Artemis Hexley and the Portrait of the Vault

Chapter 15: Funny Valentine

When Artemis returned to the dormitory, pink-cheeked and smiling, there was a wonderful surprise waiting for her.

"Rowan!" she exclaimed, running across the room to join all three of her dormmates and Fergus the cat on Rowan's bed, and throwing both arms around her best friend. "You're out of the Hospital Wing!"

"Madam Pomfrey discharged me. Professor Dumbledore said I'd been monitored for long enough," Rowan replied as she returned Artemis' tight embrace. "That does mean I'll need my wand back, though."

"Of course," Artemis nodded, and - with some effort - summoned Rowan's wand from the drawer of her bedside cabinet. "I have a new one anyway. Not that it's any good."

Rowan looked closely at Artemis' new wand over the top of her silver-rimmed glasses.

"Is that blackthorn wood?" she asked. Artemis nodded. "I thought so. It's one of the trees my parents grow. You know, the wood probably came from us!"

Artemis smiled. That was the first thing anyone had said that had actually made her feel better about her new wand. Grateful, she hugged Rowan again.

"You're very happy this evening, Artemis," said Tonks, tilting her head and frowning.

"Of course I am, Rowan's back!"

"Nah, before you even saw Rowan you were grinning like the Cheshire Cat," Tonks started to grin herself as Artemis felt the colour rise in her face. "What have you been up to, Hexley?"

Three pairs of eyes bored into Artemis, who found herself unable to look directly at any of them. She looked up at the bat hanging from the lampshade, down at Fergus on her lap, across at Rowan's books lined up neatly on the bookshelf.

"You've been out with a boy, haven't you?" Penny gasped, looking more Penny-ish than Artemis had seen her in months. She clapped her hands together delightedly as Artemis felt her cheeks turn a brighter shade of red. "You have! You have to tell us everything!"

"Well," Artemis sighed, "I had a lesson with Professor Snape this evening, and-"

"I don't reckon I'm going to enjoy this story."

"I haven't finished, Tonks. I left his classroom and then I bumped into Barnaby in the corridors, and-"

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness," Penny said, looking as if she were about to burst from excitement. "Did you kiss?"

"Um, yeah."

Penny squealed, and fell sideways onto Rowan's bed, clutching Artemis' hands in hers. Artemis stared at her. Penny seemed more happy about her kissing Barnaby than she did. She looked at Rowan and Tonks in the hope that they would both be acting a bit more sanely, but she was disappointed. Rowan was looking at her wide-eyed and expectantly, leaning in to listen with her chin cupped by her hands, and Tonks was grinning widely with a wicked spark in her eyes.

"Did he kiss you or did you kiss him?" Rowan asked.

"Both," Artemis told her. "I kissed him, and then he kissed me, and then we both kissed each other at the same time."

"Where?"

"In the corridor."

"No," Tonks shook her head, sniggering. Next to her, Penny was barely stifling giggles. "I meant as in on the lips or-"

"Well, obviously on the lips," Artemis rolled her eyes. "Where else would you kiss a person?"

"Never mind that," Rowan said, quickly. She looked reproachfully at Tonks and Penny as they shared glances. "Are you going to see him again? As in like a boyfriend and girlfriend, not just generally."