Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Chapter 21: The Last Battle

The days stretched longer and longer as May drew to its close. The sun was already high in the sky when the owls arrived at the breakfast table to deliver the post on the last day of the month, one of them landing on the Hufflepuff table with a small, peculiar shaped parcel attached to its leg, which it stretched out to Artemis.

Artemis took the parcel from the bird, and opened the parcel to reveal a silver key, decorated with green-painted leaf-like tendrils that rolled down the length of the handle.

"What's that?" asked Tonks, and both she and Penny frowned at the item over the top of their Potions revision.

"It's a key," said Artemis, smiling as she read the handwritten note her great-uncle had wrapped into the parcel containing the key. "Sickleworth had it this whole time."

"What does it unlock?"

"Well, judging by the fact that it's decorated with Gillyweed," Chiara looked closely at the key, "I'd assume that it unlocks something to do with water."

"The Vault in the lake, maybe?"

"That's what I'm hoping." Artemis nodded. "I'll see what Bill makes of it."

As breakfast finished, Artemis placed the key in her pocket and loitered near the top table of the Great Hall, where Bill was mid-conversation with Hagrid the gameskeeper. When the two had finished talking and Bill left the table, she rushed to meet him.

"What do you think of this?" she asked him, holding the key out for him to inspect. Bill sighed heavily.

"Good morning, Bill, did you sleep well? Yes, I did. Thank you for asking," he said, but he took the key from her. "What does this do?"

"I was hoping you might tell me. Rakepick sent me and Sickleworth into Filch's office to find it back in my fourth year. She said it was important, and so I thought it might-"

"Be needed to open the final Vault? It would make sense, what with the Gillyweed."

"That's what Chiara said," Artemis frowned. "I didn't know what Gillyweed has to do with the lake-"

"It makes you breathe underwater."

"- but Duncan said that Olivia Green found a key that she thought would open the final Vault, and it reminded me of this one."

"Nicely remembered," said Bill. He lowered his voice slightly. "You know, we might need this pretty soon."

Artemis tilted her head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"Hagrid was just telling me that the Grindylows have started acting aggressively, same as they did last year. If you ask me, it won't be long until..."

"The statue curse gets released," Artemis finished Bill's sentence for him, and he inclined his head, his face grim. Artemis looked at the key. "We need to get to that Vault. Tonight."

"Tonight? Artemis, that's... We aren't ready, we don't even know-"

"That's the problem, Bill! No one knows how to open this Vault, not for certain."

"No, but if we take a bit longer to research, then we can have a better idea of what we're doing."

"If we take much longer, more people will get cursed, or the Cabal might beat us to it," Artemis argued. "We can't risk losing out to them now just so we can spend longer reading books for clues that might not even be there. You know, the clues might even be hidden inside the Vault itself!"

Bill exhaled, his features softening as he did. "Okay, you have a point," he told her. "A good point. But I'm just as worried about the Cabal as the Vault. Who knows what they know already? You said they have an informant in the Auror office."