Major thanks to my new beta reader, karatemaster101! I normally don't write author's notes because I hate word count inflation, but I really have to say this. I'm a huge fan of karatemaster101's work, you should seriously check out their story King of Serpents! Again, thank you very much!

Dear Butler:

While teaching is currently satisfying my curiosity, I find that I cannot ignore the market which will soon open. With our available funds, we can launch a new company in the Wizarding World which will produce defensive magical items such as wards, shields, and detectors. I will admit that I am not the first to think of this idea and that there are already many small companies opening up for this exact purpose. This is where you come in my faithful friend.

My own money will fund the start-up of the company and will be able to give it a large lead on the other companies. However, I am still working on establishing a reliable name within the Wizarding World, and we need a good name and face for the company. There is a pure blood wizard named Cygnus Hemming who is a much older gentleman. Having remained neutral during the last war, neither side of the upcoming war will distrust him. He is a well-established botanist, but is living off a meager wage somewhere in China at the moment. I suspect that if we offer him a decent yearly wage, he will be willing to do the small speeches and sign the papers we require of him. When he is not needed, he may do as he wishes. Find him and make the offer. If he refuses, inform me and I will find someone else who is suitable. If he accepts, stay with him until he is done with the forms I have included.

-Artemis Fowl II

Butler sighed, re-reading the letter for the hundredth time. Cygnus was currently in the other room filling out forms for certain buildings in select magical communities to be purchased under his name and for the authorization of a new company. Butler wondered if this was such a good idea, as the wizard had seemed a bit odd to him. The idiot hadn't even realized the danger he was in when Butler threatened him with his trusty Sig Sauer. However, this was Artemis they were talking about. Butler would (and had) trust Artemis with his life. So, he pushed the matter out of his mind and gently put the letter back into his pocket.

Butler did hope that his charge was having fun. It wasn't often that Artemis got to do what he wanted for the sake of doing what he wanted. Of course, it was more often than before Artemis Fowl Senior came back. He had even been considering starting on some kind of global warming project before this whole Wizarding World thing came along. Butler wondered if Artemis was still working on that while there at Hogwarts. Leaning back in his chair, he stretched his arms up over his head, making his back creak. He was glad that Artemis was staying legal nowadays; legality tended to be a little less violent. True, it was less adventurous as well, but he could only take so much in his old age. And besides, Artemis could find adventure wherever he went, legal or not. In any event, he was staying mostly legal. Butler felt his hip absently, where the fairy tracker had been inserted just under his skin.

Butler had strict orders to not let the fairies find out about the Wizarding World. In order for this to happen, the fairy tracker had been moved from Artemis' back to Butler's hip, keeping it at the same height because Artemis had little doubt that the fairies would know if he stuck it to a dog. As it was, Artemis had warned Butler to keep his special sunglasses on at all times in order to protect himself from the Mesmer and to see past the fairy shielding. Artemis seemed to think the fairies would find out eventually. They probably would. Their technology was simply far too advanced; even if Artemis could understand it, he couldn't always fight it.

He was probably right. He always was. Usually. Butler sighed once again, patting his Sig Sauer while he waited for whichever poor schmuck of a fairy had to find him.

Artemis found himself looking at a boy who also appeared to be about his age, maybe a little older. He was dressed in nice clothes, but nothing truly fancy. He had a scar on his face, but it did not harm his appearance. His skin was surprisingly tan and his black hair somewhat tamed. However, the boy was looking at Artemis hungrily. Or, rather, at his arm. Artemis spared his attention for a moment to look and, yes, there was a tiny cut on his arm. It was red, but not even a drop of blood actually fell. It was so small, it was no wonder he hadn't felt it. It was likely from one of the many branches that had poked and prodded him on his walk through the forest. However, the vampire in front of him was clearly focused on that tiny cut. Artemis had suspected that he would need to give blood to his guest, but he had thought it would be in conditions under his control. Someplace where he could draw it out with a sanitized needle and put it into a cup. However, this looked like it was not going to be the case. Artemis decided to take his planned approach anyway.

"Hello, you must be the representative of the Royal Vampire Clan. My name is Artemis Fowl II. What is yours?" Artemis asked, holding his arm, the one that didn't have a cut on it, out to shake hands. The boy's eyes snapped from the arm to Artemis, as if coming out of a trance. Well, that was reassuring at least. He stepped forward.

"My name is Prince Darren Shan, and yes, I am the representative we chose." Darren Shan. Six then four. He stepped forward as well, shaking Artemis' hand. His grip was firm, but not painful. "I'm afraid that I will not be able to be here for the full amount of time you requested, there is some urgent business between our clan and another. I will have to leave a day early." Artemis nodded. The first years and the third years would not get to hear from him then, but they might get to do so another year.

"That is acceptable. Anything else?" Artemis asked.

"Yes. Blood." Well, at least Darren was blunt. Artemis usually liked bluntness, but he did wish that Darren had waited to ask about that.

"You can feed off me for the duration of your stay," Artemis said. Darren smiled and, with what he had apparently interpreted as permission, grabbed Artemis' arm before he had a chance to blink. There was a stinging pain in his arm as Darren's nails cut it open along the smaller cut he had received during his walk, and then his mouth bit down. Artemis made no movements, frozen to the spot. He was split.

On one hand, how often were you conscious when your blood was being sucked by a Vampire? The tiny childish part of Artemis' mind which he had so carefully hidden was giddy. However, the high majority of his mind was disgusted. He had no idea where that mouth had been. Who else's blood he had sucked? Artemis knew that Vampires couldn't pass diseases around like mosquitoes did, because their saliva was toxic to nearly all bacteria and viruses, a way to clean the blood before ingesting it and to make sure they don't kill off their own prey, but he couldn't help wondering if he would be that one in a million person who got a deadly disease from a Vampire that sucked his blood. And, even more importantly, the sheer indignity of being reduced to prey was insulting. He was Artemis, named after the Greek goddess of the hunt; he was the predator. The rest of the world was the prey.

Was this how those people felt, when Artemis hunted them? When Artemis tore into opposing companies, or tracked down those who had wronged him? When he was a criminal mastermind, one of the most feared people in the underworld, was this how his victims felt? Helpless? Like prey? Artemis had once reveled in the glory of causing those feelings. Of making his opponents realize they were utterly and truly trapped, truly beaten, with no hope. Artemis felt like he was going to be sick.

Darren pulled away from Artemis' arm, pulling out a bandage from a back pocket. He put it on Artemis' arm with a surprising gentleness and smiled sheepishly at Artemis.

"Sorry about that. I haven't fed in a few days and I definitely couldn't go into an entire school full of magic kids without feeding some beforehand. I will need more blood before I leave, but otherwise I should be fine." Artemis nodded, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. He turned and began walking back towards Hogwarts, being careful not to do so abruptly. He didn't want a vampire with hurt feelings staying with him. Leading the way, Artemis guided Darren through the maze of Hogwarts to his rooms. A temporary room had been set up next to his own, and it was that room which Darren would be borrowing during his stay there. Artemis opened the door to the room and let Darren in before leaving to go to his office.

Collapsing in the chair, Artemis looked at the five books he had checked out from the library a couple of days ago. It was strange that he had five books. He really could only remember grabbing four. Oh, sure, he remembered checking out five, shrinking five, unshrinking five, and overall having five books. But he only remembered grabbing four books from the shelves. And, even more perplexing, was the subject matter of the fifth book. Romantic poems. Artemis had always loved poetry, but poetry for the sake of beautiful poetry, not this dribble. He had flipped through it; they were all simple ABAB style poems, lacking in vocabulary and original descriptions. It was a book full of cheesy, low-quality romance poems. Even when he read poetry, he rarely read romance poetry. For the life of him, Artemis could not figure out why he had checked out the book. It was why he held on to it. Sighing, Artemis dropped the book and moved to his room to get ready for bed.

"There are several different types of Vampires. The main reason for this is that 'Vampire' is actually a very broad term which is technically only defined as a creature which feeds primarily on humans. Under this definition, even Dementors can be considered Vampires."

Artemis sat in the back of the classroom, a notebook open but the page blank. He had heard this same speech four times already. It consisted of roughly seven hundred words, give or take a few depending on Darren's ability to remember what he was supposed to say. Artemis took any notes from the speech the first time he had heard it; he now only had the notebook with him both out of habit and because one of these kids might actually ask something interesting at some point. It was currently the fifth year class, Darren's last class before he had to go. Fifth time, fifth years. Artemis faintly wondered at the coincidence before brushing it out of his head.

Well, even if it was boring to Artemis after hearing it so many times, at least the students seemed interested. Darren was a pretty good speaker. He was active, engaging, and not afraid to point at the students and ask their opinions. He did not shoot down the Slytherin boy when he proclaimed that Vampires were beasts which were lower than wizards; instead he simply nodded his head and said, 'thank you for sharing your opinion' and moved on. Malfoy was left gaping in surprise. Artemis wondered if he truly believed what he said, was trained to say it, or was simply looking for attention, positive or negative. He thought it was probably a combination of the latter two. Thus, why the boy continued to pick on Potter.

"The deadliest type is probably the Lure Vampire. Well known for being frozen in time, they appear to be some of the most beautiful people on earth" Darren was strutting around the room. "However, among Vampires, they are also known for being the messiest eaters" He spoke with a cold tone.

"They tear apart their prey, ripping them limb from limb and devour everything that they can," he added, leering at one of the students.

A student, Granger, raised her hand. Darren stood up straight and nodded to her.

"Professor, what's your least favorite kind of Vampire?" She asked. Artemis clicked his pen to write, wondering about the answer himself. Darren paused for a moment, thinking.

"My own species of Vampires holds a general dislike of the Vampaneze for historical reasons, but personally, my least favorite kind would have to be Spirit Vampires. They are horrible intelligent beings that select a victim and ruin their lives, feeding on their sorrow. One particularly vicious Spirit Vampire I had the pleasure to encounter had kidnapped a little girl from a low-income family and demanded a ransom." As Darren spoke, the disgust in his words was apparent. Artemis pursed his lips slightly and his grip on his pen tightened, even as he continued taking notes. A vision of Holly locked up in his basement came to the front of his mind.

"Even though the Vampire returned the little girl, the ransom required meant the family lost everything they had and they were stuck on the streets. Their sorrow fed the Vampire for months while their money gave him a place to live." Artemis wondered if the fairies had been having any financial trouble when he demanded his metric ton of gold from them. No, he reminded himself, they may not have liked parting with that much gold, but they could afford it. But he hadn't known that at the time. At the time, he didn't have close connections with LEP. He didn't know Foaly. He didn't really know Holly. At the time, he had no idea how precarious a position he had put her in. One of her first missions above ground as the first female officer allowed in LEP, and she gets kidnapped and loses the force a metric ton of gold. It's true that he didn't know a lot of things back then, but he also didn't consider them as possibilities.

And there were more things similar to this that he had done. Far crueler. Conning hundreds of families, stealing from banks, investing in drug lords. Holly wasn't the first person he had kidnapped, either. As if. Though none of his other kidnap/ransom victims had been brought to his house. He couldn't have the police connecting him to those kidnappings, after all.

As Artemis looked at the terror filled faces of the students, he realized that he was feeling very little emotion. That idea made his stomach twist. Empathy. He had been lacking in empathy. He knew he wasn't autistic in any way, he was fully capable of understanding others emotions and how to use them to his advantage.

To his advantage.

Perhaps, his difficulty with empathy stemmed not from genetics, but from his childhood. Before his father had disappeared and when he felt he needed to destroy his empathy in order to commit the crimes that were required of him. Artemis felt himself smirking slightly; sometimes having a degree in psychology was useful.

Darren finished up his speech to the class, asking if they had any more questions. When no one raised their hand, he nodded and turned the class over to Artemis.

"I want fifteen inches on what you learned today, including your honest opinion about it. The person who writes the best paper will get some money for the Hogsmeade trip this month. The person who does the worst will be serving detention unless they get at least an E as their grade. Dismissed." As the students started packing up Artemis turned to Darren.

"Well, I'll go pack up and head on out. You have a teacher's meeting to get to now, right?" Darren asked, shrugging his shoulders. Artemis nodded, thinking.

"Alrighty then, See ya 'round" He said, turning to leave. Artemis spoke up.

"How did you learn to accept it?" Darren faced Artemis again, the confusion apparent on his face. Artemis clarified his question.

"How did you learn to accept causing pain to others? How did you accept your friend's death?" Darren looked somber for a moment, thinking it over before replying carefully.

"I've learned to accept hurting others for their blood because I need it to survive. The only person I've ever killed was my friend, Sam, and in doing so I was accepting his final gift to me. He already had a fatal wound, by finishing him off, I took his soul into mine and carry his memory with me. That's why the Vampaneze consider it honorable to finish off their victims, you know, as much as I hate it. And I've never killed in cold blood." Darren said. "Does that answer your question?" He asked. Artemis nodded. Darren looked at Artemis' contemplative face for a moment before leaving the room.

It answered the question, but not in the way he had hoped. After all, Artemis had killed people in cold blood before. Or, at least, had given the order to do it. Darren was a Vampire, one of the darkest creatures to walk the earth, and he had still never killed someone in cold blood. He had never held people hostage, never caused pain where he could prevent it, and was able to excuse what pain he did cause. Artemis didn't have any such excuses. Had he fallen below the Vampire?

He smirked darkly before walking out of the room and down the halls to the teacher's meeting. Opening the door, he was glad to note that he was not last. Being the youngest teacher, there was already an enormous lack of respect from some of the others and he didn't wish to antagonize the situation. The teacher's lounge was very pleasant looking: several large chairs and couches located around the room decorated in the many colors of the different houses. Somehow, the colors actually managed to work. Artemis' inner fashion sense could not help but be both appalled and intrigued. Sitting himself in a large red and blue chair, Artemis waited. A few minutes later, a particularly harried looking Professor Flitwick came running in through the door.

"Sorry about that, someone pranked the Lovegood girl again and I had to help her," he explained, short of breath.

"You see, Dumbledore, this is exactly what I'm talking about. The children at Hogwarts are running rampant and need to be controlled." Umbridge spoke condescendingly, before turning to Flitwick and asking, "Is the poor dearie okay?" Though it was clear that she didn't care much, she just wanted an excuse to ignore Dumbledore's reply to her rebuke. Flitwick, clearly unfamiliar with the predatory attention, simply nodded before giving his attention to Dumbledore.

"Well, now that we are all here, I believe it is time for me to make a few announcements. OWLs this year will be held from June 9th to June 20th, and NEWTs from June 13th to June 25th. The specific days and times of when your subject area will be tested will be sent to you later this year. Also, some small changes. Artemis, we are receiving several letters complaining about your guest speaker. Though I understand he had excellent behavior while here, I must ask that in the future you please give the students permission slips for their parents to sign. Also, I'm terribly sorry Minerva, but our funding has been cut once again and I'm afraid that I will have to cut the 7th year Human Transfiguration class. Lastly, Dolores had a few words she would like to say." Dumbledore ended with a cheery tone, completely negating the previously negative atmosphere and acting as if everything was fine. Umbridge stood up and held her head up high. Artemis may have hated her, but he had to give her points for confidence.

"The minister, after reading my reports on Hogwarts, has decided that it is time for me to start watching each teacher personally. I will be sending you each a note with the scheduled date and time in the near future, but I thought that I should give you fair warning. The Ministry takes the education of children very seriously and if any of you are found lacking, you will be sacked. That is all." She said promptly, before sitting back down in her fluffy yellow and green chair.

"Any questions?" Dumbledore asked, opening the room up to discussion. Unfortunately for him, no one there felt inclined to speak freely in front of Umbridge. Or perhaps it was fortunate. Either way, he dismissed the teachers and they were allowed to return to their rooms.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Yeah right, Gryffindork!" Artemis was blank faced as he walked around the corner and found two 7th years Slytherins tossing a camera between them and a 4th year Gryffindor student nearly in tears trying to get it back.

"Halevue, Bontamoth, ten points off of Slytherin each and hand me the camera now or it'll be another ten," Artemis said coldly. The two Slytherins looked at each other and scowled before one of them walked forward and handed the camera to Artemis. They both started walking away and Artemis decided to ignore them, even when one of them gave him the bird when they thought he wasn't looking. Creevey, the Gryffindor, ran up to him.

"Thank you, Professor," he said, blushing a bit. Artemis looked at him; it was pretty clear he was embarrassed. Probably because he had been saved by a teacher; many students thought to deal with bullies on their own. Artemis nearly sighed in annoyance.

"Creevey, you don't need to be afraid to ask for help. Listen very carefully, if you try to do things on your own, it will only go badly. No one is a one man team. You may not be stronger than them, but you can be smarter than them! The worst they could possibly do to your camera is break it, and a camera is easily fixed or replaced. However, if it became more serious and they cursed you, well, 7th year students know some pretty bad curses, Creevey." Artemis handed the camera back to him and Creevey took it, still blushing a bit. "Look, if that happens again, just come and find me, okay?"

Creevey nodded before dashing off towards the Gryffindor common room. Artemis ran his hand through his hair, fixing the strand that had come loose while he had been talking. Creevey. 7 letters. That was the most magical number, according to Wizarding superstition. Arriving back in his room, Artemis found himself looking at the book of cheesy love poems again. He resolved to return it the next day since he wasn't going to learn any more about it and his actions from re-reading it. And besides, just looking at it gave him headaches. Sitting at his desk, Artemis contemplated writing to Butler. As much as he missed his old friend though, he couldn't be sure that the fairies weren't watching him and if an owl flew in, they would definitely be suspicious.

Wishing to speak with Butler inspired Artemis to work a bit more on one of his many small projects. Sliding open his top drawer, he pulled out the remains of a cell phone and some pieces of fairy technology and began tinkering.

Butler was startled, when the figure first showed up at the window. Of all the fairies for them to send, it had to be her. Well, at least she wouldn't suspect anything. She was flying past the window and probably around the house, trying to figure out a way to get in without letting the people inside know. Of course, the fairy law about never entering a house without permission was definitely hindering her.

Butler sighed and decided to take pity. Loading his gun and hiding it, he opened the front door and stepped out, closing it behind him carefully. Seeing Holly fly towards him slowly, Butler pulled out the gun quickly, his aim true as always, and fired.