Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that any of you recognize as that of any books or series

Chapter 11

Fowl has friends

February came; the time had passed so fast that Artemis barely noticed. He had enough on his mind to fail to notice the passage of time. Anyone else with so much on their mind would faint from exhaustion or would've given up their goals long ago. But not him. Not Artemis Fowl.

Artemis had searched the library for any references to the Patronus charm. He found many and read them all. He knew everything about the charm, in theory. Only thing left was to practice doing it.

But that was the tough part. You didn't have much privacy anywhere in the school. Not anywhere Artemis knew so far. He couldn't risk any student or teacher seeing him practicing a spell of such complexity, for the spell was beyond what was taught at Hogwarts. The problem was that if anyone knew that he was doing things like this, without the teachers' permission, he could well be made to serve detention. Also, it was best if he kept his talents and skills to himself; the last thing a skilled wizard would want was people knowing that he was a highly skilled wizard.

He yet had to find a place where he could practise the charm. He was confident that he very soon would.

And then one morning, the Firebolt four arrived during breakfast. He'd ordered for it instantly the day he'd been selected for the team, and it now had come by owl-post. Seeing it, Jack and Steve were thrilled. Alexis looked shocked. Jennifer smiled. Mark and Robert didn't know what expression to fathom and blinked rapidly.

Steve spoke first, "It's a broom. What model?"

"Back in the common room, we don't want anyone to know about it," Artemis said with a charming smile. They all obliged. After finishing their breakfast, all of them rushed to the common room.

"See for yourself," Artemis said with a grin. Boy, this was different. How many days had it been since he'd last grinned? He should count things like this next…

Steve opened it in a rush and looked in awe at the broom. He just didn't believe it. With a shaking hand, he pointed at it and asked, "This isn't a Firebolt four, is it? It can't be…" he trailed off.

"It is," Artemis replied in what looked like a kind tone (now that is rare, isn't it?), "And let me do some flying with it."

"You'll let me fly on that won't you, Artemis?" Steve asked politely, "I've never even touched a Firebolt in my life, you know."

"You know how much it cost? If you're sure you can pay if you damage it, then sure," Artemis replied in a sweetly mocking tone, "But if you only wanted to touch it, here, you may have a go. You can even hold it, you know." He extended out the broomstick.

Steve looked taken aback. Artemis knew of course that Steve couldn't pay. Now no one would dare touch his broom. Who cared for friends, anyway? They weren't even his friends, were they?

"It's ok, Artemis," Steve replied sadly, "I just thought you might let me have a go. If you didn't want to –"

"You can have a go. I don't care," Artemis replied. When he finished, he was stunned. Why did he tell something like that? Just a few seconds ago, he'd made it clear he didn't want anyone even near his broom, then why did he say that? Artemis didn't get it. He'd done something unconsciously, not being aware of it. "It must be the goodness building inside me in this Hogwarts. My cruelty is going down, and soon enough, I might well start giving charity!" he thought.

For his part, Steve was delighted. "Oh, thank you, Artemis. I knewyou were joking at first. I'll have a go after you then, buddy."

The broom moved as he wished. It was perfect. He wished and willed the broom to change its speed or course or height, and with his slightest touch, it would obey. No Hogwarts broom could match its style or perfection. Flying on the Firebolt four was wonderful. Better than how he'd felt when he'd first flied on a broom. He just couldn't explain the feeling (which was rare, of course) of flying. It was just amazing.

It seemed Steve felt the same too, because he was recounting to the first years about his flight on 'Artemis' new broom' which he explained as the most thrilling experience of his life. He hasn't had much experience in life then, Artemis thought. It was thrilling, but there were things far more interesting, like fairies, ka-daluns or leprechauns…

ooooooo

With the passage of days, Artemis found himself on the grounds, on the day before the match. This was their last practice session; everyone had wanted to practice their strategies and moves one last time, but this time together as a team, which they'd been unable to do thanks to the watching Gryffindors. To remedy this, Artemis had searched the whole library before finding a powerful illusion charm. He'd practised it once or twice, and satisfied, he thought of casting the charm at practice.

The charm was simple enough (mind you, for Artemis). The incantation consisted of a dozen words, and you had to specify the illusion you wanted to create. Like if you want to show yourself waving at someone, you should point your wand at a moving photograph (the best, for an unmoving one will cast doubts) of the same and mutter the last three words of the incantation. The area over which you cast the spell would be showing only that till you remove the spell (only for those outside the area; those inside the place will be able to see the real thing, but no one entered the area during a practice except the players of the given team, so no one would notice that it was an illusion).

For every practice different Gryffindors would come to watch them. But the number would always be six. It was as if their captain had asked them to watch Slytherin practices intently (that wasthe truth, actually).

But this was enough; Artemis had asked Jack to catch a photo of them on their previous practice, and as it was a new set of watching Gryffindors, they wouldn't know that there was any repetition. That photograph was the illusion they were going to create; no one would see or know the real moves they would employ, except for the seven players.

So it was as simple as that; Artemis had cast the charm without anyone but his teammates seeing. The practice began.

For a few minutes, he watched as his teammates flew at ease in the air, maneuvering their tactics. The Beaters were flawless; they flew at a distance of ten metres from each other, each hitting towards the other very accurately, and the other hitting back without missing. They sometimes even tried the Dopplebeater Defence. The Chasers flew in their Nimbuses and Firebolts, passing the Quaffle to each other with unerring skill and speed, and the poor Keeper barely managed to save the goal (two times for every ten attempts on average). Not that the Keeper was doing a poor job, he employed both the Double Eight Loop and the Starfish and Stick defenses against the Chasers; but they too tried everything – from Porskoff Ploy to Reverse Pass and Hawkshead Attacking Formation – and scored quite easily. There were three of them against a single Keeper; and at their speed and skill they were merely blurs in the air, then what chance did the Keeper stand? But the Keeper saved more than half of their attempts in penalty attempts; he was good. (All these moves are mentioned in Quidditch Through The Ages, and for those who haven't read it, I recommend it, it's real good, you know.)

Then he set out to search for the snitch (not search, to be precise). There it was, as he'd expected it to be, moving along fluttering its wings, near the hoops. At once he swept into a dive, going for the snitch. This time, all his teammates stopped at their tracks and watched him zoom and swing towards the snitch casually, as if he had not a doubt on Earth that he would catch it. Then he decided to try the Plumpton Pass (catching the snitch up one's sleeve, this move is). Without fail, he caught the snitch up in his sleeve and then held it out in his hand. His teammates were amazed, and Kirke moved forward to him and said, "We're winning the Quidditch Cup this year. There isn't a doubt about it." The smile on his face was genuine. He had been waiting for this moment for years.

Then they resumed their practice, and Artemis tried the Wronski Feint, a famous Seeker move (for those who don't know, it means going into a dive straight towards the ground, as if you've seen the snitch, to confuse your opponent Seeker, and make him/her follow you, and lure them to crash into the ground. Here, of course, this was practice). With perfection, he pulled out of the dive precisely at the moment when, if he'd moved on, he'd have crashed.

Like this the practice went on for a further hour or so, then they were all back in their common room after dinner looking at each other seeking reassurances that they'd be well off in the match the next day. They'd done all they could, and this was it. They'd reap the rewards for their hardwork tomorrow (it'd been difficult for them, I tell you, Slytherin weren't the typical hardworkers, it was the Hufflepuff lot who were).

Artemis waited for over ten minutes, but no one spoke, only staring at one another in turns. This was getting stupid and boring, very unslytherin, it was. He decided to leave, "Have a good night's sleep, you all. Keep staring if you wish, but I'm bored."

At that moment, it seemed everyone had awoken to their senses. Some mumbled "Good night, Fowl" and all of them went to their respective dorms. Artemis wasn't the type to feel nervous. You wouldn't believe it, I know, but even so that was the case, and he was feeling quite nervous. You couldn't really blame him. After all, he was an eleven-year-old boy with his first chance to prove himself in front of his whole school. But he got over it soon enough (in less than ten seconds, really) and assumed his impassive gesture, and went to bed with a thousand things on his mind (not exactly thousand, to be precise…).

ooooooo

The day dawned clear. Artemis awoke with determination in his mind. A determined Artemis Fowl had never yet failed (for that matter, he was rarely undetermined, wasn't he?).

They ate breakfast quickly. His teammates seemed so nervous that he thought they might wet themselves. He wasn't nervous now. That was a symbol of fear. A fear that something other than what was expected might happen. It'd come to him once yesterday, but not a second time. Artemis Fowl didn't repeat his mistakes, and he had not a fear in the world (or at least, so he thought. That's a good thought, that is, but not always helpful; brings trouble sometimes.). Jack and Steve were pushing on about how he should not fall for the tricks of his opponent team, and blabbering about international Quidditch. Well, they didn't know how the Slytherin team had trained, so they were bound to give advice (or whatever it was they were telling him) to their friend (or whoever they thought he was; they did consider him a friend, but Artemis did not consider them so yet).

Soon enough, eleven o'clock arrived, and having changed into their green robes (Gryffindor wore scarlet ones). In the changing room, just before they left, Kirke said, "This is it. We –"

"– flatten Gryffindor," Mike interrupted.

"In today's match," Kim continued.

"And all the others," Kate said.

"In the other matches," Melinda said half-heartedly.

"And win the Cup this year," Artemis said, "Haven't you told this enough times already? We should leave."

And then they left for the grounds. The Gryffindor team was out there already, and as the Slytherin players came, Jones was shouting out their names.

Artemis saw his first-year mates in the stands, and waved to them. He thought he saw Jack wink at him. Whatever that was.

He turned to face the Gryffindor Seeker; she was slim, pale-faced with brown eyes and dark hair. She looked like a fifth-year and wore a haughty smile, and looked down on him. She probably didn't know how good he was.

But he knew she wouldn't spot the snitch early. Not with her stupidity and pride, surely not. Though it wouldn't be a matter of time before he caught the snitch, he didn't want to waste his teammates' efforts. He'd leave them to it for fifteen minutes, and then he'd catch it. Of course, they'd have scored plenty by that time. (No one knew of the snitch pattern. He hadn't told even his teammates. Some secrets were best kept to yourself.)

Then Madam Hooch appeared out of nowhere in her broom. She asked the captains to shake hands and said, "Now I want a fair game from all of you," and nodded at Slytherin captain as she said the last word. Kirke grinned and shook hands with Gryffindor captain (who was Robert Trellis). It wasn't a handshake, actually. It seemed like they were trying to break each other's wrists. For a moment, Artemis thought he saw Trellis flinch. It meant Kirke had succeeded. Artemis and Kirke smiled and at the same time, Madam Hooch blew her whistle. And the match began.

As soon as the Quaffle was up, Kate snatched it passed it onto Kirke. He darted forward and quickly passed the ball to Melinda. She passed it again to Kate, she again to Kirke, he back to Kate, and –

"Slytherin scores the first goal of the match," Jones' voice rang loud through the stadium, "Kate Prinster, what an excellent Chaser she is, she does the job for them, and – whoa! Robert takes the Quaffle and speeds towards the hoops, and he passes to Carper, and she shoots – what a wonderful save by Sauvell, and he passes the Quaffle to Boggleworth, now it is in Prinster's hands, no – Kirke's, and back to Boggleworth, and she shoots – and scores again! It is 20-0 to Slytherin."

And so the match went on, the Slytherin Chasers kept scoring. By seven minutes, the score was 90-0. Gryffindor hadn't a hope of winning unless their Seeker caught the Snitch. And Artemis would see to it that she didn't.

The Gryffindor Chasers had tried five times, but failed to score. Maybe, the Keeper's practice with top level Chasers had improved his abilities. Then again, one of the opponent Chasers got the Quaffle in his hands. Artemis decided it was time for a little trick they'd discussed on.

Assuming an expression as if he'd seen the snitch, he went into a deep dive. The Gryffindor Seeker, seeing him, followed after him; he wasn't going very fast, as he wanted her to catch up with him. As soon as she caught up, he picked up speed, and she too picked up her speed. They were level now – hurtling toward the ground at a tremendous speed.

At that moment, as expected, even all the players stopped to watch the Seekers. But Slytherin's Chasers didn't, and Kirke knocked the Quaffle out of a startled Gryffindor Chaser's hand. Kate caught it and the Slytherin Chasers started moving toward the hoops at a great speed, passing the ball to each other. But by the time the Gryffindor Keeper realized what was happening, they'd scored three goals in quick succession, which was when the Gryffindor crowd bellowed in rage and the Gryffindor Chasers realized what was wrong.

Artemis didn't concentrate on that part. He had to pull out of the dive at the right moment, or it could cause great damage. It needed full concentration. With all his mental might, he forced not to grin at the opponent Chasers' stupidity and his strategic cunning working so well. The Gryffindor Chaser was looking for signs of the snitch alongside him, wondering why he'd otherwise pulled into such a dive.

Exactly at that moment, Artemis pulled out of the dive and realization dawned on the Gryffindor Seeker's face. She hit the ground with a dull thud and Gryffindor took time out.

In two minutes, the match resumed, and on each Gryffindor face, anger and determination was etched. Unbelievably enough, they managed to score two goals after that, while the Slytherin Chasers only managed four (that itself was a big achievement for Gryffindor, given what practices Slytherin had gone through). So the valor and stupidity Gryffindors were so well known for wasn't an utter waste. It did seem quite useful at times.

So when Artemis's count of fifteen minutes was up, so fast he didn't notice it being that long, the score that stood was 160-20. Gryffindor still had a chance of winning, but Artemis had no idea of giving such a chance to them.

He confirmed that the snitch was where it ought to be, and drifted lazily towards it. The other Seeker thought he was merely searching, and she kept searching on the other side of the hoops. She was not watching him now, and even so, she couldn't reach the snitch before him if she saw.

Confirmed and sure, he went for it.

He raced in his broom toward the snitch with all the speed he could gather. It was sensational, electrifying; the snitch was now mere feet from him. Even the crowd had seen the snitch. He could vaguely hear Jones commentating that the Seekers had seen the snitch. It seemed the other Seeker had been taken in by shock, but she too was following him closely, as fast as she could.

He lowered his speed and calmly grasped the snitch in his hands; then he showed it to the crowd. It roared.

"Artemis Fowl catches the snitch! Slytherin wins the match 310 to 20," Jones was excited, "This is the largest victory I've ever seen, that too a Slytherin versus Gryffindor match."

His teammates were rushing over to him; the Slytherins were cheering in applause. He landed quietly in the ground where his dorm mates and other Slytherins he knew (he knew most of them, you know, having contacts with people was useful) were running toward him like eager children.

"That was a great catch, mate," Steve said.

"Amazing, the way you did that Wronski Feint," Jack said, "Yeah, Steve told me all about it."

Steve beamed. Jennifer said, "It was nice how you casually approached the snitch as if you didn't know its whereabouts and suddenly flew with such speed. I first thought you were trying that Wonky Feat thing again."

Mark and Robert merely grinned at him. Artemis smiled. After all, he couldn't say these people weren't your friends. What did you call people who were in no way related to you, but were affectionate and friendly towards you?

"Thank you, everybody," he said. For the first time in his life, he had friends. Those who cared about him. Other than his parents, Butler and Juliet, of course. The very idea filled his heart with warmth like he had never felt before.

He settled in the common room beside his friends as they started talking about the match. There was so much to learn in this world. Only today, he learnt what friends where. The world always had much to tell its inhabitants. To learn them was their purpose. Whether, others did it or not, he would do it. He was Artemis Fowl. Nothing could stop him. Or so he thought.

ooooooo

The end of this chapter. Nothing exceptionally new in this, I know, but the next might hold a few surprises. You'll see.