A few days later...
Artemis Fowl was busy over the holidays, so Harry and the friends who had stayed at Hogwarts had a fun time making snow creature armies and pulverizing each other with them.
Hermione and Ron proved to be a great team, and hard to beat, as Ron's snow lions would quickly outflank Fred and George's giant snow boars, while Hermione's snow wolves would relentlessly team up to take out even the largest boar.
Neville and Susan proved to be tough, since few could get past their defensive army of snow badgers and rhinos, but eventually Harry and Luna managed to get past them with a clever feint, using snow alligators as the distraction, and having cleverly formed flying snow hawks go over the battle entirely to pelt them with snow from above.
The others had gone home for the holidays, so they missed out on all the fun.
One day before the rest of the school would arrive on the train, Harry was out flying when he spotted Artemis walking towards the school from the front gates.
I wonder what he was up to these holidays... Probably with family... he thought jealously.
I should go tell him how we all did, and see when the next meeting will be. Plus I still don't really trust him, he acts too slithery... even if is a bookworm.
Then Harry paused, and got a brilliant idea.
He swoops into a shallow dive, and arcs his way over to the dormitory tower. Briefly charming the window open, he manages to barely dart inside, scraping his elbows on the sides of the window frame. Harry quickly grabs his invisibility cloak from his trunk, tucks it into his shirt, and jumps out of the window broom in hand.
A brief indescribable feeling fills him as he plunges towards the ground, stomach rising up, and feeling free for a few seconds, until he jumps back on his broom and flies towards the Ravenclaw side of Hogwarts.
Knowing he probably doesn't have much time left, he charms another window open, this time having to fight his way inside a much smaller opening. Landing on his feet with a thump in the hallway, he looks around to make sure no-one can see him. Spotting a good place to hide his broom, he carefully tucks it inside a humongous stone vase with ugly gargoyle faces on it.
Then with a quick unfolding of his cloak, Harry Potter was invisible and ready to do a little spying on the too smart for his own good, for some reason teaching us Defence Against the Dark Arts, and very mysterious Artemis Fowl.
Two long minutes pass before Artemis turns into the hallway, looking if possible, even paler than normal. He walks forwards, eyes distant, clearly thinking about something. Harry gives him a good heard start, and then follows behind carefully, trying to keep his footsteps in tune with Artemis, so he wont hear them.
They quickly make their way to the same hallway where the Defence Against Dark Arts lessons take place in the detention room. But instead of turning to enter the detention hall, Artemis goes to the opposite wall where a painting of a bunch of fluffy clouds sits. Muttering something that sounds like "fib-in-a-che Numbers" the entire wall for a good 5 feet goes transparent looking, and Artemis simply steps through.
Making a quick decision that he hopefully wont regret, Harry darts in after him.
Hopefully if I am caught, at least Artemis isn't a bad sort and will probably forgive me if I have a good excuse... hmmm... I could say I was trying to figure out a way in, so I could surprise him later with a prank and that Fred and George put me up to it. Yeah, that's it, still might get me into trouble, but not as bad as spying on him would.
With his excuse ready, Harry returns to watching Artemis, curious about the room. He quickly realizes that its probably professor Flitwick's room, since almost all of the furniture is sized for a very tiny person. There is only a normal sized table, with one normal chair, and one tall smaller chair where they presumably could sit together. Above it is a painting of a cherry tree in bloom, with a Chinese man lying down under it.
There are bookshelves everywhere, and despite this being an interior room in the castle, large windows provide a lot of cheery sunlight. Plants grow in pots everywhere, climbing the bookshelves, and all the way up to the ceiling chandelier. There is an unused fireplace, and a small cupboard with a glass door, filled with a bunch of different bottles.
After Artemis goes over to it, picks one out and takes a hearty swig without even sitting down, Harry figure that they must not all be potions, and instead some are alcoholic drinks. Artemis then goes over to the table, sits down, and proceeds to stare at the bottle as if it holds some deep dark secrets within its amber depths.
Feeling kind of uncomfortable watching this, not knowing that Artemis was the type to drink, Harry looks around for a way to leave without being noticed.
Unfortunately, aside from three doors set into the wall and the wall behind him that apparently goes intangible on command, there are no easy ways out. He doubts the window actually opens out into anything, opening a door would give away his presence, and so would making the wall go transparent again.
Well, this was turning out to be a not so exciting idea...
After another minute passes, Artemis takes one more drink from the bottle, then screws the lid back on carefully. He puts it back, and goes to knock on the far left door.
A faint, "I'm coming!" can be heard, and Flitwick comes out, Harry manages to get a peek of what is in the room before the door closes, but all he can see is a bed, more bookshelves, and more plants.
Harry can tell that something isn't right as Flitwick looks apprehensive, climbs up into his chair, and asks, "So, did things go well sir?"
Sir? I thought Artemis was an apprentice, so why is Flitwick acting like he is the boss?
"They vent," he remarks dryly. "I have succeeded in gaining a few more allies, most notably the vampires, banshee's and satyr's. Talks have progressed further on a few more races. Sadly the surface fey have declined, and I have not managed to secure the giants. I doubt we shall miss their particular... charms."
Sighing Artemis briefly lets emotions cross his face. Somewhere between queasiness and disgust, with a mix of determination, he steels himself before continuing.
"There vas something unfortunately unexpected that occurred after my meeting with the vampires, but it might vork in our favor. I simply have to find a vay to turn this to our advantage."
He then rolls up his left sleeve.
As Flitwick gives out a gasp, Harry moves closer feeling sick, knowing what he is going to see on Artemis's arm. Sure enough, the Dark Mark, ugly and black is there, vivid against his pale skin.
Flitwick asks the question that Harry would dearly love to shout out, "What happened? How? Wha...what have you done?"
"I vas foolish. After being nearly drained by the vampire Lord Damien Ventranari, I unfortunately passed out when I used my portkey. Snape found me, but by the time I gained consciousness, I had already been carried into the lair of the Death Eaters. I had two choices Filius, to die, or to join them. And I am not dying anytime soon."
Artemis lets the sleeve roll down once again, releasing both observers from staring at the mark in horror.
"It cannot be undone. I simply have to plan around it from now on."
"But... what will you do if he asks you to kill for him, or torture for him?"
"Then I vill do it, and pretend to like it." Artemis replies in a flat voice.
"However, this unfortunate turn of events simply means that I now have inside access. I can use this to find out his secrets, and then ve vill end this."
Turning his head slightly to the wall, "Chao Tuzn, please pass on this information to my Father. I'm sure those at headquarters vill vant to adjust their plans accordingly."
The man in the painting gives a small wave, nods, and walks out of view.
Flitwick shakes his head slowly, and reaches out a hand to comfort Artemis. "Are you going to be ok?"
Artemis doesn't reply but shakes off the hand and stands up, walking to the wall he entered by.
Muttering the same password as before, the wall goes transparent, and as Artemis leaves, Harry takes the opportunity to escape.
Standing still and thinking about what this all could mean, Harry watches as Artemis walks down the hall and away from him.
AN: I'm baaack! And might just update more soon. :D
I'm feeling the ideas flowing again, and the twisting and weaving of plots will continue!