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Summer: Thank you! It's a relief to know that Nico wasn't too OOC. For some reason, I keep worrying about whether characters are OOC or not, no idea why. As usual, thank you for reviewing!

DaughterOfHecate: Aww, thank you so much! You have no idea how much it means to me to know that people actually like reading this! Also, it's good to know that I'm not the only one with sister issues😅. Thanks for taking the time to post a review! I hope you like this chapter!

ARTEMIS GOES ALL DEEP AND INTROSPECTIVE

Artemis was officially the world's biggest idiot.

Well maybe not the biggest idiot in the world, seeing as he was a child prodigy, after all. He very rarely ever slipped up, or made idiot-worthy mistakes.

'Perhaps,' he thought miserably as he absent-mindedly flipped through the book he had borrowed from Hermione, 'That is why the few mistakes I make are always of such epic proportions.'

He was still debating which one was worse, making several mistakes of little significance, or making one terrible mistake. He decided that they were both terrible scenarios, and that he had better things to ponder right now.

Like the Philosopher's Stone.

******Flashback******

Artemis blinked in shock as a flimsy card was shoved in his face by none other than Harry Potter.

He didn't even bother raising an eyebrow at the Gryffindor boy's odd behavior. They were all feeling a bit off today, and if Artemis could almost pour his heart out to Nico di Angelo, then he wasn't going to question Harry going bonkers and waving a card in his face with a goofy grin.

"We figured out who Nicolas Flamel is!" Harry squealed, sounding oddly reminiscent of a teenage girl.

Artemis perked up. The solution to a question they had been asking for months, AND a chance to forget about his humiliating experience with di Angelo for the time being? It was almost too good to be true!

He nodded eagerly, "I see. Impressive work. So... who is he?"

Harry finally moved the card away from Artemis' face and read something off the back.

"Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel!"

"I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here!" he declared triumphantly.

Artemis held back a groan. All that time they had spent looking for answers, when they were on a Chocolate Frog Card the whole time? Draco however, had no such restrictions.

"Really, Potter? It took you that long to remember? You could have saved us all months of research!" he groaned miserably.

Harry's cheeks flushed in embarrassment, "I'm sorry, okay? How was I supposed to remember? We were on our way to a school of WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY for Merlin's sake! I had other stuff on my mind!"

Artemis frowned, "Never mind that," he dismissed casually, "Better late than never, I suppose. But where are Hermione and Ronald? I find it difficult to believe that you would inform us Slytherins about this development before your fellow Gryffindors."

Harry retaliated with a question of his own, "What's going on with Nico? You two were obviously in the middle of something when me and Malfoy got here."

Artemis scowled, "What is it with people poking their noses in my business today? Why do you care anyway?"

Harry snorted, "I couldn't care less about you Fowl, but Nico is my friend, and he seemed pretty upset."

Artemis rolled his eyes, "He'll be fine." 'I hope' he added in his head, "Speaking of di Angelo, where is he? Draco, could you go and find him?"

Draco huffed and grumbled something under his breath about being an errand boy, but sprinted out of the dorm room anyway.

Artemis subconsciously reached for his tie and straightened it, like he would before a business meeting.

"Well?" he prompted, "You still haven't told me where Hermione and Weasley are."

"Ron and Hermione are getting something from her trunk. I think she said something about light reading."

Artemis didn't bother suppressing a groan at that part, "Please don't tell me that she didn't have the one book in the entire library that mentions Flamel in her trunk the whole time."

Just then, with impeccable timing, Hermione and Ron raced in. Hermione, much to Artemis' dismay, was clutching and old ratty book.

"I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. " I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

Artemis walked over to her, "Let me guess, the answers to the question we've been asking for months is in here, the book that you oh so conveniently borrowed."

Hermione's cheeks flushed, "I may or may not have got so caught up in all of the excitement that I forgot to return it?"

Artemis sighed and shook his head, "Never mind, I know what it's like to forget about light reading when you have your mind on other things."

"Light?'" said Ron, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself. At last she found what she was looking for. Seeing no better option, Artemis peered over her shoulder, glimpsing at the pages.

"I knew it! I knew it!" she yelled happily.

"Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily.

Hermione ignored him. "Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

Artemis' eyes grew to the size of saucers. He had heard of the Philosopher's Stone before, it had intrigued him greatly at the time . The thought of the Stone being hidden right within his grasp... changed things, to say the least. If he could get his hands on the stone, he wouldn't need to carry out his whole 'Holding a fairy for ransom' plan. He would have more than enough gold to save his father, AND make the Fowls billionaires again!

The Philosopher's Stone had been mentioned briefly in one of the books Butler had gotten him before he came to Hogwarts. Which meant that he had had all the information they needed right in his bedroom drawer.

What was wrong with him today? Since when was he such a scatter-brained doofus?

'I really am loosing my touch.' he thought sorrowfully.

"The what?" said Harry and Ron.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read?" Hermione asked impatiently, " Look – read that, there."

'The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)'

Just then, Draco Malfoy rushed back in, followed by a very disgruntled Nico di Angelo.

"What did we miss?" Draco panted.

Artemis' eyes briefly connected with Nico's before both of them hastily looked away. The awkward tension between the two of them was tangible. That was expected, after all, Artemis had broken down and had almost given away one of his most close-guarded secrets, so awkwardness was inevitable.

"The Philosopher's Stone" Artemis stated.

Nico blinked, "Wait, what?"

"That's the artifact." Artemis explained, "Read this." He said shoving the book unceremoniously towards Nico.

Nico's eyes scanned the page, with Draco peering over his shoulder.

Draco's mouth dropped open, "This thing can turn anything into gold? Bloody Hell!"

His expression turned horrified, "Gah! I'm becoming a Weasley!"

Nico scowled, "This thingamabob can extend lifespans? And could potentially make someone immortal? That's not good."

Harry nodded eagerly, "It really isn't! But that explains why Snape wants it so badly!"

Artemis frowned at him, "I still don't believe that Professor Snape is the one trying to steal the stone."

Ron frowned right back, "You're just saying that because you're a Slytherin! Snape is a terrible person! He tried to KILL Harry at the last Quidditch match! AND he tried to get past the dog! What other evidence do you want?"

Artemis rolled his eyes, "First of all, just because you think that someone is terrible, doesn't mean that they are evil. Second of all, how do you know that he was the one who cursed Harry's broom?"

Hermione spoke up, "I noticed him chanting under his breath, which is a sign that he was casting a spell."

Artemis sighed, as much as he hated to admit it, she had a good point.

"Fine," he relented, "but while I still don't think that it was Snape, I'm more worried about Quirrell."

Draco scoffed, "Poor, stuttering Professor Quirrell? Why would anyone suspect that trembling mess? That old fool probably doesn't even have the guts to enter that creepy corridor without fainting."

Artemis wasn't convinced, "As someone with a master's degree in psychology, I find it hard to believe that Quirrell is as emotionally scarred as he makes himself out to be. All of that stuttering was clearly fake."

Hermione looked confused, "Wait, you have a master's degree in psychology? Since when?"

Nico rolled his eyes, "We can worry about Fowl's numerous degrees and accomplishments later. Right now, I'm more worried about Quirrell. There's something off about him. I can just... feel it."

"And I can 'feel' that Snape is the one behind this mess!" snapped Ron.

Harry raised both his hands in a gesture of peace and stood between Ron and Nico, who were glaring at each other.

"Calm down! We'll figure this out eventually, okay? Right now, let's focus on why the stone is here."

Artemis opened his mouth to answer, but Hermione beat him to it.

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, "That dog is guarding the stone! Flamel must have asked Dumbledore to keep it safe, since they're friends! He must have known that someone was after it!"

"It also explains why we couldn't find him in any of these books," Artemis added, "These are all based on modern magical achievements, but Flamel has been around for hundreds of years."

"We can't let Snape-uh.. anyone" Harry corrected hastily, "get their hands on that stone!"

"What can we do?" Hermione asked, "We're just first-years! Besides, no one would dare to steal the stone with Dumbledore around." she stated confidently.

Nico sighed, "Hermione's right. We can't do anything about it. For now, we'll just keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, alright?"

After a moment of silence, someone spoke up.

"That's all we can do, isn't it?" Draco asked quietly.

All six of them exchanged grim looks.

"Yes." Artemis confirmed, "That is all that we can do."

'However, it's not all that I can do.' he thought.

******End flashback******

Artemis replayed the scene in his head.

The Philosopher's Stone was a truly fabulous artifact. It could solve all of his problems with minimal criminal activities on his part. While he enjoyed partaking in criminal ventures, his latest crimes seemed more... dismal for some reason. Before, all of his ventures had been simple activities to pass time. He had no actual reason to rob banks and steal paintings. He was from a family of billionaires, and was well-off. He didn't crave attention from his parents either, in fact, he was quite happy to be left to his own devices most of the time.

But now... he was stealing for a purpose. The Fowls had lost billionaire status, his father was MIA somewhere in Russia, and his mother was so mentally unstable that couldn't even recognize her own son! His parents had left the Fowl family's criminal empire in the hands of a ten year-old.

People had come to him demanding money for some reason or the other, and he had been forced to hand over a sizable chunk of money from the family's emergency supply.

He was nowhere near bankrupt, that was true. But he also didn't have enough money to organize a large-scale search party to find his father. As for his mother... well, that was another problem entirely. He was hoping that seeing her husband again(her actual one, not one of her dummies) would be enough to help her mental state improve.

There were a lot of variables in that plan.

If he could pull off enough crimes to gather the money for a search party without getting arrested, if he could find his father, if his mother's mental state would return to normal, if his father was still in good health.

For the first time in his life, Artemis Fowl was feeling insecure about a plan.

That was why Artemis was so sure that the Philosopher's Stone could solve his problems. Sure, there would be the tiny problem of stealing it from right under the nose of both his comrades and the headmaster of Hogwarts, but that was a minor problem.

With the stone, there were less chances of failure. He had to steal one item and that would be enough. He wouldn't need to kidnap anyone and ask for a ransom, something which, to be honest, made him feel a bit queasy. He may enjoy minor criminal activities like robbing banks and hacking, but kidnapping? That was crossing the line, even if he wasn't planning on capturing a human. He still hadn't recovered completely from the guilt he had felt after causing the extinction of that lemur his mother was so fond of. He was a ruthless criminal, yes, but he was also an eleven year old boy.

Nevertheless, feeling aside, he would do whatever it took to get his father back in one piece, to cure his mother, and to get his life back under control, to go back to a time when he could enjoy adding more gold to the Fowl family fortune, without worrying about whether he would have enough to save his father's life before he died of the cold, if he hadn't already. And while he'd rather not resort to extreme measures, if kidnapping a fairy was what was required, he would do it.

So what would it be? Betray his friends' trust and possibly get expelled in an attempt to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone, or carry on with his original plan?

His resolve hardened as he decided upon a course of action. The only visible sign of his inner turmoil was the slight narrowing of his eyes.

Whatever it takes.

A.N:

...Well, that took an unexpectedly dark turn.

So I'm assuming that you can all guess what Artemis is going to do now.

I thought that it was necessary to give Artemis some sort of a motive before he does something moderately evil. I always wondered why he chose to kidnap a fairy, out of all the crimes he could have pulled off. So I made up my own reason.

The way I see it, he would want to raise as much money as possible with a minimal number of crimes. He probably thought that pooling his efforts into one venture would be more profitable than pouring resources into multiple smaller-scale crimes. He's an eleven year old who's an unofficial orphan, and is also in charge of not letting his ancestor's attempts to build a criminal empire crash and burn. It makes sense that he's a bit desperate. And of course, there's the fact that he's Artemis, and that he always goes for the most weird and unique way to raise money he can think of. Would it have been easier and quicker to just rob a few banks? Yes. Why didn't he think of that? Because he's weird that way.

Also, he's eleven. At least he believes in magic, even if he's trying to kidnap a fairy because of that.

Anyway, please let me know what you think! Did I get Artemis more or less right, or was he WAY too OOC?

I'll try to update again soon!

-Keera(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧