A Piece of Mind

Chapter [18]

The day was turning out to be bloody terrible.

For once, it wasn't Harry's temper, Hermione's pestering, Malfoy acting up, or the endless pile of homework designed to pluck your brain raw. It was a raven-haired, blue-eyed menace named Artemis Fowl.

Ron had a preset notion of right and wrong, based on and around his brother's stories and his own experiences. They helped determine his opinion of where people stood before he got to know them. In general: Slytherins were terrible. Rich people were snobs. Bookworms were swots. Quidditch was amazing, and Dumbledore was all-knowing.

Artemis' take on these categories was skewed enough in Ron's mind that he was convinced of the Irish boy's evil nature. Artemis was a rich, book-obsessed Slytherin who hated Quidditch and didn't seem to like or respect Dumbledore.

Now, one or two of these things Ron could overlook; Hermione was a bit of a swot, nose buried in books all day. Lupin hadn't liked Quidditch (or at least, never went to any games while at the school). And Harry was super rich, with his dad's old family money.

But Artemis also seemed... Ron didn't know the word for it. Different? He was a bit of an introvert and isolated even more by Malfoy's posse for being muggleborn. He was sometimes funny, in a dry, sarcastic sort of way. And he wasn't really outwardly mean or aggressive - just irritatingly presumptuous and full of himself. And since last Saturday, he was now untrustworthy as well.

All in all, he was an enigma Ron was starting to get tired of solving; like that odd muggle cube puzzle his father brought home once, that only Charlie was able to solve.

"Why don't we just talk to him?" Hermione asked for the third time that morning as they walked to History of Magic together. "We're going to have to if he's giving Occlumency lessons."

Harry gave her an icy look, "He can teach us what we need to know without making small talk. And we can't just ask him why he's acting so shifty, or about the odd phone call, or his parents, because he won't tell us. You saw it happen that night, he just got defensive."

"Well, maybe if we excel at Occlumency, we'll also learn Legilimency and be able to see into his mind for some answers," Hermione said quietly as they put down their bags at their usual desks.

Ron and Harry both stared at her. She looked up from her history book and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"We just never thought you would be okay with that level of... of invasion of privacy," Harry said, still staring at her.

"Oh, never mind," Hermione replied dismissively with a wave of her hand. "It probably won't work anyway if he also knows how to defend against mind reading." She looked a little pleased though, as she brought out her inkwell and quill.

The first time they saw Artemis was in Potions later that morning. They subtly watched him as the class painfully dragged on, Snape being his usual rotten self. At one point, Ron was so focused on Artemis scribbling something in his little notebook with his, er, pen, that he forgot to keep stirring his potion, which had turned a dark green colour. Snape smiled cruelly as he materialised creepily beside him.

"Perhaps you should spend less time trying to cheat, Mr. Weasley, and more time attempting to brew a half-decent potion. Ten points from Gryffindor for lack of effort."

This time, a few Gryffindors groaned in frustration while the Slytherins all snickered in unison. Ron noticed that Artemis ignored the whole interaction, still scribbling in his notes.

"What could he be writing about, d'you think?" Ron muttered as the three of them watched Artemis swiftly leave Potions like he had somewhere important to be.