Disclaimer: I am evil, so I steal other people's plots and characters. You can tell which ones aren't stolen because they tend to be incessantly annoying. Like dear Chance, Jack and Spader… They were fun to make. Don't worry, since a fourth card player shall be added in a few chapters… Oh, credits for their true creators! List is at the end.

And Flitwick is the head of House, and I do realize that the entrance to Ravenclaw is through a 'Knight', not dear Lenore. Don't worry, because there shall be a knight…. MUHAHAHA!

I tweaked the schedules. Don't kill me. Please.

Short chapter. I don't care. I had to have a good ending point.

Chapter Ten: Schedules

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Although the night did not pass easily for Artemis, he struggled through it as every genius trying to get some sleep would, finding comfort in thoughts of Chance becoming a hamburger-flipper at McDonalds. The trio, apparently oblivious to the fact that 'Hearts' was a four-person game, played all through the night, not slackening the least bit in sound. If Artemis had a penny for every time he tossed in turn in his vain attempts to get some sleep, he would have no need for Fairy gold or The Calling. He would have dumped the entire truckload on the trio's sorry little heads and let them talk all they wanted six feet under.

The morning, however, eventually did come. The first rays of a bright dawn peeped through the stain-glass raven in the window, making Artemis blink against the light. He briefly considered not getting out of bed in favor of sleeping through his first day, at least, until the grinning faces of Chance and Spader appeared overhead, both sets of bright eyes red from lack of sleep.

"Can you help us get Jack out of bed?" Spader asked, brushing back his loose black hair so it was out of his face. It was not particularly long; just very very wavy. It looked as if he had spent hours trying to get it to be just the right mixture of roguishness and neatness. As it turned out, he had spent a rather obscene amount of time working to get his hair right. Many of the local Ravenclaw girls happened to appreciate this.

Artemis mumbled something incoherent, and tried to suffocate himself with his pillow. After being foiled by the loose weave, he lifted himself from the deep blue bed and glared at Spader. "What time is it?" he asked the card-player, ignoring his inquiry.

Spader shrugged and looked Chance, who glanced at his watch. Chance stared intently at it for several minutes, and at long last said, "Ten to eight."

Artemis, had he not been a reposed genius, might have leaped out of bed and clobbered both to the ground (Unsuccessfully, I might add). Breakfast began at Eight, and he had to repair the dignified image.

After shoving Spader and Chance aside with as little politeness as possible, Artemis reached for his chest. He had a lot of preparations to do before the next encounter with the poisoner.

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Eleven minutes later found dear Artemis rushing into the Great Hall with a very out-of-breath knot of Ravenclaw people. The morning feast had just started, and since there were many other late people they passed to their seats relatively unnoticed. Artemis slid in between the red-head (Still sketching in that notebook of hers, giving him the unpleasant feeling of being spied upon) and Cho, who was gossiping away with her friends again.

"Venemost." He whispered to his plate, wand pointing at it inconspicuously from his lap. Much to his surprise (And fulfillment), it didn't glow green. It had worked…

You see, dear Artemis had found a rather clever way of getting around the poison. If he was not already there and the plates were already laid out, how could the poisoner know which plate to bespell? They had no assigned seats, so it had to stand back helplessly as Artemis ate as quickly as he could to make up for last night's fast. That's why it's called breakfast.

By the time the schedules were passed down, Artemis was feeling quite happy. That feeling was quickly erased as he saw what his schedules were. They almost all matched up with Gryffindor's… and Slytherin's.

First hour was Potions with Gryffindor, a mixed blessing. Hermione was there, and… she was there.

Second was Defense Against Dark Arts with Slytherin and Gryffindor, which he expected to be a load of utter rubbish. Lockhart had seemed like a total nitwit from the books, and he had already learned much. The only thing of interest in that class was the banter between Slytherin and Hufflepuff…. And, again, Hermione.  

Third was Herbology with Slytherin. He certainly did not care for getting dirt under his nails for the sake of a few plants, and he certainly did not care for 'hanging out' with a bunch of arrogant morons.

Fourth, right after lunch, was Care of Magical Creatures…alone. Ditto for that; he was not here to roll in the mud. He was here to hopefully learn and become powerful. Gold is Power, and Power is Gold. You do not get power by feeding flobberworms.

Next was Transfiguration with Gryffindor, which he was looking forward to. It sounded like the most useful of his classes, and Hermione would undoubtedly like the competition. Goodness knows he would; he had had none for a very long time.

The last of the every-day classes was History of Magic. Again, he did not care for the present, and he wasn't excited with being in with Slytherin either. It would be yet another hour to allow his mind to plot and scheme.

Astronomy was once a week on Tuesday evenings, all alone with his House. That he might enjoy. The stars always fascinated him, and undoubtedly Wizards had an interesting take on them that would be drastically different then what he had learned.

"Artemis?" The red-head asked, prodding him gently on the shoulder. It took a few moments to sink in that those were the first words she had spoken to him, and he turned to look at her. She was pointing at the card-players with one end of her wand, who were arguing with each other as Chance scooped up the pile of Knuts they had wagered.

He stifled a smile at their sight. They looked truly ridiculous. "Yes?"

Nothing answered him, and when he turned to see what was happening she was gone. Girls he decided concisely as he got up to go to his first class. Too confusing.

If only he knew….

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Holly glared at Trouble, who seemed to have a certain difficulty with grasping the concept of 'silent'. After catching her fiery gaze he fell silent, but his footfalls did not. Every step seemed like a thunder to Holly's jittery nerves, and the eerie quietness in the forest was not helping the least bit.

They were walking in the Forbidden Forest towards Faerie's Gambit after a hard day's work at trying to capture Artemis once more. They had agreed unanimously not to pursue Artemis on his first day and to take a break. Or rather, they would have taken a break had they not become hopelessly lost within the forest.

She shivered as one of the coils of mist brushed past one pointy ear. The fog only heightened the sense of the supernatural in this forest, and it seemed ever-present. Light outright refused to break through the dense latticework of leaves above, and all was in a twilight that seemed all too much like a downed tunnel that had a slight green tint to it. The rich forest loam did not wholly absorb the sound of cracking twigs beneath Trouble's feet, which made her elbow him in the ribs.

"What?" he whispered to her, unwilling to shatter the silence permeating the woods.

"Silent!" she seethed angrily into his ear, elbowing him again. "I think we're almost there…"

And she was right; the faint yellowish glow of true sunlight seemed to come from the mists in front of them. They nearly tripped over one another in their hast to get to the source of the glow.

Faerie's Gambit was a truly lucky find. They had found it by pure chance, which could have been explained by the Fairy-people's inherent luck. It lay in a small grove, one of the few places where both sunlight came in and friendly-ness was true. A ramshackle house of stones and sticks and been constructed with separate bunks for the two, as well as rudimentary furniture. A woodpile—the wood, of course, had been taken on the tree-sprites' permission—was stacked haphazardly near one side of the grove to warm the cold forest nights. In front of the cottage on a lone shelf, which had been thankfully untouched by the forest creatures, was their sole food supply.

Holly managed to beat Trouble to it and snatched up the pellets of concentrated rations. They had gone back and recovered their gear from where they had left it and pulled out the food rations, which were more then enough to last a month. A few baskets, weaved clumsily by the Fairies, held what little food they had found in the forest, like berries and a few wild onions and potatoes. Dried watercress and mint leaves hung overhead in a tangled knot, bringing some freshness to the glade. This was their temporary home. At least, Holly hoped it was temporary.

Trouble finally sat down with an appreciative sigh onto one of the log-benched they had made. Berry juices stained his face, making Holly laugh openly. He looked confused until Holly pointed at they small stream running nearby. He got up and looked into the rippling reflection, and he laughed too. Life wasn't so bad anymore. It wasn't the best, by any means, but it was more then they expected in the certainly unwanted company of Wizards.

Holly let the smile stay on her face, and she reached for the berries as well.

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Juliet looked back with a sigh at their new home, truly appreciative of the fashion-savvy Mary had so much of. It looked wonderful, completely different from the dilapidated ruin they had come across a few days ago. It was all white stucco, enchanted not to stain, with a nice gray-tile roof. The front lawn had been painstakingly cleared of garbage and weeds, and then fresh grass was transferred from the local gardening store. Pretty flowers (Purple and pink, of course) waved just inside the boundary of the white picket fence, and the pet houses they had made for their 'familiars', as Mary called them, were neat in the morning sunshine.

She frowned as Artemis tackled Apollo firmly onto the ground, not letting go until the larger kitten writhed beneath her grasp. Her cats were troublesome, always picking fights with another, with Precious (Who cowered in the safety of its pen), with the owls (Hooting anxiously in the roof-top eyrie) and with Mary-Sue. They were downright fearful of doing anything bad within her sight, but the golden-haired furballs found no problem with becoming the local bullies.

"You really should do something about those cats." Mary commented dryly, flicking her blonde hair over her shoulder. "They're going to hurt poor Precious at the rate they're going."

Juliet smirked. The pink paint that had 'accidentally' fallen on Precious while the painting process had not come out of her fur—and thus Precious became pink. It helped that Juliet had slipped a Permanent Charm to keep it like that, but it had given Mary a reason to let her paint her room the colors she wanted. Sure, green with bits of hot-pink didn't look good together, but they were still her favorite colors. Green was winning in favoritism now, ever since she started to fall into her role as a far-away body guard. Pink was still prettier.

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Butler groaned as he slid the length to floor against the door, fervently hoping that his massive bulk (All muscles, of course) would keep it shut long enough so the Paparazzi might give up and just go away. They never gave up, but just keep coming and coming and coming….

If went on for much more, he was afraid he would have to cal whatever sorry excuse for a police force Ireland had. They had, after all, failed to catch Artemis on ever single criminal enterprise he had completed.

His groan deepened to one of despair. He was doomed.

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That was a short chapter, but I don't really care. It was mostly catching up on the dear characters.

Credits for the Card Players:

Jack: Jeff Cole

Spencer 'Spader': Khoa Nguyen

Chester 'Chance': David Mellendorf (Although a much stupefied version of him, I'm afraid)

Quinn 'Queen': Sun Yang, Stephanie Morris and Tanya Le. Oh, and a touch of Alexandria 'Lexi' Egedy. She's for a few chapters from now, in Hufflepuff.

Rachel (The red-head): Artistically: Leslie Vaas and Tanya Le. Mentally: Arien Camariel (MY CHARCTER), Circe (MY CHARACTER), and bits of me.

Namárië,

*`~Nallasariel the Weeper