REVIEW REPLIES:

Summer: Hi again! Don't worry about it, school is horrible all over the world. Artemis could fall off the edge of a building and still find a way to convince himself that it was a strategic move lol. Yeah, Nico probably wouldn't have a hard time escaping Azkaban(or however you spell it) if he could get past the dementors. I love big bro Percy too! This fandom seriously need more fanfics with a big brother-little brother relationship between Nico and Percy. Yeah, Nico's got it rough. Nope, Artemis didn't get any fitter, as this chapter will reveal. Artemis is probably used to people asking about his name at this point. After all, to Percy, Artemis is named after a man-hating goddess, so meeting a male named Artemis was probably a bit confusing. Annabeth's hubris probably wouldn't let her forget being beaten by a kid four years younger than her. Yeah, Nico's really having a bad time right now, but like I implied earlier, Nico's starting to get over Percy, to the point that he isn't sure if being called 'little bro' by Percy is painful because he's in love with him, or if it's because no one had called him that since Bianca died. So yeah, he's getting over it. Kind of. Even if Nico did believe in flying cars, he wouldn't believe that Ron could fly it safely. Can you really believe that Percy and Annabeth would let Nico go all the way to England for school and pass up the opportunity to go sight-seeing? As promised, the reunion is here, but it's not exactly what I implied… Anyway, thanks for reviewing, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

OwlFace12: Aww, thanks! It's great to know that you like it! I was actually kind of surprised to find out that someone hadn't already written something like this, so I decided to write one myself! I always wondered what it was like for Nico, going between the Underworld(or in this case, the wizarding world), CHB and CJ, so… yeah, you get the idea. Anyway, thanks for reviewing and I hope you like this chapter!

Percabethworshiper: Thanks! I've always wished that they were closer in canon, so here we are! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Artemis wished that Nico wasn't such an idiot.

He was a genius, but he wasn't a miracle-worker! Okay, he was a miracle-worker, one of the best in fact, but even he couldn't safely perform a memory charm at the age of 12! He probably would be able to if he tried, but it could result in terrible consequences, something he'd rather not risk. He could probably spin a convincing lie if he had a few minutes to think, but the only options he could think of on the spot weren't... ideal. To be fair though, Nico wasn't really leaving him many other options by shadow-travelling straight into the middle of their compartment.

Well, this would be a tricky mess to clean up.

****10 minutes ago****

Artemis ,quite literally, ran into Draco while he was racing to board the train in time.

"Ow!" Draco exclaimed, rubbing his forehead and stumbling backward at the same time as Artemis as they collided, "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

Artemis doubled over panting, clutching his side, "I was trying to catch the train in time." he wheezed, "Which I did."

"How far did you run?" Draco asked, looking slightly concerned at the sight of him wheezing and panting like he'd run a marathon.

"I had to run all the way from the barrier to the train!" Artemis replied, still trying to catch his breath.

Draco gave him a dry look, unimpressed, "That's like, barely 100 meters."

"Trust me, I know." Artemis groaned before muttering under his breath, "I really need to find a way to squeeze a bit of exercise into my schedule."

"Okay..." Draco trailed off, "Anyway, I'm going to go find Potter. You coming with?"

Artemis shrugged, "I suppose so. Nico will catch up with us later. Hopefully."

Draco grinned, "Great! Now come on!" he said, grabbing Artemis by the arm and pulling him away.

"Draco," Artemis sighed, looking every bit like an exasperated older brother who was tired of his younger sibling's antics(despite being the youngest in their year), "Must you go and visit Potter's compartment and start teasing him before we even get to Hogwarts?"

"Yes!" Draco insisted, "Besides, I have really good teasing material this year! Dobby let me read all of Potter's mail! You have no idea how much blackmail material I have now."

"Who's this 'Dobby' person?" asked Artemis, "And why did he let you read Potter's private mail? How did he even get it? That's illegal, trust me, I should know."

"Oh, Dobby? He's my family's house elf." Draco said casually, "As for why he let me read Potter's mail, meh, I don't know," he said with a shrug, "Dobby's cool that way."

"How did he get it though?" Artemis persisted.

"With Dobby, who knows? I've found that it's better not to ask."

"Interesting." Artemis mused, "Do you think he'd be interested in helping me with a few... tasks this winter?"

Draco shook his head regretfully, "He'd probably love to, but he can't leave the house for too long without father noticing his disappearance, and I'm not going home for Christmas this time around, so I can't cover for him." Noticing Artemis' disappointment, he added, "Cheer up though, it's probably for the best, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't enjoy being dangled out of a window."

Artemis raised an eyebrow, "Dangled out of a window?"

"Dobby has a strange way of showing affection. Let's just leave it at that."

Artemis nodded serenely, "Nevertheless, I would like to talk to him sometime. He may have some... valuable information."

"He's a house elf mate," Draco snorted, " I doubt he knows much valuable information. And even if he does say some... stuff, you can't take it seriously, right?" he asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"Sometimes, the most valuable sources of information are the most inconspicuous and seemingly unreliable."

"I hate it when you're right."

****Line Break****

"Guess what, Potter?" Draco declared dramatically, bursting into the compartment that Harry and his friends were supposed to be sitting in.

He was met by the confused stares of Theodore Nott, Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.

Artemis sighed, and would've facepalmed, but refrained from doing so as he'd rather not loose any braincells so early in the year, "Sorry everyone," he apologized on Draco's behalf, "Wrong compartment." he explained, allowing himself to be dragged away by Draco.

"Wait!" Theodore yelled, "Where are you two going? You could stay here and catch up for a while, you know! We haven't had a decent conversation in months!"

"We'll try to drop by later!" Draco called over his shoulder, "Right now, I've got some Gryffindors to tease!"

****Really? Another unnecessary line break? Hmm.****

Hermione's nerves were already frayed.

Harry and Ron had never showed up, even though all the other Weasleys had made it onto the train. She tried to tell herself not to worry, Harry had an owl, he could easily owl Professor McGonagall if something went wrong. The boys could be responsible! As soon as she thought that, she winced, because that sounded wrong even in her head.

Neville, who was sitting in front of her, noticed her pained expression, "Relax, Hermione. Harry and Ron will be fine. They're perfectly capable of finding a safe way to school, even if they don't have your brains on their side." He assured, patting her hand reassuringly, "Besides, they're pretty capable, you remember last year, Harry defeated You-Know-Who for the second time!"

"Ron helped too." Ginny, Ron's little sister, piped up from her seat beside Hermione, "He kept talking about it all summer. You won't believe how many versions of the same story I've heard." she said, giving her a pointed look.

Hermione turned away uncomfortably, remembering what had actually happened that night in the Third Corridor, "Yeah, about that..." she trailed off.

She was spared the awkwardness of letting them know that they hadn't actually done those things by themselves, by the timely arrival of none other than Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy didn't burst into their compartment like he had done last year. This time, he cracked open the door, caught sight of her, and then burst into the compartment.

"Guess what, Pott-" he began, before halting abruptly, "Wait, where's Potter?"

"Please tell me that you didn't burst into the wrong compartment again, Draco." sighed a familiar voice in exasperation.

"I didn't, I swear!" Malfoy protested, "Granger is in here and everything! I checked." he turned his attention to Hermione," Hey Granger, where are Potter and Weasley? You're usually attached to the hip, aren't you?"

Artemis appeared at the door of their compartment, "Nice to see you again, Hermione." he said to her with a slight nod, "Sorry about Draco, he's rather desperate to find Potter."

"Yeah!" Neville grumbled, clenching his fists, "To bully him!"

"Shut it, Longbottom." Draco ordered, rolling his eyes, "I don't bully Potter. I aggravate him. I aggravate him, he aggravates me. It's a mutually beneficial system. Don't meddle in things you don't understand." he said loftily, before gasping in mock horror(or maybe it was actual horror, it was hard to tell with Malfoy), "I've been spending too much time with Artemis."

Artemis scoffed and spluttered indignantly at that, as though he couldn't think of an appropriate answer.

"That system of yours doesn't sound very 'beneficial' ." Neville pointed out.

"Like I said before, shut it Longbottom."

"Anyway," Artemis interrupted loudly, "Where is Harry? And Weasley, for that matter."

Hermione chewed her lip nervously, "That's the thing, I don't know. They never made it onto the train."

Artemis hummed thoughtfully, "I see. Did you check inside each compartment?"

Hermione felt a spark of irritation at being treated like some sort of idiot, "Yes, Artemis." she snapped, "I'm not an idiot. Now, do you have any useful ideas?"

Artemis, curse him for being so good at keeping his composure, didn't rise to her bait, "I'm afraid not." he said calmly, "There's nothing else we can do from the train except wait and hope."

"Some genius you are." Hermione grumbled.

Draco snapped his fingers, "Wait, Nico never made it onto the train either! Which means that he's probably stuck with Potter and Weasley, wherever they are."

Artemis snorted and muttered something under his breath.

"I find that highly unlikely." she heard him say.

"And why is that, Artemis?" she demanded. She could tell that Artemis knew something that she didn't, and she did not like not knowing things.

Just then, with uncanny timing, all the shadows in the compartment slithered(how would you describe moving shadows?) to the middle of the room, condensing to form a dark figure that she vaguely made out to be human.

A few seconds later, Nico di Angelo ran out of the shadows, still pushing a trolley from the station. His eyes widened as he realized where he was, and tried to slow down his cart.

Unfortunately, trolleys really aren't made for train compartments(which is why the Trolley Lady never actually entered compartments) and Nico's trolley was no different. With a mighty crash, the trolley banged into the compartment door, sending some of his lighter luggage flying.

Nico stood there, shell-shocked, still holding onto the trolley's handle.

"Uh..." Nico stared hesitantly at the 5 other people in the compartment, "Hi?"

"That's why." she heard Artemis groan.

****Line Break numero 4(because I don't know Spanish)****

"What just happened?" Hermione asked, shrilly.

"Uh..." Nico hesitated, meeting Artemis' eyes.

'Give me a minute!' Artemis' eyes seemed to scream.

So Nico did the first thing he thought of.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He yelled suddenly, throwing his hands in the air and waving them around frantically.

Artemis stared at him, rooted to the spot, while the others jumped at the sudden volume.

"What?" Draco squeaked, "What the- How the- I give up!" he moaned in despair.

"W-What just happened?" Neville stuttered, staring at Nico in horror.

Artemis shook himself out of his shock, "How did you know?"

"Know what?" Nico asked, confused.

"That today is my birthday."

"Uh..." Nico felt compelled to admit that he had no idea that today was Artemis' birthday, and that he had just panicked, but if this was just some elaborate cover story, well, he couldn't risk blowing it, "Of course I know! You're my friend, why wouldn't I know remember your birthday?" he chuckled nervously.

"How did you do that- that thing?" Ginny asked quietly.

"What thing?" Nico asked innocently, trying to stall.

"You know," Ginny said, wiggling her fingers, "The shadow thing."

"Oh that," Nico said. rubbing his neck, "That was..."

"A rather elaborate prank." Artemis blurted out.

Hermione whipped around to face Artemis, narrowing her eyes, she asked, "An elaborate prank? Really, Artemis? Is that the best you can do?"

"Umm..."

"Did you really think that we'd be stupid enough to fall for that?" she demanded, "You may be a genius, but that doesn't mean that everyone else is dumb!"

"That's not what I think, and you know it." Artemis protested.

"Yeah, well, I'm not so sure anymore." she retorted, before turning to face Nico, "You two are hiding something. And I want to know."

"We!" Draco piped up, "We want to know."

Hermione didn't even bother rolling her eyes.

She drew her wand defensively, "So are you two going to explain whatever that was? Or do I have to do this the hard way?"

"What's the hard way?" Nico dared to ask.

"I'll tell the professors about what just happened. All of them."

Nico gulped, he couldn't tell Hermione about his powers, because she would tell Harry and Ron(who he still didn't trust). But on the other hand, if he didn't answer her questions, all of their teachers would know, which was worse.

'It's not as though you're going to tell her about the gods, right?' Nico reasoned, 'Just feed her the same lie you told Artemis, if he believed it, she definitely will!'

He shot Artemis one last desperate glance, pleading for him to do something, anything to salvage the situation. Artemis just shrugged helplessly, as if saying, 'I tried, you're on your own now'.

He took a deep breath, "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"The truth." she answered immediately, "All of it."

Nico grimaced, Hermione wouldn't be getting the whole truth anytime soon, Western Civilization depended on it.(okay, that was probably a bit dramatic, but it got the point across!)

Time to play one truth and two lies.

A.N:

Okay, another chapter down!

So, the reunion happened, even if no one got much time to just chill and chat.

I'll admit, I even surprised myself with the ending of that chapter. It's definitely not what I originally had planned.

I've decided on having a sort of friends/rivals, or a frenemies relationship between Artemis and Hermione. Hermione admires his ingenuity and enjoys hanging out with someone who actually understands what she's rambling about, but she also hates not being in the know, or being treated like she doesn't know stuff(which is guaranteed to happen around Artemis). As Myles Fowl so eloquently said, "Keeping secrets is the core of what it means to be a mastermind!" or something like that anyway.

Also, sorry if Hermione seems a bit mean right now, she'd just really confused and wants to know what's going on. Like I said before, she hates not knowing things.

Anyway, that's it for this chapter!

As usual, please review, and I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible!

Have a great day/night!

-Keera (::)