Artemis Hexley and the Mystery at Hogwarts

Chapter 1: The Ill-Fated Hexley Family

"Look, Ma. I'm going to Hogwarts!"

"That's good," Artemis' mother said, not looking up from her parchment. "Well done."

Artemis stopped herself from sighing. She shouldn't have hoped for more of a reaction than this. Even if her mother had gone to Hogwarts herself (being American, she had gone to a different school altogether), nothing had excited her since Jacob had gone missing.

"There's a whole load of stuff I'm going to need to get," Artemis said. She couldn't tell if her mother was listening. "I'll have to go to Diagon Alley. Will you come with me?"

"You know I can't abide Diagon Alley," her mother bristled, still not looking at Artemis. "Too many crowds. Why don't you write to Aunt Tina?"

"Aunt Tina and Uncle Newt are in Norway, remember? They won't be back until December, that's why I went there for my birthday instead of over the summer this year."

"Then you'll have to go by yourself. I'll make sure you have a note for Gringotts to let you take out plenty of money to cover everything."

Artemis sighed. There was no point in arguing.

"Can I at least borrow Athena? If I send her up to Hogsmeade tonight they'll be able to sort out posting a letter for Aunt Tina to Norway by the end of the week."

Her mother assented, and Artemis wrote to her Aunt and Uncle to let them know the good news. She wondered whether her mother would let her take Athena to school with her, but knew that the answer would probably be no. Her mother relied on Athena too much now that she rarely left the confines of the house. Finishing her letter, Artemis felt a little deflated. If only there were someone she could celebrate with right now. An idea popped into her head, and she went back out into the garden, climbing the tree again, and sitting on one of its larger branches.

"Reggie!" She called out to a tall, dark-skinned man sitting on the deck of a canal boat moored on the canal behind the wall of her garden.

"Hello, Tiny," Reggie said to her in his deep, melodic voice. "You're looking very happy. What have you done this time?"

"I've not done anything. I just found out I got into the school I wanted to go to."

"Ah," Reggie nodded. "The boarding school. You going to live out your Enid Blyton dream at last, then?"

"I think so, yes," said Artemis, not understanding the reference. "I'm going on the first of September."

"Make sure you say goodbye to me before you go," Reggie told her. He ducked into his boat and opened a few windows. "Now, this calls for a celebration. What record do you want to listen to?"

Artemis grinned. Since Jacob had left, Reggie was probably her only friend in the world. He loved Muggle music almost as much as Jacob had, and if he thought anything was strange about a small, skinny, scruffy-looking girl wanting to sit by his boat and listen to music with him, he never said anything about it. Artemis felt bad that she could never answer any of his questions entirely honestly, but that was the problem with not having any friends of her own age, or friends who were witches and wizards. She only hoped that would change once she got to school.

It wasn't often that Artemis ventured to Diagon Alley, and she had never made the journey alone. She had been with Jacob and her mother, before he disappeared, and a few times with her Aunt and Uncle since. Luckily, Artemis was not the sort of person to linger too much on what could go wrong, so she felt far more excited than nervous to be going to buy her school supplies, even though she would be doing it by herself.

The Leaky Cauldron pub was as familiar as always. Tom, the barman, recognised her as she walked in.

"Well, if it isn't little Artemis!" he boomed.