Artemis woke with a start, staring wildly around him, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. He sighed, realizing he was in the Slytherin boys' dormitory. There were no windows in this room because it was in the dungeons, so there was no way to tell what time of day it was without a clock.
He wondered how Holly was doing in the girl's dormitory with all of those humans. It had to be odd to be able to be seen by them without arousing suspicions.
Artemis swung his legs out of bed and shoved his feet into a pair of slippers. With a jolt, he realized that it was a Monday, and that his new classes would be starting. The school year was still near the beginning for the rest of the students, so Artemis hadn't missed much. He knew that being in his sixth year here meant that he should know a lot of magic already, but Artemis put his genius mind in the equation, and figured he would be alright.
He dug in his bag and pulled out the wand that he had gotten ahold of. He had no clue how Butler had managed to get into Diagon Alley, but taking a trip to Ollivander's with him had been an exciting journey. He hadn't been able to get Holly there, so the wand that she would be using would be one that hadn't chosen her. He held the wand in his hand, marveling at the beautiful oak. It felt right in his hand, like he was meant to be holding it.
Artemis looked at the schedule that Snape had printed for him. It was Defense Against the Dark Arts first, and then Potions and Transfiguration.
Artemis decided to go to the common room since he had some time before breakfast started. He grabbed a few of his textbooks to brush up some before class.
Holly was already sitting by the fire, talking quietly into a communicator that linked her back to Haven. "Yes, everything has gone according to his plans so far."
Holly paused, and the person on the other end responded.
"No, Foaly, I haven't gotten roasted alive by a wizard," groaned Holly. "No, I don't, Foaly, he is a human boy and I am an elf, and this is not something I feel comfortable talking to you about."
She saw that Artemis had entered the room and gave a slight start, ending the connection on the communicator.
"Glad to see Foaly still thinks highly of my plans," said Artemis, sitting down in a leather armchair across from Holly.
"He just doesn't trust the wizards at all. All of the stupidity of humans, all of the power that comes with magic."
"Yes, all humans are stupid oafs that are out to kill everything." Artemis's tone was light, but there was the slightest sting in his words.
"Artemis, you know that we do not mean that all humans are bad. Just most of them," Holly said, smiling at the boy in front of her. "Doing some studying, I see?"
Artemis glanced at the huge books in his hands. "I just thought I'd try a few spells, and maybe brush up on some stuff that hasn't happened yet." He held up a book with the title, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Holly's eyes narrowed. "I know you have your theories about that, but there is no way that that can be set in stone."
Artemis nodded. "If we interfere too much with events then, yes, there will be changes. But there are some things that we can change on purpose too. We have so much power at the palm of our hands." He gripped the book fondly, as if it were a close friend.
"You better hide that before someone sees that one of their fellow students has a series written about them…"
"I was thinking about that, and I realized that it is almost impossible for one student or another not to have seen these books somewhere. I think that there is some kind of magic in these books that only allows muggles to see them. Since I am a muggle with residues of fairy magic, then I can see the books."
Holly nodded. She then pulled out the wand that Artemis had given her. It was made of holly (she had glared at Artemis when she had found out) and had a leaf pattern running around the handle. She knew that the wand hadn't chosen her, but something about it really did just feel cool.
She held it up. "Artemis, tell me a spell I can try. I want to see if I can work this thing."
"Hmm." Artemis looked in the spell book that he was holding. "Try Accio. Point the wand at an object and imagine it zooming toward you, and then say the spell."
Holly nodded and pointed at a quill lying on the table. "Accio."
Nothing happened. She said the spell again, and was met with no feedback.
"Here, let me try." Artemis grabbed his wand and pointed it at a textbook sitting at the table. A look of concentration appeared on his face. "Accio," he said clearly.
The textbook flew toward him with remarkable speed, hitting full in the face. He grunted in surprise, and his hand tenderly touched his aching nose.
Holly had almost doubled over in laughter, but saw that Artemis was bleeding, so she walked over to him.
"Smooth move, Mr. Wizard," she joked. She placed a palm on the side of his face and allowed sparks of magic to flow down her hand, healing his broken nose and split lip.
"Well, at least I can do the spell," grumbled Artemis, feeling his newly healed nose.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Yep, I totally want to do spells that injure me," she chuckled.
Snape flicked his wand and slanted, spiky writing scrawled across the chalkboard. He never, ever wrote on the board in front of students. He felt that it was a waste of time.
The spell that they would be learning today was a complicated one. He had chosen it just for the occasion, there being a new student in class. He smiled to himself, thinking of how tough it would be to his sixth years, let alone someone who had never practiced defensive spells before.
The students slowly entered the classroom, and Snape saw that today would be Gryffindors and Slytherins, his favorite houses to be together in one class. It was a great time to make fun of Gryffindor students and praise his house.
Finally, the last of the students made their way inside. The kids stood in groups around the room, there being no need for tables in today's class. Fowl and Short stood next to each other, and Potter's little group stood near them.
He noticed that Potter was paying more attention to Fowl than anybody else. That was fishy. He wasn't supposed to be paying attention to them at all, but Potter was majorly different than the other students , thought Snape with a cruel smirk.
He quickly called the class to attention when the bell rang through the school.
"Today, class, you will be challenged. I am going to see if your little brains can handle a spell of this level. You will be graded depending on how your dueling partner reacts to the spell."
There was a murmur as students picked their partners. Of course the two new kids would be paired together. Snape chuckled.
"Today I will be picking the partners."
The class groaned collectively. They stood next to their original partners, waiting to see what misery they would see themselves in.
"The first pair is Mr. Potter…." He paused for dramatic effect. "And Mr. Fowl."
Harry glanced at the boy in question and his expression was clouded with confusion. Snape wondered what was going on in the boy's head…Wait, couldn't he just use Legilimency?
He let himself into Potter's mind, and just saw a film of confusion. Harry couldn't place why he didn't know the kid in the Slytherin house.
Snape slipped back out of Potter's mind. So he must have also partly avoided the mesmer. Well, Fowl would just have to figure out how to solve that issue by himself. That just made them being dueling partners even more exciting.
Snape paired the rest of the class up, and explained the spell they would be using. "Just say the incantation, obliviate while pointing your wand at your partner. And I only want you to erase a few seconds of information, not enough that I will have a hard time doing a revival spell," instructed Snape, just waiting for somebody to be asking what their name was by the end of the lesson.
He had paired up the elf with Weasley, just to see which would hurt the other one first. Snape noticed just how badly her auburn hair clashed with his flaming red hair.
"Begin," he said in what he hoped was an ominous voice. If he had to be a teacher, then he would be as creepy as he possibly could.
The word obliviate rung across the class as many students tried to wipe the memories of others. Granger almost immediately erased Malfoy, who she had been paired up with. He blinked a few times and looked around the room. He shook his head and began trying to erase Granger. It didn't work.
Fowl was working on erasing Potter, and was getting very close. Finally, with a clear look on his face, he said the spell in an icy, emotionless voice that made the chills creep up Snape's spine. Harry stumbled backward when the spell hit him, and glanced around in wide-eyed confusion.
"Where am I?" he asked. "Who are you people?"
Snape sighed. Fowl had outdone anything he had expected, and Snape would have to do a revival spell.
No other student had managed to wipe anybody, and it had turned out to be a pretty boring class after all. Snape had fixed Potter's memories, and Fowl had managed to only make him lose a few seconds of memories after that. Snape knew that Potter would probably have a bad headache after this class. All the more reason to assign the essay.
"Your homework for next class is a six inch essay on memory charms and silent spells."
The class groaned for the second time that day. He smiled to himself. He loved the sound of an unhappy classroom.
The bell rung and the student filed out. Snape noticed that Potter was staring at Fowl again, and he realized that by lifting the memory charm he had probably completely lifted whatever hold that the mesmer had on Potter. Now he would know that Artemis Fowl was a fake wizard.
Snape chuckled at the excitement that was most likely to happen, and at the fact that Dumbledore would also do something about the Fowl boy. Snape knew that Dumbledore had avoided the mesmer as well as him, and Snape was just waiting for Dumbledore to confront Fowl.
He walked over to his desk where his grade book was sitting, and wrote a small F next to everyone's name except Granger and Fowl.
He had underestimated the boy. Obviously, he was someone to be careful of, especially if he had a friend that was immune to wizard magic. This year was going to be more exciting than he had anticipated, even though he knew that he would be most likely killing Dumbledore under strict orders from Dumbledore himself.
He wondered what grade he would be awarding the Fowl boy for his essay, and he knew that it would probably be a high one.
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