A Piece of Mind

Chapter [6]

Artemis walked into the busy station of Kings Cross with his trunk and owl (obscured beneath a breathable fabric), carefully surveying the platform. The last two months had been tiring, but rewarding nonetheless. He had successfully learned the minimum requirement of four years' worth of lessons in each respectable subject to prepare for school, which started tomorrow; today if you didn't count actually attending classes, which was the whole point of this.

After conversing thoroughly with Dumbledore and McGonagall about the curriculum, Artemis wrote up a chart, dictating what must be learned before the start of the school year, and what could be learned with a few extra hours a night of study. That still left a lot of work to be done, but a workload more doable than four years worth of content.

He had trouble with the more magic-based curriculums, one of them being Defense against the Dark Arts. However, having signed up to receive the Ministry newspaper once a week, he wasn't too worried. Based on the slew of past professors the rest of his peers couldn't be too far ahead of him in that class.

The largest problem with magic is that although usually sticking to a predetermined set of rules, it sometimes strayed and became unpredictable. This was not ideal when Artemis had no one who knew how to fix the stray magic that turned his mahogany desk into a pig, or made Butler talk in rhymes for a week. Furthermore, fairy magic was not the same as the magic Artemis now possessed, as they had all grown to appreciate over the many hours of spellcasting.

Thankfully, Dumbledore held up on his word, and Artemis was not arrested for use of underage magic, nor did he receive any more letters from the Ministry. He wondered if that had something to do with him being a 'transfer student', or if Dumbledore had more influence in the Wizarding World than Artemis assumed. According to the Daily Prophet, (a silly name for a government organization) Dumbledore has not been in good graces with the Ministry lately so this theory was unlikely.

Dumbledore also sent him, via owl, a package of memory potions which he said should be used with caution. They would let Artemis retain all the information he learned in the two months he would be studying. This would allow more time for the practical part of magic, which admittedly was not Artemis's strong suit. Dumbledore suggested physical training to start out would help let the magic "flow easier."

Taking every advantage he could, Artemis, with help from Butler of course, started a running routine to get him in some semblance of physical shape before the start of term. Unfortunately for Artemis, this slow and painful process proved helpful and his magic improved significantly. He planned to continue running at school whenever possible. It was horrible, but the results cannot be argued with.

Artemis decided to wait until the train to put his wizard robes on. He had brought more casual clothes for classes, but today he sported the usual custom-made, black Armani suit.

He straightened the sleeves with two practiced tugs as he looked at the wall separating platforms 9 and 10. Wizards were odd people, naming the hidden station for their children Platform 9 ¾, which was illogical and a topic Artemis had questioned Professor McGonagall about extensively through letters.

He had returned to Diagon Alley less than a month after being escorted by Hagrid, mostly to buy books, but also to look at some of the more illegal items for sale. Artemis suspected schoolwork would be much less demanding, especially on weekends, than it had been in the past two months. He picked up a few things he thought might make the fairy communicator work past the magic wards put around the school grounds. He had tinkered around with it, but wouldn't know if it worked until he was on site.

"Arty, oh I can't believe you're off to college already," said Angeline, hugging her eldest son for the third time in as many minutes. Her husband looked down at Artemis, who relaxed his tense posture, if only for a moment to please his mother.