Artemis stirred slowly, waking up on a soft bed just like everyone else who entered the hospital wing did. Madam Pomfrey watched him with a hawk's eye, making sure there were no adverse effects from the Stunning spell. After all, it was very strange for someone to be knocked out by it. The professor was lucky a couple of students had found him and brought him up here. He stared at the ceiling, blinking slowly for a moment before he began sitting up. Well, that just wouldn't do.
"Now, now, I need you to stay laying down for a bit. I couldn't find any signs of a concussion, but there's no other way to be knocked out by a Stunning spell, so I…" she trailed off, looking at him confused. The professor was looking at her strangely, his expression open as opposed to his normal stone and his eyes wide with wonder. A grin spread across his face.
"Why, was it you, Mistress of Healing, who brought me back from death's end?" He asked. Madam Pomfrey frowned, the concussion must be worse than she had thought.
"I would hardly say you were anywhere near 'death's end', but yes, I was the one to cast Ennervate on you," she said. The grin, if it were possible, spread wider.
"Wonderful!" He exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing her hand, shaking it vigorously. "Thank you, Healing Mistress. Tell me, have you seen my beautiful lady? I fear I have not seen her in months and was hoping I could once more cast my eyes upon her lovely visage over this break," Madam Pomfrey roughly pulled her hand away from Artemis. Inappropriately, she couldn't help but be confused about Artemis having a girlfriend. He just didn't seem the type. Pushing the thought out of her head, she focused on her clearly ill patient.
"Um, no, I'm afraid I haven't seen her. Tell me, have you always been this…excitable?" Madam Pomfrey asked. Admittedly, she hadn't really spoken at length with him before.
"Of course! However, Artemis, being the rather self-absorbed person that he is, fears to allow the world to know his true feelings!"
"Uh, so you are not the Professor?"
"Of course not! How could you mistake this beautiful romantic for such a cold selfish person? I am Orion," Madam Pomfrey felt very overwhelmed.
"Well, if the Healing Mistress would excuse me, I must be on my way. I have traveling, dragon-slaying, and lady-saving to do!" Artemis/Orion said, swinging his legs out of the bed. Madam Pomfrey pulled out her wand and hoped for the best as she did what she often did for troublesome students.
"Stupefy!" She called out. Orion's head whipped around to look at her in shock and betrayal before the spell connected. He froze up, his eyes closed, and he fell. Madam Pomfrey ran over to him and quickly felt the back of his head. Still no sign of a concussion.
"Levicorpus," she said, waving her wand over his body. Slowly, Artemis floated upward and onto the bed. Madam Pomfrey hesitated for a moment before sighing. She couldn't find anything wrong with him, even with diagnostic spells and good old fashioned looking for injuries. By all accounts, he should be perfectly healthy. Sighing, she conjured some ropes to hold him down. When… Orion…woke up, he may prove to be hostile. Standing a little ways away from the bed, she gently cast the spell;
"Ennervate," The Professor twitched and moved for a moment before his eyes snapped open and went straight to her, fixing her in place with his normal cold stare.
"Why," he drawled, "am I tied up?" Pomfrey let out a grateful sigh, the coldness of his personality was more welcoming than she could possibly have anticipated.
"You were acting strange when I woke you up before," She began to explain, but he interrupted.
"I am afraid that you are mistaken, I haven't woken before. I was stunned, then I woke up here," He said slowly, clearly implying that she was an idiot for thinking otherwise. Pomfrey pursed her lips.
"Now, see here young man, a few second year students found you unconscious in the hallway and brought you here. I recognized that you were simply stunned and woke you, but then you began speaking strangely and referred to yourself as Orion. I then stunned you once more as you began to leave in order to go 'traveling, dragon-slaying, and lady-saving'," she explained sternly. Professor Fowl looked at her, his face completely blank and free of emotion.
"You lie," He eventually hissed, "You're just trying to make me seem crazy, but I happen to have a perfectly functioning mind, body, and memory." Madam Pomfrey couldn't help herself at that moment, but look at the boy. Really look at him. He was disheveled, unkempt, and his eyes did look wild and crazy. At this moment, they were darting around, trying to find a way to escape. He truly did not look like a man of sound mind and body. He was silently accusing her, thinking that she had done something. Paranoia. She frowned, she didn't recall him being this way when they had first met.
"Professor Fowl, I need you to tell me if anything is wrong. Are you injured anywhere? Can you see clearly? Have you noticed anything strange lately with yourself?" She asked, trying to stay professional. His eyes snapped to her.
"I am fine," he said, calmly, "simply stressed from having to grade midterm exams". As if everything was right once more in the world. Pomfrey hesitated, but she couldn't hold a teacher in without proof of injury if he wanted to go, not like with a student. Especially when it was officially break now. She sighed heavily and waved her wand. The ropes vanished, the professor took his wand, and, almost like apparition, he was out the door. His footsteps quickly faded as he moved down the hall. Perhaps he was telling the truth - perhaps it was simply stress. Professor Fowl was rather young, after all, the same age as many of the students. However, Madam Pomfrey couldn't shake the feeling that there was something far more sinister happening. That something was horribly, fundamentally, wrong with Professor Artemis Fowl.
Orion. 5 letters. Orion, a legendary human hunter, said to be so revered and powerful that Zeus granted him a place among the stars after his death at the goddess Artemis' hand. It was a good name. If Artemis could have chosen his own name, Orion would have been on the list of potentials. However, Artemis quite liked his own name. After all, it was Artemis who slayed Orion, clearly she was the better hunter.
And as for Madam Pomfrey, she hadn't been on the list of suspects before, but she definitely was now. What had she done to him while sleeping? Where had the story of an alter-ego come from? What would she have to gain from his absence? Or from him? Recognition? Healers worked tirelessly behind the scenes and never got any recognition for it. Although Artemis could get her publicity, it was a long route to take with a huge amount of gambling and, overall, very unlikely. Perhaps, though, she was working with Snape. However, Artemis still could not find what Snape would gain if Artemis left.
He frowned as he reached his rooms. Looking around at his belongings, he waved his wand and caused all of them to fly into a trunk sitting on his bed. The suits folded themselves and wrapped themselves around his breakables. Artemis absently watched his hair brush fly past his head as he realized he hadn't brushed yet that day. It went into the suitcase and Artemis found himself not caring, he had far more worrying things to focus on. An owl tapped at the window and Artemis took the letter from him, stuffing it in his pocket to be read later. Levitating the suitcase over to the fireplace, Artemis grabbed some Floo Powder from a small jar and tossed it in.
"The Winking Sphinx!" He called out, stepping into the green flame. He stepped out carefully after landing into the cheerful small bar. Shouts rang out in strange combinations of Irish and English as Artemis calmly slid through the crowd to the front door. Opening it, he found himself in Belfast, the largest city in Ireland. Artemis pulled out his cell phone and looked at it for a moment, contemplating calling Butler, before he narrowed his eyes and put it away. No, Butler wasn't to be trusted. Not anymore. Putting it back in his pocket, Artemis waved down a taxi, and asked the driver to take him to a warehouse near the River Lagan. The warehouse was one of many safehouses Artemis owned around the world. He didn't want anyone, including his family, to tell Butler he was back. Once the taxi had dropped him off a couple blocks away, Artemis walked to the building and hid himself inside. Locking the doors with everything that they had, he was forced to acknowledge that the warehouse had some outdated technology. He would have to update it.
However, in the meantime, he had some hacking to do. Artemis walked straight to the computer lab that was in every warehouse and, with practiced ease, broke into the fairy communications systems. He quickly located Foaly's superior software on the network, and set about with one of his favorite pastimes. It was rather calming and familiar, even as Artemis slowly worked his way through Foaly's networks. Unfortunately, it seemed that Artemis had gotten rusty in his computer lacking environment at Hogwarts. Was that part of the plan? Make Artemis bad at computers? However, that would have to mean that Dumbledore was part of the plan, as he had hired Artemis in the first place. Artemis froze, his hands ceasing their clicking of the keyboard. Was Dumbledore in on it? Was this job one huge plot to take over and control Artemis' life? With Artemis stuck at Hogwarts, Dumbledore could use magic to pose as him in other parts of his life. The old coot was definitely smart enough to. Perhaps he was working with Snape! Snape would be the one slowly ruining Artemis' mind while Dumbledore was the people person who did the business takeover. How many people had they ruined in this trap? Perhaps every person who took the DADA job. Perhaps the 'curse' on the job was actually their combined efforts.
Who had come before him? Professor Moody, supposedly revealed to be a Death Eater. Mad-Eye Moody, before that revelation, was well known for being a paranoid genius at hunting Death Eaters. His word, while not law, was gold in regards to putting criminals away. After being revealed, many began considering him a joke. Captured and impersonated in his own home? What had they gained from that? Well, Moody would have a much more difficult time putting criminals away. They could only gain from that if they were working together with Voldemort, or if they were trying to take control of his servants. No, they could never take control of a fanatic's servants, so Voldemort had to be back and they had to be working together. That meant, then, that Snape wasn't a spy, traitor, or double-agent, as Artemis had first suspected, but a communicator. He probably took the messages back and forth between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Further back, Professor Lupin. A known werewolf, he was a father figure for Harry. He could have been a secret agent of Voldemort's. No, then they would want him in power, not disgraced. Perhaps he was an example of what would happen if one went against Dumbledore and Voldemort. After all, at first they were allies. Dumbledore gave Lupin the job, but then Lupin went against them somehow, and so Snape outed him under the disguise of a 'school grudge'. What did Lupin do against Dumbledore? The only thing Artemis could think of would be that he helped Harry. Yes, perhaps Mr. Potter was the key. Harry Potter was the one who stopped Voldemort and, likely, would be the one to end up destroying him. If Dumbledore and Voldemort were working together, then Dumbledore would want Harry gone. Naturally, though, he couldn't just have Harry outright killed, that would be bad for the school and his own reputation. Looking back at Mr. Potter's first two years, though, it seemed as though he was placed in situations both times where Dumbledore couldn't be blamed.
The boy's first year? Dumbledore had warned them to stay out of the third floor, but the boy and his friends had gone and almost gotten killed, even if Artemis didn't know the details. Second year? Miss Weasley had been taken into the Chamber. Who would blame Dumbledore if Harry decided to rescue his friend? Third year. Well, the werewolf thing spoke for itself. Perhaps Dumbledore had told Lupin to bite Harry? Fourth year, the boy ends up in a deadly magical tournament. Who was Dumbledore to argue with a magical contract?
Yes, it all fit together. Dumbledore has been continuously trying to kill Mr. Potter since he first set foot in Hogwarts, but trying to do it in a way that would remove the blame from him. How did Artemis contribute to this? Perhaps Dumbledore thought that he could take the power of the Fowl Empire and use it to further his goals. Perhaps he had some other nefarious scheme in mind for the boy, not all of them had directly involved the DADA professor, after all. Shaming Mad-Eye and putting Harry in the tournament were fairly separate. Mad-eye's revelation also didn't happen until the very end of the year, was something similarly planned for him?
Artemis leaned back in his chair, tapping the arm of the chair with his fingertip 20 times absently.
Holly carefully kept the owl within her sight as she flew across Greenland. The owl was surprisingly smart; it seemed to realize that it was being followed and had tried to give her the slip multiple times. She couldn't simply shield the whole time since she didn't know how far they were traveling, and she might need her magic far more later on, so she was forced to fall back on basic tactics: following from a distance. Holly was able to use a tracking function on her helmet to help her keep an eye on the bugger. It was surprisingly difficult to follow a brown dot across the sky.
Sparing a glance down at the ground below her, she wondered whether or not normal owls could fly this fast. She was pushing her wings as fast as they would go. Admittedly, the Wind Runner was an older series of wings; LEP couldn't afford much better, but she should still be able to outfly any old owl even on a bad day. Yet, she was struggling to keep up with it. She had started following the owl in Japan, but here she was, hardly a day later, following the thing across Scotland! She also had to account for the many false turns and such that the owl had given her. Without her interference, it may have gotten here several hours earlier!
Holly frowned as the tracking screen on her helmet glitched. The screen actually faded out for a moment, as if it had been shut off. Holly hit her helmet right over the computer console in it and the screen faded back in. After a moment though, it began to fizz out again. Holly reached up and prepared for the high winds against her face as she took her helmet off. Looking down at it while flying, she turned it over, trying to see if a bug or something had gotten in the wiring. However, it looked rather flawless. She put it back on carefully and spoke, activating the voice command calling system.
"Foaly?" She asked. She heard a moment of static as Foaly's side rang before he picked up.
"Holly? What's up? You find out where the owl was going yet?"
"No, Foaly, your helmet is being stupid. The targeting function keeps going offline. In fact, all the electronic functions keep going offline,"
"Sorry, pl…peat that, I can't…you," Static was fading in over Foaly's voice quickly. Holly pushed down the panic that rose in her chest; the helmet was the only form of communication she had on her at the moment.
"HELMET BROKEN!" She shouted, feeling like an uncivilized ape. All well.
"Imp…le!"
"Foaly! How do I fix it?!" She called out, enunciating her words in the hopes of them getting through.
"Hol…fl…temis…" Static overran Foaly's voice.
"Foaly? Foaly!" She called, but no response. Just static. She grunted and reached up to turn off her helmet as the tracking functions had faded and the screen wasn't working either. Gasping in shock, Holly pulled her hand away from the button. It shocked her! Was that even possible? She was wearing full body LEP armor! A shock would be absorbed and redistributed as energy to help power the armor. Eyes suddenly widening, Holly lifted her hand to her face. Now that she thought about it, she was rather cold. Were the thermal coils working? What else wasn't working? Looking down, she also noticed that she was falling pretty quickly. Not quite dangerously quickly, but her wings were puttering out. She would be in freefall soon.
Having only seconds to think, Holly made up her mind. If she was going to die by fall anyway, she may as well try her crazy idea. Tilting her body, Holly dove. Angling herself carefully, she flew straight into the trees. Holding her hands up in front of her body and face, she prayed she wouldn't be killed by this. Hundreds of small branches tore into her. Her broken Recon suit offered no protection, barely providing a tough layer of cloth to stop branches from completely flaying her. Hitting a break in the abuse, Holly peeked through her arms and saw the ground coming up fast. Turning upward suddenly, her wings gave out one last great heave as they slowed her just a foot above the ground before they gave out.
Holly collapsed on the ground, covered in shallow cuts and barely able to move. She let the adrenaline slowly work its way through her system before forcing herself up. All of her tools seemed to not be working. She pulled out her Neutrino and shot at a nearby tree. The weapon sputtered out a bit of smoke and Holly tossed it. Right, so she was in the middle of nowhere with no help and no gadgets. And it was all Artemis' fault. Well, at least she still had her magic. Holly took off the wings and left them there, they were useless and heavy if they didn't work, but she kept her suit and helmet. She left the neutrino. She didn't want to be near it if it was malfunctioning, no matter how safe it supposedly was.
Looking around the woods, Holly frowned. The trees towered over her and she felt very exposed and small without her neutrino. She had no wings, no tools, no communication, and no help on the way. She had two options. She could continue moving forward, in the direction the owl had gone, or she could go back and hope her communicator started magically working again. Well, she had already come this far; might as well keep on pushing forward.
Holly trudged along through the foliage, careful to keep her eyes open for anything that might be able to eat her. After all, about her only defenses right now were shielding and mesmerizing.
mesmer took much less magic, so it was preferable, but it wasn't always successful and took direct eye contact. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get that close to a dangerous creature without any weapons or armor. She might be able to shield for a ways, but she didn't know how far it was until the edge of the forest. Plus, she wasn't sure if the armor could withstand shielding without power. Theoretically, it could, but she really didn't want to have her first communication with Artemis in almost a year be her asking for clothes.
She absently wondered if she could climb the trees and move through the tree tops, but decided against it. Far too monkey-like, and she was a bit too clumsy to trust herself in those trees 50 feet off the ground. Hearing a clicking sound, Holly ducked behind a bush. Placing a hand over her mouth to minimize the sound of her breathing, she peered carefully through the edges. A big shiny black eye stared back at her. Suddenly, there was a gnashing sound as Holly rolled back away from the enormous spider's bite. Did spiders even grow that big?! She flipped up to look at the thing properly. It was probably twice her height and several times her width, making her the perfect sized meal. Great.
Pursing her lips, Holly focused her magic and shielded, hoping it would work on this spider. As she vibrated out of view, the spider shook it's head as if there was a particularly annoying bug flying about. It focused in on her, then it's eyes slid away, before they focused in on her again. Holly narrowed her eyes and the spider lunged. Rolling under the gaping pincers, she landed on her back under the spider. Holly kicked upward with all her strength and mentally cheered when one of her legs broke through the spider's exoskeleton. It probably wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt. The spider let out a blood curdling shriek as it reared back.
"Ha!" Holly shouted cheerfully, standing up. However, her joyous moment died when she looked up to see hundreds of eyes looking at her out of the bushes.
"D'arvit," Holly swore, before she turned and ran. Making sure to stay shielded, since it did seem to confuse the spiders a bit or at least cause a headache, she jumped bushes, ducked branches, and just ran as fast as she could. She had to find some way to stay safe!
Hearing a loud thumping in the distance, Holly smirked. The best way to get rid of a small predator was to find a bigger predator. Turning and tucking under some more biting pincers, Holly ran in the direction she heard the loud noises coming from. Covering her face and charging through a bush, Holly gaped at the clearing she found. And, in the center of the clearing, was a giant. Holly mentally cheered as she ran towards the giant. Hearing a bunch of angry clicking, she turned back to see the spiders gathered at the edge of the clearing, all clicking loudly at her and the giant. She allowed a smile to spread across her face as she laughed in adrenalin and success. Holly knew better than to taunt, but she couldn't help grinning widely at the spiders as they sulked off. She looked up at the giant who was peering down at her curiously.
"Bug," he said, pointing at her. She rolled her eyes, she hated dealing with beings of such low intelligence. Mulch included. Heck, talking to creatures like giants or sprites could almost make Holly sympathize with Artemis.
"Not bug," she said stubbornly, "Holly." She pointed at herself. The giant stopped for a moment, peering at her. About a minute later, comprehension dawned in his eyes.
"Grawp," He said. "Grawp."
"Grawp, can you tell me where a city might be? Or people?" Grawp clearly didn't understand this. Instead, he giggled and, like a child with a crush, went back to his little pile of toys. Holly frowned as she noticed the giant was chained to a tree. Was he being kept here as a pet? As ransom? Was this Artemis' fault? She really didn't want to think that badly of him, she had thought that he had changed, but with his record…Grawp pulled out a rubber duck, wedged between his two enormous sausage fingers, and handed it to her. Holly smiled tightly at him and squeezed it so that it let out a squeak.
"Thank you Grawp. Do you know where someone is I can talk to?" Grawp seemed to understand as he tilted his head and thought. After a minute, he pointed in a certain direction and said;
"Haggy." Holly nodded, smiled, and left in the direction the giant had pointed. Shielding again to try and make sure nothing else found her, she left in the direction of 'Haggy'. Once she had left the clearing, she tossed the duck. After only a couple minutes of walking, she saw something through the trees. Running out of the trees happily, she gaped at the sight that met her. In front of her stood an enormous castle with towers spiraling into the sky and beautiful banners hanging out of the windows. It stood up at the top of a beautiful green hill with a lake barely visible over the edge. Holly wasn't sure how long she stood there just taking in the magnificent sight, but she did know that she was shaken from her trance by the low laughing of someone. Turning, she saw a large man, a bit bigger than Butler, with a raggedy look enter a rather small hut.
That was probably 'Haggy', but he really didn't look like the kind of person Artemis would work with, so someone else had to be running this operation. Holly began the long hike up the hill, still shielded. However, when she reached the top, she realized she had a pretty bad problem. She didn't have her wings and she was too short to look into the windows. All the doors were closed and locked so there was no way she could 'misinterpret' an open door as a welcome, and she couldn't find someone to trick into letting her in. She had run back down to Haggy's home, but he wasn't there anymore. Scowling, Holly had to concede that she had no way to even peer into the castle. She could barely see into Haggy's home, and that was only because the door was a bit too small for the opening and so she could peer through the cracks.
Walking slowly around the castle, Holly spotted something out of the corner of her eye. Several lights were moving away from the castle and down towards...a town! There was a town near here! She wasn't sure if she could catch up with the moving lights on foot, but she was fairly certain that there would be phones or something in the town she could use to contact Foaly. All she had to do was get there.
This is now officially my longest FF. Please review!