Nightmare.
Darkness. Pain. Cold Laughter.
Then a man, a muggle. Tied up, bound, along with two others. He is sharp, clear, the focus, while the others blurred and indistinct. There is one other candidate for initiation, they go first, selecting a woman. Her wails of pain provide a counterpoint to the laughter, the walls seeming to waver and melt in time with the screams. Suddenly it is his turn. Time changes from suddenly fast, to suddenly slow.
The man laughs, scared, terrified, but the small spell makes him chuckle. Forces out giggles, guffaws and hiccups. He starts to squirm, moving in a similar manner as the tortured woman, but instead of pain, it is from other, more subtle stimuli that force him to strain against his bonds. The dark shapes around him grow menacing, questioning, threatening. Sweat seems to pool in the small of his back.
He buys time, speaking words, indistinct muttering, pouring from his mouth, binding them in silvery chains. In time, the man on the table begins to change, screaming, as his nerves twitch. He is bashing his head on the table, the thunk-thunk-thunk sickening. Nausea wells up. Hold it down, hold the spell. Hold to sanity, to logic.
The dark shapes are now impressed, their approval briefly sparking a sense of pride. Of course he is different, is clever, unique. The nausea fights the pride and wins, as the man has a seizure, and knocks himself unconscious. Now the worst part, the easiest. A simple cutting spell, designed for chopping vegetables, slicing meat, serving up food. It is somehow easy, there is no feeling of resistance, no sensation. Nothing to tell him that he actually is the cause of the blood burbling from the mans throat. It could all be a dream, how easy it is to kill.
It is a dream.
This realization pauses the scene. He wills away the darkness, the dark figures, the Dark Lord. Only the body remains. He stares at the man he has killed, reaches out to close the mans eyes, and wills him away. Darkness surrounds him. Cloying, clinging, trying to drag him down. He sinks into it, seeking rest.
Artemis wakes.
D'Arvit, I should have remembered to take the dreamless sleep potion... He curses to himself.
The day drags on. Duties to attend to, appearances to keep. Lingering withdrawal from the overdose of Pepper-Up potions last night means that he is extra miserable this morning. By lunch time, his nerves are frayed. As he walks towards the great hall, he hears some boisterous 6th years behind him, joking among themselves.
"Rictusempra!" One cries out. Artemis flinches and stumbles. Whirling around, he sees laughing faces. One child, not much younger than him, is tickling another at wand-point.
"No magic in the corridors!" He snarls out, barely keeping hold of his temper.
They look taken aback, and stop at once, hurrying past him to get to the food. "Whats his problem?" One mutters as they go.
With an iron will, Artemis refuses to slump against the wall, refuses to tremble. Refuses to show weakness. There are still many students arriving, approaching, he will not let them see him at less than his best.
He eats lunch calmly, barely responding to table talk. This is rather normal for him, as he rarely speaks at meals to anyone other than Severus or Filius. Severus is clearly also tired and uncommunicative from the marathon potion brewing over the weekend, and Filius knows that Artemis is too exhausted to carry on a conversation. Filius does most of the talking today, chattering on comfortably, keeping their end of the table from seeming too quiet.
After lunch, before he can get away fully, Umbridge approaches. "Hem-hem. I was wondering if you would have time to discuss your little idea over tea tonight? I have a few questions, but I am sure that there will be no problems approving your little idea as long as the proper precautions are taken."
"Of course Madame. I vill be delighted to have tea vith you tonight. Shall ve say... seven?"
She titters, "That sounds wonderful. I shall inform the elves."
Suppressing a grimace and instead plastering on a sly grin, Artemis half-bows to her and walks away.
Later, during a certain 5th year Charms lesson, a small note finds its way to Hermione, landing right on top of her current reading material. She is busy reading ahead about other things you can animate, while Ron and Harry both are busy animating the provided scissors, and making them do battle with each-other.
Supper is the same as lunch, but some energy seems to have come back to Artemis during the day. He is making notes on some papers, hurriedly scribbling some conclusions and findings in a secure shorthand, after having made a trip down to the Chamber of Secrets an hour earlier. The Chamber has been stripped bare of anything valuable of course, no books or equipment left. Only a rotting basilisk corpse, interesting architecture, and the residual spells covering everything in a fine layer of secrecy and preservation charms.
Tonight he will have to consult with Filius, who is a Charms Master after-all, and see if he reaches the same conclusions. It could prove utterly fascinating if his suspicions are true, and help unravel the mystery that he has been trying to figure out for quite some time now. Plus Filius has the gift of tongues, so might be able to get Artemis into a few other password protected places. It seems that a simple 'Open' is not sufficient for the more secure areas.
But first, tea with Dolores, then meeting with Harry and his friends. Only then will he have time to spend a few hours in the Chamber of Secrets. And while most of the secrets might have been plundered by a young Dark Lord, the chamber itself might hold the best ones of all.
Artemis eyes the wall full of kittens on decorative plates. He already knew that Dolores was a disturbing waste of DNA, but this, this was a new level of depravity that he has not suspected of her. Suppressing a shudder, he turns a charming smile upon the toad like woman, and accepts the cup of tea offered.
She asks in a syrupy sweet voice, "Any milk or sugar dear?"
"Njet. I vill take it plain."
"So, I think its time we talk about that little club idea you had. I must say I am pleased that you decided to come to me for my help. I am the Defense professor after all, yet far too many of the people in this school seem to ignore my authority."
"Of course I vould come to you for help. I am merely an apprentice, and you a Professor. I vould not vant to step on any of your toes."
"Such a polite young man," She coos. "I think we will be having no problems once we hammer out a few details."
"So you see a few problems vith my idea then?"
"Well, I fully approve of teaching light magic to students of course. Healing magic too. Never know when little scrapes and boo-boos might strike, as well as getting sick. That branch of magic is completely harmless, and so very useful. However I have concerns with the Patronus charm being taught, its a bit... dangerous for children, don't you think?"
"The spell has no effect on humans, it cannot touch anyone. I cannot see a possible use for it that is harmful, it is strong light magic. It is also a useful communication spell, as I'm sure you know. I recall you mentioning that you yourself can cast this spell, surely you find it very useful in your day to day vork?"
"Hmm, true, it does save time and effort in the office. I am quite proud of my skill with the spell, not many people ever manage to learn it. Can you be sure that the little children will be able to learn such a complex spell?"
"Most vill not be able to learn of course, but if I try vith a few dozen, a few might learn. It is vorth it to try, and I vil use it as a revard. I vill say, learn these healing spells, and I vill teach you the Patronus."
"Hmm, well I hope you aren't going to be getting the poor dears hopes up. Still, I suppose it is a harmless spell. Can you believe that some of the children want to learn how to attack each other? To fight? It's horrifying how violent this generation is. They should really not be thinking about this sort of thing, and leave such things to trained professionals."
"Perhaps I vill be able to turn them aside from their violent vays. Light magic is pure, and unable to harm anyone, that is its nature. I vill also teach them about the history of magic, of vhy light is superior to the dark. Of vhy those born with magic in their blood, are far superior to those without. It is a lesson they do not get anymore, with that deplorable ghost teaching history for decades."
"Hmm, that seems like it could be very useful. That ghost, I do so wish I could fire that ghost, or banish it somehow. Don't forget to mention to the little children about how the Ministry came to be. How its mission is to protect and guide all witches and wizards, and protect them from the dark."
"Of course, no proper history lesson vould not be complete vithout mentioning the Ministry. However, children do not respect history these days. To get them to stay in the club and not be bored of lectures, I vill have to hold their attention. If I expand the lessons to include a few demonstrations of some useful charms, that vill hold their interest."
"Oh? What exactly were you thinking of teaching them?" She pauses sipping her tea to give Artemis a suspicious eye.
"I vould not be teaching them anything new actually, I vould merely be showing them how to use their spells better. If a student already knows how to animate an object, I vould teach them some useful tricks vith the spell, such as animating books to follow them, or scrub-brushes to clean their cauldron for them. No reason to do things the muggle way, vhen magic is far better. I can promise you that I vill not teach anything to the students other than light magic, I vill leave lessons on other magic to the professionals of course."
She relaxes and nods, taking a long sip of tea. When she has drained the cup, she puts it down delicately. "Well then, it is clear that you know what you are doing. No teaching of anything new other than light magic, touch upon history when you can, and keep their interest by showing them new tricks they can do with what they already know. I shall approve of that lesson plan, and your club has my full permission and endorsement."
"Just in case the Headmaster has... objections to me teaching true history and light magic to the students, may I have something in vriting, to be able to show him if he should attempt to interfere?"
"Of course my dear! We can't let that interfering old man stop progress, now can we."
She busily writes upon some parchment for a few minutes, as Artemis occupies himself with a rather tasty small sandwich. It's a pity that it was made with slave labor.
At some point he would have to find a way to free the poor elves that had been trapped for generations by their own magic. There a reason why the People take such pains to not enter dwellings uninvited, or let humans order them about in their homes. The few who had been caught in perpetual slavery, had been bred and continually imprisoned for generations by the wizards, inbred to the point of deformity's. It was disgusting, and yet another reason why most of them had fled underground.
Wizards knew they were called 'house-elves', but stupidly never thought that there might thus be elves that were not bound to the households of man. Such ignorance, such arrogance. It was lucky that the People were such a peaceful race, or else humanity would have long ago been wiped from the face of the earth for the horrible things they had done.
"Here you go dear, this should protect you from any legal troubles that interfering old man should raise. Anything you do within the bounds of this agreement, is perfectly legal until I sign another order rescinding it. I trust that you won't give me cause to have to do that?"
She attempts to raise an eyebrow at Artemis, but it loses its impact as it is far inferior to his own eyebrow raising ability's. It's too bad that she was not a grotesque old hag, it would be easier to accept such self-serving corruption from someone who looked hideous. But no, she was rather ordinary looking truth be told. Only her personality made her disgusting.
Artemis flashes her another smarmy smile, implying that they both know that he will stretch the bounds of her little permission papers, but that it will prove troublesome for Dumbledore, and she shouldn't worry about it. (Of course, that's a lie, as he intends to teach the students how to defend themselves, using her signature against her, but hopefully she won't discover this until the end of the year when the curse forces her to leave the school. Artemis has suspicions about the curse, but he won't be attempting to deactivate it until after this woman is gone.)
"No need to vorry Madame Dolores, I am sure ve are on the same page, united in our common goals."
Artemis stands up, brushing a few crumbs from his robes. Taking her hand, and bowing low over it, he takes his leave from her graciously.
As soon as the door closes behind him, he grimaces. One task down, two more to go before he can rest. Hopefully this time he will actually get some proper, dreamless sleep tonight. He can't keep running about sleep deprived, eventually he might make a mistake.
AN: There ya go, a new chapter. No telling when you'll get the rest, but at least slow progress is being made.