Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 12: Interrogation

Her hand still gripping the Hospital Wing curtain, Artemis glared at the person sitting on top of the hospital bed, their skin covered in cuts and bruises, hair in disarray and strewn with willow leaves, and a look of mild contempt in their violet-coloured eyes.

"What was me, Hexley?" Merula drawled, and Artemis' nostrils flared.

"You're the one who's been taking messages to and from the Whomping Willow. To and from the Cabal," she said, shaking slightly. "You... You..."

Merula rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Hexley. You don't have a clue what you're-"

"You mean, you deny it?" asked Artemis. "You mean, you haven't been the one hanging around the Whomping Willow and passing messages?"

"Oh, no. I have."

"So what, you're working with them now? With R?"

"No," Merula shook her head. "Give me some credit, Hexley."

"Credit? Merula, you've been acting as a messenger for the people who killed Rowan!"

"No, I haven't."

"You just said that you have!"

"Actually, what I said was that I'd been passing messages at the Whomping Willow. I specifically said that I am not working for R."

Artemis frowned. "What? I don't understand."

"Shocking," Merula muttered. "Hexley, sit down before you hurt yourself. You look like crap, by the way." Artemis did not sit down, just glowered at Merula, who sighed before continuing, "Ugh, whatever. Look, yes, I've been hanging around the Whomping Willow, and I have been taking messages to and from there, but it's not what you think. I'm not working with R."

"Then why-"

"I'm working against them. The messages I've been taking, they're real messages between R and Shiratori. The messages I've been leaving, they're all fakes. Don't you see? I'm not passing messages for them, I'm intercepting and replacing messages to sabotage them."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at Merula, looking sceptically into her violet eyes. The expression in them was completely guileless. She was telling the truth. At last, Artemis sat down.

"Tell me everything," she said.

"That's what I was trying to do," muttered Merula, but she sighed as Artemis raised a single eyebrow at her. "Okay. So, you know that prisoner from Japan? Shiratori?"

"Yeah."

"Well, R arranged for him to come over here. They want him to help them break a member out of Azkaban for them."

"Rakepick?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing so," Merula shrugged. "He was hiding out in London, but got moved up here shortly after. I've been trying to catch him, but I've not found him yet. Judging by the fact that he's leaving and taking messages, he's still around here, though. Has been all year."

"And you've been intercepting the messages that whole time?" Artemis asked, and Merula nodded her head. "Were you the one who brought Sickleworth to the castle?"

Another nod of the head. "Yeah. I was doing work experience in Barnaby's dad's office when the Curse-Breakers came. Sickleworth recognised me, and I thought he might be useful to have around. And he was, he was able to steal the messages from the Shrieking Shack, no problem." Merula sighed and added, "Obviously, they weren't the only things he was nicking. I should have remembered how much of a sodding pain Nifflers are to look after. That very first day I took him, the bloody thing ran off into the Department of Mysteries. I thought I'd lost him for good. That's why I thought it would be a better idea to become an Animagus, that way I could give him back to Gringotts and carry on without him."