(Chloe Grace Moretz as Selena Narcissa Lupin.)
Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked in on. -Livelifehappy.com
Yes, I realise I'm not really updating often...I'm under major stress right now. I'm graduating next year but it feels like I'm graduating now. Anyway...that's why I wanted to ask: Is anyone even reading this story? Because if not I'll just finish this book but I won't continue with second year. I know this book is quite boring but I've planned out this storyline which involves all seven years but I'm not going to bother if no one's going to read it anyway. So I have about nine or ten chapters left on this book. Which I will upload as soon as I have time to get rid off all the plotholes and grammar mistakes. So it might take me awhile but please tell me if I should continue.
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The Hogwarts castle
Scotland, Great Britain
December 20 1991
When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it. "Hi Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.
"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."
"Would you mind moving out of the way?" Came Draco's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose...that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."
"Draco..." Artemis sighed as Ron dived on him.
Of course, that had to be the moment Snape came up the stairs. "WEASLEY!" Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes.
"He was provoked, Professor Snape." Said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."
"Be as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid." Said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you." Draco, Crabbe and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.
"I'll get him." Said Ron, grinding his teeth. "One of these days, I'll get him..."
"I hate them both." Said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."
"Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas." Said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat." So the four of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations. "Ah, Hagrid, the last tree...put it in the far corner, would you?"
The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.
"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.
"Just one." Hermione said. "And that reminds me...Ara, Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."
"Oh yeah, you're right." Said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.
"The library?" Asked Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"
"Oh, we're not working." Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicholas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."
"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here...I've told yeh...drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."
"We just want to know who Nicholas Flamel is, that's all." Artemis said.
"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere...just give us a hint...I know I've read his name somewhere."
"I'm sayin' nothin'." Hagrid said flatly.
"We just have to find it ourselves, then." Artemis shrugged, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.
He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time, he was missing too from Important Modern Magical Discoveries and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library. Tens of thousands of books on thousands of shelves in hundreds of narrow rows. Hermione took out a list of subject and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry and Artemis wandered over to the Restricted Section. They had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there.
Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and they knew they'd never get one. These were books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.
After a half hour of searching books, they gave up. They met up with Ron and Hermione outside the library, who were also shaking their heads. They went off to lunch. "You will keep looking while we're away, won't you?" Asked Hermione. "And send us an owl if you find anything."
"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."
"Very safe, as they are both dentists." Hermoine nodded.
"But still, I am sure I've read about Nicholas Flamel somewhere." Artemis said, thinking out loud. "I could ask my father. If anyone knows anything about it, it would be him. But he'll ask questions and ever since I told him about the escaped troll he is worried about my safety."
"Is there a way you can ask him without drawing suspicion?" Hermione asked, hopefully. She was practically bouncing on her feet at the opportunity to maybe solve this mystery.
"Maybe." Artemis as she stared at nothing. "But I have to be careful. As soon as my mother finds out about it, she will tell my aunt and then it's only a matter of time before we get expelled."
"Why?" Ron looked confused.
"Do I have to remind you who I am?" Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Who my family is and why I have to be careful around a certain cousin?" Ron still looked gobsmacked. "Draco." She said slowly, sounding as though she thought Ron was retarded. Ron immediately spun around to glare at his arch enemy. "No, Ronald, Draco is my cousin remember?" Now she really sounded like she'd lost hope in Ron's intelligence. "If he hears about this, he'll find a way to ruin it all."
"Oh, I forgot that you and the snake were family." Ron said sheepishly but the hatred towards Artemis's cousin was clearly visible in his light-blue eyes.
"Don't call him that. Anyway I'm going to finish packing. Will we see you tomorrow before we get on the train?"
"Of course." Harry smiled. Artemis kissed his cheek, which caused him to blush a bright red, and left to pack her stuff for the holidays.
Hermione fell down on her bed, skimming through the pages of Hogwarts, a History. It was her absolute favourite. "Excited to go home?" She murmered, not looking up from her book.
Artemis hummed a little, not looking too excited. Hermione noticed but didn't question it. She had gotten used to the idea that Artemis was keeping far more secrets than any other person she knew. She just hoped that one day Artemis would trust her enough and tell what's bothering her.
The Lupin residence
England, Great Britain
Christmas 1991
"Jace! Artemis! Come quick!" Their little sister Selena squealed and they could hear her little feet run up the stairs to wake them.
"Go away!" Jace groaned as he tried to fall asleep again.
"Don't think so!" Selena pouted adorably. "Daddy says I have to wait until you two are downstairs before I open my presents and I have been waiting for two hours! I can't take it!"
Artemis heard a loud groan and a sound as if something heavy crashed to the floor. Artemis ran to her brother's room just in time to see him on the ground, struggling against the sheets, which had wrapped themselves around his legs. He was glaring at Selena and the girl was smart enough to run downstairs before he was able to untangle himself. "Remind me, Ari, why did I miss her again? I probably forgot the fact she's a pain in the a..."
"Language, Jace Cygnus!" His mother scolded from the dooropening.
"I was going to say acetabulum, mother. As in the bony cup which recieves the head of the thigh bone."
"Jace..."
"It would have been wrong if I had said arbor vitea because that's a male's d..."
"JACE!"
"I'm going. Consider me gone." He chuckled and dragged Artemis out of the room with him.
Her father was waiting for her to get downstairs. He held open his arms and she flew into them, hugging him tightly. "Merry Christmas, Ara." He whispered.
"Merry Christmas, dad. Where are the presents?" She finished the hug and looked over to where Selena and Jace were fighting over a present without a nametag. "Just open it. There must be some kind of clue." Artemis rolled her eyes.
Selena carefully unwrapped the present to reveal a black box. "What's this?" She questioned as she tried to open the box. "It won't open." She said frustrated.
"Let me try." Jace rolled his darkblue eyes. He rolled up his sleeves and took the box before tugging at the lid. "Is it glued or something?"
"Let Ara try." Remus's soft voice spoke. Artemis turned around to see her father watch the box in curiousity with a spark of recognition.
Jace handed his sister the box and looked disbelievingly when she opened it without any difficulties. Inside was a small mirror. The weirdly shaped glass fitted precisely in her palm and the sides were made out of shiny silver.
"It's beautiful." Selena gasped as she took a step closer. "What is that on the back?"
Artemis turned the mirror around to see the back had two large sapphire eyes. The eyes were drawn out in the silver with a sapphire placed as iris. Where the mouth was supposed to be, it said: I'll always protect you. Even if you don't think you'll need it. -A
"Who is this from?" Artemis questioned, a little out of breath. She felt like she had seen this before. "Who's A?"
No one spoke. Her mother looked angry, her siblings confused. But it was her father that worried Artemis the most. He looked like he knew exactly who it was from and what it was supposed to mean. He sighed as if he knew it was going to happen some day.
Jace and Selena lost their interest in the mirror and continued unwrapping their gifts. Artemis gave her father one last questioning look but when he shook his head she gave up and placed the mirror back in the box before opening the other presents.
She got a yearsupply of chocolate frogs from Hermione because she knew it were her favourites. Harry had worked together with Elizabeth and bought a charm in the shape of a tiny key to attach to her charm bracelet. Ron's mother also sent Artemis a gift, which surprised her seeing as she'd never met the woman. It was a nice fitting, knitted jumper in a pretty dark blue colour. On the front it had a large golden 'A' and in the corner there was a golden sun.
She noticed Jace recieved one as well. He was wearing a dark green jumper with a large dark grey 'J' on the front.
Draco had given her an expensive-looking necklace with emeralds dangling from it. Narcissa and Lucius had given her a beautiful green gown that she was probably forced to wear to their 'private' dinner this evening. Her siblings had given her 'Predicting the Positions of Planets.' A heavy book about the stars and their constellations as some sort of inside joke because they knew how bad Artemis did in Astronomy. Her mother's present was simply a pouch containing some galleons and a nice picture of her family.
Her father had given her quite the useful gift....a diary. Artemis never had a diary, she never had the patience to write in it everyday. She usually forgot all about it and found the book years later with one page written on.
But recently, Artemis found that she needed to sort out her thoughts and ideas before they mixed up with reality or were forgotten in general. Now the nightmares became more real and the mysteries around Hogwarts were starting to get dangerous, she needed to write down everything. It wasn't so much a diary, Remus explained, it wasn't for feelings...more like a journal.
It was a small book with a smooth, dark purple cover with her full name in neat, cursive, golden writing and engraved golden flowers in the corners.
He explained to her that it was locked to only be opened at Artemis's touch. Artemis tried it and immediately the diary opened, revealing hundreds of empty pages. There was a variety of coloured pencils and quills inside, neatly situated in rows, magically glued, it seemed, to the inside of the cover.
"Thank you, dad!" Artemis said, and she hugged him tightly.
"Oh, oh...but that's not all." Remus grinned. "I really worked hard on this. You see when you place something inside the open diary...like a book." He used the Astronomy book Selena and Jace had given her as example, and placed it in the middle of the diary. It was far too big for it, sticking out at all sides but somehow Remus managed to close the diary and the book disappeared within its pages. He handed Artemis back the purple diary and when Artemis opened it, she saw one of the pages, now had a sort of stamp on them. When she trailed her hand over it, the book reappeared and Artemis looked at it in astonishment.
"And also..." Remus said, closing the diary again before grabbing Artemis's wrist. He held the diary against the bracelet that was dangling there, it shrunk and suddenly the diary was, as if it were a charm, dangling from the bracelet. "You can take it with you everywhere you go."
Artemis gaped at the new charm. "Dad...this is amazing!"
"I thought you'd like it." Remus smiled. Artemis hugged her father again. Then she took the mirror that was given to her, placed it inside her new diary and hooked it to her silver charm bracelet.
At precisely 5.30 that evening, they had Apparated to Malfoy Manor. Jasmine was the only person outside of the Malfoy family, that was allowed to Apparate straight onto their property so she had to travel back and forth a few times to get everyone there.
A house-elf opened the door and bowed deeply. "Mrs Lupin, Mr. Lupin, Tibby's masters is waiting for them in the drawing room. Tibby is to say that dinner served in half an hour."
"Thank you, Tibby." Selena smiled, which caused Jasmine to glare at her.
"Oh, there she is." A high-pitched voice cooed as soon as Artemis entered. Her Great-Aunt Walburga Black hugged her tightly. Her heavy perfume surrounded Artemis and she tried her best not to gag although she couldn't stop her eyes from watering. Great-Aunt Walburga pulled back to look the young girl in the eyes.
Walburga once had been one of the most stunning women in Britain. She used to have long, dark hair that fell around an unusual pretty face that seemed to have been made out of smooth, white marmer. She had been tall and regal, demanding respect when she walked into a room. She used to carry her curveous body like a powerful queen. Her eyes were big and a beautiful silvery-grey, quite similar to Artemis's. But years of worrying, anger and hatred would eventually show the ugliness inside.
Now, her Great-Aunt was desperately trying to pull her thin, dying white hair in a tight bun so no one noticed the many bald spots. Her once beautiful light-grey eyes were hard and they didn't contain their old sparkle and pride. The many wrinkles made her grey face and skin hang from her bones like clothes that were far too big for the ill-looking woman.
Not much was left of the last person that carried the name of the once Noble House of Black. Although sometimes, when she saw Artemis, she got some of her youth back. She could pull her usual sneer into an honest smile and it almost looked like she truly cared for the girl. "Ah, Amelia, it's so nice to see you again and how pretty you look." Walburga pinched the girl's cheeks.
"My name isn't Amelia, Great-Aunt Walburga." Artemis sighed but Walburga wasn't listening.
"It's good you finally found out how to turn back to normal, Mia." Walburga said. Remus told Artemis that Walburga was slowly losing her mind. The things she said were often just jibberish or things she remembered from her own youth.
"Thank you, Great-Aunt Walburga." Artemis forced a small smile to grace her full red lips.
"Come, sit, sit down, child. I want to hear all about your first months at Hogwarts. I presume you keep an eye on that Potter boy? Remember...remember how Charlus used to be the best looking boy in Gryffindor. Oh, how he hated Tom."
"Yeah, I remember." Artemis lied, trying to get away.
"No, wait...Charlus and Fleamont are dead. It's Harry now, isn't it." Walburga suddenly had a clear moment. She was looking right at Artemis. "I remember Fleamont's son...Harry's father being a very handsome boy." Walburga's mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely. "They say he looks exactly like him."
"I wouldn't know."
"Such a pity." Walburga shook her head, still lost in thought. "Such a nice family, such good blood and then he reproduced with a Mudblood."
Artemis was about to tell her not to call Mrs. Potter, or any other muggle-born for that matter, a Mudblood but one look from her father prevented her from making a scene.."Yes, it's a shame." She said through gritted teeth, glaring at Draco, who was shaking with silent laughter as he noticed how she was struggling not to insult her aunt.
Meanwhile, Selena was being cooed at by Narcissa as she showed off her new white dress. Jace and Remus were whispering to each other as they both looked out of place. Lucius was talking to Jasmine in a corner, standing a little too close together.
When he thought nobody was looking Lucius even touched Jasmine's face for a second and she smiled seductively. Artemis frowned at the sight. Lucius caught her staring but instead of getting angry or glaring at her, he gave her an honest smile.
Lucius had never disliked her as much as his wife did. He actually acted like a father to her at times. When Draco and Artemis used to spend a lot of time playing together when they were young, he would say to Jasmine 'This is how it's supposed to have gone, Jazz. The two of them growing up together like siblings.' Jasmine would then hiss at him. 'They aren't siblings, Lucius.' Lucius would then stare her down while she refused to look at him and instead at the playing children with a sad look on her face.
Artemis never really paid it any mind and just enjoyed being with her family, even though she couldn't stand most of them.
"Dinner's ready." The small house-elf from earlier squeaked as she nervously fidgeted with the dirty sheet she was wearing. Everyone entered the dining room and sat down at their assigned seats. Artemis breathed in relief when she noticed both Walburga and Lucius were seated at the other side of her table. It was obvious that the seating arrangement hadn't been made by the latter.
Artemis was seated next to Selena on one side and her father on the other while Draco sat opposite her next to Jace and his mother Narcissa.
It was a very dull dinner in which nothing of importance came up. Selena filled her siblings in on her adventures at home which mainly consisted out of the usual Muggle bullies and the sleepovers with her best friend Lulu Matthews, a nine-year-old witch who lived on the other side of town.
After another three hours and Artemis telling the entire story around her fight with a twelve-foot tall mountain troll...leaving out their suspicions about Snape and the three-headed dog, of course...they finally said goodbye and Apparated back to their own house.
"Well, that was...fun." Jace said happily. "I bet you enjoyed yourself, Ari. You should've seen your face when she called Mrs. Potter a Mudblood. You looked ready to tear the rest of her hair out."
Selena giggled and Artemis glared before huffing and walking away. She sat down on her bed and opened her diary, to see a drawing of the mirror imprinted on one of the pages. She stroked over it, pulling the mirror out and looked at it.
Will I ever find out who send it?