Chapter 7: The Real Work Begins

Dinner that night wasn't overly pleasant. Rumors were already circulating on the Phoenixflame members, raging from where the members had come from to what frightening abilities (such as going dichotic, creating several arms or legs for themselves at will, and being vampires or werewolves) any of the members may poses.

Things didn't seem to be going too well for Harry either. It was obvious to most of the Phoenixflamers that everyone in the Hall was trying to goad Harry into shouting his story to high heaven.

Soon it was apparent that the trio had had enough, and they retreated to the common room before Harry made anyone's head spontaneously combust, preferably Drano's.

Meanwhile, Artemis and the others were deciding on positions for that night.

"Ok, how about this;" Hannah said with some sort of exasperation in her voice, as the conversation wore on without any solution presenting itself. "We were in groups of two last night, and we'll stay in groups of two, but we'll rotate. We'll use an order of, say Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Artemis and Annette had Gryffindor last night…" She went into a very complex idea involving far too much switching around for anyone's health. Annette stopped her before she lost herself as she had everyone else.

"Hannah, that's a good idea, but not right for the situation. If the enemy was in the school, and he knew our abilities, that kind of thing would be appropriate. But we don't have to worry about losing the enemy that much. Instead, we should all stick with the partners we're already with. We'll switch houses every month. That is, unless you have any insight, Artemis?"

Artemis closed her eyes and thought hard. "I feel, strongly that Annette and I should be at, if not near by, Gryffindor Tower around Christmas… In fact, all of us should. I don't know why, but something's going to happen. Annette, if we went with your plan, we'd end up in Slytherin. But then… it doesn't matter. Any of you could handle the situation… what if we all use the hidden dorm room in the tower during the week before Christmas; otherwise we follow your pattern?"

"It may throw us off a little, but I'm game!" said Devon said, simply.

There were no objections, and the girls left for their separate houses for the night.

In Gryffindor Tower

Annette and Artemis were upstairs in their dormitory, changing for bed.

"They have a good chance, you know." Artemis commented conversationally.

"Who?"

"The twins. With those sweets of theirs, they do have a chance a t being successful. Once they work out the kinks, of course."

"I know." Annette paused. "Artemis, are you sure you don't know what's supposed to be happening this December?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Annette, we took Drama together. You know I can't act. "

"You can when it's a serious situation. I've watched. I know you can look somebody dead in the eyes, tell them pigs have wings, and they'd believe you."

"And aren't you some sort of expert on knowing weather or not I'm lying?"

"With all this magic hanging around and our new abilities, I'm not on equal footing with your mother as a lie detector. So, do you know or not?"

"No, Annette, I don't know. All I do know is that Voldemort's going to get handed a really good card… and…" She thought hard. "There's an elder Wesley involved… and fangs…. That's all I ca-"

Annette held up a hand to silence her and placed a hand of the floor, concentrating hard. Suddenly her head shot up. "Someone's coming!"

"What did you think of that moonstone essay?" Artemis said quickly.

Just then, the door opened and Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender walked in, the latter two's gossip dieing off suddenly as they saw Artemis and Annette already in the room.

"Honestly, as long as Snape or anyone else doesn't ask for a paper on time travel theor- oh, hey girls. Artemis and I were just talking about… Um… is something wrong?" Annette asked, for Parvati and Lavender were staring at them as though they were filthy, evil creatures that must be destroyed.

"Get out of here, Werewolf." Parvati said darkly.

Annette raised an eyebrow. "I'm a werewolf? Well, that's news to me. I mean, you'd think that I'd have gone, transformed, and be ravaging the castle by now."

"Hermione, are you going along with-" Artemis started, but Lavender cut her off.

"Shut up, Vampire."

"Vampire!" Artemis looked around wildly. Vamps meant bats and bats… Artemis couldn't handle bats.

"Yes, Vampire; Now, we want you and your pet out of here now or we'll go and get McGonagall."

Annette sighed and shook her head. And some people called her blonde! Then she remembered something. She motioned Artemis to open one of the windows. When they walked over to open them, Parvati and Lavender drew their wands.

"What are you doing? STOP!" Parvati cried.

Too late. Artemis and Annette flung open the windows and the moonlight flooded the room. Full moonlight.

Parvati and Lavender gasped.

Annette however, raised a hand and began examining it closely, as though searching for a hang nail. Artemis, however, simply looked bored.

After a few minutes, they both turned and closed their respective windows. Then Artemis went over to her trunk and pulled out a small mirror. "Engorgio." She said, pointing her wand at it.

The mirror grew in size until it was full length. Artemis was clearly reflected in it. She shrank it back to normal size, and then turned to the girls.

"Any other tests?"

"Yeah, how well can you catch?" Lavender threw a silver spoon at Annette, and Parvati a small cross at Artemis. Both girls caught the flying objects without trouble, and held them without effect.

"Anything else, Lavender? Parvati? Garlic and wooden steaks? Wolfsbane and silver bullets?" Artemis asked darkly.

Parvati and Lavender looked relieved, disappointed, and cautious as they entered the room without a word and started getting ready for bed. Hermione was also silent as she prepared to go to sleep, as were Annette and Artemis.

Everyone climbed into bed, and the lights extinguished themselves.

Why didn't yo-I stop Parvati and Lavender? Artemis was playing conscious in order to get some answers.

"Because I wanted to know what they would have found out, if they had been right about the whole werewolf/vampire thing." Hermione thought to herself.

Why? You know they can be ridiculous. You should have helped Annette and Artemis.

"I don't know if I can trust them. I don't know anything about them, but I do know that something seems…. Out of place; dark, almost."

If they really are hiding something, wouldn't there be a justifiable reason behind why their hiding it?

"I suppose… but what if they're hinding it, whatever it is, because they were sent here form the…. Dark side?"

Artemis's couldn't catch hold of her next thought before it flew to Hermione's mind. But the Dark Side has cookies!

Hermione shot up in her bed, wondering where that thought had come from, while artemis hid behind her curtains, trying not to laugh and mentally reprimanding herself. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

After a while, Hermione calmed down and went to sleep. Once Artemis was done mentally beating her head against a wall, she did the same.

The next day started very normally, Artemis and Annette woke up early due to Jet Lag, and quietly performed their daily workouts, showered, and had just finished getting dressed when Parvati and Lavender woke up.

They all looked at eachother, wary and still rememvering the previous night's incident. Then Lavender broke down.

"I'm sorry about last night… Professor Trelawny said that there was something very dangerous and powerfull about you. We kinda also got ideas from-"

"The rumors?" Artemis finished for her.

Parvati and Lavender nodded.

Suddenly Hermione sat traight up, eyes wide. The first thing out of her mouth was, "Cookies!"

They all looked at her strangely, then burst out laughing. Hermione blushed when she realized what she had said and clambered out of bed. She then headed for the bathroom.

Artemis regained her composure. "Well, if it makes any diffrence to you two, though our house posesses gifts of a wide range and can cause unbeliveable damage, we use them to accomplish what's best for the people. "

"What if that's… killing someone?" Lavender asked hesitantly.

Artemis and Annette turned to her, then glanced at eachother.

"That is an absolute last resort. We've had to destroy creatures that would have killed for sole personal gain or to bring about an evil that would cause unspeakable terror and chaos, but… that's all. All nine of us hope to never have a hand in destroying the life of anyone else, because even those creatures…..some of the most foul and evil beings in the universe…. Even their deaths leave scars." Annette explained.

Lavender thought for a moment. Then she said; "Nine?"

Annette had just realized the wording herself and gasped slightly, looking at Artemis, who's face had darkened beyond all recognition.

Parvati and Lavender stepped back upon seeing Artemis's expression. Their gazes flickered from Artemis, to Annette, to eachother, and back to Artemis. "Is something wrong?" Parvati asked hesitantly.

Annette paised before answering. "A few months ago before we came here… A friend of ours was killed by one of the creatures in battle… she was very close to Artemis. The Creature that killed her… there wasn't even a finger or scrap of clothing left… that's the one thing that Artemis and the rest of us would make pay for everyting he's done."

The two girls were shocked. "What was her name?' Lavender asked.

"Rini." Artemis said, quietly.

The three of them started and stared at her.

Artemis looked between Parvati and Lavender. "Hope to kingdom come that you never experience that… this kind of pain, cause it never goes away."

Parvati and Lavender nodded furventlly.

As everyone headed to class after breakfast, Annette noticed that Hermione wasn't speaking to the others. She pointed this out to Artemis, who did a little digging and found that Ron had commented on Hermione's elf hats by calling them wooly bladders. She told this to Annette, and they both agreed that by what they had seen the night before, Ron had a point.

In class today, the Phoenixflamers were avoided as though they had the plague; but other than that, things ran normally: Hard classes started by "why O.W.L.'s were so important " lecture.

It wasn't untill Care of Magical Creatures that Annette realized that something was very wrong: One of the teachers was missing; Professor Rubeus Hagrid.

Hannah and Devonny, who were still with the Slytherins, saw Annette and Artemis walking with the Gryffindor group, and hurried over to them. "Why didn't Dumbledore tell us that Hagrid wasn't here?" Devonny asked.

Artemis was stuck in memory, and apparantly a bad one, because she snapped back with, "Hello? He wasn;t at the Teacher's table the night we arrived. I should think that it was obvioius that there was a teacher missing!"

The others backed off, steming any further questions that their minds were full of.

"You'd still think that Dumbledore would tell up if something was going ont… like why Hagrid's gone." Devonny muttered to herself.

We're still an unknown entity here. Even Dumbledore doesn't know the whole truth . Artemis thought at everyone.

"Do we?" Asked Hannah quietly.

The group turned to her, curious, if not slightly offended. Not know the whole truth about themselves?

Hannah continued. "Even with everything we do know, we don't know everything. We don't know what the future holds for us, even with Artemis' abilities. "

The group was silent for a moment, which was eventually broken by Annette, who said simply," Well, back to the botruckles."

"What is it with these teachers and essays with exact inch leanths? I must know!" Annette had been ranting about homework all the way from Herbology to Dinner.

Artemis tried to calm her down, dispite the fact that she was rather steamed herself.

They were just headed to find the others when a booming voice sounded from behind them.

"Oi, Potter!"

Artemis and Annette slumped visibly. "What now?" Moaned Annette, though not loud enough to be heard. They lisitened in for a few seconds.

"Keeper tryouts. Well, nothing we can do about that." Artemis was evedentally releaved that their schedual wouldn't take more of a beating than it was already suffering. She sat down at the Gryffindor table, and Annette followed suite.

Annette gave her friend a curious glance. "Wha- oh. Duh. Mind on the mission, safety only… even though it looks to me like Angelia's ready to bite Harry's head off…" Something occored to Annette. "Artemis, you wouldn't happen to know what those Detentions entail, would you?"

Artemis replied ,"No." a little to fast. Annette, realizing this, gave her a doubtfull stare.

After a moment, Artemis caved and grudgingly put her hand next to Annette's and the vision from earlier that day flashed though their minds.

Annette's eyes flashed in anger. "That's child abuse! That gross, demonic, scitsophrentic, phycopathic (A/N: for Cyber: dishwasher on automatic)…"

Artemis nodded grimly. "I know, and none of us have developed our abilities to the point where we can drive that woman up a chimny… not that she'd fit."

Annette's attention skipped for a second. "Why's Ron worried about wether or not it's going to rain?" She leaned past Artemis and looked at him oddly.

Artemis noticed what kind of look it was. "Net, you know he's not yours and never will be. And he's going to try out for Gryffindor Keeper. It's pretty obvious."

Annette sighed. "I know… but hey, it's not like I'm crushing on Harry or anything like that."

"Yeah, well, you know how dangerous that would be. It's utterly forbiddin. Attachment to the principal, or for that matter, any of his close companions, and this mission will be more difficult than it is already. " Artemis said in hushed tones.

"You think I forgot basic training?" Annette asked, hurt.

"No, but I don't want you to forget, so I'm reminding you. Now, eat healthy, and some stuff that will get you to stay up. We've got 1st patrol tonight. "

As Hannah and Devonny walked into the Slytherin Commonroom area that evening after dinner, they distinctly heard Draco Malfoy's voice.

"-flamers have been here for long enough. Has anyone figured out who they heck they are? Who do they think they are, anyway? Whenever I see them around they're always in pairs, wispering over something or another. I personally would not be surprised to find if they are all mudbloods or halfbloods." Whatever Slytherins were around listening laughed uproariously upon hearing that.

Hannah and Devonny, still out of sight of the people in the common room, looked at eachother and sliently agreed that right now, clichés were allowable. They walked around the corner just in time for Malfoy to continue.

"My father said that Dumbledore lets anyone it, and it's because of that that this school is going to the dogs."

"Didn't Cherlyn tell you earlier today that you can't live behind a man like your father? Geeze, you can Longbottom thick headed." Hannah said suddenly, alerting the Slytherins to her and Devon's presence.

The Slytherins present, with the exception of Malfoy (obviously), laughted.

Well well. Thought Hannah. "No loyalty amoung theives", eh?

"You don't know anything about my fath-" Draco snarled, but Devonny cut him off.

"We know enough. We knoe that he works for one of the most evil men alive, that he himself murders and plunders and tourtures. And we know that he is attempting to bring you up to be the same. Tell me, did you ever think that your father may actually be wrong for once? And, sadly, in the worst way, that he chose the wrong side in this war? You don't know what Voldemort's really about, do you? He's out for himself, Numero Uno, and nobody else."

Where do these girls get their volcabulary? Thought Draco. "You-know-who is out to purify the Wizarding race, Orbenson."

"That may be a side effect of his plan, but… Oh, never mind. You couldn't fathom what death and destruction it will take for him to reach his real goal of eternal life. He's a coward for that very reason: He runs from death."

Malfoy's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish out of water.

"Now, who's up for some scary stories?" Hannah asked brightly.

The Slytherins laughed. Scary stories? What did she think they were, 2nd years? And besides, Hannah? (Who looked exactly like Artemis from the back, but hadn't any bangs, and who's eyes were terquoise instead of amber brown, surrounded by a fox like mask of freakles) Innocent and sweet looking Hannah? Tell thriller and horror stories?

Hannah grined in a way that looked innocent enough, but hinted at something beneath her fox mask sat down with her back to the fire, and began. She told of a cursed monkey's palm that granted wishes without any concern over good or evil; (A/n: those who have read Holic xxx by CLAMP, you should know what I'm talking about. If you don't know the story, don't read it.) of the small, delicat yet vengfull severed hand of Jade Green, of a cow's head that haunted and killed the boy that killed it, and many more besides. The Slytherins present were soon so freaked out by the way that she told the stories that a few kept nervously looking behind them for the creatures (or bits of them) she described.

An hour after everyone had gone to bed, nobody but Hannah and Devonny was asleep, but none of them were willing to leave their beds, either.

"Any luck with findint any new secret passages?" Artemis asked for the upteenth time that night.

It was only 8:00 that night, but Annette and Artemis were on patrol anyway, looking as though they were just wandering the hallways.

When Annette didn't answer, Artemis looked around. Annette was nowhere in sight. As this was the first night on patrol, this was not good.

"Annette, if you're playing a joke, you know full well that now is not the time."

No answer.

Annette, who was standing all of ten feet away marveling at her newly discovered invisiblitiy power, suddenly got an idea and phased thought the floor, heading for Hope's dorm.

Artemis, meanwhile, was ticked, if not slightly paniced. Finally, she decided that Annette had gone on some crazed adventure, or passage hunting purely on her own, and she continued on her way.

"Hope, wake up! C'mon wake up!" Annette whispered frantically, shaking Hope.

Hope's eyes flew open. "Net! What the heck?"

"Hope, Artemis spilled on Harry's detention. We need you to heal him. Now, come on! Harry's going to need us up there at any moment!"

And with that, Annette dragged Hope out of bed and into the wall, re-emerging from the floor just outside Umbridge's office.

"So how are we going to do this again?" Hope was still steamed at Annette, and her tone showed it. However, Annette took no notice.

"We go inside, invisible, go through the door, and heal Harry's hand."

"And we have to heal it… why?"

Annette let loose an agrivated sigh. "No time! You'll understand as we go!" She grabbed Hope's hand went invisible again, and dragged her through the door.

"-any ink." Harry said, as they walked in. They saw him holding a long, thin black quill with an extrodiarily sharp point. The pair also saw Umbridge sitting primly in her desk chair. Annette made a mental note to turn it into a giant lilly pad.

"Oh, you won't be needing any ink." She laughed slightly.

Annette dragged Hope through the desks just as Harry put quill to parchment. They watched him write "I must not tell lies." In shiny red ink.

Hope and Harry gasped in unison as the words etched themselves into Harry's hand. Hope instantly understood, and held her hand over Harry's and healed the wound.

Annette, meanwhile, was studing the two's faces.

The cut-heal process continued for the next few hours, Hope slowly being drained of her energy.

Finally, around 1:15, the vigil ended. Harry ran off to the tower. Annette, low on energy herself, phased thought the floor with Hope, and they walked off to their own dormitories for the night, avoiding Crystal and Cherlyn, who had taken Artemis and Annette's place for patrol.

A/n: w00t w00t! Chapter 7 finished. No, I havn't really gotten started on chapter 8 yet… but oh well. I've got tons of free time, so that should be up sooner or later… hopefully by the end of the summer… Has anyone finished Book 6 yet? Thought so. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to kinda freak out. If you havn't read the book yet, don't continue to read, just hit the review button. If you have read it, feel free to rant with me. Warning: spoiler content ahead.

BY THE MOON, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING MS. ROWLING? OMG(OSH)!OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH! HOW CAN YOU DO THAT TO US? YOU KILLED OFF DUMBLEDORE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Yes, it may be true that you FINALLY got Ron and Hermione togeather as well as Harry and Ginny (HA! It's cannon now!)and it was absolutly hilarious that Harry was Hogwarts' offical stud, but…. Dumbledore can't really be gone, can he? The whole thing with the phoenix flying joyfully into the blue…maybe…. Maybe Fawkes was a sort of white magic version of a horcrux(sp)? Hmmmm…….. AH, DARN IT! PLOT BUNNIES! runs off into the distance like the crazy girl Skyphoenix is