Disclaimer: I do not own any of the wonderful characters that the great authors J.K. Rowling and Eoin Colfer have created.

Chapter 12

The Patronus

He had thought that he would wait for two years more. But no, it was time. It was time he returned and showed to the world the power he held. It was time he returned to his servant who would assist him to rise again. It would take months, yes, it would. But he would be able to return to his body, and that was what he wanted.

ooooooo

Artemis was racing through the fourth year transfiguration textbook. It was far more interesting than the limited first year book, the information in which was next to nothing for him. But here you had spells to transfigure various objects into various animals or objects. It was given that even statues could be brought to life, but it was more complex transfiguration which was beyond NEWT levels.

Time was very impatient, it seemed. Soon enough, the next match of the season was coming up. Actually, it was tomorrow. But Artemis was not going to see this match. He had planned what to do. He was going to search Hogwarts for places that students had failed to notice. He also wanted to practice the Patronus charm, and he was curious as to what his Patronus would be, for all patroni were animals and he wanted to see which animal would guard him from Dementors, which were what Patronus charms were mainly used against. Also, they were used to communicate messages between wizards and witches.

He was getting on with his studies just as well as Artemis Fowl would. He would finish the assignments given to them in one-fourth the time allotted (I'm sorry, but the assignments were generally lengthy, and the Professors gave them with the thought that no student would be able to finish them in time. So he couldn't finish it quicker). The Professors would be surprised but they would give him a new assignment for the meantime. They were only stunned that the boy had finished four years' worth studying in one year. But Artemis wanted to finish the fifth years' books and spells too; then he would have finished his OWL portions in one year!

But this was no big deal for him; he was who he was, after all. He was a genius, and he couldn't do anything to change it.

The day of the match came; and Artemis was ready to put himself into action. He had a good idea what to do with his time. He would ask the ghosts for help first. They would know. With hundreds of years' experience in Hogwarts, they must know every nook and cranny in Hogwarts.

And the house-elves were another matter. He had heard from two mischievous boys that it was the house-elves employed in Hogwarts who made their food. And that the kitchen was located in a place which you had to find, there was even a password needed to go there. Artemis tried to tempt them into telling it, but they wouldn't tell it for anything.

Well then, he had to find it out himself, but that shouldn't be a difficult job.

So breakfast was finished. And after two more hours, nearly every student was trying to cram into the stands. Not Artemis. He was back at the school, searching for the sight of a ghost. He had by now learnt Disillusionment charms (it was part of NEWT curriculum. But it was useful, so he'd decided to learn it) and was, for the moment, invisible. He was walking silently so as to not be heard by anyone, even the caretaker Filch, who gave students detentions if he just got the chance. He and Jennifer were the only Slytherin first years to not have gotten a detention from any teacher, prefect, head boy/girl or the caretaker. He was clever enough to avoid a detention and she was innocent enough to avoid the same.

He walked and walked around the school, searching for something he had not seen or somewhere he had not visited before, or even a ghost. And suddenly he emerged into a third-floor corridor where he saw the Bloody Baron holding Peeves the Poltergeist by the neck.

"Have I not told you never to come by this corridor or in my way, Peeves?" the Baron asked.

"I'm so sorry, your bloodiness, sir, Peevesy just forgot…" Peeves was saying.

"I did not give you permission to speak. Or I may have to at last do to you what you have been dreading ever since you saw me –"

"No, sir, no! Please forgive little Peevesy this time, sir, he will never, ever come to the third floor at all, and he will keep always ten yards' distance from your bloodiness, sir!"

"Very well, Peeves, you may go now! But remember… this is my last warning. You will not be forgiven next time."

"Yes, sir! Of course, sir!" was all he said. He was off.

Artemis tried to show as if he never heard anyone, and had just come up to the third floor. He went back to the steps, removed the charm from him, and crept back up, looking hopefully at the Baron.

"What are you doing here, when everyone is in the grounds watching the match?" Baron asked in an angry voice. His voice was still showing his anger at Peeves.

Artemis knew it would be best if he didn't reply quickly. Instead, he gave a questioning look that seemed to ask what Baron's anger was directed at.

"Oh, sorry, sorry. Just had a nasty argument with Peeves there. So what are you doing when everyone is in for the match?" he asked in a sweeter voice.

"I was trying to search for some place in Hogwarts where I can practice a spell without anyone noticing. Can you tell me of such a place?" Artemis asked kindly. (Now that was only because he was trying to worm information out, you know Artemis well.)

Baron smiled, and then said, "I do, of course. But you will not get that information out of me. Try the seventh floor is all I will say."

And then Baron turned, and moved away.

Artemis turned too, and swiftly moved towards his new destination: the seventh floor.

Baron had said, directly or indirectly, that in the seventh floor lay a place where he could practice his spell without anyone knowing. Artemis had already prowled the entire Hogwarts (except the girls' bathrooms, of course) other than some of those places to enter which you had to give passwords to portraits. He'd found out that of many, but few still remained. He knew what every portrait in the seventh floor led into. He didn't know the passwords of many of those (including that of Gryffindor tower), though. So this place wasn't behind a portrait or something. It was just hidden.

And so Artemis went through the seventh floor for over half-an-hour, thoroughly observing each and every square inch of the walls and the floor and the ceiling. He was fast, for he was Artemis Fowl, but it still took time. (Just imagine how much time it would have taken us then. But don't you agree we would have just quit after fifteen minutes of bored looking into walls and ceilings and floors for some stupid pattern? We'd have better watched the match. By far, more interesting for us. But not for him. He was… well, you know who he was.)

With time moving on, it was getting more interesting for him. It lay somewhere here… very close… where he would at last be able to do things on his own that no one would know about…

For a few very anxious moments after nearly an hour of search, Artemis considered the possibility of the Bloody Baron lying to him. But Artemis had always been well-behaved with all ghosts, and Baron wouldn't have at least liedto him. But all the same, he hadn't still found a clue as to where that place could even be… And then he found it.

It was a stretch of blank wall, opposite the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, where he is shown to be getting a good beating from the trolls he is trying to train. There were stretches of blank walls in Hogwarts, but he could actually feelit here… there was something highly magical waiting here. This was the place.

But how was it that you performed magical spells opposite a stretch of blank wall without anyone noticing. He then concentrated on what he needed to do. He needed to find a place where he could practise the Patronus charm without anyone noticing him… he thought the same thought again and again, as if trying to understand what he wanted to do.

Suddenly, out of nothing on the blank wall, a door burst into place.

Artemis stared at it for a moment trying to absorb what had happened. Out of nowhere, a door had appeared on his thoughts of what he needed. What lay inside, he knew not. And to know, he had to go inside.

But it could be dangerous, for all he knew. Yet still, he pushed the door open and entered a room.

It was the perfect place he could have imagined for practicing the charm. With a wide hall, it had in a corner a bookshelf strutted with books on how to do a Patronus. On another corner was a large box. And there was also a table with a pack of chocolate frogs in it. When he observed closely, he found that it was none other than his own chocolate frogs there.

Of course, he thought. Food was the principal exception to Gamb's law. So it couldn't have produced food, so it took some from his ownership. This room certainly did marvels.

He had thought about the place he required, and it had popped up at his very thoughts. So at this place, whatever you wanted, that is, your requirements would be magically fulfilled. If he had to give this room a name, it would've been the Room of Requirement.

And as soon as he was ready, he started off. He recollected all his happiest memories of his life; knowing he was a wizard, coding his first computer program, Butler there to protect him always, his having friends, his finding out that one of his ancestors had been a famous wizard, and all he could remember. And then he spoke the incantation.

Silver smoke drifted off from his wand; this was great for a first try. Of course, no wizard or witch in recorded history had ever produced their Patronus in their first try. Few had on their second.

To create a Patronus, he would need the situation to do so. He needed a Dementor in front of him to be able to make a Patronus at first. The fear and chill emanating from it would encourage him to fight harder.

Just as he thought so, the large box at the corner of the room opened. A chill swept over the room and haunting thoughts of his father's loss filled inside him. There wasn't any doubting it. It was a dementor.

Plucking up all his courage and skill and happiest thoughts, he whispered, "Expecto Patronum."

Nothing happened. The wicked creature came in closer. There was no one to save him here. If he couldn't save himself, he would soon be without a soul. Dread washed over him as he raised his wand.

With a sudden upwelling of fortitude, and willing his emotions to the happiest of his memories and inventive new happier ones, he shouted the spell which, hadn't it worked, might've been his life's last, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

And from the end of his wand burst a silver sphinx with its human head and lion's body, intelligence and protection showing clearly in its face, and the dementor was thrown back as if sucked into a black hole. The mighty sphinx raised its head, and ensuring the dementor's flight out, turned towards its master.

The moment the sphinx had burst out from his wand, he felt warmth being poured over him, taking off the chill and fear that he had felt earlier. So his Patronus was a sphinx. He could now do what mighty wizards had failed to do. This was when he truly felt like he was a wizard.

Satisfied, he returned to his common room to continue with his study of fourth year books. It was only going to be mid-March before he finished them. He still had his one last match against Hufflepuff in April, which was the last match of the season.

When it was nearly two, he heard students. So the match was over.

Steve and Jack were shouting loudly over the others, arguing.

"Gryffindor deserved victory. They'd scored 180-140 before the snitch was caught; they played well and were leading," Jack was saying.

"How dare you support our arch rivals? Anyway, the Ravenclaw Seeker caught the snitch fair and square, and so they won," Steve said.

"But the Gryffindor Seeker saw it first, and she nearly had it too, when the other one came and caught it. It was close, and I think Gryffindor deserved victory," Jack said.

"Then what about the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw match? Ravenclaw led by a hundred and forty points. It was mere luck that the Hufflepuff Seeker caught the snitch. Had the Ravenclaw Seeker not fallen down, she would have caught the snitch for sure! Hufflepuff is the weakest team this season, if you haven't noticed," Steve finished.

Jack was looking stubborn with his 'noble' views. Artemis felt tiresome. These two always fought over the silliest of issues, and yet they were best friends.

And he felt tiresome also because he'd just minutes before fought a dementor single-handedly. Why shouldn't he feel so?

After their potions class that afternoon, where Artemis had impressed the Professor so much that he forgot all about telling anything about the Sorcerer's Stone and awarded Slytherin a generous fifty points. That was also partly because he was Head of House of Slytherin.

Evening came in. Just as Artemis was about to immerse himself into 'The Standard Book of Spells – Grade 5' Jennifer entered the common room and asked, "Artemis, you're so good at flying. Could you show me some of your moves and teach how to fly as well as you do?"

Artemis felt just like someone would feel when you asked them how you can talk English so well and to teach them to speak English as well as you did. He didn't know what to do. He said, "You first show me how well you fly, then I'll see what I can do for you."

She smiled and led him, holding his hands. Her hands felt warm, and a surge of emotion welled up inside him that he had never felt before. He had Firebolt four in his hands, and she had a school broom.

After a few minutes, she was out in the air, flying wildly with happiness. He watched her tiny figure on the broomstick; she wasn't a bad flier, she did fly well. And she turned towards him in the air, and waved at him. He watched blankly, unable to express any emotion.

And then, out of nowhere, a hooded figure with blonde hair, wearing a cloak, sped on a broomstick towards the figure in front of him. He had seen the girl in the air, and had raised his wand.

Artemis shuddered. It was too late for him to use his wand, tucked as it was within his robes. There was nothing he could do except shout, "Jen, look out!"

The girl slowed down and turned her broomstick to see what Artemis was trying to show her. Her face was horrorstruck as she saw the approaching man on his broomstick.

Just before she maddened with fear, the man spoke two well-chosen words.

To be continued…

JUST KIDDING…

A jet of green light erupted from the wand and hit her square in the chest as she screamed in terror. She fell off her broom from a height of well above three-hundred feet, but made no movements while falling, as if her breath had already been knocked out of her, though it was supposed to be human instinct to kick your legs or scream when you fell.

She did neither, and she fell to the ground, she became still, and lost her will.

The man on the broom turned and moved, and after he just crossed over the gates, he vanished into thin air.

ooooooo

Lucius Malfoy apparated into the place where Yaxley now lived with his wife, who had presently gone out on some shopping. Yaxley was home, alone, which was exactly what he'd wanted.

Yaxley was apparently surprised at the sudden intrusion of Malfoy into his house. He spoke looking at him, "You do know it is not manners –"

"Yes, yes, I do, as a matter of fact, but this was important. This is concerning Harry Potter –"

But Lucius was interrupted by Yaxley, "Isn't the world now so happy after the Dark Lord has perished? In fact Lucius, I'd started hating the Dark Lord's schemes and themes since his last year itself, but had I expressed it then, I would have been killed. Care for tea?"

Lucius smiled. This was all he had wanted. Not the tea, of course. Coldly, he said, "Yes, a little would be nice, thank you, Yaxley."

Yaxley seemed at first a little perturbed by Lucius' behavior, but then went up to the kitchen. Lucius slowly followed him, without his notice. As he had started to prepare some tea, he saw Lucius alongside him.

He started, "I wonder, Lucius, why you would follow me –"

Lucius Malfoy made a sudden action. Wordlessly, he disarmed Yaxley and the next second, he was carefully observing the wand, "Beechwood and Unicorn hair, I presume?"

Yaxley was surprised for a moment and spoke coldly with a smile, "Give me back my wand, Lucius."

"Yaxley, Yaxley. You said you would've been killed if you'd expressed your hatred of the Dark Lord's ideas while he was alive. You were, sorry – I mean to say, you are still correct. It is going to happen now, for the Dark Lord never died," Lucius said, raising his wand.

It took a moment before the meaning of the words sunk in. Yaxley made an involuntary attempt to snatch his wand back. Malfoy was quicker and sent and Knocking spell, which knocked Yaxley off his legs and he fell down. Malfoy quickly used the Body-Bind Curse and Yaxley lay unmoving on the floor, eyes watching Lucius in rage unbelievably.

Malfoy wanted to kill him off quickly, but the Dark Lord said that he wanted to kill him slowly and painfully.

Lucius spoke, "The Dark Lord told me one great secret before his unfortunate fall at the hands of one stupid Harry Potter. Has the Dark Mark branded in our arms vanished? No, it has not. And it will not until the Dark Lord is no more. So I knew that our master was alive, but in hiding, regaining his strength. But you have showed distrust. And you shall face the wrath of the Dark Lord for this, in my form."

And then he raised his wand and smiled evilly and cruelly, "I must also inform you, my dear friend, that I have just now killed your only daughter. Yes, the Dark Lord decided it was best to kill all the Yaxleys, for people who defy him only cause unrest in the society. As family, both she was, and your wife still is, an unnecessary element in the glorious world our beloved master has imagined for us."

Inside his body, Yaxley could feel the throb of his heart and its quivering with fear. He hoped that all this was a joke, and in a matter of time, Malfoy would release the Body- Bind and laugh heartily at the sight of him.

But his hopes turned out to be untrue.

He heard the sound of rushing death in the form of a bright green light approaching him, and yet did not move a muscle, because he could not. And with nothing else to do, he welcomed death warmly. And death engulfed him.

Lucius Malfoy watched the dead body of his old friend, present enemy who was dead. He took a chunk of hair from his head, and put it in the Polyjuice Potion he'd prepared at his renovated Manor.

He heard the sound of a door knock. He drank it and reached for the door.

But Mrs. Yaxley had done nothing against the Dark Lord. She wasn't basically a supporter of either Lord Voldemort or the Ministry. But she had to be killed too, not a trace was to be left, no more bad elements. Especially his servants who'd turned traitors after his fall. She entered the house casually and laid out her shopping items.

Lucius didn't really want to kill either the girl or her mother as he knew them well. But he had to. The Dark Lord had ordered him to. And it was folly to even think about disobeying the Dark Lord's orders.

He couldn't bear any longer the sight of the woman. It filled his heart with an untold grief that he failed to understand. No longer trusting himself, he raised his wand at the back of the woman.

She turned exactly at that moment, astounded to see her husband pointing a wand at her. She smiled, thinking it was some sort of joke. It wasn't, and she never had time to know that.

And then a flash of green light that illuminated the house.

A second later, the Yaxleys were no more.

ooooooo

This is it, guys and gals! Did you like it, or hate it? I hope it was a surprise though, and that no one was expecting this… as I said. Thanks to all my reviewers, you are kind enough to mention only a few flaws. As for the Stone, I feel that the Sorcerer's Stone is more appropriate than the Philosopher's Stone, and that's a personal view; perhaps for the only reason that it's an alliteration; as for quoting from the book, I knew I was quoting the book a lot, and it was intended. It would only make sense to explain the concept to anyone, whether they've read Harry Potter or not.