King's Cross Station

"Have a great summer, guys!" Theodore said cheerfully as he went off to join his father.

"Yeah. Remember to do your 'homework'," Blaise said with a wink.

"See you at the Quidditch World Cup – hopefully," Theodore called.

Draco winked at him and strutted off to his parents with his nose in the air. "I hope you die of sunburn, Fowl," he snarked. (Translation: "Have a great summer.") Artemis noted with amusement that Lucius Malfoy actually smirked in approval.

"Only if you get yourself stuck in a pile of quicksand first," he retorted. (Translation: "You, too.")

Speaking of summer…Artemis was going to have a lot of work. He still hadn't shown everyone his Patronus yet. And he needed a way to make the Animagus potion at home without his parents noticing him. (Maybe Father would let him slide…just this once…it wasn't as if he was going to break into Gringotts as a – oh, a ferret or something.)

Breaking into Gringotts.

Didn't Mulch Diggums, the dwarf that had successfully broken into Koboi Laboratories, also break into Gringotts a few centuries ago?

He was going to have to hunt that dwarf down and ask him how he did it.

"Did you have a good year, Artemis?" his mother asked, approaching him. "No getting into trouble or near-death experiences of any kind?"

Well, to say that he hadn't gotten into any trouble or near-death experiences would be a complete lie. A complete and utter, blatant lie.

But Artemis was fine with lying. It wasn't as if there were any witnesses except for the fairies themselves. And it wasn't as if one day, the fairies would pop up out of nowhere and tattle on him to his mother and reveal their secrets. Hey, we're a species of fairies that lived underground without anyone's knowledge until your son found us. Since then, he's been going on a bunch of crazy adventures with us involving stopping some sociopathic megalomaniacs who want to take over the world. Yeah, that kind of sums up our relationship. Oh, by the way, we really don't like him because he once kidnapped and ransomed one of our officers for some very dangerous technology, only instead we ended up helping him save your husband instead. We hate him and would off him if we had the chance but we kind of need him because he's too smart to kill. You should really keep a closer eye on your son's extracurricular activities. Yeah, I think that's it. Bye!

The sheer stupidity of it would probably result in Foaly trying to trample him to death.

"Well, Artemis?" his mother asked.

"Yes, Mother," he said, lying through his teeth, and smiling his sweetest smile (that wasn't a vampire grin).

And that was all he said.

Fowl Manor

Artemis picked the last scroll off the shelf.

He had spent hours scouring the entire library, the artifact room, the archives…nothing. He had hit one of the shields on the wall bearing the family crest in frustration (probably not the most intelligent thing he could have done), and as a result, a tiny scroll the size of his hand fell to the ground.

That was odd…it had definitely not been there before. Artemis attempted to open it, but it simply held tightly. Maybe there was a password, of some sort. "Aurum Est Potestas."That didn't work. The scroll was too old – it was from before the Christian era, most likely. Now why would…oh.

"Open," he hissed.

A tiny clicking, and the lock popped open. Artemis unrolled the parchment, which, despite its age, was perfectly undamaged. And the heading, written in strange symbols that no wizard knew, except for one who conveniently was fluent in Gnommish –

The Horcrux

Artemis grinned maniacally to himself. His ancestor, Herpo the Foul, definitely knew what he was talking about. Gift of foresight, indeed.

Voldemort had better watch his back – he may have been the Heir of Slytherin, but he had nothing on the Artemis Fowl II. The game was afoot.

(Black pawn to d5.)

END YEAR THREE