REVIEW REPLIES:

DaughterOfHecate: Hey there again! I'm glad that the whole Hermione thing isn't as confusing anymore. And yes, Hermione really is underrated. Also, you didn't miss any official time skips. They met each other sometime in September, and now, the Christmas holidays are over, so right now, it's sometime in January or February. The book isn't really very clear about when stuff happens, so I'm kind of improvising here. And yeah, Artemis really is distracted. I like to imagine that he wasn't always as thorough, self-confident and cautious as he is in the books. I mean, he's GOT to have let his guard down, messed up and panicked about whether his plans will work at least once, right? And thanks! School is going to be... interesting to say the least. Happy Halloween to you too!

yochan123: Sorry! As much as I'd love to let Artemis foil Dumbledore's plans, Mr. Plot Convenience has entered the chat. But don't worry, there'll be plenty of plan-foiling later on! Thanks for reviewing!

A.N:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! OR AT LEAST HAPPY EARLY HALLOWEEN, DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHEN YOU'RE READING THIS!

I know, I know, I should probably be updating my other story right about now. But I couldn't help myself! I've been wanting to write this chapter for ages!

Here it is! The chapter you've all been waiting for! Or at least, the one I've been waiting for. I had the most fun I've had in ages writing this chapter. And if the author enjoyed writing it , well... you can guess that it's going to be a bit much.

WARNING: ARGUEING 11 YEAR OLDS WHO MAY OR MAY NOT BE OUT OF CHARACTER.

"Artemis is trying to steal the Stone." she whispered, a look of plain, unmasked horror on her face.

Draco raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"Artemis is trying to steal the Stone." She repeated, louder this time.

Ron and Draco exchanged a glance.

"Hermione," Ron began, "Artemis has been helping us, remember? He wouldn't go after something he's helping to protect! Right?"

Draco nodded, "As much as I hate to agree with Weasley here, it doesn't make sense. Why would Artemis do something like that anyway?"

"I don't know!" Hermione hissed, "I'm still figuring that bit out!"

"Figuring what out?" asked Harry, clutching his broomstick as he joined their little group huddle, "Where were you guys? We won the match!"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Sorry for not turning up to see you revel in your glory, Potter, but we've got bigger problems. Granger here is convinced that Fowl is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

Harry's eyes widened, "Artemis? Why would you think that?"

"Think about it!" Hermione exclaimed, "Artemis has been acting strange ever since we found out about the Stone, which can turn any metal into gold .I did a bit of research over the holidays. He's famous in the muggle world for being a ruthless criminal. His family's motto is Aurum est Potestas which is Latin for-"

"Gold is Power" interrupted Draco, looking a lot more serious than he had a few minutes ago. He noticed the surprised stares on him and said, "When you're the heir to a pure-blood family, you learn stuff. Like Latin. Continue."

Hermione blinked, "Right, where was I? Oh right! An unlimited supply of gold would sound pretty good to a criminal genius, wouldn't it? And as soon as the match started, he slipped away. He must have known that no one would pay attention to him during a Quidditch match. And for some reason, Nico is following him too!"

"Nico?" Harry asked, "You think that he's in on this as well?"

Hermione hesitated, "Maybe. I'm not sure yet. But right now, we need to go! Before it's too late!"

With that rather cliché line, the golden trio+1 raced off to find the two wandering Slytherins.

Nico wanted to break something. Preferably one of Fowl's bones.

He had followed the boy all the way to the third floor corridor, where the young mastermind's plan became painfully obvious. Nico had tried to convince himself that Artemis was just scouting the perimeter, to make sure that no one got past.

Unfortunately, it was hard to believe that when he saw Artemis give the three-headed dog a red rubber ball before opening the trapdoor.

'Red rubber balls', he thought wistfully, 'the ultimate weakness of three-headed dogs everywhere.' He still wasn't sure how that little titbit of information became public knowledge, seeing as it was supposed to be a closely guarded secret between Hades and the other inhabitants of the Underworld, excluding the dead people.

After Artemis disappeared down the trapdoor, Nico walked up to the dog and started petting its heads absent-mindedly, while he decided on a course of action. On one hand, he could stop Fowl before he got any further, or he could go back and tell someone.

Apparently, the Fates thought that he was taking too long, and made the decision for him. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco were running towards him.

"Guys!" he yelled, "Artemis is trying to-"

"-steal the Stone." Hermione interrupted, "We know! Where is he?"

Nico pointed to the trapdoor, "Down there."

"And you're just standing here?" Draco asked, bewildered, "Let's go people!"

Artemis was not used to his plans being foiled.

Perhaps if he was, he would have predicted that someone would notice him sneaking out, and he might have taken appropriate safety measures.

But unfortunately for him, he didn't do that. And now, he was paying for his over-confidence.

Everything had been going fine until he had been caught red-handed. It was odd how things were usually fine until that happened.

He had easily made it past the Devil's Snare, which was a laughably simple trap. He had scoffed as he wondered whether their Herbology teacher had even bothered trying to make it hard for someone to get to the next room.

The next room, now that was a problem. It was full of bejeweled birds, which Artemis' sharp eyes soon identified as keys. There was a large, silver lock on the other side of the room, and if his guess was right(which it usually was), he was supposed to use one of the broomsticks in the corner to catch the correct key.

'How innovative,' he thought, 'and yet impractical and medieval.'

It would be simple for anyone who knew how to play Quidditch to get past this challenge. What had these people been thinking? Where they really relying on the hope that this potential thief wouldn't know how to fly a broom?

Yet, for all of his mental ridiculing, Artemis was stumped. He was incredibly uncoordinated when it came to sports, and this unfortunately included flying. There had to be a better way to go about this. He wondered if he could possibly summon the correct key, if he aimed well enough. He may not know a thing about aiming a gun, but perhaps, he was slightly better at aiming a wand.

His keen eyes scanned the swarm of keys for one that could possibly fit the lock. His eyes lingered upon an old-fashioned, silver key with bright blue wings. That had to be the one he was looking for! And now for the hard part, actually getting his hands on it. He had borrowed a few Year 4 Charms textbooks for a bit of light reading, and one of the charms featured was the Summoning charm, or Accio.

He tried his best to point at the key, which kept flitting around, and was frankly very annoying. After a few failed attempts and a lot of head injuries, he finally got hold of the key, and made a mental note to improve his aim. Moving targets were a menace.

He triumphantly inserted the key into the lock and prepared to turn it, when he heard a voice cry out.

"Artemis, stop!"

He spun around and realized that he had been caught red-handed by none other than the golden trio themselves, along with Draco and Nico.

"Eh..." he trailed off, thinking of a way to make this seem normal. And legal.

Hermione didn't let him think of a reasonable excuse, "Save it, Fowl." she said, her eyes brimming with tears of anger, "You played us! Toyed with us! All this time, you made us look for clues, for what? So that you could steal whatever was under the trapdoor? Was that your plan all along?" she demanded.

"I can't believe it." she said quietly, "I thought we were friends."

Artemis couldn't help the twang of guilt that coursed through him at those words.

"It had to be done." he said bluntly, not bothering to elaborate.

Ron placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder and glared at him, "I should have known that you Slytherins would mess things up."

"This is not out fault!" Draco yelled, "If Artemis did this, he must have had a good reason! Right, Artemis?" he asked, a bit desperately.

Artemis hesitated. He could explain his motives, and it was possible that they might understand. They might even help him.

'They wouldn't.' said a voice in his head, 'They would stop you from achieving your goal. You will be better off without them. Would you rather let your father freeze in the Arctic, just to keep the trust of a few 11 year old's?'

"No." he lied swiftly, "Unless you count restoring the Fowls to billionaire status a good reason. Although, I doubt you would."

Draco recoiled as though he had been slapped, "Billionaire Status? You lied to us and tried to steal an ancient artifact just for a BILLIONAIRE STATUS?"

Harry growled, "I should have known that we couldn't let you and Artemis in on our secret! We should have just kept the Philosopher's Stone between the four of us! Slytherins are nothing but trouble!"

"What about di Angelo? He's a Slytherin as well!"

"He's not a thief! Or a bully!"

Draco growled, "Oh you'll pay for that Potter!" he said, charging towards Harry, only to be held back by Nico, who, unlike the others, looked annoyed rather than angry.

"Whoa!" he yelled, "Calm down! We can figure this out!"

"Shut up di Angelo!" Ron roared, "You could have stopped him before he got this far!"

Nico's eyes narrowed and seemed to gleam with a manic purple flame, "Leave me out of this Weasley." he warned, "I didn't do anything but follow him!"

"How do we know that for sure?" asked Ron, "How did you know that he would leave, and why did you follow Fowl in the first place? You didn't piece the clues together like Hermione, did you? How can we be sure that you weren't helping Fowl?"

Nico growled and the room seemed to become darker, "I do not liked being accused of things I didn't do." he said clearly, "Do you want to know what happens to people who accuse me without proof Weasley? Because I'd be more than willing to demonstrate."

"Yeah! Why don't you whip out that sword of yours?" Ron challenged, "The one that no one else seems to know about. What secrets are you hiding di Angelo?"

Nico yelled something in what appeared to be some form of Greek and marched over to Ron ready to pummel him. Harry and Ron stood side by side with their fists clenched, glaring him down.

'This is my fault,' Artemis realized with a shock, 'Half a years worth of friendships have dissolved in a matter of minutes because of me.'

"ENOUGH!" Hermione yelled, placing herself between the arguing boys.

"This has gone far enough." she said firmly, " You can go back to yelling at each other after we figure out what to do about him." she said, pointing at Artemis."

Artemis felt dread pool in his stomach, he did not like the sound of that. The amount of pure contempt in Hermione's voice was... unsettling, to say the least.

"We should tell Dumbledore." Harry said solemnly.

"No!" Draco objected, "If we do, Dumbledore will be mad at all of us! And he'll dock points from Slytherin!"

Ron appeared to be disgusted, "Really Malfoy? You want to let that little thief get off scot-free, just so that Slytherin can win the House Cup again?"

Draco scowled, "That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Let's ask Artemis why he did this." Nico suggested, "There's more to this than he's letting on."

Hermione's voice sounded cold and brittle, "You heard him. He just wanted to be a billionaire. End of story."

Artemis cleared his throat, "If I may-"

"You may not."

Artemis ignored her and continued, "I cannot legally be charged of anything. I didn't steal the Stone. You stopped me first. I didn't cause harm to anyone or anything. The only thing I could possibly be accused of is entering the forbidden corridor. But all five of you have done that as well, and hence, you can't tell the headmaster about me without getting punished yourselves."

Nico hesitated, "He's right, you know. He hasn't done anything wrong other than lying to us. That's not something we can tell the headmaster."

Hermione growled, "Fine." she spat out, "We'll keep this little escapade amongst the five of us. But we're watching you like a hawk, Fowl. So no funny business."

"We'll keep an eye on him." Draco said grimly.

"No you won't." Ron said, "We'll do that. You and di Angelo can go back to your boring old lives. Just forget this ever happened. In fact, forget about the Stone in general! We can take it from here."

Nico frowned, "No way Weasley. We're a part of this, whether you like it or not. We've been helping the three of you for months, there's no way you can get us to back out now!"

"Just leave Nico." Harry said quietly, "Me, Ron and Hermione can handle this. We can't risk anymore Slytherins messing up."

"We helped you!" Nico argued, "You wouldn't have figured it out this quickly without our help."

"Wouldn't we?" Harry asked, his voice steadily rising, "Who asked Hagrid about the Stone? Us! Who got the clue about Nicolas Flammel? Us! Who finally figured out what the artifact was? Us!" he was yelling by now, "We could have figured this out on our own! All you and your friends have done is make this harder!"

"Maybe you'd be better off without us then." Nico said, his voice dangerously low.

"Maybe we would!" Harry yelled defiantly.

For a minute, it seemed as though Nico would explode. The shadows in the room grew darker, and the air became frigid. As suddenly as this change had taken place, it disappeared, and Nico took a deep breath.

"Come on Draco." he mumbled, grabbing Malfoy's wrist and dragging him away, "Let's see how well the Golden Trio can do without our help." he turned towards Artemis, his deep, black eyes probing his blue ones, "Come on Fowl. Unfortunately, we're stuck with you for the time being."

Artemis turned to face Hermione before he walked away. He caught her furious gaze and barely heard her muttered statement.

"I guess stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason."

With that Artemis turned away and followed his fellow Slytherins back to the common room.

As soon as they got back to the common room, Artemis could tell that he was in for a whole load of pain, physical and mental.

"What were you thinking?" Nico demanded, "Going after such a powerful object, do you know how easy it would have been for the person looking for it to swipe it from your bag? You'd be doing all of the dirty work for them! Did you think of that? Well, did you?"

Artemis had to admit that he hadn't thought of that. He had been so confident that his plan would work, that he hadn't bothered to think it through.

'Next time,' he vowed, 'I will think of an actual, concrete plan, worthy of a true genius, with a back up plan for the back-up plan. From now on, Artemis Fowl will always be one step ahead.'

"I didn't." he confessed, "But I wasn't going to keep the Stone in my bag. I may not have been exercising my brain cells very well recently, but I'm no idiot."

"Well apparently you are , seeing as you went after the Stone in the first place." pointed out Draco grumpily.

"Artemis," Nico said, looking exasperated, "We both know that you wouldn't go after something like that without a good reason, no matter what you say. So why did you do it?"

"I assure you, my only motive was the one I told Draco earlier." He felt slightly guilty about lying to Nico, but his personal life was none of Nico's business.

"You know Nico," said Draco in a deceptively light tone, "All of this could have been avoided if you had just stopped Artemis before he went down the trapdoor."

"What?" Nico asked.

"You could have stopped him before he got caught by those stuck-up Gryffindors, and everything would have been fine! We would still be involved in this mystery, but instead, we have to sit it out."

"Well excuse me for not wanting to believe that one of my only friends was a criminal!" Nico said sarcastically.

Draco grumbled, "Yeah, whatever." With that, he made his way to the dormitory, leaving Artemis with Nico.

" Do you see what you've done?" Nico asked, staring at him with those dark brown eyes, which right now, appeared to be pitch black, before marching out of the common room.

'I do' Artemis thought remorsefully, 'I really do.'

'Don't worry.'said that annoying voice in his head, 'Friendship is for simpletons, anyway.'

Artemis nodded slightly, the voice was right. He should never have allowed himself the luxury of friends in the first place, they had simply dragged him down and left him acting like an ordinary 11 year old in a matter of months.

'Who needs them?' he thought, 'Friendship is for simpletons.'

A.N:

Well... that just happened.

Too much?

I hope that those arguments weren't too poorly written. I was literally cackling while writing this.

Just to explain, Ron isn't a bad guy here, neither is Harry. NOBODY IS THE BAD GUY. They all just feel betrayed and upset, so they're letting their prejudice get the best of them. Ron, for example, has been told his whole life that Slytherins are evil. He finally started trusting them a bit, but then Artemis went and messed up that trust. The first thing Harry heard about Slytherins was that they were evil, cunning and manipulative. Draco has been told that Gryffindors are idiots ever since he could walk. They'll get over it. Maybe...

And no, Artemis isn't being possessed. He's just taking a dark path to get what he wants.

I know that canonically Artemis "wouldn't even go to the bathroom without a back-up plan" . But he can't always have been like that, right? So now I've given him a reason to be super paranoid and thorough when it comes to thinking of plans. He doesn't want to be caught unaware ever again. Does that make sense?

In other news, I FINALLY GOT THE 3RD FOWL TWINS BOOK! I mean, it literally arrived when I was writing this Author's Note. Can't wait to read it!

You guys know the drill, please review! I'd love to know what you think of this chapter!

-Keera💙🍪