Chapter 10 - An old foe and new trouble
The land was now flat. The 6 of them got off slowly.
All of their minds were blank. They could not believe what they had heard from Voldemort. They could not even believe they had escaped alive from there.
"I don't think what Voldemort said is true, " said Hermione flatly.
Ron sided that.
"He might just be playing with your mind," Artemis cut in.
Harry looked forwards slowly. "What do you say, Holly?"
Holly and Root buzzed into view. "You sure about giving advice to the Mud Boy?"
Harry suddenly realized that the fairies had been calling him Mud Boy ever since he had been seen in Haven. "Why do you keep calling me Mud Boy!" he asked angrily.
Holly could not take it any longer. She burst into laughter. Root chuckled derisively.
"What's so funny?" Harry asked hotly.
"We have been c-c-calling you M-M-Mud Boy so much, and you real-l-l-ised it now only? "
Harry did not find that funny. "Listen up. I am in a bad mood, and don't make me curse you, for you won't like it."
The two of them shut up, seeing as what pain Harry had inflicted on Voldemort in the cave.
"Mud Boy simply means person who lives aboveground, the person who used to live in Mud," Root added hurriedly in case Harry got into frustration mode again.
Harry cooled it. "Sorry, guys, I was pushed to the maximum, I really can't take it."
"None of us can, Harry, " said Holly soothingly.
Harry's eyes suddenly brightened. "What?" asked Ron mysteriously.
"Where is Hermione?"
Ron spun. In front, clearly could be seen, Hermione was walking away with Artemis absent-mindedly, with Artemis's hand on Hermione's shoulder.
"Hey! This is supposed to be a mission aboveground!" Holly muttered angrily. She made to go after them, but Harry stopped her.
"Let them go," he said softly. "We'll catch up later."
True enough, 2 hours later, the four of them bumped into Artemis and Hermione, outside a large manor that reminded Harry unpleasantly of Artemis's Fowl Manor. Ron's eyes were wide.
"Wow...I wonder who lives in this manor..." Ron muttered dreamily.
"Where did you two go?" Harry asked Artemis and Hermione.
"Oh, lots of places...Artemis brought me to the Muggle movies...then we sat by the roadside and had some food...nuts...wow.." Hermione drifted off.
Artemis held her closer. "We won't be seperated, will we?"
Hermione moved up to his face. "If we are, I'll come back..."
Harry turned around, disgusted. What in the world happened to make these two lovebirds like they were unseparable?
Julius Root stepped up. "Sorry to break it up, guys, but there is something wrong, as your friend, Ronald, said here."
"What?" Harry asked, turning around to face Ron. Ron's face had gone a pearly white. He hadn't expected the worst.
"Look at the name of the manor..." Ron muttered, his eyes taunting the ground.
Harry brushed off the dust over the name.
"Dammit." His face constricted till it became like it was shrunken.
"What is it?"
"Of all manors in this whole wide world, why did we land up in front of this one?"
"What is it?"
"Take a deep breath, and have a look."
Hermione looked at the name. Her dreaded enemy.
"Malfoy Manor."
The six of them wanted to make a break for it. It was better to, for in broad daylight, two fairies and three wizards, along with an European crime lord's son, to walk into the dreaded wizard's mansion, was stupid. Plain stupid.
They were just about to turn away when a smooth and oily voice came up from behind.
"Hey, isn't that Granger?"
Hermione strained her face. She wanted to smash the face that said that.
"Hey, Granger! No need to hide, I can see your great bushy hair there!"
Hermione looked as if she was on the verge of tears.
Harry turned around to scream an obscenity to Draco Malfoy, when he stopped. His jaw dropped.
Other than his hair being silkily brushed back to the back, Draco Malfoy was in robes of stunning silver, with a touch of blue and magenta. His face radiated vibrance, for once.
"You're lucky. You stumbled upon the mansion and Mother saw you. Father is not here, he is in jail...no...wait for it..yeah, I forgot, he escaped!"
Harry's insides turned cold. "E-Escaped?" he stammered.
"Yeah, Potter, that was about 6 months ago, right after 6th year ended. Don't you ever read the Daily Prophet?"
Harry was thinking, he did not need to read the Prophet when he had heard real ones muttered to him in life threatening situations, when a lady's voice called through the hall.
"Draco darling, bring your visitors in now...it's impolite to talk to them outside," Narcissa Malfoy's voice called.
Draco made a face, then waved his hands to signal that they were supposed to follow. Charming, thought Harry.
Draco looked behind. "You're lucky, you stumbled upon my birthday party. As usual, I had no visitors...I was kind of bored...then you guys turned up!"
Now Harry realised why Draco was happy. He knew how Draco had felt...having no visitors on your birthday.
"Draco, can you be quick? We are about to cut your cake!"
They broke into a jog, and in the process, Harry stole a look behind to see who was unhappy with the arrangement. To his surprise, Ron looked very very happy.
"Ron? Ron? Why are you so happy?"
Ron faced Harry with a cheery face. "Have we been in such luxury legally before?"
Harry had to admit they had not. The last time they had been in such luxury...well...that was a different story.
Narcissa Malfoy entered the room to find Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger(Gasp! A Mudblood!) seated comfortably on their sofa.
"Are these your friends?" asked Narcissa icily.
"Yeah!" Draco said so cheerfully that even Hermione began to smile. It was once in a blue moon that you saw Draco Malfoy look so happy honestly. The last times he was happy was because the others were unhappy.
"Let's go to your room, Draco," said Ron, wishing that he could see more of the great manor.
Soon after, they were seated on the chairs in the bedroom. Draco felt very happy, even if his enemies in school had turned up for his birthday.
"Draco? Aren't you a bit too old for birthdays?" Harry asked timidly, choosing his words carefully.
Draco began to scowl, and made some furious actions at his mother downstairs. Then he began, "Mother has been a bit unhappy since Father went to jail and she's trying to gloss over it. Me and Marriet, the maid, think she's going around the twist."
Artemis nodded sympathetically. He knew how it felt, except that Draco's dad had gone to jail and escaped.
Draco surveyed Artemis Fowl. "Who are you?"
Artemis, not used to this method of being addressed, got the gist, anyway.
"I am Artemis Fowl II. Son of Artemis Fowl the First."
Beside, Harry bent over to Ron and whispered, "They both are in the same mould..." and Ron doubled up silently in laughter.
It was easy to see why they were similar. To a Muggle, Artemis looked like a well-dressed businessman in Pampers, in layman's terms. Draco, to a wizard, looked like the ultimate non-rule-breaking strict character who stood no nonsense and not those who spewed nonsense either.
At that moment, a matronly voice called up the stairs. "Mr. Malfoy, if you please, lunch is ready."
Draco got up. "That's Marriet," he began. "She has been with us for 16 years."
Lunch found Artemis looking at chocolate gateau, pineapple pudding, and more mouth watering deserts. He had of course eaten all this before, but he had never expected this variety from other people. He could easily see that the Malfoys were rich.
"Mr. Fowl, what would you like to drink?" Marriet scurried around as Artemis cleaned his hands with his tablecloth.
"Er….Irish spring water, if you have it."
Artemis congratulated himself on his victory. The next moment he felt stupid for having asked such a question. If you have it, for heaven's sake!
Marriet continued to smile, then she took out her wand and muttered a few words. There was a loud whoosh, then in Artemis's cup, there was Irish spring water, just as he had asked for it. Without ice too.
Artemis had the weird feeling that Marriet could read minds. When he looked up, he saw Marriet smiling eerily at him and nodded her head.
Draco and Harry were engaged in a fast conversation. Harry had been telling Draco about their latest escapade.
"So, then, Draco, the land rose and we escaped! Hermione and Artemis went out together for about 2 hours, then we met in front of your house! Pretty cool, huh?"
It looked like Malfoy shot Artemis a dirty look. "Creep."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing, no problem at all." Suddenly Draco's voice had turned cold.
Draco and Artemis hardly talked that day. Both of them were in intense staring matches. Ron decided to ask them what was wrong.
First he went to Artemis. "Why do you and Malfoy stare so hard at each other all the time?"
Without looking up, Artemis replied, "He's staring at me, so I'm staring at him. Tit for tat. Aurum Et…"
"What?" Ron got the gist, however. It looked like Malfoy had the problem.
"Draco? Why are you staring at Artemis like that?"
Draco did not look up either. Instead he snarled, "What's your problem, Weasley?"
Ron was stunned. What happened to the kind and non-malicious Draco Malfoy?
"I'm not inquisitive. You two are looking at each other like you want to burn each other's eyes out."
"That's the general idea."
Ron was not sure he had heard properly. "What did you say?" Then slowly it dawned on him. Draco's father knew Dark Magic, which meant….Draco was going to do Dark Magic on Artemis to get rid of him!
"Draco, you nitwit, are you planning to destroy him with your eyes? I know you know Dark Magic, and if you try anything…."
"Shut up, Weasley. Haven't you seen enough to know I won't kill Fowl? We are having a friendly staring match, that's all. My father never taught me Dark Magic."
Ron slowly relaxed. Of course. He had been the nitwit. In fact, in the previous year, Draco was the one who had faced Voldemort and had wanted to save Viktor Krum from doing the stupid thing. Unfortunately he was a little too late.
Then slowly it dawned on him again. What were they both competing on?
Hermione!
It was the only thing possible, because for one thing, Draco and Artemis had never seen each other before until a few hours ago. Hermione, after all, had been huddled up to Artemis all the time! Harry too had said that they had gone out for 2 hours before he had met them along with Ron, in front of Malfoy Manor.
Just then, Holly and Root shimmered into view. "Mind-wipe the other Mud Boy once we've finished with Ronald."
"What is it?" Ron asked unsuspectingly.
"We've had an urgent message. Your house has been attacked."
