Sorry for the slow update. I've been busy. If any of you guys out there know about good internships accepting high schoolers I can apply to, let me know. Also, I am a current black belt testing candidate; it's been a month of juggling school and punching people in the gut/being punched in the gut.

Happy Lunar New Year! I'll try to update more often. Of course, I say that, and then don't.

"It worked!" Granger gushed happily. She seemed to have no qualms about approaching the Slytherin table in the library, despite her Muggle heritage. Artemis and his friends ignored this fact, though – open-mindedness was the key to a developing society. "Did you know that Sirius Black is an Animagus? He's a big black dog!"

"So that was how he was getting around unnoticed," Artemis mused.

"He escaped because he knew he was innocent. It wasn't exactly a happy thought, but it kept him sane, and he was thin enough to slip through the bars in his dog form. The Dementors just thought he was going crazy," she explained.

"That sounds simple enough."

"Yes, but it worked. Anyway, in school, they were all unregistered Animagi – James Potter was a stag, Sirius Black was a dog, and Peter Pettigrew was a rat." Upon hearing this, Blaise winked at the three of them, which fortunately went unnoticed by Granger, who was still telling her story.

And Lupin. "Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Moony – it makes sense."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Was that the dog that Trelawney was always going on about?" Theodore asked.

"First day of Divination class. She saw this Grim in Potter's tea leaves and predicted that he would die this year," Blaise explained to Draco and Artemis. "Which is an absolutely stupid notion – you could fire a killing curse at that boy and he'd still live."

"I never liked that class anyway. I dropped it. I figured out that I just didn't have the time," Granger sniffed.

"You just figured that out? You were taking all of the elective courses in the school – how you even managed to fit that all into one day is a mystery," Artemis said. Wait – time – did wizards have a method of using the time-stop just like the fairies? He stood up. "We need to have a quick chat. See you later," he said, hurrying out the door.

"Arty's got a girlfriend!" Blaise sang. Artemis glared at him.

"We may be in the library right now, but rest assured that I will hunt you down and hex you later," he hissed.

Once away from the group, Artemis dragged Hermione into an empty classroom and said, "All right, spill. How were you able to manipulate time this entire year? Obviously, you could not fit – what, four? five? elective courses into a single day. And don't tell me that you could make up the classes at a later time because the teachers obviously don't have the time for that, either. Or any other lie, for that matter." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.

Hermione shuffled nervously. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

Tell anyone? As if! "You are not serious, are you? Something like this, I'd keep to myself either way."

"I've been using a time-turner to get to my classes this entire year." One look at her face told him that she was telling the truth – and she actually trusted him, too. Well, she could trust him to not tell this secret…Artemis hadn't ever been sure when someone other than his parents had trusted him. Unwisely, of course.

"How does it work?" Artemis goaded.

"I got it at the beginning of the year." She showed him a little hourglass on a string around her neck. "One turn per hour, see?"

"I see."

"It only lets you go back in time for a day at the most, though. These things are very small and limited. They've tried making things that are stronger, so you can go back further, but so far they haven't succeeded. The best ones only go for a few days."

"That's a pity, otherwise we could have just gone back in time and offed Voldemort before he could have done any major damage," Artemis mused. "Then again, he already killed Myrtle as a teenager, so I suppose we'd be killing a child. Not that I have any qualms against it, if it's Voldemort, but some people might complain…"

"I would have tried to reform him first. And then, if it didn't work, we would see. Well, it's all wishful thinking, of course. But I won't have it for much longer. I have to give it back. Professor McGonagall went through a lot of trouble with the Ministry to get it for me."

"I won't tell a soul."

Of course he wouldn't tell anyone…already, the gears inside his head were starting to spin (metaphorically, of course). Even if the Wizarding Time-Turners only took one back for a maximum of a day…that didn't mean that earlier times were completely inaccessible.

And so Artemis stored that thought in his memory, incubating the seeds subconsciously. That was the nice thing about being a genius. Even when one wasn't thinking about anything, one was still planning something. It was just the default state of mind of someone of such a high mental caliber.

Well, thank goodness that was all over with. Now the adventure of the year was done – he could not call it an adventure, exactly, but no matter – there was time to plan other things (like getting a Time-Turner, somehow). Artemis put down his pen and leaned back, with his mind on relaxing and maybe practicing his Patronus and a bit of Animagus magic for the rest of the year…

"Artemis, I have something really serious to tell you," Potter, Weasley, and Granger all ran up to him.

What now? "Is it about Pettigrew?"

"I'm afraid so. Well, not quite yet. Maybe – that's why I'm here to ask you to help me. I don't know how to tell you this…during my Divination final, Professor Trelawney made a prediction," Potter began.

"You actually believe that fraud?" he asked. He had never met the woman in person, of course, but from the absolutely amazing stories that Blaise and Theodore had to tell about her (such as how on the first day she began talking about the gift of sight and promptly bumped into a table) the woman was nearly as talented as Lockhart.

Potter sighed. "The thing was, though, it wasn't like those weird predictions she normally makes. It felt real this time. She actually went into a sort of trance, and her voice sounded really different – all monotone and raspy and crackly, like there was more than one person talking at once. And when she finished, she had no memory of what she just said."

Artemis frowned. That seemed like the nature of a true Seer's prediction. "What did she say?"

" 'He will return soon. The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Soon…the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than he ever was. Soon…the servant…will set out…to rejoin his master,' " Potter recited dutifully.

"That's not good," said Artemis. "Either Pettigrew is destined to escape, or there is someone else out there that hasn't been captured yet."

"Isn't there any way we can stop it?" Potter asked.

"I can do many things, but messing up a timeline isn't one," said Artemis.

Granger looked sad. "You know, the one time that charlatan has to be right is the worst news ever."

"Why, what prediction?" Draco asked, having just joined the group.

"Trelawney made an actual prophecy for once. The Dark Lord's last servant will join him, and he will rise again, more dangerous and terrible than before," Potter reported. Draco paled.

"Hey, Artemis, we did our best. At least Black is free now," Theodore said.

"Yeah, well, if Pettigrew does escape, all we have to do is set all the owls loose and they'll find him," Blaise joked.

"Way to alleviate the tension, Blaise," Draco said, rolling his eyes.

Haven City, LEP Command Central

"Commander! We've discovered a new goblin transport ring aboveground," Captain Short reported.

"Locations?" Root growled into the radio.

"Central Scotland. I'll give you the coordinates." A distinct sound of typing was heard, followed by a soft whirr as the printer murmured to life. Root snatched the little paper and looked carefully at the numbers and directions.

"Isn't Fowl's school in Scotland?" Foaly asked.

"Now that you mention it, yes, it is. Captain Short, where are your locations now? Relative to that Hogwarts school. If they are so close then I can bet my pointy ears Fowl is going to get himself involved somehow."

"Staking out a small wizarding village, a few klicks south of Fowl's school. The goblins should be manned anywhere between these two points."

"I'll meet you there. This is an important mission. Foaly, tell Captain Kelp that he has control of the field – where I am is completely top-secret, do you hear? TOP SECRET. If I hear that there was one whinny out of you, I will hunt you down and destroy all of your damned Riverbend music chips," Root growled.

There was a whinny of protest. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I definitely would, donkey boy, now snap to it!"

Foaly, out of love for his not-so-wonderful music, immediately went to attention and furiously (and silently) completed his work. Root snickered (no, he did not, my bad, because he never smiled. Sorry, Julius – ow! – I mean, Commander) and wondered why had hadn't tried using that threat years ago.

Hogwarts

"So now what?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean?"

"We can't just sit around and do nothing while Voldemort comes back!"

"Well, if Voldemort is going to return, I don't think we can stop that," said Artemis. "What you can do is start to hone your skills, to increase your chances of survival when he does."

"Fine," he said. "I know! I'll go find Sirius. He can help." Harry pulled out the Marauders' Map again. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The ink dissolved onto the parchment again. Together, they all pored over the map, looking for Sirius Black, who was, of course, still in Dumbledore's office. He and his friends were about to leave, when Artemis slammed his hands down onto the table, trapping the map under his fists.

"Artemis? What's wrong?" Ron asked, tugging at the paper. Artemis was staring at…something on the map, and his face was carefully going blank, like he could see something no one else could.

But that expression disappeared quickly enough. "Nothing's wrong. I just thought I saw something odd, that's all."

Harry was no Slytherin, but he had told enough lies to know that Artemis had just said one.

Haven

"Get rid of him," said Cudgeon. "That Mud Boy has got to go."

"Afraid of a little Mud Brat, hmmm, Cudgeon?" said the pixie. Cudgeon was longing for the day when he could finally get rid of her, but for now, he still needed Opal Koboi and her control over the LEP weapons.

"I'm not taking any chances. He's friends of Root and Kelp and that girl, Short, no matter what they say otherwise," Cudgeon growled.

Hogwarts

Artemis hadn't actually recognized any of the names on the map – then again, he did not know very many fairies apart from the special members of the LEP who were allowed to know about him – such as Commander Root, Captain Kelp, Captain Short, and Foaly.

Artemis quickly cast a disillusionment charm on himself and hurried outside. Several names had appeared on the edge of the map, and they had been moving too quickly to be walking. No, they were flying. And the names were not wizards' names. The Marauders' Map did not translate foreign languages; it could only Anglicize them if they were close enough to English. And since Gnommish had been a lost language to the wizards, it had shown up in the very exact symbols that Artemis had cut out from the Book just two summers ago.

If the fairies were here then they wanted something. Artemis would rather he deal with them outside, where it would be more difficult for them to run into anybody.

However, when Artemis opened the castle doors, nothing approached him, not even a near-invisible heat haze. The fairies should have been faster than that, but maybe they were trying to find a way into Hogwarts without breaking any rules. Artemis decided to walk further out into the open. Still, there was nothing. It was at this point that he decided to trust his instinct, that something was wrong, even though there was no real proof just yet.

Artemis tried on the glasses one more time, trying to see if they worked from a distance. He had finally managed to modify it to see through walls, both enchanted and Muggle, but he could not use it from so far away. Maybe he needed a zooming option.

All of a sudden, a flash of red exploded in front of Artemis, missing him by less than a centimeter. Artemis yelped in surprise, but it was too late.

The clouds swirled around in an angry pattern, churning and combining. Like large columns of smoke.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a cloud of large figures flying towards him. That was odd…elves were not normally so deformed-looking. He removed the glasses, trying to see just what in the world they were – and stopped cold.

Goblins. A whole horde of them. With lasers and wing-packs. And there was only one civilization in the world that had such technology.

Another laser burst was heading toward him, and there was no way he could produce a shield charm in time…