Buckle
For as long as that Harry has ever known of the infamous Slytherin Irishman, this was probably the first time that he had been truly frightened by the person.
Even before he had entered Hogwarts Harry had heard of the Fowl family. He would see the name a few times on the papers his uncle would read, and the old man would grumble about how hardworking Englishmen like himself were being bought by ‘potato farmers’. It was only when he went to Hogwarts that he had heard from Hermione about the Fowl’s ‘underground’ businesses.
At first, he wanted to avoid all Slytherins by all costs (mostly because of Malfroy) which by default included Fowl. Though even before Fowl was inducted to Salazar’s house there was just something about him that felt almost . . . sinister. Almost all his year mates and even a couple of seniors couldn’t help but be intimidated by him. Some people say it was his aura or the way he talked or even looked at people that rubbed them off the wrong way.
But for Harry the one thing that made him uneasy about Artemis Fowl the Second was this: his secrets.
It wasn’t just the fact that he was way more advanced in academics or wizardry in general. If he was just a smart person, he would have been in Ravenclaw. No, it was the way he used his knowledge that was scary. Fowl tended to know about things, things you might have kept secret, things that you may not know about yourself. And Merlin knows what he does with that information.
This whole thing of Fowl giving him ‘tips’ started when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and everyone was placing the blame on both him and Fowl. While Harry felt uncomfortable with the accusations Fowl was still the same who didn’t care about appearances and wanted to solve the whole debacle as though it were an . . . inconvenience.
That was another thing that sort of ticked off Harry the wrong way, it was as though all the life-threatening events that happened to him were all but mere minor things that got in his way. And while that made Fowl come off as annoying and condescending at times but if there was one thing that he had learned dealing with Fowl it was this:
He was usually right.
Even if his methods were downright illegal.
“Is tying me up necessary?” Harry asked as he was bound by vines to a chair. They were in an empty classroom in the dungeons and it was shortly after dinner.
“I don’t want you subconsciously hitting me while I enter your mind,” Artemis said nonchalantly.
Harry looked up at him “Is this going to hurt?"
“That would depend on you” Harry was then met with Artemis’ eyes which in a way reminded him of Hedwig’s for some reason but instead of vibrant yellow he was meet with deep cool blue eyes.
“Legilimens”
Almost instantly Harry could feel flashes of his memories play like moving photographs flicking through a photo album at full speed. Some images were blurrier than others. The last image he could see was the time he looked at Dumbledore’s Pensieve. By the time, the whole thing was over Harry found himself on the floor of the classroom gasping for breath.
Artemis looked at the Gryffindor with an unreadable expression on his face “Well looks like we still have a long to go”
The following week Luna had just finished Charms and had just stepped out of the classroom when out of nowhere Hermione Granger pulled her aside.
“I need to ask you something” the brunette had an intense look in her eyes.
“Hermione what are you doing?” Ron called out from the crowd that was shuffling towards the classroom.
The girl turned to her housemate “You go on ahead, it’ll only take a moment” she said before dragging Luna to a less crowded side the corridor. Once she was sure that no one would overhear their conversation she continued “Is Artemis teaching Harry Occlumency?”
Luna cocked her head “Why are you asking me this?”
“I have no one else to ask”
“Did Harry not tell you?”
This made the girl’s cheeks turn slightly red and she looked away “He . . . wouldn’t say”
Luna observed the girl “Maybe the Nargles are bothering him”
“Do you know where they practice?” Hermione asked ignoring what Luna just said “I could follow Harry but he or Artemis would probably know I was following them”
“Why is this bothering you so much?” Luna asked.
Again Hermione’s cheeks went red “It’s not bothering me”
“Don’t you trust Harry?”
She spun her head quickly “Of course I do . . . it’s just sometimes he does things . . .”
“So it’s Artemis who you don’t trust?”
“No I do . . .” the Gryffindor sighed “I highly regard his opinion”
Luna cocked her head to the other side “You wanted to learn as well don’t you?”
Hermione held up a finger and opened her mouth to protest before she lowered it and did a small nod.
“Well I’m not surprised” Luna giggled, and it made Hermione even more embarrassed “It is an extremely useful skill”
“I know that the only reason Artemis did this in the first place was because of what happened recently” she did a small frown “It’s just that I find it frustrating that he’s had all this skills and knowledge that we don’t even learn in class and he doesn’t mind sharing it”
Luna nodded in understanding.
“Like” Hermione raised her hands “Yes for the past two years we’ve had decent teachers in Defense but is what the curriculum they’re providing beneficiary to the current situation? Some lessons are outdated, and I am not talking about Muggle Studies”
“Weren’t the Defense handbooks enough?” Luna asked referring to the supplementary books Artemis and co. started distributing during Lockhart’s tenure as a DADA professor.
“Is it wrong to want to know more?” Hermione sighed.
“It is somewhat greedy”
Hermione blew out her cheeks “I know but you don’t . . .”
“Or this is for something else?” Luna pondered.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you worried Artemis might find out a secret Harry knows about you?”
Hermione’s face was now as red as the Weasleys’ hair.
“So how are the lessons with Potter?” Theodore asked while they were in the common room on a Thursday night.
“Probably saw fantasies of himself winning the tournament” Draco clapped his hands “Ah yes once again Harry Potter has saved the year from destruction!”
Theodore was on the floor with Blaise doing their Divination homework “Now that I think we seem to always have some sort of perilous danger looming over us every year”
“And it’s all related to Potter one way or the other” Draco groaned.
“Wasn’t Artemis a suspect during the Chamber of Secrets fiasco?” Blaise recalled “And he looked a lot like Tom Riddle too”
Ignoring Blaise’s comment Artemis’ answered Theodore’s query “Potter as a result of him being thrust into constant danger every year and due to his upbringing has shown signs of trauma”
“If I had my bedroom under a staircase, I’m fairly sure I would be scarred for life” Blaise tapped his quill on his parchment “Maybe I should make that a prediction”
“Well that must be a lot of baggage to deal with,” Theodore said pausing in his writing.
“Truly” Artemis let out a sigh “The first time I read him I almost had his entire childhood laid out for me”
“Good thing you didn’t let Draco teach him then,” Theodore said.
At this, the blond snorted “Potter is just too emotional; I’d probably read him with no trouble if I passed him by the corridor”
“Please don’t” Artemis groaned “He actually has thoughts of burning you at a stake”
Draco looked fairly insulted “Now that is just cruel”
“You’re the one who decided to be an ass on the first day” Blaise pointed out.
“He’s always been one” all the boys except Draco then all turned to see Pansy with her arms crossed.
Draco decided to ignore her and just picked up whatever book Artemis had lying around despite realizing that the book was not even written in English.
“Good evening” Theodore greeted.
Pansy gave Theodore a nod before turning to Artemis “Luna is waiting for you outside”
At this Blaise smirked “Well, you two have been awfully friendly as of late” he then looked at Draco and Pansy “Unlike you two”
“I must admit this fight you guys are having is quite awkward,” Theodore said.
“Has today become piss on Draco day?” Draco said slamming the book hard on the coffee table.
“I have no other business with you” Pansy then turned to leave.
“It’s so weird seeing her mad at you” Blaise commented “Like for three years she’s been head over heels and now she absolutely hates you”
Draco grumbled “Fowl tell your girlfriend to owl next time she calls you”
“First we don’t have that sort of relationship, I just help her in potions,” Artemis said standing up “And second we are underground, below a lake even”
“Oh, don’t mind him” Blaise waved his hand dismissively “He’s just being moody”
“Oh, bugger off” Draco stood up and jammed his hands in his front pockets before storming off the common room.
Theodore let out a sigh “I’ll deal with him later” he then whacked Blaise with the book Draco slammed.
“Ouch!” Blaise flinched “What did I do?”
Running away in your thoughts was harder than running in real-life Harry realized. It was only when he started learning Occlumency that he realized just how many things he had spiralling around his head. He had been told that he was a little too emotional of a person, but he thought that that was a Gryffindor trait. But when a dark wizard decides to invade your thoughts in your sleep maybe being emotional wasn’t a great feat after all.
He was now making defenses again. Artemis had told him that Occlumency and Legilimency was a matter of visualizing your thoughts in such a way for you to protect your mind or attack your target. And keeping close to his strengths he decided to visualize his mind as Hogwarts Castle. And as a result, Artemis’ attacks were now visualized as dragon chasing him around the school grounds.
“You’re too predictable Potter,” Artemis told him after a session.
Harry was panting seated on a chair, unlike in the previous sessions he found himself on the floor after Artemis performed Legilimency. “You said to play to my strengths”
“You do realize Voldemort most likely had the floor plan of his school at the back of his mind” Artemis handed the Gryffindor a cup.
Taking the cup and looking at it before looking at Artemis “Is this some kind of concentration potion?”
“It’s just water”
“Oh,” Harry blushed in embarrassment and drank the whole cup in one go “Am I even getting better?”
The thing with Artemis is that he didn’t give too many facial expressions making it hard to read him (he had yet to perform Legitimency on him but Harry knew that would be harder than all the tasks in the Tri-wizard Tournament).
“You’re getting there,” Artemis said eventually “I’m not expecting you to scan Voldemort’s mind, just enough so that we could plan ahead”
Harry sighed and looked at the empty cup “Wouldn’t it be easier if you did it?”
“We don’t even know if Voldemort has a body at this point” Artemis looked at the ceiling “For all, we know the only thing connecting him to the living world is your scar”
Almost immediately Harry brushed his hand over his scar “This scar is just basically a literal headache”
“You could say that”
“So did you find out anything about Crouch?” Harry said looking up.
“I may have something” Artemis crossed his arms “Still verifying it”
The mention of the said reporter made raised Harry’s curiosity “Is it true you murdered her?”
At this Artemis raised his brow “Why on earth would I kill someone for bad writing?”
Harry shrugged “I dunno, people do say a lot of things”
“Don’t worry she’s alive and sane” the Slytherin rolled his eyes “Her skills could be useful in the long-run”
“You know . . .” Harry said putting the cup on a table “Hermione has been kinda moody about me taking lessons from you”
“Ah Luna told me about that” he shrugged, “I told her to ask Draco since I’m too busy teaching you among other things”
At this Harry snorted “I doubt she’d accept”
“She actually did”
Harry almost jumped to his feet “She what?!”
“I was actually surprised as well” he plucked at the cuff of his shirt “I remember leaving the common room with him in an already bad mood and when I came back he kept grumbling about how Granger followed him all evening for asking for lessons”
“Huh” Harry really didn’t know what to say “Hopefully Krum doesn’t take it the wrong way”
“Let’s hope not” Artemis grumbled “We already have enough people hating him”
Luna had suddenly approached the Slytherin table during dinner time holding a tray of what seemed to be a blueberry cake topped with streusel topping.
“Well this is a strange surprise” Blaise commented “We already get desert”
Artemis raised a brow “What’s with this?”
“Well Hermione came over to the table and was giving these away because apparently, Krum gave her a whole cart of them” Ginny, who was behind Luna, explained.
Draco eyed the desert “Wait she gave me some awhile back during our lesson”
“Well let’s hope Krum doesn’t know about that” Theodore said taking the tray and passing it along to the other Slytherins.
“He can have her for all I care” Draco rolled his eyes “I mean don’t they teach Dark Arts in Durmstrang?”
“To a certain degree” Artemis replied drinking his cup of black tea.
“Knowing you,” Blaise said while his mouth was full “Your probably smuggled a book or two”
Theodore gave his friend a look “Why do you always stuff your mouth whenever we eat cake?” he sighed “When Artemis got a basket of pastries from a couple of Beauxbatons girls, guess who ate most of it”
“They taste so much better than the chocolates from the Ravenclaws though” Blaise swallowed his food and turned to Luna “No offense”
“Well, they tried their best” the Ravenclaw smiled.
“I wonder why they keep bothering with the chocolates,” Draco said wiping his mouth “We already know from Second Year that they put Amortentia in them”
“I know” Blaise commented “I mean it’s common knowledge Artemis doesn’t even eat sweets”
“Except licorice wands” Theodore mentioned which earned him a glare from Artemis “What, I saw you chewing on them while we were studying for Potions”
“Huh Luna does the same thing” Ginny mused “Even gets the ones on the exclusive line . . .”
“A BLIBBERING HUMDINGER!” Luna stood up and slammed her palms hard on the table “Ginny do you have any rope?”
Artemis face-palmed.
The Gryffindor looked at her in confusion “Umm . . . no . . .”
“Then I’ll have to tie the creature myself” she brought out her wand and started to run out the Great Hall.
Everyone except Artemis watched the girl exit and they could even hear her cast a binding spell, who the victim was they could not see.
The Slytherins were silent for a moment before Theodore spoke “Well . . . that’s one way to avoid a topic”