Chapter 8 - United against the same

Enemy

"Turnball Root will always be remembered, although he was a traitor to the city, for the times he was good, for the dignity he had, for his cleverness, and lastly, the kindness he had to his siblings, and the way he managed to show love." The fairy threw the last pack of soil.

"Wait!" Out came Root, with a rose in his hand.

Very Touching, thought Artemis icily. He obviously did not realize the seriousness of the situation.

Julius threw the rose into the grave, now looking very very sorry for himself.

Then with the grave fully covered, they moved out of the graveyard.

"Harry, what do you say?"

"Huh?" Harry had been too deeply immersed in the character, which killed Turnball Root.

"Harry, I said, where do you think Voldemort is hiding now?"

Harry was surprised. It looked like they were thinking along the same lines.

"I think he's aboveground."

"Where?"

Harry thought about it. Then his mind was cast back to the incident where his hand was twisted back. When his scar seared with pain.

"Wait a minute. I remember something."

Julius Root sat up. So did Ron, Holly and Artemis.

"I just remembered something when my scar had caused so much pain that I was thrashing about in the platform."

Julius Root closed his eyes. Why in the world did that darned Mud Boy want to bring up another bad incident in the history of Haven?

" Yeah, I got it!"

"What?"

"I heard this phrase. It sounded like, 'Wormtail, go now and hide in…no, no, it can't be…"

"What?" enquired Ron, feeling a bit left out.

"Do you know where Hermione lives?"

Ron sank limply to the ground. He swore.

"Worse still, she's a Muggle."

Holly and Julius were now feeling left out.

"Can you give us an update, Potter?" asked Julius, regaining his snappish manner.

Harry jumped. Julius had never called him by his surname before.

"Er…see here, Hermione is our school friend. The place I heard where Voldemort was planning to send Wormtail to hide, which meant he was going there soon, was somewhere nearby."

"Okay, what about the catchy words?"

Harry thought for a moment before realizing that the catchy word was Muggle.

"Muggle means not a half-blood, not a pure-blood. A half-blood is a person who had a Muggle father, pure-blooded or half-blooded mother, and vice versa. A pure-blood is a person who has both parents as pure-bloods. A Muggle is a person who has Muggle-Muggle parents."

Julius and Holly took a while to process this. When they finally did, their faces looked as constricted as Turnball Root's when he was about to die.

"Where does your friend, Hermione, live?"

The 5 of them were now in London. Julius and Holly were under the shield.

As Ron, Artemis and Harry walked in front while the invisible travelers hovered above, they could sense a little bit of trouble.

"We got a problem."

"What's that?" Artemis enquired.

"I checked the phone directory for Granger. Stupidly enough, these guys put addresses in the phone directory too. It was the correct address, as I read. 9 Pengio Avenue, London."

"So what's the problem?" Ron cut in.

"Apparently, they are the only ones who live in Pengio Avenue."

"Then why is it 9 Pengio Avenue?"

"There are shops, about 2 miles away, from the house. The street is a blank stretch till the Grangers."

"Which means…."

"Yes, it means that."

Ron looked forlorn now. If Voldemort was holding them hostage in the house, it will be all the more difficult to check on them.

Artemis looked at the useless guns hidden in his Armani suit. He looked around. After making sure no one was looking, he dumped 4 of the six guns in the dustbin. Two were left, just in case.

They reached Pengio Avenue after taking the London Underground to a nearby station. Then they looked to their left.

"Ohh, dammit."

Far away, way down the stretch, the 5 of them sensed trouble.

"Get here, now!" Holly commanded.

"What?"

"Commander, you have a Moonbelt, right?"

A Moonbelt was actually used by fairies to carry heavy weaponry easily, because it reduced weights to 1/6 of the Earth's norm.

"Yeah, I do."

"Alright. I'll take Ron and Harry, you take Artemis."

After having cam-foil wrapped around them, they flew up. Then the challenge started.

"Let's see who's faster, shall we?" Root muttered through gritted teeth.

"Yeah."

Below, the three of them instinctively closed their eyes.

Root massaged his eyes. "Looks like I'm losing it."

Holly had beat him. Which meant that, if the two boys clipped on below her had not held their breath, there would be a vomit trail behind them now.

Ron was lucky. He had gotten the better part of the deal.

They turned to look at the Granger's house. Suddenly, they realized their stupidity.

They had a chimney, but it was small! Therefore, it seemed like fire was coming out!

For a moment, all of them heaved a sigh of relief. Then the door opened, and immediately the fairies shielded.

"Harry! Ron! What in the world are you doing here?"

The next moment, Harry felt like he was being engulfed in smoke, except that the smoke was bushy hair. He preferred the former.

Ron quickly stood dangerously close to Artemis, as if he was not really in the mood to be hugged. Luckily, Hermione did not see through this guise.

Then she turned around and looked at Artemis. Their eyes met.

Ron quickly stepped in, in case the staring caused each other's eyes to be burned or something. He did not realize the staring was not to scare him away; it was because of a completely different reason. A reason that neither wanted to disclose.

"Who's this?" asked Hermione and Artemis at the same time.

"Hermione," said Hermione and Ron.

"Artemis," said Harry and Artemis.

The four of them felt a little awkward saying that. Then Artemis felt a little bit of fluttering near his neck. A warning to get a move on.

"Shall we go in?" Artemis enquired

"Sure," said Hermione, a little too high pitched.

The house was well decorated with pictures of Hermione and her parents. They were unmoving. Ron was heard to mutter, "Weird!" from the back.

Hermione was walking right in front of Artemis. Then Ron and Harry caught on.

"They fancy each other!" Harry exclaimed in a low voice.

"Imagine it. The crime lord and the wife…." Ron muttered dreamily.

Harry nearly punched him. Artemis had looked behind to see what was going on.

They were seated in Hermione's big room, on the third floor. "Now, explain." she said politely.

So instead of Harry, Ron decided to do Harry a favour and explain. Harry was too busy observing Hermione's eyes.

True enough, they darted to Artemis, and gave an appealing look. Artemis looked at her with his large round blue eyes, and gave her a look like it's going to be all right.

"They already look like they are courting each other," thought Harry insanely. Ron had a gaping mouth.

"Harry, I think I have finished my story. Shall we move off?"

Harry caught on, and they moved out.

As soon as the doors were closed, Ron fished out a couple of Extendable Ears from his pocket. He gave one to Harry.

Slowly, voices came into his ear.

"My god, Artemis, you are such a charmer!" came a squeal from Hermione.

Harry nearly jumped. From all the stories that Artemis had told him, he was everything but a charmer.

" I liked you as soon as I saw you. It was fantastic. I think you felt the same." Artemis's cool voice came out.

" Yeah, and here we are destined to meet!"

Beside him, Ron pretended to choke and puke.

"Do you like Ryan Cabrera?" Hermione asked Artemis.

"Yeah," came Artemis's voice.

Another squeal from Hermione. She was starting to sound like a pig.

"I do too!"

"Listen here, Hermione Granger. Me, Harry and Ron are on a mission now. Lord Voldemort is here and Harry presumes that he is hiding somewhere nearby."

There was a sharp intake of breath in the room. "L-L-L-Lord V-V-Voldemort?"

It was Harry's turn to gag. He mouthed to Ron, " It's not that I presume it, I know it!"

Ron nodded silently.

"We will meet after this mission. But now we need your help."

"Anything, Artemis. I'm really happy to have met you. I have never had this type of feeling before since…well…Viktor Krum. He's dead."

Harry remembered. Viktor Krum had been killed by Voldemort in the 6th year. This was a bigger reason for them wanting to get on with their mission.

Behind them, Julius and Holly unshielded and simultaneously gave the two eavesdropping boys a whack up their backsides.

Harry mouthed violently, Shut Up and Wait a Minute!

" I thought we have a mission in place?" Holly muttered through gritted teeth.

"Artemis and Hermione like each other," whispered Harry slowly.

Beside him, Ron was explaining the situation to Commander Root.

Holly was taken aback. This was not the time for a love story.

Just then, Harry heard the sound of chairs moving. "Dammit, take the Extendable Ears out now!"

They were just in time. They had shoved the Extendables into their pockets and were standing innocently, looking exactly as if they were about to knock on the door. The fairies behind them were a bit too slow, however.

The door opened and Hermione looked like she could scream the house down.

"Calm down, Hermione," said Artemis, his hand on her shoulder. Holly looked at Julius Root, who was completely bewildered.

Then Artemis himself launched into the explanation for the fairies. He told her about his escapade, editing several parts, to make him look like the hero. Holly looked as if she could pound Artemis the way Julius pounded the ground when Turnball died.

Hermione could certainly see the 'hero' in Artemis. They now looked as if they were about to waltz around the room to 'This Love'.

The way they walked down seemed like the first moment of the song.

"I was so high, I did not recognize, the fire burning in her eyes, chaos took control of my mind…" Harry shook off the thought from his mind.

Battling Voldemort was going to be all the more difficult with a love story in place with a war scenario.