Chapter two!

I'm updating fast now because this school year I know will be super hectic. So...savor it while you can :)

"Good-bye, Mother. Father."

"Good-bye, son. Be careful."

"I will."

This year will be another adventure, won't it?

He turned around to leave, but his mother poked him and slipped him a small package. "I know you don't like sweets, but you can always share this with your friends. Happy Birthday," she whispered, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, what's that?" Blaise asked.

"A birthday present from my parents."

"Today's your birthday? How come you never tell us anything?" Blaise whined.

"I usually celebrate it at home the day before because we're stuck on this train the actual date," Artemis said.

"Open it; lemme see what's inside," Blaise urged excitedly.

"Calm yourself, you monkey," Artemis scolded. He unwrapped it – it was a large bar of chocolate. He rolled his eyes – of course his mother would –

"Sweet! Can I have some?" Blaise exclaimed.

Artemis pulled the bar away. "No. You're hyper enough as it is – you can have some after the Feast."

Blaise sunk back down in his chair and crossed his arms like a little child, pouting. "I thought sharing was supposed to be caring. Are you insinuating that you don't care about me?"

Artemis rolled his eyes. "I don't care about your childish needs, Blaise. And I am not refusing to share. I am simply taking the best course of action by sharing with you at the safest time."

Blaise glared.

Theodore cleared his throat, trying to distract Blaise from the offending bar of candy."What do you guys think about the entire Sirius Black escape?" he asked, holding the newspaper. The crazed face of the escaped prisoner was still clawing at the camera. Artemis shuddered at the memory of his parents telling him the entire story about Black.

*Flashback*

The Blacks had been a notoriously old, Dark, pureblood Slytherin family. His younger brother Regulus had been a Death Eater, although he died in a mysterious accident and was forgotten. Black also had cousins – Narcissa, Andromeda, and Bellatrix Black; Narcissa had married into the Malfoys, as Artemis knew; Andromeda had been disowned for marrying a Muggle-born wizard named Ted Tonks; Bellatrix had married Rodolphus Lestrange.

"My brother," Angeline sniffed. "Both of my older brothers were ugly, dull dunces. I hated them – they'd tease me all the time and put spiders in my things. I got my revenge on them when I finally went to Hogwarts and learned a few nice hexes."

The Lestranges had been one of Voldemort's most avid supporters – and so, apparently, was Sirius Black. As a child, Black had broken the Slytherin tradition in the family and got Sorted into Gryffindor after befriending James Potter. He had even been James' best man at his wedding, and Harry Potter's godfather when the boy had been born.

After Voldemort had targeted the Potters, he also became the Secret-Keeper to the Potters. But he betrayed them to the Dark Lord. Peter Pettigrew, another childhood friend, had revealed the fact to the world, provoking Black in a duel. Despite his madness, Black was a very powerful wizard – he had struck with his own curse, blowing up the entire street, resulting in Peter Pettigrew's death as well as the demise of twelve other Muggles who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Artemis found it odd that a madman could conceal his intentions so well that Harry Potter's parents were fooled into trusting him with their most important secret, but he said nothing. Serial killers, after all, were also insane, but they were good at acting enough to evade capture from the authorities long enough to claim multiple victims. Artemis briefly wondered when this Sirius Black would have gone wrong - Tom Riddle, after all, was a model student before becoming Lord Voldemort, but he had probably been sadistic and crazy long before he ever dropped the act, as proven by the entire first Chamber of Secrets incident, which happened when Tom was still a fifth-year. Maybe Sirius Black was that way, too, though Artemis doubted that he had been plotting on the Dark side for that long; few people had the patience or the genius to keep up such a well-done lie for so many years.

"Thirteen people with one curse," his father said. "All they found left of Pettigrew was a finger. I don't care how smart or skilled you are, Artemis. Stay away from him – he is a crazy, dangerous man who will stop at nothing to get his goals, that is, killing Harry Potter, even if it means steamrolling over any obstacle that appears in front of him."

Artemis liked mysteries and adventures, but even he was not stupid enough to go running after Sirius Black. If the man didn't bother him, he had no reason to retaliate. Unfortunately, he had the slightest suspicion that he could be drawn into the conflict, if Black somehow tried to target Harry Potter…

"It is a mystery of how he escaped in the first place. Couldn't someone have helped him?" Blaise said.

"He was in a very high-security cell. Only the Dementors could open it, and they don't listen to anyone," Artemis responded.

"I bet he disguised himself somehow so that the Dementors couldn't detect his presence properly," Theodore said, playing with his medallion.

"How? By putting a mask over his face?" Artemis questioned. "Dementors don't need to look at faces. They simply detect a human presence, and they know someone is there."

Theodore shrugged, and twirled the silver circle between the pointer fingers and thumbs of his hands. "Maybe...maybe he did something that could mask his 'human presence,' then, so that the Dementors couldn't...feel him when he walked past them and escaped."

There was a rather uncomfortable, awkward silence.

Blaise cleared his throat. "So. Ummm. Are we still in for the Defense club, guys?"

This seemed to alleviate the tension, because they all dutifully ignored the previous conversation and started this one. "Maybe. It depends on our Defense teacher this year. Hopefully he won't be as much of a – in Professor Snape's words – a dunderhead as his predecessors," Artemis said.

"Don't say that. I actually miss Lockhart. He gave us something to make fun of," Theodore joked. "Too bad I spent most of the year in the hospital wing."

"Yeah, you missed our Valentine's present for him," Blaise laughed. They had described the prank that they had pulled last year on the man. Artemis normally did not sink to such low, childish tactics, but Lockhart had been an exception. Defiling the Great Hall with his silly shenanigans – the resulting spectacle had been worth it.

"I wonder who the new teacher is, anyway," Theodore said.

"Who knows. He can't be much worse than the last two," Blaise said darkly.

"Don't jinx us," Theodore warned.

"Keeping up the lessons would be a good idea, but I do not know where we can find the time. Our free periods have been filled in with electives this year," Artemis pointed out.

"Which electives are you taking?" Theodore asked.

"I plan to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes," Artemis said. "It's much better than Divination – that subject is too murky and indecisive for me. And I know enough about Muggles without learning wizards' skewed point of view on them."

"Oh," Blaise said. "I took Arithmancy and Divination. I suck at foreign languages."

"Me, too," Theodore said. "At least we all have Arithmancy."

They pleasantly discussed their plans for the year.

"Right, you've been pleasantly quiet, Draco," Blaise said. "Speak up – what are you doing?"

"Double A's for me. My father would murder me if I took Muggle studies." Lucius Malfoy's blatant dislike of Muggles was well-known. Then, with a sudden frown, he curled up and turned away from them, looking out the window.

What was wrong with him?

"I want to keep up our club," Blaise said. "We could work on becoming Animagi together – no matter how good our D.A.D.A. professor is, he won't ever teach us that. It could be really useful."

"You're really set on that idea, aren't you?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah, because he's definitely going to be a monkey," Theodore sniggered.

Blaise glared at him. "Right. That does it, Nott." He leapt at Theodore and before the other could get out of the way, Blaise had the smaller boy pinned to the ground.

"Gah! Let go! Blaise Zabini, get off me this instant!" Theodore yelled, squirming.

Blaise planted a knee in the middle of the other boy's back. "Say uncle."

Artemis rolled his eyes at their silly antics. They were so immature sometimes. "Stop being such children," he ordered.

"If you haven't noticed, Fowl, we're both still under seventeen, so we have all the right to be children we want," Blaise said, sticking out his tongue.

Artemis rolled his eyes.

"Blaise, you should really get off me," Theodore said. "I might get hurt."

"Aw, you'll be perfectly fine."

"Get off me, Blaise; I still have a free hand and I'll hex you!" Theodore tried to yell menacingly, but it came out as more of a laugh instead.

"Whatever."

Suddenly, the train lurched to a stop. "What was that? We can't be at Hogwarts already!"

"Blaise, get off him now," Artemis ordered.

"Yeah, Blaise! I mean it!" Theodore squeaked.

Blaise didn't move.

"Blaise?" Theodore asked.

But the other boy had frozen in his spot and was staring ahead blankly.

"Blaise?" Theodore asked again, poking the boy. Blaise didn't respond.

"Um, hello?" Theodore drew his wand and poked Blaise in the leg. No reaction. Theodore pushed him off. Blaise moved willingly. "Is something wrong? Blaise?" Theodore inquired worriedly.

"Hmmm? What?" Blaise asked absentmindedly.

"I asked if there was something wrong."

"I don't know…" Blaise said. "Does it feel cold? It feels cold. And depressing."

They looked at him.

"Now that you mention it," Artemis said, "It is getting colder." He wrapped his robe around him tighter. Artemis looked out the window – but it was covered in frost. "That's strange," he said. "There shouldn't be s-s-s-snow at th-this time of year…is it a w-w-weather charm gone wrong?" His teeth began chattering uncontrollably.

Theodore screamed. A dark shadow was looming outside the compartment.

Blaise clapped a hand over Theodore's mouth. "Shhh!" His face was pale.

Artemis felt extremely depressed all of a sudden, like there was no reason left to live. Vivid images of his father freezing to death and being tortured suddenly popped up in his mind. He closed his eyes and tried to repress them – but for some reason, it was no use. His father was dying…his friends were being tortured…and all of the things he had learned about Occlumency over the summer were somehow eluding him. There was a huge weight on his chest – he couldn't breathe –

All of a sudden, the weight had been removed, and he felt lighter – his mental state was back to normal. He still had a feeling of unnatural, unreasonable fear lingering, however.

His friends weren't in a much better state, either. Blaise's evenly tanned skin had drained of color, and was covered in cold sweat. Draco was even paler than usual, convulsing and whimpering. And Theodore was curled up on his end of the seat, shivering and sobbing.

Artemis could only imagine what he looked like – probably a vampire. A vampire from a madhouse.

"W-w-what w-was th-th-that?" Blaise asked, still trembling.

Artemis pointed at the retreating shadow. "Probably a Dementor that they sent on board, in case Black was here."

"That's ridiculous," Blaise said angrily.

"Well, as ridiculous as it seems," Theodore said, "we'll probably have to be dealing with them for the rest of the school year, or until they find Black. The papers said that he was moaning 'He's at Hogwarts' before he escaped so that's where they'll send the Dementors to find him."

Artemis regained his composure, and found his fingers moving towards the chocolate bar that his mother had sent him. For some reason he wanted a bite, even though he hated sugary sweets in general. He didn't mind when the other boys in the compartment grabbed some, either. They sat there, eating the candy. Remarkably, it actually made Artemis feel better. Sugar normally made him a bit ill and dizzy.

"Chocolate's supposed to be a good help after being around a Dementor," Theodore said, who had stopped shivering by now. The train lurched forward again.

"Well, thank Merlin that thing's gone."

"Think the new Defense teacher knows how to get rid of them?"

They sat in a brooding silence for the rest of the ride.

The Great Hall

"Hey, where's Potter?" Blaise asked.

"Apparently the Dementor found him and he fainted on the train," Draco said.

"Poor guy," Theodore murmured.

"Are you kidding? I could totally use this against him," Draco said evilly.

The Sorting finally began, and the same old routine started. Artemis wondered how many of the teachers felt about the tradition. Surely sitting through decades of an old hat singing practically the same things over and over again would get dreadfully boring. Artemis didn't even have the patience for three years. Sure, it was tradition, but it wouldn't hurt for the Sorting Hat to break the boring tune once in a while. Artemis thought that the Hat had a rather limited vocabulary, because every year it used the same words over and over again to describe the four Houses –

The Gryffindors are reckless and rash,

The Hufflepuffs are way too dumb,

And Ravenclaws are boring nerds,

And Slytherins are totally awesome!

Wait, what?

"Blaise!"

"What? That wasn't me, it was Draco! Why do you always have to pin the blame on me? I'm hurt!"

"No it wasn't, you liar."

"Well, for an impromptu composition, I'd say that was fairly decent," Blaise argued.

When that had finished, Artemis noticed Harry Potter and Hermione Granger slip past the doors into the Hall and join the Gryffindors at their table.

Professor Dumbledore caught their attention up at the front. "I must inform you this year that Dementors will be guarding the castle gates…"

"Told you so," Theodore muttered gloomily.

Artemis saw many students visibly wince. They, too, had had bad experiences with the creatures. Blaise was whining about how "Hogsmeade weekends would be ruined."

"…do not run afoul of a Dementor," Professor Dumbledore finished. "On a lighter note, I would like to introduce two new teachers. Please welcome Professor R.J. Lupin, as your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…" A thin, ragged man stood up and bowed politely with a nod of his chin. He could not have been older than forty, but his messy dress and stressed look made him seem a decade older than normal.

"Doesn't look like much, does he?" Draco sniffed.

"Appearances can be deceiving," Theodore tried. "Maybe he's a really hands-on type of guy, which is why he looks all old."

Artemis shrugged. "Possibly."

"…and Professor Rubeus Hagrid, who will teach Care of Magical Creatures." Said man stood, and his enormous size managed to push his entire table and dinner out of the way.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Draco moaned. "No way!"

Artemis did not exactly hate Hagrid, but he agreed with Draco. As he had experienced in Riddle's memory from the previous year, Hagrid had had a preference for keeping dangerous monsters as pets, even as a young child. This was not going to be pretty – already Artemis was calculating that class to be the most dangerous one of the year.

His stomach did another backflip as he remembered The Monster Book of Monsters still hiding inside his trunk. Despite all of his genius, Artemis hated focusing on subjects that he disliked, and as of now, Care of Magical Creatures was definitely one of them.

Extras:

KM101: Artemis, if you had to choose between a lifetime of any kind of candy you wanted, or a lifetime of any kind of cake you wanted, which would you choose?

Artemis: I don't like sweets.

L: I suggest you choose the cake. That way, if you felt like eating candy instead of cake at the moment, you could simply ask for a cake with the type of candy you wanted on it for decoration. Then you could eat the candy and save the cake for later.

Artemis: She didn't ask you.

L: I know she didn't ask me. She asked you. And since you said you didn't like sweets, you might as well take up the free offer anyway and give it to me. You should never turn down free food.

Artemis: But you already have a lifetime supply of sweets anyway!

L: Can't help to have more.

Artemis: Those sweets will ruin you. As will your posture.

L: Actually, they help me think. And I have to sit like this or my reasoning ability lowers by 40%.

Artemis: Really. And yet, you lost to your wost adversary and I still haven't.

L: Listen, if Opal Koboi got her hands on a book that could kill anyone just by writing their name in it, you would be dead by now. I, on the other hand, managed to survive, and would have won had a death god herself not gotten involved. Secondly, you already knew who your enemy was. Opal might be intelligent but she never bothers to cover up her tracks. I, on the other hand, had to figure out who he was, and not only that, but provide proof which he never left because he kills people using a magical book and heart attacks. Thirdly, you did not have to deal with three, fully sentient Opal Kobois running around all at the same time, working all at the same time. One was incarcerated, and one was dead to the world. I, on the other hand -

Artemis: Fine, fine, I understand! Just take your stupid cake.

L: ...Works every time.

KM101: So, for those of you who bothered to read this, did you choose the candy or the cake before L pointed out the loophole?