The Lost Potter Twisted - Artemis Potter

25 - Connection

Sirius

"PDA!!!" Artemis and I yell when Lils and Prongs kiss, turning my head to the side to look at Artemis she gives me a soft smile before we all start laughing. We start walking and I keep my eyes on Artemis most of the time having a feeling she's hiding something, and she's walking with Lils just in front of Prongs and I as I turn to Prongs,

"Do you think there is a reason she's trusting Lils not us?" I ask,

"She might just be a mama's girl like I was," he shrugs it off but something is tugging at my mind as we make it inside the bank, and we join the girls' conversation,

"So what do you do as a job?" Artemis asks looking curiously at Lily,

"I'm a retired Auror and am working at a school a town over from our house as a librarian and nurse," Lily beams and sends a smile at Artemis which she gives in return, Wow she's a lot better at fake smiles than me. I almost couldn't tell, I think to myself, 

"Wow really? Which town?" Artemis questions, as we walk up to the transfer desk, Lily pulls out her Muggle money first and Artemis pulls out her purse,

"Oh in a town called Fine Heart," Lily waves off handedly, but Artemis misses her step and drops her purse,

"Woah you ok kiddo?" I say helping her back up and passing her her purse,

"Yeah all good," she says unconvinced, 

"You know the town?" Prongs asks

"Yeah, I lived there at some stage for a small amount of time,"

"How come you weren't enrolled at the school?" Lils asks,

"The system thought since I was genuinely moving once every month it was easier to just give me the work my age were doing," she shrugs and steps forward and takes out at least 5 thousand dollars and places them on the counter for the goblin to transfer,

"Where did you get all that money?" I question, suspicious of how a 13 year old got that much money,

"Just odd jobs," She shrugs, Sure odd jobs, I think when she places the money back in her purse as we go from shop to shop getting stuff for her schooling. At every shop, she refuses to let us pay and insists that she can pay. Finally making it to the ice creamery after spending 40 minutes in the book store I slump onto a chair and James falls right beside me dropping the bag of books.

"Finally ice cream," he sighs and stands back up, "Salted caramel," he points to Lily, "Double choc," he points to me and points to Artemis, "And?" 

"Mint choc chip," she smiles genuinely and I notice she has slowly become more comfortable with us the more time we spend with her,

"You know what I realised we haven't asked you?" I say with a smile,

"What?" she says rolling her eyes at me,

"We haven't asked what your favourite colour is,"

"Royal Azure," she responds with no hesitation, "Then Emerald or Castleton Green,"

"Damn, you are a Potter all fancy but fucking modest," I say smiling at her, but she almost looks like it's an insult, "What?" I ask

"Sorry just getting used to being called Potter or being compared to the name I guess," she looks down awkwardly,

"What do you mean Fawn?" Lily asks the question I was thinking,

"Before I came to this world I hated my last name because I thought it was just a constant reminder of the people who left me, and I had been going by Artemis Remus since I was eight," she whispers looking down, but Prongs saves the day by coming back with ice cream, 

"Here you all go," he says cheerily placing each flavor in front of the right person, we all sit in a comfortable silence for a bit but James breaks it awkwardly,

"Um, Fawn why have you been avoiding Harry? We heard your guys talk in the hospital wing you got along great, but then the past months you've avoided him," James asks, Artemis tenses and continues eating the ice cream like James didn't say anything as we all look at her expectantly,

"Artemis?" Lily emphasizes,

"Because Nathan is right," she whispers,

"What do you mean?" I ask now thinking about what he has said about Artemis,

"It's my fault he fainted," she continues to whisper looking down at the table still just playing with the ice cream, "I got a flashback to a not great experience in a foster home, Harry described the feeling as a wave of coolness or dread, that's the feeling I get when I get flashbacks. He only started feeling what I was feeling when we started to get close. I don't want it to happen again, so I'm distancing myself,"

"It's not your fault, it's just the connection you have after saving his life. I think Harry would rather end up in the hospital wing every now and again if it meant his twin stopped ignoring him," she says placing a hand over Artemis' but she pulls away and places her hand on her lap instead,

"I won't do that to him," she states firmly,

"What if you have this connection because you don't know each other? It could be your body's response to not having each other nearby like you're supposed to, just promise you will try to start talking to him," Lily says with raised eyebrows,

"Ok I'll start talking to him," she mumbles,

"Good now let's get you back to school everyone else will be getting back in 2 hours so you can go talk to Nathan and Harry," Lily says happily,

"Fuck, I'm getting thrown straight under the bus," Artemis mumbles,

"Welcome to the life of anyone who knows Lily," I joke,

"Gee thanks," she says sarcastically while rolling her eyes as we flu back to Hogwarts.

A/N Also changes in chapter 16 - Minnie so that another chapter makes sense later in the book.

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