Finals, string of birthdays in a row and mono OO
All respectful rights go to the respectful owners.
Dinner out in the back porch had past slowly. Artemis almost felt out of place amongst his mother and father. Ever since they had been reunited after all the problems that had befallen them they had been acting like newlyweds. It was reassuring to sit on a chair looking over the Fowl Land in the warm summer night while out of the corner of his eye he would occasionally glance at his parents. Now and then a thought struck him while he did this, one he would never of considered if he had never met the fairy folk… would he ever find someone like his father found his mother?
Before coming across the fairies and in a sense growing a conscious the young teenager would never have thought such a thing. Hormones just seemed to send everyone but him into a whirr around valentine's day, and he always thought the whole thing was….well.. silly. He never understood how all those boys would fall so hard for the younger Butler, why they would waste money with gifts for her and why they made themselves look like such fools in front of her. He use to ridicule them silently to himself when they use to come calling but now… when he saw them he would rack hid mind about what possessed them to act in such a manner. He didn't like it very much when they came around anymore and would sneak off into his room, which suited the lovebirds just fine.
He sighed and closed his eyes as he took on the sounds of the night, willing his mind to think of less pleasant things. He could hear the occasional giggles of his mother and the chuckle of his father, and the concert the crickets kindly provided them. Nothing seemed out of place in this natural scene. It was perfect… in every single way… until…
Bzzzz...bzzz….Bzzz…
Artemis jumped in his seat his hands scrambling for his pocket. He didn't get calls very often anymore, only from his parents (and it couldn't be them, they were seated right next to him), or from Butler. It could be possiblely be from Butler but the other one person it could be sent his heart racing. "Can it be… finally! After all this time!" he thought with a new light appearing in his eyes.
"Oh Arty, please put that away. And enjoy the moment with me and your father. You hardly touched your lemonade." His mother pleaded. He was tempted to say yes but a call from the fairy folk… from Holley.. this was important! "I'm sorry mother, father. Raincheck?" he offered kindly and rose from his seat and briskly walked back indoors. His mother tossed a look at her husband and sighed. "He's so serious and always worried with business… I had hoped that once you returned he would be more his age…" she said sadly. "Now, now my dear. Artemis is special and you know that. For all we knew it could be a girlfriend calling." He said with a smile. Angela smiled sadly "If only if only…" she mused to herself.
Once inside the kitchen Artemis cast a quick look around the kitchen and composed himself. How embarrassing would it be if she would be able to hear the excitement in his voice. "Hello….no…Hello" he said more firmly. "I sound to harsh… Hello… hm… that will have to do." He said after testing out the best way to answer the phone. He cleared his throat and answered the call. "Hello?" "That boring without us h'uh." Damn it… how could she tell? Ah well, it was Holley! The fairies! He knew he had missed their kind, some of his first friends.
"Maybe. What's going on?" He heard a heavy sigh on the other line. "Nothing to big… Foaly just got permission to go to Scotland and went missing all the sudden. His last coordinates were in some forest." He could hear the edge on her voice. Foaly was one of her closest friends after all, the centaur had done so much for her through the years. And now he was missing…. "Alright, give me the coordinates." "Not… over the phone alright. I'm really not permitted to go on this mission let alone with you but… who's to know?" "In person?" "Tonight, me and Mulch will be there at midnight. Have Butler ready. I don't know how long we'll be gone for so make some sort of excuse for your parents. " "Alright." "Alright. See you then…Thanks."
Click
He stared at the phone for a moment, blinking at the small black item in his hand. It was almost so… surreal. He shook his head lightly and placed the seemingly ordinary item back into his pocket before stalking off down the hall. "I wonder where Butler got to… he's got to pack and I need to do some research. Scotland… what could Foaly want in Scotland!"
Now that was a puzzle worthy of Artemis Fowl.
The fire blazed warmly in the Gryfindor common room. At this hour only a few were still awake, like the Hogwarts infamous trio plus on or two stranglers. Harry, Ron and Hermoine huddled close in a circle to one another, the news of the strange centaur filling them with confusion and questions that none of them could answer but they sure as hell could try.
"What do you think happened to him?"
"Was he kicked out the same way Firenze was?"
"Its possible then what did he do to get the rest of them so mad?"
"I don't know, but I don't think we'll know until he wakes up."
"Hm… do you think he's awake yet.."
"There's only one way to check."
Harry and Ron stared at Hermoine. They could hardly believe that she was the one suggesting such a thing, sneaking out in the middle of the night…. But Harry and Ron weren't going to argue with her. They were both thinking the same exact thing but just didn't know how to bring it up. Hermoine was such a stickler for the rules.
"I'll go get my cloak." Harry whispered and started to get up.
"Wait!" Hermoine hissed and grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. "Wait till everyone is gone first." She hissed through gritted teeth. They all scanned the common room to note three more Gryfindors still hanging around. There was a third year bent over a desk scribbling ferociously on parchment in the dim light, only pausing to yawn and stretch. Then there was a seventh year couple cuddled in front of the fire. Besides them the room was empty.
"Well this shouldn't take to long.." Ron muttered to himself.
Artemis and Butler stood out in the front of the Fowl Manor. It was five to midnight but looking at how alert these two were you would think it was five to noon. It had taken quite a bit of weaseling on Artemis's part to think up of a decent enough excuse for his mother. A special leadership seminar for the brightest of Ireland. Of course she wanted to see him off, to research the place, yadda yadda. It was all fairly messy and he was still patting his back in accomplishment for being able to sneak away in the middle of the night. His parents have gotten so much harder to deal with since they were back together. Acting like normal parents of average kids! Honestly how could anyone manage with such thing.
Butler didn't need such an excuse. It was a given that wherever Artemis goes he goes. That afternoon he had been busy packing a variety of tools that they might need. If they were dealing completely with the fairy folk though then none of it would be operational around their powerful magic. But Artemis did say Scotland and as far as he knew Scotland wasn't a particularly magical place.
"Were you able to uncover anything about why Foaly would want to go to Scotland?" Butler asked and looked over to his pale faced friend.
Artemis shook his head lightly. He looked puzzled and his forehead crinkled in such a way that if he didn't stop that habit it would be littered with wrinkles soon enough. "Scotland had its fair of odd news, and seems to be favored owl area for flying, bird watchers go there often to observe them but funny enough some of them go missing. I never though bird watching could be such a dangerous sport." He said with a sigh.
"What does that have to do with Foaly?" Butler asked Artemis sighed and shook his head.
"I don't know… I just don't kno-"
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a shimmer in the air. He paused and turned his head and did his best to contain his smile though a small smirk snuck out. But that was alright, even before he met Holly he did his fair share of smirking.
There was a thump as two forms came into view, one holding his head in pain. "You crazy elf girl! Why did you drop me!" Mulch sad angrily. Holly shot him back an innocent look which Artemis took to mean that she was 100 guilty. "Why did you have to relieve gas all the way here?" she asked calmly.
"I'm a dwarf! It's what dwarves do!"
"Not in front of ladies."
"You're a lady?"
"Watch it Mulch!"
"Aye! You don't have to kick me! Crazy Elf Girl!"
"Good evening, it's nice to see you two again. I see that you are both… well." Artemis said, interrupting the oh so not interesting argument.
The four exchanged pleasantries before they got down to the real business.
"So what happened." Butler asked.
Holly's eyes glazed with determination when she told them what she knew, which unfortunately was such a small amount of information to start with. After she finished there was a moment of silence as everyone's heads churned with the information. Well… only Artemis was silent for that reason the rest were waiting to hear what he said they should do.
"Well…" he began and ignored the eager stares in his direction. He scratched his chin lightly as he thought. Under his fingers he could feel the starting of a rough patch of hair that was as of now unnoticeable to the eye…but he could feel it.. it was there… He sighed and lowered his hand.
"I think we need to go to those coordinates you have. How do you plan to take us all to Scotland?" he asked, and regretted asking at once when he saw the flash in Holly's eyes.
"You've traveled with the use of my moon belt before have you not? Under the cloak of our technology." Artemis paled as he and mulch eyed Butler worriedly. "True but not with Butler." He pointed out.
"We all make sacrifices." She grinned.
"Everyone except for the crazy elf girl with the wings." Mulch muttered darkly under his breath.
"Come on, we better get started. It's a long way to Scotland from here." Holly grinned, ignoring the comment.
"Crazy Elf Girl" Artemis thought to himself.
Under the cloak of the invisibility cloak Harry, Ron and Hermoine made their way to their strange new guest. They walked slowly and in silence, not wanting to create any sound that would bring notice to themselves. They never would have imaged how long it would take for that damn kid to finish his essay. They were just about to send Hermoine over to do it for him when the boy triumphantly threw down his quill and rolled up the parchment before bounding up the boy's staircases without a look back .
"Bloody hell! I don't know if I should feel sorry for that kid or want to beat him up for taking so long!" Ron muttered right before they left.
"Harry… I think the coast is clear." Hermoine whispered when they stood right outside the door to the infirmary.
"Alright." He whispered back and removed the cloak. Ron stepped forward to open the door.
"What are you three doing out this late?"
All three guilty students jumped and whirred around. "Firenze!" Hermoine gasped.
"We were…uh…" Harry gulped.
Firenze smiled kindly and shook his head. "Don't worry, knowing you three you were all probably up to something…but nothing bad. I hope." He said.
Three relieved smiles spread over their features (none greater then Hermoine's). "What are you doing up so late? " Hermoine asked.
"Looking at the stars, but that isn't important. What about you three? " He asked, quirking his eyebrow questionably.
"I uh.. guess you haven't heard. " Ron said and looked out of the corner of his eye at Hermoine and Harry.
"We found a centaur, past out at the edge of the woods."
I'm so sorry for the long wait. Yech. I feel like this wasn't one of my best works but I'm going to try harder!