Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 10: Apparition and Disapparition

The Thestral-drawn carriages returned to Hogwarts castle in the first week of January, bringing with them the students who hadn't decided to stay at school over the Christmas holidays. The spring term had begun, and it was so far keeping Artemis even busier than the first.

The Quidditch season was in full swing, and Murphy McNully had the Hufflepuff team practising twice weekly in preparation for their second match of the year. They would be up against Gryffindor, who would, according to Murphy, be their "most challenging opponent, statistically speaking". Artemis was training harder than anyone; their best chance of winning involved her catching the Golden Snitch before Charlie Weasley, and she knew for a fact that Charlie had never failed to catch the Snitch in a house game before, nor in any of the friendly games she had played with him. Still, there was a first time for everything, and she was determined that this would be it.

As for lessons, the workload had increased in all five of her subjects, with each of her teachers stressing how many - or rather, how few - months remained until the start of the N.E.W.T. exams. And the N.E.W.T.s were not the only exams that Artemis would be preparing for; having missed the Apparition classes her friends had taken the year before, she had re-enrolled on the course in the hope that she would be able to take her exam at Easter with the current sixth years.

She had assumed that she would be the only final year student taking the classes, but when she arrived in the Great Hall for the first one, she saw that Corey Hayden was also there, having spent half of the previous year as statue. It was lucky that they were friends now, Artemis thought, as Corey waved to her from across the hall and she went over to join him.

"Now that we are all here," said the wizard at the front of the hall, whose wispy pale hair was instantly familiar to Artemis, though she wasn't sure where from, exactly. "Welcome to your first Apparition lesson. My name is Wilkie Twycross, and I will be your instructor for the next twelve weeks."

"Oh!" Artemis said out loud, now realising whe she had seen the wizard before. Corey gave her a quizzical look, and she whispered to him, "I met him in the Magical Transport office when I was there for the morning in the summer."

"You mean the morning the Japanese Ambassador's Portkey was stolen?" Corey asked, and Artemis nodded. "Do you reckon he had something to do with it?"

"No, it was a wizard in disguise. Burke. He's a Metamorphmagus, remember?"

"I know, but he probably wasn't working alone. From my extensive reading of crime novels, I've realised that criminals often work with accomplices. And usually, things are quite as they seem. Often, it's the person you'd least expect that is the one who is actually behind the crime," he lowered his voice as Professor McGonagall frowned at him. "For example, in one of the Conebush and Persimmons stories-"

"Shush, Mr Hayden," said Professor McGonagall, and Corey fell immediately silent. Artemis waited for McGonagall to look the other way before whispering back:

"I really don't think it was him. I mean, I just can't see him being a criminal mastermind."

"And don't forget the three Ds of Apparition!" Twycross was saying. "Destination, Determination, and Deliberation!"

Artemis raised her eyebrows at Corey, who frowned.

"Yes, okay. You have a point," he whispered to her.

Professor McGonagall gave them both another firm stare, and so they stopped talking for the remainder of Wilkie Twycross' lecture. Once he was done, Twycross set all the students about practising how to Apparate into hoops a few feet away from them, though not many students were having much luck so far. Even Artemis, who had experience with side-along Apparition thanks to Jane Court, Bill Weasley, and Kingsley Shacklebolt all having Apparated with her, had to admit that it was a much harder feat when doing it without someone else's help.