Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 6: Missing Pieces

The first of September had arrived at last. For the first time in all her years at school, Artemis did not go to Kings Cross station in the morning to catch the Hogwarts Express; instead, she walked down to Hogsmeade station in the evening to meet her friends as they arrived, ready to be taken up to the castle in the Thestral-drawn carriages.

By the time the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, where the clock on the platform said that it was ten past ten but the watch on Artemis' ankle made it closer to seven, it had grown dark. Even so, she was able to pick out a head of bubblegum-coloured hair in the throng of disembarking students that could only belong to Tonks.

As she approached her, Artemis saw that Tonks wasn't the only one of her friends waiting to board one of the carriages: her other two dorm mates, Penny Haywood and Chiara Lobosca were right beside her.

"Artemis! Oh, it's just lovely to see you!" exclaimed Penny, throwing her arms around Artemis. "We missed you on the train, you know. Have you had a good summer?"

"Not too bad," Artemis shrugged. "How was France?"

"Oh, it was wonderful. I saw the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower - I've got a key ring for you, actually - and working with Monsieur Flamel was just fascinating. I'm considering applying for a job as his assistant for next year."

"What about you, Chiara? Did you like working in St Mungos?"

"I did, yes," said Chiara, in her softly lilting voice. "It was very interesting seeing what it's really like to be a Healer."

"Did you get to see anything really cool and gross?"

"Not really. Healer Buckthorn doesn't let students get involved with anything too serious or life-threatening, so I was mainly on the long-term residents' ward. Lots of people with irreversible spell damage, mainly memory loss and misfigurations. There was one lady who attempted human-animal self-transfiguration and got her Animagus spell all wrong. She's permanently turned into a dog-human hybrid, can only talk in barks now."

Tonks tilted her head. "Could you understand her?"

"Not really," Chiara gave a small smile and lowered her voice. "But then again, I wasn't there at the full moon."

The other girls giggled quietly; Chiara's lycanthropy was not common knowledge. In fact, they were the only ones who knew that Chiara was a werewolf, and had only found out the year previously, having until that point believed her to be suffering from a the effects of a blood curse. Now that they knew, however, Chiara had accepted their offer to join them in their dormitory, and would be taking the bed that had been left vacant following Rowan's death.

Artemis felt a small pang of sadness as the Thestrals began to pull the carriage away from the station and up the path to the castle. She had slowly become somewhat used to Rowan's absence in her life, but she still found herself having moments in which she became acutely aware that Rowan was missing, rather than the less poignant sense of loss that she felt day-to-day.

It was going to be strange, she realised as the lights of the castle grew closer. She had always known that her time at Hogwarts would come to an end eventually, but the idea of entering her final year had always seemed so distant before. She had never thought to imagine what it would be like, arriving at Hogwarts knowing that it would be the last time she would do so. Even if she had imagined it, she she would never have thought that Rowan might not be at her side for it.

She took a deep breath and waited for the swell of grief to subside, as it always did. There was no point in being sad, and besides, Rowan would have wanted her to enjoy the Sorting Ceremony and Welcome Feast.

The Great Hall was decked out, as usual, with banners displaying the mascots and colours of the four school houses, and the girls soon found seats at their house table, beneath the stars of the enchanted ceiling. Tonks' stomach grumbled loudly.