"You mean, You-Know-Who's out there, right now, in the forest?" Hermione asks after Harry finishes explaining what happened.
"But he's weak. He's living off the unicorns. Don't you see? We had it wrong. Snape doesn't want the stone for himself. He wants the stone for Voldemort. With the elixir of life, Voldemort will be strong again. He'll...He'll come back." He explains, dropping into the chair next to Artemis.
"But if he comes back, you don't think he'll try to kill you, do you?" Ron asks.
"I think if he'd had the chance, he might have tried to kill me tonight." He replies. Artemis stands and begins pacing as Ron gulps loudly.
"And to think I've been worrying about my potions final." He says.
"I'm going to kill Malfoy! He never should have left you alone in that forest." Artemis says. She shakes her head. "We can't leave Harry alone. We can protect him."
"You can't be serious." Ron scoffs. She turns and glares at him and he presses into the back of the couch, trying to get farther away from her.
"If Voldemort's surviving off unicorn blood, he can't be very powerful, can he? Harry's our best friend, we should be doing everything we can to protect him." Artemis announces, taking her seat next to him again.
"Hang on a minute. We're forgetting one thing. Who's the one wizard Voldemort always feared?" Hermione points out. The boys look at each other, not sure of the answer. "Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore's around, Harry, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore's around, you can't be touched."
***
"I'd always heard Hogwarts' end-of-year exams were frightful. But I found that rather enjoyable." Hermione says as they walk through the courtyard.
"Yeah, Fred and George acted like they were the end of the world, but that was easy." Artemis agrees.
"Speak for yourselves." Ron replies. "All right there, Harry?" He asks as Harry rubs his forehead.
"My scar. It keeps burning." He answers.
"It's happened before." Hermione tells him.
"Not like this." Harry replies.
"You should go see Madam Pomfrey. She can help." Artemis suggests, rooting around in her bag for the book on magic injuries Madam Pomfrey had given her.
"I think it's a warning. It means danger's coming." He explains. She links her arm with his as she starts flipping through the pages, looking for anything that mentions scars. "Of course." He says when they spot Hagrid's hut ahead of them. He sits outside, playing a flute.
"What is it?" Hermione asks.
"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have one? I mean, how many people wander around with dragon eggs in their pocket? Why didn't I see it before?" He answers as they rush towards him. "Hagrid, who gave you the dragon egg? What did he look like?"
"I don't know. I never saw his face. He kept his hood up." Hagrid tells him. Artemis groans in frustration.
"Well, you talked to him, didn't you?" She asks.
"Well, he-he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after. I told him. I said, 'After Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem.'" He answers.
"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asks.
"Well, of course he was interested in Fluffy. How often do you come across a three-headed dog, even if you're in the trade? But I told him, I said-I said, 'The trick with any beast is to know how to calm him.' Take Fluffy, for example. Just play him a bit of music, and he falls straight to sleep."
The four glance at each other and Hagrid sighs.
"I shouldn't have told you that." He says before they run back towards the castle. "Where you going? Wait!" He shouts after them. They ignore him and head straight to Professor McGonagall's office.
"We have to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!" Harry demands.
"I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here. He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and left immediately for London." She tells them.
"He's gone? Now? But this is important! This is about the Sorcerer's Stone." He replies.
"How do you know-" She starts to ask.
"Someone's going to try and steal it." He tells her.
"I don't know how you four found out about the stone, but I assure you, it is perfectly well-protected." McGonagall tells them. "Now would you go back to your dormitories? Quietly."
Harry sighs and shakes his head, leading them out of the room.
"That was no stranger Hagrid met in the village." He says.
"It was Snape." Artemis agrees. He nods.
"Which means he knows how to get past Fluffy." He explains.
"And with Dumbledore gone-" Hermione says.
"Good afternoon." Snape interrupts. Harry and Artemis glare at him as he looks at the four of them. "Now what would four young Gryffindors such as yourselves be doing inside on a day like this?" He asks.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be off somewhere playing with your chemistry set?" Artemis taunts. Ron elbows her, but Snape completely ignores her as usual, raising his eyebrows at Hermione as she stutters, trying to come up with a lie.
"You want to be careful. People will think you're...up to something." Snape tells them before turning around and walking down the hallway.
"Now what do we do?" Hermione asks.
"We go down the trap door. Tonight." Harry says.
***
Harry leads the way down the stairs, stopping when he spots a toad on the arm of the chair in front of them, croaking loudly.
"Trevor." He says.
"Trevor, shh, go! You shouldn't be here." Ron scolds.
"Neither should you." Neville tells them, looking around the chair at them. He stands. "You're sneaking out again, aren't you?"
"Now, Neville, listen. We were-" Harry starts to say.
"No! I won't let you. You'll get Gryffindor into trouble again. I-I-I'll fight you." He protests, raising his fists.
"We're not going to fight you, Neville. I promise, it's really important that-" Artemis says.
"Neville, I'm really, really, sorry about this." Hermione interrupts. She waves her wand. "Petrifucus totalus."
Neville goes completely rigid before falling onto his back, paralyzed. Artemis gasps and rushes towards him as Ron gulps loudly.
"You're a little scary sometimes, you know that?" Ron asks. "Brilliant, but scary."
"It's why Ari and I get along so well." She replies.
Artemis places a pillow under Neville's head and covers him with a blanket, patting his head and quickly apologizing again before following the other three out of the common room.
Hey guys, sorry for not updating but I was super busy and didn't have enough time to be able to write this and Mandalorian's Bounties at the same time lol
Updates should hopefully be back to normal though now :)
YOU ARE READING
The Wrong Weasley | Harry Potter
FanfictionAs Artemis Weasley grew older, she began to realize that she wasn't truly a Weasley. She had brown hair instead of red, not a single freckle, and didn't really look like any of her siblings, especially her twin, Ron. Although she now knew she wasn't...
