Magic

The Lower Elements Police Reconassaince (LEPRecon) had to deal with humans a fair amount, but never before had one come down to Haven of their own accord. Even Artemis Fowl was escorted the first time. Holly was dumbfounded when Commander Trouble Kelp briefed her that morning, ending with an apologetic nod.

“We’re sending you out to deal with it, since you have the most experience with humans,” he said. She knew the real reason - she could call in a favor from Artemis, who was what they really needed. She didn’t mind, really. After his death and subsequent resurrection, she had wanted to spend every spare second with him, anyway. And though she’d never admit it, she had been itching for an adventure. She called him up the moment she got back to the office. His voice sounded over their small communicators.

“Another crisis?” he sounded amused. 

“One of these days, I promise I’ll call you to chat,” Holly laughed. She couldn’t express how relieved she was that his tone was normal. For weeks after adjusting to the clone body, he always had a faint cloud of confusion around him, which was so un-Artemis-like that Holly had nearly tried to slap him back into himself. It lasted so long that Holly was afraid it would never go away, but for the past month or so, he had reverted completely to his old self. Perhaps a little too much, because his penchant for criminal activities had returned, but Holly found that these now endeared him to her, instead of the opposite.

“What is it this time?”

“A Mud Man has somehow traveled down to Haven, and been hiding out here ever since,” Holly said. “We were mostly fine letting him stay here, since he was lying low, but recently, he’s been acting up. He stole from several shops and then, this morning, he murdered an elderly pixie.”

“And you need my help to catch him?” Holly could feel Artemis shaking his head. “That isn’t something you’d bring me in for.”

“No,” Holly agreed, “We need you to identify him. Foaly… well, he can’t.”

Holly knew Artemis was smirking at the other end, “Give me a picture of him and an hour. I’ll get back to you.”

She sent him the blurry image of the tall human and prayed Artemis was as good as he thought he was. This was the first time she had called for his help after the ‘incident’ (his death). Just under an hour later, Artemis sent her a six-word text that filled her with dread.

I need to come to Haven.

Holly relayed the message to Foaly, who arranged for a shuttle, then sent the time of the hotshot to Artemis. She assumed, correctly, that he would bring Butler with him, so she wasn’t surprised when she saw his huge frame first. She hugged Artemis, which he returned, albeit stiffly. He looked unchanged from the last time she’d seen him, black hair falling around his pale face, blue eyes sharp as ever, though now with a tinge of worry. He held up a small disk.

“Anywhere I could play this?” he asked, already moving towards the Op Booth. “My findings are troubling, to say the least.”

Foaly greeted the three of them with a swish of his tail and a gesture at the video screen. Artemis slid his disk into the correct slot, then turned to face the others.

“I did a database recognition for all the CCTV cameras in the UK and Ireland,” he began, “This man showed up in Dublin a day ago. According to the records of him popping up all over the world the past few weeks, his name is Thorfinn Rowle.”

“How does this not alarm the human police?” Holly crossed her arms.

“That’s what I was wondering,” Artemis continued, “So I dug a little deeper. Apparently, there is a branch of government termed ‘the Ministry of Magic’ who is in frequent contact with the Prime Minister and is handling the Rowle case. I investigated the Ministry and discovered we have a population of wizards living all around us.”

“Time out,” Foaly held his hands up. “Mud people with magic?”

“Yes,” Artemis clarified. “Butler and I were discussing it, and that’s the most likely possibility. They attend a magic school in Scotland that is shielded from non-magical humans, which they call muggles, and, obviously, the People. Rowle is one of them. A wizard.”

Holly’s mind was spinning, her world flipping this way and that. “How come this hasn’t even been on our radar before?”

“There are a couple of possible explanations,” Artemis switched the disk slide, presenting pictures of the aforementioned wizarding school, people, and some people flying around on broomsticks. “They are only recently trying to incorporate technology into their system, so this website is recent and easily hackable, meaning that before this there would have been no online trace of them. Besides that, they’ve just been through a war, which I found from the correspondence between their Minister of Magic and Britain’s Prime Minister. Rowle was on the losing side of the war, and is now fleeing the government in an attempt to avoid charges of murder and hate crimes.”

“He’s the only one?”

“He’s the only one who accidentally stumbled on Haven,” Artemis corrected. “There are plenty of others, most of whom have been rounded up, and a few are still loose in the muggle world.”

“So this mud man has a brand of magic we’ve never seen,” Holly said.

“Basically,” Artemis said, “Which means we should take him out before he notices us so he won’t have a chance to fight back.”

“That doesn’t require some elaborate scheme,” Foaly said, stomping his hooves nervously. Artemis chuckled at the centaur.

“No, in this case, it is simplicity itself,” he updated the disk to the next slide, which was a clear image of the wizard. He was tall, blonde, and had a horrible skull grinning up from his forearm. A long black cloak billowed behind him, and he grimaced at the camera. Underneath the large picture was a smaller one of him shooting green light at a fawn, while friends dressed similarly smirked in the background. Holly could feel her stomach turning in disgust. “I distract him, Butler disarms him, then Holly stuns him, and we keep him in custody.”

“Disarm?” that caught Holly’s attention. “What’s his weapon?”

Artemis raised an eyebrow, “Why, a wand, of course.”

“Frond, mud men are so cliche,” Foaly snorted. “All right, how’s Butler supposed to get this wand off him?”

“The old fashioned way,” Butler spoke up. “I can take him in a hand to hand fight easily.”

“Don’t you think I should stun him first?” Holly hefted her Neutrino. “Otherwise he might hurt Butler. Or I could hurt Butler, come to think of it.”

“No, then he’ll be able to cast a shield charm, and I don’t think a Neutrino can blast its way through that,” Artemis explained. Holly tried to keep herself from sulking. She hated it when a good shot didn’t solve all her problems, though it was very rare that it did.

“Let’s get going then,” Holly said, just as an alarm started blaring loudly.

“Prisoners in custody,” Trouble announced over the loudspeaker. “Calling Major Holly Short to the Holding Facility.”

Holly ran from the office. She didn’t have to look behind her to know that Artemis and Butler were on her heels.

Huddled behind the glass wall that separated them from Holly, Butler, and Artemis, were two boys and a girl. One boy had messy black hair, with round glasses in front of bright green eyes. The other had a mop of red hair and freckles all over his face. His hand was intertwined with the girl, who had a mass of curly brown hair and a fierce gaze. Most notably, clutched in all of their fists were sticks of wood that looked a lot like-

“Wands,” Artemis breathed. “Fascinating. Holly, I believe these are wizards.”

“You believe bloody right!” the red one said angrily. “Now let us out! We haven’t broken any rules.”

Holly had a silent conversation with Butler and Artemis, and all three of them came to the same conclusion. These people aren’t the main threat.

“We apologize,” Holly said quickly, stepping in front of a scowling Trouble. “Another one of your kind has been causing havoc on our streets. You understand why we were afraid to let you roam freely.”

“That, and mud people aren’t allowed in Haven,” Trouble hissed. Holly elbowed him to be quiet and he listened, albeit reluctantly.

“Mud people?” the girl bristled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

“What are your names?” Holly ignored her question. The trio had their own wordless discussion, then answered.

“I’m Harry Potter,” the boy with round glasses said. “They are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.” 

“He’s telling the truth,” Foaly confirmed, “His pulse is steady, with no sweat. Also, I looked them up on that website Artemis was talking about. Apparently, they’re pretty famous.”

“We don’t mean you any harm,” Hermione added, “We actually want the same thing you do. We were chasing Rowle - the, erm, mud person - to detain him, and followed him here.”

Artemis eyed Holly, then turned his attention back to the three, who were now standing. “Will you help us take him down if we let you take him once he is in custody?”

Hermione glanced at the boys, then nodded. Holly turned to Trouble, who let them go, grumbling all the way. Honestly, he was turning more and more like Root every day, not that that was a bad thing. The three of them brushed off nonexistent dust.

“How did you know what we were?” Harry asked.

“I discovered the wizarding community while I was researching Rowle,” Artemis was already leading them back out into Police Plaza.

“Who are you, anyway?” Ron demanded. “You’re not a… well, whatever everyone here is.”

“There are lots of different species driven under the earth by humans, us, which they call mud people,” Artemis began a long-winded explanation, and Holly groaned.

“He’s a human who found us,” she cut in. “And has helped us out of quite a few tight spots. That’s his bodyguard, Butler. His name’s Artemis Fowl.”

“Artemis Fowl?” Hermione looked interested, “Your father was kidnapped from the Russian Mafia. It was all over the muggle news.”

“Yes,” Artemis inspected his cuticles, “The People helped me rescue him and, in return, I quashed a goblin rising.”

“A goblin-” Ron began, but Hermione whispered something to him that sounded like, ‘different goblins, I think,’ and Holly didn’t press. She fitted her helmet over her head, and Foaly’s voice crackled over her comms. 

“Alright, he’s near the Geranium Fields complex,” he said, “Can you get there?”

“We’ll use the Stick,” Holly informed them, and it was Arty’s turn to groan. The three wizards looked curiously at her.

“What’s the plan?” Hermione asked. 

Artemis was the one who responded, not Holly, “I’ll explain on the way. Six against one should be easy.”

Famous last words, Holly thought bitterly and hopped onto the conveyor belt.