Artemis headed straight for the girl's bathroom, insistent on washing her tear-stained face before reuniting with her friends, whom at this time would surely be back in the common room. She supposed she had good news for them, seeing as she had expected to be expelled. Yet, her head was buzzing with dangerous ideas, snippets of conversation, feelings of worry, anger, and pain. She did not want to deal with her emotions any longer so she gritted her teeth and looked at herself in the mirror, her face dripping wet with water. She saw a girl with the potential to leave a person's hairs standing on end. Her beauty was breathtaking, but her eyes could easily transform her face from beautiful to cold. I can be frightening. I can be beautiful. I can be sweet. I can be anything I want to be. She winked at herself in the mirror suddenly before cracking a small smile. Get it together Lupin, get rid of all that negative energy.
Artemis wiped the water off her face using the sleeve of her robe and tied her hair up into a messy bun before leaving the bathroom, attempting to ignore the pressure she felt crushing her chest. I'm going to focus on everything else but me for once, she thought to herself. My friends don't need to deal with anymore crap. I'm fucking Artemis Lupin, I don't dwell.
She met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione at the Gryffindor common room, having entered it rather apprehensively as she dreaded Hermione's reaction. To her immediate surprise, she felt herself bombarded by a body and felt arms wrapping around her neck.
"Nice to know I'll be missed if my arse gets kicked out of school, but it's all good Hermione, I swear." Artemis managed to say despite the bone crushing hug. "You had me worried!" Hermione exclaimed, anger transforming her features as she pulled back. Artemis smiled widely at her, realizing the extent of her friend's affection. "Honestly I had myself worried. I thought I finally did it this time." She admitted sheepishly, looking at her shoes before blinking false innocence at her friends, a devilish grin playing on the side of her mouth. "Oh come off it Artemis, nobody thought you would actually get expelled." Ron snorted, his own smile betraying him. "You're right Ron; when I get expelled, it needs to be for something crazy. Something that says 'BANG!'" Artemis yelled for dramatic effect before moving away from them to plop down on her favorite part of the couch. "Is Neville not back from the hospital wing yet?" She asked lazily, hoping to avoid the questions she knew were coming. I'm being pretty damn informal, even for me.
"We haven't seen him… not that it matters, you saved him of course. I can't believe that happened, that was bloody brilliant Mis. How'd you learn to handle a broom like that? And you were sent to Dumbledore's! What happened?" Ron began, his words spilling eagerly, blue eyes wide with excitement. He'd been waiting anxiously for her return so he could bombard her with questions, the exact opposite of what Artemis was wishing for.
"I don't even want to talk about it, mate." She responded dryly, scanning her naked nails for nothing in particular as to avoid making eye contact. Artemis knew she was pushing it, knew she owed them an explanation, yet she truthfully would rather postpone the conversation. Ron didn't attempt to hide his disappointment when he saw that she was serious. Harry, who had not yet spoken, cleared his throat. "Are you alright?" He asked her tentatively, leaning forward to truly observe his friend. Artemis glanced at him, scowled, and spoke. "Look, Dumbledore just wanted to tell me to be careful. He said I did the right thing but there's value in rules. I'm okay, it's all good, don't worry, don't fret. I didn't even get into trouble or lose any points." She held each of her friend's eyes intensely to communicate that the topic was not up for discussion. I'll tell them the truth soon, I just can't bear to do it right now. I've been through enough today. The only one of the three who didn't accept her answer was Harry. Artemis could tell just by looking at him that he didn't believe her. He knew her too well. Crap.
Regardless, Harry let the topic go for the time being. Hermione looked rather unsettled herself but she figured she'd talk to Artemis on her own later, outside of the boy's earshot. "Well that's damn lucky. That's something that would only happen to you." Ron said, easily buying the lie and recuperating. He gave her a menacing look, to which she responded with a snort. Harry then took the spotlight, speaking openly to all three of them. Hermione awkwardly included herself by sitting next to Artemis, still not fully comfortable around the boys. "Well I have some news myself, actually. Ron and Hermione already know, but after you left, Malfoy started making trouble. He launched Neville's remembrall and I wasn't going to just stand there and watch. Luckily for me, McGonagall saw the whole thing unfold from her office window. Meaning, she saw me fly across the castle to catch the ball in midair." Harry paused to gauge the shocked expression on his friend's face. Hermione watched Harry carefully as he spoke, looking rather self conscious now that she was being included.
"What the bloody hell do you mean lucky for you?" Artemis gasped, sitting up in her seat. "And why wasn't this the first thing that was said when I walked in? Are you joking?" She looked rather angry at this point. "I was hoping you'd ask!" Harry winked at her before continuing, knowing to expect such a reaction. "McGonagall came downstairs immediately and pulled me aside. She didn't speak a word, she just told me to follow her. As you can imagine, I thought I was done for. I started thinking that by tomorrow we-" Harry was speaking directly to Artemis now, "-would be on the train home and we'd have left these two alone together-" he indicated towards Ron and Hermione, who exchanged dirty looks. "-and that simply wouldn't do. Long story short, McGonagall took me to meet with Oliver Wood, the quidditch captain and I'm the newest member of the quidditch team Artemis! I'm the new seeker!"
"You're lying!" Artemis shouted, getting to her feet. Her hazel eyes were twinkling with raw happiness. "Call him a liar again," Ron threatened playfully. Artemis punched him in the arm and threw herself at Harry, squeezing him in a tight hug. "THIS IS AMAZING HARRY, CONGRATULATIONS!"
After ten minutes of nonstop celebratory conversation between the boys and Artemis, in which Artemis had promised Harry an upcoming night of celebration for his accomplishment, Hermione reminded the three of them that transfiguration class would start soon. "I'll be going then, seeing that the three of you would rather waste your time discussing quidditch than preparing for transfiguration." Hermione's tone was matter of factly and rather sharp, annoying the friends, Ron especially. Artemis sighed and rolled her eyes, "we're coming, mom!" she called, following Hermione with Harry and Ron at her side.
During transfiguration, Artemis lost Gryffindor ten points and was mandated to stay after class when she transformed her goblet into a tarantula and set it after Ron, who had ran out of the room screaming. "It takes a determined prankster to act up in McGonagall's class, mate. I'll catch you later." Harry said as he left the class, attempting to hide the smile from his face. Professor McGonagall was a strict, thin woman who did not enjoy being disrespected in the least. She made Artemis stay after, along with a few other students, and complete ten goblet transformations correctly. Artemis scanned the room before allowing herself to concentrate, already bored with her task. She was caught by surprise when she caught sight of a blonde boy in the back of the classroom, and only then remembered Draco's grave mistake during the lesson. Draco was assigned five goblet transformations in order to compensate for rude commentary targeting McGonagall. He quickly learned not to disrespect the professor to her face.
As Artemis craned her neck, Malfoy raised his eyes to meet hers, feeling her gaze on him, and his lip curled with disgust. She giggled and winked at him, making the pale boy flush red. She turned back to be met with another pair of eyes; Professor McGonagall was glaring at her dangerously. Even Artemis knew she'd better begin working.
Artemis transfigured the first four goblets into pigeons easily but had to try a few times to complete the next six, her wand waving boredly. Had she actually put her full effort, she would have been done in a heartbeat, but being bright and talented led the witch to be carefree and lazy. When she finished, McGonagall freed her after a quick inspection, stating "Well done Lupin, I expect you to use your brain to impress me next class opposed to using it for the foolery you pulled today." Artemis beamed smugly, bidding the professor goodbye.
She packed her bag and turned to the back of the classroom, ready to head out. She noted the other children having no luck with the spell and briefly remembered the talk she had with Dumbledore concerning her abilities. Well, if I am special then I'm damn glad, she thought to herself, happy to be free for the rest of the day. Artemis watched the hurried movements of Malfoy ahead of her as he scrambled for his possessions. He had finished his fifth transformation and was wildly rushing to leave. McGonagall gave brisk approval of his work, to which he said nothing, and before Artemis reached the classroom door, he had already raced out, throwing his bag over his shoulder. Artemis picked up the pace and followed him out of the door, flooded with dual annoyance and curiosity at the sight of him, secretly hoping to have another run in with him without his friends around. She was distracted from her mission only by a piece of parchment that fell out of his bag as he turned the corner out of sight.
She picked it up and recognized notes from the day's lesson, written in neat black ink. Being Artemis, she took a quill from her own bag and wrote on the back of the parchment, knowing she had every intention of returning the notes to their owner. "Still hate me? P.S. You're welcome!" The contrast between her handwriting and Malfoy's was great; while Malfoy's handwriting was elegant and thin, Artemis' wrote rather large and sloppy. She added a smiley face for spunk, after a quick debate, just to get under Malfoy's skin. Looking up from the parchment, she remembered seeing him turn the corner and she bolted down the corridor.
Determined to find the wizard, she ran in the direction she last saw him. After turning the same corner, she saw his figure up ahead, striding with his head held high. Artemis allowed herself a private eye roll before she began jogging to catch up to the bully.
"You forgot something Malfoy!" She called to him as she closed the gap between them. Draco spun around gracefully, and suspicion turned to anger on his face when he saw who was speaking to him. "Stay away from me or I'll have you written up for harassment" He spat, turning and continuing on his way without looking back. "You snuck up on me, it's only fair that I return the favor" Artemis replied smugly, having to walk twice as fast to keep up, seeing that Draco's legs were much longer than hers. "Anyways, I didn't chase you down for fun Malfoy, you dropped this." She stopped walking and handed over his parchment. When Draco heard that she had something of his, he whipped around once more. Spotting the parchment, he snatched it from her rather dramatically and gave her a look of disgust before turned to leave once more. It was the closest they'd been physically, and oddly enough, it made Artemis excited. He'll break soon, she thought to herself. After all, we almost had a normal interaction. She giggled with mischief before running off in the opposite direction.
Draco did not realize how fast he had been walking until he reached the Slytherin common room. He had been pondering Artemis' actions and could not make sense out of what happened. He couldn't understand why she chased him down, why she was being POLITE to him. He, who'd been nothing but cruel to her and her friends. It frustrated him that he didn't understand her or her motives. He preferred mutual hatred opposed to this strange behavior. She's playing with me, he thought to himself. She wants to make fun of me, to have some sort of power over me. The more he convinced himself of it, the angrier he got. Standing outside his common room door, he realized he had balled up the parchment still in his hand. He laid his bag down elegantly once inside and sat himself at an isolated table, where he uncrumpled his notes. He noticed writing on the back of the parchment as he attempted to straighten it. He saw the message that was written for him and froze. His former anger was erased very suddenly. He didn't know why but at that moment he thought that if Artemis and him were the only students in the castle, his life would be much easier.
Artemis had not told her friends about her interactions with Malfoy, knowing very well that she was being foolish in even having such encounters. She figured that her friends didn't need to know, and secretly feared they'd feel hurt if they knew she was being kind to their bully. Unless he magically changes to become a decent person, I'll keep this entertaining little game to myself. Artemis was having quite a good time observing Malfoy's reactions to her and did not plan on stopping now that she felt she got his attention. What harm can this bring, anyway? Nothing has changed. After all, Draco was maintaining his regular comments to Harry, Ron, Artemis and Hermione, he was no different than before. In fact, nothing significant had even occurred for Artemis to be thinking this deeply of her interactions, yet she couldn't help but let the blonde boy cross her mind. She would never admit this to anyone, especially not herself, but she secretly wanted to meet the real Draco Malfoy. She wondered if he could actually change. There's more to him, she thought before forcing the subject out of her mind.