated in the air by each bowl plant.
"Now, who can tell me the how flying lily pads grow?"
Hermione's hand shot up in the air.
"Miss Granger?"
"The flying lily-pad is the world's fastest growing plant. It needs only water to grow. It will expand into a small disc and send down a tendril below it, which will attach to the bottom of whatever container it is in, no matter how deep."
"Very good, five points to Gryffindor. Now, everybody place their seeds in the water."
Harry picked up his seed and hesitantly dropped it into the water in the bowl plant. Harry watched with amazement as the seed grew a long root that attached to the bottom of the bowl. Then the seed expanded to form a large dark-green disc spotted with yellow.
"Now, one person from every pair be the spotter. Some people tend to be a little bit shocked their first time. The other person, stand on the lily pad.
Harry looked doubtfully at the plant. It was paper-thin, Harry wondered how it would support the weight of a person, but Ron was already climbing onto it, so Harry assumed spotter position. It held perfectly still, despite the fact that it was floating on water. As soon as Ron was standing up on it, the root began to extend, pushing the lily pad up towards the greenhouse roof and stopped when Ron's head was just about to touch the glass. Leaning slightly in any direction, Ron was able to direct the lily pad around the room. Looking around, he saw many other students standing proudly as they swooped around the room on lily pads. Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot had twined their roots together and made a small platform of two lily pads near the ceiling, and soon, others joined them to create what looked to be a flat-topped tree in the middle of the greenhouse.
And then Harry heard someone shout. Looking up, Amber had pushed Neville off the platform with a smile on his face. Harry, his partner Seamus, and Professor Sprout all ran out to help him, but there was no time, he was about to land headfirst on the soil. But, just before he hit the ground, he stopped, floating. Devin Malfoy held his wand out. With a grimace, he turned Neville right side up and lowered him the last few inches to the ground.
"You alright?" asked Professor Sprout nervously. "You had a nasty fall there."
"Yeah," said Neville, pushing himself up from the ground. "Cool plants…"
Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged looks. Harry then looked up at Amber, who had hidden her face. Was Harry the only one who had seen Amber push Neville, certainly no one else was looking up at her? Yes, Harry thought, I just imagined it. She looks so… sophisticated yet innocent, she wouldn't do that to someone, would she?
After Herbology was Charms, where they were practicing direction spells, spells that helped you find your way if you were lost. Then there was lunch, where Harry kept looking over at the Slytherin table, where Amber and the Gryffindor Malfoy had chosen to sit with the Slytherin Malfoy and his friends. Watching them chatter and laugh together made Harry's insides squirm making it hard to eat anything. Following lunch, they had another class of Defense against the Dark Arts with Professor Artemis.
When they walked in, Professor Artemis was already standing at his desk, his usual cowl hiding his face from view, the seats sloping up behind him like in a lecture hall. In front of his desk, however, was a new addition to the room, an ornate coffin standing on its end. Once everyone was in, he pointed his wand at the door and hissed, "COLLOPORTUS!" the door shut of its own accord and locked itself. He then waved his wand, and, soundlessly, the windows simply seemed to "turn off". There was no light at all coming through them, simply pure darkness. The only lights in the room were from the torches that covered the walls and the fiery pentagram behind Professor Artemis's desk, leaving it as dark as Snape's dungeon.
"Inside this coffin," said professor Artemis, "is a real, live vampire."
The class stared at him.
"Now," he continued in a harsh whisper, "the book mentioned being frozen. Does anyone know exactly what that means?"
Predictably, Hermione's hand shot up as well as, interestingly enough, Umiko's. Professor Artemis slowly raised his hand and pointed at Umiko.
"You… can't move for a little bit… and afterward…" she shivered slightly, as if the memory of it was haunting her. "You're cold… so terribly cold…"
Harry had felt a bone-chilling cold before, whenever he saw a dementor, one of the terrible guards of Azkaban, many of whom had revolted against ministry control.
"Like a dementor?" asked Professor Artemis, as if he had read Harry's mind.
"No, different… the magic in you is frozen."
"Well, let's see how you do with him."
In a matter of seconds, all the torches went out, the pentagram followed suit so they were in total darkness, and there was a creak as if the coffin was opening and then a crack as if Professor Artemis had apperated.
"LUMOS!" said Lavender immediately in a hushed voice (the capitals are to denote she's casting a spell).
Her wand flooded the room like light, revealing the face of the vampire. The face was very white, as if the vampire hadn't seen the sun in years, and he was wearing a red robe. His hair was straggly and long, and two fangs protruded out of the sides of his mouth that was caked with dried blood. Pravati screamed, but Lavender put a hand on her to calm her down.
The vampire stood for a second in the coffin and nobody in the classroom moved. Then it jumped and floated very quickly up the steps in the center, over some chairs, and landed neatly by Lavender. It had not arced over anything; it was more of an elongated jump. It reached for Lavender, who was now the one screaming. As soon as it touched her, her light went out.
"LUMOS!" said Seamus, illuminating the gruesome scene.
The vampire had opened its mouth and was going for lavender. However, seeing the new light, it did the same floating jump to Seamus, and his wand went out.
"He goes after light!" yelled Umiko. "Nobody use that spell!"
"So how will we know where he's going? He moves so silently!"
"Somebody help, I feel him!" yelled Seamus.
"LUMOS!" said Amber.
The vampire turned away from Seamus, whose face was so white that it looked like he'd already lost some blood and went for Amber.
"Turn it off!" hissed Umiko.
"You turn it off," spat Amber, tossing the wand over in the general direction of Umiko. It highlighted Umiko and Hermione's faces.
Harry could not believe his eyes. The delicate, perfect Amber, who had been everything Harry had wanted, had just put the lives of two other students in danger. It must have been the pressure – everyone was scared here, so scared that no one had moved. It was all Professor Artemis's fault. Yes, that was it; Amber had been driven mad by fear.
Umiko grabbed the wand, and pointed it at the cabinets next to Professor Artemis's desk where the stakes were kept and jumped across her desk. Harry, from what he could feel three rows below, felt a whoosh of air near where Umiko had been before, and realized the vampire had probably transformed. Harry saw Umiko over a seat – she hadn't been looking down with the beam of light, and fall to the floor. Amber's wand bounced between empty seats and fell to rest at the base of the teacher's desk.
Harry was galvanized into action. He ran out to the steps in the center and straight foreword towards the light. Just as he picked it up, he heard the flap of leathery wings and felt claws on his neck. Harry felt a gale rise up and die behind him, and suddenly felt the cold touch of the vampire. Umiko had been right, it was different from the painful, eerie cold of the dementor; it was a freezing cold that pierced Harry straight to his heart. He felt the magic freeze painfully inside of him. Amber's wand turned off.
"Somebody, help me!" yelled Harry.
"LUMOS!" cried Pravati from the back, practically in hysterics. Harry felt the Vampire's hands recede from him, but he was still unable to move.
"Pravati, run to the front! Get a wooden stake!" yelled Umiko, getting to her feet.
The light wavered on a face driven purely by fear, and then Pravati made a run for it, crashing through desks and flying towards the front of the room. About halfway down, the vampire embraced her in a killing hug and the light went out. The room was black once more. Harry, Lavender and Pravati and Seamus were all out and Amber didn't have a wand, which left the injured Umiko, Hermione, Ron, Neville and Malfoy still in the running. They needed three people to cast the spell and banish the vampire for good, which meant only two more could fall.
"LUMOS!" cried Ron.
Ron was in the front row, and when his light went on, he clambered over his desk and ripped open the cabinet. Sure enough, inside was a single one of the wood stakes that they had used to practice on the dummies the previous day. Ron grabbed one, turned around and… dropped it. It clattered to the floor as the vampire grabbed him from behind. Seconds later, his light went out.
"LUMOS!" yelled Umiko, taking up the challenge.
Umiko stood up and jumped into the stairs that she rolled down. It looked painful, but she seemed alright as she rolled directly under the spread lags of the vampire (she was quite small) and grabbed the stake. She and the vampire were facing each other. The vampire extended hi hands and Umiko drew back her stake. And stopped. The vampire had gotten to her first. Her light went suddenly out.
"LUMOS!" said Hermione shakily. Harry was surprised that Hermione hadn't gone earlier, but now Harry could she why: she was shaking from head to toe with fear and she was their last hope of defeating the mad creature that Professor Artemis had set on the class.
Hermione jumped foreword to grab the stake from Ron's hand. She climbed over desks and made a great leap towards the unmoving figure of Ron, tugging out the stake as she flew past. The vampire jumped at her. She dodged, falling to the floor. The vampire raised his foot. Hermione rolled out from under it. There was then a rush of air. The vampire was again a bat. Hermione got up, holding her glowing wand in one hand and the wooden stake in the other. She directed the beam of the wand around the room, but could see no bat. Then she screamed. Vampiric hands had her in a terrible hug, and the creature was sinking his teeth in…
In a flash, the vampire was gone, the coffin shut tight, the windows once again letting in brilliant daylight and the torches and pentagram burning fluidly. Professor Artemis was standing once more behind his desk. Harry realized, simultaneously with the others that he could move again. He reached down and picked up Amber's wand, throwing it to her and returned to his seat, the adrenaline still pumping through his system.
"My, my… ten people and you were still unable to defeat my vampire. Of course… we had two cowards," he inclined his head towards Malfoy and Neville, the former who stared resolutely back and the latter who hung his head in shame, "and a traitor," he nodded to Amber, who opened her mouth to show a brilliantly white smile – something that didn't usually exist in Britain. "And, of course, only one person who was knowledgeable about vampires. We will continue this exercise daily, slowly reducing the number of, and switching around, the participants. In the NEWT examination, there will be only teams of four."
Everyone resumed their seats, and then there was silence. Finally, Harry raised his hand.
"Sir, that thing could've killed us."
"Actually, those fangs are fakes. The testing board leant it to me. It was captured about three hundred years ago and used in the examination repeatedly. Whenever it's killed, they just reanimate it."
The silence continued. Everyone's heart was still beating quickly from the experience with the vampire.
"Well, if there are no more questions," croaked Professor Artemis, "then you may go."
They were all more than happy to leave, and, their classes over for the day, return to their dormitories. The only talk around the school was about the vampires – apparently both sixth and seventh years had faced it. Only one group of Ravenclaw seventh years had successfully defeated the vampire, and even they, a class of twelve, had only three left at the end. Students in lower grades were constantly pressing Harry about the details of the battle and what they would be facing when they had Professor Artemis.
Dinner that night was a loud affair. Between the lily pads and the vampire, the eight sixth years who sat at Gryffindor had more than enough to talk about.
"How'd you know all that about the vampire?" Ron asked Umiko.
"I…well, after my mom died, my father, my brother and I went trekking through the Alps in Europe. When we were up there with some tribesmen, we were attacked by one. All three of us were frozen. If it wasn't for the tribesmen, we'd probably be dead now."
"Wow," said Seamus around a humongous bite of Shepard's Pie.
"I didn't think it was all that impressive," said Hermione, scowling.
"That's just because you failed something in school for the first time ever," said Lavender.
"That's not true! He didn't tell us it wasn't real, it could have hurt somebody!"
Harry zoned out, watching Amber and the Malfoy twins talk with their heads close together. They were definitely planning something.
"I'm going," said Harry. "See you guys upstairs.
"Wait for me!" said Neville taking a swig of pumpkin juice and following Harry away.
They returned to the common room, where they played some chess until the others arrived. When everyone was there, they started working on Snape's potions essay that was due the next day. Well, Hermione did most of the work. Once they finished, Harry plodded up the steps and sank into bed, thankful for the respite from the long day. He fell asleep, and once again he was walking through the desert to the tomb, carrying the heavy coffin. Just as he was about to enter the tomb, he woke up to some whispering.
Harry pretended to continue sleeping, but rolled over to see who it was. Amber was in there, talking to Malfoy.
"Ready?" asked Amber
"Yeah, let me just get my wand…"
"Hurry up, Draco's waiting!"
Malfoy got out of bed, and they left together. What were they doing? After a short time, Harry had made up his mind: he was going to follow them. He rolled out of bed, threw on some socks, grabbed his invisibility cloak and the marauder's map (just in case) and followed them out.