Artemis Hexley and the Return to the Riddles

Epilogue: December 1999

It was almost midnight. The night sky was black as pitch, but in the darkness stood a higgledy-piggledy house from which light streamed through the windows, and music and laughter reverberated through the air. It was if the merriment inside couldn't be contained within its walls and had started to spill out into the garden that surrounded it.

A young woman appeared from thin air and walked up the path, her messy dark hair lifting off her shoulders in the gentle breeze. As she reached the front door, her lips curved into a smile, and she bent down to stroke the titian fur of a marmalade coloured cat who sat under the porch.

"Did you not fancy joining in the party?" she whispered, and the cat purred in response. "No. Me neither."

The door opened to reveal a tall wizard with a heavily scarred but handsome face and long, red hair tied into a ponytail. The woman straightened up to face him, her smile widening further.

"What time do you call this, Artemis?" asked the wizard, smirking at her. She rolled her hazel eyes at him. "We're about to leave."

"Leave?" Artemis wrinkled her nose. "Oh, come on, Bill. Who leaves a New Year's Eve party before midnight?"

"Who arrives at one in the last hour before?"

"Sorry. Ros needed help setting up, and then I went to see my aunt and uncle on the way here. I'd have come sooner if I'd known you'd be leaving this early."

"Well, we're not actually leaving, it's just that everyone's going up to Stoatshead Hill. Mum doesn't want George setting off the fireworks close to the house. Can't say I blame her." Bill grimaced. "The others will Apparate up there, but obviously Fleur can't right now."

Artemis raised her eyebrows. "I'm surprised the others all can right now."

"Enough of them can. That is the downside of having friends with important jobs and babies."

"So next year you'll be boring, too?"

"You are far too sober to accuse me of being boring."

"For now, anyway," said a voice from behind Bill, and his brother Charlie squeezed past him to join Artemis on the front step. "Did you find your rowan tree alright?"

"Yeah."

"How was it?"

"Peaceful."

"Good," Charlie smiled good-naturedly and pressed a glass of a burgundy liquid that smelt like marzipan into Artemis' hands before placing his own into his pockets. "I spoke to Fleur, I thought I'd walk with you. Artemis, you coming?"

Artemis cast a glance inside before nodding her agreement. The party was still loud and bustling, and she wasn't quite ready to join it. A not insignificant part of her suspected that Charlie knew that.

Once she and the Weasley brothers had been joined by Bill's wife, whose hat covered her silver-blonde hair and cloak hid the slight swell to her abdomen, the group of four set off up the hill that overlooked the house.

"I cannot wait to be able to Apparate again," muttered Fleur Weasley, and her husband wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I 'ope that these fireworks will be worth this walk."

"Fireworks are worth any walk," Artemis said. She tilted her head at the couple. "Anyway, Charlie and I were wondering-"

"You were wondering. Keep me out of it."

"- what you two were planning on doing about godparents."

"What do you mean?" Bill asked.

"Well, Charlie thinks you'll pick him, but I think that's kind of unfair," Artemis said, ignoring Charlie's shaking head. "I mean, he already got to be your best man, and he's going to be the baby's uncle. Why should he get to be a godparent as well? You should pick someone who hasn't already had a turn or is related anyway."