Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 8: The Capture

The Halloween Feast had been just as much fun as Artemis had expected, and she was grateful to Merula for persuading her to go. She was even more grateful the next morning, when Merula approached her at the Hufflepuff table over breakfast and promised to keep an eye on Victor Ketsueki's mysterious extracurricular activities for her.

"Really?" said Penny, with a sigh. "Honestly, Artemis. I really don't believe that Victor is the thief."

"And I really believe that he is."

"That's only because you don't like him. Why would he even steal all those things?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's to pay for all his stupid new clothes," Artemis suggested.

"But Jae said half of the things weren't even that valuable. You know what they all were, though?"

"Shiny?"

"Reflective," Penny corrected her. "Which means that it wouldn't make any sense whatsoever for Victor to take them, because vampires don't even have a reflection."

Artemis sighed. There was no point in arguing. At least this month there would be a good distraction from the search for the thief and the endless N.E.W.T. preparation: along with the dark nights, cold winds, and morning frosts, November brought with it the first two matches of the Quidditch season.

The first match saw Andre Egwu's debut as Ravenclaw Captain, and his team's defeat by Gryffindor. The following weekend marked the Hufflepuff's first game, in which they were up against Slytherin.

"Last week's match was a relatively close run thing, which means that although Gryffindor is in the lead, it is only by a small margin," said Murphy, as the team gathered in the changing tents before the start of the match. "Now, I've been hearing the odd rumour about the Slytherin team's strategy this year-"

"Penny told me that they're planning on cheating!"

"There are only so many fouls they will be able to get away with," Murphy said. "Keep level heads, work steadily on getting that points advantage, and the match should be ours."

"Will be ours," said Tonks, a confidence in her voice that didn't quite match the white knuckles that gripped her Beater's bat.

"Well, we can't know that for sure. There are no certainties in Quidditch, after all. But you're a strong team, and our strategies are sound. I'd say that the probability of our success is fair to good."

"Thanks, Murph. Great pep talk."

Murphy beamed at the compliment, and led the team out onto the pitch, where the whole school had gathered to watch the match. Up in the commentary box, a second year Gryffindor boy had taken over Murphy's former role, and Artemis saw Murphy's eyes flicker upwards as the boy began to speak.

"And here comes the Hufflepuff team, captained by Murphy McNully, who taught me everything I know. The Hufflepuffs actually have the greatest ratio of female to male players, with Beater David Willows being the only wizard on the team. A very lucky bloke, if you ask me. I'm sure that he's been having the time of his life in those changing tents..."

"Jordan," a second voice, which Artemis recognised as that of Professor McGonagall, growled into the microphone.

"Sorry, Professor. What I meant to say is that I'm sure David Willows has been behaving like a perfect gentleman, and that this respectful behaviour is bound to carry through onto the pitch," the new commentator said quickly. "Whether the same thing can be said for the Slytherin players remains to be seen. New Captain Marcus Flint has put together a rather formidable side, but I have been reliably informed by one of the final year girls - I didn't catch her name, but she was very pretty, blonde, great-"