Hello all!! Thanks again to everyone who's been reading and reviewing! You guys are the coolest.....Please, do keep those reviews coming in!!

Oh....since I am posting this today, the 31st of July, I would like to take the time now to wish The wonderful J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! lol

Disclaimer: Again, I am not J.K. Rowling and I do not own any of her characters....though I wish I did lol!

Chapter 8: Artemis Maximus the Third

That night, Harry awoke to the loud noise of the squeaking floorboards and the sound of footsteps coming from very close by. "Who's there?" Harry called out as his arm quickly reached for his glasses. There was no answer. Harry strained his hearing to listen for any more mysterious noises that might occur, however, not a sound could be heard. Thinking that it was just Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, or maybe a working house elf finishing up some late night cleaning, he replaced his glasses from where he took them and returned his head to his pillow.

He had just closed his eyes in hopes of getting in a few more hours of sleep before morning when suddenly a hand shot out from the darkness and took hold of Harry's neck--barely choking him to death. The other hand went for his mouth to stifle any cries for help that might have forced its way out of Harry's mouth.

"Looking for me Potter?" the harsh, dark voice whispered out from the shadowy darkness. Harry was struggling from within the tight grasp of his unknown attacker until finally he managed to free his mouth from the cool and clammy hand.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Harry was speaking in a little over a whisper, hoping that Ron, Neville, Dean or Seamus would hear him, wake up, and come to his rescue.

"Never you mind! Where you're going you won't need to know....." The voice said forebodingly as a shiny, silver blade was now making its way towards Harry's throat. "Good bye Potter....." The mysterious person let out a deep, sinister laugh before raising this weapon high into the air, preparing to strike. The blade was now swiftly moving towards Harry's neck and was merely an inch away from its desired target. It was so close that Harry could literally feel the coolness of the blade and could tell that it was in fact very sharp. He closed his eyes tightly, helplessly anticipating his quick and painful death.

Harry's eyes instantly shot open as he heard a loud thump come from near by. He had apparently been dreaming and it was that loud thump that had awaken him from the horrible nightmare that he'd just had. He reached out his arm promptly towards the bed-side-table and put on his glasses, realizing that it was now morning.

With his glasses now on, the view of the room became much clearer. Quickly, Harry scanned the room for what could have possibly made that noise and let out a long sigh of relief when he saw Ron hopping around on one foot, while grasping his other in pain. "Ron," Harry began in all curiosity. "What on earth are you doing? You look like you're preparing for the ballet or something."

"Sorry Harry," Ron managed to say through his clenched teeth. It was obvious that he was in a great deal of pain. "I stubbed my foot on the corner of my trunk....OW! It really hurts!"

"Oh, that's good," Harry replied as the tension fully left his body.

"What d'ya mean that's good?.... I think my toe's turning blue!" Ron was a bit astonished to hear that Harry didn't seem to care about his injured foot.

"Oh--well, when you made that loud noise, you woke me up from a very awful dream that I was having." Harry informed his friend.

"Harry, was it one of those premonition dreams that you have sometimes?" Ron was now sitting on the edge of his bed, caressing his foot gently to subdue the pain.

"No.....at least I think it wasn't," Harry paused as he thought hard then responded. "No, I'm positive it wasn't. I was sleeping and then I heard these footsteps so I woke up to see what it was.....Then out of nowhere, this mysterious hand came out of the darkness and tried to kill me with an axe..... That was when you woke me up."

Ron sat on his bed, contemplating the events of Harry's dream. "Oh Harry, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I mean, if it wasn't one of those other kind of dreams then I'm sure it doesn't mean anything....any ways, we'd better be getting dressed and go down to eat breakfast. Neville, Dean and Seamus have already left."

Once Harry and Ron had gone down for breakfast, they saw that Hermione was already seated at the Gryffindor table. "Good morning Harry," she greeted brightly then quickly shifted her mood. "Hello Ron," she said more spitefully.

"Come on Hermione," Ron pleaded. "You're still on about our little argument last night?" He recalled how they had been fighting over Percy being at Hogwarts.

"I'm not sure," she responded, lightening her attitude. "I guess not. Well.....sit down then."

Harry and Ron both took seats across from Hermione and began serving themselves some bacon and scrambled eggs. Soon after, Professor McGonagall was making her way around the hall, passing out the class schedules. Harry unrolled the piece of parchment and began looking over his classes.

"We've got Charms first with Hufflepuff," Harry informed his friends. "Then double Potions with Slytherin....That'll be great!" he added sarcastically. "And after lunch it's Herbology and Double Transfigurations." Harry scanned the rest of the week's schedule. "We don't have Defence Against the Dark Arts until tomorrow."

"Well, that doesn't seem so bad does it?" Ron said in between bites of food. "At least we don't have to suffer another year with Divination....and except for Potions with Slytherin, the rest of the day seems pretty decent."

"I can't wait to see what the new teacher's like though," Hermione added. "I hope he'll be a lot better than that Umbridge woman and actually let us cast spells in class!"

At that moment, the sound of flapping wings and soft hooting noises came from above and Harry looked up to find that owls were swooping down from every angle to deliver the morning mail. Hermione paid for her usual subscription to the Daily Prophet newspaper and had also received, what seemed to be a letter sealed in a dark red envelope.

Harry's arm shot out for the paper while Hermione curiously opened her letter. His eyes scanned the pages of the Daily Prophet in hopes of finding an article about the Order's progress or anything concerning Voldemort's return. Realizing that there was nothing of importance printed in the paper, Harry put it down in dissatisfaction and redirected his attention to Hermione, who was now deeply engrossed in the reading of her letter.

Ron sat impatiently, wanting to know what the letter was about. Finally Hermione looked up with a rather content look on her face. "Well....what's the letter about?" Ron inquired.

"Oh, it was a letter from Viktor...." Hermione started but was cut off.

"Really, and what exactly did he want? Does he still like you?" there was a slight tinge of jealously in Ron's voice, which Harry had picked up instantly.

"Would you let me finish!" Hermione said with annoyance. "In the summer, I wrote to him saying that things wouldn't work out between us and that maybe he should find himself a nice Bulgarian girlfriend.....So he wrote to tell me that he would try to, but he didn't seem too happy about it."

"Oh well!" Ron said. "He'd be better off with a girl closer to home any ways." A look of relief came across Ron's face. "Now you can focus more on school!"

"I suppose," Hermione responded with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

At that moment, Harry heard sounds of loud chattering and turned to see where it was coming from. "Hmm.....I wonder what that crowd is up to." Harry's attention was directed towards a group of giddy girls that appeared to be making its way in the direction of their table. Ron and Hermione both turned their heads just in time to see the new transfer student, Artemis, emerge from within the sea of giggling females.

"It was nice meeting all of you, girls. I guess I'll be seeing you around then," Artemis was struggling to free himself from the cluster of crowding girls. Harry--now with a better look at the new student--realized that he wasn't at all that bad looking and seemed to attract quick glances from many of the female students.

Now completely free, Artemis took a seat next to Hermione and began introducing himself to the three of them as he ate his breakfast. "Hello there, I'm Artemis as you probably already know."

"Pleased to meet you Artemis," Harry greeted politely.

"Yes, same here," Ron added.

Artemis' eyes were glued on Harry's scar momentarily before speaking again. "Why, you must be Harry Potter!" he was exclaiming his amazement. "They talk about you all the time at Katherine Cackles."

Hermione interrupted. "Yes....and what exactly made you decide to leave Katherine Cackles and come here?"

Artemis' eyes were now focused on Hermione. "Why.....hello there," he appeared to be in a trance upon laying his eyes on Hermione's face. "I'm Artemis, and you are....." he extended his arm towards Hermione, as if motioning to shake hers.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she offered out her own hand. "So, why did you--"

She was abruptly stopped in mid-sentence as Artemis took her hand in his and gently kissed it. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Hermione.....that's a very pretty name." Hermione's face was now turning red like a ripe tomato, and she pried her hand from Artemis' hand.

Ron cleared his throat loudly to interrupt the awkward moment. "I believe she asked you a question, Artemis!" his voice was a little louder than normal. Harry could've been wrong but he believed that he was detecting more signs of jealousy from Ron.

"Oh, right," Artemis now returned his attention back to all three of them, instead of just primarily on Hermione. "Well, my school offered a one year internship program for those students that wished to explore other schools, such as Hogwarts.....So I decided to apply for the program and surprisingly got accepted!"

"Good for you, Artemis," Hermione congratulated him. "Is everyone at your school um....well you know.....smart?" she seemed to be wanting to ask that question most of all.

"Well, that is what the rumours say," Artemis chuckled slightly. "But, I can't say that we're perfect--no, even some of the smarter wizards have their flaws."

Harry smiled as he teased Hermione. "Here that Hermione? Even some of the smarter wizards aren't perfect!"

Hermione refused to let Harry's comment bother her, yet, if Harry was mistaken, he could see her cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

"Right.....Well, erm....we'd better be getting to class," came Ron's voice, who seemed very eager to leave Artemis alone at the table. He and Harry both stood up, preparing to leave. "Coming Hermione?" Ron asked with a slight bit of tension in his voice as if urging her to rise from her seat.

"Oh--okay," she stood up. "See you in class Artemis." And the three of them left the Great Hall for their first class.

"Well, that Artemis fellow seems rather nice....don't you agree?" Hermione was saying to her friends as they made their way towards their Charms classroom.

"I don't know about you, but there's something peculiar about him," Ron's eyes were squinting with suspicion.

"What on earth are you talking about Ron?" Hermione said with shock. "He was very charming....something that you (her eyes shot at Ron) will never have."

"Um....well he seemed a little too friendly towards you, I think! Yea that's it....isn't that right Harry?" Ron asked Harry, hoping for his backup.

"Erm....right...." Harry replied, though--in all honesty, he really was paying no attention at all to Ron and Hermione's conversation, he was more focused on something else. He'd just seen Cho pass him in the corridor--her hand in Michael's. Yet, although she was with her boyfriend, Harry could've sworn that she shot a smile towards him as he passed by on his way to Charms.

Charms went by quickly. Professor Flitwick had taught the class a new spell--how to make objects disappear for a period of time. Harry surprisingly had succeeded in turning his Charms Book completely invisible after only a few tries of waving his wand and saying the incantation--disapperato, and Hermione had managed to perform the spell flawlessly with very little practice at all. Ron on the other hand, was only able to make half of his Charms book disappear but was pleased to find that Artemis was having very minor difficulties as well. Although Artemis was able to make his book fully disappear without fault, it refused to remain invisible and would return back to its normal state seconds later.

However, by the end on the class everyone (including Neville) was vanishing the desks, chairs--almost everything in the room, and returning it back to its original state with ease, with the reversing spell--apperato.

Potions class in the dark, dingy dungeon was rather dismal. Professor Snape had begun his class by lecturing the class in his long, droning voice, "Potions this year will require the utmost concentration and precision and I have no doubt that some of you will continue to do well (he was looking at Malfoy)..... However, some of you that managed to scrape your way through your OWLs and barely pull off a passing grade will have to work extremely harder this term (he looked at Harry).....it is a wonder that you are in my class at all."

Harry was indeed beginning to wonder just that--what was he still doing in Potions? He was given the opportunity to discontinue his studies in the Potions field of magic. However, when he was consulted by Professor McGonagall last year about his future plans, Potions was one of the classes required to become what he wanted to be--An Auror.

They then proceeded in the concoction of Snape's newly taught potion. Harry, who had accidentally added too much of the Powdered Sequoia Bark was frantically trying to clean the bubbly mess that was seeping from the rim of his pewter cauldron. Snape had of course caught this and awarded Harry with extra Potions homework for the night.

After lunch, Harry, Ron and Hermione attended Herbology in the greenhouse and finally Transfigurations with Professor McGonagall where they were finally taught how to transform their desk into a pig. Harry had been waiting for this ever since Professor McGonagall had demonstrated such magic in his first year at Hogwarts. It had looked so easy when Professor McGonagall had done it, yet in reality, it was quite a difficult task and no one, including Hermione was able to completely make a full transformation into a pig. There were desks with four pig's feet protruding through the bottom, desks with curly pig's tails, and some desks with a full head sticking out from the front, snorting wildly.

"This is a lot more difficult that I thought it would be," Hermione said with surprise. She had of course expected to perform the spell better than anyone else in the class.

"You're telling me!" Ron was looking at his desk with frustration as his half desk--half pig's head was staring back at him with its dark, beady eyes.

"Well....at least your pig doesn't seem very hungry," Harry added. "Mine wants to eat my robes, I think." He snatched his long, black sleeve out of his pig's mouth and examined it for any chew markings.

After about an hour of unsuccessful attempts, Professor McGonagall returned all the desks back and motioned for the class to sit down. "As you can see, turning larger objects into animals is a lot more difficult than turning simple matches into needles....but we have come a long way since your first year, therefore much more effort is required." Professor McGonagall then dismissed the class however called Harry to stay behind.

"Go ahead Ron," Harry called out. "I'll catch up with you later." He walked over the Professor McGonagall's desk. He was clueless as to what was going to happen.

"Potter, I need you to meet me in my office after dinner....there is something of great importance that must be taken care of," she gave Harry a sort of serious look.

"Umm....Professor, what needs to be taken care of?" Harry asked with the utmost curiosity.

"Oh, well you'll find out later," she had a small smile on her face. "I need to confirm it first....then I'll let you know after dinner....now off you go then."

"But--Professor--I...."

"You'll see later, go have yourself a nice meal then return to my office." It was clear that Professor McGonagall was not going to go into further detail as to what was happening, so Harry did as he was told and left the classroom.

Hours later, he, Ron and Hermione were in the Great Hall. Harry was quickly scarfing down his food because he was very eager to meet Professor McGonagall in her office. Once he had finished his meal, Harry looked up at the head table and saw that McGonagall was nowhere to be seen. Immediately, he rose from his seat.

"Well, good luck Harry," Ron said as he patted Harry on the back, though he did not know for sure whether Harry needed luck or not.

"Um....Thanks Ron," Harry said with uncertainty in his voice.

As he left the hall, he could hear Hermione's voice in the distance, "Ron! Honestly, you're acting like Harry's gotten expelled or something!

Personally, Harry had no idea what was going to happen--would he get expelled?....but he had no reason for an expulsion. All the many possibilities passed through Harry's mind as he made his way towards Professor McGonagall's office-maybe he had somehow, without knowing, broken a school rule and would be getting punished...or...perhaps, she had some important information on Voldemort's return that Harry needed to know.

Harry arrived just outside of Professor McGonagall's office and knocked on the door. Whatever the reason for this meeting, Harry was sure nothing good could become of it. He stood nervously in the dark shadows of the corridor waiting for the door to open, preparing himself for the worst possible thing to come.
OooOooH! What could Professor McGonagall possibly want to tell Harry? Well, I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out....next chapter will be coming.....In the mean time, please review my story and keep checking back for more! Thanks!